From 2ec9530b1bea893cb37b9546236fa0232d2864d0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Thu, 22 May 2025 18:33:33 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 01/79] WIP Add module about clustering --- datasets/bbc_news.csv | 1251 ++++ datasets/mall_customers.csv | 201 + datasets/rfm_segmentation.csv | 5882 +++++++++++++++++ jupyter-book/_toc.yml | 6 + notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb | 271 + notebooks/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb | 257 + notebooks/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb | 480 ++ notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb | 287 + python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py | 188 + python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py | 177 + python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py | 322 + .../clustering_supervised_metrics.py | 214 + 12 files changed, 9536 insertions(+) create mode 100644 datasets/bbc_news.csv create mode 100644 datasets/mall_customers.csv create mode 100644 datasets/rfm_segmentation.csv create mode 100644 notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb create mode 100644 notebooks/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb create mode 100644 notebooks/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb create mode 100644 notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb create mode 100644 python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py create mode 100644 python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py create mode 100644 python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py create mode 100644 python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py diff --git a/datasets/bbc_news.csv b/datasets/bbc_news.csv new file mode 100644 index 000000000..be998463a --- /dev/null +++ b/datasets/bbc_news.csv @@ -0,0 +1,1251 @@ +category,text +business,"LSE doubts boost bidders' shares Shares in Deutsche Boerse have risen more than 3% after a shareholder fund voiced opposition to the firm's planned takeover of the London Stock Exchange. TCI, which claims to represent owners of 5% of Deutsche Boerse's (DB) shares, has complained that the £1.35bn ($2.5bn) offer for the LSE is too high. Opposition from TCI has fuelled speculation that the proposed takeover could fail. Rival exchange operator Euronext has also said it may bid for the LSE. Euronext operates the Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon bourses, while Deutsche Boerse runs the Frankfurt exchange. BBC News spoke to a number of analysts on Monday morning about shareholder worries over Deutsche Boerse's bid for LSE. Although none were prepared to speak on the record, most thought it was unlikely that TCI's opposition would halt the deal ""Obviously we'll have to wait and see, but I don't think it will make much difference. Deutsche Boerse appears very committed,"" said one London-based broker. He forecast the takeover bid would succeed and was more concerned to see improvements in the daily running of the LSE. In voicing its opposition to the planned takeover, TCI said it would prefer to see Deutsche Boerse return $500m (£350m) to shareholders. The Deutsche Boerse was prepared to pay for the LSE ""exceeds the potential benefits of this acquisition"", said TCI. Another Deutsche Boerse shareholder on Monday also appeared to back TCI's call. Another investor in Deutsche Boerse has supported the view that a payout to shareholders would be preferable to Deutsche Boerse overpaying for the LSE, Reuters news agency reported. ""We prefer a sensible entrepreneurial solution at a price that is not too high,"" said Rolf Dress, a spokesman for Union Investment. ""If that cannot be achieved, then we would wish for a distribution of liquid assets to shareholders."" The Financial Times also reported a third Deutsche Boerse shareholder as opposed to the deal. It quoted a spokesman for US-based hedge fund Atticus Capital complaining that the planned takeover appeared to be motivated by ""empire-building"" rather than the best interests of shareholders. TCI has called for Deutsche Boerse to hold an emergency general meeting to discuss the bid for LSE. Yet under German business law, DB does not have to gain shareholder approval before making a significant acquisition. Deutsche Boerse said TCI's opposition would not change its bid approach. ""Deutsche Boerse is convinced that its contemplated cash acquisition of the London Stock Exchange is in the best interests of its shareholders and the company,"" it said. DB's shares were up 3.4% to 45.25 euros by 1030 GMT, the highest gainer in Frankfurt." +business,"Saudi investor picks up the Savoy London's famous Savoy hotel has been sold to a group combining Saudi billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and a unit of HBOS bank. Financial details of the deal, which includes the nearby Simpson's in the Strand restaurant, were not disclosed. The seller - Irish-based property firm Quinlan Private - bought the Savoy along with the Berkeley, Claridge's and the Connaught for £750m last year. Prince Alwaleed's hotel investments include the luxury George V in Paris. He also has substantial stakes in Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, which will manage the Savoy and Simpson's in the Strand, and Four Seasons. Fairmont said it planned to invest $48m (£26m) in renovating parts of the Savoy including the River Room and suites with views over the River Thames. Work was expected to be completed by summer 2006, Fairmont said." +business,"BMW cash to fuel Mini production Less than four years after the new Mini was launched, German car maker BMW has announced £100m of new investment. Some 200 new jobs are to be created at the Oxford factory, including modernised machinery and a new body shell production building. The result of the investment could be to raise output to more than 200,000 cars from 2007. The rise, from 189,000 last year, is a response to rapidly-rising demand and could help wipe out waiting lists. Before Wednesday's announcement, BMW had invested some £280m in Mini production. Since its launch during summer 2001, the new Mini has gone from strength to strength. Last year, almost one in six cars sold by the BMW group was a Mini. The company admits that the success of the brand came despite scepticism from many in the industry. ""Our decision to produce a new Mini was not received well right away,"" said Norbert Reithofer, a member of the BMW management board. Initially, BMW said it would produce 100,000 Mini models a year at its vast Cowley factory on the outskirts of Oxford, but the target was quickly reached, then raised, time and time again. Not everyone is convinced that the boom can continue. ""The risk is that after they've invested massively in the brand, demand tapers off like it did with the new VW Beetle,"" said Brad Wernle, from Automotive News Europe. The price of the car has also gone up. When it was launched, the cheapest Mini cost just more than £10,000. These days, buyers will have to fork out almost £11,500 to own a new Mini One, or even more for the Cooper S which costs up to £17,730. The Mini Convertible, which was launched last spring, costs up to £15,690 for the top model, and there is even a waiting list. Second-hand Minis are not cheap either. A Mini One bought when the model was launched should still fetch at least £8,000 for the cheapest model, while a used Cooper S is likely to be priced from £12,556, according to the-car buying website Parker's. The consumers' association Which operates with slightly different numbers, yet it confirms that the Mini Cooper 1.6 depreciates slower than any other car, other than the Mercedes Benz C180 SE and the BMW 1 Series 116i SE. The Cowley factory, which initially seemed far too large a production plant for just 100,000 Minis, is increasingly being put to good use. There are plans to tear down old buildings and build new ones and there are rumours that a new paint shop could be included in the plans. BMW's Mini adventure has made good much of what went wrong during its stewardship of the UK car maker Rover which it sold for £10 five years ago to the Phoenix consortium. In 1999, when BMW still owned Rover, the Oxford factory was producing the award-winning Rover 75. During that year, 3,500 people produced 56,000 cars. Last year, in the same factory, almost four times as many vehicles were produced by just 4,500 Mini-workers. The Mini factory's current output is equally impressive when compared with the main Rover factory in Longbridge, which in 1999 produced 180,000 Rover cars. Last year, MG Rover, which employs more than 6,000 people, produced just 110,000 cars, though it hopes to land a deal with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) that could help double the number of cars produced at Longbridge. Indeed, Mini is not only producing more cars than MG Rover does; it remains ahead even when the current sales of Land Rovers and Range Rovers (which are made by the former Rover unit that BMW sold to Ford) are taken into account." +business,"Consumer spending lifts US growth US economic growth accelerated in the third quarter, helped by strong consumer spending, official figures have shown. The economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.7% in the July to September period, the Commerce Department said. The figure marked an increase on the 3.3% growth recorded in the second quarter, but fell short of the 4.2% rate pencilled in by forecasters. The increase reflected the biggest jump in consumer spending in a year. ""It was a little softer than the consensus, but not a real surprise,"" said Gary Thayer, an economist at AG Edwards & Sons. Friday's growth estimate is one of the last significant pieces of economic data before the 2 November presidential election. Democrat challenger John Kerry has criticised President George W Bush's handling of the economy, pointing to a net loss of over 800,000 jobs since Mr Bush took office. Analysts said the economy was still not growing fast enough to stimulate large-scale job creation. ""It's a pretty good growth rate, but it may not be good enough to create enough jobs,"" said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics in New York. However, President Bush is expected to point to Commerce Department figures showing that consumer spending grew at 4.6% in the third quarter, up from just 1.6% in the second, as evidence that his policies are generating solid growth. Consumer spending accounts for about two thirds of all economic activity in the US. The weaker than expected growth figure makes it less likely that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next month, economists said. ""The economy regained some traction in the third quarter, but the growth is not robust,"" AG Edwards' Thayer. ""I think that means the Fed can take its time raising rates. We'll probably see one more rate hike before the end of the year."" In an effort to pre-empt rising inflation, the Federal Reserve has pushed through three quarter-point rate rises since June this year, taking borrowing costs to 1.75%. On the financial markets, the dollar fell slightly against the euro and the yen, while the Dow Jones index of leading US shares was little changed." +business,"Honda wins China copyright ruling Japan's Honda has won a copyright case in Beijing, further evidence that China is taking a tougher line on protecting intellectual property rights. A court ruled that Chongqing Lifan Industry Group must stop selling Honda brand motorbikes and said it must pay 1.47m yuan ($177,600) in compensation. Internationally recognized regulation is now a key part of China's plans for developing its economy, analysts said. Beijing also has been threatened with sanctions if it fails to clamp down. Chinese firms copy products ranging from computer software and spark plugs to baby milk and compact discs. Despite the fact that product piracy is a major problem, foreign companies have only occasionally won cases and the compensation awarded has usually been small. Still, recent rulings and announcements will have boosted optimism that attitudes are changing. Earlier this week China said that in future it will punish violators of intellectual property rights with up to seven years in jail. And on Tuesday, Paws Incorporated - the owner of the rights to Garfield the cat - won a court battle against a publishing house that violated its copyright. Other firms that have taken legal action in China, with varying degrees of success, include Yamaha, General Motors and Toyota. The problem of piracy is not limited to China, however, and the potential for profit is huge. The European Union estimates that the global trade in pirated wares is worth more than 200bn euros a year (£140bn; $258bn), or about 5% of total world trade. And it is growing. Between 1998 and 2002, the number of counterfeit or pirated goods intercepted at the EU's external borders increased by more than 800%, it said. Last month the EU said it will start monitoring China, Ukraine and Russia to ensure they are going after pirated goods. Other countries on the EU's hit list include Thailand, Brazil, South Korea and Indonesia. Any countries that are not making enough of an effort could be dragged to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a step that could trigger economic sanctions, the EU warned." +business,"Oil prices fall back from highs Oil prices retreated from four-month highs in early trading on Tuesday after producers' cartel Opec said it was now unlikely to cut production. Following the comments by acting Opec secretary general Adnan Shihab-Eldin, US light crude fell 32 cents to $51.43 a barrel. He said that high oil prices meant Opec was unlikely to stick to its plan to cut output in the second quarter. In London, Brent crude fell 32 cents to $49.74 a barrel. Opec members are next meeting to discuss production levels on 16 March. On Monday, oil prices rose for a sixth straight session, reaching a four-month high as cold weather in the US threatened stocks of heating oil. US demand for heating oil was predicted to be about 14% above normal this week, while stocks were currently about 7.5% below the levels of a year ago. Cold weather across Europe has also put upward pressure on crude prices." +business,"Brewers' profits lose their fizz Heineken and Carlsberg, two of the world's largest brewers, have reported falling profits after beer sales in western Europe fell flat. Dutch firm Heineken saw its annual profits drop 33% and warned that earnings in 2005 may also slide. Danish brewer Carlsberg suffered a 3% fall in profits due to waning demand and increased marketing costs. Both are looking to Russia and China to provide future growth as western European markets are largely mature. Heineken's net income fell to 537m euros ($701m; £371m) during 2004, from 798m euro a year ago. It blamed weak demand in western Europe and currency losses. It had warned in September that the weakening US dollar, which has cut the value of foreign sales, would knock 125m euros off its operating profits. Despite the dip in profits, Heineken's sales have been improving and total revenue for the year was 10bn euros, up 8.1% from 9.26bn euros in 2003. Heineken said it now plans to invest 100m euros in ""aggressive"" and ""high-impact"" marketing in Europe and the US in 2005. Heineken, which also owns the Amstel and Murphy's stout brands, said it would also seek to cut costs. This may involve closing down breweries. Heineken increased its dividend payment by 25% to 40 euro cents, but warned that the continued impact of a weaker dollar and an increased marketing spend may lead to a drop in 2005 net profit. Carlsberg, the world's fifth-largest brewer, saw annual pre-tax profits fall to 3.4bn Danish kroner (456m euros). Its beer sales have been affected by the sluggish European economy and by the banning of smoking in pubs in several European countries. Nevertheless, total sales increased 4% to 36bn kroner, thanks to strong sales of Carlsberg lager in Russia and Poland. Carlsberg is more optimistic than Heineken about 2005, projecting a 15% rise in net profits for the year. However, it also plans to cut 200 jobs in Sweden, where sales have been hit by demand for cheap, imported brands. ""We remain cautious about the medium-to-long term outlook for revenue growth across western Europe for a host of economic, social and structural reasons,"" investment bank Merrill Lynch said of Carlsberg." +business,"Feta cheese battle reaches court A row over whether only Greece should be allowed to label its cheese feta has reached the European Court of Justice. The Danish and German governments are challenging a European Commission ruling which said Greece should have sole rights to use the name. The Commission's decision gave the same legal protection to feta as to Italian Parma ham and French Champagne. But critics of the judgement say feta is a generic term, with the cheese produced widely outside Greece. The Commission's controversial 2002 ruling gave ""protected designation of origin"" status to feta cheese made in Greece, effectively restricting the use of the feta name to producers there. From 2007 onwards, Greek firms will have the exclusive use of the feta label and producers elsewhere in Europe must find another name to describe their products. The German and Danish governments argue that feta does not relate to a specific geographical area and that their firms have been producing and exporting the cheese for years. ""In our opinion it is a generic designation and we do not have any other name or term for this type of cheese,"" Hans Arne Kristiansen, a spokesman for the Danish Dairy Board, told the BBC. Denmark is Europe's second largest producer of feta after Greece - producing about 30,000 tonnes a year - and exports its products to Greece. It is concerned that the ruling could threaten the production of other cheeses in Denmark such as brie. ""It would cost millions if we wanted to introduce a new designation,"" Mr Kristiansen said. ""That is just one of the costs."" The case will also have a major impact on Britain's sole feta producer, Yorkshire company Shepherds Purse Cheeses. Judy Bell, the company's founder, said it would cost a huge amount to rebrand its product. ""If we lose we will have to go through a massive re-merchandising process and reorganisation,"" she said. ""We have never tried to pull the wool over anyone's eyes - it's very clear from the label that it's Yorkshire feta."" The original decision was a victory for Greece, where feta cheese is believed to have been produced for about 6,000 years. Feta is a soft white cheese made from sheep or goat's milk, and is an essential ingredient in Greek cuisine. Greece makes 115,000 tonnes, mainly for domestic consumption. The Court is expected to reach a verdict in the case in the autumn." +business,"China's Shanda buys stake in Sina Chinese online game operator Shanda Interactive Entertainment has bought a 20% stake in Sina, the country's biggest internet portal firm. The move may be a precursor to a full takeover, with analysts saying that a better-known international firm may also now show an interest in Sina. Shanda said that it may boost its stake in Sina, even buying it outright. A merger would create a firm that offers online role-playing games, news, entertainment and wireless messaging. Sina said that the purchase of a stake by Shanda would have no impact on its business. The board of directors said in a statement that it would ""continue to act in the best interests of all the company stakeholders, including shareholders, employees and customers"". Both companies are listed on the New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) technology-dominated Nasdaq index. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Sina said its shares were purchased between 12 January and 10 February for about $230m. Rumours about a possible takeover boosted Sina's shares by more than 10% on Friday. They added an extra 6.4% to $27.24 in electronic trading after the trading session had finished. And there may be more gains amid bid speculation when trading resumes in New York on Tuesday after Monday's public holiday, analysts forecast. ""There could still be some potential parties that could still counter bid,"" said Wallace Cheung, an analyst at DBS Vickers. ""Even though Shanda has 20% of Sina, they still have quite a long way to take full control."" However, Mr Cheung noted that a foreign company trying to take control of a Chinese internet portal firm, with its ability to filter and pass on news, may not be viewed very favourably by Beijing." +business,"Budget Aston takes on Porsche British car maker Aston Martin has gone head-to-head with Porsche's 911 sports cars with the launch of its cheapest model yet. With a price tag under £80,000, the V8 Vantage is tens of thousands of pounds cheaper than existing Aston models. The Vantage is ""the most important car in the history of our company"", said Aston's chief executive Ulrich Bez. Aston - whose cars were famously used by James Bond - will unveil the Vantage at the Geneva Motor Show on Thursday. Mr Bez - himself a former executive at rival Porsche - said the new car was the company's ""most affordable car ever and makes the brand accessible"". This in turn would make Aston Martin ""globally visible, but still very, very exclusive"", he added. First shown as a concept car at the 2003 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the V8 Vantage will be available in the UK in late summer. Development costs for the Vantage have been kept low by sharing a platform with Aston's DB9, which Mr Bez described as ""the previous most important car for our company"". There is currently an 18 months waiting list for the DB9, Mr Bez said. The Vantage will be built at the new Aston factory in Gaydon, near Warwick, and should more than double Aston's total output from about 2,000 presently." +business,"US trade gap hits record in 2004 The gap between US exports and imports hit an all-time high of $671.7bn (£484bn) in 2004, latest figures show. The Commerce Department said the trade deficit for all of last year was 24.4% above the previous record - 2003's imbalance of $496.5bn. The deficit with China, up 30.5% at $162bn, was the largest ever recorded with a single country. However, on a monthly basis the US trade gap narrowed by 4.9% in December to £56.4bn. The US consumer's appetite for all things from oil to imported cars, and even wine and cheese, reached record levels last year and the figures are likely to spark fresh criticism of President Bush's economic policies. Democrats claim the administration has not done enough to clamp down on unfair foreign trade practices. For example, they believe China's currency policy - which US manufacturers claim has undervalued the yuan by as much as 40% - has given China's rapidly expanding economy an unfair advantage against US competitors. Meanwhile, the Bush administration argues that the US deficit reflects the fact the America is growing at faster rate than the rest of the world, spurring on more demand for imported goods. Some economists say this may allow an upward revision of US economic growth in the fourth quarter. But others point out that the deficit has reached such astronomical proportions that foreigners many choose not to hold as many dollar-denominated assets, which may in turn harm growth. For all of 2004, US exports rose 12.3% to $1.15 trillion, but imports rose even faster by 16.3% to a new record of $1.76 trillion. Foreign oil exports surged by 35.7% to a record $180.7bn, reflecting the rally in global oil prices and increasing domestic demand. Imports were not affected by the dollar's weakness last year. ""We expect the deficit to continue to widen in 2005 even if the dollar gets back to its downward trend,"" said economist Marie-Pierre Ripert at IXIS." +business,"Yukos unit buyer faces loan claim The owners of embattled Russian oil giant Yukos are to ask the buyer of its former production unit to pay back a $900m (£479m) loan. State-owned Rosneft bought the Yugansk unit for $9.3bn in a sale forced by Russia to part settle a $27.5bn tax claim against Yukos. Yukos' owner Menatep Group says it will ask Rosneft to repay a loan that Yugansk had secured on its assets. Rosneft already faces a similar $540m repayment demand from foreign banks. Legal experts said Rosneft's purchase of Yugansk would include such obligations. ""The pledged assets are with Rosneft, so it will have to pay real money to the creditors to avoid seizure of Yugansk assets,"" said Moscow-based US lawyer Jamie Firestone, who is not connected to the case. Menatep Group's managing director Tim Osborne told the Reuters news agency: ""If they default, we will fight them where the rule of law exists under the international arbitration clauses of the credit."" Rosneft officials were unavailable for comment. But the company has said it intends to take action against Menatep to recover some of the tax claims and debts owed by Yugansk. Yukos had filed for bankruptcy protection in a US court in an attempt to prevent the forced sale of its main production arm. The sale went ahead in December and Yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company which in turn was bought by Rosneft. Yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and has vowed to sue any participant in the sale." +business,"Markets signal Brazilian recovery The Brazilian stock market has risen to a record high as investors display growing confidence in the durability of the country's economic recovery. The main Bovespa index on the Sao Paolo Stock Exchange closed at 24,997 points on Friday, topping the previous record market close reached the previous day. The market's buoyancy reflects optimism about the Brazilian economy, which could grow by as much as 4.5% in 2004. Brazil is recovering from last year's recession - its worst in a decade. Economic output declined 0.2% in 2003 and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - elected as Brazil's first working-class president in 2002 - was strongly criticised for pursuing a hardline economic policy. Investors have praised his handling of the economy as foreign investment has risen, unemployment has fallen and inflation has been brought under control. Analysts believe the stock market will rise above the 25,000 mark for the first time before too long. ""There should be more space for gains until the end of the year, somewhere up to 27,000 points,"" said Paschoal Tadeu Buonomo, head of equities trading at brokers TOV. Brazil's currency, the real, also rose to its highest level against the dollar in more than two years on Friday. Although interest rates still stand at a punitive 17.25%, inflation has fallen from 9% to 7% while exports are booming, particularly of agricultural products. ""For the first time in decades, we have all three economic policy pillars in line during a recovery,"" Finance Minister Antonio Palocci told the Associated Press news agency. ""Government accounts are in surplus, we have a current account surplus and inflation is under control."" Investors were deeply suspicious of President da Silva, a former trade union leader who campaigned on a programme of extensive land redistribution and a large rise in the minimum wage. However, Mr da Silva has stuck to an orthodox monetary policy inherited from his predecessor even in the face of last year's economic crisis. This has earned him the disapproval of rural farm workers, thousands of whom who took to the streets of Brasilia on Thursday to protest against government policies. President da Silva has defended his policies, arguing that Brazil cannot afford to continue the cycle of boom and bust which afflicted it in recent decades." +business,"Cannabis hopes for drug firm A prescription cannabis drug made by UK biotech firm GW Pharmaceuticals is set to be approved in Canada. The drug is used to treat the central nervous system and alleviate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). A few weeks ago, shares in GW Pharma lost a third of their value after UK regulators said they wanted more evidence about the drug's benefits. But now Canadian authorities have said the Sativex drug will be considered for approval. Approximately 50,000 people in Canada have been diagnosed with MS and 85,000 people are suffering from the condition in the UK. Many patients already smoke cannabis to relieve their symptoms. Now, GW Pharma's Sativex mouth spray could be legally available to MS sufferers in Canada within the next few months. This will be the first time a cannabis-based drug has been approved anywhere in the world, representing a landmark for GW Pharma and for patients with MS. Final approval in Canada should now be little more than a formality, analysts said, and the company expects full approval for Sativex early in 2005. ""We are delighted to receive this qualifying notice from Health Canada and look forward to receiving regulatory approval for Sativex in Canada in the early part of 2005,"" said GW Pharma executive chairman Dr Geoffrey Guy. The UK government granted GW Pharma a licence to grow the cannabis plant for medical research purposes. Satifex consists of a cannabis extract containing tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol, a cocktail that has also proved effective in treating patients with arthritis. Thousands of plants are grown at a secret location somewhere in the English countryside. Despite hopes of regulatory approval last year, a series of delays has put back Sativex's launch in the UK. The latest news sent shares in GW Pharma up 8.5p, or 8.1%, to 113.5p." +business,"Nasdaq planning $100m-share sale The owner of the technology-dominated Nasdaq stock index plans to sell shares to the public and list itself on the market it operates. According to a registration document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nasdaq Stock Market plans to raise $100m (£52m) from the sale. Some observers see this as another step closer to a full public listing. However Nasdaq, an icon of the 1990s technology boom, recently poured cold water on those suggestions. The company first sold shares in private placements during 2000 and 2001. It technically went public in 2002 when the stock started trading on the OTC Bulletin Board, which lists equities that trade only occasionally. Nasdaq will not make money from the sale, only investors who bought shares in the private placings, the filing documents said. The Nasdaq is made up shares in technology firms and other companies with high growth potential. It was the most potent symbol of the 1990s internet and telecoms boom, nose-diving after the bubble burst. A recovery in the fortunes of tech giants such as Intel, and dot.com survivors such as Amazon has helped revive its fortunes." +business,"US consumer confidence up Consumers' confidence in the state of the US economy is at its highest for five months and they are optimistic about 2005, an influential survey says. The feel-good factor among US consumers rose in December for the first time since July according to new data. The Conference Board survey of 5,000 households pointed to renewed optimism about job creation and economic growth. US retailers have reported strong sales over the past 10 days after a slow start to the crucial festive season. According to figures also released on Tuesday, sales in shopping malls in the week to 25 December were 4.3% higher than in 2003 following a last minute rush. Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, has said its December sales are expected to be better than previously forecast because of strong post-Christmas sales. It is expecting annual sales growth of between 1% and 3% for the month. Consumer confidence figures are considered a key economic indicator because consumer spending accounts for about two thirds of all economic activity in the United States. ""The continuing economic expansion, combined with job growth, has consumers ending this year on a high note,"" said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's consumer research centre. ""And consumers' outlook suggests that the economy will continue to expand in the first half of next year."" The overall US economy has performed strongly in recent months, prompting the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates five times since June." +business,"Russia WTO talks 'make progress' Talks on Russia's proposed membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have been ""making good progress"" say those behind the negotiations. But the chairman of the working party, Ambassador Stefan Johannesson of Iceland, warned that there was ""still a lot of work has to be done"". His comments came as President George W Bush said the US backed Russian entry. But he said for Russia to make progress the government must ""renew a commitment to democracy and the rule of law"". His comments come three days before he is due to meet President Vladimir Putin. Russia has been waiting for a decade to join the WTO and hopes to finally become a member by early 2006. A decision could be reached in December, when the WTO's 148 current members gather for a summit in Hong Kong. That would allow an earliest date for membership of January 2006, if the Hong Kong summit gave its approval. While pinpointing several areas in which there are difficulties in the bilateral and multilateral work with Russia, the US said the meeting was ""much more efficient than we've seen for some time"". And Australia said it was ""one of the best (meetings) we can recall in terms of substance"". Mr Johannesson also said progress ""on the bilateral market access side is accelerating"". Sticking points to membership have included limits on foreign ownership in the telecommunications and life insurance businesses, as well as issues surrounding counterfeiting, piracy, and data protection. Some WTO members also dislike Russia's energy price subsidies, which competitors say give Russian businesses an unfair advantage." +business,"Saudi NCCI's shares soar Shares in Saudi Arabia's National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI) soared on their first day of trading in Riyadh. They were trading 84% above the offer price on Monday, changing hands at 372 riyals ($99; £53) after topping 400 early in the day. Demand for the insurer's debut shares was strong - 12 times what was on sale. The listing was part of the country's plans to open up its insurance market and boost demand in the sector. Deregulation is expected to boost demand for accident and damage cover. Previously, only NCCI has been legally allowed to offer insurance products within Saudi Arabia. However, the authorities have turned a blind eye to the many other firms selling insurance. Saudi Arabia now wants a fully functioning insurance industry and is introducing legislation that will clamp down on unauthorised companies. Policy-makers also want to make having insurance more of a requirement, but first have to take steps to boost public confidence in the system, analysts said. As a result, NCCI is being developed as the industry's flagship firm - publicly-listed, with audited accounts. Saudi Arabia sold 7 million NCCI shares, or about 70% of the company's total capital last month. More than 800,000 applicants got 9 shares each for 205 riyals apiece." +business,"Winemaker rejects Foster's offer Australian winemaker Southcorp has rejected a takeover offer worth 3.1bn Australian dollars ($2.3bn; £1.8bn) from brewing giant Foster's Group. Southcorp, whose brands include Penfolds, Rosemount and Lindemans, dismissed the offer as inadequate. The two companies held four days of talks after Foster's bought an 18.8% stake in Southcorp on 13 January. A merger would create a global player with worldwide annual sales of 39m cases and revenues of A$2.6bn. Southcorp said Foster's A$4.17-a-share takeover proposal offered a ""excellent strategic fit"" but undervalued the company. ""Southcorp's board has informed Foster's that it is not prepared to recommend the offer as it does not adequately reflect the strategic value of the company,"" said Southcorp chairman Brian Finn. Southcorp said Foster's takeover offer was ""opportunistic"". However, it said that the offer may represent an 'opening bid', opening up the possibility of Foster's returning with an improved offer. Foster's said a combination of the two companies would create a global player with an ""unrivalled"" collection of premium wine brands. Despite being best known for brewing Foster's Lager, Foster's is already one of Australia's largest wine producers, owning the Beringer and Wolf Blass brands among others. ""The combination of Foster's and Southcorp will transform the global wine industry and significantly enhance Australia's competitive position on the global stage,"" said Trevor O'Hoy, Foster's chief executive officer. Foster's spent A$584m on buying an 18.8% stake in Southcorp from the Oatley family, which founded the Rosemount Estates business and later merged it into Southcorp. Shares in both companies were suspended while the two held talks about a deal. Southcorp's shares rose 12% to A$4.76 on news of the offer but Foster's shares fell 3.7% to A$5.44." +business,"Gazprom 'in $36m back-tax claim' The nuclear unit of Russian energy giant Gazprom is reportedly facing a 1bn rouble ($35.7m; £19.1m) back-tax claim for the 2001-2003 period. Vedomosti newspaper reported that Russian authorities made the demand at the end of last year. The paper added that most of the taxes claimed are linked to the company's export activity. Gazprom, the biggest gas company in the world, took over nuclear fuel giant Atomstroieksport in October 2004. The main project of Atomstroieksport is the building of a nuclear plant in Iran, which has been a source of tension between Russia and the US. Gazprom is one of the key players in the complex Russian energy market, where the government of Vladimir Putin has made moves to regain state influence over the sector. Gazprom is set to merge with state oil firm Rosneft, the company that eventually acquired Yuganskneftegas, the main unit of embattled oil giant Yukos. Claims for back-taxes was a tool used against Yukos, and led to the enforced sale Yuganskneftegas. Some analysts fear the Kremlin will continue to use these sort of moves to boost the efforts of the state to regain control over strategically important sectors such as oil." +business,"EU to probe Alitalia 'state aid' The European Commission has officially launched an in-depth investigation into whether Italian airline Alitalia is receiving illegal state aid. Commission officials are to look at Rome's provision of a 400m euro ($495m; £275m) loan to the carrier. Both the Italian government and Alitalia have repeatedly denied that the money - part of a vital restructuring plan - is state aid. The investigation could take up to 18 months. However, Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said he wanted it to be carried out as swiftly as possible. ""The Italian authorities have presented a serious industrial plan,"" said Mr Barot. ""We now have to verify certain aspects to confirm that this plan contains no state aid. I would like our analysis to be completed swiftly."" The matter of possible state aid was brought to the Commission's attention by eight of Alitalia's rivals, including Germany's Lufthansa, British Airways and Spain's Iberia. While Alitalia needs to restructure to bring itself back to profitability, the rival carriers say it has both violated state aid rules and threatened competition. Alitalia lost 330m euros in 2003 as it struggled to get to grips with high costs, spiralling oil prices, competition from budget carriers and reduced demand. It plans to split into AZ Fly and AZ Services, which will handle air and ground services respectively. Alitalia already enjoyed state aid in 1997. EU rules prevent that from happening again in what is known as the ""one time, last time"" rule for airlines. Otherwise, EU regulations on state aid stipulate that governments may help companies financially, but only on the same terms as a commercial investor. The airline declined to comment on the Commission decision." +business,"Parmalat to return to stockmarket Parmalat, the Italian dairy company which went bust after an accounting scandal, hopes to be back on the Italian stock exchange in July. The firm gained protection from creditors in 2003 after revealing debts of 14bn euros ($18.34bn; £9.6bn). This was eight times higher than it had previously stated. In a statement issued on Wednesday night, Parmalat Finanziaria detailed administrators' latest plans for re-listing the shares of the group. As part of the re-listing on the Italian stock exchange, creditors' debts are expected to be converted into shares through two new share issues amounting to more than 2bn euros. The company's creditors will be asked to vote on the plan later this year. The plan is likely to give creditors of Parmalat Finanziaria shares worth about 5.7% of the debts they are owed. This is lower than the 11.3% creditors previously hoped to receive. Creditors of Parmalat, the main operating company, are likely to see the percentage of debt they receive fall from 7.3% to 6.9%. Several former top Parmalat executives are under investigation for the fraud scandal. Lawmakers said on Wednesday night Enrico Bondi, the turnaround specialist appointed by the Italian government as Parmalat's chief executive, spoke positively about the company during a closed-door hearing of the Chamber of Deputies industry commission. ""Bondi supplied us with elements of positive results on the industrial positions and on the history of debt which will find a point of solution through the Parmalat group's quotation on the market in July,"" Italian news agency Apcom quoted several lawmakers as saying in a statement." +business,"Turkey turns on the economic charm Three years after a gruelling economic crisis, Turkey has dressed its economy to impress. As part of a charm offensive - ahead of 17 December, when the European Union will decide whether to start entry talks - Turkey's economic leaders have been banging the drum to draw attention to recent achievements. The economy is growing fast, they insist. Education levels among its young and large population are rising. Unemployment levels, in percentage terms, are heading fast towards single digits. Inflation is under control. A new law to govern its turbulent banking system is on the cards. The tourism industry is booming and revenues from visitors should more than double to $21bn (£10.8bn) in three years. Moreover, government spending is set to be frozen and a burdensome social security deficit is being tackled. Income and corporate taxes will be cut next year in order to attract $15bn of foreign investment over the next three years. A loan restructuring deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is pretty much in the can. And following recent macroeconomic restructuring efforts, its currency is floating freely and its central bank is independent. The point of all this has been to convince Europe's decision makers that rather than being a phenomenally costly exercise for the EU, allowing Turkey in would in fact bring masses of economic benefits. ""The cake will be bigger for everybody,"" said Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener earlier this month. ""Turkey will not be a burden for the EU budget."" If admitted into the EU, Turkey would contribute almost 6bn euros ($8bn; £6bn) to its budget by 2014, according to a recent impact study by the country's State Planning Organisation. As Turkey's gross domestic output (GDP) is set to grow by 6% per year on average, its contribution would rise from less than 5bn euros in 2014 to almost 9bn euros by 2020. Turkey could also help alleviate a labour shortage in ""Old Europe"" once its population comes of age. By 2014, one in four Turks - or about 18 million people - will be aged 14 or less. ""A literate and qualified Turkish population,"" insisted Mr Sener, ""will make a positive impact on the EU."" This runs contrary to the popular view that Turkey is getting ready to dig deep into EU taxpayers' wallets. However, Turkey's assertions are confirmed by Brussels' own impact studies, which indeed say that Turkish membership would be good news for the EU economy. But only over time. Costs are projected to be vast during the early years of Turkey's membership, with subsidies alone estimated to exceed 16.5bn euros and, according to some predictions, balloon to 33.5bn euros. This would include vast agricultural subsidies and regional aid, though such payments should decline as the country's farm sector, which currently employs one in three Turks, would employ just one in five by 2020. Such high initial expenses would be coupled with risks that the benefits flagged up by Turkey's government would never be delivered, say those who feel the Turkish project should be shunned. Some fear that rather than providing an educated, sophisticated labour force for Europe at large, the people who will leave Turkey to seek work abroad will be poor, uneducated - and plentiful. More recently, less palatable concerns - at least in liberal European circles - have been voiced, with senior EU or member state officials talking darkly of a ""river of Islam"", an ""oriental"" culture and a threat to Europe's ""cultural richness"". Of course, many opponents are politically motivated - their views ranging from xenophobic prejudices about the country's Muslim traditions to well-documented concerns about the government's human rights record. Yet their economic arguments should not be dismissed out of hand. Critics insist that much of the optimism about Turkey's economic roadmap has been over-egged - an argument amplified by a 134% rise in the country's current account deficit to $10.7bn during the first 10 months of this year. The country's massive debt - which includes $23bn owed to the IMF and billions borrowed via the international bond markets - also remains a major obstacle to its ambition of joining the EU. ""In the new member states of the European Union, gross public debt is typically about 40% of gross domestic product,"" says Reza Moghadam, assistant director of the IMF's European Department. ""At about 80% of GDP, Turkey's gross debt is double that figure."" Turkey's debts have largely arisen from its efforts to push through banking reform after a run on the banks in 2001 caused the country's devastating recession. ""There is no question that although Turkey is doing much better than in the past, it remains quite vulnerable,"" says Michael Deppler, director of the IMF's European Department. ""Its debt is far too high for an emerging economy."" A key factor for EU decision makers should be whether or not Turkey has met its economic criteria. But economics is not a science. And although the state of Turkey's economy is important, as is its pace of reform, the final decision on 17 December will be taken by politicians who will, of course, be guided by their political instincts." +business,"Barclays profits hit record level Barclays, the UK's third-biggest bank, has seen annual pre-tax profits climb to record levels boosted by a sharp rise in business at its investment arm. Profits for the year to 31 December rose 20% to £4.6bn ($8.6bn). Barclays' chief John Varley said the bank had ""caught the winds"" of a very strong world economy. Earnings at Barclays Capital investment bank rose 25% to £1.04bn, but investment in branch operations held back growth in its UK retail business. The group is the first of Britain's five big banks to report 2004 results. According to analysts' forecasts, HSBC, the biggest UK bank by stock market valuation, will report profits of £9.4bn later this month. Barclays results were in line with market expectations. Its Global Investors wing made £347m, an 82% jump on 2003 figures. Profits at Barclaycard rose by 5% to £801m but were said to have been affected by a series of interest rate rises and investment to grow its customer base. The bank also blamed margins pressure on its mortgage business and spending on its branches over the past year for a 1% fall in profits in its UK retail division to £1.13bn. ""The outlook for 2005 is good as a result of balance sheet growth and investments made in 2004,"" Mr Varley said. Barclays cautioned that growth this year may be slower than in 2004 on the back of softer US and Chinese economies and the impact of interest rate rises on household spending in the UK. It added its bid to acquire a controlling stake in South Africa's leading retail bank Absa, was being considered by regulatory authorities. Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Mr Varley declined to be drawn on reports that Barclays had held merger talks with US bank Wells Fargo. A tie-up between Barclays and California-based Wells Fargo would create the world's fourth biggest bank, valued at $180bn. At 1405 GMT, shares in Barclays were trading down 0.67% at 590 pence. ""The headline numbers are in line, but the story is costs,"" said analyst Alex Potter at Lehman Brothers. ""They are a bit more aggressive than we had expected. The cost overshoot is not in Barclays Capital but in the UK bank.""" +business,"Rank 'set to sell off film unit' Leisure group Rank could unveil plans to demerge its film services unit and sell its media business, reports claim. Rank, formerly famous for the Carry On series, will expose the shake-up at the announcement of its results on Friday, the Sunday Telegraph reported. Advisors Goldman Sachs are understood to have valued its demerged Deluxe Film unit at £300m, the report added. Speculation of a possible shake-up has mounted since Rank announced a study into a possible demerger in September. Since Mike Smith's appointment as chief executive in 1999, the group has focused on fewer businesses and embarked on a major cost-cutting programme which has seen it dispose of a number of businesses, including the Odeon cinema chain and the Pinewood studios. The move left the group with three core divisions: gaming, Hard Rock and Deluxe Films, which provides technical services to Hollywood studios. Rank now aims to concentrate on its gaming, bars and hotels business, including extending its Hard Rock brand to its casinos - trials of which have been a success. It also owns Deluxe Media, which makes and distributes DVDs and videos. However, that business is seen as less successful. Last year it made profits of £21.5m on a turnover of £392.1m and experts suggest its success in moving to DVDs from VHS video could make it an attractive target for a private equity buyer. A spokesman for the firm refused to comment on the reports, but said any results from the demerger study were likely to be set out when it unveiled its results on Friday. Analysts predict the firm is likely to report a slight drop in annual pre-tax profits to £170m from £194m last year. Formed in the 1940s the firm was a leading UK film producer and cinema owner for many years. It has now diversified into a range of other leisure activities - mainly in the UK - including hotels, roadside service areas and holiday centres. It now owns 34 Grosvenor casinos, the Mecca Bingo chain and more than 100 Hard Rock Cafes in 38 countries." +business,"Buyers snap up Jet Airways' shares Investors have snapped up shares in Jet Airways, India's biggest airline, following the launch of its much anticipated initial public offer (IPO). The IPO for 17.3 million shares was fully sold within 10 minutes of opening, on Friday. Analysts expect Jet to raise at least 16.4bn rupees ($375m; £198m) from the offering. Interest in Jet's IPO has been fuelled by hopes for robust growth in India's air travel market. The share offer, representing about 20% of Jet's equity, was oversubscribed, news agency Reuters reported. Jet, which was founded by London-based travel agent Naresh Goyal, plans to use the cash to buy new planes and cut its debt. The company has grown rapidly since it launched operations in 1993, overtaking state-owned flag carrier Indian Airlines. However, it faces stiff competition from rivals and low-cost carriers. Jet's IPO is the first in a series of expected share offers from Indian companies this year, as they move to raise funds to help them do business in a rapidly-growing economy." +business,"GM pays $2bn to evade Fiat buyout General Motors of the US is to pay Fiat 1.55bn euros ($2bn; £1.1bn) to get out of a deal which could have forced it to buy the Italian car maker outright. Fiat had sold GM a stake in 2000, as part of a partnership agreement. But Fiat's heavy losses have convinced GM - whose own European operations are in the red - to back away. The pay-off means the two firms will unwind joint ventures, but Fiat will keep supplying diesel engines and the money will allow it to reduce its debt. Fiat's shares on the Milan stock exchange rose 4.5% by 0900 GMT to 6.2 euros, having shot up more than 7% in early trading. ""We now have absolute freedom to design our own future,"" said Fiat chief executive Sergio Marchionne. Analysts said Fiat seemed to have done well out of the deal, although some predictions had expected a 2bn euro pay-off. Fiat is to get 1bn euros immediately, with another 550m to follow within 90 days. The firm is Italy's largest private employer, and a failure to reach an agreement could have had severe consequences for thousands of workers and for the Italian economy. For its part, GM was keen to ward off any criticism that the deal had been a mistake. ""We needed scale in Europe to get costs down, and we were able to do that in working with Fiat,"" said GM chief executive Rick Wagoner. The Fiat-GM alliance came about in 2000 as an alternative to selling Fiat outright. German-US car firm DaimlerChrysler had been willing to buy the firm, but Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli did not want to give up control. Instead, GM swapped a 6% stake in itself for 20% of Fiat - and gave Fiat a ""put option"" to sell GM the rest of the car maker between January 2004 and July 2009. But despite the alliance Fiat failed to put itself back on track, continuing to lose money and market share. As a result, the sell-off looked better and better for the Italians - and much worse for GM, which is struggling with its own loss-making European marques Opel and Saab. The relationship soured further after Fiat sold half its finance arm and recapitalised in 2003, halving GM's stake to 10%." +business,"Irish markets reach all-time high Irish shares have risen to a record high, with investors persuaded to buy into the market by low inflation and strong growth forecasts. The ISEQ index of leading shares closed up 23 points to 6661.89 on Thursday, fuelled by strong growth in banking and financial stocks. A fall in the rate of inflation to 2.3% in January gave a fresh boost to shares which have advanced 4% this month. The economy is set for strong growth in 2005 while interest rates remain low. Several of Ireland's biggest companies saw their market value hit recent highs on Thursday. Allied Irish Banks, Ireland's biggest company by capitalisation, touched a five year peak while Bank of Ireland shares rose to their highest level since August 2002. Telecoms firm Eircom, which recently revealed that it would re-enter the Irish mobile phone market, hit a yearly high. Analysts said that economic conditions were benign and Irish shares were still trading at a discount to other European markets. ""Ireland ticks all the boxes as far as international investors are concerned,"" Roy Asher, chief investment officer of Hibernian Investment Managers, told Reuters. ""Buoyant economic conditions are set to continue in Ireland over the next few years and Irish equities continue to offer quality growth at a reasonable valuation."" Bernard McAlinden, head of equity research at NCB Stockbrokers, said equities represented good value compared to other investments. ""It is still looking good,"" he told Reuters. ""We have seen good economic data on Ireland which benefits the financial stocks."" Ireland's economic 'miracle' is enjoying a second wind, with 5% growth forecast for 2005 and 2006. The economy cooled markedly between 2001 and 2003 after enjoying spectacular growth of more than 10% in 2000. However, it has bounced back strongly with growth of just under 5% expected in 2004." +business,"House prices rebound says Halifax UK house prices increased by 1.1% in December, the first monthly rise since September, the Halifax has said. The UK's biggest mortgage lender said prices rose 15.1% over the whole of 2004, but by only 2.8% in the second half of the year. The average price of a house in the UK now stands at £162,086, Halifax said. The survey seems to fly in the face of recent evidence that the UK housing market has been slowing substantially in response to interest rate rises. Last week, the Nationwide said that house prices fell 0.2% in December, with annual inflation running at a three year low. On Tuesday, figures from the Bank of England showed that the number of mortgages approved in the UK has fallen to the lowest level for nearly a decade. New loans in November fell to 77,000, from 85,000 in October, the lowest rate since September 1995, the Bank of England said. Growth in unsecured lending, such as personal loans and credit cards, also slowed last month. Capital Economics, which has in the past predicted a sharp fall in UK house prices, branded Halifax's findings a ""temporary surprise,"" which would be reversed over the coming months. ""The month by month volatility of the Halifax house price data should not distract from the fact that there is a clear downward trend in house prices,"" a Capital Economics statement said. Experts believe five interest rate rises since November 2003 are cutting borrowers' appetite for debt. Despite recording a price rise in December, the Halifax survey concluded that there was ""continuing signs of a genuine slowdown in the housing market."" Martin Ellis, Halifax chief economist, said that there was no need to revise the bank's prediction, made last month, that prices would fall by 2% in 2005. ""Sound housing market fundamentals will continue to underpin the market in 2005, ensuring that the market remains healthy and that house prices fall only slightly,"" Mr Ellis said. If the bank's prediction of a 2% price drop comes true, it will be the first annual fall in nine years. The bank said that the recent pattern of house prices rising the fastest in the north of England continued in December. In the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber, Halifax said prices rose by 3% and 1.2% in the two regions respectively during the month. At the other send of the scale, prices in the South East and London fell by 1.6% and 0.5% respectively. The biggest decline was seen in Wales where prices fell by 6.2%, an area that had experienced strong house price growth during most of 2004. Overall, Halifax said prices in the final quarter of 2004 were 0.1% higher than in the previous quarter. This was the smallest quarterly rise since the second quarter of 2000, the bank said. As a result, annual house price inflation dipped below 20% during the final few months of 2004." +business,"Dollar gains on Greenspan speech The dollar has hit its highest level against the euro in almost three months after the Federal Reserve head said the US trade deficit is set to stabilise. And Alan Greenspan highlighted the US government's willingness to curb spending and rising household savings as factors which may help to reduce it. In late trading in New York, the dollar reached $1.2871 against the euro, from $1.2974 on Thursday. Market concerns about the deficit has hit the greenback in recent months. On Friday, Federal Reserve chairman Mr Greenspan's speech in London ahead of the meeting of G7 finance ministers sent the dollar higher after it had earlier tumbled on the back of worse-than-expected US jobs data. ""I think the chairman's taking a much more sanguine view on the current account deficit than he's taken for some time,"" said Robert Sinche, head of currency strategy at Bank of America in New York. ""He's taking a longer-term view, laying out a set of conditions under which the current account deficit can improve this year and next."" Worries about the deficit concerns about China do, however, remain. China's currency remains pegged to the dollar and the US currency's sharp falls in recent months have therefore made Chinese export prices highly competitive. But calls for a shift in Beijing's policy have fallen on deaf ears, despite recent comments in a major Chinese newspaper that the ""time is ripe"" for a loosening of the peg. The G7 meeting is thought unlikely to produce any meaningful movement in Chinese policy. In the meantime, the US Federal Reserve's decision on 2 February to boost interest rates by a quarter of a point - the sixth such move in as many months - has opened up a differential with European rates. The half-point window, some believe, could be enough to keep US assets looking more attractive, and could help prop up the dollar. The recent falls have partly been the result of big budget deficits, as well as the US's yawning current account gap, both of which need to be funded by the buying of US bonds and assets by foreign firms and governments. The White House will announce its budget on Monday, and many commentators believe the deficit will remain at close to half a trillion dollars." +business,"Bank opts to leave rates on hold The Bank of England has left interest rates on hold at 4.75% for a sixth month in a row. The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to take no action amid mixed signals from the economy. But some economists predict a further rise in the cost of borrowing will come later this year. Interest rates rose five times between November 2003 and August 2004 as soaring house prices and buoyant consumer data sparked inflation fears. Bank of England governor Mervyn King has recently warned against placing too much weight on one month's economic data, suggesting the MPC is waiting for a clearer picture to emerge. Economists see next week's inflation report from the MPC as key in assessing whether a further interest rate rise is necessary to keep the economy in check. Slower consumer spending and a quieter housing market are likely to have convinced the MPC that rates should be left unchanged in recent months. Inflation, however, has been rising faster than expected, hitting an annual rate of 1.6% in December - its highest level in six months. Data on Wednesday also showed manufacturing output rose at its fastest rate since May last month, reinforcing a view that economic growth was stronger than forecasts. And recent house surveys from the Halifax and Nationwide have indicated prices are still rising, albeit at a slower pace than in recent years. Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec Securities, said he believed rates would remain at 4.75% for the rest of the year although strong economic data could lead to a further hike. ""The economic landscape has changed quite considerably over the last couple of months, "" he said. ""Growth appears stronger and the MPC may become more concerned about inflation trends."" Howard Archer, economist at Global Insight said the MPC ""may well consider that the balance of risks to the growth and inflation outlook have moved from the downside to the upside"". Business groups welcomed the MPC's widely-expected move to leave rates on hold and cautioned against further rises. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said it was ""concerned by the clamour in some quarters"" for early interest rate increases. ""We believe that these demands should be firmly resisted,"" said David Frost, BCC director general. ""Manufacturing still faces extremely serious problems and is performing poorly, in spite of the recent revised figures."" Ian McCafferty, chief economist at the CBI, said the MPC faced an ""interesting"" challenge. ""Consumers appear to have pulled in their horns over the holiday period, and exporters are struggling with the strength of sterling,"" he said. ""However, the broader economy continues to show healthy growth, and the tight labour market and buoyant commodity prices are nudging inflation higher.""" +business,"S Korean consumers spending again South Korea looks set to sustain its revival thanks to renewed private consumption, its central bank says. The country's economy has suffered from an overhang of personal debt after its consumers' credit card spending spree. Card use fell sharply last year, but is now picking up again with a rise in spending of 14.8% year-on-year. ""The economy is now heading upward rather than downward,"" said central bank governor Park Seung. ""The worst seems to have passed."" Mr Park's statement came as the bank decided to keep interest rates at an all-time low of 3.25%. It had cut rates in November to help revive the economy, but rising inflation - reaching 0.7% month-on-month in January - has stopped it from cutting further. Economic growth in 2004 was about 4.7%, with the central bank predicting 4% growth this year. Other indicators are also suggesting that the country is inching back towards economic health. Exports - traditionally the driver for expansion in Asian economies - grew slower in January than at any time in 17 months. But domestic demand seems to be taking up the slack. Consumer confidence has bounced back from a four-year low in January, and retail sales were up 2.1% in December. Credit card debt is falling, with only one in 13 of the 48 million cards now in default - down from one in eight at the end of 2003. One of its biggest card issuers, LG Card, was rescued from collapse in December, having almost imploded under the weight of its customers' bad debts. The government last year tightened the rules for card lending to keep the card glut under control." +business,"European losses hit GM's profits General Motors (GM) saw its net profits fall 37% in the last quarter of 2004, as it continued to be hit by losses at its European operations. The US giant earned $630m (£481.5m) in the October-to-December period, down from $1bn in the fourth quarter of 2003. GM's revenues rose 4.7% to $51.2bn from $48.8bn a year earlier. The fourth-quarter losses at General Motors Europe totalled $345m, up from $66m during the same period in 2003. GM's main European brands are Opel and Vauxhall. Excluding special items, GM's global income from continuing operations totalled $569m during the quarter, down from $838m a year earlier. The results were in line with Wall Street expectations and shares in GM rose by about 1% in pre-market trade. For the whole of 2004, GM earned $3.7bn, down from $3.8bn in 2003, while its annual revenue rose 4.5% to $193bn. GM said its profits were also hit by higher healthcare costs in the US. ""GM reported solid overall results in 2004, despite challenging competitive conditions in many markets around the globe,"" GM chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner said in a statement. The company recently announced that it expected profits in 2005 to be lower than in 2004." +business,"Qantas sees profits fly to record Australian airline Qantas has posted a record fiscal first-half profit thanks to cost-cutting measures. Net profit in the six months ending 31 December rose 28% to A$458.4m ($357.6m; £191m) from a year earlier. Analysts expected a figure closer to A$431m. Qantas shares fell almost 3%, however, after it warned that earnings growth would slow in the second half. Sales will dip by at least A$30m after the Indian ocean tsunami devastated many holiday destinations, Qantas said. ""The tsunami affected travel patterns in ways that we were a bit surprised about,"" chief executive Geoff Dixon explained. ""It certainly affected Japanese travel into Australia. As soon as the tsunami hit we saw ... a lessening with bookings for Australia."" Higher fuel costs also are expected to eat into earnings in coming months. ""We don't have as much hedging benefit in the second half as we had in the first,"" said chief financial officer Peter Gregg. Qantas is facing increased pressure from rivals such as low-cost carrier Virgin Blue and the Australian government is in talks about whether to allow Singapore Airlines to fly between the Australia and the US - one of Qantas' key routes. Even so, the firm is predicting that full-year earnings will increase from the previous 12 months. Analysts have forecast full-year profit will rise about 11% to around A$720 million ($563 million). Qantas boss Mr Dixon also said he would be reviewing the group's cost-cutting measures. During the first six months of the fiscal year, Qantas made savings of A$245m, and is on track to top its target of A$500m for the full year. Last month, the company warned it may transfer as many as 7,000 jobs out Australia, with Mr Dixon quoted as saying that the carrier could no longer afford to remain ""all-Australian""." +business,"South African car demand surges Car manufacturers with plants in South Africa, including BMW, General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen, have seen a surge in demand during 2004. New vehicle sales jumped 22% to 449,603 from a year earlier, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) said. Strong economic growth and low interest rates have driven demand, and analysts expect the trend to continue. NAAMSA said it expects sales to top 500,000 in 2005. During 2004 ""South Africa was one of the best performing markets internationally"" for car sales, NAAMSA said. While domestic demand is set to continue to enjoy rapid growth, foreign sales could come under pressure, analysts said. The vehicle industry accounts for about 13% of South Africa's total exports. However, the world auto market has its problems and analysts warn that overcapacity and the strength of the rand could hit exports." +business,"MCI shareholder sues to stop bid A shareholder in US phone firm MCI has taken legal action to halt a $6.75bn (£3.6bn) buyout by telecoms giant Verizon, hoping to get a better deal. The lawsuit was filed on Friday after Qwest Communications, which had an earlier offer for MCI rejected, said it would submit an improved bid. MCI's directors have backed Verizon, despite it tabling less money. They are accused of breaching their fiduciary duties by depriving MCI shareholders ""of maximum value"". According the legal papers filed in a Delaware court, Verizon is set to pay an """"unconscionable, unfair and grossly inadequate"" sum for MCI, which was formerly known as Worldcom. Qwest said on Wednesday that MCI had rejected a deal worth $8bn. A number of large MCI shareholders expressed unhappiness at the decision, saying that Verizon's offer, made up of cash, shares and dividends, undervalued the company. Friday's lawsuit argues that the Verizon offer makes no provision for future growth prospects and that consolidation in the US phone industry will put a premium on MCI's network, assets and clients. MCI's directors have argued that Verizon is bigger than Qwest, has fewer debts and has built a successful mobile division. Chief executive Michael Capellas spent last week meeting with shareholders in an effort to win their backing. In 2002, investors in the then-named Worldcom lost millions when the company filed for bankruptcy following an accounting scandal. However, the firm - now renamed MCI - has put its operations in order and emerged from bankruptcy protection last April. It is a long-distance and corporate phone firm, and would provide the buyer with access to a global telecommunications network and a large number of business-based subscribers. MCI shares jumped on Friday, hitting their highest level since April 2004 amid speculation that it would be the focus of a bidding war. A takeover of MCI would be the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since October as companies look to cut costs and boost client bases. Earlier this month, SBC Communications agreed to buy its former parent and phone pioneer AT&T for about $16bn." +business,"Wembley firm won't make a profit Shares in Multiplex Group, which is building the new Wembley stadium, fell as much as 19% after it said it would not make any money on the project. The Australian firm said it would only break even on the 1.2bn Australian dollars (£458m; $874m) rebuild, after a rise in costs on the work. Any profits would depend on the outcome of legal cases resulting from a change in steel contractor, it added. It cut A$68m from profit targets for Wembley and another UK project. Investors were shaken by the news and the firm's shares fell to a four month low of A$4.50, before recovering to close 16% down at A$4.67. The decline came despite Multiplex reporting an 11% rise in pre-tax profits to A$67.7m for 2004 and reaffirming its 2005 profit forecasts. Increased costs at Wembley and a separate development in London's Docklands saw Multiplex's construction division report profits of A$35.1m. The firm said the result was below expectations but stressed that the majority of its UK projects - which also include the White City redevelopment scheme in west London - were performing strongly. To recoup any profit from Wembley, where the firm changed its steel contractor due to a legal dispute, Multiplex will have to win legal claims against subcontractors. These claims could take up to two years to resolve. ""Multiplex believes its claim are sound and ultimately will exceed the level needed to support the break even position,"" it said. ""It is expected that profits will be possible in future periods as the claims are finalised."" Wembley Stadium is to due to be completed in January and will officially open for the 2006 FA Cup Final. Analysts expressed concern at the unexpected paring back in profit. ""Such a big writeback on the Wembley project in such a short period has impacted on management credibility,"" Simon Wheatley, from Goldman Sachs, told Reuters." +business,"BBC poll indicates economic gloom Citizens in a majority of nations surveyed in a BBC World Service poll believe the world economy is worsening. Most respondents also said their national economy was getting worse. But when asked about their own family's financial outlook, a majority in 14 countries said they were positive about the future. Almost 23,000 people in 22 countries were questioned for the poll, which was mostly conducted before the Asian tsunami disaster. The poll found that a majority or plurality of people in 13 countries believed the economy was going downhill, compared with respondents in nine countries who believed it was improving. Those surveyed in three countries were split. In percentage terms, an average of 44% of respondents in each country said the world economy was getting worse, compared to 34% who said it was improving. Similarly, 48% were pessimistic about their national economy, while 41% were optimistic. And 47% saw their family's economic conditions improving, as against 36% who said they were getting worse. The poll of 22,953 people was conducted by the international polling firm GlobeScan, together with the Program on International Policy Attitudes (Pipa) at the University of Maryland. ""While the world economy has picked up from difficult times just a few years ago, people seem to not have fully absorbed this development, though they are personally experiencing its effects,"" said Pipa director Steven Kull. ""People around the world are saying: 'I'm OK, but the world isn't'."" There may be a perception that war, terrorism and religious and political divisions are making the world a worse place, even though that has not so far been reflected in global economic performance, says the BBC's Elizabeth Blunt. The countries where people were most optimistic, both for the world and for their own families, were two fast-growing developing economies, China and India, followed by Indonesia. China has seen two decades of blistering economic growth, which has led to wealth creation on a huge scale, says the BBC's Louisa Lim in Beijing. But the results also may reflect the untrammelled confidence of people who are subject to endless government propaganda about their country's rosy economic future, our correspondent says. South Korea was the most pessimistic, while respondents in Italy and Mexico were also quite gloomy. The BBC's David Willey in Rome says one reason for that result is the changeover from the lira to the euro in 2001, which is widely viewed as the biggest reason why their wages and salaries are worth less than they used to be. The Philippines was among the most upbeat countries on prospects for respondents' families, but one of the most pessimistic about the world economy. Pipa conducted the poll from 15 November 2004 to 3 January 2005 across 22 countries in face-to-face or telephone interviews. The interviews took place between 15 November 2004 and 5 January 2005. The margin of error is between 2.5 and 4 points, depending on the country. In eight of the countries, the sample was limited to major metropolitan areas." +business,"Lloyd's of London head chides FSA The head of Lloyd's of London, the insurance market, has criticised Britain's financial watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA). In a speech on Monday, Mr Prettejohn urged the FSA to force brokers to disclose the size of their commissions. ""The FSA should change, and change now"" said Mr Prettejohn, who wants it to move from ""disclosure on request"" to mandatory disclosure. The call came in a speech on improving the London insurance market. ""The FSA should not bide their time and 'wait and see'. They should seize the moment,"" Mr Prettejohn, Lloyd's chief executive said. The FSA took over regulation of the general insurance sector in January, but it sidestepped calls to require brokers to disclose the commissions they earn from insurers to their clients. Last week, the City watchdog gave brokers and insurers guidance on managing conflicts of interest. Brokers must give information on their commissions if, and only if, their customers request it, the FSA said. In the US, lack of transparency about brokers' commissions has led to problems. The world's biggest insurance broker Marsh & McLennan said last week it would pay $850m to settle charges, raised by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in October, that it sought to rig bids in conjunction with insurers. The probe centred around so-called contingent commissions, whereby brokers were rewarded according to how much business they brought to an insurer, an arrangement that did not always benefit brokers' customers. All of the insurance business written in the Lloyd's market is placed via brokers." +business,"Aids and climate top Davos agenda Climate change and the fight against Aids are leading the list of concerns for the first day of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos. Some 2,000 business and political leaders from around the globe will listen to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's opening speech on Wednesday. Mr Blair will focus on Africa's development plans and global warming. Earlier in the day came an update on efforts to have 3 million people on anti-Aids drugs by the end of 2005. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said 700,000 people in poor countries were on life-extending drugs - up from 440,000 six months earlier but amounting to only 12% of the 5.8 million who needed them. A $2bn ""funding gap"" still stood in the way of hitting the 2005 target, the WHO said. The themes to be stressed by Mr Blair - whose attendance was announced at the last minute - are those he wants to dominate the UK's chairmanship of the G8 group of industrialised states. Other issues to be discussed at the five-day conference range from China's economic power to Iraq's future after this Sunday's elections. Aside from Mr Blair, more than 20 other world leaders are expected to attend including French President Jacques Chirac - due to speak by video link after bad weather delayed his helicopter - and South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose arrival has been delayed by Ivory Coast peace talks. The Ukraine's new president, Viktor Yushchenko, will also be there - as will newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Showbiz figures will also put in an appearance, from U2 frontman Bono - a well-known campaigner on trade and development issues - to Angelina Jolie, a goodwill campaigner for the UN on refugees. Unlike previous years, protests against the WEF are expected to be muted. Anti-globalisation campaigners have called off a demonstration planned for the weekend. At the same time, about 100,000 people are expected to converge on the Brazilian resort of Porto Alegre for the World Social Forum - the so-called ""anti-Davos"" for campaigners against globalisation, for fair trade, and many other causes. In contrast, the Davos forum is dominated by business issues - from outsourcing to corporate leadership - with bosses of more than a fifth of the world's 500 largest companies scheduled to attend. A survey published on the eve of the conference by PricewaterhouseCoopers said four in ten business leaders were ""very confident"" that their companies would see sales rise in 2005. Asian and American executives, however, were much more confident than their European counterparts. But the political discussions, focusing on Iran, Iraq and China, are likely to dominate media attention." +business,"Fed chief warning on US deficit Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has warned that allowing huge US budget deficits to continue could have ""severe"" consequences. Speaking to the House Budget Committee he urged Congress to take action to cut the deficit, such as increasing taxes. While the US economy is growing at a ""reasonably good pace"" he warned that budget concerns were clouding the economic outlook for the US. Pension and healthcare costs posed the greatest risks to the economy, he said. The government program faces severe financial strains in coming decades as the massive baby-boom generation retires. ""I fear that we may have already committed more physical resources to the baby-boom generation in its retirement years than our economy has the capacity to deliver. If existing promises need to be changed, those changes should be made sooner rather than later,"" Mr Greenspan said. He also warned that unless the nation sees unprecedented rises in productivity ""retirement and health programmes would need ""significant"" changes. He called on Congress to cut promised benefits for retirees, as the promised benefits for the soon-to-retire baby boom generation were much larger than the government could afford. Meanwhile any move to narrow the deficit gap by raising taxes could pose a significant risk to the economy by dampening growth and spending, he added. He also urged Congress to reinstate lapsed rules that require tax cuts and spending to be offset elsewhere in the budget in an effort to prevent the US heading further into the red. Despite the dire warnings, Mr Greenspan did offer some good news for the short term. As US growth gathers steam and incomes rise that should lead to a narrowing of the deficit. Recent increases in defence and homeland security spending were also not expected to continue indefinitely, which should cut some costs. Since President George W Bush came to office the federal budget has swung from a record surplus to a record deficit of $412bn last year." +business,"WorldCom trial starts in New York The trial of Bernie Ebbers, former chief executive of bankrupt US phone company WorldCom, has started in New York with the selection of the jury. Mr Ebbers, 63, is accused of being the mastermind behind an $11bn (£6bn) accounting fraud that eventually saw the firm collapse in July 2002. His indictment includes charges of securities fraud, conspiracy and filing false reports with regulators. If found guilty, Mr Ebbers could face a substantial jail sentence. He has firmly declared his innocence. Under Mr Ebbers' leadership, WorldCom emerged from Mississippi obscurity to become a $160bn telecoms giant and the darling of late 1990s investors. Yet as competition intensified and the telecoms boom petered out, WorldCom found itself under growing financial stress. When WorldCom finally collapsed, shareholders lost about $180bn and 20,000 workers lost their jobs. Mr Ebbers' trial, which is expected to last two months, is the latest in a series of attempts by US prosecutors to pursue senior executives for fraud. It will coincide with the retrial of former Tyco International chief Dennis Kozlowski and his top lieutenant, accused of looting the industrial conglomerate to the tune of $600m. Trail preparations are also preparing for former executives of shamed US energy firm Enron." +business,"Venezuela and China sign oil deal Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has offered China wide-ranging access to the country's oil reserves. The offer, made as part of a trade deal between the two countries, will allow China to operate oil fields in Venezuela and invest in new refineries. Venezuela has also offered to supply 120,000 barrels of fuel oil a month to China. Venezuela - the world's fifth largest oil exporter - sells about 60% of its output to the United States. Mr Chavez's administration, which has a strained relationship with the US, is trying to diversify sales to reduce its dependence on its largest export market. China's quick-growing economy's need for oil has contributed to record-high oil prices this year, along with political unrest in the Middle East and supply bottlenecks. Oil prices are finishing the year roughly 30% higher than they were in January 2004. In 2004, according to forecasts from the Ministry of Commerce, China's oil imports will be 110m tons, up 21% on the previous year. China has been a net importer of oil since the mid 1990's with more than a third of the oil and gas it consumes coming from abroad. A lack of sufficient domestic production and the need to lessen its dependence on imports from the Middle East has meant that China is looking to invest in other potential markets such as Latin America. Mr Chavez, who is visiting China, said his country would put its many of its oil facilities at the disposal of China. Chinese firms would be allowed to operate 15 mature oil fields in the east of Venezuela, which could produce more than one billion barrels, he confirmed. The two countries will also continue a joint venture agreement to produce stocks of the boiler fuel orimulsion. Mr Chavez has also invited Chinese firms to bid for gas exploration contracts which his government will offer next year in the western Gulf of Venezuela. The two countries also signed a number of other agreements covering other industries including mining." +business,"Borussia Dortmund near bust German football club and former European champion Borussia Dortmund has warned it will go bankrupt if rescue talks with creditors fail. The company's shares tumbled after it said it has ""entered a life-threatening profitability and financial situation"". Borussia Dortmund has posted record losses and missed rent payments on its Westfallen stadium. Chief executive Gerd Niebaum stepped down last week and creditors are now pushing for greater control. Shares in Borussia Dortmund, Germany's only stock-market listed football club, dropped by almost 23% to 2.05 euros during early afternoon trading. Fund manager Florian Hamm - Borussia Dortmund's largest investor - said he would only invest more money in the company if he got a greater say in how it is run. ""I demand better transparency,"" he is quoted as saying by Germany's Manger Magazin. The club has also faced calls to appoint executives from outside the club. Borussia Dortmund posted a record loss of 68m euros ($89m; £47m) in the 12 months through June. It made a loss of 27.2m euros in the first half of the current fiscal year and said that total debts will increase to 134.7m euros by the middle of 2006 unless a restructuring plan is pushed through. ""This is the bill for their mismanagement over the past years,"" said HVB analyst Peter-Thilo Halser. The club appointed an auditor, who has recommended a number of steps, including deferring the rent due on the stadium and suspending debt repayments until at least the 2006-2007 fiscal year. Stephen Schechter, a UK investment banker who has held talks with Borussia Dortmund over a possible bond sale, said the club needs a capital injection of 35m euros. ""They need strong people on the board who do not have a history with the club,"" he said." +business,"Lufthansa flies back to profit German airline Lufthansa has returned to profit in 2004 after posting huge losses in 2003. In a preliminary report, the airline announced net profits of 400m euros ($527.61m; £274.73m), compared with a loss of 984m euros in 2003. Operating profits were at 380m euros, ten times more than in 2003. Lufthansa was hit in 2003 by tough competition and a dip in demand following the Iraq war and the killer SARS virus. It was also hit by troubles at its US catering business. Last year, Lufthansa showed signs of recovery even as some European and US airlines were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The board of Lufthansa has recommended paying a 2004 dividend of 0.30 euros per share. In 2003, shareholders did not get a dividend. The company said that it will give all the details of its 2004 results on 23 March." +business,"Fannie Mae 'should restate books' US mortgage company Fannie Mae should restate its earnings, a move that is likely to put a billion-dollar dent in its accounts, watchdogs have said. The Securities & Exchange Commission accused Fannie Mae of using techniques that ""did not comply in material respects"" with accounting standards. Fannie Mae last month warned that some records were incorrect. The other main US mortgage firm Freddie Mac restated earnings by $5bn (£2.6bn) last year after a probe of its books. The SEC's comments are likely to increase pressure on Congress to strengthen supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two firms are key parts of the US financial system and effectively underwrite the mortgage market, financing nearly half of all American house purchases and dealing actively in bonds and other financial instruments. The investigation of Freddie Mac in June 2003 sparked concerns about the wider health of the industry and raised questionsmarks over the role of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the industry's main regulator. Having been pricked into action, the OFHEO turned its attention to Fannie May and in September this year said that the firm had tweaked its books to spread earnings more smoothly across quarters and play down the amount of risk it had taken on. The SEC found similar problems. The watchdog's chief accountant Donald Nicolaisen said that ""Fannie Mae's methodology of assessing, measuring and documenting hedge ineffectiveness was inadequate and was not supported"" by generally accepted accounting principles." +business,"China had role in Yukos split-up China lent Russia $6bn (£3.2bn) to help the Russian government renationalise the key Yuganskneftegas unit of oil group Yukos, it has been revealed. The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the $6bn which Russian state bank VEB lent state-owned Rosneft to help buy Yugansk in turn came from Chinese banks. The revelation came as the Russian government said Rosneft had signed a long-term oil supply deal with China. The deal sees Rosneft receive $6bn in credits from China's CNPC. According to Russian newspaper Vedomosti, these credits would be used to pay off the loans Rosneft received to finance the purchase of Yugansk. Reports said CNPC had been offered 20% of Yugansk in return for providing finance but the company opted for a long-term oil supply deal instead. Analysts said one factor that might have influenced the Chinese decision was the possibility of litigation from Yukos, Yugansk's former owner, if CNPC had become a shareholder. Rosneft and VEB declined to comment. ""The two companies [Rosneft and CNPC] have agreed on the pre-payment for long-term deliveries,"" said Russian oil official Sergei Oganesyan. ""There is nothing unusual that the pre-payment is for five to six years."" The announcements help to explain how Rosneft, a medium-sized, indebted, and relatively unknown firm, was able to finance its surprise purchase of Yugansk. Yugansk was sold for $9.3bn in an auction last year to help Yukos pay off part of a $27bn bill in unpaid taxes and fines. The embattled Russian oil giant had previously filed for bankruptcy protection in a US court in an attempt to prevent the forced sale of its main production arm. But Yugansk was sold to a little known shell company which in turn was bought by Rosneft. Yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Once the country's richest man, Mr Khodorkovsky is on trial for fraud and tax evasion. The deal between Rosneft and CNPC is seen as part of China's desire to secure long-term oil supplies to feed its booming economy. China's thirst for products such as crude oil, copper and steel has helped pushed global commodity prices to record levels. ""Clearly the Chinese are trying to get some leverage [in Russia],"" said Dmitry Lukashov, an analyst at brokerage Aton. ""They understand property rights in Russia are not the most important rights, and they are more interested in guaranteeing supplies."" ""If the price of oil is fixed under the deal, which is unlikely, it could be very profitable for the Chinese,"" Mr Lukashov continued. ""And Rosneft is in desperate need of cash, so it's a good deal for them too.""" +business,"Ask Jeeves tips online ad revival Ask Jeeves has become the third leading online search firm this week to thank a revival in internet advertising for improving fortunes. The firm's revenue nearly tripled in the fourth quarter of 2004, exceeding $86m (£46m). Ask Jeeves, once among the best-known names on the web, is now a relatively modest player. Its $17m profit for the quarter was dwarfed by the $204m announced by rival Google earlier in the week. During the same quarter, Yahoo earned $187m, again tipping a resurgence in online advertising. The trend has taken hold relatively quickly. Late last year, marketing company Doubleclick, one of the leading providers of online advertising, warned that some or all of its business would have to be put up for sale. But on Thursday, it announced that a sharp turnaround had brought about an unexpected increase in profits. Neither Ask Jeeves nor Doubleclick thrilled investors with their profit news, however. In both cases, their shares fell by some 4%. Analysts attributed the falls to excessive expectations in some quarters, fuelled by the dramatic outperformance of Google on Tuesday." +business,"Mixed signals from French economy The French economy picked up speed at the end of 2004, official figures show - but still looks set to have fallen short of the government's hopes. According to state statistics body INSEE, growth for the three months to December was a seasonally-adjusted 0.7-0.8%, ahead of the 0.6% forecast. If confirmed, that would be the best quarterly showing since early 2002. It leaves GDP up 2.3% for the full year, but short of the 2.5% which the French government had predicted. Despite the apparent shortfall in annual economic growth, the good quarterly figures - a so-called ""flash estimate"" - mark a continuing trend of improving indicators for the health of the French economy. The government is reiterating a 2.5% target for 2005, while the European Central Bank is making positive noises for the 12-nation eurozone as a whole. Also on Friday, France's industrial output for December was released, showing 0.7% growth. ""The numbers are good,"" said David Naude, economist at Deutsche Bank. ""They send a positive signal of a rebound in output... and open the way for a continuation in that trend into the New Year."" Service sector activity improved in January, hitting a seven-month high. But unemployment remains high at about 10%." +business,"Executive trio leave Aer Lingus Three senior executives of Ireland's state-owned airline, Aer Lingus, are set to leave early on 28 January after accusations of a conflict of interest. The trio are chief executive Willie Walsh, chief financial officer Brian Dunne and chief operations officer Seamus Kearney. The three have refused to confirm reports they plan to launch a private airline in competition with Aer Lingus. They announced in November they would quit in May, but did not give a reason. That decision had followed an announcement by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern - who is still considering the future of the airline - which ruled out a proposed management buy-out of Aer Lingus. Mr Walsh denied they had been forced out early because of the reports claiming they were set to launch a competitor airline. ""What I do after I leave Aer Lingus is still too early to say,"" Mr Walsh told AP news agency on Wednesday. ""I have opportunities open to me. Brian and Seamus are in the equally fortunate position."" He said he had received more than 40 business proposals, mostly aviation-related, since the trio announced their resignations two months ago. Mr Walsh said there was no conflict of interest, and, if he was to launch a rival airline or join an existing competitor, ""this thing happens in every business"". ""There's absolutely no question of a conflict of interest. I've been completely focused on my responsibilities at Aer Lingus,"" he told AP. This week opposition politicians had called on the Irish government to make an urgent decision on the future of the airline. On Wednesday Irish Transport Minister Martin Cullen said in a statement: ""A conflict of interest cannot, should not and will not be allowed to arise between their current roles at Aer Lingus and their future career intentions."" Last Friday the minister had announced he was to advertise for three senior executives for Aer Lingus. Mr Walsh, who took charge in 2000, and his team have earned praise for turning Aer Lingus around, by cutting air fares and staff, and re-positioning it as a low-fare airline to rival Ryanair. The company is 85% owned by the government and 15% by its staff." +business,"Nissan names successor to Ghosn Nissan has named a lifetime employee to run its operations after Carlos Ghosn, its highly successful boss, takes charge at Renault. As chief operating officer, Toshiyuki Shiga will run Nissan on a daily basis, although Mr Ghosn, who masterminded its recovery, will remain chief executive. Mr Ghosn is to become chairman and chief executive of Renault, which owns 44% of the Japanese carmaker, in April. Mr Ghosn transformed Nissan into a fast-growing and profitable business. Mr Shiga will nominally serve as Mr Ghosn's deputy. However, he will be Nissan's most senior Japan-based executive and will be in charge of the firm's global sales and marketing. He is currently in charge of Nissan's operations across Asia and Australasia and is credited with significantly improving its sales in China. He will inherit a strong legacy from Mr Ghosn, who has overseen a dramatic turnaround in Nissan's fortunes in the past five years. Dubbed 'le cost killer' for pushing through huge cost cuts in previous jobs, Mr Ghosn reduced Nissan's overheads by 20% and trimmed its workforce by about 200,000 after taking charge in 1999. These actions helped Nissan turn a 684bn yen ($6.4bn) loss in 2000 into a 331bn yen ($2.7bn) profit the following year. During his tenure, Nissan has increased its market share and made significant strides in key export markets. Nissan aims to increase vehicle sales to more than four million by 2008, launching 28 new models in the process. In his new job as Renault chief executive, Mr Ghosn will devote 40% of his time to Renault, 40% to Nissan and the rest to the group's activities in North America and other key markets. Mr Ghosn said Mr Shiga's appointment would ensure a ""seamless"" transition in management. ""I need a leadership team capable of accelerating the performance and delivery of results that has characterized Nissan over the past six years,"" Mr Ghosn said. ""I have full confidence in Toshiyuki Shiga and the new leadership team to help me implement the next chapter of Nissan's growth."" Nissan also announced a number of other management appointments with promotions for several younger executives." +business,"Yukos accused of lying to court Russian oil firm Yukos lied to a US court in an attempt to stop the Russian government selling off its key production unit, the court has heard. The unit, Yugansk, was sold to pay off a $27.5bn (£14.5bn) back tax bill. Yukos argued that since it had a US subsidiary and local bank accounts, the US court could declare it bankrupt and stop the auction of Yugansk. But Deutsche Bank - itself a target of a Yukos lawsuit - said documents had been backdated to strengthen the case. Deutsche Bank's evidence came on the first day of a two-day hearing in Houston. Its lawyer, Hugh Ray, told the court that Yukos had claimed it had transferred $27m into two Texas bank accounts opened by its new US subsidiary. By doing so, he said, the firm had intended to reinforce its US presence - and thus its chances of getting its case heard in US courts. But he said that the papers documenting the transaction were not drawn up till weeks after Yukos made its bankruptcy application on 14 December, and then backdated. Yukos chief financial officer Bruce Misamore, who had moved to the US in early December to set up Yukos USA, acknowledged the point. He said the discrepancy was only in the paperwork, but that money had indeed been transferred on 14 December. Even so, he told the court that only $480,000 had been in the accounts that day, with the rest arriving a day later. Deutsche Bank is involved in the case because it is itself being sued by Yukos. It had agreed to loan to an arm of Russian state gas firm Gazprom the money to bid for Yuganskneftegaz, as the Yukos unit is formally known. The sale went ahead, despite an order from the US bankruptcy court ordered that it should be stopped. In the end, the auction was won by an unknown shell company for $9.4bn - much less than most assessments of its value - before ending up in the hands of state-controlled oil firm Rosneft. Rosneft, meanwhile, has agreed to merge with Gazprom, bringing a large chunk of Russia's very profitable oil business back under state control. Yukos maintains that it filed for bankruptcy in the US because it feared it would not be able to do so in Russia. It also said that in the event of going bust, it could offer the chance of restructuring. ""It gives us a kind of life after death alternative,"" said Yukos chief executive Steven Theede. Yukos is currently suing four companies - Gazprom, its unit Gazpromneft, Rosneft and the shell company which won the bidding - for their part in Yugansk's disposal. It has also threatened to sue the Russian government for $28bn. Analysts have questioned whether a US court has any jurisdiction over Russian companies, while Moscow officials have dismissed Yukos' legal wrangling as meaningless. Yukos claims that the rights of its shareholders have been ignored and that is has been punished for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Mr Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is in prison, having been charged with fraud and tax evasion and repeatedly denied bail." +business,"Venezuela reviews foreign deals Venezuela is to review all foreign investment in its mining industries in an effort to strengthen its indigenous industrial output. President Hugo Chavez has ordered all existing contracts with foreign firms to be examined to see if they provide maximum benefits to the country. The review will cover production of gold, aluminium and iron ore although it excludes the country's oil sector. Chavez has sought to extend the state's role in all sectors of the economy. The left-wing president is conducting a controversial review of land ownership in the country while also seeking to create a state-run telecoms firm to compete with foreign-owned businesses. He has argued that major economic reforms are vital to improve the lives of Venezuela's poorest citizens. Announcing the review of raw material production, minister Victor Alvarez said the government would seek to transfer technology, training capability and content from projects with foreign partners. ""We are defending our national sovereignty over the use of our national resources which must serve the endogenous development of the nation,"" Mr Alvarez said. ""For this reason we are reviewing all memorandums of understanding, all letters of intent, all agreements that have been signed, all contracts, to check which of these comply with these directives. ""Everything, absolutely everything, has to be reviewed."" Venezuela has previously assured foreign companies with operations in the mineral rich country that it respects existing contracts. However, the government insisted that it needed to develop its own industrial infrastructure in order to create new jobs and lessen its reliance on foreign partners. ""If we don't do this, we are just going to carry on being slaves, suppliers of raw materials, all our lives and we will never develop our own productive capacity,"" Mr Alvarez added. Companies from the United States, Canada, France and Switzerland all have substantial investments in Venezuela's mining sector." +business,"Italy to get economic action plan Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will unveil plans aimed at kickstarting the country's sputtering economy on Thursday night in Rome. He will present an ""Action Plan for the Development of Italy"" in a meeting with industrialists and trade union leaders. Mr Berlusconi is expected to table reforms aimed at boosting research and development (R&D) spending, and the competitiveness of small firms. Also in focus will be bankruptcy laws and the slow pace of the legal system. The prime minister is scheduled to start the meeting at 1830 GMT. The government has been accused of underfunding R&D, making it harder for Italy to compete with other European nations and leading to a ""brain-drain"" of the country's brightest talents. Analysts say that hiring and firing staff is still too difficult and expensive, hampering the development of small- and medium-sized businesses. As a result, they say, Italy's corporate landscape is filled with numerous smaller companies that are often reluctant to become bigger because of all the extra hassle that would accompany the running of a larger firm. At the same time, bankruptcy laws make it difficult for failed company directors to set up new businesses and emerge from their debts, a situation that is hampering Italy's entrepreneurial spirit. The government says that it has set about tackling the problems, adding that getting growth going was the responsibility of all of Italy's 60 million population. According to Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy's business newspaper, the government will focus on ""opening up markets, infrastructure, research, making more incentives available, bankruptcy law, the slow pace of the justice system"". Mr Berlusconi has previously promised to cut taxes by 6.5bn euros ($8.6bn; £4.5bn) this year in an effort to get people and companies to spend. He has also promised to cap spending on transport, education and health so as to trim the ballooning budget deficit. Italy plans to raise as much as 25bn euros from privatisations in 2005, including a partial flotation of the post office and utility Enel. Critics argue that these moves do not go far enough and could make Italy's problems worse. Limiting government spending will lead to job losses, they counter, while the income tax cuts will have a negligible effect on sentiment and ultimately favour the wealthy. The country has been one of the eurozone's worst economic performers in recent years. Growth was 1.1% in 2004, up from just 0.3% in 2003 and 0.4% in 2002 - an improvement but still a long way from ideal. At the same time, business and consumer confidence has dipped and analysts have raised concerns that what little spending there is stems from Italians dipping into their savings accounts or using credit cards. Without a pick up in national growth, they say, the money could eventually run out, bringing Italy's economy to a juddering halt. Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of Italy's economy." +business,"Retail sales show festive fervour UK retail sales were better than expected in November as Christmas shoppers began their seasonal flock to the High Street, figures show. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said retail sales rose 0.6% on the month and 6.1% on the year. But the figures, along with this week's inflation report, could trigger another interest rate rise in the New Year. However, recent data from the British Retail Consortium showed a 0.2% slip in High Street sales during November. The ONS data confounded analyst expectations. Many had expected sales to fall slightly in November as shoppers put off buying Christmas presents until December. However, retailers' attempts to draw in the crowds may be behind November's unexpected rise in sales, they say. Aggressive tactics, such as one-day discount sales adopted by stores such as Marks & Spencer, appear to have paid off. ""Price discounting has certainly accounted for much of this because the value of retail sales hasn't grown as much as volumes,"" said Investec economist David Page. The figures sparked a rally for sterling as the data supported the view that it is too early to assume that base rates have peaked." +business,"Police detain Chinese milk bosses Chinese police have detained three top executives at milk firm Yili, with reports suggesting that they are being investigated for embezzlement. Yili - full name Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial - confirmed its chairman, chief financial officer and securities representative were all in custody. The company, China's third-largest milk producer, is to hold an emergency meeting to debate the issue. A Yili spokesman said it may now move to oust chairman Zheng Junhuai. The spokesman did not say why the three had been detained by the police. The official Xinhua News Agency said the arrest was linked to alleged embezzlement. Yili has recently been the subject of intense media speculation over its financial operations. Executives are suspected of wrongly using 417m yuan ($50.4m; £26m) of company funds to support a management buyout back in July 2003. Yili's shares were suspended on Tuesday, having fallen by 10% on Monday. The company and its two main rivals - market leader Mengniu Dairy and second place Bright Dairy - dominate a Chinese milk market that has grown by almost 30% over the past five years. Analysts wondered if the scandal at Yili - the latest to befall Chinese companies this year - could be followed by further revelations of corporate wrongdoing. ""Investors wonder if Yili's scandal, one of a slew to be uncovered this year, isn't just the tip of the iceberg,"" said Chen Huiqin, an analyst at Huatai Securities." +business,"Brazil buy boosts Belgium's Inbev Belgian brewing giant Inbev has seen its profits soar thanks to its acquisition of Brazil's biggest beer firm Ambev last year. Inbev, which makes Stella Artois, said pre-tax profits for 2004 rose 56% to 1.16bn euros ($1.5bn; £800m), and said it expected solid growth in 2005. The performance comes on sales up 21% at 8.6bn euros. The firm, formerly Interbrew, became the world's biggest brewer by volume when it bought Ambev in August 2004. The acquisition meant its sales by volume grew 57% in 2004, with four months of Ambev sales accounting for almost all of the increase. US beermaker Anheuser-Busch sells less beer by volume than Inbev but is bigger in terms of the value of its sales. Continuing demand for Inbev's products in the South American markets where its Brazilian arm is most popular means it expects to keep boosting its turnover. ""It's the Brazil business that's doing it,"" said ING analyst Gerard Rijk of Inbev's strong performance. Ambev boosted its share of Brazil's beer market from 62% at the end of 2003 to more than 68% by December 2004, Inbev reported. In contrast, Inbev's European business saw volume sales fall 2.5%, although Central and Eastern European sales rose 12%. Overall, net profits were up 42% to 719m euros." +business,"Egypt to sell off state-owned bank The Egyptian government is reportedly planning to privatise one of the country's big public banks. An Investment Ministry official has told the Reuters news agency that the Bank of Alexandria will be sold sometime in 2005. The move is seen as evidence of a new commitment by the government to reduce the size of public sector. The official said the government has not yet decided whether the sale will take the form of a public flotation. ""The most important thing to decide now is the method - whether by selling shares to the public or to a strategic investor from abroad,"" he said. Analysts say the public-sector banks have suited the government's monetary, credit and exchange policies. Nevertheless, the Egyptian government has spoken for years about privatising one of the big four state banks - Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt, Banque du Caire and Bank of Alexandria. It had been expected one of the smallest of the four big public banks - Bank of Alexandria or Banque du Caire - would be sold first. The announcement reinforces the hopes of investors and international financial bodies for a revival of Egypt's privatisation programme. About 190 state-run companies and facilities were sold off from the early 1990s to 1997. The appointment of Mahmoud Mohieldin, a reform-minded technocrat, to the new post of investment minister in July was taken as a sign that more sell-offs were on the way. Both the IMF and World Bank have urged Egypt to remove obstacles to the development of the private sector which they say has a vital role to play in reducing poverty by expanding the economy." +business,"Singapore growth at 8.1% in 2004 Singapore's economy grew by 8.1% in 2004, its best performance since 2000, figures from the trade ministry show. The advance, the second-fastest in Asia after China, was led by growth of 13.1% in the key manufacturing sector. However, a slower-than-expected fourth quarter points to more modest growth for the trade-driven economy in 2005 as global technology demand falls back. Slowdowns in the US and China could hit electronics exports, while the tsunami disaster may effect the service sector. Economic growth is set to halve in Singapore this year to between 3% and 5%. In the fourth quarter, the city state's gross domestic product (GDP) rose at an annual rate of 2.4%. That was up from the third quarter, when it fell 3.0%, but was well below analyst forecasts. ""I am surprised at the weak fourth quarter number. The main drag came from electronics,"" said Lian Chia Liang, economist at JP Morgan Chase. Singapore's economy had contracted over the summer, weighed down by soaring oil prices. The economy's poor performance in the July to September period followed four consecutive quarters of double-digit growth as Singapore bounced back strongly from the effects of the deadly Sars virus in 2003." +business,"Optimism remains over UK housing The UK property market remains robust despite the recent slowdown, according to mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley and housebuilder George Wimpey. B&B said the buy-to-let market - in which the bank is a major player - would continue to grow much faster than the wider mortgage market. The comments came as it reported a 6% rise in profits to £280.2m ($532m). Wimpey reported a 19% rise in profits to £450.7m and said recent new home reservations were better than expected. Recent housing market surveys have indicated that the UK property market has cooled in recent months after several years of rapid growth. Last week, figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) indicated that the popularity of buy-to-let mortgages - a key phenomenon of the housing boom - could be waning. But B&B - which has a 22% share of the UK buy-to-let mortgage market - said that while rates of growth were moderating, the sector ""continues to grow at a rate considerably above that of the whole mortgage market"". Overall, B&B said that ""housing market fundamentals remain strong"". ""Interest rates and unemployment are both likely to remain at historically low levels, real household incomes should continue to grow and housing demand is likely to outstrip supply into the medium-term."" Despite the upbeat tone, shares in B&B were down more than 4% at 325.5p in morning trade as analysts worried over future earnings growth. Wimpey's profit figures came in at the top of expectations, with the numbers helped by buoyant sales in the US offsetting a slight slowdown in the UK. Wimpey said the UK housing market had proved ""challenging"" last year. ""By late summer, the market in general had slowed sharply across the country and showed no real improvement during the autumn,"" it added. However, the first seven weeks of this year had produced promising signs, Wimpey said. ""Visitor levels and interest in this period have been encouraging and reservations have been at the stronger end of our expectations."" Shares in Wimpey were up 6% at 458.5p in morning trade." +business,"Egypt and Israel seal trade deal In a sign of a thaw in relations between Egypt and Israel, the two countries have signed a trade protocol with the US, allowing Egyptian goods made in partnership with Israeli firms free access to American markets. The protocol, signed in Cairo, will establish what are called ""qualified industrial zones"" in Egypt. Products from these zones will enjoy duty free access to the US, provided that 35% of their components are the product of Israeli-Egyptian cooperation. The US describes this as the most important economic agreement between Egypt and Israel in two decades. The protocol establishing the zones has been stalled for years. There has been deep sensitivity in Egypt about any form of co-operation with Israel as long as its peace process with the Palestinians remains blocked. But in recent weeks an unusual warmth has crept into relations between the two countries. Both exchanged prisoners earlier this month, with Egypt handing back an Israeli who has served eight years in prison after being convicted for spying. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has described Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as the best chance for the Palestinians to achieve peace. The government in Cairo now believes Mr Sharon is moving towards the centre and away from the positions of right wing groups. It also believes the US, pressed by Europe, is now more willing to engage seriously in the search for a settlement. But there are also pressing economic reasons for Egypt's decision to enter into the trade agreement. It will give a huge boost to Egyptian textile exports, which are about to suffer a drop after new regulations come into force in the US at the beginning of the year." +business,"Palestinian economy in decline Despite a short-lived increase in Palestinian jobs in 2003, the economy is performing well below its potential, said a World Bank report. Unemployment stood at 25%, compared with 10% before the uprising against Israeli occupation four years ago. Young people are particularly hard hit with 37% out of work, compared with 14% four years ago. But 104,000 new jobs were created last year during a brief easing of violence and closures. However, during the first half of this year, the Palestinian economy lost more than 22,000 jobs. Last year's growth rate of 6% can also be attributed to this temporary gap in violence, the report said. According to the report, Intifada, Closures and Palestinian Economic Crisis: An Assessment, there is a close link between the number of closures - both border closures and internal closures between cities - and Palestinian economic problems. The closures arranged by Israel restrict the movement of Palestinian people and goods, slowing down trade. ""Closures are a key factor behind today's economic crisis in the West Bank,"" said Nigel Roberts, World Bank country director for the West Bank and Gaza. Nearly half of all Palestinians - some 47% - live below the poverty line and are particularly vulnerable to economic shocks. The report said even more would be on the poverty line without an average of $950m a year from international donors, some of which goes towards job creation. It also called on the Palestinian Authority to revive its reform programme and maintain financial discipline to create an investment-friendly climate. This week Colin Powell, US Secretary of State was visiting the West Bank to stress US support for a smooth Palestinian election in January." +business,"UK firm faces Venezuelan land row Venezuelan authorities have said they will seize land owned by a British company as part of President Chavez's agrarian reform programme. Officials in Cojedes state said on Friday that farmland owned by a subsidiary of the Vestey Group would be taken and used to settle poor farmers. The government is cracking down on so-called latifundios, or large rural estates, which it says are lying idle. The Vestey Group said it had not been informed of any planned seizure. The firm, whose Agroflora subsidiary operates 13 farms in Venezuela, insisted that it had complied fully with Venezuelan law. Prosecutors in the south of the country have targeted Hato El Charcote, a beef cattle ranch owned by Agroflora. According to Reuters, they plan to seize 12,900 acres (5,200 hectares) from the 32,000 acre (13,000 hectare) farm. Officials claim that Agroflora does not possess valid documents proving its ownership of the land in question. They also allege that areas of the ranch are not being used for any form of active production. ""The legal boundaries did not match up with the actual boundaries and there is surplus,"" state prosecutor Alexis Ortiz told Reuters. ""As a consequence the government has taken action."" Controversial reforms passed in 2001 give the government the right to take control of private property if it is declared idle or ownership cannot be traced back to the 19th Century. Critics say the powers - which President Chavez argues are needed to help the country's poorest citizens and develop the Venezuelan economy - trample all over private property rights. The Vestey Group said it had owned the land since 1920 and would co-operate fully with the authorities. But a spokesman added: ""Agroflora is absolutely confident that what it has submitted will demonstrate the legality of its title to the land."" The company pointed out that the farm, which employs 300 workers, provides meat solely for the Venezuelan market. Last month, the government said it had identified more than 500 idle farms and had yet to consider the status of a further 40,000. The authorities said landowners whose titles were in order and whose farms were productive had ""nothing to fear"". Under President Chavez, the Venezuelan government has steadily expanded the state's involvement in the country's economy. It recently said all mining contracts involving foreign firms would be examined to ensure they provided sufficient economic benefits to the state." +business,"Slowdown hits US factory growth US industrial production increased for the 21st month in a row in February, but at a slower pace than in January, official figures show. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) index fell to 55.3 in February, from an adjusted 56.4 in January. Although the index was lower than in January, the fact that it held above 50 shows continued growth in the sector. ""February was another good month in the manufacturing sector,"" said ISM survey chairman Norbert Ore. ""While the overall rate of growth is slowing, the overall picture is improving as price increases and shortages are becoming less of a problem. Exports and imports remain strong,"" he said. Analysts had expected February's figure to be stronger than January's and come in at 57. Of the 20 manufacturing sectors surveyed by ISM, 13 reported growth. They included the textiles, apparel, tobacco, chemicals and transportation sectors. The ISM's index of national manufacturing activity is compiled from the responses of purchasing executives at more than 400 industrial companies." +business,"Orange colour clash set for court A row over the colour orange could hit the courts after mobile phone giant Orange launched action against a new mobile venture from Easyjet's founder. Orange said it was starting proceedings against the Easymobile service for trademark infringement. Easymobile uses Easygroup's orange branding. Founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has pledged to contest the action. The move comes after the two sides failed to come to an agreement after six months of talks. Orange claims the new low-cost mobile service has infringed its rights regarding the use of the colour orange and could confuse customers - known as ""passing off"". ""Our brand, and the rights associated with it are extremely important to us,"" Orange said in a statement. ""In the absence of any firm commitment from Easy, we have been left with no choice but to start an action for trademark infringement and passing off."" However, Mr Haji-Ioannou, who plans to launch Easymobile next month, vowed to fight back, saying: ""We have nothing to be afraid of in this court case. ""It is our right to use our own corporate colour for which we have become famous during the last 10 years."" The Easyjet founder also said he planned to add a disclaimer to the Easygroup website to ensure customers are aware the Easymobile brand has no connection to Orange. The new service is the latest venture from Easygroup, which includes a chain of internet cafes, budget car rentals and an intercity bus service. Easymobile will allow customers to go online to order SIM cards and airtime - which will be rented from T-Mobile - for their existing handsets." +business,"Britannia members' £42m windfall More than 800,000 Britannia Building Society members are to receive a profit share worth on average £52 each. Members of the UK's second largest building society will share £42m, with 100,000 receiving a windfall of more than £100. Depending on how much they borrow or invest, members earn ""reward"" points which entitle them to a share of the society's profits. The payouts are bigger than last year, because of stricter eligibility rules. Last year, Britannia members shared £42m, but the average payment was only £38. To qualify for this year's payment, customers must have been members for at least two years on 31 December 2004. Britannia has also stopped making payments to members if they are worth less than £5. To qualify for the profit share, members must have either a mortgage, or an investment account other than a deposit account. Customers can also qualify if they have Permanent Interest Bearing Shares (PIBS). The profit share scheme was introduced in 1997 and has paid out more than £370m. Britannia will unveil its results on Wednesday." +business,"Wall Street cool to eBay's profit Shares in online auction house eBay fell 9.8% in after-hours trade on Wednesday, after its quarterly profits failed to meet market expectations. Despite seeing net profits rise by 44% to $205.4m (£110m) during October to December, from $142m a year earlier, Wall Street had expected more. EBay stock fell to $92.9 in after-hours trade, from a $103.05 end on Nasdaq. EBay's net revenue for the quarter rose to $935.8m from $648.4m, boosted by growth at its PayPal payment service. Excluding special items, eBay's profit was 33 cents a share, but analysts had expected 34 cents. ""I think Wall Street has gotten a bit ahead of eBay this quarter and for the 2005 year."" said Janco Partners analyst Martin Pyykkonen. For 2004 as a whole, eBay earned $778.2m on sales of $3.27bn. EBay president and chief executive Meg Whitman called 2004 an ""outstanding success"" that generated ""tremendous momentum"" for 2005. ""I'm more confident than ever that the decisions and investments we're making today will ensure a bright future for the company and our community of users around the world,"" she said. EBay now forecasts 2005 revenue of $4.2bn to $4.35bn and earnings excluding items of $1.48 to $1.52 per share. Analysts had previously estimated that eBay would achieve 2005 revenues of $4.37bn and earnings of $1.62 per share, excluding items." +business,"Mild winter drives US oil down 6% US oil prices have fallen by 6%, driven down by forecasts of a mild winter in the densely populated northeast. Light crude oil futures fell $2.86 to $41.32 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), and have now lost $4 in five days. Nonetheless, US crude is still 30% more expensive than at the beginning of 2004, boosted by growing demand and bottlenecks at refineries. Traders ignored the possible effects of Asia's tidal waves on global supplies. Instead, the focus is now on US consumption, which is heavily influenced in the short term by the weather. ""With the revised milder temperatures... I'm more inclined to think we'll push lower and test the $40-40.25 range,"" said John Brady of ABN AMRO. ""The market definitely feels to be on the defensive."" Statistics released last week showed that stockpiles of oil products in the US had risen, an indication that severe supply disruptions may not arise this winter, barring any serious incident. Oil prices have broken records in 2004, topping $50 a barrel at one point, driven up by a welter of worries about unrest in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, rising demand and supply bottlenecks. London's International Petroleum Exchange remained closed for the Christmas holiday." +business,"German jobless rate at new record More than 5.2 million Germans were out of work in February, new figures show. The figure of 5.216 million people, or 12.6% of the working-age population, is the highest jobless rate in Europe's biggest economy since the 1930s. The news comes as the head of Germany's panel of government economic advisers predicted growth would again stagnate. Speaking on German TV, Bert Ruerup said the panel's earlier forecast of 1.4% was too optimistic and warned growth would be just 1% in 2005. The German government is trying to tackle the stubbornly-high levels of joblessness with a range of labour market reforms. At their centre is the ""Hartz-IV"" programme introduced in January to shake up welfare benefits and push people back into work - even if some of the jobs are heavily subsidised. The latest unemployment figures look set to increase the pressure on the government. Widely leaked to the German newspapers a day in advance, they produced screaming headlines criticising Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrat-Green Party administration. Mr Schroeder had originally come into office promising to halve unemployment. Still, some measures suggest the picture is not quite so bleak. The soaring official unemployment figure follows a change in the methodology which pushed up the jobless rate by more than 500,000 in January. Adjusted for seasonal changes, the overall unemployment rate is 4.875 million people or 11.7%, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. Using the most internationally-accepted methodology of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Germany had 3.97 million people out of work in January. And ILO-based figures also suggest that 14,000 new net jobs were created that month, taking the number of people employed to 38.9 million. The ILO defines an unemployed person as someone who in the previous four weeks had actively looked for work they could take up immediately." +business,"WMC profits up amid bid criticism Australian mining firm WMC Resources has seen a fivefold rise in profits while continuing to be the target of a hostile takeover bid. WMC said it made net profits of 1.33bn Australian dollars ($1bn; £550m) in 2004, up from A$246bn the year before. It is currently arguing against an offer from Swiss Xstrata, which the firm raised to A$8.4bn last week after WMC said it was an undervaluation. Now reports say that the Australian government is against the deal. Trade Minister Mark Vaile has said that the bid may be ""against the national interest"". Mr Vaile, who was quoted in the Australian Financial Review, compared Xstrata's attempt to take over WMC to a similar bid by oil giant Shell for Australia's Woodside Petroleum in 2001. The bid was thrown out by Treasurer Peter Costello on national interest grounds. WMC's interests in uranium deposits were a contributing factor, Mr Vaile said. WMC itself, however, has no objection in principle to being bought out, having spun off its aluminium operations in 2002 to make itself a more tempting target - as long as the price is right. Its stellar performance in 2004 has been built on sky-high prices for metals. Copper and nickel in particular have been in high demand thanks to China's booming economy, which expanded more than 9% in each of the past two years. Nickel prices rose 43% during the year, with copper up 36%." +business,"US economy shows solid GDP growth The US economy has grown more than expected, expanding at an annual rate of 3.8% in the last quarter of 2004. The gross domestic product figure was ahead of the 3.1% the government estimated a month ago. The rise reflects stronger spending by businesses on capital equipment and a smaller-than-expected trade deficit. GDP is a measure of a country's economic health, reflecting the value of the goods and services it produces. The new GDP figure, announced by the Commerce Department on Friday, also topped the 3.5% growth rate that economists had forecast ahead of Friday's announcement. Growth was at an annual rate of 4% in the third quarter of 2004 and for the year it came in at 4.4%, the best figure in five years. However, the positive economic climate may lead to a rise in interest rates, with many expecting US rates to rise on 22 March. In the January-to-March quarter, the economy is expected to grow at an annual rate of about 4%, economists forecast. In the final quarter of 2004, businesses increased spending on capital equipment and software by 18%, up from 17.5% in the third quarter. Consumer spending grew 4.2% in the final quarter, down from the third quarter's 5.1%." +business,"Trial begins of Spain's top banker The trial of Emilio Botin, the chairman of Spain's most powerful bank, Santander Central Hispano, has started in Madrid. Mr Botin is accused of misusing the bank's funds after he approved the payment of 160m euros ($208m; £111m) in bonus and pension payouts to two former executives. However, the trial was suspended when Mr Botin's lawyer introduced a new set of documents on the day testimony was set to begin. A three-judge panel gave prosecution lawyers until Monday to study the documents, when the trial will be reconvened. The high-profile case began after two Santander shareholders filed a criminal complaint about the payments to Jose Maria Amusategui and Angel Corcostegui, who stepped down in 2001. Both executives helped Mr Botin orchestrate Spain's biggest bank merger, between Santander and Banco Central Hispano, in 1999. As he arrived at Spain's High Court earlier on Wednesday, Mr Botin greeted the waiting media, saying: ""I have full faith in justice."" Santander's board of governors strongly reject the charges against their chairman, saying the payouts were legal and made with their unanimous support. But if convicted, Mr Botin could face a prison term of up to six years. Mr Corcostegui, a former CEO at Santander, also asked the court for new evidence to be admitted. In spite of the allegations against him, Mr Botin continues to lead Santander, and was instrumental in the £8.5bn takeover last November of the British bank Abbey National. Since taking over the chairmanship in 1986, he has turned Santander into one of the top ten biggest banks in the world." +business,"Iraq and Afghanistan in WTO talks The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is to hold membership talks with both Iraq and Afghanistan. But Iran's bid to join the trade body has been refused after the US blocked its application for the 21st time. The countries stand to reap huge benefits from membership of the group, whose purpose is to promote free trade. Joining, however, is a lengthy process. China's admission in 2001 took 15 years and talks with Russia and Saudi Arabia have been taking place for 10 years. Membership of the Geneva-based WTO helps guarantee a country's goods receives equal treatment in the markets of other member states - a policy which has seen it become closely associated with globalisation. Iraq's Trade Minister Mohammed Mustafa al-Jibouri welcomed the move, describing it as significant as November's decision by the Paris Club of creditor nations to write off 80% of the country's debts. Assad Omar, Afghanistan's envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, said accession would contribute to ""regional prosperity and global security"". There are now 27 countries seeking membership of the WTO. Prospective members need to enter into negotiations with potential trading countries and change domestic laws to bring them in line with WTO regulations. Before the process gets under way, all 148 WTO members must give their backing to applicant countries. The US said it could not approve Iran's application because it is currently reviewing relations. But several nations criticised the approach, and European Union ambassador to the WTO, Carlo Trojan, said Iran's application ""must be treated independently of political issues""." +business,"Ebbers denies WorldCom fraud Former WorldCom chief Bernie Ebbers has denied claims that he knew accountants were doctoring the books at the firm. Speaking in court, Mr Ebbers rejected allegations he pressured ex-chief financial officer Scott Sullivan to falsify company financial statements. Mr Sullivan ""made accounting decisions,"" he told the federal court, saying his finance chief had ""a keen command of the numbers"". Mr Ebbers has denied charges of fraud and conspiracy. During his second day of questioning in the New York trial Mr Ebbers played down his working relationship with Mr Sullivan and denied he frequently met him to discuss company business when questioned by the prosecution. ""In a lot of weeks, we would speak ... three or four times,"" Mr Ebbers said, adding that conversations about finances were rarely one-on-one and were usually discussed by a ""group of people"" instead. Mr Ebbers relationship to Mr Sullivan is key to the case surrounding financial corruption that led to the collapse of the firm in 2002 following the discovery of an $11bn accounting fraud. The prosecution's star witness is Mr Sullivan, one of six WorldCom executives indicted in the case, He has pleaded guilty to fraud and appeared as a prosecution witness as part of an agreement with prosecutors. During his time on the witness stand Mr Sullivan repeatedly told jurors he met frequently with Mr Ebbers, told him about changes made to WorldCom's accounts to hide costs and had warned him such practises were improper. However during the case on Tuesday Mr Ebbers denied the allegations. ""I wasn't advised by Scott Sullivan of anything ever being wrong,"" he told the court. ""He's never told me he made an entry that wasn't right. If he had, we wouldn't be here today."" Mr Ebbers could face a jail sentence of up to 85 years if convicted of all the charges he is facing. Shareholders lost about $180bn in WorldCom's collapse, 20,000 workers lost their jobs and the company went bankrupt. The company emerged from bankruptcy last year and is now known as MCI." +business,"Soros group warns of Kazakh close The Open Society Institute (OSI), financed by billionaire George Soros, has accused Kazakhstan officials of trying to close down its local office. A demand for unpaid taxes and fines of $600,000 (£425,000) is politically motivated, the OSI claimed, adding that it paid the money in October. The organisation has found itself in trouble after being accused of helping to topple Georgia's former president. It denies having any role, but offices have had to close across the region. The OSI shut its office in Moscow last year and has withdrawn from Uzbekistan and Belarus. In the Ukraine earlier this year, Mr Soros - who took on the Bank of England in the 1990s - and won, was pelted by protestors. ""This legal prosecution can be considered an attempt by the government to force Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan to cease its activities in Kazakhstan and shut its doors for Kazakh citizens and organisations,"" the OSI said. The OSI aims to promote democratic and open, market-based societies. Since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan has been dominated by its president Nursultan Abish-uly Nazarbayev. He has powers for life, while insulting the president and officials has been made a criminal offence. The government controls the printing presses and most radio and TV transmission facilities. It operates the country's national radio and TV networks. Recent elections were criticised as flawed and the opposition claimed there was widespread vote rigging. Supporters, however, say he brings much needed stability to a region where Islamic militancy is on the rise. They also credit him with promoting inter-ethnic accord and pushing through harsh reforms." +business,"SEC to rethink post-Enron rules The US stock market watchdog's chairman has said he is willing to soften tough new US corporate governance rules to ease the burden on foreign firms. In a speech at the London School of Economics, William Donaldson promised ""several initiatives"". European firms have protested that US laws introduced after the Enron scandal make Wall Street listings too costly. The US regulator said foreign firms may get extra time to comply with a key clause in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Act comes into force in mid-2005. It obliges all firms with US stock market listings to make declarations, which, critics say, will add substantially to the cost of preparing their annual accounts. Firms that break the new law could face huge fines, while senior executives risk jail terms of up to 20 years. Mr Donaldson said that although the Act does not provide exemptions for foreign firms, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would ""continue to be sensitive to the need to accomodate foreign structures and requirements"". There are few, if any, who disagree with the intentions of the Act, which obliges chief executives to sign a statement taking responsibility for the accuracy of the accounts. But European firms with secondary listings in New York have objected - arguing that the compliance costs outweigh the benefits of a dual listing. The Act also applies to firms with more than 300 US shareholders, a situation many firms without US listings could find themselves in. The 300-shareholder threshold has drawn anger as it effectively blocks the most obvious remedy, a delisting. Mr Donaldson said the SEC would ""consider whether there should be a new approach to the deregistration process"" for foreign firms unwilling to meet US requirements. ""We should seek a solution that will preserve investor protections"" without turning the US market into ""one with no exit"", he said. He revealed that his staff were already weighing up the merits of delaying the implementation of the Act's least popular measure - Section 404 - for foreign firms. Seen as particularly costly to implement, Section 404 obliges chief executives to take responsibility for the firm's internal controls by signing a compliance statement in the annual accounts. The SEC has already delayed implementation of this clause for smaller firms - including US ones - with market capitalisations below $700m (£374m). A delegation of European firms visited the SEC in December to press for change, the Financial Times reported. It was led by Digby Jones, director general of the UK's Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and included representatives of BASF, Siemens and Cadbury Schweppes. Compliance costs are already believed to be making firms wary of US listings. Air China picked the London Stock Exchange for its secondary listing in its $1.07bn (£558m) stock market debut last month. There are also rumours that two Chinese state-run banks - China Construction Bank and Bank of China - have abandoned plans for multi-billion dollar listings in New York later this year. Instead, the cost of Sarbanes-Oxley has persuaded them to stick to a single listing in Hong Kong, according to press reports in China." +business,"US bank 'loses' customer details The Bank of America has revealed it has lost computer tapes containing account details of more than one million customers who are US federal employees. Several members of the US Senate are among those affected, who could now be vulnerable to identity theft. Senate sources say the missing tapes may have been stolen from a plane by baggage handlers. The bank gave no details of how the records disappeared, but said they had probably not been misused. Customers' accounts were being monitoring and account holders would be notified if any ""unusual activity"" was detected, bank officials said. Bank of America said the tapes went missing in December while being shipped to a back-up data centre. ""We, with federal law authorities, have done a very robust, thorough investigation on this and neither we nor they would make the statement lightly that we believe those tapes to be lost,"" Alexandra Tower, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina-based bank, told Time magazine. But although there was no evidence of criminal activity, the bank said, the Secret Service - a federal agency whose brief includes investigations of serious financial crime - is said to be looking into the loss. New York Senator Charles Schumer said he was told by the Senate Rules Committee that the tapes were probably stolen from a commercial plane. ""Whether it is identity theft, terrorism, or other theft, in this new complicated world baggage handlers should have background checks and more care should be taken for who is hired for these increasingly sensitive positions,"" the Democrat senator said. Details of his Vermont colleague Pat Leahy's credit card account are among those missing, Senator Leahy's spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said. About 900,000 military and civilian staff at the defence department are among the 1.2 million affected, according to a Pentagon spokesman." +business,"'Post-Christmas lull' in lending UK mortgage lending showed a ""post-Christmas lull"" in January, indicating a slowing housing market, lenders have said. Both the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and Building Society Association (BSA) said lending was down sharply. The CML said gross mortgage lending stood at £17.9bn, compared with £21.8bn in January last year. The BSA said mortgage approvals - loans approved but not yet made - were £2bn, down from £2.6bn in January 2004. At the same time, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) said lending was ""weaker"". Overall, the BBA said mortgage lending rose by £4bn in January, a far smaller increase than the £5.1bn seen in December. This was a return to the ""weaker pattern"" of lending seen in the last months of 2004, the BBA added. However, it is the year-on-year lending comparisons which are the most striking. The CML said lending for house purchases and gross mortgage lending were 29% and 18% lower year-on-year respectively. ""These figures show beyond doubt the recent slowdown in the housing market,"" Peter Williams, CML deputy director, said." +business,"Ukraine revisits state sell-offs Ukraine is preparing what could be a wholesale review of the privatisation of thousands of businesses by the previous administration. The new President, Viktor Yushchenko, has said a ""limited"" list of companies is being drawn up. But on Wednesday Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the government was planning to renationalise 3,000 firms. The government says many privatised firms were sold to allies of the last administration at rock-bottom prices. More than 90,000 businesses in all, from massive corporations to tiny shopfronts, have been sold off since 1992, as the command economy built up when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union was dismantled. Ms Tymoshenko said prosecutors had drawn up a list of more than 3,000 businesses which were to be reviewed. ""We will return to the state that which was illegally put into private hands."" A day earlier, Mr Yushchenko - keen to reassure potential investors - had said only 30 to 40 top firms would be targeted. The list ""will be limited and final, and will not be extended after its completion"", he said. An open-ended list could further damage outside investors' fragile faith in Ukraine, said Stuart Hensel of the Economist Intelligence Unit. But the government seemed keen not to make the review look like the kind of wholesale renationalisation which many fear in Russia, Mr Hensel said. As a result, it was planning to resell rather than keep firms in state hands. ""They're aware of the need not to scare investors, and to be careful of internal divides within Ukraine,"" he said. ""They don't want to be seen to be transferring assets from one set of oligarchs to a new set."" Foreign investment in Ukraine, at about $40 a head in 2004, is one of the lowest among ex-Soviet states. Mr Yushchenko became president after two elections in December, the first of which was annulled amid allegations of voting irregularities and massive street protests. His opponent, Viktor Yanukovich, still has huge support in the country's eastern industrial heartland. Mr Yushchenko's administration has accused its predecessor, led by ex-President Leonid Kuchma, of corruption. The privatisation review's number one target is a steel mill sold to a consortium which included Viktor Pinchuk, Mr Kuchma's son-in-law, for $800m (£424m) despite higher bids from several foreign groups. The mill, Krivorizhstal, is one of the world's most profitable. ""We say Krivorizhstal was stolen, and at any cost we will return it to the state,"" Mr Yushchenko told an investors' conference in Kiev. One of the jilted bidders, Netherlands-based group LNM, said it welcomed the possibility that the mill might be back on the market. ""If the original privatisation is annulled and a new tender issued, then we would look at it with great interest,"" a spokesman told BBC News. A resale of Krivorizhstal could potentially triple the price, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Mr Hensel. But he warned that the government could decide to take the easy route of revaluing the company and charging the existing owners the revised price rather than undertaking a fresh sale. ""That way, Mr Yushchenko can go to the public and say he has forced the oligarchs to play by the rules,"" he told BBC News." +business,"Bat spit drug firm goes to market A German firm whose main product is derived from the saliva of the vampire bat is looking to raise more than 70m euros ($91m; £49m) on the stock market. The firm, Paion, said that it hoped to sell 5 million shares - a third of the firm - for 11-14 euros a share. Its main drug, desmoteplase, is based on a protein in the bat's saliva. The protein stops blood from clotting - which helps the bat to drink from its victims, but could also be used to help stroke sufferers. The company's shares go on sale later this week, and are scheduled to start trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on 10 February. If the final price is at the top of the range, the company could be valued at as much as 200m euros. The money raised will be spent largely on developing the company's other drugs, since desmoteplase has already been licensed to one manufacturer, Forest Laboratories." +business,"US industrial output growth eases US industrial production continued to rise in November, albeit at a slower pace than the previous month. The US Federal Reserve said output from factories, mines and utilities rose 0.3% - in line with forecasts - from a revised 0.6% increase in October. Analysts added that if the carmaking sector - which saw production fall 0.5% - had been excluded the data would have been more impressive. The latest increase means industrial output has grown 4.2% in the past year. Many analysts were upbeat about the prospects for the US economy, with the increase in production coming on the heels of news of a recovery in retail sales. ""This is very consistent with an economy growing at 3.5 to 4.0%. It is congruent with job growth and consumer optimism,"" Comerica chief economist David Littman said of the figures. The US economy grew at a respectable annual rate of 3.7% in the three months between July and September, while jobs growth averaged 178,000 during the same period. While the employment figures are not spectacular, experts believe they are enough to whittle away at America's 5.4% jobless rate. A breakdown of the latest production figures shows mining output drove the increase, surging 2.1%, while factory output rose 0.3%. But utility output dropped 1.4%. Meanwhile, the amount of factory capacity in use during the month rose to 77.6% - its highest level since May 2001. ""Many investors think that product market inflation won't be a problem until the utilisation rates are at 80% or higher,"" Cary Leahy, senior US economist at Deutsche Bank Securities, said. ""So there is still a lot of inflation-fighting slack in the manufacturing sector,"" ""Overall I'd say manufacturing at least away from autos continues to improve and I would bet that it improves at a faster rate in coming months given how lean inventories are,"" Citigroup senior economist Steven Wieting added." +business,"Euro firms miss out on optimism More than 90% of large companies around the world are highly optimistic about their economic prospects, a survey of 1,300 bosses suggests. Their biggest worries are not terror threats, but over-regulation, low-cost competition and the wild ups and downs of oil prices. There is one exception: Firms in Western Europe - but not the UK - are lacking confidence after years of slow growth. When business advisers PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) conducted the same survey two years ago, nearly 30% of bosses were gloomy about their prospects. Global business leaders say that they are facing a two-pronged regulatory assault. After a string of corporate scandals in the United States - from Enron to WorldCom - the Sarbanes-Oxley act forces companies to be much more transparent, but doing all the paperwork costs a lot of time and money. Across Europe, meanwhile, all stock exchange-listed companies are currently in the process of moving to new and complex accounting standards called IFRS. Hacking through the red tape can hardly be avoided, but many chief executives around the world appear to have decided on how to deal with low-cost competitors. Already, about 28% of the bosses polled for the survey say that they have moved parts of their business into low-wage countries, and another 11% plan to do so in the future. Possibly as a result, the worry about low-cost competition has slightly fallen from last year, with just 54% of companies calling it a ""significant threat"" or ""one of the biggest threats"". But PwC's global chief executive, Samuel DiPiazza, said a growing number of companies were also concerned that moves to outsource work to cheaper countries could both hurt their reputation in their home markets and harm the quality of service they provide to their customers. According to Frank Brown, global advisory leader at PwC , the trend of large companies to have global operations has one clear upside: ""One risk in one region - for example the Middle East - won't kill your business anymore."" Surprisingly, the survey suggests that the rapid decline of the US dollar is not seen as a huge threat anymore, unlike even a year ago, when it was cited as the third-largest problem. Mr DiPiazza said the interviews with chief executives suggested that companies had ""adjusted"" to the new reality of a euro that buys $1.30 and more, while others had successfully hedged their positions and locked in more favourable exchange rates. - For the survey, PricewaterhouseCoopers interviewed 1,324 chief executives throughout the world during the last three months of 2004." +business,"Banker loses sexism claim A former executive at the London offices of Merrill Lynch has lost her £7.5m ($14.6m) sex discrimination case against the US investment bank. An employment tribunal dismissed Stephanie Villalba's allegations of sexual discrimination and unequal pay. But the 42-year-old won her claim of unfair dismissal, resulting from her sacking in August 2003. Her partial victory is likely to cap her compensation to about £55,000, a tiny fraction of what she asked for. The extent of damages will be assessed in the New Year. The action - the biggest claim heard by an employment tribunal in the UK - had been viewed as something of a test case. The tribunal decided that Ms Villalba had been unfairly dismissed because, having been removed from a senior post, she was entitled to wait to see if a suitable alternative position could be found in the organisation. Ms Villalba, the former head of Merrill's private client business in Europe, has made no decision on whether to appeal. A spokesman for her lawyers described the decision as ""very disappointing"", but pointed to some criticism of Merrill's procedures within the lengthy judgement. The tribunal upheld Ms Villalba's claim of victimisation on certain specific issues, including bullying e-mails in connection with a contract, but said it found no evidence of ""laddish culture"" at the bank. ""We said from the start that this case was about performance not gender,"" Merrill said in a statement. ""Ms Villalba was removed by the very same person who had promoted her into the position and who then replaced her with another woman. ""Merrill Lynch is dedicated to creating a true meritocracy where every employee has the opportunity to advance based on their skills and hard work."" Based in London's financial district, Ms Villalba worked for Merrill's global private client business in Europe, investing funds for some of Merrill's most important customers. But in 2003 her employers told her she had no future after 17 years with the company, and she was made redundant. Merrill Lynch denied Ms Villalba's claims and said she was removed from her post because of the extensive losses the firm was suffering on the continent. The firm had told the tribunal that Ms Villalba's division had been losing about $1m a week. Merrill said Ms Villalba lacked the leadership skills to turn around the unit." +business,"Australia rates at four year high Australia is raising its benchmark interest rate to its highest level in four years despite signs of a slowdown in the country's economy. The Reserve Bank of Australia lifted interest rates 0.25% to 5.5%, their first upwards move in more than a year. However, shortly after the Bank made its decision, new figures showed a fall in economic growth in the last quarter. The Bank said it had acted to curb inflation but the move was criticised by some analysts. The rate hike was the first since December 2003 and had been well-flagged in advance. However, opposition parties and some analysts said the move was ill-timed given data showing the Australian economy grew just 0.1% between October and December and 1.5% on an annual basis. The figures, representing a decline from the 0.2% growth in GDP seen between July and September, were below market expectations. Consumer spending remains strong, however, and the Bank is concerned about growing inflationary pressures. ""Over recent months it has become increasingly clear that remaining spare capacity in the labour and goods markets is becoming rather limited,"" said Ian Macfarlane, Governor of the Reserve Bank. At 2.6%, inflation remains within the Bank's 2-3% target range. However, exports declined in the second half of 2004, fuelling a rise in the country's current account deficit - the difference in the value of imports compared to exports - to a record Australian dollar 29.4bn. The Australian government said the economy remained strong with unemployment at a near 30 year low. ""The economy has been strong and it is properly moderating but it doesn't look to me like it's slowing in any unreasonable way,"" said Treasurer Peter Costello. Stock markets had factored in the likelihood of a rate rise but analysts still expressed concern about the strength of the economy. ""That 1.5% annual growth rate is the lowest we have seen since the post-election slump we saw back in 2000-1,"" said Michael Blythe, chief economist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. ""This suggests the economy really did slow very sharply in the second half of 2004.""" +business,"High fuel costs hit US airlines Two of the largest airlines in the US - American and Southwest - have blamed record fuel prices for their disappointing quarterly results. American Airlines' parent AMR reported a loss of $387m (£206m) for the fourth quarter of 2004, against a $111m loss for the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines saw its fourth-quarter 2004 profits fall 15% to $56m, against $66m a year earlier. Both said high fuel bills would continue to pressure revenues in 2005. American, the world's biggest airline by some measures, said it expected to report a loss for the first quarter of 2005. Southwest, which has the highest market value of any US carrier, said it would remain profitable despite high fuel prices. AMR's shares were flat in Wednesday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, as the results were slightly better than analysts had anticipated. AMR's chief executive Gerard Arpey said the airline's difficulties reflected the situation within the industry. ""AMR's results for the fourth quarter of 2004 reflect the economic woes that plagued the airline industry throughout 2004 - in particular, high fuel prices and a tough revenue environment,"" he said. For the full year, AMR posted a loss of $761m, lower than 2003's $1.2bn loss and an indication that the airline has successfully cut costs. AMR added that as part of its cost cutting measures, it is postponing the delivery of 54 Boeing jets. Shares in Southwest fell 65 cents to $14.35 as analysts voiced their disappointment. ""The results came in below our already conservative estimate for the quarter,"" said Ray Neidl, an analyst at Calyon Securities. Both American and Southwest have been squeezed by cut-throat competition in the US airline industry, as a glut of available seats has led to fierce price reductions." +business,"ECB holds rates amid growth fears The European Central Bank has left its key interest rate unchanged at 2% for the 19th month in succession. Borrowing costs have remained on hold amid concerns about the strength of economic growth in the 12 nations sharing the euro, analysts said. Despite signs of pick-up, labour markets and consumer demand remain sluggish, while firms are eyeing cost cutting measures such as redundancies. High oil prices, meanwhile, have put upward pressure on the inflation rate. Surveys of economists have shown that the majority expect borrowing costs to stay at 2% in coming months, with an increase of a quarter of a percentage point predicted some time in the second half of the year. If anything, there may be greater calls for an interest rate cut, especially with the euro continuing to strengthen against the dollar. ""The euro land economy is still struggling with this recovery,"" said economist Dirk Schumacher. The ECB ""may sound rather hawkish but once the data allows them to cut again, they will."" Data coming out of Germany on Thursday underlined the problems facing European policy makers. While Germany's economy expanded by 1.7% in 2004, growth was driven by export sales and lost some of its momentum in the last three months of the year. The strength of the euro is threatening to dampen that foreign demand in 2005, and domestic consumption currently is not strong enough to take up the slack. Inflation in the eurozone, however, is estimated at about 2.3% in December, above ECB guidelines of 2%. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet has remained upbeat about prospects for the region, and inflation is expected to drop below 2% later in 2005. The ECB has forecast economic growth in the eurozone of 1.9% in 2005." +business,"German economy rebounds Germany's economy, the biggest among the 12 countries sharing the euro, grew at its fastest rate in four years during 2004, driven by strong exports. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 1.7% last year, the statistical office said. The economy contracted in 2003. Foreign sales increased by 8.2% last year, compared with a 0.3% slide in private consumption. Concerns remain, however, over the strength of the euro, weak domestic demand and a sluggish labour market. The European Central Bank (ECB) left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2% on Thursday. It is the nineteenth month in a row that the ECB has not moved borrowing costs. Economists predict that an increase is unlikely to come until the second half of 2005, with growth set to sputter rather than ignite. ""During 2004 we profited from the fact that the world economy was strong,"" said Stefan Schilbe, analyst at HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt. ""If exports weaken and domestic growth remains poor, we cannot expect much from 2005."" Many German consumers have been spooked and unsettled by government attempts to reform the welfare state and corporate environment. Major companies including Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler and Siemens have spent much of 2004 in tough talks with unions about trimming jobs and costs. They have also warned there are more cost cutting measures on the horizon." +business,"Unilever shake up as profit slips Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever is to merge its two management boards after reporting ""unsatisfactory"" earnings for 2004. It blamed the poor results on sluggish decision making, a rise in discounted retailers and a wet European summer. The company also cited difficult trading conditions and a lack of demand for goods such as its Slimfast range. Unilever, which owns brands including Dove soap, said annual pre-tax profit fell 36% to 2.9bn euros (£1.99bn). Shares fell 1% to 510.75 pence in London, and dropped by 1.2% to 50.50 euros in Amsterdam. Under the restructuring plans, Patrick Cescau, the UK-based co-chairman, will become group chief executive. Dutch co-chairman Antony Burgmans will take on the role of non-executive chairman. ""We have recognised the need for greater clarity of leadership and we are moving to a simpler leadership structure that will provide a sharper operational focus,"" Mr Burgmans said. ""We are leaving behind one of the key features of Unilever's governance but this is a natural development following the changes introduced last year."" The company, which has had dual headquarters in Rotterdam and London since 1930, will announce the location of its head office at a later date. Unilever is not alone in trying to simplify its business. Oil giant Shell last year dismantled its dual-ownership structure, after a series of problems relating to the size of its oil reserves that hammered its share price and led to the resignation of key board members. ""The best part of the news this morning was that the company announced a structure simplification,"" said Arjan Sweere, an analyst at Petercam. The company said the organizational changes would speed decision making, and it also may make further changes. The company said its main focus will be on improving profits, and it is planning to accelerate and increase investment in its 400 main brands. ""While it is certainly the case that markets have been tougher in the past eighteen months than we had expected, we have also lost some market share,"" said Mr Cescau. ""We let a range of targets limit our ability flexibility and did not adjust our plans quickly enough to a more difficult business environment."" ""Our objective is to reverse the share loss that we experienced in some markets in 2004 and return to growth."" Unilever said European sales fell 2.8% last year, dragged down by below part sales at its beverage division, where revenues dipped by almost 4%. Sales of ice cream and frozen food dipped by 3.4% In the US last year, revenue grew by 1.5% ""despite disappointing sales in Slimfast"", the company said. In Asia, leading products came under ""attack"" from rivals such as Procter & Gamble. Unilever took a 1.5bn euro one-time charge in the fourth quarter, including a 650m euro write-down on Slimfast diet foods. Sales of Slimfast products have been hit in recent years by the popularity of the Atkins diet. But looking ahead, Unilever said it was optimistic about prospects for its slimming products saying that demand is on the wane for rival low-carbohydrate diets. The company also said it planned to spend 500m euros this year buying back shares." +business,"Lesotho textile workers lose jobs Six foreign-owned textile factories have closed in Lesotho, leaving 6,650 garment workers jobless, union officers told the AP news agency. Factory Workers Union secretary general Billy Macaefa blamed the closures on the end of worldwide textile quotas. The quotas for developing nations, ended on 1 January, gave them a set share of the rich countries' markets. They also limited the amount countries like China could export to the big markets of the United States and EU. ""We understand that some (owners)... were complaining that the South African rand was strong against the US dollar, and they were losing when exporting textiles and clothing to the United States,"" Mr Macaefa said at a news briefing in the capital, Maseru. Lesotho's currency, the maloti, is fixed to the rand. ""But we suspect that they left the country unceremoniously because of the end of quotas introduced by the World Trade Organization."" He said the six factories were Leisure Garments, Modern Garments, Precious Six Garments, TW Garments, Lesotho Hats and Vogue Landmark. The owners - two from Taiwan, two from China, one from Mauritius and one from Malaysia - left over the December holiday period without informing or paying their employees, he said. Union leaders and trade campaigners have been warning that developing nations such as Lesotho, Sri Lanka, and Bangaldesh could lose thousands of jobs once the quotas were lifted. In the mountainous country surrounded by South Africa, it is feared as many as 50,000 textile workers could lose their jobs, and Mr Mafeca said he expected more companies to leave. The assistance of a US law had given Lesotho's textiles duty-free access to North American markets. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), gave sub-Saharan countries preferential access to the US market for apparel and textile products as well as a wide range of other goods. A Lesotho government news briefing is expected on Wednesday." +business,"Quiksilver moves for Rossignol Shares of Skis Rossignol, the world's largest ski-maker, have jumped as much as 15% on speculation that it will be bought by US surfwear firm Quiksilver. The owners of Rossignol, the Boix-Vives family, are said to be considering an offer from Quiksilver. Analysts believe other sporting goods companies may now take a closer look at Rossignol, prompting an auction and pushing the sale price higher. Nike and K2 have previously been mentioned as possible suitors. Rossignol shares touched 17.70 euros, before falling back to trade 7.8% higher at 16.60 euros. European sporting goods companies have seen foreign revenues squeezed by a slump in the value of the US dollar, making a takeover more attractive, analysts said. Companies such as Quiksilver would be able to cut costs by selling Rossignol skis through their shops, they added. The Boix-Vives family is thought to have spent the past couple of years sounding out possible suitors for Rossignol, which also makes golf equipment, snowboards and sports clothing." +business,"US company admits Benin bribery A US defence and telecommunications company has agreed to pay $28.5m after admitting bribery in the West African state of Benin. The Titan corporation was accused of funnelling more than $2m into the 2001 re-election campaign of President Mathieu Kerekou. At the time, Titan was trying to get a higher price for a telecommunications project in Benin. There is no suggestion that Mr Kerekou was himself aware of any wrongdoing. Titan, a California-based company, pleaded guilty to falsifying its accounts and violating US anti-bribery laws. It agreed to pay $13m in criminal penalties, as well as $15.5m to settle a civil lawsuit brought by the US financial watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC had accused Titan of illegally paying $2.1m to an unnamed agent in Benin claiming ties with President Kerekou. Some of the money was used to pay for T-shirts with campaign slogans on them ahead of the 2001 election. Shortly after the poll, which Mr Kerekou won, Benin officials agreed to quadruple Titan's management fee. Prosecuting attorney Carol Lam said: ""All US companies should take note that attempting to bribe foreign officials is criminal conduct and will be appropriately prosecuted."" The company says it no longer tolerates such practices. Under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it is a crime for American firms to bribe foreign officials." +business,"Parmalat bank barred from suing Bank of America has been banned from suing Parmalat, the food group which went bust in 2003 after an accounting scandal. The bank - along with investors, auditors and the group's managers - wants damages for being a victim of fraud at the hands of the Italian firm. But a judge has barred Bank of America and two auditors from the case. The bank, and Italaudit - formerly the Italian arm of auditor Grant Thornton - face lawsuits and possible prosecution. A second auditor, Deloitte & Touche, has also been banned from the case. Grant Thornton - now rid of the Italian unit at the centre of the case - is still being permitted to sue, as are Consob, Italy's stock market regulator, hundreds of small investors and Parmalat's new managers. Parmalat collapsed in December 2003 after it emerged that the 4bn euros ($5.2bn; £2.8bn) it supposedly held in a Bank of American offshore account did not in fact exist." +business,"Asia shares defy post-quake gloom Thailand has become the first of the 10 southern Asian nations battered by giant waves at the weekend to cut its economic forecast. Thailand's economy is now expected to grow by 5.7% in 2005, rather than 6% as forecast before tsunamis hit six tourist provinces. The full economic costs of the disaster remain unclear. In part, this is because of its scale, and because delivering aid and recovering the dead remain priorities. But Indonesian, Indian and Hong Kong stock markets reached record highs on Wednesday, suggesting that investors do not fear a major economic impact. The highs showed the gap in outlook between investors in large firms and individuals who have lost their livelihoods. Investors seemed to feel that some of the worst-affected areas - such as Aceh in Indonesia - were so under-developed that the tragedy would little impact on Asia's listed companies, according to analysts. ""Obviously with a lot of loss of life, a lot of time is needed to clean up the mess, bury the people and find the missing. But it's not necessarily a really big thing in the economic sense,"" said ABN Amro chief Asian strategist Eddie Wong. India's Bombay Stock Exchange inched slightly above its previous record close on Wednesday. Expectations of strong corporate earnings in 2005 drove the Indonesian stock exchange in Jakarta to a record high on Wednesday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index may be benefiting in part from the potential for its listed property companies to gain from rebuilding contracts in the tsunami-affected regions of South East Asia. In Sri Lanka, some economists have said that as much as 1% of annual growth may be lost. Sri Lanka's stock market has fallen about 5% since the weekend, but it is still 40% higher than at the start of 2004. Thailand may lose 30bn baht (£398m; $768m) in earnings from tourism over the next three months, according to tourism minister Sontaya Kunplome. In the affected provinces, he expects the loss of tourism revenue to be offset by government reconstruction spending. Thailand intends to spend a similar sum - around 30bn baht - on the rebuilding work. ""It will take until the fourth quarter of next year before tourist visitors in Phuket and five other provinces return to their normal level,"" said Naris Chaiyasoot, director general at the ministry's fiscal policy office. In the Maldives the cost of reconstruction could wipe out economic growth, according to a government spokesman. ""Our nation is in peril here,"" said Ahmed Shaheed, the chief government spokesman. He estimated the economic cost of the disaster at hundreds of millions of dollars. The Maldives has gross domestic product of $660m. ""It won't be surprising if the cost exceeds our GDP,"" he said. ""In the last few years, we made great progress in our standard of living - the United Nations recognised this. Now we see this can disappear in a few days, a few minutes."" Shaheed noted that investment in a single tourist resort - the economic mainstay - could run to $40m. Between 10 and 12 of the 80-odd resorts have been severely damaged, and a similar number have suffered significant damage. However, many experts, including the World Bank, have pointed out that it is still difficult to assess the magnitude of the disaster and its likely economic impact." +business,"Yukos loses US bankruptcy battle A judge has dismissed an attempt by Russian oil giant Yukos to gain bankruptcy protection in the US. Yukos filed for Chapter 11 protection in Houston in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the auction of its Yugansk division by the Russian authorities. The court ruling is a blow to efforts to get damages for the sale of Yugansk, which Yukos claims was illegally sold. Separately, former Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky began testimony on Friday in his trial for fraud and tax evasion. Mr Khodorkovsky - who has been in jail for more than a year - pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him and denied involvement in any criminal activities. ""I pride myself on heading for 15 years a number of successful companies and helping other enterprises rise from their knees,"" he told a Russian court. Yugansk was auctioned to help pay off $27.5bn (£14.5bn) in unpaid taxes. It was bought for $9.4bn by a previously-unknown group, which was in turn bought up almost immediately by state-controlled oil company Rosneft. Texas Judge Letitia Clark said Yukos did not have enough of a US presence to establish US jurisdiction. ""The vast majority of the business and financial activities of Yukos continue to occur in Russia,"" Judge Clark said in her ruling. ""Such activities require the continued participation of the Russian government."" Yukos had argued that a US court was entitled to declare it bankrupt before its Yugansk unit was sold, since it has local bank accounts and its chief finance officer Bruce Misamore lives in Houston. Yukos claimed it sought help in the US because other forums - Russian courts and the European Court of Human Rights - were either unfriendly or offered less protection. Russia had indicated it would in any case not abide by the rulings of the US courts. In her ruling, the judge acknowledged that ""it appears likely that agencies of the Russian government have acted in a manner that would be considered confiscatory under United States law"". But she said her role was simply to decide on jurisdiction. The US court's jurisdiction had been challenged by Deutsche Bank and Gazpromneft, a former unit of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom which is due to merge with Rosneft. Analysts said the ability of Gazprom and Rosneft to trade freely overseas had been stifled while the ownership of Yugansk remained unclear. Yukos said it would consider its options in light of the ruling. However, it claimed that the court had backed its argument in four out of five key issues. ""We believe the merits of our case are strong and simple,"" said chief executive Steven Theede. ""Our assets were illegally seized. We want them back or damages paid.""" +business,"Ethiopia's crop production up 24% Ethiopia produced 14.27 million tonnes of crops in 2004, 24% higher than in 2003 and 21% more than the average of the past five years, a report says. In 2003, crop production totalled 11.49 million tonnes, the joint report from the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme said. Good rains, increased use of fertilizers and improved seeds contributed to the rise in production. Nevertheless, 2.2 million Ethiopians will still need emergency assistance. The report calculated emergency food requirements for 2005 to be 387,500 tonnes. On top of that, 89,000 tonnes of fortified blended food and vegetable oil for ""targeted supplementary food distributions for a survival programme for children under five and pregnant and lactating women"" will be needed. In eastern and southern Ethiopia, a prolonged drought has killed crops and drained wells. Last year, a total of 965,000 tonnes of food assistance was needed to help seven million Ethiopians. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recommend that the food assistance is bought locally. ""Local purchase of cereals for food assistance programmes is recommended as far as possible, so as to assist domestic markets and farmers,"" said Henri Josserand, chief of FAO's Global Information and Early Warning System. Agriculture is the main economic activity in Ethiopia, representing 45% of gross domestic product. About 80% of Ethiopians depend directly or indirectly on agriculture." +business,"Iran budget seeks state sell-offs Iran's president, Mohammad Khatami, has unveiled a budget designed to expand public spending by 30% but loosen the Islamic republic's dependence on oil. The budget for the fiscal year starting on 21 March calls for the sell-off of 20% of the state's corporate holdings. Mr Khatami's second term as president ends on 1 August, making this his last budget. But opposition from members of parliament who have attacked previous privatisations could block his plans. Elections in May 2004 ousted many of Mr Khatami's supporters in parliament in favour of more hard-line religious conservatives. Late last year, they backed a law which would give parliament a veto over foreign investment. The ruling was a response to the involvement in telecoms and airport projects by Turkish companies, which hardliners accused of doing business with Israel. It came not long after the Expediency Council - Iran's ultimate decision-maker - blessed Mr Khatami's policy of selling stakes in sectors protected by the constitution such as energy, transport, telecoms and banking. Continued obstruction of foreign investment could get in the way not only of privatisation plans, but also of Mr Khatami's hope of modestly reducing the government's reliance on oil revenues. In an address to the Majlis, Mr Khatami predicted economic growth of 7.1% in 2005-6, up from 6.7% in the current year. He said he wanted to increase the 2005-6 budget to 1,546 trillion rials ($175.6bn; £93.6bn) from the previous year's 1,070 trillion. Within that figure, taxation would rise to $14.3bn, a rise of over 40% from what is expected from the current year. In contrast, oil revenues were expected to fall to $14.1bn from $16bn in the year to March 2005. ""Current government expenditure should come from tax revenues,"" Mr Khatami said. ""Oil revenues should be used for productive investment."" Mr Khatami has already been blocked by parliament from reducing the subsidies on many products including bread and petrol, reducing his room to manoeuvre." +business,"Cuba winds back economic clock Fidel Castro's decision to ban all cash transactions in US dollars in Cuba has once more turned the spotlight on Cuba's ailing economy. All conversions between the US dollar and Cuba's ""convertible"" peso will from 8 November be subject to a 10% tax. Cuban citizens, who receive money from overseas, and foreign visitors, who change dollars in Cuba, will be affected. Critics of the measure argue that it is a step backwards, reflecting the Cuban president's desire to increase his control of the economy and to clamp down on private enterprise. In a live television broadcast announcing the measure, President Castro's chief aide said it was necessary because of the United States' increasing ""economic aggression"". ""The ten percent obligation applies exclusively to the dollar by virtue of the situation created by the new measures of the US government to suffocate our country,"" he said. The Bush administration has taken an increasingly harsh line on Cuba in recent months. President Bush's government, which has been a strong supporter of the 40-year-old trade embargo on Cuba, introduced even tighter restrictions on Cuba in May. Cubans living in the US are now limited to one visit to Cuba every three years and they can only send money to their immediate relatives. A leading expert on the Cuban economy says that Castro's tax plan smacks more of a desperate economic measure than a political gesture. ""I think it is primarily an effort to raise some cash,"" says Jose Barrionuevo, head of strategy for Latin American emerging markets for Barclays Capital. ""It underscores the fact that the economy is in very bad shape and the government is looking for sources of revenue."" The tax will hit the families of Cuban exiles hardest as they benefit from the money their displaced relatives send home. This money, known as remittances, can amount to as much as $1bn a year. Those remaining in Cuba will have to pay the tax. Their relatives abroad may choose to send money in other currencies which are not subject to the tax, such as euros, or increase their dollar payments to compensate. However, many of Cuban's poorest citizens could be worse off as a result. The tax will also affect the two million tourists who visit Cuba every year, particularly those Americans who continue to defy a ban on travel there. Cuba's tourist industry has been one of its few economic success stories over the last ten years and, according to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America, is now worth $3bn to the country. The tax is designed to provide much-needed revenue for Cuba's cash-strapped economy. Cuba badly needs dollars to pay for essential items such as food, fuel and medicine. Much of Cuba's basic infrastructure is in a state of disrepair. In recent weeks, Cuba has suffered its most serious power cuts in a decade and there have also been water shortages in parts of the island. Cuba's economy had staged a modest recovery during the mid 1990s as the collapse of the Soviet Union forced it to embrace foreign capital, decentralise trade and permit limited private enterprise. However, a decline in foreign tourism since 2002, periodic hurricanes and the increasing costs of importing oil have put a strain on the economy. It has however yet to be seen if the tax will provide a solution to the government's economic problems. The tax could fuel an active black market in currency trading, Mr Barrionuevo said. ""The main impact could be that it will create a black market which you typically see in countries, like Venezuela, which have restrictions on capital,"" he says. Mr Barrioneuvo says the measure could be dropped if it has a damaging effect on economic activity. ""It is intended to be a permanent measure but I am not sure it can last too long.""" +business,"Profits slide at India's Dr Reddy Profits at Indian drugmaker Dr Reddy's fell 93% as research costs rose and sales flagged. The firm said its profits were 40m rupees ($915,000; £486,000) for the three months to December on sales which fell 8% to 4.7bn rupees. Dr Reddy's has built its reputation on producing generic versions of big-name pharmaceutical products. But competition has intensified and the firm and the company is short on new product launches. The most recent was the annoucement in December 2000 that it had won exclusive marketing rights for a generic version of the famous anti-depressant Prozac from its maker, Eli Lilly. It also lost a key court case in March 2004, banning it from selling a version of Pfizer's popular hypertension drug Norvasc in the US. Research and development of new drugs is continuing apace, with R&D spending rising 37% to 705m rupees - a key cause of the decrease in profits alongside the fall in sales. Patents on a number of well-known products are due to run out in the near future, representing an opportunity for Dr Reddy, whose shares are listed in New York, and other Indian generics manufacturers. Sales in Dr Reddy's generics business fell 8.6% to 966m rupees. Another staple of the the firm's business, the sale of ingredients for drugs, also performed poorly. Sales were down more than 25% from the previous year to 1.4bn rupees in the face of strong competition both at home, and in the US and Europe. Dr Reddy's Indian competitors are gathering strength although they too face heavy competitive pressures." +business,"Dollar hits new low versus euro The US dollar has continued its record-breaking slide and has tumbled to a new low against the euro. Investors are betting that the European Central Bank (ECB) will not do anything to weaken the euro, while the US is thought to favour a declining dollar. The US is struggling with a ballooning trade deficit and analysts said one of the easiest ways to fund it was by allowing a depreciation of the dollar. They have predicted that the dollar is likely to fall even further. The US currency was trading at $1.364 per euro at 1800 GMT on Monday. This compares with $1.354 to the euro in late trading in New York on Friday, which was then a record low. The dollar has weakened sharply since September when it traded about $1.20 against the euro. It has lost 7% this year, while against the Japanese yen it is down 3.2%. Traders said that thin trading levels had amplified Monday's move. ""It's not going to take much to push [the dollar] one way or the other,"" said Grant Wilson of Mellon Bank. Liquidity - a measure of the number of parties willing to trade in the market - was about half that of a normal working day, traders said." +business,"US data sparks inflation worries Wholesale prices in the US rose at the fastest rate in more than six years in January, according to government data. New figures show the Labor Department producer price index (PPI) rose by 0.3% - in line with forecasts. But core producer prices, which exclude food and energy costs, surged by 0.8%, the biggest rise since December 1998, increasing inflationary concerns. In contrast, the University of Michigan barometer of US retail consumer confidence showed a slight dip. The university's index of consumer spending fell to 94.2 in early February from 95.5 in January, which could indicate a fall in retail spending by the US public. The mixed set of data on Friday led to volatile early Wall Street trade, as the Dow Jones, Standard and Poor's 500, and Nasdaq swung between positive and negative territory. The economic figures come on the back of increased fears that the Federal Reserve chairman may be about to raise interest rates in order to stifle any inflationary pressures. The Fed has been raising interest rates at a gradual pace since June 2004, in an attempt to make sure inflation does not get out of control. Mr Greenspan told Congress this week that the central bank was on guard against the possibility that a rebounding economy could trigger stronger inflation pressures. ""The PPI would argue for Greenspan to continue to raise rates at a measured pace,"" said Joe Quinlan, chief market stategist at Bank of America Capital Management. ""But this Michigan survey tells you that the consumer might be downshifting a little bit in terms of their confidence and their spending; this could be an indication of that."" Consumer spending accounts for 66% of US economic activity and is viewed as a gauge of the health of the economy, which is why the Michigan data is closely observed. However on Friday, it was overshadowed by the core PPI core figure, which surged 2.7% during the past 12 months, the biggest year-on-year gain in nine years. ""The concern is that traders might interpret this big jump in the core PPI as an impetus for the Fed to be more aggressive than a measured move in moving rates,"" said Paul Cherney, chief market analyst at Standard & Poor's. But Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, said the PPI report was ""much less alarming"" than at first glance. One-time increases in alcohol and tobacco prices, which ""are no indication of broad PPI pressure"", were responsible for the increase, he said. Prices for autos and trucks also jumped in January, but Shepherdson said ""it is a good bet these increases won't stick""." +business,"Hariri killing hits Beirut shares Shares in Solidere, the Lebanese company founded by assassinated former prime minister Rafik Hariri, fell 15% in renewed trading in Beirut. The real estate firm, which dominates Lebanon's stock exchange, ended the day down at $8.08. Traders said there was some panic selling during Friday's session, the first since a three-day market closure to mourn the death of Mr Hariri. Beirut's benchmark BLOM stock index closed down 7.9% at 642.80. Solidere, in which Mr Hariri was a major shareholder, was the major drag on the index. The company owns much of the property in central Beirut, which it restored and redeveloped following the end of Lebanon's bitter 15-year civil war. ""Solidere should be above $10 but because of this disaster it is falling,"" said one trader. ""If Solidere drops much lower I would consider it a buying opportunity. This is a very big company held by many Lebanese."" Critics had accused Mr Hariri of using Lebanon's post-war reconstruction drive for his personal financial gain. But his assassination on Monday sent shudders through Lebanon's business community, which saw the billionaire tycoon as the country's best hope for economic revival. Solidere posted profits of $12.5m in the first half of 2004, and its shares had been gaining in recent months." +business,"Dollar slides ahead of New Year The US dollar has hit a new record low against the euro and analysts predict that more declines are likely in 2005. Disappointing economic reports dented the currency, which had been rallying after European policy makers said they were worried about the euro's strength. Earlier on Thursday, the Japanese yen touched its lowest versus the euro on concerns about economic growth in Asia. Currency markets have been volatile over the past week because of technical and automated trading and light demand. This has amplified reactions, analysts said, adding that they expect markets to become less jumpy in January. ""People want to go into the weekend and the New Year positioned for a weaker buck,"" said Tim Mazanec, director of foreign exchange at Investors Bank and Trust. The dollar slid to a record $1.3666 versus the euro on Thursday, before bouncing back to $1.3636. Against the yen the dollar was trading down at $103.05. The yen, meanwhile, dropped to 141.60 per euro in afternoon trading. It later strengthened to 140.55. Investors are concerned about the size of the US trade and budget deficits and are betting that George W Bush's administration will allow the dollar to weaken despite saying they favour a strong currency. Also playing on investors' minds are mixed reports about the state of the US economy. On Thursday, disappointing business figures from Chicago brought a sudden end to a rally in the value of the dollar. The National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said its index dropped to 61.2, more than analysts had expected. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi voiced concerns about the strength of the euro. Mr Berlusconi said the euro's strength was ""absolutely worrying"" for Italian exports. Mr Schroeder said in a newspaper article that stability in foreign exchange markets required a correction of global economic imbalances." +business,"UK house prices dip in November UK house prices dipped slightly in November, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) has said. The average house price fell marginally to £180,226, from £180,444 in October. Recent evidence has suggested that the UK housing market is slowing after interest rate increases, and economists forecast a drop in prices during 2005. But while the monthly figures may hint at a cooling of the market, annual house price inflation is still strong, up 13.8% in the year to November. Economists, however, forecast that ODPM figures are likely to show a weakening in annual house price growth in coming months. ""Overall, the housing market activity is slowing down and that is backed up by the mortgage lending and the mortgage approvals data,"" said Mark Miller, at HBOS Treasury Services. ""The ODPM data is a fairly lagging indicator."" The figures come after the Bank of England said the number of mortgages approved in the UK has fallen to the lowest level for nearly a decade. The Halifax, meanwhile, said last week that house prices increased by 1.1% in December - the first monthly rise since September. The UK's biggest mortgage lender said prices rose 15.1% over the whole of 2004, but by only 2.8% in the second half of the year. It is predicting a 2% fall in overall prices in 2005 as the market stabilises after large gains in recent years. The ODPM attributed the monthly fall of prices in November to a drop in the value of detached houses and flats. It said annual inflation rose between October and November because prices had fallen by 1.1% in the same period in 2003. The ODPM data showed the average house price was £192,713 in England; £139,544 in Wales; £116,542 in Scotland, and £111,314 in Northern Ireland. All areas saw a rise in annual house price inflation in November except for Northern Ireland and the West Midlands, where the rate was unchanged, the ODPM said. The North East showed the highest rate of inflation at 26.2%, followed by Yorkshire and the Humber on 21.7%, and the North West on 21.1%. The East Midlands, the West Midlands and the South West all had an annual inflation rate of more than 15%. In London, the area with the highest average house price at £262,825, annual inflation rose only slightly in November to 7.1% from 7% the previous month." +business,"Beijingers fume over parking fees Choking traffic jams in Beijing are prompting officials to look at reorganising car parking charges. Car ownership has risen fast in recent years, and there are now two and a half million cars on the city's roads. The trouble is that the high status of car ownership is matched by expensive fees at indoor car parks, making motorists reluctant to use them. Instead roads are being clogged by drivers circling in search of a cheaper outdoor option. ""The price differences between indoor and outdoor lots are unreasonable,"" said Wang Yan, an official from the Beijing Municipal Commission for Development and Reform quoted in the state-run China Daily newspaper. Mr Wang, who is in charge of collecting car parking fees, said his team would be looking at adjusting parking prices to close the gap. Indoor parking bays can cost up to 250% more than outdoor ones. Sports fans who drive to matches may also find themselves the target of the commission's road rage. It wants them to use public transport, and is considering jacking up the prices of car parks near sports grounds. Mr Wang said his review team may scrap the relatively cheap hourly fee near such places and impose a higher flat rate during matches. Indoor parking may be costly, but it is not always secure. Mr Wang's team are also going to look into complaints from residents about poor service received in exchange for compulsory monthly fees of up to 400 yuan ($48; £26). The Beijing authorities decided two years ago that visiting foreign dignitaries' motorcades should not longer get motorcycle outriders as they blocked the traffic. Unclogging Beijing's increasingly impassable streets is a major concern for the Chinese authorities, who are building dozens of new roads to create a showcase modern city ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games." +business,"Brazil approves bankruptcy reform A major reform of Brazil's bankruptcy laws has been approved by the country's Congress, in a move which it is hoped will cut the cost of borrowing. The bill, proposed in 1993, has finally been approved by the leadership of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The old law, dating from 1945, gave priority first to workers, second to tax revenue and finally to creditors. The new legislation changes this, giving priority to creditors and limiting payments to workers. The new regulations will limit payments to workers to 150 times the minimum monthly salary, which is currently $94. The law also makes it more difficult for a company to declare bankruptcy. However, when a firm is declared bankrupt it will gain protection from creditors for 180 days while a recovery plan is worked out. The proposals were opposed in the past by leftist parties, including Mr Lula's Worker Party. They considered that they undermined workers' rights. But President Lula became a defender of the reforms, arguing that the country's bank lending margins were among the highest in the world and were damaging the economy. According to Andreas Adriano of Latin Trade Magazine, the new bankruptcy law will help in reducing the spread - difference between the interest rates of the banks and federal bonds. Nevertheless, Mr Adriano said to reduce the basic interest rate the Central Bank needs to change its policy, focusing not only on inflation but also on economic growth." +business,"Share boost for feud-hit Reliance The board of Indian conglomerate Reliance has agreed a share buy-back, to counter the effects of a power struggle in the controlling family. The buy-back is a victory for chairman Mukesh Ambani, whose idea it was. His brother Anil, the vice-chairman, said had not been consulted and that the buy-back was ""completely inappropriate and unnecessary"". The board hopes the move will reverse a 13% fall in Reliance's shares since the feud became public last month. The company has been fractious since founder Dhirubhai Ambani died in 2002, leaving no will. ""Today's round has gone to [Mukesh], there is no doubt about it,"" said Nanik Rupani, president of the Indian Merchants Chamber, a Bombay-based traders' body. The company plans to buy back 52 million shares at 570 rupees (£6.80; $13) apiece, a premium of more than 10% to its current market price." +business,"Soaring oil 'hits world economy' The soaring cost of oil has hit global economic growth, although world's major economies should weather the storm of price rises, according to the OECD. In its latest bi-annual report, the OECD cut its growth predictions for the world's main industrialised regions. US growth would reach 4.4% in 2004, but fall to 3.3% next year from a previous estimate of 3.7%, the OECD said. However, the Paris-based economics think tank said it believed the global economy could still regain momentum. Forecasts for Japanese growth were also scaled back to 4.0% from 4.4% this year and 2.1% from 2.8% in 2005. But the outlook was worst for the 12-member eurozone bloc, with already sluggish growth forecasts slipping to 1.8% from 2.0% this year and 1.9% from 2.4% in 2005, the OECD said. Overall, the report forecast total growth of 3.6% in 2004 for the 30 member countries of the OECD, slipping to 2.9% next year before recovering to 3.1% in 2006. ""There are nonetheless good reasons to believe that despite recent oil price turbulence the world economy will regain momentum in a not-too-distant future,"" said Jean-Philippe Cotis, the OECD's chief economist. The price of crude is about 50% higher than it was at the start of 2004, but down on the record high of $55.67 set in late October. A dip in oil prices and improving jobs prospects would improve consumer confidence and spending, the OECD said. ""The oil shock is not enormous by historical standards - we have seen worse in the seventies. If the oil price does not rise any further, then we think the shock can be absorbed within the next few quarters,"" Vincent Koen, a senior economist with the OECD, told the BBC's World Business Report. ""The recovery that was underway, and has been interrupted a bit by the oil shock this year, would then regain momentum in the course of 2005."" China's booming economy and a ""spectacular comeback"" in Japan - albeit one that has faltered in recent months - would help world economic recovery, the OECD said. ""Supported by strong balance sheets and high profits, the recovery of business investment should continue in North America and start in earnest in Europe,"" it added. However, the report warned: ""It remains to be seen whether continental Europe will play a strong supportive role through a marked upswing of final domestic demand."" The OECD highlighted current depressed household expenditure in Germany and the eurozone's over-reliance on export-led growth." +business,"Fed warns of more US rate rises The US looks set for a continued boost to interest rates in 2005, according to the Federal Reserve. Minutes of the December meeting which pushed rates up to 2.25% showed that policy-makers at the Fed are worried about accelerating inflation. The clear signal pushed the dollar up to $1.3270 to the euro by 0400 GMT on Wednesday, but depressed US shares. ""The markets are starting to fear a more aggressive Fed in 2005,"" said Richard Yamarone of Argus Research. The Dow Jones index dropped almost 100 points on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq also falling as key tech stocks were hit by broker downgrades. The dollar also gained ground against sterling on Tuesday, reaching $1.8832 to the pound before slipping slightly on Wednesday morning. The release of the minutes just three weeks after the 14 December meeting was much faster than usual, indicating the Fed wants to keep markets more apprised of its thinking. This, too, is being taken in some quarters as a sign of aggressive moves on interest rates to come. The key Fed funds rate has risen 1.25 percentage points during 2004 from the 46-year low of 1% reached not long after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. That long trough ""might be contributing to signs of potentially excessive risk-taking in financial markets"", said the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC), which sets interest rates. The odds now favour a further boost to rates at the next meeting in early February, economists said. But the respite for the dollar, which spent late 2003 being pushed lower against other major currencies by worries about massive US trade and budget deficits, may be short-lived. ""You can't rule out a further correction... but we don't think it's a change in direction in the dollar,"" said Jason Daw at Merrill Lynch. ""Nothing fundamental has changed.""" +business,"Newest EU members underpin growth The European Union's newest members will bolster Europe's economic growth in 2005, according to a new report. The eight central European states which joined the EU last year will see 4.6% growth, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said. In contrast, the 12 Euro zone countries will put in a ""lacklustre"" performance, generating growth of only 1.8%. The global economy will slow in 2005, the UNECE forecasts, due to widespread weakness in consumer demand. It warned that growth could also be threatened by attempts to reduce the United States' huge current account deficit which, in turn, might lead to significant volatility in exchange rates. UNECE is forecasting average economic growth of 2.2% across the European Union in 2005. However, total output across the Euro zone is forecast to fall in 2004 from 1.9% to 1.8%. This is due largely to the faltering German economy, which shrank 0.2% in the last quarter of 2004. On Monday, Germany's BdB private banks association said the German economy would struggle to meet its 1.4% growth target in 2005. Separately, the Bundesbank warned that Germany's efforts to reduce its budget deficit below 3% of GDP presented ""huge risks"" given that headline economic growth was set to fall below 1% this year. Publishing its 2005 economic survey, the UNECE said central European countries such as the Czech Republic and Slovenia would provide the backbone of the continent's growth. Smaller nations such as Cyprus, Ireland and Malta would also be among the continent's best performing economies this year, it said. The UK economy, on the other hand, is expected to slow in 2005, with growth falling from 3.2% last year to 2.5%. Consumer demand will remain fragile in many of Europe's largest countries and economies will be mostly driven by growth in exports. ""In view of the fragility of factors of domestic growth and the dampening effects of the stronger euro on domestic economic activity and inflation, monetary policy in the euro area is likely to continue to 'wait and see', the organisation said in its report. Global economic growth is expected to fall from 5% in 2004 to 4.25% despite the continued strength of the Chinese and US economies. The UNECE warned that attempts to bring about a controlled reduction in the US current account deficit could cause difficulties. ""The orderly reversal of the deficit is a major challenge for policy makers in both the United States and other economies,"" it noted." +business,"Nasdaq planning $100m share sale The owner of the technology-dominated Nasdaq stock index plans to sell shares to the public and list itself on the market it operates. According to a registration document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nasdaq Stock Market plans to raise $100m (£52m) from the sale. Some observers see this as another step closer to a full public listing. However Nasdaq, an icon of the 1990s technology boom, recently poured cold water on those suggestions. The company first sold shares in private placements during 2000 and 2001. It technically went public in 2002 when the stock started trading on the OTC Bulletin Board, which lists equities that trade only occasionally. Nasdaq will not make money from the sale, only investors who bought shares in the private placings, the filing documents said. The Nasdaq is made up shares in technology firms and other companies with high growth potential. It was the most potent symbol of the 1990s internet and telecoms boom, nose-diving after the bubble burst. A recovery in the fortunes of tech giants such as Intel, and dot.com survivors such as Amazon has helped revive its fortunes." +business,"Malaysia lifts Islamic bank limit Malaysia's central bank is to relax restrictions on foreign ownership to encourage Islamic banking. Banks in Malaysia will now be able to sell up to 49% of their Islamic banking units, while the limit on other kinds of bank remains at 30%. RHB, Malaysia's third-biggest lender, is already scouting for a foreign partner for its new Islamic banking unit, the firm told Reuters. The moves put Malaysia ahead of a 2007 deadline to open up the sector. The country's deal to join the World Trade Organisation set that year as a deadline for liberalisation of Islamic banking. Also on Tuesday, the central bank released growth figures showing Malaysia's economy expanded 7.1% in 2004. But growth slowed sharply in the fourth quarter to 5.6%, and the central bank said it expected 6% expansion in 2005. Malaysia changed the law to allow Islamic banking in 1983. It has granted licences to three Middle Eastern groups, which - along with local players - mean there are eight fully-operational Islamic banking groups in the country. Islamic banks offer services which permit modern banking principles while sticking to Islamic law's ban on the payment of interest. Most of the Malays which make up half the country's population are Muslims." +business,"Businesses fail to plan for HIV Companies fail to draw up plans to cope with HIV/Aids until it affects 20% of people in a country, new research says. The finding comes in a report published on Thursday by the World Economic Forum, Harvard and the UN aids agency. ""Too few companies are responding proactively to the social and business threats,"" said Dr Kate Taylor, head of the WEF's global Health Initiative. Nearly 9,000 business leaders in 104 countries were surveyed for Business and HIV/AIDS: Commitment and Action? Dr Taylor described the level of action taken by businesses as revealed by the report as ""too little, too late"". The issue will be highlighted to business and world leaders at the World Economic Forum, which meets in Davos, Switzerland, next week. The WEF report shows that despite the fact that 14,000 people contract HIV/Aids every day, concern among businesses has dropped by 23% in the last 12 months. Most (71%) have no policies in place to address the disease. Nor could over 65% of the business leaders surveyed say or estimate the prevalence of HIV among their staff. The UN programme tackling Aids, UNAIDS, pointed out that having a clear strategy for dealing with HIV/Aids was a good investment as well as being socially responsible. One company that does have a plan is Anglo-American, the international mining company, which estimates an HIV prevalence of 24% among its 130,000-strong Southern African workforce. Over the last two years the company has implemented extensive voluntary counselling and testing for HIV infection, coupled with anti-retroviral therapy for employees progressing to Aids. Over 90% of the 2,200 employees who have accessed and remained on treatment are well and have returned to normal work. ""Effective action on HIV/Aids is synonymous with good business management and leads to more profitable and sustainable operations,"" said Brian Brink, senior vice-president, health, at Anglo-American. ""Companies should encourage all workers to know their HIV status, making it as routine as monitoring blood pressure or cholesterol,"" he said. ""Providing access to treatment is a critical part of this."" Across sub-Saharan Africa, even in countries with an HIV prevalence of 10-19%, only around 7% of companies have formal HIV/Aids policies in place, according to the report. The gap is even wider in China, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and Russia, the so-called ""next wave"" countries, which are predicted to experience the highest numbers of new HIV/Aids cases worldwide by 2010. The report adds ""an important building block to our understanding of how the business community is experiencing the HIV/Aids epidemic and to whether and how it is reacting,"" said David Bloom, professor of economics and demography at the Harvard School of Public Health. The WEF report concludes that businesses need to understand their exposure to HIV/Aids risks and come up with good local practices to manage them. A key priority, in both high and low-prevalence settings, said the WEF is to establish a policy based on non-discrimination and confidentiality." +business,"Turkey knocks six zeros off lira Turkey is to relaunch its currency on Saturday, knocking six zeros off the lira in the hope of boosting trade and powering its growing economy. The change will see the end of such dizzyingly-high denominations as five million lira - enough for a short taxi ride - and the 20m note, worth $15. These valuations were the product of decades of inflation which, as recently as 2001, was as high as 70%. Inflation has since been tamed and economic prospects are improving. The currency - officially to be known as the new lira - will be launched at midnight on 1 January. From that point, the one-million lira note will become the new one-lira coin. The government hopes the change will be seen as a promise of growing economic stability as Turkey embarks on the long process of trying to join the European Union. On an everyday level, it is hoped the change will stimulate more international trade and end confusion among foreign investors and Turks alike. ""The transition to the new Turkish lira shows clearly that our economy has broken the vicious circle that it was imprisoned in for long years,"" said Sureyya Serdengecti, head of the Turkish Central Bank. ""The new lira is also the symbol of the stable economy that we dreamed of for long years."" The Turkish economy teetered on the brink of collapse in 2001 when the lira plunged in value and two million people lost their jobs. Turkey had to turn to the International Monetary Fund for financial assistance, accepting a $18bn loan in return for pushing through a wide-ranging austerity programme. These tough measures have borne fruit. Inflation fell below 10% earlier this year for the first time in decades while exports are up 30% this year. Meanwhile, the economy is expanding at a healthy rate, with 7.9% growth expected in 2004. The government hopes that the new currency will cement the country's economic progress, two weeks after EU leaders set a date for the start of Turkey's accession talks. The slimmed-down lira is likely to be widely welcomed by the business community. ""The Turkish lira has been like funny money,"" Tevfik Aksoy, chief Turkish economist for Deutsche Bank, told Associated Press. ""Now at least in cosmetic terms it will look like real currency."" However, some do not feel quite so happy about seeing the nominal value of their investments reduced. ""If a person has 10 billion lira in investments this will suddenly decrease,"" shop owner Hayriye Evren, told Associated Press. ""This will definitely affect people psychologically.""" +business,"Laura Ashley chief stepping down Laura Ashley is parting company with its chief executive Ainum Mohd-Saaid. The clothing and home furnishing retailer said Ms Mohd-Saaid had resigned for personal reasons. Her departure will come into effect on 1 February and follows the departure of co-chief executive Rebecca Navarednam on 1 January. Ms Mohd-Saaid is to be replaced by Lillian Tan, presently a non-executive director of the company and head of a Malaysian retailer. In a statement issued on Thursday, Laura Ashley thanked Ms Mohd-Saaid for her services to the company. Its shares were down 8.51% to 10.75p in late Thursday morning trading on the London Stock Exchange. Since 2002, Ms Tan has been managing director and chief executive of Metrojaya, one of the largest retail groups in Malaysia. Laura Ashley, which is due to issue its next trading statement in the next few weeks, has in recent months been hit by reports of poor sales. In October last year, it announced the closure of one of its two Welsh factories. In September, the company had said that its half-year clothing sales had been ""below expectations"". In recent times, it has put renewed focus on home furnishings rather than clothing, but last September it reported that interim six month losses had risen from £1m to £1.2m, while sales had fallen from £138m to £118m. Laura Ashley, which floated on the London Stock Exchange for £200m ($376m) in 1995, is majority-owned by Malaysia entrepreneur Dr Khoo Kay Peng. In 1996, its share price was more than 200p. It has long been reported that Dr Khoo intends to take the company private, but he has always denied this. ""Laura Ashley is a bit of a shrivelled husk of a company,"" said retail analyst Nick Bubb of Evolution Securities. ""It is all pretty odd with its Malaysian owners seemingly just shuffling the deckchairs."" Laura Ashley was founded by its late namesake in Kent in 1955, before moving to Mid Wales in 1961 where it still has its main UK factory." +business,"BMW drives record sales in Asia BMW has forecast sales growth of at least 10% in Asia this year after registering record sales there in 2004. The luxury carmaker saw strong sales of its three marques - BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce - in Asia last year after the launch of three new models. The company, which is vying with Mercedes-Benz for the title of leading premium carmaker, is confident about its prospects for the region in 2005. It is launching a revamped version of its 3-Series saloon class next month. BMW sold nearly 95,000 cars in Asia last year, up 2.6% on 2003. BMW-brand sales rose 2.3% to 80,600 while sales of Mini models rose 3.6% to 14,800. There was also a significant increase in sales of Rolls-Royces on the continent. BMW sold more than 100 of the iconic models compared with just ten the previous year. The German carmaker is aiming to boost annual sales in Asia to 150,000 by 2008. ""Here in Asia, we consider a double-digit increase in retail on the order of 10 to 15% to be realistic on the basis of current features,"" said Helmut Panke, BMW's group chief executive. China remains the main area of concern for BMW after sales there fell 16% last year. However, BMW is hopeful of a much better year in 2005 as its direct investment in China begins to pay dividends. The company only began assembling luxury high-powered sedans in China in 2003. 2004 was generally a good year for BMW, which saw revenues from its core car-making operations rise 11%." +business,"Air Jamaica back in state control The Jamaican government is regaining control of Air Jamaica in an bid to help the ailing company out of its financial difficulties. The firm has failed to make money since the state sold a majority stake to hotel tycoon Gordon Stewart in 1994. In common with many carriers, Air Jamaica, with debts of $560m (£291m), has been hit by high fuel costs and the impact of the 11 September attacks. The company will be restructured with the aim of finding a new buyer. ""The administration is committed to a viable national airline that will serve as a major catalyst for our economy,"" said Finance Minister Omar Davies. The 35-year-old airline transports about 55% of all passengers to the island and its pilots are reportedly among the best paid in the industry, with senior members of staff earning in excess of $234,000 a year." +business,"US crude prices surge above $53 US crude prices have soared to fresh four-month highs above $53 in the US as refinery problems propelled petrol prices to an all-time high. US light sweet crude futures jumped to $53.09 a barrel in New York before closing at $53.03. The gains tracked a surge in US gasoline futures to a record high of $1.4850 a gallon. The jump followed a fire at Western Refining Company's refinery in Texas, which shut down petrol production. A spokesman for the group was unable to say when the production unit would be back up and running. ""This market simply wants to go up,"" Citigroup Global Markets analyst Kyle Cooper told Reuters news agency. Ed Silliere, analyst at Energy Merchant, added: ""Gasoline is up because of the refinery issues in Texas, which means there will be a scramble for product in the (US) Gulf Coast."" Elsewhere, a refinery in Houston was closed due to mechanical problems, while on Tuesday production at BP's Texas City refinery was taken down for a short time. In the approach to Spring, the market becomes much more sensitive to problems with petrol production as dealers anticipate rising demand for fuel ahead of the holiday season. The rise in prices came despite a US government report that showed domestic supplies of fuel oil and fuel were rising. Meanwhile, oil production cartel Opec's recent announcement that it was now unlikely to cut production levels has also failed to calm fears on the market. Oil prices are roughly 45% higher than a year ago and have risen sharply in recent weeks due to a combination of colder weather, the declining value of the dollar and fears that Opec could rein in production to head off a seasonal drop in demand. Instability in Iraq and underlying fears about terrorism have also played a part in the rally." +business,"Arsenal 'may seek full share listing' Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein has said the club may consider seeking a full listing for its shares on the London Stock Exchange. Speaking at the Soccerex football business forum in Dubai, he said a full listing was ""one of the options"" for funding after the club moves to its new stadium. The club - which is currently listed on the smaller Ofex share exchange - is due to move into its new 60,000-seater Emirates Stadium at Ashburton Grove for the start of the 2006/07 season. Mr Dein also warned the current level of TV coverage of the Premiership may be reaching saturation level, with signs that match attendances have been dropping off in the first few months of this season. When Arsenal moves to its new stadium it will see its proportion of turnover from media earnings drop from 52% this season to 34% in two years' time. The club is hoping to increase matchday earnings from 29% to 40% of turnover, and has not ruled out other money-earning means, including a full share listing. ""When the new stadium opens we will go through a thorough financial review,"" Mr Dein said. ""Listing would be one option, but we are flexible and no decisions have been made on that issue yet. ""We want to be in the best financial health - maybe clubs can do it (listing), Manchester United have been a success."" Mr Dein said that, although television money and coverage had driven the English game forward in the past 10 years, he feared there might now be too many games being shown. Since the formation of the Premier League in season 1992/93, Premiership clubs have seen their income from television soar. ""Television has been the driving force over the past 10 years... but we must constantly improve if we want to remain as the world's leading league competition. ""We must monitor the quality of the product and ensure attendances do not decline, and we must balance that with the quantity of exposure on TV too. ""I think we have practically reached saturation point... sometimes I think less is more."" The club is funding its move to Ashburton Grove through a number of sources, including debt from banks, from money it already has and will receive in coming years from sponsors, and from the sale of surplus property, including its Highbury Stadium. It is also looking to create new revenue streams from overseas markets, including Asia. ""We have two executives travelling round Japan and China at the moment building relationships with organisations and clubs, and we know our supporters clubs are growing there too, as they are around the world. ""We have got a very good product, so it is very important we go and look at these markets, and make sure we are on the case.""" +business,"UK 'risks breaking golden rule' The UK government will have to raise taxes or rein in spending if it wants to avoid breaking its ""golden rule"", a report suggests. The rule states that the government can borrow cash only to invest, and not to finance its spending projects. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) claims that taxes need to rise by about £10bn if state finances are to be put in order. The Treasury said its plans were on track and funded until 2008. According to NIESR, if the government's current economic cycle runs until March 2006 then it is ""unlikely"" the golden rule will be met. Should the cycle end a year earlier, then the chances improve to ""50/50"". Either way, fiscal tightening is needed, NIESR said. The report is the latest to call into question the viability of government spending projections. Earlier this month, accountancy firm Ernst & Young said that Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's forecasts for tax revenues were too optimistic. It claimed revenues were likely to be £6bn below estimates by the end of the tax year despite the economy growing in line with forecasts. A Treasury spokesperson dismissed the latest claims, saying it was ""on track to meeting spending rules and the golden rule in the current cycle and beyond"". ""Spending plans have been set out until 2008 and they are fully affordable."" Other than its warning on possible tax hikes, the NIESR report was optimistic about the state of the UK and global economy. It said the recent record-busting surge in oil prices would have a limited effect on worldwide expansion, saying that if anything the ""world economy will continue to grow strongly"". Global gross domestic product (GDP) is tipped to be 4.1% this year, dipping to 4% in 2005, before picking up again to 4.2% in 2006. The US will continue to drive expansion until 2006, albeit at a slightly slower rate, as will be the case in Japan. Hinting at better times for UK exporters, NIESR said the euro zone ""is expected to pick up speed"". Growth in Britain also is set to accelerate, it forecast. ""Despite weak growth in the third quarter, the forces sustaining the upswing remain intact and the economy will expand robustly in 2005 and 2006,"" NIESR said, adding that ""the economy will become better balanced over the next two years as exports stage a recovery"". GDP is expected at 3.2% in 2004, and 2.8% in both 2005 and 2006. The main cloud on the horizon, NIESR said, was the UK's much analysed and fretted over property market." +business,"GM in crunch talks on Fiat future Fiat will meet car giant General Motors (GM) on Tuesday in an attempt to reach agreement over the future of the Italian firm's loss-making auto group. Fiat claims that GM is legally obliged to buy the 90% of the car unit it does not already own; GM says the contract, signed in 2000, is no longer valid. Press reports have speculated that Fiat may be willing to accept a cash payment in return for dropping its claim. Both companies want to cut costs as the car industry adjusts to waning demand. The meeting between Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne and GM's Rick Wagoner is due to take place at 1330 GMT in Zurich, according to the Reuters news agency. Mr Marchionne is confident of his firm's legal position, saying in an interview with the Financial Times that GM's argument ""has no legs"". The agreement in question dates back to GM's decision to buy 20% of Fiat's auto division in 2000. At the time, it gave the Italian firm the right, via a 'put option', to sell the remaining stake to GM. In recent weeks, Fiat has reiterated its claims that this 'put' is still valid and legally binding. However, GM argues that a Fiat share sale made last year, which cut GM's holding to 10%, together with asset sales made by Fiat have terminated the agreement. Selling the Fiat's car-making unit may not prove so simple, analysts say, especially as it is a company that is so closely linked to Italy's industrial heritage. Political and public pressure may well push the two firms to reach a compromise. ""We are not expecting Fiat to exercise its put of the auto business against an unwilling GM at this point,"" brokerage Merrill Lynch said in a note to investors, adding that any legal battle would be protracted and damaging to the business. ""As far as we are aware, the Agnelli family, which indirectly controls at least 30% of Fiat, has not given a firm public indication that it wants to sell the auto business. ""Fiat may be willing to cancel the 'put' in exchange for money.""" +business,"Mixed Christmas for US retailers US retailers posted mixed results for December - with luxury retailers faring well while many others were forced to slash prices to lift sales. Upscale department store Nordstrom said same store sales were 9.3% higher than during the same period last year. Trendy youth labels also sold well, with sales jumping 28% at young women's clothing retailer Bebe Stores and 32.2% at American Eagle Outfitters. But Wal-Mart only saw its sales rise after it cut prices. The company saw a 3% rise in December sales, less than the 4.3% rise seen a year earlier. Customers at the world's biggest retailer are generally seen to be the most vulnerable to America's economic woes. Commentators claim many have cut back on spending amid uncertainty over job security, while low and middle-income Americans have reined in spending in the face of higher gasoline prices. Analysts said Wal-Mart faced a ""stand-off"" with shoppers, stepping up its discounts as the festive season wore on, as consumers waited longer to get the best bargains. However, experts added that if prices had not been cut across the sector, Christmas sales - which account for nearly 23% of annual retail sales - would have been far worse. ""So far, we are faring better than expected, but the results are still split,"" Ken Perkins, an analyst at research firm RetailMetrics LLC, told Associated Press. ""Stores that have been struggling over the last couple of months appear to be continuing that trend. And for stores that have been doing well over the last several months, December was a good month."" Overall, December sales are forecast to rise by 4.5% to $220bn - less than the 5.1% increase seen a year earlier. One discount retailer to fare well in December was Costco Wholesale, which continued a recent run of upbeat results with a better-than-expected 8% jump in same store sales. However, the losers were many and varied. Home furnishings store Pier 1 Imports saw its same store sales sink by a larger-than-forecast 8.8% as it battled fierce competition. Leading electronics chain Best Buy, meanwhile, missed its sales target of a 3-5% rise in sales, turning in a 2.5% increase over the Christmas period. Accessory vendor Claire's Stores also suffered as an expected last minute shopping rush never materialised, leaving its same store sales 5% higher, compared to a 6% rise last year. Jeweller Zale also felt little Christmas cheer with December sales down 0.7% on the same month last year. ""This was not a good period for retailers or shoppers. We saw a dearth of exciting, new items,"" Kurt Barnard, president of industry forecaster Retail Consulting Group, said. However, one beneficiary of the desertion of the High Street is expected to be online stores. According to a survey by Goldman Sachs & Co, Harris Interactive and Neilsen/Net Ratings sales surged 25% over the holiday season to $23.2bn." +business,"Liberian economy starts to grow The Liberian economy started to grow in 2004, but ""sustained and deep reform efforts"" are needed to ensure long term growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. An IMF mission made the comments in a report published following 10 days of talks with the transition government. The IMF said that, according to data provided by the Liberians, the country's GDP rose by 2% in 2004, after a 31% decline in 2003. Liberia is recovering from a 14-year civil war that came to an end in 2003. The power-sharing National Transition Government of Liberia will remain in place until elections on 11 October, the first presidential and parliamentary ballots since the conflict ended. The IMF said Liberia's economy started to grow last year thanks to a ""continued strong recovery in rubber production, domestic manufacturing and local services including post-conflict reconstruction"". The IMF however remains cautious about what it sees as a lack of transparency in government actions. In particular, it pointed to mystery surrounding the sale of iron ore stockpiles and the alleged disappearance of some import and export permits. These matters are now being investigated by the Liberian authorities and the IMF has called for their findings to be made public. The IMF also said it was crucial that the Central Bank of Liberia be strengthened, the national budget be effectively managed and a sound economic basis built to allow the country's large external debt to be addressed. ""The IMF team stands ready to assist the (Liberian) authorities in strengthening the areas mentioned,"" said the report. ""The team agreed with the (Liberian) authorities that the period until elections and the inauguration of a new government will pose exceptional challenges to fiscal management, and expresses its willingness to provide...continued support.""" +business,"Insurance bosses plead guilty Another three US insurance executives have pleaded guilty to fraud charges stemming from an ongoing investigation into industry malpractice. Two executives from American International Group (AIG) and one from Marsh & McLennan were the latest. The investigation by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer has now obtained nine guilty pleas. The highest ranking executive pleading guilty on Tuesday was former Marsh senior vice president Joshua Bewlay. He admitted one felony count of scheming to defraud and faces up to four years in prison. A Marsh spokeswoman said Mr Bewlay was no longer with the company. Mr Spitzer's investigation of the US insurance industry looked at whether companies rigged bids and fixed prices. Last month Marsh agreed to pay $850m (£415m) to settle a lawsuit filed by Mr Spitzer, but under the settlement it ""neither admits nor denies the allegations""." +business,"Macy's owner buys rival for $11bn US retail giant Federated Department Stores is to buy rival May Department Stores for $11bn (£5.7bn). The deal will bring together famous stores like Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Marshall Field's, creating the largest department store chain in the US. The combined firm will operate about 1,000 stores across the US, with combined annual sales of $30bn. The two companies, facing competition from the likes of Wal-Mart, tried to merge two years ago but talks failed. Sources familiar with the deal said that negotiations between the two companies sped up after May's chairman and chief executive Gene Kahn resigned in January. As part of the deal, Federated - owner of Macy's and Bloomingdale's - will assume $6bn of May's debt, bringing the deal's total value to $17bn. Directors at both companies have approved the deal and it is expected to conclude by the third quarter of this year. May has struggled to compete against larger department store groups such as Federated and other retailers such as Wal-Mart. Federated expects the merger to boost earnings from 2007 but the deal will cost it $1bn in one-off charges. ""We have taken the first step toward combining two of the best department store companies in America, creating a new retail company with truly national scope and presence,"" said Terry Lundgren, Federated's chairman. Some analysts see the merger as a rescue deal for May. ""Without this deal May would have been, to put it bluntly, washed up,"" said Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Consulting Group. Federated has annual sales of $15.6bn, while May's yearly sales are $14.4bn." +business,"Winn-Dixie files for bankruptcy US supermarket group Winn-Dixie has filed for bankruptcy protection after succumbing to stiff competition in a market dominated by Wal-Mart. Winn-Dixie, once among the most profitable of US grocers, said Chapter 11 protection would enable it to successfully restructure. It said its 920 stores would remain open, but analysts said it would most likely off-load a number of sites. The Jacksonville, Florida-based firm has total debts of $1.87bn (£980m). In its bankruptcy petition it listed its biggest creditor as US foods giant Kraft Foods, which it owes $15.1m. Analysts say Winn-Dixie had not kept up with consumers' demands and had also been burdened by a number of stores in need of upgrading. A 10-month restructuring plan was deemed a failure, and following a larger-than-expected quarterly loss earlier this month, Winn-Dixie's slide into bankruptcy was widely expected. The company's new chief executive Peter Lynch said Winn-Dixie would use the Chapter 11 breathing space to take the necessary action to turn itself around. ""This includes achieving significant cost reductions, improving the merchandising and customer service in all locations and generating a sense of excitement in the stores,"" he said. Yet Evan Mann, a senior bond analyst at Gimme Credit, said Mr Lynch's job would not be easy, as the bankruptcy would inevitably put off some customers. ""The real big issue is what's going to happen over the next one or two quarters now that they are in bankruptcy and all their customers see this in their local newspapers,"" he said." +business,"World leaders gather to face uncertainty More than 2,000 business and political leaders from around the globe are arriving in the Swiss mountain resort Davos for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF). For five days, they will discuss issues ranging from China's economic power to Iraq's future after this Sunday's elections. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and South African President Thabo Mbeki are among the more than 20 government leaders and heads of state leaders attending the meeting. Unlike previous years, protests against the WEF are expected to be muted. Anti-globalisation campaigners have called off a demonstration planned for the weekend. The Brazilian city of Porto Alegre will host the rival World Social Forum, timed to run in parallel with the WEF's ritzier event in Davos. The organisers of the Brazilian gathering, which brings together thousands of campaigners against globalisation, for fair trade, and many other causes, have promised to set an alternative agenda to that of the Swiss summit. However, many of the issues discussed in Porto Alegre are Davos talking points as well. ""Global warming"" features particularly high. WEF participants are being asked to offset the carbon emissions they cause by travelling to the event. Davos itself is in deep frost. The snow is piled high across the mountain village, and at night the wind chill takes temperatures down to minus 20C and less. Ultimately, the forum will be dominated by business issues - from outsourcing to corporate leadership - with bosses of more than a fifth of the world's 500 largest companies scheduled to attend. But much of the media focus will be on the political leaders coming to Davos, not least because the agenda of this year's forum seems to lack an overarching theme. ""Taking responsibility for tough choices"" is this year's official talking point, hinting at a welter of knotty problems. One thing seems sure, though: transatlantic disagreements over how to deal with Iran, Iraq and China are set to dominate discussions. Pointedly, only one senior official from President Bush's new administration is scheduled to attend. The US government may still make a conciliatory gesture, just as happened a year ago when Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise appearance in Davos. Ukraine's new president, Viktor Yushchenko, is to speak, just days after his inauguration, an event that crowned the civil protests against the rigged first election that had tried to keep him from power. The European Union's top leaders, among them German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and European Commission President Manuel Barosso, will be here too. Mr Blair will formally open the proceedings, although his speech will be pre-empted by French President Jacques Chirac, who announced his attendance at the last minute and secured a slot for a ""special message"" two hours before Mr Blair speaks. The organisers also hope that the new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, will use the opportunity for talks with at least one of the three Israeli deputy prime ministers coming to the event, a list that includes Shimon Peres. Davos fans still hark back to 1994, when talks between Yassir Arafat and Mr Peres came close to a peace deal. Mr Blair's appearance will be keenly watched too, as political observers in the UK claim it is a calculated snub against political rival Chancellor Gordon Brown, who was supposed to lead the UK government delegation. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man and a regular at Davos, will focus on campaigning for good causes, though business interests will not be wholly absent either. Having already donated billions of dollars to the fight against Aids and Malaria, Mr Gates will call on world leaders to support a global vaccination campaign to protect children in developing countries from easily preventable diseases. On Tuesday, Mr Gates pledged $750m (£400m) of his own money to support the cause. Mr Gates' company, software giant Microsoft, also hopes to use Davos to shore up its defences against open source software like Linux, which threaten Microsoft's near monopoly on computer desktops. Mr Gates is said to be trying to arrange a meeting with Brazil's President Lula da Silva. The Brazilian government has plans to switch all government computers from Microsoft to Linux. At Davos, global problem solving and networking are never far apart." +business,"BMW reveals new models pipeline BMW is preparing to enter the market for car-style people carriers, the firm's chief has told BBC News. Speaking at a BMW event ahead of the Geneva motor show, Helmut Panke predicted demand for such crossover vehicles would soar in Europe. In contrast, he said, the popularity of van-style seven-seat vehicles and traditional saloon cars would fade. ""Customers are moving out of the mini-van (and) traditional concepts are not as attractive anymore,"" he said. ""We have decided that BMW will enter the [crossover] segment,"" he said in the clearest indication yet about the car maker's intentions. Mr Panke praised the Honda Accura as the ""best execution"" yet of a crossover vehicle. ""We have decided that the BMW brand will enter the segment,"" he said. A decision on just how BMW will manage its entry into the new market is due in the first half of 2005. Typically it takes about three years from when a decision is taken before a new model hits the streets, Mr Panke said, implying that a BMW crossover could be on the market by 2008. The coming switch is driven in part by the need for successful carmakers to stay aware of trans-Atlantic differences in the car market, Mr Panke insisted. While in the US drivers tend to prefer sports utility vehicles (SUVs), such as the BMW X5 and its sibling X3, in Europe demand for crossover vehicles is likely to be considerable, Mr Panke said. ""There's a growing market here,"" he said. ""We are going to go that way.""" +business,"Tsunami slows Sri Lanka's growth Sri Lanka's president has launched a reconstruction drive worth $3.5bn (£1.8bn) by appealing for peace and national unity. President Kumaratunga said it was now important to find a peaceful solution to years of internal conflict. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said damage from the tsunami would cut one percentage point from Sri Lanka's economic growth this year. It estimated the wave left physical damage equal to 6.5% of the economy. Separately, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said that at least one million people have lost their livelihoods in Sri Lanka and Indonesia alone. It called for action to create jobs. President Kumaratunga attended a ceremony in the southern town of Hambantota. She was joined by government and opposition politicians, together with Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian clergy. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse laid the foundation stone on a new housing project intended to provide 6,000 homes for survivors of the tsunami. Mrs Kumaratunga called for the tragedy to be ""the start of a new beginning to rebuild our nation"". ""We are a country blessed with so many natural resources and we have not made use of them fully. Instead we have been squabbling, fighting,"" she added. Norway's peace negotiator Erik Solheim is due to arrive on Wednesday to try to revive peace talks in the decades-long conflict between government forces and the Tamil Tigers, who want a separate state in the north east of the country. Reconstruction efforts in eastern Sri Lanka have been hampered by tensions between the two sides. The IMF said that the Sri Lankan authorities' initial estimates have put the physical damage at $1.3 to $1.5bn, but added that the implications for the economy were much wider than this. ""The broader macroeconomic impact will clearly be substantial but the details are difficult to assess at this early stage,"" the IMF said. Growth, inflation, the balance of payments and foreign exchange reserves are all expected to show the effects of lost businesses and reconstruction costs. ""The fishing industry has been devastated, agricultural production may be affected and tourism will suffer, especially in the short term,"" the report said. The ILO estimated that 400,000 Sri Lankans have lost their jobs, mostly in these three industries. Earnings from tourism this year are expected to be 15% lower than last year. Economic growth this year is expected to be 4%, which is about 1% less than previously forecast. Inflation could climb to 14% compared to a previous estimate of 12%. Although major exports have not suffered, the IMF expects the reconstruction effort will require higher imports which could damage the balance of payments. Foreign exchange reserves may become strained as ""Sri Lanka will be hard pressed to keep international reserves at the pre-tsunami level"" which totalled more than two months worth of imports. Last week, the IMF approved Sri Lanka's request for a freeze on loan repayments." +business,"Economy 'stronger than forecast' The UK economy probably grew at a faster rate in the third quarter than the 0.4% reported, according to Bank of England deputy governor Rachel Lomax. Private sector business surveys suggest a stronger economy than official estimates, Ms Lomax said. Other surveys collectively show a rapid slowdown in UK house price growth, she pointed out. This means that despite a strong economic growth, base rates will probably stay on hold at 4.75%. Official data comes from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Though reliable, ONS data takes longer to publish, so now the BoE is calling for faster delivery of data so it can make more effective policy decisions. ""Recent work by the Bank has shown that private sector surveys add value, even when preliminary ONS estimates are available,"" Ms Lomax said in a speech to the North Wales Business Club. The ONS is due to publish its second estimate of third quarter growth on Friday. ""The MPC judges that overall growth was a little higher in the third quarter than the official data currently indicate,"" Ms Lomax said. The Bank said successful monetary policy depends on having good information. Rachel Lomax cited the late 1980s as an example of a time when weak economic figures were published, but substantially revised upwards years later. ""The statistical fog surrounding the true state of the economy has proved a particularly potent breeding ground for policy errors in the past,"" she said. Improving the quality of national statistics is the single the best way of making sure the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) makes the right decisions, she said. The Bank of England is working in tandem with the ONS to improve the quality and speed of delivery of data. Her remarks follow criticism from the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, which said the MPC had held interest rates too high given that inflation was way below the 2% target. A slowdown in the housing market and this year's surge in oil prices has made economic forecasting all the more tricky, leading to a more uncertain outlook. ""This year rising oil prices and a significant slowdown in the housing market have awoken bad memories of the 1970s and 1980s,"" Ms Lomax said. ""The MPC will be doing well if it can achieve the same stability over the next decade as we have enjoyed over the past 10 years."" Decisions on interest rates are made after the MPC gathers together the range of indicators available every month. The clearest signals come when all indicators are pointing the same direction, Ms Lomax intimated. ""In economic assessment, there is safety in numbers.""" +business,"Germany calls for EU reform German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has called for radical reform of the EU's stability pact to grant countries more flexibility over their budget deficits. Mr Schroeder said existing fiscal rules should be loosened to allow countries to run deficits above the current 3% limit if they met certain criteria. Writing in the Financial Times, Mr Schroeder also said heads of government should have a greater say in reforms. Changes to the pact are due to be agreed at an economic summit in March. The current EU rules limit the size of a eurozone country's deficit to 3% of GDP. Countries which exceed the threshold are liable to heavy fines by the European Commission, although several countries, including Germany, have breached the rules consistently since 2002 without facing punishment. The European Commission acknowledged last month that it would not impose sanctions on countries who break the rules. Mr Schroeder - a staunch supporter of the pact when it was set up in the 1990s - said exemptions were now needed to take into account the cost of domestic reform programmes and changing economic conditions. ""The stability pact will work better if intervention by European institutions in the budgetary sovereignty of national parliaments is only permitted under very limited conditions,"" he wrote. ""Only if their competences are respected will the member states be willing to align their policies more consistently with the economic goals of the EU."" Deficits should be allowed to rise above 3%, Mr Schroeder argued, if countries meet several ""mandatory criteria"". These include governments which are adopting costly structural reforms, countries which are suffering economic stagnation and nations which are shouldering ""special economic burdens"". The proposed changes would make it harder for the European Commission to launch infringement action against any state which breaches the pact's rules. Mr Schroeder's intervention comes ahead of a meeting of the 12 Eurozone finance ministers on Monday to discuss the pact. The issue will also be discussed at Tuesday's Ecofin meeting of the finance ministers of all 25 EU members. Mr Schroeder also called for heads of government to play a larger role in shaping reforms to the pact. A number of EU finance ministers are believed to favour only limited changes to the eurozone's rules." +business,"Chinese exports rise 25% in 2004 Exports from China leapt during 2004 over the previous year as the country continued to show breakneck growth. The spurt put China's trade surplus - a sore point with some of its trading partners - at a six-year high. It may also increase pressure on China to relax the peg joining its currency, the yuan, with the weakening dollar. The figures released by the Ministry of Commerce come as China's tax chief confirmed that growth had topped 9% in 2004 for the second year in a row. State Administration of Taxation head Xie Xuren said a tightening of controls on tax evasion had combined with the rapid expansion to produce a 25.7% rise in tax revenues to 2.572 trillion yuan ($311bn; £165bn). According to the Ministry of Commerce, China's exports totalled $63.8bn in December, taking the annual total up 35.4% to $593.4bn. With imports rising a similar amount, the deficit rose to $43.4bn. The increased tax take comes despite healthy tax rebates for many exporters totalling 420bn yuan in 2004, according to Mr Xie. China's exporting success has made the trade deficit of the United States soar even further and made trade with China a sensitive political issue in Washington. The peg keeping the yuan around 8.30 to the dollar is often blamed by US lawmakers for job losses at home. A US report issued on Tuesday on behalf of a Congressionally-mandated panel said almost 1.5 million posts disappeared between 1989 and 2003. The pace accelerated in the final three years of the period, said the report for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, moving out of labour-intensive industries and into more hi-tech sectors. The US's overall trade deficit with China was $124bn in 2003, and is expected to rise to about $150bn for 2004." +business,"Khodorkovsky quits Yukos shares Jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has transferred his controlling stake in oil giant Yukos to a business partner. Mr Khodorkovsky handed over his entire 59.5% stake in holding company Group Menatep - which controls Yukos - to Leonid Nevzlin. A close ally of the ex-Yukos boss, Mr Nevzlin is currently based in Israel. Mr Khodorkovsky handed over his stake after the forced sale of Yukos' core oil production unit, Yuganskneftegaz to pay a giant tax bill. Yuganskneftegaz was sold off at auction in December last year, eventually falling into the hands of state oil firm Rosneft in a deal worth $9.4bn (£5bn). ""Since the sale of Yuganskneftegaz, I have been delivered of (all) responsibility for the business that remains and the group's money as a whole,"" Mr Khodorkovsky said. ""It is all over. As before, I see my future in public activity to build a civil society in Russia."" Mr Nevzlin is Yukos' largest shareholder but is living in self-imposed exile in Israel. Yuganskneftegaz pumps around 1 million barrels of oil a day. It was sold by the Russian authorities to recover government tax claims against Yukos totalling over $27bn. Previously considered to be Russia's richest man, with an estimated fortune of $15bn, Mr Khodorkovsky is currently on trial for fraud and tax evasion following his arrest in October 2003. However, the charges are widely seen as politically motivated and part of a drive by Russian President Vladimir Putin to rein in the country's super-rich business leaders, the so-called oligarchs. It is also believed that Mr Khodorkovsky was particularly targeted because he had started to bankroll political opponents of Mr Putin." +business,"GM issues 2005 profits warning General Motors has warned that it expects earnings this year be lower than in 2004. The world's biggest car maker is grappling with losses in its European business, and weak US sales. GM said higher healthcare costs in North America, and lower profits at its financial services subsidiary would hurt its performance in 2005. GM said it expects to meet its 2004 earnings targets ""despite a tough competitive environment"". GM, whose brands include Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet in the US and Opel, Saab and Vauxhall in Europe, is due to reveal 2004 earnings on 19 January. It said it would deliver a shareholder payout of $6.0-$6.5 per share this year, as promised, but that next year's earnings per share would be lower, at between $4.0-$5.0. ""We're following a roadmap that we believe will deliver strong results,"" said GM chief executive Rick Waggoner. GM said it was expecting ""reduced financial losses"" in Europe in 2005. It is in the midst of cutting 12,000 jobs - one fifth of the European total - in a bid to cut costs. The biggest job losses are in Germany. Its vehicle businesses have gained market share in three out of four regions in 2004, achieving record profitability in Asia Pacific and returning to profit in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The car maker has diversified into financial services, and is extending the reach of General Motors Acceptance Corp (GMAC), which has said it may enter the home loans market. GMAC has been a strong contributor to profits in 2004 but GM said it will do less well this year, delivering net income of $2.5bn. ""Attaining earnings of $10 a share remains GM's goal,"" the company said, adding it believes it can achieve this in 2007." +business,"Madagascar completes currency switch Madagascar has completed the replacement of its Malagasy franc with a new currency, the ariary. From Monday, all prices and contracts will have to be quoted in the ariary, which was trading at 1,893 to the US dollar. The Malagasy franc, which lost almost half its value in 2004, is no longer legal tender but will remain exchangeable at banks until 2009. The phasing out of the franc, begun in July 2003, was intended to distance the country from its past under French colonial rule and address the problem of the large amount of counterfeit francs in circulation. ""It's above all a question of sovereignty,"" Reuters quoted a central bank official as saying. ""It is symbolic of our independence from the old colonial ways. Since we left the French monetary zone in 1973 we should have our own currency with its own name."" The ariary was the name of a pre-colonial currency in the Indian Ocean island state." +business,"Mixed reaction to Man Utd offer Shares in Manchester United were up over 5% by noon on Monday following a new offer from Malcolm Glazer. The board of Man Utd is expected to meet early this week to discuss the latest proposal from the US tycoon that values the club at £800m ($1.5bn). Manchester United revealed on Sunday that it had received a detailed proposal from Mr Glazer. A senior source at the club told the BBC: ""This time it's different"". The board is obliged to consider this deal. But the Man Utd supporters club urged the club to reject the new deal. Manchester United past and present footballers Eric Cantona and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and club manager Sir Alex Ferguson, have lent their backing to the supporters' group, Shareholders United. They have all spoken out against the bid. A spokesman for the supporters club said: ""I can't see any difference (compared to Mr Glazer's previous proposals) other than £200m less debt. ""He isn't bringing any money into the club; he'll use our money to buy it."" Mr Glazer's latest move is being led by Mr Glazer's two sons, Avi and Joel, according to the Financial Times. A proposal was received by David Gill, United's chief executive, at the end of last week, pitched at about 300p a share. David Cummings, head of UK equities for Standard Life Investments, said he believed a ""well funded"" 300p a share bid would be enough for Mr Glazer to take control of the club. ""I do not think there is anything that Manchester United fans can do about it,"" he told the BBC. ""They can complain about it but it is curtains for them. They may not want him but they are going to get him."" The US tycoon, who has been wooing the club for the last 12 months, has approached the United board with ""detailed proposals"", it has confirmed. Mr Glazer, who owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers team, hopes this will lead to a formal bid being accepted. He is believed to have increased the amount of equity in the new proposal, though it is not clear by how much. For his proposal to succeed, he needs the support of United's largest shareholders, the Irish horseracing tycoons JP McManus and John Magnier. They own 29% of United through their Cubic Expression investment vehicle. Mr Glazer and his family hold a stake of 28.1%. But it is not yet known whether Mr McManus and Mr Magnier would support a Glazer bid. NM Rothschild, the investment bank, is advising Mr Glazer, according to the Financial Times. His previous adviser, JPMorgan, quit last year when Mr Glazer went ahead and voted against the appointment of three United directors to the board, against its advice. But the FT said it thought JP Morgan may still have had some role in financing Mr Glazer's latest financial proposal." +business,"Senior Fannie Mae bosses resign The two most senior executives at US mortgage giant Fannie Mae have resigned after accounting irregularities were uncovered at the company. Chief executive Franklin Raines, a former senior official in the Clinton administration, and chief financial officer Tim Howard have left the firm. Fannie Mae was criticised by financial regulators and could have to restate its earnings by up to $9bn (£4.6bn). It is America's second largest financial institution. Recent investigations have exposed extensive accounting errors at Fannie Mae, which supplies funds to America's $8 trillion mortgage market. Last week, the firm was admonished by the Securities and Exchange Commission which said it had made major errors in its financial reporting. The financial regulator said Fannie Mae would have to raise substantial new capital to restore its balance sheet. Analysts said the SEC's criticism made it impossible for Fannie Mae's senior executives to remain. Mr Raines, head of the Office of Management and Budget under President Clinton, has taken early retirement while Mr Howard has also stepped down, the company said on Tuesday. KPMG, Fannie Mae's independent auditor, will also be replaced. ""By my early retirement, I have held myself accountable,"" Mr Raines said in a statement. Fannie Mae was found to have violated accounting rules relating to derivatives - financial instruments used to hedge against fluctuations in interest rates - and some pre-paid loans. As a result, it could be forced to restate $9bn in earnings over the past four years, effectively wiping out a third of the company's profits since 2001. Although not making loans directly to buyers, Fannie Mae is the largest single player in the mortgage market, underwriting half of all US house purchases. The firm operates under charter from the US Congress. It has faced stinging criticism from Congressional leaders who held hearings into its finances earlier this year and from government regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). ""We are encouraged that the board's announcement signals a new culture and a new direction for Fannie Mae,"" Armando Falcon, OFHEO director said. The problems afflicting Fannie Mae are just the latest to hit the US mortgage industry. Freddie Mac, the country's other largest mortgage firm, was forced to restate its earnings by $4.4bn last year and pay a $125m fine after an investigation of its books." +business,"Singapore growth at 8.1% in 2004 Singapore's economy grew by 8.1% in 2004, its best performance since 2000, figures from the trade ministry show. The advance, the second-fastest in Asia after China, was led by growth of 13.1% in the key manufacturing sector. However, a slower-than-expected fourth quarter points to more modest growth for the trade-driven economy in 2005 as global technology demand falls back. Slowdowns in the US and China could hit electronics exports, while the tsunami disaster may effect the service sector. Economic growth is set to halve in Singapore this year to between 3% and 5%. In the fourth quarter, the city state's gross domestic product (GDP) rose at an annual rate of 2.4%. That was up from the third quarter, when it fell 3.0%, but was well below analyst forecasts. ""I am surprised at the weak fourth quarter number. The main drag came from electronics,"" said Lian Chia Liang, economist at JP Morgan Chase. Singapore's economy had contracted over the summer, weighed down by soaring oil prices. The economy's poor performance in the July to September period followed four consecutive quarters of double-digit growth as Singapore bounced back strongly from the effects of the deadly Sars virus in 2003." +business,"Ukraine steel sell-off 'illegal' The controversial sell-off of a Ukrainian steel mill to a relative of the former president was illegal, a court has ruled. The mill, Krivorizhstal, was sold in June 2004 for $800m (£424m) - well below other offers. President Viktor Yushchenko, elected in December, is planning to revisit many of Ukraine's recent privatisations. Krivorizhstal is one of dozens of firms which he says were sold cheaply to friends of the previous administration. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said as many as 3,000 firms could be included on the list of firms whose sale was being reviewed. Mr Yushchenko had previously said the list would be limited to 30-40 enterprises. More than 90,000 businesses in all, from massive corporations to tiny shopfronts, have been sold off since 1992, as the command economy built up when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union was dismantled. Analysts have suggested that the government needs to avoid the impression of an open-ended list, so as to preserve investor confidence. Thursday's ruling by a district court in Perchesk overturned a previous decision in a lower court permitting the sale. The consortium which won the auction for the mill was created by Viktor Pinchuk, son-in-law of former-President Leonid Kuchma, and Rinat Akhmetov, the country's richest man. The next step is for the supreme court to annul the sale altogether, opening the way for Krivorizhstal to be resold. Mr Yushchenko has suggested a fair valuation could be as much as $3bn. One of the foreign bidders who lost out, steel giant LNM, told BBC News that it would be interested in any renewed sale." +business,"India's rupee hits five-year high India's rupee has hit a five-year high after Standard & Poor's (S&P) raised the country's foreign currency rating. The rupee climbed to 43.305 per US dollar on Thursday, up from a close of 43.41. The currency has gained almost 1% in the past three sessions. S&P, which rates borrowers' creditworthiness, lifted India's rating by one notch to 'BB+'. With Indian assets now seen as less of a gamble, more cash is expected to flow into its markets, buoying the rupee. ""The upgrade is positive and basically people will use it as an excuse to come back to India,"" said Bhanu Baweja, a strategist at UBS. ""Money has moved out from India in the first two or three weeks of January into other markets like Korea and Thailand and this upgrade should lead to a reversal."" India's foreign currency rating is now one notch below investment grade, which starts at 'BBB-'. The increase has put it on the same level as Romania, Egypt and El Salvador, and one level below Russia." +business,"Industrial revival hope for Japan Japanese industry is growing faster than expected, boosting hopes that the country's retreat back into recession is over. Industrial output rose 2.1% - adjusted for the time of year - in January from a month earlier. At the same time, retail sales picked up faster than at any time since 1997. The news sent Tokyo shares to an eight-month high, as investors hoped for a recovery from the three quarters of contraction seen from April 2004 on. The Nikkei 225 index ended the day up 0.7% at 11,740.60 points, with the yen strengthening 0.7% against the dollar to 104.53 yen. Weaker exports, normally the engine for Japan's economy in the face of weak domestic demand, had helped trigger a 0.1% contraction in the final three months of last year after two previous quarters of shrinking GDP. Only an exceptionally strong performance in the early months of 2004 kept the year as a whole from showing a decline. The output figures brought a cautiously optimistic response from economic officials. ""Overall I see a low risk of the economy falling into serious recession,"" said Bank of Japan chief Toshihiko Fukui, despite warning that other indicators - such as the growth numbers - had been worrying. Within the overall industrial output figure, there were signs of a pullback from the export slowdown. Among the best-performing sectors were key overseas sales areas such as cars, chemicals and electronic goods. With US growth doing better than expected the picture for exports in early 2005 could also be one of sustained demand. Electronics were also one of the keys to the improved domestic market, with products such as flat-screen TVs in high demand during January." +business,"Yukos sues four firms for $20bn Russian oil firm Yukos has sued four companies for their role in last year's forced state auction of its key oil production unit Yuganskneftegas. Yukos is claiming more than $20bn (£11bn) in damages after Yugansk was sold in December to settle back taxes. The four companies named in the law suit are gas giant Gazprom, its unit Gazpromneft, investment company Baikal, and state oil firm Rosneft. Yukos submitted the suit in Houston, where it filed for bankruptcy. As well as suing for damages, Yukos has asked the US court to send its tax dispute with the Russian government to an international arbitrator. It also has submitted a reorganisation plan as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The clash between Yukos and the Kremlin came to a head last year when Yukos was hit with a bill of more than $27bn in back taxes and unpaid fines. To settle the bill, Russia forced Yukos to sell off Yuganskneftegas. Yukos called the sale illegal and has turned to courts in the US in an effort to regain control of the oil production business. It also has vowed to use all legal means at its disposal to go after any firm that tries to buy or take control of its assets. Earlier this month it sued the Russian government for $28.3bn. Analysts have questioned whether a US court has any jurisdiction over Russian companies, while Moscow officials have dismissed Yukos' legal wrangling as meaningless. In Houston, bankruptcy Judge Letitia Clark will start a two-day hearing on 16 February to hear arguments on whether a US court is the proper forum for the case. The threat of legal action from Yukos and its bankruptcy filing in Houston did have an effect on last year's auction, however. Concerned that it would be caught up in a court battle, Gazprom and Gazpromneft withdrew from the auction, and Yuganskneftegas was sold to little-known investment firm Baikal Finance Group. A few days later, Baikal gave control of the company to state-run oil group Rosneft for $9.3bn. Rosneft, meanwhile, has agreed to merge with Gazprom, bringing a large chunk of Russia's very profitable oil business back under state control. Yukos claims that the rights of its shareholders have been ignored and that is has been punished for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Mr Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is in prison, having been charged with fraud and tax evasion and repeatedly denied bail." +business,"Wal-Mart to pay $14m in gun suit The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has agreed to pay a total of $14.5m (£7.74m) to settle a lawsuit over gun sales violations in California. The lawsuit alleged Wal-Mart committed thousands of gun sales violations in California between 2000 and 2003. The total payment includes $5m in fines and more than $4m to fund state compliance checks with gun laws and prevent ammunition sales to minors. Wal-Mart agreed to suspend firearms sales in its California stores in 2003, The alleged violations included the sale of guns to 23 people who were not allowed to possess them, and delivering 36 guns to customers who acquired them for people not allowed to own firearms. Although Wal-Mart has suspended firearms sales in the state, California attorney general Bill Lockyer said he wanted to be sure the giant supermarket chain would follow state rules in future. ""Wal-Mart's failure to comply with gun safety laws put the lives of all Californians at risk by placing guns in the hands of criminals and other prohibited persons,"" said Mr Lockyer. ""Although Wal-Mart has suspended gun sales in California, this settlement will ensure that it follows state law if it renews sales and will also provide valuable public education about the importance of gun safety."" The world's largest retailer has not yet decided whether to resume firearms sales in California, company spokesman Gus Whitcomb said." +business,"Bush to outline 'toughest' budget President Bush is to send his toughest budget proposals to date to the US Congress, seeking large cuts in domestic spending to lower the deficit. About 150 federal programs could be cut or axed altogether as part of a $2.5 trillion (£1.3 trillion) package aimed at curbing the giant US budget deficit. Defence spending will rise, however, while the proposals exclude the cost of continuing military operations in Iraq. Vice-President Dick Cheney said the budget was the ""tightest"" so far. At the heart of the administration's fifth budget, presented to Congress on Monday, is an austere package of domestic measures. These would see discretionary spending rise below the projected level of inflation. Such belt-tightening is designed to tackle the massive budget deficit increases of President Bush's first term. Mr Cheney admitted that the budget was the toughest of the Bush Presidency but argued it was ""fair and responsible"". ""It is not something we have done with a meat axe, nor are we suddenly turning our back on the most needy people in our society,"" he said. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, increased expenditure on national security after 9/11 and the 2001 recession wiped out the budget surplus inherited by President Bush in 2001 and turned it into a record deficit. The shortfall is projected to rise to $427bn in 2005. Education, environmental protection and transport initiatives are set to be scaled back as a first step towards reducing the deficit to $230bn by 2009. Most controversially, the government is seeking to cut the Medicaid budget, which provides health care to the nation's poorest, by $45bn and to reduce farm subsidies by $587m. Spending on defence and homeland security is set to increase, although not by as much as originally planned. President Bush's proposals would see the Pentagon's budget rise by $19bn to $419.3bn while homeland security would get an extra $2bn. The budget does not include the cost of running military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, for which the administration in expected to seek an extra $80bn from Congress later this year. Also not featuring in the proposals is the cost of funding the administration's radical proposed overhaul of social security provision. Some expects believe this could require borrowing of up to $4.5bn trillion over a twenty year period. Despite the Republicans holding a majority in both houses of Congress, the proposals will be fiercely contested over the next few months. John McCain, a Republican Senator, said he was pleased the administration was prepared to tackle the deficit. ""With the deficits that we are now running, I am glad the president is coming over with a very austere budget,"" he said. However, Democratic Senator Kent Conrad said the proposals exposed the country to huge financial commitments beyond 2009. ""The cost of everything he [President Bush] advocates explodes,"" he said." +business,"Libya takes $1bn in unfrozen funds Libya has withdrawn $1bn in assets from the US, assets which had previously been frozen for almost 20 years, the Libyan central bank has said. The move came after the US lifted a trade ban to reward Tripoli for giving up weapons of mass destruction and vowing to compensate Lockerbie victims. The original size of Libya's funds was $400m, the central bank told Reuters. However, the withdrawal did not mean that Libya had cut its ties with the US, he added. ""We are in the process of opening accounts in banks in the United States,"" the central bank's vice president Farhat Omar Ben Gadaravice said. The previously frozen assets had been invested in various countries and are believed to have included equity holdings in banks. The US ban on trade and economic activity with Tripoli - imposed by then president Ronald Regan in 1986 after a series of what the US deemed terrorist acts, including the 1988 Lockerbie air crash - was suspended in April. Bankers from the two country's had been working on how to unfreeze Libya's assets." +business,"Europe blames US over weak dollar European leaders have openly blamed the US for the sharp rise in the value of the euro. US officials were talking up the dollar, they said, but failing to take action to back up their words. Meeting in Brussels, finance ministers of the 12 eurozone countries voiced their concern that the rise of the european currency was harming exports. The dollar is within touching distance of an all-time low reached earlier in November. At 0619 GMT on Tuesday, the dollar was up slightly at just above $1.29 to the euro, and buying 105.6 yen in Tokyo. It rallied briefly on Monday amid signs that oil prices are easing. But analysts said the respite was likely to be only temporary. The European ministers' comments, said Junya Tanase of JPMorgan Chase bank in Tokyo, were ""generally too weak to produce a market reaction"". Still, by the standards of diplomacy the European ministers were forthright. Nicolas Sarkozy of France said he and his colleagues were unanimous in their worry that the decline of the dollar would hit Europe's economies by eating into their exports. ""We are concerned about these developments, which are destabilising, and which are linked to the accumulation of deficits by our American friends,"" he said. The comments come a day after US Treasury Secretary John Snow said a strong dollar was ""in America's interest"". But that was not enough for Mr Sarkozy. ""If the Americans were to change their policy, it's up to them to say so,"" he said. And the European Union's monetary affairs commissioner, made it clear that action was necessary. ""I fully welcome the words of Mr Snow,"" said Joaquin Almunia, ""but we will need to see decisions adopted in that direction. ""If the imbalances in the US economy are not adjusted in the future, the decision in the market will be as in the past weeks."" Economists point out that whatever Europe says, in the short term a weaker dollar is a boon to President George W Bush's administration. Not only does it boost US exports, but it also makes the budget deficit easier to fund. On the other hand, slower European exports would mean slower EU growth - potentially reducing the demand for US goods." +business,"Golden rule 'intact' says ex-aide Chancellor Gordon Brown will meet his golden economic rule ""with a margin to spare"", according to his former chief economic adviser. Formerly one of Mr Brown's closest Treasury aides, Ed Balls hinted at a Budget giveaway on 16 March. He said he hoped more would be done to build on current tax credit rules. Any rate rise ahead of an expected May election would not affect the Labour Party's chances of winning, he added. Last July, Mr Balls won the right to step down from his Treasury position and run for parliament, defending the Labour stronghold of Normanton in West Yorkshire. Mr Balls rejected the allegation that Mr Brown had been sidelined in the election campaign, saying he was playing a ""different"" role to the one he played in the last two elections. He rejected speculation that Mr Brown was considering becoming Foreign Secretary, saying his recent travels had been linked to efforts to boost international development. Gordon Brown's decision to announce the date of the Budget while on a trip to China was a ""sensible thing to do"", since he was talking about skills and investment at the time, Mr Balls told the BBC. Commenting on speculation of an interest rate rise, he said it was not within the remit of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to factor a potential election into its rate decisions. Expectations of a rate rise have gathered pace after figures showed that house prices are still rising. Consumer borrowing rose at a near-record pace in January. ""I don't believe it would be a big election issue in Britain or a problem for Labour,"" Mr Balls said. Prime Minister Tony Blair has yet to name the date of the election, but most pundits are betting on 5 May as the likely day." +business,"Glaxo aims high after profit fall GlaxoSmithKline saw its profits fall 9% last year to £6.2bn ($11.5bn), but Europe's biggest drugmaker says a recovery during 2005 is on the way. Cheap copies of its drugs, particularly anti-depressants Paxil and Wellbutrin, and a weak dollar had hit profits, but global sales were up 1% in 2004. The firm is confident its new drug pipeline will deliver profits despite the failure of an obesity drug. Chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier said it had been a ""difficult year"". In early afternoon trade in London the company share price was down 1% at 1218 pence. Mr Garnier said the company had absorbed over £1.5bn of lost sales to generics but still managing to grow the business. ""The continuing success of our key products means we can now look forward to a good performance in 2005,"" he said. ""2005 will also be an important year in terms of research and development pipeline progress."" However, the firm discontinued development of an experimental treatment for obesity, known as '771, after disappointing clinical trial results. Glaxo is relying on new treatments for conditions such as cancer, diabetes, depression, HIV/AIDS and allergies to lift the pace of sales growth after several disappointing years." +business,"India opens skies to competition India will allow domestic commercial airlines to fly long haul international routes, a move it hopes will stoke competition and drive down prices. However, only state controlled carriers will be able to fly the lucrative Gulf routes, to countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, for at least three years. Jet Airways and Air Sahara are the two companies that will benefit initially. India is looking to develop its airline industry as booming economic growth drives demand for travel. Monica Chadha, BBC Delhi reporter, said air travel in India had increased by almost 20% from the previous year and was expected to rise even further. Infrastructure development is lagging demand, however, and will have to improve. ""Most international airports in the country are shabby and ill-equipped to handle heavy air traffic,"" Ms Chada said, adding that while the Civil Aviation minister has promised to modernise and privatise airports little progress has been made. Steps have been take to move things forward and the government recently changed legislation that limited foreign investment in domestic airlines. It raised the maximum stake holding allowed to 49% from 40%. Local press, meanwhile, have reported that the US and India will start negotiations about adding more routes in January. Jet Airways is India's premier private domestic carrier; Air Sahara is ranked third in the category." +business,"Making your office work for you Our mission to brighten up your working lives continues - and this time, we're taking a long hard look at your offices. Over the next few months, our panel of experts will be listening to your gripes about where you work, and suggesting ways to make your workspace more efficient, more congenial or simply prettier. This week, we're hearing from Marianne Petersen, who is planning to convert a barn in Sweden into a base for her freelance writing work. Click on the link under her photograph to read her story, and then scroll down to see what the panel have to say. And if you want to take part in the series, go to the bottom of the story to find out how to get in touch. Working from home presents a multitude of challenges. Understanding your work personality allows you to work in terms of your own style. Do you feel confident about your work output without conferring with others? Are you able to retain discipline and self motivate to get the job done? Do you build on the ideas of others - or are you a more introspective problem solver?. In order for a virtual office to succeed, keeping the boundary between work and home life is essential. It may be useful to be quite rigid about who is allowed to visit, and to keep strict office hours. Referring to the space as work will give those around you a clear message that this is professional space. It is imperative to consider how to bring the outside world into yours, keeping up to date with developments and maintaining a network. Isolated work environments mean this has to be carefully thought out, and a strategy has to be developed that suits both your personality and your industry. Joining professional groups or forming a loose association of like-minded people may assist. It is useful to structure these meetings in advance as often they get relegated to less important status when times are busy - with the danger that when the workload eases, they have to be resurrected. Prior to any interior work being undertaken it is essential to ensure that the roof and walls are made water-and-weather-tight, and the structure is checked for stability. It appears that the roof trusses may need repairs and additional bracing. Ideally, the roof should be replaced with an outer material in keeping with the character and location of the barn. This would also allow for a well-insulated inner skin to be provided which should be light coloured. It is likely that the most efficient way of heating the building is with electricity. In order to provide this the owner will need to have an electrical engineer calculate the potential heating, power and lighting load to make sure the mains supply and distribution capacity are adequate. Ideally, it would be good to have a mains water supply and some means of drainage for toilet and washing facilities. The walls should be dry lined with a single skin of plasterboard laid over rockwool slab which will allow good wall insulation and the power and lighting circuits to be concealed, and the walls should be painted in a light colour. The owner mentions she might lay a new floor over the existing planks; this will improve the insulation and offer a level surface. I would suggest laying new oak veneer planks which can work in with the character of the barn. As for lighting, consider a combination of floor mounted uplights, wall lights (wall washers) and selected downlights. Use a combination of mains voltage fluorescent fittings and dimmable units which can vary the light levels and the feel of the interior. Please click on the link to the right here to see my ideas for Marianne's barn. The layout of this office reflects the need to have a working area and a more relaxed meeting space. Large desk space and extensive storage would combine with tub chairs to maximise the space available. The finishes chosen for the furniture will need to reflect the unusual setting, while the lighting and temperature control mechanisms used will further influence the workplace. Regarding accessing the internet via the connection in the main house, your plan of going wireless is sensible. A wireless router/access point in the house with a wireless LAN card in the PC in the renovated area may be sufficient. However, important points to consider are the distance between the two buildings and the nature of the materials through which the signals have to pass, which could result in a weak signal strength. You may require an additional wireless access point in the renovated area. Your local IT supplier will be able to advise on this. If you haven't already invested in robust firewall and anti-virus software, it is essential to do so, to protect your investment. To really take advantage of wireless technology, you might consider a laptop computer and a docking station with external mouse and monitor. Or you could use one of the new Tablet computers, which allow you to write directly on the screen and convert into text with built-in hand recognition software. And finally, you will save money and space by considering a multi-function product for print, scan, copy and fax." +business,"Battered dollar hits another low The dollar has fallen to a new record low against the euro after data fuelled fresh concerns about the US economy. The greenback hit $1.3516 in thin New York trade, before rallying to $1.3509. The dollar has weakened sharply since September when it traded about $1.20, amid continuing worries over the levels of the US trade and budget deficits. Meanwhile, France's finance minister has said the world faced ""economic catastrophe"" unless the US worked with Europe and Asia on currency controls. Herve Gaymard said he would seek action on the issue at the next meeting of G7 countries in February. Ministers from European and Asian governments have recently called on the US to strengthen the dollar, saying the excessively high value of the euro was starting to hurt their export-driven economies. ""It's absolutely essential that at the meeting of the G7 our American friends understand that we need coordinated management at the world level,"" said Mr Gaymard. Thursday's new low for the dollar came after data was released showing year-on-year sales of new homes in the US had fallen 12% in November - with some analysts saying this could indicate problems ahead for consumer activity. Commerce Department data also showed consumer spending - which drives two thirds of the US economy - grew just 0.2% last month. The figure was weaker than forecast - and fell short of the 0.8% rise in October. The official US policy is that it supports a strong dollar but many market observers believe it is happy to let the dollar fall because of the boost to its exporters. The US government has faced pressure from exporter organisations which have publicly stated the currency still has further to fall from ""abnormal and dangerous heights"" set in 2002. The US says it will let market forces determine the dollar's strength rather than intervene directly. Statements from President Bush in recent weeks highlighting his aim to cut the twin US deficits have prompted slight upturns in the currency. But while some observers said the quiet trade on Thursday had exacerbated small moves in the market, most agree the underlying trend remains downwards. The dollar has now fallen for a third consecutive year and analysts are forecasting a further, albeit less dramatic weakening, in 2005. ""I can see it finishing the year around $1.35 and we can see that it's going to be a steady track upward for the euro/dollar in 2005, finishing the year around $1.40,"" said Adrian Hughes, currency strategist with HSBC in London." +business,"S&N extends Indian beer venture The UK's biggest brewer, Scottish and Newcastle (S&N), is to buy 37.5% of India's United Breweries in a deal worth 4.66bn rupees ($106m:£54.6m). S&N will buy a 17.5% equity stake in United, maker of the well-known Kingfisher lager brand, and make a public offer to buy another 20% stake. A similar holding will be controlled by Vijay Mallya, chair of the Indian firm. The deal was a ""natural development"" of its joint venture with United, said Tony Froggatt, S&N's chief executive. Its top brands include Newcastle Brown Ale, Foster's, John Smith's, Strongbow and Kronenbourg. In 2002 S&N and United agreed to form a strategic partnership, one that would include a joint venture business and a UK investment in the Indian brewer. The joint venture was established in May 2003. with both parties having a 40% stake in the venture - Millennium Alcobev. Millennium Alcobev will now be merged with United, which expects post-merger to have about half of India's beer market. India, with a population of more than one billion, consumes about 1.2 billion bottles of beer every year. Kingfisher has market share of about 29%. In addition to the equity stake S&N is to invest 2.47bn rupees in United through non-convertible redeemable preference shares. Meanwhile, United's budget airline, Kingfisher Airlines, is to buy 10 A320 aircraft from Airbus and has the option to buy 20 more aircraft in a deal worth up to $1.8bn. The airline, the brainchild of Mr Mallya, expects to start its operations by the end of April. The new airline would break even in the very first year of operation, Mr Mallya said." +business,"Winter freeze keeps oil above $50 Oil prices carried on rising on Wednesday after cold weather on both sides of the North Atlantic pushed US crude prices to four-month highs. Freezing temperatures and heavy snowfalls took crude oil prices past $50 a barrel on Tuesday for the first time since November. Declines in the dollar have also contributed to the rising oil price. US crude was trading at $51.39 at 0710 GMT in Asian electronic trade on Wednesday. A barrel of US crude oil closed up $2.80 at $51.15 in New York on Tuesday. Opec members said on Tuesday that, given such high prices, the cartel saw no reason to cut its output. Although below last year's peak of $55.67 a barrel, which was reached in October, prices are now well above 2004's average of $41.48. Brent crude also rose in London trading, adding $1.89 to $48.62 at the close. Much of western Europe and the north east of America has been shivering under unseasonably low temperatures in recent days. The decline in the US dollar to a five-week low against the euro has also served to inflate prices. ""The primary factor is the weak dollar,"" said Victor Shum, a Singapore-based analyst with Purvin and Gertz. Expectations that a rebound in the dollar would halt the oil price rise were not immediately borne out on Wednesday morning, as oil prices carried on upwards as the dollar strengthened against the euro, the pound and the yen. Several Opec members said on Tuesday that a cut in production was unlikely, citing rising prices and strong demand for oil from Asia. ""I agree that we do not need to cut supply if the prices are as much as this,"" Fathi Bin Shatwan, Libya's oil minister, told Reuters. ""I do not think we need to cut unless the prices are falling below $35 a barrel,"" he added." +business,"Why few targets are better than many The economic targets set out at the Lisbon summit of European Union leaders in 2000 were meant to help Europe leapfrog its way past the United States to become the world's leading economy by 2010. But the Lisbon targets are about much more than just economic prestige. For many economists and analysts they are about ensuring Europe doesn't become a global economic laggard. They are also about ensuring Europe can continue to compete as an equal with the growing economic giants of Asia, India and China, as well as with the economic might of the United States. That's why there was a tone of urgency in the report, out on Wednesday, by the former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok. Mr Kok was commissioned by the European Commission in March this year to assess how far the EU has come towards meeting the Lisbon targets, five years on from their inception. His conclusion was simple: too many of the targets will be seriously missed. Lisbon risks becoming a ""synonym for missed objectives and failed promises"", his report said. ""The status quo is not an option."" At risk in the medium to long run is nothing less than the sustainability of the society Europe has built, it said. The report comes at a time when Europe's competitive position is waning. The EU's economic growth rate is projected to be 2% this year and 2.4% next. While there has been growth in overall employment rates in Europe, productivity lags behind that of the US. But meeting the Lisbon targets requires a political commitment that no EU member state has volunteered so far. That has in part been due to the state of the global economy in the past few years. As Mr Kok's report noted: ""The ink had scarcely dried on the [Lisbon] agreement before the worldwide stock market bubble imploded."" ""The US suffered two years of economic slowdown and recession and the European economy followed suit."" The circumstances weren't conducive to creating the 20 million new jobs promised by EU leaders in Lisbon in 2000. Neither were they conducive to getting governments to spend more on research and development, money needed if the EU was to meet its target of becoming a so-called ""knowledge-based economy"". ""The [Lisbon] vision is a compelling one, but in order to do it society has to change,"" said Paul Hofheinz of the Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based citizen action group. ""What you find is that a lot of people have been fighting change. You find trade unions fighting change. But also the employers' associations. ""Even though they tell you they're in favour of change, many are actually pushing for less competition, more subsidy and less free market activity."" But part of the problem was also linked to the original targets set out in Lisbon five years ago. Targets have a habit of coming back to haunt you and in the Lisbon case, they covered too much, according to the Wim report. Economic growth and job creation were linked to issues ranging from environmental protection to social inclusion, and even safety at sea. The agenda was just too broad and as a result nothing was prioritised. ""Lisbon is about everything and thus about nothing,"" the Kok report said. ""Everybody is responsible and thus no one."" That's why the Kok report recommends that the Lisbon targets be narrowed down to 14 key indicators, with an emphasis on creating jobs and economic growth. It also recommends that the European Commission draw up a league table which ranks countries according to the steps they're taking towards meeting the targets, effectively ""naming, shaming and faming"". ""Rhetoric and delivery don't necessarily go hand in hand,"" Mr Kok said in a press conference alongside the publication of his report. ""We don't have the luxury anymore just to exchange politeness with one another."" On one point Mr Kok was very clear: The European Union should not try to emulate the US economy. The European economic and social model needs to change, but not so much so that social and environmental issues take a backseat to economic growth. In that sense, the Lisbon agenda is sailing into unchartered waters. The Kok report tries to do away with a belief that jobs need to be sacrificed at the altar of economic growth. ""It's very ambitious,"" said John Palmer, political director at the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think-tank. ""This is something that no advanced economy in the world has tried to do. It's going to require quite new and innovative policies."" But some analysts believe that the Kok report doesn't come up with the sort of innovative policies and thinking needed to make the Lisbon targets a reality. For example, it recommends putting in place policies which encourage women and older people to remain in the workforce. But it doesn't say how companies should be convinced to do this. It will be up to the incoming president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, to adopt Mr Kok's recommendations and press them on EU governments. Mr Barroso has said that the EU's competitiveness will be his top priority. He expects his five-year term in office to be judged on Europe's success in meeting the Lisbon agenda." +business,"German bidder in talks with LSE Deutsche Boerse bosses have held ""constructive, professional and friendly"" talks with the London Stock Exchange (LSE), its chief has said. Werner Seifert met LSE chief executive Clara Furse amid rumours the German group may raise its bid to £1.5bn ($2.9bn) from its initial £1.3bn offer. However, rival suitor Euronext also upped the ante in the bid battle. Ahead of talks with the LSE on Friday, the pan-European bourse said it may be prepared to make its offer in cash. The Paris-based exchange, owner of Liffe in London, is reported to be ready to raise £1.4bn to fund a bid. The news came as Deutsche Boerse held its third meeting with the LSE since its bid approach in December which was turned down by the London exchange for undervaluing the business. However, the LSE did agree to leave the door open for talks to find out whether a ""significantly-improved proposal"" would be in the interests of LSE's shareholders and customers. In the meantime, Euronext, which combines the Paris, Amsterdam and Lisbon stock exchanges, also began talks with the LSE. In a statement on Thursday, Euronext said any offer was likely to be solely in cash, but added that: ""There can be no assurances at this stage that any offer will be made."" A deal with either bidder would create the biggest stock market operator in Europe and the second biggest in the world after the New York Stock Exchange. However, neither side has made a formal offer for the LSE, with sources claiming such a step may still be weeks away. Deutsche Boerse could also face mounting opposition to a bid at home. Among sweeteners reported to have been discussed by Mr Seifert with Ms Furse were plans to move the management of its cash and Eurex derivatives market to London, as well as two members of its executive board. But, Hans Reckers, a board member of Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, said that cash trading should also remain in Frankfurt, something Deutsche Boerse could move to the UK. ""It is not just the headquarters of the Boerse but also important market segments that must stay permanently in Frankfurt. This has special importance for the business activities of the banks and the consultants,"" he said. Local government officials in Frankfurt's state of Hessen have also spoken out against the move. ""It is our wish that the headquarters stay here to maintain Frankfurt's standing as the number one financial centre in continental Europe,"" Alois Rhiel, its minister for economic affairs added." +business,"Train strike grips Buenos Aires A strike on the Buenos Aires underground has caused traffic chaos and large queues at bus stops in the Argentine capital. Tube workers walked out last week demanding a 53% pay rise and in protest against the installation of automatic ticket machines. Metrovias, the private firm which runs the five tube lines in the city, has offered an 8% increase in wages. The firm promised no jobs would be lost as a result of new ticket machines. It said it would put this commitment on paper. Underground staff have warned they will continue with the protests until the management put an acceptable offer on the table. The Argentine Work Ministry has been mediating in the conflict and it could call an ""obligatory conciliation"", which would force both sides to find a solution and put an end to the conflict. Some tube commuters have not hidden their frustration at the ongoing strike and have broken the windows of the underground trains, according to the local press. ""We are taken as hostages. I don't know who is right, but the harm ones are us,"" said accountant Jose Lopez." +business,"WMC says Xstrata bid is too low Australian mining firm WMC Resources has said it is worth up to 30% more than a hostile 7.4bn Australian dollar ($5.8bn; £3bn) bid by rival Xstrata. There is now pressure on Swiss-based Xstrata to increase its takeover offer. A report from investment firm Grant Samuel in WMC defence documents values WMC shares at A$7.17 to A$8.24, against Xstrata's bid of A$6.35 a share. Analysts said the defence documents provided more details on WMC, and may trigger a possible rival bid. ""If a bid is going to emerge it is probably likely in the next one to two weeks,"" said Daiwa Securities analyst Mark Pervan. He said the valuation would put increased pressure on Xstrata to look at ""sweetening"" its offer. Marc Gonsalves, an executive at Xstrata, said: ""We will review the information contained in the target's statement over the next week or so."" He added: ""While we will review the assumptions made by Grant Samuel in detail, we are extremely sceptical of their conclusion, and suggest that WMC shareholders take extreme care in presuming that these optimistic assumptions are capable of being realised."" Last month Australia's competition watchdog said it would not oppose the purchase of WMC by Zurich and London-based Xstrata. On Tuesday, WMC chairman Tommie Bergman said in a statement the directors believed it was in shareholders' best interest to reject the offer. He said WMC would pursue ""value-creating options"" provided by a portfolio of ""world class assets"". And WMC chief executive Andrew Michelmore claimed the Xstrata offer was aimed at creating value for Xstrata's shareholders, and was not being made for the benefit of WMC's shareholders. Grant Samuel said its valuation of WMC was based on lower average prices for nickel, copper and uranium than current market levels. ""Any longer term commodity price improvements would only improve our outlook,"" Mr Michelmore said. In 2003 Xstrata acquired Australia's largest copper miner - MIM Holdings. WMC Resources is the world's third-largest producer of concentrated nickel, and also a miner of copper and uranium. It owns the Olympic Dam mine in South Australia, which contains about one-third of the world's known uranium resources and is also the world's fourth largest copper mine. Xstrata is a global mining giant with operations in Australia, South Africa, Spain, Germany, Argentina and the UK. Its core products are copper, coking coal, thermal coal, ferrochrome, vanadium and zinc. It also has growing businesses in gold, lead and silver." +business,"Karachi stocks hit historic high The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) has recorded its largest single day gain, surging 3.5% to a new high. The index rose 225.79 points in four hours of furious trading, with many investors optimistic that political stability could bring an economic boom. The KSE index closed at 6709.93 - an overall gain of nearly 400 points in the first two trading days of the week. Energy and telecommunication stocks performed particularly well, recording an 8%-10% rise since Monday morning. In 2002, the KSE was the world's best performing stock market, with the index rising 112%. Pakistani investors are expecting the KSE to repeat, if not improve on, its 2002 performance. Jubilant investors danced on the streets as the market closed for the day on Tuesday, confident that the boom will continue at least until the public holiday on 22 January. Others, however, who had stayed out fearing an imminent collapse because of prices overheating, continued to warn that the ""bubble may burst any time"". ""That's rubbish,"" KSE chairman Yaseen Lakhani told the BBC News website. ""Whenever the market reflects Pakistan's true economic reality, it is described as a bubble."" Mr Lakhani feels that the market has risen on the basis of solid economic growth and its current level rests on sound foundations. Market analysts are inclined to agree with Mr Lakhani, arguing that there are a number of major factors behind the KSE's performance. Analysts argue that a steady improvement in Pakistan's credit ratings by international credit rating agencies has finally begun to register in the market. Standard & Poor's upgraded Pakistan a few weeks ago. There are indications of yet another upgrade by the end of February. Then, say analysts, there is corporate profitability in the current fiscal year, which has gone up by 27% from last year. ""Coupled with the 7% GDP growth expected by June this year, I am least surprised at the market's performance,"" says Mr Lakhani. One leading Karachi broker said the real reasons may be political. ""If you file a $1.3 trillion case against Saudi money after 9/11, Arab money will not go to the US any more."" A lot of Arab money, he says, has already gone to Malaysia and Indonesia. Pakistanis are now hoping that energy and telecoms, two of the strongest sectors in Pakistan, draw some of the Arab money to the KSE. Locally, too, say analysts, recent political developments have worked to the market's advantage. An anti-Musharraf campaign threatened by the MMA, a countrywide alliance of religious parties, has fizzled out. The release of Asif Zardari, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's husband, has eased political tensions between the military-backed government and the opposition Pakistan People's Party. Most importantly, say analysts, the failure of talks between India and Pakistan on the Baglihar dam in Indian-administered Kashmir has not automatically led to heightened tensions. This, they say, indicates that neither country is interested in raising the temperature at this stage, irrespective of the state of their disagreements. The market is abuzz with speculation that substantial investment may now start to flow in from the US, a country seen locally as deeply interested in defusing tensions between the South Asian neighbours. ""You can call it a peace dividend,"" smiles one broker. ""Let us see how long one can reap its benefits.""" +business,"Yukos drops banks from court bid Russian oil company Yukos has dropped the threat of legal action against five banks it had accused of involvement in the sale of its key Yugansk unit. State-owned Rosneft bought the unit for $9.3bn (£5bn) after Yukos was forced to sell assets to meet a $27.5bn tax bill. Yukos says the sale was illegal and is pursuing damages in a US court. Its lawyers now accept ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Calyon, JP Morgan Chase Bank, and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein were not involved in the sale financing. However, Yukos still has an outstanding complaint against Deutsche Bank, which it alleges to be the leader of a consortium that was behind a bid for Yugansk by state gas monopoly Gazprom. The company has also accused Gazprom, the Russian Federation and two other Russian firms. Gazprom had been expected to win the December auction, but ended up not bidding. Yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company, which in turn was bought by Rosneft. Yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The firm, whose finance chief is now based in the US, filed for bankruptcy in Houston, Texas, and sought a court injunction against the sale. But Deutsche Bank has suggested Yukos artificially manufactured a legal case to stop the sale of its main asset. A hearing scheduled for February 16 and 17 will rule on whether the US court has jurisdiction in the case." +business,"Durex maker SSL awaits firm bid UK condom maker SSL International has refused to comment on reports it may be subject to a takeover early in 2005. A Financial Times report said business intelligence firm GPW was understood to be starting due diligence work on SSL International, for a corporate client. An spokesman for SSL, which makes the famous Durex brand of condom, would not to comment on ""market speculation"". However the news sent shares in SSL, which also makes Scholl footwear, up more than 6%, or 16.75 pence to 293.5p. The FT said most the high-profile firm that might woo SSL was Anglo-Dutch household products group Reckitt Benckiser. Eighteen months ago Reckitt Benckiser was at the centre of a rumoured takeover bid for SSL - but that came to nothing. Other firms that have been seen as would-be suitors include Kimberly-Clark, Johnson & Johnson, and private equity investors. Analysts have seen SSL as a takeover target for years. It sold off its surgical gloves and antiseptics businesses for £173m to a management team in May. SSL was formed by a three-way merger between Seton Healthcare, footwear specialists Scholl and condom-maker London International Group. Its other brands include Syndol analgesic, Meltus cough medicine, Sauber compression hosiery and deodorant products, and Mister Baby." +business,"Parmalat sues 45 banks over crash Parmalat has sued 45 banks as it tries to reclaim money paid to banks before the scandal-hit Italian dairy company went bust last year. The firm collapsed with debts of about 14bn euros ($19bn; £10bn) and new boss Enrico Bondi has already taken legal action against a number of lenders. He claims the banks were aware of the problems but continued to work with the company so they could earn commissions. Parmalat has not identified which banks it has gone after this time. Under Italian law, administrators can seek to get back money paid to financial institutions prior to insolvency, if there is a suspicion that the institutions knew that the company was in financial trouble. The firm also said it is preparing further law suits. According to the Reuters news agency, 35 of the companies sued on Thursday are Italian while the remaining 10 are international. The unidentified Parmalat source also told Reuters that the company was planning to take action against a total of 80 financial institutions. Among those already targeted are Bank of America, UBS, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. It has also gone after auditors Grant Thornton. They have all denied any wrongdoing. Parmalat was declared insolvent in December 2003 after it emerged that 4bn euros thought to be held in an offshore account did not in fact exist. In the investigation that followed it became apparent that the company, among other things, had been billing clients twice in order to boost sales and bolster the balance sheet. That enabled Parmalat to borrow heavily and expand overseas, allowing it to become a darling of the Italian stock exchange." +business,"Umbro profits lifted by Euro 2004 UK sportswear firm Umbro has posted a 222% rise in annual profit after sales of replica England football kits were boosted by the Euro 2004 tournament. Pre-tax profit for 2004 was £15.4m ($29.4m). Umbro, which recently lost sponsorship deals with Chelsea and Celtic, said on Thursday it had signed a new four-year agreement with Scottish club Rangers. It hopes 2005 sales will benefit from the launch of a new England replica shirt ahead of the 2006 World Cup. In January, Umbro announced its sponsorship agreement with Chelsea, which gave Umbro the lucrative right to make replica shirts, would end in 2006, five years earlier than expected. The firm, which is to receive a payment from Chelsea of £24.5m, said it is ""appraising a number of additional investment opportunities as a result of this compensation"" . Chief executive Peter McGuigan said the firm plans to grow sales both in the UK and internationally. The firm, reporting its first annual results since listing on the London Stock Exchange in June, said the UK market had seen sales growth of 8% last year. It said the launch of its Evolution X fashion range had boosted sales. Umbro supplies more than 150 teams across the world including the national sides of Ireland, Sweden and Norway. Shares in Umbro were up 1.76% at 115.5 pence in morning trade." +business,"Disaster claims 'less than $10bn' Insurers have sought to calm fears that they face huge losses after an earthquake and giant waves killed at least 38,000 people in southern Asia. Munich Re and Swiss Re, the world's two biggest reinsurers, have said exposure will be less than for other disasters. Rebuilding costs are likely to be cheaper than in developed countries, and many of those affected will not have insurance, analysts said. Swiss Re has said total claims are likely to be less than $10bn (£5.17bn). Swiss Re believes that the cost would be substantial but that it is unlikely to be in double-digit billions, the Financial Times reported. Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurance company, said that its exposure is less than 100m euros (£70m; $136m). At least 10 countries have been affected, with Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and Thailand among the worst hit. The region's resorts and Western tourists are expected to be among the main claimants. Lloyds of London told the Financial Times it expected its exposure to be limited to ""holiday resorts, personal accident, travel insurance and marine risks"". A spokeswoman for Hanover Re, Europe's fifth-largest reinsurance firm, estimated tsunami-related damage claims would be in the low double-digit millions of euros. The company has paid out about 300 million euros (£281m; $400m) to cover damage caused recently by four major hurricanes in the US. But insurers have not had long to assess the economic impact of the damage and reports of more casualties and destruction are still coming through. ""So many things are unclear, it is just too early to tell,"" said Serge Troeber, deputy head of Swiss Re's natural disasters department. ""You need very complicated processes to estimate damages. Unlike the hurricanes, you can't just run a model."" He anticipated that his own company's total claims would be less then those from the hurricanes, which the company put at $640m. Allianz, a leading German insurer, said it did not know yet what its exposure would be. However, it said the tidal waves were unlikely to have a ""significant"" impact on its business. Zurich Financial said they could not yet assess the cost of the disaster. The impact on US insurance companies is not expected to be heavy, analysts said. Most US insurers have relatively little exposure to Asia and those that do, pass on a lot of the risk to reinsurance companies or special catastrophe funds. Insured damage could be a fraction of the ""billions of dollars worth of destruction in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldive Islands and Malaysia,"" said Prudential Equity Group insurance analyst Jay Gelb. ""US insurers are likely to have only minimal to no exposure. It's more likely the Bermuda-based reinsurance [companies] might have some exposure,"" said Paul Newsome, an insurance analyst at AG Edwards & Co. Many of the affected countries, such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka or the Maldives, do not usually buy insurance for these kinds of disasters, said a US-based insurance expert. Early estimates from the World Bank put the amount of aid needed for the worst affected countries including Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Thailand, at about $5bn (£2.6bn), similar to the cash offered to Central America after Hurricane Mitch. Mitch killed about 10,000 people and caused damage of about $10bn in 1998. But the cost of the tsunamis on the individuals involved is incalculable. ""We cannot fathom the cost of these poor societies and the nameless fishermen and fishing villages ... that have just been wiped out. Hundreds of thousands of livelihoods have gone,"" said Jan Egeland, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Tourists cutting short their holidays in affected areas may suffer a financial impact too. The Association of British insurers warned that travel insurance does not normally cover cutting short a holiday. It said loss of possessions will usually be covered, but the Association stressed the importance of checking the wording of travel policies." +business,"S Korea spending boost to economy South Korea will boost state spending next year in an effort to create jobs and kick start its sputtering economy. It has earmarked 100 trillion won ($96bn) for the first six months of 2005, 60% of its total annual budget. The government's main problems are ""slumping consumption and a contraction in the construction industry"". It aims to create 400,000 jobs and will focus on infrastructure and home building, as well as providing public firms with money to hire new workers. The government has set an economic growth rate target of 5% for next year and hinted that would be in danger unless it took action. ""Internal and external economic conditions are likely to remain unfavourable in 2005,"" the Finance and Economy Ministry said in a statement. It blamed ""continuing uncertainties such as fluctuating oil prices and foreign exchange rates and stagnant domestic demand that has shown few signs of a quick rebound"". In 2004, growth will be between 4.7% and 4.8%, the ministry said. Not everyone is convinced the plan will work. ""Our primary worry centres on the what we believe is the government's overly optimistic view that its front loading of the budget will be enough to turn the economy around,"" consultancy 4Cast said in a report. The problem facing South Korea is that many consumers are reeling from the effects of a credit bubble that only recently burst. Millions of South Koreans are defaulting on their credit card bills, and the country's biggest card lender has been hovering on the verge of bankruptcy for months. As part of its spending plans, the government said it will ask firms to ""roll over mortgage loans that come due in the first half of 2005"" . It also pledged to look at ways of helping families on low incomes. The government voiced concern about the effect of redundancies in the building trade. ""Given the economic spill over and employment effect in the construction sector, a sharp downturn in the construction industry could have other adverse effects,"" the ministry said. As a result, South Korea will give private companies also will be given the chance to build schools, hospitals, houses and other public buildings. It also will look at real estate tax system. Other plans on the table include promoting new industries such as bio-technology and nano-technology, as well as offering increased support to small and medium sized businesses. ""The focus will be on job creation and economic recovery, given that unfavourable domestic and global conditions are likely to dog the Korean economy in 2005,"" the ministry said." +business,"Jobs go at Oracle after takeover Oracle has announced it is cutting about 5,000 jobs following the completion of its $10.3bn takeover of its smaller rival Peoplesoft last week. The company said it would retain more than 90% of Peoplesoft product development and product support staff. The cuts will affect about 9% of the 55,000 staff of the combined companies. Oracle's 18-month fight to acquire Peoplesoft was one of the most drawn-out and hard-fought US takeover battles of recent times. The merged companies are set to be a major force in the enterprise software market, second only in size to Germany's SAP. In a statement, Oracle said it began notifying staff of redundancies on Friday and the process would continue over the next 10 days. ""By retaining the vast majority of Peoplesoft technical staff, Oracle will have the resources to deliver on the development and support commitments we have made to Peoplesoft customers over the last 18 months,"" Oracle's chief executive Larry Ellison said in a statement. Correspondents say 6,000 job losses had been expected - and some suggest more cuts may be announced in future. They say Mr Ellison may be trying to placate Peoplesoft customers riled by Oracle's determined takeover strategy. Hours before Friday's announcement, there was a funereal air at Peoplesoft's headquarters, reported AP news agency. A Peoplesoft sign had been turned into shrine to the company, with flowers, candles and company memorabilia. ""We're mourning the passing of a great company,"" the agency quoted Peoplesoft worker David Ogden as saying. Other employees said they would rather be sacked than work for Oracle. ""The new company is going to be totally different,"" said Anil Aggarwal, Peoplesoft's director of database markets. ""Peoplesoft had an easygoing, relaxed atmosphere. Oracle has an edgy, aggressive atmosphere that's not conducive to innovative production."" On the news, Oracle shares rose 15 cents - 1.1% - on Nasdaq. In after-hours trading the shares did not move." +business,"Safety alert as GM recalls cars The world's biggest carmaker General Motors (GM) is recalling nearly 200,000 vehicles in the US on safety grounds, according to federal regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the largest recall involves 155,465 pickups, vans and sports utility vehicles (SUVs). This is because of possible malfunctions with the braking systems. The affected vehicles in the product recall are from the 2004 and 2005 model years, GM said. Those vehicles with potential faults are the Chevrolet Avalanche, Express, Kodiak, Silverade and Suburban; the GMC Savana, Sierra and Yukon. The NHTSA said a pressure accumulator in the braking system could crack during normal driving and fragments could injure people if the hood was open. This could allow hydraulic fluid to leak, which could make it harder to brake or steer and could cause a crash, it warned. GM is also recalling 19,924 Cadillac XLR coupes, SRX SUVs and Pontiac Grand Prix sedans from the 2004 model year. This is because the accelerator pedal may not work properly in extremely cold temperatures, requiring more braking. In addition, the car giant is calling back 17,815 Buick Raniers, Chevrolet Trailblazers, GMC Envoys and Isuzu Ascenders from the 2005 model years because the windshield is not properly fitted and could fall out in a crash. However, GM stressed that it did not know of any injuries related to the problems. News of the recall follows an announcement last month that GM expects earnings this year be lower than in 2004. The world's biggest car maker is grappling with losses in its European business, weak US sales and now a product recall. In January, GM said higher healthcare costs in North America, and lower profits at its financial services subsidiary would hurt its performance in 2005." +business,"Iranian MPs threaten mobile deal Turkey's biggest private mobile firm could bail out of a $3bn ($1.6bn) deal to build a network in Iran after MPs there slashed its stake in the project. Conservatives in parliament say Turkcell's stake in Irancell, the new network, should be cut from 70% to 49%. They have already given themselves a veto over all foreign investment deals, following allegations about Turkish firms' involvement in Israel. Turkcell now says it may give up on the deal altogether. Iran currently has only one heavily congested mobile network, with long waiting lists for new subscribers. Turkcell signed a contract for the new network in September. The new operator planned to offer subscriptions for about $180, well below the existing firm's $500 price tag. But a parliamentary commission has now ruled that Turkcell's 70% controlling stake is too high. They say that Turkcell is a security risk because of alleged business ties with Israel. Parliament as a whole - dominated by religious conservatives - will vote on the ruling on Tuesday. Turkcell said the ruling would ""make more difficult... Turkcell's financial consolidation of Irancell"" because its stake would be reduced to less than 50%. ""If management control and financial consolidation of Irancell cannot be achieved... the realisation of the project will become risky,"" it warned in a statement. The firm has refused to comment on whether it has business dealings in Israel, although like almost all GSM operators worldwide it has an interconnection deal with Israeli networks so that its customers can use their phones there. The two countries strengthened ties in both defence and economic issues in 2004. Israeli industry minister Ehud Olmert was reported in June to have attended a meeting between Ruhi Dogusoy, Turkcell's chief operating officer, and executives from Israeli telecoms firms. Telecoms is one of two areas specifically targeted by the new veto law on foreign investments, passed earlier in September. The other is airports, a source of controversy after the army closed Tehran's new Imam Khomeini International Airport on its opening day in May 2004. Again, the allegation was that the part-Turkish TAV consortium which built and ran it had links with Israel." +business,"Peugeot deal boosts Mitsubishi Struggling Japanese car maker Mitsubishi Motors has struck a deal to supply French car maker Peugeot with 30,000 sports utility vehicles (SUV). The two firms signed a Memorandum of Understanding, and say they expect to seal a final agreement by Spring 2005. The alliance comes as a badly-needed boost for loss-making Mitsubishi, after several profit warnings and poor sales. The SUVs will be built in Japan using Peugeot's diesel engines and sold mainly in the European market. Falling sales have left Mitsubishi Motors with underused capacity, and the production deal with Peugeot gives it a chance to utilise some of it. In January, Mitsubishi Motors issued its third profits warning in nine months, and cut its sales forecasts for the year to March 2005. Its sales have slid 41% in the past year, catalysed by the revelation that the company had systematically been hiding records of faults and then secretly repairing vehicles. As a result, the Japanese car maker has sought a series of financial bailouts. Last month it said it was looking for a further 540bn yen ($5.2bn; £2.77bn) in fresh financial backing, half of it from other companies in the Mitsubishi group. US-German carmaker DaimlerChrylser, a 30% shareholder in Mitsubishi Motors, decided in April 2004 not to pump in any more money. The deal with Peugeot was celebrated by Mitsubishi's newly-appointed chief executive Takashi Nishioka, who took over after three top bosses stood down last month to shoulder responsibility for the firm's troubles. Mitsubishi Motors has forecast a net loss of 472bn yen in its current financial year to March 2005. Last month, it signed a production agreement with Japanese rival Nissan Motor to supply it with 36,000 small cars for sale in Japan. It has been making cars for Nissan since 2003." +business,"UK economy ends year with spurt The UK economy grew by an estimated 3.1% in 2004 after accelerating in the last quarter of the year, says the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figure is in line with Treasury and Bank of England forecasts. The ONS says gross domestic product (GDP) rose by a strong 0.7% in the three months to 31 December, compared with 0.5% in the previous quarter. The rise came despite a further decline in production output and the worst Christmas for retailers in decades. The annual figure marked out the best year since 2000, and was also well ahead of the 2.2% recorded in 2003. Growth in the final three months of 2004 marked the 50th consecutive quarter of expansion. ""On the basis of the latest information the UK has entered 2005 on course to continue its record period of growth,"" said Paul Boateng, chief secretary to the Treasury in a statement. The ONS said the services sector, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of the UK economy, grew 1.0% in the quarter. The strong services figure was welcomed by analysts, given lacklustre retail sales in December and across the Christmas holiday period. ""The fact that other services components are doing so well suggests to me that we are back to trend (growth) and I am not particularly concerned about any further slowdown,"" said Ross Walker, UK economist at RBS Financial Markets. However, output in the production sector contracted 0.5%, the second quarterly fall in row and a state of affairs that some economists classify as a recession. However the ONS would not comment on the definition of a recession and whether the manufacturing recovery was over. But Steve Radley, chief economist at the manufacturers' organisation EEF, said: ""These figures remain at odds with what is actually happening on the ground. ""Whilst companies may be experiencing tougher conditions this year, 'recession' is not a word that manufacturers would currently recognise."" The ONS said a sharp fall in mining and quarrying, which was driven by oil and gas extraction, was primarily responsible for the overall contraction in manufacturing production figures. Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at Gerrard, said: ""This outturn (of 0.7%) was well ahead of the market expectations and cast doubt on the scare stories doing the rounds surrounding the current state of the UK economy."" And he said the GDP figures may help to ""push interest rate expectations a little higher along the curve"". ""The suggestion from the money markets is that the next move is now more likely to be in an upward rather than a downward direction. This is consistent with our own thinking,"" said Mr Rubinsohn. The Bank of England's nine-strong rate-setting committee voted unanimously earlier this month to keep interest rates steady at 4.75%, minutes of the meeting showed on Wednesday." +business,"Bad weather hits Nestle sales A combination of bad weather, rising raw material costs and the sluggish European economy has hit sales at Swiss food and drink giant Nestle. Revenue dipped 1.4% to 86.7bn Swiss francs ($74.6bn; £39.1bn) in 2004 as sales of ice cream and mineral water were dampened by the wet summer. However, Nestle's profits margins were helped by a strong performance in the Americas and China. Nestle is to raise its dividend by 11% after paying back some of its debt. Nestle said that the strength of the Swiss franc against the US dollar, the disposal of businesses and challenging trading conditions in Europe all dented sales. A poor summer across the continent - in contrast to the prolonged heat wave in 2003 - ""severely affected"" demand for ice cream. Sales of bottled water also fell, although chocolate, coffee, frozen goods and petcare products performed better. Elsewhere, Nestle said it had enjoyed an ""exceptional"" year in North America, outperforming the market in terms of sales growth. Nestle added that it had performed strongly in Africa and Asia despite the impact of high oil prices and political instability. Nestle's total earnings before interest remained broadly flat over the past year, despite the company managing to boost profit margins. As well as increasing its dividend, Nestle plans to buy back shares worth 1bn Swiss francs ($861m; £451m). Looking forward, Nestle forecasts organic earnings growth of about 5% in 2005, although it warned that trading would remain just as competitive. Uncertainty remains over the future of Perrier, the iconic French mineral water owned by Nestle. Perrier has been locked in a long-standing dispute with unions about productivity levels at the business, which has lead Nestle to consider selling the firm. ""The option of selling is Perrier is still on the table,"" chief executive Peter Brabeck-Letmathe confirmed on Thursday." +business,"Card fraudsters 'targeting web' New safeguards on credit and debit card payments in shops has led fraudsters to focus on internet and phone payments, an anti-fraud agency has said. Anti-fraud consultancy Retail Decisions says 'card-not-present' fraud, where goods are paid for online or by phone, has risen since the start of 2005. The introduction of 'chip and pin' cards has tightened security for transactions on the High Street. But the clampdown has caused fraudsters to change tack, Retail Decisions said. The introduction of chip and pin cards aimed to cut down on credit card fraud in stores by asking shoppers to verify their identity with a confidential personal pin number, instead of a signature. Retail Decisions chief executive Carl Clump told the BBC that there was ""no doubt"" that chip and pin would ""reduce card fraud in the card-present environment"". ""However, it is important to monitor what happens in the card-not-present environment as fraudsters will turn their attention to the internet, mail order, telephone order and interactive TV,"" he said. ""We have seen a 22% uplift in card-not-present fraud here in the UK... since the start of the year. ""Fraud doesn't just disappear, it mutates to the next weakest link in the chain,"" he said. Retail Decisions' survey on the implementation of chip and pin found that shoppers had adapted easily to the new system, but that banks' performance in distributing the new cards had been patchy, at best. ""The main issue is that not everyone has the pins they need,"" said Mr Clump. Nearly two thirds - 65% - of the 1,000 people interviewed said they had used chip and pin to make payments. Of these, 83% were happy with the experience, though nearly a quarter said they struggled to remember their pin number. However, only 34% said they had received replacement cards with the necessary 'chip' technology from all their card providers. Furthermore, 16% said that none of their cards had been replaced, while 30% said only some had. UK shoppers spent £5.3bn on plastic cards in 2003, the last full year for which figures are available from the Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs). Altogether, card scams on UK-issued cards totalled £402.4m in 2003. Card-not-present fraud rose an annual 6% to £116.4m, making it the biggest category even then. Within this, internet fraud totalled £43m, Apacs' figures show." +business,"Nortel in $300m profit revision Telecoms equipment maker Nortel Networks has sharply revised downwards its profits for the 2003 fiscal year. In a long-awaited filing, Nortel said it had made $434m (£231m), compared to the previously reported $732m. But the figures - revised after an audit which led to the sacking of the Canadian firm's chief - showed revenue was about 4% higher than first thought. Nortel shares, which have lost nearly 50% of their value since last year, climbed 1.46% in Toronto on Tuesday. Nortel's head Frank Dunn and two other executives were fired in January last year after the company announced it had conducted the internal audit. Securities and police authorities in both the US and Canada are still conducting inquiries into the accounts. Nortel also issued new figures for the 2001-2002 period, which they had previously indicated had understated losses. ""With the completion of our restatements we have a solid foundation on which to move forward with our business,"" said Nortel president and chief executive Bill Owens. ""The restatement has been a monumental task, both complex and demanding."" The company also said 12 senior executives - none of whom were involved directly in the accounting of the revised figures - have voluntarily agreed to repay to bonuses awarded in 2003 totalling $8.6m. Nortel added: ""these members of the core executive team share the board's deep disappointment over the circumstances that led to the restatement.""" +business,"Record year for Chilean copper Chile's copper industry has registered record earnings of $14.2bn in 2004, the governmental Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco) has reported. Strong demand from China's fast-growing economy and high prices have fuelled production, said Cochilco vice president Patricio Cartagena. He added that the boom has allowed the government to collect $950m in taxes. Mr Cartagena said the industry expects to see investment worth $10bn over the next three years. ""With these investments, clearly we are going to continue being the principle actor in the mining of copper. It's a consolidation of the industry with new projects and expansions that will support greater production."" Australia's BHP Billiton - which operates La Escondida, the world's largest open pit copper mine - is planning to invest $1.9bn between now and 2007, while state-owned Codelco will spend about $1bn on various projects. Chile, the biggest copper producer in the world, is now analyzing ways of to keep prices stable at their current high levels, without killing off demand or leading customers to look for substitutes for copper. The copper price reached a 16-year high in October 2004. Production in Chile is expected rise 3.5% in 2005 to 5.5 million tonnes, said Mr Cartagena. Cochilco expects for 2005 a slight reduction on copper prices and forecasts export earnings will fall 10.7%." +business,"Crossrail link 'to get go-ahead' The £10bn Crossrail transport plan, backed by business groups, is to get the go-ahead this month, according to The Mail on Sunday. It says the UK Treasury has allocated £7.5bn ($13.99bn) for the project and that talks with business groups on raising the rest will begin shortly. The much delayed Crossrail Link Bill would provide for a fast cross-London rail link. The paper says it will go before the House of Commons on 23 February. A second reading could follow on 16 or 17 March. ""We've always said we are going to introduce a hybrid Bill for Crossrail in the Spring and this remains the case,"" the Department for Transport said on Sunday. Jeremy de Souza, a spokesman for Crossrail, said on Sunday he could not confirm whether the Treasury was planning to invest £7.5bn or when the bill would go before Parliament. However, he said some impetus may have been provided by the proximity of an election. The new line would go out as far as Maidenhead, Berkshire, to the west of London, and link Heathrow to Canary Wharf via the City. Heathrow to the City would take 40 minutes, dramatically cutting journey times for business travellers, and reducing overcrowding on the tube. The line has the support of the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, business groups and the government, but there have been three years of arguments over how it should be funded. The Mail on Sunday's Financial Mail said the £7.5bn of Treasury money was earmarked for spending in £2.5bn instalments in 2010, 2011 and 2012." +business,"Venezuela identifies 'idle' farms Venezuelan authorities have identified more than 500 farms, including 56 large estates, as idle as it continues with its controversial land reform policy. Under a 2001 land law, the government can tax or seize unused farm sites. A further 40,000 farms are yet to be inspected, the state's National Land Institute has told Associated Press. Vice president Jose Vicente Rangel has said farmers and ranchers with their titles in order and their lands productive have ""nothing to fear."" Critics of the land reform policy claim president Hugo Chavez is trying to enforce a communist-style economic programme that ignores property rights and will damage the country. Land owners claim the National Land Institute has made mistakes in classifying lands as public or private. But the government - Venezuela's largest land owner - say they are proceeding cautiously to prevent conflicts. In a statement, Mr Rangel said the land reform is not against the constitution, which permits private property, while stressing the efforts are to ""vindicate social and economically"" years of inequality in the country. One property in conflict with the government is the El Charcote cattle ranch, run by Agroflora, a subsidiary of the UK food group Vestey. Agriculture minister Arnoldo Marquez told Reuters news agency the site's documents ""do not guarantee that this is a private land"". Administrators of the ranch, however, have complained that pro-Chavez squatters have taken over 80% of the property in the last four years, and the UK government has asked Venezuelan authorities to resolve the conflict. ""You should ask the company when they are going to put their papers in order and hand over the land that is not theirs,"" said Mr Marquez." +business,"Ex-Boeing director gets jail term An ex-chief financial officer at Boeing has received a four-month jail sentence and a fine of $250,000 (£131,961) for illegally hiring a top Air Force aide. Michael Sears admitted his guilt in breaking conflict of interest laws by recruiting Darleen Druyun while she still handled military contracts. Ms Druyun is currently serving a nine month sentence for favouring Boeing when awarding lucrative contracts. Boeing lost a $23bn government contract after a Pentagon inquiry into the case. The contract, to provide refuelling tankers for the US Air Force, was cancelled last year. The Pentagon revealed earlier this week that it would examine eight other contracts worth $3bn which it believes may have been tainted by Ms Druyun's role in the procurement process. Boeing sacked Mr Sears and Ms Druyun in November 2003 after allegations that they had violated company recruitment policy. Ms Druyun had talks with Mr Sears in October 2002 about working for Boeing, while she was still a top procurement official within the Pentagon. She subsequently joined the company in January 2003. Ms Druyun admitted that she had steered multi-billion dollar contracts to Boeing and other favoured companies. In documents filed in a Virginia court ahead of Mr Sears' sentencing, prosecutors blamed Boeing's senior management for failing to ask key questions about the ""legal and ethical issues"" surrounding Ms Druyun's appointment. Mr Sears told prosecutors that no other Boeing officials were aware that Ms Druyun was still responsible for major procurement decisions at the time she was discussing a job with Boeing. However, analysts believe Boeing may yet face civil charges arising from the scandal. The Pentagon has investigated 400 contracts, dating back to 1993, since the allegations against Ms Druyun came to light. Boeing's corporate ethics have come under scrutiny on several occasions in recent years. Boeing was sued by Lockheed Martin after its rival accused it of industrial espionage during a 1998 contract competition. Boeing apologised publicly for the affair - although it claimed it did not gain any unfair advantage - and pledged to improve its procedures. The Pentagon subsequently revoked $1bn worth of contracts assigned to Boeing and prohibited the Seattle-based company from future rocket work." +business,"Survey confirms property slowdown Government figures have confirmed a widely reported slowdown of the UK's housing market in late 2004. House prices were 11.8% higher on the year in the last quarter of 2004, down from 16.3% in the July-to-September quarter, the Land Registry said. The average house price in England and Wales was £182,920, down from £187,971 in July-September. The volume of sales between October and December dropped by nearly a quarter from the same period in 2003. The government figures are the first official confirmation of falls in the market at the end of 2004. Land Registry figures are less up to date than those of banks and building societies, since they record completions not mortgage approvals. However, the figures are viewed as the most accurate measure of house prices as they include all property transactions, including cash sales. The cost of buying a home fell in seven out of 10 regions between the third and fourth quarters of 2004. The biggest annual gains were made in Wales, where house prices were up by 23% in the fourth quarter. House prices rose the slowest in Greater London, being up by 6%. In the capital, the volume of sales fell by 23% from 36,185 in 2003 to 28,041 for the same period in 2004. There was also a decline in the number of million-pound properties sold in the capital, with 436 properties over £1m sold compared to 469 for the same period in 2003. Although the figures point to a slowdown in the market, the most recent surveys from Nationwide and Halifax have indicated the market may be undergoing a revival. After registering falls at the back end of 2004, Halifax said house prices rose by 0.8% in January and Nationwide reported a rise of 0.4% in the first month of the year. Members of the Bank of England's rate-setting committee will make their latest decision on interest rates on Thursday." +business,"Standard Life concern at LSE bid Standard Life is the latest shareholder in Deutsche Boerse to express concern at the German stock market operator's plans to buy the London Stock Exchange. It said Deutsche Boerse had to show why its planned £1.35bn ($2.5bn) offer for the LSE was good for shareholder value. Reports say Standard Life, which owns a 1% stake in Deutsche Boerse, may seek a shareholder vote on the issue. Fellow shareholders US-based hedge fund Atticus Capital and UK-based TCI Fund Management have also expressed doubts. Deutsche Boerse's supervisory board has approved the possible takeover of the LSE despite the signs of opposition from investors. ""The onus is on Deutsche Boerse's management to demonstrate why the purchase of the LSE creates more value for shareholders than other strategies, such as a buyback,"" said Richard Moffat, investment director of UK Equities at Standard Life Investments. Atticus Capital, holding 2% of Deutsche Boerse, wants it to buy back its own shares rather than buy the LSE. And TCI which holds about 5%, has made a request for an extraordinary shareholders meeting to be held to vote on replacing the company's entire supervisory board. It has also demanded that shareholders be consulted about the proposed acquisition, and whether the operator of the Frankfurt stock exchange should return $500m (£266m) to shareholders instead. In December, Deutsche Boerse, which also owns the derivatives market Eurex and the clearing firm Clearstream, put an informal offer of 530 pence per LSE share on the table. However, the LSE said the cash offer ""undervalued"" both its own business and the benefits of such a tie-up. Since then an improved offer from Deutsche Boerse has been anticipated as its management has continued talks with LSE chief executive Clara Furse. But the London exchange is also holding talks with Deutsche Boerse's rival Euronext, which operates the Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris exchanges, as well as London-based international derivatives market Liffe." +business,"Deutsche Telekom sees mobile gain German telecoms firm Deutsche Telekom saw strong fourth quarter profits on the back of upbeat US mobile earnings and better-than-expected asset sales. Net profit came in at 1.4bn euros (£960m; $1.85bn), a dramatic change from the loss of 364m euros in 2003. Sales rose 2.8% to 14.96bn euros. Sales of stakes in firms including Russia's OAO Mobile Telesystems raised 1.17bn euros. This was more than expected and helped to bring debt down to 35.8bn euros. A year ago, debt was more than 11bn euros higher. T-Mobile USA, the company's American mobile business, made a strong contribution to profits. ""It's a seminal achievement that they cut debt so low. That gives them some head room to invest in growth now,"" said Hannes Wittig, telecoms analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. The company also said it would resume paying a dividend, after two years in which it focused on cutting debt." +business,"India's Deccan gets more planes Air Deccan has signed a deal to acquire 36 planes from Avions de Transport Regional (ATR). The value of the deal has not been revealed, because of a confidentiality clause in the agreement. But Air Deccan's managing director Gorur Gopinath has said the price agreed was less than the catalogue price of $17.6m (£9.49m) per plane. Recently, India's first low-cost airline ordered 30 Airbus A320 planes for $1.8bn. Under the agreement, Air Deccan will buy 15 new ATR 72-500 and lease another 15. ATR will also provide six second hand airplanes. In a statement, ATR has said deliveries of the aircraft will begin in 2005 and will continue over a five-year period. Mr Gopinath said the planes will connect regional Indian cities. ""After an evaluation of both ATR and Bombardier aircraft, we have chosen the ATR aircraft as we find it most suitable for our operations and for the Indian market for short haul routes."" Filippo Bagnato, ATR's chief executive, has said that his firm will also work with Air Deccan to create a training centre in Bangalore. The potential of the Indian budget market has attracted attention from businesses at home and abroad. Air Deccan has said it will base its business model on European firms such as Ireland's Ryanair. Beer magnate Vijay Mallya recently set up Kingfisher Airlines, while UK entrepreneur Richard Branson has said he is keen to start a local operation. India's government has given its backing to cheaper and more accessible air travel." +business,"French boss to leave EADS The French co-head of European defence and aerospace group EADS Philippe Camus is to leave his post. Mr Camus said in a statement that he has accepted the invitation to return full-time to the Lagardere group, which owns 30% of EADS. ""I will give up my role as soon as the board of directors asks me to do so,"" he said. Airbus head Noel Forgeard is now set to replace Mr Camus, bringing the company's power struggle to an end. Fighting between Mr Camus and Mr Forgeard has hit the headlines in France and analysts feared that this fighting could destabilise the defence and aerospace group. French finance minister Herve Gaymard is on record as saying that he ""deplored"" the infighting at the company. The company should now be able put this dispute behind it, with the departure of Mr Camus and with the clear support given to Mr Forgeard by the Lagardere group, the main French shareholder of EADS. The other main shareholders of EADS are the French government (15%) , who also support Mr Forgeard, and Germany's DaimlerChrysler (30%). Rainer Hertrich, the German co-head of EADS will also step down when his contract expires next year. Mr Camus recently came under pressure as it became clear that the A380 superjumbo was running over budget. EADS - Airbus' majority owner - admitted earlier this week that the project was running 1.45bn euros (£1bn; $1.9bn) over budget. But Mr Forgeard has denied this, telling French media that there is no current overrun in the budget. ""But for the sake of transparency, we told our shareholders last week that if we look at the forecast for total costs of the project up to 2010, there is a risk that we will go over by around 10%, which is about 1bn euros (£686m; $1.32bn),"" he told France's LCI Television. Due to enter service in 2006, the A380 will replace the Boeing 747 jumbo as the world's biggest passenger aircraft." +business,"GE sees 'excellent' world economy US behemoth General Electric has posted an 18% jump in quarterly sales, and in profits, and declared itself ""in great shape"". ""We are benefiting from our growth initiatives and an excellent global economy,"" said GE's chief executive Jeff Immelt. GE is the US' biggest firm based on stock market valuation. GE's net profits were $5.37bn (£2.86bn) for the final three months of 2004, while sales came in at $43.7bn. The group, whose businesses range from jet engines to the NBC television channel, forecast sustained growth at between 10-15% for this year and next. GE's shares rose 1% on the news before ending Friday 0.24% lower. ""The industries GE is in are doing very well. The materials, financial and industrial sectors are all picking up,"" said Steve Roukis, an analyst at fund manager Matrix Asset Advisors, which has shares in GE. GE said orders in the fourth quarter were 15% higher than in the same period of 2003, ""with growth across the board"". ""In the fourth quarter, nine of our 11 businesses delivered at least double-digit earnings growth,"" said Mr Immelt. Full year 2004 gains were less spectacular, but still respectable. Net profit was up 6% at $16.6bn. Last year, GE bought Vivendi Universal, merging it with NBC to form NBC Universal. The success of Universal Studio's film 'Ray', a portrait of jazz musician Ray Charles, has helped boost earnings at the unit." +business,"Israeli economy picking up pace Israel's economy is forecast to grow by 4.2% in 2004 as it continues to emerge from a three-year recession. The main driver of the faster-than-expected expansion has been exports, with tourism seeing a strong rebound, the statistical office said. The economy is benefiting from a quieter period in Palestinian-Israeli violence and a pick-up in global demand for technology products. The outlook is better than it has been for a number of years, analysts said. Many companies have focused on cost cutting and greater efficiency, while the government has been trying to trim public spending and push through reforms. The growth figures come about despite a strike earlier this year by about 400,000 public sector worker which closed banks, hospitals, postal services and transport facilities. Growth did slow in the second half, but only slightly. Exports for the year rose by 14%, while tourist revenues were up by 30%. Imports gained by 13%, signalling that domestic demand has picked up again. In 2003, imports declined by 1.8%. In 2003, the economy expanded by 1.3%" +business,"Turkey-Iran mobile deal 'at risk' Turkey's investment in Iran's mobile industry looks set to be scrapped after its biggest mobile firm saw its investment there slashed by MPs. Iran's parliament voted by a large majority to cut Turkcell's stake in a new mobile network from 70% to 49%. The move, which was justified on national security grounds, follows an earlier vote by MPs to give themselves a veto over foreign investments. Turkcell said the decision ""increases the risks"" attached to the project. Although the company's statement said it would continue to monitor developments, observers said they thought Turkcell was set to pull out of the $3bn deal. ""The possibility of carrying out this project is next to zero,"" said Atinc Ozkan, analyst at Finans Investment in Istanbul. If Turkcell does back out, MTN - the South African firm which lost out in the original tender - may well be back in the running. The company has said it is prepared to accept a minority stake if Iran will award it the mobile deal. Turkcell's mobile deal is the second Turkish investment in Iran to run into trouble. Turkish-Austrian consortium TAV was chosen to build and run Tehran's new Imam Khomeini International Airport - but the army closed it just hours after it opened in May 2004. In both cases, the justification has been national security, amid allegations that the Turkish firms are too close to Israel. The hardline posture taken by parliament, which is dominated by religious conservatives, could yet impact other inward investments." +business,"Wall Street cheers Bush victory The US stock market has closed higher in response to George W Bush's victory in the presidential elections. The benchmark Dow Jones share index closed more than 1% higher at 10,137, while the Nasdaq rose 0.9% to 2,004. Many investors believe that Mr Bush's policies are more business-friendly than those of his Democrat challenger, John Kerry. The higher share prices also reflect relief that a clear winner has emerged from what proved to be a tight poll. Investors had worried that the outcome of the poll would be inconclusive, paving the way for a repeat of the legal wrangling that marred the 2000 election. The Dow lost 5% of its value in the three weeks immediately after that election, when it was unclear who would occupy the White House. Mr Kerry conceded defeat on Wednesday, abandoning last-ditch hopes of carrying the vote in the swing state of Ohio. ""The relief for the markets may be that we have a decision and can move forward,"" said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management. Some analysts predicted that the jump in share prices would be short-lived, saying investors would quickly focus once again on the health of the US economy. ""I would look at the stock market rally for Bush as kind of a one-day event,"" said Ken Mayland at Clearview Economics. The US' recent economic performance has been mixed, with solid growth offset by disappointingly low job creation figures, and mounting worries over a record budget deficit. Elsewhere in the financial markets on Wednesday, the dollar dipped slightly against the euro and climbed against the yen, while US oil prices closed up $1.26 at $50.88 a barrel in New York. The rise in oil prices partly reflects the view that President Bush is less likely than Mr Kerry to release supplies from the US' strategic oil reserve. Share prices in London, Frankfurt and Paris also closed higher. Successive polls in the run-up to Tuesday's election had shown the two candidates running neck and neck. Economic issues, as well as the war in Iraq, were the forefront of the campaign. In key swing states such as Ohio, which has suffered substantial job losses in the past four years, President Bush's handling of the economy became a crucial election issue. Senator Kerry attacked President Bush's economic record during his campaign, hammering home the fact that a net 800,000 jobs were lost during his term in office. President Bush focused on the fact that two million jobs have been created in the past year, claiming that it has vindicated his tax-cutting agenda. As for future policies, both candidates pledged to bring America's $422bn federal budget deficit under control. Senator Kerry planned to increase taxes on those earning more than $200,000 a year. President Bush has placed reform of the pensions system at the heart of his economic agenda for a second term. However, economists have said both candidates' economic programmes rested on questionable assumptions about future growth." +business,"US insurer Marsh cuts 2,500 jobs Up to 2,500 jobs are to go at US insurance broker Marsh & McLennan in a shake up following bigger-than-expected losses. The insurer said the cuts were part of a cost-cutting drive, aimed at saving millions of dollars. Marsh posted a $676m (£352m) loss for the last three months of 2004, against a $375m (£195.3m) profit a year before. It blamed an $850m payout to settle a price-rigging lawsuit, brought by New York attorney general Elliot Spitzer. Under the settlement announced in January, Marsh took a pre-tax charge of $618m in the October-to-December quarter, on top of the $232m charge from the previous quarter. ""Clearly 2004 was the most difficult year in MMC's financial history,"" Marsh chief executive Michael Cherkasky said. An ongoing restructuring drive at the group also led to a $337m hit in the fourth quarter, the world's biggest insurer said. Analysts expect its latest round of cuts to focus on its brokerage unit, which employs 40,000 staff. The latest layoffs will take the total number of jobs to go at the firm to 5,500 and are expected to lead to annual savings of more than $375m. As part of its efforts to cut costs, the company said it was halving its dividend payment to 17 cents a shares from 34 cents, a move which should enable it to save $360m. Looking ahead, Mr Cherkasky forecast profitable growth for the year ahead ""with an operating margin in the upper-teens, and with the opportunity for further margin expansion"". Meanwhile, the company also announced it would spin-off its MMC Capital private equity unit, which manages the $3bn Trident Funds operation, to a group of employees. Marsh did not say when the move would take place, but said it had signed a letter of intent. The insurer hit the headlines in October last year when it faced accusations of price rigging. New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer sued the company, accusing it of receiving illegal payments to steer clients to selected firms as well as rigging bids and fixing prices. In January, Marsh agreed to pay $850m to settle the suit - a figure in line with the placement fees it collected in 2003 - and agreed to change its business practices. In February, a former senior executive pleaded guilty to criminal charges in a wide-ranging probe of fraud and bid-rigging in the insurance industry. In January, a former senior vice president also pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the investigation. In an effort to reform its business practises, Marsh said it has already introduced new leadership, new compliance procedures and new ways of dealing with customers. ""As a result, we are ready to put these matters behind us and move ahead in 2005 to restore the trust our clients have placed in us and to rebuild shareholder value,"" Mr Cherkasky said." +business,"Mitsubishi in Peugeot link talks Trouble-hit Mitsubishi Motors is in talks with French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen about a possible alliance. On Tuesday Mitsubishi, the only major Japanese car firm in the red, confirmed earlier reports of negotiations. But a spokesman refused to comment on speculation that Mitsubishi could end up building cars for PSA and perhaps its Japanese rival Nissan. Mitsubishi has been hit by a recall scandal and the withdrawal of support from shareholder DaimlerChrysler. The US-German firm, once a majority shareholder, decided last April to stop providing financial backing. Mitsubishi's sales have slid 41% in the past year, catalysed by the revelation that the company had systematically been hiding records of faults and then secretly repairing vehicles. Mitsubishi is due to unveil a recovery plan later in January. Analysts said that alliances with other carmakers would be a necessary part of whatever it came up with, not least because its own slow sales have left its manufacturing capacity under-used." +business,"Ford gains from finance not cars Ford, the US car company, reported higher fourth quarter and full-year profits on Thursday boosted by a buoyant period for its car loans unit. Net income for 2004 was $3.5bn (£1.87bn) - up nearly $3bn from 2003 - while turnover rose $7.2bn to $170.8bn. In the fourth quarter alone Ford reported net income of $104m, compared with a loss of $793m a year ago. But its auto unit made a loss. Fourth quarter turnover was $44.7bn, compared to $45.9bn a year ago. Though car and truck loan profits saved the day, Ford's auto unit made a pre-tax loss of $470m in the fourth quarter (compared to a profit of £13m in the year-ago period) and its US sales dipped 3.8%. Yesterday General Motor's results also showed its finance unit was a strong contributor to profits. However, Ford is working hard to revitalise its product portfolio, unveiling the Fusion and Zephyr models at the International Motor Show in Detroit. It also brought out a number of new models in the second half of 2004. ""In 2004, our company gained momentum, delivering...more new products, and more innovative breakthroughs, such as the Escape Hybrid, the industry's first full-hybrid sport utility vehicle,"" said chairman and chief executive officer Bill Ford."" ""We also confronted operating challenges with our Jaguar brand and high industry marketing costs,"" he added. But Ford declined to provide guidance for first quarter 2005. It will do so at a presentation in New York on 26 January. In addition, the company said 2004 net income was affected by a fourth-quarter pre-tax charge taken to reduce the value of a receivable owed to Ford by Visteon, a former subsidiary. Recent new models introduced by Ford include the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego sedans, the Ford Freestyle crossover, the Ford Mustang, the Land Rover LR3/Discovery, and Volvo S40 and V50 in North America and Europe. Total company vehicle unit sales in 2004 were 6,798,000, an increase of 62,000 units from 2003. Fourth-quarter vehicle unit sales totalled 1,751,000, a decline of 133,000 units. For the full year, Ford's worldwide automotive division earned a pre-tax profit of $850m, a $697m improvement from $153m a year ago." +business,"India's Reliance family feud heats up The ongoing public spat between the two heirs of India's biggest conglomerate, Reliance Group, has spilled over to the board meeting of a leading company within the group. Anil Ambani, vice-chairman of India Petrochemicals Limited (IPCL), stayed away from a gathering of senior managers on Thursday. The move follows a decision earlier this month by Anil - the younger brother of Reliance Group president Mukesh Ambani - to resign from his post. His resignation was not accepted by his brother, who is also the boss of IPCL. The IPCL board met in Mumbai to discuss the company's results for the October-to-December quarter. It is understood that the board also considered Anil's resignation and asked him to reconsider his decision. However, Anil's demand that Anand Jain - another IPCL board member accused by Anil of creating a rift in the Ambani family - be thrown out, was not met. Anil has accused Anand Jain, a confidant of his brother Mukesh, of playing a negative role in the Ambani family, and being responsible for the trouble between the brothers. On Wednesday, the board of Reliance Energy, another Reliance Group company, reaffirmed its faith in Anil, who is the company's chief. Reliance Group acquired the government's 26% stake in IPCL - India's second-largest petrochemicals company - in 2002, as part of the privatisation drive. Meanwhile, the group's flagship company, Reliance Industries, has its board meeting on Friday to consider its financial results. Mukesh is the company's chairman and Anil its deputy, and it is expected that both brothers will come face to face in the meeting. The Ambani family controls 48% of the group, which is worth $17bn (£9.1bn; 745bn Indian rupees). It was founded by their father, Dhiru Bhai Ambani, who died two years ago." +business,"Firms pump billions into pensions Employers have spent billions of pounds propping up their final salary pensions over the past year, research suggests. A survey of 280 schemes by Incomes Data Services' (IDS) said employer contributions had increased from £5.5bn to £8.2bn a year, a rise of 49.7%. Companies facing the biggest deficits had raised their pension contributions by 100% or more, IDS said. Many firms are struggling to keep this type of scheme open, because of rising costs and increased liabilities. A final salary scheme, also known as a defined benefit scheme, promises to pay a pension related to the salary the scheme member is earning when they retire. The rising cost of maintaining such schemes has led many employers to replace final salary schemes with money purchase, or defined contribution, schemes. These are less risky for employers. Under money purchase schemes, employees pay into a pension fund which is used to buy an annuity - a policy which pays out an income until death - on retirement. IDS said there were some schemes in good health. But, in many cases, firms had been forced to top up funds to tackle ""yawning deficits"". The level of contributions paid by employers has increased gradually since the late 1990s. In 1998/99, for example, contributions rose by 4.7% and in 2002/03 by 8.6%. In contrast, between 1996 and 1998, some employers cut their contribution levels. Helen Sudell, editor of the IDS Pensions Service, said the rise in contributions was ""staggering"" and the highest ever recorded by IDS. ""We have warned before that the widespread closure of final salary schemes to new entrants is just the beginning of a much bigger movement away from paternalistic provision,"" said Ms Sudell. ""With figures like this there can be little doubt that many employers will have to reduce future benefits at some point for those staff still in these schemes.""" +business,"US trade deficit widens sharply The gap between US exports and imports has widened to more than $60bn (£31.7bn), an all-time record. Figures from the Commerce Department for November showed exports down 2.3% to $95.6bn, while imports grew 1.3% to $155.8bn on rising consumer demand. Part of the expanding deficit came from high prices for oil imports. But the numbers suggested the sliding dollar - which makes exports less expensive - has had little impact, and could indicate slowing economic growth. The trade deficit - far bigger than the $54bn widely expected on Wall Street - prompted a rapid response from the currency markets. By 1650 GMT, the dollar was trading against the euro at $1.3280, almost a cent and a half weaker than before the announcement. Against the pound, the dollar was down about 0.7% at $1,8923. ""The dollar's fall has been sudden, violent and appropriate given this number,"" said Brian Taylor of Wells Fargo in Minneapolis. ""Recent exchange rate movements certainly haven't had any impact yet."" Treasury Secretary John Snow put a brave face on the news, saying it was a sign of strong economic expansion. ""The economy is growing at such a fast rate that it is generating lots of disposable income... some of which is used to buy goods from our trading partners."" Although the White House officially still backs the US's traditional ""strong dollar"" policy, it has tacitly indicated that it would be happy if the slide continued. The dollar has fallen by 50% against the euro - as well as by 30% against the yen - in the past three years. The main catalyst, most economists accept, is the large budget deficit on the one hand, and the current account deficit - the difference between the flow of money in and out of the US - on the other. The trade deficit is a large part of the latter. In November, the fall in exports was largely due to a decline in sales of industrial supplies and materials such as chemicals, as well as of cars, consumer goods and food. One small bright spot for US policy-makers was a slight decline in the deficit with China, often blamed for job losses and other economic woes. Although China's overall trade surplus is expanding, according to Chinese government figures, the Commerce Department revealed the US's deficit with China was $19.6bn in November, down from $19.7bn the month before. But the deficit with Japan was at its worst in more than four years." +business,"German growth goes into reverse Germany's economy shrank 0.2% in the last three months of 2004, upsetting hopes of a sustained recovery. The figures confounded hopes of a 0.2% expansion in the fourth quarter in Europe's biggest economy. The Federal Statistics Office said growth for the whole of 2004 was 1.6%, after a year of contraction in 2003, down from an earlier estimate of 1.7%. It said growth in the third quarter had been zero, putting the economy at a standstill from July onward. Germany has been reliant on exports to get its economy back on track, as unemployment of more than five million and impending cuts to welfare mean German consumers have kept their money to themselves. Major companies including Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler and Siemens have spent much of 2004 in tough talks with unions about trimming jobs and costs. According to the statistics office, Destatis, rising exports were outweighed in the fourth quarter by the continuing weakness of domestic demand. But the relentless rise in the value of the euro last year has also hit the competitiveness of German products overseas. The effect has been to depress prospects for the 12-nation eurozone as a whole, as well as Germany. Eurozone interest rates are at 2%, but senior officials at the rate-setting European Central Bank are beginning to talk about the threat of inflation, prompting fears that interest rates may rise. The ECB's mandate is to fight rising prices by boosting interest rates - and that could further threaten Germany's hopes of recovery." +business,"Latin America sees strong growth Latin America's economy grew by 5.5% in 2004, its best performance since 1980, while exports registered their best performance in two decades. The United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean said the region grew by 5.5% this year. The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) said regional exports reached $445.1bn (£227bn;331bn euros) in 2004. Doubts about the strength of the US recovery and overheating of the Chinese economy do however pose risks for 2005. Both organisations also warned that high oil prices raise the risk of either inflation or recession. Nevertheless, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) still forecasts growth of 4% for 2005. Strong recovery in some countries, such as Venezuela and Uruguay, boosted the overall performance of the region. ECLAC also said that the six largest Latin American economies (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela) grew by more than 3% for only the second time in 20 years. Chinese and US economic strength helped boost exports, as did strong demand for agricultural and mining products. In fact, Latin American exports to China grew 34%, to $14bn. Higher oil prices also helped boost exports, as Mexico and Venezuela are important oil exporters. Regional blocs as well as free trade agreements with the US contributed to the region's strong performance, the IADB said." +business,"Indonesians face fuel price rise Indonesia's government has confirmed it is considering raising fuel prices by as much as 30%. Millions of Indonesians use kerosene for basic cooking, and prices have been heavily subsidised for years. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government has said it wants to curb fuel subsidies and direct the money into aid programmes for the poor. But critics argue cutting subsidies will hurt the poorer families that his government says it wants to help. Millions of people were left homeless in Indonesia Aceh's region following the earthquake and tsunami disaster in late December. Indonesia pays subsidies to importers in order to stabilise domestic fuel prices, but higher oil prices have forced the government to spend more on holding prices down. It spent 59.2 trillion rupiah ($6.58bn; £3.5bn) on fuel subsidies in 2004, a sum far in excess of its original projection of 14.5 trillion rupiah. Since President Yudhoyono's government came to power in October, it has indicated its intention of raising domestic fuel prices by cutting subsidies. ""The (January to March) quarter of this year is the best time for us to increase fuel prices,"" said Sri Mulyani Indrawati, State Minister for National Development Planning. ""We are still considering if a 30% hike is suitable at the moment. The sooner the better for the state budget."" The BBC's correspondent in Jakarta, Rachel Harvey, told World Business Report that there was likely to be a strong public reaction to any price rise. ""The big question is whether they go for one big, short, sharp shock and raise prices between 20% and 30% or whether they try to stagger it,"" she said. Indonesia's previous government, led by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, also attempted to cut subsidies in 2003, but was forced to back down in the face of public protests." +business,"Green reports shun supply chain Nearly 20% more UK top 250 firms produced non-financial reports on social and environment issues than last year. But of the 145 companies reporting, 76% didn't examine their supply chains, says the annual Directions survey. Green groups say putting pressure on supply chains is a major way companies can reduce their environmental impact. The survey is published by corporate social responsibility firm Context and branding firm SalterBaxter. Blake Lee-Harwood, campaigns director at Greenpeace in the UK, said: ""It's fairly meaningless to talk about your company's direction in terms of sustainability without having detailed knowledge of your supply chain. ""It's also important to get some kind of independent assessment of your reporting."" Less than a quarter of companies (24%) get their corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports independently verified to provide assurances they are accurate and complete, says the survey. To date there are no set standards for non-financial reporting, although the Global Reporting Initiative, an independent pro-sustainability institution, is planning to establish some. The reports surveyed by Directions are published voluntarily. They are usually called corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, sustainability reports, or social and environmental reports. Peter Knight, director of Context, says 24 UK top 250 companies reported for the first time this year and, in general, the quality of reports has improved. ""The corporate lexicon of homilies, generalities and soft assurances - fluff - is on its way out. There are less pictures of smiling children and butterflies."" The UK government will soon require all quoted companies to report their social and environmental risks in a chapter in their annual reports, called the Operating and Financial Review. The regulation is not expected until 2005 and the first reports under this scheme will not be published before 2006. The US seems to lag Europe in producing corporate social responsibility reports. The majority of European top 50 companies (44) publish them and only 27 of the US top 50." +business,"China continues breakneck growth China's economy has expanded by a breakneck 9.5% during 2004, faster than predicted and well above 2003's 9.1%. The news may mean more limits on investment and lending as Beijing tries to take the economy off the boil. China has sucked in raw materials and energy to feed its expansion, which could have knock-on effects on the rest of the world if it overheats. But officials pointed out that industrial growth had slowed, with services providing much of the impetus. Growth in industrial output - the main target of government efforts to impose curbs on credit and investments - was 11.5% in 2004, down from 17% the previous year. Still, consumer prices - at 2.4% - rose faster than in 2004, adding to concern that a sharp rise in producer prices of 7.1% could stoke inflation. And overall investment in fixed assets was still high, up 21.3% from the previous year - although some way off the peak of 43% seen in the first quarter of 2004. The result could be higher interest rates. China raised rates by 0.27 percentage points to 5.8% - its first hike in nine years - in October 2004. Despite the apparent rebalancing of the economy the overall growth picture remains strong, economists said. ""There is no sign of a slowdown in 2005,"" said Tim Congdon, economist at ING Barings. China's economy is not only gathering speed thanks to domestic demand, but also from soaring sales overseas. Figures released earlier this year showed exports at a six-year high in 2004, up 35%. Part of the impetus comes from the relative cheapness of the yuan, China's currency. The government keeps it pegged close to a rate of 8.28 to the US dollar, - much to the chagrin of many US lawmakers who blame China for lost jobs and competitiveness. Despite urging to ease the peg, officials insist they are a long way from ready to make a shift to a more market-set rate. ""We need a good and feasible plan and formulating such a plan also needs time,"" National Bureau of Statistics chief Li Deshui told Reuters. ""Those who hope to make a fortune by speculating on a renminbi revaluation will not succeed in making a profit.""" +business,"UK economy facing 'major risks' The UK manufacturing sector will continue to face ""serious challenges"" over the next two years, the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) has said. The group's quarterly survey of companies found exports had picked up in the last three months of 2004 to their best levels in eight years. The rise came despite exchange rates being cited as a major concern. However, the BCC found the whole UK economy still faced ""major risks"" and warned that growth is set to slow. It recently forecast economic growth will slow from more than 3% in 2004 to a little below 2.5% in both 2005 and 2006. Manufacturers' domestic sales growth fell back slightly in the quarter, the survey of 5,196 firms found. Employment in manufacturing also fell and job expectations were at their lowest level for a year. ""Despite some positive news for the export sector, there are worrying signs for manufacturing,"" the BCC said. ""These results reinforce our concern over the sector's persistent inability to sustain recovery."" The outlook for the service sector was ""uncertain"" despite an increase in exports and orders over the quarter, the BCC noted. The BCC found confidence increased in the quarter across both the manufacturing and service sectors although overall it failed to reach the levels at the start of 2004. The reduced threat of interest rate increases had contributed to improved confidence, it said. The Bank of England raised interest rates five times between November 2003 and August last year. But rates have been kept on hold since then amid signs of falling consumer confidence and a slowdown in output. ""The pressure on costs and margins, the relentless increase in regulations, and the threat of higher taxes remain serious problems,"" BCC director general David Frost said. ""While consumer spending is set to decelerate significantly over the next 12-18 months, it is unlikely that investment and exports will rise sufficiently strongly to pick up the slack.""" +business,"India unveils anti-poverty budget India is to boost spending on primary schools and health in a budget flagged as a boost for the ordinary citizen. India's defence budget has also been raised 7.8% to 830bn rupees ($19bn). The priority for Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram is to fight poverty and keep the government's Communist allies onside. But his options are limited by a new law which makes him cut the budget deficit, which he said would be 4.5% of GDP in the year to March 2005. The country's overall deficit is thought to be more than 10%, if the spending of India's 35 states and territories is included. Under the fiscal responsibility law, Mr Chidambaram has to trim the deficit by 0.3 percentage points each year, a target he says he has now met for the current year. But the heavy spending on poverty reduction means the 2005-6 target for the deficit will be 4.3%, Mr Chidambaram said - falling short of the new law's requirement. ""I was left with no option but to press the pause button vis a vis the act,"" he said. The following year, though, would have to be back on track, he warned. ""I may add that we are perilously close to the limits of fiscal prudence and there is no more room for spending beyond our means,"" he said. The coming year's reduction has meant bringing more of the businesses in India's burgeoning services sector into the tax system and restructuring the personal tax system, although there are numerous corporate tax and duty reductions built into the budget. Presenting his budget in the lower house of parliament, Mr Chidambaram said the Indian economy was performing strongly and that inflation has been reined in. He said India's economy grew 6.9% in 2004. In his budget Mr Chidambaram has: - Increased spending on primary education to 71.56bn rupees ($1.6bn) - Increased spending on health to 102.8bn rupees ($2.35bn) - Announced that 80bn rupees ($1.8bn) will be spent on building rural infrastructure - Pledged 102.16bn rupees ($2.3bn) for tsunami victims - Increased flow of funds to agriculture by 30% - Announced a package for the sugar industry In addition, up to 100bn rupees ($2.3bn) to be spent on infrastructure will be sourced by borrowing against the country's foreign exchange reserves, keeping budgeted spending under control. ""Given the resilience of the Indian economy... it is possible to launch a direct assault on poverty,"" Mr Chidambaram said. ""The whole purpose of democratic government is to eliminate poverty."" The new Indian government, led by the Congress Party, was voted into power last May after it pledged to introduce economic reforms with a ""human face"". The finance minister says he is committed to continue reforming India's tax system while expanding the tax base. As part of his reforms he has announced: - Duty cuts on capital goods and raw materials - Expanded service tax net - Raised the income-tax threshold to 100,000 rupees ($2,300) - Reduced income tax for those earning less than 250,000 rupees ($5,700) to 20% - Reduced corporate tax rates to 30% An annual economic survey released on Friday said India needed to ease limit restriction on foreign investment, reform labour laws and cut duties apart from widening the tax base for long-term economic growth. But Mr Chidambaram is under pressure from the Communist parties to focus on increasing social spending. The Communists are also hostile to measures seeking to increase foreign investment and allow companies to hire and fire employees at will. In recent months, they have expressed their displeasure at the government's economic reform plans including increasing foreign direct investment in telecommunication and aviation. In his last budget, Mr Chidambaram had pledged billions of dollars for improving education and health services for the poor as well as special assistance for farmers." +business,"Bank voted 8-1 for no rate change The decision to keep interest rates on hold at 4.75% earlier this month was passed 8-1 by the Bank of England's rate-setting body, minutes have shown. One member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) - Paul Tucker - voted to raise rates to 5%. The news surprised some analysts who had expected the latest minutes to show another unanimous decision. Worries over growth rates and consumer spending were behind the decision to freeze rates, the minutes showed. The Bank's latest inflation report, released last week, had noted that the main reason inflation might fall was weaker consumer spending. However, MPC member Paul Tucker voted for a quarter point rise in interest rates to 5%. He argued that economic growth was picking up, and that the equity, credit and housing markets had been stronger than expected. The Bank's minutes said that risks to the inflation forecast were ""sufficiently to the downside"" to keep rates on hold at its latest meeting. However, the minutes added: ""Some members noted that an increase might be warranted in due course if the economy evolved in line with the central projection"". Ross Walker, UK economist at Royal Bank of Scotland, said he was surprised that a dissenting vote had been made so soon. He said the minutes appeared to be ""trying to get the market to focus on the possibility of a rise in rates"". ""If the economy pans out as they expect then they are probably going to have to hike rates."" However, he added, any rate increase is not likely to happen until later this year, with MPC members likely to look for a more sustainable pick up in consumer spending before acting." +business,"US interest rates increased to 2% US interest rates are to rise for the fourth time in five months, in a widely anticipated move. The Federal Reserve has raised its key federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to 2% in light of mounting evidence that the US economy is regaining steam. US companies created twice as many jobs as expected in October while exports hit record levels in September. Analysts said a clear-cut victory for President Bush in last week's election paved the way for a rise. Another rise could be in store for December, some economists warned. The Fed's Open Market Committee - which sets interest rate policy in the US - voted unanimously in favour of a quarter point rise. The Fed has been gradually easing rates up since the summer, with quarter percentage point rises in June, August and September. The Central Bank has been acting to restrain inflationary pressures while being careful not to obstruct economic growth. The Fed did not rule out raising rates once again in December but noted that any future increases would take place at a ""measured"" pace. In a statement, the Fed said that long-term inflation pressures remained ""well contained"" while the US economy appeared to be ""growing at a moderate pace despite the rise in energy prices"". Financial analysts broadly welcomed the Fed's move and shares traded largely flat. The Dow Jones Industrial average closed down 0.89 points, or 0.01%, at 10,385.48. Recent evidence has pointed to an upturn in the US economy. US firms created 337,000 jobs last month, twice the amount expected, while exports reached record levels in September. The economy grew 3.7% in the third quarter, slower than forecast, but an improvement on the 3.3% growth seen in the second quarter. Analysts claimed the Fed's assessment of future economic growth was a positive one but stressed that the jury was still out on the prospect of a further rise in December. ""Let's wait until we see how growth and employment bear up under the fourth quarter's energy price drag before concluding that the Fed has more work to do in 2005,"" said Avery Shenfeld, senior economist at CIBC World Markets. ""I think the Federal Reserve does not want to rock the boat and is using a gradual approach in raising the interest rate,"" said Sung Won Sohn, chief US economist for Wells Fargo Bank. ""The economy is doing a bit better right now but there are still some concerns about geopolitics, employment and the price of oil,"" he added. The further rise in US rates is unlikely to have a direct bearing on UK monetary policy. The Bank of England (BoE) has kept interest rates on hold at 4.75% for the past three months, leading some commentators to argue that rates may have peaked. In a report published on Wednesday, the Bank said that with rates at their current level, inflation would rise to its 2% target within two years. However, BoE governor Mervyn King warned only last month that the era of consistently low inflation and low unemployment may be coming to an end." +business,"Rover deal 'may cost 2,000 jobs' Some 2,000 jobs at MG Rover's Midlands plant may be cut if investment in the firm by a Chinese car maker goes ahead, the Financial Times has reported. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp plans to shift production of the Rover 25 to China and export it to the UK, sources close to the negotiations tell the FT. But Rover told BBC News that reports of job cuts were ""speculation"". A tie-up, seen as Rover's last chance to save its Longbridge plant, has been pushed by UK Chancellor Gordon Brown. Rover confirmed the tie-up would take place ""not very far away from this time"". Rover bosses have said they are ""confident"" the £1bn ($1.9bn) investment deal would be signed in March or early April. Transport & General Worker's Union general secretary Tony Woodley repeated his view on Friday that all mergers led to some job cuts. He said investment in new models was needed to ensure the future of the Birmingham plant. ""This is a very crucial and delicate time and our efforts are targeted to securing new models for the company which will mean jobs for our people,"" he said. SAIC says none of its money will be paid to the four owners of Rover, who have been accused by unions of awarding themselves exorbitant salaries, the FT reports. ""SAIC is extremely concerned to ensure that its money is used to invest in the business rather than be distributed to the shareholders,"" the newspaper quotes a source close to the Chinese firm. Meanwhile, according to Chinese state press reports, small state-owned carmaker Nanjing Auto is in negotiations with Rover and SAIC to take a 20% stake in the joint venture. SAIC was unavailable for comment on the job cuts when contacted by BBC News. Rover and SAIC signed a technology-sharing agreement in August." +business,"DaimlerChrysler's 2004 sales rise US-German carmaker DaimlerChrysler has sold 2.1% more cars in 2004 than in the previous year, as solid Chrysler sales offset a weak showing for Mercedes. Sales totalled 3.9 million units worldwide during 2004, the company said at the Detroit Motor Show. A switch to new models hit luxury marque Mercedes-Benz, with sales down 3.1% at 1.06 million. Chrysler avoided the fate of US rivals Ford and General Motors, both of whom lost ground to Japanese firms. Its sales rose 3.5% to 2.7 million units. Similarly on the up was the Smart brand of compact cars, with the division's sales jumping by 21.1% during 2004 to 136,000. The future of the brand - which is controlled by the Mercedes group within DaimlerChrysler - remains in question, however. Smart has consistently lost money since it started trading in 1998, and new model launches are now ""on hold"", said Mercedes chief executive Eckhard Cordes. In Europe, the Smart will now go on sale through regular Mercedes dealerships as well as its own dealer network, Mr Cordes said." +business,"HealthSouth ex-boss goes on trial The former head of US medical services firm HealthSouth overstated earnings and assets to boost the company's share price, it was claimed in court. Richard Scrushy, 52, is accused of ""directing"" a $2.7bn (£1.4bn) accounting fraud at the company he co-founded in Alabama in 1984. Prosecutors said he was motivated by wealth - spending about $200m between 1996 and 2002 while earning much less. Defence lawyers said Mr Scrushy had been deceived by other executives. Several former HealthSouth employees have already pleaded guilty to fraud and are expected to give evidence against Mr Scrushy. ""We will present evidence that Richard Scrushy knew about the conspiracy, that he participated in the conspiracy and that he profited,"" prosecutor Alice Martin told the court. Mr Scrushy is the first chief executive to be tried for breaching the Sarbanes Oxley Act - a law introduced in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom frauds which obliges corporate bosses to vouch for the accuracy of their companies' results. Among the charges he faces are conspiracy to commit fraud, filing false statements and money laundering. After federal agents raided HealthSouth's offices in March 2003, the company said none of its past financial statements could be relied on. The firm has since reorganised its board and management team and currently operates about 1,400 health clinics." +business,"India power shares jump on debut Shares in India's largest power producer, National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC) have risen 13% on their stock market debut. The government's partial sell-off of NTPC is part of a controversial programme to privatise state-run firms. The 865 million share offer, a mix of new shares and sales by the government, raised 54bn rupees($1.2bn). It was India's second $1bn stock debut in three months, coming after the flotation by software firm Tata. The share offer was eleven times oversubscribed. ""It is a good investment bet,"" said Suhas Naik, an investment analyst from ING Mutual Fund. ""Power needs in India are set to rise and NTPC will benefit from that."" Analysts say the success of the NTPC flotation would encourage the government to reduce stakes in more power companies. NTPC has said it will use the money from the share sale to feed the growing needs of the country's energy-starved economy. The firm is the largest utility company in India, and the sixth largest power producer in the world." +business,"Quake's economic costs emerging Asian governments and international agencies are reeling at the potential economic devastation left by the Asian tsunami and floods. World Bank president James Wolfensohn has said his agency is ""only beginning to grasp the magnitude of the disaster"" and its economic impact. The tragedy has left at least 25,000 people dead, with Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and Indonesia worst hit. Some early estimates of reconstruction costs are starting to emerge. Millions have been left homeless, while businesses and infrastructure have been washed away. Economists believe several of the 10 countries hit by the giant waves could see a slowdown in growth. In Sri Lanka, some observers have said that as much as 1% of annual growth may be lost. For Thailand, that figure is much lower at 0.1%. Governments are expected to take steps, such as cutting taxes and increasing spending, to facilitate a recovery. ""With the enormous displacement of people...there will be a serious relaxation of fiscal policy,"" Glenn Maguire, chief economist for the region at Societe Generale, told Agence France Presse. ""The economic impact of it will certainly be large, but it should not be enough to derail the momentum of the region in 2005,"" he said. ""First and foremost this is a human tragedy."" India's economy, however, is less likely to slow because the areas hit are some of the least developed. The regional giant has enjoyed strong growth in 2004. But India now faces other problems, with aid workers under pressure to ensure a clean supply of water and sanitation to prevent an outbreak of disease. Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has estimated the destruction at 20bn baht ($510m). Analysts said that figure is likely to rise and the country's tourist industry is likely to be hardest hit. Thailand's fishing and real estate sectors also will be affected by Sunday's 9.0 magnitude earthquake, which sent huge waves from Malaysia to Africa. Malaysia said as many as 1,000 fishermen will be affected and that damage to the industry will be ""significant"", Agence France Presse reported. Rapid rebuilding will be key to limiting the impact of the tragedy. ""In three months, we should rebuild 70% of the damage in the three worst hit provinces,"" said Juthamas Siriwan, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. The outlook for Sri Lanka is less optimistic, with analysts predicting that the country's tourist industry will struggle to recovery quickly. Tourism is a vital to many developing countries, providing jobs for 19 million people in the south east Asian region, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC)." +business,"BP surges ahead on high oil price Oil giant BP has announced a 26% rise in annual profits to $16.2bn (£8.7bn) on the back of record oil prices. Last week, rival Shell reported an annual profit of $17.5bn - a record profit for a UK-listed company. BP added that it was increasing its fourth-quarter dividend by 26% to 8.5 cents, and that it would continue with share buybacks. BP chief executive Lord Browne said the results were strong ""both operationally and financially."" The company is earning about $1.8m an hour. Despite the record annual profits figure, BP's performance was below the expectations of some City analysts. However, BP's share price rose 4p or nearly 1% in morning trading to 548p. Its profit rise for the year included profits of $3.65bn (£1.97bn) for the final three months of 2004 - up from $2.89bn a year ago but below its third quarter. Speaking on the BBC's Today programme on Tuesday, Lord Browne said the profits were not solely down to the high oil price alone. ""The profits are up more than the price of oil is up,"" he said. Lord Browne pointed out that BP was reaping the benefits of its investment in oil exploration. ""We have spent many years buying (assets) when the price is low,"" he said. The company has made new discoveries in Egypt, the Gulf of Mexico and Angola. However, Lord Browne rejected calls for a windfall tax on his company's huge profits, saying that in the North Sea it paid progressively more tax, the more profits it made. Lord Browne believes oil prices will remain quite high. Currently above $40 a barrel, he said: ""The price of oil will be well supported above $30 a barrel for the medium term."" BP put production for the year at 3.997 billion barrels of oil, up 10% on 2003, but slightly lower than the four billion barrels it had initially aimed for." +business,"Call to overhaul UK state pension The UK pension system has been branded inadequate and too complex by a leading retirement think-tank. The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) said replacing the state pension with a ""citizen's pension"" would help tackle inequality and complexity. The change would see pensions being calculated on length of residency in the UK rather than National Insurance (NI) contributions. Reform could reduce poverty by aiding people with broken employment records. The PPI added that once the state system was reformed the government should look at options to overhaul private and workplace pensions. The think tank's proposals were made in response to the recent publication of the Pensions Commission's initial report into UK retirement savings. According to the Pensions Commission's report 12 million working people are not saving enough for their retirement. As a result, living standards could fall for the next generation of UK pensioners. The report added that a combination of higher taxes, higher savings and/or a higher average retirement age was needed to solve the UK pension crisis." +business,"Pernod takeover talk lifts Domecq Shares in UK drinks and food firm Allied Domecq have risen on speculation that it could be the target of a takeover by France's Pernod Ricard. Reports in the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times suggested that the French spirits firm is considering a bid, but has yet to contact its target. Allied Domecq shares in London rose 4% by 1200 GMT, while Pernod shares in Paris slipped 1.2%. Pernod said it was seeking acquisitions but refused to comment on specifics. Pernod's last major purchase was a third of US giant Seagram in 2000, the move which propelled it into the global top three of drinks firms. The other two-thirds of Seagram was bought by market leader Diageo. In terms of market value, Pernod - at 7.5bn euros ($9.7bn) - is about 9% smaller than Allied Domecq, which has a capitalisation of £5.7bn ($10.7bn; 8.2bn euros). Last year Pernod tried to buy Glenmorangie, one of Scotland's premier whisky firms, but lost out to luxury goods firm LVMH. Pernod is home to brands including Chivas Regal Scotch whisky, Havana Club rum and Jacob's Creek wine. Allied Domecq's big names include Malibu rum, Courvoisier brandy, Stolichnaya vodka and Ballantine's whisky - as well as snack food chains such as Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins ice cream. The WSJ said that the two were ripe for consolidation, having each dealt with problematic parts of their portfolio. Pernod has reduced the debt it took on to fund the Seagram purchase to just 1.8bn euros, while Allied has improved the performance of its fast-food chains." +business,"US manufacturing expands US industrial production increased in December, according to the latest survey from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). Its index of national manufacturing activity rose to 58.6 last month from 57.8 in November. A reading above 50 indicates a level of growth. The result for December was slightly better than analysts' expectations and the 19th consecutive expansion. The ISM said the growth was driven by a ""significant"" rise in the new orders. ""This completes a strong year for manufacturing based on the ISM data,"" said chairman of the ISM's survey committee. ""While there is continuing upward pressure on prices, the rate of increase is slowing and definitely trending in the right direction."" The ISM's index of national manufacturing activity is compiled from monthly responses of purchasing executives at more than 400 industrial companies, ranging from textiles to chemicals to paper, and has now been above 50 since June 2003. Analysts expected December's figure to come in at 58.1. The ISM manufacturing index's main sister survey - the employment index - eased to 52.7 in December from 57.6 in November, while its ""prices paid"" index, measuring the cost to businesses of their inputs, also eased to 72.0 from 74.0. The ISM's ""new orders"" index rose to 67.4 from 61.5." +business,"Qantas considers offshore option Australian airline Qantas could transfer as many as 7,000 jobs out of its home country as it seeks to save costs, according to newspaper reports. Chief executive Geoff Dixon was quoted by The Australian newspaper as saying the carrier could no longer afford to remain ""all-Australian"". Unions criticised the possible move - which may affect cabin and maintenance staff - saying Qantas was profitable. More than 90% of the airline's staff are based in Australia. Qantas confirmed it was looking at whether it might recruit and source products overseas - potentially through joint ventures - but said it would continue to create jobs in Australia. Despite making a record Australian dollars 648m ($492m) profit last year, Qantas has argued that it needs to make considerable savings if it is to remain competitive. ""We're going to have to get the lowest cost structure we can and that willmean sourcing things more and more from overseas,"" the newspaper quoted Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon as saying. Early this year, Qantas increased the number of flight attendants based in London from 370 to 870. If Qantas were to follow the lead of other airlines moving staff 'offshore' 7,000 jobs could shift overseas, the newspaper reported. In a statement, Qantas said it was looking to build its operations overseas. However, it stressed this would not result in large scale redundancies in its home market, where most of its 35,000 staff are employed. ""We are totally committed to continuing to grow jobs in Australia,"" Mr Dixon said. ""We are, however, operating in a global market and there is no room for complacency simply because we are currently profitable and successful."" Unions reacted angrily to the reported disclosure, arguing that Qantas was profitable and did not need to take such action. ""We could understand if Qantas was a struggling airline about to go under,"" Michael Mijatov, international division secretary of the Flight Attendants Association, told Agence France Presse. ""Qantas announced a record profit last year and is on course this year for an even greater profit so it is totally unnecessary."" In an effort to meet the challenge posed by low cost carriers, Qantas sought a tie-up with Air New Zealand last year However, the deal was thrown out by the New Zealand High Court on competition grounds." +business,"Takeover rumour lifts Exel shares Shares in storage and delivery firm Exel closed up 9% at a two-and-a-half year high on Tuesday on speculation it is to receive an imminent takeover bid. The talk in the City is that US giant United Parcel Services (UPS) is the most likely bidder for the firm. Yet other names mentioned in connection to buying Exel are DHL-owner Deutsche Post and finance firm GE Capital. With its shares closing Tuesday at 873p, Bracknell-based Exel is currently valued at £2.6bn ($6.3bn). Exel employs 109,000 people in more than 120 countries and has itself been active in the consolidation of the logistics sector, paying £328m to buy fellow UK firm Tibbett & Britten last August. Its customers include Boots, Burberry, Mothercare and consumer products giant Procter & Gamble. Andrew Beh, of brokers ING, said UPS and Deutsche Post were the most likely bidders and an offer of 950p a share would be fair if a bidding battle did not break out. ""It's a great strategic fit for both companies,"" he said. ""Both are interested in expanding in logistics and you can make a decent case for cost synergies which could justify the premium and that's before you make any argument about revenue synergies.""" +business,"Parmalat boasts doubled profits Parmalat, the Italian food group at the centre of one of Europe's most painful corporate scandals, has reported a doubling in profit. Its pre-tax earnings in the fourth quarter were 77m euros (£53m; $100m), up from 38m in the same period of 2003. Less welcome was the news that the firm had been fined 11m euros for having violated takeover rules five years ago. The firm sought bankruptcy protection in December 2003 after disclosing a 4bn-euro hole in its accounts. Overall, the company's debt is close to 12bn euros, and is falling only slowly. Its brands, well-known in Italy and overseas, have continued to perform strongly, however, and have barely lost revenue since the scandal broke. But a crucial factor for the company's future is the legal unwinding of its intensely complex financial position. On Tuesday, the company's administrator, turnaround expert Enrico Bondi, sued Morgan Stanley, its former banker, to return 136m euros relating to a 2003 bond deal. That brought to 49 the number of banks that Mr Bondi has sued, a mass of legal action that could bring in as much as 3bn euros. The company has also sued former auditors and financial advisors for damages. And criminal cases against the company's former management are proceeding separately." +business,"Asia shares defy post-quake gloom Indonesian, Indian and Hong Kong stock markets reached record highs. Investors seemed to feel that some of the worst-affected areas were so under-developed that the tragedy would have little impact on Asia's listed firms. ""Obviously with a lot of loss of life, a lot of time is needed to clean up the mess, bury the people and find the missing,"" said ABN Amro's Eddie Wong. ""[But] it's not necessarily a really big thing in the economic sense."" India's Bombay Stock Exchange inched slightly above its previous record close on Wednesday. Expectations of strong corporate earnings in 2005 drove the Indonesian stock exchange in Jakarta to a record high on Wednesday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index may be benefiting in part from the potential for its listed property companies to gain from rebuilding contracts in the tsunami-affected regions of South East Asia. In Sri Lanka, some economists have said that as much as 1% of annual growth may be lost. Sri Lanka's stock market has fallen about 5% since the weekend, but it is still 40% higher than at the start of 2004. Thailand may lose 30bn baht (£398m; $768m) in earnings from tourism over the next three months, according to tourism minister Sontaya Kunplome. In the affected provinces, he expects the loss of tourism revenue to be offset by government reconstruction spending. Thailand intends to spend a similar sum - around 30bn baht - on the rebuilding work. ""It will take until the fourth quarter of next year before tourist visitors in Phuket and five other provinces return to their normal level,"" said Naris Chaiyasoot, director general at the ministry's fiscal policy office. In the Maldives the cost of reconstruction could wipe out economic growth, according to a government spokesman. ""Our nation is in peril here,"" said Ahmed Shaheed, the chief government spokesman. He estimated the economic cost of the disaster at hundreds of millions of dollars. The Maldives has gross domestic product of $660m. ""It won't be surprising if the cost exceeds our GDP,"" he said. ""In the last few years, we made great progress in our standard of living - the United Nations recognised this. Now we see this can disappear in a few days, a few minutes."" Shaheed noted that investment in a single tourist resort - the economic mainstay - could run to $40m. Between 10 and 12 of the 80-odd resorts have been severely damaged, and a similar number have suffered significant damage. However, many experts, including the World Bank, have pointed out that it is still difficult to assess the magnitude of the disaster and its likely economic impact. In part, this is because of its scale, and because delivering aid and recovering the dead remain priorities. ""Calculators will have to wait,"" said an IMF official in a briefing on Wednesday. ""The financial and world community will be turning toward reconstruction efforts and at that point people will begin to have a sense of the financial impact.""" +business,"LSE 'sets date for takeover deal' The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is planning to announce a preferred takeover by the end of the month, newspaper reports claim. The Sunday Telegraph said the LSE's plan was further evidence it wants to retain tight control over its destiny. Both Deutsche Boerse and rival Euronext held talks with the London market last week over a possible offer. A £1.3bn offer from Deutsche Boerse has already been rejected, while Euronext has said it will make an all cash bid. Speculation suggests that Paris-based Euronext has the facilities in place to make a bid of £1.4bn, while its German rival may up its bid to the £1.5bn mark. Neither has yet tabled a formal bid, but the LSE is expected to hold further talks with the two parties later this week. However, the Sunday Telegraph report added that there are signs that Deutsche Boerse chief executive Werner Seifert is becoming increasingly impatient with the LSE's managed bid process. Despite insisting he wants to agree a recommended deal with the LSE's board, the newspaper suggested he may pull out of the process and put an offer directly to shareholders instead. The newspaper also claimed Mr Seifert was becoming ""increasingly frustrated"" with the pace of negotiations since Deutsche Boerse's £1.3bn offer was rejected in mid-December, in particular the LSE's decision to suspend talks over the Christmas period. Meanwhile, the German exchange's offer has come under fire recently. Unions for Deutsche Boerse staff in Frankfurt have reportedly expressed fears that up to 300 jobs would be moved to London if the takeover is successful. Others claim it will weaken the city's status as Europe's financial centre, while German politicians are also said to be angry over the market operator's promise to move its headquarters to London if a bid is successful. A further stumbling block is Deutsche Boerse's control over its Clearstream unit, the clearing house that processes securities transactions. LSE shareholders fear it would create a monopoly situation, weakening the position of shareholders when negotiating lower transaction fees for share dealings. LSE and Euronext do not have control over their clearing and settlement operations, a situation which critics say is more transparent and competitive." +business,"Vodafone appoints new Japan boss Vodafone has drafted in its UK chief executive William Morrow to take charge of its troubled Japanese operation. Mr Morrow will succeed Shiro Tsuda as president of Vodafone KK, Japan's number three mobile operator, in April. Mr Tsuda, who will become chairman, was appointed president only two months ago but the business has struggled since then, losing customers in January. Vodafone had pinned its hopes on the launch of its 3G phones in November but demand for them has been slow. While it has more than 15 million customers in Japan, Vodafone has found it difficult to satisfy Japan's technologically demanding mobile users. It suffered a net loss of more than 58,000 customers in January, its second monthly reverse in the last year. ""Vodafone is going to need to put a lot of money into Japan if it wants to rebuild the business,"" Tetsuro Tsusaka, a telecoms analyst with Deutsche Bank, told Reuters. ""I do not know if it will be worth it for them to spend that kind of money just for Japan.""" +business,"Tobacco giants hail court ruling US tobacco companies have welcomed an appeal court's decision to reject the government's $280bn (£155bn) claim for alleged deceit about smoking dangers. Tobacco stocks rose sharply on Wall Street after the 2-1 decision. The court in Washington found the case - filed by the Clinton administration in 1999 - could not be brought under federal anti-racketeering laws. Anti-smoking groups urge the government to fight on, but the Justice Department has not said if it will appeal. Among the accused were Altria Group, RJ Reynolds Tobacco, Lorillard Tobacco, Liggett Group and Brown and Williamson. They were delighted by the decision, which sent Reynolds shares up 4.5% and Altria shares up 5.11%. Charles A Blixt, executive vice-president of RJ Reynolds Tobacco, said the ruling ""dramatically transforms"" the government's lawsuit. Altria Group said, in a statement, the government now ""must not only prove that the companies have engaged in fraudulent behaviour in the past, but that they are likely to do so in the future."" The government had claimed tobacco firms - manipulated nicotine levels to increase addiction - targeted teenagers with multi-billion dollar advertising campaigns - lied about the dangers of smoking and ignored research to the contrary. Prosecutors wanted the cigarette firms to ""disgorge"" $280bn in profits accumulated over the past 50 years and impose tougher rules on marketing their products. They brought the case under racketeering laws, which were passed to deny mafia gangs the profits of their crimes. But the tobacco companies denied that they illegally conspired to promote smoking and defraud the public. They also said they had already met many of the government's demands in a landmark $206bn settlement reached with 46 states in 1998. The three-judge panel in the District of Columbia's Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that the US government could not sue the firms under the anti-racketeering laws. Judge David Sentelle, in his ruling, said such laws were aimed at putting an end to illegal conduct going forward. ""We hold that the language of (the law) and the comprehensive remedial scheme of (the law) preclude disgorgement as a possible remedy in this case,"" he wrote. The Justice Department refused to say if it would appeal. ""All we're saying today is that we have received the ruling and are reviewing it,"" a spokeswoman said on Friday. But William Corr of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids urged the government to continue pressing its case. ""Today's ruling should not be an excuse for this administration to seek a weak settlement that lets the tobacco industry off the hook,"" he said." +business,"Georgia plans hidden asset pardon Georgia is offering a one-off 'tax amnesty' to people who hid their earnings under the regime of former president Eduard Shevardnadze. The country's new president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has said that anyone now willing to disclose their wealth will only have to pay 1% in income tax. The measure is designed to legitimise previously hidden economic activity and boost Georgia's flagging economy. Georgia's black market is estimated to be twice the size of its legal economy. Mr Saakashvili, elected president in January after Mr Shevardnadze was toppled, has urged the Georgian Parliament to approve the amnesty as soon as possible. It is one of a series of proposals designed to tackle corruption, which was rampant during the Shevardnadze era, and boost Georgia's fragile public finances. The new government is encouraging companies to pay taxes by scrapping existing corruption investigations and destroying all tax records from before 1 January, three days before President Saakashvili was elected. ""There are people who have money but are afraid to show it,"" the president told a government session. ""Documentation about where this money came from doesn't exist because under the former, entirely warped regime, earning capital honestly was not possible."" By declaring their assets and paying the one-off tax, people would be able to ""legalise their property"", Mr Saakashvili stressed. ""No one will have the right to check this money's origin. This money must go back into the economy."" The amnesty will not extend to people who made money through drugs trafficking or international money laundering. Criminal investigations in such cases -thought to involve about 5% of Georgian businesses -are to continue. Mr Saakashvili has accused the Shevardnadze regime, which was toppled by a popular uprising in November, of allowing bribery to flourish. Georgia's economy is in a desperate condition. Half the population are living below the poverty line with many surviving on income of less than $4, or three euros, a day. The unemployment rate is around 20% while the country has a $1.7bn public debt." +business,"Verizon 'seals takeover of MCI' Verizon has won a takeover battle for US phone firm MCI with a bid worth $6.8bn (£3.6bn), reports say. The two firms are expected to seal the deal on Monday morning, according to news agency reports, despite what was thought to be a higher bid from Qwest. The US telecoms market is consolidating fast, with former long-distance giant AT&T being bought by former subsidiary SBC earlier this year for $16bn. MCI exited bankruptcy in April, having gone bust under previous name WorldCom. The bankruptcy followed its admission in 2002 that it illegally booked expenses and inflated profits. Shareholders lost about $180bn when the company collapsed, while 20,000 workers lost their jobs. Former Worldcom boss Bernie Ebbers is currently on trial, accused of overseeing an $11bn fraud. Qwest has itself come under suspicion of sub-standard behaviour, paying the Securities and Exchange Commission $250m in October to settle charges that it manipulated its results to keep Wall Street happy. MCI is the US's second-biggest long distance firm after AT&T. Consolidation in the US telecommunications industry has picked up in the past few months as companies look to cut costs and boost client bases. A merger between MCI and Verizon would be the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since October. Last week, SBC Communications agreed to buy its former parent and phone trailblazer AT&T for about $16bn. Buying MCI would give either Qwest or Verizon access to MCI's global network and business-based subscribers. The rationale is similar to the one underpinning SBC's AT&T deal. Verizon is by far the bigger company and has its own successful mobile arm - factors which may have swung the board in its favour since both suitors are offering a mixture of cash and shares." +business,"Disney settles disclosure charges Walt Disney has settled charges from US federal regulators that it failed to disclose how family members of directors were employed by the company. The media giant was not fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but has agreed to refrain from any future violations of securities law. Disney failed to tell investors that between 1999 and 2001 it employed three adult children of three then directors. The firm has neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in the settlement. The three Disney directors in question in the central matter of the SEC's investigation - Reveta Bowers, Stanley Gold and Raymond Watson - have all since left the company, with Ms Bowers and Mr Watson both retiring, and Mr Gold quitting in 2003. Their children were paid between $60,000 (£30,800) and $150,000 a year, with shareholders not being informed. The SEC also found that Disney did not disclose that a 50% Disney-owned subsidiary company - Lifetime - employed the wife of current Disney director John Bryson, and that she earned more than $1m a year. Louise Bryson remains with Lifetime. Disney also failed to disclose payments to Air Shamrock, an airline owned by Mr Gold and fellow former Disney directors Roy Disney. Finally, Disney also did not reveal that it provided more than $200,000 annually for office space, secretarial services, and a leased car and driver to former director Thomas Murphy. ""Shareholders have a significant interest in information regarding relationships between the company and its directors,"" said SEC deputy enforcement director Linda Thomsen. ""Failure to comply with the SEC's disclosure rules in this area impedes shareholders' ability to evaluate the objectivity and independence of directors.""" +business,"MCI shares climb on takeover bid Shares in US phone company MCI have risen on speculation that it is in takeover talks. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Qwest has bid $6.3bn (£3.4bn) for MCI. Other firms have also expressed an interest in MCI, the second-largest US long-distance phone firm, and may now table rival bids, analysts said. Shares in MCI, which changed its name from Worldcom when it emerged from bankruptcy, were up 2.4% at $20.15. Press reports suggest that Qwest and MCI may reach an agreement as early as next week, although rival bids may muddy the waters. The largest US telephone company Verizon has previously held preliminary merger discussions with MCI, Reuters quoted sources as saying. Consolidation in the US telecommunications industry has picked up in the past few months as companies look to cut costs and boost client bases. A merger between MCI and Qwest would be the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since October. Last week, SBC Communications agreed to buy its former parent and phone trailblazer AT&T for about $16bn. Competition has intensified and fixed-line phone providers such as MCI and AT&T have seen themselves overtaken by rivals. Buying MCI would give Qwest, a local phone service provider, access to MCI's global network and business-based subscribers. MCI also offers internet services. MCI was renamed after it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April last year. It hit the headlines as Worldcom in 2002 after admitting it illegally booked expenses and inflated profits. The scandal was a key factor in a global slide in share prices and the reverberations are still being felt today. Shareholders lost about $180bn when the company collapsed, while 20,000 workers lost their jobs. Former Worldcom boss Bernie Ebbers is currently on trial, accused of overseeing an $11bn fraud." +business,"Russian oil merger excludes Yukos The merger of Russian gas giant Gazprom and oil firm Rosneft is to go ahead, but will not include Yugansk, which was controversially bought last year. The merger, backed by Russian authorities, will allow foreigners to trade in Gazprom shares. Gazprom chief Alexei Miller confirmed Rosneft-owned Yugansk was not part of the deal and will instead be spun off. Under the agreement, the state will get a controlling share of Gazprom in exchange for Rosneft. The state wanted to control Gazprom before allowing foreigners to trade. Speaking on NTV television, which is controlled by Gazprom, Mr Miller added that Yugansk, which was swallowed up by Rosneft late last year, will operate as a separate, state-owned oil firm headed by current Rosneft chief Sergei Bogdanchikov. According to reports from Russian News Agency Interfax, the deal should go through in the next two to three months. ""Obtaining majority control over Gazprom is the beginning of the liberalisation of the market in Gazprom shares,"" Mr Miller added. By opening up trading in Gazprom to foreigners, the firm will become a top emerging market play for traders. Currently, foreigners can only trade in Gazprom via a small issue of London-listed proxy shares. ""This is positive news for the international investment community,"" Global Asset Management investment chief David Smith said. ""The majority of investors are going to be happy,"" he added. However, analysts were disappointed that Yugansk would not be included in the deal. ""Yugansk is a heavy cashflow generator and would have been a much better asset for Gazprom,"" Renaissance Capital energy analyst Adam Landes told Reuters news agency. But he said the latest development was simply an interim step to allow foreigners to trade in Gazprom. ""Ultimately and industrially, Gazprom needs Yugansk,"" he added. Analysts said the deal would give Gazprom control of 8% of Russia's total oil production, an improvement on its current 2.5%, but still far less than the 20% share it would have gained had it also taken over Yugansk. However, the merged group will still remain outside Russia's top five oil producers - led by Lukoil with 11% of the market , followed by TNK-BP which is half owned by BP, and Surgutneftegaz. Instead, the merged Gazprom-Rosneft group will rank alongside Sibneft with 7% of the market. Yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company in a disputed auction in December, following what many thought was a politically-motivated attack on Yukos. The shell company was then snapped up by Rosneft. Yukos unsuccessfully sought to halt the auction by applying for bankruptcy through the US courts. The unit was auctioned by Russian authorities to help pay off a $27.5bn back-tax bill." +business,"Bargain calls widen Softbank loss Japanese communications firm Softbank has widened losses after heavy spending on a new cut-rate phone service. The service, launched in December and dubbed ""Otoku"" or ""bargain"", has had almost 900,000 orders, Softbank said. The firm, a market leader in high-speed internet, had an operating loss for the three months to December of 7.5bn yen ($71.5m; £38.4m). But without the Otoku marketing spend it would have made a profit - and expects to move into the black in 2006. The firm did not give a figure for the extent of profits it expected to make next year. It was born in the 1990s tech boom, investing widely and becoming a fast-rising star, till the end of the tech bubble hit it hard. Its recent return to a high profile came with the purchase of Japan Telecom, the country's third-biggest fixed-line telecoms firm. The acquisition spurred its broadband internet division to pole position in the Japanese market, with more than 5.1 million subscribers at the end of December." +business,"Indonesia 'declines debt freeze' Indonesia no longer needs the debt freeze offered by the Paris Club group of creditors, Economics Minister Aburizal Bakrie has reportedly said. Indonesia, which originally accepted the debt moratorium offer, owes the Paris Club about $48bn (£25.5bn). Mr Bakrie told the Bisnis Indonesia newspaper that a $1.7bn donors' aid package meant that the debt moratorium was unnecessary. This aid comes on top of a previously-pledged $3.4bn package. Most of this 'normal aid' would be used to finance the country's budget deficit. The Indonesian Economics Minister explained that the money - $1.2bn in grants and $500m in soft loans - was for the rebuilding of Aceh province, which was badly hit by the tsunami of 26 December. Nevertheless, one of Mr Bakrie's deputies, Mahendra Siregar, told AFP news agency that Indonesia was still considering the offer by the Paris Club of rich creditor nations to temporarily suspend its debt payments. ""What is true is that we are still discussing... the Paris Club decision to find out more details such as how much of our debt will be subject to a moratorium. That's how far we are at this stage,"" said Mr Siregar. The 19 member countries of the Paris Club are owed about $5bn this year in debt repayments by nations affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami. Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Seychelles accepted the Paris Club offer, which was criticised by some aid groups as being too little. Thailand and India have however declined the offer, with Thailand prefering to keep up with its payments while India said it would prefer to rely on its own resources rather than on international aid. Putting off payments may lower a country's rating among financial organisations, making it more expensive and more difficult for them to borrow money in the future, analysts said. Separately, the Indonesian government has said it will announce monthly how much it has received in foreign donations and how it has spent the money. Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab told AP news agency that this announcement should allay suspicion of official corruption in relief operations." +business,"Tsunami to cost Sri Lanka $1.3bn Sri Lanka faces a $1.3bn (£691m) bill in 2005 for reconstruction after the tsunami which killed more than 30,000 of its people, its central bank says. This estimate is preliminary, bank governor Sunil Mendis told reporters, and could rise in 2006. The island state is asking for about $320m from the International Monetary Fund to help pay for relief, he said. The bank has 5bn rupees ($50m; £27m) set aside to lend at a lower interest rate to those who lost property. According to Mr Mendis, half the IMF support could come from a freeze on debt repayments, which would free up resources immediately. The rest could come from a five-year emergency loan. Sri Lanka is hoping for a wider freeze from other creditors. The Paris Club of 19 creditors meets on 12 January to discuss a debt moratorium for the nations hit by the tsunami, which ravaged south and east Asia on 26 December. Some 150,000 people across the region are feared to be dead and millions have been left homeless and destitute. A full reckoning of the economic cost to Sri Lanka of the tsunami will not be clear for some time to come. But already it looks likely that growth in the first half of 2005 will slow, Mr Mendis told reporters, although he would not say by how much. One side-effect of the disaster has been that the value of the rupee has risen as foreign funds have flooded into the country. The currency has strengthened 4% since late December, coming close to 100 rupees to the US dollar for the first time in more than six months." +business,"Christmas shoppers flock to tills Shops all over the UK reported strong sales on the last Saturday before Christmas with some claiming record-breaking numbers of festive shoppers. A spokesman for Manchester's Trafford Centre said it was ""the biggest Christmas to date"" with sales up 5%. And the Regent Street Association said shops in central London were also expecting the ""best Christmas ever"". That picture comes despite reports of disappointing festive sales in the last couple of weeks. The Trafford Centre spokeswoman said about 8,500 thousand vehicles had arrived at the centre on Saturday before 1130 GMT. ""We predict that the next week will continue the same trend,"" she added. It was a similar story at Bluewater in Kent. Spokesman Alan Jones said he expected 150,000 shoppers to have visited by the end of Saturday and a further 100,000 on Sunday. ""Our sales so far have been 2% up on the same time last year,"" he said. ""We're very busy, it's really strong and people will be shopping right up until Christmas. ""Over the Christmas period we're expecting people to spend in excess of £200m at the centre."" On Saturday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the St David's Shopping Centre in Cardiff said it looked like being its busiest day of the year with about 200,000 shoppers expected to have visited by the close of play. At the St Enoch's Shopping Centre in Glasgow, more than 140,000 shoppers - an all-time record - were expected to have passed through the doors by its closing time of 1900 GMT. Senior business manager Jon Walton said: ""It has been phenomenal - absolutely mobbed. ""Every week footfall has been showing strong growth and at the weekends it has been going mad."" Regent Street Association director Annie Walker said on Saturday: ""The stores were heaving today and a lot of people are going to be doing last minute shopping as many people finished work on Friday and can go in the week."" She said reports of a slump in pre-Christmas sales were related to the growing popularity of internet sales. ""I do think this has had a lot to do with reports of lower sales figures,"" she said. ""Internet shopping has gone up enormously and not all stores have websites.""" +business,"US adds more jobs than expected The US economy added 337,000 jobs in October - a seven-month high and far more than Wall Street expectations. In a welcome economic boost for newly re-elected President George W Bush, the Labor Department figures come after a slow summer of weak jobs gains. Jobs were created in every sector of the US economy except manufacturing. While the separate unemployment rate went up to 5.5% from 5.4% in September, this was because more people were now actively seeking work. The 337,000 new jobs added to US payrolls in October was twice the 169,000 figure that Wall Street economists had forecast. In addition, the Labor Department revised up the number of jobs created in the two previous months - to 139,000 in September instead of 96,000, and to 198,000 in August instead of 128,000. The better than expected jobs data had an immediate upward effect on stocks in New York, with the main Dow Jones index gaining 45.4 points to 10,360 by late morning trading. ""It looks like the job situation is improving and that this will support consumer spending going into the holidays, and offset some of the drag caused by high oil prices this year,"" said economist Gary Thayer of AG Edwards & Sons. Other analysts said the upbeat jobs data made it more likely that the US Federal Reserve would increase interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 2% when it meets next week. ""It should empower the Fed to clearly do something,"" said Robert MacIntosh, chief economist with Eaton Vance Management in Boston. Kathleen Utgoff, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor, said many of the 71,000 new construction jobs added in October were involved in rebuilding and clean-up work in Florida, and neighbouring Deep South states, following four hurricanes in August and September. The dollar rose temporarily on the job creation news before falling back to a new record low against the euro, as investors returned their attention to other economic factors, such as the US's record trade deficit. There is also speculation that President Bush will deliberately try to keep the dollar low in order to assist a growth in exports." +business,"EU ministers to mull jet fuel tax European Union finance ministers are meeting on Thursday in Brussels, where they are to discuss a controversial jet fuel tax. A levy on jet fuel has been suggested as a way to raise funds to finance aid for the world's poorest nations. Airlines and aviation bodies have reacted strongly against the plans, saying they would hurt companies at a time when earnings are under pressure. The EU said a tax would only be passed after full consultation with airlines. It was keen to point out earlier this week that any new tax on jet fuel should not hurt the ""competitiveness of the airlines"". Ministers will also be discussing reforms to regulations governing European public spending. Global leaders have focused attention on poverty reduction and development at recent meetings of the G7 Group and World Economic Forum. The world's richest countries have said they want to boost the amount of aid they give to 0.7% of their annual gross national income by 2015. Many EU ministers are thought to support the plan to tax jet fuel - tabled by France and Germany following the recent G7 meeting. At present, the fuel used by airlines enjoys either a very low tax rate or is untaxed in EU member states." +business,"Circuit City gets takeover offer Circuit City Stores, the second-largest electronics retailer in the US, has received a $3.25bn (£1.7bn) takeover offer. The bid has come from Boston-based private investment firm Highfields Capital Management, which already owns 6.7% of Circuit City's shares. Shares in the retailer were up 19.6% at $17.04 in Tuesday morning trading in New York following the announcement. Highfield said that it intends to take the Virginia-based firm private. ""Such a transformation would eliminate the public-company transparency into the company's operating strategy that is uniquely damaging in a highly competitive industry where Circuit City is going head-to-head with a tough and entrenched rival,"" Highfield said. One analyst suggested that a bidding battle may now begin for the company. Bill Armstrong, a retail analyst at CL King & Associates, said he expected to see other private investment firms come forward for Circuit City. The retailer is debt free with a good cash flow, despite the fact that it is said to be struggling to keep up with market leader Best Buy and cut-price competition from the likes of Wal-Mart, said Mr Armstrong." +business,"China bans new tobacco factories The world's biggest tobacco consumer, China, has said it will not allow any new tobacco factories to be built. China already has more than enough cigarette-making capacity, according to a spokesman for the tobacco industry regulator quoted in China Daily. The ban threatens to reignite tensions between the regulator and British American Tobacco, which plans to become China's first foreign cigarette maker. A spokeswoman for Bat declined to comment on the report. ""China won't allow any new tobacco factories to be built, including joint ventures"", said Xing Wangli, a spokesman for the State Tobacco Administration Monopoly quoted in China Daily. He also said that the state would retain its monopoly on cigarette distribution. China has 350 million smokers who consumer 1.7 trillion cigarettes a year. Smoking is fashionable in China, where it is seen as an essential - and manly - sociable touch for some jobs, such as salesmen. More young, urban woman are taking up smoking too. In July 2004, Bat announced it had won approval for to build a $1.5bn (£800m) joint venture factory in China which would make it the first foreign cigarette maker to manufacture there. The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration said a week later that it had not approved the deal, leading to an embarrassing public row. Bat told the BBC at that time that it had not negotiated with the STMC, and secured approval from ""the highest levels of government"". Since then, the row has flared occasionally, most recently at a forum in November. Bat consistently declines to comment. ""Xing's statement comes as especially bad news for British American Tobacco"", the China Daily newspaper said of the latest development. The Bat spokeswoman said: ""There is nothing for us to add...since our announcement in July last year. The central government of China is the authority that approved our strategic investment."" The decision to ban further tobacco factories does not apply to deals made before 2005, according to the French news agency AFP. The joint venture factory was expected to take till 2006 to build. The Bat spokeswoman would not comment on its progress. However, if the STMA continues to take a tough stance, expansion opportunities could be limited. China's tobacco market is increasingly valuable as anti-smoking campaigners target public smoking in the West. China Daily said the market was currently enjoying steady growth, making more than 210bn yuan ($25.4bn) in pre-tax profits last year, almost double the figure in 2000. The paper made no mention of health concerns. The STMA is trying to restructure the domestic tobacco industry, closing some factories, though such moves can be unpopular with local governments." +business,"MG Rover China tie-up 'delayed' MG Rover's proposed tie-up with China's top carmaker has been delayed due to concerns by Chinese regulators, according to the Financial Times. The paper said Chinese officials had been irritated by Rover's disclosure of its talks with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp in October. The proposed deal was seen as crucial to safeguarding the future of Rover's Longbridge plant in the West Midlands. However, there are growing fears that the deal could result in job losses. The Observer reported on Sunday that nearly half the workforce at Longbridge could be under threat if the deal goes ahead. Shanghai Automotive's proposed £1bn investment in Rover is awaiting approval by its owner, the Shanghai city government and by the National Development and Reform Commission, which oversees foreign investment by Chinese firms. According to the FT, the regulator has been annoyed by Rover's decision to talk publicly about the deal and the intense speculation which has ensued about what it will mean for Rover's future. As a result, hopes that approval of the deal may be fast-tracked have disappeared, the paper said. There has been continued speculation about the viability of Rover's Longbridge plant because of falling sales and unfashionable models. According to the Observer, 3,000 jobs - out of a total workforce of 6,500 - could be lost if the deal goes ahead. The paper said that Chinese officials believe cutbacks will be required to keep the MG Rover's costs in line with revenues. It also said that the production of new models through the joint venture would take at least eighteen months. Neither Rover nor Shanghai Automotive commented on the reports." +business,"India widens access to telecoms India has raised the limit for foreign direct investment in telecoms companies from 49% to 74%. Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said that there is a need to fund the fast-growing mobile market. The government hopes to increase the number of mobile users from 95 million to between 200 and 250 million by 2007. ""We need at least $20bn (£10.6bn) in investment and part of this has to come as foreign direct investment,"" said Mr Maran. The decision to raise the limit for foreign investors faced considerable opposition from the communist parties, which give crucial support to the coalition headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Potential foreign investors will however need government approval before they increase their stake beyond 49%, Mr Maran said. Key positions, such as those of chief executive, chief technology officer and chief financial officer are to be held by Indians, he added. Analysts and investors have welcomed the government decision. ""It is a positive development for carriers and the investment community, looking to take a longer-term view of the huge growth in the Indian telecoms market,"" said Gartner's principal analyst Kobita Desai. ""The FDI relaxation coupled with rapid local market growth could really ignite interest in the Indian telecommunication industry,"" added Ernst and Young's Sanjay Mehta. Investment bank Morgan Stanley has forecast that India's mobile market is likely to grow by about 40% a year until 2007. The Indian mobile market is currently dominated by four companies, Bharti Televentures which has allied itself with Singapore Telecom, Essar which is linked with Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa, the Sterling group and the Tata group." +business,"Delta cuts fares in survival plan Delta Air Lines is cutting domestic fares by as much as 50% as part of a plan to ensure its financial survival. Other US carriers, including United, have sought bankruptcy protection, amid high fuel costs and competition from discount carriers. Delta is restructuring in a bid to fight off insolvency. This latest move to boost business has prompted speculation other firms will be forced to match their fares, hurting revenues in the sector. Delta's new SimpliFares were trialled from August last year on tickets from Cincinnati, its second-largest hub. The airline says no one-way economy fare will now be priced higher than $499 (£264), and no first-class fare will be priced higher than $599. It is also eliminating a Saturday-night stay requirement on discount fares and will give further reductions to customers opting for non-refundable tickets, booking in advance and online. Delta, which lost $646m in the three months to September, was forced to cut 6,900 jobs worldwide as part of its aim to slash $5bn from its costs. In October, it reached a crucial agreement with pilots on pay and conditions and it has also issued new shares to staff in return for wage cuts. Airline shares closed lower on the announcement, with Delta, Continental and American Airlines all falling by more than 7%. ""We believe the whole airline industry will now have to move in this direction; this will likely hurt revenue in the short run but could be beneficial in the long run,"" said analyst Ray Neidl at Calyon Securities." +business,"Monsanto fined $1.5m for bribery The US agrochemical giant Monsanto has agreed to pay a $1.5m (£799,000) fine for bribing an Indonesian official. Monsanto admitted one of its employees paid the senior official two years ago in a bid to avoid environmental impact studies being conducted on its cotton. In addition to the penalty, Monsanto also agreed to three years' close monitoring of its business practices by the American authorities. It said it accepted full responsibility for what it called improper activities. A former senior manager at Monsanto directed an Indonesian consulting firm to give a $50,000 bribe to a high-level official in Indonesia's environment ministry in 2002. The manager told the company to disguise an invoice for the bribe as ""consulting fees"". Monsanto was facing stiff opposition from activists and farmers who were campaigning against its plans to introduce genetically-modified cotton in Indonesia. Despite the bribe, the official did not authorise the waiving of the environmental study requirement. Monsanto also has admitted to paying bribes to a number of other high-ranking officials between 1997 and 2002. The chemicals-and-crops firm said it became aware of irregularities at a Jakarta-based subsidiary in 2001 and launched an internal investigation before informing the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Monsanto faced both criminal and civil charges from the Department of Justice and the SEC. ""Companies cannot bribe their way into favourable treatment by foreign officials,"" said Christopher Wray, assistant US attorney general. Monsanto has agreed to pay $1m to the Department of Justice, adopt internal compliance measures, and co-operate with continuing civil and criminal investigations. It is also paying $500,000 to the SEC to settle the bribe charge and other related violations. Monsanto said it accepted full responsibility for its employees' actions, adding that it had taken ""remedial actions to address the activities in Indonesia"" and had been ""fully co-operative"" throughout the investigative process." +business,"Mystery surrounds new Yukos owner The fate of Russia's Yuganskneftegas - the oil firm sold to a little-known buyer on Sunday - is the subject of frantic speculation in Moscow. Baikal Finance Group emerged as the auction winner, agreeing to pay 260.75bn roubles (£4.8bn; $9.4bn). Russia's newspapers claimed that Baikal was a front for gas monopoly Gazprom, which had been expected to win. The sale has destroyed Yukos, once the owner of Yuganskneftegas, said founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. ""Yuganskneftegas has been sold in the best traditions of the 90s. The authorities have made themselves a wonderful Christmas present - Russia's most efficient oil company has been destroyed,"" the Interfax news agency quoted Mr Khodorkovsky as saying via his lawyers. Gazprom had been expected to win the auction but is thought to have failed to get finance for the deal after a US court injunction barred it from taking part. Last week, Yukos filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US in a last-ditch attempt to hang on to Yuganskneftegas, which accounts for 60% of its output. A US judge banned Gazprom from taking part in the auction and barred international banks from providing the firm with cash. ""They screwed up the financing,"" said Ronald Smith, an analyst at Renaissance Capital in Moscow. ""And Gazprom doesn't have this sort of money lying around."" Gazprom has denied that it is behind the purchase. ""It is a front for somebody but not necessarily for Gazprom,"" said Oleg Maximov, an analyst at Troika Dialog in Moscow. ""We don't know if this company is linked 100% to Gazprom. ""We tried to find it, but we couldn't and as far as I know, the papers had the same result."" The sale has however bought time for Gazprom to raise the money needed for the purchase, analysts said. One scenario is that Baikal will not pay when it is supposed to in two weeks time, putting Yuganskneftegas back in the hands of bailiffs and back within the reach of Gazprom. Yukos is not planning on letting go of its unit without a fight and has threatened legal action against any buyer. Menatep, Yukos main shareholders' group, has also threatened legal action. Yukos claims that it is being punished for the political ambitions of its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is now in jail facing separate fraud charges. It has been hit with more than $27bn in taxes and fines and many observers now say that the break up of the firm that accounts for 20% of Russia's oil output is inevitable." +business,"Qwest may spark MCI bidding war US phone company Qwest has said it will table a new offer for MCI after losing out to larger rival Verizon, setting the scene for a possible bidding war. MCI accepted a $6.75bn (£3.6bn) buyout from telecoms giant Verizon on Monday, rejecting a higher offer from Qwest. Qwest chairman Richard Notebaert sent a letter to MCI's board on Thursday saying that it plans to submit a new offer after examining Verizon's bid. Formerly known as Worldcom, MCI is a long-distance and corporate phone firm. Snapping up MCI would give the buyer access to a global telecommunications network and a large number of business-based subscribers. Shares of MCI were up more than 4% in electronic trading after the close of New York markets. Qwest said on Wednesday that MCI had rejected a deal worth $8bn. ""We would like to advise you that once we have completed our review of the Verizon merger agreement, we do intend to submit a modified offer to acquire MCI,"" the letter from Qwest said. Verizon's offer is made up of cash, shares and dividends, and a number of investors have said that it undervalues MCI. Verizon plans to swap 0.41 of its shares and $1.50 in cash for each MCI share, as well as offering special dividends of $4.50 a share. Both company boards have backed the deal, but regulators will still need to give their approval. As well as trying to lure investors with the promise of better returns, Qwest also reckons that its offer will face less regulatory scrutiny than Verizon's. The takeover would be the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since October as companies look to cut costs and boost client bases. Earlier this month, SBC Communications agreed to buy its former parent and phone trailblazer AT&T for about $16bn. There may be concerns other than cash, however, especially as MCI only emerged from bankruptcy protection last April. Verizon is far bigger than Qwest, has fewer debts and has built a successful mobile division. Also, MCI, while trading under the name Worldcom, became the biggest corporate bankruptcy in US history after admitting that it illegally booked expenses and inflated profits. Former Worldcom boss Bernie Ebbers is currently standing trial, accused of overseeing an $11bn fraud. Qwest, meanwhile, had to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $250m in October to settle charges that it massaged earnings to keep Wall Street happy." +business,"Giving financial gifts to children Your child or grandchild may want the latest toy this Christmas, but how about giving them a present that will help their financial future? Gifts of the financial variety might have a longer lasting impact. It may encourage children to save or start a fund which could count towards university costs, for example. The government is trying to encourage saving at an early age, through its new Child Trust Fund. The first vouchers, worth £250 or £500 for low-income families, will be distributed from January. All children born after 1st September 2002 will be eligible. Parents will need to decide which financial institution will manage this gift in time for the start of the scheme in April 2005. Parents and relatives will be able to top up the fund with up to £1,200 a year, which will grow free of income and capital gains tax. As the Child Trust Fund will not be in force in time for Christmas, relatives could invest their gifts in a higher rate children's deposit account, and use this as a feeder fund. There are accounts designed to start children off in the savings habit and they often pay a higher rate of interest. Some of the best instant-access accounts currently available include the Ladybird account from the Saffron Walden Building Society, paying 5.35% for a minimum balance of £1 and the Alliance & Leicester FirstSaver which pays 5.25%, also starting at £1. Interest earned by children is subject to income tax. However, children, like adults, have a personal income tax allowance (£4,745 for the current tax year). If the account holds money gifted by friends and relatives - but not parents - any interest earned from the savings account may be set against the allowance. As long as the total amount of interest falls within the allowance, then no tax will be payable. When the account is opened a form ""R85"", available from the bank or building society, should be completed. This confirms that the account holder is a non-taxpayer and allows interest to be received without the deduction of income tax. The tax rules are different for parents who save on behalf of a child. Only £100 of interest (per parent) can be tax-free. Where interest exceeds this level, the whole of the interest will be taxed on the parent. This is to prevent parents from holding their own cash savings in their children's names and taking advantage of the tax allowances. Where both parents and other relatives are saving on behalf of a child, consideration should be given to opening separate accounts - one for parents' gifts and one for gifts from other relatives. Therefore, it may be preferable for parents to contribute to the Child Trust Fund which is tax free, with any gifts from relatives that take the total above the annual £1,200 limit being directed to a deposit account. Another favourite solution is Premium Bonds. With the promise of riches far greater than a mere deposit account, they make great presents. The parent or guardian will be responsible for the Bonds and will receive notification of the purchase. Any prizes will be sent to the parent or child's guardian. The minimum for each purchase is £100 and Bonds are sold in multiples of £10. There are gift opportunities beyond cash accounts and these should not be ignored. Over the longer term, stock market funds have outperformed other types of investment, although in the shorter term they can be volatile. One of the benefits of investing for children is that investment is generally for the longer term - more than ten years - which helps to reduce the risks associated with investing in shares. One way to spread the risk is to invest in the stock market through a unit or investment trust. These are pooled investment funds which give access to a wide range of shares. These funds may be actively managed, where a fund manager picks individual stocks based on a view of their future potential, or passive, where a manager invests in all the shares that comprise a stock market index, for example, the FTSE 100. Exchange Traded Funds offer an alternative way to track a stock market. These are single shares that give the return of an underlying index (so are really another form of tracker). The difference is that the charges are quite low. The only drawback with all financial gifts is that the children gain an absolute right to the money at age 18, and parents will have no control over how it is spent. For larger gifts it may be worthwhile taking professional advice on the establishment of a suitable trust that will allow ongoing control over the capital and income." +business,"ID theft surge hits US consumers Almost a quarter of a million US consumers complained of being targeted for identity theft in 2004, official figures suggest. The Federal Trade Commission said two in five of the 635,173 reports it had from consumers concerned ID fraud. ID theft occurs when criminals use someone else's personal information to steal credit or commit other crimes. Internet auctions were the second biggest source of fraud complaints, comprising 16% of the total. The total cost of fraud reported by consumers was $546m (£290m). The report marks the fifth year in a row in which identity fraud has topped the table. The biggest slice of the 246,570 ID fraud cases reported - almost 30% - concerned abuses of people's credit. Misusing someone's identity to claim new credit cards or loans comprised 16.5% of the total, with almost 12% coming from false claims on existing credit. Another 18% came from attempts to rip off people's bank accounts, while 13% of cases concerned attempts to defraud employers by abusing someone else's identity. Outside the field of ID theft, 53% of the near-400,000 complaints were internet-related. Among the 100,000 internet auction complaints, the failure of sellers to deliver or the supply of sub-standard goods were the most common woes reported. Catalogue and home-shopping frauds were next in line, accounting for 8% of total complaints, while concerns about internet services and computers - including spyware found on people's PCs and undisclosed charges for websites - amounted to 6% of complaints." +business,"Indy buys into India paper Irish publishing group Independent News & Media is buying up a 26% stake in Indian newspaper company Jagran in a deal worth 25m euros ($34.1m). Jagran publishes India's top-selling daily newspaper, the Hindi-language Dainik Jagran, which has been in circulation for 62 years. News of the deal came as the group announced that its results would meet market forecasts. The company reported strong revenue growth across all its major markets. Group advertising revenues were up over 10% year-on-year, the group said, with overall circulation revenues are expected to increase almost 10% year-on-year. This was helped by the positive impact of ""compact"" newspaper editions in Ireland and the UK, it said. ""2004 has proven to be an important year for Independent News & Media,"" said chief executive Sir Anthony O'Reilly. ""Our simple aim at Independent is to be the low cost producer in every region in which we operate. I am confident that we will show a meaningful increase in earnings for 2005."" Meanwhile, the group made no comment about the future of the Independent newspaper despite recent speculation that Sir Anthony had held talks with potential buyers over a stake in the daily publication. He has consistently denied suggestions that the Independent and the Independent on Sunday are up for sale. Buy it is understood that the recent success of the smaller edition of the Independent, which has pushed circulation up by 20% to 260,000, has prompted interest from industry rivals, with Daily Mail & General Trust tipped as the most likely suitor. The loss-making newspaper is not expected to reach break-even until 2006." +business,"Barclays shares up on merger talk Shares in UK banking group Barclays have risen on Monday following a weekend press report that it had held merger talks with US bank Wells Fargo. A tie-up between Barclays and California-based Wells Fargo would create the world's fourth biggest bank, valued at $180bn (£96bn). Barclays has declined to comment on the report in the Sunday Express, saying it does not respond to market speculation. The two banks reportedly held talks in October and November 2004. Barclays shares were up 8 pence, or 1.3%, at 605 pence by late morning in London on Monday, making it the second biggest gainer in the FTSE 100 index. UK banking icon Barclays was founded more than 300 years ago; it has operations in over 60 countries and employs 76,200 staff worldwide. Its North American divisions focus on business banking, whereas Wells Fargo operates retail and business banking services from 6,000 branches. In 2003, Barclays reported a 20% rise in pre-tax profits to £3.8bn, and it has recently forecast similar gains in 2004, predicting that full year pre-tax profits would rise 18% to £4.5bn. Wells Fargo had net income of $6.2bn in its last financial year, a 9% increase on the previous year, and revenues of $28.4bn. Barclays was the focus of takeover speculation in August, when it was linked to Citigroup, though no bid has ever materialised. Stock market traders were sceptical that the latest reports heralded a deal. ""The chief executive would be abandoning his duty if he didn't talk to rivals, but a deal doesn't seem likely,"" Reuters quoted one trader as saying." +business,"Swiss cement firm in buying spree Swiss cement firm Holcim has bid $800m (£429m) to buy two Indian cement firms and a holding company in the country. It plans to buy Associated Cement Companies (ACC), Ambuja Cement Eastern and the holding firm, Ambuja Cement India Ltd, a Holcim statement said. Shares in ACC fell 5.5% as investors, who thought the offer was underpriced, decided to sell. Meanwhile, UK-based firm Aggregate Industries said it had agreed a £1.8bn takeover by Holcim. The deal with Aggregates will give Holcim, the world's second-biggest cement maker, an entry into the UK market and boost its presence in the US. Peter Tom, who will remain as Aggregate chief executive, said the 138p a share offer provided ""significant value"" for shareholders. The Markfield, Leicestershire-based company runs 142 quarries in the UK and the US. It also has 164 ready-mixed concrete plants, 90 asphalt plants and 32 pre-cast concrete factories. If the Indian deals go ahead, it will give Holcim a major presence in the world's fastest-growing market behind China. ACC is India's second-largest cement maker with an annual capacity of 18.2 million tonnes and a market share of 13%. ""Holcim is looking to buy it (ACC) very cheap,"" said KK Mittal, a fund manager with Escorts Mutual Fund in New Delhi. ""The market is not impressed. If they want a substantial chunk, then they should be paying a premium over the market price."" Shares in Holcim rose by 2.3% on Thursday following news of the takeover." +business,"Iraqi voters turn to economic issues Beyond the desperate security situation in Iraq lies an economy in tatters. A vicious cycle of unemployment, poor social services and poverty has been made worse by a lack of investment. So there is much hope that an elected government will break the deadlock. ""First rule of law, then the economy,"" says Radwan Hadi, deputy managing director of Aberdeen-based oil and gas consultancy Blackwatch Petroleum Services, which entered Iraq in 2003. Mr Hadi's view about what the new government's priorities should be is shared by many Iraqis. The economy has become the second-most dominant issue for many political parties ahead of Sunday's election, according to Bristol University political scientist Anne Alexander, who is working on a project that looks at governance and security in post-war Iraq. Job creation ranks high both on election manifestos and on the Iraqi people's wish list. Nobody knows exactly how many Iraqis are out of work, but it is clear that the situation is dire. ""Estimates of Iraq's unemployment rate vary, but we estimate it to be between 30-40%,"" the Washington-based independent think-tank The Brookings Institution says in its Iraq Index. But some progress has been made, largely thanks to the country's oil revenues which have exceeded $22bn since June 2003. Iraq's infrastructure is on the mend, with notable improvements having been made in areas such as electricity supply, irrigation, telephone networks and the re-opening of hospitals. But serious problems remain and the growing divide between haves and have-nots is angering voters. One Iraqi woman told Ms Alexander about her frustration as she watched TV adverts for private hospitals soon after having failed to track down basic medicines from Baghdad's pharmacies. Observes Mr Hadi: ""The economy at present marks a big divide; the rich get richer, the poor get poorer."" An indication of this can be seen in the world of finance where, in contrast with the daily plight of ordinary people, 19 private banks operate, only one of which is run in accordance with Islamic banking principles. Hopes are high for the future of finance, so foreign banks have been buying into the sector. National Bank of Kuwait has bought a majority stake in Credit Bank of Iraq, the Jordanian investment bank Export & Finance Bank has bought 49% of National Bank of Iraq. Foreign firms also hope to cash in on the reconstruction effort. Bechtel's efforts to rebuild schools and restore power have attracted controversy as well as boosting its bottom line while Halliburton has enjoyed a wealth of military contracts. But the involvement of foreign firms in the health and banking sectors and beyond sits uneasily with many Iraqis who are accustomed to the state taking responsibility for functions that are essential to making society work, observes Ms Alexander. ""It is seen as a selling off of Iraq's assets and bringing in multinationals at the expense of Iraqi businesses and Iraqi workers,"" she says. Consequently, the transitional government has been forced to backtrack in recent months over its proposal to allow 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi assets, she explains. In the West, it is easy to forget that the otherwise brutal Baathist regime used to look after the majority of Iraq's citizens rather well in terms of job creation, social security and healthcare. Opinion polls suggest that ""people still want the state to take a leading role in providing these things"", Ms Alexander says. Yet in some areas of the economy, investment from abroad is still warmly welcomed, insists Mr Hadi, an Iraqi who left the country three decades ago. ""I think the private sector will evolve incredibly fast,"" Mr Hadi says. ""Iraq's vast natural resources can support any magnitude of economic growth."" Many foreign companies say they are keen to get in on the act, yet few are actually entering the country in any meaningful way. But there are exceptions. Mr Hadi's Blackwatch is just one of many small operators preparing for a much bigger future. Blackwatch's Baghdad-based affiliate Falcon Group has dozens of people working for it across the country in Kirkuk and Baghdad, and its engineers and geo-scientists work with the Iraqi oil ministry to hammer out technology transfer issues, Mr Hadi points out. ""These guys are trying to work. The Iraqi business people will do business at all times. ""Life goes on in Iraq, the people take responsibility, they want to live normal lives.""" +business,"Reliance unit loses Anil Ambani Anil Ambani, the younger of the two brothers in charge of India's largest private company, has resigned from running its petrochemicals subsidiary. The move is likely to be seen as the latest twist in a feud between Mr Ambani and his brother Mukesh. Anil, 45, has stepped down as director and vice-chairman of Indian Petrochemicals Corporation (IPC). The company was not available for comment. IPC is 46%-owned by Reliance Industries which in turn is run by Mukesh. Mukesh has spoken of ownership issues between the two brothers, who took over control of the Reliance empire following the death of their father in July, 2002. Reliance's operations have massive reach, covering textiles, telecommunications, petrochemicals, petroleum refining and marketing, as well as oil and gas exploration, insurance and financial services. The brothers' spat has hogged headlines in India during recent weeks, despite a denial from the family that there was anything wrong. Speculation has been rife about what has triggered the stand-off, with some observers blaming Anil's political ambitions, others the heavy investment by Mukesh and Reliance in a mobile phone venture. Shares of IPC dipped on the news in Mumbai, but recovered to trade almost 6% higher. Reliance shares added 1.7%, while Reliance Energy, headed by Anil, jumped 7%." +business,"Chinese dam firm 'defies Beijing' The China Three Gorges Project Corp is refusing to obey a government order to stop construction of one of its giant dams, the Chinese state press has said. The builder of the Three Gorges Dam is continuing work on the sister Xiluodu dam, said the Beijing News. The Xiluodu dam is one of 30 such large-scale construction projects called to a halt because of a lack of proper environmental checks. The Beijing News said the company may instead choose to pay a fine. The firm has also ignored orders to stop construction at two of its other projects - the Three Gorges Underground Power Plant and the Three Gorges Project Electrical Power Supply Plant. So far, only 22 of the 30 construction projects targeted by China's State Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) for having not carried out mandatory environmental impact assessments have complied with its shutdown order. The China Three Gorges Project Corp could now face a fine up to 200,000 yuan ($24,000; £12,700). Last week, it denied that its projects violated regulations. ""The Three Gorges Corporation has all along abided by the law and have built our projects in accordance with the law,"" it said. The Sepa order comes as the Chinese government appears to be trying to cool the country's booming economy. Previously it has encouraged construction of new electricity generating capacity to solve chronic energy shortages, which forced many factories into part-time working last year. In 2004, China increased its generating capacity by 12.6% to 440,700 megawatts (MW). The Xiluodu Dam is designed to produce 12,600 MW of electricity, and is being built on the Jinshajiang - or ""river of golden sand"" as the upper reaches of the Yangtze are known. It is a sister project to the main Three Gorges Dam downstream where more than half a million people have had to be relocated, drawing criticism from environmental groups and overseas human rights activists." +business,"China now top trader with Japan China overtook the US to become Japan's biggest trading partner in 2004, according to numbers released by Japan's Finance Ministry on Wednesday. China accounted for 20.1% of Japan's trade in 2004, compared with 18.6% for the US. In 2003, the US was ahead with 20.5% and China came second with 19.2%. The change highlights China's growing importance as an economic powerhouse. In 2004, Japan's imports from and exports to China (and Hong Kong) added up to 22,201bn yen ($214.6bn;£114.5bn). This is the highest figure for Japanese trade with China since records began in 1947. It compares with 20,479.5bn yen in trade with the US. Trade with the US during 2004 was hurt by one-off factors, including a 13-month ban on US beef imports following the discovery of a cow infected with mad cow disease (BSE) in the US. However, economists predict China will become an even more important Japanese trading partner in the coming years. On Tuesday, figures showed China's economy grew by 9.5% in 2004 and experts say the overall growth picture remains strong. Analysts see two spurs to future growth as being China's membership of the World Trade Organisation and lower trade tariffs. During 2004, Japan's trade surplus grew 17.9% to 12.011 trillion yen, with more than half the surplus, 6.962 trillion yen, accounted for by its trade with the US. In December, the surplus grew 1.8% on a year ago to 1.14 trillion yen thanks to stronger-than-expected exports." +business,"Europe asks Asia for euro help European leaders say Asian states must let their currencies rise against the US dollar to ease pressure on the euro. The European single currency has shot up to successive all-time highs against the dollar over the past few months. Tacit approval from the White House for the weaker greenback, which could help counteract huge deficits, has helped trigger the move. But now Europe says the euro has had enough, and Asia must now share some of the burden. China is seen as the main culprit, with exports soaring up 35% in 2004 partly on the back of a currency pegged to the dollar. ""Asia should engage in greater currency flexibility,"" said French finance minister Herve Gaymard, after a meeting with his German counterpart Hans Eichel. Markets responded by pushing the euro lower, in the expectation that the rhetoric - and the pressure - is unlikely to ease ahead of a meeting of the G7 industrialised countries next week. Early on Tuesday morning, the dollar had edged higher to 1.3040 euros. The yen, meanwhile, had strengthened to 102.975 against the dollar by 0730 GMT." +business,"Building giant in asbestos payout Australian building products group James Hardie has agreed to pay $1.1bn (£568m) to victims of asbestos-related diseases. The landmark deal could see thousands of people suffering from lung diseases - caused by asbestos the company once made - receive compensation. The move follows angry protests after the firm said a previous compensation fund was running out of money. A subsequent New South Wales state inquiry criticised Hardie's actions. In September, the inquiry found that the company had misled the public about the amount of money set aside to cover its asbestos-related liabilities, sparking the resignation of its then chief executive, Peter MacDonald. Campaigners welcomed news of the preliminary agreement. ""This is a momentous day in the fight for victims and their families,"" said asbestosis sufferer Bernie Banton, who leads a victims' association. ""There is still a long way to go, but we are getting there."" James Hardie chairwoman, Meredith Hellicar, said the deal provided for a funding arrangement ""that is affordable, sensible and workable"". ""At the end of the day we are dealing with compensation for people who are terminally ill. We don't know exactly how many of them there will be, we don't know over what exact period they will fall ill,"" she said. However, the deal still has to receive the approval of Hardie's shareholders. Hardie, which currently makes more than 80% of its revenues in the US, was once Australia's biggest supplier of asbestos building materials. In 2001, the company set up a fund to compensate asbestos victims, but it later admitted the fund was running short of money. A decision by Hardie to move its headquarters to the Netherlands - while remaining a listed company in Australia - provoked a damaging public outcry. Victims groups accusing it of trying to escape its responsibilities by moving abroad, a charge the company denies. Australia's securities watchdog is currently investigating Hardie's former chief executive and former chief financial officer over allegations of misleading investors and the general public." +business,"VW considers opening Indian plant Volkswagen is considering building a car factory in India, but said it had yet to make a final decision. The German giant said it was studying the possibility of opening an assembly plant in the country, but that it remained only a ""potential"" idea. Its comments came after the industry minister of India's Andhra Pradesh state said a team of VW officials were due to visit to discuss the plans. B. Satyanarayana said he expected VW to co-sign a memorandum of agreement. Several foreign carmakers, including Hyundai, Toyota, Suzuki and Ford, already have Indian production facilities to meet demand for automobiles in Asia's fourth-largest economy. VW's proposed plant would be set up in the port city of Visakhapatnam on India's eastern coast. An Andhra Pradesh official added that VW had already approved a factory site measuring 250 acres." +business,"Cairn shares slump on oil setback Shares in Cairn Energy, a UK oil firm, have closed down 18% after a disappointing drilling update and a warning over possible tax demands. The company said tests had shown no significant finds in one of its Indian oil fields, but was upbeat about the potential of other areas. It also said the Indian government had told it to pay a production tax, for which Cairn argues it is not liable. Cairn's shares have jumped by almost 400% this year. Investors had piled into Cairn after the company announced significant oil finds in India this year. Chief executive Bill Gammell said on Friday he was ""disappointed"" with exploration in the so-called N-C extension area in Rajasthan. Investors had held high hopes of major oil finds in this area. But Cairn said estimates had been revised in what was a ""significant downgrade of the initial expectation"". Cairn also said that the government believed the company was liable to pay taxes under its production-sharing contract. The company said the rate would be about 900 rupees ($20.40; £10.50) per tonne, or seven barrels, of oil. A spokesman for the firm said that the tax would wipe 5% of the field's current value. ""Cairn refutes the government's position,"" Mr Gammell said. He insisted that the contract made it clear that the tax should be shouldered by the licensee - India's state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) - and not the contractor. ""We have a pretty strong legal case here,"" he added, saying it would only become an issue once the firm started production. Investors took a dim view of the statements though. The shares closed down 247p, or 18%, at 1115 pence. ""I think people were slightly over-ambitious for how quickly Cairn would be able to develop and potentially offload these reserves,"" said analyst Jason Kenney at ING. The disappointments overshadowed increased production targets for Cairn's existing oilfields. The company raised targets for its Mangala and Aishwariya fields in India from 60,000 barrels a day to between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels a day. Its Mangala field, thought to contain a billion barrels, is its biggest find to date. ""These two fields will provide the core of the future developments in Rajasthan,"" Mr Gammell said. Cairn added that it would be appraising another field early next year. Mr Gammell set up the company in the 1980s and has successfully switched its focus to South Asia from interests in the US and Europe. Cairn, which also operates in Nepal and Bangladesh, was catapulted into the FTSE 100 index of leading UK shares earlier this year after the sharp rise in its share price." +business,"India calls for fair trade rules India, which attends the G7 meeting of seven leading industrialised nations on Friday, is unlikely to be cowed by its newcomer status. In London on Thursday ahead of the meeting, India's finance minister, lashed out at the restrictive trade policies of the G7 nations. He objected to subsidies on agriculture that make it hard for developing nations like India to compete. He also called for reform of the United Nations, the World Bank and the IMF. Palaniappan Chidambaram, India's finance minister, argued that these organisations need to take into account the changing world order, given India and China's integration into the global economy. He said the issue is not globalisation but ""the terms of engagement in globalisation."" Mr Chidambaram is attending the G7 meeting as part of the G20 group of nations, which account for two thirds of the world's population. At a conference on developing enterprise hosted by UK finance minister Gordon Brown on Friday, he said that he was in favour of floating exchange rates because they help countries cope with economic shocks. ""A flexible exchange rate is one more channel for absorbing both positive and negative shocks,"" he told the conference. India, along with China, Brazil, South Africa and Russia, has been invited to take part in the G7 meeting taking place in London on Friday and Saturday. China is expected to face renewed pressure to abandon its fixed exchange rate, which G7 nations, in particular the US, have blamed for a surge in cheap Chinese exports. ""Some countries have tried to use fixed exchange rates. I do not wish to make any judgements,"" Mr Chidambaram said. Separately, the IMF warned on Thursday that India's budget deficit was too large and would hamper the country's economic growth, which it forecast to be around 6.5% in the year to March 2005. In the year to March 2004, the Indian economy grew by 8.5%." +business,"Burren awarded Egyptian contracts British energy firm Burren Energy has been awarded two potentially lucrative oil exploration contracts in Egypt. The company successfully bid for the two contracts, granted by government owned oil firms, covering onshore and offshore areas in the Gulf of Suez. Burren Energy already has a presence in Egypt, having been awarded an exploration contract last year. The firm, which floated in 2003, recently announced a deal to buy 26% of Indian firm Hindustan Oil Exploration. The £13.8m deal gives Burren Energy access to the Indian oil and gas industry. This latest contract expands Burren Energy's global exploration and production portfolio - it also holds contracts in Turkmenistan and the Republic of Congo. ""These assets significantly increase our exploration portfolio in Egypt and we continue to investigate further opportunities in this region,"" said chief executive Finian O'Sullivan." +business,"Japan economy slides to recession The Japanese economy has officially gone back into recession for the fourth time in a decade. Gross domestic product fell by 0.1% in the last three months of 2004. The fall reflects weak exports and a slowdown in consumer spending, and follows similar falls in GDP in the two previous quarters. The Tokyo stock market fell after the figures were announced, but rose again on a widespread perception that the economy will recover later this year. On Wednesday, the government revised growth figures from earlier in 2004 which, when taking into account performance in the most recent period, effectively tips Japan into recession. A previous estimate of 0.1% growth between July and September was downgraded to a 0.3% decline. A recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, although the Japanese government takes other factors into account when judging the status of its economy. Figures released by the government's Cabinet Office showed that GDP, on an annualised basis, fell 0.5% in the last three months of 2004. However, politicians remain upbeat about prospects for an economic boost later in the year. ""The economy has some soft patches but if you look at the bigger picture, it is in a recovery stage,"" said Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Heizo Takenaka. Gross domestic product measures the overall value of goods and services produced in a country. ""The economy must be assessed comprehensively and we cannot look at GDP alone,"" Mr Takenaka stressed. Ministers pointed to the fact that consumer spending had been depressed by one-off factors such as the unseasonably mild winter. Analysts said the figures were disappointing but argued that Japan's largest companies had been recording healthy profits and capital spending was on the rise. Japan's economy grew 2.6% overall last year - fuelled by a strong performance in the first few months - and is forecast to see growth of 2.1% in 2005. However, the economy's fragile recovery remains dependent on an upturn in consumer spending, a fall in the value of the yen and an improvement in global economies. ""The results came in at the lower end of expectations but we shouldn't be too pessimistic about the current state and the outlook for the economy,"" said Naoki Iizuka, senior economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. Japan's economy has seen stretches of moderate growth over the past decade but has periodically slipped back into recession." +entertainment,"Oscar nominees lack pulling power This year's clutch of Oscar nominees have been the least popular for 20 years according to box office figures. In the US the five nominated for best film have been seen by 50% fewer people than movies in previous years. While the awards are not based on box office popularity there is concern for the ratings of the televised ceremony. ""We don't have a Titanic or a Lord of the Rings out there. I think it's fair to say it does concern us a bit,"" said Academy executive director Bruce Davis. About 51 million people in the US have seen this year's nominees, compared with between 100 million and 118 million in recent years. The last time combined attendance was so low was in 1984 when Amadeus beat The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart and A Soldier's Story to best picture, when 41 million saw the five films. Last year's ceremony attracted the highest audience in four years as viewers tuned in to see Lord of the Ring: Return of the King sweep the board. And the show reaped its biggest audience in 1997 when Titanic took home 11 Oscars. The film had taken $500m (£264m) worldwide before the ceremony, and eventually took $1.8bn (£952m). ""Eyeballs starring at the movie screen translates to eyeballs staring at the TV screen,"" said Paul Dergarabedian of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations. ""People like to have a vested interest in what they're watching. ""When Titanic does $1.8bn in worldwide box office, you've got a lot of people with a vested interest."" Past years have also seen blockbusters such as Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump and Ghost compete for Oscars. The biggest box office hitter among this year's nominees is The Aviator, which has taken $90m (£48m) in the US, although takings in the UK have reached only £7m so far. Low-budget move Sideways and Finding Neverland have so far grossed about $45m (£24m) each. The year's biggest blockbusters do actually feature in the Oscar nominees but in the animation category. Shrek 2 and The Incredibles took $436m (£231m) while The Incredibles took $259m (£137m). Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which took $370m (£196m) in the US, was largely ignored by Academy voters. But many in the film industry do not equate award and box office success. ""I have never equated the Academy Awards with how much money a movie takes in,"" said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution at Universal which released nominee Ray. ""That's the People's Choice Awards. This is not about the public. This is about the industry bestowing awards on what they think are the best films of the year.""" +entertainment,"Alicia Keys to open US Super Bowl R&B star Alicia Keys is to open February's Super Bowl singing a song only previously performed there by Ray Charles and Vicki Carr. Keys, who will sing America the Beautiful, will be accompanied by 150 students from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind. Charles, who died last year, attended the school as a child in 1937. Keys said she was ""very excited"", describing Charles as ""an artist I admire, miss and respect"". ""I know that this is going to be a very touching and memorable moment,"" she said. It will be her first performance at the Super Bowl, which will be watched by millions in the US on 6 February. Sir Paul McCartney will provide the half-time entertainment in the slot filled by Janet Jackson last year. Organisers have promised there will be no repeat of her nipple-baring incident that sparked thousands of complaints on US TV's most-watched broadcast. A National Football League spokesman said they were ""comfortable"" this show would be acceptable to a mass audience. The game and show were watched by 144 million people in the US in 2003. Twenty CBS-owned TV stations were fined $550,000 (£300,000) by the country's TV regulatory agency after more than 542,000 complaints were made about Janet Jackson's ""wardrobe malfunction"". Sir Paul said: ""There's nothing bigger than being asked to perform at the Super Bowl. ""We're looking forward to rocking the millions at home and in the stadium.""" +entertainment,"Mutant book wins Guardian prize A book about the evolution of mutants and the science of abnormality has won the Guardian First Book Award 2004. Armand Marie Leroi, a lecturer at London's Imperial College, scooped the £10,000 prize for Mutants: On the form, varieties and errors of the human body. ""It is profoundly cultured and beautifully written in the very best tradition of popular science writing today,"" said judge Claire Armistead. The award recognises and rewards new writing across fiction and non-fiction. A panel of literary experts, including novelists Hari Kunzru and Ali Smith, director Sir Richard Eyre and comedian Alexei Sayle chose the winner from a five-strong shortlist. The shortlist included Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, a novel about the magic arts at the turn of the 19th Century and The Places In Between, Rory Stewart's account of his trek, on foot, across Afghanistan. ""What we found so impressive about Armand Marie Leroi's book was the scope of its reference, its elegance and its inquisitiveness,"" said Ms Armistead, chair of the judges and the Guardian literary editor. ""While the subject matter of Mutants unsettled some involved in the judging process, the overwhelming majority found it fascinating,"" she added. Her words were echoed by Iris director Sir Richard Eyre who called Marie Leroi's work ""extraordinarily thought provoking"". The award, for first time authors, is open to books from genres including fiction, poetry, biography, memoir, history, politics, science and current affairs. Previous winners include White Teeth by Zadie Smith, in 2000, which went on to become a bestseller." +entertainment,"J-Lo and husband plan debut duet Singers Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony, a Latin pop star, are to perform a duet at this month's Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Anthony became Lopez's third husband in June 2004. He won a Grammy in 1998 and is nominated for two more this year. The 13 February ceremony will also include a rendition of The Beatles' Across The Universe by Bono, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones and Brian Wilson. The song will go on sale online to raise money for the tsunami aid effort. The awards show will also feature performances from U2, Green Day, Alicia Keys and Kanye West - but the Lopez and Anthony duet is likely to be one of the biggest talking points. Anthony, born in New York to a Puerto Rican family, is reported to be the biggest-selling salsa artist of all time. He is nominated this year for best Latin pop album and best salsa/merengue album. The tsunami tribute song will also feature Alicia Keys, Velvet Revolver and Tim McGraw. Fans will be able to download it for $0.99 (£0.53) from iTunes, or purchase the video from the CBS TV network's site. Kanye West, the rapper who leads the awards with 10 nominations, will perform alongside John Legend, Mavis Staples and the Blind Boys of Alabama. There will also be a tribute to Ray Charles featuring Bonnie Raitt and Billy Preston and a celebration of southern rock with Tim McGraw, Gretchen Wilson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dickie Betts and Elvis Bishop. Ray Charles, who died in June 2004, has seven posthumous nominations. Alicia Keys and Usher share eight nominations each." +entertainment,"Downloads enter US singles chart Digital music downloads are being included in the main US singles chart for the first time. Billboard's Hot 100 chart now incorporates data from sales of music downloads, previously only assigned to a separate download chart. Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams is currently number two in Billboard's pop chart, and tops its digital chart. Download sales are due to be incorporated into the UK singles chart later this year. Digital sales in the US are already used to compile Billboard's Hot Digital Sales chart. They will now be tallied with sales of physical singles and airplay information to make up its new Hot 100 chart. Its second new chart - the Pop 100 - also combines airplay, digital and physical sales but confines its airplay information to US radio stations which play chart music. In addition to Green Day, other artists in the current US digital sales top 10 include Kelly Clarkson, The Game and the Killers. Sales of legally downloaded songs shot up more than tenfold in 2004, with 200 million track purchased online in the US and Europe in 12 months, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported last month. In the UK sales of song downloads overtook those for physical singles for the first time at the end of last year. The last week of December 2004 saw download sales of 312,000 compared with 282,000 physical singles, according to the British Phonographic Industry. The UK's first official music download chart was launched last September, compiling the most popular tracks downloaded from legal UK sites - including iTunes, OD2, mycokemusic.com and Napster. Westlife's Flying Without Wings - a 1999 track reissued for the occasion - was the first number one of the UK download chart. A spokesman for the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said the first combined UK download and sales chart was due to be compiled ""within the first half of this year"". ""Work is going on across the music business right now to make sure the new chart works to plan,"" he said. The BPI spokesman described the UK music download chart, compiled by the Official Charts Company, as having been ""a great success"" since its launch. ""It has provided a focus for the industry and has really driven interest in downloads among music fans,"" he said." +entertainment,"Fox 'too reliant on reality TV' The head of US TV network Fox has admitted the broadcaster had relied too heavily on reality TV shows such as the poor-rating Who's Your Daddy. Chief executive Gail Berman said ""in the case of this fall we drifted to too much on the unscripted side"". The series Who's Your Daddy, where a young woman tries to pick her natural father for a cash prize caused outrage from adoption groups and rated badly. Last season, Fox's prime-time audience fell by 600,000 to 5.9 million. Ms Berman said: ""I think the audience expects loud things from Fox. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't."" Who's Your Daddy, the first episode of which was shown on 3 January, pulled in a disappointing audience of 6.3 million, according to the Nielsen ratings system. Five other episodes of the show had also been filmed will be dropped from Fox's schedules, Ms Berman said. She was predicting a drop in ratings even for some of the network's established reality shows, such as American Idol, which is due to start its fourth series this week. Fox had unveiled a new strategy last year promising to launch new shows every season, including the traditionally quiet summer season. Though that had met with a poor reception, Ms Berman said ""there's no question that the audience, in our mind, is ready, willing and able to accept new programming in the summer"". Fox has changed this plan, launching new shows in May instead of June. One of the new shows will be the animated series American Dad, made by Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy. That series, after becoming a hit on DVD, is also set to return with new episodes." +entertainment,"Public show for Reynolds portrait Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Omai will get a public airing following fears it would stay hidden because of an export wrangle. The Tate Gallery unsuccessfully tried to buy the picture from its anonymous owner after a ban was issued preventing the painting from leaving the UK. The 18th Century painting has remained in storage but the owner has agreed to allow it to be part of an exhibition. The exhibition of Reynolds' work will be shown at Tate Britain from May. Joshua Reynolds: The Creation of Celebrity will feature prints, caricatures, and sculpture by the 18th Century artist, who painted some of the most famous personalities of his day. Portrait of Omai fetched the second highest amount for a British painting when it was sold at auction for £10.3m in 2001. It was bought by a London dealer who sold it on to a collector. The unnamed collector wanted to take it out of the country, but was barred from doing so by the government because of its historical significance. In March 2004, the Tate managed to raise £12.5m funding to buy the portrait but the owner refused to sell and it has been held in storage since. The portrait is of a young man who was dubbed ""the noble savage"" when he arrived in London from Polynesia. He became a darling of London society and was invited to all the best parties by people who were fascinated by such an exotic character. Sir Joshua painted him after his arrival in 1774, and it became the artist's most famous work after it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776." +entertainment,"Aviator and Vera take Bafta glory Hollywood blockbuster The Aviator and low-budget British movie Vera Drake have shared the main honours at the 2005 Bafta film awards. The Aviator was declared best film, and its star Cate Blanchett won best supporting actress. But Vera Drake scored best director for Mike Leigh while Imelda Staunton took the hotly contested best actress award. Jamie Foxx won best actor for Ray, while British actor Clive Owen took best supporting actor for Closer. The two actors have repeated their success at the Golden Globes in January. But big British hope Kate Winslet walked away empty-handed on Saturday despite two nominations for best actress. Celebrating his win, the Oscar-nominated Owen told reporters: ""The whole award season is new to me because I haven't won anything before. All of that is a bit overwhelming."" Blanchett, who won a Bafta in 1999 for her leading role in Elizabeth, said: ""Winning a Bafta means an enormous amount to me."" She thanked the woman she played, Katharine Hepburn, for paving the way for women to work in film. ""Thank you very much, I'm sure you're pleased, although you're not able to see this,"" she said. The Aviator took four awards in all, also collecting best make-up and hair and production design, while Vera Drake also scooped best costume design. Staunton, who is up for an Oscar for her role in Vera Drake, arrived wearing a green silk and chiffon beaded evening dress. ""Thank you very much. I'm so thrilled and so grateful and I'm delighted that the success of Vera Drake has boosted sales of hair nets and pinnies, which is very good,"" she said on accepting her award. Her director Leigh, who beat Martin Scorsese to the best director award, told the audience: ""We always say it was a surprise and sometimes I've said it and not meant it. On this occasion, given the other names, it's a real surprise and an extraordinary honour. ""It's an immense privilege to have been allowed the freedom to make as uncompromising a film as I think Vera Drake is and an epic with such a small budget."" Best actor Foxx could not make the ceremony, but actress Helen Mirren read out his acceptance speech. ""I'm honoured and proud to receive this Bafta. I'd like to thank the late Ray Charles himself."" He apologised for not being in London, joking: ""Unfortunately I'm stuck driving a car in LA at gunpoint and I can't get away."" DiCaprio, who lost out on the best actor Bafta to Foxx, will face him again at the Academy Awards in two weeks' time. ""It's the first time I've come to the Baftas because it's the first time I've been nominated,"" he told reporters on the red carpet. ""I've appreciated British cinema for a long time and to be recognised like this is a special honour."" Other winners included The Motorcycle Diaries which took best foreign film and best music, while Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind won best original screenplay and best editing. Best British film was My Summer of Love, the story of two young women and their developing relationship, while Foxx's movie Ray, a bio-pic of late singer Ray Charles, also took best sound. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban won the Orange Film Of The Year, voted for by the public. The Orange British Academy Film Awards are being shown on BBC One from 2010 GMT." +entertainment,"Paraguay novel wins US book prize A novel set in 19th century Paraguay has won the $10,000 (£5,390) fiction prize at the US National Book Awards. Lily Tuck's The News From Paraguay is a fictionalised tale about Paraguayan leader Francisco Solano Lopez and his Irish mistress. But the annual awards, which were presented in New York on Wednesday, were not without controversy. Children's author Judy Blume, who was given an honourary medal, used the ceremony to speak out over censorship. Sales of Blume's books have exceeded 75 million, but her work - which features frank narratives about families, religion and sexuality - is closely watched by the censors. Blume said: ""The urge to ban is contagious. It spreads like wildfire from community to community. Please speak out. Censors hate publicity."" Her medal marks the second year in a row the honourary prize went to someone as notable for popular success as literary greatness. Last year's honorary winner, Stephen King, accused the industry during the 2003 ceremony of snobbery against popular writers. But his argument that the award should help sell books instead of honouring excellence is not shared by everyone. This year's fiction panel overlooked high-profile works such as Philip Roth's The Plot Against America and instead chose five little-known books, all by New York-based women. One fiction judge, Stewart O'Nan, carried around a note written on a napkin that said: ""I would hope that our caring more for the quality of a work than its sales figures make us a friend of books, not an enemy."" The National Book Awards non-fiction prize was awarded to Kevin Boyle's for Arc of Justice, which focuses on a black family's fight to live in a white Detroit neighbourhood in the 1920s. The award had created a lot of interest this year after the surprise inclusion of the of the 9-11 Commission Report looking into the events of the 11 September terrorist attacks on the US. Pete Hautman won the young people's literature prize for his novel Godless. The winner in the poetry category was Jean Valentine for Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003." +entertainment,"Farrell due to make US TV debut Actor Colin Farrell is to make his debut on US television in medical sitcom Scrubs, according to Hollywood newspaper Daily Variety. The film star, who recently played the title role in historical blockbuster Alexander, will make a cameo appearance as an unruly Irishman. The episode featuring the 28-year-old will be screened on 25 January. Farrell's appearance is said to be a result of his friendship with Zach Braff, who stars in the programme. It will be the actor's first appearance on the small screen since he appeared in BBC series Ballykissangel in 1999. The gentle Sunday night drama came to an end in 2001. He has since become one of Hollywood's fastest-rising stars, with a string roles in major league films such as Minority Report, Phone Booth and Daredevil. Farrell is pencilled in to play the role of Crockett in a film version of 1980s police drama Miami Vice. Scrubs, which appears on the NBC network in the US and has been shown on Channel 4 on British television, is an off-beat comedy about a group of hospital doctors. Other film stars to have appeared in Scrubs include Heather Graham, while Friends actor Matthew Perry has guest-starred and directed an episode of the show. Its leading star, Zach Braff, has recently been seen on the big screen in Garden State, which he also directed." +entertainment,"Poppins musical gets flying start The stage adaptation of children's film Mary Poppins has had its opening night in London's West End. Sir Cameron Mackintosh's lavish production, which has cost £9m to bring to the stage, was given a 10-minute standing ovation. Lead actress Laura Michelle Kelly soared over the heads of the audience holding the nanny's trademark umbrella. Technical hitches had prevented Mary Poppins' flight into the auditorium during preview performances. A number of celebrities turned out for the musical's premiere, including actress Barbara Windsor, comic Graham Norton and Sir Richard Attenborough. The show's director Richard Eyre issued a warning earlier in the week that the show was unsuitable for children under seven, while under-threes are barred. Mary Poppins was originally created by author Pamela Travers, who is said to have cried when she saw Disney's 1964 film starring Julie Andrews. Travers had intended the story to be a lot darker than the perennial family favourite. Theatre impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh has said he hopes the musical is a blend of the sweet-natured film and the original book." +entertainment,"Help for indies in download sales A campaign has been launched to help independent labels get their music online and benefit from the growing trend for downloading music. The British Phonographic Industry has identified a lack of independent music available for download. ""We want to ensure that independent repertoire is as successful in the download world as it is in the physical world,"" said BPI chief Peter Jamieson. Downloaded singles have now overtaken physical singles in the UK. Mr Jamieson said his organisation was lobbying music service providers, which include iTunes and Napster, to urge them to promote independent releases. Download sales are due to be incorporated into the UK singles chart later this year. ""With downloads shortly to be eligible for the singles chart, this is a key commercial issue on which the BPI committed to assisting its members,"" added Mr Jamieson. As part of the campaign the BPI is running a series of seminars entitled Getting Your Music Online, focusing on how independent labels can embrace digital music. The US has already begun incorporating download sales in the Billboard's Hot 100 chart." +entertainment,"Russian film wins BBC world prize Russian drama The Return (Vozvrashchenie) has been named winner of the BBC Four World Cinema Award. The film tells the story of two adolescent boys who are subjected to a harsh regime when their strict father returns after a 10-year absence. Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, The Return previously won the 2003 Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was presented at an awards ceremony held in London on Thursday and hosted by Jonathan Ross. The winner was chosen by a panel which included X Files actress Gillian Anderson, critic Roger Clarke and Touching the Void director Kevin McDonald. Ross, who is the presenter of BBC One's Film 2005, was also involved in the deliberations. A shortlist of six films from around the world had been drawn up from which the panel chose. Other nominees included the Motorcycle Diaries, Zatoichi and Hero. A viewer poll saw director Zhang Yimou's martial arts epic Hero emerge as the favourite with 32% of votes cast. Tragedy struck the production of The Return when one of the young stars, 15-year-old Vladimir Girin, drowned in a lake where some of the film's scenes were set. The winner of the World Cinema Award last year was the French animated feature Belleville Rendezvous" +entertainment,"Tautou 'to star in Da Vinci film' French actress Audrey Tautou, star of hit film Amelie, will play the female lead in the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, it has been reported. The movie version of Dan Brown's best-selling novel is being directed by Ron Howard and also stars Tom Hanks. Tautou will play Hanks' code-cracking partner, according to various newspapers. She is currently starring in A Very Long Engagement, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Jeunet was also responsible for directing Tautou in Amelie in 2001, which launched the actress into the mainstream. She also starred as the lead role in critically-acclaimed film Dirty Pretty Things in 2002. Oscar-winning director Ron Howard chose Tautou for the part, preferring a French actress to a big name Hollywood star. UK actress Kate Beckinsale had been widely tipped as a possibility for the role alongside Vanessa Paradis and Juliette Binoche. The thriller upon which the movie is based has sold more than 17 million copies and is centred on a global conspiracy surrounding the Holy Grail mythology. The Louvre Museum, scene of the gruesome murder at the beginning of the novel, recently gave permission for filming to take place there, showbusiness newspaper Variety reported. The $100m movie will be produced by Columbia/Sony Pictures and is due for release on May 19, 2006 in the United States and France." +entertainment,"Housewives lift Channel 4 ratings The debut of US television hit Desperate Housewives has helped lift Channel 4's January audience share by 12% compared to last year. Other successes such as Celebrity Big Brother and The Simpsons have enabled the broadcaster to surpass BBC Two for the first month since last July. BBC Two's share of the audience fell from 11.2% to 9.6% last month in comparison with January 2004. Celebrity Big Brother attracted fewer viewers than its 2002 series. Comedy drama Desperate Housewives managed to pull in five million viewers at one point during its run to date, attracting a quarter of the television audience. The two main television channels, BBC1 and ITV1, have both seen their monthly audience share decline in a year on year comparison for January, while Five's proportion remained the same at a slender 6.3%. Digital multi-channel TV is continuing to be the strongest area of growth, with the BBC reporting Freeview box ownership of five million, including one million sales in the last portion of 2004. Its share of the audience soared by 20% in January 2005 compared with last year, and currently stands at an average of 28.6%." +entertainment,"Rock star sued by ex-girlfriend Motley Crue guitarist Mick Mars is being sued by his ex-girlfriend for $10 million (£5.4 million), claiming he broke a promise to take care of her. The woman, Robin Mantooth, said Mars promised her repeatedly that he would provide financial support in the event of the couple breaking up. When they split in December, Mantooth says Mars denied any such agreement. She is asking a Los Angeles court to award her half the musician's property, a monthly allowance and damages. Mantooth added that the pair became lovers in 1990, after which she abandoned her career as a documentary film-maker to move in with the guitarist at his Malibu home. She is also claiming that Mars, 53, has failed to provide her with any material support since they ceased to be a couple. Motley Crue recently reunited after being apart for a period of five years. They originally formed in the early 1980s and scored six hits in the UK, including Girls Girls Girls in 1987. They are embarking on a world tour later this year which will take in 60 cities across the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. Mars - real name Bob Allen Deal - underwent hip replacement surgery in October. He suffers from a degenerative rheumatic disease which causes ligaments and tendons to attach to the bone." +entertainment,"Gallery unveils interactive tree A Christmas tree that can receive text messages has been unveiled at London's Tate Britain art gallery. The spruce has an antenna which can receive Bluetooth texts sent by visitors to the Tate. The messages will be ""unwrapped"" by sculptor Richard Wentworth, who is responsible for decorating the tree with broken plates and light bulbs. It is the 17th year that the gallery has invited an artist to dress their Christmas tree. Artists who have decorated the Tate tree in previous years include Tracey Emin in 2002. The plain green Norway spruce is displayed in the gallery's foyer. Its light bulb adornments are dimmed, ordinary domestic ones joined together with string. The plates decorating the branches will be auctioned off for the children's charity ArtWorks. Wentworth worked as an assistant to sculptor Henry Moore in the late 1960s. His reputation as a sculptor grew in the 1980s, while he has been one of the most influential teachers during the last two decades. Wentworth is also known for his photography of mundane, everyday subjects such as a cigarette packet jammed under the wonky leg of a table." +entertainment,"Adventure tale tops awards Young book fans have voted Fergus Crane, a story about a boy who is taken on an adventure by a flying horse, the winner of two Smarties Book Prizes. Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell's book came top in the category for six- to eight-year-olds and won the award chosen by after-school club members. Sally Grindley's Spilled Water, about a Chinese girl sold as a servant, was top in vote of readers aged nine to 11. Biscuit Bear by Mini Grey took the top award in the under-five category. Winners were voted for by about 6,000 children from a shortlist picked by an adult panel. The prize, which is celebrating its 20th year, is billed as ""the UK's biggest children's book award"". Fergus Crane includes text by Stewart and illustrations by Riddell, who also created The Edge Chronicles together. As well as the six to eights prize, it won the 4Children Special Award voted for by after-school club members. Julia Eccleshare, chair of the adult judging panel, said children's literature had ""never looked stronger"" in the prize's 20 years. ""This award counts because the final choice of winners is made by children, who are the toughest critics of all,"" she said. ""This year's young judges chose the winners from an exceptionally strong and varied shortlist which showcases the very best in children's books today."" Previous winners have included JK Rowling, Jacqueline Wilson and Dick King-Smith." +entertainment,"Greer attacks 'bully' Big Brother Germaine Greer has criticised Celebrity Big Brother's ""bullying"" of housemates after quitting the reality TV show. She said ""superior"" bullying tactics, like making housemates cold and hungry, could encourage playground bullying. She also condemned the ""complete irresponsibility"" of adding Brigitte Nielsen's former mother-in-law Jackie Stallone to the house on Monday. Nielsen had panicked that if she reacted badly it could harm her access to her children, Greer said. The feminist writer and broadcaster said Big Brother had behaved ""like a child rather than a parent"" by taunting contestant John McCririck after denying him a cola drink. ""I thought it was actually demonstrating the role of taunting in the playground and there are so many children whose lives have actually been destroyed by taunting in the playground,"" Greer said. She also said that her fellow housemates had publicity-seeking ""agendas"". ""I had no idea who would be in here and it's wrong for me to present myself in the same context as they are."" Media observers had been surprised by Greer's initial decision to join the third celebrity version of the Channel 4 reality TV show, given that she has written critical articles about the format in the past. As she packed her suitcase to leave the house she told fellow housemates: ""I'm leaving over specific issues, but best for everyone if I don't discuss them. ""I have a problem with decisions, I make them fast and when I make them, I stick to them."" Greer had earlier failed to persuade other contestants to stage a naked protest against Big Brother. Other celebrities to walk out of a reality show TV include Sex Pistol John Lydon, former EastEnders actress Danniella Westbrook and ex-E17 singer Brian Harvey who all left I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here. Previous Big Brother housemates to leave before their time were Sunita Sharma and Sandy Cumming from the third series of the non-celebrity version of the show. VOTE Was Germaine Greer right to leave Celebrity Big Brother? Yes No Results are indicative and may not reflect public opinion Happy Mondays dancer Bez is now 2-1 favourite to win the show, followed by Blazin' Squad singer Kenzie at 5-2 and actor Jeremy Edwards at 4-1. Ladbrokes spokesman Warren Lush said that the series was still ""wide open"", adding that the last 24 hours had also seen a rush of bets on McCririck slashing his odds to 8-1. DJ Lisa I'Anson is the outsider with odds of 40-1, while Jackie Stallone, who joined the house on Monday, is also one of the less popular housemates at 20-1. The first eviction of the series has now been postponed after Greer's exit unexpectedly reduced the number of competitors. The eight remaining contestants are competing for a £50,000 prize, to be donated to the charity of their choice, if they survive a series of public votes. For every 50p vote cast by viewers by telephone or text during the programme's run, 9p will go to a tsunami charity appeal." +entertainment,"Spears seeks aborted tour payment Singer Britney Spears is suing eight insurance companies that have refused to reimburse her for cancelling her 2004 world tour. The pop star cancelled her Onyx Hotel tour last June after suffering a knee injury during a video shoot. She is now seeking to be reimbursed for the tour's £5m ($9.3m) costs in a claim filed at New York State Supreme Court. Seven London-based companies and an eighth Paris firm have been given up to 30 days to respond to the complaint. The 22-year-old star initially missed a number of shows on the 82-date tour after injuring her knee during a show in Illinois last March. But she was rushed to hospital and needed surgery after a later incident while filming a video for her song Outrageous, leading her to cancel the rest of the tour, including dates in China. ""She obviously took a wrong step and blew out her knee,"" a Jive spokeswoman said at the time. ""It was an old dance injury."" The legal submission described Spears as ""one of the most recognised performers in her industry"". The Onyx Hotel tour was cited as ""a highly crafted production which included the well-known music and dancing of Spears, supported by elaborate costumes, complex choreography as well as cutting-edge video production, lighting and other effects"". In September Spears married Kevin Federline, who had been a dancer on the aborted tour." +entertainment,"Snow Patrol feted at Irish awards Snow Patrol were the big winners in Ireland's top music honours, the Meteor Awards, picking up accolades for best Irish band and album on Thursday. The Belfast-born, Glasgow-based band collected the prizes at the ceremony at Dublin's Point Theatre. Westlife won the award for best Irish pop act, voted for by the public, beating former member Brian McFadden. Franz Ferdinand picked up best international band and album while Paddy Casey collected best Irish male. Singer-songwriter Casey beat Brian McFadden and Damien Rice. Juliette Turner was named best Irish female. In the international categories, Morrissey beat Eminem, Usher and Robbie Williams to best male while PJ Harvey pipped Kylie Minogue, Joss Stone, Anastacia and Natasha Bedingfield to the female crown. The 8,000 fans at the ceremony were treated to performances from US rapper Snoop Dogg, Brian McFadden with Delta Goodrem and The Thrills featuring Rolling Stones star Ronnie Wood. Snow Patrol's success came after a year in which they made a chart breakthrough with their third album Final Straw. ""I think a lot of bands should go through a wee bit of a kicking before the make a success,"" singer Gary Lightbody and drummer Jonny Quinn said. ""It has been good for us, but also hard for us over the past six years."" Snow Patrol will support U2 on their European tour later this year - but U2 were not nominated for best Irish band and album." +entertainment,"Brit awards for Devon music acts Devon singer Joss Stone and rock band Muse won coveted Brit awards during the event's 25th anniversary. Seventeen-year-old Stone, from near Cullumpton, won two awards: best British female act, and best urban act out of three award nominations. Muse, whose members met in south Devon, beat Franz Ferdinand, Jamie Cullum, Kasabian and The Libertines for best British live act. The band has sold about two million records worldwide. After beating Amy Winehouse, Jamelia, Natasha Bedingfield and PJ Harvey to the best British female prize, Joss Stone said: ""I don't know what to say. I don't like doing this at all. I'd like to thank my family for being really supportive and everybody that made my record with me."" ""I don't even know what to do right now. Thank you all you guys for voting for me, I feel sick right now."" Viewers of digital music TV channel MTV Base voted Stone the winner in the best urban act category. Ms Stone also performed her song Right To Be Wrong, backed by a gospel choir, at the 25th award ceremony at London's Earls Court. Her second album Mind, Body & Soul reached number one in the UK charts last October and went straight into the US charts at number 11. The teenager also has Grammy nominations in the US, normally dominated by home-grown acts. Born Jocelyn Stoker, the Devon diva started her career in a BBC talent programme, and was then discovered at a New York audition by a US record executive, Steve Greenberg. Indie Rock group Muse consists of Matthew Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard who met in their early teens in Teignmouth, south Devon. Dominic Howard said of winning: ""We love playing live, it's very important for our band. So to win something like this really feels great."" The trio met aged 13 and formed the band Gothic Plague, changing its name to Fixed Penalty, Rocket Baby Dolls and finally Muse. The band released its first self-titled EP in 1998. The third studio album, Absolution, was released in 2003, providing the hit singles Time Is Running Out, Hysteria, and Butterflies And Hurricanes." +entertainment,"Aviator 'creator' in Oscars snub The man who said he got Oscar-nominated movie The Aviator off the ground and signed up Leonardo DiCaprio has been shut out of the Academy Awards race. Charles Evans Jr battled over his role with the people who eventually made the film, and won a producer's credit. But he is not on the list of producers who can win a best film Oscar due to a limit on the number of nominees. The Oscars organisers have picked two of The Aviator's four producers to be nominated for best film. Up to three producers can be named per film but the studios behind The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby failed to trim their credits - so the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (Ampas) has done it for them. The Aviator's nominated producers are Michael Mann and Graham King - with Mr Evans and Sandy Climan, Mr Mann's former deputy, left off. Mr Evans sued Mr Mann in 2001, claiming he came up with the idea, spent years developing it and persuaded DiCaprio to play Hughes - but said he was later excluded from the project. The two sides settled out of court in a deal that has remained secret apart from the fact Mr Evans' name has appeared as a producer when the film's credits roll. At the Golden Globes, Mr Evans - who was named among the winners when the film won best drama film - evaded a security guard to have his photo taken with DiCaprio, director Martin Scorsese, Mr Mann and Mr King. Ampas decided to limit the number of producers who could be nominated after Shakespeare in Love's victory in 1999 saw five producers collect awards. The eligible names for The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby were decided by Ampas' producers branch executive committee on Wednesday. The decision also saw Clint Eastwood get his third personal nomination for Million Dollar Baby. He is now named in the best film category as well as being nominated for best director and best lead actor. The Academy Awards ceremony will be held in Hollywood on 27 February. Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang, star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers, is the latest name to be added to the list of presenters on the night." +entertainment,"Download chart debut is delayed The inclusion of downloaded music in the official singles chart has been delayed for a month. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) had planned to include download formats in the chart from 20 March. But the date has been put back to 17 April to create a ""level playing field"" for independent labels. The BPI is concerned that independent repertoire is not adequately represented online and said they were looking at ways of rectifying it. BPI chairman Peter Jamieson said: ""The inclusion of download formats in the Official UK Singles Chart is the most significant development in the charts for 20 years. ""But for a multitude of reasons the current chart representation of independent repertoire at the major download outlets is poor. ""I am very pleased we have secured this delay on behalf of independents. We have to try and establish a realistic 'level playing field' of opportunity. The Official UK Charts are run by The Official UK Charts Company (OCC) - a joint venture between the BPI and the British Association of Record Dealers (BARD). At an OCC board meeting on Wednesday, the OCC board agreed with BPI members that the 20 March start date be postponed. Download formats will now be included in the Official UK Singles Chart for the first time in the chart published on 17 April - the sales week beginning 10 April. The US has already merged downloaded singles into its Billboard Hot 100 chart." +entertainment,"UK debut for Kevin Spacey movie Hollywood stars Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth attended the British premiere of new film, Beyond the Sea, in London's Leicester Square on Thursday. Spacey, 45, wrote, directed and starred in the film, inspired by the life of 1950s croooner Bobby Darin. ""This is my tribute to someone I think was a remarkable talent,"" said Spacey, who, as Darin, sings all 18 songs on the film soundtrack. Bosworth, 21, plays Darin's wife - real life Hollywood actress Sandra Dee. ""I knew absolutely nothing about Bobby Darin before this film, but now I'm a huge fan,"" said Bosworth, who attended the premiere with British boyfriend Orlando Bloom. ""There is darkness and tragedy in the story, and it was a dream for me to land this part."" Actress Sandra Dee continues to live in Los Angeles as a virtual recluse, but has given her approval to the biopic. ""She called me last week and said she loved it,"" said Spacey, who was joined at the premiere by members of the boy band Westlife. Spacey, a double Oscar-winner, has long been fascinated by the story of singer Bobby Darin. The voice behind Mack the Knife, Dream Lover and Beyond the Sea, fought childhood illness to become one the biggest stars of the 1950s, but died aged 37 from the heart condition that had troubled him all his life. ""Bobby Darin was one of the greatest entertainers the world has ever known, and yet, because he died young, he's been kind of forgotten,"" said Spacey at the premiere. ""Making this film was the most fun I've ever had in my entire life."" The movie also stars British actors Bob Hoskins and Brenda Blethyn, as Darin's mother." +entertainment,"Johnny Cash manager Holiff dies The former manager of Johnny Cash, Saul Israel Holiff, has died at the age of 79, his family said. Mr Holiff, who was also a concert promoter, managed Cash's career between 1960 and 1973, quitting when he thought the singer's career had peaked. ""I was guilty for underestimating him repeatedly,"" he once said. The Canadian music manager, who also managed Tommy Hunter and the Statler Brothers, had been in declining health, according to his family. An entrepreneur from an early age, Mr Holiff served as a rear air gunner in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, afterwards setting up a drive-in restaurant. He briefly dabbled in acting, before setting up offices in Nashville and Los Angeles for his concert and artist promotion business. In 1970, RPM weekly magazine presented Holiff with a special award as the Canadian music industry's man of the year. Mr Holiff retired when he was in his late 40s, returning to education as a mature student at the University of Victoria, where he graduated with a degree in history. He passed away on 17 March. According to his wishes, there will be no funeral service." +entertainment,"Fry set for role in Hitchhiker's Actor Stephen Fry is joining the cast of the forthcoming film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Fry will provide the voice of The Guide, an electronic book which accompanies the story's hero Arthur Dent on his travels around the galaxy. Martin Freeman, John Malkovich, Bill Nighy and Alan Rickman are co-starring in the film, due for release in May. The late Douglas Adams' original 1977 scripts have also been turned into a series of successful books. ""Being asked to do the voice of The Guide is like having your birthday on Christmas Day, discovering a winning lottery ticket in your stocking and having chocolate poured all over you,"" said Fry, a self-confessed fan of the book. The film's executive producer Robbie Stamp said that Adams, who died in 2001, would have been ""delighted"" with the choice of Fry for the role. ""His humour and intelligence are perfect for the voice of The Guide,"" added Mr Stamp. Adams wrote the screenplay based on his book before his premature death, while a new radio series was aired 26 years after the first broadcast and included many of the original cast members. Hollywood star Malkovich will play religious cult leader Humma Kavula, which was especially created by Adams for the new film. Freeman, who starred in hit BBC comedy The Office, will play the role of Arthur Dent, who begins his intergalactic voyage following the destruction of the Earth." +entertainment,"Prince crowned 'top music earner' Prince earned more than any other pop star in 2004, beating artists such Madonna and Elton John in US magazine Rolling Stone's annual list. The singer banked $56.5m (£30.4m) from concerts, album and publishing sales with his Musicology tour and album. He kept Madonna in second place, as she earned $54.9m (£29.5m) while embarking on her global Re-Invention Tour. Veterans Simon and Garfunkel were in 10th place, their comeback tour helping them earn $24.9m (£13.4m) last year. ""Prince returned to centre stage after a decade in the commercial wilderness,"" the magazine reported. The singer's 2004 tour took $90.3m (£48.5m) in ticket sales and he sold 1.9 million copies of his latest album Musicology. Although she grossed more than Prince last year, Madonna remained in second place because of the ""monumental"" production costs of her tour. Heavy metal band Metallica's Madly in Anger with the World tour helped push their 2004 earnings up to $43.1m (£23.1m). They were ahead of Sir Elton John, who took fourth place and almost $42.7m (£23m) from performances including a debut on the Las Vegas Strip. Other seasoned performers in the list included Rod Stewart, whose sold-out shows and third volume of The Great American Songbook covers album helped net him £35m (£19m). The highest-ranking rap act in the list was 50 Cent, who at number 19 took $24m (£13m) to the bank." +entertainment,"Controversial film tops festival A controversial film starring Hollywood actor Kevin Bacon as a convicted paedophile won top honours at the London Film Festival on Thursday. The Woodsman won the Satyajit Ray Award, named after the Indian director. The low-budget film, directed by Nicole Kassell, is about a convicted child molester trying to rebuild his life after 12 years in jail. Judges said the film tackled the contentious subject with ""great insight and sensitivity"". Previous films to take the prize include the Oscar-winning Boys Don't Cry, which was about the true life story of murdered transsexual Brandon Teena. British writer-director Amma Asante won the UK Film Talent Award this year for her debut feature A Way Of Life. Set in South Wales, the film is about a teenage single mother who becomes embroiled in a tense stand-off with a Turkish neighbour. Also on Thursday night, the Fipresci International Critics Awards went to Aaltra, a Belgian film about the handicapped; and the Sutherland Trophy, which was won by Jonathan Caouette for his film Tarnation. The festival closed with a screening of the film I Heart Huckabees, starring Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman and directed by Three Kings film-maker David O Russell. The festival this year also included the first European screening of the new Pixar animation The Incredibles, and the British film Bullet Boy, starring So Solid Crew rapper Asher D." +entertainment,"Fockers fuel festive film chart Comedy Meet The Fockers topped the festive box office in North America, setting a new record for Christmas Day. The sequel took $44.7m (£23.2m) between 24 and 26 December, according to studio estimates. It took $19.1m (£9.9m) on Christmas Day alone, the highest takings on that day in box office history. Meet The Fockers is the sequel to Ben Stiller comedy Meet The Parents, also starring Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. Despite the success of Meet The Fockers, takings were down 26.5% on 2003's figures - which was blamed on Christmas falling over a weekend this year. ""When Christmas falls on a weekend, it's bad for business,"" said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, which compiles box office statistics. The weekend's top 12 films took an estimated $121.9m (£63.3m), compared with $165.8m (£86.1m) last year, when the third Lord of the Rings film dominated the box office. Meet The Fockers knocked last week's top film, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, down to third place, with $12.5m (£6.5m). Comedy Fat Albert - co-written by Bill Cosby - entered the chart in second place after opening on Christmas Day, taking $12.7m (£6.6m). The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, took $9.4m after expanding from 40 to 1,796 cinemas on Christmas Day." +entertainment,"US critics laud comedy Sideways Road trip comedy Sideways has had more praise heaped on it by two US critics' associations, adding to honours it has already picked up. The Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) named it winner in five categories including best film and best actor for Paul Giamatti. But the director award went to Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby. The Southeastern Film Critics also awarded Sideways its best film of the year accolade. Director Alexander Payne was named best director, and he also won best screenplay shared with Jim Taylor. The CFCA awarded Thomas Haden Church the best supporting actor prize and Virginia Madsen the best supporting actress award for their roles in the film. Sideways has already been voted best film by critics associations in New York and Los Angeles and has been nominated for a Golden Globe. British actress Imelda Staunton won the CFCA best actress for the gritty abortion drama Vera Drake, adding to a growing list of awards she has won for her performance in the Mike Leigh film. Scrubs star Zach Braff was named best new director for his debut Garden State. Michael Moore's controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 won the best documentary, while A Very Long Engagement won best foreign film. The Chicago critics have yet to name a date for when their awards ceremony will be held." +entertainment,"Springer criticises Opera musical Talk show host Jerry Springer, whose programme inspired the controversial opera shown by the BBC, has said he would not have written it himself. The BBC received 47,000 complaints before the musical was broadcast, and protesters demonstrated outside BBC buildings across the UK. Springer helped launch the West End show and attended the opening night. ""I wouldn't have written it. I don't believe in making fun of other religions,"" he said. The TV host said he understood how people could have thought the musical had gone too far. ""You know, on our TV show if people use inappropriate language we bleep it out, if there's nudity we cover it up, so that viewers at home don't get to see any of this,"" he said. Asked whether he thought the BBC should have screened the controversial musical he said: ""I don't know if they should have had it on television but, good Lord, if you don't like what's on television, that's why God gave us remote controls. ""My show is about dysfunctional people and I defy anyone to watch the show and suggest to me the people on it aren't to some degree dysfunctional."" ""If I did a show about the war in Iraq, it wouldn't make me a warmonger, I would just be doing my job to report on the war. ""In the case of my show, it's my job to report on the dysfunctions that take place in society."" The British-born presenter is in London to speak at a fundraising dinner for the United Jewish Israel Appeal. The dinner, on Tuesday, is expected to be attended by more than 800 guests." +entertainment,"Dirty Den's demise seen by 14m More than 14 million people saw ""Dirty"" Den Watts killed off on Friday, marking EastEnders' 20th anniversary, according to unofficial figures. Den's death came 16 years after he was supposedly shot in 1989. But he came back to the show in September 2003. The audience for BBC One's one-hour special averaged 13.7 million and peaked at 14.2 million in the last 15 minutes, overnight figures showed. Den died after being confronted by Zoe, Chrissie and Sam in the Queen Vic. If the ratings are confirmed, the episode will have given the soap its highest audience for a year. The overnight figures showed almost 60% of the viewing public tuned into EastEnders between 2000 and 2100 GMT, leaving ITV1 with about 13%. ""We are very pleased with the figures,"" a BBC spokesman said. ""It shows viewers have really enjoyed the story of Den's demise."" The show's highest audience came at Christmas 1986, when more than 30 million tuned in to see Den, played by Leslie Grantham, hand divorce papers to wife Angie. Two years later, 24 million saw him apparently shot by a man with a bunch of daffodils by a canal. More than 16 million viewers watched his return in 2003. The show's ratings have since settled down to about 12 million per episode. Grantham hit the headlines in May after a newspaper printed photographs of him apparently exposing himself via a webcam from his dressing room. He also allegedly insulted four co-stars. He apologised for his ""deplorable actions"" and ""a moment's stupidity""." +entertainment,"Tautou 'to star in Da Vinci film' French actress Audrey Tautou, star of hit film Amelie, will play the female lead in the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, it has been reported. The movie version of Dan Brown's best-selling novel is being directed by Ron Howard and also stars Tom Hanks. Tautou will play Hanks' code-cracking partner, according to various newspapers. She is currently starring in A Very Long Engagement, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Jeunet was also responsible for directing Tautou in Amelie in 2001, which launched the actress into the mainstream. She also starred as the lead role in critically-acclaimed film Dirty Pretty Things in 2002. Oscar-winning director Ron Howard chose Tautou for the part, preferring a French actress to a big name Hollywood star. UK actress Kate Beckinsale had been widely tipped as a possibility for the role alongside Vanessa Paradis and Juliette Binoche. The thriller upon which the movie is based has sold more than 17 million copies and is centred on a global conspiracy surrounding the Holy Grail mythology. The Louvre Museum, scene of the gruesome murder at the beginning of the novel, recently gave permission for filming to take place there, showbusiness newspaper Variety reported. The $100m movie will be produced by Columbia/Sony Pictures and is due for release on May 19, 2006 in the United States and France." +entertainment,"Johnny and Denise lose Passport Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen's Saturday night entertainment show Passport to Paradise will not return to screens, the BBC has said. The ex-Big Breakfast presenters were recruited to host the BBC One family variety show last July. ""There are currently no plans for another series,"" a spokeswoman said. She added the pair ""brought a real warmth to Saturday night, but in the end we felt we had done enough with the format of the show"". Passport to Paradise involved a combination of games and outside broadcasts with a high level of audience participation. The first instalment attracted more than 4.1 million viewers - but that had dropped to fewer than 2.7 million by the time it ended. The BBC spokeswoman said Graham Norton's Strictly Dance Fever would be a priority for 2005. ""That's very much on the cards for next year, and we're concentrating at the moment on Strictly Come Dancing, which is doing phenomenally well,"" she said." +entertainment,"Berlin celebrates European cinema Organisers say this year's Berlin Film Festival, which opens on Thursday with period epic Man to Man, will celebrate a revitalised European cinema. Of the 21 films in competition for the Golden and Silver Bear awards, more than half are from Europe with France particularly well represented. Festival director Dieter Kosslick says this strong showing signals ""a new consciousness for European films"". ""They're on an incredible winning streak,"" he told the Reuters agency. ""This isn't to say there aren't any good American films,"" he continued. ""It's just that there are more good European films."" However, Mr Kosslick refused to accept that widespread opposition to the Iraq war had turned audiences against Hollywood imports. ""There is no anti-American mood,"" he said. Some 350 films will be screened at this year's festival, with a further 300 shown at the European Film Market that runs alongside it. More than a dozen celebrities are scheduled to attend, among them Will Smith, Kevin Spacey and Keanu Reeves. But Mr Kosslick says more would be coming had the Academy Awards not been brought forward to 27 February. ""I'm not worried that we won't be able to fill the red carpet with stars,"" he said, though he admitted the festival may be moved to January next year to avoid a similar clash. The 10-day Berlinale runs until 20 February." +entertainment,"Top gig award for Scissor Sisters New York band Scissor Sisters have won a gig of the year award for their performance at this year's V Festival. The award was voted for by listeners of Virgin Radio, which compiled a top 10 which was mostly dominated by newcomers on the music scene this year. The quirky disco-rock band beat The Red Hot Chili Peppers who came second for their Hyde Park performance in June. Virgin Radio DJ Pete Mitchell said: ""This year has seen an amazing array of talent come into the mainstream."" He added: ""The Scissor Sisters are one of the most original, eccentric bands to come through and it's no surprise the British public are lapping up their performances."" Newcomers Keane came in third place for their August gig at the V Festival, followed by Maroon 5 and Snow Patrol. Music veterans The Who and David Bowie, both earned places on the list, at number eight and 10 respectively. At number seven was Oxfam's Make Fair Trade gig at London's Hammersmith Apollo in October, which featured performances by REM, Razorlight and Coldplay's Chris Martin. Glasgow's Franz Ferdinand earned a place at number nine for their home-town performance in April. The annual survey was voted for by nearly 4,000 listeners." +entertainment,"Singer Ian Brown 'in gig arrest' Former Stone Roses singer Ian Brown was arrested after a fight during a concert in San Francisco on Tuesday, his spokesman has said. A fan jumped on stage and attacked the singer, who then became involved in a fracas with a security guard, Fiction Records spokesman Paul Smernicki said. He said Brown was arrested at his hotel after the show at the Great American Music Hall but released without charge. San Francisco police said they could find no record of his arrest. Mr Smernicki said he had been told a fan ""rugby-tackled"" the singer during the gig, which resulted in ""pushing and shoving"". Brown then got into a brawl with another man who tried to restrain him - without realising he was a security guard, Mr Smernicki added. The star went off for 15 minutes before returning to finish his set. Police took witness statements and apprehended Brown at his hotel, Mr Smernicki said. But he was released without charge and ""as far as we're aware, that's the end of it"", Mr Smernicki added. A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department said he may have been detained but they could find no record of the incident. Brown, 42, was lead singer with The Stone Roses, one of the most seminal bands in British rock, until they split in 1996. He has since forged a successful solo career, scoring nine UK top 30 singles since 1998. In 1998, he was sentenced to four months in jail for using threatening behaviour towards an aeroplane captain and stewardess." +entertainment,"Wal-Mart is sued over rude lyrics The parents of a 13-year-old girl are suing US supermarket giant Wal-Mart over a CD by rock group Evanescence that contains swear words. The lawsuit, filed in Washington County, alleges Wal-Mart deceived customers by not putting warning labels on the cover. Trevin Skeens alleges Wal-Mart knew of the offending word because it had censored it on its music sales website. Wal-Mart said it was investigating the claims but had no plans to pull the CD. Wal-Mart has a policy of not stocking CDs which carry parental advisory labels. Mr Skeens said he bought the Anywhere But Home CD for his daughter and was shocked to hear the swearing when it was played in their car. ""I don't want any other families to get this, expecting it to be clean. It needs to be removed from the shelves to prevent other children from hearing it,"" said Mr Skeens of Brownsville. The lawsuit seeks to force Wal-Mart to censor the music or remove it from its stores in Maryland. It also seeks damages of up to $74,500 (£38,660) for every customer who bought the CD at Maryland Wal-Marts, and also naming record label Wind-Up Records and distributor BMG Entertainment in the legal action. ""While Wal-Mart sets high standards, it would not be possible to eliminate every image, word or topic that an individual might find objectionable,"" Wal-Mart spokesman Guy Whitcomb told the Herald-Mail of Hagerstown." +entertainment,"Career honour for actor DiCaprio Actor Leonardo DiCaprio's ""exceptional career"" has been honoured at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The star was presented with the award by Martin Scorsese, who directed him in Oscar-nominated movie The Aviator. ""It's a lifetime achievement award, which is completely and utterly surreal, given I'm only 30 years old,"" DiCaprio said. ""But what has it been? Almost 17 years now. I've done quite a few films."" A retrospective of his movies was shown. ""What's really exciting, for me, is that this is what I really love doing,"" he added. ""It's what I want to do for the rest of my life."" DiCaprio began his movie career in horror film Critters 3, before moving onto roles in The Basketball Diaries, Romeo and Juliet, Titanic and Gangs of New York. The achievement award was created to commemorate the California festival's 20th anniversary and coincided with DiCaprio's portrayal of millionaire Howard Hughes in The Aviator. Veteran actress Jane Russell, who starred in Hughes' 1943 film The Outlaw, said was impressed by DiCaprio's quest for authenticity when he previously discussed the role with her. ""I was very happy that (DiCaprio) came and cared to come up and find out what (Hughes) was really like,"" she said. The Aviator has taken pole position in this year's Oscars race with 11 nominations, including nominations for best film, best actor for DiCaprio and best director for Scorsese." +entertainment,"Douglas set for Indian adventure Actor Michael Douglas is to co-produce and star in an adventure film about a diamond robbery set in India. The new picture is expected to be similar to Douglas's action films of the 1980s, Romancing The Stone and The Jewel Of The Nile. Another Hollywood star is being lined up to co-star, while the rest of the cast will be Indian. Aishwarya Rai, star of Bride and Prejudice, is the ""preferred choice"" of the Indian studio involved in the film. On a visit to India, the 60-year-old actor said he hoped to start shooting Racing The Monsoon next year. Douglas added that it had been inspired by a Wall Street Journal article about India's 'angadias', who courier money and diamonds around India. The actor's own production company, Further Films, is working in partnership with two Indian film-making concerns to bring the picture to the screen. Shailendra Singh, the founder of India's Percept Films, said there would be ""a lot of India"" in the movie - and that an Indian train would play a big role. ""The train will be a crucial part of the film. The chase and most of the stunts will be on the train,"" said Mr Singh. Swashbuckling adventure film Romancing The Stone saw Douglas's female co-star Kathleen Turner win a Golden Globe award for her performance in 1985." +entertainment,"No charges against TV's Cosby US comedian Bill Cosby will not face charges stemming from an allegation of sexual misconduct. Authorities in Philadelphia said they found insufficient evidence to support the woman's allegations regarding an alleged incident in January 2004. The woman reported the allegations to Canadian authorities last month. Cosby's lawyer, Walter M Phillips Jr, said the comedian was pleased with the decision. ""He looks forward to moving on with his life,"" he said. District Attorney Bruce L Castor Jr, who was in charge of the case, said that detectives could find no instance ""where anyone complained to law enforcement of conduct which would constitute a criminal offence. He also said that the fact the woman waited a year before coming forward, and she had had further contact with Cosby during that time, were also factors in his decision. The unidentified woman's lawyer, Dolores M Troiani, said her client was likely to sue the comedian. ""I think that's the only avenue open to her. She felt, as we did, that it's a very strong case and she was telling the truth."" She also said that the woman supplied further evidence to prosecutors that she believed strengthened her allegations. Cosby emerged as one of the first black comics to have mainstream success in the US. He was a successful stand-up before hosting the children's show Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and starring in The Cosby Show, one of the biggest sitcoms of the 1980s." +entertainment,"Volcano drama erupts on BBC One Supervolcano, a docu-drama about a volcanic eruption in Yellowstone National Park in the US, is among the highlights on the BBC One this winter. The £178m winter schedule also includes the return of Doctor Who and a drama about Angela Cannings, who was wrongly convicted of killing two of her babies. Sarah Lancashire and Timothy Spall will star in the real-life drama, Cherished. ITV also unveiled their festive season on Tuesday, which includes Stephen Fry in a remake of Tom Brown's Schooldays. Supervolcano, follows in the footsteps of last year's Pompei, which drew 10 million viewers to BBC One in October 2003. The programme merges science, drama and computer imagery to reveal what could happen if Yellowstone - home to the only currently active supervolcano in the world - were to erupt again. BBC Two will run a two-part documentary, The Science Behind Supervolcano, in conjunction with the transmission. Other educational highlights include a documentary about infamous Mongolian warrior Genghis Khan and Grandchild of The Holocaust. Grandchild of The Holocaust, part of the BBC commitment to Holocaust Memorial Day, follows Adrian, 13, on a journey to uncover the truth about what happened to his grandmother in Auschwitz and Belsen. New drama includes Archangel, an adaptation of the Robert Harris best-seller, which stars Daniel Craig on the trail of Stalin's diaries in Communist Russia. And Sarah Waters' gets her second adaptation on BBC One with Imelda Staunton and Charles Dance lined up to star in Fingersmith. The adaptation, about a conman in Victorian England, will make an interesting contrast to Julie Burchill's Sugar Rush - a lesbian teenage drama part of Channel Four's winter season. On a lighter note, Jessica Stevenson will star in new BBC One sitcom, The World According to Bex, penned by My Family creator Fred Barron and the Two Ronnies return for a celebration of their classic comedy series. Fry's portrayal of headmaster Dr Arnold dominates a muted Christmas schedule on ITV1, which sees the channel retreat from broadcasting blockbuster movies in favour of extended soap episodes and popular quiz shows. Sir Paul McCartney, wife Heather Mills and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will join a celebrity edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? on Christmas Day. Also on Christmas Day, John Nettles will return in a one-off edition of Midsomer Murders, while two episodes of the new Miss Marple drama will air over the festive period. Films on ITV1 include Gus Van Sant's Finding Forrester, starring Sean Connery, and classics such a Mary Poppins, Star Wars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In contrast, BBC's Christmas season includes terrestrial debuts of the first Harry Potter film, Shrek and Steven Spielberg's AI, as well as new epipsodes of the Vicar of Dibley and the final Auf Wiedersehen, Pet." +entertainment,"Rapper Snoop Dogg sued for 'rape' US rapper Snoop Dogg has been sued for $25m (£13m) by a make-up artist who claimed he and his entourage drugged and raped her two years ago. The woman said she was assaulted after a recording of the Jimmy Kimmel Live TV show on the ABC network in 2003. The rapper's spokesman said the allegations were ""untrue"" and the woman was ""misusing the legal system as a means of extracting financial gain"". ABC said the claims had ""no merit"". The star has not been charged by police. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles on Friday, says the woman's champagne was spiked and she was then assaulted. The rapper's spokesperson said: ""Snoop will have the opportunity to prove in a court of law that [the alleged victim] is opportunistic and deceitful. ""We are confident that in this case, [the alleged victim's] claims against Snoop Dogg will be rejected."" The lawsuit names Snoop Dogg - real name Calvin Broadus - plus three associates, The Walt Disney Company and its parent company ABC Inc. The woman waited two years to sue because she was trying to negotiate a settlement with the media companies, her lawyer, Perry Wander, said. Disney and ABC ""failed to provide a safe working environment for my client,"" he said. The legal action comes after the rap star sued a woman who claimed they tried to blackmail him to keep quiet about an alleged assault. The 32-year-old rapper has enjoyed six US top 10 albums since bursting onto the music scene with hit songs like What's My Name? and Gin and Juice in 1993." +entertainment,"US TV cuts nudity from BBC film A US TV network is editing BBC Films' Dirty War to avoid showing the front of a nude woman being scrubbed down after a fictional chemical attack. It is not worth showing ""non-essential"" nude scenes when indecency complaints are ""aggressively pursued"" by US TV watchdogs, said PBS' Jacoba Atlas. Dirty War - screened uncut on BBC One last September - depicts a dirty bomb attack on the City of London. It is also being screened uncut on US cable channel HBO on 24 January. PBS said it will use extra footage for its broadcast, showing the woman ""from a more discreet angle"" instead. The US Federal Communications Commission fined CBS $550,000 (£306,814) last autumn for singer Janet Jackson's ""wardrobe malfunction"", during which her breast was exposed during a dance routine with Justin Timberlake. Many US networks and broadcasters are now more nervous about airing nudity, violence or bad language. Ms Atlas said PBS could put itself financially at risk if it showed the uncut version of Dirty War, and it could also deter many of its 170 individual stations from airing ""an important film"". ""You want to pick your battles,"" she said. She added that PBS, which is a private, non-profit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation's 349 public television stations, is bolder about screening non-fiction or historical programming. PBS is seen in virtually all US homes with TV, and describes itself as a ""trusted community resource"" serving nearly 100 million people each week." +entertainment,"Critics back Aviator for Oscars Martin Scorsese's The Aviator will win best film at the Oscars, according to the UK's leading movie critics. But several of those surveyed by the BBC News website think the veteran film-maker will lose the best director prize to Clint Eastwood. Most of the critics tipped Jamie Foxx and Hilary Swank to scoop best actor and actress for Ray and Million Dollar Baby respectively. The jury comprised experts and critics from the top UK film publications. The panel also revealed which nominees they would personally prefer to win. All expect The Aviator to win best film, but many think it will be a close race between Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic and Eastwood's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby. The other films nominated are wine comedy Sideways, factual drama Finding Neverland, and Ray Charles biopic Ray. ""I'm pretty sure this is the year of The Aviator, though my own choice would be Sideways,"" said the Observer's Philip French. ""Sideways should win but it doesn't have a hope,"" said Jamie Graham of Total Film, a position shared by Film 2005 presenter Jonathan Ross. ""The form going in to the Oscars points to The Aviator, but I liked Million Dollar Baby more,"" said Tim Dams, news editor of trade weekly Screen International. Five of the eight critics tipped Scorsese to win best director, with Mr Dams, Heat's Charles Gant and Empire's Angie Errigo plumping for Eastwood. Sideway's Alexander Payne, Ray's Taylor Hackford and British director Mike Leigh - nominated for period drama Vera Drake - are considered outsiders in this category. ""Up until recently I could have sworn Scorsese would get it just for being Scorsese,"" Ms Errigo told the BBC News website. ""But I'm beginning to think Eastwood will get it."" ""I'd be very happy for Mike Leigh to win, but I don't think he has any chance,"" said Charles Gant, film editor of Heat. Foxx's portrayal of Ray Charles has already seen him win prizes at the Golden Globes, Baftas and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Mr Dams said this made him ""out-and-out favourite"" to be named best actor on Oscar night. ""Everyone would be incredibly surprised if he didn't win,"" he said. ""If you're a betting man, he's as close as you get to a certainty."" ""If Paul Giamatti was nominated for Sideways it would be a different game,"" says Total Film's Jamie Graham. ""But Foxx will and should win."" With Vera Drake star Imelda Staunton nominated for best actress alongside Kate Winslet, Britain has a good chance of victory - on paper. Jonathan Ross, for one, will be very happy if Winslet wins for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But while Wendy Ide of The Times still thinks Staunton has a chance, Heat's Charles Gant believes her Bafta win will cut little ice with Academy voters. ""I'd like Staunton to win, but her chances are not that great,"" said Mr Gant, who predicted a second Oscar for Hilary Swank. ""I think Swank will win,"" said Mr French. ""Imelda has got as far as she's going to get playing that role."" Staunton is also the personal choice of Steven Gaydos, executive editor of industry magazine Variety. But while he tipped Swank to win, he predicted it would be a close contest. ""Everything has the ability to flip by one vote and go the other way,"" he told the BBC News website. ""There's not a sense that it's obvious how it's going to go."" Meanwhile, thousands of people have voted in a BBC Radio Five Live poll to find the best film never to have won a best picture Oscar. The audience voted overwhelmingly for The Shawshank Redemption, the 1994 Frank Darabont tale of hope and humanity, which received 52% of the online votes and 68% of the text messages. The other two finalists, Citizen Kane and A Matter of Life and Death split the remaining votes roughly equally. This year's Academy Awards will be shown in the UK by Sky Movies 1 at 0130 GMT on Monday. - Tim Dams, Screen International: Film - The Aviator; director - Clint Eastwood; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Angie Errigo, Empire: Film - The Aviator; director - Clint Eastwood; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Philip French, The Observer: Film - The Aviator; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Charles Gant, Heat: Film - The Aviator; director - Clint Eastwood; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Steven Gaydos, Variety: Film - The Aviator; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Jamie Graham, Total Film: Film - The Aviator; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Wendy Ide, The Times: Film - The Aviator; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Imelda Staunton. - Jonathan Ross, Film 2005: Film - The Aviator; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Tim Dams, Screen International: Film - Million Dollar Baby; director - Clint Eastwood; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Angie Errigo, Empire: Film - The Aviator; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Philip French, The Observer: Film - Sideways; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Imelda Staunton. - Charles Gant, Heat: Film - Sideways; director - Mike Leigh; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Imelda Staunton. - Steven Gaydos, Variety: Film - Million Dollar Baby; director - Clint Eastwood; actor - Don Cheadle; actress - Imelda Staunton. - Jamie Graham, Total Film: Film - Sideways; director - Alexander Payne; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Wendy Ide, The Times: Film - Sideways; director - Alexander Payne; actor - Don Cheadle; actress - Imelda Staunton. - Jonathan Ross, Film 2005: Film - Sideways; director - Clint Eastwood; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Kate Winslet." +entertainment,"New media battle for Bafta awards The BBC leads the nominations for the Bafta Interactive Awards, including one for the Radio Times website and one for Sport Interactive's Euro 2004 coverage. The awards, which were started in 1997, recognise the best websites, digital TV shows and CD roms. Other nominees include The Guardian news website, the National Theatre, MTV, the Science Museum and the London Stock Exchange. The winners from 12 different categories are crowned on 2 March 2005. There were nearly 400 entries this year - a third more than last year. The BBC has 16 nominations while The Guardian has three nominations. ""This year's nominees are a testament to the creative and innovative work going on within the industry,"" said Grant Dean, chair of the interactive committee. Categories include interactive TV, film, digital TV, mobile phones and music. Shaun of the Dead, Oasis' Definitely Maybe, Really Bend It Like Beckham, The Chaplin Collection and The Day Today will battle it out in the DVD category. ITV's Great British Spelling Test takes on the BBC's Olympics and Spooks Interactive for the interactive TV award. And the Guardian takes three of a possible five nominations in the news and sport category for its website coverage of Euro 2004, the Tour de France and the US elections. The BBC's iCan site is up for the technical and social innovation award alongside the likes of Nottingham University's Uncle Roy All Around You. In 2002, the British Academy of Film and Television decided to split the awards into separate games and interactive ceremonies, to fully cover the range of innovation outside the gaming industry." +entertainment,"School tribute for TV host Carson More than 1,000 people turned out on Sunday to pay tribute to late US TV presenter Johnny Carson in the Nebraska town where he grew up. Carson, who hosted the Tonight Show for 30 years, died on 23 January from respiratory disease emphysema. He lived in Norfolk, Nebraska from the age of eight until he joined the Navy, but returned regularly and donated $5m (£2.7m) to local causes. Old school friends were among the crowd at the school's Johnny Carson Theater. Carson, who was one of the best-loved TV personalities in the US, asked not to have a public memorial in Los Angeles, where he lived in later life. He began his showbusiness career in Norfolk, performing magic under the name The Great Carsoni from the age of 14. His donations included $600,000 to Norfolk High School in the 1980s to build a new performing arts centre. When Carson died, President Bush led the public tributes, saying the presenter ""had a profound influence on American life and entertainment""." +entertainment,"Court halts Mark Morrison album Premiership footballer and record company boss Kevin Campbell has gained a court injunction stopping R&B singer Mark Morrison from releasing an album. The Everton striker signed Morrison to his fledging 2 Wikid Records label and claims he spent thousands of pounds producing his album Innocent Man. Now he is attempting to prevent Morrison releasing the album on Monday through another label. But Morrison vowed to ignore the order, saying ""no judge is gonna stop me"". Morrison, who is now as well known for his brushes with the law than his music career, rose to fame with the 1996 single Return of the Mack. But the Leicester singer has struggled to repeat its success following two spells in jail. One was for hiring a stand-in to complete his community service for possession of a stun gun and three-months following a nightclub fracas. He signed to Mr Campbell's label a year ago and has released one single, with the label saying the album was due for release on 24 January. But Mr Campbell said he learned that Morrison planned to release the album through Jet Star, which is advertising it on its website. Mr Campbell said: ""I'm glad we were granted the injunction but I'm completely gutted that we have had to go that far. ""Mark Morrison was given everything he asked for by 2 Wikid but it seems that he couldn't help but return to his old ways. ""I've worked hard to realise my ambition in football but had hoped that my future career would be in the music business. ""I have always dreamt of starting a record label but now Mark Morrison has spoilt that dream for me. There is no loyalty in this business - just greed."" But Morrison is determined the album will be released on Monday. He said: ""The injunction is ludicrous. ""I signed a new deal with a new record company because I was not getting the support I needed from 2 Wikid. ""I was with that label for a year and in that time released just one record, which was not properly promoted. He added: ""The whole world is waiting for this album and it will come out on December 27. No injunction or judge will stop it. The Mack will return."" The case is set to be heard in the High Court on 20 December." +entertainment,"Ethnic producers 'face barriers' Minority ethnic led (Mel) production companies face barriers in succeeding in the film and television industries, research has suggested. The study, commissioned by Pact and the UK Film Council, included interviews with industry experts and individuals. They indicated that career progression and a lack of role models are among the main problems within such companies. The research indicated that about 10% of independent production companies in the UK are minority ethnic led. A minority ethnic led company is defined as one in which the majority of decision-making power rests with an individual or individuals from a minority ethnic group. The report also explored the problems faced by such companies when attempting to compete within the film and TV industries. It said they are often smaller than other companies and lack the resources, so are often squeezed out of the market by bigger firms. The research recommended that minority ethnic led companies could benefit from such positive actions as career training and business advice, plus improved communication within the film and TV sectors. ""The UK has a rich and diverse culture and it is essential that it is reflected on film and television,"" said Arts minister Estelle Morris of the findings. ""I welcome this report which I hope will lead to more doors being opened and all businesses in our film and television industries being given the same opportunities.""" +entertainment,"New Harry Potter tops book chart Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has topped Amazon's book chart less than 24 hours after its release date - 16 July - was announced. Thousands of customers placed pre-orders on the amazon.co.uk website for the sixth book in the series. Rowling revealed she had completed the novel on Tuesday, ahead of the scheduled announcement on 25 December. It will be published simultaneously in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. JK Rowling's fifth book in the wizard series, Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix was Amazon's largest pre-ordered item ever, with 420,000 copies pre-ordered prior to its release in June 2003. Customers who pre-order Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince avoid standing in long queues at bookshops on the day of the book's release next July. ""The fact that the book has already hit number one in our Hot 100 books chart shows how incredibly excited customers are about the sixth Harry Potter,"" said Amazon's Robin Terrell. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes up the story of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as Lord Voldemort grows stronger. Rowling has already revealed that the Half-Blood Prince is neither Harry nor Voldemort. And she added that the opening chapter of the book had been brewing in her mind for 13 years. Rowling said she had plenty of time while pregnant ""to tinker with the manuscript to my satisfaction and I am as happy as I have ever been with the end result"". She also previously revealed that a character will be killed in the sixth book, but she has given no hints as to who it might be. Following publication of the sixth book, just one novel remains to complete the series." +entertainment,"South Bank Awards honour hit soap Coronation Street has become the first soap to triumph at the South Bank Show Awards, which traditionally reward highbrow and groundbreaking culture. The soap beat fellow ITV1 show Filthy Love and Channel 4's Shameless to win the best TV drama prize on Thursday. Little Britain was named best comedy while Franz Ferdinand beat Morrissey and The Libertines to the music award. Shane Meadows' Dead Man's Shoes picked up the best film award, beating Shaun of the Dead and My Summer of Love. The two award ceremonies reflect the achievements the industry believes have been made in the last year. In 2004, Coronation Street pulled away from its BBC One rival EastEnders in the ratings and dominated other TV awards. Last year, the South Bank Award for best TV drama went to Steven Poliakoff's period piece The Lost Prince, while Bloody Sunday, about the 1972 killings in Northern Ireland, won in 2003. In other South Bank categories, Little Britain's second series beat Nighty Night and The Green Wing to the comedy trophy while Alan Bennett's The History Boys won in the theatre category. Author David Mitchell made up for losing out in the Booker Prize to Alan Hollinghurst by beating him to the literary award with his book Cloud Atlas. Shameless, State Of Play and Clocking Off creator Paul Abbott got a lifetime achievement award while former Grange Hill actress Amma Asante won the breakthrough award for writing and directing her first film, A Way Of Life." +entertainment,"Buffy creator joins Wonder Woman The creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is to take on a new female superhero after signing up to write and direct the Wonder Woman movie. Joss Whedon described the DC Comics character as ""the most iconic female heroine of our time"". ""In a way, no one has met her yet,"" he said. ""What I love most about icons is finding out what's behind them, exploring the price of their power."" Linda Carter played the character in the 1970s TV series. The character of Wonder Woman, famed for her red and gold costume, was born on Paradise Island, and was blessed with the powers of strength and flight. The film is being produced by Joel Silver, producer of the Matrix trilogy. ""There's no one better than Joss to adapt the legendary Wonder Woman comic book character created in the 1940s into a dynamic feature film for 21st Century audiences,"" said Silver. ""Wonder Woman was the first great female superhero to emerge from comic books and later inspire millions of fans in her television incarnation... but this groundbreaking heroine has yet to be reinvented for the feature film arena."" Whedon created the character of Buffy in the screenplay for the 1992 film. He distanced himself from the movie because of the direction it eventually took, and the film bombed. But he did not give up on the Slayer and went on to write and executive produce seven seasons of the cult TV series. He also produced the spin-off Angel series. He is currently directing the film Serenity, based on his short-lived sci-fi series Firefly." +entertainment,"Manics in charge of BBC 6 Music The Manic Street Preachers are to take over the helm of BBC digital radio station 6 Music for a week in December. The Welsh band, whose hits include Design For Life and If You Tolerate This, have already chosen which records to play between 6 and 12 December. Their albums of the day include Who's Next by The Who and U2's Joshua Tree. The group will also perform their own live session. They follow in the footsteps of Radiohead, who took over the station for a week last year. Bass player Nicky Wire will join Phil Jupitus on his morning show on Monday 6 December, while vocalist and guitarist James Dean Bradfield will appear on Andrew Collins' afternoon show on Thursday 9. The group have also chosen documentaries to air, such as The Leonard Cohen Story and Guitar Greats - Jimmy Page. The live concert session tracks they have picked include The Specials' Rat Race recorded at Hammersmith Odeon in London and Public Enemy's Fight The Power and Rebel Without A Pause. The band will also answer questions e-mailed in by 6 Music listeners." +entertainment,"Berlin cheers for anti-Nazi film A German movie about an anti-Nazi resistance heroine has drawn loud applause at Berlin Film Festival. Sophie Scholl - The Final Days portrays the final days of the member of the White Rose movement. Scholl, 21, was arrested and beheaded with her brother, Hans, in 1943 for distributing leaflets condemning the ""abhorrent tyranny"" of Adolf Hitler. Director Marc Rothemund said: ""I have a feeling of responsibility to keep the legacy of the Scholls going."" ""We must somehow keep their ideas alive,"" he added. The film drew on transcripts of Gestapo interrogations and Scholl's trial preserved in the archive of communist East Germany's secret police. Their discovery was the inspiration behind the film for Rothemund, who worked closely with surviving relatives, including one of Scholl's sisters, to ensure historical accuracy on the film. Scholl and other members of the White Rose resistance group first started distributing anti-Nazi leaflets in the summer of 1942. They were arrested as they dropped leaflets at Munich University calling for a ""day of reckoning"" with Adolf Hitler's regime. The film focuses on the six days from Scholl's arrest to the intense trial which saw Scholl initially deny the charges and ended with a defiant appearance. It is one of three German films vying for a top prize at the Festival. A South African film version of Bizet's tragic opera Carmen shot in Cape Town in the Xhosa language has also premiered at the Berlin Festival. The film is entitled U-Carmen eKhayelitsha or Carmen in Khayelitsha after the township in which the story is set. It is performed by a 40-strong music and theatre troupe in their debut film performance. The film is the first South African feature in 25 years and only the second to be nominated for a Golden Bear Award." +entertainment,"Wife Swap makers sue US 'copycat' The British producers of US Wife Swap are taking legal action against a show they claim is ""a blatant and wholescale copycat"" of their programme. RDF Media, which makes the show for US network ABC, has filed a damages claim for $18 million (£9.25 million) against Fox's Trading Spouses. ABC bought the rights to the British show, which was first aired in 2003 and became a hit on Channel 4. The US network is not part of the claim, but has supported RDF's action. ""We respect our producing partners' right to protect their intellectual property in whatever manner they deem most appropriate,"" said ABC in a statement. A spokesman for Fox said it had not seen the details of the legal action and could not comment. Their show was first screened in June, and was criticised in the press for its similarities to Wife Swap. ABC originally planned to call their programme Trading Moms, but changed it to avoid confusion with the Fox version. Earlier this year, the NBC network claimed that Fox's boxing show The Next Great Champ had been hurriedly produced to ensure its programme was the first to be screened. NBC alleged that boxing regulations had been violated, but failed in their attempt to have the show pulled. The Fox show proved a ratings flop, while NBC's The Contender is due to begin in February." +entertainment,"Bangkok film festival battles on Organisers of the third Bangkok International Film Festival have been determined to carry on with this year's event despite the ravages of the Asian tsunami disaster. The festivities have been scaled down, red carpets have been mothballed and profits from ticket sales are being donated to the tsunami relief fund. Apart from this, however, the festival has continued as originally planned. ""When the disaster happened, we naturally asked ourselves if we should cancel,"" said the festival's executive director, Craig Prater. ""The decision was made that we would continue, but that the focus would change. ""Our premieres became fundraisers, the opening night was visibly toned down and 10% of every ticket sold goes to the disaster fund,"" he continued. ""But we feel like we've turned a page. We've acknowledged our position, and now it's business as usual."" Mr Prater's sentiments were echoed by Christine Rush, director of the festival's sister event, the Bangkok Film Market. ""We have been careful to be respectful of the Thai nation's recovery from this terrible disaster,"" she said. ""However, the nation's recovery very much depends upon it continuing its economic life. ""We are encouraging attendees to keep the victims in mind and aggressively support the aid organisations helping out,"" she added. Given the conspicuously low audience figures, that support may be more symbolic than significant. However, poor ticket sales have less to do with any fallout from the disaster and more to do with administrative and promotional difficulties. The eclectic programme contains a wide range of titles, including such Oscar hopefuls as Ray Charles biopic Ray and Mike Leigh's abortion drama Vera Drake. That said, the absence of Thai subtitles on most film prints might have proved offputting to local cinemagoers. On a more positive note, the celebrity guests attending the event have generated huge media interest in this busy capital city. Problems securing air transport, the clash with last Sunday's Golden Globes ceremony in Los Angeles and other factors have forced some big names to cancel. But the festival has still attracted such Hollywood directors as Oliver Stone and Joel Schumacher, alongside such screen stars as Michael Douglas, Jeremy Irons and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Irons, whose film Being Julia is in competition for the festival's Golden Kinnaree awards, said he had wondered whether he should attend after December's catastrophe. ""I questioned whether I should come when such a tragedy had happened,"" the British actor said. ""I thought it might be in rather bad taste. But then I spoke to the organisers and I was encouraged to let life go on. ""Now I've come here I'm very glad. What impresses me about Thai culture is they get over these things far quicker than we do in the West,"" he continued. ""Basically I was invited here by Thailand. If they still want you to come, you should."" Now in its third year, Bangkok is a relatively recent addition to the hectic film festival calendar. And while it has yet to attain the stature of more established events held in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Pusan in South Korea, Mr Prater predicts it will soon become their equal. ""It's grown awfully fast in three years - maybe too fast,"" he concedes. ""We've had some bumps in the road, but that's only because the festival is still a baby. ""I have no doubt in my mind that in five years, this will be the top Asian film festival in the world."" The Golden Kinnarees will be awarded on Friday. The festival itself runs until 24 January." +entertainment,"Singer's film to show at festival A documentary which takes a candid look at the life of chart-topping singer George Michael will be shown at this year's Berlin Film Festival. A Different Story will screen in the Panorama section of the festival, which runs from 10-20 February. It features the singer talking about both his career and his personal life, from his days in Wham! through to more recent events. Michael will attend the festival to introduce the screening on 16 February. Director Southan Morris and executive producer Andy Stephens will also attend the festival. The 93 minute film will see Michael discussing his early days in Wham! along with his later career, including his legal battles with record label Sony and his stance against the Iraq war and American politics. It will also touch upon his turbulent personal life, including his arrest in a Beverly Hills park toilet in 1998 for ""lewd behaviour"", and the death of his boyfriend Anselmo Feleppa from Aids. The film, which includes previously unseen footage of the singer also features contributions from Michael's former Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley, as well as ex-Wham! backing singers Pepsi and Shirlie. Other contributors include Sting, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Noel Gallagher, Geri Halliwell and Simon Cowell. This year's festival will open with Man To Man, a historical epic starring Joseph Fiennes and Kristin Scott-Thomas. It will be one of 21 films competing for the festival's top prize, the Golden Bear. Other films in competition will include The Life Aquatic, a quirky comedy starring Bill Murray, and the biopic Kinsey, which features Liam Neeson. The full programme will be announced on 1 February." +entertainment,"God cut from Dark Materials film The director and screenwriter of the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is to remove references to God and the church in the movie. Chris Weitz, director of About a Boy, said the changes were being made after film studio New Line expressed concern. The books tell of a battle against the church and a fight to overthrow God. ""They have expressed worry about the possibility of perceived anti-religiosity,"" Weitz told a His Dark Materials fans' website. Pullman's trilogy has been attacked by some Christian teachers and by the Catholic press as blasphemy. Weitz, who admitted he would not be many people's first choice to direct the films, said he regarded the film adaptation as ""the most important work of my life"". ""In part because it is one of the few books to have changed my life,"" he told bridgetothestars.net. The award-winning trilogy - Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass - tell the story of Oxford school child Lyra Belacqua. She is drawn into an epic struggle against the Church, which has been carrying out experiments on children in an attempt to remove original sin. As the books progress the struggle turns into a battle to overthrow the Authority, a figure who is God-like in the books. Weitz, who directed American Pie and About A Boy, said New Line feared that any anti-religiosity in the film would make the project ""unviable financially"". He said: ""All my best efforts will be directed towards keeping the film as liberating and iconoclastic an experience as I can. ""But there may be some modification of terms."" Weitz said he had visited Pullman, who had told him that the Authority could ""represent any arbitrary establishment that curtails the freedom of the individual, whether it be religious, political, totalitarian, fundamentalist, communist, what have you"". He added: ""I have no desire to change the nature or intentions of the villains of the piece, but they may appear in more subtle guises."" There are a number of Christian websites which attack the trilogy for their depiction of the church and of God, but Pullman has denied his books are anti-religious. His agent told the Times newspaper that Pullman was happy with the adaptation so far. ""Of course New Line want to make money, but Mr Weitz is a wonderful director and Philip is very supportive. ""You have to recognise that it is a challenge in the climate of Bush's America,""" +entertainment,"BBC 'should allow more scrutiny' MPs have urged the BBC to give watchdogs more freedom to scrutinise how £2bn in licence fee money is spent. The Public Accounts Committee called for the National Audit Office to be given a ""free hand"" to investigate how the BBC offers value for money. Although six areas are to be opened up to scrutiny the audit office should have more power to choose what it investigated, the MPs said. The call was made in a report into the BBC's Freeview digital service. ""Our aim is not to rewrite the storyline of EastEnders but simply to ensure that the BBC is as accountable to parliament as any other organisation spending public money,"" said the committee chairman, MP Edward Leigh. ""The BBC's spending is not subject to the full independent scrutiny, and accountability to parliament. ""Parliament requires television owners to pay a licence fee and expects the comptroller and auditor general, on behalf of parliament, to be able to scrutinise how that money, over £2 billion a year, is used."" A BBC spokeswoman said: ""We share the committee's interest in ensuring the public money we receive is spent well. Though in its infancy, we think the arrangements with the NAO are working well and should be given time to mature."" The report said the Freeview digital service has had an ""impressive"" take up since its launch but the BBC must still dispel confusion about the service. The committee found the BBC had succeeded in ensuring subscription-free access to digital channels following the collapse of ITV Digital in 2002. But the fact that one in four homes could not access Freeview remained a problem. The report said that while gaps in the coverage were largely due to landscape issues, there was need for detailed explanations on the Freeview website and on promotional literature as to why it was not available in specific areas. The government has proposed switch off of the analogue television signal, with 2012 the most recently proposed date. The BBC launched Freeview in 2002 as an alternative to satellite subscription services such as Sky, to allow its digital channels such as BBC Three and News 24 to be seen. There have been an estimated five million Freeview set-top boxes sold since the launch and prices have fallen considerably. The corporation plans to spend up to £138m on Freeview before 2014 to ensure people can receive the service throughout the UK, and are aware of it." +entertainment,"Wine comedy up for six film gongs Sideways, a wine-tasting comedy starring Paul Giamatti, is up for six Independent Spirit Awards, the art-house version of the Oscars. The awards are held on 26 February, the day before the Oscars. Spanish drama Maria Full of Grace, about a Colombian woman who becomes a drug courier, got five nominations. Controversial biopic Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson as sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, was one of four films to get four nominations. The awards, now in their 20th year, honour quirky low-budget films, all of which must have a degree of independent financing. Sideways is written and directed by Alexander Payne, who directed the 2002 hit About Schmidt, winning Jack Nicholson his 12th Academy Award nomination. ""These awards, for better or worse, mean everything,"" said Sideways producer Michael London, adding they were a ""huge first step"" toward getting recognition from other awards. Among the other films receiving four nominations apiece were Brother to Brother, a drama about a young gay black man forced to live on the streets, Robbing Peter and Primer. Primer, a $7,000 (£3,650) tale of discovery, won top prize at the Sundance film festival earlier this year. Walter Salles critically acclaimed The Motorcycle Diaries and the forthcoming thriller The Woodsman, starring Kevin Bacon, received three nominations each. Also in the running, with two nominations, are high school comedy Napoleon Dynamite, The Door in the Floor and Garden State - written, directed and starring Scrubs star Zach Braff alongside Natalie Portman. The awards were announced by actors Selma Blair and Dennis Quaid in Los Angeles on Tuesday." +entertainment,"Duran Duran show set for US TV Chart stars Duran Duran are to appear in a VH1 special in the US including interviews and concert footage. The show airs on Tuesday and will feature a studio performance, behind the scenes footage and fan interviews. ""They seemed like a perfect fit with our audience,"" said Rick Krim, VH1's vice president of music and talent. The band recently released a new album, Astronaut, the first from the original line-up since 1983. They will also tour Japan and the US next year. ""When we started playing together, we didn't try and make a really sort of mature album. We just really wanted to make a great Duran Duran album,"" said keyboard player Nick Rhodes. ""It's pretty much in line with a lot of stuff out there."" Duran Duran are currently promoting the album's second single, What Happens Tomorrow. Simon Le Bon said earlier this year that the group were not trying to update their sound too much. ""We wouldn't want to lose them [older fans] by trying too hard by trying to connect with a new audience,"" the singer said. Le Bon also said the five members were getting on very well. ""We're like any people who get very close. Sometimes you argue with each other. But the fact is we inspire each other musically. ""Nobody else does it for me,"" he said. ""It's just very special.""" +entertainment,"France set for new Da Vinci novel French booksellers are braced for a rush of interest after another book from the author of The Da Vinci Code is translated into French. Angels and Demons, by US author Dan Brown, will go on sale on Wednesday. The Da Vinci Code is set in Paris - including the Louvre - and has sold around one million copies in France. The main character, Robert Langdon, also appears in Angels and Demons. The Da Vinci Code is being made into a film starring Tom Hanks. Angels and Demons was written before The Da Vinci Code, which has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, and been translated into more than 40 languages, since it was released in 2003. Angels and Demons is set mainly in Rome as symbologist Robert Langdon follows a 400-year-old trail to try to uncover a plot by an ancient brotherhood, The Illuminati, to blow up the Vatican. The novel deals with moral issues such as the debate between science and religion and also seeks to uncover some of the mysteries surrounding the Pope. On his website, Brown wrote: ""I think the reason Angels and Demons is raising eyebrows right now is that it opens some Vatican closets most people don't even know exist. ""But I think most people understand that an organisation as old and powerful as the Vatican could not possibly have risen to power without acquiring a few skeletons in their closets."" Such is the success of The Da Vinci Code in France, special tours have been organised to trace Langdon's footsteps, including the the Louvre museum and the Saint Sulpice Church. The Louvre has also given permission for parts of the film version to be shot in the museum. The film, to be directed by A Beautiful Mind's Ron Howard, is due to start filming at the Paris museum in May and stars Hanks alongside French actress Audrey Tautou." +entertainment,"US box office set for record high Ticket sales at the US box office are predicted to break records this year, with figures expected to reach $9.4 billion, beating 2002's all-time high. Overall figures could be dampened by the lack of a Christmas hit like last year's Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings. Traditionally, ticket sales during the festive season account for 20% of the annual total. Although admissions have actually fallen this year, the predicted high is down to increasing ticket prices. According to Exhibitor Relations President Paul Dergarabedian, the average cost of a cinema ticket could be as high as $6.25 in 2004, compared to $5.80 in 2002. This year some of the biggest hits such as The Passion of the Christ and Fahrenheit 9/11 came from outside the major studios which are usually responsible for the key blockbusters. ""Many of the films that did well (with audiences) are not necessarily the films that made a lot of money,"" said Mr Dergarabedian. He added that surprise hits had come from some of the more art-house offerings such as Napoleon Dynamite and critical hit Sideways. Sony Pictures, responsible for hits like Spiderman 2 and The Grudge, are expected to top domestic market share for the second time in three years, with $1 billion-plus in sales for the third consecutive year. Sony Pictures Entertainment vice chairman. Jeff Blake said: ""We had a really diverse slate this year, and... certainly we pulled off one of the surprises with Grudge."" Horror movie The Grudge cost Sony $10 million to make but brought in $110 million. It's the latest in a recent trend for Hollywood studios to back the upper and lower ends of the market, whilst ignoring the middle. Warner Inc are likely to end the year in second place on market share with around $1.25 billion, with Disney at number three." +entertainment,"Aaliyah claim dismissed by court Late R&B star Aaliyah's record company has failed in an attempt to sue the video producer who booked the ill-fated flight on which she died in 2001. A New York appeals court has told Blackground Records that only the singer's parents had the right to launch a claim for wrongful death. The 22-year-old singer's family came to an undisclosed settlement over a negligence claim in 2003. Aaliyah had completed a music video when the plane crashed in the Bahamas. She and eight others were killed on the plane, which crashed as if left for Florida. Blackground Records' lawyer Frank Penski said he had yet to examine the decision and did not know whether they would pursue the case. An investigation into the crash revealed the twin-engined Cessna was overloaded by 700 pounds (320kg). A post-mortem carried out on the remains of the pilot showed there was cocaine and alcohol in his body. Aaliyah was a rising star in music and film before she was killed. She was honoured with a string of posthumous awards and her single More Than A Woman went to number one in the UK." +entertainment,"Eminem beats Elvis to number one Rapper Eminem has denied Elvis his fourth number one of the year, after his song, Like Toy Soldiers, stormed to the top of the singles charts. The track claimed the top spot ahead of The King's latest re-release, Are You Lonesome Tonight. It is the fifth in a series of 18 reissues to mark the 70th anniversary of Presley's birth. Almost Here, the duet from former Westlife star Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem, went in at number three. Like Toy Soldiers, from Eminem's Encore album, is sampled from Martika's 1980s hit Toy Soldiers. It takes a swipe at hip-hop feuds and follows the success of Just Lose It. Last week's number one, Elvis's It's Now or Never, slipped 13 places to number 14, but all five of his re-released songs are in the Top 40. One World Project Tsunami fundraiser, Grief Never Grows Old, slipped four places to number eight. Featuring Cliff Richard and Boy George, the song was written by former DJ Mike Read. In the album charts, Athlete's latest offering Tourist claimed the top spot, toppling the Chemical Brother's Push The Button Down, which fell to number six." +entertainment,"Ray DVD beats box office takings Oscar-nominated film biopic Ray has surpassed its US box office takings with a combined tally of $80m (£43m) from DVD and video sales and rentals. Ray's success on DVD outstripped its $74m (£40m) US box office total, earning more than $40m (£22m) on the first day of the DVD's release alone. Ray has been nominated in six Oscar categories including best film and best actor for Jamie Foxx. The film recounts the life of blues singer Ray Charles, who died in 2004. In its first week on home entertainment release the film was the number one selling DVD, with the limited edition version coming in at number 11. Sony horror film The Grudge, starring Michelle Gellar, was the US' second best-selling DVD, with Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere's romantic comedy Shall We Dance? at number three. Foxx's critically acclaimed performance as Ray has already earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor, as well as a prestigious Golden Globe. Ray director Taylor Hackford, responsible for the classic 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman, has also received an Oscar nomination in the best director category. The film's three other Oscar nominations are for costume, film editing and sound mixing." +entertainment,"Glasgow hosts tsunami benefit gig The top names in Scottish music are taking part in a benefit concert in aid of the victims of the Asian tsunami. All 10,000 tickets for Saturday's concert, featuring Franz Ferdinand, Belle and Sebastian and Travis, at Glasgow's SECC sold out in 36 hours. Mull Historical Society, Deacon Blue, Idlewild, Texas, Mogwai and Teenage Fanclub are among the other acts performing at the concert. Organisers hope to raise at least £250,000 from the show. It follows a Cardiff gig starring Eric Clapton, Keane and Jools Holland, which raised more than £1.25m. And it is taking place on the same night as a tsunami benefit show in Bristol, which will see Massive Attack and Portishead share a stage for the first time. Colin MacIntyre, of Mull Historical Society, was playing another gig on the same day but said he was determined to make the Glasgow benefit. He said: ""I think we were all affected by seeing the reports coming from the Far East. ""We all know somebody who was there, but more than that it was that we had never seen a wave of destruction, a natural disaster, like this in my generation. ""I'm lucky as an artist to be able to perform at something like this.""" +entertainment,"Hitch holds on to US box office Will Smith's first romantic comedy, Hitch, has topped the North American box office for a second weekend. Smith plays a New York ""date doctor"" with love worries of his own in the movie, which took $31.8m (£16.8m). It held off a strong challenge from the new Keanu Reeves sci-fi thriller Constantine which opened at number two with $30.5m (£16.1m) Constantine, based on the Hellblazer comics, stars Reeves as an exorcist who must send Satan's minions back to hell. Two family films came next in the chart, with Wayne Wang's comedy Because of Winn-Dixie, about a young girl and an abandoned dog, in third position with $10.85m (£5.73m). Comedy adventure Son of the Mask, came in at number four with $7.7m (£4.1m), just ahead of Oscar favourite Million Dollar Baby at five. Smith's comedy will be the first US movie released this year to top the $100m (£52.7m) mark. It's success continues a strong trend of Hollwood movie-going this year with figures for the popular President's Day weekend 13% greater than last year. Oscar contenders The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes and wine-tasting comedy Sideways, both held onto positions in the top 10." +entertainment,"Lit Idol begins search for author The second Pop Idol-style search for literary talent has begun with the help of the brother of Simon Cowell. Writer Tony Cowell is among the judges who will hear aspiring writers read their work aloud. The winner gets a deal with literary agency Curtis Brown. ""I'm not going to be the Mr Nasty of books,"" said Cowell, 54, in reference to his brother's caustic remarks on TV shows Pop Idol and The X-Factor. The 2004 winner, Paul Cavanagh, went on to sign a deal with Harper Collins. This year, the competition is specifically looking for a crime writer. Writers must submit up to 10,000 words from the opening chapters of their novels and a synopsis. Professional readers will choose a shortlist of five following the competition closing date on 14 January. The final five will then have to read their work in front of judging panel. A public vote will also take place, which will account for 25% of the final decision. The winner will be announced at the London Book Fair on 14 March next year and could be screened on TV. ""It's very, very hard to find an agent and extremely difficult, without an agent, to get a publisher to look at your work,"" said Cowell. ""People do fall by the wayside and the more avenues we can provide for aspiring authors, the better,"" he added. Paul Cavanagh, a former university professor and health care consultant from Ontario in Canada, was one of 1,466 aspiring novelists to enter the first contest. He lifted the inaugural Lit Idol prize after reading aloud an excerpt of his work Northwest Passage. Three film studios are said to be interested in buying film rights for the book, even though it is not finished yet." +entertainment,"Mogul Wilson backing UK rap band Tony Wilson, the music mogul who established the influential Factory Records in the 1980s, is to launch a new label - convinced he has discovered his ""third major band"". Factory were the label of both Joy Division - who became New Order after singer Ian Curtis committed suicide - and the Happy Mondays. Now Wilson believes rap act Raw T - signed to his F4 label, the fourth incarnation of Factory - will ""complete the hat-trick"". ""Suddenly, when Raw T came into my life, I realised they are my third major band,"" he told BBC World Service's The Music Biz programme. The group are set to release their first single on 21 February, and follow it up with an album, Realise And Witness, in March. Wilson has twice tried to resurrect Factory - which lasted for 14 years before folding - but conceded these efforts had been ""despondent and dismal experiences"". But it has not put him off. ""Of all the things I do in my life the most exciting thing I've ever done, and the thing I have most loved, is being part of a record company,"" he added. ""The idea of working with brilliant young musicians, and being close to the centre of popular culture, is just the biggest thrill in my life."" Wilson explained how his son persuaded him to go and see Raw T, but he had initially been reluctant saying he ""detested"" young British people rapping. ""It's always inauthentic, it's always crass, it never really works for me,"" he said. ""I went to see this group, Raw T - which stands for Realise And Witness Talent - and like everyone else in the room that night, we were utterly blown away."" Wilson believes Raw T could be ""to F4 as Joy Division were to Factory records"". The story of Factory records - which also owned the legendary Hacienda club in Manchester - was told in the Michael Winterbottom film 24 Hour Party People, in which Wilson was played by Steve Coogan. Wilson stressed that the independent music scene remained ""as important"" as it had been during the 1980s, when labels such as Factory and Rough Trade proliferated. He pointed out that Franz Ferdinand and The White Stripes - ""perhaps the two most important bands since the millennium"" - were signed to indies. ""I think that is a reflection of how useful and how powerful the indie philosophy is, and how bands prefer it,"" he added. ""They can make more money that way - it's a more generous relationship, and also it's a more understanding relationship. ""I think independents are in a wonderful position at this moment in time.""" +entertainment,"Vera Drake's Bafta triumph hope At the Bafta film awards on Saturday night, there is the prospect that a home-grown movie could walk off with a clutch of trophies. Vera Drake, Mike Leigh's tale about a 1950s backstreet abortionist, is nominated in 11 categories. These include best film, best director and best actress shortlist for Imelda Staunton who plays the eponymous character. The film has spent months being lauded with prizes, from the Venice Film Festival to five awards from the London Critics' Circle on Wednesday night. The Baftas has a tradition of honouring British cinema, and this year Vera Drake is the obvious candidate to be heaped with praise. Empire magazine's reviews editor Dan Jolin said the film had ""a very good chance"" of doing well on Saturday, predicting that it would collect five or six awards. ""I don't think it's going to do a Lord of the Rings-style sweep, but Imelda Staunton is a shoo-in for best actress,"" he said. ""A best director prize for Mike Leigh and best British film are also likely and it could steal some awards from heavily-nominated competitors The Aviator and Finding Neverland."" Mr Jolin tipped another contender - most likely The Aviator - to walk away with the Bafta for best film, and added that Finding Neverland had been lavished with nominations but not trophies. Strong Oscar contenders Million Dollar Baby and Sideways did not figure in the Bafta nominations, giving Vera Drake greater potential to walk away with the big prizes. ""There is a sense that this film is ours and we should slap our own guys on the back. Out of all the films in the running for the Baftas, Vera Drake is the true blue British one."" ""If Mike Leigh is going to win awards for anything, it should be Vera Drake at this year's Baftas"", said Mr Jolin, adding that the film was probably his most technically accomplished and lavish work yet. Mr Jolin also tipped Phil Davis for a best supporting actor prize for his role in Vera Drake but felt that Heather Craney could be outdone by Kate Winslet or Natalie Portman in the supporting actress category. ""If there is anywhere where this film is going to win, it will be at the Baftas,"" he said. The Guardian's film critic Peter Bradshaw felt that there ""might well be"" a sweep of awards for Vera Drake on Saturday night. ""I hope that Bafta voters will respond to the extremely high standard of acting from the whole cast of the film. If Bafta can't do so, what hope is there?"" he said. Mr Bradshaw felt that Mike Leigh's ""masterpiece"" was entitled to the best film award - leaving Dead Man's Shoes, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, My Summer of Love and Shaun of the Dead to slug it out for the best British film trophy. ""I will be cheering if Vera Drake wins a whole host of awards,"" he added." +entertainment,"UK's National Gallery in the pink The National Gallery, home to some of the UK's greatest artworks, has seen a big jump in visitor numbers. Five million visitors made the London gallery - which houses treasures like Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks - the UK's most visited museum in 2004. It recorded a 13.8% rise in numbers and was the country's second most visited tourist attraction, behind Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Charles Saumarez Smith, the gallery's director, said he was ""delighted"". He said the number of visitors through the doors had boosted figures to pre-11 September 2001 levels. Mr Saumarez Smith added that the pedestrianisation of Trafalgar Square, where the gallery is located, and strong temporary collections throughout 2004 had led to the strong performance. ""Our 2004 exhibition programme of El Greco, Russian Landscape in the Age of Tolstoy and Raphael: From Urbino to Rome was particularly strong and exceeded all targets,"" he said. ""The exceptional quality of the paintings in our permanent collection is also huge draw for the public. ""The expectations of today's visitors are higher than ever and we have kept pace with their demands."" Mr Saumarez Smith said he was confident the gallery could maintain the attendance. ""With important exhibitions of the work of Caravaggio, Stubbs and Rubens in place for 2005, I am confident that the gallery is set for another highly successful year,"" he added. The figures were prepared by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva). It found that the figures had been boosted by an increase in Europeans travelling to the UK on budget airlines. Popular cultural tourist spots such as the Tate Modern and the Natural History Museum all recorded increases of more than 10% in visitor numbers compared with 2003. But for legal or confidentiality reasons some Alva members did not submit figures for 2004, including Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Madame Tussauds and Alton Towers. Alva director Robin Broke said: ""Visits from Western Europe were up by 10% and from North America by some 9% compared to 2003, while numbers from the rest of the world rose 20%. ""European figures were helped by the rapid growth of low-cost flights to Britain from Europe, especially from new EU countries.""" +entertainment,"Berlin hails European cinema Organisers say this year's Berlin Film Festival, which opens on Thursday with period epic Man to Man, will celebrate a revitalised European cinema. Of the 21 films in competition for the Golden and Silver Bear awards, more than half are from Europe with France particularly well represented. Festival director Dieter Kosslick says this strong showing signals ""a new consciousness for European films"". ""They're on an incredible winning streak,"" he told the Reuters agency. ""This isn't to say there aren't any good American films,"" he continued. ""It's just that there are more good European films."" However, Mr Kosslick refused to accept that widespread opposition to the Iraq war had turned audiences against Hollywood imports. ""There is no anti-American mood,"" he said. Some 350 films will be screened at this year's festival, with a further 300 shown at the European Film Market that runs alongside it. More than a dozen celebrities are scheduled to attend, among them Will Smith, Kevin Spacey and Keanu Reeves. But Mr Kosslick says more would be coming had the Academy Awards not been brought forward to 27 February. ""I'm not worried that we won't be able to fill the red carpet with stars,"" he said, though he admitted the festival may be moved to January next year to avoid a similar clash. The 10-day Berlinale runs until 20 February." +entertainment,"Tarantino to direct CSI episode Film director Quentin Tarantino is to direct an episode of US television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The Oscar-winning Pulp Fiction director has also written an original story for the season finale episode. CSI's co-producer, Carol Mendelsohn, said the episode would have ""more bugs and blood"" than usual. It is not Tarantino's first venture into TV. In 1995 he directed an episode of the medical drama ER and has also appeared in Alias. Ms Mendelsohn said the production team had been trying for a while to get Tarantino to direct an episode of CSI, and added that he was a fan of the forensic drama. She said he finally agreed a few weeks ago while CSI was doing some location shooting in Las Vegas and the show's stars persuaded him. ""He knows everything there is to know about CSI, and he is into the whole mythology of CSI,"" Mendelsohn said. ""Quentin came in a couple of weeks ago. We had a story meeting with the writers. ""He had a great idea, and it was so much fun to have him in the room... we are positively giddy."" Filming is due to start in early April and the Tarantino-directed episode will be broadcast in the US on 19 May." +entertainment,"Brookside creator's Channel 4 bid The creator of defunct TV soap Brookside has written to the culture minister to offer to buy Channel 4. Phil Redmond, now chairman of Mersey TV, told Tessa Jowell he would run it with its current remit intact for the next 10 years. But media watchdog Ofcom has said the the commercially funded public service broadcaster will not be privatised. A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said there were no plans to sell the channel. He added that primary legislation would be required for the station to be sold off, which the government was not intending to introduce. Brookside was axed in 2003 after its ratings slumped from a peak of seven million to just 1.5 million. Redmond also brought teen soap Hollyoaks to Channel 4 and created Grange Hill, the school-based drama serial which was first broadcast on BBC One in 1978. He was awarded the CBE for services to drama earlier this year." +entertainment,"Connick Jr to lead Broadway show Singer and actor Harry Connick Jr is to star in a Broadway revival of 1950s hit musical The Pajama Game. He will play the supervisor of a US pyjama factory who has a romance with a union activist during labour unrest. Jeffrey Richards, the show's co-producer, said Connick was ""an actor of enormous charisma and skill, a wonderful singer and a bona fide star"". He has recently starred in hit US comedy Will and Grace as the husband of Grace, played by Debra Messing. The musical will open in November, said Mr Richards, who added that no other casting had been announced yet. The original book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell will be revised by playwright Peter Ackerman, who co-wrote the screenplay for the movie Ice Age. It has a score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, and Adler is writing two new songs for the score, which includes numbers including Hey There, Small Talk and Steam Heat. Connick appeared with his band on Broadway in 1990, and he wrote the score for a musical based on Emile Zola's novel Therese Raquin, called Thou Shalt Not. It had a three-month run on Broadway in 2001." +entertainment,"DVD review: Spider-Man 2 It's a universal rule that a film can either be a superhero special effects extravaganza or it can be good. But Spider-Man 2 breaks that rule in two. It's not fantastically deep but you get quickly drawn into the tale of Spidey versus Doc Ock and more so into the fate of poor Peter Parker. Gigantic action set pieces seamlessly work with more brooding personal torment and it all looks stunning. A few effects look false but Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Alfred Molina make this compelling. The other universal rule is that DVDs of superhero films will have Making Of features only about the effects. This disc covers those special effects enough but as just one part of a detailed look at the film. Then there are commentaries, trailers and a blooper reel. Sometimes quality comes in bulk: this set contains no less than 34 John Wayne films ranging from the Westerns and war movies to The Quiet Man. Now is that a Christmas present or what? Give this to someone on 24 December and you won't see them again until early in the New Year. It's not truly a complete collection and leans more toward Wayne's earlier films: there's no True Grit, for instance, though there is Hellraisers. The films look well transferred to DVD, though none has extras. It was very daft but it knew it was and somehow this famous 1979 series became a cult favourite that's been long awaited on DVD. This set has the first season of Buck (Gil Gerard) and Wilma's (Erin Gray) tongue-in-cheek adventures and it's all as camp and gaudy as you remember. But it's also a disappointment. The US DVD has this and the more po-faced second season - and you can import it for just about the same price. The bigger omission, though, is that there are no extras. That's particularly disappointing because originally there were meant to be commentaries and stars Gerard and Gray had agreed to do them." +entertainment,"Elvis 'set for chart hat-trick' The late US legend Elvis Presley is likely to score his third UK number one single in three weeks on Sunday, according to early sales figures. The king of rock 'n' roll has already had consecutive chart-toppers with Jailhouse Rock and One Night. A Fool Such As I, the next in a series of 18 reissues, is on course to beat the Chemical Brothers to the top. But his next single, It's Now Or Never, will face a challenge from tsunami charity single Grief Never Grows Old. Sir Cliff Richard, Russell Watson, Boy George, Bill Wyman and members of the Bee Gees, the Beach Boys, America and the Eagles are expected to feature on the charity song. Bookmakers have offered odds of 10/1 for all Presley's 18 hits to go back to number one. A Fool Such As I would become the 1,001st number one single in UK chart history after One Night took the 1,000th place on Sunday. The latest release is currently outselling the Chemical Brothers' comeback single Galvanize plus other new releases from Athlete, Ciara and Feeder. Presley's 18 original number ones are being reissued as limited release singles, with fans eager to buy the set to fill a collector's box that went on sale in the first week. Record company Sony BMG is now manufacturing 5,000 more copies of each single than originally planned to meet demand, taking the total number of copies of each song on sale to about 28,000." +entertainment,"Goodrem wins top female MTV prize Pop singer Delta Goodrem has scooped one of the top individual prizes at the first Australian MTV Music Awards. The 21-year-old singer won the award for best female artist, with Australian Idol runner-up Shannon Noll taking the title of best male at the ceremony. Goodrem, known in both Britain and Australia for her role as Nina Tucker in TV soap Neighbours, also performed a duet with boyfriend Brian McFadden. Other winners included Green Day, voted best group, and the Black Eyed Peas. Goodrem, Green Day and the Black Eyed Peas took home two awards each. As well as best female, Goodrem also took home the Pepsi Viewers Choice Award, whilst Green Day bagged the prize for best rock video for American Idiot. The Black Eyed Peas won awards for best R 'n' B video and sexiest video, both for Hey Mama. Local singer and songwriter Missy Higgins took the title of breakthrough artist of the year, with Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian taking the honours for best pop video. The VH1 First Music Award went to Cher honouring her achievements within the music industry. The ceremony was held at the Luna Park fairground in Sydney Harbour and was hosted by the Osbourne family. Artists including Carmen Electra, Missy Higgins, Kelly Osbourne, Green Day, Ja Rule and Natalie Imbruglia gave live performances at the event." +entertainment,"Franz man seeks government help Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos has called for more government help for musicians, while taking part in an Edinburgh Lectures discussion. ""For any cultural output to thrive there needs to be some kind of state input to that as well,"" he said. But Kapranos warned against musicians being too closely linked with MPs, at the University of Edinburgh event. ""I think the role of musicians is to question politicians rather than to go to bed with them,"" he said. Kapranos joined the prestigious lecture series to discuss Scotland's role in making 21st Century music. ""There are elements of our musical output which require sustenance because they aren't self-sufficient,"" he said. ""But so-called commercial music would benefit from investment as well."" He warned musicians against being allied to a particular party, however. ""I don't know if having tea with politicians is always a good idea."" Kapranos and his Glasgow four-piece band have been nominated for five prizes at next week's Brit Awards, including best group and best album. Their self-titled debut album won last year's Mercury Music Prize and spawned three top 20 singles. He told the 300-strong audience at the University's Reid Hall that musicians should listen to a wide range of music and should not be restricted by stereotypes. ""We say 'I like this'. Because I listen to Nirvana and Korn I am a troubled individual, I'm riddled with angst because I listen to Chopin and Debussy, I listen to Kylie Minogue and Scissor Sisters because I'm upbeat and I like to party, I listen to Wagner because I like the smell of napalm in the morning."" Kapranos said there was a general ""hostility"" towards classical music, adding: ""There is very little done to break that hostility other than Classic FM."" He concluded: ""We define ourselves as a nation by the way we encourage our creativity."" Fellow speaker and classical composer James MacMillan agreed: ""We need to rediscover our ability to listen."" Previous speakers at the Edinburgh Lectures series have included former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and author Professor Stephen Hawking. Kapranos described his appearance on Wednesday as ""more daunting by a long way"" than their upcoming Brits performance. ""I don't really care about the Brits,"" he said. ""It's going to be great to go down but I have actually had to exercise part of my brain tonight."" I think the government should do more to help up-and-coming artists be discovered by scrapping the entertainment licences for live venues. Also they should do more to help independent record labels have a louder voice within an industry dominated by commercialised major labels. Rather than expecting the government - i.e. the taxpayer - to fork out, why don't some of the megastars put something back in? Some of Britain's wealthiest people are musicians who have raked it in from albums, concerts etc. There are far more important demands on government funds. If they can fund football, why not fund music? Areas of the arts are funded by government and lottery grants, so why not music? We already have the opera receiving huge grants and it would clearly be beneficial for diversity in music to have the same opportunities in other areas of the music. The only problem would be how to judge what merits state cash. The government has enough problems funding schools and health services. If Alex Kapranos genuinely thinks a multi-billion pound industry should also have government funding then his own education was seriously lacking and more money should be put into that. As a Scot living in England, I appreciate the value of Scottish music and culture being a success, so I can see no problem with it! Franz Ferdinand, Travis and Snow Patrol are just recent examples of the success Scottish music can have in the world, so we should do what we Scots are good at and support our own goods! I think the issue is more fundamental: should the government be spending money on subsidising a multi-million pound industry when health and education are in such a sorry state? The answer is most definitely no. Those people who are lucky enough to pursue their passion to get their pay cheque shouldn't be looking for government subsidies. I know that if I was lucky enough to be able to pursue my dream of show jumping I would want to finance myself until I was in a position to pursue corporate sponsorship. Yes the government should fund music - it brings joy to the masses. There are already thousands of state-funded musicians out there sitting around, twiddling their thumbs on the ""new deal"". Getting the government even more involved would only waste money that could be put to better use. As long as the Government was funding real talent it would be a great move. I would hate to see more Pop Idol-type funding of music though, as it would only serve to reinforce the stereotypes that Alex talked about. Only if the proposals make financial sense. Franz Ferdinand must be paying serious amounts of tax on their record sales - if they'd had a government grant to get started they'd have more than paid it back by now, so the Treasury would be making far more than it paid out. However, the government has better things to spend its money on than to give charity to everyone who decides they're a musician. The government shouldn't ""fund"" music - it should ""invest"" in music and those investments should be treated like any other investment. I think the government needs to provide facilities and for young groups and bands to form and practise. The equipment is not cheap and can be well beyond the means of many people. However, I do feel this should be the extent of their role, to provide the conditions for the talent to flourish and let it go from there. I do agree that the government should help to fund music but there is also a responsibility held by record companies! They generally always opt for the tried and tested and tend not to want to break any moulds or risk losing any money which ultimately, the directors are in the business for! If labels were more willing to put money forward towards smaller breakthrough acts then the government wouldn't have to fork out a great deal. Yeah, why not? Music should be government funded, particularly the work of modern composers and veteran bands/artists and stuff. Pop music pretty much rules the earth, so more attention should go to the other fraternities I agree with funding the arts to make it more accessible to the public but I am not convinced that pop music requires financial support from the taxpayer. There is a great deal of money generated through pop music - perhaps a tax on pop could be ploughed into the public performance of other forms of music for everyone to enjoy. Perhaps we could financially penalise really bad Pop Idol-style music - that is, the music industry sector without any artistic merit or originality whatsoever and that which is specifically designed to line the pockets of music producers. Call it a tax on music ""pollution"", if you like. Though I really like Franz Ferdinand, I have to disagree with Mr Kapranos. Once government gets their hand into the private sector, it will destroy the creative and possibly controversial avenues the artist pursues. Many years ago, this was the case with the US NEA, when the government started to question what was considered art for the money they were allotting. The solution Mr Kapranos should pursue would be privately-funded organizations, like Save the Music in the US." +entertainment,"Sundance to honour foreign films International films will be given the same prominence as US films at next year's Sundance Film Festival, with movies dominated by the theme of war. The independent film festival will feature two new international cinema competitions, during its 20-30 January season in Utah. Forty-two films will debut at Sundance, including The Liberace of Baghdad by British director Sean McAllister. The prestigious festival was founded by actor Robert Redford in 1981. ""We have always had an international component, but from next year they will enter a jury competition,"" festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said. ""We wanted to give world cinema more emphasis and have now put it on par with the American dramatic and documentary competitions."" Twelve films competing in the new world cinema documentary category focus on countries and people under siege. The Liberace of Baghdad features an Iraqi pianist hiding in a hotel as he waits for a visa, while Finnish film The Three Rooms of Melancholia looks at the war in Chechnya. Shake Hands With The Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire tells of a UN mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, while French-Israeli production Wall looks at Israel's controversial security wall separating it from the Palestinian territories. The 16 films competing in the new world cinema dramatic category include works from Germany, South Korea, Angola, China, Denmark and Australia. Several Hollywood stars feature in the festival's American independent drama category, including Keanu Reeves and Benjamin Bratt. Vince Vaughn stars in quirky movie Thumbsucker while 21 Grams actress Naomi Watts plays a budding Hollywood actress in Ellie Parker. The top Grand Jury prize at this year's festival went to low budget sci-fi thriller Primer, written and directed by Shane Carruth. Morgan Spurlock earned the directing award for Super Size Me, which became an international box office hit." +entertainment,"Pupils to get anti-piracy lessons Lessons on music piracy and copyright issues are to be taught to secondary school pupils in the UK. The lessons, aimed at 11 to 14-year-olds, will introduce them to copyright - including the issues of downloading from the internet and the illegal copying of CDs - and its role in protecting creativity. Music piracy, including illegally swapping music online, costs the UK music industry millions every year and has been blamed for a decline in world-wide CD sales. British Music Rights (BMR) - which was formed to represent the interests of songwriters and composers - worked with education experts to put together a learning pack. Songwriter Guy Chambers, who has worked with stars including Robbie Williams, has thrown his support behind the scheme. He said as well as educating children about music piracy, it would also protect young people planning a career in the music industry from ""unscrupulous"" individuals. At a debate in London to launch the scheme, Chambers said: ""I think it is important that young people receive practical and engaging learning in schools. ""These lessons will give them an insight into how the creative industries work which will help them in possible future careers."" The education pack, which has already been requested by more than 1,600 secondary schools, is aimed at giving children an understanding of copyright in relation to the music industry. It will also teach children about the importance of royalties and raises awareness of different careers in the music industry, particularly in the digital age. Henri Yoxall, general manager of British Music Rights, told BBC News schools had been crying out for a resource to help them educate pupils about the issues. The scheme - which is an extension of BMR's Respect the Value of Music campaign - is also being backed by singer-songwriters Feargal Sharkey, Lucie Silvas and Grammy Award-winning composer David Arnold. Silvas said: ""I think it is so important that students gain an understanding of how the music industry works when they are at a young age. ""I wish I had been given an opportunity like this when I was at school."" Emma Pike, director general of British Music Rights, said: ""We believe that copyright is an essential part of teaching music in schools. It is vital that the creatives of the future know how to turn their ideas into value. ""Copyright education has always been important... creatives are facing more challenges and more opportunities from technological change. ""Technology is allowing people to create music and distribute their music to the public in a whole host of new ways.""" +entertainment,"US actor 'found with gun residue' Actor Robert Blake had gunshot residue on his hands and clothes the night his wife was shot dead, a court has heard. But it may not have come from the shot that killed Bonny Lee Bakley in 2001, Mr Blake's murder trial was told by criminalist Steven Dowell. Mr Dowell told a Los Angeles court the residue may have come from Mr Blake's revolver, his gun collection, his presence at the crime scene or police. The 71-year-old former star of US TV drama Baretta has denied murder. Mr Blake said he found Ms Bakley, 44, dead in a car after they left a restaurant. He said he briefly returned to the restaurant to collect a gun he had left behind and discovered her body when he returned. The gun he collected was not the murder weapon. It could also have been picked up if he touched or leant on the car when he found the body, or from a police box in which his clothes were later stored. The box had come from an area where officers went after being on the firing range. But Mr Dowell also said the residue would have been present if Mr Blake fired a gun that night. Witnesses have already told the trial Mr Blake ""stood out as being quite nervous and agitated"" at the restaurant before the murder. The actor, who won an Emmy for playing a maverick detective in the 1970s TV cop drama Baretta, could face life in prison if convicted." +entertainment,"Oscar nominees gear up for lunch Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx and Hilary Swank are among those due to attend this year's Oscar nominees luncheon on Monday. They will join more than 100 nominees from the 24 Oscar categories at the annual event, which will take place at the Beverly Hilton hotel, Los Angeles. British hopefuls, including Kate Winslet, Imelda Staunton and Sophie Okonedo are also expected to attend. This year's Oscar ceremony will be held on Sunday 27 February. Martin Scorsese's The Aviator is leading the field at this year's Oscars with 11 nominations, while other multiple nominees include Million Dollar Baby and Sideways. Oscar nominees Swank and Foxx were among the winners at the Screen Actors Guild awards at the weekend, one of the many ceremonies held in the run-up to the Oscars. Swank won Best Actress for Million Dollar Baby while Foxx triumphed for his performance as Ray Charles in the biopic Ray. Sideways was also among the winners, taking the prize for best cast performance. The next major film award ceremony of the season is the Bafta awards, which take place at London's Odeon Leicester Square on 12 February. Many of those nominated for Oscars including DiCaprio, Foxx and Staunton - an Oscar nominee for her performance in Vera Drake - have also been nominated for Baftas." +entertainment,"Rap feud in 50 Cent's G-Unit crew US rap star 50 Cent has said he has thrown protege The Game out of his G-Unit gang in a feud that has apparently involved two shootings. In a radio interview on Monday, 50 Cent said the newcomer was disloyal in conflicts with other rappers. A man was shot in the thigh outside New York's Hot 97 studios while 50 Cent was on air. More shots were fired outside his management offices two hours later. 50 Cent appeared on The Game's debut album, which was number one in the US. 50 Cent, whose second album is about to be released after his debut made him one of hip-hop's biggest stars, has been involved in recent rivalries with fellow artists including Fat Joe, Nas and Jadakiss. He has claimed credit for the success of The Game, who has become the hottest new star on the rap scene. Both were drug dealers and were shot before turning to music. In an interview with Hot 97 on Saturday, The Game described some of 50 Cent's rivals as ""my friends"" and said he would not turn on them. ""Nas is one of my friends, and Jada's really a homie,"" he said. ""50's beef is 50's beef and I really don't know where all this stems from."" When 50 Cent appeared on the same station two days later, he said The Game was no longer a member of G-Unit. ""Every record he's selling is based on me being on his record with him,"" he said. When the shooting took place outside the studio, the interview was ended and the rapper was escorted out of the building by security personnel. An unidentified 24-year-old Los Angeles man is stable with a gunshot wound to the upper thigh. Police say The Game's associates may have heard the interview and gone to the studio, where they confronted 50 Cent's entourage. Officers are also investigating a later shooting in which eight bullets were fired into the door of 50 Cent's management company, Violator. No arrests have been made in relation to either incident. 50 Cent's second album, The Massacre, is released on Thursday, five weeks after The Game's debut, Documentary, went to number one. Elliott Wilson, editor-in-chief of hip-hop magazine XXL, said the feud would boost publicity for 50 Cent's release. ""It helps him obviously in terms of exposure. You can't ask for better promotion,"" he said. But he added: ""I think he's making more and more enemies. ""You definitely feel like is he doing too much of a Tupac spiral, like me against the world. You bring more people wanting to see you fail."" Tupac Shakur was shot dead in 1996." +entertainment,"Blair buys copies of new Band Aid Prime Minister Tony Blair purchased two copies of the charity single Band Aid 20 in Edinburgh on Friday. Staff were surprised when the Prime Minister walked into HMV at 0900 GMT, accompanied by aides and local police. ""When Mr Blair came in unannounced, we were all pretty gobsmacked,"" said HMV manager Clive Smith. ""Our customer helper approached him... it was only then we realised he wanted to buy copies of the Band Aid single, rather than the latest Eminem album."" Predicted chart-topper Do They Know it's Christmas? is expected to sell at least 300,000 copies by the time the new chart is announced on Sunday. However, the new version of the 1984 single is not going to be released in the US, despite being sold in many countries around the world. US record shops are stocking an import version of Do They Know It's Christmas, which is said to be selling very well in Los Angeles and New York. The original track was released in the US, and reached number 13 in the singles chart. British stars who appear on the current recording, such as Dido and Coldplay's Chris Martin, are well-known to music fans across the Atlantic, along with U2 frontman Bono. Record company Universal is responsible for the global distribution of the single, which will be available across Europe, Asia, South America and Canada. But music fans in the US are still able to access the song and download it on Band Aid 20's official website. In 1985, a group of high-profile American stars known as USA For Africa came together to record their own fund-raising single, We Are The World. The song was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, with Quincy Jones as producer. It topped the US charts for three weeks and went on win Grammy awards for best record and song. Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and Tina Turner were among the line-up of performers. It is predicted that the Band Aid 20 song will sell 300,000 copies in the UK by the time the new chart is announced on Sunday. The record is also tipped to become this year's Christmas number one, as the original version did in 1984. Proceeds from the sales are going towards relief for the Darfur region of Sudan and to combat HIV and Aids across Africa." +entertainment,"Richard and Judy choose top books The 10 authors shortlisted for a Richard and Judy book award in 2005 are hoping for a boost in sales following the success of this year's winner. The TV couple's interest in the book world coined the term ""the Richard & Judy effect"" and created the top two best-selling paperbacks of 2004 so far. The finalists for 2005 include Andrew Taylor's The American Boy and Robbie Williams' autobiography Feel. This year's winner, Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, sold over one million. Joseph O'Connor's Star of the Sea came second and saw sales increase by 350%. The best read award, on Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan's Channel 4 show, is part of the British Book Awards. David Mitchell's Booker-shortlisted novel, Cloud Atlas, makes it into this year's top 10 along with several lesser known works. ""There's no doubt that this year's selection of book club entries is the best yet. If anything, the choice is even wider than last time,"" said Madeley. ""It was very hard to follow last year's extremely successful list, but we think this year's books will do even better,"" said Richard and Judy executive producer Amanda Ross. ""We were spoiled for choice and it was tough getting down to only 10 from the 301 submitted.""" +entertainment,"REM announce new Glasgow concert US band REM have announced plans to perform for 10,000 Scottish fans in a rescheduled gig. The band will play in what has been dubbed Europe's biggest tent on Glasgow Green on Tuesday, 14 June. They were forced to pull out of a concert at the SECC in Glasgow last month after bassist Mike Mills contracted flu. Fans who bought tickets for the original 22 February show can attend the rescheduled concert. The June gig will act as a warm-up for REM's open air concert at Balloch Castle Country Park, on the banks of Loch Lomond, four days later. Promoters Regular Music booked Glasgow Green as the SECC was not available on the most suitable date. Mark Mackie, director of Regular Music, said: ""It is fantastic news and it really shows REM's commitment to their Scottish fans that they are coming back to Glasgow for what will be a truly unique gig."" The REM gigs will kick-start what promises to be a memorable summer for Scottish music lovers. Grammy Award winners U2 will play Hampden on 21 June while Oasis will also perform at the national stadium in Glasgow on 29 June. Coldplay have announced a concert at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow on 1 July and T in the Park will be held at Balado, near Kinross, from 9-10 July. Ticketweb and the SECC box office will write to customers who bought tickets for the February gig asking if they want to attend the new show. Those who bought tickets in person are being urged to return to the point of purchase. Anyone who cannot make the concert will be given a refund. The cut-off date for swapping tickets is 1 April, when those remaining will go on sale to the public." +entertainment,"Music man to the Oscars Bill Conti's job of musical director of the Oscars show is not for the faint-hearted since conducting the orchestra is the ultimate plate-spinning assignment. This year marks Conti's 17th turn at the helm of the Academy Awards orchestra. ""The excitement is a live performance as a musician,"" he says. ""All of your colleagues, everyone in the film industry is in the theatre. All the important people. ""I guess it's just a television show but we always think it's a bit more.' The orchestra strikes up more than 110 times during the average Oscars show. As well as playing the presenters and winners on and off stage, it also performs during the commercial breaks to entertain the live audience in the house. ""It's a very busy evening, it takes a certain amount of preparation of music, orchestrating, sketching rehearsing, before the show. But you don't know what the unexpected will be and as the musical director, it's exciting,"" explains Conti. And much of the preparation goes into mastering scores that will never be performed. ""We don't know who the winners will be. So when they say, 'the winner is', we have five different pieces of music in front of us, they say the name, we play the appropriate one immediately,"" adds Conti. The orchestra is often called upon to play when the winners ramble on too long during their acceptance speeches, despite being told to be brief by the show's producers. The decision to drown out or 'kill' the offending star with music is relayed from the director's box to the orchestra via Conti's earpiece. ""I don't feel good about it at all. It's not my call though,"" he says. ""When the director says 'music' the orchestra plays and he takes a long shot of the hall. We don't usually see the person speaking while his microphone is cut off. ""The person that's been cut off, who's 10 feet from me, is glaring at me like it's death time."" On occasions, some stars have taken it upon themselves to send a warning shot across the bows of the musical director before they start to speak. ""Julia Roberts, when she came on, she asked me to not get ready to play because she had so much to do,"" he says. Conti received an Oscar in 1983 for the original score of The Right Stuff. He also received two nominations in the original song category in 1976 for Gonna Fly Now from Rocky and in 1981 for the title song from For Your Eyes Only. ""It's a moment in the sun,"" he says. ""When people get up there, some people, this is hard to believe, people that spend their lives in front of the camera or audiences entertaining, might get a little flustered. ""But there's this moment in time when the biggest award that they could possibly get in their life has been handed to them and they're either not in control or they want to thank everyone that they ever met."" The image of the Oscars telecast is one of slick presentation and smooth transitions between performances and the award categories. Behind the scenes, the key players, such as Conti, have a bewildering array of technical props to deal with. ""There's a big script and video monitors you have to watch and there are also audio controls. I can control hearing in my ears, the left ear or the right ear - different things at different times. ""I have to communicate with the director. I have a little microphone that's attached to my headset. To open up that microphone, I have a footswitch,"" he explains. Conti's most nerve-wracking moment came during his first Oscars show as musical director, in 1977, when a member of the orchestra alerted him that they could smell smoke. Conti immediately told the show's director: ""I start cursing and screaming, I tell him we're not going to die for this show - you must do something or I'm going to climb out of this pit with 60 musicians and we're going to be home in 10 minutes. ""'Oh no Bill don't do anything,"" came the response. ""Imagine these elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen of the orchestra, 60 or so of them in the pit and while we're playing, firemen with their helmets and their hatchets crawling among us trying to find the reason for the smoke."" The smell turned out to be new paint smouldering on the music stands. ""No one died, it's not a big story, but it was scary at the time,"" laughs Conti. When the ceremony is over, the music director attends the annual Governor's Ball with his family. ""I have a drink and relive the show,"" he says. ""I'm not for too much carousing. I go home and unwind. It takes me about a day.""" +entertainment,"Spike Lee backs student directors Film-maker Spike Lee says black representation is stronger than ever in cinema and TV but the true power in entertainment lies behind the camera. The She Hate Me director urged students at his old Atlanta university, Morehouse College, to seek ""gatekeeper positions"" behind the scenes. Lee told them to ""work up the corporate ladder because everybody can't be an actor, everybody can't make a record"". He spoke as part of a discussion panel, then led a retrospective of his films. Returning to his old university, which educates only African American students, Lee discussed the challenges facing black people in the entertainment industry. ""Even Denzel (Washington), he's getting $20m a movie. But when it comes time to do a movie, he has to go to one of those gatekeepers,"" Lee said. He told aspiring young film-makers in the audience not to ignore non-traditional routes to getting a movie made, including raising funds independently and releasing films straight to DVD. ""It's a huge market,"" the 47-year-old director said. ""It's not something that should be looked upon as a stepchild."" Lee has made more than 25 films, including Jungle Fever, Do the Right Thing, Summer of Sam and 1986 hit She's Gotta Have It." +entertainment,"Hoffman hits out over modern film Hollywood legend Dustin Hoffman has hit out at the quality of current films and theatre productions. The star of Rain Man and Tootsie said the film culture was ""in the craphouse"" at a press conference on Tuesday. The 67-year-old also said he stopped working a few years ago because he lost his ""spark"" for acting. Hoffman is in the UK to publicise his new comedy, Meet the Fockers, which also stars Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand and Ben Stiller. He said: ""You go to the cinema and you realise you're watching the third act. There is no first or second act. ""There is this massive film-making where you spend this incredible amount of money and play right to the demographic. ""You can tell how much money the film is going to make by how it does on the first weekend. ""The whole culture is in the craphouse. It's not just true in the movies, it's also true in the theatre. ""Broadway, and now London is the same, special effects are in great demand. It's not a good time culturally."" Hoffman also said he stopped working a few years ago and moved into directing and writing. He said: ""I just lost that spark I always had. ""A couple of years ago I didn't like the parts I was getting. ""Studios weren't interested in the kind of films that people of my generation wanted to see. ""I thought I would stop and just try writing and directing. I wasn't aware of the depression that set in."" Recently, Hoffmann has returned to film, with roles in I Heart Huckabees, Finding Neverland and now Meet the Fockers, which is the sequel to Meet the Parents. Meet The Fockers opens in the UK on Friday." +entertainment,"Portishead back after eight years Cult British group Portishead have revealed they are writing their third album, their first in eight years. Founding member Geoff Barrow told BBC 6 Music the record was well on the way to being completed. ""We're actually into it as we speak. We took some time off for Christmas, but generally we're doing another record,"" Barrow told the digital radio station. News of their album plans comes after confirmation the Bristol band will play a tsunami charity show next month. Portishead will play alongside fellow Bristol band Massive Attack at Oxfam's Tsumani appeal, held at the Bristol Academy on 19 February. Barrow said he was surprised people thought the band, who won a Mercury Music Prize in 1995 for their debut album Dummy, had split up. ""We've just had our heads down really, we've never actually broken up, or parted, or whatever. ""So for us it just seems, even though we haven't played for years, we still see each other and write - we just haven't released a record for a long time."" Portishead will not play any new material at next month's concert, which will feature singer Beth Gibbons playing with an acoustic backing. Other acts appearing include Liverpool band The Coral and former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant. Portishead became an international success and a deeply influential band despite their scant recorded output. Dummy was a critics' favourite in 1994, hailed for its blend of menacing sounds and hip-hop beats married to old soul samples. The follow up, Portishead, was released three years later." +entertainment,"Three DJs replace Peel radio show The late John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show is to be succeeded in February by three shows hosted by three DJs focusing on diverse, non-commercial music. Huw Stephens, Ras Kwame and Rob Da Bank will each host the mid-week, late-night timeslot, showcasing UK talent. Radio 1 said the show would not try to replace Peel, but would rise to the ""challenge"" of ""keeping his legacy alive"" with unpredictable music. Peel died after suffering a heart attack in Peru in October. Radio 1 said the three DJs had been chosen for their ""in-depth musical knowledge across a variety of musical genres"". Rob Da Bank has been hosting The John Peel Show since the DJ's death. He is also one of the hosts of The Blue Room, an early morning weekend show that plays a mix of old and new electronic and dance music. Huw Stephens is currently one half of the Radio 1 Thursday night show Bethan and Huw in Wales, which explores new music, especially up and coming acts breaking through in Wales. And Ras Kwame is the host of 100% Homegrown on Radio 1's digital station 1Xtra. His show is dedicated to showcasing the best of UK black music and broadcasts live sessions, often giving new artists their first chance to perform on live national radio. All of the three DJs will continue to host their current shows on Radio 1. ""It is widely accepted that John Peel can never be replaced,"" said the radio station. It added that One Music would support both signed and unsigned talent, and said: ""It will seek out those making music for music's sake rather than for commercial success. ""Above all it will provide support to emerging genres of music and styles that have not yet and may never reach the mainstream."" One Music is not new to Radio 1 as it already exists as a website, offering advice on aspects of the music industry, such as recording a demo and signing a record contract. Radio 1's controller, Andy Parfitt, said: ""We believe that by having a series of DJs hosting a selection of shows under the One Music title, we will ensure that his legacy lives on."" Stephens said he grew up ""listening to John"" and that it was a ""massive honour"" to continue Peel's work championing new music. The show will be broadcast from 1 February on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2300 GMT - 0100 GMT." +entertainment,"German music in a 'zombie' state The German music business - the third largest in the world - is ""in the state of a zombie"" because it has failed to respond to the challenge posed by downloading and piracy, a leading industry figure has said. Tim Renner, the head of Universal Music Germany until last year, told BBC World Service's The Music Biz programme that the country's music industry was now struggling to survive. Renner warned that unless the industry accepted ""new realties"" - such as downloading - its decline could become irreversible. ""The problem the music industry has got is that they aren't willing to accept that the classic way of doing business is over and out,"" he stated. ""So the music industry in its current form over here is pretty much in the state of a zombie."" The music market in Germany peaked in 1997, with sales of 2.6bn euros (£1.8bn). Since 2000, sales have plummeted to just 1.6bn euros (£1.1bn) in 2003. In the space of one year - between 2002 and 2003 - CD album sales fell by 13.8%. But a study by the Society for Consumer Research found that at the same time, more than twice as many recordable CDs had music recorded on them than CD albums were sold. Mr Renner pointed out that, because profit comes mainly from the longevity of a good-selling record, this was particularly damaging. ""You need time,"" he added. However, Peter Zombic, the managing director of the International Federation of Phonographic Industry in Germany, said he did not feel the situation was as ""dramatic"" as Mr Renner believed. ""It's quite true that we have severe problems in Germany - but that's true in other parts of the world and in most developed markets too,"" he argued. ""We have a severe problem with piracy, especially internet piracy, and we also have a severe problem of private copying. ""I don't agree that the music industry lost control over the music market - in fact, especially in regard to Germany talent, the market is quite successful."" He did, however, admit that copyright owners have ""partly lost control of their copyright"", due to piracy and copying. But he refuted suggestions that the industry had been too slow to respond to digital downloading. ""We were the first to implement a download service - back in 1997,"" he argued. ""At that time it was not successful, because of the advent of piracy - it was the Napster time, when P2P services became popular. ""It still is quite difficult for the music industry to compete with a price that is zero as far as the illegal product is concerned."" Mr Zombic also called for a change to the perception in Germany that private copying of music is not a problem. German law does allow people to make copies of CDs for their family and close friends, without fear of breaking copyright. Mr Zombic said that this legal framework was a ""huge problem"". ""There is a widespread attitude that private copying is a hobby, it's nice, it's fun,"" he added. ""We try to make clear it's not nice and it's not fun - it's endangering the creativity in our country.""" +entertainment,"Fears raised over ballet future Fewer children in the UK are following in the dainty footsteps of dancers like Darcey Bussell, and carving out potential careers as ballet dancers. New research from the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) has found fewer children over the age of 10 are attending ballet classes and taking exams in the discipline. The organisation blames the growing popularity of computer games and other changes in lifestyle. And there are fears that if the trend is not reversed, there could be fewer British ballet stars in the future. The RAD found that the number of youngsters taking their ballet exams drops by almost 70% after the age of 10 or 11. Dance teacher Eve Trew, who has taught ballet for over 48 years, told BBC News she had seen a ""vast"" change over the years. She blamed modern lifestyles for the fall in ballet attendance. ""I think the children of many years ago did not have as many hobbies,"" she said. ""The trouble now is that they are wide open to computers, Gameboys and everything else children have got. ""As a result, there is less time being spent on ballet lessons."" Hazel Gilbert, 23, an information manager from Newcastle, gave up ballet at the age of 10 and is typical of the problem. ""It's not a very cool thing to do when you go to 'big' school and I think you have to be very focused on ballet to want to carry on doing it,"" she said. ""I used to love it, but after a certain age it becomes much more disciplined and I didn't want that. ""I started getting into other things, like swimming and kickboxing, and ballet just wasn't something I wanted to do any more."" Ms Trew, who runs a dance school in Gateshead, admitted it would be ""very difficult"" to reverse the trend and said many young ballet dancers were no longer willing to make the sacrifices to succeed. ""You have to be very dedicated and you have to be very disciplined. ""It is a career that you have got to really want to do because it is such hard work. ""Children these days have not got the time to spend perfecting it... that is very sad."" Currently, only two out of 16 principal dancers at the Royal Ballet - Darcey Bussell and Jonathan Cope - are British, compared to 16 of the 21 principals in 1985. But a spokesman for the English National Ballet told BBC News that although only two out of their 12 principal dancers were British, around a quarter of the company's dancers were from the UK. He said competition at open auditions in London was ""fierce"" between talented dancers from all over the world. The RAD have launched a new competition to try and reverse the decline in British ballet. Dame Antoinette Sibley, president of the RAD, launched the Fonteyn Nureyev Young Dancers competition earlier this week. Aimed at children aged 10 to 13, it is hoped the contest will help keep British ballet evolving. A spokeswoman for the RAD said: ""It is our responsibility to re-ignite the passion and nurture young dancers for the long-term future of ballet. ""We need to provide them with a framework and a goal to work towards, with constant support and coaching in an environment where they can work with their peers and possibly leading artists and choreographers. ""Perhaps more importantly provide them with the opportunity to experience 'performance' themselves. ""What better way to reignite a passion for ballet than to let them experience the thrill of performance?""" +entertainment,"The Producers scoops stage awards The Producers has beaten Mary Poppins in the battle of the blockbuster West End musicals at the Olivier Awards. The Producers won three prizes at the UK's most prestigious annual theatre awards, while Mary Poppins won two. Mel Brooks' hit show triumphed in the battle for best new musical, where it was up against Mary Poppins and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White. Alan Bennett's The History Boys was the big winner in the straight theatre categories, picking up three trophies. But all eyes were on the musical prizes after The Producers, Mary Poppins and The Woman in White all had high-profile openings in the last six months. The Producers' Nathan Lane, a last-minute replacement for Richard Dreyfuss, beat his former co-star Lee Evans to win best musical actor. Lane has already left the production. A smash hit on Broadway before moving to London, the show also won best musical performance in a supporting role for Conleth Hill, who plays director Roger DeBris. Mary Poppins' awards came for best choreography and best musical actress for its star Laura Michelle Kelly. It led the nominations going into Sunday's ceremony at London's Hilton hotel, up for nine awards. Both shows are stage adaptations of 1960s films. The History Boys, set in a grammar school in the early 1980s and partly based on Bennett's experiences as a teacher, was named best new play. It also won best actor for Richard Griffiths, who beat his Harry Potter film co-star Michael Gambon, nominated for Endgame, as well as Jonathan Pryce and Ben Whishaw. The play also won National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner best director and Bennett got a special award for outstanding contribution to British theatre. Dame Judi Dench, who starred in All's Well That Ends Well at the Gielgud, lost out in the best supporting role category to Amanda Harris, who played Emilia in Othello for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Olivier Awards have been handed out by the Society of London since 1976. - Best lighting design - His Dark Materials designed by Paule Constable at the Olivier - Best sound design - The Woman in White designed by Mick Potter at the Palace - Best new opera - Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Royal Opera House - Outstanding achievement in opera - Thomas Ades and the Royal Opera House for the world premiere of The Tempest - Best costume design - All's Well That Ends Well designed by Deirdre Clancy at the Gielgud - Best Revival - Hamlet by William Shakespeare at The Old Vic - Best set design - His Dark Materials designed by Giles Cadle at the Olivier - Outstanding musical production - Grand Hotel at the Donmar Warehouse - Best supporting role in a musical - Conleth Hill for The Producers at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane - Best theatre choreographer - Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear for Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward - Best actor - Richard Griffiths for The History Boys at the Lyttelton - Outstanding achievement or performance in an affiliate theatre - Andrew Scott for A Girl in A Car With A Man at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court - Best new dance production - Rambert Dance Company's Swamp at Sadler's Wells - Outstanding achievement in dance - San Francisco Ballet for their season at Sadler's Wells - Best performance in a supporting role - Amanda Harris for Othello at Trafalgar Studios - Best actress - Clare Higgins for Hecuba at the Donmar Warehouse - Best musical actor - Nathan Lane for The Producers at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane - Best musical actress - Laura Michelle Kelly for Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward - Best director - Nicholas Hytner for The History Boys at the Lyttelton - Best new play - The History Boys by Alan Bennett at the Lyttelton - Best new musical - The Producers at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane - Special award - Alan Bennett for his outstanding contribution to British theatre" +entertainment,"Prodigy join V Festival line-up Essex act Prodigy are to headline the second stage at this year's V Festival, joining main stage headliners Scissor Sisters and Franz Ferdinand. The event, which is in its 10th year, will be held at two venues - Hylands Park in Essex and Weston Park in Staffordshire on 20 and 21 August. Meanwhile, rock veterans New Order have joined the T in the Park line-up alongside Athlete and Green Day. The Manchester band will play on 9 July at Scotland's biggest festival. It will be their debut performance at the music event which is held over the weekend of 9 and 10 July in Balado near Kinross. Other bands at the sold-out festival include Queens of the Stone Age, The Killers, Keane, The Streets and Foo Fighters. A month later at the V Festival, Prodigy will play at Weston Park on Saturday 20 August and Hylands Park on Sunday 21 August and the Chemical Brothers vice versa. It will be the Chemical Brothers' only UK festival performance of the year. V festival director Bob Angus said: ""With the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers now confirmed to headline the second stage, we are headed for a really stellar line-up. ""We pride ourselves on putting on an unbeatable live music experience and V Festival 2005 will not disappoint."" Tickets for the V festival go on sale on Friday 11 March." +entertainment,"Singer Knight backs anti-gun song R&B star Beverley Knight said she sang on an anti-gun single after being ""haunted"" by the fatal 2003 shooting of two teenage girls in Birmingham. Knight and drum 'n' bass star Roni Size have released No More in a bid to reduce gun use among young people. She said she was ""horrified"" by the deaths of Charlene Ellis, 18, and Letisha Shakespeare, 17. Size, whose New Forms album won the 1997 Mercury Music Prize, said gun use was ""nothing to be glamorised"". There were more than 10,500 firearms offences and 70 gun crime deaths in England and Wales between June 2003 and 2004, according to Home Office figures. Knight said the scale of the problem became clear to her after the 2003 shootings in Aston, near Knight's Birmingham home. ""It haunted me to be honest, it haunted my sleep,"" she said. Size became involved after two friends, Donna Small and Asha Jama, were shot in his Bristol hometown in October. Jama, 25, lost her sight in one eye while 22-year-old Small suffered serious head injuries. Size said he collaborated on the single, which was released on Monday, because he has ""a bird's eye view of what's going on"". ""Over the last 10 years, I have seen a lot of things happen and it is nothing to be glamorised, it really isn't,"" he said." +entertainment,"Hillbillies singer Scoggins dies Country and Western musician Jerry Scoggins has died in Los Angeles at the age of 93, his family has said. Scoggins was best remembered for singing the theme tune to popular US TV show The Beverly Hillbillies. The Texan-born singer approached the producers of the programme with theme tune The Ballad of Jed Clampett for the pilot which was screened in 1962. The show, which told the story of a poor man striking oil and moving to Beverly Hills, ran until 1971. Scoggins' daugher Jane Kelly Misel said that her father never tired of the song and would sing it at least once a day. ""He'd sing it at birthdays and anniversaries and variety shows. He never stopped performing it,"" she said. When a film version of The Beverly Hillbillies was made in 1993, Scoggins came out of retirement to perform the theme tune. Scoggins sang the lyrics while bluegrass stars Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs played guitar and banjo." +entertainment,"US TV special for tsunami relief A US television network will screen a celebrity TV special to benefit the tsunami relief effort in South Asia. NBC will encourage viewer donations during an hour-long show featuring musical performances on 15 January. Actress Sandra Bullock has donated $1m (£525,000) to The American Red Cross and actor Leonardo DiCaprio pledged a ""sizable"" aid contribution to Unicef. Meanwhile 70 Hong Kong music and movie stars re-recorded We Are the World in Mandarin and Cantonese to raise funds. The song will not be released as a single, but will be played regularly during a Chinese telethon on Friday in aid of victims of the Boxing Day disaster. Around 140,000 people were killed and five million left homeless or without food and water after an earthquake below the Indian Ocean sent waves crashing into coastal communities in 11 countries. The United Nations warned that the number killed in the disaster could rise sharply, with aid yet to reach some remote areas. Performers have yet to be confirmed for NBC's aid relief benefit later this month. It follows a two-hour telethon carried by all four major US television networks 10 days after the 11 September terror attacks in 2001. America: A Tribute to Heroes raised more than $150m (£79m) to help victims of the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon." +entertainment,"Godzilla gets Hollywood fame star Movie monster Godzilla has received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, honouring both his 50th birthday and the launch of his 28th film. An actor dressed as the giant creature breathed smoke over photographers on Monday as Godzilla received the 2,271st star on Hollywood Boulevard. ""Godzilla should thank you for this historical and monumental star,"" said Final Wars producer Shogo Tomiyama. ""But unfortunately, he cannot speak English,"" he added. Hollywood's honorary mayor, Johnny Grant, said: ""I do hereby proclaim this Godzilla Day in Hollywood. ""He's loose, he's wild, and I'm getting the hell out of here,"" he added. The premiere of Godzilla: Final Wars at Grauman's Chinese Theatre followed the ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard. The monster was joined by co-stars including Japanese pop star and actor Masahiro Matsuoka. Director Ryuhei Kitamura said it may not be Godzilla's final outing, as it has been billed. ""That's what the producers say. But the producer's a liar,"" he said. ""[Godzilla's] been working for the last 50 years. So, I think Godzilla just deserves a vacation."" And producer Shogo Tomiyama added: ""So long as Godzilla can fascinate people, I believe he will be resurrected by new generations of filmmakers in the future."" Godzilla first appeared in 1954 as a prehistoric lizard woken by atomic bomb tests." +entertainment,"Spector facing more legal action Music producer Phil Spector is facing legal action from the mother of the actress he has been accused of killing. Donna Clarkson, whose daughter Lana was found dead in Mr Spector's home in February 2003, is seeking unspecified damages in a civil action. The legal action accuses Mr Spector of murdering the actress at his LA home. Mr Spector is currently free on $1m (£535,000) bail and is awaiting trial. The 64-year-old has denied the killing, saying her death was accidental. Ms Clarkson's legal action, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, also accuses Mr Spector of negligence and battery, alleging he ""grabbed, hit, fought with and restrained"" Lana Clarkson before shooting her to death. Her lawyers said in a statement: ""The Clarkson family had hoped that there would be some resolution with regard to the criminal proceedings before moving forward with the civil action. ""However, Ms Clarkson and her family understand that the fair administration of justice takes time and in light of the numerous changes Mr Spector has made in his legal defence team over the last two years, Ms Clarkson was forced to file the action before (the statute of limitations expired) on 3 February 2005."" Mr Spector, known for his work with the Beatles, has claimed that Lana Clarkson committed suicide. His lawyers, led by Bruce Cutler, have vowed to prove him innocent at trial. Mr Cutler said: ""Phil did not cause the death of this woman, he's not criminally responsible and he's not civilly responsible either. ""But I'm not surprised they filed a suit for money, that seems to be de rigueur nowadays."" A Los Angeles Superior Court judge is expected to set a trial date later this month for Spector, who was indicted on murder charges in September. Roderick Lindblom, one of Ms Clarkson's lawyers, said: ""Our intent is to let the criminal proceedings go forward and not do anything that would interfere with the prosecution.""" +entertainment,"Berlin applauds Hotel Rwanda Political thriller Hotel Rwanda was given a rousing reception by spectators at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday. The movie's star Don Cheadle also received a standing ovation when he stepped onto the stage after the show. The film is the true story of the hotel manager who saved 1,200 Tutsis from death during the Rwandan genocide. The film, showing out of competition in Berlin, is nominated for three Oscars, including best actor for Cheadle. Sophie Okonedo, who plays Cheadle's wife Tatiana, is nominated for best supporting actress. The film is also in the running for best original screenplay. Cheadle, was joined on stage at Berlin by Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager he plays in the film, Mr Rusesabagina's wife and his extended family, who fled Rwanda and now live in Belgium. Mr Rusesabagina used his influence as a prominent Hutu businessman to shelter potential victims of the Rwandan genocide, contacting dignitaries including Bill Clinton, the King of Belgium as well as the French foreign ministry. Hotel Rwanda is one of two films addressing the genocide at the 55th Berlin Film Festival, which runs until 20 February. Sometimes in April is a feature by Raoul Peck competing for the festival's coveted Golden and Silver Bear awards. The film was made exclusively in Rwanda whereas Hotel Rwanda was shot mostly in South Africa, with some scenes made in Kigali." +entertainment,"TV show unites Angolan families Angolan families who are attempting to track each other down, after being separated by nearly 30 years of war, are succeeding thanks to a hugely popular TV show. Meeting Point has become one of TV Angola's most watched programmes, and has reunited hundreds of families. It runs daily, not only on the television but also on the radio. Every Friday, hundreds of people gather in Luanda's Independence Square to record a message in front of the TV cameras, in the hope that a lost relative will see it. Many relatives have been reunited on air. ""At the beginning there was an absolute explosion - huge, huge crowds,"" Sergio Gera, the programme's chief co-ordinator, told BBC World Service's Assignment programme. ""Now things are a little calmer, there are slightly less people - but, after two and a half years of broadcasting, there are still a lot of people going."" The media in the southern African country, twice the size of France, has been gripped by the quest of so many people to find their relatives. Hundreds of thousands of people died in Angola's 30-year civil war, which finally ended in 2002, and tens of thousands of people are still missing. Many have not heard anything for 10 or more years - in all, 90% of Angolan families have lost someone. The idea of recording in Independence Square was modelled on a square in the Argentine capital Buenos Aries, where mothers go to talk about the dead and the missing, and to exchange news. One woman, Victoria Lapete, found her sister - the only remaining member of her family - in Independence Square live on Meeting Point. She had not seen her sibling for 28 years. ""When we saw each other, we threw ourselves into each other's arms,"" she told Assignment. ""We started to cry. I felt very, very happy, because I'd spent so long without any family. Suddenly I had a sister again."" However, Angola is one of the poorest countries in Africa, and the number of people with access to either a television or radio is comparatively few. This means that elsewhere in the country, the task of reuniting families lies primarily with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In the city of Wambo, the ICRC runs the Gazetta - a 200-page, tabloid-size book which contains 13,000 names of missing or displaced. Their task is made much harder by the huge number of landmines dotted around the country. ""It's very difficult - there are many displaced,"" stated Joaquim Sahundi, head of tracing in Wambo. ""As they try to go back [home], others are trying to relocate their relatives. Many people are getting injured because of that - in the villages, in the bush, there has been no clearance of mines. ""When people are crossing these areas, they step on mines."" The ICRC also uses the media where it can, running four daily broadcasts of their lists of the missing on Radio Angola. Meanwhile, there remain massive challenges to Angolan families even once they are reunited. ""The programme of family reunification is extremely important, but for these families to remain reunified, there has to be social integration, job access, education, healthcare,"" said Rafael Marques of the pro-democracy George Soros Foundation for Southern Africa. ""Essentially the government is waiting for the international community to pay for the reconstruction - that's why it has been persistently calling for a donor's conference. That is just a way of detaching itself from its political responsibilities.""" +entertainment,"Angels 'favourite funeral song' Angels by Robbie Williams is the song Britons would most like played at their funeral, a survey has suggested. While the melancholy hit topped the UK poll, Europeans favoured Queen's more upbeat anthem The Show Must Go On as their first choice. Frank Sinatra's My Way was second in the UK vote with Monty Python's Always Look on the Bright Side of Life in third place. More than 45,000 people were surveyed by digital TV station Music Choice. The European chart, which included Denmark, France and Germany, put Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven in second and AC/DC's Highway to Hell in third. Queen's Who Wants to Live Forever was highly favoured by both UK and European voters. Both lists featured only one traditional or classic song each, with Britons requesting the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards' Amazing Grace and their continental counterparts opting for Mozart's Requiem. ""Wanting to share your most treasured musical gem with those you're leaving behind is the perfect way to sign off and leave a lasting impression,"" Music Choice music and marketing manager Simon George said." +entertainment,"Rapper Jay-Z becomes label boss Rap star Jay-Z is to become a record company executive after being put in charge of one of hip-hop's most influential labels, Def Jam. Jay-Z, who said he would make no more music after 2003's The Black Album, will become the company's president and chief executive from January. Def Jam's parent company, Universal, made the appointment after buying Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella label. Def Jam's artists include LL Cool J, DMX, Ludacris, Ja Rule and Ashanti. Jay-Z will continue to run Roc-A-Fella, which he founded with Damon Dash in 1995 and has Kanye West and Beanie Sigel on its roster. Universal said on Wednesday it had bought the 50% of Roc-A-Fella it did not already own. Antonio ""LA"" Reid, chairman of The Island Def Jam Music Group, said: ""I can think of no-one more relevant and credible in the hip-hop community to build upon Def Jam's fantastic legacy."" He hoped Jay-Z would ""move the company into its next groundbreaking era"", he added. Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, said: ""I have inherited two of the most important brands in hip-hop, Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella. ""I feel this is a giant step for me and the entire artist community."" One of the most successful and respected rap stars of the last eight years, Jay-Z's hits have included Hard Knock Life, Dirt Off Your Shoulder and 03 Bonnie and Clyde with his girlfriend Beyonce Knowles. He said he would retire after The Black Album, but has just released an album and been on an ill-fated tour with R Kelly. Def Jam was founded in 1984 by Russell Simmons and producer Rick Rubin and signed artists including Run-DMC, The Beastie Boys and Public Enemy." +entertainment,"Cage film's third week at US top Nicolas Cage movie National Treasure has topped the US and Canada box office for the third week in a row. National Treasure made $17.1m (£8.8m) in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, according to studio estimates, taking its total to $110.2m (£56.7m). Comedy Christmas with the Kranks, starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis, was in second place. The Polar Express entered in third place while Jude Law film Closer made its debut at number six. Oliver Stone's big-budget epic Alexander, starring Colin Farrell, followed last week's disappointing sixth-place opening with a slump to seventh place and takings of $4.7m (£2.4m). Critics have savaged the three-hour epic, which reportedly cost $150m (£77m) to make. National Treasure, which sees Cage's character Ben Gates chase a hidden fortune, has been made by Disney Studios. It is Cage's fourth collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer, who is usually noted for his male-orientated action films." +entertainment,"Vera Drake leads UK Oscar hopes Mike Leigh's film Vera Drake will lead British hopes at this year's Academy Awards after getting three nominations. Imelda Staunton was nominated for best actress for her role in the abortion drama, while Leigh received nods for best director and original screenplay. Kate Winslet was also nominated in the best actress category for her role in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And Clive Owen and Sophie Okonedo both got nominated for supporting roles in Closer and Hotel Rwanda respectively. Owen has already been made bookmakers' favourite for best supporting actor for the role in Closer that has already clinched him a Golden Globe award. And it is the first nomination for actress Okonedo, chosen for her performance in Hotel Rwanda, about the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It is also a debut nomination for Staunton, 49, who told BBC News 24 she had not thought the film would appeal to Academy voters. ""It was an extraordinary time making the film and I can't believe what has happened this morning,"" she said. ""I hope it just shows Mike up to be the extraordinary filmmaker he is. ""We are also dealing with a very difficult subject matter and it is amazing to have it accepted in this way."" Leigh, who had previously received three Oscar nominations for Secrets and Lies and Topsy Turvy, told BBC News 24 the latest success was ""amazing"". He said: ""We hoped that Imelda Staunton would get a nomination but I never expected to get director and screenplay. It's just absolutely wonderful. ""I think people are aware that it's about life - and I hope it is the warmth and compassion that really talks to people."" Winslet said she was ""ecstatic"" about the fourth nomination of her career. ""Being nominated means so much to me. To be nominated for a film that was released a while ago, I feel so honoured and overwhelmed,"" she said. John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council, said it was ""extremely heartening"" to see British filmmaking talent recognised on the global stage. ""Britain has a hugely talented industry and these nominations show why National Lottery investment in film pays major dividends for our culture and economy."" Among a total of 24 British nominees, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Charles Hart are up for best original song for Learn To Be Lonely, from The Phantom of the Opera movie. Cinematographer John Mathieson, who was nominated for Gladiator in 2001, is also up for The Phantom of the Opera. And Finding Neverland has garnered two more nominations for Brits. Gemma Jackson, who has also worked on Bridget Jones's Diary and Iris, is up for art direction while costume designer Alexandra Byrne, whose previous films have included Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Elizabeth, is in the running. The UK has two contenders in the best live action short film category. Wasp was made by ex-children's TV presenter Andrea Arnold while Little Terrorist is the work of Ashvin Kumar. This year's awards will be handed out in Hollywood on 27 February." +entertainment,"US composer recreates Bach score A US musicologist has recreated a lost musical score by German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The 1728 composition, called Wedding Cantata BWV 216, was found among the papers of Japanese pianist Chieko Hara, who died in Japan in 2001 aged 86. The work, written for the wedding of a daughter of a German customs official, was missing for 80 years. Joshua Rifkin - a composer and leading interpreter of Bach - has recreated the missing instrumental parts. He said he originally wanted to let the lost cantata lie in rest. ""Maybe a fragment should stay a fragment,"" said Rifkin. ""Then I thought of palaeontologists, from one bone they figure the entire dinosaur. This is my dinosaur."" The eight rediscovered pages consist of vocal pieces in German for soprano and alto, with the seven movements lasting for a total of between 20 and 25 minutes. The instrumental parts were entirely lost except for two recycled movements, a duet and an aria which had been used elsewhere in Bach's work. Rifkin likened the challenge to a ""musical Rubik's cube"". ""I could not reconstruct what Bach wrote but I could give the people of today an idea of what his music was like,"" he said. ""It sounds like Bach's music, but the listener should not know which part is Bach's and which part is mine.""" +entertainment,"Youssou N'Dour wins music prize Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour has been named a winner of a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award. His album Egypt won the critics' award for album of the year, while the best newcomer accolade went to Argentine Chango Spasiuk. Winners were chosen from ten categories to reflect different continents. A special Poll Winners concert, hosted by Eliza Carthy and Benjamin Zephaniah will take place at The Sage in Gateshead on 5 March. The concert will be broadcast on Radio 3's World Music Day the following evening and will feature performances by many of the award winners. It will also include the announcement of the Audience Award, chosen by Radio 3 and BBC World Service listeners, alongside BBC Four viewers. Winner in the Africa category was Malian desert blues band Tinariwen, formed from the nomadic people of the southern Sahara. Cuban pianist Bebo Valdes and flamenco singer Diego El Cigala, responsible for critically acclaimed album Lagrimas Negrasmusic, won an award in the ""boundary crossing"" category. Each winner will receive a specially commissioned sculpture entitled Planet by Anita Sulimanovic who won a competition to design the award. Highlights of the Poll Winners Concert, to be held at The Sage, Gateshead, will be televised on BBC Four on 11 March." +entertainment,"Surprise win for anti-Bush film Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has won best film at the US People's Choice Awards, voted for by the US public. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ won best drama, despite both films being snubbed so far at US film awards in the run-up to February's Oscars. Julia Roberts won her 10th consecutive crown as favourite female movie star. Johnny Depp was favourite male movie star and Renee Zellweger was favourite leading lady at Sunday's awards in LA. Film sequel Shrek 2 took three prizes - voted top animated movie, top film comedy and top sequel. In television categories, Desperate Housewives was named top new drama and Joey, starring former Friends actor Matt LeBlanc, was best new comedy. Long-running shows Will and Grace and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation were named best TV comedy and TV drama respectively. Nominees for the People's Choice Awards were picked by a 6,000-strong Entertainment Weekly magazine panel, and winners were subsequently chosen by 21 million online voters. Fahrenheit 9/11 director Michael Moore dedicated his trophy to soldiers in Iraq. His film was highly critical of President George W Bush and the US-led invasion of Iraq, and Moore was an outspoken Bush critic in the 2004 presidential campaign inwhich Democratic challenger John Kerry lost. ""This country is still all of ours, not right or left or Democrat or Republican,"" Moore told the audience at the ceremony in Pasadena, California. Moore said it was ""an historic occasion"" that the 31-year-old awards ceremony would name a documentary its best film. Unlike many other film-makers, Passion of the Christ director Mel Gibson has vowed not to campaign for an Oscar for his movie. ""To me, really, this is the ultimate goal because one doesn't make work for the elite,"" Gibson said backstage at the event. ""To me, the people have spoken.""" +entertainment,"The comic book genius of Stan Lee Stan Lee, the man responsible for a string of comic superheroes that have become household names, has won a court battle for a slice of the profits from the hit Spider-Man movies. Many marvel at the man who gave his characters extraordinary powers and everyday headaches - a formula which revolutionised comics. Born in 1922 to poor working-class Jewish immigrants from Romania, Stan Lieberman, got a job in Timely Publications, a company owned by a relative. He was assigned to the comics division and - thanks to a fertile imagination - rose to editor by the age of 18. For more than 20 years, he was ""the ultimate hack"" - knocking out crime stories, horrors, westerns, anything to sate the appetite of his juvenile readership. Words of more than two syllables were discouraged. Characters were either all good or bad, with no shades of grey. So embarrassed was Lieberman by much of what he was writing that he refused to put his real name on the byline. He assumed the ""dumb name"", Stan Lee, now legally adopted. By the time he was 40, Lee had decided he was too old for the comic game. His British-born wife, Joan, suggested he had nothing to lose and, for his swansong, should write the kind of characters he really wanted to create. After a rival comic had come up with a superteam consisting of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, Timely needed to respond. Lee's answer, in 1961, was the Fantastic Four - a team of astronauts who gained super powers after being bombarded with cosmic rays. They were to change Lee's life, and the comics industry, forever. Lee gave each character individual, everyday teenage problems such as dandruff, ingrown toenails and acne. They would frequently fall out with their parents and each other. The fan letters poured in. Without immediately knowing it, Stan Lee had ushered in the golden age of comics, and his imagination was rekindled. His Marvel universe spawned the new title of Marvel Comics. Soon after, nerdy Peter Parker was transformed - after a bite from an irradiated spider - into someone who could crawl up the sides of New York's skyscrapers. Spider-Man was born. He was to become an icon of modern popular culture. Spidey, as he is affectionately known, had quite extraordinary powers - yet he had problems at work, at home and with his girlfriends. At last, the teenager was no longer just the sidekick, but the main hero. And the hero was no longer just brawn, he had brains too. ""Just because he's a hero and has super powers doesn't mean he doesn't have problems,"" Stan Lee told the BBC. The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man and the rest all grappled with problems like drug abuse, bigotry and social inequality. Radically, Lee gave the artists responsible for the comic designs credits for their work. Jack Kirby, Frank Miller, John Romitaand and others achieved cult status in their own right. Other superheroes broke new ground in other ways. Daredevil was blind, Black Panther was black and Silver Surfer pondered the state of humanity. Lee's influence remains. Some years ago the Marvel hero, Northstar, came out of the closet. In its heyday, Marvel was selling 50 million copies a year. Until he retired from editing in 1971, Stan Lee wrote all the copy for Marvel's covers. In 1999, his Stan Lee Media venture, aimed at marrying comic-strips with the internet, went spectacularly wrong. Lee went bankrupt and his business partner landed in prison for fraud. In 2001 though, he started a new company entitled POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment, which is currently developing films and television programmes. His latest project is a superhero based on a real person - Jay J Armes, who has metal claws after losing both hands aged 12 and fights crime with a tiger. But his 40-year-old creations are still as enduring as ever - with X-Men, The Hulk and Daredevil have all been turned into Hollywood action movies in the last five years. But Spider-Man has been the biggest box office hit, with the 2002 original and its 2004 sequel taking almost $1.6bn (£857m) in ticket sales around the world - before DVD and merchandise sales are counted. It seems Stan Lee is as indestructible as his heroes." +entertainment,"Baywatch dubbed 'worst TV import' Surf show Baywatch has won the title of worst TV import of all time in a poll of UK television executives. The programme, which starred David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson during its 12-year run, was shown in 140 countries at its height. Model Anna Nicole Smith's reality show and The Dukes of Hazzard were runners-up in the Broadcast magazine survey. The Simpsons and Dallas and 24 were among the magazine's list of the best all-time imports from the US. Soap operas Knots Landing, Falcon Crest plus The Bold And The Beautiful all made the top 10 of Transatlantic TV howlers. The Jerry Springer Show, which came in at sixth on the list, did not fare well. Broadcast magazine said: ""British TV never realised how low it could go before Jerry showed the way."" Baywatch rose to the top of the list for having ""mind-numbingly predictable scripts: beachgoer is saved from drowning,"" according to the magazine. Just inside the all-time worst top 10 came Extreme Makeover, which sees members of the public given thousands of pounds worth of plastic surgery. Other American shows which won praise were The X-Files, I Love Lucy, Twin Peaks and Star Trek." +entertainment,"Hendrix guitar fetches £100,000 A much-loved guitar belonging to Jimi Hendrix has been sold for £100,000 at an auction in London. The 1965 Fender Stratocaster was one of a number of guitars included in the sale dedicated to the rock legend. The vast archive of instruments, signed records and posters were collected by a dedicated fan who had become friendly with the star. The auction was billed as the biggest collection of Hendrix memorabilia to go under the hammer. The majority of the items were collected by fan Bob Terry who began collecting at the age of 17. He later sold it on to another collector. Hendrix, widely considered one of the best guitarists of his era, died of a drug overdose in 1970 at the age of 27. The 1965 Fender Stratocaster was used by the musician on tour and in his studio. A poem written by Hendrix two weeks after his infamous appearance at the Monterey Festival where he set light to his guitar went for £10,000. The Jimi Hendrix Experience's first single Hey Joe, signed by all the band, was sold for £2,000. The sale, hosted by auctioneers Cooper Owen, was held at the Hard Rock Cafe in London." +entertainment,"Halloween writer Debra Hill dies Screenwriter and producer Debra Hill, best known for her work on the 70s horror classic Halloween, has died in Los Angeles aged 54. Hill, who had been suffering from cancer, co-wrote the 1978 film, which starred Jamie Lee Curtis as a babysitter terrorised by a psychopath. Directed by John Carpenter, it made over $60m (£31.3m) worldwide - a record for independent film at that time. Hill also worked with Carpenter on Escape From New York and The Fog. Born in New Jersey, Hill began her career as a production assistant and worked her way through the ranks, becoming an assistant director and second-unit director before she began collaborating with Carpenter. She was regarded by many as a pioneering woman in film, taking on jobs in the 70s that were more commonly taken by men. ""Back when I started in 1974, there were very few women in the industry,"" she said in 2003. ""I was assumed to be the make-up and hair person, or the script person. I was never assumed to be the writer or producer."" ""I took a look around and realised there weren't that many women, so I had to carve a niche for myself."" Carpenter said that working with Hill was ""one of the greatest experiences of my life"". ""The ground that she trailblazed in the beginning can now be followed by anyone. She was incredibly capable and talented,"" he said. Carpenter and Hill collaborated on a number of Halloween sequels, including Halloween II, Halloween: Resurrection and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. Later in her career, Hill formed a production company with her friend Lynda Obst, making a string of hit films including Oscar nominee The Fisher King and teen comedy Adventures In Babysitting. Other films included the Stephen King adaptation The Dead Zone in 1983 and 1985's Clue, a comedy based on the board game Cluedo. In the 90s she pursued work in TV, although she was reunited with Carpenter in 1996 for Escape From LA, the sequel to Escape From New York. At the time of her death she was working on a film about the last two men pulled from the rubble of the Twin Towers following the 11 September terror attacks in 2001. She was also co-producing the remake of The Fog, which is due for release early next year." +entertainment,"Lopez misses UK charity premiere Jennifer Lopez cancelled an appearance at the UK charity premiere of her new movie saying she was too ill to fly. The actress and singer dropped out at the last minute and has now cancelled all European promotion of the film Shall We Dance? and her new album. She said: ""I very much wanted to be in London but unfortunately I'm not well. At the advice of my doctors I'm unable to travel."" Co-star Richard Gere attended the event held in aid of the tsunami appeal. Thousands braved the cold weather to see the stars in London's Leicester Square. The red carpet boasted waltzing dancers in honour of the film's ballroom dancing theme. The film's director Peter Chelsom said he was disappointed that Lopez did not attend. ""It's a shame. I know it's true that she's not well because she has also cancelled her promotional tour. I've heard she has swollen glands."" Gere, 55, greeted the crowd and signed autographs, accompanied by his wife Carey Lowell. Other stars who turned out on the night included Honor Blackman, Strictly Come Dancing presenter Tess Daly and actress Anita Dobson. Lopez issues a statement apologising for her absence. ""I'm so proud of Shall We Dance and was looking forward to visiting London,"" she said. ""This film was a labour of love for me, and I want to thank everyone involved in bringing it to you, from the cast, to the film director, to the crew."" Lopez appeared at the Grammy awards on Sunday, singing a duet with her third husband Marc Anthony." +entertainment,"Film row over Pirates 'cannibals' Plans to portray Dominica's Carib Indians as cannibals in the sequel to hit film Pirates of the Caribbean have been criticised by the group's chief. Carib Chief Charles Williams said talks with Disney's producers revealed there was ""a strong element of cannibalism in the script which cannot be removed"". The Caribbean island's government said Disney planned to film in Dominica. The Caribs have long denied their ancestors practised cannibalism. Disney was unavailable for comment. ""Our ancestors stood up against early European conquerors and because they stood up...we were labelled savages and cannibals up to today,"" said Mr Williams. ""This cannot be perpetuated in movies."" Shooting on the sequel is expected to begin in April, with hundreds of Dominicans applying to be extras in the movie. About 3,000 Caribs live on the island of Dominica, which has a population of 70,000. Many Caribs were killed by disease and war during colonisation up to the 1600s. Mr Williams said he had received support from indigenous groups around the world in his efforts to have cannibalism references removed from the film. But he admitted there were some members of the Carib council who did not support the campaign. He said some did not ""understand our history, they are weak and are not committed to the cause of the Carib people"". The first Pirates of the Caribbean film took $305m (£162m) at the box office in the US alone. The cast and crew are to work on two sequels back-to-back, with the first to be released in 2006." +entertainment,"Elton plays Paris charity concert Sir Elton John has performed at a special concert in Paris to raise money for the victims of the Asian tsunami. The British singer played to a 2,700-strong audience on Sunday at the French capital's Bastille opera house. The concert was also part of an attempt to bring a broader range of events to the famous venue. Money raised will go to the Fondation pour l'Enfance (Foundation for Childhood) which aims to rebuild a children's shelter in Sri Lanka. Sir Elton played hits from his vast back catalogue to a sell-out crowd which included former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing and his wife Anne-Aymone. The veteran pop star played piano accompaniment throughout the concert which lasted for three hours without an interval. He told the crowd: ""Throughout the years, I've done a lot of drugs and alcohol. It's true that I was a nightmare, impossible. For the last 14 years I've been normal. Now my drug is called David"" - a reference to David Furnish, his partner. The crowd, who greeted each song with a standing ovation, also included French singer Charles Aznavour and British ambassador Sir John Holmes. Sir Elton has also teamed up with Phil Collins to record a version of Eric Clapton's 1991 hit Tears In Heaven to raise money for the relief fund. A release date has yet to be set for the recording, which was organised by Sharon Osbourne." +entertainment,"Singer's film to show at festival A documentary which takes a candid look at the life of chart-topping singer George Michael will be shown at this year's Berlin Film Festival. A Different Story will screen in the Panorama section of the festival, which runs from 10-20 February. It features the singer talking about both his career and his personal life, from his days in Wham! through to more recent events. Michael will attend the festival to introduce the screening on 16 February. Director Southan Morris and executive producer Andy Stephens will also attend the festival. The 93 minute film will see Michael discussing his early days in Wham! along with his later career, including his legal battles with record label Sony and his stance against the Iraq war and American politics. It will also touch upon his turbulent personal life, including his arrest in a Beverly Hills park toilet in 1998 for ""lewd behaviour"", and the death of his boyfriend Anselmo Feleppa from Aids. The film, which includes previously unseen footage of the singer also features contributions from Michael's former Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley, as well as ex-Wham! backing singers Pepsi and Shirlie. Other contributors include Sting, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Noel Gallagher, Geri Halliwell and Simon Cowell. This year's festival will open with Man To Man, a historical epic starring Joseph Fiennes and Kristin Scott-Thomas. It will be one of 21 films competing for the festival's top prize, the Golden Bear. Other films in competition will include The Life Aquatic, a quirky comedy starring Bill Murray, and the biopic Kinsey, which features Liam Neeson. The full programme will be announced on 1 February." +entertainment,"Stars pay tribute to actor Davis Hollywood stars including Spike Lee, Burt Reynolds and Oscar nominee Alan Alda have paid tribute to actor Ossie Davis at a funeral in New York. Veteran star Ossie Davis, a well-known civil rights activist, died in Miami at the age of 87 on 4 February 2005. Friends and family, including actress Ruby Dee his wife of 56 years, gathered at the Riverside Church on Saturday. Also present at the service was former US president Bill Clinton and singer Harry Belafonte, who gave the eulogy. ""He would have been a very good president of the United States,"" said Mr Clinton. ""Like most of you here, he gave more to me than I gave to him."" The 87-year-old was found dead last weekend in his hotel room in Florida, where he was making a film. Police said that he appeared to have died of natural causes. Davis made his acting debut in 1950 in No Way Out starring Sidney Poiter. He frequently collaborated with director Spike Lee, starring in seven Lee films including Jungle Fever, Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X. Attallah Shabazz, the daughter of activist Malcolm X, recalled the famous eulogy delivered by Davis at her father's funeral. ""Harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its finest hopes,"" she said, quoting the man she knew as Uncle Ossie. ""Ditto."" ""Ossie was my hero, and he still is,"" said Aviator star Alan Alda, a family friend for over forty years. ""Ossie was a thing of beauty."" ""I want so badly someday to have his dignity - a little of it anyway,"" added Burt Reynolds, Davis's co-star in the 90s TV comedy Evening Shade. Before the midday funeral, scores of Harlem residents formed a queue outside the church to pay their respects to Davis. ""It is hard to fathom that we will no longer be able to call on his wisdom, his humour, his loyalty and his moral strength to guide us in the choices that are yet to be made and the battles that are yet to be fought,"" said Belafonte, himself an ardent civil rights activist who had been friends with Davis for over 60 years. ""But how fortunate we were to have him as long as we did.""" +entertainment,"Snow Patrol bassist exits group Snow Patrol had ""no other course of action"" but to ask their co-founder and bassist to leave the band, lead singer Gary Lightbody has said. Mark McClelland had been in the band for more than 10 years since its formation at Dundee University. Lightbody said ""over the last 18 months touring has taken its toll on the rest of the band's relationship with him"". He said: ""This is the hardest decision we have ever had to make and believe us when we say we didn't make it lightly."" The group, originally from Northern Ireland, has only achieved mainstream success in the last year with the single Run and award-winning album Final Straw. In a statement on the band's website, Lightbody said: ""I started the group with Mark 10 years ago and he was a massive part of Snow Patrol and my life throughout that decade."" He added: ""It got to the stage that things couldn't go on as they were, so we felt there was no other course of action but this. ""I know you will all be distressed and may not understand this news but we had to do what was best for the band."" Snow Patrol are currently working on the follow-up to their breakthrough third album. The band is set to play support to U2 on a number of summer stadium gigs. Last month, they were the big winners in Ireland's top music honours, the Meteor Awards, picking up accolades for best band and album. It followed nominations for the Brit Awards and the Mercury Music Prize. The band formed in 1994 when Lightbody and McClelland met as students at Dundee University." +entertainment,"Stallone evicted from Big Brother Jackie Stallone, mother of actor Sylvester, has become the first star to be evicted from Celebrity Big Brother. She and John McCririck faced the public vote on Friday - 67% of people voted to keep the racing pundit in the house. Stallone, 71, appeared not to have enjoyed her time in the house saying: ""I'm a total wreck, I need a vacation, this was a nightmare"". But she was pleased to have patched things up with actress Brigitte Nielsen, her former daughter-in-law. ""That alone was worth $1m,"" she said. Stallone joined the Channel 4 show on Monday as a surprise for Nielsen. She was hot favourite to be evicted first, with odds of 1/4 to leave. But McCririck has made some enemies with his outspoken views about women. Ladbrokes spokesman Warren Lush said: ""We may have underestimated the power of the anti-McCririck brigade, but it's so hard to call with him, there are people out there who either love him or hate him, there is no middle ground."" The bookmakers have made former Happy Mondays dancer Bez favourite to win the show at 7/4, while Blazin' Squad singer Kenzie is second at 2/1. ""Bez has wooed the viewers and looks the one to beat, he's kept his nose clean and doesn't take anything too seriously,"" Mr Lush said. Earlier on Friday 15 protesters from the Fathers 4 Justice campaign group were arrested after entering the Big Brother compound at 0300 GMT and throwing fireworks. Feminist icon Germaine Greer quit the show earlier in the week over what she called ""bullying"" tactics used by the programme's producers. The show is currently attracting an average audience of about 4.2 million viewers a night." +entertainment,"Spider-Man creator wins profits Spider-Man creator Stan Lee is to get a multi-million dollar windfall after winning a court battle with comic book company Marvel. A judge has upheld Lee's demand for 10% of Marvel's profits from the hugely successful Spider-Man films. Spider-Man and its sequel made $1.6bn (£857m) at box offices worldwide. Of the cut now due to Lee, 82, who created Spider-Man in 1962, his lawyer said: ""It could be tens of millions of dollars, that's no exaggeration."" US District Court Judge Robert W Sweet ruled Lee should get a tenth of profits generated since November 1998 by Marvel TV and movie productions involving the company's characters. Lee took legal action in 2002, saying Marvel shut him out of ""jackpot"" profits from the first blockbuster film. He said the company - where he worked for more than 60 years - had gone back on agreement to give him the 10%. As well as Spider-Man, Lee co-created the Incredible Hulk, X-Men, Daredevil and Fantastic Four characters. He said: ""I am gratified by the judge's decision although, since I am deeply fond of Marvel and the people there, I sincerely regret that the situation had to come to this."" The ruling also means he is entitled to a slice of profits from DVD sales and certain merchandise. Marvel said it would appeal and did not expect the decision to impact on financial forecasts for 2004 and beyond. The New York court did not rule on Lee's claims to a share of profits from some Spider-Man and Hulk movie merchandise, which will be decided at a future trial, Marvel said." +entertainment,"Sir Paul rocks Super Bowl crowds Sir Paul McCartney wowed fans with a live mini-concert at American football's Super Bowl - and avoided any Janet Jackson-style controversies. The 62-year-old sang Hey Jude and other Beatles songs in a 12-minute set at half-time during the game in Florida. Last year, Jackson exposed a breast during a dance routine, causing outrage among millions of TV viewers and landing the CBS TV network a fine. Sir Paul, however, did nothing more racy than remove his jacket as he sang. Organisers were widely considered to be playing it safe this year by booking 62-year-old Sir Paul for his second Super Bowl show. Three years ago, he was invited to perform at the first Super Bowl after the September 11 attacks and performed his specially-written song Freedom. This time, he started off the show, at the Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, with the Beatles numbers Drive My Car and Get Back. He then performed a mellow version of Live And Let Die, the James Bond theme he recorded with the band Wings. Finally, he closed the show with a rousing version of Hey Jude. The former Beatle resisted any temptation to refer to Janet Jackson's headline-grabbing performance last year, instead keeping banter between songs to a minimum in order to squeeze as much music as he could into his slot. The singer removed his black jacket halfway through the show - but any fans hoping for a second ""Nipple-gate"" were to be disappointed as he kept his red sweatshirt on underneath. Earlier, the Black Eyed Peas and Alicia Keys had provided the night's other high-profile entertainment by performing in a pre-game show. Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie was dressed in a tight orange top and purple hotpants, but nothing in her performance was likely to upset TV watchdogs. After the controversy last year - which saw CBS fined a record $550,000 (£292,000) by federal regulators - Super Bowl organisers had turned to producer Don Mischer to oversee this year's half-time show. His previous production credits included Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. The Super Bowl is watched by an audience of 144.4 million in the US, with many of the people watching are said to tune in specifically to see the entertainment put on around the event. Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, Diana Ross, Gloria Estefan and Phil Collins are among the stars who have previously graced the Super Bowl stage." +entertainment,"Belle named 'best Scottish band' Belle & Sebastian have been named the best Scottish band of all time after a three month-long public poll. The group beat Travis and Idlewild into second and third place respectively. Franz Ferdinand, who recently picked up five Brit Award nominations, ended up in 15th place, while the Eurythmics wound up at a lowly 38. Other Scottish acts, such as the Mull Historical Society who also featured in the top 50, performed at a party in Glasgow where the result was announced. Scottish-based band Snow Patrol, who finished 14th in the vote and have been nominated for a pair of Brit Awards, were among the performers who covered well-known Scottish pop songs at the party on Wednesday night. Indie stalwarts Belle & Sebastian have enjoyed a chart career stretching back to 1997. They were the surprise winners of the Brit Award for best breakthrough act two years later. Scottish bands from earlier musical eras also made it into the final list, including 1970s tartan boy band the Bay City Rollers and goth favourites the Jesus and Mary Chain. Scottish magazine The List recently compiled a list of the top 50 Scottish bands of all time, but left the final decision to the public. The magazine's music editor Mark Robertson said: ""The idea behind the project was simple - to rediscover the very best of Scottish music, from the finest musical talent spanning from the age of 70s rock through to 80s pop, right up to today's international stars."" ""Everyone has strong opinions about this and we wanted to open it up to the public to decide,"" he added. BBC Radio Scotland presenter Vic Galloway, who has been involved in the project, said it had been ""great fun"" to look back at Scotland's musical heritage and take note of up-and-coming Scottish acts." +entertainment,"No UK premiere for Rings musical The producers behind the Lord of the Rings musical have abandoned plans to premiere the show in London because no suitable theatre was available. The £11.5m show will make its debut in Toronto in March 2006, after it was found that all three West End theatres with sufficient capacity were booked. The musical is not expected in London before December 2006. Producer Kevin Wallace said it would be ""worth waiting for"". ""It will be like nothing they have ever seen before."" ""I know there will be a lot of disappointed British Tolkien fans who hoped to see the show in London, but we couldn't get a London theatre in time,"" added the British producer. The world premiere of the stage musical, co-produced by Canadian theatrical impresarios David and Ed Mirvish, will take place at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre next year. ""Toronto really wanted this premiere. The Tolkien books and films are hugely popular in Canada,"" said Mr Wallace, shortly after signing the deal in Canada. ""We hope the anticipation and excitement over here will create an even bigger buzz by the time we open in London."" Auditions begin in Canada on Thursday, but up to five British actors may join the cast, under a deal struck with Canadian Actors' Equity. The music for the show is being written by Bollywood composer AR Rahman, who was behind Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End musical Bollywood Dreams, and in conjuction with the Finnish group Varttina. ""There will be no singing and dancing Hobbits. The music will be in a very traditional mould and draw on ethnic traditions,"" assured Mr Wallace. The musical's British director is Matthew Warchus, best known for staging the worldwide stage hit Art. ""The production will be a hybrid of text, physical theatre, music and spectacle never previously seen on this scale,"" he said. ""Only in the theatre are we actually plunged into the events as they happen. The environment surrounds us and we are in Middle Earth."" New Zealander Peter Jackson took 10 years to bring JRR Tolkien's fantasy trilogy to the big screen, winning Academy Awards for best film and best director for the final film The Return of the King in 2004." +entertainment,"Rapper 50 Cent ends protege feud Rapper 50 Cent has ended his public feud with his protege The Game as the pair said they wanted to be good role models for their communities. The row blew up when 50 Cent threw The Game out of his G-Unit crew and accused him of being disloyal. A member of The Game's entourage was reportedly shot outside a radio station where 50 Cent was being interviewed. But the pair shook hands as they handed over money to music projects for New York's deprived areas on Wednesday. The Game, whose real name is Jayceon Taylor, told a news conference: ""I want to apologise. I'm almost ashamed to have participated in the things that went on over the last few weeks."" Chart-topper 50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, said the truce came on the anniversary of the death of the Notorious BIG in 1997, who was part of a volatile feud between the east and west coast rap scenes. ""We're here today to show that people can rise above the most difficult circumstances and together we can put negativity behind us,"" 50 Cent said. ""A lot of people don't want to see it happen, but we're responding to the two most important groups - our family and our fans."" The Boys Choir of Harlem got a cheque for $150,000 (£77,800) from 50 Cent, while The Game handed over $103,500 (£53,400). The Game also made a contribution to the Compton schools music programme. 50 Cent announced he has launched the G-Unity Foundation ""to help people overcome obstacles and make a chance for the better in their lives"". ""I realised that if I'm going to be effective at that, I have to overcome some of my own,"" he said. ""Game and I need to set an example in the community."" 50 Cent is no stranger to feuds, with rapper Ja Rule among the targets for ridicule in his songs. On his latest album, released earlier this month, he turned his attentions to Fat Joe and Nas, who have both worked with Ja Rule. Both he and The Game have admitted drug dealing in the past and have both been shot." +entertainment,"BBC to pour £9m into new comedy The BBC is to invest £9m in developing new comedy and entertainment programmes outside London. The changes come as part of a shake-up of several departments to create shows that appeal to a wider range of people. Changes are also being made to teams in the factual and daytime departments outside London. Director of television Jana Bennett said the changes were about ""getting the best ideas on screen as efficiently and effectively as we can"". ""The new structure in each genre is designed to ensure that happens,"" she said. A number of new roles are being created in each department, including a head of comedy commissioning based in Glasgow. The new person will be in charge of the £9m budget and their role will be to develop shows outside the capital, both within the BBC and with independent production companies. Jane Lush, controller of entertainment commissioning, said, ""Entertainment and comedy are incredibly important to our audiences; I'm confident these changes will help us get the very best programmes on screen."" Similar positions will also be created in the other departments, with the new commissioning editor for documentaries based in Bristol and the daytime commissioning editor in Birmingham. Ms Bennett said the new roles would benefit those making programmes within the BBC as well as those making shows for the channel independently. ""A strong independent sector and a flourishing in-house production base are not mutually exclusive and will stimulate the competition that will deliver the best ideas to the audience,"" she said." +entertainment,"Casino Royale is next Bond movie Casino Royale, author Ian Fleming's first James Bond book, is to be the next Bond film, with Goldeneye director Martin Campbell behind the camera. It will be the 21st James Bond film to hit the big screen, and speculation has been rife over who will play the lead. Casino Royale was turned into a spoof spy movie by John Huston in 1967, with David Niven in the lead role. Pierce Brosnan led the past four Bond films but said producers axed him after offering him the chance to return. Among the favourites to take over the coveted role are Scottish actor Dougray Scott, Oscar nominee Clive Owen and Australian star Hugh Jackman. Producers say no decision has yet been made on who will become the seventh actor, including Niven, to play Bond on film. Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino had talked of wanting to take on the Casino Royale project, and said he had spoken to Brosnan about it. Shooting on Casino Royale is expected to begin once Campbell has finished work on The Legend of Zorro, a sequel to The Mask of Zorro, starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Antonio Banderas. Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson expect the film to be released in 2006. The script will once again be developed by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade who have both worked on two previous Bond movies. Fleming's book saw the introduction of Bond pitted against a Russian spy in a game of baccarat. Simultaneously, a woman arrives on the scene to take his eye off the game. The novel is one of Fleming's most violent and sadistic stories, with 007 suffering a savage beating from his nemesis Le Chiffre. In addition to the 1967 film, it was also adapted for television in 1954 with actor Barry Nelson as an Americanised ""Jimmy"" Bond. MGM Vice Chairman Chris McGurk said: ""Martin (Campbell) is an incredibly exciting film-maker. Goldeneye was a wonderful movie and helped reinvigorate the Bond franchise. We're thrilled to have him back to direct the newest Bond."" New Zealand-born Campbell moved to the UK in 1966 and directed TV series such as The Professionals, Minder and Bergerac. His film credits include Edge of Darkness, Vertical Limit and Beyond Borders, which starred Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen." +entertainment,"Fantasy book wins Hollywood deal A British author has had the film rights to her children's bestseller snapped up for a seven-figure sum, with Ridley Scott set to direct. Michelle Paver's Wolf Brother, a fantasy set 6,000 years ago, is the first in a planned series of six books. Film studio Fox has bought the rights for around $4m (£2.13m) for Scott's company Scott Free to develop. The director said he was ""thrilled"" with the project. ""Wolf Brother is an enchanting book,"" he said. Paver, who lives in London and previously worked as a lawyer, began writing the book in 1982 while studying biochemistry at Oxford University. She was an established author of love stories when she turned the work-in-progress into a children's novel. It was published in 2004, with Paver earning an advance of $5m (£2.8m) - the highest sum ever paid for a debut children's book. Wolf Brother tells the story of Torak, a 12-year-old hunter who lives in the forest. After his father is killed he teams up with a wolf cub and sets out to rid the forest of an evil force. Paver is currently writing the second book in the series. ""Michelle Paver lives and breathes the worlds she writes about,"" said a spokesman for the author. ""I've told her about the film deal but at the moment she is writing the second book and her mind is 6000 years away deep in the primeval forest.""" +entertainment,"The Sound of Music is coming home The original stage production of The Sound of Music is to be performed for the first time in the Austrian capital, 40 years after the film was released. The first full-scale theatrical production of the musical will make its debut in Vienna on Saturday. Julie Andrews starred in the 1965 film version of the Rogers and Hammerstein classic set in the Alpine country. But despite being one of the most successful musicals of all time, it is barely known inside Austria. The film was never shown in any cinema in Austria and was not broadcast on television until the early 1990s. The musical is based on the true story of the von Trapp family who formed a singing troupe and escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938. Sensitivities about Nazism during wartime Austria and issues towards the von Trapp family themselves could explain Austria's reluctance to embrace the musical. Another source of irritation for Austrians is the song Edelweiss, which is considered an traditional folk song by many filmgoers. The song was actually an invention by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Many also consider the film to portray a kitsch image of Austria, including yodelling, goat-herds and lederhosen. The production is being staged at a Viennese opera house, the Volksoper, beginning on Saturday. Maria, the novice nun who falls in love with Baron von Trapp, will be played by Austro-Australian actress and singer Sandra Pires." +entertainment,"US charity anthem is re-released We Are The World, the American charity anthem inspired by the success of Band Aid, has been re-issued to raise money for Aids research and tsunami victims. More than 40 stars sang as group USA For Africa, including Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen. It topped the charts in the US and UK, raising millions of dollars for African famine relief. The re-release also marks the 20th anniversary of the original recording. It has been re-issued as part of a two-disc DVD set, which will also feature footage from the recording session of the track in January 1985. The single was originally released in the US on 7 March 1985 and sold 800,000 copies in its first week. It went on to win Grammys for song of the year and record of the year." +entertainment,"Actor Foxx sees Globe nominations US actor Jamie Foxx has been given two nominations for Golden Globe awards, with Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman and Cate Blanchett also up for prizes. The stars were shortlisted on Monday for supporting roles, with the main nominations still to come. Foxx has starred in Collateral and Ray. Clive Owen, David Carradine and Natalie Portman are also up for awards. The Golden Globes, Hollywood's second most prominent awards, are the first major nominations to be announced. Last year, The Lord Of the Rings: The Return Of the King was named best drama movie while Lost In Translation won best musical or comedy. Sean Penn, Charlize Theron, Tim Robbins and Renee Zellweger all won acting awards - mirroring the eventual Oscars outcome. The Golden Globes ceremony will take place on 16 January, with the Oscars following on 27 February." +entertainment,"Ray Charles studio becomes museum A museum dedicated to the career of the late legendary singer Ray Charles is to open in his former recording studio in Los Angeles. His longtime publicist Jerry Digney said the museum would house ""archive materials from recordings, to awards, to ephemera, to wardrobe"". A tour bus used by Charles and his entourage over the years will also be on permanent display. It is hoped the museum will be ready for visitors in late 2007. Mr Digney said the recording studio and offices had been used by Charles for many years, and was where he recorded much of his last album, Genius Loves Company. It is hoped the museum will also house an education centre. The building had been declared a historic landmark by the city of Los Angeles just before Charles' death in June 2004 at the age of 73. Following his death, Charles won eight Grammy Awards, including album of the year for Genius Loves Company, a collection of duets." +entertainment,"Smith loses US box office crown New comedy Diary of a Mad Black Woman has ended Will Smith's reign at the top of the North American box office. Based on a play by Tyler Perry, who also stars as a gun-toting grandmother, the film took $22.7m (£11.8m) in its first three days of release. After topping the chart for two consecutive weeks, Smith's romantic comedy Hitch dropped to second place with takings of $21m (£10.9m). Keanu Reeves' supernatural thriller Constantine dropped a place to three. Based on the Hellblazer comics, the film took $11.8m (£6.1m) on its second week of release. Two new entries came next in the chart, with Wes Craven's horror movie Cursed, about a werewolf loose in Los Angeles, in fourth position with $9.5m (£4.9m). Action comedy Man of the House, starring Tommy Lee Jones as a Texas ranger assigned to protect a cheerleader squad, came in at fifth with $9m (£4.6m). Clint Eastwood's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby - recipient of four Academy Awards, including best picture - continued to perform well in sixth place with takings of $7.2m (£3.74m). Martin Scorsese's Hollywood biopic The Aviator - which won five Oscars, all in minor categories - held on in ninth place. The low-budget feature Diary of a Mad Black Woman stars Kimberly Elise as a woman thrown out on the streets by her philandering husband. With the help of her grandmother Madea (one of three roles played by Perry), she plots revenge. Perry, 34, is one of America's best-known black playwrights but is a newcomer to film. Once made homeless after investing his own money in unsuccessful productions of his work, he now lives in the mansion in which Diary of a Mad Black Woman was filmed." +entertainment,"Levy tipped for Whitbread prize Novelist Andrea Levy is favourite to win the main Whitbread Prize book of the year award, after winning novel of the year with her book Small Island. The book has already won the Orange Prize for fiction, and is now 5/4 favourite for the £25,000 Whitbread. Second favourite is a biography of Mary Queen of Scots, by John Guy. A panel of judges including Sir Trevor McDonald, actor Hugh Grant and writer Joanne Harris will decide the overall winner on Tuesday. The five writers in line for the award won their respective categories - first novel, novel, biography, poetry and children's book - on 6 January. Small Island, Levy's fourth novel, is set in post-war London and centres on a landlady and her lodgers. One is a Jamaican who joined British troops to fight Hitler but finds life difficult out of uniform when he settles in the UK. ""What could have been a didactic or preachy prospect turns out to hilarious, moving humane and eye-popping. It's hard to think of anybody not enjoying it,"" wrote the judges. The judges called Guy's My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots ""an impressive and readable piece of scholarship, which cannot fail but leave the reader moved and intrigued by this most tragic and likeable of queens"". Guy has published many histories, including one of Tudor England. He is a fellow at Clare College, Cambridge and became a honorary research professor of the University of St Andrews in 2003. The other contenders include Susan Fletcher for Eve Green, which won the first novel prize. Fletcher has recently graduated from the University of East Anglia's creative writing course. The fourth book in the running is Corpus, Michael Symmons Roberts' fourth collection of poems. As well as writing poetry, Symmons Roberts also makes documentary films. Geraldine McCaughrean is the final contender, having won the children's fiction category for the third time for Not the End of the World. McCaughrean, who went into magazine publishing after studying teaching, previously won the category in 1987 with A Little Lower than Angels and in 1994 with Gold Dust." +entertainment,"Spirit awards hail Sideways The comedy Sideways has dominated this year's Independent Spirit Awards, winning all six of the awards for which it was nominated. It was named best film while Alexander Payne won best director and best screenplay, along with writing partner Jim Taylor. It also won acting awards for stars Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen. Sideways is tipped to do well at Sunday's Oscars, with five nominations. The awards, now in their 20th year, are given to films made outside the traditional studio system, and are traditionally held the day before the Oscars. Other winners included Catalina Sandino Moreno, who took best actress for her role as a drug smuggler in the Colombian drama Maria Full of Grace. Moreno is also nominated for best actress at the Oscars. The best first screenplay award went to Joshua Marston for Maria Full of Grace. Scrubs star Zach Braff won the award for best first feature for Garden State, which he wrote, directed and starred in. Oscar-nominated euthanasia film The Sea Inside from Spain won best foreign film, while Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster was awarded best documentary. Actor Rodrigo de la Serna took the best debut performance prize for The Motorcycle Diaries. The awards are voted for by the 9,000 members of the Independent Feature Project/Los Angeles, which includes actors, directors, writers and other industry professionals. Last year's big winner, Lost In Translation, went on to win the Oscar for best original screenplay, for writer-director Sofia Coppola." +entertainment,"Rocker Doherty in on-stage fight Rock singer Pete Doherty has been involved in a fight with his band's guitarist at their biggest gig to date. Babyshambles played for 5,000 fans at London's Brixton Academy on Tuesday. The former Libertines singer traded blows with guitarist Patrick Walden. They were separated and bundled off stage before returning to end the set. The show was earlier held up due to audience overcrowding. On Monday Doherty faced blackmail and robbery charges in court, which he denies. He is out on £50,000 bail and the judge agreed to extend his 2200 GMT curfew deadline by two hours so he could play the Brixton gig. Babyshambles, which he formed after his acrimonious departure from the Libertines, played a warm-up show at The Garage, north London, on Monday. On Tuesday, Doherty and his three bandmates were introduced to the crowd by Mick Jones, the former Clash guitarist who produced the Libertines' second album. Babyshambles took the stage to a frenzied reception at 2200 GMT, launching into their last single, Killamangiro, which reached number eight in December. But the group had to stop during the next song to persuade fans not to push forward and allow security guards to pull people out of the crush. Doherty appealed to fans to calm down, saying: ""There's a few people getting hurt down the front, you've got to move back."" The music resumed minutes later but after several more songs, the singer appeared to accidentally disconnect Walden's guitar, leading the pair to trade kicks and punches. Bouncers stepped in and the band left the stage, but returned after five minutes and finished their 50-minute performance with no further trouble. Doherty, 25, had to be home by midnight to observe the curfew, which is one of the conditions of his bail. On Monday, the judge agreed to allow him to perform on condition that requests for changes to his bail terms were ""not too regular an occurrence"". The singer was arrested with fellow musician Alan Wass on 2 February after an alleged dispute with documentary-maker Max Carlish at a London hotel. They are next due in court on 18 April." +entertainment,"Brits return Keane to number one Brits success has helped return Keane's award-winning album Hopes and Fears back to the top of the UK album chart. The debut album, which took the best British album title at the Brits on Tuesday, moved up seven places from number eight to number one. Also capitalising on Brits success were the Scissor Sisters whose eponymous album moved three places to number two. U2's latest single Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own took the top spot in the singles chart, ahead of Elvis. The track, from their current album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, pushed Eminem's Like Toy Soldiers from number one to number three. Elvis' Wooden Heart, which entered the chart at number two, is the sixth in a series of 18 reissues to mark the 70th anniversary of Presley's birth. There are currently six re-released Elvis' tracks occupying spots in the top 40 singles chart including Are You Lonesome Tonight at number 20, It's Now or Never at number 27 and Jailhouse Rock at number 37. Soldier, by Destiny's Child, Ti and Lil Wayne, debuted at number four, while Almost Here, the duet from former Westlife star Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem, fell from number three to number five. There was more follow up to Brits success for Franz Ferdinand won best rock act and best British group last week. Their self-titled album moved from 13 to number four. Last week's number one album Tourist, by Athlete, fell to number three." +entertainment,"Vibe awards back despite violence The US Vibe awards will be held again next year despite a stabbing which happened during the ceremony. Vibe magazine president Kenard Gibbs said the attack earlier this month in Santa Monica was ""sickening"". He said not holding the awards would be counter to the work the magazine has done to promote hip hop music. Rapper Young Buck has been charged after allegedly stabbing a man who hit Dr Dre as he was about to receive a lifetime achievement award. The rapper, whose real name is David Darnell Brown, is due in court on 20 December after being arrested on one charge of attempted murder and a second charge of assault with a deadly weapon. The performer is one of the members of 50 Cent's G-Unit group, which is signed to Dr Dre's record label. The man who was stabbed, Jimmy James Johnson, suffered a collapsed lung and is in a stable condition at a Los Angeles hospital. Mr Johnson allegedly approached Dr Dre, who was seated at a table in front of the stage, and appeared to ask for an autograph before punching him. During the ensuing scuffle - which involved many of the 1,000-strong crowd - Mr Johnson was stabbed as he was being dragged away by security staff," +entertainment,"Hobbit picture 'four years away' Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has said that it will be up to four years before he starts work on a film version of The Hobbit. The Oscar winner said on a visit to Sydney there was a ""desire"" to make it, but not before lengthy negotiations. ""I think it's gonna be a lot of lawyers sitting in a room trying to thrash out a deal before it will ever happen,"" said the New Zealander. The rights to JRR Tolkien's book are split between two major film studios. Jackson, who is currently filming a remake of Hollywood classic King Kong, said he thought that the sale of MGM studios to the Sony Corporation would cast further uncertainty on the project. The 43-year-old was in the Australian city to visit a Lord of the Rings exhibition, which has attracted 140,000 visitors since it opened in December. The film-maker recently sued film company New Line Cinema for undisclosed damages over alleged withheld profits and lost revenue from the first part of the Middle Earth trilogy. The Fellowship of The Ring from 2001 went on to make worldwide profits of $291 million (£152 million). Jackson is thought to have secured the most lucrative film directing deal in history to remake King Kong, which is currently in production in Wellington. The picture, which stars Naomi Watts and Oscar winner Adrien Brody, is due to be released in December. Jackson has also committed to making a film version of Lovely Bones, based on the best-selling book by Alice Sebold." +entertainment,"Blue beat U2 to top France honour Irish band U2 have been honoured at France's biggest music awards, but were beaten to a prize by boy band Blue. U2 received a special achievement prize at the NRJ Music Awards, but Blue beat them to the international group award. US band Maroon 5 was named best new international artist, and took the best international song title for This Love. More than five million radio listeners voted in the awards. The international male and female prizes went to Usher and Avril Lavigne respectively. Collecting his band's award from model Naomi Campbell at the Cannes ceremony, U2 frontman Bono said in French: ""I'm not from this country but I'll make a little confession to you - it's at the Cote d'Azur I feel at home."" Hosted by radio group NRJ, the ceremony featured performances from Usher and Jennifer Lopez, who was accompanied by dancers clad in schoolgirl outfits. US pop act Black Eyed Peas picked up the best international album gong for Elephunk. Singer Jenifer also took home two awards, for best French female singer and best French album. French-Canadian pop star Roch Voisine was named best Francophone male artist." +entertainment,"Deal to ban 'homophobic' reggae The reggae industry is to refuse to release or stage concerts featuring homophobic songs under a global deal struck with gay rights groups. A damaging campaign against stars such as Beenie Man and Sizzla has been waged over lyrics that allegedly call for gay people to be killed or assaulted. The campaign, which led to gigs being scrapped and a UK police investigation, will now be dropped under the truce. Brett Lock of gay group OutRage! said they were ""wiping the slate clean"". The protests had been led by the Stop Murder Music coalition, an umbrella group including OutRage!, the Black Gay Men's Advisory Group and Jamaican movement J-Flag. That coalition has reached a verbal agreement with major dancehall reggae record labels and concert promoters covering eight of the scene's biggest stars. But the artists themselves were not involved in the negotiations and have not directly signed up. Instead, the record companies have pledged not to release or re-release any offensive songs - many of which date back a number of years. And it is believed promoters will make stars agree not to perform such tunes on stage. ""The reggae industry will work with the artists while still maintaining their freedom of speech and artistic freedom,"" according to media and PR strategist Glen Yearwood, who is representing the reggae industry. The industry would halt any attempt by an artist to perform or release a song inciting violence against any group or gender, he said. ""We'll advise them this is not the way forward in a civilised society."" The Stop Murder Music campaign saw protesters picket gigs, resulted in Sizzla's UK tour being cancelled in November, forced Mobo award organisers to drop artists from nominations and saw Beenie Man dropped from an MTV show in August. Police have also been investigating whether lyrics incite the assault and murder of gay people. The campaign was a blow to the reggae industry, Mr Yearwood admitted. ""If you can't have major stars touring, then you don't sell many albums,"" he said. But the artists - Beenie Man, Sizzla, Elephant Man, Buju Banton, Bounty Killer, TOK, Capleton and Vybz Kartel - will not have to apologise for past songs or comments. OutRage!'s Mr Lock said: ""The main players in the dancehall reggae industry will attempt to regulate the industry themselves to ensure that there aren't any violently homophobic or gay-bashing lyrics in the future. ""As a gesture of good faith, the Stop Murder Music coalition has agreed to suspend our aggressive campaigning against murder music. ""So we shall not be picketing concerts or calling for prosecutions to give the industry the space to regulate and reform itself."" Record companies VP and Greensleeves, distributor Jet Star and concert promoters including Jammins and Apollo Entertainment are all on board." +entertainment,"Black Sabbath top rock album poll Black Sabbath have topped a list of the best British rock albums of all time. The band once fronted by Ozzy Osbourne led a poll of Kerrang! magazine readers with their 1970 self-titled debut. The band have three more efforts on the list, including fifth-placed Paranoid. Osbourne appears more than any other act, with two solo records featured. The top five includes Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden and Sex Pistols. Queen, Muse, Manic Street Preachers and The Clash complete the top 10. A mix of heavy metal, punk, glam rock and even dance music makes up the list. Motorhead, Judas Priest and Prodigy are included along with newer acts like The Darkness and Lostprophets. Kerrang! editor Ashley Bird said: ""It's amazing to see so many incredible homegrown albums in one list, and without any of the abysmal fashion bands that currently clog up the music scene. ""These are the real opinions of proper rock fans."" Formed by four teenage friends in the West Midlands in the late 1960s, Black Sabbath are one of Britain's most successful heavy rock bands. Their debut was a UK top 10 hit in 1970 and sold more than a million copies in the US. Osbourne said the band's success in the Kerrang! poll was a triumph for British rock. He said: ""Back then you'd hear: 'If you go to San Francisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair'. ""We lived in Aston, Birmingham. The only flowers I ever saw were on a gravestone in our local cemetery."" Despite being disliked by many critics, Black Sabbath's subsequent albums included multi-million sellers but internal rows led to Osbourne leaving in 1979. The band continued without Osbourne, who went on to solo success but also had to battle alcoholism and legal action over his music allegedly inciting teenagers to commit suicide. He was eventually cleared of the charges. Osbourne, who bit off the head of a live bat on stage in 1982, rejoined the band to play the Live Aid charity concert in 1985. After many changes in line-up, the original four members reunited to play live dates in 1997. Black Sabbath have reunited regularly in recent years while Osbourne has gone on to wider fame with his family through MTV documentary series The Osbournes." +entertainment,"Band Aid retains number one spot The charity single by Band Aid 20 has held on the chart top spot for a second week, strengthening its chances of becoming the Christmas number one. Do They Know It's Christmas, featuring artists including Chris Martin and Jamelia, held off Kylie Minogue to remain the week's biggest single. Next week's chart will reveal who will have the festive chart-topper Minogue's latest release I Believe in You went in at number two, pushing down Ice Cube's You Can Do It to three. Destiny's Child also slipped one place to four with Lose My Breath, followed by Girls Aloud at five with the Children in Need record I'll Stand By You. The only other new entry in the top 10 came from Robbie Williams track Misunderstood, a new track written for his Greatest Hits album. There were no new releases in the entire top 40 album charts as record companies put out all the big releases early hoping to cash in on the lucrative Christmas market. U2's How to Dismantle a Bomb remains at number one for a third week in a row, followed by Williams' Greatest Hits. Opera band Il Divo have moved up one place with their eponymous album to number three. Maroon 5's album Songs About Jane has moved up to number seven despite being released 47 weeks ago. And the Abba Gold greatest hits album has crept back into the top 40 more than nine years after it was first released." +entertainment,"Media seek Jackson 'juror' notes Reporters covering singer Michael Jackson's trial in California have asked to see questionnaires completed by potential jurors. Lawyers for news organisations said it was ""really vital"" for the responses of 250 potential jurors to be made public ""to serve as a check on the process"". Santa Barbara County Superior Court is due to consider the request on Monday. Mr Jackson denies child molestation. It is estimated his trial will cost Santa Barbara county up to $4m (£2.13m). Meanwhile Michael Jackson's mother has said she is ""100% certain"" her son did not commit the child abuse charges he faces. The court is currently selecting 12 jurors and eight stand-by jurors for the trial, a process delayed until at least Thursday after a member of the star's legal team was hit by family illness. Defence lawyers argued against the bid by Associated Press and other news organisations to have potential jurors' responses made public. ""The release of the completed jury questionnaires does not serve any purpose other than to add to the sensationalist coverage of this case,"" a motion by Mr Jackson's lawyers stated. The estimated total costs of the trial, expected to last five months, range from $2.5m (£1.33m) to $4m (£2.13m) of local taxpayers' money. Those estimates do not include costs to the city of Santa Maria, the Superior Court or for the investigation and prosecution of the case. The cost of security and other needs around the courthouse has been estimated at $40,000 (£21,000) per day, said Jason Stilwell, a special projects manager at the county administrator's office. Mr Jackson, 46, denies plying a boy with alcohol and molesting him. His mother Katherine Jackson told US TV network Fox News on Sunday that her pop star son told her he was innocent. ""I believe that for one reason - I know his character,"" she said. ""He loves children. You don't molest anything that you love."" Describing Mr Jackson as ""a good person"", the mother-of-nine said she feared he would not be given a fair trial. ""I can't sleep thinking about what these wicked people might try to do to him,"" she said." +entertainment,"Oscars race enters final furlong The race for the Oscars entered its final stages as the deadline for voters to choose their winners passed. The 5,808 Academy voters had until Tuesday afternoon to return their ballots - any late submissions will not be included in the count. The next five days will be spent counting the voting forms and preparing the winners' envelopes. Best actor nominee Leonardo DiCaprio is to present a statuette for the first time at the LA ceremony on Sunday. The 30-year-old actor, who is nominated for playing Howard Hughes in The Aviator, will join other hopefuls such as co-star Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman and Kate Winslet as Oscar presenters. The only people who will know the Oscar winners before they are revealed at the ceremony will be the auditors who are in charge of looking after the ballot count. After collating the results, they are responsible for sealing the results in the famous golden envelopes which will be revealed by a host of celebrity presenters at the ceremony. Former Academy Award winners Gwyneth Paltrow, Dustin Hoffman and Halle Berry will also present prizes. The event at the Kodak Theatre will be attended by 3,300 people, including some of the best-known names in film, and organisers say they expect it will be watched on television by one billion people around the world. One current concern is the torrential rain which has lashed Los Angeles for the past week, flooding suburbs and causing mudslides. It is hoped the forecast for Sunday, for cool weather but no rain, will prove accurate. ""The last time it rained on Oscars night was in the mid-to-late 1980s,"" said Oscars communications director John Pavlik. ""We have had rain up until the day before the show many times, but for some reason the Oscar gods always shine on Sunday and we hope they will do so again this year,"" he added." +entertainment,"Oscars steer clear of controversy The Oscars nominations list has left out some of the most controversial films of the past year in favour of safer, less contentious cinema. If best film nominees were drawn on the basis of column inches, two of the front-runners would have had to be Michael Moore's Bush-baiting documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Both films polarised opinion but had critics talking, and the public turning up to see them - Fahrenheit 9/11 breaking US box office records for a documentary, and The Passion of the Christ making more than US$370m (£196m) in the US alone. But this year's Academy Awards have shied away from the big name controversies, with The Passion of the Christ - a film accused of being anti-Semitic - receiving nominations only in the 'minor' categories of cinematography, makeup and musical score. Fahrenheit 9/11 has also been overlooked, despite winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2004. Moore's caustic documentary may have been affected by its distributors' decision to enter it in the best picture category, rather than best documentary, says Tim Dams, the news editor of trade magazine Screen International. But he also believes the strong political viewpoint of Moore's film does not sit well with the Academy. ""If you look at past Oscar winners and nominees, the very conservative Oscar voters tend to go for very conservative, epic-style pictures. Fahrenheit 9/11 didn't really fit in to that category. ""They tend to go for films like Titanic, Gladiator, and the Lord of the Rings, films with scale that often aren't too contentious,"" he said. While he said the Oscar voting panel were not ""snubbing"" Moore's film, he thought it was unlikely a documentary could ever seriously compete in a best film category. ""I think it's more a misjudgement by the people putting it out rather than a deliberate snub,"" he said. The problem with Mel Gibson's film, he believed, was that the voting panel may have been cautious in nominating a film with dialogue in Aramaic, an ancient Middle Eastern language. ""Hollywood doesn't tend to like foreign-language films - no-one's ever tried doing a film in a dead language,"" he said. But aside from these two films, some potentially contentious pictures have won nominations. The German film The Downfall, a biopic tracing the final days of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in his Berlin bunker, has been recognised in the best foreign film category. The film has caused some controversy in showing Hitler as a fallible but human man, rather than a semi-mythical, historical monster. But Mr Dams said: ""It's not an inflammatory film. It has done very well in Germany, and it's a film that portrays Hitler as a human rather than some kind of devil or monster."" Another 'contentious' film, Mr Dams said, has gained a nomination in the best documentary section through the force of its charm. Independent film-maker Morgan Spurlock may have forced fast-food giant McDonalds to withdraw its 'super size' portions in the US after he went on a month-long diet eating nothing but McDonalds meals - and filmed his progress. The film has been a hit around the world. Mr Dams said: ""It's a political film, but it's quite fun and punky and well-paced. ""Morgan Spurlock is a really likeable guy. It's a very accessible film, and it doesn't beat you over the head with its views. ""While in Fahrenheit 9/11 there are moments of comedy, I think the way that Super Size Me is put together - the fact it's a very likeable film - means it's won through on charm."" Dam's pick at this year's Oscars? The Aviator, Martin Scorsese's biopic of aviation pioneer and Hollywood player Howard Hughes. Tinseltown, it seems, likes nothing more than a picture about one of its own." +entertainment,"Uganda bans Vagina Monologues Uganda's authorities have banned the play The Vagina Monologues, due to open in the capital, Kampala this weekend. The Ugandan Media Council said the performance would not be put on as it promoted and glorified acts such as lesbianism and homosexuality. It said the production could go ahead if the organisers ""expunge all the offending parts"". But the organisers of the play say it raises awareness of sexual abuse against women. ""The play promotes illegal, unnatural sexual acts, homosexuality and prostitution, it should be and is hereby banned,"" the council's ruling said. The show, which has been a controversial sell-out around the world, explores female sexuality and strength through individual women telling their stories through monologues. Some parliamentarians and church leaders are also siding with the Media Council, Uganda's New Vision newspaper reports. ""The play is obscene and pornographic although it was under the guise of women's liberation,"" MP Kefa Ssempgani told parliament. But the work's author, US playwright Eve Ensler, says it is all about women's empowerment. ""There is obviously some fear of the vagina and saying the word vagina,"" Ms Ensler told the BBC. ""It's not a slang word or dirty word it's a biological, anatomical word."" She said the play is being produced and performed by Ugandan women and it is not being forced on them. The four Ugandan NGOs organising the play intended to raise money to campaign to stop violence against women and to raise funds for the war-torn north of the country. ""I'm extremely outraged at the hypocrisy,"" the play's organiser in Uganda, Sarah Mukasa, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. ""I'm amazed that this country Uganda gives the impression that it is progressive and supports women's rights and the notions of free speech; yet when women want to share their stories the government uses the apparatus of state to shut us up.""" +entertainment,"Original Exorcist to be screened The original version of horror prequel Exorcist: The Beginning, dropped by producers over claims it was not scary enough, is to have its world premiere. The film, directed by Paul Schrader, will be screened on 18 March at the International Festival of Fantastic Film in Brussels. The psychological drama stars Stellan Skarsgard and foreruns the 1973 film. Schrader was replaced by director Renny Harlin who made a new version of the film which debuted in 2004. The prequel project was originally announced in 2001, with actor Liam Neeson in the lead role and John Frankenheimer as director. However Frankenheimer pulled out in 2002, a month before he died. Skarsgard then replaced Neeson in the role of Father Merrin, made famous by Max Von Sydow in the 1973 film. Principal footage was shot in Morocco and Rome at a reported cost of $32m. However, in August 2003 it emerged that producers Morgan Creek were shelving Schrader's version of the film, having complained it was not scary enough. As well as replacing Schrader with Harlin - the director behind Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger - the producers also changed most of the cast, but Swedish star Skarsgard stayed in the Merrin role. Harlin's film, released in the UK in October 2004, received lukewarm reviews but went on to make over $76m (£40.7m) worldwide. The festival screening will be the first time that Schrader's film has been seen in public. Reports that it will be released either in cinemas or on DVD have yet to be confirmed. Other films at the festival in the Belgium capital, which runs from 11-26 March, include the US horror hit Boogeyman and the forthcoming sequel Ring 2, as well as a selection of films adapted from the works of Jules Verne." +entertainment,"Da Vinci Code is 'lousy history' The plot of an international bestseller that thousands of readers are likely to receive as a Christmas present is 'laughable', a clergyman has said. The Da Vinci Code claims Jesus was not crucified, but married Mary Magdalene and died a normal death. It claims this was later covered up by the Church. The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Dr Tom Wright, described the novel as a ""great thriller"" but ""lousy history"". The book has sold more than seven million copies worldwide. Despite enjoying Dan Brown's conspiracy theory, the Bishop said there was a lack of evidence to back up its claims. Writing his Christmas message in the Northern Echo, the Bishop said: ""Conspiracy theories are always fun - fun to invent, fun to read, fun to fantasise about. ""Dan Brown is the best writer I've come across in the genre, but anyone who knows anything about 1st century history will see that this underlying material is laughable."" A great deal of credible evidence proves the Biblical version of Jesus' life was true, according to the Bishop. ""The evidence for Jesus and the origins of Christianity is astonishingly good,"" he said. ""We have literally a hundred times more early manuscripts for the gospels and letters in the New Testament than we have for the main classical authors like Cicero, Virgil and Tacitus. ""Historical research shows that they present a coherent and thoroughly credible picture of Jesus, with all sorts of incidental details that fit the time when he lived, and don't fit the world of later legend."" Brown's book has become a publishing phenomenon, consistently topping book charts in the UK and US. The Da Vinci Code has been translated into 42 languages and has spawned its own cottage industry of publications, including guides on to how to read the book, rebuttals and counter claims. The book, which has become an international best-seller in little over two years, is set to be made into a film starring Tom Hanks." +entertainment,"Robots march to US cinema summit Animated movie Robots has opened at the top of the US and Canada box office chart, taking $36.5m (£19m) on its first weekend on release. Featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Robin Williams and Mel Brooks, Robots follows a robot inventor who moves to a big city. Vin Diesel's family comedy The Pacifier fell to the number two spot, taking $18.1m (£9.4m). New Bruce Willis movie Hostage opened at number four with $9.8m (£5.1m). However, a recut version of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which featured less violence than last year's original movie, took just $239,850 (£125,000), despite opening in 957 cinemas. The new version of the film received little publicity and the original version is available across the US on DVD. ""We certainly had higher expectations than what we got,"" said Rob Schwartz, head of distribution for Newmarket Films, which released The Passion of the Christ. ""We were trying to get the film out there, hoping it would reach an audience that it didn't quite reach the first time around. It doesn't seem to have worked out quite as well as we had hoped."" Meanwhile, Will Smith comedy Hitch has become the top film at the global box office after taking an estimated $30.1m (£15.6m) over the weekend at cinemas outside North America, according to industry website Screen Daily. It has taken $65.5m (£34.1m) so far, buoyed by opening at number one in the UK last weekend and a successful run in Germany. The movie, which cost a reported $70m (£36.4m) to make, has taken $138m (£72m) in the US so far." +entertainment,"BBC denies Blackadder TV comeback The BBC has said there are no plans in the pipeline for a new series of hit comedy Blackadder, which ended in 1989. Tony Robinson, who played the servant Baldrick, told ITV1's This Morning the show's star, Rowan Atkinson, was ""more keen than he has been in the past"". Robinson added he would ""love"" to do another series, each of which was set in a different era, ranging from the 15th century to World War I. But the BBC said on Thursday there were no plans for a comeback. In the final series all the main characters were killed off charging towards German lines after being ordered out of their trench. The poignant finale was later voted the best farewell episode of a TV series. A host of other UK actors, including Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Miranda Richardson, also appeared in the show. Blackadder returned for a one-off special filmed to celebrate the arrival of the millennium in 1999. It was shown at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich before being screened on BSkyB." +entertainment,"Brando 'rejected Godfather role' Late film star Marlon Brando is said to have repeatedly turned down his Oscar-winning role in The Godfather. The actor's friend Budd Schulberg told Vanity Fair magazine that Brando's assistant suggested he read the novel. The actor repeatedly refused, throwing the book at her and saying: ""For the last time, I won't glorify the mafia"". But Brando, who died last July at the age of 80, eventually took the role of Don Corleone, winning him an Oscar in 1973 which he notoriously refused. The actor sent a young woman dressed in Native American costume to refuse the award on his behalf and to draw attention to the plight of Native Americans. Schulberg told the magazine that Brando's assistant realised the film star had warmed to the idea of The Godfather role when he sported a drawn-on pencil moustache and asked: ""How do I look?"" His assistant, Alice Marchak, said that he looked like George Raft, an actor famed for playing gangsters on the silver screen. Every time she went to see Brando from then on, she added, he was wearing a different gangster-style moustache. Brando was asked to screen test for the role in The Godfather, as studio executives were said to be reluctant for the actor to play the part following problems on the set of Brando's previous film Mutiny on the Bounty . In fact Brando's Academy Award triumph revived his career. The actor was nominated for an Oscar the following year for his role in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. Before his death, Brando granted gaming company Electronic Arts the rights to use his voice and image in a video game based on the Godfather film and book and recorded voice-overs which closely resembled his role as Don Corleone. Brando's co-stars from The Godfather, James Caan and Robert Duvall, will also reprise their roles for the video game, it was confirmed on Wednesday." +entertainment,"Day-Lewis set for Berlin honour Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is to be presented with an award for his career in film at the Berlin Film Festival. The 47-year-old, whose credits include his Oscar-winning performance in My Left Foot, will be presented with the Berlinale Camera award on 15 February. The honour, awarded since 1986, honours figures in cinema that the festival feels ""particularly indebted to"". Man to Man, a historical epic starring Kristin Scott Thomas, opens the German festival on 10 February. A candid documentary about the life and career of singer George Michael, A Different Story will also be screened at the 10-day event. ' Day-Lewis has competed four times at the Berlin Film Festival, with films In The Name Of The Father (1994), The Crucible (1997), The Boxer (1998) and Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York (2003). The festival praises him for his ""sensational start"" with roles in My Beautiful Launderette and costume classic A Room With A View, and a ""great number of celebrated roles"" in subsequent productions. Japan's oldest film studio will also be honoured along with Day-Lewis. Shochiku film studios, which was founded 110 years ago, will become the first cinematic institution to receive the Berlinale Camera award. Famous Japanese directors including Akira Kurosawa have had films produced at the studio." +entertainment,"DJ double act revamp chart show DJ duo JK and Joel are taking over BBC Radio 1's flagship chart show on Sunday, adding showbiz news, celebrity interviews and between-song banter. They hope to boost ratings for the long-running show, which has been overtaken in popularity by independent radio's Hit 40 UK rundown. ""Radio 1's chart show is an institution and remains the station's single most popular show,"" says JK, also known as Jason King. ""For years people have been tuning in at four o'clock with their tape recorders ready to record their favourite tunes. Not that I ever did that. ""But things have moved on a lot now so it was time for a change."" That change involved ejecting previous host Wes Butters and relocating King and DJ partner Joel Ross from their weekend afternoon Radio 1 slot. The pair have worked together for a decade - meeting on Viking Radio in Hull before moving to Manchester station Key 103 and winning two Sony Radio awards. They also presented gadget series Playboyz and car show Motor Maniacs for cable TV channel Granada Men and Motors, and Pure Soap on BBC Three. On the revamped chart show their cheeky, laddish banter will punctuate star interviews and competitions, film and DVD charts plus a look at future single releases, in addition to the singles chart itself. ""The chart rundown is no longer the only point of the programme,"" says Ross. ""The show used to be the only way to discover who was in the Top 40. Now you can just click on the internet to find that out, so the show has plenty of extra items too."" The show's reduced reliance upon the Top 40 also reflects the fact that music fans are now more likely to download songs in digital format rather than buy them on compact disc, vinyl or cassette. ""I personally buy downloads rather than CD singles,"" says 27-year-old Ross. ""Even my grandma can download songs now. JK is still struggling with the technology, though."" ""But it's premature for people to say that the singles chart is dead,"" Ross adds. ""While sales of singles on traditional formats are down, interest in songs has been revived by download sales, which will be incorporated into our main chart rundown from April. ""Music fans still want to know what is the most popular song of the week."" Ross will be plumping for chart success from rapper Verbalicious and the Stereophonics on Sunday, while King is more of an R&B and dance music fan. ""So listeners will get the advantage of both our music tastes,"" says King, 30, who describes outgoing host Butters as ""an extremely professional and competent broadcaster"". ""The advantage Joel and I have is that we're a double act, with a rapport between us that makes the show much more interactive,"" King says. ""Wes has a great broadcasting career ahead of him. And if not, I could always use a cleaner,"" he jokes. Ross says the pair have done their best to ignore the weight of expectation placed upon the revamped show. ""Other people can worry about that, we are going to continue doing what we do well,"" he says. ""At the end of the day this is a radio show that is meant to be entertaining. Nobody died.""" +entertainment,"Children vote Shrek 2 best film Young UK film fans voted animated Hollywood hit Shrek 2 best film at the children's Bafta awards on Sunday. More than 6,000 children voted in the only category chosen by fans. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, runner-up in the poll, was the choice of the Bafta experts who named it best feature film. BBC One Saturday morning show Dick and Dom In Da Bungalow won two awards - best entertainment and best presenters for Richard McCourt and Dominic Wood. Former Playschool presenter Floella Benjamin was awarded the Special Award for outstanding creative contribution to children's film and television. She first appeared on Playschool 25 years ago and was made an OBE in 2001 for services to broadcasting. South American-themed cartoon Joko! Jakamoko! Toto! won the honour for pre-school animation and its writer Tony Collingwood for original writer. Debbie Isitt won the award for best adapted writer for her work with Jacqueline Wilson's The Illustrated Mum, which won the award for best schools drama. Schools' Factual (primary) - Thinking Skills: Think About It - Hiding Places Schools' Factual (secondary) - In Search of the Tartan Turban Pre-School Live Action - Balamory Animation - Brush Head Drama - Featherboy Factual - Serious Desert Interactive Bafta - King Arthur International category - 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter" +entertainment,"Grammys honour soul star Charles The memory of soul legend Ray Charles dominated the music world's leading music ceremony on Sunday as he was given eight posthumous Grammy Awards. Charles, who died in 2004, got honours including record and album of the year, while Alicia Keys and actor Jamie Foxx performed a musical tribute to him. R&B star Keys won four awards herself at the Grammy ceremony in Los Angeles. U2, Usher, Norah Jones and Kanye West got three each. West led the race going into the ceremony with 10 nominations. Charles' last album, Genius Loves Company, a collection of duets that has sold more than two million copies, was named album of the year and best pop vocal album. His song Here We Go Again with Norah Jones won record of the year and best pop vocal collaboration, while Heaven Help Us All with Gladys Knight picked up best gospel performance. Jones said: ""I'm glad he's getting recognised, because of who he is and how much I love him."" Actor Jamie Foxx - who is nominated for an Oscar for playing Charles in the hit movie Ray - dedicated a rendition of Georgia on My Mind to ""old friends"". Keys, looking to replicate her Grammys success of 2002, when she won five, picked up best R&B song for You Don't Know My Name and best R&B album for The Diary of Alicia Keys. She also shared the award for best R&B vocal performance by a duo or group with Usher for My Boo. Usher's other victories were for best contemporary R&B album for Confessions and best rap/sung collaboration for Yeah!, featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris. Kanye West dominated the rap categories, winning best rap song for Jesus Walks and best rap album for The College Dropout. But in one of the night's biggest shocks, he lost out in the battle to be named best new artist to pop rock act Maroon 5. Vertigo by rock giants U2 won three trophies - best rock song, best short video and best rock vocal performance by a duo or group. One of the other main awards, song of the year, went to US singer-songwriter John Mayer for Daughters. Mayer also won best male pop vocal performance. Britney Spears picked up her first ever Grammy for her song Toxic, which was named best dance recording. Rod Stewart also won the first Grammy of his career, getting the best traditional pop album award for Stardust... The Great American Songbook: Volume III. In 2003, Stewart said he was ""astounded"" he had never won a Grammy - but ""they tend not to give it to the British unless you're Sting"". There were few other high-profile British victors this year. Annie Lennox, metal group Motorhead and dance act Basement Jaxx all took home trophies. But Elvis Costello, who had four nominations, and Joss Stone and Franz Ferdinand, who were both up for three awards, got nothing. Beach Boys veteran Brian Wilson was another first-time winner - for best rock instrumental performance. ""It represents triumph and achievement in music that I feel that I deserved, and I'm really glad I won,"" he said. A live recording of composer John Adams' 11 September tribute, On the Transmigration of Souls, performed by the New York Philharmonic, won three classical prizes. And former US President Bill Clinton picked up the second Grammy of his career, winning the spoken word award for the audio version of his autobiography My Life." +entertainment,"Films on war triumph at Sundance A study of the United States at war in the past 50 years has picked up one of the main awards at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival in Utah, in the US. Why We Fight scooped the grand jury prize for documentaries at the world's leading independent film festival. British director Sean McAllister's The Liberace of Baghdad - about a pianist in war-torn Iraq - won a special prize in the world documentary category. Both Why We Fight and The Liberace of Baghdad were made for the BBC. Why We Fight is due to be screened on BBC Four in March. The Sundance festival was founded by actor Robert Redford in 1981. This year's festival - which ended on Sunday after a 11-day run - has been dominated by the themes of war and politics. In the new world cinema drama category, the Angolan film The Hero triumphed to win the grand jury prize. The film - an Angolan/French/Portuguese production - tells the story of a veteran of the country's civil war who returns home to face a new battle of survival. Twelve films competing in the new world cinema documentary category focused on countries and people under siege. Finnish film The Three Rooms of Melancholia looks at the war in Chechnya and Shake Hands With The Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire tells the story of a UN mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. But it was Dutch documentary Shape of the Moon - a study of an extended family in Indonesia - which took the top prize. Meanwhile, French-Israeli production Wall, which looks at Israel's controversial security wall separating it from the Palestinian territories, picked up a world cinema special jury prize for documentaries. In the main drama category, Forty Shades of Blue was named winner of the grand jury prize. The film tells the tale of a forbidden tug-of-love between a father, his Russian immigrant girlfriend and his son. During its 24-year history, the Sundance Film Festival has showcased successes such as Reservoir Dogs, The Blair Witch Project and The Full Monty. Last year's festival provided a platform for hits such as Open Water, Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State and Super-Size Me. The festival is held in the mountain resort of Park City, east of Salt Lake City, which sees its population rise from 7,500 to 45,000 during the festival." +entertainment,"Ocean's Twelve raids box office Ocean's Twelve, the crime caper sequel starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, has gone straight to number one in the US box office chart. It took $40.8m (£21m) in weekend ticket sales, according to studio estimates. The sequel follows the master criminals as they try to pull off three major heists across Europe. It knocked last week's number one, National Treasure, into third place. Wesley Snipes' Blade: Trinity was in second, taking $16.1m (£8.4m). Rounding out the top five was animated fable The Polar Express, starring Tom Hanks, and festive comedy Christmas with the Kranks. Ocean's Twelve box office triumph marks the fourth-biggest opening for a December release in the US, after the three films in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The sequel narrowly beat its 2001 predecessor, Ocean's Eleven which took $38.1m (£19.8m) on its opening weekend and $184m (£95.8m) in total. A remake of the 1960s film, starring Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, Ocean's Eleven was directed by Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh returns to direct the hit sequel which reunites Clooney, Pitt and Roberts with Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and Elliott Gould. Catherine Zeta-Jones joins the all-star cast. ""It's just a fun, good holiday movie,"" said Dan Fellman, president of distribution at Warner Bros. However, US critics were less complimentary about the $110m (£57.2m) project, with the Los Angeles Times labelling it a ""dispiriting vanity project"". A milder review in the New York Times dubbed the sequel ""unabashedly trivial""." +entertainment,"Holmes wins '2004 top TV moment' Sprinter Kelly Holmes' Olympic victory has been named the top television moment of 2004 in a BBC poll. Holmes' 800m gold medal victory beat favourite moments from drama, comedy and factual programmes, as voted by television viewers. Natasha Kaplinsky's Strictly Come Dancing win was top entertainment moment and a Little Britain breast feeding sketch won the comedy prize. The 2004 TV Moments will be shown on BBC One at 2000 GMT on Wednesday. Double gold medal winner Holmes topped the best sports moment category, beating Maria Sharapova's Wimbledon triumph and Matthew Pinsent's rowing victory at the Olympics. She then went on to take the overall prize of Golden TV Moment. The sight of former royal correspondent Jennie Bond with dozens of rats crawling over her in ITV's I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here was named best factual entertainment moment. Michael Buerk's return to Ethiopia, 20 years after originally reporting its famine, topped the factual category for BBC programme This World. Long-running soap EastEnders won the best popular drama moment title when character Dot confided in Den Watts that she was unwell." +entertainment,"Usher leads Soul Train shortlist Chart-topping R&B star Usher is leading the field at this year's Soul Train Awards, with five nominations. The singer, whose album Confessions has sold close to eight million copies in the US alone, is already in the running for eight Grammy Awards. Newcomer Ciara - who recently beat Elvis Presley to the UK number one spot - has four nominations, while Alicia Keys has three. The Soul Train Awards ceremony will take place in Hollywood on 28 February. Usher has already swept the board at the American Music Awards with four titles, including two best album awards. His Soul Train nominations include best male R&B-soul album and best male R&B-soul single for Confessions Part II. Usher's work with rappers Ludacris & Lil Jon won him nominations for best R&B-soul or rap music video and best R&B-soul or rap dance cut for the song Yeah!, while his duet with Keys, My Boo, earned the pair a nod for best R&B-soul single. Keys' album The Diary of Alicia Keys was also up for best R&B-soul album by a female. Her song If I Ain't Got You received a best single nomination in the female R&B-soul category. Newcomer Ciara's four nominations include best female R&B-soul album and best R&B-soul or rap by a new artist. Beyonce, Prince, Destiny's Child, Jill Scott and New Edition all received two nominations each. The Soul Train Music Awards, which started 18 years ago, celebrates artists in R&B, hip-hop, rap and gospel music." +entertainment,"Bafta to hand out movie honours Movie stars from across the globe are attending this year's Bafta film award ceremony. British stars Imelda Staunton and Clive Owen are hoping for awards at the Odeon in London's Leicester Square. Hollywood stars Leonardo diCaprio, Pierce Brosnan, Christian Slater and Richard Gere are also in the audience for the biggest night in UK film. Hollywood blockbuster The Aviator, starring DiCaprio, leads the field with 14 nominations, including best movie. It is up against Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Neverland, The Motorcycle Diaries and British film Vera Drake, which has 11 nominations. Staunton is one of the favourites to land the best actress award for her gritty role as a backstreet abortionist in the small-budget film. She arrived at the ceremony wearing a green silk and chiffon low cut evening dress decorated with beads. ""It's lovely to be here at home, to be on British soil. It's very nice indeed,"" she told reporters. Asked whether she was nervous about her best actress nomination she said: ""It's out of my hands, there's nothing I can do. I'm here with a lot of mates and we're going to have a very nice evening."" Other nominees in the best actress category include Charlize Theron for Monster, Ziyi Zhang for House of Flying Daggers and UK star Kate Winslet, who has two nods for her roles in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Finding Neverland. DiCaprio faces competition from Bernal, Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey and Johnny Depp in the best actor category. The crowed screamed when he arrived on the red carpet.""It's unlike anything I've ever encountered. It's very intense and very loud,"" he told the BBC. ""It's the first time I've come to the Baftas because it's the first time I've been nominated...I've appreciated British cinema for a long time and to be recognised like this is a special honour."" Gere, who is presenting the best film award, said: ""It's a big party, I had no idea it was going to be this big. It's crazy, I think it's bigger than the Academy Awards."" British actor Owen is hoping to repeat his Golden Globe success with a best supporting actor award for his role in Closer. He raised one of the biggest cheers of the night when he walked down the red carpet. ""I was always a huge fan of Closer as a play, so when I got the call to appear in the film, it was a huge thrill for me,"" he said. ""The whole experience has been a treat and I'm very fortunate to have been given the role."" His co-star Natalie Portman is up against Blanchett, Heather Craney, Julie Cristie and Meryl Streep in the best supporting actress category. Mike Leigh is up for the best director award for Vera Drake, alongside Martin Scorsese for The Aviator, Michael Mann for Collateral, Michel Gondry for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Marc Forster for Finding Neverland. The Orange British Academy Film Awards will be shown on BBC One at 2010 GMT." +entertainment,"Celebrities get to stay in jungle All four contestants still remain in I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here as no evictions were made on the television show on Saturday. Contestants Paul Burrell, Joe Pasquale, Janet Street-Porter and Fran Cosgrave were told by hosts Ant and Dec. Natalie Appleton's decision to quit the show last Monday had given them all a stay of execution, the group were told. Model Sophie Anderton was the last person to be voted off the ITV1 show, set in the Australian jungle. The four remaining stars will do a joint Bushtucker Trial on Sunday. Former All Saints singer Natalie Appleton,31, walked out of the show after learning she would face a fifth so-called Bushtucker Trial. The celebrities are chosen by the viewers to pass trials in order to win food for the rest of the camp. Appleton had endured a torrid time during the programme, including a well-publicised row with Sophie Anderton. And on 26 November singer Brian Harvey quit as a contestant after he had a blazing row with Janet Street-Porter." +entertainment,"UK Directors Guild nominees named Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood are among the nominees for the top prize at the Directors Guild of Great Britain awards, now in their second year. The Oscar rivals will compete for the international film prize at the ceremony, to be held at the Curzon Mayfair cinema in London on 20 March. Other nominees include Bill Condon for Kinsey and Michel Gondry for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Mike Leigh's Vera Drake is among the nominees for best British film. The awards will see Eastwood and Scorsese once again competing for the directing prize, following last weekend's Oscars. Clint Eastwood won best director for Million Dollar Baby, beating Scorsese who was nominated for a fifth time for the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. Mike Leigh will compete for the British film prize with Shane Meadows for Dead Man's Shoes, Roger Michell For Enduring Love and My Summer Of Love director Pawel Pawlikowski. Nominees for best foreign film include Spain's Pedro Almodovar for Bad Education and Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai for 2046. In the TV categories, comedy series Early Doors and The Alan Clark Diaries will compete for the best directing award for a 30-minute television show, while the directors of Shameless, Hustle and Bodies are all nominated for the 60-minute television prize. The directors of Omagh and Sex Traffic are among the nominees for a television movie or mini-series. American Beauty's Sam Mendes will receive a lifetime achievement award for his work in film and theatre, while theatre director Simon McBurney will be given an award for outstanding directorial achievement." +entertainment,"Byrds producer Melcher dies at 62 Record producer Terry Melcher, who was behind hits by the Byrds, Ry Cooder and the Beach Boys, has died aged 62. The son of actress Doris Day, he helped write Kokomo for the Beach Boys, which was used in the movie Cocktail, earning a 1988 Golden Globe nomination. He also produced Mr Tambourine Man for the Byrds, as well as other his such as Turn, Turn Turn. Melcher died on Friday night at his home in Beverly Hills, California, after a long battle with skin cancer. He joined Columbia Records as a producer in the mid-1960s, and also worked with Gram Parsons and the Mamas and the Papas. Earlier in his career, Melcher had hits as part of duo called Bruce & Terry, with future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, which evolved into the Rip Chords group. Melcher also worked closely with his mother, producing The Doris Day Show and helping to run her charitable activities. In 1969 his name became linked with the Charles Manson murders, which saw the deaths of actress Sharon Tate and four of her friends at a home which Melcher once rented. Rumours circulated that Melcher - who knew Manson - was the killer's real target, because he had turned him down for a record contract. But Los Angeles police discounted the rumours, pointing out Melcher had moved to Malibu, and Manson knew of his new address." +entertainment,"Artists' secret postcards on sale Postcards by artists including Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin have sold just hours after the opening of the Royal Academy of Arts annual Secrets sale. The identity of the artist remains unknown until each work is bought and the signature is revealed on the back. ""There are still some big names left, such as Mario Testino,"" said RCA spokeswoman Sue Bradburn. All postcards are priced at £35. The sale opened at 8am on Friday and will close at 6pm on Saturday. Ms Bradburn said there was a big queue at the start of the sale but it had now gone down. She said the people that had bought the famous name postcards had arrived early and had spent time studying each work. ""They would have known what to look for."" The exhibition has been open for viewing since 19 November. Film director Ken Loach, fashion designer Hussein Chalayan and former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon have all designed postcards for the sale. Some of the contributing artists are students or recent graduates of the Royal College of Art and other leading art colleges. Money raised from the sale will go towards the RCA's Fine Art Student Award Fund which supports students with grants and bursaries. The famous sale is now in its 11th year." +entertainment,"Sir Paul rocks Super Bowl crowds Sir Paul McCartney wowed fans with a live mini-concert at American football's Super Bowl - and avoided any Janet Jackson-style controversies. The 62-year-old sang Hey Jude and other Beatles songs in a 12-minute set at half-time during the game in Florida. Last year, Jackson exposed a breast during a dance routine, causing outrage among millions of TV viewers and landing the CBS TV network a fine. Sir Paul, however, did nothing more racy than remove his jacket as he sang. Organisers were widely considered to be playing it safe this year by booking 62-year-old Sir Paul for his second Super Bowl show. Three years ago, he was invited to perform at the first Super Bowl after the September 11 attacks and performed his specially-written song Freedom. This time, he started off the show, at the Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, with the Beatles numbers Drive My Car and Get Back. He then performed a mellow version of Live And Let Die, the James Bond theme he recorded with the band Wings. Finally, he closed the show with a rousing version of Hey Jude. The former Beatle resisted any temptation to refer to Janet Jackson's headline-grabbing performance last year, instead keeping banter between songs to a minimum in order to squeeze as much music as he could into his slot. The singer removed his black jacket halfway through the show - but any fans hoping for a second ""Nipple-gate"" were to be disappointed as he kept his red sweatshirt on underneath. Earlier, the Black Eyed Peas and Alicia Keys had provided the night's other high-profile entertainment by performing in a pre-game show. Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie was dressed in a tight orange top and purple hotpants, but nothing in her performance was likely to upset TV watchdogs. After the controversy last year - which saw CBS fined a record $550,000 (£292,000) by federal regulators - Super Bowl organisers had turned to producer Don Mischer to oversee this year's half-time show. His previous production credits included Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. The Super Bowl is watched by an audience of 144.4 million in the US, with many of the people watching are said to tune in specifically to see the entertainment put on around the event. Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, Diana Ross, Gloria Estefan and Phil Collins are among the stars who have previously graced the Super Bowl stage." +entertainment,"Pete Doherty misses bail deadline Singer Pete Doherty will have to spend the weekend in jail because he could not come up with £150,000 bond money for his bail on time. The former Libertines singer had been granted bail with curfew restrictions at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on charges of robbery and blackmail. But his lawyer said the money could not be raised on time. Mr Doherty, 25, was arrested following an alleged incident in a London hotel on Wednesday evening. Musician Alan Wass, 23, also of north London, appeared in court accused of the same offences. Magistrates imposed a range of bail conditions on Mr Doherty including a curfew between 2200 and 0700, except when he attends a drug rehabilitation centre. He was told he would not be able to leave his home without being accompanied by a security firm. He must also surrender his passport and report daily to a local police station. Mr Wass was also given a curfew and told to surrender his passport. Mr Doherty left The Libertines at the end of June 2004, but continued performing with his band Babyshambles. The singer, who has been linked to supermodel Kate Moss, was arrested after police were called to the Islington hotel in response to claims that a man had been assaulted. A man in his 30s was later taken to University College Hospital, London, with facial injuries, before being discharged. A lawyer representing Mr Doherty and Mr Wass said outside court the pair strenuously denied the charges." +entertainment,"Elvis fans hold birthday bash Elvis fans around the world have been marking the legendary singer's 70th birthday on Saturday. A three-day Elvis convention took place in Blackpool, England, over the weekend with the aim of finding the best European Elvis impersonator. His Graceland, Tennessee, home was the focus for US celebrations with four days of events including a concert by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Elvis' single Jailhouse Rock became the UK's number one on Sunday. Fans in France celebrated with a tribute concert by Elvis cover bands and a special exhibition of memorabilia is on display in Bonn, Germany. Jailhouse Rock is now the 999th number one single in UK pop history. Record company SonyBMG are releasing Elvis' 18 number one singles at the rate of one a week in Britain, complete with original artwork and a collector's box. Hit single One Night will follow next week - with the chance of becoming the 1,000th number one as interest surrounding Elvis' birthday grows. HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said: ""It would be a fantastic and truly fitting way to celebrate Elvis' landmark birthday.""" +entertainment,"Housewives lift Channel 4 ratings The debut of US television hit Desperate Housewives has helped lift Channel 4's January audience share by 12% compared to last year. Other successes such as Celebrity Big Brother and The Simpsons have enabled the broadcaster to surpass BBC2 for the first month since last July. However the channel's share of the audience fell from 11.2% to 9.6% last month in comparison with January 2004. Celebrity Big Brother attracted less viewers than its 2002 series. Comedy drama Desperate Housewives managed to pull in five million viewers at one point during its run to date, attracting a quarter of the television audience. The two main television channels, BBC1 and ITV1, have both seen their monthly audience share decline in a year on year comparison for January, while Five's proportion remained the same at a slender 6.3%. Digital multi-channel TV is continuing to be the strongest area of growth, with the BBC reporting Freeview box ownership of five million, including one million sales in the last portion of 2004. Its share of the audience soared by 20% in January 2005 compared with last year, and currently stands at an average of 28.6%." +entertainment,"Sideways dominates Spirit awards The comedy Sideways has dominated this year's Independent Spirit Awards, winning all six of the awards for which it was nominated. It was named best film while Alexander Payne won best director and best screenplay, along with writing partner Jim Taylor. It also won acting awards for stars Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen. Sideways is tipped to do well at Sunday's Oscars, with five nominations. The awards, now in their 20th year, are given to films made outside the traditional studio system, and are traditionally held the day before the Oscars. Other winners included Catalina Sandino Moreno, who took best actress for her role as a drug smuggler in the Colombian drama Maria Full of Grace. Moreno is also nominated for best actress at the Oscars. The best first screenplay award went to Joshua Marston for Maria Full of Grace. Scrubs star Zach Braff won the award for best first feature for Garden State, which he wrote, directed and starred in. Oscar-nominated euthanasia film The Sea Inside from Spain won best foreign film, while Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster was awarded best documentary. Actor Rodrigo de la Serna took the best debut performance prize for The Motorcycle Diaries. The awards are voted for by the 9,000 members of the Independent Feature Project/Los Angeles, which includes actors, directors, writers and other industry professionals. Last year's big winner, Lost In Translation, went on to win the Oscar for best original screenplay, for writer-director Sofia Coppola." +entertainment,"Beastie Boys win sampling battle US rappers Beastie Boys have won their long-running battle over the use of a sample in their song Pass the Mic. The punk-rappers used three notes of music from flautist James Newton's Choir in their track from 1992. Although the group had paid a licence fee for the sample, Mr Newton said his copyright had been infringed. But the US Court of Appeal upheld its original decision that the group did not have to pay an additional fee to license the underlying composition. The Beastie Boys - Michael Diamond, Adam Horowitz, and Adam Yauch - are considered to be one of early pioneers of sampling music. Sampling, now a standard practice among musicians, involves taking a segment of one track and using it in a different song. A three-judge panel of the court held in 2003 that the band had abided by copyright protections by paying a licence fee for a sample of Mr Newton's recording. That finding upheld a lower-court dismissal of the case in favour of the Beastie Boys. ""We hold that Beastie Boys' use of a brief segment of that composition, consisting of three notes separated by a half-step over a background C note, is not sufficient to sustain a claim for infringement of Newton's copyright,"" Chief Judge Mary Schroeder wrote in her opinion. Mr Newton is a critically acclaimed jazz and classical flutist, composer, performer, and university professor. Mr Newton and the Beastie Boys were not available for comment." +entertainment,"No ads for Passion Oscar campaign Producer Mel Gibson will not be using paid advertisements to promote The Passion of the Christ to voters in next year's Academy Awards. Gibson and his Icon Productions partner Bruce Davey said they would not be campaigning in print, radio or TV for success at the Oscars in February. ""This film should be judged on its artistic merit, not who spends more money on advertising,"" Davey said. But DVDs will be sent to Oscar voters, who will be invited to screenings. Icon spent very little on advertising the film, which deals with the last hours of Jesus Christ's life, when it was released earlier this year - instead, it made the film available for special screenings at churches. It went on to gross over $600m (£322m) in ticket sales worldwide. Over recent years, marketing films to the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has become a multi-million dollar industry. Last year, the academy formed a committee to tighten the rules after the campaigns spilled over into personal attacks between studios. Academy president Frank Pierson praised Gibson's move for working to restore the Oscars as a ""celebration and appreciation of excellence,"" and resisting the ""crass commercialisation that was threatening the integrity of the award""." +entertainment,"Incredibles win animation awards The Incredibles movie has beaten Shrek 2 to the main prizes at Hollywood's animation awards, the Annies. The superhero film was named best animated feature while Brad Bird won best director, writer and voice actor for his role as designer Edna Mode. The Incredibles won a total of 10 awards - but Shrek 2, which had seven nominations, went home empty-handed. The two movies will compete with Shark Tale in the best animated film category of the Oscars at the end of February. The Incredibles' awards came despite Shrek 2's greater box office success. Shrek 2 took $881m (£468m) around the world, compared with $576m (£306m) for The Incredibles. SpongeBob SquarePants was named best animated TV show while TV comedy King of the Hill picked up two prizes including one for actress Brittany Murphy's voice work. Tom Kenny, who provides the voice for SpongeBob SquarePants, hosted Sunday's ceremony at the Alex Theater, Los Angeles. The awards are handed out by the International Animated Film Society. Finding Nemo won nine Annies last year." +entertainment,"Hollywood hunts hits at Sundance The Sundance Film Festival, the movie industry's top destination for uncovering the next independent hits and new talent, opens on Thursday. The event will see screen executives decamp from Hollywood to Park City, Utah, for 11 days to search for low-key movies that could make it big in 2005. Open Water, Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State and Super-Size Me were all snapped up at last year's festival. But stars like Keanu Reeves and Pierce Brosnan also have films showing there. The festival is being opened by a screening of quirky comedy Happy Endings, starring former Friends actress Lisa Kudrow and Maggie Gyllenhaal, on Thursday. Kudrow's Friends co-star, David Schwimmer, plays a divorced drunkard in Duane Hopwood, while Brosnan stars as a hit man in comedy The Matador. Keanu Reeves appears in coming-of-age tale Thumbsucker while Kevin Costner and Michael Keaton are among the other big names whose films are involved. Robert Redford founded Sundance in 1981 and it has gone on to showcase future successes such as Reservoir Dogs, The Blair Witch Project and The Full Monty. But it has received criticism that it has become more commercial and mainstream over the years. ""As much as the press argues that Sundance has completely changed, it hasn't changed that much,"" festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said. ""It's still a place for discovery. It's a place for common ground among film-makers and audiences more than it is the celebrity stuff."" Other films generating interest before this year's festival include Hustle & Flow, about an aspiring rapper, The Squid and the Whale, an autobiographical film by writer-director Noah Baumbach, and comedy/drama Pretty Persuasion. It also has two new international cinema competitions." +entertainment,"Doves soar to UK album summit Manchester rock band Doves have entered the UK album chart at number one with their new release, Some Cities. The trio replace flamboyant US act Scissor Sisters at the top. The album follows single Black and White Town, which reached number six. R&B star Nelly has the new number one single with Over and Over, which sees him team up with Tim McGraw. Girls Aloud, Akon and Kaiser Chiefs all have new singles in the top ten, as do Futureheads and Usher. The latest Elvis Presley re-release, (Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame, entered the chart at number three, one place ahead of Girls Aloud's Wake Me Up. Hip-hop performer Akon's Locked Up is at number five, while hotly-tipped Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs have their second chart hit at number six with Oh My God. Futureheads' cover of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love entered the chart at number eight, while Usher's Caught Up was a new entry at number nine. In the album chart, operatic quartet Il Divo's eponymous debut rose 23 places to number six, while crooner Tony Christie's Definitive Collection is a new entry at number 10, making it the highest-charting album of the singer's career." +entertainment,"Briton wins short film Oscar Three of the five nominees in the live-action short film category at this year's Oscars were British. For Andrea Arnold, who won the category, Ashvin Kumar and Gary McKendry the past month has thrust them from relative obscurity into the limelight. Arnold's gritty drama Wasp is about a single mother living on the breadline, while Kumar's Little Terrorist follows a young Pakistani Muslim boy, who gets stuck on the wrong side of the heavily armed Indian border. McKendry's entry, Everything In This Country Must, forces British soldiers and Catholics to challenge their relationship during the troubles in Northern Ireland. Last week, the trio attended an official screening of all the nominated short films at the Academy's headquarters in Beverly Hills. ""I felt so privileged to have a thousand people watching my film on the biggest screen I've ever seen,"" says Arnold. Set in her native Dartford, Wasp tells the story of a young mum, who, unable to find a babysitter, leaves her four young daughters outside a pub while she's on a date. The image that sparked the film was that of a wasp crawling into a baby's mouth. ""The other nominees said they made their films for this reason or that - they had something to say. But I just start with an image I can't shake off, work outwards from that and see what comes out,"" she explains. Since she presented children's TV shows Number 73 and Motormouth in the 1980s, Arnold has kept a low profile and is having trouble adapting to this sudden onslaught of attention. ""I'm not interested in the publicity. It's not my personality. I'm overwhelmed by all the fuss,"" she said. ""It's all a bit like a beauty contest - all the films are great and so different. ""But even though my film has won 30 awards worldwide (including one at Sundance last month), I'd still be proud of it - even if it hadn't won any."" Asked what the nomination means to her, Arnold says she feels ""flattered and honoured"". ""We've all been overwhelmed by the response and can't get it in perspective yet. I'm still reeling."" And she won't commit to an opinion of Hollywood yet. ""I'm just in the middle of it, living moment to moment, day to day."" But despite her reservations about the Academy Awards and the media frenzy that surrounds it, she accepts that it has opened doors for her. ""People will definitely listen to what I want to do now, and the phone didn't stop ringing for a week after I got nominated."" As for the future, Arnold firmly believes that you often get a stronger vision of the world with short films. ""You're left more to your own devices, without people interfering as much."" That said, she is currently working on a feature film with Dogville and Dancer In The Dark director Lars Von Trier." +entertainment,"Carry On star Patsy Rowlands dies Actress Patsy Rowlands, known to millions for her roles in the Carry On films, has died at the age of 71. Rowlands starred in nine of the popular Carry On films, alongside fellow regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor. She also carved out a successful television career, appearing for many years in ITV's well-loved comedy Bless This House. Rowlands died in Hove on Saturday morning, her agent said. Born in January 1934, Rowlands won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Speech and Drama scholarship when she was just 15. After spending several years at the Players Theatre in London, she made her film debut in 1963 in Tom Jones, directed by Tony Richardson. She made her first Carry On film in 1969 where she appeared in Carry On Again Doctor. Rowlands played the hard-done-by wife or the put-upon employee as a regular Carry On star. She also appeared in Carry On at your Convenience, Carry On Matron and Carry On Loving, as well as others. In recent years she appeared in BBC mini-series The Cazalets and played Mrs Potts in the London stage version of Beauty and the Beast. Agent Simon Beresford said: ""She was just an absolutely favourite client She never complained about anything, particularly when she was ill, she was an old trouper. ""She was of the old school - she had skills from musical theatre and high drama, that is why she worked with the great and the good of directors. ""She didn't mind always being recognised for the Carry On films because she thoroughly enjoyed making them. She was a really lovely person and she will be much missed."" Her last appearance on stage was as Mrs Pearce in the award-winning production of My Fair Lady at the National Theatre. Previously married, she leaves one son, Alan. Her funeral will be a private, family occasion, with a memorial service at a later date." +entertainment,"Keanu Reeves given Hollywood star Actor Keanu Reeves, best known for his role in the Matrix movies, has been awarded a star on the prestigious Hollywood Walk of Fame. The 40-year-old attended the unveiling of the star with his mother, Patricia, and thanked her for inspiring him to become an actor. ""When I was 15 years old I asked my mom if it was OK to be an actor,"" Reeves said. ""She said: 'Whatever you want'."" His star is the 2,277th to be embedded in the pavement on Hollywood Boulevard. The actor, who was born in the Lebanese capital Beirut, also spoke of how he dropped out of school to pursue an acting career. ""Hollywood was calling,"" he said, ""So I got in my car, a 1969 British racing green Volvo with holes in the floor and bricks holding up the seats. I was a young man full of hopes and dreams."" Reeves first found fame in the teen comedy Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and went on to combine such blockbusters as Speed, The Devil's Advocate and the Matrix series, with smaller films including My Own Private Idaho. More recently he was seen in Something's Gotta Give alongside Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. His next film, the supernatural thriller Constantine, is released in the US later this month and opens in the UK in March." +entertainment,"Actor Scott is new Bond favourite Bookmaker William Hill has stopped taking bets on who will be the next James Bond, following a succession of large wagers on actor Dougray Scott. The firm closed the book on Friday, saying ""insider information"" could have contributed to the number of bets. ""In the past gambles like this have often been right,"" William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said. The closing list gave Scott odds of 6-9, followed by Oscar nominee Clive Owen at 5-2. Scott first found fame in the TV series Soldier Soldier and has since then starred in such films as Mission Impossible II and the wartime drama Enigma. Mr Adams said one punter had placed a bet of £870 on the 39-year-old actor at odds of 8-1. ""She told us she had some inside information, perhaps she knew he had been to a casting, but she wouldn't say,"" he said. Others thought to be in the running include Star Wars actor Ewan McGregor and Australian star Hugh Jackman, both of whom have odds of 4-1. Colin Farrell, Jude Law and Troy star Eric Bana have also been tipped for the role in the past. A large number of bets on actor Colin Salmon to become the first black James Bond were dismissed as a publicity stunt a month ago. The next Bond film, originally due for release in 2005, has been delayed until 2006 due to Sony's takeover of the MGM studio. The most recent, Die Another Day, was released in late 2002 and saw Pierce Brosnan make his final appearance as the secret agent. The actor was originally due to make a fifth appearance as Bond, but was released from his contract in 2004." +entertainment,"Stars gear up for Bafta ceremony Film stars from across the globe are preparing to walk the red carpet at this year's Bafta award ceremony. The 2005 Orange British Academy Film Awards are being held at The Odeon in London's Leicester Square. A host of Hollywood stars, including Cate Blanchett, Leonardo DiCaprio, Keanu Reeves and Richard Gere, are expected to attend Saturday's ceremony. Hosted by Stephen Fry, the glittering ceremony will be broadcast on BBC One at 2010 GMT. Other actors expected to add to the glamour of the biggest night in UK film are Gael Garcia Bernal, Imelda Staunton, Diane Kruger, Christian Slater, Anjelica Huston, Helen Mirren and former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan. Hollywood blockbuster The Aviator, starring DiCaprio, leads the field with 14 nominations, including best film. It is up against Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Neverland, The Motorcycle Diaries and British film Vera Drake, which has 11 nominations. British hope Imelda Staunton is one of the favourites to land the best actress award for her gritty role as a backstreet abortionist in the small-budget film. Other nominees in the best actress category include Charlize Theron for Monster, Ziyi Zhang for House of Flying Daggers and UK star Kate Winslet, who has two nods for her roles in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Finding Neverland. DiCaprio faces competition from Bernal, Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey and Johnny Depp in the best actor category. And British actor Clive Owen is hoping to repeat his Golden Globe success with a best supporting actor award for his role in Closer. His co-star Natalie Portman is up against Blanchett, Heather Craney, Julie Cristie and Meryl Streep in the best supporting actress category. Mike Leigh is up for the best director award for Vera Drake, alongside Martin Scorsese for The Aviator, Michael Mann for Collateral, Michel Gondry for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Marc Forster for Finding Neverland." +entertainment,"'Comeback' show for Friends star Friends actress Lisa Kudrow is to play the lead role in a new series about a one-time sitcom star, according to the Hollywood reporter. Thirteen episodes of Comeback have been commissioned by cable channel HBO, home of hits such as Sex And The City. Kudrow, who played Phoebe in Friends, co-wrote the pilot episode and will also act as executive producer. HBO has been looking for its next big comedy hit since Sex And The City drew to a close in the US in February. Comeback is the first 30-minute comedy series that the channel has picked up since the Sex And The City drew to the end of its six-year-run. Friends ended its 10-year run on the NBC network in May, and attentions have turned to which projects its six individual stars would pursue. Matt LeBlanc is starring in a Friends spin-off sitcom, charting Joey's fortunes in Los Angeles as he pursues his acting career. Jennifer Aniston, who was Rachel in the long-running show, has enjoyed a series of successful film appearances, with further projects in the pipeline. Courteney Cox Arquette (Monica) has been working on a drama project along with husband David Arquette for HBO, called The Rise And Fall Of Taylor Kennedy. Matthew Perry, who played Chandler, has appeared on the West End stage, and has a film, The Beginning Of Wisdom, currently in production. And David Schwimmer (Ross) directed during his time on Friends, and has also worked on Joey." +entertainment,"Bookmakers back Aviator for Oscar The Aviator has been tipped by UK bookmakers as the favourite to win the best film award at this year's Oscars. Ray star Jamie Foxx is clear favourite in the best actor category while Million Dollar Baby's Hilary Swank is tipped to win the best actress prize. Bookmakers predict Cate Blanchett will be named best supporting actress. William Hill and Ladbrokes have given The Aviator 4/9 and 8/13 odds of winning best film, with Million Dollar Baby in second place at 9/4. Bet Direct and Bet 365 also tip The Aviator, with the majority of bookmakers regarding Finding Neverland as the outsider. The Aviator is also widely tipped to win the best director prize for Martin Scorsese. British star Clive Owen is second favourite at William Hill to take the best supporting actor award, for his performance in Closer. The favourite in that category is Sideways star Thomas Hayden Church. Vera Drake star Imelda Staunton has 5/1 odds of winning the best actress Oscar at Bet 365 and William Hill, ahead of fellow UK star Kate Winslet who has odds of 25/1 at William Hill. Mike Leigh is the outsider in the best director category for Vera Drake, a position he holds jointly with Ray's Taylor Hackford at bookmakers VC Bet. This year's Academy Awards will be handed out in Hollywood on 27 February. X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne will present Sky television's live coverage of the event. Meanwhile, Clive Owen's best supporting actor nomination has led a bookmaker to shorten his odds of becoming the next James Bond. He has moved from 4/1 to 5/2 favourite to play 007, with Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor joint second favourite. ""Clive Owen's nomination has sparked a betting frenzy from James Bond fans, who feel that his heightened global recognition will have done his chances of becoming the next Bond a world of good,"" said William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams." +entertainment,"OutKast win at MTV Europe Awards US hip-hop duo OutKast have capped a year of award glory with three prizes at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Rome. They won best group, best video and best song for hit Hey Ya! after getting five nominations. R&B singer Usher won best male and best album for Confessions, while UK rock band Muse were named best alternative act and best British artists. OutKast will add their awards to the four they won at the US MTV Awards in August and three Grammys in February. Not only was Hey Ya! one of the biggest global hits of last year, but OutKast have been widely acclaimed as one of the most exciting and innovative acts in music. Their double CD album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, which saw Andre 3000 and Big Boi each produce one disc, was hailed as the album of 2003 by many critics. Andre 3000 thanked fans ""for supporting OutKast throughout the years"". ""We really appreciate it,"" he said. ""I hope you don't get tired of us, but we only do what we do."" Also competing for best group had been the Beastie Boys, the Black Eyed Peas, D12 and Maroon 5. And Anastacia, Britney Spears, Maroon 5 and Ludacris had been on the shortlist for best song. OutKast did lose out in the contest for best album - which was won by Usher, another award favourite. Usher, who performed a duet with Alicia Keys, also beat off competition from Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Nelly and Robbie Williams to take the best male crown. He had four nominations going into the ceremony, with seven artists nominated in three categories. Eminem's group, D12, were surprise winners in the best hip-hop category, beating the Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Nelly. Eminem told the crowd: ""D12 finally won an award, thank you very much."" The rapper opened the show with a performance of his songs Like Toy Soldiers and Just Lose It, for which he was joined on stage by a crowd of children. The Black Eyed Peas - who had a global hit with Where is the Love? - picked up the prize for best pop act, beating Anastacia, Avril Lavigne, Robbie Williams and Britney Spears. Spears was named best female, sending a message of thanks on video saying the award ""means so much to me"". Alicia Keys, Anastasia, Avril Lavigne and Beyonce Knowles had featured alongside her in that contest. Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington described their prize for best rock band as ""quite an honour"" while Muse said their win for best alternative act was ""a real surprise for us"". Muse were also named best UK and Ireland act, ahead of Franz Ferdinand, Natasha Bedingfield, Jamelia and The Streets. Referring to the fact that winners of 11 of the 12 main awards were from the US, Muse singer Matt Bellamy said: ""There needs to be more European bands."" The 11th annual awards were hosted by hip-hop artist Xzibit and watched by 6,000 people at the Tor Di Valle arena, plus millions more on TV around the world. The ceremony featured performances from the Beastie Boys, who entered the stage on bicycles and skateboards, No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani being lowered from a giant clock and Nelly doing a duet with Pharrell Williams. MTV also organised a huge open-air concert featuring Anastacia and The Cure outside the Italian capital's ancient Colosseum, with some estimates putting the attendance there at 200,000. Last year's big winner at the MTV Europe Awards, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, was Justin Timberlake, who walked away with three trophies." +entertainment,"Patti Smith to host arts festival Rock star Patti Smith has been made artistic director of this year's Meltdown festival, to be held at London's South Bank Centre in June. The punk pioneer follows Morrissey, David Bowie and Nick Cave in directing 15 days of concerts and events. Smith has yet to decide the line-up for Meltdown, which begins on 11 June. ""I want to touch on all aspects of our culture, perhaps with readings from Genet, and I have an idea for Jeremy Irons to read Proust,"" she said. The 58-year-old US singer of Because the Night told The Observer newspaper that the festival would be her response to these ""material, exploitative and greedy times"". ""It is important we explore the new, but we should also salute the best art there is, aesthetically and spiritually,"" she said. Last year's Meltdown festival, directed by the ex-Smiths star Morrissey, included appearances by singer Jane Birkin, Nancy Sinatra and playwright Alan Bennett. He also persuaded punk band The New York Dolls to reform for a reunion show." +entertainment,"Brits debate over 'urban' music Joss Stone, a 17-year-old soul singer from Devon, beat Dizzee Rascal, Jamelia, Lemar and The Streets to win best British urban act at the Brit Awards. Her victory has reignited the debate about what urban music is. I'm not really comfortable with the word urban. It's a word that's been manufactured in this country and America to describe black music. The word urban seems to cover such a broad range of black music that it's wrong. How far are the Brits removed from inner-city music and what people are doing? It's so far removed that I don't expect them to get it bang on. The music industry isn't championing music from our particular genre very well anyway. People don't feel like that's anything to do with us. I don't feel like urban music's just been celebrated by [Joss Stone] winning or her being nominated, or by the Brits acknowledging that there's an urban music scene because it's all a kick in the teeth at the end of the day. It's not really relevant. If Joss Stone is the closest thing that they feel comfortable championing because of what she looks like and how she sounds and who she's signed to, then so be it. It's got nothing to do with what's really going on. Urban as a genre is very broad. If you look underneath urban, there are a number of core elements that include hip-hop, R&B, garage and into that obviously comes soul. Joss Stone is a soul artist. Her first album was called The Soul Sessions. So urban is a very broad brushstroke that is the umbrella over the top of sub-genres, and there are offshoots of all of those. Joss Stone has had amazing success [in the US] given that she's a UK artist. What has really captured everybody's imagination is that here you have a 17-year-old from Devon with a voice to die for and a bunch of really, really good tunes and she looks good - I think that's what's done it. The award for best British urban act was voted for by viewers of MTV Base. I don't think Joss was not a worthy winner. She makes soul music and that definitely comes under the category of what we describe as urban. The fact that she's from Devon is the interesting thing because most of the music we cover is made in large cities and she's literally rural. The great thing about urban music is that there's a big range. If there is some sort of root with black music or dance music in Britain, I think that's where you can call it urban - that's where this new sub-category, or uber-category, has come from. Joss Stone is certainly not old enough to have had some of the experiences of an older soul singer, but you couldn't argue that she was being inauthentic with her emotions - it is coming from somewhere genuine. It has to come across as real. That's the only cut-off point we have here and that's the only way by which we judge people. What urban means to us as an organisation is the politically correct term to describe music which originated from a black background. Music should become inclusive and if we are fighting for a multi-cultural Britain, then we should be fighting for inclusion rather than exclusion. If Joss Stone can be accepted within the urban music community, I think acts from other ethnicities doing classical music and rock should be accepted too. Race doesn't make a difference if everyone is included. Out of all the awards dished out yesterday, I'm still trying to find out what people of other races received any sort of recognition or award. A type of music (especially street music) that originates from a city, and typically reflects or is characteristic of urban life. She might not be urban, but when did R&B become the hip hop tainted thing it is now? R&B stands for Rhythm And Blues, remember! That Joss Stone is rubbish is certain. If anyone deserves to win an award for urban music (I think probably should include Hip-Hop, Soul & Funk at least but not rock or pop) this year its the Streets, although Dizzee Rascal stakes a good claim She definitely deserved to win a prize, Joss Stone's albums are quite simply amazing, easily better than anything else that was released last year. This whole debate about what is urban, what isnt urban is completely pointless and probably fueled by urban artists who weren't nominated or didn't win. I cant see why people can't just congratulate her for the talent that she is. She did deserve it, but I agree with the comments about urban music. Its a stupid phrase, and particularly British. In the states they tend to use hip hop and R&B, if I say hip hop here a lot of people have no idea what I'm talking about. Very strange. What's in a name? A rose by any other name etc... If people want to call it urban, why not? If we really analysed it, the term 'dance music' is misleading because it doesn't describe everything you can dance to. Whilst I agree that the term 'urban' is open to interpretation, it strikes me as simply weird that Joss Stone has won. 'Urban' to me is what I hear being played in parties in the inner cities - I live in Brixton and have never heard The Soul Sessions pumping out of of a bass heavy sound system in any parties I've been to. Good luck to Joss Stone, let's celebrate her victory - let's also question why, with artists so successful and talented as Jamelia, Lemar, Kanye West, Dizzee Rascal, Alicia Keys and Outkast - we didn't see a single black artist on stage collecting an award. So, what you're saying is that any music that has black heritage is not allowed to be sung by anyone who isn't black. And, if it is, then they shouldn't be acknowledged for it even if they're pretty dam good at it? She's 17, has an amazing voice, and won. Good on her. Oh, but she's not ""black"" well, let's make her feel real bad about it then. How dare she! Though hang on, didn't the so-called 'public' vote on this one? This idea of pigeonholing whatever is popular at the time is no different than what was happening in the 1940s and 50s in relation to what ""Jazz"" was. The media then called anything that had a swinging beat, syncopated melody or soulful feeling ""Jazz"", much to the chagrin of the artists. It would mean that ""blues"" would be put in the same mould as ""bebop"", ""cool"" and ""ragtime"", all very different styles at that time. Jazz was and remains such a massively misunderstood term. And so what of ""Urban"" music? In truth it's a lazy term to categorise music that you don't really understand. Soul and garage are worlds apart musically (Marvin Gaye v Tuff Jam?), but no doubt have their connections. If we just let the music speak for itself and not judge the success of an artist by the number of awards won, then maybe we can enjoy the music for what it is, rather than what it represents. I demand a prize for rural music! Sucks to the cities- it's way better out here. We have hay, for one thing. Excluding her from what has become known as urban music would be as bad as excluding Lenny Kravitz or Hendrix from rock music for being black surely? I dont understand the point that Ty is making. If Lemar, who makes music which is less soulful than Joss' work won, he might have said nothing. (btw i'm black too) How can she be ""urban"" if she spent most of her life in the Devon countryside? Nonsense. I love Joss to bits and don't care what her branding is - it's amazing music, full stop. Stop puting it all in brackets and let's just call it music, and let's especially drop the black / urban tag - nearly all music came from black origin, this just sets an example that it is ok to pigeonhole people and their music by their colour. Surely the point of having an urban music category is simply to acknowledge artists that are making what is (historically) considered urban music, irrelevent of the colour of their skin, or where they originate from. Joss Stone is simply singing a certain type of music that can be considered urban in style, just as someone from an inner city, and indeed not from the USA could sing country music. If that person was good at it and authentic in sound, would we criticise it being referred to as country music or the artist for representing that style? The term urban in reference to a music genre in UK has developed, in part, from the controversy surrounding the branding of the MOBO Awards. The very term 'Music of Black Origin' has confused and offended many people. This is particularly strange given the existence of the Asian Music Awards. It appears that the use of 'black' or 'white' in relation to music makes people feel uncomfortable. The term 'urban' therefore, has been invoked to sidestep the debate of which type of music came first 'black' or 'white' thereby rendering the issue colourblind. The result is now a redundant new debate as to what 'urban' also means. Perhaps we should have created a new term altogether to describe the various strains of soul/RnB and Hip-Hop, one which does not also mean something else - as we have done with 'Crunk'. Urban is just a word that's come about recently to describe ""black"" music that's become popular now. The word wasn't even in use, or common use five of six years ago. It's just a way of the industry clumping it all together without having to call it black music, because some people are oversensitive and might call them racist for it. I'm in a band that has been called ""urban"", and I despise the label. I'd hate to think I belonged to any neat marketing niche, because that's all it is. Ever since the music channels and record comapnies tried to fracture what they consider 'music of black origin', these labels have been used to undermine the status of good music into a commodity. Look at all the TV broadcasters, unable to reach young people without condesending, they simply play some 'urban' music on the soundtrack as if its some dreadful cheap lift music. Ignore the labels, it is what it is, just music. As a black man, I think I agree with some of the statements at least the statements made by the key executives. Black people should lead the music they invented . We should stop calling a genre meaningless, northing is meaningless. The real question is would Joss Stone would have been that successful doing the music she was doing if she were black? Same thing, with Streets, Amy Winehouse, etc. Who's ever heard of Terri Walker or Rhian Benson.. They are both 10 times better than Joss Stone and both of them have won Urban Music Awards and i think Mobos , but why not Brits???? So what if Joss Stone won the Urban awards. Her music is great soul and surely that is under the 'Urban' banner? What if The Streets had won? Would people be whining because Mike Skinner is white... It seems that a lot of the fuss is about race where the real issue should be music and nothing else. Urban is PC version for saying black music. I'm not doubting Ms Stone's talent, but why didn't Jamelia or Lemar get a Brit? This reminds me of what happened to Craig David and Soul II Soul in the past, getting nominations are easy to get, but picking up a Brit seems to be the hardest thing. Refreshing to see people making reasonable, intelligent comments on any topic these days. More power to you, people! You have said it: there is music you like and music you don't like - who cares what label you put on it? That entire category was a mess. How can you have people like Dizzee Rascal up against Joss Stone? Its like putting Eminem against Bob Geldof. She should have been nominated for Best British R & B act. Joss Stone deserved to win an award for her talents, but I don't think it was very 'urban' of her to sing angels with Robbie Williams. Urban is a nonsense term - music of black origin? Well doesn't that include rock? Music made in the inner cities? Well almost all bands end up making music in London/Manchester etc. And doesn't that make some weird implication that all black people live in cities? It doesn't make any sense. Why does music have to be put into a genre? It's music, you like it or you don't. Simple as that. I play in a heavy metal band. We are urban music as far as I'm concerned. We live in cities and spend our working life in an urban environment; It therefore directly shapes what we write musically. ""Urban"" seems to be the new name for all styles of black music. Why it needed a rebrand I don't know as the name is misleading. Oasis originate from a city and characterise the urban life they know, therefore more than fit the term ""urban"" yet as they're a white rock band they won't be described as such. Joss Stone has a fantastic voice and great timing and delivery - what other reason do they need to award her the Brit? All this ""urban"" and other such categorisation is just the red-tape of the music business and is best ignored. Yeah, she deserved it. She is talented. Urban is a crap, meaningless, politically correct and probably actually racist marketing term though. There's only two kinds of music: good and bad." +entertainment,"Slater to star in Broadway play Actor Christian Slater is stepping into the role of Tom in the Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie. Slater, 35, is replacing actor Dallas Roberts in the Tennessee Williams drama, which opens next month. No reason was given for Roberts' departure. The role will be played by understudy Joey Collins until Slater joins the show. Slater won rave reviews for his recent performance in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in London's West End. He has also starred in a number of films, including Heathers, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and more recently Churchill: The Hollywood Years. Preview performances of The Glass Menagerie will begin at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Thursday. Philip Rinaldi, a spokesman for the show, said the play's 15 March opening date remains unchanged. The revival, directed by David Leveaux, will also star Jessica Lange as the domineering mother, Amanda Wingfield." +entertainment,"£1.8m indecency fine for Viacom Media giant Viacom has paid out $3.5m (£1.8m) to end investigations into indecency in its US radio and TV shows. The settlement to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ends a long-running saga dating back to 2001. The FCC was looking into 50 shows, including those by ""shock jock"" Howard Stern and two New York DJs. Stern recently announced he was leaving Viacom while the two DJs were sacked after their show featured a couple purporting to have sex in a church. After the church incident two years ago Viacom agreed to install audio delay equipment at its radio stations that broadcast live programming. It also agreed to train its broadcasters and employees about indecency laws. The agreement cancels investigations into about 50 radio and television shows, said Richard Diamond, FCC deputy secretary of communications. The shows were broadcast by Viacom-owned stations across the United States. Viacom has five days to pay the $3.5m fine, according to the agreement. The payment is not related to the FCC's $550,000 (£293,000) fine levied against Viacom after the exposure of singer Janet Jackson's breast during the CBS Super Bowl halftime show in January. Viacom is contesting that fine. It is not the first time that Viacom has paid out over indecency charges. Infinity Broadcasting, which is owned by Viacom, paid cumulative fines totalling $1.7m (£907,000) in 1995 to settle FCC violations by Stern." +entertainment,"Kidman wins photographer battle Actress Nicole Kidman has won a restraining order against two paparazzi photographers who she claims left her fearful of leaving her Sydney mansion. The Oscar-winning star took action against Jamie Fawcett and Ben McDonald after a bugging device was found outside her home earlier this week. Lawyers for the pair denied allegations they had planted the device. The Australian actress is currently in Sydney to film her latest movie, Eucalyptus, with Russell Crowe. Kidman was prompted to take action following a reported high-speed car chase with members of the paparazzi in Sydney last weekend. According to local newspaper the Daily Telegraph, the incident involved paparazzi driving through red lights and on the wrong side of the road in pursuit of Kidman's vehicle. Lawyers for Mr Fawcett and Mr McDonald denied that the pair were involved in the chase. Kidman sought the ""apprehended violence"" orders - normally used in Australia in cases of domestic violence and similar incidents - after being advised to do so by local police. ""Nicole would like to make it clear that she acknowledges she is a public figure and that reporters and photographers have a job to do and she respects that,"" said Kidman's publicist Wendy Day. ""However, these are specific actions against two individuals who, over a period of time, have caused her to feel threatened, intimidated and unable to leave her home without fearing for her safety."" Magistrate Lee Gilmore, who issued the restraining order at Waverley Local Court in Sydney, said she understood the photographers were entitled to earn a living but there had to be limits to their behaviour. ""Miss Kidman says she's willing to put up with some of it, but it's gone beyond that,"" she said. ""I do believe the allegation in relation to the driving is a serious issue.""" +entertainment,"Rapper Kanye West's shrewd soul US hip-hop star Kanye West - who leads the race for this year's Grammys with 10 nominations - rose to prominence by producing songs for artists such as Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. He then emerged from his behind-the-scenes role to become an artist as well as a producer. But his solo career almost ended before it began after a near-fatal car crash left West with his jaw wired shut in 2002. The resulting song, Through the Wire, became West's first UK hit in April 2004 and subsequent album The College Dropout became a transatlantic success, both critically and commercially. West, 26, began rapping as a teenager at his Chicago school, inspired by the beats and rhymes of 1980s pioneers Run DMC. Hip-hop producer No ID encouraged West to sample old soul and R&B hits then revive them with an updated sound, an approach that would become his trademark. ""I feel like a lot of the soul that's in those old records that I sample is in me,"" he said. ""So when I hear them and I put them with the drums and I bring them to the new millennium, it's just like God's doing that. I'm one with them records right there. It's a blessing."" Leaving his Chicago art school after only one year - a move which would later inspire the title of his album - West began his music career co-producing songs for artists Mase and the Madd Rapper. This drew the attention of superstar rapper Jay-Z, who signed West up to his Roc-A-Fella record label to produce numerous artists on his roster. West's work gained mainstream recognition when he produced the singles Takeover and Izzo (HOVA) on Jay-Z's own 2001 album Blueprint. Incorporating samples of Five to One by The Doors and the Jackson Five's I Want You Back respectively, the hits were credited with injecting soul back into hip-hop. As their success attracted further production work for Jay-Z ('03 Bonnie & Clyde) and artists such as Ludacris (Stand Up) and Alicia Keys (You Don't Know My Name), West announced plans for a solo album. Driving home from a late-night Los Angeles recording session in October 2002, he was involved in the car crash that left his jaw fractured in three places. ""Anytime I hear about any accident my heart sinks in and I just thank God that I'm still here,"" he later said. ""That steering wheel could have been two inches further out, and that would have been it."" West's account of the accident sampled Chaka Khan's hit Through the Fire to become the heart of his completed solo album The College Dropout. Released last year, it was by turns smooth, humorous and sharp and largely avoided the clichéd hip-hop preoccupation with guns, girls and jewellery. Through the Wire was quickly joined in the UK and US charts by Slow Jamz, on which West collaborated with rapper Twista and Ray actor Jamie Foxx. The College Dropout spawned two further UK hits and a string of award nominations. West was shortlisted for 10 Grammys - including nominations for artist and album of the year - and took the best hip-hop artist, producer and album titles at last year's Music of Black Origin (Mobo) Awards. Now a respected rapper and producer in the influential field of hip-hop, Kanye West is unlikely to regret his decision to leave college early." +entertainment,"Ring of Fire hit co-writer dies Merle Kilgore, co-writer of the country hit Ring of Fire, has died of congestive heart failure aged 70. He started out as a singer and songwriter before going into music management, looking after country star Hank Williams Jr. He wrote Ring of Fire with June Carter Cash, the future wife of Johnny Cash who went on to score his most popular hit with the track. Kilgore had heart surgery in 2004 and was also diagnosed with lung cancer. His death has been attributed to treatment he was undergoing for the cancer. His first self-penned top 10 hit was Dear Mama in 1959. One of the first songs he wrote for other artists was Wolverton Mountain, which sold 10 million copies when recorded by Claude King. He then wrote Ring of Fire with June Carter Cash, which was about her unrequited love for Johnny, who she later married. It was first recorded by her younger sister Anita Carter before Johnny went on to make such a success of it. June Carter Cash previously said it upset her husband when Kilgore talked about the song without crediting her and believed he should not have been credited on it. Last year, Kilgore turned up an awards dinner in a wheelchair expecting to honour Hank Williams Jr, but instead he was the surprise recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the International Entertainment Buyers Association." +entertainment,"Legendary music studio to close The New York music studio where John Lennon spent his final hours is to close next month. The Hit Factory, which opened 37 years ago, has played host to some of the biggest stars in music, including Paul Simon, Madonna and David Bowie. However, the rise in digital recording has affected business at the studio, which is relocating to smaller premises in Miami. Lennon recorded his final album Double Fantasy at the studio in 1979. The studio was founded by Jerry Ragovoy in 1968. In 1975 it was sold to fellow producer Edward Germano, who turned it into a 100,000 square foot studio with seven recording rooms and live mastering suites. His first client was Stevie Wonder, who recorded part of his classic album Songs In The Key Of Life there. Other well-known albums to be recorded or partially recorded at the studio include Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA, the Rolling Stones' Emotional Rescue and Paul Simon's Graceland. Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Jay-Z and Beyonce are also among artists who have used the Hit Factory in the past, as well as 50 Cent who survived an attempt on his life as he left the premises in 2000. The studio made history in 1994 when it won a record 41 Grammy nominations for songs recorded, mastered or mixed there, including the soundtrack to the Whitney Houston film The Bodyguard." +entertainment,"Howl helps boost Japan's cinemas Japan's box office received a 3.8% boost last year, with ticket sales worth 211bn yen (£1.08bn). The surge was led by animated movie Howl's Moving Castle, which took 20bn yen (£102m) to become the biggest film in Japan in 2004. It is expected to match the 30.7bn yen (£157m) record of Hayao Miyazaki's previous film Spirited Away. Japan Motion Picture Producers figures showed that 170 million cinema admissions were made in Japan in 2004. The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise, was the biggest foreign movie hit in Japan last year, taking 13.8bn yen (£70.7m). It was followed by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Finding Nemo and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The second highest-grossing Japanese film was romantic drama Crying Out Love in the Centre of the World, followed by Be With You and Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation. Japanese films accounted for 37.5% of Japan's box office total last year, with foreign films taking the remaining 62.5%. This represented a 4.5% gain for the proportion of Japanese films in 2004 compared to 2003. The number of Japanese films released rose to 310 in 2004 from 287 the previous year. Sales of movies on DVD and video amounted to 497bn yen (£2.54bn) for the year." +entertainment,"Famed music director Viotti dies Conductor Marcello Viotti, director of Venice's famous La Fenice Theatre, has died in Germany at 50. Viotti, director of La Fenice since 2002, conducted at renowned opera houses worldwide including Milan's La Scala and the Vienna State Opera. His time at La Fenice coincided with its reopening in 2003 after it was destroyed by fire in 1996. He fell into a coma after suffering a stroke during rehearsals for Jules Massenet's Manon last week. He conducted some of the best orchestras in the world including the Berlin Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestra. Viotti was born in Switzerland and studied the piano, cello and singing at the Lausanne Conservatory. His career breakthrough came in 1982 when he won first prize at the Gino Marinuzzi conducting competition in Italy. Viotti established himself as chief conductor of the Turin Opera and went on to become chief conductor of Munich's Radio Orchestra. At La Fenice Viotti was widely acclaimed for his production of the French composer Massenet's Thais and some of his other productions included Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata and Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. The last opera he directed at La Fenice was Massenet's Le Roi de Lahore. Viotti's debut at the New York's Metropolitan Opera came in 2000 with Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly, followed by La Boheme, La Traviata and Fromental Halevy's La Juive. Giampaolo Vianello, superintendent of the Fenice Theatre Foundation, said: ""I am filled with extreme sadness because, other than a great artist, he is missed as a friend - a main character in the latest joyous times, during the rebirth of our theatre."" Viotti's last public performance was on 5 February when he conducted Vincenzo Bellini's Norma at the Vienna State Opera." +entertainment,"Soul sensation ready for awards South West teenage singing sensation, Joss Stone, has been nominated in three categories in Wednesday's Brit awards. The 17-year-old from a small east Devon village near Cullumpton, received nominations for Best Solo Female, Best Urban Act and Best Breakthrough Artist. Her second album Mind, Body & Soul reached number one in the UK charts last October and went straight into the US charts at number 11. Ms Stone is due to perform at the 25th award ceremony at London's Earls Court. The teenager also has Grammy nominations in the US, normally dominated by home-grown acts. Born Jocelyn Stoker, the Devon diva started her career in a BBC talent programme, and was then discovered at a New York audition by a US record executive, Steve Greenberg. The 17-year-old singer is hoping to tour in Japan, Australia and the US in 2005." +entertainment,"Tautou film tops Cesar prize nods French film A Very Long Engagement has received 12 nominations for France's Cesar film awards, despite a recent ruling it was ""not French enough"". The World War I romantic drama starring Audrey Tautou, was recently ruled ""too American"" by a Paris court as it was partially backed by Warner Bros. But the Cesar organisers modified their rules to allow the film to compete. The film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, received best actress, picture and director nominations. Last November a court judged the film was too American to compete in French film festivals. Two associations of French producers challenged Jeunet's right to French government subsidies, because Warner Bros was a backer. The ruling meant the movie - which was filmed in France and used French actors and technicians - was not eligible to compete for French prizes. But Alain Terzian, president of Cesar organisers, the Academie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema, said the changes in eligibility rules, which allow films ""of French expression"", were made three months prior to the court decision. Other films in the best film category include Police drama 36, Quai Des Orfevres, Arnaud Desplechin's Kings And Queen, Abdellatif Kechiche's L'Esquive and France's number one film at the 2004 box-office The Chorus. Best actors are Daniel Auteuil for 36, Mathieu Amalric for Kings And Queen, Gerard Jugnot for The Chorus, Philippe Torreton for L'Equipier and Benoit Poelvoorde for Podium. Tautou will compete against Maggie Cheung , Emmanuelle Devos, Yolande Moreau and Karin Viard for best actress. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, The Motorcycle Diaries, Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and 21 Grams are all vying in the best foreign film prize. The awards ceremony will be held on 26 February. This year, Will Smith, star of I, Robot, Independence Day and Men In Black, will be given an honorary Cesar, along with French singer/actor, Jacques Dutronc." +entertainment,"Queen recruit singer for new tour The remaining members of rock band Queen are to go on tour next year with former Free and Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers taking Freddie Mercury's place. Guitarist Brian May has said he expects to be on the road with Rodgers and drummer Roger Taylor from April. May said: ""Suddenly the Queen Phoenix is rising again from the ashes and will take precedence over... our lives."" Queen have played with many different singers since Mercury's death in 1991 but have reportedly not toured. May performed with Rodgers at a concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar in London in September. ""We were both so amazed at the chemistry that was going on in [Free hit] All Right Now, that suddenly it seems blindingly obvious that there was 'something happening here,'"" May wrote on his website. They teamed up again for a concert to mark their induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame, and were joined by Taylor. ""The show went so incredibly well from our point of view, and we got so many rave reactions from out there, we decided almost then and there that we would look at a tour together,"" May wrote. Queen went to number one in 2000 with a version of We Will Rock You sung by boy band 5ive and they have also played with Robbie Williams, Will Young and Bob Geldof. Queen bassist John Deacon has currently retired from the stage. Rodgers was singer with early 1970s rockers Free, who had a global hit with All Right Now, before forming Bad Company, a successful ""supergroup"" with members of King Crimson and Mott the Hoople. He has also been in The Firm with Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and The Law with The Small Faces and The Who drummer Kenny Jones." +entertainment,"Star Trek fans fight to save show Star Trek fans have taken out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times in an attempt to persuade TV executives not to scrap Star Trek: Enterprise. Made by the UPN TV network, the latest spin-off from the hit sci-fi show is due to end in May after four series. But fans around the world have pitched in to pay for the advert, which had the headline ""Save Star Trek"". They are also asking the Sci-Fi Channel to pick it up from UPN and will stage a rally in Los Angeles on 25 February. The advert described the Star Trek franchise as a ""cultural icon"". Enterprise stars former Quantum Leap actor Scott Bakula as Captain Archer and is set before the original 1960s Star Trek series. ""Captain Archer and the crew of the NX-01 need your help to continue their journeys!"" the advert said. It also included a cut-out coupon for fans to send to UPN's parent companies Paramount and Viacom plus the Sci-Fi Channel. It also urged supporters to join the rally outside the Paramount studios. Fan website Trek United is hoping to raise $32m (£17m) from donations by the end of March to pay for a fifth series. More than $23,000 (£12,000) has been pledged so far, according to the site. The 98th and final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise will air in the US on 13 May. The fourth series has averaged 2.9 million viewers per episode - half the amount it got in its first series. Star Trek: Enterprise began in 2001 following other Star Trek spin-off series The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager." +entertainment,"Show over for MTV's The Osbournes Rock star Ozzy Osbourne has said his family will not make any more episodes of reality TV show The Osbournes. ""At the end of it I didn't like having cameras around the house all the time,"" the Black Sabbath singer told reporters at the MTV Europe Awards in Rome. His wife Sharon, who also appears in the popular MTV show based on the Osbournes' family life, agreed. ""Now everybody's doing reality shows. He's done it, he's been there, he's got to do something else,"" she said. Ozzy Osbourne said he had had enough of the work involved in making the series. ""When you watch a 25-minute episode, I've been filming all day,"" he said. Sharon Osbourne is currently appearing as a judge and mentor in ITV1 talent show The X-Factor alongside Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh. Earlier this year she topped a poll of the most important people in rock, for her part in guiding the career of husband Ozzy and her family. She was the driving force behind The Osbournes, which ran for three series, earning the family a reported $85m (£46m). The renewed popularity for Ozzy has seen sales of his merchandise hit the $50m (£27.2m) mark, a record for a heavy metal artist. Sales of T-shirts, accessories and action figures have rocketed since The Osbournes hit screens. At its peak, The Osbournes had a regular audience of eight million, with America's TV Guide magazine describing the series as ""a cross between The Simpsons and This Is Spinal Tap"". Osbourne himself was at a loss to explain its popularity: ""I suppose Americans get a kick out of watching a crazy Brit family like us make complete fools of ourselves every week.""" +entertainment,"George Michael to perform for BBC George Michael is to perform live at London's Abbey Road studios as part of a BBC Radio 2 special next month. The session, which will broadcast on 18 December, will also see him talk about how his biggest hits came about. Michael's appearance is part of the station's Sold on Song initiative, which explores the art of songwriting. The station also confirmed that Chris Tarrant will be hosting a one-off New Year's Eve programme. He left London's Capital FM this year after 17 years. The former breakfast show host - who attracted some of the highest ratings in Britain, despite only broadcasting to London - will offer his own individual take on the year in the two-hour show. ""This should be great fun,"" Tarrant said. ""I've had a fantastic year and I know that lots of other people have as well. I'm definitely looking forward to being on Radio 2."" Other Christmas specials from Radio 2 include singer Jamelia hosting a Christmas Day concert from the London Community Gospel Choir, while actor Christopher Lee will read Fireside Tales from the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, E Nesbit and Ambrose Bierce. Comedian Harry Hill will host a spoof nostalgia show on Christmas Day, while singer Jamie Cullum will perform a live concert for the station." +entertainment,"Usher leads Billboard nominations R&B singer Usher is leading the race for the Billboard awards with nominations in 13 categories, including best male. Alicia Keys has 12 nominations for the awards, which will be held on 8 December at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Other multiple nominees include Maroon5, OutKast, Kanye West, R Kelly, Gretchen Wilson, Hoobastank and Jay-Z. Soul singer Stevie Wonder will receive Billboard's Century Award, the magazine's highest honour for creative achievement, at the ceremony. The awards will be hosted by American Idol presenter Ryan Seacrest, and will feature performances by Usher, Gwen Stefani, Nelly and Green Day. Usher and Keys will be battling it out for prizes including artist of the year, Hot 100 songwriter of the year and Billboard 200 album of the year for their respective albums Confessions and The Diary of Alicia Keys. Maroon5 and OutKast are also up for artist of the year, while OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is a finalist for Billboard 200 album of the year, alongside Josh Groban's Closer. The awards honour the year's leading artists and songs as determined by their performance on Billboard's weekly charts." +entertainment,"Stern dropped from radio stations Controversial DJ Howard Stern has been dropped from four US radio stations because he keeps promoting his move to a network broadcasting on satellite. Cidatel Broadcasting said Stern had transformed his show into a ""continuous infomercial promoting Sirius, his new satellite radio employer"". Stern will join the Sirius subscription service, which is not governed by US regulators, next year. Citadel pulled Stern's show from stations in New York and Pennsylvania. Stern had been holiday for two weeks but his show did not return to the four stations as expected on 3 January. Citadel said it did not yet know whether it would return to its network. Stern announced in October that he was leaving conventional radio, where his syndicated show goes out across the US, for the relatively restriction-free satellite service. The DJ's broadcasts are well known for landing in trouble with regulators for obscene and sexually explicit rantings. Stern was dropped by six stations owned by media giant Clear Channel in 2004 after it had to pay the Federal Communications Commission $1.75m (£950,000), over breaches indecency laws. Media giant Viacom has also reportedly agreed to the FCC's demands that if Stern is issued with another indecency violation then his show must be pulled from all of its stations. Viacom has also been hit with record fines of $3.5m (£1.8m) over Stern and two other New York DJs. But Stern continues to be one of the most popular talk show hosts, particularly in the 25-54 age category." +entertainment,"Cult band Kasabian surge forward Indie dance band Kasabian built up a cult following throughout 2004 to secure three Brit Award nominations. The four-piece Leicester band blends dark electronics with rock, earning Kasabian places on the best British group, rock act and live act shortlists. They have also earned a reputation as outspoken and charismatic, in contrast to fellow Brit nominees such as Keane and Snow Patrol. ""British music needs a kick up the arse and Britain needs a new band to breathe life into the British people again,"" declared Kasabian's singer Tom Meighan. ""No-one's doing it at the minute. Music feels like it's in the afterlife right now. We don't want people to give up on it. ""The serpent's going to rise from the sea and scare all the pirates away!"" Meighan grew up in Leicester with Kasabian songwriter/guitarist Sergio Pizzorno and bassist Chris Edwards, a trio which began making music from the age of 17. They enlisted guitarist and keyboard player Christopher Karloff after spotting him in a pub. ""We saw his long sideburns and thought 'hey, he looks the part, we'll ask him,'"" said Meighan. Inspired by Britpop and a mutual love of hardcore, an early 1990s genre that fused house music with hip hop beats and a dark sensibility, they added an electronic element to the traditional guitar sound. ""We got a computer and we cut rock'n'roll up, because there's no point in going back to how it was,"" said Meighan. ""It's all about new ideas and creativity."" The band's original approach is reflected in its name, inspired by Linda Kasabian - the getaway driver of US serial killer Charles Manson. Coincidentally it is also the Armenian term for ""butcher"". Kasabian moved into a remote farmhouse in Rutland to record their debut album, benefiting from its isolation but also managing to sneak in a few parties while they were there. Signed to the RCA record label, Kasabian tested the water with two singles, Club Foot and LSF, which reached numbers 19 and 10 in the UK singles chart respectively. They built up their following on the summer festival circuit, opening both Glastonbury and T in the Park, and at a series of ""guerilla gigs"" at unusual venues including Half Time Orange, a pub next to Leicester City football club's headquarters. Kasabian's self-titled album was released last September to widespread critical acclaim, its indie dance stance drawing comparisons to The Stone Roses, Primal Scream and The Happy Mondays. Regarding it as ""both a fiery assertion of rock 'n' roll ethics and proof that a siege mentality is alive and well in the badlands of Rutland Water"", the NME's praise was typical of the album's reception. As 2004 progressed Kasabian would score a further two hits - Processed Beats and Cutt Off - and embark upon a well-received UK tour. ""We take our music seriously, definitely, but we want to have fun with it,"" said Pizzorno. ""This is not a job to us,"" added Meighan. ""This is the best life we could ever have. This is what it's all about and without it we'd be lost souls. But music needs us as well.""" +entertainment,"Joy Division story to become film The life of late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis is to be made into a film, it has been announced. The Manchester-based production is called Touching From A Distance, after a book by Curtis's widow Deborah which forms the basis for the film. Music mogul Tony Wilson, who headed the record company Joy Division were signed to, will be co-executive producer. The musician committed suicide in 1980 aged 23, shortly before the band were due to go on tour in the US. Mr Wilson, who has remained friends with Curtis's widow and daughter Natalie, who he says asked for his involvement to make the film ""official"". ""People have different ideas as to why Ian committed suicide, so maybe the film will reflect those different views,"" he told the BBC News website. Plans for a separate Joy Division film had been announced at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, but the project did not get off the ground as it failed to get the backing of Curtis's family. Mr Wilson, who was also involved with Joy Division's sucessor band New Order, as well as the Happy Mondays, said he would ""rather not"" appear in the film. He made a cameo appearance in 24 Hour Party People, in which his leading role was played by Steve Coogan. ""I'm not an actor and I did a lousy job playing my part in 24 Hour Party People,"" said the Factory Records founder, who has been associated with the Manchester music scene since the 1970s. ""Film people have a tendency to mess up when they touch music, but I hope this one works. ""This is much more than the music - they want to do the real story of Ian,"" he said. The film is to be directed by Dutch-born Anton Corbijn, who has made music movies for Depeche Mode and U2. It will be produced by a US production company, while the widow of Ian Curtis will also be an executive producer." +entertainment,"Berlin honours S Korean director South Korean film director Im Kwon-Taek has received an honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Im, who has made more than 100 films in a 40-year career, was hailed for his ""remarkable visual beauty, technical innovation, and intellectual depth"". Twenty of his films are screening in a special retrospective during the festival, which runs until 20 February. The veteran film-maker, 68, won the best director prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 for Chihwaseon. ""Although his films vary in style, they all bear his unmistakable stamp: they are forceful and charged cinematographically, as well as reticent, stylised and musical,"" organisers said in a statement. Meanwhile, a film version of Bizet's opera Carmen - translated into the South African language Xhosa - has received a warm reception at the festival. U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (Carmen in Khayelitsha), which is one of 21 films up for Berlin's top prize, the Golden Bear, is British director Mark Dornford-May's first feature film. ""It's the first time any opera has been translated into a black South African language. Xhosa works brilliantly, it's such a musical language,"" said music director Charles Hazlewood." +entertainment,"Dutch watch Van Gogh's last film The last film to be made by the slain Dutch director Theo van Gogh, called 06/05, has been premiered in The Hague. Members of Van Gogh's family and celebrities attended the screening of 06/05, based on the murder of the anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn. Van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death in Amsterdam six weeks ago. A Dutch-Moroccan man suspected of radical Islamist links has been charged. The killing, and Fortuyn's death in 2002, convulsed the Netherlands. Many Dutch people have questioned their country's self-image as a peaceful, tolerant nation in the wake of the murders, which triggered heated debate about immigration. An animal rights activist was sentenced to 18 years in prison last year for killing Fortuyn. Earlier this year, Van Gogh made a film accusing Islam of promoting violence against women. It caused outrage among Muslims and death threats were made against him. The film 06/05 will become available on the internet on Wednesday and go on general release in Dutch cinemas in January. Van Gogh's movie mixes real images of the day of Fortuyn's murder with a fictional plot about Dutch intelligence services conspiring to silence the politician. The story unfolds through the eyes of a freelance photographer who unwittingly takes pictures revealing the involvement of Dutch authorities in Fortuyn's murder. Photographer Jim de Booy then goes on the run from secret service agents who burgle his home and threaten his family." +entertainment,"Little Britain two top comic list Little Britain stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams have been named the most powerful people in TV comedy, in a poll by listings magazine Radio Times. The duo kept Phoenix Nights creator Peter Kay at number two and The Office star Ricky Gervais in third place. A Radio Times panel compiled the list, taking the comedians' critical acclaim and financial success into account. Newcomers to the annual list included Nighty Night star Julia Davis at seven and Black Books' Tamsin Greig at 19. Lucas and Walliams won numerous awards for Little Britain in 2004, including National Television, Royal Television Society and British Comedy awards. More than 1.8 million people watched the first episode of the latest series of Little Britain on BBC Three in October, giving the digital channel its highest rating ever. They topped the Radio Times list after rising from 10th position last year. Other big risers over the past year included presenting duo Ant and Dec at five, up from 13 in 2004, Stephen Fry rising nine places to 15 and BBC Three controller Stuart Murphy, who moves to number 18 from 32 last year. Last year's winner, chat show host Graham Norton, fell to number 16 following relatively few television appearances in 2004. Production companies also featured in the top 50, including Steve Coogan's Baby Cow, which created Nighty Night among others, Hat Trick - behind The Kumars at Number 42 - and The Vicar of Dibley production company Tiger Aspect." +entertainment,"EastEnders 'is set for US remake' Plans to create a US soap based on the BBC's EastEnders have reportedly been drawn up by the Fox TV network. EastEnders' head writer Tony Jordan and music mogul Simon Fuller are involved in the project, according to reports in the Hollywood Reporter trade newspaper. It said scripts have been commissioned for a series about a community of working class people in of Chicago. The original EastEnders was pulled from BBC America last year after it proved a failure in the ratings. US versions of other British hits have proved less successful across the Atlantic. BBC comedy Coupling was remade with a US cast, but lost its primetime slot on the NBC network due to disappointing ratings. At home, EastEnders has been facing its own ratings battle, recently losing out to rival ITV soap Emmer dale. Primetime soaps on US television have made a recent comeback, following the success of ABC serial Desperate Housewives. The series takes a ""darkly comedic"" look at the goings-on of a group of characters living in the suburbs." +entertainment,"Elvis set to top UK singles chart Rock 'n' roll legend Elvis is set to top the UK singles chart on Sunday, 27 years after his death. The re-release of hit song Jailhouse Rock was out-selling X Factor winner Steve Brockstein's cover of Against All Odds by 2,000 copies on Tuesday. If the record does make the top spot, it will be Elvis' 19th UK number one. The last time he topped the charts was with the remix of the little-known song A Little Less Conversation, which was number one in June 2002. If Jailhouse Rock does reach number one on Sunday, it will be the 999th in the history of the UK pop charts. The song first topped the charts in 1958. Chart analysts say Elvis could score the 1000th number one as well. His record One Night will be released the following week, followed the week after by A Fool Such As I, as part of his record company SonyBMG's new Elvis campaign. It has called it ""the most ambitious singles release campaign in the history of the UK record industry""." +entertainment,"Glastonbury fans to get ID cards Fans who buy tickets for this year's Glastonbury festival will be issued with photo ID cards in an attempt to beat touts, it has been confirmed. The cards will include a photograph of the ticket-holder plus an electronic chip with their details to prevent tickets being sold on or forged. Tickets for the June event are expected to go on sale in April. ""There is only one place in the world where you will be able to get tickets,"" festival organiser Michael Eavis said. ""That will be the official source. If you get them anywhere else, you won't get in."" Fans not wanting to carry the entrance card could present their passport or driving licence instead, he added. More than 153,000 people are expected to travel to Mr Eavis' Somerset farm from 24-26 June, but the event's rising popularity has meant an extremely high demand for tickets in recent years. When the ID card idea was floated, Mr Eavis' daughter Emily said it would be ""quite a big step in terms of ticketing for events"" if implemented and they were ""going as far as we can"" to cut touting. ""As long as it's approached in the right way, it might really work, it might really change the system,"" she said. In 2004, all 112,000 tickets for the public sold out in 24 hours. They were personalised with the names of purchasers, who were asked to bring identification, such as a driving licence, passport or household bill. But some forgot to take the right information while some touts simply offered to supply their own bills along with the ticket bearing their name. No details of this year's line-up have been confirmed but rumours have suggested U2 and Coldplay may be among the headliners." +entertainment,"iTunes now selling Band Aid song Ipod owners can now download the Band Aid single from iTunes after Apple reached agreement with the charity. Apple had been unwilling to raise the cost of the single in line with other download services, said Band Aid. But the single is now on sale for 79p - the usual cost of a song from iTunes - with Apple donating a further 70p to the charity for each song downloaded. A copy of the original 1984 song is also available for download at 79p - with all proceeds going to the charity. More than 72,000 copies of the new Band Aid single were sold on its first day of release on Monday, according to sales figures. The track has become the fastest-selling single of the year so far, shifting more copies than the rest of the top 30 combined, HMV claimed. Dido, Robbie Williams and Chris Martin are among those featured on the new version of Do They Know It's Christmas?, which is raising money to fight hunger in Africa. If the track sold 500,000 copies, more than £1m would be raised for charity. The CD is being sold for £3.99, with HMV, Virgin and Woolworths all donating their profits." +entertainment,"U2 stars enter rock Hall of Fame Singer Bruce Springsteen has inducted Irish rock band U2 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in New York. The lavish ceremony, celebrating the 50th anniversary of rock 'n' roll, also saw the induction of the Pretenders, Percy Sledge, the O'Jays and Buddy Guy. ""This was a band that wanted to lay claim to this world and the next one, too,"" said Springsteen. Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr, who formed U2 at school in 1977, begin a world tour on 28 March. Introducing the band, Springsteen mocked Bono as the man who ""single-handedly pioneered the Irish mullet"", poking fun at ""one of the best and most endearingly messianic complexes in rock 'n' roll"". But he also spoke of the group's enduring stature, adding that it was the only band of the last 20 years where he knew all four members' names. U2's contemporaries, the Pretenders, led by Chrissie Hynde - took to the stage to perform My City Was Gone with inductee Neil Young. ""We are a tribute band,"" said Hynde, 53. ""We're paying tribute to James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon, without whom we would not have been here,"" she said, referring to the premature deaths of two of the band's guitarists from drug overdoses. Britain's Rod Stewart introduced Percy Sledge, citing his best-known hit When a Man loves a Woman as ""one of the best performances I've ever heard"". Justin Timberlake introduced soul group the O'Jays, a gospel-style quartet from Ohio, who performed a medley of their best-known songs including Back Stabbers, Love Train and For the Love of Money. ""Anyone who's ever written, produced or performed something soulful stands in the shadows of these giants,"" said Timberlake. Joining the ceremony at New York's Waldorf Astoria were legendary R&B star Bo Diddley, who performed with Eric Clapton and Robbie Robertson. Clapton, alongside BB King, also introduced fellow guitarist Buddy Guy and recalled seeing him play as a teenager in England. ""He was for me what Elvis was probably like for other people,"" he said. ""My course was set and he was my pilot,"" said Clapton who joined Guy and King in a performance of Let Me Love You Baby. Also performing at the ceremony was veteran musician Jerry Lee Lewis who continued his reputation as a rowdy piano-pounder despite his 69 years, kicking over his stool and sitting on the piano during a rendition of Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." +entertainment,"Actress Roberts takes spider role Actress Julia Roberts will play the part of a spider in a new film version of children's classic Charlotte's Web. She will voice Charlotte, who teams up with a girl to save their friend Wilbur the pig, in the story by EB White. The film - a mix of live action and animation - will be Roberts' first project since the birth of her twins, Hazel and Phinnaeus, two months ago. Oprah Winfrey will voice a goose, John Cleese will voice a sheep and Steve Buscemi a rat in the 2006 film. Ten-year-old Dakota Fanning will play Fern, the girl at the centre of the story, in the film to be directed by 13 Going on 30 film-maker Gary Winick. Filming is due to begin in Melbourne, Australia, later this month. Charlotte's Web has sold 45 million copies since it was published in 1952. An animated version was made in 1973 but this will be the first live action film. The actor who will voice Wilbur the pig has yet to be revealed." +entertainment,"Film star Fox behind theatre bid Leading actor Edward Fox is one of the men behind plans to reopen a Swansea theatre thought to be Wales' oldest. The star of film and TV hits Day of the Jackal and Edward and Mrs Simpson has joined forces with Swansea-born actor-director Terry Palmer. They will set up a charity to raise money to buy the Palace Theatre, and hope to reopen it to audiences in summer 2006. It is estimated that £500,000 is needed to buy the Grade II listed building. The Palace Theatre, which will be known as The Pavilion Repertory Theatre, was sold to an undisclosed bidder at auction 13 months ago for £340,000. Before that it had been used as a nightclub for 10 years. Oscar-winner Sir Anthony Hopkins, who was born in nearby Port Talbot, made his professional debut there, and Charlie Chaplin and Lily Langtry have also trodden its boards. Fox told the South Wales Evening Post that after visiting the theatre he was surprised by its beauty. ""A lot of money needs to be spent on it, but all the bones are there - it just needs a beautiful skin,"" he said. ""To call it a jewel is not an over-estimation. There are not many theatres left like this. ""The hope for the immediate future is that we can attract enough people to come forward to allow it to prosper,"" he told the newspaper. Fox first found fame in the 1960s. One of his most memorable roles was as an assassin in the Day of the Jackal in 1973, and he won a TV Bafta as the Prince of Wales in 1980 for Edward and Mrs Simpson. He was brought on board to save the theatre by Mr Palmer, a long-standing friend of 40 years. ""Two years ago I decided to return to Swansea and do something for the city,"" said Mr Palmer. He said he was excited by the idea of running the Palace as a charity where young actors could develop, and with an annual Shakespeare festival in the summer. ""If in five years' time the theatre can function in all areas without me, I shall be well satisfied having helped to create a vital living theatre for the city,"" he added. Keith Poulton, a business adviser from Swansea, has already committed an undisclosed amount of money to the project. ""We need at least £75,000 to secure a deposit on the building and we've only got two months to do that,"" said Mr Poulton. ""A few benefactors have expressed their interest and Mr Fox is going to give it an awful lot of time,"" he added. Last year, roads around the theatre were cordoned off when masonry from its roof fell onto a car, but engineers said they were happy that it was safe." +entertainment,"Singer Sizzla jailed for swearing Reggae star Sizzla, whose UK tour was cancelled after protests at his ""anti-gay"" lyrics, has been jailed in Jamaica for swearing on stage. The singer must serve 15 days in prison after he consistently swore during a concert in St Thomas, Jamaica, in January despite warnings by police. He was charged under a law which prohibits indecent dress or expression. Sizzla's five-date UK tour was cancelled last November after protests by gay rights campaigners. Sizzla, whose real name is Miguel Collins, has released 25 albums since 1995 and is credited with taking dancehall music back to its reggae origins. Many Jamaican entertainers have appeared before the courts for use of profanity in recent years but they usually receive a verbal warning, a suspended sentence or community service. Sizzla's UK tour was cancelled after Scotland Yard's Racial and Violent Crime taskforce announced it was examining lyrics by eight reggae artists. It would not confirm that Sizzla was among them. One of his most controversial songs, Pump Up, contains the Jamaican patois lyrics ""fire fi di man dem weh go ride man behind"", translated by gay rights group OutRage! as ""burn the men who have sex with men""." +entertainment,"CSI shows give 'unrealistic view' People have unrealistic expectations of forensic science thanks to the success of the CSI TV shows, real experts say. Evidence submitted to forensic labs has shot up as a result of the programmes, at a time when many have large backlogs, science investigators claim. Lawyers also fear the effect because jurors have a distorted view of how forensic evidence is used. The issue was discussed at a major science conference in Washington DC. Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) and its spin-offs, CSI: Miami and CSI: New York, have proven exceptionally popular with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. Each episode, a team of forensic investigators goes about solving a crime through the ingenious appliance of science - and the extensive resources at their disposal. ""The CSI effect is basically the perception of the near-infallibility of forensic science in response to the TV show,"" said Max Houck, who runs a forensic science graduate course at West Virginia University, US. ""This TV show comes on and everyone starts watching it - including the cops and prosecutors - and submissions to forensic laboratories go through the roof,"" he told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The American forensics expert said there were roughly 200,000-300,000 backlogged DNA samples in US labs. Yet these constituted just 10% of the total test backlog, said Dr Houck. Forensic pathologist Dr Patricia McFeeley said she had started to see the show's influence in dealing with the families of victims. ""What I find is that families now are more dissatisfied with the investigation than was previously the case,"" she explained. ""For example, on television, the toxicology results are available almost instantaneously. But when people find out that it can take several months, they can find that very difficult."" Dr McFeeley added that the accuracy with which forensic investigators can determine time of death was far lower than most people's perceptions. The show's influence can follow forensic investigators all the way into the courtroom, making lawyers jittery. ""Prosecutors fear the CSI effect with juries because, for example, they wonder: 'why wasn't everything tested?' Well, in fact, not everything needs to be tested,"" Dr Houck explained. ""Defence attorneys also worry about the CSI effect because they think that jurors come in and have this view of science as a juggernaut; this objective method that's always accurate."" However, he admitted the show had had positive as well as negative effects on the field. ""My university course started with four graduates in 1999; we're now the largest major on campus - with 400 students,"" he said. Dr Houck added that there was an urgent need for better funding of forensic science at the university level: ""There's more money spent in this country on holistic medicine than there is on forensic science research.""" +entertainment,"Band Aid 20 single storms to No 1 The new version of the Band Aid song Do They Know It's Christmas? has gone straight in at number one in the UK singles chart. The charity record is also tipped to be this year's Christmas number one. It features vocals from the likes of Chris Martin, Dido, Robbie Williams and the Sugababes. The original version - which was the Christmas number one in 1984 - sold 750,000 copies in its first week and 3.5 million in total. It was released in the US, and reached number 13 in the singles chart. However, Band Aid 20 is not going to be released in the US, despite being sold in many countries around the world. US record shops are stocking an import version of Do They Know It's Christmas, which is said to be selling very well in Los Angeles and New York. British stars who appear on the current recording, such as Dido and Coldplay's Chris Martin, are well known to music fans across the Atlantic, along with U2 frontman Bono. Record company Universal is responsible for the global distribution of the single, which will be available across Europe, Asia, South America and Canada. But music fans in the US are still able to access the song and download it on Band Aid 20's official website. In 1985, a group of high-profile American stars known as USA For Africa came together to record their own fund-raising single, We Are The World. The song was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, with Quincy Jones as producer. It topped the US charts for three weeks and went on win Grammy awards for best record and song. Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and Tina Turner were among the line-up of performers. Proceeds from the sales of the Band Aid 20 single will go towards aid relief in Africa, in countries such as Ethiopia and Sudan. The money raised will also be used to help combat HIV and Aids across the continent. The Band Aid Trust which was set up 20 years ago, when the original single was released, handed out $144m (£75m) to famine relief projects across Africa between January 1985 and November 2004." +entertainment,"Celebrities get their skates on Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne will join EastEnders' actress Scarlett Johnson on BBC One's Strictly Ice Dancing. The one-off Christmas special will also star television presenter Carol Smillie and Jessica Taylor from Liberty-X. Each celebrity will be paired with a professional skater to impress a panel of judges and win the audience vote. The BBC is yet to confirm the final two stars who will battle it out to become Ice King or Queen. Veteran presenter Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly will host the programme, which follows hot on the heels of the current Saturday night series Strictly Come Dancing. The celebrities will have to practise a stipulated ice dance and perform it at an ice rink with their partner. The judges will have 50% of the vote to decide who wins the contest, with the ice rink audience making up the rest of the vote. The show forms part of the BBC's festive schedule. Ice skating duo Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean are to front a similar celebrity ice dance show for ITV, titled Stars on Thin Ice. The contestants on Stars on Thin Ice will each be paired up with a professional skater and will learn a new routine every week. At the end of the series, one celebrity will be crowned the winner." +entertainment,"Bening makes awards breakthrough Film actress Annette Bening is up for an Oscar for her starring role in the award-winning film Being Julia. Bening, who was born in Texas in 1958, has gained prominence for a string of key roles. Although an Oscar has so far eluded her, her status as one of Hollywood's favourite actresses remains solid. One of the biggest Oscars buzzes in recent years was for Bening's role as troubled Carolyn Burnham in 1999's American Beauty. But her deliciously neurotic portrayal of surburban life turning sour was overlooked in favour of Hilary Swank's leading role in Boys Don't Cry. After opening her career in the theatre - and gaining a Tony Award nomination in 1986 - Bening had a low-key spell in television. She then made her film debut as a sex-starved wife in 1988's The Great Outdoors, opposite comics Dan Akroyd and John Candy. Following a cameo in Postcards From The Edge, Bening's breakthrough role came in 1990, playing seductive con artist Myra Langtry in The Grifters - a role that won her an Oscar nomination. Despite some rave reviews, Bening did not win the best supporting actress Academy Award. However the high-profile performance enabled Bening to capture roles in a number of big budget Hollywood productions, co-starring with some of Hollywood's greatest players, including Robert De Niro and Harrison Ford. But it was her role opposite Warren Beatty in 1991 gangster flick Bugsy which had the greatest impact. Bening played Virginia Hill, another role which won her high critical acclaim, but the film only picked up two of a staggering 12 Oscar nominations. Bugsy was the start of a very significant liaison for Bening - she married Beatty, with whom she had a child as the couple promoted the film in Europe. The couple now have four children together. A pair of contrasting yet successful performances peppered Bening's career in the mid-1990s. She played Michael Douglas' opposite number in romantic comedy The American President, and as a ""fiery"" Queen Elizabeth I in a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III. Bening was the first choice to play the female lead in American Beauty, director Sam Mendes' film debut which was a critical and commercial success - but the actress had to be content with a Bafta award for her strong performance. But current film Being Julia has made Bening an award-winning actress rather than the perennial nominee, with success at the Golden Globes. The witty tale of revenge and love set in 1930s London sees the eponymous theatrical diva - played by Bening - grow tired of her success and fall for a young American - and could be the role which finally wins her the coveted Academy Award." +entertainment,"Row threatens Hendrix museum plan Proposals to open a museum dedicated to Jimi Hendrix are flailing because of a row over the home of his late father. The run-down house in Seattle has already been moved wholesale once and local authorities are now demanding it be moved to another site. Hendrix supporters hoped to turn the home into a museum for the guitarist. ""The mayor is going to go down as the mayor who destroyed Jimi Hendrix's house,"" said Ray Rae Marshall of the James Marshall Hendrix Foundation. The foundation moved the building, in which Al Hendrix lived between 1953 and 1956, when the land it was built on was to be developed for housing in 2002. Now the City of Seattle wants its new plot to be used for development, giving a deadline of 22 February for the home to be moved. Mr Goldman said the authority had promised the house could remain on its new site and be turned into a memorial and community centre. Seattle officials said no such deal had been offered. ""We never said, 'You can own this property,'"" said John Franklin, chief of its operations department. ""From our perspective, it was a temporary situation. We have not threatened to demolish the house. We've simply asked that they have to move it."" Now Mr Goldman is calling for the authority to pay to move the building to Seattle's central district, where Hendrix grew up. Janie Hendrix, the guitarist's stepsister, said the family were still hoping the guitarist would be honoured by having a road named after him. ""That's something my father really wanted to see,"" she said. ""It would be nice if we didn't have to fight for everything to get it."" Hendrix was widely considered one of the most important guitarists of his time. He died of drug overdose in 1970 at the age of 27." +entertainment,"John Peel replacement show begins The permanent replacement for late DJ John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show goes on air on Tuesday, with three hosts chosen to fill the legendary presenter's slot. Rock DJ Huw Stephens will go on air in the 2300 slot every Tuesday, with black music champion Ras Kwame on Wednesdays and dance DJ Rob Da Bank on Thursdays. Rob Da Bank filled in after Peel had a heart attack aged 65 in October. All three will play ""diverse, unpredictable and non-commercial"" songs under the banner of the OneMusic show. Radio 1 said the station was not trying to replace Peel, but would rise to the ""challenge"" of ""keeping his legacy alive"" with unpredictable music. The three DJs were chosen for their ""in-depth musical knowledge across a variety of musical genres"", the station said. Rob Da Bank is one of the hosts of The Blue Room, an early morning weekend show which plays electronic and dance music. Huw Stephens has been one half of the Thursday night show Bethan and Huw in Wales, which explores new music, especially up-and-coming acts in Wales. And Ras Kwame is host of 100% Homegrown on Radio 1's digital station 1Xtra, dedicated to showcasing the best hip-hop and garage. Another change to the station line-up will see Sara Cox return after maternity leave. She will host the lunchtime show on Saturdays from this week. Good luck to all three of them, not one DJ could fill Peels boots so it's probably a good idea to get them all contributing. This time next year I hope we are saying how well these DJs have done, but I fear this time next year we will really realise how much John Peel will be forever missed. Very good idea to continue the legacy without attempting to replace John Peel. Also, there will surely be a wider spectrum for international music as three top radio DJs unite under the One World name. Congratulations! The whole glory of John Peel was the fact he was not commited to one genre. He played what he liked across the range of music.... this is not going to be the same, and all they seem to be doing is what they already have. Bring back Steve Lamacq. The obvious heir to John Peel is the marvellous, wonderful and talented Claire Kember from totallyradio.com. This lady is young and fresh and is one of the most knowledgeable and likeable people in British broadcasting today. Everyone who listens to her show understands and compares her to the ledgendary John Peel. BBC Radio should seek out the real talent from internet radio stations, people who are making a real impact on the world of music and the world in general." +entertainment,"West End to honour finest shows The West End is honouring its finest stars and shows at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in London on Monday. The Producers, starring Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, is up for best musical at the ceremony at the National Theatre. It is competing against Sweeney Todd and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum for the award. The Goat or Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee, The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh and Alan Bennett's The History Boys are shortlisted in the best play category. Pam Ferris, Victoria Hamilton and Kelly Reilly are nominated for best actress. Ferris - best known for her television roles in programmes such as The Darling Buds of May - has made the shortlist for her role in Notes on Falling Leaves, at the Royal Court Theatre. Meanwhile, Richard Griffiths, who plays Hector in The History Boys at the National Theatre, will battle it out for the best actor award with Douglas Hodge (Dumb Show) and Stanley Townsend (Shining City). The best director shortlist includes Luc Bondy for Cruel and Tender, Simon McBurney for Measure for Measure, and Rufus Norris for Festen. Festen is also shortlisted in the best designer category where Ian MacNeil, Jean Kalman and Paul Arditti will be up against Hildegard Bechtler, for Iphigenia at Aulis, and Paul Brown, for False Servant. The Milton Shulman Award for outstanding newcomer will be presented to Dominic Cooper (His Dark Materials and The History Boys), Romola Garai (Calico), Eddie Redmayne (The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?) or Ben Wishaw (Hamlet). And playwrights David Eldridge, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Owen McCafferty will fight it out for The Charles Wintour Award and a £30,000 bursary. Three 50th Anniversary Special Awards will also be presented to an institution, a playwright and an individual." +entertainment,"Howl helps boost Japan's cinemas Japan's box office received a 3.8% boost last year, with ticket sales worth 211bn yen (£1.08bn). The surge was led by animated movie Howl's Moving Castle, which took 20bn yen (£102m) to become the biggest film in Japan in 2004. It is expected to match the 30.7bn yen (£157m) record of Hayao Miyazaki's previous film Spirited Away. Japan Motion Picture Producers figures showed that 170 million cinema admissions were made in Japan in 2004. The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise, was the biggest foreign movie hit in Japan last year, taking 13.8bn yen (£70.7m). It was followed by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Finding Nemo and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The second highest-grossing Japanese film was romantic drama Crying Out Love in the Centre of the World, followed by Be With You and Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation. Japanese films accounted for 37.5% of Japan's box office total last year, with foreign films taking the remaining 62.5%. This represented a 4.5% gain for the proportion of Japanese films in 2004 compared to 2003. The number of Japanese films released rose to 310 in 2004 from 287 the previous year. Sales of movies on DVD and video amounted to 497bn yen (£2.54bn) for the year." +entertainment,"Pop band Busted to 'take a break' Chart-topping pop band Busted have confirmed that they plan to ""take a break"", following rumours that they were on the verge of splitting. A statement from the band's record company Universal said frontman Charlie Simpson planned to spend some time working with his other band, Fightstar. However they said that Busted would ""reconvene in due course"". The band have had eight top three hits, including four number ones, since they first hit the charts in 2002. Their singles include What I Go To School For, Year 3000, Crashed The Wedding, You Said No, and Who's David? The band, which also includes members Matt Jay and James Bourne, made the top ten with their self-titled debut album, as well as the follow-up, A Present For Everyone, in 2003. They won best pop act and best breakthrough act at the 2004 Brit Awards and were nominated for best British group. Most recently they topped the charts with the theme from the live-action film version of Thunderbirds, which was voted Record Of The Year on the ITV1 show. The band have capitalised on a craze for artists playing catchy pop music with rock overtones. The trio are seen as an alternative to more manufactured artists who are not considered credible musicians because they do not write their own songs or play their own instruments. However, recent rumours have suggested that Simpson has been wanting to quit the band to focus on Fightstar. He now plans to take Fightstar on tour." +entertainment,"Dance music not dead says Fatboy DJ Norman Cook - aka Fatboy Slim - has said that dance music is not dead, but has admitted it is currently going through a ""fallow patch"". The commercial failure of the latest albums by Britain's two biggest dance acts - Fatboy Slim's Palookaville and The Prodigy's Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned - has been coupled with the closure of many ""superclubs,"" and the folding of three dance music magazines. Last month the Brit Awards announced they would no longer be awarding a Best Dance Act prize, with the Brits committee announcing that ""dance music is no longer where it's happening in music."" These developments lead some to suggest that dance was finished as a popular music genre. Cook acknowledged that much change in the dance world in the four years since his last album, Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars, but he stressed this did not mean the dance scene was permanently over. ""Every week when I was making the album, I was reading articles about the demise of dance music - and obviously that affects you somewhat,"" he told BBC World Service's The Ticket programme. ""I personally don't believe it's either dead or going to die, but it's going through a bit of a fallow patch. ""So I think, consciously or subconsciously, reading every week that dance music was dead I would think 'right, scrub that track then'."" Although his album sales in the UK are down - Palookaville stayed in the UK top 75 for just three weeks - Cook has achieved recent global success with his beach parties. And event on Brighton sea front in 2002 attracted 250,000, people, while a later one in Rio achieved a crowd of 360,000. The DVD of the Rio set was the biggest seller of that year. ""With a crowd that big, if the weather's nice, the atmosphere before I even go is so good that about halfway through the first record I think 'I've got them',"" Cook said. ""I'm always really really nervous before the big ones - they had to give me Valium before Rio, because two hours before I was literally just pacing the floor. ""For some reason, especially now I've got a reputation for it, the atmosphere and the joie de vivre that's already going on means all I have to do is play 'up' records."" He promised more such parties in more locations around the world - despite problems after the Brighton event, which ended in chaos with many revellers finding themselves stranded as transport ground to a halt. One man also died of a heart attack, and a woman fell to her death during the free party. ""We're having to widen our horizons from just beaches, because there's landlocked countries that want to get involved,"" Cook said. ""We're doing Rio at the carnival, at the Maracana, and Sao Paolo - our new gig is famous football stadiums."" The DJ admitted, however, that his massive worldwide success had a downside, with intense media interest in his personal life. In particular, he said he had struggled to cope with tabloid intrusion during the temporary break-up of his marriage to Radio One presenter Zoe Ball, after she was linked with DJ Dan Peppe. ""The tabloid thing has been difficult at times,"" Cook said. ""Especially the me-and-Zoe-Gate - it's quite scary."" He said that he had been ""determined"" that what had happened with Ball did not affect the album. ""At first I was doing deliberately jolly tunes so that people wouldn't think I was depressed,"" he explained. ""Then I thought, 'that's not right'."" And he highlighted a bizarre coincidence - that one song written before they split had turned out to have a great deal more meaning than intended. ""I said to Zoe, 'I did this track called My Masochistic Baby Went And Left Me, do you mind if it's on the album?'"" he recalled. ""She said, 'yeah, it's hilarious, because your masochistic baby did leave you'."" Cook also added that he had some ways of coping with the intense paparazzi pressure, which accumulates at the end of the private road he lives on - where Paul McCartney is a neighbour. ""It's almost like prisoners rattling the bars with their mugs,"" Cook explained. ""If there's a pap at the end of the road, everyone knocks on each other's doors - Paul comes round, and we warn him, because we don't know who they're after.""" +entertainment,"Arnold congratulated on Oscar win Oscar-winner Andrea Arnold has been congratulated by the UK Film Council, the organisation which partly funded her project. Arnold's film Wasp won the best live action short film award on Sunday. ""The UK Film Council spends millions of pounds of lottery investment on short filmmaking in Britain every year,"" said chief executive officer John Woodward. ""It certainly pays off when you see new film-makers winning such prestigious awards,"" he added. Wasp, which was commissioned by the Film Council and Channel 4, beat films by fellow UK nominees Gary McKendry and Ashvin Kumar to the prize. It stars actress Nathalie Press, who appeared in the Bafta-winning drama My Summer Of Love, as a single mother who is forced to take drastic action when she is invited on a date and is unable to find a babysitter to look after her four daughters. The film has already won over 30 other international awards including the Sundance Short Film Prize. Arnold, from Dartford in Kent, described her victory as ""truly overwhelming. I'm really not used to this kind of thing,"" she said, after receiving her Oscar from actor Jeremy Irons. ""Thanks to everyone who worked on this - the beers are on me when we get home."" The director was one of only two British winners on the night, the other being Sandy Powell, who won the costume design Oscar for her work on The Aviator." +entertainment,"US 'to raise TV indecency fines' US politicians are proposing a tough new law aimed at cracking down on indecency and bad language on US TV. Fines of up to $500,000 (£266,582) could be imposed each time broadcasters transmit nudity or profanities. The proposal, unveiled in the House of Representatives, also seeks to revoke a broadcaster's licence after three violations have been committed. The exposure of Janet Jackson's breast at last year's Superbowl landed CBS with a $550,000 (£293,264) fine. Entertainers could also be liable for fines under the proposed legisation from both US politcians and officials from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). A Republican senator from Kansas, Sam Brownbeck, is set to call for a maximum $3 million (£1.6 million) fine for repeated violations. The current maximum fine stands at $32,500 (£17,320) - 20 of the stations in the CBS network were each penalised these lesser amounts for the Jackson incident. Republican politician Fred Upton, who chairs the committee responsible for broadcasting, said current fines are ""more of a cost of doing business rather than a deterrent"". Last year's Janet Jackson 'wardrobe malfunction' encouraged the FCC to impose tougher rules, but the US Congress adjourned last year without agreeing on a new level of fines. New figures have to be decided before new legislation can be put before President Bush. Certain broadcasters, like Fox, claim the material they carry does not violate indecency laws and is protected under the right to free speech." +entertainment,"Lost Doors frontman movie found Historians in Florida have discovered a 40-year-old clip of a clean-cut Jim Morrison appearing in a promotional film for his university. The 1964 film shows the Doors frontman, who died aged 27 in 1971, playing the part of a young man who had been rejected by Florida State University. Morrison is seen quizzing a college administrator on why he was refused. ""But what happened? How come my parents and the state and the university didn't look ahead?"" he is seen asking. ""It's incredible. He's so clean cut and soft-spoken,"" said Florida state archivist Jody Norman. ""We know he was at Florida State University for a period of time and he did some acting when he was there,"" Norman added. The Doors were one of the most influential bands of the 1960s, with hits including Light My Fire and Riders On The Storm. Morrison was notorious for his wild lifestyle - and was accused of exposing himself and simulating a sex act at a Miami concert in 1969. He was found dead in the bath of his Paris apartment and died from heart problems, aggravated by alcohol. A coroner recorded a verdict of death by natural causes and his grave at the city's Pere Lachaise ceremony has become a shrine for fans." +entertainment,"Super Size Me wins writers' award Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock has won the Writers Guild of America's award for documentary feature writing. The Oscar-nominated film followed Spurlock as he ate only McDonald's fast food for an entire month. Spurlock was given the award at a special ceremony at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood on Tuesday. Organisers said the rising popularity of documentary films led them to honour a writer for a documentary screenplay for the first time. Producer Brian Grazer presented the award to Spurlock and the film's backers, Roadside Attractions, Samuel Goldwyn Films and Showtime Independent Films. Spurlock set out to discover the effect of living on nothing but McDonald's for a month, upgrading to supersize portions when offered. The film followed his 25lb weight gain and the health effects on his body, including his liver and cholesterol levels. McDonald's announced it was to scrap its ""supersized"" meals last year, but denied the move was as a result of the negative publicity created by Spurlock's film. Spurlock was given his award on the same day the European Court of Human Rights ruled that two UK activists should have been given legal aid in their long fight against a McDonald's libel action. Helen Steel and David Morris, from north London, dubbed the ""McLibel Two"", were found guilty in a 1990s trial of libelling the company in a leaflet they had been handing out At the end of the case the High Court in London ruled McDonald's had been libelled and awarded the company £60,000 in damages, later reduced to £40,000 on appeal. But he found the leaflet was true in some aspects." +entertainment,"Director Nair's Vanity project Indian film director Mira Nair has said she was thrilled to be given the chance to make William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair - as the book has been a favourite through her life. The book is one of the classics of English literature - the story of scheming 19th Century social climber Becky Sharp, played in the film by Reese Witherspoon. Nair said that she jumped at the chance to work on the film, which she has - controversially - made in a Bollywood style, including two song-and-dance routines in the film's second half. ""It was serendipity really - I was offered Vanity Fair by the studio Focus Features, who had distributed Monsoon Wedding,"" Nair told BBC World Service's Masterpiece programme. ""They offered me their next-best thing, not realising that Vanity Fair had actually been one of my favourite novels since I was 16 years old in an Irish Catholic boarding school in India."" Since her 1988 debut feature Salaam Bombay! - nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar and winner of Best First Feature at Cannes - Nair has become one of India's most famous and respected directors. She is not restricted to Bollywood, however - she followed Salaam Bombay! with Mississippi Masala, starring Denzel Washington, and The Perez Family, her first Hollywood film. Her career peaked with Monsoon Wedding in 2001, which won the Golden Lion award at Venice. Nair's Indian-style adaptation of Vanity Fair, however, has been attacked by critics in the US - where it only reached number eight at the box office in its opening week - who described the Bollywood elements as ""jarring."" The film has a new ending, with Becky Sharp running off for a new life in India. But Nair said that her film had picked up on the way Thackeray - who was born in India but moved to England as a young man - had seen the world. ""First, when I was 16, it was Becky Sharp, who is a completely memorable character, because I recognised myself in her - I recognised all the ladies who did not want to be ladies, who wanted to buck the system that they were in,"" she said. ""But it was the sort of novel I somehow kept at the side of my bed for many years, and I would dip into every now and then and suddenly get completely mesmerised again. ""As I got older and read it, I think it was Thackeray's clarity - his clear-sightedness about his own society, the fact that he was born in India but came to England as a young man - that gave him the eyes of an outsider, and yet he was an insider. ""That perspective was something I really loved."" Nair also defended her decision to cast an American actress - Reese Witherspoon - as Becky Sharp, despite the fact that all the rest of the cast are British or Irish. ""I cast intuitively - in my films I cast as many non-actors as I cast actors,"" she said. ""For me, it is intuition - I have to fall in love with an actor. It is a visceral response. ""Thackeray describes Becky Sharp as a minx. Also she's described as someone who's tiny, red-headed and thin. Reese had that completely minx-like irresistibility about her."" Having won the role because she seemed physically perfectly suited to the part, however, Witherspoon then became pregnant. But Nair said that, though this had created the need for some filming tricks, it had in fact also helped the film. ""It was a self-fulfilling prophesy - when I first met her husband [actor Ryan Philippe], I said 'knock her up, won't you, I need some flesh on the girl',"" she joked. ""I'm not a fan of the underfed Los Angeles actor at all. This was, for me, about Becky Sharp being, eventually, a full-blown woman through the course of the film. ""I love the luminosity that pregnancy brings, I love the fleshiness, I love the ample bosom - it gave me much more to play with."" Nair explained how camera tricks had been used to disguise Witherspoon's ""bump"" in various scenes - including hiring a number of young boys in costumes to stand in front of her. ""She runs, she gets off coal carts, she jumps off horses - she does everything,"" Nair said. ""But there's also a certain carriage with horses that is going to wipe the screen at a certain moment, because of the bump.""" +entertainment,"Brits return Keane to number one Brits success has helped return Keane's award-winning album Hopes and Fears back to the top of the UK album chart. The debut album, which took the best British album title at the Brits on Tuesday, moved up seven places from number eight to number one. Also capitalising on Brits success were the Scissor Sisters whose eponymous album moved three places to number two. U2's latest single Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own took the top spot in the singles chart, ahead of Elvis. The track, from their current album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, pushed Eminem's Like Toy Soldiers from number one to number three. Elvis' Wooden Heart, which entered the chart at number two, is the sixth in a series of 18 reissues to mark the 70th anniversary of Presley's birth. There are currently six re-released Elvis' tracks occupying spots in the top 40 singles chart including Are You Lonesome Tonight at number 20, It's Now or Never at number 27 and Jailhouse Rock at number 37. Soldier, by Destiny's Child, Ti and Lil Wayne, debuted at number four, while Almost Here, the duet from former Westlife star Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem, fell from number three to number five. There was more follow up to Brits success for Franz Ferdinand won best rock act and best British group last week. Their self-titled album moved from 13 to number four. Last week's number one album Tourist, by Athlete, fell to number three." +entertainment,"Dame Julie pops in to see Poppins Mary Poppins star Dame Julie Andrews watched the hit stage version of her classic film at a charity performance in London's West End. It was the first time Dame Julie, who shot to fame as the nanny in the 1964 Disney movie, had seen the musical, staged at the Prince Edward Theatre. She watched Laura Michelle Kelly, 23, reprise the role on stage. The show has been one of the West End's hottest tickets since opening in December, winning two Olivier Awards. Kelly was named best musical actress at last month's ceremony and the musical also won best choreography. But Kelly said she was ""very nervous"" about meeting Dame Julie because she was ""my absolute hero"". The gala performance saw Dame Julie, 69, return to the theatre where she had her first starring role in a performance of Humpty Dumpty in 1948. The Mary Poppins musical has been masterminded by theatre impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Richard Eyre with choreography by Matthew Bourne. Sir Cameron said he hoped the production, which cost £9m to bring to the stage, was a blend of the sweet-natured film and the original book by PL Travers. Proceeds from Thursday's show will go to charities including Absolute Return for Kids (Ark), international relief agency Operation USA and drama school Lamda." +entertainment,"US actor Ossie Davis found dead US actor Ossie Davis has been found dead at the age of 87. Davis, who was married to actress Ruby Dee, was found dead on Friday in his hotel room in Miami Beach, Florida, where he was making a film. Davis, whose 65-year career included credits as a producer, director, actor and writer for stage and screen, was also a civil rights activist. Miami Beach police spokesman Bobby Hernandez said the cause of death appeared to be natural. Davis's body was discovered by his grandson and paramedics at the Shore Club hotel in Miami Beach, where the actor had been shooting the film Retirement. Mr Hernandez said: ""After gaining entry, they found Mr Davis had passed away. ""The cause of death appears to be natural. According to his grandson he was suffering from heart disease."" Some of Davis's best known roles included The Joe Louis Story and Gone Are the Days - a film he adapted from his own play, Purlie Victorious. He also appeared in 7 Spike Lee movies, including School Daze, Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever. His film debut, in 1950, was in the film No Way Out, starring Sydney Poitier and Ruby Dee. Davis and Dee were married for more than 56 years and together received Kennedy Center honours in 2004 for their body of work. The Actors' Equity Association issued a statement calling Davis ""an icon in the American theatre"" and he and Dee ""American treasures"". Davis was also a prominent figure in the civil rights movement and was a voice for racial equality. He was a featured speaker at the funerals of both Martin Luther King Jnr and Malcolm X. Besides Dee, Davis is survived by three children Nora, Hasna and Guy, a blues artist, and seven grandchildren." +entertainment,"Box office blow for Alexander Director Oliver Stone's historical epic Alexander has failed in its bid to conquer the box office, entering the US film charts at number six. The swords and sandals blockbuster, rumoured to have cost more than $150m (£79m) to make, earned just $13.5 (£7m) over three days at the US box office. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the film opened on Wednesday, bringing its total takings to $21.6m (£11.4m). Top of the box office for a second week was action movie National Treasure. The family adventure, starring Nicolas Cage, took $33.1m (£17.m), ahead of animated comedy The Incredibles - now in its fourth week in the charts - which took $24.1m (£12.7m). Last week Oliver Stone's film met with scathing reviews from US critics. The film stars Irish actor Colin Farrell as one of history's most celebrated leaders - a relentless and arrogant warrior who conquered much of the known world by the age of 25. In particular, its portrayal of Alexander as a bisexual has met with a hostile reception and the threat of legal action from Greek lawyers. ""Though the battles have the blood-and-sinew bravado you expect from Oliver Stone, this three-hour buttnumbathon is hamstrung by a hectoring grandiosity,"" wrote one reviewer in Rolling Stone magazine. Others poured scorn on Farrell's bleached hair and Angelina Jolie's unwieldy accent, which Variety called ""a combination of Mata Hari and Count Dracula"" . But novelist Gore Vidal defended the film, saying it was ""barrier-breaking"" for its frank depiction of bisexuality. In Sweden last Thursday, to pick up a lifetime achievement award at the Stockholm International Film Festival, Stone expressed the hope that Alexander might be better appreciated in Europe. ""One of the reasons I am being honoured here is Europeans tend to see me a little differently than they do in the US,"" said the director behind JFK, Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. He added Alexander ""was not an easy movie, but then I've never made easy movies""." +entertainment,"US show sued for rat-eating stunt A US TV network is being sued for $2.5m (£1.3m) by a viewer who says he was disgusted by watching contestants eat dead rats in a stunt show. Austin Aitken is taking action against NBC over its programme Fear Factor. He said watching the show caused his blood pressure to rise so high that he became dizzy and light-headed. The legal assistant said NBC was ""sending the wrong message to viewers that cash can make or have people do just about anything beyond reasoning"". The hand-written, four-page lawsuit said: ""To have the individuals on the show eat and drink dead rats was crazy and from a viewer's point of view made me throw-up as well as another in the house at the same time."" Mr Aitken, who lives in Cleveland, said that after becoming light-headed, he ran towards the bedroom and knocked his head in a doorway. A spokesman for NBC said it had no comment on the lawsuit, but confirmed the stunt show did feature a rat-eating scene in New York's Times Square on 8 November. Past shows have featured viewers eating spiders and live worms. The programme has been screened in the UK on Sky One." +entertainment,"New York rockers top talent poll New York electro-rock group The Bravery have come top of the BBC News website's Sound of 2005 poll to find the music scene's most promising new act. The Bravery, who have been compared to The Cure and New Order, were the most heavily-tipped act in the survey of 110 impartial critics and broadcasters. Rock band Keane won Sound of 2004 while US rapper 50 Cent topped Sound of 2003. Other new artists in this year's list include London indie group Bloc Party at second and UK rapper Kano third. The Bravery played their first gig in 2003 and have since supported bands including The Libertines, Interpol and Echo and the Bunnymen. They were the subject of a record company bidding war in 2004 and their debut single, Unconditional, caused a huge buzz when it was released in the UK in November. Singer Sam Endicott said he felt ""great"" about coming top of the Sound of 2005 list. ""Anyone that says they don't want a zillion screaming fans is a jackass, a liar,"" he said. One of the experts to tip The Bravery was The Times' music critic Paul Connolly, who said they were ""spiky but in love with pop"". Chris Hawkins, host of BBC 6 Music's chart show, said the band had ""great guitars and a mastery of the electro-clash sound"". ""The Bravery are proof alone that New York City is still home to hot new talent,"" he said. Alison Howe, producer of TV show Later... With Jools Holland, booked the group to appear the day after seeing them at a west London pub. ""They played like they were headlining the main stage at Glastonbury,"" she said. ""Great songs, a good look, a touch of attitude and a cracking live band."" Q magazine reviews editor Ted Kessler said they were ""pretty-boy New York clothes horses"" with ""an unusually nimble ear for concise, yearning pop in the mould of Duran Duran or The Strokes"". Other pundits to take part in the survey included BBC Radio 1 DJ Trevor Nelson, NME editor Conor McNicholas, Top of the Pops presenter Fearne Cotton, Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis and BBC Radio 2 music editor Colin Martin. Elsewhere on the top 10, second-placed rock band Bloc Party began their rise after supporting Franz Ferdinand and UK garage MC Kano, in third, is signed to The Streets' record label. US rapper The Game is hip-hop great Dr Dre's latest protege while Leeds group Kaiser Chiefs came fifth with a promise to lead a Britpop revival. In last year's survey, Keane were followed by Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight and Joss Stone in the top five - all of whom were virtually unknown outside the music industry at that point. Boy band McFly were sixth while Scissor Sisters, who had the UK's best-selling album of 2004, were seventh. In the survey, the pundits were asked for tips for three acts they thought were capable of reaching the top in their chosen genre, either in terms of sales or critical acclaim. The artists could be from any country and any musical genre, but must not have had a UK top 20 single, been a contestant on a TV talent show or already be famous for doing something else, such as a soap actor. Those tips were then counted and compiled to make the top 10." +entertainment,"Eminem secret gig venue revealed Rapper Eminem is to play an intimate gig in London on Saturday, following a show on the River Thames on Friday. The US star will play just two songs at a night showcasing his label Shady Records at the Islington Academy. Eminem performed on HMS Belfast on Friday, which is docked on the River Thames, where he filmed two songs for BBC One's Top of the Pops. He arrived in the UK on Friday following his appearance at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Rome. Other rap acts who may appear at the Islington gig include Stat Quo, Proof, DJ Green Lantern, Swift and Obie Trice. Eminem's latest album soared to the top of the US chart after just three days on sale in record shops. Encore is now a chart-topper on both sides of the Atlantic following its debut at number one in the UK. The fourth album from the rap star was on sale for two days before it outsold all of its rivals. The album was released early in an effort to combat both physical and online piracy. Eminem's album includes the track Mosh, which is a tirade against US President Bush and the presence of US troops in Iraq. The rapper was criticised earlier this year after a performance on BBC One's Top of the Pops in April led 12 viewers to complain he was ""lewd"" and ""offensive"". The complaints about the star grabbing his crotch were upheld by the BBC. ""The performer had been asked to tone his act down after rehearsal but ignored this request during the live broadcast,"" a BBC statement read. ""Although his gestures were part of the rap culture, they had gone beyond what is expected.""" +entertainment,"Disputed Nirvana box set on sale A box set featuring 68 unreleased Nirvana tracks has gone on sale in the US, after years of legal wrangles. With the Lights Out was intended to be released in 2001, to mark the 10th anniversary of the album Nevermind. It was blocked by Courtney Love, the widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who did not want unreleased song You Know You're Right on the box set. The dispute between Love and surviving band members Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl was settled in 2002. Work began on the box set in 1998, but legal battles put the project on hold. The legal fight centred on a studio recording of the unreleased track You Know You're Right, regarded by fans as one of the unreleased gems of Nirvana. The set, released on Tuesday, features three CDs and a DVD of rare performance and rehearsal footage. The DVD also includes the first performance of Smells Like Teen Spirit, the track that launched Nirvana on to the international stage in 1991. ""The band wasn't always pretty, or always in tune. This is not Nirvana unplugged. It's Nirvana unedited,"" said Cobain biographer Charles Cross. The band's development ended tragically when songwriter Kurt Cobain committed suicide in April 1994." +entertainment,"Indie film nominations announced Mike Leigh's award-winning abortion drama Vera Drake has scooped seven nominations at this year's British Independent Film Awards. But the Venice winner faces stiff competition from Shane Meadows' critically acclaimed Dead Man's Shoes, which received eight nominations. Also in the running for a clutch of awards are My Summer of Love and the stalker drama Enduring Love. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 30 November. The winners of the awards will be chosen by a jury chaired by Cold Mountain director Anthony Minghella and including actresses Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham-Carter. The awards, which recognise independent film-making in Britain, were established seven years ago. ""This year's nominees reflect the growing strength and diversity of British independent filmmaking,"" said BIFA founder and director Elliot Grove. Commenting on the diversity of the nominated films, he added: ""Our selection committee had a harder time than ever narrowing down the field."" Joining Vera Drake and Dead Man's Shoes in the running for best film are My Summer of Love, climbing documentary Touching the Void and zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead. Geoffrey Rush wins a best actor nomination for his role as Peter Sellers in the recent biopic The Life & Death of Peter Sellers. The Australian star faces competition from Daniel Craig (Enduring Love), Phil Davis (Vera Drake), Ian Hart (Blind Fight) and Dead Man's Shoes' star Paddy Considine. Considine is also nominated for a best supporting actor award for My Summer of Love. A rare US nominee, Scarlett Johansson, is among this year's best actress contenders for her role in Girl with a Pearl Earring. Fellow nominees include Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), Natalie Press (My Summer of Love), Anne Reid (The Mother) and Eva Birthistle (Ae Fond Kiss... ). Shane Meadows and Kevin McDonald, both former winners of the Douglas Hickox Award (for Best Directorial Debut) won best director nominations. Seasoned film-makers Roger Michell, Mike Leigh and Pavel Pavlikowsky challenge them to the award. Harry Potter author JK Rowling will receive a special award for her contribution to the industry." +entertainment,"Hundreds vie for best film Oscar A total of 267 films are eligible for the best film Oscar but only five will be chosen to go forward as nominees. The Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences has sent out the first ballot papers with the full list of films vying for recognition. Among those expected to receive nominations are The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby and Sideways. Academy members will now vote for their favourites before the final nominees are announced on 25 January. To be eligible for nomination a film must have been shown in a commercial theatre for seven consecutive days before the deadline of 31 December. Director Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio went on general release on Christmas Day in the US, ensuring it just made the deadline. Studios have already begun lobbying voters, taking out full page adverts in trade publications such as Variety urging them to remember particular films when it comes to choosing what to back. Other movies tipped for possible success include Closer, starring Jude Law and Julia Roberts, Finding Neverland, with Johnny Depp as author JM Barry and Kinsey starring Liam Neeson as the famed sex scientist Alfred Kinsey. Meanwhile, design engineer Takuo Miyagishima will be awarded an Oscar at the Scientific and Technical Awards Dinner on 12 February 2005. Miyagishima is the 18th recipient of the Sawyer Award, which is ""presented to an individual in the motion picture industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry."" The main Oscar ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on 27 February." +entertainment,"Police praise 'courageous' Ozzy Rock star Ozzy Osbourne has been praised by police for ""very courageously"" tackling a burglar who stole jewellery from his house. The singer grabbed an intruder who then jumped 30ft (10m) from a first floor window as the star gave chase at his Buckinghamshire home on Monday. ""I acted on impulse,"" Osbourne said. ""In hindsight, it could have been a lot worse. It could've got really ugly."" A £100,000 reward has been offered for information leading to a conviction. His wife Sharon, who called the police, said her wedding rings were taken from her bedside table as she slept. The heavy metal star said he could have met the same fate as late Beatle George Harrison, who was repeatedly stabbed in a break-in in 1999. ""I could have been badly injured or shot or anything,"" Osbourne said. ""I just thank God that no-one got injured."" He added he was glad the intruders were not hurt. ""I wouldn't want anyone to get injured."" The singer did not want to talk in detail about his actions but when asked whether he would do the same again replied: ""Is the Pope a Catholic?"" The incident happened at 0400 GMT on Monday in Chalfont St Peter. Detective Inspector Paul Miller of Thames Valley Police said it appeared a man used a ladder to get into the house through a first floor bedroom window. ""Whilst selecting items of jewellery, the burglar was disturbed by Ozzy who very courageously tackled this burglar and pursued him from the house,"" he said. Ozzy said he was ""just coming to grips"" with what had happened and his opinion of the UK had been lowered after 12 relatively trouble-free years in the US. ""We lived in Los Angeles where people get shot every day and have been trailed by lots of different stalkers - and yet we come back to England and I'm very disappointed."" At a press conference on Tuesday, Sharon Osbourne gave details of nine stolen items. They included a diamond wedding ring and two handmade wedding bands Ozzy gave her when they renewed their vows two years ago. She said she wished she had worn them at night. ""I always take them off and put them beside my bed and that's where they were, right beside me on my bedside table."" Also taken were a pearl necklace and a sapphire bought as an investment for their daughters described by Sharon as ""one of the only 24-carat sapphires that is absolutely pure"". A daisy chain necklace that was a 20th anniversary present and a Franck Muller watch Sharon said was one of only 10 made were also stolen. She expressed her anger at the person who ""hasn't worked and wants to take what's yours"". ""But the thing is, we worked for everything. I came from Brixton. Ozzy came from not a very nice part of Birmingham and everything we've got we have worked our arses off for."" ""If I choose to make an investment for my kids in whatever way I choose to make it, that's my business and I worked for every God damn penny."" Ozzy also lamented two years in which the family has been plagued by problems, including his critical injury in a quad bike accident, his wife's colon cancer, their childrens' drug problems and now the burglary. On Sunday night, the Osbournes had been celebrating the birthday of singer Sir Elton John's partner David Furnish. Police described the intruder as well-built, about 5' 10"" tall and said he was wearing a ski-mask, a light-coloured jacket and trainers. They believe he may have injured himself when he jumped from the window. There is no description of his accomplice. Police think the pair were driving a large vehicle, possibly a van, and are keen to hear from anyone who may have seen one leaving Chalfont St Peter at speed. Police appealed for public help to find the perpetrators and stolen items on 0845 8 505 505 or 0800 555 111." +entertainment,"Baghdad Blogger on big screen A film based on the internet musings of the ""Baghdad Blogger"" has been shown at the Rotterdam Film Festival. The film has been directed by the man who calls himself Salam Pax, the author of the weblog about Iraqi life during and after the war. The movie version comes in the form of a series of shorts made by Pax on a hand-held camera. Baghdad Blogger is among a number of films about Iraq showcased at the Dutch festival, which runs until Sunday. Following the fascination with the writing of Salam Pax - not his real name - he began a regular column in The Guardian newspaper and was given a crash course in documentary film-making. For the film he travelled Iraq to document the changing landscape of the country and the problems it has faced since the invasion, speaking to ordinary Iraqis about their experiences. The festival will also see the screening of Underexposure, one of Iraq's first features to emerge since the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Director Oday Rasheed made the film on discarded 1980s Kodak film taken from the remains for the former Ministry of Culture building. It centres on the lives of families and strangers going about their everyday business as Baghdad is under siege. Rasheed said the title was refers to the isolation felt by Iraqis under Saddam's regime and the difficult time the country is now experiencing. ""Saddam's regime was hell, but now I think the hell has doubled,"" Rasheed said. The festival was also due to screen murdered Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh's film about the treatment of woman under Islam, but it was withdrawn due to safety fears. Van Gogh was shot and stabbed in November 2004, following death threats he received about his film Submission." +entertainment,"Vera Drake scoops film award Oscar hopefuls Mike Leigh and Imelda Staunton were both winners at the 2004 Evening Standard British Film Awards. Vera Drake - Leigh's 1950s drama about a backstreet abortionist - was named best film and Staunton, who played the title role, was named best actress. Other winners included Paddy Considine, who was crowned best actor for his role in Dead Man's Shoes. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was named Evening Standard Readers' Film of 2004 at the central London ceremony. Leigh was presented with his winner's statuette by Timothy Spall and Staunton's award was announced by Patrick Stewart, during the glittering ceremony at The Savoy on Sunday night. Evening Standard film critic Derek Malcolm said: ""He [Leigh] has never made a film that is better controlled and technically more secure... If this isn't one of the films of the year, I don't know what is."" The Alexander Walker Special Award - which honours those who have made a supreme contribution to British film - went to Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, the co-chairmen of Working Title films. The production company is behind films such as My Beautiful Laundrette, Billy Elliot, About A Boy, Shaun of The Dead and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Simon Pegg, who stars in and co-wrote Shaun of the Dead, won the 2004 Peter Sellers Award For Comedy. Other winners included Emily Blunt and Nathalie Press who were jointly named ITV London Most Promising Newcomer Award for their performances in Pawel Pawlikowski's rites-of-passage story, My Summer of Love. Pawlikowski won the best screenplay statuette, while Roger Deakins won the Technical Achievement Award for his cinematography on The Village and The Ladykillers. Guests at the ceremony included Dame Judi Dench, Kim Cattrall, Charles Dance, Bill Nighy and Colin Firth. The awards, which were hosted by Jack Dee, are to be screened on ITV London on Tuesday at 2300 GMT." +entertainment,"Global release for Japan hit film Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki's latest film, Howl's Moving Castle, is to be released in 50 countries around the world, its distributor has said. Howl's Moving Castle set a Japanese box office record last week, taking 1.5bn yen (£7.7m) in its first two days. Miyazaki won an Oscar earlier this year for Spirited Away, Japan's first Academy Award for nearly 50 years. Howl's Moving Castle is based on a children's fantasy novel by UK author Diana Wynne Jones. It tells the story of an 18-year-old woman who ages dramatically after falling under a witch's spell. She heads to a moving castle kept by Howl, a wizard, and searches for a way to become normal again. A spokesman for distributor Toho said the film ""has received strong interest from domestic audiences and foreign media and viewers alike"". ""We have a good feeling about this film. We saw very good viewer response,"" he added. The film's worldwide release will start in South Korea on 24 December, and France on 12 January." +entertainment,"Franz Ferdinand's art school lesson Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand, who shot to prominence in 2004, have won two Brit Awards. With their self-titled debut, Franz Ferdinand have achieved what most rock bands crave - high credibility and critical acclaim while also selling stacks of CDs. They have risen to the head of the UK's art rock ranks with an album of songs that are catchy, creative and original enough to sound fresh. With a cool, spiky, fun sound previously associated with bands like Talking Heads, they hit upon a style that had been out of fashion for a while and so was ripe for another airing. Their first UK single hit number three last January, followed by two more top 20 hits, while the album has sold more than 600,000 copies in 11 months on release. In September it was named album of the year winning the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. On the festivals circuit, they have been one of the main attractions for huge crowds at Glastonbury, T in the Park and Reading/Leeds. They have also found success in Japan, Europe and the US. By September the album had sold 500,000 in the States and total sales were pushing two million worldwide. They have been nominated for three Grammy awards in the US as well as the US music industry's Shortlist award, but lost the Shortlist prize to US band TV on the Radio. Nevertheless Franz Ferdinand were the only UK band to win an MTV Video Music Award this year, taking the breakthrough video crown for Take Me Out. The four-piece met two years ago when drummer Paul Thomson was working at the Glasgow art school where bassist Bob Hardy was studying. Singer Alex Kapranos was studying English at university but had friends at art school, and the line-up was completed when guitarist Nick McCarthy moved from Munich, Germany, to the city. At the turn of the year, Kapranos told BBC News Online the band were fed up with serious bands in ""that post-rock thing that seemed to be doing its damndest to avoid any bloody tune"". ""We want people to go away from the gigs humming the tunes that we were singing. But at the same time bringing an edge to it."" Franz Ferdinand had a question they asked themselves every time they wrote a song, Kapranos said. ""Where's the fun in that?"" they pondered at every stage, making enjoyment the top priority and ensuring they did not disappear up their own muso posteriors. The band started out with a DIY ethic that saw them take over a disused art-deco warehouse in Glasgow and rename it The Chateau. The venue soon became legendary - so well-known that the police spent a month trying to find it, eventually raiding it and arresting Kapranos. But the charges of running an illegal bar and contravening health and safety, fire hazard and noise abatement laws were dropped. The band took over an abandoned Victorian courtroom and jail instead, and named that The Chateau. The buzz about the band soon spread around the music industry and 40 record labels turned up to one gig in Glasgow - which the band thought was ""totally ridiculous"". ""I'm really glad it was almost comical because we weren't overwhelmed by the seriousness of it,"" Kapranos said. They signed with independent label Domino, home of Smog, Sebadoh and Four Tet, in June 2003." +entertainment,"Animation charms Japan box office Oscar-winning director Hayao Miyazaki's latest film has set a new Japanese box office record, with 1.5bn yen ($14.3m) in two days, according to reports. Howl's Moving Castle is the follow-up to Miyazaki's Spirited Away, which won best animation at last year's Oscars. It is based on the children's book by English writer Diana Wynne Jones. It has registered the highest opening weekend takings of any Japanese film in the country, according to trade publication Screen Daily. The film is about an 18-year-old girl who is trapped in an old woman's body after being put under a spell by a witch. Its two-day takings represented 1.1 million cinema admissions, Screen Daily said. The film's distributor Toho expects 40 million people to see it in total - almost one third of the country's population - it added. The film won the Golden Osella for outstanding technical contribution at this year's Venice Film Festival." +entertainment,"Tarantino 'to make Friday sequel' Director Quentin Tarantino is in talks to write and direct a new instalment in the Friday the 13th horror franchise, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film-maker will reportedly meet executives from New Line Cinema this week to discuss the 12th film in the long-running 'stalk and slash' series. The original film, released in 1980, has spawned ten sequels based around mask-wearing murderer Jason Voorhees. The most recent, Freddy Vs Jason, was released in summer 2003. That film saw Jason battle Freddy Krueger, star of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. According to the industry newspaper, New Line had been trying to make another sequel involving Ash, the hero of the Evil Dead movies, but was unable to agree terms with director Sam Raimi. Tarantino is said to be intrigued by the prospect of building a new film around one of the horror genre's most recognised figures. First, however, he is scheduled to direct the season finale of US television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Filming is due to start in early April. Tarantino's episode, for which he also wrote the original story, will be broadcast in the US on 19 May." +entertainment,"Fightstar take to the stage Charlie Simpson took his new band Fightstar to the stage on Friday night, just hours after officially announcing his departure from pop band Busted. He was greeted by a sell-out crowd at the University of Warwick. Confirmation of Busted's long-rumoured split had come earlier in the day, when Simpson held a press conference in London with bandmates Matt Willis and James Bourne. All three band members stressed that the break up was amicable, although Bourne admitted he was ""devastated"" to hear of Simpson's departure. ""This has been a really difficult decision,"" 19-year-old Simpson revealed, ""I hope the fans will understand."" While Simpson declared he would look back with pride on Busted's enormous success, his focus turned immediately to Fightstar, with Friday's press conference coinciding with the start of the band's 13-date tour of the UK. Fuelled by this news, all 1,400 tickets to see Charlie's first post-Busted live appearance - at the University of Warwick's Student Union - sold out rapidly. Mike Eccleshall, the venue's Promotions Coordinator, said: ""Tickets had been selling strongly over the past few days, but sales went mad after the news broke. We had completely sold out by 4pm."" With queues outside the venue long and expectations high, the pressure was on Fightstar to impress. Although many dedicated fans travelled to the gig from around the country, they faced a tough crowd made up chiefly of students, the average age of the audience far exceeding that of any Busted concert. Gone were the screaming girls to which Simpson had become accustomed. Support act Brigade, fronted by Simpson's brother, played a short set first and were met with general approval. When Fightstar eventually took to the stage around 11pm, however, a riotous cheer easily drowned out any hecklers lurking in the crowd. Unfortunately, the band were initially hindered by technical teething problems as Simpson's guitar amplifier failed to work. As sound technicians rushed to fix it, other band members did their best to improvise. When they eventually got under way, Fightstar's blend of emotionally charged rock was warmly received. Far heavier and less commercial than Busted's chart-topping pop-punk, the band will undoubtedly appeal to a more mature fan-base. Warwick student Helen Clutterbuck admitted: ""I came to check out Fightstar because of all the controversy. ""I've never heard them before, but I'm pretty impressed."" Less impressed were fellow students Ryan Crabbe and Gordon Rennie, who observed, ""With Fightstar, Charlie has clearly progressed from Busted's sound, but they're still not very inspiring."" Fightstar played for around 45 minutes, showcasing material from their forthcoming EP called They Liked You Better When You Were Dead, due for release in February." +politics,"Kennedy begins pre-election tour Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has begun a week-long tour to persuade voters they are the ""real opposition"". Mr Kennedy is visiting constituencies in Somerset and Hampshire on Monday - rural seats where his party is hoping to make gains from the Conservatives. Later he will visit places, such as Liverpool, where Labour is targeted. Labour say a Lib Dem vote could ""let the Tories in"", while the Tories say the Lib Dems would mean ""higher taxes, soft crime laws, more power to Europe"". Mr Kennedy's tour comes as he, Labour leader Tony Blair and Conservative leader Michael Howard all step up campaigning ahead of the next General Election, widely expected to be held on 5 May. On Tuesday Mr Kennedy will visit Leicester South, where Lib Dem MP Parmjit Singh Gill overturned a big Labour majority to win the seat in last year's by-election. Stops in Shrewsbury, North Dorset, Liverpool, Manchester, Basingstoke and west London are planned for later in the week. The Liberal Democrats say in the northern cities, the race is between them and Labour, while in southern seats - particularly the south west - it is between them and the Tories. Speaking to the BBC's Westminster Hour on Sunday, Mr Kennedy said the upcoming general election - widely tipped for 5 May - would be much more unpredictable than any others in ""recent experience"". Asked whether it was realistic to assume the Liberal Democrats could win the general election, he said: ""There's no limit to the ambitions we have as a party. ""But we have got to be responsible, we have got to be credible, we have got to demonstrate to people that we are up to that task."" Mr Kennedy said the British public felt let down by Labour on issues from Iraq to top-up fees and the Conservatives were not ""asking the critical questions"". And he said people were ""highly sceptical"" about Labour and Conservative promises on tax. But he brushed off Labour suggestions a vote for his party would mean letting the Tories in ""by the back door"". ""If you look at the four previous parliamentary by-elections, the Liberal Democrats have demonstrated that, not only can we leapfrog the Conservatives where we start in a third place position, but we can go on to defeat the government. ""That's going to be the story, I think, of this coming general election.""" +politics,"Labour battle plan 'hides Blair' The Tories have accused Tony Blair of being ""terrified"" of scrutiny after Labour unveiled details of how it will fight the next general election. In a break with tradition, the party will ditch the leader's battle bus and daily press briefings in Westminster. Instead Mr Blair will travel to key cities and marginal seats to deliver the party's message. Labour election chief Alan Milburn denied the party was trying to ""hide"" the prime minister. He promised ""the most positive and upbeat election campaign Labour has ever run"". But Tory co-chairman Liam Fox said Labour's plans showed Mr Blair was ""terrified of facing proper scrutiny"". ""At a time when the British people are looking for more accountability and openness, this government turns its back on them; abandoning plans to tour the country and scared to face journalists in a press conference - it does rather beg the question, 'What have they got to hide?'"" The general election is widely expected next May and all the parties are stepping up their campaign preparations. Mr Milburn said the economy would take centre stage in Labour's campaign in what would be a ""watershed"" election and the ""last stand of the Thatcherites"". Mr Milburn said Labour's slogan would be ""Britain is working - Don't let the Tories wreck it."" The tone of the campaign, said Mr Milburn, would be more conversational than rhetorical; more spontaneous less scripted; less national more local and less based on issues and more concentrated on people. The approach is particularly designed to appeal to women voters, he said. Mr Milburn brushed aside questions over why the chancellor was not present at the Cabinet meeting to discuss election strategy particularly since such importance was being given to the economy. ""I'm not privy to everybody's diary,"" he said. Mr Brown has headed Labour's preparations for previous polls but Mr Milburn is taking that role this time. In a break with the past, Labour will not hold a daily news conference in London. It will not be a ""battle bus"" style campaign either, he said. In previous elections, each party leader has had their own battle bus transporting national newspaper, television and radio reporters to staged campaign events around the country. Mr Milburn said Labour's media effort this time would focus more on local newspapers and broadcasters, with every local radio station given the chance to interview the prime minister. Mr Milburn said there would also be a greater effort to set up face-to-face meetings between ministers and the electorate. Former Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell is also returning to advise Labour on media strategy and campaigning. Mr Milburn said no decision had been taken yet over whether David Blunkett would have a prominent role in the election. Liberal Democrat chief executive Lord Rennard suggested Labour was avoiding news conferences in London because it wanted less scrutiny of its record and proposals. ""Tony Blair seems to have disappeared from Labour leaflets and broadcasts,"" he said. ""In contrast Charles Kennedy will feature prominently in the Liberal Democrat campaign right across the country.""" +politics,"UK 'needs true immigration data' A former Home Office minister has called for an independent body to be set up to monitor UK immigration. Barbara Roche said an organisation should monitor and publish figures and be independent of government. She said this would counter ""so-called independent"" groups like Migration Watch, which she described as an anti-immigration body posing as independent. Migration Watch says it is not against all immigration and the government already publishes accurate figures. Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the organisation, says there is no need for an independent body because Office of National Statistics data are accurate. He says he opposes large-scale immigration ""both on the grounds of overcrowding and culture"". He said: ""For example, over the next 20 years one household in three will be due to immigration. ""We are already more overcrowded than India and we are four times more overcrowded than France."" Ms Roche, Labour MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, believes legal migration is something we should welcome. She said her proposals mean ""we wouldn't have so-called independent experts, like Migration Watch, who come into this debate from an anti-immigration point of view."" She went on: ""What I would like to see is there being a body which actually looked at the figures, published them, and was independent of government. ""I think that would go a long way to allaying some of the fears that are sometimes whipped up during this debate.""" +politics,"Teenagers to be allowed to be MPs Teenagers will be able to become MPs under plans unveiled by ministers. In a written statement, Constitutional Affairs Minister Christopher Leslie said the current minimum age of 21 for an MP would be reduced to 18. The proposals follow a recommendation last year by elections watchdog the Electoral Commission. ""The government intends to legislate, when parliamentary time allows, to lower the age,"" said Mr Leslie, who was elected in 1997 at the age of 24. Even if the move does go ahead it is unlikely it will be in place before the next general election, widely predicted for May. The announcement from Mr Leslie - who was elected in 1997 in a formerly safe Tory seat - prompted calls for a lowering of the voting age to 16. The Votes at 16 alliance said it was a good thing to ""engage people"" by lowering the candidacy age but argued lowering the voting age would be much more effective. ""Candidacy affects only politicians. The voting age affects millions of younger people,"" said spokesman Alex Folkes. ""We would hope that the government will table a bill that is broad enough to allow for amendments to be brought to test support for a reduction in the voting age."" Currently candidates in both local and national votes must be 21 while the voting age is 18. That is because the age of majority was reduced to 18 in 1969 but laws dating from 1695 which determine the current voting age stayed in place. Irish republican Bernadette Devlin was one of just a handful of 21-year-olds elected to Parliament in the 20th century winning a seat in 1969. But the youngest is understood to have been Tory Edward Turnour, who won the 1904 Horsham by-election aged 21 and 144 days and served in Parliament for 47 continuous years. Last April's report by the Electoral Commission said there was no strong argument for leaving the age for standing for election at 21. The commission found the most common approach around the world is for the voting age to be the same as the candidacy age." +politics,"Brown names 16 March for Budget Chancellor Gordon Brown will deliver his Budget to the House of Commons on 16 March, the Treasury has announced. The Budget, likely to be the last before the General Election, will be at 1230 GMT on that Wednesday, just after Prime Minister's question time. The annual event is when the chancellor outlines the government's taxation and broader economic predictions. It is likely to set out much of the tax and spending battleground for the election, widely expected on 5 May. Next month's Budget will be Mr Brown's eighth since Labour came to power in 1997. If a May election is called, there could be as little as 18 days between the Budget and the announcement of a date for the election. A shortened Finance Bill would have to be rushed through Parliament with all-party support to allow the Government to continue collecting revenue. The full Finance Bill, with the Budget measures in it, would then be returned to the Commons after the election, if Labour secures another term in office. As Mr Brown announced the Budget date in a short ministerial statement, accountancy firm Ernst & Young urged him to put politics aside and focus on the long-term requirements of the economy. ""In the Budgets that were given immediately before the last six elections, taxes were cut by the incumbent chancellor and, in many cases, taxes were increased soon after the election result,"" said Aidan O'Carroll, E&Y's UK head of tax." +politics,"Hospital suspends 'no Welsh' plan An English hospital has suspended plans to stop treating Welsh patients who have waited more than three months. Hereford County Hospital had earlier said that from the new year patients waiting longer than this would be taken off waiting lists for hip and knee operations. GPs in Wales had feared patients could be pushed to the back of another queue. But after talks with Powys Health Board the hospital called off its plan until health chiefs meet early in January. Hereford Hospital Trust caused an outcry when it sent out a letter telling patients that for financial and administrative reasons it planned to turn down some orthopaedic patients. Shocked health officials in Powys said this meant they would be left with the prospect of patients and doctors having to find new appointments in other hospitals. Andy Williams, chief executive of Powys Local Health Board, had said it was ""a totally unacceptable way to behave"". Mr Williams had said he did not think it was a Welsh-English issue, but said Hereford hospital was ""struggling financially and trying to pass the problem back to Powys"". He had told BBC Radio Wales: ""I have written straight back to the trust... to insist they withdraw this threat and treat the patients I am paying them to treat."" But after the hospital had agreed to the suspension, Mr Williams said he was optimistic a compromise could be reached which would ensure Welsh patients continued to be treated there. He said the problem had been caused by the difference in waiting time targets between England and Wales. The target is 12 months for Welsh patients, but just three months in England. The contract with the Powys health board was worth £7m a year for the hospital and accounts for 12% of its patients. In a statement before the suspension of the idea, the Welsh Assembly Government said the situation was ""unacceptable"". ""But Powys Local Health Board is committed to ensuring our patients receive the care that is appropriate,"" said the assembly government. ""Although we will be challenging Hereford's decision we will put in place appropriate care for our patients. They will be contacted by their GPs in the next week."" Earlier, David Rose, Chief Executive of Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust, had said: ""It is with real regret that we have taken this step. ""We want to continue providing an excellent and fast service to Powys people but can only do this if we are paid to provide the service. ""In 2005 our waiting time will fall to a maximum of 6-months and we want Powys people to ask to be referred to our modern hospital. ""We appeal to Powys Local Health Board to allow Powys people to choose Hereford for their treatment.""" +politics,"Clarke to press on with ID cards New Home Secretary Charles Clarke has vowed to plough on with plans for ID cards despite a call for him to ""pause for thought"" from Charles Kennedy. The Lib Dem leader said David Blunkett's resignation was a ""good opportunity"" to question whether the legislation was necessary. But Mr Clarke said he had supported the plans when Mr Blunkett argued for them in Cabinet and he supported them now. ""ID cards are a means to creating a more secure society,"" he said. Mr Clarke acknowledged how the measure was introduced remained a matter for debate but he said legislation had already been ""significantly influenced"" by the recommendations of the Commons' home affairs committee. The issue would be debated in Parliament next Monday as scheduled he insisted. Earlier Mr Kennedy, whose party opposes the ID cards plan as ""deeply flawed"" said with Christmas coming up the new home secretary had time to think again. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Mr Clarke had been reported to be less enthusiastic about ID cards than his predecessors. ""Wouldn't this be a good opportunity for a new home secretary, a new broom, to sweep clean in this respect and why do we need this legislation in the first place?"" he asked. Earlier this week the Tories announced they would back the government's plans although Michael Howard was forced to deny the shadow cabinet was split over its decision. They had decided to support the plans as the police said they would help fight terror, crime and illegal immigration. Among those reported to have serious reservations over the strategy were senior shadow cabinet members David Davis, Oliver Letwin and Tim Yeo. The chairman of the Bar Council, Guy Mansfield QC has warned there is a real risk that people on the ""margins of society"" would be driven into the hands of extremists. ""What is going to happen to young Asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere? They are going to be stopped. If they haven't [ID cards] they are going to be detained."" The Home Office says people will pay £85 for a passport and ID card together or a undecided fee for a separate ID card. The first cards would be issued in 2008 and when he was introducing the bill, Mr Blunkett suggested Parliament could decide in 2011 or 2012 whether to make it compulsory for everybody to own the cards, although not to carry them. The new bill will also create new criminal offences on the possession of false identity documents. And there will be civil penalties including a fine of up to £1,000 fine for people who fail to say they have moved house or changed other details and of up to £2,500 for failing to sign up if the cards become compulsory. The scheme will be overseen by a new independent watchdog." +politics,"Blair prepares to name poll date Tony Blair is likely to name 5 May as election day when Parliament returns from its Easter break, the BBC's political editor has learned. Andrew Marr says Mr Blair will ask the Queen on 4 or 5 April to dissolve Parliament at the end of that week. Mr Blair has so far resisted calls for him to name the day but all parties have stepped up campaigning recently. Downing Street would not be drawn on the claim, saying election timing was a matter for the prime minister. A Number 10 spokeswoman would only say: ""He will announce an election when he wants to announce an election."" The move will signal a frantic week at Westminster as the government is likely to try to get key legislation through Parliament. The government needs its finance bill, covering the Budget plans, to be passed before the Commons closes for business at the end of the session on 7 April. But it will also seek to push through its Serious and Organised Crime Bill and ID cards Bill. Mr Marr said on Wednesday's Today programme: ""There's almost nobody at a senior level inside the government or in Parliament itself who doesn't expect the election to be called on 4 or 5 April. ""As soon as the Commons is back after the short Easter recess, Tony Blair whips up to the Palace, asks the Queen to dissolve Parliament ... and we're going."" The Labour government officially has until June 2006 to hold general election, but in recent years governments have favoured four-year terms." +politics,"Blair rejects Iraq advice calls Tony Blair has rejected calls for the publication of advice on the legality of the Iraq war amid growing calls for an investigation. The prime minister told his monthly press conference the matter had been dealt with by the Attorney General. Earlier, Conservative MP Michael Mates joined calls for a probe into claims Lord Goldsmith's statement to Parliament was drawn up at Number 10. Mr Blair said the statement was a ""fair summary"" of Lord Goldsmith's opinion. ""That's what he (Lord Goldsmith) said and that's what I say. He has dealt with this time and time and time again,"" Mr Blair told his monthly news conference in Downing Street. He refused to answer further questions on the issue, saying it had been dealt with ""literally scores of times and the position has not changed"". Lord Goldsmith has denied being ""leaned on"" and says the words written were his. The government refuses to publish his advice on the legality of the war - saying such papers have always been kept confidential. Mr Mates, who is a member of the Commons intelligence and security committee and was part of the Butler inquiry into pre-war intelligence, told the BBC on Friday: ""That, as a general rule, is right, but it's not an absolute rule."" He said there had been other occasions when advice had been published, most recently regarding Prince Charles's marriage plans. The government could not pick and choose when to use the convention, he said. Mr Mates added: ""We discovered that there were two or three occasions in the past when law officers' advice to the government has been published. ""And this may be one of those special occasions... when it would be in the public interest to see the advice which the attorney general gave to the prime minister."" This is argument was rejected by Mr Blair, who said: ""Firstly, we haven't broken the precedent, and secondly Peter Goldsmith has made his statement and I have got absolutely nothing to add to it."" In a book published this week, Philippe Sands QC, a member of Cherie Blair's Matrix Chambers, says Lord Goldsmith warned Tony Blair on 7 March 2003 that the Iraq war could be illegal without a second UN resolution sanctioning military action. But a short statement about Lord Goldsmith's position was presented in a written parliamentary answer on 17 March 2003 - just before a crucial Commons vote on the military action. Mr Sands' book suggests it was actually written by Home Office Minister Lord Falconer and Downing Street adviser Baroness Morgan. Former minister Clare Short, who resigned from the government over the Iraq war, said it was the same statement that was earlier shown to the cabinet as it discussed military action. She told the BBC the full advice should have been attached, according to the ministerial code. ""My view is we need the House of Lords to set up a special committee, summon the attorney, get all the papers out, look at exactly what happened,"" she said. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats say they want the publication of the full legal advice given by the Attorney General. On Thursday, Lord Goldsmith said his statement had not been ""written by or at Number 10"". ""In my parliamentary answer on March 17 2003, I explained my genuinely held independent view, that military action was lawful under the existing Security Council resolutions,"" he said." +politics,"Lib Dems unveil women's manifesto The Liberal Democrats are attempting to woo female voters with the launch of their manifesto for women. Charles Kennedy is pledging a maternity income guarantee and a pension system based on years of residence rather than national insurance payments. He also thinks women will back plans to end university tuition fees and for free long-term care for the elderly. Both Labour and the Conservatives have said they also plan to boost pensions and to improve childcare support. Mr Kennedy says he wants to deal with policy areas that disadvantage women. ""Two million pensioners in Britain currently live below the government's own poverty line - two-thirds of whom are women,"" he said. He says that pensions based on the number of years worked ignore the contribution women make caring for children. The Lib Dem's Citizen's Pension, based on length of residency not on national insurance contributions, would address that imbalance, Mr Kennedy argues. Under the package, new mothers would be offered minimum guaranteed maternity pay of £170 a week for the first six months after the birth of their first child. Mr Kennedy also believes the party's plans to use the money saved from not introducing ""illiberal"" ID cards to boost police numbers by 10,000 would appeal to women too. The policies are not new announcements, but the way they are structured as a package to appeal to women is. Mr Kennedy also points to the fact that 40% of the party's candidates set to stand in winnable or target seats are women. Party strategists claim that where women candidates replace men turnout rises by 4%. Mr Kennedy began the pitch for female support with an interview on BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour on Monday. During the interview Mr Kennedy revealed that he planned to structure the party's general election campaign around the birth of his first child, which is expected in April. The baby and his wife Sarah would be ""priority number one"" even if it arrived in the middle of the election campaign, he said. Party strategists believe winning over a significant proportion of women voters is key to electoral success. A party spokesman said it was courting female votes because they tended to vote more than men and are believed to be more considered and open-minded in deciding who they vote for. Labour's deputy minister for women Jacqui Smith accused the Lib Dems of offering ""false promises"" to women and said their sums did not add up. She said: ""These proposals would increase the costs to the public purse drastically year on year, and hard working families will pay dearly, through either increased taxes or reduced spending on public services"". The Labour party has committed itself to ""universal, affordable and flexible"" childcare for parents of all 3 to 14 year-olds, including childcare centred on schools to be available from 8am to 6pm. In September, Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said she would like to see longer paid maternity leave, higher paternity pay and the extension of flexible working rights to carers, if Labour won a third term. The Conservatives are yet to unveil their manifesto plans for childcare but said in November they would increase maternity pay and pay the child tax credit in cash to parents to spend as they like, on a nanny, au pair or even a family member, such as a grandparent, acting as a carer. They were also consulting on making childcare costs tax deductible." +politics,"Regiments' group in poll move A regiments' campaign group is to target nine marginal Labour seats at the General Election. Save the Scottish Regiments will also field a candidate against Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram in East Kilbride. The group, which is unhappy at defence merger plans, is endorsing opposition candidates in nine seats. The marginals are Aberdeen South, Dumfriesshire, Dundee East and West, South West Edinburgh, Ochil, Stirling, East Renfrewshire and Western Isles. The campaigners unveiled a huge poster featuring Black Watch soldiers fighting the war in Iraq before they announced their election plans. Former Scots Guardsman Allan Hendry will challenge Mr Ingram. The group said it is well organised, with 350 volunteers, and will be announcing at least one other candidate later. It added that it can only be stopped from inflicting serious damage on Labour if the government reverses its plan to merge the six Scottish regiments. Scotland's only Conservative MP Peter Duncan said the Save the Scottish Regiments had done a ""superb job"" in fighting against defence cuts. He added: ""Their actions have reflected the pride that most people in this country have in our troops, and have shown a steely determination to make Labour pay for their betrayal. ""I have been honoured to speak at their rallies throughout Scotland."" Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond said it had received a ""big boost"" from the campaign's decision to endorse SNP candidates in four marginal seats. ""Labour's arrogance has been their undoing. In trying to get rid of Scotland's historic regiments, Labour MPs will end up being scrapped themselves,"" he said. However, Labour MP George Foulkes said the campaigners would not make any difference to the outcome of the election and would not win the argument. ""A serving soldier knows that what Labour is proposing is right,"" he said. As well as their election move, Save the Scottish Regiments will join other campaigners at a rally in London in the spring. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon announced last year that Scotland's regiments would be combined into a single unit. The move was part of overall Army reforms." +politics,"Blair ready to call election Tony Blair seems certain to end weeks of phoney war on Monday and announce there will be a general election on 5 May. The date has been pencilled into the diaries of politicians and political journalists for many months and, despite occasional panics that the prime minister was on the verge of calling a snap poll, it has not shifted. Over the weeks, there have been any number of signs that 050505 was going to be the day Mr Blair would go for an historic third term. And the calling of a special political cabinet meeting has only added to the belief that the announcement is imminent. The prime minister and his campaign boss Alan Milburn have already insisted the election will be fought on the economy and what they claim is a stark choice between Labour's stability and investment against Tory cuts and boom and bust. And Chancellor Gordon Brown has stepped into the front line of the campaign - to the relief of many of his supporters in Westminster - to underline that economic message. And it is certain one of the big arguments at the centre of the election battle will be around the big parties' tax and spend policies. During the phoney campaign, Labour got into trouble over its central claim that Michael Howard was planning £35 bn cuts in public services. The prime minister found himself struggling to explain how a smaller, slower increase in spending planned by the Tories compared to Labour's plans was a cut. And it looked like the Labour campaign - which was already being criticised for being thrown into defensive mode by Mr Howard on issues such as immigration and health - was on the rocks. Then deputy Conservative Chairman Howard Flight was reported to have suggested Mr Howard was secretly planning even bigger ""cuts"". He was sacked for his gaffe, but the damage had been done and the faltering Labour campaign was back on track. A second central argument will be over taxation, with the Tories claiming the Chancellor has to fill a black hole at the centre of his finances and will be forced to raise taxes if Labour wins again. Mr Brown slaps that aside, claiming his forecasts are accurate and that previous claims of looming economic disaster have proved inaccurate. As usual, the Liberal Democrats will have to fight to get their voice heard over the sounds of battle between the two big parties. But leader Charles Kennedy believes he has set out a distinctive manifesto with plans for a tax rise for the wealthiest to finance extra spending and the abolition of the council tax in favour of a local income tax. Other issues are certain to play a part - immigration and asylum, the war on Iraq, law and order and education, for example. But, as ever, it will be the economy that will almost certainly decide the outcome. And, whatever that outcome, 2005 is set to be a far more lively, even bitter campaign than 2001's non-event." +politics,"Terror powers expose 'tyranny' The Lord Chancellor has defended government plans to introduce control orders to keep foreign and British terrorist suspects under house arrest, where there isn't enough evidence to put them on trial. Lord Falconer insists that the proposals do not equate to a police state and strike a balance between protecting the public against the threat of terrorism and upholding civil liberties. But thriller writer Frederick Forsyth tells BBC News of his personal response to the move. There is a mortal danger aimed at the heart of Britain. Or so says Home Secretary Charles Clarke. My reaction? So what? It is not that I am cynical or just do not care. I care about this country very much. But in the 66 years that I have been alive, there has not been one hour, of one day, of one month, of one year, when there has not been a threat aimed at us. My point is, the British have always coped without becoming a dictatorship. We have coped with fear without becoming a state based on fear; we have coped with threat without turning our country into a land of state threat. But that is what the Blair government now seeks to do - create a tyranny to defend us from the al-Qaeda tyranny. I was born on 25 August, 1938. The mortal threat back then was a scruffy little Austrian called Adolf Hitler. A week after my first birthday, the threat had become reality. We were at war. My father wore a uniform for five years. After 1945 we yearned for peace at last. But in 1946 Winston Churchill told us - from the Baltic to the Adriatic an Iron Curtain has descended across Europe. Behind the Iron Curtain, another genocidal psychopath, another threat. Josef Stalin triggered the Cold War, with the Berlin blockade in 1948. My whole generation was blighted by it. We were threatened by the nuclear holocaust, the nuclear wind, the nuclear winter. We built shelters that would have sheltered nothing. We spent our treasure on weapons instead of hospitals. We took silly precautions. Some fought it; some marched futilely against it. Some pretended it was not there. The Cold War lasted 43 years, but we remained a parliamentary democracy. By the early seventies it was terrorism as well. Al Fatah, Black September, Red Brigades, but most of all for us the IRA and the INLA. Thirty more years; 300 policemen and women, over 600 soldiers, more than 3,000 civilians dead, but we won because even IRA bombs could not force us to become a tyranny. That was why the tyrants lost. Civil rights were infringed as little as humanly possible. Evidence had to be taken in secret to protect covert sources; yes , and one judge, no-jury courts had to be instituted when juries were terrorised. Informants had to be given immunity from their own crimes to win the bigger battle. But habeas corpus did not die; right of appeal was not abolished. Now the threat is Islamic fundamentalism. Its leaders want to destroy our society; so did the IRA. It is based and funded abroad; so was the IRA. It has sleeper fanatics inside our society; so did the IRA. It is extremely hard to penetrate with our agents; so was the IRA. The prime movers are not easy to bring to trial; neither were the IRA. But we did. And without becoming a tyranny. Now the Blair government proposes the law system of fascism and communism. The citizen can be arrested and held without charge or trial, not even on the careful consideration of an experienced judge, but the whim of a political activist called a government minister. To be protected from terror the government says, we must become a tyranny. But a tyranny is based on the citizen's terror. This is not victory; this is defeat before a shot is fired. An interesting article - its good to see widening participation in the debate - but I suggest we move one step further. Our own bombs and bullets will can only shatter peace, because invading foreign nations, imprisoning the innocent and 'hunting' in the 'shadows' cannot destroy an evil of the mind, and hatred within the heart. Rather than focusing upon effect, we should consider the cause, because terrorism does not begin with bombs. Why not try a foreign policy of compassion, it can only enhance our democracy, and share our freedom. I agree with Frederick Forsyth. We really can't deal with terrorism by turning Britain into a fascist state. What we really need is more honesty from our security services and our politicians. If they do not have evidence to bring these people to trial, there probably isn't any. Our security services, behave like the detective who having decided that a certain person is guilty, rakes over all kinds of obscure and flimsy evidence to try and prove it, while the real villain gets away. Remember there were no WMD in Iraq. Just because a person may have made some stupid and naive decisions in life does not make them a terrorist. In this overly 'politically correct' society, it is good to see someone like Mr. Forsyth speak out. Yes, there has been oppression by the British government in the past, and overstepping the mark in places like Ireland, but yes, we are still a democracy where it is rare to be arrested without charge/trial etc. (apart from a number of prisoners in Belmarsh goal, for example).This country signs up to human rights, and then pretends that they only apply to the people with nothing to fear, the innocent people (defined by whom?). When ID cards become mandatory, the data collected will not be protected by the Data Protection Act, and will be readily available to people like GCHQ, with no control by the person whose ID is being checked. The threat now is new. You cannot compare the threats of past years with now. Forsyth says 3000 died over 30 years or terrorism; 3000 people died in one morning in NY on September 11th 2001. The threat today is that terrorists will acquire nuclear or biological technology. A Kilo of Semtex will flatten a building, a Kilo of plutonium will flatten a city. You now have a combination of people who will perform terrorist acts with technology that is rapidly becoming accessible. I agree, the government is probably encouraging a degree of mass-hysteria and talking up the threat; but talking-down the threat and doing nothing is unacceptable too. The problem with this issue is not that it isn't important, but the fact that in general we Brits can be so politically apathetic some times, that we will just let this go without telling the government no. However, as the nation that gave the world the common law and a true sense of the rights of individual liberty I hope this will prove to be one step too far. As somebody of Chinese origin, I can say that this country used to be a good place to migrate and start a new life. Whilst life wasn't perfect, we could make better for ourselves. Now we are riddled with red tape and be told what we can or cannot do. We have to be politically-correct and we are not allowed to have beliefs or opinions. We have a Prime Minister who spends too much time meddling in US politics and affairs which have little to do with the lives of British Citizens at home or abroad. Mr Forsyth has done a good job in voicing his opinions. Let's hope the BBC doesn't get gagged for letting people express their views. The people have the right to know and the BBC's role is to Inform, Educate and Entertain... I agree. Terrorists intend to spread fear but in reality it is the government which has spread the fear, by its constant publicising of the this invisible enemy so dangerous that we must allow them to ride roughshod over our rights and liberties. In the end, the very thing we seek to protect is what we are giving up in the name of safety from this invisible enemy. The terrorists have already won. I absolutely agree with Frederick Forsyth. Yes we have to defend ourselves against terrorism but existing laws seem to be more than adequate. The idea that the ""new terrorism"" demands new powers is erroneous. The evidence of any real terrorist capability in the UK is scant. Ricin, for example, is a dangerous poison but it is not a weapon of mass destruction. What is really worrying is the enthusiasm of Mr Blair and his government for authoritarian reactions and attempts to manipulate the electorate through fear. If the government has its way with ID cards, tracking and so on then totalitarianism has won and as such it then matters little whether we give in to the terrorists demands or not. We will have lost the precious freedom which Bush and Blair constantly tells us we have and that they seek to bring to others. I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Forsyth. I am shocked at the ease with which this government is prepared to wipe out a major portion of the liberties that British people have enjoyed for centuries - the right not to be deprived of our liberty without a trial in open court. That goes right back to Magna Carta, and ordinary people have spilled their blood to enforce that right against governments who thought they ""knew best"". When you look at today's Britain, you realise George Orwell was only wrong about one thing: the date. Frederick Forsyth puts it beautifully. The government is seeking to introduce a police state. The new powers of home internment without trial follow a pattern which includes the introduction of surveillance via compulsory ID cards and the linking of data bases, together with the un-British idea that we will have to swear allegiance to the state at the age of 18 years. We are sleep-walking into this. Wake up! An interesting view but missing two crucial facts of this new threat: 1) If these terrorists acquire weapons of mass destruction they WILL use them without fear of Mutually Assured Destruction that kept the cold war in a state of tense balance. These people will use devastating force against us without fear of ANY consequence. 2) The terrorists are prepared to use suicide bombers which means they could kill innocent people on the London Underground and we could do very little to stop it. Because these terrorists are potentially SO deadly, we have to come up with new, tougher responses. It will be a little late in the day when people outside London wake up one morning to find out that London has been nuked. We won't have much of a society left to debate ! He's correct in most of what he says. Mind you he does seem to have forgotten that disgraceful internment policy in Northern Ireland which probably caused many idealistic if misguided young Catholics to join the IRA. Administrative detention of Muslims could have a similar effect now. Surely we the public would be better protected if the security services, rather than alerting a suspect terrorist by placing them under house arrest (and for how long?)They were to place suspect terrorist under surveillance and maybe acquire sufficient evidence to prosecute or even better prevent a terrorist attack. I don't usually have much time for Mr Forsyth's largely right wing views but this time he has got it spot on. There is no doubt that there are terrorist organisations who would like to do harm to the U.K. but it is very doubtful whether al-Qaeda is a global organisation co-ordinating this. The rise of surveillance cameras, ID cards, the plan to charge for road use by tracking every vehicle at all times, this is the stuff of nightmares. Add to this this new legislation which effectively means that the protection of the law will be removed from anyone at the whim of the Home Secretary, and I genuinely wonder what sort of world my two children will inherit. Where will this end. As it stands terrorists do not need to attack the U.K. it's government will soon have it's people terrorised more that they could very achieve with a few bombs. Mr Forsyth has expressed exactly what my gut fears and reservations were about this proposed legislation, but could not verbalise. Thank you. Mr Forsyth seems to forget that killings in the Troubles occurred on both sides of the religious divide and was carried out by killers from both sides. He also forgets basic Human Rights were suspended then as now. Experienced Judges sat over some of the greatest miscarriages of justice during those times. For very little return and maximum alienation. These laws and the emphasis on the Islamic threat will just do the same. Forsyth is wrong. The nature of the current threat is new. It is no longer to our armed forces, as the Soviet threat in the Eastern bloc was. It is to you and I. The terrorist aim to kill indiscriminately. The best comparison is therefore the blitz, 1941. At this time, let us not forget, suspects (foreign and British were routinely rounded up and interned for the duration of the war, without any complaints from the public. We must not forget we are at war. I'd say that that the likelihood of an attack by a sleeper cell of fundamentalist lunatics against a major UK target is a ""When"" not an ""If"" probability. I'll bet any money you like that the day after any such attack Freddie Forsyth will be saying that the government didn't do enough to protect the UK. People like Forsyth can only see one side of any argument and for him it is the side that is opposite New Labour and Tony Blair. I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Forsyth. The very reason this country has been such a wonderful place to live, is under attack, not from terrorists, but from this government. The perpetuation of the perceived terrorist threat is not because of what the 'alleged' terrorists are doing, but from our own government. I believe what this government is doing, is, at the very least, highly questionable and at worst, sinister. At what point will they feel they have enough control over every single person in the British Isles; when we are all tagged and monitored constantly? Our freedom is being craftily and surreptitiously whittled away by this government and we are gaining nothing. It should be of great concern to everyone. I am slightly older than Mr Forsyth and therefore have lived through the same history as him. I am against a police state and would not like to think that I lived in one. I think that the attack on Iraq made the international situation worse and may have provoked further acts of terrorism. How true. There are extremely worrying parallels between Britain now and Germany during the 30's. I never thought it would be so easy to take over a country from within. Mr Forsyth has forgotten one key point; the terrorists who threaten Britain today are well aware that Hitler, Stalin, and the IRA all failed. As a result modern day terrorists are willing to do things their predecessors did not. That does not mean that the civil liberties of modern Britain must be eroded to counter the threat; that should always be the absolute last resort. But to meet the new threat, to defeat the sinister fanaticism of today's terrorists, we may need to do things a little differently. Let us hope not. Frederic Forsythe's comments seem to me to be a well-thought-out analysis of why we (human society as a whole, and Britain in particular) should resist the temptation to over-protect through fear. It is this fear which enables terrorists to succeed in the end, and terrorists can come in all forms, as Mr. Forsythe's opening comments suggest. I am reminded of a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson. ""A nation that limits freedom in the name of security will have neither."" The government are faced with an incredibly difficult task, and have made a policy to deal with it. It's all very well criticising that policy, but if Mr Forsythe can't draw on his years of experience to offer an alternative, I say 'So what?' to his opinions. Frederick Forsyth's rhetoric is absurd and his conclusions laughable. He distorts reality to serve his own prejudice against New Labour. This government seeks to balance protection of our democracy with minimum loss of civil rights. It is Frederick Forsyth who is the extremist, because he does not appreciate the need for balance. I rarely find myself agreeing with My Forsyth, but in this instance I think he is correct. The rule of law must prevail, civil liberties are worth defending. If the government can hold 'suspects' without charge or trial, what's next? I agree absolutely. By introducing fascist type laws we loose the moral high ground in our fight against terror. Our democratic system is not perfect, but as Churchill points out it is ""better than all the others that have been tried"". Terrorist attacks will take place but for many reasons we should take that personal risk in return for personal freedom. I do not usually agree with Mr. Forsyth, but he is spot on here. The single biggest threat we face is that of a government dedicated to acting illegally and manipulating international and national law to suit its own purpose. Totalitarianism always requires an outside threat, justifying a range of extraordinary powers leaders want. The British government is a far greater threat that and terrorist organisation. Although, in principle I agree with him, Frederick Forsyth fails to address one key point- al-Qaeda attacks (though obviously there have been none yet in the UK) seek to kill the maximum number of people. The IRA wanted to limit the death toll of their attacks so as to maintain support among the republican movement. Yes, I agree with Mr. Forsyth's views. I do not believe the government's plans are justified. There is over reaction to and the negative influence of the US President's interpretation of democracy and freedom. He uses the same arguments that were current before the WWII, the Wars to ""liberate"" Iraq, Afghanistan with Syria and Iran to come. We are leaving a poor inheritance for the future generations. Mr Forsyth is a wonderful writer and should keep his fiction where it belongs. The British Government is not going down the road that Mr Forsyth suggests. Sadly comments such as his will make a lot of people believe that they are governed by people who are fast becoming tyrants instead of being genuinely committed to stopping tyranny, even if the method employed to do that is at the moment alien to the British people who have lived in a democracy protected by Tony Blair and others of like mind who, Mr. Forsyth seems to be putting along side the 'scruffy little Austrian.' Thomas Hobbes would be smiling in his grave at Labour's propositions. Like New Labour, he called himself a libertarian. Like New Labour, he believed he was promoting the people's best interests. But as Forsythe criticises this government, Hobbes has been criticised by most subsequent philosophers for arguing his way into the hands of the totalitarians. Simply put, he argued that in favour of the ultimate liberty - the liberty to live - man should be prepared to surrender all other liberties to a supreme sovereign, as protection against his fellow, barbaric, man. Hobbes has been roundly condemned by posterity, and rightly so. I hope New Labour suffers the same treatment. I agree with Mr Forsyth's views. The governments approach is totally against the spirit of British democracy. They must not be allowed to get away with it. Of course Frederick is wrong about Britain winning the war against the IRA and he's wrong too about the country not becoming a tyranny. Has he forgotten about shoot to kill, torture, internment without trial, collusion with loyalist death squads etc? My background is somewhat similar to Freddie's so I am persuaded to agree with many of his sentiments. We can have no moral justification for imposing our system of government on anyone while we are systematically depriving our own citizens of basic individual and collective freedoms. Whilst the principle of keeping potential terrorists under house arrest might seem superficially attractive, it is, unfortunately, also the first step towards totalitarianism. Who is to decide whom is a suspect? Why should we believe them? Who can have faith in the honesty, integrity, and competence of our intelligence services and politicians in light of the events of recent years? What is to stop false denunciations? What of those falsely accused who will lose their careers? Who will support their families? Will their children still go to school? It smacks to me of the methods of Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, Ceausescu's Romania - the list goes on. It looks as if a new dark age is coming. I see that opinion on Mr Forsyth's remarks are divided. The problem I see is that those who support imprisonment without trial believe it will never happen to them or their family, only to people they don't like or are scared of. But history has shown that if you have laws like that, they always get abused by those in power. After all, today you may be scared of the same people as those in power but someday those in power may be scared of you! And that day, you'll be the one imprisoned without the chance of justice. Our laws are such that you cannot just be imprisoned at the whim of our police forces, you have to be shown to be deserving of it. If we imprison people without trial for an indeterminate period, we are no better that those we are fighting. I never thought it possible for me to agree with a single word uttered by Frederick Forsyth, but I'm in wholehearted agreement with him on this one. We, as a nation are in grave danger of being duped by pro US propaganda, which of course also means we'll inherit most, if not all of their total paranoia, and allow our governments, of any political persuasion incidentally, to gradually, and insidiously, impose a police state by well tried & tested back door methods. I grieve for the future of my children, it's no wonder they're adamant they don't ever want any of their own. This government, with much fanfare, signs us up to the European Convention on Human Rights but now wants to introduce indefinite house arrest without trial. This puts it on a par with the government of Burma. Like many of your respondents, I wouldn't usually think of Mr Forsyth as someone whose views I share, but in the instance of opposing Charles Clark's proposals for house arrest, I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Forsyth/ I agree with Mr Forsyth. Just look at the facts - our government (along with the US) invaded another sovereign country (Iraq) by selecting intelligence that backed it's case based on fear. The facts turned out to be very different. If individuals are treated in the same distorted way, then we've done ourselves more damage than any terrorist organisation could with bombs. We become animals too. I agree in many ways with what Mr Forsyth has said - if we are to be respected and have influence within the world we must be seen to be walking the walk as well as talking the talk - how can we accuse countries such as Zimbabwe and Burma of human rights abuses when we are locking up people who may be totally innocent, it is hypocrisy of the highest order. Mr Forsyth links ""Islamic fundamentalism"" to the new ""threat"". However it appears that he has misunderstood the term ""Islamic fundamentalism"". It should be pointed out that a Muslim who adheres to the true fundamentals of the Qur'aan and the teachings of the last Prophet Muhammad is an Islamic Fundamentalist. This person does not commit suicide in any shape or form, nor does she/he kill innocent women, men and children. This person is self-reflective and constantly tries to better her/his actions by being good to others. The people who Mr Forsyth labels the new ""threat"" are those who do not follow the correct teachings of Islam. They have arrived at their own interpretations and assumptions with regards their actions. On top of that, they claim to be following Islam in its true form! I accept that the intentions of these policies are to make Britain a safer place but I cannot think of a single example from history where doing this sort of thing has ever made any difference - in Northern Ireland internment certainly didn't achieve anything - the bombings didn't stop, and it could be argued that all it achieved was to just supply the IRA with yet more angry and resentful republicans willing to take up arms against the British. Being eight years older than Frederick Forsyth and a survivor of the Blitz on London, it is easy to agree with him, he is absolutely spot on. During the IRA bombings there were massive explosions in Canary Wharf, to the right of where I write this, and also to the left in the City of London. Notwithstanding these and the attempted and nearly successful assassination attempts on Prime Minister Thatcher in Brighton and on later occupants of 10 Downing Street, there was no retaliatory blitz on Belfast or Dublin as there has been on Afghanistan and Iraq. Even when England was in true peril in 1940 apart from some detentions there were no wholesale derogation of habeas corpus and the like. We have to see off these latest attempts on our liberties including ID cards, which Winston Churchill decided had to go since, he said, the average Bobby on the beat could not be relied on to not be tempted to take undue advantage against the citizen going about their lawful activities (incidentally I can still remember my old ID card number). Hence it is clear that the far too great police state powers set for the statute books have to be resisted and neutered. What can I add to Mr. Forsyth's eloquently put arguments... except applause! Well done that man for standing up and being counted in the ""war against tyranny""." +politics,"Retirement age could be scrapped The ""myth that ageing is a barrier"" to contributing to society needs to be ""exploded"", the work and pensions minister has said. This was why the government was considering scrapping the retirement age entirely, Alan Johnson said. It was also committed to ""stamping out"" age discrimination and would outlaw it, he told a conference on ageing. All three parties have been wooing older voters with both the Tories and Lib Dems pledging higher pensions. Mr Johnson told Age Concern's Age Agenda in London the government was ""seriously considering"" introducing pensions based on residency rather than national insurance contributions. This idea has been adopted by the Lib Dems as policy, while the Tories have pledged to boost pensions by restoring the link between earnings and pensions. Mr Johnson's speech comes after he last week unveiled plans to find a consensus on how to reform the country's pension system. This would be based on a series of principles including tackling pensioner poverty and fairer pensions for women, he said. Speaking at the London conference he said: ""Generalised stereotypes of people past state pension age as dependant, incapable and vulnerable are a particularly pernicious form of age discrimination"". The government wanted to tackle this by moving to a culture where retirement ages were ""increasingly consigned to the past"". ""We're sweeping them away entirely for people under 65, and we're giving those above that age a right to request to work past 65 which their employers will have to engage with seriously. ""And the review in 2011, which will look at whether it is time to sweep retirement ages away entirely, is to be tied to evidence ... showing that retirement ages are increasingly outmoded"". Mr Johnson said his department had a long-term aspiration of moving towards an 80% employment rate. This would involve an extra one million older people joining the work force, he said." +politics,"'Last chance' warning for voters People in England, Scotland and Wales must have registered by 1700 GMT to be able to vote in the general election if it is held, as expected, on 5 May. Those who filled in forms last autumn should already be on the register - but those who have moved house or were on holiday may have been left off. There will also be elections for local councils and mayors in parts of England on 5 May. The deadline for voters to register in Northern Ireland expired on Thursday. Completed registration forms can be handed into local authorities throughout the day on Friday, and some will accept them by fax. As well as for English county councils, polls for unitary authorities at Bristol, Isle of Wight and Stockton-on-Tees and mayors at Doncaster, Hartlepool, North Tyneside and Stoke-on-Trent are also scheduled for 5 May. Last week Preston City Council reported that more than 14,000 of its voters were not registered. Its electoral roll fell by 17.5% in a year - the biggest dip in the UK. An Electoral Commission spokeswoman said: ""Political decisions are made on your behalf every day but only by using your right to vote at an election can you really have a say on the issues you care about. ""If you want your voice to be heard on 5 May you will need to have registered by Friday 11 March."" Council tax payers are not eligible to vote without registration, officials have stressed." +politics,"'Nuclear dumpsite' plan attacked Plans to allow foreign nuclear waste to be permanently stored in the UK have been branded ""deeply irresponsible"" by the Liberal Democrats. The government has confirmed intermediate level waste (ILW) that was to have been shipped back to its home countries will now be stored in the UK. The cash raised will go towards the UK's nuclear clean-up programme. But Lib Dem Norman Baker accused ministers of turning Britain into a ""nuclear dumpsite"". Under current contracts, British Nuclear Fuels should return all but low level waste, but none has ever been sent back. In future, only highly-radioactive waste will be sent back to its country of origin, normally Germany or Japan, under armed guard. Intermediate waste from countries such as Japan, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden will be stored permanently in the UK. At the moment, this waste is stored at Sellafield, in Cumbria, in the form of glass bricks, untreated liquid waste or solid material in drums. In a statement, the Department of Trade and Industry said the new policy meant there would be a ""sixfold reduction in the number of waste shipments to overseas countries"". And it said highly-radioactive waste would be returned to its home country sooner, ensuring there would be no overall increase in radioactivity. Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt said the new arrangements, revealed in a Commons written statement, would raise up to £680m for Britain's nuclear clean-up programme, under the new Nuclear Decommissioning Agency. But the move has been criticised by environmental groups and the Liberal Democrats. Mr Baker, the Lib Dem environment spokesman, said: ""I have been warning for months that this would happen and raised it with government several times. But now our worst fears have been confirmed. ""Once again Britain's environmental and health needs are being ignored in policies driven by the Treasury and DTI. ""This is a terrible attempt to offload some of the £48bn cost of cleaning up nuclear sites. ""The Energy Act was supposed to help Britain clean up, but in order to pay for it we are becoming a nuclear dumpsite. ""The nuclear industry is an economic, social and environmental millstone that hangs around Britain's neck.""" +politics,"Election deal faltered over Heath role The Tories failed to hold onto power in 1974 after Liberals demanded Sir Edward Heath quit in return for co-operation. Documents released after 30 years reveal the failed negotiations by the then prime minister following the dramatic February general election. Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe appeared willing to form a coalition government. But it partly collapsed over the Conservative leader's own role, prompting the Queen to ask Harold Wilson to form a Labour government. The February 1974 general election surprised the nation when it created a hung parliament with no party in overall control. Sir Edward had gone to the country for a fresh mandate amid the spiralling economic crisis, a miners' strike and the subsequent three-day week. Labour emerged with the most seats - but its 301 MPs were 17 short of the number Mr Wilson needed to form a majority. Sir Edward, who had received more votes but had fewer MPs, believed he had the authority to remain at Number 10 providing the 14 Liberal MPs would support his government. He said the Liberals could keep out Labour in three ways: lend ad hoc support to his minority government, help draw up the government's programme, or have up to three Cabinet members in a coalition with the Conservatives. According to the documents released at the National Archives, the ""friendly and easy"" first meeting indicated that both Sir Edward and Mr Thorpe thought they had the makings of a deal. Mr Thorpe was in high spirits, having just led his party to a historic jump in support. He also argued for a grand coalition of all three main parties. But Sir Edward said that was impossible because the Labour left was set against it and the pair settled on trying for a Conservative-Liberal pact. Hours later Sir Edward's hopes of a deal unravelled as Mr Thorpe's colleagues refused to support him. ""Jeremy said he was encountering a rather embarrassing problem with his colleagues about the prime minister personally,"" reads a telephone memo for Mr Heath. ""They feel they could not agree to serve as long as he is the prime minister. ""Asked if this was his own view he said - no it was not, I am very close to Ted and thought he was by far the most able man we had and he would be perfectly happy to serve - it was only some of his colleagues who were being difficult."" The following day, the stickling points had clearly become two-fold: Mr Thorpe's colleagues wanted electoral reform and Sir Edward's resignation. Mr Thorpe told Sir Edward: ""I am sorry this is obviously hell - a nightmare on stilts for you. ""Somehow I personally hope that we can work something out."" Four hours later, Sir Edward called the Liberal leader back to Downing Street in a last attempt at a deal. The minutes of the meeting show how the chance of a coalition government quickly evaporated. ""The PM said he was bound to tell Mr Thorpe that his colleagues had told him that they would not agree to serve under any other prime minister. Mr Thorpe was at liberty to verify this by talking to one or two of the prime minister's colleagues."" Documents show that Sir Edward mulled over resigning and perhaps returning to coalition government in a Labour-led coalition. But he already knew Mr Wilson would not form a coalition with either the Liberals or the Conservatives because of the opposition of the Labour left. Within hours of his final talks with Mr Thorpe, Sir Edward told the nation he was resigning and the Queen invited Mr Wilson to form a new minority government." +politics,"Blair blasts Tory spending plans Tony Blair has launched an attack on Conservative spending plans, saying they are a ""ludicrous improbability"". The prime minister has told a Labour Party gathering that the Tory policies would cause economic failure. Tory leader Michael Howard has said his party would cut £35bn in ""wasteful"" spending to allow £4bn in tax cuts. On Saturday, Tory shadow home secretary David Davis said the Tories would fund the cuts by removing ""inefficiencies"" which had ""burgeoned"" under Labour. In his speech, Mr Blair contrasted a reformed Labour party, which had learned to occupy the political centre ground, with a hidebound Tory party, which he said would turn the clock back with spending cuts. Mr Blair said: ""The Conservative tax and spending proposals would put at risk, both Britain's hard-won economic stability - the lowest mortgages, inflation, unemployment, for decades - and the key investment in public services. ""I believe that the Tory plans are as plain a call to return to the past as it's possible to imagine,"" he said. ""It's a recipe for exactly the same boom and bust economics and cuts in public services that were their hallmark in 18 years of Conservative government."" Mr Blair added: ""They, the Conservatives have learned nothing."" By contrast, he said, New Labour had listened to its electorate and changed. Mr Blair went on to list his government's achievements and to issue a rallying call to the party. ""So now we have a choice, we can defend this record and we can build on it and go on and fulfil the promise or give up and go back. And I say we have to fight."" In response, David Davis said the Tories would make cuts, such as removing regional assemblies, but would bring in more police officers and match Labour's spending on health and education. ""Everybody knows, having lived through this government the last seven years, that they faced lots of stealth tactics, lots of increases in taxes, but no improvement in public services,"" he said. Mr Davis said Labour had been responsible for ""huge waste, huge overspending, not on the frontline at all but on bureaucracy"". ""The public face a choice between more waste and more taxes with this government, less waste and lower taxes with a Tory government,"" he concluded. Gordon Brown has addressed the conference behind closed doors. The Chancellor said the Conservatives' plans would see some £50bn in spending cuts by 2011, which the Tories deny. Mr Brown also issued call for party unity and warn of the dangers of allowing themselves to be ""distracted or diverted"". According to an advance text released by officials, he told delegates: ""We must all show the strength and unity of purpose to take the long-term decisions necessary to meet them."" Mr Brown warned that the Tories were planning ""the biggest cuts ever in the history of any election manifesto"". Meanwhile, Tory shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin accused Mr Blair of ""misrepresenting"" the party's proposals and questioned how Labour would fund its own plans. ""He still cannot accept the simple truth, which is that we will spend more on what matters to people - schools, hospitals and police - and that we will offer value for money and lower taxes,"" Mr Letwin said. ""Once again Mr Blair and his Chancellor have failed to answer the question that lies at the heart of this election - which taxes will they put up to fill the £8bn shortfall in their plans?""" +politics,"MPs assess Scots fishing industry A group of MPs are on a two-day fact-finding mission to Scotland to gather evidence for a report into the UK's fishing industry. Members of Westminster's environment, food and rural affairs committee will be touring fish markets and talking to fish processors. They will also talk to Fisheries Minister Ross Finnie and scientists. MPs are deciding whether to recommend a new system of ""community quotas"" to conserve fish stocks. The aim is that fishing ports like Peterhead or Fraserburgh would be allocated a quota and local people would decide how to fish it. The scheme is a variation on the local management committees already being established by the European Union. Details are contained in a Royal Commission report for the UK Government, along with the more controversial idea of closing some mixed fishing grounds completely. Six members of the committee will be in Scotland to seek views from fishermen and processors in Aberdeen and Peterhead. They will also speak to Mr Finnie, representatives of the Royal Society and the Sea Fish Industry Authority. Committee chairman Austin Mitchell said some way has to be found of harvesting mixed fisheries without wasting stocks." +politics,"UK set to cut back on embassies Nine overseas embassies and high commissions will close in an effort to save money, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has announced. The Bahamas, East Timor, Madagascar and Swaziland are among the areas affected by the biggest shake-up for the diplomatic service for years. Other diplomatic posts are being turned over to local staff. Mr Straw said the move would save £6m a year to free up cash for priorities such as fighting terrorism. Honorary consuls will be appointed in some of the areas affected by the embassy closures. Nine consulates or consulates general will also be closed, mostly in Europe and America. They include Dallas in the US, Bordeaux in France and Oporto in Portugal, with local staff replacing UK representation in another 11. The changes are due to be put in place before the end of 2006, with most savings made from cutting staff and running costs. Some of the money will have to be used to fund redundancy payments. In a written statement, Mr Straw said: ""The savings made will help to underpin higher priority work in line with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's strategic priorities, including counter- proliferation, counter-terrorism, energy and climate change. ""Some of the savings will also be redeployed to strategic priority work within certain regions where we are closing posts. ""In Africa, for instance, we plan to create new jobs to cover these issues across the region, with a new post in Nairobi to help support our work on climate change, one in Nigeria to cover energy and one in Pretoria to cover regional issues more generally as well as covering Maseru and Mbabane."" The Foreign Office currently has about 6,100 UK-based staff. It has opened major new missions on Baghdad and Basra in Iraq, Kabul in Afghanistan and Pyongyang in North Korea since 1997 in response to what the government says are changing needs. Since 1997 10 overseas posts have been closed - excluding Wednesday's cuts - but 18 new embassies or consulates have been opened. The shake-up is aimed at helping making £86m in efficiency savings between 2005 and 2008. The chancellor has demanded all government departments make similar savings. Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said there was a constant need to ensure value for money from foreign missions. ""But the government must give a far clearer reason for making the dramatic changes it has announced and must show that British commercial interests and the interests of Britons abroad will not be adversely affected,"" he said." +politics,"Army chiefs in regiments decision Military chiefs are expected to meet to make a final decision on the future of Scotland's Army regiments. A committee of the Army Board, which is made up of the most senior defence figures, will discuss plans for restructuring regiments on Monday. The proposals include cutting Scotland's six single-battalion regiments to five and merging these into a super regiment. The plans have faced stiff opposition from campaigners and politicians alike. The committee's decision must be ratified by Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and Prime Minister Tony Blair. It is expected that it will be made public next week. When ministers announced a reorganisation of the Army it drew a question mark over the futures of the Black Watch, the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, the Royal Scots, the Royal Highland Fusiliers and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. In October, the Council of Scottish Colonels proposed the merger of the Royal Scots and the King's Own Scottish Borderers into a single battalion. Under their vision, it would be one of five in the new super regiment. The proposals to either merge or amalgamate the six regiments into a super regiment sparked a political outcry, with Labour backbenchers and opposition politicians opposing the plan. They felt the timing was insensitive because the Black Watch was in the frontline in Iraq, suffering casualties. The Save the Scottish Regiments campaigners were so angered they threatened to stand against Labour at the next general election. Speaking ahead of the expected Army Board meeting, a spokesman said: ""The government and the Army Board have spent the past four months attempting to trick serving soldiers and the public into thinking their planned changes for the Scottish regiments are for the good of the Army and for that of the serving soldier. ""They are very much not for the good and will destroy Scotland's regiments by moulding them into a single super regiment which will lead to severe recruitment problems, a loss of local connections to those regiments and a loss to Scotland of an important part of her heritage and, most importantly, her future - the regiments are the envy of armies around the world."" An alternative blueprint had been put forward by Labour MP Eric Joyce, who proposed going ahead with the merger while preserving the other regiments. For a brief time, there was speculation the prime minister might consider the plan, but that now seems unlikely. Speaking in Scotland last week, Mr Blair said the aim was to preserve tradition but introduce a more effective structure and hinted that a super regiment was likely. He said: ""They don't want to get rid of the history or the traditions of the regiment or the local connections - far from it, all they want to do is make sure they can transfer people easily across regiments and deploy them more flexibly."" The prime minister said he hoped campaigners' concerns would be taken into account but the need for effective change had to be paramount." +politics,"'Poll Idols' face first hurdles Vote For Me - ITV1's Pop Idol style talent contest for would-be politicians - finally hits our screens this week. Over the next four days, hundreds of potential candidates will be whittled down by a panel of experts and public vote. The winner will then be encouraged to stand as an independent at the next general election, which is expected in the spring. But opinion is divided on whether any of the potential candidates unearthed so far have got what it takes to make it in politics. ""Any of them would make competent MPs,"" former independent MP Martin Bell insisted on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Mr Bell, who will be offering his advice to the contestants on Wednesday, argues that Westminster has its share of ""odd balls"" and the show will engage ordinary voters. ""If it gets more people voting and more people interested in politics there is no harm in that,"" he said. But Sir Bernard Ingham, Margaret Thatcher's former press secretary, took a less charitable view, accusing the programme of ""corrupting politics"". He said the producers would not achieve their aim of re-engaging voters ""with that bunch of nutters"". To give Sir Bernard his dues, Monday evening's opening episode did attract more than a smattering of eccentrics and self-publicists. Among those chancing their arm were a druid priest and a former porn star, who insisted on removing her top to make her point about the legalisation of brothels. Among the more eccentric policy proposals was a public holiday on Bruce Forsyth's birthday and Bill Oddie for prime minister. The show follows the time-honoured Pop Idol format, with queues of nervous hopefuls and a panel of three experts judging their performance. The contestants were given 60 seconds to present their manifestos. Then the final 25 were tested on their lobbying ability. They were then cross-examined by the panel, which was chaired by ex-ITN political editor John Sergeant, with television host Lorraine Kelly taking the Nicki Chapman role. But the real star of the show is Kelvin MacKenzie, in the Simon Cowell, Mr Nasty seat. The former Sun editor dispensed a stream of well-crafted insults and one-liners. His advice for one young contestant was to ""get a haircut and a brain transplant"". Wheelchair user Kevin Donnellon was asked: ""Why on earth do you want our elected representatives to be disabled?"" ""Don't you care about the Inuit?"", implored guitar-toting environmental campaigner Barry Lim. ""I don't care about them. I care about myself and when the sun's shining I think - fantastic,"" replied Mr MacKenzie. Mr Lim later reduced the panel to fits of giggles as he outlined his plan to make people do community service instead of paying taxes. ""When the prime minister turns to the chancellor and says how much have we got in the coffers Mr Brown, he says well, prime minister, bad news, all the houses in Britain have been painted but actually nobody has paid any tax,"" observed Mr MacKenzie. ""That was an total disaster. I just couldn't seem to think of things to say,"" a crestfallen Mr Lim confided in the show's presenter, Jonathan Maitland. Irfan Hanif, a 25-year-old doctor from Bolton, made a good impression, even if he was a little thrown by Mr MacKenzie's suggestion that instead of being treated by the NHS, young drunks should ""given a good beating"" and left to die. Dominic Carman - son of late libel lawyer George Carman - was voted through to the final 25, on a platform of cutting defence spending to boost education. Opinion was more divided over Rodney Hylton-Potts, a 59-year-old convicted fraudster. Mr MacKenzie thought the smooth-talking former solicitor - with a hardline on crime and immigration - deserved a chance to progress. ""He could join the rest of the crooks in the Houses of Parliament."" But Ms Kelly said she ""would not trust him as far as she could throw him"". The series continues throughout the week, with the public given the chance to evict one prospective MP every night. ITV will not fund the election campaign for the eventual winner, but the publicity could give the winner a flying start over other candidates." +politics,"Sport betting rules in spotlight A group of MPs and peers has called for a tightening of regulations controlling betting on sport. The Parliamentary Group on Betting and Gaming held a substantial inquiry into betting last year. It followed fears that a massive increase in betting on sport, such as that done using the internet and mobile phones, has led to more cheating. The all-party group recommended 15 ways to protect punters and improve the integrity of sports betting. They include a proposal for raising the maximum jail sentence for gambling cheats above the current two years. Lord Condon, head of the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit, who originally made the call for longer prison sentences, said the two-year penalty was ""derisory"". ""You could get a bigger sentence for failing to pay your hotel bill criminally than you could for corruption in major sports. ""Symbolically, a higher penalty, perhaps as the Bill passes through the two Houses, might be appropriate."" The report recommended the governing bodies of sports have a say in the type of bets offered to punters, and for bookmakers to set up ""audit trails"" - something the new betting exchanges already do - to allow suspicious betting patterns to be traced. Lord Faulkner of Worcester, who chaired the inquiry, said: ""Whilst we accept that the greater part of sports betting is neither corrupt nor unfair to punters, the evidence convinces us that the growth of betting exchanges - because of the facility they provide to bet against a result - has increased the potential for corruption. ""It is important that the government works with sporting administrators to review the difficulties faced by governing bodies in convicting the guilty and penalising them appropriately."" The panel's aim was to try to define what constitutes cheating, assess how much might be going on and suggest what the government might do to put it right. As well as the growth of internet and mobile phone betting, there has been the creation of betting exchanges which allow punters to fix odds between themselves. Betting exchanges allow punters to back (to win) but also lay (to lose) a horse. This means they can control their odds at winning by placing their money both ways." +politics,"Candidate resigns over BNP link A prospective candidate for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) has resigned after admitting a ""brief attachment"" to the British National Party(BNP). Nicholas Betts-Green, who had been selected to fight the Suffolk Coastal seat, quit after reports in a newspaper that he attended a BNP meeting. The former teacher confirmed he had attended the meeting but said that was the only contact he had with the group. Mr Betts-Green resigned after being questioned by the party's leadership. A UKIP spokesman said Mr Betts-Green's resignation followed disclosures in the East Anglian Daily Times last month about his attendance at a BNP meeting. ""He did once attend a BNP meeting. He did not like what he saw and heard and will take no further part of it,"" the spokesman added. A meeting of Suffolk Coastal UKIP members is due to be held next week to discuss a replacement. Mr Betts-Green, of Woodbridge, Suffolk, has also resigned as UKIP's branch chairman." +politics,"Defiant hunts put ban to the test Thousands of hunt supporters have been out on the first day of hunting in England and Wales after the ban on hunting with dogs came into force. The Countryside Alliance called on hunt supporters to meet as normal, but vowed to stay within the law. Although hunting with dogs is now a criminal offence, exercising hounds, chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are still legal. One anti-hunt protester was taken to hospital after a violent clash in Kent. The man suffered facial injuries after an incident involving a group of men at the end of the East Kent Hunt, near Ashford. In Wiltshire, police arrested four men under the new law suspected of hunting with dogs. The group, from South Wales and Ireland, have been released on bail but police say they may face prosecution under new poaching laws. It is believed more than 270 hunts went out on Saturday, just one day after the ban came in. They were greeted by big crowds in many areas of the country, with actor Jeremy Irons and former minister Kate Hoey among the supporters. Anti-hunt groups - such as the League Against Cruel Sports - deployed 100 monitors at hunts to check for illegal activity. Mike Hobday, from the league, said video evidence of the law being broken was to be passed onto police. ""Our evidence suggests that most hunts did operate within the law, many meeting and promptly going home and others peacefully exercising their hounds or drag hunting. ""However, we have received reports of what we believe is clearly illegal activity by a number of hunts across Britain."" BBC correspondent Simon Hall at Postbridge on Dartmoor in the West Country said 2,000 people had turned out to welcome the hunt. And the BBC's Sarah Mukherjee, with the Beaufort Hunt in Badminton, Gloucestershire said several hundred people had gathered on foot to see the hunt, with 150 on horseback. Tom Heap, BBC rural affairs correspondent, said it appeared that hunstman had, for now, been sticking to the new rules. And while there was big turnout in support of the hunts on Saturday, he said it remains to be seen if the level of backing can be maintained. Before riding out with the hunt, former minister Kate Hoey told crowds: ""We will prevail and this law will have to be overturned."" Judith Moritz, in Melton Mowbray, said anti-hunt activists were out to monitor the four hunts operating in that part of Leicestershire, but were outnumbered by large crowds of followers. The Countryside Alliance said the meets would show the new law was ""impossibly difficult to determine"" and open to different interpretations. Chief executive Simon Hart said: ""There has been hunting in England for 700 years. This [ban] may take two or three years, perhaps two or three months, to unpick. ""It will be nothing more than a temporary break in normal service, as broadcasters say."" Conservative family spokeswoman Theresa May said if the party was in government again it would make sure the law was repealed. Suffolk Chief Constable Alastair McWhirter, the Association of Chief Police Officers' spokesman on rural policing, told the BBC the law would be enforced, although the police would not break up hunts. The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has so far not issued any instructions to police on how they should deal with any hunters who do violate the law. He said he would consult the director of public prosecutions and the police ""in the near future"" to decide what measures to take on hunting prosecutions." +politics,"Blair Labour's longest-serving PM Tony Blair has become the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister. The 51-year-old premier has marked his 2,838th day in the post, overtaking the combined length of Harold Wilson's two terms during the 1960s and 1970s. If Mr Blair wins the next election and fulfils his promise to serve a full third term, he will surpass Margaret Thatcher's 11 years by the end of 2008. In 1997, Mr Blair became the youngest premier of the 20th century, when he came to power at the age of 43. The last prime minister to be installed at a younger age was Lord Liverpool, who was a year his junior in 1812. Mr Blair's other political firsts include becoming the first Labour leader to win two successive full terms in power after the 2001 Labour landslide. And the birth of the Blairs' fourth child, Leo, on 20 May, 2000, was the first child born to a serving prime minister in more than 150 years. The last ""Downing Street dad"" was Lord John Russell in 1848. Labour won a huge majority of 167 over the Conservatives in 2001, but Mr Blair has since been criticised by many in his own party. The war in Iraq and reforms of the health service and education system have provoked dissent from backbenchers. Gordon Brown, chancellor of the exchequer under Mr Blair, became Britain's longest-serving chancellor of modern times in 2004. Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock said the chancellor would be best placed to take over from Mr Blair. When asked about the future leadership of the party, he told ITV Wales' Waterfront programme: ""That contest is a long way away and it will occur only when the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, decides he's subscribed all he can and then wants to go. ""I think that the main contender will be Gordon Brown, who is a man of virtually unmatched capability and now great experience."" Both Mr Brown and Mr Blair rose to prominence when Lord Kinnock led Labour between 1983 and 1992." +politics,"What really divides the parties So what is the gap between Labour and the Tories nowadays? One Starbucks, one Rymans and one small Greek cafe as it happens. Both parties have now completed their moves to new headquarters, with Labour creating its election hub just three doors away from the Tories' new headquarters in Victoria Street, just down the road from the Commons. That should make things a little easier if and when the crack-of-dawn election press conferences kick off. Unlike 2001, there should be no need for colleagues to have taxis gunning their engines outside, or to buy scooters, to get themselves between the tightly-timetabled events. And, to all intents and purposes, we already appear to be in that general election campaign. Certainly the press conference hosted by election co-ordinator Alan Milburn, in the rather compact new conference room - still smelling of new carpet and with the garish New Labour coffee mugs as yet unstained - had all the hallmarks of an election event. ""Welcome to the unremittingly New Labour media centre,"" he said. And I'll bet he hadn't checked that one with Gordon Brown. Along with Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson and Minister for Work Jane Kennedy, he then went on to tear into the Tory plans to scrap the New Deal welfare-to-work scheme, which they claimed would lead to an increase of almost 300,000 in unemployment. And they ridiculed the claims made on Monday by Michael Howard that he could save £35 billion of Labour waste and inefficiency to spend on public services while also offering £4 billion of tax cuts. Labour has come up with a figure of £22 billions worth of efficiency savings so, understandably perhaps, believe Mr Howard must be planning cuts to squeeze the extra £13 billion. These figures, based on the two parties' own detailed studies, will be battered to within an inch of their lives during the campaign. Wednesday was just the start." +politics,"Wales 'must learn health lessons' The new health minister for Wales says there are lessons to learn from England in tackling waiting lists. Dr Brian Gibbons, on his first full day in the job after Jane Hutt was sacked, admitted ""big challenges"" but insisted the ""essentials"" were in place. But both Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats said Dr Gibbons needed to change policy. Meanwhile Ms Hutt defended her record, saying waiting times and lists were ""only 10% of the health agenda. Dr Gibbons, who was a GP in Blaengwynfi, in the Upper Afan Valley, before becoming AM for Aberavon, said NHS staff wanted a period of consolidation after ""tremendous change and reform"". One of the biggest problems which had faced Ms Hutt during her five-and-a-half years as the assembly's first health minister was the length of waiting lists in Wales. In November the British Medical Association said NHS staff were ""weeping with despair"" as figures showed 311,000 people were waiting for treatment in Wales, up by 2,400 on the previous month. In the same month lists in England were at their lowest for 17 years, with 856,600 people waiting for treatment. Dr Gibbons told Radio Wales: ""There is no doubt that, in managing waiting lists, England has done a lot of very very useful work, and we do need to learn from that."" But he said the NHS in Wales also needed to create a healthier population rather than respond only to ill health, and a balanced view of priorities was important. ""We do need a consistent across-the-board approach, recognising the patients' experience of how they use the service is going to be, at the end of the day, the main test of how the service is working."" He said NHS staff wanted a period of consolidation after ""tremendous change and reform"". Later, Dr Gibbons praised the work of Ms Hutt, saying he ""agreed with everything she's done"" to change the health service in Wales. Dr Gibbons said he accepted there was a problem, but his job now was to build on the foundations put in place by his predecessor. He also acknowledged that until the waiting list issue was sorted out, the rest of the assembly government's health policy would be overshadowed. Opposition members and some Labour MPs had long called for Ms Hutt's removal after sustained criticism over extended hospital waiting times. First Minister Rhodri Morgan told BBC Wales he had agreed with Ms Hutt in 2003 that she would not be health minister in the run-up to the 2007 elections. ""She's been doing the job for five years and eight months and, apart from Nye Bevan himself, (architect of the NHS), I don't think anybody has ever done the job for so long."" Mr Morgan said he had only told Ms Hutt of the reshuffle on Monday morning, and said the NHS in Wales was Dr Gibbons' ""baby"" now. In response to Dr Gibbons' comments, Ieuan Wyn Jones, leader of the Plaid Cymru group in the assembly, said: ""It is apparent that this reshuffle by the first minister was just changing the deckchairs on a sinking Titanic."" Kisrty Williams, for the Lib Dems, added: ""If the underlying policy is going to continue, then changing the minister will serve no purpose, other than to deflect flak from Labour's MPs,"" she said. Meanwhile Ms Hutt said she hoped ""that the people of Wales would benefit from my investment of the past five years and eight months"" Asked about waiting lists, she said that waiting times and lists were ""only 10% of the health agenda"" and that the Welsh Assembly Government had ""turned the corner"" on the issue." +politics,"School sport 'is back', says PM Tony Blair has promised that ""sport is back"" as a priority for schools. The prime minister launched a £500m initiative to allow school sports clubs in England to provide up to three hours of extra activity a week by 2010. ""It's an important part of education and it's an important part of health,"" Mr Blair said. But the Conservatives say government proposals - which include two hours' PE within school for 75% of pupils by 2006 - are unrealistic. The latest move is aimed at encouraging more diversity in sport, with activities such as yoga and Tai Chi being options. Launching the initiative, Mr Blair completed an agility course and shot basketball hoops with students from the all-girl Waverley Sports College in Southwark, south London. He said: ""You've got to bring back school sport. It's got to be done differently than it was 30 or 40 years ago. It's still very, very important."" Earlier, Education Secretary Charles Clarke told BBC News there were at least three areas which needed ""a coherent framework"" and ""dedicated funding"". These were training for PE teachers, establishing more specialist schools and the development of partnerships for activities such as inter-school competitions. He added the government had originally pledged ""for every pupil to get at least two hours of high-quality physical education"" a week. The proportion was currently at 62%, and the government was hoping this would rise to 85% by 2008 and 100% by 2010. The money for the initiative will come from a new £500m fund. The £500m move will also increase the number of specialist sport colleges from 350 to 400. But the Conservatives warned of rising obesity levels and said that since only a third of children do two hours of sport a week currently, the government is promising something it cannot guarantee. Shadow spokesman for sport Hugh Robertson said: ""I suspect the correct way to tackle it is to look at the other end of the spectrum and try to enable the clubs - which is where the real passion for sport exists - to deliver the school sport offer."" He said more emphasis should be put on traditional sports, saying that an ""anti-competitive sport agenda"" had been pursued in recent years. Martin Ward, of the Secondary Heads Association, said members did not like ""ring-fenced funds"" and that it should be up to the schools themselves to decide how to spend their money." +politics,"Blair congratulates Bush on win Tony Blair has said he looks forward to continuing his strong relationship with George Bush and working with him during his second term as president. Mr Bush's re-election came at a crucial time for a world that was ""fractured, divided and uncertain"", Mr Blair said. It had to be brought together, he added, saying action was needed on poverty, the Middle East and the conditions on which terrorists prey. Mr Blair said states had to work with the US to fight global terrorism. But there was a need to recognise it would not be defeated by ""military might alone but also by demonstrating the strength of our common values"" he added. Solving the conflict in the Middle East was the world's single most ""pressing political challenge"" of the present day, Mr Blair warned. The prime minister also urged Europe and the US to ""build anew their alliance"". ""All of us in positions of leadership, not just President Bush, have a responsibility to rise to this challenge. It is urgent that we do so."" Mr Blair also paid tribute to Democrat John Kerry's campaign, saying he had helped make the presidential election ""a true celebration of American democracy"". The election of the US president was significant for the world but particularly so for Britain because of its special relationship, he added. Earlier Tory leader Michael Howard sent Mr Bush his ""warmest congratulations"", saying: ""We look to the president to be a unifying force for those all over the world who share our determination to defend freedom."" Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy welcomed the fact there had been a quick conclusion to the election, unlike in 2000. Mr Bush's first task was to ""rebuild a sense of domestic purpose"" within the US, he said. Mr Kennedy said: ""Internationally, it is to be hoped that a second term will see a more sensitive approach to relations with long-standing allies, not least for the global efforts to combat terrorism."" Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell said a win by Mr Kerry would have given Mr Blair the chance of a fresh start, adding it was almost as if there was an ""umbilical cord"" between Mr Bush and the UK premier. ""Europeans must hope that his administration will be much more multilateral in character, and that he will act swiftly to rebuild the Atlantic partnership which is so vital to security. ""Iraq will remain an issue of potential division for some time to come."" Even before the result became clear, Mr Blair was being urged to push for action on climate change at his first meeting with whichever candidate won. Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Norman Baker underlined the issue of global warming during a Commons debate on Anglo-American relations on Wednesday. Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett has said the US will act on global warming despite George Bush's refusal to sign up to the Kyoto protocol on carbon emissions. Public opinion would force change, she told BBC news. But Myron Ebell, an adviser on climate change to President Bush, has said there would be no change in the US stance and rejected the threat of climate change. He claimed the US was the only country with independent scientists." +politics,"Student 'fee factor' played down A rise has been recorded in the number of students from south of the border applying to universities in Scotland. However, Lifelong Learning Minister Jim Wallace said that this would not result in Scottish students missing out. Applications from England and Wales rose by 17% between January 2005 and the previous year, up 23,600 to 27,700. Fears had been expressed that a flood of ""fee refugees"" would try to avoid top-up fees of up to £3,000 a year being introduced in England. In June last year, Mr Wallace announced proposals to increase tuition fees for English students studying in Scotland by £2,000 in an attempt to prevent a cross-border flood, although no figure has yet been agreed. Legislation to introduce the top-up fees in England is not due to take effect until autumn 2006 and students who start before then will not have to pay additional fees at all. The figures were made public on Thursday by admissions service Ucas. Universities Scotland, which represents university principals, claimed that an increase in applications did not amount to Scottish students being squeezed out. Director, David Caldwell, said some students could be applying in an attempt to avoid the possible increase in annual fees at English universities, but this was not a major factor. He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: ""The reason people are opting for Scottish universities is that they are perceived as being of very high quality, they offer very attractive courses and Scotland is seen as a very attractive place to study. ""They know that when they take up their studies in 2006 they will be hit by top-up fees if they are going to a university in England and that may be part of the reason why the numbers coming to Scotland are so inflated. ""However, it does not mean that we will see thousands of additional students from England studying here."" Mr Wallace agreed and said the figures had to be looked at in context. He explained that when applications were translated into acceptances, the number was not huge - an additional figure of about 200. Also, the picture was further blurred by the fact that applications from Wales, where there are no plans for top-up fees, have also risen, by 19%. Mr Wallace said: ""Accepting students from all parts of the world does show the high regard in which Scottish higher education is held, not just in Britain. ""We want to make sure that when students are making their choice, they do so on the nature of the course and not because they are under some sort of financial pressure to go to Scotland. ""We do not want to have a situation where it becomes impossible for Scottish students to get places at Scottish universities because we are seen as the cheap option. ""Very often the quality of the university experience is enhanced by the fact there are students coming from a wide range of backgrounds so it would be wrong to go the other way and start excluding students.""" +politics,"Election 'could be terror target' Terrorists might try to target the UK in the run-up to the election, London's most senior police officer has said. Sir Ian Blair said terror groups would remember the effect of the Madrid bomb on Spain's general election last year. Other potential targets were the royal wedding and the UK's presidency of the European Union and G8, he said. He refused to say if there was specific information about the risk of a pre-poll attack. No 10 was similarly cautious but said the threat was real. The comments come after Tony Blair defended his controversial anti-terror proposals, warning that it would be wrong to wait for an attack before acting. Sir Ian told a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority it would be ""unwise"" to speculate about whether there was specific information about risks of a pre-election attack. But he said: ""Terrorists have long memories. They understand what happened in Madrid and know what the impact of that was on the Spanish electorate. ""This year we are responsible for the EU presidency, presidency of the G8, a royal wedding and a general election. ""There are obvious and enormous targets which we have to deal with."" Sir Ian said the debate over anti-terror plans was one for politicians, not the police, who would enforce any new powers. Home Secretary Charles Clarke has also warned that a Madrid-style pre-election bombing could happen in the UK too. Asked about Sir Ian's comments, the prime minister's official spokesman said: ""We believe the threat is real."" The spokesman declined to comment on whether the security services had received specific intelligence relating to a possible attack during the election campaign. He said No 10 did not disclose any security advice they received. Earlier, writing in the Daily Telegraph, the prime minister conceded that plans to detain suspects under house arrest without trial were ""difficult issues for any government"". The Commons has approved the measures despite considerable opposition, with the government's majority more than halved as 32 Labour rebels joined Tory and Lib Dem opposition. But Mr Blair insisted: ""There is no greater civil liberty than to live free from terrorist attack."" Tory leader Michael Howard has accused Mr Blair of steamrolling the house arrest plans and of ""using national security for political point scoring"". Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy says that the plan is a further example of Labour's ""authoritarian"" response to crises. The Prevention of Terrorism Bill proposes ""control orders"", which as well as house arrest could impose curfews, tagging or bans on telephone and internet use. They would replace current powers to detain foreign terror suspects without trial, which the law lords have ruled against. But critics are concerned that it would be the home secretary and not judges who decided to impose control orders. The plans face further Commons scrutiny on Monday before passing to the Lords." +politics,"Talks aim to avert pension strike Talks aimed at averting a series of national strikes over pensions reforms will take place this weekend. Five public sector unions will hold private talks with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at Labour's spring conference in Gateshead. They want the government to withdraw regulations - due to be introduced in weeks - which would raise the pension age for council workers from 60 to 65. Up to 1.4m workers could take part in a strike already earmarked for 23 March. However, all sides are anxious to avoid a major confrontation in the run up to the general election, said BBC labour affairs correspondent Stephen Cape. In four days, Britain's biggest union Unison will start balloting 800,000 local government workers on strikes. Other public sector unions have pledged to follow. It is just weeks before new regulations are introduced to raise the pension age of local government workers. The five unions meeting Mr Prescott want the government to withdraw these regulations. This would allow months of tough negotiations to follow, said our correspondent. But a spokesman for Mr Prescott warned that the changes to the local government pension scheme would have to go ahead in April. Privately ministers believe this will be the ""less painful"" option, our correspondent added. The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) will co-ordinate any industrial action with up to six other public sector unions. PCS leader Mark Serwotka warned last week that there could be further walkouts unless there was a government rethink. ""For a government that lectures everyone on choice - choice on public service, choice on this and choice on that - isn't it ironic that they're saying to public sector workers there is no choice,"" he said. ""If you want the pension you were promised when you started you must work for an extra five years - that is working until people drop. ""In the 20th century, it's completely unacceptable."" Unison's 800,000 workers, the Transport and General Workers' Union's 70,000 and Amicus' 20,000 are among those being balloted about a 23 March walkout. Mr Prescott held a private meeting with senior union figures last week. It is understood no deal was offered in that meeting but there was room for further negotiations." +politics,"Donor attacks Blair-Brown 'feud' The reported feud between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown has prompted a Labour donor to say he will almost certainly refuse to give more funds. Duncan Bannatyne also attacked the government over Iraq and its ""poor"" response to the Asian tsunami crisis. His broadside came as ex-Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he hoped Mr Brown would be premier at some point. Mr Bannatyne has previously given Labour £50,000. He made his fortune from care homes and health clubs. The 52-year-old on Tuesday said was he was reviewing his donations because of Cabinet disunity and international issues. His spokesman said it was highly unlikely he would give Labour more money, although he would remain a supporter and not fund the Conservatives. Robert Peston's new book has prompted more speculation about the Blair-Brown rift with its claims that the prime minister broke a promise made in 2003 to stand down. Mr Bannatyne said: ""Disunity in the Cabinet has a corrosive effect on the country. ""Gordon Brown is a great chancellor who has delivered a stable economy, but business wants that to continue and not be blown off course by petty squabbles based on personal ambition."" The businessman, whose latest venture is a casino in Newcastle, also voiced concern about the ongoing violence in Iraq. And he branded the UK government's response to the tsunami as ""piecemeal and poor"". ""The people there need practical help not just pledges of money,"" he said. ""The US has forces helping on the ground - we can do more."" British Navy ships have helped the relief effort and the prime minister has said the government could ultimately give hundreds of millions of pounds in aid. Mr Bannatyne is due to host a new television programme and is also appearing on BBC2 business start-up programme Dragon's Den. But his spokesman insisted his attack on Labour was not a publicity stunt. In a separate development, Robin Cook gave his support to Mr Brown's prime ministerial ambitions but told a lunch for political journalists winning the election had to be Labour's election. But he insisted the recent squabbles between Mr Blair and Mr Brown were not ""perceived as a problem by the voters,"" adding there was no impression of governmental incompetence. Mr Cook argued that more prominence was given to these matters because there was ""not an alternative source of opposition to the government"". He warned the ""Abstentions Party"" was the real challenge to Labour - and they would not be motivated by Mr Blair's promise to produce an ""unremittingly New Labour"" election manifesto. His comments come after Dave Prentis, the leader of Britain's biggest union Unison, told the Daily Record newspaper he wants a date to be set for Mr Blair to be replaced as Labour leader." +politics,"Tory candidate quits over remark A Conservative election challenger is quitting after being quoted as wanting a ""period of creative destruction in the public services"". Danny Kruger, who also works in the Tory research unit, had been due to take on Tony Blair in Sedgefield. He says his remark last week was misrepresented but he will not contest the election for fear of damaging the Conservative cause. Tory leader Michael Howard accepted his decision ""with regret"". Mr Kruger was quoted in the Guardian newspaper saying: ""We plan to introduce a period of creative destruction in the public services."" In a statement, the party said the comment had been taken out of context. ""He fully supports the party's policies on, and approach to, the public services,"" said the statement. ""However, in order to avoid any further misrepresentation of his views and any damage to the Party, he has decided not to stand in the Sedgefield constituency at the next election."" Mr Kruger is continuing in his job at the Tory campaign headquarters. Labour election coordinator Alan Milburn claimed Mr Kruger had exposed the Tory agenda for £35bn of cuts to public services. Mr Milburn said: ""He is not some unknown hopeful fighting an unwinnable seat. He is a man who has worked at the heart of Conservative policy development... ""His claim that the Tories were planning 'a period of creative destruction in the public services' is not a rogue claim. ""It is the authentic and shocking voice of the Conservative Party. It reveals the true picture of what they would do.""" +politics,"Economy focus for election battle Britain's economic future will be at the heart of Labour's poll campaign, Chancellor Gordon Brown has said. He was speaking after Cabinet members held their last meeting at No 10 before the expected election announcement. He said voters would recognise that Labour had brought stability and growth, and would continue to do so. Meanwhile the Tories outlined their plans to tackle ""yob culture"" and the Lib Dems gave more details about their proposals to replace council tax. Earlier the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to all three parties urging them not to fight the election by exploiting people's fears. In an open letter, he called on them not to turn the election into a competition about who can most effectively frighten voters about terrorism, asylum, and crime. He said they should concentrate instead on issues such as the environment, international development and the arms trade, family policy, and the reform of the criminal justice system. Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said: ""We have fought a very positive campaign. I think he will want to look quite carefully at what Jack Straw said about Michael Howard."" In a speech to the Foreign Policy Centre Mr Straw said of the Tory leader: ""He is clever, fluent and tactical, but he is not wise. ""He lacks strategy and good judgment, and his quick temper and impetuosity too often get the better of him."" The Foreign Secretary told the BBC: ""I was making the observation that because of Michael Howard's impetuosity you can get lurches of policy."" Liberal Democrat chairman Matthew Taylor said: ""People are already really turned off by the kind of campaign the others are fighting and you will see us putting emphasis on some of these huge issues facing the world, particularly the environment."" Labour's focus on the economy as their key message - came on the day a new report was published by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, suggesting that household incomes have fallen for the first time in more than a decade. The IFS says the drop partly reflects measures announced in what it called the Chancellor's tax-raising Budget of 2002. The Treasury dismissed the research as ""complete rubbish"". Party election supremo Alan Milburn said the apparent drop in average incomes was because self-employed people had been affected by a ""world downturn"" which hit their profits. Since 1997, the reported average take-home income had ""risen by 20% in real terms"" if you took out the self-employed, Mr Milburn told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Mr Brown also dismissed the figures insisting that the ""typical family"" has been much better off under Labour." +politics,"Nat Insurance to rise, say Tories National Insurance will be raised if Labour wins the next election, Tory leader Michael Howard has claimed. Tony Blair has said he does not want higher tax rates for top earners but on Wednesday said other tax promises would be left to Labour's manifesto. Prime minister's questions also saw Mr Blair predict that new plans would probably cut net immigration. He attacked Tory plans to process asylum claims abroad - but Mr Howard said Labour had proposed the idea too. The Commons questions session again saw the leaders of the two biggest parties shape up for the forthcoming election campaign. The Tories have promised £4bn in tax cuts but have yet to say where they will fall. Mr Howard pointed to the Institute for Fiscal Studies' predictions that Labour will need to increase taxes to cover an £11bn gap in its spending plans. He accused ministers of wasting money on unsuccessful attempts to curb bad behaviour and truancy in schools and on slow asylum processing. It was no good Mr Blair claiming tax pledges were being left to the manifesto as he had given one to MPs on Tuesday about the top rate of income tax, argued Mr Howard. Pointing to national insurance, he added: ""Everyone knows tax will go up under Labour: isn't it now clear which tax it would be?"" Mr Blair instead hailed Labour's achievement in using a strong economy to invest in public services. ""When we have money not only going into extra teachers and nurses but equipment in schools and hospitals, that money is not wasted,"" he said. On the tax questions, he added: ""We will make commitments on tax at the time of the manifesto."" Home Secretary Charles Clarke this week published plans for a new points system for economic migrants, with only high-skilled workers allowed into the UK from outside the European Union. Mr Blair said abuses would be weeded out and chain migration, where families automatically get the right to settle with immigrant workers, would end. That would probably create a fall in the migrant numbers, he said. The prime minister ridiculed the Tory plans for asylum quotas and for processing all asylum claims overseas. He challenged the Tories on which country would house their processing centres - what he called a ""fantasy island"". Mr Howard read from a letter about the government's own plans at the European Council of Ministers for processing asylum seekers outside the EU. But Mr Blair said: ""All the other countries could not agree on the way forward, nor could the UN.""" +politics,"Woolf murder sentence rethink Plans to give murderers lighter sentences if they plead guilty have been watered down. There was an outcry three months ago when the Sentencing Guidelines Council - led by Lord Woolf - published its proposals for England and Wales. It had suggested judges should reduce sentences by a third for murderers who confessed at the earliest opportunity. But that has now been changed to one-sixth, with no reduction for those killers given a ""whole life tariff"". At the time Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, had said the one third reduction would only be in extraordinary circumstances - for example, if people gave themselves up before their crime had even been detected. The guidelines were to recognise the need to spare victims and witnesses the trauma of going to court where possible, by allowing lighter sentences for guilty pleas and co-operation, he said. But director of the Victims of Crime Trust, Norman Brennan, accused Lord Woolf of having an ""arrogant contempt for victims of crime and the law-abiding public"". The National Association of Probation Officers said the move would be ""political suicide"". In revised proposals from the Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC), the section on murder said possible reductions would have to be ""weighed carefully"" by a judge so they did not lead to ""an inappropriately short sentence"". Where it was appropriate to reduce the minimum term having regard to a plea of guilty, the maximum reduction would be one sixth, and should never exceed five years, it said. In a statement issued on Wednesday Lord Woolf said: ""I have no doubt that being able to call on the diverse backgrounds and experiences of all those that serve on the SGC has vastly improved the final guidelines. ""I am confident, as a result, that judges will be better placed to deliver sentences which are effective both as punishments and deterrents to offending and reoffending."" Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald QC, who sits on the SGC, said the principle of discounting sentences to offenders for early guilty pleas is set down by parliament. ""What the new guideline on reduced sentences for guilty pleas does is increase the chances of convicting the guilty by bringing clarity to this process. ""It represents a tougher regime than existed previously, because the discount is automatically reduced if a guilty plea is not made at the first available opportunity,"" he said." +politics,"Ex-PM Lord Callaghan dies aged 92 Former Labour prime minister Lord Callaghan has died on the eve of his 93rd birthday. He passed away at home in East Sussex, just 11 days after his wife Audrey died aged 91. Lord Callaghan, who leaves a son and two daughters, was the longest living former British PM in history. He entered Downing Street in 1976 after the resignation of Harold Wilson. Prime Minister Tony Blair called him a ""giant"" of the Labour movement. He held each of the major offices of chancellor, home secretary, foreign secretary and prime minister during his career and became Lord Callaghan of Cardiff in 1987. Chancellor Gordon Brown said the former PM would be ""mourned throughout the world"". ""It was a commitment to public service that brought Jim Callaghan into Parliament in 1945, and while Jim rose to the top he never forgot his roots."" Former cabinet colleague Lord Hattersley said his first reaction on hearing the news was ""immense sadness"". ""It was not a major surprise - I knew what a blow the death of his wife Audrey was a few days ago,"" he said. ""He was a decent kindly man who helped me and my generation of politicians immensely. ""The Labour party and the country will be poorer without him."" Conservative peer Lord Heseltine said that despite their political differences, he and Lord Callaghan became friends. ""You don't get to the premiership unless you have a streak of determination,"" he said. ""But I saw the other side of Jim Callaghan, he became a personal friend in a way, and my family and I were very fond of him."" Tory leader Michael Howard said he would be remembered with ""affection and respect"". Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said: ""When I was first elected in 1983 as the youngest MP, he was the ""Father of the House"" and as such took a very keen interest in my early days in Parliament. ""He was always full of warmth and wisdom."" Born in 1912 and educated at Portsmouth Northern Secondary School, Lord Callaghan became a clerk at the Inland Revenue. He enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1942 and rose to the rank of lieutenant. Elected for a Cardiff constituency at the 1945 general election, he represented Cardiff seats for more than 40 years. After serving as a junior minister in the Attlee government, he became chancellor of the exchequer when Labour returned to power in 1964. With sterling under pressure, he resisted devaluation for three years, before being forced into it in 1967. His political career was not without controversy. When he refused to support prime minister Harold Wilson and Dame Barbara Castle over the latter's trade union manifesto, In Place of Strife, in 1968, he said: ""I am not going to resign. They will have to throw me out"". When home secretary, he ordered British troops to march into the streets of Belfast to protect Catholic civilians amid rising violence - a decision that has dominated British politics into the 21st century. As foreign secretary in the early 1970s, Lord Callaghan kept an open mind about the UK's entry into the Common Market, seeing the advantages of the UK's entry. He once travelled to Idi Amin's Uganda in 1975 to plead for the life of a British lecturer, Dennis Hills, who was under a death sentence for treason. His political life was often tempered by battles against the hard left of the party. In the autumn of 1978, before the ""Winter of Discontent"" when trade unions carried out strikes that brought the country to a standstill, Lord Callaghan refused to hold an early election which may have delivered a Labour victory. As garbage lay uncollected in the streets and hospital staff, council workers and even gravediggers stayed off work, Lord Callaghan failed to predict the mood of the country. When Britain went to the polls in 1979, Tory leader Margaret Thatcher was swept into power in a landslide victory, and Lord Callaghan resigned as Labour leader." +politics,"Gurkhas to help tsunami victims Britain has offered to send a company of 120 Gurkhas to assist with the tsunami relief effort in Indonesia, Downing Street said. The deployment would involve troops from the 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles, based in Brunei. Discussions have begun with Indonesia on the exact timing and location of the deployment, but the government said the offer was aimed at the Aceh province. Downing St said a similar offer might be made to the Sri Lankan government. However a spokesman pointed out that there were particular logistical difficulties in Indonesia which the Gurkhas might be able to help with. The spokesman said: ""Following this morning's daily coordination meeting on the post-tsunami relief effort, the government has formally offered the Indonesian government the assistance of a company of British Army Gurkhas from 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles around 120 personnel and two helicopters. ""This is in addition to the ships and aircraft we have already committed to the relief operation in the Indian Ocean."" Indonesia was by far the country worst affected by the tsunami, with 94,000 of the 140,000 confirmed deaths so far. International Development Minister Gareth Thomas said the assistance offer would most likely focus on the northern province of Aceh. ""We have offered the Gurkhas to help in the process of scaling up the relief effort, particularly in Aceh which is undoubtedly the hardest hit area in the Indian Ocean at the moment,"" he said. ""We've also had RAF aircraft flying in equipment which the UN desperately need in order to set up a truly effective relief operation on the ground in Aceh province as well."" The offer comes as the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw arrives in Indonesia for a special summit meeting on the disaster." +politics,"Kennedy questions trust of Blair Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy has said voters now have a ""fundamental lack of trust"" of Tony Blair as prime minister. He said backing his party was not a wasted vote, adding that with the Lib Dems ""what you see is what you get"". He made his comments at the start of a day of appearances on Channel Five in a session on The Wright Stuff programme. Questions from callers, a studio audience and the show's presenter covered Lib Dem tax plans, anti-terror laws and immigration. Mr Kennedy said during his nearly 22 years in Parliament he had seen prime ministers and party leaders come and go and knew the pitfalls of British politics. ""1983 was when I was first elected as an MP - so Tony Blair, Michael Howard and myself were all class of '83 - and over that nearly quarter of a century the world has changed out of recognition,"" he said. ""We don't actually hear the argument any longer: 'Lib Dems, good people, reasonable ideas but only if we thought they could win around here - it's a wasted vote'. ""You don't hear that because the evidence of people's senses demonstrates that it isn't a wasted vote."" But he said Mr Blair had lost the trust of the British people. ""There is a fundamental lack of trust in Tony Blair as prime minister and in his government,"" he said. ""What we've got to do as a party - what I've got to do as a leader of this party - is to convey to people that what you see is what you get."" Mr Kennedy also used his TV appearance to defend his party's plans to increase income tax to 50% for those earning more than £100,000, saying it would apply to just 1% of the population. He said the extra revenue would allow his party to get rid of tuition and top-up fees, introduce free personal care for the elderly and replace the council tax with a local income tax. Mr Blair has already spent a day with Five and Michael Howard is booked for a similar session." +politics,"NHS waiting time target is cut Hospital waiting times for patients in Wales are to be cut, but not to the same extent as those in England. Welsh Health Minister Jane Hutt said no patient would wait more than 12 months for an outpatient appointment by March 2006, against a current target of 18 months. But she said the target for an inpatient appointment would remain at 12 months for March 2006. The announcement came as new monthly waiting figures showed a drop. This current inpatient target was set when the assembly government extended its second offer guarantee scheme, which gives patients the option of having their treatment outside Wales. Details about funding to resource the new targets are expected in the New Year. In England, the current target for inpatients - seeing a consultant to having an operation - is six months. Dr Richard Lewis, Welsh secretary of the British Medical Association (BMA), welcomed the new targets ""to make further and faster progress on waiting lists"". ""However, much remains to be done on waiting lists and waiting times because Wales still lags a long way behind England,"" he said. ""Capacity must be built into the system with sustained investment to ensure that Welsh patients don't receive a worse service than patients over the border."" Health analyst Tony Beddow, from the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care, called the new targets ""reasonably impressive"". On Wednesday, Ms Hutt also announced £264m for health services will be spent reducing waiting times, improving key areas and modernising staff pay structures in Wales. Ms Hutt said major achievements had been made in cutting ""unacceptably long waits for treatment over the past year"". ""We are turning the corner on long waits in Wales. Now we need to see those reductions in long waiters being improved again,"" she said. She added the targets intended to ensure no-one waits more than a year for treatment or to see a consultant. ""But let us not forget two thirds of those waiting for treatment now are waiting less than six months, and these targets affect the small minority of patients in Wales that are waiting far too long."" Rhodri Glyn Thomas, Plaid Cymru health spokesman said: ""It's exactly the same target she set in 1999, with the qualification that it's dependent on a second offer. It's a failed target, from a failed minister..with a failed policy."" For the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams called the new target ""hugely unambitious"". ""It leaves patients in Wales still waiting two years before they're treated."" Conservative health spokesman Jonathan Morgan said: ""We're spending more money but waiting lists have gone through the roof. ""The Audit Commission has said that the money is not being spent efficiently or effectively, and that's quite a criticism."" Meanwhile, the latest monthly waiting list figures showed the total number of people waiting more than 18 months as an inpatient in Wales has fallen by 9.8%. Statistics to the end of November showed a decline since October from 785 to 708. The number waiting over 12 months also fell from 7,613 to 6,630, or 12.9%. Ms Hutt said they were ""excellent figures"". There are 305,775 people on a waiting list of some kind, down from 311,764 last month." +politics,"Labour's Cunningham to stand down Veteran Labour MP and former Cabinet minister Jack Cunningham has said he will stand down at the next election. One of the few Blair-era ministers to serve under Jim Callaghan, he was given the agriculture portfolio when Labour regained power in 1997. Mr Cunningham went on to become Tony Blair's ""cabinet enforcer"". He has represented the constituency now known as Copeland since 1970. Mr Blair said he was a ""huge figure"" in Labour and a ""valued, personal friend"". During Labour's long period in opposition, Mr Cunningham held a number of shadow roles including foreign affairs, the environment and as trade spokesman. As agriculture minister he caused controversy when he decided to ban beef on the bone in the wake of fears over BSE. He quit the government in 1999 and in recent years has served as the chairman of the all-party committee on Lords reform and has been a loyal supporter of the government from the backbenches." +politics,"Blair and Brown criticised by MPs Labour MPs have angrily criticised Tony Blair and Gordon Brown amid renewed reports of a rift between the two men. A meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party saw a succession of normally loyal members warn that feuding could jeopardise Labour's election hopes. The PM insisted nothing would derail Labour's campaign, despite a new book saying he has upset his chancellor by backing out of a pledge to stand aside. Mr Brown will again be in the public eye at the party's new poster launch. In what the party had hoped would be perceived as a show of unity, he is due to line up alongside Alan Milburn - the man controversially appointed as the party's election supremo - and deputy leader John Prescott for the event in London on Tuesday. Relations between Mr Brown and Mr Milburn are widely reported to be cool ever since Mr Blair brought the latter back into the Cabinet to run Labour's election campaign, a role successfully carried out by Mr Brown in both 1997 and 2001. Mr Blair told the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday: ""I know from everyone here, in Cabinet and government, nothing is going to get in the way of a unified Labour Party with a unified position and winning the third term people desperately need."" The prime minister and his chancellor arrived within seconds of each other for the meeting of the PLP and were seemingly in good spirits as it started. New speculation about the state of their relationship was sparked by claims in Brown's Britain, by Sunday Telegraph journalist Robert Peston, which suggested Mr Blair went back on a pledge to make way for Mr Brown. Labour's Paul Flynn said Mr Blair and Mr Brown had a ""scorching"" from MPs adding: ""It was a Parliamentary Labour Party meeting like no other."" Backbencher Stephen Pound said some MPs had threatend to expose those fuelling the reports if Mr Blair and Mr Brown did not ""stop this nonsense, this poisonous briefing"". Lord Campbell-Savours, a former MP, challenged Mr Brown to deny reports that he had told the prime minister he did not believe anything he said. Mr Prescott said MPs were entitled to complain about discipline after reading recent press reports. ""They told us very clearly, it was the troops telling the leaders: get in line,"" he told BBC Radio 4's Today on Tuesday. Mr Prescott said there were occasional disagreements in any government. But he argued Mr Blair and Mr Brown could work successfully together and had produced a strong economy and better public services. The new book claims Mr Prescott hosted a dinner in November 2003 where the prime minister told Mr Brown he would stand down before the next election because he had lost trust over the Iraq war. He had then changed his mind in June 2004, following intervention from Cabinet allies and suspicion that the chancellor was manoeuvring against him, writes Mr Peston. Mr Prescott said there was a dinner but the discussions were confidential. ""Of course as a waiter for 10 years I have a professional ability here,"" he joked. Mr Blair has insisted he has done no deals over the premiership while Mr Brown says he will not let ""gossip"" distract him from helping a unified election campaign. The Conservatives say the two men are behaving like squabbling schoolboys and the Liberal Democrats claim personal ambition is obstructing good government." +politics,"Labour's four little words Labour has unveiled the four little words that will form the heart of its general election campaign which, for those just returned from the planet Galifray, is ""looming"". The slogan ""Britain forward not back"" (no, it's not an instruction from one of those inter-planetary Time Lords) is to become as much a part of our daily lives as the sky - it's always there but we mostly stop noticing. The word ""Britain"" is cast on a red background - a nod to Old Labour. ""Forward"" is in italics and cunningly slopes forward and, along with ""not back"", is set against a mushy pea green background. As one of the journalists assembled at the unveiling declared, it was all very post modern, or something. Great use of colour. Those ad men really do earn their money. And, coincidentally, the ad men who came up with the abandoned flying pigs and so-called ""Fagin"" posters which caused Tory protests have not been sacked but, as election supremo Alan Milburn declared, ""are doing a very good job"". Mr Milburn, in the latest in his series of pre-election-campaign campaigning, explained the slogan was the reaction to polling which suggests the public believe Labour and Tony Blair are the future while Michael Howard and the Tories would take the country backwards. ""Not many people talk about the years before 1997 as the good old days,"" he declared. It would be an aggressive campaign because things would inevitably boil down to a choice between Labour and the Tories. Nobody, he claimed, could picture Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy walking up Downing Street the day after polling. They could, however, picture Michael Howard or, of course, Tony Blair doing it. So it was only right that the campaign concentrated on rigorously examining the opposition's policies and past record. And Tony Blair would be in the very front line of that campaign, he said. ""Between now and the election the prime minister will be spending more time out of London than in it but in Britain, not overseas,"" he promised. ""He will be leading the domestic debate from the front, listening, taking the flak."" So, let's get on with it then." +politics,"Brown in appeal for Labour unity Gordon Brown has made an appeal for unity after reports claimed Mr Blair went back on a pledge to stand down before the next general election. The chancellor would not comment on the reports, but insisted he would not be ""diverted or distracted"" from tackling the challenges faced by the country. His only ""motivation"" was to ensure Labour was re-elected, he insisted. Mr Blair earlier dismissed the claim he had reneged on a promise to stand aside for Gordon Brown as old news. According to a new book, Brown's Britain by Sunday Telegraph journalist Robert Peston, Mr Blair went back on a pledge to make way for Mr Brown after Cabinet allies intervened in June 2004. In an interview with BBC One's Breakfast with Frost, Mr Blair said: ""I've dealt with this six months ago. I said then you don't do deals over jobs like this - you don't. ""What both of us are actually concentrating on are the issues that concern the country."" In a separate interview with BBC political editor Andrew Marr, Mr Brown said: ""It's very important that we all do what we can in a unified way to ensure the election of a Labour government. ""I think it is very important to stress that that is the motivation that I have. ""That is my purpose in politics, and that is what every day I seek to do. And I am not going to be diverted or distracted, nor is Tony Blair, by newspaper stories or books or rumours or gossip. ""The only reason why we are in government is to get on with the job in a unified way to deal with the challenges facing this country."" Mr Brown also said he had discussed the general election campaign with the prime minister on Saturday and pledged to play his part as he had been asked to do. But Mr Peston said the pair had ""mutual animosity and contempt"" for each other and that Mr Blair had decided in November 2003 he would quit because he felt he had lost voters' trust because of the Iraq war. He then changed his mind in June 2004, following intervention from allies in the Cabinet and the suspicion that the chancellor was deliberately manoeuvring against him, according to the book. Andrew Marr said: ""This is enormously damaging. Gordon Brown knows it as well as Tony Blair. ""I think the relationship is genuinely, privately, very poor indeed. Things are very difficult."" He added: ""Lots of ministers believe Tony Blair will attempt to move Gordon Brown out of the Treasury after the election. ""That depends on whether there's still a Labour government and their majority."" Senior MPs are expected to raise concerns about the latest reports of infighting at the regular meeting of Labour backbenchers on Monday. Health Secretary John Reid said those fuelling such reports were damaging Labour's re-election chances and would not be easily forgiven. Fresh speculation of a rift recently followed Mr Blair and Mr Brown's separate responses to the Asian tsunami. These rumours were fuelled by Mr Blair's decision to hold his monthly media conference at the same time as a long-planned speech by Mr Brown on UK plans to tackle global poverty with a new ""Marshall Plan"" for Africa. There was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each other's response to the disaster. But the prime minister said he had discussed these claims with the chancellor and dismissed them as a ""load of nonsense"". Tory leader Michael Howard accused the prime minister and Mr Brown of""squabbling like schoolboys"". Liberal Democrat parliamentary chairman Matthew Taylor said the personal ambition of Mr Blair and Mr Brown was ""getting in the way of good government""." +politics,"Hague 'given up' his PM ambition Former Conservative leader William Hague says he will not stand for the leadership again, having given up his ambition to be prime minister. Mr Hague, 43, told the Daily Telegraph he would now find a life dominated by politics too ""boring"" and unfulfilling. Mr Hague, who stepped down after his party's 2001 election defeat, does not rule out a return to the front bench. He also told the paper he hopes to remain MP for Richmond, North Yorks, and start a family with wife Ffion. Mr Hague, who recently had published the biography of William Pitt the Younger, also said he wanted to continue writing books and speech-writing. He told the newspaper: ""I don't know whether I will ever go back on to the front, but don't rush me."" Asked if he would stand for the leadership again, Mr Hague replied: ""No. Definitely not."" His determination to stay away from a central role will disappoint some senior Conservative members, who say the party needs him. Tim Collins, the shadow education secretary, said last week it would be a ""huge boost"" to the party if Mr Hague returned to the front bench. Mr Hague became an MP at 27 and Leader of the Opposition at 36. He said: ""I feel fortunate that, by the age of 40, I had crammed in an entire political career. ""I had been in the Cabinet and been leader of the party, so now I can branch out into other things...it is a very liberating feeling."" Mr Hague added that he may have misjudged his own ambition to be prime minister. ""Maybe I wasn't as driven by politics as I thought I was,"" he said." +politics,"Report attacks defence spending The Ministry of Defence has been criticised over the soaring spending costs and growing delays of its top equipment projects. A National Audit Office report on the 20 biggest projects says costs have risen by £1.7bn in the past year. It says there is ""little evidence"" the MoD's performance had improved, despite the introduction of a ""smart acquisition"" policy six years ago. A senior defence official told the BBC lessons were being learned. The NAO's annual report showed the total cost of the 20 projects covered was expected to reach £50bn - 14% higher than originally planned. The total delays amounted to 62 months, with average individual delays rising by three months. Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said the problems showed the principles of the scheme known as smart acquisition had not been consistently applied. ""Many problems can be traced to the fact that the MoD has not spent enough time and resources in the assessment phase,"" the report says. The NAO found that projects launched since the start of the scheme were showing the same worrying tendencies as the older ""legacy projects"", such as the Eurofighter. A senior defence official, speaking to the BBC's defence correspondent Paul Adams, said that although the figures were still not good enough, the report reflected unrealistic expectations early on in the project cycle. This year's overspend was significantly less than last year's £3.1bn total, and the Defence Procurement Agency - which is responsible for buying defence equipment - was improving. Lord Bach, Minister for Defence Procurement, said he was ""obviously still disappointed with the cost and time increases shown"", but insisted that the Defence Procurement Agency had ""undertaken a huge amount of work to expose any underlying problems on projects"". The latest findings follow a string of critical reports issued within the last 12 months, and, according to our correspondent, contain few new surprises. Turning around the Defence Procurement Agency ""was a little like trying to turn around a super tanker - it takes a very long time indeed"", he said. Our correspondent said it was the same projects, including the Joint Strike Fighter, the Nimrod and A400M aircraft and the Type 45 Destroyer, which were resonsible for the bulk of the cost over-runs and delay. But he added some projects, such as the C-17 heavy lift aircraft and Successor Identification Friend or Foe (SIFF), were showing good performances." +politics,"Defection timed to hit tax pledge With impeccable and precisely-calculated timing, Tory defector Robert Jackson and his new Labour bosses have attempted to overshadow Michael Howard's latest announcement on taxation and spending. With just about everyone in Westminster now working towards a May general election, Mr Howard is eager to map out some clear and distinctive policies aimed at finally shifting the Tories' resolutely depressing poll showings. The big idea is his £35bn savings on waste and bureaucracy which Mr Howard has pledged to plough back into public services and tax cuts. And it was virtually certain his pledge on tax cuts was meant to be the core message from his interview on the BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme. He and his shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin have been edging towards an announcement on this front for some months now, but without any concrete pledges. But Mr Howard announced that, of the £35bn he has earmarked from savings, £12bn will be used to plug Labour's claimed financial black hole with any left over going to tax cuts in Mr Letwin's first budget. He would not be precise, but there are already suggestions he is set to announce lifting the threshold on income tax and reforming or abolishing inheritance tax. But he did, for the first time, say there would be such tax cuts. ""At this election, people will have a clear choice between Mr Blair who will waste more and tax more and the Conservative party which will give value for money and tax less"". It is the Tories' attempt to open that famed ""clear blue water"" between them and the Labour party and return to a traditional Tory agenda that will both reassure the middle England voters who have abandoned him and appeal to core Conservative voters. So it is a pretty safe bet to assume that, when Robert Jackson finally decided to jump ship and swim over to the Labour benches, his new masters decided to time the announcement for the greatest possible impact. Mr Howard, however, was dismissive. ""These things happen from time to time. There are disagreements between Robert Jackson and me. ""The election is not going to be decided on what Robert Jackson did,"" he added. And that is certainly true. The election will be decided on ""the economy stupid"". Other issues like the Iraq war and the ""trust"" thing will also play a major part. But it is the economy that will probably be the greatest influence over the way people finally vote. And many on the Tory benches have been crying out for Mr Howard to get back onto the old Tory tax cuts agenda. Mr Howard knows that risks accusations that, as a result, he would slash public services, so he has attempted to shoot that fox first. With polls suggesting voters would rather any government cash surpluses were spent on schools and hospitals before tax cuts, he has suggested that is exactly what he will do. Whether this will finally be enough to shift those polls remains to be seen." +politics,"Clarke defends terror detentions The home secretary has defended his decision not to release foreign terror suspects despite a legal ruling their detention breached human rights laws. House of Lords law lords ruled against the detention measures last week. They said it was wrong to have one set of laws for foreign suspects and another for British suspects. New Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he would carefully consider the ruling and would return to Parliament early in the new year with proposals. He insisted that he would not be rushed into judgement but would examine the law lords' findings in detail. ""My duty is to look at first of all the security of this country and in so doing to consider very carefully the precise legal measures that there are."" Mr Clarke's comments came in response to an emergency question from Liberal Democrat constitutional affairs spokesman David Heath. Mr Heath said the judgement contained ""unprecedented condemnation and could not have been more unequivocal"". He said he accepted the difficult balance between the nation's security and human rights but questioned why the home office had made ""no contingency plans for the present circumstances"". ""These detainees should be prosecuted and tried. Simply renewing the present deeply unsatisfactory legislation is not an option."" Shadow home secretary David Davis said it was not possible to overstate the importance of the judgment and urged the government to move as fast as ""competently possible"" to sort the problem out in the interests of natural justice. ""If you do, we will give you every support."" The law lords' ruling came on Charles Clarke's first day as home secretary last Thursday following David Blunkett's resignation. In a statement on the same day, Mr Clarke said: ""I will be asking Parliament to renew this legislation in the New Year. ""In the meantime, we will be studying the judgment carefully to see whether it is possible to modify our legislation to address the concerns raised by the House of Lords."" But the government was widely criticised for insisting the detentions would continue following the ruling last week. Lord Bingham - a senior law lord - said the rules were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights as they allowed detentions ""in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status"" by justifying detention without trial for foreign suspects, but not Britons. Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, in his ruling, said: ""Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law."" The detainees took their case to the House of Lords after the Court of Appeal backed the Home Office's powers to hold them without limit or charge. The government opted out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 September attacks in the US." +politics,"'Debate needed' on donations cap A cap on donations to political parties should not be introduced yet, the elections watchdog has said. Fears that big donors can buy political favours have sparked calls for a limit. In a new report, the Electoral Commission says it is worth debating a £10,000 cap for the future but now is not the right time to introduce it. It also says there should be more state funding for political parties and candidates should be able to spend more on election campaigning. There were almost £68m in reported donations to political parties in 2001, 2002 and 2003, with nearly £12m of them from individual gifts worth more than £1m. The rules have already been changed so the public can see who gives how much to the parties but the report says there are still public suspicions. The commission says capping donations would mean taxpayers giving parties more cash - something which would first have to be acceptable to the public and shown to work. ""While we are not in principle opposed to the introduction of a donation cap, we do not believe that such a major departure from the existing system now would be sensible,"" says its report. If there was to be a cap, it should be £10,000 - a small enough amount to make a difference but which would have banned £56m in donations between 2001 and 2003. Even without changes the commission does urge political parties to seek out more small-scale donations and suggests there should be income tax relief for gifts under £200. It also suggests increasing state funding for parties to £3m so help can be extended to all parties with at least two members in the House of Commons, European Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland Assembly. And it suggests new ways of boosting election campaigning, seen as a way of improving voter turnout. All local election candidates should be entitled to a free mailshot for campaign leaflets, says the watchdog. And there should be a shift in the amount of money allowed to be spent at elections from a national level to a local level to help politicians engage better with voters. The report suggests doubling the money which can be spent by candidates, while cutting national spending limits from £20m to £15m. The commission also says the spending limits for general elections should cover the four months before the poll - as happens with other elections. Electoral Commission chairman Sam Younger said: ""There is no doubt that political parties have a vital role to play in maintaining the health of our democracy and for this they need to be adequately resourced. ""Our research has shown that people want to be more informed about party politics and that they want politicians to be more visible and accessible. ""The public are reluctant for the state to fund parties but at the same time are unhappy with large private donations."" He called for a wider public debate on party funding to find the consensus needed for radical changes to the current system." +politics,"What the election should really be about? A general election is the best chance most pressure groups get to make a real impact on government policy. Here is how six leading lobbies plan to make sure their cause is being debated ahead of an expected Spring poll. We've called for the state pension to be increased from £79.60 to the pensioner credit guarantee level of £105.45. That's what we're calling for. Many pensioners are disadvantaged by the current system. If we've got one in five pensioners below the poverty line, we've got to make it more generous or have these people living in poverty. We've drawn up a pensioners' manifesto. This will be sent to each of the candidates in the 659 constituencies. They will be asked which of the top five issues, including the pension issue, they would support. Once we've got their responses we will publish the results within the constituencies and nationally as well. It's our way of putting the politicians on notice. We are trying to get across the fact that there are 11m voters over 60 in the country, they are more likely to vote than other sections of society and thirdly they are true swing voters. Before 1997 most pensioners voted Conservative. In 1997 and 2001 they voted Labour. But there is no guarantee they will vote for a Labour government this time around. They cannot take that vote for granted. Pensions generally will certainly be a big election issue even though the government has postponed the publication of Adair Turner's full report into the issue. He said the UK had one of the least generous pensions systems in the developed world. That the government takes seriously the impact of aviation on the environment. We haven't worked out specific plans but I imagine we will lobby political parties and incumbent MPs. Various local groups will do that in their particular areas and we will provide a national briefing. We don't have any large demonstrations planned but they can't be ruled out. It is hard to say whether we will be successful. We have got the issue in the public consciousness to an extent, but it is difficult to say whether an election will raise its importance in the public mind or whether it will be pushed out by big issues like Iraq. Repealing the Hunting Bill. We are challenging the use of the Parliament Act 1949 in a High Court action. We are hoping to hear in the New Year. Whichever way the court rules the other side will appeal so we expect it to fall plumb in electioneering time. When the ban comes into force on 18 February we will be going to the European Court because no compensation is being paid. So there's a lot of legal territory to go. We are trying to engage with the ministers by demonstrating and talking. Whatever intelligence we get we will try to turn up and speak to whoever it is. (Rural affairs minister) Alun Michael has avoided us and cancelled engagements so that makes it difficult. It is not intimidatory - on the whole it is groups of angry housewives. Of course there is an element of shouting because people are angry but there is no violence because that does not achieve anything. It will fall plumb in the run up to the most important general election Tony Blair will ever face. It's exactly what the prime minister did not want. He wanted the issue off the table until after the election. People using live animals as targets for sport both here and abroad. The reason for including abroad is because of trophy hunting. It is another sort of form of shooting for sport. The principle is the same whether it's a tiger or a pheasant. We will widely publicise what's happening in relation to trophy hunting. We will publicise the darker aspects of the target animal industry the UK. We will seek to get pledges from individual MPs and would-be MPs saying that they are against the use of animals as targets for sports. We would like the support of political parties but I think a general election is very much to do with pledges MPs make to their electors. With hunting we had many MPs who were happy to say they were against it. I think what we will get is a very real climbing up the agenda. Whether or not we will get a ban I am not sure. But it will mobilise public opinion. Everything we do will reduce animal suffering and in time that will lead to a ban. The issue that we think is the most important for this election is choice. The language of consumerism is very commonplace in government and across the political spectrum. Choice as an ideology is beginning to be the privatisation of this decade. It's become an issue in itself but what's really missing from the debate is the consumer's choice in that. Choice is not choice at all if all you have to choose from is two failing schools. We have seen so many pensions mis-selling scandals and in the pensions industry there's a maximum of choice but a minimum quality in that. We want choice on the consumer's terms - that means clear and accessible information to operate that choice. Firstly, we have our website. It features our campaigns and changes every day. Secondly through our 700,000 members who communicate with us. Thirdly through the media and also what we will be doing is holding a pre-election conference. We will invite the opinion formers, MPs, journalists and others. The idea is that we open up communications between members of the public and the politicians. I think we will be successful. It's very much the language being used by the main political parties. Politicians on all sides are very sensitive to this issue they want to be seen to be responding to this issue. Fuel duty is a large part of operational costs for road haulage workers. We have been hearing about this proposed increase of 1.92p per litre that Gordon Brown has been postponing and postponing. Tuppence does not sound like a great deal but every year if you operate one vehicle that's an increase of about £750. If you're running 10 vehicles it's obviously 10 times that. If fuel duty does rise we will be absolutely horrified. There will be a huge effect throughout the industry and I would not be surprised if you see widespread demonstrations. What it will mean is there will be a number of firms going out of business. We will continue to do what we have always done we keep the issue in the trade press. Regrettably it's one of those stories that it is getting harder to get into the national press. Whatever we do, the public don't like lorries - they see us as a complaining minority. But they don't realise that when you see a car on the road it is probably going to work, when you see a lorry it's already at work." +politics,"Mandelson warning to BBC The BBC should steer away from ""demonising"" ex-Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson has said. The European commissioner and former Labour minister was speaking amid claims that Mr Campbell is part of a Labour ""dirty tricks"" campaign. That charge was denied by Mr Mandelson, who said the Tories were afraid of Mr Campbell's campaigning skills. He warned the BBC that attacking Mr Campbell had brought it trouble before. That was a reference to the Hutton inquiry following a BBC story claiming Downing Street ""sexed up"" Iraq's weapons of mass destruction dossier. The affair prompted the resignation of BBC chairman Gavyn Davies, director-general Greg Dyke and reporter Andrew Gilligan. Labour has attracted media criticism for using new freedom of information laws to dig up information about Tory leader Michael Howard's past. Mr Mandelson, a former Labour communications director, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""I understand why the Tories will be gunning for Alastair Campbell because they fear his campaigning skills. ""What I understand less is why the BBC should be joining with the Tories in driving that agenda. ""In my experience of these things, parties which shout about dirty tricks and the like tend to do so because they fear a direct hit in some vulnerable part of their political anatomy. ""I suggest the BBC concentrates on the issues and helps the public to understand the policies and the choices that are at stake in the election rather than engages in the process politics, the trivialisation of the campaign. ""I think the BBC would be much better advised to leave all this stuff well alone, concentrate on the issues as I say, not resume their demonisation of Alastair Campbell - we all know where that led before."" Mr Campbell is acting as an adviser for Labour, which denies engaging in personal campaigning. Conservative co-chairman Liam Fox said Mr Campbell's return and Labour poster plans attacking Mr Howard - recently withdrawn from the party's website - were a sign of ""abusive politics"". ""The government, despite the fact that they would say want to go forward, not back, seem intent on talking about history rather than their own record or even more importantly, about the future,"" he said on Sunday. Labour peer Baroness Kennedy, who is chairing the Power Inquiry into political disengagement, said people already thought politicians engaged in dirty tricks. ""This feeling of distrust is going to be enlarged if this campaigning on all sides is conducted in the way that it looks as if it just might,"" she said." +politics,"Campaign 'cold calls' questioned Labour and the Conservatives are still telephoning the millions of people who have signed up to make sure they do not get marketing ""cold calls"". The parties say they can stick to the rules by ensuring that their calls are not marketing - for instance by asking about people's voting intentions. The Lib Dems are asking the watchdog overseeing the rules to stop the calls. The information commissioner's office says surveys are allowed but there is a ""grey"" area if personal data is kept. Telephone call centres are expected to be used as never before by all the three major parties in the run-up to the general election. But seven million telephone numbers are on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) lists, which ban unsolicited sales and marketing calls. Both schemes are run by the Direct Marketing Association and backed by EU directives on privacy and electronic communications. The rules on marketing calls apply as much to politicians as to private sector companies. But that does not mean Labour and the Tories are not calling people signed up to the TPS. A Labour Party spokesman told the BBC News website the party avoided those on TPS lists when telephoning people about membership or fundraising. But that did not happen for ""voter identification"" calls. ""When we ask which party they will vote for, that is not marketing and we have very clear legal advice that it is not,"" he said. ""So it is not covered by the Telephone Preference Service."" He said the party always asked people if they would be happy to be contacted again and if they said no, they were not rung again. A Conservative spokeswoman said the party stuck to the rules when it rang TPS subscribers. She said: ""We do apply TPS but in line with the law. We would not do things that are not allowed in the law."" A spokesman for the Information Commissioner's Office said it would be classed as marketing if political parties telephoned people to encourage them to vote for them. But the rules did allow polling organisations to telephone people about their voting intentions if they recorded them only as part of a bigger set of statistics, not person by person. ""If a political party was doing that than it may be that also would not be marketing,"" he said. The spokesman said it might be considered unsolicited marketing if a party recorded voting preferences with a view to marketing information in the future. The spokesman said there was ""no yes or no"" answer and the area was ""pretty grey"". He added: ""If someone complained, then we would investigate that. Political parties are aware of the regulations. At the last by-elections, we reminded them."" Lib Dem chairman Matthew Taylor has now written to the watchdog saying: ""The advice we have received on several previous occasions is that such phone calls are illegal."" He says evidence from local Lib Dem parties around the country suggests there are ""significant"" numbers of such calls. ""I hope you can therefore take swift and efficient action to ensure that this ceases,"" he tells the commissioner. Mr Taylor argues there should be new guidelines so all parties can act in the same way if the watchdog believes the rules allow parties to ring TPS numbers about voting intentions and later urge those people to vote for them." +politics,"Blair rejects Tory terror offer Tony Blair has rejected a Conservative compromise offer that could have eased the passage of anti-terror legislation. The Tories wanted a sunset clause inserted in the Anti-Terrorism Bill that would have forced ministers to revisit it in November. Mr Blair said the bill, which brings in house arrest for terror suspects, had time limiting safeguards already. The Tories say they will vote against it unless changes they want are agreed. The Lib Dems also oppose the plans. The government has already given way over the role of judges in house arrest cases. Mr Blair's refusal to accept the Tories' sunset clause proposals means that the government faces concerted opposition from all sides in the Lords. Peers begin three days of detailed deliberation on the bill on Thursday. The bill proposes ""control orders"", which as well as placing terrorism suspects under house arrest could mean curfews, tagging or bans on telephone and internet use. These would replace current powers to detain foreign terror suspects without trial, which the law lords have ruled against as a breach of human rights. The Tories want judicial oversight of all control orders, not just house arrest. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis told BBC Radio Four's the World at One his primary concern was potential miscarriages of justice. He said if someone was wrongly given a control order it would act as a ""recruiting sergeant"" for terrorists. He went on to say: ""If we don't get the amendments we regard as essential, including the sunset clause, we will vote against the bill."" In the Commons, Mr Howard said it would be ""far better if the whole of the legislation was subject to a sunset clause so Parliament could consider it all in a proper way instead of it being ramrodded through"". Mr Blair said the house arrest powers were already going to be subject to a sunset clause because it was annually renewable. The second, less stringent, type of control orders would be subject to a court appeal within 14 days and there would be a three-monthly report on their use by ""an eminent and independent person"". ""I believe (the new powers) are a proper balance between the civil liberties of the subject and the necessary national security of this country that I will not put at risk,"" said Mr Blair. The Lib Dems plan to oppose the Bill in the Lords on Thursday. Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""There's a lot of talking left. I would be uneasy about supporting a very bad bill even if it was just for eight months."" A spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch said it was a ""basic principle"" that people should only be punished after a fair trial. She added: ""Having a judge impose those punishments without a trial does not sanitise them either.""" +politics,"Police urge pub closure power New powers are needed to close disorderly pubs, bars and clubs for up to a week or even permanently, police chiefs have told MPs. Association of Chief Police Officers president Chris Fox said the current 24-hour closure power did not have enough impact on bad landlords. Mr Fox's comments follow the controversy over plans to allow pubs to open around the clock. He rejected critics' calls for the law change to be delayed. Instead, the new Licensing Act could help reduce drunken disorder - but only if it was properly planned, he argued. Acpo made its call for stronger closure powers in a paper for the Commons home affairs select committee. After the meeting, Mr Fox said being able to close premises for only 24 hours did not necessarily make an impact. ""If it's 12.30 on a Saturday morning and you close for 24 hours there's not a lot of pain for the premises because they probably wouldn't open on Sunday anyway. ""This is about getting through to the management that they can't run a disorderly house without facing some immediate sanctions."" Under Acpo's proposal, the closure orders would be used only with the agreement of the local licensing authority. The new licensing laws will give police greater powers to close pubs and clubs - but only for 24-hour periods. Mr Fox said the drinks industry was currently not regulating itself. ""It's making money at the cost of human misery and the public purse, and the strategic planning process has been less than useless,"" he said. Mr Fox said the new laws, due to start being phased in next month, could help if food outlets, public transport and public toilets could cope with late-night drinkers. ""Staggering it (closing hours) will be a solution if the infrastructure is there, if the premises are properly managed and people aren't being served rolling drunk and underage and then tossed out into the street,"" he said. ""We have the problem from 11pm to 2am in any event. We have to get a grip on the underlying causes of this."" Acpo wants pubs and clubs which cause extra work for police and hospitals to have to pay towards the costs. Home Secretary Charles Clarke is currently looking at the idea of a levy on the drinks industry to pay for the cost of extra policing. The licensing changes have sparked concern among some MPs, councils and some senior police officers who fear they could exacerbate drinking problems. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell on Tuesday said it was not her job to bow to the campaign against the changes. It was the status quo, not the new laws, which were causing current binge drinking problems, she told BBC Two's Newsnight. Leaked documents have suggested ex-Home Secretary David Blunkett branded new opening hours as a ""leap in the dark"". But Ms Jowell insisted his concerns had been met. The police's job against alcohol-related crime would be made easier if all pubs did not close at the same time, she added." +politics,"Councils prepare to set tax rises Council tax in Scotland is set to rise by an average of about 4% in the coming year, BBC Scotland has learned. Authorities will decide final figures on Thursday when projected increases will be more than twice the rate of inflation, which is currently 1.6%. The finance minister has urged councils to limit increases but they have warned that they will struggle to maintain services unless funding is increased. They say much additional government money is for new initiatives. Scottish Finance Minister, Tom McCabe MSP, said: ""Last week in parliament I announced an additional £419m for core expenditure to local government in Scotland. ""That's a 5.5% increase and sits against an inflation rate of 1.6%, so I think we have quite rightly said to councils this year that we would at the very least ask them to exercise restraint."" Mr McCabe is also looking for local authorities to become more efficient and save money in coming years. He told BBC Radio Scotland's Sunday Live programme: ""Here in Scotland we have 32 councils who all have their own individual collection systems for council tax, they have their own payroll systems and their own human resource systems. ""We think there has to be opportunities there for rationalisation and using the money saved to reinvest in frontline services."" The councils' umbrella organisation Cosla, which provided BBC Scotland with the indicative figures for next year, warned that councils would face a continuous struggle to maintain services. Mr McCabe has promised them about £8.1bn next year. ""However, most of the increase is targeted to new initiatives and councils will experience difficulties in maintaining core services,"" a Cosla spokesman said. Cosla says that it is willing to work with the executive on finding efficiency savings but that these will not be enough to maintain services. They say the funding plans for the next three years will see councils lose more of the share of public spending. The Conservatives accuse the Scottish Executive of using the council tax to raise funds because it is too afraid to raise income tax. The Tory finance spokesman, Brian Monteith MSP, said: ""Its a form of disguise... yet again we see that council tax is being used as a way of passing on costs. ""Scared of actually using its three pence income tax that it could put up, what we've seen over the years is more and more burdens being put onto local authorities and the council tax payer having to pick up the bill."" There are also warnings that unless funding to councils is increased in the next few years then services may have to be reduced. Linda Knox, Director of the Scottish Local Authority Management Centre at Strathclyde University, said: ""With this current settlement the increase is slowing. At the same time, the burdens on councils are greater than they were. ""The settlement figures don't include pay increases and the executive is also requiring a substantial figure - in the area of £325m - in efficiency savings across the settlement period."" Education will be protected from any cuts but Linda Knox says this will mean other services will suffer. She said: ""In practice, that will mean a 4-5% cut for other services. On the face of it the settlement looks like an increase of about 9.7% but by the time you take into account other factors its probably only about 1% in real terms.""" +politics,"Green fear for transport ballot The Green Party is concerned thousands of residents may not be able to vote in Edinburgh's transport referendum. Edinburgh City Council is to ballot constituents on proposals to introduce congestion charging in the capital. But Green MSP Mark Ballard fears people not on the council's edited electoral register may miss out. Local authorities can only send ballot papers to those on the edited list over non-statutory matters, such as the transport referendum. Therefore, residents who have exercised their right to have their details left off the list could miss the chance to vote. However, there is still time for those who are not on the list to contact the council and make sure they are sent ballot forms ahead of February's voting deadline. Mr Ballard said: ""This vote will set the future of transport in Edinburgh for decades to come. ""It is therefore vital that as many residents as possible in Edinburgh City and the surrounding areas, are registered to vote in the ballot. ""Many people are not aware that they may miss out on their chance to have a say. ""Everyone involved in this debate - both for and against - wants the ballot to be as fair and representative as possible, and that means encouraging people to take part."" The ballot will ask residents to vote for or against the council's proposed congestion charge scheme and a host of transport improvements to be funded by it. The outcome of the referendum will be known next month after the ballot forms are sent out and returned to the council. Towards the end of February, the council will meet to decide whether to proceed with an application to Scottish ministers for approval for its planned congestion charging scheme and the other parts of its transport package." +politics,"Straw attacked on China arms Moves to lift the European Union's ban on arms exports to China have been condemned by human rights groups and the Conservatives. The 15 year embargo was imposed in the aftermath of China's crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who will hold talks in Beijing on Thursday, said an EU arms code was more effective than the current ban. But Human Rights Watch says the EU is putting commerce above abuse concerns. In December, the EU pledged to work towards lifting the ban but said it was not ready to do so yet. Germany and France have repeatedly called for the embargo to be lifted. Britain has been more cautious but Mr Straw last week said he also wanted it to end, despite US objections. He expects it to be lifted over the next six months, a prediction which has alarmed critics. Brad Adams, from Human Rights Watch, said: ""This is a huge political signal from Europe that they are willing to forget about Tiananmen Square. ""There are still thousands of people who are unaccounted for."" Mr Straw said it was wrong to put China under the same embargo as countries such as Zimbabwe and Burma. The scope of the embargo was very narrow and did not have any force of law behind it, he told BBC Radio 4's World At One. In the UK, more export licences were refused under the existing European Union arms code than under the embargo, he said. And only two of the licences denied under the embargo would have been granted under the code. ""The code of conduct is much more effective, it's a more powerful tool of and we intend to strengthen it as a pre-condition of lifting the embargo with China,"" he said. Mr Straw denied the decision would suggest to China that Tiananmen Square had been forgotten. The level of human rights was a key criteria under the EU arms exports code, he said. Human rights groups say the code of conduct is not legally binding - but Mr Straw said it would be given legal force by the laws of many EU countries. Conservative shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said the move would be ""profoundly wrong"". The decision could undermine Nato as it severely damaged relations with the US, which is opposed to ending the ban. Mr Ancram argued: ""What the British Government is doing is giving in to French and German pressure, especially the French, who see vast contracts available to them if the embargo is lifted... ""It gives the wrong signals to China, who are simply not prepared to accept that what happened at Tiananmen Square was wrong."" Mr Straw's China trip is part of regular high-level meetings with Beijing ministers. He will meet Chinese counterpart Minister Li Zhaoxing to discuss developing relations between their two countries, Hong Kong and China's part in the talks on North Korea." +politics,"TV debate urged for party chiefs Broadcasters should fix a date for a pre-election televised debate between the three main political leaders, according to the Hansard Society. It would then be up to Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy to decide whether to take part, the non-partisan charity said. Chairman Lord Holme argued that prime ministers should not have the right of veto on a matter ""of public interest"". ""The broadcasters should make the decision to go ahead,"" he said. Lord Holme's proposal for a televised debate comes just four months after millions of viewers were able to watch US President George W Bush slug it out verbally with his Democratic challenger John Kerry. He said it was a ""democratically dubious proposition"" that it was up to the incumbent prime minister to decide whether a similar event takes place here. If Mr Blair did not want to take part, the broadcasters could go ahead with an empty chair or cancel the event and explain their reasons why, Lord Holme said. ""What makes the present situation even less acceptable is that although Mr Howard and Mr Kennedy have said they would welcome a debate, no-one has heard directly from the prime minister,"" he said. ""It has been left to nudges and winks, hints and briefings from his aides and campaign managers to imply that Mr Blair doesn't want one, but we haven't heard from the prime minister himself."" Lord Holme, who has campaigned for televised debates at previous elections, said broadcasters were ""more than willing to cooperate with the arrangements"". Opinion polls suggested that the idea had the backing of the public who like comparing the personalities and policies of the contenders in their own homes, he said. Lord Holme argued that as part of their public service obligations, broadcasters ""should make the decision to go ahead"" as soon as the election is called. An independent third-party body such as the Hansard Society or Electoral Commission could work out the ground rules so they were fair to participants and informative to the public, he said. ""It would be up to each party leader to accept or refuse,"" said Lord Holme. ""If the prime minister's reported position is true and he does want to take part, he would then be obliged to say why publicly. ""The broadcasters would then have the option of cancelling the event for obvious and well-understood reasons, or going ahead with an empty chair. ""Either way would be preferable to the present hidden veto."" The Hansard Society has long campaigned for televised debates and has published reports on the issue in 1997 and 2001. Tony Blair has already ruled out taking part in a televised debate during the forthcoming election campaign. Last month he said: ""We answer this every election campaign and, for the reasons I have given before, the answer is no,"" he said at his monthly news conference.""" +politics,"Peace demo appeal rejected Peace protestors have lost a landmark appeal over police actions in stopping an anti-war demonstration days after the start of the Iraq war. They had appealed against a High Court decision that it was not unlawful for police to forcibly turn protestors away near RAF Fairford, Glos, in 2003. The police had also sought to overturn a breach of human rights ruling arising from the same case. Sitting on Wednesday, three Appeal Court judges dismissed both appeals. They were challenging decisions by two judges in the High Court in February this year. It followed action by police, when three coachloads of people were searched and detained on the way to RAF Fairford and forced to return to London under police escort. The demonstrators appealed against a finding by Lord Justice May and Mr Justice Harrison that it was not unlawful for the police to turn the passengers away. The police were urging Lord Chief Justice and Lord Justices Clarke and Rix to overturn the ruling that they had breached the protestors' human rights by detaining them in the coaches. Craig Mackey, assistant chief constable of Gloucestershire Police, said: ""We have always considered that our responses were proportionate and all our decisions on the day were based on intelligence."" He said no one on the coaches accepted responsibility for items found on the coaches including body armour, a smoke bomb and five shields. ""Given these circumstances, and the fact that RAF Fairford, and other military installations in the UK, had been the scene of increasingly destructive disorder in the weeks preceding this incident, the police commander on the ground made the decision to turn back the coaches. ""From day one we have vigorously defended this decision, which was made out of a genuine concern that if the coaches were allowed to proceed it would have resulted in disorder and criminal damage at RAF Fairford."" Fairford Coach Action, representing more than 80 people who appealed against the police actions, say they are prepared to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights. Their action is supported by Amnesty International and Liberty." +politics,"Plan to give elderly care control Elderly and disabled people would choose how their own budget for personal care was spent and organised under government plans. Ministers say elderly and disabled people themselves, not social workers, should be able to decide on their care and stay in their own homes. They also plan a supremo for adult services in each English area to get different agencies working together. But the government shunned opponents' calls for free long-term care. There are 1.7m people needing care in England and ministers suggest the number could quadruple by 2050. Monday's consultation paper on social care for adults in England is aimed at ending a system which generates dependency. Health Minister Stephen Ladyman said: ""This document is the antithesis of the nanny state. ""It's about taking power away from the state and giving it to individuals and saying that we will help you make these decisions but we are not going to make them for you any more."" The government has already allowed local councils to give people money so they can pay for their services directly but take-up of the scheme has been ""disappointing"". Ministers say the new plans would make direct payments simpler and try to counter reluctance in some local councils to use the payments. They also want to set up a new ""half-way house"" where social workers tell people how much money is available for their care and help them choose how to spend that ""individual budget"". The scheme will be funded on existing budgets set until 2008. But Mr Ladyman said the plans could deliver savings in some areas, such as freeing up NHS beds and preventing illnesses. He ruled out free personal care in England - which is on offer in Scotland and Wales, saying it was ""unsustainable"". David Rogers, from the Local Government Association, said agencies were working together on the kind of innovation proposed by the government. And Tony Hunter, president of the Association of Directors of Social Services, said the plans could improve dignity and well-being for thousands of people. But Age Concern argued social care was chronically under-funded and older people were being offered choice in principle, but not in practice. Its director general, Gordon Lishman, said: ""Direct payments will not work if there are no services for people to choose from locally."" The Tories say people who pay for three years' long-term care directly or through insurance should be guaranteed free care for the rest of their lives. Tory spokesman Simon Burns said more than 80,000 long term care places had been lost since 1997. ""After eight years of persistent change, dogmatic enforcement of regulation, and overbearing government initiatives - we need action, not a vision,"" said Mr Burns. The Lib Dems say they would fund free personal care by a new 50% tax rate on incomes over £100,000. Health spokesman Paul Burstow said: ""Promoting independence sounds good and helping people to live in their own homes is a goal we share. ""But the risk is that independence can turn into isolation if the right support and care is not available.""" +politics,"Hunt demo at Labour meeting Pro-hunt supporters are set to protest at Labour's spring conference. The Countryside Alliance says it expects up to 4,000 supporters to demonstrate against the hunting ban. They have agreed to keep to a demonstration site on the other side of the River Tyne from the conference venue in Gateshead. A bid to overturn the law banning hunting with dogs in England and Wales has begun in the Court of Appeal. The ban comes into force on 18 February. The Court of Appeal is expected to rule early next week on whether the alliance's challenge has succeeded. Richard Dodd, regional director of the Countryside Alliance, said he expected between 2,000 and 4,000 supporters in Tyneside to make their protest, with hunt horns and placards. Campaigners have been asked not to bring any animals or alcohol. Mr Dodd said he did not believe there would be any repeat of the trouble which marred the pro-hunt demonstration outside Parliament in September. ""We are holding a static demonstration, just to remind Labour that we are not going away,"" he said. Northumbria Police said the pedestrian Millennium Bridge, by the demonstration site, will be shut if necessary. But Assistant Chief Constable David Warcup has liaised with several protest groups and said all negotiations had gone well. Fathers 4 Justice, pensioners' rights activists and Stop the War campaigners were also expected to demonstrate during the three-day conference which starts on Friday. Pro-hunt campaigners claims the 1949 Parliament Act - which extends the right of the House of Commons to overrule the House of Lords - was itself invalid because it was never passed by peers. The High Court last month ruled the act was valid and the proposed hunting ban was lawful. Pro-hunt supporters formally launched their second legal challenge to the ban in London's High Court on Thursday. The Countryside Alliance has lodged papers seeking a judicial review on human rights grounds. Animal welfare groups have welcomed the ban, many of whom have campaigned for a ban for decades saying hunting is cruel and unnecessary." +politics,"Watchdog probes e-mail deletions The information commissioner says he is urgently asking for details of Cabinet Office orders telling staff to delete e-mails more than three months old. Richard Thomas ""totally condemned"" the deletion of e-mails to prevent their disclosure under freedom of information laws coming into force on 1 January. Government guidance said e-mails should only be deleted if they served ""no current purpose"", Mr Thomas said. The Tories and the Lib Dems have questioned the timing of the new rules. Tory leader Michael Howard has written to Tony Blair demanding an explanation of the new rules on e-mail retention. On Monday Lib Dem constitutional affairs committee chairman Alan Beith warned that the deletion of millions of government e-mails could harm the ability of key probes like the Hutton Inquiry. The timing of the new rules just before the Freedom of Information Act comes into forces was ""too unlikely to have been a coincidence"", Mr Beith said. But a Cabinet Office spokeswoman said the move was not about the new laws or ""the destruction of important records"". Mr Beith urged the information commissioner to look at how the ""e-mail regime"" could ""support the freedom of information regime"". Mr Thomas said: ""The new Act of Parliament makes it very clear that to destroy records in order to prevent their disclosure becomes a criminal offence."" He said there was already clear guidance on the retention of e-mails contained in a code of practice from the lord chancellor. All e-mails are subject to the freedom of information laws, but the important thing was the content of the e-mail, said Mr Thomas. ""If in doubt retain, that has been the long-standing principle of the civil service and public authorities. It's only when you've got no further use for the particular record that it may be legitimate to destroy it. ""But any deliberate destruction to avoid the possibility of later disclosure is to be totally condemned."" The Freedom of Information Act will cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland from next year. Similar measures are being brought in at the same time in Scotland. It provides the public with a right of access to information held by about 100,000 public bodies, subject to various exemptions. Its implementation will be monitored by the information commissioner." +politics,"'Few ready' for information act Thousands of public bodies are ill-prepared for the Freedom of Information Act, due to come into force next month, because of government failures, say MPs. From next month anyone will have the power to demand information from a range of public bodies - from Whitehall departments to doctors' surgeries. But an all-party committee said it was ""not confident"" many would be ready. It blamed the Department for Constitutional Affairs for a ""lack of consistent leadership"". The Act comes into effect in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, on 1 January while similar measures are being brought in at the same time in Scotland. It provides the public with a right of access to information held by about 100,000 public bodies, subject to various exemptions. But the government department responsible for implementing the change suffered from an ""unusually high turnover"" of staff within the department, which had ""seriously interfered"" with its work, said the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee. It said, despite four years of preparations, some local authorities and parts of the health sector were still not ready. The DCA had ""failed"" to provide early guidance on technical matters and shown a ""lack of consistent leadership"", the MPs found. Committee chairman Alan Beith said: ""The DCA has had four years to prepare for freedom of information, but with less than a month to go it appears that some bodies may not be well enough prepared. ""Our report shows that in the past support and guidance from the DCA, which has overall responsibility for guiding the public sector through the process of implementation for the freedom of information regime, has been lacking."" A spokesman for the DCA said: ""The DCA has provided - and will continue to provide - strong, clear leadership. ""It has delivered a simple, liberal fees regime, guidance on the Act which has been widely praised, and expert networks of staff working on freedom of information implementation.""" +politics,"Tories reject rethink on axed MP Sacked MP Howard Flight's local Conservative association has insisted he will not be its candidate at the general election. Russell Tanguay, agent for Arundel and South Downs Tories, said Mr Flight was ineligible to be a candidate and the association was seeking a substitute. The news comes despite Mr Flight's allies saying they had enough support to hold a meeting to discuss his fate. Mr Flight landed in trouble over remarks on Tory tax and spending plans. He quit as Tory deputy chairman after apparently suggesting the Tories planned extra spending cuts - but he wants to continue as an MP. Tory headquarters says he cannot stand as a Conservative candidate because he is no longer an approved candidate. Mr Tanguay backed that view on Tuesday, saying: ""Howard Flight is ineligible to stand as a Conservative Party candidate. ""The association is in the process of selecting a new candidate."" But the local Tory chairman made similar comments on Friday and dissent continues. Two local councillors who back Mr Flight met Mr Tanguay and the local association's chairman in Arundel on Tuesday afternoon but did not comment as they left the meeting. Mr Flight says he will not stand down as a candidate unless his local party instructs him to do so at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM). The MP, who is consulting his lawyers, told BBC News: ""They selected me and they, if you like, dispose of me or keep me."" Mr Flight's supporters also say they have the 50 signatures needed to trigger the EGM. At a news conference, Mr Howard insisted he had played by the party's rules. The Tory leader, who argues he is ensuring honesty, said: ""We do not say one thing in private and another thing in public."" Labour election campaign coordinator Alan Milburn said the Tories were in ""turmoil"" because Mr Flight had exposed their hidden plans. The comments were not a ""one-off"", he said, claiming Mr Howard and other senior Tories were obsessively committed to cutting public spending. Liberal Democrat chairman Matthew Taylor said: ""Whilst I disagree with Howard Flight's views, it seems extraordinary to sack somebody for telling the truth."" It has also emerged Mr Howard has suspended Slough's constituency Conservative association for refusing to deselect its candidate. Adrian Hilton was abandoned after suggesting the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, under John Major's government, was an act of treason. The Catholic Herald also highlighted articles he wrote about the role of Catholicism in the European Union. Mr Hilton was chosen to fight the seat after the previous candidate, Robert Oulds, was sacked for being pictured with a range of guns and a hunting knife. Slough Conservative Association has now been placed on ""support status"" and is being run from Conservative campaign headquarters, says a senior party spokesman. Mr Hilton on Tuesday said he was considering taking legal action against his deposal. He said the local party had only learned of the final decision on the BBC News website on Monday evening. ""There are people at Central Office who are behaving like little dictators and seemingly people who are ordinary members are being treated with contempt,"" he said. The party says it did try to contact the local Conservative chairman." +politics,"CSA chief who 'quit' still in job The head of the ""failing"" Child Support Agency widely reported to have resigned three months ago is still at the helm of the troubled organisation. Doug Smith's departure was announced by Work Secretary Alan Johnson on 17 November as MPs grilled him over the agency's poor performance. His ""resignation"" was referred to by both Tory and Lib Dem leaders during that day's prime ministers questions. Officials now say he did not resign but will move on under civil service rules. Mr Smith's departure was reported widely at the time as his shouldering the blame for the failings of the Child Support Agency. In January the MPs who make up the Commons Work and Pensions Committee published a highly critical report into the ""failing"" agency noting the chief executive ""has now left"" and hoping ""the new leadership will bring a fresh approach to what is a failing organisation"". On that day's Today programme Mr Johnson was asked why Mr Smith had been allowed to resign rather than be sacked. He replied: ""The chief executive decided it was time to move on, there is a new chief executive coming in."" It now emerges that the widespread belief Mr Smith, made Commander of the Order of the Bath in the New Year honours, had left, was wrong. A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman confirmed Mr Smith was still in post and that he would continue in the job until a replacement was found. ""No date was ever given for Doug Smith's departure,"" she said adding that the post had been advertised. Tory work and pensions spokesman David Willetts said families affected by CSA failings would wonder why Mr Smith was still in his job three months after his departure was announced. The CSA has been surrounded by controversy since its introduction in 1993 to assess and enforce child support payments by absent parents. The work and pensions committee launched their inquiry into the CSA's performance after it became clear that, despite the introduction of a simpler system of calculating maintenance payments for new cases in 2003, a backlog of claims was still building up. It is currently chasing outstanding payments of more than £720m, while a further £947m has been designated as ""unrecoverable"". The MPs found American IT giant EDS' £456m system was ""nowhere near being fully functional and the number of dissatisfied, disenchanted and angry customers continues to escalate"". In November, when he surprised MPs and the watching media by announcing Mr Smith's departure, Mr Johnson said: ""I should tell you that Doug has decided that now is the time to stand aside and to allow a new chief executive to tackle the challenges ahead. ""Doug has exceeded the four years that senior civil servants are now expected to remain in a particular post. ""So Doug believes that we have reached the natural breakpoint at which he can hand over the reins."" Lib Dem Sir Archy Kirkwood, who chairs the Commons work and pensions committee, said that when Mr Johnson had announced Mr Smith was going he got the ""clear impression"" the CSA chief was retiring though it had since emerged that was not the case, and he may be seeking new employment opportunities. He added his committee was ""duty bound"" to allow the work and pensions secretary to get new management into place in the CSA and it would be ""premature"" to say anything further on the issue at the moment. But committee member and Tory MP Nigel Waterson said he was ""amazed"" Mr Smith was still in his job. ""When Mr Smith and the secretary of state came to give evidence, we were led to believe he was going shortly,"" he said. ""Even if he was working out three months notice, he should have been clearing his desk by now."" Asked on Thursday about Mr Smith's position Mr Johnson told BBC Radio 4's World at One he thought it was a ""non-story"". He added that he had been absolutely open when he announced Mr Smith's departure to the select committee and how people chose to interpret it was a ""different thing"". ""The major issue is have we got a new chief executive coming into this very important agency as quickly as possible and have we gone through the right selection process to make sure we've got the right people,"" he added." +politics,"Custody death rate 'shocks' MPs Deaths in custody have reached ""shocking"" levels, a committee of MPs and peers has warned. The joint committee on human rights found those committing suicide were mainly the most vulnerable, with mental health, drugs or alcohol problems. Members urged the government to set up a task force to tackle deaths in prisons, police cells, detention centres and special hospitals. There was one prison suicide every four days between 1999 and 2003, MPs said. The report, which followed a year-long inquiry by the committee, found the high death rate ""amounts to a serious failure to protect the right to life of a highly vulnerable group"". Many of those who ended up taking their own lives had ""presented themselves"" to the authorities with these problems before they even offended, the report said. It questioned whether prison was the most appropriate place for them to be kept and whether earlier intervention would have meant custody could have been avoided. Increased resources and a reduction in the use of imprisonment was needed to address the issue in the longer term, the report said. Committee chairman Labour MP Jean Corston said: ""Each and every death in custody is a death too many, regardless of the circumstances. ""Yet throughout our inquiry we have seen time and time again that extremely vulnerable people are entering custody with a history of mental illness, drug and alcohol problems and potential for taking their own lives."" ""These highly vulnerable people are being held within a structure glaringly ill-suited to meet even their basic needs. ""Crime levels are falling but we are holding more people in custody than ever before. The misplaced over-reliance on the prison system for some of the most vulnerable people in the country is at the heart of the problems that we encountered. ""Until we change our whole approach to imprisoning vulnerable people we cannot begin to meet our positive obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights and meet our duty of care to them."" The committee also highlighted ""deeply worrying"" cases of children and young people taking their own lives. Between 1990 and 2004, 25 children have taken their own lives in prison and two have died in secure training centres. It picked out the case of Joseph Scholes, who hanged himself from the bars of his cell in Stoke Heath Young Offender Institution in March 2002, and urged the home secretary to hold a public inquiry. It revealed that two weeks before his court appearance for a series of robberies, the 16-year-old was depressed, exhibiting suicidal tendencies and slashed his face with a knife about 30 times. Even though the trial judge had been alerted to his experience of sexual abuse and mental illness, he was sentenced to a two-year detention and training order. Nine days into his sentence, Joseph hung himself from the bars of his cell window with a sheet." +politics,"How political squabbles snowball It's become commonplace to argue that Blair and Brown are like squabbling school kids and that they (and their supporters) need to grow up and stop bickering. But this analysis in fact gets it wrong. It's not just children who fight - adults do too. And there are solid reasons why even a trivial argument between mature protagonists can be hard to stop once its got going. The key feature of an endless feud is that everyone can agree they'd be better off if it ended - but everyone wants to have the last word. Each participant genuinely wants the row to stop, but thinks it worth prolonging the argument just a tiny bit to ensure their view is heard. Their successive attempts to end the argument with their last word ensure the argument goes on and on and on. (In the case of Mr Blair and Mr Brown, successive books are published, ensuring the issues never die.) Now this isn't because the participants are stupid - it's actually each individual behaving entirely rationally, given the incentives facing them. Indeed, there's even a piece of economic theory that explains all this. Nothing as obscure as ""post-neo-classical endogenous growth theory"" which the chancellor himself once quoted - but a ubiquitous piece of game theory which all respectable policy wonks are familiar with. It's often referred to as the ""prisoner's dilemma"", based on a parable much told in economics degree courses... about a sheriff and two prisoners. The story goes that two prisoners are jointly charged with a heinous crime, and are locked up in separate cells. But the sheriff desperately needs a confession from at least one of them, to provide enough evidence to convict them of the crime. Without a confession, the prisoners will get a minimal sentence on some trumped up charge. Clearly the prisoners' best strategy is to keep their mouths shut, and take the short sentence, but the clever sheriff has an idea to induce them to talk. He tells each prisoner separately, that if they confess - and they are the only one to confess - they'll be let off their crime. And he tells them that if they don't confess - and they are the only one not to confess - they'll get life. Now, if you are prisoner confronted with this choice, your best bet is to confess. If your partner doesn't confess, you'll get off completely. And if your partner does confess, you'd better confess to ensure you don't get life. The result is of course, both prisoners confess, so the sheriff does not have to let either one off. Both prisoners' individual logic was to behave that way, even though both would have been better if they had somehow agreed to shut up. Don't worry if you don't entirely follow it - you can to look it up on Google, where there are 283,000 entries on it. The prisoners' dilemma and all its ramifications have truly captured economists in the last couple of decades. It is a parable used to describe any situation where there is an obvious sensible choice to be taken collectively, but where the only rational choice individually is to behave selfishly. A cold war arms race for example - a classic case where both Russia and America would be better off with just a few arms, rather than a lot of arms. But as long as each wants just a few more arms than the other, an arms race ensues with the results that the individually logical decision to buy more arms, results in arms levels that are too high. What economics tells us is that once you're in a prisoners' dilemma - unless you are repeating the experience many times over - it's hard to escape the perverse logic of it. It's no good just exhorting people to stop buying arms, or to stop arguing when all their incentives encourage them to carry on. Somehow, the incentives have to change. In the case of the Labour Party, if you believe the rift between Blair and Brown camps is as bad as the reports suggest, Solomon's wisdom needs to be deployed to solve the problem. Every parent knows there are ingenious solutions to arguments, solutions which affect the incentives of the participants. An example, is the famous rule that ""one divides, the other chooses"" as a way of allocating a piece of cake to be sliced up between greedy children. In the case of an apparently endless argument, if you want it to come to an end, you have to ensure the person who has the last word is one who loses rather than the one who wins the row. The cost of prolonging the row by even one more briefing, or one more book for that matter, has to exceed the benefit of having the last word, and getting your point in. If the rest of the party can enforce that, they'll have the protagonists retreating pretty quickly." +politics,"Plaid MP's cottage arson claim A Plaid Cymru MP believes UK security services were involved in some arson attacks blamed on Welsh extremists. It is 25 years since the start of 12 years of fire-bombings, attributed to a shadowy group known as Meibion Glyndwr. Plaid Cymru's Elfyn Llwyd has suggested the security services could have been involved, with the intention of discrediting the nationalist vote. Ex-Welsh Office Minister Lord Roberts of Conwy denied security services were involved. In March this year, North Wales Police reopened the case, saying materials kept during their investigations would be examined to find whether it would yield DNA evidence. Meibion Glyndwr - which means ""sons of Glyndwr"" - began burning property in December 1979 in protest at homes in rural Wales being sold as holiday cottages to people from England. The group was linked to most of the 220 or so fire-bombing incidents stretching from the Llyn Peninsula to Pembrokeshire. The campaign continued until the early 1990s. Police were accused in some quarters of targeting anyone who was a nationalist. Although one man, Sion Aubrey Roberts, was convicted in 1993 of sending letter bombs in the post, the arson cases remain unsolved. As a solicitor, Elfyn Llwyd represented Welsh singer Bryn Fôn when he was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the arson campaign. Fôn was released without charge . But now, as MP for Merionnydd Nant Conwy and Plaid Cymru's Parliamentary Leader, Mr Llwyd has argued that some of the terror attacks may have had the involvement of the security services and not Meibion Glyndwr. He believes that elements of the British security services may have carried out renegade actions in order to discredit Plaid Cymru and the nationalist vote ahead of elections. The claim is made in an interview for BBC Wales' Maniffesto programme to be shown on S4C on Sunday. Mr Llwyd said that the sophistication of many of the devices used in the attacks compared to the crude nature of many others, suggests a degree of professionalism which could only have come from individuals who knew exactly what they were doing. He said: ""What I'm saying is that the role that they took wasn't the appropriate one, i.e. like an agent provocateur and perhaps interfering and creating a situation where it looked like it was the nationalists that were responsible."" The programme also heard from Lord Roberts of Conwy, who was a Welsh Office minister at the time. He denied that the security services played any improper role. Mr Llwyd's theory has also been questioned by Plaid Cymru's former President, Dafydd Wigley. He accepted that the fires damaged Plaid Cymru's public image but believed that the security services had their hands full at the time with the IRA and animal rights activists. - Maniffesto can be seen on S4C on Sunday, 12 December, at 1200 GMT." +politics,"MPs quiz aides over royal income Senior officials at the two bodies generating private income for the Queen and Prince of Wales are to be questioned by MPs. Aides from the Duchy of Lancaster and Duchy of Cornwall will appear before the Commons Public Accounts Committee. It has been reported they could be questioned about Prince Charles' spending on Camilla Parker Bowles. But BBC correspondent Peter Hunt said they are not responsible for how money is spent and may be unable to answer. Duchy officials, who will appear before the committee on Monday, are only responsible for generating money. The Duchy of Lancaster provides the Queen's private income, while the Duchy of Cornwall provides Prince Charles' annual income. The Duchy of Cornwall is a 140,000-acre estate across 25 counties, and also includes residential properties, shops, offices, stocks and shares. It was set up in 1337 by King Edward III to provide income for successive heirs to the throne. It covers the cost of the prince's public and private life - neither Charles, nor William and Harry, receive taxpayers' money from the Civil List. However, the Prince of Wales did receive over £4m from government departments and grants-in-aid in 2003-4. The duchy last year generated almost £12m. The prince has voluntarily paid income tax - currently 40% - since 1993." +politics,"Amnesty chief laments war failure The lack of public outrage about the war on terror is a powerful indictment of the failure of human rights groups, Amnesty International's chief has said. In a lecture at the London School of Economics, Irene Khan said human rights had been flouted in the name of security since 11 September, 2001. She said the human rights movement had to use simpler language both to prevent scepticism and spread a moral message. And it had to fight poverty, not just focus on political rights for elites. Ms Khan highlighted detentions without trial, including those at the US camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and the abuse of prisoners as evidence of increasing human rights problems. ""What's a new challenge is the way in which this age-old debate on security and human rights has been translated into the language of war,"" she said. ""By using the language of war, human rights are being sidelined because we know human rights do not apply in times of war."" Ms Khan said such breaches were infectious and were now seen in almost very major country in the world. ""The human rights movement faces a crisis of faith in the value of human rights,"" she said. That was accompanied by a crisis of governance, where the United Nations system did not seem able to hold countries to account. The Amnesty secretary-general said a growing gap between the perceived influence of human rights group and what they could actually achieve was fuelling scepticism. ""Public passivity on the war against terror is the single most powerful indictment on the failures of human rights groups,"" she said. Ms Khan said the movement had failed to mobilise public outrage about what was happening to the human rights system. There needed to be a drive to use simpler language, talking about the basic morality of the issues rather than the complexity of legal processes. Such efforts could make the issues more relevant to people across the world, she said. The human rights groups also had to recognise there were new groups which had to be tackled in new ways as power dripped away from state governments. Al-Qaeda, for example, was not going to be impressed by a traditional Amnesty letter writing campaign. More also needed to be done to develop a human rights framework for international business corporations. Amnesty International members voted in 2001 to extend the organisation's work from political and civil rights to cover social and economic rights too. Ms Khan said the human rights movement would make itself irrelevant if it turned away from the suffering caused by economic strife. ""We would be an elitist bunch working for the elites, for those who cannot read the newspaper of their choice rather than those who cannot read,"" she said. Despite her concerns, Ms Khan dubbed herself a ""hope-monger"", saying she was confident the passions of the human rights movement could overcome the new challenges." +politics,"Could rivalry overshadow election? Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are desperately trying to stuff the genie of their rivalry back into the bottle. Along with any number of senior cabinet colleagues, they are insisting their only job is to win the next election and govern in the best interests of Britain. It is a message they are aiming directly at their backbenchers who are becoming irritated and even unnerved by the continuing claims and counter claims surrounding this alleged rift. Ian Gibson, for example, urged the two men to stop squabbling, declaring: ""For goodness sake, sometimes you have to rise above petulance and make sure that you do your job as effectively as you can."" Those with slim majorities are particularly fearful that the rift could hit their own hopes of re-election. Tony Blair will seek to reassure Labour MPs on Monday evening at their first meeting of the new year at Westminster - a behind-closed doors meeting which Gordon Brown is thought likely to also attend to show unity. Meanwhile the likes of Health Secretary John Reid and Labour peer Lord Haskins are warning of the electoral dangers of allowing this soap opera to continue. And they have both warned the rival camps to stop spreading the poison. Lord Haskins even suggested Mr Blair should reinstate Mr Brown as the central figure in the election planning. But this particular genie is unusually reluctant to return to captivity and many fear it is simply too late to repair the damage. They believe they will be fighting the next election with the sounds of open warfare between the two men ringing in their ears. And it matters little whether the rift is real or, as some try to suggest, simply the product of newspaper headlines and Westminster gossip. Few in Westminster actually believe that, simply because the evidence appears to contradict it. For example, the weekend's attempts by both men to play down the divisions failed to do the trick. Even as they were both insisting on their unity of purpose and claiming they would not be swayed by newspaper stories, they still managed to stir the speculation with their comments. Mr Blair talked about the ""New"" Labour manifesto - a move which seemed calculated to irritate the chancellor, who has long rejected the label. And Mr Brown pointedly refused to deny claims the prime minister had reneged on a deal to hand him the premiership last year. That claim was repeated in Robert Peston's book, a book which amply demonstrates this corrosive Downing Street soap opera is nowhere near its final act. For his part, Mr Brown insists his only motivation was to get Labour re-elected. The trouble is, both men have fallen short of offering simple, straightforward denials of the central claims. So they have both been accused of actually making matters worse by feeding the speculation with their own behaviour. The first thing to be said is that these suggestions have not come from nowhere. They started with and are sustained by ""friends"" of the two men. One only had to listen to the chancellor's friend and former spin chief Charlie Whelan last week to understand that there is a real anger from this camp at the prime minister's apparent attempts to confound Mr Brown's leadership ambitions. But it is not just public pronouncements from ex-aides. There are whispered briefings to selected journalists from both sides. It is no secret in Westminster, for example, that Downing Street believes the chancellor is indulging in a mammoth sulk and acting in a petty and deliberately provocative manner. Then there are the actions of the men themselves. Gordon Brown sets out what is seen as a rival manifesto then appears to embark on his own personal campaign. The prime minister responds by scheduling his monthly press conference to clash with a keynote speech by the chancellor. Meanwhile large numbers of backbench MPs insist voters are either entirely uninterested in the chatter, which they believe is a media-only obsession, or that they fear for the efficient running of a government beset by such rivalry. Either way, there is universal agreement that if this goes on through the general election it can only do the Labour party serious damage. There are signs that the two men appreciate the dangers and both want to put a lid on all the speculation. But with probably only four months to the next election, that looks like being a particularly difficult trick to pull off." +politics,"UK heading wrong way, says Howard Tony Blair has had the chance to tackle the problems facing Britain and has failed, Michael Howard has said. ""Britain is heading in the wrong direction"", the Conservative leader said in his New Year message. Mr Blair's government was a ""bossy, interfering government that takes decisions that should be made by individuals,"" he added. But Labour's campaign spokesman Fraser Kemp responded: ""Britain is working, don't let the Tories wreck it again"". Mr Howard also paid tribute to the nation's character for its generous response to the Asian quake disaster. The catastrophe was overshadowing the hopes for the future at this usually positive time of the year, Mr Howard said. ""We watched the scenes of destruction with a sense of disbelief. The scale, the speed, the ferocity of what happened on Boxing Day is difficult to grasp. ""Yet Britain's response has shone a light on our nation's character. The last week has shown that the warm, caring heart of Britain beats as strong as ever."" He went on to reflect on the values that ""most Britons hold dear"". Looking ahead to the coming general election, he pledged to ""turn these beliefs into reality"" and set out the choices he says are facing Britain. ""How much tax do people want to pay? Who will give taxpayers value for money, the clean hospitals and good, disciplined schools they want? ""Who can be trusted to get a grip on the disorder on our streets and the chaos in our immigration system?"" Mr Blair has failed to tackle these problems, he claimed, saying he has the ""wrong solution"" to them. ""The result is big government and higher taxes eroding incentives, undermining enterprise and denying people choice. ""Worst of all, it is a government that has wasted people's money and failed to tackle the problems families face today."" The Tories, he said, can cut crime and improve public services without asking people to pay more taxes. ""We can have progress without losing what makes Britain great - its tolerance, the respect for the rule of law, the ability of everyone to fulfil their potential. ""We simply need to change direction. The election will give Britain the chance to change."" This is the record Mr Blair will have to defend in the coming months, he said, urging voters to hold him to account. But Labour spokesman Mr Kemp said: ""It would be more appropriate for this message to come out on 1 April, not 1 January."" ""Let us never forget that when Michael Howard was in government Britain suffered mass unemployment, 15% interest rates, record home repossessions, and the introduction of the poll tax. ""With Labour Britain is working. Rather than alluding to false promises Michael Howard should be starting 2005 with an apology to the British people for the misery that the government, of which he was a member, inflicted upon the country." +politics,"Top Tories on Lib Dem 'hit list' The Liberal Democrats are aiming to unseat a string of top Tories - including leader Michael Howard - at the next general election. Mr Howard's seat is at the top of the Liberal Democrats' list. Others targeted include Oliver Letwin, David Davis and Theresa May, Lib Dem's elections chief Lord Rennard said. He said it was ""nothing personal"" but that ""very many of the prominent Conservatives"" had slender leads in seats where the Lib Dems were second. In 2001, Michael Howard won the Folkestone & Hythe seat with 20,645 votes, compared to 14,738 for the Liberal Democrat candidate Peter Carroll, giving the Tory leader a majority of 5,907. Asked if this amounted to the party's much vaunted ""decapitation strategy"" Lord Rennard said it was not a term he had ever used. But he urged Labour supporters to vote tactically to remove prominent Conservatives. ""I just don't think Labour voters in these sort of seats could resist the temptation to use their votes effectively to remove a Conservative."" He denied this strategy was opportunism, insisting the Lib Dem's policies on issues such as tuition fees, the council tax and free care for the elderly appealed ""to all sides of the political spectrum"". ""We are in favour of tactical voting as long as the tactic is to vote Liberal Democrat,"" he added. A Conservative spokesperson said: ""The Liberal Democrats can talk all they like about strategy. The problem the Liberal Democrats face is that a large number of Lib Dem voters do not agree with their policies. ""We will be pointing out how they are soft on crime, how they support higher taxes, their opposition to controlled immigration and support for giving Europe more control over our lives""." +politics,"Campbell returns to election team Ex-Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell will return to the fold to strengthen Labour's general election campaign, the party has confirmed. Mr Campbell has consistently made public his keenness to play a part in the poll, expected in May. Both Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott have welcomed his return. ""He is a strong Labour Party member,"" Mr Prescott told BBC One's Breakfast With Frost programme. Mr Campbell quit Number 10 in August 2003 after being Tony Blair's right-hand man at the 1997 and 2001 elections. Labour have refused to discuss his exact new position and have not said how it would affect his Downing Street replacement David Hill. ""Of course Alastair's going to be part of the election campaign and I think that all of us who will also be part of the election campaign are very pleased about that,"" Ms Jowell told Sky News. But she said his return would not put anybody else's ""nose out of joint"". ""This is the daft thing about the way in which politics is written about,"" Ms Jowell added. ""There's room for everybody. We serve the country better if we make room for all the talent."" A Labour source told the Sunday Times Mr Campbell would ""effectively front"" the election media campaign but said he would be given no formal title. Labour strategists told the paper he would be ""set loose"" on Conservative leader Michael Howard in attacking his party's economic record when it was in power. ""They used pictures from the 1970s in the 1992 campaign to remind people of the winter of discontent - and now it's our turn,"" the source told the paper. ""Making Michael Howard leader gives us an unmissable opportunity to remind people what it was like to pay mortgage rates of 15% even if it was more than a decade ago."" Mr Campbell was at the centre of the government's row with BBC over Andrew Gilligan's story about the Iraq weapons dossier. The Hutton inquiry cleared him of ""sexing up"" the dossier in the run-up to the Iraq war. Since leaving Downing Street, he has toured the country with his one man show, An Audience With Alastair Campbell and presented a number of interview programmes for Channel 4." +politics,"Campbell: E-mail row 'silly fuss' Ex-No 10 media chief Alastair Campbell is at the centre of a new political row over an e-mail containing a four-letter outburst aimed at BBC journalists. Mr Campbell sent the missive by mistake to BBC2's Newsnight after it sought to question his role in Labour's controversial poster campaign. He later contacted the show saying the original e-mail had been sent in error and that it was all a ""silly fuss"". Mr Campbell has recently re-joined Labour's election campaign. The e-mail was revealed the day after Peter Mandelson, former Labour minister and now a European Commissioner, warned the BBC to steer away from ""demonising"" Mr Campbell. Mr Campbell messaged Newsnight after the programme investigated claims that Labour's advertising agency TBWA was blaming him for controversy over its campaign posters. The images, including one of flying pigs and another of what critics claim depicted Tory leader Michael Howard as Fagin, prompted accusations of anti-Semitism, claims denied by Labour. Mr Campbell's e-mail, which was apparently intended for a party official, suggested they should get Trevor Beattie, TBWA's boss, to issue a statement. In it, he said: ""Just spoke to trev. think tbwa shd give statement to newsnight saying party and agency work together well and nobody here has spoken to standard. Posters done by by tbwa according to political brief. Now fuck off and cover something important you twats!"" The e-mail was sent by mistake to Newsnight journalist Andrew McFadyen. Realising his error, Mr Campbell then e-mailed Mr McFadyen pointing out the mistake, but suggesting presenter Jeremy Paxman would have seen the funny side. He said: ""Not very good at this e-mail Blackberry malarkey. Just looked at log of sent messages, have realised e-mail meant for colleagues at TBWA has gone to you. For the record, first three sentences of email spot on. No row between me and trevor. ""Posters done by them according to our brief. I dreamt up flying pigs. Pigs not great but okay in the circs of Tories promising tax cuts and spending rises with the same money. TBWA made production. ""Campbell swears shock. Final sentence of earlier e-mail probably a bit colourful and personal considering we have never actually met but I'm sure you share the same sense of humour as your star presenter Mr P. ""Never known such a silly fuss since the last silly fuss but there we go. Must look forward not back."" Later the prime minister's spokesman was asked by journalists about his view on Mr Campbell's use of abusive language. The spokesman said: ""The person you are referring to is capable of speaking for himself and he no longer works in government."" Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he had always had ""very good and polite relations"" with Mr Campbell, who he described as ""very talented"". But on the former spin doctor's use of language, Mr Straw said: ""I do know the odd journalist who has occasionally used the odd word that would probably be inappropriate in some circumstances. Maybe I mix with the wrong kind of journalists."" Liam Fox, Tory co-chairman, said the return of Mr Campbell was a sign of new ""sinister and underhand tactics"" by Labour." +politics,"Jamieson issues warning to bigots Scotland's justice minister has warned bigoted soccer fans that she wants to hit them ""where it hurts most"" by banning them from matches. Cathy Jamieson said exclusion orders are one of a series of measures being considered in the Scottish Executive campaign against sectarianism. She praised Celtic and Rangers for their work in tackling the problem. However, the minister said stopping sectarian abuse associated with Old Firm matches is a key objective. Ms Jamieson was speaking ahead of the third round Scottish Cup clash between the Glasgow clubs at Parkhead on Sunday. The sectarianism long associated with sections of the support from both clubs has become a significant target for the executive. Last week Ms Jamieson and First Minister Jack McConnell met supporters' representatives from both clubs to discuss the issue. They plan to hold an anti-sectarian summit next month with officials from the clubs, church leaders, senior police officers and local authority chiefs among those to be invited. Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Sunday Live programme, Ms Jamieson described Friday's meeting as ""very productive"" and said putting the squeeze on the bigots would be a key aim. Ms Jamieson stressed that sectarianism has not been confined to football but it can act as a ""trigger"" for tensions and violence. Clubs have taken action in the past to ban troublesome fans and supporters' groups expressed their desire to ensure that the game is no longer tainted by the problem. Ms Jamieson said the executive should have a role in tackling the soccer troublemakers. She said: ""We can't get away from the fact that in some instances some of the religious hatred that some people try to associate with football boils over into violence. ""That is the kind of thing we want to stop and that's the kind of thing supporters' groups are very clear they don't want to be part of either, and they will work with us to try and deal with that."" Ms Jamieson praised the police for their action and said: ""The police do want to identify whether there are particular individuals who are going over the top and inciting hatred or violence - they will crack down very effectively on them. ""We have of course already indicated that we will consider the introduction of banning orders to give additional powers to where there are people who are going over the top, who have made inappropriate behaviour at football matches, to be able to stop them attending the games. ""That's the kind of thing that will hit those kind of people where it hurts the most in not allowing them to attend the games,"" she said. Praising Celtic and Rangers for their efforts, she said: ""I don't think there is any doubt that we have seen some positive moves from the clubs. ""Both Rangers and Celtic football clubs have been involved in working with the executive to produce, for example, an educational pack for young people.""" +politics,"Blunkett hints at election call Ex-Home Secretary David Blunkett has given fresh clues that the general election will be announced on Monday. He told BBC Radio Five Live: ""I'm out in my constituency getting ready for what we presume will be an announcement very shortly at the weekend."" He clarified that he meant he would be in his Sheffield seat this weekend, not that he expected an election call then. Tony Blair is tipped to ask the Queen on Monday to dissolve Parliament ready for a 5 May poll." +politics,"Turkey deal 'to help world peace' A deal bringing Turkey a step closer to EU membership is of ""fundamental importance"" to the peace and security of the world, Tony Blair has said. The deal, struck at the European Council last week, also proved claims of a clash between Muslims and Christians were ""wrong"", Mr Blair said. It represented the achievement of an ""historic British objective"", he added. Tory leader Michael Howard said the deal laid to rest any suggestion the EU was ""anti-Islamic"". Turkey's involvement with the EU would provide an ""invaluable bridge"" between Europe and the rest of the world, Mr Howard added. But the Tory leader argued that the EU constitution was not designed to take in a country as large as Turkey. Mr Blair has been a leading advocate of Turkish membership despite controversy surrounding the idea. He insisted that the Turkish leadership had made great advances in improving its human rights records. The deal to open formal talks with Ankara came despite an EU demand for Turkey to recognise Cyprus. It was agreed the issue can be tackled at a later date but Turkish premier Recep Erdogan had to accept negotiations did not guarantee his country full EU membership. The internationally recognised southern part of Cyprus is an EU member, but Turkey, which occupies northern Cyprus, had previously insisted it would not bow to demands to recognise the country, calling the issue a ""red line"". It could take up to 15 years before Turkey is able to join, and entry cannot be guaranteed. If it joins, Turkey may have to accept restrictions to limit migration by its citizens. The EU has also announced that it will start accession talks with Croatia in April 2005. However, talks will begin only if the country co-operates fully with the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia." +politics,"Hague's six-figure earnings shown The rewards of leaving front-bench politics are shown in the latest annual register of members' interests. The register shows former Tory leader William Hague earning up to £820,000 on top of his MPs' salary, much of it from speaking fees. His former shadow chancellor Michael Portillo makes up to £560,000 a year - partly because of speeches and TV work. Ex-health secretary Alan Milburn earned up to £85,000 from speeches, articles and advice while not in the Cabinet. Mr Milburn was away from the frontbench for just more than a year between stepping down as health secretary and becoming Labour's election supremo. His declared interests include £20,000 from newspaper articles and fees of up to £35,000 for four speeches. He also commanded a salary of between £25,000 and £35,000 for being on investment company Bridgepoint Capital's European advisory committee. His time out of office will, however, have lost him his £71,433 minister's salary. Mr Hague's work outside Parliament included two one-man shows, which with other speaking fees netted him up to £480,000. He also earned up to £195,000 for a weekly column in the News of the World, and between £5,000 and £10,000 for presenting BBC'2's Have I Got News for You. Mr Hague was also paid an undisclosed amount for the newspaper serialisation of his biography of William Pitt the Younger and up to £135,00 for work as an adviser to various companies. Former Defence Secretary Michael Portillo makes some of his money as a non-executive director of BAE Systems. He is to stand down as an MP at the next election. And former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook was paid between £45,001 and £50,000 for the paperback edition of his book about his resignation from government. His declared income of up to £205,000 also includes payments for being a consultant to the Tote and for his regular column in the Guardian newspaper. The register also shows former Home Office Minister Ann Widdecombe declaring a £100,000 advance for her third and fourth novels. She also received up to £30,000 for acting as the Guardian's agony aunt and between £5,001 and £10,000 for appearing on ITV's Celebrity Fit Club. David Blunkett has become a paid adviser to Indepen Consulting Limited now he is not home secretary - he helps them with seminars about the relationship between government and business. He earns between £5,001and £10,000 for the work. Tony Blair's entry confirms that King Abdullah of Jordan paid for him to fly from a holiday in Egypt to official discussions - and for a sightseeing tour to Wadi Rum. Tory leader Michael Howard's only fresh entry is a Christmas hamper from the Sultan of Brunei. He also declares a trip to Mexico last year to address executives of News International, and helicopter and private jet travel paid for by supporters. Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy registered donations to his office from supporters, a free ticket to last year's Bafta awards and rent from a single-bedroom flat in London. The register only contains new information for December 2004 - but Monday saw the publication of the annual review of the register, with the year's details. The payments are shown in bands of up £5,000, making it difficult to calculate the exact earnings." +politics,"Hague 'given up' his PM ambition Former Conservative leader William Hague says he will not stand for the leadership again, having given up his ambition to be prime minister. Mr Hague, 43, told the Daily Telegraph he would now find a life dominated by politics too ""boring"" and unfulfilling. Mr Hague, who stepped down after his party's 2001 election defeat, does not rule out a return to the front bench. He also told the paper he hopes to remain MP for Richmond, North Yorks, and start a family with wife Ffion. Mr Hague, who recently had published the biography of William Pitt the Younger, also said he wanted to continue writing books and speech-writing. He told the newspaper: ""I don't know whether I will ever go back on to the front, but don't rush me."" Asked if he would stand for the leadership again, Mr Hague replied: ""No. Definitely not."" His determination to stay away from a central role will disappoint some senior Conservative members, who say the party needs him. Tim Collins, the shadow education secretary, said last week it would be a ""huge boost"" to the party if Mr Hague returned to the front bench. Mr Hague became an MP at 27 and Leader of the Opposition at 36. He said: ""I feel fortunate that, by the age of 40, I had crammed in an entire political career. ""I had been in the Cabinet and been leader of the party, so now I can branch out into other things...it is a very liberating feeling."" Mr Hague added that he may have misjudged his own ambition to be prime minister. ""Maybe I wasn't as driven by politics as I thought I was,"" he said." +politics,"Citizenship event for 18s touted Citizenship ceremonies could be introduced for people celebrating their 18th birthday, Charles Clarke has said. The idea will be tried as part of an overhaul of the way government approaches ""inclusive citizenship"" particularly for ethnic minorities. A pilot scheme based on ceremonies in Australia will start in October. Mr Clarke said it would be a way of recognising young people reaching their voting age when they also gain greater independence from parents. Britain's young black and Asian people are to be encouraged to learn about the nation's heritage as part of the government's new race strategy which will also target specific issues within different ethnic minority groups. Officials say the home secretary wants young people to feel they belong and to understand their ""other cultural identities"" alongside being British. The launch follows a row about the role of faith schools in Britain. On Monday school inspection chief David Bell, accused some Islamic schools of failing to teach pupils about their obligations to British society. The Muslim Council of Britain said Ofsted boss Mr Bell's comments were ""highly irresponsible"". The Home Office started work on its Community Cohesion and Race Equality Strategy last year and the outcome, launched on Wednesday, is called 'Improving Opportunity, Strengthening Society'. It is aimed at tackling racism, exclusion, segregation and the rise in political and religious extremism. ""It represents a move away from the one-size-fits-all approach to focus on specifics within cultural groups,"" said a Home Office spokesman. ""It is not right to say that if you are from a black or ethnic minority group you must be disadvantaged."" The spokesman highlighted specific issues that affect particular communities - for example people of south Asian origin tend to suffer from a high incidence of heart disease. ""It is about drilling down and focusing on these sorts of problems,"" the spokesman added. Launching the initiative Mr Clarke said enormous progress had been made on race issues in recent years. He added: ""But while many members of black and minority ethnic communities are thriving, some may still find it harder to succeed in employment or gain access to healthcare, education or housing. ""This strategy sets out the government's commitment to doing more to identify and respond to the specific needs of minorities in our society."" Some 8% of the UK population described themselves as coming from a non-white ethnic minority in the 2001 Census. The Downing Street Strategy Unit in 2003 said people from Indian and Chinese backgrounds were doing well on average, often outperforming white people in education and earnings. But those of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black Caribbean origin were significantly more likely to be unemployed and earn less than whites, it said. The Home Office wants more initiatives which try to promote a sense of belonging by encouraging young people to take part in voluntary work. The programmes are designed to support the citizenship lessons already taking place in schools." +politics,"Labour's election love-in Peace and love have been in short supply in the Labour party in recent days. If press reports are to be believed, Alan Milburn and Gordon Brown have been at each other's throats over the contents of Labour's next election manifesto. But the pair were all smiles on Tuesday morning, as they joined John Prescott to unveil Labour's latest poster campaign. The event - at Old Billingsgate Fish Market on the banks of the Thames - was a carefully choreographed show of unity. And the surest sign yet that we are heading for a general election in the next few months. It was also one of the most bizarre photo opportunities of recent years. The first inkling something slightly odd was afoot was when - in place of the soft rock music normally chosen for such occasions - Labour's speakers crackled to life with the sound of Booker T and the MGs. Then a VW camper van trundled into view, decked out in that most mind-bending of psychedelic messages - ""lowest mortgage rate for 40 years"". As the side-door slid open, it looked for one glorious moment as if the Cabinet had decided to bury their differences and go on the road together, Scooby Doo-style. But, sadly, it wasn't the Cabinet who had raided the dressing-up box - just six rather ill-at-ease looking Labour students. Two were dressed as Regency dandies - to unveil a poster trumpeting ""the longest period of economic growth for 200 years"". Another pair of students were in a Beatle wig and Sgt Pepper jacket to highlight the ""lowest interest rates since the 1960s"". The remaining two were dressed in a vague approximation of disco chic to demonstrate the ""lowest unemployment since the seventies"". The politicians - led out by John Prescott - were soberly-suited as always. The event may have been designed to highlight Labour's economic success under Mr Brown, but there was little doubt who was in charge. The chancellor walked side-by-side with Mr Milburn, pointedly exchanging chit chat, as they approached the microphone. But it was Mr Milburn who took centre stage, speaking of the ""positive campaign"" the party hoped to stage in the ""coming weeks and months"". The mobile poster vans would ""let people know Britain is working again"". Mr Brown repeated the familiar mantras displayed on the posters and spoke of Labour's ""shared purpose"" and ""united dedication"". It was left to Mr Prescott to pay glowing tribute to the chancellor's record and, in a final flourish, to produce his famous pledge card, from 1997, claiming Labour has met all of its promises. The event was carefully stage-managed to underline Cabinet unity. And, more specifically, to demonstrate the ""central role"" Mr Brown will play in the election campaign, despite being sidelined as campaign chief in favour of Mr Milburn. But keen students of body language will have had a field day. There was much forced smiling for the cameras, but only Mr Prescott, who revels in such occasions, seemed to be truly enjoying himself. Mr Milburn made a point of turning to face the chancellor, as he spoke, nodding thoughtfully. But it was the former health secretary's final gesture, placing an arm on Mr Brown's back as they walked away from the microphones, which was perhaps the most telling. Thanks for dropping by Gordon, he might have been saying." +politics,"UKIP's secret weapon? By any measure, New Yorker Dick Morris is that thing Americans love over everything else - a winner. This is the man who, some pundits believe, was almost single-handedly responsible for Bill Clinton's sensational 1992 comeback victory. But Morris is no ideologue. He has worked as election strategist for any number of Republicans as well and, more recently, politicians from Mexico to Uruguay. Now he is back in London as the UK Independence Party's not-so-secret electoral weapon after returning from the Ukraine where he helped - you guessed it - opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. If there is one regular criticism levelled at Morris, it is that he is too ready to switch allegiances. That he enjoys the game more than the politics. So why Britain and why UKIP which, despite its recent EU election successes, is not likely to pull off a sensational victory in the looming general election. On this subject, Morris appears almost evangelical. ""I was on a cruise in the Mediterranean and, coincidentally, so was UKIP leader Roger Knapman. ""I had just written a piece saying how the English Channel was now wider than the Atlantic which he liked and it went from there"". But what is it about UKIP that particularly attracts him? Many might think it is simply another chance to practice his art, irrespective of the politics. ""I think the greatest threat to democracy in the world is not terrorism but bureaucratism"". A great soundbite, but a surprise coming from a New Yorker post 11 September. ""It is the growth of these bodies composed of experts who know better, who don't believe in letting democracy govern but believe in letting the correct solution be determined. ""That's international bankers, the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and, primarily, the European Union"". So he is out to help UKIP take Britain out of this organisation which he believes is unreformable and inherently undemocratic. And he is scathing of the Tory party which he also appears to believe is unreformable. ""The Tory party is schizophrenic about Europe. But until somebody says they are willing to leave the EU they can't possibly re-negotiate anything (as Michael Howard is pledged to do). ""It's like walking into a liquor store with a gun to rob it and saying: 'before I can proceed with the robbery I want to make clear I am not going to shoot anybody'"". Possibly a very American analogy, but another great soundbite. ""The basic point is that the EU seeks political integration to move the entire nexus of decision making away from Britain - and we oppose that and the Tories cannot be trusted to oppose it"". So is UKIP's job to destroy the Tories, as former member Robert Kilroy-Silk once notoriously declared? ""No. The aim of UKIP is to withdraw from the EU and if it has any relation to the Tories it is to stiffen the Tories' spine on the issue by having a large enough UKIP vote so that we move the Tories in the direction they are refusing to move. ""But it's not just to shift the Tories. I think UKIP had a huge amount to do with Tony Blair's decision to hold a referendum on the European constitution and I think it had a huge amount to do with his refusal to go into the euro"". And, while we are on the subject of Mr Kilroy-Silk, Mr Morris despatches him with another of his neat soundbites. ""Robert Kilroy Silk is not a team player - it is a good idea our party stands for some thing and not some one"". So what is the big plan for the general election. How will he achieve the breakthrough? ""Look, we are not going to be forming the next government,"" he said. Neither does UKIP have to fight every seat. As with the 2004 US presidential election, he says, the outcome will be decided by a small number of swing seats - just as he believes it will in Britain. So, with limited resources, the aim is to target those seats and end the day with a significant group in the Commons. He also believes it is possible the internet could have a big part in the poll. ""The internet was a decisive factor in the 2004 presidential election - through blogs (individuals posting their views in online diaries). People just did it"". ""Anything can happen in the next general election. There is an inherent instability at the moment. ""Labour and the Tories have drawn the consensus so tightly and to the left there is room for another voice"". That might, he suggests, lead to a hung parliament with UKIP and others holding the balance of power. It is a huge task, surely. But there is undoubtedly a sense that the next general election may indeed produce some surprises - even while most still believe it is Labour's for the taking. UKIP's performance in last year's European elections was just such a shocker and showed that Mr Morris may have a point about the new consensus. And after all, he has a reputation to sustain." +politics,"Top judge clashes with ministers The UK's top judge has revealed he has clashed with ministers about how the heads of public inquiries are chosen. Lord Woolf said he was determined his current veto on whether a judge should chair an inquiry should continue as a guard for judicial independence. But he told MPs the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, was insisting he should have the final say in such cases. Lord Hutton's inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly sparked debate about who should run inquiries. The government says the lord chancellor would be unlikely to go against Lord Woolf's wishes. Lord Woolf, who is Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, was giving evidence to the Commons public administration select committee's inquiry into public inquiries. He said he had not been involved in the choice of Lord Hutton, who as a law lord did not come under his jurisdiction. But he argued he should have a veto on whether judges generally should chair a particular inquiry and if so, which judge it should be. In written evidence to the committee, Lord Woolf said: ""I have, so far, failed to reach an agreement with the lord chancellor on this issue ... I intend to maintain my position and will press for this safeguard to be in any future legislation."" Judges should think carefully before heading an inquiry into a highly political issue, such as the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, he said. He argued: ""The subject matter of the inquiry may be so political that it would be damaging to the judiciary for a judge to be involved. ""In addition, the question of whether there should be an inquiry at all may be highly controversial and if a judge is appointed, the judiciary, as a result of the appointment, may be seen as siding inappropriately with the government."" He told the MPs: ""Anything that tends to undermine the confidence of the public in the judiciary worries me."" Lord Woolf said the current rules were not written down but it was inconceivable in practice that the lord chancellor would overrule his concerns. But that situation could change with new legal reforms. The issue had been ""overlooked"" when a new agreement was drawn up about those responsibilities and the dispute had emerged in later discussions. ""What I am asking for is a situation where if the lord chancellor cannot obtain my agreement [on appointing a judge], it doesn't happen,"" he said. Lord Woolf said he did not think there would be difficulties but he wanted to establish the principle. A Department for Constitutional Affairs spokeswoman said Lord Woolf and Lord Falconer agreed about what happened in practice. ""Their disagreement is about whether the legislation should include a requirement for consultation or concurrence - a very narrow dispute, in Lord Woolf's words,"" she said. ""As Lord Woolf also acknowledged, it is highly unlikely that the lord chancellor would appoint a judge against the wishes of the lord chief justice. ""Judges are free to decide for themselves whether to accept positions as inquiry chairs."" Parliament will examine the issue next year when it debates a new bill about public inquiries." +politics,"'Fido' to be taken off vote lists The risk of pets and children being given votes could be cut by changing how people register to vote, the UK elections watchdog has said. Those are some of the mistakes found under the current system, where one person in each household applies for voting forms for the other occupants. The Electoral Commission says enabling people to register individually could cut some errors and combat fraud. Voters need to register by 11 March if the next poll is on 5 May as expected. But any individual registration scheme would not be introduced in Britain before that general election. The proposed scheme would mean voters using individual ""identifiers"" when they vote - such as their own voting number, date of birth and signature. The Electoral Commission says having voters register individually rather than the head of household do it for them fits better with human rights laws. Chairman Sam Younger told MPs on Tuesday care was needed to ensure that people were not lost off the register in the process - which happened when Northern Ireland switched to a similar system. There have been rare cases when household pets have been put on the electoral roll, the MPs heard. And some people have registered all their family, regardless of their age - birth dates are not included on the forms so election officers cannot easily check. Non-British citizens who are not entitled to vote have also been registered in some cases. Mr Younger said there was anecdotal evidence of inaccuracies in the register, the vast majority of which were caused by genuine mistakes. He argued local councils could look harder at promoting targeted campaigns at ""hard to reach"" voters, for example. Some authorities already run such programmes but in others councillors worry about the party political impact of encouraging particular areas to turn out. Mr Younger said using the Royal Mail's postal redirection service had already helped election officers retrace about 50,000 voters. He argued individual registration would also increase security for postal ballots and other new ways of voting. There have been fears there are too few checks to ensure current postal votes are cast by the person on the voting form. He said it might also help register students in halls of residences, where the hall warden often has to do the job for everybody. The MPs on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Constitutional Affairs select committees pressed Mr Younger on how to avoid losing voters in any changeover. He said the Northern Ireland example illustrated real difficulties to be confronted. Currently, British voters have to re-register to vote every year or face being removed from the electoral rolls if they fail to do so two years running. Mr Younger suggested the re-registration could happen less frequently but argued efforts were needed to check the electoral rolls were up-to-date." +politics,"Borders rail link campaign rally Campaigners are to stage a rally calling for a Borders rail link which was closed in 1969 to be reopened. They will mark the 36th anniversary of the line closure, which ran from Edinburgh through the Borders and on to Carlisle, with a walk at Tweedbank. Anne Borthwick, of Campaign for Borders Rail, said reopening the Waverley Line would restore the area's prosperity. MSPs are considering the reintroduction of passenger rail services through Midlothian to the Borders. Campaigners have said that reopening the Waverley Line, which could cost up to £100m, would be a huge economic boost for the Borders. In 2000, Borders Council said the area's economy had suffered since the closure. Ms Borthwick said the lobby group was determined to keep the pressure on the Scottish Executive. ""We are hoping that many people will join us in a march to mark the 36th anniversary of the closure of the Waverley Line,"" she said. ""Campaign for Borders Rail is the biggest independent lobby group in Scotland and we have been lobbying tirelessly for the reinstatement of rail services to the Borders and eventually to Carlisle. ""We believe that it is time for the Scottish Executive to commit to the first phase of the project by pledging to fund the line between Edinburgh and Tweedbank in the first instance and then investigate extending the line in the future."" Ms Borthwick said reopening the line would be a prosperous move and protect the character of the Scottish Borders. A study in 2000, which was commissioned by the executive, Scottish Borders Council, Midlothian Council and Scottish Borders Enterprise, found that a half-hourly service from Tweedbank to Edinburgh could cover its operating costs. It also found that a half-hourly service from Gorebridge to Edinburgh could cover operating costs and that a freight railway joining the West Coast Main Line at Longtown could also be reinstated." +politics,"Campaign 'cold calls' questioned Labour and the Conservatives are still telephoning the millions of people who have signed up to make sure they do not get marketing ""cold calls"". The parties say they can stick to the rules by ensuring that their calls are not marketing - for instance by asking about people's voting intentions. The Lib Dems are asking the watchdog overseeing the rules to stop the calls. The information commissioner's office says surveys are allowed but people had to be told if personal data was kept. Telephone call centres are expected to be used as never before by all the three major parties in the run-up to the general election. But seven million telephone numbers are on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) lists, which ban unsolicited sales and marketing calls. Both schemes are run by the Direct Marketing Association and backed by EU directives on privacy and electronic communications. The rules on marketing calls apply as much to politicians as to private sector companies. But that does not mean Labour and the Tories are not calling people signed up to the TPS. A Labour Party spokesman told the BBC News website the party avoided those on TPS lists when telephoning people about membership or fundraising. But that did not happen for ""voter identification"" calls. ""When we ask which party they will vote for, that is not marketing and we have very clear legal advice that it is not,"" he said. ""So it is not covered by the Telephone Preference Service."" He said the party always asked people if they would be happy to be contacted again and if they said no, they were not rung again. A Conservative spokeswoman said the party stuck to the rules when it rang TPS subscribers. She said: ""We do apply TPS but in line with the law. We would not do things that are not allowed in the law."" Assistant information commissioner Phil Jones said it was classed as marketing if political parties telephoned people to encourage them to vote for them. But ""classic market research"", such as a poll of voter intentions, did not constitute direct marketing, he said. ""If a party is calling someone who is registered on TPS and records their voting intention with a view to using this information in the future, this should be clear to the voter concerned,"" said Mr Jones. ""If a party rings a person who is registered on TPS to ask about their voting intention and goes on to encourage that voter to support them, the party may well be in breach of the regulations. ""In summary, whether a party calling TPS registered voters to check their voting intentions will breach regulations will depend on the script used and whether the script is followed."" Mr Jones said the watchdog received ""very few complaints"" on the issue. Earlier, Lib Dem chairman Matthew Taylor wrote to the watchdog saying: ""The advice we have received on several previous occasions is that such phone calls are illegal."" He says evidence from local Lib Dem parties around the country suggests there are ""significant"" numbers of such calls. ""I hope you can therefore take swift and efficient action to ensure that this ceases,"" he tells the commissioner. Mr Taylor argues there should be new guidelines so all parties can act in the same way if the watchdog believes the rules allow parties to ring TPS numbers about voting intentions and later urge those people to vote for them." +politics,"New drink limit 'would cut toll' More lives than previously thought could be saved by cutting drink-drive limits by a third, a report says. University College London research claims cutting the limit from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg would save 65 lives a year. The findings are being published by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety as MPs are due to vote on the government's Road Safety Bill. The bill includes changes to speeding fines but not to the drink-drive limit. The research, carried out by transport expert professor Richard Allsop, says cutting the limit would also lead to 230 fewer serious injuries on the UK's roads compared with 2003. He estimates that this would save the country £119m a year. A previous estimate, contained in a 1998 Department of Transport Document, suggested such a move could save 50 lives a year. The findings are based on the assumption that drivers who currently keep below the legal limit would continue to do so were it to be lowered and that those who tend to exceed the limit slightly would also lower their drinking. Professor Allsop said: ""Reducing the limit from 80mg to 50mg can be expected to save around 65 lives a year or around half of those who die in accidents where the driver's BAC [blood alcohol content] is within 30mg of the current limit. ""Only about one in 50 of those driving during weekend evenings and nights will need to moderate their drinking to achieve this and fewer still at other times."" Ministers do not support a lower limit, saying it is not clear it would have a major impact on drink drive casualties. They believe educating drivers is more important. The AA Motoring Trust said it was not sure what affect dropping the limit would have on drivers' attitudes to drink-driving. Road safety head Andrew Howard said: ""It remains to be seen whether the social disapproval of the drinking driver will stay at the current rate if the alcohol limit is cut. ""Parliamentarians need to consider this carefully. Britons police themselves by consensus much more effectively than they do by weight of enforcement alone."" Liberal Democrat transport spokesman John Thurso said drink-driving remained a ""major killer"", with figures showing a worrying rise in the number of accidents involving drivers who had been drinking. He said there had been a 29% drop in the number of drivers being breathalysed since 1997, which he said the government needed to address if it wanted to reduce the danger caused by drink-driving. The Road Safety Bill, which gets its second reading on Tuesday, would allow the results of roadside breath tests to be used in court - currently a blood test is needed. It also includes plans for a staggered speeding fines and points system, penalising drivers who exceed limits by a wide margin more than those who are caught going just over. These have been criticised by road safety campaigners, including Labour backbencher Gwyneth Dunwoody, who says it will reduce the incentive for drivers to stay within the limits in residential areas, leading to more road casualties. In an article for the Times newspaper, Ms Dunwoody, who chairs the Transport Select Committee, says: ""Slight increases to low car speeds increase hugely the risks to pedestrians and cyclists. ""It is quite simple: if you hit someone at 30mph, they have a 50 per cent chance of survival. If you are going at 40mph, nine times out of ten they will die.""" +politics,"Burglar defence guidelines issued Householders who injure or even kill intruders are unlikely to be prosecuted - providing they were acting ""honestly and instinctively"", new guidelines say. The law also protects those who use ""something to hand"" as a weapon. The leaflet, published by police and prosecutors, aims to combat confusion about current legislation, which lets people use ""reasonable force"". The guidance, relating to England and Wales, follows a recent decision by ministers not to change the law. Doing what you ""honestly and instinctively"" believed was necessary would be the strongest evidence of acting lawfully, the guidance said. And the law protects those who use ""something to hand"" as a weapon, said the leaflet published jointly by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). As a general rule, the more extreme the circumstances and fear felt, the more force can be used lawfully in self-defence, it said, adding that householders do not have to wait to be attacked before defending themselves. But knocking someone unconscious then killing them or hurting them further, or setting a trap for an intruder without involving the police were given as examples of ""excessive and gratuitous"" force. The Tories have called for a change in the law so householders are only prosecuted if they use ""grossly disproportionate"" force. Their demands have been backed by former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens. Tory frontbencher Patrick Mercer is now pursuing the proposal through a private member's bill in Parliament. The government instead mounted a publicity campaign to clear up public uncertainty after a review concluded no law change was necessary. Home Secretary Charles Clarke said: ""I believe in that old adage 'an Englishman's home is his castle'. That's exactly what should be the case and I believe the current law provides that."" An ""informal trawl"" of CPS records found 11 people had been prosecuted after attacking intruders in the past 15 years, five of whom were convicted. They included a man who laid in wait for a burglar on commercial premises in Cheshire, before beating him up, throwing him into a pit and setting him on fire. A CPS spokesperson said the figures were not definitive because prosecutions are not listed according to whether they were committed by a householder on an intruder. In one of Britain's highest profile cases, Norfolk farmer Tony Martin was jailed for life for murdering 16-year-old burglar Fred Barras, in 1999. The conviction was later reduced to manslaughter on appeal and the sentence cut to five years. Mr Martin was freed from prison in July 2003. The guidance published on Tuesday, said the police had a duty to investigate all incidents involving a death or injury. In cases involving householders attacking intruders prosecutors and police were ""determined"" they would be dealt with ""as swiftly and as sympathetically as possible"", it said." +politics,"Tories unveil quango blitz plans Plans to abolish 162 quangos have been unveiled by the Conservatives as part of their effort to show how government red tape can be cut. Six government units would also be scrapped under proposals which the Tories say would save more than £4.3bn. Among the targets are strategic health authorities and the new fair access regulator for universities. Tory frontbencher John Redwood said Britain needed a slimmer government and lower taxes to be competitive. The plans would abolish regional assemblies and other regional bodies, such as boards tackling industrial development and housing. Their powers would be returned to elected local councils or national government. The Tories say the strategic health authorities are not needed as it is better that local people, rather than officials, run hospitals and surgeries. Announcing the plans, Mr Redwood said: ""Mr Blair has forgotten the interests of taxpayers, and has broken the pledges he made. ""Far from improving public services, spending taxpayers' money on quangos has led only to more bureaucrats, more regulation and higher taxes."" His party leader, Michael Howard, argued a change in direction was needed to get a grip on spending. ""Labour are creating Two Britains: the Britain of the forgotten majority and bureaucratic Britain,"" he said. ""In the real world, people are working harder just to stand still. They've seen their pensions knocked for six. ""They're being squeezed by extra taxes. The forgotten majority are paying the price of bureaucratic Britain."" The government has announced plans to cut 100,000 civil servants as part of its efficiency drive. But Chief Secretary to the Treasury Paul Boateng attacked the Tory plans. ""The Conservatives are committed to cutting Labour's public spending plans by a massive £35 billion,"" he said. ""Cuts on this scale cannot be found from cutting 'bureaucracy' but would require massive cuts to front-line public services such as schools, hospitals and the police."" The Liberal Democrats have said they would cut the number of Whitehall departments to make sure money reaches frontline services." +politics,"Brown 'proud of economy record' Gordon Brown has delivered a rousing speech to Labour's spring conference setting out the government's agenda for the next general election. The chancellor said he was proud of his party's record on the economy, and would strive for continuing stability if elected. The Gateshead conference was told he would help young people who were struggling to buy their own homes. And the chancellor vowed to continue the fight against child poverty. Later, Prime Minister Tony Blair will answer questions sent by the public via text and e-mail. Analysing Mr Brown's position before the speech, BBC correspondent James Hardy said Mr Brown would draw ""sharp dividing lines"" with the Conservatives for the forthcoming election campaign. He would contrast Labour's plan to invest £60bn in services with a Tory plan to cut spending by £35bn. ""Mr Brown will lay out his credentials as a reforming chancellor determined to take on and beat the Asian tiger economies which increasingly dominate world trade,"" our correspondent said. On Friday night, Mr Brown confirmed he would not make any tax commitments until the Labour manifesto had been published after the Budget, expected in March. But commentators will listen to his speech closely for hints on whether, as the Conservatives claim, he plans to raise tax after the election. The Tories accuse Labour of raising taxes 66 times since coming to power in 1997. Following the chancellor's keynote speech, the prime minister will face interactive questioning from ordinary voters on Saturday. Mr Blair is thought to be deliberately putting himself on the line in a bid to engage the electorate ahead of an expected May election. Capital Radio DJ Margherita Taylor will select questions to put to him from thousands e-mailed and sent by text. The prime minister's enthusiasm for the job remains undimmed, Alan Milburn, Labour's election strategist told Radio 4's Today programme on Saturday. Mr Blair has ""the same passion and the same commitments for the job"" as when Labour came to power in 1997, he said. And he confirmed Mr Blair's insistence that no poll date had yet been set. He said: ""I'm the General Election co-ordinator and I don't know, and Tony has not made up his mind."" On Friday, the prime minister completed a whistle-stop tour of England, during which he unveiled his party's six pre-election pledges. Starting in London, he visited marginal constituencies pledging to build on what he said were Labour's achievements on the economy, crime, education and public services. The Conservatives and Lib Dems said the pledges - set to underpin Labour's election campaign - were ""worthless""." +politics,"Faith schools citizenship warning Schools must improve the quality of citizenship lessons - or social cohesion and democracy will suffer, says the education watchdog. Independent faith schools were singled out by Ofsted chief, David Bell, for not doing enough to promote the ""wider tenets of British society"". Mr Bell said Muslim, Jewish and Evangelical Christian schools must be ""intolerant of intolerance"". Diversity ""certainly must not mean segregated or separate"", he said. Mr Bell's speech called for a much greater effort in all types of schools to teach citizenship - with an accompanying survey showing that young people knew little about politics and had no enthusiasm to find out more. Badly-taught citizenship lessons have previously been criticised by Mr Bell, and in a speech to the Hansard Society, he warned that it was failing to pass on an understanding of democracy, public service and shared values. He highlighted his particular concern for citizenship in the growing number of independent faith schools - which he said included about 100 Muslim, 100 Evangelical Christian and 50 Jewish schools. Mr Bell expressed concern about schools which did not teach children enough about a ""common heritage"" and needed to do more to promote principles of mutual tolerance and social inclusion. ""I worry that many young people are being educated in faith-based schools, with little appreciation of their wider responsibilities and obligations to British society,"" said Mr Bell. The Ofsted chief said his forthcoming annual report would make particular reference to Muslim schools. ""Many must adapt their curriculum to ensure that it provides pupils with a broad general knowledge of public institutions and services in England and helps them to acquire an appreciation of and respect for other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony."" Mr Bell said such questions of religion and cultural identity were ""tricky issues"". But he argued that ""we must not allow our recognition of diversity to become apathy in the face of any challenge to our coherence as a nation"". ""I would go further and say that an awareness of our common heritage as British citizens, equal under the law, should enable us to assert with confidence that we are intolerant of intolerance, illiberalism and attitudes and values that demean the place of certain sections of our community, be they women or people living in non-traditional relationships,"" said Mr Bell." +politics,"No to Royal succession shake-up A Labour peer has withdrawn proposals to give female members of the Royal Family the same rights as males. The legislation would have ended the right of male heirs with older sisters to succeed to the Crown. It would also have torn up ancient legislation banning heirs to the throne marrying Roman Catholics. But the government refused to back Lord Dubs' Succession to the Crown Bill, saying it was too complex and raised too many constitutional issues. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, agreed the 1701 Act of Settlement, which governs the succession, was discriminatory but added that ""for all practical purposes its effects are limited"". The changes proposed by Lord Dubs were a ""complex and controversial undertaking raising major constitutional issues"", he said. Lord Falconer said there were 22 members of the Royal Family in the line of succession after the Prince of Wales - all of who were eligible to succeed and had been unaffected by the act. ""It is not a simple matter that can be tinkered with lightly. While we wish to remove all forms of discrimination... this isn't the proper form,"" he added. He did not rule out change in the future but said if Lord Dubs' private member's bill was passed by peers, he would urge MPs to oppose it in the Commons. Lord Dubs agreed to withdraw his bill after its second reading in the House of Lords, but urged the government to think again at a later stage. ""We cannot forever say we don't want to change things because it is too difficult,"" he told peers. During the debate, the Labour peer and former minister said: ""The monarchy should symbolise the values of this country. ""What we don't want is a situation where the values of the country have moved on and the monarchy is centuries behind the times. ""We are surely all opposed to discrimination on the grounds of gender and we are surely also opposed to discrimination against Catholics."" But opponents of the bill, including Tory Lord Campbell of Alloway and the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, said it would separate the state from both the Church of England and the Christian faith. Such a ""secular"" state would be markedly ""less tolerant"", Rt Rev Scott-Joynt argued." +politics,"Howard attacks cost of asylum Michael Howard has launched an attack on the cost of Britain's ""chaotic"" asylum system under Tony Blair. The Tory leader said English local authorities have spent more than £3bn - or £140 per household - on asylum since Labour won power in 1997. Mr Howard is expected to tell activists in Kent that voters' tolerance and desire to help others are being abused. Other parties and refugee agencies have already attacked Tory plans for annual limits on numbers. Mr Howard said Britain should take its fair share of the world's ""genuine refugees"". ""The anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz - where my grandmother was murdered along with over a million others - has reminded all of us that we have a moral responsibility to those fleeing persecution,"" he was due to say. ""But if we are to fulfil responsibility, we have to get a grip of the system. ""Fair play matters. People want a government that upholds the rules - not one that turns a blind eye when they are bent and abused,"" he said. ""And let's be clear. Our asylum system is being abused - and with it Britain's generosity."" Earlier this week, Mr Howard said his party's plans to cut immigration were not racist, arguing they would make the asylum system fairer for genuine refugees. If elected, his party would institute an annual limit on asylum and all claims would be processed overseas. That prompted some charities to say the plans would put refugees' lives at risk if they were turned away once quotas were filled. ""If we have a moral responsibility towards people fleeing persecution, then these policies will not provide a safe haven,"" said Hannah Ward of the Refugee Council. ""If people turn up in the UK asking for help they will be turned away. Michael Howard's policy effectively means there is no safe haven in the UK. ""When it comes to costs, then perhaps we should start with how decisions are made on asylum seekers. So many of them are shown to be wrong - one in five decisions that are appealed are successfully overturned, rising to half for some nationalities. ""We need good quality decision-making on asylum applications because it is delays in the system which cost so much."" Tony Blair said Labour would set out workable plans for tackling immigration abuse in the next few weeks and attacked the Tory plans. ""By cutting the number of front-line immigration staff at our borders, they will actually make the problem worse,"" said Mr Blair. Liberal Democrat chairman Matthew Taylor said there needed to be a quick, fair and firm asylum system. But he said it was ""absolutely disgusting"" to propose a system which could turn away genuine refugees. The Conservatives say there is little risk of this happening as demand for asylum will be considered when quotas are set. On Monday, Mr Howard said: ""It's not racist, as some people to claim, to talk about controlling immigration far from it.""" +politics,"Howard rebuts asylum criticisms Tory leader Michael Howard has gone on the offensive in response to people questioning how a son of immigrants can propose asylum quotas. Mr Howard, whose parents fled the Nazi threat to come to the UK, says the claim would mean no-one from an immigrant family could become premier. His comments come in a BBC documentary called 'No More Mr Nasty'. TV presenter Anne Robinson said as home secretary he gave the impression he would ""like to kick your cat"". Ms Robinson, a friend of the Tory leader, also revealed that as a Cambridge student Mr Howard was ""much loved by women and he was a courteous and kind and rather dashing lover"" - although she denied having personal experience. ""I wasn't at Cambridge - and it's not personal experience - but I know people who were."" Documentary maker Michael Cockerell was given behind-the-scenes access to Mr Howard for his film portrait. The Tory leader was asked about to respond to people who said that if there had there been a quota on immigration and asylum in the 1930s, his parents might not have been allowed into the country. He replies: ""What is the inference of that? ""That if you reach the view that you need to control immigration in the interests of the country you're not allowed to put a view forward if you happen to be descended from immigrants? ""That seems to me an absolutely extraordinary proposition? It would certainly mean no one from immigrant parents could be prime minister."" Ms Robinson, who presents The Weakest Link tells Cockerell that she despaired at his hardline image when he was home secretary in John Major's government. ""I used to have to sit on my hands because he'd get on television and give a passable impression of someone who'd like to kick your cat or would put your baby in prison if he cried. I mean it was very, very Draconian."" The film shows Mr Howard laughing at Rory Bremner's impression of him as Dracula, which he calls ""good fun"", apart from the serious falsehood of a comment suggesting he wants fewer black people in the UK. The film shows the private side of the Tory leader watching television at home or playing table tennis with his wife, ex-model Sandra. Asked if she enjoys a game of ping pong she confesses: ""Yeah, it would be more enjoyable if I could win occasionally too, but otherwise it's quite fun."" Former Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell, now working on Labour's election campaign, says a ""touchy-feely"" image does not fit Mr Howard. He says Tony Blair was not worried by his opponents' early performance in their Commons clashes because Mr Howard lacked a ""big strategy"", including on issues like Iraq. The Tory leader brands such criticisms as ""absolutely rubbish"", arguing that he has been consistent on his support for the war but critical of Mr Blair's failure to tell the truth on intelligence. Former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke says Mr Howard has a bigger problem changing perceptions of the Tory party than his personal image. Mr Clarke says the party is improving and it is ""conceivable"" it could win the next election. But he adds: ""It has got to change itself a bit and broaden its appeal."" - Michael Howard: No More Mr Nasty is being shown on BBC2 on Saturday 12 February at 2005 GMT." +politics,"Councils 'must find Gypsy sites' Ministers are telling councils to find more sites for travellers, amid continuing rows concerning a string of unauthorised encampments. Councils are also to be given stronger powers to move on illegal settlements by Gypsy communities on rural land. More money is to be given to councils to develop official caravan parks, said housing minister Yvette Cooper. In November, MPs urged ministers to make councils create sites because 3,500 travellers have no place to stop. Ms Cooper said an annual scheme to refurbish existing traveller sites would now be extended to consider council bids for new stopping places. That scheme has paid out £25m in four years, with £8m available for 2005. ""There are two major problems in the planning system at the moment concerning Gypsy and traveller sites,"" said Ms Cooper. ""Firstly, local authorities are not identifying enough appropriate locations either for private or public sites. And secondly, they do not have enough powers to deal swiftly with development on inappropriate sites. ""The result is that there are too many developments on inappropriate sites, causing tensions and difficulties for both the neighbouring communities and the Gypsies and travellers. ""That is why we are consulting on a new obligation on local authorities to identify more appropriate sites, as well as new powers to take immediate action if the development is in the wrong place and cannot be tolerated in even the short-term because of risk to local amenity and the environment."" Under the new regulations, expected to be in force in the spring, officials will be able to serve ""temporary stop notices"" aimed at preventing works on a site before a council has had chance to obtain a full legal ban. Many MPs with rural constituencies, particularly in eastern England, have been pressing the government to create stronger enforcement powers, saying villagers are suffering because of the legal delays in removing illegal encampments. Andrew Ryder, of the Traveller Law Reform Coalition, said: ""We welcome talk about an obligation on councils to identify land for Gypsies and travellers, so long as it is a real obligation as opposed to a recommendation which could be and was easily ignored. ""New accommodation proposals for travellers need to be backed up with decent funding and intervention by the government when councils attempt to dodge their responsibilities towards travellers, as they often do. ""Living on the side of the road or being worn down by planning appeals, legal action and eviction is no one's idea of fun."" In their November report, MPs from the committee scrutinising the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister, responsible for housing, said most illegal traveller encampments were caused by a lack of places to stop. Numerous communities and councils were paying for lengthy and expensive evictions against travelling communities, said the MPs. In turn, the problems had worsened because councils were reluctant to voluntarily provide sites because of resistance from residents. Two of the most controversial traveller sites - Cottenham in Cambridgeshire and Minety in Wiltshire - remain embroiled in an ongoing legal battle." +politics,"More reforms ahead says Milburn Labour will continue to pursue controversial reforms if it wins a third term in power, the party's election chief Alan Milburn has said. He pledged Labour would encourage more people to achieve their aspirations. ""What we want is for more people to earn and own,"" Mr Milburn told BBC Radio 4's Today show. Tory Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin called Labour ""a brilliant machine for talking about things"" but said it did not deliver policies the country needs. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats' President Simon Hughes said: ""New Labour has lost people's confidence in a way Old Labour never did."" Mr Milburn told Today that Labour wanted policies which encouraged increased social mobility in Britain. Pressed on incapacity benefits, he said the tax and welfare system must ""provide the right incentives to people"". ""No-one is talking about driving people into work but what we do know is there are one million people on incapacity benefit who want the opportunity to work, providing the right level of support is there for them"". However, backbench Labour MP Karen Buck warned against proposed changes in such benefits. She told the Today programme: ""If the policy is seen as being about how do you make the feckless poor go back to work then it is not going to work, on the one hand. And it is not going to improve our electoral chances on the other."" Mr Milburn also sought to draw a line under the controversy about reports of a feud between Gordon Brown and Prime Minister Tony Blair. He stressed that Mr Brown would play the same role that he did in the last election. Mr Milburn gave more details of planned reforms in a speech to Labour's Fabian Society, in which he also praised Mr Brown as one of the leaders of the party's reform process. In the speech, he backed choice in schools and hospitals, wider home ownership and changes to the welfare system. Mr Milburn insisted that government reform must continue. ""Our task is to rebuild the New Labour coalition around 'one nation politics' that recognise, while life is hard for many, all should have the chance to succeed,"" he said. ""There is a glass ceiling on opportunity in this country. In our first two terms we have raised it. In our third term we have to break it."" Voters turned on the party when it failed to reform industrial relations in the 1960s, he also told his audience. Oliver Letwin said the government had failed to deliver in any of the key public services, such as cleaner hospitals, discipline in schools and putting more police on the streets. He said ministers had not delivered cleaner hospitals, with 5,000 people dying from infections last year. New Labour had failed on school discipline because it had not implemented serious reforms so that teachers could run schools, and which would give parents choice, he went on. For the Lib Dems, Simon Hughes said many pensioners are means tested for the money they needed and students who were told there wouldn't be tuition fees and more debt ""have been given exactly the opposite"". He added: ""Under New Labour, all households are still paying unfair council tax rather than a fairer alternative.""" +politics,"Blair sets date for Africa report The Commission for Africa's report will be released on 11 March - Comic Relief day, Tony Blair has said. July's G8 summit in Gleneagles in Perthshire - chaired by the prime minister - will use the report as the basis for talks on Africa. The announcement followed the final meeting of the commission - which includes singer Bob Geldof - in London. As well as more aid, fairer trade and less debt, the commission is likely to demand action on corruption in Africa. Mr Blair told a news conference: ""It will be a report that's brutally frank about the reality, but I hope idealistic about what can be done if the will is there. ""It's an ambitious project we have set ourselves and you will have to judge on its outcome when we publish it."" Mr Blair has vowed to put Africa at the top of his agenda during his time at the helm of the G8. He acknowledged he would have a ""a job of persuading to do"" on other nations to get the necessary commitment to debt relief. Bob Geldof, in characteristically blunt style, promised that the commission would not just be a talking shop but would deliver radical new thinking to change direction for Africa. The former rock star's presence on the commission has been interpreted as a sign that it will be uncompromising in its demands. The people involved include two African government leaders and a range of other African politicians, as well as experts from some other developed countries." +politics,"Tory leader unveils spending plan Tory leader Michael Howard says his party can save £35bn in government spending by tackling waste. The money would be ploughed back into frontline services like the NHS and schools with the rest used to cut government borrowing and reduce taxes. The Tory leader has also shrugged off the defection of one of his MPs, Robert Jackson, a former minister, to Labour. Mr Howard said that these things happened in politics and it would not affect the outcome of the election. ""Let's be realistic - the election is not going to be decided on the basis of what Mr Jackson did"", he told BBC 1's Breakfast with Frost programme. However the defection on Saturday has cast a shadow over the launch of the Conservatives' spending plans. Fuller details are due to be unveiled on Monday. The bulk of the £35bn saved by tackling bureaucracy and inefficient systems will go back into frontline services, Mr Howard said. The £12bn left over would then be spent on reducing government borrowing, he added. However, the remainder would deal with some of the ""unfair taxes"". ""Almost every independent expert says if you get another Labour government you are going to have to pay higher taxes,"" Mr Howard insisted. ""Because borrowing is going up, it is out of control, that is bound to lead to higher taxes or higher interest rates or both. ""So part of the £12bn we are going to apply to filling the government's black hole, reducing the borrowing. ""The rest will be used to reduce these unfair taxes which are bearing so heavily on the people of our country today."" Mr Howard is expected to say that around £6bn will be available for tax cuts when he makes his announcement on Monday. The cuts will be paid for out of the savings identified by business trouble-shooter David James. Home Office spending could be cut by £1.6bn, according to the final instalment of his year-long review. Savings of £153m at the Foreign Office and £336m at the Department for Culture Media and Sport, have also been identified. In all, almost a quarter of a million jobs and 168 public bodies would go under Mr James' proposals. Mr Howard said: ""All this adds up to a bottom line and the bottom line is at this election people will have a clear choice between Mr Blair, who will waste more and tax more, and a Conservative government that will give them value for money and tax less."" However, Chief Treasury Secretary Paul Boateng said: ""None of the Tories' figures add up so they can't make these savings and can't pay for any tax cuts, which means the only guaranteed cut from the Tories is £35bn of cuts, hitting frontline public services hard."" Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy added: ""People will not be taken in by Michael Howard's claims of £35bn worth of savings. ""This can't be achieved without drastic cuts in local services in their own communities."" A poll for the News of the World newspaper suggests the Conservatives are on course for their worst election defeat in a century. Labour will hold key marginal constituencies, winning a majority of 160, the Populus survey suggests. And the Liberal Democrats will take three key seats from the Conservatives, leaving the Tories with just 163 MPs, two less than they returned atLabour's 1997 landslide and their worst showing since 1906." +politics,"'UK will stand firm on EU rebate' Britain's £3bn EU rebate is not up for renegotiation at next week's European Council summit, Jack Straw said. The foreign secretary told MPs the rebate, secured by Margaret Thatcher in 1984, was ""entirely justified"". New European commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has suggested the cash could be shared out among net contributors to the EU budget. Mr Straw acknowledged some countries in the newly enlarged 25 nation EU still had to ""see the light"" on the rebate. But the foreign secretary told the Commons foreign affairs committee: ""Our position is very clear: it is entirely justified and it is not for negotiation."" He added that he did not think there would be a political price to pay for the UK's stance - Britain contributed more and received less than other EU states. The two-day European Council summit in Brussels begins on 16 December and is widely expected to mark the beginning of a lengthy negotiating period over the EU's budget for 2007-13. The wrangling could stretch into 2005, even 2006. The UK, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden want the EU budget to be capped at 1% of member states' combined national incomes - the Commission wants it to be 1.26%. Mr Straw said the EU commission's proposal would mean a 35% hike in the budget. ""I don't know of any national government thinking of increasing its budget by that amount,"" he added. The foreign secretary said he hoped the talks next week could produce a date in 2005 for the beginning of negotiations with Turkey about possible EU membership although that there would be no prospect of a date for joining for some time." +politics,"UK rebate 'unjustified' - Chirac French president Jacques Chirac has called the UK's £3bn rebate from the European Union ""unjustified"". Speaking after a summit meeting he said unless it was put up for discussion the EU would never be able to reach agreement on its medium term finances. Earlier Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the UK was prepared to veto any bid to reduce the rebate secured by Margaret Thatcher in 1984. He said it remained justified because less EU farm money came to the UK. Mr Chirac told reporters in Brussels: ""One can only have a reasonable budgetary balance if we put back on the table the British cheque. It can no longer be justified. It was from the past."" But a UK Government official responded: ""Even with the rebate, the UK pays two and a half times more than France contributes to the EU budget. Without it we would pay 14 times as much as France. ""There can be no deal on future financing which does not protect the rebate."" The 25-member EU is gearing up for tough negotiations on its budget plans for the period 2007-2013, with the bloc's Luxembourg presidency hoping to strike a deal at a June summit. Earlier Conservative Graham Brady said the rebate was a ""crucial test"" of how firmly ministers were prepared to stand up for Britain. EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has indicated he wants the rebate to come to an end. Mr Straw said that as well as the veto over the rebate the UK wanted to keep a tight rein on national contributions. The UK, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden want the EU budget to be capped at 1% of member states' combined national incomes - the European Commission has urged an increase to 1.26%. Mr Straw has said the EU commission's proposal would mean a 35% hike in the budget. Shadow Europe minister Mr Brady said: ""I believe it is essential that Britain keeps the rebate and I think it's a crucial test of how firmly the British government is prepared to stand up for Britain internationally in Europe. ""The UK is already one of the biggest net contributors to the EU ."" The foreign secretary meanwhile said the ""justice"" of the rebate remained. ""We have one of the lowest net receipts of any EU country because of the relatively small size of our agriculture sector and its efficiency. ""That continues to be the case."" UK Independence Party leader Roger Knapman said the rebate was ""set in stone"" and there was no reason to negotiate about it. ""It is extraordinary to do it at this time, just as we are becoming the biggest contributor to the EU. If we lose our rebate as well, the British taxpayer is going to be bled at such a rate that I think everyone will go off the European project."" EU leaders are holding talks in Brussels on how to re-energise the sluggish European economy. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is meeting his EU counterparts to finalise a package of measures aimed at stimulating growth and boosting employment ahead of a series of referendums on the European Constitution. The plans could introduce a free market into everything from computer services to construction. Critics - including Germany and France - believe liberalisation could result in companies shifting staff to cheaper bases in Eastern Europe, undercutting large EU economies and undermining social protections. There are also concerns about the number of workers from eastern European countries who will head west, exacerbating the already high unemployment levels in Germany. Mr Straw insisted there was nothing to fear from the services directorate. ""European countries overall have benefited hugely from the free market in goods,"" he said. ""What we are now talking about is developing that market into an internal market in services."" Britain's low unemployment meant there was less ""neurosis"" about people coming from eastern European countries. ""In countries like Germany and France, where frankly because of a tighter social market they have much higher levels of unemployment, there is increasing anxiety about other people coming in,"" he said." +politics,"Pakistani women 'must not hide' Hiding women away in the home hidden behind veils is a backward view of Islam, President Musharraf of Pakistan has said during a visit to Britain. He was speaking to the BBC's Newsnight programme a few hours before visiting the Pakistani community in Manchester. ""My wife is travelling around. She is very religious but she is very moderate,"" said General Musharraf. It comes after Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain said some Pakistanis should integrate more. Dr Maleeha Lodhi said people could not expect others to listen to their grievances if they isolated themselves. Gen Musharraf told the BBC: ""Some people think that the women should be confined to their houses and put veils on and all that and they should not move out - absolutely wrong."" The Pakistani president was also asked whether he thought the war on terror had made the world less safe. ""Yes, absolutely. And I would add that unfortunately we are not addressing the core problems, so therefore we can never address it in its totality,"" he said. ""We are fighting it in its immediate context but we are not fighting it in its strategic long-term context. ""It is the political disputes and we need to resolve them, and also the issue of illiteracy and poverty. This combined are breeding grounds of extremism and terrorism."" On Monday the Pakistani president met Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street, on his first official visit to London. He is due to visit the Pakistani community in Manchester on Tuesday afternoon. The Mirror newspaper said on Tuesday it had been handed a sensitive dossier outling the details of Gen Musharraf's visit to Britain. The paper said the document had been found in a London street by a member of the public. It said the dossier contained details about his movements and also confidential police radio channels, call signs and codes. Speaking in London on Monday, Gen Musharraf said al-Qaeda was ""on the run"" in Pakistan. But standing next to Mr Blair he added that it was crucial to tackle the ""core of what creates terrorists, what creates an extremist, militant environment which then leads on to terrorism"". ""That is the resolution of political disputes."" Mr Blair said the two leaders had talked about Afghanistan, the wider war on terror, the situation in the Middle East and the ongoing dispute over Kashmir. ""We agreed that in Afghanistan there is some cause for optimism about the progress that has been made there,"" said Mr Blair. ""In respect of Iraq, we agreed that whatever the issues of the past, the important thing now is to see the strategy through and ensure that Iraq is capable of becoming a stable and democratic state.""" +politics,"Tories pledge free sports lessons Children would be offered two hours' free sports training a week by a future Tory government, the party has said. The Club2School policy would provide up to £250m yearly for local sports clubs in the UK to deliver after-school sport. The extra coaching would be funded by the National Lottery and would come on top of the two hours of sport a week children are supposed to get in school. Shadow home secretary David Davis said five million children were being denied adequate sporting opportunities. The plans would help tackle the ""fastest growing rate of obesity in the developed world"", he said. Shadow sports minister Lord Moynihan said the policy would empower local clubs and create a lasting legacy. ""We aim to shift the emphasis on after-school sport provision away from our overstretched teachers and schools directly in to the 151,000 sports clubs in the UK."" The Tories say Labour's plans to give all children two hours of sports lessons a week in schools have failed. Government figures show that in England in 2002 only a third of schools at Key Stages 1, 3 and 4 and two-fifths of schools at Key Stage 2, met that target. The Tories also claim that of the £750m the prime minister pledged in 2000 to invest on school sports facilities, only £41m had been spent. But the Big Lottery Fund has said that complex capital projects are involved - and it was confident the money would all be allocated by next year as intended." +politics,"Brown shrugs off economy fears Gordon Brown is to freeze petrol duty increases, fund a £1bn package to avoid big council tax rises and boost childcare and maternity leave. In an upbeat pre-Budget report, he slightly increased borrowing but insisted economic targets would be met. The chancellor also hailed the longest period of growth in UK ""industrial history"" but denied he was ""gloating"". But Oliver Letwin, for the Tories, attacked government red tape and debt, dubbing Mr Brown ""Sir Wastealot"". The shadow chancellor said Mr Brown's ""golden rule"" had ""turned to dross in his hands"" and said he was borrowing to spend, not invest, with predicted debt over the coming years totalling £170bn. Mr Letwin told MPs: ""The tide is going out on the chancellor's credibility. He is spending, borrowing and taxing so much because he is not getting value for taxpayer's money."" Vincent Cable, for the Liberal Democrats, accused Mr Brown of ducking tough choices. He said: ""Last week the prime minister gave us the politics of fear; this week the chancellor has offered the economics of complacency. ""There are serious challenges ahead from the falling dollar and from the rapid downturn in the UK housing market and rising personal debt. But they have not been confronted."" Mr Brown rejected the Lib Dem's call to open up the government's books to the National Audit Office, saying decisions on tax and spending should be made by ministers. Some economists say his forecasts on public finances are wishful thinking. BBC economic editor Evan Davis said the figures were plausible but also a gamble. Mr Brown's insistence he was not ""gloating"" was a pointed rebuttal of a warning from new European Commissioner Peter Mandelson. In his speech, he set out a 10-year childcare strategy for if Labour wins the next election. It includes a £285m cash injection to extend paid maternity leave from six months to nine, with parents able to transfer leave from the mother to the father. He also promised to increase free nursery education for three and four-year-olds to 15 hours from April 2007. And funds would be provided to keep schools open from 0800 to 1800GMT to look after children while their parents were at work. Taken together, the measures would create a ""welfare state that is truly family-friendly for the first time in its history"", said Mr Brown. He also announced a cash hand-out for older pensioners, with payments of £50 for the over-70s as part of the winter fuel allowance. In a move ministers say should keep council tax rises below 5% next year, the chancellor said he was providing an extra £1bn for local councils. The money is expected to come from government departments such as health and education. Mr Brown said he was set to meet his two fiscal rules - to borrow only to invest and keep debt ""low and sustainable"" - both in this economic cycle and the next. Borrowing figures for 2003/4 are £35bn - £2.5bn less than the £37.5bn predicted in March's budget, as already announced by the Office for National Statistics. Borrowing is tipped to fall to £31bn by 2005/06 - but that is still £2bn more than Mr Brown predicted in his March budget. Inflation would be 1.75% next year and 2% in the years to follow, Mr Brown forecast. He also pledged an extra £105m for security and counter-terrorism. Business groups have welcomed efforts to improve competitiveness and invest more in skills and innovation. But there worries about the costs of more family-friendly working. Simon Sweetman, from the Federation of Small Businesses, said: ""The proposals on maternity leave have clearly been made with a general election in mind and with little thought to the impact on small employers.""" +politics,"Kennedy criticises 'unfair' taxes Gordon Brown has failed to tackle the ""fundamental unfairness"" in the tax system in his ninth Budget, Charles Kennedy has said. How was it right that the poorest 20% of society were still paying more as a proportion of their income than the richest 20%, the Lib Dem leader asked. The new £200 council tax rebate for pensioners did nothing to fix the ""unfair tax"", he added. The government could not go on ""patching up"" the system, he added. Speaking in the Commons after Mr Brown had delivered what is widely thought to be the last Budget before the general election, Mr Kennedy acknowledged that the UK was one of the most successful economies in the world. But he criticised both the chancellor and the Tories for failing to address the ""ticking bomb"" of council tax revaluation. He said the recent experience of Wales indicated seven million households in England would pay significantly more after revaluation. The chancellor's announcement that he was to offer a £200 council tax rebate paid by pensioner households was merely a ""sticking plaster"" to a much bigger problem. The Lib Dem plan for a local income tax would benefit the typical household by more than £450 a year, with half of all pensioners paying no local tax and about three million being better off. On pensions, Mr Kennedy said it was a ""scandal"" that the system discriminated against women who had missed making National Insurance payments when they were having children. He said a residency criteria would end ""at a stroke this fundamental iniquity"". Mr Kennedy added his party's priorities of free long-term care for the elderly, abolishing top-up fees and replacing the council tax would be funded by charging 50% income tax to those earning more than £100,000 per annum. He contrasted his approach with Mr Brown's pledge in 2001 not to increase income tax. The chancellor went on to put up National Insurance contributions after the election. ""For most individuals, most families, most households, it adds up to exactly the same thing,"" said Mr Kennedy. ""And they wonder why people get cynical about their politicians when they give one impression before an election and do exactly the opposite after that election.""" +politics,"Vouchers 'to cut winter deaths' Pensioners are being promised energy savings by the Liberal Democrats, as snow and cold temperatures continue. The party says the plans could save the average pensioner £100 every year and cut winter deaths. The government gives £200 for winter fuel to households with people over 60, or £300 where people are over 80. The Tories promise to keep the payments. The Lib Dems would allow people to swap these winter fuel payments for discounts on home insulation. Shadow local government secretary Ed Davey said: ""The current scheme has helped some older people, but this new Liberal Democrat approach will go much further to end the scandal of tens of thousands of old people dying from the winter cold every year."" The vouchers are designed to let pensioners choose from a list of approved energy supplies who would compete for business by offering discounts on home insulation schemes. The plan would boost energy conservation, says the party - and insulation could save £100 every year for pensioner households, so using the money more ""intelligently"" than at present." +politics,"England children's tsar appointed The first children's commissioner for England has been appointed. Great Ormond Street Hospital professor of child health, Al Aynsley-Green, was chosen by the government and will start the £100,000-a-year job immediately. He will oversee a £2.5m annual budget and have the power to look into ""any matter relating to the interests and well-being of children"". Prof Aynsley-Green has also been the national clinical director for children in the Department of Health. He promised to make sure that children's opinions ""count"". ""I will be drawing on my experience of working with children and young people to help ensure that those with the power to improve children's lives do live up to their responsibilities. ""I want all children and young people to know that they can approach me to discuss any matter that affects them, knowing that I will value their opinion."" Education Secretary Ruth Kelly said Prof Aynsley-Green would ""strengthen the voice of children and young people"". Prof Aynsley-Green was a lecturer at Oxford University, trained at Guy's Hospital Medical School, University of London; Oriel College, Oxford; and in Switzerland. He is described as ""a proud grandfather"" of four. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already have children's commissioners." +politics,"Visa row mandarin made Sir John The top civil servant at the centre of the David Blunkett visa affair has been knighted in the New Year Honours. Sir John Gieve was Home Office permanent secretary during the saga which ended with Mr Blunkett quitting. He and other civil servants were criticised for failing to recall how the visa for Mr Blunkett's ex-lover's nanny came to be fast-tracked. The outgoing head of the troubled Child Support Agency Doug Smith also earns an honour in the New Year's list. Mr Smith, 57, whose retirement was announced by Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Smith in November, is made a Commander of the Order of Bath. Both men were giving evidence to a Commons committee on the computer difficulties facing the agency, which left thousands of single parents without any maintenance payments, when the announcement was made. The knighting of Sir John, 54, will be received with astonishment by opposition politicians. The Liberal Democrats said it ""beggared belief"" he and fellow officials could not remember how Leoncia Casalme's application for indefinite leave to remain went from Mr Blunkett's office to the head of the Immigration and Nationality Department. Meanwhile, the Conservatives accused officials of a ""collective failure"" of memory. But Sir Alan Budd, who led an inquiry into the affair, said he had no reason to believe anyone involved had deliberately withheld information. Downing Street defended the decision to honour both men, with a spokesperson saying: ""You have to look at their whole career."" Sir John was made permanent secretary in April 2001 following a Civil Service career which dates back to 1974. He has also worked in the Treasury and the Department of Employment. A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said of Mr Smith's honour: ""The award reflects all that he has achieved in a Civil Service career, principally in the Inland Revenue, spanning over 40 years - not just his role as chief executive of the Child Support Agency. ""In his career he has personally led a number of successful major change programmes."" Mr Smith is set to stay on at the CSA until March. Less controversial will be the knighthoods for Derek Wanless and Mike Tomlinson, who undertook major government reviews on health and education respectively. Former NatWest chief executive Mr Wanless, 57, has delivered not one but two major reports on the NHS. Ex-chief inspector of schools Mr Tomlinson, 62, has recommended replacing A-Levels and GCSEs with a new diploma system in a shake-up of the exams system." +politics,"Conservative backing for ID cards The Tories are to back controversial government plans to introduce ID cards. The shadow cabinet revealed its support ahead of next week's Commons vote on a bill to introduce compulsory ID. The decision follows a ""tough meeting"" where some senior Tories argued vociferously against the move, party sources told the BBC. The bill, which ministers claim will tackle crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, is expected to be opposed by the Liberal Democrats. They have said the scheme is ""deeply flawed"" and a waste of money. Sources within the Conservative Party told the BBC Michael Howard has always been in favour of ID cards, and tried to introduce them when he was Home Secretary. The party has been ""agnostic"" on the issue until now but had now decided to come off the fence, the Tory source said. Despite giving their backing to ID cards, the Conservatives insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the scheme. They said they would also press Labour over whether objectives could be met and whether the Home Office would deliver them. And they pledged to assess the cost effectiveness of ID cards and whether people's privacy would be properly protected. ""It is important to remember that this bill will take a decade to come into full effect,"" a spokesman said. ""It will do nothing to solve the immediate problems of rising crime and uncontrolled immigration."" Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""This has all the signs of Michael Howard overruling colleagues' concerns over ID cards. ""The Tories should have the courage to try and change public opinion not follow it."" The new chairman of the Bar Council, Guy Mansfield QC warned there was a real risk that people on the ""margins of society"" would be driven into the hands of extremists. ""What is going to happen to young Asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere? They are going to be stopped. If they haven't [ID cards] they are going to be detained.""" +politics,"Lib Dems predict 'best ever poll' The Lib Dems are set for their best results in both the general election and the local council polls, one of their frontbenchers has predicted. Local government spokesman Ed Davey was speaking as the party launched its campaign for the local elections being held in 37 English council areas. The flagship pledge is to replace council tax with a local income tax. The Tories say the Lib Dems would make people pay more tax and Labour says the party's sums do not add up. Looking to the coming elections, which are all expected to be held on 5 May, Mr Davey said: ""We are going to be winning more votes and winning more seats. ""I think we are going to have the best general election results and local election results we have ever had under [party leader] Charles Kennedy. ""I couldn't think of a stronger endorsement of a leader.""" +politics,"Will the Budget bring out smiling voters? As Tory spokesman Oliver Letwin said - any chancellor would use his pre-election budget to offer some vote winning sweeteners, wouldn't he. And everyone does, indeed, expect Gordon Brown to do just that in his last budget before the expected polling day of 5 May. There will be plenty of talk about taking no risks with the economy or handing out irresponsible giveaways. But Mr Brown will stun Westminster and break just about every historical precedent if he fails to do something designed to put a smile on voters' faces and make them more inclined to back Labour in the election. And there has already been speculation about possible tax reductions for the poorest and increasing the threshold on stamp duty in this week's Budget. The aim of his package will be to keep any disillusioned core Labour voters in the fold, while ensuring the middle England voters who gave Tony Blair two election victories don't desert him at the third poll. And, needless to say, there will be plenty of analysis of what impact the Budget will have on Mr Brown's own ambitions to replace Mr Blair as prime minister at some point after a third win. But there is a shadow hanging over this pre-election performance - in the shape of £11 billion or thereabouts. That is the size of the financial ""black hole"" the Tories, backed by some independent forecasters, believe Mr Brown will have to fill with tax increases after the election. The opening shot in that battle was fired at the weekend with claims a Treasury leak suggested Mr Brown was ready to slap capital gains tax on home sales to raise some of that cash. It was immediately denied, but the Tories remain suspicious, claiming that, as Mr Letwin said, if the money does not come from there, where will it come from. Mr Brown will undoubtedly claim the forecasts are simply wrong and that he will have absolutely no need to raise taxes after the election, should Labour win. Previous gloomy forecasts proved wrong, he will argue, while suggesting that only by sticking with him can Britain continue to have a sound economy, low unemployment and high public spending. The opposition will reject that by claiming they can keep the economy sound, increase spending and cut taxes at the same time. The Liberal Democrats will also promise to run a sound economy, but based on increased taxes to fund spending and, amongst other things, abolishing the council tax in favour of a local income tax. And there will be prolonged argument over which of the parties can make the greatest savings in Whitehall and beyond to fund their policies. But probably what that all boils down to is a simple question of which of the parties the voters most trust to keep the economy stable and avoid any unpleasant surprises in the coming years. And it is probably still the answer to that one question that will overwhelmingly decide the outcome of the general election." +politics,"Lib Dems' 'bold' election policy Charles Kennedy has told voters his Liberal Democrats will offer them an ""honest choice"" at the next general election. With the other two big parties battling over which will impose the lowest taxes, Mr Kennedy is going into the looming election pledged to increase taxation. It is a bold policy and certainly ensures there is that choice between the Lib Dems and the other two. With his party's previous pledge to increase taxes by one penny in the pound to spend on public services already adopted by the government, he has switched tack. Now he is promising to levy a ""modest"" increase of the same amount on earnings over £100,000 a year to allow him to finance a series of pledges. They are to scrap student fees, finance free long term care for the elderly and replace the council tax with a local income tax. That last policy will also see about 3% of the most well off paying more while others, pensioners in particular, will pay less. Labour and the Tories have attacked his policies as both unworkable and not properly costed. Inevitably they insist there is no need to raise taxes to fund improvements in services. The Tories claim they can improve services AND cut taxes through £35bn efficiency savings, while Labour has offered £22bn savings but has yet to map out precise tax proposals, although there is little chance they will propose increases. In many ways the argument between the Lib Dems and the others over taxation and spending echo the sort of arguments that raged between Labour and the Tories in the 1980s and early 1990s. But, unlike the old Tory-Labour debate, he believes voters are ready to see ""modest"" tax increases on the well off in order to fund improvements in services. That is a view partly endorsed by recent polls suggesting people would rather have cash spent on public services than tax cuts. Similarly there is a different tone to the Lib Dem approach to asylum and immigration, with Mr Kennedy stressing politicians should not ""foment an artificial debate"" about immigration and attacking Michael Howard's proposals for quotas. Once again, with the two other big parties singing similar songs on immigration, Mr Kennedy is stressing the different, more liberal approach of his party. Mr Kennedy was also in buoyant mood over his party's election chances, declaring the Tories were not going to be ""significant players"" in the poll. He repeated his pledge not to do post-election deals with either party after the election. Mr Kennedy went on to suggest the re-election of a Labour government with a small majority would amount to a ""massive vote of no confidence "" in Tony Blair's government. That suggests the Lib Dem leader believes he may well find himself in a powerful, even pivotal position in a vastly different House of Commons after the next election. It is a dream the third party has dreamed many times before." +politics,"Will Tory tax cuts lift spirits? Michael Howard has finally revealed the full scale of his planned Tory tax cuts. Should he win the next general election, he has earmarked £4 billion that will be used to reduce taxes - although he still will not say which or how. This was the pre-election message many in his party have been pressing for and voters, he believes, will warm to. At its simplest, it is saying: ""Vote Tory and you can have it both ways"". Not only would his government stick to Labour spending plans on core public services, including health and education, it would increase spending on defence, police and pensions. And even after that was done, it would still have enough left over for a tax cut equivalent to about a penny off the basic rate of income tax. All the money would come from its £35 billion efficiency savings which would see the axe taken to bureaucracy, waste and the civil service. Of that, £23 billion would go on spending plans, with £8 billion to fill the black hole left, they claim, by Gordon Brown, and the rest going in tax cuts. Neither Mr Howard nor Mr Letwin would say exactly how they would use that cash, although a cut in the basic rate seems unlikely. Ideas already floated include raising tax thresholds and abolishing or reducing inheritance tax, although some in the Tory party are urging Mr Howard to announce something more eye-catching before the election. As the Tory leader declared, the aim of the exercise is to open up a real economic policy divide between Labour and the Tories. ""At this election, people will have a clear choice between Mr Blair who will waste more and tax more and the Conservative party which will give value for money and tax less,"" he said. It is a move back towards an almost traditional Tory message which previously suggested Labour was the party of tax rises and the Conservatives the party of tax cuts. The extension of that, however, was that Labour was also seen as the party of big spending on the public services while the Tories were the cutters. And that is where one of the problems lies for Mr Howard - can he persuade sceptical voters that they really can have it both ways with bigger spending on public services AND lower taxes? He insists he will not promise anything before the election that he cannot deliver if put into Downing Street. Labour, needless to say, claim his planned £35bn efficiency savings simply don't add up and that those sorts of figures are fantasy. One of New Labour's greatest successes before the historic 1997 election was to persuade voters, business and the City that it could be trusted to run the economy. So far that has not faced any real challenge, but independent analysts now claim a third New Labour government would be forced to either increase taxation or taxes to plug a black hole it has at the centre of its finances. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats are committed to increasing taxes for the most well off to finance their spending proposals launched earlier in the day. So, Mr Howard hopes his message will start to hit home during this unofficial election campaign and that his poll ratings might finally lift off the floor. And, while other issues like the Iraq war and trust will play a major part in that campaign, it is likely - and the prime minister probably hopes - that the economy will be the deciding factor." +politics,"Kilroy names election seat target Ex-chat show host Robert Kilroy-Silk is to contest the Derbyshire seat of Erewash at the next general election. Labour's Elizabeth Blackman won the seat in 1997 and has a 6,932 majority. She says she will fight on her record ""as a hard-working constituency MP"". Mr Kilroy-Silk announced his plans a day after launching his new party, Veritas, the Latin for truth. The East Midlands MEP, who quit the UK Independence Party, wants his new group to ""change the face"" of UK politics. His choice of election constituency quashes speculation that he would stand against Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. UKIP won 31% of the vote in Erewash in last June's European elections - with Mr Kilroy-Silk among their candidates for the region. Until 1997, Erewash had been held by the Tories since 1970. Ms Blackman said she was proud of the government's achievements in the area. She declined to give her view of Mr Kilroy-Silk at this point. On Thursday, he told a London news conference that Veritas would avoid the old parties' ""lies and spin"". He said ""our country"" was being ""stolen from us"" by mass immigration and promised a ""firm but fair"" policy on immigration. Veritas says it hopes to contest most seats at the forthcoming general election but plans to announce detailed policies on crime, tax, pensions, health and defence over the next few weeks. UKIP leader Roger Knapman says he is glad to see the back of Mr Kilroy-Silk. Labour campaign spokesman Fraser Kemp said Veritas was joining ""an already crowded field on the right of British politics"". Mr Kilroy-Silk was joined in the new venture by one of UKIP's two London Assembly members, Damien Hockney, who is now Veritas' deputy leader. UKIP's chairman Petrina Holdsworth has said the group will just be a parody of the party the men have left. Mr Kilroy-Silk quit UKIP last week after months of tension as he vied unsuccessfully for the leadership of that party. He said he was ashamed to be a member of a UKIP whose leadership had ""gone AWOL"" after the great opportunity offered by its third place at last June's European elections. UKIP's leader, Roger Knapman, has said he is glad to see the back of Mr Kilroy-Silk. ""He has remarkable ability to influence people but, sadly, after the [European] election it became clear that he was more interested in the Robert Kilroy-Silk Party than the UK Independence Party so it was nice knowing him, now 'goodbye',"" he said. UKIP officials also argue Mr Kilroy-Silk has not been ""straightforward"" in attacking the party he once wanted to lead." +politics,"Blair moves to woo Jewish voters Tony Blair has pledged to ""never, ever, ever"" attack Tory leader Michael Howard over his Jewish beliefs. The prime minister told the Jewish Chronicle: ""If you look at what I do, I attack Michael Howard politically."" Mr Blair also distanced himself from recent Labour campaign posters featuring Mr Howard, which critics claimed were ""anti-Semitic"". These were ""not intended to cause any offence to anyone on the Jewish community,"" Mr Blair insisted. One poster depicted Mr Howard and his shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin, who is also Jewish, as flying pigs. Another pictured the Tory leader swinging a pocket watch on a chain, which critics said echoed the Jewish money lender Shylock in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. Others compared the image to the character Fagin in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. Labour has since taken the designs of its website, saying members had preferred other designs. During his interview with the Jewish Chronicle, Mr Blair said: ""I've been a very strong supporter of the Jewish community and Israel, and will always be so."" Pressed on whether he would draw attention to Mr Howard's Jewish beliefs in an attempt to attract Muslim support, he replied: ""The idea that I would allow anybody to make such a charge is outrageous. It's untrue. ""If you look what I do, I attack Michael Howard politically. I would never, ever, ever attack him on that basis."" Mr Blair also defended his party's attitude towards the Jewish community, pointing out that it was his government that had introduced the Holocaust Memorial Day. He added that Labour also aggressively fought all forms of racism. Neither the Conservatives nor the Liberal Democrats wished to comment on Mr Blair's words. The prime minister was speaking as London's Labour mayor Ken Livingstone remains embroiled in a row over comments he made to a Jewish reporter from the city's Evening Standard newspaper. Mr Blair repeated calls for the mayor to apologise for likening the reporter, Oliver Finegold, to a concentration camp guard. Mr Livingstone ""should have withdrawn the comment immediately"" once he realised the journalist was Jewish, said Mr Blair. ""I'm sure that is what in truth he wants to do. Well, he should do it."" Mr Livingstone has said he could not sincerely say sorry for the comments he made, and claims he has been targeted by the newspaper. He conceded his comments may have been offensive but were not racist, and said earlier this week he would not apologise even if Mr Blair asked." +politics,"Howard attacks 'pay later' Budget Tory leader Michael Howard has dismissed Gordon Brown's Budget as ""vote now, pay later"" spending plans. The simple fact was that under a new Labour government taxes would go up after the election to plug a financial black hole, Mr Howard said. Everyone could see the chancellor's ""sweeteners"", but these hid tax rises for hard working families, he said. Labour's ""faltering election campaign"" would not be helped by the package of measures, Mr Howard added. Mr Brown's Budget was not about what was good for the country, but ""all about the interests of the Labour party,"" the Tory leader said after mockingly welcoming the chancellor back to the election campaign. He went on to accuse Mr Brown of giving with one hand while taking away with the other. He urged the chancellor to admit he had been responsible for dragging ""millions of people in to the net"" to pay stamp duty and inheritance tax. ""We can all see the sweeteners, but they hide the crippling tax rises for hard-working families that are inevitable if Labour wins."" He also accused the government and the chancellor of running out of solutions to the problems Britain faced. ""Their only answer is to tax, to spend and to waste - to get people to vote now and pay later."" Mr Brown liked to rattle off ""magical balances conjured out of thin air"" in a bid to convince people there was no ""black hole"" in the nation's finances, the Tory leader said. ""This dodgy government that brought us the dodgy dossier is now publishing a dodgy Budget based on dodgy numbers,"" he said. ""You now propose to borrow, over the next six years, no less than £168 billion; so much for prudence. ""The chancellor's forecasts of surpluses are no better than the prime minister's forecasts of weapons of mass destruction."" Mr Brown's council tax rebate for pensioners was £300 less than what the Tories were offering, Mr Howard said. There was nothing in the Budget that would put more police on the streets, make hospitals cleaner or give parents and teachers the discipline and skills they wanted in schools. People would face a ""clear choice"" at the election, either ""more waste and higher taxes under Labour or lower taxes and value for money with the Conservatives"", he said. ""That's the battleground of this election. That's what this election is going to be all about and I say bring it on,"" he concluded, to loud Tory cheering." +politics,"Guantanamo pair's passport ban The government has written to two of the British men freed from Guantanamo Bay telling them they will not be allowed passports. A letter sent to Martin Mubanga said his British passport would not be issued in the light of evidence gathered against him by the US. This suggested he was likely to take part in action against UK or allied targets if he left Britain, it said. An identical letter has been sent to Feroz Abbasi, the men's solicitor says. It is not known whether the other two men released from the Cuba detention camp in January - Richard Belmar and Moazzam Begg - have also received letters. The government is implementing the rarely used Royal Prerogative in order to withdraw the men's passports. It is only the 13th time the power has been used since 1947 - the last time was in 1976. The letter, from the Home Office, says: ""I am writing to inform you that on the basis of the information which has come to light during your detention by the United States, the home secretary considered that there are strong grounds for believing that, on leaving the United Kingdom, you would take part in activities against the United Kingdom, or allied targets."" The Home Office said it could not comment on individual cases. The Liberal Democrats say they suspect the move is part of a package of security measures agreed with the US in order for the men to be allowed home from Guantanamo Bay. Home Affairs spokesman Mark Oaten also demanded assurances that the evidence against the men was not gained under torture. He added: ""The power should only be used in absolute extreme circumstances and I find it hard to believe that these conditions have been met this time."" He said the move also raised complex questions about the use of the Royal Prerogative. The Liberal Democrats have promised to raise the issue in Parliament. Amnesty International UK also questioned whether the decisions had been based on ""torture evidence"" obtained at Guantanamo Bay. ""Furthermore, we believe there should be an investigation into the role played by the UK in the detention of UK residents and nationals and possibly many others at Guantanamo Bay,"" said director Kate Allen. The men's solicitor, Louise Christian, has raised questions about whether the evidence was gathered through torture. But the Pentagon told BBC News US policy ""condemns and prohibits"" torture and said there was no evidence that any British detainee was tortured or abused. Mr Abbasi, 23, from Croydon, south London, was taken to Guantanamo Bay after being captured in Afghanistan in 2001. Mr Mubanga, 29, from north London, was originally detained in Zambia." +politics,"Teens 'know little' of politics Teenagers questioned for a survey have shown little interest in politics - and have little knowledge. Only a quarter of 14-16 year olds knew that Labour was the government, the Tories were the official Opposition and the Lib Dems were the third party. Almost all could identify Tony Blair, but only one in six knew who Michael Howard was, and just one in 10 recognised Charles Kennedy. The ICM survey interviewed 110 pupils for education watchdog Ofsted. Nearly half those pupils polled said it was not important for them to know more about what the political parties stand for. And 4% of those questioned thought the Conservatives were in power - while 2% of them believed the Lib Dems were. The survey also looked at issues of nationality. It found the Union flag and fish and chips topped the list of symbols and foods associated with being British. Many of the pupils also looked on themselves as English, Scottish or Welsh, rather than British; while the notion of being European hardly occurred to anyone." +politics,"Analysis: No pain, no gain? He called it his ""masochism strategy"" in the run-up to the Iraq war and now Tony Blair has signed up for another dose of pain. The idea is simple - the prime minister goes head to head with an often hostile group of ""real"" voters in the full spotlight of the television cameras. The theory is that talking to the great British public, even if they are the ""great unwashed"", is better than having the media filter what voters hear from politicians. It is also the most effective way of showing that he is aware of real people's concerns and - on occasions - of their outright fury. Mr Blair used the tactic before the Iraq war to try to show he really was engaging with public concerns and you can expect to see it much more in the run-up to the election. Labour knows it has been damaged by accusations of spin, ""control freakery"" and over-slick presentation - sometimes from within the ranks of its own MPs. Tony Blair himself has said people complain he does not listen. Mr Blair's latest bout of flagellation came with a series of questions sessions on Five television throughout Wednesday. The trouble began on the Wright Stuff show, with Maria Hutchings marching up to him, saying ""Tony, that's rubbish"" as she tried to complain about her autistic son's school being threatened with closure. A few ""don't worries"" as Mrs Hutchings was led back to the audience averted a public slanging match - he spoke to her privately after the show. But that was only the start and later sessions produced the type of grilling not even the toughest television interviewer could produce. Writer Neil Coppendale, from West Sussex, asked of the Iraq war: ""Tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children died - how do you manage to sleep at night?"" On immigration, London teacher Diane Granger said: ""Where are you going to put everyone?"" And can you imagine even Jeremy Paxman putting the question posed by Brighton nurse Marion Brown: ""Would you wipe somebody's backside for £5?"" Mr Blair tried to use the questioners' first names - and sometimes threw them off their stride by asking what they would do about the problems. Many of the newspapers have branded the exercise a PR stunt which backfired. Indeed there is a danger Mr Blair simply ends up looking ""embattled"". Conservative Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat Charles Kennedy are to be offered chances to appear in similar slots on the channel next month. Labour strategists believe more of the sessions will mean the hecklers no longer become a story and the real issues take prominence. James Humphreys, ex-head of corporate communications at Number 10, says the strategy shows frustration with the media. ""They feel they don't get their voice across and going direct to people is clearly their game on this occasion,"" he says. There are risks but the prize is tackling the trend of lower turnouts at the polls, he argues. The prime minister knows full well the potential hazards . He must remember with gritted teeth his confrontation with Sharron Storer, the Birmingham woman who harangued him over the state of her local hospital in the 2001 election campaign. ""All you do is walk around and make yourself known, you don't do anything to help anybody,"" she told Mr Blair before stomping off, refusing his pleas to discuss the issue privately. Former Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell has described the episode as a ""bit of a disaster"" as it meant the launch of Labour's election manifesto received little coverage. But it was seen as one of the few moments when that election campaign came alive, not least because it coincided with John Prescott's even more direct contact - when he punched an egg-throwing protester. Former prime ministers too have come to grief at the hands of a persistent member of the public. The undoubted highlight of years of election phone-in shows was Margaret Thatcher discomfort on Nationwide in 1983, when viewer Diana Gould put her on the spot about the sinking of the Belgrano in the Falklands War. John Major reaped the benefits of street campaigning during the 1992 election campaign with his famous soapbox. It may have left him splattered with eggs and engine oil at times but he felt it added ""fizz"" to his campaign. In his memoirs, he also argues the strategy contrasted with Neil Kinnock's ""contrived photo opportunities"" and attempts at an artful campaign. ""He wanted to look like a prime minister. I was prime minister and I wanted a flesh and blood fight,"" says Mr Major. Mr Blair told prospective Labour MPs on Thursday that taking part in phone-ins and public meetings could ""enthuse and engage and give the public a sense of empowerment"". But he also wants to counter complaints that he has spent too much time on international affairs and foreign trips. Mr Blair recalls how Bill Clinton once advised him: ""Always remember that what people see of you in the news in the evening is how they think you spend your day."" His hope must be that voters watching him on the rack will bear out for Labour the old maxim: ""No pain, no gain.""" +politics,"New UKIP defection to 'Veritas' The UK Independence Party has lost one of its two London Assembly members to Robert Kilroy-Silk's new political party, expected to launch on Wednesday. Damian Hockney said ex-chatshow host Mr Kilroy-Silk would ""deliver better"" as the leader of a eurosceptic party. He said Mr Kilroy-Silk had made him deputy party leader of Veritas, Latin for truth. Sources close to Mr Hockney said around eight other members of London UKIP were also planning to jump ship. Details of the coming week's events were hammered out at a meeting at Mr Kilroy-Silk's Buckinghamshire home on Sunday, the BBC News Website was told. The news came after UKIP suspended a candidate for allegedly suggesting the criminally insane should be killed. John Houston, 54, was due to stand in the East Kilbride seat in Lanarkshire at the next election. A spokesman for UKIP called on Mr Hockney to quit the London Assembly. UKIP asserts that Mr Hockney ""has a moral obligation, if not a legal one"" to stand down. Mr Hockney meanwhile told the BBC: ""I believe that Robert Kilroy-Silk can deliver better as a leader of a eurosceptic party than the current leadership of the UK Independence Party."" On the suspension of Mr Houston, UKIP said those who selected him knew nothing of his views. Mr Houston is alleged to have said that the organs of the criminally insane should be ""made available to law-abiding members of the community"" and proposed the legalisation of drugs and the sex trade. The document reportedly said: ""We're looking for the resurrection of the British Empire. ""The problems for the human race - environmental and others - can only be dealt with on a global scale, and that calls for a radical alliance of the English-speaking nations, which they are uniquely able to do."" UKIP spokesman Mark Croucher said the main issue would be that Mr Houston's reported views had been presented as UKIP policy, which they were not." +politics,"Job cuts 'false economy' - TUC Plans to shed 71,000 civil service jobs will prove to be a ""false economy"" that could hamper public sector reforms, according to a TUC report. Public and Commercial Services union members have already voted to strike over cuts for one day on 5 November. The TUC said cuts would deliver less than 6% of the £22bn ministers hope to save through efficiency reforms. General secretary Brendan Barber warned the ""costs could easily outweigh the benefits"". ""The government's big boost to public spending is now showing results,"" said Mr Barber. ""Public services are improving but looking for simple savings through job cuts at this stage could be a false economy. ""They may shoot a Tory fox, but cutting thousands of civil service jobs will hit the morale and capabilities of the public servants expected to implement government reforms. The costs could easily outweigh the benefits."" Next Friday's strike action by the PCS is the biggest in the civil service since 1993, hitting Jobcentres, benefit agencies, pensions offices, customs and driving tests. The union says it is concerned about pensions, sick pay and forced relocation as well as the cut in jobs. Last month it was announced that a total of 37 social security offices and Jobcentres across the UK would close in the first wave of plans to shed civil service jobs. The number of civil servants in Britain rose to more than 520,000 in April. Other areas the strike will affect include passports, museums and galleries, libraries and health and safety inspections." +politics,"Commons hunt protest charges Eight protesters who stormed the House of Commons chamber during a debate on the Hunting Bill have been charged with disorderly conduct. The men were arrested in September after bursting into the chamber causing a hunting ban debate to be halted. Those charged included Otis Ferry, the 22-year-old son of rock star Bryan Ferry and Luke Tomlinson, 27, a close friend of princes William and Harry. They were charged under Section 5 of the Public Order Act, police said. Five of the eight men held an impromptu news conference outside Charing Cross Police Station on Monday evening, after the charges were formerly put to them. The men's solicitor Matthew Knight, said that at no time had it occurred to the men that they were committing a criminal offence. ""There is no offence of trespassing in the House of Commons - it is not a criminal offence,"" he said. ""If Parliament wanted to make entering the House of Commons chamber on foot a criminal offence it should have done so, but it can't do so retrospectively. ""We are not prosecuted for that. We are prosecuted for a Public Order Act offence. We are not guilty of it."" They will appear at Bow Street Magistrates' Court on 21 December, a police spokesman said. Otis Ferry, a former Eton pupil and joint leader of the South Shropshire Hunt, said: ""I have no regrets. ""We have done nothing wrong beyond the obvious which was to stand up for our rights and not act like a sheep like the rest of the country."" One of the men, David Redvers, 34, from Hartpury, Gloucestershire, said he and the other seven protesters would plead not guilty to the charges. The other protesters are John Holliday, 37, a huntsman from Ledbury, Herefordshire, Robert Thame, 34, who plays polo with Princes Charles in Team Highgrove, auctioneer Andrew Elliot, 42, from Bromesberrow, near Ledbury, point-to-point jockey Richard Wakeham, 34, from York, and former royal chef Nick Wood, 41. The 15 September protest came on the same day as a huge pro-hunting demonstration in Parliament Square. Four of the men ran out from behind the speaker's chair while another wrestled past a doorkeeper from a different entrance. The five tried to confront MPs before they were bundled out of the chamber and later led away handcuffed by police. Three others had been intercepted by security staff as they tried to join the five in the chamber. Speaker Michael Martin later said the men had used a forged letter to gain access to the House of Commons and had been helped to get close to the chamber by a parliamentary pass holder. In November, the use of the Parliament Act meant a total ban on hunting with dogs in England and Wales. However, many pro-hunt activists remained defiant after the law was passed, saying they would ignore the ban and continue to hunt. Last week, the Countryside Alliance said more than 250 hunts would meet legally the day after the ban on hunting with dogs comes into force. The alliance said the 19 February meets would show the new law was ""impossibly difficult to determine"" and open to different interpretations." +politics,"Kelly trails new discipline power Teachers could get more powers to remove unruly pupils from classes under a ""zero tolerance"" drive, Education Secretary Ruth Kelly has suggested. Ms Kelly told the BBC progress had been made against severely disruptive children but parents were still worried about lower level problems. The minister also confirmed she received ""spiritual support"" from the Catholic movement Opus Dei. But she denied her faith meant she would refuse key government jobs. The Conservatives have made school discipline one of their five priority areas in the run-up to the next general election. Ms Kelly is expected to announce her plans on the issue in the next fortnight. She told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost: ""It is really important to support head teachers and teachers in tackling disruption in the classroom. ""We have made huge progress on the really difficult cases, the pupils who have severely disruptive behaviour. ""But quite rightly what teachers are concerned about and what parents are concerned about is that this lower level disruption that goes on in the classroom now is tackled. ""I would like to see the teacher being able to remove disruptive children from the classroom completely and have either alternative provision within the school or indeed off the school and may be working together with other schools in a particular area to provide that provision."" It is thought the plans may distinguish between excluding pupils from schools and taking them out of mainstream classes. Head teachers can currently exclude pupils who commit or threaten violence in school, who sexually abuse pupils or other people, who sell illegal drugs or who have persistent and malicious disruptive behaviour. Ms Kelly entered the Cabinet last month in the reshuffle forced by the resignation of the then Home Secretary David Blunkett. Her links to Opus Dei, which means ""Work of God"" in Latin, have provoked controversy. Critics say the organisation, which adheres strictly to Catholic teachings, is secretive and elitist but its members reject such claims. Asked if she was a member of the group, Ms Kelly said: ""I do have spiritual support from Opus Dei and that is right. ""But those are private spiritual matters and I'm sure you'll respect that politicians are entitled to a private life."" She categorically denied reports that her beliefs on issues such as contraception would make her refuse to serve as a health or international development minister. Her collective responsibility as a Cabinet minister meant she also took responsibility for policies in those areas, she argued. The government has yet to issue its official response to the Tomlinson review, which recommended absorbing existing exam qualifications into a diploma. Ms Kelly said reforms should build on GCSEs and A-levels. Her comments did not impress Tory shadow education secretary Tim Collins. ""Ruth Kelly wants to ditch the Tomlinson report on exam structures but has absolutely no idea what to put in its place,"" he said. ""She also talks of improving discipline but cannot make her mind up how. This is an all talk agenda that lets down children, teachers and parents.""" +politics,"Labour trio 'had vote-rig factory' Three Labour councillors in Birmingham were caught operating a ""vote-rigging factory"", an Election Court has heard. Police found the trio handling unsealed postal ballots in a deserted warehouse in the city during a late-night raid in June 2004, the hearing was told. The votes were later counted towards that month's English local elections. The men, elected to the Aston ward, deny collecting votes fraudulently. The judge presiding has indicated the whole postal voting system is under scrutiny. Deputy High Court Judge Richard Mawrey, QC told the hearing at the Birmingham and Midlands Institute the case could have potentially serious consequences for any forthcoming General Election. The special Election Court, the first in living memory to hear allegations of vote-rigging, opened in Birmingham last month. The case against Muhammad Afzal, Mohammed Islam and Mohammed Kazi is being brought by local Liberal Democrat supporters. They claim the trio benefited from the widespread misuse of postal votes during the 10 June election. Ravi Sukul, counsel for the petitioners, accused the three men of being ""deeply involved"" in illegal practices. Witnesses saw them carrying several bags from their campaign office, which the men drove to a warehouse on an industrial estate off Birch Road East, the court was told. The police were alerted and called to the premises. Mr Sukul said: ""When (the officers) arrived there, in the middle of the night, they saw a large room with a 10ft long table and six Asian men present. ""Hundreds of documents and unsealed envelopes were scattered all over the table."" The police officers left the warehouse, but were later ordered back to seize the documents. ""When the officers left, all the envelopes and papers were scattered,"" Mr Sukul said. ""(When they went) back to make the seizure, every one of these 275 yellow ballot papers were placed neatly in envelope A and sealed. The house was in order."" Interrupting Mr Sukul in his opening, Mr Mawrey said: ""What you are saying is, these men were operating a vote-forging factory on an industrial estate."" The court heard how documents were taken by police to the elections office next morning, where they were mixed in with other ballots. The case against the men follows a hearing into postal fraud allegations made against three other Birmingham councillors in the Bordesley Green ward, claims which are denied. Mr Mawrey is due to deliver a judgment in their case once the Aston petition has been heard. Mr Afzal, Mr Islam and Mr Kazi deny conspiring to commit election fraud to deceive the returning officer. The case continues." +politics,"Jowell rejects 'Las Vegas' jibe The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell, has hit out at critics of the Gambling Bill. She told the Guardian newspaper there would be no ""Las Vegas-style"" super-casinos, as rumoured in the press. Meanwhile Labour backbencher Stephen Pound labelled casino-related regeneration schemes ""a pile of pants"". The MP for Ealing North claimed the legislation would encourage a mafia-like culture of vice and corruption, in an interview on BBC Radio 4. ""You look at some of the people who are involved...they aren't in there to regenerate Blackpool. They are in it to fill their boots,"" Mr Pound told the Today programme. ""I just really think that we have made a terrible mistake here. And over all of it hangs the shadow of the men in the chalk-stripe suits with names that rhyme with spaghetti,"" he said. Ms Jowell complained of the ""scale of misrepresentation"" in the media over the bill in her interview with the newspaper, her first since the bill was launched. The culture secretary said a four year consultation period had produced a consensus on the need to ""protect children and the vulnerable"" in a swiftly changing sector. Ms Jowell insisted: ""We have a good track record for extracting planning gain in this country, for instance in social housing."" And continued: ""We can be proud to have one of the lowest rates of problem gambling in the world. I intend to keep it that way."" Ms Jowell will set out her position when the Bill is debated in the Commons on Monday. In prime minister's questions last week Tony Blair assured Parliament that 90% of the bill was about tightening up the regulation of the gambling industry." +politics,"UK 'discriminated against Roma' The government's immigration rules racially discriminated against Roma (Gypsies) seeking entry into the UK, the Law Lords have ruled. It follows a Home Office move to cut asylum claims by stopping people, mostly Roma, from boarding flights to Britain from the Czech capital, Prague. Civil rights group Liberty said it exposed ""racism at the heart of the government's asylum policy"". The Home Office said it had not meant to discriminate against anyone. It said it would look at the implications of the ruling, but pointed out the controls were no longer in place because Czechs are now entitled to free movement across Europe. The screening took place at the airport in July 2001, at a time of concern about the number of asylum seekers entering Britain. Those refused ""pre-clearance"" were effectively prevented from travelling to the UK, because no airline would carry them. Lady Hale, sitting with Lords Bingham, Steyn, Hope and Carswell, said many Roma had good reason to want to leave the Czech Republic because of persecution. But she said they were treated more sceptically than non-Roma passengers by immigration officers ""acting on racial grounds"". Lady Hale said immigration officers should have treated all would-be passengers in the same way, only using more intrusive questioning if there was a specific reason. Liberty said statistics suggested Roma Czechs were 400 times more likely to be stopped by British immigration officials at Prague airport than non-Roma Czechs. It took up the case of six unnamed Roma Czechs refused entry to Britain, and that of the European Roma Rights Centre, which said the measures unfairly penalised Roma people. It lost a High Court action in October 2002 when a judge said the system was ""no more or less objectionable"" than a visa control system. He ruled there was no obligation on Britain not to take steps to prevent a potential refugee from approaching its border to claim asylum. The Court of Appeal then decided the practice almost inevitably discriminated against Roma, but that this was justified because they were more likely to seek asylum. Immigration law allows officials to discriminate against citizens from named countries, but it does not allow officers to go further than that. Responding to the ruling, a Home Office spokesman said: ""The scheme was operated two years ago as a short-term response to the high levels of passengers travelling from Prague who are subsequently found to be ineligible for entry to the UK."" Welcoming the ruling, Maeve Sherlock, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: ""Human rights abuses against the Roma in Eastern Europe are well documented, and it is hugely troubling that the government sought to deny entry to such a vulnerable group."" Amnesty International's Jan Shaw said: ""That the government's own asylum policy was being operated discriminatorily is bleakly ironic given that discrimination often lies at the heart of serious human rights abuse, not least in the Czech Republic."" But the chairman of Migration Watch UK, Sir Andrew Green, said the House of Lords decision was a ""step in the wrong direction"". ""The basic point is that the government has a duty to control our borders and this decision appears to extend the race relations legislation beyond sensible limits.""" +politics,"Hatfield executives go on trial Engineering firm Balfour Beatty and five railway managers are to go on trial for manslaughter over the Hatfield rail crash in 2000. Four people died when a section of rail broke and a high speed train derailed. Balfour Beatty's railway maintenance arm was in charge of the upkeep of the line at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Balfour Beatty managers Anthony Walker and Nicholas Jeffries, and Railtrack managers Alistair Cook, Sean Fugill and Keith Lea all face individual charges. All five men, along with four others, are also accused of breaches of health and safety laws. Balfour Beatty Rail Maintenance faces a corporate manslaughter charge. It is expected the trial could last as long as a year. The accident, on 17 October 2000, happened when the London to Leeds express came off the tracks at 115 mph, when it was derailed by a cracked section of rail. The accident on the East Coast Main Line sparked major disruption. The overall responsibility for the line was Railtrack's - the company that has now become Network Rail. Those who died in the accident were Steve Arthur, 46, from Pease Pottage, West Sussex; Peter Monkhouse, 50, of Headingley, Leeds; Leslie Gray, 43, of Tuxford, Nottingham; and Robert James Alcorn, 37, of Auckland, New Zealand." +politics,"Tories opposing 24-hour drinking The Tories say plans to extend pub opening times should be put on hold until binge drinking is under control, despite backing a law change last year. Spokesman David Davis said ministers had failed to make his party aware of concern among senior police that plans would cause more anti-social behaviour. Notts police chief Steve Green said innocent people would suffer. But Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said a delay would be ""disastrous"" and she accused the Tories of opportunism. The government would go ahead with the changes which would give police more power to tackle excessive drinking, she added. Earlier chief constable Green questioned how his officers would be able to practically apply powers allowing them to shut down problem premises. ""If you look at the Market Square in Nottingham, if a fight takes place which licensed premises do you go and lay the responsibilty at the door of?"" he asked on BBC Radio 4's World at One programme. He warned that if drinking establishments were allowed to open until three or four in the morning the police would have to take officers off day shifts in order to do their job effectively at night. Earlier this year the Royal College of Physicians said it opposed the plan to extend drinking hours when there was already an ""epidemic"" of binge drinking. Minister Richard Caborn said the government was tackling the causes and the symptoms of the problem by allowing more powers to close down problem premises. It is hoped that allowing pubs and clubs to stay open longer will stagger closing times and end the current situation where drinkers spill on to the streets all at once. Earlier Tony Blair defended the plans against criticism from one of his own backbenchers. ""My view of this is very clear: we should have the same flexibility that other countries have and then we should come down really hard on those who abuse that freedom and don't show the responsibility,"" he told MPs. ""The law-abiding majority who want the ability, after going to the cinema or theatre say, to have a drink at the time they want should not be inconvenienced, we shouldn't have to have restrictions that no other city in Europe has, just in order to do something for that tiny minority who abuse alcohol, who go out and fight and cause disturbances. ""To take away that ability for all the population - even the vast majority who are law abiding - is not, in my view, sensible."" This week a judge claimed easy access to drink was breeding ""urban savages"" and turning town centres into no go areas. Judge Charles Harris QC made his remarks as he sentenced three men for assaults carried out while drunk and high on drugs after a night out." +politics,"Tory backing for ID cards The Tories are to back controversial government plans to introduce ID cards. The shadow cabinet revealed its support ahead of next week's Commons vote on a bill to introduce compulsory ID. The decision follows a ""tough meeting"" where some senior Tories argued vociferously against the move, party sources told the BBC. The bill, which ministers claim will tackle crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, is expected to be opposed by the Liberal Democrats. They have said the scheme is ""deeply flawed"" and a waste of money. Sources within the Conservative Party told the BBC Michael Howard has always been in favour of ID cards, and tried to introduce them when he was Home Secretary. The party has been ""agnostic"" on the issue until now but had now decided to come off the fence, the Tory source said. Despite giving their backing to ID cards, the Conservatives insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the scheme. They said they would also press Labour over whether objectives could be met and whether the Home Office would deliver them. And they pledged to assess the cost effectiveness of ID cards and whether people's privacy would be properly protected. ""It is important to remember that this bill will take a decade to come into full effect,"" a spokesman said. ""It will do nothing to solve the immediate problems of rising crime and uncontrolled immigration."" Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""This has all the signs of Michael Howard overruling colleagues' concerns over ID cards. ""The Tories should have the courage to try and change public opinion not follow it."" The new chairman of the Bar Council, Guy Mansfield QC warned there was a real risk that people on the ""margins of society"" would be driven into the hands of extremists. ""What is going to happen to young Asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere? They are going to be stopped. If they haven't [ID cards] they are going to be detained.""" +politics,"Clarke plans migrant point scheme Anyone planning to move to the UK will have to pass a test to prove they can contribute to the country, Home Secretary Charles Clarke has said. He is proposing a points system similar to Australia's but would avoid the quota system planned by the Tories. Mr Clarke, who will unveil his plans on Monday, said economic migration helped the UK but ""needed proper policing"". The Lib Dems say they will look at his plans, but Tory Liam Fox said his party offered a ""clear choice"" on the issue. The Conservative Party Co-Chairman said the British electorate had a choice between a Labour government that had ""done nothing for eight years and will not set a limit"" on immigration and a Tory one that would impose quotas. The home secretary said, by 2008, he wanted everyone given a visa and entering the UK to have their fingerprints taken, to ""ensure we can know everybody who is in the country"". Speaking on BBC One's Breakfast with Frost, he said ""economic migrants are of great value to this country"", but stressed that proper policing was needed to ensure that they do not become a ""burden on society"". He said: ""We will establish a system ... which looks at the skills, talents and abilities of people seeking to come and work in this country, and ensures that when they come here they have a job and can contribute to the economy of the country."" The home secretary, whose five-year blueprint for immigration and asylum is expected to be published on Monday, also rejected claims that the immigration debate encouraged bigotry. ""The issue of who does come into this country, and whether they are entitled to be in this country, who does settle here, how we have border controls, is a perfectly legitimate aspect of public debate,"" he said. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""Whilst it is good that Labour has rejected the Tory idea of quotas on asylum, the jury is still out on the Home Office's ability to deliver a fair and efficient asylum system."" Mr Howard has said Britain should take its fair share of the world's ""genuine refugees"". But he claims the current asylum system is being abused - and with it Britain's generosity. Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, called on Mr Clarke to denounce the suggestion Britain's hospitality was being tested by immigration. ""Tell that to the 44,000 doctors in the NHS and the 70,000 nurses without whom we would really see what pressure on the health service means,"" he said. ""Ditto the teachers, from South Africa, Australia, Jamaica, who are reducing the sizes of our classes and schools."" The Refugee Council said Mr Howard's proposals would mean there would be no safe haven in the UK." +politics,"PM apology over jailings Tony Blair has apologised to two families who suffered one of the UK's biggest miscarriages of justice. The prime minister was commenting on the wrongful jailing of 11 people for IRA bomb attacks on pubs in Guildford and Woolwich in 1974. Mr Blair said: ""I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice."" He made the apology to members of the Conlon and Maguire families in his private room at Westminster. In a statement recorded for television, Mr Blair said the families deserved ""to be completely and publicly exonerated"". The families had hoped the apology would be made during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons. However, one of the so-called Guildford Four, Gerry Conlon - who was wrongly convicted of planting the bombs - said the families were delighted with the apology. He said Mr Blair had spoken with ""such sincerity"", adding: ""He went beyond what we thought he would, he took time to listen to everyone. ""You could see he was moved by what people were saying. ""Tony Blair has healed rifts, he is helping to heal wounds. It's a day I never thought would come."" The move followed a huge campaign in Ireland for a public apology after eleven people were wrongly convicted of making and planting the IRA bombs which killed seven people. Mr Blair's official spokesman said no-one present at the meeting would ""ever forget the strength of feeling of relief that the prime minister's statement brought to them"". Most of those convicted were either members or friends of the two families. All were arrested because of a family connection to Gerry Conlon. Mr Conlon's father Giuseppe was arrested when travelling to London from Belfast to help his son. He died while serving his sentence. Also arrested were Anne Maguire and members of her family. Mrs Maguire was the relative with whom Giuseppe planned to stay in London, as well as two family friends. She said it was a ""wonderful feeling"" to have had the apology and that a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. ""The people who were still doubting us should now believe that we were totally innocent,"" she said. They were all jailed for handling explosives, based on scientific evidence which was later entirely discredited. In October 1989 the Court of Appeal quashed the sentences of the Guildford Four, and in June 1991 it overturned the sentences on the Maguire Seven. Mr Conlon's case was highlighted in the Oscar-nominated film In The Name Of The Father, starring Daniel Day-Lewis." +politics,"Blair stresses prosperity goals Tony Blair says his party's next manifesto will be ""unremittingly New Labour"" and aimed at producing ""personal prosperity for all"". The prime minister is trying to draw a line under speculation over the state of his relationship with Gordon Brown with the speech in Chatham, Kent. He is saying that prosperity means both individual wealth and ensuring ""radically improved"" public services. He is also claiming Labour is more ideologically united than ever. Mr Brown is currently touring Africa after a week of facing questions about reports of his splits with Downing Street. With the election widely predicted for May, angry Labour MPs this week warned Mr Blair and Mr Brown about the dangers of disunity. Now Mr Blair is trying to put the focus on the substance of Labour's platform for a third term in government. Labour made low inflation, unemployment and mortgage rates the centrepiece of a new poster campaign this week. And on Thursday Mr Blair is saying: ""I want to talk about the central purpose ofNew Labour - which is to increase personal prosperity and well-being, not justfor a few but for all. ""By prosperity I mean both the income and wealth of individuals and theirfamilies, and the opportunity and security available to them through radicallyimproved public services and a reformed welfare state."" The Tories are trying to capitalise on the apparent feud at the top of government. On Wednesday they unveiled a poster which pictured the prime minister and Mr Brown under the words ""How can they fight crime when they are fighting each other?"" Michael Howard and frontbencher John Redwood on Thursday launched new plans to abolish hundreds of quangos. They say government is spending too much and lower taxes are needed to make Britain more competitive. The Liberal Democrats have also claimed infighting its obstructing good government. The latest speculation about relations between New Labour's two most powerful figures came after the publication of a new book, Brown's Britain by Robert Preston. In it he alleges that Mr Blair told Mr Brown in 2003 he would step down as prime minister before the coming general election. The book claims the premier went back on his pledge after support from Cabinet allies and suspicion that Mr Brown was manoeuvring against him. Mr Peston's book claimed that Mr Brown told Mr Blair: ""There is nothing you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe."" On Wednesday Mr Blair directly denied Mr Brown made that quote, and before he left for Africa on Tuesday the chancellor told reporters: ""Of course I trust the prime minister.""" +politics,"Tories leave door open for Archer The Conservative Party would deal ""sympathetically"" with any application by disgraced peer Lord Archer to rejoin its ranks, its co-chairman has said. Dr Liam Fox told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme there was no place for ""vindictiveness"" in politics. Lord Archer spent two years in prison after being convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice. The former Tory deputy chairman's five-year suspension from the party has just elapsed. A jury ruled that Lord Archer lied during a libel trial against the Daily Star at the High Court in London in 1987. He won damages after the newspaper printed allegations about involvement with a prostitute. Dr Fox was asked if he would say yes or no if Lord Archer applied to rejoin. ""I'm sure that in line with people having served their sentence and having done some reparations for what they did wrong, we would look at that sympathetically. ""I don't believe in vindictiveness, I don't think that has any place in politics, unlike the prime minister and Alastair Campbell."" Tory peer Lord Tebbit said he agreed with Dr Fox's view, and said the case should be looked at on its merits. ""After all, he is far from being the worst perjurer in the world,"" he added. Meanwhile, senior Conservative MP Sir Teddy Taylor warned that moves bring Lord Archer back into the fold could be controversial. He said: ""I suppose, on a Sunday in particular, we should always make provision for forgiving sinners. But there is no doubt it would be controversial."" Lord Archer, who was not available for comment, remains a popular figure among constituency Tory parties and is a successful fundraiser. He has not been seen in the House of Lords since his release from prison in July 2003, although there is nothing in the rules to prevent him from attending." +politics,"Bid to cut court witness stress New targets to reduce the stress to victims and witnesses giving evidence in courts in England and Wales have been announced by the lord chancellor. Lord Falconer wants all crown courts and 90% of magistrates' courts to have facilities to keep witnesses separate from defendants within four years. More video links will also be made available so that witnesses do not have to enter courtrooms. It is part of a five-year plan to help build confidence in the justice system. Ministers say the strategy is aimed at re-balancing the court system towards victims, and increasing the number of offenders brought to justice. Launching the Department for Constitutional Affairs' plan, Lord Falconer said: ""One of the top priorities will be a better deal for victims. ""The needs and safety of victims will be at the heart of the way trials are managed. ""Courts, judges, magistrates, prosecutors, police and victim support - all working together to ensure the rights of victims are put first, without compromising the rights of the defendant."" He went on: ""Giving evidence is a nerve-wracking experience, especially when you're a victim. ""Yet with a will and with support it can be done."" Lord Falconer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was impossible for some elderly people to go to court to give evidence. Other witnesses could be intimidated by sitting alongside defendants outside courts. ""You are never going to get rid of some element of the trauma of giving evidence,"" he said. ""But you can make people believe that the courts understand the problem, it's not some kind of alien place where they go where they are not thinking about them."" The plan comes as the lord chancellor also considers allowing cameras into courts for the first time since 1925, as long as they were used for cases that did not involve witnesses. Another feature of the strategy is constitutional reform, with a government bill to set up a supreme court and a judicial appointments commission returning to the House of Lords on Tuesday. Ministers had proposed getting rid of the title of lord chancellor, but the Lords have over-ruled this. Lord Falconer said it was right for the highest court to be completely distinct from Parliament. The person in charge of the court system should not also be speaker of the House of Lords, he said, and should be the best person chosen from either House of Parliament. What they did, not what they were called, was the critical issue, he added." +politics,"McConnell details Scots wave toll At least three people from Scotland died in the tsunami disaster and a further three are on the missing list, the first minister has told MSPs. The figures came out during a statement by Jack McConnell to the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday. He formally expressed Scotland's sympathy for the victims of the Indian Ocean tidal wave which killed 150,000. Mr McConnell went on to promise that Scotland would play its part in the reconstruction effort. He said the provisional figures on the dead and lost had been provided by the police. Mr McConnell said the tragedy should persuade everyone to step up the fight against global poverty and change the world for the better. He said he was proud of the generous response of people in Scotland to the disaster appeal, which is expected soon to top £20m. The first minister also praised Scottish Water for immediately flying bottled water and five large generators to the disaster zone. The Scottish Executive has seconded 11 staff to the aid agencies. But he said Scotland was ""in it for the long term"" with help planned for fishing communities, for children's services, and for the aid charities. He said 2005 must be the year that Scotland showed clearly it cared for what happened to people elsewhere in the world, whether in Asia or in Africa. Mr McConnell went on to signal that the executive would play its part in the Make Poverty History campaign being mounted by a variety of aid charities, trade unions and churches in the run-up to the G8 summit in Gleneagles in July. Edinburgh architect, Dominic Stephenson, became the first Scot to be confirmed as a victim of the Asian tsunami. The 27-year-old was holidaying on the Thai island of Koh Phi Phi with Eileen Lee, 24. She is still missing." +politics,"Cabinet anger at Brown cash raid Ministers are unhappy about plans to use Whitehall cash to keep council tax bills down, local government minister Nick Raynsford has acknowledged. Gordon Brown reallocated £512m from central to local government budgets in his pre-Budget report on Thursday. Mr Raynsford said he had held some ""pretty frank discussions"" with fellow ministers over the plans. But he said local governments had to deliver good services without big council tax rises. The central government cash is part of a £1bn package to help local authorities in England keep next year's council tax rises below 5%, in what is likely to be a general election year. Mr Raynsford said nearly all central government departments had an interest in well run local authorities. And he confirmed rows over the issue with ministerial colleagues. ""Obviously we had some pretty frank discussions about this,"" he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One. But he said there was a recognition that ""a good settlement for local government"" was important to health, education and ""other government departments"". Ministers had to be sure local government could deliver without ""unreasonable council tax increases"", he added. Mr Raynsford dismissed a suggestion the move was designed to keep council taxes down ahead of an expected general election. ""This is a response to the concerns that have been voiced by local government about the pressures they face."" Mr Raynsford also plans to make savings of £100m by making changes to local government pensions schemes. These would raise the age from which retiring workers could claim their pensions and limit how much they received if they retired early. He insisted the changes were ""very modest"" and designed to tackle the problem of workers retiring ""very early"". But general secretary of the public services union Unison Dave Prentis criticised the plans. ""If you want world class public services you don't get that by hitting people as they approach retirement.""" +politics,"Blair 'damaged' by Blunkett row A majority of voters (68%) believe the prime minister has been damaged by the row over David Blunkett's involvement in a visa application, a poll suggests. But nearly half those surveyed said Mr Blunkett should return to Cabinet if Labour won the next election. Some 63% of respondents in the Sunday Times poll thought his former lover - Kimberly Quinn - acted vindictively and 61% that he had been right to resign. YouGov polled a weighted sample of 1,981 voters online on 16-18 December. Mr Blunkett resigned as Home Secretary on Wednesday after an inquiry uncovered an e-mail showing a visa application by Mrs Quinn's former nanny had been speeded up. Sir Alan Budd's inquiry also found Mr Blunkett's account of events had been wrong. Almost a quarter (21%) of those polled for the Sunday Times said he should return to the Cabinet straight after the election. One in four said he should be back in the Government's top ranks within a year or two while 39% opposed a comeback. Three-quarters said Mr Blunkett was right to go to court for the right to see Mrs Quinn's son - whom he says he fathered - and just 14% voiced sympathy for Mrs Quinn. A total of 53% of those polled said they had sympathy for Mr Blunkett, with 40% saying they did not. Forty-three per cent thought Mr Blunkett had done a good job as home secretary and 17% disagreed. Meantime, 32% said Mr Blair was a good prime minister and 38% disagreed. A majority, 52%, said Chancellor Gordon Brown had done a good job and just 16% disagreed. A second poll for the Independent on Sunday found that support for all political parties remained largely unchanged after the Blunkett controversy. Labour lead the Conservatives by 39% to 34% with the Liberal Democrats on 19%. CommunicateResearch interviewed 401 people before David Blunkett's resignation and 601 afterwards. Some 82% said Mr Blunkett had set a good example by wanting to take responsibility for the child he says is his, but 42% backed his legal action compared to 45% who thought it was unbecoming. Thirty per cent said the affair showed Mr Blunkett could not be trusted as a minister while 63%, disagreed." +politics,"Tsunami 'won't divert Africa aid' UK aid to help the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster will not take much needed relief from Africa, Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised. Mr Blair told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost show the money spent on the tsunami would not ""invade"" the money Britain wanted to spend on Africa. Questioned about the disaster, he said his faith in God had not been shaken. He added he would give new figures on the number of tsunami-related British deaths to the Commons on Monday. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Friday that about 440 Britons were either dead or missing in the disaster. Mr Blair told Sunday's programme: ""Since Jack Straw gave those figures a couple of days ago they haven't moved a great deal, which should give us some hope that we are beginning to reach the peak of the numbers. But we just can't be sure. ""It is just an immensely difficult job to get absolutely accurate figures, all countries are struggling with this."" He said the £50 million originally allocated from the Department for International Development was now ""well on the way"" to being spent. But the exact allocation could not be clarified until the World Bank had completed its assessment of the needs of the countries affected. Within the next few weeks a clearer picture would emerge of the long-term costs of reconstruction, he added. But he pledged that Africa - which sees a ""preventable"" tsunami-size death toll every month from conflict, disease and poverty - would not be neglected. As Britain takes up its presidency of the G8 group of leading nations, Mr Blair said ministers had a big agenda for Africa. ""For the first time we have a plan that won't just deal with aid and debt but will also deal on issues of governance within African countries and conflict resolution,"" he said. ""A lot of the problems in Africa come from conflict, that again are preventable, but only with the right systems in place.""" +politics,"Mallon wades into NE vote battle Middlesbrough mayor Ray Mallon has been drafted in to boost the Yes campaign as the North East assembly referendum enters its final week. The former police chief, dubbed Robocop for his zero tolerance style, clashed on Thursday with Sunderland No campaigner Neil Herron. Mr Mallon said an assembly would give local people more of a say over key issues such as transport and crime. But Mr Herron said North East people did not want or need an assembly. The pair met on the platform at Sunderland station as Mr Mallon toured the region highlighting claimed improvements to transport if the area gets an assembly. But Mr Herron - who gained fame as one of Sunderland's ""metric martyrs"" and is running his own No campaign alongside the official North East Says No campaign - said he was not convinced by Mr Mallon's arguments. ""The reality is that it is not going to deliver,"" he said. ""Labour has had two-and-a-half years to convince people of this. If you can't sell a deal in that time, it is a bad deal."" On Wednesday, Mr Mallon provoked fury by branding the official No Campaign ""two-bit Tories"" in a confrontation outside its Durham headquarters. ""The campaign is being run by two-bit Conservatives who are not interested in what happens in the North East; they are interested in hitting the Labour party over the head,"" he said. Mr Mallon is a late recruit to the Yes campaign after rejecting overtures from No campaigners including, he claims, Tory leader Michael Howard. Most local observers believe the contest is too close to call, although little recent polling has been carried out. Yes campaign chairman John Tomaney said he hoped for a late flurry of votes to boost turnout - something he says will boost their cause. He added: ""The government exerts a lot of political power in the North East. The accountability should be in the North East as well."" He also defended the decision to attack the official No campaign's alleged political allegiances. ""We felt we had to show what people were behind the No campaign - London Tory spin doctors."" Graham Robb, spokesman for North East Says No, said the Yes campaign's decision to get personal dragged the campaign ""into the gutter"" and showed they were ""rattled"". And he hit back at Mr Mallon's claim that an assembly would improve transport links in the region. ""It can push paper around but it can not get people moving,"" he said. Some 487,939 people had returned their ballot papers by Wednesday - a turnout of 25.7%. The deadline for voting is next Thursday, 4 November." +politics,"US casino 'tricks' face ban in UK Controversial new UK casinos will be banned from using American tricks of the trade to ensure they are ""socially responsible"", it has been suggested. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said proposed super-casinos will be different from their US counterparts. In America, pheromones have reportedly been released from machines to encourage aggressive gambling and clocks are often removed from walls. Eight super-casinos are proposed from 2010 if the Gambling Bill becomes law. Ms Jowell said the legislation would ban psychological trickery. She told The Times: ""British casinos will be quite different to those overseas. ""They will have to act in a socially responsible way and will be tightly regulated. ""They will be run according to British rules and we'll simply not allow any tricks which people are subjected to unawares and which increase the risk of problem gambling."" One tactic used in the US is simulating daylight during night-time to lull players into remaining at the tables and slot machines. Casinos also frequently offer free food, drink and hotel accommodation to keep punters betting. A spokesman for the British Casino Association, which represents the UK industry, said the government was trying to allay fears over a ""UK Las Vegas"". He said the way the licences were being awarded meant UK firms were at a massive disadvantage and foreign companies would be certain to win the contracts. ""The UK industry is one of the world's most respected,"" he said. ""We have the lowest level of problem gambling in the world. ""We certainly don't use pheremones. ""The UK gambling industry is being totally frozen in time, and the foreign companies will take over.""" +politics,"Guantanamo four free in weeks All four Britons held by the US in Guantanamo Bay will be returned to the UK within weeks, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the Commons on Tuesday. Moazzam Begg, from Birmingham, and Martin Mubanga, Richard Belmar and Feroz Abbasi, from London, have been held by the US for almost three years. They were detained in the Cuban camp as part of the US-led ""war on terror"". Mr Straw said the US had agreed to release the four after ""intensive and complex discussions"" over security. He said the government had been negotiating the return of the detainees since 2003. All four families have been informed of their return and have been involved in regular discussions with the government, Mr Straw said. But he added: ""Once they are back in the UK, the police will consider whether to arrest them under the Terrorism Act 2000 for questioning in connection with possible terrorist activity."" The shadow foreign secretary, Michael Ancram, welcomed the return of the four detainees. But he said there were still ""serious questions"" both over the possible threat the four pose to the UK, and the treatment they received while detained. Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell said the four had been rescued from a ""legal no-man's land"". ""Their civil rights were systematically and deliberately abused and they were denied due process."" Azmat Begg, father of Moazzam, thanked his lawyers and the British people for the support he had received while campaigning for his son's release. He added: ""If they have done something wrong, of course they should be punished, but if they haven't, they shouldn't have been there."" Lawyer Louise Christian, who represents Mr Abbasi and Mr Mubanga, said the government should have acted sooner. She said: ""They should at the outset have said quite clearly to the American government that they were behaving in breach of international law and that the British government wanted no part of it and wanted Guantanamo Bay shut down. ""They didn't do that. They colluded with it."" Moazzam Begg's Labour MP Roger Godsiff welcomed his release, but said questions remained unanswered, particularly about charges. Asked about possible damages Mr Begg and the other detainees could bring against the US, Mr Godsiff said: ""People get released from prison when it's found that their prosecution was unsustainable and they are quite rightly awarded sizeable sums of money. ""I don't see any difference in this case."" Human rights campaigners have been outraged at the treatment of the detainees in Cuba. Amnesty International has called Camp Delta a ""major human-rights scandal"" and an ""icon of lawlessness"". Both Amnesty and the lobby group Guantanamo Human Rights Commission described the release as ""long overdue"". Civil rights group Liberty said it was ""delighted"" but called on the government to release men indefinitely detained in the UK without charge or trial. Director Shami Chakrabarti called on the government to ""practise what it preaches"" and either free or charge 12 detainees at Belmarsh and Woodhill prisons. Law Lords ruled last month that the 12 were being held in contravention of human rights laws but they are still behind bars. The US has also announced that 48-year-old Australian Mamdouh Habib, previously accused of terrorist offences, will be released without charge from Camp Delta. Five British detainees released from Guantanamo in March last year were questioned by UK police before being released without charge." +politics,"Howard hits back at mongrel jibe Michael Howard has said a claim by Peter Hain that the Tory leader is acting like an ""attack mongrel"" shows Labour is ""rattled"" by the opposition. In an upbeat speech to his party's spring conference in Brighton, he said Labour's campaigning tactics proved the Tories were hitting home. Mr Hain made the claim about Tory tactics in the anti-terror bill debate. ""Something tells me that someone, somewhere out there is just a little bit rattled,"" Mr Howard said. Mr Hain, Leader of the Commons, told BBC Radio Four's Today programme that Mr Howard's stance on the government's anti-terrorism legislation was putting the country at risk. He then accused the Tory Leader of behaving like an ""attack mongrel"" and ""playing opposition for opposition sake"". Mr Howard told his party that Labour would ""do anything, say anything, claim anything to cling on to office at all costs"". ""So far this year they have compared me to Fagin, to Shylock and to a flying pig. This morning Peter Hain even called me a mongrel. ""I don't know about you, but something tells me that someone, somewhere out there is just a little bit rattled."" Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett rejected Mr Howard's comment, telling Radio 4's PM programme that Labour was not ""rattled"". ""We have a very real duty to try to get people to focus on Michael Howard's record, what the proposals are that he is trying to put forward to the country and also the many examples we are seeing now of what we believe is really poor judgement on his behalf."" Mr Howard said Tory policies on schools, taxes, immigration and crime were striking a chord with voters. ""Since the beginning of this year - election year - we've been making the political weather,"" he told the party conference. Mr Howard denied he had been ""playing politics"" by raising the case of Margaret Dixon, whose operation had been cancelled seven times, which grabbed headlines for the party two weeks ago. And he hit back at Labour claims he had used Mrs Dixon as a ""human shield"". ""She's not a human shield Mr Blair, she's a human being."" Mr Howard said his party plans for immigration quotas, which have also been the focus of much media coverage, were not ""racist"" - just ""common sense"". He pledged cleaner hospitals and better school discipline, with a promise to get rid of ""political correctness"" in the national curriculum and give everyone to the same chance of a ""decent"" state education as he had. ""I come from an ordinary family. If the teenage Michael Howard were applying to Cambridge today, Gordon Brown would love me."" And he stressed his party's commitment to cut taxes and red tape and increase the basic state pension in line with earnings. He finished with a personal appeal to party activists to go out and win the next election. ""One day you will be able to tell your children and grandchildren as I will tell mine, 'I was there. I did my bit. I played my part. I helped to win that famous election - the election that transformed our country for the better'."" Labour election co-ordinator Alan Milburn said: ""Michael Howard's speech today confirms what we have always said - that his only strategy is opportunism but he has no forward vision for the country. In reference to the appearance of Mr Howard's family on the conference stage with him, Mr Milburn said: ""Michael Howard is perfectly entitled to pose with his family today. ""But it is the hard working families across Britain that will be damaged by his plan to cut £35bn from public spending.""" +politics,"Falconer rebuts 'charade' claims Concessions on a bill which critics claim would allow euthanasia ""through the back door"" were not a political ploy, the lord chancellor has said. Ministers have been accused of panic in offering last minute changes to the Mental Capacity Bill amid chaotic scenes in the Commons on Tuesday. Lord Falconer said it was fair to criticise the late timing of the offer. He said the changes provided a solution to a very difficult issue but some MPs argue the situation is still unclear. The bill allows people to give somebody the power of attorney to make decisions on their behalf if they become too ill to decide for themselves. Ministers insist the plans would not change laws on euthanasia and would improve safeguards. Critics fear it could allow ""killing by omission"" through withdrawing treatment, including food and fluids. Tony Blair said he would do everything he could to meet concerns about the bill. But changes to the bill must not overturn the law set when a court ruled that doctors could withdraw artificial feeding and hydration from Hillsborough coma victim Tony Bland. ""It is important we don't end up in the situation where doctors and consultants are confused about the law and may lay themselves open to prosecution in circumstances where no sensible person would want that to happen,"" he said. On Tuesday, the government saw off a backbench attempt to force changes to the bill by 297 votes to 203, despite rebellion by 34 Labour MPs. The revolt was also reduced by news that Lord Falconer had promised the Catholic archbishop of Cardiff to strengthen safeguards in the bill. But that only came after MPs bombarded Constitutional Affairs Minister David Lammy with a barrage of requests for him to read the letter as they complained they had been left in the dark. Eventually, he was hurriedly handed the letter to read out five minutes before the crunch votes, prompting claims of a shambles. The deputy speaker later said the debate had not been handled as it should have been. Lord Falconer says there will be amendments when the bill goes to the House of Lords. He told BBC News: ""We have given a commitment to put into the bill a clause that says that nothing in the bill authorises any act where the motive of the person authorising the decision is to end life. ""The motive has got to be to end suffering."" He denied the concessions were a ""political manoeuvre"" forced by panic about the rebellion. It was inevitable that minds became more focused as the bill went through Parliament but the result was a ""sensible solution"", he said. ""I don't think it is something to be embarrassed about. These issues are not easy to deal with,"" he went on. BBC political editor Andrew Marr said Mr Lammy was ""waste deep in quicksand and sinking fast"" after his performance. But Lord Falconer praised his minister for an ""excellent job"". Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, one of the chief critics of the plans, condemned the debate as a ""charade"" and complained the promises of changes to the bill were vague." +politics,"Labour accused of broken pledge Labour has already broken its pre-election promise on immigration before the ink has dried on its new pledge card, the Tories have claimed. Home Secretary Charles Clarke has been quoted as telling Labour members he wants more migrants to come to the UK. Tory co-chairman Liam Fox said the comments were at odds with Tony Blair's prediction of a net cut in immigration. But Mr Clarke accused him of trying to score ""cheap political points"" by muddling immigration with asylum. London's Evening Standard quoted Mr Clarke telling Labour activists at a question and answer session in Gateshead that he wanted Britain to offer refuge for those fleeing tyranny. ""That's not only a moral duty and a legal duty, but something which is part of the essence of this country,"" he said. ""We want more migration, more people come to study and to work. ""We want more people coming to look for refuge."" Mr Blair's was asked last Wednesday if the government's new immigration plans, including a point system for economic migrants, would reduce net migration. The prime minister told MPs: ""The abusers will be weeded out, and as a result of the end of chain migration [where families have an automatic right to settle], the numbers will probably fall."" On Monday, Dr Fox told reporters: ""The prime minister has broken his word so many times in the past but now his promises do not even last a week. ""The Labour Party election pledges, even when they are so incredibly vague, do not even last four days."" The Tories want quotas for economic migrants and refugees and on Tuesday will outline more details of their plans for health checks on migrants. Mr Clarke dismissed the latest Tory attack. ""This is simply a scurrilous attempt by the Tories to score cheap political points,"" he said. ""The Tories are purposely mixing together two separate issues of immigration and asylum."" Mr Clarke said he had made clear the UK would welcome genuine economic migrants for key jobs on a strict points based system. And only asylum seekers genuinely fleeing death or persecution would be admitted. ""Under our plans we expect unfounded applications to continue to fall,"" he added. Earlier, Dr Fox accused Mr Blair and other Cabinet ministers of telling lies about Tory policies and then attacking the lies. He told BBC Radio: ""If you are willing to lie about the reasons for going to war, I guess you are going to lie about anything at all."" The latest pre-election spats come after Mr Blair told Labour members the Tories offered a ""hard right agenda"" which would take Britain backwards. Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy accelerating Lib Dem election preparations this week as he visits Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Somerset, Basingstoke, Shrewsbury, Dorset and Torbay." +politics,"Game warnings 'must be clearer' Violent video games should carry larger warnings so parents can understand what their children are playing, the trade and industry secretary has said. Patricia Hewitt is expected to call for the law banning the sale of 18-rated games to children to be enforced better at a games industry meeting on Sunday. She is concerned too many children are playing games aimed at adults which include ""high levels of violence"". Parents are expected to spend millions on video games as Christmas presents. Violent games have been hit by controversy after the game Manhunt was blamed by the parents of 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah, who was stabbed to death in Leicester in February. His mother, Giselle, said her son's killer, Warren Leblanc, 17 - who was jailed for life in September - had mimicked behaviour in the game. Police investigating the Stefan's murder dismissed its influence and Manhunt was not part of its legal case. Ahead of Sunday's meeting in London, Ms Hewitt said she was proud of the UK's ""vibrant games industry"" but was concerned too many children were playing games which should only be sold to adults. Roger Bennett, head of gaming industry body ELSPA, said banning violent games would be wrong. He said: ""We don't want to go down that route. We have seen that the government is supportive of the industry."" The government is holding a further meeting on Friday with industry and retail representatives as well as the British Board of Film Classification to discuss how labelling can be made clearer. Ms Hewitt said: ""Adults should be treated as adults and children as children. It is important that retailers respect the classifications and do not sell games with high levels of violence to minors. ""Equally parents need to know what they might be buying for their children. ""Video games are different to films or videos, and not all parents have grown up playing games in the way our children do. ""We need to look carefully at how we improve content warnings and strengthen sales enforcement."" Her call was backed by Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Tessa Jowell who said: ""You wouldn't let your child watch the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. You wouldn't let them go to a strip club. ""So you shouldn't let them play an 18-rated game. It's the same principle - adults can make their own informed choices, but children can't always and need to be protected."" Anyone convicted of selling an 18-rated game to a child can be jailed for six months and fined up to £5,000. Rockstar Games, the makers of Manhunt, has said in the past it markets its games responsibly and only targets its adverts at adults." +politics,"UK pledges £1bn to vaccine effort UK Chancellor Gordon Brown has offered £960m ($1.8bn) over 15 years to an international scheme aiming to boost vaccination and immunisation schemes. In a speech, he called for action to reach the 2000 Millennium Declaration goals of halving global poverty and tackling child mortality rates. Mr Brown has just returned from a tour of African nations. The £1bn commitment is part of a five-point plan on debt relief, trade, aid, education and health. The chancellor was speaking at an event jointly organised by the UK's Department for International Development and the UN Development Programme on Wednesday. Mr Brown welcomed news that the Bill Gates Foundation and Norway are joining up to put an extra £0.53bn ($1bn ) into the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi). Britain, France, Gavi and the Gates Foundation have drawn up proposals to apply the principles of the International Finance Facility (IFF) to the area of immunisation. That could see donors making long-term, legally binding financial commitments which can then be used as collateral for raising extra funds from international capital markets. As well as pledging £960m over 15 years to the immunisation IFF, Britain urged other donors to contribute. If Gavi could increase its funding for immunisation by an extra £4bn ($7.4bn) over 10 years, then an extra five million lives could have been saved by 2015 and five million thereafter, Mr Brown argued. Campaign groups including Friends of the Earth, the World Development Movement, and War on Want said UK government policy on free trade was a major barrier to fighting poverty. War on Want's John Hilary said: ""Compassionate rhetoric cannot disguise the reality of the government's neo-liberal policies. ""As long as Mr Blair and Mr Brown continue to push free trade and privatisation on developing countries, more and more people will be pushed deeper into poverty, not lifted out of it.""" +politics,"McConnell in 'drunk' remark row Scotland's first minister has told a group of high school pupils that it is okay to get drunk ""once in a while"". Jack McConnell was speaking to more than 100 secondary pupils from schools in the Highlands about the problems of binge drinking and drink promotions. He has been criticised by the SNP for encouraging young people to get drunk. But the Scottish Executive has insisted Mr McConnell was speaking about adults and his comments were ""a recognition that people will get drunk"". The first minister's comments came in a question and answer session at Glenurquhart High School in Inverness, attended by pupils from a number of secondary schools. A Highland councillor who was at the event has also defended Mr McConnell. Margaret Davidson, the independent member for the Loch Ness West, said the first minister was speaking in a very general way and she was sure he was speaking about adults at the time. When one pupil asked Mr McConnell how the executive proposed to tackle under-age drinking, began his response with the quip: ""I'm sure there's no under-age drinking in the Highlands."" He went on to speak about the evils of binge drinking and railed against irresponsible drinks promotions. He said: ""I hope I'm not going to be seen as preaching to anybody here but the really serious problem at the moment is binge drinking and the impact it has on people's health and their ability to control what's happening round about them."" Mr McConnell said he regularly saw reports on the effects of binge drinking sprees which ended in assaults or even rapes, and on the health consequences of binge drinking. ""The one thing we are going to do something really serious about is binge drinking and irresponsible drinks promotions that can help lead to that,"" he said. ""Far too many pub chains in particular are selling far too much booze far too cheaply and encouraging people to drink it far too quickly. ""We are go to clamp down on that and make those promotions illegal in the hope that people can enjoy a drink sensibly over the course of an evening."" He added: ""By all means get drunk once in a while - but do not get into a situation where people are being encouraged to get completely incapable just to save some money and drink more quickly."" SNP Holyrood leader Nicola Sturgeon said: ""This is an incredible gaffe by Jack McConnell. ""We all know that under-age drinking is an issue in Scotland but it is quite staggering that any politician, particularly the First Minister, should encourage young people to get drunk. ""The first minister should withdraw these remarks immediately."" But an executive spokeswoman insisted Mr McConnell had made the remark with adults, not youngsters, in mind. ""He was talking in the context of adults binge drinking and irresponsible drinks promotions - which are for the over-18s,"" she said. ""It was just a recognition that people will get drunk, but that binge drinking and drinks promotions that encourage it are not acceptable.""" +politics,"Police chief backs drinking move A chief constable has backed the introduction of 24-drinking, saying police had a responsibility to ensure people could benefit from a law change. However, Norfolk police chief Andy Hayman also warned that a great deal of preparatory work was still needed. ""I don't subscribe to the views of some of my colleagues who are coming out and objecting to it,"" he said. His comments come after the Liberal Democrats backed Tory demands that the government's plans be put on hold. Andy Hayman said he did not agree with politicians and senior police officers who have objected to the plans, which come into force on 7 February. ""I feel that is a premature position to be taking,"" he said. Among those who have criticised the plans are the UK's top policeman Sir John Stevens. The Metropolitan police chief said last week that the plans for 24-hour drinking should be re-examined because of a binge drinking ""epidemic"". However, Mr Hayman said: ""It would be totally unacceptable in my view for a chief constable to say, 'I'm very sorry'. He said that police should make sure that responsible people who wanted a change could benefit from more liberal legislation. ""My view is that I have got a responsibility to create an environment where that can happen, "" he said. However, he believes a lot of preparatory work is still needed to be done by police, local authorities and the drinks industry before the nation was ready for 24-hour drinking. But he is confident problems in the early days can be ""ironed out"". He believed the majority of people favoured this law change and ""we have to accept that lifestyles are changing"". But aspects such as transport, and basic things such as making sure public toilets are open all night had to be taken into account. Prime Minister Tony Blair has defended the Licensing Act, saying it is wrong to deny people the relaxed hours enjoyed elsewhere in Europe because of a ""tiny minority"" of violent binge drinkers. A six-month transitional period starts on 7 February during which time venues can apply for extended licences. The Conservatives have called for 24-hour drinking to be shelved until the problems of binge drinking are solved. On Monday, the Lib Dems also called for a delay. Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""It would clearly be prudent to allow the police and local authorities more time to prepare for flexible drinking hours."" Chief constable Mr Hayman acknowledged that binge drinking did cause problems. ""If you come to Norwich on a Friday or Saturday night you will see things going on that will you make you feel ashamed. ""However, I want industry to succeed in Norwich and I want Norwich to be the recognised nightspot of East Anglia. ""There is no way I want to say we cannot manage it or police it. We can.""" +politics,"Former NI minister Scott dies Former Northern Ireland minister Sir Nicholas Scott has died at a London hospice, his family has announced. The former Conservative MP for Kensington and Chelsea, died after a long illness diagnosed as Alzheimer's. The 71-year-old served in Northern Ireland from 1981 to 1987 during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher. As a Northern Ireland minister he dealt with education and later security where he rode out the mass IRA escape from the Maze in 1983. In education, he encountered criticism over school closures and the future of the Catholic training colleges. He also merged the New University of Ulster and the Ulster Polytechnic to create the University of Ulster. Sir Nicholas was a strong defender of the Anglo-Irish Agreement and was held in esteem in Dublin government and SDLP circles. But he experienced hostility from unionists some of whom dubbed him ""Minister of Discord"". After leaving Northern Ireland in a reshuffle, he became a UK disability minister. Sir Nicholas was replaced as the member for Kensington and Chelsea by the flamboyant Alan Clark, after being deselected by his constituency in December 1996. His deselection followed a series of scandals including being found slumped in the street by police during the Tory Party conference in Bournemouth and taken back to his hotel. Sir Nicholas claimed strong painkillers he was taking for a back problem had reacted badly with a small amount of alcohol. After his sacking, he bitterly said that despite the support of Cabinet ministers and Tory backbenchers, the Eurosceptics in his constituency were ""absolutely determined to get rid of me"". His colourful career also included a very public disagreement with daughter Victoria over civil rights for the disabled. Sir Nicholas admitted he misled MPs when he denied his department had been involved in wrecking tactics designed to kill the Disability Bill in 1994. Victoria, a lobbyist for disabled rights, denounced her father's actions and heaped insult on injury when she joined the calls for him to resign. He joined the backbenches two months later." +politics,"Blair looks to election campaign Tony Blair's big speech will be looked back on as the performance that kicked off the election campaign. That poll may still be about 16 weeks away, but there can be little doubt left that the campaign is now in full swing. The prime minister used his speech to a selected audience in the south east to set out his broad brush election manifesto. There was a detailed account of the government's past record, with a major emphasis on the economy and public services. There was an attempt to draw the line under the gossip surrounding his rift with Chancellor Gordon Brown. And there was an insistence on the importance of the party continuing to operate as unremittingly ""New"" Labour - although that may continue to irritate his chancellor. There was little in terms of concrete proposals or what might form manifesto pledges, although the prime minister talked about a ""New Labour manifesto that will be aimed at all sections of society"". His was more a speech designed to remind people, and some in his own party, precisely what New Labour stood for, and to leave them in no doubt there would not be any shrinking away from that approach. And, for some, that means showing that New Labour actually does stand for something - that it is, as he said, more than ""an electoral device"". To that end he set out a broad programme aimed to appeal to both middle England voters who switched to the party in 1997 and stuck with it, possibly through some gritted teeth, in 2001, and to more traditional lower income old Labour supporters. In a key section, he declared: ""In our third term we can achieve an unprecedented widening of opportunity and prosperity. ""For the first time ever a whole generation growing up with unbroken economic stability. Every family - not just the fortunate few - knowing their children will have an inheritance at adulthood. ""Every pupil in every secondary school guaranteed a place in university or a quality apprenticeship. Every adult - including those who missed out at school - able to get the skills then need to advance. ""Home ownership extended to its highest ever level and to families who have never before been able to afford it. ""The highest ever level of employment with everyone in work guaranteed a decent wage and decent conditions"". Under what is to be the general election slogan ""Britain is working"", the prime minister time and again insisted the future direction would be unremittingly New Labour. That might get under the skin of Mr Brown, but he also heaped praise on him as the most successful post-war chancellor Britain has had. Probably the greatest ideological divide between the two men, in so far as there is one, is about the degree of private finance allowed into the public services. An unremittingly ""New"" Labour manifesto, as the prime minister is happy to make plain, will stress the importance of that - the belief patients and parents, for example, want a choice of good services before they start worrying about who has provided them. The chancellor is said to be far more sceptical about private finance, although there is no suggestion he opposes it in principle. With an election looming the next big speech from Gordon Brown will be closely examined for any signs of divisions and, in particular, the use of that little three letter word. But for now, all eyes have been focused on the next general election. And for many in Westminster, Mr Blair's performance has only succeeded in hardening the belief that will be on 5 May." +politics,"Hewitt decries 'career sexism' Plans to extend paid maternity leave beyond six months should be prominent in Labour's election manifesto, the Trade and Industry Secretary has said. Patricia Hewitt said the cost of the proposals was being evaluated, but it was an ""increasingly high priority"" and a ""shared goal across government"". Ms Hewitt was speaking at a gender and productivity seminar organised by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC). Mothers can currently take up to six months' paid leave - and six unpaid. Ms Hewitt told the seminar: ""Clearly, one of the things we need to do in the future is to extend the period of payment for maternity leave beyond the first six months into the second six months. ""We are looking at how quickly we can do that, because obviously there are cost implications because the taxpayer reimburses the employers for the cost of that."" Ms Hewitt also announced a new drive to help women who want to work in male dominated sectors, saying sexism at work was still preventing women reaching their full potential. Plans include funding for universities to help female science and engineering graduates find jobs and ""taster courses"" for men and women in non-traditional jobs. Women in full-time work earn 19% less than men, according to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC). The minister told delegates that getting rid of ""career sexism"" was vital to closing the gender pay gap. ""Career sexism limits opportunities for women of all ages and prevents them from achieving their full potential. ""It is simply wrong to assume someone cannot do a job on the grounds of their sex,"" she said. Earlier, she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""What we are talking about here is the fact that about six out of 20 women work in jobs that are low-paid and typically dominated by women, so we have got very segregated employment. ""Unfortunately, in some cases, this reflects very old-fashioned and stereotypical ideas about the appropriate jobs for women, or indeed for men. ""Career sexism is about saying that engineering, for instance, where only 10% of employees are women, is really a male-dominated industry. Construction is even worse. ""But it is also about saying childcare jobs are really there for women and not suitable for men. Career sexism goes both ways."" She added that while progress had been made, there was still a gap in pay figures. ""The average woman working full-time is being paid about 80p for every pound a man is earning. For women working part-time it is 60p."" The Department for Trade and Industry will also provide funding to help a new pay experts panel run by the TUC. It has been set up to advise hundreds of companies on equal wage policies. Research conducted by the EOC last year revealed that many Britons believe the pay gap between men and women is the result of ""natural differences"" between the sexes. Women hold less than 10% of the top positions in FTSE 100 companies, the police, the judiciary and trade unions, according to their figures. And retired women have just over half the income of their male counterparts on average." +politics,"Nuclear strike 'key terror risk' The UK and US must realise they cannot prevent all terror attacks and should focus on making sure they are not nuclear strikes, says a top academic. Amitai Etzioni, a key influence on New Labour thinking, says the US emphasis on an ""Axis of Evil"" is misplaced. The priority should instead be on ""failing states"", including Russia and Pakistan, who cannot properly control their nuclear material, he argues. His report demands a major overhaul of world rules on nuclear technology. Professor Etzioni was a senior adviser to President Carter's White House and is the guru behind communitarian ideas which influenced the development of Blairite Third Way politics. In a report for the Foreign Policy Centre think tank, he says a nuclear terrorist attack is the main danger faced by many nations. ""Attempts to defend against it by hardening domestic targets cannot work, nor can one rely on pre-emption by taking the war to the terrorists before they attack,"" he says. That means there is an urgent need to curb terrorists' access to nuclear arms and the materials used to make them. ""We must recognise that we will be unable to stop all attacks and thus ensure terrorists will not be able to strike with weapons of mass destruction,"" Prof Etzioni continues. He suggests so-called rogue states such as Iran and North Korea are less of a problem than ""failed and failing states"", which are more likely to be a source of nuclear materials. He names Russia as the ""failing state"" of gravest concern as it has an estimated 90% of all fissile material outside America. And he is also worried about Pakistan after one of its top nuclear scientists, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted leaking nuclear secrets. Prof Etzioni criticises the US for overlooking those reports, suggesting it was done in return for Pakistani help in hunting Osama Bin Laden. ""This is like letting a serial killer go because he promised to catch some jay-walkers,"" he says. - Upgrading security at nuclear arms stores as a temporary measure - Creating a new Global Safety Authority to tackle nuclear terrorism, using the intelligence links established in the wake of 11 September - backed by the United Nations' authority - Encouraging, pressuring and using ""all available means"" to persuade countries to switch their highly-enriched uranium for less dangerous less-enriched uranium - When possible, taking fissile material away from failing states to safe havens where it can be blended down or converted - Compelling ""failing and rogue states"", and eventually all states, to destroy their nuclear bombs." +politics,"Howard rejects BNP's claim Tory leader Michael Howard has dismissed claims that his immigration policy was ""moving onto the turf"" of the British National Party (BNP). BNP leader Nick Griffin told the Independent he expected some BNP voters to switch to the Tories over the issue. But Mr Howard said he rejected the idea that the Tories and BNP appealed to the same voting instincts. Asked if he would welcome BNP voters he told the BBC: ""I don't want anybody to vote for these extremist parties"". He added, on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""If you want good community relations in this country...then you have to have firm, fair immigration controls."" The Tories have promised an upper limit on the number of people allowed into Britain with the slogan: ""It's not racist to impose limits on immigration"". All parties are stepping up campaiging in the run-up to the general election, widely expected to be called for 5 May. Labour has unveiled its own ""points system"" for ensuring migrants who want to work in the UK have skills that are required, but have rejected immigration quotas. The Liberal Democrats have warned both parties against ""pandering to prejudice"". Mr Griffin told the Independent the Tories' plans were ""a definite move onto our turf"". He said: ""I quite freely accept that on a nationwide basis, the Tories will con enough people to make a significant hole in our vote."" Asked whether he was comfortable with the perception that the Conservatives and the BNP appeal to the same voting instincts, Mr Howard told the BBC: ""I reject that entirely"". He said he found BNP's policies ""abhorrent"" but he said the UK had to take a different approach to immigration, which he said was out of control. ""The government doesn't want to limit it in any way, we do, there's a legitimate difference between us there which we can discuss in a calm, rational and reasonable way,"" he said. He again rejected newspaper speculation that his own father entered Britain illegally." +politics,"Cherie accused of attacking Bush Cherie Blair has been accused of criticising George W Bush's policies in a private address she gave during a United States lecture tour. The prime minister's wife is said to have praised the Supreme Court for overruling the White House on the legal rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees. The Tories said she broke a convention that British political figures do not act in a partisan way when abroad. But Downing Street said she was speaking in her capacity as a lawyer. It said she was not expressing political opinions. Mrs Blair's remarks are said to have been made in a speech to law students in Massachusetts. She said the decision by the US Supreme Court to give legal protection to two Britons held at Guantanamo Bay was a significant victory for human rights and the international rule of law. She also described the US legal code as an outdated grandfather clock and welcomed a decision to throw out a law backed by Mr Bush relating to sodomy in Texas. BBC news correspondent Gary O'Donoghue said Mrs Blair was likely to face further calls for restraint, since the US election is imminent. ""There have been some objections from people reasonably close to the Bush administration about her making these comments in their backyard just two days before a presidential election,"" he said. ""Conservatives here too have made their feelings clear. ""Cherie Booth has always regarded herself as having an independent career. She has continued to practise as a major human rights lawyer in the courts. ""It's not unusual for her to make these sorts of criticisms clear but it can be embarrassing.""" +politics,"Blunkett unveils policing plans People could be given the mobile phone number of their local bobby under an overhaul of policing in England and Wales unveiled by David Blunkett. The plans include a dedicated policing team for each neighbourhood and a 10 point compulsory customer charter. The home secretary said targets would be put in place to ensure that the public got a good response from police. Local people would also be able to ""trigger"" action on specific problems if they felt nothing was being done. Local councillors would have to show certain conditions had been met before invoking the power. And police could refuse the request if the complaints were frivolous, would only cause annoyance or would pose too heavy a burden on resources. Mr Blunkett said a new three digit number would be created for non-emergency phone calls to police. The best performing police services would get more cash and extra freedoms, he said, but he would not shirk from stepping in where the public was being failed. The home secretary's powers to suspend or sack chief constables are being reviewed after Mr Blunkett's battle with Humberside chief David Westwood over intelligence failures on Soham murderer Ian Huntley. Opposition parties also want more local policing to tackle nuisance behaviour and other crime but they accuse ministers of tying the police up with paperwork. Tory spokesman David Davis said the proposals were ""little more than a taxpayer-funded PR exercise"" ahead of a general election predicted for next May. Police forces were already ""buried"" under existing government initiatives and there was little in the latest plans to reassure them,"" said Mr Davis. Earlier Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said the government was right to want to increase the links between local people and the police. ""But these measures will only work if they're matched with a cut in the amount of paperwork - and investment in modern equipment to keep the police out on the streets."" Before delivering a statement to MPs, Mr Blunkett was joined by Tony Blair at Welling School, in south east London, which is at the heart of a community policing initiative. Mr Blunkett said he wanted ""to go back to a time when I was very young, when you expected the police to be part of the community and the community to be part of policing and where people were joined together in partnership making it work"". The prime minister said the law-abiding citizen should be in charge of the community and ""not the minority who want to cause trouble"". Mr Blunkett already boasts about producing record police numbers. He has also started to recruit 25,000 Community Support Officers (CSOs) and the new plans would allow all police forces to give them the power to detain suspects. An extra £50m was promised on Tuesday so 2,000 new CSOs can be recruited now rather than next year. Within two years, every force will be expected to keep to a ""coppers' contract"" on what kind of service the public can expect. A Mori poll this summer suggested policing, unlike health and education, was the one major public service where people were less satisfied the more contact they had with it. The plans also include the idea of allowing people join police forces at different levels rather than the traditional way of making everybody spend specific amounts of time as a constable before being promoted. There will also be ""specific exercises"" to encourage black and Asian people to join the police at senior ranks." +politics,"UKIP candidate suspended in probe Eurosceptic party UKIP have suspended a candidate for allegedly suggesting the criminally insane should be killed. John Houston, 54, was due to stand in the East Kilbride seat in Lanarkshire at the next election. But he was suspended after his reported views, including the return of the British Empire, were sent to two Scottish newspapers. UKIP spokesman Mark Croucher said those who selected Mr Houston knew nothing of his views. The episode comes at a difficult time for UKIP, soon after the high-profile departure of MEP Robert Kilroy-Silk. Mr Houston is alleged to have said that the organs of the criminally insane should be ""made available to law-abiding members of the community"" and proposed the legalisation of drugs and the sex trade. The document reportedly said: ""We're looking for the resurrection of the British Empire. ""The problems for the human race - environmental and others - can only be dealt with on a global scale, and that calls for a radical alliance of the English-speaking nations, which they are uniquely able to do."" Mr Croucher said the main issue would be that Mr Houston's reported views had been presented as UKIP policy, which they were not. He said they might have been submissions to a committee working on the party's manifesto, but would not have been matched to Mr Houston when he was standing to become a candidate. He told BBC News: ""He appears to have said these things. We have suspended him as a member and as a candidate. ""By all accounts none of this was mentioned at his selection meeting. ""It is simply a distraction from the task in hand, the EU constitution, not individual idiocies."" Mr Houston was quoted in the Herald newspaper saying: ""I feel UKIP have over-reacted and overshot the runway."" Peter Nielson, who is UKIP Scotland chairman, said he had suspended Mr Houston on Friday night. ""He will remain suspended while the matter is being investigated and then we will decide if and what further action will be taken."" He said that any evidence would be looked into and Mr Houston may be interviewed by the party. He added: ""I can't comment too much at the moment, I have one version from him but I haven't seen the papers yet.""" +politics,"Brown comes out shooting Labour may have abolished hunting - but that didn't stop Chancellor Gordon Brown using his Budget to fire both barrels at some of the opposition parties' core election foxes. Specifically, it saw him attempting to slaughter the council tax as an election issue and to tear limb from limb their wider policies for pensioners and families. In a relatively short speech he kept the best for last and was clearly out to give exactly that pre-election boost everyone had been predicting. So if you are a couple with children, a pensioner, a patient or a youngster, there was something pulled from Mr Brown's red box in an attempt to persuade you to stick with or switch to a New Labour government. Like a surgeon, he attempted to target his handouts with absolute precision onto exactly the groups the government needs to appeal to in the election campaign. The announcements brought great cheers from his own MPs who are now in full-on election mode and had been looking to their man to give them ammunition for the doorsteps. They obviously believed he had done that for them and, coincidentally, given his own image as a prime minister-in-waiting another little boost. Labour MPs, for example, will undoubtedly now engage in a debate over exactly how redistributive - a lovely Old Labour word - this chancellor really is. But Gordon Brown is never going to put on a show and even as he was out to cast himself as the man who will win Labour an historic third term, his demeanour remained quiet, confident and reassuring. Prudence made an appearance, albeit towards the end of his address, as he assured voters he would do nothing to mess up the economic stability he had brought to Britain and which, he claimed, would be thrown away by anyone else. According to the opposition parties, however, it is all one big con trick. As always, they accused him of glossing over the facts of the ""black hole"" at the centre of his finances which, they claim, would ensure tax increases after the election. He did it most obviously with his increase in national insurance contributions after the 2001 election campaign during which he had pledged not to increase income tax. As Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy claimed, for most families the distinction between income tax and a tax on income is meaningless. Tory leader Michael Howard said the chancellor was up to his old trick of deliberately re-casting his forecasts to give the illusion that everything in the Treasury larder is as fresh as the day it was first stored away for future use. He branded it a dodgy ""vote now pay later"" budget based on dodgy figures from a dodgy government that gave Britain the dodgy dossier. Where the chancellor mostly avoided direct electioneering, Mr Howard felt no such constraint with attacks like comparing Mr Brown's forecasts to the prime minister's forecasts on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. As ever, there will now be a period of frantic activity by the opposition parties' treasury specialists as they pore over the chancellor's red book, which sets out the fine detail of his budget, in an attempt to spot the flaws. In particular there will be an argument over precisely whose policies on the council tax will offer people the best deal. And in Labour circles there will undoubtedly be an argument over just how good a prime minister Gordon Brown will make at some point after the next election." +politics,"UKIP outspent Labour on EU poll The UK Independence Party outspent both Labour and the Liberal Democrats in the European elections, new figures show. UKIP, which campaigned on a slogan of ""Say no to Europe"", spent £2.36m on the campaign - second only to the Conservatives' £3.13m. The campaign took UKIP into third place with an extra 10 MEPs. Labour's campaign cost £1.7m, the Lib Dems' £1.19m and the Greens' £404,000, according to figures revealed by the Electoral Commission on Wednesday. Much of the UKIP funding came from Yorkshire millionaire Sir Paul Sykes, who helped bankroll the party's billboard campaign. Critics have accused the party of effectively buying votes. But a UKIP spokesman said Labour and the Conservatives had spent £10m between them on the last general election. ""With the advantages of public money the others have, the only way the smaller parties can get their message across is by buying the advertising space,"" he added." +politics,"'Debate needed' on donations cap A cap on donations to political parties should not be introduced yet, the elections watchdog has said. Fears that big donors can buy political favours have sparked calls for a limit. In a new report, the Electoral Commission says it is worth debating a £10,000 cap for the future but now is not the right time to introduce it. It also says there should be more state funding for political parties and candidates should be able to spend more on election campaigning. There were almost £68m in reported donations to political parties in 2001, 2002 and 2003, with nearly £12m of them from individual gifts worth more than £1m. The rules have already been changed so the public can see who gives how much to the parties but the report says there are still public suspicions. The commission says capping donations would mean taxpayers giving parties more cash - something which would first have to be acceptable to the public and shown to work. ""While we are not in principle opposed to the introduction of a donation cap, we do not believe that such a major departure from the existing system now would be sensible,"" says its report. If there was to be a cap, it should be £10,000 - a small enough amount to make a difference but which would have banned £56m in donations between 2001 and 2003. Even without changes the commission does urge political parties to seek out more small-scale donations and suggests there should be income tax relief for gifts under £200. It also suggests increasing state funding for parties to £3m so help can be extended to all parties with at least two members in the House of Commons, European Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland Assembly. And it suggests new ways of boosting election campaigning, seen as a way of improving voter turnout. All local election candidates should be entitled to a free mailshot for campaign leaflets, says the watchdog. And there should be a shift in the amount of money allowed to be spent at elections from a national level to a local level to help politicians engage better with voters. The report suggests doubling the money which can be spent by candidates, while cutting national spending limits from £20m to £15m. The commission also says the spending limits for general elections should cover the four months before the poll - as happens with other elections. Electoral Commission chairman Sam Younger said: ""There is no doubt that political parties have a vital role to play in maintaining the health of our democracy and for this they need to be adequately resourced. ""Our research has shown that people want to be more informed about party politics and that they want politicians to be more visible and accessible. ""The public are reluctant for the state to fund parties but at the same time are unhappy with large private donations."" He called for a wider public debate on party funding to find the consensus needed for radical changes to the current system." +politics,"Baron Kinnock makes Lords debut Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has officially been made a life peer during a ceremony in the House of Lords. He will be known Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty - after his former constituency. Lord Kinnock - who led Labour from 1983 until 1992 - was until recently one of Britain's EU commissioners. A former critic of the House of Lords, he has said he will use the Upper House to advocate its reform and to talk on issues like higher education. ""I accepted the kind invitation to enter the House of Lords as a working peer for practical political reasons,"" he said when his peerage was first announced. ""It is a good base for campaigning on national issues like education, sustainable transport, industrial change and the ageing society and global concerns, particularly poverty and oppression."" During his induction into the Upper House, Lord Kinnock was accompanied by Lords Leader Baroness Amos and Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, a former aide to the ex-Labour leader. It has been a long journey for the new Lord Kinnock from his earliest days as a rebellious youngster in the south Wales valleys. Born in 1942 in Tredegar to a miner father and nurse mother, he attended Lewis Boys' School in nearby Pengam, known then as the ""Eton of the valleys"". From there he went to Cardiff University, where he met his future wife Glenys, now a Labour MEP. After a brief career as a tutor for the Workers' Educational Association, he became an MP at the age of just 28 for his home seat of Bedwellty (later Islwyn). He gained a reputation as a left-wing firebrand, voting against his own Labour government's spending cuts proposals in 1975, and later rejecting a junior post in James Callaghan's administration. But he joined the shadow cabinet in 1980, and after Labour's heavy defeat in the 1983 he was elected leader. He took on the far-left Militant Tendency and began the long process of returning his party to the centre ground. He was not expected to win the 1987 election, when Margaret Thatcher was still riding high, but was bitterly disappointed to lose the next one in 1992 to John Major, and stepped down. He remained an MP until 1995, when he resigned to become European commission for transport. Four years later he became vice-president of the European Commission, with responsibility for internal reform. As he assumes the title of Lord Kinnock, he has also become chairman of the British Council, which promotes the UK's reputation for arts, science and education." +politics,"Prime minister's questions So who, if anyone, is playing politics with the security of the nation? Michael Howard has no doubt it is the prime minister who, he claims, is ""ramming"" through Parliament the controversial new anti-terror measures without proper debate. He didn't say so, but the Tories believe the prime minister is playing the fear card on this one so he can look tough in the run up to the general election And they believe Tony Blair is using the issue to suggest the Tories are soft on terrorism. Why on earth will the prime minister not simply take up the Tories' offer to extend the existing powers temporarily to allow proper parliamentary debate of the laws, he demanded. The prime minister claims this is the clearest indication that it is the Tories who are playing politics with the issue by attempting to score cheap political points in parliament. Is not the opposition against to the proposed laws ""in principle"", in which case delaying a decision for further debate would be pointless? What this is really about, believes Mr Blair, is the Tories spotting an opportunity to embarrass, maybe even defeat the government. And that is more important to them than national security. Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy avoided suggesting anyone was playing politics with the issue. He preferred to state that, as with other issues like ID cards, the government's immediate instinct was authoritarian. As is his habit nowadays, the prime minister was less rough with Mr Kennedy than he had been with Mr Howard - he prefers a more exasperated tone suggesting he believes the Lib Dems have, once again, just missed the point. Apart from all that, it was electioneering as usual. The very first question to the prime minister from Derby North's Bob Laxton asked him, in effect, if he would carry on the excellent policy of pouring more resources into schools. Later Birmingham's Sion Simon even went so far as to suggest the Tories were such a shower that we should have the general election now. The prime minister almost blushed. This was not the appropriate place to announce election day, he stammered. But can anyone be in any doubt that that announcement is just days away - an announcement coming in the week beginning 4 April for an election on 5 May is where the big money is in the Commons. And perhaps that simple fact alone means everyone is seen to be playing politics with just about everything at the moment." +politics,"Straw praises Kashmir moves The UK has welcomed the decision by India and Pakistan to open a bus link across the ceasefire line dividing the disputed region of Kashmir. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, touring South East Asian countries, praised the ""spirit of cooperation"" in achieving the breakthrough. Media reports in both countries describe the deal as a major step in the ongoing peace process. Mr Straw said he hoped the agreement would make a difference to Kashmiris. The bus service was one of several announcements made after a meeting of foreign ministers of both countries in Islamabad on Wednesday. Kashmiri politicians on both sides of the Line of Control which divides the region welcomed the move. In a statement, Mr Straw said the bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad ""will be able to reunite families that have been divided for decades"". ""This will make a real difference to the lives of Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control,"" he said. ""I warmly applaud the efforts of both India and Pakistan to make this happen. ""This spirit of cooperation will, I hope, lead to many more measures that will benefit all in the region."" On Thursday Mr Straw was in India visiting Sikhism's holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar where he tried his hand at making Indian bread or roti. He is due to take part in talks with the Indian government on Friday. A second bus service linking the Pakistani city of Lahore with Amritsar in India was also announced as well as a rail link between Rajasthan state and Pakistan's Sindh province. Both sides agreed to begin talks on reducing the risk of nuclear accidents and also said they planned to reopen their respective consulates in Karachi and Mumbai (Bombay). The mountainous region of Kashmir has been a flashpoint between the two nuclear powers for more than 50 years." +politics,"Opposition grows to house arrests The Conservatives have expressed ""serious misgivings"" about government plans for keeping UK and foreign terror suspects under house arrest. Michael Howard said he would not back the Home Secretary's plans for ""control orders"" which include home detention. ""I do not believe that anyone should be deprived of their liberty on the say so of a politician,"" he said. The Lib Dems also oppose the proposals, but ministers insist they are proportionate to the terror threat. The government proposed the idea and a range of other new powers after the laws lords said current detentions without trial broke human rights laws. New Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has backed the control orders, saying: ""I'm sorry. It is a dilemma, but there is only one choice."" But Mr Howard said: ""We have serious misgivings about both their effectiveness in protecting life and their consequences for the British way of life."" He argued that people accused of terrorist offences should be brought to trial and be held in prison - not at home - while they await trial. Mr Howard said he feared ""internment without trial creates martyrs"" and could be ""a very effective recruiting sergeant"" for terrorists"". His party plans to move an amendment to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill next week that would give a judge responsibility for assessing evidence and ensuring a balanced case is presented to the court. He called on the prime minister to ""enter into constructive discussions"" with his party to find a ""better way forward"". Controversy over the issue continues after a foreign terror suspect held in the UK without trial or charge since December 2001 was freed from jail. Home Secretary Charles Clarke said there was not enough evidence to keep the Egyptian man, known only as C, certified as a terrorist suspect. On Monday, the legal team for two Algerian suspects being held without trial told a court the men did not want bail if it meant being put under house arrest. Most of the terror suspects are detained at Belmarsh Prison in London. The Liberal Democrats say they also oppose house arrests and questioned the human rights implications of the measure. Home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""It's a matter of principle for us that we can't have a situation where the Home Secretary is able to impose house detention now on UK nationals as well as foreign nationals."" The Lib Dems believe the Home Secretary should allow phone tapping evidence in prosecutions. ""We think there could be a role for some form of control order - tagging, surveillance, limitation on use of mobile phones - but not with the Home Secretary's say so. That must be done with a proper judicial process, a judge involved in making those decisions,"" said Mr Oaten. Mr Clarke has rejected that idea saying intercept evidence is only a small part of the case against terror suspects and could put the lives of intelligence sources at risk. He said prosecutions were the government's first preference and promised the powers would only be used in ""serious"" cases, with independent scrutiny from judges." +politics,"David Blunkett in quotes David Blunkett - who has resigned as home secretary - built his reputation as a plain-speaking Yorkshire man. I fell in love with someone and they wouldn't go public and things started to go very badly wrong in the summer, and then the News of the World picked up the story. ""I tried for three years to make something work."" ""Trust, plain-speaking and straight talking is something which matters so much to me as a politician and as a man that I have decided, of my own volition, to request an independent review of the allegations that I misused my position."" ""I don't think anyone can say I have said one thing in public and done another in private."" ""It would be dangerous territory if I wasn't practising what I preach which is to always accept responsibility, always accept the consequences of your actions. ""None of us believe countering terrorism is about party politics."" ""I accepted by necessity we have to have prevention under a new category which is to intervene before the act is committed, rather than do so by due process after the act is committed when it's too late,"" he said in reference to new anti-terrorism measures. ""Our work with the French government...has been hugely successful,"" said Mr Blunkett. ""The number of illegal immigrants detected in Dover has dropped dramatically."" ""Strengthening our identity is one way or reinforcing people's confidence and sense of citizenship and well-being."" ""I foolishly thought as this was a celebrity edition it would be more relaxed than normal."" ""You wake up and you receive a phone call - Shipman's topped himself. You have just got to think for a minute: is it too early to open a bottle?""" +politics,"Fox attacks Blair's Tory 'lies' Tony Blair lied when he took the UK to war so has no qualms about lying in the election campaign, say the Tories. Tory co-chairman Liam Fox was speaking after Mr Blair told Labour members the Tories offered a ""hard right agenda"". Dr Fox told BBC Radio: ""If you are willing to lie about the reasons for going to war, I guess you are going to lie about anything at all."" He would not discuss reports the party repaid £500,000 to Lord Ashcroft after he predicted an election defeat. The prime minister ratcheted up Labour's pre-election campaigning at the weekend with a helicopter tour of the country and his speech at the party's spring conference. He insisted he did not know the poll date, but it is widely expected to be 5 May. In what was seen as a highly personal speech in Gateshead on Sunday, Mr Blair said: ""I have the same passion and hunger as when I first walked through the door of 10 Downing Street."" He described his relationship with the public as starting euphoric, then struggling to live up to the expectations, and reaching the point of raised voices and ""throwing crockery"". He warned his supporters against complacency, saying: ""It's a fight for the future of our country, it's a fight that for Britain and the people of Britain we have to win."" Mr Blair said that whether the public chose Michael Howard or Mr Kennedy, it would result in ""a Tory government not a Labour government and a country that goes back and does not move forward"". Dr Fox accused Mr Blair and other Cabinet ministers of telling lies about their opponents' policies and then attacking the lies. ""What we learned at the weekend is what Labour tactics are going to be and it's going to be fear and smear,"" he told BBC News. The Tory co-chairman attacked Labour's six new pledges as ""vacuous"" and said Mr Blair was very worried voters would take revenge for his failure to deliver. Dr Fox refused to discuss weekend newspaper reports that the party had repaid £500,000 to former Tory Treasurer Lord Ashcroft after he said the party could not win the election. ""We repay loans when they are due but do not comment to individual financial matters,"" he said, insisting he enjoyed a ""warm and constructive"" relationship to Lord Ashcroft. Meanwhile Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy is expected to attack Mr Blair's words as he begins a nationwide tour on Monday. Mr Kennedy is accelerating Lib Dem election preparations this week as he visits Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Somerset, Basingstoke, Shrewsbury, Dorset and Torbay. He said: ""This is three-party politics. In the northern cities, the contest is between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. ""In southern and rural seats - especially in the South West - the principal contenders are the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, who are out of the running in Scotland and Wales."" The Lib Dems accuse Mr Blair of making a ""touchy-feely"" speech to Labour delegates which will not help him regain public trust." +politics,"Abortion not a poll issue - Blair Tony Blair does not believe abortion should be an election issue, arguing it is a matter for individual conscience. The prime minister's spokesman set out Mr Blair's view after the top Catholic in England and Wales backed Michael Howard's stance on abortions. The Tory leader supports a reduction in the legal limit from 24 weeks to 20 and has said current rules are ""tantamount to abortion on demand"". The prime minister has made it clear he has no plans to the change the law. Mr Blair's spokesman said: ""The Catholic church has a well-known position on this issue and it was one of many issues the Cardinal mentioned and therefore it should be seen in that context."" His words came as Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, backed Mr Howard's stance and distanced himself from Labour. In a statement, he said abortion was a ""very key issue"", saying: ""The policy supported by Mr Howard is one that we would commend, on the way to a full abandonment of abortion."" Cardinal O'Connor claimed Labour had ""developed"" the notion that it was the natural party of Catholics, but he said: ""We are not going to suggest people support one particular party."" The Family Planning Association says a reduction would particularly affect young women who often seek help later. More than 180,000 women in England and Wales had terminations last year, of which fewer than 1% were carried out between 22 and 24 weeks. In the Cosmopolitan interview Mr Howard said: ""I believe abortion should be available to everyone, but the law should be changed. ""In the past I voted for a restriction to 22 weeks and I would be prepared to go down to 20."" All three main parties say the issue is one for each MP's conscience, rather than one where there is a party-wide policy. Mr Howard stressed his views were his personal views. Shadow home secretary David Davis said he understood Mr Howard had been signalling that a Conservative government would allow a Commons vote on the issue. Mr Blair and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy also gave their views during interviews, conducted as part of the magazine's ""High Heeled Vote"" campaign. Mr Blair, who last year denied he planned to join his wife and four children in the Catholic faith despite regularly taking communion, said abortion was a ""difficult issue"". ""However much I dislike the idea of abortion, you should not criminalise a woman who, in very difficult circumstances, makes that choice. ""Obviously there is a time beyond which you can't have an abortion, and we have no plans to change that although the debate will continue."" Mr Kennedy said he had previously voted for a 22-week limit but medical advances mean ""I don't know what I would do now"". The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff, the Most Reverend Peter Smith, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the church merely wanted people to ""reflect on issues in light of the gospel"" before voting. Anne Weyman, chief executive of the Family Planning Association, asked: ""What is the benefit to women, or to the potential child, of forcing a woman to have a baby?"" Anti-abortion group the Pro-Life Alliance ""congratulated"" Mr Howard on his new stance, but said it did not go far enough." +politics,"Blair to face MPs amid feud talk Tony Blair faces his first prime minister's questions of 2005 after a week of renewed speculation about his relationship with Gordon Brown. Meanwhile, the chancellor is leaving Britain on a high-profile tour of Africa to highlight poverty issues. But before doing so, he insisted he still trusted Mr Blair, despite claims to the contrary in a new book. Labour MPs have warned against disunity and Tory leader Michael Howard may well take up the theme in the Commons. The Tories have already accused the prime minister and his chancellor of behaving like ""schoolboys squabbling in a playground"". Michael Howard is likely to want to capitalise further on the spat when he goes head-to-head with the prime minister in the Commons. At a campaign poster launch on Tuesday, Mr Brown was joined by Alan Milburn, who Mr Blair controversially put in charge of election planning in place of the chancellor. Later this week the prime minister is due to set out the themes of his party's next election manifesto, which for the past two polls have been drawn up by the chancellor. Mr Brown, meanwhile, is visiting Tanzania, Mozambique and Kenya to highlight the plight of many Africans hit by Aids, war and famine - issues which Mr Blair has also spoken out on. The prime minister and chancellor faced backbench discontent at Monday's meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party over claims made in journalist Robert Peston's new book. Mr Blair told MPs and peers: ""I know from everyone here, in Cabinet and government, nothing is going to get in the way of a unified Labour Party with a unified position and winning the third term people desperately need."" Labour's Paul Flynn said the pair had had a ""scorching"" from MPs. On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Mr Prescott told BBC News: ""They told us very clearly, it was the troops telling the leaders: get in line."" The new book claims Mr Prescott hosted a dinner in November 2003 where the prime minister told Mr Brown he would stand down before the next election because he had lost trust over the Iraq war. Mr Blair then changed his mind in June 2004, after Cabinet allies intervened and amid suspicion the chancellor was manoeuvring against him, writes Mr Peston. In Mr Peston's book Mr Brown is alleged to have told the prime minister: ""There is nothing you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe.""" +politics,"MPs demand 'Budget leak' answers Ministers have been asked to explain how Budget details were printed in a London newspaper half an hour before Gordon Brown made his speech. The Tories said a large chunk of the Budget appeared to have been leaked in what they describe as a ""serious breach of Treasury confidentiality"". The Lib Dems called for Commons leader Peter Hain to make a statement and said chancellors had resigned over leaks. They were told it would be brought to Speaker Michael Martin's attention. In the Commons, Tory frontbencher Andrew Tyrie MP demanded an immediate ministerial statement about how measures had been ""clearly, or at least apparently, leaked to the Evening Standard"". Raising a point of order, he said it was ""the latest in a long line of discourtesies to this House"", as well as a breach of confidentiality. He said: ""I can only hope it is unintentional. If it were planned it would be a very grave matter indeed. A previous Labour chancellor resigned after he leaked the Budget."" Hugh Dalton resigned after leaking details of his 1947 budget to journalist John Carvel, who published them in a London newspaper, just minutes before they were announced to the House of Commons. Liberal Democrat David Laws said it was a ""very serious matter"" and said Mr Hain should make a statement on Thursday. Deputy Speaker Sylvia Heal agreed it was ""of concern"" but said nothing could be done immediately but the issue would be brought to Mr Martin's attention." +politics,"'Super union' merger plan touted Two of Britain's big trade unions could merge to form a ""super union"" of two million members. The move by Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) would be a seen as a bid to carry more weight with ministers and employers. Amicus has 1.2 million members and the TGWU has 800,000. Any merger would have to be approved by the unions' executives and their membership. It is understood meetings will be held on Wednesday about the proposal. Along with the GMB and Unison, the TGWU and Amicus worked closely together in the last year to hammer out a 56-point deal with Labour's leadership over equality at work, holidays and pensions - the Warwick Agreement. Both unions are remaining tight-lipped about the merger rumours, but one insider pointed out to the BBC News website that ""nobody is denying suggestions a merger could be on the agenda"" when the two unions' executives hold their meetings on Wednesday. Amicus's executive was due to meet in any case although the TGWU is holding specially scheduled talks." +politics,"'Errors' doomed first Dome sale The initial attempt to sell the Millennium Dome failed due to a catalogue of errors, a report by the government's finance watchdog says. The report said too many parties were involved in decision-making when the attraction first went on sale after the Millennium exhibition ended. The National Audit Office said the Dome cost taxpayers £28.7m to maintain and sell in the four years after it closed. Finally, a deal to turn it into a sport and entertainment venue was struck. More than £550m could now be returned to the public sector in the wake of the deal to regenerate the site in Greenwich, London. The NAO report said that this sale went through because it avoided many of the problems of the previous attempt to sell the Dome. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said a good deal had been secured. ""Delivery of the many benefits secured through this deal will continue the substantial progress already made at the Millennium Village and elsewhere on the peninsula,"" he said. But Edward Leigh, who is chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, warned the government would have to work hard to ensure taxpayers would get full benefit from the Dome deal. He said: ""This report also shows that the first attempt to sell the Dome proved a complete fiasco. Every arm of government seems to have had a finger in the pie. The process was confused and muddled."" He added: ""Four years after the Millennium Exhibition closed, the Government finally has a deal to find a use for what has been a white elephant since it closed in a deal that, incredible as it may seem, should bring in some money and provide a benefit for the local area and the country as whole. However, it was more a question of luck that a strong bid turned up after thefirst abortive attempt."" NAO head Sir John Bourn said: ""In difficult circumstances following the failure of the first competition, English Partnerships and the office of the deputy prime minister have worked hard to get a deal.""" +politics,"Lib Dems stress Budget trust gap Public trust in the handling of the economy can only be restored if Gordon Brown opens up his books for unbiased inspection, say the Lib Dems. City experts say there is a £10bn ""black hole"" in the public finances, a claim denied by the chancellor. Lib Dem spokesman Vince Cable said the public did not know who to believe and the National Audit Office should judge. Responding to the pre-Budget report, Mr Cable also attacked Labour's ""unfair"" and over-complicated taxes. In his report, Mr Brown insisted he was on course to meet his ""golden rule"" of borrowing only to invest, rather than for day-to-day spending, over the course of the economic cycle. Mr Cable said people did not know whether to believe the chancellor or the consensus among experts which said the rule would be broken. ""There is an issue of credibility and trust,"" he said. ""We cannot have a continuation of a situation where the chancellor sets his own tests and then marks them. ""What we need is the equivalent of a thorough Ofsted inspection of the government's accounts."" He asked what the government had to hide. Mr Cable also accused the chancellor of ducking tough choices. He argued: ""There are serious challenges ahead from the falling dollar and from the rapid downturn in the UK housing market and rising personal debt. But they have not been confronted."" Mr Brown confirmed he was setting aside another £520m for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr Cable compared that new cost with the £500m needed for Britain's role in the entire first Gulf War - when 80% of the bill had been met through help from European and Arab nations. He suggested keeping British troops in Iraq could cost another £1bn with the government also planning to spend at least £3bn for identity cards. The current economic climate meant Britain could not afford the ""reckless, George Bush-style tax cutting spree"" planned by the Tories, he said. Instead, what was needed was simple and fair taxation rather than the ""complete mess"" produced by Mr Brown's endless tinkering. Mr Cable said 40% of all pensioners were now paying marginal tax rates of 50%. And one-and-a-half million hard working families were paying 60% marginal tax rates. With that record, he asked why ministers attacked Lib Dem plans for a new 50% tax rate for the ""very rich"" - those earning more than £100,000 a year. Mr Brown earmarked £1bn to help keep down council tax rises next year. But the Lib Dem spokesman questioned whether that money was being found from cuts to education and health. He urged the government to scrap the ""grossly unfair"" tax completely. The Lib Dems want it replaced with a local income tax. In response, Mr Brown stressed the Iraq money came from a reserve funds. It was because he had rejected previous Lib Dem proposals, such as scrapping the New Deal, that Britain's economy was successful, claimed Mr Brown." +politics,"Budget to set scene for election Gordon Brown will seek to put the economy at the centre of Labour's bid for a third term in power when he delivers his ninth Budget at 1230 GMT. He is expected to stress the importance of continued economic stability, with low unemployment and interest rates. The chancellor is expected to freeze petrol duty and raise the stamp duty threshold from £60,000. But the Conservatives and Lib Dems insist voters face higher taxes and more means-testing under Labour. Treasury officials have said there will not be a pre-election giveaway, but Mr Brown is thought to have about £2bn to spare. - Increase in the stamp duty threshold from £60,000 - A freeze on petrol duty - An extension of tax credit scheme for poorer families - Possible help for pensioners The stamp duty threshold rise is intended to help first time buyers - a likely theme of all three of the main parties' general election manifestos. Ten years ago, buyers had a much greater chance of avoiding stamp duty, with close to half a million properties, in England and Wales alone, selling for less than £60,000. Since then, average UK property prices have more than doubled while the starting threshold for stamp duty has not increased. Tax credits As a result, the number of properties incurring stamp duty has rocketed as has the government's tax take. The Liberal Democrats unveiled their own proposals to raise the stamp duty threshold to £150,000 in February. The Tories are also thought likely to propose increased thresholds, with shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin branding stamp duty a ""classic Labour stealth tax"". The Tories say whatever the chancellor gives away will be clawed back in higher taxes if Labour is returned to power. Shadow Treasury chief secretary George Osborne said: ""Everyone who looks at the British economy at the moment says there has been a sharp deterioration in the public finances, that there is a black hole,"" he said. ""If Labour is elected there will be a very substantial tax increase in the Budget after the election, of the order of around £10bn."" But Mr Brown's former advisor Ed Balls, now a parliamentary hopeful, said an examination of Tory plans for the economy showed there would be a £35bn difference in investment by the end of the next parliament between the two main parties. He added: ""I don't accept there is any need for any changes to the plans we have set out to meet our spending commitments."" For the Lib Dems David Laws said: ""The chancellor will no doubt tell us today how wonderfully the economy is doing,"" he said. ""But a lot of that is built on an increase in personal and consumer debt over the last few years - that makes the economy quite vulnerable potentially if interest rates ever do have to go up in a significant way."" SNP leader Alex Salmond said his party would introduce a £2,000 grant for first time buyers, reduce corporation tax and introduce a citizens pension free from means testing. Plaid Cymru's economics spokesman Adam Price said he wanted help to get people on the housing ladder and an increase in the minimum wage to £5.60 an hour." +politics,"Labour seeks to quell feud talk Labour's leadership put on a show of unity at a campaign poster launch after MPs criticised Tony Blair and Gordon Brown over reports of their rift. Mr Brown was joined at the launch by John Prescott and Alan Milburn, the man controversially put in charge of election planning by Mr Blair. A private meeting on Monday saw normally loyal MPs warn that feuding could jeopardise their election hopes. It follows a new book charting disputes between prime minister and chancellor. The event was the first time Mr Milburn has shared a platform with the chancellor since taking Mr Brown's traditional poll planning role. But the pair chatted amicably and Mr Brown insisted he was happy with his current campaign task. Asked about how he would deal with claims that he did not trust the prime minister, Mr Brown replied: ""You can see that our record on the economy is about the British people trusting us to run the economy."" He refused to comment on the new book, saying nobody should be distracted from the business of government. Mr Brown later told reporters: ""Of course I trust the prime minister."" Downing Street cited that comment when reporters' suggested Mr Brown had pointedly failed to deny claims he had once told Mr Blair: ""There is nothing you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe"". Labour's new posters say Britain is enjoying the lowest inflation since the 1960s, lowest unemployment for 29 years and the lowest mortgage rates for 40 years. They urge voters not to let the Tories take things backwards. Mr Milburn promised a poll campaign ""which is upbeat, confident and above all else optimistic about the future of our country"". Conservative co-chairman Liam Fox derided the photo call, saying: ""The show of unity was the worst acting I have seen since Prisoner Cell Block H."" Labour had broken promises by raising taxes 66 times and brought the slowest economic growth in the English-speaking world, he said. The prime minister and chancellor faced backbench discontent at Monday's meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party over claims made in journalist Robert Peston's new book. Mr Blair told MPs and peers: ""I know from everyone here, in Cabinet and government, nothing is going to get in the way of a unified Labour Party with a unified position and winning the third term people desperately need."" Labour's Paul Flynn said the pair had had a ""scorching"" from MPs. On Tuesday, deputy prime minister Mr Prescott told BBC News: ""They told us very clearly, it was the troops telling the leaders: get in line."" The new book claims Mr Prescott hosted a dinner in November 2003 where the prime minister told Mr Brown he would stand down before the next election because he had lost trust over the Iraq war. Mr Blair then changed his mind in June 2004, after Cabinet allies intervened and amid suspicion the chancellor was manoeuvring against him, writes Mr Peston. Mr Prescott said there was a dinner but the discussions were confidential. ""Of course as a waiter for 10 years I have a professional ability here,"" he joked." +politics,"BAA support ahead of court battle UK airport operator BAA has reiterated its support for the government's aviation expansion plans to airports throughout the country. The comments come a day ahead of a High Court challenge by residents' groups and local councils to the government's White Paper. The judicial review will centre on government plans for expansion at Heathrow, Stansted and Luton airports. BAA, which operates all three, said it was consulting with local communities. ""We are...consulting on voluntary compensation schemes which go beyond our statutory obligations,"" a BAA spokesman said. Groups challenging the plans include Stop Stansted Expansion, Heathrow anti-noise campaigners HACAN Clearskies and the London boroughs of Hillingdon and Wandsworth. At Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports, BAA launched a series of consultations on blight to properties from the proposed expansion in September 2004, which will close next week. The company is also offering to buy noise-hit properties for an index-linked, unblighted price. Among other measures, BAA has set up a homeowner support scheme for people living near Stansted, and has launched a special scheme for those close to the airport but far enough away not to be covered by the homeowner scheme. At Heathrow, BAA said it was working closely with all interested parties to see how the strict environmental, air quality and noise targets for a third runway can be met. At Gatwick, the company has written to homes and business likely to be affected by any extra runway. Stop Stansted Expansion said the White Paper, published in December 2003, was ""fundamentally flawed"" and did not follow the proper consultation process. ""We do not underestimate the scale of the challenge before us because the courts have never before overturned a government White Paper,"" said Stop Stansted Expansion chairman Peter Sanders said. HACAN chairman John Stewart said: ""Almost exactly a year ago the government published its 30-year aviation White Paper with much fanfare. ""It hoped that would be the end of the debate and it could proceed with its plans for a massive expansion of aviation. ""Yet, a year later the protesters are still here, and stronger than ever. "" A judgement from Mr Justice Sullivan is expected early in February." +politics,"Kennedy questions trust of Blair Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy has said voters now have a ""fundamental lack of trust"" of Tony Blair as prime minister. He said backing his party was not a wasted vote, adding that with the Lib Dems ""what you see is what you get"". He made his comments at the start of a day of appearances on Channel Five in a session on The Wright Stuff programme. Questions from callers, a studio audience and the show's presenter covered Lib Dem tax plans, anti-terror laws and immigration. Mr Kennedy said during his nearly 22 years in Parliament he had seen prime ministers and party leaders come and go and knew the pitfalls of British politics. ""1983 was when I was first elected as an MP - so Tony Blair, Michael Howard and myself were all class of '83 - and over that nearly quarter of a century the world has changed out of recognition,"" he said. ""We don't actually hear the argument any longer: 'Lib Dems, good people, reasonable ideas but only if we thought they could win around here - it's a wasted vote'. ""You don't hear that because the evidence of people's senses demonstrates that it isn't a wasted vote."" But he said Mr Blair had lost the trust of the British people. ""There is a fundamental lack of trust in Tony Blair as prime minister and in his government,"" he said. ""What we've got to do as a party - what I've got to do as a leader of this party - is to convey to people that what you see is what you get."" Mr Kennedy also used his TV appearance to defend his party's plans to increase income tax to 50% for those earning more than £100,000, saying it would apply to just 1% of the population. He said the extra revenue would allow his party to get rid of tuition and top-up fees, introduce free personal care for the elderly and replace the council tax with a local income tax. Mr Blair has already spent a day with Five and Michael Howard is booked for a similar session." +politics,"Tory expert denies defeatism The Conservatives' campaign director has denied a report claiming he warned Michael Howard the party could not win the next general election. The Times on Monday said Australian Lynton Crosby told the party leader to focus on trying to increase the Tories' Commons presence by 25 to 30 seats. But Mr Crosby said in a statement: ""I have never had any such conversation... and I do not hold that view."" Mr Howard later added there was not ""one iota"" of truth in the report. The strategist helped Australia's PM, John Howard, win four elections. Mr Howard appointed Mr Crosby as his elections chief last October. Mr Crosby's statement said: ""The Conservative Party has been making an impact on the issues of lower tax and controlled immigration over the past week."" It added: ""The Labour Party will be wanting to do all they can to distract attention away from the issues that really matter to people.""" +politics,"Parties build up poll war chests The Labour Party received more than £5m in donations in the final quarter of 2004, new figures show. This is nearly half of the £11,724,929 received by 16 political parties listed by the Electoral Commission. The Conservatives were in second place with donations totalling £4,610,849, while the Liberal Democrats received just over £1m. The majority of Labour's donations came from affiliated trade unions. There were also large sums from individuals. Lord Drayson, whose company PowderJect won multi-million pound contracts to provide smallpox vaccine to the government after the 11 September terror attacks, gave £500,000 to the party just days before Christmas. This followed an earlier donation of the same amount earlier in 2004. He was made a lord by Tony Blair last year. Other significant donations came from retired millionaire businessman and philanthropist Sir Christopher Ondaatje who gave the party a sum of £500,000, and refrigerator magnate William Haughey OBE who gave £330,000. The totals for the fourth quarter were well up on the same period of 2003, as the parties built up their war chests for the general election campaign. The largest donation to the Conservatives was a bequest from Ruth Beardmore of nearly £400,000. The joint founder of merchant bank Hambro Magan gave £325,417. There were also donations topping £250,000 for the Conservatives from Scottish Business Groups Focus on Scotland and the Institute of International Research, the world's largest independent conference company. Also among the gifts to the Tories were 24 donations totalling £161,840 from Bearwood Corporate Services. This company is controlled by the party's former treasurer Lord Ashcroft which has directed almost £300,000 to specific marginal constituencies over the past two years. The Liberal Democrats' largest donor was the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd, a company which promotes political reform and constitutional change, which gave a sum of £250,000. And fast food giants McDonald's are listed as donating a sum of £10,575. This was a fee the firm paid for a room for an event held with the work and skills foundation during the party's conference. The UK Independence Party, which lost its main donor Paul Sykes amid the row over Robert Kilroy-Silk's bid for the leadership last autumn, took in £63,081. Just £8,170 of this was cash and the remainder came in gifts in kind, such as office space and printing. Registered political parties are required to set out each quarter all donations over £5,000 to their headquarters and over £1,000 to local constituency parties they receive. It is an offence for a person to knowingly or recklessly make a false declaration about party donations." +politics,"Chancellor rallies Labour voters Gordon Brown has issued a rallying cry, telling supporters the ""stakes are too high"" to stay at home or protest vote in the forthcoming general election. The chancellor said the vote - expected to fall on 5 May - will give a ""clear and fundamental"" choice between Labour investment and Conservative cuts. Speaking at Labour's spring conference in Gateshead, Mr Brown claimed the NHS was not safe in Conservative hands. He said Tory plans to cut £35bn tax would ""cut deep into public service"". To a packed audience at Gateshead's Sage Centre, the chancellor said the cuts proposed by shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin were the equivalent of sacking every teacher, GP and nurse in the country, he told activists. Laying into the Conservative's record in government he said: ""I give you this promise - with Labour, Britain will never return to the mistakes of ERM and 10% inflation, 15% interest rates, £3bn in lost reserves, 250,000 repossessed, one million in negative equity and three million unemployed. ""Never again Tory boom and bust. ""This will be the central dividing line at the election, between a Conservative Party taking Britain back and planning deep cuts of £35bn in our services, and a Labour government taking Britain forward, which on a platform of stability will reform and renew our hospitals, schools and public services and, I am proud to say, spend by 2008 £60bn more."" Turning to the economy, the chancellor pledged to continue economic stability and growth in a third term in power. He said after seven years Labour had transformed from a party not trusted with the economy to ""the only party trusted with the economy"". It was now a ""party not just of employees, but of employers and managers"", he said. In the speech - which prompted a standing ovation from an audience clearly ""warm"" to Mr Brown - he also promised to end teenage unemployment within the next five years. He also highlighted plans for 100% debt relief for the world's poorest countries, a national minimum wage for 16 and 17-year-olds and the creation of a network of children's centres and flexibility in maternity leave. The prime minister is to take part later on Saturday in an interactive question and answer session, fielding queries sent in by e-mail, text message and telephone as part of Labour's attempt to engage the public in their campaign." +politics,"Drink remark 'acts as diversion' The first minister's statement that it was okay to get drunk ""once in a while"" has diverted attention from the real issues, it has been claimed. Jack Law, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said Jack McConnell's comment was ""ill-advised"". The media attention had helped to move the focus from Scotland's binge drinking problems, Mr Law said. Scotsman journalist Hamish MacDonell said he believed the bigger picture had been ""obscured"" by the remark. Mr McConnell was speaking on Monday to more than 100 secondary pupils from schools in the Highlands about the problems of binge drinking and drink promotions. The one-sentence comment was immediately criticised by the Scottish National Party which accused him of encouraging young people to get drunk. But the Scottish Executive has insisted Mr McConnell was speaking about adults and his comments were ""a recognition that people will get drunk"". Mr MacDonell, political editor of The Scotsman, said: ""I think we have to say right at the outset that this was a very stupid and ill-advised remark by the first minister. ""If you come out with something like this, saying that by all means get drunk, then you will be pilloried for it."" However, he added that ""perhaps Mr McConnell could feel rightly aggrieved about the coverage"". Mr MacDonell said: ""I think the problem here is that he did say a lot more things about binge drinking and under age drinking. ""But that whole side of things has been lost in the furore over one sentence. I understand why, but I think there is a much bigger message here that has been obscured."" Mr Law, from voluntary body Alcohol Focus Scotland, believed damage had been done to Scotland's fight against binge drinking. He said he accepted that young people drank and they did have problems with drink. Mr Law added: ""I think the remark was ill-advised - but these remarks are blown out of all proportion and they so easily misrepresent what we are trying to do in Scotland. ""We don't want to preach to young people, but we need to acknowledge that they do drink problematically. ""This diverts us from the real issues which are about promoting responsibility and reducing harm and indeed tackling our drinking culture which is a culture about binge drinking and drunkenness."" He said it was vital that young people were properly informed about the risks incurred to themselves and others when they got drunk. Mr MacDonell said that the first minister should know by now that if he said things which were ""off the mark"", they were bound to ""come back and bite him"". He added: ""Here, Mr McConnell was talking in the Highlands to 100 teenagers and every word he said was put out on a webcast by the Scottish Executive and then looked at by other politicians and reporters. ""I think in this instance he has done a lot of really good things and he will be regretting this remark."" The Scottish National Party's Holyrood leader Nicola Sturgeon wrote to Mr McConnell on Tuesday accusing him of an error of judgement and calling for him to apologise for his ""ill-judged comment"" and withdraw it immediately. In a furious response, the first minister said his comments had been distorted and taken out of context. He told Ms Sturgeon: ""It is disappointing that you have contributed to this distortion by saying it is staggering that I 'should encourage young people to get drunk'. ""That is completely untrue. Perhaps it would have been wiser for you to find out what was actually said before you rushed to represent my position, undermine the convener of education at Highland Council and insult the intelligence of the young people I spoke with - all for the sake of a simple soundbite.""" +politics,"Kilroy-Silk attacked with slurry Euro MP Robert Kilroy-Silk has had a bucket of farm slurry thrown over him by a protester in Manchester. The UK Independence Party member was arriving for a BBC radio show when the attacker emerged from behind a bush. Fellow guest Ruth Kelly MP was also hit by the slurry. Mr Kilroy-Silk said the man, who later disappeared, claimed he was ""doing it in the name of Islam"". In January, Mr Kilroy-Silk quit his BBC One show for remarks he made about Arabs, who he called ""suicide bombers"". Mr Kilroy-Silk had already been taken off air by BBC bosses for the comments, in which he also described Arabs as ""limb-amputators, women repressors"". The remarks prompted outrage among Muslim groups. The slurry attack took place on Friday as Mr Kilroy-Silk and Ms Kelly, a Cabinet Office minister and Bolton West MP, arrived at Manchester High School for Girls for the recording of BBC Radio 4's Any Questions. The police were called but the attacker had disappeared by the time officers arrived. They are treating the incident as assault. The programme's host, Jonathan Dimbleby, later told the audience the MEP had been covered from ""head to toe"". Mr Kilroy-Silk was still able appear to appear on the show after being loaned a change of clothes. He told reporters he was ""very angry"" and planned to press charges if his attacker was caught. He said the man shouted: ""You've offended my religion, I'm doing this in the name of Islam."" ""As I started to turn round a guy tipped a bucket of farmyard muck over me and then threw the rest of it over me and the car,"" Mr Kilroy-Silk said. ""I was totally covered, it was all through my clothes, and it stank to high heaven. It went all inside the car and splattered Ruth Kelly."" A BBC spokesman said: ""He took his seat as Jonathan Dimbleby was introducing the show. Fortunately someone at the school had a change of clothes to let him have."" Greater Manchester Police said people near Mr Kilroy-Silk had also been hit by the waste. Officers took statements at the scene, but no arrests have been made. Police say the suspect ran off after towards Wilmslow Road after committing the offence but is believed to have been driving a red Vauxhall Corsa earlier. The suspect is described as white, aged 30 to 40, with a ginger beard. Police want to hear from anyone who has any information. Mr Kilroy-Silk, an MEP for the East Midlands, resigned the UK Independence Party whip in the European Parliament in October, after criticising UKIP and stating his ambition to be leader. However, he remains a member of the party. He said on Friday he hoped to be elected party leader before Christmas. ""I think that is sufficient time for us to put in process what is necessary... in time for us to fight and have a significant impact upon the General Election."" But a UKIP spokesman said that would be impossible under the party's constitution, which requires 70 days before any leadership ballot can take place." +politics,"Council tax rise 'reasonable' Welsh councils should set their taxes at ""reasonable levels"" after being given an average funding increase of 6%, says the assembly government. Finance Minister Sue Essex said it was a ""good deal"" for local government. The £3.2bn settlement includes the ""full"" £7.4m from the UK Treasury announced by Chancellor Gordon Brown. But opposition parties said rebanding of council taxes would mean steep rises. In addition, £13.4m will come from the business support grant - a scheme which enables local authorities to keep part of business rates. She said where spending rises were kept to around 5% she was ""confident that councils will be able to set council taxes at reasonable levels."" The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) had said on the eve of the announcement said that ""significant"" cuts to services may still be unavoidable. After the announcement WLGA finance spokesman Bob Wellington, of Torfaen, said it was vital that rises were minimsed. ""A limited amount of money has come available but this is not the answer to our problems,"" said Mr Wellington. ""It is vital that we start now to plan for future years and accept that resources will continue to reduce while pressures on services increase."" On Monday, a delegation of north Wales councils visited Ms Essex to lobby for increased funds. Ms Essex said: ""I have listened to the views of local government and council tax payers and recognise the funding pressures and the concerns they have about council tax rises. ""I have met a large number of local authorities in recent weeks and I am aware of the pressures on them to provide local services and keep down the level of council tax, particularly for those people to are moving up a band due to the revaluation of domestic properties."" She said council taxes could be kept at reasonable levels, ""even for those people who have moved up a band"". The settlement includes a rise in the grant to help councils with the most deprived communities and a 16.4% rise in capital expenditure support. Ms Essex said: ""This is a good deal for local government, which will allow the well-managed councils of Wales to develop their services and charge reasonable levels of council tax. It is now a matter for council leaders to manage their budgets at a local level."" Plaid Cymru's local government spokesman Dai Lloyd called the announcement ""hugely disappointing"". He said: ""Wales and its local authorities have been short changed yet again. This is not whinging as the Labour Assembly Government so often claims - it is anger."" ""This will mean either a massive hike in council tax, massive cuts in services provided by councils, or both."" Mike German, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the assembly, claimed that one in three homes were still likely to face council tax rises due to rebanding. Mr German said: ""I know from my discussions with Welsh Liberal Democrat council leaders that they are doing their utmost to keep council tax to a minimum. But the random redistribution effect of rebanding...will create a great deal of difficulty."" Conservative local government spokesman Glyn Davies said that for the minister to claim that the majority of council tax payers in Wales should see very little change ""is taking spin to the very verge of deception"". He added: ""Around a third of Welsh households have been re-valued upwards by at least one band and inevitably face increases into double figures.""" +politics,"UK needs tax cuts, Tories insist A major change of direction is needed in Britain if it is to prosper, the shadow chancellor said as the Tory Party spring conference began. Oliver Letwin said the UK could not compete with other countries without the £4bn tax cuts he was promising. Tory co-chairman Liam Fox had opened the forum in Brighton with an attack on Labour's record and party leader Michael Howard is due to speak later. Tony Blair has said Conservative policies would cause economic failure. But Mr Letwin said Britain had fallen from fourth to 11th in the international economic competitiveness league. ""Can this country compete, can this country prosper, unless we do something about the burden of regulation and tax on our economy?"" he said. ""If we are going to take on the great challenges, the challenges like those posed by the Chinese and the Indians, we have got to do something about getting down the burden of regulation and getting down the burden of tax,"" he said. ""The fact is the very carefully costed, fully funded plans we have laid out for saving £12bn by 2007-2008 are absolutely crucial to delivering an economy that will prosper and provide people with jobs and indeed provide the public services with the money they need on a sustainable long-term basis."" Mr Letwin said voting for Labour meant choosing higher taxes, borrowing and waste. Earlier, Dr Fox had said Labour's rule had been characterised by ""lost trust and failure to deliver"". He also attacked the government's ""failure"" to control immigration and asylum and criticised its record on the NHS, telling delegates Labour cannot be trusted on education or crime. A Tory government would sort out the ""shambles"" of immigration, put patients before statistics and bring discipline to schools, he said. Michael Howard, who had been due to welcome delegates to the conference on Friday, will address them in a lunchtime speech. His welcome address had to be postponed after he stayed in London to lead the party's opposition to the Prevention of Terrorism Bill in its lengthy progress through Parliament. The bill was finally passed on Friday evening, after more than 30 hours of debate. Mr Howard is likely to defend his party's handling of the bill, which was only passed after the Conservatives accepted Prime Minister Tony Blair's promise that MPs would be able to review it within a year." +politics,"Final hunts held as ban looms Hunts in England and Wales have begun on the last day that hunting with dogs is legal, with more due out later. Thousands of supporters are expected to turn out at more than 250 meets, many of which have altered their normal schedules to be out on a Thursday. The ban on hunting with dogs comes into effect from 0001 GMT on Friday. The Countryside Alliance had its latest legal bid to block the ban thwarted on Wednesday when the Appeal Court ruled the Hunting Act was lawful. But the group says hunting will continue in some form after the ban comes in, with hunts expected to test the new law to its limits. Others are expected to defy the ban by continuing to hunt illegally. Anti-hunt organisations, for whom the ban is the culmination of years of campaigning, say they hope most will stay within the law. Mike Hobday, of the League Against Cruel Sports, told BBC News: ""We've long urged them to go drag hunting - to follow an artificial scent - and that is what we hope they do. ""But if they continue to chase foxes, to chase wild mammals around the countryside, that's against the law and we're confident they'll be brought to justice."" At the headquarters of Quorn hunt in Leicestershire, feelings were running high as hunt enthusiasts prepared for their final legal hunt. BBC correspondent Sarah Mukherjee said hunt supporters were in tears. She said many people did not share the Countryside Alliance's optimism that hunting would be able to continue. Farmer Geoff Brooks, a senior member of the Quorn hunt, told BBC News people's lives ""revolved around hunting"". He described the ban as ""ridiculous"" and ""badly thought out"" but said it would be hard for most people to defy it as they would not want to risk their incomes by getting a criminal record. At the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, the Countryside Alliance failed in its attempt to have the Hunting Act ruled invalid. But it says the ban is unenforceable because the law is unclear and impossible to police. The alliance says hunt supporters will go out and test this law to its limits on Saturday. The League Against Cruel Sports and the RSPCA say they will monitor hunts and assist police in bringing prosecutions. The Association of Chief Police Officers has issued guidance to forces on how to deal with the new rules. A spokesman said: ""Basically, it's not going to be police officers chasing about in cars across fields, it will be based on intelligence and information received as well."" The decision on how to police individual hunts will be left to local forces, with more officers sent to hunts where disruption is expected. He said police would consider evidence submitted by anti-hunt organisations on its merits." +politics,"Whitehall cuts 'ahead of target' Thousands of civil service jobs have already been cut or moved out of London as part of a major cost-cutting drive. Chancellor Gordon Brown said 12,500 jobs had gone while 7,800 were being moved out of the South East. He plans to axe 104,000 jobs to free up money for education, health, defence, housing and overseas aid. Unions oppose the plans but Mr Brown said £2bn savings had already been made and more jobs had been cut than had been expected at this stage. A further 200 jobs at the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have been earmarked to be cut. At the Department for Work and Pensions, 30,000 jobs are to go, 560 will be lost by the end of the month at the Department of Trade and Industry and 400 are to go at the Inland Revenue and Customs. In his Budget statement, the chancellor said the first 12,500 civil service jobs had been cut, on target. About 4,300 civil servants will leave London and the South East by the end of March 2005 and there are plans to relocate another 3,500. Of those 300 Department of Health posts will go to Yorkshire while hundreds at the Department of Culture will move to Birmingham and Newcastle. Mr Brown also announced plans to merge 35 agencies into nine - described by one civil service union as a ""bonfire of the quangos"". Mark Serwotka, the leader of the Public and Commercial Services Union said: ""In last year's budget we had the day of the long knifes as the chancellor kicked off the crude game of who could cut the most civil service jobs between the government and the Tories. ""There was a time when the only worry thousands of hard working civil and public servants had on budget day was whether petrol or taxes would go up, nowadays the worry is whether they will have a job by the end of it."" He said Mr Brown had made welcome announcements on closing tax loopholes and extending the New Deal, while cutting ""the very people who deliver them."" The Treasury also announced plans to reduce the number of public sector workers on sick leave with a new system of checks and tougher measures against those suspected of abusing the system." +politics,"Labour chooses Manchester The Labour Party will hold its 2006 autumn conference in Manchester and not Blackpool, it has been confirmed. The much trailed decision was ratified by Labour's ruling National Executive Committee in a break with the traditional choice of a seaside venue. It will be the first time since 1917 that the party has chosen Manchester to host the annual event. Blackpool will get the much smaller February spring conference instead in what will be seen as a placatory move. For years the main political parties have rotated between Blackpool, Bournemouth and Brighton. And the news the much larger annual conference is not to gather in Blackpool will be seen as a blow in the coastal resort. In 1998 the party said it would not return to Blackpool but did so in 2002. The following year Bournemouth hosted the event before the party signed a two year deal for Brighton to host the autumn conference. Colin Asplin, Blackpool Hotel Association said: ""We have tried very hard to make sure they come back to Blackpool. ""Obviously we have failed in that. I just hope Manchester can handle the crowds. ""It amazes me that the Labour Party, which is a working class party, doesn't want to come to the main working class resort in the country."" The exact cost to Blackpool in terms of lost revenue for hotel accommodation is not yet known but it is thought that block bookings will be taken at the major Manchester hotels after the official announcement." +politics,"Howard unveils Tory asylum plans Tory plans to cut immigration to the UK are not racist and will make the asylum system fairer for genuine refugees, Michael Howard has said. As his party set out detailed asylum reform plans, Mr Howard said they would help smash people smuggling gangs. There would be an annual limit on asylum and all claims would be processed overseas. Some charities say the plans would put refugees' lives at risk if they were turned away once quotas were filled. Tony Blair said Labour would set out workable plans for tackling immigration abuse in the next few weeks and attacked the Tory plans. ""By cutting the number of front-line immigration staff at our borders, they will actually make the problem worse,"" said Mr Blair. Liberal Democrat chairman Matthew Taylor said there needed to be a quick, fair and firm asylum system. But he said it was ""absolutely disgusting"" to propose a system which could turn away genuine refugees. The Conservatives say there is little risk of this happening as demand for asylum will be considered when quotas are set. In a speech in London on Monday, Mr Howard said: ""It's not racist, as some people to claim, to talk about controlling immigration far from it."" He said that coming from an immigrant family himself he recognised that ""firm but fair"" immigration controls were essential for good community relations. - Withdrawing from the 1951 United Nations Convention on refugees, which obliges countries to accept people being persecuted on the basis of need, not numbers - Introduce laws to allow the immediate removal of asylum seekers whose claims were clearly unfounded because they came from safe countries or had destroyed documents - Detain asylum seekers without documents so people whose identity was not known were not able to move freely around the UK - a worry for ""national security"" - Stop considering asylum applications inside the UK and instead take people from United Nations refugee agency camps. Anyone applying for asylum would be taken to new centres close to their countries of origin. The Tories also want quotas for those seeking work permits through an Australian-style points system and those wanting to join families in the UK. Mr Howard said nearly 160,000 people were settling in the UK every year - the size of a city like Peterborough. The plans would help achieve a ""substantial reduction"" in immigration, he said, although he could not predict a figure. He said that only two out of 10 asylum seekers had their claims accepted under the current ""unfair and inhumane"" system. ""We need to break the link between arriving in Britain and claiming asylum,"" Mr Howard said. ""By breaking that link we can smash the criminal gangs at the heart of the trade in people smuggling."" But the UN refugees agency is worried the policy sends the wrong message to poorer countries which receive the bulk of refugees. And a spokesman for European Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said the plans would contravene EU asylum policy, which meant the UK could not simply refuse to hear an asylum case. Refugee Council Chief Executive Maeve Sherlock called the plans ""dangerous, ill thought-out and hugely irresponsible"". Lives could be put at risk if refugees were turned away once the quotas were filled, she warned. Commission for Racial Equality chairman Trevor Phillips said asylum applications were down 40% and economic migration down about 10%. He did not think Mr Howard intended to centre the debate about race. But he warned that some campaigners could use his words to hint the policy was about keeping out people of a different colour or culture. Mr Howard called that suggestion ""disgraceful""." +politics,"Blair dismisses quit claim report Tony Blair has dismissed reports he told Gordon Brown he would quit before the next general election. ""You don't do deals over jobs like this,"" the prime minister told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme. According to a new book, Brown's Britain, Mr Blair went back on a pledge to make way for Mr Brown after Cabinet allies intervened in June 2004. Mr Blair said the claims were ""reheated from six months ago"" and that he was concentrating on running the country. Mr Blair said: ""I've dealt with this six months ago. I said then you don't do deals over jobs like this - you don't. ""What both of us are actually concentrating on are the issues that concern the country."" The book, by Sunday Telegraph journalist Robert Peston and serialised in the newspaper, said the pair had ""mutual animosity and contempt"" for each other. It claims Tony Blair felt by November 2003 he had lost voters' trust because of the Iraq war and that he was no longer an asset to the Labour Party. And that at a dinner hosted by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott he told Mr Brown of his intention to stand down. According to Mr Peston the prime minister said: ""Help me to get through the year and I will then stand down."" But he then changed his mind in June 2004, following intervention from allies in the Cabinet and the suspicion that the chancellor was deliberately manoeuvring against him, according to the book. Mr Peston told BBC News: ""My understanding is that they are not nearly as close or as friendly as they once were. ""What the book says is there is now a pretty profound mutual mistrust, mutual animosity. ""I think in public you see this double-act pretending everything is alright, but in private I don't think the relationship is good because Brown, understandably, feels deeply betrayed - particularly over this issue of the leadership."" But, in a wide-ranging BBC interview covering issues such as the Asian tsunami disaster, the Middle East peace process and Northern Ireland, Mr Blair said: ""When you get to the top in politics you get this huge swell around you. ""All sorts of people make all sorts of claims and counter-claims."" He admitted to a ""sense of frustration"" about the allegations which he said had been made ""countless times"". There has been fresh speculation of a rift recently, following their separate responses to the Asian tsunami. These rumours were fuelled by Mr Blair's decision to hold his monthly media conference at the same time as a long-planned speech by Mr Brown on UK plans to tackle global poverty with a new ""Marshall Plan"" for Africa. There was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each other's response to the disaster. But the prime minister said he had discussed these claims with the chancellor and dismissed them as a ""load of nonsense"". Former welfare minister Frank Field MP said the prime minister should sack Mr Brown, but did not believe Mr Blair was strong enough to do so. Tory leader Michael Howard accused the prime minister and Mr Brown of ""squabbling like schoolboys"". He told Sky News' Sunday with Adam Boulton: ""This is the politics of the playground and Britain really does deserve better."" The Liberal Democrat parliamentary chairman Matthew Taylor said the personal ambition of Mr Blair and Mr Brown was ""getting in the way of good government"". ""Either they need to grow up and put their squabbles to one side or they cannot expect the electorate to support a divided government at the next election."" During the interview Mr Blair also said the former home secretary David Blunkett would play a ""big role"" at the general election." +politics,"UK helps raped Rwandan women Britain is to give a £4m grant to help women survivors of the Rwandan genocide who were raped and often deliberately infected with HIV/Aids. An estimated 25,000 girls and women were raped during the 1994 genocide. About 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu militias after the assassination of an ethnic Hutu leader. The five-year Department for International Development funding will enable more survivors to have access to anti-retroviral treatment. The plight of the infected women was overshadowed for a long time. It was overshadowed by Rwanda's emergence from the 100 days of slaughter, during which time the mass killings took place, and the women's fate was largely a taboo subject. But many of the women were widowed and they now not only have their own children to care for but, in many cases, orphans too. As the women die, the number of Rwanda's orphans rises. Until recently, very few of the women have had access to anti-retroviral treatment. That is now starting to change. This funding is intended to make anti-retrovirals and other care available for some 2,500 women. Mary Kayitesi Blewitt, founder of the Survivors Fund (SURF), one of the organisations through which the funds are being channelled, said it was a recognition, before it was too late, that the survivors should be a priority for help." +politics,"Security papers 'found in street' An inquiry is under way after files containing security details about the Pakistani president's visit to London were found by a member of the public. The files are believed to contain detailed security arrangements for Gen Pervez Musharraf's visit this week, including police codes. Scotland Yard said the policing operation had been reviewed. A spokesman said President Musharraf's safety had not been compromised, as the papers had been handed in promptly. ""We cannot discuss who was responsible for the documents, only that they contained the policing arrangements for the official visit,"" said the spokesman. The papers are believed to have been found by a member of the public in a street in Mayfair and given to the Mirror newspaper. The police spokesman said the newspaper handed the report over on Monday. The force's Directorate of Professional Standards is investigating the circumstances surrounding the loss of the documents, he said. Gen Musharraf held talks with Tony Blair on Monday. He arrived in Britain on Sunday night after flying from the United States, where he met President George W Bush. He is due to visit the Pakistani community in Manchester on Tuesday afternoon." +politics,"Kennedy's cautious optimism Charles Kennedy is far too canny to make any grand claims about how his party may fare at the general election. In his 22 years in the Commons, he has seen his fair share of such claims dashed on the rocks of bitter experience and, he might say, the UK's political and electoral system. But even his caution cannot hide the fact that this is a party and a leader that believes it may well be on the way to something special in a few months' time. ""Look, I have already said I am not going to put any artificial limits on our ambitions this time around,"" he said. He still seems to accept that the most likely outcome is another Labour victory of some sort. And his general election pitch is designed around the notion of the Lib Dems as the ""real"" opposition. But doesn't that lead to the jibe that his is a party actively bidding to come second? He is prepared to go this far: ""A clear conclusion has been reached, including by Conservatives, that the Conservatives are not going to win this election. ""Therefore the potential is there for the Liberal Democrat advance to be one of the big stories of the election, given that we have the capacity to take on Labour and win as well as take on the Conservatives and win. ""This is really going to be the first modern three party UK election that we have all experienced"". But haven't we been here before, with suggestions in the 1980s that Labour was finished. Won't voters looking for an alternative to Labour still naturally gravitate to the Conservatives? ""The problem is that, geographically, the Conservative party has melted away in about a third of Britain. ""We have supplanted them as the main alternative to Labour in whole tracts of mainland Britain. And they are a party with an ageing and declining membership base and they just do not look vibrant or vital or in touch any longer with contemporary Britain"". Mr Kennedy is also eager to dispel any impression his party is the new party of the left and is likely to attract mostly disillusioned Labour voters. He insists his three headline commitments, to be financed from a 1% tax increase on those earning over £100,000 a year, will appeal right across the political spectrum. They are to replace the council tax with a local income tax, provide free long term care for the elderly and scrap student fees. He also believes being the only major party promising to increases taxes will not land him in the same trouble a similar policy did to Old Labour. ""I think the tax argument has moved on a lot in British politics particularly in the context of the forthcoming general election,"" he said. Under a Labour government the tax burden would have to rise, while the Tories' plans to increase spending in some areas while also reducing taxes is just incredible, he claims. ""We are being straightforward with people, saying you know there is likely to be an increase in the tax burden, we are only recommending one specific tax rise for the top end of income scale earners to fund three specific policies"". ""That is a clear cut choice for people, one I am very comfortable with and I think will distinguish us from the others"". As to his own future, he is clear. If, as expected, his party increases its showing at the election, he intends to go into the next parliament ""on the front foot with a view to leading it right through that parliament into the next election because I see that as the decisive opportunity for us"". That last remark reflects a view gaining ground in Westminster that, if the Tories do as badly as some fear, the election after next might really see that historic breakthrough by the third party. Perhaps then Mr Kennedy will be ready to put some of the caution to one side." +politics,"Minister defends hunting ban law The law banning hunting with dogs in England and Wales is enforceable and ""very clear"", Alun Michael has said. The rural affairs minister said it would become obvious if people flouted the law, which came into force on Friday, and pretended they were not. Some 270 hunts met legally on Saturday killing a total of 91 foxes - only four were accidentally killed by hounds. But anti-hunt campaigners said there had been widespread intimidation of activists monitoring hunts. Countryside Alliance chairman John Jackson said that Saturday had been a ""massive demonstration by the rural community of support for hunting"". People had turned out ""to show en masse that the Hunting Act was a bad law"", he said adding that foxes and other animals had been killed ""legally"" as far as he was aware. Although hunting with dogs is now a criminal offence, exercising hounds, chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are still legal. Addressing claims that the new law was unenforceable, Mr Michael told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: ""There has been a lot of spin about this by those that support hunting. ""The reality is that the law is very clear. You can't chase wild mammals with a pack of dogs, whether the wild mammal is a fox or a deer. ""If people do so and pretend they're not it's going to become very clear. You can't hunt accidentally."" Mr Michael also denied the hunting ban had led to a breakdown of trust between the government and rural communities. He said most people living in the countryside were more concerned with issues like the economy, the health service and their children's future than hunting. But the League Against Cruel Sports claimed the new act had been broken even though the numbers of foxes killed had fallen. Thousands of hunt supporters turned out at 270 hunts across England and Wales on the first day of the ban, with anti-hunt groups sending out 100 monitors to check the law was not being broken. There were only four arrests - over alleged hunting of hares in Wiltshire - although it was not clear whether they were made under the Hunting Act. They have been released on bail but police say they may face prosecution under new poaching laws. But Penny Little, who monitored the Bicester Hunt in Oxfordshire, said she had witnessed ""gratuitous, spiteful killing of foxes"". If people tried to ""run circles around this law"" the only outcome would be that it was tightened up, she said. Mike Hobday, from the League Against Cruel Sports, said video evidence of the law being broken would be passed onto police. He said intimidation seemed to have been widespread and called on hunts to do more to stop their supporters intimidating anti-hunt activists videoing hunts. But Mr Jackson, who had been at the Bicester Hunt in Oxfordshire, denied there was any intimidation." +politics,"Lords wrong on detainees - Straw Jack Straw has attacked the decision by Britain's highest court that detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial breaks human rights laws. The foreign secretary said the right to life was the ""most important liberty"" and the government had a duty to protect people from terrorism. Law lords were ""simply wrong"" to imply the men were being held arbitrarily. New Home Secretary Charles Clarke vowed the nine men would remain in prison while the law was being reviewed. The House of Lords ruled by an eight to one majority in favour of appeals by the men - dealing a major blow to the government's anti-terror policy. But Mr Straw denied it amounted to a ""constitutional crisis"". He said those held had a right of appeal to the special immigration appeal tribunal and the decision to hold the suspects was upheld by that court. ""The law lords are simply wrong to imply that this is a decision to detain these people on the whim or the certificate of the home secretary,"" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. The foreign secretary insisted it was for Parliament, and not judges, to decide how best Britain could be defended against the threat of terrorism. But Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile, the government's independent reviewer of anti-terrorism laws, said it was possible some of the detainees could now be released. He said the Law Lords' ruling was an ""embarrassment"" for the government and major changes were needed to the law. The ruling came on Charles Clarke's first day as home secretary following David Blunkett's resignation. In a statement to MPs, Mr Clarke said: ""I will be asking Parliament to renew this legislation in the New Year. ""In the meantime, we will be studying the judgment carefully to see whether it is possible to modify our legislation to address the concerns raised by the House of Lords."" The detainees took their case to the House of Lords after the Court of Appeal backed the Home Office's powers to hold them without limit or charge. The government opted out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 September attacks in the US. Any foreign national suspected of links with terrorism can be detained or can opt to be deported. But those detained cannot be deported if this would mean persecution in their homeland. On Thursday, Lord Bingham - a senior law lord - said the rules were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights as they allowed detentions ""in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status"" by justifying detention without trial for foreign suspects, but not Britons. Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, in his ruling, said: ""Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law. In a statement, detainee 'A' in Woodhill Prison said: ""I hope now that the government will act upon this decision, scrap this illegal 'law' and release me and the other internees to return to our families and loved ones."" The case was heard by a panel of nine law lords rather than the usual five because of the constitutional importance of the case. Solicitor Gareth Pierce, who represents eight of the detainees, claimed the detention had driven four of the detainees to ""madness"", saying two were being held in Broadmoor hospital." +politics,"Talks held on Gibraltar's future Two days of talks on the future of Gibraltar begin at Jack Straw's country residence later on Wednesday. Officials at the two-day summit at the foreign secretary's official Kent house, Chevening, will plan a new forum on the Rock's future. In October, Mr Straw and his Spanish counterpart Miguel Moratinos agreed to establish a body that would give Gibraltarians a voice in their future. Most Gibraltarians said in a referendum they wanted to remain British. Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana will represent the British citizens living on the Rock, while Britain's Europe Director Dominick Chilcott will represent the UK. Madrid is being represented by Spain's director general for Europe, Jose Maria Pons. The initiative follows Spain's socialist government's decision to put its long-standing sovereignty ambitions on hold. Gibraltarians rejected plans for the Rock's sovereignty to be shared between Britain and Spain in a referendum organised by Gibraltar government." +politics,"Brown visits slum on Africa trip Chancellor Gordon Brown has visited Kenya's biggest shantytown as he opened a week-long visit to Africa. Mr Brown's trip is designed to highlight how the UK wants to make Africa's problems a priority of its chairmanship of the G8 this year. He will see an HIV/Aids orphanage in Tanzania and a women's credit union in Mozambique before chairing a meeting of the Commission for Africa in Cape Town. At slums in Narobi on Wednesday, he said education needs had to be tackled. Speaking outside the Olympic Primary School, Mr Brown said: ""It is simply not acceptable in the modern age for the rest of the world to stand by and have hundreds of millions of children not getting the chance at education."" He pointed to international plans to invest $10bn for education in Africa over the next decade. The school is on the edge of Kibera, where 800,000 live often in huts made of mud, scrap metal and cardboard. Mr Brown's aides say he wants to find out more about the Kenyan Government's education policies, which included introducing free primary education in early 2003. The chancellor has already unveiled proposals for a G8 aid package which he has likened to the Marshall Plan used by the United States to rebuild Europe after World War Two. The trip follows claims of infighting between Mr Brown and Tony Blair detailed in a new book. Conservative leader Michael Howard is expected to seize on those reports at prime minister's questions at 1200 GMT on Wednesday." +politics,"EU rules 'won't stop UK spending' The shape of the UK's economy In graphics But he denied that he was ruling out British membership of the euro despite saying there would be no assessment of the five economic tests this year. Mr Brown said that it was vital the UK continued to invest in infrastructure, science, and education in the future. Otherwise it would be overtaken by the likes of China, he told MPs. The chancellor said that the EU's planned changes in the growth and stability pact - designed to ensure that countries in the euro zone do not borrow too much - would force Britain to run a budget surplus of 1% over the economic cycle. Under Mr Brown's rules, the UK current budget must be in balance over the economic cycle, but public investment is not counted as part of that deficit. He told the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee that the EU rules ""make it difficult for a low debt country to run the investment programmes that are necessary to improve its infrastructure"". But he argued that the EU was moving in the direction of the UK principles, and would eventually recognise the need to consider budget deficits over a longer period than one year, to include investment, and to take more account of the total size of government debt as well as the balance each year. Under Mr Brown's ""sustainable investment"" rule, government debt should be under 40% - in contrast to the 60% allowed under the growth and stability pact. Mr Brown vigorously denied Conservative claims that he had in effect fiddled the figures to ensure that he met his own fiscal rules. In March the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reclassified £3.4bn of spending on road repairs as public investment - shortly before the chancellor announced in the Budget that he would meet his own fiscal budget rule by only £6bn. Conservative Michael Fallon asked Mr Brown whether the Treasury had leaned on ONS to make this change, and said that the ONS had received a written paper from the Treasury on this matter. But the chancellor said Mr Fallon was ""impugning the integrity"" of the Office of National Statistics and said the decision had been made completely independently. Mr Brown also denied that he was increasing taxes to fund his spending gap. He told the Treasury Select Committee that a growing economy meant more people in work and more profits for companies which would boost Treasury coffers. Earlier, ex-Conservative chancellor Ken Clarke welcomed a relaxation of the rules governing the euro zone. Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Clarke said political give and take would replace more ""rigid"" rules. But fellow Tory David Heathcoat-Amory said the folly of the system was in trying to run Europe's varied economies on one set of rules. ""The essential point here is that the stability and growth pact has turned out to be a fake,"" he said. ""The warning is about the European constitution, which we are going to have a vote on in a year or two, and that centralises and entrenches these rules in a constitution. It gives more powers to Brussels to co-ordinate things like employment and economic policy."" But, speaking to the Treasury Select Committee, Gordon Brown said that the new stability pact rules were not part of a binding Treaty and could be changed again the future - potentially opening the way for future euro membership. ""The conditions for euro entry are unchanged by this new decision about the stability and growth pact,"" Mr. Brown said." +politics,"Tory leader quits legal position David McLetchie has resigned from his post as a partner in a legal firm following criticism over his dual role. The Scottish Conservative leader had insisted that his legal work with Tods Murray did not influence the causes he supports. But on Friday he said: ""I have tendered my resignation as a partner with immediate effect."" Mr McLetchie had received advice from Holyrood officials about what details he needed to declare. Labour said he had ""cleverly"" not asked about paid advocacy. A Tory spokesman ""totally refuted"" any wrongdoing. Mr McLetchie received advice from the clerk to the standards committee after concern over him signing a parliamentary motion questioning expansion plans for Edinburgh Airport. The MSP had been a partner for Tods Murray which has a client opposing the development. Mr McLetchie did not have a complaint made against him, but when concerns were raised he sought guidance from the standards committee to clarify his position. He was advised to exercise judgement to avoid the perception of a conflict and said he had done nothing wrong. Explaining his reason for quitting the post, Mr McLetchie said: ""I have been greatly concerned by the recent publicity surrounding my association with Tods Murray. ""However, I have no wish to see a similar situation arise again. ""To avoid any misconceptions in the future and be mindful of the good name of Tods Murray and the confidentiality to which its clients are entitled, I have brought forward the date of my retirement from the firm which would otherwise have happened later this year. ""I am proud to have been a part of Tods Murray for the last 29 years and wish it well in the future."" Labour MSP Christine May had said Mr McLetchie was ""very clever"" to ask the clerk to consider his conduct in respect of section 5 of the code. ""He was almost bound to get the answer he wanted from this enquiry since he stands accused of breaching section 6, the section on paid advocacy,"" she said. Section 5 of the members interest order legally obliges MSPs to declare registrable interests before taking part in related parliamentary proceedings ""where the interest would prejudice or give the appearance of prejudicing their ability to participate in a disinterested manner"". However, MSPs' Code of Conduct ""recognises a wider definition"" of parliamentary proceedings, including a non-statutory requirement to make a declaration in relation to written notices, such as motions. But a letter from Holyrood's Chamber Office chief Ken Hughes also made clear that Mr McLetchie did not need to list any of the clients for whom he worked as a solicitor. Commenting on Mr McLetchie's decision to stand down, a Scottish Labour Party spokesman said: ""This should mean Mr McLetchie doesn't breach the paid advocacy rules in future. ""However it doesn't change the fact that there should be a full investigation into whether he has done this in the past."" Scottish National Party Holyrood leader Nicola Sturgeon accused Mr McLetchie of failing to properly serve his constituents. Ms Sturgeon said: ""I think this whole episode has been very damaging for Mr McLetchie and I'm sure he will be reflecting on it."" She added that she thought that the Tories were an irrelevant party so she would not ""lose any sleep over it"". Peter Misselbrook, executive partner of Tods Murray said Mr McLetchie had been considering retirement later in the year. He added: ""David has decided that this announcement should be made now and we fully understand and appreciate his reasons for doing so.""" +politics,"Whitehall shredding increasing - Tories Civil servants have drastically stepped up the shredding of official documents, figures compiled by the Tories suggest. Some government departments had doubled the number of documents being shredded ahead of the Freedom of Information Act's implementation on 1 January. Departments for defence, environment and trade, which had all increased file destruction, said they were following rules governing public records. But the Tories want the information commissioner to investigate. The Freedom of Information Act will for the first time give members of the public access to government records previously kept secret for 30 years. But BBC Political Correspondent James Hardy said the prospect of outsiders poking their noses into the inner workings of Whitehall appeared to be causing jitters among the mandarins. Liberal Democrat Alan Beith - who chairs the select committee which monitors the Department of Constitutional Affairs - said if the claims were true, Whitehall was ""acting entirely against the spirit of the new Act"". ""Both the information commissioner and the select committee will have to keep this issue under very close scrutiny."" Fellow Lib Dem Norman Baker said the episode painted an ""unflattering picture of the inner workings of government"". ""It is clear that the government's initial enthusiasm for open government has turned to self-serving cynicism."" Dr Julian Lewis, the Conservative spokesman for the Cabinet Office, said he had discovered a huge acceleration in shredding from a series of parliamentary answers. The Department of Work and Pensions destroyed nearly 37,000 files last year - up 22,000 on four years ago when the Act was passed. The number of files destroyed by the Ministry of Defence and the departments of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Trade and Industry has also risen dramatically. Dr Lewis has called for an investigation by the information commissioner Richard Thomas. Earlier this week, Mr Thomas said he was looking into Cabinet Office orders telling staff to delete e-mails more than three months old. He said he ""totally condemned"" the deletion of e-mails to prevent their disclosure under freedom of information laws coming into force on 1 January. Government guidance said e-mails should only be deleted if they served ""no current purpose"", Mr Thomas said. A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said the move was not about the new laws or ""the destruction of important records"". The Freedom of Information Act will cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland from next year. Similar measures are being brought in at the same time in Scotland. It provides the public with a right of access to information held by about 100,000 public bodies, subject to various exemptions." +politics,"Brown's poll campaign move denied The government has denied reports that Gordon Brown is preparing to oust Alan Milburn as Labour's election supremo. Work and pensions minister Alan Johnson said it was wrong to suggest the chancellor would usurp Mr Milburn, adding they would ""work as a team"". A report in the Sunday Business claimed Mr Brown has been asked to take charge of media strategy, while Mr Milburn would move to a behind-the-scenes role. Labour has always maintained Mr Brown would have a central campaign role. But many Labour backbenchers are said to be dissatisfied with the way election campaigning has gone and have said they wanted to see the chancellor take a bigger role. Some commentators say the Tories have grasped the initiative, putting Labour on the back foot, having to respond to Conservative policy announcements. These claims follow various opinion polls which suggest the Tories have been gaining on Labour. Party strategists are believed to want to bring Mr Brown to centre-stage having seen support rise, in private polling, after his Budget last week. But another report in the Sunday Telegraph claims Mr Milburn is unwilling to allow any new role for the chancellor to come at his expense. Mr Johnson told BBC News: ""Gordon Brown will play a central role in any election campaign. ""They were wrong when they said Milburn was ousting Brown and they're wrong now if they are saying Brown is ousting Milburn. We work as a team."" Mr Milburn has repeatedly said the chancellor was key to the campaign and dismissed claims of a rift. Neither Downing Street nor the Labour Party would comment directly on the reports." +politics,"Act on detention ruling, UK urged The government must act quickly on the Law Lords' ruling that detention of foreign terror suspects without trial is unlawful, Mary Robinson has said. The former UN commissioner for human rights and Irish president told Radio 4's Today the government's response would be scrutinised internationally. ""It would be very troubling if the government did not accept the judgement and then work within it,"" she said. Home Secretary Charles Clarke has said detainees will not be freed at present. Speaking to Parliament on his first day in office as home secretary following David Blunkett's resignation, Mr Clarke said: ""I will be asking Parliament to renew this legislation in the New Year. ""In the meantime, we will be studying the judgement carefully to see whether it is possible to modify our legislation to address the concerns raised by the House of Lords."" Mrs Robinson said the Law Lords' ruling was ""in line with international legal opinion"" and praised their ""very decisive"" eight to one majority. ""What the Law Lords did was acknowledge the role of the government, but say that there had been a disproportionate use, that it amounted to executive detention and it was discriminatory because it didn't apply to British citizens,"" she said. Mrs Robinson warned that a lack of action by the British government could lead to further action in legal arenas such as the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. ""If the government were not to accept this ruling then there is further redress, including possible damages for the individuals who could claim that the government either was tardy or was resisting the implications of the judgement of the Law Lords."" She said a meeting of the Club of Madrid - a group of former world leaders - to be held in the Spanish capital on the March anniversary of the train bombings there would probably discuss the ruling and its implications. ""I have no doubt that this judgement will be looked at, both as a very positive step in clarifying the law and restating the fundamental principles, but also the response of the British government will be under quite a clear international scrutiny there."" The detainees took their case to the House of Lords after the Court of Appeal backed the Home Office's powers to hold them without limit or charge. The government opted out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 September attacks in the US. Any foreign national suspected of links with terrorism can be detained or can opt to be deported. The Law Lords said the rules were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights as they allowed detentions ""in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status"". The case was heard by a panel of nine law lords rather than the usual five because of the constitutional importance of the case." +politics,"Muslim police stops 'more likely' UK Muslims should accept that people of Islamic appearance are more likely to be stopped and searched by police, a Home Office minister has said. Hazel Blears said innocent Muslims would be targeted because of the search for Islamic extremists. Qualifications for religious leaders to enter the UK could also be made tougher, she told a Commons inquiry. Her comments have been described as ""irresponsible"" and ""outrageous"" by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC). ""The threat is most likely to come from those people associated with an extreme form of Islam, or who are falsely hiding behind Islam,"" the Salford MP told the Commons home affairs committee. ""It means that some of our counter-terrorism powers will be disproportionately experienced by the Muslim community."" It was a reality that should be recognised, she said. ""If a threat is from a particular place then our action is going to be targeted at that area,"" she added. On ministers of religions, such as imams, she said faith groups would be asked what other qualifications and skills, such as civic knowledge and ability to engage the community, should be demanded. Last year, ministers introduced a requirement that ministers should speak English to a certain level. IHRC chairman Massoud Shadjareh accused Ms Blears of ""playing an Islamophobia card"" in the run-up to a general election. ""She is demonising and alienating our community,"" he said. ""It is a legitimisation for a backlash and for racists to have an onslaught on our community. ""This sort of comment is just music to the ears of racists."" Later, the prime minister's official spokesman urged people to put Ms Blears' comments into context. The minister had been saying she understood there was a perception that stop and search was aimed at one community, but that was not what was happening, the spokesman said. ""What is happening is that those powers are aimed at those who are suspected of carrying out or planning certain activity who happen to come from one community. ""It is not aimed at a particular community, it is not police policy to aim these powers at a particular community,"" he added. Statistics showed that of the 17 people found guilty of terrorist acts in the UK since the 11 September attacks, only four of the 12 whose ethnic backgrounds were known were Muslim, he added Figures published last week showed that people from ethnic minorities were increasingly likely to be targeted by police stop and search tactics. Figures showed that, for 2003/2004, Asians were 1.9 times more likely to be stopped and searched, compared with 1.7 times more likely in the previous year. Separate figures on police searches in England and Wales carried out under the Terrorism Act 2000 showed that ethnic minorities were more likely to be targeted. Muslim groups have repeatedly claimed that their communities are being victimised under terror laws. In 2003/2004, 12.5% searches under the laws were on Asian people, even though they make up 4.7% of the population. Last July, the police were accused of Islamophobia by Muslim groups after stop and search figures showed the numbers of Asians targeted had risen by 300% since the introduction of anti-terror laws." +politics,"Sayeed to stand down as Tory MP Tory MP Jonathan Sayeed is to stand down on the grounds of ill health. The decision comes after Mr Sayeed survived an attempt to de-select him in a row over allegations he had profited from private tours of Parliament. The Mid-Bedfordshire MP had denied a claim that he was paid for guiding visitors around the Palace of Westminster. Conservative leader Michael Howard has now accepted the MP's resignation, it has been announced. Mr Sayeed was suspended from Parliament for two weeks last month after the Commons standards and privileges committee said his conduct had fallen ""well below the standards expected"". The Conservative Party had already been withdrawn the whip for a month. But his constituency association voted against a move to deselect him, with Mr Sayeed winning 173 of the 299 votes. After the vote, Mr Sayeed said only a fifth of association members had voted against him and he intended to get on with winning the election. But the vote prompted constituency association president Sir Stanley Odell to resign in protest. The Standards and Privileges Committee inquiry was launched after the Sunday Times alleged English Manner Limited charged clients for access to Westminster through Mr Sayeed. Mr Sayeed had denied the claims, saying the suspension was ""unjust and wrong"" but he made an ""unreserved"" apology to MPs in the Commons chamber. He insisted that the committee's report had contained a ""few errors of fact"". Mr Sayeed has been MP for Mid-Bedfordshire since 1997. He represented Bristol East from 1983 to 1992." +politics,"Russian ex-spy on hunger strike An ex-Russian intelligence officer who risked his life spying for MI6 is entering the seventh week of a hunger strike near 10 Downing Street. Viktor Makarov, 50, claims he has been betrayed by the British authorities, who promised he would live like an ""average British citizen"". But despite a £65,000 settlement four years ago, he says he has been denied defector status and a decent pension. Other ex-Russian spies have been given civil service pensions. ""Hunger strike is a weapon of last resort. It can work only with determination and of course the realisation of the righteousness of your case - without that it will not work,"" Mr Makarov told the BBC's Newsnight programme. ""Since I came to this country two batches of promises have been made and broken one after the other."" Oleg Gordievsky, a senior KGB officer who became a secret agent for the British, said he was ""very happy"" with the way the government have treated him since him since he defected in 1985. Commenting on Mr Makarov's case, he said: ""The British state is not a fat cow - it is impossible to come here and demand give me more money every week."" But Mr Makarov's case has been backed by David Kahn - a former Yale historian, and a leading expert on code-breaking, who has confirmed his information was valuable to the Western allies. ""I believe the government of the United Kingdom, which in that respect was probably the same as most other power authorities - took the information that Victor Makarov had, wrung him dry and left him to hang out in the cold,"" Mr Kahn said. Mr Makarov joined the KGB in 1970s Russia, as an idealistic 20 year-old. One of his fellow pupils at intelligence school was Vladimir Putin. At KGB headquarters in Moscow, he was posted to the secret 16th directorate - which decoded intercepted diplomatic traffic from the West. By the 1980s he had risen to the rank of senior lieutenant - and was privy to the thoughts of Western powers. But he had became deeply disenchanted with the Soviet regime - fuelled by its repression both at home and in Poland. Through his English teacher, he made an approach to M16 - and then began passing secrets to the British intelligence service. He spied for MI6 for two years before being betrayed by a friend and sent to Perm 35 - a Soviet hard labour camp in the Artic circle. Within a week of his release in 1992, he made contact with the British authorities he'd been spying for, who arranged a meeting between him and an MI6 agent in Latvia. He was given a false passport, and he says, promised that he would be given the chance to live like an average UK citizen. But after arriving in London 13 years ago, he feels this promise has not been fulfilled. After long periods of living in bedsits, with deteriorating health, four years ago he took legal action against the government - and settled for £65,000 to buy a small house. But he says he will remain on hunger strike until he receives a decent pension and the right to work, something he feels he has been denied because the authorities do not trust him. Government sources told the BBC they had reached a final settlement with the former spy, which he has been able to appeal to security and intelligence tribunals." +politics,"Fox attacks Blair's Tory 'lies' Tony Blair lied when he took the UK to war so has no qualms about lying in the election campaign, say the Tories. Tory co-chairman Liam Fox was speaking after Mr Blair told Labour members the Tories offered a ""hard right agenda"". Dr Fox told BBC Radio: ""If you are willing to lie about the reasons for going to war, I guess you are going to lie about anything at all."" He would not discuss reports the party repaid £500,000 to Lord Ashcroft after he predicted an election defeat. The prime minister ratcheted up Labour's pre-election campaigning at the weekend with a helicopter tour of the country and his speech at the party's spring conference. He insisted he did not know the poll date, but it is widely expected to be 5 May. In what was seen as a highly personal speech in Gateshead on Sunday, Mr Blair said: ""I have the same passion and hunger as when I first walked through the door of 10 Downing Street."" He described his relationship with the public as starting euphoric, then struggling to live up to the expectations, and reaching the point of raised voices and ""throwing crockery"". He warned his supporters against complacency, saying: ""It's a fight for the future of our country, it's a fight that for Britain and the people of Britain we have to win."" Mr Blair said that whether the public chose Michael Howard or Mr Kennedy, it would result in ""a Tory government not a Labour government and a country that goes back and does not move forward"". Dr Fox accused Mr Blair and other Cabinet ministers of telling lies about their opponents' policies and then attacking the lies. ""What we learned at the weekend is what Labour tactics are going to be and it's going to be fear and smear,"" he told BBC News. The Tory co-chairman attacked Labour's six new pledges as ""vacuous"" and said Mr Blair was very worried voters would take revenge for his failure to deliver. Dr Fox refused to discuss weekend newspaper reports that the party had repaid £500,000 to former Tory Treasurer Lord Ashcroft after he said the party could not win the election. ""We repay loans when they are due but do not comment to individual financial matters,"" he said, insisting he enjoyed a ""warm and constructive"" relationship to Lord Ashcroft. Meanwhile Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy is expected to attack Mr Blair's words as he begins a nationwide tour on Monday. Mr Kennedy is accelerating Lib Dem election preparations this week as he visits Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Somerset, Basingstoke, Shrewsbury, Dorset and Torbay. He said: ""This is three-party politics. In the northern cities, the contest is between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. ""In southern and rural seats - especially in the South West - the principal contenders are the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, who are out of the running in Scotland and Wales."" The Lib Dems accuse Mr Blair of making a ""touchy-feely"" speech to Labour delegates which will not help him regain public trust." +politics,"Assembly ballot papers 'missing' Hundreds of ballot papers for the regional assembly referendum in the North East have ""disappeared"". Royal Mail says it is investigating the situation, which has meant about 300 homes in County Durham are not receiving voting packs. Officials at Darlington Council are now in a race against time to try and rectify the situation. The all-postal votes of about two million electors are due to be handed in by 4 November. A spokesman for Darlington Council said: ""We have sent out the ballot papers, the problem is with Royal Mail. ""Somewhere along the line, something has gone wrong and these ballot papers have not been delivered. ""The Royal Mail is investigating to see if they can find out what the problem is."" A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said: ""We are investigating a problem with the delivery route in the Mowden area of Darlington. ""This is affecting several hundred properties, which have failed to receive ballot papers. ""We are working closely with the council and will do all we can to help rectify the problem. ""No-one will not receive their ballot paper as special hand deliveries will take place where necessary. ""We are unaware of any other problems of this kind to do with the regional assembly vote."" The Darlington Council spokesman added: ""Initially we had complaints from a couple of residents in Mowden to say they thought they should have had their ballot papers by now. ""We then made further investigations and it became clear this was a bigger issue."" A spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission told BBC News Online that letters were being sent out to those homes affected. She said the commission was satisfied that measures had been put in place to ensure all voters received ballot papers in time. So far a total of 569,072 ballot envelopes have been scanned by bar code at counting offices across the North East." +politics,"End Bush 'denial' Blair tells EU Tony Blair is urging European leaders to wake up from their ""state of denial"" over President Bush's re-election. ""America has spoken. The rest of the world should listen,"" the prime minister said in an interview with The Times newspaper, published on Friday. Mr Blair is at a summit in Brussels, where Iraq and European justice and immigration plans are on the agenda. French President Jacques Chirac reacted to his warning by saying Europe instead needed to reinforce its own unity. Mr Blair has probably been closer to President Bush than any other European leader. He said some people were in ""a sort of state of denial"" about the US election result but predicted a more ""receptive mood"" would emerge soon. America needed to listen to the world too, he said. ""The fact is that President Bush is there for four years. He is there because the American people have chosen him,"" he argued. He also made clear he intended to take seriously what he perceives as his role in bringing the two continents together. Britain was ""uniquely placed"" to make out the common ground because of its strong alliance with the US, he suggested. He admitted he had gone to bed at 2230GMT, well before the American polls closed, thinking Mr Kerry might have won. He woke up at 0530GMT to discover Mr Bush had won but declined to say if he was pleased with the eventual result. His words about President Bush met a cool reception from Jacques Chirac. The French president told reporters: ""Europe today has more than ever the need, the necessity, to reinforce itself and its dynamism and unity. ""That is the goal of the constitution in a world that is more multi-polar than ever."" Mr Chirac will miss an address to the summit from Iraqi interim leader Iyad Allawi, who this week criticised nations which took a ""spectator"" role to Iraq's reconstruction. Mr Chirac denied there was any snub - he is going to a memorial service for the United Arab Emirates' late leader and says he would be happy to meet Mr Allawi. He also signed a communiqué stressing the EU's commitment to securing a stable and unified Iraq. The EU also confirmed a new $21m aid package. The communiqué congratulated President Bush on his victory and stressed the importance of good transatlantic relations. The summit is also expected to agree changes to streamline European asylum and immigration decisions. Mr Blair recently said the UK would only participate in EU-wide measures where it was in UK interests but the Tories say he is surrendering a key veto. The meeting will also assess progress on the economic reform plans agreed in Lisbon in 2000 to make Europe more competitive." +politics,"Profile: David Miliband David Miliband's rapid rise through the ranks of government continues with his promotion to Cabinet Office minister. Elected in a safe Labour seat in 2001 his previous job was school standards minister - a role he won in May 2002. Prior to the last election he was a key figure in New Labour as the head of the Downing Street policy unit where he was a key member of the manifesto writing team. Seen as one of the more intellectual figures in the government, he was also working for Tony Blair in his policy unit when he was leader of the opposition. A brief glance at Mr Miliband's family background reveals an impressive socialist pedigree in the form of his father Ralph, who died in 1994. He was an eminent and influential leftwing academic. And while David Miliband is seen as a key Blair lieutenant his brother Ed is a special advisor to Chancellor Gordon Brown. Prior to working for Mr Blair, David Miliband spent time at the left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research. He then became secretary of the Commission on Social Justice. The 39-year-old was educated at Haverstock Comprehensive before going on to Oxford to study politics, philosophy and economics. He also took an MSc in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology." +politics,"Blair dismisses quit claim report Tony Blair has dismissed reports he told Gordon Brown he would quit before the next general election. ""You don't do deals over jobs like this,"" the prime minister told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme. According to a new book, Brown's Britain, Mr Blair went back on a pledge to make way for Mr Brown after Cabinet allies intervened in June 2004. Mr Blair said the claims were ""reheated from six months ago"" and that he was concentrating on running the country. Mr Blair said: ""I've dealt with this six months ago. I said then you don't do deals over jobs like this - you don't. ""What both of us are actually concentrating on are the issues that concern the country."" The book, by Sunday Telegraph journalist Robert Peston and serialised in the newspaper, said the pair had ""mutual animosity and contempt"" for each other. It claims Tony Blair felt by November 2003 he had lost voters' trust because of the Iraq war and that he was no longer an asset to the Labour Party. And that at a dinner hosted by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott he told Mr Brown of his intention to stand down. According to Mr Peston the prime minister said: ""Help me to get through the year and I will then stand down."" But he then changed his mind in June 2004, following intervention from allies in the Cabinet and the suspicion that the chancellor was deliberately manoeuvring against him, according to the book. Mr Peston told BBC News: ""My understanding is that they are not nearly as close or as friendly as they once were. ""What the book says is there is now a pretty profound mutual mistrust, mutual animosity. ""I think in public you see this double-act pretending everything is alright, but in private I don't think the relationship is good because Brown, understandably, feels deeply betrayed - particularly over this issue of the leadership."" But, in a wide-ranging BBC interview covering issues such as the Asian tsunami disaster, the Middle East peace process and Northern Ireland, Mr Blair said: ""When you get to the top in politics you get this huge swell around you. ""All sorts of people make all sorts of claims and counter-claims."" He admitted to a ""sense of frustration"" about the allegations which he said had been made ""countless times"". There has been fresh speculation of a rift recently, following their separate responses to the Asian tsunami. These rumours were fuelled by Mr Blair's decision to hold his monthly media conference at the same time as a long-planned speech by Mr Brown on UK plans to tackle global poverty with a new ""Marshall Plan"" for Africa. There was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each other's response to the disaster. But the prime minister said he had discussed these claims with the chancellor and dismissed them as a ""load of nonsense"". Former welfare minister Frank Field MP said the prime minister should sack Mr Brown, but did not believe Mr Blair was strong enough to do so. Tory leader Michael Howard accused the prime minister and Mr Brown of ""squabbling like schoolboys"". He told Sky News' Sunday with Adam Boulton: ""This is the politics of the playground and Britain really does deserve better."" The Liberal Democrat parliamentary chairman Matthew Taylor said the personal ambition of Mr Blair and Mr Brown was ""getting in the way of good government"". ""Either they need to grow up and put their squabbles to one side or they cannot expect the electorate to support a divided government at the next election."" During the interview Mr Blair also said the former home secretary David Blunkett would play a ""big role"" at the general election." +politics,"Howard 'truanted to play snooker' Conservative leader Michael Howard has admitted he used to play truant to spend time with his school friends at a snooker hall. Mr Howard said his time at Jack's Snooker Hall in Llanelli in the 1950s had not done him ""any lasting damage"". But he told the Times Educational Supplement that truancy was ""very bad"" and said ""firm action"" was needed. Mr Howard also called for a return to O-levels and more classroom discipline. Mr Howard eventually left Llanelli Grammar School - and the snooker hall - to go to Cambridge University. He said: ""I don't think it's done me any lasting damage. Nor has it made me a snooker world champion. ""There might have been some occasions when we left early of an afternoon. ""I'm just being honest. I think truancy is a very bad thing and that firm action should be taken to deal with it."" Another player who has failed to win snooker's world championship - Jimmy ""the Whirlwind "" White - has previously admitted missing lessons, instead spending his days in smoky halls. ""Tony Meo [another player] and me used to spend all of our spare time there,"" Mr White said, ""We loved the game and the atmosphere. ""School went out of the window. I went for a while and then started taking time off."" Mr Howard's fellow Welshman Ray Reardon - known by his fellow professionals as ""Dracula"" - won the snooker world championship six times, having left school at 14 to work as a miner. And Terry Griffiths, like Mr Howard from Llanelli, won the tournament in 1979. It is not known whether the two of them ever clashed cues at Jack's." +politics,"EU fraud clampdown urged EU member states are failing to report fraud and irregularities in EU funds on a consistent basis, the UK's public spending watchdog has said. The National Audit Office said although the latest figures showed reported fraud was falling, the EU still had no common definition of fraud. It also expressed concern that, for the 10th year, the European Court of Auditors had qualified the EU accounts. The NAO urged the government to push for improvements in reporting fraud. It said member states needed to be more accountable on how money was spent. The report said: ""Member states still do not report fraud and other irregularities to the European Anti-Fraud Office on a consistent basis. ""As the court has now qualified its opinion on the Community accounts for a decade, it is essential for all the authorities involved to contribute to the strengthening of the audit of EU revenue and expenditure and improving accountability for the financial management and use of EU resources."" It said there were 922 cases of reported fraud or irregularities in EU funds in the UK in 2003, worth £38.5m (52m euros), up from 831 cases worth £35.7m in 2002. At the same time, reported fraud throughout the EU dropped from 10,276 cases worth £808m to 8,177 cases worth £644m. Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said Britain had to set an example when it assumed the EU presidency. ""Any fraud in other member states is potentially fraud against the UK taxpayer, given that we are the second largest net contributor to the Community,"" he said. ""Departments responsible for administering EU funds need to make sure that they're doing everything possible to weed out improper spending. ""The government must take the opportunity afforded by the UK presidency of the EU to press the Commission and other member states to take an equally robust stance against fraud and irregularity, and raise overall standards of financial management."" A spokesman for the European Anti-Fraud Office said the organisation agreed with the NAO's assessment of fraud reporting. ""The quality of reporting does differ from member state to member state, and there is room for improvement,"" spokesman Jorg Wojahn said. He added that there is generally good co-operation with member states and the anti-fraud office on specific cases of fraud, with the statistics studied by NAO providing a ""good overview for planning strategic ways of detecting fraud""." +politics,"'More to do' on adult literacy The government will only hit its target for improving adult maths and literacy skills if courses are made more attractive, a report says. The National Audit Office praised ministers for reaching the benchmark of 750,000 adults in England gaining basic qualifications by this year. But a target of 1.5 million more by 2010 needed ""creative"" ideas. Some 26 million adults lack maths or English skill levels expected of school-leavers. According to the report, ""more than half"" the qualifications achieved were by learners aged 16 to 18. These are defined as ""adults"" by the government for the purpose of compiling these figures. Normally adults are defined as being aged over 19. The number of these people gaining qualifications was ""rising slowly"". Auditor General Sir John Bourn said: ""Higher levels of literacy and numeracy will benefit England both socially and economically. ""More people will have the opportunity to live richer lives."" In 2001, the government launched the Get On scheme - aimed at reducing illiteracy and innumeracy. Sir John said ""substantial progress"" had been made since, adding that this was ""only the beginning"". The government and its partners would ""need to be creative and responsive"". Some £3.7bn will be spent on implementing the programme by 2006. The report recommends gathering more details on the educational needs of areas, so courses can be set to meet local demand. Existing adult learners could use their ""enthusiasm, commitment and local knowledge"" to attract other people. The Department for Education and Skills could also use more ""personalised learning"" and work with voluntary groups, councils and employers. It should also assess adult learners' progress ""at frequent intervals"", the report adds. When the government announced it had reached its 2004 target earlier this month, Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was ""only the start of the journey"". An estimated 5.2 million adults have worse literacy than that expected of 11 year olds, while 14.9 million have numeracy skills below this level. This is thought to cost the UK economy hundreds of millions of pounds each year. The qualifications achieved by those taking part in the government's scheme range up to GCSE equivalents. Get On's participation target has been set at 2.25 million by 2010, with an interim figure of 1.5 million by 2007. Education minister Ivan Lewis said: ""We will continue to use creative ways of involving people with the lowest skill levels and the report shows that our efforts are gathering pace."" Shadow Education Secretary Tim Collins said: ""This is the third report in two days to highlight Labour's failure to ensure young people acquire the necessary levels of literacy and numeracy for their working life. ""Employers and business leaders have repeatedly voiced concern over the number of school-leavers without these basic skills, but all the government have offered is more talk."" Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis added: ""Far too little has been done to enable adult learners to fit learning into their busy lives.""" +politics,"Lawyer attacks anti-terror laws A senior barrister who has resigned in protest over the government's anti-terror laws says the current system is giving Britain a bad name. Ian MacDonald QC quit when the government failed to recognise a House of Lords ruling that detaining terror suspects indefinitely is unlawful. He was part of a 19-strong panel who have special security clearance to act for suspected terrorists. Five more barristers are now reported to be threatening to resign. Mr MacDonald told BBC News: ""The reason why I am resigning is because I fundamentally disagree with locking people up without any trial for an indefinite period on reasonable suspicion. ""The current legal system is certainly having a very adverse effect on the Muslim community in Britain and the whole Asian community. ""I think it is giving Britain a bad name internationally"". Under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act introduced by the government in 2001 in response to the 11 September attacks, foreign nationals suspected of involvement in terrorism who cannot be deported can be held indefinitely without trial. But Mr MacDonald believes that detainees currently being held should be entitled to a trial by jury. ""My own view is we need to have a full return to trial by jury, a proper criminal trial with proper accusations. ""As far as I'm concerned, the government have to start all over again and rethink their whole strategy for dealing with this."" he added. The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith will receive a letter of resignation from Mr MacDonald on Monday. According to the Independent, his resignation is expected to be followed by those of five other barristers - Nicholas Blake QC, Andrew Nicol QC, Manjit Singh Gill QC, Rick Scannell and Tom de la Mare. They are all believed to be carefully considering their positions on the panel of Special Advocates who represent detainees before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) - a secure court without a jury, which tries terror suspects. Mr MacDonald said he had ""no idea"" whether further resignations would follow. But Barry Hugill, a spokesman for the campaign group Liberty, told Radio 4's Today programme that more lawyers may go. ""I can assure that there is a distinct possibilty that more lawyers may be resigning,"" he said. ""They are now in a situation where everything they have been trained to believe in, the right to trial by jury, has been abandoned and that is what gives some of them sleepless nights."" Helena Kennedy, a Labour peer and a human rights lawyer, said the Special Advocates' main concern was that once they had seen any special intelligence they were not allowed to speak to the detainees. ""When this whole procedure was being considered immediately after 11 September there was a great deal of argument particularly in the House of Lords about whether there really was a process that could be considered a judicial review,"" she said. ""Without that you are having detention with no habeus corpus and really a blot, as Ian McDonald has said, on our legal landscape, something really quite shocking with regard to the rule of the law.""" +politics,"Tories unveil quango blitz plans Plans to abolish 162 quangos have been unveiled by the Conservatives as part of their effort to show how government red tape can be cut. Six government units would also be scrapped under proposals which the Tories say would save more than £4.3bn. Among the targets are strategic health authorities and the new fair access regulator for universities. Tory frontbencher John Redwood said Britain needed a slimmer government and lower taxes to be competitive. The plans would abolish regional assemblies and other regional bodies, such as boards tackling industrial development and housing. Their powers would be returned to elected local councils or national government. The Tories say the strategic health authorities are not needed as it is better that local people, rather than officials, run hospitals and surgeries. Announcing the plans, Mr Redwood said: ""Mr Blair has forgotten the interests of taxpayers, and has broken the pledges he made. ""Far from improving public services, spending taxpayers' money on quangos has led only to more bureaucrats, more regulation and higher taxes."" His party leader, Michael Howard, argued a change in direction was needed to get a grip on spending. ""Labour are creating Two Britains: the Britain of the forgotten majority and bureaucratic Britain,"" he said. ""In the real world, people are working harder just to stand still. They've seen their pensions knocked for six. ""They're being squeezed by extra taxes. The forgotten majority are paying the price of bureaucratic Britain."" The government has announced plans to cut 100,000 civil servants as part of its efficiency drive. The Liberal Democrats have said they would cut the number of Whitehall departments to make sure money reaches frontline services." +politics,"Kennedy predicts bigger turnout Voters' ""pent up passion"" could confound predictions of a low turnout in the coming general election, Charles Kennedy has said. The Liberal Democrat leader predicted concerns over Iraq and other international and domestic issue would express themselves during the campaign. His comments come as an inquiry looks at how best to boost voter turnouts. Ex-foreign secretary Robin Cook said people were not apathetic but fed up of ""pager politics"" and not being heard. He, like Mr Kennedy, pointed to the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated against plans for the Iraq war. Mr Cook, who is giving evidence to the Power inquiry into voter turnout rates, told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme it was not fair to blame the public who were ""more interested in politics than ever before"". ""They are turned off by the way we do politics in Britain. There's a message there for politicians."" He urged politicians to avoid negative campaigning and to ""speak more from the heart"". ""We should be not so afraid to say what we stand for."" He also criticised the cult of personality politics: ""There's far too much interest in celebrities. ""Politics are in danger of becoming another branch of the celebrity industry."" The government has tried a number of things in an attempt to boost voter turnout, which fell to 59% in the last general election in 2001. This has included bringing in directly elected mayors to head local authorities and trialling postal voting." +politics,"Clarke to unveil immigration plan New controls on economic migrants and tighter border patrols will be part of government plans unveiled on Monday. Home Secretary Charles Clarke wants to introduce a points system for economic migrants and increase deportations of failed asylum seekers. Tony Blair has said people are right to be concerned about abuses of the system but there is no ""magic bullet"". The Tories say Labour is acting too late while the Lib Dems say the plans may not produce an efficient system. The government's new five-year plan is designed to show how Labour would reform immigration and asylum controls if it wins the election, expected to be held in May. Ministers deny they have been spurred into action by Tory campaigning or because the prime minister is worried too little has been done. Instead, they say the plans are part of an ""evolving"" process aimed at winning public confidence. Mr Clarke is expected to announce an end to the automatic right to settle for immigrants' families, and the introduction of fingerprinting for all visa applicants. The prime minister on Sunday said immigration would be ""toughened up"" to ensure only those immigrants with skills the UK really needs will be granted work permits. But he rejected the Tories' call for a quota on economic migrants, saying no ""arbitrary figure"" could reflect the UK's needs. Mr Blair told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: ""We should cut the number or increase it depending on the country's needs... ""The public are worried about this, they are worried rightly, because there are abuses of the immigration and asylum system."" But he defended the UK's current regime, saying all systems around the world were subject to abuse. Tory proposals to cap the number of asylum seekers and process all claims abroad would not work, argued Mr Blair. He said: ""We will not be... pretending there is some simple easy way of processing Britain's asylum seekers in some other country, because no such other country exists."" Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis said the government had failed to remove 250,000 failed asylum seekers from the UK and limits on economic migrants had been a ""shambles"". ""What we are seeing today is a rather panicky response from the government after eight years of failure,"" he said. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said Labour was right to reject the Tories' idea of quotas on asylum. But he said it was yet to be seen if Mr Clarke could deliver ""a fair and efficient asylum system""." +politics,"Howard denies split over ID cards Michael Howard has denied his shadow cabinet was split over its decision to back controversial Labour plans to introduce ID cards. The Tory leader said his front bench team had reached a ""collective view"" after holding a ""good discussion"", but admitted it was ""not an easy issue"". He had decided to support the plans as the police said they would help fight terror, crime and illegal immigration. The Lib Dems have pledged to oppose the bill when it is debated next Monday. Tory sources say senior party figures had argued vociferously against the ID card scheme. Among those reported to have serious reservations over the strategy were senior shadow cabinet members David Davis, Oliver Letwin and Tim Yeo. But Mr Howard denied Mr Yeo, his transport and environment spokesman, said the plans ""stink"". He also said he was confident shadow home secretary Mr Davis would ""set out the position very clearly"" when he stands up to debate the matter next week. Mr Howard said the police had said ID cards could ""help them foil a terror bomb plot in which people could lose their lives"". He added: ""When the police say that you have to take them seriously"". He acknowledged there were ""good libertarian arguments"" against the cards, but said the shadow Cabinet had weighed up all the ""conflicting interests"" before reaching its decision. ""I don't pretend that it is an easy decision but at the end of the day a decision has to be taken."" He also denied he was afraid of looking ""soft"" on the issue, compared to Labour. The Conservatives announced their support for the government plans on Monday evening. Sources within the party told the BBC Mr Howard had always been in favour of ID cards, and tried to introduce them when he was Home Secretary. But the Tories insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the scheme. They said they would also press Labour over whether objectives could be met and whether the Home Office would be able to deliver them. And they pledged to assess the cost effectiveness of ID cards and whether people's privacy would be properly protected. ""It is important to remember that this bill will take a decade to come into full effect,"" a spokesman said. Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten has branded the ID scheme a waste of money and ""deeply flawed"". He said: ""This has all the signs of Michael Howard overruling colleagues' concerns over ID cards."" The chairman of the Bar Council, Guy Mansfield QC warned there was a real risk that people on the ""margins of society"" would be driven into the hands of extremists. ""What is going to happen to young Asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere? They are going to be stopped. If they haven't [ID cards] they are going to be detained."" Tory ex-minister Douglas Hogg said he opposed the plans for ID cards branding them a ""regressive"" step which would intrude into the lives of ordinary citizens without any counterbalancing benefits. He predicted ultimately carrying the cards would become compulsory and that would lead to large numbers of Britain's ethnic minorities being stopped by police." +politics,"MP's shock at long lost daughter Labour MP Stephen Pound has told of his shock and his joy on learning he fathered a daughter when he was ""out of control"" during the ""wild"" 1960s. Lucy, 36, tracked down Mr Pound after her birth mother told her he was known as ""Precious"" at school. Despite being told he was a ""nutter who died at sea"" she found a reference to Mr Pound on Friends Reunited. Lucy's mother kept her pregnancy secret and had her adopted at four weeks. Mr Pound found out about it last year. That happened when Lucy wrote to his Parliamentary office saying she believed he was her father. Mr Pound, who is now married with two other teenage children, said: ""I was a nutter and I was a sailor but I wasn't dead."" He said his first reaction was to wonder if he was victim of a ""set-up"" but he then realised all the dates fitted. ""It was a pretty horrible thing with a pretty happy ending. I felt guilt in the marrow of my bones,"" said the Ealing North MP. ""I don't blame Lucy's mother. I was pretty much out of control. I was 18 when she was conceived. It was a different time - it was pretty wild."" Mr Pound says he rang Lucy as soon as he got her letter, they met up and have been in contact ever since. Describing that first meeting at London's King Cross station, he said: ""The earth went from under my feet ... We were walking across the Euston Road and I took her arm to take her across and there was an immediate connection. ""We were finishing each other sentences."" Lucy, who was adopted by a family from Essex, wants to remain anonymous for the sake of her adoptive father and her children. Mr Pound said his wife Maggie had been fully supportive and their two children Emily, 16, and Pelham, 14 were pleased to have an older sister." +politics,"Taxes must be trusted - Kennedy Public trust in taxes is breaking down because Labour and Tories are not being straight with people on the issue, Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy has said. A day ahead of the government's pre-Budget report, Mr Kennedy used a speech to say his party was facing up to ""painful economic realities"". He said the current level of taxation was about right, although he would put a new 50% tax on top earners. Other parties have accused the Lib Dems of making uncosted promises. Mr Kennedy made it clear he was determined to counter that accusation. The Lib Dems have already published what they say are the full costings for all their plans and Wednesday's speech did not announce new policies. Speaking at the Commonwealth Club, Mr Kennedy said it was critical for a political party to have economic credibility, both on what it promised and what it was expected to deliver. He said. ""Budgets have to add up. Tough choices are needed in public spending."" The Lib Dems would cut ""low priority"" spending, including the government's ID cards scheme and the Child Trust Fund. Those cutbacks would free up funds for increasing basic state pensions for over-75s, putting more police on the streets and reintroducing fee eye and dental checks, he said. The Lib Dems argue they were honest about taxes in the past by calling for a 1p rise on income tax. Now they say the only simple tax rise they want is a new 50% tax band for top earners to pay for scrapping university tuition fees, providing free personal care for elderly and disabled people and keeping local taxes down. There would also be a local income tax to replace council tax and a number of changes to environmental taxes to ensure it is the ""polluter who pays"". The Lib Dems say the Tories have only laid out possible options for cutting taxes to grab headlines while Labour has hidden most of its tax rises. Mr Kennedy said: ""That contract with the people - that the government will only tax fairly and will spend their money wisely - can only be sustained if the political parties are straightforward about their plans. ""With the stealth tax strategy of Gordon Brown, the obvious unfairness of our current tax system - especially the council tax, and the empty promises of the Conservative party on this issue - it is no wonder that trust in taxation is breaking down."" He challenged the Treasury to open up its books so the National Audit Office can report on the government's performance. Conservative co-chairman Liam Fox said: Liam Fox said ""If Charles Kennedy is serious about making his budgets add up he should start by explaining how they would fund their 100 spending commitments. ""The reality is, the Lib Dems lack the courage to tackle waste and bureaucracy, and the only people who would face 'tough choices' would be the families who would be £630 worse off a year. "" And Chancellor Gordon Brown said the Lib Dem figures did not add up. He accused the party of claiming it would spend less while across the country committing itself to spend more." +politics,"Kennedy to make temple address Charles Kennedy is set to address 2,000 people at a Hindu temple as part of an appeal to ethnic minority voters. The Liberal Democrat leader will visit the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Temple in Neasden, north west London. He will say Labour ""can no longer lay exclusive claim to the votes of Britain's ethnic minorities"". Mr Kennedy will also highlight the anger among people of ""all races"" over the Iraq war and call for a ""balanced approach"" to tackling terrorism. Saturday's speech comes days after the Lib Dems launched their ethnic minority mini-manifesto. Mr Kennedy is to tell the audience: ""Many people in Britain, of all races, cultures and religions, were angry about the way we were taken to war in Iraq. ""And they saw the principled stand the Liberal Democrats took at the time."" He will also say that the Lib Dems want to ""restore Britain's reputation on the world stage"" by fighting international poverty and climate change, and protecting human rights. Mr Kennedy will say that a ""balanced approach"" to tackling terrorism would mean ""tough measures to make Britain safe - but not at the expense of people's fundamental legal rights like has happened at Belmarsh"". He will say it also means acting through the United Nations on terrorism. Mr Kennedy held talks with Tony Blair on Friday over government plans to hold terror suspects under house arrest. He said afterwards that the Prime Minister had offered some ""movement"" to address his concerns. The plans face trouble in the Lords if Conservative and Lib Dem opposition continues." +politics,"Tory leader 'cleared' over work Scottish Conservative Party leader David McLetchie claims he has been cleared over a potential conflict of interest. The Edinburgh MSP earns up to £30,000 a year from the law firm Tods Murray, where he is a partner. Mr McLetchie said he has taken advice from Holyrood officials about what details he needs to declare. He was advised to exercise judgement to avoid the perception of a conflict and said he had done nothing wrong. As an MSP, Mr McLetchie signed a parliamentary motion questioning expansion plans for Edinburgh Airport. It then emerged Tods Murray has a client which opposes the development. Mr McLetchie then sought guidance from the standards committee to clarify his position. BBC Scotland's political correspondent Glenn Campbell said no complaint had been made against Mr McLetchie, but questions were raised about his dual role. Glenn said MSPs are advised to guard against a conflict of interests and a perception of a conflict. Mr McLetchie said: ""I'm quite clear that no conflicts of interest arise in my case, that the judgement I took has effectively been vindicated when you look at the advice that has been given to me and that these allegations are unfounded."" He said nothing had changed in respect of his work with the law firm and it was a matter he would have to discuss with the other partners at Tods Murray. ""The firm and I have a very good working relationship and we have done for the last six years,"" said Mr McLetchie. ""I don't suppose I'll be working forever as a lawyer or a politician. I deserve to retire from both, but I'm not willing to put time limits on them.""" +politics,"Brown and Blair face new rift claims For the umpteenth time, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are said to have declared all out war on each other. This time the alleged rift is over who should take the credit for the government's global aid and debt initiatives, particularly in the wake of the tsunami disaster - an issue many hoped and believed was above such things. It dominated the prime minister's monthly news conference, which saw Mr Blair start in full irritation mode as he was forced to bat away question after question about his relationship with his neighbour. As he told journalists: ""I am not interested in what goes in and out of newspapers. There is a complete unity of purpose."" And he again heaped praise on Mr Brown saying he was doing a great job, and would continue doing it - although he would not commit to any job for Mr Brown after the election. So why did he arrange his press conference at the last moment so it coincided with Mr Brown's long-arranged keynote speech on aid and debt, he was asked? By now Mr Blair had moved from irritation mode to his barely disguised fury setting. He snapped back that the hacks knew very well what the operational reasons were for the timing of his press conference. Well, not really, as it happens. And he repeated what a great man Gordon was and how united they were, before again sneering that he took absolutely no notice of what went in and out of the newspapers, preferring to get on with the job of doing the best for the country and the world. Although in the next breath he declared: ""I get increasingly alarmed by what I read in the newspapers"" before catching himself on and quickly adding: ""In so far as I read them of course."" He probably had good reason to be alarmed because the newspapers had been full of stories about the claimed open warfare between the two men. As far as the timing of the prime minister's press conference is concerned, there are two options. The first is that it was a calculated attempt to upstage the chancellor and seize back the initiative on the big issue of the moment. If that is the case it suggests that even the fear of seriously negative newspaper headlines is not enough to stop the squabbling. The second option is that it was an unavoidable coincidence, which would suggest the government has lost its once-famed ability to strictly co-ordinate announcements - through the infamous Downing Street grid - to avert just such allegations. Either way, the effect was the same - to overshadow the big announcements of government policy on a hugely pertinent issue. And there had been previous suggestions that the new year had started with a fresh outbreak of the warfare between the two men. Firstly, the prime minister insisted on Wednesday that he had been intimately involved in the development of the proposals to get G8 countries to freeze debt repayments from the tsunami-hit countries. It was claimed he had been embarrassed by the fact that Gordon Brown appeared to have taken the initiative over the government's response to the disaster while Mr Blair was still on holiday in Egypt. Then, as if to pour fuel on the flames, both men separately spoke about working on tsunami or wider aid and development policy with their cabinet colleagues Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Aid minister Hilary Benn and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott - without mentioning the other. All this came amid fresh claims that Mr Brown was still seething that he had been excluded from a prominent role in general election planning and had, as a result, started to set out his own platform. The fact that he used an article in the Guardian newspaper to set out what he believed ""should"" be in the manifesto, has embarked on a mini tour of Britain to set out his aid plans and will next week visit Africa on the same mission - often seen as the prime minister's ""turf"" - has only added to the impression of rival camps operating entirely independently of each other. The prime minister denied all that as well, repeating his insistence that it was inconceivable the economy and the chancellor would not be at the centre of the election campaign. But the big fear with many on the Labour benches now is that, unless a lid can be put on the speculation over the rivalry, it may even threaten to undermine the election campaign itself." +politics,"Child access laws shake-up Parents who refuse to allow former partners contact with their children could be electronically tagged under plans being considered by ministers. Curfews and community service orders were other options which could be used if court orders to allow parental access were defied, Lord Falconer said. The constitutional affairs secretary outlined some of the plans on Tuesday. He denied fathers' activists had forced the changes, telling the BBC ""there is a recognition that something is wrong"". Between 15,000 and 20,000 couples go to court to resolve access disputes each year, although in nine out of 10 separations there is no court intervention. Lord Falconer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he hoped voluntary mediation could help solve disputes before they reached court. But he opposed compulsory mediation, saying that it would lead to many people taking part with the wrong attitude. Other plans include: - Parenting plans to give advice on access arrangements, based on real-life examples that have worked in the past - Extending in-court conciliation - more informal hearings before contested court cases - Better access to legal, emotional and practical advice by telephone and internet - Legal aid changes to give incentives for early resolution of disputes. Judges can already jail parents who breach contact orders but that was a ""nuclear option"" which was rarely used as it was not seen as being in the child's interests, a spokesman said. The aim of the new legislation was to provide a ""medium range"" of penalties, such as fines, community service orders, compulsory anger management or parenting classes or curfews. Failure to comply with these measures could result in offenders being electronically tagged. On the possibility of tagging uncooperative parents, Lord Falconer said: ""Tagging may be going too far, but let's have a debate about that."" Full details of the new powers will not be revealed until a bill is published ""in the next two weeks,"" a spokesman said. The government's proposals have met with disapproval from fathers' rights groups. John Ison, from the controversial group Fathers 4 Justice, said: ""It is very disappointing. What we have got is a cynical case of recycling existing legislation."" Jim Parton, from Families Need Fathers, said the new proposals ""lacked compulsion"". ""We would like to see couples develop a plan and then have it as a source of a court order - then you know where you stand, you know what the minimum access is. ""Otherwise, you see people make agreements which then fall apart."" Mr Parton said he had been told by Children's Minister Margaret Hodge there was not enough time to pass the bill through parliament before the general election, which is likely to take place in May. The Conservatives have called for an equal split between parents on access to be made law. Theresa May, shadow secretary for the family, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the government's plans were ""inadequate"" and were ""papering over the cracks of the current system"". She said a Conservative government would bring a ""radical reform"" of the family courts, as well as enforcing a ""legal presumption of co-parenting and compulsory mediation"". ""We want to make courts the last resort, rather than the first resort,"" she added. The government says children cannot simply be divided up ""like property"" when a marriage collapses. The Liberal Democrats have argued for flexibility in deciding access rules, rather than having ""rigid targets""." +politics,"Muslims discuss election concerns Issues that Muslims should be considering before voting in the next general election are to be debated by UK community representatives. The event is being held by the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), which believes Muslim voters could influence the result in up to 50 constituencies. Last year MAB, which opposed the war in Iraq, urged Muslims not to vote for Labour in the European elections. But a spokesman stressed the meeting was ""not necessarily anti-Labour"". ""This meeting is not anti-party in particular, it's anti-policy, it's on the issues we are going to ask Muslims to vote on,"" MAB spokesman Dr Azzam Tamimi said of Tuesday's event. ""There are issues of concern to Muslims, and Muslims generally agree on them but have not in the past been aware of how a vote can serve these issues."" Dr Tamimi said the main issues Muslims should consider were what he referred to as the war on Iraq, the Palestinian situation, the erosion of civil liberties for Muslims in the UK and economic, social and education problems. Approximately 1.1m of the UK's 1.6m Muslims are of voting age. Previous election research has shown the overwhelming majority have traditionally voted Labour, but more recent studies have suggested Labour support has been falling away significantly among some Muslim voters. Anger over the war in Iraq has appeared to be the main reason, with many saying it was ""unjustified"". Representatives from a number of Muslim organisations will attend Tuesday's event. Among them will be the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). The chairman of the MCB's public affairs committee, Sher Khan, said the war in Iraq would be a ""significant factor"" affecting Muslims' voting intentions. ""I think it's going to be quite significant because of the number of seats in which they could have an impact,"" Mr Khan said. However, Professor John Curtice, of the University of Strathclyde, is sceptical about how much difference tactical voting by Muslims could make. ""For the most part the Labour constituencies where there's a large Muslim community are relatively safe, but there are one or two that are not quite so safe,"" Professor Curtice said. The constituencies where Labour was most at risk from a Muslim tactical vote were Bethnal Green, in east London, and Rochdale in Lancashire, he added. In Bethnal Green, former Labour MP George Galloway, who founded the anti-war party Respect, is standing against sitting MP Oona King, who had a 10,000-vote majority in 2001. In Rochdale, the Liberal Democrats - the mainstream party a 2004 ICM survey showed was benefiting most from Muslim disaffection with Labour - secured second place in the 2001 election, securing just under 6,000 votes fewer than Labour's Lorna Fitzsimons. But Professor Curtice said the Muslim anti-war vote could be split between the Liberal Democrats and Respect, meaning neither would benefit much at the ballot box. ""Ironically the Tories might be the beneficiaries if Labour does lose seats, which is generally the case,"" he said. But Dr Tamimi said MAB's intention was not to ""empower"" the Tories. ""We know the next government will be Labour, but we are aiming to send a message that it will make a difference if the Muslims use their vote properly. ""If the next Labour government has a reduced majority that's a great achievement because having a very big majority has been very harmful for politics in this country,"" Dr Tamimi said." +politics,"Labour plans maternity pay rise Maternity pay for new mothers is to rise by £1,400 as part of new proposals announced by the Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt. It would mean paid leave would be increased to nine months by 2007, Ms Hewitt told GMTV's Sunday programme. Other plans include letting maternity pay be given to fathers and extending rights to parents of older children. The Tories dismissed the maternity pay plan as ""desperate"", while the Liberal Democrats said it was misdirected. Ms Hewitt said: ""We have already doubled the length of maternity pay, it was 13 weeks when we were elected, we have already taken it up to 26 weeks. ""We are going to extend the pay to nine months by 2007 and the aim is to get it right up to the full 12 months by the end of the next Parliament."" She said new mothers were already entitled to 12 months leave, but that many women could not take it as only six of those months were paid. ""We have made a firm commitment. We will definitely extend the maternity pay, from the six months where it now is to nine months, that's the extra £1,400."" She said ministers would consult on other proposals that could see fathers being allowed to take some of their partner's maternity pay or leave period, or extending the rights of flexible working to carers or parents of older children. The Shadow Secretary of State for the Family, Theresa May, said: ""These plans were announced by Gordon Brown in his pre-budget review in December and Tony Blair is now recycling it in his desperate bid to win back women voters."" She said the Conservatives would announce their proposals closer to the General Election. Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for women Sandra Gidley said: ""While mothers would welcome any extra maternity pay the Liberal Democrats feel this money is being misdirected."" She said her party would boost maternity pay in the first six months to allow more women to stay at home in that time. Ms Hewitt also stressed the plans would be paid for by taxpayers, not employers. But David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, warned that many small firms could be ""crippled"" by the move. ""While the majority of any salary costs may be covered by the government's statutory pay, recruitment costs, advertising costs, retraining costs and the strain on the company will not be,"" he said. Further details of the government's plans will be outlined on Monday. New mothers are currently entitled to 90% of average earnings for the first six weeks after giving birth, followed by £102.80 a week until the baby is six months old." +politics,"Brown outlines third term vision Gordon Brown has outlined what he thinks should be the key themes of New Labour's next general election bid. He said ensuring every child in Britain had the best start in life could be a legacy to match the NHS's creation. The chancellor has previously planned the party's election strategy but this time the role will be filled by Alan Milburn - a key ally of Tony Blair. The premier insisted Mr Brown will have a key role in Labour's campaign, and praised his handling of the economy. Writing in the Guardian newspaper, Mr Brown outlined his view of the direction New Labour should be taking. ""As our manifesto and our programme for the coming decade should make clear, Labour's ambition is not simply tackling idleness but delivering full employment; not just attacking ignorance, disease and squalor but promoting lifelong education, good health and sustainable communities."" BBC political editor Andrew Marr said that Mr Brown's article was ""a warning shot"" to Mr Blair not to try and cut him out of the manifesto writing process. ""It was, as always, coded and careful... but entirely deliberate,"" was Mr Marr's assessment. The prime minister was asked about Mr Brown's article and about his election role when he appeared on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Mr Blair said a decision had yet to be taken over how the election would be run but the chancellor's role would be ""central"". Mr Blair argued that under New Labour the country had changed for the better and that was ""in part"" because of Mr Brown's management of the economy. And he pledged childcare would be a ""centrepiece"" of Labour's manifesto. He also predicted the next general election will be a ""tough, tough fight"" for New Labour. But the prime minister insisted he did not know what date the poll would take place despite speculation about 5 May. Mr Blair said he was taking ""nothing for granted"" ahead of the vote - warning that the Tory strategy was to win power via the back door by hinting they were aiming to cut Labour's majority instead of hoping for an outright win." +politics,"Women MPs reveal sexist taunts Women MPs endure ""shocking"" levels of sexist abuse at the hands of their male counterparts, a new study shows. Male MPs pretended to juggle imaginary breasts and jeered ""melons"" as women made Commons speeches, researchers from Birkbeck College were told. Labour's Yvette Cooper said she found it hard to persuade Commons officials she was a minister and not a secretary. Some 83 MPs gave their answers in 100 hours of taped interviews for the study ""Whose Secretary are You, minister"". The research team, under Professor Joni Lovenduski, had set out to look at the achievements and experiences of women at Westminster. But what emerged was complaints from MPs of all parties of sexist barracking in the Chamber, sexist insults and patronising assumptions about their abilities. Barbara Follet, one of the so-called ""Blair Babes"" elected in 1997, told researchers: ""I remember some Conservatives - whenever a Labour woman got up to speak they would take their breasts - imaginary breasts - in their hands and wiggle them and say 'melons' as we spoke."" Former Liberal Democrat MP Jackie Ballard recalled a stream of remarks from a leading MP on topics such as women's legs or their sexual persuasion. And ex-Tory education secretary Gillian Shepherd remembered how one of her male colleagues called all women ""Betty"". ""When I said, 'Look you know my name isn't Betty', he said, 'ah but you're all the same, so I call you all Betty'."" Harriet Harman told researchers of the sheer hostility prompted by her advancement to the Cabinet: ""Well, you've only succeeded because you're a woman."" Another current member of the Cabinet says she was told: ""Oh, you've had a very fast rise, who have you been sleeping with?"" Even after the great influx of women MPs at the 1997 general election, and greater numbers of women in the Cabinet, female MPs often say they feel stuck on the edge of a male world. Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather, the most recent female MP to be elected, told researchers: ""Lots of people say it's like an old boys club. ""I've always said to me it feels more like a teenage public school - you know a public school full of teenagers."" Prof Joni Lovenduski, who conducted the study with the help of Margaret Moran MP and a team of journalists, said she was shocked at the findings. ""We expected a bit of this but nothing like this extent. We expected to find a couple of shocking episodes."" But she said there was a difference between the experiences of women before the 1997 intake and afterwards. This was mainly because there were more women present in Parliament who were not prepared to ""put up with"" the sexist attitudes they came across, Prof Lovenduski said. But she added: ""Some women, including the women who came in 1997, received extraordinary treatment and I am not convinced that if the number of women changed back to what it was before 1997 that things would not change back. ""What I think is shocking to the general public is that these things go on in the House of Commons."" The interviews are to be placed in the British Library as a historical record." +politics,"Terror detainees win Lords appeal Detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial breaks human rights laws, the UK's highest court has ruled. In a blow to the government's anti-terror measures, the House of Lords law lords ruled by an eight to one majority in favour of appeals by nine detainees. Most of the men are being indefinitely held in Belmarsh prison, south London. The law lords said the measures were incompatible with European human rights laws. The men will stay behind bars while ministers decide how to react. The ruling creates a major problem for Charles Clarke on his first day as home secretary following David Blunkett's resignation. The Liberal Democrats say Mr Clarke should use the fact he is new to the job to take issue with a law established by his predecessor, David Blunkett. Belmarsh prison has been dubbed Britain's Guantanamo Bay by civil rights campaigners opposed to the use of emergency anti-terror laws. The detainees took their case to the House of Lords after the Court of Appeal backed the Home Office's powers to hold them without limit or charge. The government opted out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 September attacks in the US. Any foreign national suspected of links with terrorism can be detained or can opt to be deported. However those detained cannot be deported if this would mean persecution in their homeland. On Thursday, senior law lord Lord Bingham said the rules were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights as they allowed detentions ""in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status"". Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, in his ruling, said: ""Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law. ""It deprives the detained person of the protection a criminal trial is intended to afford."" He said the weakness for the government's case was that it was trying to justify detention without trial for foreign suspects - but not for British suspects. Lord Hoffmann said: ""The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these."" But Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, the one law lord to oppose the appeal, said the anti-terror laws contained important safeguards against oppression. In a statement, detainee 'A' in Woodhill Prison said: ""I hope now that the government will act upon this decision, scrap this illegal 'law' and release me and the other internees to return to our families and loved ones."" The case was heard by a panel of nine law lords rather than the usual five because of the constitutional importance of the case. Ben Emmerson QC, representing seven of the detainees, said the men had already been in custody for nearly three years. He said they had been given no idea when, if ever, they would be released, had never been formally interviewed and there was no prospect they would ever be put on trial. When the men were first held, they took their cases to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC). The commission ruled on 30 July, 2002 that the anti-terror act unjustifiably discriminated against foreign nationals as British people could not be held in the same way. But that ruling was later overturned by the Court of Appeal who said there was a state of emergency threatening the life of the nation." +politics,"No election TV debate, says Blair Tony Blair has said he will not take part in a TV debate with his political rivals ahead of the next election. ""We answer this every election campaign and, for the reasons I have given before, the answer is no,"" he said at his monthly news conference. In October Tory leader Michael Howard said Mr Blair would be running scared if he refused calls to go head-to-head. In recent years the leader of the opposition has always called for a debate, although it has never happened. Before the 2001 election, plans for a debate between Mr Blair, William Hague and Charles Kennedy collapsed. In 1997 a debate between Mr Blair and John Major was also cancelled when a format could not be agreed. Televised debates have become the high point of the US presidential election campaigns." +politics,"Howard taunts Blair over splits Tony Blair's feud with Gordon Brown is damaging the way the UK is governed, Tory leader Michael Howard has claimed in a heated prime minister's questions. Mr Howard asked: ""How can they fight crime when they are fighting each other?"" That question was later unveiled as the headline for new Tory campaign posters. But Mr Blair dismissed the talk of splits and said people's priorities at the next elections would be on the economic successes achieved by Labour. ""He can stick up whatever he likes on billboards about something in a book but what the public will concentrate on are the low mortgages, low inflation, low unemployment that we delivered and that he failed to,"" he said. The chancellor is currently on a high-profile tour of Africa to highlight new anti-poverty plans. But before doing so, he insisted he still trusted Mr Blair, despite claims to the contrary in a new book. Brown's Britain, by Robert Peston, says there is mutual animosity between the two men. It claims Mr Blair said in November 2003 he would stand down as prime minister before the next election. But he went back on his pledge after support from Cabinet allies and suspicion that Mr Brown was manoeuvring against him, it says. Mr Peston's book claimed that Mr Brown told Mr Blair: ""There is nothing you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe."" Mr Blair directly denied that quote on Wednesday. He again insisted there could be no deals about the premiership but twice declined directly to say whether or not he had offered to quit. The Tory leader countered that such agreements had been struck twice at dinners with the chancellor. He declared: ""He is the deals on meals prime minister. No wonder the chancellor is not a happy eater."" He continued: ""How can there be discipline in schools when there is no discipline in government, how can they clean up our hospitals when they don't clean up their act?"" Mr Blair said he would not respond to ""tittle tattle in books"" and promised to hail Labour's record on the economy, waiting lists and law and order ""from now until polling day"". Later at their poster launch Tory co-chairman Liam Fox said his party would exploit opportunities to show how ""juvenile"" the prime minister and chancellor were. Labour staged a show of unity at its own poster launch on Tuesday, where Mr Brown was joined by Alan Milburn, who Mr Blair controversially put in charge of election planning in place of the chancellor. But Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy told BBC News: ""The government is clearly split at the top. This kind of cosmetic exercise does not persuade anybody."" Later this week Mr Blair is expected to outline the direction of his party's next election manifesto. The prime minister and chancellor faced backbench discontent at Monday's meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party over claims made Mr Peston's book." +politics,"Mandelson warns BBC on Campbell The BBC should steer away from ""demonising"" ex-Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson has said. The European commissioner and former Labour minister was speaking amid claims that Mr Campbell is part of a Labour ""dirty tricks"" campaign. That charge was denied by Mr Mandelson, who said the Tories were afraid of Mr Campbell's campaigning skills. He warned the BBC that attacking Mr Campbell had brought it trouble before. That was a reference to the Hutton inquiry following a BBC story claiming Downing Street ""sexed up"" Iraq's weapons of mass destruction dossier. The affair prompted the resignation of BBC chairman Gavyn Davies, director-general Greg Dyke and reporter Andrew Gilligan. Labour has attracted media criticism for using new freedom of information laws to dig up information about Tory leader Michael Howard's past. Mr Mandelson, a former Labour communications director, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""I understand why the Tories will be gunning for Alastair Campbell because they fear his campaigning skills. ""What I understand less is why the BBC should be joining with the Tories in driving that agenda. ""In my experience of these things, parties which shout about dirty tricks and the like tend to do so because they fear a direct hit in some vulnerable part of their political anatomy. ""I suggest the BBC concentrates on the issues and helps the public to understand the policies and the choices that are at stake in the election rather than engages in the process politics, the trivialisation of the campaign. ""I think the BBC would be much better advised to leave all this stuff well alone, concentrate on the issues as I say, not resume their demonisation of Alastair Campbell - we all know where that led before."" Mr Campbell is acting as an adviser for Labour, which denies engaging in personal campaigning. Conservative co-chairman Liam Fox said Mr Campbell's return and Labour poster plans attacking Mr Howard - recently withdrawn from the party's website - were a sign of ""abusive politics"". ""The government, despite the fact that they would say want to go forward, not back, seem intent on talking about history rather than their own record or even more importantly, about the future,"" he said on Sunday. Labour peer Baroness Kennedy, who is chairing the Power Inquiry into political disengagement, said people already thought politicians engaged in dirty tricks. ""This feeling of distrust is going to be enlarged if this campaigning on all sides is conducted in the way that it looks as if it just might,"" she said." +politics,"'Hitler' row over Welsh arts cash An artist critical of Welsh arts funding being brought under assembly government control has denied comparing the idea with dictatorships in Russia and Germany. Shani Rhys James is worried that the Arts Council of Wales may be taken over by the Welsh Assembly Government. Culture Minister Alun Pugh said it would be ""crass and ignorant"" to liken a quango review to Hitler's Germany. But Ms James emphasised she had actually said artists needed freedom. The future of the Arts Council of Wales has been in question since it was announced that most Welsh quangos would eventually be abolished. It was announced last July that three Welsh quangos, education and training body Elwa, the Wales Tourist Board and the Welsh Development Agency, would be brought under assembly government control. The Arts Council of Wales may be among the next to come under the assembly government's umbrella. But Ms James, who won the £30,000 Jerwood painting prize in 2003, said arts funding should be separate from government. Ms James told BBC Radio Wales: ""It's quite dangerous when you involve politicians because it's not like the health service and it's not like the railways. ""Free expression is absolutely vital in a democratic society. You need distance, you do not need government interference because it could be taken the wrong way."" But she said reports that she had likened the assembly government to totalitarian regimes were inaccurate. She told Good Morning Wales: ""Just to put the record straight, that business in the paper where it said I likened the government to Bolshevik Russia or Hitler's Germany, the actual quote I gave was: 'It is vital to a civilised society that we allow artists to express themselves without government control'. ""As we know from past European history, i.e. Russia and Germany in the early 20th Century, artists will go underground or leave the country or rather than compromise their expression'. ""Artists need a free voice to express themselves - they reflect a truth through their own art forms.'"" She said the assembly government was not best placed to run the arts in Wales. She added: ""It would be a momentous change and devastating to the arts. It would set the arts scene back 60 years, because I really don't think the government has the expertise. ""If you have the National Assembly taking control, I fear you are going to be going back to the dragons and leeks and the choirs. ""Wales has moved on. It is international now. It is not set back in How Green Was My Valley?"" Responding to Ms James' criticisms, Mr Pugh said: ""The structure of unelected quangos is under review and we have made it clear that further announcements are due shortly. ""Comparing the Welsh Assembly Government to Hitler's Germany is a crass and ignorant response to a real issue about democratic accountability."" Ms James, whose father was Welsh, was born in Melbourne where her parents worked in the theatre. She moved to Powys nearly 20 years ago where she works from her studio near Llangadfan. She has won a number of arts prizes including the Wales Open in 1989 and the Mostyn Open in 1991." +politics,"Blair returns from peace mission Prime Minister Tony Blair has arrived back from his diplomatic mission to the Middle East to try to resurrect the peace process. Mr Blair held talks with his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, and the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas. He confirmed that a renewed drive to reform the Palestinian Authority and address security issues would come at a London conference in March. Mr Blair also made a surprise trip to Iraq this week. The Israelis described the meeting as important but said they would not need to attend. Mr Blair briefly visited the tomb of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah - the first world leader to do so. He nodded briefly towards the tomb, rather than lay a wreath, in what Palestinian officials said was a compromise gesture agreed at the last minute. The BBC's Paul Reynolds says the London conference will be a limited measure to shore up the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, who is expected to win the Palestinian presidential election on 9 January. At a news conference following talks with Mr Blair, Mr Abbas said the British prime minister was ""in a unique position to help us progress in our peaceful pursuit"". He added: ""Your endeavour to hold a conference in London is another example of your deep commitment to this purpose."" In an interview with the BBC's political editor Andrew Marr, Mr Blair said getting progress between Israelis and Palestinians would be ""tough, but at least we have got the first step"". Mr Blair acknowledged some people believed he was too close to the Israelis, but said the Israelis were entitled to expect Palestinians to give up terrorism. He argued that Mr Sharon was committed to the internationally-agreed roadmap peace plan and said his bid to disengage from Gaza had to be part of the peace process, not the end of it. Earlier, Mr Sharon again said he had not seen ""the slightest step"" the Palestinians were working to end terror attacks - though he acknowledged Palestinian leaders were in the middle of an election campaign that could be hampering their efforts. Before visiting Israel, Mr Blair made a surprise visit to Iraq, where he met leaders in Baghdad during his first trip to the city. He was briefed on preparations for the national poll, which is scheduled for next month but is threatened by a deadly campaign of insurgent violence. He also flew to Basra in southern Iraq where British forces are stationed." +politics,"Probe launched on Ken Nazi jibe An investigation by the Standards Board is under way following allegations that Ken Livingstone has brought his office into disrepute. The probe follows the London mayor's comments to a Jewish journalist comparing him to a concentration camp guard, after a party about a week ago. The local government watchdog also said the allegation related to a failure to respect others. It has the power to suspend or bar Labour's Mr Livingstone from office. A complaint was made to the body by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Commission for Racial Equality. Speaking after the investigation was announced Bob Neill, leader of the London Assembly Conservatives, said: ""He has behaved in a manner unbecoming of his office and in so doing, has shown extraordinarily poor civic leadership. ""His administration is now in crisis."" On Sunday, Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron told the BBC's Politics Show she believed the Mayor of London would say sorry on Tuesday for offending the wider Jewish community. The Prime Minister Tony Blair is among those who have called for an apology but so far the mayor has refused. The mayor accused Oliver Finegold, of the Evening Standard newspaper, of ""doorstepping"" him at a ""predominately gay event"" held for MP Chris Smith. Ms Gavron said she thought Mr Livingstone's comments were ""inappropriate"" but she did not believe the mayor was anti-Semitic. She said: ""I work very closely with Ken so I can speak of what he's like in his guarded and unguarded moments and... he is in no way anti-Jewish, I wouldn't for a moment work with him if he were. ""On the other hand, I think his remarks were inappropriate and I believe it is important, and I believe he will, come to the point where he says, 'I regret that I have caused offence to the wider Jewish community'. ""I hope he will do it soon and it is mooted that he is going to make some sort of statement on Tuesday.""" +politics,"Immigration to be election issue Immigration and asylum have normally been issues politicians from the big parties have tiptoed around at election time. But no longer. Both Labour and the Tories have signalled their intention of making them central to their election campaigns. They have been struck by the level of concern amongst voters about the issues, with internal surveys showing they have the potential to swing large numbers of votes. That was also true at the last general election and the issue did briefly become a campaigning issue. But it sparked the probably predictable furore with claims politicians were either stoking up xenophobia or, alternatively, running scared of addressing the problem. But this time around it looks set to be one of the core battlegrounds with both the big parties competing to set out tough policies. The Tories are already committed to imposing annual limits on immigration, with a quota for asylum seekers and with applications processed outside the UK. Labour has already branded the proposal unworkable but party strategists have seen the Tories seizing a poll advantage over the issue. Now Home Secretary Charles Clarke has come up with alternative proposals for a points system to ensure only immigrants who can benefit the economy will be granted entry, and to kick out more failed asylum seekers. That has been attacked by the Tories as too little, too late and for failing to tackle the key issue of the numbers entering the UK. The Liberal Democrats have not been drawn too deeply into the argument but have called for a Europe-wide policy on immigration. But, while all the parties appear to agree the time has come to properly debate and address the issue, there are already signs they will run into precisely the same problems as before. Former union leader Sir Bill Morris has already accused both the big parties of engaging in a ""bidding war about who can be nastiest to asylum seekers"". ""My concern is that, whilst the Labour Party and the Conservative Party will take a constructive approach to the debate, right-wing political parties, picking up on statements like `burden to Britain' will exploit this and create a lot of fear and uncertainty"". It is precisely that concern - and the possible suggestion the issue is playing to the far right's racist agenda - that will provoke strong reactions from many concerned with this issue. The challenge for the big parties is to ensure they can engage in the debate during the cut and thrust of a general election while also avoiding that trap." +politics,"Blair 'said he would stand down' Tony Blair promised Gordon Brown he would stand down before the next election, a new book about the chancellor claims. But the prime minister changed his mind following intervention from allies in the Cabinet, according to the book. The book by Sunday Telegraph journalist Robert Peston said the pair had ""mutual animosity and contempt"" for each other. The book, Brown's Britain, said Tony Blair felt by November 2003 he had lost voters' trust. The author's sources, all unnamed ""allies"" of Mr Blair and Mr Brown, said the prime minister felt the Iraq war had undermined him and that he was no longer an asset to the Labour Party. The book, serialised in the Sunday Telegraph, alleges that Mr Blair told the chancellor at a dinner hosted by deputy PM John Prescott in November 2003 of his intention to stand down. ""At that stage he saw Gordon Brown and said, 'look you are the next most influential member of the government, I need your help to get through the next year,"" Mr Peston said. ""I myself recognise that I'm going to have to stand down before the election but help me to get through the year and I will then stand down.'"" But he changed his mind in June 2004, following intervention from allies in the Cabinet and the suspicion that the chancellor was deliberately manoeuvring against him, the book claims. Mr Peston told BBC News: ""My understanding is that they are not nearly as close or as friendly as they once were. ""What the book says is there now a pretty profound mutual mistrust, mutual animosity. ""I think in public you see this double act pretending everything is alright but in private I don't think the relationship is good because Brown, understandably, feels deeply betrayed - particularly over this issue of the leadership."" There has been fresh speculation of a rift recently, following their separate responses to the Asian tsunami. Rumours of a rift were fuelled by the sudden decision to hold Mr Blair's monthly media conference at the same time as a long-planned speech by Mr Brown on UK plans to tackle global poverty with a new ""Marshall Plan"" for Africa. There was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each other's response to the disaster. Former welfare minister Frank Field MP criticised the reported rivalry between the pair on GMTV's Sunday Programme. ""What sort of model does it give to the nation when the two most important political leaders do nothing but fight it out together or use their aides to fight it out?"" the Labour MP for Birkenhead asked. He said the prime minister should sack Mr Brown, but did not believe Mr Blair was strong enough to do so. Conservative policy co-ordinator David Cameron, MP for Witney, added: ""If it wasn't so serious it would be funny. ""But it is serious - you've got the two most senior people in the government not concentrating on fighting crime, poverty or dirty hospitals - they are fighting each other."" Carol Walker, BBC News 24 political correspondent, added: ""There is a real concern that this could undermine the general election campaign. ""And clearly it is very bad news for the government at a time when it is trying to explain what it is doing to respond to the terrible problems thrown up by the tsunami disaster.""" +politics,"Jowell confirms casino climbdown Tessa Jowell has announced plans to limit the number of new casinos in the UK to 24, in a move branded a ""humiliating retreat"" by the Tories. It puts an end to plans for up to 40 super casinos, originally outlined in the government's Gambling Bill. Instead there will be a cap of eight new casinos in each size category - small, medium and large. The Culture Secretary said the move showed she listened to critics who feared an explosion in gambling. But Conservative shadow culture secretary John Whittingdale said the way the government had handled the bill was a ""shambles"". ""This announcement is a further humiliating retreat by the government. ""Instead of the initial intention of the gambling bill, to liberalise the rules governing gambling, the bill now imposes a more restrictive regime than exists at present."" Shares in British casino operators London Clubs International, Rank Group and Stanley Leisure, who had been hoping the bill would pave the way for a big expansion in smaller casinos, fell by between 10 and 25% following the announcement. Ms Jowell's deputy, Richard Caborn, said the government had adopted a cautious approach to the issue, and responded to the concerns raised. ""Limiting the number of regional casinos to eight in the first phase is a cautious move that will allow us to test the impact of a new kind of casino on the levels of problem gambling,"" he said. ""We also believe it's right to apply this same level of caution to small and large casinos."" He added that local authorities would still be able to stop new casinos coming to their areas. Church groups welcomed the limit on the number of casinos. Salvation Army spokesman Jonathan Lomax said: ""The proliferation of these casinos on high streets across the country was a real concern and the [three year] trial period, which we think should last at least five years, will enable research into the potentially severe social consequences of an increase in hard and addictive forms of gambling."" But British British Casino Association Chairman Penny Cobham said her members were ""outraged"" by the decision, which followed a campaign in the Daily Mail newspaper. ""There was never going to be a massive explosion of casinos. Talk of a casino on every High Street was just a scaring tactic.""" +politics,"'No-one can define new hunt ban' The new law banning hunting with dogs is ""so poorly drafted"" no-one can define the offence, pro-hunt MPs say. The accusation came after it emerged a Devon man had been told he could use his four dogs to ""chase away unwanted animals"" from his farm. Because he did not intend to kill deer or foxes it was not hunting. Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik said ministers had invented a new category of hunting - chasing away - and asked how police were supposed to interpret the rules. North Devon landowner Giles Bradshaw was put in touch with the Middle Way Group, of which Mr Opik is a co-chairman, after he had been in contact with the rural affairs ministry, Defra. He had asked whether his technique of using his four dogs to frighten off deer and foxes would be outlawed under the Hunting Act. Mr Bradshaw was initially told it was an offence - prompting him to complain. The Middle Way group also said Mr Bradshaw would be put in a position where he would have to buy a rifle to shoot animals that would have previously gone free. In a later conversation Mr Bradshaw was told that according to Defra's lawyers chasing away unwanted animals was ""not in fact hunting as described in the Hunting Act 2004 therefore you would not be committing an offence"". Mr Opik said: ""Hunting with dogs and flushing are not defined in the Hunting Act. ""Now Defra have also invented a completely new category of hunting - 'chasing away' which isn't even covered by the Act. ""However, all these activities involve the use of dogs to chase wild mammals. ""How is the village bobby who sees a group of people with dogs supposed to distinguish between illegal hunting, exempt hunting, drag hunting, unintentional hunting, a hunt exercising hounds or simply chasing away?"" Tory MP Peter Luff, another co-chairman of Middle Way, said that the legislation was ""so poorly drafted nobody appears able to properly define the offence"". ""It is no wonder the government desperately wants to move on from this disastrous law. However, I seriously doubt the countryside will be that accommodating."" Mike Hobday, of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: ""There is no confusion, it is a matter of simple common sense. ""If Mr Bradshaw is setting his dogs to chase wild animals then he is hunting them and that will be a criminal offence. ""If all the dogs are doing is barking at the deer, then nobody can define that as hunting.""" +politics,"Schools to take part in mock poll Record numbers of schools across the UK are to take part in a mock general election backed by the government. Some 600 schools have already signed up for the Y Vote Mock Elections 2005 run by the Hansard Society and aimed at boosting interest in politics. Pupils in the schools taking part will learn the skills of speech writers, canvassers and political candidates. Schools Minister Stephen Twigg said engaging young people's interest was ""essential"" to the future of democracy. He added: said ""Young people who are engaged and motivated by the political process are essential to the future health of our democracy. ""The mock elections initiative provides an opportunity for pupils to develop their own understanding of how the democratic process works and why it matters. ""By experiencing the election process first hand - from running a campaign to the declaration of the final result - we hope that young people will develop the enthusiasm to take part in the future."" The Hansard Society, the Electoral Commission and the Department for Education and Skills are running the programme. Pupils will stand as party candidates, speech writers and canvassers. Michael Raftery, project manager at the Hansard Society, said: ""The Y Vote Mock Elections for schools mirror the excitement and buzz of a real election, raising awareness of citizenship, and the benefits of active democracy."" The mock votes will take place around 5 May, widely expected to be the date of the general election. Information packs, including ballot papers and manifesto guides, with elections happening in early May were sent out to the 3,000 schools invited to take part." +politics,"Butler launches attack on Blair Former civil service chief Lord Butler has criticised the way Tony Blair's government operates, accusing it of being obsessed with headlines. He also attacked the way the Iraq war was ""sold"" to the public, with important warnings on the strength of the intelligence left out. Tory leader Michael Howard said Lord Butler had given the ""most damaging testimony"" he could remember. But Downing Street said Mr Blair should be judged by results not his style. Lord Butler said Mr Blair bypassed the Cabinet and relied instead on small, informal groups of advisers to help him make decisions. The prime minister's official spokesman said the Cabinet was still used to achieve a consensus on important issues. But he added: ""You cannot, in a modern government, take every decision in Cabinet. It's just not possible."" Lord Butler said the government had too much freedom to ""bring in bad Bills"" and ""to do whatever it likes"" and it relied too much on the advice of political appointees. The former cabinet secretary said in an interview with The Spectator magazine: ""I would be critical of the present government in that there is too much emphasis on selling, there is too much central control and there is too little of what I would describe as reasoned deliberation which brings in all the arguments."" Mr Howard described Lord Butler's intervention as ""very important"". ""This is from someone who was an insider at the very heart of the Blair government. ""It is certainly the most damaging testimony I can ever remember from someone in such an eminent position."" Lord Butler's report earlier this year into Iraq intelligence said the government's September 2002 weapons dossier did not make clear intelligence about claims that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons was ""very thin"". The reason for this is that it would have weakened ministers' case for war, Lord Butler said in his Spectator interview, which was conducted by the magazine's editor, Conservative MP Boris Johnson. He said: ""When civil servants give material to ministers, they say these are the conclusions we've drawn, but we've got to tell you the evidence we've got is pretty thin. ""Similarly, if you are giving something to the United Nations and the country you should warn them."" Asked why he thought the warnings were not there Lord Butler said: ""One has got to remember what the purpose of the dossier was. The purpose of the dossier was to persuade the British why the government thought Iraq was a very serious threat."" When asked whether he thought the country was well-governed on the whole, he replied: ""Well. I think we are a country where we suffer very badly from Parliament not having sufficient control over the executive, and that is a very grave flaw. ""We should be breaking away from the party whip. The executive is much too free to bring in a huge number of extremely bad Bills, a huge amount of regulation and to do whatever it likes - and whatever it likes is what will get the best headlines tomorrow. ""All that is part of what is bad government in this country."" Lord Butler's assessment was backed by his predecessor as Cabinet Secretary, Lord Armstrong. Lord Armstrong told BBC Two's Newsnight: ""I agree ... there doesn't appear to be the sort of informed collective political judgement brought to bear on decision-making that those affected by decisions are entitled to expect."" Liberal Democrat deputy leader Menzies Campbell said he thought Lord Butler's comments were ""well justified"" and Mr Blair's style of leadership was ""corrosive of the whole system of government"". But Labour former minister Jack Cunningham accused Lord Butler of basing his comments on the first eight months of the incoming Labour administration, when he was cabinet secretary. Mr Cunningham told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""Taken together, Robin Butler's comments are partial, inaccurate and cannot be taken as anything other than politically biased against the Labour government.""" +politics,"Labour's core support takes stock Tony Blair has told Labour supporters he's ""back"" and still hungry for the job of prime minister - but does that sum up the mood at the party's spring conference in Gateshead? ""The electorate are keener on the government than some Labour Party members,"" is the dry assessment of Graham Lane, leader of the Labour group on Newham Council. The problem, according to Mr Lane, is not continuing divisions over Iraq, foundation hospitals or tuition fees, or even voter apathy, but Mr Blair himself. ""I have a new slogan. Vote Blair, Get Brown. That's what I am telling people on the doorstep. Don't worry, he will be gone soon."" His friend, Saxon Spence, leader of Devon county Labour group, lays the blame for any lack of campaigning zeal on one issue above all others. ""You cannot underestimate the impact of the war in Iraq. We lost people from our local party who had some key roles."" But the two friends were fired up by Gordon Brown's speech on Saturday, with its appeal to core Labour values on social justice, health and education. ""There was real passion. I think we have all felt a little jaded, but it reminded us why we joined the party in the first place,"" said Mrs Spence. ""If he hadn't have walked off the stage, they would still be clapping,"" added Mr Lane. But for every Brownite at the spring conference there was an equally ardent fan of Mr Blair. Stephen Douglas, 26, from Wales, said after the PM's speech on Sunday: ""I think it was a bit of a turning point, given the roasting he has had on some issues. The guy still has it."" Tony Martin, of Burnley, said: ""He is the first leader who has won us two terms. This bloke has delivered for us."" Malcolm Shipley, of Shipley, said it was ""as if he is coming round to the right approach again"". Katrina Bull, a prospective parliamentary candidate said Mr Blair had shown he could rouse the party's grassroots: ""I think if every voter was able to spend time in a room with Tony, the way we have today, we will have no problem with turnout."" She had just emerged from a Q&A session, in which Mr Blair - tieless and supremely at ease - answered questions posed via the party's website. A party of councillors from Nottingham agreed that there was nothing wrong with Mr Blair's leadership - and they were adamant that the campaigning strength of the party in their city was as strong as ever. Iraq, they insisted, would not be a factor for most voters. ""The biggest problem we have got at the moment is that we keep getting all these polls saying we are going to run away with the election. ""It might sound great, but it does create this sense of complacency among our own voters and I think that is the greater problem than Iraq,"" said Nottingham City Councillor Brian Parbutt. And even Mr Blair's most vocal critics seemed to agree on one thing - he is a master of the sort of glossy, high-profile campaigning that has become Labour's hallmark, epitomised by Friday's whistle-stop tour of marginal seats. A group of shop stewards from the Swan Hunter shipyard, who said they were facing redundancy, could barely suppress their anger at Mr Blair's failure to, as they saw it, shake off his Tory leanings and stand up for manufacturing in the North East. They were also scathing about the alleged benefits of showpiece projects such as conference venue Sage Centre, heralded by John Prescott and others this weekend as a symbol of Labour's success in urban regeneration. ""It is no good having the Sage or Baltic if you haven't got the money for the entrance fee,"" said Terry Telford. But when asked about Mr Blair's bravura performance on Friday, the men agreed he was ""brilliant"". And they would all be out on the doorstep pushing the Labour message come election time. ""If you are not fired up about the election, then what's the point? There is no complacency as far as I can see in the Labour Party. We are fired up. We are up for this election,"" said Richie Porterhouse. Mr Telford agreed, but added it was becoming increasingly difficult to think of an answer when people asked ""What has Labour done for the North East?"" ""I have had doors slammed in my face,"" he said. Every activist I spoke to said they were proud of what they believed Labour had achieved in their local communities - the new hospitals and schools, the better life chances for young people. The problem they faced, they said, was converting this local feelgood factor into votes. But they could at least rely on one ""secret weapon"", as one activist put it - Tory leader Michael Howard." +politics,"Anti-terror plan faces first test Plans to allow Home Secretary Charles Clarke to place terror suspects under house arrest without trial are set for their first real test in Parliament. Tories, Lib Dems and some Labour MPs are poised to vote against the plans. Mr Clarke says the powers are needed to counter terror threats. Opponents say only judges, not politicians, should be able to order detention of UK citizens. The government is expected to win Wednesday's vote in the Commons, but faces a battle in the House of Lords. The Prevention of Terrorism Bill was published on Tuesday. It proposes ""control orders"", which would mean house arrest in the most serious cases, and curfews, electronic tagging and limits on telephone and internet access for other suspects. The two opposition parties are particularly worried that the control orders would initially be imposed on the say-so of the home secretary, rather than a judge. Tory shadow home secretary David Davis warned of the potential for miscarriages of justice, like the Guildford Four - for which Tony Blair recently apologised - as a result of the pressure on politicians to lock up terror suspects. ""Those pressures would be much more for a politician than they would on a judge and that's why we have serious concerns abut that approach,"" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Mr Clarke says he does not intend to use the house arrest powers now - even for the 11 current terror detainees. He also said that any decision he made would be reviewed by a judge within seven days. The foreign terror suspects currently detained are mostly held at London's Belmarsh prison. They are held under laws which the Law Lords have ruled break human rights rules - and which are due to expire on 14 March. The new powers, designed to replace the existing laws and meet the Law Lords' concerns, would apply to British as well as foreign terror suspects. Critics say that giving politicians the power to deprive UK citizens of their freedom is the biggest attack on civil liberties for 300 years. Opposition MPs are also angry they will have only two days - Wednesday and next Monday - to debate the new plans before they pass to the House of Lords. But the government says the existing powers run out soon so must be replaced urgently. In a rare move, the Tories and Lib Dems have jointly tabled a motion opposing the new bill, saying the house arrest plans are ""excessive"". It argues decisions should be taken on a higher standard of proof and the plan ""wrongly infringes the right to liberty"" by failing to bring terrorists to trial where there is evidence. Mr Davis told Today: ""It gives a minister, for the first time in modern history, the right to detain without trial, without showing the evidence and indeed, in some respects, almost the allegation against the individual concerned."" He questioned why there was ""such a rush"" to introduce the legislation when Mr Clarke had indicated he was not planning to use the house arrest powers straight away. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""We believe it should be the judge that takes decisions, not politicians."" Mr Clarke said the security services and police backed his measures and it would be ""rash and negligent"" to ignore their advice. Nobody should doubt that terrorists at home and abroad wanted to attack the UK and its interests, he argued." +politics,"Brown hits back in Blair rift row Gordon Brown has criticised a union leader who said conflict between himself and Tony Blair was harming the workings of government. Jonathan Baume, of the top civil servants' union, spoke of ""competing agendas"" between Mr Brown and Mr Blair. But the chancellor said Mr Baume was never at meetings between himself and the prime minister so could not judge. He said the union leader was trying to block civil service reform which threatened his members' jobs. It suited the purpose of Mr Baume's union, the First Division Association, to suggest there were two agendas battling against each other because the union was trying to resist the planned reforms, Mr Brown told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Under the plans, unveiled in the Gershon report, some 84,000 civil servants jobs will be axed or changed and the savings ploughed back into frontline services. Mr Brown said: ""To be honest I don't think you can rely on his [Mr Baume's] judgement on this matter when it comes to the decisions that the government are making. ""Mr Blair and I are making exactly the same decisions on civil service reforms. We are determined to go on with the Gershon reforms."" He also said that as Mr Baume was never present at meetings between himself and the prime minister, he was not in a position to judge. On Wednesday, ahead of the Chancellor's pre-Budget report, Mr Baume told BBC News there were sometimes ""conflicting and competing agendas for government"" between Number 10 and the Treasury. What the chancellor wanted was ""not by any means what Alan Milburn and the prime minister want to see"", Mr Baume said. ""Government departments get their money from the Treasury on the basis of public service agreements they sign up to, but at the same time the prime minister also has an agenda and that's not necessarily the same as the Treasury's and the prime minister is of course a very powerful figure in any government. ""He also sends instructions and messages and directions to departments about how he would like each secretary of state and each department to implement a policy agenda. ""The problem is that on many occasions these two don't add up and individual cabinet ministers as well as departments have to make sense of this battle."" Number 10 said ministers were interested in governing and not a ""soap opera"" about Mr Blair and Mr Brown. Tory shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin said: ""The battle Royal that the top civil servants are now reporting on between the chancellor and Tony Blair is preventing them both from getting on with the business of getting taxpayers value for money.""" +politics,"Guantanamo man 'suing government' A British terror suspect held in Guantanamo Bay for 33 months plans to sue the government, it is reported. Martin Mubanga claimed in the Observer that an MI6 officer played a key role in consigning him to the US camp in Cuba, following his arrest in Zambia. Mr Mubanga, 32, from Wembley, London, said he was brutally interrogated and daubed with urine at the camp. The home secretary said he would not be launching an investigation and that the media reports were not ""well informed"". Mr Mubanga, who has dual British and Zambian nationality, was one of four Britons who were released from the US camp in January. He said he was sent there after being interrogated by a British man who said he was from MI6, shortly after his arrest in Zambia in March 2002. Mr Mubanga said he had been in Afghanistan and Pakistan to study Islam. But he said he was unable to return to the UK because he had lost his British passport, and was travelling on his Zambian passport instead. Mr Mubanga said the ""MI6 agent"" told him the passport had been found in a cave in Afghanistan along with documents listing Jewish groups in New York and suggested he had been on an al-Qaeda reconnaissance mission. Mr Mubanga said the man, and an American female defence official, tried to recruit him as an agent, but he refused and within three weeks was told he would be sent to Guantanamo Bay. His lawyer Louise Christian said: ""'We are hoping to issue proceedings for the misfeasance of officials who colluded with the Americans in effectively kidnapping him and taking him to Guantanamo."" And Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman, said it was vital to establish whether ministers approved Mr Mubanga's transfer to Guantanamo. But a Foreign Office spokesman said he could not comment on the activities of British intelligence or security agencies. And Home Secretary Charles Clarke told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost: ""I'm not organising a specific investigation into it."" Mr Mubanga is the first of the four detainees freed last month to give a media interview. He told the Observer his worst moment was when he was told he would be released last March, only to be confined and told he would be there for many more years. He claimed he was stripped of his clothes and mattress and forced to remain in an empty metal box, naked except for boxer shorts. And he said an interrogator used a mop to daub him with his own urine while he was chained hand and foot. Mr Mubanga, who insists he does not feel bitter, said: ""I've lost three years of my life, because I was a Muslim. He added: ""The authorities wanted to break me but they strengthened me. They've made me what I am - even if I'm not quite sure yet who that person is."" The US government denied the claims, saying it condemned and prohibited torture. In a statement, it said: ""The Department of Defense has no doubt that Mr Mubanga was properly detained as an enemy combatant under the laws of war. ""He was detained to prevent him from fighting against the US and our allies in the war on terror."" But Fair Trials Abroad director Stephen Jakobi said there were similarities between Mr Mubanga's account and those of other Guantanamo detainees. He said: ""The pattern is the same. The real problem is the concentration camp conditions in Guantanamo. ""Is [Charles Clarke] really pretending this is all made up?"" Mr Mubanga and the three other freed British detainees were released without charge by UK police on their return from Cuba." +politics,"At a glance: Tory health checks The UK' opposition Conservatives have unveiled plans to introduce health checks for immigrants if they win the General Election. Here's a guide to the plan: People coming to live and work in Britain from outside the EU. If they plan to stay six months or more and are from a country with lots of TB, they would have to have a chest x-ray and further tests if appropriate. All people from outside the European Union who want to stay a year or more will have to undergo a full medical. Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B and HIV. A positive test for TB would automatically mean visa applications being turned down. All other conditions would be dealt with on a case by case basis. People would have to prove they have an acceptable standard of health and are unlikely to be a danger to public health in the UK, or impose significant costs or demands on the NHS. They would also, if appropriate, have to be able to undertake the work or study they applied to come here for. People coming to Britain for less than six months would not be medically tested unless they intended to work in health care, childcare or teaching. Children and pregnant women wanting to live in Britain permanently would not have to have a chest X-ray for TB. Under 16s would not face tests for hepatitis and HIV. The Tories say people fleeing persecution will not be denied sanctuary in Britain because of poor health. However, they will undergo health checks to ensure they receive the right medical treatment and do not spread infectious diseases. They claim government figures show that TB in England has increased by 25% over the last 10 years and that nearly two-thirds of people with the disease were born overseas. They also believe there should be stricter controls over who comes into Britain to ensure they are not a public health risk. They say the plans will protect access to the NHS. Applicants will be tested in their home country. Only asylum seekers will be tested in the UK once their refugee status is established. Home Office Minister Des Browne says the Government already routinely checks people for TB if they come into the UK for six months or more from high-risk countries. Recent medical checks were carried out on 175,000 people at Heathrow Airport and 10,000 at Gatwick. From those tests, about 100 infectious cases of TB were found. The Tories say 47 other countries across the world impose requirements of this kind. The party has looked at the way the system is operated in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The Tory proposals are ""quite closely modelled"" on the New Zealand system. Labour claims the policy is little more than a ""desperate attempt to catch up with Labour's five-year plan"" for immigration and asylum, which was published last week. This says health screening for TB will be targeted on applicants from high-risk areas before they are given entry clearance. Those who are diagnosed with the disease would then need to seek treatment at home before being allowed to enter the UK. The Liberal Democrats have warned Labour and the Tories they were ""in danger of pandering to prejudice rather than challenging it""." +politics,"Labour attacked on Howard poster Labour has been accused of using anti-Semitic images in posters which critics claim depict Tory leader Michael Howard as Fagin. The poster shows Mr Howard hypnotising people with a pocket watch, saying: ""I can spend the same money twice."" The image prompted concern from the editor of the Jewish Chronicle but Labour insists it is simply anti-Tory. Labour later took the image off its website, saying an alternative idea had proved more popular with party members. The party will now use focus groups to test a poster showing Mr Howard and shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin with a blackboard reading: ""2+2=5"". The hypnotism poster has been compared to the portrayal of the Dickens character Fagin in the stage version of the musical Oliver! There was controversy over another poster choice offered to Labour members. It showed Mr Howard and Mr Letwin - who are both Jewish - as flying pigs. Mr Howard did not comment on the anti-Semitism claims when asked about the poster on Monday. Instead, he pointed to how Tony Blair had in 1997 complained about ""personalised abusive campaigning"". Mr Howard told Greater Manchester Radio: ""It is such a pity that Mr Blair doesn't practise what he preaches."" Jewish Chronicle editor Ned Temko said there had been a mixed reaction to the first poster but e-mails from Jewish Chronicle readers showed deeper concern about the hypnotism image. ""Shylock and Fagin are inextricably linked to notions of centuries-old prejudice,"" he told BBC Radio 4's World At One. ""Whatever the idea is, I think it's a difficult exercise to use images like that and to argue that you can divorce them from their historical context or meaning."" Mr Temko said he blamed ""cock-up not conspiracy"", saying he did not detect inherent anti-Semitism in any of the parties' election campaigns. The poster is among one of a series of ideas shown to Labour members, who have been asked to choose which one should be used ahead of the election. Labour MP Louise Ellman said the hypnotism image was insensitive but urged people not to rush to call things anti-Semitic when they only challenged Tory economic policies. Labour campaign spokesman Fraser Kemp said the poster had been misunderstood. The image simply portrayed Mr Howard as a hypnotist, he argued. ""Concern has been expressed and clearly we have to take those views on board but I would emphasise that if you see the posters, the common theme... is that the Tories are trying to con you."" A Labour spokesman later said the timing of removing the controversial image from the party's website was not affected by the row. ""This has been up on the website for two weeks and there has only been a fuss in the last four days so a substantial number of people voted before there was any fuss,"" he said. But a Conservative spokeswoman said: ""This poster campaign - which was offensive to many people - was a big misjudgement by Labour's campaign team.""" +politics,"'Super union' merger plan touted Two of Britain's big trade unions could merge to form a ""super union"" of two million members. The move by Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) would be a seen as a bid to carry more weight with ministers and employers. Amicus has 1.2 million members and the TGWU has 800,000. Any merger would have to be approved by the unions' executives and their membership. It is understood meetings will be held on Wednesday about the proposal. Along with the GMB and Unison, the TGWU and Amicus worked closely together in the last year to hammer out a 56-point deal with Labour's leadership over equality at work, holidays and pensions - the Warwick Agreement. Both unions are remaining tight-lipped about the merger rumours, but one insider pointed out to the BBC News website that ""nobody is denying suggestions a merger could be on the agenda"" when the two unions' executives hold their meetings on Wednesday. Amicus's executive was due to meet in any case although the TGWU is holding specially scheduled talks." +politics,"Iraqis win death test case probe The family of an Iraqi civilian allegedly killed by UK troops have won a challenge against the government's refusal to order a full inquiry. The High Court ruled on Tuesday that Baha Mousa's death in British custody in Iraq fell within the European Convention on Human Rights. And the judges paved the way for an independent inquiry by saying previous investigations were inadequate. But judicial reviews into five other deaths in southern Iraq were ruled out. Their families will be appealing against the judgement. The families' solicitor Phil Shiner described it as ""a historic day for human rights and the rule of law in the UK"". Father-of-two Mr Mousa, 28, a hotel receptionist, was arrested with eight men seized at a hotel in Basra in September 2003. He was allegedly beaten to death while in the custody of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment. The Iraqi families' lawyer argued that failing to adequately investigate the death breached the European Convention on Human Rights. Ministry of Defence lawyers argued the UK-controlled area of southern Iraq was outside European jurisdiction. But Lord Justice Rix and Mr Justice Forbes ruled that UK jurisdiction could extend to a UK-run prison, but did not apply ""to the total territory of another state"". They said as Mr Mousa was in custody when he died, his case came within the UK's jurisdiction. The other five Iraqis did not die in custody, so their cases had to fail, they said. And it was difficult to say that the investigation which had already occurred ""has been timely, open or effective"", the judges said. After the ruling Carla Ferstman, legal director of the human rights organisation Redress, said: ""It is not enough for the military to investigate behind closed doors. ""There must be an effective public investigation by an independent official body. Only such an investigation could reveal what really happened and who might be responsible."" Other allegations involving British soldiers included the shooting of an Iraqi police commissioner and the shooting of four Iraqi civilians in May 2003. Both sides were granted permission to appeal. Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said: ""Obviously we will need to study this detailed judgment. I would point out, however, that a separate criminal case is currently being considered by the army prosecuting authority. ""I can't say anything further for obvious reasons. The MoD are considering whether to appeal."" But former British Commander Colonel Bob Stewart said : ""Anyone at the top [of the military] will be saddened by the verdict that has taken place but will say: 'If there's a case to answer, let's have it out. Because we don't want people thinking that British soldiers beat up civilians and get away with it',"" he said. ""The Ministry of Defence does everything in its power to try to prove we act ethically and properly under the rules of war.""" +politics,"Hunt ban support is 'in decline' Support for a ban on hunting has fallen in the past six years, a poll suggests. Less than half the UK wants a ban compared to almost two-thirds in 1999, the Mori survey of 2,000 adults for BBC One's Countryfile programme suggests. The number opposed to a ban remains constant, but those ""neither supporting nor opposing"" has increased by 11%. Most city-dwellers support the ban but rural people were evenly split between supporters, opponents and undecided. Polling company Mori carried out both surveys. In July 1999 they asked 801 adults if they supported the ban for the Mail on Sunday. For Countryfile they asked 2,234 adults across the country the same question. The Mail on Sunday survey found that 63% supported a hunting ban compared with 24% against. In the Countryfile survey, 47% said they supported the legislation, with 26% against. But the programme makers suggest the British public are becoming ""increasingly neutral"" to the issue because around one quarter said they ""neither support nor oppose"" a ban." +politics,"Ministers 'naive' over phone-taps The government is being naive by refusing to allow phone-tap evidence in court, a senior EU politician says. Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief, says phone-tap evidence works in the courts of other European countries. Human rights groups, top police officers and many MPs say allowing the evidence would remove the need to detain terror suspects without charge. But Home Secretary Charles Clarke says the evidence would not make much difference to these cases. Mr Solana told ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme: ""[Phone-tap evidence in court] works, it is normal that it is done, it would be naive not to do it. ""It would be naive not to use this technological thing that we have at our disposal."" Mr Solana's comments come the day after Sir Ian Blair, the newly-appointed Metropolitan Police commissioner, said he was in favour of phone-tap evidence. Under the Anti-Terrorism Crimes and Security Act 2001, foreign terror suspects can be detained in British jails without trial or charge. Several suspects have been detained under these powers because evidence against them was deemed too sensitive to be heard in court. Some of this evidence is believed to be telephone intercepts. Human Rights group Liberty has argued that if intercept evidence could be heard, these detainees could be brought to trial. But critics of phone-tap trials say the evidence is often weak and can expose the methods of the security services. The home secretary says intercepts would not make much difference because cases against terror suspects frequently rely on other kinds of surveillance. But Mr Clarke has been forced to change the regime of detention without trial after Law Lords ruled it illegal. He has opted for a system of ""control orders"" whereby suspects, both British and foreign, can be held under house arrest or surveillance. These orders will again involve a UK opt-out of parts of the European Convention on Human Rights. While accepting that people ""have to be prepared"" for a possible terrorist attack, Mr Solana said he had ""qualms"" about the home secretary's new plans. ""We have to fight terrorism with all our means, but not so far as to change our way of life,"" he said." +sport,"Wales want rugby league training Wales could follow England's lead by training with a rugby league club. England have already had a three-day session with Leeds Rhinos, and Wales are thought to be interested in a similar clinic with rivals St Helens. Saints coach Ian Millward has given his approval, but if it does happen it is unlikely to be this season. Saints have a week's training in Portugal next week, while Wales will play England in the opening Six Nations match on 5 February. ""We have had an approach from Wales,"" confirmed a Saints spokesman. ""It's in the very early stages but it is something we are giving serious consideration to."" St Helens, who are proud of their Welsh connections, are obvious partners for the Welsh Rugby Union, despite a spat in 2001 over the collapse of Kieron Cunningham's proposed £500,000 move to union side Swansea. A similar cross-code deal that took Iestyn Harris from Leeds to Cardiff in 2001 did go through, before the talented stand-off returned to the 13-man code with Bradford Bulls. Kel Coslett, who famously moved from Wales to league in the 1960s, is currently Saints' football manager, while Clive Griffiths - Wales' defensive coach - is a former St Helens player and is thought to be the man behind the latest initiative. Scott Gibbs, the former Wales and Lions centre, played for St Helens from 1994-96 and was in the Challenge Cup-winning team at Wembley in 1996." +sport,"Isinbayeva heads for Birmingham Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva has confirmed she will take part in the 2005 Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham on 18 February. ""Everybody knows how much I enjoy competing in Britain. I always seem to break records there,"" said Isinbayeva. ""As Olympic champion there will be more attention on me this year, but hopefully I can respond with another record in Birmingham."" Kelly Holmes and Carolina Kluft are among other Athens winners competing. The organisers are hoping that Isinbayeva's main rival, fellow Russian Svetlana Feofanova, will also take part in the event. The pair had a thrilling battle in Athens which ended with Isinbayeva finally jumping a world record of 4.91m to claim the gold medal. Isinbayeva, 22, has set 10 world records in the pole vault, three of which have come on British soil." +sport,"Rush future at Chester uncertain Ian Rush's future as Chester manager is uncertain after he and assistant Mark Aizlewood refused a severance package. Chester have won only two of their last 10 League games but Chairman Steve Vaughan claims he cannot afford to sack the 43-year-old Liverpool legend. Vaughan said: ""I offered a financial settlement so they could resign with dignity but an obvious action is to dismiss them. ""I haven't because of the finances, so technically they're still employees."" Vaughan claimed that Aizlewood had ""verbally agreed"" to the offer. But the Chester chairman added: ""After they discussed the offer with their solicitor, who also acts as their agent, they decided to withdraw the verbal agreement, which was disappointing."" Rush was appointed at the end of August following the departure of former Liverpool team-mate Mark Wright, who guided Chester to the Conference title last season. Chester were bottom of League Two when Rush took over but the former Liverpool striker enjoyed an impressive start to managerial life, taking the club into the third round of the FA cup and winning the manager-of-the-month award for October. Chester's downturn in form culminated in a 5-0 defeat at Shrewsbury that leaves them hovering just above the League Two relegation zone." +sport,"Saint-Andre anger at absent stars Sale Sharks director of rugby Philippe Saint-Andre has re-opened rugby's club-versus-country debate. Sale host Bath in the Powergen Cup on Friday, but the Frenchman has endured a ""difficult week"" with six players away on England's Six Nations training camp. ""It's an important game but we've just the one full session. It's the same for everyone but we need to manage it. ""If five players or more are picked for your country they should move the date of the game,"" he told BBC Sport. Unless the authorities agree to make changes, Saint-Andre believes England's national team will suffer as clubs opt to sign foreigners and retired internationals. ""That's not good for the politics of the English team or for English rugby,"" he argues. It is an issue he has taken up before, most notably during the autumn internationals when Sale lost all three Zurich Premiership matches they played. Now he fears it could derail the club's hopes of cup silverware after eight players, including captain Jason Robinson and fly-half Charlie Hodgson, were away with their countries. ""We're in the quarter-finals, it's always better to play at home than away and it's a great opportunity,"" he added. ""But we have to be careful. Bath have just been knocked out of Europe and will make it a tough game. It also comes at the end of a very, very difficult week. ""Sebastien Bruno's been with France, Jason White with Scotland and there are six with England, that's eight players plus injuries - 13 players out of a squad of 31. ""We'll have just one session together and will have to do our best to make that a good one on Thursday afternoon."" Gloucester have also been caught in a club-versus-country conflict after England sought a second medical opinion on James Simpson-Daniel's fitness. The winger is carrying a shoulder injury and the national team management believe he requires time on the sidelines. As a result he misses the Cherry and White's quarter-final at home to Bristol. ""Under the Elite Player Squad agreement, England wanted a second opinion, which they can do,"" director of rugby Nigel Melville told the Gloucester Citizen. ""They obviously want him for international rugby and we want him for club rugby in what is a very important game for us. There is a conflict of interests. ""The surgeon who carried out his operation said he was fine for us but England say he is still vulnerable to be damaged again and want him on a full rehab programme."" Simpson-Daniel added: ""I've said to Nigel I want to be back playing and that means if everything goes well this week, I can target the Worcester game (on 29 January) for a return.""" +sport,"Clijsters hope on Aussie Open Kim Clijsters has denied reports that she has pulled out of January's Australian Open because of her persistent wrist injury. Open chief Paul McNamee had said: ""Kim's wrist obviously isn't going to be rehabilitated."" But her spokesman insisted she had simply delayed submitting her entry. ""The doctors are assessing her injury on a weekly basis and if there is no risk she could play. But if there's the least risk she will stay away."" Despite being absent from the WTA entry list for the tournament, which begins on 17 January, Clijsters would be certain to get a wild card if she requested one. Clijsters is still ranked 22nd in the world despite only playing a handful of matches last season. The Belgian had an operation on her left wrist early in the season but injured it again on her return to the tour. Meanwhile, Jelena Dokic, who used to compete for Australia, has opted out of the first Grand Slam of the season. Dokic has not played in the Australian Open since 2001 when she lost in the first round. But the 21-year-old would have had to rely on a wild card next season because her ranking has tumbled to 127th. Four-time champion Monica Seles, who has not played since last year's French Open, is another absentee because of an injured left foot." +sport,"Hodgson relishes European clashes Former Blackburn boss Roy Hodgson says the Premiership should follow the rest of Europe and have a winter break - but insists that a gruelling domestic schedule will not damage the English elite's bid for Champions League glory. Hodgson - now in charge at Viking Stavanger - was at Liverpool's clash with Bayer Leverkusen at Anfield on Tuesday as a member of Uefa's technical committee. Hodgson is a fierce advocate of the winter break employed throughout Europe, although not in England - where the Champions League contenders have ploughed through a heavy fixture list. But Hodgson told BBC Sport that while he believes the Premiership should embrace the idea, he does not expect it to cost the English representatives in the last 16 of the Champions League. ""I just feel it is very difficult to say with certainty that teams who have had the break will have a definite edge. ""I am a fervent supporter of the break. It gives players the chance to recharge their batteries midway through the season, which some suggest will give teams an advantage in the Champions League. ""The other school of thought suggests having a break then coming back to it puts you at a disadvantage. ""The bigger discussions around the winter break should be to do with the nature of football today, the needs of football players and the way the Premiership has developed, rather than one or two matches in the Champions League in February."" Hodgson believes a winter break carries many advantages, explaining: ""As I said, it is the perfect chance to recharge batteries. ""And certainly if I was still a manager in England I would be supporting any calls for its introduction. ""In pre-season you get a lot of enthusiasm and energy but by the time you get towards Christmas many players, having also played plenty of international matches for club and country and travelled a lot, find themselves getting very jaded. ""The break gives them a chance to recover that energy and enthusiasm and, perhaps more importantly, recover their mental strength during the break and get ready for the games ahead. ""The mental side is by far the most important thing."" Hodgson added: ""The length of breaks can vary. In Italy the break was very short. You just took Christmas and New Year. ""It was so short you didn't do anything. You gave the players a week or 10 days off, then you were training for a week or 10 days and then went into a game. ""If it is longer, it is important those responsible for physical fitness give the players a programme to follow to ensure the physical strength they have accumulated stays with them."" And Hodgson believes a winter break would be a positive step in the Premiership. He said: ""If we talk about football at elite level, which the Premiership is, then I would support a winter break. ""If you examine the demands of the Premier League and, in particular on players who play international football for their club and country, then a break would do them the world of good - physically and mentally.""" +sport,"O'Connell rejects Lions rumours Ireland and Munster lock Paul O'Connell has dismissed media reports linking him to the captaincy of the Lions tour to New Zealand this summer. O'Connell is rumoured to be among the front-runners for the job, but says he is totally focused on Sunday's Six Nations crunch clash with England. ""I honestly don't think about these reports,"" he told BBC Sport. ""The Lions thing is all speculation and newspaper talk, nothing more. I just ignore it and get on with my job."" He added: ""The only thing that annoys me after reading some reports is what the opposition locks think. ""I can just imagine them saying 'I'm going to show this guy what's what about second row play'. That's the one thing that makes me cringe."" O'Connell, who made a try-scoring international debut against Wales two years ago, is enjoying his meteoric rise into rugby's shop window - but refuses to be drawn on the Lions. ""I have spoken to Sir Clive Woodward a few times, but not for very long, certainly nothing about summer holidays,"" he joked. He also said he remains wary of wounded England's abilities coming into Sunday's game after two straight defeats, dismissing predictions of a certain Irish victory. ""It's very dangerous to think that. This England team has so much experience and skill. You do not become a bad team overnight. ""They have two world class game-breakers in Josh Lewsey and Jason Robinson, while Charlie Hodgson is just ready to click into place."" He insisted Ireland will not make the mistake of being over-confident. ""That's not going to happen in our squad. No Ireland team lining up to play England will ever fall into that trap,"" he said. ""Every time we play England we know what a big task it is. Look at what they did to us two years ago. I remember that game all too well, and it was not a good feeling. ""I came on as a replacement and we were losing 13-6, and ended up getting hammered 42-6, so I know what can happen when England come to Dublin. ""They could so easily have been coming to Dublin with two wins and staring a Grand Slam in the face as well.""" +sport,"Henin-Hardenne beaten on comeback Justine Henin-Hardenne lost to Elena Dementieva in a comeback exhibition match in Belgium on Sunday for her second defeat in two days. And the Belgian, who has slipped to eight in the world after struggling with a virus, faces a tough Australian Open title defence next month. ""I will be heading to Australia with a lot of question marks over me, I know that,"" she said. ""But I think there'll be less pressure than last time even if I am champion."" Henin-Hardenne was speaking after a 6-2 5-7 6-2 loss to world number six Dementieva in Charleroi, Belgium, on Sunday. The previous day, the Olympic champion went down 6-2 7-5 to France's Nathalie Dechy. ""I have to be positive, I still have a few weeks,"" she said. ""My body has to get accustomed again to the stress, the rhythm."" Henin-Hardenne slid down the world rankings in the second half of 2004 after contracting the illness in April. After an initial lay-off, she was forced off the circuit for a second time after being knocked out of the French Open in the second round. A comeback at the US Open after a three-month absence ended when she crashed out at the fourth-round stage. But despite her problems, she still won five of the nine official tournaments she entered in 2004 and won Olympic gold in Athens, an achievement which saw her named Belgian sportswoman of the year on Friday. ""Physically, it's obvious that I hit rock bottom,"" said the 22-year-old, who will make her comeback in the Sydney International from 10-16 January. ""Since April, with the exception of the Olympics, I have not done much. ""All the successes I had prior to that were mainly due to the work I put in on building up my fitness. ""Now it's time to get back to putting in 200% effort and I think I am capable of doing that.""" +sport,"Souness eyes summer move for Owen Newcastle boss Graeme Souness is lining up a summer move for England and Real Madrid striker Michael Owen. He sees Owen as the ideal replacement for Alan Shearer, who is due to retire in the summer, although he hopes to persuade Shearer to carry on. ""Michael is in the category of players who would excite the fans and we're monitoring him,"" he told BBC Newcastle. ""He is a great centre-forward and only 25 but I don't think we're the only ones monitoring the situation at Real."" Souness has also hinted he thinks Shearer may carry on despite his stated intent to retire at the end of the season. He believes the prospect of breaking Jackie Milburn's club scoring record may influence the striker's decision. Milburn scored 200 league and cup goals between 1946 and 1957, while Shearer currently has 187 goals to his name. ""Without giving too much away, I am confident he will be here next season,"" said Souness. ""I can't imagine him leaving without breaking Jackie Milburn's scoring record."" Souness also revealed he tried to bring back Nolberto Solano during the January transfer window. The Peruvian international was sold to Aston Villa a year ago but in the phone-in for BBC Newcastle, Souness said tried to re-sign him, but Villa were not interested in selling. The former Rangers and Liverpool boss is also looking to bring in a number of new acquisitions once the current campaign has been completed. ""I'm after three, four or five new players in the summer - we have got lots of targets,"" he said. ""Don't think we will wait to the last day of the season to say: `Who are we going to target now?""'" +sport,"Venus stunned by Farina Elia Venus Williams suffered a first-round defeat for the first time in four years at the Dubai Championships. Sylvia Farina Elia, who had lost all nine of her previous meetings with the American fifth seed, won 7-5 7-6 (8-6). Former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez and India's Sania Mirza, the oldest and youngest players in the draw, also reached the second round. Martinez, 32, beat Shinobu Asagoe 6-4 6-4 and 18-year-old Mirza beat Jelena Kostanic 6-7 (7-2) 6-4 6-1. Mirza, the first Indian woman to win a WTA Tour title this month on home ground at Hyderabad, will now face US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova. But she is remaining confident. ""She (Kuznetsova) is a great player,"" she said. ""But everyone is beatable and I am looking forward to a great match."" Williams though blamed her defeat by Farina Elia on injuries. ""Blisters were a factor, but mostly my stomach wasn't that great,"" she said. ""I did it in the last tournament in the semi-finals, and I was serving at 40% in the final. ""The first time I served again was Sunday and there wasn't a lot I could do out there. When your serve isn't good it throws the rest of your game off too."" She will wait to see how she recovers before deciding whether to take part in the Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami, starting on 21 March." +sport,"Hantuchova in Dubai last eight Daniela Hantuchova moved into the quarter-finals of the Dubai Open, after beating Elene Likhotseva of Russia 7-5 6-4, and now faces Serena Williams. Australian Open champion Williams survived an early scare to beat Russia's Elena Bovina 1-6 6-1 6-4. World number one Lindsay Davenport and Anastasia Myskina also progressed. Davenport defeated China's Jie Zheng 6-2 7-5, while French Open champion Myskina sailed through after her opponent Marion Bartoli retired hurt. American Davenport will now face fellow former Wimbledon champion, Conchita Martinez of Spain, who ousted seventh-seeded Nathalie Dechy of France 6-1 6-2. Myskina will face eighth-seed Patty Schnyder from Switzerland, who defeated China's Li Na 6-3 7-6 (10-8). The other quarter final pits wild card Sania Mirza of India against Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Montenegro, who both won on Tuesday. Before her meeting with Martinez, Davenport believes there is some room for improvement in her game. ""I started well and finished well, but played some so-so games in the middle,"" she said. Williams was also far from content. ""I don't know what I was doing there,"" she said. ""It was really windy and I hadn't played in the wind. All my shots were going out of here."" But Hantuchova is in upbeat mood ahead of her clash with the younger Williams sister, who was handed a first-round bye. ""I feel I have an advantage (over Serena) because I have already played two matches on these courts,"" she said. ""It is a difficult court to play on. Very fast and sometimes you feel you have no control over the ball.""" +sport,"Angry Williams rejects criticism Serena Williams has angrily rejected claims that she and sister Venus are a declining force in tennis. The sisters ended last year without a Grand Slam title for the first time since 1998. But Serena denied their challenge was fading, saying: ""That's not fair - I'm tired of not saying anything. ""We've been practising hard. We've had serious injuries. I've had surgery and after, I got to the Wimbledon final. I don't know many who have done that."" While Serena is through to the Australian Open semi-finals, Venus went out in the fourth round, meaning she has not gone further than the last eight in her last five Grand Slam appearances. But Serena added: ""Venus had a severe strain in her stomach. I actually had the same injury, but I didn't tear it the way she did. ""If I would have torn it, I wouldn't have been here. ""She played a player (Alicia Molik) that just played out of her mind and Venus made some errors that she probably shouldn't have made."" Serena also said people tended to forget the impact the 2003 murder of sister Yetunde Price had had on the family. ""To top it off, we have a very, very, very, very, very close family"" Serena continued. ""To be in some situation that we've been placed in in the past little over a year, it's not easy to come out and just perform at your best when you realize there are so many things that are so important. ""So, no, we're not declining. We're here. I don't have to win this tournament to prove anything. I know that I'm out here and I know that I'm one of the best players out here.""" +sport,"Dementieva prevails in Hong Kong Elena Dementieva swept aside defending champion Venus Williams 6-3 6-2 to win Hong Kong's Champions Challenge event. The Russian, ranked sixth in the world, broke Williams three times in the first set, while losing her service once. Williams saved three championship points before losing the match at the Victoria Park tennis court. ""It's really a great start to the year no matter whether it's an exhibition or not. I was trying to play my best and I really did it,"" said Dementieva. ""This will give me all the confidence before the Grand Slams. I was trying so hard to win this tournament."" Williams, 24, was disappointed with her display. ""She played some nice points, but it was mostly me committing unforced errors - four or five errors in each game,"" she said. Before the match, organizers auctioned off rackets belonging to the players, raising £115,000 for victims of the tsunami disaster." +sport,"Mansfield 0-1 Leyton Orient An second-half goal from Andy Scott condemned Mansfield to a ninth successive game without a win. Early in the second half Wayne Carlisle's cross was met by Scott and he blasted the ball home from just outside the penalty area. As Orient chased a second, Mansfield had to clear Alan White's header off the line and Kevin Pilkington saved well from Michael Simpson. By the end Mansfield fans were chanting for the head of chairman Keith Haslam. Pilkington, Talbot, Buxton, Dimech, Artell, Corden, Murray, Curtis, Neil, Warne, Barker. Subs Not Used: White, McIntosh, Wood, Lloyd, Herron. Harrison, Lockwood, Donny Barnard, White,Mackie, Scott, Saah, Simpson, Carlisle, Lee Barnard, Ibehre. Subs Not Used: Morris, Wardley, Newey, Zakuani, McMahon. Scott 51. 3,803 S Mathieson (Cheshire)." +sport,"Wolves appoint Hoddle as manager Glenn Hoddle will be unveiled as the new Wolves manager on Tuesday. The club have confirmed that the former England coach will be unveiled as the successor to Dave Jones at a news conference at Molineux at 1100 GMT. Hoddle has been linked with a return to former club Southampton but Wolves have won the race for his services. He has been out of the game since being sacked at Spurs in September 2003 and worked alongside Wolves caretaker boss Stuart Gray at Southampton. Hoddle began his managerial career as player-boss with Swindon before moving on to Chelsea and then taking up the England job. His spell in charge of the national side came to an end after the 1998 World Cup when he made controversial remarks about the disabled in a newspaper interview. The 47-year-old later returned to management with Southampton, where he again succeeded Jones - as he has now done at Wolves. He engineered an upturn in Saints' fortunes before being lured to White Hart Lane by Tottenham - the club where he made his name as a player. That relationship turned sour at the start of the last campaign and he left the London club early last season. Since then he has applied unsuccessfully for the post of France manager and had also been linked with a return to Southampton. Wolves are currently 17th in the Championship and have a home game against Millwall on Tuesday." +sport,"Teenager Tait picked for England Newcastle's teenage centre Mathew Tait has been named as a centre in England's team to face Wales in the Six Nations opener in Cardiff on Saturday. The 18-year-old will play alongside Falcons' team-mate Jamie Noon in England's midfield. Scrum-half Matt Dawson is also recalled, despite been left out of the initial squad after a row over clashing TV and training commitments. Bath lock Danny Grewcock will also start, pending a possible citing. England coach Andy Robinson has also awarded Gloucester flanker Andy Hazell his first Six Nations start. In another change to the side that lost to Australia in November, Leicester lock Ben Kay replaces Bath second row Steve Borthwick. Robinson was already without Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall, Stuart Abbott, Richard Hill and Will Greenwood, while Mike Catt had been left out of England's squad. J Robinson (Sale Sharks, capt); M Cueto (Sale Sharks), M Tait (Newcastle), J Noon (Newcastle), J Lewsey (Wasps); C Hodgson (Sale Sharks), M Dawson (Wasps); G Rowntree (Leicester), S Thompson (Northampton), J White (Leicester), D Grewcock (Bath), B Kay (Leicester), L Moody (Leicester), A Hazell (Gloucester), J Worsley (Wasps). Replacements: A Titterrell (Sale Sharks), P Vickery (Gloucester), S Borthwick (Bath), J Forrester (Gloucester), H Ellis (Leicester), O Barkley (Bath), B Cohen (Northampton)." +sport,"Arsenal through on penalties Arsenal win 4-2 on penalties The Spanish goalkeeper saved from Alan Quinn and Jon Harley as Arsenal sealed a quarter-final trip to Bolton with a 4-2 victory on penalties. Lauren, Patrick Vieira, Freddie Ljungberg and Ashley Cole scored for Arsenal, while Andy Gray and Phil Jagielka were on target for the Blades. Michael Tonge and Harley wasted chances for the underdogs, but Paddy Kenny was inspired to keep Arsenal at bay. Arsenal, stripped of attacking talent such as Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp, partnered 17-year-old Italian striker Arturo Lupoli with Ljungberg up front. It was a revamped Arsenal line-up, and they were almost a goal behind within seconds as Tonge wasted a glorious chance. Gray ran free down the right flank, and his cross left Tonge with the simplest of chances, but he blazed over the top from six yards. Arsenal were barely seen as an attacking force in the opening 45 minutes, although Ljungberg turned a half-chance wide after good work by Cesc Fabregas. Arsene Wenger introduced Quincy Owusu-Abeyie for the ineffective Lupoli at half-time, and the pacy Dutch youngster had an immediate impact. He ran clear after good work by Mathieu Flamini, but his finish was tame and Kenny saved easily. Owusu-Abeyie then fired in a testing cross, which was met by Fabregas, and it needed a desperate clearance by Kenny's legs to save the Blades. Arsenal were now totally dominant, and were desperately unlucky not to take the lead after 62 minutes when Fabregas crashed a rising drive against the bar from 20 yards. It then took a brilliant tackle by Jagielka to deny Ljungberg as he was poised to strike. Arsenal continued to press, and once again Kenny was called into action with eight minutes left, diving low to clutch another close-range effort from Fabregas. Neil Warnock's side almost snatched victory in the dying seconds when Derek Geary's cross found Harley at the far post, but his diving header was brilliantly turned over by Almunia. Owusu-Abeyie's pace was causing all sorts of problems for the Blades, and as extra-time began, another surging run into the penalty area almost set up a chance for Ljungberg. Pascal Cygan missed Arsenal's best chance after 106 minutes, blazing across the face of goal when he was unmarked at the far post. Arsenal sent on Jeremie Aliadiere with seven minutes of extra-time left, and he almost broke the deadlock with his first touch. Kolo Toure's misplaced free-kick landed at his feet, but Kenny once again blocked from a tight angle. Arsenal laid siege to Sheffield United's goal in the dying minutes, but they somehow held on to force penalties. Almunia was then Arsenal's hero as another brave Blades cup campaign came to a losing end. Kenny, Geary, Morgan, Bromby, Harley, Liddell, Montgomery, Jagielka, Thirlwell, Tonge (Quinn 97), Gray. Subs Not Used: Francis, Kabba, Shaw, Haystead. Morgan. Almunia, Lauren, Cygan, Senderos, Cole, Fabregas (Toure 90), Vieira, Flamini (Aliadiere 113), Clichy, Lupoli (Owusu-Abeyie 45), Ljungberg. Subs Not Used: Eboue, Taylor. Clichy, Lauren, Senderos. 27,595 P Dowd (Staffordshire)." +sport,"Souness delight at Euro progress Boss Graeme Souness felt Newcastle were never really in danger of going out of the Uefa Cup against Heerenveen. An early own goal followed by an Alan Shearer strike earned them a 2-1 win and a place in the Uefa Cup last 16. ""Obviously with winning in the first leg it gave us a great advantage,"" he said after the 4-2 aggregate victory. ""We got our goals early and in the minds of some players the job was done but then they got a goal and perhaps made us a bit nervous."" Shearer's goal moved him within 12 of Jackie Milburn's club scoring record of 200 for the Magpies. But Souness said he did not think beating the record would have any bearing on his decision to retire at the end of the season. ""I think if he got it this year he would want to stay next year anyway,"" he added. ""He struck the ball very well - he always has done - and I think it was the power and pace that beat the goalkeeper."" Souness also paid tribute to Laurent Robert, who was at the heart of much of United's attacking play. ""In the first half he did really well and did everything you want from a wide player. More of the same in future please,"" he said." +sport,"Smith aims to bring back respect Scotland manager Walter Smith says he wants to restore the national team's respectability in world football. Smith has joined his first squad for a three-day get-together near Manchester in preference to playing a friendly. While qualification for the 2006 World Cup appears to be beyond Scotland, Smith is anxious that the remainder of the campaign should be positive. ""I think we have got to try to get a bit of respectability back in whatever way we can,"" he said. ""We will have to approach each game differently. Obviously we will have to approach the Italian game away from home in a different manner to Moldova at home. ""We have to meet the challenge of each match."" Smith, meeting a number of his squad for the first time, brought them together on Monday to outline his ideas for improving the nation's fortunes. He said: ""I pointed out how I see the international team going forward and that was the main topic. ""This is a relaxed gathering and I don't think there is a lot of doom and gloom about the squad that a lot of people think exists."" A 25-man squad will spend the next three days based at the Mottram Hall hotel in Cheshire and will train at Manchester United's nearby Carrington complex. Smith will be absent for the final sessions, however, as he is due to fly out to Sardinia on Wednesday to watch Italy's friendly with Russia." +sport,"London Irish 19-33 Wasps Wasps made light of the absence of several internationals to sink London Irish with a trio of second-half tries. Rob Hoadley returned to haunt his old club at the Madejski Stadium, scoring the opening try in the 43rd minute. Tom Voyce powered through the Irish defence for Wasps' second try before Richard Birkett went over unchallenged. Mark van Gisbergen added 18 points. Irish replied with three penalties and a Mark Mapletoft drop goal before Scott Staniforth ran in a consolation try. Barry Everitt, who replaced Mapletoft late in the game, added the conversion to become the fourth Premiership player to reach 1,000 points. He joins Jonny Wilkinson, Tim Stimpson and Paul Grayson in achieving that target. Wasps piled on the pressure in an attempt to grab a fourth try which would have secured them a bonus point, but they were denied by some desperate defending from Irish. Director of rugby Warren Gatland revealed that harsh words at half-time inspired his Wasps side to raise their game after the restart. ""They got a roasting and it was a good second-half performance when they came out and played to instructions,"" he said. Gatland also singled out stand-in flankers Tom Rees and John Hart for special praise. ""They did very well. The back row played some fantastic rugby,"" he added. London Irish coach Gary Gold felt the result exposed his side's lack of consistency. Irish trailed by just two points at the break and Gold said: ""For 55 minutes we lived with the best but we have got to get back for the full 80 minutes."" Gold will now turn his attention to next week's Powergen Cup semi-final at struggling Leeds. ""We've got a good chance but with Leeds facing possible relegation they're going to come out firing,"" he added. Horak, Staniforth, Penney, Nordt, Bishop; Mapletoft, Edwards; Hatley, van der Walt, Hardwick; Kennedy, Casey; Gustard, Dawson, Murphy. Replacements: Everitt for Mapletoft (53), Hodgson for Edwards (77), Wheatley for Hatley (71), Paice for van der Walt (60), Strudwick for Kennedy (60), Danaher for Gustard (66), Reid for Murphy (47) Van Gisbergen; Voyce, Erinle, Hoadley, Roberts; King, Richards; Payne, Greening, Dowd; Shaw, Purdy; Hart, Rees, Dallaglio. Replacements: Priscott for Roberts (71), Green for Dowd (71), Skivington for Shaw (71), Birkett for Hart (57), Gotting for Rees (39). Not used: Fury, Brooks" +sport,"Hewitt survives Nalbandian epic Home favourite Lleyton Hewitt came through a dramatic five-set battle with Argentine David Nalbandian to reach the Australian Open semi-finals. Hewitt looked to be cruising to victory after racing into a two-set lead. But Nalbandian broke his serve three times in both of the next two sets to set up a nailbiting decider. Hewitt eventually grabbed the vital break in the 17th game and served out to win 6-3 6-2 1-6 3-6 10-8 and set up a meeting with Andy Roddick. The winner of that match will face either Roger Federer or Marat Safin in the final. Ninth seed Nalbandian had never come back from two sets down to win a match, and there was no indication he would do so as Hewitt dominated the first two sets. The Argentine had stoked up the temperature ahead of the match by saying Hewitt's exuberant on-court celebrations were ""not very good for the sport"". And he had words with Hewitt during one change of ends in the second set when the Australian appeared to brush shoulders with him as they went to their chairs. The balance of power changed completely in the third set as Hewitt allowed his level to dip, and he double-faulted twice as Nalbandian broke on the way to taking the fourth set. But the tiring third seed showed incredible reserves of strength to force the break despite being outplayed for much of the final set and three times coming within two points of defeat. He then produced a love service game to finish off the match in four hours and five minutes. ""I just kept hanging in there. It was always tough serving second in the fifth set,"" said Hewitt, who had never reached the last four at his home Grand Slam. ""I told myself to give everything and in the end it paid off once again. ""It's a long way from holding that trophy up there but I'm hanging in there. ""Only four guys left that can win and we're the top four in the world. It's set up for a pretty good showdown in the semis and finals.""" +sport,"Johnson edges out rival Sotherton Jade Johnson edged out rival Kelly Sotherton with her last effort to claim the AAAs long jump title at the Norwich Union European Indoor trials. Olympic heptathlon bronze medallist, Sotherton, led the event with her first leap of 6.43m - a personal best. But Johnson, who has not competed indoors for five years, leapt to a life-time best of 6.50m in her last jump, after four fouls. Both Johnson and Sotherton passed the European Championships qualifying mark. Although Sotherton's main aim in Madrid next month will be the pentathlon where she will take on Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft. Ireland's delivered a shock in the men's 200m as he stormed to his first major title in 21.01 seconds. British favourite Chris Lambert had to settle for second place while defending champion Ireland's Paul Brizzel took third. There was some consolation for Lambert as he set a personal best of 20.94 in the first round - good enough to qualify for Europe. Two-time AAAs champion Allyn Condon and Ian Mackie had no such luck as they were disqualified in the heats. There was plenty of hot action in the men's 60m hurdles where Scotland's was vying for top spot with Olympian Andy Turner. Scott, 22, smashed his personal best on the way to the final, where he broke it again to win the AAAs title in 7.58 seconds. Turner finished second in 7.82 after previously setting a personal best on the 7.83 in the semi-finals, while Damien Greaves did not finish the final. The trio of athletes have reached the European qualifying mark this season though one of them is set to miss out on a call-up to the British squad. comfortably defended her 3,000m title, clocking eight minutes, 49.87 seconds to easily surpass the European qualifying mark. The European cross country bronze medallist is ranked number one in Europe this season and will go to Madrid with high hopes. Helen Clitheroe was agonisingly close to the 9:05.00 qualifying mark as she claimed the runners-up spot in a personal best of 9:05.73. In the men's 800m heats, qualified fastest in the 800m heats to lay down a challenge to in-form . The Welsh runner attacked the last 200m to come through ahead of James Thie in one minute, 49.87 seconds. McIlroy, who is third in the European rankings, eased across the finish in 1:50.87 to set up a showdown in Sunday's final in Sheffield. Both Watkins and McIlroy have already achieved the European qualifying mark. Scotland's Susan Deacon stole 's thunder in the final of the women's 200m. Fraser became the fastest British woman over the distance this season when she qualified for the final in 23.68 seconds - though that time is outside the European standard. But Deacon claimed her first AAAs title over the distance, edging Fraser into second in 23.67. In the women's shot put veteran claimed her fourth AAAs title with a throw of 15.27m. But that mark was not good enough for the 39-year-old to book her place at next month's European Indoor Championships in Madrid. Sotherton finished fifth after producing two throws of 13.77m. In the absence of injured British number one Carl Myerscough, claimed the men's shot put title with a throw of 17.64m, which was below the qualifying mark. Sale's Robert Mitchell climbed to a season's best of 2.20m - just 3cm short of the European standard - to claim the British indoor high jump title. could only clear 2.16m to finish in fourth but the 27-year-old's disappointment will be tempered as he had already achieved the qualifying mark at a meeting in Slovenia on Tuesday. There was bad luck for British number one in the pole vault as he failed to clear the bar after deciding to come in at 5.45m. The AAAs indoor title went instead to Ashley Swain, who climbed to a season's best of 5.25m And Ireland's Taniesha Scanlon set a new national record of 13.28m in the women's triple jump." +sport,"Sprinter Walker quits athletics Former European 200m champion Dougie Walker is to retire from athletics after a series of six operations left him struggling for fitness. Walker had hoped to compete in the New Year Sprint which is staged at Musselburgh Racecourse near Edinburgh on Tuesday and Wednesday. The 31-year-old Scot was suspended for two years in 1998 after testing positive for nandrolone. ""I had intended to race but I'm running like a goon,"" said Walker. He told the Herald newspaper: ""I'm not in great shape, after missing about a month of training. ""I missed a big chunk of speed work over about three weeks, and then another week working in America. ""If I'd had a half-decent mark it might have motivated me more, but I won't be racing. ""I still enjoy training, but feel it's time to move on, and concentrate on a career.""" +sport,"Dawson set for new Wasps contract European champions Wasps are set to offer Matt Dawson a new deal. The 31-year-old World Cup winning scrum-half has impressed since joining the London side from Northampton this summer on a one-year contract. Wasps coach Warren Gatland told the Daily Mirror: ""We have not yet offered Matt a new contract but we will be doing so. ""I'm very happy with his contribution and I think he's good enough to play for another couple of years."" Dawson played a vital part in England's World Cup win last year but has fallen out of favour with new coach Andy Robinson after missing a training session in September. However he hopes the new deal will help him regain his England place. ""Rugby is still my priority and there's still a burning desire within me to play the best rugby I possibly can,"" he said. ""I know within myself, if I was given the chance I could play for England again. ""I know I'm fit enough, I'm strong enough, I'm skilful enough.""" +sport,"QPR keeper Day heads for Preston Queens Park Rangers keeper Chris Day is set to join Preston on a month's loan. Day has been displaced by the arrival of Simon Royce, who is in his second month on loan from Charlton. QPR have also signed Italian Generoso Rossi. R's manager Ian Holloway said: ""Some might say it's a risk as he can't be recalled during that month and Simon Royce can now be recalled by Charlton. ""But I have other irons in the fire. I have had a 'yes' from a couple of others should I need them."" Day's Rangers contract expires in the summer. Meanwhile, Holloway is hoping to complete the signing of Middlesbrough defender Andy Davies - either permanently or again on loan - before Saturday's match at Ipswich. Davies impressed during a recent loan spell at Loftus Road. Holloway is also chasing Bristol City midfielder Tom Doherty." +sport,"Greek pair set for hearing Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou will fight the provisional two-year bans imposed on them by the IAAF at an independent tribunal this weekend. Athletics' ruling body took action against the pair for failing to take drugs tests before the Athens Olympics. An independent tribunal of the Greek Track and Field Federation will meet to decide whether to ratify the sanction. The sprint duo face charges of failing to give information on their location and refusing to submit to a drugs test. Kenteris' lawyer Gregory Ioannidis told BBC Sport: ""We refute both charges as unsubstantiated and illogical. ""There have been certain breaches in the correct application of the rules on behalf of the sporting authorities and their officials, and these procedural breaches have also violated my client's rights. ""There is also evidence that proves the fact that my client has been persecuted."" Ioannidis, who is a law lecturer at the University of Buckingham, added: ""One of the important rights and foundations of law and justice - that the accused should be presumed innocent unless proved otherwise - has been tarnished."" The panel will also decide on the two-year ban imposed on the athletes' controversial coach Christos Tzekos by the IAAF. Kenteris, the 2000 Olympic 200m champion, and Thanou, the women's 100m silver medallist from the same Games in Sydney, quit the Olympics on 18 August after failing to give samples on the eve of the opening ceremony. Testers could not find them at the Olympic village and the duo were later admitted to hospital after claiming to have been involved in a motorcycle accident. They also missed tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens before the Games. In imposing two-year suspensions on the duo on 22 December, the IAAF described their explanations for missing the tests as ""unacceptable"". Whatever the findings of the independent tribunal, all parties will have the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The tribunal hearing will take place at the Hellenic Olympic Committee building. It will start at 1200 GMT on Saturday and is expected to finish early next week. The tribunal panel will consist of five members - president Konstantinos Panagopoulos and Panagiotis Dimakos, Haralabos Hrisanthakis, Stilianos Perakis and Ioannis Karmis. Kenteris and Thanou also face criminal charges in Greece for allegedly faking the motorcycle accident. Eight criminal charges have been laid against the sprinters as well as Tzekos, an eyewitness to the accident and hospital officials. But there has been speculation that the charges could be dropped." +sport,"FA decides not to punish Mourinho The Football Association will take no action against Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho following his sending-off in Sunday's Carling Cup final. Mourinho, who was sent from the touchline for appearing to taunt Liverpool fans, has been ""reminded of his responsibilities to the game"". But the FA confirmed: ""There will be no further action taken in this matter."" Mourinho claimed his 'silence' gesture was aimed at the media, although they were on the other side of the ground. The former Porto coach was forced to watch the climax of his side's 3-2 victory over Liverpool on television after being ushered away from the touchline by fourth official Phil Crossley. His gesture came after Chelsea's equaliser on 79 minutes courtesy of a Steven Gerrard own goal. Mourinho still faces an FA investigation into his allegation that Manchester United's players 'cheated' during January's Carling Cup semi-final at Stamford Bridge. And Uefa could also launch disciplinary action following Mourinho's failure to attend a compulsory post-match press conference after Chelsea's Champions League defeat at Barcelona last week. In addition, some time this month, Chelsea must also answer a charge of failing to control their players during the Premiership win at Blackburn in February. And a charge of failing to control their supporters following a Carling Cup meeting with West Ham earlier this season is still to be heard. The Premier League is also continuing investigations into allegations Chelsea officials tapped up Arsenal defender Ashley Cole in January." +sport,"Hodges announces rugby retirement Scarlets and USA Eagles forward Dave Hodges has ended his playing career to pursue a coaching role in the States. The 36-year-old, who has 54 caps, was Llanelli's player of the season in 2001/2, but has battled injury for the last two of his seven years at Stradey. He tore a pectoral muscle against the Ospreys on Boxing Day, an injury that would have kept him out for the season. ""Realising I would be unable to play this season, the club and I agreed to end my contract early,"" said Hodges. ""It allows me to move back to the US and pursue opportunities there and allows the Scarlets to look to the next generation."" The Scarlets have begun to rebuild their squad for next season after a disappointing Heineken Cup campaign, with plenty more signings and departures expected in the coming weeks. Scarlets chief executive Stuart Gallacher confirmed that 17 of the current squad would be out of contract in the summer. ""We have a deliberate policy whereby around half the squad are coming out of contract and they know they won't all be re-signed, it's a chance to invigorate the squad,"" he said. ""I'm positive about the future of the Scarlets both on and off the field."" Gallacher was keen to pay tribute to the role back-five forward Hodges has played at Stradey Park, though. ""David has been a highly influential member of our squad for seven years,"" said Gallacher. ""He is a real professional and we thank him for the part he has played in our success. ""I am sure he has an enormous contribution to make to the development of rugby in the US and we wish him and his family well."" Hodges described his years at Stradey as ""the best time of my life.""" +sport,"Ferguson urges Henry punishment Sir Alex Ferguson has called on the Football Association to punish Arsenal's Thierry Henry for an incident involving Gabriel Heinze. Ferguson believes Henry deliberately caught Heinze on the head with his knee during United's controversial win. The United boss said it was worse than Ruud van Nistelrooy's foul on Ashley Cole for which he got a three-game ban. ""We shall present it to the FA and see what they do. The tackle on Heinze was terrible,"" he said. Clubs are permitted to ask the FA to examine specific incidents but information is expected to be provided within 48 hours of the game. The clash occurred moments before half-time when a Freddie Ljungberg challenge left Heinze on the ground on the left touchline. Henry, following the ball, attempted to hurdle the Argentine but his knee collided with the back of Heinze's head. The striker protested his innocence - and referee Mike Riley deemed the collision accidental. Ferguson was also upset by Arsenal's overall discipline during the heated encounter between the two arch-rivals and praised his own side's behaviour. ""Edu produced a terrible tackle on Scholes that was a potential leg-breaker,"" he said. ""There were 24 fouls in the game by Arsenal, seven on Heinze, five on Ronaldo, six by Vieira - and it was only his sixth foul that got him booked. Phil Neville got booked for his first challenge. ""I am proud of my players for the way they handled that pressure. ""We have always been good at being gracious in defeat. What happened on Sunday overshadowed our achievement, but then they do it all the time, don't they?""" +sport,"Souness backs Smith for Scotland Graeme Souness believes Walter Smith would be the perfect choice to succeed Berti Vogts as Scotland manager. Souness's former assistant at Rangers is hot favourite to take over from Vogts, who resigned on Monday. ""Walter is most definitely the ideal candidate for that job. He'd be perfect for it,"" Souness told BBC Sport. The Scottish Football Association has appointed Tommy Burns as provisional caretaker-boss for the friendly against Sweden on 17 November. ""He fits the bill because of his knowledge and understanding of the Scotland team and football. He is experienced and has been successful."" Souness added: ""Walter is a real football person, as I know from working with him at Ibrox. ""On top of all that he is a proper human being who would command the instant respect of the players and everyone involved in Scottish football."" Souness joined Sir Alex Ferguson in backing Smith's claims. The Scottish Football Association is about to embark on the search for Vogts successor after appointing Tommy Burns in a caretaker capacity. Ferguson said: ""He (Smith) would be the outstanding candidate as far as I'm concerned. ""You need somebody who knows what they're doing and Walter would bring a wealth of experience to the job."" The Man Utd boss continued: ""I don't know what credentials are needed to do the job but it's a job that needs a lot of experience. ""He was my assistant with Scotland and here at Manchester United and he has also managed Glasgow Rangers. ""He would need to change the whole shape of Scottish football and radical changes are needed."" Smith was assistant to Ferguson at the World Cup in Mexico in 1986. The former Everton and Rangers boss has been out of the game since a spell as Manchester United assistant last term. BBC Sport understands that Smith would be willing to discuss taking over if he was approached by the Scottish FA. If he is tempted to take over, it seems almost certain Smith's long-time right-hand man Archie Knox would also play a part in the national team set-up. Smith already has the backing of many pundits and fans, including former Scotland manager Craig Brown. Brown said: ""Walter is an outstanding candidate without doubt. ""He would be admirable choice. I spoke to him on Sunday and I got the impression he would take it. He was asking me about it and I was positive."" Other candidates for the job include former Scotland midfielders Gordon Strachan and Gary McAllister and Vogts' assistant Tommy Burns." +sport,"Serena becomes world number two Serena Williams has moved up five places to second in the world rankings after her Australian Open win. Williams won her first Grand Slam title since 2003 with victory over Lindsay Davenport, the world number one. Men's champion Marat Safin remains fourth in the ATP rankings while beaten finalist Lleyton Hewitt replaces Andy Roddick as world number two. Roger Federer retains top spot, but Safin has overtaken Hewitt to become the new leader of the Champions Race. Alicia Molik, who lost a three-set thriller against Davenport in the quarter-finals, is in the women's top 10 for the first time in her career. Her rise means Australia have a player in the top 10 of the men's and women's rankings for the first time in 21 years. And Britain's Elena Baltacha, who qualified and then reached the third round, has risen to 120 in the world - a leap of 65 places and her highest ranking yet." +sport,"Desailly backs Blues revenge trip Marcel Desailly insists there is no chance of history repeating itself when Chelsea take on Barcelona on Wednesday. The French star was part of the Chelsea side crushed 5-1 at the Nou Camp in the Champions League quarter-final second leg in 2000. ""Things will be totally different this time,"" he told BBC Sport. ""Now everyone knows about Chelsea and is a little bit afraid of them. They are one of the major clubs in Europe and the pressure will be on Barcelona."" Chelsea have not played Barcelona since that quarter-final tie five years ago. The Blues had looked destined to progress after winning the first leg at Stamford Bridge 3-1, courtesy of two goals from Tore Andre Flo and one by Gianfranco Zola. But they collapsed in the second leg, going down to strikes from Rivaldo (2), Luis Figo, Dani and Patrick Kluivert. Former Chelsea captain Desailly, who is now playing for Al-Gharafa in Qatar, says there is no comparison between that side and the current Blues team, who are top of the Premiership. ""Mentally they are much stronger, even though a lot of their players are young,"" the 36-year-old said. ""We made some mistakes at the Nou Camp in 2000 - a lot of them were individual mistakes. ""It would not happen now. This team has a new motivation and a different mentality."" World Cup winner Desailly saw huge changes during his time at Stamford Bridge. He was signed for £4.6m from AC Milan in 1998 by Ruud Gullit and went on to play under Gianluca Vialli and Claudio Ranieri. But the biggest change occurred when billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003. Desailly says the Russian's arrival helped to instil a winning mentality at the club as well as a demand for success. ""The whole of Chelsea is different now - the chairman, the manager and all the players,"" he said. ""Everything is new and there is a huge determination to win. ""Since that game in 2000, Chelsea have gained more experience in Europe and were very close to reaching the Champions League final last season."" Desailly is one of the most decorated players in the history of football. He won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship with France, the Champions League in 1993 with Marseilles and 1994 with AC Milan, two Serie A titles and the FA Cup in 2000 with Chelsea. He is now winding down his career in Qatar, alongside the likes of Frank Lebeouf, Josep Guardiola, Titi Camara, Gabriel Batistuta and Christophe Dugarry. So he is full of admiration for two of his colleagues from the great Milan side of the mid-90s who are likely to line up against Manchester United on Wednesday - Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta. ""I'm happy that they have managed to play so long at a high level,"" he said. ""I made a vow to Costacurta that as long as he plays, I will continue to play. ""And it's amazing that Paolo has managed to play at such a high level for such a long time.""" +sport,"Wales hails new superstar One game into his Six Nations career, and Gavin Henson is already a Welsh legend. A mesmeric display against England, topped off by his howitzer of a match-winning penalty, has secured life membership of that particular club. At 23, Henson has the rugby world at his silver-booted feet. And if his natural self-assurance and swagger is shared by his Wales team-mates, then a full-blown revival could be more than just a lot of hot air drifting up from the Valleys. The ""Red Dragonhood"" subdued the ""Red Rose Army"" in most areas of the field, but Henson's stellar performance ensured their efforts yielded the win they craved above all others. He announced himself in the game's opening salvo with a ""Welcome to Cardiff"" greeting for Mark Cueto on the gain line. And his defence was a major feature of the match, his principal victim poor old, or rather young, Mathew Tait. The England centre will have spent his 19th birthday on Sunday shuddering at the memory of how he was up-ended not just once, but twice, by Henson's all-enveloping tackles. The second time, after the interval, single-handedly lifted the record Millennium Stadium crowd at a time when England were starting to show menace. Showing awesome strength, Henson nonchantly held the bewildered debutant in mid-air, a master predator toying with his helpless prey, savouring the kill. His kicking game also prospered, particularly when he moved to full-back for 10 minutes either side of half-time when his captain Gareth Thomas was in the sin-bin. One huge clearance from Tait's kick sent England retreating rapidly while another booming punt to the right corner kept the visitors pinned in their own half. Henson was also creativity personified: one little chip ahead for Shane Williams narrowly missed its target; a precise cross-kick forcing Jamie Noon to fumble the ball into touch. He also had a hand in the game's only try, finished superbly by Williams, and might have scored himself on the half-hour as he glided into space, only to be scragged by Tait. Henson was twice repelled as Wales laid siege to the English line after Charlie Hodgson's penalty had edged the visitors in front for the first time. But he was not to be denied as the crescendo rose to a deafening din, and the outcome of the match fell to him. Replacement Gareth Cooper made the most of a poor Welsh scrum by chipping into space, where Jason Robinson was penalised for holding on in the tackle. Five metres in from the right touchline, 44 metres out, it was not a kick Stephen Jones, who had seen a long-range effort fall agonisingly under the bar, would have approached with confidence. ""It was out of Steve's range but I looked at Gavin, and he gave me a reassuring nod,"" said Thomas. Henson, surveying his date with destiny, positively relished the responsibility, and the chance to make himself a hero. Without further ado, he nervelessly slotted the kick that ended five years of English dominance and 12 years of waiting in Cardiff. ""I knew I was going to get it before I even took the kick,"" he said later, his distinct spikey locks freshly gelled into an appropriate star shape. ""I have been getting them from that distance all year so it wasn't a problem."" There were still four minutes for Wales to hold out, and the frenzy was such that Henson could not even hear Jones shouting instructions at him from three yards away. But it was Wales who finished the game on the attack, almost snatching a second try in a thunderous climax. ""Just Do It"" implored the front page headline on Saturday's Western Mail newspaper. And, thanks to Henson, Wales did." +sport,"Holmes starts 2005 with GB events Kelly Holmes will start 2005 with a series of races in Britain. Holmes will make her first track appearance on home soil since winning double Olympic gold in January's Norwich Union International in Glasgow. She will also run in the Grand Prix in Birmingham in February and may defend her indoor AAA 800m title in Sheffield earlier that month. ""I am still competitive and still want to win,"" she said. ""I'm an athlete and I can't wait to get back on the track."" She added: ""These events are also a great opportunity to thank the British public for the enormous levels of support they have given me from the moment I stepped off that plane from Greece."" The Glasgow meeting will see Holmes compete over 1500m in a five-way match against Sweden, France, Russia and Italy." +sport,"Castaignede fires Laporte warning Former France fly-half Thomas Castaignede has warned the pressure is mounting on coach Bernard Laporte following their defeat by Wales. France suffered a shock loss against the Welsh at the weekend after looking on course for an easy win. Castaignede told BBC Sport: ""The pressure is big on Laporte after a huge loss to New Zealand, a slim win over Scotland and a miracle against England. ""But the French have to get behind him and the team at Lansdowne Road."" Following victories over South Africa and Australia in November, France were deemed by many to be the world's leading side. But they were then trounced 45-6 by New Zealand and only just beat Scotland after the Scots had a try disallowed in their Six Nations opener. It then took some woeful spot kicking from Charlie Hodgson and Olly Barkley to help them to victory against England at Twickenham. < Castaignede said: ""You can't say any of those results have eased the pressure on Laporte. ""Had England's kickers not been so bad, the position in the Six Nations would be very different now."" Laporte has been criticised for France's negative tactics in their wins over Scotland and England. But his side played a more free-flowing style against Wales, making a mockery of the opposition's defence in the first half before suffering a shock turnaround in fortunes after the interval. ""All the chat in France has been about how France will play against Ireland,"" said Castaignede ahead of the 12 March tie. ""Everyone wants to see the sort of play we saw against Wales. But everyone also wants a win."" Castaignede, a veteran of 43 international caps, admitted the French would go in as underdogs against Ireland. ""Going to Ireland is never easy but the way they're playing right now, it's harder than ever,"" said Castaignede. ""They're very experienced and don't often lose at home. They've got some great forwards and some electric runners on the break."" Despite praising the Irish he claimed the Welsh had the upper hand in the Six Nations run-in. ""Ireland have such a good pack but Wales are something else on the break,"" he added. ""At the weekend they were simply awesome. As a Frenchman it was disappointing to see, but you had to admire it. ""Their commitment to every cause can make them win this championship."" The 30-year-old also tipped Yann Delaigue to start ahead of Frederic Michalak at number 10 after an impressive display in Paris last weekend. ""Delaigue played really well and admittedly Michalak played well too,"" said Castaignede. ""I'm just glad I'm not the one who has to make the decision.""" +sport,"Veteran Martinez wins Thai title Conchita Martinez won her first title in almost five years with victory over Anna-Lena Groenefeld at the Volvo Women's Open in Pattaya, Thailand. The 32-year-old Spaniard came through 6-3 3-6 6-3 for her first title since Berlin in 2000. ""It feels really good,"" said Martinez, who is playing her last season on the Tour. ""To come through like that in an important match feels good. ""It's been nearly five years and I didn't think I could do it."" Groenefeld was the more powerful player but could not match her opponent's relentless accuracy. ""It was my first final, a new experience,"" said the German. ""I think she played a good match, a tough match, but I tried to stay in there. I think the whole week was good for me.""" +sport,"Fit-again Betsen in France squad France have brought flanker Serge Betsen back into their squad to face England at Twickenham on Sunday. But the player, who missed the victory over Scotland through injury, must attend a disciplinary hearing on Wednesday after being cited by Wasps. ""Serge has a good case so we are confident he will play,"" said France coach Bernard Laporte. The inexperienced Nicolas Mas, Jimmy Marlu and Jean-Philippe Grandclaude are also included in a 22-man squad. The trio have been called up after Pieter de Villiers, Ludovic Valbon and Aurelien Rougerie all picked up injuries in France's 16-9 win on Saturday. Laporte said he was confident that Betsen would be cleared by the panel investigating his alleged trip that broke Wasps centre Stuart Abbott's leg. ""If he was to be suspended, we would call up Imanol Harinordoquy or Thomas Lievremont,"" said Laporte, who has dropped Patrick Tabacco. ""We missed Serge badly against Scotland. He has now recovered from his thigh injury and played on Saturday with Biarritz."" France's regular back-row combination of Betsen, Harinordoquy and Olivier Magne were all missing from France's side at the weekend because of injury. Laporte is expected to announce France's starting line-up on Wednesday. Forwards: Nicolas Mas, Sylvain Marconnet, Olivier Milloud, William Servat, Sebastien Bruno, Fabien Pelous, Jerome Thion, Gregory Lamboley, Serge Betsen, Julien Bonnaire, Sebastien Chabal, Yannick Nyanga. Backs: Dimitri Yachvili, Pierre Mignoni, Frederic Michalak, Yann Delaigue, Damien Traille, Brian Liebenberg, Jean-Philippe Grandclaude, Christophe Dominici, Jimmy Marlu, Pepito Elhorga." +sport,"Mido makes third apology Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam has made another apology to the Egyptian people in an attempt to rejoin the national team. The 21-year-old told a news conference in Cairo on Sunday that he is sorry for the problems that have led to his exclusion from the Pharaohs since July last year. Mido said: ""There isn't much I have to say today, all there is to say is that I came specially from England to Egypt to rejoin the national team and to apologise for all my mistakes."" Mido was axed by former coach Marco Tardelli after failing to answer a national call-up, claiming he had a groin injury. But he then played in a friendly for his club AS Roma within 24 hours of a World Cup qualifying match at home to Cameroon last September. Mido added: ""It's not my right to give orders and say when I want to play ... at the same time I will always make sure that I put the national's team's matches as my top priority. ""I feel that the national players are playing with a new spirit as I saw them play against Belgium (Egypt won 4-0 on Wednesday) and I simply want to add to their success. ""I do confess that I was rude to the Egyptian press at times but now I have gained more experience and know that I will never go anywhere without the press's support. ""Many of the international stars like David Beckham and (Zinedine) Zidane had the press opposing them. ""So I'm now used to the fact that the press can be against me at times and I don't have to overreact when this happens. Meanwhile, Egypt FA spokesman Methat Shalaby welcomed the apology and said no one had exerted pressure on Mido to apologise. ""Mido's apology today does not negatively affect Mido in anyway, on the contrary it makes him a bigger star and a role model for all football players,"" Shalaby said. Shalaby earlier said that after an apology Mido would be available for the national side if coach Hassan Shehata chose him. Mido joined Tottenham in an 18-month loan deal near the end of the January transfer window, scoring twice on his debut against Portsmouth." +sport,"Johnson too strong for GB runners Britain's Kathy Butler and Hayley Yelling were no match for Benita Johnson in the 51st Cross International Zornotza in Amorebieta, Spain. Butler and Yelling finished fourth and fifth as Australian world champion Johnson romped to a five-second victory in the 6km race ahead of Edith Masai. Masai's fellow Kenyan Alice Timbilil finished third. Johnson said: ""I ran comfortably for the first 3km and then I tried to leave the others but it wasn't an easy task."" Butler clocked a time of 22 minutes 45 seconds - 22secs behind the winner but four ahead of Yelling, who last month succeeded Paula Radcliffe as European champion. Johnson, will be one of the star attractions at the Great EdinburghInternational Cross Country on 15 January." +sport,"Wenger dejected as Arsenal slump Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger claimed their display in the 3-1 defeat against Bayern Munich was ""our worst peformance in the Champions League"". Kolo Toure's late goal gives the Gunners hope for the second leg, but Wenger said: ""The only positive is that we are still in the tie. ""The players are really down in the dressing-room. I feel we really turned in a bad performance. ""At 3-0 we faced a real struggle, but 3-1 at least gives us a chance."" Goalscorer Toure was also at fault for two goals, and Wenger said: ""We need to help Toure rebuild his confidence as he is low at the moment."" Wenger also tried to stay upbeat himself, adding: ""But there is enough time for crying. I could cry - maybe it would be easier - but life goes on. ""In this job, you have good and bad nights. This was a bad night - but I still have confidence in the quality of my players, as well as their spirit and desire."" But Wenger's Bayern counterpart Felix Magath was in no mood to celebrate either. He said: ""I am far from happy despite the win. My players failed to try and score a fourth to kill the tie and then conceded the late goal. ""Arsenal are fully capable of scoring several goals against us on their own turf."" Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann, whose personal rivalry with Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn was not helped by the result, said: ""Do I blame myself for the third goal? As a goalkeeper, I always blame myself. ""I just know the goals were very easy against us. In my time here, we have never conceded three easy goals like that - but sometimes it happens. ""It would have been impossible to go through at 3-0 - but with the goal we have chances. Everything is now possible.""" +sport,"Jones files lawsuit against Conte Marion Jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation against Balco boss Victor Conte following his allegations that he gave her performance-enhancing drugs. The Sydney Olympic gold medallist says Conte damaged her reputation and she is seeking $25m (£13m) in the suit. Conte, whose company is at the centre of a doping investigation, made the claims in a US television programme. He and three others were indicted in February by a federal grand jury for a variety of alleged offences. In an email to the Associated Press on Wednesday, Conte said: ""I stand by everything I said"". Jones won three gold medals and two bronzes in Sydney in 2000. Her lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in San Francisco, said the sprinter had passed a lie detector test and that she ""has never taken banned performance-enhancing drugs"". Conte's statements, the suit added, were ""false and malicious"". After the ABC television program earlier this month, Jones' lawyer Richard Nicholls said: ""Marion has steadfastly maintained her position throughout: she has never, ever used performance-enhancing drugs. ""Victor Conte is a man facing a 42-count federal indictment, while Marion Jones is one of America's most decorated female athletes. Mr Conte's statements have been wildly contradictory. ""Mr Conte chose to make unsubstantiated allegations on television, while Marion Jones demanded to take and then passed a lie detector examination. ""Mr Conte is simply not credible. We challenge him to submit to the same lie detector procedure that Marion Jones passed."" The sport's ruling body, the IAAF, is taking a cautious approach to Conte's allegations but contacted the US Anti-Doping Agency. Communications director Nick Davies said the IAAF would seek to contact Conte ""for further information"". But Davies stressed it would be up to the American authorities to decide whether they will take action against Jones in light of Conte's television interview and the world governing body would monitor the situation closely. ""If it is felt there is case to answer, it would be for its national governing body (USA Track and Field) to take the appropriate disciplinary action,"" he added. ""The US Anti-Doping Agency has proved itself to be very diligent in its anti-doping war. ""And I am sure, like ourselves, they will be watching the television programme with great interest."" Jones, who is under investigation for steroid use by the US Anti-Doping Agency, has continually denied ever taking illegal substances since being investigated in the Balco scandal, although she praised a zinc supplement Conte marketed. Jones, who did not win any medals in Athens in August, has never failed a drugs test. Meanwhile, Conte, who has been charged along with three other men of distributing illegal steroids and money laundering, is due to face trial in March." +sport,"Newcastle to join Morientes race Newcastle have joined the race to sign Real Madrid striker Fernando Morientes and scupper Liverpool's bid to snap up the player, according to reports. Liverpool were reported to have bid £3.5m for the 28-year-old Spanish international this week. But the Liverpool Echo newspaper has said Anfield boss Rafa Benitez will avoid a bidding war and instead turn his attentions to Nicolas Anelka. Real are believed to still want £7m before selling Morientes. Monaco are also in the race for the player they had on loan last season. Reports suggest Liverpool will lift their offer to £5m - the highest they are willing to go before bowing out of any deal. On Tuesday, Morientes had said: ""I like Liverpool and I am pleased that a club of their stature want to buy me. I have told Madrid that I want it to happen. ""Madrid know my situation and they know they must do something about me. They must sort out the situation by being sensible. ""I am in a position where I want to play, and I will have to look elsewhere to do that. If Madrid do not want me then it's in the best interests of everyone that they are realistic. ""I haven't spoken to Rafa Benitez but I have always appreciated his work and I would like to play for him. But Benitez could yet turn his attentions to the younger Anelka should Morientes be reluctant to pledge his future to Liverpool. Anelka previously played at Anfield under Gerard Houllier before sealing his permanent switch to Manchester City." +sport,"Healey targets England comeback Leicester wing Austin Healey hopes to use Sunday's return Heineken Cup clash with Wasps as a further springboard to an England recall for the Six Nations. Healey, who won 51 caps prior to the 2003 World Cup, has been in good form in the Tigers' resurgence this season. ""I definitely still have ambitions to play for England,"" Healey told the BBC. ""We will have to see what happens after the previous (autumn) Tests but when I look at the current squad I definitely feel there is a place there for me."" Healey, who has also played both half-back positions and full-back during his career, has reverted to the wing, where he won most of his England caps. After recovering from a trapped nerve in his back sustained at the end of September, the 31-year-old is relishing his role in the Tigers revival. ""I had six weeks out but fortunately I have resumed the sort of form I had before,"" he said. ""I am basically playing where it best suits Leicester. Obviously I can play scrum-half, fly-half or full-back at a moment's notice. ""But playing on the wing actually gives me a bigger free role to come in where I am not expected and influence things."" That has been apparent in parts one and two of the Wasps-Leicester trilogy in recent weeks. First, Healey came off his flank with an angled run to score an injury-time try that earned the Tigers a 17-17 draw in their Premiership meeting on 21 November. Then, in the first of their Heineken cup double header last Sunday, Healey slotted in at stand-off and delivered a superb cross-kick for Martin Corry to score the Tigers' third try. ""I caught 'Cozza's' eye a couple of phases before that and was hoping to get it to him on the full, but fortunately even with the bounce he managed to score,"" Healey recalled. Healey, twice a Heineken Cup winner, believes last Sunday's match was ""up there"" with some of the biggest club contests he has played in. ""It was a very intense occasion and a very destructive game,"" he recalled. ""There was not a huge amount of rugby played but it was a great game to be involved in. ""After about 15 minutes I thought we might stride away with it but Wasps really came back into it and in the last couple of minutes it could have gone either way."" The same outcome this Sunday would put Leicester in pole position to top their Heineken pool with a home game against Biarritz and away trip to Calvisano to come. But Healey insists the Tigers must summon the same desire if they are to deliver the knockout blow in what has been dubbed ""rugby's version of Rocky II"". ""There was a lot of satisfaction in the dressing room aftewards but it is really only a case of a job half done,"" he added. ""It was the first of a two-leg trip and if we lose at Welford Road it will negate all the positives we can take from result. ""I think it came down to who wanted it more and in the end I think we did. We have got to show the same desire again this week.""" +sport,"Moody joins up with England Lewis Moody has flown to Dublin to join England's camp ahead of their RBS Six Nations game against Ireland on Sunday. Despite joining the squad, the Leicester flanker only has a ""slim"" chance of playing because of an infection in his finger. A decision will be taken on Saturday as to whether the 26-year-old will be declared fit. If he fails to recover in time for the game, his place at the back of the pack will be taken by Andy Hazell. Chris Jones will then start the game on the bench. ""The chances of him playing are very slim,"" said coach Andy Robinson. ""The infection is deeper than was thought."" Moody had to be put on a drip in an attempt to force antibiotics through his infected finger. He suffered the cut playing against France at Twickenham and it became infected during a 10-minute outing as a replacement for Leicester against Newcastle last Saturday. ""The mud got into it,"" Robinson added. ""He has had a big course of antibiotics but they haven't done the job we hoped they would."" Robinson has already been forced to make one change to the starting line-up with Bath prop Matt Stevens coming in for the injured Phil Vickery. The 22-year-old has only made 10 starts for his club but has made 49 appearances from the bench. ""It can be frustrating but I've had a lot more game time this season and I'm ready for it,"" Stevens said. ""I've been on tour with these boys and I've been in the England set-up for two years so I know the calls and the way they play."" Stevens will be winning his third cap on Sunday after coming on twice as a replacement on the tour to New Zealand last year. Robinson has confirmed that fly-half Charlie Hodgson will be the first-choice kicker despite his three missed penalties and a drop goal against France. ""Charlie's state of mind is very good,"" said Robinson. ""Obviously, we are all disappointed we lost the French game and the circumstances in which we did. ""But he responded well last week in his goalkicking for Sale and he will be our first-choice kicker this week."" Robinson also admits his side must improve their line-out work against Irish duo Malcolm O'Kelly and Paul O'Connell, one of the most effective partnerships in the game. ""In each game we've missed a number of line-outs,"" he added. ""It cost us the game against Wales but it has improved. ""It was better against France and will have to go up another notch against Ireland. It will be a huge battle. ""Look at the way they tore us apart last year. If it doesn't function, we will be in for a torrid time.""" +sport,"Jones files Conte lawsuit Marion Jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation against Balco boss Victor Conte following his allegations that he gave her performance-enhancing drugs. The Sydney Olympic gold medallist says Conte damaged her reputation and she is seeking $25m (£13m) in the suit. Conte, whose company is at the centre of a doping investigation, made the claims in a US television programme. He and three others were indicted in February by a federal grand jury for a variety of alleged offences. In an email to the Associated Press on Wednesday, Conte said: ""I stand by everything I said"". Jones won three gold medals and two bronzes in Sydney in 2000. Her lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in San Francisco, said the sprinter had passed a lie detector test and that she ""has never taken banned performance-enhancing drugs"". Conte's statements, the suit added, were ""false and malicious"". After the ABC television program earlier this month, Jones' lawyer Richard Nicholls said: ""Marion has steadfastly maintained her position throughout: she has never, ever used performance-enhancing drugs. ""Victor Conte is a man facing a 42-count federal indictment, while Marion Jones is one of America's most decorated female athletes. Mr Conte's statements have been wildly contradictory. ""Mr Conte chose to make unsubstantiated allegations on television, while Marion Jones demanded to take and then passed a lie detector examination. ""Mr Conte is simply not credible. We challenge him to submit to the same lie detector procedure that Marion Jones passed."" The sport's ruling body, the IAAF, is taking a cautious approach to Conte's allegations but contacted the US Anti-Doping Agency. Communications director Nick Davies said the IAAF would seek to contact Conte ""for further information"". But Davies stressed it would be up to the American authorities to decide whether they will take action against Jones in light of Conte's television interview and the world governing body would monitor the situation closely. ""If it is felt there is case to answer, it would be for its national governing body (USA Track and Field) to take the appropriate disciplinary action,"" he added. ""The US Anti-Doping Agency has proved itself to be very diligent in its anti-doping war. ""And I am sure, like ourselves, they will be watching the television programme with great interest."" Jones, who is under investigation for steroid use by the US Anti-Doping Agency, has continually denied ever taking illegal substances since being investigated in the Balco scandal, although she praised a zinc supplement Conte marketed. Jones, who did not win any medals in Athens in August, has never failed a drugs test. Meanwhile, Conte, who has been charged along with three other men of distributing illegal steroids and money laundering, is due to face trial in March." +sport,"Ref stands by Scotland decisions The referee from Saturday's France v Scotland Six Nations match has defended the officials' handling of the game after criticism by Matt Williams. The Scotland coach said his side were robbed of victory by poor decisions made by the officials. But Nigel Williams said: ""I'm satisfied the game was handled correctly."" Meanwhile, Matt Williams will not be punished by the Scottish Rugby Union for allegedly using bad language in his comments about the officials. He denies having done so. Nonetheless, he was furious about several decisions that he felt denied his side a famous victory. But Nigel Williams told the Scottish Daily Mail: ""I spoke to Matt Williams at the post-match dinner. ""He made no mention of the disallowed try or any other refereeing decisions whatsoever. ""If Matt has issues with the match officials, then he is very welcome to phone me and discuss them. ""Ultimately there is a match assessor at every international game to give an impartial and objective view of the performance of the officials. ""That is the beginning and end of it.""" +sport,"Dal Maso in to replace Bergamasco David dal Maso has been handed the task of replacing the injured Mauro Bergamasco at flanker in Italy's team to face Scotland on Saturday. Alessandro Troncon continues at scrum-half despite the return to fitness of Paul Griffen. The experienced Cristian Stoica is recalled at centre at the expense of Walter Pozzebon. ""We are going to Scotland for the first away win and nothing else,"" said manager Marco Bollesan. ""I really believe this is the team who will have all our faith for Saturday's game. ""We lost a player like Mauro Bergamasco who has been important for us, but (coach) John (Kirwan) has put together the best team at present, if not ever. R de Marigny (Parma); Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Francais), C Stoica (Montpellier), A Masi (Viadana), L Nitoglia (Calvisano); L Orquera (Padova), A Troncon (Treviso); A Lo Cicero (L'Aquilla), F Ongaro (Treviso), M Castrogiovanni (Calvisano), S Dellape (Agen), M Bortolami (Narbonne, capt), A Persico (Agen), D dal Maso (Treviso), S Parisse (Treviso). G Intoppa (Calvisano), S Perugini (Calvisano), CA Del Fava (Parma), S Orlando (Treviso), P Griffen (Calvisano), R Pedrazzi (Viadana), K Robertson (Viadana)." +sport,"McCall earns Tannadice reprieve Dundee United manager Ian McCall has won a reprieve from the sack, with chairman Eddie Thompson calling for an end to speculation over his future. It is understood that McCall would have been sacked if Sheffield Wednesday manager Paul Sturrock had been willing to return to Tannadice. But Sturrock has distanced himself from the position. ""We're in a difficult situation. We must get out of it through the efforts of current personnel,"" said Thompson. ""Ian McCall and I have had a long and detailed talk about a number of areas including the current league position and the manner of the exit from the League Cup,"" he added. ""However, the continuing speculation is doing no one any good, especially as we have several crucial games coming up. ""The minds of the coaching staff and the players have to be on those games and those games only. ""Our season would of course improve considerably if in the next few weeks we achieved some improved league results and there is also the potential of another cup semi-final, subject to the draw. ""All that matters at the present time - is us all having a total focus on the games ahead and a positive series of results being achieved."" Dundee United players had expressed their solidarity with McCall after their side's 3-0 Scottish Cup win over Queen of the South. ""We want the boss to stay, we don't want someone else coming in,"" said Jim McIntyre. ""Hopefully now he gets the chance to stay."" Keeper Tony Bullock echoed McIntyre's sentiments. ""I think all the boys are behind Ian McCall,"" he added. ""At the moment it is all speculation and we have got to rise above all that and do a job on the pitch."" On Saturday, Sturrock insisted that he had unfinished business with Wednesday, who are fourth in League One. ""I've only been here five months and I don't expect to be leaving very, very soon,"" he said. ""I can appreciate the rumours because I've emphasised my thoughts and ambitions to go back to Dundee United. ""I can assure you the timescale is not the right one. ""It (Dundee United) is my team. I had five years there as a coach, six as a player, two years as a manager - once you've done that kind of thing, it's the result you look for. ""The important thing now is I've come here to do a job and I'm going to try to finish it.""" +sport,"Real in talks over Gravesen move Real Madrid are closing in on a £2m deal for Everton's Thomas Gravesen after the Dane's agent travelled to Spain to hold talks about a move. John Sivabaek told BBC Sport: ""I'm here to listen to what Real have to say. Nothing has been agreed, but this is a big opportunity for any player."" The 28-year-old's contract expires in the summer, but Real want a quick deal. Sivabaek added: ""I will be meeting Real on Wednesday. There is serious interest, but it is Everton's hands."" Everton must decide whether to cash in now on the Denmark midfield man, or risk losing him for nothing in the summer. Manager David Moyes has defiantly claimed that he expects Gravesen to still be at Everton when the transfer window closes at the end of January. Moyes said: ""I speak to Tommy regularly and we know where we are at. ""There's been no contact. We don't want to lose him."" Real Madrid general manager Arrigo Sacchi is the driving force behind the move, convincing vice-president Emilio Butragueno and new coach Wanderley Luxemburgo that Gravesen is the right man for the Bernabeu. Everton must weigh up whether it is worth taking the money on offer for Real and risk their own ambitions for European football. Gravesen has been outstanding as Everton have established themselves in the Premiership's top four this season." +sport,"Wenger signs new deal Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has signed a new contract to stay at the club until May 2008. Wenger has ended speculation about his future by agreeing a long-term contract that takes him beyond the opening of Arsenal's new stadium in two years. He said: ""Signing a new contract just rubber-stamps my desire to take this club forward and fulfil my ambitions. ""I still have so much to achieve and my target is to drive this club on. These are exciting times for Arsenal."" The 55-year-old Frenchman told Arsenal's website www.arsenal.com: ""My intention has always been clear. I love this club and am very happy here."" Wenger has won the title and the FA Cup three times each during his reign. Chairman Peter Hill-Wood said: ""We are absolutely delighted that Arsene has signed an extension to his contract. ""Since his arrival in 1996, he has revolutionised the club both on and off the pitch. ""As well as the six major honours he's won during his time here, Arsene has been a leading influence behind all the major initiatives at the club including the construction of our new training centre and also our new stadium. ""The club has continued to reap the benefits of Arsene's natural eye for unearthing footballing talent. ""We currently have a fantastic crop of young players coming through the ranks together with a number of world-class players who are playing a wonderful brand of football."" Meanwhile, Arsenal director Danny Fiszman is looking for Wenger to stay beyond 2008. ""When we come towards the end of his contract we will both review the situation. I'm sure we will want him to stay on and I hope he will too,"" said Fiszman." +sport,"Murphy: That was a bruising battle That's what I call a tough game. It was very physical and fair play to the Italians they made us work very hard for our victory. Their organisation was very, very good and they proved again that they are getting better and better as the years go by. It is by far the strongest Italian team that we have faced. We knew all along that we would be a huge threat particularly the first game in the Championship. It was not like the days gone by when you could get scores on the board early. We had to work our socks off and try and build our scores gradually. It was really hard work out there and the players have plenty of bumps and bruises to prove it. I'm not too bad, but there are one or two others who will be feeling it a bit on Monday morning. In the backs, we were not frustrated at such, but the new rucking laws were a little bit problematical. The different interpretations between the referee and the players was a little difficult. But we managed to get the ball in our hands and I got a try near the end of the first half. It's always good to score. It was great work by Brian and I always knew I had scored even though it went upstairs to the video referee. Eddie (O'Sullivan) was very calm at half-time even though we were only 8-6 ahead. He spelled out what we needed to do and advocated getting the ball out of our own territory. That new ruck law made it a bit more difficult to get out of our own half. We were penalised a lot at the breakdown, and if they had kicked all their chances at goal we would have been behind at the break. So really we went back to playing a territory game and simplifying things and having more patience on the ball. Every one was a little down after the game following the injuries to Brian and Gordon. As yet we do not know the full extent of the injuries, but it does not that good. Now we have to focus on Scotland and only six days to recover. It's a big ask after such a bruising encounter. I was very impressed the way the Scots played against the French on Saturday. It could so easily have gone their way but for a couple of decisions. We will be under no illusions it is going to be tough for us. In the meantime, when in Rome ... ." +sport,"Bortolami predicts dour contest Italy skipper Marco Bortolami believes Saturday's Six Nations contest against Scotland will be a scrappy encounter. With both sides looking for their first win of the championship, the third-round game at Murrayfield has been billed as a wooden-spoon decider. And Bortolami feels the Edinburgh contest could end up being a bruising battle of the packs. ""It will not be a pretty game because both teams are desperate to gain their first win,"" said the lock forward. Italy have only recorded three wins since they joined the Six Nations in 2000, but two of those have come against Scotland. This year, Italy opened up with a stubborn display against Ireland but ended up losing 28-17. However, they were thoroughly outplayed by an impressive Welsh side in Rome last time out. Now the Italians travel to Edinburgh hoping to claim their first away win in the Six Nations. ""Scotland played extremely well against France in Paris but not so well when Ireland came to Edinburgh,"" said Bortolami. ""We are still very disappointed with our last game against Wales in Rome and we are thoroughly determined to right the wrongs. ""As a nation, our quest is to be respected as a team worthy of a place in this tournament and we can only do this by winning games.""" +sport,"Man Utd stroll to Cup win Wayne Rooney made a winning return to Everton as Manchester United cruised into the FA Cup quarter-finals. Rooney received a hostile reception, but goals in each half from Quinton Fortune and Cristiano Ronaldo silenced the jeers at Goodison Park. Fortune headed home after 23 minutes before Ronaldo scored when Nigel Martyn parried Paul Scholes' free-kick. Marcus Bent missed Everton's best chance when Roy Carroll, who was later struck by a missile, saved at his feet. Rooney's return was always going to be a potential flashpoint, and he was involved in an angry exchange with a spectator even before kick-off. And Rooney's every touch was met with a deafening chorus of jeers from the crowd that once idolised the 19-year-old. Everton started brightly and Fortune needed to be alert to scramble away a header from Bent near the goal-line. But that was the cue for United to take complete control with a supreme passing display on a Goodison Park pitch that was cutting up. Fortune gave United the lead after 23 minutes, rising to meet Ronaldo's cross from eight yards after the Portuguese youngster had been allowed too much time and space by the hapless Gary Naysmith. United dominated without creating too many clear-cut chances, and they almost paid the price for not making the most of their domination two minutes before half-time. Mikel Arteta played a superb ball into the area but Bent, played onside by Gabriel Heintze, hesitated and Carroll plunged at his fee to save. United almost doubled their lead after 48 minutes when Ronaldo's low drive from 25 yards took a deflection off Tony Hibbert, but Martyn dived to save brilliantly. And Martyn came to Everton's rescue three minutes later when Rooney's big moment almost arrived as he raced clean through, but once again the veteran keeper was in outstanding form. But there was nothing Martyn could do when United doubled their lead after 57 minutes as they doubled their advantage. Scholes' free-kick took a deflection, and Martyn could only parry the ball out for Ronaldo, who reacted first to score easily. Everton's problems worsened when James McFadden limped off with an injury. And there may be further trouble ahead for Everton after goalkeeper Carroll required treatment after he was struck on the head by a missile thrown from behind the goal. Rooney's desperate search for a goal on his return to Everton was halted again by Martyn in injury-time when he outpaced Stubbs, but once again Martyn denied the England striker. - Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson: ""It was a fantastic performance by us. In fairness I think Everton have missed a couple of players and got some young players out. ""The boy Ronaldo is a fantastic player. He's persistent and never gives in. ""I don't know how many fouls he had He gets up and wants the ball again, he's truly a fabulous player."" Everton: Martyn, Hibbert, Yobo, Stubbs, Naysmith, Osman, Carsley, Arteta, Kilbane, McFadden, Bent. Subs: Wright, Pistone, Weir, Plessis, Vaughan. Manchester United: Carroll, Gary Neville, Brown, Ferdinand, Heinze, Ronaldo, Phil Neville, Keane, Scholes, Fortune, Rooney. Subs: Howard, Giggs, Smith, Miller, Spector. Referee: R Styles (Hampshire)" +sport,"Dallaglio eyeing Lions tour place Former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio still harbours hopes of a place on the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand. Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward has made it clear he will pick his squad to tour next summer based on form shown in the Six Nations championship. But Dallaglio, who called time on England earlier this year, said: ""I assure you I wouldn't let anyone down. ""I know what it takes and what I have to offer,"" he told the Daily Telegraph. Dallaglio toured South Africa with the Lions in 1997 but was forced home early with a knee injury from the trip to Australia three years ago. The 32-year-old also felt concentrating on club rugby could have prolonged his international shelf-life. He said: ""I'll be in good shape and fresh without another 10 Tests on the clock. ""From what I witnessed at close quarters on Sunday in our Heineken Cup match against Leicester, I certainly didn't feel out of place alongside those players, many of whom will be on the trip. ""If I'm fit and playing well, then I'm most certainly available. ""If Clive feels he has no need to look outside the international crop, then fine. If he does, then he won't need to look too far, will he?""" +sport,"What now for Kelly Holmes? Last April, Kelly Holmes spoke to the BBC Sport website about her loneliness, her fight to stay fit and her decision not to contest both the 800m and 1500m at the Olympics. It just goes to show even the most meticulous and measured athletes cannot predict what fate has in store for them. Four months later, Holmes stormed to double Olympic gold and has since been made a Dame, won the BBC Sport Personality of the Year and written a book whilst still finding time to coach aspiring athletes. With so much time spent in the spotlight, Holmes has increasingly dropped hints that her ambition on the track has begun to wilt. And when asked about her plans for both the indoor and outdoor seasons ahead, the 34-year-old has repeatedly chosen to tick the ""don't know"" box. Holmes has now pulled out of this weekend's European Indoor Championships, where she was selected for both the 800m and 1500m, because of a hamstring injury. But should we be surprised if the Olympic champion over both those distances decides she just does not feel like racing anymore? ""Well, it's a lot easier being the double Olympic champion, being feted by everybody, than training to be at the top in middle distance running,"" points out former Olympian and BBC pundit Steve Cram. ""You have to have a real strong desire to carry on doing it even if you're very talented."" Holmes' drive and determination have always been unquestionable - that is the reason she has battled back from a string of injuries that threatened to see her finish her career empty-handed. But alarm bells start ringing when the Kent athlete begins questioning herself. ""Will I have as much commitment, desire and energy to go through a major championship?"" Holmes asked in the New Year. ""That is what I don't know."" At 34, Holmes will also be aware that time is running out. US 400m and 200m legend Michael Johnson, a five-time Olympic gold medallist, retired shortly after his 34th birthday as did Britain's double Olympic champion decathlete Daley Thompson. The physical demands of the day-to-day grind will only get harder for Holmes, who has already admitted she ""doesn't like the training anymore."" Whilst out on the circuit the allure of defeating a double Olympic champion will spur her opponents on. Holmes will not want to needlessly suffer the indignity of being beaten. Unless she is certain she has a strong chance of winning any race, she will not step onto the track. But if the Kent athlete finds the form that fuelled her ambitions last summer, there are more prizes up for grabs. The day after completing her double in Athens, the 34-year-old revealed she would still like to win her first indoors title. Holmes' wish could easily be met in Madrid before she goes on to prepare for the outdoor season where there are still scores to be settled, such as a first gold at the World Championships in Helsinki. There is just one small truth which could gnaw away at Holmes' motivation - the realisation that no matter how hard she trains, nothing she wins now can surpass her achievements in Athens. On the other hand, if those achievements cannot be matched shouldn't they be at least shared and celebrated? ""You don't get the chance very often in your career to step onto the track as the double Olympic champion,"" agreed Cram. ""You want to be able to take your bow in front of the fans because it's a fantastic feeling. ""I think deep down Kelly wants to run. I think she will compete and run races on the circuits but whether or not she runs in the major championships is much less certain."" Athletics fans had every reason to believe they would see the new-look Kelly Holmes tearing up the track again. After her Olympic glory she emphatically denied she planned to retire. So, why is Holmes dragging her heels about making a decision on where, when or whether to even bother competing again? ""That's just Kelly,"" explains Cram. ""She's always been like that. ""She enjoys people trying to guess what she is going to do next. She knows every time she makes a pronouncement now it's headline news. ""Kelly has to figure out for herself what it is she wants and that will be based on athletics decisions, whether she can be competitive, if she is fit enough to put her neck on the line. ""And if she decides not to run again, no-one is going to turn round and say 'you're making the wrong decision.'""" +sport,"Moya emotional at Davis Cup win Carlos Moya described Spain's Davis Cup victory as the highlight of his career after he beat Andy Roddick to end the USA's challenge in Seville. Moya made up for missing Spain's 2000 victory through injury by beating Roddick 6-2 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-5) to give the hosts an unassailable 3-1 lead. ""I have woken up so many nights dreaming of this day,"" said Moya. ""All my energy has been focused on today. ""What I have lived today I do not think I will live again."" Spain's only other Davis Cup title came two years ago in Valencia, when they beat Australia. And Moya, nicknamed Charly, admitted: ""The Davis Cup is my dream and I was a bit nervous at the outset. ""Some people have said that I am obsessed but I think that it is better this way. It helps me reach my goals if I am obsessed. ""It's really incredible - to get the winning point is really something."" Spanish captain Jordi Arrese said: ""Charly played a great game. It was his opportunity and he hasn't let us down. ""He had lost three times to Roddick, and this was his day to beat him. ""He had been waiting years to be in this position."" Spain's victory was also remarkable for the performance of Rafael Nadal, who beat Roddick in the opening singles. Aged 18 years and 185 days, the Mallorcan became the youngest player to win the Davis Cup. ""What a great way to finish the year,"" said Nadal afterwards. US coach Patrick McEnroe wants Roddick and the rest of his team to play more tennis on clay and hone their skills on the surface. ""I think it will help these guys even on slow hard courts to learn how to mix things up a little bit and to play a little bit smarter and tactically better."" ""Obviously it's unrealistic to say that we're going to just start playing constantly on clay, with the schedule. ""But certainly I think we can put the work in at the appropriate time and play a couple more events and play against these guys who are the best on this stuff,"" said McEnroe. Roddick was left frustrated after losing both his singles on the slow clay of Seville's Olympic Stadium. ""It's just tough because I felt like I was in it the whole time against one of the top three clay-courters in the world,"" said the American. ""I had my chances and just didn't convert them. The bottom line is they were just better than us this weekend. ""They came out, took care of business and they beat us. It's as simple as that.""" +sport,"Candela completes Bolton switch Bolton boss Sam Allardyce has signed Roma defender Vincent Candela on a five-month deal. The 31-year-old former France international gave his last press conference as a Roma player on Monday, anouncing his move to Bolton. ""I have signed a five-month contract with Bolton,"" said Candela, who will travel to England on Tuesday. ""In June I will decide whether to continue to play for Bolton or retire from professional football."" Allardyce hopes Candela's arrival will relieve Bolton's injury crisis after defender Nicky Hunt limped out injured during Oldham's 1-0 win against Oldham in the FA Cup on Sunday. ""In light of what has happened to Nicky Hunt, with his injury, it might be a blessing in disguise that we can bring in a highly-experienced full-back to help with our injuries at the back,"" Allardyce said. ""He has an outstanding pedigree in the game and has won honours at the highest level including the World Cup in 1998. ""He has not played regular football this year but is eager to impress in the Premiership. ""He can play in any position at the back and despite him being predominately right-footed he has played the majority of his career at left-back."" Candela, who was a member of the Roma side that won the title in 2001, has made only seven league appearances this season for Luigi del Neri's side." +sport,"Disappointed Scott in solid start Allan Scott is confident of winning a medal at next week's European Indoor Championships after a solid debut on the international circuit. The 22-year-old Scot finished fourth in the 60m hurdles at the Jose M Cagigal Memorial meeting in Madrid. ""It was definitely a learning curve and I certainly haven't ruled out challenging for a medal next week,"" said the East Kilbride athlete. The race was won by Felipe Vivancos, who equalled the Spanish record. Sweden's Robert Kronberg was second, with Haiti's Dudley Dorival in third. Scott was slightly disappointed with his run in the final. He won his heat in 7.64secs but ran 0.04secs slower in his first IAAF Indoor Grand Prix circuit final. ""I should have done better than that,"" he said. ""I felt I could have won it. I got a poor start - but I still felt I should have ran faster."" Vivancos slashed his personal best to equal the Spanish record with a time of 7.60secs while Kronberg and Dorival clocked 7.62secs and 7.63secs respectively." +sport,"Man City 0-2 Man Utd Manchester United reduced Chelsea's Premiership lead to nine points after a scrappy victory over Manchester City. Wayne Rooney met Gary Neville's cross to the near post with a low shot, which went in via a deflection off Richard Dunne, to put United ahead. Seven minutes later, the unfortunate Dunne hooked a volley over David James' head and into his own net. Steve McManaman wasted City's best chance when he shot wide from three yards in the first half. In the opening 45 minutes United had looked unlikely to earn the win they needed to maintain any chance of catching Chelsea in the title race. Their approach play was more laboured than patient and they managed to fashion just one chance - a Paul Scholes header over the bar. And City seemed to be content to sit back and try and hit their rivals on the break as the game settled into a tepid pattern. Only Shaun Wright-Phillips appeared capable of interrupting the monotony, looking lively down the right and causing Gabriel Heinze problems. Wes Brown also found Wright-Phillips to be a difficult opponent when the tricky winger embarrassed him near the touchline. Wright-Phillips' sublime skill and pace took him past Brown and he delivered a pin-point centre to the feet of McManaman. But the former Liverpool player demonstrated why he has never scored against United by side-footing the easy chance wide. John O'Shea was forced off after an earlier clash with Sylvain Distin and Cristiano Ronaldo came on to replace him. He immediately caused Ben Thatcher some discomfort and looked set to inject some much-needed pace into the United attack. Rooney was being well marshalled by Dunne - but that was all about to change. After the break, United poured forward and there was a renewed urgency about their play. And when Neville delivered a cross in a carbon copy of City's best first-half chance, Rooney showed McManaman how to do it - even if he needed the help of Dunne's leg. Worse was to come for Dunne, who had been having a fine match. On 75 minutes, he scored a horrible own goal when attempting to volley clear Rooney's cross and United seemed home and dry. However, City did fight back and Fowler missed another great chance from close range. And United keeper Roy Carroll saved well from Kiki Musampa. But United could have a had a third late on when substitute Ryan Giggs hit the post. - Manchester City boss Kevin Keegan: ""We had a great chance to take the lead and the first goal was always going to be crucial. ""We started off with a good tempo but then we allowed them to dictate the pace a bit too much. ""But we still had four good chances, two after we'd gone 2-0 down, the one McManaman missed was very similar to the one Wayne Rooney scored from."" - Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson: ""It wasn't our best performance of the last three months but I think we're deserved winners. ""At times, especially in the first half, we didn't play with enough speed. But with (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Ryan) Giggs on, the speed improved. ""Derby games can be like that, they can be scrappy, dull, horrible and it was maybe like that."" Man City: James, Mills (Bradley Wright-Phillips 83), Dunne, Distin, Thatcher, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Barton (Macken 68), Sibierski, McManaman, Musampa, Fowler. Subs Not Used: Weaver, Onuoha, Flood. Booked: Fowler, Sibierski. Man Utd: Carroll, Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Heinze, O'Shea (Ronaldo 33), Keane, Fortune, Fletcher (Giggs 64), Rooney, Scholes (Phil Neville 84). Subs Not Used: Howard, Bellion. Booked: Rooney, Scholes, Keane. Goals: Rooney 68, Dunne 75 og. Att: 47,111 Ref: S Bennett (Kent)." +sport,"2004: An Irish Athletics Year 2004 won't be remembered as one of Irish athletics' great years. The year began with that optimism which invariably and unaccountably, seems to herald an upcoming Olympiad. But come late August, a few hot days in the magnificent stadium in Athens told us of the true strength of Irish athletics - or to be more accurate, the lack of it. Sonia O'Sullivan's Olympic farewell apart, there was little to stir the emotions of Irish athletics watchers. But after the disastrous build-up to the games, we shouldn't have been surprised. At the start of the year, an O'Sullivan had been earmarked as Ireland's best medal prospect but as it turned out, walker Gillian never even made it to the start line because of injury. Less than a week before the Olympics, the sport was rocked by news that 10,000m hope Cathal Lombard had tested for the banned substance EPO. Lombard's shattering of Mark Carroll's national 10,000m record in April had already set tongues wagging but even the most cynical of observers, were surprised when he was rumbled after an Irish Sports Council sting operation. The Corkman quickly held his hands up in admission and was promptly handed a two-year ban from the sport. Back at pre-Olympic ranch in Greece, it must have seemed that things couldn't have got any worse but they very nearly did with walker Jamie Costin lucky to escape with his life after being involved in a car crash near Athens. Once the track and field action began in Athens, a familiar pattern of underachievement emerged although Alistair Cragg's performance in being the only athlete from a European nation to qualify for the 5,000m final did offer hope for the future. Our beloved Sonia scraped into the women's 5K final as a fastest loser and for a couple of days, the country attempted to delude itself into believing that she might be in the medal shake-up. As it happened, she went out the back door early in the final although there was nothing undignified about the way that she insisted on finishing the race over a minute behind winner Meseret Defar. It later transpired that Sonia had been suffering from a stomach bug in the 48 hours before the final although typically, the Cobhwoman played down the effects of the illness. Amazingly, she was back in action a couple of weeks later when beating a world-class field at the Flora Lite 5K road race in London and while her major championship days may be over, it's unlikely that we have seen the last of her in competition. At least Sonia managed to make it to Athens. At the start of the year, several Northern Ireland athletes had genuine hopes of qualifying for the Games but come August, an out-of-form and injured Paul Brizzel was the lone standard bearer for the province. The Ballymena man gave it a lash but his achilles problem, and a bad lane draw, meant a time of 21.00 and an early exit. James McIlroy, Gareth Turnbull, Zoe Brown and Paul McKee all had to be content with watching the Athens action on their television screens. 800m hope McIlroy never got near his best during the summer and a fourth place in the British trials effectively ended his hopes of making the plane. The injury-plagued Turnbull gamely travelled round Europe in search of the 1500m qualifying mark but 3:39 was the best he could achieve, after missing several months training during the previous winter. A lingering hamstring probem and a virus wrecked McKee's Athens ambitions and both he and Turnbull deserve a slice of better fortune in 2005. Pole vaulter Brown had hoped for a vote of confidence from the British selectors after she had achieved the Athens B standard but the call never came. As the summer ended, stalwarts Catherina McKiernan and Dermot Donnelly hung up their competitive spikes. McKiernan had to candidly acknowledge that time had crept up on her after several injury-ravaged years. Donnelly and his Annadale Striders team-mates later suffered tragedy when their friend and clubman Andy Campbell was found dead at his home on 18 December. A large turnout of athletics-loving folk turned out in west Belfast to offer their respects to the Campbell family and Andy's many friends. As only death can, it put the year's athletics happenings in a sharp perspective." +sport,"White prepared for battle Tough-scrummaging prop Julian White is expecting a resurgent Wales to give him a rough ride in England's Six Nations opener in Cardiff on Saturday. The Leicester tight-head is in the form of his life, making the England number three shirt his own. But he knows Wales will put his technique under immense scrutiny. ""The Welsh scrum is a force to be reckoned with,"" he told BBC Sport. ""They have made a lot of changes for the better over the last few years."" White is also impressed with the Welsh pack's strength in depth. ""Gethin Jenkins is starting at loose-head for them. He has played a bit at tight-head but I think his favoured position is loose-head and he is very good,"" he added. The 31-year-old has made a massive contribution to the England and Leicester cause of late and is arguably the form tight-head prop in the world. He destroyed South Africa's Os du Randt in the scrum at Twickenham last autumn to give England the platform for an impressive 32-16 victory. Leicester, who signed White from Bristol when the West Country side were relegated from the Zurich Premiership in the summer of 2003, have also been aided by White's presence this season. The Tigers are sitting pretty at the top of the Premiership table and have also booked their place in the last eight of the Heineken Cup. ""I am pleased with my form,"" he said. ""But my form is helped by the people I play with at Leicester - people like Martin Johnson and Graham Rowntree. ""It's been a good season so far and to be in the starting XV for the first game of the Six Nations is what every player wants. ""I am delighted with the way things have gone but we have to get it right this weekend."" White is now one of the more experienced members of the England squad which takes to the field on Saturday. Injuries have taken their toll and coach Andy Robinson has been deprived of Richard Hill, Jonny Wilkinson, Martin Corry, Mike Tindall, Will Greenwood and Stuart Abbott. And with 27 caps and a World Cup winner's medal to his name, White is now in a position to offer his experience to youngsters such as centres Matthew Tait and Jamie Noon. ""I don't know how much experience a tight-head can give a centre but you are there to give them a pat on the back if things go wrong or to be there if they want to talk in any way,"" he added. ""When I first came into the squad, people like Jason Leonard and Martin Johnson were the first to come over and talk through things and help out. ""It gives you a lot of confidence when people like that speak to you. ""I was in awe of a lot of them so to sit down and speak with them and realise you are on the same wavelength is good."" White missed the vast majority of last year's Six Nations because of a knee injury and is raring for the 2005 event to get going. And that is despite the opening game taking place amid the red-hot atmosphere in Cardiff. ""I enjoy the atmosphere. The Millennium Stadium is probably one of the best stadiums in the world,"" he said. ""To go down there and hear the shouting and the singing - it's one of my favourite places to play. ""This is probably the most even Six Nations for a long time. England, Ireland, France and Wales are all contenders. ""On form, Ireland should be favourites but you just don't know - that's the great thing about this tournament.""" +sport,"Johnson accuses British sprinters Former Olympic champion Michael Johnson has accused Britain's top sprinters of lacking pride and ambition. ""At the moment, the biggest factor on the mind of British sprinters is to be number one in Britain,"" the world 200m and 400m record holder told Five Live. ""Athletics at the moment is all about international competitions and they need to show a little more pride."" However, Linford Christie countered: ""It's easy to criticise when you haven't gone through the system here."" Johnson was involved in a verbal spat with Britain's Darren Campbell earlier this year. The American had cast doubt on Campbell's claims he had torn a hamstring in the wake of his failure to reach the Olympic 100m and 200m finals. And the American remains highly critical of aspects of British sprinting. ""The only time you see British sprinters getting upset or riled is when there is a debate as to which one is better than the other,"" he claimed. ""Athletes here have to compete more outside the UK. Their focus has to be on being the best in the world and not just on being the top British sprinter."" Speaking at an elite coaches' conference in Birmingham, Johnson also argued that although there has been more investment in the sport in Britain, it had not necessarily reaped the rewards. ""You can't fix everything with money,"" he admitted. ""You contrast the situation here to that of some US athletes who have no funding. ""Those who aren't funded might be hungrier and more motivated because their road to success is a lot more difficult and challenging. ""So when they get to the top they are more appreciative.""" +sport,"Republic to face China and Italy The Republic of Ireland have arranged friendlies against China and Italy which will take place at Lansdowne Road in March and August. Brian Kerr's side will face the 54th ranked Chinese on 29 March - just three days after the World Cup qualifier against Israel in Tel Aviv. Italy will visit on 17 August in what will be a warm-up game ahead of the autumn World Cup qualifiers. In their last meeting, the Irish beat Italy in the 1994 World Cup Finals. However, that is the Republic's only victory in eight attempts against the Italians who have won all the other seven games. The 29 March game will be the second time the Republic have played China - the previous encounter back in June 1984 with the Irish winning 1-0 in Sapporo, Japan. Brian Kerr said: ""China have made great progress over the last few years and will provide difficult opposition. ""We all witnessed the performances of the Asian teams in the last World Cup, and China play a similar type of football. ""As for Italy, they make a welcome return to Dublin and will be a massive attraction because they are one of the great traditional powers in the world. ""The game will be ideal preparation for the three important World Cup qualifiers in the autumn."" Ireland round off their World Cup campaign with games against France on 7 September, Cyprus on 8 October and Switzerland on 12 October." +sport,"Capriati to miss Melbourne Jennifer Capriati has become the third leading lady to withdraw from the Australian Open because of injury. The organisers of the first grand slam of 2005, which begins on 17 January, said the American has a problem with her right shoulder. It comes as a blow to the women's draw as last year's champion, Justin Henin-Hardenne, and runner-up, Kim Clijsters, will also be absent. Capriati is a two-time champion in Melbourne with wins in 2001 and 2002. She is believed to have picked up the injury at the Advanta Championships at Philadelphia in November and had to pull out of an exhibition match with Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova on 17 December. Capriati also decided against competing in the Australian Open warm-up event, the Sydney International." +sport,"Can Smith work Scottish wonders? The worst kept secret in Scottish football was revealed on Thursday when Walter Smith was named as the new national manager. From the moment Berti Vogts' miserable tenure in charge of Scotland ended, the former Rangers and Everton boss has been the overwhelming favourite for the post. But is Smith the man for what must be one of the hardest jobs in football? The 56-year-old takes over at a time when the national side is in the doldrums. Scotland have not reached a major finals since the World Cup in 1998 and reaching Germany 2006 looks near impossible, having picked up just two points from the opening three games in the qualifying race. And the Fifa rankings see Scotland listed at an all time low of 77th, below the likes of Estonia, Ghana, Angola and Thailand. Scotland are not blessed with quality players with experience at the top level, so Smith will have to get the best out of meagre resources. Smith's track record make impressive reading and he is widely respected within the game. The man who was Alex Ferguson's assistant when Scotland played at the 1986 World Cup won seven league titles with Rangers. And his appointment has been widely endorsed by many of the games' top names, including Ferguson and Graeme Souness, who took him to Ibrox as his assistant in 1986. Characters like Souness, Ferguson and current Ibrox manager Alex McLeish all cite Smith's experience and his expansive knowledge of the Scottish game. Much was made of Vogts' inability to express himself to the players and media. That will certainly not be the case with Smith. The former Dundee United and Dumbarton full-back is from the managerial old school - straight talking and never slow to let players know when he expects better (often with the use of some colourful invective). But it should be remembered Vogts came to Scotland with an impressive curriculum vitae - a World Cup winner as a player and a European Championships winner as a manager. Smith will inherit the same problems Vogts had - a callow squad of players with no exceptional talents. And it remains to be seen if Smith will experience the rash of call-offs that blighted so much of Vogts' preparation work. A fresh start for the Scottish national team was imperative and Smith is widely regarded as a safe pair of hands. But will a safe pair of hands be enough when the adroit hands of a magician might be required..." +sport,"Premier League planning Cole date The Premier League is attempting to find a mutually convenient date to investigate allegations Chelsea made an illegal approach for Ashley Cole. Both Chelsea and Arsenal will be asked to give evidence to a Premier League commission, but no deadline has been put on when that meeting will convene. ""It's hard to put a date on it,"" a Premier League spokesman confirmed to BBC Sport. ""It's not a formal situation where they've got so much time to respond."" Arsenal and England defender Cole reportedly met Blues boss Jose Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon in a London hotel 11 days ago. Chelsea have yet to officially confirm or deny the meeting, which would be in breach of Premier League rule K3. Now the Gunners have asked for an inquiry to look into claims that their player has been ""tapped up"". Both clubs have pledged to co-operate with the inquiry which will be conducted on a single day as opposed to being run as an ongoing evaluation. Cole is in negotiations with the Gunners over extending his current deal which ends in 2007. And his Arsenal team-mate Robert Pires has urged the England left-back to stay at Highbury. Pires told the Evening Standard: ""He has been at Arsenal for ever. He is a very attacking left-back and I think he is enjoying his football because at Arsenal he plays in an offensive team. ""I am not sure he will get the same pleasure at Chelsea, even though they are doing so well at the moment. ""I have built a fantastic playing relationship with Ashley. ""We play together so well - we could do it with our eyes shut. ""But you have to respect the decision of the player. Everybody has that right.""" +sport,"African double in Edinburgh World 5000m champion Eliud Kipchoge won the 9.2km race at the View From Great Edinburgh Cross Country. The Kenyan, who was second when Newcastle hosted the race last year, was in front from the outset. Ethiopian duo Gebre Gebremariam and Dejene Berhanu made last-gasp efforts to overtake him, but Kipchoge responded and a burst of speed clinched victory. Gavin Thompson was the first Briton in 12th place while Nick McCormick held of his British rivals to win the 4km race. The Morpeth Harrier led from the end of the first lap and ended Mike Skinner and Andrew Baddeley's hopes with a surge in the lasp lap. ""My training has gone so well I wasn't really worried about the opposition asI knew I was in great shape,"" said McCormick, who now hopes to earn a 1,500m place in the British team for the World Championships in Helsinki. In the women's race, Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba won a battle with world cross country champion Benita Johnson to retain her title. Australian Johnson, who shocked her African rivals in Brussels last March, looked to be on course for another win in the 6.2km race. But world 5000m champion Dibaba make a telling strike for the finishing line in the final 20 metres. Britons Kathy Butler and Hayley Yelling were out of contention early on." +sport,"Clyde 0-5 Celtic Celtic brushed aside Clyde to secure their place in the Scottish Cup semi-final, but only after a nervy and testing first half. The home side's Craig Bryson had a goal chopped off before Stan Varga headed Celtic into the lead. Alan Thompson scored from the penalty spot at the start of the second half after Shaun Maloney had been fouled. Stilian Petrov slid in a third, Varga tapped in his second and Craig Bellamy completed the rout with a fine drive. Bryn Halliwell was the busier keeper early on, saving from Bellamy, Chris Sutton and Juninho. Clyde had the ball in the net after half-an-hour through a tremendous strike from Bryson, but the referee had already blown for a foul by Petrov. From the resulting free kick, Darren Sheridan curled the ball round the Celtic wall only for the post to deny him. Back at the other end, Halliwell did well to come off his line and block Bellamy's effort to lift the ball over him. The keeper misjudged a corner that Stephane Henchoz headed wide, but a similar scenario five minutes before the break led to the opening goal. The ball was delivered from the left and Halliwell was left floundering as Varga glanced the ball into the net. Maloney replaced the injured Sutton at half time and he marked his first competitive appearance after a year out injured by helping his side take a two-goal lead just after the break. The young striker fired a free kick straight into the Clyde wall but as he collected the rebound, he was tripped by Bryson and Thompson converted the penalty. Sheridan and Bellamy were involved in something of a flare-up that led to both being booked after the intervention of the assistant referee. Juninho brought out another good save from Halliwell and then Petrov saw a tremendous effort come off the top of the bar. But Petrov and Juninho combined brilliantly to allow the Bulgarian to make it 3-0 on the hour mark - a quick one-two giving him the time and space to steer the ball past Halliwell from 12 yards. Varga got his second goal of the game as Celtic drove home their advantage - Thompson whipped in a corner from the right and the unmarked defender simply tapped the ball over the line from a couple of yards out. Celtic were utterly dominant by this stage and Bellamy opened his scoring account for the club after a fine move involving Aiden McGeady, Jackie McNamara and Maloney culminated in the Welshman hammering the ball into the net. Halliwell kept the deficit at five by pushing a McGeady shot wide as the game petered out. Halliwell, Mensing, Bollan, Balmer, Potter, Sheridan (Burns 61), Arbuckle (Gilhaney 61), Gibson, Bryson (Jones 78), Malone, Harty. Morrison, Wilson. Mensing, Sheridan. Douglas, Henchoz, McNamara, Balde, Varga, Juninho Paulista, Thompson, Lennon (Lambert 70), Sutton (Maloney 45), Petrov (McGeady 70), Bellamy. Marshall, Laursen. Thompson, Bellamy. : Varga 40, Thompson 48 pen, Petrov 60, Varga 68, Bellamy 72. 8,200 C Thomson" +sport,"Johansson takes Adelaide victory Second seed Joachim Johansson won his second career title with a 7-5 6-3 win over Taylor Dent at the Australian hardcourt championships in Adelaide. The Swede was made to graft, American Dent surviving three break points in the fifth game of the match. But Johansson got the breakthrough with a sublime backhand return winner and won the second set with more ease. His first tournament win was at Memphis in 2004, helping him leap from 113th in the world rankings to number 11. Afterwards, Dent said he rated US Open semi-finalist Johansson as a top contender at the Australian Open, which starts on 17 January. ""I believe men's tennis is all about holding serve and if he's playing like that on his own serve I don't see how guys are going to break him,"" said Dent. Johansson was more restrained in his assessment: ""I have to improve my serve if I'm going to go all the way in Melbourne.""" +sport,"English clubs make Euro history All four of England's Champions League representatives have reached the knockout stages for the first time. Arsenal and Chelsea are seeded as group winners, while runners-up Manchester United and Liverpool are not. Rules stipulate that teams from the same country or group will be kept apart in the draw on 17 December. The favourites are Chelsea and Barcelona, and Real Madrid, the two Milan sides, Juventus and Bayern Munich are among the 16 still in the hat. Steven Gerrard's last-gasp wonder-strike secured qualification for against Olympiakos on Wednesday evening. AC Milan, Bayer Leverkusen, Internazionale, Juventus, Lyon. who had already qualified, fielded a second-string side and went down 3-0 to Fenerbahce. AC Milan, Bayer Leverkusen, Internazionale, Juventus, Monaco. On Tuesday, finished top of their group with a 5-1 win over the Rosenborg after drawing four of their first five matches. Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Porto, Real Madrid, Werder Bremen , who had already qualified lost 2-1 to Porto as Jose Mourinho made an unhappy return to his former club. Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSV Eindhoven, Real Madrid, Werder Bremen." +sport,"Federer joins all-time greats The last year has seen one player dominate men's tennis, and one country dominate the women's game. Roger Federer became the first man since Mats Wilander in 1988 to win three Grand Slams in one season. And after Anastasia Myskina became the first Russian woman to win a Grand Slam at the French Open, two more followed at Wimbledon and the US Open. Meanwhile, Briton Tim Henman enjoyed his best year, while Greg Rusedski fought back superbly from adversity. Federer began the year as world number one and holder of the Wimbledon and Masters Cup titles, and set about conquering new ground. The Swiss sounded warning of the dominance to come at the Australian Open. He ripped through the draw before beating Marat Safin in the final. Andy Roddick was the only player to put up any real resistance at Wimbledon, and Federer's performance against Lleyton Hewitt in the US Open final was breathtaking. Federer again got the better of Hewitt in the season-ending Masters Cup. His victory in Houston proved to be his 13th successive win in a final, an Open era record. The only major let-down was a third-round loss to Gustavo Kuerten at the French Open, and Roland Garros will be his main target in 2005. There was also a surprise loss to the unheralded Tomas Berdych at the Olympic Games, which saw Chile dominate as Nicoals Massu took the singles and then paired up with Fernando Gonzaelz to win doubles gold. Another major trophy that looks beyond Federer is the Davis Cup, which was won by Spain in a 3-2 home success over the USA in Seville. Roddick struggled on the clay, losing to Rafael Nadal on the opening day before going down to Carlos Moya in the all-important fourth rubber. Henman broke new ground by reaching the semis on clay at the French Open - a stunning effort - and also at the US Open. A quarter-final defeat to Mario Ancic at Wimbledon was disappointing for the limp manner of the Briton's defeat, but he remains optimistic of going further next year. British number two Rusedski endured a rollercoaster year, returning to the circuit after being cleared of a doping offence in March. With his ranking down at 168, many feared the 31-year-old's career was over, but he battled back in the second half of the season to re-enter the top 50. The Russian women finally delivered on their long-recognised promise in 2004, with Myskina, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova winning Grand Slams, before taking the season-ending Fed Cup. But while the young Russians were on the way up, it was a different story for the Belgians and the Williams sisters. Only veteran Lindsay Davenport held the new wave at bay, a stunning run of form after Wimbledon taking her to number one ahead of Amelie Mauresmo, whose Grand Slam drought goes on. The year started in regulation fashion as Justine Henin-Hardenne beat compatriot Kim Clijsters at the Australian Open. A virus ruined the rest of Henin-Hardenne's year, although she was fit enough to win Olympic gold, but Clijsters had an even more miserable 2004. She suffered a serious wrist injury and then announced the end of her relationship with Lleyton Hewitt, and will be happy to see the year end. In their absence, Myskina thrashed Elena Dementieva in a historic, but woeful, all-Russian final at the French Open. Wimbledon was a more refreshing affair as Sharapova captivated SW19, showing nerves of steel as she battled past Davenport and Serena Williams to take the title. Davenport was a strong favourite for the US Open but, hampered by injury, lost to the powerful and unflappable Kuznetsova in the semis. Kuznetsova went on to give Dementieva another Grand Slam final thrashing, with the latter's wayward serve becoming one of the talking points of the year. With the Russians still improving, the likes of Henin-Hardenne, Clijsters, Davenport, Mauresmo, Venus and Serena will need to be fully fit and motivated in 2005. And it may take their compatriot Safin to challenge Federer on the men's side." +sport,"Yelling takes Cardiff hat-trick European cross-country champion Hayley Yelling completed a hat-trick of wins in the Reebok Cardiff Cross Challenge in Bute Park on Sunday afternoon. The part-time maths teacher beat Irish international Jolene Byrne by 40 metres in the six-kilometre race. Another Great Britain international, Louise Damen, finished third as part of the contingent representing England. Peter Riley, who secured bronze for the GB men's team at last month's European Championships, won the men's 9km race. Riley, representing England, moved away over the last two kilometres to win by 25 metres from Ireland's Gary Murray. Glynn Tromans - the reigning UK Inter-Countries and England Cross-Country champion - came in third place as he continues his comeback from a five-month injury lay-off." +sport,"Running around the Olympics It was back to official duties last week in my role as an ambassador to London's 2012 Olympic bid. But I still managed to do all my marathon training. All the sporting people on the capital's bid team think I'm mad to be taking part in the London Marathon. The bid chairman, Lord Coe, admitted he would never dream of running a marathon, even though he was an Olympic middle-distance runner. Kelly Holmes, former hurdler Alan Pascoe and former sprinter Frankie Fredericks - who is now an IOC member - all wanted to know why anyone would want to run that far. You'd have thought all these athletes, who have been running for most of their lives, wouldn't think it would be that bad. But the only person who was positive about my intentions was Tanni Grey Thompson, who has won the London Marathon wheelchair race six times. Even though it was a very busy week entertaining the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Evaluation Commission, I actually found my running schedule easier to follow. When I'm at home, I get distracted by all sorts of things but for the five days I was in London, I was in a pressurised situation, but I found it easy to relax by running. On Wednesday, the presentations to the IOC team did not finish until the early evening, so I just managed to squeeze in a 45-minute run. We had an early start on Thursday because we had to visit all the Olympic sites around London, that was pretty shattering, but when we got back to the hotel, I got back on the treadmill. On Friday evening I went along to the special dinner at Buckingham Palace which was a nice occasion. I never feel guilty about eating, especially when I'm exercising. And because it was a rest day I didn't have to feel bad about missing my training either. Anyway, I managed to do another quick run on Saturday ahead of the final IOC presentations, before heading home for my daughter's birthday. When I was in London I did all of my runs on the treadmill, which isn't the same as exercising outdoors. One of the IOC's technical staff from Australia ran alongside me one day. We talked about the Sydney Olympics and that made the time go past more quickly. I do find it quite comfortable running in the gym because there is more cushioning. But when you're gearing up to running on the road you need your body to get used to that jarring feeling when your feet hit the pavement. It was good to get out on the road for my long run on Sunday. After the week I'd had I was a bit concerned I wouldn't be able to complete it. But I coped with it very well and, even though it was bitterly cold, I put in 15-and-a-half miles - only another 11 to go then. - This year Steve will donate all the proceeds from his London Marathon efforts to victims of the tsunami.Steve will be writing a regular column on the ups and downs of his marathon training for the BBC Sport website.He will be raising money through the Steve Redgrave Trust which supports the Association of Children's Hospices, the Children With Leukaemia charity, and the Trust's own project which aims to provide inner-city schools with rowing equipment." +sport,"Israeli club look to Africa Four African players, including Zimbabwe goalkeeper Energy Murambadoro, are all ready to play for Israeli club Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin in the Uefa Cup. Bnei Sakhnin are the first Arab side ever to play in European competition and will play English Premiership side Newcastle United in the first round. Warriors' goalkeeper Murambadoro, who made a name for himself at the African Nations Cup finals in Tunisia, helped Bnei Sakhnin overcome Albania's Partizani Tirana 6-1 in the previous round. Murambadoro moved to Israel recently after a brief stint with South African club Hellenic. The club won the Israeli Cup final last season and are based in Sakhnin, which is near Haifa. The club have a strong ethic and are high profile promoters of peace and co-operation within Israel. The three other Africans at the club are former Cameroon defender Ernest Etchi, DR Congo's Alain Masudi and Nigerian midfielder Edith Agoye, who had a stint with Tunisian side Esperance." +sport,"El Guerrouj targets cross country Double Olympic champion Hicham El Guerrouj is set to make a rare appearance at the World Cross Country Championships in France. But the Moroccan, who has not raced over cross country for 15 years, will not decide until two weeks before the event which starts on 19 March. ""If I am to compete in it, it is only if I feel I can win,"" said the 30-year-old, who is retiring in 2006. ""Otherwise there is not much point in me going."" El Guerrouj achieved a lifetime ambition last August when he clinched his first Olympic titles over 1500m and 5,000m. But the four-time world 1500m champion is still hungry for more success before calling time on his career. The 30-year-old has set his sights on clinching the world 5,000m crown in Helsinki this summer. And he is aiming to break 10,000m Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele's 5,000m and 10,000m world records. El Guerrouj could meet Bekele in March as the Ethiopian is the defending world cross country champion over both the long and short courses. But the Moroccan will not commit himself to the St Galmier event until he assesses how well his winter training is going. ""The return to training was very difficult because I accepted a lot of invitations these past few months,"" said El Guerrouj. ""I am almost a month behind but I am on the right track."" - Britain's Paula Radcliffe has also not ruled out competing in the World Cross Country Championships. ""I haven't quite decided what events I will compete in prior to London but the World Cross Country is an event which is also special to me and is a definite possibility,"" said the two-time champion." +sport,"Wilkinson to miss Ireland match England will have to take on Ireland in the Six Nations without captain and goal-kicker Jonny Wilkinson, according to his Newcastle boss Rob Andrew. Wilkinson - who had targeted the 27 February match for his international comeback - has been missed by England, not least for his goal-kicking. ""Jonny's not fit yet,"" Falcons chief Andrew told BBC Radio Five Live. ""He won't be fit for Dublin, there's no doubt about that, but he might be fit for Scotland and Italy."" The 25-year-old has not played for England since the 2003 World Cup final after a succession of injuries. England, who have lost three Six Nations games in a row, wasted a 17-6 half-time lead in their 18-17 defeat to France. Goal-kickers Charlie Hodgson and Olly Barkley missed six penalty attempts and a drop-goal between them. ""They've probably got two of the best English kickers in the Premiership in Hodgson and Barkley,"" added Andrew, a former England fly-half and goal-kicker. ""They're both pretty good kickers. Charlie is a good kicker week-in, week-out. ""But it's all about pressure and unfortunately England are just not handling the pressure at the moment."" Andrew also blamed England's poor run of recent results on a lack of leadership in the side following several high-profile retirements and injuries. ""They just didn't have that leadership that would have seen them through. Martin Johnson, Lawrence Dallaglio and Jonny are obviously huge losses and leadership is so important in those situations,"" he said. ""I think it is really difficult for Jason Robinson to lead the side effectively from full-back."" Meanwhile, former England full-back Dusty Hare put England's mistakes down to a lack of mental toughness. ""Jonny Wilkinson has proved himself a cool customer with around an 80% kicking success rate,"" Hare told BBC Radio Five Live. ""But natural-born toughness comes into it as well as all the practice you do. ""You have to be able to shut out all the outside elements and concentrate on putting the ball between the posts."" Hodgson, who has an excellent kicking record with club side Sale Sharks, has introduced crowd noise into his practice routine of late. ""The top golfers don't hit the fairway every time, and it is the same with goal-kicking,"" Hare added. ""You need that mental toughness as well to put the ball over, but great goal-kickers like Jonny Wilkinson come along very rarely.""" +sport,"France v Wales (Sat) Stade de France, Paris Saturday, 26 February 1600 GMT BBC1, Radio 4 LW and this website France may have beaten Scotland and England but they were tedious and uninspired throughout both matches. Wales, on the other hand, have played some fine rugby and have made their best start since they last won the title in 1994. They also have a good record at the Stade de France, having won their first two games there, in 1999 and 2001. Wales have made two changes from the team that thrashed Italy 38-8 in Rome. Kevin Morgan takes over from his injured Newport-Gwent Dragons colleague Hal Luscombe on the right wing. In the pack Neath-Swansea Ospreys forward Ryan Jones bas been brought on the blind-side flank to beef up the Wales back row in place of Jonathan Thomas. Wales coach Mike Ruddock is determined that his team will not go into their shells after their promising start to the championship. ""Graham Henry (former Wales coach) said a couple of years ago that we should 'be bold' when going to France, and he was proved right,"" said Ruddock. ""That is a great way to approach the game, and something we will further endorse with the players this week."" Despite their stuttering displays in their first two games defending champions France are also unbeaten. Under-pressure coach Bernard Laporte has made four changes, with Yannick Nyanga, the debutant Julien Laharrague, Aurelien Rougerie and Yannick Jauzion coming into the side. France have been criticised for the absence of traditional ""French flair"" as they have ground their way to victory so far this year but captain Fabien Pelous sees hope on the horizon. ""I get the impression we are getting better,"" he said. ""Against Wales, which is different from the teams we have beaten, I hope we can show our proper game."" J Laharrague; A Rougerie, Y Jauzion, D Traille, C Dominici; Y Delaigue, D Yachvili; S Marconnet, S Bruno, N Mas; F Pelous (capt), J Thion; S Betsen, Y Nyanga, J Bonnaire (Bourgoin). W Servat, O Milloud, G Lamboley, I Harinordoquy, P Mignoni, F Michalak, J-P Grandclaude. G Thomas (capt); K Morgan, T Shanklin, G Henson, S Williams; S Jones, D Peel; G Jenkins, M Davies, A Jones; B Cockbain, R Sidoli; R Jones, M Williams, M Owen. R McBryde, J Yapp, J Thomas, R Sowden-Taylor, G Cooper, C Sweeney, R Williams." +sport,"Wilkinson fit to face Edinburgh England captain Jonny Wilkinson will make his long-awaited return from injury against Edinburgh on Saturday. Wilkinson, who has not played since injuring his bicep on 17 October, took part in full-contact training with Newcastle Falcons on Wednesday. And the 25-year-old fly-half will start Saturday's Heineken Cup match at Murrayfield on the bench. But Newcastle director of rugby Rob Andrew said: ""He's fine and we hope to get him into the game at some stage."" The 25-year-old missed England's autumn internationals after aggravating the haematoma in his upper right arm against Saracens. He was subsequently replaced as England captain by full-back Jason Robinson. Sale's Charlie Hodgson took over the number 10 shirt in the internationals against Canada, South Africa and Australia. Wilkinson's year has been disrupted by injury as his muscle problem followed eight months on the sidelines with a shoulder injury sustained in the World Cup final." +sport,"Wood - Ireland can win Grand Slam Former captain Keith Wood believes Ireland can win only their second Grand Slam - and first since 1948 - in this year's RBS Six Nations Championship. After claiming their first Triple Crown for 19 years last season, Wood tips his former team-mates to go one better. ""Things have been building up over the past few years and I think this is the year for Ireland,"" he told BBC Sport. ""There is a great chance to win a Grand Slam. A lot of things are in our favour with England and France at home."" Ireland have finished runners-up three times, including last year, since the old Five Nations became Six in 2000, and not finished outside the top three in the past five years. Despite being without flanker Keith Gleeson, coach Eddie O'Sullivan has not had to contend with the sort of casualty lists that have hit England and Scotland in particular prior to the tournament. ""For Ireland to win it we need to stay relatively injury free, and fortunately we are one of the few teams that have done that so far,"" Wood added. ""It is going to be tough and we need to take all the luck and opportunities that come our way."" Ireland's last game of the tournament is against Wales in Cardiff - a fixture they have not lost since 1983. But despite their traditional hospitality when the Irish are visiting, Wood believes Wales might end their four-match losing run against England in Cardiff. ""So many of the major England players have either retired in the last year or are injured that I think it will be very hard for them down in Cardiff,"" Wood added. ""Wales have had four brilliant games in the last year or so and lost all four, so the time is right for them now to beat one of the major teams.""" +sport,"Funding cut hits Wales Students The Wales Students rugby side has become a casualty of the Welsh Rugby Union's reorganisation at youth level. An amalgamated Under-18 side formed from separate schools and national youth teams plays its first match on Thursday, against Italy at the Gnoll. But that move has seen the WRU decide to end its funding of representative sides such as Wales Students. As a result, traditional international fixtures against England and France in the New Year have been cancelled. The Welsh Students Rugby Football Union feels that it is unable to properly prepare for or stage the matches. The secretary of the Welsh Students Rugby Football Union, Reverend Eldon Phillips, said: ""It is a shame that fixtures cannot be maintained this year. ""The competition provided by the strong English and French teams has enabled the Welsh Students to test themselves in high quality matches. ""The increasing number of young rugby players entering Higher Education look for the biggest challenge, that is representative rugby, but this year that opportunity will be denied them. Players who have played for Wales Students before going on to win full senior representative honours include Robert Jones, Rob Howley, Jon Humphreys, Darren Morris, Martyn Williams and Ceri Sweeney." +sport,"Hong Kong in 2011 World Cup bid Hong Kong is hoping to join Japan as co-host of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Japan has applied to host the tournament on its own, with the aim of taking it outside rugby's traditional strongholds for the first time. But Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) chairman John Molloy has called for the territory to host one of the pools and a quarter-final. The Japanese Rugby Football Union (JRFU) says it has yet to receive a formal presentation from the HKRFU. ""At this stage, we are only considering hosting the event by ourselves,"" said JRFU secretary Koji Tokumasu. ""We cannot examine any proposal unless we get it in a definitive form."" Japan faces stiff competition in the form of South Africa and New Zealand to host the event in seven years' time. ""Until now, the World Cup has been held in countries from the Six Nations or Tri-Nations,"" said Tokumasu. ""We think, and the IRB thinks, that it is time for rugby to go global. ""Japan is ready to host the tournament and we are looking forward to welcoming the world of rugby to Japan."" Tokumasu added that the 2002 football World Cup, co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, had been a huge success. ""As well as having the infrastructure in place, Japan also has the commercial clout to host one of sport's top competitions,"" he said. Last year, Japan launched its first professional rugby league and it has the fourth largest number of registered players (125,508) in the world after England, South Africa and France." +sport,"Klinsmann issues Lehmann warning Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann has warned goalkeeper Jens Lehmann he may have to quit Arsenal to keep his World Cup dreams alive. Lehmann is understudy to Oliver Kahn in the German squad, but has lost his place to Manuel Alumnia at Highbury. Klinsmann said: ""It will be difficult for any of our players if he is not a first-choice at his club. ""If Jens is not Arsenal's number one keeper, that is a problem for me. He must be playing regularly."" Lehmann is desperate to keep his place in the Germany squad when the country hosts the World Cup in 2006. Klinsmann added: ""If he is not playing regularly he cannot be Germany's number one keeper, or even number two keeper. ""The situation for Jens is that he is currently the number two keeper at Arsenal. This could be critical if it remains the same during next season.""" +sport,"Iranian misses Israel match Iranian striker Vahid Hashemian will not travel to Israel for Bayern Munich's Champions League match against Maccabi Tel Aviv on Wednesday. The German club said the player had pulled out because of a back injury. Iran refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist and does not allow its citizens to travel to the country. A Bayern spokesman said on Monday that the decision not to take Hashemian to Israel had been motivated only by his physical condition. ""He's got back pain and he couldn't train,"" the spokesman said. ""It would have made no sense for him to go."" Iran gave judo world champion Arash Miresmaeili a $125,000 reward when he refused to fight an Israeli at the Athens Olympics. The International Judo Federation considered taking action against Miresmaeili but concluded he had been overweight for the fight and could not have taken part." +sport,"Redknapp poised for Saints Southampton are set to unveil Harry Redknapp as their new manager at a news conference at 1500 GMT on Wednesday. The former Portsmouth boss replaces Steve Wigley, who has been relieved of first-team duties after just one win in 14 league games in charge. Redknapp, 57, quit his Fratton Park position on 24 November and vowed: ""I will not go down the road - no chance."" Pompey coach Kevin Bond is poised to join Redknapp, who will be Saints' third boss of the season. Redknapp's first game in charge will be at home to Middlesbrough on Saturday. Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric said he was ""disappointed"" by the news and claimed Redknapp had been in talks with Southampton for ""some time"". ""It would appear that negotiations over this have been going on for some time,"" Mandaric said on Portsmouth's official website. ""I am surprised and a little shocked that the chairman of Southampton has not picked up the phone and kept me informed."" According to Mandaric, Redknapp vowed he would not join their South coast rivals when he left Portsmouth. ""I said to Harry 'I hope you don't go to Southampton', and he told me 'absolutely not',"" he said. ""I'm wouldn't say I'm bitter, disgusted or angry, just disappointed, but it's Harry's life and it's his decision."" Redknapp became a cult hero after leading Portsmouth into the Premiership for the first time, and then masterminding their survival in their debut season. But he left the club claiming he needed a break from football, though many believed he was upset with Mandaric's decision to bring in Velimir Zajec as executive director. Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe was desperate to give former academy director Wigley, who replaced Paul Sturrock just two games into the season, every chance to succeed at St Mary's. But results under Wigley have been poor and Southampton are deep in trouble near the foot of the table. When Redknapp's appointment is confirmed, he will be Saints' ninth manager in eight years." +sport,"Celts savour Grand Slam prospect The Six Nations has heralded a new order in northern hemisphere rugby this year and Wales and Ireland rather than traditional big guns France and England face a potential Grand Slam play-off in three weeks' time. But before that game in Cardiff, Wales must get past Scotland at Murrayfield, while Ireland face the not insignificant task of a home fixture with the mercurial French. No-one knows what mood France will be in at Lansdowne Road on 12 March - sublime, as in the first half against Wales, or ridiculous, like in the same period against England at Twickenham. But how the mighty have fallen. England sat on rugby's summit 15 months ago as world champions and 2003 Grand Slam winners. But they have lost nine of their 14 matches since that heady night in Sydney. And they face the ignominy of what could amount to a Wooden Spoon play-off against Italy in a fortnight. England are enduring their worst run in the championship since captain Richard Hill was dumped in favour of Mike Harrison after three straight losses in 1987. Coach Andy Robinson, who took over from the successful Sir Clive Woodward in September, has lost a phalanx of World Cup stars. And he is enduring the toughest of teething problems in bedding down his own style with a new team. The same year that England ruled the roost, a woeful Wales lost all five matches in the Six Nations. And they won only two games, against Scotland and Italy, in 2004. Wales' most recent championship title was in 1994, and their last Grand Slam success came in 1978 in the era of Gareth Edwards, Phil Bennett, JPR Williams et al. But Welsh rugby fans remain on permanent tenterhooks for the blossoming of a new golden age. After several false dawns, coach Mike Ruddock may have come up with the team and philosophy to match expectations. The fresh verve is inspired by skipper Gareth Thomas, now out with a broken thumb, accurate kicking from either fly-half Stephen Jones or centre Gavin Henson, a rampant Martyn Williams leading the way up front, and exciting runners in the guise of Henson and Shane Williams. Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan and captain Brian O'Driscoll have got their side buzzing too, and they are close to shedding the ""nearly-men"" tag that has dogged them for the past few years. The men from the Emerald Isle have been Six Nations runners-up for the past two years, to France and England. But they have not won the title since 1985 and last clinched a Grand Slam in 1948. As for Scotland, they have struggled this decade and the 2004 Wooden Spoon ""winners"" have not been in the top two since they lifted the title in 1999. Italy continue the elusive search for their first Six Nations away win, and can still only account for the scalps of Scotland (twice) and Wales since joining the elite in 2000. Coach John Kirwan is a passionate and dedicated believer in the Azzurri, but is lacking in raw materials. And so to France. Brilliant one minute, inept the next. But the reigning champions could quite easily turn on the style in Dublin and end up winning the title through the back door. Ireland, though, have won three times in their last five meetings. Welsh romantics would probably prefer a glorious victory in the Celtic showdown to crown their Grand Slam. But given that Ireland have beaten Wales in four of their last five meetings, the Welsh legions are likely to be behind Les Bleus on 12 March." +sport,"Munster Cup tie switched to Spain Munster's Heineken Cup quarter-final tie against Biarritz on 3 April has been switched to Real Sociedad's Paseo de Anoeta stadium in San Sebastian. Real's ground holds 32,000 whereas the Parc des Sports Aguilera in Biarritz has a capacity of just 12,667. The Irish province will be given at least 8,000 tickets. ""The decision to move was a difficult one, but as we considered the fans as one of our primary objectives,"" said Biarritz chairman Marcel Martin. ""We hope we will be rewarded as a huge crowd behaving in the best rugby tradition."" The match will be the first Heineken Cup fixture to be played in Spain, and is expected to attract the biggest-ever attendance for a rugby match in the country. Ulster were the last Irish team to play at the Paseo de Anoeta stadium where they faced a Euskarians side during a pre-season tour in 1998." +sport,"Injury doubts beset Wales squad Wales have a clutch of injury worries before Wednesday's international friendly against Hungary in Cardiff. West Ham's Gavin Williams (ankle) looks certain to be out, so uncapped Wrexham defender Stephen Roberts is drafted in. Defenders Danny Gabbidon and Gareth Roberts, plus Ryan Giggs have hamstring concerns, while there are also doubts over Robbie Savage (groin). However, Manchester United winger Giggs is expected to recover in time to earn his 50th cap at the Millennium Stadium. There were also doubts over Gabbidon's fellow Cardiff defender Rhys Weston, but the full-back appears to have shrugged off the knock he picked up in the Bluebirds' 1-0 loss to West Ham on Sunday. The news leaves Wales boss John Toshack short in defence for his first game in charge, with Aston Villa's Mark Delaney injured and James Collins with the Under-21s. That could clear the way for new faces Danny Collins and Dave Partridge to make their Wales debuts. Coyne (Burnley), Jones (Wolves), Roberts (Wrexham), Collins (Sunderland), Edwards (Wolves), Gabbidon (Cardiff), Page (Cardiff), Partridge (Motherwell), Ricketts (Swansea), Roberts (Tranmere), Weston (Cardiff), Davies (Tottenham), Fletcher (West Ham), Giggs (Man Utd), Koumas (West Brom), Robinson (Sunderland), Savage (Blackburn), Williams (West Ham), Bellamy (Newcastle), Earnshaw (West Brom), Hartson (Celtic)." +sport,"O'Sullivan could run in Worlds Sonia O'Sullivan has indicated that she would like to participate in next month's World Cross Country Championships in St Etienne. Athletics Ireland have hinted that the 35-year-old Cobh runner may be included in the official line-up for the event in France on 19-20 March. Provincial teams were selected after last Saturday's Nationals in Santry and will be officially announced this week. O'Sullivan is at present preparing for the London marathon on 17 April. The participation of O'Sullivan, currentily training at her base in Australia, would boost the Ireland team who won the bronze three years agio. The first three at Santry last Saturday, Jolene Byrne, Maria McCambridge and Fionnualla Britton, are automatic selections and will most likely form part of the long-course team. O'Sullivan will also take part in the Bupa Great Ireland Run on 9 April in Dublin." +sport,"Gallas sees two-horse race Chelsea's William Gallas believes they will battle it out with Arsenal for the Premiership in the coming months. ""It'll be a two-horse race all the way to the end of the season because we are both going to give it everything,"" he told BBC Sport. ""You need to be good and you need a lot of luck. You need a bit of both but it will be as hard for the Arsenal players as it is for the Chelsea boys."" ""We know that we have got the power in our hands just now,"" added Gallas. ""But you never know what is going to happen in football - two seasons ago Manchester United picked up so many points towards the end of the season when they won the title. ""Obviously, nobody at Chelsea wants to come second but you never know what happens in football. ""We will be challenging to come first as much as every Arsenal player will be challenging to come first."" Gallas has been given extra confidence by the impact manager Jose Mourinho has had since taking over as manager during the summer. And the French international defender believes Mourinho is perfectly suited to boss the squad of Chelsea stars and says his managerial expertise will prevent any player revolt. ""It's only normal when you have got a team put together of such big names that you put the finishing touch to it and the finishing touch at Chelsea is a fantastic manager like Mourinho,"" he said. ""He is the icing on the cake at the club. He has this fantastic knack of thinking of everything. ""Another incredible quality that Mourinho has is that every player, even though the fans may consider them to be a stars, within the dressing-room they are absolutely equal. ""Mourinho reminds everyone but he doesn't have to because he has created a wonderful atmosphere where everybody is playing and laughing every day. ""It is a changed dressing-room from the atmosphere there was last year.""" +sport,"Moya suffers shock loss Fifth seed Carlos Moya was the first big name to fall at the Australian Open as he went down to fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Monday. Moya began the year with victory at the Chennai Open but looked out of sorts from the start in the Melbourne heat. Garcia-Lopez, ranked 106 in the world, dominated from the outset and withstood a third-set rally from Moya to hang on for a 7-5 6-3 3-6 6-3 victory. The 21-year-old plays Kevin Kim or Lee Hyuung-Taik in the second round. Garcia-Lopez was delighted with the victory in only his third ever Grand Slam match. ""I think this was the most important win of my life as Carlos is one of the best players in the world,"" he said. ""This has given me a lot of confidence. Now I feel I can beat all these players."" Moya said: ""I was playing well before I came here. It was the perfect preparation but something was wrong today."" Four-time champion Andre Agassi began what could be his last Australian Open with a convincing win over German qualifier Dieter Kindlmann. The 34-year-old American, who had been struggling with a hip injury earlier in the week, stormed to a 6-4 6-3 6-0 win. Agassi will play France's Olivier Patience or Germany's Rainer Schuettler - the man he beat in the 2003 final - in the next round. ""No one was more concerned (about the injury) than myself,"" said eighth seed Agassi. ""I'd worked hard to be down here and ready. But the last few days, I've pushed through the injury and it seemed to do pretty good."" In other matches, world junior champion Gael Monfils made use of his wild card with a magnificent 1-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (8-6) win over American Robby Ginepri. The 2002 champion Thomas Johansson fought back to beat Peter Luczak 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-3 4-6 6-0, and French Open champion Gaston Gaudio beat Justin Gimelstob 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 6-3. Seeds Dominik Hrbaty, Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic made comfortable progress, but former French Open champion Albert Costa lost to Bjorn Phau." +sport,"Chelsea sack Mutu Chelsea have sacked Adrian Mutu after he failed a drugs test. The 25-year-old tested positive for a banned substance - which he later denied was cocaine - in October. Chelsea have decided to write off a possible transfer fee for Mutu, a £15.8m signing from Parma last season, who may face a two-year suspension. A statement from Chelsea explaining the decision read:""We want to make clear that Chelsea has a zero tolerance policy towards drugs."" Mutu scored six goals in his first five games after arriving at Stamford Bridge but his form went into decline and he was frozen out by coach Jose Mourinho. Chelsea's statement added: ""This applies to both performance-enhancing drugs or so-called 'recreational' drugs. They have no place at our club or in sport. ""In coming to a decision on this case, Chelsea believed the club's social responsibility to its fans, players, employees and other stakeholders in football regarding drugs was more important than the major financial considerations to the company. ""Any player who takes drugs breaches his contract with the club as well as Football Association rules. ""The club totally supports the FA in strong action on all drugs cases."" Fifa's disciplinary code stipulates that a first doping offence should be followed by a six-month ban. And the sport's world governing body has re-iterated their stance over Mutu's failed drugs test, maintaining it is a matter for the domestic sporting authorities. ""Fifa is not in a position to make any comment on the matter until the English FA have informed us of their disciplinary decision and the relevant information associated with it,"" said a Fifa spokesman. Chelsea's move won backing from drug-testing expert Michelle Verroken. Verroken, a former director of drug-free sport for UK Sport, insists the Blues were right to sack Mutu and have enhanced their reputation by doing so. ""Chelsea are saying quite clearly to the rest of their players and their fans that this is a situation they are not prepared to tolerate. ""It was a very difficult decision for them and an expensive decision for them but the terms of his contract were breached and it was the only decision they could make. ""It is a very clear stance by Chelsea and it has given a strong boost to the reputation of the club."" It emerged that Mutu had failed a drugs test on October 18 and, although it was initially reported that the banned substance in question was cocaine. The Romanian international later suggested it was a substance designed to enhance sexual performance. The Football Association has yet to act on Mutu's failed drugs test and refuses to discuss his case." +sport,"Federer claims Dubai crown World number one Roger Federer added the Dubai Championship trophy to his long list of successes - but not before he was given a test by Ivan Ljubicic. Top seed Federer looked to be on course for a easy victory when he thumped the eighth seed 6-1 in the first set. But Ljubicic, who beat Tim Henman in the last eight, dug deep to secure the second set after a tense tiebreak. Swiss star Federer was not about to lose his cool, though, turning on the style to win the deciding set 6-3. The match was a re-run of last week's final at the World Indoor Tournament in Rotterdam, where Federer triumphed, but not until Ljubicic had stretched him for five sets. ""I really wanted to get off to a good start this time, and I did, and I could really play with confidence while he still looking for his rhythm,"" Federer said. ""That took me all the way through to 6-1 3-1 0-30 on his serve and I almost ran away with it. But he came back, and that was a good effort on his side."" Ljubicic was at a loss to explain his poor showing in the first set. ""I didn't start badly, but then suddenly I felt like my racket was loose and the balls were flying a little bit too much. And with Roger, if you relax for a second it just goes very quick,"" he said. ""After those first three games it was no match at all. I don't know, it was really weird. I was playing really well the whole year, and then suddenly I found myself in trouble just to put the ball in the court."" But despite his defeat, the world number 14 was pleased with his overall performance. ""I had a chance in the third, and for me it's really positive to twice in two weeks have a chance against Roger to win the match. ""It's an absolutely great boost to my confidence that I'm up there and belong with top-class players.""" +sport,"Lewis-Francis turns to Christie Mark Lewis-Francis has stepped up his preparations for the new season by taking advice from British sprint icon Linford Christie. The 22-year-old is set to compete at Sheffield this weekend and will then take on Maurice Greene and Kim Collins in Birmingham on 18 February. ""Training in Wales and getting advice from Linford Christie is broadening my mind,"" said Lewis-Francis. The sprinter has also shed weight since winning relay gold at the Athens Games. ""Last year I was 91kg, now I am 86.9kg - hopefully my times will come down,"" he said. ""This has been brought about by eating the right foods and cutting out the snacks. It is just discipline and being more focused about what I am doing. ""I am still keeping up my weights work and I can see the improvement in my running."" Despite playing his part in Britain's successful 4x100m relay team, Lewis-Francis still feels the frustration of missing out on the individual 100m final at the 2004 Olympics. ""That was heartbreaking, but I had made it to the semi-final and for me, on a personal level, that was an achievement. ""I just have to be patient and build up for the next Olympics. That is my goal and whatever I do between now and then will be geared to making the final.""" +sport,"Wilkinson to lead England Fly-half Jonny Wilkinson has been named as England's new rugby union captain for the three November Tests. The 25-year-old Newcastle star takes over from Lawrence Dallaglio, who retired from internationals in August. England's acting head coach Andy Robinson said: ""He is a natural leader, holds the respect of the squad and is a formidable talent on the pitch. ""And he consistently demonstrates the energy and commitment I feel is essential to be captain of England."" Robinson added: ""There are several players in the squad I would feel comfortable in calling upon to be England captain but for me Jonny is in every way the right player to take on this challenge. ""Captaincy offers a challenging environment for any player, especially following in the footsteps of Lawrence Dallaglio and before him the World Cup captain, Martin Johnson. ""But I am confident Jonny has what it takes to do an outstanding job as we look ahead towards the next Rugby World Cup in France and I look forward to working with him."" Wilkinson, who has scored 817 points in 52 internationals, kicked the winning drop-goal in the final seconds of extra-time in England's 2003 Rugby World Cup triumph against Australia. But he then missed the entire 2004 Six Nations campaign while recuperating from shoulder surgery, before making his comeback for Newcastle in the Zurich Premiership in August. ""It's the ambition of so many players to one day be captain of England and today I have realised a dream,"" he said. ""I'm honoured Andy wants me to be his captain, and to follow Lawrence and Martin means a lot to me as they are inspirational men who have given so much to England rugby over many years. ""Getting my first England cap against Ireland six years ago was something I'll never forget because to play for your country is very special. Taking on the captaincy is another important step in my career and I do so with immense pride."" Wilkinson made his international debut in the 1998 Six Nations Championship against Ireland when he came off the bench to replace Paul Grayson. He has been a regular in the England starting line-up ever since, played in all three Lions Tests in 2001 and all but one of England's games in the 2003 World Cup. He becomes the 117th captain of England since Fred Stokes held the position in 1871. England's first autumn Test is against Canada on 13 November, followed by the visit of Tri-Nations champions South Africa a week later and then a World Cup re-match with Australia." +sport,"Moya emotional after Davis Cup win Carlos Moya described Spain's Davis Cup victory as the highlight of his career after he beat Andy Roddick to end the USA's challenge in Seville. Moya made up for missing Spain's 2000 victory through injury by beating Roddick 6-2 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-5) to give the hosts an unassailable 3-1 lead. ""I have woken up so many nights dreaming of this day,"" said Moya. ""All my energy has been focused on today. ""What I have lived today I do not think I will live again."" Spain's only other Davis Cup title came two years ago in Valencia, when they beat Australia. And Moya, nicknamed Charly, admitted: ""The Davis Cup is my dream and I was a bit nervous at the outset. ""Some people have said that I am obsessed but I think that it is better this way. It helps me reach my goals if I am obsessed. ""It's really incredible - to get the winning point is really something."" Spanish captain Jordi Arrese said: ""Charly played a great game. It was his opportunity and he hasn't let us down. ""He had lost three times to Roddick, and this was his day to beat him. ""He had been waiting years to be in this position."" Spain's victory was also remarkable for the performance of Rafael Nadal, who beat Roddick in the opening singles. Aged 18 years and 185 days, the Mallorcan became the youngest player to win the Davis Cup. ""What a great way to finish the year,"" said Nadal afterwards. US coach Patrick McEnroe wants Roddick and the rest of his team to play more tennis on clay and hone their skills on the surface. ""I think it will help these guys even on slow hard courts to learn how to mix things up a little bit and to play a little bit smarter and tactically better."" ""Obviously it's unrealistic to say that we're going to just start playing constantly on clay, with the schedule. ""But certainly I think we can put the work in at the appropriate time and play a couple more events and play against these guys who are the best on this stuff,"" said McEnroe. Roddick was left frustrated after losing both his singles on the slow clay of Seville's Olympic Stadium. ""It's just tough because I felt like I was in it the whole time against one of the top three clay-courters in the world,"" said the American. ""I had my chances and just didn't convert them. The bottom line is they were just better than us this weekend. ""They came out, took care of business and they beat us. It's as simple as that.""" +sport,"Henman & Murray claim LTA awards Tim Henman was named player of the year for 2004 by the Lawn Tennis Association at Wimbledon on Monday. The Briton was recognised for the best year of his career, which saw him reach the semis at the French and US Opens. Scotland's Andrew Murray was named young player of the year after winning the US Open juniors, as well as a Futures event in Italy. And world number one Peter Norfolk won disabled player of the year after claiming his third US Open crown. Great Britain's under 14 boys won the team of the year prize for their victory at the World Junior Tennis event in August. Henman will start his 2005 campaign at the Kooyong event on 12 January in a field that includes Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi. And the Briton is optimistic of surpassing his best effort of a fourth-round place at the Australian Open, which begins the following week. ""I've often felt that the conditions suit my game in Melbourne so I'd love to be able to start next year by doing well at the Australian Open,"" Henman told his website. ""That's why I've changed my schedule slightly by committing to play in the Kooyong Classic. ""I'll be able to acclimatise while practising before the event and then will be guaranteed matches against the best players in the world. ""I think that will give me the best possible chance of doing well at the Australian Open.""" +sport,"Brizzel to run AAA's in Sheffield Ballymena sprinter Paul Brizzel will be among eight of Ireland's European Indoor hopefuls competing in this weekend's AAA's Championships. US-based Alistair Cragg and Mark Carroll are the only Irish athletes selected so far for the Europeans who will not run in Sheffield. Brizzel will defend his 200m title in the British trials. In-form James McIlroy will hope to confirm his place in the British team for Madrid by winning the 800m title. McIlroy has been in tremendous form on the European circuit in recent weeks. He is one of the fastest 800m runners in the world this winter and already seems assured of a place in Madrid. Corkman Mark Carroll confirmed in midweek that he would join Cragg in the European Championships. Carroll is ranked number three in the world 3000m ranking at the moment with Cragg occupying top spot. Meanwhile, nine-times champion Dermot Donnelly will not be coming out of retirement to compete in the Northern Ireland Cross Country Championships in Coleraine on Saturday. An injury crisis in the Annadale Striders squad led to Donnelly being entered by coach John McLaughlin but the athlete told BBC Sport on Friday evening that he would not be running. Willowfield's Paul Rowan will go in as individual favourite but Annadale could have a tough job holding on to their team title as Andrew Dunwoody and Noel Pollock are unlikely to run." +sport,"Classy Henman makes winning start Tim Henman opened his 2005 campaign with a 6-1 7-5 victory over Argentine David Nalbandian at the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament on Wednesday. The British number one will next play Roger Federer at the Australian Open warm-up event on Friday. The world number one beat Gaston Gaudio 5-7 6-1 6-4, before Andre Agassi saw off Chilean Olympic gold medalist Nicolas Massu 6-1 7-6 (7-4). Andy Roddick beat Ivan Ljubicic, who replaced Paradorn Srichaphan, 6-1 6-4. Henman made an impressive start to the year, only faltering against Nalbandian when serving for the match at 5-4. But the Briton regained his composure to win the next two games for only his second win in six matches against the Argentine. ""It's a great start to the year - just what I was looking for,"" Henman told his website. ""Over the years I've found David very difficult to play against. ""He returns serve very well and he's deceptively effective from the baseline, so sometimes it can be difficult to execute my gameplan well enough against him to get the right result. ""Beating somebody of his stature is always good for the confidence and it bodes well at the beginning of the year."" Henman also revealed the extent of the back problems he suffered in the off-season. ""I'm not the most flexible and at the end of the year I was pretty exhausted and wanted to have a couple of weeks where I didn't do anything,"" said Henman. ""When I started training again it really, really seized up. As much as I enjoyed the two weeks off I don't think it's so productive."" Federer dropped a tight first set against 2004 French Open champion Gaudio, but was content with his game. ""It was about getting used to the surface,"" he said. ""The conditions are much quicker than Doha, my timing was OK, but I could have served better. ""All in all I'm happy with the match, and I won it - that's a good sign. Now I have a day off and hopefully play better the next match."" Agassi was delighted with victory over Massu in his first match for over two months. ""I felt pretty good,"" said the American. ""I liked the way the match played out and, maybe excluding a few second serve returns, I felt like I was doing most things pretty darn well for the first match.""" +sport,"Dominici backs lacklustre France Wing Christophe Dominici says France can claim another Six Nations Grand Slam despite two lacklustre wins so far against Scotland and England. The champions only just saw off the Scots in Paris, then needed England to self-destruct in last week's 18-17 win. ""The English played better than us but lost, whereas we are still in the race for the Grand Slam,"" said Dominici. ""We know our display was not perfect, but we can still win the Grand Slam, along with Ireland and Wales."" France , Ireland and Wales all remain unbeaten after two rounds of this year's RBS Six Nations, with the two Celtic nations playing by far the more impressive rugby. France take on Wales at the Stade de France on 26 February and Ireland in Dublin on 12 March. But although France have yet to click, Dominici says that they can still win the hard way as long as scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili continues in his goalkicking form. ""If we have an efficient kicker on whom we can rely on, a solid defence and a team who play for their lives, we can achieve something,"" Dominici added. ""I said at the start of the competition that the winners would be clearer from the third matches, and that's exactly what is going to happen."" France coach Bernard Laporte will announce his starting line-up next Tuesday for the match against Wales. Wing Jimmy Marlu is definitely out with the knee injury sustained at Twickenham, which is likely to sideline him for the rest of the tournament. Inspirational flanker Serge Betsen is a doubt with a thigh injury, but number eight Imanol Harinordoquy has shaken off his shoulder injury. In the backs, centre Yannick Jauzion and winger Aurelien Rougerie are all back in contention after injury, while Brive back Julien Laharrague has received his first call-up as a replacement for Pepito Elhorga." +sport,"Kenya lift Chepkemei's suspension Kenya's athletics body has reversed a ban on marathon runner Susan Chepkemei after she made an official apology. Athletics Kenya (AK) had suspended the two-time London Marathon runner-up for failing to turn up to a cross-country team training camp in Embu. ""We have withdrawn the ban. Chepkemei has given a reason for her absence,"" said AK chief Isaiah Kiplagat. ""She explained she had a contract with the organisers of the race in Puerto Rice and we have accepted her apology."" The Kenyan coaching team will now decide whether Chepkemei can be included in the team for this month's world cross country championships. The 29-year-old would be a strong contender at the event in France and is hopeful she will be granted a place in the 32-strong squad. ""I am satisfied that the whole saga has been brought to an end,"" Chepkemei said. ""I am ready and prepared to represent my country. ""I will be disappointed if I am not given a chance to compete at the world cross country championships."" AK had insisted it was making an example of Chepkemei by banning her from competition until the end of 2005. But the organisation came under intense international and domestic pressure to reverse its decision. The 29-year-old took part in the 2002 and 2003 London Marathons and was edged out by Radcliffe in an epic New York Marathon contest last year. The two-time world half-marathon silver medallist will be back to challenge Radcliffe at this year's London event in April. AK also dropped its harsh stance on three-time world cross country 4km champion Edith Masai. Masai missed Kenya's world cross country trials because of an ankle problem but AK insisted it would take disciplinary action unless she could prove she was really injured. ""Subject to our doctor's confirmation, we have decided to clear Masai,"" added Kiplagat." +sport,"England coach faces rap after row England coach Andy Robinson is facing disciplinary action after criticising referee Jonathan Kaplan in his side's Six Nations defeat to Ireland. The Rugby Football Union (RFU) will investigate Robinson after deciding not to lodge a complaint against Kaplan. Robinson may even have to apologise for his comments in order to avoid sanction from the International Rugby Board. Robinson had said he was ""livid"" about Kaplan's decisions on Saturday to disallow two England ""tries."" The England coach went on to claim that ""only one side was refereed"". After reviewing tapes of the match, the RFU decided not to formally complain to the IRB over the standard of Kaplan's refereeing. Instead the RFU said in a statement they would, ""set out any concerns the England team management may have in a confidential manner"". An IRB spokesman said on the matter: ""We take all breaches of the code very seriously. ""Should the RFU resolve the issue to our satisfaction, as happened last month when the Scotland coach Matt Williams apologised for remarks made, it would be the end of the matter."" Kaplan has vigorously defended his performance in England's 19-13 defeat at Landsdowne Road and admitted he was ""very disappointed"" with Robinson's remarks. And the South African has been appointed to take charge of Scotland's match against Wales on 13 March. The RFU recently fined Northampton coach Budge Pountney £2,000 and imposed a six-week ban for his criticism of referee Steve Lander after a Premiership match." +sport,"Juninho demand for O'Neill talks Juninho's agent has confirmed that the player is hoping for talks with Martin O'Neill as the Brazilian midfielder comes closer to departing Celtic. Brian Hassell says no official approach has been received from Manchester City but that the English club had been earmarked as a possible destination. But it was being stressed to BBC Sport that Juninho would prefer to remain with the Scottish champions. Juninho wants assurances that he will return to O'Neill's first-team plans. He has become frustrated with his lack of first-team action since his move from Middlesbrough in the summer. Hassel says Juninho, who has just bought a new home, would ""desperately like to stay at Celtic"" but will seek a move if it is made clear that he is not wanted. The agent also stressed that nothing should be read into the 30-year-old's father being in Scotland and talk of a move back to Botafogo in Brazil. Juninho's father was simply in the country to see his son and grandchildren. ""I know there is interest from a Brazilian club, but I know Juninho doesn't want to go there,"" said Hassel. ""He wants to stay in Britain. In fact, he wants to stay at Celtic."" Hassall made it clear that a move to Manchester City, who are badly in need of a midfield play-maker, was more of a possibility than Botafogo, or Mexican outfit Red Sharks Veracruz, who also expressed an interest. ""It was a thought at one stage,"" he said. ""If you are not going to get a game under one manager, you look for another whose style of play suits you. ""He is a fan of Kevin Keegan's style of play. It would not be a bad move for him."" Juninho had earlier told the Daily Record: ""The manager has had a lot of chances to put me in his team but it hasn't happened. ""If that is the case then this is the opportunity for me to go. That would be good for the club and good for me. ""If I have no part in his plans, there is no point in remaining here waiting for a chance that never comes."" The attacking midfielder also claims he has not had the backing of boss Martin O'Neill since his move to Celtic Park. ""I can't understand why I am in this situation,"" he continued. ""When a manager brings a new player to the club, he gives that player support.""" +sport,"Connors boost for British tennis Former world number one Jimmy Connors is planning a long-term relationship with the Lawn Tennis Association to help unearth the next Tim Henman. The American spent three days at the LTA's annual Elite Performance winter camp in La Manga earlier this week. ""Britain has the right attitude,"" said Connors. ""The more involved I can be with the LTA, the better. ""A short-term arrangement is just confusing. The kids will ask: 'What am I doing there?'"" LTA chief executive, John Crowther, added: ""The relationship that Jimmy's already started to develop with the coaches and the players has said to us that we'd like some more of it. ""We want to use Jimmy for a number of weeks a year and we hope this is the beginning of a good long-term relationship."" The camp played host to more than 30 leading senior and junior players, including Greg Rusedski, Arvind Parmar and Anne Keothavong. ""La Manga is an amazing site to take a bunch of kids who want to be the best,"" said Connors, speaking at Queen's Club in London. ""What impressed me most was not only the coaches but the way the kids went about their workouts and the feeling they put into every practice they had. ""It was interesting to me to see kids of 15, 16, 17, with that desire and passion, and that can only be brought about by the coaches surrounding them. ""Instilling the importance of work and practice is something you can't buy. ""They know what's been given to them and all they have to do is give back the effort, and every minute of practice they were doing that."" Speaking from La Manga, LTA performance director David Felgate told BBC Sport: ""Jimmy was fantastic with the players and the coaches, and very humble considering what he's achieved. ""He worked through the coaches and hopefully it will grow and he'll get to have more of an individual relationship with some of the players and get to know them. ""He made it clear from the word go he didn't want it to be short-term. This is a 52-week-a-year job for me, it's my life and my passion and it's the same with the coaches. ""He respects that but he wants to be involved and have real input. And why would he stake his reputation on something that's not going to be successful?"" Connors has also agreed to commentate for the BBC at next year's Wimbledon Championships. He will work during the second week of the tournament." +sport,"Pountney handed ban and fine Northampton coach Budge Pountney has been fined £2,000 and banned from match-day coaching for six weeks for calling a referee ""a disgrace"". Pountney was found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute at a Rugby Football Union disciplinary hearing in London on Thursday night. Pountney criticised referee Steve Lander's performance in Northampton's defeat by Saracens on 5 February. The last two weeks of the six-week ban are suspended. Pountney pleaded guilty to the offence before a panel consisting of chairman Robert Horner, Nigel Gillingham and Jeff Probyn. The ban means former Scotland international Pountney cannot enter the playing enclosure, technical areas or go near the touchline, tunnel or players and officials' areas on the day of a game." +sport,"Kluft impressed by Sotherton form Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft was full of admiration for Britain's Kelly Sotherton as the pair prepared to clash in Birmingham. Both will be in action on Friday in the 60m hurdles and long jump ahead of the European Indoor Championships later this month in Madrid. Sotherton finished third behind the Swede in Athens, and Kluft said: ""I knew about her, she's a great girl. ""She looked very good early in the season and was competing really well."" Kluft showed impressive early-season form on Tuesday in Stockholm's GE Galan meeting, winning the sprint hurdles, the long jump and the 400m. Sotherton has also displayed promise, with a new high jump personal best in Sheffield at the combined Norwich Union European trials and AAA Championships, and a second place in the long jump behind Jade Johnson." +sport,"Davenport hits out at Wimbledon World number one Lindsay Davenport has criticised Wimbledon over the issue of equal prize money for women. Reacting to a disputed comment by All England Club chairman Tim Phillips, the American said: ""I think it is highly insulting if prize money is taken away. ""Somebody, I think it was Mr Phillips, said they won't have money for flowers at Wimbledon. That's insulting."" An All England club spokesperson denied Phillips made the remark, insisting: ""He definitely didn't say it."" The statement added: ""It was said by someone else and was a humorous aside at the end of a radio interview when the conversation had moved to talking about the Wimbledon grounds."" Davenport was speaking following the announcement that this week's Dubai Duty Free event will join the US and Australian Opens in offering equal prize money for women. ""You hear about women playing only three sets while men play five,"" said Daveport. ""And the best women are never going to beat the best men. ""But it's a different game you go to watch with the women - it doesn't make it better or worse. ""Hopefully we will be able to change people's minds."" Serena Williams, who is also in Dubai, added: ""I'm obviously for equal prize money. ""Women's tennis is exciting. Men's tennis is exciting as well, but the women have it right now. ""If you are bringing in the spectators you should be able to reap what everyone else is able to reap.""" +sport,"Prodigy Monfils blows away Gaudio French prodigy Gael Monfils underlined his huge promise by beating French Open champion Gaston Gaudio 6-4 7-6 (7-4) in the first round of the Qatar Open. The 18-year-old wild card won three of the four junior Grand Slam events last year, including Wimbledon. Fabrice Santoro, the 2000 champion, beat Sweden's Thomas Johansson 6-4 6-2 but fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny lost 6-3 7-6 (7-3) to Rafael Nadal. Roger Federer plays Greg Rusedski in the second round on Wednesday. Monfils, who was given a wildcard into the tournament, said: ""This is my first win over a top 10 player and I am delighted. ""I play my best tennis when I am fired up on the court and the reason I won today was because I was able to play my natural, attacking game,"" he said. ""Of course I was a bit tired in the second set. But I was confident I could survive had there been a third set.""" +sport,"Chepkemei joins Edinburgh line-up Susan Chepkemei has decided she is fit enough to run in next month's Great Edinburgh International Cross Country. The Kenyan was initially unsure if she would have recovered from her gruelling tussle with Paula Radcliffe in the New York Marathon in time to compete. But she has declared herself up to the task and joins a field headed by World cross country champion Benita Johnson. Race director Matthew Turnbull said: ""Susan will add even more strength in depth to the world-class line up."" Chepkemei, who won the six kilometre event three years ago when it was staged in Newcastle, endured an epic battle with Radcliffe in the Big Apple until the Briton outsprinted her in the final 400m. Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia will defend the title she won last year in Tyneside - before the race was moved north of the border. Recently-crowned European cross country champion Briton Hayley Yelling also competes in Edinburgh on 15 January, as does in-form Scot Kathy Butler." +sport,"Chelsea denied by James heroics A brave defensive display, led by keeper David James, helped Manchester City hold the leaders Chelsea. After a quiet opening, James denied Damien Duff, Jiri Jarosik and Mateja Kezman, while Paul Bosvelt cleared William Gallas' header off the line. Robbie Fowler should have scored for the visitors but sent his header wide. Chelsea had most of the possession in the second half but James kept out Frank Lampard's free-kick and superbly tipped the same player's volley wide. City went into the game with the proud record of being the only domestic team to beat Chelsea this season. And there was little to alarm them in the first 30 minutes as Chelsea - deprived of Arjen Robben and Didier Drogba through injury - struggled to pose much of a threat. Indeed, it was the visitors who looked likelier to enliven a drab opening played at a lethargic pace. Shaun Wright-Phillips - watched by England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson - showed his customary trickery to burst into the right of the area and deliver a dangerous ball, which was blocked by John Terry. But Chelsea suddenly stepped up a gear and created a flurry of chances. First, Duff got round Ben Thatcher and blasted in a shot that James parried to Kezman, who turned the ball wide. Soon afterwards, Jarosik found space in the area to powerfully head Lampard's corner goalwards but James tipped the ball over. Chelsea were now looking more like Premiership leaders and James kept out Kezman's fierce drive before Bosvelt and James combined to clear Gallas' header from Duff's corner. City broke swiftly up the field and the last chance of a frenetic spell should have resulted in Fowler celebrating his 150th Premiership goal. Wright-Phillips raced down the left and crossed to Fowler but City's lone man up front, left free by Terry's slip, contrived to head wide when it seemed a breakthrough was certain. The second half started as quietly as the first, although James was forced to divert a cross from the lively Duff away from Eidur Gudjohnsen's path. There was a nasty moment for Petr Cech, looking for a ninth straight clean sheet in the league, when a series of ricochets saw Fowler chase a loose ball in the area and collide accidently with the Czech Republic stopper. Another quiet spell followed, which Duff interrupted with a surging run that was halted illegally on the edge of the penalty area by Bosvelt. Lampard stepped up to blast a shot through the wall and James somehow blocked it with his legs. Another timely challenge, this time from Richard Dunne in time added on, prevented Gudjohnsen from getting in a shot. There was still time for James to produce a sensational save to tip Lampard's volley round the post. Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Gallas, Terry, Bridge, Jarosik (Tiago 56), Lampard, Makelele, Duff, Gudjohnsen, Kezman (Cole 63). Subs Not Used: Johnson, Smertin, Cudicini. Makelele, Gudjohnsen. James, Mills, Distin, Dunne, Thatcher, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Bosvelt, Barton, Sibierski (McManaman 85), Musampa, Fowler. Subs Not Used: Macken, Weaver, Onuoha, Jordan. Bosvelt. 42,093 H Webb (S Yorkshire)." +sport,"Navratilova hits out at critics Martina Navratilova has defended her decision to prolong her tennis career at the age of 48. Navratilova, who made a comeback after retiring in 1994, will play doubles and mixed doubles events in 2005. ""Women's tennis is really strong,"" she said, dismissing suggestions that the fact she could still win reflected badly on the women's game. ""All I can say is I'm that damn good. I'm sorry but I really have to blow my own horn here. I'm still that good."" Navratilova has won three Grand Slam mixed doubles titles since she came out of retirement. And she was so encouraged by her form that she decided to resume playing singles, winning two of her seven matches. She was knocked out in the first round of the French Open but reached the second round at Wimbledon. Navratilova will partner Nathalie Dechy in the doubles event at the Uncle Toby's Hardcourts tournament on Australia's Gold Coast, which begins on Sunday. She will then link up with Daniela Hantuchova for the Australian Open doubles, and play in the mixed doubles with Leander Paes. ""I might be playing some singles events this season, depending on the surface,"" she added." +sport,"Mirza shocks Kuznetsova Sania Mirza continued her remarkable rise with victory over US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Dubai Championships on Tuesday. The 18-year-old Indian, who is already a huge star in her home country, won 6-4 6-2 in front of a delirious crowd. It was Mirza's sixth straight victory following her first WTA tournament win in Hyderabad last month. Earlier, Daniela Hantuchova built on her improving form with a 7-6 6-2 win over sixth seed Alicia Molik. Mirza needed attention to an ankle injury after the second game against Kuznetsova. She quickly slipped 4-0 down but staged a dramatic comeback that thrilled the large Indian contingent in the crowd. ""I really didn't expect that after my ankle turn,"" said Mirza. ""I played a great match and I think (the crowd) did it again. I knew that I had to play an all-round game and that's what happened. ""I did everything well but I wasn't missing the ball - I don't know how that happened."" Mirza plays Silvia Farina Elia or Jelena Jankovic next. Hantuchova has risen from 31 in the world at the turn of the year to number 22, having reached the quarter-finals and semi-finals at her last two events. ""It was such a tough first-round match and I am glad to come through,"" said Hantuchova. ""She was serving so well. I just decided to hang in there and keep fighting."" The Slovakian will meet Elena Likhovtseva in the second round after the Russian struggled past Tunisian wild card Selima Sfar 2-6 6-2 7-6. Likhovtseva needed nine match points before seeing off Sfar, who got a point penalty for swearing in the third set. Seventh seed Nathalie Dechy and Elena Bovina were among other first-round winners on Tuesday." +sport,"Dawson wins England squad recall Wasps scrum-half Matt Dawson has been recalled to England's training squad ahead of the RBS Six Nations and been reinstated in the Elite Player Squad. Coach Andy Robinson dropped Dawson for the autumn Tests after he missed training to film 'A Question of Sport.' ""I always said I would consider bringing Matt back if I felt he was playing well,"" Robinson said. ""He merits his return on current form."" Newcastle's 18-year-old centre Mathew Tait is also in the training squad. ""It's obviously an honour to be asked to train with England,"" said Tait, who has burst into contention recently. ""I look forward to going down and doing the sessions, but the most important thing at the moment is Sunday's game against Newport, so I'm not looking any further than that."" Robinson has invited 42 players to attend a three-day session in Leeds next week, in which his squad will train in part with the Leeds Rhinos rugby league squad. With Mike Tindall ruled out of the opening two matches and Will Greenwood sidelined for the entire Six Nations, Tait is one of six or seven contenders for the two centre berths. Stuart Abbott, Jamie Noon, Ollie Smith, Olly Barkley and Henry Paul - who retains his place despite his early substitution against Australia - are also in the mix. Ben Cohen could also be considered after switching from the wing for his club Northampton recently. Prop Phil Vickery and lock Simon Shaw both return to the squad after missing the autumn Tests through injury, while Wasps wing Tom Voyce is recalled. The group also includes Bath flanker Andy Beattie and Leicester hooker George Chuter. ""Beattie has matured greatly as a player these past two seasons,"" Robinson said. Jonny Wilkinson, Tindall and Martin Corry have all been included despite their unavailability for the opening two matches against Wales and France. The revised 56-man elite squad includes Wasps hooker Phil Greening, who replaces the retired Mark Regan, and Sale wing Mark Cueto. Cueto was selected for the November internationals despite not being part of the group, but scored four tries in three England appearances. Leicester scrum-half Harry Ellis has also been promoted from the senior national academy, and will contest the number nine jersey with Dawson and Gloucester's Andy Gomarsall. The players in Robinson's elite squad can only play 32 matches for club and country. They can be called up for a total of 16 training days in addition to the recognised international weeks for each of the years leading up to the next World Cup. Balshaw, Cohen, Cueto, Lewsey, Robinson, Simpson-Daniel, Voyce, Abbott, Noon, Paul, Smith, Tait, Tindall, Barkley, Hodgson, King, Wilkinson, Dawson, Ellis, Gomarsall. Chuter, Thompson, Titterrell, Rowntree, Sheridan, Stevens, Vickery, White, Borthwick, Brown, L Deacon, Grewcock, Kay, Shaw, Beattie, Corry, Forrester, Hazell, Jones, Moody, Vyvyan, J Worsley. Abbott, Balshaw, Borthwick, A Brown, Chuter, Cohen, Corry, Cueto, Dawson, Ellis, Flatman, Gomarsall, Greening, Greenwood, Grewcock, Hazell, Hill, Hodgson, Kay, King, Lewsey, Moody, Noon, Paul, Robinson, Rowntree, Shaw, Simpson-Daniel, Thompson, Tindall, Titterrell, Vickery, Vyvyan, White, Wilkinson, J Worsley, M Worsley. Barkley, Beattie, Christophers, L Deacon, Forrester, C Jones, Palmer, Rees, Sheridan, Skinner, Smith, Stevens, Tait, Voyce. Dowson, Haughton, Monye, Roques, P Sanderson." +sport,"Mourinho receives Robson warning Sir Bobby Robson has offered Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho some advice on coping under pressure. The pair worked together at Barcelona and Porto and Robson had a word of warning for his protege. ""It has all gone for him just lately and that is marvellous, but sometimes you have to have a bit of humility and learn how to lose,"" said Robson. ""It is when it goes against you and you get a bit of bad luck that you learn, and he'll get it straight."" Robson was speaking after being formally granted the freedom of the city of Newcastle. ""Jose is doing very well at the moment,"" Robson added of the man who worked for him for six years. ""He has got one pot - possibly two to follow - a big game against Barcelona to come and I cannot see them losing their lead in the Premiership. ""They are in a good position and I would expect them to go on and win it, which is a wonderful achievement. ""What has occurred over the last couple of weeks will stand him in very good stead for the future. If he is intelligent, he will take it on board - and he is very intelligent. ""He will have learned more in the last fortnight than the last eight months. Before that, it was all about winning."" Robson also admitted he would relish the chance to get back into management and test his skills against Mourinho. ""I am not in a hurry to take the wrong job, but I am ready to take the right job and I feel there is another job in me,"" he added. ""I know the area I am capable of working in and of course I would like a job in the Premiership if one was available. ""It would not worry me if I had to pit my wits against Jose. ""But it is not just a case of him and me against one another. It would be his team against my team - but I would not be afraid of that.""" +sport,"Robertson out to retain Euro lure Hearts manager John Robertson hopes a place in the knock-out stages of the Uefa Cup could help keep some of his out-of-contract players at the club. ""It could help. If we get through and have another European tie it may encourage players to stay at least until the end of the season,"" he said. ""If we manage to get through it shows how well the club's progressing. ""They have to think whether they are going to get other clubs like that should they decide to move on."" A win for Robertson's side against Ferencvaros would put them through to the last 32 if Basle fail to beat Feyenoord. ""It's very much the player's prerogative but the fact that we've been playing European football for the last three or four years is obviously an incentive,"" added Robertson. ""But we want players who want to play for the football club, who are committed and a run in Europe always helps a little bit."" With the game being played at Murrayfield instead of Tynecastle because of Uefa regulations, Robertson sees both positive and negative aspects to the change of venue. ""The pitch is not in the greatest condition. The Heineken Cup game was there at the weekend and the pitch is a bit threadbare,"" he said. ""It's not ideal but it's the same for both teams so we just have to go out and there and perform. That's the most important thing."" But he added: ""If Tynecastle could have hosted 30,000 it would have been fantastic but that's one of the benefits of Murrayfield - it allows us to bring even more of our supporters into it. ""There will be a good atmosphere and the Hearts fans have an important role to play. ""We need their encouragement, we need them to get right behind the side and make it as good an atmosphere as possible. ""Hopefully the players will respond to that and I know they will because it's a fantastic European night for the club.""" +sport,"SFA awaits report over Mikoliunas The Scottish Football Association is awaiting referee Hugh Dallas's report before acting against Hearts winger Saulius Mikoliunas. Mikoliunas, 20, barged linesman Andy Davis, who had advised Dallas to award Rangers an injury-time penalty in Hearts's 2-1 defeat at Tynecastle. ""He was sent off for violent conduct in the 90th minute but we don't know if he did something else after the whistle. ""We don't know how many red cards he was shown,"" said an SFA statement. Hearts could also face action after three fans were arrested for throwing coins on the pitch. Rangers' striker Dad Prso was also sent off during the same incident when he received a second yellow card for wrestling the ball away from Craig Gordon and leaving the Hearts keeper on the ground. The SFA said: ""Once the referee's report comes in then we'll immediately look at things. ""We don't normally get the reports until a couple of days after the game but we're well aware of what happened here. ""Prso was sent off for two cautions, and that will just be a one-match suspension."" The SFA is certain to come down hard on Mikoliunas after Southampton's David Prutton was banned for 10-games on Wednesday by the English FA for shoving referee Alan Wiley. Hearts' boss John Robertson said: ""Mikoliunas has thrown his chest against the assistant referee's chest and got a red card for it. ""The officials have got to take into account the fact he's a young lad. ""But people have got to take into account why he was incensed. Why were 10,000 Hearts fans incensed? ""Why did nobody from the Rangers' bench claim for a penalty kick?"" Rangers' boss Alex McLeish accepted referee Dallas had no option but to send Prso off. McLeish said: ""I'm glad to see the spirit of the players fighting to the very end - literally with Dado trying to get the ball back from Craig Gordon. ""But it was over-zealousness and I don't think Hugh had any option.""" +sport,"Nadal marches on in Mexico Rafael Nadal continued his run of fine form to beat Guillermo Canas and reach the Mexican Open semis in Acapulco. Eighth seed Nadal, who picked up his second ATP title when he beat Alberto Martin in last week's Brazil Open, saw off the Argentine third seed 7-5 6-3. He now meets Argentine wild card Mariano Puerta, who followed up his win over top seed Carlos Moya by overcoming Spain's Felix Mantilla, 6-4 3-6 7-6. Czech fifth seed Czech Jiri Novak was eliminated 7-5 6-1 by Agustin Calleri. The unseeded Argentine, who won the tournament two years ago, now plays Spain's Albert Montanes. Montanes advanced to his first semi-final of the year with a 4-6 6-3 6-4 triumph over sixth-seeded Italian Filippo Volandri. Argentina's Agustin Calleri beat fourth seed Jiri Novak 7-5 6-1 in a battle of former champions at the Mexican Open. Calleri won his only ATP title in Acapulco two years ago while Novak won the singles and doubles titles in 1998. Calleri will face Albert Montanes in the semi-finals after the Spaniard ousted sixth seed Filippo Volandri of Italy 4-6 6-3 6-4. Argentine wild card Mariano Puerta continued his improbable run, outlasting Felix Mantilla 6-4 3-6 7-6." +sport,"Roddick in talks over new coach Andy Roddick is reportedly close to confirming US Davis Cup assistant Dean Goldfine as his new coach. Roddick ended his 18-month partnership with Brad Gilbert on Monday, and Goldfine admits talks have taken place. ""We had a really good conversation and we're on the same page in terms of what I expect from a player in commitment and what he wants,"" said Goldfine. ""The reading I got from him is that I would have a lot of the qualities he's looking for in a coach."" Speaking to told South Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper, Goldfine added: ""That being said, from his standpoint, which is smart, he wants to cover all his bases. ""I think Andy wants a long-term relationship and wants to make sure it's the right fit... the best fit."" Goldfine, 39, has worked with Todd Martin and Roddick's close friend Mardy Fish, and was an assistant coach with the US Olympic team. Martin is the other name to have been linked to the vacant post alongside Roddick." +sport,"Spain coach faces racism inquiry Spain's Football Federation has initiated disciplinary action against national coach Luis Aragones over racist comments about Thierry Henry. If found guilty Aragones could lose his job or face a fine of about £22,000. The federation had initially declined to take action against Aragones after comments he made during a national team training session in October. But its president Angel Maria Villar changed his mind after a request by Spain's anti-violence commission. Aragones insisted the comments, made to Henry's Arsenal club-mate Jose Antonio Reyes, were meant to motivate the player, and were not intended to be offensive. ""I never intended to offend anyone, and for that reason I have a very easy conscience,"" he said at the time. ""I'm obliged to motivate my players to get the best results. ""As part of that job, I use colloquial language, with which we can all understand each other within the framework of the football world. "" England's players made a point of wearing anti-racism t-shirts when training before their friendly against Spain in Madrid last month. But the storm increased following racist chanting by Spanish fans at England's black players during the game, which Spain won 1-0. Spain's minister of sport Jaime Lissavetzky was quick to give his backing to the Federation's decision. ""Everyone who has a public function has to consider their declarations, and make sure they do not give a negative image,"" he said. ""We are going to have zero tolerance in questions of racism.""" +sport,"Bath faced with Tindall ultimatum Mike Tindall's agent has warned Bath they have until next week to improve their contract offer to the England man or risk losing him to a rival club. Dipo Alli says he has received an offer for Tindall which dwarfs Bath's deal and that two other clubs want to talk. ""Mike does not want to go into the Six Nations worrying about where he will be playing his club rugby next season,"" Alli told the Guardian newspaper. ""It is up to (Bath owner) Andrew Brownsword. He has to make it happen."" Tindall is out of contract at the end of the season but it is understood that Brownsword is unwilling to break the club's salary structure to accommodate the 26-year-old's demands. But Alli insists the player is worth more than Bath have put on the table. ""Mike has been at Bath for eight years and wants to remain with the club and his demands are anything but excessive,"" the agent added. ""But Brownsword has to recognise Mike's value and we want to resolve things by the end of next week.""" +sport,"Rangers seal Old Firm win Goals from Gregory Vignal and Nacho Novo gave Rangers a scrappy victory at Celtic Park that moves them three points clear of the champions. Rangers had rarely threatened until Celtic goalkeeper Rab Douglas let defender Vignal's 25-yard drive slip through his grasp and into the net. Opposite number Ronald Waterreus had been Rangers' hero, saving superbly from Craig Bellamy and John Hartson. Striker Novo secured victory, lobbing Douglas with eight minutes remaining. It ended Celtic's 11-game unbeaten run at home in Old Firm derbies and gave Rangers manager Alex McLeish his first victory at the home of his Glasgow rivals. Celtic had won their last six meetings on their home pitch, including twice already this season. They started confidently, with new signing Bellamy, on loan from Newcastle United, given his Celtic debut up front with Wales international colleague John Hartson and Chris Sutton dropping into midfield. It took Bellamy just four minutes to threaten, taking on Marvin Andrews before delivering a low drive that was held by Waterreus at the second attempt. He had an even better chance after Hartson dispossesed Sotiris Kyrgiakos and sent his strike partner clear with only the goalkeeper to beat. But Waterreus did well to beat away Bellamy's disappointing low drive from 16 yards. Waterreus came to the rescue again when the ball fell to Hartson just inside the box and the Dutch goalkeeper made a brave block. It was an Old Firm return for Barry Ferguson as McLeish stuck by the side that thumped four goals past Hibernian. But Rangers found Celtic harder to break down and Douglas was not threatened until 10 minutes after the break. Dado Prso turned inside Neil Lennon only for the Celtic goalkeeper to beat away his powerful 18-yard drive. A great defensive header by Andrews prevented Hartson pouncing from five yards out. Hartson foxed Vignal at the edge of the Rangers box, but the striker's shot on the turn was again beaten away by Waterreus. Rangers were beginning to dominate the midfield and Vignal, collecting a knock back from Fernando Ricksen, broke the deadlock, Douglas somehow letting the Frenchman's dipping drive slip through his grasp. Novo pounced on a moments' hesitation in the Celtic defence to latch on to a long ball from Ricksen and lob the ball over the advancing Douglas. Ricksen appeared to be hit by a coin, but it could not prevent Rangers' celebrations at the final whistle. : Douglas, McNamara, Balde, Varga, Laursen, Petrov, Lennon, Sutton, Thompson, Bellamy, Hartson. Subs: Marshall, Henchoz, Juninho Paulista, Lambert, Maloney, Wallace, McGeady. : Waterreus, Hutton, Kyrgiakos, Andrews, Ball, Buffel, Ferguson, Ricksen, Vignal, Prso, Novo. Subs: McGregor, Namouchi, Burke, Alex Rae, Malcolm, Thompson, Lovenkrands. : M McCurry" +sport,"Spurs to sign Iceland U21 star Tottenham are primed to snap up Iceland Under-21 international Emil Hallfredsson after he impressed on trial at White Hart Lane. The 20-year-old midfielder, who plays for FH Hafnarfjordur, also starred in the Uefa Cup match against Scottish side Dunfermline earlier this season. Spurs have agreed a fee for the player, who has yet to agree personal terms. ""He had offers from two other clubs but he decided to come to Tottenham,"" said Spurs sporting director Frank Arnesen. ""He is a left-sided player, a position we have been looking at and he showed so much talent in his time here that we decided to take him. ""It's down the road of bringing in talent, good prospects and giving them a place at Tottenham where they can improve.""" +sport,"Trial date is set for Balco case A US judge has set a preliminary trial date for the Balco steroid distribution case which has rocked athletics. US district court judge Susan Ilston rejected an attempt by the defence team to have the case dismissed at a pre-trial hearing in San Francisco. And she set a March date for the case of the four men accused of distributing illegal performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes to be heard. A firm decision on whether the trial takes place is expected in January. The judge said that she may conduct hearings in January into whether federal agents illegally searched the Balco headquarters and wrongfully obtained statements from the company's founder Victor Conte and its vice-president James Valente. The two men - along with personal trainer Greg Anderson and athletics coach Remy Korchemny - were all indicted earlier this year but have pleaded their innocence. The outcome of those hearings could result in some or all of the charges being dismissed. Conte said that he would be telling his side of the story on an American TV show on Friday. ""The world deserves to know the truth about performance-enhancing drugs,"" he said. Balco (The Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative) is the company at the centre of the scandal. The company has been accused by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) of being the source of the banned steroid THG and modafinil. The USADA claims that 10 athletes have received sanctions for testing positive for THG and modafinil. Former double world champion Kelli White and Olympic relay star Alvin Harrison have both been banned on the basis of materials discovered during the Balco investigation. Britain's former European 100m champion Dwain Chambers is currently serving a two-year ban after testing positive for THG in an out-of-competition test in 2003." +sport,"Henry tipped for Fifa award Fifa president Sepp Blatter hopes Arsenal's Thierry Henry will be named World Player of the Year on Monday. Henry is on the Fifa shortlist with Barcelona's Ronaldinho and newly-crowned European Footballer of the Year, AC Milan's Andriy Shevchenko. Blatter said: ""Henry, for me, is the personality on the field. He is the man who can run and organise the game."" The winner of the accolade will be named at a glittering ceremony at Zurich's Opera house. The three shortlisted candidates for the women's award are Mia Hamm of the United States, Germany's Birgit Prinz and Brazilian youngster Marta. Hamm, who recently retired - is looking to regain the women's award, which she lost last year to striker Prinz. Fifa has changed the panel of voters for this year's awards. Male and female captains of every national team will be able to vote, as well as their coaches and Fipro - the global organisation for professional players." +sport,"Mourinho takes swipe at Arsenal Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has attempted to pile the pressure on title rivals Arsenal ahead of the Gunners facing Newcastle on Wednesday. Arsenal will play the Magpies a day after Chelsea beat Portsmouth during a busy festive programme. And Mourinho said: ""They always seem to have two or three days' rest in which to recover. Perhaps it's something to do with the television schedule. ""All my players are tired, especially John Terry."" Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho admitted his side were ""lucky"" to win at Fratton Park but is still unhappy with the amount of games in such a short space of time during this time of year. He added: ""We have had to play two matches in three days which is foreign to many of my players and, although I understand the traditions of football here at this time of year, it is not good for your health to do it. ""You can sit back and smoke cigars, one after another, and it is a good life, but it is not actually good for you. ""Playing so many games is certainly not healthy, especially for teams who still have European commitment.""" +sport,"Hearts 2-1 Livingston Hearts wrapped up their Scottish Cup quarter-final tie against Livingston with two goals in the first 10 minutes. Lee Miller scored inside the opening 60 seconds, heading over Colin Meldrum and into the net from a Jamie McAllister free kick. McAllister himself scored the second when he met Saul Mikoliunas' cross at the back post to put the game beyond the visitors. Craig Easton headed in a controversial goal after an hour but Hearts held on. The opening goal came after Gus Bahoken had clumsily fouled Miller 35 yards from goal. McAllister floated the free kick into the Livi box and Miller outjumped the static visiting defence to loop his header from 10 yards over Meldrum. With just 10 minutes on the clock, the home side doubled their lead. Mikoliunas sprinted down the right, crossed to the back post where McAllister raced in to head past Meldrum. Moments later Miller came close to grabbing his second with a first-time drive from 16 yards, which skimmed the bar. Then McAllister picked up a pass from Stephen Simmons and drove an angled shot from 20 yards narrowly past Meldrum's far post. The impressive Mikoliunas twice went close before half time - a low drive was comfortably gathered by Meldrum and then he curled a left-footed shot past the keeper's right-hand post. Livi manager Richard Gough made three changes at the interval, bringing on defender Goran Stanic, midfielder Gabor Vincze, and striker Ferenc Horvath for Bahoken, Derek Lilley and Mark Wilson. But, in the opening stages of the second period, little changed. However, the West Lothian side gave themselves a lifeline with a controversial goal. Eric Deloumeaux sent Jason Dair away on the right and he tried to give the ball to McPake, who looked to be in an offside position. The Livi striker ignored the pass, however, and Dair ran on to it and played Easton in at the back post and he headed home from close range. The home side called for offside against McPake but referee Alan Freeland ignored their claims and pointed to the centre-circle. Livi went all out for the equaliser. In the 87th minute, Burton O'Brien was hauled back at the edge of the box by Neil MacFarlane, but Dair sent his shot just inches wide. Gordon, Webster, Miller, Hartley, Neilson, McAllister, Simmons (MacFarlane 64), Berra, Burchill (Wyness 82), Mikoliunas (Cesnauskis 77), Wallace. Moilanen, Kizys. Berra, Webster. Miller 1, McAllister 10. Meldrum, McNamee, Bahoken (Stanic 45), Deloumeaux, Strong, Dair, Easton, Mark Wilson (Vincze 45), Lilley (Horvath 45), O'Brien, McPake. McKenzie, Hand. : Vincze, Horvath. Easton 60. 9,796 A Freeland" +sport,"Fuming Robinson blasts officials England coach Andy Robinson said he was ""livid"" after his side were denied two tries in Sunday's 19-13 Six Nations loss to Ireland in Dublin. Mark Cueto's first-half effort was ruled out for offside before the referee spurned TV replays when England crashed over in the dying minutes. ""[I'm] absolutely spitting. I'm livid. There's two tries we've been cost,"" Robinson told BBC Sport. ""We've got to go back to technology. I don't know why we didn't."" South African referee Jonathan Kaplan ruled that Cueto was ahead of Charlie Hodgson when the fly-half hoisted his cross-field kick for the Sale wing to gather. Kaplan then declined the chance to consult the fourth official when Josh Lewsey took the ball over the Irish line under a pile of bodies for what could have been the game-winning try. ""I think Mark Cueto scored a perfectly legal try and I think he should have gone to the video referee on Josh Lewsey,"" said Robinson. ""It is how we use the technology. It is there, and it should be used. ""I am still trying to work out the Cueto try. I have looked at both, and they both looked tries. ""We are very disappointed, and this will hurt, there is no doubt about that. ""We are upset now, but the referee is in charge and he has called it his way and we have got to be able to cope with that. ""We did everything we could have done to win the game. I am very proud of my players and, with a couple of decisions, this could have been a very famous victory. ""I thought we dominated. Matt Stevens had an awesome game at tighthead prop, while the likes of Charlie Hodgson, Martin Corry and Lewis Moody all came through well. ""Josh Lewsey was awesome, and every one of the forwards stood up out there. Given the pressure we were under, credit must go to all the players. ""We have done everything but win a game of rugby, but Ireland are a good side. They defended magnificently and they've got every chance of winning this Six Nations."" England have lost their first three matches in this year's Six Nations and four out of their six games since Robinson took over from Sir Clive Woodward in September." +sport,"Gerrard plays down European hopes Steven Gerrard has admitted that Liverpool have little chance of winning the Champions League this season. The 24-year-old Reds skipper spoke out ahead of Tuesday's first leg at home to Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16, which he will miss through suspension. ""Let's be realistic, there are some fantastic teams left in the Champions League,"" he told BBC Radio Five Live. ""We are just going to try to stay in as long as possible but we realise that maybe it is not our year this year."" Gerrard has made no secret of his desire to be involved in Europe's premier club competition. Last season he described qualification for the Champions League as the ""be all and end all"" - and rumours persist that he will leave Anfield if the Reds fail to secure a place in the competition. He has consistently been linked with a move away from Liverpool, with Chelsea the favourites to snap up the England midfielder. And Blues boss Jose Mourinho backed Gerrard's view that Rafael Benitez's team could struggle to progress this season. ""Rafa has still time in front of him to build an even better team, maybe he's a little bit behind (right now),"" he told BBC Radio Five Live. Gerrard, who fired Liverpool into the last 16 of this season's competition with a brilliant goal in December's win over Olympiakos, insisted he was still fully focused on helping Liverpool to glory this season. The Reds are currently fifth in the Premiership table, five points off the crucial fourth spot, which brings Champions League qualification - and they face Chelsea in Sunday's Carling Cup final. ""It's big couple of months for Liverpool,"" he added. ""We're fighting for the fourth spot for the Champions League for next season but we are still involved in two cup competitions, which are very important. ""We are confident we can upset Chelsea in the Carling Cup final and get to the last eight of the Champions League because, financially, it is big for the club and, personally for myself, it is very good.""" +sport,"McIlroy wins 800m indoor title James McIlroy motored to the AAA's Indoor 800m title in Sheffied on Sunday in a time of one minute, 47.97 seconds. The Larne athlete dominated the race from start to finish although he had to hold off a late challenge from Welshman Jimmy Watkins in the final 100 metres. ""I had to go out and go through all the gears before the Europeans and I won't run again until then,"" said McIlroy. ''I though if I got lucky I'd get close to the British record but I blew up in the end.'' McIlroy has been in superb form at the start of the season and will now start his build-up for the European Indoors at Madrid on 4-6 March. Meanwhile, Paul Brizzel and Anna Boyle reached the semi-finals of the 60m hurdles with Boyle setting a season's best of 7.48. In the women's 60m final, Ailis McSweeney broke Michelle Carroll's long-standing Irish record by clocking 7.37 which left her in third place. David Gillick showed that he is a genuine medal contender in the European Indoor Championships by claiming an impressive 400m victory. Gillick was more than half-a-second clear when taking gold in 46.45 - .02 outside his personal best set in Saturday's semi-finals. The Irishman is now the fastest European this season. Derval O'Rourke broke her own Irish 60m hurdles record by clocking 8.06 which left her third behind new British record holder Sarah Claxton (7.96). James Nolan (3:46.04) took second in the men's 1500m behind Neil Speaight (3:45.86) but the Offaly man was outside the European Indoor standard. Colin Costello was seventh in the 1500m final in 3:48.82). Deirdre Ryan was second in the women's high jump with a clearance of 1.87m while Aoife Byrne took silver in the 800m in a personal best of 2:06.73. Lisburn's Kelly McNeice Reid (4:31.34) was seventh in the women's 1500m while Gary Murray (8:11.22) was 11th in the men's 3000m. Meanwhile, Stephen Cairns and Jill Shannon claimed the individual titles at Saturday's Northern Ireland Cross Country Championship in Coleraine. Cairns came in ahead of Paul Rowan and Allan Bogle in the men's race. Willowfield claimed their first men's team title in 72 years while Shannon helped Lagan Valley win the women's team honours." +sport,"Bridge could miss rest of season Chelsea left-back Wayne Bridge could miss the rest of the season with a suspected broken ankle. The England international, 24, was hurt in an innocuous challenge with Alan Shearer during the Londoners' FA Cup defeat at Newcastle on Sunday. ""We think it's a big injury,"" said Jose Mourinho, whose Chelsea team this week meet Barcelona in the Champions League and Liverpool in the Carling Cup final. William Gallas and Damien Duff could also miss the Barcelona game. France defender Gallas and Ireland winger Duff both picked up their injuries in the closing stages of Chelsea's 1-0 defeat at St James' Park. With Bridge having gone off after Mourinho used all three substitutes, those knocks plus Carlo Cudicini's red card meant Chelsea finished the game with seven able-bodied players. Cudicini would not have played against Barcelona, but had been promised a game in the Carling Cup final, although he will now miss the Cardiff showpiece through suspension. The manager is not planning to add any new names to his squad ahead of the trip to Barcelona, even though he has few options to replace Bridge at left-back. Celestine Babayaro left the club in January, ironically to join Newcastle, and although Gallas has deputised at left-back before, he is struggling to be fit himself. It could be that Paulo Ferreira, usually a right-back, is switched to left-back with Glen Johnson, who ended the Newcastle game in goal, playing on the right. Youngsters Ben Hudell, Joe Keenan and Sam Tillen would be options should Mourinho decide to call up a replacement, but it is unlikely he would risk an untried prospect in a Champions League tie. Bridge's injury also means Mourinho, who reportedly wants to sign Ashley Cole from Arsenal, will not have a specialist, senior left-back for the run-in to the season. ""He (Bridge) has no chance of playing against Barcelona, probably will not play against Liverpool (in the Carling Cup final) and maybe not for the rest of the season,"" he said. ""The medical department will try to do everything to recover Gallas and Duff. We will have to wait and see, but I won't cry about injuries because we will have 11 players to play on Tuesday."" Shearer said he was unsure what caused Bridge's injury. ""I don't know what happened."" he said. ""It was just a shame. I don't think we even touched each other. ""By all accounts it's pretty serious. I went into the dressing-room after the game and wished him all the best."" Mourinho, whose team are chasing three trophies, has already lost winger Arjen Robben to a serious injury." +sport,"Edgy Agassi struggles past Dent Andre Agassi put in an erratic display before edging into the fourth round of the Australian Open with victory over Taylor Dent. The 34-year-old American, seeded eighth, made a poor start, dropping serve early on and later needing two chances to serve out the set. Having secured the lead, Agassi still failed to take control as both players forced a succession of breaks. But Agassi won the tie-break before wrapping up a 7-5 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 win. Fourth seed survived an injury scare as he battled past Mario Ancic 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4. The Russian turned his right ankle in the third game of the fourth set and called for treatment immediately. But he showed no sign of the problem when he returned to the court to wrap up victory in two hours 45 minutes. Ancic, Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2004, looked set to push Safin all the way when he took the second set but Safin raised his game to sink the Croatian. Safin said he was trying to keep his temper under control at this year's tournament. The Russian hit himself on the head repeatedly in one second-set outburst but was otherwise largely calm in his victory. ""I try to stay calm because if you go crazy against players like Ancic, you might never come back because he's a tough opponent,"" he said. ""I'm a little bit calmer than I was before because I'd had enough."" The Russian added that he was not worried by his ankle injury. ""I have had a lot of problems with that ankle before - it will be OK,"" he said. 's route to the fourth round was made easy when opponent Jarkko Nieminen was forced to retire from their match. The top seed and defending champion was leading 6-3 5-2 when Nieminen pulled out with an abdominal injury. Federer had been in patchy form until then - mixing 19 unforced errors with 19 winners. The world number one will play Cypriot next after the former world junior champion beat Tommy Robredo 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 6-1. Federer admitted he was under extra pressure after extending his winning streak to a career-best 24. ""They are so used to me winning, but it's not that simple,"" he said. ""I had a feeling this could be a tough match. I had a bad start but I bounced back. I always want to play better than I am, but I thought I was pretty OK."" French Open champion is out of the tournament after a five-set defeat by Dominik Hrbaty. Hrbaty defeated the 10th seed 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (8-10) 6-7 (3-7) 6-1 6-3 in a match lasting four hours and 21 minutes. The pair traded 16 service breaks during an exhausting baseline battle, with Hrbaty taking a decisive advantage in the eighth game of the final set. Hrbaty will now play 2002 champion , who outlasted American Kevin Kim 3-6 6-2 6-7 6-2 6-2." +sport,"Capriati out of Australian Open Jennifer Capriati has become the third leading lady to withdraw from the Australian Open because of injury. The organisers of the first grand slam of 2005, which begins on 17 January, said the American has a problem with her right shoulder. It comes as a blow to the women's draw as last year's champion, Justin Henin-Hardenne, and runner-up, Kim Clijsters, will also be absent. Capriati is a two-time champion in Melbourne with wins in 2001 and 2002. She is believed to have picked up the injury at the Advanta Championships at Philadelphia in November and had to pull out of an exhibition match with Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova on 17 December. Capriati also decided against competing in the Australian Open warm-up event, the Sydney International." +sport,"Greek pair attend drugs hearing Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou have appeared before an independent tribunal which will decide if their bans should stand. They were given provisional suspensions by athletics' ruling body the IAAF in December for failing to take drugs tests before the Athens Olympics. The pair arrived with former coach Christos Tzekos to give evidence at the Hellenic Olympic Committee's offices. A decision is expected to be announced before the end of February. Whatever the ruling, all parties will have the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Yiannis Papadoyiannakis, who was head of the Greek Olympic team at the Athens Games last year, also testified at the tribunal, along with other Greek sports officials and athletes. ""I believe the tribunal will reach a decision that will uphold the standing of the institution,"" said Papadoyiannakis. ""Whatever the athletes have done, we must not forget that they have offered us great moments."" Kenteris won 200m gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, while Thanou won silver in the 100m. They withdrew from the Athens Games last August after missing drugs tests on the eve of the opening ceremony. The pair spent four days in a hospital, claiming they had been injured in a motorcycle crash. The five-member tribunal, assembled by the Hellenic Association of Amateur Athletics, is also examining allegations that Kenteris and Thanou avoided tests in Tel Aviv and Chicago before the Games. Tzekos was also banned for two years by the IAAF. He faces charges of assisting in the use of prohibited substances and tampering with the doping inspection process. All three, who have repeatedly denied the allegations, have also been charged by a Greek prosecutor and face trial for doping-related charges. A trial date has not been set. In imposing two-year suspensions on the duo on 22 December, the IAAF described their explanations for missing the tests as ""unacceptable"". But Kenteris' lawyer Gregory Ioannidis told BBC Sport earlier this week he was confident the sprinters would be cleared of the charges of failing to give information on their location and refusing to submit to testing. ""We refute both charges as unsubstantiated and illogical,"" he said. ""There have been certain breaches in the correct application of the rules on behalf of the sporting authorities and their officials, and these procedural breaches have also violated my client's rights. ""There is also evidence that proves the fact that my client has been persecuted.""" +sport,"Injury sidelines Philippoussis Mark Philippoussis withdrew from the Sydney International tennis tournament as expected on Sunday after suffering a groin injury during the Hopman Cup. His participation in the Australian Open, which begins on 17 January in Melbourne, also remains in doubt. Defending women's champion Justine Henin-Hardenne is also out of the Sydney event because of a knee injury. In the only main draw men's or women's singles match on Sunday, Nathalie Dechy beat American Lisa Raymond 7-5 6-3. Number one men's seed Lleyton Hewitt begins his quest for a fourth Sydney title on Tuesday when he plays Karol Beck. Lindsay Davenport, top seed in the women's draw, has been handed a first-round bye and plays France's Dechy in the second round on Tuesday." +sport,"Lennon brands Rangers favourites Celtic's Neil Lennon admits Rangers could be considered ""slight favourites"" for the Old Firm CIS Cup clash, but insists his side can still win. Lennon concedes Rangers are in good form at the moment, but they have failed to beat Celtic in their last seven meetings. ""Rangers are on the up and have been on a good run in recent weeks,"" he said. ""But it's a game we believe we're capable of winning if we play our best,"" he told the Evening Times. ""All the boys are looking forward to it because they are brilliant games to be involved in. ""Without playing at the top of our game, we have still been winning matches. ""At the minute, we are at the top of the league and still in with a chance of staying in Europe, so I don't think it is the crisis people have been trying to make out. ""Of course, it is a concern when you are losing goals, because we have been notorious for being a team that is hard to beat and keeping clean sheets, but hopefully we are over that wee run. ""Considering we lost Henrik Larsson at the end of last season, we have still been scoring a lot of goals, which is pleasing.""" +sport,"Hewitt falls to Dent Lleyton Hewitt suffered a shock defeat to Taylor Dent in the quarter-finals of the Australian Hardcourt Championships in Adelaide on Friday. The top seed was a strong favourite for the title but went down 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 to the American. Dent will face Juan Ignacio Chela next after the fourth seed was too strong for Jurgen Melzer. Olivier Rochus beat third seed Nicolas Kiefer 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 and will take on second seed Joachim Johansson. The Swede reached the last four by beating compatriot Thomas Enqvist 6-3 4-6 6-1. ""I felt like I was striking the ball much better,"" said Johansson. ""I felt like I had a lot of break chances, I didn't take care of them all, but I broke him four times and he only broke me once. ""I felt that was the key to get up in the set early.""" +sport,"Pearce keen on succeeding Keegan Joint assistant boss Stuart Pearce has admitted he would like to succeed Kevin Keegan as manager at Manchester City. Keegan has decided to step down as City manager when his contract comes to an end in 18 months. ""You don't have to be Einstein to realise there will be a manager's job available at a really good club,"" Pearce told BBC GMR. ""I will certainly be applying for it, although whether the board deem me good enough to take it, I do not know."" Pearce initially joined City as a player under Keegan in 2001 before becoming part of the coaching staff. He was promoted to joint assistant-manager following the departure of Arthur Cox last summer. The former England defender had a year as player-boss with Nottingham Forest eight seasons ago but has made no secret of his desire to have another crack at the job. He was linked with the manager's job at Oldham and Keegan has stated he would not get in the way if Pearce wanted to leave. But it now appears Pearce is keen to wait for his chance at City. He added: ""By that time, I will have been here for five years so at least they will have had a good look at me and they are aware of my feelings with regard to being Kevin's successor. ""Obviously, the issue is out of my hands but it is a fantastic job for anybody - I just hope it will be me.""" +sport,"IAAF launches fight against drugs The IAAF - athletics' world governing body - has met anti-doping officials, coaches and athletes to co-ordinate the fight against drugs in sport. Two task forces have been set up to examine doping and nutrition issues. It was also agreed that a programme to ""de-mystify"" the issue to athletes, the public and the media was a priority. ""Nothing was decided to change things - it was more to have a forum of the stakeholders allowing them to express themselves,"" said an IAAF spokesman. ""Getting everyone together gave us a lot of food for thought."" About 60 people attended Sunday's meeting in Monaco, including IAAF chief Lamine Diack and Namibian athlete Frankie Fredericks, now a member of the Athletes' Commission. ""I am very happy to see you all, members of the athletics family, respond positively to the IAAF call to sit together and discuss what more we can do in the fight against doping,"" said Diack. ""We are the leading Federation in this field and it is our duty to keep our sport clean."" The two task forces will report back to the IAAF Council, at its April meeting in Qatar." +sport,"Rusedski forced out in Marseille Greg Rusedski was forced to withdraw from the Open 13 in Marseille on Thursday with a rib injury. The British number two had been scheduled to play qualifier Sebastien de Chaunac, who beat world number five Guillermo Coria 6-4 7-5 in round one. But Rusedski was unable to take to the court because of a problem with the left-hand side of his rib-cage. American Taylor Dent caused a shock with a 7-6 6-2 victory over second seed David Nalbandian. But third seed Joachim Johansson made it through after beating Frenchman Gilles Simon 7-6 6-3 while in the first match of the day, sixth seed Feliciano Lopez defeated Ivo Karlovic. There were also wins for Slovakia's Karol Beck and Croatian duo Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic." +sport,"Robinson answers critics England captain Jason Robinson has rubbished suggestions that the world champions are a team in decline. England were beaten 11-9 by Wales in their Six Nations opener in Cardiff last week and face current champions France at Twickenham on Sunday. Robinson said: ""We are certainly not on the decline. You lose one game and it doesn't make you a bad team. ""I have no doubt in the players we've got. We have still got the team to go out and beat anyone on our day."" England find themselves striving to avoid a third successive championship defeat for the first time since 1987. But full-back Robinson believes the new-look England team can stop the rot against France. ""Last weekend we should have won the game,"" he said. ""But if we can under-perform and lose by only two points then I am sure if we play well this week we will get the win we need. ""We proved that in the autumn - when we put in some excellent performances - and we just need to build on that. ""It was a disappointing start against Wales and we might be down on that. ""But we are certainly not out. We will come out fighting this week."" Robinson also had words of comfort for 18-year-old Newcastle centre Mathew Tait, who made his international debut against Wales but has been demoted from the squad to face France. ""I have had a word with Mathew,"" said Robinson. ""I still believe in him. He is an outstanding player but we have gone for Olly (Barkley) because of the kicking. ""Mathew has just got to take it on the chin, keep working hard like he is doing and I'm sure he will feature in some of the games.""" +sport,"Everton's Weir cools Euro hopes Everton defender David Weir has played down talk of European football, despite his team lying in second place in the Premiership after beating Liverpool. Weir told BBC Radio Five Live: ""We don't want to rest on our laurels and say we have achieved anything yet. ""I think you start taking your eye off the ball if you make statements and look too far into the future. ""If you start making predictions you soon fall back into trouble. The only thing that matters is the next game."" He said: ""We are looking after each other and hard work goes a long way in this league. We have definitely shown that. ""Also injuries and suspensions haven't cost us too badly and we have a lot of self-belief around the place.""" +sport,"FA probes crowd trouble The FA is to take action after trouble marred Wednesday's Carling Cup tie between Chelsea and West Ham. Police in riot gear were confronted by a section of the West Ham support after the match which the Blues won 1-0. Mateja Kezman, the scorer of Chelsea's goal, needed treatment on a head injury during the match after being hit by a missile, believed to be a coin. A spokeswoman for Chelsea said the club would await the referee's report before deciding on its course of action. Kezman was forced off the field to receive treatment on a cut above his eye but was able to continue. Chelsea assistant boss Steve Clarke said: ""I would rather talk about the football but we think it was something thrown from the crowd. He did not require stitches."" West Ham boss Alan Pardew said: ""It's a shame because I thought there was good English banter in the crowd. ""There's big rivalry between the two clubs and it is a shame if that's happened. From where I was standing I didn't see any trouble."" Former Hammers star Joe Cole also had a plastic bottle thrown at him, while Frank Lampard was pelted with coins as he was preparing to take a penalty. Lampard's spot-kick was saved to the delight of the Hammers' fans, who have still not forgiven him for leaving Upton Park. The FA will seek reports from the clubs and the police, and will review video evidence and the referee's report. Police in riot gear battled with West Ham fans in the Matthew Harding stand and at least one supporter required treatment. Fans are also thought to have clashed outside the ground after the game. Scotland Yard said there had been 11 arrests for alleged public order, drugs and offensive weapon offences. The FA is already looking into the trouble at Tuesday's heated Carling Cup tie between Millwall and Liverpool." +sport,"Merritt close to indoor 400m mark Teenager LaShawn Merritt ran the third fastest indoor 400m of all time at the Fayetteville Invitational meeting. The world junior champion clocked 44.93 seconds to finish well clear of fellow American Bershawn Jackson in Arkansas. Only Michael Johnson has gone quicker, setting the world record of 44.63secs in 1995 and running 44.66secs in 1996. Kenyan Bernard Lagat missed out on the world record by 1.45secs as he ran the third quickest indoor mile ever to beat Canada's Nate Brannen by almost 10secs. The Olympic silver medallist's time of three minutes 49.89secs was inferior only to the 1997 world record of Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj and former world record holder Eamonn Coghlan of Ireland's 3:49.78. Lagat was on course to break El Guerrouj's record through 1200m but could not maintain the pace over the final 400m. Ireland's continued his excellent form by winning a tight 3,000m in 7:40.53. Cragg, who recently defeated Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele in Boston, held off Bekele's Ethiopian colleague Markos Geneti by only 0.19secs to secure his victory. Mark Carroll, who will join Cragg in the European Indoor Championships next month, finished a solid third in 7:46.78. Olympic 200m gold medallist of Jamaica ran the fastest women's 60m in the world this year as she equalled her personal best of 7.09secs. World indoor 60m hurdles champion also won, improving his season-leading time to 7.51secs." +sport,"Harinordoquy suffers France axe Number eight Imanol Harinordoquy has been dropped from France's squad for the Six Nations match with Ireland in Dublin on 12 March. Harinordoquy was a second-half replacement in last Saturday's 24-18 defeat to Wales. Bourgoin lock Pascal Pape, who has recovered from a sprained ankle, returns to the 22-man squad. Wing Cedric Heymans and Ludovic Valbon come in for Aurelien Rougerie and Jean-Philippe Grandclaude. Rougerie hurt his chest against Wales while Grandclaude was a second-half replacement against both England and Wales. Valbon, capped in last June's Tests against the United States and Canada, was a second half replacement in the win over Scotland. France coach Bernard Laporte said Harinordoquy had been axed after a poor display last weekend. ""Imanol has been dropped from the squad because the least I can say is that he didn't make a thundering comeback against Wales,"" said Laporte. ""We know the Ireland game will be fast and rough and we also want to be able to replace both locks during the game if needed, and Gregory Lamboley can also come on at number seven or eight. ""The grand slam is gone but we'll go to Ireland to win. ""It will be a very exciting game because Ireland have three wins under their belt, have just defeated England and have their eyes set on a Grand Slam."" France, who lost to Wales last week, must defeat the Irish to keep alive their hopes of retaining the Six Nations trophy. Ireland are unbeaten in this year's tournament and have their sights set on a first Grand Slam since 1948. Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), Pierre Mignoni (Clermont), Yann Delaigue (Castres), Frederic Michalak (Stade Toulousain), Damien Traille (Biarritz), Yannick Jauzion (Stade Toulousain), Ludovic Valbon (Biarritz), Christophe Dominici (Stade Francais), Cedric Heymans (Stade Toulousain), Julien Laharrague (Brive) Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Francais), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Olivier Milloud (Bourgoin), Sebastien Bruno (Sale/ENG), William Servat (Stade Toulousain), Fabien Pelous (Stade Toulousain, capt), Jerome Thion (Biarritz), Pascal Papé (Bourgoin), Gregory Lamboley (Stade Toulousain), Serge Betsen (Biarritz), Julien Bonnaire (Bourgoin), Yannick Nyanga (Béziers)" +sport,"Kirwan demands Italy consistency Italy coach John Kirwan has challenged his side to match the performance they produced in pushing Ireland close when they meet Wales on Saturday. Despite losing 28-17 in Sunday's Six Nations encounter, the Italians confirmed their continuing improvement. ""Our goal is to match every side we face and against Ireland we showed we could do that,"" said Kirwan. ""But the most important thing is that we build on that performance when we play Wales on Saturday."" Italy's half-backs had a mixed afternoon, with recalled scrum-half Alessandro Troncon impressing but fly-half Luciano Orquera having an off-day with the boot. Kirwan said: ""I was very happy with Troncon. He had an incredible game - he was very good in attack and defence. ""Orquera's kicking was off but he showed great courage in defence. ""He also followed the game plan. We have to give him confidence because he has the capability to do well.""" +sport,"Sella wants Michalak recall Former France centre Philippe Sella believes coach Bernard Laporte must recall Frederic Michalak to give his side any chance of beating Ireland. Sella admitted he had been impressed by current fly-half Yann Delaigue in the RBS Six Nations to date. But he told BBC Sport: ""Michalak is the answer both now and for the future. Delaigue deserved his chance but the time has come to bring back Michalak. ""He does have weaknesses but has the all-round game to upset Ireland."" The 22-year-old Michalak has spent much of the tournament on the bench after Delaigue impressed for Castres early in the season. With Michalak overlooked, the French stuttered to narrow wins over Scotland and then England before ironically playing their best rugby in the defeat to Wales. ""The Wales game was amazing to watch but never did I think the French could lose that game at half-time,"" said Sella. ""Their only mistakes were that they didn't score enough points in the first half and were a little bit less focused in the second... but only a little bit."" Sella, however, insisted the pressure had eased on the under-fire Laporte, despite the defeat at the Stade de France. ""This season is very important for shaping a team for the 2007 World Cup,"" said Sella, ""which Laporte is doing very well. The French get better every game. ""It's difficult, though, when you change a team and you change your tactics as everything has to gel. ""But he has the players and the talent to take them all the way to World Cup victory. ""As a result, it is important that people give him time. It may not seem good now that we're not winning the Grand Slam but no one will care in two years time if we're world champions."" The majority of media criticism centred on the way in which France produced a performance devoid of running rugby in their opening two games. But while Sella admitted he liked the more flowing style employed against Wales, he said ""the win was most important"". ""Winning is all that matters,"" he added. ""Ok, the flair may not have been so good, but the discipline, organisation and defence was there, which are all important ahead of 2007."" France play what Sella believes is their hardest game of the Six Nations against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday 12 March. The French go into the game as clear underdogs. But Sella added: ""People forget that France can still win the Six Nations and they'll be focused on that. ""But Ireland will be going for even more in front of their home crowd. It's going to be tough.""" +sport,"Uefa approves fake grass Uefa says it will allow European matches to be played on artificial pitches from the start of next season. European football's governing body made the decision at a meeting of its Executive Committee on Wednesday. Uefa explained that the move ""follows comprehensive studies into the sporting and medical aspects of using artificial playing surfaces."" They can be used subject to complying with Uefa quality criteria but there use will not be made obligatory. Luton, Preston, Queens Park Rangers and other clubs used to have plastic pitches during the the 1980s but, after a two-year study, Uefa insists the surfaces have moved on. International matches can also be played on such pitches, although games at major tournaments have to be contested on grass. Uefa spokesman Rob Faulkner said: ""People in England have bad memories of the artificial pitches of Luton and QPR in the 1980s, but the latest generation are completely different and are much more like grass. ""We have sanctioned its use from the start of next season but only as long as it is the latest generation of artificial turf and meets a whole series of standards."" Several leading clubs from Scandinavia, Russia and eastern Europe - especially those who only play Champions League or Uefa Cup matches in winter - are now expected to instal artificial pitches." +sport,"Charvis set to lose fitness bid Flanker Colin Charvis is unlikely to play any part in Wales' final two games of the Six Nations. Charvis has missed all three of Wales' victories with an ankle injury and his recovery has been slower than expected. ""He will not figure in the Scotland game and is now thought unlikely to be ready for the final game,"" said Wales physio Mark Davies. Sonny Parker is continuing to struggle with a neck injury, but Hal Luscombe should be fit for the Murrayfield trip. Centre Parker has only a ""slim chance"" of being involved against the Scots on 13 March, so Luscombe's return to fitness after missing the France match with hamstring trouble is a timely boost. Said Wales assistant coach Scott Johnson: ""We're positive about Hal and hope he'll be raring to go. ""He comes back into the mix again, adds to the depth and gives us other options. "" Replacement hooker Robin McBryde remains a doubt after picking up knee ligament damage in Paris last Saturday. ""We're getting that reviewed and we should know more by the end of the week how Robin's looking,"" added Johnson. ""We're hopeful but it's too early to say at this stage."" Steve Jones from the Dragons is likely to be drafted in if McBryde fails to recover." +sport,"Thanou desperate to make return Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou says she is eager to compete again after being cleared of missing a drugs test by an independent Greek tribunal. Thanou, 30, was provisionally suspended for missing a test before the Olympics, but the decision was overturned. ""The IAAF will decide if we can compete again in Greece and abroad,"" Thanou told To Vima newspaper in her first interview since the Athens Olympics. ""If given the green light I will run again - that's the only thing I want."" Thanou, 30, and her compatriot Kostas Kenteris were provisionally suspended by the IAAF in December for missing three drugs tests. The third was alleged to have been on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics. But an independent tribunal of the Greek Athletics Federation overturned the provisional ban on 18 March. The IAAF - which said it was ""very surprised"" by the decision of the Greek tribunal - is deciding whether to appeal against the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. However, Dick Pound, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Authority, has said he will appeal against the decision if the IAAF does not. And Thanou and Kenteris face a criminal trial later this year for allegedly avoiding the test and then faking a motorcycle accident. Thanou said: ""I can see how people can think the accident seemed like a childish excuse. ""I cannot deny that we made a lot of mistakes during that time. I always said we needed a PR person. ""An athlete would have to be very stupid to take illegal substances when he or she knows that they will undergo tests at any given moment. ""I am a champion. I cannot risk everything I've achieved in such a silly way.""" +sport,"Middlesbrough 2-2 Charlton A late header by teenager Danny Graham earned Middlesbrough a battling draw with Charlton at the Riverside. Matt Holland had put the visitors ahead in the 14th minute after his shot took a deflection off Franck Queudrue. But Middlesbrough peppered the Charlton goal after the break and Chris Riggott stroked home the equaliser. Shaun Bartlett's strike put Charlton back in front but that lead lasted just six minutes before Graham rushed onto Queudrue's pass to head home. The match burst to life from the whistle and Charlton defender Hermann Hreidarsson had sight of an open goal after just six minutes. Hreidarsson received Danny Murphy's free-kick from the right but he crashed his free header wide of the far post. The Iceland international looked such a danger the Boro bench could be heard issuing frantic instructions to mark him. Charlton's early pressure paid off when Bartlett received a long ball from Talal El Karkouri in the box and laid it off to Holland who buried his right-footed strike. Szilard Nemeth, recalled in place of Joseph-Desire Job, was twice denied his chance to get Middlesbrough back on level terms by Dean Kiely. The striker played a great one-two with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink only to see Kiely get down well to smother his shot before directing a header straight into the keeper's arms. Boro had plenty of time on the ball but the Addicks comfortably mopped up the pressure - with Kiely tipping a Hasselbaink header over the bar - to take their lead into half-time. It was all one-way traffic after the break at the Riverside as Middlesbrough poured forward and Kiely even saved Hreidarsson's blushes when he palmed the ball away to prevent a Charlton own goal. But the Addicks keeper could do nothing about Riggott's equaliser in the 74th minute. The Boro defender looked suspiciously offside as he got on the end of Gareth Southgate's misdirected effort, but despite the Charlton protests his goal stood. The Addicks did not let their heads drop and Bartlett left the Boro defence standing, picking up Hreidarsson's cross to easily sink his right-footed strike. But substitute Graham was on hand to grab a share of the points for the home side. The 19-year-old striker nodding home the equaliser - and his first Premiership goal - with five minutes left on the clock. ""I felt we did enough to win the game even though the first half was lacklustre. ""We dominated after the break, the players showed a fantastic response and we should have gone on to win. ""But for (Charlton goalkeeper) Dean Kiely, who made three tremendous saves, we could have scored five or six."" ""To take the lead and then to get penned back, it feels a little bit like a defeat,"" admitted Kiely. ""We were winning but Middlesbrough kept knocking on the door. But we stood up and credit to us we didn't capitulate. ""We'll kick on now. Our short-term ambition is to progress from the seventh place finish from last year."" Nash, Reiziger (Graham 82), Riggott, Southgate, Queudrue, Parlour (Job 86), Doriva, Nemeth (Parnaby 87), Zenden, Downing, Hasselbaink. Subs Not Used: Cooper, Knight. Riggott 74, Graham 86. Kiely, Hreidarsson, Perry, El Karkouri, Young, Konchesky, Murphy (Euell 78), Holland, Kishishev, Thomas (Johansson 72), Bartlett. Subs Not Used: Fish, Jeffers, Andersen. Konchesky, Hreidarsson, Perry. Holland 14, Bartlett 80. 29,603 M Riley (W Yorkshire)." +sport,"All Black magic: New Zealand rugby Playing colours: All black The Haka and more! The All Blacks Charles John Munro discovered rugby at London's Christ College, and on his return to Nelson he staged New Zealand's first game. Nelson Town met Nelson College on 14 May, 1870, the Town triumphing by two goals to nil, instigating a game that would become a national obsession and come to dominate the country's sporting passions. The game appealed to the Kiwi psyche and quickly spread, the native Maoris finding a particular empathy with the sport's warrior ethos. In 1888 a British team led by AE Stoddart toured New Zealand and Australia, and soon after a Maori named Joe Warbrick and an English ex-pat called Thomas Eyton decided to gather a combined New Zealand team. Twenty-two Maori and four 'pakiha' formed the 'New Zealand Native Team,' who played a total of 107 matches in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. The integration of white and Maori was a reflecion of enlightened New Zealand rugby and society, even if the British press were somewhat mystified by the pre-match tradition of the Maori war dance, the Haka! The other great symbol of New Zealand rugby, the all black kit with the silver fern on the breast, was proposed by Tom Ellison at the first annual meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union in 1893. New Zealand played their first international against Australia in 1903, the Kiwis triumphing 22-3 in Sydney, and the following year an official British touring team came to New Zealand for the first time. The tourists had gone through Australia undefeated but their captain, David Revell Bedell-Sivright, created animosity in New Zealand with his patronising attitude. The Kiwis shocked the rugby world with a 9-3 triumph in Wellington, sparking great celebrations across the country, but Bedell-Sivright churlishly suggested that the victors would have no chance when they visited the UK. Their opportunity to prove him wrong came in 1905 with the first official New Zealand tour to Europe. The tourists won their early games with a quick-thinking, inventive approach, but press criticism began to grow over their 2-3-2 scrum formation that left a 'roving' forward free to disrupt opposition attacks. The tactic was effective, two late tries seeing the Kiwis to a 12-7 win over Scotland, before Ireland were despatched 15-0 in Dublin. A huge crowd at Crystal Palace convulsed with laughter at the sight of the Haka - but the smiles were soon wiped from their faces when the tourists ran in five tries in a 15-0 hammering of England. New Zealand headed to Wales to meet a country in the midst of its first 'Golden Age,' and the encounter would be the first in a series of controversial clashes between the sides. An excellent try on the left wing by Teddy Morgan sealed a 3-0 win in a hard-fought encounter at Cardiff Arms Park, but post-match talk was dominated by a Bob Deans try that was ruled out by Scottish referee John Dallas. Dallas said that Deans was tackled short, but the Kiwi said he was dragged back into the field of play after grounding a try - on his death-bed three years later he exclaimed: ""I did score that try in Cardiff."" Four of the 1905 All Blacks went over to the newly formed 'All Golds' rugby league side soon after the tour, but New Zealand were strong enough to crush an Anglo-Welsh touring team in 1908. The first South Africa tour of New Zealand in 1921 saw honours shared in a three-Test series, starting the greatest rivalry in rugby - and the long-running controversy between the countries over the All Blacks' inclusion of Maori players. The awesome 1924-5 All Black tourists became known as 'The Invincibles' after winning all 30 of their games in France, Britain and Ireland, including a crushing 19-0 victory over Wales at St Helen's. Despite their success, the All Blacks' 2-3-2 scrum formation left them somewhat short of possession at times, and the flaws were exploited by the Springboks in South Africa in 1928. Employing the modern 3-4-1 scrum line-up against the New Zealand 'rover' system for the first time, South African teams defeated the All Blacks in five games and the Test series was drawn two-all. The controversial New Zealand scrum method finally disappeared after the 1930 Lions tour (a series won 3-1 by New Zealand), the Lions manager describing the tactic as 'cheating,' prompting the International Rugby Board to rule that three men had to pack down in the front row of the scrum. The All Blacks' 1935 European tour started inauspiciously with an 11-3 loss to a Swansea side inspired by teenage, schoolboy half-backs Hayden Tanner and Willie Davies. A thrilling Test at Cardiff Arms Park went to Wales 13-12, although the winning try from Geoffrey Rees-Jones was controversial following an illegal Claude Davey tackle in the build-up. New Zealand's next visit to Wales in 1953 proved difficult as they lost 8-3 to Cardiff and drew 6-6 at Swansea. The All Blacks were on top in the Test with Wales at the Arms Park, but the teams were locked at 8-8 when a Clem Thomas cross kick was gathered by Ken Jones for a famous, match-winning try. The tourists made some amends with wins over the other home nations, before a 19-5 success over the Barbarians in an Arms Park thriller. New Zealand built from that tour, and by the time they returned in 1963-4 they were undoubtedly the leading side in the world. That made the shock all the greater when a drop goal by student John Uzzell gave Newport an unlikely 3-0 win over the tourists at Rodney Parade. Wilson Whinneray's side rallied to beat Wales 6-0, their first win at the Arms Park in four attempts, and went unbeaten through the rest of the tour, but when they returned home the first question put to them was: ""What happened in Newport?"" The only blemish on the record of the awesome 1967 tourists was a draw with East Wales, as they beat the full Wales team 13-6 in Cardiff to take the lead in the series between the countries for the first time. That lead was increased with two comfortable wins for the home side in New Zealand in 1969, the first time Wales had toured the country as an independent team. A ferocious game at the Arms Park in 1972 was edged 19-16 by the All Blacks, a measure of revenge for the defeat inflicted on New Zealand by the Carwyn James-inspired Lions of 1971. James guided Llanelli to a famous 9-3 win over the tourists at Stradey Park, though, and in the final game of the tour the Barbarians defeated the All Blacks 23-11 in Cardiff in a game regarded by many as the greatest ever played. New Zealand defeated a Wales XV 12-3 at the Arms Park in a non-cap game in 1974, but it was the 1978 game in Cardiff that would reignite the history of controversy between the two countries. Wales were leading 12-10 with one minute left when Andy Haden flew to the floor from a line-out. Television pictures clearly showed that he dived, but English referee Roger Quittenton was fooled and awarded a penalty, duly converted by Brian McKechnie for a 13-12 win. Since that infamous game, the competition has largely left Wales v New Zealand fixtures as the men in red have slipped from the pinnacle of the world game. A crushing 23-3 win for New Zealand in Cardiff in the Welsh Rugby Union's 1980 centenary game was a sign of things to come. The new professionalism in the southern hemisphere game that had left Europe behind was shown as the All Blacks swatted Wales aside 49-6 in Brisbane in the semi-final of the inaugural World Cup. The Kiwis went on to claim the Cup, and would inflict further misery on Wales on their ill-fated 1988 tour of New Zealand. A young, talented Wales side left Britain full of confidence as Triple Crown winners, but one of the greatest ever New Zealand teams demolished them 52-3 and 54-9. After also taking some fearful beatings in the provincial games, Wales captain Jonathan Davies returned home calling for urgent change in the national game, but as his views were ignored he - along with a generation of Wales' best players - chose to head north to rugby league. A 34-9 win in Cardiff followed for New Zealand in 1989, and at the 1995 World Cup Wales' big talk was made to look embarrassing as the All Blacks eased to victory in Johannesburg. A crushing 42-7 Kiwi triumph in Wembley followed in 1997, and as Wales' misery increased they turned to New Zealand for their salvation in the shape of coaches Graham Henry and Steve Hansen. There was a temporary resurgence in the Welsh game, but when an experimental New Zealand side came to Cardiff's new Millennium Stadium in 2002 they left with a 43-17 victory. A bruising 55-3 defeat followed for Wales in Hamilton in 2003 as Hansen built towards the World Cup, but in Australia it was a remarkable performance against the All Blacks that gave his side renewed hope. Wales were given no chance going into the game, but in the course of the match they rediscovered the value of attacking flair to lead 37-33 early in the second half. New Zealand rallied to a 53-37 win, but the style shown by Wales has been used as an inspiration as they look to a better future. They now face an All Blacks team led by Henry and Hansen, coming to Europe with a weakened squad at the end of a long season. An encouraging display against South Africa has inspired a confident Wales camp to believe they can claim their first win over the men in black for over 50 years. They have a chance, but clearly history is not on their side." +sport,"Ireland 21-19 Argentina An injury-time dropped goal by Ronan O'Gara stole victory for Ireland from underneath the noses of Argentina at Lansdowne Road on Saturday. O'Gara kicked all of Ireland's points, with two dropped goals and five penalties, to give the home side a 100% record in their autumn internationals. An impressive Argentina appeared in control until the dying seconds. The Pumas shocked the Irish early on with a try from Federico Aramburu, and Felipe Contepomi kicked 14 points. The well-drilled and sharper Pumas out-played and out-thought Ireland in the early stages. Indiscipline allowed Argentina's Leinster fly-half Contepomi to open the scoring in the third minute with a straightforward penalty. He was on the mark again two minutes later when Argentina shocked a ragged Ireland with the first try of the game. Ireland turned the ball over and Manuel Contepomi broke through an unstructured defence before feeding his midfield partner Aramburu to sprint in under the posts. O'Gara finally got Ireland on the board with a dropped goal in the ninth minute only for Contepomi to rifle over his second penalty two minutes later. Playing into a strong wind and rain, Ireland continued to come second best in tight situations, and turnovers began to mount up against a rugged defence. O'Gara managed to land his second penalty in the 36th minute, but once again Contepomi replied in kind four minutes into first-half injury time. The second-half started as the first had ended. O'Gara rifled over another penalty in the 45th minute, but Contepomi matched it three minutes later. The upper-body strength of the Pumas never allowed Ireland to take control up front, while the three-quarters had no space to manoeuvre. Ireland had to rely on O'Gara's boot to keep in touch rather than any contrived running plays. The Munsterman landed two more penalties - one of them from 48 metres - to bring his team to within four points with 13 minutes on the clock remaining. And Ireland's chance came when Argentina's number eight Gonzalo Longo was yellow carded with six minutes to go for an offence in the line-out. O'Gara made no mistake as he rifled over his fifth penalty to set up a tense final few minutes. But Ireland showed great composure to get themselves into a position to allow O'Gara to thump over a massive drop goal to complete a tremendous, if fortuitous, comeback." +sport,"Edu describes tunnel fracas Arsenal's Edu has lifted the lid on the scenes that followed Manchester United's win over the Gunners. The Brazilian confirmed tempers had flared but could shed no light on reports that food was thrown at United boss Sir Alex Ferguson. ""I saw people being pulled apart, people pushing, pointing and shouting,"" he told Uefa's official website. ""The United players were trying to wind us up about the result but I didn't see any soup being thrown at anyone."" However, Edu tried to play down the incidents, adding: ""There was nothing that I haven't seen in Brazilian derbies. ""Derby matches in Brazil are worse. I like to play in games like this with this intense rivalry."" But Edu was highly critical of the ferocity of some of United's challenges during the game, particularly on Jose Antonio Reyes. ""I think we were a lot fairer in the tackles than United,"" he said. ""Reyes was being kicked all over the park - they were beating up the boy and Gary Neville was tackling in such a way that he should have been sent off."" Following the game, the Football Association said it would look into events in the tunnel. It also charged Ruud van Nistelrooy with serious foul play while Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has been asked to explain comments he made about the referee." +sport,"Woodward eyes Brennan for Lions Toulouse's former Irish international Trevor Brennan could be one of Clive Woodward's many surprises when the 44-man Lions tour squad is announced. Brennan, who last played for Ireland against Samoa in 2001, is held in high esteem by the former England coach. ""If you speak to the players there's a huge amount of respect for the guy,"" Woodward told the Sunday Independent. ""Players tend to know better than most coaches. It's not just the Irish, but Welsh and English players as well."" The 31-year-old former Dublin milkman moved from Leinster to Toulouse in 2003 and immediately picked up a Heineken Cup winner's medal in an all-French final against Perpignan at Lansdowne Road. Brennan is highly-rated at Stade Toulousain, where he is used anywhere in the back five. Woodward is ensuring his preparations for the trip to New Zealand in June are as thorough as possible. ""I've spoken to quite a few players, and they probably don't know what they're actually saying when we're having these conversations,"" he told the newspaper. ""But you talk about certain players and they'll say if they think they're up to scratch or that they don't want them in their team. ""I haven't heard a bad word said against Trevor, which, considering he has a pretty tough guy reputation, is, to me, impressive.""" +sport,"Barkley fit for match in Ireland England centre Olly Barkley has been passed fit for Sunday's Six Nations clash with Ireland at Lansdowne Road. Barkley withdrew from Bath's team for Friday's clash with Gloucester after suffering a calf injury in training. Gloucester centre Henry Paul has also been cleared to play after overcoming an ankle injury. England coach Andy Robinson, who names his team on Wednesday, has called up Bath prop Duncan Bell following Phil Vickery's broken arm. With Vickery sidelined for at least six weeks and Julian White out with a neck injury, Bell could make his England debut. Bell, 30, had set his sights on an international career with Wales. But last December, the International Rugby Board confirmed that he could only be eligible for England as he had travelled on tour with them in 1998. ""I thought I'd burned all my bridges with England when I expressed an interest in wanting to play for Wales, so it's fantastic to get this opportunity,"" he said. Bell, who featured in the England A side which beat France 30-20 10 days ago, added: ""I recognise that I got into the England A squad because of injuries. ""And it's the same again in getting into the senior squad. But now that I have this opportunity I intend to take it fully if selected and play my heart out for my country."" England coach Andy Robinson could take a gamble and call inexperienced Sale Sharks prop Andrew Sheridan into his front row. But Sheridan favours the loosehead side of the scrum and a more likely scenario is for uncapped Bell - who was among the try-scorers when England A beat France A 30-20 nine days ago - to be drafted in." +sport,"Hingis hints at playing comeback Martina Hingis has admitted that she might consider a competitive return to tennis if an appearance in Thailand later this month goes well. The former world number one will play at the Volvo Women's Open in Pattaya, which starts on 31 January, as part of her charity work in the region. ""The tournament is a test,"" she said. ""I don't know how my body will react. ""I support several charities in Thailand. I'm also playing to see where I am."" Speaking to Le Matin, the 24-year-old Swiss added: ""At Pattaya there will not be as many people and the players are ranked between the 30th and 95th in the world."" Hingis was 22 when she retired after having surgery on both ankles, and her last WTA event was in Filderstadt, Germany, in October 2002, when she lost to Elena Dementieva." +sport,"Federer forced to dig deep Top seed Roger Federer had to save two match points before squeezing past Juan Carlos Ferrero at the Dubai Open. The world number one took two hours 15 minutes to earn his 4-6 6-3 7-6 victory, saving match points at 6-4 in the tiebreak before claiming it 8-6. Federer made a number of unforced errors early on, allowing Ferrero to take advantage and claim the first set. But the Swiss star hit back to reach the quarter-finals, where he will face seventh seed Russian Mikhail Youzhny. The Russian beat Germany's Rainer Schuettler 7-5 6-4. Federer was not unduly worried despite being taken to three sets for the third consecutive match. The world number one was forced to go the distance against Ivan Ljubicic in the Rotterdam final and against Ivo Minar in the first round in Dubai. ""I definitely had a slow start again and to come back every time is quite an effort,"" he said. ""I haven't been playing well, but I've been coming through. I'm winning the crucial points and that shows I'm on top of my game when I have to be.""" +sport,"Newcastle line up Babayaro Newcastle manager Graeme Souness is closing in on signing Chelsea defender Celestine Babayaro when the transfer window reopens. Souness is bidding to bolster his defence and, according to reports, contract negotiations are at an advanced stage with the player. Babayaro has been in the Premiership since 1997 when he moved to Chelsea for £2.25m from Anderlecht. But the 26-year-old has been surplus to requirements this season. Souness would not be drawn on specifics over individual players. But he said: ""All I can tell you is that the chairman has worked really hard in the last couple of months to try to do deals. ""We have said from day one we want to strengthen, and that is what we are hoping to do in the coming weeks.""" +sport,"Wenger keeping faith with Almunia Arsene Wenger has pledged to keep faith with stand-in keeper Manuel Almunia for the crunch week which could define Arsenal's season. Almunia will start Tuesday's Champions League group tie against Rosenborg and is likely to face Chelsea on Sunday. Wenger said: ""You don't think I would take out one goalkeeper for just one game, do you? I don't do that. ""I have to give him a run for a few games. It's just that I don't want to make this story bigger than it is."" Wenger insists he has complete faith in the 27-year-old Spaniard, who was signed last summer from Celta Vigo as back-up to Jens Lehmann. ""If you look at my career, you will see that I have left many big players out for a long time. I've done it with Dennis Bergkamp, Kanu, everybody. ""It's because it's a goalkeeper, that's all. It's a usual situation for me. You put your best team out, no matter who it is. ""For me, it was not a big mistake at Old Trafford and I wasn't alarmed by what happened against Birmingham either. ""It's nothing against Lehmann. I think he's a great keeper, as is Almunia. You can only play one of them. ""These people are not robots - they have good periods and less good periods. Just because Lehmann doesn't play for two or three weeks, or longer or shorter, it doesn't mean I've lost faith in him."" But former Arsenal keeper David Seaman believes Lehmann has been harshly treated. Seaman told the Daily Mail: ""Jens is a fantastic keeper. He deserves another chance. ""He has made a few mistakes but on form he deserves to be the first-team choice."" With Arsenal hit by injuries and suspension, inexperienced midfield pair of Mathieu Flamini and Cesc Fabregas will line up against Rosenborg but Wenger is confident they will prove more than capable. ""It puts a lot of pressure on them but it's a good learning process,"" said Wenger. ""I'm not worried as they are both mentally strong and will put in the needed workrate."" The Gunners go into the game boosted by the news that defender Sol Campbell is on the verge of signing a new deal with the club. And the 30-year-old, whose current contract runs out in the summer, has made it clear he is determined to achieve Champions League success with Arsenal. Campbell said: ""It means a lot to me to go through, it's everything. We want to carry on in this competition. ""That's where the best teams in Europe are. To be in there, playing against these guys and trying to win the trophy, is the first thing in my mind."" Meanwhile, Thierry Henry believes he will be blamed if Arsenal fail to qualify for the next stage of the Champions League. Henry will captain the side in place of the suspended Patrick Vieira as the Gunners seek the required victory over Rosenborg. And the striker said: ""If we don't win and we go out of the competition, like it or not, it's going to be my fault. That's the way it is. ""If the team don't win I know I will be criticised, no matter how I play.""" +sport,"Lomu relishing return to action Former All Black star Jonah Lomu says he cannot wait to run out on the pitch for former England rugby union captain Martin Johnson's testimonial on 4 June. The 29-year-old had a kidney transplant in July 2004 but will play his first full match for three years, leading a southern hemisphere side at Twickenham. ""I actually started training three weeks after my operation but I was very limited until a few months ago. ""Now it's basically bring it on!"" said the giant winger. ""The match on 4 June will be my first 15-man game but I have a training schedule which is quite testing and combines with sevens and a whole lot of things,"" said Lomu. ""I have got so much energy since my operation that I train three times a day, six days a week. ""Mohammed Ali has always been my ideal. Coming back to rugby, people said 'you are dreaming' but it always starts off with a dream. ""It's up to you whether you want to make it a reality."" Opinion has been divided on whether Lomu should attempt to return to the game after such a major operation. But when Lomu was asked whether he was taking a risk he replied: ""As much as someone going down the road being hit by a bus. ""There are a lot of people in the world with one kidney who just don't know it. ""I have talked this over, had a chat with the donor and this is to set my soul at peace and finish something I started in 1994 [when he made his All Blacks debut]."" At his lowest ebb Lomu was so ill he could barely walk, but he says he is now getting stronger every day and his long-term target is to play for New Zealand again. ""The only person who saw me at my worst was my wife,"" he added. ""I used to take two steps and fall over but now I can run and it is all coming back, and a lot more quickly than I ever thought it would. ""To play for the All Blacks would be the highest honour I could get. That is the long-term goal and you have to start somewhere.""" +sport,"Bortolami predicts dour contest Italy skipper Marco Bortolami believes Saturday's Six Nations contest against Scotland will be a scrappy encounter. With both sides looking for their first win of the championship, the third-round game at Murrayfield has been billed as a wooden-spoon decider. And Bortolami feels the Edinburgh contest could end up being a bruising battle of the packs. ""It will not be a pretty game because both teams are desperate to gain their first win,"" said the lock forward. Italy have only recorded three wins since they joined the Six Nations in 2000, but two of those have come against Scotland. This year, Italy opened up with a stubborn display against Ireland but ended up losing 28-17. However, they were thoroughly outplayed by an impressive Welsh side in Rome last time out. Now the Italians travel to Edinburgh hoping to claim their first away win in the Six Nations. ""Scotland played extremely well against France in Paris but not so well when Ireland came to Edinburgh,"" said Bortolami. ""We are still very disappointed with our last game against Wales in Rome and we are thoroughly determined to right the wrongs. ""As a nation, our quest is to be respected as a team worthy of a place in this tournament and we can only do this by winning games.""" +sport,"Hitzlsperger waiting on O'Leary Aston Villa's Thomas Hitzlsperger is waiting to learn the future of manager David O'Leary before committing himself to a new contract with the club. O'Leary has been in talks over a new deal and he said: ""I had a message from Thomas' agent asking me what the news was on myself. ""He wants to find out before he goes into discussions over Thomas. ""The reason Thomas is not speaking to the club is because the agent wants to see the outcome of what happens to me."" Hitzlsperger's current deal expires in the summer and he has been offered a new deal by the Midlands club. The German international is understood to be keen to remain at Villa, despite interest in his native country from Hamburg. But he wants assurances that O'Leary will also be committing himself long-term because negotiations over a new three-and-a-half-year contract appear to have stalled. O'Leary wants his backroom staff - assistant manager Roy Aitken and fitness coach Steve McGregor - to also be given satisfactory deals, which will tie them to Villa until the summer of 2008." +sport,"A year to remember for Irish There used to be one subliminal moment during a year in Irish rugby that stood out more than most. Well, at least there used to one. Now there is a handful to look back with a mixture of satisfaction, and sorrow. It has been quite a year for the Irish, and not just with Eddie O'Sullivan's Triple Crown winning international outfit either. Right down through the ranks Irish rugby is creating waves and upsetting the more established teams in the game. But most of the kudos will go to O'Sullivan and his merry band of warriors who not only collected their first Triple Crown for 29 years, but also finished their autumn campaign with a 100% record. For the second year in succession they also finished in the runners-up spot in the RBS Six Nations. But in the three games in November which included a victory over Tri-Nations champions and Grand Slam chasing South Africa, Ireland finsihed the year on a high. The 18-12 victory at Lansdowne Road was only their second victory over the Boks after the initial success back in 1965. That success was revenge for the consecutive defeats in Blomefontein and Cape Town in the summer. Those two reverses and the 35-17 flop against France, were the only dark patches in an otherwise excellent 12 months. But the big one, of course, was the 19-13 defeat of World Cup champions England on their precious Twickenham turf. The winning try was conceived in O'Sullivan's mind, perfectly executed by the team and finished immaculately by Girvan Dempsey. For me, the try of the Championship. O'Sullivan's career is now in vertical take-off mode. It is no wonder that Sir Clive Woodward has elevated the Galway-based coach to head the Lions Test side. Not only that, but a fair majority of the present Ireland side will be wearing red next June in New Zealand. There can be no doubt that Ireland's representation will be the biggest ever, albeit in a proposed 44-man squad. In Brian O'Driscoll and Paul O'Connell, Ireland have now the two front-runners for the captaincy. Gordon D'Arcy, whose career began as a teenager back in 1999, finally arrived when he was named the Six Nations Player of the Tournament. But it was not only the senior squad that brought kudos to Ireland, the youngsters strutted their stuff on the big stage as well. The under-21 squad confounded the doubters as they went all the way to the World Cup final in Scotland only to be beaten by a powerful All Black side in the decider. The young Irish boys had stated their intentions earlier in the season when they finished runners-up to England in the Six Nations under-21 tournament. On the provincial front, Leinster, for second year in succession, blew it when the Heineken Cup looked a good wager. While Ulster finished runners-up in their very tight group for the second season in succession, it was Munster again flying the flag for the Irish. Looking to reach their third final, they went down 37-32 to eventual winners Wasps in what many beileve was the most competitive and thunderous game ever witnessed at Lansdowne Road. How Wasps recovered from that energy-sapping duel, and then go onto to defeat Toulouse in the final was anybody's guess. Ulster, meanwhile, just lost out to adding the inaugural Celtic Cup in winning the Celtic League when they were pipped at the post by the Scarlets in the final game. Ulster, however, took time to start the new season under new coach Mark McCall. The once famous Ravenhill fortress was breached four times as Ulster only manged five wins from their first 12 outings in the Celtic League. Leinster are again looking the most potent outfit going into 2005, but whether they can take that final step under Declan Kidney is another thing. On the down side, Irish rugby was hit by a number of tragedies. Teenage star John McCall died while playing for the Ireland against New Zealand in the under-19 World Cup game in Durban. That happened only 10 days after he led Royal Armagh to their first Ulster Schools' Cup success since 1977. The death of former Ireland coach and Lions flanker Mike Doyle in a car crash in Northern Ireland shocked the rugby fraternity A larger than life character, Doyle had coached Ireland to the Triple Crown in 1985, the last time that goal had been achieved before this season. Ulster rugby also suffered the sudden deaths of well-known Londonderry YM player Jim Huey, Coleraine's Jonathan Hutchinson, and Belfast Harlequins lock Johnny Poole. They all passed away long before the full-time whistle." +sport,"Wales win in Rome Wales secured their first away win in the RBS Six Nations for nearly four years with a six-try victory in Rome. Tries from Jonathan Thomas, Tom Shanklin and Martyn Williams gave the visitors a 19-5 half-time advantage. Luciano Orquera did reply with one for Italy but second-half efforts from Brent Cockbain, Shane Williams and Robert Sidoli sealed victory. Fly-half Stephen Jones added four conversions as Wales maintained their superb start to this year's tournament. Starting full of confidence after their victory over England, the visitors scored the opening try after just four minutes. Diminutive wing Shane Williams fielded a kick ahead and danced past the onrushing Andrea Masi and Aaron Persico into the Italian half. His pass to Tom Shanklin appeared forward but when the centre was held up short, the ball was switched left and Michael Owen's long cut-out pass gave the lurking Thomas an easy run-in. Stephen Jones, who retained the kicking duties despite Gavin Henson's heroics against England, slotted an excellent conversion from wide out. Wales twice threatened further scores but failed to find the crucial pass, and Italy hit back out of the blue in the 11th minute. Henson, sporting gold boots rather than the silver variety that did for England, beat two players with ease out on the left touchline. But his attempted chip ahead was charged down by Orquera, who snaffled the loose ball and hared away from halfway to score in the right corner. With the Welsh line-out stuttering and Italy twice turning the visitors' scrum, the home side's forward power brought them back into it. But a clever high kick from Henson almost brought a try for Hal Luscombe when Roland de Marigny and Ludovico Nitoglia made a hash of claiming it as the ball bounced into touch. Wales regained control with a second try in the 21st minute, Henson lobbing up a high kick to the left corner where Shanklin jumped higher than Nitoglia to dot down his 15th Test try. Jones was unable to convert and De Marigny then hit the upright with a penalty attempt for Italy. Henson was also narrowly short with a long-range effort at goal, but Wales ended the half with a vital third score to give themselves some breathing space. Henson sent Luscombe streaking away and when he off-loaded to Martyn Williams, the flanker showed his nous to ground the ball against the padding of the post, Jones adding the conversion. Italy, who lost flanker Mauro Bergamasco with a head knock before half-time, built up a head of steam on the resumption. De Marigny landed a penalty to make it 19-8 and a Nitoglia break through the middle threatened a try only for the move to break down with a knock-on. But Wales put the outcome beyond doubt with two superb tries in four minutes before the hour. Their fourth after 53 minutes was sparked by another mazy run from Shane Williams, who beat several players with ease, and finished with a powerful angled run from lock Cockbain. Before Italy could recover from that blow, a strong surge from Gareth Thomas and great off-loads from Martyn Williams and replacement Kevin Morgan saw Shane Williams scamper over. With Jones converting both for a 33-8 lead, Wales had the luxury of sending on five more replacements for the final quarter. The icing on the cake came with a sixth try after more superb support work, Shane Williams and Ceri Sweeney combining to send Sidoli over in the left corner. The only downside for Wales was a hamstring injury suffered by Luscombe. But after back-to-back wins at the start of the tournament for the first time in 11 years, they will travel to Paris in a fortnight looking like genuine contenders. R de Marigny; Mirco Bergamasco, W Pozzebon, A Masi, L Nitoglia; L Orquera, A Troncon; A Lo Cicero, F Ongaro, M Castrogiovanni, S Dellape, M Bortolami (capt), A Persico, Mauro Bergamasco, S Parisse. G Intoppa, S Perugini, CA del Fava, D dal Maso, P Griffen, M Barbini, KP Robertson. G Thomas (capt); H Luscombe, T Shanklin, G Henson, S Williams; S Jones, D Peel; G Jenkins, M Davies, A Jones; B Cockbain, R Sidoli; J Thomas, M Williams, M Owen. R McBryde, J Yapp, I Gough, R Sowden-Taylor, G Cooper, C Sweeney, K Morgan. Andrew Cole (Australia)." +sport,"Reaction from Spanish press England's 1-0 defeat to Spain on Wednesday dominated the back and front pages of the country's press on Thursday. Controversy was in no short supply, with racist abuse of England's black players, Wayne Rooney's petulance and England's inept performance. But what did the Spanish press make of the affair? BBC Sport looks at the reaction. There is little coverage of the racist chanting on Wednesday night's game. But AS does cover the English reaction to the pre-match comments from Spain coach Luis Aragones, who highlighted Britain's colonial past when probed about his own remarks regarding Thierry Henry in October. Journalist Guillem Balague writes: ""In our country, where multi-culturalism is a new thing, we are in nappies dealing with these things, and have a naivety which makes the English nervous."" Marca refers in passing to the booing of England's black players - but only after referring to the cheers of ""ole"" which greeted the long periods of Spanish possession. Aragones' ""no comment"" to questions about racism after the match is also highlighted, as Marca focuses on the Spanish coach's praise for his players. Serbia & Montenegro's 2-0 World Cup qualifying win in Belgium - which could make qualification tougher for Spain - seems to be of greater importance. Elsewhere, the Spanish media criticises its English counterparts for stoking up the racism issue. ""Were there racist chants against some players? This hasn't happened in the Spanish league and Spain for many years,"" said Spanish Federation press officer Fernando Garrido. ""So you (English reporters) should ask yourselves what you have done to contribute to all this."" And Spanish daily ABC accuses English reporters of launching a witch-hunt against Aragones. ""Perhaps it was because their team had played so poorly and they wanted to divert attention towards this muddled issue,"" the paper says. ""What the boy in the Bernabeu did was odd... Rooney seemed intent to kick any Spanish player who approached him."" Yet Rooney is seen only as the worst example of many England miscreants, with Gary Neville criticised for continuing the feud between Manchester United and Arsenal for his tackles on Jose Reyes. Ashley Cole's treatment of Joaquin, and a Frank Lampard foul on Reyes are also lambasted for their ""ugliness"". Marca's headline says it all: ""Wayne Rooney se volvió loco en el Bernabéu (Wayne Rooney became crazy in the Bernabeu)"" Rooney's display alarms the writer, in particular three ""chilling"" fouls on Joaquin, Casillas and Marchena, which ""could well have left them in the infirmary."" And like AS, Marca criticises Gary Neville for ""leaving a message on Reyes' ankle"" to remind him of the Manchester United-Arsenal clash this month. Spain's first-half performance is showered with praise, with Xavi singled out as the biggest star. ""Xavi did things on Wednesday which were worthy of Maradona,"" the paper beams, adding, ""What a work-rate, what dynamism, what vision, what leadership, what a midfield player!"" On a controversial evening, AS offers one seemingly undeniable viewpoint: ""Spanish football players played better football than the English."" More plaudits are given to the home team, with Jaime Vargas lauding the manner in which ""Spain dominated England with order and quality"". The paper adds: ""The bad thing about Spain v England was that it lasted only 65 minutes after which a succession of changes prevented any real competition."" Vargas does not mention England's two Galacticos, simply adding in a PS: ""I have not forgotten to speak of Beckham and Owen. They forgot to play.""" +sport,"England 'to launch ref protest' England will protest to the International Rugby Board (IRB) about the referee's performance in the defeat by Ireland, reports the Daily Mail. England coach Andy Robinson has called on ex-international referees Colin High and Steve Lander to analyse several of Jonathan Kaplan's decisions. ""I want to go through the tape with Colin and Steve,"" Robinson told the Daily Mail. ""I want to speak to the IRB about it. I think only one side was refereed."" High, the Rugby Football Union's referees' manager, claimed Kaplan made three major errors which changed the outcome of Sunday's match. England were beaten 19-13 by the Irish in Dublin, their third straight defeat in the 2005 Six Nations. ""The International Rugby Board will be disappointed,"" High told the Daily Mail. ""Jonathan Kaplan is in the top 20 in the world but that wasn't an international performance. ""It would not have been acceptable in the Zurich Premiership. ""If one of my referees had done that, I would have had my backside kicked for making the appointment. ""If any English referee refereed like that in a European match, there would be an inquest. No question about that. ""If someone had performed like that, he would have been pulled from the next game.""" +sport,"Dawson joins England injury list Scrum-half Matt Dawson is an injury doubt for England's Six Nations opener against Wales next weekend. The World Cup winner missed Wasps' 12-9 loss to Bath on Saturday after injuring his right calf. Wasps coach Warren Gatland said: ""He's got a fitness test in the week but he's got a good chance of playing."" Gloucester's Andy Hazell and Leicester star Lewis Moody also received knocks during their respective league matches, but should be fit for Wales next week. If Dawson is not fit to face Wales, Robinson will have to choose from Gloucester's Andy Gomarsall or Leicester youngster Harry Ellis. Jamie Noon is another player on the sidelines after he limped off in the first half against Saracens on Friday with a dead leg. The centre, who is in line for a first Six Nations start against Wales, will have to wait 48 hours before knowing the state of his injury." +sport,"Cudicini misses Carling Cup final Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini will miss Sunday's Carling Cup final after the club dropped their appeal against his red card against Newcastle. The Italian was sent off for bringing down Shola Ameobi in the final minute of Sunday's match. Blues boss Jose Mourinho had promised to pick Cudicini for the final instead of first-choice keeper Petr Cech. The 31-year-old will now serve a one-match suspension commencing with immediate effect. Cudicini kept a club record 24 clean sheets last season for Chelsea, but Petr Cech has established himself as first choice for Mourinho since moving to Stamford Bridge in summer 2004. The 22-year-old Czech Republic international has set a new Premiership record of 961 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal, a mark which is still running. But Mourinho has used Cudicini regularly in the Carling Cup, and the Italian has only let in one goal in his four appearances during Chelsea's run to the final." +sport,"Collins appeals against drugs ban Sprinter Michelle Collins has lodged an appeal against her eight-year doping ban with the North American Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The 33-year-old received the ban last month as a result of her connection to the federal inquiry into the Balco doping scandal. She is the first athlete to be banned without a positive drugs test or an admission of drugs use. CAS has said that a ruling is normally given within four months of an appeal. Collins was suspended by the US Anti-Doping Agency based on patterns observed in her blood and urine tests as well as evidence in the Balco investigation. As well as being hit with the ban, Collins was stripped of her 2003 world and US indoor 200m titles. The San Francisco-based Balco laboratory is at the centre of the scandal which has rocked the sport. The company has been accused of distributing illegal performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes." +sport,"South Africa sweep top awards South Africa's Schalk Burger was named player of the year as the Tri-Nations champions swept the top honours at the International Rugby Board's awards. The flanker topped a list which included Ireland star Gordon D'Arcy and Australian sensation Matt Giteau. Jake White claimed the coaching award while his side held off Grand Slam winners France to take the team award. England player Simon Amor beat team-mate Ben Gollings and Argentine Lucio Lopez Fleming to win the sevens award. Burger's award came just a week after he won the equivalent prize from his fellow international players and White, who also coached Burger at under-21 level, paid tribute to him. ""Schalk's emergence as a major force has meant a lot to South African rugby, but has also influenced world rugby,"" said White. ""He's become to South African rugby what Jonty Rhodes was to South African cricket. It's amazing what he has achieved in such a short time so far in his international career."" Amor, who will captain England in this season's opening IRB Sevens tournament, the Dubai Sevens, which start on Thursday, was delighted with his award. ""There are so many great sevens players on the circuit at the moment that this is a genuine honour,"" said the Gloucester fly-half." +sport,"Almagro continues Spanish surge Unseeded Nicolas Almagro became the fifth Spaniard to reach the last eight at the Buenos Aires Open, ousting eighth seed Mariano Zabaleta. He showed admirable resolve to win a rain-affected match 6-7 6-4 6-4. Compatriot and seventh seed Rafael Nadal also reached the last eight, beating Italian Potito Starace 6-1 6-3. Nadal, playing in the outdoor clay event for the first time, hit some powerful forehands to oust Starace in a match delayed over an hour by rain. ""It's always a problem to have to stop for rain but one gets used to it,"" said Spanish teenager Nadal. ""Luckily, I was able to keep my pace going throughout the match."" He will now play Gaston Gaudio, who beat unseeded Brazilian Flavio Saretta 6-3 6-2 in the day's late match." +sport,"Big guns ease through in San Jose Top-seeded Americans Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi survived minor scares to reach the last eight of the SAP Open. Agassi endured early problems against left-handed Dane Kenneth Carlsen before sealing a 7-5 6-1 victory. And world number three Roddick dropped a set to Korean player Hyung-Taik Lee, before pulling out a 6-3 3-6 6-2 win in San Jose, California. Seventh seed Jurgen Melzer came through 6-3 6-3 against Xavier Malisse - winner in Delray Beach last week. Frenchman Cyril Saulnier, meanwhile, fired 19 aces to secure a 6-1 7-6 win over Czech qualifier Tomas Zib. Roddick broke a racket in frustration in the third game of the second set. and afterwards was unimpressed with his form. ""I'm not playing great,"" he said. ""But I'm through and I'm going to keep battling. ""A lot of people are under the assumption that it's easy to play well every week and it's not."" It is the 12th time in 13 appearances at the event that Agassi, now 34, has progressed to the quarter-final stage. He came from 0-40 down in the opening game to hold serve and gradually wore Carlsen down after attacking his backhand. Agassi also employed several lobs and charged to the net to unsettle the 31-year-old Dane, ranked 88th in the world. ""As the match went on, I got real patient and waited for my opportunities and felt pretty good,"" said Agassi." +sport,"IAAF awaits Greek pair's response Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou are yet to respond to doping charges from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The Greek pair were charged after missing a series of routine drugs tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens. They have until midnight on 16 December and an IAAF spokesman said: ""We're sure their responses are on their way."" If they do not respond or their explanations are rejected, they will be provisionally banned from competition. They will then face a hearing in front of the Greek Federation, which will ultimately determine their fate. Their former coach Christos Tzekos has also been charged with distributing banned substances. Under IAAF rules, the athletes could receive a maximum one-year suspension. Kenteris and Thanou already face a criminal trial after being charged with avoiding a drug test on the eve of the Athens Olympics and then faking a motorcyle crash. No date for the trial has yet been set and again Tzekos is also facing charges. The IAAF issued an official warning to the trio last year after they were discovered training in Qatar rather than in Crete, where they had said they would be. All athletes must inform their national federations where they are at all times, so they can be available for out-of-competition drugs tests. But Kenteris and Thanou then went on to skip tests in Tel Aviv and Chicago, when they decided to fly back to Greece early. Then just before the Olympics, the pair dramatically missed another test in Athens and withdrew from the Games." +sport,"Liverpool revel in night of glory Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez said their qualification for the next stage of the Champions League was ""one of the proudest nights of my career."" The Reds beat Olympiakos 3-1 with a late Steven Gerrard strike and Benitez said: ""It was a really great night. ""The players ran hard all the time and you see how much it means to the fans. ""We knew before the game that it was very important for the club to gain these extra finances. For Liverpool, this result is very, very important."" Benitez hailed Gerrard for his match-winning strike four minutes from time and also the Anfield crowd for sticking by their side after they had fallen a goal behind at the interval. The Reds scored three second-half goals in a sensational comeback capped by Gerrard's 20-yard drive. He added: ""Steven can play all over the pitch and he influences every part of the game. ""I have said to him many times that he has the freedom because he has talent and is very important to us. ""I felt that the difference between the sides was really our supporters, I cannot thank them enough. ""I want to say thank-you to the supporters, they were magnificent to help us achieve this result."" Gerrard admitted he thought they were going out of the Champions League after trailing 1-0 at half-time. He said: ""I'd be lying if I thought we were going through when we were losing at half-time. ""We had a mountain to climb, but we have climbed it and credit to everyone. ""That was one of the best goals I have scored, I caught it sweet, I haven't caught one like that for ages. It was a massive night for me and the team."" Liverpool's win means all four of England's Champions League representatives have reached the knockout stages for the first time." +sport,"Dent continues Adelaide progress American Taylor Dent reached the final of the Australian hardcourt event in Adelaide with a crushing 6-1 6-1 win over Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela. Dent will meet Swede Joachim Johansson on Sunday after the second seed survived a tense tie-break to defeat Belgium's Olivier Rochus 6-1 7-6 (7/5). Johansson, the boyfriend of Lleyton Hewitt's sister Jaslyn, received strong crowd support on Saturday. ""It feels like home for me, because Jaslyn lives here,"" said Johansson. Rochus was leading 5-4 in the second set tiebreak but his concentration was ruffled by a disputed line call and the match slipped away. ""It was so close - one mistake like this and the match is over, it's tough. For me, it was clearly out,"" Rochus said." +sport,"Player burn-out worries Robinson England coach Andy Robinson says English rugby has to act now to prevent injury destroying players' careers. He will be without a host of big names for the Six Nations as the intensity of professional rugby union hits players. ""Injuries are part of the sport but we have to have a look at the amount of injuries that occur in the English season,"" Robinson told BBC Sport. ""I think players are probably going to have three or four years taken off their careers."" Robinson will be missing an entire midfield for the Six Nations with the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall and Will Greenwood injured. Rugby union has become far more physically demanding since the game went professional nearly 10 years ago. As a result three of the major stakeholders in English rugby have launched an ""injury audit"" to find out how players are coping. The audit is jointly funded by the Professional Rugby Players' Association, the Rugby Football Union and Premier Rugby. As far as Robinson is concerned its findings must not be ignored. ""I think there's an injury audit coming out in March that's got some great information in there that I think everybody in the English game has got to look at,"" he said. ""If we don't the situation is going to get worse and not better, so I think rugby as a whole has got to look at this.""" +sport,"Duff ruled out of Barcelona clash Chelsea's Damien Duff has been ruled out of Wednesday's Champions League clash with Barcelona at the Nou Camp. Duff sustained a knee injury in the FA Cup defeat at Newcastle and manager Jose Mourinho said: ""He cannot run. His injury is very painful, so he is out."" But Mourinho has revealed defender Willian Gallas and striker Didier Drogba will be in the starting line-up. The Blues boss took the unusual step of naming his side a day before the match, with Jole Cole named in midfield. Mourinho said: ""We have one more session but I think Drogba will play, and Gallas will play. ""Drogba trained on Monday with no problems and will do the same on Tuesday. Gallas feels he can play and wants to play. We are protecting him still but he will be okay to play."" Drogba, Chelsea's £24m striker, has missed the last three weeks through injury. Cech, Ferreira, Carvalho, Terry, Gallas, Tiago, Makelele, Lampard, Cole, Drogba, Gudjohnsen." +sport,"Mourinho defiant on Chelsea form Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has insisted that Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger would swap places with him. Mourinho's side were knocked out of the FA Cup by Newcastle last Sunday before seeing Barcelona secure a 2-1 Champions League first-leg lead in the Nou Camp. But he denied his club was suffering a dip in form which league rivals Arsenal and Manchester United could exploit. ""They cannot speak to us about blips because they're not in a better position than us,"" Mourinho said. ""Do they want to change positions with us? We are top of the league by nine points and in the Carling Cup final. ""The only thing they can say they are in a better position than us in is the FA Cup. ""In the Champions League all three teams can either go through or go out but the one team that is in the best position is still Chelsea."" Mourinho said it was important to keep his team's results in perspective. ""Don't try to put pressure on me because I am never under pressure,"" he warned. ""We have lost one important game this week - at Newcastle - and we're out of the FA Cup but I don't think a defeat in a first-leg tie is a real defeat. We are just 2-1 down at half-time."" Asked if his Chelsea honeymoon was now over, Mourinho replied: ""I have had 20 years of honeymoons with my wife. ""The day that this club is not happy with me is the day that I go.""" +sport,"Coach Ranieri sacked by Valencia Claudio Ranieri has been sacked as Valencia coach just eight months after taking charge at the Primera Liga club for the second time in his career. The decision was taken at a board meeting following the side's surprise elimination from the Uefa Cup. ""We understand, and he understands, that the results in the last few weeks have not been the most appropriate,"" said club president Juan Bautista. Former assistant Antonio Lopez will take over as the new coach. Italian Ranieri took over the Valencia job in June 2004 having been replaced at Chelsea by Jose Mourinho. Things began well but the Spanish champions extended their winless streak to six after losing to Racing Santander last weekend. That defeat was then followed by a Uefa Cup exit at the hands of Steaua Bucharest. Ranieri first took charge of Valencia in 1997, guiding them to the King's Cup and helping them to qualify for the Champions League. The 54-year-old then moved to Atletico Madrid in 1999, before joining Chelsea the following year." +sport,"Poll explains free-kick decision Referee Graham Poll said he applied the laws of the game in allowing Arsenal striker Thierry Henry's free-kick in Sunday's 2-2 draw with Chelsea. Keeper Petr Cech was organising his defensive wall when Henry's quick free-kick flew in, which angered Chelsea. ""The whistle doesn't need to be blown. I asked Henry 'do you want a wall?'. He said 'can I take it please?' He was very polite. I said 'yes',"" said Poll. ""I deal with the laws of the game. I deal with fact."" Poll added: ""I gave the signal for him to take it. That's what he did. ""The same thing happened when I refereed Chelsea against West Ham in an FA Cup replay two years ago - when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scored - and I don't remember them complaining about that."" Henry explained why he paused before striking the ball for the goal, which put Arsenal 2-1 ahead. Henry told BBC Radio Five Live: ""The ref asked me if I wanted 10 yards or if I wanted to take it straight away and I said that I wanted to take it straight away. He said to me, 'go'. ""It looks a bit strange because I took my time. I was waiting for Eidur Gudjohnsen to move and give me some space. ""At one point, he turned and that's when I tried it."" Former referees' chief Philip Don backed Poll's decision to allow the strike. ""The advantage should go to the non-offending team. On this occasion it was Arsenal,"" Don told BBC Radio Five Live. ""Referees have been told to ask the player 'do you want to take the quick free-kick?' or 'do you want me to get the wall back 9.15 metres?' ""If they say 'quick', the referee tends to move away and allow the kick."" Don was head of the referees for the Premier League and revealed all clubs were informed of free-kick options. ""We spoke to all the Premier League clubs as well as all the Football League clubs in the summer of 2003 explaining what the situation was,"" he added ""We gave them the option of either the quick free-kick or the 'ceremonial' free-kick. Players and clubs were aware of what referees were doing.""" +sport,"Benitez issues warning to Gerrard Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has ordered captain Steven Gerrard not to play down their Champions League ambitions and be more positive. Gerrard told the BBC Liverpool were unlikely to win the trophy this year. Benitez responded: ""I spoke to Steven and said to him that in future it's better to think we can win the Champions League. Why not?"" He said: ""We need winners here and everyone thinking only of winning. I always want to win."" Benitez added: ""When we lose I only think of solutions. If you only think about winning the next game, you don't know what the draw will be. ""If we can win the next game, maybe we will draw a side that isn't so strong, or a side with injuries or suspensions."" Benitez is hoping to win his first trophy since arriving at Liverpool from Valencia when they play Chelsea in the Carling Cup on Sunday in Cardiff." +sport,"Radcliffe proves doubters wrong This won't go down as one of the greatest marathons of Paula's career. But as a test of character, it was the toughest race she's ever taken part in. A win in the New York marathon doesn't make up for the disappointment of Athens in any shape or form, but it will offer hope and reassurance for next year. If Paula's last experience of the year had been Athens, it would have been very difficult to look forward with any optimism. She can now draw a line under this year and make plans about her future. Even if she'd lost this race, there would have been a lot of positives to take out of it. She knows she can dig deep if she needs to. It was a strong field, with a number of the girls going into the race with expectations of winning. And although two hours 23 minutes wasn't one of Paula's best times, it wasn't far off the record on a difficult course. I was speaking to Paula in the lead-up to this race and she said that in many ways she was facing a no-win situation. She thought that if she won, people would say ""why couldn't she do that in Athens?"" And if she lost, people would say her career was over. And a lot of people were wondering what would happen if Paula was forced to drop out of this race, as she did in the marathon and 10,000m in Athens. But that was never on the cards. She might have been beaten, but she would have kept running. The reasons she was forced to pull out in Athens - the niggling injuries, her lack of energy and the oppressive conditions - weren't at play here. The only question was what position she could finish in. Most important of all, despite all the hype in the media ahead of this race, there were never doubts in Paula's mind. If she wasn't confident, she wouldn't have run. After all, if you're the best in the world at an event, you'll always have expectations of winning. Now Paula will take part in the Run London 10km race in London at the end of the year, have a well-earned rest over Christmas and go into next year with a lot of optimism." +sport,"Scotland 18-10 Italy Six Chris Paterson penalties gave Scotland victory in a dour but clinical encounter against Italy at Murrayfield. Coach Matt Williams' side were outmuscled and outplayed in a tense first half but led 6-3 at the break. Paterson slotted four more second-half penalties and Scotland were denied a try when wing Sean Lamont's touchdown was ruled out for a forward pass. A late Andrea Masi try was small consolation for Italy, chasing their first away win in the Six Nations. Scotland came out on top of the early exchanges and took a quick 3-0 lead through the boot of full-back Paterson. But the more powerful Azzurri pack eventually rumbled into life. A series of drives into Scottish territory set up a penalty attempt, missed by full-back Roland De Marigny, and a wayward drop-goal effort from Luciano Orquera. Scotland defended the initial thrusts but on 20 minutes Italy, after coming up yards short of the line, equalised through a De Marigny penalty. Italy were offered another penalty when Scottish flanker Simon Taylor was offside but the left-footed De Marigny pushed his kick wide. Scotland finally made the most of a rare foray into the Italian half and snatched three points from Paterson when an Italian forward handled the ball in a ruck. As the half wore on, both sides squandered promising spells of momentum with sloppy penalties, and the period fizzled out with Scotland numerically, if not psychologically, on top. Italy's De Marigny narrowly missed a chance to level the scores again shortly after the break but his long-range kick shaved the right upright. And Scotland capitalised with a third Paterson penalty on 50 minutes. Williams' side seemed to have found a spark from somewhere and, after a couple of probing attacks, Paterson was able to slot another three points to widen the gap. With the pendulum of possession swinging towards Scotland, Lamont thought he had wriggled over in the left corner after 65 minutes but play was recalled for a marginal forward pass from Paterson. Another Paterson penalty on 70 minutes kept the pressure on the wilting visitors. But John Kirwan's men had the last laugh when Gordon Ross' attempted clearance was charged down and Masi pounced for the try, converted by De Marigny. : C Paterson; S Webster, A Craig, H Southwell, S Lamont; D Parks, C Cusiter; T Smith, G Bulloch (capt), G Kerr; S Grimes, S Murray; S Taylor, J Petrie, A Hogg. R Russell, B Douglas, N Hines, J Dunbar, M Blair, G Ross, B Hinshelwood. R de Marigny; Mirco Bergamasco, C Stoica, A Masi, L Nitoglia; L Orquera, A Troncon; A Lo Cicero, F Ongaro, M Castrogiovanni; S Dellape, M Bortolami (capt); A Persico, D Dal Maso, S Parisse. G Intoppa, S Perugini, CA del Fava, S Orlando, P Griffen, R Pedrazzi, KP Robertson." +sport,"Henson stakes early Lions claim The Six Nations may be a glittering prize in itself but every player from the four Home Unions will also have one eye on a possible trip to New Zealand with the Lions this summer. The player who staked the biggest claim for a place in the starting XV over the weekend was Gavin Henson. He's very confident. You just had to listen to his interview afterwards - he beamed with confidence - but although there's an element of arrogance it's good arrogance. He certainly showed some nice touches. He once showed a clean pair of heels to Mathew Tait when he got outside him, his defence was very good and he made some great kicks out of hand. And that's without even mentioning his majestic match-winning penalty. But I think we need to wait and see what happens because he needs to be put to the test. He needs to come up against Brian O'Driscoll or a big French midfield. Wales fly-half Stephen Jones was another player who impressed me. He gave good direction, he was very confident and he was a nice general for his side. He showed he can control a game. With Jonny Wilkinson not playing at the moment due to inury the number 10 shirt could be up for grabs and Jones, or maybe even Henson, could make the Lions team at fly-half. Jones stuck his hand up and he certainly looks a better bet than Charlie Hodgson after Saturday's game. Some of the Wales forwards surprised me because I thought they would be out-muscled in the tight five. England prop Julian White is a capable player but when it comes down to selection Gethin Jenkins is now going to have the upper hand because he came out on top. However, I still think White and Phil Vickery will be in the frame. Some English players did their cause no harm. I thought Joe Worsley had a solid game and Jason Robinson and Josh Lewsey both did nothing wrong. But it looked too soon for young Mathew Tait and I think it will be a while before we see him again. Despite being written off beforehand several Scots caught my eye against France. Tom Smith has been there and done it before, but the likes of Chris Cusiter, Jason White and Ally Hogg all made their mark. Hogg made a couple of good runs while White had a pretty robust game - his defence is right up there. Cusiter looked very lively and he could be a very good option for Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward. The star of Ireland's win over Italy in Rome looks like a certainty to make the starting XV against New Zealand. Brian O'Driscoll is a class act. He ran some good lines against Italy, made the breaks and fed his outside backs, although Italy defended man on man which made it easy for him. Gordon D'Arcy was unlucky to go off injured early on but I think you could get a Henson, D'Arcy, O'Driscoll combination in the Lions midfield. Paul O'Connell just needs to add a hard edge to his game and Malcolm O'Kelly keeps on going and seems to be putting his hand up, while Shane Byrne seems to be a lively character. But they will be a bit worried after the Italian pack drove them off their own ball on Sunday, although I used to play in Italy and I know how difficult it can be. One player who didn't impress me was Wales scrum-half Dwayne Peel. He choked late on in the second half when Wales were trailing. They had good possession and he kicked the ball away - I wouldn't want him as my Lions scrum-half after that." +sport,"Lewsey puzzle over disallowed try England's Josh Lewsey has claimed he was denied a late try in his side's Six Nations loss to Ireland. The Wasps wing insisted he grounded the ball when he was bundled over the line and said referee Jonathan Kaplan had made a wrong decision. ""I'm positive I touched the ball down over the line,"" Lewsey told BBC Sport. ""It certainly wasn't a turnover. ""I was driven over and I put the ball on the ground. The whistle went and I let go of the ball."" Lewsey added: ""One of the Irish players scooped it back after the whistle and to our surprise the referee then gave a turnover. ""As far as I'm concerned, that incident and Mark Cueto's effort from Charlie Hodgson's cross-field kick that led to what looked like a good try were the two key elements in the game."" Cueto was also puzzled as to why his try had been disallowed by Kaplan. ""I don't think I could have been offside for, without a doubt, I was behind the ball,"" said the Sale player. ""The move was a planned technique, it was not off the cuff. We rehearse it time and time again. ""I wouldn't say we were robbed, some decisions go with you and some go against you. Today they went against us and that's tough at international level.""" +sport,"Wales get Williams fitness boost Wales are hopeful that openside flanker Martyn Williams could be fit for Saturday's RBS 6 Nations championship opener against England in Cardiff. Williams was expected to miss the match with a disc problem in his neck, but has been making a speedy recovery. ""He will have tests in the next 48 hours and we are pretty optimistic he is getting there,"" Wales' team physiotherapist Mark Davies said. ""It has been frustrating but he is on the mend, he has made good progress."" Last week Williams, along with fellow flanker Colin Charvis - who is unlikely to play for at least a month while he recovers from a foot injury - was all but ruled out of the Millennium Stadium clash. With Williams initially thought to be struggling, the signs pointed towards Wales coach Mike Ruddock handing a first cap to former Wales Under-21 skipper Richie Pugh. Cardiff Blues flanker Williams, 29, offers considerable experience and if he is declared fit then Ruddock might be tempted to include him in the back row. Charvis will be reviewed by the Wales medical staff next Monday, but Davies admitted that there was only an ""outside chance"" of him being fit to face France in Wales' third championship game on 26 February. Wales' other injury concern is Pugh's fellow Neath-Swansea Ospreys player Sonny Parker, as the centre has a trapped nerve in his neck. ""Sonny's injury is still an issue,"" Davies said. ""It is still painful and irritable. We will run the rule of thumb over him in the next couple of days."" Ruddock will name his starting line-up for the England game at 1830 GMT on Tuesday evening, as Wales target their first victory in Cardiff over the world champions since 1993." +sport,"Pavey focuses on indoor success Jo Pavey will miss January's View From Great Edinburgh International Cross Country to focus on preparing for the European Indoor Championships in March. The 31-year-old was third behind Hayley Yelling and Justyna Bak in last week's European Cross Country Championships but she prefers to race on the track. ""It was great winning bronze but I'm wary of injuries and must concentrate on the indoor season,"" she said. ""Because of previous injuries I don't even run up hills in training."" Pavey, who came fifth in the 5,000m at the Athens Olympics, helped the British cross country team win the team silver medal in Heringsdorf last week. She is likely to start her 3,000m season with a race in either Boston or Stuttgart at the end of January." +sport,"Parry relishes Anfield challenge BBC Sport reflects on the future for Liverpool after our exclusive interview with chief executive Rick Parry. Chief executive Parry is the man at the helm as Liverpool reach the most crucial point in their recent history. Parry has to deliver a new 60,000-seat stadium in Stanley Park by 2007 amid claims of costs spiralling above £120m. He is also searching for an investment package of a size and stature that will restore Liverpool to their place at European football's top table. But it is a challenge that appears to sit easily with Parry, who has forged a reputation as one of football's most respected administrators since his days at the fledgling Premier League. Liverpool have not won the championship since 1990, a fact that causes deep discomfort inside Anfield as they attempt to muscle in on the top three of Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal. Throw in the small matter of warding off every top club in world football as they eye captain Steven Gerrard, and you can see Parry is a man with a lot on his plate. But in the comfort of a conference room deep inside Liverpool's heartbeat - The Kop end - Parry spoke to us with brutal honesty about the crucial months ahead. He only dodged one question - when asked to reveal the name of the mystery investor currently courting Liverpool, a polite smile deflected the inquiry. But to his credit, he met everything else head on in measured tones that underscore the belief that Liverpool still mean business. By business he means becoming title challengers again, and locking the pieces together that will help return the trophy to Liverpool is Parry's mission. Parry has already successfully put one of those planks in place in the form of new manager Rafael Benitez. And his enthusiasm for the Spaniard's personality and methods is an indication of his clear feeling that he has struck gold. Benitez's early work has given Parry renewed optimism about the years ahead. But it remains a massive task at a club with a unique history and expectations. This will not come as news to Parry, a lifelong Liverpool supporter, but his quiet determination suggests he is no mood to be found wanting... Captain Gerrard is central to Liverpool's plans and Parry's insistence that all offers will be refused is a firm statement of intent. As ever, the player will have the final say, and Parry acknowledges that, but he is determined to provide the framework and environment for Liverpool and Gerrard to flourish. In terms of the search for new investment, Hawkpoint were appointed as advisors to flush out interest in March 2004. Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shiniwatra came and went, while the most serious statement of intent came from tycoon and lifelong fan Steve Morgan. Morgan had a succession of bids rejected, having come close in the summer only for talks to break down over potential costs for the new stadium. BBC Sport understands Morgan is still ready and willing to invest in Liverpool, and Parry has kept the door ajar despite currently seeking investment elsewhere. Morgan, however, has had no formal contact with Liverpool or their advisors since last December, blaming indecision at board level as he publicly withdrew his £70m offer. He was also convinced his interest was being used to lure in others, so any new approach would now have to come from Liverpool. Morgan will certainly not be making another call. So speculation continues about the new benefactor, with trails leading to the Middle East and America, but all met with an understandable veil of secrecy from Anfield. Parry meanwhile sees the new ground as crucial to Liverpool's future, but is refusing to become emotionally attached to the idea. He is determined the ground will only be built on an affordable basis and will not make future Liverpool management hostages to the new stadium. Parry will pull back the moment the figures do not stack up, but there has been a vital new development in North London that has re-shaped Liverpool's thinking. Liverpool have publicly refused to entertain the idea of stadium sponsorship and potential naming rights - but the realism of Arsenal's stunning £100m deal for their new Emirates Stadium at Ashburton has changed the landscape. Parry labelled the deal ""an eye-opener"" and admits Liverpool would be missing a trick not to explore the possibilities. He knows some traditionalist Liverpool fans will reel at any attempt to call the new stadium anything other than just 'Anfield', but the maths of modern-day football decree that multi-millions for stadium and team could ease the pain. I would take £50m if we had no investment, but if we did, keep him. As for the stadium, if it gets us cash what difference does it make really? £50m for Gerrard? I don't care who you are, the Directors would take the money and it is the way it should be. We cannot let that sum of money go, despite Gerrard's quality. Through a cleverly worded statement, the club has effectively forced Gerrard to publicly make the decision for himself, which I think is the right thing to do. Critical time for Liverpool with regards to Gerrard. Ideally we would want to secure his future to the club for the long term. I am hoping he doesn't walk out of the club like Michael Owen did for very little cash. £50m realistically would allow Rafa to completely rebuild the squad, however, if we can afford to do this AND keep Gerrard we will be better for it. I would however be happy with Gerrard's transfer for any fee over £35m. Parry's statements are clever in that any future Gerrard transfer cannot be construed as a lack of ambition by the club to not try and keep their best players. Upping the ante is another smart move by Parry. I would keep Gerrard. No amount of money could replace his obvious love of the club and determination to succeed. The key is if Gerrard comes out and says that he is happy. Clearly, if he isn't, then we would be foolish not to sell. The worrying thing is who would you buy (or who would come) pending possible non-Champions League football." +sport,"Mourinho expects fight to finish Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho expects the Champions League clash with Barcelona to be a fight to the finish. Mourinho is relishing the first leg of the tie against his former club in the last 16 in the Nou Camp. He said: ""I wouldn't be surprised if nothing had been decided by the last minute of the return leg and the match had to go into extra time. ""I have to defend what is mine and the Champions League is mine at the moment. I'm the last manager to have won it."" Mourinho never coached Barcelona, assisting both Sir Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal. But he is not envious, insisting: ""I don't have to be jealous about Barcelona because they have 100 years of history and have won the European Cup once. ""I have been managing for five years and I have the same amount of Champions League trophies to my name."" Barcelona star Ronaldinho admitted: ""I think that it is going to be a difficult match for us because Chelsea have a good team full of big stars. ""I have seen Chelsea a few times on television, tactically they are very good and they are very strong on the counter-attack. ""They pressure very well and keep possession of the ball so it will be important that we play our own game. ""I believe they are the two strongest teams in Europe. Nevertheless, Barcelona are accustomed to playing big games at the Nou Camp, where they have to face the likes of Real Madrid each season. ""It is a special game, the atmosphere in the city changes, there are lots of journalists but inside the dressing room there is not a lot of difference,"" Ronaldinho added. ""We are only thinking of winning the match with all respect to the opposition.""" +sport,"Hereford 1-1 Doncaster Hereford win 3-1 on penalties. Rovers took the lead on 59 minutes as Michael McIndoe's corner found Adriano Rigoglioso, whose stunning volley soared into the top right of the net. Danny Williams equalised for the hosts after 72 minutes with a crisp finish from just insist the penalty box. McIndoe saw an extra-time penalty saved, giving Mills the chance to net the winning penalty. Mawson, Travis, Mkandawire, James, Robinson, Daniel Williams, Stanley, Hyde (Pitman 105), Purdie (Mills 83), Brown, Stansfield (Green 102). Subs Not Used: Smith, Scott. James. Daniel Williams 72. Ingham, Mulligan, Fenton, Morley, Priet (Ryan 79), McIndoe, Ravenhill (Price 90), Rigoglioso, Tierney (Jackson 79), Beardsley, Coppinger. Subs Not Used: Warrington, Maloney. Rigoglioso 59. 1,375 T Parkes (W Midlands)." +sport,"Clijsters could play Aussie Open Kim Clijsters has denied reports that she has pulled out of January's Australian Open because of her persistent wrist injury. Open chief Paul McNamee had said: ""Kim's wrist obviously isn't going to be rehabilitated."" But her spokesman insisted she had simply delayed submitting her entry. ""The doctors are assessing her injury on a weekly basis and if there is no risk she could play. But if there's the least risk she will stay away."" Despite being absent from the WTA entry list for the tournament, which begins on 17 January, Clijsters would be certain to get a wild card if she requested one. Clijsters is still ranked 22nd in the world despite only playing a handful of matches last season. The Belgian had an operation on her left wrist early in the season but injured it again on her return to the tour. Meanwhile, Jelena Dokic, who used to compete for Australia, has opted out of the first Grand Slam of the season. Dokic has not played in the Australian Open since 2001 when she lost in the first round. But the 21-year-old would have had to rely on a wild card next season because her ranking has tumbled to 127th. Four-time champion Monica Seles, who has not played since last year's French Open, is another absentee because of an injured left foot." +sport,"Hewitt fights back to reach final Lleyton Hewitt kept his dream of an Australian Open title alive with a four-set win over Andy Roddick in Friday's second semi-final. The home favourite will face Marat Safin in Sunday's final after coming through 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) 6-1. Hewitt fought back from a set down and trailed in both tie-breaks but would not be denied, thrilling the Melbourne crowd with a typically battling effort. He is aiming to be the first Australian winner since Mark Edmondson in 1976. Hewitt is the first Australian to make the final since Pat Cash lost to Mats Wilander in 1988, but faces a huge challenge against Safin - the conqueror of Roger Federer. After needing five sets in his last two matches there was reason to think Hewitt might struggle for fitness. He certainly made a sluggish start, dropping his opening service game, and Roddick dominated with his huge serve as he took the first set. After 12 tense games in the second, the key moment came when Hewitt raised his game in the tie-break to overturn an early mini-break. That energised the crowd but Roddick was not finished and raced 4-1 clear in the crucial third before Hewitt pegged him back and forced another tie-break. Again Roddick broke first and again Hewitt fought back, taking the lead with a superb backhand pass. The Australian was not to be denied and a disheartened Roddick made little impact in the fourth set as Hewitt raced to victory, sending the Melbourne crowd wild and ensuring the final will be a huge occasion. ""It's awesome,"" said Hewitt. ""I started preparing for this tournament nine months ago. ""I've done a lot of hard yards to get here. ""I've always said I'd do anything to get in the first night final at the Australian Open. Now I've got my chance."" Roddick was furious with himself for failing to take advantage of leads in both tie-breaks. ""I'm usually pretty money in those,"" said Roddick. ""Either one of those would have given me a distinct advantage. ""I'm mad, I felt I was in there with a shot. He put himself in position to win big points. I donated a little more than I would have wanted."" And the American played down the influence of one spectator who appeared to contribute to a double fault by shouting during Rodick's service action. ""It just took one jackass to shout out,"" said Roddick, adding that the crowd overall was ""very respectful""." +sport,"Highbury tunnel players in clear The Football Association has said it will not be bringing charges over the tunnel incident prior to the Arsenal and Manchester United game. Arsenal's Patrick Vieira had earlier denied accusations that he threatened Gary Neville before the 4-2 defeat. Vieira also clashed with opposing skipper Roy Keane and referee Graham Poll had to separate them. ""The referee has confirmed that he is satisfied he dealt with the incident at the time,"" said an FA statement. It means United's win will pass off without further intervention from the governing body, whose new chief executive Brian Barwick was in the Highbury stands. ""I didn't threaten anybody. They are big enough players to handle themselves,"" said Vieira. ""I had a talk with Roy Keane and that's it. Gary Neville is a big lad, he can handle himself. ""They just played better than us and deserved to win."" Neville admitted there had been incidents before the game, but insisted it had not distracted his focus. ""There were a couple of things that did happen before the game which disappoint you,"" he said. ""Especially from players of that calibre, but it's a tough game and we've been around a long time."" Neville admitted that he had not enjoyed the match, which was punctuated by fouls and the sending off of Mikael Silvestre for head-butting Freddie Ljungberg . ""I thought it was a horrible game in the first half, and it was not much better in the second,"" he said. ""There is no way that should have happened in a football match."" After the match, Keane accused Vieira of starting the row. ""Patrick Vieira is 6ft 4in and having a go at Gary Neville. So I said, 'have a go at me',"" he said. ""If he wants to intimidate our players and thinks that Gary Neville is an easy target, I'm not having it."" Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson added: ""Vieira was well wound up for it. ""I've heard different stories. Patrick Vieira has apparently threatened some of our players and things like that.""" +sport,"Collins calls for Chambers return World 100m champion Kim Collins says suspended sprinter Dwain Chambers should be allowed to compete in the Olympics again. Chambers was banned for two years after testing positive for the anabolic steroid THG and his suspension runs out in November this year. But Collins says the British Olympic Association should reverse the decision to ban him from the Olympics for life. ""It was too harsh,"" Collins told Radio Five Live. ""They should reconsider."" Chambers has been in America learning American football but has not ruled out a return to the track. Collins added: ""He is a great guy and I have never had any problems with him. We are friends. ""I would like to see Dwain come back and compete again. He is a good person. ""Even though he made a mistake he understands what he did and should be given a chance once more.""" +sport,"Davenport puts retirement on hold Lindsay Davenport has put any talk of retirement on hold after having a largely injury-free 2004 campaign. The 28-year-old world number one had said that she would quit at the end of last year, but after a successful season she has had a change of heart. ""Finally I felt I put myself in a position to try and win Grand Slams again,"" said Davenport. ""It would be tough to walk away when I feel like I can contend so there's no point in hanging it up quite yet."" Davenport has won three Grand Slams, the 2000 Australian Open, Wimbledon in 1999 and the 1998 US Open. Her career has been hit by a series of injuries but last year she started hitting top form and won seven titles. She was due to take part in this week's Hopman Cup in Perth but decided she wanted to rest her knee. ""I just really wanted to make sure my right knee was going to be able to really withstand all the rigours of the whole year coming up,"" she said." +sport,"Slovakia seal Hopman Cup success Slovakia clinched the Hopman Cup for the second time by beating Argentina 3-0 in Saturday's final in Perth. Daniela Hantuchova put the third seeds ahead, recovering from a terrible start to beat Gisela Dulko 1-6 6-4 6-4. Dominik Hrbaty, who had not lost a set in his three singles matches in the group stages, then upset world number seven Guillermo Coria 6-4 6-1. Hantuchova and Hrbaty then won the mixed doubles after Coria was forced to withdraw because of a sore back. Slovakia's win made up for last year's final defeat to the United States. ""I would like to congratulate Daniela,"" Hrbaty said. ""I was so nervous watching her today, I almost had a heart attack. ""I also feel a little sorry for Guillermo because I get very excited whenever I play for my country. I show lots of emotions and played such good tennis."" World number 31 Hantuchova, ranked two places above Dulko, looked nervous as she dropped the first four games of the match. Dulko, who had lost all three of her singles matches in the group stages, grew in confidence and took the opening set in just 27 minutes. But Hantuchova hit back to take the next two and the match. ""I was so nervous because I really wanted to win for the team and for Dominik as he played so well all week,"" she said. ""I didn't think I was playing my best but I just tried to hang in there and fight hard for every point for my country."" Slovakia won the Cup on their first appearance in 1998 when Karol Kucera and Karina Habsudova beat France." +sport,"Edwards tips Idowu for Euro gold World outdoor triple jump record holder and BBC pundit Jonathan Edwards believes Phillips Idowu can take gold at the European Indoor Championships. Idowu landed 17.30m at the British trials in Sheffield last month to lead the world triple jump rankings. ""It's all down to him, but if he jumps as well as he did in Sheffield he could win the gold medal,"" said Edwards. ""His ability is undoubted but all his best performances seem to happen in domestic meetings."" Idowu made his breakthrough five years ago but so far has only a Commonwealth silver medal to his name. Edwards himself kept Idowu off top spot at the Manchester Games. But he believes the European Indoors in Madrid represent a chance for the 26-year-old to prove his credentials as Britain's top triple jumper. ""He has to start producing at international level and here is the beginning,"" said Edwards. ""Phillips still needs to be much more consistent. I'm sure a victory in Madrid will build up his confidence and self-belief that he can be best in the world."" The qualifying round of the men's triple jump in Madrid takes place on Friday with the final scheduled for Saturday. Olympic champion Christian Olsson will not be taking part as he is out for the entire indoor season with an ankle injury." +sport,"Sculthorpe wants Lions captaincy Paul Sculthorpe has admitted he would love to succeed Andy Farrell as Great Britain skipper if the Wigan star does switch codes to rugby union. Sculthorpe was vice-captain in the Tri-Nations, and took the St Helens captaincy from Chris Joynt last year. ""I would definitely want the job - I make no bones about it,"" Sculthorpe told BBC Sport. ""It's something I've always wanted to do. I'd gladly take it if it was offered to me."" The 27-year-old, who captained St Helens to Challenge Cup success last year, said following in the footsteps of Farrell would be a challenge. ""Andy would be a hard act to follow but it's something I'm confident of being up to,"" he said. ""The GB team isn't a one-man team. There are a lot of good young players who are pushing for places anyway."" Sculthorpe said the rugby league world would understand if Farrell did decide to move to rugby union. ""It's a short career and you have to make of it what you can,"" said Sculthorpe. ""Nobody can blame him if he does go - he's done everything in the game of rugby league. ""Financially it could set him up for life. If he fancies a new challenge, then who could fault him?"" Sculthorpe also called on the rugby league authorities to have a serious look at the number of games the top players are being asked to play. Sean Long, Sculthorpe's Saints and Lions team-mate, has expressed doubts about his international future ""I think Sean's situation is to do with the sheer number of games we're playing,"" he said. ""The way he's looking at it is that if he can extend his career by a couple of years by not playing international rugby, then he's willing to do that. ""The RFL has got to do something about the fixtures. We're playing 42 weeks of the year and it's too much. ""A lot of the niggly injuries that I've suffered with over the last couple of years have come about because of the lack of rest time."" St Helens have been strongly linked with a move for brilliant young forward Sonny Bill Williams, and Sculthorpe said he would love the 19-year-old to come to Knowsley Road. ""He's a great player - a big strong lad who can certainly hit hard in defence, but who is also very skilful,"" he said. ""I'd love him to come to St Helens. Who knows what might happen? But you want the best players in your team, and he's certainly one of the best players in the world.""" +sport,"Rochus shocks Coria in Auckland Top seed Guillermo Coria went out of the Heineken Open in Auckland on Thursday with a surprise loss to Olivier Rochus of Belgium. Coria lost the semi-final 6-4 6-4 to Rochus, who goes on to face Czech Jan Hernych, a 6-4 7-5 winner over Jose Acasuso of Argentina. Fifth seed Fernando Gonzalez eased past American Robby Ginepri 6-3 6-4. The Chilean will meet sixth seed Juan Ignacio Chela next after the Argentine beat Potito Starace 6-1 7-6 (7-5). Rochus made the semi-finals at the Australian hardcourt championships in Adelaide last week and is naturally delighted with his form. ""It's been two unbelievable weeks for me,"" he said. ""Today I knew I had nothing to lose. If I beat him great, if I lost, I would be losing to a top-10 player."" Coria conceded that Rochus ""played just too good,"" and added: ""When you give your best out there you can't be too sad.""" +sport,"Fuming Robinson blasts officials England coach Andy Robinson insisted he was ""livid"" after his side were denied two tries in Sunday's 19-13 Six Nations loss to Ireland in Dublin. Mark Cueto's first-half effort was ruled out for offside before the referee spurned TV replays when England crashed over in the dying minutes. ""[I'm] absolutely spitting. I'm livid. There's two tries we've been cost,"" Robinson told BBC Sport. ""We've got to go back to technology. I don't know why we didn't."" South African referee Jonathan Kaplan ruled that Cueto was ahead of Charlie Hodgson when the fly-half hoisted his cross-field kick for the Sale wing to gather. Kaplan then declined the chance to consult the fourth official when Josh Lewsey took the ball over the Irish line under a pile of bodies for what could have been the game-winning try. ""I think Mark Cueto scored a perfectly legal try and I think he should have gone to the video referee on Josh Lewsey,"" said Robinson. ""It is how we use the technology. It is there, and it should be used. ""I am still trying to work out the Cueto try. I have looked at both, and they both looked tries. ""We are very disappointed, and this will hurt, there is no doubt about that. ""We are upset now, but the referee is in charge and he has called it his way and we have got to be able to cope with that. ""We did everything we could have done to win the game. I am very proud of my players and, with a couple of decisions, this could have been a very famous victory. ""I thought we dominated. Matt Stevens had an awesome game at tighthead prop, while the likes of Charlie Hodgson, Martin Corry and Lewis Moody all came through well. ""Josh Lewsey was awesome, and every one of the forwards stood up out there. Given the pressure we were under, credit must go to all the players. ""We have done everything but win a game of rugby, but Ireland are a good side. They defended magnificently and they've got every chance of winning this Six Nations."" England have lost their first three matches in this year's Six Nations and four out of their six games since Robinson took over from Sir Clive Woodward in September." +sport,"Gebrselassie in London triple bid Double Olympic 10,000m champion Haile Gebrselassie will race in the London Marathon for the next three years. The Ethiopian legend won Sunday's Almeria half-marathon in Spain on his return from an operation on his Achilles tendon. He was third in London in 2002 in his first serious attempt at the marathon. ""It is a coup for us to secure Haile's presence for the next three years and it guarantees a quality race,"" said race director David Bedford. Gebrselassie will face Olympic champion Stefano Baldini, world champion Jaouad Gharib, and arch-rival Paul Tergat, the current world record holder. ""If I didn't think I could win I would not be here,"" said Gebrselassie, who has set world records on 18 occasions in his illustrious career and is keen to add the marathon record to his collection. ""There are a lot of fantastic runners in the race but I shall be doing my utmost to upset them.""" +sport,"Thompson says Gerrard should stay Liverpool legend Phil Thompson has pleaded with Steve Gerrard to reject any overtures from Chelsea. The ex-Reds assistant boss also warned that any honours won at Chelsea would be cheapened by the bid to buy success. He told BBC Radio Five Live: ""Liverpool would think about any bid made but it will all be down to Steve in the end. ""But it wouldn't have that same sweet feeling at Chelsea, where it's all money-orientated and about simply buying the best."" Thompson reacted sharply to some Liverpool supporters, who criticised Gerrard's performance in the Carling Cup final against Chelsea. A number of fans questioned Gerrard's commitment and sarcastically branded his own goal in Liverpool's 3-2 defeat as his first goal for Chelsea. Thompson added: ""I heard those comments from so-called supporters and they were diabolical, absolutely outrageous. ""Stevie carried the club last year and this year. He's always put Liverpool first."" Thompson, who savoured seven title-winning seasons and two European Cup triumphs during his Anfield playing career, is confident that the lure of Champions League football will keep Gerrard at Anfield. ""I hope Champions League football will beckon for Liverpool - either as winners or as finishing fourth in the Premiership - and he will commit himself. ""There has been a lot of soul-searching the way things have gone lately. ""I hope he's hardening to the fact he will have big decisions to make but I hope it is to the benefit of Steven Gerrard and I hope it is worthwhile for Liverpool.""" +sport,"Parry puts Gerrard 'above money' Listen to the full interview on Sport on Five and the BBC Sport website from 1900 GMT. But Parry, speaking exclusively to BBC Sport, also admits Gerrard, who has been constantly linked with Chelsea, will have the final say on his future. He told BBC Five Live: ""Steven is above money. He is the future of Liverpool. ""It doesn't matter if it's £30m, £40m or £50m, we will not accept offers. But we are also realistic enough to know we can't keep Steven against his will."" On the subject of Liverpool's finances, Parry also revealed the club is ready to explore the possibility of a sponsorship deal for its proposed new stadium. And responding to criticism from BBC Sport pundit and former Liverpool stalwart Alan Hansen, he insisted talks on new investment are ongoing, but added the door has not closed on shareholder and lifelong fan Steve Morgan. Parry joined Liverpool as chief executive in July 1998 from a similar role at the Premier League. There have been several highs and lows during his time in charge at Anfield - and he had a busy summer, overseeing the arrival of new manager Rafael Benitez and managing to hold on to Steven Gerrard. On the subject of Liverpool's captain and prize asset, Parry revealed Real Madrid did ask for an option on the England midfield man during negotiations for striker Fernando Morientes. He said: ""They were looking for ways of saying they got more out of the deal for Fernando Morientes, but the response to Real Madrid was the same - Steven is not for sale."" But when asked if Gerrard would be a Liverpool player on the first day of next season, Parry said: ""I sincerely hope he will be. Steven knows my views. He knows Rafa's views. ""We have re-affirmed recently to Steven that we are trying to build a team around him. We crave success as much as he does. We know he's ambitious and nobody can argue with that. ""I think Steven would dearly love to win things with Liverpool more than he'd like to do anything else. ""We all want to see progress by next season. He's not alone in that. There are a lot of other players who feel the same, so we all have a common aim."" It is expected Chelsea will test Liverpool with a £30m-plus bid in the summer - but Parry claims he will be in no mood to listen. ""There have been a lot of open secrets about Steven, most of which have been complete myths. It is suggested we had a deal tied up last summer. We didn't had an offer last summer,"" Parry explained. ""We had told Chelsea that as far as we were concerned he was not for sale and we didn't want to sell him. In reality it didn't go beyond that. ""Maybe there will be an offer in the summer. Maybe there won't. ""Our position is we want Steven to stay, but we are also realistic enough and have enough respect for Steven - and he has enough respect for us - to know that it is his decision that will be crucial. ""You are not going to keep a player like Steven against his will. That just doesn't work, but any idea we are going to accept offers for Steven and then tell him 'by the way we've decided to sell you' is not on the agenda. You can forget that."" Parry is currently in the process of finalising funding for Liverpool's new stadium in Stanley Park, which is set to open in 2007. And he confessed Arsenal's £100m deal with Emirates to sponsor their new ground - complete with naming rights - has given the Anfield club serious food for thought. He said: ""I have to say historically it is something I have been against, and I have been on record as saying that, but I think the size of the Arsenal deal is a real eye-opener. ""I would say in the past deals have been done frankly far too cheaply and it just hasn't even been worth contemplating. ""But the Arsenal deal is the sort of deal that causes you to draw breath and say 'wow - that's interesting.' ""My personal point of view is that I would find it a hell of a lot more palatable than a shared stadium."" Some Liverpool fans would find such a move highly controversial, but Parry countered: ""I recognise it would be an emotive issue for many supporters, but you look at the amount of money available and it could go into the team. ""If it was the right partner how strong an issue is it? Time will tell. ""I think the stadium will always be Anfield, not least because of where it is, but do we need to investigate the possibilities of sponsorship? I think it would be remiss not to. ""That's not to say we have made a decision that we will go down that road, but I think it is clearly something we have to explore."" On the subject of possible new investment, Parry revealed Liverpool are still in negotiations with a mystery investor, with rumours of interest from the Middle East. That prompted the withdrawal of tycoon Steve Morgan, who got frustrated by failed bids and what he claimed was indecision by the board. He also accused Liverpool of using him as ""a stalking horse"" to attract other bids, but Parry explained: ""Steve has never been used as a stalking horse. There's no need, and that is not the way we do business. ""We had discussions with Steve over the course of 2004. I think we came close to concluding a deal in the summer but it didn't happen. ""Quite genuinely, the new interest did appear relatively late in the day just prior to the AGM in December, and as I have said it was of such potential magnitude, and that potential is so exciting, we felt we had to evaluate it. We are still evaluating it. ""Steve's interest was taken very much on its own merits. His enthusiasm for the club is there for all to see and who knows what the next few months will hold? ""The door isn't closed on anything. We had a perfectly sensible dialogue with Steve last year. ""We have a common interest in making Liverpool successful. That's a dream we all share, so as far as I'm concerned the door is not closed."" I would take £50m if we had no investment, but if we did, keep him. As for the stadium, if it gets us cash what difference does it make really? £50m for Gerrard? I don't care who you are, the Directors would take the money and it is the way it should be. We cannot let that sum of money go, despite Gerrard's quality. Through a cleverly worded statement, the club has effectively forced Gerrard to publicly make the decision for himself, which I think is the right thing to do. Critical time for Liverpool with regards to Gerrard. Ideally we would want to secure his future to the club for the long term. I am hoping he doesn't walk out of the club like Michael Owen did for very little cash. £50m realistically would allow Rafa to completely rebuild the squad, however, if we can afford to do this AND keep Gerrard we will be better for it. I would however be happy with Gerrard's transfer for any fee over £35m. Parry's statements are clever in that any future Gerrard transfer cannot be construed as a lack of ambition by the club to not try and keep their best players. Upping the ante is another smart move by Parry. I would keep Gerrard. No amount of money could replace his obvious love of the club and determination to succeed. The key is if Gerrard comes out and says that he is happy. Clearly, if he isn't, then we would be foolish not to sell. The worrying thing is who would you buy (or who would come) pending possible non-Champions League football." +sport,"Athens memories soar above lows Well, it's goodbye to another Olympic year and as usual there were plenty of highs and lows in Athens. Obviously, there's no getting away from the differing fortunes of Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe. But I want to remind you of a few more events that made 2004 another year to remember - or forget - for athletics. One of my favourite Olympic moments was Kelly's success in the 800m. Winning that race was the key to her success because if she won that then the 1500m would be a bit of a formality. Kelly had been full of ""should I, shouldn't I?"" thoughts about going for the double in Athens. I thought why wouldn't you do the 800m, it's your best event? It was such good fun to commentate on her 1500m and it was nice to be able to be part of her Athens story. The victory for the British men's 4x100m relay team was a bit of a surprise but a great climax to the Games. I think the four of them - Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis - knew deep down that it was their best chance of a medal. The lads had run poorly in the individual sprints so maybe they did lift their game when they knew something was really at stake. Hicham El Guerrouj's Olympic double is a much bigger achievement than Kelly's on a global scale. He was the first man since for 80 years to win both the 1500m and 5,000m titles. As soon as he had added the 5,000m crown and I had finished commentating, I jumped up, ran down the stairs, pushed everyone out the way and just gave him a big hug. He is one of the few African runners who has embraced the tradition of the mile and he loves to hear all the Roger Bannister stories. Hicham is someone I enjoy having a bit of time with, even though my French and his English are not very good. What happened to Paula in Athens this year is the obvious low on a personal level and for the expectations of the nation as well. There were a set of circumstances around Athens that conspired to produce a very dramatic ending which I think has been greatly misunderstood. Dropping out of the marathon was the right thing to do but starting in the 10,000m five days later was not wise. That was her heart and not her head reacting. Paula had a lot of little things going wrong in her preparation and on the day. Things like niggling injuries, not being able to do all her running sessions and feeling the pressure of the race looming ahead of her. I think she came to the start line in Athens physically and emotionally drained. And if even the smallest thing doesn't feel right when you are preparing to race a marathon, 10 miles down the road it will hit you like a brick wall. The positive thing to take from Paula's Olympics it that she will have learned a lot from it and so will a lot of people - including me. Purely as a race, Paula's victory in the New York Marathon has to go down as one of the most thrilling. It was so nip-and-tuck between her and Kenya's Susan Chepkemei and you don't usually get that kind of excitement in marathons. It was also a real delight for all athletics fans because, to use one of my favourite words, Paula showed real ""bouncebackability"". And it was a bit of a rarity for me too because I genuinely did not have an inkling how the race was going to pan out. Kelly and the 4x100m boys' victories papered over the cracks in the general performance of the British team. We should be concerned that we're not producing enough people who are capable of reaching finals at senior level. The only individual men's finalist on the track was Michael East in the 1500m. I am beginning to look down and wonder where are the new breed? And that's where things begin to look even gloomier for British athletics as we did not win any medals at the world junior championships in Italy. Dani Barnes came fourth in the 1500m and she was the highest finisher for Team GB. The thing is if we don't have athletes getting into the finals at junior level then it really doesn't look good for the Beijing Olympics and beyond. I tell you what I really enjoyed this year, Benita Johnson winning the world cross country championships back in March. In the absence of Paula, we tend to think of the event as something of an African preserve. So to have an Australian come up and deliver such a surprise was something special. To be honest, I'm getting bored with all the drug scandals, especially Balco. I just wish the whole thing would come to a head so we can move on. Having said that, I'm always pleased when drugs cheats are caught because it shows the sport is standing up to it and not turning a blind eye anymore. And one of the positive things to come out of Balco is people are starting to blow the whistle. We need more people to come forward and help the authorities kick out the cheats. As regards the case against Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, well suspicions have been hanging over Kenteris for a while. The bottom line is we cannot keep letting drugs damage the sport because if we do then it stops everyone enjoying it." +sport,"Johnson uncertain about Euro bid Jade Johnson is undecided about whether to contest next month's European Indoor Championships in Madrid despite winning the AAAs long jump title on Saturday. The 24-year-old delivered a personal best of 6.50m to win the European trials but had to wait until her final jump after four failures. ""I don't want to go if I am not going to get a medal,"" said Johnson. ""I will have to see how I am jumping in the next competition and I'll have to have a conversation with my coach."" Johnson, who finished seventh in last year's Olympic Games, has not competed indoors since 2000. And the Commonwealth and European silver medallist believes her lack of experience in the early part of the season has knocked her confidence. ""It's the stress,"" said Johnson. ""I am not used to feeling this, this early. I am just used to training. ""But if I'm doing this kind of thing, then I will have to see how it goes."" Johnson next competes in the high-class Birmingham Grand Prix on 18 February." +sport,"Prutton poised for lengthy FA ban Southampton's David Prutton faces a possible seven-match ban when he goes before the Football Association. The 23-year-old has admitted two charges of improper conduct following his dismissal against Arsenal. The first charge relates to his failure to leave the field promptly, pushing referee Alan Wiley and remonstrating with assistant referee Paul Norman. And the second charge is for using threatening words and/or behaviour to a match official during the 1-1 draw. Paolo di Canio was given a seven-match suspension when he pushed referee Paul Alcock over in a Premiership game between Sheffield Wednesday and Arsenal in 1998. Prutton will be joined at Wednesday's hearing by Saints boss Harry Redknapp, who believes that the FA will throw the book at his player. Redknapp himself sprinted along the touchline to help physio Jim Joyce and coach Denis Rofe shepherd the enraged Prutton away from referee's assistant Norman. ""David has made a big mistake and he knows it. I can't condone what he's done. He was out of order but he knows that,"" said Redknapp. ""He's a decent lad. He over-reacted badly for some reason - he had a rush of blood from somewhere. Off the pitch you couldn't meet a nicer lad."" Prutton has apologised publicly for his actions and to Arsenal's Robert Pires, who was injured in a wild tackle by the Saints' midfield man. He said: ""It's an horrendous situation. I apologise to the ref and linesman, who were only doing their job. ""I've also seen what happened to Pires' leg and I'm sorry for that as well."" ""I apologise for the people who saw it. I know you get lots of kids going to the match now and they don't pay money to see that sort of thing. ""It's not a cop-out, but it was all a bit of a blur. Sometimes you react and it's beyond your control, "" added Prutton." +sport,"Hewitt overcomes wobble in Sydney Lleyton Hewitt gave himself the perfect preparation for next week's Australian Open with victory over Ivo Minar in the final of the Sydney International. The defending champion brushed aside the Czech qualifier 7-5 6-0. The Australian world number three strolled to the first five games of the match but was shocked as Minar won the next five. The top seed was rattled but recovered to close out the set and raced to victory in exactly an hour. ""It was a strange match . . . momentum swings,"" said Hewitt. ""I felt like I came out of the blocks extremely well, but then he loosened up a bit. ""When he got back to 5-5, I had to try to settle down and take it up a notch, and I was able to do that."" Hewitt has now lifted the Sydney title four times in the last six years. ""It just keeps getting better and better every year,"" Hewitt said. ""I've only played this tournament four times and I've won it four times."" Hewitt went into the final as a short-priced favourite to clinch his 24th career title after dropping only one set all week. He is set to meet Frenchman Arnaud Clement in the first round of the Australian Open. Minar, ranked 158th in the world, was forced to pull out of the Australian Open qualifying draw to play in his first ATP final. ""For me, this was a big success,"" said the 20-year-old. ""I was so nervous last night I couldn't sleep. I've never played a top-10 player before. ""I wanted to play qualifying in Melbourne, but it's Saturday and I'm still here. But this is a main draw and I need the points and the money."" Alicia Molik takes on Samantha Stosur in an all-Australian women's final later on Saturday." +sport,"Wilkinson return 'unlikely' Jonny Wilkinson looks set to miss the whole of the 2005 RBS Six Nations. England's World Cup-winning fly-half said last week he was hoping to recover from his latest injury in time to play some role in the championship. But Rob Andrew, coach of Wilkinson's club side Newcastle, said that with only two games left to play Wilkinson was unlikely to be fit in time. ""It would be irresponsible to put him straight into a Test match,"" Andrew told the Times. Wilkinson is recovering from a knee injury which followed long-term neck and arm injuries. He has not played for England since the World Cup final in November 2003, since when the stuttering world champions have lost nine of their 14 matches. Wilkinson is aiming to make his third start to the season in the Zurich Premiership match against Harlequins on 13 March. That game is the day after England play Italy in the Six Nations and six days before their final match of the championship against Scotland. ""We are hoping Jonny will be ready in a fortnight, but it is touch and go,"" said Andrew. ""His recovery is going very well and the key now is how he is reintroduced to playing and with it goal-kicking. ""He will probably have to come off the bench to start and it would be ridiculous and irresponsible to put him straight back into a Test match. ""We can't afford to get it wrong with a knee injury. We are in touch with England and they are relaxed about it."" Despite not playing for England, Wilkinson is still hoping to make the Lions tour to New Zealand this summer. Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward has not set a deadline for when Wilkinson has to start playing again in order to be considered for selection." +sport,"Calder fears for Scottish rugby Former Scotland international Finlay Calder fears civil war at the SRU could seriously hamper his country's RBS Six Nations campaign. Four members of the executive board, including the chairman, David Mackay, have resigned after a simmering row. And Calder said: ""This is terrible news for every level of Scottish rugby. ""David is a successful businessman and I thought that if anybody could transform the negative atmosphere and rising debt level, it was him."" Mackay's executive board has been in a power struggle with the general committee, which contains members elected by Scotland's club sides. ""He has been driven out by people who seem happier waging civil war than addressing the central issue that professional rugby can't be run by amateurs,"" said Calder. ""In fact, I don't understand why we are still having this argument 10 years after professionalism arrived. ""But I don't believe the rest of the SRU will take this lying down. ""I think the banks will be dismayed at this decision and, ultimately, it is them who pull the strings. ""So I wouldn't be surprised if they reviewed their position. But, in the wider picture, what message does this send out?"" He thought the work of Scotland's coaches, who have been attempting to arrest the decline of the national side, would be made much more difficult. ""Matt Williams and Willie Anderson must be wondering, 'what have we walked into here?'"" said Calder. ""And we can now expect weeks of arguments and acrimony just at a time when we should be looking forward to the Six Nations Championship. ""I am very, very disappointed, more than you can imagine. Why do so many Scots have this knack of turning on each other when the going gets tough?""" +sport,"Ferguson rues failure to cut gap Boss Sir Alex Ferguson was left ruing Manchester United's failure to close the gap on Chelsea, Everton and Arsenal after his side's 1-1 draw with Fulham. Premiership leaders Chelsea and the Gunners endured a 2-2 stalemate on Sunday, giving United the chance to make up some ground in the league. But Ferguson said: ""I think what makes it so bad is that both our rivals dropped points at the weekend. ""It was a great opportunity - and we haven't delivered."" United went ahead through Alan Smith in the 33rd minute before Bouba Diop's superb 25-yard strike cancelled out the visitors' lead in the 87th minute. Ferguson described the result as an ""absolute giveaway"" after United had earlier missed a host of opportunities to finish off the encounter. He said: ""It was a good performance - some of the football was fantastic - but we just didn't finish them off. ""In fairness, it's a fantastic strike from the Fulham player."" The result leaves Ferguson's side fourth in the league on 31 points - four points behind Arsenal and a further five back from Chelsea." +sport,"Dibaba breaks 5,000m world record Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba set a new world record in winning the women's 5,000m at the Boston Indoor Games. Dibaba won in 14 minutes 32.93 seconds to erase the previous world indoor mark of 14:39.29 set by another Ethiopian, Berhane Adera, in Stuttgart last year. But compatriot Kenenisa Bekele's record hopes were dashed when he miscounted his laps in the men's 3,000m and staged his sprint finish a lap too soon. Ireland's Alistair Cragg won in 7:39.89 as Bekele battled to second in 7:41.42. ""I didn't want to sit back and get out-kicked,"" said Cragg. ""So I kept on the pace. The plan was to go with 500m to go no matter what, but when Bekele made the mistake that was it. The race was mine."" Sweden's Carolina Kluft, the Olympic heptathlon champion, and Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak had winning performances, too. Kluft took the long jump at 6.63m, while Ceplak easily won the women's 800m in 2:01.52." +sport,"Robinson wants dual code success England rugby union captain Jason Robinson has targeted dual code success over Australia on Saturday. Robinson, a former rugby league international before switching codes in 2000, leads England against Australia at Twickenham at 1430 GMT. And at 1815 GMT, Great Britain's rugby league team take on Australia in the final of the Tri-Nations tournament. ""Beating the Aussies in both games would be a massive achievement, especially for league,"" said Robinson. England have the chance to seal their third autumn international victory after successive wins over Canada and South Africa, as well as gaining revenge for June's 51-15 hammering by the Wallabies. Meanwhile, Great Britain could end 34 years of failure against Australia with victory at Elland Road. Britain have won individual Test matches, but have failed to secure any silverware or win the Ashes (with a series victory) since 1970. ""They have a great opportunity to land a trophy and it would be a massive boost for rugby league in this country if we won,"" said Robinson. ""I know the boys can do it - they've defeated the Aussies once already in the Tri-Nations."" But Robinson was not losing sight of the task facing his England side in their final autumn international. ""For us, we've played two and won two this November,"" he said. ""If we beat Australia it would be the end to a great autumn series for England. If we stumble then we'll be looking back with a few regrets. Robinson also revealed that the union side had sent the Great Britain team a good luck message ahead of the showdown in Leeds. ""We signed a card for them today and will write them an email on Saturday wishing them all the best,"" said Robinson. ""Everyone has signed the card - a lot of the guys watch league and we support them fully. ""Both games will be very tough and hopefully we'll both do well.""" +sport,"Serena ends Sania Mirza's dream Sania Mirza, the first Indian woman to reach the third round of a Grand Slam tennis event, has lost to women's favourite Serena Williams. The 18-year-old Mirza, who got a wild card entry into the Australian Open in Melbourne, lost to Williams 1-6,4-6 in the third round. Williams took just 56 minutes to defeat Mirza and sail into the fourth round. The only other Indian woman to win a match at a Grand Slam is Nirupama Vaidyanathan. Vaidyanathan made it to the second round of the Australian Open in 1998. Playing the biggest match of her life, Mirza made little impact on Williams in the early stages of the game. But the teenager showed more confidence in the second set and engaged the seventh-seeded Williams in some well contested rallies. Mirza, a junior Wimbledon doubles title winner, became the first Indian woman to reach the third round of a grand slam tennis event when she beat Hungarian Petra Mandula on Wednesday. ""I'm really excited. I was confident but I didn't think it was going to be that easy,"" Mirza said after her second round win. ""My aim was to win a round here. When I did that I was so relieved, there was no pressure."" Tennis is not a particularly popular sport in India, but a number of Indians watched the live telecast of the match between Mirza and Williams. Mirza, who lives in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad known for producing a host of top Indian cricketers, turned professional two years ago. She says she was considered too small when she went for her first tennis classes as a six-year-old girl. ""Then finally [the coach] called my parents up and said 'the way she hits the ball, I've never seen a six-year-old hit a ball like that',"" Mirza told the Associated Press." +sport,"Dundee Utd 4-1 Aberdeen Dundee United eased into the semi-final of the Scottish Cup with an emphatic win over Aberdeen. Alan Archibald prodded United ahead in 19 minutes and James Grady made it two from close range 10 minutes later. Richie Byrne's header gave Aberdeen a way back into the game, but Stevie Crawford restored United's lead from 18 yards before half time. The scoring was completed by Grady just after the break - a superb shot on the turn making it 4-1. Tony Bullock in the United goal was called into action for the first time with just over a quarter-of-an-hour on the clock. Noel Whelan laid the ball off to Jamie Winter on the edge of the box, but his first-time effort was gathered by the United keeper. Moments later though, the home side took the lead. Barry Robson whipped in a free kick from the right, which Stevie Crawford caught on the volley. Russell Anderson failed to deal with it and Whelan's clearance off the line landed kindly at the feet of Archibald, who poked the ball into the net. United doubled their lead after 29 minutes when Grady tapped the ball into an empty net after Robson had headed Mark Wilson's cross off the angle of post and bar. But only three minutes later Aberdeen clawed their way back into the match. A free kick from the left by Winter was met powerfully by the head of Byrne at the back post, leaving Bullock helpless. United restored their two-goal lead four minutes before the end of a highly entertaining first half. Jason Scotland played a perfectly-weighted pass into the path of the onrushing Crawford and he coolly beat Ryan Esson from 18 yards. United ended the game as a contest just two minutes after the interval. Grady received a pass from Crawford with his back to goal on the edge of the box and after taking one touch, he spun to volley the ball past the despairing dive of Esson. The home side were in complete control and it required a good stop from Esson to keep out Robson's drive after 62 minutes. The keeper denied the same player again 10 minutes later, beating away his fierce shot from the left of the penalty area. Robson saw another long-range effort tipped round the post before a cute lob was headed off the line. Bullock, Duff, Wilson, Ritchie, Archibald, Scotland (Samuel 63), Brebner, Kerr (Cameron 87), Robson, Crawford, Grady. Colgan, Dodds, Kenneth. Brebner. Archibald 19, Grady 29, Crawford 41, Grady 47. Esson, Hart, Anderson, Diamond, Byrne (Morrison 75), McNaughton, Heikkinen (Foster 27), Winter, Clark (Stewart 51), Mackie, Whelan. Blanchard, McGuire. : Anderson, Diamond. Byrne 33. 8,661 K Clark" +sport,"Call for Kenteris to be cleared Kostas Kenteris' lawyer has called for the doping charges against the Greek sprinter to be dropped. Gregory Ioannidis has submitted new evidence to a Greek athletics tribunal which he claims proves the former Olympic champion has no case to answer. Kenteris and compatriot Katerina Thanou were given provisional suspensions in December for failing to take drugs tests before the Athens Olympics. The Greek tribunal is expected to give its verdict early next week. Kenteris and Thanou withdrew from the Athens Olympics last August after missing drugs tests on the eve of the opening ceremony. They were also alleged to have avoided tests in Tel Aviv and Chicago before the Games. But Ioannidis said: ""Everything overwhelmingly shows that the charges should be dropped."" Ioannidis also said he has presented evidence that will throw a different light on the events leading up to the pair's sensational withdrawal from the Athens Games. The lawyer added that he has proof the authorities ""knew"" Kenteris was in Germany at the time he was alleged to have missed a test in Chicago. Nick Davies, spokesman for athletics' ruling body the IAAF, which handed out the provisional bans, said: ""We can't comment because we were not present at the hearing and don't know what was said behind closed doors. ""We expect a verdict from the Greek Athletics Federation before the end of February and will obviously be making a statement then."" Kenteris won 200m gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, while Thanou won silver in the 100m." +sport,"Collins to compete in Birmingham World and Commonwealth 100m champion Kim Collins will compete in the 60m at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham on 18 February. The St Kitts and Nevis star joins British Olympic relay gold medallists Jason Gardener and Mark Lewis-Francis. Sydney Olympic 100m champion and world indoor record holder Maurice Greene and Athens Olympic 100m silver medallist Francis Obikwelu will also take part. Collins ran in Birmingham at the 2003 World Indoor Championships. ""I'm looking forward to competing against such a strong field,"" he said. ""I got a great reception form the crowd at the NIA when I won my 60m world indoor silver medal in 2003 and it will be really exciting to return to this venue."" The world champion says he's in good shape but he isn't underestimating the home competition. ""Jason Gardener and Mark Lewis-Francis are Olympic gold medallists now and I'm sure they'll be aiming to win in front of their home supporters. ""I'm looking forward to competing against Britain's best sprinters and I'm sure the 60 metres will be one of the most exciting races of the evening."" Collins was sixth in the Olympic final in Athens but is hoping for a better result at the World Championships in Finland this summer. ""This will be a big year for me and I plan to defend my 100m world title in Helsinki in August. Before then I want to perform well over 60m indoors and start my year in winning form.""" +sport,"Henman overcomes rival Rusedski Tim Henman saved a match point before fighting back to defeat British rival Greg Rusedski 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Tuesday. World number 46 Rusedski broke in the ninth game to take a tight opening set. Rusedski had match point at 6-5 in the second set tie-break after Henman double-faulted, but missed his chance and Henman rallied to clinch the set. The British number one then showed his superior strength to take the decider and earn his sixth win over Rusedski. Serve was held by both players with few alarms until the seventh game of the final set, when Rusedski's wild volley gave Henman a vital break. A furious Rusedski slammed his racket onto the ground in disgust and was warned by the umpire. Henman, seeded three, then held his serve comfortably thanks to four serve-and-volley winners to take a clear 5-3 lead. Rusedski won his service game but Henman took the first of his three match points with a service winner to secure his place in the second round at Dubai for the first time in three years. It was the first match between the pair for three years - Henman last lost to Rusedski six years ago - and lasted two hours and 40 minutes. The pair are now likely to only face each other on court as rivals - rather than as team-mates - after Henman decided to retire from Davis Cup tennis leaving Rusedski to lead the team out against Israel on 4-6 March. Henman, who now faces Russian Igor Andreev in the last 16, admitted afterwards it was difficult coming up against his compatriot on a fast surface. ""You just take it point by point when you're fighting to stay in the match,"" he said. ""I had to keep playing aggressively and competing to get a chance. ""I now have to recover in time for the next match because the body doesn't recover as quick as it used to, especially after two hours and 40 minutes.""" +sport,"FA charges Liverpool and Millwall Liverpool and Millwall have been charged by the Football Association over crowd trouble during their Carling Cup match on 26 October. Millwall, who lost the match 3-0, have also been charged over alleged racist behaviour by their supporters. During the match at Millwall's new Den Stadium, seats were ripped up and four people were ejected from the ground. A disabled fan was injured at the perimeter of the pitch and riot police were needed to control the situation. Liverpool fans claimed the trouble was sparked by chants about the Hillsborough disaster, where 96 supporters were crushed to death in April 1989. But Lions chairman Theo Paphitis has denied the claims. He has said CCTV footage showed the catalyst for the trouble was a Liverpool fan attacking a Millwall fan in the west stand. However, Millwall have been charged with two breaches of FA rules. They have been charged with failing to ensure that fans refrained from racist and/or abusive behaviour and for failing to prevent spectators throwing missiles onto the pitch. Liverpool have been charged with one breach for failing to prevent their fans conducting themselves in threatening and/or violent and/or provocative behaviour. Both clubs have until 23 December to respond." +sport,"Blackburn v Burnley Ewood Park Tuesday, 1 March 2000 GMT Howard Webb (South Yorkshire) home to Leicester in the quarter-finals But defender Andy Todd is suspended and could be replaced by Dominic Matteo - if he recovers from a hamstring injury. Burnley have major injury concerns over Frank Sinclair and John McGreal. Michael Duff looks set to continue at right-back with John Oster in midfield and Micah Hyde is expected to recover from a knee injury. - Blackburn boss Mark Hughes: ""Burnley are resolute and have individual talent but I fully expect us to progress. ""I thought we were comfortable in the first game and never thought we were under pressure. ""It's a competition we want to progress in and we are doing okay. If we beat Burnley, we have a home tie against another lower league club (Leicester)."" - Burnley boss Steve Cotterill: ""They will be fresh and we'll be tired. That is an honest opinion but our lads just might be able to get themselves up for one more big game. ""The atmosphere at the last game was very hot - a good verbal contest. ""Our fans will not need whipping up for this game. I just want them to help us as much as they can in a positive way."" KEY MATCH STATS - BLACKBURN ROVERS against Bolton is part two of an East Lancashire hotpot that didn't turn out to be that spicy when first staged on a Sunday lunchtime the weekend before last, and resulted in a scrappy goalless draw. - Rovers, who are aiming to win the Cup for a seventh time in their history and first time in 77 years, face another replay against Championship opposition after eventually disposing of Cardiff at Ewood Park in the third round. But they've not been beaten in the competition by a club outside the Premiership for nine years, since Ipswich - then in the second tier - defeated them 0-1 after extra time in a third round replay at Ewood Park on 16 January 1996. History is on Rovers side. When they last met their near neighbours in the FA Cup 45 years ago, it also required an Ewood Park replay, which the home side won 2-0, and when they last met in the League, Rovers did the double. They first won their Nationwide Division One trip to Turf Moor 0-2 four seasons ago, and then thrashed the Clarets on home soil 5-0. - Manager Mark Hughes, who won the Cup four times as a player, is aiming to steer Rovers into the quarter-finals for the second time in 12 years, and first time since the 2000/2001 season. Success here, and victory home to Leicester in the next round, could see Rovers in the semi-finals without having played Premiership opposition. - BURNLEY make the eight mile journey to their fierce rivals, determined to send Blackburn the same way as Liverpool in the third round. But having failed to pull off another shock at Turf Moor, it could be that the Championship outfit - 17 places inferior on the League ladder - have missed their best opportunity. Having said that, Burnley are yet to concede a goal in this Cup run. - Steve Cotterills' Clarets have been knocked out in the fifth round four times in the last seven years, and have made only one appearance in the sixth round in 21 years. That was in the season before last, when they disposed of Premiership Fulham at this fifth round stage. - While Blackburn have not played since the fifth round tie, Burnley have had two League outings away from home, drawing 1-1 at Derby and losing 1-0 at Preston. That takes their winless run to four games. The combatants from one-time prosperous mill towns, are both founder members of the Football League. HEAD TO HEAD 16th PREM WINNERS (six times) 13th Championship WINNERS (once)" +sport,"Aragones angered by racism fine Spain coach Luis Aragones is furious after being fined by The Spanish Football Federation for his comments about Thierry Henry. The 66-year-old criticised his 3000 euros (£2,060) punishment even though it was far below the maximum penalty. ""I am not guilty, nor do I accept being judged for actions against the image of the sport,"" he said. ""I'm not a racist and I've never lacked sporting decorum. I've never done that and I have medals for sporting merit."" Aragones was handed the fine on Tuesday after making racist remarks about Henry to Arsenal team-mate and Spanish international Jose Reyes last October. The Spanish Football Federation at first declined to take action against Aragones, but was then requested to do so by Spain's anti-violence commission. The fine was far less than the expected amount of about £22,000 or even the suspension of his coaching licence. Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, who was fined £15,000 in December for accusing Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy of cheating, believes that Aragones' punishment was too lenient. ""You compare his fine and my fine, and if you consider his was for racist abuse, then you seem to get away with it more in Spain than you should,"" Wenger said. ""He shouldn't have said what he said, and how much money is enough, I don't know but it doesn't look a big punishment."" However, Aragones insists the fine is unjustified and unfair. ""I have been treated like Islero (the bull that killed famous bullfighter Manolete),"" said Aragones on hearing he had been fined for his actions. ""I have not liked one thing about this whole affair and I do not agree with the sanction. They have looked for a scapegoat."" Spain's anti-violence commission must now ratify the Spanish FA's decision and has until next week to announce its verdict. Aragones has 10 days to appeal, and the commission can also appeal. Alberto Flores, president of the Spanish FA's disciplinary committee, said no-one in the committee felt Aragones was a racist nor had ""acted in a racist way."" ""A fine, the highest we could apply, is sufficient punishment. Suspension would have been a bit exaggerated,"" Flores told sports daily Marca." +sport,"Cole faces lengthy injury lay-off Aston Villa's Carlton Cole could be out for six weeks with a knee injury. The striker, who is on a season-long loan from Chelsea, picked up the knock in an England Under-21 match against Holland earlier this month. ""Carlton will be out of action for four to six weeks after a bad challenge,"" said Villa boss David O'Leary. ""I won't be able to tell you whether he will need an operation until maybe next week. Whether he has an operation has got to be left to Chelsea."" Cole, who also struggled with an ankle problem earlier in the season, was unable to rest because O'Leary had a shortage of strikers. The return to fitness of Darius Vassell after four months out with a broken ankle and the emergence of Luke Moore has alleviated some of the Villa's manager's problems in that department." +sport,"Ireland 19-13 England Ireland consigned England to their third straight Six Nations defeat with a stirring victory at Lansdowne Road. A second-half try from captain Brian O'Driscoll and 14 points from Ronan O'Gara kept Ireland on track for their first Grand Slam since 1948. England scored first through Martin Corry but had ""tries"" from Mark Cueto and Josh Lewsey disallowed. Andy Robinson's men have now lost nine of their last 14 matches since the 2003 World Cup final. The defeat also heralded England's worst run in the championship since 1987. Ireland last won the title, then the Five Nations, in 1985, but 20 years on they share top spot in the table on maximum points with Wales. And Eddie O'Sullivan's side banished the ghosts of 2003 when England were rampant 42-6 victors in claiming the Grand Slam at Lansdowne Road. In front of a supercharged home crowd on a dry but blustery day in Dublin, Ireland tore into the white-shirted visitors from the kick-off and made their intentions clear when O'Gara landed a fourth-minute drop-goal. England took their time to settle but their first real venture into Ireland's half produced a simple score for Corry. The number eight picked up the ball from the back of a ruck and found an absence of green jerseys between himself and the Irish line, racing 25 yards to touch down. England fly-half Charlie Hodgson nailed the conversion from out on the left, but almost immediately O'Gara, winning his 50th cap, answered with two penalties in quick succession. England were awarded a penalty of their own on the halfway line after 20 minutes, and Hodgson, the villain at Twickenham, coolly bisected the posts. The first quarter was marked by periods of tactical kicking, but it was Ireland who were showing more willingness to spread the ball wide to their eager and inventive backs. A series of probes led by the talismanic O'Driscoll, back from hamstring injury, resulted in a penalty but Ireland chose to kick for touch. From the line-out, the ball was recycled back to O'Gara, who stroked his second drop-goal, this time off the right upright. As the interval approached, wing Josh Lewsey was the catalyst for England's most promising attack. The Wasps star raced up his touchline and Hodgson's cross-kick put in Mark Cueto for an apparent score, but the Sale wing was ruled to have started in front of the kicker. England began the second half well and had Ireland pinned in their own half. But another English indiscretion on a rare Irish break-out awarded O'Gara a kick at goal, which he missed. England's pressure continued, and a wave of attacks saw centre Jamie Noon dragged down yards from the line before Hodgson landed a drop-goal. The lead was shortlived, however. Ireland raced upfield, deft handling from the backs, including a clever dummy from Geordan Murphy on Hodgson, ending with O'Driscoll going over in the right corner and touching down close to the posts. O'Gara missed a penalty which would have put Ireland nine points clear, and the home crowd breathed a sigh of relief when Hodgson's cross-kick was fumbled by lock Ben Kay near the line. Anticipation of a home win sent the noise level sky-high, but O'Gara missed another chance to seal the game with a wayward drop-goal attempt. Inside the last 10 minutes, England poured forward, spurred on by scrum-half Matt Dawson, who replaced Leicester's Harry Ellis. But despite one near miss with the pack over the line - not checked on the TV replay by referee Jonathan Kaplan - England were unable to pull off a face-saving win. Ireland next face France at Lansdowne Road in two weeks' time before the potential title decider against Wales in Cardiff. England are still to meet Italy at Twickenham, in what is now a wooden spoon decider, and Scotland. G Murphy; G Dempsey, B O'Driscoll, S Horgan, D Hickie; R O'Gara, P Stringer; R Corrigan, S Byrne, J Hayes; M O'Kelly, P O'Connell; S Easterby, J O'Connor, A Foley. F Sheahan, M Horan, D O'Callaghan, E Miller, G Easterby, D Humphreys, K Maggs. J Robinson (capt); M Cueto, J Noon, O Barkley, J Lewsey; C Hodgson, H Ellis; G Rowntree, S Thompson, M Stevens; D Grewcock, B Kay; J Worsley, L Moody, M Corry. A Titterrell, D Bell, S Borthwick, A Hazell, M Dawson, A Goode, O Smith." +sport,"Davies favours Gloucester future Wales hooker Mefin Davies is likely to stay with English side Gloucester despite reported interest from the Neath-Swansea Ospreys. BBC Wales understands the Ospreys are interested in the 32-year-old, but that he would prefer to stay where he is. Davies, one of the stars of Saturday's RBS Six Nations win over England, is only on a year contract at Kingsholm. But the hooker has proved his worth to the Zurich Premiership side and is likely to get a new deal next season. The summer demise of the Celtic Warriors region left Davies in the cold and forced him to take a semi-professional contract with Neath RFC. Although he got match time with the Ospreys at the request of the Wales management, he admitted before his move to Gloucester that he was angry with the way he was treated. ""The WRU didn't give me any help off the field, it was very disappointing,"" Davies said at the time. ""It was a hard time throughout the summer, then deciding whether to accept an offer from Stade Francais which would have ended my Wales career.""" +sport,"Newry to fight cup exit in courts Newry City are expected to discuss legal avenues on Friday regarding overturning their ejection from the Nationwide Irish Cup. The IFA upheld its original decision to throw Newry out of the cup following the Andy Crawford registration row. ''A law firm will put a case forward for Newry FC, and see what the legal implications of all this is are,'' said Newry boss Roy McCreadie. ''This is a big issue, now that we have an appeal pending,'' On Wednesday, a fresh IFA hearing into Crawford registration saga, ruled that last week's original verdict had been correct. It meant that Bangor, beaten 5-1 by Newry on the field, will take on Portadown in the sixth round. Newry had claimed they had uncovered ""fresh evidence"", in respect of the dates relating to the registration. But McCreadie is not further annoyed that full details of Wednesday's meeting was not relayed to the club. ''Even to this day, we have as much information about what happened during the meeting on Wednesday as that told to the media. We are being kept in the dark,'' McCreadie told the News Letter . ''We want an explanation. There is no good sending us the same fax message the press people received. ''It's a real sad case. If we are not back in the Irish Cup after our appeal, and guided by our legal advise, we will seek to lodge an injunction in the courts to stop Bangor playing Portadown.''" +sport,"Ferdinand casts doubt over Glazer Rio Ferdinand has said he is unsure of Malcolm Glazer's motives after the American billionaire launched a new offer to buy Manchester United. The club have confirmed that the Glazer Family Partnership have submitted proposals of a third bid. ""A lot of people want the club's interest to be with people who have grown up with the club and have got its interests at heart,"" said Ferdinand. ""No one knows what this guy will be bringing to the table."" The central defender added on BBC Radio Five Live: ""We will have to wait and see what Glazer comes with. ""I would like to see the situation resolved either way. ""I think people are getting bored with him coming in and out of the news with new proposals. ""The other stuff off the pitch takes the shine off what is going on the pitch."" Glazer, currently owns a 28.1% stake in the club, and United's statement to the stock exchange said: ""The board has noted the recent press speculation on this subject. ""The board can confirm that it has now received a detailed proposal subject to various pre-conditions which may form the basis of an offer for Manchester United from Glazer. ""A further announcement will be made in due course."" Glazer's previous bids for the club, which United supporters opposed, were rejected by the board because of the high level of debt they would incur. But it is believed that Glazer has substantially reduced the borrowing required for his latest move. He will still need the approval of major shareholders John Magnier and JP McManus, who own 28.9% of the club to succeed. But the Irish duo have cut off talks with Glazer over the proposed sale of their stake, while fans remain opposed to his involvement." +sport,"Nadal puts Spain 2-0 up Result: Nadal 6-7 (6/8) 6-2 7-6 (8/6) 6-2 Roddick Spain's Rafael Nadal beats Andy Roddick of the USA in the second singles match rubber of the 2004 Davis Cup final in Seville. Spain lead 1-0 after Carlos Moya beat Mardy Fish in straight sets in the opening match of the tie. Nadal holds his nerve and the crowd goes wild as Spain go 2-0 up in the tie. Roddick holds serve to force Nadal to serve for the match but the American surely cannot turn things around now. Nadal works Roddick around the court on two consecutive points to earn two break points. One is enough, the Spaniard secures the double-break and Roddick is now teetering on the edge. Roddick is trying to gee himself up but the clay surface is taking its toll on his game and he is looking tired. Nadal wins the game to love. Nadal steps up the pressure to break and Spain have the early initiative in the fourth set. Nadal also holds convincingly as both players feel their way into the fourth set. Roddick shrugs off the disappointment of losing the third-set tiebreak and breezes through his first service game of the fourth set. Nadal earns the first mini-break in the tiebreak as the match enters its fourth hour. A couple of stunning points follow, one where Nadal chases down a Roddick shot and turns into a passing winner. Then Roddick produces some amazing defence at the net to take the score to 4-4. Roddick has two serves for the set but double-faults to take the score to 5-5. Nadal saves a Roddick set point then earns his own with a drive volley - and a crosscourt passing winner sends the crowd wild. Nadal tries to up his aggression and he passes Roddick down the line to go 15-40 and two set points up. Roddick saves the first with a desperate lunge volley and smacks a volley winner across the court to take the score back to deuce before securing the game. The set will go to another tiebreak. Nadal enjoys another straightforward hold and Roddick must once again serve to stay in the set. Roddick again holds on, despite some brilliant shot-making from his opponent. Nadal races through his service game to put the pressure straight back onto Roddick. Roddick hangs in on his serve to level matters but Nadal is making him fight for every point. Nadal could be suffering a disappointment hangover from the previous game as he goes 0-30 down and then has to save a break point after a tremendous rally in which he is forced into some brilliant defence. But it pays off and the Spaniard edges ahead in the set. Roddick's serve is not firing as ferociously as usual and has to rely on his sheer competitive determination to stay in the set. Three times, Nadal forces a break point and three times the world number two hangs in. And Roddick's grit pays off as he manages to hold. Roddick still looks a bit sluggish but he attacks the net and is rewarded with a break point, which Nadal saves with a good first serve and the Spaniard goes on to hold. There is a disruption in play as Roddick is upset about something in the crowd. The Spanish captain gets involved as does the match referee but it is unclear what the problem is. One thing for certain is that the crowd are roused into support of Nadal and they go wild when Roddick loses the next point and goes break point down. Roddick saves the break point and then bangs down his ninth ace before clinching the game with a service winner. The game passes the two-hour mark as Nadal holds serve to edge ahead in the third set. Now Roddick has to defend a break point and he produces a characteristic ace to save it. It is immediately followed by another and he holds with a little dinked half-volley winner. Roddick is looking a little leaden-footed but does carve out a break point for himself. But he plays it poorly and Nadal avoids the danger. Roddick has gone off the boil and again struggles. He fails to get down properly for a low forehand volley and gives Nadal three break points. The American blasts an ace to save one but follows up with a double fault and the rubber is level. Nadal edges towards taking the second set with a comfortable hold. Two good serves put Roddick 30-0 up but he then makes a couple of errors to find himself 30-40 down. He saves the break point with an ace and then manages to hold. Roddick's level has dropped while Nadal is on a hot streak. The Spaniard includes a superb crosscourt winner off the back foot as he races through his service game without dropping a point. Roddick double-faults twice and Nadal takes full advantage of the break point offered, powering a passing winner past Roddick. Nadal wins another tight game. Neither player has dipped from the high standard of play in the first set. Nadal puts the American under pressure and Roddick saves a break point with a superb stop volley before going on to hold. Nadal puts the disappointment of losing the first-set tiebreak to claim the opening game in the second. Roddick double-faults to concede the first mini-break and then Nadal loops a crosscourt winner to seize advantage in the tiebreak. He lets one slip but wins his next serve to earn three set points. But Roddick saves them and then earns one himself. Nadal comes up with a down-the-line winner but then nets tamely on Roddick's next set point. Nadal's nerve is tested as he tries to force a tiebreak. Both players come up with some scintillating tennis and the Spaniard has several chances to clinch the game before finally doing so when Roddick drives wide. A pulsating game sees Nadal racing round the court retrieving and refusing to give Roddick any easy points. The point of the match so far involves Roddick's slam-dunk smash being returned by Nadal before Roddick finally manages to end the rally. On the very next point, Nadal blasts a forehand service return from right of court that passes Roddick and even the American is forced to applaud. But Roddick comes up with two big serves to polish off the game. Nadal outplays Roddick to reach 40-0 but the American fights back to 40-30 before Nadal's powerful crosscourt forehand winner secures the game. The crowd are getting very involved, cheering between Roddick's first and second serves. But the American comes through to hold and edge ahead in the set. Nadal manages to hold again despite Roddick piling the pressure on his serve. The Spaniard wins the game courtesy of another lucky net cord. Roddick double faults buts manages to keep his composure. A well-placed serve is unreturnable and Roddick holds. A powerful ace down the middle gives Nadal a simple love service game - the first time he has held serve so far in the match. If Roddick didn't know before, he knows now that he is in a real contest. Another superb game as Nadal breaks to once again lift the roof. He produces some fine groundstrokes to leave Roddick chasing shadows. Four of the first five games have seen a break of serve. Despite the disappointment of losing his serve, Roddick is not phased and storms into a 40-15 lead when the umpire leaves his seat to confirm a close line-call. Nadal takes the next point but Roddick breaks again with a sharp volley at the net. Roddick's advantage is short lived as Nadal breaks back immediately. A fortunate net cord helps the Spaniard on his way and when Roddick fires a forehand cross court shot wide to lose his serve, Nadal pumps his fist in celebration. The American is pumped up for this clash and takes on Nadal's serve from the start. Nadal's drop shot is agonisingly called out and Roddick claims the vital first break. After Moya's win in the opening rubber, a raucous Seville crowd is buoyed by Nadal's impressive start which sees him race into a 30-0 lead. However Roddick fights back to hold his serve." +sport,"Tigers wary of Farrell 'gamble' Leicester say they will not be rushed into making a bid for Andy Farrell should the Great Britain rugby league captain decide to switch codes. ""We and anybody else involved in the process are still some way away from going to the next stage,"" Tigers boss John Wells told BBC Radio Leicester. ""At the moment, there are still a lot of unknowns about Andy Farrell, not least his medical situation. ""Whoever does take him on is going to take a big, big gamble."" Farrell, who has had persistent knee problems, had an operation on his knee five weeks ago and is expected to be out for another three months. Leicester and Saracens are believed to head the list of rugby union clubs interested in signing Farrell if he decides to move to the 15-man game. If he does move across to union, Wells believes he would better off playing in the backs, at least initially. ""I'm sure he could make the step between league and union by being involved in the centre,"" said Wells. ""I think England would prefer him to progress to a position in the back row where they can make use of some of his rugby league skills within the forwards. ""The jury is out on whether he can cross that divide. ""At this club, the balance will have to be struck between the cost of that gamble and the option of bringing in a ready-made replacement.""" +sport,"Murray to make Cup history Andrew Murray will become Britain's youngest-ever Davis Cup player after it was confirmed he will play in the doubles against Israel on Saturday. The 17-year-old will play alongside fellow debutant David Sherwood against Israel's Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram. Murray will eclipse the record set by Roger Becker back in 1952. Greg Rusedski takes Tim Henman's place as first choice in the singles, while Alex Bogdanovic will play in the second singles clash. Rusedski will take on former world number 30 Harel Levy and Bogdanovic - who has previously played in two singles rubbers against Australia - will face Noam Okun. Murray is the brightest young hope in British tennis, after winning the US Open junior title last year and the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year. British number one Tim Henman, who announced his Davis Cup retirement earlier this year, believes Britain can win the tie in Tel Aviv. ""It's going to be as really tough match. Israel have some really good players - and their doubles pair of Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich are among the top eight in the world - but I fancy our chances,"" he said. But Henman urged Bogdanovic, who has had run-ins with British tennis officials in the past, to seize his chance. ""Alex is a quality player - he's young but he's got to keep pushing forward. ""He's got to be stronger, he's got a lot of ability but he's got to be more disciplined mentally and physically and if he does that he's got a good chance.""" +sport,"Irish finish with home game Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr has been granted his wish for a home game as the final World Cup qualifier. Ireland will close their bid to reach the 2006 finals by playing Switzerland in Dublin on 12 October 2005. The Republic met the Swiss in their final Euro 2004 qualifier, losing 2-0 away and missing out on a place in the finals in Portugal. The Group Four fixtures were hammered out at a meeting in Dublin on Tuesday. The Irish open their campaign on 4 September at home to Cyprus and wrap up the 10-match series on 12 October 2005, with the visit of Switzerland. Manager Brian Kerr and FAI officials met representatives from Switzerland, France, Cyprus, Israel and the Faroe Islands to arrange the fixture schedule. Kerr had hoped to finish with a clash against France, but got the reigning European champions as their penultimate home match on 7 September 2005. The manager got his wish to avoid a repeat of finishing their bid to qualify with too many away matches. Republic of Ireland v Cyprus; France v Israel; Switzerland v Faroe Islands. Switzerland v Republic of Ireland; Israel v Cyprus; Faroe Islands v France. France v Republic of Ireland; Israel v Switzerland; Cyprus v Faroe Islands. Republic of Ireland v Faroe Islands; Cyprus v France. Cyprus v Israel. France v Switzerland; Israel v Republic of Ireland. Switzerland v Cyprus; Israel v France. Republic of Ireland v Israel; Faroe Islands v Switzerland. Faroe Islands v Republic of Ireland. August 17 - Faroe Islands v Cyprus. France v Faroe Islands; Switzerland v Israel. Republic of Ireland v France; Cyprus v Switzerland; Faroe Islands v Israel. Switzerland v France; Israel v Faroe Islands; Cyprus v Republic of Ireland. France v Cyprus; Republic of Ireland v Switzerland." +sport,"Gardener wins double in Glasgow Britain's Jason Gardener enjoyed a double 60m success in Glasgow in his first competitive outing since he won 100m relay gold at the Athens Olympics. Gardener cruised home ahead of Scot Nick Smith to win the invitational race at the Norwich Union International. He then recovered from a poor start in the second race to beat Swede Daniel Persson and Italy's Luca Verdecchia. His times of 6.61 and 6.62 seconds were well short of American Maurice Greene's 60m world record of 6.39secs from 1998. ""It's a very hard record to break, but I believe I've trained very well,"" said the world indoor champion, who hopes to get closer to the mark this season. ""It was important to come out and make sure I got maximum points. My last race was the Olympic final and there was a lot of expectation. ""This was just what I needed to sharpen up and get some race fitness. I'm very excited about the next couple of months."" Double Olympic champion marked her first appearance on home soil since winning 1500m and 800m gold in Athens with a victory. There was a third success for Britain when edged out Russia's Olga Fedorova and Sweden's Jenny Kallur to win the women's 60m race in 7.23secs. Maduaka was unable to repeat the feat in the 200m, finishing down in fourth as took the win for Russia. And the 31-year-old also missed out on a podium place in the 4x200m relay as the British quartet came in fourth, with Russia setting a new world indoor record. There was a setback for Jade Johnson as she suffered a recurrence of her back injury in the long jump. Russia won the meeting with a final total of 63 points, with Britain second on 48 and France one point behind in third. led the way for Russia by producing a major shock in the high jump as he beat Olympic champion Stefan Holm into second place to end the Swede's 22-event unbeaten record. won the triple jump with a leap of 16.87m, with Britain's Tosin Oke fourth in 15.80m. won the men's pole vault competition with a clearance of 5.65m, with Britain's Nick Buckfield 51cm adrift of his personal best in third. And won the women's 800m, with Britain's Jenny Meadows third. There was yet another Russian victory in the women's 400m as finished well clear of Britain's Catherine Murphy. Chris Lambert had to settle for fourth after fading in the closing stages of the men's 200m race as Sweden's held off Leslie Djhone of France. France's won the men's 400m, with Brett Rund fourth for Britain. took victory for Sweden in the women's 60m hurdles ahead of Russia's Irina Shevchenko and Britain's Sarah Claxton, who set a new personal best. Italy grabbed their first victory in the men's 1500m as kicked over the last 200 metres to hold off Britain's James Thie and France's Alexis Abraham. A botched changeover in the 4x200m relay cost Britain's men the chance to add further points as France claimed victory." +sport,"Robinson ready for difficult task England coach Andy Robinson faces the first major test of his tenure as he tries to get back to winning ways after the Six Nations defeat by Wales. Robinson is likely to make changes in the back row and centre after the 11-9 loss as he contemplates Sunday's set-to with France at Twickenham. Lewis Moody and Martin Corry could both return after missing the game with hamstring and shoulder problems. And the midfield pairing of Mathew Tait and Jamie Noon is also under threat. Olly Barkley immediately allowed England to generate better field position with his kicking game after replacing debutant Tait just before the hour. The Bath fly-half-cum-centre is likely to start against France, with either Tait or Noon dropping out. Tait, given little opportunity to shine in attack, received praise from Robinson afterwards, even if the coach admitted Cardiff was an ""unforgiving place"" for the teenage prodigy. Robinson now has a tricky decision over whether to withdraw from the firing line, after just one outing, a player he regards as central to England's future. Tait himself, at least outwardly, appeared unaffected by the punishing treatment dished out to him by Gavin Henson in particular. ""I want more of that definitely,"" he said. ""Hopefully I can train hard this week and get selected for next week but we'll have to look at the video and wait and see. ""We were playing on our own 22 for a lot of the first half so it was quite difficult. I thought we defended reasonably well but we've just got to pick it up for France."" His Newcastle team-mate Noon hardly covered himself in glory in his first major Test. He missed a tackle on Michael Owen in the build-up to Wales' try, conceded a penalty at the breakdown, was turned over in another tackle and fumbled Gavin Henson's cross-kick into touch, all inside the first quarter. His contribution improved in the second half, but England clearly need more of a playmaker in the inside centre role. Up front, the line-out remains fallible, despite a superb performance from Chris Jones, whose athleticism came to the fore after stepping into the side for Moody. It is more likely the Leicester flanker will return on the open side for the more physical challenge posed by the French forwards, with Andy Hazell likely to make way. Lock Ben Kay also justified his recall with an impressive all-round display on his return to the side, but elsewhere England positives were thin on the ground." +sport,"Harinordoquy suffers France axe Number eight Imanol Harinordoquy has been dropped from France's squad for the Six Nations match with Ireland in Dublin on 12 March. Harinordoquy was a second-half replacement in last Saturday's 24-18 defeat to Wales. Bourgoin lock Pascal Pape, who has recovered from a sprained ankle, returns to the 22-man squad. Wing Cedric Heymans and Ludovic Valbon come in for Aurelien Rougerie and Jean-Philippe Grandclaude. Rougerie hurt his chest against Wales while Grandclaude was a second-half replacement against both England and Wales. Valbon, capped in last June's Tests against the United States and Canada, was a second half replacement in the win over Scotland. France coach Bernard Laporte said Harinordoquy had been axed after a poor display last weekend. ""Imanol has been dropped from the squad because the least I can say is that he didn't make a thundering comeback against Wales,"" said Laporte. ""We know the Ireland game will be fast and rough and we also want to be able to replace both locks during the game if needed, and Gregory Lamboley can also come on at number seven or eight. ""The Grand Slam is gone but we'll go to Ireland to win. ""It will be a very exciting game because Ireland have three wins under their belt, have just defeated England and have their eyes set on a Grand Slam."" France, who lost to Wales last week, must defeat the Irish to keep alive their hopes of retaining the Six Nations trophy. Ireland are unbeaten in this year's tournament and have their sights set on a first Grand Slam since 1948. Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), Pierre Mignoni (Clermont), Yann Delaigue (Castres), Frederic Michalak (Stade Toulousain), Damien Traille (Biarritz), Yannick Jauzion (Stade Toulousain), Ludovic Valbon (Biarritz), Christophe Dominici (Stade Francais), Cedric Heymans (Stade Toulousain), Julien Laharrague (Brive) Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Francais), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Olivier Milloud (Bourgoin), Sebastien Bruno (Sale/ENG), William Servat (Stade Toulousain), Fabien Pelous (Stade Toulousain, capt), Jerome Thion (Biarritz), Pascal Papé (Bourgoin), Gregory Lamboley (Stade Toulousain), Serge Betsen (Biarritz), Julien Bonnaire (Bourgoin), Yannick Nyanga (Béziers)" +sport,"Scotland v Italy (Sat) Murrayfield, Edinburgh Saturday, 26 February 1400 GMT BBC1, Five Live and this website Victory for the Azzurri in Rome last year saw Scotland end their campaign without a victory. And the pressure is on Scotland coach Matt Williams as he seeks a first Six Nations victory at the eighth attempt. Italy have lost both their opening games at home to Ireland and Wales, but travel to Edinburgh with high hopes. Their coach John Kirwan has warned his side they must eradicate the errors that blighted their loss to Wales however or risk suffering a third successive defeat. ""If the defeat against Wales has taught us anything, it's that at this level we can't make any mistakes,"" Kirwan said. ""In the Six Nations, every error you make will come at a high price. ""We have to be aggressive for 80 minutes, keep calm in every situation and display great maturity on the pitch. ""It will be fundamental to keep cool in the difficult moments - in the key situations of the game."" Kirwan has recalled the experienced Cristian Stoica at centre and drafted in David dal Maso at open-side after star flanker Mauro Bergamasco was ruled out for the rest of the tournament. Scotland have also made two changes, Simon Webster replacing Simon Danielli on the wing and Simon Taylor returning for his first Test in a year, for injured flanker Jason White. Taylor's recovery from a serious knee injury is a major boost to Scottish hopes. ""He is one of the world-class players in the tournament and you want them in your team,"" acknowledged Williams. Despite a record of only two victories from 14 Tests, Williams insists he is revelling in the pressure. ""I actually really enjoy seeing how you cope with such pressure as a coach,"" he said, optimistic despite opening defeats to France and Ireland. ""We were confident for those two first games and we are confident we can beat Italy too,"" he added. : C Paterson; S Webster, A Craig, H Southwell, S Lamont; D Parks, C Cusiter; T Smith, G Bulloch (capt), G Kerr; S Grimes, S Murray; S Taylor, J Petrie, A Hogg. R Russell, B Douglas, N Hines, J Dunbar, M Blair, G Ross, B Hinshelwood. R de Marigny; Mirco Bergamasco, C Stoica, A Masi, L Nitoglia; L Orquera, A Troncon; A Lo Cicero, F Ongaro, M Castrogiovanni; S Dellape, M Bortolami (capt); A Persico, D Dal Maso, S Parisse. G Intoppa, S Perugini, CA del Fava, S Orlando, P Griffen, R Pedrazzi, KP Robertson." +sport,"London hope over Chepkemei London Marathon organisers are hoping that banned athlete Susan Chepkemei will still take part in this year's race on 17 April. Chepkemei was suspended from all competition until the end of the year by Athletics Kenya after failing to report to a national training camp. ""We are watching it closely,"" said London race director David Bedford. ""There is a long way to go before the race and we are hoping the situation will be satisfactorily resolved."" The camp in Embu was to prepare for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships later this month. Chepkemei however took part and finished third in last Sunday's world best 10K race in Puerto Rico. The 29-year-old has finished second to Paula Radcliffe in the 2002 and 2003 London races as well as in November's New York City marathon." +sport,"Liverpool pledge to keep Gerrard Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry insists the club will never sell Steven Gerrard amid reports Chelsea will renew their bid to lure him from Anfield. Gerrard reiterated his desire to win trophies with the Reds after his superb Champions League winner on Wednesday. And Parry has moved to scotch claims that Chelsea could launch a £35m bid. ""There is no chance of Stevie going in January,"" said Parry. ""That just won't happen. Our intention is that we will never let him go."" Gerrard scored a spectacular late goal to give Liverpool a 3-1 win over Olympiakos and book their place in the knockout stages. ""Of course he is ambitious but so are we,"" Parry added. ""We firmly believe that if we can satisfy his ambition he will remain a Liverpool player. ""We have an open and straightforward relationship. We both know where we stand and that played a big part in his decision to stay last summer. If he was not so committed to Liverpool he would have gone by now."" Gerrard had said before Wednesday's game he would consider leaving if the club was knocked out of Europe, with Real Madrid also believed to be monitoring his situation. ""The main point I have made is I want to be in a Liverpool side which challenges for the Champions League and the title all the time,"" he said afterwards. ""I want to be winning things with Liverpool, not somewhere else. ""I am a fan as well and I think what I have said the supporters will agree with. ""We have to build on wins like that, not just settle for a great win and then not progress any further. ""My goal was one of the most important I have ever scored and I hope it turns out to be one of the most important for the club for a long time. ""I know I put a lot of pressure on myself because of what I said, and I felt I needed a big performance, but I am not going to go around telling lies about how I feel."" Reds manager Rafael Benitez believes Gerrard can win everything he wants to without moving clubs. ""Steven can win all he wants with us and we need him. He has seen that we have a good team and we can do more things in the future,"" said Benitez. ""But if we want to win more games, important games, we need Steven in the team. ""We need his strength, the strong mentality he has and his quality. I think he likes and wants the responsibility of leading this team.""" +sport,"England given tough Sevens draw England will have to negotiate their way through a tough draw if they are to win the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Hong Kong next month. The second seeds have been drawn against Samoa, France, Italy, Georgia and Chinese Taipei. The top two sides in each pool qualify but England could face 2001 winners New Zealand in the quarter-finals if they stumble against Samoa. Scotland and Ireland are in Pool A together with the All Blacks. England won the first event of the International Rugby Board World Sevens series in Dubai but have slipped to fourth in the table after failing to build on that victory. However, they beat Samoa in the recent Los Angeles Sevens before losing to Argentina in the semi-finals. ""England have the ability and determination to win this World Cup and create sporting history by being the only nation to hold both the 15s and Sevens World Cups at the same time,"" said England sevens coach Mike Friday. ""England have a fantastic record in Hong Kong and have won there the last three years, but the World Cup is on a different level. ""Every pool contains teams who have caused upsets before and we will have to work hard to ensure we progress from our group. ""We have not performed consistently to our true potential so far in the IRB Sevens which has been disappointing - but we can only look forward."" England won the first Rugby World Cup Sevens in 1993 with a side that included the likes of Lawrence Dallaglio and Matt Dawson. In 1997 and 2001, England lost in the quarter-finals. (seeds in brackets) New Zealand (1), Scotland (8), Tonga, Ireland, Korea, USA. England (2), Samoa (7), France, Italy, Georgia, Chinese Taipei. Fiji (3), Australia (6), Canada, Portugal, Japan, Hong Kong. Argentina (4), South Africa (5), Kenya, Tunisia, Russia, Uruguay." +sport,"Melzer shocks Agassi in San Jose Second seed Andre Agassi suffered a comprehensive defeat by Jurgen Melzer in the quarter-finals of the SAP Open. Agassi was often bamboozled by the Austrian's drop shots in San Jose, losing 6-3 6-1. Defending champion and top seed Andy Roddick rallied to beat Sweden's Thomas Enqvist 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-5. But unseeded Cyril Saulnier beat the fourth seed Vincent Spadea 6-2 6-4 and Tommy Haas overcame eighth seed Max Mirnyi 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2. Melzer has now beaten Agassi in two of their three meetings. ""I had a good game plan and I executed it perfectly,"" he said. ""It's always tough to come out to play Andre. ""I didn't want him to play his game. He makes you run like a dog all over the court."" And Agassi, who was more than matched for power by his opponent's two-handed backhand, said Melzer was an example of several players on the tour willing to take their chances against him. ""A lot more guys are capable of it now,"" said the American. ""He played much better than me. That's what he did both times. ""I had opportunities to loosen myself up,"" Agassi added. ""But I didn't convert on the big points.""" +sport,"Campbell lifts lid on United feud Arsenal's Sol Campbell has called the rivalry between Manchester United and the Gunners ""bitter and personal"". Past encounters have stirred up plenty of ill-feeling between the sides and they meet again at Highbury on Tuesday. ""It is just more bitter and personal against United,"" the defender told The Guardian newspaper. ""There's an edge. ""After all that has happened, if we beat them it will be one of our sweetest ever wins, especially because of how we lost to them up there."" Last October, Arsenal lost 2-0 at Old Trafford, which ended a record 49-match unbeaten league run and sparked a mini-crisis, with the Gunners winning only three of their next 10 games. ""It had a psychological impact on us, but again because of the way we were defeated,"" added the 30-year-old, referring to a controversial penalty award for United's first goal. ""That was far more upsetting, losing like that, because they just seem to get away with it. You try and balance out over the course of a season but I've had so many rough decisions against them you begin to wonder."" With tensions spilling over afterwards - United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was allegedly pelted with pizza in the players' tunnel - there is little surprise that so much is riding on the return encounter on. ""Everyone at Arsenal has been waiting for this game,"" said Campbell. ""We are up for this one."" Speaking on his long-term plans, Campbell signalled his intent to move abroad before he turns 35. ""I'm 30 now and in five years' time I won't be in this country - that's definite. ""Italy looks good to me because it would suit my kind of football. Spain is an option but the idea of tasting a new culture and learning another language excites me the most. I'm starting a little with French, of course.""" +sport,"Yachvili savours France comeback France scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili praised his team after they fought back to beat England 18-17 in the Six Nations clash at Twickenham. Yachvili kicked all of France's points as they staged a second-half revival. ""We didn't play last week against Scotland and we didn't play in the first half against England,"" he said. ""But we're very proud to beat England at Twickenham. We were just defending in the first half and we said we had to put them under pressure. We did well."" Yachvili admitted erratic kicking from England's Charlie Hodgson and Olly Barkley, who missed six penalties and a drop goal chance between them, had been decisive. ""I know what it's like with kicking. When you miss some it's very hard mentally, but it went well for us,"" he said. France captain Fabien Pelous insisted his side never doubted they could secure their first win against England at Twickenham since 1997. France were 17-6 down at half-time, but Pelous said: ""No-one was down at half-time, we were still confident. ""We said we only had 11 points against us, which was not much. ""The plan was to keep hold of possession and pressure England to losing their composure."" France coach Bernard Laporte accepted his side had not played well. ""We know we have to play better to defend the title,"" he said. ""I'm not happy we didn't score a try but we're happy because we won.""" +sport,"Celtic make late bid for Bellamy Newcastle striker Craig Bellamy is discussing a possible short-term loan move to Celtic, BBC Sport understands. The Welsh striker has rejected a move to Birmingham after falling out with Magpies manager Graeme Souness. The Toon boss vowed Bellamy would not play again after a bitter row over his exclusion for the game against Arsenal. Celtic are in no position to match Birmingham's £6m offer but a stay until the end of the season could suit Bellamy while he considers his future. According to Bellamy's agent, the player dismissed a permanent move to Birmingham. And it is unlikely that Newcastle would allow the player to go on loan to another Premiership club. Bellamy was fined two weeks' wages after a live TV interview in which he accused Souness of lying, following a very public dispute about what position Bellamy should play in the side. Souness said: ""He can't play for me ever again. He has been a disruptive influence from the minute I walked into this football club. ""He can't go on television and accuse me of telling lies."" Chairman Freddy Shepherd described Bellamy's behaviour as ""totally unacceptable and totally unprofessional""." +sport,"Worcester v Sale (Fri) Sixways Friday, 25 February 2000 GMT They make just one change, with Tim Collier replacing Phil Murphy in the second row. In contrast, Sale are missing 14 players due to a combination of international call-ups and injuries. John Payne and Chris Rhys Jones come into the centres while scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth looks set to play on the wing. Delport; Pieters, Rasmussen, Lombard, O'Leary; Brown, Powell; Windo, Van Niekerk, Horsman; Collier, Gillies; Hickey, Sanderson, MacLeod- Henderson. Replacements: Fortey, Murphy, Daly, Vaili, Cole, Hayes, Trueman. Hanley; Mayor, Payne, Rhys Jones, Wigglesworth; Hercus, Redpath (capt); Turner, Roddam, Stewart; Day, Schofield; Caillet, Carter, Chabal. Replacements (from): Bozzi, Coutts, Anglesea, Lund, Martens, Riley, Duffy, C Jones." +sport,"D'Arcy injury adds to Ireland woe Gordon D'Arcy has been ruled out of the Ireland team for Saturday's Six Nations clash against Scotland in Murrayfield. Like skipper Brian O'Driscoll, D'Arcy failed to recover from a hamstring injury. The side will now be led by Munster lock Paul O'Connell. Shane Horgan switches from wing to centre where he will be joined by Ulster's Kevin Maggs. Girvan Dempsey comes into the team to take the right wing spot while Gavin Duffy is called up to the replacements. ''We gave Gordon a chance but it didn't work out,'' said Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan. ''In terms of the risk element, it was a sensible precaution. He should be fine for the next game but we do not want to tempt fate.'' Maggs, who will win his 67th cap, was the obvious replacement at centre while Shane Horgan was always likely to be moved from the wing. The only other change to the Ireland side from last weekend's win in Rome sees Wasps flanker Johnny O'Connor replacing Denis Leamy. O'Connor will be winning his third cap after making his debut in the victory over South Africa last November. : Murphy, Dempsey, Horgan, Maggs, Hickie, O'Gara, Stringer, Corrigan, Byrne, Hayes, O'Kelly, O'Connell, capt, S Easterby, O'Connor, Foley. : Sheahan, Horan, O'Callaghan, Miller, G Easterby, Humphreys, Duffy." +sport,"Koubek suspended after drugs test Stefan Koubek says he has been banned for three months by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) after testing positive for a banned substance. The world number 60 failed a routine drugs test at this year's French Open but now plans to lodge an appeal. Koubek believes an injection given to him by an Austrian doctor to treat a wrist injury is to blame for producing traces of the substance in his system. ""I have acted correctly,"" the 27-year-old Austrian said in a statement. Koubek, who defeated Britain's Greg Rusedski in the decisive rubber of the Davis Cup in September, is now set to miss the start of the season. He said, ""A three-month ban would mean that I not only will miss the Australian Open, but also the Davis Cup in Australia.""" +sport,"Hodgson shoulders England blame Fly-half Charlie Hodgson admitted his wayward kicking played a big part in England's 18-17 defeat to France. Hodgson failed to convert three penalties and also missed a relatively easy drop goal attempt which would have given England a late win. ""I'm very disappointed with the result and with my myself,"" Hodgson said. ""It is very hard to take but it's something I will have to get through and come back stronger. My training's been good but it just didn't happen."" Hodgson revealed that Olly Barkley had taken three penalties because they were ""out of my range"" but the centre could not convert his opportunities either, particularly the drop goal late on. ""It wasn't a good strike,"" he added. ""I felt as soon as it hit my boot it had missed. It's very disappointing, but I must recover."" Andy Robinson said he would ""keep working on the kicking"" with his squad. However, the England coach added that he would take some positives from the defeat. ""We went out to play and played some very good rugby and what have France done?"" he said. ""They won the game from kicking penalties from our 10m line. ""It's very frustrating. The lads showed a lot of ambition in the first half, they went out to sustain it in the second but couldn't build on it. ""We took the ball into contact, and you know when you do that it is a lottery whether the referee is going to give the penalty to your side or the other side. ""We have lost a game we should have won. There is a fine line between winning and losing, and for the second week we've been on the wrong side of that line and it hurts."" England went in at half-time with a 17-6 lead but they failed to score in the second half and Dimitri Yachvili slotted over four penalties as France overhauled the deficit. England skipper Jason Robinson admitted his side failed to cope with France's improved second-half display. ""We controlled the game in the first half but we knew that they would come out and try everything after half-time,"" he said. ""We made a lot of mistakes in the second half and they punished us. They took their chances when they came. ""It's very disappointing. Last week we lost by two points, now one point.""" +sport,"Ireland call up uncapped Campbell Ulster scrum-half Kieran Campbell is one of five uncapped players included in Ireland's RBS Six Nations squad. Campbell is joined by Ulster colleagues Roger Wilson and Ronan McCormack along with Connacht's Bernard Jackman and Munster's Shaun Payne. Gordon D'Arcy is back after injury while Munster flanker Alan Quinlan also returns to international consideration. ""The squad is selected purely on form. A lot of players put their hands up,"" coach Eddie O'Sullivan told BBC Sport. ""Kieran Campbell was just one of those players. He has been playing very well in the Heineken Cup and deserves his call-up. ""There is big competition in some departments and not so much in others. There were one or two players who were unfortunate just to miss out."" Back-row forwards David Wallace and Victor Costello are omitted, with O'Sullivan having Quinlan, Wilson, Simon Easterby, Anthony Foley, Denis Leamy and Johnny O'Connor vying for the three positions. With David Humphreys, Kevin Maggs, Simon Best and Tommy Bowe again included, it is Ulster's biggest representation in a training panel for quite some time. Munster and Leinster have 12 and 11 players in the squad respectively while Jackman is the sole Connacht representative. Four British-based players are also included. Ulster forward Ronan McCormack said he was ""totally shocked"" to be included. ""I'm really looking forward to it,"" said McCormack. ""I played with guys like Brian O'Driscoll and Denis Hickie back in my school days in Leinster so I do know a few of them although not that well. ""It will be great to work with them."" S Best (Ulster), S Byrne (Leinster), R Corrigan (Leinster), L Cullen (Leinster), S Easterby (Llanelli), A Foley (Munster), J Hayes (Munster), M Horan (Munster), B Jackman (Connacht), D Leamy (Munster), E Miller (Leinster), R McCormack (Ulster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster), J O'Connor (Wasps), M O'Kelly (Leinster), F Sheahan (Munster), R Wilson (Ulster), A Quinlan (Munster). T Bowe (Ulster), K Campbell (Ulster), G D'Arcy (Ulster), G Dempsey (Leinster), G Duffy (Harlequins), G Easterby (Leinster), D Hickie (Leinster), A Horgan (Munster), S Horgan (Leinster), D Humphreys (Ulster), K Maggs (Ulster), G Murphy (Leicester), B O'Driscoll, (Leinster), R O'Gara (Munster), S Payne (Munster), P Stringer (Munster). K Gleeson (Leinster), T Howe (Ulster), J Kelly (Munster), N McMillan (Ulster)." +sport,"Greek duo cleared in doping case Sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou have been cleared of doping offences by an independent tribunal. The duo had been provisionally suspended by the IAAF for allegedly missing three drugs tests, including one on the eve of the Athens Olympics. But the Greek Athletics Federation tribunal has overturned the bans - a decision which the IAAF can now contest at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The pair's former coach, Christos Tzekos, has been banned for four years. Kenteris, 31, and Thanou, 30, had been charged with avoiding drug tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens and failing to notify anti-doping officials of their whereabouts before the Olympics. They withdrew from the Olympics after missing a drugs test at the Olympic Village on 12 August. The pair then spent four days in a hospital, claiming they had been injured in a motorcycle crash. It was the International Olympic Committee's demand that the IAAF investigate the affair that led to the hearing of the Greek tribunal. The head of that tribunal, Kostas Panagopoulos, said it had not been proven that the athletes refused to take the test in Athens. ""The charge cannot be substantiated,"" he said. ""In no way was he (Kenteris) informed to appear for a doping test. The same goes for Thanou."" Kenteris's lawyer, Gregory Ioannidis, said: ""The decision means Mr Kenteris has been exonerated of highly damaging and unfounded charges which have been extremely harmful for his career. ""He has consistently maintained his innocence and this was substantiated by further evidence we were able to submit to the tribunal following its deliberations in January. ""This evidence shows Mr Kenteris was never asked to submit to a test by the International Olympic Committee so he could not possibly have been guilty of deliberately avoiding one. It shows he has no case to answer. ""Mr Kenteris should now be given the opportunity he deserves to rebuild his career in the full knowledge that there is no stain on his character. ""He has suffered greatly throughout this ordeal that has exposed both himself and his family to enormous pressures."" But the IAAF said it was ""very surprised"" by the verdict. Spokesman Nick Davies said: ""We note the decision of the Greek authorities with interest. ""Our doping review board will now consider the English version of the decision.""" +sport,"Soderling wins tense Milan final Fifth seed Robin Soderling took the Milan Indoors title with a dramatic win over Radek Stepanek in Sunday's final. The 20-year-old Swede edged the final set tie-break for a 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-5) victory and his second tour title after winning in Lyon last year. ""I'm delighted to have won against such a good opponent in a tournament of this importance,"" said Soderling. ""I was really on form, my service was good and I really liked playing on the synthetic surface."" Soderling, the world number 37, shrugged off a nervous start to take the opening set on his first set point. A change in approach from fourth seed Stepanek in the second set paid dividends as he took it on a tie-break, but Soderling's superior power proved too much in the third." +sport,"Philippoussis doubt over Open bid Mark Philippoussis is almost certain to miss the Australian Open after suffering a groin injury during the Hopman Cup loss to the Netherlands. The 28-year-old suffered two tears to the adductor muscle and was unable to play in the deciding mixed doubles. He is now unlikely to be fit in time for the Australian Open which begins on 17 January in Melbourne. ""He has to strengthen it enough to cope with repetitive days of tennis,"" said Hopman Cup doctor Hamish Osborne. ""It would be very unlikely in my opinion for him to do a five-setter once, let alone two days in a row, inside two weeks. ""The injury is more common in Australian Rules football, and a fit footballer would normally take three to four weeks to recover fully although Mark's injury is slightly different."" The Australian has suffered a host of injury problems throughout his career but is still holding out slim hope that he can make the event. ""It's something I'll have to go by feel. I'll start treatment as soon as possible and try to strengthen it without tearing it any more,"" he said. ""What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I know I can come back from this and that's all that matters. - Former world number two Tommy Haas is also a doubt for the Australian Open after picking up a thigh injury playing for Germany in the Hopman Cup. The 26-year-old had treatment on his left thigh while leading Argentine Guillermo Coria 7-5 2-2. He played one more game, but his movement was hampered and he quit." +sport,"Prop Jones ready for hard graft Adam Jones says the Wales forwards are determined to set the perfect attacking platform for the backs by dominating the powerful France pack in Paris. The prop said: ""If we get stuffed in the front five our backs have had it. ""The mentality of the French is 'scrum, scrum, scrum'. We will see how good France are and the scrum is the key. ""I just hope [the backs] carry on where they left off against Italy. It's just up to us in the forwards to win the ball and give them the opportunity."" Wales have won two of their last three visits to Stade de France, having secured back-to-back wins under Graham Henry in 1999 and 2001. And with the likes of Shane Williams and Gavin Henson finding top form at the right time, Mike Ruddock's team is now one of international rugby's most potent attacking threats. ""Gavin is ridiculously talented. He has been bouncing around the place this week, so he is up for it,"" warned Jones. France have been criticised for their uncharacteristic one-dimensional play in their victories over Scotland and France. Captain Fabien Pelous has acknowledged his side needs to show more attacking flair, but stressed the game with be won or lost up front. The lock believes the Welsh forwards are not big enough to trouble his side in the scrum or line-out, but Jones insisted his fellow front-row colleagues have nothing to fear. ""Gethin [Jenkins] won't be intimidated tomorrow, none of us will,"" said Jones, who will be facing France for the first time. ""We will go out there and front up and hopefully get the ball out to the backs. ""Me and Gethin are quite young so it is good to have someone of Mefin's experience in there. ""Mefin is a good thinker who puts things across. But what is the saying? If you are good enough you are old enough and Gethin certainly is. ""He is a really good player and I imagine he will be on the Lions tour [to New Zealand this summer].""" +sport,"Arnesen denies rift with Santini Tottenham sporting director Frank Arnesen has denied that coach Jacques Santini resigned because of a clash of personalities at White Hart Lane. There had been newspaper speculation that Santini had felt undermined by Arnesen's role at the club. ""It is absolutely not true,"" Arnesen told BBC Radio Five Live. ""There is only one thing that made him resign and that is his own personal problems. ""He has talked to me recently and said this matter is absolutely for himself."" Arnesen said he was unable to throw any light onto the problems that caused Santini to quit after just 13 games in charge. He added: ""Jacques has never gone into exactly what it was. But I trust him in that; you have to accept it. I think we should respect it. ""The plan is now that over the weekend we will have talks with the board and then on Monday we will clarify the situation."" Arnesen countered criticism at the timing of the announcement, coming less than 24 hours before Tottenham's Premiership fixture with Charlton. ""When it comes down to personal problems, I don't think we should talk about timing,"" he said. And he also denied reports that Santini had been given a £3m pay-off. ""That is absolute nonsense. He is the one who said 'I will go' and so he went'"", said the Spurs sporting director. Tottenham's structure of having a sporting director working alongside a coach is based on a continental model and Arnesen sees no reason why they should change it. ""I have confidence in this structure. I am confident that we have started something here in July and I still have a lot of confidence in Tottenham and what we are doing,"" he said. However, former Spurs and England defender Gary Stevens said he would not be surprised if the system had caused a rift. ""I think the problems go a lot deeper, between the director of football at White Hart Lane and Santini,"" Stevens told Five Live. ""On paper they could have worked together. But Frank Arnesen was a very creative, forward-thinking and expansive player - whereas I think Santini was very much the opposite, more a case of being organised, disciplined and happy not conceding goals. ""That sort of arrangement can work if the two people have the same principles and ideals and work very closely. But it seems that has not happened.""" +sport,"Wales critical of clumsy Grewcock Wales coach Mike Ruddock says England lock Danny Grewcock needs to review his actions after he kicked Dwayne Peel. Trouble flared at a ruck in the first half of Wales' 11-9 win in Cardiff as Grewcock came recklessly over the top with his boot, leaving Peel bloodied. Grewcock was sin-binned with Wales captain Gareth Thomas for retaliation. ""It's up to the citing commissioner,"" said Ruddock. ""I'm not saying it's deliberate, but Grewcock did a similar thing for Bath against Leinster."" Last June Grewcock was banned from rugby for two months for reckless use of a boot in a match against New Zealand. Six years earlier, also in New Zealand, Grewcock became only the second England player to be sent off in Tests. The player himself and his captain Jason Robinson have both said that the clash with Peel was accidental. ""If the ball is at the back of the ruck and I feel I can step over and disrupt it then I will do that,"" said Grewcock. But Ruddock feels that the England man should be more careful. ""The boy himself should look at his actions, it was a clumsy piece of footwork,"" he said. ""He's a great player and I don't want to knock him, we won't be calling for the match commissioner to review the incident. ""I'm not going to go too far with the lad. It could just be a clumsy action and Dwayne had just a minor cut. ""The referee's interpretation was that Grewcock was attempting to step over the ruck."" Ruddock also warned his RBS 6 Nations Championship rivals that his team can make massive improvements. ""We created more opportunities and also squandered them by taking more contact and playing more individually,"" said the coach. ""We've looked through things on the video debrief and there were definitely a lot of chances that we wasted."" In the forthcoming games, Ruddock may use penalty hero Gavin Henson as his first-choice kicker in place of Stephen Jones. ""Our first aim was to get Gavin settled into the team, but it's something we'll talk about in selection this week,"" said Ruddock." +tech,"Gadgets galore on show at fair The 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is a geek's paradise with more than 50,000 new gadgets and technologies launched during the four-day event. Top gadgets at the show are highlighted in the Innovations Showcase, which recognises some of the hottest developments in consumer electronics. The BBC News website took an early pre-show look at some of those technologies that will be making their debut in 2005. One of the key issues for keen gadget users is how to store all their digital images, audio and video files. The 2.5GB and 5GB circular pocket hard drive from Seagate might help. The external USB drive won a CES best innovations design and engineering award and is small enough to slip into a pocket. ""It is the kind of storage that appeals to people who want their PCs to look cool,"" said Seagate. ""It is all about style but it also has lots of functionality."" ""It is the first time you can say a hard drive is sexy,"" it said. In the centre of the device is a blue light that flashes while data is being written to ensure users do not unplug it when it is busy saving those precious pictures. Universal Electronics' NevoSL is a universal controller that lets people use one device to get at their multimedia content, such as photos, no matter where it is in their house. It can also act as a remote for home theatre and stereo systems. Working with home broadband networks and PCs, the gadget has built-in wireless and a colourful, simple interface. Paul Arling, UEI chief, said consumers face real problems when trying to get at all the files they own that are typically spread across several different devices. He said the Nevo gave people a simple, single way to regain some control over digital media in the home. The Nevo won two awards at CES, one as a Girl's Best Friend award and another for innovation, design and engineering. The gadget is expected to go on sale before the summer and will cost about $799 (£425). Hotseat is targeting keen gamers with money to spend with its Solo Chassis gaming chair. The specially-designed chair lets gamers play in surround-sound while stretching out in their own ""space"". It is compatible with all the major games consoles, DVD players and PCs. ""We found that kids love playing in surround sound,"" said Jay LeBoff from Hotseat. ""We are looking at offering different types of seats, depending on the market success of this one."" The chair also lets people experience surround sound while watching videos, with wireless control for six surround sound speakers. And a drinks holder. The chair, which looks like a car seat on a skeletal frame, should go on sale in April and is expected to cost $399 (£211). Satellite radio is big business in the US. In the UK, the digital radio technology is known as DAB and works on slightly different technology. Eton Corporation's Porsche designed P7131 digital radio set will be launched both as a DAB radio in the UK as well as a satellite radio set in the US. DAB sets have been slow to take-off in the UK, but this one concentrates on sleek looks as much as technology. ""It is for the risqué consumer,"" said an Eton spokesperson. ""We are proud of it because it has the sound quality for the audiophile and the looks for the design-conscious consumer."" The Porsche radio is set to go on sale at the end of January in the US and in the first quarter of 2005 in the UK. In the US is it expected to cost $250 (£133). The average person has a library of 600 digital images estimates the Consumer Electronics Association, the organisation behind CES. This is expected to grow to a massive 3,420 images - or 7.2GB - in five years' time. One gadget that might help swell that collection is Sanyo's tiny handheld VPC-C4 camcorder which is another innovation in design and engineering award winner. It combines high quality video and stills in a very small device. It takes MPEG4 video quality at 30 frames a second and has a four megapixel still camera. Images and video are stored on SD cards, which have come down in price in recent months. A 512MB card will store about 30 minutes of video and 420 stills. The device is so tiny it can be controlled with one thumb. Because images and video are stored on SD memory, it is portable to other devices and means other data like audio can be stored on the card too. Wearable technology has always promised much but failed to deliver because of lack of storage capability and poor design. MPIO's tiny digital USB music players come in an array of fashionable colours, taking a leaf out of the Apple iPod mini book of design and reflecting the desire for gadgets that look good. Slung on a cord, the player would not look too geeky dangling discreetly from the neck. Although the pendant design was launched three months ago, the device emphasises large storage as well as good looks for fashion-conscious gadget fiends. An even dinkier model, the FY500, comes out in May and will store about 256MB of music. The range of players recently won an International Forum design award 2005." +tech,"A question of trust and technology A major government department is without e-mail for a week, and technology analyst Bill Thompson wants to know what happened. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how my girlfriend had suffered when her cable modem blew up and she was offline for several days. It seems that thousands of civil servants at the UK's Department of Work and Pensions went through the same thing last week. It has emerged that the internal network crashed in a particularly horrible way, depriving staff of e-mail and access to the application software they use to calculate people's benefit and pension entitlement or note changes in personal circumstances. Senior consultants from EDS, the computer firm which manage the system, and Microsoft, which supplied the software, were running around trying to figure out what had to be done to fix it all, while staff resorted to phone, fax and probably carrier pigeon to get work done. Fortunately the back-office systems which actually pay people their money were still working, so only new claims and updates were affected done properly. This is bad enough for those affected, but it does mean that the impact is not devastating for millions of pensioners. I am sure regular readers will be expecting one of my usual diatribes against poor software, badly specified systems and inadequate disaster recovery plans. Although the full story has not yet been told, it seems that the problem started when a plan to upgrade some of the computers from Windows 2000 to Windows XP went wrong, and XP code was inadvertently copied to thousands of machines across the network. This is certainly unfortunate, but I have a lot of sympathy for the network managers and technology staff involved. Today's computer networks are large, complex and occasionally fragile. The interconnectedness that we all value also gives us a degree of instability and unpredictability that we cannot design out of the systems. It is the network equivalent of Godel's Theorem - any system sufficiently complex to be useful is also able to collapse catastrophically. So I will reserve judgment on the technology aspects until we all know what actually happened and whether it was a consequence of software failure or just bad luck. What is really disturbing, and cannot be excused, is the fact that it took four days for news of this systems failure to leak out into the technical press. It is, without a doubt, a major story and was the second or third lead item on BBC Radio 4's Today programme throughout Friday morning. So why did not the prime minister's official spokesman mention it at any lobby briefings before Friday? Why was not the pensions minister in Parliament to make an emergency statement on Tuesday, when it was clear that there was a serious problem? If there had been an outbreak of Legionnaire's disease in the air conditioning system we would have been told, but it seems that major technology problems do not merit the same treatment. While EDS and Microsoft will no doubt be looking for technical lessons to learn from their week of pain, we can learn some political lessons too. And the most important is that in this digital world, technology failures are matters of public interest, not something that can be ignored in the hope that nobody will notice, care or understand. That means we need a full report on what went wrong and what was done to fix it. It would be unacceptable for any of the parties involved to hide behind commercial confidentiality or even parliamentary privilege. A major system has evidently collapsed and we need to know what went wrong and what is being done differently. Anything less is a betrayal of public trust. Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital." +tech,"US cyber security chief resigns The man making sure US computer networks are safe and secure has resigned after only a year in his post. Amit Yoran was director of the National Cyber Security Division within the US Department of Homeland Security created following the 9/11 attacks. The division was tasked with improving US defences against malicious hackers, viruses and other net-based threats. Reports suggest he left because his division was not given enough clout within the larger organisation. Mr Yoran took up his post in September 2003 and his first task was to get the Cyber Security Division up and running. The organisation had a staff of about 60 people and a budget of about $80m (£44.54m). The division was charged with thinking up and carrying out action to make US networks more impervious to attack and disruption by the viruses, worms and hack attacks that have become commonplace. In the last 12 months Mr Yoran oversaw the creation of a cyber alert system that sends out warnings about big hitting viruses and net attacks as they occur. The warnings also contained information about how firms and organisations could protect themselves against these attacks. The Cyber Security Division also audited US government networks to discover exactly what was sitting on which network. The next step was to be the creation of a scanning system to identify vulnerabilities that made federal networks and machines susceptible to attack by malicious hackers and virus writers. Mr Yoran's division was also doing work to identify the networks and machines that had been broken into by cyber criminals. Despite this success Mr Yoran left his post abruptly at the end of last week, reportedly only giving one day's notice to bosses at the Department of Homeland Security. ""Amit Yoran has been a valuable contributor on cyber security issues over the past year, and we appreciate his efforts in starting the department's cybersecurity program,"" said a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman. Some reports have suggested that Mr Yoran felt frustrated by the lack of prominence given to work to protect against net-based threats in the wider homeland organisation. An attempt by US politicians to pass a law to promote Mr Yoran and raise the profile of his department's work is now mired in Congress." +tech,"Freeze on anti-spam campaign A campaign by Lycos Europe to target spam-related websites appears to have been put on hold. Earlier this week the company released a screensaver that bombarded the sites with data to try to bump up the running costs of the websites. But the site hosting the screensaver now displays a pink graphic and the words ""Stay tuned"". No one at Lycos was available for comment on latest developments in its controversial anti-spam campaign. Lycos Europe's ""Make love not spam"" campaign was intended as a way for users to fight back against the mountain of junk mail flooding inboxes. People were encouraged to download the screensaver which, when their PC was idle, would then send lots of data to sites that peddle the goods and services mentioned in spam messages. Lycos said the idea was to get the spam sites running at 95% capacity and generate big bandwidth bills for the spammers behind the sites. But the plan has proved controversial. Monitoring firm Netcraft analysed response times for some of the sites targeted by the screensaver and found that a number were completely knocked offline. The downing of the sites could dent Lycos claims that what it is doing does not amount to a distributed denial of service attack. In such attacks thousands of computers bombard sites with data in an attempt to overwhelm them. Laws in many countries do not explicitly outlaw such attacks but many nations are re-drafting computer use laws to make them specific offences. Lycos Europe now appears to have put the plan on hold. The site hosting the screensaver currently shows a holding page, with the words, ""Stay tuned"". The numerical internet address of the site has also changed. This is likely to be in response to spammers who have reportedly redirected traffic from their sites back to the Lycos screensaver site. The campaign has come under fire from some corners of the web. Many discussion groups have said that it set a dangerous precedent and could incite vigilantism. ""Attacking a spammer's website is like poking a grizzly bear sleeping in your back garden with a pointy stick,"" said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. ""Not only is this screensaver similar in its approach to a potentially illegal distributed denial of service attack, but it also is in danger of turning innocent computer users into vigilantes, who may not be prepared for whatever retaliation the spammers care to dream up.""" +tech,"Hacker threat to Apple's iTunes Users of Apple's music jukebox iTunes need to update the software to avoid a potential security threat. Hackers can build malicious playlist files which could crash the program and let them seize control of the computer by inserting Trojan code. A new version of iTunes is now available from the Apple website which solves the problem. Security firm iDefence, which notified users of the problem, recommended that users upgrade to iTunes version 4.7.1. The problem affects all users of iTunes - Windows and Mac OS - running versions 4.7 and earlier. Users can automatically upgrade iTunes by opening the ""look for updates"" window in the program. The security firm says users should avoid clicking on or accessing playlist files - which have the file extension of .pls or .m3u - which have come from unknown sources. Itunes is the world's most popular online music store with more than 200 million songs downloaded since it launched in 2003." +tech,"Text messages aid disaster recovery Text messaging technology was a valuable communication tool in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in Asia. The messages can get through even when the cell phone signal is too weak to sustain a spoken conversation. Now some are studying how the technology behind SMS could be better used during an emergency. Sanjaya Senanayake works for Sri Lankan television. The blogging world, though, might know him better by his online name, Morquendi. He was one of the first on the scene after the tsunami destroyed much of the Sri Lankan coast. Cell phone signals were weak. Land lines were unreliable. So Mr Senanayake started sending out text messages. The messages were not just the latest news they were also an on-the-ground assessment of ""who needs what and where"". Blogging friends in India took Mr Senanayake's text messages and posted them on a weblog called Dogs without Borders. Thousands around the world followed the story that unfolded in the text messages that he sent. And that's when Mr Senanayake started to wonder if SMS might be put to more practical use. ""SMS networks can handle so much more traffic than the standard mobile phone call or the land line call,"" he says. ""In every rural community, there's at least one person who has access to a mobile phone, or has a mobile phone, and can receive messages."" Half a world away, in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, Taran Rampersad read Morquendi's messages. Mr Rampersad, who used to work in the military, knew how important on the ground communication can be in times of disaster. He wondered if there might be a way to automatically centralise text messages, and then redistribute them to agencies and people who might be able to help. Mr Rampersad said: ""Imagine if an aid worker in the field spotted a need for water purification tablets, and had a central place to send a text message to that effect. ""He can message the server, so the server can send out an e-mail message and human or machine moderators can e-mail aid agencies and get it out in the field."" He added: ""Or, send it at the same time to other people who are using SMS in the region, and they might have an excess of it, and be able to shift supplies to the right places."" Mr Rampersad and others had actually been thinking about such a system since Hurricane Ivan ravaged the Caribbean and the southern United States last September. Last week, he sent out e-mail messages asking for help in creating such a system for Asia. In only 72 hours, he found Dan Lane, a text message guru living in Britain. The pair, along with a group of dedicated techies, are creating what they call the Alert Retrieval Cache. The idea is to use open-source software - software can be used by anyone without commercial restraint - and a far-flung network of talent to create a system that links those in need with those who can help. ""This is a classic smart mobs situation where you have people self-organizing into a larger enterprise to do things that benefit other people,"" says Paul Saffo, a director at the California-based Institute for the Future. ""You may be halfway around the world from someone, but in cyberspace you're just one click or one e-mail away,"" he said, ""That's put a whole new dimension on disaster relief and recovery, where often people halfway around the world can be more effective in making something happen precisely because they're not right on top of the tragedy."" It is still very early days for the project, though. In an e-mail, Dan Lane calls it ""an early proof of concept."" Right now, the Alert Retrieval Cache can only take a text message and automatically upload it to a web-page, or distribute it to an e-mail list. In the near future, the group says it hopes to take in messages from people in affected areas, and use human moderators to take actions based on the content of those messages. But there's still another challenge. You have to get people to know that the system is there for them to use. ""It's amazing how difficult it is to find someone to pass it along to, and say, look this is what we're trying to do and everything like that,"" says Mr Rampersad. ""So the big problem right now is the same problem we're trying to solve - human communication."" He is optimistic, however. He thinks that the Alert Retrieval Cache is an idea whose time has come and he hopes governments, too, will sit up and take notice. And he stands by his motto, courtesy of Michelangelo: criticise by creating. Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production." +tech,"Gamers could drive high-definition TV, films, and games have been gearing up for some time now for the next revolution to transform the quality of what is on our screens. It is called high-definition - HD for short - and it is already hugely popular in Japan and the US. It is set, according to analysts, to do for images what CDs did for sound. Different equipment able to receive HD signals is needed though and is expensive. But Europe's gamers may be the early adopters to drive demand. Europeans will have to wait until at least 2006 until they see mainstream HDTV. To view it, it needs to be transmitted in HD format, and people need special receivers and displays that can handle the high-quality resolution. The next generation of consoles, however, are expected to start appearing at the end of 2005, start of 2006. And most new computer displays and plasma sets are already capable of handling such high-resolution pictures. ""In the next generation [of consoles] HD support is mandatory,"" Dr Mark Tuffy games systems director at digital content firm THX told the BBC News website. ""Every game is going to be playable in HD. ""So consumers who have gone out and spent all this money on HDTVs, and who have no content to watch, are going to be blown away by these really high-detail pictures. ""It's going to change really the way they look at gaming."" At the end of last year, Chris Deering, Sony's European president, made a prediction that 20 million European households would have HDTV sets by 2008. A previous prediction from analysts Datamonitor put the figure at 4.6 million by 2008, an increase from an estimated 50,000 sets at the end of 2003. But those in Europe may see little point in buying what is quite an expensive bit of technology - about £2,000 - if there are few programmes or films to watch on them. Satellite broadcaster BSkyB is planning HDTV services in 2006 and the BBC intends to produce all of its content in HD by 2010. Until broadcast rights, format standards - and the practicalities of updating equipment - are agreed, TV content will be limited. All TV images are made up of pixels which go across the screen, and scan lines which go down the screen. Most standard UK TV pictures are made up of 625 lines and about 700 pixels. HD offers up to 1,080 active lines, with each line made up of 1,920 pixels. This means the picture is up to six times as sharp as standard TV. ""Probably, in the UK [gaming] is going to be the only thing you are going to really be able to show off, as in 'look what this TV can do', until HD is really adopted by broadcasters,"" explains Dr Tuffy. But gamers are also the ideal target audience for HD because they always crave better quality graphics, and more immersive gaming experiences. They are used to spending money on hardware to match a game's requirements. Demographics have changed too and the ""sweet spot"" for the games industry is the gamer in his or her late 20s. This means they are likely to have higher disposable incomes and can afford the price of big-screen, high-definition display technologies and HD projectors, earlier than others. Higher capacity storage discs, such as HD-DVD and blue-ray , are set to be standard in the next round of games consoles - allowing developers more room for detailed graphics. For console developers though, HD offers some production changes. It could make games production slightly more expensive, thinks Dr Tuffy. ""But we may see the cross-platform development of games becoming more common because they will more easily be able to take a PC game and apply it to a console,"" he says. ""You are literally going to get to the point, with a Lord of the Rings game for example, is going to be closer and closer to the actual film, especially the CGI stuff from the DVD. ""And the transition when they move from a cut scene to the game, just now they have almost got it seamless."" With HD, he says, the transition will be completely seamless and the same quality as the big-screen cinema release. This could herald an increasing convergence between the film and gaming industry. But it may not be until the generation after the next games consoles where the two industries really collide. At that point, says Dr Tuffy, games could become more or less interactive movies." +tech,"Xbox power cable 'fire fear' Microsoft has said it will replace more than 14 million power cables for its Xbox consoles due to safety concerns. The company said the move was a ""preventative step"" after reports of fire hazard problems with the cables. It affects Xboxes made before 23 October 2003 for all regions but mainland Europe - and consoles in that region made before 13 January 2004. Microsoft said it had received 30 reports of minor injury or property damage due to faulty cables. The firm said fewer than one in 10,000 consoles had experienced component failures. The recall affects almost three quarters of all Xboxes sold around the world since its launch in 2001. In a statement, it added: ""In almost all instances, any damage caused by these failures was contained within the console itself or limited to the tip of the power cord at the back of the console."" But in seven cases, customers reported sustaining a minor burn to their hand. In 23 cases, customers reported smoke damage, or minor damage to a carpet or entertainment centre. ""This is a preventative step we're choosing to take despite the rarity of these incidents,"" said Robbie Bach, senior vice president, Microsoft home and entertainment division. ""We regret the inconvenience, but believe offering consumers a free replacement cord is the responsible thing to do."" Consumers can order a new cable from the Xbox website or by telephoning 0800 028 9276 in the UK. Microsoft said customers would get replacement cords within two to four weeks from the time of order. It advised users to turn off their Xboxes when not in use. A follow-up to Xbox is expected to released at the end of this year or the beginning of 2006." +tech,"Cebit fever takes over Hanover Thousands of products and tens of thousands of visitors make Cebit the place to be for technology lovers. ""Welcome to CeBit 2005"" was the message from the pilot as we landed, the message on flyers at the airport, and the message on just about every billboard in town. CeBit fever has taken over Hanover. Hotels have been booked out for months; local people are letting out rooms in their homes to the hoards of exhibitors, visitors, and journalists. CeBit itself is huge, the exhibition site could almost be classified as a town in its own right. There are restaurants, shops, and a bus service between the halls - of which there are 27. There are more than 6,000 companies here, showing their latest products. The list of them that I was given when I came in is the size and weight of a phone book. One of the mains themes this year is the digital home, and one of the key buzzwords is convergence. The ""entertainment PC"" is being billed as the replacement for DVD players, stereos, telephones and computers - offering a one-box solution, wirelessly connected throughout a house. To show them off, one display has been modelled as a prototype ""digital lifestyle home"" by German magazine Computer Reseller News. ""We wanted to show how this fits into a living room or workplace, to give people a feeling how it would work in their homes,"" said Claudia Neulling from the magazine. The house has webcams for security in each room, which can be called up on the high definition TV, connected to the PC in the living room. That PC provides home entertainment, movies or music. It can also be linked to the car parked outside, which is kitted out with a processor of its own, along with a DVD player and cordless headphones for the kids in the back. ""Convergence for me is about how technology, the transfer of data, can do things that make it easier and more convenient for me as a consumer,"" said Mark Brailey, director of corporate marketing for Intel. ""The real challenge is to show people it's easier than they think, and fun."" He firmly believes that entertainment PCs are the future, but says they have to get past people's fears of frequent crashes and incompatibilities. That is something Microsoft is trying to do too - its stand has computers running Windows XP Media Centre edition 2005 for people to try out. Mobile phones do not escape the convergence theme. Samsung is showing off its SGH-i300, a handset with a three gigabyte hard drive, that can be used to watch compressed video or as an MP3 player. And if you would rather watch live TV than a downloaded movie NEC is showing a phone, on sale in China, which can show analogue TV on its colour screen. ""I think the most probable application is at somewhere like the train station - if you want to check the status of the soccer game for example"" said Koji Umemoto, manager of mobile terminals marketing for NEC. He admitted that the signal quality is not very good if you are on the move, and they do not have plans to launch it in Europe at the moment. Nokia was happy to demonstrate its 6230i, an upgrade to the very popular 6230. It now has a 1.3 megapixel camera, and a music player that can handle multiple formats, rather than just MP3s. It is also compatible with Nokia's new Visual Radio technology. The handset can receive FM broadcasts, and the user can interact with compatible broadcasts using a GPRS connection, to take part in competitions or get extra information such as the name of the song playing. Most companies are reluctant to show prototypes, preferring to display products that are already on sale, or just about to hit the market. Portable media player firm Creative showed off a new wireless technology, based on magnetic inductance rather than radio - a system some hearing aids use. ""The benefits over conventional Bluetooth are the lack of interference, and longer battery life,"" said Riccardo de Rinaldini, Creative's European marketing manager. The firm has a prototype headset linked up to a Zen Micro player. The transmitter on the player creates a private, magnetic ""bubble"" around the user, which is picked up by the headset. The range is only about one metre so it is only suitable for personal use. A single AAA battery is said to last up to 30 hours. Creative expects it to hit the market in its final form later this year. Even clothing is likely to be part of the convergence trend. Adidas has a trainer which, according to Susanne Risse from the company, can ""sense, understand, and adapt to your running style"". It has a battery, processor, and motor embedded in the sole. Buttons on the side allow you to set the amount of cushioning you would like by adjusting the tension on a cable running through the heel. The processor then monitors the surface you are running on, and adjusts the tension accordingly. It is being billed as ""the world's first intelligent shoe""." +tech,"Virus poses as Christmas e-mail Security firms are warning about a Windows virus disguising itself as an electronic Christmas card. The Zafi.D virus translates the Christmas greeting on its subject line into the language of the person receiving infected e-mail. Anti-virus firms speculate that this multilingual ability is helping the malicious program spread widely online. Anti-virus firm Sophos said that 10% of the e-mail currently on the net was infected with the Zafi virus. Like many other Windows viruses, Zafi-D plunders Microsoft Outlook for e-mail addresses and then uses mail-sending software to despatch itself across the web to new victims. To be infected users must open up the attachment travelling with the message which bears the code for the malicious bug. The attachment on the e-mail poses as an electronic Christmas card but anyone opening it will simply get a crude image of two smiley faces. The virus' subject line says ""Merry Christmas"" and translates this into one of 15 languages depending of the final suffix of the e-mail address the infected message has been sent to. The message in the body of the e-mail reads: ""Happy Holidays"" and this too is translated. On infected machines the virus tries to disable anti-virus and firewall software and opens up a backdoor on the PC to hand over control to the writer of the virus. The virus is thought to have spread most widely in South America, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Hungary. The original Zafi virus appeared in April this year. ""We have seen these hoaxes for several Christmases already, and personally I prefer traditional pen and paper cards, and we recommend this to all our clients too,"" said Mikko Hypponen, who heads F-Secure's anti-virus team." +tech,"Web photo storage market hots up An increasing number of firms are offering web storage for people with digital photo collections. Digital cameras were the hot gadget of Christmas 2004 and worldwide sales of the cameras totalled $24bn last year. Many people's hard drives are bulging with photos and services which allow them to store and share their pictures online are becoming popular. Search firms such as Google are also offering more complex tools for managing personal photo libraries. Photo giants such as Kodak offer website storage which manages photo collections, lets users edit pictures online and provides print-ordering services. Some services, such as Kodak's Ofoto and Snapfish, offer unlimited storage space but they do require users to buy some prints online. Other sites, such as Pixagogo, charge a monthly fee. Marcus Hawkins, editor of Digital Camera magazine, said: ""As file sizes of pictures increase, storage becomes a problem. ""People are using their hard drives, backing up on CD and DVD and now they are using online storage solutions. ""They are a place to store pictures, to share their pictures with families and friends and they can print out their photos."" While many of the services are aimed at the amateur and casual digital photographer, other websites are geared up for enthusiasts who want to share tips and information. Photosig is an online community of photographers who can critique each other's work. On Tuesday, Google released free software for organising and finding digital photos stored on a computer's hard drive. The tool, called Picasa, automatically detects photos as they are added to a PC - whether sent via e-mail or transferred from a digital camera. The software includes tools for restoring colour and removing red eye, as well as sharpening images. Photos can then be uploaded to sites such as Ofoto. Many people use the sites to edit and improve their favourite photographs before ordering prints. Mr Hawkins added: ""The growth area is that you can order your prints online. Friends and family can also access pictures you want them to see and they can print them out too. ""Rather than just a place to dump your pictures, it's about sharing them."" The vast majority of pictures remain on a PC's hard drive, which is why search tools, such as those offered by Google, become increasingly important. But some historians and archivists are concerned that the need for perfect pictures will mean that those poor quality prints which offered a tantilising glimpse of the past may disappear forever. ""It's one thing taking pictures, it's another finding them,"" said Mr Hawkins. ""But this is the same problem that has always existed - how many of us have photos in wallets tucked away somewhere?""" +tech,"BT offers free net phone calls BT is offering customers free internet telephone calls if they sign up to broadband in December. The Christmas give-away entitles customers to free telephone calls anywhere in the UK via the internet. Users will need to use BT's internet telephony software, known as BT Communicator, and have a microphone and speakers or headset on their PC. BT has launched the promotion to show off the potential of a broadband connection to customers. People wanting to take advantage of the offer will need to be a BT Together fixed-line customer and will have to sign up to broadband online. The offer will be limited to the first 50,000 people who sign up and there are limitations - the free calls do not include calls to mobiles, non-geographical numbers such as 0870, premium numbers or international numbers. BT is keen to provide extra services to its broadband customers. ""People already using BT Communicator have found it by far the most convenient way of making a call if they are at their PC,"" said Andrew Burke, director of value-added services at BT Retail. As more homes get high-speed access, providers are increasingly offering add-ons such as cheap net calls. ""Broadband and telephony are attractive to customers and BT wants to make sure it is in the first wave of services,"" said Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. ""BT Communicator had a quiet launch in the summer and now BT is waving the flag a bit more for it,"" he added. BT has struggled to maintain its market share of broadband subscribers as more competitors enter the market. Reports say that BT has lost around 10% of market share over the last year, down from half of broadband users to less than 40%. BT is hoping its latest offer can persuade more people to jump on the broadband bandwagon. It currently has 1.3 million broadband subscribers." +tech,"Mobiles rack up 20 years of use Mobile phones in the UK are celebrating their 20th anniversary this weekend. Britain's first mobile phone call was made across the Vodafone network on 1 January 1985 by veteran comedian Ernie Wise. In the 20 years since that day, mobile phones have become an integral part of modern life and now almost 90% of Britons own a handset. Mobiles have become so popular that many people use their handset as their only phone and rarely use a landline. The first ever call over a portable phone was made in 1973 in New York but it took 10 years for the first commercial mobile service to be launched. The UK was not far behind the rest of the world in setting up networks in 1985 that let people make calls while they walked. The first call was made from St Katherine's dock to Vodafone's head office in Newbury which at the time was over a curry house. For the first nine days of 1985 Vodafone was the only firm with a mobile network in the UK. Then on 10 January Cellnet (now O2) launched its service. Mike Caudwell, spokesman for Vodafone, said that when phones were launched they were the size of a briefcase, cost about £2,000 and had a battery life of little more than 20 minutes. ""Despite that they were hugely popular in the mid-80s,"" he said. ""They became a yuppy must-have and a status symbol among young wealthy business folk."" This was also despite the fact that the phones used analogue radio signals to communicate which made them very easy to eavesdrop on. He said it took Vodafone almost nine years to rack up its first million customers but only 18 months to get the second million. ""It's very easy to forget that in 1983 when we put the bid document in we were forecasting that the total market would be two million people,"" he said. ""Cellnet was forecasting half that."" Now Vodafone has 14m customers in the UK alone. Cellnet and Vodafone were the only mobile phone operators in the UK until 1993 when One2One (now T-Mobile) was launched. Orange had its UK launch in 1994. Both newcomers operated digital mobile networks and now all operators use this technology. The analogue spectrum for the old phones has been retired. Called Global System for Mobiles (GSM) this is now the most widely used phone technology on the planet and is used to help more than 1.2 billion people make calls. Mr Caudwell said the advent of digital technology also helped to introduce all those things, such as text messaging and roaming that have made mobiles so popular." +tech,"US blogger fired by her airline A US airline attendant suspended over ""inappropriate images"" on her blog - web diary - says she has been fired. Ellen Simonetti, known as Queen of the Sky, wrote an anonymous semi-fictional account of her life in the sky. She was suspended by Delta in September. In a statement, she said she was initiating legal action against the airline for ""wrongful termination"". A Delta spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that Ms Simonetti was no longer an employee. Delta has repeatedly declined to elaborate on what it calls ""internal employee matters"". A spokesperson reiterated this position on Wednesday, confirming only that Ms Simonetti was no longer with the company. The spokesperson also confirmed that there were ""very clear rules"" attached to the unauthorised use of Delta branding, including uniforms. Ms Simonetti announced on her blog she had been fired on 1 November. She said in an official statement: ""As a result of my suspension and subsequent termination without cause by Delta Airlines I am moving forward with filing a discrimination complaint with the Federal Government EEOC [US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]."" She added she had also hired a Texas-based law firm to initiate legal action for ""wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages."" Ms Simonetti told the BBC News website she had received no warning or further explanation when she was suspended on 25 September. Queen of the Sky has received a lot of support and advice from the global blogging community since news of her suspension was brought to light on the BBC News website and others. Her story has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging community about conflicts of interest, employment law and free speech on personal websites. The blog, which she started in January as a way of getting over her mother's death, contains a mix of fictional and non-fictional accounts. Queen of the Sky developed over the months as a character in her own right, according to Ms Simonetti. In the postings, she made up fictional names for cities and other companies she mentioned to protect anonymity. But some postings contained images of herself in uniform. Of the 10 or so images only one showed Ms Simonetti's flight ""wings"". She removed them as soon as she was informed of her suspension. ""I never meant it as something to harm my company and don't understand how they think it did harm them,"" Ms Simonetti said. A legal expert in the US speculated that Delta might be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images were posted. Delta has been hit recently by pressures of rising fuel costs and fierce competition. It has said it needs to cut between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs and reduce costs by $5bn (£2.7bn) a year. Analysts had warned recently that the airline might have to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy prevention. Last week, it struck a $1bn cost-cutting deal with its pilots which could save it from bankruptcy. The deal would see pilots accept a 32% pay cut in return for the right to buy 30 million Delta shares, unions said. And on Monday, it negotiated a deal to defer about $135m in debt which was due next year, until 2007. The airline also said it had agreed the terms of a $600m loan from American Express." +tech,"China 'blocks Google news site' China has been accused of blocking access to Google News by the media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders. The Paris-based pressure group said the English-language news site had been unavailable for the past 10 days. It said the aim was to force people to use a Chinese edition of the site which, according to the watchdog, does not include critical reports. Google told the BBC News website it was aware of the problems and was investigating the causes. China is believed to extend greater censorship over the net than any other country in the world. A net police force monitors websites and e-mails, and controls on gateways connecting the country to the global internet are designed to prevent access to critical information. Popular Chinese portals such as Sina.com and Sohu.com maintain a close eye on content and delete politically sensitive comments. And all 110,000 net cafes in the country have to use software to control access to websites considered harmful or subversive. ""China is censoring Google News to force internet users to use the Chinese version of the site which has been purged of the most critical news reports,"" said the group in a statement. ""By agreeing to launch a news service that excludes publications disliked by the government, Google has let itself be used by Beijing,"" it said. For its part, the search giant said it was looking into the issue. ""It appears that many users in China are having difficulty accessing Google News sites in China and we are working to understand and resolve the issue,"" said a Google spokesperson. Google News gathers information from some 4,500 news sources. Headlines are selected for display entirely by a computer algorithm, with no human editorial intervention. It offers 15 editions of the service, including one tailored for China and one for Hong Kong. Google launched a version in simplified Chinese in September. The site does not filter news results to remove politically sensitive information. But Google does not link to news sources which are inaccessible from within China as this would result in broken links." +tech,"EU software patent law faces axe The European Parliament has thrown out a bill that would have allowed software to be patented. Politicians unanimously rejected the bill and now it must go through another round of consultation if it is to have a chance of becoming law. During consultation the software patents bill could be substantially re-drafted or even scrapped. The bill was backed by some hi-tech firms, saying they needed protections it offered to make research worthwhile. Hugo Lueders, European director for public policy at CompTIA, an umbrella organization for technology companies, said only when intellectual property was adequately protected would European inventors prosper. He said the benefits of the bill had been obscured by special interest groups which muddied debate over the rights and wrongs of software patents. Other proponents of the bill said it was a good compromise that avoided the excesses of the American system which allows the patenting of business practices as well as software. But opponents of the bill said that it could stifle innovation, be abused by firms keen to protect existing monopolies and could hamper the growth of the open source movement. The proposed law had a troubled passage through the European parliament. Its progress was delayed twice when Polish MEPs rejected plans to adopt it. Also earlier this month the influential European Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) said the law should be re-drafted after it failed to win the support of MEPs. To become law both the European Parliament and a qualified majority of EU states have to approve of the draft wording of the bill. The latest rejection means that now the bill on computer inventions must go back to the EU for re-consideration." +tech,"Slimmer PlayStation triple sales Sony PlayStation 2's slimmer shape has proved popular with UK gamers, with 50,000 sold in its first week on sale. Sales have tripled since launch, outstripping Microsoft's Xbox, said market analysts Chart-Track. The numbers were also boosted by the release of the PS2-only game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The title broke the UK sales record for video games in its first weekend of release. Latest figures suggest it has sold more than 677,000 copies. ""It is obviously very, very encouraging for Sony because Microsoft briefly outsold them last week,"" John Houlihan, editor of Computerandvideogames.com told BBC News. ""And with Halo 2 [for Xbox] out next week, it really is a head-to-head contest between them and Xbox."" Although Xbox sales over the last week also climbed, PS2 sales were more than double that. The figures mean Sony is reaching the seven million barrier for UK sales of the console. Edinburgh-based developer, Rockstar, which is behind the GTA titles, has seen San Andreas pull in an estimated £24m in gross revenues over the weekend. In comparison, blockbuster films like Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban took £11.5m in its first three days at the UK box office. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took nearly £10m over its opening weekend, although games titles are four to five times more expensive than cinema tickets. Gangster-themed GTA San Andreas is the sequel to Grand Theft Auto Vice City which previously held the record for the fastest-selling video game ever. The Xbox game Halo 2, released on 11 November in the UK, is also widely tipped to be one of the best-selling games of the year. The original title won universal acclaim in 2001, and sold more than four million copies. Mr Houlihan added that Sony had done well with the PS2, but it definitely helped that the release of San Andreas coincided with the slimline PS2 hitting the shelves. The run-up to Christmas is a huge battlefield for games consoles and titles. Microsoft's Xbox had been winning the race up until last week in sales. The sales figures also suggest that it may be a largely adult audience driving demand, since GTA San Andreas has an 18 certificate. Sony and Microsoft have both reduced console prices recently and are preparing the way for the launches of their next generation consoles in 2005. ""Both have hit crucial price points at around £100 and that really does open up new consoles to new audience, plus the release of two really important games in terms of development are also driving those sales,"" said Mr Houlihan." +tech,"Broadband takes on TV viewing The number of Europeans with broadband has exploded over the past 12 months, with the web eating into TV viewing habits, research suggests. Just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband, up from 34 million a year ago, according to market analysts Nielsen/NetRatings. The total number of people online in Europe has broken the 100 million mark. The popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from TV, say analysts Jupiter Research. It found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time watching TV in favour of the net The report by Nielsen/NetRatings found that the number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year. The biggest jump was in Italy, where it rose by 120%. Britain was close behind, with broadband users almost doubling in a year. The growth has been fuelled by lower prices and a wider choice of always-on, fast-net subscription plans. ""Twelve months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in Europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing,"" said Gabrielle Prior, Nielsen/NetRatings analyst. ""As the number of high-speed surfers grows, websites will need to adapt, update and enhance their content to retain their visitors and encourage new ones."" The total number of Europeans online rose by 12% to 100 million over the past year, the report showed, with the biggest rise in France, Italy, Britain and Germany. The ability to browse web pages at high speed, download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what people do in their spare time. A study by analysts Jupiter Research suggested that broadband was challenging television viewing habits. In homes with broadband, 40% said they were spending less time watching TV. The threat to TV was greatest in countries where broadband was on the up, in particular the UK, France and Spain, said the report. It said TV companies faced a major long-term threat over the next five years, with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009. ""Year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where, when and how Europe's population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big implications for TV, newspaper and radio,"" said Jupiter Research analyst Olivier Beauvillian." +tech,"Mobile audio enters new dimension As mobile phones move closer to being a ubiquitous, all-in-one media player, audio is becoming ever more important. But how good can that sound be from such a small device? The sound of a buzzing bee jumps from left to right before disappearing around the back of my head. The surround sound demo is unremarkable when heard on a multi-speaker home cinema system but startling when emerging from a small mobile phone. British firm Sonaptic is one of a number of companies to have developed 3D audio technology that emerges from stereo speakers. Firms AM3D and SRS both offer stereo-widening technology for mobile phones. But Sonaptic's managing director David Monteith says his firm is the only company to offer positional 3D audio on a mobile. ""There are quite a few basic technologies out there, making the sound seem a bit bigger, headphones a bit nicer. ""No-one has really tried before to make proper 3D positional audio - where an individual channel can be moved around."" Sonaptic has been working with Japanese mobile network NTT DoCoMo to set standards for 3D audio on mobile phones. In the last few months handsets from NEC, Fujitsu and Mitsubishi have been released on to the Japanese marker which have chips produced by Yamaha and Rohm with Sonaptic's technology. ""The technology has been around on PCs and games consoles for some time but what we are doing is making it more efficient so it can go on a small consumer device like a mobile phone,"" said Mr Monteith. The technology works through applying the science of psychoacoustics and grew out of medical research done by the company's research director Dr Alastair Sibbald. ""We are basically trying to fool your ears into thinking sound is coming from areas it actually isn't. ""Your brain uses certain bits of information which we are effectively synthesising on a mobile phone handset."" The structure of the ear works as a 3D encoder for sound - helping the brain understand from where sound is emanating. Sonaptic's audio processing algorithms mimic that 3D encoding, giving the impression that sound is coming from the left, right, and behind a listener when in fact it is coming from a single source. Mr Montieth says: ""If the sound is off to one side it will get to one ear before the other - if it is on the right it has to bend around your head to get to your left ear. ""The shape of your ear causes differences in sound from one ear to the other. We are synthesising those differences."" Sonaptic hopes the technology will have a big impact in the growing market of mobile gaming and music downloading. ""Handhelds often have limitations - screens will be small by definition. ""If you want to get impact from media you are running - either a movie, a game or watching TV - if you want it to be more immersive then our technology can help."" A fishing game is the first title to use the technology, creating a 3D sound field while the gamer plays. Driving games and shoot 'em ups using the technology are in development. The technology can also be used for music - giving songs a much more expansive and immersive feel. Sonaptic offers its technology on a chip or in software and is about to release a new version which significantly improves the efficiency of the audio processing. ""It's important we only use 10 or 15% of the processor otherwise you won't be able to play a game on the handset,"" explained Mr Montieth. The company is now looking to the US and European markets, where it has been working with network Vodafone. ""We have focused first on Japan because it has a very advanced mobile phone market. ""We knew Japan would be the first place to have the handsets that could use our technology. ""There should be handsets out in the UK in the next six months.""" +tech,"Online commons to spark debate Online communities set up by the UK government could encourage public debate and build trust, says the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR). Existing services such as eBay could provide a good blueprint for such services, says the think-tank. Although the net is becoming part of local and central government, its potential has not yet been fully exploited to create an online ""commons"" for public debate. In its report, Is Online Community A Policy Tool?, the IPPR also asks if ID cards could help create safer online communities. Adopting an eBay-type model would let communities create their own markets for skills and services and help foster a sense of local identity and connection. ""What we are proposing is a civic commons,"" Will Davies, senior research fellow at the IPPR told the BBC News website. ""A single publicly funded and run online community in which citizens can have a single place to go where you can go to engage in diversity and in a way that might have a policy implication - like a pre-legislation discussion."" The idea of a ""civic commons"" was originally proposed by Stephen Coleman, professor of e-democracy at the Oxford Internet Institute. The IPPR report points to informal, small scale examples of such commons that already exist. It mentions good-practice public initiatives like the BBC's iCan project which connects people locally and nationally who want to take action around important issues. But he adds, government could play a bigger role in setting up systems of trust for online communities too. Proposals for ID cards, for instance, could also be widened to see if they could be used online. They could provide the basis for a secure authentication system which could have value for peer-to-peer interaction online. ""At the moment they have been presented as a way for government to keep tabs on people and ensuring access to public services,"" said Mr Davies. ""But what has not been explored is how authentication technology may potentially play a role in decentralised online communities."" The key idea to take from systems such as eBay and other online communities is letting members rate each other's reputation by how they treat other members. Using a similar mechanism, trust and cooperation between members of virtual and physical communities could be built. This could mean a civic commons would work within a non-market system which lets people who may disagree with one another interact within publicly-recognised rules. E-government initiatives over the last decade have very much been about putting basic information and service guides online as well as letting people interact with government via the web. Many online communities, such as chatrooms, mailing lists, community portals, message boards and weblogs often form around common interests or issues. With 53% of UK households now with access to the net, the government, suggests Mr Davies, could act as an intermediary or ""middleman"" to set up public online places of debate and exchange to encourage more ""cosmopolitan politics"" and public trust in policy. ""Government already plays a critical role in helping citizens trade with each other online. ""But it should also play a role in helping citizens connect to one another in civic, non-market interactions,"" said Mr Davies. There is a role for public bodies like the BBC, libraries, and government to bring people back into public debate again instead of millions of ""cliques"" talking to each other, he added. The paper is part of the IPPR's Digital Society initiative which is producing a number of conferences and research papers leading up to the publication of A Manifesto For A Digital Britain." +tech,"Technology gets the creative bug The hi-tech and the arts worlds have for some time danced around each other and offered creative and technical help when required. Often this help has come in the form of corporate art sponsorship or infrastructure provision. But that dance is growing more intimate as hi-tech firms look to the creative industries for inspiration. And vice versa. UK telco BT is serious about the idea and has launched its Connected World initiative. The idea, says BT, is to shape a ""21st Century model"" which will help cement the art, technology, and business worlds together. ""We are hoping to understand the creative industry that has a natural thirst for broadband technology,"" said Frank Stone, head of the BT's business sector programmes. He looks after several ""centres of excellence"" which the telco has set up with other institutions and organisations, one of which is focused on creative industries. To mark the initiative's launch, a major international art installation is to open on 15 April in Brussels, with a further exhibit in Madrid later in the summer. They have both been created using the telco's technology that it has been incubating at its research and development arm, including a sophisticated graphics rendering program. Using a 3D graphics engine, the type commonly used in gaming, Bafta-winning artists Langlands & Bell have created a virtual, story-based, 3D model of Brussels' Coudenberg Cellars. They have recently been excavated and are thought to be the remnants of Coudenberg Palace, an historical seat of European power. The 3D world can be navigated using a joystick and offers an immersive experience of a landscape that historically had a river running through it until it was bricked up in the 19th Century. ""The river was integral to the city's survival for hundreds of years and it was equally essential to the city that it disappeared,"" said the artists. ""We hope that by uncovering the river, we can greater understand the connections between the past and the present, and appreciate the flow of modernity, once concealing, but now revealing the River Senne."" In their previous works they used the Quake game graphics engine. The game engine is the core component of a video game because it handles graphics rendering, game AI, and how objects behave and relate to each other in a game. They are so time-consuming and expensive to create, the engines can be licensed out to handle other graphics-intensive games. BT's own engine, Tara (Total Abstract Rendering Architecture) has been in development since 2001 and has been used to recreate virtual interactive models of buildings for planners. It was also used in 2003 in Encounter, an urban-based, pervasive game that combined both virtual play in conjunction with physical, on-the-street action. Because the artists wanted video and interactive elements in their worlds, new features were added to Tara in order to handle the complex data sets. But collaboration between art and digital technology is by no means new, and many keen coders, designers, games makers and animators argue that what they create is art itself. As more tools for self-expression are given to the person on the street, enabling people to take photos with a phone and upload them to the web for instance, creativity will become an integral part of technology. The Orange Expressionist exhibition last year, for example, displayed thousands of picture messages from people all over the UK to create an interactive installation. Technology as a way of unleashing creativity has massive potential, not least because it gives people something to do with their technology. Big businesses know it is good for them to get in on the creative vein too. The art world is ""fantastically rich"", said Mr Stone, with creative people and ideas which means traditional companies like BT want to get in with them. Between 1997 and 2002, the creative industry brought £21 billion to London alone. It is an industry that is growing by 6% a year too. The partnership between artists and technologists is part of trying to understand the creative potential of technologies like broadband net, according to Mr Stone. ""This is not just about putting art galleries and museums online,"" he said. ""It is about how can everyone have the best seat in house and asking if technology has a role in solving that problem."" With broadband penetration reaching 100% in the UK, businesses with a stake in the technology want to give people reasons to want and use it. The creative drive is not purely altruistic obviously. It is about both industries borrowing strategies and creative ideas together which can result in better business practices for creative industries, or more patent ideas for tech companies. ""What we are trying to do is have outside-in thinking. ""We are creating a future cultural drive for the economy,"" said Mr Stone." +tech,"Warnings on woeful wi-fi security Companies are getting worse at keeping their wireless data networks secure. A survey of wi-fi networks in London, Frankfurt, New York and San Francisco by RSA Security found more than a third had basic security features turned off. By contrast last year's survey found that 15% of firms had failed to take basic steps to improve security. RSA warned that wi-fi's growing popularity made it much more likely that insecure networks would be found and exploited. Wireless or wi-fi networks have become hugely popular over the last few years in offices because they are easy to set up and make going online much more convenient. This popularity shows no sign of slowing reveals the annual RSA Security and NetSurity survey which found an annual 66% growth rate in the number of wireless nets being installed in London and Frankfurt. Although most firms do take steps to turn on the security functions built in to the wi-fi standard and protect themselves from attack, the survey found that a significant proportion were taking unnecessary risks. On average 33% of the wireless networks found by RSA and NetSurity researchers in London, Frankfurt, New York and San Francisco had not used basic security systems. Many firms were simply turning on their wireless net access points and use default settings that anyone familiar with wi-fi could easily find out. RSA said that 26% of wi-fi networks found London used default settings compared to 30% in Frankfurt, 31% in New York and 28% in San Francisco. Many users of wi-fi nets did not even turn on the encryption that scrambles data traffic between users and the access point helping them go online. This is despite a series of stories warning firms about the dangers of ""drive-by hacking"" in which computer criminals walk or drive around city centres using easy to use tools to spot wi-fi nets. ""These figures are another stark warning to unsecured businesses to get their act together,"" said Phil Cracknell, chief technology officer at NetSurity. As more public wi-fi hotspots appear and people become more familiar with using them, it was getting more likely that insecure would be found, warned Mr Cracknell. ""Accidental or intentional connection to a corporate network can bring with it a series of security issues including loss of confidential data and installation of malicious code,"" he said." +tech,"Reboot ordered for EU patent law A European Parliament committee has ordered a rewrite of the proposals for controversial new European Union rules which govern computer-based inventions. The Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) said the Commission should re-submit the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive after MEPs failed to back it. It has had vocal critics who say it could favour large over small firms and impact open-source software innovation. Supporters say it would let firms protect their inventions. The directive is intended to offer patent protection to inventions that use software to achieve their effect, in other words, ""computer implemented invention"". The draft law suffered setbacks when Poland, one of the largest EU member states, rejected its adoption twice in two months. Intense lobbying on the issue has started to gain momentum in some national parliaments putting them under immense pressure. Only two MEPs backed the draft law at the JURI meeting, with one voting to abstain. Opponents of the draft directive welcomed the decision and said a new first reading of the proposals would give the EU a chance to have fuller debates about its implications in all member states. In the US, the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted. This means that the US-based Amazon.com holds a patent for its ""one-click shopping"" service, for example. Critics are concerned that the directive could lead to a similar model happening in Europe. This, they fear, could hurt small software developers because they do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies if they had to fight patent legal action in court. Supporters say current laws are inefficient and it would serve to even up a playing field without bringing EU laws in line with the US." +tech,"The future in your pocket If you are a geek or gadget fan, the next 12 months look like they are going to be a lot of fun. The relentless pace of development in the hi-tech world and rampant competition in many of its sectors, particularly among mobile phone firms, all suggests that 2005 is going to be a very good year. To begin with, 2005 will be the year that third-generation (3G) mobile phones become inescapable. The 3 network launched in 2003, Vodafone launched its consumer service in November, Orange followed in early December and T-Mobile and O2 are due to launch in 2005. The main result of these launches will likely be a slew of good deals for consumers as operators try to poach new customers from rivals and convince existing users to trade up. Already the extra capacity in 3G networks lets 3 offer good deals on voice calls at rates that will probably have to be matched by the other operators. But the shift in technology and low cost of voice calls means that operators lose a significant chunk of their revenue. ""Show me an operator that believes their voice business can sustain them, and I'll write their obituary"" said Niel Ransom, chief technology officer at Alcatel. Instead operators are likely to push all other things that 3G phones can do such as video messaging and other multimedia capabilities. Already camera phones look set to challenge digital cameras and are likely to win more fans as multi-megapixel devices go on sale. But 3G will not have everything its own way. It will face competition from emerging technologies such as Wimax. This wireless technology can boost data transmission speeds up to 75 megabits per second and works over distances of up to 30 miles. Kent is likely to be the site of the UK's first Wimax network which is due to go live in 2005 and it could be the way that rural areas get high-speed net access. Analyst firm Telecom View predicts that Wimax will steal a lot of market share from 3G and will be a clear winner. Bob Larribeau, principal analyst at Telecom View, said the better return on investment offered by technologies such as Wimax could dent the possible returns of 3G networks. And the growing ubiquity of wi-fi must not be forgotten either. The technology is popping up in more places than ever and its wider use is only held back by the price differences across countries and suppliers. Moves to unite mobile and fixed phones look set to get more emphasis in 2005 too. For a start, BT looks set to roll out its Bluephone project during the next 12 months. The service revolves around a hybrid device that uses the mobile networks when you are out and about but switches back to the fixed line when you are at home. Fixed line phones will also start to get much more serious competition from a technology that has the formidable name of Voice over IP (Voip). Voip routes calls via the net instead of the fixed line phone network. Anyone with a broadband connection, which is now more than 50% of the UK's net using population, can use Voip and could slash their monthly phone bills if they used it. Telecommunications regulator Ofcom has declared 056 to be the area code for Voip calls and 2005 is likely to see a lot more consumer-focused Voip call services starting up. Home broadband services will also start to increase in speed as dwindling numbers of new users signing force the pace of competition. If 2004 has been the year of the portable music player, they 2005 looks like it will be the year of the portable media player. Motorola has just announced a deal with Apple to produce a phone that works with the iTunes service and other hybrid gadgets that sport a big memory and lots of other functions will become commonplace. The pace of advancement in storage media will continue mean that the cost per megabyte of memory will plummet. Some of those devices will sport huge hard drives letting you store more data than you ever wanted or knew you had. Convergence could mean that single-function devices start to dwindle in number. Instead every gadget will be able to do almost anything and communicate almost any way you want. The only downside is that consumers will face a series of tough choices as they are confronted by a bewildering array of gadgets each with an enormous numbers of features and vast data holding capacities. But that is the kind of problem most gadget fans can live with." +tech,"Google launches TV search service The net search giant Google has launched a search service that lets people look for TV programmes. The service, Google Video beta, searches closed caption information that comes with programmes. It only searches US channel content currently. Results list programmes with still images and text from the point where the search phrase was spoken. It should expand over time to include content from more channels, said a Google spokesperson. The first version of the service is part of Google's expanding efforts to be a ubiquitous search engine for people to find what they want on the web and beyond. ""We think TV is a big part of people's lives,"" said Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice president of product management. ""Ultimately, we would like to have all TV programming indexed."" Google Video has been indexing US-based programmes from PBS, the NBA, Fox News, and C-SPAN since December. But there were few clues from Google about when more global broadcasters would be included. ""Over time, we plan to increase the number of television channels and video content available via Google Video but don't have more product details to share with you today,"" a Google spokesperson told the BBC News website. The results thrown up by the search will also include programme and episode information like channel, date and time. It also lets people find the next time and channel where a programme will aired locally using a US zip code search function. Rival search engine Yahoo has been developing a similar type of video search for webcasts and TV clips which it promotes from its homepage. It offers direct links to websites with movies or other clips relevant to the search query, but does not pinpoint when the search query occurred. A spokeswoman told the Financial Times on Monday that Yahoo was adding captioning for Bloomberg, BBC and BSkyB broadcasts. A smaller service, blinkx.tv, was launched last month. It searches for and links to TV news, film trailers, and other video and audio clips." +tech,"Mobile picture power in your pocket How many times have you wanted to have a camera to hand to catch an unexpected event that would make headlines? With a modern mobile phone that has a camera built in, you no longer need to curse, you can capture the action as it happens. Already on-the-spot snappers are helping newspapers add immediacy to their breaking news stories headlines, where professional photographers only arrive in time for the aftermath. Celebrities might not welcome such a change because they may never be free of a new breed of mobile phone paparazzi making their lives a bit more difficult. Already one tabloid newspaper in LA is issuing photographers with camera phones to help them catch celebrities at play. It could be the start of a trend that only increases as higher resolution phone cameras become more widespread; as video phones catch on and millions of people start carrying the gadgets around. Only last week, the world media highlighted the killing of the Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh, notorious after making a controversial film about Islamic culture. One day later De Telegraaf, a daily Amsterdam newspaper, became news on its own when it published a picture taken with a mobile phone of Mr van Gogh's body moments after he was killed. ""This picture was the story"", said De Telegraaf's image editor, Peter Schoonen. Other accounts of such picture phone users witnessing news events, include: - A flight from Switzerland to the Dominican Republic which turned around after someone took a picture of a piece of metal falling from the plane as it took off from Zurich (reported by the Swiss daily Le Matin). - Two crooks who robbed a bank in Denmark were snapped before they carried out the crime waiting for the doors of the building to be opened (reported by the Danish regional paper Aarhus Stiftstidende). But this is not just about traditional media lending immediacy to their stories with content from ordinary people, it is also about first-hand journalism in the form of online diaries or weblogs. It has been called ""open source news"" or even ""moblog journalism"" and it has flourished in the recent US election campaign. ""Not many people walk around with their cameras, but they always have their mobile phones with them. If something happens, suddenly all these mobiles sort of appear from nowhere, and start taking pictures,"" said digital artist Henry Reichhold. He himself uses mobile phone pictures to create huge panoramic images of events and places. ""You see it in bars, you see it everywhere. It's a massive thing,"" Mr Reichhold told the BBC News website. With some picture agencies already paying for exclusive phone pictures, especially of celebrities, there are also fears about the possible downside of this phenomenon. It could become a nuisance for public figures as higher resolution picture phones hit the market, with five megapixel models already being launched in Asia. Already on US photojournal site, Buzznet, there is a public album full of snaps of celebrities, many of which were taken with camera phones. Tabloid newspapers in the UK and many monthly magazines invite readers to send in images of famous people they have seen and snapped. But there are other positive uses of picture mobile phones that may balance these uses. For instance, in Alabama, in the US, camera phones will be used to take snaps at crime scenes involving children, and help the authorities to arrest and prosecute paedophiles. And in China's capital Beijing, courts have adopted mobile phone photos as formal evidence. For Henry Reichhold, this is progress: ""That's the whole thing about the immediacy of the thing. I can see that happening a lot more.""" +tech,"Cyber criminals step up the pace So-called phishing attacks that try to trick people into handing over confidential details have boomed in 2004, say security experts. The number of phishing e-mail messages stopped by security firm MessageLabs has risen more than tenfold in less than 12 months. In 2004 it detected more than 18 million phishing e-mail messages. Other statistics show that in 2004 73% of all e-mail was spam and one in 16 messages were infected with a virus. In its end-of-year report, MessageLabs said that phishing had become the top security threat and most popular form of attack among cyber criminals. In September 2003, MessageLabs caught only 273 phishing e-mails that tried to make people visit fake versions of the websites run by real banks and financial organisations. But by September 2004 it was stopping more than two million phishing related e-mail messages per month. Worryingly, said the firm, phishing gangs were using increasingly sophisticated techniques to harvest useful information such as login details or personal data. Older attacks relied on users not spotting the fact that the site they were visiting was fake, but more recent phishing e-mails simply try to steal details as soon as a message is opened. Other phishing scams try to recruit innocent people into acting as middlemen for laundering money or goods bought with stolen credit cards. ""E-mail security attacks remain unabated in their persistence and ferocity,"" said Mark Sunner, chief technology officer at MessageLabs. ""In just 12 months phishing has firmly established itself as a threat to any organisation or individual conducting business online,"" he said. Mr Sunner said MessageLabs was starting to see some phishing attacks become very focused on one company or organisation. ""Already particular businesses are threatened and blackmailed, indicating a shift from the random, scattergun approach, to customised attacks designed to take advantage of the perceived weaknesses of some businesses,"" he said. Although phishing attacks grew substantially throughout 2004, viruses and spam remain popular with cyber-criminals and vandals. One of the biggest outbreaks took place in January when the MyDoom virus started circulating. To date the company has caught more than 60 million copies of the virus. Also up this year was the amount of spam in circulation. In 2003 only 40% of messages were spam. But by the end of 2004, almost three-quarters of messages were junk." +tech,"Concern over RFID tags Consumers are very concerned about the use of radio frequency ID (RFID) tags in shops, a survey says. More than half of 2,000 people surveyed said they had privacy worries about the tags, which can be used to monitor stock on shelves or in warehouses. Some consumer groups have expressed concern that the tags could be used to monitor shoppers once they had left shops with their purchases. The survey showed that awareness of tags among consumers in Europe was low. The survey of consumers in the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands was carried out by consultancy group Capgemini. The firm works on behalf of more than 30 firms who are seeking to promote the growth of RFID technology. The tags are a combination of computer chip and antenna which can be read by a scanner - each item contains a unique identification number. More than half (55%) of the respondents said they were either concerned or very concerned that RFID tags would allow businesses to track consumers via product purchases. Fifty nine percent of people said they were worried that RFID tags would allow data to be used more freely by third parties. Ard Jan Vetham, Capgemini's principal consultant on RFID, said the survey showed that retailers needed to inform and educate people about RFID before it would become accepted technology. ""Acceptance of new technologies always has a tipping point at which consumers believe that benefits outweigh concerns. ""With the right RFID approach and ongoing communication with consumers, the industry can reach this point."" He said that the survey also showed people would accept RFID if they felt that the technology could mean a reduction in car theft or faster recovery of stolen items. The tags are currently being used at one Tesco distribution centre in the UK - the tags allow the rapid inventory of bulk items. They are also in use as a passcard for the M6 Toll in the Midlands, in the UK. Mr Vetham said the majority of people surveyed (52%) believed that RFID tags could be read from a distance. He said that was a misconception based on a lack of awareness of the technology. At least once consumer group - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (Caspian) - has claimed that RFID chips could be used to secretly identify people and the things they are carrying or wearing. All kinds of personal belongings, including clothes, could constantly broadcast messages about their whereabouts and their owners, it warned." +tech,"UK pioneers digital film network The world's first digital cinema network will be established in the UK over the next 18 months. The UK Film Council has awarded a contract worth £11.5m to Arts Alliance Digital Cinema (AADC), who will set up the network of up to 250 screens. AADC will oversee the selection of cinemas across the UK which will use the digital equipment. High definition projectors and computer servers will be installed to show mainly British and specialist films. Most cinemas currently have mechanical projectors but the new network will see up to 250 screens in up to 150 cinemas fitted with digital projectors capable of displaying high definition images. The new network will double the world's total of digital screens. Cinemas will be given the film on a portable hard drive and they will then copy the content to a computer server. Each film is about 100 gigabytes and has been compressed from an original one terabyte-size file. Fiona Deans, associate director of AADC, said the compression was visually lossless so no picture degradation will occur. The film will all be encrypted to prevent piracy and each cinema will have an individual key which will unlock the movie. ""People will see the picture quality is a bit clearer with no scratches. ""The picture will look exactly the same as when the print was first made - there is no degradation in quality over time."" The key benefit of the digital network will be an increase in the distribution and screening of British films, documentaries and foreign language films. ""Access to specialised film is currently restricted across the UK,"" said Pete Buckingham, head of Distribution and Exhibition at the UK Film Council. ""Although a genuine variety of films is available in central London and a few other metropolitan areas, the choice for many outside these areas remains limited, and the Digital Screen Network will improve access for audiences across the UK,"" Digital prints costs less than a traditional 35mm print - giving distributors more flexibility in how they screen films, said Ms Deans. ""It can cost up to £1,500 to make a copy of a print for specialist films. ""In the digital world you can make prints for considerably less than that. ""Distributors can then send out prints to more cinemas and prints can stay in cinemas for much longer."" The UK digital network will be the first to employ 2k projectors - which are capable of showing films at resolutions of 2048 * 1080 pixels. A separate competitive process to determine which cinemas will receive the digital screening technology will conclude in May. The sheer cost of traditional prints means that some cinemas need to show them twice a day in order to recoup costs. ""Some films need word of mouth and time to build momentum - they don't need to be shown twice a day,"" explained Ms Deans. ""A cinema will often book a 35mm print in for two weeks - even if the film is a roaring success they cannot hold on to the print because it will have to go to another cinema. ""With digital prints, every cinema will have its own copy.""" +tech,"Global blogger action day called The global web blog community is being called into action to lend support to two imprisoned Iranian bloggers. The month-old Committee to Protect Bloggers' is asking those with blogs to dedicate their sites on 22 February to the ""Free Mojtaba and Arash Day"". Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad are both in prison in Iran. Blogs are free sites through which people publish thoughts and opinions. Iranian authorities have been clamping down on prominent sites for some time. ""I hope this day will focus people,"" Curt Hopkins, director of the Committee, told the BBC News website. The group has a list of actions which it says bloggers can take, including writing to local Iranian embassies. The Committee has deemed Tuesday ""Free Mojtaba and Arash Day"" as part of its first campaign. It is calling on the blogsphere - the name for the worldwide community of bloggers - to do what it can to help raise awareness of the plight of Mojtaba and Arash as well as other ""cyber-dissidents"". ""If you have a blog, the least you could do is put nothing on that blog except 'Free Mojtaba and Arash Day',"" said Mr Hopkins. ""That would mean you could see that phrase 7.1 million times. That alone will shine some light on the situation. ""If you don't have one, find one dedicated to that - it takes about 30 seconds."" Technorati, a blog search engine, tracks about six million blogs and says that more than 12,000 are added daily. A blog is created every 5.8 seconds, according to a US research think-tank. The Committee to Protect Bloggers was started by US blogger Curt Hopkins and counts fired flight attendant blogger Ellen Simonetti as a deputy director. She has since started the International Bloggers' Bill of Rights, a global petition to protect bloggers at work. Although not the only website committed to human rights issues by any means, it aims to be the hub or organisation, information and support for bloggers in particular and their rights to freedom of speech. The Committee, although only a month old, aims to be the focal point for blogger action on similar issues in the future, and will operate as a non-for-profit organisation. ""Blogging is in this weird no man's land. People think of it as being one thing or another depending on their point of view,"" said Mr Hopkins. ""Some think of themselves as pundits, kind of like journalists, and some like me have a private blog which is just a publishing platform. ""But they do not have a constituency and are out there in the cold."" It is not just human rights issues in countries which have a track record of restricting what is published in the media that is of concern to bloggers. The question of bloggers and what rights they have to say what they want on their sites is a thorny one and has received much press attention recently. High profile cases in which employees have been sacked for what they have said on their personal, and often anonymous blogs, have highlighted the muddy situation that the blogsphere is currently in. ""This is a big messy argument,"" explained Mr Hopkins. He added: ""It is just such a new way of doing business, there will be clamp downs."" But the way these issues get tested is through the courts which, said Mr Hopkins, ""is part of the whole messy conversation."" ""If you haven't already got bloggers in your company, you will have them tomorrow - and if you don't have a blogger policy now you had better start looking at having one. Mr Hopkins said that the blogsphere - which is doubling every five months - was powerful because it takes so little time and expertise to create a blog. ""Everyone does this - mums, radicals, conservatives,"" he said. Many companies offer easy-to-use services to create a blog and publish it in minutes to a global community. ""That is the essential difference. What I call 'templating software' gives every single person on Earth the chance to have one. ""You don't even have to have your own computer.""" +tech,"Robots learn 'robotiquette' rules Robots are learning lessons on ""robotiquette"" - how to behave socially - so they can mix better with humans. By playing games, like pass-the-parcel, a University of Hertfordshire team is finding out how future robot companions should react in social situations. The study's findings will eventually help humans develop a code of social behaviour in human-robot interaction. The work is part of the European Cogniron robotics project, and was on show at London's Science Museum. ""We are assuming a situation in which a useful human companion robot already exists,"" said Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn, project leader at Hertfordshire. ""Our mission is to look at how such a robot should be programmed to respect personal spaces of humans."" The research also focuses on human perception of robots, including how they should look, and how a robot can learn new skills by imitating a human demonstrator. ""Without such studies, you will build robots which might not respect the fact that humans are individuals, have preferences and come from different cultural backgrounds,"" Professor Dautenhahn told BBC News Online. ""And I want robots to treat humans as human beings, and not like other robots,"" she added. In most situations, a companion robot will eventually have to deal not only with one person, but also with groups of people. To find out how they would react, the Hertfordshire Cogniron team taught one robot to play pass-the-parcel with children. Showing off its skills at the Science Museum, the unnamed robot had to select, approach, and ask different children to pick up a parcel with a gift, moving it arm as a pointer and its camera as an eye. It even used speech to give instructions and play music. However, according to researchers, it will still take many years to build a robot which would make full use of the ""robotiquette"" for human interaction. ""If you think of a robot as a companion for the human being, you can think of 20 years into the future,"" concluded Professor Dautenhahn. ""It might take even longer because it is very, very hard to develop such a robot."" You can hear more on this story on the BBC World Service's Go Digital programme." +tech,"Piero gives rugby perspective BBC Sport unveils its new analysis tool Piero at the Wales v England rugby union match on Saturday. But what does it do and how does it work? Picture the scene - Wales are camped on the England line in the dying seconds of the Six Nations' opening match. A ball is flung out to winger Shane Williams who crosses to score the winning try for Wales. But the England players are incensed - arguing that the pass was forward and the try should not stand. In the past, sports fans would be left debating the validity of the try for days and weeks to come. But BBC Sport's new tool Piero could end discussions in minutes. Piero, named after the Italian painter and pioneer of perspective Piero della Francesco, creates a virtual stadium in which virtual players can be tracked from almost any angle. Viewers will be able to see precisely how the ball was thrown and by whom, giving a greater depth to the growing wealth of analysis available during sports broadcasts. The technology has been created by BBC Research and Development for BBC Broadcast and BBC Outside Broadcasts. BBC Sport is the first client to start using the system. ""In order to keep audiences growing and growing... we need to work closely with people who create technology and innovation to bring sport to life,"" said Andrew Thompson, the BBC's head of development, new media and sports news. ""We want to appeal to core fans - to give them more analysis, more detail, more definitive answers about key passages of play."" Piero works by taking telemetric data from fixed camera positions and sending that data inside the video signal to a PC which can then render the information into 3D graphics. The more cameras using Piero, the better the detail possible out the other end when the data is turned into 3D models. ""It allows us to tell the story of a passage of play, tracking individual players across the field, looking at tactics,"" said Andy Townsend, from BBC Broadcast. An operator can manipulate the information and provide almost real-time replays of incidents, as well as more in-depth analysis. The ""virtual camera"" can focus on virtually any aspect of the pitch, giving viewers an insight into action that the camera normally cannot see. Piero also provides a wealth of statistical detail - from the length of kicks, to the length of a run of an individual player and the height of a lift at any lineout. Mr Townsend said sports performance companies were already showing an interest in the technology. BBC Broadcast hopes the technology can be sold to third parties interested in using it a number of different ways - from sport broadcasting to entertainment and game shows." +tech,"Nintendo adds media playing to DS Nintendo is releasing an adapter for its DS handheld console so it can play music and video. The add-on for the DS means people can download TV programmes, film clips or MP3 files to the adaptor and then play them back while on the move. The release of the media add-on is an attempt by the Japanese games giant to protect its dominance of the handheld gaming market. Nintendo said the media adapter will be available from February in Japan. The Nintendo DS is the successor to the hugely successful GameBoy handheld game console and went on sale in Japan on 2 December. The DS has two screens, one of which is touch sensitive, and also has on-board a short-range wireless link that lets people play against each other. The launch of the media adapter, and the attempt to broaden the appeal of the device, is widely seen as a response to the unveiling of the Sony PSP which was built as a multi-purpose media player and game gadget from the start. Sony is thought to be preparing pre-packaged movies and music for the PSP. The add-on will also work with the GameBoy Advance SP. Nintendo dominates the handheld gaming console world thanks to successive versions of the GameBoy. More than 28 million GameBoy Advance handhelds have been sold around the world. The dual-screen DS is also thought to be selling well with more than 2.5 million expected to be sold by the end of 2004. Nintendo said it had no plans to sell the media adapter outside Japan. When it goes on sale the adapter is expected to cost about 5000 yen (£25), roughly the difference in price between the DS and the higher-priced Sony PSP." +tech,"Software watching while you work Software that can not only monitor every keystroke and action performed at a PC but also be used as legally binding evidence of wrong-doing has been unveiled. Worries about cyber-crime and sabotage have prompted many employers to consider monitoring employees. The developers behind the system claim it is a break-through in the way data is monitored and stored. But privacy advocates are concerned by the invasive nature of such software. The system is a joint venture between security firm 3ami and storage specialists BridgeHead Software. They have joined forces to create a system which can monitor computer activity, store it and retrieve disputed files within minutes. More and more firms are finding themselves in deep water as a result of data misuse. Sabotage and data theft are most commonly committed from within an organisation according to the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) A survey conducted on its behalf by NOP found evidence that more than 80% of medium and large companies have been victims of some form of cyber-crime. BridgeHead Software has come up with techniques to prove, to a legal standard, that any stored file on a PC has not been tampered with. Ironically the impetus for developing the system came as a result of the Freedom of Information Act, which requires companies to store all data for a certain amount of time. The storage system has been incorporated into an application developed by security firm 3ami which allows every action on a computer to be logged. Potentially it could help employers to follow the trail of stolen files and pinpoint whether they had been emailed to a third party, copied, printed, deleted or saved to CD, floppy disk, memory stick or flash card. Other activities the system can monitor include the downloading of pornography, the use of racist or bullying language or the copying of applications for personal use. Increasingly organisations that handle sensitive data, such as governments, are using biometric log-ins such as fingerprinting to provide conclusive proof of who was using a particular machine at any given time. Privacy advocates are concerned that monitoring at work is not only damaging to employee's privacy but also to the relationship between employers and their staff. ""That is not the case,"" said Tim Ellsmore, managing director of 3ami. ""It is not about replacing dialogue but there are issues that you can talk through but you still need proof,"" he said. ""People need to recognise that you are using a PC as a representative of a company and that employers have a legal requirement to store data,"" he added." +tech,"Sony PSP console hits US in March US gamers will be able to buy Sony's PlayStation Portable from 24 March, but there is no news of a Europe debut. The handheld console will go on sale for $250 (£132) and the first million sold will come with Spider-Man 2 on UMD, the disc format for the machine. Sony has billed the machine as the Walkman of the 21st Century and has sold more than 800,000 units in Japan. The console (12cm by 7.4cm) will play games, movies and music and also offers support for wireless gaming. Sony is entering a market which has been dominated by Nintendo for many years. It launched its DS handheld in Japan and the US last year and has sold 2.8 million units. Sony has said it wanted to launch the PSP in Europe at roughly the same time as the US, but gamers will now fear that the launch has been put back. Nintendo has said it will release the DS in Europe from 11 March. ""It has gaming at its core, but it's not a gaming device. It's an entertainment device,"" said Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America." +tech,"Beckham virus spotted on the net Virus writers are trading on interest in David Beckham to distribute their malicious wares. Messages are circulating widely that purport to have evidence of the England captain in a compromising position. But anyone visiting the website mentioned in the message will not see pictures of Mr Beckham but will have their computer infected by a virus. The pernicious program opens a backdoor on a computer so it can be controlled remotely by malicious hackers. The appearance of the Beckham Windows trojan is just another example in a long line of viruses that trade on interest in celebrities in an attempt to fuel their spread. Tennis player Anna Kournikova, popstars Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger have all been used in the past to try to con people into opening infected files. The huge amount of interest in Mr Beckham and his private life and the large number of messages posted to discussion groups on the net might mean that the malicious program catches a lot of people out. ""The public's appetite for salacious gossip about the private life of the Beckhams might lead some into an unpleasant computer infection,"" said Graham Cluley from anti-virus firm Sophos. Simply opening the message will not infect a user's PC. But anyone visiting the website it mentions who then downloads and opens the fake image file stored on that site will be infected. The program that installs itself is called the Hackarmy trojan and it tries to recruit PCs into so-called 'bot networks that are often used to distribute spam mail messages or to launch attacks across the web. Computers running Microsoft Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT and XP are vulnerable to this trojan. Many anti-virus programs have been able to detect this trojan since it first appeared early this year and have regularly been updated to catch new variants." +tech,"Chip maker backs net phone calls Rich Templeton, the head of giant chip maker Texas Instruments, has given his backing to the growing sector of Voice over Internet Telephony (Voip) Voip allows PC users, and in some cases those with just a broadband connection, to make telephone calls via the net. Mr Templeton said Voip would be the next major application to drive broadband connections into homes. Internet service provider Wanadoo has announced it is launching its own broadband telephony service in the UK. Subscribers to Wanadoo's broadband service will be able to use the service to make free evening and weekend calls to any UK landline, and free calls at any time to other Wanadoo users. The service will cost an extra £4 a month and will come with a free Livebox, the broadband hub which Wanadoo plans will be used in future to provide video-on-demand and home security services. The secondary phone line will mean customers can have an extra home phone number and will also provide wireless internet access around the home. Eventually the service will replace existing landline services as Wanadoo goes head to head with BT. ""Voice-over broadband is a key trend across Europe and is set to have a dramatic impact on the telecommunications industry, "" Eric Abensur, Wanadoo's chief executive told the BBC News website. Mr Templeton said he agreed. ""Voice-over-packet is going to be the second killer application after broadband internet access,"" he said. The world's largest maker of chips for mobile phones believes the technology will grow rapidly from the relatively small user base it has currently. Almost 83 million people have downloaded the software that powers the Skype Voip service, according to the net telephony firm's website. Skype lets people make free calls to other Skype users and also make low-cost calls to ordinary phone numbers. US firm Vonage also offers a Voip service, but one which lets people plug an ordinary phone into a broadband router to make calls. Bill Simmelink, general manager of TI's Voip business, said the technology would only take off when people were making net calls with the ease of making a normal call. ""It's not about the pipe, if you will, or the silicon per se, it's about the application,"" he said. ""We want to communicate freely, effortlessly and economically wherever we are."" In a sign that Voip is seeping into the mainstream, giant ISP AOL announced on Tuesday that it had plans to launch a net-based phone service for some of its members within the month. Customers will continue to use their traditional phones, but they will plug them into adapters connected to their broadband source rather than the jack provided by the telephone company. Calls are received and placed just like on the old telephone network. ""We can help mass-market adoption of Voip,"" said AOL chief executive Jonathan Miller. ""We can utilise our national footprint. We can help the entire industry become well known.""" +tech,"Casual gaming to 'take off' Games aimed at ""casual players"" are set to be even bigger in 2005, according to industry experts. Easy-to-play titles that do not require too much time and that are playable online or downloadable to mobile devices will see real growth in the coming year. The trend shows that gaming is not just about big-hitting, games console titles, which appeal more to ""hardcore"" gamers, said a panel of experts. They were speaking before the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas which showcases the latest trends in gadgets and technologies for 2005. The panel also insisted that casual gamers were not just women, a common misconception which pervades current thinking about gamer demographics. Casual games like poker, pool, bridge, bingo and puzzle-based titles, which can be played online or downloaded onto mobile devices, were ""gender neutral"" and different genres attracted different players. Greg Mills, program director at AOL, said its figures suggested that sports-based games attracted 90% of 18 to 24-year-old males, while puzzle games were played by 80% of females. Games like bridge tended to attract the over-50 demographic of gamers. But hardcore gamers who are more attracted to blockbuster gamers which usually require hi-spec PCs, like Half-Life 2, or Halo 2 on Xbox, also liked to have a different type of gaming experience. ""When hardcore gamers are not playing Halo, they are playing poker and pool, based on our research,"" said Geoff Graber, director of Yahoo Games, which attracts about 12 million gamers a month. With the growth of powerful PC technology and ownership, broadband take-up, portable players and mobile devices, as well as interactive TV, casual gaming is shaping up to be big business in 2005, according to the panel. The focus for the coming year should be about attracting third-party developers into the field to offer more innovative and multiplayer titles, they agreed. ""We are at a time where we are on the verge of something much bigger,"" said Mr Graber. ""Casual games will get into their stride in 2005, will be really big in 2006 and will be about community."" With more people finding more to do with their gadgets and high-speed connections, casual games would start to open up the world of gaming as a form of mass-market entertainment to more people. Key to these types of titles is the chance they give people who may not see themselves as gamers to dip in and out of games when they liked. Portal sites which offer casual games, like AOL, Yahoo, and RealArcade, as well as other games-on-demand services, allow people to build up buddy lists so they can return and play against the same people. This aspect of ""community"" is crucial for gamers who just want to have quick access to free or cheap games without committing long periods of time immersed in £30 to £40 console or PC titles, said the panel. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the CES trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet and which officially runs from 6 to 9 January. The main theme is how new devices are getting better at talking to each other, allowing people to enjoy digital content, like audio, video and images, when they want, and where they want." +tech,"Europe backs digital TV lifestyle How people receive their digital entertainment in the future could change, following the launch of an ambitious European project. In Nice last week, the European Commission announced its Networked & Electronic Media (NEM) initiative. Its broad scope stretches from the way media is created, through each of the stages of its distribution, to its playback. The Commission wants people to be able to locate the content they desire and have it delivered seamlessly, when on the move, at home or at work, no matter who supplies the devices, network, content, or content protection scheme. More than 120 experts were in Nice to share the vision of interconnected future and hear pledges of support from companies such as Nokia, Intel, Philips, Alcatel, France Telecom, Thomson and Telefonica. It might initially appear to be surprising that companies in direct competition are keen to work together. But again and again, speakers stated they could not see incompatible, stand-alone solutions working. A long-term strategy for the evolution and convergence of technologies and services would be required. The European Commission is being pragmatic in its approach. They have identified that many groups have defined the forms of digital media in the areas that NEM encompasses. The NEM approach is to take a serious look at what is available and what is in the pipeline, pick out the best, bring them together and identify where the gaps are. Where it finds holes, it will develop standards to fill them. What is significant is that such a large and powerful organisation has stated its desire for digital formats to be open to all and work on any gadget. This is bound to please, if not surprise, many individuals and user organisations who feel that the wishes of the holder of rights to content are normally considered over and above those of the consumer. Many feel that the most difficult and challenging area for the Commission will be to identify a solution for different Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes. Currently DRM solutions are incompatible, locking certain types of purchased content, making them unplayable on all platforms. With the potential of having a percentage of every media transaction that takes place globally, the prize for being the supplier of the world's dominant DRM scheme is huge. Although entertainment is an obvious first step, it will encompass the remote provisions of healthcare, energy efficiency and control of the smart home. The 10-year plan brings together the work of many currently running research projects that the EC has been funding for a number of years. Simon Perry is the editor of the Digital Lifestyles website, which covers the impact of technology on media" +tech,"Voters flock to blog awards site Voting is under way for the annual Bloggies which recognise the best web blogs - online spaces where people publish their thoughts - of the year. Nominations were announced on Sunday, but traffic to the official site was so heavy that the website was temporarily closed because of too many visitors. Weblogs have been nominated in 30 categories, from the top regional blog, to the best-kept-secret blog. Blogs had a huge year, with a top US dictionary naming ""blog"" word of 2004. Technorati, a blog search engine, tracks about six million blogs and says that more than 12,000 are added daily. A blog is created every 5.8 seconds, according to US research think-tank Pew Internet and American Life, but less than 40% of the total are updated at least once every two months. Nikolai Nolan, who has run the Bloggies for the past five years, told the BBC News website he was not too surprised by the amount of voters who crowded the site. ""The awards always get a lot of traffic; this was just my first year on a server with a bandwidth limit, so I had to guess how much I'd need,"" he said. There were many new finalists this year, he added, and a few that had won Bloggies before. Several entries reflected specific news events. ""There are four nominations for the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog, which is a pretty timely one for 2005,"" said Mr Nolan. The big Bloggies battle will be for the ultimate prize of blog of the year. The nominated blogs are wide-ranging covering what is in the news to quirky sites of interest. Fighting it out for the coveted award are Gawker, This Fish Needs a Bicycle, Wonkette, Boing Boing, and Gothamist. In a sign that blogs are playing an increasingly key part in spreading news and current affairs, The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog is also nominated in the best overall category. GreenFairyDotcom, Londonist, Hicksdesign, PlasticBag and London Underground Tube Blog are the nominees in the best British or Irish weblog. Included in the other categories is best ""meme"". This is for the top ""replicating idea that spread about weblogs"". Nominations include Flickr, a web photo album which lets people upload, tag, share and publish their images to blogs. Podcasting has also made an appearance in the category. It is an increasingly popular idea that makes use of RSS (really simple syndication) and audio technology to let people easily make their own radio shows, and distribute them automatically onto portable devices. Many are done by those who already have text-based blogs, so they are almost like audio blogs. Three new categories have been added to the list this year, including best food, best entertainment, and best writing of a weblog. One of the categories that was scrapped though was best music blog. The winners of the fifth annual Bloggies are chosen by the public. Public voting closes on 3 February and the winners will be announced sometime between 13 and 15 March." +tech,"Looks and music to drive mobiles Mobile phones are still enjoying a boom time in sales, according to research from technology analysts Gartner. More than 674 million mobiles were sold last year globally, said the report, the highest total sold to date. The figure was 30% more than in 2003 and surpassed even the most optimistic predictions, Gartner said. Good design and the look of a mobile, as well as new services such as music downloads, could go some way to pushing up sales in 2005, said analysts. Although people were still looking for better replacement phones, there was evidence, according to Gartner, that some markets were seeing a slow-down in replacement sales. ""All the markets grew apart from Japan which shows that replacement sales are continuing in western Europe,"" mobile analyst Carolina Milanesi told the BBC News website. ""Japan is where north America and western European markets can be in a couple of years' time. ""They already have TV, music, ringtones, cameras, and all that we can think of on mobiles, so people have stopped buying replacement phones."" But there could be a slight slowdown in sales in European and US markets too, according to Gartner, as people wait to see what comes next in mobile technology. This means mobile companies have to think carefully about what they are offering in new models so that people see a compelling reason to upgrade, said Gartner. Third generation mobiles (3G) with the ability to handle large amounts of data transfer, like video, could drive people into upgrading their phones, but Ms Milanesi said it was difficult to say how quickly that would happen. ""At the end of the day, people have cameras and colour screens on mobiles and for the majority of people out there who don't really care about technology the speed of data to a phone is not critical."" Nor would the rush to produce two or three megapixel camera phones be a reason for mobile owners to upgrade on its own. The majority of camera phone models are not at the stage where they can compete with digital cameras which also have flashes and zooms. More likely to drive sales in 2005 would be the attention to design and aesthetics, as well as music services. The Motorola Razr V3 phone was typical of the attention to design that would be more commonplace in 2005, she added. This was not a ""women's thing"", she said, but a desire from men and women to have a gadget that is a form of self-expression too. It was not just about how the phone functioned, but about what it said about its owner. ""Western Europe has always been a market which is quite attentive to design,"" said Ms Milanesi. ""People are after something that is nice-looking, and together with that, there is the entertainment side. ""This year music will have a part to play in this."" The market for full-track music downloads was worth just $20 million (£10.5 million) in 2004, but is set to be worth $1.8 billion (£94 million) by 2009, according to Juniper Research. Sony Ericsson just released its Walkman branded mobile phone, the W800, which combines a digital music player with up to 30 hours' battery life, and a two megapixel camera. In July last year, Motorola and Apple announced a version of iTunes online music downloading service would be released which would be compatible with Motorola mobile phones. Apple said the new iTunes music player would become Motorola's standard music application for its music phones. But the challenge will be balancing storage capacity with battery life if mobile music hopes to compete with digital music players like the iPod. Ms Milanesi said more models would likely be released in the coming year with hard drives. But they would be more likely to compete with the smaller capacity music players that have around four gigabyte storage capacity, which would not put too much strain on battery life." +tech,"Sun offers processing by the hour Sun Microsystems has launched a pay-as-you-go service which will allow customers requiring huge computing power to rent it by the hour. Sun Grid costs users $1 (53p) for an hour's worth of processing and storage power on systems maintained by Sun. So-called grid computing is the latest buzz phrase in a company which believes that computing capacity is as important a commodity as hardware and software. Sun likened grid computing to the development of electricity. The system could mature in the same way utilities such as electricity and water have developed, said Sun's chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz. ""Why build your own grid when you can use ours for a buck an hour?"" he asked in a webcast launching Sun's quarterly Network Computing event in California. The company will have to persuade data centre managers to adopt a new model but it said it already had interest from customers in the oil, gas and financial services industries. Some of them want to book computing capacity of more than 5,000 processors each, Sun said. Mr Schwartz ran a demonstration of the service, showing how data could be processed in a protein folding experiment. Hundreds of servers were used simultaneously, working on the problem for a few seconds each. Although it only took a few seconds, the experiment cost $12 (£6.30) because it had used up 12 hours' worth of computing power. The Sun Grid relies on Solaris, the operating system owned by Sun. Initially it will house the grid in existing premises and will use idle servers to test software before shipping it to customers. It has not said how much the system will cost to develop but it already has a rival in IBM, which argues that its capacity on-demand service is cheaper than that offered by Sun." +tech,"EU software patent law faces axe The European Parliament has thrown out a bill that would have allowed software to be patented. Politicians unanimously rejected the bill and now it must go through another round of consultation if it is to have a chance of becoming law. During consultation the software patents bill could be substantially re-drafted or even scrapped. The bill was backed by some hi-tech firms, saying they needed protections it offered to make research worthwhile. Hugo Lueders, European director for public policy at CompTIA, an umbrella organization for technology companies, said only when intellectual property was adequately protected would European inventors prosper. He said the benefits of the bill had been obscured by special interest groups which muddied debate over the rights and wrongs of software patents. Other proponents of the bill said it was a good compromise that avoided the excesses of the American system which allows the patenting of business practices as well as software. But opponents of the bill said that it could stifle innovation, be abused by firms keen to protect existing monopolies and could hamper the growth of the open source movement. The proposed law had a troubled passage through the European parliament. Its progress was delayed twice when Polish MEPs rejected plans to adopt it. Also earlier this month the influential European Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) said the law should be re-drafted after it failed to win the support of MEPs. To become law both the European Parliament and a qualified majority of EU states have to approve of the draft wording of the bill. The latest rejection means that now the bill on computer inventions must go back to the EU for re-consideration." +tech,"Games maker fights for survival One of Britain's largest independent game makers, Argonaut Games, has been put up for sale. The London-based company behind the Harry Potter games has sacked about 100 employees due to a severe cash crisis. The administrators told BBC News Online that selling Argonaut was the only way to save it as it had run out of cash. Argonaut warned that it was low on cash 10 days ago when its shares were suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange. Argonaut has been making games for some 18 years and is one the largest independent games developers in the UK. Along with its headquarters in north London, it operates studios in Cambridge and Sheffield. Argonaut was behind the Harry Potter games which provided a healthy flow of cash into the company. But, like all software developers, Argonaut needed a constant flow of deals with publishers. Signs that it was in trouble emerged in August, when it warned it was heading for losses of £6m in the financial year due to delays in signing new contracts for games. Those new deals were further delayed, leading Argonaut to warn in mid-October that it was running out of cash and suspend trading of its shares on the London Stock Exchange. As part of cost-cutting measures, some 100 employees were fired. ""When the news about the £6m loss came out, we knew there were going to be redundancies,"" said Jason Parkinson, one of the game developers sacked by Argonaut. ""A lot of people suspected that Argonaut had been in trouble for some time,"" he told BBC News Online. Mr Parkinson said staff were told the job losses were necessary to save Argonaut from going under. At the start of the year, the company employed 268 people. After the latest round of cuts there are 80 staff at Argonaut headquarters in Edgware in north London, with 17 at its Morpheme offices in Kentish Town, London, and 22 at the Just Add Monsters base in Cambridge. Argonaut called in administrators David Rubin & Partners on Friday to find a way to rescue the company from collapse. It spent the weekend going over the company's finances and concluded that the only way to save the business was to put it up for sale. The administrator told BBC News Online that the costs of restructuing would be too high, partly because of the overheads from the company's four premises across the UK. It said it was hopeful that it could save some 110 jobs by selling the business, saying it had had expressions of interest from several quarters and were looking for a quick sale. The administrator said it would ensure that staff made redundant would receive any wages, redundancy or holiday pay due to them, hopefully by Christmas." +tech,"Security scares spark browser fix Microsoft is working on a new version of its Internet Explorer web browser. The revamp has been prompted by Microsoft's growing concern with security as well as increased competition from rival browsers. Microsoft said the new version will be far less vulnerable to the bugs that make its current browser a favourite of tech-savvy criminals. Test versions of the new program, called IE 7, are due to be released by the summer. The announcement about Internet Explorer was made by Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect, during a keynote speech at the RSA Security conference currently being held in San Francisco. Although details were scant, Mr Gates, said IE7 would include new protections against viruses, spyware and phishing scams. This last category of threats involves criminals setting up spoof websites that look identical to those of banks and try to trick people into handing over login and account information. In a bid to shore up the poor security in IE 6, Microsoft has regularly issued updates to patch loopholes exploited by criminals and the makers of nuisance programs such as spyware. Earlier this month it released a security bulletin that patched eight critical security holes - some of which were found in the IE browser. Microsoft has also made a series of acquisitions of small firms that specialise in computer security. One of the first fruits of these acquisitions appeared last month with the release of a Microsoft anti-spyware program. An own-brand anti-virus program is due to follow by the end of 2005. The decision to make Internet Explorer 7 is widely seen as a U-turn because, before now, Microsoft said it had no need to update the browser. Typically new versions of its browser appear with successive versions of the Windows operating system. A new version of IE was widely expected to debut with the next version of Windows, codenamed Longhorn, which is due to appear in 2006. The current version of Internet Explorer is four years old, and is widely seen as falling behind rivals such as Firefox and Opera. There are also persistent rumours that search engine Google is poised to produce its own brand browser based on Firefox. In particular the Firefox browser has been winning fans and users since its first full version was released in November 2004. Estimates of how many users Firefox has won over vary widely. According to market statistics gathered by Websidestory, Firefox's market share is now about 5% of all users. However, other browser stat gatherers say the figure is closer to 15%. Some technical websites report that a majority of their visitors use the Firefox browser. Internet Explorer still dominates with a share of about 90% but this is down from a peak of almost 96% in mid-2004." +tech,"Mobiles get set for visual radio The growth in the mobile phone market in the past decade has been nothing less than astonishing, but the ability to communicate on the go is not the only reason we are hooked. Games, cameras and music players have all been added to our handsets in the last few years, but 2005 could see another big innovation that won't just see a change in our mobile phone habits - it might alter the way we listen to the radio. Finnish handset giant Nokia has been working on a technology called Visual Radio, which takes an existing FM signal from a radio station and enables that station to add enhancements such as information and pictures. It is not the first time that such an idea has been suggested - the early days of DAB Digital Radio had similar intentions that never really saw the light of day. One problem is that the name Visual Radio leads people to think of television but Reidar Wasenius, a senior project manager at Nokia, was adamant that Visual Radio should not be confused with the more traditional medium. He said: ""I'm very happy to say it's not television, what we're talking about is an enhancement of radio as we know it today. ""If you have a Visual Radio enabled handset, when you hear an artist you don't know, or there's a competition or vote that you'd like to participate in, you pull out your handset and with one click you turn on a visual channel parallel to the on-air broadcast you've just been listening to."" That visual channel is run from a computer within the radio station, and sends out different kinds of information to the handset depending on what you are listening to. As well as details on the track or artist of a particular song, there is also the ability to interact immediately with the radio station itself, in a similar way to digital television's ""red button"" content. Possible interactive content includes competitions, votes and even the chance to rate the song that is playing. But the interactive aspect will make the service especially attractive to radio stations, who will be able to track the number of people taking part in such activities on a real-time basis. This in turn should lead to an additional source of revenue, as it is very likely that advertisers will be keen to exploit new opportunities to reach listeners. As the Visual Radio content is transmitted by existing GPRS technology you would need to have that service enabled by your network. And there will be a cost for the service as well, although it may depend on your usage. ""If you enjoy the visual channel occasionally and interact it'll be two or three pounds per month,"" said Mr Wasenius. ""But typically what we see happening is the operator offering a package deal for an 'all you can eat' arrangement per month."" The payment system could therefore be similar to the way that broadband internet works versus dial-up connections. One thing that is for sure - assuming that Nokia retains its market share in handsets, it is estimating that there will be 100 million Visual Radio-enabled mobile phones in circulation by the end of 2006. ""Basically, Visual Radio is not really revolutionary, but rather an evolution where we are providing tools with which people can participate in radio much more easily than ever before."" The first Visual Radio service in the UK will begin in a few months time with Virgin Radio, who are positive about the impact it could have on their listeners. Station manager Steve Taylor commented: ""Listeners can interact with the radio station in a new way. ""Not only does this give listeners more information on the music we play but means they can instantly purchase things they like; mp3 music downloads and the latest gig tickets."" Initially Visual Radio functionality will be limited to two Nokia handsets due out soon - the 3230 and 7710 - but if successful, it is very likely that other manufacturers will want to join them. Listen again to the interview on the Radio Five Live website." +tech,"Mobile networks seek turbo boost Third-generation mobile (3G) networks need to get faster if they are to deliver fast internet surfing on the move and exciting new services. That was one of the messages from the mobile industry at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes last week. Fast 3G networks are here but the focus has shifted to their evolution into a higher bandwidth service, says the Global Mobile Suppliers Association. At 3GSM, Siemens showed off a system that transmits faster mobile data. The German company said data could be transmitted at one gigabit a second - up to 20 times faster than current 3G networks. The system is not available commercially yet, but Motorola, the US mobile handset and infrastructure maker, held a clinic for mobile operators on HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), a high-speed, high bandwidth technology available now. Early HSDPA systems typically offer around two megabits per second (Mbps) compared with less than 384 kilobits per second (Kbps) on standard 3G networks. ""High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) - sometimes called Super 3G - will be vital for profitable services like mobile internet browsing and mobile video clips,"" according to a report published by UK-based research consultancy Analysys. A number of companies are developing the technology. Nokia and Canada-based wireless communication products company Sierra Wireless recently agreed to work together on High Speed Downlink Packet Access. The two companies aim to jointly market the HSDPA solution to global network operator customers. ""While HSDPA theoretically enables data rates up to a maximum of 14Mbps, practical throughputs will be lower than this in wide-area networks,"" said Dr Alastair Brydon, author of the Analysys report: Pushing Beyond the Limits of 3G with HSDPA and Other Enhancements. ""The typical average user rate in a real implementation is likely to be in the region of one megabit per second which, even at this lower rate, will more than double the capacity... when compared to basic WCDMA [3G],"" he added. Motorola has conducted five trials of its technology and says speeds of 2.9Mbps have been recorded at the edge of an outdoor 3G cell using a single HSDPA device. But some mobile operators are opting for a technology called Evolution, Data Optimised (EV-DO). US operator Sprint ordered a broadband data upgrade to its 3G network at the end of last year. We are ""expanding our network and deploying EV-DO technology to meet customer demand for faster wireless speeds,"" said Oliver Valente, Sprint's vice president for technology development, when the contract was announced. As part of $3bn in multi-year contracts announced late last year, Sprint will spend around $1bn on EV-DO technology from Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Motorola that provides average data speeds of 0.3-0.5 megabits a second, and peak download rates of 2.4Mbps. MMO2, the UK-based operator with services in the UK, Ireland and Germany, has opted for technology based on HSDPA. Using technology from Lucent, it will offer data speeds of 3.6Mbps from next summer on its Isle of Man 3G network, and will eventually support speeds of up to 14.4Mbps. US operator Cingular Wireless is also adopting HSDPA, using technology from Lucent alongside equipment from Siemens and Ericsson. Siemens' plans for a one gigabit network may be more than a user needs today, but Christoph Caselitz, president of the mobile networks division at the firm says that: ""By the time the next generation of mobile communication debuts in 2015, the need for transmission capacities for voice, data, image and multimedia is conservatively anticipated to rise by a factor of 10."" Siemens - in collaboration with the Fraunhofer German-Sino Lab for Mobile Communications and the Institute for Applied Radio System Technology - has souped up mobile communications by using three transmitting and four receiving antennae, instead of the usual one. This enables a data transmission, such as sending a big file or video, to be broken up into different flows of data that can be sent simultaneously over one radio frequency band. The speeds offered by 3G mobile seemed fast at the time mobile operators were paying huge sums for 3G licences. But today, instead of connecting to the internet by slow, dial-up phone connection, many people are used to broadband networks that offer speeds of 0.5 megabits a second - much faster than 3G. This means users are likely to find 3G disappointing unless the networks are souped up. If they aren't, those lucrative ""power users"", such as computer geeks and busy business people will avoid them for all but the most urgent tasks, reducing the potential revenues available to mobile operators. But one gigabit a second systems will not be available immediately. Siemens says that though the system works in the laboratory, it still has to assess the mobility of multiple-antennae devices and conduct field trials. A commercial system could be as far away as 2012, though Siemens did not rule out an earlier date." +tech,"T-Mobile bets on 'pocket office' T-Mobile has launched its latest ""pocket office"" third-generation (3G) device which also has built-in wi-fi - high-speed wireless net access. Unlike other devices where the user has to check which high-speed network is available to transfer data, the device selects the fastest one itself. The MDA IV, released in the summer, is an upgrade to the company's existing smartphone, the 2.5G/wi-fi MDA III. It reflects the push by mobile firms for devices that are like mini laptops. The device has a display that can be swivelled and angled so it can be used like a small computer, or as a conventional clamshell phone. The Microsoft Mobile phone, with two cameras and a Qwerty keyboard, reflects the design of similar all-in-one models released this year, such as Motorola's MPx. ""One in five European workers are already mobile - meaning they spend significant time travelling and out of the office,"" Rene Obermann, T-Mobile's chief executive, told a press conference at the 3GSM trade show in Cannes. He added: ""What they need is their office when they are out of the office."" T-Mobile said it was seeing increasing take up for what it calls ""Office in a Pocket"" devices, with 100,000 MDAs sold in Europe already. In response to demand, T-Mobile also said it would be adding the latest phone-shaped Blackberry to its mobile range. Reflecting the growing need to be connected outside the office, it announced it would introduce a flat-fee £20 ($38) a month wi-fi tariff for people in the UK using its wi-fi hotspots. It said it would nearly double the number of its hotspots - places where wi-fi access is available - globally from 12,300 to 20,000. It also announced it was installing high-speed wi-fi on certain train services, such as the UK's London to Brighton service, to provide commuters a fast net connection too. The service, which has been developed with Southern trains, Nomad Digital (who provide the technology), begins with a free trial on 16 trains on the route from early March to the end of April. A full service is set to follow in the summer. Wi-fi access points will be connected to a Wimax wireless network - faster than wi-fi - running alongside the train tracks. Brian McBride, managing director of T-Mobile in the UK, said: ""We see a growing trend for business users needing to access e-mail securely on the move. ""We are able to offer this by maintaining a constant data session for the entire journey."" He said this was something other similar in-train wi-fi services, such as that offered on GNER trains, did not offer yet. Mr Obermann added that the mobile industry in general was still growing, with many more opportunities for more services which would bear fruit for mobile companies in future. Thousands of mobile industry experts are gathered in Cannes, France, for the 3GSM which runs from 14 to 17 February." +tech,"Speak easy plan for media players Music and film fans will be able to control their digital media players just by speaking to them, under plans in development by two US firms. ScanSoft and Gracenote are developing technology to give people access to their film and music libraries simply by voice control. They want to give people hands-free access to digital music and films in the car, or at home or on the move. Huge media libraries on some players can make finding single songs hard. ""Voice command-and-control unlocks the potential of devices that can store large digital music collections,"" said Ross Blanchard, vice president of business development for Gracenote. ""These applications will radically change the car entertainment experience, allowing drivers to enjoy their entire music collections without ever taking their hands off the steering wheel,"" he added. Gracenote provides music library information for millions of different albums for jukeboxes such as Apple's iTunes. The new technology will be designed so that people can play any individual song or movie out of a collection, just by saying its name. Users will also be able to request music that fits a mood or an occasion, or a film just by saying the actor's name. ""Speech is a natural fit for today's consumer devices, particularly in mobile environments,"" said Alan Schwartz, vice president of SpeechWorks, a division of ScanSoft. ""Pairing our voice technologies with Gracenote's vast music database will bring the benefits of speech technologies to a host of consumer devices and enable people to access their media in ways they've never imagined."" The two firms did not say if they were developing the technology for languages other than English. Users will also be able to get more information on a favourite song they have been listening to by asking: ""What is this?"" Portable players are becoming popular in cars and a number of auto firms are working with Apple to device interfaces to control the firm's iPod music player. But with tens of thousands of songs able to be stored on one player, voice control would make finding that elusive track by Elvis Presley much easier. The firms gave no indication about whether the iPod, or any other media player, were in mind for the use of the voice control technology. The companies estimate that the technology will be available in the fourth quarter of 2005." +tech,"What high-definition will do to DVDs First it was the humble home video, then it was the DVD, and now Hollywood is preparing for the next revolution in home entertainment - high-definition. High-definition gives incredible, 3D-like pictures and surround sound. The DVD disks and the gear to play them will not be out for another year or so, and there at are still a number of issues to be sorted out. But when high-definition films do come out on the new format DVDs, it will profoundly change home entertainment. For Rick Dean, director of business development for digital content company THX, a high-definition future is an exciting prospect. He has worked on the Star Wars DVD trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Indiana Jones. ""There was a time not so long ago when the film world and the video world were two completely separate worlds,"" he told the BBC News website. ""The technology we are dealing with now means they are very much conjoined. ""The film that we see in theatres is coming from the same digital file that we take the home video master,"" he says. But currently, putting a master feature film onto DVD requires severe compression because current DVD technology cannot hold as much as high-definition films demand. ""As much as you compress the picture data rate wise, you also take qualities away from the picture that we fight so hard to keep in the master,"" he explains. ""I would love to be able to show people what projects that we worked on really look like in the high-def world and I find it very exciting."" High-definition DVDs can hold up to six times more data than the DVDs we are used to. It will take time though to persuade people who spent money on DVD players to buy the different players and displays required to watch high-definition DVDs in 18 months' time. Mr Dean is confident though: ""I think if they see real HD [high-definition], not some heavily compressed version of it, there is such a remarkable difference. ""I have heard comments from people who say the images pop off the screen."" High-definition will mean some changes for those working behind the scenes too. On the whole, producing films for high-definition DVDs will be easier in some ways because less compression is needed. Equally, it may mean Hollywood studios ask for more to be put onto the average DVD. ""When we master movies right now, our data rates are running at about 1.2 gigabits per second,"" says Mr Dean. ""Our DVDs that we put out today have to be squashed down to about five or six megabits per second. ""That's a huge amount of compression that has to be applied - about 98%. So if you have anything that allows more space, you don't have to compress so hard."" Studios could fit a lot more marketing material, games, and features, onto high-capacity DVDs. Currently, an entire DVD project can take up to three months, says Mr Dean. Although the step of down-converting will be bypassed, this will realistically only save a day's work, says Mr Dean. One of the most time consuming elements is building DVD navigation and menu systems. On the fairly complex Star Wars disks, making sure the menu buttons worked took 45 human hours alone. If studios want to cash in on the extra space, it could mean extra human hours, for which someone has to pay. ""If the decision on the studio side is that they are going to put a lot more on these disks, it could be more expensive because of all the extra navigation that is required."" And if studios do focus on delivering more ""added value content"", thinks Mr Dean, ultimately it could mean that they will want more money for it. Those costs could filter down to the price ticket on a high-definition DVD. But if the consumer is not willing to pay a premium price, studios will listen, thinks Mr Dean. High-definition throws up other challenge to film makers and DVD production alike. More clarity on screen means film makers have to make doubly sure that attention to detail is meticulous. ""When we did the first HD version of Star Wars Episode I, everybody was very sun-tanned, but that was make-up. ""In the HD version of Episode I, all these make-up lines showed up,"" explains Mr Dean. The restoration of the older Star Wars episodes revealed some interesting items too. ""There are scans of a corridor [on the Death Star] and fairly plainly in one of those shots, there is a file cabinet stuck behind one of the doorways. ""You never used to be able to see it because things are just blurred enough during the pan that you just didn't see it."" What high-definition revolution ultimately means is that the line between home entertainment and cinema worlds will blur. With home theatre systems turning living rooms into cinemas, this line blurs even further. It could also mean that how we get films, and in what format, will widen. ""In the future we are going to look towards file delivery over IP [internet protocol - broadband], giving a DVD-like experience from the set-top box to the hard drive,"" says Mr Dean. But that is some time off for most, and for now, people still like to show off something physical in their bookshelves." +tech,"Global digital divide 'narrowing' The ""digital divide"" between rich and poor nations is narrowing fast, according to a World Bank report. The World Bank questioned a United Nation's campaign to increase usage and access to technology in poorer nations. ""People in the developing world are getting more access at an incredible rate - far faster than... in the past,"" said the report. But a spokesman for the UN's World Summit on the Information Society said the digital divide remained very real. ""The digital divide is rapidly closing,"" the World Bank report said. Half the world's population now has access to a fixed-line telephone, the report said, and 77% to a mobile network. The report's figures surpass a WSIS campaign goal that calls for 50% access to telephones by 2015. The UN hopes that widening access to technology such as mobile phones and the net will help eradicate poverty. ""Developing countries are catching up with the rich world in terms of access [to mobile networks],"" the report said. ""Africa is part of a worldwide trend of rapid rollout... this applies to countries rich and poor, reformed or not, African, Asian, European and Latin American."" A spokesman for the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS), which is meeting this week in Geneva, told the BBC News website: ""The digital divide is very much real and needs to be addressed. ""Some financing has to be found to help narrow the divide."" On Tuesday, a meeting of the WSIS in Geneva agreed to the creation of a Digital Solitary Fund. ""The fund is voluntary and will help finance local community-based projects,"" said the WSIS spokesman. Under the proposals agreed, voluntary contribution of 1% on contracts obtained by private technology service providers could be made to the Digital Solidarity Fund. The exact financing mechanism of the fund is to be ironed out in the coming days, said the WSIS. Sixty percent of resources collected by the fund will be made available for projects in least developed countries, 30% for projects in developing countries, and 10% for projects in developed countries." +tech,"Blogs take on the mainstream Web logs or blogs are everywhere, with at least an estimated five million on the web and that number is set to grow. These online diaries come in many shapes and styles, ranging from people willing to sharing their views, pictures and links, to companies interested in another way of reaching their customers. But this year the focus has been on blogs which cast a critical eye over news events, often writing about issues ignored by the big media or offering an eye-witness account of events. Most blogs may have only a small readership, but communication experts say they have provided an avenue for people to have a say in the world of politics. The most well-known examples include Iraqi Salam Pax's accounts of the US-led war, former Iranian vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi exclusive insight into the Islamic Republic's government, and the highs and lows of the recent US election campaign. There are already websites pulling together these first-hand reporting accounts heralded by blogs, like wikinews.com, launched last November. The blogging movement has been building up for many years. Andrew Nachison, Director of the Media Center, a US-based think-tank that studies media, technology and society, highlights the US presidential race as a possible turning point for blogs. ""You could look at that as a moment when audiences exercised a new form of power, to choose among many more sources of information than they have never had before,"" he says. ""And blogs were a key part of that transformation."" Among them were blogs carrying picture messages, saying ""we are sorry"" for George W Bush's victory and the responses from his supporters. Mr Nachison argues blogs have become independent sources for images and ideas that circumvent traditional sources of news and information such as newspapers, TV and radio. ""We have to acknowledge that in all of these cases, mainstream media actually plays a role in the discussion and the distribution of these ideas,"" he told the BBC News website. ""But they followed the story, they didn't lead it."" Some parts of the so-called traditional media have expressed concerns about this emerging competitor, raising questions about the journalistic value of blogs. Others, like the French newspaper Le Monde, have applied a different strategy, offering blogs as part of its content. ""I don't think the mission and role of journalism is threatened. It is in transition, as society itself is in transition,"" says Mr Nachison. However, he agrees with other experts like the linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky, that mainstream media has lost the traditional role of news gatekeeper. ""The one-to-many road of traditional journalism, yes, it is threatened. And professional journalists need to acclimate themselves to an environment in which there are many more contributors to the discourse,"" says Mr Nachison. ""The notion of a gatekeeper who filters and decides what's acceptable for public consumption and what isn't, that's gone forever."" ""With people now walking around with information devices in their pockets, like camera or video phones, we are going to see more instances of ordinary citizens breaking stories."" It seems unlikely that we will end up living in a planet where every human is a blogger. But the current number of blogs is likely to keep on growing, in a web already overloaded with information. Blog analysis firm Technorati estimates the number of blogs in existence, the so-called blogosphere, has already exceeded five million, and is growing at exponential levels. Tools such as Google's Blogger, MovableType and the recently launched beta version of MSN Spaces are making it easier to run a blog. US research think-tank Pew Internet & American Life says a blog is created every 5.8 seconds, although less than 40% of the total are updated at least once every two months. But experts agree that the phenomenon, allowing individuals to publish, share ideas, exchange information, comment on current issues, post images or video on the web easily, is here to stay. ""We are entering one era in which the technological infrastructure is creating a different context for how we tell our stories and how we communicate with each other,"" said Mr Nachison. ""And there's going to be bad that comes with the good.""" +tech,"Home phones face unclear future The fixed line phone in your home could soon be an endangered species. Research by handset maker Nokia shows that more and more people are using their mobile phone for every call they make or take. According to the study, more than 45 million people in the UK, Germany, US and South Korea now only use a mobile. It showed that people keep their fixed line phone because call charges are lower, but most of those questioned said the future was definitely mobile. The Nokia-sponsored research showed that mobiles and fixed phones were used for different purposes. Home phones were used for longer calls but conversations on mobiles tended to be shorter, between mobiles and to friends. In the UK 69% of those questioned said they turned to their fixed phone because it was still cheaper to use than a mobile. However, when pressed few could say with accuracy how tariffs on fixed and mobile phones compared. In the US and Germany many of those interviewed said they used the fixed phone because it was more reliable than a mobile handset and let them get access to the net at relatively high speeds. In all the countries where interviews were carried out, older people were more likely to use a fixed line phone more than a mobile. Women aged 50 or above almost never use a mobile phone, the research found. The move to mobile was most pronounced in South Korea where 65% of those questioned said they already make most of their calls from a mobile. 18% said they would not get a landline if they moved house. Many of those questioned said they had an emotional connection to their fixed phone that drew on its position in the home and the ""cosiness"" of making a call there. Nokia said these findings had implications for mobile operators who must work hard to ensure that mobiles are seen as cheap, reliable and providing good call quality. The survey also showed that it is not just voice calls that are going wireless. Some of those questioned said they were looking to use a mobile or wireless service to get net access within the next couple of years. Polling firm Mori interviewed more than 6,000 people in the UK, US, Germany and South Korea for the survey." +tech,"Sun offers processing by the hour Sun Microsystems has launched a pay-as-you-go service which will allow customers requiring huge computing power to rent it by the hour. Sun Grid costs users $1 (53p) for an hour's worth of processing and storage power on systems maintained by Sun. So-called grid computing is the latest buzz phrase in a company which believes that computing capacity is as important a commodity as hardware and software. Sun likened grid computing to the development of electricity. The system could mature in the same way utilities such as electricity and water have developed, said Sun's chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz. ""Why build your own grid when you can use ours for a buck an hour?"" he asked in a webcast launching Sun's quarterly Network Computing event in California. The company will have to persuade data centre managers to adopt a new model but it said it already had interest from customers in the oil, gas and financial services industries. Some of them want to book computing capacity of more than 5,000 processors each, Sun said. Mr Schwartz ran a demonstration of the service, showing how data could be processed in a protein folding experiment. Hundreds of servers were used simultaneously, working on the problem for a few seconds each. Although it only took a few seconds, the experiment cost $12 (£6.30) because it had used up 12 hour's worth of computing power. The Sun Grid relies on Solaris, the operating system owned by Sun. Initially it will house the grid in existing premises and will use idle servers to test software before shipping it to customers. It has not said how much the system will cost to develop but it already has a rival in IBM, which argues that its capacity on-demand service is cheaper than that offered by Sun." +tech,"Sony PSP console hits US in March US gamers will be able to buy Sony's PlayStation Portable from 24 March, but there is no news of a Europe debut. The handheld console will go on sale for $250 (£132) and the first million sold will come with Spider-Man 2 on UMD, the disc format for the machine. Sony has billed the machine as the Walkman of the 21st Century and has sold more than 800,000 units in Japan. The console (12cm by 7.4cm) will play games, movies and music and also offers support for wireless gaming. Sony is entering a market which has been dominated by Nintendo for many years. It launched its DS handheld in Japan and the US last year and has sold 2.8 million units. Sony has said it wanted to launch the PSP in Europe at roughly the same time as the US, but gamers will now fear that the launch has been put back. Nintendo has said it will release the DS in Europe from 11 March. ""It has gaming at its core, but it's not a gaming device. It's an entertainment device,"" said Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America." +tech,"Web radio takes Spanish rap global Spin the radio dial in the US and you are likely to find plenty of Spanish-language music. But what you will not find is much Spanish-language hip-hop. Hip-hop and rap are actually quite popular in the Spanish-speaking world, but local artists are having trouble marketing their work abroad. But now, a US company is bringing rap and hip-hop en espanol to computer users everywhere. Los Caballeros de Plan G are one of Mexico's hottest hip-hop acts. They have a devoted fan base in their native Monterrey. But most Mexican hip-hop fans, not to mention fans in most of the Spanish-speaking world, rarely get a chance to hear the group's tracks on the radio. ""You can't really just go on the radio and listen to hip-hop in Spanish... it's just not accessible,"" says Manuel Millan, a native of San Diego, California. ""It's really hard for the Spanish hip-hop scene to get into mainstream radio. You usually have a very commercialised sound and the groups are not really known around the country or around the world."" Millan and two friends set out to change that - they wanted to make groups like Los Caballeros de Plan G accessible to fans globally. Mainstream radio stations were not going to play this kind of music, and starting their own broadcast station was economically impossible. So, Millan and his friends launched a website called latinohiphopradio.com. The name says it all: it is web-based radio, devoted to the hottest Spanish language rap and hip-hop tracks. The site, which is in both in English and Spanish, is meant to be easy to navigate. All the user has to do is download a media player. There are no DJs. It is just music streamed over the net for free. Suddenly, with the help of the website, Los Caballeros de Plan G are producing ""export quality"" rap. The web might be just the right medium for Spanish language hip-hop right now. The genre is in what Millan calls its ""infant stage"". But the production values are improving, and artists such as Argentina's Mustafa Yoda are pushing to make it better and better. Mustafa Yoda is currently one of the hottest tracks on latinohiphopradio.com. ""He's considered the Eminem of Argentina, and the Latin American hip-hop scene,"" Millan says. ""He really hasn't had that much exposure as far as anywhere in the world, but he's definitely the one to look out for as far as becoming the next big thing in the Spanish-speaking world."" Currently, the Chilean group Makisa is also in latinohiphopradio.com's top 10, as is Cuban artist Papo Record. ""Every country's got it's own cultural differences and they try to put those into their own songs,"" Millan says. Latinohiphopradio.com has been up and running for a couple of months now. The site has listeners from across the Spanish speaking world. Right now, Mexico leads the way, accounting for about 50% of listeners. But web surfers in Spain are logging in as well - about 25% of the web station's traffic comes from there. That is not surprising as many consider Spain to be the leader in Spanish-language rap and hip-hop. Millan says that Spain is actually just behind the United States and France in terms of overall rap and hip-hop production. That might be changing, though, as more and more Latin American artists are finding audiences. But one Spaniard is still firmly in latinohiphopradio.com's top 10. His name is Tote King and Manuel Millan says that he is the hip-hop leader in Spain. On his track Uno Contra Veinte Emcees, or One Against 20 Emcees, Tote King shows he is well aware of that fact. ""It's basically him bragging that he's one of the best emcees in Spain right now,"" Millan says. ""And it's pretty much true. He has the tightest productions, and his rap flow is impeccable, it's amazing."" Latinohiphopradio.com is hoping to expand in the coming year. Millan says they want to include more music and more news from the world of Spanish language hip-hop and rap. Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production." +tech,"Parents face video game lessons Ways of ensuring that parents know which video games are suitable for children are to be considered by the games industry. The issue was discussed at a meeting between UK government officials, industry representatives and the British Board of Film Classification. It follows concerns that children may be playing games aimed at adults which include high levels of violence. In 2003, Britons spent £1,152m on games, more than ever before. And this Christmas, parents are expected to spend millions on video games and consoles. Violent games have been hit by controversy after the game Manhunt was blamed by the parents of 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah, who was stabbed to death in Leicester in February. His mother, Giselle, said her son's killer, Warren Leblanc, 17 - who was jailed for life in September - had mimicked behaviour in the game. Police investigating Stefan's murder dismissed its influence and said Manhunt was not part of its legal case. The issue of warnings on games for adults was raised on Sunday by Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt. This was the focus of the talks between government officials, representatives from the games industry and the British Board of Film Classification. ""Adults can make informed choices about what games to play. Children can't and they deserve to be protected,"" said Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell after the meeting. ""Industry will consider how to make sure parents know what games their children should and shouldn't play."" Roger Bennett, director general of Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, said: ""A number of initiatives were discussed at the meeting. ""They will be formulated to create specific proposals to promote greater understanding, recognition and awareness of the games rating system, ensuring that young people are not exposed to inappropriate content."" Among the possible measures could be a campaign to explain to parents that many games are made for an adult audience, as well as changes to the labelling of the games themselves. According to industry statistics, a majority of players are over 18, with the average age of a gamer being 29. Academics point out that there has not been any definitive research linking bloodthirsty games such as Manhunt with violent responses in players. In a report published this week for the Video Standards Council, Dr Guy Cumberbatch said: ""The research evidence on media violence causing harm to viewers is wildly exaggerated and does not stand up to scrutiny."" Dr Cumberbatch, head of the social policy think tank, the Communications Research Group, reviewed the studies on the issue. He concluded that there was an absence of convincing research that media violence caused harm." +tech,"US blogger fired by her airline A US airline attendant suspended over ""inappropriate images"" on her blog - web diary - says she has been fired. Ellen Simonetti, known as Queen of the Sky, wrote an anonymous semi-fictional account of her life in the sky. She was suspended by Delta in September. In a statement, she said she was initiating legal action against the airline for ""wrongful termination"". A Delta spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that Ms Simonetti was no longer an employee. Delta has repeatedly declined to elaborate on what it calls ""internal employee matters"". A spokesperson reiterated this position on Wednesday, confirming only that Ms Simonetti was no longer with the company. The spokesperson also confirmed that there were ""very clear rules"" attached to the unauthorised use of Delta branding, including uniforms. Ms Simonetti announced on her blog she had been fired on 1 November. She said in an official statement: ""As a result of my suspension and subsequent termination without cause by Delta Airlines I am moving forward with filing a discrimination complaint with the Federal Government EEOC [US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]."" She added she had also hired a Texas-based law firm to initiate legal action for ""wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages."" Ms Simonetti told the BBC News website she had received no warning or further explanation when she was suspended on 25 September. Queen of the Sky has received a lot of support and advice from the global blogging community since news of her suspension was brought to light on the BBC News website and others. Her story has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging community about conflicts of interest, employment law and free speech on personal websites. The blog, which she started in January as a way of getting over her mother's death, contains a mix of fictional and non-fictional accounts. Queen of the Sky developed over the months as a character in her own right, according to Ms Simonetti. In the postings, she made up fictional names for cities and other companies she mentioned to protect anonymity. But some postings contained images of herself in uniform. Of the 10 or so images only one showed Ms Simonetti's flight ""wings"". She removed them as soon as she was informed of her suspension. ""I never meant it as something to harm my company and don't understand how they think it did harm them,"" Ms Simonetti said. A legal expert in the US speculated that Delta might be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images were posted. Delta has been hit recently by pressures of rising fuel costs and fierce competition. It has said it needs to cut between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs and reduce costs by $5bn (£2.7bn) a year. Analysts had warned recently that the airline might have to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy prevention. Last week, it struck a $1bn cost-cutting deal with its pilots which could save it from bankruptcy. The deal would see pilots accept a 32% pay cut in return for the right to buy 30 million Delta shares, unions said. And on Monday, it negotiated a deal to defer about $135m in debt which was due next year, until 2007. The airline also said it had agreed the terms of a $600m loan from American Express." +tech,"US duo in first spam conviction A brother and sister in the US have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to AOL subscribers. It is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors. Jurors in Virginia recommended that the man, Jeremy Jaynes, serve nine years in prison and that his sister, Jessica DeGroot, be fined $7,500. They were convicted under a state law that bars the sending of bulk e-mails using fake addresses. They will be formally sentenced next year. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted. Prosecutors said Jaynes was ""a snake oil salesman in a new format"", using the internet to peddle useless wares, news agency Associated Press reported. A ""Fed-Ex refund processor"" was supposed to allow people to earn $75 an hour working from home. Another item on sale was an ""internet history eraser"". His sister helped him process credit card payments. Jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales, prosecutors said. ""He's been successful ripping people off all these years,"" AP quoted prosecutor Russell McGuire as saying. Jaynes was also found guilty of breaking a state law which prohibits the sending of more than 100,000 e-mails in 30 days, Virginia State Attorney General Jerry Kilgore reportedly said. Prosecutors had asked for 15 years in jail for Jaynes, and a jail term for his sister. But Jaynes' lawyer David Oblon called the nine-year recommended term ""outrageous"" and said his client believed he was innocent. He pointed out that all three of the accused lived in North Carolina and were unaware of the Virginia state law. Spam messages are estimated to account for at least 60% of all e-mails sent." +tech,"Hotspot users gain free net calls People using wireless net hotspots will soon be able to make free phone calls as well as surf the net. Wireless provider Broadreach and net telephony firm Skype are rolling out a service at 350 hotspots around the UK this week. Users will need a Skype account - downloadable for free - and they will then be able to make net calls via wi-fi without paying for net access. Skype allows people to make free PC-based calls to other Skype users. Users of the system can also make calls to landlines and mobiles for a fee. The system is gaining in popularity and now has 28 million users around the world. Its paid service - dubbed Skype Out - has so far attracted 940,000 users. It plans to add more paid services with forthcoming launches of video conferencing, voice mail and Skype In, a service which would allow users to receive phone calls from landlines and mobiles. London-based software developer Connectotel has unveiled software that will expand the SMS functions of Skype, allowing users to send text messages to mobile phones from the service. Broadreach Networks has around two million users and hotspots in places such as Virgin Megastores, the Travelodge chain of hotels and all London's major rail terminals. The company is due to launch wi-fi on Virgin Trains later in the year. ""Skype's success at spreading the world about internet telephony is well-known and we are delighted to be offering free access to Skype users in our hotspots,"" commented Broadreach chief executive Magnus McEwen-King." +tech,"File-swappers ready new network Legal attacks on websites that help people swap pirated films have forced the development of a system that could be harder to shut down. One site behind the success of the BitTorrent file-swapping system is producing its own software that avoids the pitfalls of the earlier program. A test version of the new Exeem program will be released in late January. But doubts remain about the new networks ability to ensure files being swapped are ""quality copies"". In late December movie studios launched a legal campaign against websites that helped people swap pirated movies using the BitTorrent network. The legal campaign worked because of the way that BitTorrent is organised. That file-sharing system relies on links called ""trackers"" that point users to others happy to share the file they are looking for. Shutting down sites that listed trackers crippled the BitTorrent network. One of the sites shut down by the legal campaign was suprnova.org which helped boost the popularity of the BitTorrent system by checking that trackers led to the movies or TV programmes they claimed to. Now the man behind suprnova.org, who goes by the nickname Sloncek, is preparing to release software for a new file-swapping network dubbed Exeem. In an interview with Novastream web radio, Sloncek said Exeem would combine ideas from the BitTorrent and Kazaa file-sharing systems. Like BitTorrent, Exeem will have trackers that help point people toward the file they want. Like Kazaa these trackers will be held by everyone. There will be no centrally maintained list. This, said Sloncek, should make the system less vulnerable to legal action aimed at stopping people swapping pirated movies and music. The Exeem software has been under development for a few months and is currently being tested by a closed group of users. An early public version of the software should be available before February. Sloncek said that currently only a Windows version of the software was in development. There were no plans for a Linux or Mac version. He said that costs of writing the software will be paid for by adverts appearing in the finished version of the program. Despite Suprnova administrator Sloncek's involvement with Exeem, the basic technology appears to have been developed by a firm called Swarm Systems that is based on Caribbean island Saint Kitts and Nevis. Users of the Exeem system will be able to rate files being swapped to help stop the spread of fake files, Sloncek told Novastream. Dr Johan Pouwelse, a researcher at the Delft University of Technology who studies peer-to-peer networks, said Exeem was the next evolution in file-sharing systems. But, he said, it would struggle to be as popular as BitTorrent and Suprnova because early versions were not taking enough care to make sure good copies of files were being shared. ""Exeem cannot prevent pollution,"" he said. ""The rating system in Exeem seems flawed because it is easy to insert both fake files and fake ratings,"" he said. Studies have shown that organisations working for record labels and movie studios have worked to undermine Kazaa by putting in fakes. By contrast moderators on Suprnova made sure files being shared were high quality. ""The moderators are the difference between having a system that works and one that's full of crap like Kazaa,"" he said. ""There is a fundamental tension between distribution and integrity,"" he said. Mr Pouwelse said that future versions of file-sharing systems are likely to incorporate some kind of distributed reputation system that lets moderators prove who they are to the network and rate which files are worth downloading. When big files were being shared moderation systems were key, said Mr Pouwelse. He added that the legal attacks on BitTorrent had driven people away from sites such as Suprnova but many users had simply migrated to other tracker listing sites many of which have seen huge increases in traffic. ""It's hard to compete with free,"" he said. No-one from the Motion Picture Association of America was immediately available for comment on the file-sharing development." +tech,"Supercomputer breaks speed record The US is poised to push Japan off the top of the supercomputing chart with IBM's prototype Blue Gene/L machine. It is being assembled for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a US Department of Energy (DOE) lab. DOE test results show that Blue Gene/L has managed speeds of 70.72 teraflops. The current top machine, Japan's NEC Earth Simulator, clocks up 35.86. Due next week, the Top 500 list officially charts the fastest computers in the world. It is announced every six months and is worked out using an officially recognised mathematical speed test called Linpack which measures calculations per second. The speeds will most likely make it the fastest computer system on the planet, yet the chip technology powering the machine is the kind which can be found in familiar devices such as games consoles. The US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham confirmed that the machine had reached the breakneck speed, according to the Linpack benchmark. Until the official list is published, however, Blue Gene/L's position will not be confirmed, and there are expected to be some other new entries. But the test results raise the bar of supercomputing enormously and signal a remarkable achievement. Surpassing the 40 trillion calculations per second (teraflop) mark has been considered a landmark for some time. The IBM Blue Gene/L is only a prototype and is one 5th the speed of the full version, due to be completed for the Livermore labs in 2005. Its peak theoretical performance is expected to be 360 teraflops, and will fit into 64 full racks. It will also cut down on the amount of heat generated by the massive power, a big problem for supercomputers. The final machine will help scientists work out the safety, security and reliability requirements for the US's nuclear weapons stockpile, without the need for underground nuclear testing. The Earth Simulator has held on to the top spot since June 2002. It is dedicated to climate modelling and simulating seismic activity. But in September, IBM said that another Blue Gene/L machine clocked up 36.01 teraflops, marginally surpassing the Earth Simulator's performance. This was achieved during internal testing at IBM's production facility in Rochester, Minnesota, though, so was not an official record. Another giant to enter the fray is Silicon Graphics' Columbia supercomputer based at Nasa's Ames Research Center in California. It would be used to model flight missions, climate research, and aerospace engineering. The Linux-based machine was reported to have reached a top speed of 42.7 teraflops in October. Supercomputers are hugely important for working out very complex problems across science and society. Their massive simulation and processing power means they can improve the accuracy of weather forecasts, help design better cars, and improve disease diagnosis. IBM's senior vice president of technology and manufacturing, Nick Donofrio, believes that by 2006, Blue Gene will be capable of petaflop computing. This means it would be capable of doing 1,000 trillion operations a second. ""When you get a computer as large as a petaflop, you can start to think of simulations that might complement the physical world,"" Mr Donofrio recently told the BBC News website. ""You can start to be more proactive, more interactive and more innovative."" One area where Mr Donofrio sees supercomputing - and Blue Gene machines in particular - as crucial is health. He believes the machines can help scientists understand one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century: protein folding. ""Health is one of the most important problems, not just mapping the human genome, but also protein structures. ""We are a great believer in simulation. It gives you another tool,"" he said. Once the structures of proteins are understood fully, then drugs can be tailor-made to fight diseases more effectively. Compared with the current fastest supercomputers, Blue Gene is designed to consume one 15th the power and be 10 times more compact. Since the first supercomputer, the Cray-1, was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976, computational speed has leaped 500,000 times. The Cray-1 was capable of 80 megaflops (80 million operations a second). The Blue Gene/L machine that will be completed next year will be five million times faster. Started in 1993, the Top 500 list is decided by a group of computer science academics from around the world. It is presented at the International Supercomputer Conference in Pittsburgh." +tech,"Gates opens biggest gadget fair Bill Gates has opened the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, saying that gadgets are working together more to help people manage multimedia content around the home and on the move. Mr Gates made no announcement about the next generation Xbox games console, which many gadget lovers had been hoping for. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet and runs from 6 to 9 January. The latest trends in digital imaging, storage technologies, thinner flat screen and high-definition TVs, wireless and portable technologies, gaming, and broadband technologies will all be on show over the three days. Mr Gates said that a lot of work had been done in the last year to sort out usability and compatibility issues between devices to make it easier to share content. ""We predicted at the beginning of the decade that the digital approach would be taken for granted - but there was a lot of work to do. ""What is fun is to come to the show and see what has been done. It is going even faster than we expected and we are excited about it."" He highlighted technology trends over the last year that had driven the need to make technology and transferring content across difference devices ""seamless"". ""Gaming is becoming more of a social thing and all of the social genres will use this rich communications. ""And if we look at what has been going on with e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, entertainment - if we can make this seamless, we can create something quite phenomenal."" Mr Gates said the PC, like Microsoft's Media Centre, had a central role to play in how people would be making the most out of audio, video and images but it would not be the only device. ""It is the way all these devices work together which will make the difference,"" he said. He also cited the success of the Microsoft Xbox video game Halo 2, released in November, which pushed Xbox console sales past PlayStation in the last two months of 2004 for the first time in 2004. The game, which makes use of the Xbox Live online games service, has sold 6.23 million copies since its release. ""People are online and playing together and that really points to the future,"" he said. Several partnerships with device and hardware manufacturers were highlighted during Mr Gates' speech, but there were few major groundbreaking new technology announcements. Although most of these affected largely US consumers, the technologies highlighted the kind of trends to come. These included what Mr Gates called an ""ecosystem of technologies"", like SBC's IPTV, a high-definition TV and digital video recorder that worked via broadband to give high-quality and fast TV. There were also other deals announced which meant that people could watch and control content over portable devices and mobile phones. CES features several more key speeches from major technology players, such as Intel and Hewlett Packard, as well as parallel conference sessions on gaming, storage, broadband and the future of digital music. About 50,000 new products will be unleashed at the tech-fest, which is the largest yet. Consumer electronics and gadgets had a phenomenal year in 2004, according to figures released by CES organisers the CEA on Tuesday. The gadget explosion signalled the strongest growth yet in the US in 2004. That trend is predicted to continue with wholesale shipments of consumer technologies expected to grow by 11% again in 2005." +tech,"Digital UK driven by net and TV The UK's adoption of digital TV and broadband has helped make it the fourth most digitally-savvy nation in Europe, according a report by Jupiter Research. But the UK still lags in terms of broadband speeds compared to others. The most digitally sophisticated Europeans, in terms of use of digital goods such as mobiles, TV, net and cameras, are the Scandinavians. About 14 million households in the UK, 60%, have digital TV, according to the communications regulator Ofcom. The least digital of the European nations was Greece, in 17th position, according to the Digital Life Index. Scandinavian countries Sweden, Denmark and Norway came out top in the report, but there were some differences in technology trends. ""The European Digital Life Index demonstrates that digital lifestyles are common today, but across Europe there is no single digital lifestyle,"" said Nate Elliott, Jupiter analyst. ""Consumers adopt different digital products and services in different countries."" Although there are differences between different European nations, the gap between them is closing, the report concluded. The trend for gadgets and technologies, such as digital video recorders (DVR), broadband, and video-on-demand will continue across Europe, he added. More than six million UK households now have broadband net. By the middle of 2005, it is estimated that 50% of all UK net users will be on broadband. Cable company NTL is trialling faster ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) broadband technology using ADSL2+ which can give speeds of 18Mbps compared to current speeds which are usually around 1Mbps or 2Mbps. BT is set to trial the technology later in the year. Super-fast broadband will be necessary to the delivery of services such as high-definition TV (HDTV) and video-on-demand, already very popular in France and other European countries. A separate survey by GMIPoll last week found that, globally, people's appetite for technology and gadgets continues unabated. The poll of 20,000 people in 20 countries found that 59% wanted more technology. The computer was the ""must-have"" gadget for most people (75%). The TV took second place (67%), while the mobile was ranked in third position with 54%. Digital cameras were the most popular choice of gadget for 2005, said the survey, with nearly 40% choosing this over wireless, home printing and DVR technologies. However, only 25% of Britons said a digital camera would be their top gadget purchase of the year. Almost a quarter, 22%, said they would be buying some sort of wireless device. Forty-four percent said they would be buying something ""other"". This might include digital music players, or gaming devices. The Nintendo DS, Sony's PSP and Gizmondo all hit the shops in 2005, and the first of the next generation of games consoles, Xbox 2, is set to launch later this year. Jupiter Research's index is calculated using 40 different variables across net users, digital TV adoption, wireless and mobile, online activity, and digital devices." +tech,"Loyalty cards idea for TV addicts Viewers could soon be rewarded for watching TV as loyalty cards come to a screen near you. Any household hooked up to Sky could soon be using smartcards in conjunction with their set-top boxes. Broadcasters such as Sky and ITV could offer viewers loyalty points in return for watching a particular channel or programme. Sky will activate a spare slot on set-top boxes in January, marketing magazine New Media Age reported. Sky set-top boxes have two slots. One is for the viewer's decryption card, while the other has been dormant until now. Loyalty cards have become a common addition to most wallets, as High Street brands rush to keep customers with a series of incentives offered by store cards. Now similar schemes look set to enter the highly competitive world of multi-channel TV. Viewers who stay loyal to a particular TV channel could be rewarded by free TV content or freebies from retail partners. Broadcasters aiming content at children could offer smartcards which gives membership to exclusive content and clubs. ""Parents could pre-pay for some content, as a kind of TV pocket money card,"" said Nigel Whalley, managing director of media consultancy Decipher. Viewers could even be rewarded for watching ad breaks, with ideas such as ad bingo being touted by firms keen to make money out of the new market, said Mr Whalley. Credit cards that have been chipped could be used in set-top boxes to pay for movies, gambling and gaming. ""The idea of an intelligent card in boxes offers a lot of possibilities. It will be down to the ingenuity of the content players,"" said Mr Whalley. For the BBC, revenue-generating activity will be of little interest but the new development may prompt changes to Freeview set-top boxes, said Mr Whalley. Currently most Freeview boxes do not have a slot which would allow viewers to use a smartcard. Some 7.4 million households have Sky boxes and Sky is hoping to increase this to 10 million by 2010. Loyalty cards could play a role in this, particularly in reducing the number of people who cancel their Sky subscriptions, said Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research." +tech,"Speech takes on search engines A Scottish firm is looking to attract web surfers with a search engine that reads out results. Called Speegle, it has the look and feel of a normal search engine, with the added feature of being able to read out the results. Scottish speech technology firm CEC Systems launched the site in November. But experts have questioned whether talking search engines are of any real benefit to people with visual impairments. The Edinburgh-based firm CEC has married speech technology with ever-popular internet search. The ability to search is becoming increasingly crucial to surfers baffled by the huge amount of information available on the web. According to search engine Ask Jeeves, around 80% of surfers visit search engines as their first port of call on the net. People visiting Speegle can select one of three voices to read the results of a query or summarise news stories from sources such as the BBC and Reuters. ""It is still a bit robotic and can make a few mistakes but we are never going to have completely natural sounding voices and it is not bad,"" said Speegle founder Gordon Renton. ""The system is ideal for people with blurred vision or for those that just want to search for something in the background while they do something else. ""We are not saying that it will be suitable for totally blind people, although the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) is looking at the technology,"" he added. But Julie Howell, digital policy manager at the RNIB, expressed doubts over whether Speegle and similar sites added anything to blind people's experience of the web. ""There are a whole lot of options like this springing up on the web and one has to think carefully about what the market is going to be,"" she said. ""Blind people have specialised screen readers available to them which will do the job these technologies do in a more sophisticated way,"" she added. The site uses a technology dubbed PanaVox, which takes web text and converts it into synthesised speech. In the past speech technology has only been compatible with broadband because of the huge files it downloads but CEC says its compression technology means it will also work on slower dial-up connections. Visitors to Speegle may notice that the look and feel of the site bears more than a passing resemblance to the better known, if silent, search engine Google. Google has no connection with Speegle and the use of bright colours is simply to make the site more visible for those with visual impairments, said Mr Renton. ""It is not a rip-off. We are doing something that Google does not do and is not planning to do and there is truth in the saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,"" he said. Speegle is proving popular with those learning English in countries such as Japan and China. ""The site is bombarded by people just listening to the words. The repetition could be useful although they may all end up talking like robots,"" said Mr Renton." +tech,"Can Yahoo dominate next decade? Yahoo has reached the grand old age of 10 and, in internet years, that is a long time. For many, Yahoo remains synonymous with the internet - a veteran that managed to ride the dot-com wave and the subsequent crash and maintain itself as one of the web's top brands. But for others there is another, newer net icon threatening to overshadow Yahoo in the post dot-com world - Google. The veteran and the upstart have plenty in common - Yahoo was the first internet firm to offer initial public shares and Google was arguably the most watched IPO (Initial Public Offering) of the post-dot-com era. Both began life as search engines although in 2000, when Yahoo chose Google to power its search facility while it concentrated on its web portal business, it was very much Yahoo that commanded press attention. In recent years, the column inches have stacked up in Google's favour as the search engine also diversifies with the launch of services such as Gmail, its shopping channel Froogle and Google News. For Jupiter analyst Olivier Beauvillain, Yahoo's initial decision to put its investment on search on hold was an error. ""Yahoo was busy building a portal and while it was good to diversify they made a big mistake in outsourcing search to Google,"" he said ""They thought Google would just be a technology provider but it has become a portal in its own right and a direct competitor,"" he added. He believes Yahoo failed to see how crucial search would become to internet users, something it has rediscovered in recent years. ""It is interesting that in these last few years, it has refocused on search following the success of Google,"" he said. But for Allen Weiner, a research director at analyst firm Gartner and someone who has followed Yahoo's progress since the early years, the future of search is not going to be purely about the technology powering it. ""Search technology is valuable but the next generation of search is going to be about premium content and the interface that users have to that content,"" he said. He believes the rivalry between Google and Yahoo is overblown and instead thinks the real battle is going to be between Yahoo and MSN. It is a battle that Yahoo is currently winning, he believes. ""Microsoft has amazing assets including software capability and a global name but it has yet to show me it can create a rival product to Yahoo,"" he said. He is convinced Yahoo remains the single most important brand on the world wide web. ""I believe Yahoo is the seminal brand on the web. If you are looking for a text book definition of web portal then Yahoo is it,"" he said. It has achieved this dominance, Mr Weiner believes, by a canny combination of acquisitions such as that of Inktomi and Overture, and by avoiding direct involvement in either content creation or internet access. That is not to say that Yahoo hasn't had its dark days. When the dot-com bubble burst, it lost one-third of its revenue in a single year, bore a succession of losses and saw its market value fall from a peak of $120bn to $4.6bn at one point. Crucial to its survival was the decision to replace chief executive Tim Koogle with Terry Semel in May 2001, thinks Mr Weiner. His business savvy, coupled with the technical genius of founder Jerry Yang has proved a winning combination, he says. So as the internet giant emerges from its first decade as a survivor, how will it fare as it enters its teenage years? ""The game is theirs to lose and MSN is the only one that stands in the way of Yahoo's domination,"" predicted Mr Weiner. Nick Hazel, Yahoo's head of consumer services in the UK, thinks the fact that Yahoo has grown up with the first wave of the internet generation will stand it in good stead. Search will be a key focus as will making Yahoo Messenger available on mobiles, forging new broadband partnerships such as that with BT in the UK and continuing to provide a range of services beyond the desktop, he says. Mr Weiner thinks Yahoo's vision of becoming the ultimate gateway to the web will move increasing towards movies and television as more and more people get broadband access. ""It will spread its portal wings to expand into rich media,"" he predicts." +tech,"Ultra fast wi-fi nears completion Ultra high speed wi-fi connections moved closer to reality on Thursday when Intel said it would list standards for the technology later this year. Intel is developing ultra-wideband technology (UWB) which would allow fast data transfer but with low power needs. UWB is tipped to be used for wireless transfer of video in the home or office and for use in wireless USB devices which need low power consumption. A rival UWB standard is being developed by Motorola and chip firm Freescale. At the mobile phone conference 3GSM in Cannes last month Samsung demonstrated a phone using UWB technology from Freescale. At a press conference on Thursday Intel announced that two UWB groups, WiMedia Alliance and Multi-band OFDM alliance had merged to support the technology. UWB makes it possible to stream huge amounts of data through the air over short distances. One of the more likely uses of UWB is to make it possible to send DVD quality video images wirelessly to TV screens or to let people beam music to media players around their home. The technology has the potential to transmit hundreds of megabits of data per second. ""Consumer electronics companies want UWB to replace cables and simplify set-up,"" Jeff Ravencraft, technology strategist at Intel and chairman of the Wireless USB Promoter Group, told technology site ZDNet. ""Thirty percent of consumer electronics returns are because the consumer couldn't set up the equipment."" The first products using UWB technology from Intel are due to hit the market later this year. Initially they will be products using wireless USB 2.0 connections. UWB could also be used to create so-called Personal Area Networks that let a person's gadgets quickly and easily swap data amongst themselves. The technology works over a range up to 10 metres and uses billions of short radio pulses every second to carry data. Intel says the benefit of UWB is that it does not interfere with other wi-fi technologies already in use such as wi-fi, wimax and mobile phone networks." +tech,"Internet boom for gift shopping Cyberspace is becoming a very popular destination for Christmas shoppers. Forecasts predict that British people will spend £4bn buying gifts online during the festive season, an increase of 64% on 2003. Surveys also show that the average amount that people are spending is rising, as is the range of goods that they are happy to buy online. Savvy shoppers are also using the net to find the hot presents that are all but sold out in High Street stores. Almost half of the UK population now shop online according to figures collected by the Interactive Media in Retail Group which represents web retailers. About 85% of this group, 18m people, expect to do a lot of their Christmas gift buying online this year, reports the industry group. On average each shopper will spend £220 and Britons lead Europe in their affection for online shopping. Almost a third of all the money spent online this Christmas will come out of British wallets and purses compared to 29% from German shoppers and only 4% from Italian gift buyers. James Roper, director of the IMRG, said shoppers were now much happier to buy so-called big ticket items such as LCD television sets and digital cameras. Mr Roper added that many retailers were working hard to reassure consumers that online shopping was safe and that goods ordered as presents would arrive in time for Christmas. He advised consumers to give shops a little more time than usual to fulfil orders given that online buying is proving so popular. A survey by Hostway suggests that many men prefer to shop online to avoid the embarrassment of buying some types of presents, such as lingerie, for wives and girlfriends. Much of this online shopping is likely to be done during work time, according to research carried out by security firm Saint Bernard Software. The research reveals that up to two working days will be lost by staff who do their shopping via their work computer. Worst offenders will be those in the 18-35 age bracket, suggests the research, who will spend up to five hours per week in December browsing and buying at online shops. Iggy Fanlo, chief revenue officer at Shopping.com, said that the growing numbers of people using broadband was driving interest in online shopping. ""When you consider narrowband and broadband the conversion to sale is two times higher,"" he said. Higher speeds meant that everything happened much faster, he said, which let people spend time browsing and finding out about products before they buy. The behaviour of online shoppers was also changing, he said. ""The single biggest reason people went online before this year was price,"" he said. ""The number one reason now is convenience."" ""Very few consumers click on the lowest price,"" he said. ""They are looking for good prices and merchant reliability."" Consumer comments and reviews were also proving popular with shoppers keen to find out who had the most reliable customer service. Data collected by eBay suggests that some smart shoppers are getting round the shortages of hot presents by buying them direct through the auction site. According to eBay UK there are now more than 150 Robosapiens remote control robots for sale via the site. The Robosapiens toy is almost impossible to find in online and offline stores. Similarly many shoppers are turning to eBay to help them get hold of the hard-to-find slimline PlayStation 2, which many retailers are only selling as part of an expensive bundle. The high demand for the PlayStation 2 has meant that prices for it are being driven up. In shops the PS2 is supposed to sell for £104.99. In some eBay UK auctions the price has risen to more than double this figure. Many people are also using eBay to get hold of gadgets not even released in this country. The portable version of the PlayStation has only just gone on sale in Japan yet some enterprising eBay users are selling the device to UK gadget fans." +tech,"Screensaver tackles spam websites Net users are getting the chance to fight back against spam websites Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail. Lycos hopes it will make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out. The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data. ""We've never really solved the big problem of spam which is that its so damn cheap and easy to do,"" said Malte Pollmann, spokesman for Lycos Europe. ""In the past we have built up the spam filtering systems for our users,"" he said, ""but now we are going to go one step further."" ""We've found a way to make it much higher cost for spammers by putting a load on their servers."" By getting thousands of people to download and use the screensaver, Lycos hopes to get spamming websites constantly running at almost full capacity. Mr Pollmann said there was no intention to stop the spam websites working by subjecting them with too much data to cope with. He said the screensaver had been carefully written to ensure that the amount of traffic it generated from each user did not overload the web. ""Every single user will contribute three to four megabytes per day,"" he said, ""about one MP3 file."" But, he said, if enough people sign up spamming websites could be force to pay for gigabytes of traffic every single day. Lycos did not want to use e-mail to fight back, said Mr Pollmann. ""That would be fighting one bad thing with another bad thing,"" he said. The sites being targeted are those mentioned in spam e-mail messages and which sell the goods and services on offer. Typically these sites are different to those that used to send out spam e-mail and they typically only get a few thousand visitors per day. The list of sites that the screensaver will target is taken from real-time blacklists generated by organisations such as Spamcop. To limit the chance of mistakes being made, Lycos is using people to ensure that the sites are selling spam goods. As these sites rarely use advertising to offset hosting costs, the burden of high-bandwidth bills could make spam too expensive, said Mr Pollmann. Sites will also slow down under the weight of data requests. Early results show that response times of some sites have deteriorated by up to 85%. Users do not have to be registered users of Lycos to download and use the screensaver. While working, the screensaver shows the websites that are being bothered with requests for data. The screensaver is due to be launched across Europe on 1 December and before now has only been trialled in Sweden. Despite the soft launch, Mr Pollmann said that the screensaver had been downloaded more than 20,000 times in the last four days. ""There's a huge user demand to not only filter spam day-by-day but to do something more,"" he said ""Before now users have never had the chance to be a bit more offensive.""" +tech,"Ask Jeeves joins web log market Ask Jeeves has bought the Bloglines website to improve the way it handles content from web journals or blogs. The Bloglines site has become hugely popular as it gives users one place in which to read, search and share all the blogs they are interested in. Ask Jeeves said it was not planning to change Bloglines but would use the 300 million articles it has archived to round out its index of the web. How much Ask Jeeves paid for Bloglines was not revealed. Bloglines has become popular because it lets users build a list of the blogs they want to follow without having to visit each journal site individually. To do this it makes use of a technology known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) that many blogs have adopted to let other sites know when new entries are made on their journals. The acquisition follows similar moves by other search sites. Google acquired Pyra Labs, makers of the Blogger software, in 2003. In 2004 MSN introduced its own blog system and Yahoo has tweaked its technology to do a better job of handling blog entries. Jim Lanzone, vice president of search properties at Ask Jeeves in the US, said it did not acquire Bloglines just to get a foothold in the blog publishing world. He said Ask Jeeves was much more interested in helping people find information they were looking for rather than helping them write it. ""The universe of readers is vastly larger than the universe of writers,"" he said. Mr Lanzone said the acquisition would sit well with Ask's My Jeeves service which lets people customise their own web experience and build up a personal collection of useful links. ""Search engines are about discovering information for the first time and RSS is the ideal way to keep track of and monitor those sites,"" he said. It would also help drive information and entries from blogs to the portals that Ask Jeeves operates. There would be no instant sweeping changes to Bloglines, said Mr Lanzone. ""Our intent is to take our time to figure out the right business model not to try to monetise it right away,"" he said. Though Mr Lanzone added that Ask Jeeves would be helping organise the database of 300m blog entries Bloglines holds with its own net indexing technology. ""Being able to search the blogosphere as one corpus of information will be very useful in its own right,"" said Mr Lanzone. Rumours about the acquisition were broken by the Napsterization weblog which said it got the hint from Ask Jeeves insiders." +tech,"New Year's texting breaks record A mobile phone was as essential to the recent New Year's festivities as a party mood and Auld Lang Syne, if the number of text messages sent is anything to go by. Between midnight on 31 December and midnight on 1 January, 133m text messages were sent in the UK. It is the highest ever daily total recorded by the Mobile Data Association (MDA). It represents an increase of 20% on last year's figures. Wishing a Happy New Year to friends and family via text message has become a staple ingredient of the year's largest party. While texting has not quite overtaken the old-fashioned phone call, it is heading that way, said Mike Short, chairman of the MDA. ""In the case of a New Years Eve party, texting is useful if you are unable to speak or hear because of a noisy background,"" he said. There were also lots of messages sent internationally, where different time zones made traditional calls unfeasible, he said. The British love affair with texting shows no signs of abating and the annual total for 2004 is set to exceed 25bn, according to MDA. The MDA predicts that 2005 could see more than 30bn text messages sent in the UK. ""We thought texting might slow down as MMS took off but we have seen no sign of that,"" said Mr Short. More and more firms are seeing the value in mobile marketing. Restaurants are using text messages to tell customers about special offers and promotions. Anyone in need of a bit of January cheer now the party season is over, can use a service set up by Jongleurs comedy club, which will text them a joke a day. For those still wanting to drink and be merry as the long days of winter draw in, the Good Pub Guide offers a service giving the location and address of their nearest recommended pub. Users need to text the word GOODPUB to 85130. If they want to turn the evening into a pub crawl, they simply text the word NEXT. And for those still standing at the end of the night, a taxi service in London is available via text, which will locate the nearest available black cab." +tech,"Hi-tech posters guide commuters Interactive posters are helping Londoners get around the city during the festive season. When interrogated with a mobile phone, the posters pass on a number that people can call to get information about the safest route home. Sited at busy underground stations, the posters are fitted with an infra-red port that can beam information directly to a handset. The posters are part of Transport for London's Safe Travel at Night campaign. The campaign is intended to help Londoners, especially women, avoid trouble on the way home. In particular it aims to cut the number of sexual assaults by drivers of unlicensed minicabs. Nigel Marson, head of group marketing at Transport for London (TfL), said the posters were useful because they work outside the mobile phone networks. ""They can work in previously inaccessible areas such as underground stations which is obviously a huge advantage in a campaign of this sort,"" he said. The posters will automatically beam information to any phone equipped with an IR port that is held close to the glowing red icon on the poster. ""We started with infra-red because there are a huge number IR phones out there,"" said Rachel Harker, spokeswoman for Hypertag which makes the technology fitted to the posters. ""It's a well established technology."" Hypertag is also now making a poster that uses short-range Bluetooth radio technology to swap data. Although the hypertags in the posters only pass on a phone number, Ms Harker said they can pass on almost any form of data including images, ring tones and video clips. She said that there are no figures for how many people are using the posters but a previous campaign run for a cosmetics firm racked up 12,500 interactions. ""Before we ran a campaign there was a big question mark of: 'If we build it will they come?'"" she said. ""Now we know that, yes, they will."" The TfL campaign using the posters will run until Boxing Day." +tech,"Creator of first Apple Mac dies Jef Raskin, head of the team behind the first Macintosh computer, has died. Mr Raskin was one of the first employees at Apple and made many of the design decisions that made the Mac so distinctive when it was first released. He led the team that decided to use a graphical interface and mouse that let people navigate around the computer by pointing and clicking. The 1984 release of the Mac reflected Mr Raskin's belief that good design should make computers easy to use. Mr Raskin joined Apple in 1978 as employee number 31, initially to lead the company's publications department. However, in 1979 he was put in charge of a small team to design a computer that lived up to his idea of a machine that was cheap, aimed at consumers rather than computer professionals and was very easy to use. The result was the 1984 Macintosh that did away with the then common text-based interface in favour of one based around graphics that resembled a virtual desktop and used folders and documents. Users navigated around the machine using a mouse and by pointing, clicking and dragging. Although now in common use in almost all computers, these methods were pioneering when first used in the Macintosh. The GUI was developed by Xerox PARC, and used in its Star machine. But the acceptance of the interface did not truly begin until the concept was developed for use by Apple in its pioneering Lisa computer. ""His role on the Macintosh was the initiator of the project, so it wouldn't be here if it weren't for him,"" said Andy Hertzfeld, an early Macintosh team member. Although Mr Raskin drove the team that created the Macintosh he did not stay at Apple to see it released. In 1981 he was removed from the project following a dispute with Apple's mercurial boss Steve Jobs. In 1982, Mr Raskin left Apple entirely. The Macintosh was reputedly named after Mr Raskin's favourite apple, though the name was changed slightly following a trademark dispute with another company. After leaving Apple, Mr Raskin founded another company called Information Appliance and continued to work on better ways to interface with computers. He was also an accomplished musician, played three instruments and conducted San Francisco's Chamber Opera Society. Mr Raskin was diagnosed in December 2004 with pancreatic cancer and died on 26 February at his home in California." +tech,"Peer-to-peer nets 'here to stay' Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are here to stay, and are on the verge of being exploited by commercial media firms, says a panel of industry experts. Once several high-profile legal cases against file-sharers are resolved this year, firms will be very keen to try and make money from P2P technology. The expert panel probed the future of P2P at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier in January. The first convictions for P2P piracy were handed out in the US in January. William Trowbridge and Michael Chicoine pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software. Since the first successful file-sharing network Napster was forced to close down, the entertainment industry has been nervous and critical of P2P technology, blaming it for falling sales and piracy. But that is going to change very soon, according to the panel. The music and film industries have started some big legal cases against owners of legitimate P2P networks - which are not illegal in themselves - and of individuals accused of distributing pirated content over networks. But they have slowly realised that P2P is a good way to distribute content, said Travis Kalanick, founder and chairman of P2P network Red Swoosh, and soon they are all going to want a slice of it. They are just waiting to come up with ""business models"" that work for them, which includes digital rights management and copy-protection standards. But, until the legal actions are resolved, experimentation with P2P cannot not happen, said Michael Weiss, president of StreamCast Networks. Remembering the furore around VCRs when they first came out, Mr Weiss said: ""Old media always tries to stop new media. ""When they can't stop it, they try to control it. Then they figure out how to make money and they always make a lot of money."" Once the courts decided that the VCR in itself was not an illegal technology, the film studios turned it into an extremely lucrative business. In August 2004, the San Francisco-based US Court of Appeals ruled in favour of Grokster and StreamCast, two file-sharing networks. The court said they were essentially in the same position that Sony was in the 1980s VCR battle, and said that the networks themselves could not be deemed as illegal. P2P networks usually do not rely on dedicated servers for the transfer of files. Instead it uses direct connections between computers - or clients. There are now many different types of P2P systems than work in different ways. P2P nets can be used to share any kind of file, like photos, free software, licensed music and any other digital content. The BBC has already decided to embrace the technology. It aims to offer most of its own programmes for download this year and it will use P2P technology to distribute them. The files would be locked seven days after a programme aired making rights management easier to control. But the technology is still demonised and misunderstood by many. The global entertainment industry says more than 2.6 billion copyrighted music files are downloaded every month, and about half a million films are downloaded a day. Legal music download services, like Apple iTunes, Napster, have rushed into the music marketplace to try and lure file-sharers away from free content. Sales of legally-downloaded songs grew tenfold in 2004, with 200 million tracks bought online in the US and Europe in 12 months, the IFPI reported this week. But such download services are very different from P2P networks, not least because of the financial aspect. There are several money-spinning models that could turn P2P into a golden egg for commercial entertainment companies. Paid-for-pass-along, in which firms receive money each time a file is shared, along with various DRM solutions and advertiser-based options are all being considered. ""We see there are going to be different models for commoditising P2P,"" said Marc Morgenstern, vice president of anti-piracy firm Overpeer. ""Consumers are hungry for it and we will discover new models together,"" agreed Mr Morgenstern. But many net users will continue to ignore the entertainment industry's potential controlling grip on content and P2P technology by continuing to use it for their own creations. Unsigned bands, for example, use P2P networks to distribute their music effectively, which also draws the attention of record companies looking for new artists to sign. ""Increasingly, what you are seeing on P2P is consumer-created content,"" said Derek Broes, from Microsoft. ""They will probably pay an increasing role in helping P2P spread,"" he said. Looking into P2P's future, file sharing is just the beginning for P2P networks, as far as Mr Broes is concerned. ""Once some of these issues are resolved, you are going to see aggressive movement to protect content, but also in ways that are unimaginable now,"" he said. ""File-sharing is the tip of the iceberg.""" +tech,"Moving mobile improves golf swing A mobile phone that recognises and responds to movements has been launched in Japan. The motion-sensitive phone - officially titled the V603SH - was developed by Sharp and launched by Vodafone's Japanese division. Devised mainly for mobile gaming, users can also access other phone functions using a pre-set pattern of arm movements. The phone will allow golf fans to improve their swing via a golfing game. Those who prefer shoot-'em-ups will be able to use the phone like a gun to shoot the zombies in the mobile version of Sega's House of the Dead. The phone comes with a tiny motion-control sensor, a computer chip that responds to movement. Other features include a display screen that allows users to watch TV and can rotate 180 degrees. It also doubles up as an electronic musical instrument. Users have to select a sound from a menu that includes clapping, tambourine and maracas and shake their phone to create a beat. It is being recommended for the karaoke market. The phone will initially be available in Japan only and is due to go on sale in mid-February. The new gadget could make for interesting people-watching among Japanese commuters, who are able to access their mobiles on the subway. Fishing afficiandos in South Korea are already using a phone that allows them to simulate the movement of a rod. The PH-S6500 phone, dubbed a sports-leisure gadget, was developed by Korean phone giant Pantech and can also be used by runners to measure calorie consumption and distance run." +tech,"UK net users leading TV downloads British TV viewers lead the trend of illegally downloading US shows from the net, according to research. New episodes of 24, Desperate Housewives and Six Feet Under, appear on the web hours after they are shown in the US, said a report. Web tracking company Envisional said 18% of downloaders were from within the UK and that downloads of TV programmes had increased by 150% in the last year. About 70% were using file-sharing program BitTorrent, the firm said. ""It's now as easy to download a pirate TV show as it is to programme a VCR,"" said Ben Coppin from Envisional. A typical episode of 24 was downloaded by about 100,000 people globally, said the report, and an estimated 20,000 of those were from within the UK. Fans of many popular US TV programmes, like 24, usually have to wait weeks or months until the latest series is shown in the UK. But in some cases, said the report, people were able to watch the new episodes in Britain before US audiences on the west coast of the country. ""Missing a television show presents little problem to anyone with a basic knowledge of the internet,"" explained Mr Coppin. ""Two clicks and your favourite programme is downloading. In effect, the internet is now a global video recorder."" Exact figures are difficult to pin down, but it is thought that about 80,000 to 100,000 people in the UK download TV programmes. Some may just want the odd episode, others are downloading regularly. Many broadcast analysts agree that the net is radically altering the way people get content, like TV programmes. This presents a challenge to broadcasters who are concerned that channel schedules may become less important to people. It is also of concern to them because advertisements are usually cut out of the downloaded programmes. The industry has coined the term ""time-shifting"" to describe this trend of being able to watch what you want, when you want. The increased popularity of personal digital video recorders, TiVo-type boxes which automatically record programmes like Sky+, have also contributed to the trend. There are also numerous programs available on the net which automatically search and store TV programmes for viewers, effectively creating a personal video recorder on a computer. Within half an hour, recorded episodes can be uploaded - or posted - onto file-sharing networks or other download sites. Because they tend to be shorter then full-length films, they can be processed - digitised - quickly. More people with high-speed broadband connections in the UK also means that episodes can be downloaded quickly. According to Jupiter Research 40% of homes with broadband say it helps them pick and choose the programmes they want to see or that friends have recommended. The Envisional reports said that the TV industry should consider offering a legal way to download shows. The BBC ran a trial of what it calls the Interactive Media Player (iMP) last year, which was based on a peer-to-peer distribution model. It let people download programmes it held the rights to up to eight days after they had already aired. It is looking to do a more expansive trial later this year. The BBC already allows radio fans to hear programmes they missed online up to a week after broadcast. About six million people in the UK now have a fast, always-on net connection via cable or phone lines." +tech,"Warning over tsunami aid website Net users are being told to avoid a scam website that claims to collect cash on behalf of tsunami victims. The site looks plausible because it uses an old version of the official Disasters Emergency Committee webpage. However, DEC has no connection with the fake site and says it has contacted the police about it. The site is just the latest in a long list of scams that try to cash in on the goodwill generated by the tsunami disaster. The link to the website is contained in a spam e-mail that is currently circulating. The message's subject line reads ""Urgent Tsunami Earthquake Appeal"" and its text bears all the poor grammar and bad spelling that characterises many other phishing attempts. The web address of the fake site is decuk.org which could be close enough to the official www.dec.org.uk address to confuse some people keen to donate. Patricia Sanders, spokeswoman for the Disaster Emergency Committee said it was aware of the site and had contacted the Computer Crime Unit at Scotland Yard to help get it shut down. She said the spam e-mails directing people to the site started circulating two days ago shortly after the domain name of the site was registered. It is thought that the fake site is being run from Romania. Ms Sanders said DEC had contacted US net registrars who handle domain ownership and the net hosting firm that is keeping the site on the web. DEC was going to push for all cash donated via the site to be handed over to the official organisation. BT and DEC's hosting company were also making efforts to get the site shut down, she said. Ms Sanders said sending out spam e-mail to solicit donations was not DEC's style and that it would never canvass support in this way. She said that DEC hoped to get the fake site shut down as soon as possible. All attempts by the BBC News website to contact the people behind the site have failed. None of the e-mail addresses supplied on the site work and the real owner of the domain is obscured in publicly available net records. This is not the first attempt to cash in on the outpouring of goodwill that has accompanied appeals for tsunami aid. One e-mail sent out in early January came from someone who claimed that he had lost his parents in the disaster and was asking for help moving an inheritance from a bank account in the Netherlands. The con was very similar to the familiar Nigerian forward fee fraud e-mails that milk money out of people by promising them a cut of a much larger cash pile. Other scam e-mails included a link to a website that supposedly let people donate money but instead loaded spyware on their computers that grabbed confidential information. In a monthly report anti-virus firm Sophos said that two e-mail messages about the tsunami made it to the top 10 hoax list during January. Another tsunami-related e-mail is also circulating that carries the Zar worm which tries to spread via the familiar route of Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program. Anyone opening the attachment of the mail will have their contact list plundered by the worm keen to find new addresses to send itself to." +tech,"Microsoft seeking spyware trojan Microsoft is investigating a trojan program that attempts to switch off the firm's anti-spyware software. The spyware tool was only released by Microsoft in the last few weeks and has been downloaded by six million people. Stephen Toulouse, a security manager at Microsoft, said the malicious program was called Bankash-A Trojan and was being sent as an e-mail attachment. Microsoft said it did not believe the program was widespread and recommended users to use an anti-virus program. The program attempts to disable or delete Microsoft's anti-spyware tool and suppress warning messages given to users. It may also try to steal online banking passwords or other personal information by tracking users' keystrokes. Microsoft said in a statement it is investigating what it called a criminal attack on its software. Earlier this week, Microsoft said it would buy anti-virus software maker Sybari Software to improve its security in its Windows and e-mail software. Microsoft has said it plans to offer its own paid-for anti-virus software but it has not yet set a date for its release. The anti-spyware program being targeted is currently only in beta form and aims to help users find and remove spyware - programs which monitor internet use, causes advert pop-ups and slow a PC's performance." +tech,"Broadband set to revolutionise TV BT is starting its push into television with plans to offer TV over broadband. As a telecoms company, BT is moving to a content distribution strategy, Andrew Burke, chief of BT's new Entertainment unit told the IPTV World Forum. ""We want to be an entertainment facilitator,"" he said on the opening day of the London conference. The BBC is also trialling a service to play programmes over the net and has not ruled out offering it to non-licence fee payers overseas. The corporation's Interactive Media Player (iMP) is its first foray into broadband TV - known as IPTV (Internet Protocol TV). ""We see several opportunities for delivering the type of content that normally broadcasters find it difficult to get to viewers,"" said BT's Andrew Burke. With more people on broadband, and connection speeds increasing, telcos around the world are looking for new ways to make money from it. Increased competition between net service providers, encouraged by Ofcom, has eroded BT's position in the market. It is looking for a good return on its investment in the technology which has made broadband over ADSL a reality. It also sees delivering TV over broadband as a way of getting high-definition (HD) content to people sooner than they will be able to get it through conventional, regular broadcasts. The BBC's iMP has just finished successful technical trials and is set for much larger consumer trials later in 2005. Before it officially launches, the BBC must show the government how it offers value for money. Delivering programmes over broadband offers clear public value, says the BBC, because it gives people more control, and more choice. IPTV is a similar idea to VoIP services, like Skype. Both use broadband net connections to carry information, like video and voice, in packets of data instead of conventional means. Since it uses internet technology, IPTV could mean more choice of programmes, more, more interactivity, tailored programming, and more localised content outside of conventional satellite, digital cable, and terrestrial broadcasts. It is all part of the larger changing TV technology landscape and, like personal digital video recorders (PVRs), gives people much more control over TV. Broadcasters see IPTV and PVRs as both as a threat and an opportunity. The BBC recognises that TV over broadband is a reality and aims to innovate with it, said Rahul Chakkara, controller of BBCi's 24/7 interactive TV services. The iMP is based on peer-to-peer technology, and lets people download programmes the BBC owns the rights to for up to seven days after broadcast. ""IPTV enables us to take back that programme to our audience at different times,"" said Mr Chakkara. ""So we can tell our audience that that programme they paid for [via the licence fee], they can access it any time they want."" It helps, said Mr Burke, that people are more au fait with terms like ""digital"", ""interactive"", now that digital TV reaches more than 56% of UK homes. According to Benoit Joly from broadband telecoms firm Thales, 30% of Europe cannot get satellite TV or digital TV. They could get IPTV though. Analysts say that IPTV will account for 10% of the digital TV market in Europe alone by the end of the decade. What needs to happen now, agree analysts, is for connection speeds to be bumped up to handle the service; 20Mbps connections would be ideal. BT does not see itself as a broadcaster of IPTV services, rather as an ""enabler"", said Mr Burke. Its strategy is a ""hybrid"" approach, he explained, where over-the-air conventional broadcasts are supplemented with content over broadband. Initially appealing to niche markets, like sports fans, it will widen out. But IPTV could be used for home-monitoring, ""pet cams"", localised news services, and local authority TV, too says BT. It even suggests that it could target those households in the UK that do not own a computer, 40% of the country. Broadband to them would not be about data and the net - that could come later for them - but about cheap phone calls and more choice of TV programmes. Home Choice already offers 10,000 hours of shows and channels, delivered over broadband to homes in London. With a broadband net subscription, you can also get your TV and phone service. Through content deals and partnerships, it offers satellite as well as terrestrial channels, and bespoke channels based on what viewers pick and choose from its catalogues. It aims to expand nationally, but is seeing a lot of success with what it offers its 15,000 subscribers now, and aims to double uptake as well as reach by the summer. Although still at a very early stage, IPTV is another application for broadband that underlines its growing prominence as a backbone network - another utility like electricity." +tech,"Warnings about junk mail deluge The amount of spam circulating online could be about to undergo a massive increase, say experts. Anti-spam group Spamhaus is warning about a novel virus which hides the origins of junk mail. The program makes spam look like it is being sent by legitimate mail servers making it hard to spot and filter out. Spamhaus said that if the problem went unchecked real e-mail messages could get drowned by the sheer amount of junk being sent. Before now many spammers have recruited home PCs to act as anonymous e-mail relays in an attempt to hide the origins of their junk mail. The PCs are recruited using viruses and worms that compromise machines via known vulnerabilities or by tricking people into opening an attachment infected with the malicious program. Once compromised the machines start to pump out junk mail on behalf of spammers. Spamhaus helps to block junk messages from these machines by collecting and circulating blacklists of net addresses known to harbour infected machines. But the novel worm spotted recently by Spamhaus routes junk via the mail servers of the net service firm that infected machines used to get online in the first place. In this way the junk mail gets a net address that looks legitimate. As blocking all mail from net firms just to catch the spam is impractical, Spamhaus is worried that the technique will give junk mailers the ability to spam with little fear of being spotted and stopped. Steve Linford, director of Spamhaus, predicted that if a lot of spammers exploit this technique it could trigger the failure of the net's e-mail sending infrastructure. David Stanley, UK managing director of filtering firm Ciphertrust, said the new technique was the next logical step for spammers. ""They are adding to their armoury,"" he said. The amount of spam in circulation was still growing, said Mr Stanley, but he did not think that the appearance of this trick would mean e-mail meltdown. But Kevin Hogan, senior manager at Symantec security response, said such warnings were premature. ""If something like this mean the end of e-mail then e-mail would have stopped two-three years ago,"" said Mr Hogan. While the technique of routing mail via mail servers of net service firms might cause problems for those that use blacklists and block lists it did not mean that other techniques for stopping spam lost their efficacy too. Mr Hogan said 90% of the junk mail filtered by Symantec subsidiary Brightmail was spotted using techniques that did not rely on looking at net addresses. For instance, said Mr Hogan, filtering out e-mail messages that contain a web link can stop about 75% of spam." +tech,"US hacker breaks into T-Mobile A man is facing charges of hacking into computers at the US arm of mobile phone firm T-Mobile. The Californian man, Nicholas Lee Jacobsen, was arrested in October. Mr Jacobsen tried at least twice to hack T-Mobile's network and took names and social security numbers of 400 customers, said a company spokesman. The arrest came a year after T-Mobile uncovered the unauthorised access. The US Secret Service has been investigating the case. ""T-Mobile has stringent procedures in place where we monitor for suspicious activity so that limited his activities and we were able to take corrective action immediately,"" Peter Dobrow, a T-Mobile spokesperson said. It is thought that Mr Jacobsen's hacking campaign took place over at least seven months during which time he read e-mails and personal computer files, according to court records. Although Mr Jacobsen, 21, managed to get hold of some data, it is thought he failed to get customer credit card numbers which are stored on a separate computer system, said Mr Dobrow. T-Mobile confirmed that the US Secret Service was also looking into whether the hacker accessed photos that T-Mobile subscribers had taken with their camera phones. The Associated Press agency reported that Mr Jacobsen also read personal files on the Secret Service agent who was apparently investigating the case. A Los Angeles grand jury indicted Mr Jacobsen with intentionally accessing a computer system without authorisation and with the unauthorised impairment of a protected computer between March and October 2004. He is currently on bail. T-Mobile is a subsidiary company of Deutsche Telekom and has about 16.3 million subscribers in the US." +tech,"Software watching while you work Software that can not only monitor every keystroke and action performed at a PC but also be used as legally binding evidence of wrong-doing has been unveiled. Worries about cyber-crime and sabotage have prompted many employers to consider monitoring employees. The developers behind the system claim it is a break-through in the way data is monitored and stored. But privacy advocates are concerned by the invasive nature of such software. The system is a joint venture between security firm 3ami and storage specialists BridgeHead Software. They have joined forces to create a system which can monitor computer activity, store it and retrieve disputed files within minutes. More and more firms are finding themselves in deep water as a result of data misuse. Sabotage and data theft are most commonly committed from within an organisation according to the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) A survey conducted on its behalf by NOP found evidence that more than 80% of medium and large companies have been victims of some form of cyber-crime. BridgeHead Software has come up with techniques to prove, to a legal standard, that any stored file on a PC has not been tampered with. Ironically the impetus for developing the system came as a result of the Freedom of Information Act, which requires companies to store all data for a certain amount of time. The storage system has been incorporated into an application developed by security firm 3ami which allows every action on a computer to be logged. Potentially it could help employers to follow the trail of stolen files and pinpoint whether they had been emailed to a third party, copied, printed, deleted or saved to CD, floppy disk, memory stick or flash card. Other activities the system can monitor include the downloading of pornography, the use of racist or bullying language or the copying of applications for personal use. Increasingly organisations that handle sensitive data, such as governments, are using biometric log-ins such as fingerprinting to provide conclusive proof of who was using a particular machine at any given time. Privacy advocates are concerned that monitoring at work is not only damaging to employee's privacy but also to the relationship between employers and their staff. ""That is not the case,"" said Tim Ellsmore, managing director of 3ami. ""It is not about replacing dialogue but there are issues that you can talk through but you still need proof,"" he said. ""People need to recognise that you are using a PC as a representative of a company and that employers have a legal requirement to store data,"" he added." +tech,"Sony wares win innovation award Sony has taken the prize for top innovator at the annual awards of PC Pro Magazine. It won the award for taking risks with products and for its ""brave"" commitment to good design. Conferring the award, PC Pro's staff picked out Sony's PCG-X505/P Vaio laptop as a ""stunning piece of engineering"". The electronics giant beat off strong competition from Toshiba and chip makers AMD and Intel to take the gong. Paul Trotter, news and features editor of PC Pro, said several Sony products helped it to take the innovation award. He said Sony's Clie PEG UX50 media player with its swivel screen and qwerty keyboard ""broke the design rules yet again"". Other Sony products that helped included the Vaio W1 desktop computer and the RA-104 media server. Mr Trotter said Sony's combining of computer, screen and keyboard in the W1 was likely to be widely copied in future home PCs. The company has also become one of the first to use organic LEDs in its products. ""While not always inventing new technology itself, Sony was never afraid to innovate around various formats,"" said Mr Trotter. Other awards decided by PC Pro's staff and contributors included one for Canon's EOS 300D digital camera in the Most Wanted Hardware category. Microsoft's Media Player 10 took the award for Most Wanted Software. This year was the 10th anniversary of the PC Pro awards, which splits its prizes into two sections. The first are chosen by the magazine's writers and consultants, the second are voted for by readers. Mr Trotter said more than 13,000 people voted for the Reliability and Service Awards, twice as many as in 2003. Net-based memory and video card shop Crucial shared the award for Online Vendor of the year with Novatech." +tech,"How to smash a home computer An executive who froze his broken hard disk thinking it would be fixed has topped a list of the weirdest computer mishaps. Although computer malfunctions remain the most common cause of file loss, data recovery experts say human behaviour still is to blame in many cases. They say that no matter how effective technology is at rescuing files, users should take more time to back-up and protect important files. The list of the top 10 global data disasters was compiled by recovery company Ontrack. Careless - and preventable - mistakes that result in data loss range from reckless file maintenance practices to episodes of pure rage towards a computer. This last category includes the case of a man who became so mad with his malfunctioning laptop that he threw it in the lavatory and flushed a couple of times. ""Data can disappear as a result of natural disaster, system fault or computer virus, but human error, including 'computer rage', seems to be a growing problem,"" said Adrian Palmer, managing director of Ontrack Data Recovery. ""Nevertheless, victims soon calm down when they realise the damage they've done and come to us with pleas for help to retrieve their valuable information."" A far more common situation is when a computer virus strikes and leads to precious files being corrupted or deleted entirely. Mr Palmer recalled the case of a couple who had hundreds of pictures of their baby's first three months on their computer, but managed to reformat the hard drive and erase all the precious memories. ""Data can be recovered from computers, servers and even memory cards used in digital devices in most cases,"" said Mr Palmer. ""However, individuals and companies can avoid the hassle and stress this can cause by backing up data on a regular basis.""" +tech,"Microsoft makes anti-piracy move Microsoft says it is clamping down on people running pirated versions of its Windows operating system by restricting their access to security features. The Windows Genuine Advantage scheme means people will have to prove their software is genuine from mid-2005. It will still allow those with unauthorised copies to get some crucial security fixes via automatic updates, but their options would be ""limited"". Microsoft releases regular security updates to its software to protect PCs. Either PCs detect updates automatically or users manually download fixes through Microsoft's site. Those running pirated Windows programs would not have access to other downloads and ""add-ons"" that the software giant offers. People who try to manually download security patches will have to let Microsoft run an automated checking procedure on their computer or give an identification number. Microsoft's regular patches which it releases for newly-found security flaws are important because they stop worms, viruses and other threats penetrating PCs. Some security experts are concerned that restricting access to such patches could mean a rise in such attacks and threats, with more PCs left unprotected. But Graham Cluley, senior consultant at security firm Sophos, told the BBC News website that it was a positive decision. ""It sounds like their decision to allow critical security patches to remain available to both legitimate and illegitimate users of Windows is good news for everyone who uses the net,"" he said. Windows Genuine Advantage was first introduced as a pilot scheme in September 2004 for English-language versions of Windows. Microsoft's Windows operating system is heavily exploited by virus writers because it is so widespread and they are constantly seeking out new security loopholes to take advantage of. The company is trying to tackle security threats whilst cracking down on pirated software at the same time. Software piracy has cost the company billions, it says. The company announced earlier in January that it was releasing security tools to clean up PCs harbouring viruses and spyware, which 90% of PCs are infected with. The virus-fighting program, updated monthly, is a precursor to Microsoft's dedicated anti-virus software. Last year it introduced the Windows XP Counterfeit Project, a UK-based pilot scheme, which ran from November to December. The scheme meant that anyone with pre-installed copies of the operating system in PCs bought before November could replace counterfeit versions of Windows XP with legal ones for free. It is also increasing efforts to squash software piracy in China, Norway and the Czech Republic, where pirated software is a huge problem, by offering discounts on legitimate software to users of pirated copies Windows. ""China in particular is a problem, with piracy estimated at 92%,"" said Mr Cluley." +tech,"Man auctions ad space on forehead A 20-year-old US man is selling advertising space on his forehead to the highest bidder on website eBay. Andrew Fisher, from Omaha, Nebraska, said he would have a non-permanent logo or brand name tattooed on his head for 30 days. ""The way I see it I'm selling something I already own; after 30 days I get it back,"" he told the BBC Today programme. Mr Fisher has received 39 bids so far, with the largest bid currently at more than $322 (£171). ""The winner will be able to send me a tattoo or have me go to a tattoo parlour and get a temporary ink tattoo on my forehead and this will be something they choose, a company name or domain name, perhaps their logo,"" he told the Radio 4 programme. On the online auction, Mr Fisher describes himself as an ""average American Joe, give or take"". His sales pitch adds: ""Take advantage of this radical advertising campaign and become a part of history."" Mr Fisher said that while he would accept any brand name or logo, ""I wouldn't go around with a swastika or anything racial"". He added: ""I wouldn't go around with 666, the mark of the beast. ""Other than that I wouldn't promote anything socially unacceptable such as adult websites or stores."" He said he would use the money to pay college - he is planning to study graphic design. The entrepreneur said his mother was initially surprised by his decision but following all the media attention she felt he was ""thinking outside the box""." +tech,"Putting a face to 'Big Brother' Literally putting a face on technology could be one of the keys to improving our interaction with hi-tech gadgets. Imagine a surveillance system that also presents a virtual embodiment of a person on a screen who can react to your behaviour, and perhaps even alert you to new e-mails. Basic versions of these so-called avatars already exist. Together with speech and voice recognition systems, they could replace the keyboard and mouse in the near future. Some of these ideas have been showcased at the London's Science Museum, as part of its Future Face exhibition. One such avatar is Jeremiah. It is a virtual man, which you can download for free and install in your computer. His creator, Richard Bowden, lecturer at the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing at the University of Surrey, refers to Jeremiah as ""him"", rather than it. ""Jeremiah is a virtual face that attempts to emulate humans in the way it responds to activity. He is very childlike, he likes visual stimulus,"" he told the BBC News website. ""When he sees children running and laughing and waving at him, he smiles at them. If you ignore him, he gets angry. If you leave, he gets sad. And you can also even surprise him."" Jeremiah is not actually intelligent. It works on vision, reacting in a preset way to the information provided by a surveillance tracker system. It is not able to talk or to hear you, at least not yet. The Surrey team is already working on Jeremiah's next version, that will replace the human face with an underwater and more interactive creature: Finn the fish. ""I am interested in the interaction, providing the ability of a system to watch what's going on and make decisions based on that,"" explained Dr Bowden. The research comes at a time when people are having to cope with an increasing number of hi-tech gadgets. Experts say a much more natural way to interact with these devices, such as a virtual human, could make it much easier to make the most of all those new gizmos. ""If you get up at three o'clock in the morning, and you go downstairs, there are probably two things you are going to do: either going to the bathroom, or maybe you are going to make a cup of tea,"" said Dr Bowden. ""Now if the system can watch your behaviour over time, it can learn this, so it would predict what you are going to do, turn on the lights for you, or, before you even get to the kettle, it could have switched it on."" You might even be able to tell your home surveillance system that you will be going away on holiday, and ask if it could make sure that the house is secure once you have left. This might sound like a scary vision of an Orwellian future. But it might all depend on the face that is watching you. ""When we put the surveillance cameras in our centre, a lot of people were very unhappy about the fact that there was a system watching them,"" said Dr Bowden. ""But when Jeremiah's camera went in, nobody minded, because although it's still watching them, they could see what it was watching.""" +tech,"DVD copy protection strengthened DVDs will be harder to copy thanks to new anti-piracy measures devised by copy protection firm Macrovision. The pirated DVD market is enormous because current copy protection was hacked more than five years ago. Macrovision says its new RipGuard technology will thwart most, but not all, of the current DVD ripping (copying) programs used to pirate DVDs. ""RipGuard is designed to... reduce DVD ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer,"" said the firm. Macrovision said the new technology will work in ""nearly all"" current DVD players when applied to the discs, but it did not specify how many machines could have a problem with RipGuard. Some BBC News website users have expressed concerns that the new technology will mean that DVDs will not work on PCs running the operating system Linux. The new technology will be welcomed by Hollywood film studios which are increasingly relying on revenue from DVD sales. The film industry has stepped up efforts to fight DVD piracy in the last 12 months, taking legal action against websites which offer pirated copies of DVD movies for download. ""Ultimately, we see RipGuard DVD... evolving beyond anti-piracy, and towards enablement of legitimate online transactions, interoperability in tomorrow's digital home, and the upcoming high-definition formats,"" said Steve Weinstein, executive vice president and general manager of Macrovision's Entertainment Technologies Group. Macrovision said RipGuard would also prevent against ""rent, rip and return"" - where people would rent a DVD, copy it and then return the original. RipGuard is expected to be rolled out on DVDs from the middle of 2005, the company said. The new system works specifically to block most ripping programs - if used, those programs will now most likely crash, the company said. Macrovision has said that Rip Guard can be updated if hackers find a way around the new anti-copying measures." +tech,"Movie body hits peer-to-peer nets The movie industry has struck out at file-sharing networks with another round of lawsuits in the US. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) also said it had succeeded in getting a network called LokiTorrent closed down. It is the latest network which uses the peer-to-peer system called BitTorrent to be hit by the MPAA. The MPAA began its legal campaign against operators of similar networks across four continents in December. A Dallas court agreed that Hollywood lawyers would be allowed access to LokiTorrent's server records which could let them single out those who were sharing files illegally. In October 2004, the site had provided links to more than 30,000 files. The action came after the operators of LokiTorrent agreed a settlement with the MPAA. A stark message has appeared on the site from the MPAA warning ""You can click, but you can't hide"". In BitTorrent systems, server sites do not host the files being shared. They host links, called ""trackers"" that direct people to others that have it instead. As well as filing an unspecified number of file suits across the US, the MPAA said it had given operators that host eDonkey servers ""take down"" notices. Hollywood studios are aggressively clamping down on file-sharers who it says infringe copyright laws by copying films and TV programmes then share the files online. But it is now targeting the operators of BitTorrent networks themselves. It has filed 100 lawsuits against operators of BitTorrent server sites since December. The strategy of hitting those who run the servers which link to copyrighted material is intended to stunt file-sharers' ability to swap content using BitTorrent systems. The film industry says the black market for illegally copied videos and DVDs already costs them billions every year and it is worried that illegal file-sharing is adding to their losses. In December, the legal action claimed its most high-profile victim. The popular Suprnova.org website was forced to close, and others like Phoenix Torrent followed soon after." +tech,"Broadband fuels online expression Fast web access is encouraging more people to express themselves online, research suggests. A quarter of broadband users in Britain regularly upload content and have personal sites, according to a report by UK think-tank Demos. It said that having an always-on, fast connection is changing the way people use the internet. More than five million households in the UK have broadband and that number is growing fast. The Demos report looked at the impact of broadband on people's net habits. It found that more than half of those with broadband logged on to the web before breakfast. One in five even admitted to getting up in the middle of the night to browse the web. More significantly, argues the report, broadband is encouraging people to take a more active role online. It found that one in five post something on the net everyday, ranging from comments or opinions on sites to uploading photographs. ""Broadband is putting the 'me' in media as it shifts power from institutions and into the hands of the individual,"" said John Craig, co-author of the Demos report. ""From self-diagnosis to online education, broadband creates social innovation that moves the debate beyond simple questions of access and speed."" The Demos report, entitled Broadband Britain: The End Of Asymmetry?, was commissioned by net provider AOL. ""Broadband is moving the perception of the internet as a piece of technology to an integral part of home life in the UK,"" said Karen Thomson, Chief Executive of AOL UK, ""with many people spending time on their computers as automatically as they might switch on the television or radio."" According to analysts Nielsen//NetRatings, more than 50% of the 22.8 million UK net users regularly accessing the web from home each month are logging on at high speed They spend twice as long online than people on dial-up connections, viewing an average of 1,444 pages per month. The popularity of fast net access is growing, partly fuelled by fierce competition over prices and services." +tech,"Digital guru floats sub-$100 PC Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of MIT's Media Labs, says he is developing a laptop PC that will go on sale for less than $100 (£53). He told the BBC World Service programme Go Digital he hoped it would become an education tool in developing countries. He said one laptop per child could be "" very important to the development of not just that child but now the whole family, village and neighbourhood"". He said the child could use the laptop like a text book. He described the device as a stripped down laptop, which would run a Linux-based operating system, ""We have to get the display down to below $20, to do this we need to rear project the image rather than using an ordinary flat panel. ""The second trick is to get rid of the fat , if you can skinny it down you can gain speed and the ability to use smaller processors and slower memory."" The device will probably be exported as a kit of parts to be assembled locally to keep costs down. Mr Negroponte said this was a not for profit venture, though he recognised that the manufacturers of the components would be making money. In 1995 Mr Negroponte published the bestselling Being Digital, now widely seen as predicting the digital age. The concept is based on experiments in the US state of Maine, where children were given laptop computers to take home and do their work on. While the idea was popular amongst the children, it initially received some resistance from the teachers and there were problems with laptops getting broken. However, Mr Negroponte has adapted the idea to his own work in Cambodia where he set up two schools together with his wife and gave the children laptops. ""We put in 25 laptops three years ago , only one has been broken, the kids cherish these things, it's also a TV a telephone and a games machine, not just a textbook."" Mr Negroponte wants the laptops to become more common than mobile phones but conceded this was ambitious. ""Nokia make 200 million cell phones a year, so for us to claim we're going to make 200 million laptops is a big number, but we're not talking about doing it in three or five years, we're talking about months."" He plans to be distributing them by the end of 2006 and is already in discussion with the Chinese education ministry who are expected to make a large order. ""In China they spend $17 per child per year on textbooks. That's for five or six years, so if we can distribute and sell laptops in quantities of one million or more to ministries of education that's cheaper and the marketing overheads go away.""" +tech,"Slow start to speedy net services Faster broadband in the UK is becoming a reality as more internet providers offer super-fast services. Some lucky Britons can already take advantage of UK Online's 8 megabits per second service, which was launched in November 2004. BT Retail has announced that it will trial the same speed service, with a national rollout by year end. Other service providers are expected to follow suit and a glut of new voice and video services will follow. ""If the bandwidth is there then ISPs will buy it,"" said Jill Finger, a research director at analyst firm IDC. Others will be watching BT Retail's trials, which is initially for employees and later in the summer for customers, with interest. For BT Retail, she said, the super-fast service could be a way of differentiating it from other players. ""It has been losing market share and this could be one way of gaining some of that back,"" said Ms Finger. Wanadoo is set to trial an 8Mbps service in the summer and also plans to roll out unbundled services - which means it takes over the network from BT - which will provide speeds of up to 15Mbps. There is no timetable for this at the moment. Cable firms ntl and Telewest are also bound to increase bandwidth at some time in the future and, according to an ntl spokesman, are in a better position than BT in the long term. ""BT's network is limited compared to that of cable. With all the other services coming on stream such as video on demand, the question is will 8Mbps be enough?"" he asked." +tech,"Ban hits Half-Life 2 pirates hard About 20,000 people have been banned from playing the Half-Life 2 game. Game maker Valve shut down the online accounts of the players because it had evidence that their copy of the game had been obtained illegally. Copies of Half-Life 2 had been circulating on file-sharing systems soon after it was officially released. Experts said the success of the Half-Life 2 anti-piracy system might tempt other game makers into creating their own version. Half-Life 2 was officially released on 16 November but before gamers could get to grips with the long-awaited title they were forced to authenticate their copy of the game online. Authentication involved setting up an account with Valve's gaming community system called Steam and letting that check which copy of the game was being run. In a statement detailing the banning of the accounts Valve said this system helped identify who had got hold of pirated copies. ""The method used was extremely easy for Valve to trace and confirm, and so there is no question that the accounts disabled were used to try and illegally obtain Half-Life 2,"" read the statement. Valve spokesman Doug Lombardi said that the company had not yet released sales figures for the game and would not say what proportion of all Steam players the 20,000 represented. One effect of Steam's popularity has been to limit the copies of the game sold in shops and artificially depress the game's ranking in the top ten. Even so the title debuted at No 3 in the UK charts. Valve also said that a small number of accounts were closed because people were using stolen credit cards to buy copies of the game or were using stolen Steam accounts. Some of those who have been banned by the move protested their innocence in the online forums on the main Steam site and said they were being punished for what other people did with their account. Some contributors to the forums wondered if the action might force more piracy as people tried to get hold of successive copies of the game to keep ahead of Valve's anti-piracy actions. In its statement Valve also said that rumours that it distributed fake Half-Life 2 keys, copies of the game or instructions on how to hack the game, just to catch pirates and cheats were false. The company said: ""The hack came from the 'community' as do they all."" It added that most of those banned simply tried to use copies of Half-Life 2 circulating on file-swapping systems such as Bit Torrent rather than use hacks to get around the need for CD keys. Rob Fahey, editor of online news site gamesindustry.biz, said the mass banning showed off the power of the Steam system. Before now, he said, it has been hard for game makers to do anything about piracy once the game was being played. ""But with this, Valve is taking really effective steps against people using illegitimate copies of Half-Life 2,"" he said. If Steam proves effective at cutting the piracy of games to a minimum, said Mr Fahey, other game makers may be tempted to set up copycat systems. ""It's not hard to see a point in the near future when every publisher wants you to run an application on your system purely to allow you to play their games,"" he said. This could mean that computers get cluttered with poorly written Steam-type systems that are used to batter people with adverts. Unless game firms were careful, he said, they could face a backlash from consumers who soon get tired of maintaining different accounts for every game they play." +tech,"Apple unveils low-cost 'Mac mini' Apple has unveiled a new, low-cost Macintosh computer for the masses, billed as the Mac mini. Chief executive Steve Jobs showed off the new machine at his annual MacWorld speech, in San Francisco. The $499 Macintosh, sold for £339 in the UK, was described by Jobs as the ""most important Mac"" made by Apple. Mr Jobs also unveiled the iPod shuffle, a new music player using cheaper flash memory rather than hard drives, which are used in more expensive iPods. The new computer shifts the company into new territory - traditionally, the firm is known as a design and innovation-led firm rather than as a mass-market manufacturer. The Mac mini comes without a monitor, keyboard and mouse, and a second version with a larger hard drive will also be sold for $599. The machine - which will be available from 22 January - was described by Jobs as ""BYODKM... bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse"". In an attempt to win over Windows PC customers, Mr Jobs said it would appeal to people thinking of changing operating systems. ""People who are thinking of switching will have no more excuses,"" he said. ""It's the newest and most affordable Mac ever."" The new computer has been the subject of speculation for several weeks and while few people will be surprised by the announcement many analysts had already said it was a sensible move. In January, Apple sued a website after it published what it said were specifications for the new computer. Ian Harris, deputy editor of UK magazine Mac Format, said the machine would appeal to PC-owning consumers who had purchased an iPod. ""They want a further taste of Mac because they like what they have seen with iPod."" Harris added: ""Everybody thought that Apple was happy to remain a niche maker of luxury computers, and moving into a market dominated by low margin manufacturers like Dell is a bold move. ""But it shows that Apple is keen to capitalise on the mass market success it's had with the iPod. The Mac mini will appeal to PC users looking for an attractive, 'no fuss' computer."" The new iPod shuffle comes in two versions - one offering 512mb of storage for $99 (£69 in the Uk) and a second with one gigabyte of storage for $149 (£99) - and went on sale Tuesday. The music player has no display and will play songs either consecutively or shuffled. The smaller iPod will hold about 120 songs, said Mr Jobs. Mr Jobs told the delegates at MacWorld that iPod already had a 65% market share of all digital music players." +tech,"Gadget market 'to grow in 2005' The explosion in consumer technology is to continue into 2005, delegates at the world's largest gadget show, in Las Vegas, have been told. The number of gadgets in the shops is predicted to grow by 11%, while devices which talk to each other will become increasingly important. ""Everything is going digital,"" Kirsten Pfeifer from the Consumer Electronics Association, told the BBC News website. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) featured the pick of 2005's products. ""Consumers are controlling what they want and technologies like HDTVs [high-definition TVs], digital radio, and digital cameras will remain strong in 2005. ""All the products on show really showed the breadth and depth of the industry."" Despite showing diversity, some delegates attending complained that the showcase lacked as much ""wow factor"" as in previous years. The portable technologies on show also reflected one of the buzzwords of CES, which was the ""time and place shifting"" of multimedia content - being able to watch and listen to video and music anywhere, at any time. At the start of last year's CES, the CEA predicted there would be an average growth of 4% in 2004. That figure was surpassed with the rise in popularity of portable digital music players, personal video recorders and digital cameras. It was clear also that gadgets are becoming a lot more about lifestyle choice, with fashion and personalisation becoming increasingly key to the way gadgets are designed. Part of this has been the rise in spending power of the ""generation X-ers"" who have grown up with technology and who now have the spending power and desire for more devices that suit them. More than 57% of the consumer electronics market is made up of female buyers, according to CEA research. Hybrid devices, which combine a number of multimedia functions, were also in evidence on the show floor. ""A lot of this is driven by just the ability to do it,"" said Stephen Baker, a consumer electronics analyst with retail research firm NPD Group. ""Some of these functions cost next to nothing to add."" As well as the show floor showcasing everything from tiny wearable MP3 players to giant high-definition TVs, several keynote speeches were made by industry leaders, such as Microsoft chief Bill Gates. Despite several embarrassing technical glitches during Mr Gate's pre-show speech, he announced several new partnerships - mainly for the US market. He unveiled new ways of letting people take TV shows recorded on personal video recorders and watch them back on portable devices. He disappointed some, however, by failing to announce any details of the next generation of the Xbox games console. Another disappointment was the lack of exposure Sony's new portable games device, the PSP, had at the show. Sony said the much-anticipated gadget would most likely start shipping in March for the US and Europe. It went on sale in Japan before Christmas. There were only two PSPs embedded in glass cabinets at the show though and no representatives to discuss further details. A Sony representative told the BBC News website this was because Sony did not consider it to be part of their ""consumer technology"" offering. Elsewhere at the show, there was a plethora of colour and plasma screens, including Samsung's 102-inch (2.6 metre) plasma - the largest in the world. Industry experts were also excited about high-definition technologies coming to the fore in 2005, with new formats for DVDs coming out which will hold six times as much data as conventional DVDs. With so many devices on the move there were a lot of products on show offering external storage, like Seagate's 5GB pocket sized external hard drive, which won an innovation for engineering and design prize. More than 120,000 trade professionals attended CES in Las Vegas, which officially ran from 6 to 9 January." +tech,"Domain system scam fear A system to make it easier to create website addresses using alphabets like Cyrillic could open a back door for scammers, a trade body has warned. The Internationalised Domain Names system has been a work in progress for years and has recently been approved by the Internet Electronic Task Force. But the UK Internet Forum (UKIF) is concerned that the system will let scammers create fake sites more easily. The problem lies in the computer codes used to represent language. Registering names that look like that of legitimate companies but lead users to fake sites designed to steal passwords and credit card details could become a whole lot easier for determined scammers, says Stephen Dyer, director of UKIF. Domain names are the ""real language"" addresses of websites, rather than their internet protocol address, which is a series of numbers. They are used so people can more easily navigate the web. So-called ASCII codes are used to represent European languages but for other languages a hybrid of a system called Unicode is used. So, for example, website PayPal could now be coded using a mixture of the Latin alphabet and the Russian alphabet. The resulting domain as displayed to the users would look identical to the real site as a Russian 'a' look just like an English 'a'. But the computer code would be different, and the site it would lead users to could be a fake. This is more than just a theory. A fake Paypal.com has already been registered with net domain giant Verisign by someone who has followed the debate around the Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) system, said Mr Dyer. As the idea was to prove a point rather than be malicious the fake domain has now been handed back to Paypal but it sets a worrying precedent, Mr Dyer said. ""Although the IDN problem is well known in technical circles, the commercial world is totally unaware how easily their websites can be faked,"" said Mr Dyer. ""It is important to alert users that there is a new and invisible and almost undetectable way of diverting them to what looks like a perfectly genuine site,"" he added. There are solutions. For instance, browsers could spot domains that use mixed characters and display them in different colours as a warning to users. Mr Dyer acknowledged that it would be a huge undertaking to update all the world's browsers. Another solution, to introduce IDN-disabled browsers could be a case of ""throwing out the baby with the bath water,"" he said. CENTR, the Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries, agrees. ""A rush to introduce IDN-disabled browsers into the marketplace is an overly-zealous step that will harm public confidence in IDNs - a technology that is desperately needed in the non-English speaking world,"" the organisation said in a statement." +tech,"Remote control rifle range debuts Soon you could go hunting via the net. A Texas company is considering letting web users use a remote-controlled rifle to shoot down deer, antelope and wild pigs. For a small fee users will take control of a camera and rifle that they can use to spot and shoot the game animals as they roam around a 133-hectare Texas ranch. The Live-Shot website behind the scheme already lets people practise shooting at targets via the internet. John Underwood, the man behind the Live-Shot website, said the idea for the remote-control hunting came to him a year ago when he was watching deer via a webcam on another net site. ""We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that'. A little light bulb went off in my head,"" Mr Underwood told the Reuters news agency. A year's work and $10,000 has resulted in a remote-controlled rig on which sits a camera and .22 calibre rifle. Mr Underwood is planning to put one of these rigs in a concealed location in a small reserve on his Texas ranch and let people shoot at a variety of game animals. Also needed is a fast net connection so remote hunters can quickly track and aim at passing game animals with the camera and rifle rig. Each remote hunting session will cost $150 with additional fees for meat processing and taxidermy work. Species that can be shot will include barbary, Corsican and mouflon sheep, blackbuck antelope and wild pigs. Already the Live-Shot site lets people shoot 10 rounds at paper and silhouette targets for $5.95 for each 20-minute shooting session. For further fees, users can get the target they shot and a DVD recording of their session. Handlers oversee each shooting session and can stop the gun being fired if it is being aimed off-range or at something it should not be. Mr Underwood said that internet hunting could be popular with disabled hunters unable to get out in the woods or distant hunters who cannot afford a trip to Texas. In a statement the RSPCA said it had ""grave concerns"" about people being allowed to go online and remotely control a rifle. ""We assume it would be extremely difficult to accurately control a gun in this way and therefore it would be difficult to ensure a 'clean kill', something the RSPCA accepts is the intention of those shooting for sport,"" it said. ""Animals hit but not killed would without doubt be caused to suffer unnecessarily,"" said the statement. Mike Berger, wildlife director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said current hunting statutes did not cover net or remote hunting. He said state laws on hunting only covered ""regulated animals"" such as native deer and bird species. As such there was nothing to stop Mr Underwood letting people hunt ""unregulated"" imported animals and wild pigs. Mr Underwood also lets people come in person to the ranch to hunt and shoot game animals." +tech,"Mac Mini heralds mini revolution The Mac Mini was launched amid much fanfare by Apple and great excitement by Apple watchers last month. But does the latest Macintosh justify the hype? Let us get a few things dealt with at the outset - yes, the Mac Mini is really, really small, and yes, it is another piece of inspired Apple design. There is more to be said on the computer's size and design but it is worth highlighting that the Mac Mini is a just a computer. Inside that small box there is a G4 processor, a CD/DVD player, a hard drive, some other technical bits and bobs and an operating system. A DVD burner, wireless and bluetooth technologies can be bought at extra cost. And if you do not have a monitor, keyboard or mouse then you will need to purchase those also. It is not the fastest computer for the money but for under £400 you are getting something more interesting than mere technical specifications - Apple software. The Mac Mini comes bundled with Mac OS X, the operating system, as well as iLife 05, a suite of software which includes iTunes, web browser Safari, iPhoto, Garage Band and iDVD. I doubt many PC lovers would seriously argue that Windows XP comes with a better suite of programs than Mac OS X. Of course, users of open source operating system Linux draw up their own menu of programs. For people who want to do interesting things with their music, photos and home movies then a Mac Mini is an ideal first computer or companion to a main computer. ""It's a good little machine with a reasonable amount of power and just perfect for the average computer user who wants to leave the tyranny of Window and viruses,"" said Mark Sparrow, technical and reviews editor at Mac Format magazine. He added: ""In essence, it's a laptop in a biscuit tin, minus the screen and the keyboard. ""The software bundle that comes with the mini makes your average budget PC look a bit sick."" The relatively low price of the machine has also encouraged the more technically-savvy to experiment with their Macs. One user has already created a ""dock"" to enable him to plug in and out his Mac Mini in his car. The small size of the machine makes it a practical solution for in-car entertainment - playing movies and music - as well as navigation. Another user has mounted his Mac Mini to the back of his large plasma screen and then controls the computer via a wireless keyboard and mouse. When it was first announced some pundits thought the Mini was designed as a sort of stealth media centre - ie the machine would be used to serve TV programmes, music, films and photos - partly due to its small, living room friendly design. But there are obvious reasons why this is not the case - at least not in the here and now The hard drive - at 80GB for the larger model - is too small to be realistically used as media centre. While commercial Personal Video Recorders are on the market with smaller than 80GB hard drives it is worth remembering that they only store TV content. A media centre computer has to store music, files and photos and as such 80GB just seems too small. Most PCs running Windows Media Center have at least 120GB hard disks. Coupled with the lack of a TV tuner card, a digital audio out and any kind of media centre software bundled with the machine then the Mac Mini should be judged on what it is, not what it is not. But that has not stopped more enterprising users from adapting the Mac Mini to media centre uses. So - is the Mac Mini just another computer or a revolution in computing? Graham Barlow, editor of Mac Format, understandably has a rather partisan viewpoint. ""It's just a Mac, but we should be very excited - it's revolutionary in its size (smaller than PCs), looks (looks better than PCs), and the fact that it's the first Mac designed to really go for the low-cost PC market."" The design of the Mac Mini is further evidence of a future when PCs are more than just bland, bulky boxes. There are a number of companies who already produce miniature PCs based on mini-ITX motherboards. But at the moment these PCs tend to be either for the home-build enthusiast or expensive pre-built options based around Microsoft's Media Center software. But for the value the Mac Mini offers, bringing some of the best software packages within reach of more consumers than ever before, Apple is to be congratulated. Let us say then that if the Mac Mini is not a fully fledged revolution - it is a mini revolution." +tech,"China net cafe culture crackdown Chinese authorities closed 12,575 net cafes in the closing months of 2004, the country's government said. According to the official news agency most of the net cafes were closed down because they were operating illegally. Chinese net cafes operate under a set of strict guidelines and many of those most recently closed broke rules that limit how close they can be to schools. The move is the latest in a series of steps the Chinese government has taken to crack down on what it considers to be immoral net use. The official Xinhua News Agency said the crackdown was carried out to create a ""safer environment for young people in China"". Rules introduced in 2002 demand that net cafes be at least 200 metres away from middle and elementary schools. The hours that children can use net cafes are also tightly regulated. China has long been worried that net cafes are an unhealthy influence on young people. The 12,575 cafes were shut in the three months from October to December. China also tries to dictate the types of computer games people can play to limit the amount of violence people are exposed to. Net cafes are hugely popular in China because the relatively high cost of computer hardware means that few people have PCs in their homes. This is not the first time that the Chinese government has moved against net cafes that are not operating within its strict guidelines. All the 100,000 or so net cafes in the country are required to use software that controls what websites users can see. Logs of sites people visit are also kept. Laws on net cafe opening hours and who can use them were introduced in 2002 following a fire at one cafe that killed 25 people. During the crackdown following the blaze authorities moved to clean up net cafes and demanded that all of them get permits to operate. In August 2004 Chinese authorities shut down 700 websites and arrested 224 people in a crackdown on net porn. At the same time it introduced new controls to block overseas sex sites. The Reporters Without Borders group said in a report that Chinese government technologies for e-mail interception and net censorship are among the most highly developed in the world." +tech,"IBM puts cash behind Linux push IBM is spending $100m (£52m) over the next three years beefing up its commitment to Linux software. The cash injection will be used to help its customers use Linux on every type of device from handheld computers and phones right up to powerful servers. IBM said the money will fund a variety of technical, research and marketing initiatives to boost Linux use. IBM said it had taken the step in response to greater customer demand for the open source software. In 2004 IBM said it had seen double digit growth in the number of customers using Linux to help staff work together more closely. The money will be used to help this push towards greater collaboration and will add Linux-based elements to IBM's Workplace software. Workplace is a suite of programs and tools that allow workers to get at core business applications no matter what device they use to connect to corporate networks. One of the main focuses of the initiative will be to make it easier to use Linux-based desktop computers and mobile devices with Workplace. Even before IBM announced this latest spending boost it was one of the biggest advocates of the open source way of working. In 2001 it put $300m into a three-year Linux program and has produced Linux versions of many of its programs. Linux and the open source software movement are based on the premise that developers should be free to tinker with the core components of software programs. They reason that more open scrutiny of software produces better programs and fuels innovation." +tech,"Format wars could 'confuse users' Technology firms Sony, Philips, Matsushita and Samsung are developing a common way to stop people pirating digital music and video. The firms want to make a system that ensures files play on the hardware they make but also thwarts illegal copying. The move could mean more confusion for consumers already faced by many different, and conflicting, content control systems, experts warned. They say there are no guarantees the system will even prevent piracy. Currently many online stores wrap up downloadable files in an own-brand control system that means they can only be played on a small number of media players. Systems that limit what people can do with the files they download are known as Digital Rights Management systems. By setting up the alliance to work on a common control system, the firms said they hope to end this current fragmentation of file formats. In a joint statement the firms said they wanted to let consumers enjoy ""appropriately licensed video and music on any device, independent of how they originally obtained that content"". The firms hope that it will also make it harder for consumers to make illegal copies of the music, movies and other digital content they have bought. Called the Marlin Joint Development Association, the alliance will define basic specifications that every device made by the electronics firms will conform to. Marlin will be built on technology from rights management firm Intertrust as well as an earlier DRM system developed by a group known as the Coral Consortium. The move is widely seen as a way for the four firms to decide their own destiny on content control systems instead of having to sign up for those being pushed by Apple and Microsoft. Confusingly for consumers, the technology that comes out of the alliance will sit alongside the content control systems of rival firms such as Microsoft and Apple. ""In many ways the different DRM systems are akin to the different physical formats, such as Betamax and VHS, that consumers have seen in the past,"" said Ian Fogg, personal technology and broadband analyst at Jupiter Research. ""The difference is that it is very fragmented,"" he said. ""It's not a two-horse race, it's a five, six, seven or even eight-horse race"" Mr Fogg said consumers had to be very careful when buying digital content to ensure that it would play on the devices they own. He said currently there were even incompatibilities within DRM families. Although initiatives such as Microsoft's ""Plays for Sure"" program could help remove some of the uncertainty, he said, life was likely to be confusing for consumers for some time to come. Shelley Taylor, analyst and author of a report about online music services, said the locks and limits on digital files were done to maximise the cash that firms can make from consumers. Apple's iTunes service was a perfect example of this, she said. ""Although iTunes has been hugely successful, Apple could not justify its existence if it did not help sell all those iPods,"" she said. She said rampant competition between online music services, of which there are now 230 according to recent figures, could drive more openness and freer file formats. ""It always works out that consumer needs win out in the long run,"" she said, ""and the services that win in the long run are the ones that listen to consumers earliest."" Ms Taylor said the limits legal download services place on files could help explain the continuing popularity of file-sharing systems that let people get hold of pirated pop. ""People want portability,"" she said, ""and with peer-to-peer they have 100% portability."" Cory Doctorow, European co-ordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation which campaigns for consumers on many cyber-rights issues, expressed doubts that the Marlin system would achieve its aims. ""Not one of these systems has ever prevented piracy or illegal copying,"" he said. He said many firms readily admit that their DRM systems are little protection against skilled attackers such as the organised crime gangs that are responsible for most piracy. Instead, said Mr Doctorow, DRM systems were intended to control the group that electronics firms have most hold over - consumers. ""The studios and labels perceive an opportunity to sell you your media again and again - the iPod version, the auto version, the American and UK version, the ringtone version, and so on.""" +tech,"Web logs aid disaster recovery Some of the most vivid descriptions of the devastation in southern Asia are on the internet - in the form of web logs or blogs. Bloggers have been offering snapshots of information from around the region and are also providing some useful information for those who want to help. Indian writer Rohit Gupta edits a group blog called Dogs without Borders. When he created it, the site was supposed to be a forum to discuss relations between India and Pakistan. But in the wake of Sunday's tsunami, Mr Gupta and his fellow bloggers switched gears. They wanted to blog the tsunami and its aftermath. One Sri Lankan blogger in the group goes by the online name Morquendi. With internet service disrupted by the tsunami, Morquendi started sending SMS text messages via cell phone from the affected areas of Sri Lanka. ""We started publishing these SMSes,"" says Mr Gupta. ""Morquendi was describing scenes like 1,600 bodies washed up on a shore, and people burying, and burying and burying them. People digging holes with their hands. And this was coming through an SMS message. ""We didn't have visual accounts on radio or on TV, or in the print media."" Soon, thousands of web users around the world were logging on to read Morquendi's first hand accounts. In one message, Morquendi wrote about a Sri Lankan woman who was running home with a friend when the wave hit. ""She was being swept away,"" Morquendi's message read. ""She grabbed a tree with one hand and her friend with the other. She says she watched the water pull her friend away."" Mr Gupta says the power of Morquendi's text message blogs was palpable. ""He was running around, looking for friends, burying bodies, carrying bodies,"" Mr Gupta says of Morquendi. ""I can't even begin to imagine the psychological state he was in when he was sending us reports, and doing the relief work at the same time. ""He was caught between being a journalist and being a human being."" Others blogs are helping to spread information about relief efforts. Dina Mehta is an Indian blogger who's helping with the newly created South East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog. She says the blog is not meant to be filled with first person accounts. ""What we're doing is we're building a resource,"" she says. ""Anyone who says, OK, I want to come and do some work in India, volunteer in India, or in Sri Lanka or Malaysia, this is the sort of one-stop-shop that they can come to for all sorts of resources - emergency help lines, relief agencies, aid agencies, contacts for them etc."" Ms Mehta also says she wishes that governments in the region would realise the power of blogs. ""Imagine if they had this resource available to them, if there was a disaster, how quickly you could funnel aid in, and get people to help,"" she says. Bloggers in the United States are also getting involved. Ramdhan Yadav Kotamaraja is originally from India, but now lives in Dallas. Mr Kotamaraja wanted to help those affected by the tsunami by pooling money with concerned friends. So, he set up an online payment system on his website. Then, says Mr Kotamaraja, the blogging world found out. ""All my blogger friends started linking up my site, and I saw a lot of people other than my friends. I'd say 70% of the donations came from people I don't know. ""It's simply unbelievable to me, that people that I don't know will come and start donating."" News spreads quickly on weblogs, a phenomenon that helps bloggers expand their audience and scope. In Sri Lanka, blogger Morquendi is recruiting others to help. One recruit calls himself Heretic. In one of his latest posts, Heretic asks: ""Have you ever seen fishing trawlers on the road? Ever seen a bus inside a house? ""Well,"" Heretic writes, ""that was just the least affected areas - so you can just imagine - or can you?"" He concludes: ""Keep it blogged."" Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production." +tech,"Fast lifts rise into record books Two high-speed lifts at the world's tallest building have been officially recognised as the planet's fastest. The lifts take only 30 seconds to whisk passengers to the top of the 508m tall TFC 101 Tower in Taipei, Taiwan. The Guinness Book of Records has declared the 17m per second speed of the two lifts the swiftest on Earth. The lifts also have a pressure control system to stop passengers' ears popping as they ascend and descend at high speed. In total, the TFC Tower has 61 lifts, 34 of them double-deckers, and 50 escalators to shuttle people around its 106 floors. The TFC 101 Tower is due to be officially opened on 31 December. The super-fast lifts can speed up to 24 passengers to the tip of the tower in about 30 seconds, while ascending their 382m track. The 17m/s top speed of the lifts translates to about 38mph (61km/h). Curiously the lifts take longer to descend and spend almost a whole minute returning to ground level from the top of the TFC Tower. The key new technologies applied in the world's fastest elevators include: - A pressure control system, which adjusts the atmospheric pressure inside a car by using suction and discharge blowers, preventing ""ear popping"" - An active control system which tries to balance the lift more finely and remove the sources of vibrations - Streamlined cars to reduce the whistling noise produced by running the lifts at a high speed inside a narrow shaft ""The certification of our elevators as world record-holders by the authoritative Guinness World Records is a great honour for us,"" said Masayuki Shimono, president of manufacturer Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems which installed the lifts. The first record for the world's fastest passenger elevators was published in the first edition of the Guinness Book of Records in 1955. ""As such, it is an interesting indicator of how technology has advanced in the 50 years since that first edition, when the record was 426m per minute, or 25.6 km/h, less than half the speed of the new record,"" said Hein Le Roux, specialist researcher at the Guinness World Records. Taipei's TFC 101 Tower is more than 50m taller than the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - formerly the world's tallest skyscraper." +tech,"Broadband soars in 2004 If broadband were a jumbo jet, then 2003 would have seen it taxiing down the runway, firing up its engines and preparing for take-off. But this year has seen it soar. In the spring it literally took to the skies as Lufthansa and British Airways trialled it on flights. This perhaps said more about how indispensable people were beginning to perceive the technology, rather than how useful sky-high broadband would actually be. It was flying high and by the autumn, five million Britons had signed up for high-speed net access at home. Such enthusiasm is unlikely to dampen any time soon and experts predict that by the end of next year the numbers will have risen to more than eight million, or more than 30% of homes. The two key factors in whetting people's appetite were falling prices and a huge marketing push. When operators such as BT and Telewest offered standard 512K broadband for less than £20 at the beginning of the year, it was as if an invisible barrier had been breached - broadband had truly gone mass market. A feeding frenzy followed as firms vied for eyeballs in a price war reminiscent of that following the mass market take-up of dial-up. Broadband for less than £10 was even touted by some firms, although such a low price raised eyebrows among more established companies questioning how they are able to sustain such business models. For those who became broadbanders in 2004 there was no turning back and the days of waiting for the modem to kick in began to seem as outdated an idea as a jungle without celebrities. The rest of the world was also falling in love with the benefits of fast internet access, to the tune of 100 million connections worldwide by April, prompting research firm Point Topic to declare it one of the fastest growing technologies ever. By September, the number of broadband connections in the UK finally overtook dial-up and in December BT announced that it was making a new broadband connection every 10 seconds. Broadband was being mentioned on the 10 O'clock News and in the tabloids; the Sun even carried a cartoon joke about it. But two of the most significant pieces of news for broadband were items that did not make the headlines. In May, BT quietly announced that it was shaving 70% off the cost of allowing other operators access to its telephone exchanges, so-called local loop unbundling. The vital local loop is the crucial link between telephone exchanges and homes. At the moment BT has a stranglehold on more than 80% of these lines making it the key voice in deciding what ADSL products get into homes. With cheaper local loop unbundling, rivals to BT can offer faster services that will leave the broadband of today looking positively tortoise-like. It will mean the UK will finally catch up with countries such as France and the Netherlands, where homes are routinely enjoying speeds of up to 15Mb (megabits per second). And the major price fall means that, rather than just talk about it, companies are actually starting to get their own equipment into BT's exchanges. It may not seem that exciting but it is a remarkable transition given that just a few years ago the arguments over local loop unbundling bore more than a passing resemblance to the Northern Ireland peace talks - fraught, bitter and with no end in sight. Another big piece of news for broadband users in 2004 was the extension of BT's reach, meaning more than 95% of the population could get broadband, regardless of how far away from the exchange they lived. There was a slight caveat for those wanting to upgrade to 1Mbps broadband, they still have to live within six kilometres of a broadband-enabled exchange. For thousands frustrated by their inability to get the technology, the news meant they could finally join in. Broadband is not just about fast access over the telephone and cable operators NTL and Telewest also had a bumper year. The biggest news for them was increased speeds, introducing 2Mb and 3Mb services for users and offering a free upgrade to those on 512K. The cable operators are limited in their reach and it is perhaps testament to how big a deal local loop unbundling could become that even they are considering extending their range via this route. Broadband can seem confusing for consumers, with the huge amount of operators offering so many different products, some with capped bandwidth and different length contracts and set-up fees. It is unlikely to get any less easy to understand in 2005 but remains a plane worth catching. As it gets faster and offers extras such as cheap telephone calls online, the only real thing to remember for the coming year is to enjoy the ride." +tech,"Games help you 'learn and play' 'God games' in which players must control virtual people and societies could be educational, says research. A US researcher has suggested that games such as The Sims could be a good way to teach languages. Ravi Purushotma believes that the world of The Sims can do a better job of teaching vocabulary and grammar than traditional methods. The inherent fun of game playing could help to make learning languages much less of a chore, said Mr Purushotma. There must be few parents or teachers that do not worry that the lure of a video game on a computer or console is hard to resist by children that really should be doing their homework. But instead of fearing computer games, Ravi Purushotma believes that educationalists, particularly language teachers should embrace games. ""One goal would be to break what I believe to be the false assumption that learning and play are inherently oppositional,"" he said. He believes that the ""phenomenal ability"" of games such as The Sims and others to capture the interest of adolescent audiences is ripe for exploitation. The hard part of learning any language, said Mr Purushotma, were the basic parts of learning what different words refer to and how they are used to build up sentences. Boring lessons drumming vocabulary into pupils couched in terms they do not understand has made many languages far harder to learn than they should be. ""The way we often teach foreign languages right now is somewhat akin to learning to ride a bike by formally studying gravity,"" he said. By contrast, said Mr Purushotma, learning via something like The Sims may mean students do not feel like they are studying at all. This was because The Sims does not rely solely on words to get information across to players. Instead the actions of its computer controlled people and how they interact with their world often makes clear what is going on. The incidental information about what a Sim was doing could reinforce what a player or student was supposed to be learning, said Mr Purushotma. By contrast many language lessons try to impart information about a tongue with little context. For instance, he said, in a version of The Sims adapted to teach German, if a player misunderstood what was meant by the word ""energie"" the actions of a tired Sim, stumbling then falling asleep, would illustrate the meaning. If necessary detailed textual information could be called upon to aid players' or students' understanding. One of the drawbacks of The Sims, said Mr Purushotma, was the lack of spoken language to help people brush up on pronunciation. However, online versions of The Sims, in which people have to move in, meet the neighbours and get to know the local town, could be adapted to help this. Although not wishing to claim that he is the first to suggest using a game can help people learn, Mr Purushotma believes that educationalists have missed the potential they have to help. Getting a simulated person to perform everyday activities in a make-believe world and having them described in a foreign language could be a powerful learning aid, he believes. Before now, he said, educational software titles suffer by comparison with the slick graphics and rich worlds found in games. But, he said, using pre-prepared game worlds such as The Sims has never been easier because tools have been made by its creators and fans that make it easy to modify almost any part of the game. This could make it easy for teachers to adapt parts of the game for their own lessons. ""I'm hoping now to re-create a well-polished German learning mod for the sequel by this summer,"" he told the BBC News website. ""I'm encouraged to hear that others are thinking of experimenting with Japanese and Spanish."" Earlier work with a colleague on using Civilisation III to teach students about history showed that it could be a powerful way to get them to realise that solving a society's problems can not always come from making a single change. A report on the experiment said: ""Students began asking historical and geographical questions in the context of game play, using geography and history as tools for their game, and drawing inferences about social phenomena based on their play."" Mr Purushotma's ideas were aired in an article for the journal Language Learning and Technology." +tech,"Rings of steel combat net attacks Gambling is hugely popular, especially with tech-savvy criminals. Many extortionists are targeting net-based betting firms and threatening to cripple their websites with deluges of data unless a ransom is paid. But now deep defences are being put in place by some of the UK's biggest net firms to stop these attacks. Increasing numbers of attacks and the huge amounts of data being used to try to bump a site off the web are prompting firms to adopt the measures. ""Net firms are realising that it's not just about anti-virus and firewalls,"" said Paul King, chief security architect at Cisco. ""There are more things that can be done in the network to protect data centres."" Mr King said the only way to properly combat these so-called Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks was with intelligent net-based systems. Many of the gambling sites suffering DDoS attacks are in offshore data and hosting centres, so any large scale data flood could knock out access to many more sites than just the one the criminals were targeting, said Mr King. This overspill effect was only likely to grow as attacks grow in size and scale. Malcolm Seagrave, security expert at Energis, said the most common types of attacks hit sites with 10 megabytes of data over short periods of time. Bigger attacks sending down 200 megabytes of traffic or more were rarely seen, he said. ""It does feel like they are turning the dial because you see this traffic gradually growing,"" he said. So far there have been no attacks involving gigabytes of data, said Mr Seagrave. However, he added that it was only a matter of time before such large attacks were mounted. Maria Capella, spokeswoman for net provider Pipex, said that when DDoS attacks were at their height, customers were getting hit every four to five days. The defences being put in place constantly monitor the streams of data flowing across networks and pluck out the traffic destined for target sites. ""It's about understanding what's genuine traffic and keeping attack traffic from going to the site,"" she said. ""We study the profile of their traffic and as soon as we see an anomaly in the profile that's when we start to get the backbone engineering boys to see if we are going to sustain an attack,"" said Ms Capella. This traffic can be hard to spot because DDoS attacks typically use thousands of computers in many different countries, each participating machine only sends a small part of the entire data flood. Typically these computers have been infected by a virus or worm which reports its success and the net address of compromised machines back to the malicious hacker or hi-tech criminal that set off the virus. Hijacked computers are known as zombies or 'bots and collections of them are called 'bot nets. Many spammers rent out 'bot nets to help them anonymously send junk mail. Most of the zombies are based outside the country that hosts the target site so getting the attacking PCs shut off can be difficult. Often Pipex and other net suppliers do get advance notice that an attack is about to happen. ""The serious players tend to precede an attack with some kind of ransom e-mail,"" said Ms Capella. ""We ask, as part of the service we provide, that customers notify us of anything they have in advance that would give us forewarning."" Once an attack is spotted dedicated net hardware takes over to remove the attack traffic and ensure that sites stay up. Energis took a similar approach, said Mr Seagrave. ""We have technology out there that allows us to detect attacks in minutes rather than let network engineers spend hours pulling the information together,"" said Mr Seagrave. Also net firms were starting to work more closely together on the problem of DDoS attacks and pool information about where they are coming from. Information gathered on attacks and where they originated has led to some arrests. He said Energis also did its own intelligence work to get in insight into which sites criminal gangs plan to target. ""We have people in places where they shouldn't be, monitoring tech sites,"" he said. Sometimes though, he said, spotting the next victim was easy. ""You can see them going alphabetically through the list with the gambling sites, trying one after another,"" said Mr Seagrave." +tech,"Hollywood to sue net film pirates The US movie industry has launched legal action to sue people who facilitate illegal film downloading. The Motion Picture Association of America wants to stop people using the program BitTorrent to swap movies. The industry is targeting people who run websites which provide information and internet links to movies which have been copied or filmed in cinemas. More than 100 server operators have been targeted in the actions launched in the US and UK, the MPAA added. The suits were filed against users of the file-sharing programs BitTorrent, eDonkey and DirectConnect in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Finland and the Netherlands, the MPAA said. BitTorrent users can download movies by following a link to files which are found on websites called trackers. Unlike most peer-to-peer programs BitTorrent works by sharing a file, which could be anything from a legitimate digital photo to a copied movie, among multiple users at the same time. The movie industry hopes that suing the people who run the trackers will cut BitTorrent users off from illegal movies at source. Last month major film studios started legal action against 200 individuals who were swapping films online. The growth in broadband has made it quicker for people to download movies and the industry fears that if it does not take action now, it could suffer the same downturn as the music industry." +tech,"IBM puts cash behind Linux push IBM is spending $100m (£52m) over the next three years beefing up its commitment to Linux software. The cash injection will be used to help its customers use Linux on every type of device from handheld computers and phones right up to powerful servers. IBM said the money will fund a variety of technical, research and marketing initiatives to boost Linux use. IBM said it had taken the step in response to greater customer demand for the open source software. In 2004 IBM said it had seen double digit growth in the number of customers using Linux to help staff work together more closely. The money will be used to help this push towards greater collaboration and will add Linux-based elements to IBM's Workplace software. Workplace is a suite of programs and tools that allow workers to get at core business applications no matter what device they use to connect to corporate networks. One of the main focuses of the initiative will be to make it easier to use Linux-based desktop computers and mobile devices with Workplace. Even before IBM announced this latest spending boost it was one of the biggest advocates of the open source way of working. In 2001 it put $300m into a three-year Linux program and has produced Linux versions of many of its programs. Linux and the open source software movement are based on the premise that developers should be free to tinker with the core components of software programs. They reason that more open scrutiny of software produces better programs and fuels innovation." +tech,"Sony PSP handheld console hits US The latest handheld gaming gadget, Sony's PlayStation Portable, goes on sale in the US on Thursday. The entertainment device, which also stores images, music and video, is intended to compete with Nintendo's DS, released earlier this month in the UK. Gamers have been queuing outside shops across the US to get their hands on the gadget, which costs $250 (about £132). The first million sold will come with the Spider-Man 2 film on UMD, Sony's own disc format for the device. The PSP can be linked up with others for multiplayer gaming, via a wireless connection. Sony has touted the machine as the Walkman of the 21st Century and has sold more than 800,000 units in Japan since its launch there last year. But it faces stiff competition from the Nintendo DS, which sold more than the GameCube in its first few days on release in Europe. It too allows for multiplayer gaming over the air. Nintendo dominates the handheld market, with more than a 90% share of the market in the US alone. The Gizmondo combined media player, phone and gaming gadget also went on sale in the UK last week. It hopes to take a share of the handheld gaming market too. ""The story of the PSP is it's not a gaming device as much as it is a portable entertainment device,"" said Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. He told the Reuters news agency that he expected Sony to sell about 10 million PSPs in enough time to rival Apple's iPod. There is no date for the PSP's release in Europe yet. Sony has promised to have a million units ready for its US launch, but there are fears demand may not be met. It also said it expected to ship three million PSPs worldwide by the end of its fiscal year ending 31 March. The machine's European launch was put back ""a few months"" last week in order to make sure enough of the devices were ready for its US launch, as well as satisfying the Japanese market. The PSP has almost as much processing power in it as the PlayStation 2 console. Hundreds of gamers gathered at US shops, some waiting for more than 36 hours, to be the first to get their hands on the gadget. A spokesman for one US shop said it expected the device to sell out on its first day. The 24 games for the mini console include Ape Academy, Formula One, Wipeout Pure and Fired Up. Movie studios, including Lions Gate Entertainment and Disney, have also announced forthcoming film titles that will be made available on the UMD format." +tech,"How to make a greener computer The hi-tech industry is starting to get more environmentally aware. Bill Thompson thinks it's about time. My first car ran on four star petrol and pumped vast quantities of lead into the atmosphere as I drove around Cambridge. Now you can't buy petrol with lead additives, and we're all better off as a result. Chip giant Intel recently began shipping computer circuit boards that are lead free too, reflecting a growing awareness on the part of the technology industry that products have to be designed and built in more environmentally friendly ways. Apart from reducing the use of toxic materials like arsenic, mercury, cadmium and other heavy metals in the products themselves, the manufacturing process is also being cleaned up, with fewer complex and potentially damaging organic chemicals used as solvents. And work is going into making power supplies that are more energy efficient, since current transformers are astonishingly wasteful as they charge our laptops, mobiles and music players. One of the key aspects of the new approach is to design products that are easier to recycle. If you have got a phone or a computer with toxic chemicals or heavy metals in it then extracting them can be tricky and expensive. A well-designed electronic component is able to be recycled at low cost. This is going to be very important to hardware manufacturers in Europe since from August the new Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment directive will oblige them to accept returned products for recycling. They will end up paying if they build things that are expensive or impossible to take apart and will find their profits hit, something which is likely to motivate them where appeals to the wider public interest might fall on deaf ears. It is, as they say, about time. We have a long and depressing history of developing new technologies with complete disregard for their potential impact on the environment, and waiting until there is a crisis looming before we try to redesign them to cause less damage. The car engine is a case in point: lead additives helped stop petrol vapour exploding too early in the cylinder, a phenomenon called 'knocking', so they were simply used without any real thought for the fact that the lead would end up in the atmosphere. Redesigning engines and making petrol slightly different was a lot more work, so it took decades before it was done. We're seeing the same thing in the technology industry and, as a result, there are billions of devices, from old mobile phones to antique handhelds, that will have to be recycled in years to come. If Apple gets its way then a lot of people are going to be buying a new Mac Mini and throwing away their old PC, keeping the monitor and other peripherals. Even if Apple does not get its way, four or five-year-old computers are not good enough to run modern programs and it's not unreasonable to replace them. But what do we do with the old ones? I've just looked around my office and I find two monitors, an old 386 PC, two old handhelds, three ancient laptops, four antique mobile phones, a collection of rechargeable batteries and even a Sun workstation that is no longer really much use. They are all old enough to be hazardous waste - the monitors alone will be full of arsenic and lead - but it's possible that some of the components could be useful. I could take them up the to the council recycling centre, but it's a 10-mile drive away across town, and like many other people my commitment to recycling is shallow at best. Here in Cambridge we have green bins for compostable waste, a box for glass, cans and paper that can be recycled, and a black bin for the rest. There are bottle banks and clothing banks scattered around town and in supermarket car parks. Would it be too much to ask for an electronics recycling box too? I'd probably remember to take my old mobile with me to the supermarket and drop it in a box - at least eventually. Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital." +tech,"Apple iPod family expands market Apple has expanded its iPod family with the release of its next generation of the digital music players. Its latest challenges to the growing digital music gadget market include an iPod mini model which can hold 6GB compared to a previous 4GB. The company, which hopes to keep its dominant place in the digital music market, also said the gold coloured version of the mini would be dropped. A 30GB version has also been added to the iPod Photo family. The latest models have a longer battery life and their prices have been cut by an average of £40. The original iPod took an early lead in the digital music player market thanks to its large storage capacity and simple design. During 2004 about 25 million portable players were sold, 10 million of which were Apple iPods. But analysts agree that the success is also down to its integration with the iTunes online store, which has given the company a 70% share of the legal download music market. Mike McGuire, a research director at analyst Gartner, told the BBC News website that Apple had done a good job in ""sealing off the market from competition"" so far. ""They have created a very seamless package which I think is the idea of the product - the design, function and the software are very impressive,"" he said. He added that the threat from others was always present, however. ""Creative, other Microsoft-partnered devices, Real, Sony and so on, are ratcheting up the marketing message and advertising,"" he said. Creative was very upbeat about how many of its Creative Zen players it had shipped by the end of last year, he said. Its second-generation models, like the Creative Zen Micro Photo, is due out in the summer. It will have 5GB of memory on board. Digital music players are now the gadget of choice among young Americans, according to recent research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. One in 10 US adults - 22 million people - now owns a digital music player of some sort. Sales of legally downloaded songs also rose more than tenfold in 2004, according to the record industry, with 200 million tracks bought online in the US and Europe in 12 months. The IFPI industry body said that the popularity of portable music players was behind the growth. Analysts say that the ease of use and growth of music services available on the net will continue to drive the trend towards portable music players. People are also starting to use them in novel ways. Some are combining automatic syncing functions many of them have with other net functions to automatically distribute DIY radio shows, called podcasts. But 2005 will also see more competition from mobile phone operators who are keen to offer streaming services on much more powerful and sophisticated handsets. According to Mr McGuire, research suggests that people like the idea of building up huge libraries of music, which they can do with high-capacity storage devices, like iPods and Creative Zens. Mobiles do not yet have this capacity though, and there are issues about the ease of portability of mobile music. Mr McGuire said Apple was ensuring it kept a foot in the mobile music door with its recent deal with Motorola to produce a version of iTunes for Motorola phones." +tech,"Movie body targets children's PCs The body that represents the US movie industry has released its latest tool in its campaign to clamp down on movie file-sharing, aimed at parents. The Movie Association for America's (MPAA) free Parent File Scan software lets parents check their children's computers for peer-to-peer programs. It will also list all movie and music files they have on their hard drive. Parents then have the choice to remove programs and files. The MPAA said files found would not be passed on to it. ""Our ultimate goal is to help consumers locate the resources and information they need to make appropriate decisions about using and trading illegal files,"" said Dan Glickman, MPAA chief. ""Many parents are concerned about what their children have downloaded and where they've downloaded it from."" But some computer users who had tested the latest software reported on some technology sites that the program had identified Windows default wav files as copyrighted material and wanted to delete them. Movie piracy cost the industry £3.7bn ($7bn) in 2003, according to analysts. The MPAA said in a statement that it would continue to provide easy access to similar tools in the coming months to combat ""the deleterious effects of peer-to-peer software, including such common problems as viruses, Trojan horses and identity theft"". Mr Glickman said that the film industry was embracing ""digital age technologies"", like Movielink and CinemaNow, which are legal movie sites. ""But legal services such as these need a chance to grow and thrive without having to compete against illegitimate operations that depend on stolen property to survive,"" he added. The industry body also said it had launched a second round of legal action against online movie-swappers across the US, but did not say how many were being sued. Its first set of lawsuits were filed in November 2004. It also started a campaign against operators of BitTorrent, eDonkey and DirectConnect peer-to-peer networks. The first convictions for peer-to-peer piracy were handed out in the US in January. William Trowbridge and Michael Chicoine pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software." +tech,"Mobile gig aims to rock 3G Forget about going to a crowded bar to enjoy a gig by the latest darlings of the music press. Now you could also be at a live gig on your mobile, via the latest third generation (3G) video phones. Rock outfit Rooster are playing what has been billed as the first ever concert broadcast by phone on Tuesday evening from a London venue. The 45-minute gig is due to be ""phone cast"" by the 3G mobile phone operator, 3. 3G technology lets people take, watch and send video clips on their phones, as well as swap data much faster than with 2G networks like GSM. People with 3G phones in the UK can already download football and music clips on their handsets. Some 1,000 fans of the London-based band will have to pay five pounds for a ticket and need a 3G handset. ""Once you have paid, you can come and go as much as you like, because we expect the customers to be mobile,"" said 3 spokesperson Belinda Henderson. ""It's like going to a concert hall, except that you are virtually there."" The company behind the trial hopes to learn more about how people use their video phones. ""We are looking on how long people will stay on average on the streams. Some people may stay the whole time, some may dip in and out,"" said Ms Henderson. ""We actually expect people to dip in and out because they are mobile and they will be doing other things."" 3 is looking to music as a way of persuading more people to take up the latest video phones. It is already planning regular gigs throughout 2005. And during the intermission, of course, you would still be able to make a phone call." +tech,"Joke e-mail virus tricks users A virus that disguises itself as a joke is spreading rapidly across the net. Anti-virus firms are issuing high-level warnings about the new version of the Bagle e-mail program that seems to be catching a lot of people out. The Windows virus grabs e-mail addresses from Microsoft Outlook and uses its own mail sending software to spread itself to new victims. When it infects a machine, the Bagle variant turns off security measures that usually protect PCs. The new variant is called Bagle.AT, Bagle.BB and Bagle.AU and the attachment bearing the virus code is labelled as either ""joke"" or ""price"". The body of the virus usually contains nothing but a smiley or emoticon. The virus can strike computers running Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP. Users will be infected if they open the attachment that travels with the e-mail. As well as plundering Microsoft Outlook for e-mail addresses to send itself to, Bagle.AT also tries to turn off the firewall and security centre services on Windows XP machines. BBC News Online has received five warnings about the virus from security companies. Finnish company F-Secure gave the virus its second highest threat level. ""We've had several reports all over the world,"" said Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research for F-Secure. Security firm Network Box said that it stopped more than 30,000 copies an hour of the virus as the outbreak reached a peak. Black Spider said it had stopped more than 1 million copies of Bagle.AT since the outbreak began at 0630 BST (0530 GMT). Anti-virus firms urged users to be wary of unexpected e-mail messages bearing attachments and to update their software to ensure they are protected against the latest threats." +tech,"Commodore finds new lease of life The once-famous Commodore computer brand could be resurrected after being bought by a US-based digital music distributor. New owner Yeahronimo Media Ventures has not ruled out the possibility of a new breed of Commodore computers. It also plans to develop a ""worldwide entertainment concept"" with the brand, although details are not yet known. The groundbreaking Commodore 64 computer elicits fond memories for those who owned one back in the 1980s. In the chronology of home computing, Commodore was one of the pioneers. The Commodore 64, launched in 1982, was one of the first affordable home PCs. It was followed a few years later by the Amiga. The Commodore 64 sold more than any other single computer system, even to this day. The brand languished somewhat in the 1990s. Commodore International filed for bankruptcy in 1994 and was sold to Dutch firm Tulip Computers. In the late 1980s the firm was a great rival to Atari, which produced its own range of home computers and is now a brand of video games, formerly known as Infogrames. Tulip Computers sold several products under the Commodore name, including portable USB storage devices and digital music players. It had planned to relaunch the brand, following an upsurge of nostalgia for 1980s-era games. Commodore 64 enthusiasts have written emulators for Windows PC, Apple Mac and even PDAs so that the original Commodore games can be still run. The sale of Commodore is expected to be complete in three weeks in a deal worth over £17m." +tech,"Warning over tsunami aid website Net users are being told to avoid a scam website that claims to collect cash on behalf of tsunami victims. The site looks plausible because it uses an old version of the official Disasters Emergency Committee webpage. However, DEC has no connection with the fake site and says it has contacted the police about it. The site is just the latest in a long list of scams that try to cash in on the goodwill generated by the tsunami disaster. The link to the website is contained in a spam e-mail that is currently circulating. The message's subject line reads ""Urgent Tsunami Earthquake Appeal"" and its text bears all the poor grammar and bad spelling that characterises many other phishing attempts. The web address of the fake site is decuk.org which could be close enough to the official www.dec.org.uk address to confuse some people keen to donate. Patricia Sanders, spokeswoman for the Disaster Emergency Committee said it was aware of the site and had contacted the Computer Crime Unit at Scotland Yard to help get it shut down. She said the spam e-mails directing people to the site started circulating two days ago shortly after the domain name of the site was registered. It is thought that the fake site is being run from Romania. Ms Sanders said DEC had contacted US net registrars who handle domain ownership and the net hosting firm that is keeping the site on the web. DEC was going to push for all cash donated via the site to be handed over to the official organisation. BT and DEC's hosting company were also making efforts to get the site shut down, she said. Ms Sanders said sending out spam e-mail to solicit donations was not DEC's style and that it would never canvass support in this way. She said that DEC hoped to get the fake site shut down as soon as possible. All attempts by the BBC News website to contact the people behind the site have failed. None of the e-mail addresses supplied on the site work and the real owner of the domain is obscured in publicly available net records. This is not the first attempt to cash in on the outpouring of goodwill that has accompanied appeals for tsunami aid. One e-mail sent out in early January came from someone who claimed that he had lost his parents in the disaster and was asking for help moving an inheritance from a bank account in the Netherlands. The con was very similar to the familiar Nigerian forward fee fraud e-mails that milk money out of people by promising them a cut of a much larger cash pile. Other scam e-mails included a link to a website that supposedly let people donate money but instead loaded spyware on their computers that grabbed confidential information. In a monthly report anti-virus firm Sophos said that two e-mail messages about the tsunami made it to the top 10 hoax list during January. Another tsunami-related e-mail is also circulating that carries the Zar worm which tries to spread via the familiar route of Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program. Anyone opening the attachment of the mail will have their contact list plundered by the worm keen to find new addresses to send itself to." +tech,"'No re-draft' for EU patent law A proposed European law on software patents will not be re-drafted by the European Commission (EC) despite requests by MEPs. The law is proving controversial and has been in limbo for a year. Some major tech firms say it is needed to protect inventions, while others fear it will hurt smaller tech firms. The EC says the Council of Ministers will adopt a draft version that was agreed upon last May but said it would review ""all aspects of the directive"". The directive is intended to offer patent protection to inventions that use software to achieve their effect, in other words, ""computer implemented invention"". In a letter, EC President José Manuel Barroso told the President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, that the Commission ""did not intend to refer a new proposal to the Parliament and the Council (of ministers)"" as it had supported the agreement reached by ministers in May 2004. If the European Council agrees on the draft directive it will then return for a second reading at the European Parliament. But that will not guarantee that the directive will become law - instead it will probably mean further delays and controversy over the directive. Most EU legislation now needs the approval of both parliament and the Council of Ministers before it becomes law. French Green MEP Alain Lipietz warned two weeks ago that if the Commission ignored the Parliament's request it would be an ""insult"" to the assembly. He said that the parliament would then reject the Council's version of the legislation as part of the final or conciliation stage of the decision procedure. In the US, the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted. This means that the US-based Amazon.com holds a patent for its ""one-click shopping"" service, for example. Critics are concerned that the directive could lead to a similar model happening in Europe. This, they fear, could hurt small software developers because they do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies if they had to fight patent legal action in court. Supporters say current laws are inefficient and it would serve to even up a playing field without bringing EU laws in line with the US." +tech,"No half measures with Half-Life 2 Could Half-Life 2 possibly live up to the hype? After almost two years of tantalising previews and infuriating delays it's safe to say that this is the most highly-anticipated computer game of all time. Fortunately, it doesn't merely live up to its promise, but exceeds it. No-one who plays the finished product will wonder why it took so long. The impression is of a game that has been endlessly refined to get as close to perfection as could realistically be hoped. All the money - or indeed time - is on the screen. The player sees things through the eyes of Gordon Freeman, the bespectacled scientist who starred in the original 1998 Half-Life. Having survived that skirmish in an desolate monster-infested research facility, he's back in another foreboding troublespot - the enigmatic City 17. It has the look of a beautiful Eastern European city, but as soon as your train pulls in to the station, it's clear that all is not well here. Sinister police patrol the unkempt streets, and the oppressive atmosphere clobbers you like a sledgehammer. A casual smattering of the nightmarish creatures from the first game makes this an even less pleasant place to be. You are herded around like a prisoner and have to mingle with a few freedom-fighting civilians to gather information and progress in your task. It is not immediately explained what your objectives are, nor precisely why everything is so ravaged. Finding out step-by-step is all part of the experience, although you never fully get to understand what it was all about. That does not really matter. HL2 does not waste energy blinding you with plot. Underplaying the narrative in this way is gloriously effective, and immerses the player in the most vivid, convincing and impressive virtual world they are likely to have seen. There are no cut-scenes to interrupt the flow. Exposition is accomplished by other characters stopping to talk directly to you. Whereas the highly impressive Doom III felt like a top-notch theme park thrill-ride, wandering through Half-Life's world truly does feel like being part of a movie. Considering its sophistication, the game runs surprisingly well on computers that only just match the modest minimum specifications. But if ever there was an incentive to upgrade your PC's components, this is it. On our test machine - an Alienware system with an Athlon 3500+ processor and ATI's Radeon X800 video card - everything ran at full quality without trouble, and the visual experience was simply jaw-dropping. It is not simply that the surfaces, textures and light effects push the technical envelope without mercy, but that such care and artistic flair has gone into designing them. The haunting, grim landscapes become strangely beautiful. Luckily you get time to pause mid-task and marvel at the awesome graphical flourishes of your surroundings. So impressive are the physics that you'll find yourself hurling bits of rubbish around and prodding floating corpses just to marvel at the lifelike way they move. There are puzzles to be solved along the way, pitched at about the right difficulty, but most progress is achieved by force. Freeman is quickly reunited with the original game's famous crowbar, and an array of more sophisticated weapons soon follow. Virtually anything not nailed to the floor can be interacted with, and in realistic fashion. You will be wowed by the attention-to-detail as you chip bits of plaster off walls, chase a pigeon out of your way, or dodge exploding barrels as they ping around at deadly speed. At times Half-Life 2 feels like one of those annoying people who are unfeasibly brilliant at everything they turn their hand to, and in a curious way, its unrelenting goodness actually becomes almost tiresome. Running around on foot is great enough, but jumping into vehicles proves even more fun. Human foes are rendered just as well as alien ones. The stealth sections are as exhilarating as the open gun battles. In gameplay terms, HL2 somehow gets almost everything perfect. And without resorting to the zombies-leaping-out-of-shadows approach of Doom III, it's all incredibly unsettling. The vacant environment is distinctly eerie, and at one point I even caught myself hesitating to go down a murky tunnel for fear of what might be inside. The game does have a couple of problems. Firstly, the carefully-scripted way that you progress through each level might irk some people. A lot of things are meticulously choreographed to happen on cue, which makes for exciting moments, but may be an annoyance to some players and limit the appeal of playing again once you've completed it. If you like things open-ended and free-ranging, Far Cry will be a lot more pleasing. But the real downside is the hassle of getting the game to run. Installing it proved a life-draining siege that would test a saint's patience. Developer Valve has rashly assumed that everyone wanting to play the game will have an internet connection and it forces you to go online to authenticate your copy. The box does warn you of this anti-piracy measure, but does not say just how many components have to be downloaded. The time spent doing this will depend on your connection speed, the temperamental Valve servers and the time of day, but it can take hours. It would take a mighty piece of work to feel worthwhile after such annoyances - but luckily, Half-Life 2 is up to the challenge. It is surely the best thing in its genre, and possibly, many will feel, of any genre. The bar has been raised, and so far out of sight that you have to sympathise with any game that tries to do anything remotely similar in the near future. Half-Life 2 is out now for the PC" +tech,"Format wars could 'confuse users' Technology firms Sony, Philips, Matsushita and Samsung are developing a common way to stop people pirating digital music and video. The firms want to make a system that ensures files play on the hardware they make but also thwarts illegal copying. The move could mean more confusion for consumers already faced by many different, and conflicting, content control systems, experts warned. They say there are no guarantees the system will even prevent piracy. Currently many online stores wrap up downloadable files in an own-brand control system that means they can only be played on a small number of media players. Systems that limit what people can do with the files they download are known as Digital Rights Management systems. By setting up the alliance to work on a common control system, the firms said they hope to end this current fragmentation of file formats. In a joint statement the firms said they wanted to let consumers enjoy ""appropriately licensed video and music on any device, independent of how they originally obtained that content"". The firms hope that it will also make it harder for consumers to make illegal copies of the music, movies and other digital content they have bought. Called the Marlin Joint Development Association, the alliance will define basic specifications that every device made by the electronics firms will conform to. Marlin will be built on technology from rights management firm Intertrust as well as an earlier DRM system developed by a group known as the Coral Consortium. The move is widely seen as a way for the four firms to decide their own destiny on content control systems instead of having to sign up for those being pushed by Apple and Microsoft. Confusingly for consumers, the technology that comes out of the alliance will sit alongside the content control systems of rival firms such as Microsoft and Apple. ""In many ways the different DRM systems are akin to the different physical formats, such as Betamax and VHS, that consumers have seen in the past,"" said Ian Fogg, personal technology and broadband analyst at Jupiter Research. ""The difference is that it is very fragmented,"" he said. ""It's not a two-horse race, it's a five, six, seven or even eight-horse race"" Mr Fogg said consumers had to be very careful when buying digital content to ensure that it would play on the devices they own. He said currently there were even incompatibilities within DRM families. Although initiatives such as Microsoft's ""Plays for Sure"" program could help remove some of the uncertainty, he said, life was likely to be confusing for consumers for some time to come. Shelley Taylor, analyst and author of a report about online music services, said the locks and limits on digital files were done to maximise the cash that firms can make from consumers. Apple's iTunes service was a perfect example of this, she said. ""Although iTunes has been hugely successful, Apple could not justify its existence if it did not help sell all those iPods,"" she said. She said rampant competition between online music services, of which there are now 230 according to recent figures, could drive more openness and freer file formats. ""It always works out that consumer needs win out in the long run,"" she said, ""and the services that win in the long run are the ones that listen to consumers earliest."" Ms Taylor said the limits legal download services place on files could help explain the continuing popularity of file-sharing systems that let people get hold of pirated pop. ""People want portability,"" she said, ""and with peer-to-peer they have 100% portability."" Cory Doctorow, European co-ordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation which campaigns for consumers on many cyber-rights issues, expressed doubts that the Marlin system would achieve its aims. ""Not one of these systems has ever prevented piracy or illegal copying,"" he said. He said many firms readily admit that their DRM systems are little protection against skilled attackers such as the organised crime gangs that are responsible for most piracy. Instead, said Mr Doctorow, DRM systems were intended to control the group that electronics firms have most hold over - consumers. ""The studios and labels perceive an opportunity to sell you your media again and again - the iPod version, the auto version, the American and UK version, the ringtone version, and so on.""" +tech,"Ask Jeeves joins web log market Ask Jeeves has bought the Bloglines website to improve the way it handles content from web journals or blogs. The Bloglines site has become hugely popular as it gives users one place in which to read, search and share all the blogs they are interested in. Ask Jeeves said it was not planning to change Bloglines but would use the 300 million articles it has archived to round out its index of the web. How much Ask Jeeves paid for Bloglines was not revealed. Bloglines has become popular because it lets users build a list of the blogs they want to follow without having to visit each journal site individually. To do this it makes use of a technology known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) that many blogs have adopted to let other sites know when new entries are made on their journals. The acquisition follows similar moves by other search sites. Google acquired Pyra Labs, makers of the Blogger software, in 2003. In 2004 MSN introduced its own blog system and Yahoo has tweaked its technology to do a better job of handling blog entries. Jim Lanzone, vice president of search properties at Ask Jeeves in the US, said it did not acquire Bloglines just to get a foothold in the blog publishing world. He said Ask Jeeves was much more interested in helping people find information they were looking for rather than helping them write it. ""The universe of readers is vastly larger than the universe of writers,"" he said. Mr Lanzone said the acquisition would sit well with Ask's My Jeeves service which lets people customise their own web experience and build up a personal collection of useful links. ""Search engines are about discovering information for the first time and RSS is the ideal way to keep track of and monitor those sites,"" he said. It would also help drive information and entries from blogs to the portals that Ask Jeeves operates. There would be no instant sweeping changes to Bloglines, said Mr Lanzone. ""Our intent is to take our time to figure out the right business model not to try to monetise it right away,"" he said. Though Mr Lanzone added that Ask Jeeves would be helping organise the database of 300m blog entries Bloglines holds with its own net indexing technology. ""Being able to search the blogosphere as one corpus of information will be very useful in its own right,"" said Mr Lanzone. Rumours about the acquisition were broken by the Napsterization weblog which said it got the hint from Ask Jeeves insiders." +tech,"Microsoft gets the blogging bug Software giant Microsoft is taking the plunge into the world of blogging. It is launching a test service to allow people to publish blogs, or online journals, called MSN Spaces. Microsoft is trailing behind competitors like Google and AOL, which already offer services which make it easy for people to set up web journals. Blogs, short for web logs, have become a popular way for people to talk about their lives and express opinions online. MSN Spaces is free to anyone with a Hotmail or MSN Messenger account. People will be able to choose a layout for the page, upload images and share photo albums and music playlists. The service will be supported by banner ads. ""This is a simple tool for people to express themselves,"" said MSN's Blake Irving. This is Microsoft's first foray into blogging, which has taken off as a web phenomenon in the past year. Competitors like Google already offer free services through its Blogger site, while AOL provides its members with journals. Accurate figures for the number of blogs in existence are hard to come by. According to blog analysis firm Technorati, the so-called blogosphere, has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18 months. It now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8 million, although some speculate that less than a quarter are regularly maintained." +tech,"PlayStation 3 processor unveiled The Cell processor, which will drive Sony's PlayStation 3, will run 10-times faster than current PC chips, its designers have said. Sony, IBM and Toshiba, who have been working on the Cell processor for three years, unveiled the chip on Monday. It is being designed for use in graphics workstations, the new PlayStation console, and has been described as a supercomputer on a chip. The chip will run at speeds of greater than 4 GHz, the firms said. By comparison, rival chip maker Intel's fastest processor runs at 3.8 GHz. Details of the chip were released at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. The new processor is set to ignite a fresh battle between Intel and the Cell consortium over which processor sits at the centre of digital products. The PlayStation 3 is expected in 2006, while Toshiba plans to incorporate it into high-end televisions next year. IBM has said it will sell a workstation with the chip starting later this year. Cell is comprised of several computing engines, or cores. A core based on IBM's Power architecture controls eight ""synergistic"" processing centres. In all, they can simultaneously carry out 10 instruction sequences, compared with two for current Intel chips. Later this year, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices plan to release their own ""multicore"" chips, which also increase the number of instructions that can be executed at once. The Cell's specifications suggest the PlayStation 3 will offer a significant boost in graphics capabilities but analysts cautioned that not all the features in a product announcement will find their way into systems. ""Any new technology like this has two components,"" said Steve Kleynhans, an analyst with Meta Group. He said: ""It has the vision of what it could be because you need the big vision to sell it. ""Then there's the reality of how it's really going to be used, which generally is several levels down the chain from there."" While the PlayStation 3 is likely to be the first mass-market product to use Cell, the chip's designers have said the flexible architecture means that it would be useful for a wide range of applications, from servers to mobile phones. Initial devices are unlikely to be any smaller than a games console, however, because the first version of the Cell will run hot enough to need a cooling fan. And while marketing speak describes the chip as a ""supercomputer"" - it remains significantly slower than the slowest computer on the list of the world's top 500 supercomputers. IBM said Cell was ""OS neutral"" and would support multiple operating systems simultaneously but designers would not confirm if Microsoft's Windows was among those tested with the chip. If Cell is to challenge Intel's range of chips in the marketplace, it will need to find itself inside PCs, which predominantly run using Windows." +tech,"Napster offers rented music to go Music downloading, for those that have rejected the free peer to peer services, can be a costly business. The cost of paying even as little as 70p per track can add up, particularly for those people who own one of the new generation of players that can store thousands of songs. Paying per track for music is becoming as outmoded as paying per minute for internet access and alternative monthly or yearly subscription models are springing up as a more convenient, and ultimately cheaper way of owning music. ""Music fans are moving away from buying the traditional bundled package of a dozen or more songs that we used to call an album to newer ways that fit their lifestyle; either single tracks or subscriptions services,"" said Paul Myers, chief executive of Wippit, a UK-based music download service. While iTunes is doing good business with its sales of individual tracks to iPod owners, others are questioning whether the concept of owning music is even valid in the digital age. Napster is due to launch a new rental subscription service - dubbed Napster to Go in the UK in the next few months. The service can be used on players that support Microsoft Windows latest Digital Rights Management technology known as Janus. This includes players made by Samsung, Rio and Creative. Currently on offer in beta-version in the US, the service costs $15 per month for unlimited downloads. The technology ensures that music downloaded to the player only remains playable while the user subscribes to the service. Users need to update their license on a monthly basis or the tunes will no longer play. This has outraged some digital music lovers, especially as Napster already offers a cheaper service for downloading music to the PC. Napster claims the higher price is a result of record labels charging more for the to-go service and says it also offers ""greater value"" for customers. Mr Myers is not convinced a rental model will work for consumers. ""We've been offering our unlimited music subscription service for more than three years now and our customers know what they want. Format interoperability, excellent value and the reassurance that music purchased from Wippit is theirs to keep and enjoy on whatever device they choose,"" he said. ""Who wants to download a track that won't play next month if you decide to unsubscribe to the service or change portable player for an iPod or the latest mobile phone?"" Wippit offers a download subscription service for £4.99 per month or £50 per year. It has a catalogue of around 60,000 songs." +tech,"When technology gets personal In 2020, whipping out your mobile phone to make a call will be quaintly passé. By then phones will be printed directly on to wrists, or other parts of the body, says Ian Pearson, BT's resident futurologist. It's all part of what's known as a ""pervasive ambient world"", where ""chips are everywhere"". Mr Pearson does not have a crystal ball. His job is to formulate ideas based on what science and technology are doing now, to guide industries into the future. Inanimate objects will start to interact with us: we will be surrounded - on streets, in homes, in appliances, on our bodies and possibly in our heads - by things that ""think"". Forget local area networks - these will be body area networks. Ideas about just how smart, small, or even invisible, technology will get are always floating around. Images of devices clumsily bolted on to heads or wrists have pervaded thinking about future technology. But now a new vision is surfacing, where smart fabrics and textiles will be exploited to enhance functionality, form, or aesthetics. Such materials are already starting to change how gadgets and electronics are used and designed. So MP3 players - the mass gadget of the moment - will disappear and instead become integrated into one's clothing, says Mr Pearson. ""So the gadgets that fill up your handbag, when we integrate those into fabric, we can actually get rid of all that stuff. You won't necessarily see the electronics."" Wearable technology could exploit body heat to charge it up, while ""video tattoos"", or intelligent electronic contact lenses, might function as TV screens for those on the move. However, this future of highly personal devices, where technology is worn, or even fuses with the body itself, raises ethical questions. If technology is going to be increasingly part of clothing, jewellery, and skin, there needs to be some serious thinking about what it means for us as humans, says Baroness Susan Greenfield. At a recent conference for technology, engineering, academic and fashion industry experts, at the Royal Society in London, neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield cautioned we ""can't just sleepwalk into the future"". Yet this technology is already upon us. Researchers have developed computers and sensors worn in clothing. MP3 jackets, based on the idea that electrically conductive fabric can connect to keyboard sewn into sleeves, have already appeared in shops. These ""smart fabrics"" have come about through advances in nano- and micro-engineering - the ability to manipulate and exploit materials at micro or molecular scale. At the nanoscale, materials can be ""tuned"" to display unusual properties that can be exploited to build faster, lighter, stronger and more efficient devices and systems. The textile and clothing industry has been one of the first to exploit nanotechnology in quite straightforward ways. Many developments are appearing in real products in the fields of medicine, defence, healthcare, sports, and communications. Professional swimming suits reduce drag by incorporating tiny structures similar to shark skin. Nanoscale titanium dioxide (TiO2) coatings give fabrics antibacterial and anti-odour properties. These have special properties which can be activated in contact with the air or UV light. Such coatings have already been used to stop socks smelling for instance, to turn airline seats into super stain-resistant surfaces, and applied to windows so they clean themselves. Dressings for wounds can now incorporate nanoparticles with biocidal properties and smart patches are being developed to deliver drugs through the skin. But Baroness Greenfield is concerned about how far this more personal contact with technology might affect our very being. If our clothing, skin, and ""personal body networks"" do the talking and the monitoring, everywhere we go, we have to think about what that means for our concept of privacy. Mr Pearson picks up the theme, pointing out there are a lot of issues humans have to iron out before we become ""cyborgian"". His main concern is ""privacy"". ""We are looking at electronics which are really in deep contact with your body and a lot of that information you really don't want every passer-by to know. ""So we have to make sure we build security in this. If you are wearing smart make-up, where electronics are controlling the appearance, you don't want people hacking in and writing messages on your forehead."" As technology infiltrates our biology, how will our brains function differently? ""We cannot arrogantly assume that the human brain will not change with this,"" warns Baroness Greenfield. There have already been successful experiments to grow human nerve cells on circuit boards. This paves the way for brain implants to help paralysed people interface directly with computers. Clearly, the organic, carbon of our bodies and silicon is increasingly merging. The cyborg - a very familiar part-human, part-inorganic science fiction and academic idea - is on its way." +tech,"Musical future for phones Analyst Bill Thompson has seen the future and it is in his son's hands. I bought my son Max a 3G phone, partly because they are so cheap and he needed a phone, and partly because I am supposed to know about the latest technology and thought I should see how they work in real life. After using it for a while I am not at all tempted to get rid of my SonyEricsson P800 smart phone. That has a relatively large screen, even if it does only have slower GPRS access to the network. I can read my e-mail, surf the web using a proper browser and write stuff using the stylus on its touch screen. Last week someone e-mailed me a document that had been compressed into a ZIP file, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my phone even knew how to decompress it for me. By contrast the confusing menus, complicated keyboard and truly irritating user interface of Max's 3G phone simply get in the way, and I did not see much value in the paid-for services, especially the limited web access. The videos of entertainment news, horoscopes and the latest celebrity gossip did not appeal, and I did not see how the small screen could be useful for any sort of image, never mind micro-TV. But then Max started playing, and I realised I was missing the point entirely. It is certainly not a great overall experience, but that is largely due to the poor menu system and the phone layout: the video content itself is compelling. The quality was at least as good as the video streaming from the BBC website, and the image is about the same size. Max was completely captivated, and I was intrigued to discover that I had nearly missed the next stage of the network revolution. It is easy to be dismissive of small screens, and indeed anyone of my generation, with failing eyesight and the view that 'there's never anything worth watching on TV', is hardly going to embrace these phones. But just as the World Wide Web was the ""killer application"" that drove internet adoption, music videos are going to drive 3G adoption. With Vodafone now pushing its own 3G service, and 3 already established in the UK, video on the phone is clearly going to become a must-have for kids sitting on the school bus, adults waiting outside clubs and anyone who has time to kill and a group of friends to impress. This will please the network operators, who are looking for some revenue from their expensively acquired 3G licences. But it goes deeper than that: playing music videos on a phone marks the beginning of a move away from the 'download and play' model we have all accepted for our iPods and MP3 players. After all, why should I want to carry 60GB of music and pictures around with me in my pocket when I can simply listen to anything I want, whenever I want, streamed to my phone? Oh - and of course you can always use the phone to make voice calls and send texts, something which ensures that it is always in someone's pocket or handbag, available for other uses too. I have never really approved of using the Internet Protocol (IP), to do either audio or video streaming, and I think that technically it is a disaster to make phone calls over the net using ""voice over IP"". But I have to acknowledge that the net, at least here in the developed Western countries, is fast and reliable enough to do both. I stream radio to my computer while I work, and enjoy hearing the bizarre stations from around the world that I can find online but nowhere else. I am even playing with internet telephony, despite my reservations, and I appear on Go Digital on the World Service, streamed over the web each week. But 3G networks have been designed to do this sort of streaming, both for voice and video, which gives them an edge over net-based IP services. The 3G services aren't quite there yet, and there is a lot to be sorted out when it comes to web access and data charges. Vodafone will let you access its services on Vodafone Live! as part of your subscription cost but it makes you pay by the megabyte to download from other sites - this one, for example. This will not matter to business users, but will distort the consumer market and keep people within the phone company's collection of partner sites, something that should perhaps be worrying telecoms regulator Ofcom. But we should not see these new phones simply as cut-down network terminals. If I want fast access to my e-mail I can get a 3G card for my laptop or hook up to a wireless network. The phone is a lot more, and it is as a combination of mini-TV, personal communications device and music/video player that it really works. There is certainly room in the technology ecosystem for many different sorts of devices, accessing a wide range of services over different networks. 3G phones and iPods can co-exist, at least for a while, but if I had to bet on the long term I would go for content on demand over carrying gigabytes in my pocket. Or perhaps some enterprising manufacturer will offer me both. An MP3G player, anyone? Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital." +tech,"Santy worm makes unwelcome visit Thousands of website bulletin boards have been defaced by a virus that used Google to spread across the net. The Santy worm first appeared on 20 December and within 24 hours had successfully hit more than 40,000 websites. The malicious program exploits a vulnerability in the widely used phpBB software. Santy's spread has now been stopped after Google began blocking infected sites searching for new victims. The worm replaces chat forums with a webpage announcing that the site had been defaced by the malicious program. Soon after being infected, sites hit by the worm started randomly searching for other websites running the vulnerable phpBB software. Once Google started blocking these search queries the rate of infection tailed off sharply. A message sent to Finnish security firm F-Secure by Google's security team said: ""While a seven hour response for something like this is not outrageous, we think we can and should do better."" ""We will be reviewing our procedures to improve our response time in the future to similar problems,"" the Google team said. Security firms estimate that about 1m websites run their discussion groups and forums with the open source phpBB program. The worst of the attack now seems to be over as a search conducted on the morning of the 22 December produced only 1,440 hits for sites showing the text used in the defacement message. People using the sites hit by Santy will not be affected by the worm. Santy is not the first malicious program to use Google to help it spread. In July a variant of the MyDoom virus slowed down searches on Google as the program flooded the search site with queries looking for new e-mail addresses to send itself to." +tech,"Seamen sail into biometric future The luxury cruise liner Crystal Harmony, currently in the Gulf of Mexico, is the unlikely setting for tests of biometric technology. As holidaymakers enjoy balmy breezes, their ship's crew is testing prototype versions of the world's first internationally issued biometric ID cards, the seafarer's equivalent of a passport. Along with the owner's picture, name and personal details, the new Seafarers' Identity Document incorporates a barcode representing unique features of its holder's fingerprints. The cards are due to be issued in February next year, in line with the revised UN Convention on Seafarers' Identity Documents of June 2003. Tests currently under way in the Caribbean are designed to ensure that new cards and their machine readers, produced by different companies in different countries, are working to interoperable standards. Results of the current tests, which involve seafarers from a wide range of occupations and nationalities, will be published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) by the end of November. Crystal Cruises, which operates the Crystal Harmony, is exploring the use of biometrics but has not yet committed to the technology. Authenti-corp, the US technology consultancy, has been working with the ILO on its technical specifications for the cards. ""If you're issued a seafarer's ID in your country, you want to be sure that when the ship lands in a port in, say, my country you can validate yourself using whatever equipment we have installed,"" Authenti-corp's CEO, Cynthia Musselman, told the BBC's Go Digital programme. She said French, Jordanian and Nigerian nationals would be the first seafarers to get the new ID cards since their countries have already ratified the convention. It aims to combat international terrorism whilst guaranteeing the welfare the one million seafarers estimated to be at sea. The convention highlights the importance of access to shore facilities and shore leave as vital elements to a sailor's wellbeing and, therefore, it says, to safer shipping and cleaner oceans. ""By increasing security on the seas as well as border control and protection, the cards will hopefully reduce the number of piracy problems around the world,"" said Ms Musselman. ""It should be a safer environment for seafarers to work in, and will allow people protecting their borders to have confidence that the people getting off the ship are, in fact, seafarers.""" +tech,"Lasers help bridge network gaps An Indian telecommunications firm has turned to lasers to help it overcome the problems of setting up voice and data networks in the country. Tata Teleservices is using the lasers to make the link between customers' offices and its own core network. The laser bridges work across distances up to 4km and can be set up much faster than cable connections. In 12 months the lasers have helped the firm set up networks in more than 700 locations. ""In this particular geography getting permission to dig the ground and lay the pipes is a bit of a task,"" said Mr R. Sridharan, vice president of networks at Tata. ""Heavy traffic and the layout under the ground mean that digging is uniquely difficult,"" he said. In some locations, he said, permission to dig up roads and lay cables was impossible to get. He said it was far easier to secure permission for putting networking hardware on roofs. This has led Chennai-based Tata to turn to equipment that uses lasers to make the final mile leap between Tata's core network and the premises of customers. The Lightpointe laser bridges work over distances of up to 4km and are being used to route both voice and data from businesses on to the backbone of the network. The hardware works in pairs and beam data through the air in the form of laser pulses. The laser bridges can route data at speeds up to 1.25gbps (2,000 times faster than a 512kbps broadband connection) but Tata is running its hardware at more modest speeds of 1-2mbps. The lasers are also ideal for India because of its climate. ""It's particularly suitable as the rain rate is a little low and it's hardly ever foggy,"" he said. In places where rain is heavy and fog is common laser links can struggle to maintain good connection speeds. The laser links also take far less time to set up and get working, said Mr Sridharan. ""Once we get the other permissions, normal time period for set up is a few hours,"" he said. By contrast, he said, digging up roads and laying cables can take weeks or months. This speed of set up has helped Tata with its aggressive expansion plans. Just over 12 months ago the firm had customers in only about 70 towns and cities. But by the end of March the firm hopes to reach more than 1,000. ""Speed is very important because of the pace of competition,"" said Mr Sridharan." +tech,"Games 'deserve a place in class' Computer games could enhance learning and have a legitimate place in the classroom, say researchers. Academics from the Institute of Education at London University found that ""games literacy"" was a key skill for youngsters. As well as being used in different areas of the curriculum, games are a legitimate area of study in their own right, researchers say. Pupils should also be able to create their own games, they say. ""Like all games, computer and video games entertain while promoting social development, and playing and talking about games is an important part of young people's lives,"" said project manager Caroline Pelletier. ""Games literacy is a way of investigating how games are means of expression and representation, just like writing or drawing,"" she said. The researchers conducted two studies into the impact of games on education, the first looking at how they can be used in different curriculum subjects to enhance learning. Researchers found that girls were often excluded from the male-dominated world of game playing. ""Without first-hand experience of how much fun a game can be, they have little motivation to play and remain disengaged from an engrossing and sociable activity,"" said research fellow Diane Carr. The second project looked at how games can be integrated into media education and concluded that writing games should be a core part of studying them. Sixth-form teacher Barney Oram already teaches computer games alongside the more traditional study of film, TV and popular music at the A-level course he runs at Long Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge. For parents, the idea that computer games could be brought into the classroom environment, could cause controversy. Dr Andrew Burn, associate director of the Institute of Education's Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media moved to reassure anxious parents. ""Games are a legitimate cultural form that deserve critical analysis in schools just as film, television and literature do,"" he said. ""But we also want to argue that full understanding only comes when children have the tools to create their own games."" The games industry welcomed the report, saying it showed how games had a positive impact on children. ""At a time of hysterical and inaccurate reporting it is heartening to see the cultural, social and educational value of computer and video games being assessed intelligently,"" said Roger Bennett, director general of the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association. ""This report is further evidence, if it were needed, about the excellence and imagination that thrives in gaming. They have much to offer to the education of our children and they have much to offer as a career."" The three-year research project, which is being presented at a seminar on Tuesday in London, was partly funded by the Department of Trade and Industry." +tech,"Wi-fi web reaches farmers in Peru A network of community computer centres, linked by wireless technology, is providing a helping hand for poor farmers in Peru. The pilot scheme in the Huaral Valley, 80 kilometres north of the capital Lima, aims to offer the 6,000-strong community up-to-date information on agricultural market prices and trends. The Agricultural Information Project for Farmers of the Chancay-Huaral Valley also provides vital links between local organisations in charge of water irrigation, enabling them to coordinate their actions. More than 13,000 rural inhabitants, as well as 18,000 students in the region, will also benefit from the telecoms infrastructure. The 14 telecentres uses only free open source software and affordable computer equipment. The network has been three years in the making and was officially inaugurated in September. The non-government organisation, Cepes (Peruvian Centre for Social Studies) led the $200,000 project, also backed by local institutions, the Education and Agriculture ministries, and European development organisations. ""The plan includes training on computers and internet skills for both operators and users of the system,"" said Carlos Saldarriaga, technical coordinator at Cepes. Farmers are also taking extra lessons on how to apply the new information to make the most of their plots of land. The Board of Irrigation Users which runs the computer centres, aims to make the network self-sustainable within three years, through the cash generated by using the telecentres as internet cafes. One of the key elements of the project is the Agricultural Information System, with its flagship huaral.org website. There, farmers can find the prices for local produce, as well as information on topics ranging from plague prevention to the latest farming techniques. The system also helps the inhabitants of the Chancay-Huaral Valley to organise their vital irrigation systems. ""Water is the main element that unites them all. It is a precious element in Peru's coastal areas, because it is so scarce, and therefore it is necessary to have proper irrigation systems to make the most of it,"" Mr Saldarriaga told the BBC News website. The information network also allows farmers to look beyond their own region, and share experiences with other colleagues from the rest of Peru and even around the world. Cepes says the involvement of the farmers has been key in the project's success. ""Throughout the last three years, the people have provided a vital thrust to the project; they feel it belongs to them,"" said Mr Saldarriaga. The community training sessions, attended by an equal number of men and women, have been the perfect showcase for their enthusiasm. ""We have had an excellent response, mainly from young people. But we have also had a great feedback when we trained 40 or 50-year old women, who were seeing a computer for the first time in their lives."" So far, the Huaral programme promoters say the experience has been very positive, and are already planning on spreading the model among other farmers' organisations in Peru. ""This is a pilot project, and we have been very keen on its cloning potential in other places,"" underlined Mr Saldarriaga. The Cepes researcher recalls what happened in Cuyo, a 50-family community with no electricity, during the construction of the local telecentre site. There it was necessary to build a mini-hydraulic dam in order to generate 2kW worth of power for the computers, the communications equipment and the cabin lights. ""It was already dark when the technicians realised they didn't have any light bulbs to test the generator, so they turned up to the local store to buy light bulbs,"" recalls Carlos Saldarriaga. ""The logical answer was 'we don't sell any', so they had to wait until the next morning to do the testing."" Now, with the wireless network, Cuyo as well as the other communities is no longer isolated." +tech,"Games win for Blu-ray DVD format The next-generation DVD format Blu-ray is winning more supporters than its rival, according to its backers. Blu-ray, backed by 100 firms including Sony, is competing against Toshiba and NEC-backed HD-DVD to be the format of choice for future films and games. The Blu-Ray Association said on Thursday that games giants Electronic Arts and Vivendi would both support its DVD format. The next generation of DVDs will hold high-definition video and sound. This offers incredible 3D-like quality of pictures which major Hollywood studios and games publishers are extremely keen to exploit in the coming year. In a separate press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Toshiba announced that DVD players for its technology would be on the market by the end of 2005. ""As we move from standard definition video images to high-definition images, we have a much greater need for storage,"" Richard Doherty, from Panasonic's Hollywood Laboratories, one of the pioneers of Blu-ray, told the BBC news website. ""So by utilising blue laser-based technology we can make an optical laser disc that can hold six times as much as today's DVD."" A Blu-ray disc will be able to store 50GB of high-quality data, while Toshiba's HD-DVD will hold 30GB. Mr Doherty added that it was making sure the discs could satisfy all high-definition needs, including the ability to record onto the DVDs and smaller discs to fit into camcorders. Both Toshiba and Blu-ray are hopeful that the emerging DVD format war, akin to the Betamax and VHS fight in the 1980s, can be resolved over the next year when next-generation DVD players start to come out. When players do come out, they will be able to play standard DVDs too, which is good news for those who have huge libraries of current DVDs. But the support from Vivendi and Electronics Arts is a big boost to Blu-ray in the battle for supremacy. Gaming is a $20 billion industry worldwide, so is as crucial as the film industry in terms of money to be made. ""The technical requirement for game development today demands more advanced optical-disc technologies,"" said Michael Heilmann, chief technology officer for Vivendi Universal. ""Blu-ray offers the capacity, performance and high-speed internet connectivity to take us into the future of gaming."" EA, a leading games developer and publisher, added that the delivery of high-definition games of the future was vital and Blu-ray had the capacity, functionality and interactivity needed for the kinds of projects it was planning. Sony recently announced it would be using the technology in its next generation of PlayStations. Mr Doherty said gamers were ""ravenous"" for high-quality graphics and technology for the next generation of titles. ""Gamers, especially those working on PCs, are always focused on more capacity to deliver textures, deeper levels, for delivering higher-resolution playback."" He added: ""The focus for games moving forward is on increased immersion. ""Gaming companies really like to focus on creating a world which involves creating complicated 3D models and textures and increasing the resolution, increasing the frame rate - all of these are part of getting a more immersive experience."" Fitting these models on current DVD technologies means compressing the graphics so much that much of this quality is lost. As games move to more photo-real capability, the current technology is limiting. ""They are thrilled at the advanced capacity to start to build these immersive environments,"" said Mr Doherty. Currently, graphics-intensive PC games also require multiple discs for installation. High-definition DVDs will cut down on that need. Likewise, consoles rely on single discs, so DVDs that can hold six times more data mean much better, high-resolution games. Blu-ray has already won backing from major Hollywood studios, such as MGM Studios, Disney, and Buena Vista, as well as top technology firms like Dell, LG, Samsung and Phillips amongst others. While Toshiba's HD-DVD technology has won backing from Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros. ""The real world benefits (of HD-DVD) are apparent and obvious,"" said Jim Cardwell, president of Warner Home Video. Mr Cardwell added that rapid time to market and dependability were significant factors in choosing to go with HD-DVD. Both formats are courting Microsoft to be the format of choice for the next generation Xbox, but discussions are still on-going. Next generation DVDs will also be able to store images and other data. CES is the largest consumer electronics show in the world, and runs from 6 to 9 January." +tech,"Anti-spam screensaver scrapped A contentious campaign to bump up the bandwidth bills of spammers by flooding their sites with data has been dropped. Lycos Europe's Make Love, Not Spam campaign began in late November but its tactics proved controversial. Lycos has shut down the campaign saying it had been started to stimulate debate about anti-spam measures and had now achieved this aim. The anti-spammer screensaver came under fire for encouraging vigilante activity and skirting the edge of the law. Through the Make Love, Not Spam website, users could download a screensaver that would endlessly request data from the net sites mentioned in many junk mail messages. More than 100,000 people are thought to have downloaded the screensaver that Lycos Europe offered. The company wanted to keep the spam sites running at near total capacity to make it much less financially attractive to spammers to operate the sites. But the campaign was controversial from the moment it kicked off and many net veterans criticised it for using spamming-type tactics against the senders of junk mail. Some net service firms began blocking access to the Lycos Europe site in protest at the action. Monitoring firm Netcraft found that the anti-spam campaign was proving a little too successful. According to response-time figures gathered by Netcraft, some of the sites that the screensaver targeted were being knocked offline by the constant data requests. In a statement from Lycos Europe announcing the scrapping of the scheme, the company denied that this was its fault. ""There is nothing to suggest that Make Love, Not Spam has brought down any of the sites that it has targeted,"" it said. ""At the time that Netcraft measured the sites it claims may have been brought down, they were not in fact part of the Make Love, Not Spam attack cycle,"" it added. The statement issued by Lycos also said that the centralised database it used ensured that traffic to the target sites left them with 5% spare capacity. ""The idea was simply to slow spammers' sites and this was achieved by the campaign,"" the company said. Many security organisations said users should not participate in the Lycos Europe campaign. The closure comes only days after the campaign was suspended following the outbreak of criticism." +tech,"Microsoft launches its own search Microsoft has unveiled the finished version of its home-grown search engine. The now formally launched MSN search site takes the training wheels off the test version unveiled in November 2003. The revamped engine indexes more pages than before, can give direct answers to factual questions, and features tools to help people create detailed queries. Microsoft faces challenges establishing itself as a serious search site because of the intense competition for queries. Google still reigns supreme as the site people turn to most often when they go online to answer a query, keep up with news or search for images. But in the last year Google has faced greater competition than ever for users as old rivals, such as Yahoo and Microsoft, and new entrants such as Amazon and Blinkx, try to grab some of the searching audience for themselves. This renewed interest has come about because of the realisation that many of the things people do online begin with a search for information - be it for a particular web page, recipe, book, gadget, news story, image or anything else. Microsoft is keen to make its home-grown search engine a significant rival to Google. To generate its corpus of data, Microsoft has indexed 5 billion webpages and claims to update its document index every two days - more often than rivals. The Microsoft search engine can also answer specific queries directly rather than send people to a page that might contain the answer. For its direct answer feature, Microsoft is calling on its Encarta encyclopaedia to provide answers to questions about definitions, facts, calculations, conversions and solutions to equations. Tony Macklin, director of product at Ask Jeeves, pointed out that its search engine has been answering specific queries this way since April 2003. ""The major search providers have moved beyond delivering only algorithmic search, so in many ways Microsoft is following the market,"" he said. Tools sitting alongside the MSN search engine allow users to refine results to specific websites, countries, regions or languages. Microsoft is also using so-called ""graphic equalisers"" that let people adjust the relevance of terms to get results that are more up-to-date or more popular. The company said that user feedback from earlier test versions had been used to refine the workings of the finished system. The test, or beta, version of the MSN search engine unveiled in November had a few teething troubles. On its first day many new users keen to try it were greeted with a page that said the site had been overwhelmed." +tech,"Net fingerprints combat attacks Eighty large net service firms have switched on software to spot and stop net attacks automatically. The system creates digital fingerprints of ongoing incidents that are sent to every network affected. Firms involved in the smart sensing system believe it will help trace attacks back to their source. Data gathered will be passed to police to help build up intelligence about who is behind worm outbreaks and denial of service attacks. Firms signing up for the sensing system include MCI, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Energis, NTT, Bell Canada and many others. The creation of the fingerprinting system has been brokered by US firm Arbor Networks and signatures of attacks will be passed to anyone suffering under the weight of an attack. Increasingly computer criminals are using swarms of remotely controlled computers to carry out denial of service attacks on websites, launch worms and relay spam around the net. ""We have seen attacks involving five and ten gigabytes of traffic,"" said Rob Pollard, sales director for Arbor Networks which is behind the fingerprinting system. ""Attacks of that size cause collateral damage as they cross the internet before they get to their destination,"" he said. Once an attack is spotted and its signature defined the information will be passed back down the chain of networks affected to help every unwitting player tackle the problem. Mr Pollard said Arbor was not charging for the service and it would pass on fingerprint data to every network affected. ""What we want to do is help net service firms communicate with each other and then push the attacks further and further back around the world to their source,"" said Mr Pollard. Arbor Network's technology works by building up a detailed history of traffic on a network. It spots which computers or groups of users regularly talk to each other and what types of traffic passes between machines or workgroups. Any anomaly to this usual pattern is spotted and flagged to network administrators who can take action if the traffic is due to a net-based attack of some kind. This type of close analysis has become very useful as net attacks are increasingly launched using several hundred or thousand different machines. Anyone looking at the traffic on a machine by machine basis would be unlikely to spot that they were all part of a concerted attack. ""Attacks are getting more diffuse and more sophisticated,"" said Malcolm Seagrave, security expert at Energis. ""In the last 12 months it started getting noticeable that criminals were taking to it and we've seen massive growth."" He said that although informal systems exist to pass on information about attacks, often commercial confidentiality got in the way of sharing enough information to properly combat attacks." +tech,"The gaming world in 2005 If you have finished Doom 3, Half Life 2 and Halo 2, don't worry. There's a host of gaming gems set for release in 2005. WORLD OF WARCRAFT The US reception to this game from developers Blizzard has been hugely enthusiastic, with the title topping its competitors in the area of life-eating, high-fantasy, massively multiplayer role-player gaming. Solid, diverse, accessible and visually striking, it may well open up the genre like never before. If nothing else, it will develop a vast and loyal community. Released 25 February on PC. ICO 2 (WORKING TITLE) Ico remains a benchmark for PS2 gaming, a title that took players into a uniquely atmospheric and artistic world of adventure. The (spiritual) sequel has visuals that echo those of the original, but promises to expand the Ico world, with hero Wanda taking on a series of giants. The other known working title is Wanda And Colossus. Release date to be confirmed on PS2. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA The charismatic cel imagery has been scrapped in favour of a dark, detailed aesthetic (realism isn't quite the right word) that connects more with Ocarina Of Time. Link resumes his more teenage incarnation too, though enemies, elements and moves look familiar from the impressive trailer that has been released. Horseback adventuring across a vast land is promised. Release date to be confirmed on GameCube. ADVANCE WARS DS The UK Nintendo DS launch line-up is still to be confirmed at time of writing, but titles that exploit its two-screen and touch capacity, like WarioWare Touched! and Sega's Feel The Magic, are making a strong impression in other territories. Personally, I can't wait for the latest Advance Wars, the franchise that has been the icing on the cake of Nintendo handheld gaming during the past few years. Release date to be confirmed on DS. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Following in the high-spec footsteps of Far Cry and Half-Life 2, this looks like the key upcoming PC first-person shooter (with role-playing elements). The fact that it is inspired in part by Andrei Tarkovsky's enigmatic 1979 masterpiece Stalker and set in 2012 in the disaster zone, a world of decay and mutation, makes it all the more intriguing. Released 1 March on PC. METAL GEAR SOLID: SNAKE EATER More Hideo Kojima serious stealth, featuring action in the Soviet-controlled jungle in 1964. The game see Snake having to survive on his wits in the jungle, including eating wildlife. Once again, expect cinematic cut scenes and polished production values. Released March on PS2. DEAD OR ALIVE ULTIMATE Tecmo's Team Ninja are back with retooled and revamped versions of Dead Or Alive 1 and 2. Here's the big, big deal though - they're playable over Xbox Live. Released 11 March on Xbox. KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC II Looks set to build on the acclaimed original Star Wars role playing game with new characters, new Force powers and a new set of moral decisions, despite a different developer. Released 11 February on Xbox and PC." +tech,"'Brainwave' cap controls computer A team of US researchers has shown that controlling devices with the brain is a step closer. Four people, two of them partly paralysed wheelchair users, successfully moved a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes. Previous research has shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain. The New York team reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ""The results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions,"" said Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarlane. The research team, from New York State Department of Health and State University of New York in Albany, said the research was another step towards people controlling wheelchairs or other electronic devices by thought. The four people faced a large video screen wearing a special cap which, meant no surgery or implantation was needed. Brain activity produces electrical signals that can be read by electrodes. Complex algorithms then translate those signals into instructions to direct the computer. Such brain activity does not require the use of any nerves of muscles, so people with stroke or spinal cord injuries could use the cap effectively. ""The impressive non-invasive multidimensional control achieved in the present study suggests that a non-invasive brain control interface could support clinically useful operation of a robotic arm, a motorised wheelchair or a neuroprosthesis,"" said the researchers. The four volunteers also showed that they could get better at controlling the cursor the more times they tried. Although the two partially-paralysed people performed better overall, the researchers said this could be because their brains were more used to adapting or that they were simply more motivated. It is not the first time researchers have had this sort of success in brain-control experiments. Some teams have used eye motion and other recording techniques. Earlier this year, a team at the MIT Media Labs Europe demonstrated a wireless cap which read brain waves to control a computer character." +tech,"Doors open at biggest gadget fair Thousands of technology lovers and industry experts have gathered in Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The fair showcases the latest technologies and gadgets that will hit the shops in the next year. About 50,000 new products will be unveiled as the show unfolds. Microsoft chief Bill Gates is to make a pre-show keynote speech on Wednesday when he is expected to announce details of the next generation Xbox. The thrust of this year's show will be on technologies which put people in charge of multimedia content so they can store, listen to, and watch what they want on devices any time, anywhere. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet. Highlights will include the latest trends in digital imaging, storage technologies, thinner flat screen and high-definition TVs, wireless and portable technologies, gaming, and broadband technologies. The show also includes several speeches from key technology companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Hewlett Packard among others. ""The story this year remains all about digital and how that is completely transforming and revolutionising products and the way people interact with them,"" Jeff Joseph, from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) told the BBC News website. ""It is about personalisation - taking your MP3 player and creating your own playlist, taking your digital video recorder and watch what you want to watch when - you are no longer at the whim of the broadcasters."" Consumer electronics and gadgets had a phenomenal year in 2004, according to figures released by CES organisers, the CEA, on Tuesday. The gadget explosion signalled the strongest growth yet in the US in 2004. Shipments of consumer electronics rose by almost 11% between 2003 and 2004. That trend is predicted to continue, according to CEA analysts, with wholesale shipments of consumer technologies expected to grow by 11% again in 2005. The fastest-growing technologies in 2004 included blank DVD media, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) TVs, digital video recorders (DVRs), and portable music players. ""This year we will really begin to see that come to life in what we call place shifting - so if you have your PVR [personal video recorder] in your living room, you can move that content around the house. ""Some exhibitors will be showcasing how you can take that content anywhere,"" said Mr Joseph. He said the products which will be making waves in the next year will be about the ""democratisation"" of content - devices and technologies that will give people the freedom to do more with music, video, and images. There will also be more focus on the design of technologies, following the lead that Apple's iPod made, with ease of use and good looks which appeal to a wider range of people a key concern. The CEA predicted that there would be several key technology trends to watch in the coming year. Gaming would continue to thrive, especially on mobile devices, and would reach out to more diverse gamers such as women. Games consoles sales have been declining, but the launch of next generation consoles, such as Microsoft's Xbox and PlayStation, could buoy up sales. Although it has been widely predicted that Mr Gates would be showcasing the new Xbox, some media reports have cast doubt on what he would be talking about in the keynote. Some have suggested the announcement may take place at the Games Developers Conference in the summer instead. With more than 52% of US homes expected to have home networks, the CEA suggested hard drive boxes - or media servers - capable of storing thousands of images, video and audio files to be accessed through other devices around the home, will be more commonplace. Portable devices that combine mobile telephony, digital music and video players, will also be more popular in 2005. Their popularity will be driven by more multimedia content and services which will let people watch and listen to films, TV, and audio wherever they are. This means more storage technologies will be in demand, such as external hard drives, and flash memory like SD cards. CES runs officially from 6 to 9 January." +tech,"Consumers 'snub portable video' Consumers want music rather than movies while on the move, says a report. Produced by Jupiter Research the analysis of the portable media player market found only 13% of Europeans want to watch video while out and about. By contrast, almost a third are interested in listening to music on a portable player such as an iPod. The firm said gadget makers should avoid hybrid devices and instead make sure music reproduction was as good as possible. The report concluded that the driving force behind the growth of Europe's portable player market was likely to be music, rather than films or any combination of the two. Barely 5% of those questioned said they wanted a player that could play back both music and movies. Only 7% wanted a player that could handle games and video. ""Dedicated music players are the only established digital media players in Europe today despite their high prices,"" said Ian Fogg, Jupiter analyst. Mr Fogg said although video players and smartphones were trying to cash in on this success they faced a tough job because of the compromises that had to be made when creating a dual-purpose device. ""Europeans care most about music playback,"" he said. The report showed that 27% of consumers asked are interested in portable music players. The research revealed that French, 39%, and British, 31%, consumers were most interested in music players. Mr Fogg said portable video players were likely to remain a niche product that would not be able to compete with devices dedicated to music playback. A separate report by Jupiter forecasts that the European digital music market will grow to 836m euros (£581m) by 2009. At the end of 2003, the market was worth 10.6m euros (£7.36m). Digital music players will be behind this market growth said Jupiter . Apple's iPod was launched in October 2001, but the portable music player market has been growing steadily since the launch of the Creative Nomad Jukebox in mid-2000. Now consumers face an almost overwhelming choice of high-capacity portable music players that let them store every track on every CD that they own." +tech,"Online games play with politics After bubbling under for some time, online games broke through onto the political arena in 2004. The US presidential election provided a showcase for many, aimed at talking directly to a generation that has grown up with joysticks and gamepads. Experts say this reflects how video games are becoming a mainstream part of culture and society. The first official political campaign game was technically launched during the last week of 2003: the Iowa Game, commissioned by the Democrat hopeful Howard Dean. More than 20 followed suit, including Frontrunner, eLections, President Forever and The Political Machine, which allowed players to run an entire presidential campaign, including having to cope with the media. Others helped raise the stakes during the Bush/Kerry contest by highlighting a candidate's virtues or his vices. The phenomenon has astonished the forefathers of political games, a handful of multi-discipline games enthusiasts keen to push frontiers. ""When I started researching political games at the university, about five years ago, I thought it was going to be something that would take decades to happen,"" said Gonzalo Frasca, computer games specialist at the Information Technology University of Copenhagen. ""I must admit that I was the first person to be surprised at seeing how fast they have evolved,"" added the Uruguayan-born researcher, who has so far created games for two political campaigns. Many artists and designers are experimenting with this form of gaming with an agenda in projects such as newsgaming.com. The aim is to comment on international news events via games. The ability of games to simulate reality makes them a powerful modelling tool to interact with actual situations in an original way. ""Video games generate strong reactions mainly because they are new, but also because our culture needs to learn how to deal with simulation,"" Mr Frasca told the BBC News website. This was the case with the one he created for a political party in Uruguay, Cambiemos, an online puzzle game that offered a view on how the country's problems could be solved by working together. ""It's up to us to explore what we can learn from ourselves through play and video games."" Ultimately, Dr Frasca sees games as a small laboratory where we can play with our hopes, fears and beliefs. ""Children learn a lot about the world through play. There is no reason why we adults should stop doing it as we grow up."" But experts estimate it will still take at least about a decade until this new breed of video gaming communication become a common tool for political campaigns. This is hardly surprising, compared to other forms of mass media like the worldwide web. Only a few years ago, most politicians did not have a webpage, while now it is almost a must-have. Dr Frasca said: ""Political campaigns will continue to experiment with video games. They represent a new tool of communication that can reach a younger audience in a language that can clearly speak to them."" ""It will not replace other forms of political propaganda, but it will integrate itself on to the media ecology of political campaigns.""" +tech,"Disney backs Sony DVD technology A next generation DVD technology backed by Sony has received a major boost. Film giant Disney says it will produce its future DVDs using Sony's Blu-ray Disc technology, but has not ruled out a rival format developed by Toshiba. The two competing DVD formats, Blu-ray developed by Sony and others, and Toshiba's HD-DVD, have been courting top film studios for several months. The next generation of DVDs promises very high quality pictures and sound, as well as a lot of data. Both technologies use a blue laser to write information. It has a shorter wavelength so more data can be stored. Disney is the latest studio to announce which technology it is backing in a format battle which mirrors the 1980s Betamax versus VHS war. Sony lost out to JVC in that fight. The current battle for Hollywood's hearts and minds is a crucial one because high-definition films will bring in billions of revenue and the studios would prefer to use one standard. Last month, Paramount, Universal and Warner Brothers said they were opting for the Toshiba and NEC-backed format, HD-DVD high-definition discs. Those studios currently produce about 45% of DVD content. Sony Pictures Entertainment and MGM Studios have already staked their allegiance with the Blu-ray Disc Association, whose members also include technology companies Dell, Samsung and Matsushita. Twentieth Century Fox is still to announce which technology it will be supporting. If Fox decided to go with Blu-ray too, it would mean the format would have a 47% share of DVD content. Disney said its films would be available on the Blu-ray format when DVD players for the standard went on sale on North America and Japan, expected in 2006. Universal is to start producing films on the HD-DVD format in 2005, and Paramount will start releasing titles using the standard in 2006. Toshiba expects sales of HD-DVDs to reach 300bn yen ($2.9bn, £1.5bn) by 2010." +tech,"'Blog' picked as word of the year The term ""blog"" has been chosen as the top word of 2004 by a US dictionary publisher. Merriam-Webster said ""blog"" headed the list of most looked-up terms on its site during the last twelve months. During 2004 blogs, or web logs, have become hugely popular and some have started to influence mainstream media. Other words on the Merriam-Webster list were associated with major news events such as the US presidential election or natural disasters that hit the US. Merriam-Webster defines a blog as: ""a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks"". Its list of most looked-up words is drawn up every year and it discounts terms such as swear words, that everyone likes to look up, or those that always cause problems, such as ""affect"" and ""effect"". Merriam-Webster said ""blog"" was the word that people have asked to be defined or explained most often over the last 12 months. The word will now appear in the 2005 version of Merriam-Webster's printed dictionary. However, the word is already included in some printed versions of the Oxford English Dictionary. A spokesman for the Oxford University Press said that the word was now being put into other dictionaries for children and learners, reflecting its mainstream use. ""I think it was the word of last year rather than this year,"" he said. ""Now we're getting words that derive from it such as 'blogosphere' and so on,"" he said. ""But,"" he added, ""it's a pretty recent thing and in the way that this happens these days it's got established very quickly."" Blogs come in many different forms. Many act as news sites for particular groups or subjects, some are written from a particular political slant and others are simply lists of interesting sites. Other terms in the top 10 were related to natural disasters that have struck the US, such as ""hurricane"" or were to do with the US election. Words such as ""incumbent"", ""electoral"" and ""partisan"" reflected the scale of interest in the vote. Blogs also proved very useful to both sides in the US election battle because many pundits who maintain their own journals were able to air opinions that would never appear in more mainstream media. Speculation that President Bush was getting help during debates via a listening device was first aired on web logs. Online journals also raised doubts about documents used by US television news organisation CBS in a story about President Bush's war record. The immediacy of many blogs also helped some wield influence over topics that made it in to national press. This is despite the fact that the number of people reading even the most influential blogs is tiny. Statistics by web influence ranking firm HitWise reveal that the most popular political blog racks up only 0.0051% of all net visits per day. One of the reasons that blogs and regularly updated online journals have become popular is because the software used to put them together make it very easy for people to air their views online. According to blog analysis firm Technorati the number of blogs in existence, the blogosphere, has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18 months. Technorati now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8 million. Some speculate that less than a quarter of this number are regularly maintained. According to US research firm Pew Internet & American Life a blog is created every 5.8 seconds. Another trend this year has been the increasing numbers of weblogs that detail the daily lives of many ordinary workers in jobs that few people know much about. In many repressive regimes and developing nations, blogs have been embraced by millions of people keen to give their plight a voice." +tech,"Microsoft releases bumper patches Microsoft has warned PC users to update their systems with the latest security fixes for flaws in Windows programs. In its monthly security bulletin, it flagged up eight ""critical"" security holes which could leave PCs open to attack if left unpatched. The number of holes considered ""critical"" is more than usual. They affect Windows programs, including Internet Explorer (IE), media player and instant messaging. Four other important fixes were also released. These were considered to be less critical, however. If not updated, either automatically or manually, PC users running the programs could be vulnerable to viruses or other malicious attacks designed to exploit the holes. Many of the flaws could be used by virus writers to take over computers remotely, install programs, change, and delete or see data. One of the critical patches Microsoft has made available is an important one that fixes some IE flaws. Stephen Toulouse, a Microsoft security manager, said the flaws were known about, and although the firm had not seen any attacks exploiting the flaw, he did not rule them out. Often, when a critical flaw is announced, spates of viruses follow because home users and businesses leave the flaw unpatched. A further patch fixes a hole in Media Player, Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger which an attacker could use to take control of unprotected machines through .png files. Microsoft announces any vulnerabilities in its software every month. The most important ones are those which are classed as ""critical"". Its latest releases came the week that the company announced it was to buy security software maker Sybari Software as part of Microsoft's plans to make its own security programs." +tech,"'Brainwave' cap controls computer A team of US researchers has shown that controlling devices with the brain is a step closer. Four people, two of them partly paralysed wheelchair users, successfully moved a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes. Previous research has shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain. The New York team reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ""The results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions,"" said Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarlane. The research team, from New York State Department of Health and State University of New York in Albany, said the research was another step towards people controlling wheelchairs or other electronic devices by thought. The four people faced a large video screen wearing a special cap which, meant no surgery or implantation was needed. Brain activity produces electrical signals that can be read by electrodes. Complex algorithms then translate those signals into instructions to direct the computer. Such brain activity does not require the use of any nerves of muscles, so people with stroke or spinal cord injuries could use the cap effectively. ""The impressive non-invasive multidimensional control achieved in the present study suggests that a non-invasive brain control interface could support clinically useful operation of a robotic arm, a motorised wheelchair or a neuroprosthesis,"" said the researchers. The four volunteers also showed that they could get better at controlling the cursor the more times they tried. Although the two partially-paralysed people performed better overall, the researchers said this could be because their brains were more used to adapting or that they were simply more motivated. It is not the first time researchers have had this sort of success in brain-control experiments. Some teams have used eye motion and other recording techniques. Earlier this year, a team at the MIT Media Labs Europe demonstrated a wireless cap which read brain waves to control a computer character." +tech,"Ink helps drive democracy in Asia The Kyrgyz Republic, a small, mountainous state of the former Soviet republic, is using invisible ink and ultraviolet readers in the country's elections as part of a drive to prevent multiple voting. This new technology is causing both worries and guarded optimism among different sectors of the population. In an effort to live up to its reputation in the 1990s as ""an island of democracy"", the Kyrgyz President, Askar Akaev, pushed through the law requiring the use of ink during the upcoming Parliamentary and Presidential elections. The US government agreed to fund all expenses associated with this decision. The Kyrgyz Republic is seen by many experts as backsliding from the high point it reached in the mid-1990s with a hastily pushed through referendum in 2003, reducing the legislative branch to one chamber with 75 deputies. The use of ink is only one part of a general effort to show commitment towards more open elections - the German Embassy, the Soros Foundation and the Kyrgyz government have all contributed to purchase transparent ballot boxes. The actual technology behind the ink is not that complicated. The ink is sprayed on a person's left thumb. It dries and is not visible under normal light. However, the presence of ultraviolet light (of the kind used to verify money) causes the ink to glow with a neon yellow light. At the entrance to each polling station, one election official will scan voter's fingers with UV lamp before allowing them to enter, and every voter will have his/her left thumb sprayed with ink before receiving the ballot. If the ink shows under the UV light the voter will not be allowed to enter the polling station. Likewise, any voter who refuses to be inked will not receive the ballot. These elections are assuming even greater significance because of two large factors - the upcoming parliamentary elections are a prelude to a potentially regime changing presidential election in the Autumn as well as the echo of recent elections in other former Soviet Republics, notably Ukraine and Georgia. The use of ink has been controversial - especially among groups perceived to be pro-government. Widely circulated articles compared the use of ink to the rural practice of marking sheep - a still common metaphor in this primarily agricultural society. The author of one such article began a petition drive against the use of the ink. The greatest part of the opposition to ink has often been sheer ignorance. Local newspapers have carried stories that the ink is harmful, radioactive or even that the ultraviolet readers may cause health problems. Others, such as the aggressively middle of the road, Coalition of Non-governmental Organizations, have lauded the move as an important step forward. This type of ink has been used in many elections in the world, in countries as varied as Serbia, South Africa, Indonesia and Turkey. The other common type of ink in elections is indelible visible ink - but as the elections in Afghanistan showed, improper use of this type of ink can cause additional problems. The use of ""invisible"" ink is not without its own problems. In most elections, numerous rumors have spread about it. In Serbia, for example, both Christian and Islamic leaders assured their populations that its use was not contrary to religion. Other rumours are associated with how to remove the ink - various soft drinks, solvents and cleaning products are put forward. However, in reality, the ink is very effective at getting under the cuticle of the thumb and difficult to wash off. The ink stays on the finger for at least 72 hours and for up to a week. The use of ink and readers by itself is not a panacea for election ills. The passage of the inking law is, nevertheless, a clear step forward towards free and fair elections."" The country's widely watched parliamentary elections are scheduled for 27 February. David Mikosz works for the IFES, an international, non-profit organisation that supports the building of democratic societies." +tech,"Nintendo DS aims to touch gamers The mobile gaming industry is set to explode in 2005 with a number of high-profile devices offering a range of gaming and other features such as movie and music playback. Market leader Nintendo, however, is releasing a handheld console that it says will revolutionise the way games are played. The first striking thing about the DS is how retro it looks. Far from looking like a mould-breaking handheld, it looks more like Nintendo dug out a mould from a 1980s handheld prototype. The lightweight clam shell device opens up to reveal two screens, and when switched on it instantly reveals its pedigree. Both screens are crisp and clear while the bottom of the two is touch sensitive. Nintendo has given developers free rein to utilise the dual screens and ability to control the action by simply touching the screen. The Japanese gaming giant hopes the DS will maintain the firm's pre-eminence in an increasingly-competitive mobile gaming market. Nintendo first launched its GameBoy console in 1989 and has dominated the market ever since. But its lead can no longer be taken for granted. Sony will enter the market later this year with its PlayStation Portable, while start-up companies Gizmondo and Tapwave Zodiac are also offering hybrid devices. ""We believe the DS will appeal to all ages, both genders and gamers of any skill,"" said David Yarnton, Nintendo Europe's general manager said at the recent press launch for the handheld. With its two screens, wireless connectivity and backwards compatibility with the GameBoy Advance, the DS certainly has a number of unique selling points. It went on sale in the US in mid-November priced $150 and Nintendo says sales have exceeded expectations, without giving detailed figures. Japan and Europe will have to wait until the first quarter of 2005 to get the device. With more than two million pre-orders for the device in Japan, Nintendo is confident it will keep its number one spot. But will the device prove to be as revolutionary as claimed? The game ships with a demo of Metroid Hunters - a 3D action title which can be played alone or with a group of friends using the machine's wireless capabilities. It certainly looks impressive on the small machine and plays smoothly even with a group of people. The game can be controlled by using the supplied stylus to aim. The top screen is used to navigate the action while the bottom screen offers a top-down map and the ability to switch weapons. It is certainly a unique control method and while it makes aiming more controlled it can be a little disorientating. Super Mario 64 DS is a faithful re-creation of the Nintendo 64 classic with a host of new mini-games and new levels. The game looks stunning on the portable machine and the sound too is impressive for such a small machine. One thing is for certain. Hardened gamers will have to learn to adapt to a new way of playing while it could prove to be an accessible way in to gaming for novices, Ultimately the success or failure of the device lies in the hands of developers. If they manage to create titles which use the Nintendo DS's key features then a whole new market of gamers could open up. The fear is that the touch screen and voice recognition are treated as little more than gimmicks." +tech,"The Force is strong in Battlefront The warm reception that has greeted Star Wars: Battlefront is a reflection not of any ingenious innovation in its gameplay, but of its back-to-basics approach and immense nostalgia quotient. Geared towards online gamers, it is based around little more than a series of all-out gunfights, set in an array of locations all featured in, or hinted at during, the two blockbusting film trilogies. Previous Star Wars titles like the acclaimed Knights Of The Old Republic and Jedi Knight have regularly impressed with their imaginative forays into the far corners of the franchise's extensive universe, and their use of weird and wonderful new characters. Battlefront on the other hand wholeheartedly revisits the most recognisable elements of the hit movies themselves. The sights, sounds and protagonists on show here will all be instantly familiar to fans, who may well feel that the opportunity to relive Star Wars' most memorable screen skirmishes makes this the game they have always waited for. The mayhem can be viewed from either a third or first-person perspective, and you can either fight for the forces of freedom or join Darth Vader on the Dark Side, depending on the episode and type of campaign as well as the player's personal propensity for good or evil. There is ample chance to be a Wookie, shoot Ewoks and rush into battle alongside a fired-up Luke Skywalker. In each section, the task is simply to wipe out enemy troops, seize strategic waypoints and move on to the next planet. It really is no more complicated than that. Locations include the frozen wastes of Hoth, the ice planet from The Empire Strikes Back, complete with massive mechanical AT-ATs on the march. There are also the dusty, sinister deserts of Tatooine and Geonosis, as well as the forest moon of Endor, where Return Of The Jedi's much-maligned Ewoks lived. The feel of those places is well and truly captured, with both backdrops and characters looking good and very authentic. It is worth noting though that on the PlayStation 2, the game's graphics are a curiously long way behind those of the Xbox version. The pivotal element behind Battlefront's success is that it successfully gives you the feel of being of being plunged into the midst of large-scale war. The number of combatants, noise and abundance of laser fire see to that, and the sense of chaos really comes over. Speaking of noise, Battlefront is a real testament to the strength of the Star Wars galaxy's audio motifs. The multitude of distinctive weapon and vehicle noises are immensely familiar, as are the stirring John Williams symphonies that never let up. There is also a particularly snazzy remix of one of his themes in the menu section. It has to be said if the game did not have the boon of being Star Wars, it would not stand up for long. The gameplay is reliable, bog-standard stuff, short on originality. There are also odd annoyances, like the game's insistence on re-spawning you miles away from the action, an irritating price to pay for not getting blown up the second you appear. And some of the weapons and vehicles are not as responsive and fluid to operate as they might be. That said, it is still great fun to pilot a Scout Walker or Speeder Bike, however non user-friendly they prove. Whilst it is firmly designed with multiplayer action in mind, Battlefront is actually perfectly good fun as an offline game. The above-average AI of the enemy sees to that, although given the frenetic environments they operate in, their strategic behaviour does not need to be all that sophisticated. Battlefront's novelty value will doubtless wear off relatively fast, leaving behind a slightly empty one-trick-pony of a game. But for a while, it is an absolute blast, and one of the most immediately satisfying video game offerings yet from George Lucas' stable." +tech,"Junk e-mails on relentless rise Spam traffic is up by 40%, putting the total amount of e-mail that is junk up to an astonishing 90%. The figures, from e-mail management firm Email Systems, will alarm firms attempting to cope with the amount of spam in their in-boxes. While virus traffic has slowed down, denial of service attacks are on the increase according to the firm. Virus mail accounts for just over 15% of all e-mail traffic analysis by the firm has found. It is no longer just multi-nationals that are in danger of so-called denial of service attacks, in which websites are bombarded by requests for information and rendered inaccessible. Email Systems refers to a small UK-based engineering firm, which received a staggering 12 million e-mails in January. The type of spam currently being sent has subtlety altered in the last few months, according to Email Systems analysis. Half of spam received since Christmas has been health-related with gambling and porn also on the increase. Scam mails, offering ways to make a quick buck, have declined by 40%. ""January is clearly a month when consumers are less motivated to purchase financial products or put money into dubious financial opportunities,"" said Neil Hammerton, managing director of Email Systems. ""Spammers seem to have adapted their output to reflect this, focussing instead on medically motivated and pornographic offers, presumably intentionally intended to coincide with what is traditionally considered to be the bleakest month in the calendar,"" he said." +tech,"Go-ahead for new internet names The internet could soon have two new domain names, aimed at mobile services and the jobs market. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) has given preliminary approval to two new addresses - .mobi and .jobs. They are among 10 new names being considered by the net's oversight body. Others include a domain for pornography, an anti-spam domain as well as .post and .travel, for the postal and travel industries. The .mobi domain would be aimed at websites and other services that work specifically around mobile phones, while the .jobs address could be used by companies wanting a dedicated site for job postings. The process to see the new domain names go live in cyberspace could take months and Icann officials warned that there were no guarantees they would ultimately be accepted. Applicants paid £23,000 apiece to have their proposals considered. The application for .mobi was sponsored by technology firms including Nokia, Microsoft and T-Mobile. Of the 10 currently under consideration, the least likely to win approval is the .xxx domain for pornographic websites. There are currently around 250 domain names in use around the globe, mostly for specific countries such as .fr for France and .uk for Britain. Perhaps unsurprisingly, .com remains the most popular address on the web." +tech,"Tough rules for ringtone sellers Firms that flout rules on how ringtones and other mobile extras are sold could be cut off from all UK phone networks. The rules allow offenders to be cut off if they do not let consumers know exactly what they get for their money and how to turn off the services. The first month under the new rules has seen at least ten firms suspended while they clean up the way they work. The rules have been brought in to ensure that the problems plaguing net users do not spread to mobile phones. In the last couple of years ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers and lots of other extras for phones have become hugely popular. But fierce competition is making it difficult for firms to get their wares in front of consumers, said Jeremy Flynn, head of third party services at Vodafone. ""If you are not on the operator's portal you are going to have quite heavy marketing costs because it's a problem of how people discover your services,"" he said. To combat this many ringtone and other mobile content sellers started using a new tactic to squeeze more cash out of customers. This tactic involved signing people up for a subscription to give them, for instance, several ringtones per week or month instead of the single track they thought they were getting. Mr Flynn said that the move to using subscriptions happened over the space of a few weeks at the end of 2004. Websites such as grumbletext.co.uk started getting reports from customers who were racking up large bills for phone content they did not know they had signed up for. ""What made us uncomfortable was that these services were not being marketed transparently,"" said Mr Flynn. ""People did not know they were being offered a subscription service."" ""We saw potential for substantial consumer harm here,"" he added. The swift adoption of subscription services led to the creation of a new code of conduct for firms that want to sell content for mobile phones. The drafting of the new rules was led by the Mobile Entertainment Forum and the UK's phone firms. ""Everyone is required to conform to this code of conduct,"" said Andrew Bud, regulatory head of the MEF and executive chairman of messaging firm MBlox. ""It's all about transparency,"" he said. ""Consumers have to be told what they have got themselves into and how to get out of it."" ""The consumer has a right to be protected,"" he said. Christian Harris, partnership manager of mobile content firm Zed, said the new system was essential if consumers were to trust companies that sell ringtones and other downloads. ""The groundrules must be applied across the whole industry and if that's done effectively we will see the cowboys driven out,"" he said. The new rules came in to force on 15 January and the first month under the new regime has seen many firms cautioned for not honouring them. Some have been told to revamp websites so customers know what they get for their money and what they are signing up for, said Mr Flynn. Also, said Mr Flynn, Vodafone has briefly cut off between eight and ten content sellers flouting the rules. ""We have quite draconian contracts with firms,"" he said. ""We do not have to say why. We can just cut them off."" Under the rules consumers must be able to switch off the services by using a universal ""stop"" command sent via text message. He said the system had been designed to limit how much a consumer will pay if they inadvertently signed up for a service. ""The mobile is so personal that people really resent the abuse of what is effectively part of their personality,"" said Mr Flynn." +tech,"Apple sues to stop product leaks Computer firm Apple has issued a lawsuit to prevent online leaks of information about future products. The lawsuit, against an unidentified individual, comes just weeks before the MacWorld conference in San Francisco, used to showcase new products. The complaint said an ""unidentified individual... has recently misappropriated and disseminated confidential information"". The lawsuit was filed with the Santa Clara California Superior Court. Apple is famously secretive about its future product launches while Apple users are equally famous for speculating about new technology from the company. Fans have speculated in recent weeks about the possibility of a new type of iPod being announced at the MacWorld conference. Apple said in the seven-page complaint, filed on 13 December, that it did not know the ""true names or capacities, whether individual, associate, corporate or otherwise,"" of the defendants. The company said it would amend the complaint once they had discovered the names of those who had allegedly leaked information. It is not the first time Apple has sued people who have posted information about future products on the internet. In December 2002, Apple sued a former contractor who allegedly posted online drawings, images and engineering details of the company's PowerMac G4 computer. In a statement, Apple said of the current lawsuit: ""Apple has filed a civil complaint against unnamed individuals who we believe stole our trade secrets and posted detailed information about an unannounced Apple product on the internet.""" +tech,"IBM frees 500 software patents Computer giant IBM says 500 of its software patents will be released into the open development community. The move means developers will be able to use the technologies without paying for a licence from the company. IBM described the step as a ""new era"" in how it dealt with intellectual property and promised further patents would be made freely available. The patents include software for a range of practices, including text recognition and database management. Traditional technology business policy is to amass patents and despite IBM's announcement the company continues to follow this route. IBM was granted 3,248 patents in 2004, more than any other firm in the US, the New York Times reports. For each of the past 12 years IBM has been granted more US patents than any other company. IBM has received 25,772 US patents in that period and reportedly has more than 40,000 current patents. In a statement, Dr John E. Kelly, IBM senior vice president, Technology and Intellectual Property, said: ""True innovation leadership is about more than just the numbers of patents granted. It's about innovating to benefit customers, partners and society. ""Our pledge today is the beginning of a new era in how IBM will manage intellectual property."" In the past, IBM has supported the non-commercial operating system Linux although critics have said this was done only as an attempt to undermine Microsoft. The company said it wanted to encourage other firms to release patents into what it called a ""patent commons"". Adam Jollans, IBM's world-wide Linux strategy manager, said the move was a genuine attempt to encourage innovation. ""We believe that releasing these patents will result in innovation moving more quickly. ""This is about encouraging collaboration and following a model much like academia."" Mr Jollans likened the plan for a patent commons to the way the internet was developed and said everyone could take advantage of the result of collaboration. ""The internet's impact has been on everyone. The benefits are there for everyone to take advantage of."" Stuart Cohen, chief executive of US firm Open Source Development Labs, said the move could mean a change in the way companies deal with patents. ""I think other companies will follow suit,"" he said. But not everyone was as supportive. Florian Mueller, campaign manager of a group lobbying toprevent software patents becoming legal in the European Union,dismissed IBM's move as insubstantial. ""It's just diversionary tactics,"" wrote Mr Mueller, who leadsnosoftwarepatents.com, in a message on the group's website. ""Let's put this into perspective: We're talking aboutroughly one percent of IBM's worldwide patent portfolio. They filethat number of patents in about a month's time,"" he added. IBM will continue to hold the 500 patents but it has pledged to seek no royalties from the patents. The company said it would not place any restrictions on companies, groups or individuals who use them in open-source projects. Open source software is developed by programmers who offer the source code - the origins of the program - for free and allow others to adapt or improve the software. End users have the right to modify and redistribute the software, as well as the right to package and sell the software. Other areas covered by the patents released by IBM include storage management, simultaneous multiprocessing, image processing, networking and e-commerce." +tech,"Lifestyle 'governs mobile choice' Faster, better or funkier hardware alone is not going to help phone firms sell more handsets, research suggests. Instead, phone firms keen to get more out of their customers should not just be pushing the technology for its own sake. Consumers are far more interested in how handsets fit in with their lifestyle than they are in screen size, onboard memory or the chip inside, shows an in-depth study by handset maker Ericsson. ""Historically in the industry there has been too much focus on using technology,"" said Dr Michael Bjorn, senior advisor on mobile media at Ericsson's consumer and enterprise lab. ""We have to stop saying that these technologies will change their lives,"" he said. ""We should try to speak to consumers in their own language and help them see how it fits in with what they are doing,"" he told the BBC News website. For the study, Ericsson interviewed 14,000 mobile phone owners on the ways they use their phone. ""People's habits remain the same,"" said Dr Bjorn. ""They just move the activity into the mobile phone as it's a much more convenient way to do it."" One good example of this was diary-writing among younger people, he said. While diaries have always been popular, a mobile phone -- especially one equipped with a camera -- helps them keep it in a different form. Youngsters' use of text messages also reflects their desire to chat and keep in contact with friends and again just lets them do it in a slightly changed way. Dr Bjorn said that although consumers do what they always did but use a phone to do it, the sheer variety of what the new handset technologies make possible does gradually drive new habits and lifestyles. Ericsson's research has shown that consumers divide into different ""tribes"" that use phones in different ways. Dr Bjorn said groups dubbed ""pioneers"" and ""materialists"" were most interested in trying new things and were behind the start of many trends in phone use. ""For instance,"" he said, ""older people are using SMS much more than they did five years ago."" This was because younger users, often the children of ageing mobile owners, encouraged older people to try it so they could keep in touch. Another factor governing the speed of change in mobile phone use was the simple speed with which new devices are bought by pioneers and materialists. Only when about 25% of people have handsets with new innovations on them, such as cameras, can consumers stop worrying that if they send a picture message the person at the other end will be able to see it. Once this significant number of users is passed, use of new innovations tends to take off. Dr Bjorn said that early reports of camera phone usage in Japan seemed to imply that the innovation was going to be a flop. However, he said, now 45% of the Japanese people Ericsson questioned use their camera phone at least once a month. In 2003 the figure was 29%. Similarly, across Europe the numbers of people taking snaps with cameras is starting to rise. In 2003 only 4% of the people in the UK took a phonecam snap at least once a month. Now the figure is 14%. Similar rises have been seen in many other European nations. Dr Bjorn said that people also used their camera phones in very different ways to film and even digital cameras. ""Usage patterns for digital cameras are almost exactly replacing usage patterns for analogue cameras,"" he said. Digital cameras tend to be used on significant events such as weddings, holidays and birthdays. By contrast, he said, camera phones were being used much more to capture a moment and were being woven into everyday life." +tech,"TV future in the hands of viewers With home theatre systems, plasma high-definition TVs, and digital video recorders moving into the living room, the way people watch TV will be radically different in five years' time. That is according to an expert panel which gathered at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to discuss how these new technologies will impact one of our favourite pastimes. With the US leading the trend, programmes and other content will be delivered to viewers via home networks, through cable, satellite, telecoms companies, and broadband service providers to front rooms and portable devices. One of the most talked-about technologies of CES has been digital and personal video recorders (DVR and PVR). These set-top boxes, like the US's TiVo and the UK's Sky+ system, allow people to record, store, play, pause and forward wind TV programmes when they want. Essentially, the technology allows for much more personalised TV. They are also being built-in to high-definition TV sets, which are big business in Japan and the US, but slower to take off in Europe because of the lack of high-definition programming. Not only can people forward wind through adverts, they can also forget about abiding by network and channel schedules, putting together their own a-la-carte entertainment. But some US networks and cable and satellite companies are worried about what it means for them in terms of advertising revenues as well as ""brand identity"" and viewer loyalty to channels. Although the US leads in this technology at the moment, it is also a concern that is being raised in Europe, particularly with the growing uptake of services like Sky+. ""What happens here today, we will see in nine months to a years' time in the UK,"" Adam Hume, the BBC Broadcast's futurologist told the BBC News website. For the likes of the BBC, there are no issues of lost advertising revenue yet. It is a more pressing issue at the moment for commercial UK broadcasters, but brand loyalty is important for everyone. ""We will be talking more about content brands rather than network brands,"" said Tim Hanlon, from brand communications firm Starcom MediaVest. ""The reality is that with broadband connections, anybody can be the producer of content."" He added: ""The challenge now is that it is hard to promote a programme with so much choice."" What this means, said Stacey Jolna, senior vice president of TV Guide TV group, is that the way people find the content they want to watch has to be simplified for TV viewers. It means that networks, in US terms, or channels could take a leaf out of Google's book and be the search engine of the future, instead of the scheduler to help people find what they want to watch. This kind of channel model might work for the younger iPod generation which is used to taking control of their gadgets and what they play on them. But it might not suit everyone, the panel recognised. Older generations are more comfortable with familiar schedules and channel brands because they know what they are getting. They perhaps do not want so much of the choice put into their hands, Mr Hanlon suggested. ""On the other end, you have the kids just out of diapers who are pushing buttons already - everything is possible and available to them,"" said Mr Hanlon. ""Ultimately, the consumer will tell the market they want."" Of the 50,000 new gadgets and technologies being showcased at CES, many of them are about enhancing the TV-watching experience. High-definition TV sets are everywhere and many new models of LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) TVs have been launched with DVR capability built into them, instead of being external boxes. One such example launched at the show is Humax's 26-inch LCD TV with an 80-hour TiVo DVR and DVD recorder. One of the US's biggest satellite TV companies, DirectTV, has even launched its own branded DVR at the show with 100-hours of recording capability, instant replay, and a search function. The set can pause and rewind TV for up to 90 hours. And Microsoft chief Bill Gates announced in his pre-show keynote speech a partnership with TiVo, called TiVoToGo, which means people can play recorded programmes on Windows PCs and mobile devices. All these reflect the increasing trend of freeing up multimedia so that people can watch what they want, when they want." +tech,"Search wars hit desktop PCs Another front in the on-going battle between Microsoft and Google is about to be opened. By the end of 2004 Microsoft aims to launch search software to find any kind of file on a PC hard drive. The move is in answer to Google's release of its own search tool that catalogues data on desktop PCs. The desktop search market is becoming increasingly crowded as Google, AOL, Yahoo and many smaller firms tout programs that help people find files. Microsoft made the announcement about its forthcoming search software during a call to financial analysts to talk about its first quarter results. John Connors, Microsoft's chief financial officer said a test version of its desktop search software should be available for download by the end of the year. ""We're going to have a heck of a great race in search between Google, Microsoft and Yahoo,"" he said. ""It's going to be really fun to follow."" Microsoft is coming late to the desktop search arena and its software will have to compare favourably with programs from a large number of rivals, many of which have fiercely dedicated populations of users. The program could be based on the software Microsoft owns as a result of its purchase of Lookout Software in early October. On 14 October Google released desktop search software that catalogues all the files on a PC and lets users use one tool to find e-mail messages, spreadsheets, text files and presentations. The software will also find webpages and messages sent via AOL Instant Messenger. Many other firms have released desktop search systems recently too. Companies such as Blinkx, Copernic, Enfish X1 Technologies and X-Friend all do the same job of cataloguing the huge amounts of information that people increasingly store on their desktop or home computer. Apple has also debuted a similar search system for its computers called Spotlight that is due to debut with the release of the Tiger operating system. Due to follow are net giants AOL and Yahoo. The latter recently bought Stata Labs to get its hands on search software that people can use. Microsoft is also reputedly working on a novel search system for the next version of Windows (codenamed Longhorn). However this is not likely to appear until 2006. ""The recent activity in the search industry shows that there is a need to move beyond simple keyword-based web search,"" said Kathy Rittweger, co-founder of Blinkx. ""Finding information of our own computers is becoming as difficult as it is to find the relevant webpage amongst the billions that exist."" Desktop search has become important for several reasons. According to research by message analysts the Radicati Group up to 45% of the information critical to keeping many businesses running sits in e-mail messages and attachments. JF Sullivan, spokesman for e-mail software firm Sendmail said many organisations were starting to realise how important messaging was to their organisation and the way the work. ""The key thing is being able to manage all this information,"" he said. Also search is increasingly key to the way that people get around the internet. Many people use a search engine as the first page they go to when getting on the net. Many others use desktop toolbars that let them search for information no matter what other program they are using. Having a tool on a desktop can be a lucrative way to control where people go online. For companies such as Google which relies on revenue from adverts this knowledge about what people are looking for is worth huge amounts of money. But this invasiveness has already led some to ask about the privacy implications of such tools." +tech,"Yahoo celebrates a decade online Yahoo, one of the net's most iconic companies, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week. The web portal has undergone remarkable change since it was set up by Stanford University students David Filo and Jerry Yang in a campus trailer. The students wanted a way of keeping track of their web-based interests. The categories lists they devised soon became popular to hundreds of people and the two saw business potential in their idea. Originally dubbed ""Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web"" the firm adopted the moniker Yahoo because the founders liked the dictionary definition of a yahoo as a rude, unsophisticated, uncouth person. The term was popularised by the 18th Century satirist Jonathan Swift in his classic novel, Gulliver's Travels. ""We were certainly not sophisticated or civilised,"" Mr Yang told reporters ahead of the anniversary, which will be officially recognised on 2 March. They did have business brains however, and in April 1995 persuaded venture capitalists Sequoia Capital, which also invested in Apple Computer and Cisco Systems, to fund Yahoo to the tune of $2m (£1.04m). A second round of funding followed in the autumn and the company floated in April 1996 with less than 50 employees. Now the firm employs 7,600 workers and insists its dot com culture of ""work hard, play hard"" still remains. It is one of just a handful of survivors of the dot-com crash although it now faces intense rivalry from firms such as Google, MSN and AOL. Jerry Yang, who remains the firm's ""Chief Yahoo"", is proud of what the company has achieved. ""In just one decade, the internet has changed the way consumers do just about everything - and it's been a remarkable and wonderful experience,"" he said. Through it all, we wanted to build products that satisfied our users wants and needs, but it's even more than that - it's to help every one of us to discover, get more done, share and interact.""" +tech,"Intel unveils laser breakthrough Intel has said it has found a way to put a silicon-based laser on a chip, raising hopes of much faster networks. Scientists at Intel have overcome a fundamental problem that before now has prevented silicon being used to generate and amplify laser light. The breakthrough should make it easier to interconnect data networks with the chips that process the information. The Intel researchers said products exploiting the breakthrough should appear by the end of the decade. ""We've overcome a fundamental limit,"" said Dr Mario Paniccia, director of Intel's photonics technology lab. Writing in the journal Nature, Dr Paniccia - and colleagues Haisheng Rong, Richard Jones, Ansheng Liu, Oded Cohen, Dani Hak and Alexander Fang - show how they have made a continuous laser from the same material used to make computer processors. Currently, says Dr Paniccia, telecommunications equipment that amplifies the laser light that travels down fibre optic cables is very expensive because of the exotic materials, such as gallium arsenide, used to make it. Telecommunications firms and chip makers would prefer to use silicon for these light-moving elements because it is cheap and many of the problems of using it in high-volume manufacturing have been solved. ""We're trying to take our silicon competency in manufacturing and apply it to new areas,"" said Dr Paniccia. While work has been done to make some of the components that can move light around, before now silicon has not successfully been used to generate or amplify the laser light pulses used to send data over long distances. This is despite the fact that silicon is a much better amplifier of light pulses than the form of the material used in fibre optic cables. This improved amplification is due to the crystalline structure of the silicon used to make computer chips. Dr Paniccia said that the structure of silicon meant that when laser light passed through it, some colliding photons rip electrons off the atoms within the material. ""It creates a cloud of electrons sitting in the silicon and that absorbs all the light,"" he said. But the Intel researchers have found a way to suck away these errant electrons and turn silicon into a material that can both generate and amplify laser light. Even better, the laser light produced in this way can, with the help of easy-to-make filters, be tuned across a very wide range of frequencies. Semi-conductor lasers made before now have only produced light in a narrow frequency ranges. The result could be the close integration of the fibre optic cables that carry data as light with the computer chips that process it. Dr Paniccia said the work was the one of several steps needed if silicon was to be used to make components that could carry and process light in the form of data pulses. ""It's a technical validation that it can work,"" he said." +tech,"Bond game fails to shake or stir For gaming fans, the word GoldenEye evokes excited memories not only of the James Bond revival flick of 1995, but also the classic shoot-em-up that accompanied it and left N64 owners glued to their consoles for many an hour. Adopting that hallowed title somewhat backfires on this new game, for it fails to deliver on the promise of its name and struggles to generate the original's massive sense of fun. This however is not a sequel, nor does it relate to the GoldenEye film. You are the eponymous renegade spy, an agent who deserts to the Bond world's extensive ranks of criminal masterminds, after being deemed too brutal for MI6. Your new commander-in-chief is the portly Auric Goldfinger, last seen in 1964, but happily running around bent on world domination. With a determination to justify its name which is even less convincing than that of Tina Turner's similarly-titled theme song, the game literally gives the player a golden eye following an injury, which enables a degree of X-ray vision. Rogue Agent signals its intentions by featuring James Bond initially and proceeding to kill him off within moments, squashed by a plummeting helicopter. The notion is of course to add a novel dark edge to a 007 game, but the premise simply does not get the juices flowing like it needs to. Recent Bond games like Nightfire and Everything Or Nothing were very competent and did a fine job of capturing the sense of flair, invention and glamour of the film franchise. This title lacks that aura, and when the Bond magic shines through, it feels like a lucky accident. The central problem is that the gameplay just is not good enough. Quite aside from the bizarre inability to jump, the even more bizarre glaring graphical bugs and dubious enemy AI, the levels simply are not put together with much style or imagination. Admittedly the competition has been tough, even in recent weeks, with the likes of Halo 2 and Half Life 2 triumphing in virtually every department. What the game is good at is enveloping you in noisy, dynamic scenes of violent chaos. As is the trend of late, you are made to feel like you are in the midst of a really messy and fraught encounter. Sadly that sense of action is outweighed by the difficulty of navigating and battling within the chaos, meaning that frustration is often the outcome. And irregular save points mean you have to backtrack each time you are killed. A minute red dot passes for a crosshair, although the collision-detection is so suspect that the difficulties of aiming weapons are compensated for. Shooting enemies from a distance can be tricky, and you will not always know you have picked them off, since dead enemies vanish literally before they have fully hit the floor, and they do so in some woefully uninspiring death animations. It is perhaps indicative of a lack of confidence that the game maker's allow you several different weapons almost immediately and throw you quickly into raging firefights - no time is risked with a measured build-up. By far the most satisfying element of the game is seeing old favourites like Dr No, Goldfinger, hat-fiend Oddjob and crazed Russian sex beast Xenia Onatopp resurrected after all these years, and with their faces rendered in an impressively recognisable fashion. There is a real thrill from doing battle with these legendary villains, and it is a testament to the power of the Bond universe that they can cut such a dash. But the in-game niggles, combined with a story and presentation that just do not feel sufficiently well thought-through, will make this a disappointment for most. Diehard fans of Bond will probably find enough here to make it a worthwhile purchase and try to ignore the failings. The game is weak, not completely unplayable. Then again, 007 fanatics may also take umbrage at the cavalier blending of characters from different eras. Given James Bond's healthy pedigree in past games, there is every reason to hope that this is just a blip, a commendable idea that just has not worked, that will be rectified when the character inevitably makes his return. GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is out now" +tech,"First look at PlayStation 3 chip Some details of the chip inside Sony's PlayStation 3 have been revealed. Sony, IBM and Toshiba have released limited data about the so-called Cell chip that will be able to carry out trillions of calculations per second. The chip will be made of several different processing cores that work on tasks together. The PlayStation 3 is expected in 2006 but developers are expecting to get prototypes early next year to tune games that will appear on it at launch. The three firms have been working on the chip since 2001 but before now few details have been released about how it might function. In a joint statement the three firms gave hints about how the chip will work but fuller details will be released in February next year at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. The three firms claim that the Cell chip will be up to 10 times more powerful than existing processors. When put inside powerful computer servers, the Cell consortium expects it to be capable of handling 16 trillion floating point operations, or calculations, every second. The chip has also been refined to be able to handle the detailed graphics common in games and the data demands of films and broadband media. IBM said it would start producing the chip in early 2005 at manufacturing plants in the US. The first machines off the line using the Cell processor will be computer workstations and servers. A working version of the PS3 is due to be shown off in May 2005 but a full launch of the next generation console is not expected to start until 2006. As well as being inside the PlayStation 3, the chip will also be used inside high-definition TVs and powerful computers. ""In the future, all forms of digital content will be converged and fused onto the broadband network,"" said Ken Kutaragi, Chief Operating Officer of Sony. ""Current PC architecture is nearing its limits.""" +tech,"TV's future down the phone line Internet TV has been talked about since the start of the web as we know it now. But any early attempts to do it - the UK's Home Choice started in 1992 - were thwarted by the lack of a fast network. Now that broadband networks are bedding down, and it is becoming essential for millions, the big telcos are keen to start shooting video down the line. In the face of competition from cable companies offering net voice calls, they are keen to be the top IPTV dogs. Software giant Microsoft thinks IPTV - Internet Protocol TV - is the future of television, and it sits neatly with its vision of the ""connected entertainment experience"". ""Telcos have been wanting to do video for a long time,"" Ed Graczyk, director of marketing for Microsoft IPTV, told the BBC News website. ""The challenge has been the broadband network, and the state of technology up until not so long ago did not add up to a feasible solution. ""Compression technology was not efficient enough, the net was not good enough. A lot of stars have aligned in the last 18 months to make it a reality."" Last year, he said, was all about deal making and partnering up; shaping the ""IPTV ecosystem"". This year, those deals will start to play out and more services will come online. ""2006 is where it starts ramping up and expanding to other geographies - over time as broadband becomes more prevalent in South America, and other parts of Asia, it will expand,"" he added. What telcos really want to do is to send the ""triple-play"" of video, voice, and data down one single line, be it cable or DSL (Digital Subscriber Line). Some are talking about ""quadruple play"", too, with mobile services added into the mix. It is an emerging new breed of competition for satellite and cable broadcasters and operators. According to technology analysts, TDG Research, there will be 20 million subscribers to IPTV services in under six years. Key to the appeal of sending TV programmes down the same line as the web data, whenever a viewer wants it, is that it uses the same technology as the internet. It means there is not just a one-way relationship between the viewer and the ""broadcaster"". This allows for more DVD-like interactivity, limitless storage and broadcast space, bespoke channel ""playlists"", and thousands of hours of programmes or films at a viewer's fingertips. It potentially lets operators target programmes to smaller, niche or localised audiences, sending films to Bollywood fans for instance, as well as individual devices. Operators could also send high-definition programmes straight to the viewer, bypassing the need for a special broadcast receiver. Perhaps most compelling - yet some might say insignificant - is instantaneous channel flicking. Currently, there is a delay when you try to do this on satellite, cable or Freeview. With IPTV, the speed is 15 milliseconds. ""That gets rounds of applause,"" according to Mr Graczyk. Microsoft is one of the companies that started thinking about IPTV some time ago. ""We believe this will be the way all TV is delivered in the future - but that is several years away,"" said Mr Graczyk. ""As with music, TV has moved to digital formats. ""The things software can do to integrate media into devices means a whole new generation of connected entertainment experiences that cross devices from the TV, to the mobile, to the gaming console and so on."" The company intends its Microsoft's IPTV Edition software, an end-to-end management and delivery platform, to let telcos to do exactly that, seamlessly. It has netted seven major telcos as customers, representing a potential audience of 25 million existing broadband subscribers. Its deal with US telco SBC was the largest TV software deal to date, said Mr Graczyk. IPTV is about more than telcos, though. There are several web-based offerings that aim to put control in the hands of the consumer by exploiting the net's power. Jeremy Allaire, chief of Brightcove, told the BBC News website that it would be a flavour of IPTV that was about harnessing the web as a ""channel"". ""It is not just niches, but about exploiting content not usually viewed,"" he said. ""We are focussed on the owners of video content who have rights to digitally distribute content, and who often see unencumbered distribution. ""For them to do it through cable and so on is price-prohibitive,"" he said. This type of IPTV service might also be a distribution channel for more established publishers who have unique types of content that they cannot offer through cable and satellite operators - history channel archives, for instance. What is a clear sign that IPTV has a future is that Microsoft is not the only player in the field. There are a lot of other ""middleware"" players providing similar management services as Microsoft, like Myrio and C-Cor. But it will up to the viewer to decide if it really is to be successful." +tech,"Mobile TV tipped as one to watch Scandinavians and Koreans, two of the most adventurous groups of mobile users, are betting on mobile TV. Anders Igels, chief executive of Nordic operator Teliasonera, tipped it as the next big thing in mobile in a speech at the 3GSM World Congress, a mobile trade fair, in Cannes this week. Nokia, the Finnish handset maker, is planning a party in Singapore this spring to launch its TV to mobile activities in the region. Consultancy Strategy Analytics of Boston estimates that mobile broadcast networks will have acquired around 51 million users worldwide by 2009, producing around $6.6bn (£3.5bn) in revenue. SK Telecom of South Korea, which is launching a TV to mobile service (via satellite) in May plans to charge a flat fee of $12 a month for its 12 channels of video and 12 channels of audio. It will be able to offer an additional two pay TV channels using conditional access technology. Mr Shin-Bae Kim, chief executive of SK Telecom, also at 3GSM, said: ""We have plans to integrate TV with mobile internet services. ""This will enable viewers to access the mobile internet to get more information on adverts they see on TV."" There will be 12 handsets available for the launch of the Korean service. LG Electronics of South Korea was demonstrating one at 3GSM that could display video at 30 frames a second. Footage shown on the handset was clear and watchable. A speech on mobile TV by Angel Gambino of the BBC also drew a large crowd, suggesting that even those mobile operators and equipment vendors which are not particularly active in mobile TV yet are starting to look into it. But all is not simple and straightforward in the mobile TV arena. There is a battle for supremacy between two competing standards: DVB-H for Digital Video Broadcasting for Handsets and DMB for Digital Multimedia Broadcasting. Dr Chan Yeob Yeun, vice president and research fellow in charge of mobile TV at LG Electronics, said: ""DMB offers twice the number of frames a minute as DVB-H and does not drain mobile batteries as quickly."" The Japanese, Koreans and Ericsson of Sweden are backing DMB. Samsung of South Korea has a DMB phone too that will be one of those offered to users of the TU Media satellite mobile TV service to be launched in Korea in May. Nokia, by contrast, is backing DVB-H, and is involved in mobile TV trials that use its art-deco style media phone, which has a larger than usual screen for TV or visual radio (a way of accompanying a radio programme with related text and pictures). Mobile operators O2 and Vodafone are among the operators trialling mobile TV. But even if the standards battle is resolved, there is the thorny issue of broadcasting rights. Ms Gambino says the BBC now negotiates mobile rights when it is negotiating content. For those not convinced mobile users will want to watch TV on their handsets, Digital Audio Broadcasting may provide a good compromise and better sound quality than conventional radio. Developments in this area are continuing. At a DAB conference in Cannes, several makers of DAB chips for mobiles announced smaller, lower- cost chips which consume less power. Among the chip companies present were Frontier Silicon and Radioscape. The jury is still out on whether TV and digital radio on mobiles will make much money for anyone. But with many new services going live soon, it won't be long before the industry finds out." +tech,"Latest Opera browser gets vocal Net browser Opera 8.0, due for official release at the end of next month, will be ""the most accessible browser on the market"", according to its authors. The latest version of the net browser can be controlled by voice command and will read pages aloud. The voice features, based on IBM technology, are currently only available in the Windows version. Opera can also magnify text by up to 10 times and users can create ""style sheets"", its developers say. This will enable them to view pages with colours and fonts that they prefer. But the browser does not yet work well with screen reader software often used by blind people, so its accessibility features are more likely to appeal to those with some residual vision. ""Our mission was always to provide the best internet experience for everyone,"" said Opera spokeswoman, Berit Hanson. ""So we would obviously not want to exclude disabled computer users."" Another feature likely to appeal to people with low vision is the ability to make pages fit to the screen width, which eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling. The company points out that this will also appeal to anyone using Opera with a handheld device. The company says that features like voice activation are not solely aimed at visually impaired people. ""Our idea was to take a first step in making human-computer interaction more natural,"" said Ms Hanson. ""People are not always in a situation where they can access a keyboard, so this makes the web a more hands-free experience."" Unlike commercially available voice recognition software, Opera does not have to be ""trained"" to recognise an individual voice. Around 50 voice commands are available and users will have to wear a headset which incorporates a microphone. The voice recognition function is currently only available in English. Opera is free to download but a paid-for version comes without an ad banner in the top right hand corner and with extra support. Opera began life as a research project - a spin-off from Norwegian telecoms company Telenor. Its browser is used by an estimated 10 million people on a variety of operating systems and a number of different platforms." +tech,"Games firms 'face tough future' UK video game firms face a testing time as they prepare for the next round of games consoles, the industry warns. Fred Hasson, head of Tiga, which represents independent developers, said that more UK firms would go under due to greater risks in making new titles. Three leading UK video game companies also predicted that more firms would close as they struggled to adapt. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are expected to release new consoles in the next 18 months. Microsoft has said repeatedly that it wants to be first to the market and some analysts predict that Xbox 2 will be released in the US before the end of 2005. The new machines will all have much greater processing and graphical power which will have a huge impact on development of next generation games. Mr Hasson said: ""In the last four years we have probably lost a third of independent developers."" He said there were about 150 independent developers left in the industry and more were likely to close. ""Once the cull has finished its likely to present those still standing with great opportunities,"" he said. Mr Hasson said the industry was predicting that developments costs and teams were likely to need to double in order to cope with the demands of the new machines. That figure was endorsed by three independent companies contacted by the BBC News website - Codemasters, Climax and Rebellion. ""As consoles get more powerful, the content gets more detailed and that means more cost,"" said Gary Dunn, development director at Codemasters, which develops games in house and also publishes titles. Jason Kingsley, chief executive of Rebellion, said the transition from the current generation of consoles to the new machines was difficult because ""the production quality expected by consumers will be that much bigger"". He added: ""We have been through five technology transitions and survived so far. ""Each one has involved the death of some people. All companies said they were investing in new tools - called middleware - in order to try and avoid staff numbers spiralling out of control. Simon Gardner, president of Climax's Action studio, said: ""We are investing in superior tools and editors. We are investing upfront to generate this content without the need for huge teams. ""It's vital we avoid huge teams."" He said Climax was already directing about 20% of its resources to preparation for next generation titles. Mr Dunn warned that companies could face a short supply of programming, development and artistic talent. ""If companies are hiring bigger and bigger teams, at some point the talent is going to run out."" Mr Hasson said games developers were beginning to realise that they had to be more ""business-like"". ""There are still some developers who were involved in games from the bedroom coding days. ""Some of them are still making games for peer group approval - that has to stop.""" +tech,"Who do you think you are? The real danger is not what happens to your data as it crosses the net, argues analyst Bill Thompson. It is what happens when it arrives at the other end. The Financial Services Authority has warned banks and other financial institutions that members of criminal gangs may be applying for jobs which give them access to confidential customer data. The fear is not that they will steal money from our bank accounts but that they will instead steal something far more valuable in our digital society - our identities. Armed with the personal details that a bank holds, plus a fake letter or two, it is apparently easy to get a loan, open a bank account with an overdraft or get a credit card in someone else's name. And it is then a simple matter to move the money into another account and leave the unwitting victim to sort out the mess when statements and demands for payment start arriving. Identity theft is an increasingly significant economic crime, and we are all becoming more aware of the dangers of leaving bills, receipts and bank statements unshredded in our rubbish. But, however careful you may be, if the organisations you trust with your personal data, bank accounts and credit cards are not able to look after their databases properly then you are in trouble. It is surprising that it has taken the gangs so long to realise that a well-placed insider is by far the simplest way to break the security of a computer system. In fact, I suspect that the FSA is probably very late to this particular party and that this sort of thing has been going on for rather a long time. Has anyone checked Bob Cratchit's family links to the criminal underworld, I wonder? And it is hardly likely to be only banks that are being targeted. Health authorities, government agencies and of course the big e-commerce sites like Amazon must also offer rich pickings for the fraudsters. The good news is that better auditing is likely to catch out those who access account details that they are not supposed to. And as we all become aware of the danger of identity theft and look more carefully for unexpected transactions on our statements, banks should have good enough records and logs to trace the people who might have accessed the account details. Fortunately there are now ways to keep bank systems more secure from the sort of data theft that involves taking a portable hard drive or flash memory card into the office, plugging it into a USB slot and sucking down customer files. Companies like SecureWave, for example, can restrict the use of USB ports just to authorised devices or even to an individual's personal memory card. These solutions are not perfect, but it does not feel like a wave of fraud is about to wash away the entire financial system. However the warning does highlight one of the major issues with e-commerce and online trading - the security or otherwise of the servers and other systems that make up the 'back office'. It has been clear for years that the real danger in paying for goods online with a credit card is not that the number will be intercepted in transit but that the shop you are dealing with will be hacked. In fact I do not know of a single case where an e-mail containing payment details has led to card fraud. There are simply too many e-mails passing over the net for interception to be a sensible tool for anyone out to commit fraud. CD Universe, Powergen and many other companies have left their databases open and suffered the consequences. And just last week the online bank Cahoot admitted that its customer account details could be read by anyone who could guess a login name. Whether it is external hackers breaking in because of poor system security or internal staff abusing the access they get as part of their job, the issue is the same: how do we make sure that our personal data is not abused? Any organisation that processes personal data is, of course, bound by the Data Protection Act and must take proper care of it. Unauthorised disclosure is not allowed, but the penalties are small and the process of prosecuting under the Act so convoluted as to be worthless in practice. This is not something we can just leave it to the market. The consequences of having one's identity stolen are too serious, and markets respond too slowly. After all, I bank with Cahoot but it would be so much hassle to move my accounts that I did not even consider it when I heard about their security problems. I doubt many others have closed their accounts, especially when there is little guarantee that other banks are not going to make the same sort of mistake in future. The two options would seem to be more stringent data protection law, so that companies really feel the pressure to improve their internal processes, or a wave of civil lawsuits against financial institutions with sloppy practices whose customers suffer from identity theft. I have never felt comfortable with the US practice of suing everything that moves, partly because it seems to make lawyers richer than their clients, so I know which I'd prefer. Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital." +tech,"Xbox 2 may be unveiled in summer Details of the next generation of Microsoft's Xbox games console - codenamed Xenon - will most likely be unveiled in May, according to reports. It was widely expected that gamers would get a sneak preview of Xbox's successor at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March. But a Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed that it would not be at GDC. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all expected to release their more powerful machines in the next 18 months. The next Xbox console is expected to go on sale at the end of the year, but very few details about it have been released. It is thought that the machine may be unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, which takes place in May, according to a Reuters news agency report. E3 concentrates on showing off the latest in gaming to publishers, marketers and retailers. The GDC is aimed more at game developers. Microsoft chief, Bill Gates, used the GDC event to unveil the original Xbox five years ago. Since its launch, Microsoft has sold 19.9 million units worldwide. At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, there was very little mention of the next generation gaming machine. In his keynote speech, Mr Gates only referred to it as playing an essential part of his vision of the digital lifestyle. But the battle between the rival consoles to win gamers' hearts and thumbs will be extremely hard-fought. Sony has traditionally dominated the console market with its PlayStation 2. But earlier this year, Microsoft said it had reached a European milestone, selling five million consoles since its European launch in March 2002. Hit games like Halo 2, which was released in November, helped to buoy the sales figures. Gamers are looking forward to the next generation of machines because they will have much more processing and graphical power. They are also likely to pack in more features and technologies that make them more central as entertainment and communications hubs. Although details of PlayStation 3, Xenon, and Nintendo's so-called Revolution, are yet to be finalised, developers are already working on titles. Rory Armes, studio general manager for games giant Electronic Arts (EA) in Europe, recently told the BBC News website in an interview that EA was beginning to get a sense of the capabilities of the new machines. Microsoft had delivered development kits to EA, but he said the company was still waiting on Sony and Nintendo's kits. But, he added, the PlayStation 3 was rumoured to have ""a little more under the hood [than Xbox 2]""." +tech,"Net regulation 'still possible' The blurring of boundaries between TV and the internet raises questions of regulation, watchdog Ofcom has said. Content on TV and the internet is set to move closer this year as TV-quality video online becomes a norm. At a debate in Westminster, the net industry considered the options. Lord Currie, chairman of super-regulator Ofcom, told the panel that protecting audiences would always have to be a primary concern for the watchdog. Despite having no remit for the regulation of net content, disquiet has increased among internet service providers as speeches made by Ofcom in recent months hinted that regulation might be an option. At the debate, organised by the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), Lord Currie did not rule out the possibility of regulation. ""The challenge will arise when boundaries between TV and the internet truly blur and then there is a balance to be struck between protecting consumers and allowing them to assess the risks themselves,"" he said. Adopting the rules that currently exist to regulate TV content or self-regulation, which is currently the practice of the net industry, will be up for discussion. Some studies suggest that as many as eight million households in the UK could have adopted broadband by the end of 2005, and the technology opens the door to TV content delivered over the net. More and more internet service providers and media companies are streaming video content on the web. BT has already set up an entertainment division to create and distribute content that could come from sources such as BSkyB, ITV and the BBC. Head of the division, Andrew Burke, spoke about the possibility of creating content for all platforms. ""How risque can I be in this new age? With celebrity chefs serving up more expletives than hot dinners, surely I can push it to the limit,"" he said. In fact, he said, if content has been requested by consumers and they have gone to lengths to download it, then maybe it should be entirely regulation free. Internet service providers have long claimed no responsibility for the content they carry on their servers since the Law Commission dubbed them ""mere conduits"" back in 2002. This defence does not apply if they have actual knowledge of illegal content and have failed to remove it. The level of responsibility they have has been tested in several high-profile legal cases. Richard Ayers, portal director at Tiscali, said there was little point trying to regulate the internet because it would be impossible. Huge changes are afoot in 2005, he predicted, as companies such as the BBC offer TV content over the net. The BBC's planned interactive media player which will give surfers the chance to download programmes such as EastEnders and Top Gear will make net TV mainstream and raise a whole new set of questions, he said. One of these will be about the vast sums of money involved in maintaining the network to supply such a huge quantity of data and could herald a new digital licence fee, said Mr Ayers. As inappropriate net content, most obviously pornography viewed by children, continues to dominate the headlines, internet regulation remains a political issue said MP Richard Allan, Liberal Democrat spokesman on IT. Mr Allan thinks that the answer could lie somewhere between the cries of ""impossible to regulate"" and ""just apply offline laws online"". In fact, instead of seeing regulation brought online, the future could bring an end to regulation as we know it for all TV content. After Lord Currie departed, the panel agreed that this could be a reality and that for the internet people power is likely to reign. ""If content is on-demand, consumers have pulled it up rather than had pushed to them, then it is the consumers' choice to watch it. There is no watershed on the net,"" said Mr Burke." +tech,"Broadband challenges TV viewing The number of Europeans with broadband has exploded over the past 12 months, with the web eating into TV viewing habits, research suggests. Just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband, up from 34 million a year ago, according to market analysts Nielsen/NetRatings. The total number of people online in Europe has broken the 100 million mark. The popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from TV, say analysts Jupiter Research. It found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time watching TV in favour of the net The report by Nielsen/NetRatings found that the number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year. The biggest jump was in Italy, where it rose by 120%. Britain was close behind, with broadband users almost doubling in a year. The growth has been fuelled by lower prices and a wider choice of always-on, fast-net subscription plans. ""Twelve months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in Europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing,"" said Gabrielle Prior, Nielsen/NetRatings analyst. ""As the number of high-speed surfers grows, websites will need to adapt, update and enhance their content to retain their visitors and encourage new ones."" The total number of Europeans online rose by 12% to 100 million over the past year, the report showed, with the biggest rise in France, Italy, Britain and Germany. The ability to browse web pages at high speed, download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what people do in their spare time. A study by analysts Jupiter Research suggested that broadband was challenging television viewing habits. In homes with broadband, 40% said they were spending less time watching TV. The threat to TV was greatest in countries where broadband was on the up, in particular the UK, France and Spain, said the report. It said TV companies faced a major long-term threat over the next five years, with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009. ""Year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where, when and how Europe's population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big implications for TV, newspaper and radio,"" said Jupiter Research analyst Olivier Beauvillian." +tech,"Sony PSP tipped as a 'must-have' Sony's Playstation Portable is the top UK gadget for 2005, according to a round-up of ultimate gizmos compiled by Stuff Magazine. It beats the iPod into second place in the Top Ten Essentials list which predicts what gadget-lovers are likely to covet this year. Owning all 10 gadgets will set the gadget lover back £7,455. That is £1,000 cheaper than last year's list due to falling manufacturing costs making gadgets more affordable. Portable gadgets dominate the list, including Sharp's 902 3G mobile phone, the Pentax Optio SV digital camera and Samsung's Yepp YH-999 video jukebox. ""What this year's Essentials shows is that gadgets are now cheaper, sexier and more indispensable than ever. We've got to the point where we can't live our lives without certain technology,"" said Adam Vaughan, editor of Stuff Essentials. The proliferation of gadgets in our homes is inexorably altering the role of the high street in our lives thinks Mr Vaughan. ""Take digital cameras, who would now pay to develop an entire film of photos? Or legitimate downloads, who would travel miles to a record shop when they could download the song in minutes for 70p?"" he asks. Next year will see a new set of technologies capturing the imaginations of gadget lovers, Stuff predicts. The Xbox 2, high-definition TV and MP3 mobiles will be among the list of must-haves that will dominate 2006, it says. The spring launch of the PSP in the UK is eagerly awaited by gaming fans." +tech,"California sets fines for spyware The makers of computer programs that secretly spy on what people do with their home PCs could face hefty fines in California. From 1 January, a new law is being introduced to protect computer users from software known as spyware. The legislation, which was approved by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is designed to safeguard people from hackers and help protect their personal information. Spyware is considered by computer experts to be one of the biggest nuisance and security threats facing PC users in the coming year. The software buries itself in computers and can collect a wide range of information. At its worst, it has the ability to hijack personal data, like passwords, login details and credit card numbers. The programs are so sophisticated they change frequently and become impossible to eradicate. One form of spyware called adware has the ability to collect information on a computer user's web-surfing. It can result in people being bombarded with pop-up ads that are hard to close. In Washington, Congress has been debating four anti-spyware bills, but California is a step ahead. The state's Consumer Protection Against Spyware Act bans the installation of software that takes control of another computer. It also requires companies and websites to disclose whether their systems will install spyware. Consumers are able to seek up to $1,000 in damages if they think they have fallen victim to the intrusive software. The new law marks a continuing trend in California towards tougher privacy rights. A recent survey by Earthlink and Webroot found that 90% of PCs are infested with the surreptitious software and that, on average, each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs. Currently users wanting protection from spyware have turned to free programs such as Spybot and Ad-Aware." +tech,"US woman sues over cartridges A US woman is suing Hewlett Packard (HP), saying its printer ink cartridges are secretly programmed to expire on a certain date. The unnamed woman from Georgia says that a chip inside the cartridge tells the printer that it needs re-filling even when it does not. The lawsuit seeks to represent anyone in the US who has purchased an HP inkjet printer since February 2001. HP, the world's biggest printer firm, declined to comment on the lawsuit. HP ink cartridges use a chip technology to sense when they are low on ink and advise the user to make a change. But the suit claims the chips also shut down the cartridges at a predetermined date regardless of whether they are empty. ""The smart chip is dually engineered to prematurely register ink depletion and to render a cartridge unusable through the use of a built-in expiration date that is not revealed to the consumer,"" the suit said. The lawsuit is asking for restitution, damages and other compensation. The cost of printer cartridges has been a contentious issue in Europe for the last 18 months. The price of inkjet printers has come down to as little as £34 but it could cost up to £1,700 in running costs over an 18-month period due to cartridge, a study by Computeractive Magazine revealed last year. The inkjet printer market has been the subject of an investigation by the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which concluded in a 2002 report that retailers and manufacturers needed to make pricing more transparent for consumers." +tech,"Cheaper chip for mobiles A mobile phone chip which combines a modem and a computer processor on one bit of silicon instead of two could make phones cheaper and more powerful. The specially-designed chip, developed by Texas Instruments, could drive down the cost of making mobiles capable of 3D gaming and 30-frame-a-second video. Currently, rich multimedia features tend to be on more expensive handsets. The technology, OMAP-Vox, is being tested by firms in Europe and Asia and could appear by the end of the year. Texas, which makes computer chips for more than half the world's mobile phones, said it was keen to make multimedia functions like video and gaming more affordable. ""We're going to drive them down into meat-and-potatoes phones that have the largest market share,"" said Doug Rasor, a marketing vice president at Texas. The chip also uses much less power than conventional chips, said Texas, which means less strain on mobile battery life. More than 50 million people own a mobile in the UK, but mobile operators are keen to encourage people to move onto more sophisticated handsets that can do more. Texas is keen to cash in on the third generation (3G) of mobile technology, which offers high-speed networks for video streaming and other multimedia functions. But it faces stiff competition from the likes of Intel which is also looking to provide better chips for high-end mobiles. Competition to get people using 3G mobiles will grow in the next year as almost all of the UK's operators have now launched third generation networks. A recent survey by Sony Ericsson predicted that the number of 3G handsets sold in 2005 would double from 2004 to account for 10% of all phones sold. Many consumers are still to be convinced though. A further recent survey said that only 4% of mobile owners were thinking of upgrading to 3G phones. Many said they were confused about the different ways to pay for phones and the vast array of features most have onboard. But there will be continued demand for better chips as the industry continues to develop new standards and future networks. Earlier in January, NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone joined forces to develop the next generation of high-speed networks, known as ""super 3G"", intended to be 10 times faster than 3G services. The first stage of development is to be completed by 2007, but no date has been set for a commercial launch The newly-designed OMAP-Vox chip set was announced ahead of the start of a major mobile industry conference, 3GSM, which takes place in Cannes, France this week." +tech,"Open source leaders slam patents The war of words between Microsoft and the open source movement heated up this week as Linux founder Linus Torvalds led an attack on software patents. In a panel discussion at a Linux summit in California Mr Torvalds said software patents were a problem for the open source movement. Mitchell Kapor, chairman of the Mozilla foundation, warned that Microsoft could use patent lawsuits in the future. Linux is a freely-available alternative to Microsoft's Windows. It relies on a community of programmers for its development and is based on open source principles, which allow others to use and modify it without having to pay licence fees. The attack on software patents comes at a time when IBM has made 500 of its patents freely available. Other companies are expected to follow suit. There are between 150,000 and 300,000 registered software patents in the US and open source developers argue that many should never have been granted. This is a view corroborated by the UK Patent Office. ""Some of the patents have dubious validity and are being wielded by some big companies to force smaller companies to buy licenses in the knowledge that they can't afford to take them to court,"" said Dr Jeremy Philpott of the UK Patent Office. Some panel members are worried that Microsoft would issue a series of patent lawsuits in the future. ""If totally pushed to the wall - because their business model no longer holds up in an era in which open source is an economically superior way to produce software...of course they're going to unleash the WMDs,"" Mr Kapor is reported as saying. Microsoft did not want to comment directly, referring the issue instead to trade body Intellect, of which it is a member. ""As far as Intellect is concerned, open source and patents have co-existed for many years without problems,"" said spokeswoman Jill Sutherland. ""The industry respects the open source movement and in fact many of the members we represent use the open source system to develop software,"" ""We think the important point to make is that companies should be able to choose between patents, copyrights and open source as to the treatment of their intellectual discoveries, and not be forced into using one or the other,"" she added." +tech,"Hollywood campaign hits websites Movie studio efforts to stop pirated films being shared on peer-to-peer networks have claimed a high-profile victim. The campaign of legal action is thought to be behind the closure of the widely used Suprnova.org website. The site was the most popular place for people swapping and sharing links for the BitTorrent network. A recent study showed that more than half of the peer-to-peer traffic during June was for the BitTorrent system. In a message posted on Suprnova.org on Sunday, the site's controllers said the site was ""closing down for good in the way that we all know it"". If the site did return, the message said, it would not be hosting any more torrent links. It continued: ""We are very sorry for this, but there was no other way, we have tried everything. "" The only parts that would keep going, said the operators of the Suprnova site, were the discussion forums and net chat channels. The site is thought to have closed following an announcement by the Motion Picture Association of America that it was launching legal action against those operating BitTorrent servers rather than end users. Because of the way that BitTorrent works, server sites do not host the actual file being shared, instead they host a link that points people to others that have it. By targeting servers, the MPAA hopes to cripple BitTorrent's ability to share files. In the opening days of the MPAA campaign, the organisation filed 100 lawsuits against operators of BitTorrent server site. The launching of the legal seems to be having an effect. Phoenix Torrents, another popular BitTorrent site, has also decided to shut down and, though it gave no reasons for the closure, it is thought to be motivated by the threat of legal action. Last week Finnish police raided a BitTorrent site based in the country that, according to reports, let 10,000 users shared pirated films, software, music and games." +tech,"China 'to overtake US net use' The Chinese net-using population looks set to exceed that of the US in less than three years, says a report. China's net users number 100m but this represents less than 8% of the country's 1.3 billion people. Market analysts Panlogic predicts that net users in China will exceed the 137 million US users of the net by 2008. The report says that the country's culture will mean that Chinese people will use the net for very different ends than in many other nations. Already net use in China has a very different character than in many Western nations, said William Makower, chief executive of Panlogic. In many Western nations desktop computers that can access the net are hard to escape at work. By contrast in China workplace machines are relatively rare. This, combined with the relatively high cost of PCs in China and the time it takes to get phone lines installed, helps to explains the huge number of net cafes in China. Only 36% of Chinese homes have telephones according to reports. ""Net usage tends to happen in the evening,"" said Mr Makower, ""they get access only when they go home and go off to the internet café."" ""Its fundamentally different usage to what we have here,"" he said. Net use in China was still very much an urban phenomenon with most users living on the country's eastern seaboard or in its three biggest cities. The net is key to helping Chinese people keep in touch with friends, said Mr Makower. Many people use it in preference to the phone or arrange to meet up with friends at net cafes. What people can do on the net is also limited by aspects of Chinese life. For instance, said Mr Makower, credit cards are rare in China partly because of fears people have about getting in to debt. ""The most popular way to pay is Cash-On-Delivery,"" he said, ""and that's quite a brake to the development of e-commerce."" The arrival of foreign banks in China, due in 2006, could mean greater use of credit cards but for the moment they are rare, said Mr Makower. But if Chinese people are not spending cash online they are interested in the news they can get via the net and the view it gives them on Western ways of living. ""A large part of the attraction of the internet is that it goes below the radar,"" he said. ""Generally it's more difficult for the government to be able to control it."" ""Its real value is as an open window onto what's happening elsewhere in the world,"" he said. Government restrictions on how much advertising can appear on television means that the net is a source of many commercial messages Chinese people would not see anywhere else. Familiarity with the net also has a certain social cachet. ""It's a sign of them having made it that they can use the internet and navigate around it,"" said Mr Makower." +tech,"Local net TV takes off in Austria An Austrian village is testing technology that could represent the future of television. The people of Engerwitzdorf are filming, editing and producing their own regional news channel. The channel covers local politics, sports, events and anything that residents want to film and are prepared to upload for others to watch on PCs. The pilot has been so successful that Telekom Austria is now considering setting up other projects elsewhere. ""It's growing unbelievably fast,"" said Rudolf Fischer, head of Telekom Austria's fixed line division. The trial of Buntes Fernsehen (Multi-Coloured TV) was started in late 2004 and creates a net-based TV station run by the 8,000 residents of Engerwitzdorf. The hardware and software to turn video footage into edited programmes has been provided by Telekom Austria but this equipment, following training, has been turned over to the villagers. Any video programme created by the villagers is uploaded to a Buntes Fernsehen portal that lets people browse and download what they want to watch. Most people watch the TV on their home PC and a broadband connection is needed to get broadcast quality programmes. In the first four months of the project villagers have created 60 films and put together regular reports on local news items. ""They have adopted it very quickly,"" said Mr Fischer. ""They like the possibility to create their own content and see what's going on in the area."" ""It's kind of the democratisation of local TV,"" he said, ""because none of the bigger broadcasters would ever do anything like this for that region."" The Buntes Fernsehen project has been such a success that Telekom Austria is now considering setting up other schemes in similarly rural areas. Mr Fischer said it was taking the roll-out to other areas slowly because of the work involved in setting up the scheme, getting backers from local government and educating people how to make programmes. The Engerwitzdorf scheme is an outgrowth of Telekom Austria's online TV channel Aon which lets people watch programmes on their PC. Aon streams a couple of live channels, plus sports, news and music programmes on to the net and has a pay-for-download section that lets people watch what they want when they want to watch it. In October a larger TV-on-demand project is due to launch in Vienna that will let people download many programmes from the net." +tech,"California sets fines for spyware The makers of computer programs that secretly spy on what people do with their home PCs could face hefty fines in California. From 1 January, a new law is being introduced to protect computer users from software known as spyware. The legislation, which was approved by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is designed to safeguard people from hackers and help protect their personal information. Spyware is considered by computer experts to be one of the biggest nuisance and security threats facing PC users in the coming year. The software buries itself in computers and can collect a wide range of information. At its worst, it has the ability to hijack personal data, like passwords, login details and credit card numbers. The programs are so sophisticated they change frequently and become impossible to eradicate. One form of spyware called adware has the ability to collect information on a computer user's web-surfing. It can result in people being bombarded with pop-up ads that are hard to close. In Washington, Congress has been debating four anti-spyware bills, but California is a step ahead. The state's Consumer Protection Against Spyware Act bans the installation of software that takes control of another computer. It also requires companies and websites to disclose whether their systems will install spyware. Consumers are able to seek up to $1,000 in damages if they think they have fallen victim to the intrusive software. The new law marks a continuing trend in California towards tougher privacy rights. A recent survey by Earthlink and Webroot found that 90% of PCs are infested with the surreptitious software and that, on average, each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs. Currently users wanting protection from spyware have turned to free programs such as Spybot and Ad-Aware." +tech,"Video phones act as dating tools Technologies, from e-mail, to net chatrooms, instant messaging and mobiles, have proved to be a big pull with those looking for love. The lure once was that you could hide behind the technology, but now video phones are in on the act to add vision. Hundreds have submitted a mobile video profile to win a place at the world's first video mobile dating event. The top 100 meet their match on 30 November at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). The event, organised by the 3G network, 3, could catch on as the trend for unusual dating events, like speed dating, continues. ""It's the beginning of the end of the blind date as we know it,"" said Graeme Oxby, 3's marketing director. The response has been so promising that 3 says it is planning to launch a proper commercial dating service soon. Hundreds of hopefuls submitted their profiles, and special booths were set up in a major London department store for two weeks where expert tips were given on how to visually improve their chances. The 100 most popular contestants voted by the public will gather at the ICA in separate rooms and ""meet"" by phone. Dating services and other more adult match-making services are proving to be a strong stream of revenue worth millions for mobile companies. Whether it does actually provide an interesting match for video phone technologies remains to be seen. Flic Everett, journalist and dating expert for Company magazine and the Daily Express, thinks technology has been liberating for some nervous soul-mate seekers. There are currently about 1.3 million video phones in use in the UK and three times more single people in Britain than there were 30 years ago, With more people buying video mobiles, 3G dating could be the basis for a successful and safe way to meet people. ""One of the problems with video phones is people don't really know what to video. It is a weird technology. We have not quite worked out what it is for. This gives it a focus and a useful one,"" she told BBC News. ""I would never have thought online dating would take off the way it did,"" she said. ""Lots of people find it easier to be honest writing e-mail or text than face-to-face. Lots people are quite shy and they feel vulnerable."" ""When you are writing, it comes directly onto the page so they tend to be more honest."" But the barrier that comes with SMS chat and online match-making is that the person behind the profile may not be who they really are. Scare stories have put people off as a result, according to Ms Everett. Many physical clues, body language, odd twitches, are obviously missing with SMS and online dating services. Still images do not necessarily provide all those necessary cues. ""It could really take off because you do get the whole package. With a static e-mail picture, you don't know who the person is behind it is."" So checking out a potential date by video phone also gives singletons a different kind of barrier, an extra layer of protection; a case of WLTS before WLTM. ""If you are trapped in real-life blind date context, you can't get away and you feel embarrassed. ""With a video meeting, you really have the barrier of the phone so if you don't like them you don't have to suffer the embarrassment."" There is a more serious side to this new use of technology though. With money being made through more adult-themes content and services which let people meet and chat, the revenue streams for mobile carriers will grow with 3G, thinks Paolo Pescatore mobile industry specialist for analysts IDC. ""Wireless is a medium that is being exploited with a number of features and services. One is chatting and the dating element is key there,"" he said. ""The foundation has been set by SMS and companies are using media like MMS and video to grow the market further."" But carriers need to be wary and ensure that if they do launch such 3G dating services, they ensure mechanism are in place to monitor and be aware who is registers and accesses these services on regular basis, he cautioned. In July, Vodafone introduced a content control system to protect children from such adult content. The move was as a result of a code of practice agreed by the UK's six largest mobile phone operators in January. The system means Vodafone users need to prove they are over 18 before firewalls are lifted on explicit websites or chat rooms dealing with adult themes. The impetus was the growing number of people with handsets that could access the net, and the growth of 3G technologies." +tech,"ITunes user sues Apple over iPod A user of Apple's iTunes music service is suing the firm saying it is unfair he can only use an iPod to play songs. He says Apple is breaking anti-competition laws in refusing to let other music players work with the site. Apple, which opened its online store in 2003 after launching the iPod in 2001, uses technology to ensure each song bought only plays on the iPod. Californian Thomas Slattery filed the suit in the US District Court in San Jose and is seeking damages. ""Apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music player of their choice,"" the lawsuit states. The key to such a lawsuit would be convincing a court that a single brand like iTunes is a market in itself separate from the rest of the online music market, according to Ernest Gellhorn, an anti-trust law professor at George Mason University. ""As a practical matter, the lower courts have been highly sceptical of such claims,"" Prof Gellhorn said. Apple has sold more than six million iPods since the gadget was launched and has an 87% share of the market for portable digital music players, market research firm NPD Group has reported. More than 200 million songs have been sold by the iTunes music store since it was launched. ""Apple has unlawfully bundled, tied, and/or leveraged its monopoly in the market for the sale of legal online digital music recordings to thwart competition in the separate market for portable hard drive digital music players, and vice-versa,"" the lawsuit said. Mr Slattery called himself an iTunes customer who ""was also forced to purchase an Apple iPod"" if he wanted to take his music with him to listen to. A spokesman for Apple declined to comment. Apple's online music store uses a different format for songs than Napster, Musicmatch, RealPlayer and others. The rivals use the MP3 format or Microsoft's WMA format while Apple uses AAC, which it says helps thwart piracy. The WMA format also includes so-called Digital Rights Management which is used to block piracy." +tech,"Finding new homes for old phones Re-using old mobile phones is not just good for the environment, it has social benefits too. Research has found that in some developing nations old mobile phones can help close the digital divide. The Forum for the Future research found that the low cost of these recycled handsets means they can have a very useful second life in poorer nations. But the Forum found that more needed to be done to collect old phones rather than let them rot in landfill sites. The report reveals that approximately 15 million mobile phones go out of use every year in the UK. Of the 15 million that are swapped for newer models each year, only 25% get returned to mobile phone firms for recycling or re-use. The slowly growing mass of unrecycled, discarded phones has now reached 90 million handsets, the equivalent of 9,000 tonnes of waste, estimates James Goodman, report author and a senior adviser at the Forum for the Future. ""It's quite common for people to have two or three phones just lying around,"" said Mr Goodman. Many of these older phones could end up in landfill sites leaking the potentially toxic materials they are made of into the wider world, said Mr Goodman. Far better, he said, to hand the phone back to an operator who can send it overseas where it can enjoy a second lease of life. ""We've heard the environmental argument for handing a phone back,"" said Mr Goodman, ""but there's a strong social argument too."" Older mobile phones are proving particularly useful in poorer nations where people want to use a mobile and keep in touch with friends and family but do not have the income to buy the most up to date model. The Forum for the Future report took an in-depth look at Romania where reconditioned mobile phones were proving very popular. ""It's an interesting country because it has a really crap fixed line network,"" said Mr Goodman, ""and there's a real desire for people to get mobile phones."" But the relatively low wages in Romania, which is one of the poorest countries in Europe, mean few people can afford a shiny new phone. ""The affordability of the handsets is a real barrier to getting one,"" he said. Reconditioned handsets have boosted take-up of mobiles as the report revealed that almost one-third of Romanian pre-pay mobile phone users were using reconditioned handsets. The re-used handsets tend to be about one-third of the price of a new handset. Georgeta Minciu, a Romanian part-time cleaner, said: ""Normally a mobile phone would not be possible on my wages. I am a single parent - keeping in touch with my daughter is important to me."" ""This is the only way I can afford to have a phone,"" she said. Mr Goodman said phone operators and consumers needed to do more to ensure that more of Britain's mobile mountain made it overseas. But, he added, those keen to use a mobile will not accept any old handset. ""If its more than a few years old people are not going to want it,"" he said." +tech,"Latest Opera browser gets vocal Net browser Opera 8.0, due for official release at the end of next month, will be ""the most accessible browser on the market"", according to its authors. The latest version of the net browser can be controlled by voice command and will read pages aloud. The voice features, based on IBM technology, are currently only available in the Windows version. Opera can also magnify text by up to 10 times and users can create ""style sheets"", its developers say. This will enable them to view pages with colours and fonts that they prefer. But the browser does not yet work well with screen reader software often used by blind people, so its accessibility features are more likely to appeal to those with some residual vision. ""Our mission was always to provide the best internet experience for everyone,"" said Opera spokeswoman, Berit Hanson. ""So we would obviously not want to exclude disabled computer users."" Another feature likely to appeal to people with low vision is the ability to make pages fit to the screen width, which eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling. The company points out that this will also appeal to anyone using Opera with a handheld device. The company says that features like voice activation are not solely aimed at visually impaired people. ""Our idea was to take a first step in making human-computer interaction more natural,"" said Ms Hanson. ""People are not always in a situation where they can access a keyboard, so this makes the web a more hands-free experience."" Unlike commercially available voice recognition software, Opera does not have to be ""trained"" to recognise an individual voice. Around 50 voice commands are available and users will have to wear a headset which incorporates a microphone. The voice recognition function is currently only available in English. Opera is free to download but a paid-for version comes without an ad banner in the top right hand corner and with extra support. Opera began life as a research project - a spin-off from Norwegian telecoms company Telenor. Its browser is used by an estimated 10 million people on a variety of operating systems and a number of different platforms." +tech,"Learning to love broadband We are reaching the point where broadband is a central part of daily life, at least for some, argues technology analyst Bill Thompson. One of the nice things about being a writer is that I rarely have to go to an office to work. I can sit in a café or a library, with or without a wi-fi connection, and research and write articles. If I am passing through Kings Cross station on my way to a meeting then I can log on from the platform. And I can spend the day working with my girlfriend Anne, a children's writer, at her house in Cambridge, sharing her wireless network. But just over a week ago I arrived at her house to find that there was no network connection. We checked the cable modem and noticed that it had no power, and when she changed the power lead it sparked at her in a way which made it abundantly clear that it was never going to talk to the internet again. She called her service provider, and they told her it would be five days before an engineer would show up with a new cable modem. This did not seem too bad, but in fact she really suffered until her connection was restored on Wednesday. With no modem installed in her computer, she had to borrow internet access from friends or use the dial-up connection on her daughter's laptop, so she had to choose between copying her files onto her USB memory card or accepting a slower and flakier net connection. As a result she did not submit the pictures she wanted to use for a book on earthquakes because they were too big to send over dial-up. She could not research other material because she is used to having easy access to a fast link that lets her search quickly and effectively. But the impact spread into her personal life too. She did not take her children to the cinema during half-term because she could not find out which films were showing at the local cinemas. She planned a trip to Norfolk but did not check the weather because the only place she knows to look for weather information is the BBC website. And she did not know where to go fossil-hunting on the trip because she could not type ""fossils Norfolk"" into Google. Of course, she readily admits, she could have answered these questions if she had looked in the local paper, listened to the radio or found a book on fossils. But she did not, because having fast, always on, and easy access to the net has become part of the routine of her daily life, and when it was taken away it was too much effort to go back to the old ways of doing things. She may be unusual, but I do not think Anne is alone. According to Ofcom there were almost four million broadband users in the UK in April 2004, and numbers are climbing fast. There will certainly be five million by the end of the year. Dial-up users are switching to broadband. My dad finally made the change earlier this month and new net users are selecting broadband from the start. More and more of these broadband users are beginning to mould their daily lives around the availability of broadband internet connections, and they too will find it difficult to cope if they cannot get online for any reason. It is part of the process of adaptation, and it is a vital step in the growth of broadband in the UK and elsewhere. People who have integrated net access into their daily lives tell their friends about it, and show off the cool stuff they can do. They encourage other people to get broadband so that they can share digital photos and do all of the other things that need fast and reliable connectivity. Of course, broadband in the UK is laughably slow compared to other parts of the world. In South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong normal connection speeds are measured in megabits, or millions of bits, a second rather than the thousands that we are supposed to be happy with. But speed is only a small part of the attraction of broadband, and when it comes to checking websites for film times, looking at weather forecasts, or all of the other small things that make a real difference to the routines and habits of our daily lives, even UK speeds are sufficient. It may not be the brave new world of streaming full-screen video and superfast file downloads, but it will do for now. And it is certainly better than slow access or no access. Just ask Anne. Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital." +tech,"Progress on new internet domains By early 2005 the net could have two new domain names. The .post and .travel net domains have been given preliminary approval by the net's administrative body. The names are just two of a total of 10 proposed domains that are being considered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Icann. The other proposed names include a domain for pornography, Asia, mobile phones, an anti-spam domain and one for the Catalan language and culture. The .post domain is backed by the Universal Postal Union that wants to use it as the online marker for every type of postal service and to help co-ordinate the e-commerce efforts of national post offices. The .travel domain would be used by hotels, travel firms, airlines, tourism offices and would help such organisations distinguish themselves online. It is backed by a New York-based trade group called The Travel Partnership. Icann said its early decision on the two domains was in response to the detailed technical and commercial information the organisations behind the names had submitted. Despite this initial approval, Icann cautioned that there was no guarantee that the domains would actually go into service. At the same time Icann is considering proposals for another eight domains. One that may not win approval is a proposal to set up a .xxx domain for pornographic websites. A similar proposal has been made many times in the past. But Icann has been reluctant to approve it because of the difficulty of making pornographers sign up and use it. In 2000 Icann approved seven other new domains that have had varying degrees of success. Three of the new so-called top level domains were for specific industries or organisations such as .museum and .aero. Others such as .info and .biz were intended to be more generic. In total there are in excess of 200 domain names and the majority of these are for nations. But domains that end in the .com suffix are by far the most numerous." +tech,"New delay hits EU software laws A fresh delay has hit controversial new European Union rules which govern computer-based inventions. The draft law was not adopted by EU ministers as planned at a Brussels meeting on Monday during which it was supposed to have been discussed. The fresh delay came after Polish officials had raised concerns about the law for the second time in two months. Critics say the law would favour large companies over small ones and could impact open-source software innovation. ""There was at one point the intention to put the item on today's agenda. But in the end we could not put it on,"" an EU spokesman told the Reuters agency. He added that no date had been chosen for more discussion of the law. In December, Poland requested more time to consider the issue because it was concerned that the law could lead to the patenting of pure computer software. Its ministers want to see the phrasing of the text of the Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions changed so that it excludes software patenting. Poland is a large EU member, so its backing for the legislation is vital. The EU says the law would bring Europe more in line with how such laws work in the US, but this has caused some angry debate amongst critics and supporters. In the US, the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted. This means that the US-based Amazon.com holds a patent for its ""one-click shopping"" service. Critics say a similar model in Europe would hurt small software developers which do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies. But supporters say current law does not let big companies protect inventions which they have spent years developing." +tech,"Security warning over 'FBI virus' The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning that a computer virus is being spread via e-mails that purport to be from the FBI. The e-mails show that they have come from an fbi.gov address and tell recipients that they have accessed illegal websites. The messages warn that their internet use has been monitored by the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center. An attachment in the e-mail contains the virus, the FBI said. The message asks recipients to click on the attachment and answer some questions about their internet use. But rather than being a questionnaire, the attachment contains a virus that infects the recipient's computer, according to the agency. It is not clear what the virus does once it has infected a computer. Users are warned never to open attachment from unsolicited e-mails or from people they do not know. ""Recipients of this or similar solicitations should know that the FBI does not engage in the practice of sending unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner,"" the FBI said in a statement. The bureau is investigating the phoney e-mails. The agency earlier this month shut down fbi.gov accounts, used to communicate with the public, because of a security breach. A spokeswoman said the two incidents appear to be unrelated." +tech,"Peer-to-peer nets 'here to stay' Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are here to stay, and are on the verge of being exploited by commercial media firms, says a panel of industry experts. Once several high-profile legal cases against file-sharers are resolved this year, firms will be very keen to try and make money from P2P technology. The expert panel probed the future of P2P at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier in January. The first convictions for P2P piracy were handed out in the US in January. William Trowbridge and Michael Chicoine pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software. Since the first successful file-sharing network Napster was forced to close down, the entertainment industry has been nervous and critical of P2P technology, blaming it for falling sales and piracy. But that is going to change very soon, according to the panel. The music and film industries have started some big legal cases against owners of legitimate P2P networks - which are not illegal in themselves - and of individuals accused of distributing pirated content over networks. But they have slowly realised that P2P is a good way to distribute content, said Travis Kalanick, founder and chairman of P2P network Red Swoosh, and soon they are all going to want a slice of it. They are just waiting to come up with ""business models"" that work for them, which includes digital rights management and copy-protection standards. But, until the legal actions are resolved, experimentation with P2P cannot not happen, said Michael Weiss, president of StreamCast Networks. Remembering the furore around VCRs when they first came out, Mr Weiss said: ""Old media always tries to stop new media. ""When they can't stop it, they try to control it. Then they figure out how to make money and they always make a lot of money."" Once the courts decided that the VCR in itself was not an illegal technology, the film studios turned it into an extremely lucrative business. In August 2004, the San Francisco-based US Court of Appeals ruled in favour of Grokster and StreamCast, two file-sharing networks. The court said they were essentially in the same position that Sony was in the 1980s VCR battle, and said that the networks themselves could not be deemed as illegal. P2P networks usually do not rely on dedicated servers for the transfer of files. Instead it uses direct connections between computers - or clients. There are now many different types of P2P systems than work in different ways. P2P nets can be used to share any kind of file, like photos, free software, licensed music and any other digital content. The BBC has already decided to embrace the technology. It aims to offer most of its own programmes for download this year and it will use P2P technology to distribute them. The files would be locked seven days after a programme aired making rights management easier to control. But the technology is still demonised and misunderstood by many. The global entertainment industry says more than 2.6 billion copyrighted music files are downloaded every month, and about half a million films are downloaded a day. Legal music download services, like Apple iTunes, Napster, have rushed into the music marketplace to try and lure file-sharers away from free content. Sales of legally-downloaded songs grew tenfold in 2004, with 200 million tracks bought online in the US and Europe in 12 months, the IFPI reported this week. But such download services are very different from P2P networks, not least because of the financial aspect. There are several money-spinning models that could turn P2P into a golden egg for commercial entertainment companies. Paid-for-pass-along, in which firms receive money each time a file is shared, along with various DRM solutions and advertiser-based options are all being considered. ""We see there are going to be different models for commoditising P2P,"" said Marc Morgenstern, vice president of anti-piracy firm Overpeer. ""Consumers are hungry for it and we will discover new models together,"" agreed Mr Morgenstern. But many net users will continue to ignore the entertainment industry's potential controlling grip on content and P2P technology by continuing to use it for their own creations. Unsigned bands, for example, use P2P networks to distribute their music effectively, which also draws the attention of record companies looking for new artists to sign. ""Increasingly, what you are seeing on P2P is consumer-created content,"" said Derek Broes, from Microsoft. ""They will probably play an increasing role in helping P2P spread,"" he said. Looking into P2P's future, file sharing is just the beginning for P2P networks, as far as Mr Broes is concerned. ""Once some of these issues are resolved, you are going to see aggressive movement to protect content, but also in ways that are unimaginable now,"" he said. ""File-sharing is the tip of the iceberg.""" +tech,"Rich pickings for hi-tech thieves Viruses, trojans and other malicious programs sent on to the net to catch you out are undergoing a subtle change. The shift is happening as tech savvy criminals turn to technology to help them con people out of cash, steal valuable data or take over home PCs. Viruses written to make headlines by infecting millions are getting rarer. Instead programs are now crafted for directly criminal ends and firms are tightening up networks with defences to combat the new wave of malicious code. The growing criminal use of malware has meant the end of the neat categorisation of different sorts of viruses and malicious programs. Before now it has been broadly possible to name and categorise viruses by the method they use to spread and how they infect machines. But many of the viruses written by criminals roll lots of technical tricks together into one nasty package. ""You cannot put them in to the neat little box that you used to,"" said Pete Simpson, head of the threat laboratory at security firm Clearswift. Now viruses are just as likely to spread by themselves like worms, or to exploit loopholes in browsers or hide in e-mail message attachments. ""It's about outright criminality now,"" said Mr Simpson, explaining why this change has come about. He said many of the criminal programs came from Eastern Europe where cash-rich organised gangs can find a ready supply of technical experts that will crank out code to order. Former virus writer Marek Strihavka, aka Benny from the 29A virus writing group, recently quit the malware scene partly because it was being taken over by spyware writers, phishing gangs, and spammers who are more interested in money rather than the technology. No longer do virus writers produce programs to show off their technical prowess to rivals in the underground world of malware authors. Not least, said Paul King, principal security consultant at Cisco, because the defences against such attacks are so common. ""In many ways the least likely way to do it is e-mail because most of us have got anti-virus and firewalls now,"" he said. Few of the malicious programs written by hi-tech thieves are cleverly written, many are much more pragmatic and use tried and tested techniques to infect machines or to trick users into installing a program or handing over important data. ""If you think of criminals they do not do clever,"" said Mr King, ""they just do what works."" As the tactics used by malicious programs change, said Mr King, so many firms were changing the way they defend themselves. Now many scan machines that connect to the corporate networks to ensure they have not been compromised while off the core network. Many will not let a machine connect and a worker get on with their job before the latest patches and settings have been uploaded. As well as using different tactics, criminals also use technology for reasons that are much more transparent. ""The main motivation now is money,"" said Gary Stowell, spokesman for St Bernard software. Mr Stowell said organised crime gangs were turning to computer crime because the risks of being caught were low and the rates of return were very high. With almost any phishing or spyware attack, criminals are guaranteed to catch some people out and have the contacts to exploit what they recover. So-called spyware was proving very popular with criminals because it allowed them to take over machines for their own ends, to steal key data from users or to hijack web browsing sessions to point people at particular sites. In some cases spyware was being written that searched for rival malicious programs on PCs it infects and then trying to erase them so it has sole ownership of that machine." +tech,"Musicians 'upbeat' about the net Musicians are embracing the internet as a way of reaching new fans and selling more music, a survey has found. The study by US researchers, Pew Internet, suggests musicians do not agree with the tactics adopted by the music industry against file-sharing. While most considered file-sharing as illegal, many disagreed with the lawsuits launched against downloaders. ""Even successful artists don't think the lawsuits will benefit musicians,"" said report author Mary Madden. For part of the study, Pew Internet conducted an online survey of 2,755 musicians, songwriters and music publishers via musician membership organisations between March and April 2004. They ranged from full-time, successful musicians to artists struggling to make a living from their music. ""We looked at more of the independent musicians, rather than the rockstars of this industry but that reflects more accurately the state of the music industry,"" Ms Madden told the BBC News website. ""We always hear the views of successful artists like the Britneys of the world but the less successful artists rarely get represented."" The survey found that musicians were overwhelming positive about the internet, rather than seeing it as just a threat to their livelihood. Almost all of them used the net for ideas and inspiration, with nine out of 10 going online to promote, advertise and post their music on the web. More than 80% offered free samples online, while two-thirds sold their music via the net. Independent musicians, in particular, saw the internet as a way to get around the need to land a record contract and reach fans directly. ""Musicians are embracing the internet enthusiastically,"" said Ms Madden. ""They are using the internet to gain inspiration, sell it online, tracking royalties, learning about copyright."" Perhaps surprisingly, opinions about online file-sharing were diverse and not as clear cut as those of the record industry. Through the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), it has pursued an aggressive campaign through the courts to sue people suspected of sharing copyrighted music. But the report suggests this campaign does not have the wholehearted backing of musicians in the US. It found that most artists saw file-sharing as both good and bad, though most agreed that it should be illegal. ""Free downloading has killed opportunities for new bands to break without major funding and backing,"" said one musician quoted by the report. ""It's hard to keep making records if they don't pay for themselves through sales."" However 60% said they did not think the lawsuits against song swappers would benefit musicians and songwriters. Many suggested that rather than fighting file-sharing, the music industry needed to recognise the changes it has brought and embrace it. ""Both successful and struggling musicians were more likely to say that the internet has made it possible for them to make more money from their music, rather than make it harder for them to protect their material from piracy,"" said Ms Madden." +tech,"China 'ripe' for media explosion Asia is set to drive global media growth to 2008 and beyond, with China and India filling the two top spots, analysts have predicted. Japan, South Korea and Singapore will also be strong players, but China's demographics give it the edge, a media conference in London heard. The world's most populous country - population 1.3bn - now has about 200 million middle-class consumers. Forty per cent fall in the key 16 to 35-year-old demographic. As a result, it is attracting huge foreign investment in media and communications, analysts told the Financial Times New Media and Broadcasting Conference last week. Interest in China among international media groups has surged in recent months after Beijing issued rules allowing foreign investment in joint-venture television, radio and film production companies. News Corporation, Viacom and Sony Pictures are among the big names involved in joint ventures with Chinese players. More than 700 million Chinese listen to 1,000 radio stations, while 200 TV stations broadcast 2,900 channels. China Central Television (CCTV), the state broadcaster, claims an audience of more than a billion people. Of the country's 360 million households, 100 million receive cable TV programmes. The rest could be a potential audience for satellite broadcasting which China plans to launch in 2006. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), which regulates broadcasting, plans to move all programmes to digital by 2015. The continuing roll-out of new digital channels has boosted demand for quality content, creating significant opportunities for both Chinese and foreign content providers. But according to recent reports from China, the authorities have tightened controls over foreign investment in TV production joint ventures. It has limited most foreign companies to only one joint venture and banned the involvement of any found to be ""unfriendly"", according to reports. The SARFT said: ""There is a very strong ideological component to production of broadcast television programmes."" It added: ""China must understand the political tendencies and background of overseas partners and prevent joint ventures or cooperation from bringing harmful foreign thinking or culture into our production sector."" According to the Financial Times' China correspondent, the new rules highlight the political sensitivities that surround foreign involvement in China's media sector. This is despite Beijing's decision to open the state-dominated sector to international investment. As well as traditional broadcasting, Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs alike see fortunes waiting to be made in new media, like mobile services and online gaming. Mobile games already account for 15% of revenues from China's 340 million mobile users. Online gaming sales are predicted to top a billion US dollars next year, according to the UK-based journal Screen Digest. The video market is also seen as a big opportunity, although piracy levels are still very high despite an anti-piracy drive during the past year. In the cinema industry the deployment of digital screens is being accelerated. This is not just to modernise venues but also to curb piracy and regulate distribution. Li Ruigang, president of the commercial broadcaster Shanghai Media Group, told the conference that China's new media market ""is already experiencing explosive growth"". It was particularly strong in charged broadband services and mobile value-added services. Leading China-watcher, and founder of the CGA consultancy Jeanne-Marie Gescher, agreed that the time was ripe for foreign media groups to tap China's huge media market potential. ""China's media are now driven by investors who do not care how people consume media - they just want people to consume more of it,"" Mrs Gescher concluded." +tech,"Mobile music challenges 'iPod age' Nokia and Microsoft have agreed a deal to work on delivery of music to handsets, while Sony Ericsson has unveiled its phone Walkman and Motorola is working on an iTunes phone. Can mobile phones replace the MP3 player in your pocket? The music download market has been growing steadily since record firms embraced digital distribution. Ease of use, relative low price and increased access to broadband has helped drive the phenomenal growth of MP3 players. Full-length music downloads on mobile phones have not taken off so quickly - held back by technical challenges as well as issues over music availability. But the mobile music industry is confident that the days of dedicated MP3 players are numbered. Gilles Babinet, chief executive of mobile music firm Musiwave, said: ""Music downloads on mobiles have the potential to be the biggest-ever medium for music."" Musiwave provides downloading infrastructure for the mobile phone market and Mr Babinet said the industry was enjoying ""definite momentum."" But there are hurdles to overcome. Mobile phones offer limited storage for music - certainly nothing to rival Apple's 60GB iPod. But the first mobile phones with hard disk players will be on the market soon and the current generation of mobiles using flash technology can store up to one gigabyte of music - enough for 250 songs. ""We are working in the hard disk area and we will be bringing out exciting devices,"" Jonas Guest, vice president for entertainment at Nokia, told the BBC News website. But will mobiles become mere storage devices? ""One of the problems we could have is that mobiles are used just for storage and playback while PCs are used for downloading,"" said Mr Babinet ""We don't want people to cast aside their PCs - we want mobile users to hook up into the existing ecosystems,"" explained Mr Guest. ""You must enable people to transfer music from a PC to a handset and vice versa."" One of the key elements of the Nokia and Microsoft deal is the agreed ability to transfer songs between a handset and a PC. Microsoft will adopt open standards allowing music to cross boundaries for the first time. Songs can be downloaded on PC or mobile and transferred between the platforms. ""The line between online and wireless is going to blur,"" predicted Ted Cohen, senior vice president of digital development and distribution at EMI. He said: ""The market is more regional in its maturity. In Asia it is beyond belief. ""The majority of our digital revenues in Asia comes from mobiles. In North America it is fixed line while there is equilibrium in Europe."" EMI currently offers its entire 200,000 download catalogue for use by both by PCs and mobile phones. Mr Cohen said: ""It's going to be just as important to connect through 3G or wireless as it is through your PC. ""We want music to be a continuum."" The seamless experience of mobiles and PC downloads is approaching, he predicted. Mr Babinet said the mobile phone had a number of advantages over PCs which would see it become the focus for music downloading in the future. ""Getting music from your PC onto a device is not an easy experience. You have to switch the PC on, load the operating system, load the program, buy the music, download the music, and then transfer the music. ""All of these steps can be done in one step on a mobile phone."" He said the mobile phone's billing system would make it easier for teenagers to embrace downloads, because pre-paid cards were already accepted by the age group. ""Certainly, we have a problem with battery, memory and bandwidth. But it's not about the current status. It's about the potential. ""You will have all of your music on your mobile."" All three men said that the social interaction of mobile music would drive the market. Mr Cohen said: ""I can send you the song and it is either billed to me or I send it to you and if you listen to it and want to keep, it is billed to you. ""It's a social phenomenon."" Mr Babinet said: ""Today you use radio and TV to discover music. Tomorrow you will discover and consume music via one device - the mobile.""" +tech,"What's next for next-gen consoles? The next generation of video games consoles are in development but what will the new machines mean for games firms and consumers? We may not know when they will be released, what they will be called or even what they will be able to do but one thing is certain - they are coming. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all expected to release new machines in the next 18 months. The details of PlayStation 3, Xbox 2 (codename Xenon) and Nintendo's so-called Revolution are still to be finalised but developers are having to work on titles for the new machines regardless. ""We know maybe what the PS3 will do, but we can only guess,"" said Rory Armes, studio general manager for video game giant Electronic Arts in Europe. ""It's a horrendous effort in the first year,"" he admitted. Microsoft had delivered development kits to EA, said Mr Armes, but he said the company was still waiting on Sony and Nintendo to send kits. Although the details may not be nailed down, Mr Armes said EA was beginning to get a sense of the capabilities of the new machines. ""The rumours are that PlayStation 3 will have a little more under the hood [than Xbox 2],"" he said. ""Microsoft is obviously a software company first and foremost, while Sony has more experience in hardware. I think Sony will be able to push more into a box at cost."" What is certain is that the new machines will provide great leaps in processing and graphical power. It is also likely that they will contain convergence technologies to make the machines more of an entertainment hub. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Microsoft boss Bill Gates said Xbox 2 would be part of his vision of the digital lifestyle. While short on detail, he painted a picture of a machine that would complement a PC and offer ""great video gaming but video gaming for a broader set of people, more communications, more media, more connectivity"". Sony is thought to have a similar vision for PS3 while Nintendo remain focused on a machine purely for games. Until it is clear precisely what the new machines can do, developers are working on a first round of titles to harness the new horsepower. Gary Dunn, development director at Codemasters, said the company had a central technology group which was at the forefront of preparing for the next generation of consoles. ""We are working on new libraries of effects. A lot of the major techniques are already out there and in use in PC gaming, such as pixel shaders and normal mapping."" Mr Dunn said he expected the introduction of real-world physics to be a major part of the new consoles. ""We want to increase that level of immersion and realism in gaming to people can lose themselves in a game."" In the first year at least, developers said gamers should not expect games which harness the full potential of the machines. Graphical spit and polish and better physics in line with the capabilities of current high-end graphics cards for PCs should be expected. Simon Gardner, president of Climax's Action Studio, said: ""It's definitely an exciting time. We want to give more freedom to the player. We want to give players an emotional connection to the characters they play. ""The environments will be much more believable and dramatic, growing and changing as you play. ""There will be a breadth of effects, more involving worlds to play in. ""It's a bit like being an artist and being given a bigger canvas and a smaller brush. We're being given more tools. ""For the average consumer, we can get things of a more filmic quality."" Gerhard Florin, head of EA in Europe, said gamers should expect titles that blur the line between films and video games. Many will be sceptical - gamers were given similar predictions during the last transition of console hardware - but this time it would seem to be more likely. ""PS3 will provide graphics indistinguishable from movies,"" said Mr Florin. He said the distribution method for games would also change radically in the next round of consoles. ""A gamer could buy a starter disc for 10 euros. When he goes home he goes online and he could buy AI and levels as you go. ""It's much smarter if you can get levels as you go."" Mr Armes warned that developers still had to learn how to tell stories effectively in the medium. ""In some ways we are trying to forget about the hardware, go in the opposite direction. We have been very bad at letting technology design our creativity. ""What we have to do as a company is start ignoring the technology and learning our craft in telling stories."" Mr Gardner agreed: ""We can thrown more polygons around and have better AI but if it doesn't make for a better game then that's not very useful."" Developers will certainly have the tools with the new machines, but how they employ them is still to be decided." +tech,"Blogger grounded by her airline A US airline attendant is fighting for her job after she was suspended over postings on her blog, or online diary. Queen of the Sky, otherwise known as Ellen Simonetti, evolved into an anonymous semi-fictional account of life in the sky. But after she posted pictures of herself in uniform, Delta Airlines suspended her indefinitely without pay. Ms Simonetti was told her suspension was a result of ""inappropriate"" images. Delta Airlines declined to comment. ""I was really shocked, I had no warning,"" Ms Simonetti told BBC News Online. ""I never thought I would get in trouble because of the blog. I thought if they had a problem, someone would have said something before taking action."" The issue has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging community about conflicts of interest, employment law and free speech on personal websites. Ms Simonetti was suspended on 25 September pending an investigation and has since lodged a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). A spokesperson for Delta Airlines told BBC News Online: ""All I can tell you is we do not discuss internal employee issues with the media."" She added she could not say whether a similar situation over personal websites had occurred in the past. Ms Simonetti started her personal blog in January to help her get over her mother's death. She had ensured she made no mention of which airline she worked for, and created fictional names for cities and companies. The airline's name was changed to Anonymous Airline and the city in which she was based was called Quirksville. A large part of the blog contained fictional stories because Queen of the Sky developed over the months as a character in her own right, according to Ms Simonetti. The images were taken from a digital camera she had inherited from her mother. ""We often take pictures on flight or on layovers. I just though why not include them on my blog for fun. ""I never meant it as something to harm my company and don't understand how they think it did harm them,"" Ms Simonetti said. She has also claimed that pictures of male Delta Airline employees in uniform are freely available on the web. Of the 10 or so images on the site, only one showed Ms Simonetti's flight ""wings"". ""They did not tell me which pictures they had a problem with. I am just assuming it was the one of me posing on seats where my skirt rode up,"" she said. The images were removed as soon as she learned she had been suspended. As far as Ms Simonetti knows, there is no company anti-blogging policy. There is guidance which suggests the company uniform cannot be used without approval from management, but use in personal pictures on websites is unclear. Jeffrey Matsuura, director of the law and technology programme at the University of Dayton, said personal websites can be hazardous for both employers and their employees. ""There are many examples of employees who have presented some kind of material online that have gotten them in trouble with employers,"" he said. It was crucial that any policy about what was and what was not acceptable was expressed clearly, was reasonable, and enforced fairly in company policy. ""You have to remember that as an employee, you don't have total free speech anymore,"" he said. Mr Matsuura added that some companies actively encouraged employees to blog. ""One of the areas where it does become a problem is that they encourage this when it suits them, but they may not be particularly clear when they [employees] do cross the line."" He speculated that Delta might be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images of Ms Simonetti in uniform were posted. ""Whether or not that is successful will depend on what exactly is prohibited, and whether you can reasonably say this content now crosses that line,"" he said. Ms Simonetti said her suspension has caused two of her friends to discontinue their blogs. One of them was asked to stop blogging by his company before any action was taken. ""If they had asked me just take down the blog, I would have done it, but that was not been given to me as an option,"" she said. ""This blogging thing is obviously a new problem for employers and they need to get a policy about it. If I had known it would cost me my job, I would not have done that.""" +tech,"Cebit opens to mobile music tune Cebit, the world's largest hi-tech fair, has opened its doors in Hanover for a look at the latest technologies for homes and businesses. There are more than 6,000 exhibitors registered and about 500,000 visitors are expected to pass through the doors. Third generation mobiles, the digital home and broadband are key themes at the show. Camera phones will get better resolutions as vendors set out to prove that bigger is definitely better. Samsung is set to steal some initial limelight with the launch of a 7-megapixel phone on the opening day. The SCH-V770 has some of the features of high-end digital single lens reflex cameras such as manual focus and the ability to attach a telephoto or wide-angle lens. Camera phones are likely to prove an interesting battle ground at the show, said Ben Wood, principal analyst at research firm Gartner. ""It is firmly established that cameras are an integral part of phones and now the technology arms race is on in terms of megapixels. There will be a certain amount of 'look how big mine is',"" he said. There will also be increasing focus on music-enabled mobiles. ""At 3GSM in Cannes everyone went music mad and music is going to be a big theme for all the vendors at Cebit,"" said Mr Wood. Sony Ericsson will use the fair to show off the W800 - its recently unveiled Walkman branded phone - and there is speculation that Motorola may unveil its ROKR handset, widely tipped as the first to carry Apple's iTunes music software. Apple and Motorola announced they were getting together at the end of last year as a result of a long-standing friendship between Motorola's chief executive Ed Zander and Steve Jobs. Some analysts think Motorola may save the launch for CTIA, a wireless show in America the following week, which could be a telling sign about how operators are coming to view the German tech fair. ""One of the interesting things is that CeBIT is clearly a show in decline,"" said Mr Wood. ""A lot of the big players, such as Nokia, are pulling back saying it is hard to justify a big presence at all of the shows. It could be the last big year for Cebit,"" he said. Other themes include TV-enabled mobiles which are bound to create a buzz in the halls as Vodafone unveils a prototype handset that can show live digital television. There has been a glut of recent headlines about mobile TV - French operators are teaming up, O2 is trialling a system in Oxford, UK, and Nokia begins trialling a system in Finland with the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE TV and commercial TV channels. Cebit could become the battleground for the two competing methods for getting TV on to mobiles, and is also likely to provide a stage for a technology slated to compete with 3G. HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) has been described as ""3G on steroids"" and could offer consumers much faster download times. For instance, a song which currently takes one and a half minutes to download to a phone could be done in 10 seconds. Korean giants LG Electronics and Samsung will show off HSDPA handsets at the show and the technology is set to be rolled out in the US, Europe and Korea next year. Broadband will continue to be a key theme at the show with internet telephony proving this year's killer application. Germany's largest online service provider, T-Online, is tipped to reveal software for low-cost net telephony which would see it competing with its parent company Deutsche Telekom. Cebit is used by many to unveil cutting edge products and in the mobile sphere this is likely to mean a lot of bright, colourful handsets as fashion continues to compete with technology when it comes to the device everyone has in their pockets. Rainbow-coloured phones, influenced by handsets from Japan, are just one example of how Asian companies will stamp their mark on this year's show, at which they will have their biggest ever presence. Cebit organisers have created a digital home in Hall 25 of the 27 hangar-like buildings that will house the show. ""The digital home will be a hyped theme at the show. The house will be totally wired and full of things that can be used for home entertainment,"" said Cebit organiser Gabriele Dorries." +tech,"T-Mobile bets on 'pocket office' T-Mobile has launched its latest ""pocket office"" third-generation (3G) device which also has built-in wi-fi - high-speed wireless net access. Unlike other devices where the user has to check which high-speed network is available to transfer data, the device selects the fastest one itself. The MDA IV, released in the summer, is an upgrade to the company's existing smartphone, the 2.5G/wi-fi MDA III. It reflects the push by mobile firms for devices that are like mini laptops. The device has a display that can be swivelled and angled so it can be used like a small computer, or as a conventional clamshell phone. The Microsoft Mobile phone, with two cameras and a Qwerty keyboard, reflects the design of similar all-in-one models released this year, such as Motorola's MPx. ""One in five European workers are already mobile - meaning they spend significant time travelling and out of the office,"" Rene Obermann, T-Mobile's chief executive, told a press conference at the 3GSM trade show in Cannes. He added: ""What they need is their office when they are out of the office."" T-Mobile said it was seeing increasing take up for what it calls ""Office in a Pocket"" devices, with 100,000 MDAs sold in Europe already. In response to demand, T-Mobile also said it would be adding the latest phone-shaped Blackberry to its mobile range. Reflecting the growing need to be connected outside the office, it announced it would introduce a flat-fee £20 ($38) a month wi-fi tariff for people in the UK using its wi-fi hotspots. It said it would nearly double the number of its hotspots - places where wi-fi access is available - globally from 12,300 to 20,000. It also announced it was installing high-speed wi-fi on certain train services, such as the UK's London to Brighton service, to provide commuters a fast net connection too. The service, which has been developed with Southern trains, Nomad Digital (who provide the technology), begins with a free trial on 16 trains on the route from early March to the end of April. A full service is set to follow in the summer. Wi-fi access points will be connected to a Wimax wireless network - faster than wi-fi - running alongside the train tracks. Brian McBride, managing director of T-Mobile in the UK, said: ""We see a growing trend for business users needing to access e-mail securely on the move. ""We are able to offer this by maintaining a constant data session for the entire journey."" He said this was something other similar in-train wi-fi services, such as that offered on GNER trains, did not offer yet. Mr Obermann added that the mobile industry in general was still growing, with many more opportunities for more services which would bear fruit for mobile companies in future. Thousands of mobile industry experts are gathered in Cannes, France, for the 3GSM which runs from 14 to 17 February." +tech,"Virus poses as Christmas e-mail Security firms are warning about a Windows virus disguising itself as an electronic Christmas card. The Zafi.D virus translates the Christmas greeting on its subject line into the language of the person receiving infected e-mail. Anti-virus firms speculate that this multilingual ability is helping the malicious program spread widely online. Anti-virus firm Sophos said that 10% of the e-mail currently on the net was infected with the Zafi virus. Like many other Windows viruses, Zafi-D plunders Microsoft Outlook for e-mail addresses and then uses mail-sending software to despatch itself across the web to new victims. To be infected users must open up the attachment travelling with the message which bears the code for the malicious bug. The attachment on the e-mail poses as an electronic Christmas card but anyone opening it will simply get a crude image of two smiley faces. The virus' subject line says ""Merry Christmas"" and translates this into one of 15 languages depending of the final suffix of the e-mail address the infected message has been sent to. The message in the body of the e-mail reads: ""Happy Holidays"" and this too is translated. On infected machines the virus tries to disable anti-virus and firewall software and opens up a backdoor on the PC to hand over control to the writer of the virus. The virus is thought to have spread most widely in South America, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Hungary. The original Zafi virus appeared in April this year. ""We have seen these hoaxes for several Christmases already, and personally I prefer traditional pen and paper cards, and we recommend this to all our clients too,"" said Mikko Hypponen, who heads F-Secure's anti-virus team." +tech,"Bush website blocked outside US Surfers outside the US have been unable to visit the official re-election site of President George W Bush. The blocking of browsers sited outside the US began in the early hours of Monday morning. Since then people outside the US trying to browse the site get a message saying they are not authorised to view it. The blocking does not appear to be due to an attack by vandals or malicious hackers, but as a result of a policy decision by the Bush camp. The international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by net monitoring firm Netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns across many different sites. Netcraft said that since the early hours of 25 October attempts to view the site through its monitoring stations in London, Amsterdam and Sydney failed. By contrast Netcraft's four monitoring stations in the US managed to view the site with no problems. The site can still be seen using anonymous proxy services that are based in the US. Some web users in Canada also report that they can browse the site. The pattern of traffic to the website suggests that the blocking was not due to an attack by vandals or politically motivated hackers. Geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis. On 21 October, the George W Bush website began using the services of a company called Akamai to ensure that the pages, videos and other content on its site reaches visitors. Mike Prettejohn, president of Netcraft, speculated that the blocking decision might have been taken to cut costs, and traffic, in the run-up to the election on 2 November. He said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next week. Managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays working in the closing days of the election campaign. However, simply blocking non-US visitors also means that Americans overseas are barred too. Akamai declined to comment, saying it could not talk about customer websites." +tech,"Gamers snap up new Sony PSP Gamers have bought almost all of the first batch of Sony's new PlayStation Portable (PSP) games console, which went on sale in Japan on Sunday. Thousands of people queued for hours to get hold of one of the 200,000 PSPs which were shipped to retailers. The handheld console can play games, music and movies and goes on sale in Europe and North America next year. Despite the demand Sony said it would not increase the 500,000-strong stock of PSPs it plans to ship by year's end. Sony says it intends to ship three million of the consoles by March 2005. The company is hoping to challenge the dominance of Nintendo in the handheld market. Nintendo released its new DS console earlier this year and has already raised shipment targets for the device by 40%. The PSP is selling in Japan for 19,800 yen ($188; £98) while Nintendo's DS console sells in the US and Japan for $150 (£78). Nintendo's goal is to ship 5 million of its new Nintendo DS handheld consoles by March 2005." +tech,"Souped-up wi-fi is on the horizon Super high-speed wireless data networks could soon be in use in the UK. The government's wireless watchdog is seeking help on the best way to regulate the technology behind such networks called Ultra Wideband (UWB). Ofcom wants to ensure that the arrival of UWB-using devices does not cause problems for those that already use the same part of the radio spectrum. UWB makes it possible to stream huge amounts of data through the air over short distances. One of the more likely uses of UWB is to make it possible to send DVD quality video images wirelessly to TV screens or to let people beam music to media players around their home. The technology has the potential to transmit hundreds of megabits of data per second. UWB could also be used to create so-called Personal Area Networks that let a person's gadgets quickly and easily swap data amongst themselves. The technology works over a range up to 10 metres and uses billions of short radio pulses every second to carry data. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas products with UWB chips built-in got their first public airing. Currently, use of UWB is only allowed in the UK under a strict licencing scheme. ""We're seeking opinion from industry to find out whether or not we should allow UWB on a licence-exempt basis,"" said a spokesman for Ofcom. Companies have until 24 March to respond. In April the EC is due to start its own consultation on Europe-wide adoption of UWB. The cross-Europe body for radio regulators, known as the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), is carrying out research for this harmonisation programme. Early sight of the CEPT work has caused controversy as some think it over-emphasises UWB's potential to interfere with existing users. By contrast a preliminary Ofcom report found that it would be quite straight-forward to deploy UWB without causing problems for those that already use it. The Ofcom spokesman said it was considering imposing a ""mask"" or set of technical restrictions on UWB-using devices. ""We would want these devices to have very strict controls on power levels so they can not transmit a long way or over a wide area,"" he said. Despite the current restrictions the technology is already being used. Cambridge-based Ubisense has about 40 customers around the world using the short-range radio technology, said David Theriault, standards and regulatory liaison for Ubisense. He said that UWB was driving novel ways to interact with computers. ""It's like having a 3D mouse all the time,"" he said. He said that European decisions on what to do with UWB allied with IEEE decisions on the exact specifications for it would help drive adoption. Prior to its adoption as a way for gadgets and computers to communicate, UWB was used as a sensing technology. It is used to spot such things as cracks under the surface of runways or to help firemen detect people through walls." +tech,"US duo in first spam conviction A brother and sister in the US have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to AOL subscribers. It is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors. Jurors in Virginia recommended that the man, Jeremy Jaynes, serve nine years in prison and that his sister, Jessica DeGroot, be fined $7,500. They were convicted under a state law that bars the sending of bulk e-mails using fake addresses. They will be formally sentenced next year. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted. Prosecutors said Jaynes was ""a snake oil salesman in a new format"", using the internet to peddle useless wares, news agency Associated Press reported. A ""Fed-Ex refund processor"" was supposed to allow people to earn $75 an hour working from home. Another item on sale was an ""internet history eraser"". His sister helped him process credit card payments. Jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales, prosecutors said. ""He's been successful ripping people off all these years,"" AP quoted prosecutor Russell McGuire as saying. Jaynes was also found guilty of breaking a state law which prohibits the sending of more than 100,000 e-mails in 30 days, Virginia State Attorney General Jerry Kilgore reportedly said. Prosecutors had asked for 15 years in jail for Jaynes, and a jail term for his sister. But Jaynes' lawyer David Oblon called the nine-year recommended term ""outrageous"" and said his client believed he was innocent. He pointed out that all three of the accused lived in North Carolina and were unaware of the Virginia state law. Spam messages are estimated to account for at least 60% of all e-mails sent." +tech,"Bad e-mail habits sustains spam The 'bad behaviour' of e-mail users is helping to sustain the spam industry, a new study has found. According to a survey conducted by security firm Mirapoint and market research company the Radicati Group, nearly a third of e-mail users have clicked on links in spam messages. One in ten users have bought products advertised in junk mail. Clicking on a link in a spam message can expose people to viruses and alert spammers to live e-mail accounts. The fact that one in ten e-mail users are buying things advertised in spam continues to make it an attractive business, especially given that sending out huge amounts of spam costs very little, the report concludes. ""This preliminary data is surprising and somewhat shocking to us,"" said Marcel Nienhuis, market analyst at the Radicati Group. ""It explains why e-mail security threats including spam, viruses and phishing scams continue to proliferate,"" he said, accusing users of ""bad e-mail behaviour"". Spammers are increasingly hooking into whatever happens to be flavour of the month, according to security firm Clearswift. It has recently seen a rise in the number of spam messages offering phoney Sony PSP giveaways. And, in perhaps a nod to the popularity of the American drama series Desperate Housewives, it has also seen a dramatic rise in junk mails purporting to give details of women looking for casual sex. But rather than finding a companion, users who click on such mail will find themselves redirected to porn sites, where they run the risk of downloading spyware on to their PC. Clearswift has seen a 180% rise in sex-related spam over the course of the last month. ""Without casting aspersions, those likely to respond to these kind of adverts will be invariably hoping that 'one thing leads to another' but aside from the fact that these mails are bogus, clicking on any link within a spam mail can lead to a whole host of unwanted problems,"" said Alyn Hockey, Clearswift's director of research. Sexually explicit terms make up 14% of security firm Sophos' top 50 word that spammers most commonly try to disguise in order to beat anti-spam filters. Spammers will deliberately misspell a word or use digits instead of letters in an attempt to by-pass anti-spam software, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security firm Sophos. ""The list of words most commonly hidden by the spammers from anti-spam software reveals that most spam is about the old favourites: money, drugs and sex,"" said Mr Cluley. But anti-spam filters can only be part of the solution to the menace of junk e-mail. ""People must resist their basic instincts to buy from spam mails. Spammers are criminals, plain and simple. If no-one responded to junk e-mail and didn't buy products sold in this way, then spam would be as extinct as the dinosaurs,"" he said." +tech,"How to make a gigapixel picture The largest digital panoramic photo in the world has been created by researchers in the Netherlands. The finished image is 2.5 billion pixels in size - making it about 500 times the resolution of images produced by good consumer digital cameras. The huge image of Delft was created by stitching together 600 single snaps of the Dutch city taken at a fixed spot. If printed out in standard 300 dots per inch resolution, the picture would be 2.5m high and 6m long. The researchers have put the image on a website which lets viewers explore the wealth of detail that it captures. Tools on the page let viewers zoom in on the city and its surroundings in great detail. The website is already proving popular and currently has more than 200,000 visitors every day. The image was created by imaging experts from the Dutch research and technology laboratory TNO which created the 2.5 gigapixel photo as a summer time challenge. The goal of the project was to be one of the first groups to make gigapixel images. The first image of such a size was manually constructed by US photographer Max Lyons in November 2003. That image portrayed Bryce Canyon National Park, in Utah, and was made up of 196 separate photographs. The panorama of Delft is a little staid in contrast to the dramatic rockscape captured in Mr Lyons' image. ""He did it all by hand, which was an enormous effort, and we got the idea that if you use automatic techniques, it would be feasible to build a larger image,"" said Jurgen den Hartog, one of the TNO researchers behind the project. ""We were not competing with Mr Lyons, but it started as a lunchtime bet."" The Dutch team used already available technologies, although it had to upgrade them to be able to handle the high-resolution image. ""We had to rewrite almost all the tools,"" Me den Hartog told the BBC News website. ""All standard Windows viewers available would not be able to load such a large image, so we had to develop one ourselves."" The 600 component pictures were taken on July 2004 by a computer-controlled camera with a 400 mm lens. Each image was made to slightly overlap so they could be accurately arranged into a composite. The stitching process was also done automatically using five powerful PCs over three days. Following the success of this project, and with promises of help from others, the TNO team is considering creating a full 360-degree panoramic view of another Dutch city, with even higher resolution." +tech,"Text message record smashed again UK mobile owners continue to break records with their text messaging, with latest figures showing that 26 billion texts were sent in total in 2004. The figures collected by the Mobile Data Association (MDA) showed that 2.4 billion were fired off in December alone, the highest monthly total ever. That was 26% more than in December 2003. The records even surpassed the MDA's own predictions, it said. Every day 78 million messages are sent and there are no signs of a slow down. Before December's bumper text record, the previous highest monthly total was in October 2004, when 2.3 billion were sent. Text messaging is set to smash more records in 2005 too, said the MDA, with forecasts suggesting a total of 30 billion for the year. Even though mobiles are becoming increasingly sophisticated with much more multimedia applications, texting is still one of the most useful functions of mobiles. People are using SMS to do much more too. Booking cinema tickets, text voting, and news or sports text alerts are growing popular. Mobile owners have also given the chance to donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee's (DEC) Asian Tsunami fund by texting ""Donate"" to a simple short code number. Looking further ahead in the year, the MDA's chairman Mike Short, has predicted that more people will go online through their mobiles, estimating 15 billion WAP page impressions. Handsets with GPRS capability - an ""always on"" net connection - will rise to 75%, while 3G mobile ownership growing to five million by the end of 2005. These third generation mobiles offer a high-speed connection which means more data like video can be received on the phone. Globally, mobile phone sales passed 167 million in the third quarter of 2004, according to a recent report from analysts Gartner. That was 26% more than the previous year. It is predicted that there would be two billion handsets in use worldwide by the end of 2005." +tech,"Norway upholds 'Napster' ruling A Norwegian student who ran a website which linked to downloadable MP3 files has been ordered to pay compensation by the country's Supreme Court. Frank Allan Bruvik was ordered to pay 100,000 kroner (£8,000) to the music industry in Norway. He was a student when he set up his napster.no site, which allowed users to submit and receive links to MP3 files. Bruvik had earlier been cleared on appeal after a lower court had found for the music industry. Music industry bosses in Norway said the ruling would help build confidence in the internet as a distribution medium. Frank Allan Bruvik set up the napster.no website as part of a school project in 2001 while studying computer engineering in the Norwegian town of Lillehammer. The website was not associated with the napster.com site in the USA, which had been operating since 1999 and was already facing legal action. Bruvik's site was online between August and November 2001, and while it did not host any music, at its peak it was providing links to more than 170 free files on other servers. As well as providing links, the site allowed those visiting it to submit links that could later be accessed by other visitors. A legal complaint for copyright violation was filed by groups including Norway's performing rights society, Tono, and the Norwegian branches of Sony Music and Universal Music, who saw it as an important test of principle. A Norwegian court ruled in 2003 that Bruvik would have to pay 100,000 kroner to the music industry, but the country's Court of Appeal cleared him, saying that the copyright violation occurred when others posted the music. However, the Supreme Court stated that the music was clearly published in violation of copyright law It added that the case was decided based on the responsibility for abetting an illegal act, and that Bruvik's actions were premeditated. Norway's music industry said it was satisfied with the ruling, because showed that music piracy would not be accepted. Meanwhile, in the USA a further 717 lawsuits against people alleged to have traded copyrighted songs were filed this week by the Recording Industry Association of America. The suits, brought on behalf of the major record companies, cite the individuals for illegally distributing music via unauthorized peer-to-peer services such as KaZaa and eDonkey. As with preceding cases, the fresh action was made against so-called ""John Doe"" defendants, who are identified only by the codes given to their computers' internet connections." +tech,"Apple laptop is 'greatest gadget' The Apple Powerbook 100 has been chosen as the greatest gadget of all time, by US magazine Mobile PC. The 1991 laptop was chosen because it was one of the first ""lightweight"" portable computers and helped define the layout of all future notebook PCs. The magazine has compiled an all-time top 100 list of gadgets, which includes the Sony Walkman at number three and the 1956 Zenith remote control at two. Gadgets needed moving parts and/or electronics to warrant inclusion. The magazine specified that gadgets also needed to be a ""self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own, not a subset of another device"". ""In general we included only items that were potentially mobile,"" said the magazine. ""In the end, we tried to get to the heart of what really makes a gadget a gadget,"" it concluded. The oldest ""gadget"" in the top 100 is the abacus, which the magazine dates at 190 A.D., and put in 60th place. Other pre-electronic gadgets in the top 100 include the sextant from 1731 (59th position), the marine chronometer from 1761 (42nd position) and the Kodak Brownie camera from 1900 (28th position). The Tivo personal video recorder is the newest device to make the top 10, which also includes the first flash mp3 player (Diamound Multimedia), as well as the first ""successful"" digital camera (Casio QV-10) and mobile phone (Motorola Startac). The most popular gadget of the moment, the Apple iPod, is at number 12 in the list while the first Sony transistor radio is at number 13. Sony's third entry in the top 20 is the CDP-101 CD player from 1983. ""Who can forget the crystalline, hiss-free blast of Madonna's Like A Virgin emenating from their first CD player?"" asked the magazine. Karl Elsener's knife, the Swiss Army Knife from 1891, is at number 20 in the list. Gadgets which could be said to feature surprisngly low down in the list include the original telephone (23rd), the Nintendo GameBoy (25th), and the Pulsar quartz digital watch (36th). The list also contains plenty of oddities: the Pez sweet dispenser (98th), 1980s toy Tamagotchi (86th) and the bizarre Ronco inside the shell egg scrambler (84th). Why worry about mobile phones. Soon they will be subsumed into the PDA's / laptops etc. What about the Marine Chronometer? Completely revolutionised navigation for boats and was in use for centuries. For it's time, a technological marvel! Sony Net Minidisc! It paved the way for more mp3 player to explode onto the market. I always used my NetMD, and could not go anywhere without it. A laptop computer is not a gadget! It's a working tool! The Sinclair Executive was the world's first pocket calculator. I think this should be there as well. How about the clockwork radio? Or GPS? Or a pocket calculator? All these things are useful to real people, not just PC magazine editors. Are the people who created this list insane ? Surely the most important gadget of the modern age is the mobile phone? It has revolutionalised communication, which is more than can be said for a niche market laptop. From outside the modern age, the marine chronometer is the single most important gadget, without which modern transportation systems would not have evolved so quickly. Has everyone forgot about the Breville pie maker?? An interesting list. Of the electronic gadgets, thousands of journalists in the early 1980s blessed the original noteboook pc - the Tandy 100. The size of A4 paper and light, three weeks on a set of batteries, an excellent keyboard, a modem. A pity Tandy did not make it DOS compatible. What's an Apple Powerbook 100 ? It's out of date - not much of a ""gadget"". Surely it has to be something simple / timeless - the tin opener, Swiss Army Knife, safety razor blade, wristwatch or the thing for taking stones out of horses hooves ? It has to be the mobile phone. No other single device has had such an effect on our way of living in such a short space of time. The ball point pen has got to be one of the most used and common gadgets ever. Also many might be grateful for the pocket calculator which was a great improvement over the slide rule. The Casio pocket calculator that played a simple game and made tinny noises was also a hot gadget in 1980. A true gadget, it could be carried around and shown off. All top 10 are electronic toys, so the list is probably a better reflection of the current high-tech obsession than anyhting else. I say this as the Swiss Army Knife only made No 20. Sinclair QL a machine far ahead of its time. The first home machine with a true multi-takings OS. Shame the marketing was so bad!!! Apple.. a triumph of fashion over... well everything else. Utter rubbish. Yes, the Apple laptop and Sony Walkman are classic gadgets. But to call the sextant and the marine chronometer 'gadgets' and rank them as less important than a TV remote control reveals a quite shocking lack of historical perspective. The former literally helped change the world by vastly improving navigation at see. The latter is the seed around which the couch potato culture has developed. No competition. I'd also put Apple's Newton and the first Palm Pilot there as the front runners for portable computing, and possibly the Toshiba Libretto for the same reason. I only wish that Vulcan Inc's Flipstart wasn't just vapourware otherwise it would be at the top. How did a laptop ever manage to beat off the challenge of the wristwatch or the telephone (mobile or otherwise)? What about radios and TVs? The swiss army knife. By far the most useful gadget. I got mine 12 years ago. Still wearing and using it a lot! It stood the test of time. Psion Organiser series 3, should be up there. Had a usable qwerty keyboard, removable storage, good set of apps and programmable. Case design was good (batteries in the hinge - a first, I think). Great product innovation. The first mobile PC was voted best gadget by readers of...err... mobile PC?! Why do you keep putting these obviously biased lists on your site? It's obviously the mobile phone or remote control, and readers of a less partisan publication would tell you that. The Motorola Startac should be Number One. Why? There will be mobile phones long after notebook computers and other gadgets are either gone or integrated in communications devices. The Psion series 3c! The first most practical way to carry all your info around... I too would back the Sinclair Spectrum - without this little beauty I would never have moved into the world of IT and earn the living that I do now. I'd have put the mobile phone high up the list. Probably a Nokia model. Sinclair Spectrum - 16k. It plugged into the tv. Games were rubbish but it gave me a taste for programming and that's what I do for a living now. I wish more modern notebooks -- even Apple's newest offerings -- were more like the PB100. Particularly disheartening is the demise of the trackball, which has given way to the largely useless ""trackpad"" which every notebook on the market today uses. They're invariably inaccurate, uncomfortable, and cumbersome to use. Congratulations to Apple, a deserved win!" +tech,"Apple sues 'Tiger' file sharers Apple has taken more legal action to stop online leaks of its new products. The computer giant has sued three men for releasing preview versions of its latest Mac OSX software onto file-sharing sites prior to its release. It said two versions of the operating system, codenamed Tiger, were put onto the net in October and December. It is the second time in two weeks Apple has taken legal action to protect its future products. Tiger is due to be shipped in early 2005. Last week, it filed a lawsuit against ""unnamed individuals"" who leaked details about new products onto the web. The latest action was against members of the Apple Developer Connection, a group of programmers which gets to see test versions of upcoming software so they can develop or change their own programs to work with them. ""Members of Apple Developer Connection receive advance copies of Apple software under strict confidentiality agreements, which we take very seriously to protect our intellectual property,"" Apple said in a statement. It added that its future financial results were very much dependent on developing and improving its operating systems and other software. It is thought the men used sites which employ BitTorrent technology. With BitTorrent technology, sites do not host actual files being shared, instead they host a link that points people to others that have the particular file. Last week, the Motion Picture Association of America launched a legal campaign targeting websites that operate using the BitTorrent system in an effort to clamp down on movie piracy. Apple is no stranger to taking legal action against those who leak product information. In December 2002, it sued a former contractor who allegedly put drawings, images and engineering details of its PowerMac G4 computer online. The latest action was filed on Monday in the US District Court in California. It comes just weeks before the MacWorld conference in San Francisco, used to showcase new products." +tech,"The pirates with no profit motive Two men who were part of a huge network of internet software pirates, known as Drink Or Die, have been convicted at the Old Bailey. BBC News investigates how the network worked and what motivated those involved. They called themselves Drink Or Die (DOD). They were a network of computer buffs who derived pleasure from cracking codes protecting copyrighted software such as Windows 95. They would then share it with each other. There is no suggestion any of them profited financially. But the authorities in both Britain and the United States considered it software piracy and took a dim view of networks such as DOD, one of a number of so-called warez organisations operating on the internet. In October 2000 the US Customs Service began an investigation into DOD and other networks, such as Razor 1911, Risciso, Myth and Popz. Fourteen months later US Customs co-ordinated a series of raids across the globe as part of Operation Buccaneer. Seventy search warrants were executed in the US, Britain, Australia, Norway, Sweden and Finland. At least 60 people were arrested worldwide - 45 of them in the US. Among the leaders of the network were Americans John Sankus - known by his internet nickname Eriflleh (Hellfire spelt backwards) - Richard Berry, Kent Kartadinata and Christopher Tresco, who used a server based at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The longest jail sentence - 46 months - was handed down to Sankus, a 28-year-old from Philadelphia. US Attorney Paul McNulty said at the time: ""John Sankus and his techno-gang operated in the faceless world of the internet and thought they would never be caught. ""They were wrong. These sentences, and those to follow, should send a message to others entertaining similar beliefs of invincibility."" But one man still in legal limbo is British-born Australian Hew Raymond Griffiths, who is still fighting against extradition to the US. US Customs claimed Mr Griffiths was one of DOD's leaders but his lawyer, Antony Townsden, told the BBC News website it was a laughable suggestion and added: ""He was living on welfare and had such an old computer that he couldn't even download software. ""The allegation that he was the group's co-leader is illusory. He had the least technical skills of anyone, he couldn't crack any codes and he has only been called a leader because he was a loudmouth who wrote a lot on their messageboard."" Mr Townsden said if he had committed any crimes he should be prosecuted in Australia, not the US. He claimed the Australian government's decision to accept the extradition request was typical of their current ""acquiescent"" attitude to the US. Mr Griffiths is expecting to hear this week the outcome of his appeal against the decision to extradite him. Those involved would give themselves internet aliases which would act in the same way as tags used by graffiti artists. They could then brag about their code-cracking abilities without giving away their real identities. Alex Bell, whose trial at the Old Bailey ended on Friday, was known as Mr 2940 - after a computer device - while his co-defendant Steven Dowd's nickname, curiously, was Tim. A spokesman for US Immigration, Customs and Enforcement, Dean Boyd, said DOD did not appear to be motivated by money. Their motivation was the kudos which surrounded being able to crack sophisticated software. He told the BBC News website: ""Primarily they were just interested in how fast they could crack the code. It was all about underground notoriety."" But Mr Boyd pointed out that once the software had been distributed on the internet it fell into the hands of organised criminals who were able to mass produce pirated software at zero cost. ""It cost US industries a lot of money, billions of dollars,"" he said. Mr Boyd said: ""It was truly global in scope. We raided a number of universities, including Duke (in North Carolina) and MIT, and found that several of the people involved were employed by major computer corporations. ""They would go home from work in the evenings and get involved in this warez culture."" Warez groups, which began to surface in the early 1990s, operate according to a strict code of honour. For example if one group cracked the software first its rivals would respect that achievement and not seek to claim it themselves. Mr Boyd said the destruction of DOD was a great coup but he added: ""I'm not going to sit here and say we have sorted the problem. There are still hackers and people who do this for fun. ""Internet piracy of computer software remains a gigantic problem."" A spokesman for the Business Software Alliance said: ""DOD members claim they did not profit at all. But they did profit by getting access to very expensive servers."" He said DOD and other warez groups were fostering a ""culture of piracy"" on the internet. He said 29% of computer software in Britain was believed to have been pirated and this cost £1bn in revenue for software companies, their suppliers and distributors. ""It may seem like a victimless crime but it touches more people than you might care to believe.""" +tech,"Fast moving phone bugs appear Security firms are warning about several mobile phone viruses that can spread much faster than similar bugs. The new strains of the Cabir mobile phone virus use short-range radio technology to leap to any vulnerable phone as soon as it is in range. The Cabir virus only affects high-end handsets running the Symbian Series 60 phone operating system. Despite the warnings, there are so far no reports of any phones being infected by the new variants of Cabir. The original Cabir worm came to light in mid-June 2004 when it was sent to anti-virus firms as a proof-of-concept program. A mistake in the way the original Cabir was written meant that even if it escaped from the laboratory, the bug would only have been able to infect one phone at a time. However, the new Cabir strains have this mistake corrected and will spread via short range Bluetooth technology to any vulnerable phone in range. Bluetooth has an effective range of a few tens of metres. The risk of being infected by Cabir is low because users must give the malicious program permission to download on to their handset and then must manually install it. Users can protect themselves by altering a setting on Symbian phones that conceals the handset from other Bluetooth using devices. Finnish security firm F-Secure issued a warning about the new strains of Cabir but said that the viruses do not do any damage to a phone. All they do is block normal Bluetooth activity and drain the phone's battery. Anti-virus firm Sophos said the source code for Cabir had been posted on the net by a Brazilian programmer which might lead to even more variants of the program being created. So far seven versions of Cabir are know to exist, one of which was inside the malicious Skulls program that was found in late November. Symbian's Series 60 software is licenced by Nokia, LG Electronics, Lenovo, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo and Siemens." +tech,"File-swappers ready new network Legal attacks on websites that help people swap pirated films have forced the development of a system that could be harder to shut down. One site behind the success of the BitTorrent file-swapping system is producing its own software that avoids the pitfalls of the earlier program. A test version of the new Exeem program will be released in late January. But doubts remain about the new networks ability to ensure files being swapped are ""quality copies"". In late December movie studios launched a legal campaign against websites that helped people swap pirated movies using the BitTorrent network. The legal campaign worked because of the way that BitTorrent is organised. That file-sharing system relies on links called ""trackers"" that point users to others happy to share the file they are looking for. Shutting down sites that listed trackers crippled the BitTorrent network. One of the sites shut down by the legal campaign was suprnova.org which helped boost the popularity of the BitTorrent system by checking that trackers led to the movies or TV programmes they claimed to. Now the man behind suprnova.org, who goes by the nickname Sloncek, is preparing to release software for a new file-swapping network dubbed Exeem. In an interview with Novastream web radio, Sloncek said Exeem would combine ideas from the BitTorrent and Kazaa file-sharing systems. Like BitTorrent, Exeem will have trackers that help point people toward the file they want. Like Kazaa these trackers will be held by everyone. There will be no centrally maintained list. This, said Sloncek, should make the system less vulnerable to legal action aimed at stopping people swapping pirated movies and music. The Exeem software has been under development for a few months and is currently being tested by a closed group of users. An early public version of the software should be available before February. Sloncek said that currently only a Windows version of the software was in development. There were no plans for a Linux or Mac version. He said that costs of writing the software will be paid for by adverts appearing in the finished version of the program. Despite Suprnova administrator Sloncek's involvement with Exeem, the basic technology appears to have been developed by a firm called Swarm Systems that is based on Caribbean island Saint Kitts and Nevis. Users of the Exeem system will be able to rate files being swapped to help stop the spread of fake files, Sloncek told Novastream. Dr Johan Pouwelse, a researcher at the Delft University of Technology who studies peer-to-peer networks, said Exeem was the next evolution in file-sharing systems. But, he said, it would struggle to be as popular as BitTorrent and Suprnova because early versions were not taking enough care to make sure good copies of files were being shared. ""Exeem cannot prevent pollution,"" he said. ""The rating system in Exeem seems flawed because it is easy to insert both fake files and fake ratings,"" he said. Studies have shown that organisations working for record labels and movie studios have worked to undermine Kazaa by putting in fakes. By contrast moderators on Suprnova made sure files being shared were high quality. ""The moderators are the difference between having a system that works and one that's full of crap like Kazaa,"" he said. ""There is a fundamental tension between distribution and integrity,"" he said. Mr Pouwelse said that future versions of file-sharing systems are likely to incorporate some kind of distributed reputation system that lets moderators prove who they are to the network and rate which files are worth downloading. When big files were being shared moderation systems were key, said Mr Pouwelse. He added that the legal attacks on BitTorrent had driven people away from sites such as Suprnova but many users had simply migrated to other tracker listing sites many of which have seen huge increases in traffic. ""It's hard to compete with free,"" he said. No-one from the Motion Picture Association of America was immediately available for comment on the file-sharing development." +tech,"Slim PlayStation triples sales Sony PlayStation 2's slimmer shape has proved popular with UK gamers, with 50,000 sold in its first week on sale. Sales have tripled since launch, outstripping Microsoft's Xbox, said market analysts Chart-Track. The numbers were also boosted by the release of the PS2-only game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The title broke the UK sales record for video games in its first weekend of release. Latest figures suggest it has sold more than 677,000 copies. ""It is obviously very, very encouraging for Sony because Microsoft briefly outsold them last week,"" John Houlihan, editor of Computerandvideogames.com told BBC News. ""And with Halo 2 [for Xbox] out next week, it really is a head-to-head contest between them and Xbox."" Although Xbox sales over the last week also climbed, PS2 sales were more than double that. The figures mean Sony is reaching the seven million barrier for UK sales of the console. Edinburgh-based developer, Rockstar, which is behind the GTA titles, has seen San Andreas pull in an estimated £24m in gross revenues over the weekend. In comparison, blockbuster films like Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban took £11.5m in its first three days at the UK box office. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took nearly £10m over its opening weekend, although games titles are four to five times more expensive than cinema tickets. Gangster-themed GTA San Andreas is the sequel to Grand Theft Auto Vice City which previously held the record for the fastest-selling video game ever. The Xbox game Halo 2, released on 11 November in the UK, is also widely tipped to be one of the best-selling games of the year. The original title won universal acclaim in 2001, and sold more than four million copies. Mr Houlihan added that Sony had done well with the PS2, but it definitely helped that the release of San Andreas coincided with the slimline PS2 hitting the shelves. The run-up to Christmas is a huge battlefield for games consoles and titles. Microsoft's Xbox had been winning the race up until last week in sales. The sales figures also suggest that it may be a largely adult audience driving demand, since GTA San Andreas has an 18 certificate. Sony and Microsoft have both reduced console prices recently and are preparing the way for the launches of their next generation consoles in 2005. ""Both have hit crucial price points at around £100 and that really does open up new consoles to new audience, plus the release of two really important games in terms of development are also driving those sales,"" said Mr Houlihan." +tech,"Gamer buys $26,500 virtual land A 22-year-old gamer has spent $26,500 (£13,700) on an island that exists only in a computer role-playing game (RPG). The Australian gamer, known only by his gaming moniker Deathifier, bought the island in an online auction. The land exists within the game Project Entropia, an RPG which allows thousands of players to interact with each other. Entropia allows gamers to buy and sell virtual items using real cash, while fans of other titles often use auction site eBay to sell their virtual wares. Earlier this year economists calculated that these massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have a gross economic impact equivalent to the GDP of the African nation of Namibia. ""This is a historic moment in gaming history, and this sale only goes to prove that massive multi-player online gaming has reached a new plateau,"" said Marco Behrmann, director of community relations at Mindark, the game's developer. The virtual island includes a gigantic abandoned castle and beautiful beaches which are described as ripe for developing beachfront property. Deathifier will make money from his investment as he is able to tax other gamers who come to his virtual land to hunt or mine for gold. He has also begun to sell plots to people who wish to build virtual homes. ""This type of investment will definitely become a trend in online gaming,"" said Deathifier. The Entopia economy lets gamers exchange real currency into PED (Project Entropia Dollars) and back again into real money. Ten PEDs are the equivalent to one US dollar and typical items sold include iron ingots ($5) and shogun armour ($1.70) Gamers can theoretically earn money by accumulating PEDs through the acquisition of goods, buildings, and land in the Entropia universe. MMORPGs have become enormously popular in the last 10 years with hundreds of thousands of gamers living out alternate lives in fantasy worlds. Almost 200,000 people are registered players on Project Entropia." +tech,"Nuclear body seeks new tech The computer systems used to monitor the world's nuclear power installations are so outdated that they are hampering the work of inspectors. A spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its current technology could allow key information to be overlooked as it was more than 20 years old. Such systems are the only method of tracking nuclear material worldwide. The agency has appealed for more funds to update its hardware and software. ""A major overhaul of the system is needed to allow inspectors immediate, secure online access to information,"" said project manager Livio Costantini. IAEA inspectors make around 3,000 visits a year to more than 900 nuclear facilities worldwide. They are there to verify official reports of activities in the plants, to carry out environmental checks, and also to look for any signs that nuclear material is being smuggled in or out of the facility. The computer system inspectors currently use for comparing data from earlier visits, for instance, was built in the 1970s and largely paper based. An IAEA spokesman said this was extremely inefficient and makes searching for anomalies like searching for a needle in a haystack. The organisation is aiming to start a system upgrade in November, aiming to provide inspectors in the field with secure online access to previous inspection data, design blueprints of nuclear facilities, even satellite images of the plant. Where possible, it hopes to link the system with national records of the import and export of nuclear materials. Further analysis of these could help spot potential smuggling activities or illicit technology transfers between countries, according to a spokesman. Computer specialist at the IAEA, Peter Smith, would like to be able to incorporate state of the art visualisation techniques, more familiar to video games players, into the inspector's toolkit. ""The commercials you now see have people are moving around in a virtual world,"" he said. ""If we could have that on our laptops, we could be walking through the plant seeing, on the laptop, how the plant should look. ""And if there's a door in the wall that is not on our laptop, then we have a problem."" The IAEA estimates the total cost of the four-year project to upgrade its technology will be $40m. So far it has only received $11m from the US and the UK. ""Failure to replace the hardware and software, and to integrate fully all the information system components will carry large risks,"" said an agency statement." +tech,"Attack prompts Bush site block The official re-election site of President George W Bush is blocking visits from overseas users for ""security reasons"". The blocking began early on Monday so those outside the US and trying to view the site got a message saying they are not authorised to view it. But keen net users have shown that the policy is not being very effective. Many have found that the site can still be viewed by overseas browsers via several alternative net addresses. The policy of trying to stop overseas visitors viewing the site is thought to have been adopted in response to an attack on the georgewbush.com website. Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign said: ""The measure was taken for security reasons."" He declined to elaborate any further on the blocking policy. The barring of non-US visitors has led to the campaign being inundated with calls and forced it to make a statement about why the blocking was taking place. In early October a so-called ""denial of service"" attack was mounted on the site that bombarded it with data from thousands of PCs. The attack made the site unusable for about five hours. About the same time the web team of the Bush-Cheney campaign started using the services of a company called Akamai that helps websites deal with the ebbs and flows of visitor traffic. Akamai uses a web-based tool called EdgeScape that lets its customers work out where visitors are based. Typically this tool is used to ensure that webpages, video and images load quickly but it can also be used to block traffic. Geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis. Readers of the Boingboing weblog have found that viewers can still get at the site by using alternative forms of the George W Bush domain name. Ironically one of the working alternatives is for a supposedly more secure version of the site. There are now at least three working alternative domains for the Bush-Cheney campaign that let web users outside the US visit the site. The site can also be seen using anonymous proxy services that are based in the US. Some web users in Canada also report that they can browse the site. The international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by net monitoring firm Netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns across many different sites. Netcraft said that since the early hours of 25 October attempts to view the site through its monitoring stations in London, Amsterdam and Sydney have failed. By contrast Netcraft's four monitoring stations in the US managed to view the site with no problems. Data gathered by Netcraft on the pattern of traffic to the site shows that the blocking is not the result of another denial of service attack. Mike Prettejohn, Netcraft president, speculated that the blocking decision might have been taken to cut costs, and traffic, in the run-up to the election on 2 November. He said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next week. Managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays working in the closing days of the election campaign. However, simply blocking non-US visitors also means that Americans overseas are barred too. Most American soldiers stationed overseas will be able to see the site as they use the US military's own portion of the net. Akamai declined to comment, saying it could not talk about customer websites." +tech,"Mobiles 'not media players yet' Mobiles are not yet ready to be all-singing, all-dancing multimedia devices which will replace portable media players, say two reports. Despite moves to bring music download services to mobiles, people do not want to trade multimedia services with size and battery life, said Jupiter. A separate study by Gartner has also said real-time TV broadcasts to mobiles is ""unlikely"" in Europe until 2007. Technical issues and standards must be resolved first, said the report. Batteries already have to cope with other services that operators offer, like video playback, video messaging, megapixel cameras and games amongst others. Bringing music download services based on the success of computer-based download services will put more demands on battery life. Fifty percent of Europeans said the size of a mobile was the most important factor when it came to choosing their phone, but more power demands tend to mean larger handsets. ""Mobile phone music services must not be positioned to compete with the PC music experience as the handsets are not yet ready,"" said Thomas Husson, mobile analyst at Jupiter research. ""Mobile music services should be new and different, and enable operators to differentiate their brands and support third generation network launches."" Other problems facing mobile music include limited storage on phones, compared to portable players which can hold up to 40GB of music. The mobile industry is keen to get into music downloading, after the success of Apple's iTunes, Napster and other net music download services. With phones getting smarter and more powerful, there are also demands to be able to watch TV on the move. In the US, services like TiVo To Go let people transfer pre-recorded TV content onto their phones. But, the Gartner report on mobile TV broadcasting in Europe suggests direct broadcasting will have to wait. Currently, TV-like services, where clips are downloaded, are offered by several European operators, like Italy's TIM and 3. Mobile TV will have to overcome several barriers before it is widely taken up though, said the report. Various standards and ways of getting TV signals to mobiles are being worked on globally. In Europe, trials in Berlin and Helsinki are making use of terrestrial TV masts to broadcast compressed signals to handsets with extra receivers. A service from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation lets people watch TV programmes on their mobiles 24 hours a day. The service uses 3GP technology, one of the standards for mobile TV. But at the end of 2004, the European Telecommunications Institute (Etsi) formally adopted Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H) as the mobile TV broadcasting standard for Europe. Operators will be working on the standard as a way to bring real-time broadcasts to mobiles, as well as trying to overcome several other barriers. The cost and infrastructure needs to set up the services will need to be addressed. Handsets also need to be able to work with the DVB-H standard. TV services will have to live up to the expectations of the digital TV generation too, which expects good quality images at low prices, according to analysts. People are also likely to be put off watching TV on such small screens, said Gartner. Digital video recorders, like Europe's Sky+ box, and video-on-demand services mean people have much more control over what TV they watch. As a result, people may see broadcasting straight to mobiles as taking away that control. More powerful smartphones like the XDA II, Nokia 6600, SonyEricsson P900 and the Orange E200, offering web access, text and multimedia messaging, e-mail, calendar and gaming are becoming increasingly common. A report by analysts InStat/MDR has predicted that smartphone shipments will grow by 44% over the next five years. It says that smartphones will make up 117 million out of 833 million handsets shipped globally by 2009." +tech,"Gadget growth fuels eco concerns Technology firms and gadget lovers are being urged to think more about the environment when buying and disposing of the latest hi-tech products. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, several hi-tech firms were recognised for their strategies to help the environment. Ebay also announced the Rethink project bringing together Intel, Apple, and IBM among others to promote recycling. The US consumer electronics market is set to grow by over 11% in 2005. But more awareness is needed about how and where old gadgets can be recycled as well as how to be more energy efficient, said the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Of particular growing concern is how much energy it takes to recharge portable devices, one of the fastest growing markets in technology. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has predicted that shipments of consumer technologies in 2005 will reach more than $125.73 billion (nearly £68 billion). Ebay's initiative pulls together major technology firms, environment groups, government agencies and eBay users to give information about what to do with old computers and where to send them. The online auction house thinks that its already-established community of loyal users could be influential. ""We really became aware of the e-waste issue and we saw that our 125 million users can be a powerful force for good,"" eBay's David Stern told the BBC News website. ""We saw the opportunity to meet the additional demand we have on the site for used computers and saw the opportunity too to good some good for the environment."" But it is not just computers that cause a problem for the environment. Teenagers get a new mobile every 11 months, adults every 18 months and a 15 million handsets are replaced in total each year. Yet, only 15% are actually recycled. This year, a predicted two billion people worldwide will own a mobile, according to a Deloitte report. Schemes in the US, like RIPMobile, could help in targeting younger generations with recycling messages. The initiative, which was also launched at CES, rewards 10 to 28-year-olds for returning unused phones. ""This system allows for the transformation of a drawer full of unused mobile phones into anything from music to clothes to electronics or games,"" said Seth Heine from RIPMobile. One group of students collected 1,000 mobiles for recycling in just three months. Mr Heine told the BBC News website that what was important was to raise awareness amongst the young so that recycling becomes ""learned behaviour"". Europe is undoubtedly more advanced than the US in terms of recycling awareness and robust ""end of life"" programmes, although there is a tide change happening in the rest of the world too. Intel showcased some its motherboards and chips at CES which are entirely lead free. ""There is more and more awareness on the consumer side, but the whole industry is moving towards being lead free,"" Intel's Allen Wilson told the BBC News website. ""There is still low-level awareness right now, but it is on the rise - the highest level of awareness is in Europe."" A European Union (EU) directive, WEEE (Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment), comes into effect in August. It puts the responsibility on electrical manufacturers to recycle items that are returned to them. But developments are also being made to design better technologies which are more energy efficient and which do not contain harmful substances. Elements like chromium, lead, and cadmium - common in consumer electronics goods - will be prohibited in all products in the EU by 2006. But it is not just about recycling either. The predicted huge growth in the gadget market means the amount of energy used to power them up is on the rise too. The biggest culprit, according to the EPA, is the innocuous power adaptor, nicknamed ""energy vampires"". They provide vital juice for billions of mobile phones, PDAs (personal digital assistants), digital cameras, camcorders, and digital music players. Although there is a focus on developing efficient and improved circuits in the devices themselves, the technologies inside rechargers are still outdated and so eat up more energy than is needed to power a gadget. On 1 January, new efficiency standards for external power supplies came into effect as part of the European Commission Code of Conduct. But at CES, the EPA also unveiled new guidelines for its latest Energy Star initiative which targets external power adapters. These map out the framework for developing better adaptors that can be labelled with an Energy Star logo, meaning they are about 35% more efficient. The initiative is a global effort and more manufacturers' adaptors are being brought on board. Most are made in China. About two billion are shipped global every year, and about three billion are in use in the US alone. The EPA is already working with several companies which make more than 22% of power supplies on the market. ""We are increasingly finding companies that not only want to provide neat, hi-tech devices, but also bundle with it a hi-tech, efficient power supply,"" the EPA's Andrew Fanara said. Initiatives like this are critical; if power adaptors continue to be made and used as they are now, consumer electronics and other small appliances will be responsible for more than 40% of electricity used in US homes, said the EPA." +tech,"Millions buy MP3 players in US One in 10 adult Americans - equivalent to 22 million people - owns an MP3 player, according to a survey. A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that MP3 players are the gadget of choice among affluent young Americans. The survey did not interview teenagers but it is likely that millions of under-18s also have MP3 players. The American love affair with digital music players has been made possible as more and more homes get broadband. Of the 22 million Americans who own MP3 players, 59% are men compared to 41% of women. Those on high income - judged to be $75,000 (£39,000) or above - are four times more likely to have players than those earning less than $30, 000 ( £15,000). Broadband access plays a big part in ownership too. Almost a quarter of those with broadband at home have players, compared to 9% of those who have dial-up access. MP3 players are still the gadget of choice for younger adults. Almost one in five US citizens aged under 30 have one. This compares to 14% of those aged 30-39 and 14% of those aged 40-48. The influence of children also plays a part. Sixteen percent of parents living with children under 18 have digital players compared to 9% of those who don't. The ease of use and growth of music available on the net are the main factors for the upsurge in ownership, the survey found. People are beginning to use them as instruments of social activity - sharing songs and taking part in podcasting - the survey found. ""IPods and MP3 players are becoming a mainstream technology for consumers"" said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. ""More growth in the market is inevitable as new devices become available, as new players enter the market, and as new social uses for iPods/MP3 players become popular,"" he added." +tech,"France starts digital terrestrial France has become the last big European country to launch a digital terrestrial TV (DTT) service. Initially, more than a third of the population will be able to receive 14 free-to-air channels. Despite the long wait for a French DTT roll-out, the new platform's backers hope to emulate the success of its UK free-to-air counterpart, Freeview. Recent figures from the UK's regulator Ofcom showed Freeview was more popular than the Sky digital satellite service. In the three months to September 2004, almost five times as many people signed up to the UK's free-to-air DTT service compared with Sky. Almost 60% of UK households have gone digital on at least one television set through cable, satellite or Freeview. The French DTT platform is known as TNT, which stands for TV numerique terrestre or digital terrestrial television. But it is being branded as Television Numerique pour Tous, or ""digital television for all"". TNT is a joint venture between public broadcaster France Televisions and a handful of cable and satellite operators. Digital terrestrial TV will launch as a free-to-air platform to start with, adding pay-TV channels later. Thirty-five contenders have bid for an additional eight frequencies on top of the 14 already allocated. ""A couple of years ago, DTT had a bad image,"" said Olivier Gerolami, chief operating officer of TNT. ""But everyone's impressed with DTT in the UK, Italy and Germany, and they realise it is a very good idea. ""France is the poorest market in Europe in terms of free-to-air national channels, so it has the potential to be one of the biggest DTT markets,"" Mr Gerolami added in remarks quoted by the US entertainment industry paper Variety. TNT aims to reach 35% of France's population at launch, from 17 transmission sites. The transmission area will initially include Paris, Lille, Lyon and Toulouse. Eventually there will be 115 sites reaching over 80% of homes. Digital terrestrial set-top boxes are available from as little as 70 euros (£50). A recent survey by Mediametrie found that 70% of people interviewed were aware of DTT, and 25% were planning to buy a digital receiver. Consumer electronics companies such as Nokia, Sagem, Sony and Thomson are gearing up for production. The Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA), the French broadcasting regulator, said: ""Following the recent success of Freeview in the UK, some manufacturers are optimistic about sales prospects"". Media analysts believe that initially the majority of viewers will buy inexpensive set-top boxes that are unable to support interactive services. The CSA said the current aim of reaching 85% of the population by 2007 was achievable, but the future of the remaining TV viewers required action by the public sector. For the most part, they are people living in mountainous or border areas, which will remain beyond the reach of digital terrestrial TV for years. Up to 15 pay-TV channels will launch on DTT between September 2005 and March 2006. Leading pay-TV operators Canal Plus and TPS have submitted bids to market bouquets of channels. Free-to-air services will be broadcast in MPEG-2 format. But pay-TV operators will be allowed to broadcast in MPEG-4 - a much better compression technology - which will potentially allow for high-definition (HD) subscription services in the future. TNT expects between 700,000 and one million DTT set-top boxes to be sold in 2005. ""It is difficult to tell how quickly it will take off,"" said Mr Gerolami, ""but we're optimistic that it will revolutionise television in France."" Other analysts were less optimistic, predicting consumers would now be less likely to sign up for pay-TV subscriptions. ""We think free DTT could put brakes on the underlying growth of pay-TV in France,"" said Henri de Bodinat, vice-president of the Arthur D. Little consultancy." +tech,"Gritty return for Prince of Persia Still basking in the relatively recent glory of last year's Sands Of Time, the dashing Prince of Persia is back in Warrior Within, and in a more bellicose mood than last time. This sequel gives the franchise a grim, gritty new look and ramps up the action and violence. As before, you control the super-athletic prince from a third-person perspective. The time-travelling plot hinges on the Dahaka, an all-consuming monster pursuing our hero through the ages. The only way to dispel it is to turn back the clock again and kill the sultry Empress Of Time before she ever creates the Sands of Time that caused the great beast's creation. Studiously structured though this back story is, everything boils down to old-fashioned fantasy gameplay which proves, on the whole, as dependable as it needs to be. Ever since the series' then-groundbreaking beginnings on the Commodore Amiga, Prince of Persia has always been about meticulously-animated acrobatic moves, that provide an energetic blend of leaping preposterously between pieces of scenery and lopping off enemies' body parts. Those flashy moves are back in full evidence, and tremendous fun to perform and perfect. Combining them at speed is the best fun, although getting a handle of doing so takes practice and plenty of skill. Until you reach that point, it is a haphazard business. All too often, you will perform a stunning triple somersault, pirouette off a wall, knock out three enemies in one glorious swoop, before plummeting purposefully over a cliff to your doom. That in turn can mean getting set back an annoyingly long distance, for you can only save at the fountains dotted along the path. The expected fiendish puzzles are all present and correct, but combat is what is really been stepped up, and there is more of it than before. The game's developers have combined acrobatic flair with gruesome slaying techniques in some wonderfully imaginative ways. Slicing foes down the middle is one particularly entertaining method of seeing them off. Warrior Within is a very slick package; the game's intro movie is so phenomenally good that it actually does an ultimate disservice once the game itself commences. It is on a par with the jaw-dropping opening sequence of Onimusha 3 earlier this year, and when the game begins, it is something of an anti-climax. That said, the graphics are excellent, and indeed among the most striking and satisfying elements of the game. The music is probably the worst aspect - a merit-free heavy metal soundtrack that you will swiftly want to turn off. There is something strangely unsatisfying about the game. Perhaps precisely because its graphics and mechanics are so good that the story and overall experience are not quite as engaging as they should be. Somehow it adds up to less than the sum of its parts, and is more technically impressive than it is outright enjoyable. But that is not to say Warrior Within is anything other than a superb adventure that most will thoroughly enjoy. It just does not quite take the character to the new heights that might have been hoped for." +tech,"Row brewing over peer-to-peer ads Music download networks are proving popular not just with an audience of youngsters keen to take advantage of free music but with advertisers equally keen to reach out to a captive audience. The debate over the legitimacy of file-sharing networks rages on as the music industry continues its threats to close the services down for good. Meanwhile the millions of downloaders are proving both an advertiser's dream come true and a branding nightmare. Paul Myers, chief executive of Wippit - a peer to peer service which provides paid-for music downloads - believes it is time advertisers stopped providing 'oxygen' for companies that support illegal downloading. ""You may be surprised to know that current advertisers on the most popular peer to peer service eDonkey who now steadfastly support copyright theft with real cash money include Nat West, Vodafone, O2, First Direct, NTL, and Renault,"" he said in an open letter to the British Phonographic Industry last month. He urged people to follow his lead and 'dump' brands associated with companies such as eDonkey. The BPI is equally quick to condemn established brands becoming bedfellows with peer to peer networks. 'Networks like eDonkey, Kazaa and Grokster facilitate illegal filesharing. The BPI strongly believes that any reputable company should look carefully at the support they are giving these networks through their advertising revenue,"" it said in a statement. ""Illegal file-sharers steal millions of pounds worth of music through these services. We are sure that the companies advertising on them would not put up with theft on such a scale from their own businesses,"" it said. But the issue is often more complicated for advertisers, said Mark Mulligan, a music analyst with Jupiter Research. ""This has been a problem for a long time, ever since the days of Napster,"" he told the BBC News website. The reality is that the millions of downloaders represent a very attractive audience. ""Advertisers probably pay a lot less for putting ads here than on more respected sites and they are reaching the perfect target audience,"" he said. ""If you put the legality issues aside, not to advertise here would mean missing out on a valuable audience,"" he added. Meanwhile companies contacted by the BBC News website insist that they were not directly aware of where their ads have been appearing. OneTel adverts were spotted on eDonkey this week and its response was typical. ""We have investigated this matter and believe that one of our affiliate partners has placed this advert without our knowledge. It is not our policy to advertise through peer-to-peer networks,"" read a statement from the discount phone firm. It has requested the advert be removed immediately, said a spokeswoman. Similarly telecommunications firm NTL blames its media buying agency which places adverts with third party networks featuring thousands of sites. Since the matter was brought to its attention last month, the agency has strict instructions to make sure ads do not appear on such sites, a spokesman told the BBC News website. However Mr Mulligan was not entirely convinced by these explanations. While smaller brands might not necessarily be aware of where the money they allocate to online advertising actually ends, this is no excuse for well-known brands, he said. ""I would be surprised if these brands didn't have the know-how to prevent this happening,"" he said. At the moment eDonkey is enjoying the benefits of having some very well-known faces advert on its network. ""Many big brands have leveraged the opportunity, including perhaps two of the biggest brands in the world - Senator John Kerry and President George W. Bush,"" said chief executive Sam Yagan. There are some distinct advantages of advertising on such a network, he thinks. ""Peer-to-peer clients offer big brands a unique opportunity to engage with their customers where they're most comfortable: at their desks interacting with their favourite digital media,"" he said." +tech,"More power to the people says HP The digital revolution is focused on letting people tell and share their own stories, according to Carly Fiorina, chief of technology giant Hewlett Packard. The job of firms such as HP now, she said in a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), was to ensure digital and physical worlds fully converged. She said the goal for 2005 was to make people the centre of technology. CES showcases 50,000 new gadgets that will be hitting the shelves in 2005. The tech-fest, the largest of its kind in the world, runs from 6 to 9 January. ""The digital revolution is about the democratisation of technology and the experiences it makes possible,"" she told delegates. ""Revolution has always been about giving power to the people."" She added: ""The real story of the digital revolution is not just new products, but the millions of experiences made possible and stories that millions can tell."" Part of giving people more control has been about the freeing up of content, such as images, video and music. Crucial to this has been the effort to make devices that speak to each other better so that content can be more easily transferred from one device, such as a digital camera, to others, such as portable media players. A lot of work still needs to be done, however, to sort out compatibility issues and standards within the technology industry so that gadgets just work seamlessly, she said. Ms Fiorina's talk also touted the way technology is being designed to focus on lifestyle, fashion and personalisation, something she sees as key to what people want. Special guest, singer Gwen Stefani, joined her on-stage to promote her own range of HP digital cameras which Ms Stefani has helped design and which are heavily influenced by Japanese youth culture. The digital cameras, which are due to go on sale in the US by the summer, are based on the HP 607 model. The emphasis on personalisation and lifestyle is a big theme at this year's CES, with tiny, wearable MP3 players at every turn and rainbow hues giving colour to everything. Ms Fiorina also announced that HP was working with Nokia to launch a visual radio service for mobiles, which would launch in Europe early this year. The service will let people listen to radio on their mobiles and download relevant content, like a track's ringtone, simultaneously. The service is designed to make mobile radio more interactive. Among the other new products she showcased was the Digital Media Hub, a big upgrade to HP's Digital Entertainment Centre. Coming out in the autumn in the US, the box is a networked, high-definition TV, cable set-top box, digital video recorder and DVD recorder. It has a removable hard drive cartridge, memory card slots, and Light Scribe labelling software which lets people design and print customised DVD labels and covers. It is designed to contain all a household's digital media, such as pre-recorded TV shows, pictures, videos and music so it can all be managed in one place. The hub reflects the increasing move to re-box the PC so that it can work as part of other key centres of entertainment. Research suggests that about 258 million images are saved and shared every day, equating to 94 billion a year. Eighty per cent of those remain on cameras. Media hubs are designed to encourage people to organise them on one box. Ms Fiorina was one of several keynote speakers, who also included Microsoft chief Bill Gates, to set out what major technology companies think people will be doing with technologies and gadgets in the next 12 months. In a separate announcement during the keynote speech, Ms Fiorina said that HP would be partnering MTV to replace this year's MTV Asia music award. MTV's Asia Aid will be held in Bangkok on 3 February, and is aimed at helping to raise money for the Asian tsunami disaster." +tech,"Hotspot users gain free net calls People using wireless net hotspots will soon be able to make free phone calls as well as surf the net. Wireless provider Broadreach and net telephony firm Skype are rolling out a service at 350 hotspots around the UK this week. Users will need a Skype account - downloadable for free - and they will then be able to make net calls via wi-fi without paying for net access. Skype allows people to make free PC-based calls to other Skype users. Users of the system can also make calls to landlines and mobiles for a fee. The system is gaining in popularity and now has 28 million users around the world. Its paid service - dubbed Skype Out - has so far attracted 940,000 users. It plans to add more paid services with forthcoming launches of video conferencing, voice mail and Skype In, a service which would allow users to receive phone calls from landlines and mobiles. London-based software developer Connectotel has unveiled software that will expand the SMS functions of Skype, allowing users to send text messages to mobile phones from the service. Broadreach Networks has around two million users and hotspots in places such as Virgin Megastores, the Travelodge chain of hotels and all London's major rail terminals. The company is due to launch wi-fi on Virgin Trains later in the year. ""Skype's success at spreading the world about internet telephony is well-known and we are delighted to be offering free access to Skype users in our hotspots,"" commented Broadreach chief executive Magnus McEwen-King." +tech,"Half-Life 2 sweeps Bafta awards PC first person shooter Half-Life 2 has won six Bafta Awards, including best game and best online game. The title, developed by Valve, was released last year to universal acclaim - receiving special praise for its immersive plot and physics engine. The game also won Baftas for best action adventure, best PC game, art direction and animation. Burnout 3 won three awards in the categories for racing, technical direction and best PlayStation 2 game. Grant Dean, chairman of the Bafta games awards, said at a ceremony in London on Tuesday: ""The last year has been a great year for the interactive entertainment industry. ""These awards reflect the enormous achievements, progress and diversity that we have seen in that time."" Halo 2 won the best Xbox game category, while Prince of Persia: Warrior Within was adjudged the best GameCube title. The sports award went to Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 4. Bafta said the ""significant feature"" of this year's awards was the number of ""non-traditional games"". The originality award was won by PlayStation 2 title Singstar while the children's award went to GameCube bongo rhythm game Donkey Konga. The Handheld Award went to Colin McRae Rally 2005 while the mobile category was won by Blue Tooth Byplanes. The audio award was won by Call of Duty: Finest Hour and Hitman: Contracts won the music award." +tech,"When invention turns to innovation It is unlikely that future technological inventions are going to have the same kind of transformative impact that they did in the past. When history takes a look back at great inventions like the car and transistor, they were defining technologies which ultimately changed people's lives substantially. But, says Nick Donofrio, senior vice-president of technology and manufacturing at IBM, it was not ""the thing"" itself that actually improved people's lives. It was all the social and cultural changes that the discovery or invention brought with it. The car brought about a crucial change to how people lived in cities, giving them the ability to move out into the suburbs, whilst having mobility and access. ""When we talk about innovation and creating real value in the 21st Century, we have to think more like this, but faster,"" Mr Donofrio told the BBC News website, after giving the Royal Academy of Engineering 2004 Hinton Lecture. ""The invention, discovery is likely not to have the same value as the transistor had or the automobile had. ""The equivalent of those things will be invented or discovered, but by themselves, they are just not going to able to generate real business value or wealth as these things did."" These are not altogether new ideas, and academics have been exploring how technologies impact wider society for years. But what it means for technology companies is that a new idea, method, or device, will have to have a different kind thinking behind it so that people see the value that innovative technology has for them. We are in a different phase now when it comes to technology, argues Mr Donofrio, Industry Week's 2003 Technology Leader of the Year. The hype and over-promise is over and now technology leaders have to demonstrate that things work, make sense, make a difference and life gets better as a result. ""In the dotcom era, there was something that was jumping up in your face every five minutes. ""Somebody had a new thing that would awe you. You weren't quite sure that it did anything, you weren't quite sure if you needed it, you weren't quite sure if it had value for it, but it was cool."" But change and innovation in technology that people will see affecting their daily lives, he says, will come about slowly, subtlety, and in ways that will no longer be ""in your face"". It will creep in pervasively. Nanotechnologies will play a key part in this kind of pervasive environment in all sorts of ways, through new superconducting materials, to coatings, power, and memory storage. ""I am a very big believer in the evolution of this industry into a pervasive environment, in an incredible network infrastructure,"" says Mr Donofrio. Pervasive computing is where wireless computing rules, and where jewellery, clothes, and everyday objects become the interfaces instead of bulky wires, screens and keyboards. The net becomes a true network that is taken for granted and just there, like air. ""People will not have to do anything to stay connected. People will know their lives are just better,"" says Mr Donofrio. ""Trillions of devices will be connected to the net in ways people will not know."" Natural interfaces will develop, devices will shape your persona, and our technologically underused voices could be telling our jewellery to sort out the finances. Ultimately, there will be, says Mr Donofrio, no value in being ""computer illiterate"". To some, it sounds like a technological world gone mad. To Mr Donofrio, it is a vision innovation that will happen. Behind this vision should be a rich robust network capability and ""deep computing"", says Mr Donofrio. Deep computing is the ability to perform lots of complex calculations on massive amounts of data, and integral to this concept is supercomputing. It has value, according to IBM, because it helps humans work out extremely complex problems to come up with valuable solutions, like how to refine millions of net search results, finding cures for diseases, or understanding of exactly how a gene or protein operates. But pervasive computing presumably means having technologies that are aware of diversity of contexts, commands, and requirements of a diverse world. As computing and technologies become part of the environment, part of furniture, walls, and clothing, physical space becomes a more important consideration. This is going to need a much broader range of skills and experience. ""I am confident that the SET [science, engineering and technology] industry is going to be short on skills,"" he says. ""If I am right about what innovation is, you need to be multidisciplinary and collaborative. ""Women tend to have those traits a lot better than men."" Eventually, women could win out in both life and physical sciences, he says. In the UK, a DTI-funded resource centre for women has set a target to have 40% representation on SET industry boards. IBM, according to Mr Donofrio, has 30%. ""Our goal is for our research team to become the preferred organisation for women in science and technology to begin their career."" The whole issue of global diversity is as much a business matter as it is a moral and social concern to Mr Donofrio. ""We believe in the whole issue of global diversity,"" he says. ""Our customers are diverse, our clients are diverse. They expect us to look like them. ""As more and more women or underrepresented minorities succeed into leadership positions, it becomes and imperative for us to constantly look like them.""" +tech,"Britons growing 'digitally obese' Gadget lovers are so hungry for digital data many are carrying the equivalent of 10 trucks full of paper in ""weight"". Music, images, e-mails, and texts are being hoarded on mobiles, cameras laptops and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), a Toshiba study found. It found that more than 60% kept 1,000 to 2,000 music files on their devices, making the UK ""digitally fat"". ""Virtual weight"" measurements are based on research by California Institute of Technology professor Roy Williams. He calculated physical comparisons for digital data in the mid-1990s. He worked out that one gigabyte (1,000,000,000 bytes) was the equivalent of a pick-up truck filled with paper. The amount of data people are squirreling away on their gadgets is clearly a sign that people are finding more things to do with their shiny things. If digital hoarding habits continue on this scale, people could be carrying around a ""digitally obese"" 20 gigabytes by next year. ""Britain has become a nation of information hoarders with a ferocious appetite for data,"" said Martin Larsson, general manager of Toshiba's European storage device division. ""As storage capabilities increase and the features and functionalities of mobile devices expand to support movie files and entire libraries of multi-media content, we will all become virtually obese,"" he told the BBC News website. The survey reflects the increasing trend for portable devices with built-in hard drives like music and media players from Apple, Creative Labs, Archos, iRiver and others. This trend is set to grow, according to analysts. They suggest the number of hard drives in consumer electronics gadgets could grow from 17 million last year to 55 million in 2006. ""Consumers are driving the move towards smaller devices that have greater functionality, and industry is trying to keep up,"" said Mr Larsson. ""People are looking for more than just phone calls and text messages on the move, they want things like web browsing, e-mailing, music, photos and more."" Many are finding memory keys and memory sticks are simply not big enough to hold everything. ""Floppies and memory keys have their place, but they don't have anything like the capacity or flexibility of a hard drive so are unable to meet the demand for more and more storage capacity in consumer devices,"" said Mr Larsson. The cost of making hard drives has dropped and is continuing to do so because of improved technologies so they are proving to be more cost-effective than other forms of memory, he added. The amount of data that can be stored has grown by 400% in the last three years, while the cost for every gigabyte has fallen by 80%. It is also getting easier to transfer files from one device to another, which has traditionally been a slow and problematic area. ""Transfer of data between different memory types has improved significantly in recent times, and will be further helped by the standards for hard drives which are currently being developed by the major manufacturers,"" said Mr Larsson. According to technology analysts IDC, a fifth of all hard drives produced will be used in consumer electronics by 2007." +tech,"Sporting rivals go to extra time The current slew of sports games offers unparalleled opportunities for fans who like to emulate on-field action without ever moving from the couch. The two giants in the field - ESPN and EA Sports - have been locked in a heavyweight battle for years. The latter is the world's largest games manufacturer. Years of experience mean that the titles in their steady flow of sport sims are finely honed, massively entertaining and ooze flair. Sports broadcaster ESPN, meanwhile, has leant its name to a series of games that are similarly classy but lower in profile and price. But that status quo was changed forever - or for the next 15 years at least - by a deal earlier this year when ESPN sold EA the rights to its TV branding and on-air talent, meaning the ESPN games presently developed by Sega will have to come to and end in their present form. It was a massive-money deal that not only raised eyebrows but stirred active indignation in many quarters, with fans concerned that it is set to enable EA to monopolise the sports gaming landscape to an unhealthy degree. Some particularly disgruntled fans set up an online petition that notched more than 18,000 virtual signatures. Many of those clicking to complain were already rankled, for the ESPN coup happened just weeks after EA had pulled off another enormous licensing deal, controversially giving them exclusive rights to teams and personnel from America¿s National Football League (NFL). So, will the Sega - ESPN range be missed? A key reason for answering ""yes"" is that liking or disliking a sports game regularly comes down to personal taste, and having some options available always proves hugely handy. Online soccer fans will testify to that, between bouts of arguing over which high-profile title rules supreme out of the similar-yet-hugely-different FIFA 2005 and Pro Evolution Soccer 4. On the same note, the ESPN 2k5 and EA sports games have so little to choose between them that picking favourites will come down to players' personal preferences and spending budget rather than any technical elements. Taking hockey and basketball as examples, both publishers' efforts are phenomenally entertaining and fairly accessible. They also both look awesome, with the Sega / ESPN versions perhaps shading things on a graphical front. In terms of gameplay, I marginally preferred EA's NBA Live 2005 for basketball, and was more satisfied ice hockey-wise by ESPN's NHL 2K5. The ESPN games are a touch more arcade-like in look and feel and are slightly easier to get into, although like their rivals, they also offer a dizzyingly-extensive array of in-game tricks and overall challenge modes that should be enough to quench thirsts of even the most die-hard of sports fans. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the ESPN deal will be seeing how it affects the presentation of EA's future titles. The front-end decoration of EA's games has become something of an art-form in itself, loaded with slick visuals and oodles of licensed music. They are also immediately identifiable as coming from the EA stable, and the inevitable compulsion to add an ESPN look will no doubt change that in various ways. What is a shame is that the ESPN titles took similar care about framing the gameplay with an authentic setting - their preambles look and sound much like they would on TV. They are neat and excellent-value games in their current form, and combining them with EA's own established brand should produce a truly formidable beast." +tech,"'Ultimate game' award for Doom 3 Sci-fi shooter Doom 3 has blasted away the competition at a major games ceremony, the Golden Joystick awards. It was the only title to win twice, winning Ultimate Game of the year and best PC game at the awards, presented by Little Britain star Matt Lucas. The much-anticipated sci-fi horror Doom 3 shot straight to the top of the UK games charts on its release in August. Other winners included Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which took the Most Wanted for Christmas prize. Only released last week, it was closely followed by Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, which are expected to be big hits when they are unleashed later this month. But they missed out on the prize for the Most Wanted game of 2005, which went to the Nintendo title, The Legend of Zelda. The original Doom, released in 1994, heralded a new era in computer games and introduced 3D graphics. It helped to establish the concept of the first-person shooter. Doom 3 was developed over four years and is thought to have cost around $15m (£8.3m). The top honour for the best online game of the year went to Battlefield Vietnam. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was handed the Unsung Hero Game of 2004. Its release was somewhat eclipsed by Doom 3, which was released on the same week. It was, however, very well received by gamers and was praised for its storyline which differed from the film released around the same time. Electronic Arts was named top publisher of the year, taking the crown from Nintendo which won in 2003. The annual awards are voted for by more than 200,000 readers of computer and video games magazines. Games awards like this have grown in importance. Over the last six years, the UK market for games grew by 100% and was worth a record £1,152m in 2003, according to a recent report by analysts Screen Digest." +tech,"Mobile multimedia slow to catch on There is no doubt that mobile phones sporting cameras and colour screens are hugely popular. Consumers swapping old phones for slinkier, dinkier versions are thought to be responsible for a 26% increase in the number of phones sold during the third quarter of 2004, according to analysts Gartner More than 167 million handsets were sold between July and September 2004, a period that, according to Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi is ""seldom strong"". But although consumers have mobiles that can take and send snaps, sounds and video clips few, so far, are taking the chance to do so. In fact, the numbers of people not taking and sending pictures, audio and video is growing. Figures gathered by Continental Research shows that 36% of British camera phone users have never sent a multimedia message (MMS), up from 7% in 2003. This is despite the fact that, during the same period, the numbers of camera phones in the UK more than doubled to 7.5 million. Getting mobile phone users to send multimedia messages is really important for operators keen to squeeze more cash out of their customers and offset the cost of subsidising the handsets people are buying. The problem they face, said Shailendra Jain, head of MMS firm Adamind, is educating people in how to send the multimedia messages using their funky handsets. ""Also,"" he said, ""they have to simplify the interface so its not rocket science in terms of someone understanding it."" Research bears out the suspicion that people are not sending multimedia messages because they do not know how to. According to Continental Research, 29% of the people it questioned said they were technophobes that tended to shy away from innovation. Only 11% regarded themselves as technically savvy enough to send a picture or video message. The fact that multimedia services are not interoperable across networks and phones only adds to people's reluctance to start sending them, said Mr Jain. ""They ask themselves: 'If I'm streaming video from one handset to another will it work?'"" he said. ""There's a lot of user apprehension about that."" There are other deeper technical reasons why multimedia messages are not being pushed as strongly as they might. Andrew Bud, executive chairman of messaging firm Mblox, said mobile phone operators cap the number of messages that can be circulating at any one time for fear of overwhelming the system. ""The rate we can send MMS into the mobile network is fairly constant,"" he said. The reason for this is that there are finite capacities for data traffic on the second generation networks that currently have the most users. No-one wants to take the risk of swamping these relatively narrow channels so the number of MMS messages is capped, said Mr Bud. This has led to operators finding other technologies, particularly one known as Wap-push, to get multimedia to their customers. But when networks do find a good way to get multimedia to their customers, the results can be dramatic. Israeli technology firm Celltick has found a way to broadcast data across phone networks in a way that does not overwhelm existing bandwidth. One of the first firms to use the Celltick service is Hutch India, the largest mobile firm in the country. The broadcast system gets multimedia to customers via a rolling menu far faster than would be possible with other systems. While not multimedia messaging, such a system gets people used to seeing their phones as a device that can handle all different types of content. As a result 40% of the subscribers to the Hutch Alive, which uses Celltick's broadcast technology, regularly click for more pictures, sounds and images from the operator. ""Operators really need to start utilising this tool to reach their customers,"" said Yaron Toren, spokesman for Celltick. Until then, multimedia will be a message that is not getting through." +tech,"Lifestyle 'governs mobile choice' Faster, better or funkier hardware alone is not going to help phone firms sell more handsets, research suggests. Instead, phone firms keen to get more out of their customers should not just be pushing the technology for its own sake. Consumers are far more interested in how handsets fit in with their lifestyle than they are in screen size, onboard memory or the chip inside, shows an in-depth study by telecommunications company Ericsson. ""Historically in the industry there has been too much focus on using technology,"" said Dr Michael Bjorn, senior advisor on mobile media at Ericsson's consumer and enterprise lab. ""We have to stop saying that these technologies will change their lives,"" he said. ""We should try to speak to consumers in their own language and help them see how it fits in with what they are doing,"" he told the BBC News website. For the study, Ericsson interviewed 14,000 mobile phone owners on the ways they use their phone. ""People's habits remain the same,"" said Dr Bjorn. ""They just move the activity into the mobile phone as it's a much more convenient way to do it."" One good example of this was diary-writing among younger people, he said. While diaries have always been popular, a mobile phone -- especially one equipped with a camera -- helps them keep it in a different form. Youngsters' use of text messages also reflects their desire to chat and keep in contact with friends and again just lets them do it in a slightly changed way. Dr Bjorn said that although consumers do what they always did but use a phone to do it, the sheer variety of what the new handset technologies make possible does gradually drive new habits and lifestyles. Ericsson's research has shown that consumers divide into different ""tribes"" that use phones in different ways. Dr Bjorn said groups dubbed ""pioneers"" and ""materialists"" were most interested in trying new things and were behind the start of many trends in phone use. ""For instance,"" he said, ""older people are using SMS much more than they did five years ago."" This was because younger users, often the children of ageing mobile owners, encouraged older people to try it so they could keep in touch. Another factor governing the speed of change in mobile phone use was the simple speed with which new devices are bought by pioneers and materialists. Only when about 25% of people have handsets with new innovations on them, such as cameras, can consumers stop worrying that if they send a picture message the person at the other end will be able to see it. Once this significant number of users is passed, use of new innovations tends to take off. Dr Bjorn said that early reports of camera phone usage in Japan seemed to imply that the innovation was going to be a flop. However, he said, now 45% of the Japanese people Ericsson questioned use their camera phone at least once a month. In 2003 the figure was 29%. Similarly, across Europe the numbers of people taking snaps with cameras is starting to rise. In 2003 only 4% of the people in the UK took a phonecam snap at least once a month. Now the figure is 14%. Similar rises have been seen in many other European nations. Dr Bjorn said that people also used their camera phones in very different ways to film and even digital cameras. ""Usage patterns for digital cameras are almost exactly replacing usage patterns for analogue cameras,"" he said. Digital cameras tend to be used on significant events such as weddings, holidays and birthdays. By contrast, he said, camera phones were being used much more to capture a moment and were being woven into everyday life." +tech,"Millions buy MP3 players in US One in 10 adult Americans - equivalent to 22 million people - owns an MP3 player, according to a survey. A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that MP3 players are the gadget of choice among affluent young Americans. The survey did not interview teenagers but it is likely that millions of under-18s also have MP3 players. The American love affair with digital music players has been made possible as more and more homes get broadband. Of the 22 million Americans who own MP3 players, 59% are men compared to 41% of women. Those on high income - judged to be $75,000 (£39,000) or above - are four times more likely to have players than those earning less than $30, 000 ( £15,000). Broadband access plays a big part in ownership too. Almost a quarter of those with broadband at home have players, compared to 9% of those who have dial-up access. MP3 players are still the gadget of choice for younger adults. Almost one in five US citizens aged under 30 have one. This compares to 14% of those aged 30-39 and 14% of those aged 40-48. The influence of children also plays a part. Sixteen percent of parents living with children under 18 have digital players compared to 9% of those who don't. The ease of use and growth of music available on the net are the main factors for the upsurge in ownership, the survey found. People are beginning to use them as instruments of social activity - sharing songs and taking part in podcasting - the survey found. ""IPods and MP3 players are becoming a mainstream technology for consumers"" said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. ""More growth in the market is inevitable as new devices become available, as new players enter the market, and as new social uses for iPods/MP3 players become popular,"" he added." +tech,"Halo fans' hope for sequel Xbox video game Halo 2 has been released in the US on 9 November, with a UK release two days later. Why is the game among the most anticipated of all time? Halo is considered by many video game pundits to be one of the finest examples of interactive entertainment ever produced and more than 1.5 million people worldwide have pre-ordered the sequel. A science fiction epic, Halo centred the action on a human cyborg, controlled by the player, who had to save his crew from an alien horde after a crash landing on a strange and exotic world contained on the interior surface of a giant ring in space. Remembrance of Things Past it was not - but as a slice of schlock science fiction inspired by works such as Larry Niven's Ringworld and the film Starship Troopers, it fit the bill perfectly. Halo stood out from a crowd of similar titles - it was graphically impressive, had tremendous audio, using Dolby Digital, a decent storyline, instant playability and impressive physics. But what marked Halo as a classic were the thousands of details which brought a feeling of polish and the enormously-high production values not usually associated with video gaming. Produced by Bungie software, renowned for their innovation in gaming, it caused a stir among the gaming fraternity when the developer was bought by Microsoft and became an Xbox exclusive. Claude Errera, editor of fansite Halo.Bungie.Org, said: ""Bungie got everything right. They were really careful to make sure everything worked the way it was supposed to. ""Nothing distracts you when you were playing. There was nothing in Halo that had not been done before but everything in there was as good as it could be."" He added: ""Graphically it was superior to everything else out there. ""It also had a depth to it that made it stand out."" Halo was unusually immersive, sucking the player into the action and blurring the interface between screen and controller. It also capitalised on the growing popularity of LAN gaming in the PC world - for the first time it became easy to link multiple game consoles together, allowing up to 16 players to battle against each other at the same time. The game instantly cultivated an online following, which continues today with a score of Halo fan websites following every aspect of the sequel, Halo 2. Errera spends three to fours hours a day of his own time maintaining the hugely popular website, which attracts 600,000 page views a day from Halo fans eager for the latest news. When the Xbox launched on November 15 2001 in the US, Halo was one of the launch titles and had an immediate impact on critics and consumers. ""Halo is the most important launch game for any console ever,"" wrote the influential Edge magazine in its review, giving it a rare 10 out of 10 mark. The game had its critics and while it is not a one-off original as a game, it brought many original touches and flourishes to the genre which have defined all other first person shooters since. ""The first time I played it I just stood there watching the spent shells fall out of my gun,"" said Errera, remarking on the level of detail in the game. The game also inspired thousands of people to write their own fiction based on the storyline and produce downloadable video clips of the many weird and wonderful things that can be done in the game. ""It blew me away the first time someone managed to climb to the top of Halo,"" said Errera, referring to a fan who had created a video of Master Chief scaling the landscape of the graphical world. Video clips of the more outrageous stunts that are possible thanks to the game's amazing physics engine are incredibly popular and some have attained a cult following. Speculation about the sequel has seen every titbit analysed and poured over with all the intent of a forensic scientist examining a body. When early screenshots of the game were released some people wrote essay-length articles highlighting everything from the texture of graphics to clues about the story line. Errera said expectations of the sequel among fans were sky high. ""It does not feel like a game release any more. Somebody told me this was the biggest single release of any product in Microsoft's history. ""We're all just hoping that Bungie has got it right again."" Halo 2 is out on 9 November in the US and 11 November in the UK" +tech,"Humanoid robot learns how to run Car-maker Honda's humanoid robot Asimo has just got faster and smarter. The Japanese firm is a leader in developing two-legged robots and the new, improved Asimo (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) can now run, find his way around obstacles as well as interact with people. Eventually Asimo could find gainful employment in homes and offices. ""The aim is to develop a robot that can help people in their daily lives,"" said a Honda spokesman. To get the robot running for the first time was not an easy process as it involved Asimo making an accurate leap and absorbing the impact of landing without slipping or spinning. The ""run"" he is now capable of is perhaps not quite up to Olympic star Kelly Holmes' standard. At 3km/h, it is closer to a leisurely jog. Its makers claim that it is almost four times as fast as Sony's Qrio, which became the first robot to run last year. The criteria for running robots is defined by engineers as having both feet off the ground between strides. Asimo has improved in other ways too, increasing his walking speed, from 1.6km/h to 2.5km, growing 10cm to 130cm and putting on 2kg in weight. While he may not quite be ready for yoga, he does have more freedom of movement, being able to twist his hips and bend his wrists, thumbs and neck. Asimo has already made his mark on the international robot scene and in November was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame. He has wowed audiences around the world with his ability to walk upstairs, recognise faces and come when beckoned. In August 2003 he even attended a state dinner in the Czech Republic, travelling with the Japanese prime minister as a goodwill envoy. He is one of a handful of robots used by tech firms to trumpet their technological advances. Technology developed for Asimo could be used in the automobile industry as electronics increasingly take over from mechanics in car design. For the moment Asimo's biggest role is an entertainer and the audience gathered to see his first public run greeted his slightly comical gait with amusement, according to reports. Robots can fulfil serious functions in society and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe predicts that the worldwide market for industrial robots will swell from 81,000 units in 2003 to 106,000 in 2007." +tech,"Gadget market 'to grow in 2005' The explosion in consumer technology is to continue into 2005, delegates at the world's largest gadget show, in Las Vegas, have been told. The number of gadgets in the shops is predicted to grow by 11%, while devices which talk to each other will become increasingly important. ""Everything is going digital,"" Kirsten Pfeifer from the Consumer Electronics Association, told the BBC News website. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) featured the pick of 2005's products. ""Consumers are controlling what they want and technologies like HDTVs [high-definition TVs], digital radio, and digital cameras will remain strong in 2005. ""All the products on show really showed the breadth and depth of the industry."" Despite showing diversity, some delegates attending complained that the showcase lacked as much ""wow factor"" as in previous years. The portable technologies on show also reflected one of the buzzwords of CES, which was the ""time and place shifting"" of multimedia content - being able to watch and listen to video and music anywhere, at any time. At the start of last year's CES, the CEA predicted there would be an average growth of 4% in 2004. That figure was surpassed with the rise in popularity of portable digital music players, personal video recorders and digital cameras. It was clear also that gadgets are becoming a lot more about lifestyle choice, with fashion and personalisation becoming increasingly key to the way gadgets are designed. Part of this has been the rise in spending power of the ""generation X-ers"" who have grown up with technology and who now have the spending power and desire for more devices that suit them. More than 57% of the consumer electronics market is made up of female buyers, according to CEA research. Hybrid devices, which combine a number of multimedia functions, were also in evidence on the show floor. ""A lot of this is driven by just the ability to do it,"" said Stephen Baker, a consumer electronics analyst with retail research firm NPD Group. ""Some of these functions cost next to nothing to add."" As well as the show floor showcasing everything from tiny wearable MP3 players to giant high-definition TVs, several keynote speeches were made by industry leaders, such as Microsoft chief Bill Gates. Despite several embarrassing technical glitches during Mr Gate's pre-show speech, he announced several new partnerships - mainly for the US market. He unveiled new ways of letting people take TV shows recorded on personal video recorders and watch them back on portable devices. He disappointed some, however, by failing to announce any details of the next generation of the Xbox games console. Another disappointment was the lack of exposure Sony's new portable games device, the PSP, had at the show. Sony said the much-anticipated gadget would most likely start shipping in March for the US and Europe. It went on sale in Japan before Christmas. There were only two PSPs embedded in glass cabinets at the show though and no representatives to discuss further details. A Sony representative told the BBC News website this was because Sony did not consider it to be part of their ""consumer technology"" offering. Elsewhere at the show, there was a plethora of colour and plasma screens, including Samsung's 102-inch (2.6 metre) plasma - the largest in the world. Industry experts were also excited about high-definition technologies coming to the fore in 2005, with new formats for DVDs coming out which will hold six times as much data as conventional DVDs. With so many devices on the move there were a lot of products on show offering external storage, like Seagate's 5GB pocket sized external hard drive, which won an innovation for engineering and design prize. More than 120,000 trade professionals attended CES in Las Vegas, which officially ran from 6 to 9 January." +tech,"What price for 'trusted PC security'? You can now buy ""trusted computers"", but can we really trust the PC vendors, asks technology analyst Bill Thompson. If you have recently bought an IBM ThinkVantage computer, a Dell Optiplex, or one of a whole range of laptops from Toshiba, HP/Compaq or Samsung then you may have got more for your money than you realised. Inside your shiny new PC is an extra chip called the trusted platform module (TPM) that can be used for a range of hardware-based security features. Eventually the TPM will be built into the main processor itself, and if the trusted computing group has its way then you will find one in every piece of hardware you own, from mobile phones to TV set top boxes to children's toys. But for the moment it is a separate piece of hardware, providing enhanced security features to programs that know how to use them. And as part of a well-designed network system, it can provide a lot more security than we enjoy today. A big advantage of the TPM is that it is hardware-based. At the moment most of us rely on software to keep our information safe and secure. It might be password-protected user accounts, data encryption programs or a firewall, but it all relies on program code running on an inherently insecure processor. Hardware security is less common, even if it is a lot safer. This is partly because it is more expensive to give someone a smartcard than a password, but also because its more work for users, systems administrators and managers. As a result we settle for second best. So when it comes to computer security, trusted systems could be a major step forward. After all, if you have a laptop that will only run programs that have been digitally signed then it will be a lot harder for virus writers to get their malicious code to run. And if all your files are locked automatically then even if you get your computer stolen your personal data will be safeguarded. At the moment support for trusted hardware is not built into major operating systems. Instead you have to use special software, like HP's ProtectTools or Wave Systems' Embassy. This provides file encryption, password management and identity protection, usually for business users who connect to company networks. Full support for the trusted computing specification will not be available from Microsoft until the next release of Windows, ""Longhorn"". This will include what Microsoft, in a typical act of obscurantism, calls the ""Next Generation Secure Computing Base"", and it will give user-level programs access to the trusted computing hardware. When that happens we can expect to see a lot of publicity around the new capabilities, and no doubt the Windows security centre will encourage users to turn on their trusted computing capability just as they turn on their firewall. However there is a downside to the increased security from viruses, spyware and data theft that this will provide. Because the trusted computing base is also used to make digital rights management (DRM) systems more secure, this will give content providers a lot more control over what we can do with music, movies and books that we have bought from them. We have seen recently how allowing digital rights management services into our lives can lead to unwelcome consequences. Users of Apple's iTunes used to be able to stream the music they had brought to up to five other iTunes users, a great way of letting your mates discover your music collection. But the latest version of iTunes limits this capability, just as an earlier upgrade reduced the number of times you could burn a selected playlist of purchased songs to a CD. Another took away the ability to play songs downloaded from Real's Harmony service on your iPod. Apple can do this because they wrote the software and they control the rights management. Once it is embedded in trusted hardware it will be even harder for dedicated programmers to find their way around these restrictions and give us back the fair use rights that should be guaranteed under copyright law. Similarly, users of TiVo digital video recorders have found that they cannot record some shows, and other programmes that they have recorded are automatically deleted after a day. This happens because of changes that TiVo have made to their software, and the users cannot control it. One wonders whether hardware-based DRM will work for those who believe that locking-down digital content is a bad idea, and that the flexibility of copyright law is something that should be embraced and not taken away. It will not work because of the fundamental flaw at the heart of the system: in order for the purchaser to view the content it has to be unlocked. Once it is unlocked then someone, somewhere, will figure out a way to make a copy of the unlocked version. And once an unlocked version leaks onto the network it will be uncontrollable. The efforts going into DRM would be much better spent building efficient distribution services, finding business models that are based on trusting your customers, and offering high quality downloads at fair prices. What we want is not so much a trusted computing platform as a trusted customer platform. The record companies and the film industry need to recognise that most of us, most of the time, will pay a reasonable amount for good quality material. They will benefit more by building a market in which I can share songs with my friends, record shows I want to watch later, and burn CDs for my kids; a market which respects the spirit of copyright law and does not seek to replace it by restrictive contracts or end user agreements. We need to ensure that trusted computing remains under the control of the users and is not used to take away the freedoms we enjoy today. Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital." +tech,"Nintendo handheld given Euro date Nintendo's new handheld console, the DS, will launch in Europe on 11 March, the company has announced. The portable games machine, which features touch-screen control, will retail for £99 in the UK (149 euros). Nintendo said 15 games would be available in the UK at launch, with prices ranging from £19 to £29. More than 2.8 million DS consoles have been sold since it first appeared in the US and Japan at the end of 2004. Rival Sony has said it will launch its first handheld console, the PSP, in the US and Europe before the end of March. The PSP is expected to compete for a large part of the same handheld market, despite Sony's assertion that the machines are aimed at different consumers. The 15 games available on the European launch date will include Nintendo's Super Mario 64 DS, as well as titles from third-party developers such as Ubisoft's Rayman DS. More than 120 games are in development for the new console, Nintendo has said. The DS is backwards compatible with the Game Boy Advance, allowing the earlier machine's back catalogue of 700 games to be played. Additionally, a short-range wireless link for multiplayer gaming is built in to the DS, with a ""download play"" option which allows a group to play against each other, even if just one person owns a copy. Other features include a short-range messaging application called Pictochat, and a built-in microphone which is used in Sega's launch title Project Rub. Nintendo has also announced a media adapter, which will allow the console to play music and video on the move. The launch price of £99 (149 euros) compares favourably with the US price of $149, according to John Houlihan, editor of the Computerandvideogames.com magazine. ""It's a very, very competitive price point. There are some innovative features, and Nintendo has created quite a buzz,"" he says. ""However, the line-up of games could have been stronger. Everyone wanted to see the eight-player Mario Kart DS, for example."" Mr Houlihan believes that there is likely to be an audience for both the Nintendo DS and Sony's new PSP, with the former aimed largely at a younger audience and the latter expected to be marketed as a multimedia device. ""The PSP is a sexy bit of kit, but Sony's attitude to the PSP has been very understated in Europe, so far,"" Mr Houlihan said. The worldwide handheld software market had an estimated worth of $2.6bn at the end of 2004, according to industry analysts Screen Digest. In the past, games consoles and handhelds have generally launched much later in Europe than in other parts of the world. However Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said the company was ""pleased to have offered such a short period of time between the US and European launch"". ""Europe is an extremely important market for Nintendo,"" Mr Iwata added. Nintendo raised its sales targets for the DS console last December after selling a million in the US and Japan in just a few weeks." +tech,"Fast moving phone viruses appear Security firms are warning about several mobile phone viruses that can spread much faster than similar bugs. The new strains of the Cabir mobile phone virus use short-range radio technology to leap to any vulnerable phone as soon as it is in range. The Cabir virus only affects high-end handsets running the Symbian Series 60 phone operating system. Despite the warnings, there are so far no reports of any phones being infected by the new variants of Cabir. The original Cabir worm came to light in mid-June 2004 when it was sent to anti-virus firms as a proof-of-concept program. A mistake in the way the original Cabir was written meant that even if it escaped from the laboratory, the bug would only have been able to infect one phone at a time. However, the new Cabir strains have this mistake corrected and will spread via short range Bluetooth technology to any vulnerable phone in range. Bluetooth has an effective range of a few tens of metres. The risk of being infected by Cabir is low because users must give the malicious program permission to download on to their handset and then must manually install it. Users can protect themselves by altering a setting on Symbian phones that conceals the handset from other Bluetooth using devices. Finnish security firm F-Secure issued a warning about the new strains of Cabir but said that the viruses do not do any damage to a phone. All they do is block normal Bluetooth activity and drain the phone's battery. Anti-virus firm Sophos said the source code for Cabir had been posted on the net by a Brazilian programmer which might lead to even more variants of the program being created. So far seven versions of Cabir are know to exist, one of which was inside the malicious Skulls program that was found in late November. Symbian's Series 60 software is licenced by Nokia, LG Electronics, Lenovo, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo and Siemens." +tech,"Security warning over 'FBI virus' The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning that a computer virus is being spread via e-mails that purport to be from the FBI. The e-mails show that they have come from an fbi.gov address and tell recipients that they have accessed illegal websites. The messages warn that their internet use has been monitored by the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center. An attachment in the e-mail contains the virus, the FBI said. The message asks recipients to click on the attachment and answer some questions about their internet use. But rather than being a questionnaire, the attachment contains a virus that infects the recipient's computer, according to the agency. It is not clear what the virus does once it has infected a computer. Users are warned never to open attachment from unsolicited e-mails or from people they do not know. ""Recipients of this or similar solicitations should know that the FBI does not engage in the practice of sending unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner,"" the FBI said in a statement. The bureau is investigating the phoney e-mails. The agency earlier this month shut down fbi.gov accounts, used to communicate with the public, because of a security breach. A spokeswoman said the two incidents appear to be unrelated." +tech,"Confusion over high-definition TV Now that a critical mass of people have embraced digital TV, DVDs, and digital video recorders, the next revolution for TV is being prepared for our sets. In most corners of TV and technology industries, high-definition (HDTV) is being heralded as the biggest thing to happen to the television since colour. HD essentially makes TV picture quality at least four times better than now. But there is real concern that people are not getting the right information about HD on the High Street. Thousands of flat panel screens - LCDs (liquid crystal displays), plasma screens, and DLP rear-projection TV sets - have already been sold as ""HD"", but are in fact not able to display HD. ""The UK is the largest display market in Europe,"" according to John Binks, director of GfK, which monitors global consumer markets. But, he added: ""Of all the flat panel screens sold, just 1.3% in the UK are capable of getting high-definition."" There are 74 different devices that are being sold as HD but are not HD-ready, according to Alexander Oudendijk, senior vice president of marketing for satellite giant Astra. They may be fantastic quality TVs, but many do not have adaptors in them - called DVI or HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) connectors - which let the set handle the higher resolution digital images. Part of this is down to lack of understanding and training on the High Street, say industry experts, who gathered at Bafta in London for the 2nd European HDTV Summit last week. ""We have to be careful about consumer confusion. There is a massive education process to go through,"" said Mr Binks. The industry already recognised that it would be a challenge to get the right information about it across to those of us who will be watching it. Eventually, that will be everyone. The BBC is currently developing plans to produce all its TV output to meet HDTV standards by 2010. Preparations for the analogue switch-off are already underway in some areas, and programmes are being filmed with HD cameras. BSkyB plans to ship its first generation set-top boxes, to receive HDTV broadcasts, in time for Christmas. Like its Sky+ boxes, they will also be personal video recorders (PVRs). The company will start broadcasts of HDTV programmes, offering them as ""premium channel packages"", concentrating, to start with, on sports, big events, and films, in early 2006. But the set-top box which receives HDTV broadcasts has to plug into a display - TV set - that can show the images at the much higher resolution that HD demands, if HDTV is to be ""real"". By 2010, 20% of homes in the UK will have some sort of TV set or display that can show HD in its full glory. But it is all getting rather confusing for people who have only just taken to ""being digital"". As a result, all the key players, those who make flat panel displays, as well as the satellite companies and broadcasters, formed a HD forum in 2004 to make sure they were all talking to each other. Part of the forum has been concerned with issues like industry standards and content protection. But it has also been preoccupied with how to help the paying public know exactly what they are paying for. From next month, all devices that have the right connectors and resolution required will carry a ""HD-Ready"" sticker. This also means they are equipped to cope with both analogue and HDTV signals, and so comply with the minimum specification set out by the industry. ""The logo is absolutely the way forward,"" said David Mercer, analysts with Strategy Analytics. ""But it is still not appearing on many retail products."" The industry is upbeat that the sticker will help, but it is only a start. ""We can only do so much with the position we are in today with manufacturers,"" said Mr Oudendijk. ""There may well be a number of dissatisfied customers in the next few months."" The European Broadcast Union (EBU) is testing different flavours of HD formats to prepare for even better HDTV further down the line. It is similarly concerned that people get the right information on HDTV formats, as well as which devices will support the formats. ""We believe consumers buying expensive displays need to ensure their investment is worthwhile,"" said Phil Laven, technical director for the EBU. The TV display manufacturers want us to watch HD on screens that are at least 42in (106cm), to get the ""true impact"" of HD, they say, although smaller displays suffice. What may convince people to spend money on HD-ready devices is the falling prices, which continue to tumble across Europe. The prices are dropping an average of 20% every year, according to analysts. LCD prices dropped by 43% in Europe as a whole last year, according to Mr Oudendijk." +tech,"Call for action on internet scam Phone companies are not doing enough to warn customers about internet ""rogue-dialling"" scams, according to premium phone line regulator Icstis. It has received 45,000 complaints in recent months about dial-up internet connections diverting to premium rate numbers without users' knowledge. Phone companies refuse to pay compensation because they say calls must be paid for. They must warn people earlier about possible fraud, Icstis said. People who use dial-up connections can be affected by the scams. Without realising, a program can be downloaded which diverts internet calls via a premium phone line. Victims often fail to notice until they receive an unusually high bill. Icstis spokesman Rob Dwight said: ""Phone companies should get in touch with their customers sooner. ""If my bill goes over the usual £50 a month I want to know about it straight away - I don't want to be told when it's hit £750."" Phone companies had the systems in place to spot fraudulent activity and artificially-inflated traffic, he said. ""We alert them to the numbers that we have under investigation and they should be looking out for these numbers,"" he added. Telecoms ombudsman Elizabeth France said: ""Certainly I would not be surprised to find my credit card company phoning me if I do something out of the ordinary. ""So I would expect phone companies to be looking to see if they can have a similar approach."" The biggest phone company BT says it is doing what it can to monitor fraud and warn people about rogue dialling. Its advice to customers is to use call barring if they want to prevent calls to premium lines because, under the current system, once the call has been made there's little that can be done. Gavin Patterson, group managing director for BT Consumer, said ""We do look at customer's calling patterns and we do make interventions when they are out of the ordinary. ""We're looking at the moment at whether we can improve this."" But as BT handled 180 million calls a day monitoring was ""quite a task in itself"", he added. The government has ordered a review of premium line services and is likely to say Icstis should have more power to deal with rogue diallers in future. At the moment, it cannot demand pay-outs on the behalf of customer - it can only close illegal services down. I use free anti-virus software (AVG) and free firewall protection (ZoneAlarm). Both of these tools have prevented unauthorised access and outgoing calls inadvertently and innocently caused by my daughter's love of music sites. How about ISPs informing all customers of such facilities? The responsibility clearly falls with the customer but many fall prey through simply not knowing how to avoid these issues. Ignorance is and always has been an expensive business. Does any one know what happens once this fraud has been committed and recognised? The phone companies pay the people who obtaining money fraudulently, so are these people followed up and prosecuted ? These diallers are mainly downloaded from sites offering illegal MP3s, porn and pirated software. If people didn't visit such sites they'd be considerably less at risk. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? It seems everyone has to be a 'victim' these days! Part of the blame has to rest with the manufacturers of home computer operating systems. A secure system should not allow a web page or email to download and install anything without the user's knowledge. These scams are illegal and telephone companies should have nothing to do with them. They should refuse to pay money over to the perpetrators. Or are they themselves receiving such good returns that it is in their interest to keep the scam going? Why don't BT et al block all premium numbers by default and only turn it off at the customer's request? To anyone who falls foul of this scam - refuse to pay your telephone provider for these calls. After you notify your telephone provider of these fraudulent transactions, they cannot insist on you paying the bill. To do so would be to knowingly assist the fraudsters to commit the fraud. No customers have yet been taken to court for refusing to pay these bills. Disable or remove your modem and use broadband instead - then you have nothing to worry about. Or buy some decent firewall software and anti-virus. You would not walk out in the freezing cold without a coat - you would not drive your car without any insurance - so why not protect your PC? Stop blaming the phone companies - it's not their fault! I was very impressed with our phone company recently. I had kept ringing a hotline number for Kylie tickets and next day they rang back to ask if I was aware there were 40-odd calls to the same number. Great service. And I got the tickets as well! I have a colleague who has fallen victim to this kind of scam. He informed the phone company about it, they subsequently put a block on premium rate numbers. Three months later another huge bill of over £1,000 came in - the block apparently didn't work and he still has to pay for it, even though a block was in place. Phone companies are probably quite happy for their customers to be hit with a huge bill, otherwise they'd be taking extra steps to prevent this kind of problem. I have been scammed of £139. The operator will do nothing about this and, to add insult to injury, I was charged VAT by the government. Premium rate numbers have been subject to various scams ever since they were invented. One example was where thieves would set up a premium rate number and then dial it day and night from phones whose quarterly bills were never paid. The telephone company was the victim here and you can bet that loophole was blocked very quickly. I know people who have run up large bills, despite being IT-literate. From talking to BT in Belfast, I believe that they will shortly be giving out a free application that can stop you dialling expensive numbers without knowing. It's not the fault of phone companies, and at last they are doing something about it. It's about time that the profiteering by the 'legitimate' phone companies came to an end, mainly by doing away with dial-up altogether and bring broadband down to the same price as dial-up! Not only will this ruin things for the dialler scammers but also allow people to update and upgrade their security more easily and quickly. I haven't ""fallen victim to a rogue-dialling scam"" but I think you're seriously remiss in not pointing out that the vast majority of these scams arise from people trying to access services purporting to provide free pornography. In most cases the user is entirely at fault, which is probably why the telephone companies are rightly unwilling to refund them. My telephone supplier did not inform me that my monthly bill had risen from its normal £3 to £5, to £320. This was because of the scam. They simply billed me. What particularly galls me, over and above having over £300 stolen, is that the supplier and the government (through VAT) are profiting from this crime and will not reimburse me their portion of my losses. How about an automatic monthly cap of say £20 on premium rate calls that you would have to contact your provider to have lifted? That way you could use legitimate premium rate numbers while limiting fraudulent usage. At least any disputed amount would be limited, far easier for a telecoms operator to write off £20 than it is £750. A few years back I was also the target of such scams but thank God I have already upgraded to broadband and nothing was connected to my modem so all I heard was the sound of an attempted connection. How about home users take some responsibility and ensure their anti-virus and firewall software is up to date? That should prevent the vast majority of these scams." +tech,"Cyber crime booms in 2004 The last 12 months have seen a dramatic growth in almost every security threat that plague Windows PCs. The count of known viruses broke the 100,000 barrier and the number of new viruses grew by more than 50%. Similarly phishing attempts, in which conmen try to trick people into handing over confidential data, are recording growth rates of more than 30% and attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Also on the increase are the number of networks of remotely controlled computers, called bot nets, used by malicious hackers and conmen to carry out many different cyber crimes. One of the biggest changes of 2004 was the waning influence of the boy hackers keen to make a name by writing a fast-spreading virus, said Kevin Hogan, senior manager in Symantec's security response group. Although teenage virus writers will still play around with malicious code, said Mr Hogan, 2004 saw a significant rise in criminal use of malicious programs. The financial incentives were driving criminal use of technology, he said. His comment was echoed by Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant from anti-virus firm Sophos. Mr Cluley said: ""When the commercial world gets involved, things really get nasty. Virus writers and hackers will be looking to make a tidy sum."" In particular, phishing attacks, which typically use fake versions of bank websites to grab login details of customers, boomed during 2004. Web portal Lycos Europe reported a 500% increase in the number of phishing e-mail messages it was catching. The Anti-Phishing Working group reported that the number of phishing attacks against new targets was growing at a rate of 30% or more per month. Those who fall victim to these attacks can find that their bank account has been cleaned out or that their good name has been ruined by someone stealing their identity. This change in the ranks of virus writers could mean the end of the mass-mailing virus which attempts to spread by tricking people into opening infected attachments on e-mail messages. ""They are not an efficient way of spreading viruses,"" said Mr Hogan. ""They are very noisy and they are not technically challenging."" The opening months of 2004 did see the appearance of the Netsky, Bagle and MyDoom mass mailers, but since then more surreptitious viruses, or worms, have dominated. Mr Hogan said worm writers were more interested in recruiting PCs to take part in ""bot nets"" that can be used to send out spam or to mount attacks on websites. In September Symantec released statistics which showed that the numbers of active ""bot computers"" rose from 2,000 to 30,000 per day. Thanks to these ""bot nets"", spam continued to be a problem in 2004. Anti-spam firms report that, in many cases, legitimate e-mail has shrunk to less than 30% of messages. Part of the reason that these ""bot nets"" have become so prevalent, he said, was due to a big change in the way that many viruses were created. In the past many viruses, such as Netsky, have been the work of an individual or group. By contrast, said Mr Hogan, the code for viruses such as Gaobot, Spybot and Randex were commonly held and many groups work on them to produce new variants at the same time. The result is that now there are more than 3,000 variations of the Spybot worm. ""That's unprecedented,"" said Mr Hogan. ""What makes it difficult is that they are all co-existing with each other and do not exist in an easy to understand chronology."" The emergence of the first proper virus for mobile phones was also seen in 2004. In the past, threats to smart phones have been largely theoretical because the viruses created to cripple phones existed only in the laboratory rather than the wild. In June, the Cabir virus was discovered that can hop from phone to phone using Bluetooth short-range radio technology. Also released this year was the Mosquito game for Symbian phones which surreptitiously sends messages to premium rate numbers, and in November the Skulls Trojan came to light which can cripple phones. On the positive side, Finnish security firm F-Secure said that 2004 was the best-ever year for the capture, arrest and sentencing of virus writers and criminally-minded hackers. In total, eight virus writers were arrested and some members of the so-called 29A virus writing group were sentenced. One high-profile arrest was that of German teenager Sven Jaschen who confessed to be behind the Netsky and Sasser virus families. Also shut down were the Carderplanet and Shadowcrew websites that were used to trade stolen credit card numbers." +tech,"Gadget show heralds MP3 season Partners of those who love their hi-tech gear may want to get their presents in early as experts predict a gadget shortage this Christmas. With Apple's iPod topping wish lists again, there may not be enough iPod minis to go round, predicts Oliver Irish, editor of gadget magazine Stuff. ""The iPod mini is likely to be this year's Tracey Island,"" said Mr Irish. Stuff has compiled a list of the top 10 gadgets for 2004 and the iPod is at number one. For anyone bewildered by the choice of gadgets on the market, Stuff and What Hi-Fi? are hosting a best-of gadget show in London this weekend. Star of the show will be Sony's Qrio Robot, an all-singing, all-dancing, football-playing man-machine who can even hold intelligent conversations. But he is not for sale and Sony has no commercial plans for the robot. ""He will greet visitors and is flying in from Japan. He probably has his own airplane seat, that is how highly Sony prize him,"" said Mr Irish. Also on display will be a virtual keyboard which projects itself onto any flat surface. The event will play host to a large collection of digital music players, from companies such as Creative, Sony and Philips as well as the ubiquitously fashionable iPod from Apple. Suggestions that it could be a gaming or wireless Christmas are unlikely to come true as MP3 players remain the most popular stocking filler, said Mr Irish. ""Demand is huge and Apple has promised that it can supply enough but people might struggle to get their hands on iPod minis,"" said Mr Irish. For those who like their gadgets to be multi-talented, the Gizmondo, a powerful gaming console with GPS and GPRS, that also doubles up as an MP3 player, movie player and camera, could be a must-have. ""What is impressive is how much it can do and how well it can do them,"" said Mr Irish. This Christmas, gadgets will not be an all-male preserve. ""Women will be getting gadgets from husbands and boyfriends as well as buying them for themselves,"" said Mr Irish. ""Gadgets nowadays are lifestyle products rather than just for geeks.""" +tech,"What high-definition will do to DVDs First it was the humble home video, then it was the DVD, and now Hollywood is preparing for the next revolution in home entertainment - high-definition. High-definition gives incredible, 3D-like pictures and surround sound. The DVD disks and the gear to play them will not be out for another year or so, and there at are still a number of issues to be sorted out. But when high-definition films do come out on the new format DVDs, it will profoundly change home entertainment. For Rick Dean, director of business development for digital content company THX, a high-definition future is an exciting prospect. He has worked on the Star Wars DVD trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Indiana Jones. ""There was a time not so long ago when the film world and the video world were two completely separate worlds,"" he told the BBC News website. ""The technology we are dealing with now means they are very much conjoined. ""The film that we see in theatres is coming from the same digital file that we take the home video master,"" he says. But currently, putting a master feature film onto DVD requires severe compression because current DVD technology cannot hold as much as high-definition films demand. ""As much as you compress the picture data rate wise, you also take qualities away from the picture that we fight so hard to keep in the master,"" he explains. ""I would love to be able to show people what projects that we worked on really look like in the high-def world and I find it very exciting."" High-definition DVDs can hold up to six times more data than the DVDs we are used to. It will take time though to persuade people who spent money on DVD players to buy the different players and displays required to watch high-definition DVDs in 18 months' time. Mr Dean is confident though: ""I think if they see real HD [high-definition], not some heavily compressed version of it, there is such a remarkable difference. ""I have heard comments from people who say the images pop off the screen."" High-definition will mean some changes for those working behind the scenes too. On the whole, producing films for high-definition DVDs will be easier in some ways because less compression is needed. Equally, it may mean Hollywood studios ask for more to be put onto the average DVD. ""When we master movies right now, our data rates are running at about 1.2 gigabits per second,"" says Mr Dean. ""Our DVDs that we put out today have to be squashed down to about five or six megabits per second. ""That's a huge amount of compression that has to be applied - about 98%. So if you have anything that allows more space, you don't have to compress so hard."" Studios could fit a lot more marketing material, games, and features, onto high-capacity DVDs. Currently, an entire DVD project can take up to three months, says Mr Dean. Although the step of down-converting will be bypassed, this will realistically only save a day's work, says Mr Dean. One of the most time consuming elements is building DVD navigation and menu systems. On the fairly complex Star Wars disks, making sure the menu buttons worked took 45 human hours alone. If studios want to cash in on the extra space, it could mean extra human hours, for which someone has to pay. ""If the decision on the studio side is that they are going to put a lot more on these disks, it could be more expensive because of all the extra navigation that is required."" And if studios do focus on delivering more ""added value content"", thinks Mr Dean, ultimately it could mean that they will want more money for it. Those costs could filter down to the price ticket on a high-definition DVD. But if the consumer is not willing to pay a premium price, studios will listen, thinks Mr Dean. High-definition throws up other challenge to film makers and DVD production alike. More clarity on screen means film makers have to make doubly sure that attention to detail is meticulous. ""When we did the first HD version of Star Wars Episode I, everybody was very sun-tanned, but that was make-up. ""In the HD version of Episode I, all these make-up lines showed up,"" explains Mr Dean. The restoration of the older Star Wars episodes revealed some interesting items too. ""There are scans of a corridor [on the Death Star] and fairly plainly in one of those shots, there is a file cabinet stuck behind one of the doorways. ""You never used to be able to see it because things are just blurred enough during the pan that you just didn't see it."" What high-definition revolution ultimately means is that the line between home entertainment and cinema worlds will blur. With home theatre systems turning living rooms into cinemas, this line blurs even further. It could also mean that how we get films, and in what format, will widen. ""In the future we are going to look towards file delivery over IP [internet protocol - broadband], giving a DVD-like experience from the set-top box to the hard drive,"" says Mr Dean. But that is some time off for most, and for now, people still like to show off something physical in their bookshelves." +tech,"Long life promised for laptop PCs Scientists are working on ways to ensure laptops can stay powered for an entire working day. Building batteries from new chemical mixes could boost power significantly, say industry experts. The changes include everything from the way chips for laptops are made, to tricks that reduce the power consumption of displays. Ever since laptops appeared the amount of time they last between recharges has been a frustration for users. A survey carried out in 2000 by Forrester Research found that the shortness of battery life was the most complained about feature of laptops. ""The focus back then was more on performance and features,"" said Mike Trainor, chief mobile technology evangelist for chip giant Intel. ""For most of the 90s battery life was stuck on two to 2.5 hours."" But now, he said, laptops can last much longer. It was not just a case of improving battery life by squeezing more out of the lithium ion power packs, he explained. Other changes are needed to get to the holy grail of a laptop running for about eight hours before needing a recharge. ""Lithium ion is never going to get there by itself,"" he said. ""The industry has done a great job of wringing all possible energy storage out of that technology that they can."" Some new battery chemistries promise to cram more power into the same space, said Mr Trainor, though work still needed to be done to get them successfully from the lab to manufacturing. He was sceptical that fuel cells would develop quick enough to take over from solid batteries even though they have the potential to produce several times more energy than lithium ion power packs. ""In fuel cells you need to have pumps and separators and evaporation chambers,"" he said. ""It's a mini energy plant that needs to be shrunk and shrunk and shrunk."" Intel has been working with component makers to test energy consumption on all the parts inside a laptop and find ways to make them less power hungry. This work has led to the creation of the Mobile PC Extended Battery Life (EBL) Working Group that shares information about building notebooks that are more parsimonious with power. Some of the improvements in power use come simply because components on chips are shrinking, said Mr Trainor. Intel has also changed the way it creates transistors on silicon to reduce the power they need. On a larger scale, said Mr Trainor, improvements in the way that voltage regulators are made can reduce the amount of power lost as heat and make a notebook more energy efficient. Also, said Mr Trainor, research is being done on ways to cut energy consumption on displays - currently the biggest power guzzler on a laptop. Many laptop makers have committed to creating 14 and 15 inch screens that draw only three watts of power. This is far below the power consumption levels of screens in current notebooks. ""If we can get close to eight hours that's a place that people see as extraordinarily valuable that's what the industry has to deliver,"" Mr Trainor said." +tech,"US peer-to-peer pirates convicted The first convictions for piracy over peer-to-peer networks have been handed down in the US. New Yorker William Trowbridge and Texan Michael Chicoine have pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software. The two men faced charges following raids in August on suspected pirates by the FBI. The pair face jail terms of up to five years and a $250,000 (£130,000) fine. In a statement the US Department of Justice said the two men operated the central hubs in a piracy community organised across the Direct Connect peer-to-peer network. The piracy group called itself the Underground Network and membership of it demanded that users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files. Direct Connect allows users to set themselves up as central servers that act as co-ordinating spots for sharers. Users would swap files, such as films and music, by exchanging data over the network. During its investigation FBI agents reportedly downloaded 84 movies, 40 software programs, 13 games and 178 ""sound recordings"" from the five hubs that made up the larger piracy group. The raids were organised under the umbrella of Operation Digital Gridlock which was aimed at fighting ""criminal copyright theft on peer-to-peer networks"". In total, six raids were carried out in August. Five were on the homes of suspected copyright thieves and one on a net service firm. The Department of Justice said that both men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement. They also pleaded guilty to acting for commercial advantage. The two men are due to be sentenced on 29 April." +tech,"Hitachi unveils 'fastest robot' Japanese electronics firm Hitachi has unveiled its first humanoid robot, called Emiew, to challenge Honda's Asimo and Sony's Qrio robots. Hitachi said the 1.3m (4.2ft) Emiew was the world's quickest-moving robot yet. Two wheel-based Emiews, Pal and Chum, introduced themselves to reporters at a press conference in Japan. The robots will be guests at the World Expo later this month. Sony and Honda have both built sophisticated robots to show off developments in electronics. Explaining why Hitachi's Emiew used wheels instead of feet, Toshihiko Horiuchi, from Hitachi's Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory, said: ""We aimed to create a robot that could live and co-exist with people."" ""We want to make the robots useful for people ... If the robots moved slower than people, users would be frustrated."" Emiew - Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate - can move at 3.7m/h. Its ""wheel feet"" resemble the bottom half of a Segway scooter. With sensors on the head, waist, and near the wheels, Pal and Chum demonstrated how they could react to commands. ""I want to be able to walk about in places like Shinjuku and Shibuya [shopping districts] in the future without bumping into people and cars,"" Pal told reporters. Hitachi said Pal and Chum, which have a vocabulary of about 100 words, could be ""trained"" for practical office and factory use in as little as five to six years. Robotics researchers have long been challenged by developing robots that walk in the gait of a human. At the recent AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) annual meeting in Washington DC, researchers showed off bipedal designs. The three designs, each built by a different research group, use the same principle to achieve a human-like gait. Sony and Honda have both used humanoid robots, which are not commercially available, as a way of showing off computing power and engineering expertise. Honda's Asimo was ""born"" five years ago. Since then, Honda and Sony's Qrio have tried to trump each other with what the robots can do at various technology events. Asimo, has visited the UK, Germany, the Czech Republic, France and Ireland as part of a world tour. Sony's Qrio has been singing, jogging and dancing in formation around the world too and was, until last year, the fastest robot on two legs. But its record was beaten by Asimo. It is capable of 3km/h, which its makers claim is almost four times as fast as Qrio. Last year, car maker Toyota also stepped into the ring and unveiled its trumpet-playing humanoid robot. By 2007, it is predicted that there will be almost 2.5 million ""entertainment and leisure"" robots in homes, compared to about 137,000 currently, according to the United Nations (UN). By the end of that year, 4.1 million robots will be doing jobs in homes, said the report by the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the International Federation of Robotics. Hitachi is one of the companies with home cleaning robot machines on the market." +tech,"A decade of good website design The web looks very different today than it did 10 years ago. Back in 1994, Yahoo had only just launched, most websites were text-based and Amazon, Google and eBay had yet to appear. But, says usability guru Dr Jakob Nielsen, some things have stayed constant in that decade, namely the principles of what makes a site easy to use. Dr Nielsen has looked back at a decade of work on usability and considered whether the 34 core guidelines drawn up back then are relevant to the web of today. ""Roughly 80% of the things we found 10 years ago are still an issue today,"" he said. ""Some have gone away because users have changed and 10% have changed because technology has changed."" Some design crimes, such as splash screens that get between a user and the site they are trying to visit, and web designers indulging their artistic urges have almost disappeared, said Dr Nielsen. ""But there's great stability on usability concerns,"" he told the BBC News website. Dr Nielsen said the basic principles of usability, centring around ease of use and clear thinking about a site's total design, were as important as ever. ""It's necessary to be aware of these things as issues because they remain as such,"" he said. They are still important because the net has not changed as much as people thought it would. ""A lot of people thought that design and usability was only a temporary problem because broadband was taking off,"" he said. ""But there are a very small number of cases where usability issues go away because you have broadband."" Dr Nielsen said the success of sites such as Google, Amazon, eBay and Yahoo showed that close attention to design and user needs was important. ""Those four sites are extremely profitable and extremely successful,"" said Dr Nielsen, adding that they have largely defined commercial success on the net. ""All are based on user empowerment and make it easy for people to do things on the internet,"" he said. ""They are making simple but powerful tools available to the user. ""None of them have a fancy or glamorous look,"" he added, declaring himself surprised that these sites have not been more widely copied. In the future, Dr Nielsen believes that search engines will play an even bigger part in helping people get to grips with the huge amount of information online. ""They are becoming like the operating system to the internet,"" he said. But, he said, the fact that they are useful now does not meant that they could not do better. Currently, he said, search sites did not do a very good job of describing the information that they return in response to queries. Often people had to look at a website just to judge whether it was useful or not. Tools that watch the behaviour of people on websites to see what they actually find useful could also help refine results. Research by Dr Nielsen shows that people are getting more sophisticated in their use of search engines. The latest statistics on how many words people use on search engines shows that, on average, they use 2.2 terms. In 1994 only 1.3 words were used. ""I think it's amazing that we have seen a doubling in a 10-year period of those search terms,"" said Dr Nielsen. You can hear more from Jakob Nielsen and web design on the BBC World Service programme, Go Digital" +tech,"Apple laptop is 'greatest gadget' The Apple Powerbook 100 has been chosen as the greatest gadget of all time, by US magazine Mobile PC. The 1991 laptop was chosen because it was one of the first ""lightweight"" portable computers and helped define the layout of all future notebook PCs. The magazine has compiled an all-time top 100 list of gadgets, which includes the Sony Walkman at number three and the 1956 Zenith remote control at two. Gadgets needed moving parts and/or electronics to warrant inclusion. The magazine staff compiled the list and specified that gadgets also needed to be a ""self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own, not a subset of another device"". ""In general we included only items that were potentially mobile,"" said the magazine. ""In the end, we tried to get to the heart of what really makes a gadget a gadget,"" it concluded. The oldest ""gadget"" in the top 100 is the abacus, which the magazine dates at 190 A.D., and put in 60th place. Other pre-electronic gadgets in the top 100 include the sextant from 1731 (59th position), the marine chronometer from 1761 (42nd position) and the Kodak Brownie camera from 1900 (28th position). The Tivo personal video recorder is the newest device to make the top 10, which also includes the first flash mp3 player (Diamond Multimedia), as well as the first ""successful"" digital camera (Casio QV-10) and mobile phone (Motorola Startac). The most popular gadget of the moment, the Apple iPod, is at number 12 in the list while the first Sony transistor radio is at number 13. Sony's third entry in the top 20 is the CDP-101 CD player from 1983. ""Who can forget the crystalline, hiss-free blast of Madonna's Like A Virgin emanating from their first CD player?"" asked the magazine. Karl Elsener's knife, the Swiss Army Knife from 1891, is at number 20 in the list. Gadgets which could be said to feature surprisingly low down in the list include the original telephone (23rd), the Nintendo GameBoy (25th), and the Pulsar quartz digital watch (36th). The list also contains plenty of oddities: the Pez sweet dispenser (98th), 1990s toy Tamagotchi (86th) and the bizarre Ronco inside the shell egg scrambler (84th). Almost everyone has a mobile phone, how many people own a Powerbook? or an iPod? The findings of this magazine are not very convincing. What about the magnetic compass? We still use it 1,000 years after it was invented. I am amazed by the obsession with individual gadgets rather than genre. For example the Sony walkman was the first truly portable way of listening to your own music on the move whereas Minidisc, Flash MP3, portable CD players etc. are really just improvements in technology. My favourite 'true' gadgets are probably my portable MiniDisc player and the little battery powered whizzy thing I use to froth up my coffee! Calm down it's only in their opinion, and any list that includes the Taser in the top 100 gadgets has to be suspect.... Swiss army knife and no question about it. How many of the other items are still relatively unchanged from the original idea and still as useful/popular? You don't need a laptop or even a pocket calculator to work that one out! This list merely illustrates interesting cultural divides between the American authors and the overwhelmingly British responses. Brits see no further than mobile phones and the over thirties Sinclair; whilst the Americans focus on Apple, TV remotes and TiVO (which probably is rather obscure in Europe). What about the Soda Stream. This gadget changed my pre-teen life. Lap tops may enable you to ""think different, but you cant use them to ""get busy with the fizzy"" How about Astro Wars, one of the pioneers for computer games, i remember spending many an hour playing this and it still works today! However tried it the other day and it was rubbish, still a great gadget of its time. Why worry about mobile phones. Soon they will be subsumed into the PDA's / laptops etc. What about the Marine Chronometer? Completely revolutionised navigation for boats and was in use for centuries. For it's time, a technological marvel! Sony Net Minidisc! It paved the way for more mp3 player to explode onto the market. I always used my NetMD, and could not go anywhere without it. A laptop computer is not a gadget! It's a working tool! The Sinclair Executive was the world's first pocket calculator. I think this should be there as well. How about the clockwork radio? Or GPS? Or a pocket calculator? All these things are useful to real people, not just PC magazine editors. Are the people who created this list insane ? Surely the most important gadget of the modern age is the mobile phone? It has revolutionised communication, which is more than can be said for a niche market laptop. From outside the modern age, the marine chronometer is the single most important gadget, without which modern transportation systems would not have evolved so quickly. Has everyone forgot about the Breville pie maker?? An interesting list. Of the electronic gadgets, thousands of journalists in the early 1980s blessed the original noteboook pc - the Tandy 100. The size of A4 paper and light, three weeks on a set of batteries, an excellent keyboard, a modem. A pity Tandy did not make it DOS compatible. What's an Apple Powerbook 100 ? It's out of date - not much of a ""gadget"". Surely it has to be something simple / timeless - the tin opener, Swiss Army Knife, safety razor blade, wristwatch or the thing for taking stones out of horses hooves ? It has to be the mobile phone. No other single device has had such an effect on our way of living in such a short space of time. The ball point pen has got to be one of the most used and common gadgets ever. Also many might be grateful for the pocket calculator which was a great improvement over the slide rule. The Casio pocket calculator that played a simple game and made tinny noises was also a hot gadget in 1980. A true gadget, it could be carried around and shown off. All top 10 are electronic toys, so the list is probably a better reflection of the current high-tech obsession than anything else. I say this as the Swiss Army Knife only made No 20. Sinclair QL a machine far ahead of its time. The first home machine with a true multi-takings OS. Shame the marketing was so bad!!! Apple.. a triumph of fashion over... well everything else. Utter rubbish. Yes, the Apple laptop and Sony Walkman are classic gadgets. But to call the sextant and the marine chronometer 'gadgets' and rank them as less important than a TV remote control reveals a quite shocking lack of historical perspective. The former literally helped change the world by vastly improving navigation at see. The latter is the seed around which the couch potato culture has developed. No competition. I'd also put Apple's Newton and the first Palm Pilot there as the front runners for portable computing, and possibly the Toshiba Libretto for the same reason. I only wish that Vulcan Inc's Flipstart wasn't just vapourware otherwise it would be at the top. How did a laptop ever manage to beat off the challenge of the wristwatch or the telephone (mobile or otherwise)? What about radios and TVs? The swiss army knife. By far the most useful gadget. I got mine 12 years ago. Still wearing and using it a lot! It stood the test of time. Psion Organiser series 3, should be up there. Had a usable qwerty keyboard, removable storage, good set of apps and programmable. Case design was good (batteries in the hinge - a first, I think). Great product innovation. The first mobile PC was voted best gadget by readers of...err... mobile PC?! Why do you keep putting these obviously biased lists on your site? It's obviously the mobile phone or remote control, and readers of a less partisan publication would tell you that. The Motorola Startac should be Number One. Why? There will be mobile phones long after notebook computers and other gadgets are either gone or integrated in communications devices. The Psion series 3c! The first most practical way to carry all your info around... I too would back the Sinclair Spectrum - without this little beauty I would never have moved into the world of IT and earn the living that I do now. I'd have put the mobile phone high up the list. Probably a Nokia model. Sinclair Spectrum - 16k. It plugged into the tv. Games were rubbish but it gave me a taste for programming and that's what I do for a living now. I wish more modern notebooks -- even Apple's newest offerings -- were more like the PB100. Particularly disheartening is the demise of the trackball, which has given way to the largely useless ""trackpad"" which every notebook on the market today uses. They're invariably inaccurate, uncomfortable, and cumbersome to use. Congratulations to Apple, a deserved win!" +tech,"Commodore finds new lease of life The once-famous Commodore computer brand could be resurrected after being bought by a US-based digital music distributor. New owner Yeahronimo Media Ventures has not ruled out the possibility of a new breed of Commodore computers. It also plans to develop a ""worldwide entertainment concept"" with the brand, although details are not yet known. The groundbreaking Commodore 64 computer elicits fond memories for those who owned one back in the 1980s. In the chronology of home computing, Commodore was one of the pioneers. The Commodore 64, launched in 1982, was one of the first affordable home PCs. It was followed a few years later by the Amiga. The Commodore 64 sold more than any other single computer system, even to this day. The brand languished somewhat in the 1990s. Commodore International filed for bankruptcy in 1994 and was sold to Dutch firm Tulip Computers. In the late 1980s the firm was a great rival to Atari, which produced its own range of home computers and is now a brand of video games, formerly known as Infogrames. Tulip Computers sold several products under the Commodore name, including portable USB storage devices and digital music players. It had planned to relaunch the brand, following an upsurge of nostalgia for 1980s-era games. Commodore 64 enthusiasts have written emulators for Windows PC, Apple Mac and even PDAs so that the original Commodore games can be still run. The sale of Commodore is expected to be complete in three weeks in a deal worth over £17m." +tech,"Yahoo moves into desktop search Internet giant Yahoo has launched software to allow people to search e-mail and other files on their PCs. The firm is following in the footsteps of Microsoft, Google and Ask Jeeves, which have offered similar services. Search has become a lucrative and hotly-contested area of expansion for net firms, looking to extend loyalty beyond the web. With hard drives providing bigger storage, users could need more help to locate important files, such as photos. The desktop search technology has been licensed from a US-based firm X1 Technologies. It is designed to work alongside Microsoft's Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail programs. Searching e-mail effectively is becoming increasingly important, especially as the amount of spam increases. According to research from message analysts the Radicati Group, up to 45% of businesses' critical information is stored in e-mail and attachments. Yahoo's software can also work separately on the desktop, searching for music, photos and other files. Users can search under a variety of criteria, including file name, size, date and time. It doesn't yet incorporate web searching, although Yahoo has promised that future versions will allow users to search both web-based and desktop data. ""We are all getting more and more files on our desktop but the real commercial opportunity lies with linking this through to web content,"" said Julian Smith, an analyst with research firm Jupiter. ""It is all about extending the idea of search and getting a closer relationship with consumers by organising not just how they search on the internet but the files on your computer as well,"" he said. Search engines are often the first port of call for users when they go onto the web. The new foray into desktop search has rung alarm bells for human rights groups, concerned about the implications to privacy. And not everyone is impressed with the functionality of such services. Alexander Linden, vice president of emerging technologies at analyst firm Gartner,downloaded the Google product but has since removed it. ""It was just not very interesting,"" he said. He believes the rush to enter the desktop business is just a way of keeping up with rivals. ""Desktop search is just one of many features people would like but I'm suspicious of its usefulness,"" he said. More useful would be tools that can combine internet, intranet and desktop search alongside improvements to key word searching, he said." +tech,"Blind student 'hears in colour' A blind student has developed software that turns colours into musical notes so that he can read weather maps. Victor Wong, a graduate student from Hong Kong studying at Cornell University in New York State, had to read coloured maps of the upper atmosphere as part of his research. To study ""space weather"" Mr Wong needed to explore minute fluctuations in order to create mathematical models. A number of solutions were tried, including having a colleague describe the maps and attempting to print them in Braille. Mr Wong eventually hit upon the idea of translating individual colours into music, and enlisted the help of a computer graphics specialist and another student to do the programming work. ""The images have three dimensions and I had to find a way of reading them myself,"" Mr Wong told the BBC News website. ""For the sake of my own study - and for the sake of blind scientists generally - I felt it would be good to develop software that could help us to read colour images."" He tried a prototype version of the software to explore a photograph of a parrot. In order to have an exact reference to the screen, a pen and tablet device is used. The software then assigns one of 88 piano notes to individually coloured pixels - ranging from blue at the lower end of this scale to red at the upper end. Mr Wong says the application is still very much in its infancy and is only useful for reading images that have been created digitally. ""If I took a random picture and scanned it and then used my software to recognise it, it wouldn't work that well."" Mr Wong has been blind from the age of seven and he thinks that having a ""colour memory"" makes the software more useful than it would be to a scientist who had never had any vision. ""As the notes increase in pitch I know the colour's getting redder and redder, and in my mind's eye a patch of red appears."" The colour to music software has not yet been made available commercially, and Mr Wong believes that several people would have to work together to make it viable. But he hopes that one day it can be developed to give blind people access to photographs and other images." +tech,"Anti-spam laws bite spammer hard The net's self-declared spam king is seeking bankruptcy protection. Scott Richter, the man behind OptInRealBig.com and billions of junk mail messages, said lawsuits had forced the company into Chapter 11. OptInRealBig was fighting several legal battles, most notably against Microsoft, which is pushing for millions of dollars in damages. The company said filing for Chapter 11 would help it try to resolve its legal problems but still keep trading. Listed as the third biggest spammer in the world by junk mail watchdog Spamhaus, OptInRealBig was sued in December 2003 for sending mail messages that violated anti-spam laws. The lawsuit was brought by Microsoft and New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer who alleged that Mr Richter and his accomplices sent billions of spam messages through 514 compromised net addresses in 35 countries. According to Microsoft the messages were sent via net addresses owned by the Kuwait Ministries of Communication and Finance, several Korean schools, the Seoul Municipal Boramae Hospital, and the Virginia Community College System. Mr Richter settled the attorney general case in July 2004 but the legal fight with Microsoft is continuing. Microsoft is seeking millions in dollars in damages from OptInRealBig under anti-spam laws that impose penalties for every violation. In a statement announcing the desire to seek bankruptcy protection the company said it: ""could not continue to contend with legal maneuvers (sic) by a number of companies across the country, including Microsoft, and still run a viable business."" In its Chapter 11 filing OptInRealBig claimed it had assets of less than $10m (£5.29m) but debts of more than $50m which included the $46m that Microsoft is seeking via its lawsuit. ""The litigation has been a relentless distraction with which to contend,"" said Steven Richter, legal counsel for OptInRealBig. ""But, make no mistake, we do expect to prevail."" For its part OptInRealBig describes itself as a premier internet marketing company and said the move to seek Chapter 11 was necessary to let it keep trading while sorting out its legal battles." +tech,"US peer-to-peer pirates convicted The first convictions for piracy over peer-to-peer networks have been handed down in the US. New Yorker William Trowbridge and Texan Michael Chicoine have pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software. The two men faced charges following raids in August on suspected pirates by the FBI. The pair face jail terms of up to five years and a $250,000 (£130,000) fine. In a statement the US Department of Justice said the two men operated the central hubs in a piracy community organised across the Direct Connect peer-to-peer network. The piracy group called itself the Underground Network and membership of it demanded that users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files. Direct Connect allows users to set themselves up as central servers that act as co-ordinating spots for sharers. Users would swap files, such as films and music, by exchanging data over the network. During its investigation FBI agents reportedly downloaded 84 movies, 40 software programs, 13 games and 178 ""sound recordings"" from the five hubs that made up the larger piracy group. The raids were organised under the umbrella of Operation Digital Gridlock which was aimed at fighting ""criminal copyright theft on peer-to-peer networks"". In total, six raids were carried out in August. Five were on the homes of suspected copyright thieves and one on a net service firm. The Department of Justice said that both men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement. They also pleaded guilty to acting for commercial advantage. The two men are due to be sentenced on 29 April." +tech,"DVD copy protection strengthened DVDs will be harder to copy thanks to new anti-piracy measures devised by copy protection firm Macrovision. The pirated DVD market is enormous because current copy protection was hacked more than five years ago. Macrovision says its new RipGuard technology will thwart most, but not all, of the current DVD ripping (copying) programs used to pirate DVDs. ""RipGuard is designed to... reduce DVD ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer,"" said the firm. Macrovision said the new technology will work in ""nearly all"" current DVD players when applied to the discs, but it did not specify how many machines could have a problem with RipGuard. The new technology will be welcomed by Hollywood film studios which are increasingly relying on revenue from DVD sales. The film industry has stepped up efforts to fight DVD piracy in the last 12 months, taking legal action against websites which offer pirated copies of DVD movies for download. ""Ultimately, we see RipGuard DVD... evolving beyond anti-piracy, and towards enablement of legitimate online transactions, interoperability in tomorrow's digital home, and the upcoming high-definition formats,"" said Steve Weinstein, executive vice president and general manager of Macrovision's Entertainment Technologies Group. Macrovision said RipGuard was designed to plug the ""digital hole"" that was created by so-called DeCSS ripper software. It circumvents Content Scrambling System measures placed on DVDs and let people make perfect digital copies of copyrighted DVDs in minutes. Those copies could then be burned onto a blank DVD or uploaded for exchange to a peer-to-peer network. Macrovision said RipGuard would also prevent against ""rent, rip and return"" - where people would rent a DVD, copy it and then return the original. RipGuard is expected to be rolled out on DVDs from the middle of 2005, the company said. The new system works specifically to block most ripping programs - if used, those programs will now most likely crash, the company said. Macrovision has said that Rip Guard can be updated if hackers find a way around the new anti-copying measures." diff --git a/datasets/mall_customers.csv b/datasets/mall_customers.csv new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2e3ee961b --- /dev/null +++ b/datasets/mall_customers.csv @@ -0,0 +1,201 @@ +Age,Annual Income (k$),Spending Score (1-100),Genre +19,15,39,Male +21,15,81,Male +20,16,6,Female +23,16,77,Female +31,17,40,Female +22,17,76,Female +35,18,6,Female +23,18,94,Female +64,19,3,Male +30,19,72,Female +67,19,14,Male +35,19,99,Female +58,20,15,Female +24,20,77,Female +37,20,13,Male +22,20,79,Male +35,21,35,Female +20,21,66,Male +52,23,29,Male +35,23,98,Female +35,24,35,Male +25,24,73,Male +46,25,5,Female +31,25,73,Male +54,28,14,Female +29,28,82,Male +45,28,32,Female +35,28,61,Male +40,29,31,Female +23,29,87,Female +60,30,4,Male +21,30,73,Female +53,33,4,Male +18,33,92,Male +49,33,14,Female +21,33,81,Female +42,34,17,Female +30,34,73,Female +36,37,26,Female +20,37,75,Female 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+9,4385.9800000000005,1 +4,357.0,1 +1,175.92,29 +2,741.85,577 +6,1656.52,42 +5,1180.05,57 +2,414.20000000000005,72 +1,231.33999999999997,518 +2,488.15000000000003,276 +2,201.14,179 +2,178.05,6 +22,2736.65,2 +1,461.68,430 +1,427.0,659 +2,1296.43,475 +7,4182.99,41 diff --git a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml index 1907f35a5..63e5f8d48 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml +++ b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml @@ -236,3 +236,9 @@ parts: chapters: - file: python_scripts/dev_features_importance - file: interpretation/interpretation_quiz +- caption: 🚧 Clustering + chapters: + - file: python_scripts/clustering_kmeans + - file: python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01 + - file: python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01 + - file: python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb new file mode 100644 index 000000000..dfafa57f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb @@ -0,0 +1,271 @@ +{ + "cells": [ + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "# K-means clustering with scikit-learn\n", + "\n", + "So far we have only addressed supervised learning models, namely regression\n", + "and classification. In this module we introduce unsupervised learning for the\n", + "first time.\n", + "\n", + "In this notebook we explore the k-means algorithm, which seeks to group data\n", + "by a certain notion of similarity. To illustrate the different concepts, we\n", + "use the Mall Customers dataset.\n", + "\n", + "Here we use clustering to group customers with similar profiles based on some\n", + "characteristics, which then can be used for customer segmentation, and\n", + "therefore, for designing better targeted campaigns." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import pandas as pd\n", + "\n", + "data = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/mall_customers.csv\")\n", + "data" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "As we can see, this dataset includes the following information:\n", + "\n", + "- Gender: The gender of the customer.\n", + "- Age: The age of the customer.\n", + "- Annual Income (k$): The annual income of the customer (in thousands of\n", + " dollars).\n", + "- Spending Score (1\u2013100): The score ranges from 1 to 100, with a higher score\n", + " indicating a customer who spends more.\n", + "\n", + "In this case we cannot assign any of those columns to be the target. These are\n", + "all features, each of them representing different aspects of a customer\n", + "profile. We can verify that such features do not have a direct, predictable\n", + "relationship with each other:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import seaborn as sns\n", + "\n", + "_ = sns.pairplot(data, hue=\"Genre\", height=4)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "One could feel inclined to assigning labels to translate the task into a\n", + "classification problem, instead of using clustering.\n", + "\n", + "One approach could be simple labeling: Low spenders, mid spenders, and high\n", + "spenders (3 labels). But a priori nothing prevents us from defining multiple\n", + "combinations, such as:\n", + "- Young - Low spender - High income\n", + "- Young adult - High spender - Mid income\n", + "- Older adult - Mid spender - Low income\n", + "\n", + "We divided each numerical feature into 3 bins, leading to `3 ** n_features`\n", + "possible combinations. But we could also have used different amounts of bins\n", + "to define those labels and the problem rapidly becomes complex and subjective.\n", + "The choice of how to bin or categorize customers features can introduce\n", + "arbitrary boundaries, and the labels may not capture the nuances of customer\n", + "behavior effectively or can lead to oversimplification. For some settings we\n", + "rather let cluster labels emerge from the analysis, not from prior knowledge.\n", + "\n", + "Let's keep only the numerical values for the rest of this notebook. Having 3\n", + "features is something we can still easily visualize." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "data = data.drop(columns=[\"Genre\"])" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "## Training a k-means algorithm\n", + "\n", + "Intuitively, a good cluster should be compact (with points close to each\n", + "other), dense (with a high concentration of data points), and well-separated\n", + "from other clusters. In client segmentation, this means that different\n", + "clusters should clearly represent well-defined differences in their profiles.\n", + "\n", + "First let's define a helper function to gain a visual intuition of the\n", + "clusters as obtained provided a `model`." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", + "import numpy as np\n", + "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "def plot_clusters(model, ax):\n", + "\n", + " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data)\n", + " n_clusters = len(np.unique(cluster_labels))\n", + "\n", + " ax.scatter(\n", + " data[\"Annual Income (k$)\"],\n", + " data[\"Spending Score (1-100)\"],\n", + " data[\"Age\"],\n", + " c=cluster_labels,\n", + " s=50,\n", + " alpha=0.7,\n", + " )\n", + " ax.set_box_aspect(None, zoom=0.84)\n", + " ax.set_xlabel(\"Annual Income (k$)\", labelpad=15)\n", + " ax.set_ylabel(\"Spending Score (1-100)\", labelpad=15)\n", + " ax.set_zlabel(\"Age\", labelpad=15)\n", + " ax.set_title(f\"n_clusters={n_clusters}\", y=0.99)\n", + " _ = plt.tight_layout()" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "
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Tip

\n", + "

Here we used the fit_predict method, which does both steps at once: it\n", + "learns from the data just as using fit, and immediately outputs labels (or\n", + "cluster labels) to those same data points as would be the case using predict.

\n", + "
\n", + "\n", + "In the plots below we use different numbers of clusters, by changing the\n", + "hyperparameter `n_clusters`. Here the `random_state` controls the centroid\n", + "initialization." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "n_clusters_values = [2, 4, 6, 8]\n", + "fig, axes = plt.subplots(\n", + " nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(17, 15), subplot_kw={\"projection\": \"3d\"}\n", + ")\n", + "\n", + "for ax, n_clusters in zip(axes.flatten(), n_clusters_values):\n", + " model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0)\n", + " plot_clusters(model, ax)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "In non-supervised learning, such as clustering, not having ground truth labels\n", + "can make the model evaluation challenging. However, as we have discussed,\n", + "it is still possible to define metrics that provide insight into the quality of\n", + "the formed clusters.\n", + "\n", + "One common metric for evaluating clusters is Within-Cluster Sum of Squares\n", + "(WCSS), also known as **inertia**, which measures how compact the clusters\n", + "are. A lower WCSS indicates that the data points within each cluster are close\n", + "to the cluster's centroid, suggesting that the cluster is well-formed." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "wcss = []\n", + "n_clusters_values = range(2, 11)\n", + "\n", + "for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", + " model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0)\n", + " model.fit(data)\n", + " wcss.append(model.inertia_)\n", + "\n", + "plt.plot(n_clusters_values, wcss, marker=\"o\")\n", + "plt.xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", + "plt.ylabel(\"Inertia\")\n", + "_ = plt.title(\"Elbow method using cluster inertia\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "The so called elbow method can be subtile here, but it seems to match our\n", + "visual intuition from the 3D plots: having 6 clusters seems to be the best\n", + "choice for correctly identifying groups.\n", + "\n", + "Another useful metric is the Silhouette Score. A high silhouette score means\n", + "that the data points are not only well-grouped within their own clusters but\n", + "also well-separated from other clusters. A value of 0 indicates that the the\n", + "decision boundary between two neighboring clusters may overlap, whereas\n", + "negative values indicate that some samples might have been assigned to the\n", + "wrong cluster." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score\n", + "\n", + "silhouette_scores = []\n", + "for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", + " model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0)\n", + " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data)\n", + " score = silhouette_score(data, cluster_labels)\n", + " silhouette_scores.append(score)\n", + "\n", + "plt.plot(n_clusters_values, silhouette_scores, marker=\"o\")\n", + "plt.xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", + "plt.ylabel(\"Silhouette score\")\n", + "_ = plt.title(\"Silhouette scores for different n_clusters\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "The silhouette score reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=6`, which confirms\n", + "both the visual intuition and the optimal number of clusters found using the\n", + "elbow method." + ] + } + ], + "metadata": { + "jupytext": { + "main_language": "python" + }, + "kernelspec": { + "display_name": "Python 3", + "name": "python3" + } + }, + "nbformat": 4, + "nbformat_minor": 5 +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d7a8da614 --- /dev/null +++ b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb @@ -0,0 +1,257 @@ +{ + "cells": [ + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "# \ud83d\udcdd Exercise M4.01\n", + "\n", + "In this exercise we investigate the stability of the k-means algorithm. For\n", + "such purpose, we use the RFM Dataset. RFM is a method used for analyzing\n", + "customer value and the acronym RFM stands for the three dimensions:\n", + "\n", + "- Recency: How recently did the customer purchase;\n", + "- Frequency: How often do they purchase;\n", + "- Monetary Value: How much do they spend.\n", + "\n", + "It is commonly used in marketing and has received particular attention in\n", + "retail and professional services industries as well." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import pandas as pd\n", + "\n", + "data = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/rfm_segmentation.csv\")\n", + "data" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "As k-means clustering relies on computing distances between samples, in\n", + "general we need to scale our data before training the clustering model. That\n", + "was not the case in our previous notebook, as the features in the Mall\n", + "customers dataset already have the same scale.\n", + "\n", + "Show that scaling is important or else \"monetary\" have a dominant impact when\n", + "forming clusters. You can adapt the helper function `plot_clusters` from the\n", + "previous notebook to make plots using `KMeans` for `n_clusters_values = [2, 4,\n", + "6, 8]` without scaling." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Write your code here." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step\n", + "# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` for reproducibility. Then, make\n", + "# a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters` varying from 2 to 10. You can\n", + "# use the following helper function for such purpose:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "def plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", + " model,\n", + " data,\n", + " score_type=\"inertia\",\n", + " n_clusters_values=range(2, 11),\n", + " alpha=1.0,\n", + " title=None,\n", + "):\n", + " \"\"\"\n", + " Plots clustering scores (inertia or silhouette) for a range of n_clusters.\n", + "\n", + " Parameters:\n", + " model: A pipeline whose last step has a `n_clusters` hyperparameter.\n", + " data: The input data to cluster.\n", + " score_type: \"inertia\" or \"silhouette\" to decide which score to compute.\n", + " n_clusters_values: Iterable of integers representing `n_clusters` to try.\n", + " alpha: Transparency of the plot line, useful when several plots overlap.\n", + " title: Optional title to set; default title used if None.\n", + " \"\"\"\n", + " scores = []\n", + "\n", + " for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", + " model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters)\n", + "\n", + " if score_type == \"inertia\":\n", + " ylabel = \"Inertia\"\n", + " model.fit(data)\n", + " scores.append(model[-1].inertia_)\n", + " elif score_type == \"silhouette\":\n", + " ylabel = \"Silhouette score\"\n", + " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data)\n", + " data_transformed = model[:-1].transform(data)\n", + " score = silhouette_score(data_transformed, cluster_labels)\n", + " scores.append(score)\n", + " else:\n", + " raise ValueError(\n", + " \"score_type must be either 'inertia' or 'silhouette'\"\n", + " )\n", + "\n", + " plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color=\"tab:blue\", alpha=alpha)\n", + " plt.xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", + " plt.ylabel(ylabel)\n", + " _ = plt.title(title or f\"{ylabel} for varying n_clusters\", y=1.01)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Write your code here." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Let's check if the best choice of n_clusters remains stable when resampling\n", + "the dataset. For such purpose:\n", + "- Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the\n", + " effect of data resampling.\n", + "- Generate resamplings consisting of 90% of the data by using\n", + " `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.9`\n", + "- Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make\n", + " multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different\n", + " resamplings.\n", + "\n", + "Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable across all different\n", + "resamplings?" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Write your code here." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "By default, `KMeans` uses a smart selection of the initial centroids called\n", + "\"k-means++\". Instead of picking points completly at random, it tries several\n", + "candidate centroids at each step and picks the best ones based on an\n", + "estimation of how much they would help reduce the overall inertia. This method\n", + "improves the chances of finding better cluster centroids and speeds up\n", + "convergence compared to random initialization.\n", + "\n", + "Because \"k-means++\" already does a good job of finding suitable centroids, a\n", + "single initialization is typically sufficient for most cases. That is why the\n", + "parameter `n_init` in scikit-learn (which controls the number of times the\n", + "algorithm is run with different centroid initializations) is set to 1 by\n", + "default when `init=\"k-means++\"`. Nevertheless, there may be cases (as when\n", + "data is unevenly distributed) where increasing `n_init` may help ensuring a\n", + "global minimal inertia.\n", + "\n", + "Repeat the previous example but setting `n_init=5`. Remeber to fix the\n", + "`random_state` for the `KMeans` initialization to only estimate the\n", + "variability related to resamplings of the data. Are the resulting inertia\n", + "curves more stable?" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Write your code here." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Repeat the experiment, but this time determine if the optimal number of\n", + "clusters is stable across subsamplings when using the `silhouette_score`. Be\n", + "aware that computing the silhouette score is more computationally costly than\n", + "computing the inertia." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Write your code here." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Once again repeat the experiment to determine the stability of the optimal\n", + "number of clusters. This time, instead of using a `StandardScaler`, use a\n", + "`QuantileTransformer` with default parameters as the preprocessing step in the\n", + "pipeline. For the `KMeans` step, keep `n_init=5` and a fixed `random_state`.\n", + "What happens in terms of silhouette score?" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.preprocessing import QuantileTransformer\n", + "\n", + "model = make_pipeline(QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0))\n", + "for random_state in range(1, 11):\n", + " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", + " data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + " )\n", + " plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", + " model,\n", + " data_subsample,\n", + " score_type=\"silhouette\",\n", + " alpha=0.2,\n", + " title=\"Stability of silhouette score\\nwith n_init=5 and QuantileTransformer\",\n", + " )" + ] + } + ], + "metadata": { + "jupytext": { + "main_language": "python" + }, + "kernelspec": { + "display_name": "Python 3", + "name": "python3" + } + }, + "nbformat": 4, + "nbformat_minor": 5 +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b3832f52c --- /dev/null +++ b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb @@ -0,0 +1,480 @@ +{ + "cells": [ + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "# \ud83d\udcc3 Solution for Exercise M4.01\n", + "\n", + "In this exercise we investigate the stability of the k-means algorithm. For\n", + "such purpose, we use the RFM Dataset. RFM is a method used for analyzing\n", + "customer value and the acronym RFM stands for the three dimensions:\n", + "\n", + "- Recency: How recently did the customer purchase;\n", + "- Frequency: How often do they purchase;\n", + "- Monetary Value: How much do they spend.\n", + "\n", + "It is commonly used in marketing and has received particular attention in\n", + "retail and professional services industries as well." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import pandas as pd\n", + "\n", + "data = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/rfm_segmentation.csv\")\n", + "data" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "As k-means clustering relies on computing distances between samples, in\n", + "general we need to scale our data before training the clustering model. That\n", + "was not the case in our previous notebook, as the features in the Mall\n", + "customers dataset already have the same scale.\n", + "\n", + "Show that scaling is important or else \"monetary\" have a dominant impact when\n", + "forming clusters. You can adapt the helper function `plot_clusters` from the\n", + "previous notebook to make plots using `KMeans` for `n_clusters_values = [2, 4,\n", + "6, 8]` without scaling." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# solution\n", + "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", + "import numpy as np\n", + "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "def plot_clusters(model, ax):\n", + "\n", + " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data)\n", + " n_clusters = len(np.unique(cluster_labels))\n", + "\n", + " ax.scatter(\n", + " data[\"monetary\"],\n", + " data[\"frequency\"],\n", + " data[\"recency\"],\n", + " c=cluster_labels,\n", + " s=50,\n", + " alpha=0.7,\n", + " )\n", + " ax.set_box_aspect(None, zoom=0.84)\n", + " ax.set_xlabel(\"Monetary\", labelpad=15)\n", + " ax.set_ylabel(\"Frequency\", labelpad=15)\n", + " ax.set_zlabel(\"Recency\", labelpad=15)\n", + " ax.set_title(f\"n_clusters={n_clusters}\", y=0.99)\n", + " _ = plt.tight_layout()\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "n_clusters_values = [2, 4, 6, 8]\n", + "fig, axes = plt.subplots(\n", + " nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(17, 15), subplot_kw={\"projection\": \"3d\"}\n", + ")\n", + "\n", + "for ax, n_clusters in zip(axes.flatten(), n_clusters_values):\n", + " model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0)\n", + " plot_clusters(model, ax)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step\n", + "# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` for reproducibility. Then, make\n", + "# a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters` varying from 2 to 10. You can\n", + "# use the following helper function for such purpose:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "def plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", + " model,\n", + " data,\n", + " score_type=\"inertia\",\n", + " n_clusters_values=range(2, 11),\n", + " alpha=1.0,\n", + " title=None,\n", + "):\n", + " \"\"\"\n", + " Plots clustering scores (inertia or silhouette) for a range of n_clusters.\n", + "\n", + " Parameters:\n", + " model: A pipeline whose last step has a `n_clusters` hyperparameter.\n", + " data: The input data to cluster.\n", + " score_type: \"inertia\" or \"silhouette\" to decide which score to compute.\n", + " n_clusters_values: Iterable of integers representing `n_clusters` to try.\n", + " alpha: Transparency of the plot line, useful when several plots overlap.\n", + " title: Optional title to set; default title used if None.\n", + " \"\"\"\n", + " scores = []\n", + "\n", + " for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", + " model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters)\n", + "\n", + " if score_type == \"inertia\":\n", + " ylabel = \"Inertia\"\n", + " model.fit(data)\n", + " scores.append(model[-1].inertia_)\n", + " elif score_type == \"silhouette\":\n", + " ylabel = \"Silhouette score\"\n", + " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data)\n", + " data_transformed = model[:-1].transform(data)\n", + " score = silhouette_score(data_transformed, cluster_labels)\n", + " scores.append(score)\n", + " else:\n", + " raise ValueError(\n", + " \"score_type must be either 'inertia' or 'silhouette'\"\n", + " )\n", + "\n", + " plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color=\"tab:blue\", alpha=alpha)\n", + " plt.xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", + " plt.ylabel(ylabel)\n", + " _ = plt.title(title or f\"{ylabel} for varying n_clusters\", y=1.01)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# solution\n", + "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", + "from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler\n", + "\n", + "model = make_pipeline(StandardScaler(), KMeans(random_state=0))\n", + "model" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# solution\n", + "plot_n_clusters_scores(model, data, score_type=\"inertia\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Let's check if the best choice of n_clusters remains stable when resampling\n", + "the dataset. For such purpose:\n", + "- Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the\n", + " effect of data resampling.\n", + "- Generate resamplings consisting of 90% of the data by using\n", + " `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.9`\n", + "- Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make\n", + " multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different\n", + " resamplings.\n", + "\n", + "Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable across all different\n", + "resamplings?" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# solution\n", + "from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split\n", + "\n", + "for random_state in range(1, 11):\n", + " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", + " data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + " )\n", + " plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", + " model,\n", + " data_subsample,\n", + " score_type=\"inertia\",\n", + " alpha=0.2,\n", + " title=\"Stability of inertia across resamplings\",\n", + " )" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "source": [ + "The inertia changes drastically as a function of the subsamples, it is\n", + "then not possible to systematically define an optimal number of clusters." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "By default, `KMeans` uses a smart selection of the initial centroids called\n", + "\"k-means++\". Instead of picking points completly at random, it tries several\n", + "candidate centroids at each step and picks the best ones based on an\n", + "estimation of how much they would help reduce the overall inertia. This method\n", + "improves the chances of finding better cluster centroids and speeds up\n", + "convergence compared to random initialization.\n", + "\n", + "Because \"k-means++\" already does a good job of finding suitable centroids, a\n", + "single initialization is typically sufficient for most cases. That is why the\n", + "parameter `n_init` in scikit-learn (which controls the number of times the\n", + "algorithm is run with different centroid initializations) is set to 1 by\n", + "default when `init=\"k-means++\"`. Nevertheless, there may be cases (as when\n", + "data is unevenly distributed) where increasing `n_init` may help ensuring a\n", + "global minimal inertia.\n", + "\n", + "Repeat the previous example but setting `n_init=5`. Remeber to fix the\n", + "`random_state` for the `KMeans` initialization to only estimate the\n", + "variability related to resamplings of the data. Are the resulting inertia\n", + "curves more stable?" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# solution\n", + "model = make_pipeline(StandardScaler(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0))\n", + "model" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# solution\n", + "for random_state in range(1, 11):\n", + " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", + " data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + " )\n", + " plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", + " model,\n", + " data_subsample,\n", + " score_type=\"inertia\",\n", + " alpha=0.2,\n", + " title=\"Stability of inertia with n_init=5\",\n", + " )" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "source": [ + "The inertia is now stable, but an elbow is not clearly defined and then it is\n", + "not possible to define an optimal number of clusters from this heuristics." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Repeat the experiment, but this time determine if the optimal number of\n", + "clusters is stable across subsamplings when using the `silhouette_score`. Be\n", + "aware that computing the silhouette score is more computationally costly than\n", + "computing the inertia." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# solution\n", + "for random_state in range(1, 11):\n", + " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", + " data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + " )\n", + " plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", + " model,\n", + " data_subsample,\n", + " score_type=\"silhouette\",\n", + " alpha=0.2,\n", + " title=\"Stability of silhouette score with n_init=5\",\n", + " )" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "source": [ + "The silhouette score also varies as a function of the resampling, even after\n", + "setting `n_init=5`. It may seem that the optimal number of clusters is\n", + "sometimes 5, 6, or 9, depending on the sampling. We can conclude that in this\n", + "case, what makes challenging to find the optimal number of clusters is not\n", + "related to the metric, but possibly to the data itself, or to the modeling\n", + "pipeline." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Once again repeat the experiment to determine the stability of the optimal\n", + "number of clusters. This time, instead of using a `StandardScaler`, use a\n", + "`QuantileTransformer` with default parameters as the preprocessing step in the\n", + "pipeline. For the `KMeans` step, keep `n_init=5` and a fixed `random_state`.\n", + "What happens in terms of silhouette score?" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.preprocessing import QuantileTransformer\n", + "\n", + "model = make_pipeline(QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0))\n", + "for random_state in range(1, 11):\n", + " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", + " data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + " )\n", + " plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", + " model,\n", + " data_subsample,\n", + " score_type=\"silhouette\",\n", + " alpha=0.2,\n", + " title=\"Stability of silhouette score\\nwith n_init=5 and QuantileTransformer\",\n", + " )" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "source": [ + "The silhouette score is much more stable across resamplings. Moreover, the\n", + "optimal number of clusters seems to be 2, as it provides the highest score,\n", + "indicating that the data points are well-separated and correctly grouped with\n", + "good cohesion. However, 4 or 6 clusters may still make sense if the clustering\n", + "has specific use cases or domain relevance, but you should be cautious as the\n", + "relatively low silhouette score suggests that some points may be misassigned.\n", + "\n", + "Indeed, we can plot the transformed space and observe some samples seem to be\n", + "misassigned." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "model = make_pipeline(\n", + " QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, n_clusters=6, random_state=0)\n", + ")\n", + "model" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data)\n", + "\n", + "fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 8), subplot_kw={\"projection\": \"3d\"})\n", + "scatter = ax.scatter(\n", + " *model[:-1].transform(data).T,\n", + " c=cluster_labels,\n", + " cmap=\"viridis\",\n", + " s=50,\n", + " alpha=0.7,\n", + ")\n", + "ax.set_box_aspect(None, zoom=0.84)\n", + "ax.set_xlabel(\"Transformed Monetary\", labelpad=15)\n", + "ax.set_ylabel(\"Transformed Frequency\", labelpad=15)\n", + "ax.set_zlabel(\"Transformed Recency\", labelpad=15)\n", + "ax.set_title(\"Clusters in quantile-transformed space\", y=0.99)\n", + "_ = plt.tight_layout()" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "source": [ + "From the plot above, it would feel more natural to cluster together all\n", + "samples with transformed monetary equal to 0 instead of dividing it into 2\n", + "different clusters. Moreover, those clusters seem to take samples with low but\n", + "non-zero values of monetary, that would belong more naturally to other\n", + "clusters.\n", + "\n", + "What happens here is that data points at transformed monetary equal to 0 are\n", + "not isotropic in the 3 dimensions, i.e. they are spread on a plane of\n", + "transformed recency and frequency ranging from 0 to 1. Remember that k-means\n", + "consists of minimizing samples' euclidean distances to their assigned\n", + "centroid. As a consequence, k-means is more appropriate for clusters that are\n", + "isotropic and normally distributed.\n", + "\n", + "We will learn more about how to deal with anisotropic clusters in a future\n", + "notebook." + ] + } + ], + "metadata": { + "jupytext": { + "main_language": "python" + }, + "kernelspec": { + "display_name": "Python 3", + "name": "python3" + } + }, + "nbformat": 4, + "nbformat_minor": 5 +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f463f85da --- /dev/null +++ b/notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb @@ -0,0 +1,287 @@ +{ + "cells": [ + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "# Clustering performance metrics in the presence of labels\n", + "\n", + "In this notebook we briefly introduce how to deal with text data. Then we\n", + "introduce the use of supervised metrics to evaluate a clustering model.\n", + "\n", + "Previously, we saw how categorical features can be converted into numbers\n", + "using techniques like one-hot encoding, where each category is assigned a\n", + "unique position in a vector. We can apply a similar idea to text: treat each\n", + "unique word as a feature (a column), and represent each document as a vector\n", + "(a row) indicating the word counts in it. This encoding process is known as\n", + "\"vectorization\". Here is a quick example using `CountVectorizer` to turn a few\n", + "short phrases into a numerical table:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import pandas as pd\n", + "from sklearn.feature_extraction.text import CountVectorizer\n", + "\n", + "docs = [\n", + " \"This is a simple phrase\",\n", + " \"This phrase is shorter\",\n", + " \"The previous phrase is shorter than the first phrase\",\n", + "]\n", + "vectorizer = CountVectorizer()\n", + "X = vectorizer.fit_transform(docs)\n", + "\n", + "pd.DataFrame(X.toarray(), columns=vectorizer.get_feature_names_out())" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Observe in particular that the words \"the\" and \"phrase\" are counted twice in\n", + "the last document (the third row in the dataframe). Readers interested can\n", + "visit the [scikit-learn example on comparing vectorization\n", + "strategies](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_hashing_vs_dict_vectorizer.html).\n", + "\n", + "Now let's use the BBC News dataset to show how text documents can be cluster\n", + "by topic. The dataset consists of 1,250 samples divided into 5 different\n", + "categories: \"business\", \"entertainment\", \"sport\", \"politics\" and \"tech\"." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "data = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/bbc_news.csv\")\n", + "data" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We start by trying a model consisting of `StringEncoder`, which vectorizes the\n", + "text while keeping the feature space reasonably small, followed by `KMeans`.\n", + "\n", + "In a previous notebook we increased the default value of `n_init` as in that\n", + "case data turned out to be unevenly distributed. In this case we also set\n", + "`n_init=5` but for a different reason. When working with high-dimensional data\n", + "(i.e. data with a large number of features) such as vectorized text, k-means\n", + "can initialize centroids on extremely isolated data points that can stay their\n", + "own centroids all along. You can see the [example on clustering sparse\n", + "data](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_document_clustering.html#clustering-sparse-data-with-k-means)\n", + "for more information." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from skrub import StringEncoder\n", + "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", + "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", + "\n", + "model = make_pipeline(StringEncoder(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0))\n", + "model" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Even though clustering is an unsupervised learning method, we have access to\n", + "labels for the categories that were assigned by the BBC editors, allowing us\n", + "to evaluate how well the clusters found using our models match these labels.\n", + "While we could turn this into a multiclass classification problem and use\n", + "metrics such as the accuracy, this approach has limitations. For example, an\n", + "article on \"tech for entertainment\" might be assigned to a cluster that\n", + "doesn't perfectly match its original label, even though it shares similarities\n", + "with both \"tech\" and \"entertainment\" articles. This is why we focus on metrics\n", + "that evaluate clustering beyond strict label matching.\n", + "\n", + "In this notebook, we'll use two metrics: V-measure and Adjusted Rand Index\n", + "(ARI). The V-measure addresses overlaps by measuring both homogeneity (how\n", + "pure the clusters are) and completeness (how well each category is grouped\n", + "together). For instance, if an article on \"tech and entertainment\" is placed\n", + "in a cluster mostly about \"entertainment,\" this can still be a reasonable\n", + "result. V-measure ranges from 0 to 1, where 1 indicates perfect clustering\n", + "(both pure and complete), and 0 means the clustering is ineffective.\n", + "\n", + "The Adjusted Rand Index (ARI) measures the similarity between the predicted\n", + "clusters and human-assigned labels, adjusting for random labeling. For the BBC\n", + "News dataset, it compares pairs of articles to see if they are in the same\n", + "cluster in both the predicted and human-assigned labels. High ARI means that\n", + "articles from the same category are grouped together, and articles from\n", + "different categories are separated. ARI ranges from -1 (worse than random\n", + "clustering) to 1 (perfect clustering), with 0 indicating a model that assigns\n", + "cluster labels at random. A high ARI value shows good alignment between the\n", + "predicted clusters and the human-assigned labels, while a low ARI suggests\n", + "poor clustering performance." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# import numpy as np\n", + "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", + "from sklearn.model_selection import ValidationCurveDisplay\n", + "from sklearn.model_selection import ShuffleSplit\n", + "\n", + "cv = ShuffleSplit(n_splits=5, train_size=0.9, random_state=0)\n", + "\n", + "n_clusters_values = range(2, 11)\n", + "scoring_names = {\n", + " \"V-measure\": \"v_measure_score\",\n", + " \"ARI\": \"adjusted_rand_score\",\n", + "}\n", + "fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(6, 4))\n", + "for scoring in scoring_names.values():\n", + " ValidationCurveDisplay.from_estimator(\n", + " model,\n", + " data[\"text\"],\n", + " data[\"category\"],\n", + " param_name=\"kmeans__n_clusters\",\n", + " param_range=n_clusters_values,\n", + " score_type=\"train\",\n", + " scoring=scoring,\n", + " std_display_style=\"errorbar\",\n", + " cv=cv,\n", + " n_jobs=4,\n", + " ax=ax,\n", + " )\n", + "ax.set(\n", + " ylim=(-0.1, 1.1),\n", + " xlabel=\"Number of components\",\n", + " ylabel=\"Score\",\n", + " title=\"Validation curves for\\nStringEncoder + KMeans\",\n", + ")\n", + "handles, _ = ax.get_legend_handles_labels()\n", + "_ = ax.legend(handles=handles, labels=scoring_names.keys())" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We observe that both V-measure and ARI reach their maximum when\n", + "`n_clusters=5`, which matches the number of human-assigned categories in the\n", + "dataset. This alignment reflects both good editorial labels (as the categories\n", + "are well-defined and internally consistent) as well as a clustering pipeline\n", + "that can reasonably extract the structure in the data that matches the human\n", + "intuition.\n", + "\n", + "But the question may arise, if we didn't have access to labels at all, would\n", + "the silhouette score also lead us to chose `n_clusters=5`?" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score\n", + "from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split\n", + "\n", + "n_clusters_values = range(2, 11)\n", + "for random_state in range(1, 6):\n", + " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", + " data[\"text\"], train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + " )\n", + " scores = []\n", + " for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", + " model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters)\n", + " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data_subsample)\n", + " data_transformed = model[:-1].transform(data_subsample)\n", + " score = silhouette_score(data_transformed, cluster_labels)\n", + " scores.append(score)\n", + "\n", + " plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color=\"tab:blue\", alpha=0.2)\n", + " plt.xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", + " plt.ylabel(\"Silhouette score\")\n", + " _ = plt.title(\"Silhouette score for varying n_clusters\", y=1.01)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "The fact that the silhouette score favors larger values for `n_clusters` than\n", + "the supervised metrics we saw before suggests that, in terms of cluster\n", + "tightness and separation, having more clusters leads to better-defined\n", + "clusters. This could be a case where the data contains subclusters or finer\n", + "distinctions within the categories that the algorithm can capture with more\n", + "clusters. Essentially, while there may be 5 high-level categories, the\n", + "subcategories within those 5 groups (such as articles that are very niche\n", + "within \"tech\" or \"politics\") could benefit from additional clusters.\n", + "\n", + "To reduce the variability across resamplings, we can normalize the results\n", + "coming from the `StringEncoder`. Here `Normalizer` scales each sample\n", + "individually to have unit length. This ensures that clustering is driven by\n", + "the relative angle of the features coming from the vectorizer, rather than the\n", + "overall size of the vector. If two documents use the same set of dominant\n", + "words, in similar proportions, their vectors end up pointing in roughly the\n", + "same direction, resulting in a small relative angle." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.preprocessing import Normalizer\n", + "\n", + "model = make_pipeline(\n", + " StringEncoder(), Normalizer(copy=False), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0)\n", + ")\n", + "\n", + "for random_state in range(1, 6):\n", + " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", + " data[\"text\"], train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + " )\n", + " scores = []\n", + " for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", + " model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters)\n", + " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data_subsample)\n", + " data_transformed = model[:-1].transform(data_subsample)\n", + " score = silhouette_score(data_transformed, cluster_labels)\n", + " scores.append(score)\n", + "\n", + " plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color=\"tab:blue\", alpha=0.2)\n", + " plt.xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", + " plt.ylabel(\"Silhouette score\")\n", + " _ = plt.title(\"Silhouette score for varying n_clusters\", y=1.01)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "That didn't work as intended." + ] + } + ], + "metadata": { + "jupytext": { + "main_language": "python" + }, + "kernelspec": { + "display_name": "Python 3", + "name": "python3" + } + }, + "nbformat": 4, + "nbformat_minor": 5 +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py new file mode 100644 index 000000000..44456babe --- /dev/null +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py @@ -0,0 +1,188 @@ +# --- +# jupyter: +# kernelspec: +# display_name: Python 3 +# name: python3 +# --- + +# %% [markdown] +# # K-means clustering with scikit-learn +# +# So far we have only addressed supervised learning models, namely regression +# and classification. In this module we introduce unsupervised learning for the +# first time. +# +# In this notebook we explore the k-means algorithm, which seeks to group data +# by a certain notion of similarity. To illustrate the different concepts, we +# use the Mall Customers dataset. +# +# Here we use clustering to group customers with similar profiles based on some +# characteristics, which then can be used for customer segmentation, and +# therefore, for designing better targeted campaigns. + +# %% +import pandas as pd + +data = pd.read_csv("../datasets/mall_customers.csv") +data + +# %% [markdown] +# As we can see, this dataset includes the following information: +# +# - Gender: The gender of the customer. +# - Age: The age of the customer. +# - Annual Income (k$): The annual income of the customer (in thousands of +# dollars). +# - Spending Score (1–100): The score ranges from 1 to 100, with a higher score +# indicating a customer who spends more. +# +# In this case we cannot assign any of those columns to be the target. These are +# all features, each of them representing different aspects of a customer +# profile. We can verify that such features do not have a direct, predictable +# relationship with each other: + +# %% +import seaborn as sns + +_ = sns.pairplot(data, hue="Genre", height=4) + +# %% [markdown] +# One could feel inclined to assigning labels to translate the task into a +# classification problem, instead of using clustering. +# +# One approach could be simple labeling: Low spenders, mid spenders, and high +# spenders (3 labels). But a priori nothing prevents us from defining multiple +# combinations, such as: +# - Young - Low spender - High income +# - Young adult - High spender - Mid income +# - Older adult - Mid spender - Low income +# +# We divided each numerical feature into 3 bins, leading to `3 ** n_features` +# possible combinations. But we could also have used different amounts of bins +# to define those labels and the problem rapidly becomes complex and subjective. +# The choice of how to bin or categorize customers features can introduce +# arbitrary boundaries, and the labels may not capture the nuances of customer +# behavior effectively or can lead to oversimplification. For some settings we +# rather let cluster labels emerge from the analysis, not from prior knowledge. +# +# Let's keep only the numerical values for the rest of this notebook. Having 3 +# features is something we can still easily visualize. + +# %% +data = data.drop(columns=["Genre"]) + +# %% [markdown] +# ## Training a k-means algorithm +# +# Intuitively, a good cluster should be compact (with points close to each +# other), dense (with a high concentration of data points), and well-separated +# from other clusters. In client segmentation, this means that different +# clusters should clearly represent well-defined differences in their profiles. +# +# First let's define a helper function to gain a visual intuition of the +# clusters as obtained provided a `model`. + +# %% +import matplotlib.pyplot as plt +import numpy as np +from sklearn.cluster import KMeans + + +def plot_clusters(model, ax): + + cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data) + n_clusters = len(np.unique(cluster_labels)) + + ax.scatter( + data["Annual Income (k$)"], + data["Spending Score (1-100)"], + data["Age"], + c=cluster_labels, + s=50, + alpha=0.7, + ) + ax.set_box_aspect(None, zoom=0.84) + ax.set_xlabel("Annual Income (k$)", labelpad=15) + ax.set_ylabel("Spending Score (1-100)", labelpad=15) + ax.set_zlabel("Age", labelpad=15) + ax.set_title(f"n_clusters={n_clusters}", y=0.99) + _ = plt.tight_layout() + + +# %% [markdown] +# ```{tip} +# Here we used the `fit_predict` method, which does both steps at once: it +# learns from the data just as using `fit`, and immediately outputs labels (or +# cluster labels) to those same data points as would be the case using `predict`. +# ``` +# +# In the plots below we use different numbers of clusters, by changing the +# hyperparameter `n_clusters`. Here the `random_state` controls the centroid +# initialization. + +# %% +n_clusters_values = [2, 4, 6, 8] +fig, axes = plt.subplots( + nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(17, 15), subplot_kw={"projection": "3d"} +) + +for ax, n_clusters in zip(axes.flatten(), n_clusters_values): + model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0) + plot_clusters(model, ax) + +# %% [markdown] +# In non-supervised learning, such as clustering, not having ground truth labels +# can make the model evaluation challenging. However, as we have discussed, +# it is still possible to define metrics that provide insight into the quality of +# the formed clusters. +# +# One common metric for evaluating clusters is Within-Cluster Sum of Squares +# (WCSS), also known as **inertia**, which measures how compact the clusters +# are. A lower WCSS indicates that the data points within each cluster are close +# to the cluster's centroid, suggesting that the cluster is well-formed. + +# %% +wcss = [] +n_clusters_values = range(2, 11) + +for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: + model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0) + model.fit(data) + wcss.append(model.inertia_) + +plt.plot(n_clusters_values, wcss, marker="o") +plt.xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") +plt.ylabel("Inertia") +_ = plt.title("Elbow method using cluster inertia") + +# %% [markdown] +# The so called elbow method can be subtile here, but it seems to match our +# visual intuition from the 3D plots: having 6 clusters seems to be the best +# choice for correctly identifying groups. +# +# Another useful metric is the Silhouette Score. A high silhouette score means +# that the data points are not only well-grouped within their own clusters but +# also well-separated from other clusters. A value of 0 indicates that the the +# decision boundary between two neighboring clusters may overlap, whereas +# negative values indicate that some samples might have been assigned to the +# wrong cluster. + +# %% +from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score + +silhouette_scores = [] +for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: + model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0) + cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data) + score = silhouette_score(data, cluster_labels) + silhouette_scores.append(score) + +plt.plot(n_clusters_values, silhouette_scores, marker="o") +plt.xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") +plt.ylabel("Silhouette score") +_ = plt.title("Silhouette scores for different n_clusters") + +# %% [markdown] +# The silhouette score reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=6`, which confirms +# both the visual intuition and the optimal number of clusters found using the +# elbow method. diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bd2ef9bb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py @@ -0,0 +1,177 @@ +# --- +# jupyter: +# jupytext: +# text_representation: +# extension: .py +# format_name: percent +# format_version: '1.3' +# jupytext_version: 1.17.0 +# kernelspec: +# display_name: Python 3 +# name: python3 +# --- + +# %% [markdown] +# # 📝 Exercise M4.01 +# +# In this exercise we investigate the stability of the k-means algorithm. For +# such purpose, we use the RFM Dataset. RFM is a method used for analyzing +# customer value and the acronym RFM stands for the three dimensions: +# +# - Recency: How recently did the customer purchase; +# - Frequency: How often do they purchase; +# - Monetary Value: How much do they spend. +# +# It is commonly used in marketing and has received particular attention in +# retail and professional services industries as well. + +# %% +import pandas as pd + +data = pd.read_csv("../datasets/rfm_segmentation.csv") +data + +# %% [markdown] +# As k-means clustering relies on computing distances between samples, in +# general we need to scale our data before training the clustering model. That +# was not the case in our previous notebook, as the features in the Mall +# customers dataset already have the same scale. +# +# Show that scaling is important or else "monetary" have a dominant impact when +# forming clusters. You can adapt the helper function `plot_clusters` from the +# previous notebook to make plots using `KMeans` for `n_clusters_values = [2, 4, +# 6, 8]` without scaling. + +# %% +# Write your code here. + +# %% +# Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step +# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` for reproducibility. Then, make +# a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters` varying from 2 to 10. You can +# use the following helper function for such purpose: + +# %% +from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score + + +def plot_n_clusters_scores( + model, + data, + score_type="inertia", + n_clusters_values=range(2, 11), + alpha=1.0, + title=None, +): + """ + Plots clustering scores (inertia or silhouette) for a range of n_clusters. + + Parameters: + model: A pipeline whose last step has a `n_clusters` hyperparameter. + data: The input data to cluster. + score_type: "inertia" or "silhouette" to decide which score to compute. + n_clusters_values: Iterable of integers representing `n_clusters` to try. + alpha: Transparency of the plot line, useful when several plots overlap. + title: Optional title to set; default title used if None. + """ + scores = [] + + for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: + model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters) + + if score_type == "inertia": + ylabel = "Inertia" + model.fit(data) + scores.append(model[-1].inertia_) + elif score_type == "silhouette": + ylabel = "Silhouette score" + cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data) + data_transformed = model[:-1].transform(data) + score = silhouette_score(data_transformed, cluster_labels) + scores.append(score) + else: + raise ValueError( + "score_type must be either 'inertia' or 'silhouette'" + ) + + plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color="tab:blue", alpha=alpha) + plt.xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") + plt.ylabel(ylabel) + _ = plt.title(title or f"{ylabel} for varying n_clusters", y=1.01) + + +# %% +# Write your code here. + +# %% [markdown] +# Let's check if the best choice of n_clusters remains stable when resampling +# the dataset. For such purpose: +# - Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the +# effect of data resampling. +# - Generate resamplings consisting of 90% of the data by using +# `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.9` +# - Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make +# multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different +# resamplings. +# +# Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable across all different +# resamplings? + +# %% +# Write your code here. + +# %% [markdown] +# By default, `KMeans` uses a smart selection of the initial centroids called +# "k-means++". Instead of picking points completly at random, it tries several +# candidate centroids at each step and picks the best ones based on an +# estimation of how much they would help reduce the overall inertia. This method +# improves the chances of finding better cluster centroids and speeds up +# convergence compared to random initialization. +# +# Because "k-means++" already does a good job of finding suitable centroids, a +# single initialization is typically sufficient for most cases. That is why the +# parameter `n_init` in scikit-learn (which controls the number of times the +# algorithm is run with different centroid initializations) is set to 1 by +# default when `init="k-means++"`. Nevertheless, there may be cases (as when +# data is unevenly distributed) where increasing `n_init` may help ensuring a +# global minimal inertia. +# +# Repeat the previous example but setting `n_init=5`. Remeber to fix the +# `random_state` for the `KMeans` initialization to only estimate the +# variability related to resamplings of the data. Are the resulting inertia +# curves more stable? + +# %% +# Write your code here. + +# %% [markdown] +# Repeat the experiment, but this time determine if the optimal number of +# clusters is stable across subsamplings when using the `silhouette_score`. Be +# aware that computing the silhouette score is more computationally costly than +# computing the inertia. + +# %% +# Write your code here. + +# %% [markdown] +# Once again repeat the experiment to determine the stability of the optimal +# number of clusters. This time, instead of using a `StandardScaler`, use a +# `QuantileTransformer` with default parameters as the preprocessing step in the +# pipeline. For the `KMeans` step, keep `n_init=5` and a fixed `random_state`. +# What happens in terms of silhouette score? + +# %% +from sklearn.preprocessing import QuantileTransformer + +model = make_pipeline(QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0)) +for random_state in range(1, 11): + data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( + data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + ) + plot_n_clusters_scores( + model, + data_subsample, + score_type="silhouette", + alpha=0.2, + title="Stability of silhouette score\nwith n_init=5 and QuantileTransformer", + ) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bb189ea4e --- /dev/null +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py @@ -0,0 +1,322 @@ +# --- +# jupyter: +# kernelspec: +# display_name: Python 3 +# name: python3 +# --- + +# %% [markdown] +# # 📃 Solution for Exercise M4.01 +# +# In this exercise we investigate the stability of the k-means algorithm. For +# such purpose, we use the RFM Dataset. RFM is a method used for analyzing +# customer value and the acronym RFM stands for the three dimensions: +# +# - Recency: How recently did the customer purchase; +# - Frequency: How often do they purchase; +# - Monetary Value: How much do they spend. +# +# It is commonly used in marketing and has received particular attention in +# retail and professional services industries as well. + +# %% +import pandas as pd + +data = pd.read_csv("../datasets/rfm_segmentation.csv") +data + +# %% [markdown] +# As k-means clustering relies on computing distances between samples, in +# general we need to scale our data before training the clustering model. That +# was not the case in our previous notebook, as the features in the Mall +# customers dataset already have the same scale. +# +# Show that scaling is important or else "monetary" have a dominant impact when +# forming clusters. You can adapt the helper function `plot_clusters` from the +# previous notebook to make plots using `KMeans` for `n_clusters_values = [2, 4, +# 6, 8]` without scaling. + +# %% +# solution +import matplotlib.pyplot as plt +import numpy as np +from sklearn.cluster import KMeans + + +def plot_clusters(model, ax): + + cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data) + n_clusters = len(np.unique(cluster_labels)) + + ax.scatter( + data["monetary"], + data["frequency"], + data["recency"], + c=cluster_labels, + s=50, + alpha=0.7, + ) + ax.set_box_aspect(None, zoom=0.84) + ax.set_xlabel("Monetary", labelpad=15) + ax.set_ylabel("Frequency", labelpad=15) + ax.set_zlabel("Recency", labelpad=15) + ax.set_title(f"n_clusters={n_clusters}", y=0.99) + _ = plt.tight_layout() + + +n_clusters_values = [2, 4, 6, 8] +fig, axes = plt.subplots( + nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(17, 15), subplot_kw={"projection": "3d"} +) + +for ax, n_clusters in zip(axes.flatten(), n_clusters_values): + model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0) + plot_clusters(model, ax) + +# %% +# Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step +# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` for reproducibility. Then, make +# a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters` varying from 2 to 10. You can +# use the following helper function for such purpose: + +# %% +from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score + + +def plot_n_clusters_scores( + model, + data, + score_type="inertia", + n_clusters_values=range(2, 11), + alpha=1.0, + title=None, +): + """ + Plots clustering scores (inertia or silhouette) for a range of n_clusters. + + Parameters: + model: A pipeline whose last step has a `n_clusters` hyperparameter. + data: The input data to cluster. + score_type: "inertia" or "silhouette" to decide which score to compute. + n_clusters_values: Iterable of integers representing `n_clusters` to try. + alpha: Transparency of the plot line, useful when several plots overlap. + title: Optional title to set; default title used if None. + """ + scores = [] + + for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: + model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters) + + if score_type == "inertia": + ylabel = "Inertia" + model.fit(data) + scores.append(model[-1].inertia_) + elif score_type == "silhouette": + ylabel = "Silhouette score" + cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data) + data_transformed = model[:-1].transform(data) + score = silhouette_score(data_transformed, cluster_labels) + scores.append(score) + else: + raise ValueError( + "score_type must be either 'inertia' or 'silhouette'" + ) + + plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color="tab:blue", alpha=alpha) + plt.xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") + plt.ylabel(ylabel) + _ = plt.title(title or f"{ylabel} for varying n_clusters", y=1.01) + + +# %% +# solution +from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline +from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler + +model = make_pipeline(StandardScaler(), KMeans(random_state=0)) +model + +# %% +# solution +plot_n_clusters_scores(model, data, score_type="inertia") + +# %% [markdown] +# Let's check if the best choice of n_clusters remains stable when resampling +# the dataset. For such purpose: +# - Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the +# effect of data resampling. +# - Generate resamplings consisting of 90% of the data by using +# `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.9` +# - Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make +# multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different +# resamplings. +# +# Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable across all different +# resamplings? + +# %% +# solution +from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split + +for random_state in range(1, 11): + data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( + data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + ) + plot_n_clusters_scores( + model, + data_subsample, + score_type="inertia", + alpha=0.2, + title="Stability of inertia across resamplings", + ) + +# %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# The inertia changes drastically as a function of the subsamples, it is +# then not possible to systematically define an optimal number of clusters. + +# %% [markdown] +# By default, `KMeans` uses a smart selection of the initial centroids called +# "k-means++". Instead of picking points completly at random, it tries several +# candidate centroids at each step and picks the best ones based on an +# estimation of how much they would help reduce the overall inertia. This method +# improves the chances of finding better cluster centroids and speeds up +# convergence compared to random initialization. +# +# Because "k-means++" already does a good job of finding suitable centroids, a +# single initialization is typically sufficient for most cases. That is why the +# parameter `n_init` in scikit-learn (which controls the number of times the +# algorithm is run with different centroid initializations) is set to 1 by +# default when `init="k-means++"`. Nevertheless, there may be cases (as when +# data is unevenly distributed) where increasing `n_init` may help ensuring a +# global minimal inertia. +# +# Repeat the previous example but setting `n_init=5`. Remeber to fix the +# `random_state` for the `KMeans` initialization to only estimate the +# variability related to resamplings of the data. Are the resulting inertia +# curves more stable? + +# %% +# solution +model = make_pipeline(StandardScaler(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0)) +model + +# %% +# solution +for random_state in range(1, 11): + data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( + data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + ) + plot_n_clusters_scores( + model, + data_subsample, + score_type="inertia", + alpha=0.2, + title="Stability of inertia with n_init=5", + ) + +# %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# The inertia is now stable, but an elbow is not clearly defined and then it is +# not possible to define an optimal number of clusters from this heuristics. + +# %% [markdown] +# Repeat the experiment, but this time determine if the optimal number of +# clusters is stable across subsamplings when using the `silhouette_score`. Be +# aware that computing the silhouette score is more computationally costly than +# computing the inertia. + +# %% +# solution +for random_state in range(1, 11): + data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( + data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + ) + plot_n_clusters_scores( + model, + data_subsample, + score_type="silhouette", + alpha=0.2, + title="Stability of silhouette score with n_init=5", + ) + +# %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# The silhouette score also varies as a function of the resampling, even after +# setting `n_init=5`. It may seem that the optimal number of clusters is +# sometimes 5, 6, or 9, depending on the sampling. We can conclude that in this +# case, what makes challenging to find the optimal number of clusters is not +# related to the metric, but possibly to the data itself, or to the modeling +# pipeline. + +# %% [markdown] +# Once again repeat the experiment to determine the stability of the optimal +# number of clusters. This time, instead of using a `StandardScaler`, use a +# `QuantileTransformer` with default parameters as the preprocessing step in the +# pipeline. For the `KMeans` step, keep `n_init=5` and a fixed `random_state`. +# What happens in terms of silhouette score? + +# %% +from sklearn.preprocessing import QuantileTransformer + +model = make_pipeline(QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0)) +for random_state in range(1, 11): + data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( + data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + ) + plot_n_clusters_scores( + model, + data_subsample, + score_type="silhouette", + alpha=0.2, + title="Stability of silhouette score\nwith n_init=5 and QuantileTransformer", + ) + +# %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# The silhouette score is much more stable across resamplings. Moreover, the +# optimal number of clusters seems to be 2, as it provides the highest score, +# indicating that the data points are well-separated and correctly grouped with +# good cohesion. However, 4 or 6 clusters may still make sense if the clustering +# has specific use cases or domain relevance, but you should be cautious as the +# relatively low silhouette score suggests that some points may be misassigned. +# +# Indeed, we can plot the transformed space and observe some samples seem to be +# misassigned. + +# %% tags=["solution"] +model = make_pipeline( + QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, n_clusters=6, random_state=0) +) +model + +# %% tags=["solution"] +cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data) + +fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 8), subplot_kw={"projection": "3d"}) +scatter = ax.scatter( + *model[:-1].transform(data).T, + c=cluster_labels, + cmap="viridis", + s=50, + alpha=0.7, +) +ax.set_box_aspect(None, zoom=0.84) +ax.set_xlabel("Transformed Monetary", labelpad=15) +ax.set_ylabel("Transformed Frequency", labelpad=15) +ax.set_zlabel("Transformed Recency", labelpad=15) +ax.set_title("Clusters in quantile-transformed space", y=0.99) +_ = plt.tight_layout() + +# %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# From the plot above, it would feel more natural to cluster together all +# samples with transformed monetary equal to 0 instead of dividing it into 2 +# different clusters. Moreover, those clusters seem to take samples with low but +# non-zero values of monetary, that would belong more naturally to other +# clusters. +# +# What happens here is that data points at transformed monetary equal to 0 are +# not isotropic in the 3 dimensions, i.e. they are spread on a plane of +# transformed recency and frequency ranging from 0 to 1. Remember that k-means +# consists of minimizing samples' euclidean distances to their assigned +# centroid. As a consequence, k-means is more appropriate for clusters that are +# isotropic and normally distributed. +# +# We will learn more about how to deal with anisotropic clusters in a future +# notebook. diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py new file mode 100644 index 000000000..86eefe5ff --- /dev/null +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py @@ -0,0 +1,214 @@ +# --- +# jupyter: +# kernelspec: +# display_name: Python 3 +# name: python3 +# --- + +# %% [markdown] +# # Clustering performance metrics in the presence of labels +# +# In this notebook we briefly introduce how to deal with text data. Then we +# introduce the use of supervised metrics to evaluate a clustering model. +# +# Previously, we saw how categorical features can be converted into numbers +# using techniques like one-hot encoding, where each category is assigned a +# unique position in a vector. We can apply a similar idea to text: treat each +# unique word as a feature (a column), and represent each document as a vector +# (a row) indicating the word counts in it. This encoding process is known as +# "vectorization". Here is a quick example using `CountVectorizer` to turn a few +# short phrases into a numerical table: + +# %% +import pandas as pd +from sklearn.feature_extraction.text import CountVectorizer + +docs = [ + "This is a simple phrase", + "This phrase is shorter", + "The previous phrase is shorter than the first phrase", +] +vectorizer = CountVectorizer() +X = vectorizer.fit_transform(docs) + +pd.DataFrame(X.toarray(), columns=vectorizer.get_feature_names_out()) + +# %% [markdown] +# Observe in particular that the words "the" and "phrase" are counted twice in +# the last document (the third row in the dataframe). Readers interested can +# visit the [scikit-learn example on comparing vectorization +# strategies](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_hashing_vs_dict_vectorizer.html). +# +# Now let's use the BBC News dataset to show how text documents can be cluster +# by topic. The dataset consists of 1,250 samples divided into 5 different +# categories: "business", "entertainment", "sport", "politics" and "tech". + +# %% +data = pd.read_csv("../datasets/bbc_news.csv") +data + +# %% [markdown] +# We start by trying a model consisting of `StringEncoder`, which vectorizes the +# text while keeping the feature space reasonably small, followed by `KMeans`. +# +# In a previous notebook we increased the default value of `n_init` as in that +# case data turned out to be unevenly distributed. In this case we also set +# `n_init=5` but for a different reason. When working with high-dimensional data +# (i.e. data with a large number of features) such as vectorized text, k-means +# can initialize centroids on extremely isolated data points that can stay their +# own centroids all along. You can see the [example on clustering sparse +# data](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_document_clustering.html#clustering-sparse-data-with-k-means) +# for more information. + +# %% +from skrub import StringEncoder +from sklearn.cluster import KMeans +from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline + +model = make_pipeline(StringEncoder(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0)) +model + +# %% [markdown] +# Even though clustering is an unsupervised learning method, we have access to +# labels for the categories that were assigned by the BBC editors, allowing us +# to evaluate how well the clusters found using our models match these labels. +# While we could turn this into a multiclass classification problem and use +# metrics such as the accuracy, this approach has limitations. For example, an +# article on "tech for entertainment" might be assigned to a cluster that +# doesn't perfectly match its original label, even though it shares similarities +# with both "tech" and "entertainment" articles. This is why we focus on metrics +# that evaluate clustering beyond strict label matching. +# +# In this notebook, we'll use two metrics: V-measure and Adjusted Rand Index +# (ARI). The V-measure addresses overlaps by measuring both homogeneity (how +# pure the clusters are) and completeness (how well each category is grouped +# together). For instance, if an article on "tech and entertainment" is placed +# in a cluster mostly about "entertainment," this can still be a reasonable +# result. V-measure ranges from 0 to 1, where 1 indicates perfect clustering +# (both pure and complete), and 0 means the clustering is ineffective. +# +# The Adjusted Rand Index (ARI) measures the similarity between the predicted +# clusters and human-assigned labels, adjusting for random labeling. For the BBC +# News dataset, it compares pairs of articles to see if they are in the same +# cluster in both the predicted and human-assigned labels. High ARI means that +# articles from the same category are grouped together, and articles from +# different categories are separated. ARI ranges from -1 (worse than random +# clustering) to 1 (perfect clustering), with 0 indicating a model that assigns +# cluster labels at random. A high ARI value shows good alignment between the +# predicted clusters and the human-assigned labels, while a low ARI suggests +# poor clustering performance. + +# %% +# import numpy as np +import matplotlib.pyplot as plt +from sklearn.model_selection import ValidationCurveDisplay +from sklearn.model_selection import ShuffleSplit + +cv = ShuffleSplit(n_splits=5, train_size=0.9, random_state=0) + +n_clusters_values = range(2, 11) +scoring_names = { + "V-measure": "v_measure_score", + "ARI": "adjusted_rand_score", +} +fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(6, 4)) +for scoring in scoring_names.values(): + ValidationCurveDisplay.from_estimator( + model, + data["text"], + data["category"], + param_name="kmeans__n_clusters", + param_range=n_clusters_values, + score_type="train", + scoring=scoring, + std_display_style="errorbar", + cv=cv, + n_jobs=4, + ax=ax, + ) +ax.set( + ylim=(-0.1, 1.1), + xlabel="Number of components", + ylabel="Score", + title="Validation curves for\nStringEncoder + KMeans", +) +handles, _ = ax.get_legend_handles_labels() +_ = ax.legend(handles=handles, labels=scoring_names.keys()) + +# %% [markdown] +# We observe that both V-measure and ARI reach their maximum when +# `n_clusters=5`, which matches the number of human-assigned categories in the +# dataset. This alignment reflects both good editorial labels (as the categories +# are well-defined and internally consistent) as well as a clustering pipeline +# that can reasonably extract the structure in the data that matches the human +# intuition. +# +# But the question may arise, if we didn't have access to labels at all, would +# the silhouette score also lead us to chose `n_clusters=5`? + +# %% +from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score +from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split + +n_clusters_values = range(2, 11) +for random_state in range(1, 6): + data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( + data["text"], train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + ) + scores = [] + for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: + model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters) + cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data_subsample) + data_transformed = model[:-1].transform(data_subsample) + score = silhouette_score(data_transformed, cluster_labels) + scores.append(score) + + plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color="tab:blue", alpha=0.2) + plt.xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") + plt.ylabel("Silhouette score") + _ = plt.title("Silhouette score for varying n_clusters", y=1.01) + +# %% [markdown] +# The fact that the silhouette score favors larger values for `n_clusters` than +# the supervised metrics we saw before suggests that, in terms of cluster +# tightness and separation, having more clusters leads to better-defined +# clusters. This could be a case where the data contains subclusters or finer +# distinctions within the categories that the algorithm can capture with more +# clusters. Essentially, while there may be 5 high-level categories, the +# subcategories within those 5 groups (such as articles that are very niche +# within "tech" or "politics") could benefit from additional clusters. +# +# To reduce the variability across resamplings, we can normalize the results +# coming from the `StringEncoder`. Here `Normalizer` scales each sample +# individually to have unit length. This ensures that clustering is driven by +# the relative angle of the features coming from the vectorizer, rather than the +# overall size of the vector. If two documents use the same set of dominant +# words, in similar proportions, their vectors end up pointing in roughly the +# same direction, resulting in a small relative angle. + +# %% +from sklearn.preprocessing import Normalizer + +model = make_pipeline( + StringEncoder(), Normalizer(copy=False), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0) +) + +for random_state in range(1, 6): + data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( + data["text"], train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + ) + scores = [] + for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: + model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters) + cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data_subsample) + data_transformed = model[:-1].transform(data_subsample) + score = silhouette_score(data_transformed, cluster_labels) + scores.append(score) + + plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color="tab:blue", alpha=0.2) + plt.xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") + plt.ylabel("Silhouette score") + _ = plt.title("Silhouette score for varying n_clusters", y=1.01) + +# %% [markdown] +# That didn't work as intended. From 8ab8ff8bbefc2252fefdef852cffada215916af0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 27 May 2025 18:09:14 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 02/79] Iter on Kmeans exercise --- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py | 62 +++++--- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py | 170 +++++++++++---------- 2 files changed, 130 insertions(+), 102 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py index bd2ef9bb8..719cc1d02 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py @@ -23,33 +23,42 @@ # - Monetary Value: How much do they spend. # # It is commonly used in marketing and has received particular attention in -# retail and professional services industries as well. +# retail and professional services industries as well. Here we subsample the +# dataset to ease the calculations. # %% import pandas as pd data = pd.read_csv("../datasets/rfm_segmentation.csv") +data = data.sample(n=2000, random_state=0).reset_index(drop=True) data +# %% [markdown] +# We can explore the data using a seborn `pairplot`. + +# %% +import seaborn as sns + +_ = sns.pairplot(data) + # %% [markdown] # As k-means clustering relies on computing distances between samples, in -# general we need to scale our data before training the clustering model. That -# was not the case in our previous notebook, as the features in the Mall -# customers dataset already have the same scale. +# general we need to scale our data before training the clustering model. # -# Show that scaling is important or else "monetary" have a dominant impact when -# forming clusters. You can adapt the helper function `plot_clusters` from the -# previous notebook to make plots using `KMeans` for `n_clusters_values = [2, 4, -# 6, 8]` without scaling. +# Modify the color of the `pairplot` to represent the cluster labels as +# predicted by `KMeans` without any scaling. Try different values for +# `n_clusters`, for instance, `n_clusters_values=[2, 3, 4]`. Do all features +# contribute equally to forming the clusters in their original scale? # %% # Write your code here. # %% # Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step -# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` for reproducibility. Then, make -# a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters` varying from 2 to 10. You can -# use the following helper function for such purpose: +# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` of `KMeans` for +# reproducibility. Then, make a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters` +# varying from 1 to 10. You can use the following helper function for such +# purpose: # %% from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score @@ -59,7 +68,7 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( model, data, score_type="inertia", - n_clusters_values=range(2, 11), + n_clusters_values=None, alpha=1.0, title=None, ): @@ -70,17 +79,21 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( model: A pipeline whose last step has a `n_clusters` hyperparameter. data: The input data to cluster. score_type: "inertia" or "silhouette" to decide which score to compute. - n_clusters_values: Iterable of integers representing `n_clusters` to try. alpha: Transparency of the plot line, useful when several plots overlap. title: Optional title to set; default title used if None. """ scores = [] + if n_clusters_values is None: + if score_type == "inertia": + n_clusters_values = range(1, 11) + else: + n_clusters_values = range(2, 11) + for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters) - if score_type == "inertia": - ylabel = "Inertia" + ylabel = "WCSS (inertia)" model.fit(data) scores.append(model[-1].inertia_) elif score_type == "silhouette": @@ -106,13 +119,14 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # %% [markdown] # Let's check if the best choice of n_clusters remains stable when resampling # the dataset. For such purpose: -# - Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the -# effect of data resampling. -# - Generate resamplings consisting of 90% of the data by using -# `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.9` +# - Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the effect of +# data resampling. +# - Generate resamplings consisting of 50% of the data by using +# `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state` +# to do the split leads to different resamplings. # - Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make # multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different -# resamplings. +# resampling. 10 resamplings should be enough to draw conclusions. # # Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable across all different # resamplings? @@ -146,9 +160,9 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # %% [markdown] # Repeat the experiment, but this time determine if the optimal number of -# clusters is stable across subsamplings when using the `silhouette_score`. Be -# aware that computing the silhouette score is more computationally costly than -# computing the inertia. +# clusters (with `StandarScaler` and `n_init=5`) is stable across subsamplings +# in terms of the `silhouette_score`. Be aware that computing the silhouette +# score is more computationally costly than computing the inertia. # %% # Write your code here. @@ -166,7 +180,7 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( model = make_pipeline(QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0)) for random_state in range(1, 11): data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( - data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + data, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state ) plot_n_clusters_scores( model, diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py index bb189ea4e..7e9f5d74f 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py @@ -17,67 +17,57 @@ # - Monetary Value: How much do they spend. # # It is commonly used in marketing and has received particular attention in -# retail and professional services industries as well. +# retail and professional services industries as well. Here we subsample the +# dataset to ease the calculations. # %% import pandas as pd data = pd.read_csv("../datasets/rfm_segmentation.csv") +data = data.sample(n=2000, random_state=0).reset_index(drop=True) data +# %% [markdown] +# We can explore the data using a seborn `pairplot`. + +# %% +import seaborn as sns + +_ = sns.pairplot(data) + # %% [markdown] # As k-means clustering relies on computing distances between samples, in -# general we need to scale our data before training the clustering model. That -# was not the case in our previous notebook, as the features in the Mall -# customers dataset already have the same scale. +# general we need to scale our data before training the clustering model. # -# Show that scaling is important or else "monetary" have a dominant impact when -# forming clusters. You can adapt the helper function `plot_clusters` from the -# previous notebook to make plots using `KMeans` for `n_clusters_values = [2, 4, -# 6, 8]` without scaling. +# Modify the color of the `pairplot` to represent the cluster labels as +# predicted by `KMeans` without any scaling. Try different values for +# `n_clusters`, for instance, `n_clusters_values=[2, 3, 4]`. Do all features +# contribute equally to forming the clusters in their original scale? # %% # solution import matplotlib.pyplot as plt -import numpy as np from sklearn.cluster import KMeans +n_clusters_values = [2, 3, 4] -def plot_clusters(model, ax): - - cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data) - n_clusters = len(np.unique(cluster_labels)) - - ax.scatter( - data["monetary"], - data["frequency"], - data["recency"], - c=cluster_labels, - s=50, - alpha=0.7, - ) - ax.set_box_aspect(None, zoom=0.84) - ax.set_xlabel("Monetary", labelpad=15) - ax.set_ylabel("Frequency", labelpad=15) - ax.set_zlabel("Recency", labelpad=15) - ax.set_title(f"n_clusters={n_clusters}", y=0.99) - _ = plt.tight_layout() - - -n_clusters_values = [2, 4, 6, 8] -fig, axes = plt.subplots( - nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(17, 15), subplot_kw={"projection": "3d"} -) - -for ax, n_clusters in zip(axes.flatten(), n_clusters_values): +for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0) - plot_clusters(model, ax) + clustered_data = data.copy() + clustered_data["cluster label"] = model.fit_predict(data) + sns.pairplot(clustered_data, hue="cluster label", palette="tab10") + plt.title(f"n_clusters={n_clusters}") + +# %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# Without scaling "monetary" has a dominant impact when forming clusters, +# regardless of the number of clusters. # %% # Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step -# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` for reproducibility. Then, make -# a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters` varying from 2 to 10. You can -# use the following helper function for such purpose: +# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` of `KMeans` for +# reproducibility. Then, make a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters` +# varying from 1 to 10. You can use the following helper function for such +# purpose: # %% from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score @@ -87,7 +77,7 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( model, data, score_type="inertia", - n_clusters_values=range(2, 11), + n_clusters_values=None, alpha=1.0, title=None, ): @@ -98,17 +88,21 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( model: A pipeline whose last step has a `n_clusters` hyperparameter. data: The input data to cluster. score_type: "inertia" or "silhouette" to decide which score to compute. - n_clusters_values: Iterable of integers representing `n_clusters` to try. alpha: Transparency of the plot line, useful when several plots overlap. title: Optional title to set; default title used if None. """ scores = [] + if n_clusters_values is None: + if score_type == "inertia": + n_clusters_values = range(1, 11) + else: + n_clusters_values = range(2, 11) + for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters) - if score_type == "inertia": - ylabel = "Inertia" + ylabel = "WCSS (inertia)" model.fit(data) scores.append(model[-1].inertia_) elif score_type == "silhouette": @@ -143,13 +137,14 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # %% [markdown] # Let's check if the best choice of n_clusters remains stable when resampling # the dataset. For such purpose: -# - Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the -# effect of data resampling. -# - Generate resamplings consisting of 90% of the data by using -# `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.9` +# - Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the effect of +# data resampling. +# - Generate resamplings consisting of 50% of the data by using +# `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state` +# to do the split leads to different resamplings. # - Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make # multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different -# resamplings. +# resampling. 10 resamplings should be enough to draw conclusions. # # Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable across all different # resamplings? @@ -160,7 +155,7 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( for random_state in range(1, 11): data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( - data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + data, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state ) plot_n_clusters_scores( model, @@ -171,8 +166,8 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( ) # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] -# The inertia changes drastically as a function of the subsamples, it is -# then not possible to systematically define an optimal number of clusters. +# The inertia changes drastically as a function of the subsamples, it is then +# not possible to systematically define an optimal number of clusters. # %% [markdown] # By default, `KMeans` uses a smart selection of the initial centroids called @@ -204,14 +199,14 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # solution for random_state in range(1, 11): data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( - data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + data, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state ) plot_n_clusters_scores( model, data_subsample, score_type="inertia", alpha=0.2, - title="Stability of inertia with n_init=5", + title="Stability of inertia with\nn_init=5 and StandardScaler", ) # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] @@ -220,28 +215,28 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # %% [markdown] # Repeat the experiment, but this time determine if the optimal number of -# clusters is stable across subsamplings when using the `silhouette_score`. Be -# aware that computing the silhouette score is more computationally costly than -# computing the inertia. +# clusters (with `StandarScaler` and `n_init=5`) is stable across subsamplings +# in terms of the `silhouette_score`. Be aware that computing the silhouette +# score is more computationally costly than computing the inertia. # %% # solution for random_state in range(1, 11): data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( - data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + data, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state ) plot_n_clusters_scores( model, data_subsample, score_type="silhouette", alpha=0.2, - title="Stability of silhouette score with n_init=5", + title="Stability of silhouette score\nwith n_init=5 and StandardScaler", ) # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] # The silhouette score also varies as a function of the resampling, even after # setting `n_init=5`. It may seem that the optimal number of clusters is -# sometimes 5, 6, or 9, depending on the sampling. We can conclude that in this +# sometimes 2, 4, 5 or 6 depending on the sampling. We can conclude that in this # case, what makes challenging to find the optimal number of clusters is not # related to the metric, but possibly to the data itself, or to the modeling # pipeline. @@ -259,7 +254,7 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( model = make_pipeline(QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0)) for random_state in range(1, 11): data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( - data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + data, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state ) plot_n_clusters_scores( model, @@ -273,27 +268,47 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # The silhouette score is much more stable across resamplings. Moreover, the # optimal number of clusters seems to be 2, as it provides the highest score, # indicating that the data points are well-separated and correctly grouped with -# good cohesion. However, 4 or 6 clusters may still make sense if the clustering -# has specific use cases or domain relevance, but you should be cautious as the -# relatively low silhouette score suggests that some points may be misassigned. +# good cohesion. However 4 or 6 clusters may still make sense if the clustering +# has specific use cases or domain relevance. # -# Indeed, we can plot the transformed space and observe some samples seem to be -# misassigned. +# Notice that you should still be cautious as the relatively low values of the +# silhouette scores suggest that some points may be "misassigned". To verify +# this, we can plot the labels when setting `n_clusters=6`. # %% tags=["solution"] +n_clusters=6 model = make_pipeline( - QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, n_clusters=6, random_state=0) + QuantileTransformer(), + KMeans(n_init=5, n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0), ) model # %% tags=["solution"] +clustered_data = data.copy() +clustered_data["cluster label"] = model.fit_predict(data) + +sns.pairplot(clustered_data, hue="cluster label", palette="tab10") +plt.title(f"n_clusters={n_clusters}") + +# %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# Indeed, "monetary" exactly equal to 0 is divided into 2 clusters (the plot in +# the middle of the `pairplot`), whereas it would feel more reasonably to have +# those points form a single cluster. +# +# Alternatively, we can plot the labels in the transformed space to better +# observe that some data points seem to be misassigned. + +# %% tags=["solution"] +from matplotlib.colors import ListedColormap + cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data) +cmap = ListedColormap(plt.get_cmap("tab10").colors[:n_clusters]) fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 8), subplot_kw={"projection": "3d"}) scatter = ax.scatter( *model[:-1].transform(data).T, c=cluster_labels, - cmap="viridis", + cmap=cmap, s=50, alpha=0.7, ) @@ -305,18 +320,17 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( _ = plt.tight_layout() # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] -# From the plot above, it would feel more natural to cluster together all -# samples with transformed monetary equal to 0 instead of dividing it into 2 -# different clusters. Moreover, those clusters seem to take samples with low but -# non-zero values of monetary, that would belong more naturally to other -# clusters. +# Observe that the clusters at "transformed monetary" exactly equal to 0 are +# grouped together with samples with low but non-zero values of "transformed +# monetary", that would belong more naturally to other clusters. # -# What happens here is that data points at transformed monetary equal to 0 are +# What happens here is that data points at "transformed monetary" equal to 0 are # not isotropic in the 3 dimensions, i.e. they are spread on a plane of -# transformed recency and frequency ranging from 0 to 1. Remember that k-means -# consists of minimizing samples' euclidean distances to their assigned -# centroid. As a consequence, k-means is more appropriate for clusters that are -# isotropic and normally distributed. +# "transformed recency" and "transformed frequency" ranging from 0 to 1. +# Remember that k-means consists of minimizing each point's euclidean distance +# to its assigned centroid. As a consequence, k-means is more appropriate for +# clusters that are isotropic and normally distributed, in other words, that +# group around a center. # # We will learn more about how to deal with anisotropic clusters in a future # notebook. From d828ada591fa42d4689cc587835e8c7d65f9eb61 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 27 May 2025 18:12:39 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 03/79] Synch exercise notebooks --- notebooks/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb | 72 +++++--- notebooks/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb | 206 ++++++++++++++--------- 2 files changed, 176 insertions(+), 102 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb index d7a8da614..8096d6589 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb @@ -15,7 +15,8 @@ "- Monetary Value: How much do they spend.\n", "\n", "It is commonly used in marketing and has received particular attention in\n", - "retail and professional services industries as well." + "retail and professional services industries as well. Here we subsample the\n", + "dataset to ease the calculations." ] }, { @@ -27,22 +28,39 @@ "import pandas as pd\n", "\n", "data = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/rfm_segmentation.csv\")\n", + "data = data.sample(n=2000, random_state=0).reset_index(drop=True)\n", "data" ] }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We can explore the data using a seborn `pairplot`." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import seaborn as sns\n", + "\n", + "_ = sns.pairplot(data)" + ] + }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "As k-means clustering relies on computing distances between samples, in\n", - "general we need to scale our data before training the clustering model. That\n", - "was not the case in our previous notebook, as the features in the Mall\n", - "customers dataset already have the same scale.\n", + "general we need to scale our data before training the clustering model.\n", "\n", - "Show that scaling is important or else \"monetary\" have a dominant impact when\n", - "forming clusters. You can adapt the helper function `plot_clusters` from the\n", - "previous notebook to make plots using `KMeans` for `n_clusters_values = [2, 4,\n", - "6, 8]` without scaling." + "Modify the color of the `pairplot` to represent the cluster labels as\n", + "predicted by `KMeans` without any scaling. Try different values for\n", + "`n_clusters`, for instance, `n_clusters_values=[2, 3, 4]`. Do all features\n", + "contribute equally to forming the clusters in their original scale?" ] }, { @@ -61,9 +79,10 @@ "outputs": [], "source": [ "# Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step\n", - "# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` for reproducibility. Then, make\n", - "# a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters` varying from 2 to 10. You can\n", - "# use the following helper function for such purpose:" + "# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` of `KMeans` for\n", + "# reproducibility. Then, make a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters`\n", + "# varying from 1 to 10. You can use the following helper function for such\n", + "# purpose:" ] }, { @@ -79,7 +98,7 @@ " model,\n", " data,\n", " score_type=\"inertia\",\n", - " n_clusters_values=range(2, 11),\n", + " n_clusters_values=None,\n", " alpha=1.0,\n", " title=None,\n", "):\n", @@ -90,17 +109,21 @@ " model: A pipeline whose last step has a `n_clusters` hyperparameter.\n", " data: The input data to cluster.\n", " score_type: \"inertia\" or \"silhouette\" to decide which score to compute.\n", - " n_clusters_values: Iterable of integers representing `n_clusters` to try.\n", " alpha: Transparency of the plot line, useful when several plots overlap.\n", " title: Optional title to set; default title used if None.\n", " \"\"\"\n", " scores = []\n", "\n", + " if n_clusters_values is None:\n", + " if score_type == \"inertia\":\n", + " n_clusters_values = range(1, 11)\n", + " else:\n", + " n_clusters_values = range(2, 11)\n", + "\n", " for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", " model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters)\n", - "\n", " if score_type == \"inertia\":\n", - " ylabel = \"Inertia\"\n", + " ylabel = \"WCSS (inertia)\"\n", " model.fit(data)\n", " scores.append(model[-1].inertia_)\n", " elif score_type == \"silhouette\":\n", @@ -135,13 +158,14 @@ "source": [ "Let's check if the best choice of n_clusters remains stable when resampling\n", "the dataset. For such purpose:\n", - "- Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the\n", - " effect of data resampling.\n", - "- Generate resamplings consisting of 90% of the data by using\n", - " `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.9`\n", + "- Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the effect of\n", + " data resampling.\n", + "- Generate resamplings consisting of 50% of the data by using\n", + " `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state`\n", + " to do the split leads to different resamplings.\n", "- Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make\n", " multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different\n", - " resamplings.\n", + " resampling. 10 resamplings should be enough to draw conclusions.\n", "\n", "Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable across all different\n", "resamplings?" @@ -195,9 +219,9 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "Repeat the experiment, but this time determine if the optimal number of\n", - "clusters is stable across subsamplings when using the `silhouette_score`. Be\n", - "aware that computing the silhouette score is more computationally costly than\n", - "computing the inertia." + "clusters (with `StandarScaler` and `n_init=5`) is stable across subsamplings\n", + "in terms of the `silhouette_score`. Be aware that computing the silhouette\n", + "score is more computationally costly than computing the inertia." ] }, { @@ -231,7 +255,7 @@ "model = make_pipeline(QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0))\n", "for random_state in range(1, 11):\n", " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", - " data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + " data, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state\n", " )\n", " plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", " model,\n", diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb index b3832f52c..e9e4dae85 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb @@ -15,7 +15,8 @@ "- Monetary Value: How much do they spend.\n", "\n", "It is commonly used in marketing and has received particular attention in\n", - "retail and professional services industries as well." + "retail and professional services industries as well. Here we subsample the\n", + "dataset to ease the calculations." ] }, { @@ -27,22 +28,39 @@ "import pandas as pd\n", "\n", "data = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/rfm_segmentation.csv\")\n", + "data = data.sample(n=2000, random_state=0).reset_index(drop=True)\n", "data" ] }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We can explore the data using a seborn `pairplot`." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import seaborn as sns\n", + "\n", + "_ = sns.pairplot(data)" + ] + }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "As k-means clustering relies on computing distances between samples, in\n", - "general we need to scale our data before training the clustering model. That\n", - "was not the case in our previous notebook, as the features in the Mall\n", - "customers dataset already have the same scale.\n", + "general we need to scale our data before training the clustering model.\n", "\n", - "Show that scaling is important or else \"monetary\" have a dominant impact when\n", - "forming clusters. You can adapt the helper function `plot_clusters` from the\n", - "previous notebook to make plots using `KMeans` for `n_clusters_values = [2, 4,\n", - "6, 8]` without scaling." + "Modify the color of the `pairplot` to represent the cluster labels as\n", + "predicted by `KMeans` without any scaling. Try different values for\n", + "`n_clusters`, for instance, `n_clusters_values=[2, 3, 4]`. Do all features\n", + "contribute equally to forming the clusters in their original scale?" ] }, { @@ -53,39 +71,28 @@ "source": [ "# solution\n", "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", - "import numpy as np\n", "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", "\n", + "n_clusters_values = [2, 3, 4]\n", "\n", - "def plot_clusters(model, ax):\n", - "\n", - " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data)\n", - " n_clusters = len(np.unique(cluster_labels))\n", - "\n", - " ax.scatter(\n", - " data[\"monetary\"],\n", - " data[\"frequency\"],\n", - " data[\"recency\"],\n", - " c=cluster_labels,\n", - " s=50,\n", - " alpha=0.7,\n", - " )\n", - " ax.set_box_aspect(None, zoom=0.84)\n", - " ax.set_xlabel(\"Monetary\", labelpad=15)\n", - " ax.set_ylabel(\"Frequency\", labelpad=15)\n", - " ax.set_zlabel(\"Recency\", labelpad=15)\n", - " ax.set_title(f\"n_clusters={n_clusters}\", y=0.99)\n", - " _ = plt.tight_layout()\n", - "\n", - "\n", - "n_clusters_values = [2, 4, 6, 8]\n", - "fig, axes = plt.subplots(\n", - " nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(17, 15), subplot_kw={\"projection\": \"3d\"}\n", - ")\n", - "\n", - "for ax, n_clusters in zip(axes.flatten(), n_clusters_values):\n", + "for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", " model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0)\n", - " plot_clusters(model, ax)" + " clustered_data = data.copy()\n", + " clustered_data[\"cluster label\"] = model.fit_predict(data)\n", + " sns.pairplot(clustered_data, hue=\"cluster label\", palette=\"tab10\")\n", + " plt.title(f\"n_clusters={n_clusters}\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "source": [ + "Without scaling \"monetary\" has a dominant impact when forming clusters,\n", + "regardless of the number of clusters." ] }, { @@ -95,9 +102,10 @@ "outputs": [], "source": [ "# Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step\n", - "# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` for reproducibility. Then, make\n", - "# a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters` varying from 2 to 10. You can\n", - "# use the following helper function for such purpose:" + "# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` of `KMeans` for\n", + "# reproducibility. Then, make a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters`\n", + "# varying from 1 to 10. You can use the following helper function for such\n", + "# purpose:" ] }, { @@ -113,7 +121,7 @@ " model,\n", " data,\n", " score_type=\"inertia\",\n", - " n_clusters_values=range(2, 11),\n", + " n_clusters_values=None,\n", " alpha=1.0,\n", " title=None,\n", "):\n", @@ -124,17 +132,21 @@ " model: A pipeline whose last step has a `n_clusters` hyperparameter.\n", " data: The input data to cluster.\n", " score_type: \"inertia\" or \"silhouette\" to decide which score to compute.\n", - " n_clusters_values: Iterable of integers representing `n_clusters` to try.\n", " alpha: Transparency of the plot line, useful when several plots overlap.\n", " title: Optional title to set; default title used if None.\n", " \"\"\"\n", " scores = []\n", "\n", + " if n_clusters_values is None:\n", + " if score_type == \"inertia\":\n", + " n_clusters_values = range(1, 11)\n", + " else:\n", + " n_clusters_values = range(2, 11)\n", + "\n", " for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", " model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters)\n", - "\n", " if score_type == \"inertia\":\n", - " ylabel = \"Inertia\"\n", + " ylabel = \"WCSS (inertia)\"\n", " model.fit(data)\n", " scores.append(model[-1].inertia_)\n", " elif score_type == \"silhouette\":\n", @@ -184,13 +196,14 @@ "source": [ "Let's check if the best choice of n_clusters remains stable when resampling\n", "the dataset. For such purpose:\n", - "- Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the\n", - " effect of data resampling.\n", - "- Generate resamplings consisting of 90% of the data by using\n", - " `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.9`\n", + "- Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the effect of\n", + " data resampling.\n", + "- Generate resamplings consisting of 50% of the data by using\n", + " `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state`\n", + " to do the split leads to different resamplings.\n", "- Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make\n", " multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different\n", - " resamplings.\n", + " resampling. 10 resamplings should be enough to draw conclusions.\n", "\n", "Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable across all different\n", "resamplings?" @@ -207,7 +220,7 @@ "\n", "for random_state in range(1, 11):\n", " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", - " data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + " data, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state\n", " )\n", " plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", " model,\n", @@ -226,8 +239,8 @@ ] }, "source": [ - "The inertia changes drastically as a function of the subsamples, it is\n", - "then not possible to systematically define an optimal number of clusters." + "The inertia changes drastically as a function of the subsamples, it is then\n", + "not possible to systematically define an optimal number of clusters." ] }, { @@ -275,14 +288,14 @@ "# solution\n", "for random_state in range(1, 11):\n", " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", - " data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + " data, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state\n", " )\n", " plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", " model,\n", " data_subsample,\n", " score_type=\"inertia\",\n", " alpha=0.2,\n", - " title=\"Stability of inertia with n_init=5\",\n", + " title=\"Stability of inertia with\\nn_init=5 and StandardScaler\",\n", " )" ] }, @@ -303,9 +316,9 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "Repeat the experiment, but this time determine if the optimal number of\n", - "clusters is stable across subsamplings when using the `silhouette_score`. Be\n", - "aware that computing the silhouette score is more computationally costly than\n", - "computing the inertia." + "clusters (with `StandarScaler` and `n_init=5`) is stable across subsamplings\n", + "in terms of the `silhouette_score`. Be aware that computing the silhouette\n", + "score is more computationally costly than computing the inertia." ] }, { @@ -317,14 +330,14 @@ "# solution\n", "for random_state in range(1, 11):\n", " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", - " data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + " data, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state\n", " )\n", " plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", " model,\n", " data_subsample,\n", " score_type=\"silhouette\",\n", " alpha=0.2,\n", - " title=\"Stability of silhouette score with n_init=5\",\n", + " title=\"Stability of silhouette score\\nwith n_init=5 and StandardScaler\",\n", " )" ] }, @@ -338,7 +351,7 @@ "source": [ "The silhouette score also varies as a function of the resampling, even after\n", "setting `n_init=5`. It may seem that the optimal number of clusters is\n", - "sometimes 5, 6, or 9, depending on the sampling. We can conclude that in this\n", + "sometimes 2, 4, 5 or 6 depending on the sampling. We can conclude that in this\n", "case, what makes challenging to find the optimal number of clusters is not\n", "related to the metric, but possibly to the data itself, or to the modeling\n", "pipeline." @@ -366,7 +379,7 @@ "model = make_pipeline(QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0))\n", "for random_state in range(1, 11):\n", " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", - " data, train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + " data, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state\n", " )\n", " plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", " model,\n", @@ -388,12 +401,12 @@ "The silhouette score is much more stable across resamplings. Moreover, the\n", "optimal number of clusters seems to be 2, as it provides the highest score,\n", "indicating that the data points are well-separated and correctly grouped with\n", - "good cohesion. However, 4 or 6 clusters may still make sense if the clustering\n", - "has specific use cases or domain relevance, but you should be cautious as the\n", - "relatively low silhouette score suggests that some points may be misassigned.\n", + "good cohesion. However 4 or 6 clusters may still make sense if the clustering\n", + "has specific use cases or domain relevance.\n", "\n", - "Indeed, we can plot the transformed space and observe some samples seem to be\n", - "misassigned." + "Notice that you should still be cautious as the relatively low values of the\n", + "silhouette scores suggest that some points may be \"misassigned\". To verify\n", + "this, we can plot the labels when setting `n_clusters=6`." ] }, { @@ -406,8 +419,10 @@ }, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "n_clusters=6\n", "model = make_pipeline(\n", - " QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, n_clusters=6, random_state=0)\n", + " QuantileTransformer(),\n", + " KMeans(n_init=5, n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0),\n", ")\n", "model" ] @@ -422,13 +437,49 @@ }, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "clustered_data = data.copy()\n", + "clustered_data[\"cluster label\"] = model.fit_predict(data)\n", + "\n", + "sns.pairplot(clustered_data, hue=\"cluster label\", palette=\"tab10\")\n", + "plt.title(f\"n_clusters={n_clusters}\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "source": [ + "Indeed, \"monetary\" exactly equal to 0 is divided into 2 clusters (the plot in\n", + "the middle of the `pairplot`), whereas it would feel more reasonably to have\n", + "those points form a single cluster.\n", + "\n", + "Alternatively, we can plot the labels in the transformed space to better\n", + "observe that some data points seem to be misassigned." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from matplotlib.colors import ListedColormap\n", + "\n", "cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data)\n", + "cmap = ListedColormap(plt.get_cmap(\"tab10\").colors[:n_clusters])\n", "\n", "fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 8), subplot_kw={\"projection\": \"3d\"})\n", "scatter = ax.scatter(\n", " *model[:-1].transform(data).T,\n", " c=cluster_labels,\n", - " cmap=\"viridis\",\n", + " cmap=cmap,\n", " s=50,\n", " alpha=0.7,\n", ")\n", @@ -448,18 +499,17 @@ ] }, "source": [ - "From the plot above, it would feel more natural to cluster together all\n", - "samples with transformed monetary equal to 0 instead of dividing it into 2\n", - "different clusters. Moreover, those clusters seem to take samples with low but\n", - "non-zero values of monetary, that would belong more naturally to other\n", - "clusters.\n", + "Observe that the clusters at \"transformed monetary\" exactly equal to 0 are\n", + "grouped together with samples with low but non-zero values of \"transformed\n", + "monetary\", that would belong more naturally to other clusters.\n", "\n", - "What happens here is that data points at transformed monetary equal to 0 are\n", + "What happens here is that data points at \"transformed monetary\" equal to 0 are\n", "not isotropic in the 3 dimensions, i.e. they are spread on a plane of\n", - "transformed recency and frequency ranging from 0 to 1. Remember that k-means\n", - "consists of minimizing samples' euclidean distances to their assigned\n", - "centroid. As a consequence, k-means is more appropriate for clusters that are\n", - "isotropic and normally distributed.\n", + "\"transformed recency\" and \"transformed frequency\" ranging from 0 to 1.\n", + "Remember that k-means consists of minimizing each point's euclidean distance\n", + "to its assigned centroid. As a consequence, k-means is more appropriate for\n", + "clusters that are isotropic and normally distributed, in other words, that\n", + "group around a center.\n", "\n", "We will learn more about how to deal with anisotropic clusters in a future\n", "notebook." From d94eb14baeaa287e5048fd0d939e35f64abfab12 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 27 May 2025 18:14:47 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 04/79] Add notebooks on hdbscan and feature engineering --- jupyter-book/_toc.yml | 2 + notebooks/clustering_hdbscan.ipynb | 356 +++++++++++++++++++++++ notebooks/clustering_transformer.ipynb | 316 ++++++++++++++++++++ python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py | 229 +++++++++++++++ python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py | 217 ++++++++++++++ 5 files changed, 1120 insertions(+) create mode 100644 notebooks/clustering_hdbscan.ipynb create mode 100644 notebooks/clustering_transformer.ipynb create mode 100644 python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py create mode 100644 python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py diff --git a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml index 63e5f8d48..95cbfcdca 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml +++ b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml @@ -242,3 +242,5 @@ parts: - file: python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01 - file: python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01 - file: python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics + - file: python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan + - file: python_scripts/clustering_transformer diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_hdbscan.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_hdbscan.ipynb new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f9b8e3cb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/notebooks/clustering_hdbscan.ipynb @@ -0,0 +1,356 @@ +{ + "cells": [ + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "# Non-convex clustering using HDBSCAN\n", + "\n", + "We have previously mentioned that k-means consists of minimizing the samples\n", + "euclidean distances to their assigned centroid. As a consequence, k-means is\n", + "more appropriate for clusters that are isotropic and normally distributed\n", + "(look like blobs). In this notebook we introduce another clustering technique\n", + "named HDBSCAN, an acronym which stands for \"Hierarchical Density-Based Spatial\n", + "Clustering of Applications with Noise\".\n", + "\n", + "Let's explain each of those tearms. HDBSCAN is hierarchical, which means it\n", + "handles data with clusters nested within each other. The user can decide at\n", + "what level of the hierarchy want to cut off the clusters.\n", + "\n", + "It is density-based (and therefore non-parametric, contrary to K-means)\n", + "because it does not assume a specific shape or number of clusters. Instead, it\n", + "automatically finds the clusters based on areas where data points are densely\n", + "packed together. In other words, it looks for regions of high density (many\n", + "data points close to each other) and forms clusters around them. This allows\n", + "it to find clusters of varying shapes and sizes.\n", + "\n", + "HDBSCAN assigns a label of -1 to points that do not have enough neighbors (low\n", + "density) to be considered part of a cluster or are too far from any dense\n", + "region (too isolated from core points). They are usually considered to be\n", + "noise.\n", + "\n", + "Let's first illustrate those concepts with a toy dataset." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import numpy as np\n", + "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", + "from sklearn.datasets import make_blobs\n", + "\n", + "rng = np.random.default_rng(1)\n", + "\n", + "centers = np.array([[-4.8, 2.0], [-3.5, -4.5]])\n", + "X_gaussian, _ = make_blobs(\n", + " n_samples=[200, 60],\n", + " centers=centers,\n", + " cluster_std=[1.0, 0.5],\n", + " random_state=42,\n", + ")\n", + "\n", + "# Two anisotropic blobs\n", + "centers = np.array([[1.0, 5.1], [3.0, 0.9]])\n", + "X_aniso_base, y_aniso_base = make_blobs(\n", + " n_samples=200, centers=centers, random_state=0\n", + ")\n", + "\n", + "# Define two different transformations\n", + "transformation_0 = np.array([[0.6, -0.6], [-0.4, 0.8]])\n", + "transformation_1 = np.array([[1.5, 0], [0, 0.3]])\n", + "\n", + "# Apply different transformations to each blob\n", + "X_aniso = np.copy(X_aniso_base)\n", + "X_aniso[y_aniso_base == 0] = np.dot(\n", + " X_aniso_base[y_aniso_base == 0], transformation_0\n", + ")\n", + "X_aniso[y_aniso_base == 1] = np.dot(\n", + " X_aniso_base[y_aniso_base == 1], transformation_1\n", + ")\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "def make_wavy_blob(n_samples, shift=0.0, noise=0.2, freq=3):\n", + " \"Make wavy blobs in feature space\"\n", + " x = np.linspace(-3, 3, n_samples)\n", + " y = np.sin(freq * x) + shift\n", + " x += rng.normal(scale=noise, size=n_samples)\n", + " y += rng.normal(scale=noise, size=n_samples)\n", + " return np.vstack((x, y)).T\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "X_wave1 = make_wavy_blob(100, shift=4.7, freq=1)\n", + "transformation = np.array([[0.6, -0.6], [0.4, 0.8]])\n", + "X_wave1 = np.dot(X_wave1, transformation)\n", + "X_wave2 = make_wavy_blob(200, shift=-2.0, freq=2)\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "X_noise = rng.uniform(low=-8, high=8, size=(100, 2)) # background noise\n", + "\n", + "X_all = np.vstack((X_gaussian, X_aniso, X_wave1, X_wave2, X_noise))\n", + "\n", + "plt.scatter(X_all[:, 0], X_all[:, 1], alpha=0.6)\n", + "_ = plt.title(\"Synthetic dataset\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Let's first try to find a cluster structure using K-means with 6 clusters to\n", + "match our data generating process." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", + "\n", + "cluster_labels = KMeans(n_clusters=6, random_state=0).fit_predict(X_all)\n", + "_ = plt.scatter(X_all[:, 0], X_all[:, 1], c=cluster_labels, alpha=0.6)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We could try to increase the number of clusters to avoid grouping\n", + "unrelated points in the same cluster:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "cluster_labels = KMeans(n_clusters=10, random_state=0).fit_predict(X_all)\n", + "_ = plt.scatter(X_all[:, 0], X_all[:, 1], c=cluster_labels, alpha=0.6)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "However, we can observe that too many cluster divides the high density region\n", + "too much, while it continues grouping unrelated points together. Therefore,\n", + "adjusting the number of clusters is not enough to get good results in this\n", + "kind of data.\n", + "\n", + "Let's now repeat the experiment using HDBSCAN instead. For this clustering\n", + "technique, the most important hyperparameter is `min_cluster_size`, which\n", + "controls the minimum number of samples for a group to be considered a cluster;\n", + "groupings smaller than this size will be left as noise." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.cluster import HDBSCAN\n", + "\n", + "cluster_labels = HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=10).fit_predict(X_all)\n", + "_ = plt.scatter(X_all[:, 0], X_all[:, 1], c=cluster_labels, alpha=0.6)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Let's now apply HDBSCAN to a more realistic use-case: the geospatial columns\n", + "of the California Housing Dataset." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.datasets import fetch_california_housing\n", + "\n", + "data, target = fetch_california_housing(return_X_y=True, as_frame=True)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We can use plotly to first visualize the housing prices across the state of\n", + "California." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import plotly.express as px\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "def plot_map(df, color_feature):\n", + " fig = px.scatter_mapbox(\n", + " df,\n", + " lat=\"Latitude\",\n", + " lon=\"Longitude\",\n", + " color=color_feature,\n", + " zoom=5,\n", + " height=600,\n", + " )\n", + " fig.update_layout(\n", + " mapbox_style=\"open-street-map\",\n", + " mapbox_center={\n", + " \"lat\": df[\"Latitude\"].mean(),\n", + " \"lon\": df[\"Longitude\"].mean(),\n", + " },\n", + " margin={\"r\": 0, \"t\": 0, \"l\": 0, \"b\": 0},\n", + " )\n", + " return fig\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "fig = plot_map(data, target)\n", + "fig" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We can first use K-means to group data points into different spatial regions." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", + "from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler\n", + "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", + "\n", + "geo_columns = [\"Latitude\", \"Longitude\"]\n", + "geo_data = data[geo_columns]\n", + "\n", + "kmeans_pipeline = make_pipeline(\n", + " StandardScaler(), KMeans(n_clusters=20, random_state=0)\n", + ")\n", + "\n", + "cluster_labels = kmeans_pipeline.fit_predict(geo_data)\n", + "cluster_labels" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype(\"str\"))\n", + "fig" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We can observe that results are really influenced by the K-means that favors\n", + "\"blobby\"-shaped clusters. Let's try again with HDBSCAN which should not suffer\n", + "from the same bias." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.cluster import HDBSCAN\n", + "\n", + "hdbscan_pipeline = make_pipeline(HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=100))\n", + "\n", + "cluster_labels = hdbscan_pipeline.fit_predict(geo_data)\n", + "cluster_labels" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype(\"str\"))\n", + "fig" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "HDBSCAN automatically detect highly populated areas that match urban centers,\n", + "potentially increasing the housing prices. In addition we observe that points\n", + "lying in low density regions are labeled `-1` instead of being forced into a\n", + "cluster.\n", + "\n", + "The number of resulting clusters is a consequence of the choice of\n", + "`min_cluster_size`:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "len(np.unique(cluster_labels))" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Decreasing `min_cluster_size` will increase the number of clusters:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "hdbscan_pipeline = make_pipeline(HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=30))\n", + "cluster_labels = hdbscan_pipeline.fit_predict(geo_data)\n", + "fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype(\"str\"))\n", + "fig" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "len(np.unique(cluster_labels))" + ] + } + ], + "metadata": { + "jupytext": { + "main_language": "python" + }, + "kernelspec": { + "display_name": "Python 3", + "name": "python3" + } + }, + "nbformat": 4, + "nbformat_minor": 5 +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_transformer.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_transformer.ipynb new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6b073a783 --- /dev/null +++ b/notebooks/clustering_transformer.ipynb @@ -0,0 +1,316 @@ +{ + "cells": [ + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "# Making clusters part of a supervised pipeline\n", + "\n", + "This notebook explores how K-means clustering can be used as a feature\n", + "engineering step to improve the performance of a regression model.\n", + "\n", + "Here we use the California Housing dataset, which includes information about\n", + "the geographic location (latitude and longitude).\n", + "\n", + "Our goal is to predict the median house value (MedHouseVal) using a ridge\n", + "regression model, to investigate whether adding features derived from applying\n", + "K-means to geographic coordinates can improve the pipeline's predictive\n", + "performance." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.datasets import fetch_california_housing\n", + "\n", + "data, target = fetch_california_housing(return_X_y=True, as_frame=True)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We can first design a predictive pipeline that completly ignores the\n", + "coordinates:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import pandas as pd\n", + "from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split, cross_validate\n", + "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", + "from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler\n", + "from sklearn.linear_model import Ridge\n", + "from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer\n", + "\n", + "data_train, data_test, target_train, target_test = train_test_split(\n", + " data, target, test_size=0.2, random_state=0\n", + ")\n", + "geo_columns = [\"Latitude\", \"Longitude\"]\n", + "model_drop_geo = make_pipeline(\n", + " ColumnTransformer(\n", + " [\n", + " (\"geo\", \"drop\", geo_columns),\n", + " ],\n", + " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", + " ),\n", + " StandardScaler(),\n", + " Ridge(alpha=1e-12),\n", + ")\n", + "cv_results_drop_geo = cross_validate(\n", + " model_drop_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring=\"r2\"\n", + ")\n", + "pd.DataFrame(cv_results_drop_geo).describe()" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We observe a score of approximately 54% of the variance is explained by the\n", + "non-geographical features.\n", + "\n", + "As seen in the previous notebook, we suspect that the price information may be\n", + "linked to the distance to the nearest urban center, and proximity to the\n", + "coast:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import plotly.express as px\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "def plot_map(df, color_feature):\n", + " fig = px.scatter_mapbox(\n", + " df,\n", + " lat=\"Latitude\",\n", + " lon=\"Longitude\",\n", + " color=color_feature,\n", + " zoom=5,\n", + " height=600,\n", + " )\n", + " fig.update_layout(\n", + " mapbox_style=\"open-street-map\",\n", + " mapbox_center={\n", + " \"lat\": df[\"Latitude\"].mean(),\n", + " \"lon\": df[\"Longitude\"].mean(),\n", + " },\n", + " margin={\"r\": 0, \"t\": 0, \"l\": 0, \"b\": 0},\n", + " )\n", + " return fig\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "fig = plot_map(data, target)\n", + "fig" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We first feed the coordinates directly to the linear model without\n", + "transformation." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "model_naive_geo = make_pipeline(StandardScaler(), Ridge(alpha=1e-12))\n", + "cv_results_naive_geo = cross_validate(\n", + " model_naive_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring=\"r2\"\n", + ")\n", + "pd.DataFrame(cv_results_naive_geo).describe()" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Including the geospatial data naively improves the performance a bit, however,\n", + "we suspect that we can do better by introducing features that represent\n", + "proximity to points of interests (urban centers, the coast, parks, etc.).\n", + "\n", + "We could look for a dataset containing all the coordinates of the city\n", + "centers, the coast line and other points of interest in California, then\n", + "manually engineer such features. However this would require a non-tricial\n", + "amount of code. Instead we can rely on the K-means class to achieve something\n", + "similar implicitly: we will configure K-means to find a large number of\n", + "centroids from our housing data directly and consider each centroid a\n", + "potential point of interest.\n", + "\n", + "The `KMeans` class implements a `transform` method that, given a set of data\n", + "points as an argument, computes the distance to the nearest centroid for each\n", + "of them. As a result, `KMeans` can be used as a preprocessing step in a\n", + "feature engineering pipeline as follows:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", + "from sklearn.linear_model import Ridge\n", + "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", + "\n", + "model_cluster_geo = make_pipeline(\n", + " ColumnTransformer(\n", + " [\n", + " (\"geo\", KMeans(n_clusters=100), geo_columns),\n", + " ],\n", + " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", + " ),\n", + " StandardScaler(),\n", + " Ridge(alpha=1e-12),\n", + ")\n", + "cv_results_cluster_geo = cross_validate(\n", + " model_cluster_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring=\"r2\"\n", + ")\n", + "pd.DataFrame(cv_results_cluster_geo).describe()" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We can use a grid-search to tune `n_clusters` in this supervised\n", + "pipeline." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV\n", + "\n", + "param_name = \"columntransformer__geo__n_clusters\"\n", + "param_grid = {param_name: [10, 30, 100, 300, 1_000, 3_000]}\n", + "grid_search = GridSearchCV(\n", + " model_cluster_geo, param_grid=param_grid, scoring=\"r2\"\n", + ")\n", + "grid_search.fit(data_train, target_train)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "results_columns = [\n", + " \"mean_test_score\",\n", + " \"std_test_score\",\n", + " \"mean_fit_time\",\n", + " \"std_fit_time\",\n", + " \"mean_score_time\",\n", + " \"std_score_time\",\n", + " \"param_\" + param_name,\n", + "]\n", + "grid_search_results = pd.DataFrame(grid_search.cv_results_)[results_columns]\n", + "grid_search_results = grid_search_results.rename(\n", + " columns={\"param_\" + param_name: \"n_clusters\"}\n", + ").round(3)\n", + "grid_search_results.sort_values(\"mean_test_score\", ascending=False)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Larger number of clusters increases the predictive performance at the cost\n", + "of larger fitting and prediction times." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "labels = {\n", + " \"mean_fit_time\": \"CV fit time (s)\",\n", + " \"mean_test_score\": \"CV score (R2)\",\n", + "}\n", + "fig = px.scatter(\n", + " grid_search_results,\n", + " x=\"mean_fit_time\",\n", + " y=\"mean_test_score\",\n", + " error_x=\"std_fit_time\",\n", + " error_y=\"std_test_score\",\n", + " hover_data=grid_search_results.columns,\n", + " labels=labels,\n", + ")\n", + "fig.update_layout(\n", + " title={\n", + " \"text\": \"Trade-off between fit time and mean test score\",\n", + " \"y\": 0.95,\n", + " \"x\": 0.5,\n", + " \"xanchor\": \"center\",\n", + " \"yanchor\": \"top\",\n", + " }\n", + ")\n", + "fig" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We can finally evaluate the best model found by our analysis and see how well\n", + "it can generalize." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "print(\n", + " f\"Final model test R2 score: {grid_search.score(data_test, target_test):.3f}\"\n", + ")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "This notebook demonstrates one way to leverage clustering for non-linear\n", + "feature engineering, but there are many ways to compose unsupervised models in\n", + "a supervised-learning pipeline.\n", + "\n", + "We can finally observe that even if K-means was not the best clustering\n", + "algorithm from a qualitatively point of view (as presented in the previous\n", + "notebook), it is still helpful at crafting predictive features." + ] + } + ], + "metadata": { + "jupytext": { + "main_language": "python" + }, + "kernelspec": { + "display_name": "Python 3", + "name": "python3" + } + }, + "nbformat": 4, + "nbformat_minor": 5 +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c28024178 --- /dev/null +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py @@ -0,0 +1,229 @@ +# --- +# jupyter: +# kernelspec: +# display_name: Python 3 +# name: python3 +# --- + +# %% [markdown] +# # Non-convex clustering using HDBSCAN +# +# We have previously mentioned that k-means consists of minimizing the samples +# euclidean distances to their assigned centroid. As a consequence, k-means is +# more appropriate for clusters that are isotropic and normally distributed +# (look like blobs). In this notebook we introduce another clustering technique +# named HDBSCAN, an acronym which stands for "Hierarchical Density-Based Spatial +# Clustering of Applications with Noise". +# +# Let's explain each of those tearms. HDBSCAN is hierarchical, which means it +# handles data with clusters nested within each other. The user can decide at +# what level of the hierarchy want to cut off the clusters. +# +# It is density-based (and therefore non-parametric, contrary to K-means) +# because it does not assume a specific shape or number of clusters. Instead, it +# automatically finds the clusters based on areas where data points are densely +# packed together. In other words, it looks for regions of high density (many +# data points close to each other) and forms clusters around them. This allows +# it to find clusters of varying shapes and sizes. +# +# HDBSCAN assigns a label of -1 to points that do not have enough neighbors (low +# density) to be considered part of a cluster or are too far from any dense +# region (too isolated from core points). They are usually considered to be +# noise. +# +# Let's first illustrate those concepts with a toy dataset. + +# %% +import numpy as np +import matplotlib.pyplot as plt +from sklearn.datasets import make_blobs + +rng = np.random.default_rng(1) + +centers = np.array([[-4.8, 2.0], [-3.5, -4.5]]) +X_gaussian, _ = make_blobs( + n_samples=[200, 60], + centers=centers, + cluster_std=[1.0, 0.5], + random_state=42, +) + +# Two anisotropic blobs +centers = np.array([[1.0, 5.1], [3.0, 0.9]]) +X_aniso_base, y_aniso_base = make_blobs( + n_samples=200, centers=centers, random_state=0 +) + +# Define two different transformations +transformation_0 = np.array([[0.6, -0.6], [-0.4, 0.8]]) +transformation_1 = np.array([[1.5, 0], [0, 0.3]]) + +# Apply different transformations to each blob +X_aniso = np.copy(X_aniso_base) +X_aniso[y_aniso_base == 0] = np.dot( + X_aniso_base[y_aniso_base == 0], transformation_0 +) +X_aniso[y_aniso_base == 1] = np.dot( + X_aniso_base[y_aniso_base == 1], transformation_1 +) + + +def make_wavy_blob(n_samples, shift=0.0, noise=0.2, freq=3): + "Make wavy blobs in feature space" + x = np.linspace(-3, 3, n_samples) + y = np.sin(freq * x) + shift + x += rng.normal(scale=noise, size=n_samples) + y += rng.normal(scale=noise, size=n_samples) + return np.vstack((x, y)).T + + +X_wave1 = make_wavy_blob(100, shift=4.7, freq=1) +transformation = np.array([[0.6, -0.6], [0.4, 0.8]]) +X_wave1 = np.dot(X_wave1, transformation) +X_wave2 = make_wavy_blob(200, shift=-2.0, freq=2) + + +X_noise = rng.uniform(low=-8, high=8, size=(100, 2)) # background noise + +X_all = np.vstack((X_gaussian, X_aniso, X_wave1, X_wave2, X_noise)) + +plt.scatter(X_all[:, 0], X_all[:, 1], alpha=0.6) +_ = plt.title("Synthetic dataset") + +# %% [markdown] +# Let's first try to find a cluster structure using K-means with 6 clusters to +# match our data generating process. + +# %% +from sklearn.cluster import KMeans + +cluster_labels = KMeans(n_clusters=6, random_state=0).fit_predict(X_all) +_ = plt.scatter(X_all[:, 0], X_all[:, 1], c=cluster_labels, alpha=0.6) + +# %% [markdown] +# We could try to increase the number of clusters to avoid grouping +# unrelated points in the same cluster: + +# %% +cluster_labels = KMeans(n_clusters=10, random_state=0).fit_predict(X_all) +_ = plt.scatter(X_all[:, 0], X_all[:, 1], c=cluster_labels, alpha=0.6) + +# %% [markdown] +# However, we can observe that too many cluster divides the high density region +# too much, while it continues grouping unrelated points together. Therefore, +# adjusting the number of clusters is not enough to get good results in this +# kind of data. +# +# Let's now repeat the experiment using HDBSCAN instead. For this clustering +# technique, the most important hyperparameter is `min_cluster_size`, which +# controls the minimum number of samples for a group to be considered a cluster; +# groupings smaller than this size will be left as noise. + +# %% +from sklearn.cluster import HDBSCAN + +cluster_labels = HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=10).fit_predict(X_all) +_ = plt.scatter(X_all[:, 0], X_all[:, 1], c=cluster_labels, alpha=0.6) + +# %% [markdown] +# Let's now apply HDBSCAN to a more realistic use-case: the geospatial columns +# of the California Housing Dataset. + +# %% +from sklearn.datasets import fetch_california_housing + +data, target = fetch_california_housing(return_X_y=True, as_frame=True) + +# %% [markdown] +# We can use plotly to first visualize the housing prices across the state of +# California. + +# %% +import plotly.express as px + + +def plot_map(df, color_feature): + fig = px.scatter_mapbox( + df, + lat="Latitude", + lon="Longitude", + color=color_feature, + zoom=5, + height=600, + ) + fig.update_layout( + mapbox_style="open-street-map", + mapbox_center={ + "lat": df["Latitude"].mean(), + "lon": df["Longitude"].mean(), + }, + margin={"r": 0, "t": 0, "l": 0, "b": 0}, + ) + return fig + + +fig = plot_map(data, target) +fig + +# %% [markdown] +# We can first use K-means to group data points into different spatial regions. + +# %% +from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline +from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler +from sklearn.cluster import KMeans + +geo_columns = ["Latitude", "Longitude"] +geo_data = data[geo_columns] + +kmeans_pipeline = make_pipeline( + StandardScaler(), KMeans(n_clusters=20, random_state=0) +) + +cluster_labels = kmeans_pipeline.fit_predict(geo_data) +cluster_labels + +# %% +fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype("str")) +fig + +# %% [markdown] +# We can observe that results are really influenced by the K-means that favors +# "blobby"-shaped clusters. Let's try again with HDBSCAN which should not suffer +# from the same bias. + +# %% +from sklearn.cluster import HDBSCAN + +hdbscan_pipeline = make_pipeline(HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=100)) + +cluster_labels = hdbscan_pipeline.fit_predict(geo_data) +cluster_labels + +# %% +fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype("str")) +fig + +# %% [markdown] +# HDBSCAN automatically detect highly populated areas that match urban centers, +# potentially increasing the housing prices. In addition we observe that points +# lying in low density regions are labeled `-1` instead of being forced into a +# cluster. +# +# The number of resulting clusters is a consequence of the choice of +# `min_cluster_size`: + +# %% +len(np.unique(cluster_labels)) + +# %% [markdown] +# Decreasing `min_cluster_size` will increase the number of clusters: + +# %% +hdbscan_pipeline = make_pipeline(HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=30)) +cluster_labels = hdbscan_pipeline.fit_predict(geo_data) +fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype("str")) +fig + +# %% +len(np.unique(cluster_labels)) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py b/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py new file mode 100644 index 000000000..81eb6fa6f --- /dev/null +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py @@ -0,0 +1,217 @@ +# --- +# jupyter: +# kernelspec: +# display_name: Python 3 +# name: python3 +# --- + +# %% [markdown] +# # Making clusters part of a supervised pipeline +# +# This notebook explores how K-means clustering can be used as a feature +# engineering step to improve the performance of a regression model. +# +# Here we use the California Housing dataset, which includes information about +# the geographic location (latitude and longitude). +# +# Our goal is to predict the median house value (MedHouseVal) using a ridge +# regression model, to investigate whether adding features derived from applying +# K-means to geographic coordinates can improve the pipeline's predictive +# performance. + +# %% +from sklearn.datasets import fetch_california_housing + +data, target = fetch_california_housing(return_X_y=True, as_frame=True) + +# %% [markdown] +# We can first design a predictive pipeline that completly ignores the +# coordinates: + +# %% +import pandas as pd +from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split, cross_validate +from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline +from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler +from sklearn.linear_model import Ridge +from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer + +data_train, data_test, target_train, target_test = train_test_split( + data, target, test_size=0.2, random_state=0 +) +geo_columns = ["Latitude", "Longitude"] +model_drop_geo = make_pipeline( + ColumnTransformer( + [ + ("geo", "drop", geo_columns), + ], + remainder="passthrough", + ), + StandardScaler(), + Ridge(alpha=1e-12), +) +cv_results_drop_geo = cross_validate( + model_drop_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring="r2" +) +pd.DataFrame(cv_results_drop_geo).describe() + +# %% [markdown] +# We observe a score of approximately 54% of the variance is explained by the +# non-geographical features. +# +# As seen in the previous notebook, we suspect that the price information may be +# linked to the distance to the nearest urban center, and proximity to the +# coast: + +# %% +import plotly.express as px + + +def plot_map(df, color_feature): + fig = px.scatter_mapbox( + df, + lat="Latitude", + lon="Longitude", + color=color_feature, + zoom=5, + height=600, + ) + fig.update_layout( + mapbox_style="open-street-map", + mapbox_center={ + "lat": df["Latitude"].mean(), + "lon": df["Longitude"].mean(), + }, + margin={"r": 0, "t": 0, "l": 0, "b": 0}, + ) + return fig + + +fig = plot_map(data, target) +fig + +# %% [markdown] +# We first feed the coordinates directly to the linear model without +# transformation. + +# %% +model_naive_geo = make_pipeline(StandardScaler(), Ridge(alpha=1e-12)) +cv_results_naive_geo = cross_validate( + model_naive_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring="r2" +) +pd.DataFrame(cv_results_naive_geo).describe() + +# %% [markdown] +# Including the geospatial data naively improves the performance a bit, however, +# we suspect that we can do better by introducing features that represent +# proximity to points of interests (urban centers, the coast, parks, etc.). +# +# We could look for a dataset containing all the coordinates of the city +# centers, the coast line and other points of interest in California, then +# manually engineer such features. However this would require a non-tricial +# amount of code. Instead we can rely on the K-means class to achieve something +# similar implicitly: we will configure K-means to find a large number of +# centroids from our housing data directly and consider each centroid a +# potential point of interest. +# +# The `KMeans` class implements a `transform` method that, given a set of data +# points as an argument, computes the distance to the nearest centroid for each +# of them. As a result, `KMeans` can be used as a preprocessing step in a +# feature engineering pipeline as follows: + +# %% +from sklearn.cluster import KMeans +from sklearn.linear_model import Ridge +from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline + +model_cluster_geo = make_pipeline( + ColumnTransformer( + [ + ("geo", KMeans(n_clusters=100), geo_columns), + ], + remainder="passthrough", + ), + StandardScaler(), + Ridge(alpha=1e-12), +) +cv_results_cluster_geo = cross_validate( + model_cluster_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring="r2" +) +pd.DataFrame(cv_results_cluster_geo).describe() + +# %% [markdown] +# We can use a grid-search to tune `n_clusters` in this supervised +# pipeline. + +# %% +from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV + +param_name = "columntransformer__geo__n_clusters" +param_grid = {param_name: [10, 30, 100, 300, 1_000, 3_000]} +grid_search = GridSearchCV( + model_cluster_geo, param_grid=param_grid, scoring="r2" +) +grid_search.fit(data_train, target_train) + +# %% +results_columns = [ + "mean_test_score", + "std_test_score", + "mean_fit_time", + "std_fit_time", + "mean_score_time", + "std_score_time", + "param_" + param_name, +] +grid_search_results = pd.DataFrame(grid_search.cv_results_)[results_columns] +grid_search_results = grid_search_results.rename( + columns={"param_" + param_name: "n_clusters"} +).round(3) +grid_search_results.sort_values("mean_test_score", ascending=False) + +# %% [markdown] +# Larger number of clusters increases the predictive performance at the cost +# of larger fitting and prediction times. + +# %% +labels = { + "mean_fit_time": "CV fit time (s)", + "mean_test_score": "CV score (R2)", +} +fig = px.scatter( + grid_search_results, + x="mean_fit_time", + y="mean_test_score", + error_x="std_fit_time", + error_y="std_test_score", + hover_data=grid_search_results.columns, + labels=labels, +) +fig.update_layout( + title={ + "text": "Trade-off between fit time and mean test score", + "y": 0.95, + "x": 0.5, + "xanchor": "center", + "yanchor": "top", + } +) +fig + +# %% [markdown] +# We can finally evaluate the best model found by our analysis and see how well +# it can generalize. + +# %% +print( + f"Final model test R2 score: {grid_search.score(data_test, target_test):.3f}" +) + +# %% [markdown] +# This notebook demonstrates one way to leverage clustering for non-linear +# feature engineering, but there are many ways to compose unsupervised models in +# a supervised-learning pipeline. +# +# We can finally observe that even if K-means was not the best clustering +# algorithm from a qualitatively point of view (as presented in the previous +# notebook), it is still helpful at crafting predictive features. From fd41577a46b2a468e34e89d08056114bbf4493a0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Wed, 28 May 2025 19:27:15 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 05/79] Reworked the k-means intro notebook to use penguins dataset --- datasets/mall_customers.csv | 201 ----------- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py | 518 ++++++++++++++++++++++------ 2 files changed, 403 insertions(+), 316 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 datasets/mall_customers.csv diff --git a/datasets/mall_customers.csv b/datasets/mall_customers.csv deleted file mode 100644 index 2e3ee961b..000000000 --- a/datasets/mall_customers.csv +++ /dev/null @@ -1,201 +0,0 @@ -Age,Annual Income (k$),Spending Score (1-100),Genre -19,15,39,Male -21,15,81,Male -20,16,6,Female -23,16,77,Female -31,17,40,Female -22,17,76,Female -35,18,6,Female -23,18,94,Female -64,19,3,Male -30,19,72,Female -67,19,14,Male -35,19,99,Female -58,20,15,Female -24,20,77,Female -37,20,13,Male -22,20,79,Male -35,21,35,Female -20,21,66,Male -52,23,29,Male -35,23,98,Female -35,24,35,Male -25,24,73,Male -46,25,5,Female -31,25,73,Male -54,28,14,Female -29,28,82,Male -45,28,32,Female -35,28,61,Male -40,29,31,Female -23,29,87,Female -60,30,4,Male -21,30,73,Female -53,33,4,Male -18,33,92,Male -49,33,14,Female -21,33,81,Female -42,34,17,Female -30,34,73,Female -36,37,26,Female -20,37,75,Female -65,38,35,Female -24,38,92,Male -48,39,36,Male -31,39,61,Female -49,39,28,Female -24,39,65,Female -50,40,55,Female -27,40,47,Female -29,40,42,Female -31,40,42,Female -49,42,52,Female -33,42,60,Male -31,43,54,Female -59,43,60,Male -50,43,45,Female -47,43,41,Male -51,44,50,Female -69,44,46,Male -27,46,51,Female -53,46,46,Male -70,46,56,Male -19,46,55,Male -67,47,52,Female -54,47,59,Female -63,48,51,Male -18,48,59,Male -43,48,50,Female -68,48,48,Female -19,48,59,Male -32,48,47,Female -70,49,55,Male -47,49,42,Female -60,50,49,Female -60,50,56,Female -59,54,47,Male -26,54,54,Male -45,54,53,Female -40,54,48,Male -23,54,52,Female -49,54,42,Female -57,54,51,Male -38,54,55,Male -67,54,41,Male -46,54,44,Female -21,54,57,Female -48,54,46,Male -55,57,58,Female -22,57,55,Female -34,58,60,Female -50,58,46,Female -68,59,55,Female -18,59,41,Male -48,60,49,Male -40,60,40,Female -32,60,42,Female -24,60,52,Male -47,60,47,Female -27,60,50,Female -48,61,42,Male -20,61,49,Male -23,62,41,Female -49,62,48,Female -67,62,59,Male -26,62,55,Male -49,62,56,Male -21,62,42,Female -66,63,50,Female -54,63,46,Male -68,63,43,Male -66,63,48,Male -65,63,52,Male -19,63,54,Female -38,64,42,Female -19,64,46,Male -18,65,48,Female -19,65,50,Female -63,65,43,Female -49,65,59,Female -51,67,43,Female -50,67,57,Female -27,67,56,Male -38,67,40,Female -40,69,58,Female -39,69,91,Male -23,70,29,Female -31,70,77,Female -43,71,35,Male -40,71,95,Male -59,71,11,Male -38,71,75,Male -47,71,9,Male -39,71,75,Male -25,72,34,Female -31,72,71,Female -20,73,5,Male -29,73,88,Female -44,73,7,Female -32,73,73,Male -19,74,10,Male -35,74,72,Female -57,75,5,Female -32,75,93,Male -28,76,40,Female -32,76,87,Female -25,77,12,Male -28,77,97,Male -48,77,36,Male -32,77,74,Female -34,78,22,Female -34,78,90,Male -43,78,17,Male -39,78,88,Male -44,78,20,Female -38,78,76,Female -47,78,16,Female -27,78,89,Female -37,78,1,Male -30,78,78,Female -34,78,1,Male -30,78,73,Female -56,79,35,Female -29,79,83,Female -19,81,5,Male -31,81,93,Female -50,85,26,Male -36,85,75,Female -42,86,20,Male -33,86,95,Female -36,87,27,Female -32,87,63,Male -40,87,13,Male -28,87,75,Male -36,87,10,Male -36,87,92,Male -52,88,13,Female -30,88,86,Female -58,88,15,Male -27,88,69,Male -59,93,14,Male -35,93,90,Male -37,97,32,Female -32,97,86,Female -46,98,15,Male -29,98,88,Female -41,99,39,Female -30,99,97,Male -54,101,24,Female -28,101,68,Male -41,103,17,Female -36,103,85,Female -34,103,23,Female -32,103,69,Female -33,113,8,Male -38,113,91,Female -47,120,16,Female -35,120,79,Female -45,126,28,Female -32,126,74,Male -32,137,18,Male -30,137,83,Male diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py index 44456babe..2e69008de 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py @@ -6,183 +6,471 @@ # --- # %% [markdown] -# # K-means clustering with scikit-learn +# # K-means clustering # # So far we have only addressed supervised learning models, namely regression # and classification. In this module we introduce unsupervised learning for the # first time. # # In this notebook we explore the k-means algorithm, which seeks to group data -# by a certain notion of similarity. To illustrate the different concepts, we -# use the Mall Customers dataset. -# -# Here we use clustering to group customers with similar profiles based on some -# characteristics, which then can be used for customer segmentation, and -# therefore, for designing better targeted campaigns. +# based on the pairwise distances between data points. To illustrate the +# different concepts, we will extract some numerical features from the penguins +# dataset. # %% import pandas as pd -data = pd.read_csv("../datasets/mall_customers.csv") -data +columns_to_keep = [ + "Species", + "Culmen Length (mm)", + "Culmen Depth (mm)", + "Flipper Length (mm)", + "Body Mass (g)", + "Sex", +] +penguins = pd.read_csv("../datasets/penguins.csv")[columns_to_keep].dropna() +penguins # %% [markdown] -# As we can see, this dataset includes the following information: +# We know that this datasets contains data about 3 different species of +# penguins, but we will not explicitly rely on this information and instead +# treat the problem as an unsupervised data analysis task. The goal is to +# assess whether K-means can help us discover meaningful clusters in the data. # -# - Gender: The gender of the customer. -# - Age: The age of the customer. -# - Annual Income (k$): The annual income of the customer (in thousands of -# dollars). -# - Spending Score (1–100): The score ranges from 1 to 100, with a higher score -# indicating a customer who spends more. +# Let's hide this column for now. We will only use it at the end of the notebook: +species = penguins["Species"] +penguins = penguins.drop(columns=["Species"]) + +# %% [markdown] # -# In this case we cannot assign any of those columns to be the target. These are -# all features, each of them representing different aspects of a customer -# profile. We can verify that such features do not have a direct, predictable -# relationship with each other: +# Let's take a first look at the structure of the numerical features using a +# pairplot: # %% import seaborn as sns -_ = sns.pairplot(data, hue="Genre", height=4) +_ = sns.pairplot(penguins, height=4) # %% [markdown] -# One could feel inclined to assigning labels to translate the task into a -# classification problem, instead of using clustering. # -# One approach could be simple labeling: Low spenders, mid spenders, and high -# spenders (3 labels). But a priori nothing prevents us from defining multiple -# combinations, such as: -# - Young - Low spender - High income -# - Young adult - High spender - Mid income -# - Older adult - Mid spender - Low income +# On these plots, we more or less easily visually recognize 2 to 3 clusters +# depending on the feature pairs. # -# We divided each numerical feature into 3 bins, leading to `3 ** n_features` -# possible combinations. But we could also have used different amounts of bins -# to define those labels and the problem rapidly becomes complex and subjective. -# The choice of how to bin or categorize customers features can introduce -# arbitrary boundaries, and the labels may not capture the nuances of customer -# behavior effectively or can lead to oversimplification. For some settings we -# rather let cluster labels emerge from the analysis, not from prior knowledge. +# We suspect that the clusters overlap because female penguins are generally +# smaller than male penguins: + +# %% +_ = sns.pairplot(penguins, hue="Sex", height=4) + +# %% [markdown] # -# Let's keep only the numerical values for the rest of this notebook. Having 3 -# features is something we can still easily visualize. +# Let us focus on female individuals to visually assess if the clusters are +# better separated: # %% -data = data.drop(columns=["Genre"]) +female_penguins = penguins.query("Sex == 'FEMALE'") +_ = sns.pairplot(female_penguins, height=4) # %% [markdown] -# ## Training a k-means algorithm # -# Intuitively, a good cluster should be compact (with points close to each -# other), dense (with a high concentration of data points), and well-separated -# from other clusters. In client segmentation, this means that different -# clusters should clearly represent well-defined differences in their profiles. +# As we can see, the clusters look better separated on this subset of the +# dataset. # -# First let's define a helper function to gain a visual intuition of the -# clusters as obtained provided a `model`. +# In particular we can see that if we only consider: +# - **Culmen Length** and **Body Mass**, we can distinguish 3 clusters; +# - **Culmen Depth** and **Body Mass**, we can distinguish 2 clusters. +# +# Let's try to apply the k-means algorithm on the first pairs of columns to see +# whether we can find the clusters that we visually identified. # %% -import matplotlib.pyplot as plt -import numpy as np from sklearn.cluster import KMeans +kmeans_cl_vs_bm = KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0) +kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm = kmeans_cl_vs_bm.fit_predict( + female_penguins[["Culmen Length (mm)", "Body Mass (g)"]] +) +kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm + +# %% [markdown] +# +# The `fit_predict` method returns the cluster labels for each data point coded +# with an arbitrary integer between 0 and `n_clusters - 1`. +# +# Let's add consolidate these labels in the original dataframe and visualize the +# clusters: + +clustered_female_peng = female_penguins.copy() +clustered_female_peng["K-means label"] = kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm +ax = sns.scatterplot( + data=clustered_female_peng, + x="Culmen Length (mm)", + y="Body Mass (g)", + hue="K-means label", + palette="deep", + alpha=0.7, +) +sns.move_legend(ax, "upper left", bbox_to_anchor=(1, 1)) + +# %% [markdown] +# +# The result is disappointing: the 3 clusters found by k-means do not match +# what would have naively expected from the scatter plot. +# +# What could explain this? +# +# Clusters are defined by the distance between data points, and the `KMeans` +# algorithm tries to minimize the distance between data points and their +# cluster centroid. But as we can see on the axis of the scatter plot, the +# values of "Culmen Length (mm)" and "Body Mass (g)" are not on the same scale. +# +# If we use the original units, the distances between data points are almost +# entirely dominated by the "Body Mass (g)" feature, which has numerical +# values expressed on a scale that is much larger than the "Culmen Length (mm)" +# feature. +# +# We can visualize this by plotting the data by disabling the automated visual +# scaling of the axes by manually setting the same numerical limits for both +# axes: +min_numerical_value = 0 +max_numerical_value = clustered_female_peng["Body Mass (g)"].max() * 1.1 +ax = sns.scatterplot( + data=clustered_female_peng, + x="Culmen Length (mm)", + y="Body Mass (g)", + hue="K-means label", + palette="deep", + alpha=0.7, +) +ax.set( + xlim=(min_numerical_value, max_numerical_value), + ylim=(min_numerical_value, max_numerical_value), + aspect="equal", +) +sns.move_legend(ax, "upper left", bbox_to_anchor=(1, 1)) + +# %% [markdown] +# +# Under this new perspective, the k-means clustering results make more sense: +# the "Culmen Length" is not taken into account because the numerical values +# expressed in mm are much smaller than the "Body Mass" values expressed in +# grams. +# +# To mitigate this problem, we can instead define a pipeline to use always +# standardize the values of the numerical features before applying the +# clustering algorithm. This way, all features will have the same scale and +# contribute more or less equally to the distance calculations. + +# %% +from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline +from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler + +scaled_kmeans_cl_vs_bm = make_pipeline( + StandardScaler(), + KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0), +) +scaled_kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm = scaled_kmeans_cl_vs_bm.fit_predict( + female_penguins[["Culmen Length (mm)", "Body Mass (g)"]] +) +clustered_female_peng = female_penguins.copy() +clustered_female_peng["K-means label"] = scaled_kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm +ax = sns.scatterplot( + data=clustered_female_peng, + x="Culmen Length (mm)", + y="Body Mass (g)", + hue="K-means label", + palette="deep", + alpha=0.7, +) +sns.move_legend(ax, "upper left", bbox_to_anchor=(1, 1)) -def plot_clusters(model, ax): +# %% [markdown] +# +# Now the results of the k-means cluster better match our visual intuition on this pair of features. +# +# Let's do a similar analysis on the second pair of features, namely +# "Culmen Depth (mm)" and "Body Mass (g)". To do so we refactor the code above in a utility function: - cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data) - n_clusters = len(np.unique(cluster_labels)) - ax.scatter( - data["Annual Income (k$)"], - data["Spending Score (1-100)"], - data["Age"], - c=cluster_labels, - s=50, +def plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( + clustering_model, + data, + first_feature_name, + second_feature_name, +): + labels = clustering_model.fit_predict( + data[[first_feature_name, second_feature_name]] + ) + clustered_data = data.copy() + clustered_data["K-means label"] = labels + ax = sns.scatterplot( + data=clustered_data, + x=first_feature_name, + y=second_feature_name, + hue="K-means label", + palette="deep", alpha=0.7, ) - ax.set_box_aspect(None, zoom=0.84) - ax.set_xlabel("Annual Income (k$)", labelpad=15) - ax.set_ylabel("Spending Score (1-100)", labelpad=15) - ax.set_zlabel("Age", labelpad=15) - ax.set_title(f"n_clusters={n_clusters}", y=0.99) - _ = plt.tight_layout() + sns.move_legend(ax, "upper left", bbox_to_anchor=(1, 1)) +plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( + make_pipeline( + StandardScaler(), + KMeans(n_clusters=2, random_state=0), + ), + female_penguins, + "Culmen Depth (mm)", + "Body Mass (g)", +) + # %% [markdown] -# ```{tip} -# Here we used the `fit_predict` method, which does both steps at once: it -# learns from the data just as using `fit`, and immediately outputs labels (or -# cluster labels) to those same data points as would be the case using `predict`. -# ``` # -# In the plots below we use different numbers of clusters, by changing the -# hyperparameter `n_clusters`. Here the `random_state` controls the centroid -# initialization. +# Here again the clusters are well separated and the k-means algorithm +# identified clusters that match our visual intuition. +# +# We can also try to apply the k-means algorithm with a larger value for +# `n_clusters`: -# %% -n_clusters_values = [2, 4, 6, 8] -fig, axes = plt.subplots( - nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(17, 15), subplot_kw={"projection": "3d"} +plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( + make_pipeline( + StandardScaler(), + KMeans(n_clusters=6, random_state=0), + ), + female_penguins, + "Culmen Length (mm)", + "Body Mass (g)", ) -for ax, n_clusters in zip(axes.flatten(), n_clusters_values): - model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0) - plot_clusters(model, ax) - # %% [markdown] -# In non-supervised learning, such as clustering, not having ground truth labels -# can make the model evaluation challenging. However, as we have discussed, -# it is still possible to define metrics that provide insight into the quality of -# the formed clusters. # -# One common metric for evaluating clusters is Within-Cluster Sum of Squares -# (WCSS), also known as **inertia**, which measures how compact the clusters -# are. A lower WCSS indicates that the data points within each cluster are close -# to the cluster's centroid, suggesting that the cluster is well-formed. +# When we select a large value of `n_clusters`, we observe that k-means will +# build as many groups as requested even if the resulting groups are not well +# separated. +# +# Let's now see we can use this intuition on cluster separation to identify +# suitable valuers for the number of clusters based on heuristic methods +# introduced earlier in the course. +# +# Let's start by plotting the evolution of the WCSS (Within-Cluster Sum of +# Squares) metric as a function of the number of clusters. # %% +import matplotlib.pyplot as plt + wcss = [] -n_clusters_values = range(2, 11) +n_clusters_values = range(1, 11) for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: - model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0) - model.fit(data) - wcss.append(model.inertia_) + model = make_pipeline( + StandardScaler(), + KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0), + ) + cluster_labels = model.fit_predict( + female_penguins[["Culmen Length (mm)", "Body Mass (g)"]] + ) + wcss.append(model.named_steps["kmeans"].inertia_) plt.plot(n_clusters_values, wcss, marker="o") plt.xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") -plt.ylabel("Inertia") -_ = plt.title("Elbow method using cluster inertia") +plt.ylabel("WCSS (or inertia)") +_ = plt.title("Elbow method using WCSS") # %% [markdown] -# The so called elbow method can be subtile here, but it seems to match our -# visual intuition from the 3D plots: having 6 clusters seems to be the best -# choice for correctly identifying groups. # -# Another useful metric is the Silhouette Score. A high silhouette score means -# that the data points are not only well-grouped within their own clusters but -# also well-separated from other clusters. A value of 0 indicates that the the -# decision boundary between two neighboring clusters may overlap, whereas -# negative values indicate that some samples might have been assigned to the -# wrong cluster. +# As expected the WCSS value decreases as the number of clusters increases and +# we can observe a so-called "elbow" in the curve (the point with maximum +# curvature) around `n_clusters=3`. This matches the number of cluster found by +# our visual intuition when looking at this 2D scatter plots. +# +# However, the elbow method is not always easy to read. +# +# Let's try to use the silhouette score instead. Note that this method requires +# access to the preprocessed features: # %% from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score -silhouette_scores = [] -for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: - model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0) - cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data) - score = silhouette_score(data, cluster_labels) - silhouette_scores.append(score) -plt.plot(n_clusters_values, silhouette_scores, marker="o") -plt.xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") -plt.ylabel("Silhouette score") -_ = plt.title("Silhouette scores for different n_clusters") +def plot_silhouette_scores( + data, + clustering_model=None, + preprocessor=None, + n_clusters_values=range(2, 11), +): + if clustering_model is None: + clustering_model = KMeans(random_state=0) + + if preprocessor is None: + preprocessor = StandardScaler() + + preprocessed_data = preprocessor.fit_transform(data) + + silhouette_scores = [] + for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: + clustering_model.set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters) + cluster_labels = clustering_model.fit_predict(preprocessed_data) + score = silhouette_score(preprocessed_data, cluster_labels) + silhouette_scores.append(score) + + plt.plot(n_clusters_values, silhouette_scores, marker="o") + plt.xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") + plt.ylabel("Silhouette score") + _ = plt.title("Silhouette scores for different n_clusters") + + +plot_silhouette_scores( + female_penguins[["Culmen Length (mm)", "Body Mass (g)"]], +) + +# %% [markdown] +# +# The silhouette score reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=3`, which confirms +# our visual intuition on this 2D dataset. +# +# We can also notice that the silhouette score is also very high for +# `n_clusters=2` and has an intermediate value for `n_clusters=4`. It's +# possible that those two values would also yield qualitatively meaningful +# clusters, but this probably not the case for `n_clusters=5` or larger. +# +# Let's compare this to the results obtained on the second pair of features: + +# %% +plot_silhouette_scores( + female_penguins[["Culmen Depth (mm)", "Body Mass (g)"]], +) + +# %% [markdown] +# +# For this feature set, the plot clearly shows that the silhouette score +# reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=2`, which matches our visual intuition +# from the scatter plot of this 2D feature set. + +# %% [markdown] +# +# We can now try to apply the k-means algorithm on the full dataset, i.e. on +# all numerical features and all the rows, to see whether k-means can discover +# meaningful clusters in the data automatically. +# +# We also include the `Sex` feature in the clustering model to see whether +# it can help the algorithm to find better clusters. + +from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer, make_column_selector +from sklearn.preprocessing import OneHotEncoder + +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + ( + OneHotEncoder(drop="if_binary"), + make_column_selector(dtype_exclude="number"), + ), + ( + StandardScaler(), + make_column_selector(dtype_include="number"), + ), +) +plot_silhouette_scores(penguins, preprocessor=preprocessor) # %% [markdown] -# The silhouette score reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=6`, which confirms -# both the visual intuition and the optimal number of clusters found using the -# elbow method. +# +# Based on the silhouette scores, it seems that k-means would prefer to cluster +# those features into either 2 or 6 clusters. +# +# Let's try to visualize the clusters obtained with `n_clusters=6`: + +# %% + +model = make_pipeline( + preprocessor, + KMeans(n_clusters=6, random_state=0), +) +cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(penguins) +_ = sns.pairplot( + penguins.assign(cluster_label=cluster_labels), + hue="cluster_label", + palette="deep", + height=4, +) + +# %% [markdown] +# +# Since this is high-dimensional data (5D), the pairplot (computed only for the +# 4 numerical features) only offers a limited perspective on the clusters. But +# they do seem meaningful, and in particular we can notice that they could +# potentially correspond to the 3 species of penguins present in the dataset +# (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex (2 clusters for each +# species, one for males and one for females). +# +# Let's try to confirm this hypothesis by looking at the original +# "Species" labels combined with the "Sex": + +# %% +species_and_sex_labels = species + " " + penguins["Sex"] +species_and_sex_labels.value_counts() + +# %% +_ = sns.pairplot( + penguins.assign(species_and_sex=species_and_sex_labels), + hue="species_and_sex", + palette="deep", + height=4, +) + +# %% [markdown] +# +# This plot seems to be very similar to the pairplot we obtained with the 6 +# clusters found by k-means on our preprocessed data. Note that the colors are +# different, because the ordering of the labels is arbitrary (both for the +# k-means cluster and the manually assigned labels). But the way of grouping +# the data points look similar. +# +# Let's quantify the agreement between the clusters found by k-means and the +# combination of the "Species" and "Sex" labels using the [Normalized Mutual +# Information](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/clustering.html#mutual-info-score) +# (NMI) score. + +# %% +from sklearn.metrics.cluster import normalized_mutual_info_score + +nmi = normalized_mutual_info_score( + species_and_sex_labels, + cluster_labels, +) +print(f"Normalized Mutual Information (NMI): {nmi:.3f}") + +# %% [markdown] +# +# This value is very close to 1.0, which indicates a very strong agreement. +# +# The conclusion is that we relate the clusters found by running k-means on +# those preprocessed features to a meaningful (human) way to partition the +# penguins records. +# +# Note however that this is not always the case. For **k-means to yield +# meaningful results, the data must be have an approximately balanced, convex +# and isotropic cluster structure** after preprocessing. That is, the clusters +# must have a spherical shape in the feature space and approximately the same +# size. +# +# We cannot stress enough that the choice of the features and preprocessing +# steps are crucial: if we had not standardized the numerical data, or we had +# not included the "Sex" feature or if we had scaled its one-hot encoding by a +# factor of 10, we would probably not have been able to discover interpretable +# clusters. +# +# Furthermore, **many natural datasets would not satisfy the k-means +# assumptions** even after non-trivial preprocessing. In those cases, we can +# either try alternatives to k-means that favor different cluster shapes (for +# instance HDBSCAN or Gaussian Mixture Models) or we can try to isolate +# row-wise or column-wise subsets of the data that are more likely to exhibit a +# cluster structure. Or sometimes, we can decide to partition the data with +# k-means with a large number of clusters, even if they are not interpretable +# and use the distance to centroids as preprocessing for another task. It all +# depends on the specific application domain and the downstream use of the +# resulting clusters. +# +# Finally, notice that we used extra supervised information to quantitatively +# assess the quality of the match between the clusters found by k-means and our +# interpretation. In practice, this is often impossible, as we do not have +# access to human assigned labels for each row in the data. Or, if we have, we +# might want to use them to train the clustering model, but instead we would +# rather use them as the target variable to train a supervised classifier. From 90bdfed474574b8c0ca1f27e87075cf63455380b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Wed, 28 May 2025 19:28:10 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 06/79] Rerender the first notebook --- notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb | 604 ++++++++++++++++++++++++------ 1 file changed, 488 insertions(+), 116 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb index dfafa57f7..f0f4e55b6 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb @@ -4,19 +4,16 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "# K-means clustering with scikit-learn\n", + "# K-means clustering\n", "\n", "So far we have only addressed supervised learning models, namely regression\n", "and classification. In this module we introduce unsupervised learning for the\n", "first time.\n", "\n", "In this notebook we explore the k-means algorithm, which seeks to group data\n", - "by a certain notion of similarity. To illustrate the different concepts, we\n", - "use the Mall Customers dataset.\n", - "\n", - "Here we use clustering to group customers with similar profiles based on some\n", - "characteristics, which then can be used for customer segmentation, and\n", - "therefore, for designing better targeted campaigns." + "based on the pairwise distances between data points. To illustrate the\n", + "different concepts, we will extract some numerical features from the penguins\n", + "dataset." ] }, { @@ -27,27 +24,39 @@ "source": [ "import pandas as pd\n", "\n", - "data = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/mall_customers.csv\")\n", - "data" + "columns_to_keep = [\n", + " \"Species\",\n", + " \"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", + " \"Culmen Depth (mm)\",\n", + " \"Flipper Length (mm)\",\n", + " \"Body Mass (g)\",\n", + " \"Sex\",\n", + "]\n", + "penguins = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/penguins.csv\")[columns_to_keep].dropna()\n", + "penguins" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "As we can see, this dataset includes the following information:\n", + "We know that this datasets contains data about 3 different species of\n", + "penguins, but we will not explicitly rely on this information and instead\n", + "treat the problem as an unsupervised data analysis task. The goal is to\n", + "assess whether K-means can help us discover meaningful clusters in the data.\n", "\n", - "- Gender: The gender of the customer.\n", - "- Age: The age of the customer.\n", - "- Annual Income (k$): The annual income of the customer (in thousands of\n", - " dollars).\n", - "- Spending Score (1\u2013100): The score ranges from 1 to 100, with a higher score\n", - " indicating a customer who spends more.\n", + "Let's hide this column for now. We will only use it at the end of the notebook:\n", + "species = penguins[\"Species\"]\n", + "penguins = penguins.drop(columns=[\"Species\"])" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ "\n", - "In this case we cannot assign any of those columns to be the target. These are\n", - "all features, each of them representing different aspects of a customer\n", - "profile. We can verify that such features do not have a direct, predictable\n", - "relationship with each other:" + "Let's take a first look at the structure of the numerical features using a\n", + "pairplot:" ] }, { @@ -58,33 +67,37 @@ "source": [ "import seaborn as sns\n", "\n", - "_ = sns.pairplot(data, hue=\"Genre\", height=4)" + "_ = sns.pairplot(penguins, height=4)" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "One could feel inclined to assigning labels to translate the task into a\n", - "classification problem, instead of using clustering.\n", "\n", - "One approach could be simple labeling: Low spenders, mid spenders, and high\n", - "spenders (3 labels). But a priori nothing prevents us from defining multiple\n", - "combinations, such as:\n", - "- Young - Low spender - High income\n", - "- Young adult - High spender - Mid income\n", - "- Older adult - Mid spender - Low income\n", + "On these plots, we more or less easily visually recognize 2 to 3 clusters\n", + "depending on the feature pairs.\n", "\n", - "We divided each numerical feature into 3 bins, leading to `3 ** n_features`\n", - "possible combinations. But we could also have used different amounts of bins\n", - "to define those labels and the problem rapidly becomes complex and subjective.\n", - "The choice of how to bin or categorize customers features can introduce\n", - "arbitrary boundaries, and the labels may not capture the nuances of customer\n", - "behavior effectively or can lead to oversimplification. For some settings we\n", - "rather let cluster labels emerge from the analysis, not from prior knowledge.\n", + "We suspect that the clusters overlap because female penguins are generally\n", + "smaller than male penguins:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "_ = sns.pairplot(penguins, hue=\"Sex\", height=4)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ "\n", - "Let's keep only the numerical values for the rest of this notebook. Having 3\n", - "features is something we can still easily visualize." + "Let us focus on female individuals to visually assess if the clusters are\n", + "better separated:" ] }, { @@ -93,22 +106,24 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "data = data.drop(columns=[\"Genre\"])" + "female_penguins = penguins.query(\"Sex == 'FEMALE'\")\n", + "_ = sns.pairplot(female_penguins, height=4)" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "## Training a k-means algorithm\n", "\n", - "Intuitively, a good cluster should be compact (with points close to each\n", - "other), dense (with a high concentration of data points), and well-separated\n", - "from other clusters. In client segmentation, this means that different\n", - "clusters should clearly represent well-defined differences in their profiles.\n", + "As we can see, the clusters look better separated on this subset of the\n", + "dataset.\n", "\n", - "First let's define a helper function to gain a visual intuition of the\n", - "clusters as obtained provided a `model`." + "In particular we can see that if we only consider:\n", + "- **Culmen Length** and **Body Mass**, we can distinguish 3 clusters;\n", + "- **Culmen Depth** and **Body Mass**, we can distinguish 2 clusters.\n", + "\n", + "Let's try to apply the k-means algorithm on the first pairs of columns to see\n", + "whether we can find the clusters that we visually identified." ] }, { @@ -117,46 +132,94 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", - "import numpy as np\n", "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", "\n", + "kmeans_cl_vs_bm = KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0)\n", + "kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm = kmeans_cl_vs_bm.fit_predict(\n", + " female_penguins[[\"Culmen Length (mm)\", \"Body Mass (g)\"]]\n", + ")\n", + "kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "The `fit_predict` method returns the cluster labels for each data point coded\n", + "with an arbitrary integer between 0 and `n_clusters - 1`.\n", + "\n", + "Let's add consolidate these labels in the original dataframe and visualize the\n", + "clusters:\n", + "\n", + "clustered_female_peng = female_penguins.copy()\n", + "clustered_female_peng[\"K-means label\"] = kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm\n", + "ax = sns.scatterplot(\n", + " data=clustered_female_peng,\n", + " x=\"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", + " y=\"Body Mass (g)\",\n", + " hue=\"K-means label\",\n", + " palette=\"deep\",\n", + " alpha=0.7,\n", + ")\n", + "sns.move_legend(ax, \"upper left\", bbox_to_anchor=(1, 1))" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "The result is disappointing: the 3 clusters found by k-means do not match\n", + "what would have naively expected from the scatter plot.\n", "\n", - "def plot_clusters(model, ax):\n", + "What could explain this?\n", "\n", - " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data)\n", - " n_clusters = len(np.unique(cluster_labels))\n", + "Clusters are defined by the distance between data points, and the `KMeans`\n", + "algorithm tries to minimize the distance between data points and their\n", + "cluster centroid. But as we can see on the axis of the scatter plot, the\n", + "values of \"Culmen Length (mm)\" and \"Body Mass (g)\" are not on the same scale.\n", "\n", - " ax.scatter(\n", - " data[\"Annual Income (k$)\"],\n", - " data[\"Spending Score (1-100)\"],\n", - " data[\"Age\"],\n", - " c=cluster_labels,\n", - " s=50,\n", - " alpha=0.7,\n", - " )\n", - " ax.set_box_aspect(None, zoom=0.84)\n", - " ax.set_xlabel(\"Annual Income (k$)\", labelpad=15)\n", - " ax.set_ylabel(\"Spending Score (1-100)\", labelpad=15)\n", - " ax.set_zlabel(\"Age\", labelpad=15)\n", - " ax.set_title(f\"n_clusters={n_clusters}\", y=0.99)\n", - " _ = plt.tight_layout()" + "If we use the original units, the distances between data points are almost\n", + "entirely dominated by the \"Body Mass (g)\" feature, which has numerical\n", + "values expressed on a scale that is much larger than the \"Culmen Length (mm)\"\n", + "feature.\n", + "\n", + "We can visualize this by plotting the data by disabling the automated visual\n", + "scaling of the axes by manually setting the same numerical limits for both\n", + "axes:\n", + "min_numerical_value = 0\n", + "max_numerical_value = clustered_female_peng[\"Body Mass (g)\"].max() * 1.1\n", + "ax = sns.scatterplot(\n", + " data=clustered_female_peng,\n", + " x=\"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", + " y=\"Body Mass (g)\",\n", + " hue=\"K-means label\",\n", + " palette=\"deep\",\n", + " alpha=0.7,\n", + ")\n", + "ax.set(\n", + " xlim=(min_numerical_value, max_numerical_value),\n", + " ylim=(min_numerical_value, max_numerical_value),\n", + " aspect=\"equal\",\n", + ")\n", + "sns.move_legend(ax, \"upper left\", bbox_to_anchor=(1, 1))" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "
\n", - "

Tip

\n", - "

Here we used the fit_predict method, which does both steps at once: it\n", - "learns from the data just as using fit, and immediately outputs labels (or\n", - "cluster labels) to those same data points as would be the case using predict.

\n", - "
\n", "\n", - "In the plots below we use different numbers of clusters, by changing the\n", - "hyperparameter `n_clusters`. Here the `random_state` controls the centroid\n", - "initialization." + "Under this new perspective, the k-means clustering results make more sense:\n", + "the \"Culmen Length\" is not taken into account because the numerical values\n", + "expressed in mm are much smaller than the \"Body Mass\" values expressed in\n", + "grams.\n", + "\n", + "To mitigate this problem, we can instead define a pipeline to use always\n", + "standardize the values of the numerical features before applying the\n", + "clustering algorithm. This way, all features will have the same scale and\n", + "contribute more or less equally to the distance calculations." ] }, { @@ -165,29 +228,110 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "n_clusters_values = [2, 4, 6, 8]\n", - "fig, axes = plt.subplots(\n", - " nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(17, 15), subplot_kw={\"projection\": \"3d\"}\n", + "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", + "from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler\n", + "\n", + "scaled_kmeans_cl_vs_bm = make_pipeline(\n", + " StandardScaler(),\n", + " KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0),\n", ")\n", + "scaled_kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm = scaled_kmeans_cl_vs_bm.fit_predict(\n", + " female_penguins[[\"Culmen Length (mm)\", \"Body Mass (g)\"]]\n", + ")\n", + "clustered_female_peng = female_penguins.copy()\n", + "clustered_female_peng[\"K-means label\"] = scaled_kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm\n", + "ax = sns.scatterplot(\n", + " data=clustered_female_peng,\n", + " x=\"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", + " y=\"Body Mass (g)\",\n", + " hue=\"K-means label\",\n", + " palette=\"deep\",\n", + " alpha=0.7,\n", + ")\n", + "sns.move_legend(ax, \"upper left\", bbox_to_anchor=(1, 1))" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "Now the results of the k-means cluster better match our visual intuition on this pair of features.\n", + "\n", + "Let's do a similar analysis on the second pair of features, namely\n", + "\"Culmen Depth (mm)\" and \"Body Mass (g)\". To do so we refactor the code above in a utility function:\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "def plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data(\n", + " clustering_model,\n", + " data,\n", + " first_feature_name,\n", + " second_feature_name,\n", + "):\n", + " labels = clustering_model.fit_predict(\n", + " data[[first_feature_name, second_feature_name]]\n", + " )\n", + " clustered_data = data.copy()\n", + " clustered_data[\"K-means label\"] = labels\n", + " ax = sns.scatterplot(\n", + " data=clustered_data,\n", + " x=first_feature_name,\n", + " y=second_feature_name,\n", + " hue=\"K-means label\",\n", + " palette=\"deep\",\n", + " alpha=0.7,\n", + " )\n", + " sns.move_legend(ax, \"upper left\", bbox_to_anchor=(1, 1))\n", "\n", - "for ax, n_clusters in zip(axes.flatten(), n_clusters_values):\n", - " model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0)\n", - " plot_clusters(model, ax)" + "\n", + "plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data(\n", + " make_pipeline(\n", + " StandardScaler(),\n", + " KMeans(n_clusters=2, random_state=0),\n", + " ),\n", + " female_penguins,\n", + " \"Culmen Depth (mm)\",\n", + " \"Body Mass (g)\",\n", + ")" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "In non-supervised learning, such as clustering, not having ground truth labels\n", - "can make the model evaluation challenging. However, as we have discussed,\n", - "it is still possible to define metrics that provide insight into the quality of\n", - "the formed clusters.\n", "\n", - "One common metric for evaluating clusters is Within-Cluster Sum of Squares\n", - "(WCSS), also known as **inertia**, which measures how compact the clusters\n", - "are. A lower WCSS indicates that the data points within each cluster are close\n", - "to the cluster's centroid, suggesting that the cluster is well-formed." + "Here again the clusters are well separated and the k-means algorithm\n", + "identified clusters that match our visual intuition.\n", + "\n", + "We can also try to apply the k-means algorithm with a larger value for\n", + "`n_clusters`:\n", + "\n", + "plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data(\n", + " make_pipeline(\n", + " StandardScaler(),\n", + " KMeans(n_clusters=6, random_state=0),\n", + " ),\n", + " female_penguins,\n", + " \"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", + " \"Body Mass (g)\",\n", + ")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "When we select a large value of `n_clusters`, we observe that k-means will\n", + "build as many groups as requested even if the resulting groups are not well\n", + "separated.\n", + "\n", + "Let's now see we can use this intuition on cluster separation to identify\n", + "suitable valuers for the number of clusters based on heuristic methods\n", + "introduced earlier in the course.\n", + "\n", + "Let's start by plotting the evolution of the WCSS (Within-Cluster Sum of\n", + "Squares) metric as a function of the number of clusters." ] }, { @@ -196,34 +340,41 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", + "\n", "wcss = []\n", - "n_clusters_values = range(2, 11)\n", + "n_clusters_values = range(1, 11)\n", "\n", "for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", - " model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0)\n", - " model.fit(data)\n", - " wcss.append(model.inertia_)\n", + " model = make_pipeline(\n", + " StandardScaler(),\n", + " KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0),\n", + " )\n", + " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(\n", + " female_penguins[[\"Culmen Length (mm)\", \"Body Mass (g)\"]]\n", + " )\n", + " wcss.append(model.named_steps[\"kmeans\"].inertia_)\n", "\n", "plt.plot(n_clusters_values, wcss, marker=\"o\")\n", "plt.xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", - "plt.ylabel(\"Inertia\")\n", - "_ = plt.title(\"Elbow method using cluster inertia\")" + "plt.ylabel(\"WCSS (or inertia)\")\n", + "_ = plt.title(\"Elbow method using WCSS\")" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "The so called elbow method can be subtile here, but it seems to match our\n", - "visual intuition from the 3D plots: having 6 clusters seems to be the best\n", - "choice for correctly identifying groups.\n", "\n", - "Another useful metric is the Silhouette Score. A high silhouette score means\n", - "that the data points are not only well-grouped within their own clusters but\n", - "also well-separated from other clusters. A value of 0 indicates that the the\n", - "decision boundary between two neighboring clusters may overlap, whereas\n", - "negative values indicate that some samples might have been assigned to the\n", - "wrong cluster." + "As expected the WCSS value decreases as the number of clusters increases and\n", + "we can observe a so-called \"elbow\" in the curve (the point with maximum\n", + "curvature) around `n_clusters=3`. This matches the number of cluster found by\n", + "our visual intuition when looking at this 2D scatter plots.\n", + "\n", + "However, the elbow method is not always easy to read.\n", + "\n", + "Let's try to use the silhouette score instead. Note that this method requires\n", + "access to the preprocessed features:" ] }, { @@ -234,26 +385,247 @@ "source": [ "from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score\n", "\n", - "silhouette_scores = []\n", - "for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", - " model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0)\n", - " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data)\n", - " score = silhouette_score(data, cluster_labels)\n", - " silhouette_scores.append(score)\n", "\n", - "plt.plot(n_clusters_values, silhouette_scores, marker=\"o\")\n", - "plt.xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", - "plt.ylabel(\"Silhouette score\")\n", - "_ = plt.title(\"Silhouette scores for different n_clusters\")" + "def plot_silhouette_scores(\n", + " data,\n", + " clustering_model=None,\n", + " preprocessor=None,\n", + " n_clusters_values=range(2, 11),\n", + "):\n", + " if clustering_model is None:\n", + " clustering_model = KMeans(random_state=0)\n", + "\n", + " if preprocessor is None:\n", + " preprocessor = StandardScaler()\n", + "\n", + " preprocessed_data = preprocessor.fit_transform(data)\n", + "\n", + " silhouette_scores = []\n", + " for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", + " clustering_model.set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters)\n", + " cluster_labels = clustering_model.fit_predict(preprocessed_data)\n", + " score = silhouette_score(preprocessed_data, cluster_labels)\n", + " silhouette_scores.append(score)\n", + "\n", + " plt.plot(n_clusters_values, silhouette_scores, marker=\"o\")\n", + " plt.xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", + " plt.ylabel(\"Silhouette score\")\n", + " _ = plt.title(\"Silhouette scores for different n_clusters\")\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "plot_silhouette_scores(\n", + " female_penguins[[\"Culmen Length (mm)\", \"Body Mass (g)\"]],\n", + ")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "The silhouette score reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=3`, which confirms\n", + "our visual intuition on this 2D dataset.\n", + "\n", + "We can also notice that the silhouette score is also very high for\n", + "`n_clusters=2` and has an intermediate value for `n_clusters=4`. It's\n", + "possible that those two values would also yield qualitatively meaningful\n", + "clusters, but this probably not the case for `n_clusters=5` or larger.\n", + "\n", + "Let's compare this to the results obtained on the second pair of features:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "plot_silhouette_scores(\n", + " female_penguins[[\"Culmen Depth (mm)\", \"Body Mass (g)\"]],\n", + ")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "For this feature set, the plot clearly shows that the silhouette score\n", + "reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=2`, which matches our visual intuition\n", + "from the scatter plot of this 2D feature set." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "We can now try to apply the k-means algorithm on the full dataset, i.e. on\n", + "all numerical features and all the rows, to see whether k-means can discover\n", + "meaningful clusters in the data automatically.\n", + "\n", + "We also include the `Sex` feature in the clustering model to see whether\n", + "it can help the algorithm to find better clusters.\n", + "\n", + "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer, make_column_selector\n", + "from sklearn.preprocessing import OneHotEncoder\n", + "\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (\n", + " OneHotEncoder(drop=\"if_binary\"),\n", + " make_column_selector(dtype_exclude=\"number\"),\n", + " ),\n", + " (\n", + " StandardScaler(),\n", + " make_column_selector(dtype_include=\"number\"),\n", + " ),\n", + ")\n", + "plot_silhouette_scores(penguins, preprocessor=preprocessor)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "Based on the silhouette scores, it seems that k-means would prefer to cluster\n", + "those features into either 2 or 6 clusters.\n", + "\n", + "Let's try to visualize the clusters obtained with `n_clusters=6`:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "\n", + "model = make_pipeline(\n", + " preprocessor,\n", + " KMeans(n_clusters=6, random_state=0),\n", + ")\n", + "cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(penguins)\n", + "_ = sns.pairplot(\n", + " penguins.assign(cluster_label=cluster_labels),\n", + " hue=\"cluster_label\",\n", + " palette=\"deep\",\n", + " height=4,\n", + ")" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "The silhouette score reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=6`, which confirms\n", - "both the visual intuition and the optimal number of clusters found using the\n", - "elbow method." + "\n", + "Since this is high-dimensional data (5D), the pairplot (computed only for the\n", + "4 numerical features) only offers a limited perspective on the clusters. But\n", + "they do seem meaningful, and in particular we can notice that they could\n", + "potentially correspond to the 3 species of penguins present in the dataset\n", + "(Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex (2 clusters for each\n", + "species, one for males and one for females).\n", + "\n", + "Let's try to confirm this hypothesis by looking at the original\n", + "\"Species\" labels combined with the \"Sex\":" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "species_and_sex_labels = species + \" \" + penguins[\"Sex\"]\n", + "species_and_sex_labels.value_counts()" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "_ = sns.pairplot(\n", + " penguins.assign(species_and_sex=species_and_sex_labels),\n", + " hue=\"species_and_sex\",\n", + " palette=\"deep\",\n", + " height=4,\n", + ")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "This plot seems to be very similar to the pairplot we obtained with the 6\n", + "clusters found by k-means on our preprocessed data. Note that the colors are\n", + "different, because the ordering of the labels is arbitrary (both for the\n", + "k-means cluster and the manually assigned labels). But the way of grouping\n", + "the data points look similar.\n", + "\n", + "Let's quantify the agreement between the clusters found by k-means and the\n", + "combination of the \"Species\" and \"Sex\" labels using the [Normalized Mutual\n", + "Information](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/clustering.html#mutual-info-score)\n", + "(NMI) score." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.metrics.cluster import normalized_mutual_info_score\n", + "\n", + "nmi = normalized_mutual_info_score(\n", + " species_and_sex_labels,\n", + " cluster_labels,\n", + ")\n", + "print(f\"Normalized Mutual Information (NMI): {nmi:.3f}\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "This value is very close to 1.0, which indicates a very strong agreement.\n", + "\n", + "The conclusion is that we relate the clusters found by running k-means on\n", + "those preprocessed features to a meaningful (human) way to partition the\n", + "penguins records.\n", + "\n", + "Note however that this is not always the case. For **k-means to yield\n", + "meaningful results, the data must be have an approximately balanced, convex\n", + "and isotropic cluster structure** after preprocessing. That is, the clusters\n", + "must have a spherical shape in the feature space and approximately the same\n", + "size.\n", + "\n", + "We cannot stress enough that the choice of the features and preprocessing\n", + "steps are crucial: if we had not standardized the numerical data, or we had\n", + "not included the \"Sex\" feature or if we had scaled its one-hot encoding by a\n", + "factor of 10, we would probably not have been able to discover interpretable\n", + "clusters.\n", + "\n", + "Furthermore, **many natural datasets would not satisfy the k-means\n", + "assumptions** even after non-trivial preprocessing. In those cases, we can\n", + "either try alternatives to k-means that favor different cluster shapes (for\n", + "instance HDBSCAN or Gaussian Mixture Models) or we can try to isolate\n", + "row-wise or column-wise subsets of the data that are more likely to exhibit a\n", + "cluster structure. Or sometimes, we can decide to partition the data with\n", + "k-means with a large number of clusters, even if they are not interpretable\n", + "and use the distance to centroids as preprocessing for another task. It all\n", + "depends on the specific application domain and the downstream use of the\n", + "resulting clusters.\n", + "\n", + "Finally, notice that we used extra supervised information to quantitatively\n", + "assess the quality of the match between the clusters found by k-means and our\n", + "interpretation. In practice, this is often impossible, as we do not have\n", + "access to human assigned labels for each row in the data. Or, if we have, we\n", + "might want to use them to train the clustering model, but instead we would\n", + "rather use them as the target variable to train a supervised classifier." ] } ], From 8ccd658b4359f38c869e069ffc1c8d5d971f382b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Wed, 28 May 2025 19:53:45 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 07/79] Add some missing cell markers --- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py | 3 +++ 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py index 2e69008de..add979287 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py @@ -192,6 +192,7 @@ # "Culmen Depth (mm)" and "Body Mass (g)". To do so we refactor the code above in a utility function: +# %% def plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( clustering_model, data, @@ -232,6 +233,7 @@ def plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( # We can also try to apply the k-means algorithm with a larger value for # `n_clusters`: +# %% plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( make_pipeline( StandardScaler(), @@ -355,6 +357,7 @@ def plot_silhouette_scores( # We also include the `Sex` feature in the clustering model to see whether # it can help the algorithm to find better clusters. +# %% from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer, make_column_selector from sklearn.preprocessing import OneHotEncoder From 0a2dfa3dead337332013fee0f5b70c5b14a7eb0b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Wed, 28 May 2025 19:53:55 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 08/79] Rerender the first notebook --- notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb | 38 ++++++++++++++++++++++++------- 1 file changed, 30 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb index f0f4e55b6..b72b06e3b 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb @@ -253,15 +253,23 @@ }, { "cell_type": "markdown", - "metadata": {}, + "metadata": { + "lines_to_next_cell": 2 + }, "source": [ "\n", "Now the results of the k-means cluster better match our visual intuition on this pair of features.\n", "\n", "Let's do a similar analysis on the second pair of features, namely\n", - "\"Culmen Depth (mm)\" and \"Body Mass (g)\". To do so we refactor the code above in a utility function:\n", - "\n", - "\n", + "\"Culmen Depth (mm)\" and \"Body Mass (g)\". To do so we refactor the code above in a utility function:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ "def plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data(\n", " clustering_model,\n", " data,\n", @@ -304,8 +312,15 @@ "identified clusters that match our visual intuition.\n", "\n", "We can also try to apply the k-means algorithm with a larger value for\n", - "`n_clusters`:\n", - "\n", + "`n_clusters`:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ "plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data(\n", " make_pipeline(\n", " StandardScaler(),\n", @@ -465,8 +480,15 @@ "meaningful clusters in the data automatically.\n", "\n", "We also include the `Sex` feature in the clustering model to see whether\n", - "it can help the algorithm to find better clusters.\n", - "\n", + "it can help the algorithm to find better clusters." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer, make_column_selector\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import OneHotEncoder\n", "\n", From 83bc29157b923f2dc8b0c9efb79d8bc856a47ab6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Wed, 28 May 2025 20:00:57 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 09/79] More missing markers --- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py | 5 ++++- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py index add979287..cf3edee3f 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py @@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ # Let's add consolidate these labels in the original dataframe and visualize the # clusters: +# %% clustered_female_peng = female_penguins.copy() clustered_female_peng["K-means label"] = kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm ax = sns.scatterplot( @@ -132,6 +133,8 @@ # We can visualize this by plotting the data by disabling the automated visual # scaling of the axes by manually setting the same numerical limits for both # axes: + +# %% min_numerical_value = 0 max_numerical_value = clustered_female_peng["Body Mass (g)"].max() * 1.1 ax = sns.scatterplot( @@ -251,7 +254,7 @@ def plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( # separated. # # Let's now see we can use this intuition on cluster separation to identify -# suitable valuers for the number of clusters based on heuristic methods +# suitable values for the number of clusters based on heuristic methods # introduced earlier in the course. # # Let's start by plotting the evolution of the WCSS (Within-Cluster Sum of From 60d32eb1154e759ac1916049373e6cb2a211a2fd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Wed, 28 May 2025 20:01:05 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 10/79] Rerender the first notebook --- notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb | 23 +++++++++++++++++++---- 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb index b72b06e3b..36f6cf4e6 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb @@ -150,8 +150,15 @@ "with an arbitrary integer between 0 and `n_clusters - 1`.\n", "\n", "Let's add consolidate these labels in the original dataframe and visualize the\n", - "clusters:\n", - "\n", + "clusters:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ "clustered_female_peng = female_penguins.copy()\n", "clustered_female_peng[\"K-means label\"] = kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm\n", "ax = sns.scatterplot(\n", @@ -187,7 +194,15 @@ "\n", "We can visualize this by plotting the data by disabling the automated visual\n", "scaling of the axes by manually setting the same numerical limits for both\n", - "axes:\n", + "axes:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ "min_numerical_value = 0\n", "max_numerical_value = clustered_female_peng[\"Body Mass (g)\"].max() * 1.1\n", "ax = sns.scatterplot(\n", @@ -342,7 +357,7 @@ "separated.\n", "\n", "Let's now see we can use this intuition on cluster separation to identify\n", - "suitable valuers for the number of clusters based on heuristic methods\n", + "suitable values for the number of clusters based on heuristic methods\n", "introduced earlier in the course.\n", "\n", "Let's start by plotting the evolution of the WCSS (Within-Cluster Sum of\n", From 2621cec188789b51fba1b3a0b81231efba6bdbb9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Wed, 28 May 2025 20:09:00 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 11/79] Improve phrasing / fix typos --- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py | 44 ++++++++++++++--------------- 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py index cf3edee3f..15feaa828 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py @@ -97,17 +97,16 @@ # The `fit_predict` method returns the cluster labels for each data point coded # with an arbitrary integer between 0 and `n_clusters - 1`. # -# Let's add consolidate these labels in the original dataframe and visualize the +# Let's consolidate these labels in the original dataframe and visualize the # clusters: # %% clustered_female_peng = female_penguins.copy() -clustered_female_peng["K-means label"] = kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm ax = sns.scatterplot( - data=clustered_female_peng, + data=female_penguins.assign(kmeans_labels=kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm), x="Culmen Length (mm)", y="Body Mass (g)", - hue="K-means label", + hue="kmeans_labels", palette="deep", alpha=0.7, ) @@ -115,8 +114,8 @@ # %% [markdown] # -# The result is disappointing: the 3 clusters found by k-means do not match -# what would have naively expected from the scatter plot. +# The result is disappointing: the 3 clusters found by k-means do not match +# what we would have naively expected from the scatter plot. # # What could explain this? # @@ -189,10 +188,12 @@ # %% [markdown] # -# Now the results of the k-means cluster better match our visual intuition on this pair of features. +# Now the results of the k-means cluster better match our visual intuition on +# this pair of features. # -# Let's do a similar analysis on the second pair of features, namely -# "Culmen Depth (mm)" and "Body Mass (g)". To do so we refactor the code above in a utility function: +# Let's do a similar analysis on the second pair of features, namely "Culmen +# Depth (mm)" and "Body Mass (g)". To do so, let's refactor the code above as a +# utility function: # %% @@ -205,13 +206,11 @@ def plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( labels = clustering_model.fit_predict( data[[first_feature_name, second_feature_name]] ) - clustered_data = data.copy() - clustered_data["K-means label"] = labels ax = sns.scatterplot( - data=clustered_data, + data=data.assign(kmeans_labels=labels), x=first_feature_name, y=second_feature_name, - hue="K-means label", + hue="kmeans_labels", palette="deep", alpha=0.7, ) @@ -253,7 +252,7 @@ def plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( # build as many groups as requested even if the resulting groups are not well # separated. # -# Let's now see we can use this intuition on cluster separation to identify +# Let's now see if can use this intuition on cluster separation to identify # suitable values for the number of clusters based on heuristic methods # introduced earlier in the course. # @@ -400,14 +399,15 @@ def plot_silhouette_scores( # %% [markdown] # # Since this is high-dimensional data (5D), the pairplot (computed only for the -# 4 numerical features) only offers a limited perspective on the clusters. But -# they do seem meaningful, and in particular we can notice that they could -# potentially correspond to the 3 species of penguins present in the dataset -# (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex (2 clusters for each -# species, one for males and one for females). -# -# Let's try to confirm this hypothesis by looking at the original -# "Species" labels combined with the "Sex": +# 4 numerical features) only offers a limited perspective on the clusters. +# Despite this limitation, the clusters do appear meaningful, and in particular +# we can notice that they could potentially correspond to the 3 species of +# penguins present in the dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further +# splitted by Sex (2 clusters for each species, one for males and one for +# females). +# +# Let's try to confirm this hypothesis by looking at the original "Species" +# labels combined with the "Sex": # %% species_and_sex_labels = species + " " + penguins["Sex"] From 57fafec976f1379c97933c06114f2dfad8c13dd6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Wed, 28 May 2025 20:10:19 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 12/79] Typo --- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py | 4 ++-- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py index 15feaa828..157ce2ab4 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py @@ -137,10 +137,10 @@ min_numerical_value = 0 max_numerical_value = clustered_female_peng["Body Mass (g)"].max() * 1.1 ax = sns.scatterplot( - data=clustered_female_peng, + data=clustered_female_peng.assign(kmeans_labels=kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm), x="Culmen Length (mm)", y="Body Mass (g)", - hue="K-means label", + hue="kmeans_labels", palette="deep", alpha=0.7, ) From 51a0d1370383bf5abbf2023509c75bc141085f4e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Wed, 28 May 2025 20:10:31 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 13/79] Rerender the first notebook --- notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb | 48 +++++++++++++++---------------- 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 24 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb index 36f6cf4e6..83a18fc57 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb @@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ "The `fit_predict` method returns the cluster labels for each data point coded\n", "with an arbitrary integer between 0 and `n_clusters - 1`.\n", "\n", - "Let's add consolidate these labels in the original dataframe and visualize the\n", + "Let's consolidate these labels in the original dataframe and visualize the\n", "clusters:" ] }, @@ -160,12 +160,11 @@ "outputs": [], "source": [ "clustered_female_peng = female_penguins.copy()\n", - "clustered_female_peng[\"K-means label\"] = kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm\n", "ax = sns.scatterplot(\n", - " data=clustered_female_peng,\n", + " data=female_penguins.assign(kmeans_labels=kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm),\n", " x=\"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", " y=\"Body Mass (g)\",\n", - " hue=\"K-means label\",\n", + " hue=\"kmeans_labels\",\n", " palette=\"deep\",\n", " alpha=0.7,\n", ")\n", @@ -177,8 +176,8 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", - "The result is disappointing: the 3 clusters found by k-means do not match\n", - "what would have naively expected from the scatter plot.\n", + "The result is disappointing: the 3 clusters found by k-means do not match\n", + "what we would have naively expected from the scatter plot.\n", "\n", "What could explain this?\n", "\n", @@ -206,10 +205,10 @@ "min_numerical_value = 0\n", "max_numerical_value = clustered_female_peng[\"Body Mass (g)\"].max() * 1.1\n", "ax = sns.scatterplot(\n", - " data=clustered_female_peng,\n", + " data=clustered_female_peng.assign(kmeans_labels=kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm),\n", " x=\"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", " y=\"Body Mass (g)\",\n", - " hue=\"K-means label\",\n", + " hue=\"kmeans_labels\",\n", " palette=\"deep\",\n", " alpha=0.7,\n", ")\n", @@ -273,10 +272,12 @@ }, "source": [ "\n", - "Now the results of the k-means cluster better match our visual intuition on this pair of features.\n", + "Now the results of the k-means cluster better match our visual intuition on\n", + "this pair of features.\n", "\n", - "Let's do a similar analysis on the second pair of features, namely\n", - "\"Culmen Depth (mm)\" and \"Body Mass (g)\". To do so we refactor the code above in a utility function:" + "Let's do a similar analysis on the second pair of features, namely \"Culmen\n", + "Depth (mm)\" and \"Body Mass (g)\". To do so, let's refactor the code above as a\n", + "utility function:" ] }, { @@ -294,13 +295,11 @@ " labels = clustering_model.fit_predict(\n", " data[[first_feature_name, second_feature_name]]\n", " )\n", - " clustered_data = data.copy()\n", - " clustered_data[\"K-means label\"] = labels\n", " ax = sns.scatterplot(\n", - " data=clustered_data,\n", + " data=data.assign(kmeans_labels=labels),\n", " x=first_feature_name,\n", " y=second_feature_name,\n", - " hue=\"K-means label\",\n", + " hue=\"kmeans_labels\",\n", " palette=\"deep\",\n", " alpha=0.7,\n", " )\n", @@ -356,7 +355,7 @@ "build as many groups as requested even if the resulting groups are not well\n", "separated.\n", "\n", - "Let's now see we can use this intuition on cluster separation to identify\n", + "Let's now see if can use this intuition on cluster separation to identify\n", "suitable values for the number of clusters based on heuristic methods\n", "introduced earlier in the course.\n", "\n", @@ -557,14 +556,15 @@ "source": [ "\n", "Since this is high-dimensional data (5D), the pairplot (computed only for the\n", - "4 numerical features) only offers a limited perspective on the clusters. But\n", - "they do seem meaningful, and in particular we can notice that they could\n", - "potentially correspond to the 3 species of penguins present in the dataset\n", - "(Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex (2 clusters for each\n", - "species, one for males and one for females).\n", - "\n", - "Let's try to confirm this hypothesis by looking at the original\n", - "\"Species\" labels combined with the \"Sex\":" + "4 numerical features) only offers a limited perspective on the clusters.\n", + "Despite this limitation, the clusters do appear meaningful, and in particular\n", + "we can notice that they could potentially correspond to the 3 species of\n", + "penguins present in the dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further\n", + "splitted by Sex (2 clusters for each species, one for males and one for\n", + "females).\n", + "\n", + "Let's try to confirm this hypothesis by looking at the original \"Species\"\n", + "labels combined with the \"Sex\":" ] }, { From 6b26222f9e6c1200a276a305782e58e86db0b648 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Fri, 30 May 2025 18:08:30 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 14/79] Iter on Olivier's work --- notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb | 321 ++++++++++++---------------- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py | 290 ++++++++++--------------- 2 files changed, 248 insertions(+), 363 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb index 83a18fc57..c9e5cd6c8 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb @@ -12,8 +12,7 @@ "\n", "In this notebook we explore the k-means algorithm, which seeks to group data\n", "based on the pairwise distances between data points. To illustrate the\n", - "different concepts, we will extract some numerical features from the penguins\n", - "dataset." + "different concepts, we retain some of the features from the penguins dataset." ] }, { @@ -25,14 +24,16 @@ "import pandas as pd\n", "\n", "columns_to_keep = [\n", - " \"Species\",\n", " \"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", " \"Culmen Depth (mm)\",\n", " \"Flipper Length (mm)\",\n", " \"Body Mass (g)\",\n", " \"Sex\",\n", + " \"Species\",\n", "]\n", "penguins = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/penguins.csv\")[columns_to_keep].dropna()\n", + "# penguins = penguins[penguins[\"Sex\"] != \".\"].reset_index(drop=True)\n", + "penguins[\"Species\"] = penguins[\"Species\"].str.split(\" \").str[0]\n", "penguins" ] }, @@ -41,22 +42,16 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "We know that this datasets contains data about 3 different species of\n", - "penguins, but we will not explicitly rely on this information and instead\n", - "treat the problem as an unsupervised data analysis task. The goal is to\n", - "assess whether K-means can help us discover meaningful clusters in the data.\n", - "\n", - "Let's hide this column for now. We will only use it at the end of the notebook:\n", - "species = penguins[\"Species\"]\n", - "penguins = penguins.drop(columns=[\"Species\"])" - ] - }, - { - "cell_type": "markdown", - "metadata": {}, - "source": [ + "penguins, but let's not rely on such information for the moment. Instead we\n", + "can addresse the task using clustering. This could be the case, for example,\n", + "when analyzing newly collected penguin data in the wild where species haven't\n", + "yet been identified, or when the goal is to detect natural groupings such as\n", + "subpopulations, hybrids, or other variations. It\u2019s also useful as a data\n", + "exploration tool: before committing to a classifier, clustering can help\n", + "assess whether the chosen features separate the data well.\n", "\n", - "Let's take a first look at the structure of the numerical features using a\n", - "pairplot:" + "Let's hide this column for now. We will only use it at the end of this\n", + "notebook:" ] }, { @@ -65,9 +60,8 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "import seaborn as sns\n", - "\n", - "_ = sns.pairplot(penguins, height=4)" + "species = penguins[\"Species\"]\n", + "penguins = penguins.drop(columns=[\"Species\"])" ] }, { @@ -75,11 +69,8 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", - "On these plots, we more or less easily visually recognize 2 to 3 clusters\n", - "depending on the feature pairs.\n", - "\n", - "We suspect that the clusters overlap because female penguins are generally\n", - "smaller than male penguins:" + "Let's take a first look at the structure of the available features using a\n", + "`pairplot`:" ] }, { @@ -88,6 +79,8 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "import seaborn as sns\n", + "\n", "_ = sns.pairplot(penguins, hue=\"Sex\", height=4)" ] }, @@ -96,8 +89,12 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", - "Let us focus on female individuals to visually assess if the clusters are\n", - "better separated:" + "On these plots, we visually recognize 2 to 3 clusters depending on the feature\n", + "pairs. We can also notice that female penguins are generally smaller than male\n", + "penguins.\n", + "\n", + "Let us focus on female individuals to visually assess if that subset of data\n", + "leads to better separated clusters:" ] }, { @@ -115,15 +112,18 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", - "As we can see, the clusters look better separated on this subset of the\n", - "dataset.\n", + "Intuitively, a good cluster should be compact (with points close to each\n", + "other), and well-separated from other clusters, which is indeed the case for\n", + "this subset of the data.\n", "\n", "In particular we can see that if we only consider:\n", "- **Culmen Length** and **Body Mass**, we can distinguish 3 clusters;\n", "- **Culmen Depth** and **Body Mass**, we can distinguish 2 clusters.\n", "\n", "Let's try to apply the k-means algorithm on the first pairs of columns to see\n", - "whether we can find the clusters that we visually identified." + "whether we can find the clusters that we visually identified. The\n", + "hyperparameter `n_clusters` sets the numbers of clusters and the\n", + "`random_state` controls the centroid initialization." ] }, { @@ -134,20 +134,24 @@ "source": [ "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", "\n", - "kmeans_cl_vs_bm = KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0)\n", - "kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm = kmeans_cl_vs_bm.fit_predict(\n", + "kmeans = KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0)\n", + "labels_cl_vs_bm = kmeans.fit_predict(\n", " female_penguins[[\"Culmen Length (mm)\", \"Body Mass (g)\"]]\n", ")\n", - "kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm" + "labels_cl_vs_bm" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "\n", - "The `fit_predict` method returns the cluster labels for each data point coded\n", - "with an arbitrary integer between 0 and `n_clusters - 1`.\n", + "
\n", + "

Tip

\n", + "

Here we used the fit_predict method, which does both steps at once: it\n", + "learns from the data just as using fit, and immediately returns cluster\n", + "labels for each data point using predict. Cluster labels are coded with an\n", + "arbitrary integer between 0 and n_clusters - 1.

\n", + "
\n", "\n", "Let's consolidate these labels in the original dataframe and visualize the\n", "clusters:" @@ -159,9 +163,8 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "clustered_female_peng = female_penguins.copy()\n", "ax = sns.scatterplot(\n", - " data=female_penguins.assign(kmeans_labels=kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm),\n", + " data=female_penguins.assign(kmeans_labels=labels_cl_vs_bm),\n", " x=\"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", " y=\"Body Mass (g)\",\n", " hue=\"kmeans_labels\",\n", @@ -186,14 +189,7 @@ "cluster centroid. But as we can see on the axis of the scatter plot, the\n", "values of \"Culmen Length (mm)\" and \"Body Mass (g)\" are not on the same scale.\n", "\n", - "If we use the original units, the distances between data points are almost\n", - "entirely dominated by the \"Body Mass (g)\" feature, which has numerical\n", - "values expressed on a scale that is much larger than the \"Culmen Length (mm)\"\n", - "feature.\n", - "\n", - "We can visualize this by plotting the data by disabling the automated visual\n", - "scaling of the axes by manually setting the same numerical limits for both\n", - "axes:" + "We can visualize this by manually setting the same scale to both axes:" ] }, { @@ -202,10 +198,10 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "min_numerical_value = 0\n", - "max_numerical_value = clustered_female_peng[\"Body Mass (g)\"].max() * 1.1\n", + "min_value = 0\n", + "max_value = female_penguins[\"Body Mass (g)\"].max() * 1.1\n", "ax = sns.scatterplot(\n", - " data=clustered_female_peng.assign(kmeans_labels=kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm),\n", + " data=female_penguins.assign(kmeans_labels=labels_cl_vs_bm),\n", " x=\"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", " y=\"Body Mass (g)\",\n", " hue=\"kmeans_labels\",\n", @@ -213,8 +209,8 @@ " alpha=0.7,\n", ")\n", "ax.set(\n", - " xlim=(min_numerical_value, max_numerical_value),\n", - " ylim=(min_numerical_value, max_numerical_value),\n", + " xlim=(min_value, max_value),\n", + " ylim=(min_value, max_value),\n", " aspect=\"equal\",\n", ")\n", "sns.move_legend(ax, \"upper left\", bbox_to_anchor=(1, 1))" @@ -225,15 +221,13 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", - "Under this new perspective, the k-means clustering results make more sense:\n", - "the \"Culmen Length\" is not taken into account because the numerical values\n", - "expressed in mm are much smaller than the \"Body Mass\" values expressed in\n", - "grams.\n", + "We confirm then than, in the original units, the distances between data points\n", + "are almost entirely dominated by the \"Body Mass (g)\" feature, which has much\n", + "larger numerical values than the \"Culmen Length (mm)\" feature.\n", "\n", - "To mitigate this problem, we can instead define a pipeline to use always\n", - "standardize the values of the numerical features before applying the\n", - "clustering algorithm. This way, all features will have the same scale and\n", - "contribute more or less equally to the distance calculations." + "To mitigate this problem, we can instead define a pipeline to scale the\n", + "numerical features before clustering. This way, all features contribute\n", + "equally to the distance calculations." ] }, { @@ -245,24 +239,9 @@ "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler\n", "\n", - "scaled_kmeans_cl_vs_bm = make_pipeline(\n", - " StandardScaler(),\n", - " KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0),\n", - ")\n", - "scaled_kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm = scaled_kmeans_cl_vs_bm.fit_predict(\n", - " female_penguins[[\"Culmen Length (mm)\", \"Body Mass (g)\"]]\n", - ")\n", - "clustered_female_peng = female_penguins.copy()\n", - "clustered_female_peng[\"K-means label\"] = scaled_kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm\n", - "ax = sns.scatterplot(\n", - " data=clustered_female_peng,\n", - " x=\"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", - " y=\"Body Mass (g)\",\n", - " hue=\"K-means label\",\n", - " palette=\"deep\",\n", - " alpha=0.7,\n", - ")\n", - "sns.move_legend(ax, \"upper left\", bbox_to_anchor=(1, 1))" + "scaled_kmeans = make_pipeline(\n", + " StandardScaler(), KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0)\n", + ")" ] }, { @@ -271,13 +250,8 @@ "lines_to_next_cell": 2 }, "source": [ - "\n", - "Now the results of the k-means cluster better match our visual intuition on\n", - "this pair of features.\n", - "\n", - "Let's do a similar analysis on the second pair of features, namely \"Culmen\n", - "Depth (mm)\" and \"Body Mass (g)\". To do so, let's refactor the code above as a\n", - "utility function:" + "To avoid repeating the code for plotting, we can define a helper\n", + "function as follows:" ] }, { @@ -307,13 +281,35 @@ "\n", "\n", "plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data(\n", - " make_pipeline(\n", - " StandardScaler(),\n", - " KMeans(n_clusters=2, random_state=0),\n", - " ),\n", - " female_penguins,\n", - " \"Culmen Depth (mm)\",\n", - " \"Body Mass (g)\",\n", + " scaled_kmeans, female_penguins, \"Culmen Length (mm)\", \"Body Mass (g)\"\n", + ")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "Now the results of the k-means cluster better match our visual intuition on\n", + "this pair of features.\n", + "\n", + "Let's do a similar analysis on the second pair of features, namely \"Culmen\n", + "Depth (mm)\" and \"Body Mass (g)\". To do so, let's refactor the code above as a\n", + "utility function:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "scaled_kmeans = make_pipeline(\n", + " StandardScaler(), KMeans(n_clusters=2, random_state=0)\n", + ")\n", + "\n", + "plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data(\n", + " scaled_kmeans, female_penguins, \"Culmen Depth (mm)\", \"Body Mass (g)\"\n", ")" ] }, @@ -335,14 +331,12 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "scaled_kmeans = make_pipeline(\n", + " StandardScaler(), KMeans(n_clusters=6, random_state=0)\n", + ")\n", + "\n", "plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data(\n", - " make_pipeline(\n", - " StandardScaler(),\n", - " KMeans(n_clusters=6, random_state=0),\n", - " ),\n", - " female_penguins,\n", - " \"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", - " \"Body Mass (g)\",\n", + " scaled_kmeans, female_penguins, \"Culmen Length (mm)\", \"Body Mass (g)\"\n", ")" ] }, @@ -351,16 +345,14 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", - "When we select a large value of `n_clusters`, we observe that k-means will\n", - "build as many groups as requested even if the resulting groups are not well\n", + "When we select a large value of `n_clusters`, we observe that k-means builds\n", + "as many groups as requested even if the resulting clusters are not well\n", "separated.\n", "\n", - "Let's now see if can use this intuition on cluster separation to identify\n", - "suitable values for the number of clusters based on heuristic methods\n", - "introduced earlier in the course.\n", - "\n", - "Let's start by plotting the evolution of the WCSS (Within-Cluster Sum of\n", - "Squares) metric as a function of the number of clusters." + "Let's now see if we can identify suitable values for the number of clusters\n", + "based on some heuristics. We start by plotting the evolution of the WCSS\n", + "(Within-Cluster Sum of Squares) metric as a function of the number of\n", + "clusters." ] }, { @@ -395,15 +387,14 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", - "As expected the WCSS value decreases as the number of clusters increases and\n", - "we can observe a so-called \"elbow\" in the curve (the point with maximum\n", - "curvature) around `n_clusters=3`. This matches the number of cluster found by\n", - "our visual intuition when looking at this 2D scatter plots.\n", + "We can observe the so-called \"elbow\" in the curve (the point with maximum\n", + "curvature) around `n_clusters=3`. This matches our visual intuition coming\n", + "from the \"Culmen Length\" vs \"Body Mass\" scatter plot.\n", "\n", - "However, the elbow method is not always easy to read.\n", - "\n", - "Let's try to use the silhouette score instead. Note that this method requires\n", - "access to the preprocessed features:" + "However, the WCSS value decreases monotonically as the number of clusters\n", + "increases, and then we may be overlooking important information. Let's now\n", + "plot the silhouette score instead. Notice that this method requires access to\n", + "the preprocessed features:" ] }, { @@ -420,6 +411,7 @@ " clustering_model=None,\n", " preprocessor=None,\n", " n_clusters_values=range(2, 11),\n", + " title_details=\"all features\",\n", "):\n", " if clustering_model is None:\n", " clustering_model = KMeans(random_state=0)\n", @@ -439,11 +431,12 @@ " plt.plot(n_clusters_values, silhouette_scores, marker=\"o\")\n", " plt.xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", " plt.ylabel(\"Silhouette score\")\n", - " _ = plt.title(\"Silhouette scores for different n_clusters\")\n", + " _ = plt.title(\"Silhouette scores using\\n\" + title_details)\n", "\n", "\n", "plot_silhouette_scores(\n", " female_penguins[[\"Culmen Length (mm)\", \"Body Mass (g)\"]],\n", + " title_details=\"Culmen Length and Body Mass\",\n", ")" ] }, @@ -452,13 +445,13 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", - "The silhouette score reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=3`, which confirms\n", - "our visual intuition on this 2D dataset.\n", + "The silhouette score reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=3`, which confirms our\n", + "visual intuition on this 2D dataset.\n", "\n", - "We can also notice that the silhouette score is also very high for\n", - "`n_clusters=2` and has an intermediate value for `n_clusters=4`. It's\n", + "We can also notice that the silhouette score is similarly high for\n", + "`n_clusters=2`, and has an intermediate value for `n_clusters=4`. It is\n", "possible that those two values would also yield qualitatively meaningful\n", - "clusters, but this probably not the case for `n_clusters=5` or larger.\n", + "clusters, but that is less the case for `n_clusters=5` or more.\n", "\n", "Let's compare this to the results obtained on the second pair of features:" ] @@ -471,6 +464,7 @@ "source": [ "plot_silhouette_scores(\n", " female_penguins[[\"Culmen Depth (mm)\", \"Body Mass (g)\"]],\n", + " title_details=\"Culmen Depth and Body Mass\",\n", ")" ] }, @@ -479,9 +473,8 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", - "For this feature set, the plot clearly shows that the silhouette score\n", - "reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=2`, which matches our visual intuition\n", - "from the scatter plot of this 2D feature set." + "The plot reaches a clear maximum silhouette score when `n_clusters=2`, which\n", + "matches our intuition for those two features." ] }, { @@ -489,12 +482,9 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", - "We can now try to apply the k-means algorithm on the full dataset, i.e. on\n", - "all numerical features and all the rows, to see whether k-means can discover\n", - "meaningful clusters in the data automatically.\n", - "\n", - "We also include the `Sex` feature in the clustering model to see whether\n", - "it can help the algorithm to find better clusters." + "We can now try to apply the k-means algorithm on the full dataset, i.e. on all\n", + "numerical features and all rows, regardless of the \"Sex\" feature, to see\n", + "whether k-means can discover meaningful clusters in the whole data." ] }, { @@ -558,10 +548,9 @@ "Since this is high-dimensional data (5D), the pairplot (computed only for the\n", "4 numerical features) only offers a limited perspective on the clusters.\n", "Despite this limitation, the clusters do appear meaningful, and in particular\n", - "we can notice that they could potentially correspond to the 3 species of\n", - "penguins present in the dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further\n", - "splitted by Sex (2 clusters for each species, one for males and one for\n", - "females).\n", + "we can notice that they potentially correspond to the 3 species of penguins\n", + "present in the dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex\n", + "(2 clusters for each species, one for males and one for females).\n", "\n", "Let's try to confirm this hypothesis by looking at the original \"Species\"\n", "labels combined with the \"Sex\":" @@ -597,72 +586,24 @@ "source": [ "\n", "This plot seems to be very similar to the pairplot we obtained with the 6\n", - "clusters found by k-means on our preprocessed data. Note that the colors are\n", - "different, because the ordering of the labels is arbitrary (both for the\n", - "k-means cluster and the manually assigned labels). But the way of grouping\n", - "the data points look similar.\n", - "\n", - "Let's quantify the agreement between the clusters found by k-means and the\n", - "combination of the \"Species\" and \"Sex\" labels using the [Normalized Mutual\n", - "Information](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/clustering.html#mutual-info-score)\n", - "(NMI) score." - ] - }, - { - "cell_type": "code", - "execution_count": null, - "metadata": {}, - "outputs": [], - "source": [ - "from sklearn.metrics.cluster import normalized_mutual_info_score\n", - "\n", - "nmi = normalized_mutual_info_score(\n", - " species_and_sex_labels,\n", - " cluster_labels,\n", - ")\n", - "print(f\"Normalized Mutual Information (NMI): {nmi:.3f}\")" - ] - }, - { - "cell_type": "markdown", - "metadata": {}, - "source": [ - "\n", - "This value is very close to 1.0, which indicates a very strong agreement.\n", + "clusters found by k-means on our preprocessed data, i.e. in both cases plots\n", + "that display 3 clusters can be further divided into a group of proportionally\n", + "smaller penguins. Only the colors may differ, as the ordering of the labels is\n", + "arbitrary (both for the k-means cluster and the manually assigned labels).\n", "\n", "The conclusion is that we relate the clusters found by running k-means on\n", "those preprocessed features to a meaningful (human) way to partition the\n", - "penguins records.\n", - "\n", - "Note however that this is not always the case. For **k-means to yield\n", - "meaningful results, the data must be have an approximately balanced, convex\n", - "and isotropic cluster structure** after preprocessing. That is, the clusters\n", - "must have a spherical shape in the feature space and approximately the same\n", - "size.\n", + "penguins records. Notice however that this may not always be the case.\n", "\n", "We cannot stress enough that the choice of the features and preprocessing\n", "steps are crucial: if we had not standardized the numerical data, or we had\n", - "not included the \"Sex\" feature or if we had scaled its one-hot encoding by a\n", + "not included the \"Sex\" feature, or if we had scaled its one-hot encoding by a\n", "factor of 10, we would probably not have been able to discover interpretable\n", "clusters.\n", "\n", "Furthermore, **many natural datasets would not satisfy the k-means\n", - "assumptions** even after non-trivial preprocessing. In those cases, we can\n", - "either try alternatives to k-means that favor different cluster shapes (for\n", - "instance HDBSCAN or Gaussian Mixture Models) or we can try to isolate\n", - "row-wise or column-wise subsets of the data that are more likely to exhibit a\n", - "cluster structure. Or sometimes, we can decide to partition the data with\n", - "k-means with a large number of clusters, even if they are not interpretable\n", - "and use the distance to centroids as preprocessing for another task. It all\n", - "depends on the specific application domain and the downstream use of the\n", - "resulting clusters.\n", - "\n", - "Finally, notice that we used extra supervised information to quantitatively\n", - "assess the quality of the match between the clusters found by k-means and our\n", - "interpretation. In practice, this is often impossible, as we do not have\n", - "access to human assigned labels for each row in the data. Or, if we have, we\n", - "might want to use them to train the clustering model, but instead we would\n", - "rather use them as the target variable to train a supervised classifier." + "assumptions** even after non-trivial preprocessing. We will see how to deal\n", + "with more general cases later in this module." ] } ], diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py index 157ce2ab4..b7caaf179 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py @@ -14,58 +14,59 @@ # # In this notebook we explore the k-means algorithm, which seeks to group data # based on the pairwise distances between data points. To illustrate the -# different concepts, we will extract some numerical features from the penguins -# dataset. +# different concepts, we retain some of the features from the penguins dataset. # %% import pandas as pd columns_to_keep = [ - "Species", "Culmen Length (mm)", "Culmen Depth (mm)", "Flipper Length (mm)", "Body Mass (g)", "Sex", + "Species", ] penguins = pd.read_csv("../datasets/penguins.csv")[columns_to_keep].dropna() +# penguins = penguins[penguins["Sex"] != "."].reset_index(drop=True) +penguins["Species"] = penguins["Species"].str.split(" ").str[0] penguins # %% [markdown] # We know that this datasets contains data about 3 different species of -# penguins, but we will not explicitly rely on this information and instead -# treat the problem as an unsupervised data analysis task. The goal is to -# assess whether K-means can help us discover meaningful clusters in the data. +# penguins, but let's not rely on such information for the moment. Instead we +# can addresse the task using clustering. This could be the case, for example, +# when analyzing newly collected penguin data in the wild where species haven't +# yet been identified, or when the goal is to detect natural groupings such as +# subpopulations, hybrids, or other variations. It’s also useful as a data +# exploration tool: before committing to a classifier, clustering can help +# assess whether the chosen features separate the data well. # -# Let's hide this column for now. We will only use it at the end of the notebook: +# Let's hide this column for now. We will only use it at the end of this +# notebook: + +# %% species = penguins["Species"] penguins = penguins.drop(columns=["Species"]) # %% [markdown] # -# Let's take a first look at the structure of the numerical features using a -# pairplot: +# Let's take a first look at the structure of the available features using a +# `pairplot`: # %% import seaborn as sns -_ = sns.pairplot(penguins, height=4) - -# %% [markdown] -# -# On these plots, we more or less easily visually recognize 2 to 3 clusters -# depending on the feature pairs. -# -# We suspect that the clusters overlap because female penguins are generally -# smaller than male penguins: - -# %% _ = sns.pairplot(penguins, hue="Sex", height=4) # %% [markdown] # -# Let us focus on female individuals to visually assess if the clusters are -# better separated: +# On these plots, we visually recognize 2 to 3 clusters depending on the feature +# pairs. We can also notice that female penguins are generally smaller than male +# penguins. +# +# Let us focus on female individuals to visually assess if that subset of data +# leads to better separated clusters: # %% female_penguins = penguins.query("Sex == 'FEMALE'") @@ -73,37 +74,42 @@ # %% [markdown] # -# As we can see, the clusters look better separated on this subset of the -# dataset. +# Intuitively, a good cluster should be compact (with points close to each +# other), and well-separated from other clusters, which is indeed the case for +# this subset of the data. # # In particular we can see that if we only consider: # - **Culmen Length** and **Body Mass**, we can distinguish 3 clusters; # - **Culmen Depth** and **Body Mass**, we can distinguish 2 clusters. # # Let's try to apply the k-means algorithm on the first pairs of columns to see -# whether we can find the clusters that we visually identified. +# whether we can find the clusters that we visually identified. The +# hyperparameter `n_clusters` sets the numbers of clusters and the +# `random_state` controls the centroid initialization. # %% from sklearn.cluster import KMeans -kmeans_cl_vs_bm = KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0) -kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm = kmeans_cl_vs_bm.fit_predict( +kmeans = KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0) +labels_cl_vs_bm = kmeans.fit_predict( female_penguins[["Culmen Length (mm)", "Body Mass (g)"]] ) -kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm +labels_cl_vs_bm # %% [markdown] -# -# The `fit_predict` method returns the cluster labels for each data point coded -# with an arbitrary integer between 0 and `n_clusters - 1`. +# ```{tip} +# Here we used the `fit_predict` method, which does both steps at once: it +# learns from the data just as using `fit`, and immediately returns cluster +# labels for each data point using `predict`. Cluster labels are coded with an +# arbitrary integer between 0 and `n_clusters - 1`. +# ``` # # Let's consolidate these labels in the original dataframe and visualize the # clusters: # %% -clustered_female_peng = female_penguins.copy() ax = sns.scatterplot( - data=female_penguins.assign(kmeans_labels=kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm), + data=female_penguins.assign(kmeans_labels=labels_cl_vs_bm), x="Culmen Length (mm)", y="Body Mass (g)", hue="kmeans_labels", @@ -124,20 +130,13 @@ # cluster centroid. But as we can see on the axis of the scatter plot, the # values of "Culmen Length (mm)" and "Body Mass (g)" are not on the same scale. # -# If we use the original units, the distances between data points are almost -# entirely dominated by the "Body Mass (g)" feature, which has numerical -# values expressed on a scale that is much larger than the "Culmen Length (mm)" -# feature. -# -# We can visualize this by plotting the data by disabling the automated visual -# scaling of the axes by manually setting the same numerical limits for both -# axes: +# We can visualize this by manually setting the same scale to both axes: # %% -min_numerical_value = 0 -max_numerical_value = clustered_female_peng["Body Mass (g)"].max() * 1.1 +min_value = 0 +max_value = female_penguins["Body Mass (g)"].max() * 1.1 ax = sns.scatterplot( - data=clustered_female_peng.assign(kmeans_labels=kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm), + data=female_penguins.assign(kmeans_labels=labels_cl_vs_bm), x="Culmen Length (mm)", y="Body Mass (g)", hue="kmeans_labels", @@ -145,55 +144,33 @@ alpha=0.7, ) ax.set( - xlim=(min_numerical_value, max_numerical_value), - ylim=(min_numerical_value, max_numerical_value), + xlim=(min_value, max_value), + ylim=(min_value, max_value), aspect="equal", ) sns.move_legend(ax, "upper left", bbox_to_anchor=(1, 1)) # %% [markdown] # -# Under this new perspective, the k-means clustering results make more sense: -# the "Culmen Length" is not taken into account because the numerical values -# expressed in mm are much smaller than the "Body Mass" values expressed in -# grams. +# We confirm then than, in the original units, the distances between data points +# are almost entirely dominated by the "Body Mass (g)" feature, which has much +# larger numerical values than the "Culmen Length (mm)" feature. # -# To mitigate this problem, we can instead define a pipeline to use always -# standardize the values of the numerical features before applying the -# clustering algorithm. This way, all features will have the same scale and -# contribute more or less equally to the distance calculations. +# To mitigate this problem, we can instead define a pipeline to scale the +# numerical features before clustering. This way, all features contribute +# equally to the distance calculations. # %% from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler -scaled_kmeans_cl_vs_bm = make_pipeline( - StandardScaler(), - KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0), -) -scaled_kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm = scaled_kmeans_cl_vs_bm.fit_predict( - female_penguins[["Culmen Length (mm)", "Body Mass (g)"]] -) -clustered_female_peng = female_penguins.copy() -clustered_female_peng["K-means label"] = scaled_kmeans_labels_cd_vs_bm -ax = sns.scatterplot( - data=clustered_female_peng, - x="Culmen Length (mm)", - y="Body Mass (g)", - hue="K-means label", - palette="deep", - alpha=0.7, +scaled_kmeans = make_pipeline( + StandardScaler(), KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0) ) -sns.move_legend(ax, "upper left", bbox_to_anchor=(1, 1)) # %% [markdown] -# -# Now the results of the k-means cluster better match our visual intuition on -# this pair of features. -# -# Let's do a similar analysis on the second pair of features, namely "Culmen -# Depth (mm)" and "Body Mass (g)". To do so, let's refactor the code above as a -# utility function: +# To avoid repeating the code for plotting, we can define a helper +# function as follows: # %% @@ -218,13 +195,25 @@ def plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( - make_pipeline( - StandardScaler(), - KMeans(n_clusters=2, random_state=0), - ), - female_penguins, - "Culmen Depth (mm)", - "Body Mass (g)", + scaled_kmeans, female_penguins, "Culmen Length (mm)", "Body Mass (g)" +) + +# %% [markdown] +# +# Now the results of the k-means cluster better match our visual intuition on +# this pair of features. +# +# Let's do a similar analysis on the second pair of features, namely "Culmen +# Depth (mm)" and "Body Mass (g)". To do so, let's refactor the code above as a +# utility function: + +# %% +scaled_kmeans = make_pipeline( + StandardScaler(), KMeans(n_clusters=2, random_state=0) +) + +plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( + scaled_kmeans, female_penguins, "Culmen Depth (mm)", "Body Mass (g)" ) # %% [markdown] @@ -236,28 +225,24 @@ def plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( # `n_clusters`: # %% +scaled_kmeans = make_pipeline( + StandardScaler(), KMeans(n_clusters=6, random_state=0) +) + plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( - make_pipeline( - StandardScaler(), - KMeans(n_clusters=6, random_state=0), - ), - female_penguins, - "Culmen Length (mm)", - "Body Mass (g)", + scaled_kmeans, female_penguins, "Culmen Length (mm)", "Body Mass (g)" ) # %% [markdown] # -# When we select a large value of `n_clusters`, we observe that k-means will -# build as many groups as requested even if the resulting groups are not well +# When we select a large value of `n_clusters`, we observe that k-means builds +# as many groups as requested even if the resulting clusters are not well # separated. # -# Let's now see if can use this intuition on cluster separation to identify -# suitable values for the number of clusters based on heuristic methods -# introduced earlier in the course. -# -# Let's start by plotting the evolution of the WCSS (Within-Cluster Sum of -# Squares) metric as a function of the number of clusters. +# Let's now see if we can identify suitable values for the number of clusters +# based on some heuristics. We start by plotting the evolution of the WCSS +# (Within-Cluster Sum of Squares) metric as a function of the number of +# clusters. # %% import matplotlib.pyplot as plt @@ -282,15 +267,14 @@ def plot_kmeans_clusters_on_2d_data( # %% [markdown] # -# As expected the WCSS value decreases as the number of clusters increases and -# we can observe a so-called "elbow" in the curve (the point with maximum -# curvature) around `n_clusters=3`. This matches the number of cluster found by -# our visual intuition when looking at this 2D scatter plots. -# -# However, the elbow method is not always easy to read. +# We can observe the so-called "elbow" in the curve (the point with maximum +# curvature) around `n_clusters=3`. This matches our visual intuition coming +# from the "Culmen Length" vs "Body Mass" scatter plot. # -# Let's try to use the silhouette score instead. Note that this method requires -# access to the preprocessed features: +# However, the WCSS value decreases monotonically as the number of clusters +# increases, and then we may be overlooking important information. Let's now +# plot the silhouette score instead. Notice that this method requires access to +# the preprocessed features: # %% from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score @@ -301,6 +285,7 @@ def plot_silhouette_scores( clustering_model=None, preprocessor=None, n_clusters_values=range(2, 11), + title_details="all features", ): if clustering_model is None: clustering_model = KMeans(random_state=0) @@ -320,44 +305,42 @@ def plot_silhouette_scores( plt.plot(n_clusters_values, silhouette_scores, marker="o") plt.xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") plt.ylabel("Silhouette score") - _ = plt.title("Silhouette scores for different n_clusters") + _ = plt.title("Silhouette scores using\n" + title_details) plot_silhouette_scores( female_penguins[["Culmen Length (mm)", "Body Mass (g)"]], + title_details="Culmen Length and Body Mass", ) # %% [markdown] # -# The silhouette score reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=3`, which confirms -# our visual intuition on this 2D dataset. +# The silhouette score reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=3`, which confirms our +# visual intuition on this 2D dataset. # -# We can also notice that the silhouette score is also very high for -# `n_clusters=2` and has an intermediate value for `n_clusters=4`. It's +# We can also notice that the silhouette score is similarly high for +# `n_clusters=2`, and has an intermediate value for `n_clusters=4`. It is # possible that those two values would also yield qualitatively meaningful -# clusters, but this probably not the case for `n_clusters=5` or larger. +# clusters, but that is less the case for `n_clusters=5` or more. # # Let's compare this to the results obtained on the second pair of features: # %% plot_silhouette_scores( female_penguins[["Culmen Depth (mm)", "Body Mass (g)"]], + title_details="Culmen Depth and Body Mass", ) # %% [markdown] # -# For this feature set, the plot clearly shows that the silhouette score -# reaches a maximum when `n_clusters=2`, which matches our visual intuition -# from the scatter plot of this 2D feature set. +# The plot reaches a clear maximum silhouette score when `n_clusters=2`, which +# matches our intuition for those two features. # %% [markdown] # -# We can now try to apply the k-means algorithm on the full dataset, i.e. on -# all numerical features and all the rows, to see whether k-means can discover -# meaningful clusters in the data automatically. -# -# We also include the `Sex` feature in the clustering model to see whether -# it can help the algorithm to find better clusters. +# We can now try to apply the k-means algorithm on the full dataset, i.e. on all +# numerical features and all rows, regardless of the "Sex" feature, to see +# whether k-means can discover meaningful clusters in the whole data. # %% from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer, make_column_selector @@ -401,10 +384,9 @@ def plot_silhouette_scores( # Since this is high-dimensional data (5D), the pairplot (computed only for the # 4 numerical features) only offers a limited perspective on the clusters. # Despite this limitation, the clusters do appear meaningful, and in particular -# we can notice that they could potentially correspond to the 3 species of -# penguins present in the dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further -# splitted by Sex (2 clusters for each species, one for males and one for -# females). +# we can notice that they potentially correspond to the 3 species of penguins +# present in the dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex +# (2 clusters for each species, one for males and one for females). # # Let's try to confirm this hypothesis by looking at the original "Species" # labels combined with the "Sex": @@ -424,59 +406,21 @@ def plot_silhouette_scores( # %% [markdown] # # This plot seems to be very similar to the pairplot we obtained with the 6 -# clusters found by k-means on our preprocessed data. Note that the colors are -# different, because the ordering of the labels is arbitrary (both for the -# k-means cluster and the manually assigned labels). But the way of grouping -# the data points look similar. -# -# Let's quantify the agreement between the clusters found by k-means and the -# combination of the "Species" and "Sex" labels using the [Normalized Mutual -# Information](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/clustering.html#mutual-info-score) -# (NMI) score. - -# %% -from sklearn.metrics.cluster import normalized_mutual_info_score - -nmi = normalized_mutual_info_score( - species_and_sex_labels, - cluster_labels, -) -print(f"Normalized Mutual Information (NMI): {nmi:.3f}") - -# %% [markdown] -# -# This value is very close to 1.0, which indicates a very strong agreement. +# clusters found by k-means on our preprocessed data, i.e. in both cases plots +# that display 3 clusters can be further divided into a group of proportionally +# smaller penguins. Only the colors may differ, as the ordering of the labels is +# arbitrary (both for the k-means cluster and the manually assigned labels). # # The conclusion is that we relate the clusters found by running k-means on # those preprocessed features to a meaningful (human) way to partition the -# penguins records. -# -# Note however that this is not always the case. For **k-means to yield -# meaningful results, the data must be have an approximately balanced, convex -# and isotropic cluster structure** after preprocessing. That is, the clusters -# must have a spherical shape in the feature space and approximately the same -# size. +# penguins records. Notice however that this may not always be the case. # # We cannot stress enough that the choice of the features and preprocessing # steps are crucial: if we had not standardized the numerical data, or we had -# not included the "Sex" feature or if we had scaled its one-hot encoding by a +# not included the "Sex" feature, or if we had scaled its one-hot encoding by a # factor of 10, we would probably not have been able to discover interpretable # clusters. # # Furthermore, **many natural datasets would not satisfy the k-means -# assumptions** even after non-trivial preprocessing. In those cases, we can -# either try alternatives to k-means that favor different cluster shapes (for -# instance HDBSCAN or Gaussian Mixture Models) or we can try to isolate -# row-wise or column-wise subsets of the data that are more likely to exhibit a -# cluster structure. Or sometimes, we can decide to partition the data with -# k-means with a large number of clusters, even if they are not interpretable -# and use the distance to centroids as preprocessing for another task. It all -# depends on the specific application domain and the downstream use of the -# resulting clusters. -# -# Finally, notice that we used extra supervised information to quantitatively -# assess the quality of the match between the clusters found by k-means and our -# interpretation. In practice, this is often impossible, as we do not have -# access to human assigned labels for each row in the data. Or, if we have, we -# might want to use them to train the clustering model, but instead we would -# rather use them as the target variable to train a supervised classifier. +# assumptions** even after non-trivial preprocessing. We will see how to deal +# with more general cases later in this module. From fe58a3ed8ae95dedeedd277778efaf7a021cb943 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2025 18:14:24 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 15/79] General rewording --- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py | 1 - python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py | 5 +- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py | 47 +++-- .../clustering_supervised_metrics.py | 195 +++++++++--------- 4 files changed, 133 insertions(+), 115 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py index b7caaf179..b72867d3b 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py @@ -28,7 +28,6 @@ "Species", ] penguins = pd.read_csv("../datasets/penguins.csv")[columns_to_keep].dropna() -# penguins = penguins[penguins["Sex"] != "."].reset_index(drop=True) penguins["Species"] = penguins["Species"].str.split(" ").str[0] penguins diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py index 719cc1d02..fb1228c18 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py @@ -187,5 +187,8 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( data_subsample, score_type="silhouette", alpha=0.2, - title="Stability of silhouette score\nwith n_init=5 and QuantileTransformer", + title=( + "Stability of silhouette score\nwith n_init=5 and" + " QuantileTransformer" + ), ) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py index 7e9f5d74f..e0a8d3a05 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py @@ -230,7 +230,9 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( data_subsample, score_type="silhouette", alpha=0.2, - title="Stability of silhouette score\nwith n_init=5 and StandardScaler", + title=( + "Stability of silhouette score\nwith n_init=5 and StandardScaler" + ), ) # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] @@ -261,7 +263,10 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( data_subsample, score_type="silhouette", alpha=0.2, - title="Stability of silhouette score\nwith n_init=5 and QuantileTransformer", + title=( + "Stability of silhouette score\nwith n_init=5 and" + " QuantileTransformer" + ), ) # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] @@ -276,7 +281,7 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # this, we can plot the labels when setting `n_clusters=6`. # %% tags=["solution"] -n_clusters=6 +n_clusters = 6 model = make_pipeline( QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0), @@ -320,17 +325,29 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( _ = plt.tight_layout() # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] -# Observe that the clusters at "transformed monetary" exactly equal to 0 are -# grouped together with samples with low but non-zero values of "transformed -# monetary", that would belong more naturally to other clusters. +# Observe that the clusters at "transformed monetary" exactly equals zero are +# grouped together with data points with non-zero "transformed monetary" that +# would more naturally belong to other clusters. What happens here is that data +# points at "transformed monetary" equals zero lie on a flat region. i.e. they +# vary only in "transformed recency" and "transformed frequency". # -# What happens here is that data points at "transformed monetary" equal to 0 are -# not isotropic in the 3 dimensions, i.e. they are spread on a plane of -# "transformed recency" and "transformed frequency" ranging from 0 to 1. -# Remember that k-means consists of minimizing each point's euclidean distance -# to its assigned centroid. As a consequence, k-means is more appropriate for -# clusters that are isotropic and normally distributed, in other words, that -# group around a center. +# Remember that k-means consists of minimizing the squared distance from each +# point to its assigned centroid. This makes it more suited to data where +# clusters are roughly spherical and evenly distributed in all directions of the +# feature space. + +# When the data doesn't have this kind of structure.k-means may not perform +# well. In such cases, we can consider: +# +# - using other clustering algorithms that handle more complex shapes, such as +# HDBSCAN (which we will cover in a future notebook) or Gaussian Mixture +# Models (GMMs); +# - focusing on a subset of features where the cluster structure is clearer, as +# we did by separating penguins into 6 groups (3 species × 2 sexes) in a +# previous notebook; +# - Or even applying k-means with a larger number of clusters, even if they are +# not interpretable, and use the distance to centroids as preprocessing for +# another task. # -# We will learn more about how to deal with anisotropic clusters in a future -# notebook. +# It all depends on the specific application domain and the downstream use of +# the resulting clusters. diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py index 86eefe5ff..1dccf6524 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py @@ -9,7 +9,13 @@ # # Clustering performance metrics in the presence of labels # # In this notebook we briefly introduce how to deal with text data. Then we -# introduce the use of supervised metrics to evaluate a clustering model. +# introduce the use of performance metrics to evaluate a clustering model when +# we have access to labeled data. The reason is that clustering gives us a way +# to explore whether the structure in the data supports the labels we've been +# given, or even to question how well-defined those labels are in the first +# place. +# +# ## Feature engineering for text data # # Previously, we saw how categorical features can be converted into numbers # using techniques like one-hot encoding, where each category is assigned a @@ -29,83 +35,103 @@ "The previous phrase is shorter than the first phrase", ] vectorizer = CountVectorizer() -X = vectorizer.fit_transform(docs) +X_vectorized = vectorizer.fit_transform(docs) -pd.DataFrame(X.toarray(), columns=vectorizer.get_feature_names_out()) +pd.DataFrame( + X_vectorized.toarray(), columns=vectorizer.get_feature_names_out() +) # %% [markdown] # Observe in particular that the words "the" and "phrase" are counted twice in -# the last document (the third row in the dataframe). Readers interested can -# visit the [scikit-learn example on comparing vectorization -# strategies](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_hashing_vs_dict_vectorizer.html). +# the last document (the third row in the dataframe). This preprocessor creates +# as many features as unique words ocurring in the data, therefore the dimension +# of the feature space can become very large. # -# Now let's use the BBC News dataset to show how text documents can be cluster -# by topic. The dataset consists of 1,250 samples divided into 5 different -# categories: "business", "entertainment", "sport", "politics" and "tech". +# Readers interested can visit the [scikit-learn example on comparing +# vectorization +# strategies](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_hashing_vs_dict_vectorizer.html) +# for more information. +# +# Now let us use the BBC News dataset to show how text documents can be cluster +# by topic. # %% data = pd.read_csv("../datasets/bbc_news.csv") data # %% [markdown] -# We start by trying a model consisting of `StringEncoder`, which vectorizes the -# text while keeping the feature space reasonably small, followed by `KMeans`. -# -# In a previous notebook we increased the default value of `n_init` as in that -# case data turned out to be unevenly distributed. In this case we also set -# `n_init=5` but for a different reason. When working with high-dimensional data -# (i.e. data with a large number of features) such as vectorized text, k-means -# can initialize centroids on extremely isolated data points that can stay their -# own centroids all along. You can see the [example on clustering sparse -# data](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_document_clustering.html#clustering-sparse-data-with-k-means) -# for more information. +# The dataset consists of 1,250 samples divided into 5 different categories: +# "business", "entertainment", "sport", "politics" and "tech". + +# %% +data["category"].value_counts() + +# %% [markdown] +# We start by preprocessing the text data using `StringEncoder`, which is an +# alternative to `CountVectorizer` that encodes text while keeping the dimension +# of the feature space reasonably small, even if the number of unique words is +# very large. This encoder is well suited to cluster text using `KMeans`. # %% from skrub import StringEncoder from sklearn.cluster import KMeans from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline -model = make_pipeline(StringEncoder(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0)) -model +model = make_pipeline(StringEncoder(), KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0)) +cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data["text"]) +pd.Series(cluster_labels).value_counts() # %% [markdown] +# Our pipeline has grouped the documents into 3 clusters, even though the +# dataset contains 5 categories assigned by BBC editors. We chose this on +# purpose, to show that k-means is able to cluster data even if +# those clusters do not match the predefined categories. +# +# ## Supervised metrics for clustering evaluation +# # Even though clustering is an unsupervised learning method, we have access to # labels for the categories that were assigned by the BBC editors, allowing us -# to evaluate how well the clusters found using our models match these labels. -# While we could turn this into a multiclass classification problem and use -# metrics such as the accuracy, this approach has limitations. For example, an -# article on "tech for entertainment" might be assigned to a cluster that -# doesn't perfectly match its original label, even though it shares similarities -# with both "tech" and "entertainment" articles. This is why we focus on metrics -# that evaluate clustering beyond strict label matching. +# to evaluate how well the clusters found using our models match those labels. +# +# We could try to use classification metrics such as the accuracy. However, +# clustering labels are arbitrary and their number does not need to match the +# number of predefined categories (we just saw in the example above). More +# importantly, we don't assume a predefined mapping between cluster labels and +# editorial categories, and we don't need one to quantify their agreement. This +# is where supervised clustering metrics come in. # # In this notebook, we'll use two metrics: V-measure and Adjusted Rand Index -# (ARI). The V-measure addresses overlaps by measuring both homogeneity (how -# pure the clusters are) and completeness (how well each category is grouped -# together). For instance, if an article on "tech and entertainment" is placed -# in a cluster mostly about "entertainment," this can still be a reasonable -# result. V-measure ranges from 0 to 1, where 1 indicates perfect clustering -# (both pure and complete), and 0 means the clustering is ineffective. +# (ARI). The V-measure addresses overlaps by evaluating two properties: +# - homogeneity: each cluster contains only members of a single class; +# - completeness: all members of a given class are assigned to the same cluster. +# +# V-measure ranges from 0 to 1, where 1 indicates perfect match between the +# clustering labels and the human labels, both in terms of homogeneity and +# completeness. # -# The Adjusted Rand Index (ARI) measures the similarity between the predicted -# clusters and human-assigned labels, adjusting for random labeling. For the BBC -# News dataset, it compares pairs of articles to see if they are in the same -# cluster in both the predicted and human-assigned labels. High ARI means that -# articles from the same category are grouped together, and articles from -# different categories are separated. ARI ranges from -1 (worse than random -# clustering) to 1 (perfect clustering), with 0 indicating a model that assigns -# cluster labels at random. A high ARI value shows good alignment between the -# predicted clusters and the human-assigned labels, while a low ARI suggests -# poor clustering performance. +# The Adjusted Rand Index (ARI) also measures the similarity between the +# predicted clusters and human-assigned labels, adjusting for random labeling. +# For the BBC News dataset, it compares pairs of articles to see whether if they +# are in the same cluster in both the predicted and human-assigned labels. High +# ARI means that articles from the same category are grouped together, and +# articles from different categories are separated. ARI ranges from -1 (worse +# than random clustering) to 1 (perfect clustering), with 0 indicating a model +# that assigns cluster labels at random. A high ARI value shows good alignment +# between the predicted clusters and the human-assigned labels, while a low ARI +# suggests poor clustering performance. +# +# Read more in the User Guide for +# [V-measure](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/clustering.html#homogeneity-completeness-and-v-measure) +# and the [Rand +# index](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/clustering.html#rand-index). # %% -# import numpy as np import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from sklearn.model_selection import ValidationCurveDisplay from sklearn.model_selection import ShuffleSplit -cv = ShuffleSplit(n_splits=5, train_size=0.9, random_state=0) - +cv = ShuffleSplit(n_splits=5, train_size=0.75, random_state=0) +data_encoded = StringEncoder().fit_transform(data["text"]) n_clusters_values = range(2, 11) scoring_names = { "V-measure": "v_measure_score", @@ -114,16 +140,15 @@ fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(6, 4)) for scoring in scoring_names.values(): ValidationCurveDisplay.from_estimator( - model, - data["text"], + KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0), + data_encoded, data["category"], - param_name="kmeans__n_clusters", + param_name="n_clusters", param_range=n_clusters_values, score_type="train", scoring=scoring, std_display_style="errorbar", cv=cv, - n_jobs=4, ax=ax, ) ax.set( @@ -136,11 +161,12 @@ _ = ax.legend(handles=handles, labels=scoring_names.keys()) # %% [markdown] -# We observe that both V-measure and ARI reach their maximum when -# `n_clusters=5`, which matches the number of human-assigned categories in the -# dataset. This alignment reflects both good editorial labels (as the categories -# are well-defined and internally consistent) as well as a clustering pipeline -# that can reasonably extract the structure in the data that matches the human +# We observe that both V-measure and ARI are much better than chance. Even more +# they reach their maximum value when `n_clusters=5`. This is not surprising +# because this is the number of human-assigned categories in the dataset. The +# alignment reflects both good editorial labels (as the categories are +# well-defined and internally consistent) as well as a clustering pipeline that +# can reasonably extract the structure in the data that matches the human # intuition. # # But the question may arise, if we didn't have access to labels at all, would @@ -150,17 +176,16 @@ from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split -n_clusters_values = range(2, 11) -for random_state in range(1, 6): +n_clusters_values = range(2, 16) +for random_state in range(1, 11): data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( - data["text"], train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state + data_encoded, train_size=0.75, random_state=random_state ) scores = [] for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: - model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters) + model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, n_init=5, random_state=0) cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data_subsample) - data_transformed = model[:-1].transform(data_subsample) - score = silhouette_score(data_transformed, cluster_labels) + score = silhouette_score(data_subsample, cluster_labels) scores.append(score) plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color="tab:blue", alpha=0.2) @@ -176,39 +201,13 @@ # distinctions within the categories that the algorithm can capture with more # clusters. Essentially, while there may be 5 high-level categories, the # subcategories within those 5 groups (such as articles that are very niche -# within "tech" or "politics") could benefit from additional clusters. +# within "tech" or "politics") could benefit from additional clusters. But this +# is probably not what the editors want in practice. Having too fine-grained +# topics would make the navigation on their website too confusing. # -# To reduce the variability across resamplings, we can normalize the results -# coming from the `StringEncoder`. Here `Normalizer` scales each sample -# individually to have unit length. This ensures that clustering is driven by -# the relative angle of the features coming from the vectorizer, rather than the -# overall size of the vector. If two documents use the same set of dominant -# words, in similar proportions, their vectors end up pointing in roughly the -# same direction, resulting in a small relative angle. - -# %% -from sklearn.preprocessing import Normalizer - -model = make_pipeline( - StringEncoder(), Normalizer(copy=False), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0) -) - -for random_state in range(1, 6): - data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( - data["text"], train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state - ) - scores = [] - for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: - model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters) - cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data_subsample) - data_transformed = model[:-1].transform(data_subsample) - score = silhouette_score(data_transformed, cluster_labels) - scores.append(score) - - plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color="tab:blue", alpha=0.2) - plt.xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") - plt.ylabel("Silhouette score") - _ = plt.title("Silhouette score for varying n_clusters", y=1.01) - -# %% [markdown] -# That didn't work as intended. +# Finally, notice that we used extra supervised information to quantitatively +# assess the quality of the match between the clusters found by k-means and our +# interpretation. In practice, this is often impossible, as we do not have +# access to human assigned labels for each row in the data. Or, if we have, we +# might want to use them to train the clustering model, but instead we would +# rather use them as the target variable to train a supervised classifier. From 7374ae506d69b94e3c143fb6a802d0ee7fe223a4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Arturo Amor <86408019+ArturoAmorQ@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2025 18:20:24 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 16/79] Apply suggestions from code review Co-authored-by: Olivier Grisel --- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py | 20 +++++++++++++++----- 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py index b72867d3b..e672bddbd 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ # %% [markdown] # We know that this datasets contains data about 3 different species of # penguins, but let's not rely on such information for the moment. Instead we -# can addresse the task using clustering. This could be the case, for example, +# can address the task using clustering. This could be the case, for example, # when analyzing newly collected penguin data in the wild where species haven't # yet been identified, or when the goal is to detect natural groupings such as # subpopulations, hybrids, or other variations. It’s also useful as a data @@ -151,13 +151,13 @@ # %% [markdown] # -# We confirm then than, in the original units, the distances between data points -# are almost entirely dominated by the "Body Mass (g)" feature, which has much -# larger numerical values than the "Culmen Length (mm)" feature. +# We thus confirm that, when using in the original units, the distances between +# data points are almost entirely dominated by the "Body Mass (g)" feature, +# which has much larger numerical values than the "Culmen Length (mm)" feature. # # To mitigate this problem, we can instead define a pipeline to scale the # numerical features before clustering. This way, all features contribute -# equally to the distance calculations. +# similarly to the distance calculations. # %% from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline @@ -168,6 +168,16 @@ ) # %% [markdown] +# +# Note that scaling features by their standard deviation as done by +# `StandardScaler` is just one way to achieve this. We could alternatively use +# `RobustScaler`, `MinMaxScaler or `MaxAbsScaler` instead. None of those +# is the best a priori. They all have a similar effect but there can be +# subtle differences and side-effects. We encourage the reader to refer to the +# section dedicated to [preprocessing data]( +# https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/preprocessing.html) in the +# scikit-learn user guide for more details. +# # To avoid repeating the code for plotting, we can define a helper # function as follows: From fd03b1a29b89aaf0e1365759bafc33d7e19308aa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2025 12:05:16 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 17/79] Rephrasing in cluster_kmeans_sol_01.py --- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py | 137 +++++++++++---------- 1 file changed, 73 insertions(+), 64 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py index e0a8d3a05..595d08fd2 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py @@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ data # %% [markdown] -# We can explore the data using a seborn `pairplot`. +# We can explore the data using a seaborn `pairplot`. # %% import seaborn as sns @@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ n_clusters_values = [2, 3, 4] for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: - model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0) + model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters) clustered_data = data.copy() clustered_data["cluster label"] = model.fit_predict(data) sns.pairplot(clustered_data, hue="cluster label", palette="tab10") @@ -127,27 +127,34 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler -model = make_pipeline(StandardScaler(), KMeans(random_state=0)) +model = make_pipeline(StandardScaler(), KMeans()) model # %% # solution plot_n_clusters_scores(model, data, score_type="inertia") +# %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# +# The WCSS plot no strong elbow but it might depend of the random +# initialization of the centroids in k-means. + # %% [markdown] -# Let's check if the best choice of n_clusters remains stable when resampling -# the dataset. For such purpose: -# - Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the effect of -# data resampling. -# - Generate resamplings consisting of 50% of the data by using +# Let's if we can find one or more stable candidates for `n_clusters` using the +# elbow method when resampling the dataset. For such purpose: +# - Generate randomly resampled data consisting of 50% of the data by using # `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state` -# to do the split leads to different resamplings. +# to do the split leads to different samples. # - Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make # multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different -# resampling. 10 resamplings should be enough to draw conclusions. +# resampling. 10 resampling iterations should be enough to draw conclusions. +# - You can choose to set the `random_state` value of the `KMeans` step, but be +# aware that even if we fix `random_state=0` in all resampling iterations, +# k-means will still choose different initial centroids for different data +# samples, so fixing it or not should not change the conclusions w.r.t. to +# stability to resampling. # -# Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable across all different -# resamplings? +# Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable when resampling? # %% # solution @@ -185,9 +192,9 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # data is unevenly distributed) where increasing `n_init` may help ensuring a # global minimal inertia. # -# Repeat the previous example but setting `n_init=5`. Remeber to fix the +# Repeat the previous example but setting `n_init=5`. Remember to fix the # `random_state` for the `KMeans` initialization to only estimate the -# variability related to resamplings of the data. Are the resulting inertia +# variability related to the resampling of the data. Are the resulting inertia # curves more stable? # %% @@ -244,11 +251,19 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # pipeline. # %% [markdown] +# # Once again repeat the experiment to determine the stability of the optimal # number of clusters. This time, instead of using a `StandardScaler`, use a -# `QuantileTransformer` with default parameters as the preprocessing step in the -# pipeline. For the `KMeans` step, keep `n_init=5` and a fixed `random_state`. -# What happens in terms of silhouette score? +# `QuantileTransformer` with default parameters as the preprocessing step in +# the pipeline. Contrary to `StandardScaler`, `QuantileTransformer` is a +# nonlinear transformation that maps the features with a long tail +# distributions to a uniform distribution, which is the case for the +# "frequency" and "monetary" features in the RFM dataset. +# +# For the `KMeans` step, keep `n_init=5`. +# +# What happens in terms of silhouette score? Does this make it possible to +# identify stable and qualitatively interesting clusters in this data? # %% from sklearn.preprocessing import QuantileTransformer @@ -270,84 +285,78 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( ) # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] -# The silhouette score is much more stable across resamplings. Moreover, the -# optimal number of clusters seems to be 2, as it provides the highest score, -# indicating that the data points are well-separated and correctly grouped with -# good cohesion. However 4 or 6 clusters may still make sense if the clustering -# has specific use cases or domain relevance. +# +# The silhouette score is a bit more stable under resampling. Moreover, the +# optimal number of clusters seems to be 2, as it provides the highest score. +# However 4 or 6 clusters may still make sense if the clustering has specific +# use cases or domain relevance. # # Notice that you should still be cautious as the relatively low values of the -# silhouette scores suggest that some points may be "misassigned". To verify -# this, we can plot the labels when setting `n_clusters=6`. +# silhouette scores suggest that clusters are not well separated or not dense +# enough. To verify this, we can plot the labels when setting `n_clusters=6`. # %% tags=["solution"] n_clusters = 6 model = make_pipeline( QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0), -) +).set_output(transform="pandas") model # %% tags=["solution"] -clustered_data = data.copy() -clustered_data["cluster label"] = model.fit_predict(data) +cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data) -sns.pairplot(clustered_data, hue="cluster label", palette="tab10") -plt.title(f"n_clusters={n_clusters}") +_ = sns.pairplot( + model[:-1].transform(data).assign(cluster_labels=cluster_labels), + hue="cluster_labels", + palette="tab10", +) # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] -# Indeed, "monetary" exactly equal to 0 is divided into 2 clusters (the plot in -# the middle of the `pairplot`), whereas it would feel more reasonably to have -# those points form a single cluster. # -# Alternatively, we can plot the labels in the transformed space to better -# observe that some data points seem to be misassigned. +# Since we have 3 dimensions, we can try to visualize the cluster labels using +# a 3D projection directly: # %% tags=["solution"] from matplotlib.colors import ListedColormap -cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data) -cmap = ListedColormap(plt.get_cmap("tab10").colors[:n_clusters]) - fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 8), subplot_kw={"projection": "3d"}) +ax.view_init(azim=80) + +cmap = ListedColormap(plt.get_cmap("tab10").colors[:n_clusters]) scatter = ax.scatter( - *model[:-1].transform(data).T, + *model[:-1].transform(data).values.T, c=cluster_labels, cmap=cmap, s=50, alpha=0.7, ) ax.set_box_aspect(None, zoom=0.84) -ax.set_xlabel("Transformed Monetary", labelpad=15) -ax.set_ylabel("Transformed Frequency", labelpad=15) -ax.set_zlabel("Transformed Recency", labelpad=15) +ax.set_xlabel(f"Transformed {data.columns[0]}", labelpad=15) +ax.set_ylabel(f"Transformed {data.columns[1]}", labelpad=15) +ax.set_zlabel(f"Transformed {data.columns[2]}", labelpad=15) ax.set_title("Clusters in quantile-transformed space", y=0.99) _ = plt.tight_layout() # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] -# Observe that the clusters at "transformed monetary" exactly equals zero are -# grouped together with data points with non-zero "transformed monetary" that -# would more naturally belong to other clusters. What happens here is that data -# points at "transformed monetary" equals zero lie on a flat region. i.e. they -# vary only in "transformed recency" and "transformed frequency". # -# Remember that k-means consists of minimizing the squared distance from each -# point to its assigned centroid. This makes it more suited to data where -# clusters are roughly spherical and evenly distributed in all directions of the -# feature space. - -# When the data doesn't have this kind of structure.k-means may not perform -# well. In such cases, we can consider: +# The general impression from this study is that k-means fails to find +# well-separated clusters in this dataset regardless of the preprocessing +# method used. +# +# We can observe that the quantile-transformed data has a structure of layered +# planes because of the discrete integer levels for the lowest values of the +# "Frequency" feature which are overrepresented in the dataset. # -# - using other clustering algorithms that handle more complex shapes, such as -# HDBSCAN (which we will cover in a future notebook) or Gaussian Mixture -# Models (GMMs); -# - focusing on a subset of features where the cluster structure is clearer, as -# we did by separating penguins into 6 groups (3 species × 2 sexes) in a -# previous notebook; -# - Or even applying k-means with a larger number of clusters, even if they are -# not interpretable, and use the distance to centroids as preprocessing for -# another task. +# One could try more advanced kinds of preprocessing, or even, clustering +# algorithms that favor different kinds of shapes, however, by looking at the +# pairplot above we can draw the following conclusions: +# - The discrete layers visible for the lowest values of the "frequency" +# feature are not that interesting to treat as clusters by themselves because +# they do not relate to visible structure involving the other two features; +# - If we ignore the "frequency" feature, we can observe no significant cluster +# structure in the "recency" and "monetary" 2D space. # -# It all depends on the specific application domain and the downstream use of -# the resulting clusters. +# In conclusion, the data does not have a clear cluster structure, and this +# explains why we could not find strong and stable values for the silhouette +# score under resampling. From da9a3ece96d421c0a2dd58c2052047ddb553ffa4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2025 17:30:14 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 18/79] Resynchronize exercise and fix CI --- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py | 63 ++++++++++------------ python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py | 17 +++--- 2 files changed, 38 insertions(+), 42 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py index fb1228c18..13c7c808d 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ data # %% [markdown] -# We can explore the data using a seborn `pairplot`. +# We can explore the data using a seaborn `pairplot`. # %% import seaborn as sns @@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ # purpose: # %% +import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score @@ -117,26 +118,28 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # Write your code here. # %% [markdown] -# Let's check if the best choice of n_clusters remains stable when resampling -# the dataset. For such purpose: -# - Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the effect of -# data resampling. -# - Generate resamplings consisting of 50% of the data by using -# `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state` -# to do the split leads to different resamplings. +# Let's see if we can find one or more stable candidates for `n_clusters` using +# the elbow method when resampling the dataset. For such purpose: +# - Generate randomly resampled data consisting of 50% of the data by using +# `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state` to do +# the split leads to different samples. # - Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make # multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different -# resampling. 10 resamplings should be enough to draw conclusions. +# resampling. 10 resampling iterations should be enough to draw conclusions. +# - You can choose to set the `random_state` value of the `KMeans` step, but be +# aware that even if we fix `random_state=0` in all resampling iterations, +# k-means will still choose different initial centroids for different data +# samples, so fixing it or not should not change the conclusions w.r.t. to +# stability to resampling. # -# Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable across all different -# resamplings? +# Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable when resampling? # %% # Write your code here. # %% [markdown] # By default, `KMeans` uses a smart selection of the initial centroids called -# "k-means++". Instead of picking points completly at random, it tries several +# "k-means++". Instead of picking points completely at random, it tries several # candidate centroids at each step and picks the best ones based on an # estimation of how much they would help reduce the overall inertia. This method # improves the chances of finding better cluster centroids and speeds up @@ -150,9 +153,9 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # data is unevenly distributed) where increasing `n_init` may help ensuring a # global minimal inertia. # -# Repeat the previous example but setting `n_init=5`. Remeber to fix the +# Repeat the previous example but setting `n_init=5`. Remember to fix the # `random_state` for the `KMeans` initialization to only estimate the -# variability related to resamplings of the data. Are the resulting inertia +# variability related to the resampling of the data. Are the resulting inertia # curves more stable? # %% @@ -168,27 +171,19 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # Write your code here. # %% [markdown] +# # Once again repeat the experiment to determine the stability of the optimal # number of clusters. This time, instead of using a `StandardScaler`, use a -# `QuantileTransformer` with default parameters as the preprocessing step in the -# pipeline. For the `KMeans` step, keep `n_init=5` and a fixed `random_state`. -# What happens in terms of silhouette score? +# `QuantileTransformer` with default parameters as the preprocessing step in +# the pipeline. Contrary to `StandardScaler`, `QuantileTransformer` is a +# nonlinear transformation that maps the features with a long tail +# distributions to a uniform distribution, which is the case for the +# "frequency" and "monetary" features in the RFM dataset. +# +# For the `KMeans` step, keep `n_init=5`. +# +# What happens in terms of silhouette score? Does this make it possible to +# identify stable and qualitatively interesting clusters in this data? # %% -from sklearn.preprocessing import QuantileTransformer - -model = make_pipeline(QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0)) -for random_state in range(1, 11): - data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( - data, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state - ) - plot_n_clusters_scores( - model, - data_subsample, - score_type="silhouette", - alpha=0.2, - title=( - "Stability of silhouette score\nwith n_init=5 and" - " QuantileTransformer" - ), - ) +# Write your code here. diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py index 595d08fd2..b79d0a3ba 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py @@ -46,7 +46,6 @@ # %% # solution -import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from sklearn.cluster import KMeans n_clusters_values = [2, 3, 4] @@ -55,8 +54,8 @@ model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters) clustered_data = data.copy() clustered_data["cluster label"] = model.fit_predict(data) - sns.pairplot(clustered_data, hue="cluster label", palette="tab10") - plt.title(f"n_clusters={n_clusters}") + grid = sns.pairplot(clustered_data, hue="cluster label", palette="tab10") + grid.figure.suptitle(f"n_clusters={n_clusters}", y=1.08) # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] # Without scaling "monetary" has a dominant impact when forming clusters, @@ -70,6 +69,7 @@ # purpose: # %% +import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score @@ -140,11 +140,11 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # initialization of the centroids in k-means. # %% [markdown] -# Let's if we can find one or more stable candidates for `n_clusters` using the -# elbow method when resampling the dataset. For such purpose: +# Let's see if we can find one or more stable candidates for `n_clusters` using +# the elbow method when resampling the dataset. For such purpose: # - Generate randomly resampled data consisting of 50% of the data by using -# `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state` -# to do the split leads to different samples. +# `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state` to do +# the split leads to different samples. # - Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make # multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different # resampling. 10 resampling iterations should be enough to draw conclusions. @@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # %% [markdown] # By default, `KMeans` uses a smart selection of the initial centroids called -# "k-means++". Instead of picking points completly at random, it tries several +# "k-means++". Instead of picking points completely at random, it tries several # candidate centroids at each step and picks the best ones based on an # estimation of how much they would help reduce the overall inertia. This method # improves the chances of finding better cluster centroids and speeds up @@ -266,6 +266,7 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # identify stable and qualitatively interesting clusters in this data? # %% +# solution from sklearn.preprocessing import QuantileTransformer model = make_pipeline(QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0)) From d4ad40c2d4b6269cf1438f5d9004bceb333fa87a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2025 17:54:21 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 19/79] Wording --- python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py | 4 ++-- python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py | 15 +++++++-------- 2 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py index c28024178..8453e3037 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py @@ -16,8 +16,8 @@ # Clustering of Applications with Noise". # # Let's explain each of those tearms. HDBSCAN is hierarchical, which means it -# handles data with clusters nested within each other. The user can decide at -# what level of the hierarchy want to cut off the clusters. +# handles data with clusters nested within each other. The user controls the +# level in the hierarchy at which clusters are formed. # # It is density-based (and therefore non-parametric, contrary to K-means) # because it does not assume a specific shape or number of clusters. Instead, it diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py index e672bddbd..07e16fd9d 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans.py @@ -169,14 +169,13 @@ # %% [markdown] # -# Note that scaling features by their standard deviation as done by -# `StandardScaler` is just one way to achieve this. We could alternatively use -# `RobustScaler`, `MinMaxScaler or `MaxAbsScaler` instead. None of those -# is the best a priori. They all have a similar effect but there can be -# subtle differences and side-effects. We encourage the reader to refer to the -# section dedicated to [preprocessing data]( -# https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/preprocessing.html) in the -# scikit-learn user guide for more details. +# Notice that scaling features by their standard deviation using +# `StandardScaler` is just one way to achieve this. Other options include +# `RobustScaler`, `MinMaxScaler`, and several others, which work similarly but +# may behave differently depending on the data. For more details, refer to the +# [preprocessing data]( +# https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/preprocessing.html) section in the +# scikit-learn user guide. # # To avoid repeating the code for plotting, we can define a helper # function as follows: From 8ab3e2988dcb3ed4808264ea6f8edc02218988ef Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2025 10:55:58 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 20/79] Use MAE to score predicted house prices --- python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py | 119 +++++++++++++---------- 1 file changed, 70 insertions(+), 49 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py b/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py index 81eb6fa6f..851610d69 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py @@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ from sklearn.datasets import fetch_california_housing data, target = fetch_california_housing(return_X_y=True, as_frame=True) +target *= 100 # rescale the target in k$ # %% [markdown] # We can first design a predictive pipeline that completly ignores the @@ -30,7 +31,7 @@ # %% import pandas as pd -from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split, cross_validate +from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split, cross_val_score from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler from sklearn.linear_model import Ridge @@ -50,14 +51,17 @@ StandardScaler(), Ridge(alpha=1e-12), ) -cv_results_drop_geo = cross_validate( - model_drop_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring="r2" +test_error_drop_geo = -cross_val_score( + model_drop_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring="neg_mean_absolute_error" +) +print( + "The test MAE without geographical features is: " + f"{test_error_drop_geo.mean():.2f} ± {test_error_drop_geo.std():.2f} k$" ) -pd.DataFrame(cv_results_drop_geo).describe() # %% [markdown] -# We observe a score of approximately 54% of the variance is explained by the -# non-geographical features. +# We observe a Mean Absolute Error of approximately 57k$ when dropping the +# geographical features. # # As seen in the previous notebook, we suspect that the price information may be # linked to the distance to the nearest urban center, and proximity to the @@ -66,28 +70,23 @@ # %% import plotly.express as px - -def plot_map(df, color_feature): - fig = px.scatter_mapbox( - df, - lat="Latitude", - lon="Longitude", - color=color_feature, - zoom=5, - height=600, - ) - fig.update_layout( - mapbox_style="open-street-map", - mapbox_center={ - "lat": df["Latitude"].mean(), - "lon": df["Longitude"].mean(), - }, - margin={"r": 0, "t": 0, "l": 0, "b": 0}, - ) - return fig - - -fig = plot_map(data, target) +fig = px.scatter_mapbox( + data, + lat="Latitude", + lon="Longitude", + color=target, + zoom=5, + height=600, + labels={"color": "price (k$)"}, +) +fig.update_layout( + mapbox_style="open-street-map", + mapbox_center={ + "lat": data["Latitude"].mean(), + "lon": data["Longitude"].mean(), + }, + margin={"r": 0, "t": 0, "l": 0, "b": 0}, +) fig # %% [markdown] @@ -96,10 +95,16 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature): # %% model_naive_geo = make_pipeline(StandardScaler(), Ridge(alpha=1e-12)) -cv_results_naive_geo = cross_validate( - model_naive_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring="r2" +test_error_naive_geo = -cross_val_score( + model_naive_geo, + data_train, + target_train, + scoring="neg_mean_absolute_error", +) +print( + "The test MAE with raw geographical features is: " + f"{test_error_naive_geo.mean():.2f} ± {test_error_naive_geo.std():.2f} k$" ) -pd.DataFrame(cv_results_naive_geo).describe() # %% [markdown] # Including the geospatial data naively improves the performance a bit, however, @@ -108,11 +113,10 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature): # # We could look for a dataset containing all the coordinates of the city # centers, the coast line and other points of interest in California, then -# manually engineer such features. However this would require a non-tricial -# amount of code. Instead we can rely on the K-means class to achieve something -# similar implicitly: we will configure K-means to find a large number of -# centroids from our housing data directly and consider each centroid a -# potential point of interest. +# manually engineer such features. However this would require a non-trivial +# amount of code. Instead we can rely on K-means to achieve something similar +# implicitly: we use it to find a large number of centroids from the housing +# data directly and consider each centroid a potential point of interest. # # The `KMeans` class implements a `transform` method that, given a set of data # points as an argument, computes the distance to the nearest centroid for each @@ -134,14 +138,22 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature): StandardScaler(), Ridge(alpha=1e-12), ) -cv_results_cluster_geo = cross_validate( - model_cluster_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring="r2" +test_error_cluster_geo = -cross_val_score( + model_cluster_geo, + data_train, + target_train, + scoring="neg_mean_absolute_error", +) +print( + "The test MAE with clustered geographical features is:" + f" {test_error_cluster_geo.mean():.2f} ±" + f" {test_error_cluster_geo.std():.2f} k$" ) -pd.DataFrame(cv_results_cluster_geo).describe() # %% [markdown] -# We can use a grid-search to tune `n_clusters` in this supervised -# pipeline. +# The resulting mean test error is much lower. Furthermore, `KMeans` is now part +# of a supervised pipeline, which means we can use a grid-search to tune +# `n_clusters` as we have learned in previous modules of this course. # %% from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV @@ -149,7 +161,7 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature): param_name = "columntransformer__geo__n_clusters" param_grid = {param_name: [10, 30, 100, 300, 1_000, 3_000]} grid_search = GridSearchCV( - model_cluster_geo, param_grid=param_grid, scoring="r2" + model_cluster_geo, param_grid=param_grid, scoring="neg_mean_absolute_error" ) grid_search.fit(data_train, target_train) @@ -164,10 +176,15 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature): "param_" + param_name, ] grid_search_results = pd.DataFrame(grid_search.cv_results_)[results_columns] -grid_search_results = grid_search_results.rename( - columns={"param_" + param_name: "n_clusters"} -).round(3) -grid_search_results.sort_values("mean_test_score", ascending=False) +grid_search_results["mean_test_error"] = -grid_search_results[ + "mean_test_score" +] +grid_search_results = ( + grid_search_results.drop(columns=["mean_test_score"]) + .rename(columns={"param_" + param_name: "n_clusters"}) + .round(3) +) +grid_search_results.sort_values("mean_test_error", ascending=False) # %% [markdown] # Larger number of clusters increases the predictive performance at the cost @@ -176,12 +193,12 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature): # %% labels = { "mean_fit_time": "CV fit time (s)", - "mean_test_score": "CV score (R2)", + "mean_test_error": "CV score (MAE)", } fig = px.scatter( grid_search_results, x="mean_fit_time", - y="mean_test_score", + y="mean_test_error", error_x="std_fit_time", error_y="std_test_score", hover_data=grid_search_results.columns, @@ -203,8 +220,12 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature): # it can generalize. # %% +best_n_clusters = grid_search.best_params_[ + "columntransformer__geo__n_clusters" +] print( - f"Final model test R2 score: {grid_search.score(data_test, target_test):.3f}" + f"The test MAE with {best_n_clusters} clusters is: " + f"{-grid_search.score(data_test, target_test):.3f} k$" ) # %% [markdown] From 52f244a724d917592ace574262942cdda2cc5165 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2025 11:11:53 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 21/79] Solve plotly DeprecationWarning --- python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py | 4 +++- python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py | 6 ++---- 2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py index 8453e3037..b8c300fde 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py @@ -133,6 +133,7 @@ def make_wavy_blob(n_samples, shift=0.0, noise=0.2, freq=3): from sklearn.datasets import fetch_california_housing data, target = fetch_california_housing(return_X_y=True, as_frame=True) +target *= 100 # rescale the target in k$ # %% [markdown] # We can use plotly to first visualize the housing prices across the state of @@ -143,13 +144,14 @@ def make_wavy_blob(n_samples, shift=0.0, noise=0.2, freq=3): def plot_map(df, color_feature): - fig = px.scatter_mapbox( + fig = px.scatter_map( df, lat="Latitude", lon="Longitude", color=color_feature, zoom=5, height=600, + labels={"color": "price (k$)"}, ) fig.update_layout( mapbox_style="open-street-map", diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py b/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py index 851610d69..18078dbf3 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py @@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ # %% import plotly.express as px -fig = px.scatter_mapbox( +fig = px.scatter_map( data, lat="Latitude", lon="Longitude", @@ -220,9 +220,7 @@ # it can generalize. # %% -best_n_clusters = grid_search.best_params_[ - "columntransformer__geo__n_clusters" -] +best_n_clusters = grid_search.best_params_[param_name] print( f"The test MAE with {best_n_clusters} clusters is: " f"{-grid_search.score(data_test, target_test):.3f} k$" From dec3453e4a98dcafa1b6483e8be05dd1b6737fd3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2025 12:12:59 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 22/79] Prefer make_column_transformer as per #831 --- python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py | 17 +++++------------ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py b/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py index 18078dbf3..5af45eb3f 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py @@ -35,19 +35,14 @@ from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler from sklearn.linear_model import Ridge -from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer +from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer data_train, data_test, target_train, target_test = train_test_split( data, target, test_size=0.2, random_state=0 ) geo_columns = ["Latitude", "Longitude"] model_drop_geo = make_pipeline( - ColumnTransformer( - [ - ("geo", "drop", geo_columns), - ], - remainder="passthrough", - ), + make_column_transformer(("drop", geo_columns), remainder="passthrough"), StandardScaler(), Ridge(alpha=1e-12), ) @@ -129,10 +124,8 @@ from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline model_cluster_geo = make_pipeline( - ColumnTransformer( - [ - ("geo", KMeans(n_clusters=100), geo_columns), - ], + make_column_transformer( + (KMeans(n_clusters=100), geo_columns), remainder="passthrough", ), StandardScaler(), @@ -158,7 +151,7 @@ # %% from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV -param_name = "columntransformer__geo__n_clusters" +param_name = "columntransformer__kmeans__n_clusters" param_grid = {param_name: [10, 30, 100, 300, 1_000, 3_000]} grid_search = GridSearchCV( model_cluster_geo, param_grid=param_grid, scoring="neg_mean_absolute_error" From 00c41a7b96fa8a80432adea7bd47731f26a41a63 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2025 10:30:05 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 23/79] Iter on hdbscan notebook --- python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py | 40 +++++++++++++++--------- python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py | 2 +- 2 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py index b8c300fde..56a840159 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py @@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ def make_wavy_blob(n_samples, shift=0.0, noise=0.2, freq=3): import plotly.express as px -def plot_map(df, color_feature): +def plot_map(df, color_feature, colorbar_label="cluster label"): fig = px.scatter_map( df, lat="Latitude", @@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature): color=color_feature, zoom=5, height=600, - labels={"color": "price (k$)"}, + labels={"color": colorbar_label}, ) fig.update_layout( mapbox_style="open-street-map", @@ -161,11 +161,10 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature): }, margin={"r": 0, "t": 0, "l": 0, "b": 0}, ) - return fig + return fig.show(renderer="notebook") -fig = plot_map(data, target) -fig +fig = plot_map(data, target, colorbar_label="price (k$)") # %% [markdown] # We can first use K-means to group data points into different spatial regions. @@ -187,7 +186,6 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature): # %% fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype("str")) -fig # %% [markdown] # We can observe that results are really influenced by the K-means that favors @@ -197,14 +195,13 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature): # %% from sklearn.cluster import HDBSCAN -hdbscan_pipeline = make_pipeline(HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=100)) +hdbscan = HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=100) # no need for scaling -cluster_labels = hdbscan_pipeline.fit_predict(geo_data) +cluster_labels = hdbscan.fit_predict(geo_data) cluster_labels # %% fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype("str")) -fig # %% [markdown] # HDBSCAN automatically detect highly populated areas that match urban centers, @@ -216,16 +213,29 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature): # `min_cluster_size`: # %% -len(np.unique(cluster_labels)) +print(f"Number of clusters: {len(np.unique(cluster_labels))}") # %% [markdown] -# Decreasing `min_cluster_size` will increase the number of clusters: +# Decreasing `min_cluster_size` increases the number of clusters: # %% -hdbscan_pipeline = make_pipeline(HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=30)) -cluster_labels = hdbscan_pipeline.fit_predict(geo_data) +hdbscan = HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=30) +cluster_labels = hdbscan.fit_predict(geo_data) fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype("str")) -fig # %% -len(np.unique(cluster_labels)) +print(f"Number of clusters: {len(np.unique(cluster_labels))}") + +# %% [markdown] +# We previously mentioned that the user can control the level in the hierarchy +# at which clusters are formed. This can be done without retraining the model by +# using the `dbscan_clustering` method, and is an indirect way to control the +# number of clusters: + +# %% +for cut_distance in [0.1, 0.3, 0.5]: + labels = hdbscan.dbscan_clustering( + cut_distance=cut_distance, min_cluster_size=30 + ) + plot_map(data, labels.astype("str")) + print(f"Number of clusters: {len(np.unique(cluster_labels))}") diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py b/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py index 5af45eb3f..9f9aa581e 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py @@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ }, margin={"r": 0, "t": 0, "l": 0, "b": 0}, ) -fig +fig.show(renderer="notebook") # %% [markdown] # We first feed the coordinates directly to the linear model without From ffe18559a275fb7e7ee627394262dca62a7c7b59 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2025 18:08:35 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 24/79] Remove redundant paragraph --- python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py | 6 +++--- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py index 1dccf6524..7916daa66 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py @@ -116,9 +116,9 @@ # ARI means that articles from the same category are grouped together, and # articles from different categories are separated. ARI ranges from -1 (worse # than random clustering) to 1 (perfect clustering), with 0 indicating a model -# that assigns cluster labels at random. A high ARI value shows good alignment -# between the predicted clusters and the human-assigned labels, while a low ARI -# suggests poor clustering performance. +# that assigns cluster labels at random. +# +# In other words, both V-measure and ARI follow a "higher is better" convention. # # Read more in the User Guide for # [V-measure](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/clustering.html#homogeneity-completeness-and-v-measure) From 26cd3d2b62ebd829a824ef9f3609d33bee94d3d9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2025 18:13:22 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 25/79] Rename exercise and solution --- jupyter-book/_toc.yml | 4 ++-- .../{clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb => clustering_ex_01.ipynb} | 0 ...clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb => clustering_sol_01.ipynb} | 0 .../{clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py => clustering_ex_01.py} | 0 .../{clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py => clustering_sol_01.py} | 0 5 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) rename notebooks/{clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb => clustering_ex_01.ipynb} (100%) rename notebooks/{clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb => clustering_sol_01.ipynb} (100%) rename python_scripts/{clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py => clustering_ex_01.py} (100%) rename python_scripts/{clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py => clustering_sol_01.py} (100%) diff --git a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml index 95cbfcdca..536f75186 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml +++ b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml @@ -239,8 +239,8 @@ parts: - caption: 🚧 Clustering chapters: - file: python_scripts/clustering_kmeans - - file: python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01 - - file: python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01 + - file: python_scripts/clustering_ex_01 + - file: python_scripts/clustering_sol_01 - file: python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics - file: python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan - file: python_scripts/clustering_transformer diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_ex_01.ipynb similarity index 100% rename from notebooks/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.ipynb rename to notebooks/clustering_ex_01.ipynb diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_sol_01.ipynb similarity index 100% rename from notebooks/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.ipynb rename to notebooks/clustering_sol_01.ipynb diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_ex_01.py similarity index 100% rename from python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_ex_01.py rename to python_scripts/clustering_ex_01.py diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_01.py similarity index 100% rename from python_scripts/clustering_kmeans_sol_01.py rename to python_scripts/clustering_sol_01.py From 50e9bc07569ac91680d184dd33f04a68d2b23be0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2025 18:15:51 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 26/79] Add exercise and solution using AMI --- jupyter-book/_toc.yml | 2 + notebooks/clustering_ex_02.ipynb | 205 +++++++++++++++++ notebooks/clustering_sol_02.ipynb | 331 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py | 128 +++++++++++ python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py | 216 ++++++++++++++++++ 5 files changed, 882 insertions(+) create mode 100644 notebooks/clustering_ex_02.ipynb create mode 100644 notebooks/clustering_sol_02.ipynb create mode 100644 python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py create mode 100644 python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py diff --git a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml index 536f75186..716a57899 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml +++ b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml @@ -242,5 +242,7 @@ parts: - file: python_scripts/clustering_ex_01 - file: python_scripts/clustering_sol_01 - file: python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics + - file: python_scripts/clustering_ex_02 + - file: python_scripts/clustering_sol_02 - file: python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan - file: python_scripts/clustering_transformer diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_ex_02.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_ex_02.ipynb new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7297b51e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/notebooks/clustering_ex_02.ipynb @@ -0,0 +1,205 @@ +{ + "cells": [ + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "# \ud83d\udcdd Exercise M4.02\n", + "\n", + "In a previous notebook we introduced the use of performance metrics to\n", + "evaluate a clustering model when we have access to labeled data, namely the\n", + "V-measure and Adjusted Rand Index (ARI). In this exercise you will get\n", + "familiar with another supervised metric for clustering, known as Adjusted\n", + "Mutual Information (AMI).\n", + "\n", + "To illustrate the different concepts, we retain some of the features from the\n", + "penguins dataset." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import pandas as pd\n", + "\n", + "columns_to_keep = [\n", + " \"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", + " \"Culmen Depth (mm)\",\n", + " \"Flipper Length (mm)\",\n", + " \"Body Mass (g)\",\n", + " \"Sex\",\n", + " \"Species\",\n", + "]\n", + "penguins = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/penguins.csv\")[columns_to_keep].dropna()\n", + "species = penguins[\"Species\"].str.split(\" \").str[0]\n", + "penguins = penguins.drop(columns=[\"Species\"])\n", + "penguins" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We recall that the silhouette score presented a maximum when `n_clusters=6`\n", + "when using all of the features above (not the species). Our hypothesis was\n", + "that those clusters correspond to the 3 species of penguins present in the\n", + "dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex (2 clusters\n", + "for each species).\n", + "\n", + "Repeat the same pipeline consisting of a `OneHotEncoder` for the \"Sex\" column,\n", + "a `StandardScaler` for the other columns. The final estimator should be\n", + "`KMeans` with `n_clusters=6`. You can set the `random_state` for\n", + "reproducibility, but that should not change the interpretation of the results." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Write your code here." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Make two `sns.scatterplot` of \"Culmen Length (mm)\" versus \"Flipper Length\n", + "(mm)\", side-by-side. On one of them, the `hue` should be the \"species and sex\"\n", + "coming from the known information in the dataset, and the `hue` in the other\n", + "should be the cluster labels.\n", + "\n", + "Only the colors may differ, as the ordering of the labels is arbitrary (both\n", + "for the k-means cluster and the \"true\" labels)." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Write your code here." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We now have a visual intuition of the agreement between the clusters found by\n", + "k-means and the combination of the \"Species\" and \"Sex\" labels. We can further\n", + "quantify it using the Adjusted Mutual Information (AMI) score.\n", + "\n", + "Use\n", + "[`sklearn.metrics.adjusted_mutual_info_score`](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.adjusted_mutual_info_score.html)\n", + "to compare both sets of labels. The AMI returns a value of 1 when the two\n", + "partitions are identical (ie perfectly matched)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Write your code here." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Now use a `sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder` to `fit_transform` the \"true\"\n", + "labels (coming from combinations of species and sex). What would be the accuracy\n", + "if we tried to use it to measure the agreement between both sets of labels?" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.preprocessing import LabelEncoder\n", + "from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score\n", + "\n", + "true_labels = LabelEncoder().fit_transform(species_and_sex_labels)\n", + "\n", + "cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(penguins)\n", + "acc = accuracy_score(true_labels, cluster_labels)\n", + "print(f\"Accuracy: {acc:.3f}\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Permute the cluster labels using `np.random.permutation`, then compute both\n", + "the AMI and the accuracy when comparing the true and permuted labels. Are they\n", + "sensitive to relabeling?" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Write your code here." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "AMI is designed to return a value near zero (it can be negative) when the\n", + "clustering is no better than random.\n", + "\n", + "To understand how AMI corrects for chance, compare the true labels with a\n", + "completely random labeling using `np.random.randint` to generate as many\n", + "labels as rows in the dataset, each containing a value between 0 and 5 (to\n", + "match the number of clusters)." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Write your code here." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "We can conclude by comparing AMI to other metrics:\n", + "\n", + "- Adjusted Rand Index (ARI): Also corrects for chance, but it counts pairs of\n", + " points, in other words, how many pairs that are together in the true labels\n", + " are also together in the clusters. It is combinatorial, not based on\n", + " information-theory as AMI.\n", + "- V-measure: Based on homogeneity (do clusters contain mostly one class?) and\n", + " completeness (are all members of a class grouped together?), but it does not\n", + " correct for chance. If you run a random clustering, V-measure might still\n", + " give a misleadingly non-zero score, unlike AMI or ARI." + ] + } + ], + "metadata": { + "jupytext": { + "main_language": "python" + }, + "kernelspec": { + "display_name": "Python 3", + "name": "python3" + } + }, + "nbformat": 4, + "nbformat_minor": 5 +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_sol_02.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_sol_02.ipynb new file mode 100644 index 000000000..aabfdbb04 --- /dev/null +++ b/notebooks/clustering_sol_02.ipynb @@ -0,0 +1,331 @@ +{ + "cells": [ + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "# \ud83d\udcc3 Solution for Exercise M4.02\n", + "\n", + "In a previous notebook we introduced the use of performance metrics to\n", + "evaluate a clustering model when we have access to labeled data, namely the\n", + "V-measure and Adjusted Rand Index (ARI). In this exercise you will get\n", + "familiar with another supervised metric for clustering, known as Adjusted\n", + "Mutual Information (AMI).\n", + "\n", + "To illustrate the different concepts, we retain some of the features from the\n", + "penguins dataset." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "import pandas as pd\n", + "\n", + "columns_to_keep = [\n", + " \"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", + " \"Culmen Depth (mm)\",\n", + " \"Flipper Length (mm)\",\n", + " \"Body Mass (g)\",\n", + " \"Sex\",\n", + " \"Species\",\n", + "]\n", + "penguins = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/penguins.csv\")[columns_to_keep].dropna()\n", + "species = penguins[\"Species\"].str.split(\" \").str[0]\n", + "penguins = penguins.drop(columns=[\"Species\"])\n", + "penguins" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We recall that the silhouette score presented a maximum when `n_clusters=6`\n", + "when using all of the features above (not the species). Our hypothesis was\n", + "that those clusters correspond to the 3 species of penguins present in the\n", + "dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex (2 clusters\n", + "for each species).\n", + "\n", + "Repeat the same pipeline consisting of a `OneHotEncoder` for the \"Sex\" column,\n", + "a `StandardScaler` for the other columns. The final estimator should be\n", + "`KMeans` with `n_clusters=6`. You can set the `random_state` for\n", + "reproducibility, but that should not change the interpretation of the results." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# solution\n", + "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer, make_column_selector\n", + "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", + "from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler, OneHotEncoder\n", + "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", + "\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (\n", + " OneHotEncoder(drop=\"if_binary\"),\n", + " make_column_selector(dtype_exclude=\"number\"),\n", + " ),\n", + " (\n", + " StandardScaler(),\n", + " make_column_selector(dtype_include=\"number\"),\n", + " ),\n", + ")\n", + "\n", + "model = make_pipeline(\n", + " preprocessor,\n", + " KMeans(n_clusters=6, random_state=0),\n", + ")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Make two `sns.scatterplot` of \"Culmen Length (mm)\" versus \"Flipper Length\n", + "(mm)\", side-by-side. On one of them, the `hue` should be the \"species and sex\"\n", + "coming from the known information in the dataset, and the `hue` in the other\n", + "should be the cluster labels.\n", + "\n", + "Only the colors may differ, as the ordering of the labels is arbitrary (both\n", + "for the k-means cluster and the \"true\" labels)." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# solution\n", + "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", + "import seaborn as sns\n", + "\n", + "species_and_sex_labels = species + \" \" + penguins[\"Sex\"]\n", + "cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(penguins)\n", + "\n", + "fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(1, 2, sharey=True, figsize=(14, 7))\n", + "sns.scatterplot(\n", + " penguins.assign(species_and_sex=species_and_sex_labels),\n", + " hue=\"species_and_sex\",\n", + " x=\"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", + " y=\"Flipper Length (mm)\",\n", + " palette=\"deep\",\n", + " alpha=0.7,\n", + " ax=ax1,\n", + " legend=None,\n", + ")\n", + "ax1.set_title(\"Species and sex\")\n", + "sns.scatterplot(\n", + " penguins.assign(kmeans_labels=cluster_labels),\n", + " hue=\"kmeans_labels\",\n", + " x=\"Culmen Length (mm)\",\n", + " y=\"Flipper Length (mm)\",\n", + " palette=\"deep\",\n", + " alpha=0.7,\n", + " ax=ax2,\n", + " legend=None,\n", + ")\n", + "_ = ax2.set_title(\"K-means labels\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We now have a visual intuition of the agreement between the clusters found by\n", + "k-means and the combination of the \"Species\" and \"Sex\" labels. We can further\n", + "quantify it using the Adjusted Mutual Information (AMI) score.\n", + "\n", + "Use\n", + "[`sklearn.metrics.adjusted_mutual_info_score`](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.adjusted_mutual_info_score.html)\n", + "to compare both sets of labels. The AMI returns a value of 1 when the two\n", + "partitions are identical (ie perfectly matched)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# solution\n", + "from sklearn.metrics import adjusted_mutual_info_score\n", + "\n", + "ami = adjusted_mutual_info_score(\n", + " species_and_sex_labels,\n", + " cluster_labels,\n", + ")\n", + "print(f\"Adjusted Mutual Information (AMI): {ami:.3f}\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "source": [ + "This value is very close to 1.0, which indicates a very strong agreement." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Now use a `sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder` to `fit_transform` the \"true\"\n", + "labels (coming from combinations of species and sex). What would be the accuracy\n", + "if we tried to use it to measure the agreement between both sets of labels?" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.preprocessing import LabelEncoder\n", + "from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score\n", + "\n", + "true_labels = LabelEncoder().fit_transform(species_and_sex_labels)\n", + "\n", + "cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(penguins)\n", + "acc = accuracy_score(true_labels, cluster_labels)\n", + "print(f\"Accuracy: {acc:.3f}\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "source": [ + "\n", + "The accuracy is misleadingly low. It is not a valid metric for clustering\n", + "unless you map labels explicitly." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Permute the cluster labels using `np.random.permutation`, then compute both\n", + "the AMI and the accuracy when comparing the true and permuted labels. Are they\n", + "sensitive to relabeling?" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# solution\n", + "import numpy as np\n", + "\n", + "rng = np.random.RandomState(0)\n", + "unique_labels = np.unique(cluster_labels)\n", + "permutation = rng.permutation(unique_labels)\n", + "permuted_labels = np.zeros_like(cluster_labels)\n", + "\n", + "for original, new in zip(unique_labels, permutation):\n", + " permuted_labels[cluster_labels == original] = new\n", + "\n", + "permuted_ami = adjusted_mutual_info_score(true_labels, permuted_labels)\n", + "permuted_acc = accuracy_score(true_labels, permuted_labels)\n", + "\n", + "print(f\"AMI (permuted): {permuted_ami:.3f}\")\n", + "print(f\"Accuracy (permuted): {permuted_acc:.3f}\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "source": [ + "AMI stays the same because the cluster structure has not changed, only the\n", + "labels' names.\n", + "\n", + "The accuracy changes because some labels may no longer match the ground truth\n", + "numerically, and some may match just by chance." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "AMI is designed to return a value near zero (it can be negative) when the\n", + "clustering is no better than random.\n", + "\n", + "To understand how AMI corrects for chance, compare the true labels with a\n", + "completely random labeling using `np.random.randint` to generate as many\n", + "labels as rows in the dataset, each containing a value between 0 and 5 (to\n", + "match the number of clusters)." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# solution\n", + "random_labels = rng.randint(0, len(unique_labels), size=len(species))\n", + "ami_random = adjusted_mutual_info_score(true_labels, random_labels)\n", + "\n", + "print(f\"AMI (random labels): {ami_random:.3f}\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "source": [ + "We observe a value close to zero. Changing the `RandomState` can lead\n", + "to positive or negative values of AMI." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "\n", + "We can conclude by comparing AMI to other metrics:\n", + "\n", + "- Adjusted Rand Index (ARI): Also corrects for chance, but it counts pairs of\n", + " points, in other words, how many pairs that are together in the true labels\n", + " are also together in the clusters. It is combinatorial, not based on\n", + " information-theory as AMI.\n", + "- V-measure: Based on homogeneity (do clusters contain mostly one class?) and\n", + " completeness (are all members of a class grouped together?), but it does not\n", + " correct for chance. If you run a random clustering, V-measure might still\n", + " give a misleadingly non-zero score, unlike AMI or ARI." + ] + } + ], + "metadata": { + "jupytext": { + "main_language": "python" + }, + "kernelspec": { + "display_name": "Python 3", + "name": "python3" + } + }, + "nbformat": 4, + "nbformat_minor": 5 +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py new file mode 100644 index 000000000..22eac723a --- /dev/null +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py @@ -0,0 +1,128 @@ +# --- +# jupyter: +# jupytext: +# text_representation: +# extension: .py +# format_name: percent +# format_version: '1.3' +# jupytext_version: 1.17.0 +# kernelspec: +# display_name: Python 3 +# name: python3 +# --- + +# %% [markdown] +# # 📝 Exercise M4.02 +# +# In a previous notebook we introduced the use of performance metrics to +# evaluate a clustering model when we have access to labeled data, namely the +# V-measure and Adjusted Rand Index (ARI). In this exercise you will get +# familiar with another supervised metric for clustering, known as Adjusted +# Mutual Information (AMI). +# +# To illustrate the different concepts, we retain some of the features from the +# penguins dataset. + +# %% +import pandas as pd + +columns_to_keep = [ + "Culmen Length (mm)", + "Culmen Depth (mm)", + "Flipper Length (mm)", + "Body Mass (g)", + "Sex", + "Species", +] +penguins = pd.read_csv("../datasets/penguins.csv")[columns_to_keep].dropna() +species = penguins["Species"].str.split(" ").str[0] +penguins = penguins.drop(columns=["Species"]) +penguins + +# %% [markdown] +# We recall that the silhouette score presented a maximum when `n_clusters=6` +# when using all of the features above (not the species). Our hypothesis was +# that those clusters correspond to the 3 species of penguins present in the +# dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex (2 clusters +# for each species). +# +# Repeat the same pipeline consisting of a `OneHotEncoder` for the "Sex" column, +# a `StandardScaler` for the other columns. The final estimator should be +# `KMeans` with `n_clusters=6`. You can set the `random_state` for +# reproducibility, but that should not change the interpretation of the results. + +# %% +# Write your code here. + +# %% [markdown] +# Make two `sns.scatterplot` of "Culmen Length (mm)" versus "Flipper Length +# (mm)", side-by-side. On one of them, the `hue` should be the "species and sex" +# coming from the known information in the dataset, and the `hue` in the other +# should be the cluster labels. +# +# Only the colors may differ, as the ordering of the labels is arbitrary (both +# for the k-means cluster and the "true" labels). + +# %% +# Write your code here. + +# %% [markdown] +# We now have a visual intuition of the agreement between the clusters found by +# k-means and the combination of the "Species" and "Sex" labels. We can further +# quantify it using the Adjusted Mutual Information (AMI) score. +# +# Use +# [`sklearn.metrics.adjusted_mutual_info_score`](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.adjusted_mutual_info_score.html) +# to compare both sets of labels. The AMI returns a value of 1 when the two +# partitions are identical (ie perfectly matched) + +# %% +# Write your code here. + +# %% [markdown] +# Now use a `sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder` to `fit_transform` the "true" +# labels (coming from combinations of species and sex). What would be the accuracy +# if we tried to use it to measure the agreement between both sets of labels? + +# %% +from sklearn.preprocessing import LabelEncoder +from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score + +true_labels = LabelEncoder().fit_transform(species_and_sex_labels) + +cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(penguins) +acc = accuracy_score(true_labels, cluster_labels) +print(f"Accuracy: {acc:.3f}") + +# %% [markdown] +# Permute the cluster labels using `np.random.permutation`, then compute both +# the AMI and the accuracy when comparing the true and permuted labels. Are they +# sensitive to relabeling? + +# %% +# Write your code here. + +# %% [markdown] +# AMI is designed to return a value near zero (it can be negative) when the +# clustering is no better than random. +# +# To understand how AMI corrects for chance, compare the true labels with a +# completely random labeling using `np.random.randint` to generate as many +# labels as rows in the dataset, each containing a value between 0 and 5 (to +# match the number of clusters). + +# %% +# Write your code here. + +# %% [markdown] +# +# We can conclude by comparing AMI to other metrics: +# +# - Adjusted Rand Index (ARI): Also corrects for chance, but it counts pairs of +# points, in other words, how many pairs that are together in the true labels +# are also together in the clusters. It is combinatorial, not based on +# information-theory as AMI. +# - V-measure: Based on homogeneity (do clusters contain mostly one class?) and +# completeness (are all members of a class grouped together?), but it does not +# correct for chance. If you run a random clustering, V-measure might still +# give a misleadingly non-zero score, unlike AMI or ARI. diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f90a06c0b --- /dev/null +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py @@ -0,0 +1,216 @@ +# --- +# jupyter: +# kernelspec: +# display_name: Python 3 +# name: python3 +# --- + +# %% [markdown] +# # 📃 Solution for Exercise M4.02 +# +# In a previous notebook we introduced the use of performance metrics to +# evaluate a clustering model when we have access to labeled data, namely the +# V-measure and Adjusted Rand Index (ARI). In this exercise you will get +# familiar with another supervised metric for clustering, known as Adjusted +# Mutual Information (AMI). +# +# To illustrate the different concepts, we retain some of the features from the +# penguins dataset. + +# %% +import pandas as pd + +columns_to_keep = [ + "Culmen Length (mm)", + "Culmen Depth (mm)", + "Flipper Length (mm)", + "Body Mass (g)", + "Sex", + "Species", +] +penguins = pd.read_csv("../datasets/penguins.csv")[columns_to_keep].dropna() +species = penguins["Species"].str.split(" ").str[0] +penguins = penguins.drop(columns=["Species"]) +penguins + +# %% [markdown] +# We recall that the silhouette score presented a maximum when `n_clusters=6` +# when using all of the features above (not the species). Our hypothesis was +# that those clusters correspond to the 3 species of penguins present in the +# dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex (2 clusters +# for each species). +# +# Repeat the same pipeline consisting of a `OneHotEncoder` for the "Sex" column, +# a `StandardScaler` for the other columns. The final estimator should be +# `KMeans` with `n_clusters=6`. You can set the `random_state` for +# reproducibility, but that should not change the interpretation of the results. + +# %% +# solution +from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer, make_column_selector +from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline +from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler, OneHotEncoder +from sklearn.cluster import KMeans + +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + ( + OneHotEncoder(drop="if_binary"), + make_column_selector(dtype_exclude="number"), + ), + ( + StandardScaler(), + make_column_selector(dtype_include="number"), + ), +) + +model = make_pipeline( + preprocessor, + KMeans(n_clusters=6, random_state=0), +) + +# %% [markdown] +# Make two `sns.scatterplot` of "Culmen Length (mm)" versus "Flipper Length +# (mm)", side-by-side. On one of them, the `hue` should be the "species and sex" +# coming from the known information in the dataset, and the `hue` in the other +# should be the cluster labels. +# +# Only the colors may differ, as the ordering of the labels is arbitrary (both +# for the k-means cluster and the "true" labels). + +# %% +# solution +import matplotlib.pyplot as plt +import seaborn as sns + +species_and_sex_labels = species + " " + penguins["Sex"] +cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(penguins) + +fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(1, 2, sharey=True, figsize=(14, 7)) +sns.scatterplot( + penguins.assign(species_and_sex=species_and_sex_labels), + hue="species_and_sex", + x="Culmen Length (mm)", + y="Flipper Length (mm)", + palette="deep", + alpha=0.7, + ax=ax1, + legend=None, +) +ax1.set_title("Species and sex") +sns.scatterplot( + penguins.assign(kmeans_labels=cluster_labels), + hue="kmeans_labels", + x="Culmen Length (mm)", + y="Flipper Length (mm)", + palette="deep", + alpha=0.7, + ax=ax2, + legend=None, +) +_ = ax2.set_title("K-means labels") + +# %% [markdown] +# We now have a visual intuition of the agreement between the clusters found by +# k-means and the combination of the "Species" and "Sex" labels. We can further +# quantify it using the Adjusted Mutual Information (AMI) score. +# +# Use +# [`sklearn.metrics.adjusted_mutual_info_score`](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.adjusted_mutual_info_score.html) +# to compare both sets of labels. The AMI returns a value of 1 when the two +# partitions are identical (ie perfectly matched) + +# %% +# solution +from sklearn.metrics import adjusted_mutual_info_score + +ami = adjusted_mutual_info_score( + species_and_sex_labels, + cluster_labels, +) +print(f"Adjusted Mutual Information (AMI): {ami:.3f}") + +# %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# This value is very close to 1.0, which indicates a very strong agreement. + +# %% [markdown] +# Now use a `sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder` to `fit_transform` the "true" +# labels (coming from combinations of species and sex). What would be the accuracy +# if we tried to use it to measure the agreement between both sets of labels? + +# %% +from sklearn.preprocessing import LabelEncoder +from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score + +true_labels = LabelEncoder().fit_transform(species_and_sex_labels) + +cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(penguins) +acc = accuracy_score(true_labels, cluster_labels) +print(f"Accuracy: {acc:.3f}") + +# %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# +# The accuracy is misleadingly low. It is not a valid metric for clustering +# unless you map labels explicitly. + +# %% [markdown] +# Permute the cluster labels using `np.random.permutation`, then compute both +# the AMI and the accuracy when comparing the true and permuted labels. Are they +# sensitive to relabeling? + +# %% +# solution +import numpy as np + +rng = np.random.RandomState(0) +unique_labels = np.unique(cluster_labels) +permutation = rng.permutation(unique_labels) +permuted_labels = np.zeros_like(cluster_labels) + +for original, new in zip(unique_labels, permutation): + permuted_labels[cluster_labels == original] = new + +permuted_ami = adjusted_mutual_info_score(true_labels, permuted_labels) +permuted_acc = accuracy_score(true_labels, permuted_labels) + +print(f"AMI (permuted): {permuted_ami:.3f}") +print(f"Accuracy (permuted): {permuted_acc:.3f}") + +# %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# AMI stays the same because the cluster structure has not changed, only the +# labels' names. +# +# The accuracy changes because some labels may no longer match the ground truth +# numerically, and some may match just by chance. + +# %% [markdown] +# AMI is designed to return a value near zero (it can be negative) when the +# clustering is no better than random. +# +# To understand how AMI corrects for chance, compare the true labels with a +# completely random labeling using `np.random.randint` to generate as many +# labels as rows in the dataset, each containing a value between 0 and 5 (to +# match the number of clusters). + +# %% +# solution +random_labels = rng.randint(0, len(unique_labels), size=len(species)) +ami_random = adjusted_mutual_info_score(true_labels, random_labels) + +print(f"AMI (random labels): {ami_random:.3f}") + +# %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# We observe a value close to zero. Changing the `RandomState` can lead +# to positive or negative values of AMI. + +# %% [markdown] +# +# We can conclude by comparing AMI to other metrics: +# +# - Adjusted Rand Index (ARI): Also corrects for chance, but it counts pairs of +# points, in other words, how many pairs that are together in the true labels +# are also together in the clusters. It is combinatorial, not based on +# information-theory as AMI. +# - V-measure: Based on homogeneity (do clusters contain mostly one class?) and +# completeness (are all members of a class grouped together?), but it does not +# correct for chance. If you run a random clustering, V-measure might still +# give a misleadingly non-zero score, unlike AMI or ARI. From d7e03e6f10446654561d59a9e73e17ccb055a848 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2025 10:00:38 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 27/79] Fix exercise --- python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py | 9 +-------- python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py | 1 + 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py index 22eac723a..2d7379915 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py @@ -85,14 +85,7 @@ # if we tried to use it to measure the agreement between both sets of labels? # %% -from sklearn.preprocessing import LabelEncoder -from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score - -true_labels = LabelEncoder().fit_transform(species_and_sex_labels) - -cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(penguins) -acc = accuracy_score(true_labels, cluster_labels) -print(f"Accuracy: {acc:.3f}") +# Write your code here. # %% [markdown] # Permute the cluster labels using `np.random.permutation`, then compute both diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py index f90a06c0b..a2c4b7a1c 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py @@ -138,6 +138,7 @@ # if we tried to use it to measure the agreement between both sets of labels? # %% +# solution from sklearn.preprocessing import LabelEncoder from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score From 900f0da094e26a55f67141fd929dde761fa3fb2a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2025 11:17:41 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 28/79] Small improvements to the solution of exercise 02 --- python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py | 21 +++++++++++---------- 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py index a2c4b7a1c..37c6faa72 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py @@ -178,10 +178,11 @@ # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] # AMI stays the same because the cluster structure has not changed, only the -# labels' names. -# -# The accuracy changes because some labels may no longer match the ground truth -# numerically, and some may match just by chance. +# labels' names: AMI is invariant to a random permutation of the labels. +# +# The accuracy changes because it is only meaningful when the ordering of the +# clustering labels have been mapped correctly to ordering the human labels +# which has very little chance of happening when randomly permuting the labels. # %% [markdown] # AMI is designed to return a value near zero (it can be negative) when the @@ -194,14 +195,14 @@ # %% # solution -random_labels = rng.randint(0, len(unique_labels), size=len(species)) -ami_random = adjusted_mutual_info_score(true_labels, random_labels) - -print(f"AMI (random labels): {ami_random:.3f}") +for _ in range(10): + random_labels = rng.randint(0, len(unique_labels), size=len(species)) + ami_random = adjusted_mutual_info_score(true_labels, random_labels) + print(f"AMI (random labels): {ami_random:.3f}") # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] -# We observe a value close to zero. Changing the `RandomState` can lead -# to positive or negative values of AMI. +# We observe either positive or negative values but always very close to zero +# depending the particular random labels generated. # %% [markdown] # From 87d438f4f40b279a6683c09b6440c63aa8e437db Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2025 11:23:09 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 29/79] Add the skrub dependency --- environment-dev.yml | 1 + environment.yml | 1 + requirements-dev.txt | 1 + requirements.txt | 1 + 4 files changed, 4 insertions(+) diff --git a/environment-dev.yml b/environment-dev.yml index fe6de1e72..919786883 100644 --- a/environment-dev.yml +++ b/environment-dev.yml @@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ dependencies: - matplotlib-base - seaborn >= 0.13 - plotly >= 5.10 + - skrub - jupytext - beautifulsoup4 - IPython diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml index b73214414..7414be4ec 100644 --- a/environment.yml +++ b/environment.yml @@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ dependencies: - pandas >= 1 - matplotlib-base - seaborn >= 0.13 + - skrub - jupyterlab - notebook - plotly >= 5.10 diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt index 503d326e1..a9e1ad026 100644 --- a/requirements-dev.txt +++ b/requirements-dev.txt @@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ pandas >= 1 matplotlib seaborn >= 0.13 plotly +skrub jupyter-book>=0.11 jupytext beautifulsoup4 diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt index 454162db6..588f5d275 100644 --- a/requirements.txt +++ b/requirements.txt @@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ pandas >= 1 matplotlib seaborn >= 0.13 plotly +skrub jupyterlab notebook IPython From 166868c69e5af33bb176d0405c07e23eb32213d7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2025 11:27:11 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 30/79] Expand analysis a bit --- python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py | 3 +++ 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py index 37c6faa72..9dab2e20a 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py @@ -131,6 +131,9 @@ # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] # This value is very close to 1.0, which indicates a very strong agreement. +# This confirms our visual intuition that the 6 clusters found by k-means +# nearly exactly correspond to the species crossed with the sex of the +# penguins. # %% [markdown] # Now use a `sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder` to `fit_transform` the "true" From 74245d31609983cd5bb40e155e02ad7f5818b521 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2025 12:03:06 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 31/79] Improvements in the HDBSCAN notebook --- python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py | 96 ++++++++++++------- .../clustering_supervised_metrics.py | 11 +-- 2 files changed, 69 insertions(+), 38 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py index 56a840159..302f4ec2f 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py @@ -11,27 +11,39 @@ # We have previously mentioned that k-means consists of minimizing the samples # euclidean distances to their assigned centroid. As a consequence, k-means is # more appropriate for clusters that are isotropic and normally distributed -# (look like blobs). In this notebook we introduce another clustering technique -# named HDBSCAN, an acronym which stands for "Hierarchical Density-Based Spatial -# Clustering of Applications with Noise". +# (look like spherical blobs). When this assumption is not met, k-means can +# lead to unstable clustering results that do not qualitatively match the +# cluster we seek. On possible way is to use a more general variant of k-means +# named Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM), which allows for elongated clusters with +# strong correlation between features as explained in [this tutorial of the +# scikit-learn +# documentation](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/cluster/plot_kmeans_assumptions.html). +# However, GMM still assumes that clusters are convex, which is not always the +# case in practice. # -# Let's explain each of those tearms. HDBSCAN is hierarchical, which means it +# In this notebook we introduce another clustering technique named HDBSCAN, an +# acronym which stands for "Hierarchical Density-Based Spatial Clustering of +# Applications with Noise" which further allows for non-convex clusters. +# +# Let's explain each of those terms. HDBSCAN is hierarchical, which means it # handles data with clusters nested within each other. The user controls the # level in the hierarchy at which clusters are formed. # -# It is density-based (and therefore non-parametric, contrary to K-means) -# because it does not assume a specific shape or number of clusters. Instead, it -# automatically finds the clusters based on areas where data points are densely -# packed together. In other words, it looks for regions of high density (many -# data points close to each other) and forms clusters around them. This allows -# it to find clusters of varying shapes and sizes. +# It is non-parametric, density-based method that does not assume a specific +# shape or number of clusters. Instead, it automatically finds the clusters +# based on areas where data points are densely packed together. In other words, +# it looks for regions of high density (many data points close to each other) +# and forms clusters around them. This allows it to find clusters of varying +# shapes and sizes. # -# HDBSCAN assigns a label of -1 to points that do not have enough neighbors (low -# density) to be considered part of a cluster or are too far from any dense -# region (too isolated from core points). They are usually considered to be -# noise. +# HDBSCAN assigns a label of -1 to points that do not have enough neighbors +# (low density) to be considered part of a cluster or are too far from any +# dense region (too isolated from core points). They are usually considered to +# be noise. # -# Let's first illustrate those concepts with a toy dataset. +# Let's first illustrate those concepts with a toy dataset generated using the +# code below. You do not need to understand the details of the data generation +# process, and instead pay attention to the resulting scatter plot. # %% import numpy as np @@ -91,6 +103,13 @@ def make_wavy_blob(n_samples, shift=0.0, noise=0.2, freq=3): _ = plt.title("Synthetic dataset") # %% [markdown] +# +# You can observe that the dataset contains: +# - four Gaussian blobs with different sizes and densities, some of which +# are elongated and other more spherical; +# - two non-convex clusters with wavy shapes; +# - a background noise of points uniformly distributed in the feature space. +# # Let's first try to find a cluster structure using K-means with 6 clusters to # match our data generating process. @@ -109,10 +128,11 @@ def make_wavy_blob(n_samples, shift=0.0, noise=0.2, freq=3): _ = plt.scatter(X_all[:, 0], X_all[:, 1], c=cluster_labels, alpha=0.6) # %% [markdown] -# However, we can observe that too many cluster divides the high density region -# too much, while it continues grouping unrelated points together. Therefore, -# adjusting the number of clusters is not enough to get good results in this -# kind of data. +# However, we can observe this cluster assignment divides the high density regions +# while also grouping unrelated points together. Furthermore, the background +# noise data points are always assigned to the nearest centroids and thus +# treated as cluster members. Therefore, adjusting the number of clusters is +# not enough to get good results in this kind of data. # # Let's now repeat the experiment using HDBSCAN instead. For this clustering # technique, the most important hyperparameter is `min_cluster_size`, which @@ -167,35 +187,36 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature, colorbar_label="cluster label"): fig = plot_map(data, target, colorbar_label="price (k$)") # %% [markdown] -# We can first use K-means to group data points into different spatial regions. +# +# We can try to use K-means to group data points into different spatial regions +# (irrespective of the housing prices) and visualize the results on a map. +# +# Note that the Geospatial columns are `Latitude` and `Longitude` are already +# on the same scale so there is no need to standardize them before clustering. # %% -from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline -from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler from sklearn.cluster import KMeans geo_columns = ["Latitude", "Longitude"] geo_data = data[geo_columns] -kmeans_pipeline = make_pipeline( - StandardScaler(), KMeans(n_clusters=20, random_state=0) -) +kmeans = KMeans(n_clusters=20, random_state=0) -cluster_labels = kmeans_pipeline.fit_predict(geo_data) +cluster_labels = kmeans.fit_predict(geo_data) cluster_labels # %% fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype("str")) # %% [markdown] -# We can observe that results are really influenced by the K-means that favors -# "blobby"-shaped clusters. Let's try again with HDBSCAN which should not suffer +# We can observe that results are really influenced by the fact that K-means favors +# spherical-shaped clusters. Let's try again with HDBSCAN which should not suffer # from the same bias. # %% from sklearn.cluster import HDBSCAN -hdbscan = HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=100) # no need for scaling +hdbscan = HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=100) cluster_labels = hdbscan.fit_predict(geo_data) cluster_labels @@ -204,7 +225,7 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature, colorbar_label="cluster label"): fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype("str")) # %% [markdown] -# HDBSCAN automatically detect highly populated areas that match urban centers, +# HDBSCAN automatically detects highly populated areas that match urban centers, # potentially increasing the housing prices. In addition we observe that points # lying in low density regions are labeled `-1` instead of being forced into a # cluster. @@ -234,8 +255,19 @@ def plot_map(df, color_feature, colorbar_label="cluster label"): # %% for cut_distance in [0.1, 0.3, 0.5]: - labels = hdbscan.dbscan_clustering( + cluster_labels = hdbscan.dbscan_clustering( cut_distance=cut_distance, min_cluster_size=30 ) - plot_map(data, labels.astype("str")) + plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype("str")) print(f"Number of clusters: {len(np.unique(cluster_labels))}") + +# %% [markdown] +# ## Concluding remarks +# +# In this notebook we have introduced HDBSCAN, a clustering technique that +# allows for non-convex clusters and does not require the user to specify the +# number of clusters. +# +# Keep in mind however, that despite its flexibility, even HDBSCAN can still +# fail to find relevant clusters in some datasets: sometimes there is no +# meaningful cluster structure in the data. diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py index 7916daa66..30115d902 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py @@ -10,10 +10,9 @@ # # In this notebook we briefly introduce how to deal with text data. Then we # introduce the use of performance metrics to evaluate a clustering model when -# we have access to labeled data. The reason is that clustering gives us a way -# to explore whether the structure in the data supports the labels we've been -# given, or even to question how well-defined those labels are in the first -# place. +# we have access to labeled data. Our goal is to evaluate whether the cluster +# structure favored by k-means on the preprocessed text aligns with the +# editorial categories assigned by BBC News editors. # # ## Feature engineering for text data # @@ -44,8 +43,8 @@ # %% [markdown] # Observe in particular that the words "the" and "phrase" are counted twice in # the last document (the third row in the dataframe). This preprocessor creates -# as many features as unique words ocurring in the data, therefore the dimension -# of the feature space can become very large. +# as many features as unique words occurring in the data, therefore the +# dimension of the feature space can become very large. # # Readers interested can visit the [scikit-learn example on comparing # vectorization From 9bfe2f243df413ce26014b49b7246b63ef3693f6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2025 15:08:57 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 32/79] Reworded analysis of the BBC text clustering notebook + use cross-validation --- .../clustering_supervised_metrics.py | 152 ++++++++++-------- 1 file changed, 89 insertions(+), 63 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py index 30115d902..0ed69b3b5 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py @@ -66,10 +66,12 @@ data["category"].value_counts() # %% [markdown] -# We start by preprocessing the text data using `StringEncoder`, which is an -# alternative to `CountVectorizer` that encodes text while keeping the dimension -# of the feature space reasonably small, even if the number of unique words is -# very large. This encoder is well suited to cluster text using `KMeans`. +# We start by preprocessing the text data using `StringEncoder`, that encodes +# text similarly to `CountVectorizer` and then reduces the dimension of the +# feature space while trying to preserve the relative distance between pairs of +# documents. +# +# This encoder is well suited to cluster text using `KMeans`. # %% from skrub import StringEncoder @@ -83,46 +85,52 @@ # %% [markdown] # Our pipeline has grouped the documents into 3 clusters, even though the # dataset contains 5 categories assigned by BBC editors. We chose this on -# purpose, to show that k-means is able to cluster data even if -# those clusters do not match the predefined categories. +# purpose, to show that k-means always produces a number of clusters that +# matches the `n_clusters` parameter, regardless of what's in the data. # # ## Supervised metrics for clustering evaluation # # Even though clustering is an unsupervised learning method, we have access to # labels for the categories that were assigned by the BBC editors, allowing us -# to evaluate how well the clusters found using our models match those labels. +# to evaluate how well the cluster labels found by k-means match those human +# assigned labels. # -# We could try to use classification metrics such as the accuracy. However, -# clustering labels are arbitrary and their number does not need to match the -# number of predefined categories (we just saw in the example above). More -# importantly, we don't assume a predefined mapping between cluster labels and -# editorial categories, and we don't need one to quantify their agreement. This -# is where supervised clustering metrics come in. +# We could try to use classification metrics such as the accuracy. However, the +# integer identifiers of the clustering labels are arbitrarily ordered and +# `n_clusters` does not need to match the number of predefined categories (as +# we just did in the code above). More importantly, we don't assume a +# predefined mapping between cluster labels and editorial categories, and we +# don't need one to quantify their agreement. This is where supervised +# clustering metrics come in. # # In this notebook, we'll use two metrics: V-measure and Adjusted Rand Index -# (ARI). The V-measure addresses overlaps by evaluating two properties: -# - homogeneity: each cluster contains only members of a single class; -# - completeness: all members of a given class are assigned to the same cluster. +# (ARI). The V-measure quantifies alignment of the clustering assignment with +# the BBC category assignment used as reference by evaluating two properties: +# - homogeneity: each cluster contains only members of a single category; +# - completeness: all members of a given category are assigned to the same +# cluster. # # V-measure ranges from 0 to 1, where 1 indicates perfect match between the -# clustering labels and the human labels, both in terms of homogeneity and +# clustering labels and the reference labels, both in terms of homogeneity and # completeness. # # The Adjusted Rand Index (ARI) also measures the similarity between the -# predicted clusters and human-assigned labels, adjusting for random labeling. -# For the BBC News dataset, it compares pairs of articles to see whether if they -# are in the same cluster in both the predicted and human-assigned labels. High -# ARI means that articles from the same category are grouped together, and -# articles from different categories are separated. ARI ranges from -1 (worse -# than random clustering) to 1 (perfect clustering), with 0 indicating a model -# that assigns cluster labels at random. +# predicted clusters and editor-assigned labels: it compares pairs of articles +# to see whether if they are in the same cluster in both the predicted and +# editor-assigned labels. High ARI means that articles from the same category +# are grouped together, and articles from different categories are separated. +# ARI ranges from -1 (worse than random clustering) to 1 (perfect clustering), +# with 0 indicating a model that assigns cluster labels at random: this metric +# is therefore "adjusted for chance", which is not the case for V-measure. # -# In other words, both V-measure and ARI follow a "higher is better" convention. +# Both V-measure and ARI follow a "higher is better" convention. # # Read more in the User Guide for # [V-measure](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/clustering.html#homogeneity-completeness-and-v-measure) # and the [Rand # index](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/clustering.html#rand-index). +# +# Let's # %% import matplotlib.pyplot as plt @@ -136,77 +144,95 @@ "V-measure": "v_measure_score", "ARI": "adjusted_rand_score", } -fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(6, 4)) -for scoring in scoring_names.values(): +fig, axes = plt.subplots( + nrows=2, figsize=(6, 8), sharex=True, constrained_layout=True +) +for (scoring_name, scoring), ax in zip(scoring_names.items(), axes): ValidationCurveDisplay.from_estimator( KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0), data_encoded, data["category"], param_name="n_clusters", param_range=n_clusters_values, - score_type="train", scoring=scoring, std_display_style="errorbar", cv=cv, ax=ax, ) -ax.set( - ylim=(-0.1, 1.1), - xlabel="Number of components", - ylabel="Score", - title="Validation curves for\nStringEncoder + KMeans", -) -handles, _ = ax.get_legend_handles_labels() -_ = ax.legend(handles=handles, labels=scoring_names.keys()) + ax.set( + ylim=(-0.1, 1.1), + ylabel=scoring_name, + ) +ax.set_xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") +plt.suptitle("Supervised evaluation of clusters for varying n_clusters") # %% [markdown] # We observe that both V-measure and ARI are much better than chance. Even more # they reach their maximum value when `n_clusters=5`. This is not surprising -# because this is the number of human-assigned categories in the dataset. The -# alignment reflects both good editorial labels (as the categories are -# well-defined and internally consistent) as well as a clustering pipeline that -# can reasonably extract the structure in the data that matches the human -# intuition. +# because this is the number of human-assigned categories in the dataset and +# both metrics quantify alignment with those labels. +# +# The relatively good metrics values observed for `n_clusters=5` reflects both +# good editorial labels (as the categories are well-defined and internally +# consistent) as well as a clustering pipeline that can reasonably extract the +# structure in the data that matches the human intuition. +# +# Note that the metrics measured on training or validation data are very +# similar, meaning that k-means with small number of clusters is unlikely to +# overfit noise from the training data. # # But the question may arise, if we didn't have access to labels at all, would # the silhouette score also lead us to chose `n_clusters=5`? # %% +import numpy as np from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split -n_clusters_values = range(2, 16) +n_clusters_values = list(range(2, 11)) + [20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70] +all_scores = [] for random_state in range(1, 11): - data_subsample, _ = train_test_split( - data_encoded, train_size=0.75, random_state=random_state + data_train, data_test = train_test_split( + data_encoded, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state ) scores = [] for n_clusters in n_clusters_values: model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, n_init=5, random_state=0) - cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data_subsample) - score = silhouette_score(data_subsample, cluster_labels) + cluster_labels = model.fit(data_train).predict(data_test) + score = silhouette_score(data_test, cluster_labels) scores.append(score) + all_scores.append(scores) plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color="tab:blue", alpha=0.2) plt.xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") plt.ylabel("Silhouette score") - _ = plt.title("Silhouette score for varying n_clusters", y=1.01) + +all_scores = np.array(all_scores) +plt.plot(n_clusters_values, all_scores.mean(axis=0), color="black", alpha=1) +_ = plt.title("Silhouette score for varying n_clusters", y=1.01) # %% [markdown] -# The fact that the silhouette score favors larger values for `n_clusters` than -# the supervised metrics we saw before suggests that, in terms of cluster -# tightness and separation, having more clusters leads to better-defined -# clusters. This could be a case where the data contains subclusters or finer -# distinctions within the categories that the algorithm can capture with more -# clusters. Essentially, while there may be 5 high-level categories, the -# subcategories within those 5 groups (such as articles that are very niche -# within "tech" or "politics") could benefit from additional clusters. But this -# is probably not what the editors want in practice. Having too fine-grained -# topics would make the navigation on their website too confusing. -# -# Finally, notice that we used extra supervised information to quantitatively -# assess the quality of the match between the clusters found by k-means and our -# interpretation. In practice, this is often impossible, as we do not have +# +# The silhouette score analysis favors larger values for `n_clusters` (between +# 20 and 40) than the 5 categories chosen by the BBC editors. +# +# The finer-grained clusters found by k-means for `n_clusters=30` could +# potentially match sub-clusters of the 5 BBC categories. However, categorizing +# news articles in too fine-grained topics would make the navigation on their +# website too confusing. Therefore for this application, it can be meaningful +# to select a number of clusters that is smaller than the number of clusters +# that maximizes the silhouette score. +# +# We can also, observe that the maximum silhouette score is not very high, which +# indicates that the clusters are not very well separated from each other: this +# could be explained by the fact that some documents could meaningfully belong +# to more than one topical category: for instance, a news article about a tech +# company being acquired by another could belong to both "tech" and "business" +# categories. +# +# Finally, notice that we used supervised information to quantitatively assess +# the quality of the match between the clusters found by k-means and our +# categorization. In practice, this is often impossible, as we do not have # access to human assigned labels for each row in the data. Or, if we have, we -# might want to use them to train the clustering model, but instead we would -# rather use them as the target variable to train a supervised classifier. +# might want to use them as the target variable to train a supervised +# classifier instead of training an unsupervised clustering model. From a765e5336c45e3d60638f476d56d3c37d37825b2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2025 15:33:06 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 33/79] Improvements in the supervised metrics notebook --- python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py | 16 +++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py index 0ed69b3b5..ea6d3118c 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py @@ -130,7 +130,9 @@ # and the [Rand # index](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/clustering.html#rand-index). # -# Let's +# Let's use these metrics to evaluate the clustering labels found by k-means +# with different values of `n_clusters` by plotting the validation curves +# for both of them: # %% import matplotlib.pyplot as plt @@ -208,7 +210,14 @@ plt.ylabel("Silhouette score") all_scores = np.array(all_scores) -plt.plot(n_clusters_values, all_scores.mean(axis=0), color="black", alpha=1) +plt.plot( + n_clusters_values, + all_scores.mean(axis=0), + color="black", + alpha=1, + label="Mean silhouette score", +) +plt.legend() _ = plt.title("Silhouette score for varying n_clusters", y=1.01) # %% [markdown] @@ -223,7 +232,8 @@ # to select a number of clusters that is smaller than the number of clusters # that maximizes the silhouette score. # -# We can also, observe that the maximum silhouette score is not very high, which +# We can also, observe that the silhouette curves are not very stable under +# resampling and that the maximum silhouette score is not very high, which # indicates that the clusters are not very well separated from each other: this # could be explained by the fact that some documents could meaningfully belong # to more than one topical category: for instance, a news article about a tech From 024545f009046a7e8fd5c94fd787d988f15a090a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2025 17:30:09 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 34/79] Add discussion on silhouette for hdbscan --- python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 30 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py index 302f4ec2f..c3bbc6c00 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py @@ -134,18 +134,46 @@ def make_wavy_blob(n_samples, shift=0.0, noise=0.2, freq=3): # treated as cluster members. Therefore, adjusting the number of clusters is # not enough to get good results in this kind of data. # +# We can compute the silhouette score for this number of clusters and keep it +# in mind for the moment. + +# %% +from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score + +kmeans_score = silhouette_score(X_all, cluster_labels) +print(f"Silhouette score for k-means clusters: {kmeans_score:.3f}") + +# %% [markdown] # Let's now repeat the experiment using HDBSCAN instead. For this clustering # technique, the most important hyperparameter is `min_cluster_size`, which # controls the minimum number of samples for a group to be considered a cluster; -# groupings smaller than this size will be left as noise. +# groupings smaller than this size are considered as noise. # %% from sklearn.cluster import HDBSCAN -cluster_labels = HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=10).fit_predict(X_all) +cluster_labels = HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=5).fit_predict(X_all) _ = plt.scatter(X_all[:, 0], X_all[:, 1], c=cluster_labels, alpha=0.6) # %% [markdown] +# The clusters found using HDBSCAN better match our intuition of how data points +# should be grouped. We can compute the corresponding silhouette score: + +# %% +hdbscan_score = silhouette_score(X_all, cluster_labels) +print(f"Silhouette score for HDBSCAN clusters: {hdbscan_score:.3f}") + +# %% [markdown] +# Notice that this score is lower than the score using k-means, even if HDBSCAN +# seems to do a better job when grouping the data points. The reason is that +# HDBSCAN does not optimize intra- or inter-cluster distances, which are the +# basis of the silhouette score. It is then more appropriate to use the +# silhouette score when clusters are compact and roughly convex. Otherwise, if +# the clusters are elongated, wavy, or even wrap around other clusters, +# comparing average distances become less meaningful. +# +# ## Clustering of geospatial data +# # Let's now apply HDBSCAN to a more realistic use-case: the geospatial columns # of the California Housing Dataset. From 2647274b68b270d47ee8244f317f10db45f95333 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2025 17:30:34 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 35/79] Fix warning and plot not rendering --- python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py | 3 ++- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py b/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py index 9f9aa581e..7527aff6f 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_transformer.py @@ -127,6 +127,7 @@ make_column_transformer( (KMeans(n_clusters=100), geo_columns), remainder="passthrough", + force_int_remainder_cols=False, # Silence a warning in scikit-learn v1.6 ), StandardScaler(), Ridge(alpha=1e-12), @@ -206,7 +207,7 @@ "yanchor": "top", } ) -fig +fig.show(renderer="notebook") # %% [markdown] # We can finally evaluate the best model found by our analysis and see how well From bd32b87afaec4f31a2d3d41fe3c3bac737b30316 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2025 11:26:07 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 36/79] Add intro, overview and sections --- jupyter-book/_toc.yml | 22 +++++--- .../clustering_assumptions_index.md | 5 ++ .../clustering/clustering_kmeans_index.md | 5 ++ .../clustering/clustering_module_intro.md | 56 +++++++++++++++++++ .../clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md | 26 +++++++++ 5 files changed, 106 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) create mode 100644 jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_assumptions_index.md create mode 100644 jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_kmeans_index.md create mode 100644 jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_intro.md create mode 100644 jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md diff --git a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml index 716a57899..6541d9cfb 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml +++ b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml @@ -238,11 +238,17 @@ parts: - file: interpretation/interpretation_quiz - caption: 🚧 Clustering chapters: - - file: python_scripts/clustering_kmeans - - file: python_scripts/clustering_ex_01 - - file: python_scripts/clustering_sol_01 - - file: python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics - - file: python_scripts/clustering_ex_02 - - file: python_scripts/clustering_sol_02 - - file: python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan - - file: python_scripts/clustering_transformer + - file: clustering/clustering_module_intro + - file: clustering/clustering_kmeans_index + sections: + - file: python_scripts/clustering_kmeans + - file: python_scripts/clustering_ex_01 + - file: python_scripts/clustering_sol_01 + - file: python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics + - file: python_scripts/clustering_ex_02 + - file: python_scripts/clustering_sol_02 + - file: clustering/clustering_assumptions_index + sections: + - file: python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan + - file: python_scripts/clustering_transformer + - file: clustering/clustering_module_take_away diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_assumptions_index.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_assumptions_index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4b4745f81 --- /dev/null +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_assumptions_index.md @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ +# Clustering when k-means assumptions fail + +```{tableofcontents} + +``` diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_kmeans_index.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_kmeans_index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..600c30f75 --- /dev/null +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_kmeans_index.md @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ +# K-means + +```{tableofcontents} + +``` diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_intro.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_intro.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5fdae2228 --- /dev/null +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_intro.md @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +# Module overview + +## What you will learn + + + +In the previous module, we introduced the need for hyperparameter tuning. +To support this, we emphasized the role of a separate **validation set** for +selecting the best hyperparameters, and the use of **nested cross-validation** +to more reliably estimate their generalization performance and stability. + +In this module we present KMeans clustering, including aspects like cluster +stability and evaluation metrics such as silhouette score and inertia. +We also introduce supervised clustering metrics that leverage annotated data to +assess clustering quality. + +Finally, we discuss what to do when the assumptions of KMeans do not hold, such +as using HDBSCAN for non-convex clusters, and show how KMeans can still be +useful as a feature engineering step in a supervised learning pipeline, by using +distances to centroids. + + +## Before getting started + + + +The required technical skills to carry on this module are: + +- skills acquired during the "The Predictive Modeling Pipeline" module with + basic usage of scikit-learn; +- skills acquired during the "Selecting The Best Model" module, mainly around + the concept of validation curves and the concepts around stability. + + + +## Objectives and time schedule + + + +The objective in the module are the following: + +- apply k-means clustering and assess its behavior across different settings +- evaluate cluster quality using unsupervised metrics such as silhouette score + and WCSS (also known as inertia) +- interpret and compute supervised clustering metrics (e.g., AMI, ARI, + V-measure) when ground truth labels are available +- understand the limitations of k-means and identify cases where its assumptions + (e.g., convex, isotropic clusters) do not hold +- use HDBSCAN as an alternative clustering method suited for irregular or + non-convex cluster shapes +- integrate k-means into a supervised learning pipeline by using distances to + centroids as features. + + + +The estimated time to go through this module is about 6 hours. diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..afd1494ab --- /dev/null +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +# Main take-away + +## Wrap-up + + + +In this module, we presented the framework used in unsupervised learning with +clustering, focusing on KMeans and how to evaluate its results using both +internal and supervised metrics. + +We explored the concept of cluster stability, addressed the limitations of +KMeans when clusters are not convex, and introduced HDBSCAN as an alternative. + +Finally, we showed how clustering can be integrated into supervised pipelines +through feature engineering. + +## To go further + + + +You can refer to the following scikit-learn examples which are related to +the concepts approached in this module: + +- [Adjustment for chance in clustering performance evaluation](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/cluster/plot_adjusted_for_chance_measures.html) +- [Demonstration of k-means assumptions](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/cluster/plot_kmeans_assumptions.html) +- [Clustering text documents using k-means](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_document_clustering.html) From 27f4e52b756e0aee5e2687f12bf48cb5efef3700 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2025 11:52:03 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 37/79] Iter discussion on silhouette for hdbscan --- python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++------- 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py index c3bbc6c00..a477c394b 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan.py @@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ def make_wavy_blob(n_samples, shift=0.0, noise=0.2, freq=3): # %% from sklearn.cluster import HDBSCAN -cluster_labels = HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=5).fit_predict(X_all) +cluster_labels = HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=10).fit_predict(X_all) _ = plt.scatter(X_all[:, 0], X_all[:, 1], c=cluster_labels, alpha=0.6) # %% [markdown] @@ -165,12 +165,29 @@ def make_wavy_blob(n_samples, shift=0.0, noise=0.2, freq=3): # %% [markdown] # Notice that this score is lower than the score using k-means, even if HDBSCAN -# seems to do a better job when grouping the data points. The reason is that -# HDBSCAN does not optimize intra- or inter-cluster distances, which are the -# basis of the silhouette score. It is then more appropriate to use the -# silhouette score when clusters are compact and roughly convex. Otherwise, if -# the clusters are elongated, wavy, or even wrap around other clusters, -# comparing average distances become less meaningful. +# seems to do a better job when grouping the data points. The reason here is +# that points considered as noise (labeled with `-1` by HDBSCAN) do not follow a +# cluster-like structure. We can test that hypothesis as follows: + +# %% +mask = cluster_labels != -1 # mask is TRUE for entries that are NOT -1 +cluster_labels_filtered = cluster_labels[mask] +X_all_filtered = X_all[mask] + +hdbscan_score = silhouette_score(X_all_filtered, cluster_labels_filtered) +print( + f"Silhouette score for HDBSCAN clusters without noise: {hdbscan_score:.3f}" +) + +# %% [markdown] +# In this case we do obtain a better silhouette score, but in general we **do +# not** suggest dropping samples labeled as noise. +# +# Also, keep in mind that HDBSCAN does not optimize intra- or inter-cluster +# distances, which are the basis of the silhouette score. It is then more +# appropriate to use the silhouette score when clusters are compact and roughly +# convex. Otherwise, if the clusters are elongated, wavy, or even wrap around +# other clusters, comparing average distances becomes less meaningful. # # ## Clustering of geospatial data # From b8f664620eda455c3b307728b03db1d34ebf2561 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2025 16:36:17 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 38/79] Tweaks --- python_scripts/clustering_ex_01.py | 2 +- python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py | 8 +++++--- python_scripts/clustering_sol_01.py | 2 +- python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py | 8 +++++--- python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py | 5 ++++- 5 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_ex_01.py index 13c7c808d..7b0ec1ef9 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_ex_01.py @@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ # %% # Write your code here. -# %% +# %% [markdown] # Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step # as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` of `KMeans` for # reproducibility. Then, make a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters` diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py index 2d7379915..b9e1b7f5a 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py @@ -80,9 +80,11 @@ # Write your code here. # %% [markdown] -# Now use a `sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder` to `fit_transform` the "true" -# labels (coming from combinations of species and sex). What would be the accuracy -# if we tried to use it to measure the agreement between both sets of labels? +# Now use a +# [`sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder`](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/generated/sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder.html) +# to `fit_transform` the "true" labels (coming from combinations of species and +# sex). What would be the accuracy if we tried to use it to measure the +# agreement between both sets of labels? # %% # Write your code here. diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_01.py index b79d0a3ba..8417f0bae 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_01.py @@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ # Without scaling "monetary" has a dominant impact when forming clusters, # regardless of the number of clusters. -# %% +# %% [markdown] # Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step # as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` of `KMeans` for # reproducibility. Then, make a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters` diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py index 9dab2e20a..5f0c58b52 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py @@ -136,9 +136,11 @@ # penguins. # %% [markdown] -# Now use a `sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder` to `fit_transform` the "true" -# labels (coming from combinations of species and sex). What would be the accuracy -# if we tried to use it to measure the agreement between both sets of labels? +# Now use a +# [`sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder`](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/generated/sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder.html) +# to `fit_transform` the "true" labels (coming from combinations of species and +# sex). What would be the accuracy if we tried to use it to measure the +# agreement between both sets of labels? # %% # solution diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py index ea6d3118c..b3027742e 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py @@ -163,10 +163,13 @@ ) ax.set( ylim=(-0.1, 1.1), + xlabel=None, ylabel=scoring_name, ) ax.set_xlabel("Number of clusters (n_clusters)") -plt.suptitle("Supervised evaluation of clusters for varying n_clusters") +_ = plt.suptitle( + "Supervised evaluation of clusters\nfor varying n_clusters", y=1.08 +) # %% [markdown] # We observe that both V-measure and ARI are much better than chance. Even more From d32863187c700bb7e79769ad7a6793ca9703ae12 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:46:14 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 39/79] Add first quiz on clustering and related images --- figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_not_scaled.svg | 1004 +++++++++++++++++ figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_scaled.svg | 980 ++++++++++++++++ jupyter-book/_toc.yml | 1 + .../clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md | 89 ++ 4 files changed, 2074 insertions(+) create mode 100644 figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_not_scaled.svg create mode 100644 figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_scaled.svg create mode 100644 jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md diff --git a/figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_not_scaled.svg b/figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_not_scaled.svg new file mode 100644 index 000000000..264a1e924 --- /dev/null +++ b/figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_not_scaled.svg @@ -0,0 +1,1004 @@ + + + + + + + + 2025-06-11T15:44:33.592663 + image/svg+xml + + + Matplotlib v3.10.1, https://matplotlib.org/ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_scaled.svg b/figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_scaled.svg new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6bfbb7abb --- /dev/null +++ b/figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_scaled.svg @@ -0,0 +1,980 @@ + + + + + + + + 2025-06-11T15:44:33.638773 + image/svg+xml + + + Matplotlib v3.10.1, https://matplotlib.org/ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml index 6541d9cfb..614dea2ea 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml +++ b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml @@ -247,6 +247,7 @@ parts: - file: python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics - file: python_scripts/clustering_ex_02 - file: python_scripts/clustering_sol_02 + - file: clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01 - file: clustering/clustering_assumptions_index sections: - file: python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1af78cc02 --- /dev/null +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ +# ✅ Quiz M6.01 + +```{admonition} Question +Imagine you work for a music streaming platform that hosts a vast library of +songs, playlists, and podcasts. You have access to detailed listening data from +millions of users. For each user, you know their most-listened genres, the +devices they use, their average session length, and how often they explore new +content. + +You want to segment users based on their listening patterns to improve +personalized recommendations, without relying on rigid, predefined labels like +"pop fan" or "casual listener" which may fail to capture the complexity of +their behavior. + +What kind of problem are you dealing with? + +- a) a supervised task +- b) an unsupervised task +- c) a classification task +- d) a clustering task + +_Select all answers that apply_ +``` + ++++ + +```{admonition} Question +The plots below show the cluster labels as found by K-means with 3 clusters, only +differing in the scaling step. Based on this, which conclusions can be obtained? + +![K-means not scaled](../../figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_not_scaled.svg) +![K-means scaled](../../figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_scaled.svg) + +- a) without scaling, cluster assignment is dominated by the feature in the vertical axis +- b) without scaling, cluster assignment is dominated by the feature in the horizontal axis +- c) without scaling, both features contribute equally to cluster assignment + +_Select a single answer_ +``` + ++++ + +```{admonition} Question +Which of the following statements correctly describe factors that affect the +stability of K-Means clustering across different resamplings of the data? + +- a) K-Means can produce different results on resampled datasets due to + sensitivity to initialization +- b) If data is unevenly distributed, the stability improves when increasing the + parameter `n_init` in the "k-means++" initialization +- c) Stability across resamplings of the data is guaranteed after feature + scaling +- d) Increasing the number of clusters typically reduces the variability of + results across resamples + +_Select all answers that apply_ +``` + ++++ + +```{admonition} Question +Which of the following statements correctly describe how WCSS (within-cluster +sum of squares, or inertia) behaves in K-means clustering? + +- a) For a fixed number of clusters, WCSS is lower when clusters are compact +- b) For a fixed number of clusters, WCSS is lower for larger clusters +- c) For a fixed number of clusters, lower WCSS implies lower computational cost + during training +- d) WCSS always decreases as the number of clusters increases + +_Select all answers that apply_ +``` + ++++ + +```{admonition} Question +Which of the following statements correctly describe differences between +supervised and unsupervised clustering metrics? + +- a) Supervised clustering metrics such as ARI and AMI require access to ground + truth labels to evaluate clustering performance +- b) WCSS and the silhouette score evaluate internal cluster structure without + needing reference labels +- c) V-measure is zero when labels are assigned completely at random +- d) Supervised clustering metrics are not useful if the number of clusters do + not match the number of predefined classes + +_Select all answers that apply_ +``` From c32eabe319ba1c60501f80124ca1aedf59656e1a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:47:34 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 40/79] Wording tweaks --- python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py | 9 +++++---- python_scripts/clustering_sol_01.py | 4 ++-- python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py | 9 +++++---- python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py | 1 - 4 files changed, 12 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py index b9e1b7f5a..ba27575ce 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_ex_02.py @@ -46,10 +46,11 @@ # dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex (2 clusters # for each species). # -# Repeat the same pipeline consisting of a `OneHotEncoder` for the "Sex" column, -# a `StandardScaler` for the other columns. The final estimator should be -# `KMeans` with `n_clusters=6`. You can set the `random_state` for -# reproducibility, but that should not change the interpretation of the results. +# Repeat the same pipeline consisting of a `OneHotEncoder` with +# `drop="if_binary"` for the "Sex" column, a `StandardScaler` for the other +# columns. The final estimator should be `KMeans` with `n_clusters=6`. You can +# set the `random_state` for reproducibility, but that should not change the +# interpretation of the results. # %% # Write your code here. diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_01.py b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_01.py index 8417f0bae..80102254f 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_01.py @@ -136,8 +136,8 @@ def plot_n_clusters_scores( # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] # -# The WCSS plot no strong elbow but it might depend of the random -# initialization of the centroids in k-means. +# The WCSS plot may or may not present a well-defined elbow, depending of the +# random initialization of the centroids in k-means. # %% [markdown] # Let's see if we can find one or more stable candidates for `n_clusters` using diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py index 5f0c58b52..c2e7370b4 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_sol_02.py @@ -40,10 +40,11 @@ # dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex (2 clusters # for each species). # -# Repeat the same pipeline consisting of a `OneHotEncoder` for the "Sex" column, -# a `StandardScaler` for the other columns. The final estimator should be -# `KMeans` with `n_clusters=6`. You can set the `random_state` for -# reproducibility, but that should not change the interpretation of the results. +# Repeat the same pipeline consisting of a `OneHotEncoder` with +# `drop="if_binary"` for the "Sex" column, a `StandardScaler` for the other +# columns. The final estimator should be `KMeans` with `n_clusters=6`. You can +# set the `random_state` for reproducibility, but that should not change the +# interpretation of the results. # %% # solution diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py index b3027742e..de5e49911 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py @@ -122,7 +122,6 @@ # ARI ranges from -1 (worse than random clustering) to 1 (perfect clustering), # with 0 indicating a model that assigns cluster labels at random: this metric # is therefore "adjusted for chance", which is not the case for V-measure. -# # Both V-measure and ARI follow a "higher is better" convention. # # Read more in the User Guide for From 89110ea161f7e924c05804e6c6fbfcd3731e2c2e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2025 03:37:19 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 41/79] Add second quiz on clustering --- .../clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md | 6 +-- .../clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_02.md | 45 +++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 48 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) create mode 100644 jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_02.md diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md index 1af78cc02..c3e35031b 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -# ✅ Quiz M6.01 +# ✅ Quiz M4.01 ```{admonition} Question Imagine you work for a music streaming platform that hosts a vast library of @@ -28,8 +28,8 @@ _Select all answers that apply_ The plots below show the cluster labels as found by K-means with 3 clusters, only differing in the scaling step. Based on this, which conclusions can be obtained? -![K-means not scaled](../../figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_not_scaled.svg) -![K-means scaled](../../figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_scaled.svg) +![K-means not scaled](../../figures/evaluation_quiz_kmeans_not_scaled.svg) +![K-means scaled](../../figures/evaluation_quiz_kmeans_scaled.svg) - a) without scaling, cluster assignment is dominated by the feature in the vertical axis - b) without scaling, cluster assignment is dominated by the feature in the horizontal axis diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_02.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_02.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3234e607d --- /dev/null +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_02.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +# ✅ Quiz M4.02 + +```{admonition} Question +If we increase `min_cluster_size` in HDBSCAN, what happens to the number of +points labeled as noise? + +- a) it decreases +- b) it increases +- c) it stays the same +- d) HDBSCAN fails to converge + +_Select a single answer_ + +``` + ++++ + +```{admonition} Question +What happens to k-means centroids in the presence of outliers? + +- a) they move towards the outliers +- b) they are not sensitive to outliers +- c) if a centroid is initialized on an outlier, it may remain isolated in + subsequent iterations + +_Select all answers that apply_ + +``` + ++++ + +```{admonition} Question +A `KMeans` instance with `n_clusters=10` is used to transform the latitude and +longitude in a supervised learning pipeline. Provided the original dataset consists of +`n_features`, including those two, how many features are passed to +the final estimator of the pipeline? + +- a) `n_features` + 10 +- b) `n_features` + 8 +- c) `n_features` - 2 +- d) `n_features` + +_Select a single answer_ + +``` From d4b975e316eb0ef3b4400b6d7cb4dcbc52f095a7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Arturo Amor <86408019+ArturoAmorQ@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2025 16:24:53 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 42/79] Apply suggestions from code review Co-authored-by: Olivier Grisel --- .../clustering/clustering_module_intro.md | 34 +++++++++---------- .../clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md | 6 ++-- 2 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-) diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_intro.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_intro.md index 5fdae2228..773861a9f 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_intro.md +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_intro.md @@ -4,18 +4,18 @@ -In the previous module, we introduced the need for hyperparameter tuning. -To support this, we emphasized the role of a separate **validation set** for -selecting the best hyperparameters, and the use of **nested cross-validation** -to more reliably estimate their generalization performance and stability. - -In this module we present KMeans clustering, including aspects like cluster -stability and evaluation metrics such as silhouette score and inertia. -We also introduce supervised clustering metrics that leverage annotated data to -assess clustering quality. - -Finally, we discuss what to do when the assumptions of KMeans do not hold, such -as using HDBSCAN for non-convex clusters, and show how KMeans can still be +In the previous modules, we introduced the development, tuning and evaluation +of **supervised** machine learning models and pipelines. + +In this module we present an **unsupervised** learning task, namely clustering. +In particular, we will focus on the k-means algorithm, and consider how to +evaluate such models via concepts such as cluster stability and evaluation +metrics such as silhouette score and inertia. We also introduce supervised +clustering metrics that leverage annotated data to assess clustering +quality. + +Finally, we discuss what to do when the assumptions of k-means do not hold, such +as using HDBSCAN for non-convex clusters, and show how k-means can still be useful as a feature engineering step in a supervised learning pipeline, by using distances to centroids. @@ -39,15 +39,15 @@ The required technical skills to carry on this module are: The objective in the module are the following: -- apply k-means clustering and assess its behavior across different settings +- apply k-means clustering and assess its behavior across different settings; - evaluate cluster quality using unsupervised metrics such as silhouette score - and WCSS (also known as inertia) + and WCSS (also known as inertia); - interpret and compute supervised clustering metrics (e.g., AMI, ARI, - V-measure) when ground truth labels are available + V-measure) when ground truth labels are available; - understand the limitations of k-means and identify cases where its assumptions - (e.g., convex, isotropic clusters) do not hold + (e.g., convex, isotropic clusters) do not hold; - use HDBSCAN as an alternative clustering method suited for irregular or - non-convex cluster shapes + non-convex cluster shapes; - integrate k-means into a supervised learning pipeline by using distances to centroids as features. diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md index afd1494ab..d2a4423c1 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md @@ -5,11 +5,11 @@ In this module, we presented the framework used in unsupervised learning with -clustering, focusing on KMeans and how to evaluate its results using both -internal and supervised metrics. +clustering, focusing on k-means and how to evaluate its results using both +unsupervised and supervised metrics. We explored the concept of cluster stability, addressed the limitations of -KMeans when clusters are not convex, and introduced HDBSCAN as an alternative. +k-means when clusters are not convex, and introduced HDBSCAN as an alternative. Finally, we showed how clustering can be integrated into supervised pipelines through feature engineering. From b016d8b41db1b735be9ef60e8dcff76e51f8618b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Arturo Amor <86408019+ArturoAmorQ@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2025 16:53:38 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 43/79] Update jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md Co-authored-by: Olivier Grisel --- jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md index d2a4423c1..374fa735b 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_module_take_away.md @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ We explored the concept of cluster stability, addressed the limitations of k-means when clusters are not convex, and introduced HDBSCAN as an alternative. Finally, we showed how clustering can be integrated into supervised pipelines -through feature engineering. +to perform unsupervised feature engineering. ## To go further From a72be00576f2347147888f4c908b72c160edae76 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2025 17:05:03 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 44/79] Synchronize quizzes from review --- .../clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md | 42 +++++++++---------- .../clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_02.md | 16 +++---- 2 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 29 deletions(-) diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md index c3e35031b..71411e377 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md @@ -25,11 +25,11 @@ _Select all answers that apply_ +++ ```{admonition} Question -The plots below show the cluster labels as found by K-means with 3 clusters, only +The plots below show the cluster labels as found by k-means with 3 clusters, only differing in the scaling step. Based on this, which conclusions can be obtained? -![K-means not scaled](../../figures/evaluation_quiz_kmeans_not_scaled.svg) -![K-means scaled](../../figures/evaluation_quiz_kmeans_scaled.svg) +![K-means on original features](../../figures/evaluation_quiz_kmeans_not_scaled.svg) +![K-means on scaled features](../../figures/evaluation_quiz_kmeans_scaled.svg) - a) without scaling, cluster assignment is dominated by the feature in the vertical axis - b) without scaling, cluster assignment is dominated by the feature in the horizontal axis @@ -42,16 +42,15 @@ _Select a single answer_ ```{admonition} Question Which of the following statements correctly describe factors that affect the -stability of K-Means clustering across different resamplings of the data? +stability of k-means clustering across different resampling iterations of the data? -- a) K-Means can produce different results on resampled datasets due to - sensitivity to initialization +- a) K-means can produce different results on resampled datasets due to + sensitivity to initialization. - b) If data is unevenly distributed, the stability improves when increasing the - parameter `n_init` in the "k-means++" initialization -- c) Stability across resamplings of the data is guaranteed after feature - scaling -- d) Increasing the number of clusters typically reduces the variability of - results across resamples + parameter `n_init` in the "k-means++" initialization. +- c) Stability under resampling is guaranteed after feature scaling. +- d) Increasing the number of clusters always reduces the variability of + results across resamples. _Select all answers that apply_ ``` @@ -60,13 +59,14 @@ _Select all answers that apply_ ```{admonition} Question Which of the following statements correctly describe how WCSS (within-cluster -sum of squares, or inertia) behaves in K-means clustering? +sum of squares, or inertia) behaves in k-means clustering? -- a) For a fixed number of clusters, WCSS is lower when clusters are compact -- b) For a fixed number of clusters, WCSS is lower for larger clusters +- a) For a fixed number of clusters, WCSS is lower when clusters are compact. +- b) For a fixed number of clusters, WCSS is lower for wider clusters. - c) For a fixed number of clusters, lower WCSS implies lower computational cost - during training -- d) WCSS always decreases as the number of clusters increases + during training. +- d) Assuming `n_init` is large enough to ensure convergence, WCSS always + decreases as the number of clusters increases. _Select all answers that apply_ ``` @@ -78,12 +78,12 @@ Which of the following statements correctly describe differences between supervised and unsupervised clustering metrics? - a) Supervised clustering metrics such as ARI and AMI require access to ground - truth labels to evaluate clustering performance + truth labels to evaluate clustering performance. - b) WCSS and the silhouette score evaluate internal cluster structure without - needing reference labels -- c) V-measure is zero when labels are assigned completely at random -- d) Supervised clustering metrics are not useful if the number of clusters do - not match the number of predefined classes + needing reference labels. +- c) V-measure is zero when labels are assigned completely at random. +- d) Supervised clustering metrics are not useful if the number of clusters does + not match the number of predefined classes. _Select all answers that apply_ ``` diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_02.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_02.md index 3234e607d..20edb0115 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_02.md +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_02.md @@ -4,10 +4,10 @@ If we increase `min_cluster_size` in HDBSCAN, what happens to the number of points labeled as noise? -- a) it decreases -- b) it increases -- c) it stays the same -- d) HDBSCAN fails to converge +- a) It decreases. +- b) It increases. +- c) It stays the same. +- d) HDBSCAN fails to converge. _Select a single answer_ @@ -18,10 +18,10 @@ _Select a single answer_ ```{admonition} Question What happens to k-means centroids in the presence of outliers? -- a) they move towards the outliers -- b) they are not sensitive to outliers -- c) if a centroid is initialized on an outlier, it may remain isolated in - subsequent iterations +- a) They move towards the outliers assigned to their cluster. +- b) They are not sensitive to outliers. +- c) If a centroid is initialized on an outlier, it may remain isolated in + subsequent iterations. _Select all answers that apply_ From aff2dbaa327efc97fc73abca75739d593bd1a0d0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2025 19:42:48 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 45/79] Synchronize notebooks --- notebooks/clustering_ex_01.ipynb | 78 +++-- notebooks/clustering_ex_02.ipynb | 26 +- notebooks/clustering_hdbscan.ipynb | 243 +++++++++++---- notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb | 20 +- notebooks/clustering_sol_01.ipynb | 175 ++++++----- notebooks/clustering_sol_02.ipynb | 42 +-- notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb | 288 ++++++++++-------- notebooks/clustering_transformer.ipynb | 141 +++++---- 8 files changed, 619 insertions(+), 394 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_ex_01.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_ex_01.ipynb index 8096d6589..64a65e233 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_ex_01.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_ex_01.ipynb @@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "We can explore the data using a seborn `pairplot`." + "We can explore the data using a seaborn `pairplot`." ] }, { @@ -73,24 +73,25 @@ ] }, { - "cell_type": "code", - "execution_count": null, + "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, - "outputs": [], "source": [ - "# Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step\n", - "# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` of `KMeans` for\n", - "# reproducibility. Then, make a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters`\n", - "# varying from 1 to 10. You can use the following helper function for such\n", - "# purpose:" + "Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step\n", + "as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` of `KMeans` for\n", + "reproducibility. Then, make a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters`\n", + "varying from 1 to 10. You can use the following helper function for such\n", + "purpose:" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": null, - "metadata": {}, + "metadata": { + "lines_to_next_cell": 2 + }, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", "from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score\n", "\n", "\n", @@ -156,19 +157,21 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "Let's check if the best choice of n_clusters remains stable when resampling\n", - "the dataset. For such purpose:\n", - "- Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the effect of\n", - " data resampling.\n", - "- Generate resamplings consisting of 50% of the data by using\n", - " `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state`\n", - " to do the split leads to different resamplings.\n", + "Let's see if we can find one or more stable candidates for `n_clusters` using\n", + "the elbow method when resampling the dataset. For such purpose:\n", + "- Generate randomly resampled data consisting of 50% of the data by using\n", + " `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state` to do\n", + " the split leads to different samples.\n", "- Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make\n", " multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different\n", - " resampling. 10 resamplings should be enough to draw conclusions.\n", + " resampling. 10 resampling iterations should be enough to draw conclusions.\n", + "- You can choose to set the `random_state` value of the `KMeans` step, but be\n", + " aware that even if we fix `random_state=0` in all resampling iterations,\n", + " k-means will still choose different initial centroids for different data\n", + " samples, so fixing it or not should not change the conclusions w.r.t. to\n", + " stability to resampling.\n", "\n", - "Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable across all different\n", - "resamplings?" + "Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable when resampling?" ] }, { @@ -185,7 +188,7 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "By default, `KMeans` uses a smart selection of the initial centroids called\n", - "\"k-means++\". Instead of picking points completly at random, it tries several\n", + "\"k-means++\". Instead of picking points completely at random, it tries several\n", "candidate centroids at each step and picks the best ones based on an\n", "estimation of how much they would help reduce the overall inertia. This method\n", "improves the chances of finding better cluster centroids and speeds up\n", @@ -199,9 +202,9 @@ "data is unevenly distributed) where increasing `n_init` may help ensuring a\n", "global minimal inertia.\n", "\n", - "Repeat the previous example but setting `n_init=5`. Remeber to fix the\n", + "Repeat the previous example but setting `n_init=5`. Remember to fix the\n", "`random_state` for the `KMeans` initialization to only estimate the\n", - "variability related to resamplings of the data. Are the resulting inertia\n", + "variability related to the resampling of the data. Are the resulting inertia\n", "curves more stable?" ] }, @@ -237,11 +240,19 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ + "\n", "Once again repeat the experiment to determine the stability of the optimal\n", "number of clusters. This time, instead of using a `StandardScaler`, use a\n", - "`QuantileTransformer` with default parameters as the preprocessing step in the\n", - "pipeline. For the `KMeans` step, keep `n_init=5` and a fixed `random_state`.\n", - "What happens in terms of silhouette score?" + "`QuantileTransformer` with default parameters as the preprocessing step in\n", + "the pipeline. Contrary to `StandardScaler`, `QuantileTransformer` is a\n", + "nonlinear transformation that maps the features with a long tail\n", + "distributions to a uniform distribution, which is the case for the\n", + "\"frequency\" and \"monetary\" features in the RFM dataset.\n", + "\n", + "For the `KMeans` step, keep `n_init=5`.\n", + "\n", + "What happens in terms of silhouette score? Does this make it possible to\n", + "identify stable and qualitatively interesting clusters in this data?" ] }, { @@ -250,20 +261,7 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "from sklearn.preprocessing import QuantileTransformer\n", - "\n", - "model = make_pipeline(QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0))\n", - "for random_state in range(1, 11):\n", - " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", - " data, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state\n", - " )\n", - " plot_n_clusters_scores(\n", - " model,\n", - " data_subsample,\n", - " score_type=\"silhouette\",\n", - " alpha=0.2,\n", - " title=\"Stability of silhouette score\\nwith n_init=5 and QuantileTransformer\",\n", - " )" + "# Write your code here." ] } ], diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_ex_02.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_ex_02.ipynb index 7297b51e3..bf5b9b5e6 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_ex_02.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_ex_02.ipynb @@ -48,10 +48,11 @@ "dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex (2 clusters\n", "for each species).\n", "\n", - "Repeat the same pipeline consisting of a `OneHotEncoder` for the \"Sex\" column,\n", - "a `StandardScaler` for the other columns. The final estimator should be\n", - "`KMeans` with `n_clusters=6`. You can set the `random_state` for\n", - "reproducibility, but that should not change the interpretation of the results." + "Repeat the same pipeline consisting of a `OneHotEncoder` with\n", + "`drop=\"if_binary\"` for the \"Sex\" column, a `StandardScaler` for the other\n", + "columns. The final estimator should be `KMeans` with `n_clusters=6`. You can\n", + "set the `random_state` for reproducibility, but that should not change the\n", + "interpretation of the results." ] }, { @@ -112,9 +113,11 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "Now use a `sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder` to `fit_transform` the \"true\"\n", - "labels (coming from combinations of species and sex). What would be the accuracy\n", - "if we tried to use it to measure the agreement between both sets of labels?" + "Now use a\n", + "[`sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder`](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/generated/sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder.html)\n", + "to `fit_transform` the \"true\" labels (coming from combinations of species and\n", + "sex). What would be the accuracy if we tried to use it to measure the\n", + "agreement between both sets of labels?" ] }, { @@ -123,14 +126,7 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "from sklearn.preprocessing import LabelEncoder\n", - "from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score\n", - "\n", - "true_labels = LabelEncoder().fit_transform(species_and_sex_labels)\n", - "\n", - "cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(penguins)\n", - "acc = accuracy_score(true_labels, cluster_labels)\n", - "print(f\"Accuracy: {acc:.3f}\")" + "# Write your code here." ] }, { diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_hdbscan.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_hdbscan.ipynb index f9b8e3cb9..0411e09ba 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_hdbscan.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_hdbscan.ipynb @@ -9,27 +9,39 @@ "We have previously mentioned that k-means consists of minimizing the samples\n", "euclidean distances to their assigned centroid. As a consequence, k-means is\n", "more appropriate for clusters that are isotropic and normally distributed\n", - "(look like blobs). In this notebook we introduce another clustering technique\n", - "named HDBSCAN, an acronym which stands for \"Hierarchical Density-Based Spatial\n", - "Clustering of Applications with Noise\".\n", - "\n", - "Let's explain each of those tearms. HDBSCAN is hierarchical, which means it\n", - "handles data with clusters nested within each other. The user can decide at\n", - "what level of the hierarchy want to cut off the clusters.\n", - "\n", - "It is density-based (and therefore non-parametric, contrary to K-means)\n", - "because it does not assume a specific shape or number of clusters. Instead, it\n", - "automatically finds the clusters based on areas where data points are densely\n", - "packed together. In other words, it looks for regions of high density (many\n", - "data points close to each other) and forms clusters around them. This allows\n", - "it to find clusters of varying shapes and sizes.\n", - "\n", - "HDBSCAN assigns a label of -1 to points that do not have enough neighbors (low\n", - "density) to be considered part of a cluster or are too far from any dense\n", - "region (too isolated from core points). They are usually considered to be\n", - "noise.\n", - "\n", - "Let's first illustrate those concepts with a toy dataset." + "(look like spherical blobs). When this assumption is not met, k-means can\n", + "lead to unstable clustering results that do not qualitatively match the\n", + "cluster we seek. On possible way is to use a more general variant of k-means\n", + "named Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM), which allows for elongated clusters with\n", + "strong correlation between features as explained in [this tutorial of the\n", + "scikit-learn\n", + "documentation](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/cluster/plot_kmeans_assumptions.html).\n", + "However, GMM still assumes that clusters are convex, which is not always the\n", + "case in practice.\n", + "\n", + "In this notebook we introduce another clustering technique named HDBSCAN, an\n", + "acronym which stands for \"Hierarchical Density-Based Spatial Clustering of\n", + "Applications with Noise\" which further allows for non-convex clusters.\n", + "\n", + "Let's explain each of those terms. HDBSCAN is hierarchical, which means it\n", + "handles data with clusters nested within each other. The user controls the\n", + "level in the hierarchy at which clusters are formed.\n", + "\n", + "It is non-parametric, density-based method that does not assume a specific\n", + "shape or number of clusters. Instead, it automatically finds the clusters\n", + "based on areas where data points are densely packed together. In other words,\n", + "it looks for regions of high density (many data points close to each other)\n", + "and forms clusters around them. This allows it to find clusters of varying\n", + "shapes and sizes.\n", + "\n", + "HDBSCAN assigns a label of -1 to points that do not have enough neighbors\n", + "(low density) to be considered part of a cluster or are too far from any\n", + "dense region (too isolated from core points). They are usually considered to\n", + "be noise.\n", + "\n", + "Let's first illustrate those concepts with a toy dataset generated using the\n", + "code below. You do not need to understand the details of the data generation\n", + "process, and instead pay attention to the resulting scatter plot." ] }, { @@ -99,6 +111,13 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ + "\n", + "You can observe that the dataset contains:\n", + "- four Gaussian blobs with different sizes and densities, some of which\n", + " are elongated and other more spherical;\n", + "- two non-convex clusters with wavy shapes;\n", + "- a background noise of points uniformly distributed in the feature space.\n", + "\n", "Let's first try to find a cluster structure using K-means with 6 clusters to\n", "match our data generating process." ] @@ -137,15 +156,36 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "However, we can observe that too many cluster divides the high density region\n", - "too much, while it continues grouping unrelated points together. Therefore,\n", - "adjusting the number of clusters is not enough to get good results in this\n", - "kind of data.\n", + "However, we can observe this cluster assignment divides the high density regions\n", + "while also grouping unrelated points together. Furthermore, the background\n", + "noise data points are always assigned to the nearest centroids and thus\n", + "treated as cluster members. Therefore, adjusting the number of clusters is\n", + "not enough to get good results in this kind of data.\n", + "\n", + "We can compute the silhouette score for this number of clusters and keep it\n", + "in mind for the moment." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score\n", "\n", + "kmeans_score = silhouette_score(X_all, cluster_labels)\n", + "print(f\"Silhouette score for k-means clusters: {kmeans_score:.3f}\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ "Let's now repeat the experiment using HDBSCAN instead. For this clustering\n", "technique, the most important hyperparameter is `min_cluster_size`, which\n", "controls the minimum number of samples for a group to be considered a cluster;\n", - "groupings smaller than this size will be left as noise." + "groupings smaller than this size are considered as noise." ] }, { @@ -164,6 +204,61 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ + "The clusters found using HDBSCAN better match our intuition of how data points\n", + "should be grouped. We can compute the corresponding silhouette score:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "hdbscan_score = silhouette_score(X_all, cluster_labels)\n", + "print(f\"Silhouette score for HDBSCAN clusters: {hdbscan_score:.3f}\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Notice that this score is lower than the score using k-means, even if HDBSCAN\n", + "seems to do a better job when grouping the data points. The reason here is\n", + "that points considered as noise (labeled with `-1` by HDBSCAN) do not follow a\n", + "cluster-like structure. We can test that hypothesis as follows:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "mask = cluster_labels != -1 # mask is TRUE for entries that are NOT -1\n", + "cluster_labels_filtered = cluster_labels[mask]\n", + "X_all_filtered = X_all[mask]\n", + "\n", + "hdbscan_score = silhouette_score(X_all_filtered, cluster_labels_filtered)\n", + "print(\n", + " f\"Silhouette score for HDBSCAN clusters without noise: {hdbscan_score:.3f}\"\n", + ")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "In this case we do obtain a better silhouette score, but in general we **do\n", + "not** suggest dropping samples labeled as noise.\n", + "\n", + "Also, keep in mind that HDBSCAN does not optimize intra- or inter-cluster\n", + "distances, which are the basis of the silhouette score. It is then more\n", + "appropriate to use the silhouette score when clusters are compact and roughly\n", + "convex. Otherwise, if the clusters are elongated, wavy, or even wrap around\n", + "other clusters, comparing average distances becomes less meaningful.\n", + "\n", + "## Clustering of geospatial data\n", + "\n", "Let's now apply HDBSCAN to a more realistic use-case: the geospatial columns\n", "of the California Housing Dataset." ] @@ -176,7 +271,8 @@ "source": [ "from sklearn.datasets import fetch_california_housing\n", "\n", - "data, target = fetch_california_housing(return_X_y=True, as_frame=True)" + "data, target = fetch_california_housing(return_X_y=True, as_frame=True)\n", + "target *= 100 # rescale the target in k$" ] }, { @@ -196,14 +292,15 @@ "import plotly.express as px\n", "\n", "\n", - "def plot_map(df, color_feature):\n", - " fig = px.scatter_mapbox(\n", + "def plot_map(df, color_feature, colorbar_label=\"cluster label\"):\n", + " fig = px.scatter_map(\n", " df,\n", " lat=\"Latitude\",\n", " lon=\"Longitude\",\n", " color=color_feature,\n", " zoom=5,\n", " height=600,\n", + " labels={\"color\": colorbar_label},\n", " )\n", " fig.update_layout(\n", " mapbox_style=\"open-street-map\",\n", @@ -213,18 +310,22 @@ " },\n", " margin={\"r\": 0, \"t\": 0, \"l\": 0, \"b\": 0},\n", " )\n", - " return fig\n", + " return fig.show(renderer=\"notebook\")\n", "\n", "\n", - "fig = plot_map(data, target)\n", - "fig" + "fig = plot_map(data, target, colorbar_label=\"price (k$)\")" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "We can first use K-means to group data points into different spatial regions." + "\n", + "We can try to use K-means to group data points into different spatial regions\n", + "(irrespective of the housing prices) and visualize the results on a map.\n", + "\n", + "Note that the Geospatial columns are `Latitude` and `Longitude` are already\n", + "on the same scale so there is no need to standardize them before clustering." ] }, { @@ -233,18 +334,14 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", - "from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler\n", "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", "\n", "geo_columns = [\"Latitude\", \"Longitude\"]\n", "geo_data = data[geo_columns]\n", "\n", - "kmeans_pipeline = make_pipeline(\n", - " StandardScaler(), KMeans(n_clusters=20, random_state=0)\n", - ")\n", + "kmeans = KMeans(n_clusters=20, random_state=0)\n", "\n", - "cluster_labels = kmeans_pipeline.fit_predict(geo_data)\n", + "cluster_labels = kmeans.fit_predict(geo_data)\n", "cluster_labels" ] }, @@ -254,16 +351,15 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype(\"str\"))\n", - "fig" + "fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype(\"str\"))" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "We can observe that results are really influenced by the K-means that favors\n", - "\"blobby\"-shaped clusters. Let's try again with HDBSCAN which should not suffer\n", + "We can observe that results are really influenced by the fact that K-means favors\n", + "spherical-shaped clusters. Let's try again with HDBSCAN which should not suffer\n", "from the same bias." ] }, @@ -275,9 +371,9 @@ "source": [ "from sklearn.cluster import HDBSCAN\n", "\n", - "hdbscan_pipeline = make_pipeline(HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=100))\n", + "hdbscan = HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=100)\n", "\n", - "cluster_labels = hdbscan_pipeline.fit_predict(geo_data)\n", + "cluster_labels = hdbscan.fit_predict(geo_data)\n", "cluster_labels" ] }, @@ -287,15 +383,14 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype(\"str\"))\n", - "fig" + "fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype(\"str\"))" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "HDBSCAN automatically detect highly populated areas that match urban centers,\n", + "HDBSCAN automatically detects highly populated areas that match urban centers,\n", "potentially increasing the housing prices. In addition we observe that points\n", "lying in low density regions are labeled `-1` instead of being forced into a\n", "cluster.\n", @@ -310,14 +405,25 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "len(np.unique(cluster_labels))" + "print(f\"Number of clusters: {len(np.unique(cluster_labels))}\")" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "Decreasing `min_cluster_size` will increase the number of clusters:" + "Decreasing `min_cluster_size` increases the number of clusters:" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "hdbscan = HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=30)\n", + "cluster_labels = hdbscan.fit_predict(geo_data)\n", + "fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype(\"str\"))" ] }, { @@ -326,10 +432,17 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "hdbscan_pipeline = make_pipeline(HDBSCAN(min_cluster_size=30))\n", - "cluster_labels = hdbscan_pipeline.fit_predict(geo_data)\n", - "fig = plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype(\"str\"))\n", - "fig" + "print(f\"Number of clusters: {len(np.unique(cluster_labels))}\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We previously mentioned that the user can control the level in the hierarchy\n", + "at which clusters are formed. This can be done without retraining the model by\n", + "using the `dbscan_clustering` method, and is an indirect way to control the\n", + "number of clusters:" ] }, { @@ -338,7 +451,27 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "len(np.unique(cluster_labels))" + "for cut_distance in [0.1, 0.3, 0.5]:\n", + " cluster_labels = hdbscan.dbscan_clustering(\n", + " cut_distance=cut_distance, min_cluster_size=30\n", + " )\n", + " plot_map(data, cluster_labels.astype(\"str\"))\n", + " print(f\"Number of clusters: {len(np.unique(cluster_labels))}\")" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "## Concluding remarks\n", + "\n", + "In this notebook we have introduced HDBSCAN, a clustering technique that\n", + "allows for non-convex clusters and does not require the user to specify the\n", + "number of clusters.\n", + "\n", + "Keep in mind however, that despite its flexibility, even HDBSCAN can still\n", + "fail to find relevant clusters in some datasets: sometimes there is no\n", + "meaningful cluster structure in the data." ] } ], diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb index c9e5cd6c8..cfbb2bb39 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_kmeans.ipynb @@ -32,7 +32,6 @@ " \"Species\",\n", "]\n", "penguins = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/penguins.csv\")[columns_to_keep].dropna()\n", - "# penguins = penguins[penguins[\"Sex\"] != \".\"].reset_index(drop=True)\n", "penguins[\"Species\"] = penguins[\"Species\"].str.split(\" \").str[0]\n", "penguins" ] @@ -43,7 +42,7 @@ "source": [ "We know that this datasets contains data about 3 different species of\n", "penguins, but let's not rely on such information for the moment. Instead we\n", - "can addresse the task using clustering. This could be the case, for example,\n", + "can address the task using clustering. This could be the case, for example,\n", "when analyzing newly collected penguin data in the wild where species haven't\n", "yet been identified, or when the goal is to detect natural groupings such as\n", "subpopulations, hybrids, or other variations. It\u2019s also useful as a data\n", @@ -221,13 +220,13 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", - "We confirm then than, in the original units, the distances between data points\n", - "are almost entirely dominated by the \"Body Mass (g)\" feature, which has much\n", - "larger numerical values than the \"Culmen Length (mm)\" feature.\n", + "We thus confirm that, when using in the original units, the distances between\n", + "data points are almost entirely dominated by the \"Body Mass (g)\" feature,\n", + "which has much larger numerical values than the \"Culmen Length (mm)\" feature.\n", "\n", "To mitigate this problem, we can instead define a pipeline to scale the\n", "numerical features before clustering. This way, all features contribute\n", - "equally to the distance calculations." + "similarly to the distance calculations." ] }, { @@ -250,6 +249,15 @@ "lines_to_next_cell": 2 }, "source": [ + "\n", + "Notice that scaling features by their standard deviation using\n", + "`StandardScaler` is just one way to achieve this. Other options include\n", + "`RobustScaler`, `MinMaxScaler`, and several others, which work similarly but\n", + "may behave differently depending on the data. For more details, refer to the\n", + "[preprocessing data](\n", + "https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/preprocessing.html) section in the\n", + "scikit-learn user guide.\n", + "\n", "To avoid repeating the code for plotting, we can define a helper\n", "function as follows:" ] diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_sol_01.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_sol_01.ipynb index e9e4dae85..af1b7034d 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_sol_01.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_sol_01.ipynb @@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "We can explore the data using a seborn `pairplot`." + "We can explore the data using a seaborn `pairplot`." ] }, { @@ -70,17 +70,16 @@ "outputs": [], "source": [ "# solution\n", - "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", "\n", "n_clusters_values = [2, 3, 4]\n", "\n", "for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", - " model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0)\n", + " model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters)\n", " clustered_data = data.copy()\n", " clustered_data[\"cluster label\"] = model.fit_predict(data)\n", - " sns.pairplot(clustered_data, hue=\"cluster label\", palette=\"tab10\")\n", - " plt.title(f\"n_clusters={n_clusters}\")" + " grid = sns.pairplot(clustered_data, hue=\"cluster label\", palette=\"tab10\")\n", + " grid.figure.suptitle(f\"n_clusters={n_clusters}\", y=1.08)" ] }, { @@ -96,16 +95,14 @@ ] }, { - "cell_type": "code", - "execution_count": null, + "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, - "outputs": [], "source": [ - "# Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step\n", - "# as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` of `KMeans` for\n", - "# reproducibility. Then, make a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters`\n", - "# varying from 1 to 10. You can use the following helper function for such\n", - "# purpose:" + "Create a pipeline composed by a `StandardScaler` followed by a `KMeans` step\n", + "as the final predictor. Set the `random_state` of `KMeans` for\n", + "reproducibility. Then, make a plot of the WCSS or inertia for `n_clusters`\n", + "varying from 1 to 10. You can use the following helper function for such\n", + "purpose:" ] }, { @@ -114,6 +111,7 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", "from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score\n", "\n", "\n", @@ -176,7 +174,7 @@ "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler\n", "\n", - "model = make_pipeline(StandardScaler(), KMeans(random_state=0))\n", + "model = make_pipeline(StandardScaler(), KMeans())\n", "model" ] }, @@ -190,23 +188,38 @@ "plot_n_clusters_scores(model, data, score_type=\"inertia\")" ] }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, + "source": [ + "\n", + "The WCSS plot may or may not present a well-defined elbow, depending of the\n", + "random initialization of the centroids in k-means." + ] + }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "Let's check if the best choice of n_clusters remains stable when resampling\n", - "the dataset. For such purpose:\n", - "- Keep a fixed `random_state` for the `KMeans` step to isolate the effect of\n", - " data resampling.\n", - "- Generate resamplings consisting of 50% of the data by using\n", - " `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state`\n", - " to do the split leads to different resamplings.\n", + "Let's see if we can find one or more stable candidates for `n_clusters` using\n", + "the elbow method when resampling the dataset. For such purpose:\n", + "- Generate randomly resampled data consisting of 50% of the data by using\n", + " `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.5`. Changing the `random_state` to do\n", + " the split leads to different samples.\n", "- Use the `plot_n_clusters_scores` function inside a `for` loop to make\n", " multiple overlapping plots of the inertia, each time using a different\n", - " resampling. 10 resamplings should be enough to draw conclusions.\n", + " resampling. 10 resampling iterations should be enough to draw conclusions.\n", + "- You can choose to set the `random_state` value of the `KMeans` step, but be\n", + " aware that even if we fix `random_state=0` in all resampling iterations,\n", + " k-means will still choose different initial centroids for different data\n", + " samples, so fixing it or not should not change the conclusions w.r.t. to\n", + " stability to resampling.\n", "\n", - "Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable across all different\n", - "resamplings?" + "Is the elbow (optimal number of clusters) stable when resampling?" ] }, { @@ -248,7 +261,7 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "By default, `KMeans` uses a smart selection of the initial centroids called\n", - "\"k-means++\". Instead of picking points completly at random, it tries several\n", + "\"k-means++\". Instead of picking points completely at random, it tries several\n", "candidate centroids at each step and picks the best ones based on an\n", "estimation of how much they would help reduce the overall inertia. This method\n", "improves the chances of finding better cluster centroids and speeds up\n", @@ -262,9 +275,9 @@ "data is unevenly distributed) where increasing `n_init` may help ensuring a\n", "global minimal inertia.\n", "\n", - "Repeat the previous example but setting `n_init=5`. Remeber to fix the\n", + "Repeat the previous example but setting `n_init=5`. Remember to fix the\n", "`random_state` for the `KMeans` initialization to only estimate the\n", - "variability related to resamplings of the data. Are the resulting inertia\n", + "variability related to the resampling of the data. Are the resulting inertia\n", "curves more stable?" ] }, @@ -337,7 +350,9 @@ " data_subsample,\n", " score_type=\"silhouette\",\n", " alpha=0.2,\n", - " title=\"Stability of silhouette score\\nwith n_init=5 and StandardScaler\",\n", + " title=(\n", + " \"Stability of silhouette score\\nwith n_init=5 and StandardScaler\"\n", + " ),\n", " )" ] }, @@ -361,11 +376,19 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ + "\n", "Once again repeat the experiment to determine the stability of the optimal\n", "number of clusters. This time, instead of using a `StandardScaler`, use a\n", - "`QuantileTransformer` with default parameters as the preprocessing step in the\n", - "pipeline. For the `KMeans` step, keep `n_init=5` and a fixed `random_state`.\n", - "What happens in terms of silhouette score?" + "`QuantileTransformer` with default parameters as the preprocessing step in\n", + "the pipeline. Contrary to `StandardScaler`, `QuantileTransformer` is a\n", + "nonlinear transformation that maps the features with a long tail\n", + "distributions to a uniform distribution, which is the case for the\n", + "\"frequency\" and \"monetary\" features in the RFM dataset.\n", + "\n", + "For the `KMeans` step, keep `n_init=5`.\n", + "\n", + "What happens in terms of silhouette score? Does this make it possible to\n", + "identify stable and qualitatively interesting clusters in this data?" ] }, { @@ -374,6 +397,7 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "# solution\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import QuantileTransformer\n", "\n", "model = make_pipeline(QuantileTransformer(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0))\n", @@ -386,7 +410,10 @@ " data_subsample,\n", " score_type=\"silhouette\",\n", " alpha=0.2,\n", - " title=\"Stability of silhouette score\\nwith n_init=5 and QuantileTransformer\",\n", + " title=(\n", + " \"Stability of silhouette score\\nwith n_init=5 and\"\n", + " \" QuantileTransformer\"\n", + " ),\n", " )" ] }, @@ -398,15 +425,15 @@ ] }, "source": [ - "The silhouette score is much more stable across resamplings. Moreover, the\n", - "optimal number of clusters seems to be 2, as it provides the highest score,\n", - "indicating that the data points are well-separated and correctly grouped with\n", - "good cohesion. However 4 or 6 clusters may still make sense if the clustering\n", - "has specific use cases or domain relevance.\n", + "\n", + "The silhouette score is a bit more stable under resampling. Moreover, the\n", + "optimal number of clusters seems to be 2, as it provides the highest score.\n", + "However 4 or 6 clusters may still make sense if the clustering has specific\n", + "use cases or domain relevance.\n", "\n", "Notice that you should still be cautious as the relatively low values of the\n", - "silhouette scores suggest that some points may be \"misassigned\". To verify\n", - "this, we can plot the labels when setting `n_clusters=6`." + "silhouette scores suggest that clusters are not well separated or not dense\n", + "enough. To verify this, we can plot the labels when setting `n_clusters=6`." ] }, { @@ -419,11 +446,11 @@ }, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "n_clusters=6\n", + "n_clusters = 6\n", "model = make_pipeline(\n", " QuantileTransformer(),\n", " KMeans(n_init=5, n_clusters=n_clusters, random_state=0),\n", - ")\n", + ").set_output(transform=\"pandas\")\n", "model" ] }, @@ -437,11 +464,13 @@ }, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "clustered_data = data.copy()\n", - "clustered_data[\"cluster label\"] = model.fit_predict(data)\n", + "cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data)\n", "\n", - "sns.pairplot(clustered_data, hue=\"cluster label\", palette=\"tab10\")\n", - "plt.title(f\"n_clusters={n_clusters}\")" + "_ = sns.pairplot(\n", + " model[:-1].transform(data).assign(cluster_labels=cluster_labels),\n", + " hue=\"cluster_labels\",\n", + " palette=\"tab10\",\n", + ")" ] }, { @@ -452,12 +481,9 @@ ] }, "source": [ - "Indeed, \"monetary\" exactly equal to 0 is divided into 2 clusters (the plot in\n", - "the middle of the `pairplot`), whereas it would feel more reasonably to have\n", - "those points form a single cluster.\n", "\n", - "Alternatively, we can plot the labels in the transformed space to better\n", - "observe that some data points seem to be misassigned." + "Since we have 3 dimensions, we can try to visualize the cluster labels using\n", + "a 3D projection directly:" ] }, { @@ -472,21 +498,21 @@ "source": [ "from matplotlib.colors import ListedColormap\n", "\n", - "cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data)\n", - "cmap = ListedColormap(plt.get_cmap(\"tab10\").colors[:n_clusters])\n", - "\n", "fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 8), subplot_kw={\"projection\": \"3d\"})\n", + "ax.view_init(azim=80)\n", + "\n", + "cmap = ListedColormap(plt.get_cmap(\"tab10\").colors[:n_clusters])\n", "scatter = ax.scatter(\n", - " *model[:-1].transform(data).T,\n", + " *model[:-1].transform(data).values.T,\n", " c=cluster_labels,\n", " cmap=cmap,\n", " s=50,\n", " alpha=0.7,\n", ")\n", "ax.set_box_aspect(None, zoom=0.84)\n", - "ax.set_xlabel(\"Transformed Monetary\", labelpad=15)\n", - "ax.set_ylabel(\"Transformed Frequency\", labelpad=15)\n", - "ax.set_zlabel(\"Transformed Recency\", labelpad=15)\n", + "ax.set_xlabel(f\"Transformed {data.columns[0]}\", labelpad=15)\n", + "ax.set_ylabel(f\"Transformed {data.columns[1]}\", labelpad=15)\n", + "ax.set_zlabel(f\"Transformed {data.columns[2]}\", labelpad=15)\n", "ax.set_title(\"Clusters in quantile-transformed space\", y=0.99)\n", "_ = plt.tight_layout()" ] @@ -499,20 +525,27 @@ ] }, "source": [ - "Observe that the clusters at \"transformed monetary\" exactly equal to 0 are\n", - "grouped together with samples with low but non-zero values of \"transformed\n", - "monetary\", that would belong more naturally to other clusters.\n", - "\n", - "What happens here is that data points at \"transformed monetary\" equal to 0 are\n", - "not isotropic in the 3 dimensions, i.e. they are spread on a plane of\n", - "\"transformed recency\" and \"transformed frequency\" ranging from 0 to 1.\n", - "Remember that k-means consists of minimizing each point's euclidean distance\n", - "to its assigned centroid. As a consequence, k-means is more appropriate for\n", - "clusters that are isotropic and normally distributed, in other words, that\n", - "group around a center.\n", - "\n", - "We will learn more about how to deal with anisotropic clusters in a future\n", - "notebook." + "\n", + "The general impression from this study is that k-means fails to find\n", + "well-separated clusters in this dataset regardless of the preprocessing\n", + "method used.\n", + "\n", + "We can observe that the quantile-transformed data has a structure of layered\n", + "planes because of the discrete integer levels for the lowest values of the\n", + "\"Frequency\" feature which are overrepresented in the dataset.\n", + "\n", + "One could try more advanced kinds of preprocessing, or even, clustering\n", + "algorithms that favor different kinds of shapes, however, by looking at the\n", + "pairplot above we can draw the following conclusions:\n", + "- The discrete layers visible for the lowest values of the \"frequency\"\n", + " feature are not that interesting to treat as clusters by themselves because\n", + " they do not relate to visible structure involving the other two features;\n", + "- If we ignore the \"frequency\" feature, we can observe no significant cluster\n", + " structure in the \"recency\" and \"monetary\" 2D space.\n", + "\n", + "In conclusion, the data does not have a clear cluster structure, and this\n", + "explains why we could not find strong and stable values for the silhouette\n", + "score under resampling." ] } ], diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_sol_02.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_sol_02.ipynb index aabfdbb04..e906ee82d 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_sol_02.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_sol_02.ipynb @@ -48,10 +48,11 @@ "dataset (Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) further splitted by Sex (2 clusters\n", "for each species).\n", "\n", - "Repeat the same pipeline consisting of a `OneHotEncoder` for the \"Sex\" column,\n", - "a `StandardScaler` for the other columns. The final estimator should be\n", - "`KMeans` with `n_clusters=6`. You can set the `random_state` for\n", - "reproducibility, but that should not change the interpretation of the results." + "Repeat the same pipeline consisting of a `OneHotEncoder` with\n", + "`drop=\"if_binary\"` for the \"Sex\" column, a `StandardScaler` for the other\n", + "columns. The final estimator should be `KMeans` with `n_clusters=6`. You can\n", + "set the `random_state` for reproducibility, but that should not change the\n", + "interpretation of the results." ] }, { @@ -172,16 +173,21 @@ ] }, "source": [ - "This value is very close to 1.0, which indicates a very strong agreement." + "This value is very close to 1.0, which indicates a very strong agreement.\n", + "This confirms our visual intuition that the 6 clusters found by k-means\n", + "nearly exactly correspond to the species crossed with the sex of the\n", + "penguins." ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "Now use a `sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder` to `fit_transform` the \"true\"\n", - "labels (coming from combinations of species and sex). What would be the accuracy\n", - "if we tried to use it to measure the agreement between both sets of labels?" + "Now use a\n", + "[`sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder`](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/generated/sklearn.preprocessing.LabelEncoder.html)\n", + "to `fit_transform` the \"true\" labels (coming from combinations of species and\n", + "sex). What would be the accuracy if we tried to use it to measure the\n", + "agreement between both sets of labels?" ] }, { @@ -190,6 +196,7 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "# solution\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import LabelEncoder\n", "from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score\n", "\n", @@ -255,10 +262,11 @@ }, "source": [ "AMI stays the same because the cluster structure has not changed, only the\n", - "labels' names.\n", + "labels' names: AMI is invariant to a random permutation of the labels.\n", "\n", - "The accuracy changes because some labels may no longer match the ground truth\n", - "numerically, and some may match just by chance." + "The accuracy changes because it is only meaningful when the ordering of the\n", + "clustering labels have been mapped correctly to ordering the human labels\n", + "which has very little chance of happening when randomly permuting the labels." ] }, { @@ -281,10 +289,10 @@ "outputs": [], "source": [ "# solution\n", - "random_labels = rng.randint(0, len(unique_labels), size=len(species))\n", - "ami_random = adjusted_mutual_info_score(true_labels, random_labels)\n", - "\n", - "print(f\"AMI (random labels): {ami_random:.3f}\")" + "for _ in range(10):\n", + " random_labels = rng.randint(0, len(unique_labels), size=len(species))\n", + " ami_random = adjusted_mutual_info_score(true_labels, random_labels)\n", + " print(f\"AMI (random labels): {ami_random:.3f}\")" ] }, { @@ -295,8 +303,8 @@ ] }, "source": [ - "We observe a value close to zero. Changing the `RandomState` can lead\n", - "to positive or negative values of AMI." + "We observe either positive or negative values but always very close to zero\n", + "depending the particular random labels generated." ] }, { diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb index f463f85da..b37381fbc 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb @@ -7,7 +7,12 @@ "# Clustering performance metrics in the presence of labels\n", "\n", "In this notebook we briefly introduce how to deal with text data. Then we\n", - "introduce the use of supervised metrics to evaluate a clustering model.\n", + "introduce the use of performance metrics to evaluate a clustering model when\n", + "we have access to labeled data. Our goal is to evaluate whether the cluster\n", + "structure favored by k-means on the preprocessed text aligns with the\n", + "editorial categories assigned by BBC News editors.\n", + "\n", + "## Feature engineering for text data\n", "\n", "Previously, we saw how categorical features can be converted into numbers\n", "using techniques like one-hot encoding, where each category is assigned a\n", @@ -33,9 +38,11 @@ " \"The previous phrase is shorter than the first phrase\",\n", "]\n", "vectorizer = CountVectorizer()\n", - "X = vectorizer.fit_transform(docs)\n", + "X_vectorized = vectorizer.fit_transform(docs)\n", "\n", - "pd.DataFrame(X.toarray(), columns=vectorizer.get_feature_names_out())" + "pd.DataFrame(\n", + " X_vectorized.toarray(), columns=vectorizer.get_feature_names_out()\n", + ")" ] }, { @@ -43,13 +50,17 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "Observe in particular that the words \"the\" and \"phrase\" are counted twice in\n", - "the last document (the third row in the dataframe). Readers interested can\n", - "visit the [scikit-learn example on comparing vectorization\n", - "strategies](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_hashing_vs_dict_vectorizer.html).\n", + "the last document (the third row in the dataframe). This preprocessor creates\n", + "as many features as unique words occurring in the data, therefore the\n", + "dimension of the feature space can become very large.\n", + "\n", + "Readers interested can visit the [scikit-learn example on comparing\n", + "vectorization\n", + "strategies](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_hashing_vs_dict_vectorizer.html)\n", + "for more information.\n", "\n", - "Now let's use the BBC News dataset to show how text documents can be cluster\n", - "by topic. The dataset consists of 1,250 samples divided into 5 different\n", - "categories: \"business\", \"entertainment\", \"sport\", \"politics\" and \"tech\"." + "Now let us use the BBC News dataset to show how text documents can be cluster\n", + "by topic." ] }, { @@ -66,17 +77,29 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "We start by trying a model consisting of `StringEncoder`, which vectorizes the\n", - "text while keeping the feature space reasonably small, followed by `KMeans`.\n", + "The dataset consists of 1,250 samples divided into 5 different categories:\n", + "\"business\", \"entertainment\", \"sport\", \"politics\" and \"tech\"." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "data[\"category\"].value_counts()" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "We start by preprocessing the text data using `StringEncoder`, that encodes\n", + "text similarly to `CountVectorizer` and then reduces the dimension of the\n", + "feature space while trying to preserve the relative distance between pairs of\n", + "documents.\n", "\n", - "In a previous notebook we increased the default value of `n_init` as in that\n", - "case data turned out to be unevenly distributed. In this case we also set\n", - "`n_init=5` but for a different reason. When working with high-dimensional data\n", - "(i.e. data with a large number of features) such as vectorized text, k-means\n", - "can initialize centroids on extremely isolated data points that can stay their\n", - "own centroids all along. You can see the [example on clustering sparse\n", - "data](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_document_clustering.html#clustering-sparse-data-with-k-means)\n", - "for more information." + "This encoder is well suited to cluster text using `KMeans`." ] }, { @@ -89,42 +112,64 @@ "from sklearn.cluster import KMeans\n", "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", "\n", - "model = make_pipeline(StringEncoder(), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0))\n", - "model" + "model = make_pipeline(StringEncoder(), KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0))\n", + "cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data[\"text\"])\n", + "pd.Series(cluster_labels).value_counts()" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ + "Our pipeline has grouped the documents into 3 clusters, even though the\n", + "dataset contains 5 categories assigned by BBC editors. We chose this on\n", + "purpose, to show that k-means always produces a number of clusters that\n", + "matches the `n_clusters` parameter, regardless of what's in the data.\n", + "\n", + "## Supervised metrics for clustering evaluation\n", + "\n", "Even though clustering is an unsupervised learning method, we have access to\n", "labels for the categories that were assigned by the BBC editors, allowing us\n", - "to evaluate how well the clusters found using our models match these labels.\n", - "While we could turn this into a multiclass classification problem and use\n", - "metrics such as the accuracy, this approach has limitations. For example, an\n", - "article on \"tech for entertainment\" might be assigned to a cluster that\n", - "doesn't perfectly match its original label, even though it shares similarities\n", - "with both \"tech\" and \"entertainment\" articles. This is why we focus on metrics\n", - "that evaluate clustering beyond strict label matching.\n", + "to evaluate how well the cluster labels found by k-means match those human\n", + "assigned labels.\n", + "\n", + "We could try to use classification metrics such as the accuracy. However, the\n", + "integer identifiers of the clustering labels are arbitrarily ordered and\n", + "`n_clusters` does not need to match the number of predefined categories (as\n", + "we just did in the code above). More importantly, we don't assume a\n", + "predefined mapping between cluster labels and editorial categories, and we\n", + "don't need one to quantify their agreement. This is where supervised\n", + "clustering metrics come in.\n", "\n", "In this notebook, we'll use two metrics: V-measure and Adjusted Rand Index\n", - "(ARI). The V-measure addresses overlaps by measuring both homogeneity (how\n", - "pure the clusters are) and completeness (how well each category is grouped\n", - "together). For instance, if an article on \"tech and entertainment\" is placed\n", - "in a cluster mostly about \"entertainment,\" this can still be a reasonable\n", - "result. V-measure ranges from 0 to 1, where 1 indicates perfect clustering\n", - "(both pure and complete), and 0 means the clustering is ineffective.\n", + "(ARI). The V-measure quantifies alignment of the clustering assignment with\n", + "the BBC category assignment used as reference by evaluating two properties:\n", + "- homogeneity: each cluster contains only members of a single category;\n", + "- completeness: all members of a given category are assigned to the same\n", + " cluster.\n", + "\n", + "V-measure ranges from 0 to 1, where 1 indicates perfect match between the\n", + "clustering labels and the reference labels, both in terms of homogeneity and\n", + "completeness.\n", + "\n", + "The Adjusted Rand Index (ARI) also measures the similarity between the\n", + "predicted clusters and editor-assigned labels: it compares pairs of articles\n", + "to see whether if they are in the same cluster in both the predicted and\n", + "editor-assigned labels. High ARI means that articles from the same category\n", + "are grouped together, and articles from different categories are separated.\n", + "ARI ranges from -1 (worse than random clustering) to 1 (perfect clustering),\n", + "with 0 indicating a model that assigns cluster labels at random: this metric\n", + "is therefore \"adjusted for chance\", which is not the case for V-measure.\n", + "Both V-measure and ARI follow a \"higher is better\" convention.\n", "\n", - "The Adjusted Rand Index (ARI) measures the similarity between the predicted\n", - "clusters and human-assigned labels, adjusting for random labeling. For the BBC\n", - "News dataset, it compares pairs of articles to see if they are in the same\n", - "cluster in both the predicted and human-assigned labels. High ARI means that\n", - "articles from the same category are grouped together, and articles from\n", - "different categories are separated. ARI ranges from -1 (worse than random\n", - "clustering) to 1 (perfect clustering), with 0 indicating a model that assigns\n", - "cluster labels at random. A high ARI value shows good alignment between the\n", - "predicted clusters and the human-assigned labels, while a low ARI suggests\n", - "poor clustering performance." + "Read more in the User Guide for\n", + "[V-measure](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/clustering.html#homogeneity-completeness-and-v-measure)\n", + "and the [Rand\n", + "index](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/clustering.html#rand-index).\n", + "\n", + "Let's use these metrics to evaluate the clustering labels found by k-means\n", + "with different values of `n_clusters` by plotting the validation curves\n", + "for both of them:" ] }, { @@ -133,53 +178,60 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "# import numpy as np\n", "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", "from sklearn.model_selection import ValidationCurveDisplay\n", "from sklearn.model_selection import ShuffleSplit\n", "\n", - "cv = ShuffleSplit(n_splits=5, train_size=0.9, random_state=0)\n", - "\n", + "cv = ShuffleSplit(n_splits=5, train_size=0.75, random_state=0)\n", + "data_encoded = StringEncoder().fit_transform(data[\"text\"])\n", "n_clusters_values = range(2, 11)\n", "scoring_names = {\n", " \"V-measure\": \"v_measure_score\",\n", " \"ARI\": \"adjusted_rand_score\",\n", "}\n", - "fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(6, 4))\n", - "for scoring in scoring_names.values():\n", + "fig, axes = plt.subplots(\n", + " nrows=2, figsize=(6, 8), sharex=True, constrained_layout=True\n", + ")\n", + "for (scoring_name, scoring), ax in zip(scoring_names.items(), axes):\n", " ValidationCurveDisplay.from_estimator(\n", - " model,\n", - " data[\"text\"],\n", + " KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0),\n", + " data_encoded,\n", " data[\"category\"],\n", - " param_name=\"kmeans__n_clusters\",\n", + " param_name=\"n_clusters\",\n", " param_range=n_clusters_values,\n", - " score_type=\"train\",\n", " scoring=scoring,\n", " std_display_style=\"errorbar\",\n", " cv=cv,\n", - " n_jobs=4,\n", " ax=ax,\n", " )\n", - "ax.set(\n", - " ylim=(-0.1, 1.1),\n", - " xlabel=\"Number of components\",\n", - " ylabel=\"Score\",\n", - " title=\"Validation curves for\\nStringEncoder + KMeans\",\n", - ")\n", - "handles, _ = ax.get_legend_handles_labels()\n", - "_ = ax.legend(handles=handles, labels=scoring_names.keys())" + " ax.set(\n", + " ylim=(-0.1, 1.1),\n", + " xlabel=None,\n", + " ylabel=scoring_name,\n", + " )\n", + "ax.set_xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", + "_ = plt.suptitle(\n", + " \"Supervised evaluation of clusters\\nfor varying n_clusters\", y=1.08\n", + ")" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "We observe that both V-measure and ARI reach their maximum when\n", - "`n_clusters=5`, which matches the number of human-assigned categories in the\n", - "dataset. This alignment reflects both good editorial labels (as the categories\n", - "are well-defined and internally consistent) as well as a clustering pipeline\n", - "that can reasonably extract the structure in the data that matches the human\n", - "intuition.\n", + "We observe that both V-measure and ARI are much better than chance. Even more\n", + "they reach their maximum value when `n_clusters=5`. This is not surprising\n", + "because this is the number of human-assigned categories in the dataset and\n", + "both metrics quantify alignment with those labels.\n", + "\n", + "The relatively good metrics values observed for `n_clusters=5` reflects both\n", + "good editorial labels (as the categories are well-defined and internally\n", + "consistent) as well as a clustering pipeline that can reasonably extract the\n", + "structure in the data that matches the human intuition.\n", + "\n", + "Note that the metrics measured on training or validation data are very\n", + "similar, meaning that k-means with small number of clusters is unlikely to\n", + "overfit noise from the training data.\n", "\n", "But the question may arise, if we didn't have access to labels at all, would\n", "the silhouette score also lead us to chose `n_clusters=5`?" @@ -191,85 +243,69 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "import numpy as np\n", "from sklearn.metrics import silhouette_score\n", "from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split\n", "\n", - "n_clusters_values = range(2, 11)\n", - "for random_state in range(1, 6):\n", - " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", - " data[\"text\"], train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", + "n_clusters_values = list(range(2, 11)) + [20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70]\n", + "all_scores = []\n", + "for random_state in range(1, 11):\n", + " data_train, data_test = train_test_split(\n", + " data_encoded, train_size=0.5, random_state=random_state\n", " )\n", " scores = []\n", " for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", - " model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters)\n", - " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data_subsample)\n", - " data_transformed = model[:-1].transform(data_subsample)\n", - " score = silhouette_score(data_transformed, cluster_labels)\n", + " model = KMeans(n_clusters=n_clusters, n_init=5, random_state=0)\n", + " cluster_labels = model.fit(data_train).predict(data_test)\n", + " score = silhouette_score(data_test, cluster_labels)\n", " scores.append(score)\n", "\n", + " all_scores.append(scores)\n", " plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color=\"tab:blue\", alpha=0.2)\n", " plt.xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", " plt.ylabel(\"Silhouette score\")\n", - " _ = plt.title(\"Silhouette score for varying n_clusters\", y=1.01)" + "\n", + "all_scores = np.array(all_scores)\n", + "plt.plot(\n", + " n_clusters_values,\n", + " all_scores.mean(axis=0),\n", + " color=\"black\",\n", + " alpha=1,\n", + " label=\"Mean silhouette score\",\n", + ")\n", + "plt.legend()\n", + "_ = plt.title(\"Silhouette score for varying n_clusters\", y=1.01)" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "The fact that the silhouette score favors larger values for `n_clusters` than\n", - "the supervised metrics we saw before suggests that, in terms of cluster\n", - "tightness and separation, having more clusters leads to better-defined\n", - "clusters. This could be a case where the data contains subclusters or finer\n", - "distinctions within the categories that the algorithm can capture with more\n", - "clusters. Essentially, while there may be 5 high-level categories, the\n", - "subcategories within those 5 groups (such as articles that are very niche\n", - "within \"tech\" or \"politics\") could benefit from additional clusters.\n", "\n", - "To reduce the variability across resamplings, we can normalize the results\n", - "coming from the `StringEncoder`. Here `Normalizer` scales each sample\n", - "individually to have unit length. This ensures that clustering is driven by\n", - "the relative angle of the features coming from the vectorizer, rather than the\n", - "overall size of the vector. If two documents use the same set of dominant\n", - "words, in similar proportions, their vectors end up pointing in roughly the\n", - "same direction, resulting in a small relative angle." - ] - }, - { - "cell_type": "code", - "execution_count": null, - "metadata": {}, - "outputs": [], - "source": [ - "from sklearn.preprocessing import Normalizer\n", + "The silhouette score analysis favors larger values for `n_clusters` (between\n", + "20 and 40) than the 5 categories chosen by the BBC editors.\n", "\n", - "model = make_pipeline(\n", - " StringEncoder(), Normalizer(copy=False), KMeans(n_init=5, random_state=0)\n", - ")\n", + "The finer-grained clusters found by k-means for `n_clusters=30` could\n", + "potentially match sub-clusters of the 5 BBC categories. However, categorizing\n", + "news articles in too fine-grained topics would make the navigation on their\n", + "website too confusing. Therefore for this application, it can be meaningful\n", + "to select a number of clusters that is smaller than the number of clusters\n", + "that maximizes the silhouette score.\n", "\n", - "for random_state in range(1, 6):\n", - " data_subsample, _ = train_test_split(\n", - " data[\"text\"], train_size=0.9, random_state=random_state\n", - " )\n", - " scores = []\n", - " for n_clusters in n_clusters_values:\n", - " model[-1].set_params(n_clusters=n_clusters)\n", - " cluster_labels = model.fit_predict(data_subsample)\n", - " data_transformed = model[:-1].transform(data_subsample)\n", - " score = silhouette_score(data_transformed, cluster_labels)\n", - " scores.append(score)\n", + "We can also, observe that the silhouette curves are not very stable under\n", + "resampling and that the maximum silhouette score is not very high, which\n", + "indicates that the clusters are not very well separated from each other: this\n", + "could be explained by the fact that some documents could meaningfully belong\n", + "to more than one topical category: for instance, a news article about a tech\n", + "company being acquired by another could belong to both \"tech\" and \"business\"\n", + "categories.\n", "\n", - " plt.plot(n_clusters_values, scores, color=\"tab:blue\", alpha=0.2)\n", - " plt.xlabel(\"Number of clusters (n_clusters)\")\n", - " plt.ylabel(\"Silhouette score\")\n", - " _ = plt.title(\"Silhouette score for varying n_clusters\", y=1.01)" - ] - }, - { - "cell_type": "markdown", - "metadata": {}, - "source": [ - "That didn't work as intended." + "Finally, notice that we used supervised information to quantitatively assess\n", + "the quality of the match between the clusters found by k-means and our\n", + "categorization. In practice, this is often impossible, as we do not have\n", + "access to human assigned labels for each row in the data. Or, if we have, we\n", + "might want to use them as the target variable to train a supervised\n", + "classifier instead of training an unsupervised clustering model." ] } ], diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_transformer.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_transformer.ipynb index 6b073a783..b442267a6 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_transformer.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_transformer.ipynb @@ -26,7 +26,8 @@ "source": [ "from sklearn.datasets import fetch_california_housing\n", "\n", - "data, target = fetch_california_housing(return_X_y=True, as_frame=True)" + "data, target = fetch_california_housing(return_X_y=True, as_frame=True)\n", + "target *= 100 # rescale the target in k$" ] }, { @@ -44,38 +45,36 @@ "outputs": [], "source": [ "import pandas as pd\n", - "from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split, cross_validate\n", + "from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split, cross_val_score\n", "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler\n", "from sklearn.linear_model import Ridge\n", - "from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer\n", + "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer\n", "\n", "data_train, data_test, target_train, target_test = train_test_split(\n", " data, target, test_size=0.2, random_state=0\n", ")\n", "geo_columns = [\"Latitude\", \"Longitude\"]\n", "model_drop_geo = make_pipeline(\n", - " ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [\n", - " (\"geo\", \"drop\", geo_columns),\n", - " ],\n", - " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", - " ),\n", + " make_column_transformer((\"drop\", geo_columns), remainder=\"passthrough\"),\n", " StandardScaler(),\n", " Ridge(alpha=1e-12),\n", ")\n", - "cv_results_drop_geo = cross_validate(\n", - " model_drop_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring=\"r2\"\n", + "test_error_drop_geo = -cross_val_score(\n", + " model_drop_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring=\"neg_mean_absolute_error\"\n", ")\n", - "pd.DataFrame(cv_results_drop_geo).describe()" + "print(\n", + " \"The test MAE without geographical features is: \"\n", + " f\"{test_error_drop_geo.mean():.2f} \u00b1 {test_error_drop_geo.std():.2f} k$\"\n", + ")" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "We observe a score of approximately 54% of the variance is explained by the\n", - "non-geographical features.\n", + "We observe a Mean Absolute Error of approximately 57k$ when dropping the\n", + "geographical features.\n", "\n", "As seen in the previous notebook, we suspect that the price information may be\n", "linked to the distance to the nearest urban center, and proximity to the\n", @@ -90,29 +89,24 @@ "source": [ "import plotly.express as px\n", "\n", - "\n", - "def plot_map(df, color_feature):\n", - " fig = px.scatter_mapbox(\n", - " df,\n", - " lat=\"Latitude\",\n", - " lon=\"Longitude\",\n", - " color=color_feature,\n", - " zoom=5,\n", - " height=600,\n", - " )\n", - " fig.update_layout(\n", - " mapbox_style=\"open-street-map\",\n", - " mapbox_center={\n", - " \"lat\": df[\"Latitude\"].mean(),\n", - " \"lon\": df[\"Longitude\"].mean(),\n", - " },\n", - " margin={\"r\": 0, \"t\": 0, \"l\": 0, \"b\": 0},\n", - " )\n", - " return fig\n", - "\n", - "\n", - "fig = plot_map(data, target)\n", - "fig" + "fig = px.scatter_map(\n", + " data,\n", + " lat=\"Latitude\",\n", + " lon=\"Longitude\",\n", + " color=target,\n", + " zoom=5,\n", + " height=600,\n", + " labels={\"color\": \"price (k$)\"},\n", + ")\n", + "fig.update_layout(\n", + " mapbox_style=\"open-street-map\",\n", + " mapbox_center={\n", + " \"lat\": data[\"Latitude\"].mean(),\n", + " \"lon\": data[\"Longitude\"].mean(),\n", + " },\n", + " margin={\"r\": 0, \"t\": 0, \"l\": 0, \"b\": 0},\n", + ")\n", + "fig.show(renderer=\"notebook\")" ] }, { @@ -130,10 +124,16 @@ "outputs": [], "source": [ "model_naive_geo = make_pipeline(StandardScaler(), Ridge(alpha=1e-12))\n", - "cv_results_naive_geo = cross_validate(\n", - " model_naive_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring=\"r2\"\n", + "test_error_naive_geo = -cross_val_score(\n", + " model_naive_geo,\n", + " data_train,\n", + " target_train,\n", + " scoring=\"neg_mean_absolute_error\",\n", ")\n", - "pd.DataFrame(cv_results_naive_geo).describe()" + "print(\n", + " \"The test MAE with raw geographical features is: \"\n", + " f\"{test_error_naive_geo.mean():.2f} \u00b1 {test_error_naive_geo.std():.2f} k$\"\n", + ")" ] }, { @@ -146,11 +146,10 @@ "\n", "We could look for a dataset containing all the coordinates of the city\n", "centers, the coast line and other points of interest in California, then\n", - "manually engineer such features. However this would require a non-tricial\n", - "amount of code. Instead we can rely on the K-means class to achieve something\n", - "similar implicitly: we will configure K-means to find a large number of\n", - "centroids from our housing data directly and consider each centroid a\n", - "potential point of interest.\n", + "manually engineer such features. However this would require a non-trivial\n", + "amount of code. Instead we can rely on K-means to achieve something similar\n", + "implicitly: we use it to find a large number of centroids from the housing\n", + "data directly and consider each centroid a potential point of interest.\n", "\n", "The `KMeans` class implements a `transform` method that, given a set of data\n", "points as an argument, computes the distance to the nearest centroid for each\n", @@ -169,27 +168,34 @@ "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", "\n", "model_cluster_geo = make_pipeline(\n", - " ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [\n", - " (\"geo\", KMeans(n_clusters=100), geo_columns),\n", - " ],\n", + " make_column_transformer(\n", + " (KMeans(n_clusters=100), geo_columns),\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", + " force_int_remainder_cols=False, # Silence a warning in scikit-learn v1.6\n", " ),\n", " StandardScaler(),\n", " Ridge(alpha=1e-12),\n", ")\n", - "cv_results_cluster_geo = cross_validate(\n", - " model_cluster_geo, data_train, target_train, scoring=\"r2\"\n", + "test_error_cluster_geo = -cross_val_score(\n", + " model_cluster_geo,\n", + " data_train,\n", + " target_train,\n", + " scoring=\"neg_mean_absolute_error\",\n", ")\n", - "pd.DataFrame(cv_results_cluster_geo).describe()" + "print(\n", + " \"The test MAE with clustered geographical features is:\"\n", + " f\" {test_error_cluster_geo.mean():.2f} \u00b1\"\n", + " f\" {test_error_cluster_geo.std():.2f} k$\"\n", + ")" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "We can use a grid-search to tune `n_clusters` in this supervised\n", - "pipeline." + "The resulting mean test error is much lower. Furthermore, `KMeans` is now part\n", + "of a supervised pipeline, which means we can use a grid-search to tune\n", + "`n_clusters` as we have learned in previous modules of this course." ] }, { @@ -200,10 +206,10 @@ "source": [ "from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV\n", "\n", - "param_name = \"columntransformer__geo__n_clusters\"\n", + "param_name = \"columntransformer__kmeans__n_clusters\"\n", "param_grid = {param_name: [10, 30, 100, 300, 1_000, 3_000]}\n", "grid_search = GridSearchCV(\n", - " model_cluster_geo, param_grid=param_grid, scoring=\"r2\"\n", + " model_cluster_geo, param_grid=param_grid, scoring=\"neg_mean_absolute_error\"\n", ")\n", "grid_search.fit(data_train, target_train)" ] @@ -224,10 +230,15 @@ " \"param_\" + param_name,\n", "]\n", "grid_search_results = pd.DataFrame(grid_search.cv_results_)[results_columns]\n", - "grid_search_results = grid_search_results.rename(\n", - " columns={\"param_\" + param_name: \"n_clusters\"}\n", - ").round(3)\n", - "grid_search_results.sort_values(\"mean_test_score\", ascending=False)" + "grid_search_results[\"mean_test_error\"] = -grid_search_results[\n", + " \"mean_test_score\"\n", + "]\n", + "grid_search_results = (\n", + " grid_search_results.drop(columns=[\"mean_test_score\"])\n", + " .rename(columns={\"param_\" + param_name: \"n_clusters\"})\n", + " .round(3)\n", + ")\n", + "grid_search_results.sort_values(\"mean_test_error\", ascending=False)" ] }, { @@ -246,12 +257,12 @@ "source": [ "labels = {\n", " \"mean_fit_time\": \"CV fit time (s)\",\n", - " \"mean_test_score\": \"CV score (R2)\",\n", + " \"mean_test_error\": \"CV score (MAE)\",\n", "}\n", "fig = px.scatter(\n", " grid_search_results,\n", " x=\"mean_fit_time\",\n", - " y=\"mean_test_score\",\n", + " y=\"mean_test_error\",\n", " error_x=\"std_fit_time\",\n", " error_y=\"std_test_score\",\n", " hover_data=grid_search_results.columns,\n", @@ -266,7 +277,7 @@ " \"yanchor\": \"top\",\n", " }\n", ")\n", - "fig" + "fig.show(renderer=\"notebook\")" ] }, { @@ -283,8 +294,10 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "best_n_clusters = grid_search.best_params_[param_name]\n", "print(\n", - " f\"Final model test R2 score: {grid_search.score(data_test, target_test):.3f}\"\n", + " f\"The test MAE with {best_n_clusters} clusters is: \"\n", + " f\"{-grid_search.score(data_test, target_test):.3f} k$\"\n", ")" ] }, From 0c161ee9161fb5ea6a344c68d62fd0f616d27c76 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 16:16:08 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 46/79] Add clustering wrap-up quiz --- datasets/periodic_signals.csv | 171 ++++++++++++++++++ .../clustering/clustering_wrap_up_quiz.md | 157 ++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 328 insertions(+) create mode 100644 datasets/periodic_signals.csv create mode 100644 jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_wrap_up_quiz.md diff --git a/datasets/periodic_signals.csv b/datasets/periodic_signals.csv new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9b8b8fe66 --- /dev/null +++ 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diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_wrap_up_quiz.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_wrap_up_quiz.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..64a5b8fb5 --- /dev/null +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_wrap_up_quiz.md @@ -0,0 +1,157 @@ +# 🏁 Wrap-up quiz 4 + +**This quiz requires some programming to be answered.** + +Load the `periodic_signals.csv` dataset with the following cell of code. It +contains readings from 170 industrial sensors installed throughout a +manufacturing facility. Each sensor records the average power consumption (in +watts) every minute for a specific machine, with measurements taken every +minute. Different machines operate with their own characteristic cycles. Rare +events, such as machinery faults or unexpected disturbances, appear as signals +with abnormal frequency patterns. The goal is to identify those disturbances +using the tools we have learned during this module. + +```python +import pandas as pd + +periodic_signals = pd.read_csv("../datasets/periodic_signals.csv") +_ = periodic_signals.iloc[0].plot( + xlabel="time (minutes)", + ylabel="power (Watts)", + title="Signal from the first sensor", +) +``` + +Let's see if we can find one or more stable candidates for the number of +clusters (`n_clusters`) using the silhouette score when resampling the +dataset. For such purpose: +- Create a pipeline consisting of a `RobustScaler` (as it is a good scaling + option when dealing with outliers), followed by `KMeans` with `n_init=5`. +- You can choose to set the `random_state=0` value of the `KMeans` step, but + fixing it or not should not change the conclusions. +- Generate randomly resampled data consisting of 90% of the data by using + `train_test_split` with `train_size=0.9`. Change the `random_state` in the + `train_test_split` to try around 20 different resamplings. You can use the + `plot_n_clusters_scores` function (or a simplified version of it) inside a + `for` loop as we did in a previous exercise. +- In each resampling, compute the silhouette score for `n_clusters` varying in + `range(2, 11)`. + +```{admonition} Question +Using the silhouette score heuristics, select the correct statements: + +- a) 3 or 4 clusters maximize the score and are resonably stable choices. +- b) 5 or 6 clusters maximize the score and are resonably stable choices. +- c) 7 or 8 clusters maximize the score and are resonably stable choices. +- d) Scores in this range of `n_clusters` are always negative, denoting a bad + clustering model. +- e) Scores in this range of `n_clusters` are always positive, but hint to a + weak to moderate cluster cohesion/separation. + +_Select all answers that apply_ +``` + ++++ + +```{admonition} Question +Set `n_clusters=8` in the `KMeans` step of your previous pipeline for the rest +of this quiz. We are going to define an `outlier_score` using the **minimum** +distance to **any** centroid (using the `fit_transform` method of the +pipeline). + +What are the indices of the 5 signals that are the farthest from any centroid? + +- a) [ 77 32 112 105 101] +- b) [ 92 49 101 132 146] +- c) [ 80 49 121 150 101] +- d) [ 64 98 118 163 121] + +_Select a single answer_ + +Hint: You can make use of +[`numpy.min`](https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.min.html) +and +[`numpy.argsort`](https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.argsort.html). +Also, remember that the output of `fit_transform` is a numpy array of shape +`(n_samples, n_clusters)`. +``` + ++++ + +```{admonition} Question +Create an `HDBSCAN` model (no need for scaling) with `min_cluster_size=10`. +How many clusters (excluding the noise label, which is not a cluster) are +found by this model? + +- a) 5 +- b) 6 +- c) 7 +- d) 8 + +_Select a single answer_ +``` + ++++ + +How many signals are identified as noise? + +- a) 3 +- b) 5 +- c) 7 +- d) 9 + +_Select a single answer_ +``` + ++++ {"tags": ["solution"]} + +solution: c) + +The code to count them is the following: + +```python +hdbscan_noise_indices = np.where(hdbscan_labels == -1)[0] +n_noise = len(hdbscan_noise_indices) +print(f"{n_noise} signals are labeled as noise.") +``` + ++++ + +A priori we don't know if the signals are isotropic or follow a gaussian +distribution in the feature space (i.e. if they form spherical blobs). Because +of that, we don't know if a centroid-based or a density-based clustering is +more suitable. We would like to compare the results from both models, but we +know that the presence of outliers makes the silhouette score tricky to +interpret. We can still use other metrics, such as Adjusted Mutual Information +(AMI), to compare both models. + +But first we need k-means to have a similar behavior to HDBSCAN. For such +purpose, we can identify the points that are too far from any centroid as +outliers using the `outlier_score` as defined before. Instead of setting a +fixed distance threshold, we can flag the `n_outliers` signals with the +highest outlier scores as `-1`. + +For such purpose: + +- Cluster your signals with `KMeans` (using `fit_predict`) to get `kmeans_labels`. +- For a range of values of `n_outliers`, re-label the `n_outliers` with highest + `outlier_score` to `-1`. +- Compute and plot the AMI between this modified KMeans labeling and the + HDBSCAN cluster labels as a function of `n_outliers`. + +```{admonition} Question +If we denote by `n_noise` the number of signals identified as noise by +HDBSCAN, select the true statements: + +- a) AMI reaches a maximum when `n_outliers` < `n_noise`, some points marked + as noise by HDBSCAN are not clearly isolated from a centroid. +- b) AMI reaches a maximum when `n_outliers` = `n_noise`, the two models + most strongly agree. +- c) AMI reaches a maximum when `n_outliers` > `n_noise`, k-means has created + small clusters (with fewer than `min_cluster_size` samples) that match what + HDBSCAN considers noise. +- d) AMI is too close to zero, indicating coincidences between models + are mostly random. + +_Select a single answer_ +``` From 54ff951e0484ee38efdffa83699a2bb4a168483e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 17:10:18 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 47/79] Fix bug in wrap-up quiz --- jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_wrap_up_quiz.md | 13 +------------ 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 12 deletions(-) diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_wrap_up_quiz.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_wrap_up_quiz.md index 64a5b8fb5..4c54632c4 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_wrap_up_quiz.md +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_wrap_up_quiz.md @@ -93,6 +93,7 @@ _Select a single answer_ +++ +```{admonition} Question How many signals are identified as noise? - a) 3 @@ -103,18 +104,6 @@ How many signals are identified as noise? _Select a single answer_ ``` -+++ {"tags": ["solution"]} - -solution: c) - -The code to count them is the following: - -```python -hdbscan_noise_indices = np.where(hdbscan_labels == -1)[0] -n_noise = len(hdbscan_noise_indices) -print(f"{n_noise} signals are labeled as noise.") -``` - +++ A priori we don't know if the signals are isotropic or follow a gaussian From 3fa71e9dcbfd3f871da79a65e007ce39d24268bc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 17:47:32 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 48/79] Add wrap-up quiz to toc --- jupyter-book/_toc.yml | 1 + 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) diff --git a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml index 614dea2ea..6bb6a18b8 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml +++ b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml @@ -252,4 +252,5 @@ parts: sections: - file: python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan - file: python_scripts/clustering_transformer + - file: clustering/clustering_wrap_up_quiz - file: clustering/clustering_module_take_away From 5c7b28c356f1f0ce9853451401cb9737e54987bd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2025 11:09:04 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 49/79] Fix a couple of bugs --- jupyter-book/_toc.yml | 1 + jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md | 4 ++-- 2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml index 6bb6a18b8..1b8ec3b06 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/_toc.yml +++ b/jupyter-book/_toc.yml @@ -252,5 +252,6 @@ parts: sections: - file: python_scripts/clustering_hdbscan - file: python_scripts/clustering_transformer + - file: clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_02 - file: clustering/clustering_wrap_up_quiz - file: clustering/clustering_module_take_away diff --git a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md index 71411e377..0f7e749b3 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md +++ b/jupyter-book/clustering/clustering_quiz_m4_01.md @@ -28,8 +28,8 @@ _Select all answers that apply_ The plots below show the cluster labels as found by k-means with 3 clusters, only differing in the scaling step. Based on this, which conclusions can be obtained? -![K-means on original features](../../figures/evaluation_quiz_kmeans_not_scaled.svg) -![K-means on scaled features](../../figures/evaluation_quiz_kmeans_scaled.svg) +![K-means on original features](../../figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_not_scaled.svg) +![K-means on scaled features](../../figures/clustering_quiz_kmeans_scaled.svg) - a) without scaling, cluster assignment is dominated by the feature in the vertical axis - b) without scaling, cluster assignment is dominated by the feature in the horizontal axis From 83fc8946237f2f34d489aaa678bf9eb2200a35da Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Tue, 27 May 2025 14:50:16 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 50/79] Feature branch to update to 1.6 (#813) * Feature branch to update to 1.6 * MNT Fix several FutureWarnings (#810) * MTN Wrap up quiz sklearn 1.6 verification (#817) * MAINT Use class_of_interest in DecisionBoundaryDisplay (#772) * Resync everything --------- Co-authored-by: Arturo Amor <86408019+ArturoAmorQ@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> --- .gitignore | 1 + Makefile | 5 + build_tools/generate-wrap-up.py | 107 ++++++++++++++++++ notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb | 21 +--- notebooks/cross_validation_grouping.ipynb | 7 +- notebooks/datasets_bike_rides.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/ensemble_adaboost.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/ensemble_ex_03.ipynb | 24 +++- notebooks/linear_models_regularization.ipynb | 6 +- notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb | 3 + notebooks/parameter_tuning_nested.ipynb | 1 + .../parameter_tuning_randomized_search.ipynb | 1 + notebooks/trees_ex_01.ipynb | 6 +- notebooks/trees_sol_01.ipynb | 97 +++++++--------- .../01_tabular_data_exploration_ex_01.py | 2 +- python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_ex_00.py | 2 +- python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_ex_01.py | 2 +- .../03_categorical_pipeline_ex_01.py | 2 +- .../03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py | 23 +--- python_scripts/cross_validation_ex_01.py | 2 +- python_scripts/cross_validation_ex_02.py | 2 +- python_scripts/datasets_bike_rides.py | 2 +- python_scripts/ensemble_adaboost.py | 2 +- python_scripts/ensemble_ex_01.py | 2 +- python_scripts/ensemble_ex_02.py | 2 +- python_scripts/ensemble_ex_03.py | 15 ++- python_scripts/ensemble_ex_04.py | 2 +- python_scripts/feature_selection_ex_01.py | 2 +- python_scripts/linear_models_ex_01.py | 2 +- python_scripts/linear_models_ex_02.py | 2 +- python_scripts/linear_models_ex_03.py | 2 +- python_scripts/linear_models_ex_04.py | 2 +- .../linear_models_regularization.py | 6 +- python_scripts/metrics_ex_01.py | 2 +- python_scripts/metrics_ex_02.py | 2 +- python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_02.py | 2 +- python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_03.py | 2 +- .../parameter_tuning_grid_search.py | 3 + python_scripts/parameter_tuning_nested.py | 1 + .../parameter_tuning_randomized_search.py | 1 + python_scripts/trees_ex_01.py | 8 +- python_scripts/trees_ex_02.py | 2 +- python_scripts/trees_sol_01.py | 97 +++++++--------- 43 files changed, 282 insertions(+), 197 deletions(-) create mode 100644 build_tools/generate-wrap-up.py diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore index 4c0d2950f..5c6b71928 100644 --- a/.gitignore +++ b/.gitignore @@ -1,6 +1,7 @@ # exlude datasets and externals notebooks/datasets notebooks/joblib/ +wrap-up/ # jupyter-book jupyter-book/_build diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile index e3fc7ef67..c8013ac45 100644 --- a/Makefile +++ b/Makefile @@ -1,6 +1,7 @@ PYTHON_SCRIPTS_DIR = python_scripts NOTEBOOKS_DIR = notebooks JUPYTER_BOOK_DIR = jupyter-book +WRAP_UP_DIR = wrap-up JUPYTER_KERNEL := python3 MINIMAL_NOTEBOOK_FILES = $(shell ls $(PYTHON_SCRIPTS_DIR)/*.py | perl -pe "s@$(PYTHON_SCRIPTS_DIR)@$(NOTEBOOKS_DIR)@" | perl -pe "s@\.py@.ipynb@") @@ -37,6 +38,10 @@ quizzes: full-index: python build_tools/generate-index.py +run-code-in-wrap-up-quizzes: + python build_tools/generate-wrap-up.py $(GITLAB_REPO_JUPYTERBOOK_DIR) $(WRAP_UP_DIR) + jupytext --execute --to notebook $(WRAP_UP_DIR)/*.py + $(JUPYTER_BOOK_DIR): jupyter-book build $(JUPYTER_BOOK_DIR) rm -rf $(JUPYTER_BOOK_DIR)/_build/html/{slides,figures} && cp -r slides figures $(JUPYTER_BOOK_DIR)/_build/html diff --git a/build_tools/generate-wrap-up.py b/build_tools/generate-wrap-up.py new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0edc807c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/build_tools/generate-wrap-up.py @@ -0,0 +1,107 @@ +import sys +import os +import glob + + +def extract_python_code_blocks(md_file_path): + """ + Extract Python code blocks from a markdown file. + + Args: + md_file_path (str): Path to the markdown file + + Returns: + list: List of extracted Python code blocks + """ + code_blocks = [] + in_python_block = False + current_block = [] + + with open(md_file_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as file: + for line in file: + line = line.rstrip("\n") + + if line.strip() == "```python": + in_python_block = True + current_block = [] + elif line.strip() == "```" and in_python_block: + in_python_block = False + code_blocks.append("\n".join(current_block)) + elif in_python_block: + current_block.append(line) + + return code_blocks + + +def write_jupyter_notebook_file( + code_blocks, output_file="notebook_from_md.py" +): + """ + Writes extracted code blocks to a Python file formatted as Jupyter notebook cells. + + Args: + code_blocks (list): List of code blocks to write + output_file (str): Path to the output file + """ + with open(output_file, "w", encoding="utf-8") as file: + file.write( + "# %% [markdown] \n # ## Notebook generated from Markdown file\n\n" + ) + + for i, block in enumerate(code_blocks, 1): + file.write(f"# %% [markdown]\n# ## Cell {i}\n\n# %%\n{block}\n\n") + + print( + f"Successfully wrote {len(code_blocks)} code cells to" + f" {output_file}" + ) + + +def process_quiz_files(input_path, output_dir): + """ + Process all wrap_up_quiz files in the input path and convert them to notebooks. + + Args: + input_path (str): Path to look for wrap_up_quiz files in subfolders + output_dir (str): Directory to write the generated notebooks + """ + # Create output directory if it doesn't exist + if not os.path.exists(output_dir): + os.makedirs(output_dir) + print(f"Created output directory: {output_dir}") + + # Find all files containing "wrap_up_quiz" in their name in the input path subfolders + quiz_files = glob.glob( + f"{input_path}/**/*wrap_up_quiz*.md", recursive=True + ) + + if not quiz_files: + print(f"No wrap_up_quiz.md files found in {input_path} subfolders.") + return + + print(f"Found {len(quiz_files)} wrap_up_quiz files to process.") + + # Process each file + for md_file_path in quiz_files: + print(f"\nProcessing: {md_file_path}") + + # Extract code blocks + code_blocks = extract_python_code_blocks(md_file_path) + + # Generate output filename + subfolder = md_file_path.split(os.sep)[3] # Get subfolder name + output_file = os.path.join(output_dir, f"{subfolder}_wrap_up_quiz.py") + + # Display results and write notebook file + if code_blocks: + print(f"Found {len(code_blocks)} Python code blocks") + write_jupyter_notebook_file(code_blocks, output_file=output_file) + else: + print(f"No Python code blocks found in {md_file_path}.") + + +if __name__ == "__main__": + input_path = sys.argv[1] + output_dir = sys.argv[2] + + process_quiz_files(input_path, output_dir) diff --git a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb index 8a6d52408..d3bc42d33 100644 --- a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb @@ -160,26 +160,7 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "### Analysis\n", - "\n", - "From an accuracy point of view, the result is almost exactly the same. The\n", - "reason is that `HistGradientBoostingClassifier` is expressive and robust\n", - "enough to deal with misleading ordering of integer coded categories (which was\n", - "not the case for linear models).\n", - "\n", - "However from a computation point of view, the training time is much longer:\n", - "this is caused by the fact that `OneHotEncoder` generates more features than\n", - "`OrdinalEncoder`; for each unique categorical value a column is created.\n", - "\n", - "Note that the current implementation `HistGradientBoostingClassifier` is still\n", - "incomplete, and once sparse representation are handled correctly, training\n", - "time might improve with such kinds of encodings.\n", - "\n", - "The main take away message is that arbitrary integer coding of categories is\n", - "perfectly fine for `HistGradientBoostingClassifier` and yields fast training\n", - "times.\n", - "\n", - "Which encoder should I use?\n", + "## Which encoder should I use?\n", "\n", "| | Meaningful order | Non-meaningful order |\n", "| ---------------- | ----------------------------- | -------------------- |\n", diff --git a/notebooks/cross_validation_grouping.ipynb b/notebooks/cross_validation_grouping.ipynb index 705db1ca9..df19e4db0 100644 --- a/notebooks/cross_validation_grouping.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/cross_validation_grouping.ipynb @@ -189,9 +189,10 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "If we read carefully, 13 writers wrote the digits of our dataset, accounting\n", - "for a total amount of 1797 samples. Thus, a writer wrote several times the\n", - "same numbers. Let's suppose that the writer samples are grouped. Subsequently,\n", + "If we read carefully, `load_digits` loads a copy of the **test set** of the\n", + "UCI ML hand-written digits dataset, which consists of 1797 images by\n", + "**13 different writers**. Thus, each writer wrote several times the same\n", + "numbers. Let's suppose the dataset is ordered by writer. Subsequently,\n", "not shuffling the data will keep all writer samples together either in the\n", "training or the testing sets. Mixing the data will break this structure, and\n", "therefore digits written by the same writer will be available in both the\n", diff --git a/notebooks/datasets_bike_rides.ipynb b/notebooks/datasets_bike_rides.ipynb index c4cb53450..504fdc716 100644 --- a/notebooks/datasets_bike_rides.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/datasets_bike_rides.ipynb @@ -271,7 +271,7 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "data_ride.resample(\"60S\").mean().plot()\n", + "data_ride.resample(\"60s\").mean().plot()\n", "plt.legend(bbox_to_anchor=(1.05, 1), loc=\"upper left\")\n", "_ = plt.title(\"Sensor values for different cyclist measurements\")" ] diff --git a/notebooks/ensemble_adaboost.ipynb b/notebooks/ensemble_adaboost.ipynb index 90617c972..8daa73a05 100644 --- a/notebooks/ensemble_adaboost.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/ensemble_adaboost.ipynb @@ -271,7 +271,7 @@ "\n", "estimator = DecisionTreeClassifier(max_depth=3, random_state=0)\n", "adaboost = AdaBoostClassifier(\n", - " estimator=estimator, n_estimators=3, algorithm=\"SAMME\", random_state=0\n", + " estimator=estimator, n_estimators=3, random_state=0\n", ")\n", "adaboost.fit(data, target)" ] diff --git a/notebooks/ensemble_ex_03.ipynb b/notebooks/ensemble_ex_03.ipynb index ae3607697..b1e9b2fc2 100644 --- a/notebooks/ensemble_ex_03.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/ensemble_ex_03.ipynb @@ -107,6 +107,24 @@ "ensemble. However, the scores reach a plateau where adding new trees just\n", "makes fitting and scoring slower.\n", "\n", + "Now repeat the analysis for the gradient boosting model." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": { + "lines_to_next_cell": 2 + }, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "# Write your code here." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ "Gradient boosting models overfit when the number of trees is too large. To\n", "avoid adding a new unnecessary tree, unlike random-forest gradient-boosting\n", "offers an early-stopping option. Internally, the algorithm uses an\n", @@ -115,9 +133,9 @@ "improving for several iterations, it stops adding trees.\n", "\n", "Now, create a gradient-boosting model with `n_estimators=1_000`. This number\n", - "of trees is certainly too large. Change the parameter `n_iter_no_change`\n", - "such that the gradient boosting fitting stops after adding 5 trees to avoid\n", - "deterioration of the overall generalization performance." + "of trees is certainly too large as we have seen above. Change the parameter\n", + "`n_iter_no_change` such that the gradient boosting fitting stops after adding\n", + "5 trees to avoid deterioration of the overall generalization performance." ] }, { diff --git a/notebooks/linear_models_regularization.ipynb b/notebooks/linear_models_regularization.ipynb index fc1129695..4325bd10c 100644 --- a/notebooks/linear_models_regularization.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/linear_models_regularization.ipynb @@ -618,7 +618,7 @@ "ridge = make_pipeline(\n", " MinMaxScaler(),\n", " PolynomialFeatures(degree=2, include_bias=False),\n", - " RidgeCV(alphas=alphas, store_cv_values=True),\n", + " RidgeCV(alphas=alphas, store_cv_results=True),\n", ")" ] }, @@ -677,7 +677,7 @@ "It indicates that our model is not overfitting.\n", "\n", "When fitting the ridge regressor, we also requested to store the error found\n", - "during cross-validation (by setting the parameter `store_cv_values=True`). We\n", + "during cross-validation (by setting the parameter `store_cv_results=True`). We\n", "can plot the mean squared error for the different `alphas` regularization\n", "strengths that we tried. The error bars represent one standard deviation of the\n", "average mean square error across folds for a given value of `alpha`." @@ -690,7 +690,7 @@ "outputs": [], "source": [ "mse_alphas = [\n", - " est[-1].cv_values_.mean(axis=0) for est in cv_results[\"estimator\"]\n", + " est[-1].cv_results_.mean(axis=0) for est in cv_results[\"estimator\"]\n", "]\n", "cv_alphas = pd.DataFrame(mse_alphas, columns=alphas)\n", "cv_alphas = cv_alphas.aggregate([\"mean\", \"std\"]).T\n", diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb index a71dba64c..eec36cd72 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb @@ -157,6 +157,9 @@ "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", " [(\"cat_preprocessor\", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)],\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", + " # Silence a deprecation warning in scikit-learn v1.6 related to how the\n", + " # ColumnTransformer stores an attribute that we do not use in this notebook\n", + " force_int_remainder_cols=False,\n", ")" ] }, diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_nested.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_nested.ipynb index fb43c8145..6cd9bda14 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_nested.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_nested.ipynb @@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ " (\"cat_preprocessor\", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns),\n", " ],\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", + " force_int_remainder_cols=False, # Silence a warning in scikit-learn v1.6.\n", ")" ] }, diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.ipynb index 94bc085dc..8c9aea809 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.ipynb @@ -121,6 +121,7 @@ "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", " [(\"cat_preprocessor\", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)],\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", + " force_int_remainder_cols=False, # Silence a warning in scikit-learn v1.6.\n", ")" ] }, diff --git a/notebooks/trees_ex_01.ipynb b/notebooks/trees_ex_01.ipynb index a2abdea01..cae6407bc 100644 --- a/notebooks/trees_ex_01.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/trees_ex_01.ipynb @@ -83,9 +83,9 @@ "
\n", "

Warning

\n", "

At this time, it is not possible to use response_method=\"predict_proba\" for\n", - "multiclass problems. This is a planned feature for a future version of\n", - "scikit-learn. In the mean time, you can use response_method=\"predict\"\n", - "instead.

\n", + "multiclass problems on a single plot. This is a planned feature for a future\n", + "version of scikit-learn. In the mean time, you can use\n", + "response_method=\"predict\" instead.

\n", "
" ] }, diff --git a/notebooks/trees_sol_01.ipynb b/notebooks/trees_sol_01.ipynb index 2ce0c1b8b..8ca3f8ec2 100644 --- a/notebooks/trees_sol_01.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/trees_sol_01.ipynb @@ -87,9 +87,9 @@ "
\n", "

Warning

\n", "

At this time, it is not possible to use response_method=\"predict_proba\" for\n", - "multiclass problems. This is a planned feature for a future version of\n", - "scikit-learn. In the mean time, you can use response_method=\"predict\"\n", - "instead.

\n", + "multiclass problems on a single plot. This is a planned feature for a future\n", + "version of scikit-learn. In the mean time, you can use\n", + "response_method=\"predict\" instead.

\n", "
" ] }, @@ -212,12 +212,14 @@ "except that for a K-class problem you have K probability outputs for each\n", "data point. Visualizing all these on a single plot can quickly become tricky\n", "to interpret. It is then common to instead produce K separate plots, one for\n", - "each class, in a one-vs-rest (or one-vs-all) fashion.\n", + "each class, in a one-vs-rest (or one-vs-all) fashion. This can be achieved by\n", + "calling `DecisionBoundaryDisplay` several times, once for each class, and\n", + "passing the `class_of_interest` parameter to the function.\n", "\n", - "For example, in the plot below, the first plot on the left shows in yellow the\n", - "certainty on classifying a data point as belonging to the \"Adelie\" class. In\n", - "the same plot, the spectre from green to purple represents the certainty of\n", - "**not** belonging to the \"Adelie\" class. The same logic applies to the other\n", + "For example, in the plot below, the first plot on the left shows the\n", + "certainty of classifying a data point as belonging to the \"Adelie\" class. The\n", + "darker the color, the more certain the model is that a given point in the\n", + "feature space belongs to a given class. The same logic applies to the other\n", "plots in the figure." ] }, @@ -231,48 +233,38 @@ }, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "import numpy as np\n", - "\n", - "xx = np.linspace(30, 60, 100)\n", - "yy = np.linspace(10, 23, 100)\n", - "xx, yy = np.meshgrid(xx, yy)\n", - "Xfull = pd.DataFrame(\n", - " {\"Culmen Length (mm)\": xx.ravel(), \"Culmen Depth (mm)\": yy.ravel()}\n", - ")\n", - "\n", - "probas = tree.predict_proba(Xfull)\n", - "n_classes = len(np.unique(tree.classes_))\n", + "from matplotlib import cm\n", "\n", "_, axs = plt.subplots(ncols=3, nrows=1, sharey=True, figsize=(12, 5))\n", - "plt.suptitle(\"Predicted probabilities for decision tree model\", y=0.8)\n", + "plt.suptitle(\"Predicted probabilities for decision tree model\", y=1.05)\n", + "plt.subplots_adjust(bottom=0.45)\n", "\n", - "for class_of_interest in range(n_classes):\n", - " axs[class_of_interest].set_title(\n", - " f\"Class {tree.classes_[class_of_interest]}\"\n", - " )\n", - " imshow_handle = axs[class_of_interest].imshow(\n", - " probas[:, class_of_interest].reshape((100, 100)),\n", - " extent=(30, 60, 10, 23),\n", - " vmin=0.0,\n", - " vmax=1.0,\n", - " origin=\"lower\",\n", - " cmap=\"viridis\",\n", + "for idx, (class_of_interest, ax) in enumerate(zip(tree.classes_, axs)):\n", + " ax.set_title(f\"Class {class_of_interest}\")\n", + " DecisionBoundaryDisplay.from_estimator(\n", + " tree,\n", + " data_test,\n", + " response_method=\"predict_proba\",\n", + " class_of_interest=class_of_interest,\n", + " ax=ax,\n", + " vmin=0,\n", + " vmax=1,\n", + " cmap=\"Blues\",\n", " )\n", - " axs[class_of_interest].set_xlabel(\"Culmen Length (mm)\")\n", - " if class_of_interest == 0:\n", - " axs[class_of_interest].set_ylabel(\"Culmen Depth (mm)\")\n", - " idx = target_test == tree.classes_[class_of_interest]\n", - " axs[class_of_interest].scatter(\n", - " data_test[\"Culmen Length (mm)\"].loc[idx],\n", - " data_test[\"Culmen Depth (mm)\"].loc[idx],\n", + " ax.scatter(\n", + " data_test[\"Culmen Length (mm)\"].loc[target_test == class_of_interest],\n", + " data_test[\"Culmen Depth (mm)\"].loc[target_test == class_of_interest],\n", " marker=\"o\",\n", " c=\"w\",\n", " edgecolor=\"k\",\n", " )\n", + " ax.set_xlabel(\"Culmen Length (mm)\")\n", + " if idx == 0:\n", + " ax.set_ylabel(\"Culmen Depth (mm)\")\n", "\n", - "ax = plt.axes([0.15, 0.04, 0.7, 0.05])\n", - "plt.colorbar(imshow_handle, cax=ax, orientation=\"horizontal\")\n", - "_ = plt.title(\"Probability\")" + "ax = plt.axes([0.15, 0.14, 0.7, 0.05])\n", + "plt.colorbar(cm.ScalarMappable(cmap=\"Blues\"), cax=ax, orientation=\"horizontal\")\n", + "_ = ax.set_title(\"Predicted class membership probability\")" ] }, { @@ -283,22 +275,17 @@ ] }, "source": [ + "\n", "
\n", "

Note

\n", - "

You may have noticed that we are no longer using a diverging colormap. Indeed,\n", - "the chance level for a one-vs-rest binarization of the multi-class\n", - "classification problem is almost never at predicted probability of 0.5. So\n", - "using a colormap with a neutral white at 0.5 might give a false impression on\n", - "the certainty.

\n", - "
\n", - "\n", - "In future versions of scikit-learn `DecisionBoundaryDisplay` will support a\n", - "`class_of_interest` parameter that will allow in particular for a\n", - "visualization of `predict_proba` in multi-class settings.\n", - "\n", - "We also plan to make it possible to visualize the `predict_proba` values for\n", - "the class with the maximum predicted probability (without having to pass a\n", - "given a fixed `class_of_interest` value)." + "

You may notice that we do not use a diverging colormap (2 color gradients with\n", + "white in the middle). Indeed, in a multiclass setting, 0.5 is not a\n", + "meaningful value, hence using white as the center of the colormap is not\n", + "appropriate. Instead, we use a sequential colormap, where the color intensity\n", + "indicates the certainty of the classification. The darker the color, the more\n", + "certain the model is that a given point in the feature space belongs to a\n", + "given class.

\n", + "" ] } ], diff --git a/python_scripts/01_tabular_data_exploration_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/01_tabular_data_exploration_ex_01.py index 374efeda5..f40d4aa6a 100644 --- a/python_scripts/01_tabular_data_exploration_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/01_tabular_data_exploration_ex_01.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_ex_00.py b/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_ex_00.py index 389640dcb..41629385f 100644 --- a/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_ex_00.py +++ b/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_ex_00.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_ex_01.py index 6f24974d2..7c55ed83e 100644 --- a/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_ex_01.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_01.py index bd407bf9d..7003939a4 100644 --- a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_01.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py index c7f160c2d..670e26105 100644 --- a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 @@ -112,26 +112,7 @@ # Write your code here. # %% [markdown] -# ### Analysis -# -# From an accuracy point of view, the result is almost exactly the same. The -# reason is that `HistGradientBoostingClassifier` is expressive and robust -# enough to deal with misleading ordering of integer coded categories (which was -# not the case for linear models). -# -# However from a computation point of view, the training time is much longer: -# this is caused by the fact that `OneHotEncoder` generates more features than -# `OrdinalEncoder`; for each unique categorical value a column is created. -# -# Note that the current implementation `HistGradientBoostingClassifier` is still -# incomplete, and once sparse representation are handled correctly, training -# time might improve with such kinds of encodings. -# -# The main take away message is that arbitrary integer coding of categories is -# perfectly fine for `HistGradientBoostingClassifier` and yields fast training -# times. - -# Which encoder should I use? +# ## Which encoder should I use? # # | | Meaningful order | Non-meaningful order | # | ---------------- | ----------------------------- | -------------------- | diff --git a/python_scripts/cross_validation_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/cross_validation_ex_01.py index 9b9844024..64f1baada 100644 --- a/python_scripts/cross_validation_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/cross_validation_ex_01.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/cross_validation_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/cross_validation_ex_02.py index 804495a9e..7e3b31e91 100644 --- a/python_scripts/cross_validation_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/cross_validation_ex_02.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/datasets_bike_rides.py b/python_scripts/datasets_bike_rides.py index 7944a0723..9cb2ec77a 100644 --- a/python_scripts/datasets_bike_rides.py +++ b/python_scripts/datasets_bike_rides.py @@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ # smoother visualization. # %% -data_ride.resample("60S").mean().plot() +data_ride.resample("60s").mean().plot() plt.legend(bbox_to_anchor=(1.05, 1), loc="upper left") _ = plt.title("Sensor values for different cyclist measurements") diff --git a/python_scripts/ensemble_adaboost.py b/python_scripts/ensemble_adaboost.py index 982084aed..25e4bcb16 100644 --- a/python_scripts/ensemble_adaboost.py +++ b/python_scripts/ensemble_adaboost.py @@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ estimator = DecisionTreeClassifier(max_depth=3, random_state=0) adaboost = AdaBoostClassifier( - estimator=estimator, n_estimators=3, algorithm="SAMME", random_state=0 + estimator=estimator, n_estimators=3, random_state=0 ) adaboost.fit(data, target) diff --git a/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_01.py index 8f7031361..62888fc26 100644 --- a/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_01.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_02.py index 32679a245..9c7c2e364 100644 --- a/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_02.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_03.py b/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_03.py index 4b303b5db..12d601078 100644 --- a/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_03.py +++ b/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_03.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 @@ -70,6 +70,13 @@ # ensemble. However, the scores reach a plateau where adding new trees just # makes fitting and scoring slower. # +# Now repeat the analysis for the gradient boosting model. + +# %% +# Write your code here. + + +# %% [markdown] # Gradient boosting models overfit when the number of trees is too large. To # avoid adding a new unnecessary tree, unlike random-forest gradient-boosting # offers an early-stopping option. Internally, the algorithm uses an @@ -78,9 +85,9 @@ # improving for several iterations, it stops adding trees. # # Now, create a gradient-boosting model with `n_estimators=1_000`. This number -# of trees is certainly too large. Change the parameter `n_iter_no_change` -# such that the gradient boosting fitting stops after adding 5 trees to avoid -# deterioration of the overall generalization performance. +# of trees is certainly too large as we have seen above. Change the parameter +# `n_iter_no_change` such that the gradient boosting fitting stops after adding +# 5 trees to avoid deterioration of the overall generalization performance. # %% # Write your code here. diff --git a/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_04.py b/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_04.py index 126f0eff4..ed481b49a 100644 --- a/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_04.py +++ b/python_scripts/ensemble_ex_04.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/feature_selection_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/feature_selection_ex_01.py index bba499ba6..ff40075b6 100644 --- a/python_scripts/feature_selection_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/feature_selection_ex_01.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_01.py index 8f9a040f5..4ddf7b808 100644 --- a/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_01.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_02.py index c43ea69be..ae667c160 100644 --- a/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_02.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_03.py b/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_03.py index e89f9ea9e..3458dd2cd 100644 --- a/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_03.py +++ b/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_03.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_04.py b/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_04.py index c6f3fc87b..247d2acf3 100644 --- a/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_04.py +++ b/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_04.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/linear_models_regularization.py b/python_scripts/linear_models_regularization.py index 1b221e856..b4c8b3228 100644 --- a/python_scripts/linear_models_regularization.py +++ b/python_scripts/linear_models_regularization.py @@ -421,7 +421,7 @@ ridge = make_pipeline( MinMaxScaler(), PolynomialFeatures(degree=2, include_bias=False), - RidgeCV(alphas=alphas, store_cv_values=True), + RidgeCV(alphas=alphas, store_cv_results=True), ) # %% @@ -458,14 +458,14 @@ # It indicates that our model is not overfitting. # # When fitting the ridge regressor, we also requested to store the error found -# during cross-validation (by setting the parameter `store_cv_values=True`). We +# during cross-validation (by setting the parameter `store_cv_results=True`). We # can plot the mean squared error for the different `alphas` regularization # strengths that we tried. The error bars represent one standard deviation of the # average mean square error across folds for a given value of `alpha`. # %% mse_alphas = [ - est[-1].cv_values_.mean(axis=0) for est in cv_results["estimator"] + est[-1].cv_results_.mean(axis=0) for est in cv_results["estimator"] ] cv_alphas = pd.DataFrame(mse_alphas, columns=alphas) cv_alphas = cv_alphas.aggregate(["mean", "std"]).T diff --git a/python_scripts/metrics_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/metrics_ex_01.py index 005a6ba54..e4b111e01 100644 --- a/python_scripts/metrics_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/metrics_ex_01.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/metrics_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/metrics_ex_02.py index 2b4837cbf..17a594e98 100644 --- a/python_scripts/metrics_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/metrics_ex_02.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_02.py index efa307de1..f53ddb36a 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_02.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_03.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_03.py index 5e316eddf..95709912e 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_03.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_03.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py index 79e738395..a3d156940 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py @@ -89,6 +89,9 @@ preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( [("cat_preprocessor", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)], remainder="passthrough", + # Silence a deprecation warning in scikit-learn v1.6 related to how the + # ColumnTransformer stores an attribute that we do not use in this notebook + force_int_remainder_cols=False, ) # %% [markdown] diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_nested.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_nested.py index 5c13cd28d..d447cb997 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_nested.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_nested.py @@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ ("cat_preprocessor", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns), ], remainder="passthrough", + force_int_remainder_cols=False, # Silence a warning in scikit-learn v1.6. ) # %% diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.py index 0bcd4761d..2b1cd19c5 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.py @@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( [("cat_preprocessor", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)], remainder="passthrough", + force_int_remainder_cols=False, # Silence a warning in scikit-learn v1.6. ) # %% diff --git a/python_scripts/trees_ex_01.py b/python_scripts/trees_ex_01.py index b3aa90a10..4967554f4 100644 --- a/python_scripts/trees_ex_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/trees_ex_01.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 @@ -59,9 +59,9 @@ # # ```{warning} # At this time, it is not possible to use `response_method="predict_proba"` for -# multiclass problems. This is a planned feature for a future version of -# scikit-learn. In the mean time, you can use `response_method="predict"` -# instead. +# multiclass problems on a single plot. This is a planned feature for a future +# version of scikit-learn. In the mean time, you can use +# `response_method="predict"` instead. # ``` # %% diff --git a/python_scripts/trees_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/trees_ex_02.py index 565db09fc..d11f967a9 100644 --- a/python_scripts/trees_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/trees_ex_02.py @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ # extension: .py # format_name: percent # format_version: '1.3' -# jupytext_version: 1.16.7 +# jupytext_version: 1.17.1 # kernelspec: # display_name: Python 3 # name: python3 diff --git a/python_scripts/trees_sol_01.py b/python_scripts/trees_sol_01.py index e97b7e8b2..a600e9fe3 100644 --- a/python_scripts/trees_sol_01.py +++ b/python_scripts/trees_sol_01.py @@ -57,9 +57,9 @@ # # ```{warning} # At this time, it is not possible to use `response_method="predict_proba"` for -# multiclass problems. This is a planned feature for a future version of -# scikit-learn. In the mean time, you can use `response_method="predict"` -# instead. +# multiclass problems on a single plot. This is a planned feature for a future +# version of scikit-learn. In the mean time, you can use +# `response_method="predict"` instead. # ``` # %% @@ -140,71 +140,58 @@ # except that for a K-class problem you have K probability outputs for each # data point. Visualizing all these on a single plot can quickly become tricky # to interpret. It is then common to instead produce K separate plots, one for -# each class, in a one-vs-rest (or one-vs-all) fashion. +# each class, in a one-vs-rest (or one-vs-all) fashion. This can be achieved by +# calling `DecisionBoundaryDisplay` several times, once for each class, and +# passing the `class_of_interest` parameter to the function. # -# For example, in the plot below, the first plot on the left shows in yellow the -# certainty on classifying a data point as belonging to the "Adelie" class. In -# the same plot, the spectre from green to purple represents the certainty of -# **not** belonging to the "Adelie" class. The same logic applies to the other +# For example, in the plot below, the first plot on the left shows the +# certainty of classifying a data point as belonging to the "Adelie" class. The +# darker the color, the more certain the model is that a given point in the +# feature space belongs to a given class. The same logic applies to the other # plots in the figure. # %% tags=["solution"] -import numpy as np - -xx = np.linspace(30, 60, 100) -yy = np.linspace(10, 23, 100) -xx, yy = np.meshgrid(xx, yy) -Xfull = pd.DataFrame( - {"Culmen Length (mm)": xx.ravel(), "Culmen Depth (mm)": yy.ravel()} -) - -probas = tree.predict_proba(Xfull) -n_classes = len(np.unique(tree.classes_)) +from matplotlib import cm _, axs = plt.subplots(ncols=3, nrows=1, sharey=True, figsize=(12, 5)) -plt.suptitle("Predicted probabilities for decision tree model", y=0.8) - -for class_of_interest in range(n_classes): - axs[class_of_interest].set_title( - f"Class {tree.classes_[class_of_interest]}" +plt.suptitle("Predicted probabilities for decision tree model", y=1.05) +plt.subplots_adjust(bottom=0.45) + +for idx, (class_of_interest, ax) in enumerate(zip(tree.classes_, axs)): + ax.set_title(f"Class {class_of_interest}") + DecisionBoundaryDisplay.from_estimator( + tree, + data_test, + response_method="predict_proba", + class_of_interest=class_of_interest, + ax=ax, + vmin=0, + vmax=1, + cmap="Blues", ) - imshow_handle = axs[class_of_interest].imshow( - probas[:, class_of_interest].reshape((100, 100)), - extent=(30, 60, 10, 23), - vmin=0.0, - vmax=1.0, - origin="lower", - cmap="viridis", - ) - axs[class_of_interest].set_xlabel("Culmen Length (mm)") - if class_of_interest == 0: - axs[class_of_interest].set_ylabel("Culmen Depth (mm)") - idx = target_test == tree.classes_[class_of_interest] - axs[class_of_interest].scatter( - data_test["Culmen Length (mm)"].loc[idx], - data_test["Culmen Depth (mm)"].loc[idx], + ax.scatter( + data_test["Culmen Length (mm)"].loc[target_test == class_of_interest], + data_test["Culmen Depth (mm)"].loc[target_test == class_of_interest], marker="o", c="w", edgecolor="k", ) + ax.set_xlabel("Culmen Length (mm)") + if idx == 0: + ax.set_ylabel("Culmen Depth (mm)") -ax = plt.axes([0.15, 0.04, 0.7, 0.05]) -plt.colorbar(imshow_handle, cax=ax, orientation="horizontal") -_ = plt.title("Probability") +ax = plt.axes([0.15, 0.14, 0.7, 0.05]) +plt.colorbar(cm.ScalarMappable(cmap="Blues"), cax=ax, orientation="horizontal") +_ = ax.set_title("Predicted class membership probability") # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] +# # ```{note} -# You may have noticed that we are no longer using a diverging colormap. Indeed, -# the chance level for a one-vs-rest binarization of the multi-class -# classification problem is almost never at predicted probability of 0.5. So -# using a colormap with a neutral white at 0.5 might give a false impression on -# the certainty. +# You may notice that we do not use a diverging colormap (2 color gradients with +# white in the middle). Indeed, in a multiclass setting, 0.5 is not a +# meaningful value, hence using white as the center of the colormap is not +# appropriate. Instead, we use a sequential colormap, where the color intensity +# indicates the certainty of the classification. The darker the color, the more +# certain the model is that a given point in the feature space belongs to a +# given class. # ``` -# -# In future versions of scikit-learn `DecisionBoundaryDisplay` will support a -# `class_of_interest` parameter that will allow in particular for a -# visualization of `predict_proba` in multi-class settings. -# -# We also plan to make it possible to visualize the `predict_proba` values for -# the class with the maximum predicted probability (without having to pass a -# given a fixed `class_of_interest` value). From 49b447434a37d0e794b09589c6abb19e61395e8a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Arturo Amor <86408019+ArturoAmorQ@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Tue, 27 May 2025 14:50:59 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 51/79] FIX Penguin figures not rendering (#828) Co-authored-by: ArturoAmorQ --- notebooks/trees_dataset.ipynb | 4 ++-- python_scripts/trees_dataset.py | 4 ++-- 2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/trees_dataset.ipynb b/notebooks/trees_dataset.ipynb index 05e3b6f7f..ab6798b8d 100644 --- a/notebooks/trees_dataset.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/trees_dataset.ipynb @@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ "species:\n", "\n", "![Image of\n", - "penguins](https://github.com/allisonhorst/palmerpenguins/raw/master/man/figures/lter_penguins.png)\n", + "penguins](https://github.com/allisonhorst/palmerpenguins/raw/main/man/figures/lter_penguins.png)\n", "\n", "This problem is a classification problem since the target is categorical. We\n", "limit our input data to a subset of the original features to simplify our\n", @@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ "penguins' culmen with the illustration below:\n", "\n", "![Image of\n", - "culmen](https://github.com/allisonhorst/palmerpenguins/raw/master/man/figures/culmen_depth.png)\n", + "culmen](https://github.com/allisonhorst/palmerpenguins/raw/main/man/figures/culmen_depth.png)\n", "\n", "We start by loading this subset of the dataset." ] diff --git a/python_scripts/trees_dataset.py b/python_scripts/trees_dataset.py index 457e85c3c..1427aaebd 100644 --- a/python_scripts/trees_dataset.py +++ b/python_scripts/trees_dataset.py @@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ # species: # # ![Image of -# penguins](https://github.com/allisonhorst/palmerpenguins/raw/master/man/figures/lter_penguins.png) +# penguins](https://github.com/allisonhorst/palmerpenguins/raw/main/man/figures/lter_penguins.png) # # This problem is a classification problem since the target is categorical. We # limit our input data to a subset of the original features to simplify our @@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ # penguins' culmen with the illustration below: # # ![Image of -# culmen](https://github.com/allisonhorst/palmerpenguins/raw/master/man/figures/culmen_depth.png) +# culmen](https://github.com/allisonhorst/palmerpenguins/raw/main/man/figures/culmen_depth.png) # # We start by loading this subset of the dataset. From c7009bc5f97152e2e57d63c49fdba63faa63103d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olivier Grisel Date: Tue, 27 May 2025 16:47:08 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 52/79] Missing notebook sync (#838) --- full-index.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/cross_validation_time.ipynb | 32 ++++++++++++------------- notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_03.ipynb | 7 ++++-- 3 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-) diff --git a/full-index.ipynb b/full-index.ipynb index 4ada4ffde..4f0757d06 100644 --- a/full-index.ipynb +++ b/full-index.ipynb @@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ "\n", "* [🎥 Intuitions on ensemble models: boosting](https://inria.github.io/scikit-learn-mooc/ensemble/boosting_slides.html)\n", "* [Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost)](notebooks/ensemble_adaboost.ipynb)\n", - "* [Gradient-boosting decision tree (GBDT)](notebooks/ensemble_gradient_boosting.ipynb)\n", + "* [Gradient-boosting decision tree](notebooks/ensemble_gradient_boosting.ipynb)\n", "* [📝 Exercise M6.03](notebooks/ensemble_ex_03.ipynb)\n", "* [📃 Solution for Exercise M6.03](notebooks/ensemble_sol_03.ipynb)\n", "* [Speeding-up gradient-boosting](notebooks/ensemble_hist_gradient_boosting.ipynb)\n", diff --git a/notebooks/cross_validation_time.ipynb b/notebooks/cross_validation_time.ipynb index b9ebde892..792e45cbe 100644 --- a/notebooks/cross_validation_time.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/cross_validation_time.ipynb @@ -88,18 +88,7 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split\n", - "\n", - "data, target = quotes.drop(columns=[\"Chevron\"]), quotes[\"Chevron\"]\n", - "data_train, data_test, target_train, target_test = train_test_split(\n", - " data, target, shuffle=True, random_state=0\n", - ")\n", - "\n", - "# Shuffling breaks the index order, but we still want it to be time-ordered\n", - "data_train.sort_index(ascending=True, inplace=True)\n", - "data_test.sort_index(ascending=True, inplace=True)\n", - "target_train.sort_index(ascending=True, inplace=True)\n", - "target_test.sort_index(ascending=True, inplace=True)" + "data, target = quotes.drop(columns=[\"Chevron\"]), quotes[\"Chevron\"]" ] }, { @@ -157,9 +146,7 @@ "source": [ "from sklearn.model_selection import cross_val_score\n", "\n", - "test_score = cross_val_score(\n", - " regressor, data_train, target_train, cv=cv, n_jobs=2\n", - ")\n", + "test_score = cross_val_score(regressor, data, target, cv=cv, n_jobs=2)\n", "print(f\"The mean R2 is: {test_score.mean():.2f} \u00b1 {test_score.std():.2f}\")" ] }, @@ -183,9 +170,21 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split\n", + "\n", + "data_train, data_test, target_train, target_test = train_test_split(\n", + " data, target, shuffle=True, random_state=0\n", + ")\n", + "\n", + "# Shuffling breaks the index order, but we still want it to be time-ordered\n", + "data_train.sort_index(ascending=True, inplace=True)\n", + "data_test.sort_index(ascending=True, inplace=True)\n", + "target_train.sort_index(ascending=True, inplace=True)\n", + "target_test.sort_index(ascending=True, inplace=True)\n", + "\n", "regressor.fit(data_train, target_train)\n", "target_predicted = regressor.predict(data_test)\n", - "# Affect the index of `target_predicted` to ease the plotting\n", + "# Recover the `DatetimeIndex` from `target_test` for correct plotting\n", "target_predicted = pd.Series(target_predicted, index=target_test.index)" ] }, @@ -260,7 +259,6 @@ " data,\n", " target,\n", " shuffle=False,\n", - " random_state=0,\n", ")\n", "regressor.fit(data_train, target_train)\n", "target_predicted = regressor.predict(data_test)\n", diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_03.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_03.ipynb index 7e92e7b88..d52b48176 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_03.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_03.ipynb @@ -146,7 +146,6 @@ "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": null, "metadata": { - "lines_to_next_cell": 0, "tags": [ "solution" ] @@ -160,7 +159,11 @@ }, { "cell_type": "markdown", - "metadata": {}, + "metadata": { + "tags": [ + "solution" + ] + }, "source": [ "As we used `neg_mean_absolute_error` as score metric, we should multiply the\n", "score results with minus 1 to get mean absolute error values:" From 9a3dd25132a8724512c3932670e655ea09085ce6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Tue, 27 May 2025 17:15:45 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 53/79] MAINT Changed the use of ColumnTransformer to make_column_transformer (#831) * changed besides to additionally for better phrasing * Apply suggestions from code review * Changed the use of ColumnTransformer to make_column_transformer * fixed format * fixed format * changed additional mentions of ColumnTransformer * Rerender notebooks --------- Co-authored-by: SebastienMelo Co-authored-by: Arturo Amor <86408019+ArturoAmorQ@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Olivier Grisel --- jupyter-book/appendix/glossary.md | 2 +- ...egorical_pipeline_column_transformer.ipynb | 21 +++++++------- notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb | 7 +++-- .../03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.ipynb | 28 ++++++++----------- notebooks/parameter_tuning_ex_02.ipynb | 19 +++++++------ notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb | 8 +++--- notebooks/parameter_tuning_nested.ipynb | 8 ++---- .../parameter_tuning_randomized_search.ipynb | 6 ++-- notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_02.ipynb | 19 +++++++------ ...categorical_pipeline_column_transformer.py | 21 +++++++------- .../03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py | 7 +++-- .../03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.py | 28 ++++++++----------- python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_02.py | 14 ++++------ .../parameter_tuning_grid_search.py | 8 +++--- python_scripts/parameter_tuning_nested.py | 8 ++---- .../parameter_tuning_randomized_search.py | 6 ++-- python_scripts/parameter_tuning_sol_02.py | 14 ++++------ 17 files changed, 103 insertions(+), 121 deletions(-) diff --git a/jupyter-book/appendix/glossary.md b/jupyter-book/appendix/glossary.md index 30721687e..65de707a9 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/appendix/glossary.md +++ b/jupyter-book/appendix/glossary.md @@ -368,7 +368,7 @@ The dataset used to train the [model](#model). An [estimator](#estimator) (i.e. an object that has a `fit` method) supporting `transform` and/or `fit_transform`. Examples for transformers are -`StandardScaler` or `ColumnTransformer`. +`StandardScaler` or `OneHotEncoder`. ### underfitting diff --git a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_column_transformer.ipynb b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_column_transformer.ipynb index 14f0b77c4..5ac48361b 100644 --- a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_column_transformer.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_column_transformer.ipynb @@ -96,9 +96,10 @@ " categories.\n", "* **numerical scaling** numerical features which will be standardized.\n", "\n", - "Now, we create our `ColumnTransfomer` by specifying three values: the\n", - "preprocessor name, the transformer, and the columns. First, let's create the\n", - "preprocessors for the numerical and categorical parts." + "Now, we create our `ColumnTransfomer` using the helper function\n", + "`make_column_transformer`. We specify two values: the transformer, and the\n", + "columns. First, let's create the preprocessors for the numerical and\n", + "categorical parts." ] }, { @@ -127,13 +128,11 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer\n", + "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer\n", "\n", - "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [\n", - " (\"one-hot-encoder\", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns),\n", - " (\"standard_scaler\", numerical_preprocessor, numerical_columns),\n", - " ]\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns),\n", + " (numerical_preprocessor, numerical_columns),\n", ")" ] }, @@ -365,8 +364,8 @@ " handle_unknown=\"use_encoded_value\", unknown_value=-1\n", ")\n", "\n", - "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [(\"categorical\", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)],\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns),\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", ")\n", "\n", diff --git a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb index d3bc42d33..fe9de1165 100644 --- a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb @@ -82,18 +82,19 @@ "\n", "from sklearn.model_selection import cross_validate\n", "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", - "from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer\n", + "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import OrdinalEncoder\n", "from sklearn.ensemble import HistGradientBoostingClassifier\n", "\n", "categorical_preprocessor = OrdinalEncoder(\n", " handle_unknown=\"use_encoded_value\", unknown_value=-1\n", ")\n", - "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [(\"categorical\", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)],\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns),\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", ")\n", "\n", + "\n", "model = make_pipeline(preprocessor, HistGradientBoostingClassifier())\n", "\n", "start = time.time()\n", diff --git a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.ipynb b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.ipynb index a7aa19e8d..15fd0fce5 100644 --- a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.ipynb @@ -82,18 +82,19 @@ "\n", "from sklearn.model_selection import cross_validate\n", "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", - "from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer\n", + "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import OrdinalEncoder\n", "from sklearn.ensemble import HistGradientBoostingClassifier\n", "\n", "categorical_preprocessor = OrdinalEncoder(\n", " handle_unknown=\"use_encoded_value\", unknown_value=-1\n", ")\n", - "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [(\"categorical\", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)],\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns),\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", ")\n", "\n", + "\n", "model = make_pipeline(preprocessor, HistGradientBoostingClassifier())\n", "\n", "start = time.time()\n", @@ -130,17 +131,12 @@ "\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler\n", "\n", - "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [\n", - " (\"numerical\", StandardScaler(), numerical_columns),\n", - " (\n", - " \"categorical\",\n", - " OrdinalEncoder(\n", - " handle_unknown=\"use_encoded_value\", unknown_value=-1\n", - " ),\n", - " categorical_columns,\n", - " ),\n", - " ]\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (StandardScaler(), numerical_columns),\n", + " (\n", + " OrdinalEncoder(handle_unknown=\"use_encoded_value\", unknown_value=-1),\n", + " categorical_columns,\n", + " ),\n", ")\n", "\n", "model = make_pipeline(preprocessor, HistGradientBoostingClassifier())\n", @@ -209,8 +205,8 @@ "categorical_preprocessor = OneHotEncoder(\n", " handle_unknown=\"ignore\", sparse_output=False\n", ")\n", - "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [(\"one-hot-encoder\", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)],\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns),\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", ")\n", "\n", diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_ex_02.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_ex_02.ipynb index efb989cea..6890e7db3 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_ex_02.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_ex_02.ipynb @@ -41,21 +41,15 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer\n", + "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer\n", "from sklearn.compose import make_column_selector as selector\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import OrdinalEncoder\n", "\n", "categorical_preprocessor = OrdinalEncoder(\n", " handle_unknown=\"use_encoded_value\", unknown_value=-1\n", ")\n", - "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [\n", - " (\n", - " \"cat_preprocessor\",\n", - " categorical_preprocessor,\n", - " selector(dtype_include=object),\n", - " )\n", - " ],\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (categorical_preprocessor, selector(dtype_include=object)),\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", ")\n", "\n", @@ -113,6 +107,13 @@ "source": [ "# Write your code here." ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [] } ], "metadata": { diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb index eec36cd72..794c83322 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb @@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "We then use a `ColumnTransformer` to select the categorical columns and apply\n", + "We then use `make_column_transformer` to select the categorical columns and apply\n", "the `OrdinalEncoder` to them." ] }, @@ -152,10 +152,10 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer\n", + "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer\n", "\n", - "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [(\"cat_preprocessor\", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)],\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns),\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", " # Silence a deprecation warning in scikit-learn v1.6 related to how the\n", " # ColumnTransformer stores an attribute that we do not use in this notebook\n", diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_nested.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_nested.ipynb index 6cd9bda14..f2bc5f803 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_nested.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_nested.ipynb @@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer\n", + "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import OrdinalEncoder\n", "from sklearn.compose import make_column_selector as selector\n", "\n", @@ -65,10 +65,8 @@ "categorical_preprocessor = OrdinalEncoder(\n", " handle_unknown=\"use_encoded_value\", unknown_value=-1\n", ")\n", - "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [\n", - " (\"cat_preprocessor\", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns),\n", - " ],\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns),\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", " force_int_remainder_cols=False, # Silence a warning in scikit-learn v1.6.\n", ")" diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.ipynb index 8c9aea809..e21e7487a 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.ipynb @@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer\n", + "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import OrdinalEncoder\n", "from sklearn.compose import make_column_selector as selector\n", "\n", @@ -118,8 +118,8 @@ "categorical_preprocessor = OrdinalEncoder(\n", " handle_unknown=\"use_encoded_value\", unknown_value=-1\n", ")\n", - "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [(\"cat_preprocessor\", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)],\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns),\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", " force_int_remainder_cols=False, # Silence a warning in scikit-learn v1.6.\n", ")" diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_02.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_02.ipynb index 4035e5717..f45f01d23 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_02.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_02.ipynb @@ -41,21 +41,15 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer\n", + "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer\n", "from sklearn.compose import make_column_selector as selector\n", "from sklearn.preprocessing import OrdinalEncoder\n", "\n", "categorical_preprocessor = OrdinalEncoder(\n", " handle_unknown=\"use_encoded_value\", unknown_value=-1\n", ")\n", - "preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(\n", - " [\n", - " (\n", - " \"cat_preprocessor\",\n", - " categorical_preprocessor,\n", - " selector(dtype_include=object),\n", - " )\n", - " ],\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (categorical_preprocessor, selector(dtype_include=object)),\n", " remainder=\"passthrough\",\n", ")\n", "\n", @@ -152,6 +146,13 @@ "\n", "print(f\"Test score after the parameter tuning: {test_score:.3f}\")" ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [] } ], "metadata": { diff --git a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_column_transformer.py b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_column_transformer.py index 3ee06fad7..921950cf6 100644 --- a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_column_transformer.py +++ b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_column_transformer.py @@ -74,9 +74,10 @@ # categories. # * **numerical scaling** numerical features which will be standardized. # -# Now, we create our `ColumnTransfomer` by specifying three values: the -# preprocessor name, the transformer, and the columns. First, let's create the -# preprocessors for the numerical and categorical parts. +# Now, we create our `ColumnTransfomer` using the helper function +# `make_column_transformer`. We specify two values: the transformer, and the +# columns. First, let's create the preprocessors for the numerical and +# categorical parts. # %% from sklearn.preprocessing import OneHotEncoder, StandardScaler @@ -89,13 +90,11 @@ # their respective columns. # %% -from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer +from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer -preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( - [ - ("one-hot-encoder", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns), - ("standard_scaler", numerical_preprocessor, numerical_columns), - ] +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns), + (numerical_preprocessor, numerical_columns), ) # %% [markdown] @@ -234,8 +233,8 @@ handle_unknown="use_encoded_value", unknown_value=-1 ) -preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( - [("categorical", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)], +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns), remainder="passthrough", ) diff --git a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py index 670e26105..935056a81 100644 --- a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py @@ -58,18 +58,19 @@ from sklearn.model_selection import cross_validate from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline -from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer +from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer from sklearn.preprocessing import OrdinalEncoder from sklearn.ensemble import HistGradientBoostingClassifier categorical_preprocessor = OrdinalEncoder( handle_unknown="use_encoded_value", unknown_value=-1 ) -preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( - [("categorical", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)], +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns), remainder="passthrough", ) + model = make_pipeline(preprocessor, HistGradientBoostingClassifier()) start = time.time() diff --git a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.py b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.py index a2653df4e..e60af4375 100644 --- a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.py @@ -52,18 +52,19 @@ from sklearn.model_selection import cross_validate from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline -from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer +from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer from sklearn.preprocessing import OrdinalEncoder from sklearn.ensemble import HistGradientBoostingClassifier categorical_preprocessor = OrdinalEncoder( handle_unknown="use_encoded_value", unknown_value=-1 ) -preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( - [("categorical", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)], +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns), remainder="passthrough", ) + model = make_pipeline(preprocessor, HistGradientBoostingClassifier()) start = time.time() @@ -90,17 +91,12 @@ from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler -preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( - [ - ("numerical", StandardScaler(), numerical_columns), - ( - "categorical", - OrdinalEncoder( - handle_unknown="use_encoded_value", unknown_value=-1 - ), - categorical_columns, - ), - ] +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + (StandardScaler(), numerical_columns), + ( + OrdinalEncoder(handle_unknown="use_encoded_value", unknown_value=-1), + categorical_columns, + ), ) model = make_pipeline(preprocessor, HistGradientBoostingClassifier()) @@ -151,8 +147,8 @@ categorical_preprocessor = OneHotEncoder( handle_unknown="ignore", sparse_output=False ) -preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( - [("one-hot-encoder", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)], +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns), remainder="passthrough", ) diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_02.py index f53ddb36a..038483e78 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_ex_02.py @@ -37,21 +37,15 @@ ) # %% -from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer +from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer from sklearn.compose import make_column_selector as selector from sklearn.preprocessing import OrdinalEncoder categorical_preprocessor = OrdinalEncoder( handle_unknown="use_encoded_value", unknown_value=-1 ) -preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( - [ - ( - "cat_preprocessor", - categorical_preprocessor, - selector(dtype_include=object), - ) - ], +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + (categorical_preprocessor, selector(dtype_include=object)), remainder="passthrough", ) @@ -88,3 +82,5 @@ # %% # Write your code here. + +# %% diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py index a3d156940..cb6ad13a2 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py @@ -80,14 +80,14 @@ ) # %% [markdown] -# We then use a `ColumnTransformer` to select the categorical columns and apply +# We then use `make_column_transformer` to select the categorical columns and apply # the `OrdinalEncoder` to them. # %% -from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer +from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer -preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( - [("cat_preprocessor", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)], +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns), remainder="passthrough", # Silence a deprecation warning in scikit-learn v1.6 related to how the # ColumnTransformer stores an attribute that we do not use in this notebook diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_nested.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_nested.py index d447cb997..690398a27 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_nested.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_nested.py @@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ # pipeline is identical to the one we used in the previous notebook. # %% -from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer +from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer from sklearn.preprocessing import OrdinalEncoder from sklearn.compose import make_column_selector as selector @@ -51,10 +51,8 @@ categorical_preprocessor = OrdinalEncoder( handle_unknown="use_encoded_value", unknown_value=-1 ) -preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( - [ - ("cat_preprocessor", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns), - ], +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns), remainder="passthrough", force_int_remainder_cols=False, # Silence a warning in scikit-learn v1.6. ) diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.py index 2b1cd19c5..7acf7da7e 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_randomized_search.py @@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ # We create the same predictive pipeline as done for the grid-search section. # %% -from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer +from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer from sklearn.preprocessing import OrdinalEncoder from sklearn.compose import make_column_selector as selector @@ -70,8 +70,8 @@ categorical_preprocessor = OrdinalEncoder( handle_unknown="use_encoded_value", unknown_value=-1 ) -preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( - [("cat_preprocessor", categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns)], +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + (categorical_preprocessor, categorical_columns), remainder="passthrough", force_int_remainder_cols=False, # Silence a warning in scikit-learn v1.6. ) diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_sol_02.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_sol_02.py index 9c5ceaa2c..0dd1d172d 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_sol_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_sol_02.py @@ -31,21 +31,15 @@ ) # %% -from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer +from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer from sklearn.compose import make_column_selector as selector from sklearn.preprocessing import OrdinalEncoder categorical_preprocessor = OrdinalEncoder( handle_unknown="use_encoded_value", unknown_value=-1 ) -preprocessor = ColumnTransformer( - [ - ( - "cat_preprocessor", - categorical_preprocessor, - selector(dtype_include=object), - ) - ], +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + (categorical_preprocessor, selector(dtype_include=object)), remainder="passthrough", ) @@ -121,3 +115,5 @@ test_score = model.score(data_test, target_test) print(f"Test score after the parameter tuning: {test_score:.3f}") + +# %% From 110f5ccca554a16b390e128dcd5ca033b2b628eb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: omahs <73983677+omahs@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2025 10:50:28 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 54/79] Fix typos (#839) --- CONTRIBUTING.md | 4 ++-- notebooks/01_tabular_data_exploration.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/linear_models_sol_03.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/logistic_regression.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/trees_classification.ipynb | 2 +- plan.md | 6 +++--- python_scripts/01_tabular_data_exploration.py | 2 +- python_scripts/linear_models_sol_03.py | 2 +- python_scripts/logistic_regression.py | 2 +- python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py | 2 +- python_scripts/trees_classification.py | 2 +- workflow-notes.md | 4 ++-- 13 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-) diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index 00e9b92d0..8e9bedf28 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ $ make notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.ipynb - when saving the notebook inside Jupyter it will actually write to the `.py` file In our experience, this workflow is less convenient (Visual Studio Code is a -nicer developping environment) and also it tends to add some not very important +nicer developing environment) and also it tends to add some not very important (and different on everyone's machine) metadata changes in the `.py` file, for example about jupytext version, Jupyter kernel, Python version, etc ... @@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ make full-index ## JupyterBook JupyterBook is the tool we use to generate our .github.io website from our -`.py` and `.md` files (note than `.ipynb` files are not used in our JupyterBook +`.py` and `.md` files (note that `.ipynb` files are not used in our JupyterBook setup). ``` diff --git a/notebooks/01_tabular_data_exploration.ipynb b/notebooks/01_tabular_data_exploration.ipynb index 12a4b5f5c..0e8ba184e 100644 --- a/notebooks/01_tabular_data_exploration.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/01_tabular_data_exploration.ipynb @@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "An alternative is to omit the `head` method. This would output the intial and\n", + "An alternative is to omit the `head` method. This would output the initial and\n", "final rows and columns, but everything in between is not shown by default. It\n", "also provides the dataframe's dimensions at the bottom in the format `n_rows`\n", "x `n_columns`." diff --git a/notebooks/linear_models_sol_03.ipynb b/notebooks/linear_models_sol_03.ipynb index 522339d0d..d477ac121 100644 --- a/notebooks/linear_models_sol_03.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/linear_models_sol_03.ipynb @@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ "Since we scaled the features, the coefficients of the linear model can be\n", "meaningful compared directly. `\"capital-gain\"` is the most impacting feature.\n", "Just be aware not to draw conclusions on the causal effect provided the impact\n", - "of a feature. Interested readers are refered to the [example on Common\n", + "of a feature. Interested readers are referred to the [example on Common\n", "pitfalls in the interpretation of coefficients of linear\n", "models](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/inspection/plot_linear_model_coefficient_interpretation.html)\n", "or the [example on Failure of Machine Learning to infer causal\n", diff --git a/notebooks/logistic_regression.ipynb b/notebooks/logistic_regression.ipynb index c9679f811..ce8ccb3b9 100644 --- a/notebooks/logistic_regression.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/logistic_regression.ipynb @@ -390,7 +390,7 @@ "function](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softmax_function) to make predictions.\n", "Giving more details on that scenario is beyond the scope of this MOOC.\n", "\n", - "In any case, interested users are refered to the [scikit-learn user guide](\n", + "In any case, interested users are referred to the [scikit-learn user guide](\n", "https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/linear_model.html#logistic-regression)\n", "for a more mathematical description of the `predict_proba` method of the\n", "`LogisticRegression` and the respective normalization functions." diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb index 794c83322..fdedcee45 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb @@ -451,7 +451,7 @@ "In this notebook we have seen:\n", "\n", "* how to optimize the hyperparameters of a predictive model via a grid-search;\n", - "* that searching for more than two hyperparamters is too costly;\n", + "* that searching for more than two hyperparameters is too costly;\n", "* that a grid-search does not necessarily find an optimal solution." ] } diff --git a/notebooks/trees_classification.ipynb b/notebooks/trees_classification.ipynb index 22eae1fca..44d56e6ea 100644 --- a/notebooks/trees_classification.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/trees_classification.ipynb @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ "In this notebook we illustrate decision trees in a multiclass classification\n", "problem by using the penguins dataset with 2 features and 3 classes.\n", "\n", - "For the sake of simplicity, we focus the discussion on the hyperparamter\n", + "For the sake of simplicity, we focus the discussion on the hyperparameter\n", "`max_depth`, which controls the maximal depth of the decision tree." ] }, diff --git a/plan.md b/plan.md index de8cc8e41..2eb293bb0 100644 --- a/plan.md +++ b/plan.md @@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ Features and samples A few words about the style and scope of this course: it is centered around code, though we strive to keep it simple -## Quizz: +## Quiz: Given a case study (e.g. pricing apartments based on a real estate website database) and sample toy dataset: say whether it’s an application of supervised vs unsupervised, classification vs regression, what are the features, what is the target variable, what is a record. Propose a hand engineer decision rule that can be used as a baseline @@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ Simple exploratory data analysis with pandas and matplotlib ### Content -Prepare a train / test split +Prepare a train / test split Basic model on numerical features only @@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ Model fitting and performance evaluation with cross-validation ## Notebook module #3: basic parameter tuning and final test score evaluation ### Learning objectives: -- Learn to no trust blindly the default parameters of scikit-learn estimators +- Learn not to trust blindly the default parameters of scikit-learn estimators ### Content Parameter tuning with Grid and Random hyperparameter search diff --git a/python_scripts/01_tabular_data_exploration.py b/python_scripts/01_tabular_data_exploration.py index bef7504f3..4ecb8ebf8 100644 --- a/python_scripts/01_tabular_data_exploration.py +++ b/python_scripts/01_tabular_data_exploration.py @@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ adult_census.head() # %% [markdown] -# An alternative is to omit the `head` method. This would output the intial and +# An alternative is to omit the `head` method. This would output the initial and # final rows and columns, but everything in between is not shown by default. It # also provides the dataframe's dimensions at the bottom in the format `n_rows` # x `n_columns`. diff --git a/python_scripts/linear_models_sol_03.py b/python_scripts/linear_models_sol_03.py index db332e4b1..d3554c7b0 100644 --- a/python_scripts/linear_models_sol_03.py +++ b/python_scripts/linear_models_sol_03.py @@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ # Since we scaled the features, the coefficients of the linear model can be # meaningful compared directly. `"capital-gain"` is the most impacting feature. # Just be aware not to draw conclusions on the causal effect provided the impact -# of a feature. Interested readers are refered to the [example on Common +# of a feature. Interested readers are referred to the [example on Common # pitfalls in the interpretation of coefficients of linear # models](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/inspection/plot_linear_model_coefficient_interpretation.html) # or the [example on Failure of Machine Learning to infer causal diff --git a/python_scripts/logistic_regression.py b/python_scripts/logistic_regression.py index 71a08656f..87b2cc6a1 100644 --- a/python_scripts/logistic_regression.py +++ b/python_scripts/logistic_regression.py @@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ # function](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softmax_function) to make predictions. # Giving more details on that scenario is beyond the scope of this MOOC. # -# In any case, interested users are refered to the [scikit-learn user guide]( +# In any case, interested users are referred to the [scikit-learn user guide]( # https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/linear_model.html#logistic-regression) # for a more mathematical description of the `predict_proba` method of the # `LogisticRegression` and the respective normalization functions. diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py index cb6ad13a2..97778efc6 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py @@ -276,5 +276,5 @@ def shorten_param(param_name): # In this notebook we have seen: # # * how to optimize the hyperparameters of a predictive model via a grid-search; -# * that searching for more than two hyperparamters is too costly; +# * that searching for more than two hyperparameters is too costly; # * that a grid-search does not necessarily find an optimal solution. diff --git a/python_scripts/trees_classification.py b/python_scripts/trees_classification.py index 3723109a5..26da343d1 100644 --- a/python_scripts/trees_classification.py +++ b/python_scripts/trees_classification.py @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ # In this notebook we illustrate decision trees in a multiclass classification # problem by using the penguins dataset with 2 features and 3 classes. # -# For the sake of simplicity, we focus the discussion on the hyperparamter +# For the sake of simplicity, we focus the discussion on the hyperparameter # `max_depth`, which controls the maximal depth of the decision tree. # %% [markdown] diff --git a/workflow-notes.md b/workflow-notes.md index e79247110..91382ba94 100644 --- a/workflow-notes.md +++ b/workflow-notes.md @@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ https://gitlab.inria.fr/learninglab/mooc-scikit-learn/mooc-scikit-learn-coordina The `jupyter-book` folder has the same structure as the `jupyter-book` folder on the github repo, but the gitlab one contains only quizzes `.md` files. If -you work on quizzes, you need to to do it in the gitlab repo, the github repo +you work on quizzes, you need to do it in the gitlab repo, the github repo quiz files are generated from the gitlab repo (by stripping solution) with `make exercises`. @@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ panel, footer, etc ... There are two ways this can be applied on the FUN side: - adding `?content_only` at the end of a URL, for example https://inria.github.io/scikit-learn-mooc/?content_only (compare with - https://inria.github.io/scikit-learn-mooc/). The javascript logic come from + https://inria.github.io/scikit-learn-mooc/). The javascript logic comes from `jupyter-book/_static/sklearn_mooc.js`. - manually including HTML with some javascript magic on the FUN-MOOC side e.g. the concluding remarks that excludes content based on CSS classes. From 36ca1c573dde610fef05fd3906943acd11b8f553 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Matt J." Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2025 15:57:00 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 55/79] minor improvements in wording and import statement order (#841) * minor improvment in wording and import statement order * use pre-commit hooks --- notebooks/linear_models_ex_02.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/linear_models_sol_02.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/linear_regression_non_linear_link.ipynb | 4 +++- python_scripts/linear_models_ex_02.py | 2 +- python_scripts/linear_models_sol_02.py | 2 +- python_scripts/linear_regression_non_linear_link.py | 4 +++- 6 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/linear_models_ex_02.ipynb b/notebooks/linear_models_ex_02.ipynb index 6a4fb4b15..dc0fe1672 100644 --- a/notebooks/linear_models_ex_02.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/linear_models_ex_02.ipynb @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ "disease. This would depend on the patient's Body Mass Index which is defined\n", "as `weight / height ** 2`.\n", "\n", - "We load the dataset penguins dataset. We first use a set of 3 numerical\n", + "We load the penguins dataset. We first use a set of 3 numerical\n", "features to predict the target, i.e. the body mass of the penguin." ] }, diff --git a/notebooks/linear_models_sol_02.ipynb b/notebooks/linear_models_sol_02.ipynb index 697f5ea08..906478163 100644 --- a/notebooks/linear_models_sol_02.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/linear_models_sol_02.ipynb @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ "disease. This would depend on the patient's Body Mass Index which is defined\n", "as `weight / height ** 2`.\n", "\n", - "We load the dataset penguins dataset. We first use a set of 3 numerical\n", + "We load the penguins dataset. We first use a set of 3 numerical\n", "features to predict the target, i.e. the body mass of the penguin." ] }, diff --git a/notebooks/linear_regression_non_linear_link.ipynb b/notebooks/linear_regression_non_linear_link.ipynb index 27f6004b0..b917c9e8a 100644 --- a/notebooks/linear_regression_non_linear_link.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/linear_regression_non_linear_link.ipynb @@ -119,6 +119,9 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ + "from sklearn.metrics import mean_squared_error\n", + "\n", + "\n", "def fit_score_plot_regression(model, title=None):\n", " model.fit(data, target)\n", " target_predicted = model.predict(data)\n", @@ -147,7 +150,6 @@ "outputs": [], "source": [ "from sklearn.linear_model import LinearRegression\n", - "from sklearn.metrics import mean_squared_error\n", "\n", "linear_regression = LinearRegression()\n", "linear_regression" diff --git a/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_02.py index ae667c160..9fd6c23f7 100644 --- a/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/linear_models_ex_02.py @@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ # disease. This would depend on the patient's Body Mass Index which is defined # as `weight / height ** 2`. # -# We load the dataset penguins dataset. We first use a set of 3 numerical +# We load the penguins dataset. We first use a set of 3 numerical # features to predict the target, i.e. the body mass of the penguin. # %% [markdown] diff --git a/python_scripts/linear_models_sol_02.py b/python_scripts/linear_models_sol_02.py index 0b0717f10..25c38f849 100644 --- a/python_scripts/linear_models_sol_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/linear_models_sol_02.py @@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ # disease. This would depend on the patient's Body Mass Index which is defined # as `weight / height ** 2`. # -# We load the dataset penguins dataset. We first use a set of 3 numerical +# We load the penguins dataset. We first use a set of 3 numerical # features to predict the target, i.e. the body mass of the penguin. # %% [markdown] diff --git a/python_scripts/linear_regression_non_linear_link.py b/python_scripts/linear_regression_non_linear_link.py index 155175a20..47d5ab679 100644 --- a/python_scripts/linear_regression_non_linear_link.py +++ b/python_scripts/linear_regression_non_linear_link.py @@ -76,6 +76,9 @@ # %% +from sklearn.metrics import mean_squared_error + + def fit_score_plot_regression(model, title=None): model.fit(data, target) target_predicted = model.predict(data) @@ -95,7 +98,6 @@ def fit_score_plot_regression(model, title=None): # %% from sklearn.linear_model import LinearRegression -from sklearn.metrics import mean_squared_error linear_regression = LinearRegression() linear_regression From 8ca0182888e01d48d2d66fae147f926b0e273d8f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: David Klank <155117116+davidjsonn@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2025 11:04:05 +0300 Subject: [PATCH 56/79] Minor typos fixups (#842) --- python_scripts/ensemble_bagging.py | 2 +- .../linear_models_feature_engineering_classification.py | 2 +- 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/ensemble_bagging.py b/python_scripts/ensemble_bagging.py index f3750e642..5c4262fd0 100644 --- a/python_scripts/ensemble_bagging.py +++ b/python_scripts/ensemble_bagging.py @@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ def generate_data(n_samples=30): _ = plt.title("Predictions by a single decision tree") # %% [markdown] -# Let's see how we can use bootstraping to learn several trees. +# Let's see how we can use bootstrapping to learn several trees. # # ## Bootstrap resampling # diff --git a/python_scripts/linear_models_feature_engineering_classification.py b/python_scripts/linear_models_feature_engineering_classification.py index 585e579b2..fdbf3a532 100644 --- a/python_scripts/linear_models_feature_engineering_classification.py +++ b/python_scripts/linear_models_feature_engineering_classification.py @@ -439,7 +439,7 @@ def plot_decision_boundary(model, title=None): # - Transformers such as `KBinsDiscretizer` and `SplineTransformer` can be used # to engineer non-linear features independently for each original feature. # - As a result, these transformers cannot capture interactions between the -# orignal features (and then would fail on the XOR classification task). +# original features (and then would fail on the XOR classification task). # - Despite this limitation they already augment the expressivity of the # pipeline, which can be sufficient for some datasets. # - They also favor axis-aligned decision boundaries, in particular in the low From 4f9b633c7f141386838f66337df83dc73aec79da Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2025 09:57:24 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 57/79] MTN px parallel render fix (#843) --- jupyter-book/tuning/parameter_tuning_automated_quiz_m3_02.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/jupyter-book/tuning/parameter_tuning_automated_quiz_m3_02.md b/jupyter-book/tuning/parameter_tuning_automated_quiz_m3_02.md index 1471af06b..000944044 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/tuning/parameter_tuning_automated_quiz_m3_02.md +++ b/jupyter-book/tuning/parameter_tuning_automated_quiz_m3_02.md @@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ fig = px.parallel_coordinates( color="mean_test_score", color_continuous_scale=px.colors.sequential.Viridis, ) -fig.show() +fig.show(renderer="notebook") ``` ```{note} From 4aa8c13662e83450cf162637e9745bf50392438a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Benoit Rospars Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:34:05 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 58/79] MAINT Update matplotlib to v3.10.3 (#846) --- requirements.txt | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt index 588f5d275..2719f33ab 100644 --- a/requirements.txt +++ b/requirements.txt @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ scikit-learn>=1.6 pandas >= 1 -matplotlib +matplotlib>=3.10 seaborn >= 0.13 plotly skrub From 12106596c1d810cca726eba23cc64baafe23fd6b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2025 14:43:44 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 59/79] MTN Heat map explanation (#833) --- python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py | 16 +++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py index 97778efc6..2bc3c566a 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py @@ -220,8 +220,9 @@ def shorten_param(param_name): cv_results # %% [markdown] -# With only 2 parameters, we might want to visualize the grid-search as a -# heatmap. We need to transform our `cv_results` into a dataframe where: +# Given that we are tuning only 2 parameters, we can visualize the results as a +# heatmap. To do so, we first need to reshape the `cv_results` into a dataframe +# where: # # - the rows correspond to the learning-rate values; # - the columns correspond to the maximum number of leaf; @@ -237,7 +238,8 @@ def shorten_param(param_name): pivoted_cv_results # %% [markdown] -# We can use a heatmap representation to show the above dataframe visually. +# Now that we have the data in the right format, we can create the heatmap as +# follows: # %% import seaborn as sns @@ -253,6 +255,14 @@ def shorten_param(param_name): ax.invert_yaxis() # %% [markdown] +# The heatmap above shows the mean test accuracy (i.e., the average over +# cross-validation splits) for each combination of hyperparameters, where darker +# colors indicate better performance. However, notice that using colors only +# allows us to visually compare the mean test score, but does not carry any +# information on the standard deviation over splits, making it difficult to say +# if different scores coming from different combinations lead to a significantly +# better model or not. +# # The above tables highlights the following things: # # * for too high values of `learning_rate`, the generalization performance of From ff94deac989702bbb12dc487116f4cd487e7f46e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2025 14:46:06 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 60/79] MTN Bias variance quizz (#849) --- .../overfit/bias_vs_variance_quiz_m2_03.md | 18 ++++++++++-------- 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) diff --git a/jupyter-book/overfit/bias_vs_variance_quiz_m2_03.md b/jupyter-book/overfit/bias_vs_variance_quiz_m2_03.md index ba79265a5..238aa0bc9 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/overfit/bias_vs_variance_quiz_m2_03.md +++ b/jupyter-book/overfit/bias_vs_variance_quiz_m2_03.md @@ -1,11 +1,12 @@ # ✅ Quiz M2.03 ```{admonition} Question -Fitting a model with a high bias: +A model with a high bias: -- a) causes an underfitted model? -- b) causes an overfitted model? -- c) increases the sensitivity of the learned prediction function to a random resampling of the training set observations? +- a) is a characteristic of an underfitted model? +- b) is a characteristic of an overfitted model? +- c) when trained, exhibits greater sensivity to random resampling of the training +data? - d) causes the learned prediction function to make systematic errors? _Select all answers that apply_ @@ -14,11 +15,12 @@ _Select all answers that apply_ +++ ```{admonition} Question -Fitting a high variance model: +A model with high variance: -- a) causes an underfitted model? -- b) causes an overfitted model? -- c) increases the sensitivity of the learned prediction function to a random resampling of the training set observations? +- a) is a characteristic of an underfitted model? +- b) is a characteristic of an overfitted model? +- c) when trained, exhibits greater sensivity to random resampling of the training +data? - d) causes the learned prediction function to make systematic errors? _Select all answers that apply_ From e1a5f07ac7e3da9b37d753fcb6012b3b237d6846 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Arturo Amor <86408019+ArturoAmorQ@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 15:54:59 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 61/79] MNT Add info about the estimators html diagram (#844) --- .../03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.py | 32 +++++++++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 29 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.py b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.py index ad22e5ee3..866836b4c 100644 --- a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.py +++ b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.py @@ -97,15 +97,41 @@ ("classifier", LogisticRegression()), ] ) +model # %% [markdown] -# Let's visualize it! +# Let's fit it! # %% -model +model.fit(data, target) + +# %% [markdown] +# Notice that the diagram changes color once the estimator is fit. +# +# So far we used `Pipeline` and `ColumnTransformer`, which allows us to custom +# the names of the steps in the pipeline. An alternative is to use +# `make_column_transformer` and `make_pipeline`, they do not require, and do not +# permit, naming the estimators. Instead, their names are set to the lowercase +# of their types automatically. + +# %% +from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer +from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline + +numeric_transformer = make_pipeline( + SimpleImputer(strategy="median"), StandardScaler() +) +categorical_transformer = OneHotEncoder(handle_unknown="ignore") + +preprocessor = make_column_transformer( + (numeric_transformer, numeric_features), + (categorical_transformer, categorical_features), +) +model = make_pipeline(preprocessor, LogisticRegression()) +model.fit(data, target) # %% [markdown] -# ## Finally we score the model +# ## Finally we can score the model using cross-validation: # %% from sklearn.model_selection import cross_validate From a7df7ad940d185e9b1d610b3e9cb65d9e691a9f9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 16:06:16 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 62/79] Update notebooks --- ...3_categorical_pipeline_visualization.ipynb | 44 +++++++++++++++++-- notebooks/ensemble_bagging.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb | 16 +++++-- 3 files changed, 54 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.ipynb b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.ipynb index 48110a944..3ddd07208 100644 --- a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.ipynb @@ -166,14 +166,15 @@ " (\"preprocessor\", preprocessor),\n", " (\"classifier\", LogisticRegression()),\n", " ]\n", - ")" + ")\n", + "model" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "Let's visualize it!" + "Let's fit it!" ] }, { @@ -182,14 +183,49 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "model" + "model.fit(data, target)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "Notice that the diagram changes color once the estimator is fit.\n", + "\n", + "So far we used `Pipeline` and `ColumnTransformer`, which allows us to custom\n", + "the names of the steps in the pipeline. An alternative is to use\n", + "`make_column_transformer` and `make_pipeline`, they do not require, and do not\n", + "permit, naming the estimators. Instead, their names are set to the lowercase\n", + "of their types automatically." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from sklearn.compose import make_column_transformer\n", + "from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline\n", + "\n", + "numeric_transformer = make_pipeline(\n", + " SimpleImputer(strategy=\"median\"), StandardScaler()\n", + ")\n", + "categorical_transformer = OneHotEncoder(handle_unknown=\"ignore\")\n", + "\n", + "preprocessor = make_column_transformer(\n", + " (numeric_transformer, numeric_features),\n", + " (categorical_transformer, categorical_features),\n", + ")\n", + "model = make_pipeline(preprocessor, LogisticRegression())\n", + "model.fit(data, target)" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "## Finally we score the model" + "## Finally we can score the model using cross-validation:" ] }, { diff --git a/notebooks/ensemble_bagging.ipynb b/notebooks/ensemble_bagging.ipynb index 27c29a453..347666d9c 100644 --- a/notebooks/ensemble_bagging.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/ensemble_bagging.ipynb @@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ "lines_to_next_cell": 2 }, "source": [ - "Let's see how we can use bootstraping to learn several trees.\n", + "Let's see how we can use bootstrapping to learn several trees.\n", "\n", "## Bootstrap resampling\n", "\n", diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb index fdedcee45..7f0e0f61f 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb @@ -371,8 +371,9 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "With only 2 parameters, we might want to visualize the grid-search as a\n", - "heatmap. We need to transform our `cv_results` into a dataframe where:\n", + "Given that we are tuning only 2 parameters, we can visualize the results as a\n", + "heatmap. To do so, we first need to reshape the `cv_results` into a dataframe\n", + "where:\n", "\n", "- the rows correspond to the learning-rate values;\n", "- the columns correspond to the maximum number of leaf;\n", @@ -398,7 +399,8 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "We can use a heatmap representation to show the above dataframe visually." + "Now that we have the data in the right format, we can create the heatmap as\n", + "follows:" ] }, { @@ -424,6 +426,14 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ + "The heatmap above shows the mean test accuracy (i.e., the average over\n", + "cross-validation splits) for each combination of hyperparameters, where darker\n", + "colors indicate better performance. However, notice that using colors only\n", + "allows us to visually compare the mean test score, but does not carry any\n", + "information on the standard deviation over splits, making it difficult to say\n", + "if different scores coming from different combinations lead to a significantly\n", + "better model or not.\n", + "\n", "The above tables highlights the following things:\n", "\n", "* for too high values of `learning_rate`, the generalization performance of\n", From c9623292748d8521e2d926a6bc5ec518366db4e0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Chesta Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2025 13:22:25 +0530 Subject: [PATCH 63/79] Add cross-validation diagram to GridSearchCV notebook (#847) --- .../parameter_tuning_grid_search.py | 105 ++++++++++-------- 1 file changed, 60 insertions(+), 45 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py index 2bc3c566a..d3cc4ecd4 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py @@ -116,77 +116,92 @@ # %% [markdown] # ## Tuning using a grid-search # -# In the previous exercise we used one `for` loop for each hyperparameter to -# find the best combination over a fixed grid of values. `GridSearchCV` is a -# scikit-learn class that implements a very similar logic with less repetitive -# code. +# In the previous exercise (M3.01) we used two nested `for` loops (one for each +# hyperparameter) to test different combinations over a fixed grid of +# hyperparameter values. In each iteration of the loop, we used +# `cross_val_score` to compute the mean score (as averaged across +# cross-validation splits), and compared those mean scores to select the best +# combination. `GridSearchCV` is a scikit-learn class that implements a very +# similar logic with less repetitive code. The suffix `CV` refers to the +# cross-validation it runs internally (instead of the `cross_val_score` we +# "hard" coded). # -# Let's see how to use the `GridSearchCV` estimator for doing such search. Since -# the grid-search is costly, we only explore the combination learning-rate and -# the maximum number of nodes. +# The `GridSearchCV` estimator takes a `param_grid` parameter which defines all +# hyperparameters and their associated values. The grid-search is in charge of +# creating all possible combinations and testing them. +# +# The number of combinations is equal to the product of the number of values to +# explore for each parameter. Thus, adding new parameters with their associated +# values to be explored rapidly becomes computationally expensive. Because of +# that, here we only explore the combination learning-rate and the maximum +# number of nodes for a total of 4 x 3 = 12 combinations. -# %% # %%time from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV param_grid = { - "classifier__learning_rate": (0.01, 0.1, 1, 10), - "classifier__max_leaf_nodes": (3, 10, 30), -} + "classifier__learning_rate": (0.01, 0.1, 1, 10), # 4 possible values + "classifier__max_leaf_nodes": (3, 10, 30), # 3 possible values +} # 12 unique combinations model_grid_search = GridSearchCV(model, param_grid=param_grid, n_jobs=2, cv=2) model_grid_search.fit(data_train, target_train) # %% [markdown] -# Finally, we check the accuracy of our model using the test set. +# You can access the best combination of hyperparameters found by the grid +# search using the `best_params_` attribute. # %% -accuracy = model_grid_search.score(data_test, target_test) -print( - f"The test accuracy score of the grid-searched pipeline is: {accuracy:.2f}" -) - -# %% [markdown] -# ```{warning} -# Be aware that the evaluation should normally be performed through -# cross-validation by providing `model_grid_search` as a model to the -# `cross_validate` function. -# -# Here, we used a single train-test split to evaluate `model_grid_search`. In -# a future notebook will go into more detail about nested cross-validation, when -# you use cross-validation both for hyperparameter tuning and model evaluation. -# ``` +print(f"The best set of parameters is: {model_grid_search.best_params_}") # %% [markdown] -# The `GridSearchCV` estimator takes a `param_grid` parameter which defines all -# hyperparameters and their associated values. The grid-search is in charge -# of creating all possible combinations and test them. -# -# The number of combinations are equal to the product of the number of values to -# explore for each parameter (e.g. in our example 4 x 3 combinations). Thus, -# adding new parameters with their associated values to be explored become -# rapidly computationally expensive. -# -# Once the grid-search is fitted, it can be used as any other predictor by -# calling `predict` and `predict_proba`. Internally, it uses the model with the +# Once the grid-search is fitted, it can be used as any other estimator, i.e. it +# has `predict` and `score` methods. Internally, it uses the model with the # best parameters found during `fit`. # -# Get predictions for the 5 first samples using the estimator with the best -# parameters. +# Let's get the predictions for the 5 first samples using the estimator with the +# best parameters: # %% model_grid_search.predict(data_test.iloc[0:5]) # %% [markdown] -# You can know about these parameters by looking at the `best_params_` -# attribute. +# Finally, we check the accuracy of our model using the test set. # %% -print(f"The best set of parameters is: {model_grid_search.best_params_}") +accuracy = model_grid_search.score(data_test, target_test) +print( + f"The test accuracy score of the grid-search pipeline is: {accuracy:.2f}" +) # %% [markdown] -# The accuracy and the best parameters of the grid-searched pipeline are similar +# The accuracy and the best parameters of the grid-search pipeline are similar # to the ones we found in the previous exercise, where we searched the best -# parameters "by hand" through a double for loop. +# parameters "by hand" through a double `for` loop. +# +# ## The need for a validation set +# +# In the previous section, the selection of the best hyperparameters was done +# using the train set, coming from the initial train-test split. Then, we +# evaluated the generalization performance of our tuned model on the left out +# test set. This can be shown schematically as follows: +# +# ![Cross-validation tuning +# diagram](../figures/cross_validation_train_test_diagram.png) +# +# ```{note} +# This figure shows the particular case of **K-fold** cross-validation strategy +# using `n_splits=5` to further split the train set coming from a train-test +# split. For each cross-validation split, the procedure trains a model on all +# the red samples, evaluates the score of a given set of hyperparameters on the +# green samples. The best combination of hyperparameters `best_params` is selected +# based on those intermediate scores. +# +# Then a final model is refitted using `best_params` on the concatenation of the +# red and green samples and evaluated on the blue samples. +# +# The green samples are sometimes referred as the **validation set** to +# differentiate them from the final test set in blue. +# ``` # # In addition, we can inspect all results which are stored in the attribute # `cv_results_` of the grid-search. We filter some specific columns from these From 00ddb9b6663e521848eec4dbd3e6405a8a90e9fb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2025 11:46:28 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 64/79] MTN Synchronized the quizzes for module 1 and 7 --- .../evaluation/evaluation_wrap_up_quiz.md | 20 ++++++++++--------- .../wrap_up_quiz.md | 6 ++---- 2 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-) diff --git a/jupyter-book/evaluation/evaluation_wrap_up_quiz.md b/jupyter-book/evaluation/evaluation_wrap_up_quiz.md index 43ad7427f..e74369876 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/evaluation/evaluation_wrap_up_quiz.md +++ b/jupyter-book/evaluation/evaluation_wrap_up_quiz.md @@ -55,13 +55,13 @@ This model is closer to what we saw previously: it is a linear model trained on a non-linear feature transformation. We will build, train and evaluate such a model as part of this exercise. Thus, you need to: -- create a new data matrix containing the cube of the speed, the speed, the - speed multiplied by the sine of the angle of the slope, and the speed - multiplied by the acceleration. To compute the angle of the slope, you need to - take the arc tangent of the slope (`alpha = np.arctan(slope)`). In addition, - we can limit ourself to positive acceleration only by clipping to 0 the - negative acceleration values (they would correspond to some power created by - the braking that we are not modeling here). +- create a new data matrix `data_linear_model` containing the cube of the speed, + the speed, the speed multiplied by the sine of the angle of the slope, and the + speed multiplied by the acceleration. To compute the angle of the slope, you + need to take the arc tangent of the slope (`alpha = np.arctan(slope)`). In + addition, we can limit ourself to positive acceleration only by clipping to 0 + the negative acceleration values (they would correspond to some power created + by the braking that we are not modeling here). - using the new data matrix, create a linear predictive model based on a [`sklearn.preprocessing.StandardScaler`](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/generated/sklearn.preprocessing.StandardScaler.html) and a @@ -298,7 +298,9 @@ _Select a single answer_ Now, we will go more into details by picking a single ride for the testing and analyse the predictions of the models for this test ride. To do so, we can reuse -the `LeaveOneGroupOut` cross-validation object in the following manner: +the `LeaveOneGroupOut` cross-validation object in the following manner, where +`data_linear_model` is the matrix defined in question 1 with the augmented data +features: ```python cv = LeaveOneGroupOut() @@ -349,7 +351,7 @@ data_test_subset = data_test[time_slice] target_test_subset = target_test[time_slice] ``` -It allows to select data from 5.00 pm until 5.05 pm. Used the previous fitted +It allows to select data from 5.00 pm until 5.05 pm. Use the previous fitted models (linear and gradient-boosting regressor) to predict on this portion of the test data. Draw on the same plot the true targets and the predictions of each model. diff --git a/jupyter-book/predictive_modeling_pipeline/wrap_up_quiz.md b/jupyter-book/predictive_modeling_pipeline/wrap_up_quiz.md index 71c10bfec..1d303e41c 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/predictive_modeling_pipeline/wrap_up_quiz.md +++ b/jupyter-book/predictive_modeling_pipeline/wrap_up_quiz.md @@ -155,10 +155,8 @@ Let's visualize the second approach. ![Fold-to-fold comparison](../../figures/numerical_pipeline_wrap_up_quiz_comparison.png) ```{admonition} Question -Select the true statement. - -The number of folds where the model using all features perform better than the -model using only numerical features lies in the range: +Compare both models by counting on how many folds the model using all features +has a better test score than the other. Select the correct statement: - a) [0, 3]: the model using all features is consistently worse - b) [4, 6]: both models are almost equivalent From 271555a07922459ce4174c4f96ed958505266ed5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2025 14:23:54 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 65/79] MTN Fix the parallel plots --- notebooks/datasets_adult_census.ipynb | 2 +- ...s_feature_engineering_classification.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb | 116 +++++++++--------- .../parameter_tuning_parallel_plot.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_03.ipynb | 2 +- python_scripts/datasets_adult_census.py | 2 +- .../parameter_tuning_parallel_plot.py | 2 +- python_scripts/parameter_tuning_sol_03.py | 2 +- 8 files changed, 67 insertions(+), 63 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/datasets_adult_census.ipynb b/notebooks/datasets_adult_census.ipynb index 139287829..ae274ebf5 100644 --- a/notebooks/datasets_adult_census.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/datasets_adult_census.ipynb @@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ " dimensions=plot_list,\n", " )\n", ")\n", - "fig.show()" + "fig.show(renderer=\"notebook\")" ] }, { diff --git a/notebooks/linear_models_feature_engineering_classification.ipynb b/notebooks/linear_models_feature_engineering_classification.ipynb index 6781ef734..5043c40ad 100644 --- a/notebooks/linear_models_feature_engineering_classification.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/linear_models_feature_engineering_classification.ipynb @@ -641,7 +641,7 @@ "- Transformers such as `KBinsDiscretizer` and `SplineTransformer` can be used\n", " to engineer non-linear features independently for each original feature.\n", "- As a result, these transformers cannot capture interactions between the\n", - " orignal features (and then would fail on the XOR classification task).\n", + " original features (and then would fail on the XOR classification task).\n", "- Despite this limitation they already augment the expressivity of the\n", " pipeline, which can be sufficient for some datasets.\n", "- They also favor axis-aligned decision boundaries, in particular in the low\n", diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb index 7f0e0f61f..a7fc56994 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb @@ -198,29 +198,33 @@ "source": [ "## Tuning using a grid-search\n", "\n", - "In the previous exercise we used one `for` loop for each hyperparameter to\n", - "find the best combination over a fixed grid of values. `GridSearchCV` is a\n", - "scikit-learn class that implements a very similar logic with less repetitive\n", - "code.\n", + "In the previous exercise (M3.01) we used two nested `for` loops (one for each\n", + "hyperparameter) to test different combinations over a fixed grid of\n", + "hyperparameter values. In each iteration of the loop, we used\n", + "`cross_val_score` to compute the mean score (as averaged across\n", + "cross-validation splits), and compared those mean scores to select the best\n", + "combination. `GridSearchCV` is a scikit-learn class that implements a very\n", + "similar logic with less repetitive code. The suffix `CV` refers to the\n", + "cross-validation it runs internally (instead of the `cross_val_score` we\n", + "\"hard\" coded).\n", + "\n", + "The `GridSearchCV` estimator takes a `param_grid` parameter which defines all\n", + "hyperparameters and their associated values. The grid-search is in charge of\n", + "creating all possible combinations and testing them.\n", + "\n", + "The number of combinations is equal to the product of the number of values to\n", + "explore for each parameter. Thus, adding new parameters with their associated\n", + "values to be explored rapidly becomes computationally expensive. Because of\n", + "that, here we only explore the combination learning-rate and the maximum\n", + "number of nodes for a total of 4 x 3 = 12 combinations.\n", "\n", - "Let's see how to use the `GridSearchCV` estimator for doing such search. Since\n", - "the grid-search is costly, we only explore the combination learning-rate and\n", - "the maximum number of nodes." - ] - }, - { - "cell_type": "code", - "execution_count": null, - "metadata": {}, - "outputs": [], - "source": [ "%%time\n", "from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV\n", "\n", "param_grid = {\n", - " \"classifier__learning_rate\": (0.01, 0.1, 1, 10),\n", - " \"classifier__max_leaf_nodes\": (3, 10, 30),\n", - "}\n", + " \"classifier__learning_rate\": (0.01, 0.1, 1, 10), # 4 possible values\n", + " \"classifier__max_leaf_nodes\": (3, 10, 30), # 3 possible values\n", + "} # 12 unique combinations\n", "model_grid_search = GridSearchCV(model, param_grid=param_grid, n_jobs=2, cv=2)\n", "model_grid_search.fit(data_train, target_train)" ] @@ -229,7 +233,8 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "Finally, we check the accuracy of our model using the test set." + "You can access the best combination of hyperparameters found by the grid\n", + "search using the `best_params_` attribute." ] }, { @@ -238,46 +243,19 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "accuracy = model_grid_search.score(data_test, target_test)\n", - "print(\n", - " f\"The test accuracy score of the grid-searched pipeline is: {accuracy:.2f}\"\n", - ")" - ] - }, - { - "cell_type": "markdown", - "metadata": {}, - "source": [ - "
\n", - "

Warning

\n", - "

Be aware that the evaluation should normally be performed through\n", - "cross-validation by providing model_grid_search as a model to the\n", - "cross_validate function.

\n", - "

Here, we used a single train-test split to evaluate model_grid_search. In\n", - "a future notebook will go into more detail about nested cross-validation, when\n", - "you use cross-validation both for hyperparameter tuning and model evaluation.

\n", - "
" + "print(f\"The best set of parameters is: {model_grid_search.best_params_}\")" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "The `GridSearchCV` estimator takes a `param_grid` parameter which defines all\n", - "hyperparameters and their associated values. The grid-search is in charge\n", - "of creating all possible combinations and test them.\n", - "\n", - "The number of combinations are equal to the product of the number of values to\n", - "explore for each parameter (e.g. in our example 4 x 3 combinations). Thus,\n", - "adding new parameters with their associated values to be explored become\n", - "rapidly computationally expensive.\n", - "\n", - "Once the grid-search is fitted, it can be used as any other predictor by\n", - "calling `predict` and `predict_proba`. Internally, it uses the model with the\n", + "Once the grid-search is fitted, it can be used as any other estimator, i.e. it\n", + "has `predict` and `score` methods. Internally, it uses the model with the\n", "best parameters found during `fit`.\n", "\n", - "Get predictions for the 5 first samples using the estimator with the best\n", - "parameters." + "Let's get the predictions for the 5 first samples using the estimator with the\n", + "best parameters:" ] }, { @@ -293,8 +271,7 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "You can know about these parameters by looking at the `best_params_`\n", - "attribute." + "Finally, we check the accuracy of our model using the test set." ] }, { @@ -303,16 +280,43 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "print(f\"The best set of parameters is: {model_grid_search.best_params_}\")" + "accuracy = model_grid_search.score(data_test, target_test)\n", + "print(\n", + " f\"The test accuracy score of the grid-search pipeline is: {accuracy:.2f}\"\n", + ")" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "The accuracy and the best parameters of the grid-searched pipeline are similar\n", + "The accuracy and the best parameters of the grid-search pipeline are similar\n", "to the ones we found in the previous exercise, where we searched the best\n", - "parameters \"by hand\" through a double for loop.\n", + "parameters \"by hand\" through a double `for` loop.\n", + "\n", + "## The need for a validation set\n", + "\n", + "In the previous section, the selection of the best hyperparameters was done\n", + "using the train set, coming from the initial train-test split. Then, we\n", + "evaluated the generalization performance of our tuned model on the left out\n", + "test set. This can be shown schematically as follows:\n", + "\n", + "![Cross-validation tuning\n", + "diagram](../figures/cross_validation_train_test_diagram.png)\n", + "\n", + "
\n", + "

Note

\n", + "

This figure shows the particular case of K-fold cross-validation strategy\n", + "using n_splits=5 to further split the train set coming from a train-test\n", + "split. For each cross-validation split, the procedure trains a model on all\n", + "the red samples, evaluates the score of a given set of hyperparameters on the\n", + "green samples. The best combination of hyperparameters best_params is selected\n", + "based on those intermediate scores.

\n", + "

Then a final model is refitted using best_params on the concatenation of the\n", + "red and green samples and evaluated on the blue samples.

\n", + "

The green samples are sometimes referred as the validation set to\n", + "differentiate them from the final test set in blue.

\n", + "
\n", "\n", "In addition, we can inspect all results which are stored in the attribute\n", "`cv_results_` of the grid-search. We filter some specific columns from these\n", diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_parallel_plot.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_parallel_plot.ipynb index 32f411b35..806bbd9f7 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_parallel_plot.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_parallel_plot.ipynb @@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ " color=\"mean_test_score\",\n", " color_continuous_scale=px.colors.sequential.Viridis,\n", ")\n", - "fig.show()" + "fig.show(renderer=\"notebook\")" ] }, { diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_03.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_03.ipynb index d52b48176..37c8f15da 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_03.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_sol_03.ipynb @@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ " dimensions=[\"n_neighbors\", \"centering\", \"scaling\", \"mean test score\"],\n", " color_continuous_scale=px.colors.diverging.Tealrose,\n", ")\n", - "fig.show()" + "fig.show(renderer=\"notebook\")" ] }, { diff --git a/python_scripts/datasets_adult_census.py b/python_scripts/datasets_adult_census.py index f86bf40ef..d3d36d88f 100644 --- a/python_scripts/datasets_adult_census.py +++ b/python_scripts/datasets_adult_census.py @@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ def generate_dict(col): dimensions=plot_list, ) ) -fig.show() +fig.show(renderer="notebook") # %% [markdown] # The `Parcoords` plot is quite similar to the parallel coordinates plot that we diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_parallel_plot.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_parallel_plot.py index 340e75dd0..1be534206 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_parallel_plot.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_parallel_plot.py @@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ def shorten_param(param_name): color="mean_test_score", color_continuous_scale=px.colors.sequential.Viridis, ) -fig.show() +fig.show(renderer="notebook") # %% [markdown] # ```{note} diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_sol_03.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_sol_03.py index 1cdb01191..3f50c0adf 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_sol_03.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_sol_03.py @@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ dimensions=["n_neighbors", "centering", "scaling", "mean test score"], color_continuous_scale=px.colors.diverging.Tealrose, ) -fig.show() +fig.show(renderer="notebook") # %% [markdown] tags=["solution"] # We recall that it is possible to select a range of results by clicking and From 0df27146f7441fa6defc4a7f6ee7e74aa7e2f639 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2025 10:46:33 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 66/79] MTN Hyperparameter tuning with grid search --- notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb | 11 +++++++++-- python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py | 1 + 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb index a7fc56994..79f2b49f3 100644 --- a/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/parameter_tuning_grid_search.ipynb @@ -216,8 +216,15 @@ "explore for each parameter. Thus, adding new parameters with their associated\n", "values to be explored rapidly becomes computationally expensive. Because of\n", "that, here we only explore the combination learning-rate and the maximum\n", - "number of nodes for a total of 4 x 3 = 12 combinations.\n", - "\n", + "number of nodes for a total of 4 x 3 = 12 combinations." + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": null, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ "%%time\n", "from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV\n", "\n", diff --git a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py index d3cc4ecd4..30979909a 100644 --- a/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py +++ b/python_scripts/parameter_tuning_grid_search.py @@ -136,6 +136,7 @@ # that, here we only explore the combination learning-rate and the maximum # number of nodes for a total of 4 x 3 = 12 combinations. +# %% # %%time from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV From d263961b3717a69345dd2abe525c65c474307bc1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2025 11:41:48 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 67/79] MTN Made the distinction between predictor and transformer clearer (#856) --- notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_introduction.ipynb | 14 ++++++++++---- notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.ipynb | 1 + .../02_numerical_pipeline_introduction.py | 14 ++++++++++---- python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.py | 1 + 4 files changed, 22 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_introduction.ipynb b/notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_introduction.ipynb index a7bbcbd29..0e9b7c856 100644 --- a/notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_introduction.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_introduction.ipynb @@ -162,11 +162,18 @@ "![Predictor fit diagram](../figures/api_diagram-predictor.fit.svg)\n", "\n", "In scikit-learn an object that has a `fit` method is called an **estimator**.\n", + "If the estimator additionally has :\n", + "- a `predict` method, it is called a **predictor**. Examples of predictors\n", + " are classifiers or regressors.\n", + "- a `transform` method, it is called a **transformer**. Examples of\n", + " transformers are scalers or encoders. We will see more about transformers in\n", + " the next notebook.\n", + "\n", "The method `fit` is composed of two elements: (i) a **learning algorithm** and\n", "(ii) some **model states**. The learning algorithm takes the training data and\n", "training target as input and sets the model states. These model states are\n", - "later used to either predict (for classifiers and regressors) or transform\n", - "data (for transformers).\n", + "later used to either predict or transform data as explained above. See the\n", + "glossary for more detailed definitions.\n", "\n", "Both the learning algorithm and the type of model states are specific to each\n", "type of model." @@ -204,8 +211,7 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "An estimator (an object with a `fit` method) with a `predict` method is called\n", - "a **predictor**. We can illustrate the prediction mechanism as follows:\n", + "We can illustrate the prediction mechanism as follows:\n", "\n", "![Predictor predict diagram](../figures/api_diagram-predictor.predict.svg)\n", "\n", diff --git a/notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.ipynb b/notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.ipynb index 4fe003f24..14248425c 100644 --- a/notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.ipynb @@ -137,6 +137,7 @@ "We show how to apply such normalization using a scikit-learn transformer\n", "called `StandardScaler`. This transformer shifts and scales each feature\n", "individually so that they all have a 0-mean and a unit standard deviation.\n", + "We recall that transformers are estimators that have a `transform` method.\n", "\n", "We now investigate different steps used in scikit-learn to achieve such a\n", "transformation of the data.\n", diff --git a/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_introduction.py b/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_introduction.py index 940065dc3..20ec0734b 100644 --- a/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_introduction.py +++ b/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_introduction.py @@ -101,11 +101,18 @@ # ![Predictor fit diagram](../figures/api_diagram-predictor.fit.svg) # # In scikit-learn an object that has a `fit` method is called an **estimator**. +# If the estimator additionally has : +# - a `predict` method, it is called a **predictor**. Examples of predictors +# are classifiers or regressors. +# - a `transform` method, it is called a **transformer**. Examples of +# transformers are scalers or encoders. We will see more about transformers in +# the next notebook. +# # The method `fit` is composed of two elements: (i) a **learning algorithm** and # (ii) some **model states**. The learning algorithm takes the training data and # training target as input and sets the model states. These model states are -# later used to either predict (for classifiers and regressors) or transform -# data (for transformers). +# later used to either predict or transform data as explained above. See the +# glossary for more detailed definitions. # # Both the learning algorithm and the type of model states are specific to each # type of model. @@ -124,8 +131,7 @@ target_predicted = model.predict(data) # %% [markdown] -# An estimator (an object with a `fit` method) with a `predict` method is called -# a **predictor**. We can illustrate the prediction mechanism as follows: +# We can illustrate the prediction mechanism as follows: # # ![Predictor predict diagram](../figures/api_diagram-predictor.predict.svg) # diff --git a/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.py b/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.py index 4a0025f5d..b3e899333 100644 --- a/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.py +++ b/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.py @@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ # We show how to apply such normalization using a scikit-learn transformer # called `StandardScaler`. This transformer shifts and scales each feature # individually so that they all have a 0-mean and a unit standard deviation. +# We recall that transformers are estimators that have a `transform` method. # # We now investigate different steps used in scikit-learn to achieve such a # transformation of the data. From 090c715dee37a8a24b0a1c58e532508559a0809a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2025 14:34:39 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 68/79] MTN Added model state to the glossary (#857) --- jupyter-book/appendix/glossary.md | 12 ++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/jupyter-book/appendix/glossary.md b/jupyter-book/appendix/glossary.md index 65de707a9..1c35dc2c3 100644 --- a/jupyter-book/appendix/glossary.md +++ b/jupyter-book/appendix/glossary.md @@ -210,6 +210,14 @@ In scikit-learn jargon: an [estimator](#estimator) that takes another Generic term that refers to something that can [learn](#train-learn-fit) [prediction](#predict-prediction) rules from the data. +### model state + +Set of numerical values that an [estimator](#estimator) learns during training. +They summarize patterns in the data (limited to what the [estimator](#estimator) +can represent), and are stored for later predictions or transformations. +Examples include the slope and intercept in a linear regression; or the +per-feature mean and standard deviation in a standard scaler. + ### overfitting Overfitting occurs when your [model](#model) stick too closely to the [training @@ -357,8 +365,8 @@ In a more abstract manner, we can represent fitting with the following diagram: ![img](https://inria.github.io/scikit-learn-mooc/_images/api_diagram-predictor.fit.svg) -The model state are indeed the parameters and the jockey wheels are referring to -an optimization algorithm to find the best parameters. +The [model state](#model-state) are indeed the parameters and the jockey wheels +are referring to an optimization algorithm to find the best parameters. ### train set From e5d4bf63fdfa7a32509cfcc0671084ced86df21a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2025 15:32:39 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 69/79] MTN Proposal for explantation of what are iterations (#859) --- python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.py | 3 ++- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.py b/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.py index b3e899333..b34d0964e 100644 --- a/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.py +++ b/python_scripts/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.py @@ -77,7 +77,8 @@ # # * Many models such as logistic regression use a numerical solver (based on # gradient descent) to find their optimal parameters. This solver converges -# faster when the features are scaled. +# faster when the features are scaled, as it requires less steps (called +# **iterations**) to reach the optimal solution. # ``` # # Whether or not a machine learning model requires scaling the features depends From b943bed284ba1ebe603933e31ff71a349568a539 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2025 11:57:38 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 70/79] FIX HistGradientBoosting fitting time too long (#860) --- python_scripts/ensemble_hist_gradient_boosting.py | 6 +++--- python_scripts/ensemble_hyperparameters.py | 4 ++-- python_scripts/ensemble_sol_04.py | 7 ++++++- 3 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/ensemble_hist_gradient_boosting.py b/python_scripts/ensemble_hist_gradient_boosting.py index 7a40a569d..7f0d7b47b 100644 --- a/python_scripts/ensemble_hist_gradient_boosting.py +++ b/python_scripts/ensemble_hist_gradient_boosting.py @@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ data, target, scoring="neg_mean_absolute_error", - n_jobs=2, + # n_jobs=2, # Uncomment this line if you run locally ) # %% @@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ data, target, scoring="neg_mean_absolute_error", - n_jobs=2, + # n_jobs=2, # Uncomment this line if you run locally ) # %% @@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ data, target, scoring="neg_mean_absolute_error", - n_jobs=2, + # n_jobs=2, # Uncomment this line if you run locally ) # %% diff --git a/python_scripts/ensemble_hyperparameters.py b/python_scripts/ensemble_hyperparameters.py index 460854001..c7af37728 100644 --- a/python_scripts/ensemble_hyperparameters.py +++ b/python_scripts/ensemble_hyperparameters.py @@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ scoring="neg_mean_absolute_error", n_iter=10, random_state=0, - n_jobs=2, + # n_jobs=2, # Uncomment this line if you run locally ) search_cv.fit(data_train, target_train) @@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ scoring="neg_mean_absolute_error", n_iter=20, random_state=0, - n_jobs=2, + # n_jobs=2, # Uncomment this line if you run locally ) search_cv.fit(data_train, target_train) diff --git a/python_scripts/ensemble_sol_04.py b/python_scripts/ensemble_sol_04.py index 071e5877a..b31393077 100644 --- a/python_scripts/ensemble_sol_04.py +++ b/python_scripts/ensemble_sol_04.py @@ -70,7 +70,12 @@ cv = KFold(n_splits=5, shuffle=True, random_state=0) results = cross_validate( - search, data, target, cv=cv, return_estimator=True, n_jobs=2 + search, + data, + target, + cv=cv, + return_estimator=True, + # n_jobs=2 # Uncomment this if you run locally ) # %% [markdown] From 2c8b60aa0669ffabd69c4040d2914acc61111aef Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Chesta Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2025 14:49:22 +0530 Subject: [PATCH 71/79] Update README and Adding License txt file for Bike Rides Dataset (#858) --- datasets/README.md | 1 + datasets/bikes_rides_LICENSE.txt | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 21 insertions(+) create mode 100644 datasets/bikes_rides_LICENSE.txt diff --git a/datasets/README.md b/datasets/README.md index 297142053..b11aebb8b 100644 --- a/datasets/README.md +++ b/datasets/README.md @@ -1,2 +1,3 @@ `cps_85_wages.csv` is available at https://www.openml.org/d/534 `adult-census.csv` is available at https://www.openml.org/d/15950 +`bike_rides.csv` is available at https://github.com/INRIA/scikit-learn-mooc/blob/main/datasets/bike_rides.csv \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/datasets/bikes_rides_LICENSE.txt b/datasets/bikes_rides_LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7c2f3bbd5 --- /dev/null +++ b/datasets/bikes_rides_LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) + +Dataset: bike_rides.csv +Author: Guillaume Lemaitre +Year: 2025 + +This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. + +You are free to: +- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format +- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially + +Under the following terms: +- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. + +No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. + +Suggested citation: Guillaume Lemaitre. (2025). bike_rides Dataset. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Available at: https://github.com/INRIA/scikit-learn-mooc/blob/main/datasets/bike_rides.csv + +Full license text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode \ No newline at end of file From 29ad75201e049fd1940923c6c33676d5168cef0e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2025 16:12:19 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 72/79] Remove introduction paragraph meant for maintainers (#863) --- python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.py | 7 ------- 1 file changed, 7 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.py b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.py index 866836b4c..00bbf80df 100644 --- a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.py +++ b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.py @@ -8,13 +8,6 @@ # %% [markdown] # # Visualizing scikit-learn pipelines in Jupyter -# %% [markdown] -# The goal of keeping this notebook is to: -# -# - make it available for users that want to reproduce it locally -# - archive the script in the event we want to rerecord this video with an -# update in the UI of scikit-learn in a future release. - # %% [markdown] # ## First we load the dataset From a4bd6ea9428d9c4060243ac49d1dfb05b9150fda Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2025 16:15:21 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 73/79] Improve wording in definition of numerical features (#861) --- python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline.py | 9 ++++----- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline.py b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline.py index 844a072ca..653a26076 100644 --- a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline.py +++ b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline.py @@ -32,11 +32,10 @@ # # ## Identify categorical variables # -# As we saw in the previous section, a numerical variable is a -# quantity represented by a real or integer number. These variables can be -# naturally handled by machine learning algorithms that are typically composed -# of a sequence of arithmetic instructions such as additions and -# multiplications. +# As we saw in the previous section, a numerical variable is a quantity +# represented by a continous or integer number. These variables can be naturally +# handled by machine learning algorithms that are typically composed of a +# sequence of arithmetic instructions such as additions and multiplications. # # In contrast, categorical variables have discrete values, typically # represented by string labels (but not only) taken from a finite list of From e39860ffee9efa9fd0e74a23c18947ad0633530b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2025 16:16:44 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 74/79] Explicit that fitting time is measured in seconds (#862) --- python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py | 2 +- python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.py | 2 +- 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py index 935056a81..47b5afdfa 100644 --- a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.py @@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ print( "The mean cross-validation accuracy is: " f"{scores.mean():.3f} ± {scores.std():.3f} " - f"with a fitting time of {elapsed_time:.3f}" + f"with a fitting time of {elapsed_time:.3f} seconds" ) # %% [markdown] diff --git a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.py b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.py index e60af4375..b23004b48 100644 --- a/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.py +++ b/python_scripts/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.py @@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ print( "The mean cross-validation accuracy is: " f"{scores.mean():.3f} ± {scores.std():.3f} " - f"with a fitting time of {elapsed_time:.3f}" + f"with a fitting time of {elapsed_time:.3f} seconds" ) # %% [markdown] From a516bdc1b982e63cbdbe1d5dc95059cfc955d494 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SebastienMelo <125986598+SebastienMelo@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2025 11:48:01 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 75/79] Add dataset credits and licenses (#864) --- datasets/README.md | 57 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 54 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/datasets/README.md b/datasets/README.md index b11aebb8b..3915cf2cc 100644 --- a/datasets/README.md +++ b/datasets/README.md @@ -1,3 +1,54 @@ -`cps_85_wages.csv` is available at https://www.openml.org/d/534 -`adult-census.csv` is available at https://www.openml.org/d/15950 -`bike_rides.csv` is available at https://github.com/INRIA/scikit-learn-mooc/blob/main/datasets/bike_rides.csv \ No newline at end of file +## Dataset Information + +--- +**Source:** [cps_85_wages](https://www.openml.org/d/534) + +**License:** Public domain + +**Attribution:** Please cite the following when using this dataset: Determinants +of Wages from the 1985 Current Population Survey + +--- +**Source:** [penguins](https://allisonhorst.github.io/palmerpenguins/) + +**License:** [CC0 1.0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) + +**Attribution:** Horst AM, Hill AP, Gorman KB (2020). palmerpenguins: Palmer +Archipelago (Antarctica) penguin data. R package version 0.1.0. +https://allisonhorst.github.io/palmerpenguins/ + +--- +**Source:** [ames_housing](https://www.openml.org/d/43926) ([original paper](https://jse.amstat.org/v19n3/decock.pdf)) + +**License:** Public domain + +**Attribution:** Please cite the following when using this dataset: De Cock, D. +(2011). Ames, Iowa: Alternative to the Boston Housing Data as an End of Semester +Regression Project. Journal of Statistics Education, 19(3). + +--- +**Source:** [blood_transfusion](https://archive.ics.uci.edu/dataset/176/blood+transfusion+service+center) + +**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) + +**Attribution:** Please cite the following when using this dataset: Yeh, I. +(2008). Blood Transfusion Service Center [Dataset]. UCI Machine Learning +Repository. https://doi.org/10.24432/C5GS39. + +--- +**Source:** [bike_rides](https://github.com/INRIA/scikit-learn-mooc/blob/main/datasets/bike_rides.csv) + +**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) + +**Attribution:** Dataset created for the scikit-learn MOOC by INRIA. + + +--- +**Source:** [adults-census](https://www.openml.org/d/1119) ([original +source](https://archive.ics.uci.edu/dataset/2/adult)) + +**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) + +**Attribution:** Please cite the following when using this dataset: Becker, B. & +Kohavi, R. (1996). Adult [Dataset]. UCI Machine Learning Repository. +https://doi.org/10.24432/C5XW20. From 22bb8730ba63e81e1dc5fe37fe63fde6676c8e18 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2025 15:33:38 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 76/79] Update notebooks --- notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.ipynb | 3 ++- notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline.ipynb | 9 ++++----- notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.ipynb | 2 +- notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.ipynb | 11 ----------- notebooks/ensemble_hist_gradient_boosting.ipynb | 6 +++--- notebooks/ensemble_hyperparameters.ipynb | 4 ++-- notebooks/ensemble_sol_04.ipynb | 7 ++++++- 8 files changed, 19 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.ipynb b/notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.ipynb index 14248425c..c6b3894a5 100644 --- a/notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/02_numerical_pipeline_scaling.ipynb @@ -125,7 +125,8 @@ "feature contribute approximately equally to the distance computations.\n", "
  • Many models such as logistic regression use a numerical solver (based on\n", "gradient descent) to find their optimal parameters. This solver converges\n", - "faster when the features are scaled.
    • \n", + "faster when the features are scaled, as it requires less steps (called\n", + "iterations) to reach the optimal solution.\n", "\n", "\n", "\n", diff --git a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline.ipynb b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline.ipynb index 303ec3411..19920e104 100644 --- a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline.ipynb @@ -44,11 +44,10 @@ "\n", "## Identify categorical variables\n", "\n", - "As we saw in the previous section, a numerical variable is a\n", - "quantity represented by a real or integer number. These variables can be\n", - "naturally handled by machine learning algorithms that are typically composed\n", - "of a sequence of arithmetic instructions such as additions and\n", - "multiplications.\n", + "As we saw in the previous section, a numerical variable is a quantity\n", + "represented by a continous or integer number. These variables can be naturally\n", + "handled by machine learning algorithms that are typically composed of a\n", + "sequence of arithmetic instructions such as additions and multiplications.\n", "\n", "In contrast, categorical variables have discrete values, typically\n", "represented by string labels (but not only) taken from a finite list of\n", diff --git a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb index fe9de1165..ea4a413de 100644 --- a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_ex_02.ipynb @@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ "print(\n", " \"The mean cross-validation accuracy is: \"\n", " f\"{scores.mean():.3f} \u00b1 {scores.std():.3f} \"\n", - " f\"with a fitting time of {elapsed_time:.3f}\"\n", + " f\"with a fitting time of {elapsed_time:.3f} seconds\"\n", ")" ] }, diff --git a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.ipynb b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.ipynb index 15fd0fce5..9fc51816e 100644 --- a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_sol_02.ipynb @@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ "print(\n", " \"The mean cross-validation accuracy is: \"\n", " f\"{scores.mean():.3f} \u00b1 {scores.std():.3f} \"\n", - " f\"with a fitting time of {elapsed_time:.3f}\"\n", + " f\"with a fitting time of {elapsed_time:.3f} seconds\"\n", ")" ] }, diff --git a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.ipynb b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.ipynb index 3ddd07208..569aa2c77 100644 --- a/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/03_categorical_pipeline_visualization.ipynb @@ -7,17 +7,6 @@ "# Visualizing scikit-learn pipelines in Jupyter" ] }, - { - "cell_type": "markdown", - "metadata": {}, - "source": [ - "The goal of keeping this notebook is to:\n", - "\n", - "- make it available for users that want to reproduce it locally\n", - "- archive the script in the event we want to rerecord this video with an\n", - " update in the UI of scikit-learn in a future release." - ] - }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, diff --git a/notebooks/ensemble_hist_gradient_boosting.ipynb b/notebooks/ensemble_hist_gradient_boosting.ipynb index 2814d44a2..de008122d 100644 --- a/notebooks/ensemble_hist_gradient_boosting.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/ensemble_hist_gradient_boosting.ipynb @@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ " data,\n", " target,\n", " scoring=\"neg_mean_absolute_error\",\n", - " n_jobs=2,\n", + " # n_jobs=2, # Uncomment this line if you run locally\n", ")" ] }, @@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ " data,\n", " target,\n", " scoring=\"neg_mean_absolute_error\",\n", - " n_jobs=2,\n", + " # n_jobs=2, # Uncomment this line if you run locally\n", ")" ] }, @@ -233,7 +233,7 @@ " data,\n", " target,\n", " scoring=\"neg_mean_absolute_error\",\n", - " n_jobs=2,\n", + " # n_jobs=2, # Uncomment this line if you run locally\n", ")" ] }, diff --git a/notebooks/ensemble_hyperparameters.ipynb b/notebooks/ensemble_hyperparameters.ipynb index 774703c86..792f6763b 100644 --- a/notebooks/ensemble_hyperparameters.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/ensemble_hyperparameters.ipynb @@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ " scoring=\"neg_mean_absolute_error\",\n", " n_iter=10,\n", " random_state=0,\n", - " n_jobs=2,\n", + " # n_jobs=2, # Uncomment this line if you run locally\n", ")\n", "search_cv.fit(data_train, target_train)\n", "\n", @@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ " scoring=\"neg_mean_absolute_error\",\n", " n_iter=20,\n", " random_state=0,\n", - " n_jobs=2,\n", + " # n_jobs=2, # Uncomment this line if you run locally\n", ")\n", "search_cv.fit(data_train, target_train)\n", "\n", diff --git a/notebooks/ensemble_sol_04.ipynb b/notebooks/ensemble_sol_04.ipynb index 01c8aac7a..9a7a5b158 100644 --- a/notebooks/ensemble_sol_04.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/ensemble_sol_04.ipynb @@ -104,7 +104,12 @@ "\n", "cv = KFold(n_splits=5, shuffle=True, random_state=0)\n", "results = cross_validate(\n", - " search, data, target, cv=cv, return_estimator=True, n_jobs=2\n", + " search,\n", + " data,\n", + " target,\n", + " cv=cv,\n", + " return_estimator=True,\n", + " # n_jobs=2 # Uncomment this if you run locally\n", ")" ] }, From 8e3fe4b5d682f1af8400359466826f14a8f93e73 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2025 16:45:22 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 77/79] Change BBC news to Wikinews --- datasets/bbc_news.csv | 1251 ----------------- datasets/wiki_news.csv | 1251 +++++++++++++++++ .../clustering_supervised_metrics.py | 64 +- 3 files changed, 1284 insertions(+), 1282 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 datasets/bbc_news.csv create mode 100644 datasets/wiki_news.csv diff --git a/datasets/bbc_news.csv b/datasets/bbc_news.csv deleted file mode 100644 index be998463a..000000000 --- a/datasets/bbc_news.csv +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1251 +0,0 @@ -category,text -business,"LSE doubts boost bidders' shares Shares in Deutsche Boerse have risen more than 3% after a shareholder fund voiced opposition to the firm's planned takeover of the London Stock Exchange. TCI, which claims to represent owners of 5% of Deutsche Boerse's (DB) shares, has complained that the £1.35bn ($2.5bn) offer for the LSE is too high. Opposition from TCI has fuelled speculation that the proposed takeover could fail. Rival exchange operator Euronext has also said it may bid for the LSE. Euronext operates the Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon bourses, while Deutsche Boerse runs the Frankfurt exchange. BBC News spoke to a number of analysts on Monday morning about shareholder worries over Deutsche Boerse's bid for LSE. Although none were prepared to speak on the record, most thought it was unlikely that TCI's opposition would halt the deal ""Obviously we'll have to wait and see, but I don't think it will make much difference. Deutsche Boerse appears very committed,"" said one London-based broker. He forecast the takeover bid would succeed and was more concerned to see improvements in the daily running of the LSE. In voicing its opposition to the planned takeover, TCI said it would prefer to see Deutsche Boerse return $500m (£350m) to shareholders. The Deutsche Boerse was prepared to pay for the LSE ""exceeds the potential benefits of this acquisition"", said TCI. Another Deutsche Boerse shareholder on Monday also appeared to back TCI's call. Another investor in Deutsche Boerse has supported the view that a payout to shareholders would be preferable to Deutsche Boerse overpaying for the LSE, Reuters news agency reported. ""We prefer a sensible entrepreneurial solution at a price that is not too high,"" said Rolf Dress, a spokesman for Union Investment. ""If that cannot be achieved, then we would wish for a distribution of liquid assets to shareholders."" The Financial Times also reported a third Deutsche Boerse shareholder as opposed to the deal. It quoted a spokesman for US-based hedge fund Atticus Capital complaining that the planned takeover appeared to be motivated by ""empire-building"" rather than the best interests of shareholders. TCI has called for Deutsche Boerse to hold an emergency general meeting to discuss the bid for LSE. Yet under German business law, DB does not have to gain shareholder approval before making a significant acquisition. Deutsche Boerse said TCI's opposition would not change its bid approach. ""Deutsche Boerse is convinced that its contemplated cash acquisition of the London Stock Exchange is in the best interests of its shareholders and the company,"" it said. DB's shares were up 3.4% to 45.25 euros by 1030 GMT, the highest gainer in Frankfurt." -business,"Saudi investor picks up the Savoy London's famous Savoy hotel has been sold to a group combining Saudi billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and a unit of HBOS bank. Financial details of the deal, which includes the nearby Simpson's in the Strand restaurant, were not disclosed. The seller - Irish-based property firm Quinlan Private - bought the Savoy along with the Berkeley, Claridge's and the Connaught for £750m last year. Prince Alwaleed's hotel investments include the luxury George V in Paris. He also has substantial stakes in Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, which will manage the Savoy and Simpson's in the Strand, and Four Seasons. Fairmont said it planned to invest $48m (£26m) in renovating parts of the Savoy including the River Room and suites with views over the River Thames. Work was expected to be completed by summer 2006, Fairmont said." -business,"BMW cash to fuel Mini production Less than four years after the new Mini was launched, German car maker BMW has announced £100m of new investment. Some 200 new jobs are to be created at the Oxford factory, including modernised machinery and a new body shell production building. The result of the investment could be to raise output to more than 200,000 cars from 2007. The rise, from 189,000 last year, is a response to rapidly-rising demand and could help wipe out waiting lists. Before Wednesday's announcement, BMW had invested some £280m in Mini production. Since its launch during summer 2001, the new Mini has gone from strength to strength. Last year, almost one in six cars sold by the BMW group was a Mini. The company admits that the success of the brand came despite scepticism from many in the industry. ""Our decision to produce a new Mini was not received well right away,"" said Norbert Reithofer, a member of the BMW management board. Initially, BMW said it would produce 100,000 Mini models a year at its vast Cowley factory on the outskirts of Oxford, but the target was quickly reached, then raised, time and time again. Not everyone is convinced that the boom can continue. ""The risk is that after they've invested massively in the brand, demand tapers off like it did with the new VW Beetle,"" said Brad Wernle, from Automotive News Europe. The price of the car has also gone up. When it was launched, the cheapest Mini cost just more than £10,000. These days, buyers will have to fork out almost £11,500 to own a new Mini One, or even more for the Cooper S which costs up to £17,730. The Mini Convertible, which was launched last spring, costs up to £15,690 for the top model, and there is even a waiting list. Second-hand Minis are not cheap either. A Mini One bought when the model was launched should still fetch at least £8,000 for the cheapest model, while a used Cooper S is likely to be priced from £12,556, according to the-car buying website Parker's. The consumers' association Which operates with slightly different numbers, yet it confirms that the Mini Cooper 1.6 depreciates slower than any other car, other than the Mercedes Benz C180 SE and the BMW 1 Series 116i SE. The Cowley factory, which initially seemed far too large a production plant for just 100,000 Minis, is increasingly being put to good use. There are plans to tear down old buildings and build new ones and there are rumours that a new paint shop could be included in the plans. BMW's Mini adventure has made good much of what went wrong during its stewardship of the UK car maker Rover which it sold for £10 five years ago to the Phoenix consortium. In 1999, when BMW still owned Rover, the Oxford factory was producing the award-winning Rover 75. During that year, 3,500 people produced 56,000 cars. Last year, in the same factory, almost four times as many vehicles were produced by just 4,500 Mini-workers. The Mini factory's current output is equally impressive when compared with the main Rover factory in Longbridge, which in 1999 produced 180,000 Rover cars. Last year, MG Rover, which employs more than 6,000 people, produced just 110,000 cars, though it hopes to land a deal with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) that could help double the number of cars produced at Longbridge. Indeed, Mini is not only producing more cars than MG Rover does; it remains ahead even when the current sales of Land Rovers and Range Rovers (which are made by the former Rover unit that BMW sold to Ford) are taken into account." -business,"Consumer spending lifts US growth US economic growth accelerated in the third quarter, helped by strong consumer spending, official figures have shown. The economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.7% in the July to September period, the Commerce Department said. The figure marked an increase on the 3.3% growth recorded in the second quarter, but fell short of the 4.2% rate pencilled in by forecasters. The increase reflected the biggest jump in consumer spending in a year. ""It was a little softer than the consensus, but not a real surprise,"" said Gary Thayer, an economist at AG Edwards & Sons. Friday's growth estimate is one of the last significant pieces of economic data before the 2 November presidential election. Democrat challenger John Kerry has criticised President George W Bush's handling of the economy, pointing to a net loss of over 800,000 jobs since Mr Bush took office. Analysts said the economy was still not growing fast enough to stimulate large-scale job creation. ""It's a pretty good growth rate, but it may not be good enough to create enough jobs,"" said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics in New York. However, President Bush is expected to point to Commerce Department figures showing that consumer spending grew at 4.6% in the third quarter, up from just 1.6% in the second, as evidence that his policies are generating solid growth. Consumer spending accounts for about two thirds of all economic activity in the US. The weaker than expected growth figure makes it less likely that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next month, economists said. ""The economy regained some traction in the third quarter, but the growth is not robust,"" AG Edwards' Thayer. ""I think that means the Fed can take its time raising rates. We'll probably see one more rate hike before the end of the year."" In an effort to pre-empt rising inflation, the Federal Reserve has pushed through three quarter-point rate rises since June this year, taking borrowing costs to 1.75%. On the financial markets, the dollar fell slightly against the euro and the yen, while the Dow Jones index of leading US shares was little changed." -business,"Honda wins China copyright ruling Japan's Honda has won a copyright case in Beijing, further evidence that China is taking a tougher line on protecting intellectual property rights. A court ruled that Chongqing Lifan Industry Group must stop selling Honda brand motorbikes and said it must pay 1.47m yuan ($177,600) in compensation. Internationally recognized regulation is now a key part of China's plans for developing its economy, analysts said. Beijing also has been threatened with sanctions if it fails to clamp down. Chinese firms copy products ranging from computer software and spark plugs to baby milk and compact discs. Despite the fact that product piracy is a major problem, foreign companies have only occasionally won cases and the compensation awarded has usually been small. Still, recent rulings and announcements will have boosted optimism that attitudes are changing. Earlier this week China said that in future it will punish violators of intellectual property rights with up to seven years in jail. And on Tuesday, Paws Incorporated - the owner of the rights to Garfield the cat - won a court battle against a publishing house that violated its copyright. Other firms that have taken legal action in China, with varying degrees of success, include Yamaha, General Motors and Toyota. The problem of piracy is not limited to China, however, and the potential for profit is huge. The European Union estimates that the global trade in pirated wares is worth more than 200bn euros a year (£140bn; $258bn), or about 5% of total world trade. And it is growing. Between 1998 and 2002, the number of counterfeit or pirated goods intercepted at the EU's external borders increased by more than 800%, it said. Last month the EU said it will start monitoring China, Ukraine and Russia to ensure they are going after pirated goods. Other countries on the EU's hit list include Thailand, Brazil, South Korea and Indonesia. Any countries that are not making enough of an effort could be dragged to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a step that could trigger economic sanctions, the EU warned." -business,"Oil prices fall back from highs Oil prices retreated from four-month highs in early trading on Tuesday after producers' cartel Opec said it was now unlikely to cut production. Following the comments by acting Opec secretary general Adnan Shihab-Eldin, US light crude fell 32 cents to $51.43 a barrel. He said that high oil prices meant Opec was unlikely to stick to its plan to cut output in the second quarter. In London, Brent crude fell 32 cents to $49.74 a barrel. Opec members are next meeting to discuss production levels on 16 March. On Monday, oil prices rose for a sixth straight session, reaching a four-month high as cold weather in the US threatened stocks of heating oil. US demand for heating oil was predicted to be about 14% above normal this week, while stocks were currently about 7.5% below the levels of a year ago. Cold weather across Europe has also put upward pressure on crude prices." -business,"Brewers' profits lose their fizz Heineken and Carlsberg, two of the world's largest brewers, have reported falling profits after beer sales in western Europe fell flat. Dutch firm Heineken saw its annual profits drop 33% and warned that earnings in 2005 may also slide. Danish brewer Carlsberg suffered a 3% fall in profits due to waning demand and increased marketing costs. Both are looking to Russia and China to provide future growth as western European markets are largely mature. Heineken's net income fell to 537m euros ($701m; £371m) during 2004, from 798m euro a year ago. It blamed weak demand in western Europe and currency losses. It had warned in September that the weakening US dollar, which has cut the value of foreign sales, would knock 125m euros off its operating profits. Despite the dip in profits, Heineken's sales have been improving and total revenue for the year was 10bn euros, up 8.1% from 9.26bn euros in 2003. Heineken said it now plans to invest 100m euros in ""aggressive"" and ""high-impact"" marketing in Europe and the US in 2005. Heineken, which also owns the Amstel and Murphy's stout brands, said it would also seek to cut costs. This may involve closing down breweries. Heineken increased its dividend payment by 25% to 40 euro cents, but warned that the continued impact of a weaker dollar and an increased marketing spend may lead to a drop in 2005 net profit. Carlsberg, the world's fifth-largest brewer, saw annual pre-tax profits fall to 3.4bn Danish kroner (456m euros). Its beer sales have been affected by the sluggish European economy and by the banning of smoking in pubs in several European countries. Nevertheless, total sales increased 4% to 36bn kroner, thanks to strong sales of Carlsberg lager in Russia and Poland. Carlsberg is more optimistic than Heineken about 2005, projecting a 15% rise in net profits for the year. However, it also plans to cut 200 jobs in Sweden, where sales have been hit by demand for cheap, imported brands. ""We remain cautious about the medium-to-long term outlook for revenue growth across western Europe for a host of economic, social and structural reasons,"" investment bank Merrill Lynch said of Carlsberg." -business,"Feta cheese battle reaches court A row over whether only Greece should be allowed to label its cheese feta has reached the European Court of Justice. The Danish and German governments are challenging a European Commission ruling which said Greece should have sole rights to use the name. The Commission's decision gave the same legal protection to feta as to Italian Parma ham and French Champagne. But critics of the judgement say feta is a generic term, with the cheese produced widely outside Greece. The Commission's controversial 2002 ruling gave ""protected designation of origin"" status to feta cheese made in Greece, effectively restricting the use of the feta name to producers there. From 2007 onwards, Greek firms will have the exclusive use of the feta label and producers elsewhere in Europe must find another name to describe their products. The German and Danish governments argue that feta does not relate to a specific geographical area and that their firms have been producing and exporting the cheese for years. ""In our opinion it is a generic designation and we do not have any other name or term for this type of cheese,"" Hans Arne Kristiansen, a spokesman for the Danish Dairy Board, told the BBC. Denmark is Europe's second largest producer of feta after Greece - producing about 30,000 tonnes a year - and exports its products to Greece. It is concerned that the ruling could threaten the production of other cheeses in Denmark such as brie. ""It would cost millions if we wanted to introduce a new designation,"" Mr Kristiansen said. ""That is just one of the costs."" The case will also have a major impact on Britain's sole feta producer, Yorkshire company Shepherds Purse Cheeses. Judy Bell, the company's founder, said it would cost a huge amount to rebrand its product. ""If we lose we will have to go through a massive re-merchandising process and reorganisation,"" she said. ""We have never tried to pull the wool over anyone's eyes - it's very clear from the label that it's Yorkshire feta."" The original decision was a victory for Greece, where feta cheese is believed to have been produced for about 6,000 years. Feta is a soft white cheese made from sheep or goat's milk, and is an essential ingredient in Greek cuisine. Greece makes 115,000 tonnes, mainly for domestic consumption. The Court is expected to reach a verdict in the case in the autumn." -business,"China's Shanda buys stake in Sina Chinese online game operator Shanda Interactive Entertainment has bought a 20% stake in Sina, the country's biggest internet portal firm. The move may be a precursor to a full takeover, with analysts saying that a better-known international firm may also now show an interest in Sina. Shanda said that it may boost its stake in Sina, even buying it outright. A merger would create a firm that offers online role-playing games, news, entertainment and wireless messaging. Sina said that the purchase of a stake by Shanda would have no impact on its business. The board of directors said in a statement that it would ""continue to act in the best interests of all the company stakeholders, including shareholders, employees and customers"". Both companies are listed on the New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) technology-dominated Nasdaq index. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Sina said its shares were purchased between 12 January and 10 February for about $230m. Rumours about a possible takeover boosted Sina's shares by more than 10% on Friday. They added an extra 6.4% to $27.24 in electronic trading after the trading session had finished. And there may be more gains amid bid speculation when trading resumes in New York on Tuesday after Monday's public holiday, analysts forecast. ""There could still be some potential parties that could still counter bid,"" said Wallace Cheung, an analyst at DBS Vickers. ""Even though Shanda has 20% of Sina, they still have quite a long way to take full control."" However, Mr Cheung noted that a foreign company trying to take control of a Chinese internet portal firm, with its ability to filter and pass on news, may not be viewed very favourably by Beijing." -business,"Budget Aston takes on Porsche British car maker Aston Martin has gone head-to-head with Porsche's 911 sports cars with the launch of its cheapest model yet. With a price tag under £80,000, the V8 Vantage is tens of thousands of pounds cheaper than existing Aston models. The Vantage is ""the most important car in the history of our company"", said Aston's chief executive Ulrich Bez. Aston - whose cars were famously used by James Bond - will unveil the Vantage at the Geneva Motor Show on Thursday. Mr Bez - himself a former executive at rival Porsche - said the new car was the company's ""most affordable car ever and makes the brand accessible"". This in turn would make Aston Martin ""globally visible, but still very, very exclusive"", he added. First shown as a concept car at the 2003 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the V8 Vantage will be available in the UK in late summer. Development costs for the Vantage have been kept low by sharing a platform with Aston's DB9, which Mr Bez described as ""the previous most important car for our company"". There is currently an 18 months waiting list for the DB9, Mr Bez said. The Vantage will be built at the new Aston factory in Gaydon, near Warwick, and should more than double Aston's total output from about 2,000 presently." -business,"US trade gap hits record in 2004 The gap between US exports and imports hit an all-time high of $671.7bn (£484bn) in 2004, latest figures show. The Commerce Department said the trade deficit for all of last year was 24.4% above the previous record - 2003's imbalance of $496.5bn. The deficit with China, up 30.5% at $162bn, was the largest ever recorded with a single country. However, on a monthly basis the US trade gap narrowed by 4.9% in December to £56.4bn. The US consumer's appetite for all things from oil to imported cars, and even wine and cheese, reached record levels last year and the figures are likely to spark fresh criticism of President Bush's economic policies. Democrats claim the administration has not done enough to clamp down on unfair foreign trade practices. For example, they believe China's currency policy - which US manufacturers claim has undervalued the yuan by as much as 40% - has given China's rapidly expanding economy an unfair advantage against US competitors. Meanwhile, the Bush administration argues that the US deficit reflects the fact the America is growing at faster rate than the rest of the world, spurring on more demand for imported goods. Some economists say this may allow an upward revision of US economic growth in the fourth quarter. But others point out that the deficit has reached such astronomical proportions that foreigners many choose not to hold as many dollar-denominated assets, which may in turn harm growth. For all of 2004, US exports rose 12.3% to $1.15 trillion, but imports rose even faster by 16.3% to a new record of $1.76 trillion. Foreign oil exports surged by 35.7% to a record $180.7bn, reflecting the rally in global oil prices and increasing domestic demand. Imports were not affected by the dollar's weakness last year. ""We expect the deficit to continue to widen in 2005 even if the dollar gets back to its downward trend,"" said economist Marie-Pierre Ripert at IXIS." -business,"Yukos unit buyer faces loan claim The owners of embattled Russian oil giant Yukos are to ask the buyer of its former production unit to pay back a $900m (£479m) loan. State-owned Rosneft bought the Yugansk unit for $9.3bn in a sale forced by Russia to part settle a $27.5bn tax claim against Yukos. Yukos' owner Menatep Group says it will ask Rosneft to repay a loan that Yugansk had secured on its assets. Rosneft already faces a similar $540m repayment demand from foreign banks. Legal experts said Rosneft's purchase of Yugansk would include such obligations. ""The pledged assets are with Rosneft, so it will have to pay real money to the creditors to avoid seizure of Yugansk assets,"" said Moscow-based US lawyer Jamie Firestone, who is not connected to the case. Menatep Group's managing director Tim Osborne told the Reuters news agency: ""If they default, we will fight them where the rule of law exists under the international arbitration clauses of the credit."" Rosneft officials were unavailable for comment. But the company has said it intends to take action against Menatep to recover some of the tax claims and debts owed by Yugansk. Yukos had filed for bankruptcy protection in a US court in an attempt to prevent the forced sale of its main production arm. The sale went ahead in December and Yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company which in turn was bought by Rosneft. Yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and has vowed to sue any participant in the sale." -business,"Markets signal Brazilian recovery The Brazilian stock market has risen to a record high as investors display growing confidence in the durability of the country's economic recovery. The main Bovespa index on the Sao Paolo Stock Exchange closed at 24,997 points on Friday, topping the previous record market close reached the previous day. The market's buoyancy reflects optimism about the Brazilian economy, which could grow by as much as 4.5% in 2004. Brazil is recovering from last year's recession - its worst in a decade. Economic output declined 0.2% in 2003 and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - elected as Brazil's first working-class president in 2002 - was strongly criticised for pursuing a hardline economic policy. Investors have praised his handling of the economy as foreign investment has risen, unemployment has fallen and inflation has been brought under control. Analysts believe the stock market will rise above the 25,000 mark for the first time before too long. ""There should be more space for gains until the end of the year, somewhere up to 27,000 points,"" said Paschoal Tadeu Buonomo, head of equities trading at brokers TOV. Brazil's currency, the real, also rose to its highest level against the dollar in more than two years on Friday. Although interest rates still stand at a punitive 17.25%, inflation has fallen from 9% to 7% while exports are booming, particularly of agricultural products. ""For the first time in decades, we have all three economic policy pillars in line during a recovery,"" Finance Minister Antonio Palocci told the Associated Press news agency. ""Government accounts are in surplus, we have a current account surplus and inflation is under control."" Investors were deeply suspicious of President da Silva, a former trade union leader who campaigned on a programme of extensive land redistribution and a large rise in the minimum wage. However, Mr da Silva has stuck to an orthodox monetary policy inherited from his predecessor even in the face of last year's economic crisis. This has earned him the disapproval of rural farm workers, thousands of whom who took to the streets of Brasilia on Thursday to protest against government policies. President da Silva has defended his policies, arguing that Brazil cannot afford to continue the cycle of boom and bust which afflicted it in recent decades." -business,"Cannabis hopes for drug firm A prescription cannabis drug made by UK biotech firm GW Pharmaceuticals is set to be approved in Canada. The drug is used to treat the central nervous system and alleviate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). A few weeks ago, shares in GW Pharma lost a third of their value after UK regulators said they wanted more evidence about the drug's benefits. But now Canadian authorities have said the Sativex drug will be considered for approval. Approximately 50,000 people in Canada have been diagnosed with MS and 85,000 people are suffering from the condition in the UK. Many patients already smoke cannabis to relieve their symptoms. Now, GW Pharma's Sativex mouth spray could be legally available to MS sufferers in Canada within the next few months. This will be the first time a cannabis-based drug has been approved anywhere in the world, representing a landmark for GW Pharma and for patients with MS. Final approval in Canada should now be little more than a formality, analysts said, and the company expects full approval for Sativex early in 2005. ""We are delighted to receive this qualifying notice from Health Canada and look forward to receiving regulatory approval for Sativex in Canada in the early part of 2005,"" said GW Pharma executive chairman Dr Geoffrey Guy. The UK government granted GW Pharma a licence to grow the cannabis plant for medical research purposes. Satifex consists of a cannabis extract containing tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol, a cocktail that has also proved effective in treating patients with arthritis. Thousands of plants are grown at a secret location somewhere in the English countryside. Despite hopes of regulatory approval last year, a series of delays has put back Sativex's launch in the UK. The latest news sent shares in GW Pharma up 8.5p, or 8.1%, to 113.5p." -business,"Nasdaq planning $100m-share sale The owner of the technology-dominated Nasdaq stock index plans to sell shares to the public and list itself on the market it operates. According to a registration document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nasdaq Stock Market plans to raise $100m (£52m) from the sale. Some observers see this as another step closer to a full public listing. However Nasdaq, an icon of the 1990s technology boom, recently poured cold water on those suggestions. The company first sold shares in private placements during 2000 and 2001. It technically went public in 2002 when the stock started trading on the OTC Bulletin Board, which lists equities that trade only occasionally. Nasdaq will not make money from the sale, only investors who bought shares in the private placings, the filing documents said. The Nasdaq is made up shares in technology firms and other companies with high growth potential. It was the most potent symbol of the 1990s internet and telecoms boom, nose-diving after the bubble burst. A recovery in the fortunes of tech giants such as Intel, and dot.com survivors such as Amazon has helped revive its fortunes." -business,"US consumer confidence up Consumers' confidence in the state of the US economy is at its highest for five months and they are optimistic about 2005, an influential survey says. The feel-good factor among US consumers rose in December for the first time since July according to new data. The Conference Board survey of 5,000 households pointed to renewed optimism about job creation and economic growth. US retailers have reported strong sales over the past 10 days after a slow start to the crucial festive season. According to figures also released on Tuesday, sales in shopping malls in the week to 25 December were 4.3% higher than in 2003 following a last minute rush. Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, has said its December sales are expected to be better than previously forecast because of strong post-Christmas sales. It is expecting annual sales growth of between 1% and 3% for the month. Consumer confidence figures are considered a key economic indicator because consumer spending accounts for about two thirds of all economic activity in the United States. ""The continuing economic expansion, combined with job growth, has consumers ending this year on a high note,"" said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's consumer research centre. ""And consumers' outlook suggests that the economy will continue to expand in the first half of next year."" The overall US economy has performed strongly in recent months, prompting the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates five times since June." -business,"Russia WTO talks 'make progress' Talks on Russia's proposed membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have been ""making good progress"" say those behind the negotiations. But the chairman of the working party, Ambassador Stefan Johannesson of Iceland, warned that there was ""still a lot of work has to be done"". His comments came as President George W Bush said the US backed Russian entry. But he said for Russia to make progress the government must ""renew a commitment to democracy and the rule of law"". His comments come three days before he is due to meet President Vladimir Putin. Russia has been waiting for a decade to join the WTO and hopes to finally become a member by early 2006. A decision could be reached in December, when the WTO's 148 current members gather for a summit in Hong Kong. That would allow an earliest date for membership of January 2006, if the Hong Kong summit gave its approval. While pinpointing several areas in which there are difficulties in the bilateral and multilateral work with Russia, the US said the meeting was ""much more efficient than we've seen for some time"". And Australia said it was ""one of the best (meetings) we can recall in terms of substance"". Mr Johannesson also said progress ""on the bilateral market access side is accelerating"". Sticking points to membership have included limits on foreign ownership in the telecommunications and life insurance businesses, as well as issues surrounding counterfeiting, piracy, and data protection. Some WTO members also dislike Russia's energy price subsidies, which competitors say give Russian businesses an unfair advantage." -business,"Saudi NCCI's shares soar Shares in Saudi Arabia's National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI) soared on their first day of trading in Riyadh. They were trading 84% above the offer price on Monday, changing hands at 372 riyals ($99; £53) after topping 400 early in the day. Demand for the insurer's debut shares was strong - 12 times what was on sale. The listing was part of the country's plans to open up its insurance market and boost demand in the sector. Deregulation is expected to boost demand for accident and damage cover. Previously, only NCCI has been legally allowed to offer insurance products within Saudi Arabia. However, the authorities have turned a blind eye to the many other firms selling insurance. Saudi Arabia now wants a fully functioning insurance industry and is introducing legislation that will clamp down on unauthorised companies. Policy-makers also want to make having insurance more of a requirement, but first have to take steps to boost public confidence in the system, analysts said. As a result, NCCI is being developed as the industry's flagship firm - publicly-listed, with audited accounts. Saudi Arabia sold 7 million NCCI shares, or about 70% of the company's total capital last month. More than 800,000 applicants got 9 shares each for 205 riyals apiece." -business,"Winemaker rejects Foster's offer Australian winemaker Southcorp has rejected a takeover offer worth 3.1bn Australian dollars ($2.3bn; £1.8bn) from brewing giant Foster's Group. Southcorp, whose brands include Penfolds, Rosemount and Lindemans, dismissed the offer as inadequate. The two companies held four days of talks after Foster's bought an 18.8% stake in Southcorp on 13 January. A merger would create a global player with worldwide annual sales of 39m cases and revenues of A$2.6bn. Southcorp said Foster's A$4.17-a-share takeover proposal offered a ""excellent strategic fit"" but undervalued the company. ""Southcorp's board has informed Foster's that it is not prepared to recommend the offer as it does not adequately reflect the strategic value of the company,"" said Southcorp chairman Brian Finn. Southcorp said Foster's takeover offer was ""opportunistic"". However, it said that the offer may represent an 'opening bid', opening up the possibility of Foster's returning with an improved offer. Foster's said a combination of the two companies would create a global player with an ""unrivalled"" collection of premium wine brands. Despite being best known for brewing Foster's Lager, Foster's is already one of Australia's largest wine producers, owning the Beringer and Wolf Blass brands among others. ""The combination of Foster's and Southcorp will transform the global wine industry and significantly enhance Australia's competitive position on the global stage,"" said Trevor O'Hoy, Foster's chief executive officer. Foster's spent A$584m on buying an 18.8% stake in Southcorp from the Oatley family, which founded the Rosemount Estates business and later merged it into Southcorp. Shares in both companies were suspended while the two held talks about a deal. Southcorp's shares rose 12% to A$4.76 on news of the offer but Foster's shares fell 3.7% to A$5.44." -business,"Gazprom 'in $36m back-tax claim' The nuclear unit of Russian energy giant Gazprom is reportedly facing a 1bn rouble ($35.7m; £19.1m) back-tax claim for the 2001-2003 period. Vedomosti newspaper reported that Russian authorities made the demand at the end of last year. The paper added that most of the taxes claimed are linked to the company's export activity. Gazprom, the biggest gas company in the world, took over nuclear fuel giant Atomstroieksport in October 2004. The main project of Atomstroieksport is the building of a nuclear plant in Iran, which has been a source of tension between Russia and the US. Gazprom is one of the key players in the complex Russian energy market, where the government of Vladimir Putin has made moves to regain state influence over the sector. Gazprom is set to merge with state oil firm Rosneft, the company that eventually acquired Yuganskneftegas, the main unit of embattled oil giant Yukos. Claims for back-taxes was a tool used against Yukos, and led to the enforced sale Yuganskneftegas. Some analysts fear the Kremlin will continue to use these sort of moves to boost the efforts of the state to regain control over strategically important sectors such as oil." -business,"EU to probe Alitalia 'state aid' The European Commission has officially launched an in-depth investigation into whether Italian airline Alitalia is receiving illegal state aid. Commission officials are to look at Rome's provision of a 400m euro ($495m; £275m) loan to the carrier. Both the Italian government and Alitalia have repeatedly denied that the money - part of a vital restructuring plan - is state aid. The investigation could take up to 18 months. However, Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said he wanted it to be carried out as swiftly as possible. ""The Italian authorities have presented a serious industrial plan,"" said Mr Barot. ""We now have to verify certain aspects to confirm that this plan contains no state aid. I would like our analysis to be completed swiftly."" The matter of possible state aid was brought to the Commission's attention by eight of Alitalia's rivals, including Germany's Lufthansa, British Airways and Spain's Iberia. While Alitalia needs to restructure to bring itself back to profitability, the rival carriers say it has both violated state aid rules and threatened competition. Alitalia lost 330m euros in 2003 as it struggled to get to grips with high costs, spiralling oil prices, competition from budget carriers and reduced demand. It plans to split into AZ Fly and AZ Services, which will handle air and ground services respectively. Alitalia already enjoyed state aid in 1997. EU rules prevent that from happening again in what is known as the ""one time, last time"" rule for airlines. Otherwise, EU regulations on state aid stipulate that governments may help companies financially, but only on the same terms as a commercial investor. The airline declined to comment on the Commission decision." -business,"Parmalat to return to stockmarket Parmalat, the Italian dairy company which went bust after an accounting scandal, hopes to be back on the Italian stock exchange in July. The firm gained protection from creditors in 2003 after revealing debts of 14bn euros ($18.34bn; £9.6bn). This was eight times higher than it had previously stated. In a statement issued on Wednesday night, Parmalat Finanziaria detailed administrators' latest plans for re-listing the shares of the group. As part of the re-listing on the Italian stock exchange, creditors' debts are expected to be converted into shares through two new share issues amounting to more than 2bn euros. The company's creditors will be asked to vote on the plan later this year. The plan is likely to give creditors of Parmalat Finanziaria shares worth about 5.7% of the debts they are owed. This is lower than the 11.3% creditors previously hoped to receive. Creditors of Parmalat, the main operating company, are likely to see the percentage of debt they receive fall from 7.3% to 6.9%. Several former top Parmalat executives are under investigation for the fraud scandal. Lawmakers said on Wednesday night Enrico Bondi, the turnaround specialist appointed by the Italian government as Parmalat's chief executive, spoke positively about the company during a closed-door hearing of the Chamber of Deputies industry commission. ""Bondi supplied us with elements of positive results on the industrial positions and on the history of debt which will find a point of solution through the Parmalat group's quotation on the market in July,"" Italian news agency Apcom quoted several lawmakers as saying in a statement." -business,"Turkey turns on the economic charm Three years after a gruelling economic crisis, Turkey has dressed its economy to impress. As part of a charm offensive - ahead of 17 December, when the European Union will decide whether to start entry talks - Turkey's economic leaders have been banging the drum to draw attention to recent achievements. The economy is growing fast, they insist. Education levels among its young and large population are rising. Unemployment levels, in percentage terms, are heading fast towards single digits. Inflation is under control. A new law to govern its turbulent banking system is on the cards. The tourism industry is booming and revenues from visitors should more than double to $21bn (£10.8bn) in three years. Moreover, government spending is set to be frozen and a burdensome social security deficit is being tackled. Income and corporate taxes will be cut next year in order to attract $15bn of foreign investment over the next three years. A loan restructuring deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is pretty much in the can. And following recent macroeconomic restructuring efforts, its currency is floating freely and its central bank is independent. The point of all this has been to convince Europe's decision makers that rather than being a phenomenally costly exercise for the EU, allowing Turkey in would in fact bring masses of economic benefits. ""The cake will be bigger for everybody,"" said Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener earlier this month. ""Turkey will not be a burden for the EU budget."" If admitted into the EU, Turkey would contribute almost 6bn euros ($8bn; £6bn) to its budget by 2014, according to a recent impact study by the country's State Planning Organisation. As Turkey's gross domestic output (GDP) is set to grow by 6% per year on average, its contribution would rise from less than 5bn euros in 2014 to almost 9bn euros by 2020. Turkey could also help alleviate a labour shortage in ""Old Europe"" once its population comes of age. By 2014, one in four Turks - or about 18 million people - will be aged 14 or less. ""A literate and qualified Turkish population,"" insisted Mr Sener, ""will make a positive impact on the EU."" This runs contrary to the popular view that Turkey is getting ready to dig deep into EU taxpayers' wallets. However, Turkey's assertions are confirmed by Brussels' own impact studies, which indeed say that Turkish membership would be good news for the EU economy. But only over time. Costs are projected to be vast during the early years of Turkey's membership, with subsidies alone estimated to exceed 16.5bn euros and, according to some predictions, balloon to 33.5bn euros. This would include vast agricultural subsidies and regional aid, though such payments should decline as the country's farm sector, which currently employs one in three Turks, would employ just one in five by 2020. Such high initial expenses would be coupled with risks that the benefits flagged up by Turkey's government would never be delivered, say those who feel the Turkish project should be shunned. Some fear that rather than providing an educated, sophisticated labour force for Europe at large, the people who will leave Turkey to seek work abroad will be poor, uneducated - and plentiful. More recently, less palatable concerns - at least in liberal European circles - have been voiced, with senior EU or member state officials talking darkly of a ""river of Islam"", an ""oriental"" culture and a threat to Europe's ""cultural richness"". Of course, many opponents are politically motivated - their views ranging from xenophobic prejudices about the country's Muslim traditions to well-documented concerns about the government's human rights record. Yet their economic arguments should not be dismissed out of hand. Critics insist that much of the optimism about Turkey's economic roadmap has been over-egged - an argument amplified by a 134% rise in the country's current account deficit to $10.7bn during the first 10 months of this year. The country's massive debt - which includes $23bn owed to the IMF and billions borrowed via the international bond markets - also remains a major obstacle to its ambition of joining the EU. ""In the new member states of the European Union, gross public debt is typically about 40% of gross domestic product,"" says Reza Moghadam, assistant director of the IMF's European Department. ""At about 80% of GDP, Turkey's gross debt is double that figure."" Turkey's debts have largely arisen from its efforts to push through banking reform after a run on the banks in 2001 caused the country's devastating recession. ""There is no question that although Turkey is doing much better than in the past, it remains quite vulnerable,"" says Michael Deppler, director of the IMF's European Department. ""Its debt is far too high for an emerging economy."" A key factor for EU decision makers should be whether or not Turkey has met its economic criteria. But economics is not a science. And although the state of Turkey's economy is important, as is its pace of reform, the final decision on 17 December will be taken by politicians who will, of course, be guided by their political instincts." -business,"Barclays profits hit record level Barclays, the UK's third-biggest bank, has seen annual pre-tax profits climb to record levels boosted by a sharp rise in business at its investment arm. Profits for the year to 31 December rose 20% to £4.6bn ($8.6bn). Barclays' chief John Varley said the bank had ""caught the winds"" of a very strong world economy. Earnings at Barclays Capital investment bank rose 25% to £1.04bn, but investment in branch operations held back growth in its UK retail business. The group is the first of Britain's five big banks to report 2004 results. According to analysts' forecasts, HSBC, the biggest UK bank by stock market valuation, will report profits of £9.4bn later this month. Barclays results were in line with market expectations. Its Global Investors wing made £347m, an 82% jump on 2003 figures. Profits at Barclaycard rose by 5% to £801m but were said to have been affected by a series of interest rate rises and investment to grow its customer base. The bank also blamed margins pressure on its mortgage business and spending on its branches over the past year for a 1% fall in profits in its UK retail division to £1.13bn. ""The outlook for 2005 is good as a result of balance sheet growth and investments made in 2004,"" Mr Varley said. Barclays cautioned that growth this year may be slower than in 2004 on the back of softer US and Chinese economies and the impact of interest rate rises on household spending in the UK. It added its bid to acquire a controlling stake in South Africa's leading retail bank Absa, was being considered by regulatory authorities. Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Mr Varley declined to be drawn on reports that Barclays had held merger talks with US bank Wells Fargo. A tie-up between Barclays and California-based Wells Fargo would create the world's fourth biggest bank, valued at $180bn. At 1405 GMT, shares in Barclays were trading down 0.67% at 590 pence. ""The headline numbers are in line, but the story is costs,"" said analyst Alex Potter at Lehman Brothers. ""They are a bit more aggressive than we had expected. The cost overshoot is not in Barclays Capital but in the UK bank.""" -business,"Rank 'set to sell off film unit' Leisure group Rank could unveil plans to demerge its film services unit and sell its media business, reports claim. Rank, formerly famous for the Carry On series, will expose the shake-up at the announcement of its results on Friday, the Sunday Telegraph reported. Advisors Goldman Sachs are understood to have valued its demerged Deluxe Film unit at £300m, the report added. Speculation of a possible shake-up has mounted since Rank announced a study into a possible demerger in September. Since Mike Smith's appointment as chief executive in 1999, the group has focused on fewer businesses and embarked on a major cost-cutting programme which has seen it dispose of a number of businesses, including the Odeon cinema chain and the Pinewood studios. The move left the group with three core divisions: gaming, Hard Rock and Deluxe Films, which provides technical services to Hollywood studios. Rank now aims to concentrate on its gaming, bars and hotels business, including extending its Hard Rock brand to its casinos - trials of which have been a success. It also owns Deluxe Media, which makes and distributes DVDs and videos. However, that business is seen as less successful. Last year it made profits of £21.5m on a turnover of £392.1m and experts suggest its success in moving to DVDs from VHS video could make it an attractive target for a private equity buyer. A spokesman for the firm refused to comment on the reports, but said any results from the demerger study were likely to be set out when it unveiled its results on Friday. Analysts predict the firm is likely to report a slight drop in annual pre-tax profits to £170m from £194m last year. Formed in the 1940s the firm was a leading UK film producer and cinema owner for many years. It has now diversified into a range of other leisure activities - mainly in the UK - including hotels, roadside service areas and holiday centres. It now owns 34 Grosvenor casinos, the Mecca Bingo chain and more than 100 Hard Rock Cafes in 38 countries." -business,"Buyers snap up Jet Airways' shares Investors have snapped up shares in Jet Airways, India's biggest airline, following the launch of its much anticipated initial public offer (IPO). The IPO for 17.3 million shares was fully sold within 10 minutes of opening, on Friday. Analysts expect Jet to raise at least 16.4bn rupees ($375m; £198m) from the offering. Interest in Jet's IPO has been fuelled by hopes for robust growth in India's air travel market. The share offer, representing about 20% of Jet's equity, was oversubscribed, news agency Reuters reported. Jet, which was founded by London-based travel agent Naresh Goyal, plans to use the cash to buy new planes and cut its debt. The company has grown rapidly since it launched operations in 1993, overtaking state-owned flag carrier Indian Airlines. However, it faces stiff competition from rivals and low-cost carriers. Jet's IPO is the first in a series of expected share offers from Indian companies this year, as they move to raise funds to help them do business in a rapidly-growing economy." -business,"GM pays $2bn to evade Fiat buyout General Motors of the US is to pay Fiat 1.55bn euros ($2bn; £1.1bn) to get out of a deal which could have forced it to buy the Italian car maker outright. Fiat had sold GM a stake in 2000, as part of a partnership agreement. But Fiat's heavy losses have convinced GM - whose own European operations are in the red - to back away. The pay-off means the two firms will unwind joint ventures, but Fiat will keep supplying diesel engines and the money will allow it to reduce its debt. Fiat's shares on the Milan stock exchange rose 4.5% by 0900 GMT to 6.2 euros, having shot up more than 7% in early trading. ""We now have absolute freedom to design our own future,"" said Fiat chief executive Sergio Marchionne. Analysts said Fiat seemed to have done well out of the deal, although some predictions had expected a 2bn euro pay-off. Fiat is to get 1bn euros immediately, with another 550m to follow within 90 days. The firm is Italy's largest private employer, and a failure to reach an agreement could have had severe consequences for thousands of workers and for the Italian economy. For its part, GM was keen to ward off any criticism that the deal had been a mistake. ""We needed scale in Europe to get costs down, and we were able to do that in working with Fiat,"" said GM chief executive Rick Wagoner. The Fiat-GM alliance came about in 2000 as an alternative to selling Fiat outright. German-US car firm DaimlerChrysler had been willing to buy the firm, but Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli did not want to give up control. Instead, GM swapped a 6% stake in itself for 20% of Fiat - and gave Fiat a ""put option"" to sell GM the rest of the car maker between January 2004 and July 2009. But despite the alliance Fiat failed to put itself back on track, continuing to lose money and market share. As a result, the sell-off looked better and better for the Italians - and much worse for GM, which is struggling with its own loss-making European marques Opel and Saab. The relationship soured further after Fiat sold half its finance arm and recapitalised in 2003, halving GM's stake to 10%." -business,"Irish markets reach all-time high Irish shares have risen to a record high, with investors persuaded to buy into the market by low inflation and strong growth forecasts. The ISEQ index of leading shares closed up 23 points to 6661.89 on Thursday, fuelled by strong growth in banking and financial stocks. A fall in the rate of inflation to 2.3% in January gave a fresh boost to shares which have advanced 4% this month. The economy is set for strong growth in 2005 while interest rates remain low. Several of Ireland's biggest companies saw their market value hit recent highs on Thursday. Allied Irish Banks, Ireland's biggest company by capitalisation, touched a five year peak while Bank of Ireland shares rose to their highest level since August 2002. Telecoms firm Eircom, which recently revealed that it would re-enter the Irish mobile phone market, hit a yearly high. Analysts said that economic conditions were benign and Irish shares were still trading at a discount to other European markets. ""Ireland ticks all the boxes as far as international investors are concerned,"" Roy Asher, chief investment officer of Hibernian Investment Managers, told Reuters. ""Buoyant economic conditions are set to continue in Ireland over the next few years and Irish equities continue to offer quality growth at a reasonable valuation."" Bernard McAlinden, head of equity research at NCB Stockbrokers, said equities represented good value compared to other investments. ""It is still looking good,"" he told Reuters. ""We have seen good economic data on Ireland which benefits the financial stocks."" Ireland's economic 'miracle' is enjoying a second wind, with 5% growth forecast for 2005 and 2006. The economy cooled markedly between 2001 and 2003 after enjoying spectacular growth of more than 10% in 2000. However, it has bounced back strongly with growth of just under 5% expected in 2004." -business,"House prices rebound says Halifax UK house prices increased by 1.1% in December, the first monthly rise since September, the Halifax has said. The UK's biggest mortgage lender said prices rose 15.1% over the whole of 2004, but by only 2.8% in the second half of the year. The average price of a house in the UK now stands at £162,086, Halifax said. The survey seems to fly in the face of recent evidence that the UK housing market has been slowing substantially in response to interest rate rises. Last week, the Nationwide said that house prices fell 0.2% in December, with annual inflation running at a three year low. On Tuesday, figures from the Bank of England showed that the number of mortgages approved in the UK has fallen to the lowest level for nearly a decade. New loans in November fell to 77,000, from 85,000 in October, the lowest rate since September 1995, the Bank of England said. Growth in unsecured lending, such as personal loans and credit cards, also slowed last month. Capital Economics, which has in the past predicted a sharp fall in UK house prices, branded Halifax's findings a ""temporary surprise,"" which would be reversed over the coming months. ""The month by month volatility of the Halifax house price data should not distract from the fact that there is a clear downward trend in house prices,"" a Capital Economics statement said. Experts believe five interest rate rises since November 2003 are cutting borrowers' appetite for debt. Despite recording a price rise in December, the Halifax survey concluded that there was ""continuing signs of a genuine slowdown in the housing market."" Martin Ellis, Halifax chief economist, said that there was no need to revise the bank's prediction, made last month, that prices would fall by 2% in 2005. ""Sound housing market fundamentals will continue to underpin the market in 2005, ensuring that the market remains healthy and that house prices fall only slightly,"" Mr Ellis said. If the bank's prediction of a 2% price drop comes true, it will be the first annual fall in nine years. The bank said that the recent pattern of house prices rising the fastest in the north of England continued in December. In the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber, Halifax said prices rose by 3% and 1.2% in the two regions respectively during the month. At the other send of the scale, prices in the South East and London fell by 1.6% and 0.5% respectively. The biggest decline was seen in Wales where prices fell by 6.2%, an area that had experienced strong house price growth during most of 2004. Overall, Halifax said prices in the final quarter of 2004 were 0.1% higher than in the previous quarter. This was the smallest quarterly rise since the second quarter of 2000, the bank said. As a result, annual house price inflation dipped below 20% during the final few months of 2004." -business,"Dollar gains on Greenspan speech The dollar has hit its highest level against the euro in almost three months after the Federal Reserve head said the US trade deficit is set to stabilise. And Alan Greenspan highlighted the US government's willingness to curb spending and rising household savings as factors which may help to reduce it. In late trading in New York, the dollar reached $1.2871 against the euro, from $1.2974 on Thursday. Market concerns about the deficit has hit the greenback in recent months. On Friday, Federal Reserve chairman Mr Greenspan's speech in London ahead of the meeting of G7 finance ministers sent the dollar higher after it had earlier tumbled on the back of worse-than-expected US jobs data. ""I think the chairman's taking a much more sanguine view on the current account deficit than he's taken for some time,"" said Robert Sinche, head of currency strategy at Bank of America in New York. ""He's taking a longer-term view, laying out a set of conditions under which the current account deficit can improve this year and next."" Worries about the deficit concerns about China do, however, remain. China's currency remains pegged to the dollar and the US currency's sharp falls in recent months have therefore made Chinese export prices highly competitive. But calls for a shift in Beijing's policy have fallen on deaf ears, despite recent comments in a major Chinese newspaper that the ""time is ripe"" for a loosening of the peg. The G7 meeting is thought unlikely to produce any meaningful movement in Chinese policy. In the meantime, the US Federal Reserve's decision on 2 February to boost interest rates by a quarter of a point - the sixth such move in as many months - has opened up a differential with European rates. The half-point window, some believe, could be enough to keep US assets looking more attractive, and could help prop up the dollar. The recent falls have partly been the result of big budget deficits, as well as the US's yawning current account gap, both of which need to be funded by the buying of US bonds and assets by foreign firms and governments. The White House will announce its budget on Monday, and many commentators believe the deficit will remain at close to half a trillion dollars." -business,"Bank opts to leave rates on hold The Bank of England has left interest rates on hold at 4.75% for a sixth month in a row. The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to take no action amid mixed signals from the economy. But some economists predict a further rise in the cost of borrowing will come later this year. Interest rates rose five times between November 2003 and August 2004 as soaring house prices and buoyant consumer data sparked inflation fears. Bank of England governor Mervyn King has recently warned against placing too much weight on one month's economic data, suggesting the MPC is waiting for a clearer picture to emerge. Economists see next week's inflation report from the MPC as key in assessing whether a further interest rate rise is necessary to keep the economy in check. Slower consumer spending and a quieter housing market are likely to have convinced the MPC that rates should be left unchanged in recent months. Inflation, however, has been rising faster than expected, hitting an annual rate of 1.6% in December - its highest level in six months. Data on Wednesday also showed manufacturing output rose at its fastest rate since May last month, reinforcing a view that economic growth was stronger than forecasts. And recent house surveys from the Halifax and Nationwide have indicated prices are still rising, albeit at a slower pace than in recent years. Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec Securities, said he believed rates would remain at 4.75% for the rest of the year although strong economic data could lead to a further hike. ""The economic landscape has changed quite considerably over the last couple of months, "" he said. ""Growth appears stronger and the MPC may become more concerned about inflation trends."" Howard Archer, economist at Global Insight said the MPC ""may well consider that the balance of risks to the growth and inflation outlook have moved from the downside to the upside"". Business groups welcomed the MPC's widely-expected move to leave rates on hold and cautioned against further rises. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said it was ""concerned by the clamour in some quarters"" for early interest rate increases. ""We believe that these demands should be firmly resisted,"" said David Frost, BCC director general. ""Manufacturing still faces extremely serious problems and is performing poorly, in spite of the recent revised figures."" Ian McCafferty, chief economist at the CBI, said the MPC faced an ""interesting"" challenge. ""Consumers appear to have pulled in their horns over the holiday period, and exporters are struggling with the strength of sterling,"" he said. ""However, the broader economy continues to show healthy growth, and the tight labour market and buoyant commodity prices are nudging inflation higher.""" -business,"S Korean consumers spending again South Korea looks set to sustain its revival thanks to renewed private consumption, its central bank says. The country's economy has suffered from an overhang of personal debt after its consumers' credit card spending spree. Card use fell sharply last year, but is now picking up again with a rise in spending of 14.8% year-on-year. ""The economy is now heading upward rather than downward,"" said central bank governor Park Seung. ""The worst seems to have passed."" Mr Park's statement came as the bank decided to keep interest rates at an all-time low of 3.25%. It had cut rates in November to help revive the economy, but rising inflation - reaching 0.7% month-on-month in January - has stopped it from cutting further. Economic growth in 2004 was about 4.7%, with the central bank predicting 4% growth this year. Other indicators are also suggesting that the country is inching back towards economic health. Exports - traditionally the driver for expansion in Asian economies - grew slower in January than at any time in 17 months. But domestic demand seems to be taking up the slack. Consumer confidence has bounced back from a four-year low in January, and retail sales were up 2.1% in December. Credit card debt is falling, with only one in 13 of the 48 million cards now in default - down from one in eight at the end of 2003. One of its biggest card issuers, LG Card, was rescued from collapse in December, having almost imploded under the weight of its customers' bad debts. The government last year tightened the rules for card lending to keep the card glut under control." -business,"European losses hit GM's profits General Motors (GM) saw its net profits fall 37% in the last quarter of 2004, as it continued to be hit by losses at its European operations. The US giant earned $630m (£481.5m) in the October-to-December period, down from $1bn in the fourth quarter of 2003. GM's revenues rose 4.7% to $51.2bn from $48.8bn a year earlier. The fourth-quarter losses at General Motors Europe totalled $345m, up from $66m during the same period in 2003. GM's main European brands are Opel and Vauxhall. Excluding special items, GM's global income from continuing operations totalled $569m during the quarter, down from $838m a year earlier. The results were in line with Wall Street expectations and shares in GM rose by about 1% in pre-market trade. For the whole of 2004, GM earned $3.7bn, down from $3.8bn in 2003, while its annual revenue rose 4.5% to $193bn. GM said its profits were also hit by higher healthcare costs in the US. ""GM reported solid overall results in 2004, despite challenging competitive conditions in many markets around the globe,"" GM chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner said in a statement. The company recently announced that it expected profits in 2005 to be lower than in 2004." -business,"Qantas sees profits fly to record Australian airline Qantas has posted a record fiscal first-half profit thanks to cost-cutting measures. Net profit in the six months ending 31 December rose 28% to A$458.4m ($357.6m; £191m) from a year earlier. Analysts expected a figure closer to A$431m. Qantas shares fell almost 3%, however, after it warned that earnings growth would slow in the second half. Sales will dip by at least A$30m after the Indian ocean tsunami devastated many holiday destinations, Qantas said. ""The tsunami affected travel patterns in ways that we were a bit surprised about,"" chief executive Geoff Dixon explained. ""It certainly affected Japanese travel into Australia. As soon as the tsunami hit we saw ... a lessening with bookings for Australia."" Higher fuel costs also are expected to eat into earnings in coming months. ""We don't have as much hedging benefit in the second half as we had in the first,"" said chief financial officer Peter Gregg. Qantas is facing increased pressure from rivals such as low-cost carrier Virgin Blue and the Australian government is in talks about whether to allow Singapore Airlines to fly between the Australia and the US - one of Qantas' key routes. Even so, the firm is predicting that full-year earnings will increase from the previous 12 months. Analysts have forecast full-year profit will rise about 11% to around A$720 million ($563 million). Qantas boss Mr Dixon also said he would be reviewing the group's cost-cutting measures. During the first six months of the fiscal year, Qantas made savings of A$245m, and is on track to top its target of A$500m for the full year. Last month, the company warned it may transfer as many as 7,000 jobs out Australia, with Mr Dixon quoted as saying that the carrier could no longer afford to remain ""all-Australian""." -business,"South African car demand surges Car manufacturers with plants in South Africa, including BMW, General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen, have seen a surge in demand during 2004. New vehicle sales jumped 22% to 449,603 from a year earlier, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) said. Strong economic growth and low interest rates have driven demand, and analysts expect the trend to continue. NAAMSA said it expects sales to top 500,000 in 2005. During 2004 ""South Africa was one of the best performing markets internationally"" for car sales, NAAMSA said. While domestic demand is set to continue to enjoy rapid growth, foreign sales could come under pressure, analysts said. The vehicle industry accounts for about 13% of South Africa's total exports. However, the world auto market has its problems and analysts warn that overcapacity and the strength of the rand could hit exports." -business,"MCI shareholder sues to stop bid A shareholder in US phone firm MCI has taken legal action to halt a $6.75bn (£3.6bn) buyout by telecoms giant Verizon, hoping to get a better deal. The lawsuit was filed on Friday after Qwest Communications, which had an earlier offer for MCI rejected, said it would submit an improved bid. MCI's directors have backed Verizon, despite it tabling less money. They are accused of breaching their fiduciary duties by depriving MCI shareholders ""of maximum value"". According the legal papers filed in a Delaware court, Verizon is set to pay an """"unconscionable, unfair and grossly inadequate"" sum for MCI, which was formerly known as Worldcom. Qwest said on Wednesday that MCI had rejected a deal worth $8bn. A number of large MCI shareholders expressed unhappiness at the decision, saying that Verizon's offer, made up of cash, shares and dividends, undervalued the company. Friday's lawsuit argues that the Verizon offer makes no provision for future growth prospects and that consolidation in the US phone industry will put a premium on MCI's network, assets and clients. MCI's directors have argued that Verizon is bigger than Qwest, has fewer debts and has built a successful mobile division. Chief executive Michael Capellas spent last week meeting with shareholders in an effort to win their backing. In 2002, investors in the then-named Worldcom lost millions when the company filed for bankruptcy following an accounting scandal. However, the firm - now renamed MCI - has put its operations in order and emerged from bankruptcy protection last April. It is a long-distance and corporate phone firm, and would provide the buyer with access to a global telecommunications network and a large number of business-based subscribers. MCI shares jumped on Friday, hitting their highest level since April 2004 amid speculation that it would be the focus of a bidding war. A takeover of MCI would be the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since October as companies look to cut costs and boost client bases. Earlier this month, SBC Communications agreed to buy its former parent and phone pioneer AT&T for about $16bn." -business,"Wembley firm won't make a profit Shares in Multiplex Group, which is building the new Wembley stadium, fell as much as 19% after it said it would not make any money on the project. The Australian firm said it would only break even on the 1.2bn Australian dollars (£458m; $874m) rebuild, after a rise in costs on the work. Any profits would depend on the outcome of legal cases resulting from a change in steel contractor, it added. It cut A$68m from profit targets for Wembley and another UK project. Investors were shaken by the news and the firm's shares fell to a four month low of A$4.50, before recovering to close 16% down at A$4.67. The decline came despite Multiplex reporting an 11% rise in pre-tax profits to A$67.7m for 2004 and reaffirming its 2005 profit forecasts. Increased costs at Wembley and a separate development in London's Docklands saw Multiplex's construction division report profits of A$35.1m. The firm said the result was below expectations but stressed that the majority of its UK projects - which also include the White City redevelopment scheme in west London - were performing strongly. To recoup any profit from Wembley, where the firm changed its steel contractor due to a legal dispute, Multiplex will have to win legal claims against subcontractors. These claims could take up to two years to resolve. ""Multiplex believes its claim are sound and ultimately will exceed the level needed to support the break even position,"" it said. ""It is expected that profits will be possible in future periods as the claims are finalised."" Wembley Stadium is to due to be completed in January and will officially open for the 2006 FA Cup Final. Analysts expressed concern at the unexpected paring back in profit. ""Such a big writeback on the Wembley project in such a short period has impacted on management credibility,"" Simon Wheatley, from Goldman Sachs, told Reuters." -business,"BBC poll indicates economic gloom Citizens in a majority of nations surveyed in a BBC World Service poll believe the world economy is worsening. Most respondents also said their national economy was getting worse. But when asked about their own family's financial outlook, a majority in 14 countries said they were positive about the future. Almost 23,000 people in 22 countries were questioned for the poll, which was mostly conducted before the Asian tsunami disaster. The poll found that a majority or plurality of people in 13 countries believed the economy was going downhill, compared with respondents in nine countries who believed it was improving. Those surveyed in three countries were split. In percentage terms, an average of 44% of respondents in each country said the world economy was getting worse, compared to 34% who said it was improving. Similarly, 48% were pessimistic about their national economy, while 41% were optimistic. And 47% saw their family's economic conditions improving, as against 36% who said they were getting worse. The poll of 22,953 people was conducted by the international polling firm GlobeScan, together with the Program on International Policy Attitudes (Pipa) at the University of Maryland. ""While the world economy has picked up from difficult times just a few years ago, people seem to not have fully absorbed this development, though they are personally experiencing its effects,"" said Pipa director Steven Kull. ""People around the world are saying: 'I'm OK, but the world isn't'."" There may be a perception that war, terrorism and religious and political divisions are making the world a worse place, even though that has not so far been reflected in global economic performance, says the BBC's Elizabeth Blunt. The countries where people were most optimistic, both for the world and for their own families, were two fast-growing developing economies, China and India, followed by Indonesia. China has seen two decades of blistering economic growth, which has led to wealth creation on a huge scale, says the BBC's Louisa Lim in Beijing. But the results also may reflect the untrammelled confidence of people who are subject to endless government propaganda about their country's rosy economic future, our correspondent says. South Korea was the most pessimistic, while respondents in Italy and Mexico were also quite gloomy. The BBC's David Willey in Rome says one reason for that result is the changeover from the lira to the euro in 2001, which is widely viewed as the biggest reason why their wages and salaries are worth less than they used to be. The Philippines was among the most upbeat countries on prospects for respondents' families, but one of the most pessimistic about the world economy. Pipa conducted the poll from 15 November 2004 to 3 January 2005 across 22 countries in face-to-face or telephone interviews. The interviews took place between 15 November 2004 and 5 January 2005. The margin of error is between 2.5 and 4 points, depending on the country. In eight of the countries, the sample was limited to major metropolitan areas." -business,"Lloyd's of London head chides FSA The head of Lloyd's of London, the insurance market, has criticised Britain's financial watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA). In a speech on Monday, Mr Prettejohn urged the FSA to force brokers to disclose the size of their commissions. ""The FSA should change, and change now"" said Mr Prettejohn, who wants it to move from ""disclosure on request"" to mandatory disclosure. The call came in a speech on improving the London insurance market. ""The FSA should not bide their time and 'wait and see'. They should seize the moment,"" Mr Prettejohn, Lloyd's chief executive said. The FSA took over regulation of the general insurance sector in January, but it sidestepped calls to require brokers to disclose the commissions they earn from insurers to their clients. Last week, the City watchdog gave brokers and insurers guidance on managing conflicts of interest. Brokers must give information on their commissions if, and only if, their customers request it, the FSA said. In the US, lack of transparency about brokers' commissions has led to problems. The world's biggest insurance broker Marsh & McLennan said last week it would pay $850m to settle charges, raised by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in October, that it sought to rig bids in conjunction with insurers. The probe centred around so-called contingent commissions, whereby brokers were rewarded according to how much business they brought to an insurer, an arrangement that did not always benefit brokers' customers. All of the insurance business written in the Lloyd's market is placed via brokers." -business,"Aids and climate top Davos agenda Climate change and the fight against Aids are leading the list of concerns for the first day of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos. Some 2,000 business and political leaders from around the globe will listen to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's opening speech on Wednesday. Mr Blair will focus on Africa's development plans and global warming. Earlier in the day came an update on efforts to have 3 million people on anti-Aids drugs by the end of 2005. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said 700,000 people in poor countries were on life-extending drugs - up from 440,000 six months earlier but amounting to only 12% of the 5.8 million who needed them. A $2bn ""funding gap"" still stood in the way of hitting the 2005 target, the WHO said. The themes to be stressed by Mr Blair - whose attendance was announced at the last minute - are those he wants to dominate the UK's chairmanship of the G8 group of industrialised states. Other issues to be discussed at the five-day conference range from China's economic power to Iraq's future after this Sunday's elections. Aside from Mr Blair, more than 20 other world leaders are expected to attend including French President Jacques Chirac - due to speak by video link after bad weather delayed his helicopter - and South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose arrival has been delayed by Ivory Coast peace talks. The Ukraine's new president, Viktor Yushchenko, will also be there - as will newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Showbiz figures will also put in an appearance, from U2 frontman Bono - a well-known campaigner on trade and development issues - to Angelina Jolie, a goodwill campaigner for the UN on refugees. Unlike previous years, protests against the WEF are expected to be muted. Anti-globalisation campaigners have called off a demonstration planned for the weekend. At the same time, about 100,000 people are expected to converge on the Brazilian resort of Porto Alegre for the World Social Forum - the so-called ""anti-Davos"" for campaigners against globalisation, for fair trade, and many other causes. In contrast, the Davos forum is dominated by business issues - from outsourcing to corporate leadership - with bosses of more than a fifth of the world's 500 largest companies scheduled to attend. A survey published on the eve of the conference by PricewaterhouseCoopers said four in ten business leaders were ""very confident"" that their companies would see sales rise in 2005. Asian and American executives, however, were much more confident than their European counterparts. But the political discussions, focusing on Iran, Iraq and China, are likely to dominate media attention." -business,"Fed chief warning on US deficit Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has warned that allowing huge US budget deficits to continue could have ""severe"" consequences. Speaking to the House Budget Committee he urged Congress to take action to cut the deficit, such as increasing taxes. While the US economy is growing at a ""reasonably good pace"" he warned that budget concerns were clouding the economic outlook for the US. Pension and healthcare costs posed the greatest risks to the economy, he said. The government program faces severe financial strains in coming decades as the massive baby-boom generation retires. ""I fear that we may have already committed more physical resources to the baby-boom generation in its retirement years than our economy has the capacity to deliver. If existing promises need to be changed, those changes should be made sooner rather than later,"" Mr Greenspan said. He also warned that unless the nation sees unprecedented rises in productivity ""retirement and health programmes would need ""significant"" changes. He called on Congress to cut promised benefits for retirees, as the promised benefits for the soon-to-retire baby boom generation were much larger than the government could afford. Meanwhile any move to narrow the deficit gap by raising taxes could pose a significant risk to the economy by dampening growth and spending, he added. He also urged Congress to reinstate lapsed rules that require tax cuts and spending to be offset elsewhere in the budget in an effort to prevent the US heading further into the red. Despite the dire warnings, Mr Greenspan did offer some good news for the short term. As US growth gathers steam and incomes rise that should lead to a narrowing of the deficit. Recent increases in defence and homeland security spending were also not expected to continue indefinitely, which should cut some costs. Since President George W Bush came to office the federal budget has swung from a record surplus to a record deficit of $412bn last year." -business,"WorldCom trial starts in New York The trial of Bernie Ebbers, former chief executive of bankrupt US phone company WorldCom, has started in New York with the selection of the jury. Mr Ebbers, 63, is accused of being the mastermind behind an $11bn (£6bn) accounting fraud that eventually saw the firm collapse in July 2002. His indictment includes charges of securities fraud, conspiracy and filing false reports with regulators. If found guilty, Mr Ebbers could face a substantial jail sentence. He has firmly declared his innocence. Under Mr Ebbers' leadership, WorldCom emerged from Mississippi obscurity to become a $160bn telecoms giant and the darling of late 1990s investors. Yet as competition intensified and the telecoms boom petered out, WorldCom found itself under growing financial stress. When WorldCom finally collapsed, shareholders lost about $180bn and 20,000 workers lost their jobs. Mr Ebbers' trial, which is expected to last two months, is the latest in a series of attempts by US prosecutors to pursue senior executives for fraud. It will coincide with the retrial of former Tyco International chief Dennis Kozlowski and his top lieutenant, accused of looting the industrial conglomerate to the tune of $600m. Trail preparations are also preparing for former executives of shamed US energy firm Enron." -business,"Venezuela and China sign oil deal Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has offered China wide-ranging access to the country's oil reserves. The offer, made as part of a trade deal between the two countries, will allow China to operate oil fields in Venezuela and invest in new refineries. Venezuela has also offered to supply 120,000 barrels of fuel oil a month to China. Venezuela - the world's fifth largest oil exporter - sells about 60% of its output to the United States. Mr Chavez's administration, which has a strained relationship with the US, is trying to diversify sales to reduce its dependence on its largest export market. China's quick-growing economy's need for oil has contributed to record-high oil prices this year, along with political unrest in the Middle East and supply bottlenecks. Oil prices are finishing the year roughly 30% higher than they were in January 2004. In 2004, according to forecasts from the Ministry of Commerce, China's oil imports will be 110m tons, up 21% on the previous year. China has been a net importer of oil since the mid 1990's with more than a third of the oil and gas it consumes coming from abroad. A lack of sufficient domestic production and the need to lessen its dependence on imports from the Middle East has meant that China is looking to invest in other potential markets such as Latin America. Mr Chavez, who is visiting China, said his country would put its many of its oil facilities at the disposal of China. Chinese firms would be allowed to operate 15 mature oil fields in the east of Venezuela, which could produce more than one billion barrels, he confirmed. The two countries will also continue a joint venture agreement to produce stocks of the boiler fuel orimulsion. Mr Chavez has also invited Chinese firms to bid for gas exploration contracts which his government will offer next year in the western Gulf of Venezuela. The two countries also signed a number of other agreements covering other industries including mining." -business,"Borussia Dortmund near bust German football club and former European champion Borussia Dortmund has warned it will go bankrupt if rescue talks with creditors fail. The company's shares tumbled after it said it has ""entered a life-threatening profitability and financial situation"". Borussia Dortmund has posted record losses and missed rent payments on its Westfallen stadium. Chief executive Gerd Niebaum stepped down last week and creditors are now pushing for greater control. Shares in Borussia Dortmund, Germany's only stock-market listed football club, dropped by almost 23% to 2.05 euros during early afternoon trading. Fund manager Florian Hamm - Borussia Dortmund's largest investor - said he would only invest more money in the company if he got a greater say in how it is run. ""I demand better transparency,"" he is quoted as saying by Germany's Manger Magazin. The club has also faced calls to appoint executives from outside the club. Borussia Dortmund posted a record loss of 68m euros ($89m; £47m) in the 12 months through June. It made a loss of 27.2m euros in the first half of the current fiscal year and said that total debts will increase to 134.7m euros by the middle of 2006 unless a restructuring plan is pushed through. ""This is the bill for their mismanagement over the past years,"" said HVB analyst Peter-Thilo Halser. The club appointed an auditor, who has recommended a number of steps, including deferring the rent due on the stadium and suspending debt repayments until at least the 2006-2007 fiscal year. Stephen Schechter, a UK investment banker who has held talks with Borussia Dortmund over a possible bond sale, said the club needs a capital injection of 35m euros. ""They need strong people on the board who do not have a history with the club,"" he said." -business,"Lufthansa flies back to profit German airline Lufthansa has returned to profit in 2004 after posting huge losses in 2003. In a preliminary report, the airline announced net profits of 400m euros ($527.61m; £274.73m), compared with a loss of 984m euros in 2003. Operating profits were at 380m euros, ten times more than in 2003. Lufthansa was hit in 2003 by tough competition and a dip in demand following the Iraq war and the killer SARS virus. It was also hit by troubles at its US catering business. Last year, Lufthansa showed signs of recovery even as some European and US airlines were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The board of Lufthansa has recommended paying a 2004 dividend of 0.30 euros per share. In 2003, shareholders did not get a dividend. The company said that it will give all the details of its 2004 results on 23 March." -business,"Fannie Mae 'should restate books' US mortgage company Fannie Mae should restate its earnings, a move that is likely to put a billion-dollar dent in its accounts, watchdogs have said. The Securities & Exchange Commission accused Fannie Mae of using techniques that ""did not comply in material respects"" with accounting standards. Fannie Mae last month warned that some records were incorrect. The other main US mortgage firm Freddie Mac restated earnings by $5bn (£2.6bn) last year after a probe of its books. The SEC's comments are likely to increase pressure on Congress to strengthen supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two firms are key parts of the US financial system and effectively underwrite the mortgage market, financing nearly half of all American house purchases and dealing actively in bonds and other financial instruments. The investigation of Freddie Mac in June 2003 sparked concerns about the wider health of the industry and raised questionsmarks over the role of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the industry's main regulator. Having been pricked into action, the OFHEO turned its attention to Fannie May and in September this year said that the firm had tweaked its books to spread earnings more smoothly across quarters and play down the amount of risk it had taken on. The SEC found similar problems. The watchdog's chief accountant Donald Nicolaisen said that ""Fannie Mae's methodology of assessing, measuring and documenting hedge ineffectiveness was inadequate and was not supported"" by generally accepted accounting principles." -business,"China had role in Yukos split-up China lent Russia $6bn (£3.2bn) to help the Russian government renationalise the key Yuganskneftegas unit of oil group Yukos, it has been revealed. The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the $6bn which Russian state bank VEB lent state-owned Rosneft to help buy Yugansk in turn came from Chinese banks. The revelation came as the Russian government said Rosneft had signed a long-term oil supply deal with China. The deal sees Rosneft receive $6bn in credits from China's CNPC. According to Russian newspaper Vedomosti, these credits would be used to pay off the loans Rosneft received to finance the purchase of Yugansk. Reports said CNPC had been offered 20% of Yugansk in return for providing finance but the company opted for a long-term oil supply deal instead. Analysts said one factor that might have influenced the Chinese decision was the possibility of litigation from Yukos, Yugansk's former owner, if CNPC had become a shareholder. Rosneft and VEB declined to comment. ""The two companies [Rosneft and CNPC] have agreed on the pre-payment for long-term deliveries,"" said Russian oil official Sergei Oganesyan. ""There is nothing unusual that the pre-payment is for five to six years."" The announcements help to explain how Rosneft, a medium-sized, indebted, and relatively unknown firm, was able to finance its surprise purchase of Yugansk. Yugansk was sold for $9.3bn in an auction last year to help Yukos pay off part of a $27bn bill in unpaid taxes and fines. The embattled Russian oil giant had previously filed for bankruptcy protection in a US court in an attempt to prevent the forced sale of its main production arm. But Yugansk was sold to a little known shell company which in turn was bought by Rosneft. Yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Once the country's richest man, Mr Khodorkovsky is on trial for fraud and tax evasion. The deal between Rosneft and CNPC is seen as part of China's desire to secure long-term oil supplies to feed its booming economy. China's thirst for products such as crude oil, copper and steel has helped pushed global commodity prices to record levels. ""Clearly the Chinese are trying to get some leverage [in Russia],"" said Dmitry Lukashov, an analyst at brokerage Aton. ""They understand property rights in Russia are not the most important rights, and they are more interested in guaranteeing supplies."" ""If the price of oil is fixed under the deal, which is unlikely, it could be very profitable for the Chinese,"" Mr Lukashov continued. ""And Rosneft is in desperate need of cash, so it's a good deal for them too.""" -business,"Ask Jeeves tips online ad revival Ask Jeeves has become the third leading online search firm this week to thank a revival in internet advertising for improving fortunes. The firm's revenue nearly tripled in the fourth quarter of 2004, exceeding $86m (£46m). Ask Jeeves, once among the best-known names on the web, is now a relatively modest player. Its $17m profit for the quarter was dwarfed by the $204m announced by rival Google earlier in the week. During the same quarter, Yahoo earned $187m, again tipping a resurgence in online advertising. The trend has taken hold relatively quickly. Late last year, marketing company Doubleclick, one of the leading providers of online advertising, warned that some or all of its business would have to be put up for sale. But on Thursday, it announced that a sharp turnaround had brought about an unexpected increase in profits. Neither Ask Jeeves nor Doubleclick thrilled investors with their profit news, however. In both cases, their shares fell by some 4%. Analysts attributed the falls to excessive expectations in some quarters, fuelled by the dramatic outperformance of Google on Tuesday." -business,"Mixed signals from French economy The French economy picked up speed at the end of 2004, official figures show - but still looks set to have fallen short of the government's hopes. According to state statistics body INSEE, growth for the three months to December was a seasonally-adjusted 0.7-0.8%, ahead of the 0.6% forecast. If confirmed, that would be the best quarterly showing since early 2002. It leaves GDP up 2.3% for the full year, but short of the 2.5% which the French government had predicted. Despite the apparent shortfall in annual economic growth, the good quarterly figures - a so-called ""flash estimate"" - mark a continuing trend of improving indicators for the health of the French economy. The government is reiterating a 2.5% target for 2005, while the European Central Bank is making positive noises for the 12-nation eurozone as a whole. Also on Friday, France's industrial output for December was released, showing 0.7% growth. ""The numbers are good,"" said David Naude, economist at Deutsche Bank. ""They send a positive signal of a rebound in output... and open the way for a continuation in that trend into the New Year."" Service sector activity improved in January, hitting a seven-month high. But unemployment remains high at about 10%." -business,"Executive trio leave Aer Lingus Three senior executives of Ireland's state-owned airline, Aer Lingus, are set to leave early on 28 January after accusations of a conflict of interest. The trio are chief executive Willie Walsh, chief financial officer Brian Dunne and chief operations officer Seamus Kearney. The three have refused to confirm reports they plan to launch a private airline in competition with Aer Lingus. They announced in November they would quit in May, but did not give a reason. That decision had followed an announcement by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern - who is still considering the future of the airline - which ruled out a proposed management buy-out of Aer Lingus. Mr Walsh denied they had been forced out early because of the reports claiming they were set to launch a competitor airline. ""What I do after I leave Aer Lingus is still too early to say,"" Mr Walsh told AP news agency on Wednesday. ""I have opportunities open to me. Brian and Seamus are in the equally fortunate position."" He said he had received more than 40 business proposals, mostly aviation-related, since the trio announced their resignations two months ago. Mr Walsh said there was no conflict of interest, and, if he was to launch a rival airline or join an existing competitor, ""this thing happens in every business"". ""There's absolutely no question of a conflict of interest. I've been completely focused on my responsibilities at Aer Lingus,"" he told AP. This week opposition politicians had called on the Irish government to make an urgent decision on the future of the airline. On Wednesday Irish Transport Minister Martin Cullen said in a statement: ""A conflict of interest cannot, should not and will not be allowed to arise between their current roles at Aer Lingus and their future career intentions."" Last Friday the minister had announced he was to advertise for three senior executives for Aer Lingus. Mr Walsh, who took charge in 2000, and his team have earned praise for turning Aer Lingus around, by cutting air fares and staff, and re-positioning it as a low-fare airline to rival Ryanair. The company is 85% owned by the government and 15% by its staff." -business,"Nissan names successor to Ghosn Nissan has named a lifetime employee to run its operations after Carlos Ghosn, its highly successful boss, takes charge at Renault. As chief operating officer, Toshiyuki Shiga will run Nissan on a daily basis, although Mr Ghosn, who masterminded its recovery, will remain chief executive. Mr Ghosn is to become chairman and chief executive of Renault, which owns 44% of the Japanese carmaker, in April. Mr Ghosn transformed Nissan into a fast-growing and profitable business. Mr Shiga will nominally serve as Mr Ghosn's deputy. However, he will be Nissan's most senior Japan-based executive and will be in charge of the firm's global sales and marketing. He is currently in charge of Nissan's operations across Asia and Australasia and is credited with significantly improving its sales in China. He will inherit a strong legacy from Mr Ghosn, who has overseen a dramatic turnaround in Nissan's fortunes in the past five years. Dubbed 'le cost killer' for pushing through huge cost cuts in previous jobs, Mr Ghosn reduced Nissan's overheads by 20% and trimmed its workforce by about 200,000 after taking charge in 1999. These actions helped Nissan turn a 684bn yen ($6.4bn) loss in 2000 into a 331bn yen ($2.7bn) profit the following year. During his tenure, Nissan has increased its market share and made significant strides in key export markets. Nissan aims to increase vehicle sales to more than four million by 2008, launching 28 new models in the process. In his new job as Renault chief executive, Mr Ghosn will devote 40% of his time to Renault, 40% to Nissan and the rest to the group's activities in North America and other key markets. Mr Ghosn said Mr Shiga's appointment would ensure a ""seamless"" transition in management. ""I need a leadership team capable of accelerating the performance and delivery of results that has characterized Nissan over the past six years,"" Mr Ghosn said. ""I have full confidence in Toshiyuki Shiga and the new leadership team to help me implement the next chapter of Nissan's growth."" Nissan also announced a number of other management appointments with promotions for several younger executives." -business,"Yukos accused of lying to court Russian oil firm Yukos lied to a US court in an attempt to stop the Russian government selling off its key production unit, the court has heard. The unit, Yugansk, was sold to pay off a $27.5bn (£14.5bn) back tax bill. Yukos argued that since it had a US subsidiary and local bank accounts, the US court could declare it bankrupt and stop the auction of Yugansk. But Deutsche Bank - itself a target of a Yukos lawsuit - said documents had been backdated to strengthen the case. Deutsche Bank's evidence came on the first day of a two-day hearing in Houston. Its lawyer, Hugh Ray, told the court that Yukos had claimed it had transferred $27m into two Texas bank accounts opened by its new US subsidiary. By doing so, he said, the firm had intended to reinforce its US presence - and thus its chances of getting its case heard in US courts. But he said that the papers documenting the transaction were not drawn up till weeks after Yukos made its bankruptcy application on 14 December, and then backdated. Yukos chief financial officer Bruce Misamore, who had moved to the US in early December to set up Yukos USA, acknowledged the point. He said the discrepancy was only in the paperwork, but that money had indeed been transferred on 14 December. Even so, he told the court that only $480,000 had been in the accounts that day, with the rest arriving a day later. Deutsche Bank is involved in the case because it is itself being sued by Yukos. It had agreed to loan to an arm of Russian state gas firm Gazprom the money to bid for Yuganskneftegaz, as the Yukos unit is formally known. The sale went ahead, despite an order from the US bankruptcy court ordered that it should be stopped. In the end, the auction was won by an unknown shell company for $9.4bn - much less than most assessments of its value - before ending up in the hands of state-controlled oil firm Rosneft. Rosneft, meanwhile, has agreed to merge with Gazprom, bringing a large chunk of Russia's very profitable oil business back under state control. Yukos maintains that it filed for bankruptcy in the US because it feared it would not be able to do so in Russia. It also said that in the event of going bust, it could offer the chance of restructuring. ""It gives us a kind of life after death alternative,"" said Yukos chief executive Steven Theede. Yukos is currently suing four companies - Gazprom, its unit Gazpromneft, Rosneft and the shell company which won the bidding - for their part in Yugansk's disposal. It has also threatened to sue the Russian government for $28bn. Analysts have questioned whether a US court has any jurisdiction over Russian companies, while Moscow officials have dismissed Yukos' legal wrangling as meaningless. Yukos claims that the rights of its shareholders have been ignored and that is has been punished for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Mr Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is in prison, having been charged with fraud and tax evasion and repeatedly denied bail." -business,"Venezuela reviews foreign deals Venezuela is to review all foreign investment in its mining industries in an effort to strengthen its indigenous industrial output. President Hugo Chavez has ordered all existing contracts with foreign firms to be examined to see if they provide maximum benefits to the country. The review will cover production of gold, aluminium and iron ore although it excludes the country's oil sector. Chavez has sought to extend the state's role in all sectors of the economy. The left-wing president is conducting a controversial review of land ownership in the country while also seeking to create a state-run telecoms firm to compete with foreign-owned businesses. He has argued that major economic reforms are vital to improve the lives of Venezuela's poorest citizens. Announcing the review of raw material production, minister Victor Alvarez said the government would seek to transfer technology, training capability and content from projects with foreign partners. ""We are defending our national sovereignty over the use of our national resources which must serve the endogenous development of the nation,"" Mr Alvarez said. ""For this reason we are reviewing all memorandums of understanding, all letters of intent, all agreements that have been signed, all contracts, to check which of these comply with these directives. ""Everything, absolutely everything, has to be reviewed."" Venezuela has previously assured foreign companies with operations in the mineral rich country that it respects existing contracts. However, the government insisted that it needed to develop its own industrial infrastructure in order to create new jobs and lessen its reliance on foreign partners. ""If we don't do this, we are just going to carry on being slaves, suppliers of raw materials, all our lives and we will never develop our own productive capacity,"" Mr Alvarez added. Companies from the United States, Canada, France and Switzerland all have substantial investments in Venezuela's mining sector." -business,"Italy to get economic action plan Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will unveil plans aimed at kickstarting the country's sputtering economy on Thursday night in Rome. He will present an ""Action Plan for the Development of Italy"" in a meeting with industrialists and trade union leaders. Mr Berlusconi is expected to table reforms aimed at boosting research and development (R&D) spending, and the competitiveness of small firms. Also in focus will be bankruptcy laws and the slow pace of the legal system. The prime minister is scheduled to start the meeting at 1830 GMT. The government has been accused of underfunding R&D, making it harder for Italy to compete with other European nations and leading to a ""brain-drain"" of the country's brightest talents. Analysts say that hiring and firing staff is still too difficult and expensive, hampering the development of small- and medium-sized businesses. As a result, they say, Italy's corporate landscape is filled with numerous smaller companies that are often reluctant to become bigger because of all the extra hassle that would accompany the running of a larger firm. At the same time, bankruptcy laws make it difficult for failed company directors to set up new businesses and emerge from their debts, a situation that is hampering Italy's entrepreneurial spirit. The government says that it has set about tackling the problems, adding that getting growth going was the responsibility of all of Italy's 60 million population. According to Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy's business newspaper, the government will focus on ""opening up markets, infrastructure, research, making more incentives available, bankruptcy law, the slow pace of the justice system"". Mr Berlusconi has previously promised to cut taxes by 6.5bn euros ($8.6bn; £4.5bn) this year in an effort to get people and companies to spend. He has also promised to cap spending on transport, education and health so as to trim the ballooning budget deficit. Italy plans to raise as much as 25bn euros from privatisations in 2005, including a partial flotation of the post office and utility Enel. Critics argue that these moves do not go far enough and could make Italy's problems worse. Limiting government spending will lead to job losses, they counter, while the income tax cuts will have a negligible effect on sentiment and ultimately favour the wealthy. The country has been one of the eurozone's worst economic performers in recent years. Growth was 1.1% in 2004, up from just 0.3% in 2003 and 0.4% in 2002 - an improvement but still a long way from ideal. At the same time, business and consumer confidence has dipped and analysts have raised concerns that what little spending there is stems from Italians dipping into their savings accounts or using credit cards. Without a pick up in national growth, they say, the money could eventually run out, bringing Italy's economy to a juddering halt. Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of Italy's economy." -business,"Retail sales show festive fervour UK retail sales were better than expected in November as Christmas shoppers began their seasonal flock to the High Street, figures show. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said retail sales rose 0.6% on the month and 6.1% on the year. But the figures, along with this week's inflation report, could trigger another interest rate rise in the New Year. However, recent data from the British Retail Consortium showed a 0.2% slip in High Street sales during November. The ONS data confounded analyst expectations. Many had expected sales to fall slightly in November as shoppers put off buying Christmas presents until December. However, retailers' attempts to draw in the crowds may be behind November's unexpected rise in sales, they say. Aggressive tactics, such as one-day discount sales adopted by stores such as Marks & Spencer, appear to have paid off. ""Price discounting has certainly accounted for much of this because the value of retail sales hasn't grown as much as volumes,"" said Investec economist David Page. The figures sparked a rally for sterling as the data supported the view that it is too early to assume that base rates have peaked." -business,"Police detain Chinese milk bosses Chinese police have detained three top executives at milk firm Yili, with reports suggesting that they are being investigated for embezzlement. Yili - full name Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial - confirmed its chairman, chief financial officer and securities representative were all in custody. The company, China's third-largest milk producer, is to hold an emergency meeting to debate the issue. A Yili spokesman said it may now move to oust chairman Zheng Junhuai. The spokesman did not say why the three had been detained by the police. The official Xinhua News Agency said the arrest was linked to alleged embezzlement. Yili has recently been the subject of intense media speculation over its financial operations. Executives are suspected of wrongly using 417m yuan ($50.4m; £26m) of company funds to support a management buyout back in July 2003. Yili's shares were suspended on Tuesday, having fallen by 10% on Monday. The company and its two main rivals - market leader Mengniu Dairy and second place Bright Dairy - dominate a Chinese milk market that has grown by almost 30% over the past five years. Analysts wondered if the scandal at Yili - the latest to befall Chinese companies this year - could be followed by further revelations of corporate wrongdoing. ""Investors wonder if Yili's scandal, one of a slew to be uncovered this year, isn't just the tip of the iceberg,"" said Chen Huiqin, an analyst at Huatai Securities." -business,"Brazil buy boosts Belgium's Inbev Belgian brewing giant Inbev has seen its profits soar thanks to its acquisition of Brazil's biggest beer firm Ambev last year. Inbev, which makes Stella Artois, said pre-tax profits for 2004 rose 56% to 1.16bn euros ($1.5bn; £800m), and said it expected solid growth in 2005. The performance comes on sales up 21% at 8.6bn euros. The firm, formerly Interbrew, became the world's biggest brewer by volume when it bought Ambev in August 2004. The acquisition meant its sales by volume grew 57% in 2004, with four months of Ambev sales accounting for almost all of the increase. US beermaker Anheuser-Busch sells less beer by volume than Inbev but is bigger in terms of the value of its sales. Continuing demand for Inbev's products in the South American markets where its Brazilian arm is most popular means it expects to keep boosting its turnover. ""It's the Brazil business that's doing it,"" said ING analyst Gerard Rijk of Inbev's strong performance. Ambev boosted its share of Brazil's beer market from 62% at the end of 2003 to more than 68% by December 2004, Inbev reported. In contrast, Inbev's European business saw volume sales fall 2.5%, although Central and Eastern European sales rose 12%. Overall, net profits were up 42% to 719m euros." -business,"Egypt to sell off state-owned bank The Egyptian government is reportedly planning to privatise one of the country's big public banks. An Investment Ministry official has told the Reuters news agency that the Bank of Alexandria will be sold sometime in 2005. The move is seen as evidence of a new commitment by the government to reduce the size of public sector. The official said the government has not yet decided whether the sale will take the form of a public flotation. ""The most important thing to decide now is the method - whether by selling shares to the public or to a strategic investor from abroad,"" he said. Analysts say the public-sector banks have suited the government's monetary, credit and exchange policies. Nevertheless, the Egyptian government has spoken for years about privatising one of the big four state banks - Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt, Banque du Caire and Bank of Alexandria. It had been expected one of the smallest of the four big public banks - Bank of Alexandria or Banque du Caire - would be sold first. The announcement reinforces the hopes of investors and international financial bodies for a revival of Egypt's privatisation programme. About 190 state-run companies and facilities were sold off from the early 1990s to 1997. The appointment of Mahmoud Mohieldin, a reform-minded technocrat, to the new post of investment minister in July was taken as a sign that more sell-offs were on the way. Both the IMF and World Bank have urged Egypt to remove obstacles to the development of the private sector which they say has a vital role to play in reducing poverty by expanding the economy." -business,"Singapore growth at 8.1% in 2004 Singapore's economy grew by 8.1% in 2004, its best performance since 2000, figures from the trade ministry show. The advance, the second-fastest in Asia after China, was led by growth of 13.1% in the key manufacturing sector. However, a slower-than-expected fourth quarter points to more modest growth for the trade-driven economy in 2005 as global technology demand falls back. Slowdowns in the US and China could hit electronics exports, while the tsunami disaster may effect the service sector. Economic growth is set to halve in Singapore this year to between 3% and 5%. In the fourth quarter, the city state's gross domestic product (GDP) rose at an annual rate of 2.4%. That was up from the third quarter, when it fell 3.0%, but was well below analyst forecasts. ""I am surprised at the weak fourth quarter number. The main drag came from electronics,"" said Lian Chia Liang, economist at JP Morgan Chase. Singapore's economy had contracted over the summer, weighed down by soaring oil prices. The economy's poor performance in the July to September period followed four consecutive quarters of double-digit growth as Singapore bounced back strongly from the effects of the deadly Sars virus in 2003." -business,"Optimism remains over UK housing The UK property market remains robust despite the recent slowdown, according to mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley and housebuilder George Wimpey. B&B said the buy-to-let market - in which the bank is a major player - would continue to grow much faster than the wider mortgage market. The comments came as it reported a 6% rise in profits to £280.2m ($532m). Wimpey reported a 19% rise in profits to £450.7m and said recent new home reservations were better than expected. Recent housing market surveys have indicated that the UK property market has cooled in recent months after several years of rapid growth. Last week, figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) indicated that the popularity of buy-to-let mortgages - a key phenomenon of the housing boom - could be waning. But B&B - which has a 22% share of the UK buy-to-let mortgage market - said that while rates of growth were moderating, the sector ""continues to grow at a rate considerably above that of the whole mortgage market"". Overall, B&B said that ""housing market fundamentals remain strong"". ""Interest rates and unemployment are both likely to remain at historically low levels, real household incomes should continue to grow and housing demand is likely to outstrip supply into the medium-term."" Despite the upbeat tone, shares in B&B were down more than 4% at 325.5p in morning trade as analysts worried over future earnings growth. Wimpey's profit figures came in at the top of expectations, with the numbers helped by buoyant sales in the US offsetting a slight slowdown in the UK. Wimpey said the UK housing market had proved ""challenging"" last year. ""By late summer, the market in general had slowed sharply across the country and showed no real improvement during the autumn,"" it added. However, the first seven weeks of this year had produced promising signs, Wimpey said. ""Visitor levels and interest in this period have been encouraging and reservations have been at the stronger end of our expectations."" Shares in Wimpey were up 6% at 458.5p in morning trade." -business,"Egypt and Israel seal trade deal In a sign of a thaw in relations between Egypt and Israel, the two countries have signed a trade protocol with the US, allowing Egyptian goods made in partnership with Israeli firms free access to American markets. The protocol, signed in Cairo, will establish what are called ""qualified industrial zones"" in Egypt. Products from these zones will enjoy duty free access to the US, provided that 35% of their components are the product of Israeli-Egyptian cooperation. The US describes this as the most important economic agreement between Egypt and Israel in two decades. The protocol establishing the zones has been stalled for years. There has been deep sensitivity in Egypt about any form of co-operation with Israel as long as its peace process with the Palestinians remains blocked. But in recent weeks an unusual warmth has crept into relations between the two countries. Both exchanged prisoners earlier this month, with Egypt handing back an Israeli who has served eight years in prison after being convicted for spying. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has described Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as the best chance for the Palestinians to achieve peace. The government in Cairo now believes Mr Sharon is moving towards the centre and away from the positions of right wing groups. It also believes the US, pressed by Europe, is now more willing to engage seriously in the search for a settlement. But there are also pressing economic reasons for Egypt's decision to enter into the trade agreement. It will give a huge boost to Egyptian textile exports, which are about to suffer a drop after new regulations come into force in the US at the beginning of the year." -business,"Palestinian economy in decline Despite a short-lived increase in Palestinian jobs in 2003, the economy is performing well below its potential, said a World Bank report. Unemployment stood at 25%, compared with 10% before the uprising against Israeli occupation four years ago. Young people are particularly hard hit with 37% out of work, compared with 14% four years ago. But 104,000 new jobs were created last year during a brief easing of violence and closures. However, during the first half of this year, the Palestinian economy lost more than 22,000 jobs. Last year's growth rate of 6% can also be attributed to this temporary gap in violence, the report said. According to the report, Intifada, Closures and Palestinian Economic Crisis: An Assessment, there is a close link between the number of closures - both border closures and internal closures between cities - and Palestinian economic problems. The closures arranged by Israel restrict the movement of Palestinian people and goods, slowing down trade. ""Closures are a key factor behind today's economic crisis in the West Bank,"" said Nigel Roberts, World Bank country director for the West Bank and Gaza. Nearly half of all Palestinians - some 47% - live below the poverty line and are particularly vulnerable to economic shocks. The report said even more would be on the poverty line without an average of $950m a year from international donors, some of which goes towards job creation. It also called on the Palestinian Authority to revive its reform programme and maintain financial discipline to create an investment-friendly climate. This week Colin Powell, US Secretary of State was visiting the West Bank to stress US support for a smooth Palestinian election in January." -business,"UK firm faces Venezuelan land row Venezuelan authorities have said they will seize land owned by a British company as part of President Chavez's agrarian reform programme. Officials in Cojedes state said on Friday that farmland owned by a subsidiary of the Vestey Group would be taken and used to settle poor farmers. The government is cracking down on so-called latifundios, or large rural estates, which it says are lying idle. The Vestey Group said it had not been informed of any planned seizure. The firm, whose Agroflora subsidiary operates 13 farms in Venezuela, insisted that it had complied fully with Venezuelan law. Prosecutors in the south of the country have targeted Hato El Charcote, a beef cattle ranch owned by Agroflora. According to Reuters, they plan to seize 12,900 acres (5,200 hectares) from the 32,000 acre (13,000 hectare) farm. Officials claim that Agroflora does not possess valid documents proving its ownership of the land in question. They also allege that areas of the ranch are not being used for any form of active production. ""The legal boundaries did not match up with the actual boundaries and there is surplus,"" state prosecutor Alexis Ortiz told Reuters. ""As a consequence the government has taken action."" Controversial reforms passed in 2001 give the government the right to take control of private property if it is declared idle or ownership cannot be traced back to the 19th Century. Critics say the powers - which President Chavez argues are needed to help the country's poorest citizens and develop the Venezuelan economy - trample all over private property rights. The Vestey Group said it had owned the land since 1920 and would co-operate fully with the authorities. But a spokesman added: ""Agroflora is absolutely confident that what it has submitted will demonstrate the legality of its title to the land."" The company pointed out that the farm, which employs 300 workers, provides meat solely for the Venezuelan market. Last month, the government said it had identified more than 500 idle farms and had yet to consider the status of a further 40,000. The authorities said landowners whose titles were in order and whose farms were productive had ""nothing to fear"". Under President Chavez, the Venezuelan government has steadily expanded the state's involvement in the country's economy. It recently said all mining contracts involving foreign firms would be examined to ensure they provided sufficient economic benefits to the state." -business,"Slowdown hits US factory growth US industrial production increased for the 21st month in a row in February, but at a slower pace than in January, official figures show. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) index fell to 55.3 in February, from an adjusted 56.4 in January. Although the index was lower than in January, the fact that it held above 50 shows continued growth in the sector. ""February was another good month in the manufacturing sector,"" said ISM survey chairman Norbert Ore. ""While the overall rate of growth is slowing, the overall picture is improving as price increases and shortages are becoming less of a problem. Exports and imports remain strong,"" he said. Analysts had expected February's figure to be stronger than January's and come in at 57. Of the 20 manufacturing sectors surveyed by ISM, 13 reported growth. They included the textiles, apparel, tobacco, chemicals and transportation sectors. The ISM's index of national manufacturing activity is compiled from the responses of purchasing executives at more than 400 industrial companies." -business,"Orange colour clash set for court A row over the colour orange could hit the courts after mobile phone giant Orange launched action against a new mobile venture from Easyjet's founder. Orange said it was starting proceedings against the Easymobile service for trademark infringement. Easymobile uses Easygroup's orange branding. Founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has pledged to contest the action. The move comes after the two sides failed to come to an agreement after six months of talks. Orange claims the new low-cost mobile service has infringed its rights regarding the use of the colour orange and could confuse customers - known as ""passing off"". ""Our brand, and the rights associated with it are extremely important to us,"" Orange said in a statement. ""In the absence of any firm commitment from Easy, we have been left with no choice but to start an action for trademark infringement and passing off."" However, Mr Haji-Ioannou, who plans to launch Easymobile next month, vowed to fight back, saying: ""We have nothing to be afraid of in this court case. ""It is our right to use our own corporate colour for which we have become famous during the last 10 years."" The Easyjet founder also said he planned to add a disclaimer to the Easygroup website to ensure customers are aware the Easymobile brand has no connection to Orange. The new service is the latest venture from Easygroup, which includes a chain of internet cafes, budget car rentals and an intercity bus service. Easymobile will allow customers to go online to order SIM cards and airtime - which will be rented from T-Mobile - for their existing handsets." -business,"Britannia members' £42m windfall More than 800,000 Britannia Building Society members are to receive a profit share worth on average £52 each. Members of the UK's second largest building society will share £42m, with 100,000 receiving a windfall of more than £100. Depending on how much they borrow or invest, members earn ""reward"" points which entitle them to a share of the society's profits. The payouts are bigger than last year, because of stricter eligibility rules. Last year, Britannia members shared £42m, but the average payment was only £38. To qualify for this year's payment, customers must have been members for at least two years on 31 December 2004. Britannia has also stopped making payments to members if they are worth less than £5. To qualify for the profit share, members must have either a mortgage, or an investment account other than a deposit account. Customers can also qualify if they have Permanent Interest Bearing Shares (PIBS). The profit share scheme was introduced in 1997 and has paid out more than £370m. Britannia will unveil its results on Wednesday." -business,"Wall Street cool to eBay's profit Shares in online auction house eBay fell 9.8% in after-hours trade on Wednesday, after its quarterly profits failed to meet market expectations. Despite seeing net profits rise by 44% to $205.4m (£110m) during October to December, from $142m a year earlier, Wall Street had expected more. EBay stock fell to $92.9 in after-hours trade, from a $103.05 end on Nasdaq. EBay's net revenue for the quarter rose to $935.8m from $648.4m, boosted by growth at its PayPal payment service. Excluding special items, eBay's profit was 33 cents a share, but analysts had expected 34 cents. ""I think Wall Street has gotten a bit ahead of eBay this quarter and for the 2005 year."" said Janco Partners analyst Martin Pyykkonen. For 2004 as a whole, eBay earned $778.2m on sales of $3.27bn. EBay president and chief executive Meg Whitman called 2004 an ""outstanding success"" that generated ""tremendous momentum"" for 2005. ""I'm more confident than ever that the decisions and investments we're making today will ensure a bright future for the company and our community of users around the world,"" she said. EBay now forecasts 2005 revenue of $4.2bn to $4.35bn and earnings excluding items of $1.48 to $1.52 per share. Analysts had previously estimated that eBay would achieve 2005 revenues of $4.37bn and earnings of $1.62 per share, excluding items." -business,"Mild winter drives US oil down 6% US oil prices have fallen by 6%, driven down by forecasts of a mild winter in the densely populated northeast. Light crude oil futures fell $2.86 to $41.32 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), and have now lost $4 in five days. Nonetheless, US crude is still 30% more expensive than at the beginning of 2004, boosted by growing demand and bottlenecks at refineries. Traders ignored the possible effects of Asia's tidal waves on global supplies. Instead, the focus is now on US consumption, which is heavily influenced in the short term by the weather. ""With the revised milder temperatures... I'm more inclined to think we'll push lower and test the $40-40.25 range,"" said John Brady of ABN AMRO. ""The market definitely feels to be on the defensive."" Statistics released last week showed that stockpiles of oil products in the US had risen, an indication that severe supply disruptions may not arise this winter, barring any serious incident. Oil prices have broken records in 2004, topping $50 a barrel at one point, driven up by a welter of worries about unrest in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, rising demand and supply bottlenecks. London's International Petroleum Exchange remained closed for the Christmas holiday." -business,"German jobless rate at new record More than 5.2 million Germans were out of work in February, new figures show. The figure of 5.216 million people, or 12.6% of the working-age population, is the highest jobless rate in Europe's biggest economy since the 1930s. The news comes as the head of Germany's panel of government economic advisers predicted growth would again stagnate. Speaking on German TV, Bert Ruerup said the panel's earlier forecast of 1.4% was too optimistic and warned growth would be just 1% in 2005. The German government is trying to tackle the stubbornly-high levels of joblessness with a range of labour market reforms. At their centre is the ""Hartz-IV"" programme introduced in January to shake up welfare benefits and push people back into work - even if some of the jobs are heavily subsidised. The latest unemployment figures look set to increase the pressure on the government. Widely leaked to the German newspapers a day in advance, they produced screaming headlines criticising Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrat-Green Party administration. Mr Schroeder had originally come into office promising to halve unemployment. Still, some measures suggest the picture is not quite so bleak. The soaring official unemployment figure follows a change in the methodology which pushed up the jobless rate by more than 500,000 in January. Adjusted for seasonal changes, the overall unemployment rate is 4.875 million people or 11.7%, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. Using the most internationally-accepted methodology of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Germany had 3.97 million people out of work in January. And ILO-based figures also suggest that 14,000 new net jobs were created that month, taking the number of people employed to 38.9 million. The ILO defines an unemployed person as someone who in the previous four weeks had actively looked for work they could take up immediately." -business,"WMC profits up amid bid criticism Australian mining firm WMC Resources has seen a fivefold rise in profits while continuing to be the target of a hostile takeover bid. WMC said it made net profits of 1.33bn Australian dollars ($1bn; £550m) in 2004, up from A$246bn the year before. It is currently arguing against an offer from Swiss Xstrata, which the firm raised to A$8.4bn last week after WMC said it was an undervaluation. Now reports say that the Australian government is against the deal. Trade Minister Mark Vaile has said that the bid may be ""against the national interest"". Mr Vaile, who was quoted in the Australian Financial Review, compared Xstrata's attempt to take over WMC to a similar bid by oil giant Shell for Australia's Woodside Petroleum in 2001. The bid was thrown out by Treasurer Peter Costello on national interest grounds. WMC's interests in uranium deposits were a contributing factor, Mr Vaile said. WMC itself, however, has no objection in principle to being bought out, having spun off its aluminium operations in 2002 to make itself a more tempting target - as long as the price is right. Its stellar performance in 2004 has been built on sky-high prices for metals. Copper and nickel in particular have been in high demand thanks to China's booming economy, which expanded more than 9% in each of the past two years. Nickel prices rose 43% during the year, with copper up 36%." -business,"US economy shows solid GDP growth The US economy has grown more than expected, expanding at an annual rate of 3.8% in the last quarter of 2004. The gross domestic product figure was ahead of the 3.1% the government estimated a month ago. The rise reflects stronger spending by businesses on capital equipment and a smaller-than-expected trade deficit. GDP is a measure of a country's economic health, reflecting the value of the goods and services it produces. The new GDP figure, announced by the Commerce Department on Friday, also topped the 3.5% growth rate that economists had forecast ahead of Friday's announcement. Growth was at an annual rate of 4% in the third quarter of 2004 and for the year it came in at 4.4%, the best figure in five years. However, the positive economic climate may lead to a rise in interest rates, with many expecting US rates to rise on 22 March. In the January-to-March quarter, the economy is expected to grow at an annual rate of about 4%, economists forecast. In the final quarter of 2004, businesses increased spending on capital equipment and software by 18%, up from 17.5% in the third quarter. Consumer spending grew 4.2% in the final quarter, down from the third quarter's 5.1%." -business,"Trial begins of Spain's top banker The trial of Emilio Botin, the chairman of Spain's most powerful bank, Santander Central Hispano, has started in Madrid. Mr Botin is accused of misusing the bank's funds after he approved the payment of 160m euros ($208m; £111m) in bonus and pension payouts to two former executives. However, the trial was suspended when Mr Botin's lawyer introduced a new set of documents on the day testimony was set to begin. A three-judge panel gave prosecution lawyers until Monday to study the documents, when the trial will be reconvened. The high-profile case began after two Santander shareholders filed a criminal complaint about the payments to Jose Maria Amusategui and Angel Corcostegui, who stepped down in 2001. Both executives helped Mr Botin orchestrate Spain's biggest bank merger, between Santander and Banco Central Hispano, in 1999. As he arrived at Spain's High Court earlier on Wednesday, Mr Botin greeted the waiting media, saying: ""I have full faith in justice."" Santander's board of governors strongly reject the charges against their chairman, saying the payouts were legal and made with their unanimous support. But if convicted, Mr Botin could face a prison term of up to six years. Mr Corcostegui, a former CEO at Santander, also asked the court for new evidence to be admitted. In spite of the allegations against him, Mr Botin continues to lead Santander, and was instrumental in the £8.5bn takeover last November of the British bank Abbey National. Since taking over the chairmanship in 1986, he has turned Santander into one of the top ten biggest banks in the world." -business,"Iraq and Afghanistan in WTO talks The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is to hold membership talks with both Iraq and Afghanistan. But Iran's bid to join the trade body has been refused after the US blocked its application for the 21st time. The countries stand to reap huge benefits from membership of the group, whose purpose is to promote free trade. Joining, however, is a lengthy process. China's admission in 2001 took 15 years and talks with Russia and Saudi Arabia have been taking place for 10 years. Membership of the Geneva-based WTO helps guarantee a country's goods receives equal treatment in the markets of other member states - a policy which has seen it become closely associated with globalisation. Iraq's Trade Minister Mohammed Mustafa al-Jibouri welcomed the move, describing it as significant as November's decision by the Paris Club of creditor nations to write off 80% of the country's debts. Assad Omar, Afghanistan's envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, said accession would contribute to ""regional prosperity and global security"". There are now 27 countries seeking membership of the WTO. Prospective members need to enter into negotiations with potential trading countries and change domestic laws to bring them in line with WTO regulations. Before the process gets under way, all 148 WTO members must give their backing to applicant countries. The US said it could not approve Iran's application because it is currently reviewing relations. But several nations criticised the approach, and European Union ambassador to the WTO, Carlo Trojan, said Iran's application ""must be treated independently of political issues""." -business,"Ebbers denies WorldCom fraud Former WorldCom chief Bernie Ebbers has denied claims that he knew accountants were doctoring the books at the firm. Speaking in court, Mr Ebbers rejected allegations he pressured ex-chief financial officer Scott Sullivan to falsify company financial statements. Mr Sullivan ""made accounting decisions,"" he told the federal court, saying his finance chief had ""a keen command of the numbers"". Mr Ebbers has denied charges of fraud and conspiracy. During his second day of questioning in the New York trial Mr Ebbers played down his working relationship with Mr Sullivan and denied he frequently met him to discuss company business when questioned by the prosecution. ""In a lot of weeks, we would speak ... three or four times,"" Mr Ebbers said, adding that conversations about finances were rarely one-on-one and were usually discussed by a ""group of people"" instead. Mr Ebbers relationship to Mr Sullivan is key to the case surrounding financial corruption that led to the collapse of the firm in 2002 following the discovery of an $11bn accounting fraud. The prosecution's star witness is Mr Sullivan, one of six WorldCom executives indicted in the case, He has pleaded guilty to fraud and appeared as a prosecution witness as part of an agreement with prosecutors. During his time on the witness stand Mr Sullivan repeatedly told jurors he met frequently with Mr Ebbers, told him about changes made to WorldCom's accounts to hide costs and had warned him such practises were improper. However during the case on Tuesday Mr Ebbers denied the allegations. ""I wasn't advised by Scott Sullivan of anything ever being wrong,"" he told the court. ""He's never told me he made an entry that wasn't right. If he had, we wouldn't be here today."" Mr Ebbers could face a jail sentence of up to 85 years if convicted of all the charges he is facing. Shareholders lost about $180bn in WorldCom's collapse, 20,000 workers lost their jobs and the company went bankrupt. The company emerged from bankruptcy last year and is now known as MCI." -business,"Soros group warns of Kazakh close The Open Society Institute (OSI), financed by billionaire George Soros, has accused Kazakhstan officials of trying to close down its local office. A demand for unpaid taxes and fines of $600,000 (£425,000) is politically motivated, the OSI claimed, adding that it paid the money in October. The organisation has found itself in trouble after being accused of helping to topple Georgia's former president. It denies having any role, but offices have had to close across the region. The OSI shut its office in Moscow last year and has withdrawn from Uzbekistan and Belarus. In the Ukraine earlier this year, Mr Soros - who took on the Bank of England in the 1990s - and won, was pelted by protestors. ""This legal prosecution can be considered an attempt by the government to force Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan to cease its activities in Kazakhstan and shut its doors for Kazakh citizens and organisations,"" the OSI said. The OSI aims to promote democratic and open, market-based societies. Since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan has been dominated by its president Nursultan Abish-uly Nazarbayev. He has powers for life, while insulting the president and officials has been made a criminal offence. The government controls the printing presses and most radio and TV transmission facilities. It operates the country's national radio and TV networks. Recent elections were criticised as flawed and the opposition claimed there was widespread vote rigging. Supporters, however, say he brings much needed stability to a region where Islamic militancy is on the rise. They also credit him with promoting inter-ethnic accord and pushing through harsh reforms." -business,"SEC to rethink post-Enron rules The US stock market watchdog's chairman has said he is willing to soften tough new US corporate governance rules to ease the burden on foreign firms. In a speech at the London School of Economics, William Donaldson promised ""several initiatives"". European firms have protested that US laws introduced after the Enron scandal make Wall Street listings too costly. The US regulator said foreign firms may get extra time to comply with a key clause in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Act comes into force in mid-2005. It obliges all firms with US stock market listings to make declarations, which, critics say, will add substantially to the cost of preparing their annual accounts. Firms that break the new law could face huge fines, while senior executives risk jail terms of up to 20 years. Mr Donaldson said that although the Act does not provide exemptions for foreign firms, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would ""continue to be sensitive to the need to accomodate foreign structures and requirements"". There are few, if any, who disagree with the intentions of the Act, which obliges chief executives to sign a statement taking responsibility for the accuracy of the accounts. But European firms with secondary listings in New York have objected - arguing that the compliance costs outweigh the benefits of a dual listing. The Act also applies to firms with more than 300 US shareholders, a situation many firms without US listings could find themselves in. The 300-shareholder threshold has drawn anger as it effectively blocks the most obvious remedy, a delisting. Mr Donaldson said the SEC would ""consider whether there should be a new approach to the deregistration process"" for foreign firms unwilling to meet US requirements. ""We should seek a solution that will preserve investor protections"" without turning the US market into ""one with no exit"", he said. He revealed that his staff were already weighing up the merits of delaying the implementation of the Act's least popular measure - Section 404 - for foreign firms. Seen as particularly costly to implement, Section 404 obliges chief executives to take responsibility for the firm's internal controls by signing a compliance statement in the annual accounts. The SEC has already delayed implementation of this clause for smaller firms - including US ones - with market capitalisations below $700m (£374m). A delegation of European firms visited the SEC in December to press for change, the Financial Times reported. It was led by Digby Jones, director general of the UK's Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and included representatives of BASF, Siemens and Cadbury Schweppes. Compliance costs are already believed to be making firms wary of US listings. Air China picked the London Stock Exchange for its secondary listing in its $1.07bn (£558m) stock market debut last month. There are also rumours that two Chinese state-run banks - China Construction Bank and Bank of China - have abandoned plans for multi-billion dollar listings in New York later this year. Instead, the cost of Sarbanes-Oxley has persuaded them to stick to a single listing in Hong Kong, according to press reports in China." -business,"US bank 'loses' customer details The Bank of America has revealed it has lost computer tapes containing account details of more than one million customers who are US federal employees. Several members of the US Senate are among those affected, who could now be vulnerable to identity theft. Senate sources say the missing tapes may have been stolen from a plane by baggage handlers. The bank gave no details of how the records disappeared, but said they had probably not been misused. Customers' accounts were being monitoring and account holders would be notified if any ""unusual activity"" was detected, bank officials said. Bank of America said the tapes went missing in December while being shipped to a back-up data centre. ""We, with federal law authorities, have done a very robust, thorough investigation on this and neither we nor they would make the statement lightly that we believe those tapes to be lost,"" Alexandra Tower, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina-based bank, told Time magazine. But although there was no evidence of criminal activity, the bank said, the Secret Service - a federal agency whose brief includes investigations of serious financial crime - is said to be looking into the loss. New York Senator Charles Schumer said he was told by the Senate Rules Committee that the tapes were probably stolen from a commercial plane. ""Whether it is identity theft, terrorism, or other theft, in this new complicated world baggage handlers should have background checks and more care should be taken for who is hired for these increasingly sensitive positions,"" the Democrat senator said. Details of his Vermont colleague Pat Leahy's credit card account are among those missing, Senator Leahy's spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said. About 900,000 military and civilian staff at the defence department are among the 1.2 million affected, according to a Pentagon spokesman." -business,"'Post-Christmas lull' in lending UK mortgage lending showed a ""post-Christmas lull"" in January, indicating a slowing housing market, lenders have said. Both the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and Building Society Association (BSA) said lending was down sharply. The CML said gross mortgage lending stood at £17.9bn, compared with £21.8bn in January last year. The BSA said mortgage approvals - loans approved but not yet made - were £2bn, down from £2.6bn in January 2004. At the same time, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) said lending was ""weaker"". Overall, the BBA said mortgage lending rose by £4bn in January, a far smaller increase than the £5.1bn seen in December. This was a return to the ""weaker pattern"" of lending seen in the last months of 2004, the BBA added. However, it is the year-on-year lending comparisons which are the most striking. The CML said lending for house purchases and gross mortgage lending were 29% and 18% lower year-on-year respectively. ""These figures show beyond doubt the recent slowdown in the housing market,"" Peter Williams, CML deputy director, said." -business,"Ukraine revisits state sell-offs Ukraine is preparing what could be a wholesale review of the privatisation of thousands of businesses by the previous administration. The new President, Viktor Yushchenko, has said a ""limited"" list of companies is being drawn up. But on Wednesday Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the government was planning to renationalise 3,000 firms. The government says many privatised firms were sold to allies of the last administration at rock-bottom prices. More than 90,000 businesses in all, from massive corporations to tiny shopfronts, have been sold off since 1992, as the command economy built up when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union was dismantled. Ms Tymoshenko said prosecutors had drawn up a list of more than 3,000 businesses which were to be reviewed. ""We will return to the state that which was illegally put into private hands."" A day earlier, Mr Yushchenko - keen to reassure potential investors - had said only 30 to 40 top firms would be targeted. The list ""will be limited and final, and will not be extended after its completion"", he said. An open-ended list could further damage outside investors' fragile faith in Ukraine, said Stuart Hensel of the Economist Intelligence Unit. But the government seemed keen not to make the review look like the kind of wholesale renationalisation which many fear in Russia, Mr Hensel said. As a result, it was planning to resell rather than keep firms in state hands. ""They're aware of the need not to scare investors, and to be careful of internal divides within Ukraine,"" he said. ""They don't want to be seen to be transferring assets from one set of oligarchs to a new set."" Foreign investment in Ukraine, at about $40 a head in 2004, is one of the lowest among ex-Soviet states. Mr Yushchenko became president after two elections in December, the first of which was annulled amid allegations of voting irregularities and massive street protests. His opponent, Viktor Yanukovich, still has huge support in the country's eastern industrial heartland. Mr Yushchenko's administration has accused its predecessor, led by ex-President Leonid Kuchma, of corruption. The privatisation review's number one target is a steel mill sold to a consortium which included Viktor Pinchuk, Mr Kuchma's son-in-law, for $800m (£424m) despite higher bids from several foreign groups. The mill, Krivorizhstal, is one of the world's most profitable. ""We say Krivorizhstal was stolen, and at any cost we will return it to the state,"" Mr Yushchenko told an investors' conference in Kiev. One of the jilted bidders, Netherlands-based group LNM, said it welcomed the possibility that the mill might be back on the market. ""If the original privatisation is annulled and a new tender issued, then we would look at it with great interest,"" a spokesman told BBC News. A resale of Krivorizhstal could potentially triple the price, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Mr Hensel. But he warned that the government could decide to take the easy route of revaluing the company and charging the existing owners the revised price rather than undertaking a fresh sale. ""That way, Mr Yushchenko can go to the public and say he has forced the oligarchs to play by the rules,"" he told BBC News." -business,"Bat spit drug firm goes to market A German firm whose main product is derived from the saliva of the vampire bat is looking to raise more than 70m euros ($91m; £49m) on the stock market. The firm, Paion, said that it hoped to sell 5 million shares - a third of the firm - for 11-14 euros a share. Its main drug, desmoteplase, is based on a protein in the bat's saliva. The protein stops blood from clotting - which helps the bat to drink from its victims, but could also be used to help stroke sufferers. The company's shares go on sale later this week, and are scheduled to start trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on 10 February. If the final price is at the top of the range, the company could be valued at as much as 200m euros. The money raised will be spent largely on developing the company's other drugs, since desmoteplase has already been licensed to one manufacturer, Forest Laboratories." -business,"US industrial output growth eases US industrial production continued to rise in November, albeit at a slower pace than the previous month. The US Federal Reserve said output from factories, mines and utilities rose 0.3% - in line with forecasts - from a revised 0.6% increase in October. Analysts added that if the carmaking sector - which saw production fall 0.5% - had been excluded the data would have been more impressive. The latest increase means industrial output has grown 4.2% in the past year. Many analysts were upbeat about the prospects for the US economy, with the increase in production coming on the heels of news of a recovery in retail sales. ""This is very consistent with an economy growing at 3.5 to 4.0%. It is congruent with job growth and consumer optimism,"" Comerica chief economist David Littman said of the figures. The US economy grew at a respectable annual rate of 3.7% in the three months between July and September, while jobs growth averaged 178,000 during the same period. While the employment figures are not spectacular, experts believe they are enough to whittle away at America's 5.4% jobless rate. A breakdown of the latest production figures shows mining output drove the increase, surging 2.1%, while factory output rose 0.3%. But utility output dropped 1.4%. Meanwhile, the amount of factory capacity in use during the month rose to 77.6% - its highest level since May 2001. ""Many investors think that product market inflation won't be a problem until the utilisation rates are at 80% or higher,"" Cary Leahy, senior US economist at Deutsche Bank Securities, said. ""So there is still a lot of inflation-fighting slack in the manufacturing sector,"" ""Overall I'd say manufacturing at least away from autos continues to improve and I would bet that it improves at a faster rate in coming months given how lean inventories are,"" Citigroup senior economist Steven Wieting added." -business,"Euro firms miss out on optimism More than 90% of large companies around the world are highly optimistic about their economic prospects, a survey of 1,300 bosses suggests. Their biggest worries are not terror threats, but over-regulation, low-cost competition and the wild ups and downs of oil prices. There is one exception: Firms in Western Europe - but not the UK - are lacking confidence after years of slow growth. When business advisers PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) conducted the same survey two years ago, nearly 30% of bosses were gloomy about their prospects. Global business leaders say that they are facing a two-pronged regulatory assault. After a string of corporate scandals in the United States - from Enron to WorldCom - the Sarbanes-Oxley act forces companies to be much more transparent, but doing all the paperwork costs a lot of time and money. Across Europe, meanwhile, all stock exchange-listed companies are currently in the process of moving to new and complex accounting standards called IFRS. Hacking through the red tape can hardly be avoided, but many chief executives around the world appear to have decided on how to deal with low-cost competitors. Already, about 28% of the bosses polled for the survey say that they have moved parts of their business into low-wage countries, and another 11% plan to do so in the future. Possibly as a result, the worry about low-cost competition has slightly fallen from last year, with just 54% of companies calling it a ""significant threat"" or ""one of the biggest threats"". But PwC's global chief executive, Samuel DiPiazza, said a growing number of companies were also concerned that moves to outsource work to cheaper countries could both hurt their reputation in their home markets and harm the quality of service they provide to their customers. According to Frank Brown, global advisory leader at PwC , the trend of large companies to have global operations has one clear upside: ""One risk in one region - for example the Middle East - won't kill your business anymore."" Surprisingly, the survey suggests that the rapid decline of the US dollar is not seen as a huge threat anymore, unlike even a year ago, when it was cited as the third-largest problem. Mr DiPiazza said the interviews with chief executives suggested that companies had ""adjusted"" to the new reality of a euro that buys $1.30 and more, while others had successfully hedged their positions and locked in more favourable exchange rates. - For the survey, PricewaterhouseCoopers interviewed 1,324 chief executives throughout the world during the last three months of 2004." -business,"Banker loses sexism claim A former executive at the London offices of Merrill Lynch has lost her £7.5m ($14.6m) sex discrimination case against the US investment bank. An employment tribunal dismissed Stephanie Villalba's allegations of sexual discrimination and unequal pay. But the 42-year-old won her claim of unfair dismissal, resulting from her sacking in August 2003. Her partial victory is likely to cap her compensation to about £55,000, a tiny fraction of what she asked for. The extent of damages will be assessed in the New Year. The action - the biggest claim heard by an employment tribunal in the UK - had been viewed as something of a test case. The tribunal decided that Ms Villalba had been unfairly dismissed because, having been removed from a senior post, she was entitled to wait to see if a suitable alternative position could be found in the organisation. Ms Villalba, the former head of Merrill's private client business in Europe, has made no decision on whether to appeal. A spokesman for her lawyers described the decision as ""very disappointing"", but pointed to some criticism of Merrill's procedures within the lengthy judgement. The tribunal upheld Ms Villalba's claim of victimisation on certain specific issues, including bullying e-mails in connection with a contract, but said it found no evidence of ""laddish culture"" at the bank. ""We said from the start that this case was about performance not gender,"" Merrill said in a statement. ""Ms Villalba was removed by the very same person who had promoted her into the position and who then replaced her with another woman. ""Merrill Lynch is dedicated to creating a true meritocracy where every employee has the opportunity to advance based on their skills and hard work."" Based in London's financial district, Ms Villalba worked for Merrill's global private client business in Europe, investing funds for some of Merrill's most important customers. But in 2003 her employers told her she had no future after 17 years with the company, and she was made redundant. Merrill Lynch denied Ms Villalba's claims and said she was removed from her post because of the extensive losses the firm was suffering on the continent. The firm had told the tribunal that Ms Villalba's division had been losing about $1m a week. Merrill said Ms Villalba lacked the leadership skills to turn around the unit." -business,"Australia rates at four year high Australia is raising its benchmark interest rate to its highest level in four years despite signs of a slowdown in the country's economy. The Reserve Bank of Australia lifted interest rates 0.25% to 5.5%, their first upwards move in more than a year. However, shortly after the Bank made its decision, new figures showed a fall in economic growth in the last quarter. The Bank said it had acted to curb inflation but the move was criticised by some analysts. The rate hike was the first since December 2003 and had been well-flagged in advance. However, opposition parties and some analysts said the move was ill-timed given data showing the Australian economy grew just 0.1% between October and December and 1.5% on an annual basis. The figures, representing a decline from the 0.2% growth in GDP seen between July and September, were below market expectations. Consumer spending remains strong, however, and the Bank is concerned about growing inflationary pressures. ""Over recent months it has become increasingly clear that remaining spare capacity in the labour and goods markets is becoming rather limited,"" said Ian Macfarlane, Governor of the Reserve Bank. At 2.6%, inflation remains within the Bank's 2-3% target range. However, exports declined in the second half of 2004, fuelling a rise in the country's current account deficit - the difference in the value of imports compared to exports - to a record Australian dollar 29.4bn. The Australian government said the economy remained strong with unemployment at a near 30 year low. ""The economy has been strong and it is properly moderating but it doesn't look to me like it's slowing in any unreasonable way,"" said Treasurer Peter Costello. Stock markets had factored in the likelihood of a rate rise but analysts still expressed concern about the strength of the economy. ""That 1.5% annual growth rate is the lowest we have seen since the post-election slump we saw back in 2000-1,"" said Michael Blythe, chief economist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. ""This suggests the economy really did slow very sharply in the second half of 2004.""" -business,"High fuel costs hit US airlines Two of the largest airlines in the US - American and Southwest - have blamed record fuel prices for their disappointing quarterly results. American Airlines' parent AMR reported a loss of $387m (£206m) for the fourth quarter of 2004, against a $111m loss for the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines saw its fourth-quarter 2004 profits fall 15% to $56m, against $66m a year earlier. Both said high fuel bills would continue to pressure revenues in 2005. American, the world's biggest airline by some measures, said it expected to report a loss for the first quarter of 2005. Southwest, which has the highest market value of any US carrier, said it would remain profitable despite high fuel prices. AMR's shares were flat in Wednesday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, as the results were slightly better than analysts had anticipated. AMR's chief executive Gerard Arpey said the airline's difficulties reflected the situation within the industry. ""AMR's results for the fourth quarter of 2004 reflect the economic woes that plagued the airline industry throughout 2004 - in particular, high fuel prices and a tough revenue environment,"" he said. For the full year, AMR posted a loss of $761m, lower than 2003's $1.2bn loss and an indication that the airline has successfully cut costs. AMR added that as part of its cost cutting measures, it is postponing the delivery of 54 Boeing jets. Shares in Southwest fell 65 cents to $14.35 as analysts voiced their disappointment. ""The results came in below our already conservative estimate for the quarter,"" said Ray Neidl, an analyst at Calyon Securities. Both American and Southwest have been squeezed by cut-throat competition in the US airline industry, as a glut of available seats has led to fierce price reductions." -business,"ECB holds rates amid growth fears The European Central Bank has left its key interest rate unchanged at 2% for the 19th month in succession. Borrowing costs have remained on hold amid concerns about the strength of economic growth in the 12 nations sharing the euro, analysts said. Despite signs of pick-up, labour markets and consumer demand remain sluggish, while firms are eyeing cost cutting measures such as redundancies. High oil prices, meanwhile, have put upward pressure on the inflation rate. Surveys of economists have shown that the majority expect borrowing costs to stay at 2% in coming months, with an increase of a quarter of a percentage point predicted some time in the second half of the year. If anything, there may be greater calls for an interest rate cut, especially with the euro continuing to strengthen against the dollar. ""The euro land economy is still struggling with this recovery,"" said economist Dirk Schumacher. The ECB ""may sound rather hawkish but once the data allows them to cut again, they will."" Data coming out of Germany on Thursday underlined the problems facing European policy makers. While Germany's economy expanded by 1.7% in 2004, growth was driven by export sales and lost some of its momentum in the last three months of the year. The strength of the euro is threatening to dampen that foreign demand in 2005, and domestic consumption currently is not strong enough to take up the slack. Inflation in the eurozone, however, is estimated at about 2.3% in December, above ECB guidelines of 2%. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet has remained upbeat about prospects for the region, and inflation is expected to drop below 2% later in 2005. The ECB has forecast economic growth in the eurozone of 1.9% in 2005." -business,"German economy rebounds Germany's economy, the biggest among the 12 countries sharing the euro, grew at its fastest rate in four years during 2004, driven by strong exports. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 1.7% last year, the statistical office said. The economy contracted in 2003. Foreign sales increased by 8.2% last year, compared with a 0.3% slide in private consumption. Concerns remain, however, over the strength of the euro, weak domestic demand and a sluggish labour market. The European Central Bank (ECB) left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2% on Thursday. It is the nineteenth month in a row that the ECB has not moved borrowing costs. Economists predict that an increase is unlikely to come until the second half of 2005, with growth set to sputter rather than ignite. ""During 2004 we profited from the fact that the world economy was strong,"" said Stefan Schilbe, analyst at HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt. ""If exports weaken and domestic growth remains poor, we cannot expect much from 2005."" Many German consumers have been spooked and unsettled by government attempts to reform the welfare state and corporate environment. Major companies including Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler and Siemens have spent much of 2004 in tough talks with unions about trimming jobs and costs. They have also warned there are more cost cutting measures on the horizon." -business,"Unilever shake up as profit slips Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever is to merge its two management boards after reporting ""unsatisfactory"" earnings for 2004. It blamed the poor results on sluggish decision making, a rise in discounted retailers and a wet European summer. The company also cited difficult trading conditions and a lack of demand for goods such as its Slimfast range. Unilever, which owns brands including Dove soap, said annual pre-tax profit fell 36% to 2.9bn euros (£1.99bn). Shares fell 1% to 510.75 pence in London, and dropped by 1.2% to 50.50 euros in Amsterdam. Under the restructuring plans, Patrick Cescau, the UK-based co-chairman, will become group chief executive. Dutch co-chairman Antony Burgmans will take on the role of non-executive chairman. ""We have recognised the need for greater clarity of leadership and we are moving to a simpler leadership structure that will provide a sharper operational focus,"" Mr Burgmans said. ""We are leaving behind one of the key features of Unilever's governance but this is a natural development following the changes introduced last year."" The company, which has had dual headquarters in Rotterdam and London since 1930, will announce the location of its head office at a later date. Unilever is not alone in trying to simplify its business. Oil giant Shell last year dismantled its dual-ownership structure, after a series of problems relating to the size of its oil reserves that hammered its share price and led to the resignation of key board members. ""The best part of the news this morning was that the company announced a structure simplification,"" said Arjan Sweere, an analyst at Petercam. The company said the organizational changes would speed decision making, and it also may make further changes. The company said its main focus will be on improving profits, and it is planning to accelerate and increase investment in its 400 main brands. ""While it is certainly the case that markets have been tougher in the past eighteen months than we had expected, we have also lost some market share,"" said Mr Cescau. ""We let a range of targets limit our ability flexibility and did not adjust our plans quickly enough to a more difficult business environment."" ""Our objective is to reverse the share loss that we experienced in some markets in 2004 and return to growth."" Unilever said European sales fell 2.8% last year, dragged down by below part sales at its beverage division, where revenues dipped by almost 4%. Sales of ice cream and frozen food dipped by 3.4% In the US last year, revenue grew by 1.5% ""despite disappointing sales in Slimfast"", the company said. In Asia, leading products came under ""attack"" from rivals such as Procter & Gamble. Unilever took a 1.5bn euro one-time charge in the fourth quarter, including a 650m euro write-down on Slimfast diet foods. Sales of Slimfast products have been hit in recent years by the popularity of the Atkins diet. But looking ahead, Unilever said it was optimistic about prospects for its slimming products saying that demand is on the wane for rival low-carbohydrate diets. The company also said it planned to spend 500m euros this year buying back shares." -business,"Lesotho textile workers lose jobs Six foreign-owned textile factories have closed in Lesotho, leaving 6,650 garment workers jobless, union officers told the AP news agency. Factory Workers Union secretary general Billy Macaefa blamed the closures on the end of worldwide textile quotas. The quotas for developing nations, ended on 1 January, gave them a set share of the rich countries' markets. They also limited the amount countries like China could export to the big markets of the United States and EU. ""We understand that some (owners)... were complaining that the South African rand was strong against the US dollar, and they were losing when exporting textiles and clothing to the United States,"" Mr Macaefa said at a news briefing in the capital, Maseru. Lesotho's currency, the maloti, is fixed to the rand. ""But we suspect that they left the country unceremoniously because of the end of quotas introduced by the World Trade Organization."" He said the six factories were Leisure Garments, Modern Garments, Precious Six Garments, TW Garments, Lesotho Hats and Vogue Landmark. The owners - two from Taiwan, two from China, one from Mauritius and one from Malaysia - left over the December holiday period without informing or paying their employees, he said. Union leaders and trade campaigners have been warning that developing nations such as Lesotho, Sri Lanka, and Bangaldesh could lose thousands of jobs once the quotas were lifted. In the mountainous country surrounded by South Africa, it is feared as many as 50,000 textile workers could lose their jobs, and Mr Mafeca said he expected more companies to leave. The assistance of a US law had given Lesotho's textiles duty-free access to North American markets. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), gave sub-Saharan countries preferential access to the US market for apparel and textile products as well as a wide range of other goods. A Lesotho government news briefing is expected on Wednesday." -business,"Quiksilver moves for Rossignol Shares of Skis Rossignol, the world's largest ski-maker, have jumped as much as 15% on speculation that it will be bought by US surfwear firm Quiksilver. The owners of Rossignol, the Boix-Vives family, are said to be considering an offer from Quiksilver. Analysts believe other sporting goods companies may now take a closer look at Rossignol, prompting an auction and pushing the sale price higher. Nike and K2 have previously been mentioned as possible suitors. Rossignol shares touched 17.70 euros, before falling back to trade 7.8% higher at 16.60 euros. European sporting goods companies have seen foreign revenues squeezed by a slump in the value of the US dollar, making a takeover more attractive, analysts said. Companies such as Quiksilver would be able to cut costs by selling Rossignol skis through their shops, they added. The Boix-Vives family is thought to have spent the past couple of years sounding out possible suitors for Rossignol, which also makes golf equipment, snowboards and sports clothing." -business,"US company admits Benin bribery A US defence and telecommunications company has agreed to pay $28.5m after admitting bribery in the West African state of Benin. The Titan corporation was accused of funnelling more than $2m into the 2001 re-election campaign of President Mathieu Kerekou. At the time, Titan was trying to get a higher price for a telecommunications project in Benin. There is no suggestion that Mr Kerekou was himself aware of any wrongdoing. Titan, a California-based company, pleaded guilty to falsifying its accounts and violating US anti-bribery laws. It agreed to pay $13m in criminal penalties, as well as $15.5m to settle a civil lawsuit brought by the US financial watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC had accused Titan of illegally paying $2.1m to an unnamed agent in Benin claiming ties with President Kerekou. Some of the money was used to pay for T-shirts with campaign slogans on them ahead of the 2001 election. Shortly after the poll, which Mr Kerekou won, Benin officials agreed to quadruple Titan's management fee. Prosecuting attorney Carol Lam said: ""All US companies should take note that attempting to bribe foreign officials is criminal conduct and will be appropriately prosecuted."" The company says it no longer tolerates such practices. Under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it is a crime for American firms to bribe foreign officials." -business,"Parmalat bank barred from suing Bank of America has been banned from suing Parmalat, the food group which went bust in 2003 after an accounting scandal. The bank - along with investors, auditors and the group's managers - wants damages for being a victim of fraud at the hands of the Italian firm. But a judge has barred Bank of America and two auditors from the case. The bank, and Italaudit - formerly the Italian arm of auditor Grant Thornton - face lawsuits and possible prosecution. A second auditor, Deloitte & Touche, has also been banned from the case. Grant Thornton - now rid of the Italian unit at the centre of the case - is still being permitted to sue, as are Consob, Italy's stock market regulator, hundreds of small investors and Parmalat's new managers. Parmalat collapsed in December 2003 after it emerged that the 4bn euros ($5.2bn; £2.8bn) it supposedly held in a Bank of American offshore account did not in fact exist." -business,"Asia shares defy post-quake gloom Thailand has become the first of the 10 southern Asian nations battered by giant waves at the weekend to cut its economic forecast. Thailand's economy is now expected to grow by 5.7% in 2005, rather than 6% as forecast before tsunamis hit six tourist provinces. The full economic costs of the disaster remain unclear. In part, this is because of its scale, and because delivering aid and recovering the dead remain priorities. But Indonesian, Indian and Hong Kong stock markets reached record highs on Wednesday, suggesting that investors do not fear a major economic impact. The highs showed the gap in outlook between investors in large firms and individuals who have lost their livelihoods. Investors seemed to feel that some of the worst-affected areas - such as Aceh in Indonesia - were so under-developed that the tragedy would little impact on Asia's listed companies, according to analysts. ""Obviously with a lot of loss of life, a lot of time is needed to clean up the mess, bury the people and find the missing. But it's not necessarily a really big thing in the economic sense,"" said ABN Amro chief Asian strategist Eddie Wong. India's Bombay Stock Exchange inched slightly above its previous record close on Wednesday. Expectations of strong corporate earnings in 2005 drove the Indonesian stock exchange in Jakarta to a record high on Wednesday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index may be benefiting in part from the potential for its listed property companies to gain from rebuilding contracts in the tsunami-affected regions of South East Asia. In Sri Lanka, some economists have said that as much as 1% of annual growth may be lost. Sri Lanka's stock market has fallen about 5% since the weekend, but it is still 40% higher than at the start of 2004. Thailand may lose 30bn baht (£398m; $768m) in earnings from tourism over the next three months, according to tourism minister Sontaya Kunplome. In the affected provinces, he expects the loss of tourism revenue to be offset by government reconstruction spending. Thailand intends to spend a similar sum - around 30bn baht - on the rebuilding work. ""It will take until the fourth quarter of next year before tourist visitors in Phuket and five other provinces return to their normal level,"" said Naris Chaiyasoot, director general at the ministry's fiscal policy office. In the Maldives the cost of reconstruction could wipe out economic growth, according to a government spokesman. ""Our nation is in peril here,"" said Ahmed Shaheed, the chief government spokesman. He estimated the economic cost of the disaster at hundreds of millions of dollars. The Maldives has gross domestic product of $660m. ""It won't be surprising if the cost exceeds our GDP,"" he said. ""In the last few years, we made great progress in our standard of living - the United Nations recognised this. Now we see this can disappear in a few days, a few minutes."" Shaheed noted that investment in a single tourist resort - the economic mainstay - could run to $40m. Between 10 and 12 of the 80-odd resorts have been severely damaged, and a similar number have suffered significant damage. However, many experts, including the World Bank, have pointed out that it is still difficult to assess the magnitude of the disaster and its likely economic impact." -business,"Yukos loses US bankruptcy battle A judge has dismissed an attempt by Russian oil giant Yukos to gain bankruptcy protection in the US. Yukos filed for Chapter 11 protection in Houston in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the auction of its Yugansk division by the Russian authorities. The court ruling is a blow to efforts to get damages for the sale of Yugansk, which Yukos claims was illegally sold. Separately, former Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky began testimony on Friday in his trial for fraud and tax evasion. Mr Khodorkovsky - who has been in jail for more than a year - pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him and denied involvement in any criminal activities. ""I pride myself on heading for 15 years a number of successful companies and helping other enterprises rise from their knees,"" he told a Russian court. Yugansk was auctioned to help pay off $27.5bn (£14.5bn) in unpaid taxes. It was bought for $9.4bn by a previously-unknown group, which was in turn bought up almost immediately by state-controlled oil company Rosneft. Texas Judge Letitia Clark said Yukos did not have enough of a US presence to establish US jurisdiction. ""The vast majority of the business and financial activities of Yukos continue to occur in Russia,"" Judge Clark said in her ruling. ""Such activities require the continued participation of the Russian government."" Yukos had argued that a US court was entitled to declare it bankrupt before its Yugansk unit was sold, since it has local bank accounts and its chief finance officer Bruce Misamore lives in Houston. Yukos claimed it sought help in the US because other forums - Russian courts and the European Court of Human Rights - were either unfriendly or offered less protection. Russia had indicated it would in any case not abide by the rulings of the US courts. In her ruling, the judge acknowledged that ""it appears likely that agencies of the Russian government have acted in a manner that would be considered confiscatory under United States law"". But she said her role was simply to decide on jurisdiction. The US court's jurisdiction had been challenged by Deutsche Bank and Gazpromneft, a former unit of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom which is due to merge with Rosneft. Analysts said the ability of Gazprom and Rosneft to trade freely overseas had been stifled while the ownership of Yugansk remained unclear. Yukos said it would consider its options in light of the ruling. However, it claimed that the court had backed its argument in four out of five key issues. ""We believe the merits of our case are strong and simple,"" said chief executive Steven Theede. ""Our assets were illegally seized. We want them back or damages paid.""" -business,"Ethiopia's crop production up 24% Ethiopia produced 14.27 million tonnes of crops in 2004, 24% higher than in 2003 and 21% more than the average of the past five years, a report says. In 2003, crop production totalled 11.49 million tonnes, the joint report from the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme said. Good rains, increased use of fertilizers and improved seeds contributed to the rise in production. Nevertheless, 2.2 million Ethiopians will still need emergency assistance. The report calculated emergency food requirements for 2005 to be 387,500 tonnes. On top of that, 89,000 tonnes of fortified blended food and vegetable oil for ""targeted supplementary food distributions for a survival programme for children under five and pregnant and lactating women"" will be needed. In eastern and southern Ethiopia, a prolonged drought has killed crops and drained wells. Last year, a total of 965,000 tonnes of food assistance was needed to help seven million Ethiopians. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recommend that the food assistance is bought locally. ""Local purchase of cereals for food assistance programmes is recommended as far as possible, so as to assist domestic markets and farmers,"" said Henri Josserand, chief of FAO's Global Information and Early Warning System. Agriculture is the main economic activity in Ethiopia, representing 45% of gross domestic product. About 80% of Ethiopians depend directly or indirectly on agriculture." -business,"Iran budget seeks state sell-offs Iran's president, Mohammad Khatami, has unveiled a budget designed to expand public spending by 30% but loosen the Islamic republic's dependence on oil. The budget for the fiscal year starting on 21 March calls for the sell-off of 20% of the state's corporate holdings. Mr Khatami's second term as president ends on 1 August, making this his last budget. But opposition from members of parliament who have attacked previous privatisations could block his plans. Elections in May 2004 ousted many of Mr Khatami's supporters in parliament in favour of more hard-line religious conservatives. Late last year, they backed a law which would give parliament a veto over foreign investment. The ruling was a response to the involvement in telecoms and airport projects by Turkish companies, which hardliners accused of doing business with Israel. It came not long after the Expediency Council - Iran's ultimate decision-maker - blessed Mr Khatami's policy of selling stakes in sectors protected by the constitution such as energy, transport, telecoms and banking. Continued obstruction of foreign investment could get in the way not only of privatisation plans, but also of Mr Khatami's hope of modestly reducing the government's reliance on oil revenues. In an address to the Majlis, Mr Khatami predicted economic growth of 7.1% in 2005-6, up from 6.7% in the current year. He said he wanted to increase the 2005-6 budget to 1,546 trillion rials ($175.6bn; £93.6bn) from the previous year's 1,070 trillion. Within that figure, taxation would rise to $14.3bn, a rise of over 40% from what is expected from the current year. In contrast, oil revenues were expected to fall to $14.1bn from $16bn in the year to March 2005. ""Current government expenditure should come from tax revenues,"" Mr Khatami said. ""Oil revenues should be used for productive investment."" Mr Khatami has already been blocked by parliament from reducing the subsidies on many products including bread and petrol, reducing his room to manoeuvre." -business,"Cuba winds back economic clock Fidel Castro's decision to ban all cash transactions in US dollars in Cuba has once more turned the spotlight on Cuba's ailing economy. All conversions between the US dollar and Cuba's ""convertible"" peso will from 8 November be subject to a 10% tax. Cuban citizens, who receive money from overseas, and foreign visitors, who change dollars in Cuba, will be affected. Critics of the measure argue that it is a step backwards, reflecting the Cuban president's desire to increase his control of the economy and to clamp down on private enterprise. In a live television broadcast announcing the measure, President Castro's chief aide said it was necessary because of the United States' increasing ""economic aggression"". ""The ten percent obligation applies exclusively to the dollar by virtue of the situation created by the new measures of the US government to suffocate our country,"" he said. The Bush administration has taken an increasingly harsh line on Cuba in recent months. President Bush's government, which has been a strong supporter of the 40-year-old trade embargo on Cuba, introduced even tighter restrictions on Cuba in May. Cubans living in the US are now limited to one visit to Cuba every three years and they can only send money to their immediate relatives. A leading expert on the Cuban economy says that Castro's tax plan smacks more of a desperate economic measure than a political gesture. ""I think it is primarily an effort to raise some cash,"" says Jose Barrionuevo, head of strategy for Latin American emerging markets for Barclays Capital. ""It underscores the fact that the economy is in very bad shape and the government is looking for sources of revenue."" The tax will hit the families of Cuban exiles hardest as they benefit from the money their displaced relatives send home. This money, known as remittances, can amount to as much as $1bn a year. Those remaining in Cuba will have to pay the tax. Their relatives abroad may choose to send money in other currencies which are not subject to the tax, such as euros, or increase their dollar payments to compensate. However, many of Cuban's poorest citizens could be worse off as a result. The tax will also affect the two million tourists who visit Cuba every year, particularly those Americans who continue to defy a ban on travel there. Cuba's tourist industry has been one of its few economic success stories over the last ten years and, according to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America, is now worth $3bn to the country. The tax is designed to provide much-needed revenue for Cuba's cash-strapped economy. Cuba badly needs dollars to pay for essential items such as food, fuel and medicine. Much of Cuba's basic infrastructure is in a state of disrepair. In recent weeks, Cuba has suffered its most serious power cuts in a decade and there have also been water shortages in parts of the island. Cuba's economy had staged a modest recovery during the mid 1990s as the collapse of the Soviet Union forced it to embrace foreign capital, decentralise trade and permit limited private enterprise. However, a decline in foreign tourism since 2002, periodic hurricanes and the increasing costs of importing oil have put a strain on the economy. It has however yet to be seen if the tax will provide a solution to the government's economic problems. The tax could fuel an active black market in currency trading, Mr Barrionuevo said. ""The main impact could be that it will create a black market which you typically see in countries, like Venezuela, which have restrictions on capital,"" he says. Mr Barrioneuvo says the measure could be dropped if it has a damaging effect on economic activity. ""It is intended to be a permanent measure but I am not sure it can last too long.""" -business,"Profits slide at India's Dr Reddy Profits at Indian drugmaker Dr Reddy's fell 93% as research costs rose and sales flagged. The firm said its profits were 40m rupees ($915,000; £486,000) for the three months to December on sales which fell 8% to 4.7bn rupees. Dr Reddy's has built its reputation on producing generic versions of big-name pharmaceutical products. But competition has intensified and the firm and the company is short on new product launches. The most recent was the annoucement in December 2000 that it had won exclusive marketing rights for a generic version of the famous anti-depressant Prozac from its maker, Eli Lilly. It also lost a key court case in March 2004, banning it from selling a version of Pfizer's popular hypertension drug Norvasc in the US. Research and development of new drugs is continuing apace, with R&D spending rising 37% to 705m rupees - a key cause of the decrease in profits alongside the fall in sales. Patents on a number of well-known products are due to run out in the near future, representing an opportunity for Dr Reddy, whose shares are listed in New York, and other Indian generics manufacturers. Sales in Dr Reddy's generics business fell 8.6% to 966m rupees. Another staple of the the firm's business, the sale of ingredients for drugs, also performed poorly. Sales were down more than 25% from the previous year to 1.4bn rupees in the face of strong competition both at home, and in the US and Europe. Dr Reddy's Indian competitors are gathering strength although they too face heavy competitive pressures." -business,"Dollar hits new low versus euro The US dollar has continued its record-breaking slide and has tumbled to a new low against the euro. Investors are betting that the European Central Bank (ECB) will not do anything to weaken the euro, while the US is thought to favour a declining dollar. The US is struggling with a ballooning trade deficit and analysts said one of the easiest ways to fund it was by allowing a depreciation of the dollar. They have predicted that the dollar is likely to fall even further. The US currency was trading at $1.364 per euro at 1800 GMT on Monday. This compares with $1.354 to the euro in late trading in New York on Friday, which was then a record low. The dollar has weakened sharply since September when it traded about $1.20 against the euro. It has lost 7% this year, while against the Japanese yen it is down 3.2%. Traders said that thin trading levels had amplified Monday's move. ""It's not going to take much to push [the dollar] one way or the other,"" said Grant Wilson of Mellon Bank. Liquidity - a measure of the number of parties willing to trade in the market - was about half that of a normal working day, traders said." -business,"US data sparks inflation worries Wholesale prices in the US rose at the fastest rate in more than six years in January, according to government data. New figures show the Labor Department producer price index (PPI) rose by 0.3% - in line with forecasts. But core producer prices, which exclude food and energy costs, surged by 0.8%, the biggest rise since December 1998, increasing inflationary concerns. In contrast, the University of Michigan barometer of US retail consumer confidence showed a slight dip. The university's index of consumer spending fell to 94.2 in early February from 95.5 in January, which could indicate a fall in retail spending by the US public. The mixed set of data on Friday led to volatile early Wall Street trade, as the Dow Jones, Standard and Poor's 500, and Nasdaq swung between positive and negative territory. The economic figures come on the back of increased fears that the Federal Reserve chairman may be about to raise interest rates in order to stifle any inflationary pressures. The Fed has been raising interest rates at a gradual pace since June 2004, in an attempt to make sure inflation does not get out of control. Mr Greenspan told Congress this week that the central bank was on guard against the possibility that a rebounding economy could trigger stronger inflation pressures. ""The PPI would argue for Greenspan to continue to raise rates at a measured pace,"" said Joe Quinlan, chief market stategist at Bank of America Capital Management. ""But this Michigan survey tells you that the consumer might be downshifting a little bit in terms of their confidence and their spending; this could be an indication of that."" Consumer spending accounts for 66% of US economic activity and is viewed as a gauge of the health of the economy, which is why the Michigan data is closely observed. However on Friday, it was overshadowed by the core PPI core figure, which surged 2.7% during the past 12 months, the biggest year-on-year gain in nine years. ""The concern is that traders might interpret this big jump in the core PPI as an impetus for the Fed to be more aggressive than a measured move in moving rates,"" said Paul Cherney, chief market analyst at Standard & Poor's. But Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, said the PPI report was ""much less alarming"" than at first glance. One-time increases in alcohol and tobacco prices, which ""are no indication of broad PPI pressure"", were responsible for the increase, he said. Prices for autos and trucks also jumped in January, but Shepherdson said ""it is a good bet these increases won't stick""." -business,"Hariri killing hits Beirut shares Shares in Solidere, the Lebanese company founded by assassinated former prime minister Rafik Hariri, fell 15% in renewed trading in Beirut. The real estate firm, which dominates Lebanon's stock exchange, ended the day down at $8.08. Traders said there was some panic selling during Friday's session, the first since a three-day market closure to mourn the death of Mr Hariri. Beirut's benchmark BLOM stock index closed down 7.9% at 642.80. Solidere, in which Mr Hariri was a major shareholder, was the major drag on the index. The company owns much of the property in central Beirut, which it restored and redeveloped following the end of Lebanon's bitter 15-year civil war. ""Solidere should be above $10 but because of this disaster it is falling,"" said one trader. ""If Solidere drops much lower I would consider it a buying opportunity. This is a very big company held by many Lebanese."" Critics had accused Mr Hariri of using Lebanon's post-war reconstruction drive for his personal financial gain. But his assassination on Monday sent shudders through Lebanon's business community, which saw the billionaire tycoon as the country's best hope for economic revival. Solidere posted profits of $12.5m in the first half of 2004, and its shares had been gaining in recent months." -business,"Dollar slides ahead of New Year The US dollar has hit a new record low against the euro and analysts predict that more declines are likely in 2005. Disappointing economic reports dented the currency, which had been rallying after European policy makers said they were worried about the euro's strength. Earlier on Thursday, the Japanese yen touched its lowest versus the euro on concerns about economic growth in Asia. Currency markets have been volatile over the past week because of technical and automated trading and light demand. This has amplified reactions, analysts said, adding that they expect markets to become less jumpy in January. ""People want to go into the weekend and the New Year positioned for a weaker buck,"" said Tim Mazanec, director of foreign exchange at Investors Bank and Trust. The dollar slid to a record $1.3666 versus the euro on Thursday, before bouncing back to $1.3636. Against the yen the dollar was trading down at $103.05. The yen, meanwhile, dropped to 141.60 per euro in afternoon trading. It later strengthened to 140.55. Investors are concerned about the size of the US trade and budget deficits and are betting that George W Bush's administration will allow the dollar to weaken despite saying they favour a strong currency. Also playing on investors' minds are mixed reports about the state of the US economy. On Thursday, disappointing business figures from Chicago brought a sudden end to a rally in the value of the dollar. The National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said its index dropped to 61.2, more than analysts had expected. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi voiced concerns about the strength of the euro. Mr Berlusconi said the euro's strength was ""absolutely worrying"" for Italian exports. Mr Schroeder said in a newspaper article that stability in foreign exchange markets required a correction of global economic imbalances." -business,"UK house prices dip in November UK house prices dipped slightly in November, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) has said. The average house price fell marginally to £180,226, from £180,444 in October. Recent evidence has suggested that the UK housing market is slowing after interest rate increases, and economists forecast a drop in prices during 2005. But while the monthly figures may hint at a cooling of the market, annual house price inflation is still strong, up 13.8% in the year to November. Economists, however, forecast that ODPM figures are likely to show a weakening in annual house price growth in coming months. ""Overall, the housing market activity is slowing down and that is backed up by the mortgage lending and the mortgage approvals data,"" said Mark Miller, at HBOS Treasury Services. ""The ODPM data is a fairly lagging indicator."" The figures come after the Bank of England said the number of mortgages approved in the UK has fallen to the lowest level for nearly a decade. The Halifax, meanwhile, said last week that house prices increased by 1.1% in December - the first monthly rise since September. The UK's biggest mortgage lender said prices rose 15.1% over the whole of 2004, but by only 2.8% in the second half of the year. It is predicting a 2% fall in overall prices in 2005 as the market stabilises after large gains in recent years. The ODPM attributed the monthly fall of prices in November to a drop in the value of detached houses and flats. It said annual inflation rose between October and November because prices had fallen by 1.1% in the same period in 2003. The ODPM data showed the average house price was £192,713 in England; £139,544 in Wales; £116,542 in Scotland, and £111,314 in Northern Ireland. All areas saw a rise in annual house price inflation in November except for Northern Ireland and the West Midlands, where the rate was unchanged, the ODPM said. The North East showed the highest rate of inflation at 26.2%, followed by Yorkshire and the Humber on 21.7%, and the North West on 21.1%. The East Midlands, the West Midlands and the South West all had an annual inflation rate of more than 15%. In London, the area with the highest average house price at £262,825, annual inflation rose only slightly in November to 7.1% from 7% the previous month." -business,"Beijingers fume over parking fees Choking traffic jams in Beijing are prompting officials to look at reorganising car parking charges. Car ownership has risen fast in recent years, and there are now two and a half million cars on the city's roads. The trouble is that the high status of car ownership is matched by expensive fees at indoor car parks, making motorists reluctant to use them. Instead roads are being clogged by drivers circling in search of a cheaper outdoor option. ""The price differences between indoor and outdoor lots are unreasonable,"" said Wang Yan, an official from the Beijing Municipal Commission for Development and Reform quoted in the state-run China Daily newspaper. Mr Wang, who is in charge of collecting car parking fees, said his team would be looking at adjusting parking prices to close the gap. Indoor parking bays can cost up to 250% more than outdoor ones. Sports fans who drive to matches may also find themselves the target of the commission's road rage. It wants them to use public transport, and is considering jacking up the prices of car parks near sports grounds. Mr Wang said his review team may scrap the relatively cheap hourly fee near such places and impose a higher flat rate during matches. Indoor parking may be costly, but it is not always secure. Mr Wang's team are also going to look into complaints from residents about poor service received in exchange for compulsory monthly fees of up to 400 yuan ($48; £26). The Beijing authorities decided two years ago that visiting foreign dignitaries' motorcades should not longer get motorcycle outriders as they blocked the traffic. Unclogging Beijing's increasingly impassable streets is a major concern for the Chinese authorities, who are building dozens of new roads to create a showcase modern city ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games." -business,"Brazil approves bankruptcy reform A major reform of Brazil's bankruptcy laws has been approved by the country's Congress, in a move which it is hoped will cut the cost of borrowing. The bill, proposed in 1993, has finally been approved by the leadership of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The old law, dating from 1945, gave priority first to workers, second to tax revenue and finally to creditors. The new legislation changes this, giving priority to creditors and limiting payments to workers. The new regulations will limit payments to workers to 150 times the minimum monthly salary, which is currently $94. The law also makes it more difficult for a company to declare bankruptcy. However, when a firm is declared bankrupt it will gain protection from creditors for 180 days while a recovery plan is worked out. The proposals were opposed in the past by leftist parties, including Mr Lula's Worker Party. They considered that they undermined workers' rights. But President Lula became a defender of the reforms, arguing that the country's bank lending margins were among the highest in the world and were damaging the economy. According to Andreas Adriano of Latin Trade Magazine, the new bankruptcy law will help in reducing the spread - difference between the interest rates of the banks and federal bonds. Nevertheless, Mr Adriano said to reduce the basic interest rate the Central Bank needs to change its policy, focusing not only on inflation but also on economic growth." -business,"Share boost for feud-hit Reliance The board of Indian conglomerate Reliance has agreed a share buy-back, to counter the effects of a power struggle in the controlling family. The buy-back is a victory for chairman Mukesh Ambani, whose idea it was. His brother Anil, the vice-chairman, said had not been consulted and that the buy-back was ""completely inappropriate and unnecessary"". The board hopes the move will reverse a 13% fall in Reliance's shares since the feud became public last month. The company has been fractious since founder Dhirubhai Ambani died in 2002, leaving no will. ""Today's round has gone to [Mukesh], there is no doubt about it,"" said Nanik Rupani, president of the Indian Merchants Chamber, a Bombay-based traders' body. The company plans to buy back 52 million shares at 570 rupees (£6.80; $13) apiece, a premium of more than 10% to its current market price." -business,"Soaring oil 'hits world economy' The soaring cost of oil has hit global economic growth, although world's major economies should weather the storm of price rises, according to the OECD. In its latest bi-annual report, the OECD cut its growth predictions for the world's main industrialised regions. US growth would reach 4.4% in 2004, but fall to 3.3% next year from a previous estimate of 3.7%, the OECD said. However, the Paris-based economics think tank said it believed the global economy could still regain momentum. Forecasts for Japanese growth were also scaled back to 4.0% from 4.4% this year and 2.1% from 2.8% in 2005. But the outlook was worst for the 12-member eurozone bloc, with already sluggish growth forecasts slipping to 1.8% from 2.0% this year and 1.9% from 2.4% in 2005, the OECD said. Overall, the report forecast total growth of 3.6% in 2004 for the 30 member countries of the OECD, slipping to 2.9% next year before recovering to 3.1% in 2006. ""There are nonetheless good reasons to believe that despite recent oil price turbulence the world economy will regain momentum in a not-too-distant future,"" said Jean-Philippe Cotis, the OECD's chief economist. The price of crude is about 50% higher than it was at the start of 2004, but down on the record high of $55.67 set in late October. A dip in oil prices and improving jobs prospects would improve consumer confidence and spending, the OECD said. ""The oil shock is not enormous by historical standards - we have seen worse in the seventies. If the oil price does not rise any further, then we think the shock can be absorbed within the next few quarters,"" Vincent Koen, a senior economist with the OECD, told the BBC's World Business Report. ""The recovery that was underway, and has been interrupted a bit by the oil shock this year, would then regain momentum in the course of 2005."" China's booming economy and a ""spectacular comeback"" in Japan - albeit one that has faltered in recent months - would help world economic recovery, the OECD said. ""Supported by strong balance sheets and high profits, the recovery of business investment should continue in North America and start in earnest in Europe,"" it added. However, the report warned: ""It remains to be seen whether continental Europe will play a strong supportive role through a marked upswing of final domestic demand."" The OECD highlighted current depressed household expenditure in Germany and the eurozone's over-reliance on export-led growth." -business,"Fed warns of more US rate rises The US looks set for a continued boost to interest rates in 2005, according to the Federal Reserve. Minutes of the December meeting which pushed rates up to 2.25% showed that policy-makers at the Fed are worried about accelerating inflation. The clear signal pushed the dollar up to $1.3270 to the euro by 0400 GMT on Wednesday, but depressed US shares. ""The markets are starting to fear a more aggressive Fed in 2005,"" said Richard Yamarone of Argus Research. The Dow Jones index dropped almost 100 points on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq also falling as key tech stocks were hit by broker downgrades. The dollar also gained ground against sterling on Tuesday, reaching $1.8832 to the pound before slipping slightly on Wednesday morning. The release of the minutes just three weeks after the 14 December meeting was much faster than usual, indicating the Fed wants to keep markets more apprised of its thinking. This, too, is being taken in some quarters as a sign of aggressive moves on interest rates to come. The key Fed funds rate has risen 1.25 percentage points during 2004 from the 46-year low of 1% reached not long after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. That long trough ""might be contributing to signs of potentially excessive risk-taking in financial markets"", said the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC), which sets interest rates. The odds now favour a further boost to rates at the next meeting in early February, economists said. But the respite for the dollar, which spent late 2003 being pushed lower against other major currencies by worries about massive US trade and budget deficits, may be short-lived. ""You can't rule out a further correction... but we don't think it's a change in direction in the dollar,"" said Jason Daw at Merrill Lynch. ""Nothing fundamental has changed.""" -business,"Newest EU members underpin growth The European Union's newest members will bolster Europe's economic growth in 2005, according to a new report. The eight central European states which joined the EU last year will see 4.6% growth, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said. In contrast, the 12 Euro zone countries will put in a ""lacklustre"" performance, generating growth of only 1.8%. The global economy will slow in 2005, the UNECE forecasts, due to widespread weakness in consumer demand. It warned that growth could also be threatened by attempts to reduce the United States' huge current account deficit which, in turn, might lead to significant volatility in exchange rates. UNECE is forecasting average economic growth of 2.2% across the European Union in 2005. However, total output across the Euro zone is forecast to fall in 2004 from 1.9% to 1.8%. This is due largely to the faltering German economy, which shrank 0.2% in the last quarter of 2004. On Monday, Germany's BdB private banks association said the German economy would struggle to meet its 1.4% growth target in 2005. Separately, the Bundesbank warned that Germany's efforts to reduce its budget deficit below 3% of GDP presented ""huge risks"" given that headline economic growth was set to fall below 1% this year. Publishing its 2005 economic survey, the UNECE said central European countries such as the Czech Republic and Slovenia would provide the backbone of the continent's growth. Smaller nations such as Cyprus, Ireland and Malta would also be among the continent's best performing economies this year, it said. The UK economy, on the other hand, is expected to slow in 2005, with growth falling from 3.2% last year to 2.5%. Consumer demand will remain fragile in many of Europe's largest countries and economies will be mostly driven by growth in exports. ""In view of the fragility of factors of domestic growth and the dampening effects of the stronger euro on domestic economic activity and inflation, monetary policy in the euro area is likely to continue to 'wait and see', the organisation said in its report. Global economic growth is expected to fall from 5% in 2004 to 4.25% despite the continued strength of the Chinese and US economies. The UNECE warned that attempts to bring about a controlled reduction in the US current account deficit could cause difficulties. ""The orderly reversal of the deficit is a major challenge for policy makers in both the United States and other economies,"" it noted." -business,"Nasdaq planning $100m share sale The owner of the technology-dominated Nasdaq stock index plans to sell shares to the public and list itself on the market it operates. According to a registration document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nasdaq Stock Market plans to raise $100m (£52m) from the sale. Some observers see this as another step closer to a full public listing. However Nasdaq, an icon of the 1990s technology boom, recently poured cold water on those suggestions. The company first sold shares in private placements during 2000 and 2001. It technically went public in 2002 when the stock started trading on the OTC Bulletin Board, which lists equities that trade only occasionally. Nasdaq will not make money from the sale, only investors who bought shares in the private placings, the filing documents said. The Nasdaq is made up shares in technology firms and other companies with high growth potential. It was the most potent symbol of the 1990s internet and telecoms boom, nose-diving after the bubble burst. A recovery in the fortunes of tech giants such as Intel, and dot.com survivors such as Amazon has helped revive its fortunes." -business,"Malaysia lifts Islamic bank limit Malaysia's central bank is to relax restrictions on foreign ownership to encourage Islamic banking. Banks in Malaysia will now be able to sell up to 49% of their Islamic banking units, while the limit on other kinds of bank remains at 30%. RHB, Malaysia's third-biggest lender, is already scouting for a foreign partner for its new Islamic banking unit, the firm told Reuters. The moves put Malaysia ahead of a 2007 deadline to open up the sector. The country's deal to join the World Trade Organisation set that year as a deadline for liberalisation of Islamic banking. Also on Tuesday, the central bank released growth figures showing Malaysia's economy expanded 7.1% in 2004. But growth slowed sharply in the fourth quarter to 5.6%, and the central bank said it expected 6% expansion in 2005. Malaysia changed the law to allow Islamic banking in 1983. It has granted licences to three Middle Eastern groups, which - along with local players - mean there are eight fully-operational Islamic banking groups in the country. Islamic banks offer services which permit modern banking principles while sticking to Islamic law's ban on the payment of interest. Most of the Malays which make up half the country's population are Muslims." -business,"Businesses fail to plan for HIV Companies fail to draw up plans to cope with HIV/Aids until it affects 20% of people in a country, new research says. The finding comes in a report published on Thursday by the World Economic Forum, Harvard and the UN aids agency. ""Too few companies are responding proactively to the social and business threats,"" said Dr Kate Taylor, head of the WEF's global Health Initiative. Nearly 9,000 business leaders in 104 countries were surveyed for Business and HIV/AIDS: Commitment and Action? Dr Taylor described the level of action taken by businesses as revealed by the report as ""too little, too late"". The issue will be highlighted to business and world leaders at the World Economic Forum, which meets in Davos, Switzerland, next week. The WEF report shows that despite the fact that 14,000 people contract HIV/Aids every day, concern among businesses has dropped by 23% in the last 12 months. Most (71%) have no policies in place to address the disease. Nor could over 65% of the business leaders surveyed say or estimate the prevalence of HIV among their staff. The UN programme tackling Aids, UNAIDS, pointed out that having a clear strategy for dealing with HIV/Aids was a good investment as well as being socially responsible. One company that does have a plan is Anglo-American, the international mining company, which estimates an HIV prevalence of 24% among its 130,000-strong Southern African workforce. Over the last two years the company has implemented extensive voluntary counselling and testing for HIV infection, coupled with anti-retroviral therapy for employees progressing to Aids. Over 90% of the 2,200 employees who have accessed and remained on treatment are well and have returned to normal work. ""Effective action on HIV/Aids is synonymous with good business management and leads to more profitable and sustainable operations,"" said Brian Brink, senior vice-president, health, at Anglo-American. ""Companies should encourage all workers to know their HIV status, making it as routine as monitoring blood pressure or cholesterol,"" he said. ""Providing access to treatment is a critical part of this."" Across sub-Saharan Africa, even in countries with an HIV prevalence of 10-19%, only around 7% of companies have formal HIV/Aids policies in place, according to the report. The gap is even wider in China, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and Russia, the so-called ""next wave"" countries, which are predicted to experience the highest numbers of new HIV/Aids cases worldwide by 2010. The report adds ""an important building block to our understanding of how the business community is experiencing the HIV/Aids epidemic and to whether and how it is reacting,"" said David Bloom, professor of economics and demography at the Harvard School of Public Health. The WEF report concludes that businesses need to understand their exposure to HIV/Aids risks and come up with good local practices to manage them. A key priority, in both high and low-prevalence settings, said the WEF is to establish a policy based on non-discrimination and confidentiality." -business,"Turkey knocks six zeros off lira Turkey is to relaunch its currency on Saturday, knocking six zeros off the lira in the hope of boosting trade and powering its growing economy. The change will see the end of such dizzyingly-high denominations as five million lira - enough for a short taxi ride - and the 20m note, worth $15. These valuations were the product of decades of inflation which, as recently as 2001, was as high as 70%. Inflation has since been tamed and economic prospects are improving. The currency - officially to be known as the new lira - will be launched at midnight on 1 January. From that point, the one-million lira note will become the new one-lira coin. The government hopes the change will be seen as a promise of growing economic stability as Turkey embarks on the long process of trying to join the European Union. On an everyday level, it is hoped the change will stimulate more international trade and end confusion among foreign investors and Turks alike. ""The transition to the new Turkish lira shows clearly that our economy has broken the vicious circle that it was imprisoned in for long years,"" said Sureyya Serdengecti, head of the Turkish Central Bank. ""The new lira is also the symbol of the stable economy that we dreamed of for long years."" The Turkish economy teetered on the brink of collapse in 2001 when the lira plunged in value and two million people lost their jobs. Turkey had to turn to the International Monetary Fund for financial assistance, accepting a $18bn loan in return for pushing through a wide-ranging austerity programme. These tough measures have borne fruit. Inflation fell below 10% earlier this year for the first time in decades while exports are up 30% this year. Meanwhile, the economy is expanding at a healthy rate, with 7.9% growth expected in 2004. The government hopes that the new currency will cement the country's economic progress, two weeks after EU leaders set a date for the start of Turkey's accession talks. The slimmed-down lira is likely to be widely welcomed by the business community. ""The Turkish lira has been like funny money,"" Tevfik Aksoy, chief Turkish economist for Deutsche Bank, told Associated Press. ""Now at least in cosmetic terms it will look like real currency."" However, some do not feel quite so happy about seeing the nominal value of their investments reduced. ""If a person has 10 billion lira in investments this will suddenly decrease,"" shop owner Hayriye Evren, told Associated Press. ""This will definitely affect people psychologically.""" -business,"Laura Ashley chief stepping down Laura Ashley is parting company with its chief executive Ainum Mohd-Saaid. The clothing and home furnishing retailer said Ms Mohd-Saaid had resigned for personal reasons. Her departure will come into effect on 1 February and follows the departure of co-chief executive Rebecca Navarednam on 1 January. Ms Mohd-Saaid is to be replaced by Lillian Tan, presently a non-executive director of the company and head of a Malaysian retailer. In a statement issued on Thursday, Laura Ashley thanked Ms Mohd-Saaid for her services to the company. Its shares were down 8.51% to 10.75p in late Thursday morning trading on the London Stock Exchange. Since 2002, Ms Tan has been managing director and chief executive of Metrojaya, one of the largest retail groups in Malaysia. Laura Ashley, which is due to issue its next trading statement in the next few weeks, has in recent months been hit by reports of poor sales. In October last year, it announced the closure of one of its two Welsh factories. In September, the company had said that its half-year clothing sales had been ""below expectations"". In recent times, it has put renewed focus on home furnishings rather than clothing, but last September it reported that interim six month losses had risen from £1m to £1.2m, while sales had fallen from £138m to £118m. Laura Ashley, which floated on the London Stock Exchange for £200m ($376m) in 1995, is majority-owned by Malaysia entrepreneur Dr Khoo Kay Peng. In 1996, its share price was more than 200p. It has long been reported that Dr Khoo intends to take the company private, but he has always denied this. ""Laura Ashley is a bit of a shrivelled husk of a company,"" said retail analyst Nick Bubb of Evolution Securities. ""It is all pretty odd with its Malaysian owners seemingly just shuffling the deckchairs."" Laura Ashley was founded by its late namesake in Kent in 1955, before moving to Mid Wales in 1961 where it still has its main UK factory." -business,"BMW drives record sales in Asia BMW has forecast sales growth of at least 10% in Asia this year after registering record sales there in 2004. The luxury carmaker saw strong sales of its three marques - BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce - in Asia last year after the launch of three new models. The company, which is vying with Mercedes-Benz for the title of leading premium carmaker, is confident about its prospects for the region in 2005. It is launching a revamped version of its 3-Series saloon class next month. BMW sold nearly 95,000 cars in Asia last year, up 2.6% on 2003. BMW-brand sales rose 2.3% to 80,600 while sales of Mini models rose 3.6% to 14,800. There was also a significant increase in sales of Rolls-Royces on the continent. BMW sold more than 100 of the iconic models compared with just ten the previous year. The German carmaker is aiming to boost annual sales in Asia to 150,000 by 2008. ""Here in Asia, we consider a double-digit increase in retail on the order of 10 to 15% to be realistic on the basis of current features,"" said Helmut Panke, BMW's group chief executive. China remains the main area of concern for BMW after sales there fell 16% last year. However, BMW is hopeful of a much better year in 2005 as its direct investment in China begins to pay dividends. The company only began assembling luxury high-powered sedans in China in 2003. 2004 was generally a good year for BMW, which saw revenues from its core car-making operations rise 11%." -business,"Air Jamaica back in state control The Jamaican government is regaining control of Air Jamaica in an bid to help the ailing company out of its financial difficulties. The firm has failed to make money since the state sold a majority stake to hotel tycoon Gordon Stewart in 1994. In common with many carriers, Air Jamaica, with debts of $560m (£291m), has been hit by high fuel costs and the impact of the 11 September attacks. The company will be restructured with the aim of finding a new buyer. ""The administration is committed to a viable national airline that will serve as a major catalyst for our economy,"" said Finance Minister Omar Davies. The 35-year-old airline transports about 55% of all passengers to the island and its pilots are reportedly among the best paid in the industry, with senior members of staff earning in excess of $234,000 a year." -business,"US crude prices surge above $53 US crude prices have soared to fresh four-month highs above $53 in the US as refinery problems propelled petrol prices to an all-time high. US light sweet crude futures jumped to $53.09 a barrel in New York before closing at $53.03. The gains tracked a surge in US gasoline futures to a record high of $1.4850 a gallon. The jump followed a fire at Western Refining Company's refinery in Texas, which shut down petrol production. A spokesman for the group was unable to say when the production unit would be back up and running. ""This market simply wants to go up,"" Citigroup Global Markets analyst Kyle Cooper told Reuters news agency. Ed Silliere, analyst at Energy Merchant, added: ""Gasoline is up because of the refinery issues in Texas, which means there will be a scramble for product in the (US) Gulf Coast."" Elsewhere, a refinery in Houston was closed due to mechanical problems, while on Tuesday production at BP's Texas City refinery was taken down for a short time. In the approach to Spring, the market becomes much more sensitive to problems with petrol production as dealers anticipate rising demand for fuel ahead of the holiday season. The rise in prices came despite a US government report that showed domestic supplies of fuel oil and fuel were rising. Meanwhile, oil production cartel Opec's recent announcement that it was now unlikely to cut production levels has also failed to calm fears on the market. Oil prices are roughly 45% higher than a year ago and have risen sharply in recent weeks due to a combination of colder weather, the declining value of the dollar and fears that Opec could rein in production to head off a seasonal drop in demand. Instability in Iraq and underlying fears about terrorism have also played a part in the rally." -business,"Arsenal 'may seek full share listing' Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein has said the club may consider seeking a full listing for its shares on the London Stock Exchange. Speaking at the Soccerex football business forum in Dubai, he said a full listing was ""one of the options"" for funding after the club moves to its new stadium. The club - which is currently listed on the smaller Ofex share exchange - is due to move into its new 60,000-seater Emirates Stadium at Ashburton Grove for the start of the 2006/07 season. Mr Dein also warned the current level of TV coverage of the Premiership may be reaching saturation level, with signs that match attendances have been dropping off in the first few months of this season. When Arsenal moves to its new stadium it will see its proportion of turnover from media earnings drop from 52% this season to 34% in two years' time. The club is hoping to increase matchday earnings from 29% to 40% of turnover, and has not ruled out other money-earning means, including a full share listing. ""When the new stadium opens we will go through a thorough financial review,"" Mr Dein said. ""Listing would be one option, but we are flexible and no decisions have been made on that issue yet. ""We want to be in the best financial health - maybe clubs can do it (listing), Manchester United have been a success."" Mr Dein said that, although television money and coverage had driven the English game forward in the past 10 years, he feared there might now be too many games being shown. Since the formation of the Premier League in season 1992/93, Premiership clubs have seen their income from television soar. ""Television has been the driving force over the past 10 years... but we must constantly improve if we want to remain as the world's leading league competition. ""We must monitor the quality of the product and ensure attendances do not decline, and we must balance that with the quantity of exposure on TV too. ""I think we have practically reached saturation point... sometimes I think less is more."" The club is funding its move to Ashburton Grove through a number of sources, including debt from banks, from money it already has and will receive in coming years from sponsors, and from the sale of surplus property, including its Highbury Stadium. It is also looking to create new revenue streams from overseas markets, including Asia. ""We have two executives travelling round Japan and China at the moment building relationships with organisations and clubs, and we know our supporters clubs are growing there too, as they are around the world. ""We have got a very good product, so it is very important we go and look at these markets, and make sure we are on the case.""" -business,"UK 'risks breaking golden rule' The UK government will have to raise taxes or rein in spending if it wants to avoid breaking its ""golden rule"", a report suggests. The rule states that the government can borrow cash only to invest, and not to finance its spending projects. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) claims that taxes need to rise by about £10bn if state finances are to be put in order. The Treasury said its plans were on track and funded until 2008. According to NIESR, if the government's current economic cycle runs until March 2006 then it is ""unlikely"" the golden rule will be met. Should the cycle end a year earlier, then the chances improve to ""50/50"". Either way, fiscal tightening is needed, NIESR said. The report is the latest to call into question the viability of government spending projections. Earlier this month, accountancy firm Ernst & Young said that Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's forecasts for tax revenues were too optimistic. It claimed revenues were likely to be £6bn below estimates by the end of the tax year despite the economy growing in line with forecasts. A Treasury spokesperson dismissed the latest claims, saying it was ""on track to meeting spending rules and the golden rule in the current cycle and beyond"". ""Spending plans have been set out until 2008 and they are fully affordable."" Other than its warning on possible tax hikes, the NIESR report was optimistic about the state of the UK and global economy. It said the recent record-busting surge in oil prices would have a limited effect on worldwide expansion, saying that if anything the ""world economy will continue to grow strongly"". Global gross domestic product (GDP) is tipped to be 4.1% this year, dipping to 4% in 2005, before picking up again to 4.2% in 2006. The US will continue to drive expansion until 2006, albeit at a slightly slower rate, as will be the case in Japan. Hinting at better times for UK exporters, NIESR said the euro zone ""is expected to pick up speed"". Growth in Britain also is set to accelerate, it forecast. ""Despite weak growth in the third quarter, the forces sustaining the upswing remain intact and the economy will expand robustly in 2005 and 2006,"" NIESR said, adding that ""the economy will become better balanced over the next two years as exports stage a recovery"". GDP is expected at 3.2% in 2004, and 2.8% in both 2005 and 2006. The main cloud on the horizon, NIESR said, was the UK's much analysed and fretted over property market." -business,"GM in crunch talks on Fiat future Fiat will meet car giant General Motors (GM) on Tuesday in an attempt to reach agreement over the future of the Italian firm's loss-making auto group. Fiat claims that GM is legally obliged to buy the 90% of the car unit it does not already own; GM says the contract, signed in 2000, is no longer valid. Press reports have speculated that Fiat may be willing to accept a cash payment in return for dropping its claim. Both companies want to cut costs as the car industry adjusts to waning demand. The meeting between Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne and GM's Rick Wagoner is due to take place at 1330 GMT in Zurich, according to the Reuters news agency. Mr Marchionne is confident of his firm's legal position, saying in an interview with the Financial Times that GM's argument ""has no legs"". The agreement in question dates back to GM's decision to buy 20% of Fiat's auto division in 2000. At the time, it gave the Italian firm the right, via a 'put option', to sell the remaining stake to GM. In recent weeks, Fiat has reiterated its claims that this 'put' is still valid and legally binding. However, GM argues that a Fiat share sale made last year, which cut GM's holding to 10%, together with asset sales made by Fiat have terminated the agreement. Selling the Fiat's car-making unit may not prove so simple, analysts say, especially as it is a company that is so closely linked to Italy's industrial heritage. Political and public pressure may well push the two firms to reach a compromise. ""We are not expecting Fiat to exercise its put of the auto business against an unwilling GM at this point,"" brokerage Merrill Lynch said in a note to investors, adding that any legal battle would be protracted and damaging to the business. ""As far as we are aware, the Agnelli family, which indirectly controls at least 30% of Fiat, has not given a firm public indication that it wants to sell the auto business. ""Fiat may be willing to cancel the 'put' in exchange for money.""" -business,"Mixed Christmas for US retailers US retailers posted mixed results for December - with luxury retailers faring well while many others were forced to slash prices to lift sales. Upscale department store Nordstrom said same store sales were 9.3% higher than during the same period last year. Trendy youth labels also sold well, with sales jumping 28% at young women's clothing retailer Bebe Stores and 32.2% at American Eagle Outfitters. But Wal-Mart only saw its sales rise after it cut prices. The company saw a 3% rise in December sales, less than the 4.3% rise seen a year earlier. Customers at the world's biggest retailer are generally seen to be the most vulnerable to America's economic woes. Commentators claim many have cut back on spending amid uncertainty over job security, while low and middle-income Americans have reined in spending in the face of higher gasoline prices. Analysts said Wal-Mart faced a ""stand-off"" with shoppers, stepping up its discounts as the festive season wore on, as consumers waited longer to get the best bargains. However, experts added that if prices had not been cut across the sector, Christmas sales - which account for nearly 23% of annual retail sales - would have been far worse. ""So far, we are faring better than expected, but the results are still split,"" Ken Perkins, an analyst at research firm RetailMetrics LLC, told Associated Press. ""Stores that have been struggling over the last couple of months appear to be continuing that trend. And for stores that have been doing well over the last several months, December was a good month."" Overall, December sales are forecast to rise by 4.5% to $220bn - less than the 5.1% increase seen a year earlier. One discount retailer to fare well in December was Costco Wholesale, which continued a recent run of upbeat results with a better-than-expected 8% jump in same store sales. However, the losers were many and varied. Home furnishings store Pier 1 Imports saw its same store sales sink by a larger-than-forecast 8.8% as it battled fierce competition. Leading electronics chain Best Buy, meanwhile, missed its sales target of a 3-5% rise in sales, turning in a 2.5% increase over the Christmas period. Accessory vendor Claire's Stores also suffered as an expected last minute shopping rush never materialised, leaving its same store sales 5% higher, compared to a 6% rise last year. Jeweller Zale also felt little Christmas cheer with December sales down 0.7% on the same month last year. ""This was not a good period for retailers or shoppers. We saw a dearth of exciting, new items,"" Kurt Barnard, president of industry forecaster Retail Consulting Group, said. However, one beneficiary of the desertion of the High Street is expected to be online stores. According to a survey by Goldman Sachs & Co, Harris Interactive and Neilsen/Net Ratings sales surged 25% over the holiday season to $23.2bn." -business,"Liberian economy starts to grow The Liberian economy started to grow in 2004, but ""sustained and deep reform efforts"" are needed to ensure long term growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. An IMF mission made the comments in a report published following 10 days of talks with the transition government. The IMF said that, according to data provided by the Liberians, the country's GDP rose by 2% in 2004, after a 31% decline in 2003. Liberia is recovering from a 14-year civil war that came to an end in 2003. The power-sharing National Transition Government of Liberia will remain in place until elections on 11 October, the first presidential and parliamentary ballots since the conflict ended. The IMF said Liberia's economy started to grow last year thanks to a ""continued strong recovery in rubber production, domestic manufacturing and local services including post-conflict reconstruction"". The IMF however remains cautious about what it sees as a lack of transparency in government actions. In particular, it pointed to mystery surrounding the sale of iron ore stockpiles and the alleged disappearance of some import and export permits. These matters are now being investigated by the Liberian authorities and the IMF has called for their findings to be made public. The IMF also said it was crucial that the Central Bank of Liberia be strengthened, the national budget be effectively managed and a sound economic basis built to allow the country's large external debt to be addressed. ""The IMF team stands ready to assist the (Liberian) authorities in strengthening the areas mentioned,"" said the report. ""The team agreed with the (Liberian) authorities that the period until elections and the inauguration of a new government will pose exceptional challenges to fiscal management, and expresses its willingness to provide...continued support.""" -business,"Insurance bosses plead guilty Another three US insurance executives have pleaded guilty to fraud charges stemming from an ongoing investigation into industry malpractice. Two executives from American International Group (AIG) and one from Marsh & McLennan were the latest. The investigation by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer has now obtained nine guilty pleas. The highest ranking executive pleading guilty on Tuesday was former Marsh senior vice president Joshua Bewlay. He admitted one felony count of scheming to defraud and faces up to four years in prison. A Marsh spokeswoman said Mr Bewlay was no longer with the company. Mr Spitzer's investigation of the US insurance industry looked at whether companies rigged bids and fixed prices. Last month Marsh agreed to pay $850m (£415m) to settle a lawsuit filed by Mr Spitzer, but under the settlement it ""neither admits nor denies the allegations""." -business,"Macy's owner buys rival for $11bn US retail giant Federated Department Stores is to buy rival May Department Stores for $11bn (£5.7bn). The deal will bring together famous stores like Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Marshall Field's, creating the largest department store chain in the US. The combined firm will operate about 1,000 stores across the US, with combined annual sales of $30bn. The two companies, facing competition from the likes of Wal-Mart, tried to merge two years ago but talks failed. Sources familiar with the deal said that negotiations between the two companies sped up after May's chairman and chief executive Gene Kahn resigned in January. As part of the deal, Federated - owner of Macy's and Bloomingdale's - will assume $6bn of May's debt, bringing the deal's total value to $17bn. Directors at both companies have approved the deal and it is expected to conclude by the third quarter of this year. May has struggled to compete against larger department store groups such as Federated and other retailers such as Wal-Mart. Federated expects the merger to boost earnings from 2007 but the deal will cost it $1bn in one-off charges. ""We have taken the first step toward combining two of the best department store companies in America, creating a new retail company with truly national scope and presence,"" said Terry Lundgren, Federated's chairman. Some analysts see the merger as a rescue deal for May. ""Without this deal May would have been, to put it bluntly, washed up,"" said Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Consulting Group. Federated has annual sales of $15.6bn, while May's yearly sales are $14.4bn." -business,"Winn-Dixie files for bankruptcy US supermarket group Winn-Dixie has filed for bankruptcy protection after succumbing to stiff competition in a market dominated by Wal-Mart. Winn-Dixie, once among the most profitable of US grocers, said Chapter 11 protection would enable it to successfully restructure. It said its 920 stores would remain open, but analysts said it would most likely off-load a number of sites. The Jacksonville, Florida-based firm has total debts of $1.87bn (£980m). In its bankruptcy petition it listed its biggest creditor as US foods giant Kraft Foods, which it owes $15.1m. Analysts say Winn-Dixie had not kept up with consumers' demands and had also been burdened by a number of stores in need of upgrading. A 10-month restructuring plan was deemed a failure, and following a larger-than-expected quarterly loss earlier this month, Winn-Dixie's slide into bankruptcy was widely expected. The company's new chief executive Peter Lynch said Winn-Dixie would use the Chapter 11 breathing space to take the necessary action to turn itself around. ""This includes achieving significant cost reductions, improving the merchandising and customer service in all locations and generating a sense of excitement in the stores,"" he said. Yet Evan Mann, a senior bond analyst at Gimme Credit, said Mr Lynch's job would not be easy, as the bankruptcy would inevitably put off some customers. ""The real big issue is what's going to happen over the next one or two quarters now that they are in bankruptcy and all their customers see this in their local newspapers,"" he said." -business,"World leaders gather to face uncertainty More than 2,000 business and political leaders from around the globe are arriving in the Swiss mountain resort Davos for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF). For five days, they will discuss issues ranging from China's economic power to Iraq's future after this Sunday's elections. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and South African President Thabo Mbeki are among the more than 20 government leaders and heads of state leaders attending the meeting. Unlike previous years, protests against the WEF are expected to be muted. Anti-globalisation campaigners have called off a demonstration planned for the weekend. The Brazilian city of Porto Alegre will host the rival World Social Forum, timed to run in parallel with the WEF's ritzier event in Davos. The organisers of the Brazilian gathering, which brings together thousands of campaigners against globalisation, for fair trade, and many other causes, have promised to set an alternative agenda to that of the Swiss summit. However, many of the issues discussed in Porto Alegre are Davos talking points as well. ""Global warming"" features particularly high. WEF participants are being asked to offset the carbon emissions they cause by travelling to the event. Davos itself is in deep frost. The snow is piled high across the mountain village, and at night the wind chill takes temperatures down to minus 20C and less. Ultimately, the forum will be dominated by business issues - from outsourcing to corporate leadership - with bosses of more than a fifth of the world's 500 largest companies scheduled to attend. But much of the media focus will be on the political leaders coming to Davos, not least because the agenda of this year's forum seems to lack an overarching theme. ""Taking responsibility for tough choices"" is this year's official talking point, hinting at a welter of knotty problems. One thing seems sure, though: transatlantic disagreements over how to deal with Iran, Iraq and China are set to dominate discussions. Pointedly, only one senior official from President Bush's new administration is scheduled to attend. The US government may still make a conciliatory gesture, just as happened a year ago when Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise appearance in Davos. Ukraine's new president, Viktor Yushchenko, is to speak, just days after his inauguration, an event that crowned the civil protests against the rigged first election that had tried to keep him from power. The European Union's top leaders, among them German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and European Commission President Manuel Barosso, will be here too. Mr Blair will formally open the proceedings, although his speech will be pre-empted by French President Jacques Chirac, who announced his attendance at the last minute and secured a slot for a ""special message"" two hours before Mr Blair speaks. The organisers also hope that the new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, will use the opportunity for talks with at least one of the three Israeli deputy prime ministers coming to the event, a list that includes Shimon Peres. Davos fans still hark back to 1994, when talks between Yassir Arafat and Mr Peres came close to a peace deal. Mr Blair's appearance will be keenly watched too, as political observers in the UK claim it is a calculated snub against political rival Chancellor Gordon Brown, who was supposed to lead the UK government delegation. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man and a regular at Davos, will focus on campaigning for good causes, though business interests will not be wholly absent either. Having already donated billions of dollars to the fight against Aids and Malaria, Mr Gates will call on world leaders to support a global vaccination campaign to protect children in developing countries from easily preventable diseases. On Tuesday, Mr Gates pledged $750m (£400m) of his own money to support the cause. Mr Gates' company, software giant Microsoft, also hopes to use Davos to shore up its defences against open source software like Linux, which threaten Microsoft's near monopoly on computer desktops. Mr Gates is said to be trying to arrange a meeting with Brazil's President Lula da Silva. The Brazilian government has plans to switch all government computers from Microsoft to Linux. At Davos, global problem solving and networking are never far apart." -business,"BMW reveals new models pipeline BMW is preparing to enter the market for car-style people carriers, the firm's chief has told BBC News. Speaking at a BMW event ahead of the Geneva motor show, Helmut Panke predicted demand for such crossover vehicles would soar in Europe. In contrast, he said, the popularity of van-style seven-seat vehicles and traditional saloon cars would fade. ""Customers are moving out of the mini-van (and) traditional concepts are not as attractive anymore,"" he said. ""We have decided that BMW will enter the [crossover] segment,"" he said in the clearest indication yet about the car maker's intentions. Mr Panke praised the Honda Accura as the ""best execution"" yet of a crossover vehicle. ""We have decided that the BMW brand will enter the segment,"" he said. A decision on just how BMW will manage its entry into the new market is due in the first half of 2005. Typically it takes about three years from when a decision is taken before a new model hits the streets, Mr Panke said, implying that a BMW crossover could be on the market by 2008. The coming switch is driven in part by the need for successful carmakers to stay aware of trans-Atlantic differences in the car market, Mr Panke insisted. While in the US drivers tend to prefer sports utility vehicles (SUVs), such as the BMW X5 and its sibling X3, in Europe demand for crossover vehicles is likely to be considerable, Mr Panke said. ""There's a growing market here,"" he said. ""We are going to go that way.""" -business,"Tsunami slows Sri Lanka's growth Sri Lanka's president has launched a reconstruction drive worth $3.5bn (£1.8bn) by appealing for peace and national unity. President Kumaratunga said it was now important to find a peaceful solution to years of internal conflict. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said damage from the tsunami would cut one percentage point from Sri Lanka's economic growth this year. It estimated the wave left physical damage equal to 6.5% of the economy. Separately, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said that at least one million people have lost their livelihoods in Sri Lanka and Indonesia alone. It called for action to create jobs. President Kumaratunga attended a ceremony in the southern town of Hambantota. She was joined by government and opposition politicians, together with Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian clergy. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse laid the foundation stone on a new housing project intended to provide 6,000 homes for survivors of the tsunami. Mrs Kumaratunga called for the tragedy to be ""the start of a new beginning to rebuild our nation"". ""We are a country blessed with so many natural resources and we have not made use of them fully. Instead we have been squabbling, fighting,"" she added. Norway's peace negotiator Erik Solheim is due to arrive on Wednesday to try to revive peace talks in the decades-long conflict between government forces and the Tamil Tigers, who want a separate state in the north east of the country. Reconstruction efforts in eastern Sri Lanka have been hampered by tensions between the two sides. The IMF said that the Sri Lankan authorities' initial estimates have put the physical damage at $1.3 to $1.5bn, but added that the implications for the economy were much wider than this. ""The broader macroeconomic impact will clearly be substantial but the details are difficult to assess at this early stage,"" the IMF said. Growth, inflation, the balance of payments and foreign exchange reserves are all expected to show the effects of lost businesses and reconstruction costs. ""The fishing industry has been devastated, agricultural production may be affected and tourism will suffer, especially in the short term,"" the report said. The ILO estimated that 400,000 Sri Lankans have lost their jobs, mostly in these three industries. Earnings from tourism this year are expected to be 15% lower than last year. Economic growth this year is expected to be 4%, which is about 1% less than previously forecast. Inflation could climb to 14% compared to a previous estimate of 12%. Although major exports have not suffered, the IMF expects the reconstruction effort will require higher imports which could damage the balance of payments. Foreign exchange reserves may become strained as ""Sri Lanka will be hard pressed to keep international reserves at the pre-tsunami level"" which totalled more than two months worth of imports. Last week, the IMF approved Sri Lanka's request for a freeze on loan repayments." -business,"Economy 'stronger than forecast' The UK economy probably grew at a faster rate in the third quarter than the 0.4% reported, according to Bank of England deputy governor Rachel Lomax. Private sector business surveys suggest a stronger economy than official estimates, Ms Lomax said. Other surveys collectively show a rapid slowdown in UK house price growth, she pointed out. This means that despite a strong economic growth, base rates will probably stay on hold at 4.75%. Official data comes from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Though reliable, ONS data takes longer to publish, so now the BoE is calling for faster delivery of data so it can make more effective policy decisions. ""Recent work by the Bank has shown that private sector surveys add value, even when preliminary ONS estimates are available,"" Ms Lomax said in a speech to the North Wales Business Club. The ONS is due to publish its second estimate of third quarter growth on Friday. ""The MPC judges that overall growth was a little higher in the third quarter than the official data currently indicate,"" Ms Lomax said. The Bank said successful monetary policy depends on having good information. Rachel Lomax cited the late 1980s as an example of a time when weak economic figures were published, but substantially revised upwards years later. ""The statistical fog surrounding the true state of the economy has proved a particularly potent breeding ground for policy errors in the past,"" she said. Improving the quality of national statistics is the single the best way of making sure the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) makes the right decisions, she said. The Bank of England is working in tandem with the ONS to improve the quality and speed of delivery of data. Her remarks follow criticism from the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, which said the MPC had held interest rates too high given that inflation was way below the 2% target. A slowdown in the housing market and this year's surge in oil prices has made economic forecasting all the more tricky, leading to a more uncertain outlook. ""This year rising oil prices and a significant slowdown in the housing market have awoken bad memories of the 1970s and 1980s,"" Ms Lomax said. ""The MPC will be doing well if it can achieve the same stability over the next decade as we have enjoyed over the past 10 years."" Decisions on interest rates are made after the MPC gathers together the range of indicators available every month. The clearest signals come when all indicators are pointing the same direction, Ms Lomax intimated. ""In economic assessment, there is safety in numbers.""" -business,"Germany calls for EU reform German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has called for radical reform of the EU's stability pact to grant countries more flexibility over their budget deficits. Mr Schroeder said existing fiscal rules should be loosened to allow countries to run deficits above the current 3% limit if they met certain criteria. Writing in the Financial Times, Mr Schroeder also said heads of government should have a greater say in reforms. Changes to the pact are due to be agreed at an economic summit in March. The current EU rules limit the size of a eurozone country's deficit to 3% of GDP. Countries which exceed the threshold are liable to heavy fines by the European Commission, although several countries, including Germany, have breached the rules consistently since 2002 without facing punishment. The European Commission acknowledged last month that it would not impose sanctions on countries who break the rules. Mr Schroeder - a staunch supporter of the pact when it was set up in the 1990s - said exemptions were now needed to take into account the cost of domestic reform programmes and changing economic conditions. ""The stability pact will work better if intervention by European institutions in the budgetary sovereignty of national parliaments is only permitted under very limited conditions,"" he wrote. ""Only if their competences are respected will the member states be willing to align their policies more consistently with the economic goals of the EU."" Deficits should be allowed to rise above 3%, Mr Schroeder argued, if countries meet several ""mandatory criteria"". These include governments which are adopting costly structural reforms, countries which are suffering economic stagnation and nations which are shouldering ""special economic burdens"". The proposed changes would make it harder for the European Commission to launch infringement action against any state which breaches the pact's rules. Mr Schroeder's intervention comes ahead of a meeting of the 12 Eurozone finance ministers on Monday to discuss the pact. The issue will also be discussed at Tuesday's Ecofin meeting of the finance ministers of all 25 EU members. Mr Schroeder also called for heads of government to play a larger role in shaping reforms to the pact. A number of EU finance ministers are believed to favour only limited changes to the eurozone's rules." -business,"Chinese exports rise 25% in 2004 Exports from China leapt during 2004 over the previous year as the country continued to show breakneck growth. The spurt put China's trade surplus - a sore point with some of its trading partners - at a six-year high. It may also increase pressure on China to relax the peg joining its currency, the yuan, with the weakening dollar. The figures released by the Ministry of Commerce come as China's tax chief confirmed that growth had topped 9% in 2004 for the second year in a row. State Administration of Taxation head Xie Xuren said a tightening of controls on tax evasion had combined with the rapid expansion to produce a 25.7% rise in tax revenues to 2.572 trillion yuan ($311bn; £165bn). According to the Ministry of Commerce, China's exports totalled $63.8bn in December, taking the annual total up 35.4% to $593.4bn. With imports rising a similar amount, the deficit rose to $43.4bn. The increased tax take comes despite healthy tax rebates for many exporters totalling 420bn yuan in 2004, according to Mr Xie. China's exporting success has made the trade deficit of the United States soar even further and made trade with China a sensitive political issue in Washington. The peg keeping the yuan around 8.30 to the dollar is often blamed by US lawmakers for job losses at home. A US report issued on Tuesday on behalf of a Congressionally-mandated panel said almost 1.5 million posts disappeared between 1989 and 2003. The pace accelerated in the final three years of the period, said the report for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, moving out of labour-intensive industries and into more hi-tech sectors. The US's overall trade deficit with China was $124bn in 2003, and is expected to rise to about $150bn for 2004." -business,"Khodorkovsky quits Yukos shares Jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has transferred his controlling stake in oil giant Yukos to a business partner. Mr Khodorkovsky handed over his entire 59.5% stake in holding company Group Menatep - which controls Yukos - to Leonid Nevzlin. A close ally of the ex-Yukos boss, Mr Nevzlin is currently based in Israel. Mr Khodorkovsky handed over his stake after the forced sale of Yukos' core oil production unit, Yuganskneftegaz to pay a giant tax bill. Yuganskneftegaz was sold off at auction in December last year, eventually falling into the hands of state oil firm Rosneft in a deal worth $9.4bn (£5bn). ""Since the sale of Yuganskneftegaz, I have been delivered of (all) responsibility for the business that remains and the group's money as a whole,"" Mr Khodorkovsky said. ""It is all over. As before, I see my future in public activity to build a civil society in Russia."" Mr Nevzlin is Yukos' largest shareholder but is living in self-imposed exile in Israel. Yuganskneftegaz pumps around 1 million barrels of oil a day. It was sold by the Russian authorities to recover government tax claims against Yukos totalling over $27bn. Previously considered to be Russia's richest man, with an estimated fortune of $15bn, Mr Khodorkovsky is currently on trial for fraud and tax evasion following his arrest in October 2003. However, the charges are widely seen as politically motivated and part of a drive by Russian President Vladimir Putin to rein in the country's super-rich business leaders, the so-called oligarchs. It is also believed that Mr Khodorkovsky was particularly targeted because he had started to bankroll political opponents of Mr Putin." -business,"GM issues 2005 profits warning General Motors has warned that it expects earnings this year be lower than in 2004. The world's biggest car maker is grappling with losses in its European business, and weak US sales. GM said higher healthcare costs in North America, and lower profits at its financial services subsidiary would hurt its performance in 2005. GM said it expects to meet its 2004 earnings targets ""despite a tough competitive environment"". GM, whose brands include Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet in the US and Opel, Saab and Vauxhall in Europe, is due to reveal 2004 earnings on 19 January. It said it would deliver a shareholder payout of $6.0-$6.5 per share this year, as promised, but that next year's earnings per share would be lower, at between $4.0-$5.0. ""We're following a roadmap that we believe will deliver strong results,"" said GM chief executive Rick Waggoner. GM said it was expecting ""reduced financial losses"" in Europe in 2005. It is in the midst of cutting 12,000 jobs - one fifth of the European total - in a bid to cut costs. The biggest job losses are in Germany. Its vehicle businesses have gained market share in three out of four regions in 2004, achieving record profitability in Asia Pacific and returning to profit in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The car maker has diversified into financial services, and is extending the reach of General Motors Acceptance Corp (GMAC), which has said it may enter the home loans market. GMAC has been a strong contributor to profits in 2004 but GM said it will do less well this year, delivering net income of $2.5bn. ""Attaining earnings of $10 a share remains GM's goal,"" the company said, adding it believes it can achieve this in 2007." -business,"Madagascar completes currency switch Madagascar has completed the replacement of its Malagasy franc with a new currency, the ariary. From Monday, all prices and contracts will have to be quoted in the ariary, which was trading at 1,893 to the US dollar. The Malagasy franc, which lost almost half its value in 2004, is no longer legal tender but will remain exchangeable at banks until 2009. The phasing out of the franc, begun in July 2003, was intended to distance the country from its past under French colonial rule and address the problem of the large amount of counterfeit francs in circulation. ""It's above all a question of sovereignty,"" Reuters quoted a central bank official as saying. ""It is symbolic of our independence from the old colonial ways. Since we left the French monetary zone in 1973 we should have our own currency with its own name."" The ariary was the name of a pre-colonial currency in the Indian Ocean island state." -business,"Mixed reaction to Man Utd offer Shares in Manchester United were up over 5% by noon on Monday following a new offer from Malcolm Glazer. The board of Man Utd is expected to meet early this week to discuss the latest proposal from the US tycoon that values the club at £800m ($1.5bn). Manchester United revealed on Sunday that it had received a detailed proposal from Mr Glazer. A senior source at the club told the BBC: ""This time it's different"". The board is obliged to consider this deal. But the Man Utd supporters club urged the club to reject the new deal. Manchester United past and present footballers Eric Cantona and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and club manager Sir Alex Ferguson, have lent their backing to the supporters' group, Shareholders United. They have all spoken out against the bid. A spokesman for the supporters club said: ""I can't see any difference (compared to Mr Glazer's previous proposals) other than £200m less debt. ""He isn't bringing any money into the club; he'll use our money to buy it."" Mr Glazer's latest move is being led by Mr Glazer's two sons, Avi and Joel, according to the Financial Times. A proposal was received by David Gill, United's chief executive, at the end of last week, pitched at about 300p a share. David Cummings, head of UK equities for Standard Life Investments, said he believed a ""well funded"" 300p a share bid would be enough for Mr Glazer to take control of the club. ""I do not think there is anything that Manchester United fans can do about it,"" he told the BBC. ""They can complain about it but it is curtains for them. They may not want him but they are going to get him."" The US tycoon, who has been wooing the club for the last 12 months, has approached the United board with ""detailed proposals"", it has confirmed. Mr Glazer, who owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers team, hopes this will lead to a formal bid being accepted. He is believed to have increased the amount of equity in the new proposal, though it is not clear by how much. For his proposal to succeed, he needs the support of United's largest shareholders, the Irish horseracing tycoons JP McManus and John Magnier. They own 29% of United through their Cubic Expression investment vehicle. Mr Glazer and his family hold a stake of 28.1%. But it is not yet known whether Mr McManus and Mr Magnier would support a Glazer bid. NM Rothschild, the investment bank, is advising Mr Glazer, according to the Financial Times. His previous adviser, JPMorgan, quit last year when Mr Glazer went ahead and voted against the appointment of three United directors to the board, against its advice. But the FT said it thought JP Morgan may still have had some role in financing Mr Glazer's latest financial proposal." -business,"Senior Fannie Mae bosses resign The two most senior executives at US mortgage giant Fannie Mae have resigned after accounting irregularities were uncovered at the company. Chief executive Franklin Raines, a former senior official in the Clinton administration, and chief financial officer Tim Howard have left the firm. Fannie Mae was criticised by financial regulators and could have to restate its earnings by up to $9bn (£4.6bn). It is America's second largest financial institution. Recent investigations have exposed extensive accounting errors at Fannie Mae, which supplies funds to America's $8 trillion mortgage market. Last week, the firm was admonished by the Securities and Exchange Commission which said it had made major errors in its financial reporting. The financial regulator said Fannie Mae would have to raise substantial new capital to restore its balance sheet. Analysts said the SEC's criticism made it impossible for Fannie Mae's senior executives to remain. Mr Raines, head of the Office of Management and Budget under President Clinton, has taken early retirement while Mr Howard has also stepped down, the company said on Tuesday. KPMG, Fannie Mae's independent auditor, will also be replaced. ""By my early retirement, I have held myself accountable,"" Mr Raines said in a statement. Fannie Mae was found to have violated accounting rules relating to derivatives - financial instruments used to hedge against fluctuations in interest rates - and some pre-paid loans. As a result, it could be forced to restate $9bn in earnings over the past four years, effectively wiping out a third of the company's profits since 2001. Although not making loans directly to buyers, Fannie Mae is the largest single player in the mortgage market, underwriting half of all US house purchases. The firm operates under charter from the US Congress. It has faced stinging criticism from Congressional leaders who held hearings into its finances earlier this year and from government regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). ""We are encouraged that the board's announcement signals a new culture and a new direction for Fannie Mae,"" Armando Falcon, OFHEO director said. The problems afflicting Fannie Mae are just the latest to hit the US mortgage industry. Freddie Mac, the country's other largest mortgage firm, was forced to restate its earnings by $4.4bn last year and pay a $125m fine after an investigation of its books." -business,"Singapore growth at 8.1% in 2004 Singapore's economy grew by 8.1% in 2004, its best performance since 2000, figures from the trade ministry show. The advance, the second-fastest in Asia after China, was led by growth of 13.1% in the key manufacturing sector. However, a slower-than-expected fourth quarter points to more modest growth for the trade-driven economy in 2005 as global technology demand falls back. Slowdowns in the US and China could hit electronics exports, while the tsunami disaster may effect the service sector. Economic growth is set to halve in Singapore this year to between 3% and 5%. In the fourth quarter, the city state's gross domestic product (GDP) rose at an annual rate of 2.4%. That was up from the third quarter, when it fell 3.0%, but was well below analyst forecasts. ""I am surprised at the weak fourth quarter number. The main drag came from electronics,"" said Lian Chia Liang, economist at JP Morgan Chase. Singapore's economy had contracted over the summer, weighed down by soaring oil prices. The economy's poor performance in the July to September period followed four consecutive quarters of double-digit growth as Singapore bounced back strongly from the effects of the deadly Sars virus in 2003." -business,"Ukraine steel sell-off 'illegal' The controversial sell-off of a Ukrainian steel mill to a relative of the former president was illegal, a court has ruled. The mill, Krivorizhstal, was sold in June 2004 for $800m (£424m) - well below other offers. President Viktor Yushchenko, elected in December, is planning to revisit many of Ukraine's recent privatisations. Krivorizhstal is one of dozens of firms which he says were sold cheaply to friends of the previous administration. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said as many as 3,000 firms could be included on the list of firms whose sale was being reviewed. Mr Yushchenko had previously said the list would be limited to 30-40 enterprises. More than 90,000 businesses in all, from massive corporations to tiny shopfronts, have been sold off since 1992, as the command economy built up when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union was dismantled. Analysts have suggested that the government needs to avoid the impression of an open-ended list, so as to preserve investor confidence. Thursday's ruling by a district court in Perchesk overturned a previous decision in a lower court permitting the sale. The consortium which won the auction for the mill was created by Viktor Pinchuk, son-in-law of former-President Leonid Kuchma, and Rinat Akhmetov, the country's richest man. The next step is for the supreme court to annul the sale altogether, opening the way for Krivorizhstal to be resold. Mr Yushchenko has suggested a fair valuation could be as much as $3bn. One of the foreign bidders who lost out, steel giant LNM, told BBC News that it would be interested in any renewed sale." -business,"India's rupee hits five-year high India's rupee has hit a five-year high after Standard & Poor's (S&P) raised the country's foreign currency rating. The rupee climbed to 43.305 per US dollar on Thursday, up from a close of 43.41. The currency has gained almost 1% in the past three sessions. S&P, which rates borrowers' creditworthiness, lifted India's rating by one notch to 'BB+'. With Indian assets now seen as less of a gamble, more cash is expected to flow into its markets, buoying the rupee. ""The upgrade is positive and basically people will use it as an excuse to come back to India,"" said Bhanu Baweja, a strategist at UBS. ""Money has moved out from India in the first two or three weeks of January into other markets like Korea and Thailand and this upgrade should lead to a reversal."" India's foreign currency rating is now one notch below investment grade, which starts at 'BBB-'. The increase has put it on the same level as Romania, Egypt and El Salvador, and one level below Russia." -business,"Industrial revival hope for Japan Japanese industry is growing faster than expected, boosting hopes that the country's retreat back into recession is over. Industrial output rose 2.1% - adjusted for the time of year - in January from a month earlier. At the same time, retail sales picked up faster than at any time since 1997. The news sent Tokyo shares to an eight-month high, as investors hoped for a recovery from the three quarters of contraction seen from April 2004 on. The Nikkei 225 index ended the day up 0.7% at 11,740.60 points, with the yen strengthening 0.7% against the dollar to 104.53 yen. Weaker exports, normally the engine for Japan's economy in the face of weak domestic demand, had helped trigger a 0.1% contraction in the final three months of last year after two previous quarters of shrinking GDP. Only an exceptionally strong performance in the early months of 2004 kept the year as a whole from showing a decline. The output figures brought a cautiously optimistic response from economic officials. ""Overall I see a low risk of the economy falling into serious recession,"" said Bank of Japan chief Toshihiko Fukui, despite warning that other indicators - such as the growth numbers - had been worrying. Within the overall industrial output figure, there were signs of a pullback from the export slowdown. Among the best-performing sectors were key overseas sales areas such as cars, chemicals and electronic goods. With US growth doing better than expected the picture for exports in early 2005 could also be one of sustained demand. Electronics were also one of the keys to the improved domestic market, with products such as flat-screen TVs in high demand during January." -business,"Yukos sues four firms for $20bn Russian oil firm Yukos has sued four companies for their role in last year's forced state auction of its key oil production unit Yuganskneftegas. Yukos is claiming more than $20bn (£11bn) in damages after Yugansk was sold in December to settle back taxes. The four companies named in the law suit are gas giant Gazprom, its unit Gazpromneft, investment company Baikal, and state oil firm Rosneft. Yukos submitted the suit in Houston, where it filed for bankruptcy. As well as suing for damages, Yukos has asked the US court to send its tax dispute with the Russian government to an international arbitrator. It also has submitted a reorganisation plan as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The clash between Yukos and the Kremlin came to a head last year when Yukos was hit with a bill of more than $27bn in back taxes and unpaid fines. To settle the bill, Russia forced Yukos to sell off Yuganskneftegas. Yukos called the sale illegal and has turned to courts in the US in an effort to regain control of the oil production business. It also has vowed to use all legal means at its disposal to go after any firm that tries to buy or take control of its assets. Earlier this month it sued the Russian government for $28.3bn. Analysts have questioned whether a US court has any jurisdiction over Russian companies, while Moscow officials have dismissed Yukos' legal wrangling as meaningless. In Houston, bankruptcy Judge Letitia Clark will start a two-day hearing on 16 February to hear arguments on whether a US court is the proper forum for the case. The threat of legal action from Yukos and its bankruptcy filing in Houston did have an effect on last year's auction, however. Concerned that it would be caught up in a court battle, Gazprom and Gazpromneft withdrew from the auction, and Yuganskneftegas was sold to little-known investment firm Baikal Finance Group. A few days later, Baikal gave control of the company to state-run oil group Rosneft for $9.3bn. Rosneft, meanwhile, has agreed to merge with Gazprom, bringing a large chunk of Russia's very profitable oil business back under state control. Yukos claims that the rights of its shareholders have been ignored and that is has been punished for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Mr Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is in prison, having been charged with fraud and tax evasion and repeatedly denied bail." -business,"Wal-Mart to pay $14m in gun suit The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has agreed to pay a total of $14.5m (£7.74m) to settle a lawsuit over gun sales violations in California. The lawsuit alleged Wal-Mart committed thousands of gun sales violations in California between 2000 and 2003. The total payment includes $5m in fines and more than $4m to fund state compliance checks with gun laws and prevent ammunition sales to minors. Wal-Mart agreed to suspend firearms sales in its California stores in 2003, The alleged violations included the sale of guns to 23 people who were not allowed to possess them, and delivering 36 guns to customers who acquired them for people not allowed to own firearms. Although Wal-Mart has suspended firearms sales in the state, California attorney general Bill Lockyer said he wanted to be sure the giant supermarket chain would follow state rules in future. ""Wal-Mart's failure to comply with gun safety laws put the lives of all Californians at risk by placing guns in the hands of criminals and other prohibited persons,"" said Mr Lockyer. ""Although Wal-Mart has suspended gun sales in California, this settlement will ensure that it follows state law if it renews sales and will also provide valuable public education about the importance of gun safety."" The world's largest retailer has not yet decided whether to resume firearms sales in California, company spokesman Gus Whitcomb said." -business,"Bush to outline 'toughest' budget President Bush is to send his toughest budget proposals to date to the US Congress, seeking large cuts in domestic spending to lower the deficit. About 150 federal programs could be cut or axed altogether as part of a $2.5 trillion (£1.3 trillion) package aimed at curbing the giant US budget deficit. Defence spending will rise, however, while the proposals exclude the cost of continuing military operations in Iraq. Vice-President Dick Cheney said the budget was the ""tightest"" so far. At the heart of the administration's fifth budget, presented to Congress on Monday, is an austere package of domestic measures. These would see discretionary spending rise below the projected level of inflation. Such belt-tightening is designed to tackle the massive budget deficit increases of President Bush's first term. Mr Cheney admitted that the budget was the toughest of the Bush Presidency but argued it was ""fair and responsible"". ""It is not something we have done with a meat axe, nor are we suddenly turning our back on the most needy people in our society,"" he said. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, increased expenditure on national security after 9/11 and the 2001 recession wiped out the budget surplus inherited by President Bush in 2001 and turned it into a record deficit. The shortfall is projected to rise to $427bn in 2005. Education, environmental protection and transport initiatives are set to be scaled back as a first step towards reducing the deficit to $230bn by 2009. Most controversially, the government is seeking to cut the Medicaid budget, which provides health care to the nation's poorest, by $45bn and to reduce farm subsidies by $587m. Spending on defence and homeland security is set to increase, although not by as much as originally planned. President Bush's proposals would see the Pentagon's budget rise by $19bn to $419.3bn while homeland security would get an extra $2bn. The budget does not include the cost of running military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, for which the administration in expected to seek an extra $80bn from Congress later this year. Also not featuring in the proposals is the cost of funding the administration's radical proposed overhaul of social security provision. Some expects believe this could require borrowing of up to $4.5bn trillion over a twenty year period. Despite the Republicans holding a majority in both houses of Congress, the proposals will be fiercely contested over the next few months. John McCain, a Republican Senator, said he was pleased the administration was prepared to tackle the deficit. ""With the deficits that we are now running, I am glad the president is coming over with a very austere budget,"" he said. However, Democratic Senator Kent Conrad said the proposals exposed the country to huge financial commitments beyond 2009. ""The cost of everything he [President Bush] advocates explodes,"" he said." -business,"Libya takes $1bn in unfrozen funds Libya has withdrawn $1bn in assets from the US, assets which had previously been frozen for almost 20 years, the Libyan central bank has said. The move came after the US lifted a trade ban to reward Tripoli for giving up weapons of mass destruction and vowing to compensate Lockerbie victims. The original size of Libya's funds was $400m, the central bank told Reuters. However, the withdrawal did not mean that Libya had cut its ties with the US, he added. ""We are in the process of opening accounts in banks in the United States,"" the central bank's vice president Farhat Omar Ben Gadaravice said. The previously frozen assets had been invested in various countries and are believed to have included equity holdings in banks. The US ban on trade and economic activity with Tripoli - imposed by then president Ronald Regan in 1986 after a series of what the US deemed terrorist acts, including the 1988 Lockerbie air crash - was suspended in April. Bankers from the two country's had been working on how to unfreeze Libya's assets." -business,"Europe blames US over weak dollar European leaders have openly blamed the US for the sharp rise in the value of the euro. US officials were talking up the dollar, they said, but failing to take action to back up their words. Meeting in Brussels, finance ministers of the 12 eurozone countries voiced their concern that the rise of the european currency was harming exports. The dollar is within touching distance of an all-time low reached earlier in November. At 0619 GMT on Tuesday, the dollar was up slightly at just above $1.29 to the euro, and buying 105.6 yen in Tokyo. It rallied briefly on Monday amid signs that oil prices are easing. But analysts said the respite was likely to be only temporary. The European ministers' comments, said Junya Tanase of JPMorgan Chase bank in Tokyo, were ""generally too weak to produce a market reaction"". Still, by the standards of diplomacy the European ministers were forthright. Nicolas Sarkozy of France said he and his colleagues were unanimous in their worry that the decline of the dollar would hit Europe's economies by eating into their exports. ""We are concerned about these developments, which are destabilising, and which are linked to the accumulation of deficits by our American friends,"" he said. The comments come a day after US Treasury Secretary John Snow said a strong dollar was ""in America's interest"". But that was not enough for Mr Sarkozy. ""If the Americans were to change their policy, it's up to them to say so,"" he said. And the European Union's monetary affairs commissioner, made it clear that action was necessary. ""I fully welcome the words of Mr Snow,"" said Joaquin Almunia, ""but we will need to see decisions adopted in that direction. ""If the imbalances in the US economy are not adjusted in the future, the decision in the market will be as in the past weeks."" Economists point out that whatever Europe says, in the short term a weaker dollar is a boon to President George W Bush's administration. Not only does it boost US exports, but it also makes the budget deficit easier to fund. On the other hand, slower European exports would mean slower EU growth - potentially reducing the demand for US goods." -business,"Golden rule 'intact' says ex-aide Chancellor Gordon Brown will meet his golden economic rule ""with a margin to spare"", according to his former chief economic adviser. Formerly one of Mr Brown's closest Treasury aides, Ed Balls hinted at a Budget giveaway on 16 March. He said he hoped more would be done to build on current tax credit rules. Any rate rise ahead of an expected May election would not affect the Labour Party's chances of winning, he added. Last July, Mr Balls won the right to step down from his Treasury position and run for parliament, defending the Labour stronghold of Normanton in West Yorkshire. Mr Balls rejected the allegation that Mr Brown had been sidelined in the election campaign, saying he was playing a ""different"" role to the one he played in the last two elections. He rejected speculation that Mr Brown was considering becoming Foreign Secretary, saying his recent travels had been linked to efforts to boost international development. Gordon Brown's decision to announce the date of the Budget while on a trip to China was a ""sensible thing to do"", since he was talking about skills and investment at the time, Mr Balls told the BBC. Commenting on speculation of an interest rate rise, he said it was not within the remit of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to factor a potential election into its rate decisions. Expectations of a rate rise have gathered pace after figures showed that house prices are still rising. Consumer borrowing rose at a near-record pace in January. ""I don't believe it would be a big election issue in Britain or a problem for Labour,"" Mr Balls said. Prime Minister Tony Blair has yet to name the date of the election, but most pundits are betting on 5 May as the likely day." -business,"Glaxo aims high after profit fall GlaxoSmithKline saw its profits fall 9% last year to £6.2bn ($11.5bn), but Europe's biggest drugmaker says a recovery during 2005 is on the way. Cheap copies of its drugs, particularly anti-depressants Paxil and Wellbutrin, and a weak dollar had hit profits, but global sales were up 1% in 2004. The firm is confident its new drug pipeline will deliver profits despite the failure of an obesity drug. Chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier said it had been a ""difficult year"". In early afternoon trade in London the company share price was down 1% at 1218 pence. Mr Garnier said the company had absorbed over £1.5bn of lost sales to generics but still managing to grow the business. ""The continuing success of our key products means we can now look forward to a good performance in 2005,"" he said. ""2005 will also be an important year in terms of research and development pipeline progress."" However, the firm discontinued development of an experimental treatment for obesity, known as '771, after disappointing clinical trial results. Glaxo is relying on new treatments for conditions such as cancer, diabetes, depression, HIV/AIDS and allergies to lift the pace of sales growth after several disappointing years." -business,"India opens skies to competition India will allow domestic commercial airlines to fly long haul international routes, a move it hopes will stoke competition and drive down prices. However, only state controlled carriers will be able to fly the lucrative Gulf routes, to countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, for at least three years. Jet Airways and Air Sahara are the two companies that will benefit initially. India is looking to develop its airline industry as booming economic growth drives demand for travel. Monica Chadha, BBC Delhi reporter, said air travel in India had increased by almost 20% from the previous year and was expected to rise even further. Infrastructure development is lagging demand, however, and will have to improve. ""Most international airports in the country are shabby and ill-equipped to handle heavy air traffic,"" Ms Chada said, adding that while the Civil Aviation minister has promised to modernise and privatise airports little progress has been made. Steps have been take to move things forward and the government recently changed legislation that limited foreign investment in domestic airlines. It raised the maximum stake holding allowed to 49% from 40%. Local press, meanwhile, have reported that the US and India will start negotiations about adding more routes in January. Jet Airways is India's premier private domestic carrier; Air Sahara is ranked third in the category." -business,"Making your office work for you Our mission to brighten up your working lives continues - and this time, we're taking a long hard look at your offices. Over the next few months, our panel of experts will be listening to your gripes about where you work, and suggesting ways to make your workspace more efficient, more congenial or simply prettier. This week, we're hearing from Marianne Petersen, who is planning to convert a barn in Sweden into a base for her freelance writing work. Click on the link under her photograph to read her story, and then scroll down to see what the panel have to say. And if you want to take part in the series, go to the bottom of the story to find out how to get in touch. Working from home presents a multitude of challenges. Understanding your work personality allows you to work in terms of your own style. Do you feel confident about your work output without conferring with others? Are you able to retain discipline and self motivate to get the job done? Do you build on the ideas of others - or are you a more introspective problem solver?. In order for a virtual office to succeed, keeping the boundary between work and home life is essential. It may be useful to be quite rigid about who is allowed to visit, and to keep strict office hours. Referring to the space as work will give those around you a clear message that this is professional space. It is imperative to consider how to bring the outside world into yours, keeping up to date with developments and maintaining a network. Isolated work environments mean this has to be carefully thought out, and a strategy has to be developed that suits both your personality and your industry. Joining professional groups or forming a loose association of like-minded people may assist. It is useful to structure these meetings in advance as often they get relegated to less important status when times are busy - with the danger that when the workload eases, they have to be resurrected. Prior to any interior work being undertaken it is essential to ensure that the roof and walls are made water-and-weather-tight, and the structure is checked for stability. It appears that the roof trusses may need repairs and additional bracing. Ideally, the roof should be replaced with an outer material in keeping with the character and location of the barn. This would also allow for a well-insulated inner skin to be provided which should be light coloured. It is likely that the most efficient way of heating the building is with electricity. In order to provide this the owner will need to have an electrical engineer calculate the potential heating, power and lighting load to make sure the mains supply and distribution capacity are adequate. Ideally, it would be good to have a mains water supply and some means of drainage for toilet and washing facilities. The walls should be dry lined with a single skin of plasterboard laid over rockwool slab which will allow good wall insulation and the power and lighting circuits to be concealed, and the walls should be painted in a light colour. The owner mentions she might lay a new floor over the existing planks; this will improve the insulation and offer a level surface. I would suggest laying new oak veneer planks which can work in with the character of the barn. As for lighting, consider a combination of floor mounted uplights, wall lights (wall washers) and selected downlights. Use a combination of mains voltage fluorescent fittings and dimmable units which can vary the light levels and the feel of the interior. Please click on the link to the right here to see my ideas for Marianne's barn. The layout of this office reflects the need to have a working area and a more relaxed meeting space. Large desk space and extensive storage would combine with tub chairs to maximise the space available. The finishes chosen for the furniture will need to reflect the unusual setting, while the lighting and temperature control mechanisms used will further influence the workplace. Regarding accessing the internet via the connection in the main house, your plan of going wireless is sensible. A wireless router/access point in the house with a wireless LAN card in the PC in the renovated area may be sufficient. However, important points to consider are the distance between the two buildings and the nature of the materials through which the signals have to pass, which could result in a weak signal strength. You may require an additional wireless access point in the renovated area. Your local IT supplier will be able to advise on this. If you haven't already invested in robust firewall and anti-virus software, it is essential to do so, to protect your investment. To really take advantage of wireless technology, you might consider a laptop computer and a docking station with external mouse and monitor. Or you could use one of the new Tablet computers, which allow you to write directly on the screen and convert into text with built-in hand recognition software. And finally, you will save money and space by considering a multi-function product for print, scan, copy and fax." -business,"Battered dollar hits another low The dollar has fallen to a new record low against the euro after data fuelled fresh concerns about the US economy. The greenback hit $1.3516 in thin New York trade, before rallying to $1.3509. The dollar has weakened sharply since September when it traded about $1.20, amid continuing worries over the levels of the US trade and budget deficits. Meanwhile, France's finance minister has said the world faced ""economic catastrophe"" unless the US worked with Europe and Asia on currency controls. Herve Gaymard said he would seek action on the issue at the next meeting of G7 countries in February. Ministers from European and Asian governments have recently called on the US to strengthen the dollar, saying the excessively high value of the euro was starting to hurt their export-driven economies. ""It's absolutely essential that at the meeting of the G7 our American friends understand that we need coordinated management at the world level,"" said Mr Gaymard. Thursday's new low for the dollar came after data was released showing year-on-year sales of new homes in the US had fallen 12% in November - with some analysts saying this could indicate problems ahead for consumer activity. Commerce Department data also showed consumer spending - which drives two thirds of the US economy - grew just 0.2% last month. The figure was weaker than forecast - and fell short of the 0.8% rise in October. The official US policy is that it supports a strong dollar but many market observers believe it is happy to let the dollar fall because of the boost to its exporters. The US government has faced pressure from exporter organisations which have publicly stated the currency still has further to fall from ""abnormal and dangerous heights"" set in 2002. The US says it will let market forces determine the dollar's strength rather than intervene directly. Statements from President Bush in recent weeks highlighting his aim to cut the twin US deficits have prompted slight upturns in the currency. But while some observers said the quiet trade on Thursday had exacerbated small moves in the market, most agree the underlying trend remains downwards. The dollar has now fallen for a third consecutive year and analysts are forecasting a further, albeit less dramatic weakening, in 2005. ""I can see it finishing the year around $1.35 and we can see that it's going to be a steady track upward for the euro/dollar in 2005, finishing the year around $1.40,"" said Adrian Hughes, currency strategist with HSBC in London." -business,"S&N extends Indian beer venture The UK's biggest brewer, Scottish and Newcastle (S&N), is to buy 37.5% of India's United Breweries in a deal worth 4.66bn rupees ($106m:£54.6m). S&N will buy a 17.5% equity stake in United, maker of the well-known Kingfisher lager brand, and make a public offer to buy another 20% stake. A similar holding will be controlled by Vijay Mallya, chair of the Indian firm. The deal was a ""natural development"" of its joint venture with United, said Tony Froggatt, S&N's chief executive. Its top brands include Newcastle Brown Ale, Foster's, John Smith's, Strongbow and Kronenbourg. In 2002 S&N and United agreed to form a strategic partnership, one that would include a joint venture business and a UK investment in the Indian brewer. The joint venture was established in May 2003. with both parties having a 40% stake in the venture - Millennium Alcobev. Millennium Alcobev will now be merged with United, which expects post-merger to have about half of India's beer market. India, with a population of more than one billion, consumes about 1.2 billion bottles of beer every year. Kingfisher has market share of about 29%. In addition to the equity stake S&N is to invest 2.47bn rupees in United through non-convertible redeemable preference shares. Meanwhile, United's budget airline, Kingfisher Airlines, is to buy 10 A320 aircraft from Airbus and has the option to buy 20 more aircraft in a deal worth up to $1.8bn. The airline, the brainchild of Mr Mallya, expects to start its operations by the end of April. The new airline would break even in the very first year of operation, Mr Mallya said." -business,"Winter freeze keeps oil above $50 Oil prices carried on rising on Wednesday after cold weather on both sides of the North Atlantic pushed US crude prices to four-month highs. Freezing temperatures and heavy snowfalls took crude oil prices past $50 a barrel on Tuesday for the first time since November. Declines in the dollar have also contributed to the rising oil price. US crude was trading at $51.39 at 0710 GMT in Asian electronic trade on Wednesday. A barrel of US crude oil closed up $2.80 at $51.15 in New York on Tuesday. Opec members said on Tuesday that, given such high prices, the cartel saw no reason to cut its output. Although below last year's peak of $55.67 a barrel, which was reached in October, prices are now well above 2004's average of $41.48. Brent crude also rose in London trading, adding $1.89 to $48.62 at the close. Much of western Europe and the north east of America has been shivering under unseasonably low temperatures in recent days. The decline in the US dollar to a five-week low against the euro has also served to inflate prices. ""The primary factor is the weak dollar,"" said Victor Shum, a Singapore-based analyst with Purvin and Gertz. Expectations that a rebound in the dollar would halt the oil price rise were not immediately borne out on Wednesday morning, as oil prices carried on upwards as the dollar strengthened against the euro, the pound and the yen. Several Opec members said on Tuesday that a cut in production was unlikely, citing rising prices and strong demand for oil from Asia. ""I agree that we do not need to cut supply if the prices are as much as this,"" Fathi Bin Shatwan, Libya's oil minister, told Reuters. ""I do not think we need to cut unless the prices are falling below $35 a barrel,"" he added." -business,"Why few targets are better than many The economic targets set out at the Lisbon summit of European Union leaders in 2000 were meant to help Europe leapfrog its way past the United States to become the world's leading economy by 2010. But the Lisbon targets are about much more than just economic prestige. For many economists and analysts they are about ensuring Europe doesn't become a global economic laggard. They are also about ensuring Europe can continue to compete as an equal with the growing economic giants of Asia, India and China, as well as with the economic might of the United States. That's why there was a tone of urgency in the report, out on Wednesday, by the former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok. Mr Kok was commissioned by the European Commission in March this year to assess how far the EU has come towards meeting the Lisbon targets, five years on from their inception. His conclusion was simple: too many of the targets will be seriously missed. Lisbon risks becoming a ""synonym for missed objectives and failed promises"", his report said. ""The status quo is not an option."" At risk in the medium to long run is nothing less than the sustainability of the society Europe has built, it said. The report comes at a time when Europe's competitive position is waning. The EU's economic growth rate is projected to be 2% this year and 2.4% next. While there has been growth in overall employment rates in Europe, productivity lags behind that of the US. But meeting the Lisbon targets requires a political commitment that no EU member state has volunteered so far. That has in part been due to the state of the global economy in the past few years. As Mr Kok's report noted: ""The ink had scarcely dried on the [Lisbon] agreement before the worldwide stock market bubble imploded."" ""The US suffered two years of economic slowdown and recession and the European economy followed suit."" The circumstances weren't conducive to creating the 20 million new jobs promised by EU leaders in Lisbon in 2000. Neither were they conducive to getting governments to spend more on research and development, money needed if the EU was to meet its target of becoming a so-called ""knowledge-based economy"". ""The [Lisbon] vision is a compelling one, but in order to do it society has to change,"" said Paul Hofheinz of the Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based citizen action group. ""What you find is that a lot of people have been fighting change. You find trade unions fighting change. But also the employers' associations. ""Even though they tell you they're in favour of change, many are actually pushing for less competition, more subsidy and less free market activity."" But part of the problem was also linked to the original targets set out in Lisbon five years ago. Targets have a habit of coming back to haunt you and in the Lisbon case, they covered too much, according to the Wim report. Economic growth and job creation were linked to issues ranging from environmental protection to social inclusion, and even safety at sea. The agenda was just too broad and as a result nothing was prioritised. ""Lisbon is about everything and thus about nothing,"" the Kok report said. ""Everybody is responsible and thus no one."" That's why the Kok report recommends that the Lisbon targets be narrowed down to 14 key indicators, with an emphasis on creating jobs and economic growth. It also recommends that the European Commission draw up a league table which ranks countries according to the steps they're taking towards meeting the targets, effectively ""naming, shaming and faming"". ""Rhetoric and delivery don't necessarily go hand in hand,"" Mr Kok said in a press conference alongside the publication of his report. ""We don't have the luxury anymore just to exchange politeness with one another."" On one point Mr Kok was very clear: The European Union should not try to emulate the US economy. The European economic and social model needs to change, but not so much so that social and environmental issues take a backseat to economic growth. In that sense, the Lisbon agenda is sailing into unchartered waters. The Kok report tries to do away with a belief that jobs need to be sacrificed at the altar of economic growth. ""It's very ambitious,"" said John Palmer, political director at the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think-tank. ""This is something that no advanced economy in the world has tried to do. It's going to require quite new and innovative policies."" But some analysts believe that the Kok report doesn't come up with the sort of innovative policies and thinking needed to make the Lisbon targets a reality. For example, it recommends putting in place policies which encourage women and older people to remain in the workforce. But it doesn't say how companies should be convinced to do this. It will be up to the incoming president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, to adopt Mr Kok's recommendations and press them on EU governments. Mr Barroso has said that the EU's competitiveness will be his top priority. He expects his five-year term in office to be judged on Europe's success in meeting the Lisbon agenda." -business,"German bidder in talks with LSE Deutsche Boerse bosses have held ""constructive, professional and friendly"" talks with the London Stock Exchange (LSE), its chief has said. Werner Seifert met LSE chief executive Clara Furse amid rumours the German group may raise its bid to £1.5bn ($2.9bn) from its initial £1.3bn offer. However, rival suitor Euronext also upped the ante in the bid battle. Ahead of talks with the LSE on Friday, the pan-European bourse said it may be prepared to make its offer in cash. The Paris-based exchange, owner of Liffe in London, is reported to be ready to raise £1.4bn to fund a bid. The news came as Deutsche Boerse held its third meeting with the LSE since its bid approach in December which was turned down by the London exchange for undervaluing the business. However, the LSE did agree to leave the door open for talks to find out whether a ""significantly-improved proposal"" would be in the interests of LSE's shareholders and customers. In the meantime, Euronext, which combines the Paris, Amsterdam and Lisbon stock exchanges, also began talks with the LSE. In a statement on Thursday, Euronext said any offer was likely to be solely in cash, but added that: ""There can be no assurances at this stage that any offer will be made."" A deal with either bidder would create the biggest stock market operator in Europe and the second biggest in the world after the New York Stock Exchange. However, neither side has made a formal offer for the LSE, with sources claiming such a step may still be weeks away. Deutsche Boerse could also face mounting opposition to a bid at home. Among sweeteners reported to have been discussed by Mr Seifert with Ms Furse were plans to move the management of its cash and Eurex derivatives market to London, as well as two members of its executive board. But, Hans Reckers, a board member of Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, said that cash trading should also remain in Frankfurt, something Deutsche Boerse could move to the UK. ""It is not just the headquarters of the Boerse but also important market segments that must stay permanently in Frankfurt. This has special importance for the business activities of the banks and the consultants,"" he said. Local government officials in Frankfurt's state of Hessen have also spoken out against the move. ""It is our wish that the headquarters stay here to maintain Frankfurt's standing as the number one financial centre in continental Europe,"" Alois Rhiel, its minister for economic affairs added." -business,"Train strike grips Buenos Aires A strike on the Buenos Aires underground has caused traffic chaos and large queues at bus stops in the Argentine capital. Tube workers walked out last week demanding a 53% pay rise and in protest against the installation of automatic ticket machines. Metrovias, the private firm which runs the five tube lines in the city, has offered an 8% increase in wages. The firm promised no jobs would be lost as a result of new ticket machines. It said it would put this commitment on paper. Underground staff have warned they will continue with the protests until the management put an acceptable offer on the table. The Argentine Work Ministry has been mediating in the conflict and it could call an ""obligatory conciliation"", which would force both sides to find a solution and put an end to the conflict. Some tube commuters have not hidden their frustration at the ongoing strike and have broken the windows of the underground trains, according to the local press. ""We are taken as hostages. I don't know who is right, but the harm ones are us,"" said accountant Jose Lopez." -business,"WMC says Xstrata bid is too low Australian mining firm WMC Resources has said it is worth up to 30% more than a hostile 7.4bn Australian dollar ($5.8bn; £3bn) bid by rival Xstrata. There is now pressure on Swiss-based Xstrata to increase its takeover offer. A report from investment firm Grant Samuel in WMC defence documents values WMC shares at A$7.17 to A$8.24, against Xstrata's bid of A$6.35 a share. Analysts said the defence documents provided more details on WMC, and may trigger a possible rival bid. ""If a bid is going to emerge it is probably likely in the next one to two weeks,"" said Daiwa Securities analyst Mark Pervan. He said the valuation would put increased pressure on Xstrata to look at ""sweetening"" its offer. Marc Gonsalves, an executive at Xstrata, said: ""We will review the information contained in the target's statement over the next week or so."" He added: ""While we will review the assumptions made by Grant Samuel in detail, we are extremely sceptical of their conclusion, and suggest that WMC shareholders take extreme care in presuming that these optimistic assumptions are capable of being realised."" Last month Australia's competition watchdog said it would not oppose the purchase of WMC by Zurich and London-based Xstrata. On Tuesday, WMC chairman Tommie Bergman said in a statement the directors believed it was in shareholders' best interest to reject the offer. He said WMC would pursue ""value-creating options"" provided by a portfolio of ""world class assets"". And WMC chief executive Andrew Michelmore claimed the Xstrata offer was aimed at creating value for Xstrata's shareholders, and was not being made for the benefit of WMC's shareholders. Grant Samuel said its valuation of WMC was based on lower average prices for nickel, copper and uranium than current market levels. ""Any longer term commodity price improvements would only improve our outlook,"" Mr Michelmore said. In 2003 Xstrata acquired Australia's largest copper miner - MIM Holdings. WMC Resources is the world's third-largest producer of concentrated nickel, and also a miner of copper and uranium. It owns the Olympic Dam mine in South Australia, which contains about one-third of the world's known uranium resources and is also the world's fourth largest copper mine. Xstrata is a global mining giant with operations in Australia, South Africa, Spain, Germany, Argentina and the UK. Its core products are copper, coking coal, thermal coal, ferrochrome, vanadium and zinc. It also has growing businesses in gold, lead and silver." -business,"Karachi stocks hit historic high The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) has recorded its largest single day gain, surging 3.5% to a new high. The index rose 225.79 points in four hours of furious trading, with many investors optimistic that political stability could bring an economic boom. The KSE index closed at 6709.93 - an overall gain of nearly 400 points in the first two trading days of the week. Energy and telecommunication stocks performed particularly well, recording an 8%-10% rise since Monday morning. In 2002, the KSE was the world's best performing stock market, with the index rising 112%. Pakistani investors are expecting the KSE to repeat, if not improve on, its 2002 performance. Jubilant investors danced on the streets as the market closed for the day on Tuesday, confident that the boom will continue at least until the public holiday on 22 January. Others, however, who had stayed out fearing an imminent collapse because of prices overheating, continued to warn that the ""bubble may burst any time"". ""That's rubbish,"" KSE chairman Yaseen Lakhani told the BBC News website. ""Whenever the market reflects Pakistan's true economic reality, it is described as a bubble."" Mr Lakhani feels that the market has risen on the basis of solid economic growth and its current level rests on sound foundations. Market analysts are inclined to agree with Mr Lakhani, arguing that there are a number of major factors behind the KSE's performance. Analysts argue that a steady improvement in Pakistan's credit ratings by international credit rating agencies has finally begun to register in the market. Standard & Poor's upgraded Pakistan a few weeks ago. There are indications of yet another upgrade by the end of February. Then, say analysts, there is corporate profitability in the current fiscal year, which has gone up by 27% from last year. ""Coupled with the 7% GDP growth expected by June this year, I am least surprised at the market's performance,"" says Mr Lakhani. One leading Karachi broker said the real reasons may be political. ""If you file a $1.3 trillion case against Saudi money after 9/11, Arab money will not go to the US any more."" A lot of Arab money, he says, has already gone to Malaysia and Indonesia. Pakistanis are now hoping that energy and telecoms, two of the strongest sectors in Pakistan, draw some of the Arab money to the KSE. Locally, too, say analysts, recent political developments have worked to the market's advantage. An anti-Musharraf campaign threatened by the MMA, a countrywide alliance of religious parties, has fizzled out. The release of Asif Zardari, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's husband, has eased political tensions between the military-backed government and the opposition Pakistan People's Party. Most importantly, say analysts, the failure of talks between India and Pakistan on the Baglihar dam in Indian-administered Kashmir has not automatically led to heightened tensions. This, they say, indicates that neither country is interested in raising the temperature at this stage, irrespective of the state of their disagreements. The market is abuzz with speculation that substantial investment may now start to flow in from the US, a country seen locally as deeply interested in defusing tensions between the South Asian neighbours. ""You can call it a peace dividend,"" smiles one broker. ""Let us see how long one can reap its benefits.""" -business,"Yukos drops banks from court bid Russian oil company Yukos has dropped the threat of legal action against five banks it had accused of involvement in the sale of its key Yugansk unit. State-owned Rosneft bought the unit for $9.3bn (£5bn) after Yukos was forced to sell assets to meet a $27.5bn tax bill. Yukos says the sale was illegal and is pursuing damages in a US court. Its lawyers now accept ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Calyon, JP Morgan Chase Bank, and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein were not involved in the sale financing. However, Yukos still has an outstanding complaint against Deutsche Bank, which it alleges to be the leader of a consortium that was behind a bid for Yugansk by state gas monopoly Gazprom. The company has also accused Gazprom, the Russian Federation and two other Russian firms. Gazprom had been expected to win the December auction, but ended up not bidding. Yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company, which in turn was bought by Rosneft. Yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The firm, whose finance chief is now based in the US, filed for bankruptcy in Houston, Texas, and sought a court injunction against the sale. But Deutsche Bank has suggested Yukos artificially manufactured a legal case to stop the sale of its main asset. A hearing scheduled for February 16 and 17 will rule on whether the US court has jurisdiction in the case." -business,"Durex maker SSL awaits firm bid UK condom maker SSL International has refused to comment on reports it may be subject to a takeover early in 2005. A Financial Times report said business intelligence firm GPW was understood to be starting due diligence work on SSL International, for a corporate client. An spokesman for SSL, which makes the famous Durex brand of condom, would not to comment on ""market speculation"". However the news sent shares in SSL, which also makes Scholl footwear, up more than 6%, or 16.75 pence to 293.5p. The FT said most the high-profile firm that might woo SSL was Anglo-Dutch household products group Reckitt Benckiser. Eighteen months ago Reckitt Benckiser was at the centre of a rumoured takeover bid for SSL - but that came to nothing. Other firms that have been seen as would-be suitors include Kimberly-Clark, Johnson & Johnson, and private equity investors. Analysts have seen SSL as a takeover target for years. It sold off its surgical gloves and antiseptics businesses for £173m to a management team in May. SSL was formed by a three-way merger between Seton Healthcare, footwear specialists Scholl and condom-maker London International Group. Its other brands include Syndol analgesic, Meltus cough medicine, Sauber compression hosiery and deodorant products, and Mister Baby." -business,"Parmalat sues 45 banks over crash Parmalat has sued 45 banks as it tries to reclaim money paid to banks before the scandal-hit Italian dairy company went bust last year. The firm collapsed with debts of about 14bn euros ($19bn; £10bn) and new boss Enrico Bondi has already taken legal action against a number of lenders. He claims the banks were aware of the problems but continued to work with the company so they could earn commissions. Parmalat has not identified which banks it has gone after this time. Under Italian law, administrators can seek to get back money paid to financial institutions prior to insolvency, if there is a suspicion that the institutions knew that the company was in financial trouble. The firm also said it is preparing further law suits. According to the Reuters news agency, 35 of the companies sued on Thursday are Italian while the remaining 10 are international. The unidentified Parmalat source also told Reuters that the company was planning to take action against a total of 80 financial institutions. Among those already targeted are Bank of America, UBS, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. It has also gone after auditors Grant Thornton. They have all denied any wrongdoing. Parmalat was declared insolvent in December 2003 after it emerged that 4bn euros thought to be held in an offshore account did not in fact exist. In the investigation that followed it became apparent that the company, among other things, had been billing clients twice in order to boost sales and bolster the balance sheet. That enabled Parmalat to borrow heavily and expand overseas, allowing it to become a darling of the Italian stock exchange." -business,"Umbro profits lifted by Euro 2004 UK sportswear firm Umbro has posted a 222% rise in annual profit after sales of replica England football kits were boosted by the Euro 2004 tournament. Pre-tax profit for 2004 was £15.4m ($29.4m). Umbro, which recently lost sponsorship deals with Chelsea and Celtic, said on Thursday it had signed a new four-year agreement with Scottish club Rangers. It hopes 2005 sales will benefit from the launch of a new England replica shirt ahead of the 2006 World Cup. In January, Umbro announced its sponsorship agreement with Chelsea, which gave Umbro the lucrative right to make replica shirts, would end in 2006, five years earlier than expected. The firm, which is to receive a payment from Chelsea of £24.5m, said it is ""appraising a number of additional investment opportunities as a result of this compensation"" . Chief executive Peter McGuigan said the firm plans to grow sales both in the UK and internationally. The firm, reporting its first annual results since listing on the London Stock Exchange in June, said the UK market had seen sales growth of 8% last year. It said the launch of its Evolution X fashion range had boosted sales. Umbro supplies more than 150 teams across the world including the national sides of Ireland, Sweden and Norway. Shares in Umbro were up 1.76% at 115.5 pence in morning trade." -business,"Disaster claims 'less than $10bn' Insurers have sought to calm fears that they face huge losses after an earthquake and giant waves killed at least 38,000 people in southern Asia. Munich Re and Swiss Re, the world's two biggest reinsurers, have said exposure will be less than for other disasters. Rebuilding costs are likely to be cheaper than in developed countries, and many of those affected will not have insurance, analysts said. Swiss Re has said total claims are likely to be less than $10bn (£5.17bn). Swiss Re believes that the cost would be substantial but that it is unlikely to be in double-digit billions, the Financial Times reported. Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurance company, said that its exposure is less than 100m euros (£70m; $136m). At least 10 countries have been affected, with Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and Thailand among the worst hit. The region's resorts and Western tourists are expected to be among the main claimants. Lloyds of London told the Financial Times it expected its exposure to be limited to ""holiday resorts, personal accident, travel insurance and marine risks"". A spokeswoman for Hanover Re, Europe's fifth-largest reinsurance firm, estimated tsunami-related damage claims would be in the low double-digit millions of euros. The company has paid out about 300 million euros (£281m; $400m) to cover damage caused recently by four major hurricanes in the US. But insurers have not had long to assess the economic impact of the damage and reports of more casualties and destruction are still coming through. ""So many things are unclear, it is just too early to tell,"" said Serge Troeber, deputy head of Swiss Re's natural disasters department. ""You need very complicated processes to estimate damages. Unlike the hurricanes, you can't just run a model."" He anticipated that his own company's total claims would be less then those from the hurricanes, which the company put at $640m. Allianz, a leading German insurer, said it did not know yet what its exposure would be. However, it said the tidal waves were unlikely to have a ""significant"" impact on its business. Zurich Financial said they could not yet assess the cost of the disaster. The impact on US insurance companies is not expected to be heavy, analysts said. Most US insurers have relatively little exposure to Asia and those that do, pass on a lot of the risk to reinsurance companies or special catastrophe funds. Insured damage could be a fraction of the ""billions of dollars worth of destruction in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldive Islands and Malaysia,"" said Prudential Equity Group insurance analyst Jay Gelb. ""US insurers are likely to have only minimal to no exposure. It's more likely the Bermuda-based reinsurance [companies] might have some exposure,"" said Paul Newsome, an insurance analyst at AG Edwards & Co. Many of the affected countries, such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka or the Maldives, do not usually buy insurance for these kinds of disasters, said a US-based insurance expert. Early estimates from the World Bank put the amount of aid needed for the worst affected countries including Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Thailand, at about $5bn (£2.6bn), similar to the cash offered to Central America after Hurricane Mitch. Mitch killed about 10,000 people and caused damage of about $10bn in 1998. But the cost of the tsunamis on the individuals involved is incalculable. ""We cannot fathom the cost of these poor societies and the nameless fishermen and fishing villages ... that have just been wiped out. Hundreds of thousands of livelihoods have gone,"" said Jan Egeland, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Tourists cutting short their holidays in affected areas may suffer a financial impact too. The Association of British insurers warned that travel insurance does not normally cover cutting short a holiday. It said loss of possessions will usually be covered, but the Association stressed the importance of checking the wording of travel policies." -business,"S Korea spending boost to economy South Korea will boost state spending next year in an effort to create jobs and kick start its sputtering economy. It has earmarked 100 trillion won ($96bn) for the first six months of 2005, 60% of its total annual budget. The government's main problems are ""slumping consumption and a contraction in the construction industry"". It aims to create 400,000 jobs and will focus on infrastructure and home building, as well as providing public firms with money to hire new workers. The government has set an economic growth rate target of 5% for next year and hinted that would be in danger unless it took action. ""Internal and external economic conditions are likely to remain unfavourable in 2005,"" the Finance and Economy Ministry said in a statement. It blamed ""continuing uncertainties such as fluctuating oil prices and foreign exchange rates and stagnant domestic demand that has shown few signs of a quick rebound"". In 2004, growth will be between 4.7% and 4.8%, the ministry said. Not everyone is convinced the plan will work. ""Our primary worry centres on the what we believe is the government's overly optimistic view that its front loading of the budget will be enough to turn the economy around,"" consultancy 4Cast said in a report. The problem facing South Korea is that many consumers are reeling from the effects of a credit bubble that only recently burst. Millions of South Koreans are defaulting on their credit card bills, and the country's biggest card lender has been hovering on the verge of bankruptcy for months. As part of its spending plans, the government said it will ask firms to ""roll over mortgage loans that come due in the first half of 2005"" . It also pledged to look at ways of helping families on low incomes. The government voiced concern about the effect of redundancies in the building trade. ""Given the economic spill over and employment effect in the construction sector, a sharp downturn in the construction industry could have other adverse effects,"" the ministry said. As a result, South Korea will give private companies also will be given the chance to build schools, hospitals, houses and other public buildings. It also will look at real estate tax system. Other plans on the table include promoting new industries such as bio-technology and nano-technology, as well as offering increased support to small and medium sized businesses. ""The focus will be on job creation and economic recovery, given that unfavourable domestic and global conditions are likely to dog the Korean economy in 2005,"" the ministry said." -business,"Jobs go at Oracle after takeover Oracle has announced it is cutting about 5,000 jobs following the completion of its $10.3bn takeover of its smaller rival Peoplesoft last week. The company said it would retain more than 90% of Peoplesoft product development and product support staff. The cuts will affect about 9% of the 55,000 staff of the combined companies. Oracle's 18-month fight to acquire Peoplesoft was one of the most drawn-out and hard-fought US takeover battles of recent times. The merged companies are set to be a major force in the enterprise software market, second only in size to Germany's SAP. In a statement, Oracle said it began notifying staff of redundancies on Friday and the process would continue over the next 10 days. ""By retaining the vast majority of Peoplesoft technical staff, Oracle will have the resources to deliver on the development and support commitments we have made to Peoplesoft customers over the last 18 months,"" Oracle's chief executive Larry Ellison said in a statement. Correspondents say 6,000 job losses had been expected - and some suggest more cuts may be announced in future. They say Mr Ellison may be trying to placate Peoplesoft customers riled by Oracle's determined takeover strategy. Hours before Friday's announcement, there was a funereal air at Peoplesoft's headquarters, reported AP news agency. A Peoplesoft sign had been turned into shrine to the company, with flowers, candles and company memorabilia. ""We're mourning the passing of a great company,"" the agency quoted Peoplesoft worker David Ogden as saying. Other employees said they would rather be sacked than work for Oracle. ""The new company is going to be totally different,"" said Anil Aggarwal, Peoplesoft's director of database markets. ""Peoplesoft had an easygoing, relaxed atmosphere. Oracle has an edgy, aggressive atmosphere that's not conducive to innovative production."" On the news, Oracle shares rose 15 cents - 1.1% - on Nasdaq. In after-hours trading the shares did not move." -business,"Safety alert as GM recalls cars The world's biggest carmaker General Motors (GM) is recalling nearly 200,000 vehicles in the US on safety grounds, according to federal regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the largest recall involves 155,465 pickups, vans and sports utility vehicles (SUVs). This is because of possible malfunctions with the braking systems. The affected vehicles in the product recall are from the 2004 and 2005 model years, GM said. Those vehicles with potential faults are the Chevrolet Avalanche, Express, Kodiak, Silverade and Suburban; the GMC Savana, Sierra and Yukon. The NHTSA said a pressure accumulator in the braking system could crack during normal driving and fragments could injure people if the hood was open. This could allow hydraulic fluid to leak, which could make it harder to brake or steer and could cause a crash, it warned. GM is also recalling 19,924 Cadillac XLR coupes, SRX SUVs and Pontiac Grand Prix sedans from the 2004 model year. This is because the accelerator pedal may not work properly in extremely cold temperatures, requiring more braking. In addition, the car giant is calling back 17,815 Buick Raniers, Chevrolet Trailblazers, GMC Envoys and Isuzu Ascenders from the 2005 model years because the windshield is not properly fitted and could fall out in a crash. However, GM stressed that it did not know of any injuries related to the problems. News of the recall follows an announcement last month that GM expects earnings this year be lower than in 2004. The world's biggest car maker is grappling with losses in its European business, weak US sales and now a product recall. In January, GM said higher healthcare costs in North America, and lower profits at its financial services subsidiary would hurt its performance in 2005." -business,"Iranian MPs threaten mobile deal Turkey's biggest private mobile firm could bail out of a $3bn ($1.6bn) deal to build a network in Iran after MPs there slashed its stake in the project. Conservatives in parliament say Turkcell's stake in Irancell, the new network, should be cut from 70% to 49%. They have already given themselves a veto over all foreign investment deals, following allegations about Turkish firms' involvement in Israel. Turkcell now says it may give up on the deal altogether. Iran currently has only one heavily congested mobile network, with long waiting lists for new subscribers. Turkcell signed a contract for the new network in September. The new operator planned to offer subscriptions for about $180, well below the existing firm's $500 price tag. But a parliamentary commission has now ruled that Turkcell's 70% controlling stake is too high. They say that Turkcell is a security risk because of alleged business ties with Israel. Parliament as a whole - dominated by religious conservatives - will vote on the ruling on Tuesday. Turkcell said the ruling would ""make more difficult... Turkcell's financial consolidation of Irancell"" because its stake would be reduced to less than 50%. ""If management control and financial consolidation of Irancell cannot be achieved... the realisation of the project will become risky,"" it warned in a statement. The firm has refused to comment on whether it has business dealings in Israel, although like almost all GSM operators worldwide it has an interconnection deal with Israeli networks so that its customers can use their phones there. The two countries strengthened ties in both defence and economic issues in 2004. Israeli industry minister Ehud Olmert was reported in June to have attended a meeting between Ruhi Dogusoy, Turkcell's chief operating officer, and executives from Israeli telecoms firms. Telecoms is one of two areas specifically targeted by the new veto law on foreign investments, passed earlier in September. The other is airports, a source of controversy after the army closed Tehran's new Imam Khomeini International Airport on its opening day in May 2004. Again, the allegation was that the part-Turkish TAV consortium which built and ran it had links with Israel." -business,"Peugeot deal boosts Mitsubishi Struggling Japanese car maker Mitsubishi Motors has struck a deal to supply French car maker Peugeot with 30,000 sports utility vehicles (SUV). The two firms signed a Memorandum of Understanding, and say they expect to seal a final agreement by Spring 2005. The alliance comes as a badly-needed boost for loss-making Mitsubishi, after several profit warnings and poor sales. The SUVs will be built in Japan using Peugeot's diesel engines and sold mainly in the European market. Falling sales have left Mitsubishi Motors with underused capacity, and the production deal with Peugeot gives it a chance to utilise some of it. In January, Mitsubishi Motors issued its third profits warning in nine months, and cut its sales forecasts for the year to March 2005. Its sales have slid 41% in the past year, catalysed by the revelation that the company had systematically been hiding records of faults and then secretly repairing vehicles. As a result, the Japanese car maker has sought a series of financial bailouts. Last month it said it was looking for a further 540bn yen ($5.2bn; £2.77bn) in fresh financial backing, half of it from other companies in the Mitsubishi group. US-German carmaker DaimlerChrylser, a 30% shareholder in Mitsubishi Motors, decided in April 2004 not to pump in any more money. The deal with Peugeot was celebrated by Mitsubishi's newly-appointed chief executive Takashi Nishioka, who took over after three top bosses stood down last month to shoulder responsibility for the firm's troubles. Mitsubishi Motors has forecast a net loss of 472bn yen in its current financial year to March 2005. Last month, it signed a production agreement with Japanese rival Nissan Motor to supply it with 36,000 small cars for sale in Japan. It has been making cars for Nissan since 2003." -business,"UK economy ends year with spurt The UK economy grew by an estimated 3.1% in 2004 after accelerating in the last quarter of the year, says the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figure is in line with Treasury and Bank of England forecasts. The ONS says gross domestic product (GDP) rose by a strong 0.7% in the three months to 31 December, compared with 0.5% in the previous quarter. The rise came despite a further decline in production output and the worst Christmas for retailers in decades. The annual figure marked out the best year since 2000, and was also well ahead of the 2.2% recorded in 2003. Growth in the final three months of 2004 marked the 50th consecutive quarter of expansion. ""On the basis of the latest information the UK has entered 2005 on course to continue its record period of growth,"" said Paul Boateng, chief secretary to the Treasury in a statement. The ONS said the services sector, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of the UK economy, grew 1.0% in the quarter. The strong services figure was welcomed by analysts, given lacklustre retail sales in December and across the Christmas holiday period. ""The fact that other services components are doing so well suggests to me that we are back to trend (growth) and I am not particularly concerned about any further slowdown,"" said Ross Walker, UK economist at RBS Financial Markets. However, output in the production sector contracted 0.5%, the second quarterly fall in row and a state of affairs that some economists classify as a recession. However the ONS would not comment on the definition of a recession and whether the manufacturing recovery was over. But Steve Radley, chief economist at the manufacturers' organisation EEF, said: ""These figures remain at odds with what is actually happening on the ground. ""Whilst companies may be experiencing tougher conditions this year, 'recession' is not a word that manufacturers would currently recognise."" The ONS said a sharp fall in mining and quarrying, which was driven by oil and gas extraction, was primarily responsible for the overall contraction in manufacturing production figures. Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at Gerrard, said: ""This outturn (of 0.7%) was well ahead of the market expectations and cast doubt on the scare stories doing the rounds surrounding the current state of the UK economy."" And he said the GDP figures may help to ""push interest rate expectations a little higher along the curve"". ""The suggestion from the money markets is that the next move is now more likely to be in an upward rather than a downward direction. This is consistent with our own thinking,"" said Mr Rubinsohn. The Bank of England's nine-strong rate-setting committee voted unanimously earlier this month to keep interest rates steady at 4.75%, minutes of the meeting showed on Wednesday." -business,"Bad weather hits Nestle sales A combination of bad weather, rising raw material costs and the sluggish European economy has hit sales at Swiss food and drink giant Nestle. Revenue dipped 1.4% to 86.7bn Swiss francs ($74.6bn; £39.1bn) in 2004 as sales of ice cream and mineral water were dampened by the wet summer. However, Nestle's profits margins were helped by a strong performance in the Americas and China. Nestle is to raise its dividend by 11% after paying back some of its debt. Nestle said that the strength of the Swiss franc against the US dollar, the disposal of businesses and challenging trading conditions in Europe all dented sales. A poor summer across the continent - in contrast to the prolonged heat wave in 2003 - ""severely affected"" demand for ice cream. Sales of bottled water also fell, although chocolate, coffee, frozen goods and petcare products performed better. Elsewhere, Nestle said it had enjoyed an ""exceptional"" year in North America, outperforming the market in terms of sales growth. Nestle added that it had performed strongly in Africa and Asia despite the impact of high oil prices and political instability. Nestle's total earnings before interest remained broadly flat over the past year, despite the company managing to boost profit margins. As well as increasing its dividend, Nestle plans to buy back shares worth 1bn Swiss francs ($861m; £451m). Looking forward, Nestle forecasts organic earnings growth of about 5% in 2005, although it warned that trading would remain just as competitive. Uncertainty remains over the future of Perrier, the iconic French mineral water owned by Nestle. Perrier has been locked in a long-standing dispute with unions about productivity levels at the business, which has lead Nestle to consider selling the firm. ""The option of selling is Perrier is still on the table,"" chief executive Peter Brabeck-Letmathe confirmed on Thursday." -business,"Card fraudsters 'targeting web' New safeguards on credit and debit card payments in shops has led fraudsters to focus on internet and phone payments, an anti-fraud agency has said. Anti-fraud consultancy Retail Decisions says 'card-not-present' fraud, where goods are paid for online or by phone, has risen since the start of 2005. The introduction of 'chip and pin' cards has tightened security for transactions on the High Street. But the clampdown has caused fraudsters to change tack, Retail Decisions said. The introduction of chip and pin cards aimed to cut down on credit card fraud in stores by asking shoppers to verify their identity with a confidential personal pin number, instead of a signature. Retail Decisions chief executive Carl Clump told the BBC that there was ""no doubt"" that chip and pin would ""reduce card fraud in the card-present environment"". ""However, it is important to monitor what happens in the card-not-present environment as fraudsters will turn their attention to the internet, mail order, telephone order and interactive TV,"" he said. ""We have seen a 22% uplift in card-not-present fraud here in the UK... since the start of the year. ""Fraud doesn't just disappear, it mutates to the next weakest link in the chain,"" he said. Retail Decisions' survey on the implementation of chip and pin found that shoppers had adapted easily to the new system, but that banks' performance in distributing the new cards had been patchy, at best. ""The main issue is that not everyone has the pins they need,"" said Mr Clump. Nearly two thirds - 65% - of the 1,000 people interviewed said they had used chip and pin to make payments. Of these, 83% were happy with the experience, though nearly a quarter said they struggled to remember their pin number. However, only 34% said they had received replacement cards with the necessary 'chip' technology from all their card providers. Furthermore, 16% said that none of their cards had been replaced, while 30% said only some had. UK shoppers spent £5.3bn on plastic cards in 2003, the last full year for which figures are available from the Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs). Altogether, card scams on UK-issued cards totalled £402.4m in 2003. Card-not-present fraud rose an annual 6% to £116.4m, making it the biggest category even then. Within this, internet fraud totalled £43m, Apacs' figures show." -business,"Nortel in $300m profit revision Telecoms equipment maker Nortel Networks has sharply revised downwards its profits for the 2003 fiscal year. In a long-awaited filing, Nortel said it had made $434m (£231m), compared to the previously reported $732m. But the figures - revised after an audit which led to the sacking of the Canadian firm's chief - showed revenue was about 4% higher than first thought. Nortel shares, which have lost nearly 50% of their value since last year, climbed 1.46% in Toronto on Tuesday. Nortel's head Frank Dunn and two other executives were fired in January last year after the company announced it had conducted the internal audit. Securities and police authorities in both the US and Canada are still conducting inquiries into the accounts. Nortel also issued new figures for the 2001-2002 period, which they had previously indicated had understated losses. ""With the completion of our restatements we have a solid foundation on which to move forward with our business,"" said Nortel president and chief executive Bill Owens. ""The restatement has been a monumental task, both complex and demanding."" The company also said 12 senior executives - none of whom were involved directly in the accounting of the revised figures - have voluntarily agreed to repay to bonuses awarded in 2003 totalling $8.6m. Nortel added: ""these members of the core executive team share the board's deep disappointment over the circumstances that led to the restatement.""" -business,"Record year for Chilean copper Chile's copper industry has registered record earnings of $14.2bn in 2004, the governmental Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco) has reported. Strong demand from China's fast-growing economy and high prices have fuelled production, said Cochilco vice president Patricio Cartagena. He added that the boom has allowed the government to collect $950m in taxes. Mr Cartagena said the industry expects to see investment worth $10bn over the next three years. ""With these investments, clearly we are going to continue being the principle actor in the mining of copper. It's a consolidation of the industry with new projects and expansions that will support greater production."" Australia's BHP Billiton - which operates La Escondida, the world's largest open pit copper mine - is planning to invest $1.9bn between now and 2007, while state-owned Codelco will spend about $1bn on various projects. Chile, the biggest copper producer in the world, is now analyzing ways of to keep prices stable at their current high levels, without killing off demand or leading customers to look for substitutes for copper. The copper price reached a 16-year high in October 2004. Production in Chile is expected rise 3.5% in 2005 to 5.5 million tonnes, said Mr Cartagena. Cochilco expects for 2005 a slight reduction on copper prices and forecasts export earnings will fall 10.7%." -business,"Crossrail link 'to get go-ahead' The £10bn Crossrail transport plan, backed by business groups, is to get the go-ahead this month, according to The Mail on Sunday. It says the UK Treasury has allocated £7.5bn ($13.99bn) for the project and that talks with business groups on raising the rest will begin shortly. The much delayed Crossrail Link Bill would provide for a fast cross-London rail link. The paper says it will go before the House of Commons on 23 February. A second reading could follow on 16 or 17 March. ""We've always said we are going to introduce a hybrid Bill for Crossrail in the Spring and this remains the case,"" the Department for Transport said on Sunday. Jeremy de Souza, a spokesman for Crossrail, said on Sunday he could not confirm whether the Treasury was planning to invest £7.5bn or when the bill would go before Parliament. However, he said some impetus may have been provided by the proximity of an election. The new line would go out as far as Maidenhead, Berkshire, to the west of London, and link Heathrow to Canary Wharf via the City. Heathrow to the City would take 40 minutes, dramatically cutting journey times for business travellers, and reducing overcrowding on the tube. The line has the support of the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, business groups and the government, but there have been three years of arguments over how it should be funded. The Mail on Sunday's Financial Mail said the £7.5bn of Treasury money was earmarked for spending in £2.5bn instalments in 2010, 2011 and 2012." -business,"Venezuela identifies 'idle' farms Venezuelan authorities have identified more than 500 farms, including 56 large estates, as idle as it continues with its controversial land reform policy. Under a 2001 land law, the government can tax or seize unused farm sites. A further 40,000 farms are yet to be inspected, the state's National Land Institute has told Associated Press. Vice president Jose Vicente Rangel has said farmers and ranchers with their titles in order and their lands productive have ""nothing to fear."" Critics of the land reform policy claim president Hugo Chavez is trying to enforce a communist-style economic programme that ignores property rights and will damage the country. Land owners claim the National Land Institute has made mistakes in classifying lands as public or private. But the government - Venezuela's largest land owner - say they are proceeding cautiously to prevent conflicts. In a statement, Mr Rangel said the land reform is not against the constitution, which permits private property, while stressing the efforts are to ""vindicate social and economically"" years of inequality in the country. One property in conflict with the government is the El Charcote cattle ranch, run by Agroflora, a subsidiary of the UK food group Vestey. Agriculture minister Arnoldo Marquez told Reuters news agency the site's documents ""do not guarantee that this is a private land"". Administrators of the ranch, however, have complained that pro-Chavez squatters have taken over 80% of the property in the last four years, and the UK government has asked Venezuelan authorities to resolve the conflict. ""You should ask the company when they are going to put their papers in order and hand over the land that is not theirs,"" said Mr Marquez." -business,"Ex-Boeing director gets jail term An ex-chief financial officer at Boeing has received a four-month jail sentence and a fine of $250,000 (£131,961) for illegally hiring a top Air Force aide. Michael Sears admitted his guilt in breaking conflict of interest laws by recruiting Darleen Druyun while she still handled military contracts. Ms Druyun is currently serving a nine month sentence for favouring Boeing when awarding lucrative contracts. Boeing lost a $23bn government contract after a Pentagon inquiry into the case. The contract, to provide refuelling tankers for the US Air Force, was cancelled last year. The Pentagon revealed earlier this week that it would examine eight other contracts worth $3bn which it believes may have been tainted by Ms Druyun's role in the procurement process. Boeing sacked Mr Sears and Ms Druyun in November 2003 after allegations that they had violated company recruitment policy. Ms Druyun had talks with Mr Sears in October 2002 about working for Boeing, while she was still a top procurement official within the Pentagon. She subsequently joined the company in January 2003. Ms Druyun admitted that she had steered multi-billion dollar contracts to Boeing and other favoured companies. In documents filed in a Virginia court ahead of Mr Sears' sentencing, prosecutors blamed Boeing's senior management for failing to ask key questions about the ""legal and ethical issues"" surrounding Ms Druyun's appointment. Mr Sears told prosecutors that no other Boeing officials were aware that Ms Druyun was still responsible for major procurement decisions at the time she was discussing a job with Boeing. However, analysts believe Boeing may yet face civil charges arising from the scandal. The Pentagon has investigated 400 contracts, dating back to 1993, since the allegations against Ms Druyun came to light. Boeing's corporate ethics have come under scrutiny on several occasions in recent years. Boeing was sued by Lockheed Martin after its rival accused it of industrial espionage during a 1998 contract competition. Boeing apologised publicly for the affair - although it claimed it did not gain any unfair advantage - and pledged to improve its procedures. The Pentagon subsequently revoked $1bn worth of contracts assigned to Boeing and prohibited the Seattle-based company from future rocket work." -business,"Survey confirms property slowdown Government figures have confirmed a widely reported slowdown of the UK's housing market in late 2004. House prices were 11.8% higher on the year in the last quarter of 2004, down from 16.3% in the July-to-September quarter, the Land Registry said. The average house price in England and Wales was £182,920, down from £187,971 in July-September. The volume of sales between October and December dropped by nearly a quarter from the same period in 2003. The government figures are the first official confirmation of falls in the market at the end of 2004. Land Registry figures are less up to date than those of banks and building societies, since they record completions not mortgage approvals. However, the figures are viewed as the most accurate measure of house prices as they include all property transactions, including cash sales. The cost of buying a home fell in seven out of 10 regions between the third and fourth quarters of 2004. The biggest annual gains were made in Wales, where house prices were up by 23% in the fourth quarter. House prices rose the slowest in Greater London, being up by 6%. In the capital, the volume of sales fell by 23% from 36,185 in 2003 to 28,041 for the same period in 2004. There was also a decline in the number of million-pound properties sold in the capital, with 436 properties over £1m sold compared to 469 for the same period in 2003. Although the figures point to a slowdown in the market, the most recent surveys from Nationwide and Halifax have indicated the market may be undergoing a revival. After registering falls at the back end of 2004, Halifax said house prices rose by 0.8% in January and Nationwide reported a rise of 0.4% in the first month of the year. Members of the Bank of England's rate-setting committee will make their latest decision on interest rates on Thursday." -business,"Standard Life concern at LSE bid Standard Life is the latest shareholder in Deutsche Boerse to express concern at the German stock market operator's plans to buy the London Stock Exchange. It said Deutsche Boerse had to show why its planned £1.35bn ($2.5bn) offer for the LSE was good for shareholder value. Reports say Standard Life, which owns a 1% stake in Deutsche Boerse, may seek a shareholder vote on the issue. Fellow shareholders US-based hedge fund Atticus Capital and UK-based TCI Fund Management have also expressed doubts. Deutsche Boerse's supervisory board has approved the possible takeover of the LSE despite the signs of opposition from investors. ""The onus is on Deutsche Boerse's management to demonstrate why the purchase of the LSE creates more value for shareholders than other strategies, such as a buyback,"" said Richard Moffat, investment director of UK Equities at Standard Life Investments. Atticus Capital, holding 2% of Deutsche Boerse, wants it to buy back its own shares rather than buy the LSE. And TCI which holds about 5%, has made a request for an extraordinary shareholders meeting to be held to vote on replacing the company's entire supervisory board. It has also demanded that shareholders be consulted about the proposed acquisition, and whether the operator of the Frankfurt stock exchange should return $500m (£266m) to shareholders instead. In December, Deutsche Boerse, which also owns the derivatives market Eurex and the clearing firm Clearstream, put an informal offer of 530 pence per LSE share on the table. However, the LSE said the cash offer ""undervalued"" both its own business and the benefits of such a tie-up. Since then an improved offer from Deutsche Boerse has been anticipated as its management has continued talks with LSE chief executive Clara Furse. But the London exchange is also holding talks with Deutsche Boerse's rival Euronext, which operates the Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris exchanges, as well as London-based international derivatives market Liffe." -business,"Deutsche Telekom sees mobile gain German telecoms firm Deutsche Telekom saw strong fourth quarter profits on the back of upbeat US mobile earnings and better-than-expected asset sales. Net profit came in at 1.4bn euros (£960m; $1.85bn), a dramatic change from the loss of 364m euros in 2003. Sales rose 2.8% to 14.96bn euros. Sales of stakes in firms including Russia's OAO Mobile Telesystems raised 1.17bn euros. This was more than expected and helped to bring debt down to 35.8bn euros. A year ago, debt was more than 11bn euros higher. T-Mobile USA, the company's American mobile business, made a strong contribution to profits. ""It's a seminal achievement that they cut debt so low. That gives them some head room to invest in growth now,"" said Hannes Wittig, telecoms analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. The company also said it would resume paying a dividend, after two years in which it focused on cutting debt." -business,"India's Deccan gets more planes Air Deccan has signed a deal to acquire 36 planes from Avions de Transport Regional (ATR). The value of the deal has not been revealed, because of a confidentiality clause in the agreement. But Air Deccan's managing director Gorur Gopinath has said the price agreed was less than the catalogue price of $17.6m (£9.49m) per plane. Recently, India's first low-cost airline ordered 30 Airbus A320 planes for $1.8bn. Under the agreement, Air Deccan will buy 15 new ATR 72-500 and lease another 15. ATR will also provide six second hand airplanes. In a statement, ATR has said deliveries of the aircraft will begin in 2005 and will continue over a five-year period. Mr Gopinath said the planes will connect regional Indian cities. ""After an evaluation of both ATR and Bombardier aircraft, we have chosen the ATR aircraft as we find it most suitable for our operations and for the Indian market for short haul routes."" Filippo Bagnato, ATR's chief executive, has said that his firm will also work with Air Deccan to create a training centre in Bangalore. The potential of the Indian budget market has attracted attention from businesses at home and abroad. Air Deccan has said it will base its business model on European firms such as Ireland's Ryanair. Beer magnate Vijay Mallya recently set up Kingfisher Airlines, while UK entrepreneur Richard Branson has said he is keen to start a local operation. India's government has given its backing to cheaper and more accessible air travel." -business,"French boss to leave EADS The French co-head of European defence and aerospace group EADS Philippe Camus is to leave his post. Mr Camus said in a statement that he has accepted the invitation to return full-time to the Lagardere group, which owns 30% of EADS. ""I will give up my role as soon as the board of directors asks me to do so,"" he said. Airbus head Noel Forgeard is now set to replace Mr Camus, bringing the company's power struggle to an end. Fighting between Mr Camus and Mr Forgeard has hit the headlines in France and analysts feared that this fighting could destabilise the defence and aerospace group. French finance minister Herve Gaymard is on record as saying that he ""deplored"" the infighting at the company. The company should now be able put this dispute behind it, with the departure of Mr Camus and with the clear support given to Mr Forgeard by the Lagardere group, the main French shareholder of EADS. The other main shareholders of EADS are the French government (15%) , who also support Mr Forgeard, and Germany's DaimlerChrysler (30%). Rainer Hertrich, the German co-head of EADS will also step down when his contract expires next year. Mr Camus recently came under pressure as it became clear that the A380 superjumbo was running over budget. EADS - Airbus' majority owner - admitted earlier this week that the project was running 1.45bn euros (£1bn; $1.9bn) over budget. But Mr Forgeard has denied this, telling French media that there is no current overrun in the budget. ""But for the sake of transparency, we told our shareholders last week that if we look at the forecast for total costs of the project up to 2010, there is a risk that we will go over by around 10%, which is about 1bn euros (£686m; $1.32bn),"" he told France's LCI Television. Due to enter service in 2006, the A380 will replace the Boeing 747 jumbo as the world's biggest passenger aircraft." -business,"GE sees 'excellent' world economy US behemoth General Electric has posted an 18% jump in quarterly sales, and in profits, and declared itself ""in great shape"". ""We are benefiting from our growth initiatives and an excellent global economy,"" said GE's chief executive Jeff Immelt. GE is the US' biggest firm based on stock market valuation. GE's net profits were $5.37bn (£2.86bn) for the final three months of 2004, while sales came in at $43.7bn. The group, whose businesses range from jet engines to the NBC television channel, forecast sustained growth at between 10-15% for this year and next. GE's shares rose 1% on the news before ending Friday 0.24% lower. ""The industries GE is in are doing very well. The materials, financial and industrial sectors are all picking up,"" said Steve Roukis, an analyst at fund manager Matrix Asset Advisors, which has shares in GE. GE said orders in the fourth quarter were 15% higher than in the same period of 2003, ""with growth across the board"". ""In the fourth quarter, nine of our 11 businesses delivered at least double-digit earnings growth,"" said Mr Immelt. Full year 2004 gains were less spectacular, but still respectable. Net profit was up 6% at $16.6bn. Last year, GE bought Vivendi Universal, merging it with NBC to form NBC Universal. The success of Universal Studio's film 'Ray', a portrait of jazz musician Ray Charles, has helped boost earnings at the unit." -business,"Israeli economy picking up pace Israel's economy is forecast to grow by 4.2% in 2004 as it continues to emerge from a three-year recession. The main driver of the faster-than-expected expansion has been exports, with tourism seeing a strong rebound, the statistical office said. The economy is benefiting from a quieter period in Palestinian-Israeli violence and a pick-up in global demand for technology products. The outlook is better than it has been for a number of years, analysts said. Many companies have focused on cost cutting and greater efficiency, while the government has been trying to trim public spending and push through reforms. The growth figures come about despite a strike earlier this year by about 400,000 public sector worker which closed banks, hospitals, postal services and transport facilities. Growth did slow in the second half, but only slightly. Exports for the year rose by 14%, while tourist revenues were up by 30%. Imports gained by 13%, signalling that domestic demand has picked up again. In 2003, imports declined by 1.8%. In 2003, the economy expanded by 1.3%" -business,"Turkey-Iran mobile deal 'at risk' Turkey's investment in Iran's mobile industry looks set to be scrapped after its biggest mobile firm saw its investment there slashed by MPs. Iran's parliament voted by a large majority to cut Turkcell's stake in a new mobile network from 70% to 49%. The move, which was justified on national security grounds, follows an earlier vote by MPs to give themselves a veto over foreign investments. Turkcell said the decision ""increases the risks"" attached to the project. Although the company's statement said it would continue to monitor developments, observers said they thought Turkcell was set to pull out of the $3bn deal. ""The possibility of carrying out this project is next to zero,"" said Atinc Ozkan, analyst at Finans Investment in Istanbul. If Turkcell does back out, MTN - the South African firm which lost out in the original tender - may well be back in the running. The company has said it is prepared to accept a minority stake if Iran will award it the mobile deal. Turkcell's mobile deal is the second Turkish investment in Iran to run into trouble. Turkish-Austrian consortium TAV was chosen to build and run Tehran's new Imam Khomeini International Airport - but the army closed it just hours after it opened in May 2004. In both cases, the justification has been national security, amid allegations that the Turkish firms are too close to Israel. The hardline posture taken by parliament, which is dominated by religious conservatives, could yet impact other inward investments." -business,"Wall Street cheers Bush victory The US stock market has closed higher in response to George W Bush's victory in the presidential elections. The benchmark Dow Jones share index closed more than 1% higher at 10,137, while the Nasdaq rose 0.9% to 2,004. Many investors believe that Mr Bush's policies are more business-friendly than those of his Democrat challenger, John Kerry. The higher share prices also reflect relief that a clear winner has emerged from what proved to be a tight poll. Investors had worried that the outcome of the poll would be inconclusive, paving the way for a repeat of the legal wrangling that marred the 2000 election. The Dow lost 5% of its value in the three weeks immediately after that election, when it was unclear who would occupy the White House. Mr Kerry conceded defeat on Wednesday, abandoning last-ditch hopes of carrying the vote in the swing state of Ohio. ""The relief for the markets may be that we have a decision and can move forward,"" said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management. Some analysts predicted that the jump in share prices would be short-lived, saying investors would quickly focus once again on the health of the US economy. ""I would look at the stock market rally for Bush as kind of a one-day event,"" said Ken Mayland at Clearview Economics. The US' recent economic performance has been mixed, with solid growth offset by disappointingly low job creation figures, and mounting worries over a record budget deficit. Elsewhere in the financial markets on Wednesday, the dollar dipped slightly against the euro and climbed against the yen, while US oil prices closed up $1.26 at $50.88 a barrel in New York. The rise in oil prices partly reflects the view that President Bush is less likely than Mr Kerry to release supplies from the US' strategic oil reserve. Share prices in London, Frankfurt and Paris also closed higher. Successive polls in the run-up to Tuesday's election had shown the two candidates running neck and neck. Economic issues, as well as the war in Iraq, were the forefront of the campaign. In key swing states such as Ohio, which has suffered substantial job losses in the past four years, President Bush's handling of the economy became a crucial election issue. Senator Kerry attacked President Bush's economic record during his campaign, hammering home the fact that a net 800,000 jobs were lost during his term in office. President Bush focused on the fact that two million jobs have been created in the past year, claiming that it has vindicated his tax-cutting agenda. As for future policies, both candidates pledged to bring America's $422bn federal budget deficit under control. Senator Kerry planned to increase taxes on those earning more than $200,000 a year. President Bush has placed reform of the pensions system at the heart of his economic agenda for a second term. However, economists have said both candidates' economic programmes rested on questionable assumptions about future growth." -business,"US insurer Marsh cuts 2,500 jobs Up to 2,500 jobs are to go at US insurance broker Marsh & McLennan in a shake up following bigger-than-expected losses. The insurer said the cuts were part of a cost-cutting drive, aimed at saving millions of dollars. Marsh posted a $676m (£352m) loss for the last three months of 2004, against a $375m (£195.3m) profit a year before. It blamed an $850m payout to settle a price-rigging lawsuit, brought by New York attorney general Elliot Spitzer. Under the settlement announced in January, Marsh took a pre-tax charge of $618m in the October-to-December quarter, on top of the $232m charge from the previous quarter. ""Clearly 2004 was the most difficult year in MMC's financial history,"" Marsh chief executive Michael Cherkasky said. An ongoing restructuring drive at the group also led to a $337m hit in the fourth quarter, the world's biggest insurer said. Analysts expect its latest round of cuts to focus on its brokerage unit, which employs 40,000 staff. The latest layoffs will take the total number of jobs to go at the firm to 5,500 and are expected to lead to annual savings of more than $375m. As part of its efforts to cut costs, the company said it was halving its dividend payment to 17 cents a shares from 34 cents, a move which should enable it to save $360m. Looking ahead, Mr Cherkasky forecast profitable growth for the year ahead ""with an operating margin in the upper-teens, and with the opportunity for further margin expansion"". Meanwhile, the company also announced it would spin-off its MMC Capital private equity unit, which manages the $3bn Trident Funds operation, to a group of employees. Marsh did not say when the move would take place, but said it had signed a letter of intent. The insurer hit the headlines in October last year when it faced accusations of price rigging. New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer sued the company, accusing it of receiving illegal payments to steer clients to selected firms as well as rigging bids and fixing prices. In January, Marsh agreed to pay $850m to settle the suit - a figure in line with the placement fees it collected in 2003 - and agreed to change its business practices. In February, a former senior executive pleaded guilty to criminal charges in a wide-ranging probe of fraud and bid-rigging in the insurance industry. In January, a former senior vice president also pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the investigation. In an effort to reform its business practises, Marsh said it has already introduced new leadership, new compliance procedures and new ways of dealing with customers. ""As a result, we are ready to put these matters behind us and move ahead in 2005 to restore the trust our clients have placed in us and to rebuild shareholder value,"" Mr Cherkasky said." -business,"Mitsubishi in Peugeot link talks Trouble-hit Mitsubishi Motors is in talks with French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen about a possible alliance. On Tuesday Mitsubishi, the only major Japanese car firm in the red, confirmed earlier reports of negotiations. But a spokesman refused to comment on speculation that Mitsubishi could end up building cars for PSA and perhaps its Japanese rival Nissan. Mitsubishi has been hit by a recall scandal and the withdrawal of support from shareholder DaimlerChrysler. The US-German firm, once a majority shareholder, decided last April to stop providing financial backing. Mitsubishi's sales have slid 41% in the past year, catalysed by the revelation that the company had systematically been hiding records of faults and then secretly repairing vehicles. Mitsubishi is due to unveil a recovery plan later in January. Analysts said that alliances with other carmakers would be a necessary part of whatever it came up with, not least because its own slow sales have left its manufacturing capacity under-used." -business,"Ford gains from finance not cars Ford, the US car company, reported higher fourth quarter and full-year profits on Thursday boosted by a buoyant period for its car loans unit. Net income for 2004 was $3.5bn (£1.87bn) - up nearly $3bn from 2003 - while turnover rose $7.2bn to $170.8bn. In the fourth quarter alone Ford reported net income of $104m, compared with a loss of $793m a year ago. But its auto unit made a loss. Fourth quarter turnover was $44.7bn, compared to $45.9bn a year ago. Though car and truck loan profits saved the day, Ford's auto unit made a pre-tax loss of $470m in the fourth quarter (compared to a profit of £13m in the year-ago period) and its US sales dipped 3.8%. Yesterday General Motor's results also showed its finance unit was a strong contributor to profits. However, Ford is working hard to revitalise its product portfolio, unveiling the Fusion and Zephyr models at the International Motor Show in Detroit. It also brought out a number of new models in the second half of 2004. ""In 2004, our company gained momentum, delivering...more new products, and more innovative breakthroughs, such as the Escape Hybrid, the industry's first full-hybrid sport utility vehicle,"" said chairman and chief executive officer Bill Ford."" ""We also confronted operating challenges with our Jaguar brand and high industry marketing costs,"" he added. But Ford declined to provide guidance for first quarter 2005. It will do so at a presentation in New York on 26 January. In addition, the company said 2004 net income was affected by a fourth-quarter pre-tax charge taken to reduce the value of a receivable owed to Ford by Visteon, a former subsidiary. Recent new models introduced by Ford include the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego sedans, the Ford Freestyle crossover, the Ford Mustang, the Land Rover LR3/Discovery, and Volvo S40 and V50 in North America and Europe. Total company vehicle unit sales in 2004 were 6,798,000, an increase of 62,000 units from 2003. Fourth-quarter vehicle unit sales totalled 1,751,000, a decline of 133,000 units. For the full year, Ford's worldwide automotive division earned a pre-tax profit of $850m, a $697m improvement from $153m a year ago." -business,"India's Reliance family feud heats up The ongoing public spat between the two heirs of India's biggest conglomerate, Reliance Group, has spilled over to the board meeting of a leading company within the group. Anil Ambani, vice-chairman of India Petrochemicals Limited (IPCL), stayed away from a gathering of senior managers on Thursday. The move follows a decision earlier this month by Anil - the younger brother of Reliance Group president Mukesh Ambani - to resign from his post. His resignation was not accepted by his brother, who is also the boss of IPCL. The IPCL board met in Mumbai to discuss the company's results for the October-to-December quarter. It is understood that the board also considered Anil's resignation and asked him to reconsider his decision. However, Anil's demand that Anand Jain - another IPCL board member accused by Anil of creating a rift in the Ambani family - be thrown out, was not met. Anil has accused Anand Jain, a confidant of his brother Mukesh, of playing a negative role in the Ambani family, and being responsible for the trouble between the brothers. On Wednesday, the board of Reliance Energy, another Reliance Group company, reaffirmed its faith in Anil, who is the company's chief. Reliance Group acquired the government's 26% stake in IPCL - India's second-largest petrochemicals company - in 2002, as part of the privatisation drive. Meanwhile, the group's flagship company, Reliance Industries, has its board meeting on Friday to consider its financial results. Mukesh is the company's chairman and Anil its deputy, and it is expected that both brothers will come face to face in the meeting. The Ambani family controls 48% of the group, which is worth $17bn (£9.1bn; 745bn Indian rupees). It was founded by their father, Dhiru Bhai Ambani, who died two years ago." -business,"Firms pump billions into pensions Employers have spent billions of pounds propping up their final salary pensions over the past year, research suggests. A survey of 280 schemes by Incomes Data Services' (IDS) said employer contributions had increased from £5.5bn to £8.2bn a year, a rise of 49.7%. Companies facing the biggest deficits had raised their pension contributions by 100% or more, IDS said. Many firms are struggling to keep this type of scheme open, because of rising costs and increased liabilities. A final salary scheme, also known as a defined benefit scheme, promises to pay a pension related to the salary the scheme member is earning when they retire. The rising cost of maintaining such schemes has led many employers to replace final salary schemes with money purchase, or defined contribution, schemes. These are less risky for employers. Under money purchase schemes, employees pay into a pension fund which is used to buy an annuity - a policy which pays out an income until death - on retirement. IDS said there were some schemes in good health. But, in many cases, firms had been forced to top up funds to tackle ""yawning deficits"". The level of contributions paid by employers has increased gradually since the late 1990s. In 1998/99, for example, contributions rose by 4.7% and in 2002/03 by 8.6%. In contrast, between 1996 and 1998, some employers cut their contribution levels. Helen Sudell, editor of the IDS Pensions Service, said the rise in contributions was ""staggering"" and the highest ever recorded by IDS. ""We have warned before that the widespread closure of final salary schemes to new entrants is just the beginning of a much bigger movement away from paternalistic provision,"" said Ms Sudell. ""With figures like this there can be little doubt that many employers will have to reduce future benefits at some point for those staff still in these schemes.""" -business,"US trade deficit widens sharply The gap between US exports and imports has widened to more than $60bn (£31.7bn), an all-time record. Figures from the Commerce Department for November showed exports down 2.3% to $95.6bn, while imports grew 1.3% to $155.8bn on rising consumer demand. Part of the expanding deficit came from high prices for oil imports. But the numbers suggested the sliding dollar - which makes exports less expensive - has had little impact, and could indicate slowing economic growth. The trade deficit - far bigger than the $54bn widely expected on Wall Street - prompted a rapid response from the currency markets. By 1650 GMT, the dollar was trading against the euro at $1.3280, almost a cent and a half weaker than before the announcement. Against the pound, the dollar was down about 0.7% at $1,8923. ""The dollar's fall has been sudden, violent and appropriate given this number,"" said Brian Taylor of Wells Fargo in Minneapolis. ""Recent exchange rate movements certainly haven't had any impact yet."" Treasury Secretary John Snow put a brave face on the news, saying it was a sign of strong economic expansion. ""The economy is growing at such a fast rate that it is generating lots of disposable income... some of which is used to buy goods from our trading partners."" Although the White House officially still backs the US's traditional ""strong dollar"" policy, it has tacitly indicated that it would be happy if the slide continued. The dollar has fallen by 50% against the euro - as well as by 30% against the yen - in the past three years. The main catalyst, most economists accept, is the large budget deficit on the one hand, and the current account deficit - the difference between the flow of money in and out of the US - on the other. The trade deficit is a large part of the latter. In November, the fall in exports was largely due to a decline in sales of industrial supplies and materials such as chemicals, as well as of cars, consumer goods and food. One small bright spot for US policy-makers was a slight decline in the deficit with China, often blamed for job losses and other economic woes. Although China's overall trade surplus is expanding, according to Chinese government figures, the Commerce Department revealed the US's deficit with China was $19.6bn in November, down from $19.7bn the month before. But the deficit with Japan was at its worst in more than four years." -business,"German growth goes into reverse Germany's economy shrank 0.2% in the last three months of 2004, upsetting hopes of a sustained recovery. The figures confounded hopes of a 0.2% expansion in the fourth quarter in Europe's biggest economy. The Federal Statistics Office said growth for the whole of 2004 was 1.6%, after a year of contraction in 2003, down from an earlier estimate of 1.7%. It said growth in the third quarter had been zero, putting the economy at a standstill from July onward. Germany has been reliant on exports to get its economy back on track, as unemployment of more than five million and impending cuts to welfare mean German consumers have kept their money to themselves. Major companies including Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler and Siemens have spent much of 2004 in tough talks with unions about trimming jobs and costs. According to the statistics office, Destatis, rising exports were outweighed in the fourth quarter by the continuing weakness of domestic demand. But the relentless rise in the value of the euro last year has also hit the competitiveness of German products overseas. The effect has been to depress prospects for the 12-nation eurozone as a whole, as well as Germany. Eurozone interest rates are at 2%, but senior officials at the rate-setting European Central Bank are beginning to talk about the threat of inflation, prompting fears that interest rates may rise. The ECB's mandate is to fight rising prices by boosting interest rates - and that could further threaten Germany's hopes of recovery." -business,"Latin America sees strong growth Latin America's economy grew by 5.5% in 2004, its best performance since 1980, while exports registered their best performance in two decades. The United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean said the region grew by 5.5% this year. The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) said regional exports reached $445.1bn (£227bn;331bn euros) in 2004. Doubts about the strength of the US recovery and overheating of the Chinese economy do however pose risks for 2005. Both organisations also warned that high oil prices raise the risk of either inflation or recession. Nevertheless, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) still forecasts growth of 4% for 2005. Strong recovery in some countries, such as Venezuela and Uruguay, boosted the overall performance of the region. ECLAC also said that the six largest Latin American economies (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela) grew by more than 3% for only the second time in 20 years. Chinese and US economic strength helped boost exports, as did strong demand for agricultural and mining products. In fact, Latin American exports to China grew 34%, to $14bn. Higher oil prices also helped boost exports, as Mexico and Venezuela are important oil exporters. Regional blocs as well as free trade agreements with the US contributed to the region's strong performance, the IADB said." -business,"Indonesians face fuel price rise Indonesia's government has confirmed it is considering raising fuel prices by as much as 30%. Millions of Indonesians use kerosene for basic cooking, and prices have been heavily subsidised for years. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government has said it wants to curb fuel subsidies and direct the money into aid programmes for the poor. But critics argue cutting subsidies will hurt the poorer families that his government says it wants to help. Millions of people were left homeless in Indonesia Aceh's region following the earthquake and tsunami disaster in late December. Indonesia pays subsidies to importers in order to stabilise domestic fuel prices, but higher oil prices have forced the government to spend more on holding prices down. It spent 59.2 trillion rupiah ($6.58bn; £3.5bn) on fuel subsidies in 2004, a sum far in excess of its original projection of 14.5 trillion rupiah. Since President Yudhoyono's government came to power in October, it has indicated its intention of raising domestic fuel prices by cutting subsidies. ""The (January to March) quarter of this year is the best time for us to increase fuel prices,"" said Sri Mulyani Indrawati, State Minister for National Development Planning. ""We are still considering if a 30% hike is suitable at the moment. The sooner the better for the state budget."" The BBC's correspondent in Jakarta, Rachel Harvey, told World Business Report that there was likely to be a strong public reaction to any price rise. ""The big question is whether they go for one big, short, sharp shock and raise prices between 20% and 30% or whether they try to stagger it,"" she said. Indonesia's previous government, led by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, also attempted to cut subsidies in 2003, but was forced to back down in the face of public protests." -business,"Green reports shun supply chain Nearly 20% more UK top 250 firms produced non-financial reports on social and environment issues than last year. But of the 145 companies reporting, 76% didn't examine their supply chains, says the annual Directions survey. Green groups say putting pressure on supply chains is a major way companies can reduce their environmental impact. The survey is published by corporate social responsibility firm Context and branding firm SalterBaxter. Blake Lee-Harwood, campaigns director at Greenpeace in the UK, said: ""It's fairly meaningless to talk about your company's direction in terms of sustainability without having detailed knowledge of your supply chain. ""It's also important to get some kind of independent assessment of your reporting."" Less than a quarter of companies (24%) get their corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports independently verified to provide assurances they are accurate and complete, says the survey. To date there are no set standards for non-financial reporting, although the Global Reporting Initiative, an independent pro-sustainability institution, is planning to establish some. The reports surveyed by Directions are published voluntarily. They are usually called corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, sustainability reports, or social and environmental reports. Peter Knight, director of Context, says 24 UK top 250 companies reported for the first time this year and, in general, the quality of reports has improved. ""The corporate lexicon of homilies, generalities and soft assurances - fluff - is on its way out. There are less pictures of smiling children and butterflies."" The UK government will soon require all quoted companies to report their social and environmental risks in a chapter in their annual reports, called the Operating and Financial Review. The regulation is not expected until 2005 and the first reports under this scheme will not be published before 2006. The US seems to lag Europe in producing corporate social responsibility reports. The majority of European top 50 companies (44) publish them and only 27 of the US top 50." -business,"China continues breakneck growth China's economy has expanded by a breakneck 9.5% during 2004, faster than predicted and well above 2003's 9.1%. The news may mean more limits on investment and lending as Beijing tries to take the economy off the boil. China has sucked in raw materials and energy to feed its expansion, which could have knock-on effects on the rest of the world if it overheats. But officials pointed out that industrial growth had slowed, with services providing much of the impetus. Growth in industrial output - the main target of government efforts to impose curbs on credit and investments - was 11.5% in 2004, down from 17% the previous year. Still, consumer prices - at 2.4% - rose faster than in 2004, adding to concern that a sharp rise in producer prices of 7.1% could stoke inflation. And overall investment in fixed assets was still high, up 21.3% from the previous year - although some way off the peak of 43% seen in the first quarter of 2004. The result could be higher interest rates. China raised rates by 0.27 percentage points to 5.8% - its first hike in nine years - in October 2004. Despite the apparent rebalancing of the economy the overall growth picture remains strong, economists said. ""There is no sign of a slowdown in 2005,"" said Tim Congdon, economist at ING Barings. China's economy is not only gathering speed thanks to domestic demand, but also from soaring sales overseas. Figures released earlier this year showed exports at a six-year high in 2004, up 35%. Part of the impetus comes from the relative cheapness of the yuan, China's currency. The government keeps it pegged close to a rate of 8.28 to the US dollar, - much to the chagrin of many US lawmakers who blame China for lost jobs and competitiveness. Despite urging to ease the peg, officials insist they are a long way from ready to make a shift to a more market-set rate. ""We need a good and feasible plan and formulating such a plan also needs time,"" National Bureau of Statistics chief Li Deshui told Reuters. ""Those who hope to make a fortune by speculating on a renminbi revaluation will not succeed in making a profit.""" -business,"UK economy facing 'major risks' The UK manufacturing sector will continue to face ""serious challenges"" over the next two years, the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) has said. The group's quarterly survey of companies found exports had picked up in the last three months of 2004 to their best levels in eight years. The rise came despite exchange rates being cited as a major concern. However, the BCC found the whole UK economy still faced ""major risks"" and warned that growth is set to slow. It recently forecast economic growth will slow from more than 3% in 2004 to a little below 2.5% in both 2005 and 2006. Manufacturers' domestic sales growth fell back slightly in the quarter, the survey of 5,196 firms found. Employment in manufacturing also fell and job expectations were at their lowest level for a year. ""Despite some positive news for the export sector, there are worrying signs for manufacturing,"" the BCC said. ""These results reinforce our concern over the sector's persistent inability to sustain recovery."" The outlook for the service sector was ""uncertain"" despite an increase in exports and orders over the quarter, the BCC noted. The BCC found confidence increased in the quarter across both the manufacturing and service sectors although overall it failed to reach the levels at the start of 2004. The reduced threat of interest rate increases had contributed to improved confidence, it said. The Bank of England raised interest rates five times between November 2003 and August last year. But rates have been kept on hold since then amid signs of falling consumer confidence and a slowdown in output. ""The pressure on costs and margins, the relentless increase in regulations, and the threat of higher taxes remain serious problems,"" BCC director general David Frost said. ""While consumer spending is set to decelerate significantly over the next 12-18 months, it is unlikely that investment and exports will rise sufficiently strongly to pick up the slack.""" -business,"India unveils anti-poverty budget India is to boost spending on primary schools and health in a budget flagged as a boost for the ordinary citizen. India's defence budget has also been raised 7.8% to 830bn rupees ($19bn). The priority for Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram is to fight poverty and keep the government's Communist allies onside. But his options are limited by a new law which makes him cut the budget deficit, which he said would be 4.5% of GDP in the year to March 2005. The country's overall deficit is thought to be more than 10%, if the spending of India's 35 states and territories is included. Under the fiscal responsibility law, Mr Chidambaram has to trim the deficit by 0.3 percentage points each year, a target he says he has now met for the current year. But the heavy spending on poverty reduction means the 2005-6 target for the deficit will be 4.3%, Mr Chidambaram said - falling short of the new law's requirement. ""I was left with no option but to press the pause button vis a vis the act,"" he said. The following year, though, would have to be back on track, he warned. ""I may add that we are perilously close to the limits of fiscal prudence and there is no more room for spending beyond our means,"" he said. The coming year's reduction has meant bringing more of the businesses in India's burgeoning services sector into the tax system and restructuring the personal tax system, although there are numerous corporate tax and duty reductions built into the budget. Presenting his budget in the lower house of parliament, Mr Chidambaram said the Indian economy was performing strongly and that inflation has been reined in. He said India's economy grew 6.9% in 2004. In his budget Mr Chidambaram has: - Increased spending on primary education to 71.56bn rupees ($1.6bn) - Increased spending on health to 102.8bn rupees ($2.35bn) - Announced that 80bn rupees ($1.8bn) will be spent on building rural infrastructure - Pledged 102.16bn rupees ($2.3bn) for tsunami victims - Increased flow of funds to agriculture by 30% - Announced a package for the sugar industry In addition, up to 100bn rupees ($2.3bn) to be spent on infrastructure will be sourced by borrowing against the country's foreign exchange reserves, keeping budgeted spending under control. ""Given the resilience of the Indian economy... it is possible to launch a direct assault on poverty,"" Mr Chidambaram said. ""The whole purpose of democratic government is to eliminate poverty."" The new Indian government, led by the Congress Party, was voted into power last May after it pledged to introduce economic reforms with a ""human face"". The finance minister says he is committed to continue reforming India's tax system while expanding the tax base. As part of his reforms he has announced: - Duty cuts on capital goods and raw materials - Expanded service tax net - Raised the income-tax threshold to 100,000 rupees ($2,300) - Reduced income tax for those earning less than 250,000 rupees ($5,700) to 20% - Reduced corporate tax rates to 30% An annual economic survey released on Friday said India needed to ease limit restriction on foreign investment, reform labour laws and cut duties apart from widening the tax base for long-term economic growth. But Mr Chidambaram is under pressure from the Communist parties to focus on increasing social spending. The Communists are also hostile to measures seeking to increase foreign investment and allow companies to hire and fire employees at will. In recent months, they have expressed their displeasure at the government's economic reform plans including increasing foreign direct investment in telecommunication and aviation. In his last budget, Mr Chidambaram had pledged billions of dollars for improving education and health services for the poor as well as special assistance for farmers." -business,"Bank voted 8-1 for no rate change The decision to keep interest rates on hold at 4.75% earlier this month was passed 8-1 by the Bank of England's rate-setting body, minutes have shown. One member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) - Paul Tucker - voted to raise rates to 5%. The news surprised some analysts who had expected the latest minutes to show another unanimous decision. Worries over growth rates and consumer spending were behind the decision to freeze rates, the minutes showed. The Bank's latest inflation report, released last week, had noted that the main reason inflation might fall was weaker consumer spending. However, MPC member Paul Tucker voted for a quarter point rise in interest rates to 5%. He argued that economic growth was picking up, and that the equity, credit and housing markets had been stronger than expected. The Bank's minutes said that risks to the inflation forecast were ""sufficiently to the downside"" to keep rates on hold at its latest meeting. However, the minutes added: ""Some members noted that an increase might be warranted in due course if the economy evolved in line with the central projection"". Ross Walker, UK economist at Royal Bank of Scotland, said he was surprised that a dissenting vote had been made so soon. He said the minutes appeared to be ""trying to get the market to focus on the possibility of a rise in rates"". ""If the economy pans out as they expect then they are probably going to have to hike rates."" However, he added, any rate increase is not likely to happen until later this year, with MPC members likely to look for a more sustainable pick up in consumer spending before acting." -business,"US interest rates increased to 2% US interest rates are to rise for the fourth time in five months, in a widely anticipated move. The Federal Reserve has raised its key federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to 2% in light of mounting evidence that the US economy is regaining steam. US companies created twice as many jobs as expected in October while exports hit record levels in September. Analysts said a clear-cut victory for President Bush in last week's election paved the way for a rise. Another rise could be in store for December, some economists warned. The Fed's Open Market Committee - which sets interest rate policy in the US - voted unanimously in favour of a quarter point rise. The Fed has been gradually easing rates up since the summer, with quarter percentage point rises in June, August and September. The Central Bank has been acting to restrain inflationary pressures while being careful not to obstruct economic growth. The Fed did not rule out raising rates once again in December but noted that any future increases would take place at a ""measured"" pace. In a statement, the Fed said that long-term inflation pressures remained ""well contained"" while the US economy appeared to be ""growing at a moderate pace despite the rise in energy prices"". Financial analysts broadly welcomed the Fed's move and shares traded largely flat. The Dow Jones Industrial average closed down 0.89 points, or 0.01%, at 10,385.48. Recent evidence has pointed to an upturn in the US economy. US firms created 337,000 jobs last month, twice the amount expected, while exports reached record levels in September. The economy grew 3.7% in the third quarter, slower than forecast, but an improvement on the 3.3% growth seen in the second quarter. Analysts claimed the Fed's assessment of future economic growth was a positive one but stressed that the jury was still out on the prospect of a further rise in December. ""Let's wait until we see how growth and employment bear up under the fourth quarter's energy price drag before concluding that the Fed has more work to do in 2005,"" said Avery Shenfeld, senior economist at CIBC World Markets. ""I think the Federal Reserve does not want to rock the boat and is using a gradual approach in raising the interest rate,"" said Sung Won Sohn, chief US economist for Wells Fargo Bank. ""The economy is doing a bit better right now but there are still some concerns about geopolitics, employment and the price of oil,"" he added. The further rise in US rates is unlikely to have a direct bearing on UK monetary policy. The Bank of England (BoE) has kept interest rates on hold at 4.75% for the past three months, leading some commentators to argue that rates may have peaked. In a report published on Wednesday, the Bank said that with rates at their current level, inflation would rise to its 2% target within two years. However, BoE governor Mervyn King warned only last month that the era of consistently low inflation and low unemployment may be coming to an end." -business,"Rover deal 'may cost 2,000 jobs' Some 2,000 jobs at MG Rover's Midlands plant may be cut if investment in the firm by a Chinese car maker goes ahead, the Financial Times has reported. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp plans to shift production of the Rover 25 to China and export it to the UK, sources close to the negotiations tell the FT. But Rover told BBC News that reports of job cuts were ""speculation"". A tie-up, seen as Rover's last chance to save its Longbridge plant, has been pushed by UK Chancellor Gordon Brown. Rover confirmed the tie-up would take place ""not very far away from this time"". Rover bosses have said they are ""confident"" the £1bn ($1.9bn) investment deal would be signed in March or early April. Transport & General Worker's Union general secretary Tony Woodley repeated his view on Friday that all mergers led to some job cuts. He said investment in new models was needed to ensure the future of the Birmingham plant. ""This is a very crucial and delicate time and our efforts are targeted to securing new models for the company which will mean jobs for our people,"" he said. SAIC says none of its money will be paid to the four owners of Rover, who have been accused by unions of awarding themselves exorbitant salaries, the FT reports. ""SAIC is extremely concerned to ensure that its money is used to invest in the business rather than be distributed to the shareholders,"" the newspaper quotes a source close to the Chinese firm. Meanwhile, according to Chinese state press reports, small state-owned carmaker Nanjing Auto is in negotiations with Rover and SAIC to take a 20% stake in the joint venture. SAIC was unavailable for comment on the job cuts when contacted by BBC News. Rover and SAIC signed a technology-sharing agreement in August." -business,"DaimlerChrysler's 2004 sales rise US-German carmaker DaimlerChrysler has sold 2.1% more cars in 2004 than in the previous year, as solid Chrysler sales offset a weak showing for Mercedes. Sales totalled 3.9 million units worldwide during 2004, the company said at the Detroit Motor Show. A switch to new models hit luxury marque Mercedes-Benz, with sales down 3.1% at 1.06 million. Chrysler avoided the fate of US rivals Ford and General Motors, both of whom lost ground to Japanese firms. Its sales rose 3.5% to 2.7 million units. Similarly on the up was the Smart brand of compact cars, with the division's sales jumping by 21.1% during 2004 to 136,000. The future of the brand - which is controlled by the Mercedes group within DaimlerChrysler - remains in question, however. Smart has consistently lost money since it started trading in 1998, and new model launches are now ""on hold"", said Mercedes chief executive Eckhard Cordes. In Europe, the Smart will now go on sale through regular Mercedes dealerships as well as its own dealer network, Mr Cordes said." -business,"HealthSouth ex-boss goes on trial The former head of US medical services firm HealthSouth overstated earnings and assets to boost the company's share price, it was claimed in court. Richard Scrushy, 52, is accused of ""directing"" a $2.7bn (£1.4bn) accounting fraud at the company he co-founded in Alabama in 1984. Prosecutors said he was motivated by wealth - spending about $200m between 1996 and 2002 while earning much less. Defence lawyers said Mr Scrushy had been deceived by other executives. Several former HealthSouth employees have already pleaded guilty to fraud and are expected to give evidence against Mr Scrushy. ""We will present evidence that Richard Scrushy knew about the conspiracy, that he participated in the conspiracy and that he profited,"" prosecutor Alice Martin told the court. Mr Scrushy is the first chief executive to be tried for breaching the Sarbanes Oxley Act - a law introduced in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom frauds which obliges corporate bosses to vouch for the accuracy of their companies' results. Among the charges he faces are conspiracy to commit fraud, filing false statements and money laundering. After federal agents raided HealthSouth's offices in March 2003, the company said none of its past financial statements could be relied on. The firm has since reorganised its board and management team and currently operates about 1,400 health clinics." -business,"India power shares jump on debut Shares in India's largest power producer, National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC) have risen 13% on their stock market debut. The government's partial sell-off of NTPC is part of a controversial programme to privatise state-run firms. The 865 million share offer, a mix of new shares and sales by the government, raised 54bn rupees($1.2bn). It was India's second $1bn stock debut in three months, coming after the flotation by software firm Tata. The share offer was eleven times oversubscribed. ""It is a good investment bet,"" said Suhas Naik, an investment analyst from ING Mutual Fund. ""Power needs in India are set to rise and NTPC will benefit from that."" Analysts say the success of the NTPC flotation would encourage the government to reduce stakes in more power companies. NTPC has said it will use the money from the share sale to feed the growing needs of the country's energy-starved economy. The firm is the largest utility company in India, and the sixth largest power producer in the world." -business,"Quake's economic costs emerging Asian governments and international agencies are reeling at the potential economic devastation left by the Asian tsunami and floods. World Bank president James Wolfensohn has said his agency is ""only beginning to grasp the magnitude of the disaster"" and its economic impact. The tragedy has left at least 25,000 people dead, with Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and Indonesia worst hit. Some early estimates of reconstruction costs are starting to emerge. Millions have been left homeless, while businesses and infrastructure have been washed away. Economists believe several of the 10 countries hit by the giant waves could see a slowdown in growth. In Sri Lanka, some observers have said that as much as 1% of annual growth may be lost. For Thailand, that figure is much lower at 0.1%. Governments are expected to take steps, such as cutting taxes and increasing spending, to facilitate a recovery. ""With the enormous displacement of people...there will be a serious relaxation of fiscal policy,"" Glenn Maguire, chief economist for the region at Societe Generale, told Agence France Presse. ""The economic impact of it will certainly be large, but it should not be enough to derail the momentum of the region in 2005,"" he said. ""First and foremost this is a human tragedy."" India's economy, however, is less likely to slow because the areas hit are some of the least developed. The regional giant has enjoyed strong growth in 2004. But India now faces other problems, with aid workers under pressure to ensure a clean supply of water and sanitation to prevent an outbreak of disease. Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has estimated the destruction at 20bn baht ($510m). Analysts said that figure is likely to rise and the country's tourist industry is likely to be hardest hit. Thailand's fishing and real estate sectors also will be affected by Sunday's 9.0 magnitude earthquake, which sent huge waves from Malaysia to Africa. Malaysia said as many as 1,000 fishermen will be affected and that damage to the industry will be ""significant"", Agence France Presse reported. Rapid rebuilding will be key to limiting the impact of the tragedy. ""In three months, we should rebuild 70% of the damage in the three worst hit provinces,"" said Juthamas Siriwan, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. The outlook for Sri Lanka is less optimistic, with analysts predicting that the country's tourist industry will struggle to recovery quickly. Tourism is a vital to many developing countries, providing jobs for 19 million people in the south east Asian region, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC)." -business,"BP surges ahead on high oil price Oil giant BP has announced a 26% rise in annual profits to $16.2bn (£8.7bn) on the back of record oil prices. Last week, rival Shell reported an annual profit of $17.5bn - a record profit for a UK-listed company. BP added that it was increasing its fourth-quarter dividend by 26% to 8.5 cents, and that it would continue with share buybacks. BP chief executive Lord Browne said the results were strong ""both operationally and financially."" The company is earning about $1.8m an hour. Despite the record annual profits figure, BP's performance was below the expectations of some City analysts. However, BP's share price rose 4p or nearly 1% in morning trading to 548p. Its profit rise for the year included profits of $3.65bn (£1.97bn) for the final three months of 2004 - up from $2.89bn a year ago but below its third quarter. Speaking on the BBC's Today programme on Tuesday, Lord Browne said the profits were not solely down to the high oil price alone. ""The profits are up more than the price of oil is up,"" he said. Lord Browne pointed out that BP was reaping the benefits of its investment in oil exploration. ""We have spent many years buying (assets) when the price is low,"" he said. The company has made new discoveries in Egypt, the Gulf of Mexico and Angola. However, Lord Browne rejected calls for a windfall tax on his company's huge profits, saying that in the North Sea it paid progressively more tax, the more profits it made. Lord Browne believes oil prices will remain quite high. Currently above $40 a barrel, he said: ""The price of oil will be well supported above $30 a barrel for the medium term."" BP put production for the year at 3.997 billion barrels of oil, up 10% on 2003, but slightly lower than the four billion barrels it had initially aimed for." -business,"Call to overhaul UK state pension The UK pension system has been branded inadequate and too complex by a leading retirement think-tank. The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) said replacing the state pension with a ""citizen's pension"" would help tackle inequality and complexity. The change would see pensions being calculated on length of residency in the UK rather than National Insurance (NI) contributions. Reform could reduce poverty by aiding people with broken employment records. The PPI added that once the state system was reformed the government should look at options to overhaul private and workplace pensions. The think tank's proposals were made in response to the recent publication of the Pensions Commission's initial report into UK retirement savings. According to the Pensions Commission's report 12 million working people are not saving enough for their retirement. As a result, living standards could fall for the next generation of UK pensioners. The report added that a combination of higher taxes, higher savings and/or a higher average retirement age was needed to solve the UK pension crisis." -business,"Pernod takeover talk lifts Domecq Shares in UK drinks and food firm Allied Domecq have risen on speculation that it could be the target of a takeover by France's Pernod Ricard. Reports in the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times suggested that the French spirits firm is considering a bid, but has yet to contact its target. Allied Domecq shares in London rose 4% by 1200 GMT, while Pernod shares in Paris slipped 1.2%. Pernod said it was seeking acquisitions but refused to comment on specifics. Pernod's last major purchase was a third of US giant Seagram in 2000, the move which propelled it into the global top three of drinks firms. The other two-thirds of Seagram was bought by market leader Diageo. In terms of market value, Pernod - at 7.5bn euros ($9.7bn) - is about 9% smaller than Allied Domecq, which has a capitalisation of £5.7bn ($10.7bn; 8.2bn euros). Last year Pernod tried to buy Glenmorangie, one of Scotland's premier whisky firms, but lost out to luxury goods firm LVMH. Pernod is home to brands including Chivas Regal Scotch whisky, Havana Club rum and Jacob's Creek wine. Allied Domecq's big names include Malibu rum, Courvoisier brandy, Stolichnaya vodka and Ballantine's whisky - as well as snack food chains such as Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins ice cream. The WSJ said that the two were ripe for consolidation, having each dealt with problematic parts of their portfolio. Pernod has reduced the debt it took on to fund the Seagram purchase to just 1.8bn euros, while Allied has improved the performance of its fast-food chains." -business,"US manufacturing expands US industrial production increased in December, according to the latest survey from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). Its index of national manufacturing activity rose to 58.6 last month from 57.8 in November. A reading above 50 indicates a level of growth. The result for December was slightly better than analysts' expectations and the 19th consecutive expansion. The ISM said the growth was driven by a ""significant"" rise in the new orders. ""This completes a strong year for manufacturing based on the ISM data,"" said chairman of the ISM's survey committee. ""While there is continuing upward pressure on prices, the rate of increase is slowing and definitely trending in the right direction."" The ISM's index of national manufacturing activity is compiled from monthly responses of purchasing executives at more than 400 industrial companies, ranging from textiles to chemicals to paper, and has now been above 50 since June 2003. Analysts expected December's figure to come in at 58.1. The ISM manufacturing index's main sister survey - the employment index - eased to 52.7 in December from 57.6 in November, while its ""prices paid"" index, measuring the cost to businesses of their inputs, also eased to 72.0 from 74.0. The ISM's ""new orders"" index rose to 67.4 from 61.5." -business,"Qantas considers offshore option Australian airline Qantas could transfer as many as 7,000 jobs out of its home country as it seeks to save costs, according to newspaper reports. Chief executive Geoff Dixon was quoted by The Australian newspaper as saying the carrier could no longer afford to remain ""all-Australian"". Unions criticised the possible move - which may affect cabin and maintenance staff - saying Qantas was profitable. More than 90% of the airline's staff are based in Australia. Qantas confirmed it was looking at whether it might recruit and source products overseas - potentially through joint ventures - but said it would continue to create jobs in Australia. Despite making a record Australian dollars 648m ($492m) profit last year, Qantas has argued that it needs to make considerable savings if it is to remain competitive. ""We're going to have to get the lowest cost structure we can and that willmean sourcing things more and more from overseas,"" the newspaper quoted Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon as saying. Early this year, Qantas increased the number of flight attendants based in London from 370 to 870. If Qantas were to follow the lead of other airlines moving staff 'offshore' 7,000 jobs could shift overseas, the newspaper reported. In a statement, Qantas said it was looking to build its operations overseas. However, it stressed this would not result in large scale redundancies in its home market, where most of its 35,000 staff are employed. ""We are totally committed to continuing to grow jobs in Australia,"" Mr Dixon said. ""We are, however, operating in a global market and there is no room for complacency simply because we are currently profitable and successful."" Unions reacted angrily to the reported disclosure, arguing that Qantas was profitable and did not need to take such action. ""We could understand if Qantas was a struggling airline about to go under,"" Michael Mijatov, international division secretary of the Flight Attendants Association, told Agence France Presse. ""Qantas announced a record profit last year and is on course this year for an even greater profit so it is totally unnecessary."" In an effort to meet the challenge posed by low cost carriers, Qantas sought a tie-up with Air New Zealand last year However, the deal was thrown out by the New Zealand High Court on competition grounds." -business,"Takeover rumour lifts Exel shares Shares in storage and delivery firm Exel closed up 9% at a two-and-a-half year high on Tuesday on speculation it is to receive an imminent takeover bid. The talk in the City is that US giant United Parcel Services (UPS) is the most likely bidder for the firm. Yet other names mentioned in connection to buying Exel are DHL-owner Deutsche Post and finance firm GE Capital. With its shares closing Tuesday at 873p, Bracknell-based Exel is currently valued at £2.6bn ($6.3bn). Exel employs 109,000 people in more than 120 countries and has itself been active in the consolidation of the logistics sector, paying £328m to buy fellow UK firm Tibbett & Britten last August. Its customers include Boots, Burberry, Mothercare and consumer products giant Procter & Gamble. Andrew Beh, of brokers ING, said UPS and Deutsche Post were the most likely bidders and an offer of 950p a share would be fair if a bidding battle did not break out. ""It's a great strategic fit for both companies,"" he said. ""Both are interested in expanding in logistics and you can make a decent case for cost synergies which could justify the premium and that's before you make any argument about revenue synergies.""" -business,"Parmalat boasts doubled profits Parmalat, the Italian food group at the centre of one of Europe's most painful corporate scandals, has reported a doubling in profit. Its pre-tax earnings in the fourth quarter were 77m euros (£53m; $100m), up from 38m in the same period of 2003. Less welcome was the news that the firm had been fined 11m euros for having violated takeover rules five years ago. The firm sought bankruptcy protection in December 2003 after disclosing a 4bn-euro hole in its accounts. Overall, the company's debt is close to 12bn euros, and is falling only slowly. Its brands, well-known in Italy and overseas, have continued to perform strongly, however, and have barely lost revenue since the scandal broke. But a crucial factor for the company's future is the legal unwinding of its intensely complex financial position. On Tuesday, the company's administrator, turnaround expert Enrico Bondi, sued Morgan Stanley, its former banker, to return 136m euros relating to a 2003 bond deal. That brought to 49 the number of banks that Mr Bondi has sued, a mass of legal action that could bring in as much as 3bn euros. The company has also sued former auditors and financial advisors for damages. And criminal cases against the company's former management are proceeding separately." -business,"Asia shares defy post-quake gloom Indonesian, Indian and Hong Kong stock markets reached record highs. Investors seemed to feel that some of the worst-affected areas were so under-developed that the tragedy would have little impact on Asia's listed firms. ""Obviously with a lot of loss of life, a lot of time is needed to clean up the mess, bury the people and find the missing,"" said ABN Amro's Eddie Wong. ""[But] it's not necessarily a really big thing in the economic sense."" India's Bombay Stock Exchange inched slightly above its previous record close on Wednesday. Expectations of strong corporate earnings in 2005 drove the Indonesian stock exchange in Jakarta to a record high on Wednesday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index may be benefiting in part from the potential for its listed property companies to gain from rebuilding contracts in the tsunami-affected regions of South East Asia. In Sri Lanka, some economists have said that as much as 1% of annual growth may be lost. Sri Lanka's stock market has fallen about 5% since the weekend, but it is still 40% higher than at the start of 2004. Thailand may lose 30bn baht (£398m; $768m) in earnings from tourism over the next three months, according to tourism minister Sontaya Kunplome. In the affected provinces, he expects the loss of tourism revenue to be offset by government reconstruction spending. Thailand intends to spend a similar sum - around 30bn baht - on the rebuilding work. ""It will take until the fourth quarter of next year before tourist visitors in Phuket and five other provinces return to their normal level,"" said Naris Chaiyasoot, director general at the ministry's fiscal policy office. In the Maldives the cost of reconstruction could wipe out economic growth, according to a government spokesman. ""Our nation is in peril here,"" said Ahmed Shaheed, the chief government spokesman. He estimated the economic cost of the disaster at hundreds of millions of dollars. The Maldives has gross domestic product of $660m. ""It won't be surprising if the cost exceeds our GDP,"" he said. ""In the last few years, we made great progress in our standard of living - the United Nations recognised this. Now we see this can disappear in a few days, a few minutes."" Shaheed noted that investment in a single tourist resort - the economic mainstay - could run to $40m. Between 10 and 12 of the 80-odd resorts have been severely damaged, and a similar number have suffered significant damage. However, many experts, including the World Bank, have pointed out that it is still difficult to assess the magnitude of the disaster and its likely economic impact. In part, this is because of its scale, and because delivering aid and recovering the dead remain priorities. ""Calculators will have to wait,"" said an IMF official in a briefing on Wednesday. ""The financial and world community will be turning toward reconstruction efforts and at that point people will begin to have a sense of the financial impact.""" -business,"LSE 'sets date for takeover deal' The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is planning to announce a preferred takeover by the end of the month, newspaper reports claim. The Sunday Telegraph said the LSE's plan was further evidence it wants to retain tight control over its destiny. Both Deutsche Boerse and rival Euronext held talks with the London market last week over a possible offer. A £1.3bn offer from Deutsche Boerse has already been rejected, while Euronext has said it will make an all cash bid. Speculation suggests that Paris-based Euronext has the facilities in place to make a bid of £1.4bn, while its German rival may up its bid to the £1.5bn mark. Neither has yet tabled a formal bid, but the LSE is expected to hold further talks with the two parties later this week. However, the Sunday Telegraph report added that there are signs that Deutsche Boerse chief executive Werner Seifert is becoming increasingly impatient with the LSE's managed bid process. Despite insisting he wants to agree a recommended deal with the LSE's board, the newspaper suggested he may pull out of the process and put an offer directly to shareholders instead. The newspaper also claimed Mr Seifert was becoming ""increasingly frustrated"" with the pace of negotiations since Deutsche Boerse's £1.3bn offer was rejected in mid-December, in particular the LSE's decision to suspend talks over the Christmas period. Meanwhile, the German exchange's offer has come under fire recently. Unions for Deutsche Boerse staff in Frankfurt have reportedly expressed fears that up to 300 jobs would be moved to London if the takeover is successful. Others claim it will weaken the city's status as Europe's financial centre, while German politicians are also said to be angry over the market operator's promise to move its headquarters to London if a bid is successful. A further stumbling block is Deutsche Boerse's control over its Clearstream unit, the clearing house that processes securities transactions. LSE shareholders fear it would create a monopoly situation, weakening the position of shareholders when negotiating lower transaction fees for share dealings. LSE and Euronext do not have control over their clearing and settlement operations, a situation which critics say is more transparent and competitive." -business,"Vodafone appoints new Japan boss Vodafone has drafted in its UK chief executive William Morrow to take charge of its troubled Japanese operation. Mr Morrow will succeed Shiro Tsuda as president of Vodafone KK, Japan's number three mobile operator, in April. Mr Tsuda, who will become chairman, was appointed president only two months ago but the business has struggled since then, losing customers in January. Vodafone had pinned its hopes on the launch of its 3G phones in November but demand for them has been slow. While it has more than 15 million customers in Japan, Vodafone has found it difficult to satisfy Japan's technologically demanding mobile users. It suffered a net loss of more than 58,000 customers in January, its second monthly reverse in the last year. ""Vodafone is going to need to put a lot of money into Japan if it wants to rebuild the business,"" Tetsuro Tsusaka, a telecoms analyst with Deutsche Bank, told Reuters. ""I do not know if it will be worth it for them to spend that kind of money just for Japan.""" -business,"Tobacco giants hail court ruling US tobacco companies have welcomed an appeal court's decision to reject the government's $280bn (£155bn) claim for alleged deceit about smoking dangers. Tobacco stocks rose sharply on Wall Street after the 2-1 decision. The court in Washington found the case - filed by the Clinton administration in 1999 - could not be brought under federal anti-racketeering laws. Anti-smoking groups urge the government to fight on, but the Justice Department has not said if it will appeal. Among the accused were Altria Group, RJ Reynolds Tobacco, Lorillard Tobacco, Liggett Group and Brown and Williamson. They were delighted by the decision, which sent Reynolds shares up 4.5% and Altria shares up 5.11%. Charles A Blixt, executive vice-president of RJ Reynolds Tobacco, said the ruling ""dramatically transforms"" the government's lawsuit. Altria Group said, in a statement, the government now ""must not only prove that the companies have engaged in fraudulent behaviour in the past, but that they are likely to do so in the future."" The government had claimed tobacco firms - manipulated nicotine levels to increase addiction - targeted teenagers with multi-billion dollar advertising campaigns - lied about the dangers of smoking and ignored research to the contrary. Prosecutors wanted the cigarette firms to ""disgorge"" $280bn in profits accumulated over the past 50 years and impose tougher rules on marketing their products. They brought the case under racketeering laws, which were passed to deny mafia gangs the profits of their crimes. But the tobacco companies denied that they illegally conspired to promote smoking and defraud the public. They also said they had already met many of the government's demands in a landmark $206bn settlement reached with 46 states in 1998. The three-judge panel in the District of Columbia's Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that the US government could not sue the firms under the anti-racketeering laws. Judge David Sentelle, in his ruling, said such laws were aimed at putting an end to illegal conduct going forward. ""We hold that the language of (the law) and the comprehensive remedial scheme of (the law) preclude disgorgement as a possible remedy in this case,"" he wrote. The Justice Department refused to say if it would appeal. ""All we're saying today is that we have received the ruling and are reviewing it,"" a spokeswoman said on Friday. But William Corr of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids urged the government to continue pressing its case. ""Today's ruling should not be an excuse for this administration to seek a weak settlement that lets the tobacco industry off the hook,"" he said." -business,"Georgia plans hidden asset pardon Georgia is offering a one-off 'tax amnesty' to people who hid their earnings under the regime of former president Eduard Shevardnadze. The country's new president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has said that anyone now willing to disclose their wealth will only have to pay 1% in income tax. The measure is designed to legitimise previously hidden economic activity and boost Georgia's flagging economy. Georgia's black market is estimated to be twice the size of its legal economy. Mr Saakashvili, elected president in January after Mr Shevardnadze was toppled, has urged the Georgian Parliament to approve the amnesty as soon as possible. It is one of a series of proposals designed to tackle corruption, which was rampant during the Shevardnadze era, and boost Georgia's fragile public finances. The new government is encouraging companies to pay taxes by scrapping existing corruption investigations and destroying all tax records from before 1 January, three days before President Saakashvili was elected. ""There are people who have money but are afraid to show it,"" the president told a government session. ""Documentation about where this money came from doesn't exist because under the former, entirely warped regime, earning capital honestly was not possible."" By declaring their assets and paying the one-off tax, people would be able to ""legalise their property"", Mr Saakashvili stressed. ""No one will have the right to check this money's origin. This money must go back into the economy."" The amnesty will not extend to people who made money through drugs trafficking or international money laundering. Criminal investigations in such cases -thought to involve about 5% of Georgian businesses -are to continue. Mr Saakashvili has accused the Shevardnadze regime, which was toppled by a popular uprising in November, of allowing bribery to flourish. Georgia's economy is in a desperate condition. Half the population are living below the poverty line with many surviving on income of less than $4, or three euros, a day. The unemployment rate is around 20% while the country has a $1.7bn public debt." -business,"Verizon 'seals takeover of MCI' Verizon has won a takeover battle for US phone firm MCI with a bid worth $6.8bn (£3.6bn), reports say. The two firms are expected to seal the deal on Monday morning, according to news agency reports, despite what was thought to be a higher bid from Qwest. The US telecoms market is consolidating fast, with former long-distance giant AT&T being bought by former subsidiary SBC earlier this year for $16bn. MCI exited bankruptcy in April, having gone bust under previous name WorldCom. The bankruptcy followed its admission in 2002 that it illegally booked expenses and inflated profits. Shareholders lost about $180bn when the company collapsed, while 20,000 workers lost their jobs. Former Worldcom boss Bernie Ebbers is currently on trial, accused of overseeing an $11bn fraud. Qwest has itself come under suspicion of sub-standard behaviour, paying the Securities and Exchange Commission $250m in October to settle charges that it manipulated its results to keep Wall Street happy. MCI is the US's second-biggest long distance firm after AT&T. Consolidation in the US telecommunications industry has picked up in the past few months as companies look to cut costs and boost client bases. A merger between MCI and Verizon would be the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since October. Last week, SBC Communications agreed to buy its former parent and phone trailblazer AT&T for about $16bn. Buying MCI would give either Qwest or Verizon access to MCI's global network and business-based subscribers. The rationale is similar to the one underpinning SBC's AT&T deal. Verizon is by far the bigger company and has its own successful mobile arm - factors which may have swung the board in its favour since both suitors are offering a mixture of cash and shares." -business,"Disney settles disclosure charges Walt Disney has settled charges from US federal regulators that it failed to disclose how family members of directors were employed by the company. The media giant was not fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but has agreed to refrain from any future violations of securities law. Disney failed to tell investors that between 1999 and 2001 it employed three adult children of three then directors. The firm has neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in the settlement. The three Disney directors in question in the central matter of the SEC's investigation - Reveta Bowers, Stanley Gold and Raymond Watson - have all since left the company, with Ms Bowers and Mr Watson both retiring, and Mr Gold quitting in 2003. Their children were paid between $60,000 (£30,800) and $150,000 a year, with shareholders not being informed. The SEC also found that Disney did not disclose that a 50% Disney-owned subsidiary company - Lifetime - employed the wife of current Disney director John Bryson, and that she earned more than $1m a year. Louise Bryson remains with Lifetime. Disney also failed to disclose payments to Air Shamrock, an airline owned by Mr Gold and fellow former Disney directors Roy Disney. Finally, Disney also did not reveal that it provided more than $200,000 annually for office space, secretarial services, and a leased car and driver to former director Thomas Murphy. ""Shareholders have a significant interest in information regarding relationships between the company and its directors,"" said SEC deputy enforcement director Linda Thomsen. ""Failure to comply with the SEC's disclosure rules in this area impedes shareholders' ability to evaluate the objectivity and independence of directors.""" -business,"MCI shares climb on takeover bid Shares in US phone company MCI have risen on speculation that it is in takeover talks. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Qwest has bid $6.3bn (£3.4bn) for MCI. Other firms have also expressed an interest in MCI, the second-largest US long-distance phone firm, and may now table rival bids, analysts said. Shares in MCI, which changed its name from Worldcom when it emerged from bankruptcy, were up 2.4% at $20.15. Press reports suggest that Qwest and MCI may reach an agreement as early as next week, although rival bids may muddy the waters. The largest US telephone company Verizon has previously held preliminary merger discussions with MCI, Reuters quoted sources as saying. Consolidation in the US telecommunications industry has picked up in the past few months as companies look to cut costs and boost client bases. A merger between MCI and Qwest would be the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since October. Last week, SBC Communications agreed to buy its former parent and phone trailblazer AT&T for about $16bn. Competition has intensified and fixed-line phone providers such as MCI and AT&T have seen themselves overtaken by rivals. Buying MCI would give Qwest, a local phone service provider, access to MCI's global network and business-based subscribers. MCI also offers internet services. MCI was renamed after it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April last year. It hit the headlines as Worldcom in 2002 after admitting it illegally booked expenses and inflated profits. The scandal was a key factor in a global slide in share prices and the reverberations are still being felt today. Shareholders lost about $180bn when the company collapsed, while 20,000 workers lost their jobs. Former Worldcom boss Bernie Ebbers is currently on trial, accused of overseeing an $11bn fraud." -business,"Russian oil merger excludes Yukos The merger of Russian gas giant Gazprom and oil firm Rosneft is to go ahead, but will not include Yugansk, which was controversially bought last year. The merger, backed by Russian authorities, will allow foreigners to trade in Gazprom shares. Gazprom chief Alexei Miller confirmed Rosneft-owned Yugansk was not part of the deal and will instead be spun off. Under the agreement, the state will get a controlling share of Gazprom in exchange for Rosneft. The state wanted to control Gazprom before allowing foreigners to trade. Speaking on NTV television, which is controlled by Gazprom, Mr Miller added that Yugansk, which was swallowed up by Rosneft late last year, will operate as a separate, state-owned oil firm headed by current Rosneft chief Sergei Bogdanchikov. According to reports from Russian News Agency Interfax, the deal should go through in the next two to three months. ""Obtaining majority control over Gazprom is the beginning of the liberalisation of the market in Gazprom shares,"" Mr Miller added. By opening up trading in Gazprom to foreigners, the firm will become a top emerging market play for traders. Currently, foreigners can only trade in Gazprom via a small issue of London-listed proxy shares. ""This is positive news for the international investment community,"" Global Asset Management investment chief David Smith said. ""The majority of investors are going to be happy,"" he added. However, analysts were disappointed that Yugansk would not be included in the deal. ""Yugansk is a heavy cashflow generator and would have been a much better asset for Gazprom,"" Renaissance Capital energy analyst Adam Landes told Reuters news agency. But he said the latest development was simply an interim step to allow foreigners to trade in Gazprom. ""Ultimately and industrially, Gazprom needs Yugansk,"" he added. Analysts said the deal would give Gazprom control of 8% of Russia's total oil production, an improvement on its current 2.5%, but still far less than the 20% share it would have gained had it also taken over Yugansk. However, the merged group will still remain outside Russia's top five oil producers - led by Lukoil with 11% of the market , followed by TNK-BP which is half owned by BP, and Surgutneftegaz. Instead, the merged Gazprom-Rosneft group will rank alongside Sibneft with 7% of the market. Yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company in a disputed auction in December, following what many thought was a politically-motivated attack on Yukos. The shell company was then snapped up by Rosneft. Yukos unsuccessfully sought to halt the auction by applying for bankruptcy through the US courts. The unit was auctioned by Russian authorities to help pay off a $27.5bn back-tax bill." -business,"Bargain calls widen Softbank loss Japanese communications firm Softbank has widened losses after heavy spending on a new cut-rate phone service. The service, launched in December and dubbed ""Otoku"" or ""bargain"", has had almost 900,000 orders, Softbank said. The firm, a market leader in high-speed internet, had an operating loss for the three months to December of 7.5bn yen ($71.5m; £38.4m). But without the Otoku marketing spend it would have made a profit - and expects to move into the black in 2006. The firm did not give a figure for the extent of profits it expected to make next year. It was born in the 1990s tech boom, investing widely and becoming a fast-rising star, till the end of the tech bubble hit it hard. Its recent return to a high profile came with the purchase of Japan Telecom, the country's third-biggest fixed-line telecoms firm. The acquisition spurred its broadband internet division to pole position in the Japanese market, with more than 5.1 million subscribers at the end of December." -business,"Indonesia 'declines debt freeze' Indonesia no longer needs the debt freeze offered by the Paris Club group of creditors, Economics Minister Aburizal Bakrie has reportedly said. Indonesia, which originally accepted the debt moratorium offer, owes the Paris Club about $48bn (£25.5bn). Mr Bakrie told the Bisnis Indonesia newspaper that a $1.7bn donors' aid package meant that the debt moratorium was unnecessary. This aid comes on top of a previously-pledged $3.4bn package. Most of this 'normal aid' would be used to finance the country's budget deficit. The Indonesian Economics Minister explained that the money - $1.2bn in grants and $500m in soft loans - was for the rebuilding of Aceh province, which was badly hit by the tsunami of 26 December. Nevertheless, one of Mr Bakrie's deputies, Mahendra Siregar, told AFP news agency that Indonesia was still considering the offer by the Paris Club of rich creditor nations to temporarily suspend its debt payments. ""What is true is that we are still discussing... the Paris Club decision to find out more details such as how much of our debt will be subject to a moratorium. That's how far we are at this stage,"" said Mr Siregar. The 19 member countries of the Paris Club are owed about $5bn this year in debt repayments by nations affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami. Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Seychelles accepted the Paris Club offer, which was criticised by some aid groups as being too little. Thailand and India have however declined the offer, with Thailand prefering to keep up with its payments while India said it would prefer to rely on its own resources rather than on international aid. Putting off payments may lower a country's rating among financial organisations, making it more expensive and more difficult for them to borrow money in the future, analysts said. Separately, the Indonesian government has said it will announce monthly how much it has received in foreign donations and how it has spent the money. Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab told AP news agency that this announcement should allay suspicion of official corruption in relief operations." -business,"Tsunami to cost Sri Lanka $1.3bn Sri Lanka faces a $1.3bn (£691m) bill in 2005 for reconstruction after the tsunami which killed more than 30,000 of its people, its central bank says. This estimate is preliminary, bank governor Sunil Mendis told reporters, and could rise in 2006. The island state is asking for about $320m from the International Monetary Fund to help pay for relief, he said. The bank has 5bn rupees ($50m; £27m) set aside to lend at a lower interest rate to those who lost property. According to Mr Mendis, half the IMF support could come from a freeze on debt repayments, which would free up resources immediately. The rest could come from a five-year emergency loan. Sri Lanka is hoping for a wider freeze from other creditors. The Paris Club of 19 creditors meets on 12 January to discuss a debt moratorium for the nations hit by the tsunami, which ravaged south and east Asia on 26 December. Some 150,000 people across the region are feared to be dead and millions have been left homeless and destitute. A full reckoning of the economic cost to Sri Lanka of the tsunami will not be clear for some time to come. But already it looks likely that growth in the first half of 2005 will slow, Mr Mendis told reporters, although he would not say by how much. One side-effect of the disaster has been that the value of the rupee has risen as foreign funds have flooded into the country. The currency has strengthened 4% since late December, coming close to 100 rupees to the US dollar for the first time in more than six months." -business,"Christmas shoppers flock to tills Shops all over the UK reported strong sales on the last Saturday before Christmas with some claiming record-breaking numbers of festive shoppers. A spokesman for Manchester's Trafford Centre said it was ""the biggest Christmas to date"" with sales up 5%. And the Regent Street Association said shops in central London were also expecting the ""best Christmas ever"". That picture comes despite reports of disappointing festive sales in the last couple of weeks. The Trafford Centre spokeswoman said about 8,500 thousand vehicles had arrived at the centre on Saturday before 1130 GMT. ""We predict that the next week will continue the same trend,"" she added. It was a similar story at Bluewater in Kent. Spokesman Alan Jones said he expected 150,000 shoppers to have visited by the end of Saturday and a further 100,000 on Sunday. ""Our sales so far have been 2% up on the same time last year,"" he said. ""We're very busy, it's really strong and people will be shopping right up until Christmas. ""Over the Christmas period we're expecting people to spend in excess of £200m at the centre."" On Saturday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the St David's Shopping Centre in Cardiff said it looked like being its busiest day of the year with about 200,000 shoppers expected to have visited by the close of play. At the St Enoch's Shopping Centre in Glasgow, more than 140,000 shoppers - an all-time record - were expected to have passed through the doors by its closing time of 1900 GMT. Senior business manager Jon Walton said: ""It has been phenomenal - absolutely mobbed. ""Every week footfall has been showing strong growth and at the weekends it has been going mad."" Regent Street Association director Annie Walker said on Saturday: ""The stores were heaving today and a lot of people are going to be doing last minute shopping as many people finished work on Friday and can go in the week."" She said reports of a slump in pre-Christmas sales were related to the growing popularity of internet sales. ""I do think this has had a lot to do with reports of lower sales figures,"" she said. ""Internet shopping has gone up enormously and not all stores have websites.""" -business,"US adds more jobs than expected The US economy added 337,000 jobs in October - a seven-month high and far more than Wall Street expectations. In a welcome economic boost for newly re-elected President George W Bush, the Labor Department figures come after a slow summer of weak jobs gains. Jobs were created in every sector of the US economy except manufacturing. While the separate unemployment rate went up to 5.5% from 5.4% in September, this was because more people were now actively seeking work. The 337,000 new jobs added to US payrolls in October was twice the 169,000 figure that Wall Street economists had forecast. In addition, the Labor Department revised up the number of jobs created in the two previous months - to 139,000 in September instead of 96,000, and to 198,000 in August instead of 128,000. The better than expected jobs data had an immediate upward effect on stocks in New York, with the main Dow Jones index gaining 45.4 points to 10,360 by late morning trading. ""It looks like the job situation is improving and that this will support consumer spending going into the holidays, and offset some of the drag caused by high oil prices this year,"" said economist Gary Thayer of AG Edwards & Sons. Other analysts said the upbeat jobs data made it more likely that the US Federal Reserve would increase interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 2% when it meets next week. ""It should empower the Fed to clearly do something,"" said Robert MacIntosh, chief economist with Eaton Vance Management in Boston. Kathleen Utgoff, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor, said many of the 71,000 new construction jobs added in October were involved in rebuilding and clean-up work in Florida, and neighbouring Deep South states, following four hurricanes in August and September. The dollar rose temporarily on the job creation news before falling back to a new record low against the euro, as investors returned their attention to other economic factors, such as the US's record trade deficit. There is also speculation that President Bush will deliberately try to keep the dollar low in order to assist a growth in exports." -business,"EU ministers to mull jet fuel tax European Union finance ministers are meeting on Thursday in Brussels, where they are to discuss a controversial jet fuel tax. A levy on jet fuel has been suggested as a way to raise funds to finance aid for the world's poorest nations. Airlines and aviation bodies have reacted strongly against the plans, saying they would hurt companies at a time when earnings are under pressure. The EU said a tax would only be passed after full consultation with airlines. It was keen to point out earlier this week that any new tax on jet fuel should not hurt the ""competitiveness of the airlines"". Ministers will also be discussing reforms to regulations governing European public spending. Global leaders have focused attention on poverty reduction and development at recent meetings of the G7 Group and World Economic Forum. The world's richest countries have said they want to boost the amount of aid they give to 0.7% of their annual gross national income by 2015. Many EU ministers are thought to support the plan to tax jet fuel - tabled by France and Germany following the recent G7 meeting. At present, the fuel used by airlines enjoys either a very low tax rate or is untaxed in EU member states." -business,"Circuit City gets takeover offer Circuit City Stores, the second-largest electronics retailer in the US, has received a $3.25bn (£1.7bn) takeover offer. The bid has come from Boston-based private investment firm Highfields Capital Management, which already owns 6.7% of Circuit City's shares. Shares in the retailer were up 19.6% at $17.04 in Tuesday morning trading in New York following the announcement. Highfield said that it intends to take the Virginia-based firm private. ""Such a transformation would eliminate the public-company transparency into the company's operating strategy that is uniquely damaging in a highly competitive industry where Circuit City is going head-to-head with a tough and entrenched rival,"" Highfield said. One analyst suggested that a bidding battle may now begin for the company. Bill Armstrong, a retail analyst at CL King & Associates, said he expected to see other private investment firms come forward for Circuit City. The retailer is debt free with a good cash flow, despite the fact that it is said to be struggling to keep up with market leader Best Buy and cut-price competition from the likes of Wal-Mart, said Mr Armstrong." -business,"China bans new tobacco factories The world's biggest tobacco consumer, China, has said it will not allow any new tobacco factories to be built. China already has more than enough cigarette-making capacity, according to a spokesman for the tobacco industry regulator quoted in China Daily. The ban threatens to reignite tensions between the regulator and British American Tobacco, which plans to become China's first foreign cigarette maker. A spokeswoman for Bat declined to comment on the report. ""China won't allow any new tobacco factories to be built, including joint ventures"", said Xing Wangli, a spokesman for the State Tobacco Administration Monopoly quoted in China Daily. He also said that the state would retain its monopoly on cigarette distribution. China has 350 million smokers who consumer 1.7 trillion cigarettes a year. Smoking is fashionable in China, where it is seen as an essential - and manly - sociable touch for some jobs, such as salesmen. More young, urban woman are taking up smoking too. In July 2004, Bat announced it had won approval for to build a $1.5bn (£800m) joint venture factory in China which would make it the first foreign cigarette maker to manufacture there. The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration said a week later that it had not approved the deal, leading to an embarrassing public row. Bat told the BBC at that time that it had not negotiated with the STMC, and secured approval from ""the highest levels of government"". Since then, the row has flared occasionally, most recently at a forum in November. Bat consistently declines to comment. ""Xing's statement comes as especially bad news for British American Tobacco"", the China Daily newspaper said of the latest development. The Bat spokeswoman said: ""There is nothing for us to add...since our announcement in July last year. The central government of China is the authority that approved our strategic investment."" The decision to ban further tobacco factories does not apply to deals made before 2005, according to the French news agency AFP. The joint venture factory was expected to take till 2006 to build. The Bat spokeswoman would not comment on its progress. However, if the STMA continues to take a tough stance, expansion opportunities could be limited. China's tobacco market is increasingly valuable as anti-smoking campaigners target public smoking in the West. China Daily said the market was currently enjoying steady growth, making more than 210bn yuan ($25.4bn) in pre-tax profits last year, almost double the figure in 2000. The paper made no mention of health concerns. The STMA is trying to restructure the domestic tobacco industry, closing some factories, though such moves can be unpopular with local governments." -business,"MG Rover China tie-up 'delayed' MG Rover's proposed tie-up with China's top carmaker has been delayed due to concerns by Chinese regulators, according to the Financial Times. The paper said Chinese officials had been irritated by Rover's disclosure of its talks with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp in October. The proposed deal was seen as crucial to safeguarding the future of Rover's Longbridge plant in the West Midlands. However, there are growing fears that the deal could result in job losses. The Observer reported on Sunday that nearly half the workforce at Longbridge could be under threat if the deal goes ahead. Shanghai Automotive's proposed £1bn investment in Rover is awaiting approval by its owner, the Shanghai city government and by the National Development and Reform Commission, which oversees foreign investment by Chinese firms. According to the FT, the regulator has been annoyed by Rover's decision to talk publicly about the deal and the intense speculation which has ensued about what it will mean for Rover's future. As a result, hopes that approval of the deal may be fast-tracked have disappeared, the paper said. There has been continued speculation about the viability of Rover's Longbridge plant because of falling sales and unfashionable models. According to the Observer, 3,000 jobs - out of a total workforce of 6,500 - could be lost if the deal goes ahead. The paper said that Chinese officials believe cutbacks will be required to keep the MG Rover's costs in line with revenues. It also said that the production of new models through the joint venture would take at least eighteen months. Neither Rover nor Shanghai Automotive commented on the reports." -business,"India widens access to telecoms India has raised the limit for foreign direct investment in telecoms companies from 49% to 74%. Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said that there is a need to fund the fast-growing mobile market. The government hopes to increase the number of mobile users from 95 million to between 200 and 250 million by 2007. ""We need at least $20bn (£10.6bn) in investment and part of this has to come as foreign direct investment,"" said Mr Maran. The decision to raise the limit for foreign investors faced considerable opposition from the communist parties, which give crucial support to the coalition headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Potential foreign investors will however need government approval before they increase their stake beyond 49%, Mr Maran said. Key positions, such as those of chief executive, chief technology officer and chief financial officer are to be held by Indians, he added. Analysts and investors have welcomed the government decision. ""It is a positive development for carriers and the investment community, looking to take a longer-term view of the huge growth in the Indian telecoms market,"" said Gartner's principal analyst Kobita Desai. ""The FDI relaxation coupled with rapid local market growth could really ignite interest in the Indian telecommunication industry,"" added Ernst and Young's Sanjay Mehta. Investment bank Morgan Stanley has forecast that India's mobile market is likely to grow by about 40% a year until 2007. The Indian mobile market is currently dominated by four companies, Bharti Televentures which has allied itself with Singapore Telecom, Essar which is linked with Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa, the Sterling group and the Tata group." -business,"Delta cuts fares in survival plan Delta Air Lines is cutting domestic fares by as much as 50% as part of a plan to ensure its financial survival. Other US carriers, including United, have sought bankruptcy protection, amid high fuel costs and competition from discount carriers. Delta is restructuring in a bid to fight off insolvency. This latest move to boost business has prompted speculation other firms will be forced to match their fares, hurting revenues in the sector. Delta's new SimpliFares were trialled from August last year on tickets from Cincinnati, its second-largest hub. The airline says no one-way economy fare will now be priced higher than $499 (£264), and no first-class fare will be priced higher than $599. It is also eliminating a Saturday-night stay requirement on discount fares and will give further reductions to customers opting for non-refundable tickets, booking in advance and online. Delta, which lost $646m in the three months to September, was forced to cut 6,900 jobs worldwide as part of its aim to slash $5bn from its costs. In October, it reached a crucial agreement with pilots on pay and conditions and it has also issued new shares to staff in return for wage cuts. Airline shares closed lower on the announcement, with Delta, Continental and American Airlines all falling by more than 7%. ""We believe the whole airline industry will now have to move in this direction; this will likely hurt revenue in the short run but could be beneficial in the long run,"" said analyst Ray Neidl at Calyon Securities." -business,"Monsanto fined $1.5m for bribery The US agrochemical giant Monsanto has agreed to pay a $1.5m (£799,000) fine for bribing an Indonesian official. Monsanto admitted one of its employees paid the senior official two years ago in a bid to avoid environmental impact studies being conducted on its cotton. In addition to the penalty, Monsanto also agreed to three years' close monitoring of its business practices by the American authorities. It said it accepted full responsibility for what it called improper activities. A former senior manager at Monsanto directed an Indonesian consulting firm to give a $50,000 bribe to a high-level official in Indonesia's environment ministry in 2002. The manager told the company to disguise an invoice for the bribe as ""consulting fees"". Monsanto was facing stiff opposition from activists and farmers who were campaigning against its plans to introduce genetically-modified cotton in Indonesia. Despite the bribe, the official did not authorise the waiving of the environmental study requirement. Monsanto also has admitted to paying bribes to a number of other high-ranking officials between 1997 and 2002. The chemicals-and-crops firm said it became aware of irregularities at a Jakarta-based subsidiary in 2001 and launched an internal investigation before informing the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Monsanto faced both criminal and civil charges from the Department of Justice and the SEC. ""Companies cannot bribe their way into favourable treatment by foreign officials,"" said Christopher Wray, assistant US attorney general. Monsanto has agreed to pay $1m to the Department of Justice, adopt internal compliance measures, and co-operate with continuing civil and criminal investigations. It is also paying $500,000 to the SEC to settle the bribe charge and other related violations. Monsanto said it accepted full responsibility for its employees' actions, adding that it had taken ""remedial actions to address the activities in Indonesia"" and had been ""fully co-operative"" throughout the investigative process." -business,"Mystery surrounds new Yukos owner The fate of Russia's Yuganskneftegas - the oil firm sold to a little-known buyer on Sunday - is the subject of frantic speculation in Moscow. Baikal Finance Group emerged as the auction winner, agreeing to pay 260.75bn roubles (£4.8bn; $9.4bn). Russia's newspapers claimed that Baikal was a front for gas monopoly Gazprom, which had been expected to win. The sale has destroyed Yukos, once the owner of Yuganskneftegas, said founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. ""Yuganskneftegas has been sold in the best traditions of the 90s. The authorities have made themselves a wonderful Christmas present - Russia's most efficient oil company has been destroyed,"" the Interfax news agency quoted Mr Khodorkovsky as saying via his lawyers. Gazprom had been expected to win the auction but is thought to have failed to get finance for the deal after a US court injunction barred it from taking part. Last week, Yukos filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US in a last-ditch attempt to hang on to Yuganskneftegas, which accounts for 60% of its output. A US judge banned Gazprom from taking part in the auction and barred international banks from providing the firm with cash. ""They screwed up the financing,"" said Ronald Smith, an analyst at Renaissance Capital in Moscow. ""And Gazprom doesn't have this sort of money lying around."" Gazprom has denied that it is behind the purchase. ""It is a front for somebody but not necessarily for Gazprom,"" said Oleg Maximov, an analyst at Troika Dialog in Moscow. ""We don't know if this company is linked 100% to Gazprom. ""We tried to find it, but we couldn't and as far as I know, the papers had the same result."" The sale has however bought time for Gazprom to raise the money needed for the purchase, analysts said. One scenario is that Baikal will not pay when it is supposed to in two weeks time, putting Yuganskneftegas back in the hands of bailiffs and back within the reach of Gazprom. Yukos is not planning on letting go of its unit without a fight and has threatened legal action against any buyer. Menatep, Yukos main shareholders' group, has also threatened legal action. Yukos claims that it is being punished for the political ambitions of its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is now in jail facing separate fraud charges. It has been hit with more than $27bn in taxes and fines and many observers now say that the break up of the firm that accounts for 20% of Russia's oil output is inevitable." -business,"Qwest may spark MCI bidding war US phone company Qwest has said it will table a new offer for MCI after losing out to larger rival Verizon, setting the scene for a possible bidding war. MCI accepted a $6.75bn (£3.6bn) buyout from telecoms giant Verizon on Monday, rejecting a higher offer from Qwest. Qwest chairman Richard Notebaert sent a letter to MCI's board on Thursday saying that it plans to submit a new offer after examining Verizon's bid. Formerly known as Worldcom, MCI is a long-distance and corporate phone firm. Snapping up MCI would give the buyer access to a global telecommunications network and a large number of business-based subscribers. Shares of MCI were up more than 4% in electronic trading after the close of New York markets. Qwest said on Wednesday that MCI had rejected a deal worth $8bn. ""We would like to advise you that once we have completed our review of the Verizon merger agreement, we do intend to submit a modified offer to acquire MCI,"" the letter from Qwest said. Verizon's offer is made up of cash, shares and dividends, and a number of investors have said that it undervalues MCI. Verizon plans to swap 0.41 of its shares and $1.50 in cash for each MCI share, as well as offering special dividends of $4.50 a share. Both company boards have backed the deal, but regulators will still need to give their approval. As well as trying to lure investors with the promise of better returns, Qwest also reckons that its offer will face less regulatory scrutiny than Verizon's. The takeover would be the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since October as companies look to cut costs and boost client bases. Earlier this month, SBC Communications agreed to buy its former parent and phone trailblazer AT&T for about $16bn. There may be concerns other than cash, however, especially as MCI only emerged from bankruptcy protection last April. Verizon is far bigger than Qwest, has fewer debts and has built a successful mobile division. Also, MCI, while trading under the name Worldcom, became the biggest corporate bankruptcy in US history after admitting that it illegally booked expenses and inflated profits. Former Worldcom boss Bernie Ebbers is currently standing trial, accused of overseeing an $11bn fraud. Qwest, meanwhile, had to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $250m in October to settle charges that it massaged earnings to keep Wall Street happy." -business,"Giving financial gifts to children Your child or grandchild may want the latest toy this Christmas, but how about giving them a present that will help their financial future? Gifts of the financial variety might have a longer lasting impact. It may encourage children to save or start a fund which could count towards university costs, for example. The government is trying to encourage saving at an early age, through its new Child Trust Fund. The first vouchers, worth £250 or £500 for low-income families, will be distributed from January. All children born after 1st September 2002 will be eligible. Parents will need to decide which financial institution will manage this gift in time for the start of the scheme in April 2005. Parents and relatives will be able to top up the fund with up to £1,200 a year, which will grow free of income and capital gains tax. As the Child Trust Fund will not be in force in time for Christmas, relatives could invest their gifts in a higher rate children's deposit account, and use this as a feeder fund. There are accounts designed to start children off in the savings habit and they often pay a higher rate of interest. Some of the best instant-access accounts currently available include the Ladybird account from the Saffron Walden Building Society, paying 5.35% for a minimum balance of £1 and the Alliance & Leicester FirstSaver which pays 5.25%, also starting at £1. Interest earned by children is subject to income tax. However, children, like adults, have a personal income tax allowance (£4,745 for the current tax year). If the account holds money gifted by friends and relatives - but not parents - any interest earned from the savings account may be set against the allowance. As long as the total amount of interest falls within the allowance, then no tax will be payable. When the account is opened a form ""R85"", available from the bank or building society, should be completed. This confirms that the account holder is a non-taxpayer and allows interest to be received without the deduction of income tax. The tax rules are different for parents who save on behalf of a child. Only £100 of interest (per parent) can be tax-free. Where interest exceeds this level, the whole of the interest will be taxed on the parent. This is to prevent parents from holding their own cash savings in their children's names and taking advantage of the tax allowances. Where both parents and other relatives are saving on behalf of a child, consideration should be given to opening separate accounts - one for parents' gifts and one for gifts from other relatives. Therefore, it may be preferable for parents to contribute to the Child Trust Fund which is tax free, with any gifts from relatives that take the total above the annual £1,200 limit being directed to a deposit account. Another favourite solution is Premium Bonds. With the promise of riches far greater than a mere deposit account, they make great presents. The parent or guardian will be responsible for the Bonds and will receive notification of the purchase. Any prizes will be sent to the parent or child's guardian. The minimum for each purchase is £100 and Bonds are sold in multiples of £10. There are gift opportunities beyond cash accounts and these should not be ignored. Over the longer term, stock market funds have outperformed other types of investment, although in the shorter term they can be volatile. One of the benefits of investing for children is that investment is generally for the longer term - more than ten years - which helps to reduce the risks associated with investing in shares. One way to spread the risk is to invest in the stock market through a unit or investment trust. These are pooled investment funds which give access to a wide range of shares. These funds may be actively managed, where a fund manager picks individual stocks based on a view of their future potential, or passive, where a manager invests in all the shares that comprise a stock market index, for example, the FTSE 100. Exchange Traded Funds offer an alternative way to track a stock market. These are single shares that give the return of an underlying index (so are really another form of tracker). The difference is that the charges are quite low. The only drawback with all financial gifts is that the children gain an absolute right to the money at age 18, and parents will have no control over how it is spent. For larger gifts it may be worthwhile taking professional advice on the establishment of a suitable trust that will allow ongoing control over the capital and income." -business,"ID theft surge hits US consumers Almost a quarter of a million US consumers complained of being targeted for identity theft in 2004, official figures suggest. The Federal Trade Commission said two in five of the 635,173 reports it had from consumers concerned ID fraud. ID theft occurs when criminals use someone else's personal information to steal credit or commit other crimes. Internet auctions were the second biggest source of fraud complaints, comprising 16% of the total. The total cost of fraud reported by consumers was $546m (£290m). The report marks the fifth year in a row in which identity fraud has topped the table. The biggest slice of the 246,570 ID fraud cases reported - almost 30% - concerned abuses of people's credit. Misusing someone's identity to claim new credit cards or loans comprised 16.5% of the total, with almost 12% coming from false claims on existing credit. Another 18% came from attempts to rip off people's bank accounts, while 13% of cases concerned attempts to defraud employers by abusing someone else's identity. Outside the field of ID theft, 53% of the near-400,000 complaints were internet-related. Among the 100,000 internet auction complaints, the failure of sellers to deliver or the supply of sub-standard goods were the most common woes reported. Catalogue and home-shopping frauds were next in line, accounting for 8% of total complaints, while concerns about internet services and computers - including spyware found on people's PCs and undisclosed charges for websites - amounted to 6% of complaints." -business,"Indy buys into India paper Irish publishing group Independent News & Media is buying up a 26% stake in Indian newspaper company Jagran in a deal worth 25m euros ($34.1m). Jagran publishes India's top-selling daily newspaper, the Hindi-language Dainik Jagran, which has been in circulation for 62 years. News of the deal came as the group announced that its results would meet market forecasts. The company reported strong revenue growth across all its major markets. Group advertising revenues were up over 10% year-on-year, the group said, with overall circulation revenues are expected to increase almost 10% year-on-year. This was helped by the positive impact of ""compact"" newspaper editions in Ireland and the UK, it said. ""2004 has proven to be an important year for Independent News & Media,"" said chief executive Sir Anthony O'Reilly. ""Our simple aim at Independent is to be the low cost producer in every region in which we operate. I am confident that we will show a meaningful increase in earnings for 2005."" Meanwhile, the group made no comment about the future of the Independent newspaper despite recent speculation that Sir Anthony had held talks with potential buyers over a stake in the daily publication. He has consistently denied suggestions that the Independent and the Independent on Sunday are up for sale. Buy it is understood that the recent success of the smaller edition of the Independent, which has pushed circulation up by 20% to 260,000, has prompted interest from industry rivals, with Daily Mail & General Trust tipped as the most likely suitor. The loss-making newspaper is not expected to reach break-even until 2006." -business,"Barclays shares up on merger talk Shares in UK banking group Barclays have risen on Monday following a weekend press report that it had held merger talks with US bank Wells Fargo. A tie-up between Barclays and California-based Wells Fargo would create the world's fourth biggest bank, valued at $180bn (£96bn). Barclays has declined to comment on the report in the Sunday Express, saying it does not respond to market speculation. The two banks reportedly held talks in October and November 2004. Barclays shares were up 8 pence, or 1.3%, at 605 pence by late morning in London on Monday, making it the second biggest gainer in the FTSE 100 index. UK banking icon Barclays was founded more than 300 years ago; it has operations in over 60 countries and employs 76,200 staff worldwide. Its North American divisions focus on business banking, whereas Wells Fargo operates retail and business banking services from 6,000 branches. In 2003, Barclays reported a 20% rise in pre-tax profits to £3.8bn, and it has recently forecast similar gains in 2004, predicting that full year pre-tax profits would rise 18% to £4.5bn. Wells Fargo had net income of $6.2bn in its last financial year, a 9% increase on the previous year, and revenues of $28.4bn. Barclays was the focus of takeover speculation in August, when it was linked to Citigroup, though no bid has ever materialised. Stock market traders were sceptical that the latest reports heralded a deal. ""The chief executive would be abandoning his duty if he didn't talk to rivals, but a deal doesn't seem likely,"" Reuters quoted one trader as saying." -business,"Swiss cement firm in buying spree Swiss cement firm Holcim has bid $800m (£429m) to buy two Indian cement firms and a holding company in the country. It plans to buy Associated Cement Companies (ACC), Ambuja Cement Eastern and the holding firm, Ambuja Cement India Ltd, a Holcim statement said. Shares in ACC fell 5.5% as investors, who thought the offer was underpriced, decided to sell. Meanwhile, UK-based firm Aggregate Industries said it had agreed a £1.8bn takeover by Holcim. The deal with Aggregates will give Holcim, the world's second-biggest cement maker, an entry into the UK market and boost its presence in the US. Peter Tom, who will remain as Aggregate chief executive, said the 138p a share offer provided ""significant value"" for shareholders. The Markfield, Leicestershire-based company runs 142 quarries in the UK and the US. It also has 164 ready-mixed concrete plants, 90 asphalt plants and 32 pre-cast concrete factories. If the Indian deals go ahead, it will give Holcim a major presence in the world's fastest-growing market behind China. ACC is India's second-largest cement maker with an annual capacity of 18.2 million tonnes and a market share of 13%. ""Holcim is looking to buy it (ACC) very cheap,"" said KK Mittal, a fund manager with Escorts Mutual Fund in New Delhi. ""The market is not impressed. If they want a substantial chunk, then they should be paying a premium over the market price."" Shares in Holcim rose by 2.3% on Thursday following news of the takeover." -business,"Iraqi voters turn to economic issues Beyond the desperate security situation in Iraq lies an economy in tatters. A vicious cycle of unemployment, poor social services and poverty has been made worse by a lack of investment. So there is much hope that an elected government will break the deadlock. ""First rule of law, then the economy,"" says Radwan Hadi, deputy managing director of Aberdeen-based oil and gas consultancy Blackwatch Petroleum Services, which entered Iraq in 2003. Mr Hadi's view about what the new government's priorities should be is shared by many Iraqis. The economy has become the second-most dominant issue for many political parties ahead of Sunday's election, according to Bristol University political scientist Anne Alexander, who is working on a project that looks at governance and security in post-war Iraq. Job creation ranks high both on election manifestos and on the Iraqi people's wish list. Nobody knows exactly how many Iraqis are out of work, but it is clear that the situation is dire. ""Estimates of Iraq's unemployment rate vary, but we estimate it to be between 30-40%,"" the Washington-based independent think-tank The Brookings Institution says in its Iraq Index. But some progress has been made, largely thanks to the country's oil revenues which have exceeded $22bn since June 2003. Iraq's infrastructure is on the mend, with notable improvements having been made in areas such as electricity supply, irrigation, telephone networks and the re-opening of hospitals. But serious problems remain and the growing divide between haves and have-nots is angering voters. One Iraqi woman told Ms Alexander about her frustration as she watched TV adverts for private hospitals soon after having failed to track down basic medicines from Baghdad's pharmacies. Observes Mr Hadi: ""The economy at present marks a big divide; the rich get richer, the poor get poorer."" An indication of this can be seen in the world of finance where, in contrast with the daily plight of ordinary people, 19 private banks operate, only one of which is run in accordance with Islamic banking principles. Hopes are high for the future of finance, so foreign banks have been buying into the sector. National Bank of Kuwait has bought a majority stake in Credit Bank of Iraq, the Jordanian investment bank Export & Finance Bank has bought 49% of National Bank of Iraq. Foreign firms also hope to cash in on the reconstruction effort. Bechtel's efforts to rebuild schools and restore power have attracted controversy as well as boosting its bottom line while Halliburton has enjoyed a wealth of military contracts. But the involvement of foreign firms in the health and banking sectors and beyond sits uneasily with many Iraqis who are accustomed to the state taking responsibility for functions that are essential to making society work, observes Ms Alexander. ""It is seen as a selling off of Iraq's assets and bringing in multinationals at the expense of Iraqi businesses and Iraqi workers,"" she says. Consequently, the transitional government has been forced to backtrack in recent months over its proposal to allow 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi assets, she explains. In the West, it is easy to forget that the otherwise brutal Baathist regime used to look after the majority of Iraq's citizens rather well in terms of job creation, social security and healthcare. Opinion polls suggest that ""people still want the state to take a leading role in providing these things"", Ms Alexander says. Yet in some areas of the economy, investment from abroad is still warmly welcomed, insists Mr Hadi, an Iraqi who left the country three decades ago. ""I think the private sector will evolve incredibly fast,"" Mr Hadi says. ""Iraq's vast natural resources can support any magnitude of economic growth."" Many foreign companies say they are keen to get in on the act, yet few are actually entering the country in any meaningful way. But there are exceptions. Mr Hadi's Blackwatch is just one of many small operators preparing for a much bigger future. Blackwatch's Baghdad-based affiliate Falcon Group has dozens of people working for it across the country in Kirkuk and Baghdad, and its engineers and geo-scientists work with the Iraqi oil ministry to hammer out technology transfer issues, Mr Hadi points out. ""These guys are trying to work. The Iraqi business people will do business at all times. ""Life goes on in Iraq, the people take responsibility, they want to live normal lives.""" -business,"Reliance unit loses Anil Ambani Anil Ambani, the younger of the two brothers in charge of India's largest private company, has resigned from running its petrochemicals subsidiary. The move is likely to be seen as the latest twist in a feud between Mr Ambani and his brother Mukesh. Anil, 45, has stepped down as director and vice-chairman of Indian Petrochemicals Corporation (IPC). The company was not available for comment. IPC is 46%-owned by Reliance Industries which in turn is run by Mukesh. Mukesh has spoken of ownership issues between the two brothers, who took over control of the Reliance empire following the death of their father in July, 2002. Reliance's operations have massive reach, covering textiles, telecommunications, petrochemicals, petroleum refining and marketing, as well as oil and gas exploration, insurance and financial services. The brothers' spat has hogged headlines in India during recent weeks, despite a denial from the family that there was anything wrong. Speculation has been rife about what has triggered the stand-off, with some observers blaming Anil's political ambitions, others the heavy investment by Mukesh and Reliance in a mobile phone venture. Shares of IPC dipped on the news in Mumbai, but recovered to trade almost 6% higher. Reliance shares added 1.7%, while Reliance Energy, headed by Anil, jumped 7%." -business,"Chinese dam firm 'defies Beijing' The China Three Gorges Project Corp is refusing to obey a government order to stop construction of one of its giant dams, the Chinese state press has said. The builder of the Three Gorges Dam is continuing work on the sister Xiluodu dam, said the Beijing News. The Xiluodu dam is one of 30 such large-scale construction projects called to a halt because of a lack of proper environmental checks. The Beijing News said the company may instead choose to pay a fine. The firm has also ignored orders to stop construction at two of its other projects - the Three Gorges Underground Power Plant and the Three Gorges Project Electrical Power Supply Plant. So far, only 22 of the 30 construction projects targeted by China's State Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) for having not carried out mandatory environmental impact assessments have complied with its shutdown order. The China Three Gorges Project Corp could now face a fine up to 200,000 yuan ($24,000; £12,700). Last week, it denied that its projects violated regulations. ""The Three Gorges Corporation has all along abided by the law and have built our projects in accordance with the law,"" it said. The Sepa order comes as the Chinese government appears to be trying to cool the country's booming economy. Previously it has encouraged construction of new electricity generating capacity to solve chronic energy shortages, which forced many factories into part-time working last year. In 2004, China increased its generating capacity by 12.6% to 440,700 megawatts (MW). The Xiluodu Dam is designed to produce 12,600 MW of electricity, and is being built on the Jinshajiang - or ""river of golden sand"" as the upper reaches of the Yangtze are known. It is a sister project to the main Three Gorges Dam downstream where more than half a million people have had to be relocated, drawing criticism from environmental groups and overseas human rights activists." -business,"China now top trader with Japan China overtook the US to become Japan's biggest trading partner in 2004, according to numbers released by Japan's Finance Ministry on Wednesday. China accounted for 20.1% of Japan's trade in 2004, compared with 18.6% for the US. In 2003, the US was ahead with 20.5% and China came second with 19.2%. The change highlights China's growing importance as an economic powerhouse. In 2004, Japan's imports from and exports to China (and Hong Kong) added up to 22,201bn yen ($214.6bn;£114.5bn). This is the highest figure for Japanese trade with China since records began in 1947. It compares with 20,479.5bn yen in trade with the US. Trade with the US during 2004 was hurt by one-off factors, including a 13-month ban on US beef imports following the discovery of a cow infected with mad cow disease (BSE) in the US. However, economists predict China will become an even more important Japanese trading partner in the coming years. On Tuesday, figures showed China's economy grew by 9.5% in 2004 and experts say the overall growth picture remains strong. Analysts see two spurs to future growth as being China's membership of the World Trade Organisation and lower trade tariffs. During 2004, Japan's trade surplus grew 17.9% to 12.011 trillion yen, with more than half the surplus, 6.962 trillion yen, accounted for by its trade with the US. In December, the surplus grew 1.8% on a year ago to 1.14 trillion yen thanks to stronger-than-expected exports." -business,"Europe asks Asia for euro help European leaders say Asian states must let their currencies rise against the US dollar to ease pressure on the euro. The European single currency has shot up to successive all-time highs against the dollar over the past few months. Tacit approval from the White House for the weaker greenback, which could help counteract huge deficits, has helped trigger the move. But now Europe says the euro has had enough, and Asia must now share some of the burden. China is seen as the main culprit, with exports soaring up 35% in 2004 partly on the back of a currency pegged to the dollar. ""Asia should engage in greater currency flexibility,"" said French finance minister Herve Gaymard, after a meeting with his German counterpart Hans Eichel. Markets responded by pushing the euro lower, in the expectation that the rhetoric - and the pressure - is unlikely to ease ahead of a meeting of the G7 industrialised countries next week. Early on Tuesday morning, the dollar had edged higher to 1.3040 euros. The yen, meanwhile, had strengthened to 102.975 against the dollar by 0730 GMT." -business,"Building giant in asbestos payout Australian building products group James Hardie has agreed to pay $1.1bn (£568m) to victims of asbestos-related diseases. The landmark deal could see thousands of people suffering from lung diseases - caused by asbestos the company once made - receive compensation. The move follows angry protests after the firm said a previous compensation fund was running out of money. A subsequent New South Wales state inquiry criticised Hardie's actions. In September, the inquiry found that the company had misled the public about the amount of money set aside to cover its asbestos-related liabilities, sparking the resignation of its then chief executive, Peter MacDonald. Campaigners welcomed news of the preliminary agreement. ""This is a momentous day in the fight for victims and their families,"" said asbestosis sufferer Bernie Banton, who leads a victims' association. ""There is still a long way to go, but we are getting there."" James Hardie chairwoman, Meredith Hellicar, said the deal provided for a funding arrangement ""that is affordable, sensible and workable"". ""At the end of the day we are dealing with compensation for people who are terminally ill. We don't know exactly how many of them there will be, we don't know over what exact period they will fall ill,"" she said. However, the deal still has to receive the approval of Hardie's shareholders. Hardie, which currently makes more than 80% of its revenues in the US, was once Australia's biggest supplier of asbestos building materials. In 2001, the company set up a fund to compensate asbestos victims, but it later admitted the fund was running short of money. A decision by Hardie to move its headquarters to the Netherlands - while remaining a listed company in Australia - provoked a damaging public outcry. Victims groups accusing it of trying to escape its responsibilities by moving abroad, a charge the company denies. Australia's securities watchdog is currently investigating Hardie's former chief executive and former chief financial officer over allegations of misleading investors and the general public." -business,"VW considers opening Indian plant Volkswagen is considering building a car factory in India, but said it had yet to make a final decision. The German giant said it was studying the possibility of opening an assembly plant in the country, but that it remained only a ""potential"" idea. Its comments came after the industry minister of India's Andhra Pradesh state said a team of VW officials were due to visit to discuss the plans. B. Satyanarayana said he expected VW to co-sign a memorandum of agreement. Several foreign carmakers, including Hyundai, Toyota, Suzuki and Ford, already have Indian production facilities to meet demand for automobiles in Asia's fourth-largest economy. VW's proposed plant would be set up in the port city of Visakhapatnam on India's eastern coast. An Andhra Pradesh official added that VW had already approved a factory site measuring 250 acres." -business,"Cairn shares slump on oil setback Shares in Cairn Energy, a UK oil firm, have closed down 18% after a disappointing drilling update and a warning over possible tax demands. The company said tests had shown no significant finds in one of its Indian oil fields, but was upbeat about the potential of other areas. It also said the Indian government had told it to pay a production tax, for which Cairn argues it is not liable. Cairn's shares have jumped by almost 400% this year. Investors had piled into Cairn after the company announced significant oil finds in India this year. Chief executive Bill Gammell said on Friday he was ""disappointed"" with exploration in the so-called N-C extension area in Rajasthan. Investors had held high hopes of major oil finds in this area. But Cairn said estimates had been revised in what was a ""significant downgrade of the initial expectation"". Cairn also said that the government believed the company was liable to pay taxes under its production-sharing contract. The company said the rate would be about 900 rupees ($20.40; £10.50) per tonne, or seven barrels, of oil. A spokesman for the firm said that the tax would wipe 5% of the field's current value. ""Cairn refutes the government's position,"" Mr Gammell said. He insisted that the contract made it clear that the tax should be shouldered by the licensee - India's state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) - and not the contractor. ""We have a pretty strong legal case here,"" he added, saying it would only become an issue once the firm started production. Investors took a dim view of the statements though. The shares closed down 247p, or 18%, at 1115 pence. ""I think people were slightly over-ambitious for how quickly Cairn would be able to develop and potentially offload these reserves,"" said analyst Jason Kenney at ING. The disappointments overshadowed increased production targets for Cairn's existing oilfields. The company raised targets for its Mangala and Aishwariya fields in India from 60,000 barrels a day to between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels a day. Its Mangala field, thought to contain a billion barrels, is its biggest find to date. ""These two fields will provide the core of the future developments in Rajasthan,"" Mr Gammell said. Cairn added that it would be appraising another field early next year. Mr Gammell set up the company in the 1980s and has successfully switched its focus to South Asia from interests in the US and Europe. Cairn, which also operates in Nepal and Bangladesh, was catapulted into the FTSE 100 index of leading UK shares earlier this year after the sharp rise in its share price." -business,"India calls for fair trade rules India, which attends the G7 meeting of seven leading industrialised nations on Friday, is unlikely to be cowed by its newcomer status. In London on Thursday ahead of the meeting, India's finance minister, lashed out at the restrictive trade policies of the G7 nations. He objected to subsidies on agriculture that make it hard for developing nations like India to compete. He also called for reform of the United Nations, the World Bank and the IMF. Palaniappan Chidambaram, India's finance minister, argued that these organisations need to take into account the changing world order, given India and China's integration into the global economy. He said the issue is not globalisation but ""the terms of engagement in globalisation."" Mr Chidambaram is attending the G7 meeting as part of the G20 group of nations, which account for two thirds of the world's population. At a conference on developing enterprise hosted by UK finance minister Gordon Brown on Friday, he said that he was in favour of floating exchange rates because they help countries cope with economic shocks. ""A flexible exchange rate is one more channel for absorbing both positive and negative shocks,"" he told the conference. India, along with China, Brazil, South Africa and Russia, has been invited to take part in the G7 meeting taking place in London on Friday and Saturday. China is expected to face renewed pressure to abandon its fixed exchange rate, which G7 nations, in particular the US, have blamed for a surge in cheap Chinese exports. ""Some countries have tried to use fixed exchange rates. I do not wish to make any judgements,"" Mr Chidambaram said. Separately, the IMF warned on Thursday that India's budget deficit was too large and would hamper the country's economic growth, which it forecast to be around 6.5% in the year to March 2005. In the year to March 2004, the Indian economy grew by 8.5%." -business,"Burren awarded Egyptian contracts British energy firm Burren Energy has been awarded two potentially lucrative oil exploration contracts in Egypt. The company successfully bid for the two contracts, granted by government owned oil firms, covering onshore and offshore areas in the Gulf of Suez. Burren Energy already has a presence in Egypt, having been awarded an exploration contract last year. The firm, which floated in 2003, recently announced a deal to buy 26% of Indian firm Hindustan Oil Exploration. The £13.8m deal gives Burren Energy access to the Indian oil and gas industry. This latest contract expands Burren Energy's global exploration and production portfolio - it also holds contracts in Turkmenistan and the Republic of Congo. ""These assets significantly increase our exploration portfolio in Egypt and we continue to investigate further opportunities in this region,"" said chief executive Finian O'Sullivan." -business,"Japan economy slides to recession The Japanese economy has officially gone back into recession for the fourth time in a decade. Gross domestic product fell by 0.1% in the last three months of 2004. The fall reflects weak exports and a slowdown in consumer spending, and follows similar falls in GDP in the two previous quarters. The Tokyo stock market fell after the figures were announced, but rose again on a widespread perception that the economy will recover later this year. On Wednesday, the government revised growth figures from earlier in 2004 which, when taking into account performance in the most recent period, effectively tips Japan into recession. A previous estimate of 0.1% growth between July and September was downgraded to a 0.3% decline. A recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, although the Japanese government takes other factors into account when judging the status of its economy. Figures released by the government's Cabinet Office showed that GDP, on an annualised basis, fell 0.5% in the last three months of 2004. However, politicians remain upbeat about prospects for an economic boost later in the year. ""The economy has some soft patches but if you look at the bigger picture, it is in a recovery stage,"" said Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Heizo Takenaka. Gross domestic product measures the overall value of goods and services produced in a country. ""The economy must be assessed comprehensively and we cannot look at GDP alone,"" Mr Takenaka stressed. Ministers pointed to the fact that consumer spending had been depressed by one-off factors such as the unseasonably mild winter. Analysts said the figures were disappointing but argued that Japan's largest companies had been recording healthy profits and capital spending was on the rise. Japan's economy grew 2.6% overall last year - fuelled by a strong performance in the first few months - and is forecast to see growth of 2.1% in 2005. However, the economy's fragile recovery remains dependent on an upturn in consumer spending, a fall in the value of the yen and an improvement in global economies. ""The results came in at the lower end of expectations but we shouldn't be too pessimistic about the current state and the outlook for the economy,"" said Naoki Iizuka, senior economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. Japan's economy has seen stretches of moderate growth over the past decade but has periodically slipped back into recession." -entertainment,"Oscar nominees lack pulling power This year's clutch of Oscar nominees have been the least popular for 20 years according to box office figures. In the US the five nominated for best film have been seen by 50% fewer people than movies in previous years. While the awards are not based on box office popularity there is concern for the ratings of the televised ceremony. ""We don't have a Titanic or a Lord of the Rings out there. I think it's fair to say it does concern us a bit,"" said Academy executive director Bruce Davis. About 51 million people in the US have seen this year's nominees, compared with between 100 million and 118 million in recent years. The last time combined attendance was so low was in 1984 when Amadeus beat The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart and A Soldier's Story to best picture, when 41 million saw the five films. Last year's ceremony attracted the highest audience in four years as viewers tuned in to see Lord of the Ring: Return of the King sweep the board. And the show reaped its biggest audience in 1997 when Titanic took home 11 Oscars. The film had taken $500m (£264m) worldwide before the ceremony, and eventually took $1.8bn (£952m). ""Eyeballs starring at the movie screen translates to eyeballs staring at the TV screen,"" said Paul Dergarabedian of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations. ""People like to have a vested interest in what they're watching. ""When Titanic does $1.8bn in worldwide box office, you've got a lot of people with a vested interest."" Past years have also seen blockbusters such as Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump and Ghost compete for Oscars. The biggest box office hitter among this year's nominees is The Aviator, which has taken $90m (£48m) in the US, although takings in the UK have reached only £7m so far. Low-budget move Sideways and Finding Neverland have so far grossed about $45m (£24m) each. The year's biggest blockbusters do actually feature in the Oscar nominees but in the animation category. Shrek 2 and The Incredibles took $436m (£231m) while The Incredibles took $259m (£137m). Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which took $370m (£196m) in the US, was largely ignored by Academy voters. But many in the film industry do not equate award and box office success. ""I have never equated the Academy Awards with how much money a movie takes in,"" said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution at Universal which released nominee Ray. ""That's the People's Choice Awards. This is not about the public. This is about the industry bestowing awards on what they think are the best films of the year.""" -entertainment,"Alicia Keys to open US Super Bowl R&B star Alicia Keys is to open February's Super Bowl singing a song only previously performed there by Ray Charles and Vicki Carr. Keys, who will sing America the Beautiful, will be accompanied by 150 students from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind. Charles, who died last year, attended the school as a child in 1937. Keys said she was ""very excited"", describing Charles as ""an artist I admire, miss and respect"". ""I know that this is going to be a very touching and memorable moment,"" she said. It will be her first performance at the Super Bowl, which will be watched by millions in the US on 6 February. Sir Paul McCartney will provide the half-time entertainment in the slot filled by Janet Jackson last year. Organisers have promised there will be no repeat of her nipple-baring incident that sparked thousands of complaints on US TV's most-watched broadcast. A National Football League spokesman said they were ""comfortable"" this show would be acceptable to a mass audience. The game and show were watched by 144 million people in the US in 2003. Twenty CBS-owned TV stations were fined $550,000 (£300,000) by the country's TV regulatory agency after more than 542,000 complaints were made about Janet Jackson's ""wardrobe malfunction"". Sir Paul said: ""There's nothing bigger than being asked to perform at the Super Bowl. ""We're looking forward to rocking the millions at home and in the stadium.""" -entertainment,"Mutant book wins Guardian prize A book about the evolution of mutants and the science of abnormality has won the Guardian First Book Award 2004. Armand Marie Leroi, a lecturer at London's Imperial College, scooped the £10,000 prize for Mutants: On the form, varieties and errors of the human body. ""It is profoundly cultured and beautifully written in the very best tradition of popular science writing today,"" said judge Claire Armistead. The award recognises and rewards new writing across fiction and non-fiction. A panel of literary experts, including novelists Hari Kunzru and Ali Smith, director Sir Richard Eyre and comedian Alexei Sayle chose the winner from a five-strong shortlist. The shortlist included Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, a novel about the magic arts at the turn of the 19th Century and The Places In Between, Rory Stewart's account of his trek, on foot, across Afghanistan. ""What we found so impressive about Armand Marie Leroi's book was the scope of its reference, its elegance and its inquisitiveness,"" said Ms Armistead, chair of the judges and the Guardian literary editor. ""While the subject matter of Mutants unsettled some involved in the judging process, the overwhelming majority found it fascinating,"" she added. Her words were echoed by Iris director Sir Richard Eyre who called Marie Leroi's work ""extraordinarily thought provoking"". The award, for first time authors, is open to books from genres including fiction, poetry, biography, memoir, history, politics, science and current affairs. Previous winners include White Teeth by Zadie Smith, in 2000, which went on to become a bestseller." -entertainment,"J-Lo and husband plan debut duet Singers Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony, a Latin pop star, are to perform a duet at this month's Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Anthony became Lopez's third husband in June 2004. He won a Grammy in 1998 and is nominated for two more this year. The 13 February ceremony will also include a rendition of The Beatles' Across The Universe by Bono, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones and Brian Wilson. The song will go on sale online to raise money for the tsunami aid effort. The awards show will also feature performances from U2, Green Day, Alicia Keys and Kanye West - but the Lopez and Anthony duet is likely to be one of the biggest talking points. Anthony, born in New York to a Puerto Rican family, is reported to be the biggest-selling salsa artist of all time. He is nominated this year for best Latin pop album and best salsa/merengue album. The tsunami tribute song will also feature Alicia Keys, Velvet Revolver and Tim McGraw. Fans will be able to download it for $0.99 (£0.53) from iTunes, or purchase the video from the CBS TV network's site. Kanye West, the rapper who leads the awards with 10 nominations, will perform alongside John Legend, Mavis Staples and the Blind Boys of Alabama. There will also be a tribute to Ray Charles featuring Bonnie Raitt and Billy Preston and a celebration of southern rock with Tim McGraw, Gretchen Wilson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dickie Betts and Elvis Bishop. Ray Charles, who died in June 2004, has seven posthumous nominations. Alicia Keys and Usher share eight nominations each." -entertainment,"Downloads enter US singles chart Digital music downloads are being included in the main US singles chart for the first time. Billboard's Hot 100 chart now incorporates data from sales of music downloads, previously only assigned to a separate download chart. Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams is currently number two in Billboard's pop chart, and tops its digital chart. Download sales are due to be incorporated into the UK singles chart later this year. Digital sales in the US are already used to compile Billboard's Hot Digital Sales chart. They will now be tallied with sales of physical singles and airplay information to make up its new Hot 100 chart. Its second new chart - the Pop 100 - also combines airplay, digital and physical sales but confines its airplay information to US radio stations which play chart music. In addition to Green Day, other artists in the current US digital sales top 10 include Kelly Clarkson, The Game and the Killers. Sales of legally downloaded songs shot up more than tenfold in 2004, with 200 million track purchased online in the US and Europe in 12 months, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported last month. In the UK sales of song downloads overtook those for physical singles for the first time at the end of last year. The last week of December 2004 saw download sales of 312,000 compared with 282,000 physical singles, according to the British Phonographic Industry. The UK's first official music download chart was launched last September, compiling the most popular tracks downloaded from legal UK sites - including iTunes, OD2, mycokemusic.com and Napster. Westlife's Flying Without Wings - a 1999 track reissued for the occasion - was the first number one of the UK download chart. A spokesman for the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said the first combined UK download and sales chart was due to be compiled ""within the first half of this year"". ""Work is going on across the music business right now to make sure the new chart works to plan,"" he said. The BPI spokesman described the UK music download chart, compiled by the Official Charts Company, as having been ""a great success"" since its launch. ""It has provided a focus for the industry and has really driven interest in downloads among music fans,"" he said." -entertainment,"Fox 'too reliant on reality TV' The head of US TV network Fox has admitted the broadcaster had relied too heavily on reality TV shows such as the poor-rating Who's Your Daddy. Chief executive Gail Berman said ""in the case of this fall we drifted to too much on the unscripted side"". The series Who's Your Daddy, where a young woman tries to pick her natural father for a cash prize caused outrage from adoption groups and rated badly. Last season, Fox's prime-time audience fell by 600,000 to 5.9 million. Ms Berman said: ""I think the audience expects loud things from Fox. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't."" Who's Your Daddy, the first episode of which was shown on 3 January, pulled in a disappointing audience of 6.3 million, according to the Nielsen ratings system. Five other episodes of the show had also been filmed will be dropped from Fox's schedules, Ms Berman said. She was predicting a drop in ratings even for some of the network's established reality shows, such as American Idol, which is due to start its fourth series this week. Fox had unveiled a new strategy last year promising to launch new shows every season, including the traditionally quiet summer season. Though that had met with a poor reception, Ms Berman said ""there's no question that the audience, in our mind, is ready, willing and able to accept new programming in the summer"". Fox has changed this plan, launching new shows in May instead of June. One of the new shows will be the animated series American Dad, made by Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy. That series, after becoming a hit on DVD, is also set to return with new episodes." -entertainment,"Public show for Reynolds portrait Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Omai will get a public airing following fears it would stay hidden because of an export wrangle. The Tate Gallery unsuccessfully tried to buy the picture from its anonymous owner after a ban was issued preventing the painting from leaving the UK. The 18th Century painting has remained in storage but the owner has agreed to allow it to be part of an exhibition. The exhibition of Reynolds' work will be shown at Tate Britain from May. Joshua Reynolds: The Creation of Celebrity will feature prints, caricatures, and sculpture by the 18th Century artist, who painted some of the most famous personalities of his day. Portrait of Omai fetched the second highest amount for a British painting when it was sold at auction for £10.3m in 2001. It was bought by a London dealer who sold it on to a collector. The unnamed collector wanted to take it out of the country, but was barred from doing so by the government because of its historical significance. In March 2004, the Tate managed to raise £12.5m funding to buy the portrait but the owner refused to sell and it has been held in storage since. The portrait is of a young man who was dubbed ""the noble savage"" when he arrived in London from Polynesia. He became a darling of London society and was invited to all the best parties by people who were fascinated by such an exotic character. Sir Joshua painted him after his arrival in 1774, and it became the artist's most famous work after it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776." -entertainment,"Aviator and Vera take Bafta glory Hollywood blockbuster The Aviator and low-budget British movie Vera Drake have shared the main honours at the 2005 Bafta film awards. The Aviator was declared best film, and its star Cate Blanchett won best supporting actress. But Vera Drake scored best director for Mike Leigh while Imelda Staunton took the hotly contested best actress award. Jamie Foxx won best actor for Ray, while British actor Clive Owen took best supporting actor for Closer. The two actors have repeated their success at the Golden Globes in January. But big British hope Kate Winslet walked away empty-handed on Saturday despite two nominations for best actress. Celebrating his win, the Oscar-nominated Owen told reporters: ""The whole award season is new to me because I haven't won anything before. All of that is a bit overwhelming."" Blanchett, who won a Bafta in 1999 for her leading role in Elizabeth, said: ""Winning a Bafta means an enormous amount to me."" She thanked the woman she played, Katharine Hepburn, for paving the way for women to work in film. ""Thank you very much, I'm sure you're pleased, although you're not able to see this,"" she said. The Aviator took four awards in all, also collecting best make-up and hair and production design, while Vera Drake also scooped best costume design. Staunton, who is up for an Oscar for her role in Vera Drake, arrived wearing a green silk and chiffon beaded evening dress. ""Thank you very much. I'm so thrilled and so grateful and I'm delighted that the success of Vera Drake has boosted sales of hair nets and pinnies, which is very good,"" she said on accepting her award. Her director Leigh, who beat Martin Scorsese to the best director award, told the audience: ""We always say it was a surprise and sometimes I've said it and not meant it. On this occasion, given the other names, it's a real surprise and an extraordinary honour. ""It's an immense privilege to have been allowed the freedom to make as uncompromising a film as I think Vera Drake is and an epic with such a small budget."" Best actor Foxx could not make the ceremony, but actress Helen Mirren read out his acceptance speech. ""I'm honoured and proud to receive this Bafta. I'd like to thank the late Ray Charles himself."" He apologised for not being in London, joking: ""Unfortunately I'm stuck driving a car in LA at gunpoint and I can't get away."" DiCaprio, who lost out on the best actor Bafta to Foxx, will face him again at the Academy Awards in two weeks' time. ""It's the first time I've come to the Baftas because it's the first time I've been nominated,"" he told reporters on the red carpet. ""I've appreciated British cinema for a long time and to be recognised like this is a special honour."" Other winners included The Motorcycle Diaries which took best foreign film and best music, while Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind won best original screenplay and best editing. Best British film was My Summer of Love, the story of two young women and their developing relationship, while Foxx's movie Ray, a bio-pic of late singer Ray Charles, also took best sound. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban won the Orange Film Of The Year, voted for by the public. The Orange British Academy Film Awards are being shown on BBC One from 2010 GMT." -entertainment,"Paraguay novel wins US book prize A novel set in 19th century Paraguay has won the $10,000 (£5,390) fiction prize at the US National Book Awards. Lily Tuck's The News From Paraguay is a fictionalised tale about Paraguayan leader Francisco Solano Lopez and his Irish mistress. But the annual awards, which were presented in New York on Wednesday, were not without controversy. Children's author Judy Blume, who was given an honourary medal, used the ceremony to speak out over censorship. Sales of Blume's books have exceeded 75 million, but her work - which features frank narratives about families, religion and sexuality - is closely watched by the censors. Blume said: ""The urge to ban is contagious. It spreads like wildfire from community to community. Please speak out. Censors hate publicity."" Her medal marks the second year in a row the honourary prize went to someone as notable for popular success as literary greatness. Last year's honorary winner, Stephen King, accused the industry during the 2003 ceremony of snobbery against popular writers. But his argument that the award should help sell books instead of honouring excellence is not shared by everyone. This year's fiction panel overlooked high-profile works such as Philip Roth's The Plot Against America and instead chose five little-known books, all by New York-based women. One fiction judge, Stewart O'Nan, carried around a note written on a napkin that said: ""I would hope that our caring more for the quality of a work than its sales figures make us a friend of books, not an enemy."" The National Book Awards non-fiction prize was awarded to Kevin Boyle's for Arc of Justice, which focuses on a black family's fight to live in a white Detroit neighbourhood in the 1920s. The award had created a lot of interest this year after the surprise inclusion of the of the 9-11 Commission Report looking into the events of the 11 September terrorist attacks on the US. Pete Hautman won the young people's literature prize for his novel Godless. The winner in the poetry category was Jean Valentine for Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003." -entertainment,"Farrell due to make US TV debut Actor Colin Farrell is to make his debut on US television in medical sitcom Scrubs, according to Hollywood newspaper Daily Variety. The film star, who recently played the title role in historical blockbuster Alexander, will make a cameo appearance as an unruly Irishman. The episode featuring the 28-year-old will be screened on 25 January. Farrell's appearance is said to be a result of his friendship with Zach Braff, who stars in the programme. It will be the actor's first appearance on the small screen since he appeared in BBC series Ballykissangel in 1999. The gentle Sunday night drama came to an end in 2001. He has since become one of Hollywood's fastest-rising stars, with a string roles in major league films such as Minority Report, Phone Booth and Daredevil. Farrell is pencilled in to play the role of Crockett in a film version of 1980s police drama Miami Vice. Scrubs, which appears on the NBC network in the US and has been shown on Channel 4 on British television, is an off-beat comedy about a group of hospital doctors. Other film stars to have appeared in Scrubs include Heather Graham, while Friends actor Matthew Perry has guest-starred and directed an episode of the show. Its leading star, Zach Braff, has recently been seen on the big screen in Garden State, which he also directed." -entertainment,"Poppins musical gets flying start The stage adaptation of children's film Mary Poppins has had its opening night in London's West End. Sir Cameron Mackintosh's lavish production, which has cost £9m to bring to the stage, was given a 10-minute standing ovation. Lead actress Laura Michelle Kelly soared over the heads of the audience holding the nanny's trademark umbrella. Technical hitches had prevented Mary Poppins' flight into the auditorium during preview performances. A number of celebrities turned out for the musical's premiere, including actress Barbara Windsor, comic Graham Norton and Sir Richard Attenborough. The show's director Richard Eyre issued a warning earlier in the week that the show was unsuitable for children under seven, while under-threes are barred. Mary Poppins was originally created by author Pamela Travers, who is said to have cried when she saw Disney's 1964 film starring Julie Andrews. Travers had intended the story to be a lot darker than the perennial family favourite. Theatre impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh has said he hopes the musical is a blend of the sweet-natured film and the original book." -entertainment,"Help for indies in download sales A campaign has been launched to help independent labels get their music online and benefit from the growing trend for downloading music. The British Phonographic Industry has identified a lack of independent music available for download. ""We want to ensure that independent repertoire is as successful in the download world as it is in the physical world,"" said BPI chief Peter Jamieson. Downloaded singles have now overtaken physical singles in the UK. Mr Jamieson said his organisation was lobbying music service providers, which include iTunes and Napster, to urge them to promote independent releases. Download sales are due to be incorporated into the UK singles chart later this year. ""With downloads shortly to be eligible for the singles chart, this is a key commercial issue on which the BPI committed to assisting its members,"" added Mr Jamieson. As part of the campaign the BPI is running a series of seminars entitled Getting Your Music Online, focusing on how independent labels can embrace digital music. The US has already begun incorporating download sales in the Billboard's Hot 100 chart." -entertainment,"Russian film wins BBC world prize Russian drama The Return (Vozvrashchenie) has been named winner of the BBC Four World Cinema Award. The film tells the story of two adolescent boys who are subjected to a harsh regime when their strict father returns after a 10-year absence. Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, The Return previously won the 2003 Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was presented at an awards ceremony held in London on Thursday and hosted by Jonathan Ross. The winner was chosen by a panel which included X Files actress Gillian Anderson, critic Roger Clarke and Touching the Void director Kevin McDonald. Ross, who is the presenter of BBC One's Film 2005, was also involved in the deliberations. A shortlist of six films from around the world had been drawn up from which the panel chose. Other nominees included the Motorcycle Diaries, Zatoichi and Hero. A viewer poll saw director Zhang Yimou's martial arts epic Hero emerge as the favourite with 32% of votes cast. Tragedy struck the production of The Return when one of the young stars, 15-year-old Vladimir Girin, drowned in a lake where some of the film's scenes were set. The winner of the World Cinema Award last year was the French animated feature Belleville Rendezvous" -entertainment,"Tautou 'to star in Da Vinci film' French actress Audrey Tautou, star of hit film Amelie, will play the female lead in the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, it has been reported. The movie version of Dan Brown's best-selling novel is being directed by Ron Howard and also stars Tom Hanks. Tautou will play Hanks' code-cracking partner, according to various newspapers. She is currently starring in A Very Long Engagement, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Jeunet was also responsible for directing Tautou in Amelie in 2001, which launched the actress into the mainstream. She also starred as the lead role in critically-acclaimed film Dirty Pretty Things in 2002. Oscar-winning director Ron Howard chose Tautou for the part, preferring a French actress to a big name Hollywood star. UK actress Kate Beckinsale had been widely tipped as a possibility for the role alongside Vanessa Paradis and Juliette Binoche. The thriller upon which the movie is based has sold more than 17 million copies and is centred on a global conspiracy surrounding the Holy Grail mythology. The Louvre Museum, scene of the gruesome murder at the beginning of the novel, recently gave permission for filming to take place there, showbusiness newspaper Variety reported. The $100m movie will be produced by Columbia/Sony Pictures and is due for release on May 19, 2006 in the United States and France." -entertainment,"Housewives lift Channel 4 ratings The debut of US television hit Desperate Housewives has helped lift Channel 4's January audience share by 12% compared to last year. Other successes such as Celebrity Big Brother and The Simpsons have enabled the broadcaster to surpass BBC Two for the first month since last July. BBC Two's share of the audience fell from 11.2% to 9.6% last month in comparison with January 2004. Celebrity Big Brother attracted fewer viewers than its 2002 series. Comedy drama Desperate Housewives managed to pull in five million viewers at one point during its run to date, attracting a quarter of the television audience. The two main television channels, BBC1 and ITV1, have both seen their monthly audience share decline in a year on year comparison for January, while Five's proportion remained the same at a slender 6.3%. Digital multi-channel TV is continuing to be the strongest area of growth, with the BBC reporting Freeview box ownership of five million, including one million sales in the last portion of 2004. Its share of the audience soared by 20% in January 2005 compared with last year, and currently stands at an average of 28.6%." -entertainment,"Rock star sued by ex-girlfriend Motley Crue guitarist Mick Mars is being sued by his ex-girlfriend for $10 million (£5.4 million), claiming he broke a promise to take care of her. The woman, Robin Mantooth, said Mars promised her repeatedly that he would provide financial support in the event of the couple breaking up. When they split in December, Mantooth says Mars denied any such agreement. She is asking a Los Angeles court to award her half the musician's property, a monthly allowance and damages. Mantooth added that the pair became lovers in 1990, after which she abandoned her career as a documentary film-maker to move in with the guitarist at his Malibu home. She is also claiming that Mars, 53, has failed to provide her with any material support since they ceased to be a couple. Motley Crue recently reunited after being apart for a period of five years. They originally formed in the early 1980s and scored six hits in the UK, including Girls Girls Girls in 1987. They are embarking on a world tour later this year which will take in 60 cities across the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. Mars - real name Bob Allen Deal - underwent hip replacement surgery in October. He suffers from a degenerative rheumatic disease which causes ligaments and tendons to attach to the bone." -entertainment,"Gallery unveils interactive tree A Christmas tree that can receive text messages has been unveiled at London's Tate Britain art gallery. The spruce has an antenna which can receive Bluetooth texts sent by visitors to the Tate. The messages will be ""unwrapped"" by sculptor Richard Wentworth, who is responsible for decorating the tree with broken plates and light bulbs. It is the 17th year that the gallery has invited an artist to dress their Christmas tree. Artists who have decorated the Tate tree in previous years include Tracey Emin in 2002. The plain green Norway spruce is displayed in the gallery's foyer. Its light bulb adornments are dimmed, ordinary domestic ones joined together with string. The plates decorating the branches will be auctioned off for the children's charity ArtWorks. Wentworth worked as an assistant to sculptor Henry Moore in the late 1960s. His reputation as a sculptor grew in the 1980s, while he has been one of the most influential teachers during the last two decades. Wentworth is also known for his photography of mundane, everyday subjects such as a cigarette packet jammed under the wonky leg of a table." -entertainment,"Adventure tale tops awards Young book fans have voted Fergus Crane, a story about a boy who is taken on an adventure by a flying horse, the winner of two Smarties Book Prizes. Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell's book came top in the category for six- to eight-year-olds and won the award chosen by after-school club members. Sally Grindley's Spilled Water, about a Chinese girl sold as a servant, was top in vote of readers aged nine to 11. Biscuit Bear by Mini Grey took the top award in the under-five category. Winners were voted for by about 6,000 children from a shortlist picked by an adult panel. The prize, which is celebrating its 20th year, is billed as ""the UK's biggest children's book award"". Fergus Crane includes text by Stewart and illustrations by Riddell, who also created The Edge Chronicles together. As well as the six to eights prize, it won the 4Children Special Award voted for by after-school club members. Julia Eccleshare, chair of the adult judging panel, said children's literature had ""never looked stronger"" in the prize's 20 years. ""This award counts because the final choice of winners is made by children, who are the toughest critics of all,"" she said. ""This year's young judges chose the winners from an exceptionally strong and varied shortlist which showcases the very best in children's books today."" Previous winners have included JK Rowling, Jacqueline Wilson and Dick King-Smith." -entertainment,"Greer attacks 'bully' Big Brother Germaine Greer has criticised Celebrity Big Brother's ""bullying"" of housemates after quitting the reality TV show. She said ""superior"" bullying tactics, like making housemates cold and hungry, could encourage playground bullying. She also condemned the ""complete irresponsibility"" of adding Brigitte Nielsen's former mother-in-law Jackie Stallone to the house on Monday. Nielsen had panicked that if she reacted badly it could harm her access to her children, Greer said. The feminist writer and broadcaster said Big Brother had behaved ""like a child rather than a parent"" by taunting contestant John McCririck after denying him a cola drink. ""I thought it was actually demonstrating the role of taunting in the playground and there are so many children whose lives have actually been destroyed by taunting in the playground,"" Greer said. She also said that her fellow housemates had publicity-seeking ""agendas"". ""I had no idea who would be in here and it's wrong for me to present myself in the same context as they are."" Media observers had been surprised by Greer's initial decision to join the third celebrity version of the Channel 4 reality TV show, given that she has written critical articles about the format in the past. As she packed her suitcase to leave the house she told fellow housemates: ""I'm leaving over specific issues, but best for everyone if I don't discuss them. ""I have a problem with decisions, I make them fast and when I make them, I stick to them."" Greer had earlier failed to persuade other contestants to stage a naked protest against Big Brother. Other celebrities to walk out of a reality show TV include Sex Pistol John Lydon, former EastEnders actress Danniella Westbrook and ex-E17 singer Brian Harvey who all left I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here. Previous Big Brother housemates to leave before their time were Sunita Sharma and Sandy Cumming from the third series of the non-celebrity version of the show. VOTE Was Germaine Greer right to leave Celebrity Big Brother? Yes No Results are indicative and may not reflect public opinion Happy Mondays dancer Bez is now 2-1 favourite to win the show, followed by Blazin' Squad singer Kenzie at 5-2 and actor Jeremy Edwards at 4-1. Ladbrokes spokesman Warren Lush said that the series was still ""wide open"", adding that the last 24 hours had also seen a rush of bets on McCririck slashing his odds to 8-1. DJ Lisa I'Anson is the outsider with odds of 40-1, while Jackie Stallone, who joined the house on Monday, is also one of the less popular housemates at 20-1. The first eviction of the series has now been postponed after Greer's exit unexpectedly reduced the number of competitors. The eight remaining contestants are competing for a £50,000 prize, to be donated to the charity of their choice, if they survive a series of public votes. For every 50p vote cast by viewers by telephone or text during the programme's run, 9p will go to a tsunami charity appeal." -entertainment,"Spears seeks aborted tour payment Singer Britney Spears is suing eight insurance companies that have refused to reimburse her for cancelling her 2004 world tour. The pop star cancelled her Onyx Hotel tour last June after suffering a knee injury during a video shoot. She is now seeking to be reimbursed for the tour's £5m ($9.3m) costs in a claim filed at New York State Supreme Court. Seven London-based companies and an eighth Paris firm have been given up to 30 days to respond to the complaint. The 22-year-old star initially missed a number of shows on the 82-date tour after injuring her knee during a show in Illinois last March. But she was rushed to hospital and needed surgery after a later incident while filming a video for her song Outrageous, leading her to cancel the rest of the tour, including dates in China. ""She obviously took a wrong step and blew out her knee,"" a Jive spokeswoman said at the time. ""It was an old dance injury."" The legal submission described Spears as ""one of the most recognised performers in her industry"". The Onyx Hotel tour was cited as ""a highly crafted production which included the well-known music and dancing of Spears, supported by elaborate costumes, complex choreography as well as cutting-edge video production, lighting and other effects"". In September Spears married Kevin Federline, who had been a dancer on the aborted tour." -entertainment,"Snow Patrol feted at Irish awards Snow Patrol were the big winners in Ireland's top music honours, the Meteor Awards, picking up accolades for best Irish band and album on Thursday. The Belfast-born, Glasgow-based band collected the prizes at the ceremony at Dublin's Point Theatre. Westlife won the award for best Irish pop act, voted for by the public, beating former member Brian McFadden. Franz Ferdinand picked up best international band and album while Paddy Casey collected best Irish male. Singer-songwriter Casey beat Brian McFadden and Damien Rice. Juliette Turner was named best Irish female. In the international categories, Morrissey beat Eminem, Usher and Robbie Williams to best male while PJ Harvey pipped Kylie Minogue, Joss Stone, Anastacia and Natasha Bedingfield to the female crown. The 8,000 fans at the ceremony were treated to performances from US rapper Snoop Dogg, Brian McFadden with Delta Goodrem and The Thrills featuring Rolling Stones star Ronnie Wood. Snow Patrol's success came after a year in which they made a chart breakthrough with their third album Final Straw. ""I think a lot of bands should go through a wee bit of a kicking before the make a success,"" singer Gary Lightbody and drummer Jonny Quinn said. ""It has been good for us, but also hard for us over the past six years."" Snow Patrol will support U2 on their European tour later this year - but U2 were not nominated for best Irish band and album." -entertainment,"Brit awards for Devon music acts Devon singer Joss Stone and rock band Muse won coveted Brit awards during the event's 25th anniversary. Seventeen-year-old Stone, from near Cullumpton, won two awards: best British female act, and best urban act out of three award nominations. Muse, whose members met in south Devon, beat Franz Ferdinand, Jamie Cullum, Kasabian and The Libertines for best British live act. The band has sold about two million records worldwide. After beating Amy Winehouse, Jamelia, Natasha Bedingfield and PJ Harvey to the best British female prize, Joss Stone said: ""I don't know what to say. I don't like doing this at all. I'd like to thank my family for being really supportive and everybody that made my record with me."" ""I don't even know what to do right now. Thank you all you guys for voting for me, I feel sick right now."" Viewers of digital music TV channel MTV Base voted Stone the winner in the best urban act category. Ms Stone also performed her song Right To Be Wrong, backed by a gospel choir, at the 25th award ceremony at London's Earls Court. Her second album Mind, Body & Soul reached number one in the UK charts last October and went straight into the US charts at number 11. The teenager also has Grammy nominations in the US, normally dominated by home-grown acts. Born Jocelyn Stoker, the Devon diva started her career in a BBC talent programme, and was then discovered at a New York audition by a US record executive, Steve Greenberg. Indie Rock group Muse consists of Matthew Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard who met in their early teens in Teignmouth, south Devon. Dominic Howard said of winning: ""We love playing live, it's very important for our band. So to win something like this really feels great."" The trio met aged 13 and formed the band Gothic Plague, changing its name to Fixed Penalty, Rocket Baby Dolls and finally Muse. The band released its first self-titled EP in 1998. The third studio album, Absolution, was released in 2003, providing the hit singles Time Is Running Out, Hysteria, and Butterflies And Hurricanes." -entertainment,"Aviator 'creator' in Oscars snub The man who said he got Oscar-nominated movie The Aviator off the ground and signed up Leonardo DiCaprio has been shut out of the Academy Awards race. Charles Evans Jr battled over his role with the people who eventually made the film, and won a producer's credit. But he is not on the list of producers who can win a best film Oscar due to a limit on the number of nominees. The Oscars organisers have picked two of The Aviator's four producers to be nominated for best film. Up to three producers can be named per film but the studios behind The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby failed to trim their credits - so the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (Ampas) has done it for them. The Aviator's nominated producers are Michael Mann and Graham King - with Mr Evans and Sandy Climan, Mr Mann's former deputy, left off. Mr Evans sued Mr Mann in 2001, claiming he came up with the idea, spent years developing it and persuaded DiCaprio to play Hughes - but said he was later excluded from the project. The two sides settled out of court in a deal that has remained secret apart from the fact Mr Evans' name has appeared as a producer when the film's credits roll. At the Golden Globes, Mr Evans - who was named among the winners when the film won best drama film - evaded a security guard to have his photo taken with DiCaprio, director Martin Scorsese, Mr Mann and Mr King. Ampas decided to limit the number of producers who could be nominated after Shakespeare in Love's victory in 1999 saw five producers collect awards. The eligible names for The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby were decided by Ampas' producers branch executive committee on Wednesday. The decision also saw Clint Eastwood get his third personal nomination for Million Dollar Baby. He is now named in the best film category as well as being nominated for best director and best lead actor. The Academy Awards ceremony will be held in Hollywood on 27 February. Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang, star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers, is the latest name to be added to the list of presenters on the night." -entertainment,"Download chart debut is delayed The inclusion of downloaded music in the official singles chart has been delayed for a month. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) had planned to include download formats in the chart from 20 March. But the date has been put back to 17 April to create a ""level playing field"" for independent labels. The BPI is concerned that independent repertoire is not adequately represented online and said they were looking at ways of rectifying it. BPI chairman Peter Jamieson said: ""The inclusion of download formats in the Official UK Singles Chart is the most significant development in the charts for 20 years. ""But for a multitude of reasons the current chart representation of independent repertoire at the major download outlets is poor. ""I am very pleased we have secured this delay on behalf of independents. We have to try and establish a realistic 'level playing field' of opportunity. The Official UK Charts are run by The Official UK Charts Company (OCC) - a joint venture between the BPI and the British Association of Record Dealers (BARD). At an OCC board meeting on Wednesday, the OCC board agreed with BPI members that the 20 March start date be postponed. Download formats will now be included in the Official UK Singles Chart for the first time in the chart published on 17 April - the sales week beginning 10 April. The US has already merged downloaded singles into its Billboard Hot 100 chart." -entertainment,"UK debut for Kevin Spacey movie Hollywood stars Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth attended the British premiere of new film, Beyond the Sea, in London's Leicester Square on Thursday. Spacey, 45, wrote, directed and starred in the film, inspired by the life of 1950s croooner Bobby Darin. ""This is my tribute to someone I think was a remarkable talent,"" said Spacey, who, as Darin, sings all 18 songs on the film soundtrack. Bosworth, 21, plays Darin's wife - real life Hollywood actress Sandra Dee. ""I knew absolutely nothing about Bobby Darin before this film, but now I'm a huge fan,"" said Bosworth, who attended the premiere with British boyfriend Orlando Bloom. ""There is darkness and tragedy in the story, and it was a dream for me to land this part."" Actress Sandra Dee continues to live in Los Angeles as a virtual recluse, but has given her approval to the biopic. ""She called me last week and said she loved it,"" said Spacey, who was joined at the premiere by members of the boy band Westlife. Spacey, a double Oscar-winner, has long been fascinated by the story of singer Bobby Darin. The voice behind Mack the Knife, Dream Lover and Beyond the Sea, fought childhood illness to become one the biggest stars of the 1950s, but died aged 37 from the heart condition that had troubled him all his life. ""Bobby Darin was one of the greatest entertainers the world has ever known, and yet, because he died young, he's been kind of forgotten,"" said Spacey at the premiere. ""Making this film was the most fun I've ever had in my entire life."" The movie also stars British actors Bob Hoskins and Brenda Blethyn, as Darin's mother." -entertainment,"Johnny Cash manager Holiff dies The former manager of Johnny Cash, Saul Israel Holiff, has died at the age of 79, his family said. Mr Holiff, who was also a concert promoter, managed Cash's career between 1960 and 1973, quitting when he thought the singer's career had peaked. ""I was guilty for underestimating him repeatedly,"" he once said. The Canadian music manager, who also managed Tommy Hunter and the Statler Brothers, had been in declining health, according to his family. An entrepreneur from an early age, Mr Holiff served as a rear air gunner in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, afterwards setting up a drive-in restaurant. He briefly dabbled in acting, before setting up offices in Nashville and Los Angeles for his concert and artist promotion business. In 1970, RPM weekly magazine presented Holiff with a special award as the Canadian music industry's man of the year. Mr Holiff retired when he was in his late 40s, returning to education as a mature student at the University of Victoria, where he graduated with a degree in history. He passed away on 17 March. According to his wishes, there will be no funeral service." -entertainment,"Fry set for role in Hitchhiker's Actor Stephen Fry is joining the cast of the forthcoming film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Fry will provide the voice of The Guide, an electronic book which accompanies the story's hero Arthur Dent on his travels around the galaxy. Martin Freeman, John Malkovich, Bill Nighy and Alan Rickman are co-starring in the film, due for release in May. The late Douglas Adams' original 1977 scripts have also been turned into a series of successful books. ""Being asked to do the voice of The Guide is like having your birthday on Christmas Day, discovering a winning lottery ticket in your stocking and having chocolate poured all over you,"" said Fry, a self-confessed fan of the book. The film's executive producer Robbie Stamp said that Adams, who died in 2001, would have been ""delighted"" with the choice of Fry for the role. ""His humour and intelligence are perfect for the voice of The Guide,"" added Mr Stamp. Adams wrote the screenplay based on his book before his premature death, while a new radio series was aired 26 years after the first broadcast and included many of the original cast members. Hollywood star Malkovich will play religious cult leader Humma Kavula, which was especially created by Adams for the new film. Freeman, who starred in hit BBC comedy The Office, will play the role of Arthur Dent, who begins his intergalactic voyage following the destruction of the Earth." -entertainment,"Prince crowned 'top music earner' Prince earned more than any other pop star in 2004, beating artists such Madonna and Elton John in US magazine Rolling Stone's annual list. The singer banked $56.5m (£30.4m) from concerts, album and publishing sales with his Musicology tour and album. He kept Madonna in second place, as she earned $54.9m (£29.5m) while embarking on her global Re-Invention Tour. Veterans Simon and Garfunkel were in 10th place, their comeback tour helping them earn $24.9m (£13.4m) last year. ""Prince returned to centre stage after a decade in the commercial wilderness,"" the magazine reported. The singer's 2004 tour took $90.3m (£48.5m) in ticket sales and he sold 1.9 million copies of his latest album Musicology. Although she grossed more than Prince last year, Madonna remained in second place because of the ""monumental"" production costs of her tour. Heavy metal band Metallica's Madly in Anger with the World tour helped push their 2004 earnings up to $43.1m (£23.1m). They were ahead of Sir Elton John, who took fourth place and almost $42.7m (£23m) from performances including a debut on the Las Vegas Strip. Other seasoned performers in the list included Rod Stewart, whose sold-out shows and third volume of The Great American Songbook covers album helped net him £35m (£19m). The highest-ranking rap act in the list was 50 Cent, who at number 19 took $24m (£13m) to the bank." -entertainment,"Controversial film tops festival A controversial film starring Hollywood actor Kevin Bacon as a convicted paedophile won top honours at the London Film Festival on Thursday. The Woodsman won the Satyajit Ray Award, named after the Indian director. The low-budget film, directed by Nicole Kassell, is about a convicted child molester trying to rebuild his life after 12 years in jail. Judges said the film tackled the contentious subject with ""great insight and sensitivity"". Previous films to take the prize include the Oscar-winning Boys Don't Cry, which was about the true life story of murdered transsexual Brandon Teena. British writer-director Amma Asante won the UK Film Talent Award this year for her debut feature A Way Of Life. Set in South Wales, the film is about a teenage single mother who becomes embroiled in a tense stand-off with a Turkish neighbour. Also on Thursday night, the Fipresci International Critics Awards went to Aaltra, a Belgian film about the handicapped; and the Sutherland Trophy, which was won by Jonathan Caouette for his film Tarnation. The festival closed with a screening of the film I Heart Huckabees, starring Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman and directed by Three Kings film-maker David O Russell. The festival this year also included the first European screening of the new Pixar animation The Incredibles, and the British film Bullet Boy, starring So Solid Crew rapper Asher D." -entertainment,"Fockers fuel festive film chart Comedy Meet The Fockers topped the festive box office in North America, setting a new record for Christmas Day. The sequel took $44.7m (£23.2m) between 24 and 26 December, according to studio estimates. It took $19.1m (£9.9m) on Christmas Day alone, the highest takings on that day in box office history. Meet The Fockers is the sequel to Ben Stiller comedy Meet The Parents, also starring Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. Despite the success of Meet The Fockers, takings were down 26.5% on 2003's figures - which was blamed on Christmas falling over a weekend this year. ""When Christmas falls on a weekend, it's bad for business,"" said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, which compiles box office statistics. The weekend's top 12 films took an estimated $121.9m (£63.3m), compared with $165.8m (£86.1m) last year, when the third Lord of the Rings film dominated the box office. Meet The Fockers knocked last week's top film, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, down to third place, with $12.5m (£6.5m). Comedy Fat Albert - co-written by Bill Cosby - entered the chart in second place after opening on Christmas Day, taking $12.7m (£6.6m). The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, took $9.4m after expanding from 40 to 1,796 cinemas on Christmas Day." -entertainment,"US critics laud comedy Sideways Road trip comedy Sideways has had more praise heaped on it by two US critics' associations, adding to honours it has already picked up. The Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) named it winner in five categories including best film and best actor for Paul Giamatti. But the director award went to Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby. The Southeastern Film Critics also awarded Sideways its best film of the year accolade. Director Alexander Payne was named best director, and he also won best screenplay shared with Jim Taylor. The CFCA awarded Thomas Haden Church the best supporting actor prize and Virginia Madsen the best supporting actress award for their roles in the film. Sideways has already been voted best film by critics associations in New York and Los Angeles and has been nominated for a Golden Globe. British actress Imelda Staunton won the CFCA best actress for the gritty abortion drama Vera Drake, adding to a growing list of awards she has won for her performance in the Mike Leigh film. Scrubs star Zach Braff was named best new director for his debut Garden State. Michael Moore's controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 won the best documentary, while A Very Long Engagement won best foreign film. The Chicago critics have yet to name a date for when their awards ceremony will be held." -entertainment,"Springer criticises Opera musical Talk show host Jerry Springer, whose programme inspired the controversial opera shown by the BBC, has said he would not have written it himself. The BBC received 47,000 complaints before the musical was broadcast, and protesters demonstrated outside BBC buildings across the UK. Springer helped launch the West End show and attended the opening night. ""I wouldn't have written it. I don't believe in making fun of other religions,"" he said. The TV host said he understood how people could have thought the musical had gone too far. ""You know, on our TV show if people use inappropriate language we bleep it out, if there's nudity we cover it up, so that viewers at home don't get to see any of this,"" he said. Asked whether he thought the BBC should have screened the controversial musical he said: ""I don't know if they should have had it on television but, good Lord, if you don't like what's on television, that's why God gave us remote controls. ""My show is about dysfunctional people and I defy anyone to watch the show and suggest to me the people on it aren't to some degree dysfunctional."" ""If I did a show about the war in Iraq, it wouldn't make me a warmonger, I would just be doing my job to report on the war. ""In the case of my show, it's my job to report on the dysfunctions that take place in society."" The British-born presenter is in London to speak at a fundraising dinner for the United Jewish Israel Appeal. The dinner, on Tuesday, is expected to be attended by more than 800 guests." -entertainment,"Dirty Den's demise seen by 14m More than 14 million people saw ""Dirty"" Den Watts killed off on Friday, marking EastEnders' 20th anniversary, according to unofficial figures. Den's death came 16 years after he was supposedly shot in 1989. But he came back to the show in September 2003. The audience for BBC One's one-hour special averaged 13.7 million and peaked at 14.2 million in the last 15 minutes, overnight figures showed. Den died after being confronted by Zoe, Chrissie and Sam in the Queen Vic. If the ratings are confirmed, the episode will have given the soap its highest audience for a year. The overnight figures showed almost 60% of the viewing public tuned into EastEnders between 2000 and 2100 GMT, leaving ITV1 with about 13%. ""We are very pleased with the figures,"" a BBC spokesman said. ""It shows viewers have really enjoyed the story of Den's demise."" The show's highest audience came at Christmas 1986, when more than 30 million tuned in to see Den, played by Leslie Grantham, hand divorce papers to wife Angie. Two years later, 24 million saw him apparently shot by a man with a bunch of daffodils by a canal. More than 16 million viewers watched his return in 2003. The show's ratings have since settled down to about 12 million per episode. Grantham hit the headlines in May after a newspaper printed photographs of him apparently exposing himself via a webcam from his dressing room. He also allegedly insulted four co-stars. He apologised for his ""deplorable actions"" and ""a moment's stupidity""." -entertainment,"Tautou 'to star in Da Vinci film' French actress Audrey Tautou, star of hit film Amelie, will play the female lead in the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, it has been reported. The movie version of Dan Brown's best-selling novel is being directed by Ron Howard and also stars Tom Hanks. Tautou will play Hanks' code-cracking partner, according to various newspapers. She is currently starring in A Very Long Engagement, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Jeunet was also responsible for directing Tautou in Amelie in 2001, which launched the actress into the mainstream. She also starred as the lead role in critically-acclaimed film Dirty Pretty Things in 2002. Oscar-winning director Ron Howard chose Tautou for the part, preferring a French actress to a big name Hollywood star. UK actress Kate Beckinsale had been widely tipped as a possibility for the role alongside Vanessa Paradis and Juliette Binoche. The thriller upon which the movie is based has sold more than 17 million copies and is centred on a global conspiracy surrounding the Holy Grail mythology. The Louvre Museum, scene of the gruesome murder at the beginning of the novel, recently gave permission for filming to take place there, showbusiness newspaper Variety reported. The $100m movie will be produced by Columbia/Sony Pictures and is due for release on May 19, 2006 in the United States and France." -entertainment,"Johnny and Denise lose Passport Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen's Saturday night entertainment show Passport to Paradise will not return to screens, the BBC has said. The ex-Big Breakfast presenters were recruited to host the BBC One family variety show last July. ""There are currently no plans for another series,"" a spokeswoman said. She added the pair ""brought a real warmth to Saturday night, but in the end we felt we had done enough with the format of the show"". Passport to Paradise involved a combination of games and outside broadcasts with a high level of audience participation. The first instalment attracted more than 4.1 million viewers - but that had dropped to fewer than 2.7 million by the time it ended. The BBC spokeswoman said Graham Norton's Strictly Dance Fever would be a priority for 2005. ""That's very much on the cards for next year, and we're concentrating at the moment on Strictly Come Dancing, which is doing phenomenally well,"" she said." -entertainment,"Berlin celebrates European cinema Organisers say this year's Berlin Film Festival, which opens on Thursday with period epic Man to Man, will celebrate a revitalised European cinema. Of the 21 films in competition for the Golden and Silver Bear awards, more than half are from Europe with France particularly well represented. Festival director Dieter Kosslick says this strong showing signals ""a new consciousness for European films"". ""They're on an incredible winning streak,"" he told the Reuters agency. ""This isn't to say there aren't any good American films,"" he continued. ""It's just that there are more good European films."" However, Mr Kosslick refused to accept that widespread opposition to the Iraq war had turned audiences against Hollywood imports. ""There is no anti-American mood,"" he said. Some 350 films will be screened at this year's festival, with a further 300 shown at the European Film Market that runs alongside it. More than a dozen celebrities are scheduled to attend, among them Will Smith, Kevin Spacey and Keanu Reeves. But Mr Kosslick says more would be coming had the Academy Awards not been brought forward to 27 February. ""I'm not worried that we won't be able to fill the red carpet with stars,"" he said, though he admitted the festival may be moved to January next year to avoid a similar clash. The 10-day Berlinale runs until 20 February." -entertainment,"Top gig award for Scissor Sisters New York band Scissor Sisters have won a gig of the year award for their performance at this year's V Festival. The award was voted for by listeners of Virgin Radio, which compiled a top 10 which was mostly dominated by newcomers on the music scene this year. The quirky disco-rock band beat The Red Hot Chili Peppers who came second for their Hyde Park performance in June. Virgin Radio DJ Pete Mitchell said: ""This year has seen an amazing array of talent come into the mainstream."" He added: ""The Scissor Sisters are one of the most original, eccentric bands to come through and it's no surprise the British public are lapping up their performances."" Newcomers Keane came in third place for their August gig at the V Festival, followed by Maroon 5 and Snow Patrol. Music veterans The Who and David Bowie, both earned places on the list, at number eight and 10 respectively. At number seven was Oxfam's Make Fair Trade gig at London's Hammersmith Apollo in October, which featured performances by REM, Razorlight and Coldplay's Chris Martin. Glasgow's Franz Ferdinand earned a place at number nine for their home-town performance in April. The annual survey was voted for by nearly 4,000 listeners." -entertainment,"Singer Ian Brown 'in gig arrest' Former Stone Roses singer Ian Brown was arrested after a fight during a concert in San Francisco on Tuesday, his spokesman has said. A fan jumped on stage and attacked the singer, who then became involved in a fracas with a security guard, Fiction Records spokesman Paul Smernicki said. He said Brown was arrested at his hotel after the show at the Great American Music Hall but released without charge. San Francisco police said they could find no record of his arrest. Mr Smernicki said he had been told a fan ""rugby-tackled"" the singer during the gig, which resulted in ""pushing and shoving"". Brown then got into a brawl with another man who tried to restrain him - without realising he was a security guard, Mr Smernicki added. The star went off for 15 minutes before returning to finish his set. Police took witness statements and apprehended Brown at his hotel, Mr Smernicki said. But he was released without charge and ""as far as we're aware, that's the end of it"", Mr Smernicki added. A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department said he may have been detained but they could find no record of the incident. Brown, 42, was lead singer with The Stone Roses, one of the most seminal bands in British rock, until they split in 1996. He has since forged a successful solo career, scoring nine UK top 30 singles since 1998. In 1998, he was sentenced to four months in jail for using threatening behaviour towards an aeroplane captain and stewardess." -entertainment,"Wal-Mart is sued over rude lyrics The parents of a 13-year-old girl are suing US supermarket giant Wal-Mart over a CD by rock group Evanescence that contains swear words. The lawsuit, filed in Washington County, alleges Wal-Mart deceived customers by not putting warning labels on the cover. Trevin Skeens alleges Wal-Mart knew of the offending word because it had censored it on its music sales website. Wal-Mart said it was investigating the claims but had no plans to pull the CD. Wal-Mart has a policy of not stocking CDs which carry parental advisory labels. Mr Skeens said he bought the Anywhere But Home CD for his daughter and was shocked to hear the swearing when it was played in their car. ""I don't want any other families to get this, expecting it to be clean. It needs to be removed from the shelves to prevent other children from hearing it,"" said Mr Skeens of Brownsville. The lawsuit seeks to force Wal-Mart to censor the music or remove it from its stores in Maryland. It also seeks damages of up to $74,500 (£38,660) for every customer who bought the CD at Maryland Wal-Marts, and also naming record label Wind-Up Records and distributor BMG Entertainment in the legal action. ""While Wal-Mart sets high standards, it would not be possible to eliminate every image, word or topic that an individual might find objectionable,"" Wal-Mart spokesman Guy Whitcomb told the Herald-Mail of Hagerstown." -entertainment,"Career honour for actor DiCaprio Actor Leonardo DiCaprio's ""exceptional career"" has been honoured at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The star was presented with the award by Martin Scorsese, who directed him in Oscar-nominated movie The Aviator. ""It's a lifetime achievement award, which is completely and utterly surreal, given I'm only 30 years old,"" DiCaprio said. ""But what has it been? Almost 17 years now. I've done quite a few films."" A retrospective of his movies was shown. ""What's really exciting, for me, is that this is what I really love doing,"" he added. ""It's what I want to do for the rest of my life."" DiCaprio began his movie career in horror film Critters 3, before moving onto roles in The Basketball Diaries, Romeo and Juliet, Titanic and Gangs of New York. The achievement award was created to commemorate the California festival's 20th anniversary and coincided with DiCaprio's portrayal of millionaire Howard Hughes in The Aviator. Veteran actress Jane Russell, who starred in Hughes' 1943 film The Outlaw, said was impressed by DiCaprio's quest for authenticity when he previously discussed the role with her. ""I was very happy that (DiCaprio) came and cared to come up and find out what (Hughes) was really like,"" she said. The Aviator has taken pole position in this year's Oscars race with 11 nominations, including nominations for best film, best actor for DiCaprio and best director for Scorsese." -entertainment,"Douglas set for Indian adventure Actor Michael Douglas is to co-produce and star in an adventure film about a diamond robbery set in India. The new picture is expected to be similar to Douglas's action films of the 1980s, Romancing The Stone and The Jewel Of The Nile. Another Hollywood star is being lined up to co-star, while the rest of the cast will be Indian. Aishwarya Rai, star of Bride and Prejudice, is the ""preferred choice"" of the Indian studio involved in the film. On a visit to India, the 60-year-old actor said he hoped to start shooting Racing The Monsoon next year. Douglas added that it had been inspired by a Wall Street Journal article about India's 'angadias', who courier money and diamonds around India. The actor's own production company, Further Films, is working in partnership with two Indian film-making concerns to bring the picture to the screen. Shailendra Singh, the founder of India's Percept Films, said there would be ""a lot of India"" in the movie - and that an Indian train would play a big role. ""The train will be a crucial part of the film. The chase and most of the stunts will be on the train,"" said Mr Singh. Swashbuckling adventure film Romancing The Stone saw Douglas's female co-star Kathleen Turner win a Golden Globe award for her performance in 1985." -entertainment,"No charges against TV's Cosby US comedian Bill Cosby will not face charges stemming from an allegation of sexual misconduct. Authorities in Philadelphia said they found insufficient evidence to support the woman's allegations regarding an alleged incident in January 2004. The woman reported the allegations to Canadian authorities last month. Cosby's lawyer, Walter M Phillips Jr, said the comedian was pleased with the decision. ""He looks forward to moving on with his life,"" he said. District Attorney Bruce L Castor Jr, who was in charge of the case, said that detectives could find no instance ""where anyone complained to law enforcement of conduct which would constitute a criminal offence. He also said that the fact the woman waited a year before coming forward, and she had had further contact with Cosby during that time, were also factors in his decision. The unidentified woman's lawyer, Dolores M Troiani, said her client was likely to sue the comedian. ""I think that's the only avenue open to her. She felt, as we did, that it's a very strong case and she was telling the truth."" She also said that the woman supplied further evidence to prosecutors that she believed strengthened her allegations. Cosby emerged as one of the first black comics to have mainstream success in the US. He was a successful stand-up before hosting the children's show Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and starring in The Cosby Show, one of the biggest sitcoms of the 1980s." -entertainment,"Volcano drama erupts on BBC One Supervolcano, a docu-drama about a volcanic eruption in Yellowstone National Park in the US, is among the highlights on the BBC One this winter. The £178m winter schedule also includes the return of Doctor Who and a drama about Angela Cannings, who was wrongly convicted of killing two of her babies. Sarah Lancashire and Timothy Spall will star in the real-life drama, Cherished. ITV also unveiled their festive season on Tuesday, which includes Stephen Fry in a remake of Tom Brown's Schooldays. Supervolcano, follows in the footsteps of last year's Pompei, which drew 10 million viewers to BBC One in October 2003. The programme merges science, drama and computer imagery to reveal what could happen if Yellowstone - home to the only currently active supervolcano in the world - were to erupt again. BBC Two will run a two-part documentary, The Science Behind Supervolcano, in conjunction with the transmission. Other educational highlights include a documentary about infamous Mongolian warrior Genghis Khan and Grandchild of The Holocaust. Grandchild of The Holocaust, part of the BBC commitment to Holocaust Memorial Day, follows Adrian, 13, on a journey to uncover the truth about what happened to his grandmother in Auschwitz and Belsen. New drama includes Archangel, an adaptation of the Robert Harris best-seller, which stars Daniel Craig on the trail of Stalin's diaries in Communist Russia. And Sarah Waters' gets her second adaptation on BBC One with Imelda Staunton and Charles Dance lined up to star in Fingersmith. The adaptation, about a conman in Victorian England, will make an interesting contrast to Julie Burchill's Sugar Rush - a lesbian teenage drama part of Channel Four's winter season. On a lighter note, Jessica Stevenson will star in new BBC One sitcom, The World According to Bex, penned by My Family creator Fred Barron and the Two Ronnies return for a celebration of their classic comedy series. Fry's portrayal of headmaster Dr Arnold dominates a muted Christmas schedule on ITV1, which sees the channel retreat from broadcasting blockbuster movies in favour of extended soap episodes and popular quiz shows. Sir Paul McCartney, wife Heather Mills and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will join a celebrity edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? on Christmas Day. Also on Christmas Day, John Nettles will return in a one-off edition of Midsomer Murders, while two episodes of the new Miss Marple drama will air over the festive period. Films on ITV1 include Gus Van Sant's Finding Forrester, starring Sean Connery, and classics such a Mary Poppins, Star Wars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In contrast, BBC's Christmas season includes terrestrial debuts of the first Harry Potter film, Shrek and Steven Spielberg's AI, as well as new epipsodes of the Vicar of Dibley and the final Auf Wiedersehen, Pet." -entertainment,"Rapper Snoop Dogg sued for 'rape' US rapper Snoop Dogg has been sued for $25m (£13m) by a make-up artist who claimed he and his entourage drugged and raped her two years ago. The woman said she was assaulted after a recording of the Jimmy Kimmel Live TV show on the ABC network in 2003. The rapper's spokesman said the allegations were ""untrue"" and the woman was ""misusing the legal system as a means of extracting financial gain"". ABC said the claims had ""no merit"". The star has not been charged by police. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles on Friday, says the woman's champagne was spiked and she was then assaulted. The rapper's spokesperson said: ""Snoop will have the opportunity to prove in a court of law that [the alleged victim] is opportunistic and deceitful. ""We are confident that in this case, [the alleged victim's] claims against Snoop Dogg will be rejected."" The lawsuit names Snoop Dogg - real name Calvin Broadus - plus three associates, The Walt Disney Company and its parent company ABC Inc. The woman waited two years to sue because she was trying to negotiate a settlement with the media companies, her lawyer, Perry Wander, said. Disney and ABC ""failed to provide a safe working environment for my client,"" he said. The legal action comes after the rap star sued a woman who claimed they tried to blackmail him to keep quiet about an alleged assault. The 32-year-old rapper has enjoyed six US top 10 albums since bursting onto the music scene with hit songs like What's My Name? and Gin and Juice in 1993." -entertainment,"US TV cuts nudity from BBC film A US TV network is editing BBC Films' Dirty War to avoid showing the front of a nude woman being scrubbed down after a fictional chemical attack. It is not worth showing ""non-essential"" nude scenes when indecency complaints are ""aggressively pursued"" by US TV watchdogs, said PBS' Jacoba Atlas. Dirty War - screened uncut on BBC One last September - depicts a dirty bomb attack on the City of London. It is also being screened uncut on US cable channel HBO on 24 January. PBS said it will use extra footage for its broadcast, showing the woman ""from a more discreet angle"" instead. The US Federal Communications Commission fined CBS $550,000 (£306,814) last autumn for singer Janet Jackson's ""wardrobe malfunction"", during which her breast was exposed during a dance routine with Justin Timberlake. Many US networks and broadcasters are now more nervous about airing nudity, violence or bad language. Ms Atlas said PBS could put itself financially at risk if it showed the uncut version of Dirty War, and it could also deter many of its 170 individual stations from airing ""an important film"". ""You want to pick your battles,"" she said. She added that PBS, which is a private, non-profit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation's 349 public television stations, is bolder about screening non-fiction or historical programming. PBS is seen in virtually all US homes with TV, and describes itself as a ""trusted community resource"" serving nearly 100 million people each week." -entertainment,"Critics back Aviator for Oscars Martin Scorsese's The Aviator will win best film at the Oscars, according to the UK's leading movie critics. But several of those surveyed by the BBC News website think the veteran film-maker will lose the best director prize to Clint Eastwood. Most of the critics tipped Jamie Foxx and Hilary Swank to scoop best actor and actress for Ray and Million Dollar Baby respectively. The jury comprised experts and critics from the top UK film publications. The panel also revealed which nominees they would personally prefer to win. All expect The Aviator to win best film, but many think it will be a close race between Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic and Eastwood's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby. The other films nominated are wine comedy Sideways, factual drama Finding Neverland, and Ray Charles biopic Ray. ""I'm pretty sure this is the year of The Aviator, though my own choice would be Sideways,"" said the Observer's Philip French. ""Sideways should win but it doesn't have a hope,"" said Jamie Graham of Total Film, a position shared by Film 2005 presenter Jonathan Ross. ""The form going in to the Oscars points to The Aviator, but I liked Million Dollar Baby more,"" said Tim Dams, news editor of trade weekly Screen International. Five of the eight critics tipped Scorsese to win best director, with Mr Dams, Heat's Charles Gant and Empire's Angie Errigo plumping for Eastwood. Sideway's Alexander Payne, Ray's Taylor Hackford and British director Mike Leigh - nominated for period drama Vera Drake - are considered outsiders in this category. ""Up until recently I could have sworn Scorsese would get it just for being Scorsese,"" Ms Errigo told the BBC News website. ""But I'm beginning to think Eastwood will get it."" ""I'd be very happy for Mike Leigh to win, but I don't think he has any chance,"" said Charles Gant, film editor of Heat. Foxx's portrayal of Ray Charles has already seen him win prizes at the Golden Globes, Baftas and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Mr Dams said this made him ""out-and-out favourite"" to be named best actor on Oscar night. ""Everyone would be incredibly surprised if he didn't win,"" he said. ""If you're a betting man, he's as close as you get to a certainty."" ""If Paul Giamatti was nominated for Sideways it would be a different game,"" says Total Film's Jamie Graham. ""But Foxx will and should win."" With Vera Drake star Imelda Staunton nominated for best actress alongside Kate Winslet, Britain has a good chance of victory - on paper. Jonathan Ross, for one, will be very happy if Winslet wins for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But while Wendy Ide of The Times still thinks Staunton has a chance, Heat's Charles Gant believes her Bafta win will cut little ice with Academy voters. ""I'd like Staunton to win, but her chances are not that great,"" said Mr Gant, who predicted a second Oscar for Hilary Swank. ""I think Swank will win,"" said Mr French. ""Imelda has got as far as she's going to get playing that role."" Staunton is also the personal choice of Steven Gaydos, executive editor of industry magazine Variety. But while he tipped Swank to win, he predicted it would be a close contest. ""Everything has the ability to flip by one vote and go the other way,"" he told the BBC News website. ""There's not a sense that it's obvious how it's going to go."" Meanwhile, thousands of people have voted in a BBC Radio Five Live poll to find the best film never to have won a best picture Oscar. The audience voted overwhelmingly for The Shawshank Redemption, the 1994 Frank Darabont tale of hope and humanity, which received 52% of the online votes and 68% of the text messages. The other two finalists, Citizen Kane and A Matter of Life and Death split the remaining votes roughly equally. This year's Academy Awards will be shown in the UK by Sky Movies 1 at 0130 GMT on Monday. - Tim Dams, Screen International: Film - The Aviator; director - Clint Eastwood; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Angie Errigo, Empire: Film - The Aviator; director - Clint Eastwood; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Philip French, The Observer: Film - The Aviator; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Charles Gant, Heat: Film - The Aviator; director - Clint Eastwood; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Steven Gaydos, Variety: Film - The Aviator; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Jamie Graham, Total Film: Film - The Aviator; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Wendy Ide, The Times: Film - The Aviator; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Imelda Staunton. - Jonathan Ross, Film 2005: Film - The Aviator; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Tim Dams, Screen International: Film - Million Dollar Baby; director - Clint Eastwood; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Angie Errigo, Empire: Film - The Aviator; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Philip French, The Observer: Film - Sideways; director - Martin Scorsese; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Imelda Staunton. - Charles Gant, Heat: Film - Sideways; director - Mike Leigh; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Imelda Staunton. - Steven Gaydos, Variety: Film - Million Dollar Baby; director - Clint Eastwood; actor - Don Cheadle; actress - Imelda Staunton. - Jamie Graham, Total Film: Film - Sideways; director - Alexander Payne; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Hilary Swank. - Wendy Ide, The Times: Film - Sideways; director - Alexander Payne; actor - Don Cheadle; actress - Imelda Staunton. - Jonathan Ross, Film 2005: Film - Sideways; director - Clint Eastwood; actor - Jamie Foxx; actress - Kate Winslet." -entertainment,"New media battle for Bafta awards The BBC leads the nominations for the Bafta Interactive Awards, including one for the Radio Times website and one for Sport Interactive's Euro 2004 coverage. The awards, which were started in 1997, recognise the best websites, digital TV shows and CD roms. Other nominees include The Guardian news website, the National Theatre, MTV, the Science Museum and the London Stock Exchange. The winners from 12 different categories are crowned on 2 March 2005. There were nearly 400 entries this year - a third more than last year. The BBC has 16 nominations while The Guardian has three nominations. ""This year's nominees are a testament to the creative and innovative work going on within the industry,"" said Grant Dean, chair of the interactive committee. Categories include interactive TV, film, digital TV, mobile phones and music. Shaun of the Dead, Oasis' Definitely Maybe, Really Bend It Like Beckham, The Chaplin Collection and The Day Today will battle it out in the DVD category. ITV's Great British Spelling Test takes on the BBC's Olympics and Spooks Interactive for the interactive TV award. And the Guardian takes three of a possible five nominations in the news and sport category for its website coverage of Euro 2004, the Tour de France and the US elections. The BBC's iCan site is up for the technical and social innovation award alongside the likes of Nottingham University's Uncle Roy All Around You. In 2002, the British Academy of Film and Television decided to split the awards into separate games and interactive ceremonies, to fully cover the range of innovation outside the gaming industry." -entertainment,"School tribute for TV host Carson More than 1,000 people turned out on Sunday to pay tribute to late US TV presenter Johnny Carson in the Nebraska town where he grew up. Carson, who hosted the Tonight Show for 30 years, died on 23 January from respiratory disease emphysema. He lived in Norfolk, Nebraska from the age of eight until he joined the Navy, but returned regularly and donated $5m (£2.7m) to local causes. Old school friends were among the crowd at the school's Johnny Carson Theater. Carson, who was one of the best-loved TV personalities in the US, asked not to have a public memorial in Los Angeles, where he lived in later life. He began his showbusiness career in Norfolk, performing magic under the name The Great Carsoni from the age of 14. His donations included $600,000 to Norfolk High School in the 1980s to build a new performing arts centre. When Carson died, President Bush led the public tributes, saying the presenter ""had a profound influence on American life and entertainment""." -entertainment,"Court halts Mark Morrison album Premiership footballer and record company boss Kevin Campbell has gained a court injunction stopping R&B singer Mark Morrison from releasing an album. The Everton striker signed Morrison to his fledging 2 Wikid Records label and claims he spent thousands of pounds producing his album Innocent Man. Now he is attempting to prevent Morrison releasing the album on Monday through another label. But Morrison vowed to ignore the order, saying ""no judge is gonna stop me"". Morrison, who is now as well known for his brushes with the law than his music career, rose to fame with the 1996 single Return of the Mack. But the Leicester singer has struggled to repeat its success following two spells in jail. One was for hiring a stand-in to complete his community service for possession of a stun gun and three-months following a nightclub fracas. He signed to Mr Campbell's label a year ago and has released one single, with the label saying the album was due for release on 24 January. But Mr Campbell said he learned that Morrison planned to release the album through Jet Star, which is advertising it on its website. Mr Campbell said: ""I'm glad we were granted the injunction but I'm completely gutted that we have had to go that far. ""Mark Morrison was given everything he asked for by 2 Wikid but it seems that he couldn't help but return to his old ways. ""I've worked hard to realise my ambition in football but had hoped that my future career would be in the music business. ""I have always dreamt of starting a record label but now Mark Morrison has spoilt that dream for me. There is no loyalty in this business - just greed."" But Morrison is determined the album will be released on Monday. He said: ""The injunction is ludicrous. ""I signed a new deal with a new record company because I was not getting the support I needed from 2 Wikid. ""I was with that label for a year and in that time released just one record, which was not properly promoted. He added: ""The whole world is waiting for this album and it will come out on December 27. No injunction or judge will stop it. The Mack will return."" The case is set to be heard in the High Court on 20 December." -entertainment,"Ethnic producers 'face barriers' Minority ethnic led (Mel) production companies face barriers in succeeding in the film and television industries, research has suggested. The study, commissioned by Pact and the UK Film Council, included interviews with industry experts and individuals. They indicated that career progression and a lack of role models are among the main problems within such companies. The research indicated that about 10% of independent production companies in the UK are minority ethnic led. A minority ethnic led company is defined as one in which the majority of decision-making power rests with an individual or individuals from a minority ethnic group. The report also explored the problems faced by such companies when attempting to compete within the film and TV industries. It said they are often smaller than other companies and lack the resources, so are often squeezed out of the market by bigger firms. The research recommended that minority ethnic led companies could benefit from such positive actions as career training and business advice, plus improved communication within the film and TV sectors. ""The UK has a rich and diverse culture and it is essential that it is reflected on film and television,"" said Arts minister Estelle Morris of the findings. ""I welcome this report which I hope will lead to more doors being opened and all businesses in our film and television industries being given the same opportunities.""" -entertainment,"New Harry Potter tops book chart Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has topped Amazon's book chart less than 24 hours after its release date - 16 July - was announced. Thousands of customers placed pre-orders on the amazon.co.uk website for the sixth book in the series. Rowling revealed she had completed the novel on Tuesday, ahead of the scheduled announcement on 25 December. It will be published simultaneously in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. JK Rowling's fifth book in the wizard series, Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix was Amazon's largest pre-ordered item ever, with 420,000 copies pre-ordered prior to its release in June 2003. Customers who pre-order Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince avoid standing in long queues at bookshops on the day of the book's release next July. ""The fact that the book has already hit number one in our Hot 100 books chart shows how incredibly excited customers are about the sixth Harry Potter,"" said Amazon's Robin Terrell. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes up the story of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as Lord Voldemort grows stronger. Rowling has already revealed that the Half-Blood Prince is neither Harry nor Voldemort. And she added that the opening chapter of the book had been brewing in her mind for 13 years. Rowling said she had plenty of time while pregnant ""to tinker with the manuscript to my satisfaction and I am as happy as I have ever been with the end result"". She also previously revealed that a character will be killed in the sixth book, but she has given no hints as to who it might be. Following publication of the sixth book, just one novel remains to complete the series." -entertainment,"South Bank Awards honour hit soap Coronation Street has become the first soap to triumph at the South Bank Show Awards, which traditionally reward highbrow and groundbreaking culture. The soap beat fellow ITV1 show Filthy Love and Channel 4's Shameless to win the best TV drama prize on Thursday. Little Britain was named best comedy while Franz Ferdinand beat Morrissey and The Libertines to the music award. Shane Meadows' Dead Man's Shoes picked up the best film award, beating Shaun of the Dead and My Summer of Love. The two award ceremonies reflect the achievements the industry believes have been made in the last year. In 2004, Coronation Street pulled away from its BBC One rival EastEnders in the ratings and dominated other TV awards. Last year, the South Bank Award for best TV drama went to Steven Poliakoff's period piece The Lost Prince, while Bloody Sunday, about the 1972 killings in Northern Ireland, won in 2003. In other South Bank categories, Little Britain's second series beat Nighty Night and The Green Wing to the comedy trophy while Alan Bennett's The History Boys won in the theatre category. Author David Mitchell made up for losing out in the Booker Prize to Alan Hollinghurst by beating him to the literary award with his book Cloud Atlas. Shameless, State Of Play and Clocking Off creator Paul Abbott got a lifetime achievement award while former Grange Hill actress Amma Asante won the breakthrough award for writing and directing her first film, A Way Of Life." -entertainment,"Buffy creator joins Wonder Woman The creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is to take on a new female superhero after signing up to write and direct the Wonder Woman movie. Joss Whedon described the DC Comics character as ""the most iconic female heroine of our time"". ""In a way, no one has met her yet,"" he said. ""What I love most about icons is finding out what's behind them, exploring the price of their power."" Linda Carter played the character in the 1970s TV series. The character of Wonder Woman, famed for her red and gold costume, was born on Paradise Island, and was blessed with the powers of strength and flight. The film is being produced by Joel Silver, producer of the Matrix trilogy. ""There's no one better than Joss to adapt the legendary Wonder Woman comic book character created in the 1940s into a dynamic feature film for 21st Century audiences,"" said Silver. ""Wonder Woman was the first great female superhero to emerge from comic books and later inspire millions of fans in her television incarnation... but this groundbreaking heroine has yet to be reinvented for the feature film arena."" Whedon created the character of Buffy in the screenplay for the 1992 film. He distanced himself from the movie because of the direction it eventually took, and the film bombed. But he did not give up on the Slayer and went on to write and executive produce seven seasons of the cult TV series. He also produced the spin-off Angel series. He is currently directing the film Serenity, based on his short-lived sci-fi series Firefly." -entertainment,"Manics in charge of BBC 6 Music The Manic Street Preachers are to take over the helm of BBC digital radio station 6 Music for a week in December. The Welsh band, whose hits include Design For Life and If You Tolerate This, have already chosen which records to play between 6 and 12 December. Their albums of the day include Who's Next by The Who and U2's Joshua Tree. The group will also perform their own live session. They follow in the footsteps of Radiohead, who took over the station for a week last year. Bass player Nicky Wire will join Phil Jupitus on his morning show on Monday 6 December, while vocalist and guitarist James Dean Bradfield will appear on Andrew Collins' afternoon show on Thursday 9. The group have also chosen documentaries to air, such as The Leonard Cohen Story and Guitar Greats - Jimmy Page. The live concert session tracks they have picked include The Specials' Rat Race recorded at Hammersmith Odeon in London and Public Enemy's Fight The Power and Rebel Without A Pause. The band will also answer questions e-mailed in by 6 Music listeners." -entertainment,"Berlin cheers for anti-Nazi film A German movie about an anti-Nazi resistance heroine has drawn loud applause at Berlin Film Festival. Sophie Scholl - The Final Days portrays the final days of the member of the White Rose movement. Scholl, 21, was arrested and beheaded with her brother, Hans, in 1943 for distributing leaflets condemning the ""abhorrent tyranny"" of Adolf Hitler. Director Marc Rothemund said: ""I have a feeling of responsibility to keep the legacy of the Scholls going."" ""We must somehow keep their ideas alive,"" he added. The film drew on transcripts of Gestapo interrogations and Scholl's trial preserved in the archive of communist East Germany's secret police. Their discovery was the inspiration behind the film for Rothemund, who worked closely with surviving relatives, including one of Scholl's sisters, to ensure historical accuracy on the film. Scholl and other members of the White Rose resistance group first started distributing anti-Nazi leaflets in the summer of 1942. They were arrested as they dropped leaflets at Munich University calling for a ""day of reckoning"" with Adolf Hitler's regime. The film focuses on the six days from Scholl's arrest to the intense trial which saw Scholl initially deny the charges and ended with a defiant appearance. It is one of three German films vying for a top prize at the Festival. A South African film version of Bizet's tragic opera Carmen shot in Cape Town in the Xhosa language has also premiered at the Berlin Festival. The film is entitled U-Carmen eKhayelitsha or Carmen in Khayelitsha after the township in which the story is set. It is performed by a 40-strong music and theatre troupe in their debut film performance. The film is the first South African feature in 25 years and only the second to be nominated for a Golden Bear Award." -entertainment,"Wife Swap makers sue US 'copycat' The British producers of US Wife Swap are taking legal action against a show they claim is ""a blatant and wholescale copycat"" of their programme. RDF Media, which makes the show for US network ABC, has filed a damages claim for $18 million (£9.25 million) against Fox's Trading Spouses. ABC bought the rights to the British show, which was first aired in 2003 and became a hit on Channel 4. The US network is not part of the claim, but has supported RDF's action. ""We respect our producing partners' right to protect their intellectual property in whatever manner they deem most appropriate,"" said ABC in a statement. A spokesman for Fox said it had not seen the details of the legal action and could not comment. Their show was first screened in June, and was criticised in the press for its similarities to Wife Swap. ABC originally planned to call their programme Trading Moms, but changed it to avoid confusion with the Fox version. Earlier this year, the NBC network claimed that Fox's boxing show The Next Great Champ had been hurriedly produced to ensure its programme was the first to be screened. NBC alleged that boxing regulations had been violated, but failed in their attempt to have the show pulled. The Fox show proved a ratings flop, while NBC's The Contender is due to begin in February." -entertainment,"Bangkok film festival battles on Organisers of the third Bangkok International Film Festival have been determined to carry on with this year's event despite the ravages of the Asian tsunami disaster. The festivities have been scaled down, red carpets have been mothballed and profits from ticket sales are being donated to the tsunami relief fund. Apart from this, however, the festival has continued as originally planned. ""When the disaster happened, we naturally asked ourselves if we should cancel,"" said the festival's executive director, Craig Prater. ""The decision was made that we would continue, but that the focus would change. ""Our premieres became fundraisers, the opening night was visibly toned down and 10% of every ticket sold goes to the disaster fund,"" he continued. ""But we feel like we've turned a page. We've acknowledged our position, and now it's business as usual."" Mr Prater's sentiments were echoed by Christine Rush, director of the festival's sister event, the Bangkok Film Market. ""We have been careful to be respectful of the Thai nation's recovery from this terrible disaster,"" she said. ""However, the nation's recovery very much depends upon it continuing its economic life. ""We are encouraging attendees to keep the victims in mind and aggressively support the aid organisations helping out,"" she added. Given the conspicuously low audience figures, that support may be more symbolic than significant. However, poor ticket sales have less to do with any fallout from the disaster and more to do with administrative and promotional difficulties. The eclectic programme contains a wide range of titles, including such Oscar hopefuls as Ray Charles biopic Ray and Mike Leigh's abortion drama Vera Drake. That said, the absence of Thai subtitles on most film prints might have proved offputting to local cinemagoers. On a more positive note, the celebrity guests attending the event have generated huge media interest in this busy capital city. Problems securing air transport, the clash with last Sunday's Golden Globes ceremony in Los Angeles and other factors have forced some big names to cancel. But the festival has still attracted such Hollywood directors as Oliver Stone and Joel Schumacher, alongside such screen stars as Michael Douglas, Jeremy Irons and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Irons, whose film Being Julia is in competition for the festival's Golden Kinnaree awards, said he had wondered whether he should attend after December's catastrophe. ""I questioned whether I should come when such a tragedy had happened,"" the British actor said. ""I thought it might be in rather bad taste. But then I spoke to the organisers and I was encouraged to let life go on. ""Now I've come here I'm very glad. What impresses me about Thai culture is they get over these things far quicker than we do in the West,"" he continued. ""Basically I was invited here by Thailand. If they still want you to come, you should."" Now in its third year, Bangkok is a relatively recent addition to the hectic film festival calendar. And while it has yet to attain the stature of more established events held in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Pusan in South Korea, Mr Prater predicts it will soon become their equal. ""It's grown awfully fast in three years - maybe too fast,"" he concedes. ""We've had some bumps in the road, but that's only because the festival is still a baby. ""I have no doubt in my mind that in five years, this will be the top Asian film festival in the world."" The Golden Kinnarees will be awarded on Friday. The festival itself runs until 24 January." -entertainment,"Singer's film to show at festival A documentary which takes a candid look at the life of chart-topping singer George Michael will be shown at this year's Berlin Film Festival. A Different Story will screen in the Panorama section of the festival, which runs from 10-20 February. It features the singer talking about both his career and his personal life, from his days in Wham! through to more recent events. Michael will attend the festival to introduce the screening on 16 February. Director Southan Morris and executive producer Andy Stephens will also attend the festival. The 93 minute film will see Michael discussing his early days in Wham! along with his later career, including his legal battles with record label Sony and his stance against the Iraq war and American politics. It will also touch upon his turbulent personal life, including his arrest in a Beverly Hills park toilet in 1998 for ""lewd behaviour"", and the death of his boyfriend Anselmo Feleppa from Aids. The film, which includes previously unseen footage of the singer also features contributions from Michael's former Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley, as well as ex-Wham! backing singers Pepsi and Shirlie. Other contributors include Sting, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Noel Gallagher, Geri Halliwell and Simon Cowell. This year's festival will open with Man To Man, a historical epic starring Joseph Fiennes and Kristin Scott-Thomas. It will be one of 21 films competing for the festival's top prize, the Golden Bear. Other films in competition will include The Life Aquatic, a quirky comedy starring Bill Murray, and the biopic Kinsey, which features Liam Neeson. The full programme will be announced on 1 February." -entertainment,"God cut from Dark Materials film The director and screenwriter of the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is to remove references to God and the church in the movie. Chris Weitz, director of About a Boy, said the changes were being made after film studio New Line expressed concern. The books tell of a battle against the church and a fight to overthrow God. ""They have expressed worry about the possibility of perceived anti-religiosity,"" Weitz told a His Dark Materials fans' website. Pullman's trilogy has been attacked by some Christian teachers and by the Catholic press as blasphemy. Weitz, who admitted he would not be many people's first choice to direct the films, said he regarded the film adaptation as ""the most important work of my life"". ""In part because it is one of the few books to have changed my life,"" he told bridgetothestars.net. The award-winning trilogy - Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass - tell the story of Oxford school child Lyra Belacqua. She is drawn into an epic struggle against the Church, which has been carrying out experiments on children in an attempt to remove original sin. As the books progress the struggle turns into a battle to overthrow the Authority, a figure who is God-like in the books. Weitz, who directed American Pie and About A Boy, said New Line feared that any anti-religiosity in the film would make the project ""unviable financially"". He said: ""All my best efforts will be directed towards keeping the film as liberating and iconoclastic an experience as I can. ""But there may be some modification of terms."" Weitz said he had visited Pullman, who had told him that the Authority could ""represent any arbitrary establishment that curtails the freedom of the individual, whether it be religious, political, totalitarian, fundamentalist, communist, what have you"". He added: ""I have no desire to change the nature or intentions of the villains of the piece, but they may appear in more subtle guises."" There are a number of Christian websites which attack the trilogy for their depiction of the church and of God, but Pullman has denied his books are anti-religious. His agent told the Times newspaper that Pullman was happy with the adaptation so far. ""Of course New Line want to make money, but Mr Weitz is a wonderful director and Philip is very supportive. ""You have to recognise that it is a challenge in the climate of Bush's America,""" -entertainment,"BBC 'should allow more scrutiny' MPs have urged the BBC to give watchdogs more freedom to scrutinise how £2bn in licence fee money is spent. The Public Accounts Committee called for the National Audit Office to be given a ""free hand"" to investigate how the BBC offers value for money. Although six areas are to be opened up to scrutiny the audit office should have more power to choose what it investigated, the MPs said. The call was made in a report into the BBC's Freeview digital service. ""Our aim is not to rewrite the storyline of EastEnders but simply to ensure that the BBC is as accountable to parliament as any other organisation spending public money,"" said the committee chairman, MP Edward Leigh. ""The BBC's spending is not subject to the full independent scrutiny, and accountability to parliament. ""Parliament requires television owners to pay a licence fee and expects the comptroller and auditor general, on behalf of parliament, to be able to scrutinise how that money, over £2 billion a year, is used."" A BBC spokeswoman said: ""We share the committee's interest in ensuring the public money we receive is spent well. Though in its infancy, we think the arrangements with the NAO are working well and should be given time to mature."" The report said the Freeview digital service has had an ""impressive"" take up since its launch but the BBC must still dispel confusion about the service. The committee found the BBC had succeeded in ensuring subscription-free access to digital channels following the collapse of ITV Digital in 2002. But the fact that one in four homes could not access Freeview remained a problem. The report said that while gaps in the coverage were largely due to landscape issues, there was need for detailed explanations on the Freeview website and on promotional literature as to why it was not available in specific areas. The government has proposed switch off of the analogue television signal, with 2012 the most recently proposed date. The BBC launched Freeview in 2002 as an alternative to satellite subscription services such as Sky, to allow its digital channels such as BBC Three and News 24 to be seen. There have been an estimated five million Freeview set-top boxes sold since the launch and prices have fallen considerably. The corporation plans to spend up to £138m on Freeview before 2014 to ensure people can receive the service throughout the UK, and are aware of it." -entertainment,"Wine comedy up for six film gongs Sideways, a wine-tasting comedy starring Paul Giamatti, is up for six Independent Spirit Awards, the art-house version of the Oscars. The awards are held on 26 February, the day before the Oscars. Spanish drama Maria Full of Grace, about a Colombian woman who becomes a drug courier, got five nominations. Controversial biopic Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson as sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, was one of four films to get four nominations. The awards, now in their 20th year, honour quirky low-budget films, all of which must have a degree of independent financing. Sideways is written and directed by Alexander Payne, who directed the 2002 hit About Schmidt, winning Jack Nicholson his 12th Academy Award nomination. ""These awards, for better or worse, mean everything,"" said Sideways producer Michael London, adding they were a ""huge first step"" toward getting recognition from other awards. Among the other films receiving four nominations apiece were Brother to Brother, a drama about a young gay black man forced to live on the streets, Robbing Peter and Primer. Primer, a $7,000 (£3,650) tale of discovery, won top prize at the Sundance film festival earlier this year. Walter Salles critically acclaimed The Motorcycle Diaries and the forthcoming thriller The Woodsman, starring Kevin Bacon, received three nominations each. Also in the running, with two nominations, are high school comedy Napoleon Dynamite, The Door in the Floor and Garden State - written, directed and starring Scrubs star Zach Braff alongside Natalie Portman. The awards were announced by actors Selma Blair and Dennis Quaid in Los Angeles on Tuesday." -entertainment,"Duran Duran show set for US TV Chart stars Duran Duran are to appear in a VH1 special in the US including interviews and concert footage. The show airs on Tuesday and will feature a studio performance, behind the scenes footage and fan interviews. ""They seemed like a perfect fit with our audience,"" said Rick Krim, VH1's vice president of music and talent. The band recently released a new album, Astronaut, the first from the original line-up since 1983. They will also tour Japan and the US next year. ""When we started playing together, we didn't try and make a really sort of mature album. We just really wanted to make a great Duran Duran album,"" said keyboard player Nick Rhodes. ""It's pretty much in line with a lot of stuff out there."" Duran Duran are currently promoting the album's second single, What Happens Tomorrow. Simon Le Bon said earlier this year that the group were not trying to update their sound too much. ""We wouldn't want to lose them [older fans] by trying too hard by trying to connect with a new audience,"" the singer said. Le Bon also said the five members were getting on very well. ""We're like any people who get very close. Sometimes you argue with each other. But the fact is we inspire each other musically. ""Nobody else does it for me,"" he said. ""It's just very special.""" -entertainment,"France set for new Da Vinci novel French booksellers are braced for a rush of interest after another book from the author of The Da Vinci Code is translated into French. Angels and Demons, by US author Dan Brown, will go on sale on Wednesday. The Da Vinci Code is set in Paris - including the Louvre - and has sold around one million copies in France. The main character, Robert Langdon, also appears in Angels and Demons. The Da Vinci Code is being made into a film starring Tom Hanks. Angels and Demons was written before The Da Vinci Code, which has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, and been translated into more than 40 languages, since it was released in 2003. Angels and Demons is set mainly in Rome as symbologist Robert Langdon follows a 400-year-old trail to try to uncover a plot by an ancient brotherhood, The Illuminati, to blow up the Vatican. The novel deals with moral issues such as the debate between science and religion and also seeks to uncover some of the mysteries surrounding the Pope. On his website, Brown wrote: ""I think the reason Angels and Demons is raising eyebrows right now is that it opens some Vatican closets most people don't even know exist. ""But I think most people understand that an organisation as old and powerful as the Vatican could not possibly have risen to power without acquiring a few skeletons in their closets."" Such is the success of The Da Vinci Code in France, special tours have been organised to trace Langdon's footsteps, including the the Louvre museum and the Saint Sulpice Church. The Louvre has also given permission for parts of the film version to be shot in the museum. The film, to be directed by A Beautiful Mind's Ron Howard, is due to start filming at the Paris museum in May and stars Hanks alongside French actress Audrey Tautou." -entertainment,"US box office set for record high Ticket sales at the US box office are predicted to break records this year, with figures expected to reach $9.4 billion, beating 2002's all-time high. Overall figures could be dampened by the lack of a Christmas hit like last year's Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings. Traditionally, ticket sales during the festive season account for 20% of the annual total. Although admissions have actually fallen this year, the predicted high is down to increasing ticket prices. According to Exhibitor Relations President Paul Dergarabedian, the average cost of a cinema ticket could be as high as $6.25 in 2004, compared to $5.80 in 2002. This year some of the biggest hits such as The Passion of the Christ and Fahrenheit 9/11 came from outside the major studios which are usually responsible for the key blockbusters. ""Many of the films that did well (with audiences) are not necessarily the films that made a lot of money,"" said Mr Dergarabedian. He added that surprise hits had come from some of the more art-house offerings such as Napoleon Dynamite and critical hit Sideways. Sony Pictures, responsible for hits like Spiderman 2 and The Grudge, are expected to top domestic market share for the second time in three years, with $1 billion-plus in sales for the third consecutive year. Sony Pictures Entertainment vice chairman. Jeff Blake said: ""We had a really diverse slate this year, and... certainly we pulled off one of the surprises with Grudge."" Horror movie The Grudge cost Sony $10 million to make but brought in $110 million. It's the latest in a recent trend for Hollywood studios to back the upper and lower ends of the market, whilst ignoring the middle. Warner Inc are likely to end the year in second place on market share with around $1.25 billion, with Disney at number three." -entertainment,"Aaliyah claim dismissed by court Late R&B star Aaliyah's record company has failed in an attempt to sue the video producer who booked the ill-fated flight on which she died in 2001. A New York appeals court has told Blackground Records that only the singer's parents had the right to launch a claim for wrongful death. The 22-year-old singer's family came to an undisclosed settlement over a negligence claim in 2003. Aaliyah had completed a music video when the plane crashed in the Bahamas. She and eight others were killed on the plane, which crashed as if left for Florida. Blackground Records' lawyer Frank Penski said he had yet to examine the decision and did not know whether they would pursue the case. An investigation into the crash revealed the twin-engined Cessna was overloaded by 700 pounds (320kg). A post-mortem carried out on the remains of the pilot showed there was cocaine and alcohol in his body. Aaliyah was a rising star in music and film before she was killed. She was honoured with a string of posthumous awards and her single More Than A Woman went to number one in the UK." -entertainment,"Eminem beats Elvis to number one Rapper Eminem has denied Elvis his fourth number one of the year, after his song, Like Toy Soldiers, stormed to the top of the singles charts. The track claimed the top spot ahead of The King's latest re-release, Are You Lonesome Tonight. It is the fifth in a series of 18 reissues to mark the 70th anniversary of Presley's birth. Almost Here, the duet from former Westlife star Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem, went in at number three. Like Toy Soldiers, from Eminem's Encore album, is sampled from Martika's 1980s hit Toy Soldiers. It takes a swipe at hip-hop feuds and follows the success of Just Lose It. Last week's number one, Elvis's It's Now or Never, slipped 13 places to number 14, but all five of his re-released songs are in the Top 40. One World Project Tsunami fundraiser, Grief Never Grows Old, slipped four places to number eight. Featuring Cliff Richard and Boy George, the song was written by former DJ Mike Read. In the album charts, Athlete's latest offering Tourist claimed the top spot, toppling the Chemical Brother's Push The Button Down, which fell to number six." -entertainment,"Ray DVD beats box office takings Oscar-nominated film biopic Ray has surpassed its US box office takings with a combined tally of $80m (£43m) from DVD and video sales and rentals. Ray's success on DVD outstripped its $74m (£40m) US box office total, earning more than $40m (£22m) on the first day of the DVD's release alone. Ray has been nominated in six Oscar categories including best film and best actor for Jamie Foxx. The film recounts the life of blues singer Ray Charles, who died in 2004. In its first week on home entertainment release the film was the number one selling DVD, with the limited edition version coming in at number 11. Sony horror film The Grudge, starring Michelle Gellar, was the US' second best-selling DVD, with Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere's romantic comedy Shall We Dance? at number three. Foxx's critically acclaimed performance as Ray has already earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor, as well as a prestigious Golden Globe. Ray director Taylor Hackford, responsible for the classic 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman, has also received an Oscar nomination in the best director category. The film's three other Oscar nominations are for costume, film editing and sound mixing." -entertainment,"Glasgow hosts tsunami benefit gig The top names in Scottish music are taking part in a benefit concert in aid of the victims of the Asian tsunami. All 10,000 tickets for Saturday's concert, featuring Franz Ferdinand, Belle and Sebastian and Travis, at Glasgow's SECC sold out in 36 hours. Mull Historical Society, Deacon Blue, Idlewild, Texas, Mogwai and Teenage Fanclub are among the other acts performing at the concert. Organisers hope to raise at least £250,000 from the show. It follows a Cardiff gig starring Eric Clapton, Keane and Jools Holland, which raised more than £1.25m. And it is taking place on the same night as a tsunami benefit show in Bristol, which will see Massive Attack and Portishead share a stage for the first time. Colin MacIntyre, of Mull Historical Society, was playing another gig on the same day but said he was determined to make the Glasgow benefit. He said: ""I think we were all affected by seeing the reports coming from the Far East. ""We all know somebody who was there, but more than that it was that we had never seen a wave of destruction, a natural disaster, like this in my generation. ""I'm lucky as an artist to be able to perform at something like this.""" -entertainment,"Hitch holds on to US box office Will Smith's first romantic comedy, Hitch, has topped the North American box office for a second weekend. Smith plays a New York ""date doctor"" with love worries of his own in the movie, which took $31.8m (£16.8m). It held off a strong challenge from the new Keanu Reeves sci-fi thriller Constantine which opened at number two with $30.5m (£16.1m) Constantine, based on the Hellblazer comics, stars Reeves as an exorcist who must send Satan's minions back to hell. Two family films came next in the chart, with Wayne Wang's comedy Because of Winn-Dixie, about a young girl and an abandoned dog, in third position with $10.85m (£5.73m). Comedy adventure Son of the Mask, came in at number four with $7.7m (£4.1m), just ahead of Oscar favourite Million Dollar Baby at five. Smith's comedy will be the first US movie released this year to top the $100m (£52.7m) mark. It's success continues a strong trend of Hollwood movie-going this year with figures for the popular President's Day weekend 13% greater than last year. Oscar contenders The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes and wine-tasting comedy Sideways, both held onto positions in the top 10." -entertainment,"Lit Idol begins search for author The second Pop Idol-style search for literary talent has begun with the help of the brother of Simon Cowell. Writer Tony Cowell is among the judges who will hear aspiring writers read their work aloud. The winner gets a deal with literary agency Curtis Brown. ""I'm not going to be the Mr Nasty of books,"" said Cowell, 54, in reference to his brother's caustic remarks on TV shows Pop Idol and The X-Factor. The 2004 winner, Paul Cavanagh, went on to sign a deal with Harper Collins. This year, the competition is specifically looking for a crime writer. Writers must submit up to 10,000 words from the opening chapters of their novels and a synopsis. Professional readers will choose a shortlist of five following the competition closing date on 14 January. The final five will then have to read their work in front of judging panel. A public vote will also take place, which will account for 25% of the final decision. The winner will be announced at the London Book Fair on 14 March next year and could be screened on TV. ""It's very, very hard to find an agent and extremely difficult, without an agent, to get a publisher to look at your work,"" said Cowell. ""People do fall by the wayside and the more avenues we can provide for aspiring authors, the better,"" he added. Paul Cavanagh, a former university professor and health care consultant from Ontario in Canada, was one of 1,466 aspiring novelists to enter the first contest. He lifted the inaugural Lit Idol prize after reading aloud an excerpt of his work Northwest Passage. Three film studios are said to be interested in buying film rights for the book, even though it is not finished yet." -entertainment,"Mogul Wilson backing UK rap band Tony Wilson, the music mogul who established the influential Factory Records in the 1980s, is to launch a new label - convinced he has discovered his ""third major band"". Factory were the label of both Joy Division - who became New Order after singer Ian Curtis committed suicide - and the Happy Mondays. Now Wilson believes rap act Raw T - signed to his F4 label, the fourth incarnation of Factory - will ""complete the hat-trick"". ""Suddenly, when Raw T came into my life, I realised they are my third major band,"" he told BBC World Service's The Music Biz programme. The group are set to release their first single on 21 February, and follow it up with an album, Realise And Witness, in March. Wilson has twice tried to resurrect Factory - which lasted for 14 years before folding - but conceded these efforts had been ""despondent and dismal experiences"". But it has not put him off. ""Of all the things I do in my life the most exciting thing I've ever done, and the thing I have most loved, is being part of a record company,"" he added. ""The idea of working with brilliant young musicians, and being close to the centre of popular culture, is just the biggest thrill in my life."" Wilson explained how his son persuaded him to go and see Raw T, but he had initially been reluctant saying he ""detested"" young British people rapping. ""It's always inauthentic, it's always crass, it never really works for me,"" he said. ""I went to see this group, Raw T - which stands for Realise And Witness Talent - and like everyone else in the room that night, we were utterly blown away."" Wilson believes Raw T could be ""to F4 as Joy Division were to Factory records"". The story of Factory records - which also owned the legendary Hacienda club in Manchester - was told in the Michael Winterbottom film 24 Hour Party People, in which Wilson was played by Steve Coogan. Wilson stressed that the independent music scene remained ""as important"" as it had been during the 1980s, when labels such as Factory and Rough Trade proliferated. He pointed out that Franz Ferdinand and The White Stripes - ""perhaps the two most important bands since the millennium"" - were signed to indies. ""I think that is a reflection of how useful and how powerful the indie philosophy is, and how bands prefer it,"" he added. ""They can make more money that way - it's a more generous relationship, and also it's a more understanding relationship. ""I think independents are in a wonderful position at this moment in time.""" -entertainment,"Vera Drake's Bafta triumph hope At the Bafta film awards on Saturday night, there is the prospect that a home-grown movie could walk off with a clutch of trophies. Vera Drake, Mike Leigh's tale about a 1950s backstreet abortionist, is nominated in 11 categories. These include best film, best director and best actress shortlist for Imelda Staunton who plays the eponymous character. The film has spent months being lauded with prizes, from the Venice Film Festival to five awards from the London Critics' Circle on Wednesday night. The Baftas has a tradition of honouring British cinema, and this year Vera Drake is the obvious candidate to be heaped with praise. Empire magazine's reviews editor Dan Jolin said the film had ""a very good chance"" of doing well on Saturday, predicting that it would collect five or six awards. ""I don't think it's going to do a Lord of the Rings-style sweep, but Imelda Staunton is a shoo-in for best actress,"" he said. ""A best director prize for Mike Leigh and best British film are also likely and it could steal some awards from heavily-nominated competitors The Aviator and Finding Neverland."" Mr Jolin tipped another contender - most likely The Aviator - to walk away with the Bafta for best film, and added that Finding Neverland had been lavished with nominations but not trophies. Strong Oscar contenders Million Dollar Baby and Sideways did not figure in the Bafta nominations, giving Vera Drake greater potential to walk away with the big prizes. ""There is a sense that this film is ours and we should slap our own guys on the back. Out of all the films in the running for the Baftas, Vera Drake is the true blue British one."" ""If Mike Leigh is going to win awards for anything, it should be Vera Drake at this year's Baftas"", said Mr Jolin, adding that the film was probably his most technically accomplished and lavish work yet. Mr Jolin also tipped Phil Davis for a best supporting actor prize for his role in Vera Drake but felt that Heather Craney could be outdone by Kate Winslet or Natalie Portman in the supporting actress category. ""If there is anywhere where this film is going to win, it will be at the Baftas,"" he said. The Guardian's film critic Peter Bradshaw felt that there ""might well be"" a sweep of awards for Vera Drake on Saturday night. ""I hope that Bafta voters will respond to the extremely high standard of acting from the whole cast of the film. If Bafta can't do so, what hope is there?"" he said. Mr Bradshaw felt that Mike Leigh's ""masterpiece"" was entitled to the best film award - leaving Dead Man's Shoes, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, My Summer of Love and Shaun of the Dead to slug it out for the best British film trophy. ""I will be cheering if Vera Drake wins a whole host of awards,"" he added." -entertainment,"UK's National Gallery in the pink The National Gallery, home to some of the UK's greatest artworks, has seen a big jump in visitor numbers. Five million visitors made the London gallery - which houses treasures like Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks - the UK's most visited museum in 2004. It recorded a 13.8% rise in numbers and was the country's second most visited tourist attraction, behind Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Charles Saumarez Smith, the gallery's director, said he was ""delighted"". He said the number of visitors through the doors had boosted figures to pre-11 September 2001 levels. Mr Saumarez Smith added that the pedestrianisation of Trafalgar Square, where the gallery is located, and strong temporary collections throughout 2004 had led to the strong performance. ""Our 2004 exhibition programme of El Greco, Russian Landscape in the Age of Tolstoy and Raphael: From Urbino to Rome was particularly strong and exceeded all targets,"" he said. ""The exceptional quality of the paintings in our permanent collection is also huge draw for the public. ""The expectations of today's visitors are higher than ever and we have kept pace with their demands."" Mr Saumarez Smith said he was confident the gallery could maintain the attendance. ""With important exhibitions of the work of Caravaggio, Stubbs and Rubens in place for 2005, I am confident that the gallery is set for another highly successful year,"" he added. The figures were prepared by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva). It found that the figures had been boosted by an increase in Europeans travelling to the UK on budget airlines. Popular cultural tourist spots such as the Tate Modern and the Natural History Museum all recorded increases of more than 10% in visitor numbers compared with 2003. But for legal or confidentiality reasons some Alva members did not submit figures for 2004, including Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Madame Tussauds and Alton Towers. Alva director Robin Broke said: ""Visits from Western Europe were up by 10% and from North America by some 9% compared to 2003, while numbers from the rest of the world rose 20%. ""European figures were helped by the rapid growth of low-cost flights to Britain from Europe, especially from new EU countries.""" -entertainment,"Berlin hails European cinema Organisers say this year's Berlin Film Festival, which opens on Thursday with period epic Man to Man, will celebrate a revitalised European cinema. Of the 21 films in competition for the Golden and Silver Bear awards, more than half are from Europe with France particularly well represented. Festival director Dieter Kosslick says this strong showing signals ""a new consciousness for European films"". ""They're on an incredible winning streak,"" he told the Reuters agency. ""This isn't to say there aren't any good American films,"" he continued. ""It's just that there are more good European films."" However, Mr Kosslick refused to accept that widespread opposition to the Iraq war had turned audiences against Hollywood imports. ""There is no anti-American mood,"" he said. Some 350 films will be screened at this year's festival, with a further 300 shown at the European Film Market that runs alongside it. More than a dozen celebrities are scheduled to attend, among them Will Smith, Kevin Spacey and Keanu Reeves. But Mr Kosslick says more would be coming had the Academy Awards not been brought forward to 27 February. ""I'm not worried that we won't be able to fill the red carpet with stars,"" he said, though he admitted the festival may be moved to January next year to avoid a similar clash. The 10-day Berlinale runs until 20 February." -entertainment,"Tarantino to direct CSI episode Film director Quentin Tarantino is to direct an episode of US television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The Oscar-winning Pulp Fiction director has also written an original story for the season finale episode. CSI's co-producer, Carol Mendelsohn, said the episode would have ""more bugs and blood"" than usual. It is not Tarantino's first venture into TV. In 1995 he directed an episode of the medical drama ER and has also appeared in Alias. Ms Mendelsohn said the production team had been trying for a while to get Tarantino to direct an episode of CSI, and added that he was a fan of the forensic drama. She said he finally agreed a few weeks ago while CSI was doing some location shooting in Las Vegas and the show's stars persuaded him. ""He knows everything there is to know about CSI, and he is into the whole mythology of CSI,"" Mendelsohn said. ""Quentin came in a couple of weeks ago. We had a story meeting with the writers. ""He had a great idea, and it was so much fun to have him in the room... we are positively giddy."" Filming is due to start in early April and the Tarantino-directed episode will be broadcast in the US on 19 May." -entertainment,"Brookside creator's Channel 4 bid The creator of defunct TV soap Brookside has written to the culture minister to offer to buy Channel 4. Phil Redmond, now chairman of Mersey TV, told Tessa Jowell he would run it with its current remit intact for the next 10 years. But media watchdog Ofcom has said the the commercially funded public service broadcaster will not be privatised. A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said there were no plans to sell the channel. He added that primary legislation would be required for the station to be sold off, which the government was not intending to introduce. Brookside was axed in 2003 after its ratings slumped from a peak of seven million to just 1.5 million. Redmond also brought teen soap Hollyoaks to Channel 4 and created Grange Hill, the school-based drama serial which was first broadcast on BBC One in 1978. He was awarded the CBE for services to drama earlier this year." -entertainment,"Connick Jr to lead Broadway show Singer and actor Harry Connick Jr is to star in a Broadway revival of 1950s hit musical The Pajama Game. He will play the supervisor of a US pyjama factory who has a romance with a union activist during labour unrest. Jeffrey Richards, the show's co-producer, said Connick was ""an actor of enormous charisma and skill, a wonderful singer and a bona fide star"". He has recently starred in hit US comedy Will and Grace as the husband of Grace, played by Debra Messing. The musical will open in November, said Mr Richards, who added that no other casting had been announced yet. The original book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell will be revised by playwright Peter Ackerman, who co-wrote the screenplay for the movie Ice Age. It has a score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, and Adler is writing two new songs for the score, which includes numbers including Hey There, Small Talk and Steam Heat. Connick appeared with his band on Broadway in 1990, and he wrote the score for a musical based on Emile Zola's novel Therese Raquin, called Thou Shalt Not. It had a three-month run on Broadway in 2001." -entertainment,"DVD review: Spider-Man 2 It's a universal rule that a film can either be a superhero special effects extravaganza or it can be good. But Spider-Man 2 breaks that rule in two. It's not fantastically deep but you get quickly drawn into the tale of Spidey versus Doc Ock and more so into the fate of poor Peter Parker. Gigantic action set pieces seamlessly work with more brooding personal torment and it all looks stunning. A few effects look false but Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Alfred Molina make this compelling. The other universal rule is that DVDs of superhero films will have Making Of features only about the effects. This disc covers those special effects enough but as just one part of a detailed look at the film. Then there are commentaries, trailers and a blooper reel. Sometimes quality comes in bulk: this set contains no less than 34 John Wayne films ranging from the Westerns and war movies to The Quiet Man. Now is that a Christmas present or what? Give this to someone on 24 December and you won't see them again until early in the New Year. It's not truly a complete collection and leans more toward Wayne's earlier films: there's no True Grit, for instance, though there is Hellraisers. The films look well transferred to DVD, though none has extras. It was very daft but it knew it was and somehow this famous 1979 series became a cult favourite that's been long awaited on DVD. This set has the first season of Buck (Gil Gerard) and Wilma's (Erin Gray) tongue-in-cheek adventures and it's all as camp and gaudy as you remember. But it's also a disappointment. The US DVD has this and the more po-faced second season - and you can import it for just about the same price. The bigger omission, though, is that there are no extras. That's particularly disappointing because originally there were meant to be commentaries and stars Gerard and Gray had agreed to do them." -entertainment,"Elvis 'set for chart hat-trick' The late US legend Elvis Presley is likely to score his third UK number one single in three weeks on Sunday, according to early sales figures. The king of rock 'n' roll has already had consecutive chart-toppers with Jailhouse Rock and One Night. A Fool Such As I, the next in a series of 18 reissues, is on course to beat the Chemical Brothers to the top. But his next single, It's Now Or Never, will face a challenge from tsunami charity single Grief Never Grows Old. Sir Cliff Richard, Russell Watson, Boy George, Bill Wyman and members of the Bee Gees, the Beach Boys, America and the Eagles are expected to feature on the charity song. Bookmakers have offered odds of 10/1 for all Presley's 18 hits to go back to number one. A Fool Such As I would become the 1,001st number one single in UK chart history after One Night took the 1,000th place on Sunday. The latest release is currently outselling the Chemical Brothers' comeback single Galvanize plus other new releases from Athlete, Ciara and Feeder. Presley's 18 original number ones are being reissued as limited release singles, with fans eager to buy the set to fill a collector's box that went on sale in the first week. Record company Sony BMG is now manufacturing 5,000 more copies of each single than originally planned to meet demand, taking the total number of copies of each song on sale to about 28,000." -entertainment,"Goodrem wins top female MTV prize Pop singer Delta Goodrem has scooped one of the top individual prizes at the first Australian MTV Music Awards. The 21-year-old singer won the award for best female artist, with Australian Idol runner-up Shannon Noll taking the title of best male at the ceremony. Goodrem, known in both Britain and Australia for her role as Nina Tucker in TV soap Neighbours, also performed a duet with boyfriend Brian McFadden. Other winners included Green Day, voted best group, and the Black Eyed Peas. Goodrem, Green Day and the Black Eyed Peas took home two awards each. As well as best female, Goodrem also took home the Pepsi Viewers Choice Award, whilst Green Day bagged the prize for best rock video for American Idiot. The Black Eyed Peas won awards for best R 'n' B video and sexiest video, both for Hey Mama. Local singer and songwriter Missy Higgins took the title of breakthrough artist of the year, with Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian taking the honours for best pop video. The VH1 First Music Award went to Cher honouring her achievements within the music industry. The ceremony was held at the Luna Park fairground in Sydney Harbour and was hosted by the Osbourne family. Artists including Carmen Electra, Missy Higgins, Kelly Osbourne, Green Day, Ja Rule and Natalie Imbruglia gave live performances at the event." -entertainment,"Franz man seeks government help Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos has called for more government help for musicians, while taking part in an Edinburgh Lectures discussion. ""For any cultural output to thrive there needs to be some kind of state input to that as well,"" he said. But Kapranos warned against musicians being too closely linked with MPs, at the University of Edinburgh event. ""I think the role of musicians is to question politicians rather than to go to bed with them,"" he said. Kapranos joined the prestigious lecture series to discuss Scotland's role in making 21st Century music. ""There are elements of our musical output which require sustenance because they aren't self-sufficient,"" he said. ""But so-called commercial music would benefit from investment as well."" He warned musicians against being allied to a particular party, however. ""I don't know if having tea with politicians is always a good idea."" Kapranos and his Glasgow four-piece band have been nominated for five prizes at next week's Brit Awards, including best group and best album. Their self-titled debut album won last year's Mercury Music Prize and spawned three top 20 singles. He told the 300-strong audience at the University's Reid Hall that musicians should listen to a wide range of music and should not be restricted by stereotypes. ""We say 'I like this'. Because I listen to Nirvana and Korn I am a troubled individual, I'm riddled with angst because I listen to Chopin and Debussy, I listen to Kylie Minogue and Scissor Sisters because I'm upbeat and I like to party, I listen to Wagner because I like the smell of napalm in the morning."" Kapranos said there was a general ""hostility"" towards classical music, adding: ""There is very little done to break that hostility other than Classic FM."" He concluded: ""We define ourselves as a nation by the way we encourage our creativity."" Fellow speaker and classical composer James MacMillan agreed: ""We need to rediscover our ability to listen."" Previous speakers at the Edinburgh Lectures series have included former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and author Professor Stephen Hawking. Kapranos described his appearance on Wednesday as ""more daunting by a long way"" than their upcoming Brits performance. ""I don't really care about the Brits,"" he said. ""It's going to be great to go down but I have actually had to exercise part of my brain tonight."" I think the government should do more to help up-and-coming artists be discovered by scrapping the entertainment licences for live venues. Also they should do more to help independent record labels have a louder voice within an industry dominated by commercialised major labels. Rather than expecting the government - i.e. the taxpayer - to fork out, why don't some of the megastars put something back in? Some of Britain's wealthiest people are musicians who have raked it in from albums, concerts etc. There are far more important demands on government funds. If they can fund football, why not fund music? Areas of the arts are funded by government and lottery grants, so why not music? We already have the opera receiving huge grants and it would clearly be beneficial for diversity in music to have the same opportunities in other areas of the music. The only problem would be how to judge what merits state cash. The government has enough problems funding schools and health services. If Alex Kapranos genuinely thinks a multi-billion pound industry should also have government funding then his own education was seriously lacking and more money should be put into that. As a Scot living in England, I appreciate the value of Scottish music and culture being a success, so I can see no problem with it! Franz Ferdinand, Travis and Snow Patrol are just recent examples of the success Scottish music can have in the world, so we should do what we Scots are good at and support our own goods! I think the issue is more fundamental: should the government be spending money on subsidising a multi-million pound industry when health and education are in such a sorry state? The answer is most definitely no. Those people who are lucky enough to pursue their passion to get their pay cheque shouldn't be looking for government subsidies. I know that if I was lucky enough to be able to pursue my dream of show jumping I would want to finance myself until I was in a position to pursue corporate sponsorship. Yes the government should fund music - it brings joy to the masses. There are already thousands of state-funded musicians out there sitting around, twiddling their thumbs on the ""new deal"". Getting the government even more involved would only waste money that could be put to better use. As long as the Government was funding real talent it would be a great move. I would hate to see more Pop Idol-type funding of music though, as it would only serve to reinforce the stereotypes that Alex talked about. Only if the proposals make financial sense. Franz Ferdinand must be paying serious amounts of tax on their record sales - if they'd had a government grant to get started they'd have more than paid it back by now, so the Treasury would be making far more than it paid out. However, the government has better things to spend its money on than to give charity to everyone who decides they're a musician. The government shouldn't ""fund"" music - it should ""invest"" in music and those investments should be treated like any other investment. I think the government needs to provide facilities and for young groups and bands to form and practise. The equipment is not cheap and can be well beyond the means of many people. However, I do feel this should be the extent of their role, to provide the conditions for the talent to flourish and let it go from there. I do agree that the government should help to fund music but there is also a responsibility held by record companies! They generally always opt for the tried and tested and tend not to want to break any moulds or risk losing any money which ultimately, the directors are in the business for! If labels were more willing to put money forward towards smaller breakthrough acts then the government wouldn't have to fork out a great deal. Yeah, why not? Music should be government funded, particularly the work of modern composers and veteran bands/artists and stuff. Pop music pretty much rules the earth, so more attention should go to the other fraternities I agree with funding the arts to make it more accessible to the public but I am not convinced that pop music requires financial support from the taxpayer. There is a great deal of money generated through pop music - perhaps a tax on pop could be ploughed into the public performance of other forms of music for everyone to enjoy. Perhaps we could financially penalise really bad Pop Idol-style music - that is, the music industry sector without any artistic merit or originality whatsoever and that which is specifically designed to line the pockets of music producers. Call it a tax on music ""pollution"", if you like. Though I really like Franz Ferdinand, I have to disagree with Mr Kapranos. Once government gets their hand into the private sector, it will destroy the creative and possibly controversial avenues the artist pursues. Many years ago, this was the case with the US NEA, when the government started to question what was considered art for the money they were allotting. The solution Mr Kapranos should pursue would be privately-funded organizations, like Save the Music in the US." -entertainment,"Sundance to honour foreign films International films will be given the same prominence as US films at next year's Sundance Film Festival, with movies dominated by the theme of war. The independent film festival will feature two new international cinema competitions, during its 20-30 January season in Utah. Forty-two films will debut at Sundance, including The Liberace of Baghdad by British director Sean McAllister. The prestigious festival was founded by actor Robert Redford in 1981. ""We have always had an international component, but from next year they will enter a jury competition,"" festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said. ""We wanted to give world cinema more emphasis and have now put it on par with the American dramatic and documentary competitions."" Twelve films competing in the new world cinema documentary category focus on countries and people under siege. The Liberace of Baghdad features an Iraqi pianist hiding in a hotel as he waits for a visa, while Finnish film The Three Rooms of Melancholia looks at the war in Chechnya. Shake Hands With The Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire tells of a UN mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, while French-Israeli production Wall looks at Israel's controversial security wall separating it from the Palestinian territories. The 16 films competing in the new world cinema dramatic category include works from Germany, South Korea, Angola, China, Denmark and Australia. Several Hollywood stars feature in the festival's American independent drama category, including Keanu Reeves and Benjamin Bratt. Vince Vaughn stars in quirky movie Thumbsucker while 21 Grams actress Naomi Watts plays a budding Hollywood actress in Ellie Parker. The top Grand Jury prize at this year's festival went to low budget sci-fi thriller Primer, written and directed by Shane Carruth. Morgan Spurlock earned the directing award for Super Size Me, which became an international box office hit." -entertainment,"Pupils to get anti-piracy lessons Lessons on music piracy and copyright issues are to be taught to secondary school pupils in the UK. The lessons, aimed at 11 to 14-year-olds, will introduce them to copyright - including the issues of downloading from the internet and the illegal copying of CDs - and its role in protecting creativity. Music piracy, including illegally swapping music online, costs the UK music industry millions every year and has been blamed for a decline in world-wide CD sales. British Music Rights (BMR) - which was formed to represent the interests of songwriters and composers - worked with education experts to put together a learning pack. Songwriter Guy Chambers, who has worked with stars including Robbie Williams, has thrown his support behind the scheme. He said as well as educating children about music piracy, it would also protect young people planning a career in the music industry from ""unscrupulous"" individuals. At a debate in London to launch the scheme, Chambers said: ""I think it is important that young people receive practical and engaging learning in schools. ""These lessons will give them an insight into how the creative industries work which will help them in possible future careers."" The education pack, which has already been requested by more than 1,600 secondary schools, is aimed at giving children an understanding of copyright in relation to the music industry. It will also teach children about the importance of royalties and raises awareness of different careers in the music industry, particularly in the digital age. Henri Yoxall, general manager of British Music Rights, told BBC News schools had been crying out for a resource to help them educate pupils about the issues. The scheme - which is an extension of BMR's Respect the Value of Music campaign - is also being backed by singer-songwriters Feargal Sharkey, Lucie Silvas and Grammy Award-winning composer David Arnold. Silvas said: ""I think it is so important that students gain an understanding of how the music industry works when they are at a young age. ""I wish I had been given an opportunity like this when I was at school."" Emma Pike, director general of British Music Rights, said: ""We believe that copyright is an essential part of teaching music in schools. It is vital that the creatives of the future know how to turn their ideas into value. ""Copyright education has always been important... creatives are facing more challenges and more opportunities from technological change. ""Technology is allowing people to create music and distribute their music to the public in a whole host of new ways.""" -entertainment,"US actor 'found with gun residue' Actor Robert Blake had gunshot residue on his hands and clothes the night his wife was shot dead, a court has heard. But it may not have come from the shot that killed Bonny Lee Bakley in 2001, Mr Blake's murder trial was told by criminalist Steven Dowell. Mr Dowell told a Los Angeles court the residue may have come from Mr Blake's revolver, his gun collection, his presence at the crime scene or police. The 71-year-old former star of US TV drama Baretta has denied murder. Mr Blake said he found Ms Bakley, 44, dead in a car after they left a restaurant. He said he briefly returned to the restaurant to collect a gun he had left behind and discovered her body when he returned. The gun he collected was not the murder weapon. It could also have been picked up if he touched or leant on the car when he found the body, or from a police box in which his clothes were later stored. The box had come from an area where officers went after being on the firing range. But Mr Dowell also said the residue would have been present if Mr Blake fired a gun that night. Witnesses have already told the trial Mr Blake ""stood out as being quite nervous and agitated"" at the restaurant before the murder. The actor, who won an Emmy for playing a maverick detective in the 1970s TV cop drama Baretta, could face life in prison if convicted." -entertainment,"Oscar nominees gear up for lunch Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx and Hilary Swank are among those due to attend this year's Oscar nominees luncheon on Monday. They will join more than 100 nominees from the 24 Oscar categories at the annual event, which will take place at the Beverly Hilton hotel, Los Angeles. British hopefuls, including Kate Winslet, Imelda Staunton and Sophie Okonedo are also expected to attend. This year's Oscar ceremony will be held on Sunday 27 February. Martin Scorsese's The Aviator is leading the field at this year's Oscars with 11 nominations, while other multiple nominees include Million Dollar Baby and Sideways. Oscar nominees Swank and Foxx were among the winners at the Screen Actors Guild awards at the weekend, one of the many ceremonies held in the run-up to the Oscars. Swank won Best Actress for Million Dollar Baby while Foxx triumphed for his performance as Ray Charles in the biopic Ray. Sideways was also among the winners, taking the prize for best cast performance. The next major film award ceremony of the season is the Bafta awards, which take place at London's Odeon Leicester Square on 12 February. Many of those nominated for Oscars including DiCaprio, Foxx and Staunton - an Oscar nominee for her performance in Vera Drake - have also been nominated for Baftas." -entertainment,"Rap feud in 50 Cent's G-Unit crew US rap star 50 Cent has said he has thrown protege The Game out of his G-Unit gang in a feud that has apparently involved two shootings. In a radio interview on Monday, 50 Cent said the newcomer was disloyal in conflicts with other rappers. A man was shot in the thigh outside New York's Hot 97 studios while 50 Cent was on air. More shots were fired outside his management offices two hours later. 50 Cent appeared on The Game's debut album, which was number one in the US. 50 Cent, whose second album is about to be released after his debut made him one of hip-hop's biggest stars, has been involved in recent rivalries with fellow artists including Fat Joe, Nas and Jadakiss. He has claimed credit for the success of The Game, who has become the hottest new star on the rap scene. Both were drug dealers and were shot before turning to music. In an interview with Hot 97 on Saturday, The Game described some of 50 Cent's rivals as ""my friends"" and said he would not turn on them. ""Nas is one of my friends, and Jada's really a homie,"" he said. ""50's beef is 50's beef and I really don't know where all this stems from."" When 50 Cent appeared on the same station two days later, he said The Game was no longer a member of G-Unit. ""Every record he's selling is based on me being on his record with him,"" he said. When the shooting took place outside the studio, the interview was ended and the rapper was escorted out of the building by security personnel. An unidentified 24-year-old Los Angeles man is stable with a gunshot wound to the upper thigh. Police say The Game's associates may have heard the interview and gone to the studio, where they confronted 50 Cent's entourage. Officers are also investigating a later shooting in which eight bullets were fired into the door of 50 Cent's management company, Violator. No arrests have been made in relation to either incident. 50 Cent's second album, The Massacre, is released on Thursday, five weeks after The Game's debut, Documentary, went to number one. Elliott Wilson, editor-in-chief of hip-hop magazine XXL, said the feud would boost publicity for 50 Cent's release. ""It helps him obviously in terms of exposure. You can't ask for better promotion,"" he said. But he added: ""I think he's making more and more enemies. ""You definitely feel like is he doing too much of a Tupac spiral, like me against the world. You bring more people wanting to see you fail."" Tupac Shakur was shot dead in 1996." -entertainment,"Blair buys copies of new Band Aid Prime Minister Tony Blair purchased two copies of the charity single Band Aid 20 in Edinburgh on Friday. Staff were surprised when the Prime Minister walked into HMV at 0900 GMT, accompanied by aides and local police. ""When Mr Blair came in unannounced, we were all pretty gobsmacked,"" said HMV manager Clive Smith. ""Our customer helper approached him... it was only then we realised he wanted to buy copies of the Band Aid single, rather than the latest Eminem album."" Predicted chart-topper Do They Know it's Christmas? is expected to sell at least 300,000 copies by the time the new chart is announced on Sunday. However, the new version of the 1984 single is not going to be released in the US, despite being sold in many countries around the world. US record shops are stocking an import version of Do They Know It's Christmas, which is said to be selling very well in Los Angeles and New York. The original track was released in the US, and reached number 13 in the singles chart. British stars who appear on the current recording, such as Dido and Coldplay's Chris Martin, are well-known to music fans across the Atlantic, along with U2 frontman Bono. Record company Universal is responsible for the global distribution of the single, which will be available across Europe, Asia, South America and Canada. But music fans in the US are still able to access the song and download it on Band Aid 20's official website. In 1985, a group of high-profile American stars known as USA For Africa came together to record their own fund-raising single, We Are The World. The song was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, with Quincy Jones as producer. It topped the US charts for three weeks and went on win Grammy awards for best record and song. Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and Tina Turner were among the line-up of performers. It is predicted that the Band Aid 20 song will sell 300,000 copies in the UK by the time the new chart is announced on Sunday. The record is also tipped to become this year's Christmas number one, as the original version did in 1984. Proceeds from the sales are going towards relief for the Darfur region of Sudan and to combat HIV and Aids across Africa." -entertainment,"Richard and Judy choose top books The 10 authors shortlisted for a Richard and Judy book award in 2005 are hoping for a boost in sales following the success of this year's winner. The TV couple's interest in the book world coined the term ""the Richard & Judy effect"" and created the top two best-selling paperbacks of 2004 so far. The finalists for 2005 include Andrew Taylor's The American Boy and Robbie Williams' autobiography Feel. This year's winner, Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, sold over one million. Joseph O'Connor's Star of the Sea came second and saw sales increase by 350%. The best read award, on Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan's Channel 4 show, is part of the British Book Awards. David Mitchell's Booker-shortlisted novel, Cloud Atlas, makes it into this year's top 10 along with several lesser known works. ""There's no doubt that this year's selection of book club entries is the best yet. If anything, the choice is even wider than last time,"" said Madeley. ""It was very hard to follow last year's extremely successful list, but we think this year's books will do even better,"" said Richard and Judy executive producer Amanda Ross. ""We were spoiled for choice and it was tough getting down to only 10 from the 301 submitted.""" -entertainment,"REM announce new Glasgow concert US band REM have announced plans to perform for 10,000 Scottish fans in a rescheduled gig. The band will play in what has been dubbed Europe's biggest tent on Glasgow Green on Tuesday, 14 June. They were forced to pull out of a concert at the SECC in Glasgow last month after bassist Mike Mills contracted flu. Fans who bought tickets for the original 22 February show can attend the rescheduled concert. The June gig will act as a warm-up for REM's open air concert at Balloch Castle Country Park, on the banks of Loch Lomond, four days later. Promoters Regular Music booked Glasgow Green as the SECC was not available on the most suitable date. Mark Mackie, director of Regular Music, said: ""It is fantastic news and it really shows REM's commitment to their Scottish fans that they are coming back to Glasgow for what will be a truly unique gig."" The REM gigs will kick-start what promises to be a memorable summer for Scottish music lovers. Grammy Award winners U2 will play Hampden on 21 June while Oasis will also perform at the national stadium in Glasgow on 29 June. Coldplay have announced a concert at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow on 1 July and T in the Park will be held at Balado, near Kinross, from 9-10 July. Ticketweb and the SECC box office will write to customers who bought tickets for the February gig asking if they want to attend the new show. Those who bought tickets in person are being urged to return to the point of purchase. Anyone who cannot make the concert will be given a refund. The cut-off date for swapping tickets is 1 April, when those remaining will go on sale to the public." -entertainment,"Music man to the Oscars Bill Conti's job of musical director of the Oscars show is not for the faint-hearted since conducting the orchestra is the ultimate plate-spinning assignment. This year marks Conti's 17th turn at the helm of the Academy Awards orchestra. ""The excitement is a live performance as a musician,"" he says. ""All of your colleagues, everyone in the film industry is in the theatre. All the important people. ""I guess it's just a television show but we always think it's a bit more.' The orchestra strikes up more than 110 times during the average Oscars show. As well as playing the presenters and winners on and off stage, it also performs during the commercial breaks to entertain the live audience in the house. ""It's a very busy evening, it takes a certain amount of preparation of music, orchestrating, sketching rehearsing, before the show. But you don't know what the unexpected will be and as the musical director, it's exciting,"" explains Conti. And much of the preparation goes into mastering scores that will never be performed. ""We don't know who the winners will be. So when they say, 'the winner is', we have five different pieces of music in front of us, they say the name, we play the appropriate one immediately,"" adds Conti. The orchestra is often called upon to play when the winners ramble on too long during their acceptance speeches, despite being told to be brief by the show's producers. The decision to drown out or 'kill' the offending star with music is relayed from the director's box to the orchestra via Conti's earpiece. ""I don't feel good about it at all. It's not my call though,"" he says. ""When the director says 'music' the orchestra plays and he takes a long shot of the hall. We don't usually see the person speaking while his microphone is cut off. ""The person that's been cut off, who's 10 feet from me, is glaring at me like it's death time."" On occasions, some stars have taken it upon themselves to send a warning shot across the bows of the musical director before they start to speak. ""Julia Roberts, when she came on, she asked me to not get ready to play because she had so much to do,"" he says. Conti received an Oscar in 1983 for the original score of The Right Stuff. He also received two nominations in the original song category in 1976 for Gonna Fly Now from Rocky and in 1981 for the title song from For Your Eyes Only. ""It's a moment in the sun,"" he says. ""When people get up there, some people, this is hard to believe, people that spend their lives in front of the camera or audiences entertaining, might get a little flustered. ""But there's this moment in time when the biggest award that they could possibly get in their life has been handed to them and they're either not in control or they want to thank everyone that they ever met."" The image of the Oscars telecast is one of slick presentation and smooth transitions between performances and the award categories. Behind the scenes, the key players, such as Conti, have a bewildering array of technical props to deal with. ""There's a big script and video monitors you have to watch and there are also audio controls. I can control hearing in my ears, the left ear or the right ear - different things at different times. ""I have to communicate with the director. I have a little microphone that's attached to my headset. To open up that microphone, I have a footswitch,"" he explains. Conti's most nerve-wracking moment came during his first Oscars show as musical director, in 1977, when a member of the orchestra alerted him that they could smell smoke. Conti immediately told the show's director: ""I start cursing and screaming, I tell him we're not going to die for this show - you must do something or I'm going to climb out of this pit with 60 musicians and we're going to be home in 10 minutes. ""'Oh no Bill don't do anything,"" came the response. ""Imagine these elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen of the orchestra, 60 or so of them in the pit and while we're playing, firemen with their helmets and their hatchets crawling among us trying to find the reason for the smoke."" The smell turned out to be new paint smouldering on the music stands. ""No one died, it's not a big story, but it was scary at the time,"" laughs Conti. When the ceremony is over, the music director attends the annual Governor's Ball with his family. ""I have a drink and relive the show,"" he says. ""I'm not for too much carousing. I go home and unwind. It takes me about a day.""" -entertainment,"Spike Lee backs student directors Film-maker Spike Lee says black representation is stronger than ever in cinema and TV but the true power in entertainment lies behind the camera. The She Hate Me director urged students at his old Atlanta university, Morehouse College, to seek ""gatekeeper positions"" behind the scenes. Lee told them to ""work up the corporate ladder because everybody can't be an actor, everybody can't make a record"". He spoke as part of a discussion panel, then led a retrospective of his films. Returning to his old university, which educates only African American students, Lee discussed the challenges facing black people in the entertainment industry. ""Even Denzel (Washington), he's getting $20m a movie. But when it comes time to do a movie, he has to go to one of those gatekeepers,"" Lee said. He told aspiring young film-makers in the audience not to ignore non-traditional routes to getting a movie made, including raising funds independently and releasing films straight to DVD. ""It's a huge market,"" the 47-year-old director said. ""It's not something that should be looked upon as a stepchild."" Lee has made more than 25 films, including Jungle Fever, Do the Right Thing, Summer of Sam and 1986 hit She's Gotta Have It." -entertainment,"Hoffman hits out over modern film Hollywood legend Dustin Hoffman has hit out at the quality of current films and theatre productions. The star of Rain Man and Tootsie said the film culture was ""in the craphouse"" at a press conference on Tuesday. The 67-year-old also said he stopped working a few years ago because he lost his ""spark"" for acting. Hoffman is in the UK to publicise his new comedy, Meet the Fockers, which also stars Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand and Ben Stiller. He said: ""You go to the cinema and you realise you're watching the third act. There is no first or second act. ""There is this massive film-making where you spend this incredible amount of money and play right to the demographic. ""You can tell how much money the film is going to make by how it does on the first weekend. ""The whole culture is in the craphouse. It's not just true in the movies, it's also true in the theatre. ""Broadway, and now London is the same, special effects are in great demand. It's not a good time culturally."" Hoffman also said he stopped working a few years ago and moved into directing and writing. He said: ""I just lost that spark I always had. ""A couple of years ago I didn't like the parts I was getting. ""Studios weren't interested in the kind of films that people of my generation wanted to see. ""I thought I would stop and just try writing and directing. I wasn't aware of the depression that set in."" Recently, Hoffmann has returned to film, with roles in I Heart Huckabees, Finding Neverland and now Meet the Fockers, which is the sequel to Meet the Parents. Meet The Fockers opens in the UK on Friday." -entertainment,"Portishead back after eight years Cult British group Portishead have revealed they are writing their third album, their first in eight years. Founding member Geoff Barrow told BBC 6 Music the record was well on the way to being completed. ""We're actually into it as we speak. We took some time off for Christmas, but generally we're doing another record,"" Barrow told the digital radio station. News of their album plans comes after confirmation the Bristol band will play a tsunami charity show next month. Portishead will play alongside fellow Bristol band Massive Attack at Oxfam's Tsumani appeal, held at the Bristol Academy on 19 February. Barrow said he was surprised people thought the band, who won a Mercury Music Prize in 1995 for their debut album Dummy, had split up. ""We've just had our heads down really, we've never actually broken up, or parted, or whatever. ""So for us it just seems, even though we haven't played for years, we still see each other and write - we just haven't released a record for a long time."" Portishead will not play any new material at next month's concert, which will feature singer Beth Gibbons playing with an acoustic backing. Other acts appearing include Liverpool band The Coral and former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant. Portishead became an international success and a deeply influential band despite their scant recorded output. Dummy was a critics' favourite in 1994, hailed for its blend of menacing sounds and hip-hop beats married to old soul samples. The follow up, Portishead, was released three years later." -entertainment,"Three DJs replace Peel radio show The late John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show is to be succeeded in February by three shows hosted by three DJs focusing on diverse, non-commercial music. Huw Stephens, Ras Kwame and Rob Da Bank will each host the mid-week, late-night timeslot, showcasing UK talent. Radio 1 said the show would not try to replace Peel, but would rise to the ""challenge"" of ""keeping his legacy alive"" with unpredictable music. Peel died after suffering a heart attack in Peru in October. Radio 1 said the three DJs had been chosen for their ""in-depth musical knowledge across a variety of musical genres"". Rob Da Bank has been hosting The John Peel Show since the DJ's death. He is also one of the hosts of The Blue Room, an early morning weekend show that plays a mix of old and new electronic and dance music. Huw Stephens is currently one half of the Radio 1 Thursday night show Bethan and Huw in Wales, which explores new music, especially up and coming acts breaking through in Wales. And Ras Kwame is the host of 100% Homegrown on Radio 1's digital station 1Xtra. His show is dedicated to showcasing the best of UK black music and broadcasts live sessions, often giving new artists their first chance to perform on live national radio. All of the three DJs will continue to host their current shows on Radio 1. ""It is widely accepted that John Peel can never be replaced,"" said the radio station. It added that One Music would support both signed and unsigned talent, and said: ""It will seek out those making music for music's sake rather than for commercial success. ""Above all it will provide support to emerging genres of music and styles that have not yet and may never reach the mainstream."" One Music is not new to Radio 1 as it already exists as a website, offering advice on aspects of the music industry, such as recording a demo and signing a record contract. Radio 1's controller, Andy Parfitt, said: ""We believe that by having a series of DJs hosting a selection of shows under the One Music title, we will ensure that his legacy lives on."" Stephens said he grew up ""listening to John"" and that it was a ""massive honour"" to continue Peel's work championing new music. The show will be broadcast from 1 February on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2300 GMT - 0100 GMT." -entertainment,"German music in a 'zombie' state The German music business - the third largest in the world - is ""in the state of a zombie"" because it has failed to respond to the challenge posed by downloading and piracy, a leading industry figure has said. Tim Renner, the head of Universal Music Germany until last year, told BBC World Service's The Music Biz programme that the country's music industry was now struggling to survive. Renner warned that unless the industry accepted ""new realties"" - such as downloading - its decline could become irreversible. ""The problem the music industry has got is that they aren't willing to accept that the classic way of doing business is over and out,"" he stated. ""So the music industry in its current form over here is pretty much in the state of a zombie."" The music market in Germany peaked in 1997, with sales of 2.6bn euros (£1.8bn). Since 2000, sales have plummeted to just 1.6bn euros (£1.1bn) in 2003. In the space of one year - between 2002 and 2003 - CD album sales fell by 13.8%. But a study by the Society for Consumer Research found that at the same time, more than twice as many recordable CDs had music recorded on them than CD albums were sold. Mr Renner pointed out that, because profit comes mainly from the longevity of a good-selling record, this was particularly damaging. ""You need time,"" he added. However, Peter Zombic, the managing director of the International Federation of Phonographic Industry in Germany, said he did not feel the situation was as ""dramatic"" as Mr Renner believed. ""It's quite true that we have severe problems in Germany - but that's true in other parts of the world and in most developed markets too,"" he argued. ""We have a severe problem with piracy, especially internet piracy, and we also have a severe problem of private copying. ""I don't agree that the music industry lost control over the music market - in fact, especially in regard to Germany talent, the market is quite successful."" He did, however, admit that copyright owners have ""partly lost control of their copyright"", due to piracy and copying. But he refuted suggestions that the industry had been too slow to respond to digital downloading. ""We were the first to implement a download service - back in 1997,"" he argued. ""At that time it was not successful, because of the advent of piracy - it was the Napster time, when P2P services became popular. ""It still is quite difficult for the music industry to compete with a price that is zero as far as the illegal product is concerned."" Mr Zombic also called for a change to the perception in Germany that private copying of music is not a problem. German law does allow people to make copies of CDs for their family and close friends, without fear of breaking copyright. Mr Zombic said that this legal framework was a ""huge problem"". ""There is a widespread attitude that private copying is a hobby, it's nice, it's fun,"" he added. ""We try to make clear it's not nice and it's not fun - it's endangering the creativity in our country.""" -entertainment,"Fears raised over ballet future Fewer children in the UK are following in the dainty footsteps of dancers like Darcey Bussell, and carving out potential careers as ballet dancers. New research from the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) has found fewer children over the age of 10 are attending ballet classes and taking exams in the discipline. The organisation blames the growing popularity of computer games and other changes in lifestyle. And there are fears that if the trend is not reversed, there could be fewer British ballet stars in the future. The RAD found that the number of youngsters taking their ballet exams drops by almost 70% after the age of 10 or 11. Dance teacher Eve Trew, who has taught ballet for over 48 years, told BBC News she had seen a ""vast"" change over the years. She blamed modern lifestyles for the fall in ballet attendance. ""I think the children of many years ago did not have as many hobbies,"" she said. ""The trouble now is that they are wide open to computers, Gameboys and everything else children have got. ""As a result, there is less time being spent on ballet lessons."" Hazel Gilbert, 23, an information manager from Newcastle, gave up ballet at the age of 10 and is typical of the problem. ""It's not a very cool thing to do when you go to 'big' school and I think you have to be very focused on ballet to want to carry on doing it,"" she said. ""I used to love it, but after a certain age it becomes much more disciplined and I didn't want that. ""I started getting into other things, like swimming and kickboxing, and ballet just wasn't something I wanted to do any more."" Ms Trew, who runs a dance school in Gateshead, admitted it would be ""very difficult"" to reverse the trend and said many young ballet dancers were no longer willing to make the sacrifices to succeed. ""You have to be very dedicated and you have to be very disciplined. ""It is a career that you have got to really want to do because it is such hard work. ""Children these days have not got the time to spend perfecting it... that is very sad."" Currently, only two out of 16 principal dancers at the Royal Ballet - Darcey Bussell and Jonathan Cope - are British, compared to 16 of the 21 principals in 1985. But a spokesman for the English National Ballet told BBC News that although only two out of their 12 principal dancers were British, around a quarter of the company's dancers were from the UK. He said competition at open auditions in London was ""fierce"" between talented dancers from all over the world. The RAD have launched a new competition to try and reverse the decline in British ballet. Dame Antoinette Sibley, president of the RAD, launched the Fonteyn Nureyev Young Dancers competition earlier this week. Aimed at children aged 10 to 13, it is hoped the contest will help keep British ballet evolving. A spokeswoman for the RAD said: ""It is our responsibility to re-ignite the passion and nurture young dancers for the long-term future of ballet. ""We need to provide them with a framework and a goal to work towards, with constant support and coaching in an environment where they can work with their peers and possibly leading artists and choreographers. ""Perhaps more importantly provide them with the opportunity to experience 'performance' themselves. ""What better way to reignite a passion for ballet than to let them experience the thrill of performance?""" -entertainment,"The Producers scoops stage awards The Producers has beaten Mary Poppins in the battle of the blockbuster West End musicals at the Olivier Awards. The Producers won three prizes at the UK's most prestigious annual theatre awards, while Mary Poppins won two. Mel Brooks' hit show triumphed in the battle for best new musical, where it was up against Mary Poppins and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White. Alan Bennett's The History Boys was the big winner in the straight theatre categories, picking up three trophies. But all eyes were on the musical prizes after The Producers, Mary Poppins and The Woman in White all had high-profile openings in the last six months. The Producers' Nathan Lane, a last-minute replacement for Richard Dreyfuss, beat his former co-star Lee Evans to win best musical actor. Lane has already left the production. A smash hit on Broadway before moving to London, the show also won best musical performance in a supporting role for Conleth Hill, who plays director Roger DeBris. Mary Poppins' awards came for best choreography and best musical actress for its star Laura Michelle Kelly. It led the nominations going into Sunday's ceremony at London's Hilton hotel, up for nine awards. Both shows are stage adaptations of 1960s films. The History Boys, set in a grammar school in the early 1980s and partly based on Bennett's experiences as a teacher, was named best new play. It also won best actor for Richard Griffiths, who beat his Harry Potter film co-star Michael Gambon, nominated for Endgame, as well as Jonathan Pryce and Ben Whishaw. The play also won National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner best director and Bennett got a special award for outstanding contribution to British theatre. Dame Judi Dench, who starred in All's Well That Ends Well at the Gielgud, lost out in the best supporting role category to Amanda Harris, who played Emilia in Othello for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Olivier Awards have been handed out by the Society of London since 1976. - Best lighting design - His Dark Materials designed by Paule Constable at the Olivier - Best sound design - The Woman in White designed by Mick Potter at the Palace - Best new opera - Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Royal Opera House - Outstanding achievement in opera - Thomas Ades and the Royal Opera House for the world premiere of The Tempest - Best costume design - All's Well That Ends Well designed by Deirdre Clancy at the Gielgud - Best Revival - Hamlet by William Shakespeare at The Old Vic - Best set design - His Dark Materials designed by Giles Cadle at the Olivier - Outstanding musical production - Grand Hotel at the Donmar Warehouse - Best supporting role in a musical - Conleth Hill for The Producers at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane - Best theatre choreographer - Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear for Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward - Best actor - Richard Griffiths for The History Boys at the Lyttelton - Outstanding achievement or performance in an affiliate theatre - Andrew Scott for A Girl in A Car With A Man at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court - Best new dance production - Rambert Dance Company's Swamp at Sadler's Wells - Outstanding achievement in dance - San Francisco Ballet for their season at Sadler's Wells - Best performance in a supporting role - Amanda Harris for Othello at Trafalgar Studios - Best actress - Clare Higgins for Hecuba at the Donmar Warehouse - Best musical actor - Nathan Lane for The Producers at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane - Best musical actress - Laura Michelle Kelly for Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward - Best director - Nicholas Hytner for The History Boys at the Lyttelton - Best new play - The History Boys by Alan Bennett at the Lyttelton - Best new musical - The Producers at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane - Special award - Alan Bennett for his outstanding contribution to British theatre" -entertainment,"Prodigy join V Festival line-up Essex act Prodigy are to headline the second stage at this year's V Festival, joining main stage headliners Scissor Sisters and Franz Ferdinand. The event, which is in its 10th year, will be held at two venues - Hylands Park in Essex and Weston Park in Staffordshire on 20 and 21 August. Meanwhile, rock veterans New Order have joined the T in the Park line-up alongside Athlete and Green Day. The Manchester band will play on 9 July at Scotland's biggest festival. It will be their debut performance at the music event which is held over the weekend of 9 and 10 July in Balado near Kinross. Other bands at the sold-out festival include Queens of the Stone Age, The Killers, Keane, The Streets and Foo Fighters. A month later at the V Festival, Prodigy will play at Weston Park on Saturday 20 August and Hylands Park on Sunday 21 August and the Chemical Brothers vice versa. It will be the Chemical Brothers' only UK festival performance of the year. V festival director Bob Angus said: ""With the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers now confirmed to headline the second stage, we are headed for a really stellar line-up. ""We pride ourselves on putting on an unbeatable live music experience and V Festival 2005 will not disappoint."" Tickets for the V festival go on sale on Friday 11 March." -entertainment,"Singer Knight backs anti-gun song R&B star Beverley Knight said she sang on an anti-gun single after being ""haunted"" by the fatal 2003 shooting of two teenage girls in Birmingham. Knight and drum 'n' bass star Roni Size have released No More in a bid to reduce gun use among young people. She said she was ""horrified"" by the deaths of Charlene Ellis, 18, and Letisha Shakespeare, 17. Size, whose New Forms album won the 1997 Mercury Music Prize, said gun use was ""nothing to be glamorised"". There were more than 10,500 firearms offences and 70 gun crime deaths in England and Wales between June 2003 and 2004, according to Home Office figures. Knight said the scale of the problem became clear to her after the 2003 shootings in Aston, near Knight's Birmingham home. ""It haunted me to be honest, it haunted my sleep,"" she said. Size became involved after two friends, Donna Small and Asha Jama, were shot in his Bristol hometown in October. Jama, 25, lost her sight in one eye while 22-year-old Small suffered serious head injuries. Size said he collaborated on the single, which was released on Monday, because he has ""a bird's eye view of what's going on"". ""Over the last 10 years, I have seen a lot of things happen and it is nothing to be glamorised, it really isn't,"" he said." -entertainment,"Hillbillies singer Scoggins dies Country and Western musician Jerry Scoggins has died in Los Angeles at the age of 93, his family has said. Scoggins was best remembered for singing the theme tune to popular US TV show The Beverly Hillbillies. The Texan-born singer approached the producers of the programme with theme tune The Ballad of Jed Clampett for the pilot which was screened in 1962. The show, which told the story of a poor man striking oil and moving to Beverly Hills, ran until 1971. Scoggins' daugher Jane Kelly Misel said that her father never tired of the song and would sing it at least once a day. ""He'd sing it at birthdays and anniversaries and variety shows. He never stopped performing it,"" she said. When a film version of The Beverly Hillbillies was made in 1993, Scoggins came out of retirement to perform the theme tune. Scoggins sang the lyrics while bluegrass stars Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs played guitar and banjo." -entertainment,"US TV special for tsunami relief A US television network will screen a celebrity TV special to benefit the tsunami relief effort in South Asia. NBC will encourage viewer donations during an hour-long show featuring musical performances on 15 January. Actress Sandra Bullock has donated $1m (£525,000) to The American Red Cross and actor Leonardo DiCaprio pledged a ""sizable"" aid contribution to Unicef. Meanwhile 70 Hong Kong music and movie stars re-recorded We Are the World in Mandarin and Cantonese to raise funds. The song will not be released as a single, but will be played regularly during a Chinese telethon on Friday in aid of victims of the Boxing Day disaster. Around 140,000 people were killed and five million left homeless or without food and water after an earthquake below the Indian Ocean sent waves crashing into coastal communities in 11 countries. The United Nations warned that the number killed in the disaster could rise sharply, with aid yet to reach some remote areas. Performers have yet to be confirmed for NBC's aid relief benefit later this month. It follows a two-hour telethon carried by all four major US television networks 10 days after the 11 September terror attacks in 2001. America: A Tribute to Heroes raised more than $150m (£79m) to help victims of the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon." -entertainment,"Godzilla gets Hollywood fame star Movie monster Godzilla has received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, honouring both his 50th birthday and the launch of his 28th film. An actor dressed as the giant creature breathed smoke over photographers on Monday as Godzilla received the 2,271st star on Hollywood Boulevard. ""Godzilla should thank you for this historical and monumental star,"" said Final Wars producer Shogo Tomiyama. ""But unfortunately, he cannot speak English,"" he added. Hollywood's honorary mayor, Johnny Grant, said: ""I do hereby proclaim this Godzilla Day in Hollywood. ""He's loose, he's wild, and I'm getting the hell out of here,"" he added. The premiere of Godzilla: Final Wars at Grauman's Chinese Theatre followed the ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard. The monster was joined by co-stars including Japanese pop star and actor Masahiro Matsuoka. Director Ryuhei Kitamura said it may not be Godzilla's final outing, as it has been billed. ""That's what the producers say. But the producer's a liar,"" he said. ""[Godzilla's] been working for the last 50 years. So, I think Godzilla just deserves a vacation."" And producer Shogo Tomiyama added: ""So long as Godzilla can fascinate people, I believe he will be resurrected by new generations of filmmakers in the future."" Godzilla first appeared in 1954 as a prehistoric lizard woken by atomic bomb tests." -entertainment,"Spector facing more legal action Music producer Phil Spector is facing legal action from the mother of the actress he has been accused of killing. Donna Clarkson, whose daughter Lana was found dead in Mr Spector's home in February 2003, is seeking unspecified damages in a civil action. The legal action accuses Mr Spector of murdering the actress at his LA home. Mr Spector is currently free on $1m (£535,000) bail and is awaiting trial. The 64-year-old has denied the killing, saying her death was accidental. Ms Clarkson's legal action, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, also accuses Mr Spector of negligence and battery, alleging he ""grabbed, hit, fought with and restrained"" Lana Clarkson before shooting her to death. Her lawyers said in a statement: ""The Clarkson family had hoped that there would be some resolution with regard to the criminal proceedings before moving forward with the civil action. ""However, Ms Clarkson and her family understand that the fair administration of justice takes time and in light of the numerous changes Mr Spector has made in his legal defence team over the last two years, Ms Clarkson was forced to file the action before (the statute of limitations expired) on 3 February 2005."" Mr Spector, known for his work with the Beatles, has claimed that Lana Clarkson committed suicide. His lawyers, led by Bruce Cutler, have vowed to prove him innocent at trial. Mr Cutler said: ""Phil did not cause the death of this woman, he's not criminally responsible and he's not civilly responsible either. ""But I'm not surprised they filed a suit for money, that seems to be de rigueur nowadays."" A Los Angeles Superior Court judge is expected to set a trial date later this month for Spector, who was indicted on murder charges in September. Roderick Lindblom, one of Ms Clarkson's lawyers, said: ""Our intent is to let the criminal proceedings go forward and not do anything that would interfere with the prosecution.""" -entertainment,"Berlin applauds Hotel Rwanda Political thriller Hotel Rwanda was given a rousing reception by spectators at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday. The movie's star Don Cheadle also received a standing ovation when he stepped onto the stage after the show. The film is the true story of the hotel manager who saved 1,200 Tutsis from death during the Rwandan genocide. The film, showing out of competition in Berlin, is nominated for three Oscars, including best actor for Cheadle. Sophie Okonedo, who plays Cheadle's wife Tatiana, is nominated for best supporting actress. The film is also in the running for best original screenplay. Cheadle, was joined on stage at Berlin by Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager he plays in the film, Mr Rusesabagina's wife and his extended family, who fled Rwanda and now live in Belgium. Mr Rusesabagina used his influence as a prominent Hutu businessman to shelter potential victims of the Rwandan genocide, contacting dignitaries including Bill Clinton, the King of Belgium as well as the French foreign ministry. Hotel Rwanda is one of two films addressing the genocide at the 55th Berlin Film Festival, which runs until 20 February. Sometimes in April is a feature by Raoul Peck competing for the festival's coveted Golden and Silver Bear awards. The film was made exclusively in Rwanda whereas Hotel Rwanda was shot mostly in South Africa, with some scenes made in Kigali." -entertainment,"TV show unites Angolan families Angolan families who are attempting to track each other down, after being separated by nearly 30 years of war, are succeeding thanks to a hugely popular TV show. Meeting Point has become one of TV Angola's most watched programmes, and has reunited hundreds of families. It runs daily, not only on the television but also on the radio. Every Friday, hundreds of people gather in Luanda's Independence Square to record a message in front of the TV cameras, in the hope that a lost relative will see it. Many relatives have been reunited on air. ""At the beginning there was an absolute explosion - huge, huge crowds,"" Sergio Gera, the programme's chief co-ordinator, told BBC World Service's Assignment programme. ""Now things are a little calmer, there are slightly less people - but, after two and a half years of broadcasting, there are still a lot of people going."" The media in the southern African country, twice the size of France, has been gripped by the quest of so many people to find their relatives. Hundreds of thousands of people died in Angola's 30-year civil war, which finally ended in 2002, and tens of thousands of people are still missing. Many have not heard anything for 10 or more years - in all, 90% of Angolan families have lost someone. The idea of recording in Independence Square was modelled on a square in the Argentine capital Buenos Aries, where mothers go to talk about the dead and the missing, and to exchange news. One woman, Victoria Lapete, found her sister - the only remaining member of her family - in Independence Square live on Meeting Point. She had not seen her sibling for 28 years. ""When we saw each other, we threw ourselves into each other's arms,"" she told Assignment. ""We started to cry. I felt very, very happy, because I'd spent so long without any family. Suddenly I had a sister again."" However, Angola is one of the poorest countries in Africa, and the number of people with access to either a television or radio is comparatively few. This means that elsewhere in the country, the task of reuniting families lies primarily with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In the city of Wambo, the ICRC runs the Gazetta - a 200-page, tabloid-size book which contains 13,000 names of missing or displaced. Their task is made much harder by the huge number of landmines dotted around the country. ""It's very difficult - there are many displaced,"" stated Joaquim Sahundi, head of tracing in Wambo. ""As they try to go back [home], others are trying to relocate their relatives. Many people are getting injured because of that - in the villages, in the bush, there has been no clearance of mines. ""When people are crossing these areas, they step on mines."" The ICRC also uses the media where it can, running four daily broadcasts of their lists of the missing on Radio Angola. Meanwhile, there remain massive challenges to Angolan families even once they are reunited. ""The programme of family reunification is extremely important, but for these families to remain reunified, there has to be social integration, job access, education, healthcare,"" said Rafael Marques of the pro-democracy George Soros Foundation for Southern Africa. ""Essentially the government is waiting for the international community to pay for the reconstruction - that's why it has been persistently calling for a donor's conference. That is just a way of detaching itself from its political responsibilities.""" -entertainment,"Angels 'favourite funeral song' Angels by Robbie Williams is the song Britons would most like played at their funeral, a survey has suggested. While the melancholy hit topped the UK poll, Europeans favoured Queen's more upbeat anthem The Show Must Go On as their first choice. Frank Sinatra's My Way was second in the UK vote with Monty Python's Always Look on the Bright Side of Life in third place. More than 45,000 people were surveyed by digital TV station Music Choice. The European chart, which included Denmark, France and Germany, put Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven in second and AC/DC's Highway to Hell in third. Queen's Who Wants to Live Forever was highly favoured by both UK and European voters. Both lists featured only one traditional or classic song each, with Britons requesting the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards' Amazing Grace and their continental counterparts opting for Mozart's Requiem. ""Wanting to share your most treasured musical gem with those you're leaving behind is the perfect way to sign off and leave a lasting impression,"" Music Choice music and marketing manager Simon George said." -entertainment,"Rapper Jay-Z becomes label boss Rap star Jay-Z is to become a record company executive after being put in charge of one of hip-hop's most influential labels, Def Jam. Jay-Z, who said he would make no more music after 2003's The Black Album, will become the company's president and chief executive from January. Def Jam's parent company, Universal, made the appointment after buying Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella label. Def Jam's artists include LL Cool J, DMX, Ludacris, Ja Rule and Ashanti. Jay-Z will continue to run Roc-A-Fella, which he founded with Damon Dash in 1995 and has Kanye West and Beanie Sigel on its roster. Universal said on Wednesday it had bought the 50% of Roc-A-Fella it did not already own. Antonio ""LA"" Reid, chairman of The Island Def Jam Music Group, said: ""I can think of no-one more relevant and credible in the hip-hop community to build upon Def Jam's fantastic legacy."" He hoped Jay-Z would ""move the company into its next groundbreaking era"", he added. Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, said: ""I have inherited two of the most important brands in hip-hop, Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella. ""I feel this is a giant step for me and the entire artist community."" One of the most successful and respected rap stars of the last eight years, Jay-Z's hits have included Hard Knock Life, Dirt Off Your Shoulder and 03 Bonnie and Clyde with his girlfriend Beyonce Knowles. He said he would retire after The Black Album, but has just released an album and been on an ill-fated tour with R Kelly. Def Jam was founded in 1984 by Russell Simmons and producer Rick Rubin and signed artists including Run-DMC, The Beastie Boys and Public Enemy." -entertainment,"Cage film's third week at US top Nicolas Cage movie National Treasure has topped the US and Canada box office for the third week in a row. National Treasure made $17.1m (£8.8m) in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, according to studio estimates, taking its total to $110.2m (£56.7m). Comedy Christmas with the Kranks, starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis, was in second place. The Polar Express entered in third place while Jude Law film Closer made its debut at number six. Oliver Stone's big-budget epic Alexander, starring Colin Farrell, followed last week's disappointing sixth-place opening with a slump to seventh place and takings of $4.7m (£2.4m). Critics have savaged the three-hour epic, which reportedly cost $150m (£77m) to make. National Treasure, which sees Cage's character Ben Gates chase a hidden fortune, has been made by Disney Studios. It is Cage's fourth collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer, who is usually noted for his male-orientated action films." -entertainment,"Vera Drake leads UK Oscar hopes Mike Leigh's film Vera Drake will lead British hopes at this year's Academy Awards after getting three nominations. Imelda Staunton was nominated for best actress for her role in the abortion drama, while Leigh received nods for best director and original screenplay. Kate Winslet was also nominated in the best actress category for her role in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And Clive Owen and Sophie Okonedo both got nominated for supporting roles in Closer and Hotel Rwanda respectively. Owen has already been made bookmakers' favourite for best supporting actor for the role in Closer that has already clinched him a Golden Globe award. And it is the first nomination for actress Okonedo, chosen for her performance in Hotel Rwanda, about the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It is also a debut nomination for Staunton, 49, who told BBC News 24 she had not thought the film would appeal to Academy voters. ""It was an extraordinary time making the film and I can't believe what has happened this morning,"" she said. ""I hope it just shows Mike up to be the extraordinary filmmaker he is. ""We are also dealing with a very difficult subject matter and it is amazing to have it accepted in this way."" Leigh, who had previously received three Oscar nominations for Secrets and Lies and Topsy Turvy, told BBC News 24 the latest success was ""amazing"". He said: ""We hoped that Imelda Staunton would get a nomination but I never expected to get director and screenplay. It's just absolutely wonderful. ""I think people are aware that it's about life - and I hope it is the warmth and compassion that really talks to people."" Winslet said she was ""ecstatic"" about the fourth nomination of her career. ""Being nominated means so much to me. To be nominated for a film that was released a while ago, I feel so honoured and overwhelmed,"" she said. John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council, said it was ""extremely heartening"" to see British filmmaking talent recognised on the global stage. ""Britain has a hugely talented industry and these nominations show why National Lottery investment in film pays major dividends for our culture and economy."" Among a total of 24 British nominees, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Charles Hart are up for best original song for Learn To Be Lonely, from The Phantom of the Opera movie. Cinematographer John Mathieson, who was nominated for Gladiator in 2001, is also up for The Phantom of the Opera. And Finding Neverland has garnered two more nominations for Brits. Gemma Jackson, who has also worked on Bridget Jones's Diary and Iris, is up for art direction while costume designer Alexandra Byrne, whose previous films have included Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Elizabeth, is in the running. The UK has two contenders in the best live action short film category. Wasp was made by ex-children's TV presenter Andrea Arnold while Little Terrorist is the work of Ashvin Kumar. This year's awards will be handed out in Hollywood on 27 February." -entertainment,"US composer recreates Bach score A US musicologist has recreated a lost musical score by German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The 1728 composition, called Wedding Cantata BWV 216, was found among the papers of Japanese pianist Chieko Hara, who died in Japan in 2001 aged 86. The work, written for the wedding of a daughter of a German customs official, was missing for 80 years. Joshua Rifkin - a composer and leading interpreter of Bach - has recreated the missing instrumental parts. He said he originally wanted to let the lost cantata lie in rest. ""Maybe a fragment should stay a fragment,"" said Rifkin. ""Then I thought of palaeontologists, from one bone they figure the entire dinosaur. This is my dinosaur."" The eight rediscovered pages consist of vocal pieces in German for soprano and alto, with the seven movements lasting for a total of between 20 and 25 minutes. The instrumental parts were entirely lost except for two recycled movements, a duet and an aria which had been used elsewhere in Bach's work. Rifkin likened the challenge to a ""musical Rubik's cube"". ""I could not reconstruct what Bach wrote but I could give the people of today an idea of what his music was like,"" he said. ""It sounds like Bach's music, but the listener should not know which part is Bach's and which part is mine.""" -entertainment,"Youssou N'Dour wins music prize Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour has been named a winner of a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award. His album Egypt won the critics' award for album of the year, while the best newcomer accolade went to Argentine Chango Spasiuk. Winners were chosen from ten categories to reflect different continents. A special Poll Winners concert, hosted by Eliza Carthy and Benjamin Zephaniah will take place at The Sage in Gateshead on 5 March. The concert will be broadcast on Radio 3's World Music Day the following evening and will feature performances by many of the award winners. It will also include the announcement of the Audience Award, chosen by Radio 3 and BBC World Service listeners, alongside BBC Four viewers. Winner in the Africa category was Malian desert blues band Tinariwen, formed from the nomadic people of the southern Sahara. Cuban pianist Bebo Valdes and flamenco singer Diego El Cigala, responsible for critically acclaimed album Lagrimas Negrasmusic, won an award in the ""boundary crossing"" category. Each winner will receive a specially commissioned sculpture entitled Planet by Anita Sulimanovic who won a competition to design the award. Highlights of the Poll Winners Concert, to be held at The Sage, Gateshead, will be televised on BBC Four on 11 March." -entertainment,"Surprise win for anti-Bush film Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has won best film at the US People's Choice Awards, voted for by the US public. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ won best drama, despite both films being snubbed so far at US film awards in the run-up to February's Oscars. Julia Roberts won her 10th consecutive crown as favourite female movie star. Johnny Depp was favourite male movie star and Renee Zellweger was favourite leading lady at Sunday's awards in LA. Film sequel Shrek 2 took three prizes - voted top animated movie, top film comedy and top sequel. In television categories, Desperate Housewives was named top new drama and Joey, starring former Friends actor Matt LeBlanc, was best new comedy. Long-running shows Will and Grace and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation were named best TV comedy and TV drama respectively. Nominees for the People's Choice Awards were picked by a 6,000-strong Entertainment Weekly magazine panel, and winners were subsequently chosen by 21 million online voters. Fahrenheit 9/11 director Michael Moore dedicated his trophy to soldiers in Iraq. His film was highly critical of President George W Bush and the US-led invasion of Iraq, and Moore was an outspoken Bush critic in the 2004 presidential campaign inwhich Democratic challenger John Kerry lost. ""This country is still all of ours, not right or left or Democrat or Republican,"" Moore told the audience at the ceremony in Pasadena, California. Moore said it was ""an historic occasion"" that the 31-year-old awards ceremony would name a documentary its best film. Unlike many other film-makers, Passion of the Christ director Mel Gibson has vowed not to campaign for an Oscar for his movie. ""To me, really, this is the ultimate goal because one doesn't make work for the elite,"" Gibson said backstage at the event. ""To me, the people have spoken.""" -entertainment,"The comic book genius of Stan Lee Stan Lee, the man responsible for a string of comic superheroes that have become household names, has won a court battle for a slice of the profits from the hit Spider-Man movies. Many marvel at the man who gave his characters extraordinary powers and everyday headaches - a formula which revolutionised comics. Born in 1922 to poor working-class Jewish immigrants from Romania, Stan Lieberman, got a job in Timely Publications, a company owned by a relative. He was assigned to the comics division and - thanks to a fertile imagination - rose to editor by the age of 18. For more than 20 years, he was ""the ultimate hack"" - knocking out crime stories, horrors, westerns, anything to sate the appetite of his juvenile readership. Words of more than two syllables were discouraged. Characters were either all good or bad, with no shades of grey. So embarrassed was Lieberman by much of what he was writing that he refused to put his real name on the byline. He assumed the ""dumb name"", Stan Lee, now legally adopted. By the time he was 40, Lee had decided he was too old for the comic game. His British-born wife, Joan, suggested he had nothing to lose and, for his swansong, should write the kind of characters he really wanted to create. After a rival comic had come up with a superteam consisting of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, Timely needed to respond. Lee's answer, in 1961, was the Fantastic Four - a team of astronauts who gained super powers after being bombarded with cosmic rays. They were to change Lee's life, and the comics industry, forever. Lee gave each character individual, everyday teenage problems such as dandruff, ingrown toenails and acne. They would frequently fall out with their parents and each other. The fan letters poured in. Without immediately knowing it, Stan Lee had ushered in the golden age of comics, and his imagination was rekindled. His Marvel universe spawned the new title of Marvel Comics. Soon after, nerdy Peter Parker was transformed - after a bite from an irradiated spider - into someone who could crawl up the sides of New York's skyscrapers. Spider-Man was born. He was to become an icon of modern popular culture. Spidey, as he is affectionately known, had quite extraordinary powers - yet he had problems at work, at home and with his girlfriends. At last, the teenager was no longer just the sidekick, but the main hero. And the hero was no longer just brawn, he had brains too. ""Just because he's a hero and has super powers doesn't mean he doesn't have problems,"" Stan Lee told the BBC. The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man and the rest all grappled with problems like drug abuse, bigotry and social inequality. Radically, Lee gave the artists responsible for the comic designs credits for their work. Jack Kirby, Frank Miller, John Romitaand and others achieved cult status in their own right. Other superheroes broke new ground in other ways. Daredevil was blind, Black Panther was black and Silver Surfer pondered the state of humanity. Lee's influence remains. Some years ago the Marvel hero, Northstar, came out of the closet. In its heyday, Marvel was selling 50 million copies a year. Until he retired from editing in 1971, Stan Lee wrote all the copy for Marvel's covers. In 1999, his Stan Lee Media venture, aimed at marrying comic-strips with the internet, went spectacularly wrong. Lee went bankrupt and his business partner landed in prison for fraud. In 2001 though, he started a new company entitled POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment, which is currently developing films and television programmes. His latest project is a superhero based on a real person - Jay J Armes, who has metal claws after losing both hands aged 12 and fights crime with a tiger. But his 40-year-old creations are still as enduring as ever - with X-Men, The Hulk and Daredevil have all been turned into Hollywood action movies in the last five years. But Spider-Man has been the biggest box office hit, with the 2002 original and its 2004 sequel taking almost $1.6bn (£857m) in ticket sales around the world - before DVD and merchandise sales are counted. It seems Stan Lee is as indestructible as his heroes." -entertainment,"Baywatch dubbed 'worst TV import' Surf show Baywatch has won the title of worst TV import of all time in a poll of UK television executives. The programme, which starred David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson during its 12-year run, was shown in 140 countries at its height. Model Anna Nicole Smith's reality show and The Dukes of Hazzard were runners-up in the Broadcast magazine survey. The Simpsons and Dallas and 24 were among the magazine's list of the best all-time imports from the US. Soap operas Knots Landing, Falcon Crest plus The Bold And The Beautiful all made the top 10 of Transatlantic TV howlers. The Jerry Springer Show, which came in at sixth on the list, did not fare well. Broadcast magazine said: ""British TV never realised how low it could go before Jerry showed the way."" Baywatch rose to the top of the list for having ""mind-numbingly predictable scripts: beachgoer is saved from drowning,"" according to the magazine. Just inside the all-time worst top 10 came Extreme Makeover, which sees members of the public given thousands of pounds worth of plastic surgery. Other American shows which won praise were The X-Files, I Love Lucy, Twin Peaks and Star Trek." -entertainment,"Hendrix guitar fetches £100,000 A much-loved guitar belonging to Jimi Hendrix has been sold for £100,000 at an auction in London. The 1965 Fender Stratocaster was one of a number of guitars included in the sale dedicated to the rock legend. The vast archive of instruments, signed records and posters were collected by a dedicated fan who had become friendly with the star. The auction was billed as the biggest collection of Hendrix memorabilia to go under the hammer. The majority of the items were collected by fan Bob Terry who began collecting at the age of 17. He later sold it on to another collector. Hendrix, widely considered one of the best guitarists of his era, died of a drug overdose in 1970 at the age of 27. The 1965 Fender Stratocaster was used by the musician on tour and in his studio. A poem written by Hendrix two weeks after his infamous appearance at the Monterey Festival where he set light to his guitar went for £10,000. The Jimi Hendrix Experience's first single Hey Joe, signed by all the band, was sold for £2,000. The sale, hosted by auctioneers Cooper Owen, was held at the Hard Rock Cafe in London." -entertainment,"Halloween writer Debra Hill dies Screenwriter and producer Debra Hill, best known for her work on the 70s horror classic Halloween, has died in Los Angeles aged 54. Hill, who had been suffering from cancer, co-wrote the 1978 film, which starred Jamie Lee Curtis as a babysitter terrorised by a psychopath. Directed by John Carpenter, it made over $60m (£31.3m) worldwide - a record for independent film at that time. Hill also worked with Carpenter on Escape From New York and The Fog. Born in New Jersey, Hill began her career as a production assistant and worked her way through the ranks, becoming an assistant director and second-unit director before she began collaborating with Carpenter. She was regarded by many as a pioneering woman in film, taking on jobs in the 70s that were more commonly taken by men. ""Back when I started in 1974, there were very few women in the industry,"" she said in 2003. ""I was assumed to be the make-up and hair person, or the script person. I was never assumed to be the writer or producer."" ""I took a look around and realised there weren't that many women, so I had to carve a niche for myself."" Carpenter said that working with Hill was ""one of the greatest experiences of my life"". ""The ground that she trailblazed in the beginning can now be followed by anyone. She was incredibly capable and talented,"" he said. Carpenter and Hill collaborated on a number of Halloween sequels, including Halloween II, Halloween: Resurrection and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. Later in her career, Hill formed a production company with her friend Lynda Obst, making a string of hit films including Oscar nominee The Fisher King and teen comedy Adventures In Babysitting. Other films included the Stephen King adaptation The Dead Zone in 1983 and 1985's Clue, a comedy based on the board game Cluedo. In the 90s she pursued work in TV, although she was reunited with Carpenter in 1996 for Escape From LA, the sequel to Escape From New York. At the time of her death she was working on a film about the last two men pulled from the rubble of the Twin Towers following the 11 September terror attacks in 2001. She was also co-producing the remake of The Fog, which is due for release early next year." -entertainment,"Lopez misses UK charity premiere Jennifer Lopez cancelled an appearance at the UK charity premiere of her new movie saying she was too ill to fly. The actress and singer dropped out at the last minute and has now cancelled all European promotion of the film Shall We Dance? and her new album. She said: ""I very much wanted to be in London but unfortunately I'm not well. At the advice of my doctors I'm unable to travel."" Co-star Richard Gere attended the event held in aid of the tsunami appeal. Thousands braved the cold weather to see the stars in London's Leicester Square. The red carpet boasted waltzing dancers in honour of the film's ballroom dancing theme. The film's director Peter Chelsom said he was disappointed that Lopez did not attend. ""It's a shame. I know it's true that she's not well because she has also cancelled her promotional tour. I've heard she has swollen glands."" Gere, 55, greeted the crowd and signed autographs, accompanied by his wife Carey Lowell. Other stars who turned out on the night included Honor Blackman, Strictly Come Dancing presenter Tess Daly and actress Anita Dobson. Lopez issues a statement apologising for her absence. ""I'm so proud of Shall We Dance and was looking forward to visiting London,"" she said. ""This film was a labour of love for me, and I want to thank everyone involved in bringing it to you, from the cast, to the film director, to the crew."" Lopez appeared at the Grammy awards on Sunday, singing a duet with her third husband Marc Anthony." -entertainment,"Film row over Pirates 'cannibals' Plans to portray Dominica's Carib Indians as cannibals in the sequel to hit film Pirates of the Caribbean have been criticised by the group's chief. Carib Chief Charles Williams said talks with Disney's producers revealed there was ""a strong element of cannibalism in the script which cannot be removed"". The Caribbean island's government said Disney planned to film in Dominica. The Caribs have long denied their ancestors practised cannibalism. Disney was unavailable for comment. ""Our ancestors stood up against early European conquerors and because they stood up...we were labelled savages and cannibals up to today,"" said Mr Williams. ""This cannot be perpetuated in movies."" Shooting on the sequel is expected to begin in April, with hundreds of Dominicans applying to be extras in the movie. About 3,000 Caribs live on the island of Dominica, which has a population of 70,000. Many Caribs were killed by disease and war during colonisation up to the 1600s. Mr Williams said he had received support from indigenous groups around the world in his efforts to have cannibalism references removed from the film. But he admitted there were some members of the Carib council who did not support the campaign. He said some did not ""understand our history, they are weak and are not committed to the cause of the Carib people"". The first Pirates of the Caribbean film took $305m (£162m) at the box office in the US alone. The cast and crew are to work on two sequels back-to-back, with the first to be released in 2006." -entertainment,"Elton plays Paris charity concert Sir Elton John has performed at a special concert in Paris to raise money for the victims of the Asian tsunami. The British singer played to a 2,700-strong audience on Sunday at the French capital's Bastille opera house. The concert was also part of an attempt to bring a broader range of events to the famous venue. Money raised will go to the Fondation pour l'Enfance (Foundation for Childhood) which aims to rebuild a children's shelter in Sri Lanka. Sir Elton played hits from his vast back catalogue to a sell-out crowd which included former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing and his wife Anne-Aymone. The veteran pop star played piano accompaniment throughout the concert which lasted for three hours without an interval. He told the crowd: ""Throughout the years, I've done a lot of drugs and alcohol. It's true that I was a nightmare, impossible. For the last 14 years I've been normal. Now my drug is called David"" - a reference to David Furnish, his partner. The crowd, who greeted each song with a standing ovation, also included French singer Charles Aznavour and British ambassador Sir John Holmes. Sir Elton has also teamed up with Phil Collins to record a version of Eric Clapton's 1991 hit Tears In Heaven to raise money for the relief fund. A release date has yet to be set for the recording, which was organised by Sharon Osbourne." -entertainment,"Singer's film to show at festival A documentary which takes a candid look at the life of chart-topping singer George Michael will be shown at this year's Berlin Film Festival. A Different Story will screen in the Panorama section of the festival, which runs from 10-20 February. It features the singer talking about both his career and his personal life, from his days in Wham! through to more recent events. Michael will attend the festival to introduce the screening on 16 February. Director Southan Morris and executive producer Andy Stephens will also attend the festival. The 93 minute film will see Michael discussing his early days in Wham! along with his later career, including his legal battles with record label Sony and his stance against the Iraq war and American politics. It will also touch upon his turbulent personal life, including his arrest in a Beverly Hills park toilet in 1998 for ""lewd behaviour"", and the death of his boyfriend Anselmo Feleppa from Aids. The film, which includes previously unseen footage of the singer also features contributions from Michael's former Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley, as well as ex-Wham! backing singers Pepsi and Shirlie. Other contributors include Sting, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Noel Gallagher, Geri Halliwell and Simon Cowell. This year's festival will open with Man To Man, a historical epic starring Joseph Fiennes and Kristin Scott-Thomas. It will be one of 21 films competing for the festival's top prize, the Golden Bear. Other films in competition will include The Life Aquatic, a quirky comedy starring Bill Murray, and the biopic Kinsey, which features Liam Neeson. The full programme will be announced on 1 February." -entertainment,"Stars pay tribute to actor Davis Hollywood stars including Spike Lee, Burt Reynolds and Oscar nominee Alan Alda have paid tribute to actor Ossie Davis at a funeral in New York. Veteran star Ossie Davis, a well-known civil rights activist, died in Miami at the age of 87 on 4 February 2005. Friends and family, including actress Ruby Dee his wife of 56 years, gathered at the Riverside Church on Saturday. Also present at the service was former US president Bill Clinton and singer Harry Belafonte, who gave the eulogy. ""He would have been a very good president of the United States,"" said Mr Clinton. ""Like most of you here, he gave more to me than I gave to him."" The 87-year-old was found dead last weekend in his hotel room in Florida, where he was making a film. Police said that he appeared to have died of natural causes. Davis made his acting debut in 1950 in No Way Out starring Sidney Poiter. He frequently collaborated with director Spike Lee, starring in seven Lee films including Jungle Fever, Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X. Attallah Shabazz, the daughter of activist Malcolm X, recalled the famous eulogy delivered by Davis at her father's funeral. ""Harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its finest hopes,"" she said, quoting the man she knew as Uncle Ossie. ""Ditto."" ""Ossie was my hero, and he still is,"" said Aviator star Alan Alda, a family friend for over forty years. ""Ossie was a thing of beauty."" ""I want so badly someday to have his dignity - a little of it anyway,"" added Burt Reynolds, Davis's co-star in the 90s TV comedy Evening Shade. Before the midday funeral, scores of Harlem residents formed a queue outside the church to pay their respects to Davis. ""It is hard to fathom that we will no longer be able to call on his wisdom, his humour, his loyalty and his moral strength to guide us in the choices that are yet to be made and the battles that are yet to be fought,"" said Belafonte, himself an ardent civil rights activist who had been friends with Davis for over 60 years. ""But how fortunate we were to have him as long as we did.""" -entertainment,"Snow Patrol bassist exits group Snow Patrol had ""no other course of action"" but to ask their co-founder and bassist to leave the band, lead singer Gary Lightbody has said. Mark McClelland had been in the band for more than 10 years since its formation at Dundee University. Lightbody said ""over the last 18 months touring has taken its toll on the rest of the band's relationship with him"". He said: ""This is the hardest decision we have ever had to make and believe us when we say we didn't make it lightly."" The group, originally from Northern Ireland, has only achieved mainstream success in the last year with the single Run and award-winning album Final Straw. In a statement on the band's website, Lightbody said: ""I started the group with Mark 10 years ago and he was a massive part of Snow Patrol and my life throughout that decade."" He added: ""It got to the stage that things couldn't go on as they were, so we felt there was no other course of action but this. ""I know you will all be distressed and may not understand this news but we had to do what was best for the band."" Snow Patrol are currently working on the follow-up to their breakthrough third album. The band is set to play support to U2 on a number of summer stadium gigs. Last month, they were the big winners in Ireland's top music honours, the Meteor Awards, picking up accolades for best band and album. It followed nominations for the Brit Awards and the Mercury Music Prize. The band formed in 1994 when Lightbody and McClelland met as students at Dundee University." -entertainment,"Stallone evicted from Big Brother Jackie Stallone, mother of actor Sylvester, has become the first star to be evicted from Celebrity Big Brother. She and John McCririck faced the public vote on Friday - 67% of people voted to keep the racing pundit in the house. Stallone, 71, appeared not to have enjoyed her time in the house saying: ""I'm a total wreck, I need a vacation, this was a nightmare"". But she was pleased to have patched things up with actress Brigitte Nielsen, her former daughter-in-law. ""That alone was worth $1m,"" she said. Stallone joined the Channel 4 show on Monday as a surprise for Nielsen. She was hot favourite to be evicted first, with odds of 1/4 to leave. But McCririck has made some enemies with his outspoken views about women. Ladbrokes spokesman Warren Lush said: ""We may have underestimated the power of the anti-McCririck brigade, but it's so hard to call with him, there are people out there who either love him or hate him, there is no middle ground."" The bookmakers have made former Happy Mondays dancer Bez favourite to win the show at 7/4, while Blazin' Squad singer Kenzie is second at 2/1. ""Bez has wooed the viewers and looks the one to beat, he's kept his nose clean and doesn't take anything too seriously,"" Mr Lush said. Earlier on Friday 15 protesters from the Fathers 4 Justice campaign group were arrested after entering the Big Brother compound at 0300 GMT and throwing fireworks. Feminist icon Germaine Greer quit the show earlier in the week over what she called ""bullying"" tactics used by the programme's producers. The show is currently attracting an average audience of about 4.2 million viewers a night." -entertainment,"Spider-Man creator wins profits Spider-Man creator Stan Lee is to get a multi-million dollar windfall after winning a court battle with comic book company Marvel. A judge has upheld Lee's demand for 10% of Marvel's profits from the hugely successful Spider-Man films. Spider-Man and its sequel made $1.6bn (£857m) at box offices worldwide. Of the cut now due to Lee, 82, who created Spider-Man in 1962, his lawyer said: ""It could be tens of millions of dollars, that's no exaggeration."" US District Court Judge Robert W Sweet ruled Lee should get a tenth of profits generated since November 1998 by Marvel TV and movie productions involving the company's characters. Lee took legal action in 2002, saying Marvel shut him out of ""jackpot"" profits from the first blockbuster film. He said the company - where he worked for more than 60 years - had gone back on agreement to give him the 10%. As well as Spider-Man, Lee co-created the Incredible Hulk, X-Men, Daredevil and Fantastic Four characters. He said: ""I am gratified by the judge's decision although, since I am deeply fond of Marvel and the people there, I sincerely regret that the situation had to come to this."" The ruling also means he is entitled to a slice of profits from DVD sales and certain merchandise. Marvel said it would appeal and did not expect the decision to impact on financial forecasts for 2004 and beyond. The New York court did not rule on Lee's claims to a share of profits from some Spider-Man and Hulk movie merchandise, which will be decided at a future trial, Marvel said." -entertainment,"Sir Paul rocks Super Bowl crowds Sir Paul McCartney wowed fans with a live mini-concert at American football's Super Bowl - and avoided any Janet Jackson-style controversies. The 62-year-old sang Hey Jude and other Beatles songs in a 12-minute set at half-time during the game in Florida. Last year, Jackson exposed a breast during a dance routine, causing outrage among millions of TV viewers and landing the CBS TV network a fine. Sir Paul, however, did nothing more racy than remove his jacket as he sang. Organisers were widely considered to be playing it safe this year by booking 62-year-old Sir Paul for his second Super Bowl show. Three years ago, he was invited to perform at the first Super Bowl after the September 11 attacks and performed his specially-written song Freedom. This time, he started off the show, at the Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, with the Beatles numbers Drive My Car and Get Back. He then performed a mellow version of Live And Let Die, the James Bond theme he recorded with the band Wings. Finally, he closed the show with a rousing version of Hey Jude. The former Beatle resisted any temptation to refer to Janet Jackson's headline-grabbing performance last year, instead keeping banter between songs to a minimum in order to squeeze as much music as he could into his slot. The singer removed his black jacket halfway through the show - but any fans hoping for a second ""Nipple-gate"" were to be disappointed as he kept his red sweatshirt on underneath. Earlier, the Black Eyed Peas and Alicia Keys had provided the night's other high-profile entertainment by performing in a pre-game show. Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie was dressed in a tight orange top and purple hotpants, but nothing in her performance was likely to upset TV watchdogs. After the controversy last year - which saw CBS fined a record $550,000 (£292,000) by federal regulators - Super Bowl organisers had turned to producer Don Mischer to oversee this year's half-time show. His previous production credits included Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. The Super Bowl is watched by an audience of 144.4 million in the US, with many of the people watching are said to tune in specifically to see the entertainment put on around the event. Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, Diana Ross, Gloria Estefan and Phil Collins are among the stars who have previously graced the Super Bowl stage." -entertainment,"Belle named 'best Scottish band' Belle & Sebastian have been named the best Scottish band of all time after a three month-long public poll. The group beat Travis and Idlewild into second and third place respectively. Franz Ferdinand, who recently picked up five Brit Award nominations, ended up in 15th place, while the Eurythmics wound up at a lowly 38. Other Scottish acts, such as the Mull Historical Society who also featured in the top 50, performed at a party in Glasgow where the result was announced. Scottish-based band Snow Patrol, who finished 14th in the vote and have been nominated for a pair of Brit Awards, were among the performers who covered well-known Scottish pop songs at the party on Wednesday night. Indie stalwarts Belle & Sebastian have enjoyed a chart career stretching back to 1997. They were the surprise winners of the Brit Award for best breakthrough act two years later. Scottish bands from earlier musical eras also made it into the final list, including 1970s tartan boy band the Bay City Rollers and goth favourites the Jesus and Mary Chain. Scottish magazine The List recently compiled a list of the top 50 Scottish bands of all time, but left the final decision to the public. The magazine's music editor Mark Robertson said: ""The idea behind the project was simple - to rediscover the very best of Scottish music, from the finest musical talent spanning from the age of 70s rock through to 80s pop, right up to today's international stars."" ""Everyone has strong opinions about this and we wanted to open it up to the public to decide,"" he added. BBC Radio Scotland presenter Vic Galloway, who has been involved in the project, said it had been ""great fun"" to look back at Scotland's musical heritage and take note of up-and-coming Scottish acts." -entertainment,"No UK premiere for Rings musical The producers behind the Lord of the Rings musical have abandoned plans to premiere the show in London because no suitable theatre was available. The £11.5m show will make its debut in Toronto in March 2006, after it was found that all three West End theatres with sufficient capacity were booked. The musical is not expected in London before December 2006. Producer Kevin Wallace said it would be ""worth waiting for"". ""It will be like nothing they have ever seen before."" ""I know there will be a lot of disappointed British Tolkien fans who hoped to see the show in London, but we couldn't get a London theatre in time,"" added the British producer. The world premiere of the stage musical, co-produced by Canadian theatrical impresarios David and Ed Mirvish, will take place at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre next year. ""Toronto really wanted this premiere. The Tolkien books and films are hugely popular in Canada,"" said Mr Wallace, shortly after signing the deal in Canada. ""We hope the anticipation and excitement over here will create an even bigger buzz by the time we open in London."" Auditions begin in Canada on Thursday, but up to five British actors may join the cast, under a deal struck with Canadian Actors' Equity. The music for the show is being written by Bollywood composer AR Rahman, who was behind Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End musical Bollywood Dreams, and in conjuction with the Finnish group Varttina. ""There will be no singing and dancing Hobbits. The music will be in a very traditional mould and draw on ethnic traditions,"" assured Mr Wallace. The musical's British director is Matthew Warchus, best known for staging the worldwide stage hit Art. ""The production will be a hybrid of text, physical theatre, music and spectacle never previously seen on this scale,"" he said. ""Only in the theatre are we actually plunged into the events as they happen. The environment surrounds us and we are in Middle Earth."" New Zealander Peter Jackson took 10 years to bring JRR Tolkien's fantasy trilogy to the big screen, winning Academy Awards for best film and best director for the final film The Return of the King in 2004." -entertainment,"Rapper 50 Cent ends protege feud Rapper 50 Cent has ended his public feud with his protege The Game as the pair said they wanted to be good role models for their communities. The row blew up when 50 Cent threw The Game out of his G-Unit crew and accused him of being disloyal. A member of The Game's entourage was reportedly shot outside a radio station where 50 Cent was being interviewed. But the pair shook hands as they handed over money to music projects for New York's deprived areas on Wednesday. The Game, whose real name is Jayceon Taylor, told a news conference: ""I want to apologise. I'm almost ashamed to have participated in the things that went on over the last few weeks."" Chart-topper 50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, said the truce came on the anniversary of the death of the Notorious BIG in 1997, who was part of a volatile feud between the east and west coast rap scenes. ""We're here today to show that people can rise above the most difficult circumstances and together we can put negativity behind us,"" 50 Cent said. ""A lot of people don't want to see it happen, but we're responding to the two most important groups - our family and our fans."" The Boys Choir of Harlem got a cheque for $150,000 (£77,800) from 50 Cent, while The Game handed over $103,500 (£53,400). The Game also made a contribution to the Compton schools music programme. 50 Cent announced he has launched the G-Unity Foundation ""to help people overcome obstacles and make a chance for the better in their lives"". ""I realised that if I'm going to be effective at that, I have to overcome some of my own,"" he said. ""Game and I need to set an example in the community."" 50 Cent is no stranger to feuds, with rapper Ja Rule among the targets for ridicule in his songs. On his latest album, released earlier this month, he turned his attentions to Fat Joe and Nas, who have both worked with Ja Rule. Both he and The Game have admitted drug dealing in the past and have both been shot." -entertainment,"BBC to pour £9m into new comedy The BBC is to invest £9m in developing new comedy and entertainment programmes outside London. The changes come as part of a shake-up of several departments to create shows that appeal to a wider range of people. Changes are also being made to teams in the factual and daytime departments outside London. Director of television Jana Bennett said the changes were about ""getting the best ideas on screen as efficiently and effectively as we can"". ""The new structure in each genre is designed to ensure that happens,"" she said. A number of new roles are being created in each department, including a head of comedy commissioning based in Glasgow. The new person will be in charge of the £9m budget and their role will be to develop shows outside the capital, both within the BBC and with independent production companies. Jane Lush, controller of entertainment commissioning, said, ""Entertainment and comedy are incredibly important to our audiences; I'm confident these changes will help us get the very best programmes on screen."" Similar positions will also be created in the other departments, with the new commissioning editor for documentaries based in Bristol and the daytime commissioning editor in Birmingham. Ms Bennett said the new roles would benefit those making programmes within the BBC as well as those making shows for the channel independently. ""A strong independent sector and a flourishing in-house production base are not mutually exclusive and will stimulate the competition that will deliver the best ideas to the audience,"" she said." -entertainment,"Casino Royale is next Bond movie Casino Royale, author Ian Fleming's first James Bond book, is to be the next Bond film, with Goldeneye director Martin Campbell behind the camera. It will be the 21st James Bond film to hit the big screen, and speculation has been rife over who will play the lead. Casino Royale was turned into a spoof spy movie by John Huston in 1967, with David Niven in the lead role. Pierce Brosnan led the past four Bond films but said producers axed him after offering him the chance to return. Among the favourites to take over the coveted role are Scottish actor Dougray Scott, Oscar nominee Clive Owen and Australian star Hugh Jackman. Producers say no decision has yet been made on who will become the seventh actor, including Niven, to play Bond on film. Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino had talked of wanting to take on the Casino Royale project, and said he had spoken to Brosnan about it. Shooting on Casino Royale is expected to begin once Campbell has finished work on The Legend of Zorro, a sequel to The Mask of Zorro, starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Antonio Banderas. Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson expect the film to be released in 2006. The script will once again be developed by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade who have both worked on two previous Bond movies. Fleming's book saw the introduction of Bond pitted against a Russian spy in a game of baccarat. Simultaneously, a woman arrives on the scene to take his eye off the game. The novel is one of Fleming's most violent and sadistic stories, with 007 suffering a savage beating from his nemesis Le Chiffre. In addition to the 1967 film, it was also adapted for television in 1954 with actor Barry Nelson as an Americanised ""Jimmy"" Bond. MGM Vice Chairman Chris McGurk said: ""Martin (Campbell) is an incredibly exciting film-maker. Goldeneye was a wonderful movie and helped reinvigorate the Bond franchise. We're thrilled to have him back to direct the newest Bond."" New Zealand-born Campbell moved to the UK in 1966 and directed TV series such as The Professionals, Minder and Bergerac. His film credits include Edge of Darkness, Vertical Limit and Beyond Borders, which starred Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen." -entertainment,"Fantasy book wins Hollywood deal A British author has had the film rights to her children's bestseller snapped up for a seven-figure sum, with Ridley Scott set to direct. Michelle Paver's Wolf Brother, a fantasy set 6,000 years ago, is the first in a planned series of six books. Film studio Fox has bought the rights for around $4m (£2.13m) for Scott's company Scott Free to develop. The director said he was ""thrilled"" with the project. ""Wolf Brother is an enchanting book,"" he said. Paver, who lives in London and previously worked as a lawyer, began writing the book in 1982 while studying biochemistry at Oxford University. She was an established author of love stories when she turned the work-in-progress into a children's novel. It was published in 2004, with Paver earning an advance of $5m (£2.8m) - the highest sum ever paid for a debut children's book. Wolf Brother tells the story of Torak, a 12-year-old hunter who lives in the forest. After his father is killed he teams up with a wolf cub and sets out to rid the forest of an evil force. Paver is currently writing the second book in the series. ""Michelle Paver lives and breathes the worlds she writes about,"" said a spokesman for the author. ""I've told her about the film deal but at the moment she is writing the second book and her mind is 6000 years away deep in the primeval forest.""" -entertainment,"The Sound of Music is coming home The original stage production of The Sound of Music is to be performed for the first time in the Austrian capital, 40 years after the film was released. The first full-scale theatrical production of the musical will make its debut in Vienna on Saturday. Julie Andrews starred in the 1965 film version of the Rogers and Hammerstein classic set in the Alpine country. But despite being one of the most successful musicals of all time, it is barely known inside Austria. The film was never shown in any cinema in Austria and was not broadcast on television until the early 1990s. The musical is based on the true story of the von Trapp family who formed a singing troupe and escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938. Sensitivities about Nazism during wartime Austria and issues towards the von Trapp family themselves could explain Austria's reluctance to embrace the musical. Another source of irritation for Austrians is the song Edelweiss, which is considered an traditional folk song by many filmgoers. The song was actually an invention by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Many also consider the film to portray a kitsch image of Austria, including yodelling, goat-herds and lederhosen. The production is being staged at a Viennese opera house, the Volksoper, beginning on Saturday. Maria, the novice nun who falls in love with Baron von Trapp, will be played by Austro-Australian actress and singer Sandra Pires." -entertainment,"US charity anthem is re-released We Are The World, the American charity anthem inspired by the success of Band Aid, has been re-issued to raise money for Aids research and tsunami victims. More than 40 stars sang as group USA For Africa, including Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen. It topped the charts in the US and UK, raising millions of dollars for African famine relief. The re-release also marks the 20th anniversary of the original recording. It has been re-issued as part of a two-disc DVD set, which will also feature footage from the recording session of the track in January 1985. The single was originally released in the US on 7 March 1985 and sold 800,000 copies in its first week. It went on to win Grammys for song of the year and record of the year." -entertainment,"Actor Foxx sees Globe nominations US actor Jamie Foxx has been given two nominations for Golden Globe awards, with Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman and Cate Blanchett also up for prizes. The stars were shortlisted on Monday for supporting roles, with the main nominations still to come. Foxx has starred in Collateral and Ray. Clive Owen, David Carradine and Natalie Portman are also up for awards. The Golden Globes, Hollywood's second most prominent awards, are the first major nominations to be announced. Last year, The Lord Of the Rings: The Return Of the King was named best drama movie while Lost In Translation won best musical or comedy. Sean Penn, Charlize Theron, Tim Robbins and Renee Zellweger all won acting awards - mirroring the eventual Oscars outcome. The Golden Globes ceremony will take place on 16 January, with the Oscars following on 27 February." -entertainment,"Ray Charles studio becomes museum A museum dedicated to the career of the late legendary singer Ray Charles is to open in his former recording studio in Los Angeles. His longtime publicist Jerry Digney said the museum would house ""archive materials from recordings, to awards, to ephemera, to wardrobe"". A tour bus used by Charles and his entourage over the years will also be on permanent display. It is hoped the museum will be ready for visitors in late 2007. Mr Digney said the recording studio and offices had been used by Charles for many years, and was where he recorded much of his last album, Genius Loves Company. It is hoped the museum will also house an education centre. The building had been declared a historic landmark by the city of Los Angeles just before Charles' death in June 2004 at the age of 73. Following his death, Charles won eight Grammy Awards, including album of the year for Genius Loves Company, a collection of duets." -entertainment,"Smith loses US box office crown New comedy Diary of a Mad Black Woman has ended Will Smith's reign at the top of the North American box office. Based on a play by Tyler Perry, who also stars as a gun-toting grandmother, the film took $22.7m (£11.8m) in its first three days of release. After topping the chart for two consecutive weeks, Smith's romantic comedy Hitch dropped to second place with takings of $21m (£10.9m). Keanu Reeves' supernatural thriller Constantine dropped a place to three. Based on the Hellblazer comics, the film took $11.8m (£6.1m) on its second week of release. Two new entries came next in the chart, with Wes Craven's horror movie Cursed, about a werewolf loose in Los Angeles, in fourth position with $9.5m (£4.9m). Action comedy Man of the House, starring Tommy Lee Jones as a Texas ranger assigned to protect a cheerleader squad, came in at fifth with $9m (£4.6m). Clint Eastwood's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby - recipient of four Academy Awards, including best picture - continued to perform well in sixth place with takings of $7.2m (£3.74m). Martin Scorsese's Hollywood biopic The Aviator - which won five Oscars, all in minor categories - held on in ninth place. The low-budget feature Diary of a Mad Black Woman stars Kimberly Elise as a woman thrown out on the streets by her philandering husband. With the help of her grandmother Madea (one of three roles played by Perry), she plots revenge. Perry, 34, is one of America's best-known black playwrights but is a newcomer to film. Once made homeless after investing his own money in unsuccessful productions of his work, he now lives in the mansion in which Diary of a Mad Black Woman was filmed." -entertainment,"Levy tipped for Whitbread prize Novelist Andrea Levy is favourite to win the main Whitbread Prize book of the year award, after winning novel of the year with her book Small Island. The book has already won the Orange Prize for fiction, and is now 5/4 favourite for the £25,000 Whitbread. Second favourite is a biography of Mary Queen of Scots, by John Guy. A panel of judges including Sir Trevor McDonald, actor Hugh Grant and writer Joanne Harris will decide the overall winner on Tuesday. The five writers in line for the award won their respective categories - first novel, novel, biography, poetry and children's book - on 6 January. Small Island, Levy's fourth novel, is set in post-war London and centres on a landlady and her lodgers. One is a Jamaican who joined British troops to fight Hitler but finds life difficult out of uniform when he settles in the UK. ""What could have been a didactic or preachy prospect turns out to hilarious, moving humane and eye-popping. It's hard to think of anybody not enjoying it,"" wrote the judges. The judges called Guy's My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots ""an impressive and readable piece of scholarship, which cannot fail but leave the reader moved and intrigued by this most tragic and likeable of queens"". Guy has published many histories, including one of Tudor England. He is a fellow at Clare College, Cambridge and became a honorary research professor of the University of St Andrews in 2003. The other contenders include Susan Fletcher for Eve Green, which won the first novel prize. Fletcher has recently graduated from the University of East Anglia's creative writing course. The fourth book in the running is Corpus, Michael Symmons Roberts' fourth collection of poems. As well as writing poetry, Symmons Roberts also makes documentary films. Geraldine McCaughrean is the final contender, having won the children's fiction category for the third time for Not the End of the World. McCaughrean, who went into magazine publishing after studying teaching, previously won the category in 1987 with A Little Lower than Angels and in 1994 with Gold Dust." -entertainment,"Spirit awards hail Sideways The comedy Sideways has dominated this year's Independent Spirit Awards, winning all six of the awards for which it was nominated. It was named best film while Alexander Payne won best director and best screenplay, along with writing partner Jim Taylor. It also won acting awards for stars Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen. Sideways is tipped to do well at Sunday's Oscars, with five nominations. The awards, now in their 20th year, are given to films made outside the traditional studio system, and are traditionally held the day before the Oscars. Other winners included Catalina Sandino Moreno, who took best actress for her role as a drug smuggler in the Colombian drama Maria Full of Grace. Moreno is also nominated for best actress at the Oscars. The best first screenplay award went to Joshua Marston for Maria Full of Grace. Scrubs star Zach Braff won the award for best first feature for Garden State, which he wrote, directed and starred in. Oscar-nominated euthanasia film The Sea Inside from Spain won best foreign film, while Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster was awarded best documentary. Actor Rodrigo de la Serna took the best debut performance prize for The Motorcycle Diaries. The awards are voted for by the 9,000 members of the Independent Feature Project/Los Angeles, which includes actors, directors, writers and other industry professionals. Last year's big winner, Lost In Translation, went on to win the Oscar for best original screenplay, for writer-director Sofia Coppola." -entertainment,"Rocker Doherty in on-stage fight Rock singer Pete Doherty has been involved in a fight with his band's guitarist at their biggest gig to date. Babyshambles played for 5,000 fans at London's Brixton Academy on Tuesday. The former Libertines singer traded blows with guitarist Patrick Walden. They were separated and bundled off stage before returning to end the set. The show was earlier held up due to audience overcrowding. On Monday Doherty faced blackmail and robbery charges in court, which he denies. He is out on £50,000 bail and the judge agreed to extend his 2200 GMT curfew deadline by two hours so he could play the Brixton gig. Babyshambles, which he formed after his acrimonious departure from the Libertines, played a warm-up show at The Garage, north London, on Monday. On Tuesday, Doherty and his three bandmates were introduced to the crowd by Mick Jones, the former Clash guitarist who produced the Libertines' second album. Babyshambles took the stage to a frenzied reception at 2200 GMT, launching into their last single, Killamangiro, which reached number eight in December. But the group had to stop during the next song to persuade fans not to push forward and allow security guards to pull people out of the crush. Doherty appealed to fans to calm down, saying: ""There's a few people getting hurt down the front, you've got to move back."" The music resumed minutes later but after several more songs, the singer appeared to accidentally disconnect Walden's guitar, leading the pair to trade kicks and punches. Bouncers stepped in and the band left the stage, but returned after five minutes and finished their 50-minute performance with no further trouble. Doherty, 25, had to be home by midnight to observe the curfew, which is one of the conditions of his bail. On Monday, the judge agreed to allow him to perform on condition that requests for changes to his bail terms were ""not too regular an occurrence"". The singer was arrested with fellow musician Alan Wass on 2 February after an alleged dispute with documentary-maker Max Carlish at a London hotel. They are next due in court on 18 April." -entertainment,"Brits return Keane to number one Brits success has helped return Keane's award-winning album Hopes and Fears back to the top of the UK album chart. The debut album, which took the best British album title at the Brits on Tuesday, moved up seven places from number eight to number one. Also capitalising on Brits success were the Scissor Sisters whose eponymous album moved three places to number two. U2's latest single Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own took the top spot in the singles chart, ahead of Elvis. The track, from their current album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, pushed Eminem's Like Toy Soldiers from number one to number three. Elvis' Wooden Heart, which entered the chart at number two, is the sixth in a series of 18 reissues to mark the 70th anniversary of Presley's birth. There are currently six re-released Elvis' tracks occupying spots in the top 40 singles chart including Are You Lonesome Tonight at number 20, It's Now or Never at number 27 and Jailhouse Rock at number 37. Soldier, by Destiny's Child, Ti and Lil Wayne, debuted at number four, while Almost Here, the duet from former Westlife star Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem, fell from number three to number five. There was more follow up to Brits success for Franz Ferdinand won best rock act and best British group last week. Their self-titled album moved from 13 to number four. Last week's number one album Tourist, by Athlete, fell to number three." -entertainment,"Vibe awards back despite violence The US Vibe awards will be held again next year despite a stabbing which happened during the ceremony. Vibe magazine president Kenard Gibbs said the attack earlier this month in Santa Monica was ""sickening"". He said not holding the awards would be counter to the work the magazine has done to promote hip hop music. Rapper Young Buck has been charged after allegedly stabbing a man who hit Dr Dre as he was about to receive a lifetime achievement award. The rapper, whose real name is David Darnell Brown, is due in court on 20 December after being arrested on one charge of attempted murder and a second charge of assault with a deadly weapon. The performer is one of the members of 50 Cent's G-Unit group, which is signed to Dr Dre's record label. The man who was stabbed, Jimmy James Johnson, suffered a collapsed lung and is in a stable condition at a Los Angeles hospital. Mr Johnson allegedly approached Dr Dre, who was seated at a table in front of the stage, and appeared to ask for an autograph before punching him. During the ensuing scuffle - which involved many of the 1,000-strong crowd - Mr Johnson was stabbed as he was being dragged away by security staff," -entertainment,"Hobbit picture 'four years away' Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has said that it will be up to four years before he starts work on a film version of The Hobbit. The Oscar winner said on a visit to Sydney there was a ""desire"" to make it, but not before lengthy negotiations. ""I think it's gonna be a lot of lawyers sitting in a room trying to thrash out a deal before it will ever happen,"" said the New Zealander. The rights to JRR Tolkien's book are split between two major film studios. Jackson, who is currently filming a remake of Hollywood classic King Kong, said he thought that the sale of MGM studios to the Sony Corporation would cast further uncertainty on the project. The 43-year-old was in the Australian city to visit a Lord of the Rings exhibition, which has attracted 140,000 visitors since it opened in December. The film-maker recently sued film company New Line Cinema for undisclosed damages over alleged withheld profits and lost revenue from the first part of the Middle Earth trilogy. The Fellowship of The Ring from 2001 went on to make worldwide profits of $291 million (£152 million). Jackson is thought to have secured the most lucrative film directing deal in history to remake King Kong, which is currently in production in Wellington. The picture, which stars Naomi Watts and Oscar winner Adrien Brody, is due to be released in December. Jackson has also committed to making a film version of Lovely Bones, based on the best-selling book by Alice Sebold." -entertainment,"Blue beat U2 to top France honour Irish band U2 have been honoured at France's biggest music awards, but were beaten to a prize by boy band Blue. U2 received a special achievement prize at the NRJ Music Awards, but Blue beat them to the international group award. US band Maroon 5 was named best new international artist, and took the best international song title for This Love. More than five million radio listeners voted in the awards. The international male and female prizes went to Usher and Avril Lavigne respectively. Collecting his band's award from model Naomi Campbell at the Cannes ceremony, U2 frontman Bono said in French: ""I'm not from this country but I'll make a little confession to you - it's at the Cote d'Azur I feel at home."" Hosted by radio group NRJ, the ceremony featured performances from Usher and Jennifer Lopez, who was accompanied by dancers clad in schoolgirl outfits. US pop act Black Eyed Peas picked up the best international album gong for Elephunk. Singer Jenifer also took home two awards, for best French female singer and best French album. French-Canadian pop star Roch Voisine was named best Francophone male artist." -entertainment,"Deal to ban 'homophobic' reggae The reggae industry is to refuse to release or stage concerts featuring homophobic songs under a global deal struck with gay rights groups. A damaging campaign against stars such as Beenie Man and Sizzla has been waged over lyrics that allegedly call for gay people to be killed or assaulted. The campaign, which led to gigs being scrapped and a UK police investigation, will now be dropped under the truce. Brett Lock of gay group OutRage! said they were ""wiping the slate clean"". The protests had been led by the Stop Murder Music coalition, an umbrella group including OutRage!, the Black Gay Men's Advisory Group and Jamaican movement J-Flag. That coalition has reached a verbal agreement with major dancehall reggae record labels and concert promoters covering eight of the scene's biggest stars. But the artists themselves were not involved in the negotiations and have not directly signed up. Instead, the record companies have pledged not to release or re-release any offensive songs - many of which date back a number of years. And it is believed promoters will make stars agree not to perform such tunes on stage. ""The reggae industry will work with the artists while still maintaining their freedom of speech and artistic freedom,"" according to media and PR strategist Glen Yearwood, who is representing the reggae industry. The industry would halt any attempt by an artist to perform or release a song inciting violence against any group or gender, he said. ""We'll advise them this is not the way forward in a civilised society."" The Stop Murder Music campaign saw protesters picket gigs, resulted in Sizzla's UK tour being cancelled in November, forced Mobo award organisers to drop artists from nominations and saw Beenie Man dropped from an MTV show in August. Police have also been investigating whether lyrics incite the assault and murder of gay people. The campaign was a blow to the reggae industry, Mr Yearwood admitted. ""If you can't have major stars touring, then you don't sell many albums,"" he said. But the artists - Beenie Man, Sizzla, Elephant Man, Buju Banton, Bounty Killer, TOK, Capleton and Vybz Kartel - will not have to apologise for past songs or comments. OutRage!'s Mr Lock said: ""The main players in the dancehall reggae industry will attempt to regulate the industry themselves to ensure that there aren't any violently homophobic or gay-bashing lyrics in the future. ""As a gesture of good faith, the Stop Murder Music coalition has agreed to suspend our aggressive campaigning against murder music. ""So we shall not be picketing concerts or calling for prosecutions to give the industry the space to regulate and reform itself."" Record companies VP and Greensleeves, distributor Jet Star and concert promoters including Jammins and Apollo Entertainment are all on board." -entertainment,"Black Sabbath top rock album poll Black Sabbath have topped a list of the best British rock albums of all time. The band once fronted by Ozzy Osbourne led a poll of Kerrang! magazine readers with their 1970 self-titled debut. The band have three more efforts on the list, including fifth-placed Paranoid. Osbourne appears more than any other act, with two solo records featured. The top five includes Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden and Sex Pistols. Queen, Muse, Manic Street Preachers and The Clash complete the top 10. A mix of heavy metal, punk, glam rock and even dance music makes up the list. Motorhead, Judas Priest and Prodigy are included along with newer acts like The Darkness and Lostprophets. Kerrang! editor Ashley Bird said: ""It's amazing to see so many incredible homegrown albums in one list, and without any of the abysmal fashion bands that currently clog up the music scene. ""These are the real opinions of proper rock fans."" Formed by four teenage friends in the West Midlands in the late 1960s, Black Sabbath are one of Britain's most successful heavy rock bands. Their debut was a UK top 10 hit in 1970 and sold more than a million copies in the US. Osbourne said the band's success in the Kerrang! poll was a triumph for British rock. He said: ""Back then you'd hear: 'If you go to San Francisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair'. ""We lived in Aston, Birmingham. The only flowers I ever saw were on a gravestone in our local cemetery."" Despite being disliked by many critics, Black Sabbath's subsequent albums included multi-million sellers but internal rows led to Osbourne leaving in 1979. The band continued without Osbourne, who went on to solo success but also had to battle alcoholism and legal action over his music allegedly inciting teenagers to commit suicide. He was eventually cleared of the charges. Osbourne, who bit off the head of a live bat on stage in 1982, rejoined the band to play the Live Aid charity concert in 1985. After many changes in line-up, the original four members reunited to play live dates in 1997. Black Sabbath have reunited regularly in recent years while Osbourne has gone on to wider fame with his family through MTV documentary series The Osbournes." -entertainment,"Band Aid retains number one spot The charity single by Band Aid 20 has held on the chart top spot for a second week, strengthening its chances of becoming the Christmas number one. Do They Know It's Christmas, featuring artists including Chris Martin and Jamelia, held off Kylie Minogue to remain the week's biggest single. Next week's chart will reveal who will have the festive chart-topper Minogue's latest release I Believe in You went in at number two, pushing down Ice Cube's You Can Do It to three. Destiny's Child also slipped one place to four with Lose My Breath, followed by Girls Aloud at five with the Children in Need record I'll Stand By You. The only other new entry in the top 10 came from Robbie Williams track Misunderstood, a new track written for his Greatest Hits album. There were no new releases in the entire top 40 album charts as record companies put out all the big releases early hoping to cash in on the lucrative Christmas market. U2's How to Dismantle a Bomb remains at number one for a third week in a row, followed by Williams' Greatest Hits. Opera band Il Divo have moved up one place with their eponymous album to number three. Maroon 5's album Songs About Jane has moved up to number seven despite being released 47 weeks ago. And the Abba Gold greatest hits album has crept back into the top 40 more than nine years after it was first released." -entertainment,"Media seek Jackson 'juror' notes Reporters covering singer Michael Jackson's trial in California have asked to see questionnaires completed by potential jurors. Lawyers for news organisations said it was ""really vital"" for the responses of 250 potential jurors to be made public ""to serve as a check on the process"". Santa Barbara County Superior Court is due to consider the request on Monday. Mr Jackson denies child molestation. It is estimated his trial will cost Santa Barbara county up to $4m (£2.13m). Meanwhile Michael Jackson's mother has said she is ""100% certain"" her son did not commit the child abuse charges he faces. The court is currently selecting 12 jurors and eight stand-by jurors for the trial, a process delayed until at least Thursday after a member of the star's legal team was hit by family illness. Defence lawyers argued against the bid by Associated Press and other news organisations to have potential jurors' responses made public. ""The release of the completed jury questionnaires does not serve any purpose other than to add to the sensationalist coverage of this case,"" a motion by Mr Jackson's lawyers stated. The estimated total costs of the trial, expected to last five months, range from $2.5m (£1.33m) to $4m (£2.13m) of local taxpayers' money. Those estimates do not include costs to the city of Santa Maria, the Superior Court or for the investigation and prosecution of the case. The cost of security and other needs around the courthouse has been estimated at $40,000 (£21,000) per day, said Jason Stilwell, a special projects manager at the county administrator's office. Mr Jackson, 46, denies plying a boy with alcohol and molesting him. His mother Katherine Jackson told US TV network Fox News on Sunday that her pop star son told her he was innocent. ""I believe that for one reason - I know his character,"" she said. ""He loves children. You don't molest anything that you love."" Describing Mr Jackson as ""a good person"", the mother-of-nine said she feared he would not be given a fair trial. ""I can't sleep thinking about what these wicked people might try to do to him,"" she said." -entertainment,"Oscars race enters final furlong The race for the Oscars entered its final stages as the deadline for voters to choose their winners passed. The 5,808 Academy voters had until Tuesday afternoon to return their ballots - any late submissions will not be included in the count. The next five days will be spent counting the voting forms and preparing the winners' envelopes. Best actor nominee Leonardo DiCaprio is to present a statuette for the first time at the LA ceremony on Sunday. The 30-year-old actor, who is nominated for playing Howard Hughes in The Aviator, will join other hopefuls such as co-star Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman and Kate Winslet as Oscar presenters. The only people who will know the Oscar winners before they are revealed at the ceremony will be the auditors who are in charge of looking after the ballot count. After collating the results, they are responsible for sealing the results in the famous golden envelopes which will be revealed by a host of celebrity presenters at the ceremony. Former Academy Award winners Gwyneth Paltrow, Dustin Hoffman and Halle Berry will also present prizes. The event at the Kodak Theatre will be attended by 3,300 people, including some of the best-known names in film, and organisers say they expect it will be watched on television by one billion people around the world. One current concern is the torrential rain which has lashed Los Angeles for the past week, flooding suburbs and causing mudslides. It is hoped the forecast for Sunday, for cool weather but no rain, will prove accurate. ""The last time it rained on Oscars night was in the mid-to-late 1980s,"" said Oscars communications director John Pavlik. ""We have had rain up until the day before the show many times, but for some reason the Oscar gods always shine on Sunday and we hope they will do so again this year,"" he added." -entertainment,"Oscars steer clear of controversy The Oscars nominations list has left out some of the most controversial films of the past year in favour of safer, less contentious cinema. If best film nominees were drawn on the basis of column inches, two of the front-runners would have had to be Michael Moore's Bush-baiting documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Both films polarised opinion but had critics talking, and the public turning up to see them - Fahrenheit 9/11 breaking US box office records for a documentary, and The Passion of the Christ making more than US$370m (£196m) in the US alone. But this year's Academy Awards have shied away from the big name controversies, with The Passion of the Christ - a film accused of being anti-Semitic - receiving nominations only in the 'minor' categories of cinematography, makeup and musical score. Fahrenheit 9/11 has also been overlooked, despite winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2004. Moore's caustic documentary may have been affected by its distributors' decision to enter it in the best picture category, rather than best documentary, says Tim Dams, the news editor of trade magazine Screen International. But he also believes the strong political viewpoint of Moore's film does not sit well with the Academy. ""If you look at past Oscar winners and nominees, the very conservative Oscar voters tend to go for very conservative, epic-style pictures. Fahrenheit 9/11 didn't really fit in to that category. ""They tend to go for films like Titanic, Gladiator, and the Lord of the Rings, films with scale that often aren't too contentious,"" he said. While he said the Oscar voting panel were not ""snubbing"" Moore's film, he thought it was unlikely a documentary could ever seriously compete in a best film category. ""I think it's more a misjudgement by the people putting it out rather than a deliberate snub,"" he said. The problem with Mel Gibson's film, he believed, was that the voting panel may have been cautious in nominating a film with dialogue in Aramaic, an ancient Middle Eastern language. ""Hollywood doesn't tend to like foreign-language films - no-one's ever tried doing a film in a dead language,"" he said. But aside from these two films, some potentially contentious pictures have won nominations. The German film The Downfall, a biopic tracing the final days of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in his Berlin bunker, has been recognised in the best foreign film category. The film has caused some controversy in showing Hitler as a fallible but human man, rather than a semi-mythical, historical monster. But Mr Dams said: ""It's not an inflammatory film. It has done very well in Germany, and it's a film that portrays Hitler as a human rather than some kind of devil or monster."" Another 'contentious' film, Mr Dams said, has gained a nomination in the best documentary section through the force of its charm. Independent film-maker Morgan Spurlock may have forced fast-food giant McDonalds to withdraw its 'super size' portions in the US after he went on a month-long diet eating nothing but McDonalds meals - and filmed his progress. The film has been a hit around the world. Mr Dams said: ""It's a political film, but it's quite fun and punky and well-paced. ""Morgan Spurlock is a really likeable guy. It's a very accessible film, and it doesn't beat you over the head with its views. ""While in Fahrenheit 9/11 there are moments of comedy, I think the way that Super Size Me is put together - the fact it's a very likeable film - means it's won through on charm."" Dam's pick at this year's Oscars? The Aviator, Martin Scorsese's biopic of aviation pioneer and Hollywood player Howard Hughes. Tinseltown, it seems, likes nothing more than a picture about one of its own." -entertainment,"Uganda bans Vagina Monologues Uganda's authorities have banned the play The Vagina Monologues, due to open in the capital, Kampala this weekend. The Ugandan Media Council said the performance would not be put on as it promoted and glorified acts such as lesbianism and homosexuality. It said the production could go ahead if the organisers ""expunge all the offending parts"". But the organisers of the play say it raises awareness of sexual abuse against women. ""The play promotes illegal, unnatural sexual acts, homosexuality and prostitution, it should be and is hereby banned,"" the council's ruling said. The show, which has been a controversial sell-out around the world, explores female sexuality and strength through individual women telling their stories through monologues. Some parliamentarians and church leaders are also siding with the Media Council, Uganda's New Vision newspaper reports. ""The play is obscene and pornographic although it was under the guise of women's liberation,"" MP Kefa Ssempgani told parliament. But the work's author, US playwright Eve Ensler, says it is all about women's empowerment. ""There is obviously some fear of the vagina and saying the word vagina,"" Ms Ensler told the BBC. ""It's not a slang word or dirty word it's a biological, anatomical word."" She said the play is being produced and performed by Ugandan women and it is not being forced on them. The four Ugandan NGOs organising the play intended to raise money to campaign to stop violence against women and to raise funds for the war-torn north of the country. ""I'm extremely outraged at the hypocrisy,"" the play's organiser in Uganda, Sarah Mukasa, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. ""I'm amazed that this country Uganda gives the impression that it is progressive and supports women's rights and the notions of free speech; yet when women want to share their stories the government uses the apparatus of state to shut us up.""" -entertainment,"Original Exorcist to be screened The original version of horror prequel Exorcist: The Beginning, dropped by producers over claims it was not scary enough, is to have its world premiere. The film, directed by Paul Schrader, will be screened on 18 March at the International Festival of Fantastic Film in Brussels. The psychological drama stars Stellan Skarsgard and foreruns the 1973 film. Schrader was replaced by director Renny Harlin who made a new version of the film which debuted in 2004. The prequel project was originally announced in 2001, with actor Liam Neeson in the lead role and John Frankenheimer as director. However Frankenheimer pulled out in 2002, a month before he died. Skarsgard then replaced Neeson in the role of Father Merrin, made famous by Max Von Sydow in the 1973 film. Principal footage was shot in Morocco and Rome at a reported cost of $32m. However, in August 2003 it emerged that producers Morgan Creek were shelving Schrader's version of the film, having complained it was not scary enough. As well as replacing Schrader with Harlin - the director behind Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger - the producers also changed most of the cast, but Swedish star Skarsgard stayed in the Merrin role. Harlin's film, released in the UK in October 2004, received lukewarm reviews but went on to make over $76m (£40.7m) worldwide. The festival screening will be the first time that Schrader's film has been seen in public. Reports that it will be released either in cinemas or on DVD have yet to be confirmed. Other films at the festival in the Belgium capital, which runs from 11-26 March, include the US horror hit Boogeyman and the forthcoming sequel Ring 2, as well as a selection of films adapted from the works of Jules Verne." -entertainment,"Da Vinci Code is 'lousy history' The plot of an international bestseller that thousands of readers are likely to receive as a Christmas present is 'laughable', a clergyman has said. The Da Vinci Code claims Jesus was not crucified, but married Mary Magdalene and died a normal death. It claims this was later covered up by the Church. The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Dr Tom Wright, described the novel as a ""great thriller"" but ""lousy history"". The book has sold more than seven million copies worldwide. Despite enjoying Dan Brown's conspiracy theory, the Bishop said there was a lack of evidence to back up its claims. Writing his Christmas message in the Northern Echo, the Bishop said: ""Conspiracy theories are always fun - fun to invent, fun to read, fun to fantasise about. ""Dan Brown is the best writer I've come across in the genre, but anyone who knows anything about 1st century history will see that this underlying material is laughable."" A great deal of credible evidence proves the Biblical version of Jesus' life was true, according to the Bishop. ""The evidence for Jesus and the origins of Christianity is astonishingly good,"" he said. ""We have literally a hundred times more early manuscripts for the gospels and letters in the New Testament than we have for the main classical authors like Cicero, Virgil and Tacitus. ""Historical research shows that they present a coherent and thoroughly credible picture of Jesus, with all sorts of incidental details that fit the time when he lived, and don't fit the world of later legend."" Brown's book has become a publishing phenomenon, consistently topping book charts in the UK and US. The Da Vinci Code has been translated into 42 languages and has spawned its own cottage industry of publications, including guides on to how to read the book, rebuttals and counter claims. The book, which has become an international best-seller in little over two years, is set to be made into a film starring Tom Hanks." -entertainment,"Robots march to US cinema summit Animated movie Robots has opened at the top of the US and Canada box office chart, taking $36.5m (£19m) on its first weekend on release. Featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Robin Williams and Mel Brooks, Robots follows a robot inventor who moves to a big city. Vin Diesel's family comedy The Pacifier fell to the number two spot, taking $18.1m (£9.4m). New Bruce Willis movie Hostage opened at number four with $9.8m (£5.1m). However, a recut version of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which featured less violence than last year's original movie, took just $239,850 (£125,000), despite opening in 957 cinemas. The new version of the film received little publicity and the original version is available across the US on DVD. ""We certainly had higher expectations than what we got,"" said Rob Schwartz, head of distribution for Newmarket Films, which released The Passion of the Christ. ""We were trying to get the film out there, hoping it would reach an audience that it didn't quite reach the first time around. It doesn't seem to have worked out quite as well as we had hoped."" Meanwhile, Will Smith comedy Hitch has become the top film at the global box office after taking an estimated $30.1m (£15.6m) over the weekend at cinemas outside North America, according to industry website Screen Daily. It has taken $65.5m (£34.1m) so far, buoyed by opening at number one in the UK last weekend and a successful run in Germany. The movie, which cost a reported $70m (£36.4m) to make, has taken $138m (£72m) in the US so far." -entertainment,"BBC denies Blackadder TV comeback The BBC has said there are no plans in the pipeline for a new series of hit comedy Blackadder, which ended in 1989. Tony Robinson, who played the servant Baldrick, told ITV1's This Morning the show's star, Rowan Atkinson, was ""more keen than he has been in the past"". Robinson added he would ""love"" to do another series, each of which was set in a different era, ranging from the 15th century to World War I. But the BBC said on Thursday there were no plans for a comeback. In the final series all the main characters were killed off charging towards German lines after being ordered out of their trench. The poignant finale was later voted the best farewell episode of a TV series. A host of other UK actors, including Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Miranda Richardson, also appeared in the show. Blackadder returned for a one-off special filmed to celebrate the arrival of the millennium in 1999. It was shown at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich before being screened on BSkyB." -entertainment,"Brando 'rejected Godfather role' Late film star Marlon Brando is said to have repeatedly turned down his Oscar-winning role in The Godfather. The actor's friend Budd Schulberg told Vanity Fair magazine that Brando's assistant suggested he read the novel. The actor repeatedly refused, throwing the book at her and saying: ""For the last time, I won't glorify the mafia"". But Brando, who died last July at the age of 80, eventually took the role of Don Corleone, winning him an Oscar in 1973 which he notoriously refused. The actor sent a young woman dressed in Native American costume to refuse the award on his behalf and to draw attention to the plight of Native Americans. Schulberg told the magazine that Brando's assistant realised the film star had warmed to the idea of The Godfather role when he sported a drawn-on pencil moustache and asked: ""How do I look?"" His assistant, Alice Marchak, said that he looked like George Raft, an actor famed for playing gangsters on the silver screen. Every time she went to see Brando from then on, she added, he was wearing a different gangster-style moustache. Brando was asked to screen test for the role in The Godfather, as studio executives were said to be reluctant for the actor to play the part following problems on the set of Brando's previous film Mutiny on the Bounty . In fact Brando's Academy Award triumph revived his career. The actor was nominated for an Oscar the following year for his role in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. Before his death, Brando granted gaming company Electronic Arts the rights to use his voice and image in a video game based on the Godfather film and book and recorded voice-overs which closely resembled his role as Don Corleone. Brando's co-stars from The Godfather, James Caan and Robert Duvall, will also reprise their roles for the video game, it was confirmed on Wednesday." -entertainment,"Day-Lewis set for Berlin honour Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is to be presented with an award for his career in film at the Berlin Film Festival. The 47-year-old, whose credits include his Oscar-winning performance in My Left Foot, will be presented with the Berlinale Camera award on 15 February. The honour, awarded since 1986, honours figures in cinema that the festival feels ""particularly indebted to"". Man to Man, a historical epic starring Kristin Scott Thomas, opens the German festival on 10 February. A candid documentary about the life and career of singer George Michael, A Different Story will also be screened at the 10-day event. ' Day-Lewis has competed four times at the Berlin Film Festival, with films In The Name Of The Father (1994), The Crucible (1997), The Boxer (1998) and Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York (2003). The festival praises him for his ""sensational start"" with roles in My Beautiful Launderette and costume classic A Room With A View, and a ""great number of celebrated roles"" in subsequent productions. Japan's oldest film studio will also be honoured along with Day-Lewis. Shochiku film studios, which was founded 110 years ago, will become the first cinematic institution to receive the Berlinale Camera award. Famous Japanese directors including Akira Kurosawa have had films produced at the studio." -entertainment,"DJ double act revamp chart show DJ duo JK and Joel are taking over BBC Radio 1's flagship chart show on Sunday, adding showbiz news, celebrity interviews and between-song banter. They hope to boost ratings for the long-running show, which has been overtaken in popularity by independent radio's Hit 40 UK rundown. ""Radio 1's chart show is an institution and remains the station's single most popular show,"" says JK, also known as Jason King. ""For years people have been tuning in at four o'clock with their tape recorders ready to record their favourite tunes. Not that I ever did that. ""But things have moved on a lot now so it was time for a change."" That change involved ejecting previous host Wes Butters and relocating King and DJ partner Joel Ross from their weekend afternoon Radio 1 slot. The pair have worked together for a decade - meeting on Viking Radio in Hull before moving to Manchester station Key 103 and winning two Sony Radio awards. They also presented gadget series Playboyz and car show Motor Maniacs for cable TV channel Granada Men and Motors, and Pure Soap on BBC Three. On the revamped chart show their cheeky, laddish banter will punctuate star interviews and competitions, film and DVD charts plus a look at future single releases, in addition to the singles chart itself. ""The chart rundown is no longer the only point of the programme,"" says Ross. ""The show used to be the only way to discover who was in the Top 40. Now you can just click on the internet to find that out, so the show has plenty of extra items too."" The show's reduced reliance upon the Top 40 also reflects the fact that music fans are now more likely to download songs in digital format rather than buy them on compact disc, vinyl or cassette. ""I personally buy downloads rather than CD singles,"" says 27-year-old Ross. ""Even my grandma can download songs now. JK is still struggling with the technology, though."" ""But it's premature for people to say that the singles chart is dead,"" Ross adds. ""While sales of singles on traditional formats are down, interest in songs has been revived by download sales, which will be incorporated into our main chart rundown from April. ""Music fans still want to know what is the most popular song of the week."" Ross will be plumping for chart success from rapper Verbalicious and the Stereophonics on Sunday, while King is more of an R&B and dance music fan. ""So listeners will get the advantage of both our music tastes,"" says King, 30, who describes outgoing host Butters as ""an extremely professional and competent broadcaster"". ""The advantage Joel and I have is that we're a double act, with a rapport between us that makes the show much more interactive,"" King says. ""Wes has a great broadcasting career ahead of him. And if not, I could always use a cleaner,"" he jokes. Ross says the pair have done their best to ignore the weight of expectation placed upon the revamped show. ""Other people can worry about that, we are going to continue doing what we do well,"" he says. ""At the end of the day this is a radio show that is meant to be entertaining. Nobody died.""" -entertainment,"Children vote Shrek 2 best film Young UK film fans voted animated Hollywood hit Shrek 2 best film at the children's Bafta awards on Sunday. More than 6,000 children voted in the only category chosen by fans. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, runner-up in the poll, was the choice of the Bafta experts who named it best feature film. BBC One Saturday morning show Dick and Dom In Da Bungalow won two awards - best entertainment and best presenters for Richard McCourt and Dominic Wood. Former Playschool presenter Floella Benjamin was awarded the Special Award for outstanding creative contribution to children's film and television. She first appeared on Playschool 25 years ago and was made an OBE in 2001 for services to broadcasting. South American-themed cartoon Joko! Jakamoko! Toto! won the honour for pre-school animation and its writer Tony Collingwood for original writer. Debbie Isitt won the award for best adapted writer for her work with Jacqueline Wilson's The Illustrated Mum, which won the award for best schools drama. Schools' Factual (primary) - Thinking Skills: Think About It - Hiding Places Schools' Factual (secondary) - In Search of the Tartan Turban Pre-School Live Action - Balamory Animation - Brush Head Drama - Featherboy Factual - Serious Desert Interactive Bafta - King Arthur International category - 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter" -entertainment,"Grammys honour soul star Charles The memory of soul legend Ray Charles dominated the music world's leading music ceremony on Sunday as he was given eight posthumous Grammy Awards. Charles, who died in 2004, got honours including record and album of the year, while Alicia Keys and actor Jamie Foxx performed a musical tribute to him. R&B star Keys won four awards herself at the Grammy ceremony in Los Angeles. U2, Usher, Norah Jones and Kanye West got three each. West led the race going into the ceremony with 10 nominations. Charles' last album, Genius Loves Company, a collection of duets that has sold more than two million copies, was named album of the year and best pop vocal album. His song Here We Go Again with Norah Jones won record of the year and best pop vocal collaboration, while Heaven Help Us All with Gladys Knight picked up best gospel performance. Jones said: ""I'm glad he's getting recognised, because of who he is and how much I love him."" Actor Jamie Foxx - who is nominated for an Oscar for playing Charles in the hit movie Ray - dedicated a rendition of Georgia on My Mind to ""old friends"". Keys, looking to replicate her Grammys success of 2002, when she won five, picked up best R&B song for You Don't Know My Name and best R&B album for The Diary of Alicia Keys. She also shared the award for best R&B vocal performance by a duo or group with Usher for My Boo. Usher's other victories were for best contemporary R&B album for Confessions and best rap/sung collaboration for Yeah!, featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris. Kanye West dominated the rap categories, winning best rap song for Jesus Walks and best rap album for The College Dropout. But in one of the night's biggest shocks, he lost out in the battle to be named best new artist to pop rock act Maroon 5. Vertigo by rock giants U2 won three trophies - best rock song, best short video and best rock vocal performance by a duo or group. One of the other main awards, song of the year, went to US singer-songwriter John Mayer for Daughters. Mayer also won best male pop vocal performance. Britney Spears picked up her first ever Grammy for her song Toxic, which was named best dance recording. Rod Stewart also won the first Grammy of his career, getting the best traditional pop album award for Stardust... The Great American Songbook: Volume III. In 2003, Stewart said he was ""astounded"" he had never won a Grammy - but ""they tend not to give it to the British unless you're Sting"". There were few other high-profile British victors this year. Annie Lennox, metal group Motorhead and dance act Basement Jaxx all took home trophies. But Elvis Costello, who had four nominations, and Joss Stone and Franz Ferdinand, who were both up for three awards, got nothing. Beach Boys veteran Brian Wilson was another first-time winner - for best rock instrumental performance. ""It represents triumph and achievement in music that I feel that I deserved, and I'm really glad I won,"" he said. A live recording of composer John Adams' 11 September tribute, On the Transmigration of Souls, performed by the New York Philharmonic, won three classical prizes. And former US President Bill Clinton picked up the second Grammy of his career, winning the spoken word award for the audio version of his autobiography My Life." -entertainment,"Films on war triumph at Sundance A study of the United States at war in the past 50 years has picked up one of the main awards at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival in Utah, in the US. Why We Fight scooped the grand jury prize for documentaries at the world's leading independent film festival. British director Sean McAllister's The Liberace of Baghdad - about a pianist in war-torn Iraq - won a special prize in the world documentary category. Both Why We Fight and The Liberace of Baghdad were made for the BBC. Why We Fight is due to be screened on BBC Four in March. The Sundance festival was founded by actor Robert Redford in 1981. This year's festival - which ended on Sunday after a 11-day run - has been dominated by the themes of war and politics. In the new world cinema drama category, the Angolan film The Hero triumphed to win the grand jury prize. The film - an Angolan/French/Portuguese production - tells the story of a veteran of the country's civil war who returns home to face a new battle of survival. Twelve films competing in the new world cinema documentary category focused on countries and people under siege. Finnish film The Three Rooms of Melancholia looks at the war in Chechnya and Shake Hands With The Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire tells the story of a UN mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. But it was Dutch documentary Shape of the Moon - a study of an extended family in Indonesia - which took the top prize. Meanwhile, French-Israeli production Wall, which looks at Israel's controversial security wall separating it from the Palestinian territories, picked up a world cinema special jury prize for documentaries. In the main drama category, Forty Shades of Blue was named winner of the grand jury prize. The film tells the tale of a forbidden tug-of-love between a father, his Russian immigrant girlfriend and his son. During its 24-year history, the Sundance Film Festival has showcased successes such as Reservoir Dogs, The Blair Witch Project and The Full Monty. Last year's festival provided a platform for hits such as Open Water, Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State and Super-Size Me. The festival is held in the mountain resort of Park City, east of Salt Lake City, which sees its population rise from 7,500 to 45,000 during the festival." -entertainment,"Ocean's Twelve raids box office Ocean's Twelve, the crime caper sequel starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, has gone straight to number one in the US box office chart. It took $40.8m (£21m) in weekend ticket sales, according to studio estimates. The sequel follows the master criminals as they try to pull off three major heists across Europe. It knocked last week's number one, National Treasure, into third place. Wesley Snipes' Blade: Trinity was in second, taking $16.1m (£8.4m). Rounding out the top five was animated fable The Polar Express, starring Tom Hanks, and festive comedy Christmas with the Kranks. Ocean's Twelve box office triumph marks the fourth-biggest opening for a December release in the US, after the three films in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The sequel narrowly beat its 2001 predecessor, Ocean's Eleven which took $38.1m (£19.8m) on its opening weekend and $184m (£95.8m) in total. A remake of the 1960s film, starring Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, Ocean's Eleven was directed by Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh returns to direct the hit sequel which reunites Clooney, Pitt and Roberts with Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and Elliott Gould. Catherine Zeta-Jones joins the all-star cast. ""It's just a fun, good holiday movie,"" said Dan Fellman, president of distribution at Warner Bros. However, US critics were less complimentary about the $110m (£57.2m) project, with the Los Angeles Times labelling it a ""dispiriting vanity project"". A milder review in the New York Times dubbed the sequel ""unabashedly trivial""." -entertainment,"Holmes wins '2004 top TV moment' Sprinter Kelly Holmes' Olympic victory has been named the top television moment of 2004 in a BBC poll. Holmes' 800m gold medal victory beat favourite moments from drama, comedy and factual programmes, as voted by television viewers. Natasha Kaplinsky's Strictly Come Dancing win was top entertainment moment and a Little Britain breast feeding sketch won the comedy prize. The 2004 TV Moments will be shown on BBC One at 2000 GMT on Wednesday. Double gold medal winner Holmes topped the best sports moment category, beating Maria Sharapova's Wimbledon triumph and Matthew Pinsent's rowing victory at the Olympics. She then went on to take the overall prize of Golden TV Moment. The sight of former royal correspondent Jennie Bond with dozens of rats crawling over her in ITV's I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here was named best factual entertainment moment. Michael Buerk's return to Ethiopia, 20 years after originally reporting its famine, topped the factual category for BBC programme This World. Long-running soap EastEnders won the best popular drama moment title when character Dot confided in Den Watts that she was unwell." -entertainment,"Usher leads Soul Train shortlist Chart-topping R&B star Usher is leading the field at this year's Soul Train Awards, with five nominations. The singer, whose album Confessions has sold close to eight million copies in the US alone, is already in the running for eight Grammy Awards. Newcomer Ciara - who recently beat Elvis Presley to the UK number one spot - has four nominations, while Alicia Keys has three. The Soul Train Awards ceremony will take place in Hollywood on 28 February. Usher has already swept the board at the American Music Awards with four titles, including two best album awards. His Soul Train nominations include best male R&B-soul album and best male R&B-soul single for Confessions Part II. Usher's work with rappers Ludacris & Lil Jon won him nominations for best R&B-soul or rap music video and best R&B-soul or rap dance cut for the song Yeah!, while his duet with Keys, My Boo, earned the pair a nod for best R&B-soul single. Keys' album The Diary of Alicia Keys was also up for best R&B-soul album by a female. Her song If I Ain't Got You received a best single nomination in the female R&B-soul category. Newcomer Ciara's four nominations include best female R&B-soul album and best R&B-soul or rap by a new artist. Beyonce, Prince, Destiny's Child, Jill Scott and New Edition all received two nominations each. The Soul Train Music Awards, which started 18 years ago, celebrates artists in R&B, hip-hop, rap and gospel music." -entertainment,"Bafta to hand out movie honours Movie stars from across the globe are attending this year's Bafta film award ceremony. British stars Imelda Staunton and Clive Owen are hoping for awards at the Odeon in London's Leicester Square. Hollywood stars Leonardo diCaprio, Pierce Brosnan, Christian Slater and Richard Gere are also in the audience for the biggest night in UK film. Hollywood blockbuster The Aviator, starring DiCaprio, leads the field with 14 nominations, including best movie. It is up against Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Neverland, The Motorcycle Diaries and British film Vera Drake, which has 11 nominations. Staunton is one of the favourites to land the best actress award for her gritty role as a backstreet abortionist in the small-budget film. She arrived at the ceremony wearing a green silk and chiffon low cut evening dress decorated with beads. ""It's lovely to be here at home, to be on British soil. It's very nice indeed,"" she told reporters. Asked whether she was nervous about her best actress nomination she said: ""It's out of my hands, there's nothing I can do. I'm here with a lot of mates and we're going to have a very nice evening."" Other nominees in the best actress category include Charlize Theron for Monster, Ziyi Zhang for House of Flying Daggers and UK star Kate Winslet, who has two nods for her roles in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Finding Neverland. DiCaprio faces competition from Bernal, Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey and Johnny Depp in the best actor category. The crowed screamed when he arrived on the red carpet.""It's unlike anything I've ever encountered. It's very intense and very loud,"" he told the BBC. ""It's the first time I've come to the Baftas because it's the first time I've been nominated...I've appreciated British cinema for a long time and to be recognised like this is a special honour."" Gere, who is presenting the best film award, said: ""It's a big party, I had no idea it was going to be this big. It's crazy, I think it's bigger than the Academy Awards."" British actor Owen is hoping to repeat his Golden Globe success with a best supporting actor award for his role in Closer. He raised one of the biggest cheers of the night when he walked down the red carpet. ""I was always a huge fan of Closer as a play, so when I got the call to appear in the film, it was a huge thrill for me,"" he said. ""The whole experience has been a treat and I'm very fortunate to have been given the role."" His co-star Natalie Portman is up against Blanchett, Heather Craney, Julie Cristie and Meryl Streep in the best supporting actress category. Mike Leigh is up for the best director award for Vera Drake, alongside Martin Scorsese for The Aviator, Michael Mann for Collateral, Michel Gondry for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Marc Forster for Finding Neverland. The Orange British Academy Film Awards will be shown on BBC One at 2010 GMT." -entertainment,"Celebrities get to stay in jungle All four contestants still remain in I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here as no evictions were made on the television show on Saturday. Contestants Paul Burrell, Joe Pasquale, Janet Street-Porter and Fran Cosgrave were told by hosts Ant and Dec. Natalie Appleton's decision to quit the show last Monday had given them all a stay of execution, the group were told. Model Sophie Anderton was the last person to be voted off the ITV1 show, set in the Australian jungle. The four remaining stars will do a joint Bushtucker Trial on Sunday. Former All Saints singer Natalie Appleton,31, walked out of the show after learning she would face a fifth so-called Bushtucker Trial. The celebrities are chosen by the viewers to pass trials in order to win food for the rest of the camp. Appleton had endured a torrid time during the programme, including a well-publicised row with Sophie Anderton. And on 26 November singer Brian Harvey quit as a contestant after he had a blazing row with Janet Street-Porter." -entertainment,"UK Directors Guild nominees named Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood are among the nominees for the top prize at the Directors Guild of Great Britain awards, now in their second year. The Oscar rivals will compete for the international film prize at the ceremony, to be held at the Curzon Mayfair cinema in London on 20 March. Other nominees include Bill Condon for Kinsey and Michel Gondry for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Mike Leigh's Vera Drake is among the nominees for best British film. The awards will see Eastwood and Scorsese once again competing for the directing prize, following last weekend's Oscars. Clint Eastwood won best director for Million Dollar Baby, beating Scorsese who was nominated for a fifth time for the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. Mike Leigh will compete for the British film prize with Shane Meadows for Dead Man's Shoes, Roger Michell For Enduring Love and My Summer Of Love director Pawel Pawlikowski. Nominees for best foreign film include Spain's Pedro Almodovar for Bad Education and Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai for 2046. In the TV categories, comedy series Early Doors and The Alan Clark Diaries will compete for the best directing award for a 30-minute television show, while the directors of Shameless, Hustle and Bodies are all nominated for the 60-minute television prize. The directors of Omagh and Sex Traffic are among the nominees for a television movie or mini-series. American Beauty's Sam Mendes will receive a lifetime achievement award for his work in film and theatre, while theatre director Simon McBurney will be given an award for outstanding directorial achievement." -entertainment,"Byrds producer Melcher dies at 62 Record producer Terry Melcher, who was behind hits by the Byrds, Ry Cooder and the Beach Boys, has died aged 62. The son of actress Doris Day, he helped write Kokomo for the Beach Boys, which was used in the movie Cocktail, earning a 1988 Golden Globe nomination. He also produced Mr Tambourine Man for the Byrds, as well as other his such as Turn, Turn Turn. Melcher died on Friday night at his home in Beverly Hills, California, after a long battle with skin cancer. He joined Columbia Records as a producer in the mid-1960s, and also worked with Gram Parsons and the Mamas and the Papas. Earlier in his career, Melcher had hits as part of duo called Bruce & Terry, with future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, which evolved into the Rip Chords group. Melcher also worked closely with his mother, producing The Doris Day Show and helping to run her charitable activities. In 1969 his name became linked with the Charles Manson murders, which saw the deaths of actress Sharon Tate and four of her friends at a home which Melcher once rented. Rumours circulated that Melcher - who knew Manson - was the killer's real target, because he had turned him down for a record contract. But Los Angeles police discounted the rumours, pointing out Melcher had moved to Malibu, and Manson knew of his new address." -entertainment,"Artists' secret postcards on sale Postcards by artists including Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin have sold just hours after the opening of the Royal Academy of Arts annual Secrets sale. The identity of the artist remains unknown until each work is bought and the signature is revealed on the back. ""There are still some big names left, such as Mario Testino,"" said RCA spokeswoman Sue Bradburn. All postcards are priced at £35. The sale opened at 8am on Friday and will close at 6pm on Saturday. Ms Bradburn said there was a big queue at the start of the sale but it had now gone down. She said the people that had bought the famous name postcards had arrived early and had spent time studying each work. ""They would have known what to look for."" The exhibition has been open for viewing since 19 November. Film director Ken Loach, fashion designer Hussein Chalayan and former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon have all designed postcards for the sale. Some of the contributing artists are students or recent graduates of the Royal College of Art and other leading art colleges. Money raised from the sale will go towards the RCA's Fine Art Student Award Fund which supports students with grants and bursaries. The famous sale is now in its 11th year." -entertainment,"Sir Paul rocks Super Bowl crowds Sir Paul McCartney wowed fans with a live mini-concert at American football's Super Bowl - and avoided any Janet Jackson-style controversies. The 62-year-old sang Hey Jude and other Beatles songs in a 12-minute set at half-time during the game in Florida. Last year, Jackson exposed a breast during a dance routine, causing outrage among millions of TV viewers and landing the CBS TV network a fine. Sir Paul, however, did nothing more racy than remove his jacket as he sang. Organisers were widely considered to be playing it safe this year by booking 62-year-old Sir Paul for his second Super Bowl show. Three years ago, he was invited to perform at the first Super Bowl after the September 11 attacks and performed his specially-written song Freedom. This time, he started off the show, at the Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, with the Beatles numbers Drive My Car and Get Back. He then performed a mellow version of Live And Let Die, the James Bond theme he recorded with the band Wings. Finally, he closed the show with a rousing version of Hey Jude. The former Beatle resisted any temptation to refer to Janet Jackson's headline-grabbing performance last year, instead keeping banter between songs to a minimum in order to squeeze as much music as he could into his slot. The singer removed his black jacket halfway through the show - but any fans hoping for a second ""Nipple-gate"" were to be disappointed as he kept his red sweatshirt on underneath. Earlier, the Black Eyed Peas and Alicia Keys had provided the night's other high-profile entertainment by performing in a pre-game show. Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie was dressed in a tight orange top and purple hotpants, but nothing in her performance was likely to upset TV watchdogs. After the controversy last year - which saw CBS fined a record $550,000 (£292,000) by federal regulators - Super Bowl organisers had turned to producer Don Mischer to oversee this year's half-time show. His previous production credits included Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. The Super Bowl is watched by an audience of 144.4 million in the US, with many of the people watching are said to tune in specifically to see the entertainment put on around the event. Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, Diana Ross, Gloria Estefan and Phil Collins are among the stars who have previously graced the Super Bowl stage." -entertainment,"Pete Doherty misses bail deadline Singer Pete Doherty will have to spend the weekend in jail because he could not come up with £150,000 bond money for his bail on time. The former Libertines singer had been granted bail with curfew restrictions at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on charges of robbery and blackmail. But his lawyer said the money could not be raised on time. Mr Doherty, 25, was arrested following an alleged incident in a London hotel on Wednesday evening. Musician Alan Wass, 23, also of north London, appeared in court accused of the same offences. Magistrates imposed a range of bail conditions on Mr Doherty including a curfew between 2200 and 0700, except when he attends a drug rehabilitation centre. He was told he would not be able to leave his home without being accompanied by a security firm. He must also surrender his passport and report daily to a local police station. Mr Wass was also given a curfew and told to surrender his passport. Mr Doherty left The Libertines at the end of June 2004, but continued performing with his band Babyshambles. The singer, who has been linked to supermodel Kate Moss, was arrested after police were called to the Islington hotel in response to claims that a man had been assaulted. A man in his 30s was later taken to University College Hospital, London, with facial injuries, before being discharged. A lawyer representing Mr Doherty and Mr Wass said outside court the pair strenuously denied the charges." -entertainment,"Elvis fans hold birthday bash Elvis fans around the world have been marking the legendary singer's 70th birthday on Saturday. A three-day Elvis convention took place in Blackpool, England, over the weekend with the aim of finding the best European Elvis impersonator. His Graceland, Tennessee, home was the focus for US celebrations with four days of events including a concert by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Elvis' single Jailhouse Rock became the UK's number one on Sunday. Fans in France celebrated with a tribute concert by Elvis cover bands and a special exhibition of memorabilia is on display in Bonn, Germany. Jailhouse Rock is now the 999th number one single in UK pop history. Record company SonyBMG are releasing Elvis' 18 number one singles at the rate of one a week in Britain, complete with original artwork and a collector's box. Hit single One Night will follow next week - with the chance of becoming the 1,000th number one as interest surrounding Elvis' birthday grows. HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said: ""It would be a fantastic and truly fitting way to celebrate Elvis' landmark birthday.""" -entertainment,"Housewives lift Channel 4 ratings The debut of US television hit Desperate Housewives has helped lift Channel 4's January audience share by 12% compared to last year. Other successes such as Celebrity Big Brother and The Simpsons have enabled the broadcaster to surpass BBC2 for the first month since last July. However the channel's share of the audience fell from 11.2% to 9.6% last month in comparison with January 2004. Celebrity Big Brother attracted less viewers than its 2002 series. Comedy drama Desperate Housewives managed to pull in five million viewers at one point during its run to date, attracting a quarter of the television audience. The two main television channels, BBC1 and ITV1, have both seen their monthly audience share decline in a year on year comparison for January, while Five's proportion remained the same at a slender 6.3%. Digital multi-channel TV is continuing to be the strongest area of growth, with the BBC reporting Freeview box ownership of five million, including one million sales in the last portion of 2004. Its share of the audience soared by 20% in January 2005 compared with last year, and currently stands at an average of 28.6%." -entertainment,"Sideways dominates Spirit awards The comedy Sideways has dominated this year's Independent Spirit Awards, winning all six of the awards for which it was nominated. It was named best film while Alexander Payne won best director and best screenplay, along with writing partner Jim Taylor. It also won acting awards for stars Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen. Sideways is tipped to do well at Sunday's Oscars, with five nominations. The awards, now in their 20th year, are given to films made outside the traditional studio system, and are traditionally held the day before the Oscars. Other winners included Catalina Sandino Moreno, who took best actress for her role as a drug smuggler in the Colombian drama Maria Full of Grace. Moreno is also nominated for best actress at the Oscars. The best first screenplay award went to Joshua Marston for Maria Full of Grace. Scrubs star Zach Braff won the award for best first feature for Garden State, which he wrote, directed and starred in. Oscar-nominated euthanasia film The Sea Inside from Spain won best foreign film, while Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster was awarded best documentary. Actor Rodrigo de la Serna took the best debut performance prize for The Motorcycle Diaries. The awards are voted for by the 9,000 members of the Independent Feature Project/Los Angeles, which includes actors, directors, writers and other industry professionals. Last year's big winner, Lost In Translation, went on to win the Oscar for best original screenplay, for writer-director Sofia Coppola." -entertainment,"Beastie Boys win sampling battle US rappers Beastie Boys have won their long-running battle over the use of a sample in their song Pass the Mic. The punk-rappers used three notes of music from flautist James Newton's Choir in their track from 1992. Although the group had paid a licence fee for the sample, Mr Newton said his copyright had been infringed. But the US Court of Appeal upheld its original decision that the group did not have to pay an additional fee to license the underlying composition. The Beastie Boys - Michael Diamond, Adam Horowitz, and Adam Yauch - are considered to be one of early pioneers of sampling music. Sampling, now a standard practice among musicians, involves taking a segment of one track and using it in a different song. A three-judge panel of the court held in 2003 that the band had abided by copyright protections by paying a licence fee for a sample of Mr Newton's recording. That finding upheld a lower-court dismissal of the case in favour of the Beastie Boys. ""We hold that Beastie Boys' use of a brief segment of that composition, consisting of three notes separated by a half-step over a background C note, is not sufficient to sustain a claim for infringement of Newton's copyright,"" Chief Judge Mary Schroeder wrote in her opinion. Mr Newton is a critically acclaimed jazz and classical flutist, composer, performer, and university professor. Mr Newton and the Beastie Boys were not available for comment." -entertainment,"No ads for Passion Oscar campaign Producer Mel Gibson will not be using paid advertisements to promote The Passion of the Christ to voters in next year's Academy Awards. Gibson and his Icon Productions partner Bruce Davey said they would not be campaigning in print, radio or TV for success at the Oscars in February. ""This film should be judged on its artistic merit, not who spends more money on advertising,"" Davey said. But DVDs will be sent to Oscar voters, who will be invited to screenings. Icon spent very little on advertising the film, which deals with the last hours of Jesus Christ's life, when it was released earlier this year - instead, it made the film available for special screenings at churches. It went on to gross over $600m (£322m) in ticket sales worldwide. Over recent years, marketing films to the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has become a multi-million dollar industry. Last year, the academy formed a committee to tighten the rules after the campaigns spilled over into personal attacks between studios. Academy president Frank Pierson praised Gibson's move for working to restore the Oscars as a ""celebration and appreciation of excellence,"" and resisting the ""crass commercialisation that was threatening the integrity of the award""." -entertainment,"Incredibles win animation awards The Incredibles movie has beaten Shrek 2 to the main prizes at Hollywood's animation awards, the Annies. The superhero film was named best animated feature while Brad Bird won best director, writer and voice actor for his role as designer Edna Mode. The Incredibles won a total of 10 awards - but Shrek 2, which had seven nominations, went home empty-handed. The two movies will compete with Shark Tale in the best animated film category of the Oscars at the end of February. The Incredibles' awards came despite Shrek 2's greater box office success. Shrek 2 took $881m (£468m) around the world, compared with $576m (£306m) for The Incredibles. SpongeBob SquarePants was named best animated TV show while TV comedy King of the Hill picked up two prizes including one for actress Brittany Murphy's voice work. Tom Kenny, who provides the voice for SpongeBob SquarePants, hosted Sunday's ceremony at the Alex Theater, Los Angeles. The awards are handed out by the International Animated Film Society. Finding Nemo won nine Annies last year." -entertainment,"Hollywood hunts hits at Sundance The Sundance Film Festival, the movie industry's top destination for uncovering the next independent hits and new talent, opens on Thursday. The event will see screen executives decamp from Hollywood to Park City, Utah, for 11 days to search for low-key movies that could make it big in 2005. Open Water, Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State and Super-Size Me were all snapped up at last year's festival. But stars like Keanu Reeves and Pierce Brosnan also have films showing there. The festival is being opened by a screening of quirky comedy Happy Endings, starring former Friends actress Lisa Kudrow and Maggie Gyllenhaal, on Thursday. Kudrow's Friends co-star, David Schwimmer, plays a divorced drunkard in Duane Hopwood, while Brosnan stars as a hit man in comedy The Matador. Keanu Reeves appears in coming-of-age tale Thumbsucker while Kevin Costner and Michael Keaton are among the other big names whose films are involved. Robert Redford founded Sundance in 1981 and it has gone on to showcase future successes such as Reservoir Dogs, The Blair Witch Project and The Full Monty. But it has received criticism that it has become more commercial and mainstream over the years. ""As much as the press argues that Sundance has completely changed, it hasn't changed that much,"" festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said. ""It's still a place for discovery. It's a place for common ground among film-makers and audiences more than it is the celebrity stuff."" Other films generating interest before this year's festival include Hustle & Flow, about an aspiring rapper, The Squid and the Whale, an autobiographical film by writer-director Noah Baumbach, and comedy/drama Pretty Persuasion. It also has two new international cinema competitions." -entertainment,"Doves soar to UK album summit Manchester rock band Doves have entered the UK album chart at number one with their new release, Some Cities. The trio replace flamboyant US act Scissor Sisters at the top. The album follows single Black and White Town, which reached number six. R&B star Nelly has the new number one single with Over and Over, which sees him team up with Tim McGraw. Girls Aloud, Akon and Kaiser Chiefs all have new singles in the top ten, as do Futureheads and Usher. The latest Elvis Presley re-release, (Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame, entered the chart at number three, one place ahead of Girls Aloud's Wake Me Up. Hip-hop performer Akon's Locked Up is at number five, while hotly-tipped Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs have their second chart hit at number six with Oh My God. Futureheads' cover of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love entered the chart at number eight, while Usher's Caught Up was a new entry at number nine. In the album chart, operatic quartet Il Divo's eponymous debut rose 23 places to number six, while crooner Tony Christie's Definitive Collection is a new entry at number 10, making it the highest-charting album of the singer's career." -entertainment,"Briton wins short film Oscar Three of the five nominees in the live-action short film category at this year's Oscars were British. For Andrea Arnold, who won the category, Ashvin Kumar and Gary McKendry the past month has thrust them from relative obscurity into the limelight. Arnold's gritty drama Wasp is about a single mother living on the breadline, while Kumar's Little Terrorist follows a young Pakistani Muslim boy, who gets stuck on the wrong side of the heavily armed Indian border. McKendry's entry, Everything In This Country Must, forces British soldiers and Catholics to challenge their relationship during the troubles in Northern Ireland. Last week, the trio attended an official screening of all the nominated short films at the Academy's headquarters in Beverly Hills. ""I felt so privileged to have a thousand people watching my film on the biggest screen I've ever seen,"" says Arnold. Set in her native Dartford, Wasp tells the story of a young mum, who, unable to find a babysitter, leaves her four young daughters outside a pub while she's on a date. The image that sparked the film was that of a wasp crawling into a baby's mouth. ""The other nominees said they made their films for this reason or that - they had something to say. But I just start with an image I can't shake off, work outwards from that and see what comes out,"" she explains. Since she presented children's TV shows Number 73 and Motormouth in the 1980s, Arnold has kept a low profile and is having trouble adapting to this sudden onslaught of attention. ""I'm not interested in the publicity. It's not my personality. I'm overwhelmed by all the fuss,"" she said. ""It's all a bit like a beauty contest - all the films are great and so different. ""But even though my film has won 30 awards worldwide (including one at Sundance last month), I'd still be proud of it - even if it hadn't won any."" Asked what the nomination means to her, Arnold says she feels ""flattered and honoured"". ""We've all been overwhelmed by the response and can't get it in perspective yet. I'm still reeling."" And she won't commit to an opinion of Hollywood yet. ""I'm just in the middle of it, living moment to moment, day to day."" But despite her reservations about the Academy Awards and the media frenzy that surrounds it, she accepts that it has opened doors for her. ""People will definitely listen to what I want to do now, and the phone didn't stop ringing for a week after I got nominated."" As for the future, Arnold firmly believes that you often get a stronger vision of the world with short films. ""You're left more to your own devices, without people interfering as much."" That said, she is currently working on a feature film with Dogville and Dancer In The Dark director Lars Von Trier." -entertainment,"Carry On star Patsy Rowlands dies Actress Patsy Rowlands, known to millions for her roles in the Carry On films, has died at the age of 71. Rowlands starred in nine of the popular Carry On films, alongside fellow regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor. She also carved out a successful television career, appearing for many years in ITV's well-loved comedy Bless This House. Rowlands died in Hove on Saturday morning, her agent said. Born in January 1934, Rowlands won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Speech and Drama scholarship when she was just 15. After spending several years at the Players Theatre in London, she made her film debut in 1963 in Tom Jones, directed by Tony Richardson. She made her first Carry On film in 1969 where she appeared in Carry On Again Doctor. Rowlands played the hard-done-by wife or the put-upon employee as a regular Carry On star. She also appeared in Carry On at your Convenience, Carry On Matron and Carry On Loving, as well as others. In recent years she appeared in BBC mini-series The Cazalets and played Mrs Potts in the London stage version of Beauty and the Beast. Agent Simon Beresford said: ""She was just an absolutely favourite client She never complained about anything, particularly when she was ill, she was an old trouper. ""She was of the old school - she had skills from musical theatre and high drama, that is why she worked with the great and the good of directors. ""She didn't mind always being recognised for the Carry On films because she thoroughly enjoyed making them. She was a really lovely person and she will be much missed."" Her last appearance on stage was as Mrs Pearce in the award-winning production of My Fair Lady at the National Theatre. Previously married, she leaves one son, Alan. Her funeral will be a private, family occasion, with a memorial service at a later date." -entertainment,"Keanu Reeves given Hollywood star Actor Keanu Reeves, best known for his role in the Matrix movies, has been awarded a star on the prestigious Hollywood Walk of Fame. The 40-year-old attended the unveiling of the star with his mother, Patricia, and thanked her for inspiring him to become an actor. ""When I was 15 years old I asked my mom if it was OK to be an actor,"" Reeves said. ""She said: 'Whatever you want'."" His star is the 2,277th to be embedded in the pavement on Hollywood Boulevard. The actor, who was born in the Lebanese capital Beirut, also spoke of how he dropped out of school to pursue an acting career. ""Hollywood was calling,"" he said, ""So I got in my car, a 1969 British racing green Volvo with holes in the floor and bricks holding up the seats. I was a young man full of hopes and dreams."" Reeves first found fame in the teen comedy Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and went on to combine such blockbusters as Speed, The Devil's Advocate and the Matrix series, with smaller films including My Own Private Idaho. More recently he was seen in Something's Gotta Give alongside Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. His next film, the supernatural thriller Constantine, is released in the US later this month and opens in the UK in March." -entertainment,"Actor Scott is new Bond favourite Bookmaker William Hill has stopped taking bets on who will be the next James Bond, following a succession of large wagers on actor Dougray Scott. The firm closed the book on Friday, saying ""insider information"" could have contributed to the number of bets. ""In the past gambles like this have often been right,"" William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said. The closing list gave Scott odds of 6-9, followed by Oscar nominee Clive Owen at 5-2. Scott first found fame in the TV series Soldier Soldier and has since then starred in such films as Mission Impossible II and the wartime drama Enigma. Mr Adams said one punter had placed a bet of £870 on the 39-year-old actor at odds of 8-1. ""She told us she had some inside information, perhaps she knew he had been to a casting, but she wouldn't say,"" he said. Others thought to be in the running include Star Wars actor Ewan McGregor and Australian star Hugh Jackman, both of whom have odds of 4-1. Colin Farrell, Jude Law and Troy star Eric Bana have also been tipped for the role in the past. A large number of bets on actor Colin Salmon to become the first black James Bond were dismissed as a publicity stunt a month ago. The next Bond film, originally due for release in 2005, has been delayed until 2006 due to Sony's takeover of the MGM studio. The most recent, Die Another Day, was released in late 2002 and saw Pierce Brosnan make his final appearance as the secret agent. The actor was originally due to make a fifth appearance as Bond, but was released from his contract in 2004." -entertainment,"Stars gear up for Bafta ceremony Film stars from across the globe are preparing to walk the red carpet at this year's Bafta award ceremony. The 2005 Orange British Academy Film Awards are being held at The Odeon in London's Leicester Square. A host of Hollywood stars, including Cate Blanchett, Leonardo DiCaprio, Keanu Reeves and Richard Gere, are expected to attend Saturday's ceremony. Hosted by Stephen Fry, the glittering ceremony will be broadcast on BBC One at 2010 GMT. Other actors expected to add to the glamour of the biggest night in UK film are Gael Garcia Bernal, Imelda Staunton, Diane Kruger, Christian Slater, Anjelica Huston, Helen Mirren and former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan. Hollywood blockbuster The Aviator, starring DiCaprio, leads the field with 14 nominations, including best film. It is up against Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Neverland, The Motorcycle Diaries and British film Vera Drake, which has 11 nominations. British hope Imelda Staunton is one of the favourites to land the best actress award for her gritty role as a backstreet abortionist in the small-budget film. Other nominees in the best actress category include Charlize Theron for Monster, Ziyi Zhang for House of Flying Daggers and UK star Kate Winslet, who has two nods for her roles in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Finding Neverland. DiCaprio faces competition from Bernal, Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey and Johnny Depp in the best actor category. And British actor Clive Owen is hoping to repeat his Golden Globe success with a best supporting actor award for his role in Closer. His co-star Natalie Portman is up against Blanchett, Heather Craney, Julie Cristie and Meryl Streep in the best supporting actress category. Mike Leigh is up for the best director award for Vera Drake, alongside Martin Scorsese for The Aviator, Michael Mann for Collateral, Michel Gondry for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Marc Forster for Finding Neverland." -entertainment,"'Comeback' show for Friends star Friends actress Lisa Kudrow is to play the lead role in a new series about a one-time sitcom star, according to the Hollywood reporter. Thirteen episodes of Comeback have been commissioned by cable channel HBO, home of hits such as Sex And The City. Kudrow, who played Phoebe in Friends, co-wrote the pilot episode and will also act as executive producer. HBO has been looking for its next big comedy hit since Sex And The City drew to a close in the US in February. Comeback is the first 30-minute comedy series that the channel has picked up since the Sex And The City drew to the end of its six-year-run. Friends ended its 10-year run on the NBC network in May, and attentions have turned to which projects its six individual stars would pursue. Matt LeBlanc is starring in a Friends spin-off sitcom, charting Joey's fortunes in Los Angeles as he pursues his acting career. Jennifer Aniston, who was Rachel in the long-running show, has enjoyed a series of successful film appearances, with further projects in the pipeline. Courteney Cox Arquette (Monica) has been working on a drama project along with husband David Arquette for HBO, called The Rise And Fall Of Taylor Kennedy. Matthew Perry, who played Chandler, has appeared on the West End stage, and has a film, The Beginning Of Wisdom, currently in production. And David Schwimmer (Ross) directed during his time on Friends, and has also worked on Joey." -entertainment,"Bookmakers back Aviator for Oscar The Aviator has been tipped by UK bookmakers as the favourite to win the best film award at this year's Oscars. Ray star Jamie Foxx is clear favourite in the best actor category while Million Dollar Baby's Hilary Swank is tipped to win the best actress prize. Bookmakers predict Cate Blanchett will be named best supporting actress. William Hill and Ladbrokes have given The Aviator 4/9 and 8/13 odds of winning best film, with Million Dollar Baby in second place at 9/4. Bet Direct and Bet 365 also tip The Aviator, with the majority of bookmakers regarding Finding Neverland as the outsider. The Aviator is also widely tipped to win the best director prize for Martin Scorsese. British star Clive Owen is second favourite at William Hill to take the best supporting actor award, for his performance in Closer. The favourite in that category is Sideways star Thomas Hayden Church. Vera Drake star Imelda Staunton has 5/1 odds of winning the best actress Oscar at Bet 365 and William Hill, ahead of fellow UK star Kate Winslet who has odds of 25/1 at William Hill. Mike Leigh is the outsider in the best director category for Vera Drake, a position he holds jointly with Ray's Taylor Hackford at bookmakers VC Bet. This year's Academy Awards will be handed out in Hollywood on 27 February. X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne will present Sky television's live coverage of the event. Meanwhile, Clive Owen's best supporting actor nomination has led a bookmaker to shorten his odds of becoming the next James Bond. He has moved from 4/1 to 5/2 favourite to play 007, with Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor joint second favourite. ""Clive Owen's nomination has sparked a betting frenzy from James Bond fans, who feel that his heightened global recognition will have done his chances of becoming the next Bond a world of good,"" said William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams." -entertainment,"OutKast win at MTV Europe Awards US hip-hop duo OutKast have capped a year of award glory with three prizes at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Rome. They won best group, best video and best song for hit Hey Ya! after getting five nominations. R&B singer Usher won best male and best album for Confessions, while UK rock band Muse were named best alternative act and best British artists. OutKast will add their awards to the four they won at the US MTV Awards in August and three Grammys in February. Not only was Hey Ya! one of the biggest global hits of last year, but OutKast have been widely acclaimed as one of the most exciting and innovative acts in music. Their double CD album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, which saw Andre 3000 and Big Boi each produce one disc, was hailed as the album of 2003 by many critics. Andre 3000 thanked fans ""for supporting OutKast throughout the years"". ""We really appreciate it,"" he said. ""I hope you don't get tired of us, but we only do what we do."" Also competing for best group had been the Beastie Boys, the Black Eyed Peas, D12 and Maroon 5. And Anastacia, Britney Spears, Maroon 5 and Ludacris had been on the shortlist for best song. OutKast did lose out in the contest for best album - which was won by Usher, another award favourite. Usher, who performed a duet with Alicia Keys, also beat off competition from Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Nelly and Robbie Williams to take the best male crown. He had four nominations going into the ceremony, with seven artists nominated in three categories. Eminem's group, D12, were surprise winners in the best hip-hop category, beating the Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Nelly. Eminem told the crowd: ""D12 finally won an award, thank you very much."" The rapper opened the show with a performance of his songs Like Toy Soldiers and Just Lose It, for which he was joined on stage by a crowd of children. The Black Eyed Peas - who had a global hit with Where is the Love? - picked up the prize for best pop act, beating Anastacia, Avril Lavigne, Robbie Williams and Britney Spears. Spears was named best female, sending a message of thanks on video saying the award ""means so much to me"". Alicia Keys, Anastasia, Avril Lavigne and Beyonce Knowles had featured alongside her in that contest. Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington described their prize for best rock band as ""quite an honour"" while Muse said their win for best alternative act was ""a real surprise for us"". Muse were also named best UK and Ireland act, ahead of Franz Ferdinand, Natasha Bedingfield, Jamelia and The Streets. Referring to the fact that winners of 11 of the 12 main awards were from the US, Muse singer Matt Bellamy said: ""There needs to be more European bands."" The 11th annual awards were hosted by hip-hop artist Xzibit and watched by 6,000 people at the Tor Di Valle arena, plus millions more on TV around the world. The ceremony featured performances from the Beastie Boys, who entered the stage on bicycles and skateboards, No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani being lowered from a giant clock and Nelly doing a duet with Pharrell Williams. MTV also organised a huge open-air concert featuring Anastacia and The Cure outside the Italian capital's ancient Colosseum, with some estimates putting the attendance there at 200,000. Last year's big winner at the MTV Europe Awards, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, was Justin Timberlake, who walked away with three trophies." -entertainment,"Patti Smith to host arts festival Rock star Patti Smith has been made artistic director of this year's Meltdown festival, to be held at London's South Bank Centre in June. The punk pioneer follows Morrissey, David Bowie and Nick Cave in directing 15 days of concerts and events. Smith has yet to decide the line-up for Meltdown, which begins on 11 June. ""I want to touch on all aspects of our culture, perhaps with readings from Genet, and I have an idea for Jeremy Irons to read Proust,"" she said. The 58-year-old US singer of Because the Night told The Observer newspaper that the festival would be her response to these ""material, exploitative and greedy times"". ""It is important we explore the new, but we should also salute the best art there is, aesthetically and spiritually,"" she said. Last year's Meltdown festival, directed by the ex-Smiths star Morrissey, included appearances by singer Jane Birkin, Nancy Sinatra and playwright Alan Bennett. He also persuaded punk band The New York Dolls to reform for a reunion show." -entertainment,"Brits debate over 'urban' music Joss Stone, a 17-year-old soul singer from Devon, beat Dizzee Rascal, Jamelia, Lemar and The Streets to win best British urban act at the Brit Awards. Her victory has reignited the debate about what urban music is. I'm not really comfortable with the word urban. It's a word that's been manufactured in this country and America to describe black music. The word urban seems to cover such a broad range of black music that it's wrong. How far are the Brits removed from inner-city music and what people are doing? It's so far removed that I don't expect them to get it bang on. The music industry isn't championing music from our particular genre very well anyway. People don't feel like that's anything to do with us. I don't feel like urban music's just been celebrated by [Joss Stone] winning or her being nominated, or by the Brits acknowledging that there's an urban music scene because it's all a kick in the teeth at the end of the day. It's not really relevant. If Joss Stone is the closest thing that they feel comfortable championing because of what she looks like and how she sounds and who she's signed to, then so be it. It's got nothing to do with what's really going on. Urban as a genre is very broad. If you look underneath urban, there are a number of core elements that include hip-hop, R&B, garage and into that obviously comes soul. Joss Stone is a soul artist. Her first album was called The Soul Sessions. So urban is a very broad brushstroke that is the umbrella over the top of sub-genres, and there are offshoots of all of those. Joss Stone has had amazing success [in the US] given that she's a UK artist. What has really captured everybody's imagination is that here you have a 17-year-old from Devon with a voice to die for and a bunch of really, really good tunes and she looks good - I think that's what's done it. The award for best British urban act was voted for by viewers of MTV Base. I don't think Joss was not a worthy winner. She makes soul music and that definitely comes under the category of what we describe as urban. The fact that she's from Devon is the interesting thing because most of the music we cover is made in large cities and she's literally rural. The great thing about urban music is that there's a big range. If there is some sort of root with black music or dance music in Britain, I think that's where you can call it urban - that's where this new sub-category, or uber-category, has come from. Joss Stone is certainly not old enough to have had some of the experiences of an older soul singer, but you couldn't argue that she was being inauthentic with her emotions - it is coming from somewhere genuine. It has to come across as real. That's the only cut-off point we have here and that's the only way by which we judge people. What urban means to us as an organisation is the politically correct term to describe music which originated from a black background. Music should become inclusive and if we are fighting for a multi-cultural Britain, then we should be fighting for inclusion rather than exclusion. If Joss Stone can be accepted within the urban music community, I think acts from other ethnicities doing classical music and rock should be accepted too. Race doesn't make a difference if everyone is included. Out of all the awards dished out yesterday, I'm still trying to find out what people of other races received any sort of recognition or award. A type of music (especially street music) that originates from a city, and typically reflects or is characteristic of urban life. She might not be urban, but when did R&B become the hip hop tainted thing it is now? R&B stands for Rhythm And Blues, remember! That Joss Stone is rubbish is certain. If anyone deserves to win an award for urban music (I think probably should include Hip-Hop, Soul & Funk at least but not rock or pop) this year its the Streets, although Dizzee Rascal stakes a good claim She definitely deserved to win a prize, Joss Stone's albums are quite simply amazing, easily better than anything else that was released last year. This whole debate about what is urban, what isnt urban is completely pointless and probably fueled by urban artists who weren't nominated or didn't win. I cant see why people can't just congratulate her for the talent that she is. She did deserve it, but I agree with the comments about urban music. Its a stupid phrase, and particularly British. In the states they tend to use hip hop and R&B, if I say hip hop here a lot of people have no idea what I'm talking about. Very strange. What's in a name? A rose by any other name etc... If people want to call it urban, why not? If we really analysed it, the term 'dance music' is misleading because it doesn't describe everything you can dance to. Whilst I agree that the term 'urban' is open to interpretation, it strikes me as simply weird that Joss Stone has won. 'Urban' to me is what I hear being played in parties in the inner cities - I live in Brixton and have never heard The Soul Sessions pumping out of of a bass heavy sound system in any parties I've been to. Good luck to Joss Stone, let's celebrate her victory - let's also question why, with artists so successful and talented as Jamelia, Lemar, Kanye West, Dizzee Rascal, Alicia Keys and Outkast - we didn't see a single black artist on stage collecting an award. So, what you're saying is that any music that has black heritage is not allowed to be sung by anyone who isn't black. And, if it is, then they shouldn't be acknowledged for it even if they're pretty dam good at it? She's 17, has an amazing voice, and won. Good on her. Oh, but she's not ""black"" well, let's make her feel real bad about it then. How dare she! Though hang on, didn't the so-called 'public' vote on this one? This idea of pigeonholing whatever is popular at the time is no different than what was happening in the 1940s and 50s in relation to what ""Jazz"" was. The media then called anything that had a swinging beat, syncopated melody or soulful feeling ""Jazz"", much to the chagrin of the artists. It would mean that ""blues"" would be put in the same mould as ""bebop"", ""cool"" and ""ragtime"", all very different styles at that time. Jazz was and remains such a massively misunderstood term. And so what of ""Urban"" music? In truth it's a lazy term to categorise music that you don't really understand. Soul and garage are worlds apart musically (Marvin Gaye v Tuff Jam?), but no doubt have their connections. If we just let the music speak for itself and not judge the success of an artist by the number of awards won, then maybe we can enjoy the music for what it is, rather than what it represents. I demand a prize for rural music! Sucks to the cities- it's way better out here. We have hay, for one thing. Excluding her from what has become known as urban music would be as bad as excluding Lenny Kravitz or Hendrix from rock music for being black surely? I dont understand the point that Ty is making. If Lemar, who makes music which is less soulful than Joss' work won, he might have said nothing. (btw i'm black too) How can she be ""urban"" if she spent most of her life in the Devon countryside? Nonsense. I love Joss to bits and don't care what her branding is - it's amazing music, full stop. Stop puting it all in brackets and let's just call it music, and let's especially drop the black / urban tag - nearly all music came from black origin, this just sets an example that it is ok to pigeonhole people and their music by their colour. Surely the point of having an urban music category is simply to acknowledge artists that are making what is (historically) considered urban music, irrelevent of the colour of their skin, or where they originate from. Joss Stone is simply singing a certain type of music that can be considered urban in style, just as someone from an inner city, and indeed not from the USA could sing country music. If that person was good at it and authentic in sound, would we criticise it being referred to as country music or the artist for representing that style? The term urban in reference to a music genre in UK has developed, in part, from the controversy surrounding the branding of the MOBO Awards. The very term 'Music of Black Origin' has confused and offended many people. This is particularly strange given the existence of the Asian Music Awards. It appears that the use of 'black' or 'white' in relation to music makes people feel uncomfortable. The term 'urban' therefore, has been invoked to sidestep the debate of which type of music came first 'black' or 'white' thereby rendering the issue colourblind. The result is now a redundant new debate as to what 'urban' also means. Perhaps we should have created a new term altogether to describe the various strains of soul/RnB and Hip-Hop, one which does not also mean something else - as we have done with 'Crunk'. Urban is just a word that's come about recently to describe ""black"" music that's become popular now. The word wasn't even in use, or common use five of six years ago. It's just a way of the industry clumping it all together without having to call it black music, because some people are oversensitive and might call them racist for it. I'm in a band that has been called ""urban"", and I despise the label. I'd hate to think I belonged to any neat marketing niche, because that's all it is. Ever since the music channels and record comapnies tried to fracture what they consider 'music of black origin', these labels have been used to undermine the status of good music into a commodity. Look at all the TV broadcasters, unable to reach young people without condesending, they simply play some 'urban' music on the soundtrack as if its some dreadful cheap lift music. Ignore the labels, it is what it is, just music. As a black man, I think I agree with some of the statements at least the statements made by the key executives. Black people should lead the music they invented . We should stop calling a genre meaningless, northing is meaningless. The real question is would Joss Stone would have been that successful doing the music she was doing if she were black? Same thing, with Streets, Amy Winehouse, etc. Who's ever heard of Terri Walker or Rhian Benson.. They are both 10 times better than Joss Stone and both of them have won Urban Music Awards and i think Mobos , but why not Brits???? So what if Joss Stone won the Urban awards. Her music is great soul and surely that is under the 'Urban' banner? What if The Streets had won? Would people be whining because Mike Skinner is white... It seems that a lot of the fuss is about race where the real issue should be music and nothing else. Urban is PC version for saying black music. I'm not doubting Ms Stone's talent, but why didn't Jamelia or Lemar get a Brit? This reminds me of what happened to Craig David and Soul II Soul in the past, getting nominations are easy to get, but picking up a Brit seems to be the hardest thing. Refreshing to see people making reasonable, intelligent comments on any topic these days. More power to you, people! You have said it: there is music you like and music you don't like - who cares what label you put on it? That entire category was a mess. How can you have people like Dizzee Rascal up against Joss Stone? Its like putting Eminem against Bob Geldof. She should have been nominated for Best British R & B act. Joss Stone deserved to win an award for her talents, but I don't think it was very 'urban' of her to sing angels with Robbie Williams. Urban is a nonsense term - music of black origin? Well doesn't that include rock? Music made in the inner cities? Well almost all bands end up making music in London/Manchester etc. And doesn't that make some weird implication that all black people live in cities? It doesn't make any sense. Why does music have to be put into a genre? It's music, you like it or you don't. Simple as that. I play in a heavy metal band. We are urban music as far as I'm concerned. We live in cities and spend our working life in an urban environment; It therefore directly shapes what we write musically. ""Urban"" seems to be the new name for all styles of black music. Why it needed a rebrand I don't know as the name is misleading. Oasis originate from a city and characterise the urban life they know, therefore more than fit the term ""urban"" yet as they're a white rock band they won't be described as such. Joss Stone has a fantastic voice and great timing and delivery - what other reason do they need to award her the Brit? All this ""urban"" and other such categorisation is just the red-tape of the music business and is best ignored. Yeah, she deserved it. She is talented. Urban is a crap, meaningless, politically correct and probably actually racist marketing term though. There's only two kinds of music: good and bad." -entertainment,"Slater to star in Broadway play Actor Christian Slater is stepping into the role of Tom in the Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie. Slater, 35, is replacing actor Dallas Roberts in the Tennessee Williams drama, which opens next month. No reason was given for Roberts' departure. The role will be played by understudy Joey Collins until Slater joins the show. Slater won rave reviews for his recent performance in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in London's West End. He has also starred in a number of films, including Heathers, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and more recently Churchill: The Hollywood Years. Preview performances of The Glass Menagerie will begin at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Thursday. Philip Rinaldi, a spokesman for the show, said the play's 15 March opening date remains unchanged. The revival, directed by David Leveaux, will also star Jessica Lange as the domineering mother, Amanda Wingfield." -entertainment,"£1.8m indecency fine for Viacom Media giant Viacom has paid out $3.5m (£1.8m) to end investigations into indecency in its US radio and TV shows. The settlement to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ends a long-running saga dating back to 2001. The FCC was looking into 50 shows, including those by ""shock jock"" Howard Stern and two New York DJs. Stern recently announced he was leaving Viacom while the two DJs were sacked after their show featured a couple purporting to have sex in a church. After the church incident two years ago Viacom agreed to install audio delay equipment at its radio stations that broadcast live programming. It also agreed to train its broadcasters and employees about indecency laws. The agreement cancels investigations into about 50 radio and television shows, said Richard Diamond, FCC deputy secretary of communications. The shows were broadcast by Viacom-owned stations across the United States. Viacom has five days to pay the $3.5m fine, according to the agreement. The payment is not related to the FCC's $550,000 (£293,000) fine levied against Viacom after the exposure of singer Janet Jackson's breast during the CBS Super Bowl halftime show in January. Viacom is contesting that fine. It is not the first time that Viacom has paid out over indecency charges. Infinity Broadcasting, which is owned by Viacom, paid cumulative fines totalling $1.7m (£907,000) in 1995 to settle FCC violations by Stern." -entertainment,"Kidman wins photographer battle Actress Nicole Kidman has won a restraining order against two paparazzi photographers who she claims left her fearful of leaving her Sydney mansion. The Oscar-winning star took action against Jamie Fawcett and Ben McDonald after a bugging device was found outside her home earlier this week. Lawyers for the pair denied allegations they had planted the device. The Australian actress is currently in Sydney to film her latest movie, Eucalyptus, with Russell Crowe. Kidman was prompted to take action following a reported high-speed car chase with members of the paparazzi in Sydney last weekend. According to local newspaper the Daily Telegraph, the incident involved paparazzi driving through red lights and on the wrong side of the road in pursuit of Kidman's vehicle. Lawyers for Mr Fawcett and Mr McDonald denied that the pair were involved in the chase. Kidman sought the ""apprehended violence"" orders - normally used in Australia in cases of domestic violence and similar incidents - after being advised to do so by local police. ""Nicole would like to make it clear that she acknowledges she is a public figure and that reporters and photographers have a job to do and she respects that,"" said Kidman's publicist Wendy Day. ""However, these are specific actions against two individuals who, over a period of time, have caused her to feel threatened, intimidated and unable to leave her home without fearing for her safety."" Magistrate Lee Gilmore, who issued the restraining order at Waverley Local Court in Sydney, said she understood the photographers were entitled to earn a living but there had to be limits to their behaviour. ""Miss Kidman says she's willing to put up with some of it, but it's gone beyond that,"" she said. ""I do believe the allegation in relation to the driving is a serious issue.""" -entertainment,"Rapper Kanye West's shrewd soul US hip-hop star Kanye West - who leads the race for this year's Grammys with 10 nominations - rose to prominence by producing songs for artists such as Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. He then emerged from his behind-the-scenes role to become an artist as well as a producer. But his solo career almost ended before it began after a near-fatal car crash left West with his jaw wired shut in 2002. The resulting song, Through the Wire, became West's first UK hit in April 2004 and subsequent album The College Dropout became a transatlantic success, both critically and commercially. West, 26, began rapping as a teenager at his Chicago school, inspired by the beats and rhymes of 1980s pioneers Run DMC. Hip-hop producer No ID encouraged West to sample old soul and R&B hits then revive them with an updated sound, an approach that would become his trademark. ""I feel like a lot of the soul that's in those old records that I sample is in me,"" he said. ""So when I hear them and I put them with the drums and I bring them to the new millennium, it's just like God's doing that. I'm one with them records right there. It's a blessing."" Leaving his Chicago art school after only one year - a move which would later inspire the title of his album - West began his music career co-producing songs for artists Mase and the Madd Rapper. This drew the attention of superstar rapper Jay-Z, who signed West up to his Roc-A-Fella record label to produce numerous artists on his roster. West's work gained mainstream recognition when he produced the singles Takeover and Izzo (HOVA) on Jay-Z's own 2001 album Blueprint. Incorporating samples of Five to One by The Doors and the Jackson Five's I Want You Back respectively, the hits were credited with injecting soul back into hip-hop. As their success attracted further production work for Jay-Z ('03 Bonnie & Clyde) and artists such as Ludacris (Stand Up) and Alicia Keys (You Don't Know My Name), West announced plans for a solo album. Driving home from a late-night Los Angeles recording session in October 2002, he was involved in the car crash that left his jaw fractured in three places. ""Anytime I hear about any accident my heart sinks in and I just thank God that I'm still here,"" he later said. ""That steering wheel could have been two inches further out, and that would have been it."" West's account of the accident sampled Chaka Khan's hit Through the Fire to become the heart of his completed solo album The College Dropout. Released last year, it was by turns smooth, humorous and sharp and largely avoided the clichéd hip-hop preoccupation with guns, girls and jewellery. Through the Wire was quickly joined in the UK and US charts by Slow Jamz, on which West collaborated with rapper Twista and Ray actor Jamie Foxx. The College Dropout spawned two further UK hits and a string of award nominations. West was shortlisted for 10 Grammys - including nominations for artist and album of the year - and took the best hip-hop artist, producer and album titles at last year's Music of Black Origin (Mobo) Awards. Now a respected rapper and producer in the influential field of hip-hop, Kanye West is unlikely to regret his decision to leave college early." -entertainment,"Ring of Fire hit co-writer dies Merle Kilgore, co-writer of the country hit Ring of Fire, has died of congestive heart failure aged 70. He started out as a singer and songwriter before going into music management, looking after country star Hank Williams Jr. He wrote Ring of Fire with June Carter Cash, the future wife of Johnny Cash who went on to score his most popular hit with the track. Kilgore had heart surgery in 2004 and was also diagnosed with lung cancer. His death has been attributed to treatment he was undergoing for the cancer. His first self-penned top 10 hit was Dear Mama in 1959. One of the first songs he wrote for other artists was Wolverton Mountain, which sold 10 million copies when recorded by Claude King. He then wrote Ring of Fire with June Carter Cash, which was about her unrequited love for Johnny, who she later married. It was first recorded by her younger sister Anita Carter before Johnny went on to make such a success of it. June Carter Cash previously said it upset her husband when Kilgore talked about the song without crediting her and believed he should not have been credited on it. Last year, Kilgore turned up an awards dinner in a wheelchair expecting to honour Hank Williams Jr, but instead he was the surprise recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the International Entertainment Buyers Association." -entertainment,"Legendary music studio to close The New York music studio where John Lennon spent his final hours is to close next month. The Hit Factory, which opened 37 years ago, has played host to some of the biggest stars in music, including Paul Simon, Madonna and David Bowie. However, the rise in digital recording has affected business at the studio, which is relocating to smaller premises in Miami. Lennon recorded his final album Double Fantasy at the studio in 1979. The studio was founded by Jerry Ragovoy in 1968. In 1975 it was sold to fellow producer Edward Germano, who turned it into a 100,000 square foot studio with seven recording rooms and live mastering suites. His first client was Stevie Wonder, who recorded part of his classic album Songs In The Key Of Life there. Other well-known albums to be recorded or partially recorded at the studio include Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA, the Rolling Stones' Emotional Rescue and Paul Simon's Graceland. Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Jay-Z and Beyonce are also among artists who have used the Hit Factory in the past, as well as 50 Cent who survived an attempt on his life as he left the premises in 2000. The studio made history in 1994 when it won a record 41 Grammy nominations for songs recorded, mastered or mixed there, including the soundtrack to the Whitney Houston film The Bodyguard." -entertainment,"Howl helps boost Japan's cinemas Japan's box office received a 3.8% boost last year, with ticket sales worth 211bn yen (£1.08bn). The surge was led by animated movie Howl's Moving Castle, which took 20bn yen (£102m) to become the biggest film in Japan in 2004. It is expected to match the 30.7bn yen (£157m) record of Hayao Miyazaki's previous film Spirited Away. Japan Motion Picture Producers figures showed that 170 million cinema admissions were made in Japan in 2004. The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise, was the biggest foreign movie hit in Japan last year, taking 13.8bn yen (£70.7m). It was followed by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Finding Nemo and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The second highest-grossing Japanese film was romantic drama Crying Out Love in the Centre of the World, followed by Be With You and Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation. Japanese films accounted for 37.5% of Japan's box office total last year, with foreign films taking the remaining 62.5%. This represented a 4.5% gain for the proportion of Japanese films in 2004 compared to 2003. The number of Japanese films released rose to 310 in 2004 from 287 the previous year. Sales of movies on DVD and video amounted to 497bn yen (£2.54bn) for the year." -entertainment,"Famed music director Viotti dies Conductor Marcello Viotti, director of Venice's famous La Fenice Theatre, has died in Germany at 50. Viotti, director of La Fenice since 2002, conducted at renowned opera houses worldwide including Milan's La Scala and the Vienna State Opera. His time at La Fenice coincided with its reopening in 2003 after it was destroyed by fire in 1996. He fell into a coma after suffering a stroke during rehearsals for Jules Massenet's Manon last week. He conducted some of the best orchestras in the world including the Berlin Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestra. Viotti was born in Switzerland and studied the piano, cello and singing at the Lausanne Conservatory. His career breakthrough came in 1982 when he won first prize at the Gino Marinuzzi conducting competition in Italy. Viotti established himself as chief conductor of the Turin Opera and went on to become chief conductor of Munich's Radio Orchestra. At La Fenice Viotti was widely acclaimed for his production of the French composer Massenet's Thais and some of his other productions included Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata and Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. The last opera he directed at La Fenice was Massenet's Le Roi de Lahore. Viotti's debut at the New York's Metropolitan Opera came in 2000 with Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly, followed by La Boheme, La Traviata and Fromental Halevy's La Juive. Giampaolo Vianello, superintendent of the Fenice Theatre Foundation, said: ""I am filled with extreme sadness because, other than a great artist, he is missed as a friend - a main character in the latest joyous times, during the rebirth of our theatre."" Viotti's last public performance was on 5 February when he conducted Vincenzo Bellini's Norma at the Vienna State Opera." -entertainment,"Soul sensation ready for awards South West teenage singing sensation, Joss Stone, has been nominated in three categories in Wednesday's Brit awards. The 17-year-old from a small east Devon village near Cullumpton, received nominations for Best Solo Female, Best Urban Act and Best Breakthrough Artist. Her second album Mind, Body & Soul reached number one in the UK charts last October and went straight into the US charts at number 11. Ms Stone is due to perform at the 25th award ceremony at London's Earls Court. The teenager also has Grammy nominations in the US, normally dominated by home-grown acts. Born Jocelyn Stoker, the Devon diva started her career in a BBC talent programme, and was then discovered at a New York audition by a US record executive, Steve Greenberg. The 17-year-old singer is hoping to tour in Japan, Australia and the US in 2005." -entertainment,"Tautou film tops Cesar prize nods French film A Very Long Engagement has received 12 nominations for France's Cesar film awards, despite a recent ruling it was ""not French enough"". The World War I romantic drama starring Audrey Tautou, was recently ruled ""too American"" by a Paris court as it was partially backed by Warner Bros. But the Cesar organisers modified their rules to allow the film to compete. The film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, received best actress, picture and director nominations. Last November a court judged the film was too American to compete in French film festivals. Two associations of French producers challenged Jeunet's right to French government subsidies, because Warner Bros was a backer. The ruling meant the movie - which was filmed in France and used French actors and technicians - was not eligible to compete for French prizes. But Alain Terzian, president of Cesar organisers, the Academie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema, said the changes in eligibility rules, which allow films ""of French expression"", were made three months prior to the court decision. Other films in the best film category include Police drama 36, Quai Des Orfevres, Arnaud Desplechin's Kings And Queen, Abdellatif Kechiche's L'Esquive and France's number one film at the 2004 box-office The Chorus. Best actors are Daniel Auteuil for 36, Mathieu Amalric for Kings And Queen, Gerard Jugnot for The Chorus, Philippe Torreton for L'Equipier and Benoit Poelvoorde for Podium. Tautou will compete against Maggie Cheung , Emmanuelle Devos, Yolande Moreau and Karin Viard for best actress. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, The Motorcycle Diaries, Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and 21 Grams are all vying in the best foreign film prize. The awards ceremony will be held on 26 February. This year, Will Smith, star of I, Robot, Independence Day and Men In Black, will be given an honorary Cesar, along with French singer/actor, Jacques Dutronc." -entertainment,"Queen recruit singer for new tour The remaining members of rock band Queen are to go on tour next year with former Free and Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers taking Freddie Mercury's place. Guitarist Brian May has said he expects to be on the road with Rodgers and drummer Roger Taylor from April. May said: ""Suddenly the Queen Phoenix is rising again from the ashes and will take precedence over... our lives."" Queen have played with many different singers since Mercury's death in 1991 but have reportedly not toured. May performed with Rodgers at a concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar in London in September. ""We were both so amazed at the chemistry that was going on in [Free hit] All Right Now, that suddenly it seems blindingly obvious that there was 'something happening here,'"" May wrote on his website. They teamed up again for a concert to mark their induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame, and were joined by Taylor. ""The show went so incredibly well from our point of view, and we got so many rave reactions from out there, we decided almost then and there that we would look at a tour together,"" May wrote. Queen went to number one in 2000 with a version of We Will Rock You sung by boy band 5ive and they have also played with Robbie Williams, Will Young and Bob Geldof. Queen bassist John Deacon has currently retired from the stage. Rodgers was singer with early 1970s rockers Free, who had a global hit with All Right Now, before forming Bad Company, a successful ""supergroup"" with members of King Crimson and Mott the Hoople. He has also been in The Firm with Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and The Law with The Small Faces and The Who drummer Kenny Jones." -entertainment,"Star Trek fans fight to save show Star Trek fans have taken out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times in an attempt to persuade TV executives not to scrap Star Trek: Enterprise. Made by the UPN TV network, the latest spin-off from the hit sci-fi show is due to end in May after four series. But fans around the world have pitched in to pay for the advert, which had the headline ""Save Star Trek"". They are also asking the Sci-Fi Channel to pick it up from UPN and will stage a rally in Los Angeles on 25 February. The advert described the Star Trek franchise as a ""cultural icon"". Enterprise stars former Quantum Leap actor Scott Bakula as Captain Archer and is set before the original 1960s Star Trek series. ""Captain Archer and the crew of the NX-01 need your help to continue their journeys!"" the advert said. It also included a cut-out coupon for fans to send to UPN's parent companies Paramount and Viacom plus the Sci-Fi Channel. It also urged supporters to join the rally outside the Paramount studios. Fan website Trek United is hoping to raise $32m (£17m) from donations by the end of March to pay for a fifth series. More than $23,000 (£12,000) has been pledged so far, according to the site. The 98th and final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise will air in the US on 13 May. The fourth series has averaged 2.9 million viewers per episode - half the amount it got in its first series. Star Trek: Enterprise began in 2001 following other Star Trek spin-off series The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager." -entertainment,"Show over for MTV's The Osbournes Rock star Ozzy Osbourne has said his family will not make any more episodes of reality TV show The Osbournes. ""At the end of it I didn't like having cameras around the house all the time,"" the Black Sabbath singer told reporters at the MTV Europe Awards in Rome. His wife Sharon, who also appears in the popular MTV show based on the Osbournes' family life, agreed. ""Now everybody's doing reality shows. He's done it, he's been there, he's got to do something else,"" she said. Ozzy Osbourne said he had had enough of the work involved in making the series. ""When you watch a 25-minute episode, I've been filming all day,"" he said. Sharon Osbourne is currently appearing as a judge and mentor in ITV1 talent show The X-Factor alongside Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh. Earlier this year she topped a poll of the most important people in rock, for her part in guiding the career of husband Ozzy and her family. She was the driving force behind The Osbournes, which ran for three series, earning the family a reported $85m (£46m). The renewed popularity for Ozzy has seen sales of his merchandise hit the $50m (£27.2m) mark, a record for a heavy metal artist. Sales of T-shirts, accessories and action figures have rocketed since The Osbournes hit screens. At its peak, The Osbournes had a regular audience of eight million, with America's TV Guide magazine describing the series as ""a cross between The Simpsons and This Is Spinal Tap"". Osbourne himself was at a loss to explain its popularity: ""I suppose Americans get a kick out of watching a crazy Brit family like us make complete fools of ourselves every week.""" -entertainment,"George Michael to perform for BBC George Michael is to perform live at London's Abbey Road studios as part of a BBC Radio 2 special next month. The session, which will broadcast on 18 December, will also see him talk about how his biggest hits came about. Michael's appearance is part of the station's Sold on Song initiative, which explores the art of songwriting. The station also confirmed that Chris Tarrant will be hosting a one-off New Year's Eve programme. He left London's Capital FM this year after 17 years. The former breakfast show host - who attracted some of the highest ratings in Britain, despite only broadcasting to London - will offer his own individual take on the year in the two-hour show. ""This should be great fun,"" Tarrant said. ""I've had a fantastic year and I know that lots of other people have as well. I'm definitely looking forward to being on Radio 2."" Other Christmas specials from Radio 2 include singer Jamelia hosting a Christmas Day concert from the London Community Gospel Choir, while actor Christopher Lee will read Fireside Tales from the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, E Nesbit and Ambrose Bierce. Comedian Harry Hill will host a spoof nostalgia show on Christmas Day, while singer Jamie Cullum will perform a live concert for the station." -entertainment,"Usher leads Billboard nominations R&B singer Usher is leading the race for the Billboard awards with nominations in 13 categories, including best male. Alicia Keys has 12 nominations for the awards, which will be held on 8 December at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Other multiple nominees include Maroon5, OutKast, Kanye West, R Kelly, Gretchen Wilson, Hoobastank and Jay-Z. Soul singer Stevie Wonder will receive Billboard's Century Award, the magazine's highest honour for creative achievement, at the ceremony. The awards will be hosted by American Idol presenter Ryan Seacrest, and will feature performances by Usher, Gwen Stefani, Nelly and Green Day. Usher and Keys will be battling it out for prizes including artist of the year, Hot 100 songwriter of the year and Billboard 200 album of the year for their respective albums Confessions and The Diary of Alicia Keys. Maroon5 and OutKast are also up for artist of the year, while OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is a finalist for Billboard 200 album of the year, alongside Josh Groban's Closer. The awards honour the year's leading artists and songs as determined by their performance on Billboard's weekly charts." -entertainment,"Stern dropped from radio stations Controversial DJ Howard Stern has been dropped from four US radio stations because he keeps promoting his move to a network broadcasting on satellite. Cidatel Broadcasting said Stern had transformed his show into a ""continuous infomercial promoting Sirius, his new satellite radio employer"". Stern will join the Sirius subscription service, which is not governed by US regulators, next year. Citadel pulled Stern's show from stations in New York and Pennsylvania. Stern had been holiday for two weeks but his show did not return to the four stations as expected on 3 January. Citadel said it did not yet know whether it would return to its network. Stern announced in October that he was leaving conventional radio, where his syndicated show goes out across the US, for the relatively restriction-free satellite service. The DJ's broadcasts are well known for landing in trouble with regulators for obscene and sexually explicit rantings. Stern was dropped by six stations owned by media giant Clear Channel in 2004 after it had to pay the Federal Communications Commission $1.75m (£950,000), over breaches indecency laws. Media giant Viacom has also reportedly agreed to the FCC's demands that if Stern is issued with another indecency violation then his show must be pulled from all of its stations. Viacom has also been hit with record fines of $3.5m (£1.8m) over Stern and two other New York DJs. But Stern continues to be one of the most popular talk show hosts, particularly in the 25-54 age category." -entertainment,"Cult band Kasabian surge forward Indie dance band Kasabian built up a cult following throughout 2004 to secure three Brit Award nominations. The four-piece Leicester band blends dark electronics with rock, earning Kasabian places on the best British group, rock act and live act shortlists. They have also earned a reputation as outspoken and charismatic, in contrast to fellow Brit nominees such as Keane and Snow Patrol. ""British music needs a kick up the arse and Britain needs a new band to breathe life into the British people again,"" declared Kasabian's singer Tom Meighan. ""No-one's doing it at the minute. Music feels like it's in the afterlife right now. We don't want people to give up on it. ""The serpent's going to rise from the sea and scare all the pirates away!"" Meighan grew up in Leicester with Kasabian songwriter/guitarist Sergio Pizzorno and bassist Chris Edwards, a trio which began making music from the age of 17. They enlisted guitarist and keyboard player Christopher Karloff after spotting him in a pub. ""We saw his long sideburns and thought 'hey, he looks the part, we'll ask him,'"" said Meighan. Inspired by Britpop and a mutual love of hardcore, an early 1990s genre that fused house music with hip hop beats and a dark sensibility, they added an electronic element to the traditional guitar sound. ""We got a computer and we cut rock'n'roll up, because there's no point in going back to how it was,"" said Meighan. ""It's all about new ideas and creativity."" The band's original approach is reflected in its name, inspired by Linda Kasabian - the getaway driver of US serial killer Charles Manson. Coincidentally it is also the Armenian term for ""butcher"". Kasabian moved into a remote farmhouse in Rutland to record their debut album, benefiting from its isolation but also managing to sneak in a few parties while they were there. Signed to the RCA record label, Kasabian tested the water with two singles, Club Foot and LSF, which reached numbers 19 and 10 in the UK singles chart respectively. They built up their following on the summer festival circuit, opening both Glastonbury and T in the Park, and at a series of ""guerilla gigs"" at unusual venues including Half Time Orange, a pub next to Leicester City football club's headquarters. Kasabian's self-titled album was released last September to widespread critical acclaim, its indie dance stance drawing comparisons to The Stone Roses, Primal Scream and The Happy Mondays. Regarding it as ""both a fiery assertion of rock 'n' roll ethics and proof that a siege mentality is alive and well in the badlands of Rutland Water"", the NME's praise was typical of the album's reception. As 2004 progressed Kasabian would score a further two hits - Processed Beats and Cutt Off - and embark upon a well-received UK tour. ""We take our music seriously, definitely, but we want to have fun with it,"" said Pizzorno. ""This is not a job to us,"" added Meighan. ""This is the best life we could ever have. This is what it's all about and without it we'd be lost souls. But music needs us as well.""" -entertainment,"Joy Division story to become film The life of late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis is to be made into a film, it has been announced. The Manchester-based production is called Touching From A Distance, after a book by Curtis's widow Deborah which forms the basis for the film. Music mogul Tony Wilson, who headed the record company Joy Division were signed to, will be co-executive producer. The musician committed suicide in 1980 aged 23, shortly before the band were due to go on tour in the US. Mr Wilson, who has remained friends with Curtis's widow and daughter Natalie, who he says asked for his involvement to make the film ""official"". ""People have different ideas as to why Ian committed suicide, so maybe the film will reflect those different views,"" he told the BBC News website. Plans for a separate Joy Division film had been announced at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, but the project did not get off the ground as it failed to get the backing of Curtis's family. Mr Wilson, who was also involved with Joy Division's sucessor band New Order, as well as the Happy Mondays, said he would ""rather not"" appear in the film. He made a cameo appearance in 24 Hour Party People, in which his leading role was played by Steve Coogan. ""I'm not an actor and I did a lousy job playing my part in 24 Hour Party People,"" said the Factory Records founder, who has been associated with the Manchester music scene since the 1970s. ""Film people have a tendency to mess up when they touch music, but I hope this one works. ""This is much more than the music - they want to do the real story of Ian,"" he said. The film is to be directed by Dutch-born Anton Corbijn, who has made music movies for Depeche Mode and U2. It will be produced by a US production company, while the widow of Ian Curtis will also be an executive producer." -entertainment,"Berlin honours S Korean director South Korean film director Im Kwon-Taek has received an honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Im, who has made more than 100 films in a 40-year career, was hailed for his ""remarkable visual beauty, technical innovation, and intellectual depth"". Twenty of his films are screening in a special retrospective during the festival, which runs until 20 February. The veteran film-maker, 68, won the best director prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 for Chihwaseon. ""Although his films vary in style, they all bear his unmistakable stamp: they are forceful and charged cinematographically, as well as reticent, stylised and musical,"" organisers said in a statement. Meanwhile, a film version of Bizet's opera Carmen - translated into the South African language Xhosa - has received a warm reception at the festival. U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (Carmen in Khayelitsha), which is one of 21 films up for Berlin's top prize, the Golden Bear, is British director Mark Dornford-May's first feature film. ""It's the first time any opera has been translated into a black South African language. Xhosa works brilliantly, it's such a musical language,"" said music director Charles Hazlewood." -entertainment,"Dutch watch Van Gogh's last film The last film to be made by the slain Dutch director Theo van Gogh, called 06/05, has been premiered in The Hague. Members of Van Gogh's family and celebrities attended the screening of 06/05, based on the murder of the anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn. Van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death in Amsterdam six weeks ago. A Dutch-Moroccan man suspected of radical Islamist links has been charged. The killing, and Fortuyn's death in 2002, convulsed the Netherlands. Many Dutch people have questioned their country's self-image as a peaceful, tolerant nation in the wake of the murders, which triggered heated debate about immigration. An animal rights activist was sentenced to 18 years in prison last year for killing Fortuyn. Earlier this year, Van Gogh made a film accusing Islam of promoting violence against women. It caused outrage among Muslims and death threats were made against him. The film 06/05 will become available on the internet on Wednesday and go on general release in Dutch cinemas in January. Van Gogh's movie mixes real images of the day of Fortuyn's murder with a fictional plot about Dutch intelligence services conspiring to silence the politician. The story unfolds through the eyes of a freelance photographer who unwittingly takes pictures revealing the involvement of Dutch authorities in Fortuyn's murder. Photographer Jim de Booy then goes on the run from secret service agents who burgle his home and threaten his family." -entertainment,"Little Britain two top comic list Little Britain stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams have been named the most powerful people in TV comedy, in a poll by listings magazine Radio Times. The duo kept Phoenix Nights creator Peter Kay at number two and The Office star Ricky Gervais in third place. A Radio Times panel compiled the list, taking the comedians' critical acclaim and financial success into account. Newcomers to the annual list included Nighty Night star Julia Davis at seven and Black Books' Tamsin Greig at 19. Lucas and Walliams won numerous awards for Little Britain in 2004, including National Television, Royal Television Society and British Comedy awards. More than 1.8 million people watched the first episode of the latest series of Little Britain on BBC Three in October, giving the digital channel its highest rating ever. They topped the Radio Times list after rising from 10th position last year. Other big risers over the past year included presenting duo Ant and Dec at five, up from 13 in 2004, Stephen Fry rising nine places to 15 and BBC Three controller Stuart Murphy, who moves to number 18 from 32 last year. Last year's winner, chat show host Graham Norton, fell to number 16 following relatively few television appearances in 2004. Production companies also featured in the top 50, including Steve Coogan's Baby Cow, which created Nighty Night among others, Hat Trick - behind The Kumars at Number 42 - and The Vicar of Dibley production company Tiger Aspect." -entertainment,"EastEnders 'is set for US remake' Plans to create a US soap based on the BBC's EastEnders have reportedly been drawn up by the Fox TV network. EastEnders' head writer Tony Jordan and music mogul Simon Fuller are involved in the project, according to reports in the Hollywood Reporter trade newspaper. It said scripts have been commissioned for a series about a community of working class people in of Chicago. The original EastEnders was pulled from BBC America last year after it proved a failure in the ratings. US versions of other British hits have proved less successful across the Atlantic. BBC comedy Coupling was remade with a US cast, but lost its primetime slot on the NBC network due to disappointing ratings. At home, EastEnders has been facing its own ratings battle, recently losing out to rival ITV soap Emmer dale. Primetime soaps on US television have made a recent comeback, following the success of ABC serial Desperate Housewives. The series takes a ""darkly comedic"" look at the goings-on of a group of characters living in the suburbs." -entertainment,"Elvis set to top UK singles chart Rock 'n' roll legend Elvis is set to top the UK singles chart on Sunday, 27 years after his death. The re-release of hit song Jailhouse Rock was out-selling X Factor winner Steve Brockstein's cover of Against All Odds by 2,000 copies on Tuesday. If the record does make the top spot, it will be Elvis' 19th UK number one. The last time he topped the charts was with the remix of the little-known song A Little Less Conversation, which was number one in June 2002. If Jailhouse Rock does reach number one on Sunday, it will be the 999th in the history of the UK pop charts. The song first topped the charts in 1958. Chart analysts say Elvis could score the 1000th number one as well. His record One Night will be released the following week, followed the week after by A Fool Such As I, as part of his record company SonyBMG's new Elvis campaign. It has called it ""the most ambitious singles release campaign in the history of the UK record industry""." -entertainment,"Glastonbury fans to get ID cards Fans who buy tickets for this year's Glastonbury festival will be issued with photo ID cards in an attempt to beat touts, it has been confirmed. The cards will include a photograph of the ticket-holder plus an electronic chip with their details to prevent tickets being sold on or forged. Tickets for the June event are expected to go on sale in April. ""There is only one place in the world where you will be able to get tickets,"" festival organiser Michael Eavis said. ""That will be the official source. If you get them anywhere else, you won't get in."" Fans not wanting to carry the entrance card could present their passport or driving licence instead, he added. More than 153,000 people are expected to travel to Mr Eavis' Somerset farm from 24-26 June, but the event's rising popularity has meant an extremely high demand for tickets in recent years. When the ID card idea was floated, Mr Eavis' daughter Emily said it would be ""quite a big step in terms of ticketing for events"" if implemented and they were ""going as far as we can"" to cut touting. ""As long as it's approached in the right way, it might really work, it might really change the system,"" she said. In 2004, all 112,000 tickets for the public sold out in 24 hours. They were personalised with the names of purchasers, who were asked to bring identification, such as a driving licence, passport or household bill. But some forgot to take the right information while some touts simply offered to supply their own bills along with the ticket bearing their name. No details of this year's line-up have been confirmed but rumours have suggested U2 and Coldplay may be among the headliners." -entertainment,"iTunes now selling Band Aid song Ipod owners can now download the Band Aid single from iTunes after Apple reached agreement with the charity. Apple had been unwilling to raise the cost of the single in line with other download services, said Band Aid. But the single is now on sale for 79p - the usual cost of a song from iTunes - with Apple donating a further 70p to the charity for each song downloaded. A copy of the original 1984 song is also available for download at 79p - with all proceeds going to the charity. More than 72,000 copies of the new Band Aid single were sold on its first day of release on Monday, according to sales figures. The track has become the fastest-selling single of the year so far, shifting more copies than the rest of the top 30 combined, HMV claimed. Dido, Robbie Williams and Chris Martin are among those featured on the new version of Do They Know It's Christmas?, which is raising money to fight hunger in Africa. If the track sold 500,000 copies, more than £1m would be raised for charity. The CD is being sold for £3.99, with HMV, Virgin and Woolworths all donating their profits." -entertainment,"U2 stars enter rock Hall of Fame Singer Bruce Springsteen has inducted Irish rock band U2 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in New York. The lavish ceremony, celebrating the 50th anniversary of rock 'n' roll, also saw the induction of the Pretenders, Percy Sledge, the O'Jays and Buddy Guy. ""This was a band that wanted to lay claim to this world and the next one, too,"" said Springsteen. Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr, who formed U2 at school in 1977, begin a world tour on 28 March. Introducing the band, Springsteen mocked Bono as the man who ""single-handedly pioneered the Irish mullet"", poking fun at ""one of the best and most endearingly messianic complexes in rock 'n' roll"". But he also spoke of the group's enduring stature, adding that it was the only band of the last 20 years where he knew all four members' names. U2's contemporaries, the Pretenders, led by Chrissie Hynde - took to the stage to perform My City Was Gone with inductee Neil Young. ""We are a tribute band,"" said Hynde, 53. ""We're paying tribute to James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon, without whom we would not have been here,"" she said, referring to the premature deaths of two of the band's guitarists from drug overdoses. Britain's Rod Stewart introduced Percy Sledge, citing his best-known hit When a Man loves a Woman as ""one of the best performances I've ever heard"". Justin Timberlake introduced soul group the O'Jays, a gospel-style quartet from Ohio, who performed a medley of their best-known songs including Back Stabbers, Love Train and For the Love of Money. ""Anyone who's ever written, produced or performed something soulful stands in the shadows of these giants,"" said Timberlake. Joining the ceremony at New York's Waldorf Astoria were legendary R&B star Bo Diddley, who performed with Eric Clapton and Robbie Robertson. Clapton, alongside BB King, also introduced fellow guitarist Buddy Guy and recalled seeing him play as a teenager in England. ""He was for me what Elvis was probably like for other people,"" he said. ""My course was set and he was my pilot,"" said Clapton who joined Guy and King in a performance of Let Me Love You Baby. Also performing at the ceremony was veteran musician Jerry Lee Lewis who continued his reputation as a rowdy piano-pounder despite his 69 years, kicking over his stool and sitting on the piano during a rendition of Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." -entertainment,"Actress Roberts takes spider role Actress Julia Roberts will play the part of a spider in a new film version of children's classic Charlotte's Web. She will voice Charlotte, who teams up with a girl to save their friend Wilbur the pig, in the story by EB White. The film - a mix of live action and animation - will be Roberts' first project since the birth of her twins, Hazel and Phinnaeus, two months ago. Oprah Winfrey will voice a goose, John Cleese will voice a sheep and Steve Buscemi a rat in the 2006 film. Ten-year-old Dakota Fanning will play Fern, the girl at the centre of the story, in the film to be directed by 13 Going on 30 film-maker Gary Winick. Filming is due to begin in Melbourne, Australia, later this month. Charlotte's Web has sold 45 million copies since it was published in 1952. An animated version was made in 1973 but this will be the first live action film. The actor who will voice Wilbur the pig has yet to be revealed." -entertainment,"Film star Fox behind theatre bid Leading actor Edward Fox is one of the men behind plans to reopen a Swansea theatre thought to be Wales' oldest. The star of film and TV hits Day of the Jackal and Edward and Mrs Simpson has joined forces with Swansea-born actor-director Terry Palmer. They will set up a charity to raise money to buy the Palace Theatre, and hope to reopen it to audiences in summer 2006. It is estimated that £500,000 is needed to buy the Grade II listed building. The Palace Theatre, which will be known as The Pavilion Repertory Theatre, was sold to an undisclosed bidder at auction 13 months ago for £340,000. Before that it had been used as a nightclub for 10 years. Oscar-winner Sir Anthony Hopkins, who was born in nearby Port Talbot, made his professional debut there, and Charlie Chaplin and Lily Langtry have also trodden its boards. Fox told the South Wales Evening Post that after visiting the theatre he was surprised by its beauty. ""A lot of money needs to be spent on it, but all the bones are there - it just needs a beautiful skin,"" he said. ""To call it a jewel is not an over-estimation. There are not many theatres left like this. ""The hope for the immediate future is that we can attract enough people to come forward to allow it to prosper,"" he told the newspaper. Fox first found fame in the 1960s. One of his most memorable roles was as an assassin in the Day of the Jackal in 1973, and he won a TV Bafta as the Prince of Wales in 1980 for Edward and Mrs Simpson. He was brought on board to save the theatre by Mr Palmer, a long-standing friend of 40 years. ""Two years ago I decided to return to Swansea and do something for the city,"" said Mr Palmer. He said he was excited by the idea of running the Palace as a charity where young actors could develop, and with an annual Shakespeare festival in the summer. ""If in five years' time the theatre can function in all areas without me, I shall be well satisfied having helped to create a vital living theatre for the city,"" he added. Keith Poulton, a business adviser from Swansea, has already committed an undisclosed amount of money to the project. ""We need at least £75,000 to secure a deposit on the building and we've only got two months to do that,"" said Mr Poulton. ""A few benefactors have expressed their interest and Mr Fox is going to give it an awful lot of time,"" he added. Last year, roads around the theatre were cordoned off when masonry from its roof fell onto a car, but engineers said they were happy that it was safe." -entertainment,"Singer Sizzla jailed for swearing Reggae star Sizzla, whose UK tour was cancelled after protests at his ""anti-gay"" lyrics, has been jailed in Jamaica for swearing on stage. The singer must serve 15 days in prison after he consistently swore during a concert in St Thomas, Jamaica, in January despite warnings by police. He was charged under a law which prohibits indecent dress or expression. Sizzla's five-date UK tour was cancelled last November after protests by gay rights campaigners. Sizzla, whose real name is Miguel Collins, has released 25 albums since 1995 and is credited with taking dancehall music back to its reggae origins. Many Jamaican entertainers have appeared before the courts for use of profanity in recent years but they usually receive a verbal warning, a suspended sentence or community service. Sizzla's UK tour was cancelled after Scotland Yard's Racial and Violent Crime taskforce announced it was examining lyrics by eight reggae artists. It would not confirm that Sizzla was among them. One of his most controversial songs, Pump Up, contains the Jamaican patois lyrics ""fire fi di man dem weh go ride man behind"", translated by gay rights group OutRage! as ""burn the men who have sex with men""." -entertainment,"CSI shows give 'unrealistic view' People have unrealistic expectations of forensic science thanks to the success of the CSI TV shows, real experts say. Evidence submitted to forensic labs has shot up as a result of the programmes, at a time when many have large backlogs, science investigators claim. Lawyers also fear the effect because jurors have a distorted view of how forensic evidence is used. The issue was discussed at a major science conference in Washington DC. Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) and its spin-offs, CSI: Miami and CSI: New York, have proven exceptionally popular with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. Each episode, a team of forensic investigators goes about solving a crime through the ingenious appliance of science - and the extensive resources at their disposal. ""The CSI effect is basically the perception of the near-infallibility of forensic science in response to the TV show,"" said Max Houck, who runs a forensic science graduate course at West Virginia University, US. ""This TV show comes on and everyone starts watching it - including the cops and prosecutors - and submissions to forensic laboratories go through the roof,"" he told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The American forensics expert said there were roughly 200,000-300,000 backlogged DNA samples in US labs. Yet these constituted just 10% of the total test backlog, said Dr Houck. Forensic pathologist Dr Patricia McFeeley said she had started to see the show's influence in dealing with the families of victims. ""What I find is that families now are more dissatisfied with the investigation than was previously the case,"" she explained. ""For example, on television, the toxicology results are available almost instantaneously. But when people find out that it can take several months, they can find that very difficult."" Dr McFeeley added that the accuracy with which forensic investigators can determine time of death was far lower than most people's perceptions. The show's influence can follow forensic investigators all the way into the courtroom, making lawyers jittery. ""Prosecutors fear the CSI effect with juries because, for example, they wonder: 'why wasn't everything tested?' Well, in fact, not everything needs to be tested,"" Dr Houck explained. ""Defence attorneys also worry about the CSI effect because they think that jurors come in and have this view of science as a juggernaut; this objective method that's always accurate."" However, he admitted the show had had positive as well as negative effects on the field. ""My university course started with four graduates in 1999; we're now the largest major on campus - with 400 students,"" he said. Dr Houck added that there was an urgent need for better funding of forensic science at the university level: ""There's more money spent in this country on holistic medicine than there is on forensic science research.""" -entertainment,"Band Aid 20 single storms to No 1 The new version of the Band Aid song Do They Know It's Christmas? has gone straight in at number one in the UK singles chart. The charity record is also tipped to be this year's Christmas number one. It features vocals from the likes of Chris Martin, Dido, Robbie Williams and the Sugababes. The original version - which was the Christmas number one in 1984 - sold 750,000 copies in its first week and 3.5 million in total. It was released in the US, and reached number 13 in the singles chart. However, Band Aid 20 is not going to be released in the US, despite being sold in many countries around the world. US record shops are stocking an import version of Do They Know It's Christmas, which is said to be selling very well in Los Angeles and New York. British stars who appear on the current recording, such as Dido and Coldplay's Chris Martin, are well known to music fans across the Atlantic, along with U2 frontman Bono. Record company Universal is responsible for the global distribution of the single, which will be available across Europe, Asia, South America and Canada. But music fans in the US are still able to access the song and download it on Band Aid 20's official website. In 1985, a group of high-profile American stars known as USA For Africa came together to record their own fund-raising single, We Are The World. The song was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, with Quincy Jones as producer. It topped the US charts for three weeks and went on win Grammy awards for best record and song. Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and Tina Turner were among the line-up of performers. Proceeds from the sales of the Band Aid 20 single will go towards aid relief in Africa, in countries such as Ethiopia and Sudan. The money raised will also be used to help combat HIV and Aids across the continent. The Band Aid Trust which was set up 20 years ago, when the original single was released, handed out $144m (£75m) to famine relief projects across Africa between January 1985 and November 2004." -entertainment,"Celebrities get their skates on Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne will join EastEnders' actress Scarlett Johnson on BBC One's Strictly Ice Dancing. The one-off Christmas special will also star television presenter Carol Smillie and Jessica Taylor from Liberty-X. Each celebrity will be paired with a professional skater to impress a panel of judges and win the audience vote. The BBC is yet to confirm the final two stars who will battle it out to become Ice King or Queen. Veteran presenter Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly will host the programme, which follows hot on the heels of the current Saturday night series Strictly Come Dancing. The celebrities will have to practise a stipulated ice dance and perform it at an ice rink with their partner. The judges will have 50% of the vote to decide who wins the contest, with the ice rink audience making up the rest of the vote. The show forms part of the BBC's festive schedule. Ice skating duo Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean are to front a similar celebrity ice dance show for ITV, titled Stars on Thin Ice. The contestants on Stars on Thin Ice will each be paired up with a professional skater and will learn a new routine every week. At the end of the series, one celebrity will be crowned the winner." -entertainment,"Bening makes awards breakthrough Film actress Annette Bening is up for an Oscar for her starring role in the award-winning film Being Julia. Bening, who was born in Texas in 1958, has gained prominence for a string of key roles. Although an Oscar has so far eluded her, her status as one of Hollywood's favourite actresses remains solid. One of the biggest Oscars buzzes in recent years was for Bening's role as troubled Carolyn Burnham in 1999's American Beauty. But her deliciously neurotic portrayal of surburban life turning sour was overlooked in favour of Hilary Swank's leading role in Boys Don't Cry. After opening her career in the theatre - and gaining a Tony Award nomination in 1986 - Bening had a low-key spell in television. She then made her film debut as a sex-starved wife in 1988's The Great Outdoors, opposite comics Dan Akroyd and John Candy. Following a cameo in Postcards From The Edge, Bening's breakthrough role came in 1990, playing seductive con artist Myra Langtry in The Grifters - a role that won her an Oscar nomination. Despite some rave reviews, Bening did not win the best supporting actress Academy Award. However the high-profile performance enabled Bening to capture roles in a number of big budget Hollywood productions, co-starring with some of Hollywood's greatest players, including Robert De Niro and Harrison Ford. But it was her role opposite Warren Beatty in 1991 gangster flick Bugsy which had the greatest impact. Bening played Virginia Hill, another role which won her high critical acclaim, but the film only picked up two of a staggering 12 Oscar nominations. Bugsy was the start of a very significant liaison for Bening - she married Beatty, with whom she had a child as the couple promoted the film in Europe. The couple now have four children together. A pair of contrasting yet successful performances peppered Bening's career in the mid-1990s. She played Michael Douglas' opposite number in romantic comedy The American President, and as a ""fiery"" Queen Elizabeth I in a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III. Bening was the first choice to play the female lead in American Beauty, director Sam Mendes' film debut which was a critical and commercial success - but the actress had to be content with a Bafta award for her strong performance. But current film Being Julia has made Bening an award-winning actress rather than the perennial nominee, with success at the Golden Globes. The witty tale of revenge and love set in 1930s London sees the eponymous theatrical diva - played by Bening - grow tired of her success and fall for a young American - and could be the role which finally wins her the coveted Academy Award." -entertainment,"Row threatens Hendrix museum plan Proposals to open a museum dedicated to Jimi Hendrix are flailing because of a row over the home of his late father. The run-down house in Seattle has already been moved wholesale once and local authorities are now demanding it be moved to another site. Hendrix supporters hoped to turn the home into a museum for the guitarist. ""The mayor is going to go down as the mayor who destroyed Jimi Hendrix's house,"" said Ray Rae Marshall of the James Marshall Hendrix Foundation. The foundation moved the building, in which Al Hendrix lived between 1953 and 1956, when the land it was built on was to be developed for housing in 2002. Now the City of Seattle wants its new plot to be used for development, giving a deadline of 22 February for the home to be moved. Mr Goldman said the authority had promised the house could remain on its new site and be turned into a memorial and community centre. Seattle officials said no such deal had been offered. ""We never said, 'You can own this property,'"" said John Franklin, chief of its operations department. ""From our perspective, it was a temporary situation. We have not threatened to demolish the house. We've simply asked that they have to move it."" Now Mr Goldman is calling for the authority to pay to move the building to Seattle's central district, where Hendrix grew up. Janie Hendrix, the guitarist's stepsister, said the family were still hoping the guitarist would be honoured by having a road named after him. ""That's something my father really wanted to see,"" she said. ""It would be nice if we didn't have to fight for everything to get it."" Hendrix was widely considered one of the most important guitarists of his time. He died of drug overdose in 1970 at the age of 27." -entertainment,"John Peel replacement show begins The permanent replacement for late DJ John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show goes on air on Tuesday, with three hosts chosen to fill the legendary presenter's slot. Rock DJ Huw Stephens will go on air in the 2300 slot every Tuesday, with black music champion Ras Kwame on Wednesdays and dance DJ Rob Da Bank on Thursdays. Rob Da Bank filled in after Peel had a heart attack aged 65 in October. All three will play ""diverse, unpredictable and non-commercial"" songs under the banner of the OneMusic show. Radio 1 said the station was not trying to replace Peel, but would rise to the ""challenge"" of ""keeping his legacy alive"" with unpredictable music. The three DJs were chosen for their ""in-depth musical knowledge across a variety of musical genres"", the station said. Rob Da Bank is one of the hosts of The Blue Room, an early morning weekend show which plays electronic and dance music. Huw Stephens has been one half of the Thursday night show Bethan and Huw in Wales, which explores new music, especially up-and-coming acts in Wales. And Ras Kwame is host of 100% Homegrown on Radio 1's digital station 1Xtra, dedicated to showcasing the best hip-hop and garage. Another change to the station line-up will see Sara Cox return after maternity leave. She will host the lunchtime show on Saturdays from this week. Good luck to all three of them, not one DJ could fill Peels boots so it's probably a good idea to get them all contributing. This time next year I hope we are saying how well these DJs have done, but I fear this time next year we will really realise how much John Peel will be forever missed. Very good idea to continue the legacy without attempting to replace John Peel. Also, there will surely be a wider spectrum for international music as three top radio DJs unite under the One World name. Congratulations! The whole glory of John Peel was the fact he was not commited to one genre. He played what he liked across the range of music.... this is not going to be the same, and all they seem to be doing is what they already have. Bring back Steve Lamacq. The obvious heir to John Peel is the marvellous, wonderful and talented Claire Kember from totallyradio.com. This lady is young and fresh and is one of the most knowledgeable and likeable people in British broadcasting today. Everyone who listens to her show understands and compares her to the ledgendary John Peel. BBC Radio should seek out the real talent from internet radio stations, people who are making a real impact on the world of music and the world in general." -entertainment,"West End to honour finest shows The West End is honouring its finest stars and shows at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in London on Monday. The Producers, starring Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, is up for best musical at the ceremony at the National Theatre. It is competing against Sweeney Todd and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum for the award. The Goat or Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee, The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh and Alan Bennett's The History Boys are shortlisted in the best play category. Pam Ferris, Victoria Hamilton and Kelly Reilly are nominated for best actress. Ferris - best known for her television roles in programmes such as The Darling Buds of May - has made the shortlist for her role in Notes on Falling Leaves, at the Royal Court Theatre. Meanwhile, Richard Griffiths, who plays Hector in The History Boys at the National Theatre, will battle it out for the best actor award with Douglas Hodge (Dumb Show) and Stanley Townsend (Shining City). The best director shortlist includes Luc Bondy for Cruel and Tender, Simon McBurney for Measure for Measure, and Rufus Norris for Festen. Festen is also shortlisted in the best designer category where Ian MacNeil, Jean Kalman and Paul Arditti will be up against Hildegard Bechtler, for Iphigenia at Aulis, and Paul Brown, for False Servant. The Milton Shulman Award for outstanding newcomer will be presented to Dominic Cooper (His Dark Materials and The History Boys), Romola Garai (Calico), Eddie Redmayne (The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?) or Ben Wishaw (Hamlet). And playwrights David Eldridge, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Owen McCafferty will fight it out for The Charles Wintour Award and a £30,000 bursary. Three 50th Anniversary Special Awards will also be presented to an institution, a playwright and an individual." -entertainment,"Howl helps boost Japan's cinemas Japan's box office received a 3.8% boost last year, with ticket sales worth 211bn yen (£1.08bn). The surge was led by animated movie Howl's Moving Castle, which took 20bn yen (£102m) to become the biggest film in Japan in 2004. It is expected to match the 30.7bn yen (£157m) record of Hayao Miyazaki's previous film Spirited Away. Japan Motion Picture Producers figures showed that 170 million cinema admissions were made in Japan in 2004. The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise, was the biggest foreign movie hit in Japan last year, taking 13.8bn yen (£70.7m). It was followed by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Finding Nemo and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The second highest-grossing Japanese film was romantic drama Crying Out Love in the Centre of the World, followed by Be With You and Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation. Japanese films accounted for 37.5% of Japan's box office total last year, with foreign films taking the remaining 62.5%. This represented a 4.5% gain for the proportion of Japanese films in 2004 compared to 2003. The number of Japanese films released rose to 310 in 2004 from 287 the previous year. Sales of movies on DVD and video amounted to 497bn yen (£2.54bn) for the year." -entertainment,"Pop band Busted to 'take a break' Chart-topping pop band Busted have confirmed that they plan to ""take a break"", following rumours that they were on the verge of splitting. A statement from the band's record company Universal said frontman Charlie Simpson planned to spend some time working with his other band, Fightstar. However they said that Busted would ""reconvene in due course"". The band have had eight top three hits, including four number ones, since they first hit the charts in 2002. Their singles include What I Go To School For, Year 3000, Crashed The Wedding, You Said No, and Who's David? The band, which also includes members Matt Jay and James Bourne, made the top ten with their self-titled debut album, as well as the follow-up, A Present For Everyone, in 2003. They won best pop act and best breakthrough act at the 2004 Brit Awards and were nominated for best British group. Most recently they topped the charts with the theme from the live-action film version of Thunderbirds, which was voted Record Of The Year on the ITV1 show. The band have capitalised on a craze for artists playing catchy pop music with rock overtones. The trio are seen as an alternative to more manufactured artists who are not considered credible musicians because they do not write their own songs or play their own instruments. However, recent rumours have suggested that Simpson has been wanting to quit the band to focus on Fightstar. He now plans to take Fightstar on tour." -entertainment,"Dance music not dead says Fatboy DJ Norman Cook - aka Fatboy Slim - has said that dance music is not dead, but has admitted it is currently going through a ""fallow patch"". The commercial failure of the latest albums by Britain's two biggest dance acts - Fatboy Slim's Palookaville and The Prodigy's Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned - has been coupled with the closure of many ""superclubs,"" and the folding of three dance music magazines. Last month the Brit Awards announced they would no longer be awarding a Best Dance Act prize, with the Brits committee announcing that ""dance music is no longer where it's happening in music."" These developments lead some to suggest that dance was finished as a popular music genre. Cook acknowledged that much change in the dance world in the four years since his last album, Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars, but he stressed this did not mean the dance scene was permanently over. ""Every week when I was making the album, I was reading articles about the demise of dance music - and obviously that affects you somewhat,"" he told BBC World Service's The Ticket programme. ""I personally don't believe it's either dead or going to die, but it's going through a bit of a fallow patch. ""So I think, consciously or subconsciously, reading every week that dance music was dead I would think 'right, scrub that track then'."" Although his album sales in the UK are down - Palookaville stayed in the UK top 75 for just three weeks - Cook has achieved recent global success with his beach parties. And event on Brighton sea front in 2002 attracted 250,000, people, while a later one in Rio achieved a crowd of 360,000. The DVD of the Rio set was the biggest seller of that year. ""With a crowd that big, if the weather's nice, the atmosphere before I even go is so good that about halfway through the first record I think 'I've got them',"" Cook said. ""I'm always really really nervous before the big ones - they had to give me Valium before Rio, because two hours before I was literally just pacing the floor. ""For some reason, especially now I've got a reputation for it, the atmosphere and the joie de vivre that's already going on means all I have to do is play 'up' records."" He promised more such parties in more locations around the world - despite problems after the Brighton event, which ended in chaos with many revellers finding themselves stranded as transport ground to a halt. One man also died of a heart attack, and a woman fell to her death during the free party. ""We're having to widen our horizons from just beaches, because there's landlocked countries that want to get involved,"" Cook said. ""We're doing Rio at the carnival, at the Maracana, and Sao Paolo - our new gig is famous football stadiums."" The DJ admitted, however, that his massive worldwide success had a downside, with intense media interest in his personal life. In particular, he said he had struggled to cope with tabloid intrusion during the temporary break-up of his marriage to Radio One presenter Zoe Ball, after she was linked with DJ Dan Peppe. ""The tabloid thing has been difficult at times,"" Cook said. ""Especially the me-and-Zoe-Gate - it's quite scary."" He said that he had been ""determined"" that what had happened with Ball did not affect the album. ""At first I was doing deliberately jolly tunes so that people wouldn't think I was depressed,"" he explained. ""Then I thought, 'that's not right'."" And he highlighted a bizarre coincidence - that one song written before they split had turned out to have a great deal more meaning than intended. ""I said to Zoe, 'I did this track called My Masochistic Baby Went And Left Me, do you mind if it's on the album?'"" he recalled. ""She said, 'yeah, it's hilarious, because your masochistic baby did leave you'."" Cook also added that he had some ways of coping with the intense paparazzi pressure, which accumulates at the end of the private road he lives on - where Paul McCartney is a neighbour. ""It's almost like prisoners rattling the bars with their mugs,"" Cook explained. ""If there's a pap at the end of the road, everyone knocks on each other's doors - Paul comes round, and we warn him, because we don't know who they're after.""" -entertainment,"Arnold congratulated on Oscar win Oscar-winner Andrea Arnold has been congratulated by the UK Film Council, the organisation which partly funded her project. Arnold's film Wasp won the best live action short film award on Sunday. ""The UK Film Council spends millions of pounds of lottery investment on short filmmaking in Britain every year,"" said chief executive officer John Woodward. ""It certainly pays off when you see new film-makers winning such prestigious awards,"" he added. Wasp, which was commissioned by the Film Council and Channel 4, beat films by fellow UK nominees Gary McKendry and Ashvin Kumar to the prize. It stars actress Nathalie Press, who appeared in the Bafta-winning drama My Summer Of Love, as a single mother who is forced to take drastic action when she is invited on a date and is unable to find a babysitter to look after her four daughters. The film has already won over 30 other international awards including the Sundance Short Film Prize. Arnold, from Dartford in Kent, described her victory as ""truly overwhelming. I'm really not used to this kind of thing,"" she said, after receiving her Oscar from actor Jeremy Irons. ""Thanks to everyone who worked on this - the beers are on me when we get home."" The director was one of only two British winners on the night, the other being Sandy Powell, who won the costume design Oscar for her work on The Aviator." -entertainment,"US 'to raise TV indecency fines' US politicians are proposing a tough new law aimed at cracking down on indecency and bad language on US TV. Fines of up to $500,000 (£266,582) could be imposed each time broadcasters transmit nudity or profanities. The proposal, unveiled in the House of Representatives, also seeks to revoke a broadcaster's licence after three violations have been committed. The exposure of Janet Jackson's breast at last year's Superbowl landed CBS with a $550,000 (£293,264) fine. Entertainers could also be liable for fines under the proposed legisation from both US politcians and officials from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). A Republican senator from Kansas, Sam Brownbeck, is set to call for a maximum $3 million (£1.6 million) fine for repeated violations. The current maximum fine stands at $32,500 (£17,320) - 20 of the stations in the CBS network were each penalised these lesser amounts for the Jackson incident. Republican politician Fred Upton, who chairs the committee responsible for broadcasting, said current fines are ""more of a cost of doing business rather than a deterrent"". Last year's Janet Jackson 'wardrobe malfunction' encouraged the FCC to impose tougher rules, but the US Congress adjourned last year without agreeing on a new level of fines. New figures have to be decided before new legislation can be put before President Bush. Certain broadcasters, like Fox, claim the material they carry does not violate indecency laws and is protected under the right to free speech." -entertainment,"Lost Doors frontman movie found Historians in Florida have discovered a 40-year-old clip of a clean-cut Jim Morrison appearing in a promotional film for his university. The 1964 film shows the Doors frontman, who died aged 27 in 1971, playing the part of a young man who had been rejected by Florida State University. Morrison is seen quizzing a college administrator on why he was refused. ""But what happened? How come my parents and the state and the university didn't look ahead?"" he is seen asking. ""It's incredible. He's so clean cut and soft-spoken,"" said Florida state archivist Jody Norman. ""We know he was at Florida State University for a period of time and he did some acting when he was there,"" Norman added. The Doors were one of the most influential bands of the 1960s, with hits including Light My Fire and Riders On The Storm. Morrison was notorious for his wild lifestyle - and was accused of exposing himself and simulating a sex act at a Miami concert in 1969. He was found dead in the bath of his Paris apartment and died from heart problems, aggravated by alcohol. A coroner recorded a verdict of death by natural causes and his grave at the city's Pere Lachaise ceremony has become a shrine for fans." -entertainment,"Super Size Me wins writers' award Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock has won the Writers Guild of America's award for documentary feature writing. The Oscar-nominated film followed Spurlock as he ate only McDonald's fast food for an entire month. Spurlock was given the award at a special ceremony at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood on Tuesday. Organisers said the rising popularity of documentary films led them to honour a writer for a documentary screenplay for the first time. Producer Brian Grazer presented the award to Spurlock and the film's backers, Roadside Attractions, Samuel Goldwyn Films and Showtime Independent Films. Spurlock set out to discover the effect of living on nothing but McDonald's for a month, upgrading to supersize portions when offered. The film followed his 25lb weight gain and the health effects on his body, including his liver and cholesterol levels. McDonald's announced it was to scrap its ""supersized"" meals last year, but denied the move was as a result of the negative publicity created by Spurlock's film. Spurlock was given his award on the same day the European Court of Human Rights ruled that two UK activists should have been given legal aid in their long fight against a McDonald's libel action. Helen Steel and David Morris, from north London, dubbed the ""McLibel Two"", were found guilty in a 1990s trial of libelling the company in a leaflet they had been handing out At the end of the case the High Court in London ruled McDonald's had been libelled and awarded the company £60,000 in damages, later reduced to £40,000 on appeal. But he found the leaflet was true in some aspects." -entertainment,"Director Nair's Vanity project Indian film director Mira Nair has said she was thrilled to be given the chance to make William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair - as the book has been a favourite through her life. The book is one of the classics of English literature - the story of scheming 19th Century social climber Becky Sharp, played in the film by Reese Witherspoon. Nair said that she jumped at the chance to work on the film, which she has - controversially - made in a Bollywood style, including two song-and-dance routines in the film's second half. ""It was serendipity really - I was offered Vanity Fair by the studio Focus Features, who had distributed Monsoon Wedding,"" Nair told BBC World Service's Masterpiece programme. ""They offered me their next-best thing, not realising that Vanity Fair had actually been one of my favourite novels since I was 16 years old in an Irish Catholic boarding school in India."" Since her 1988 debut feature Salaam Bombay! - nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar and winner of Best First Feature at Cannes - Nair has become one of India's most famous and respected directors. She is not restricted to Bollywood, however - she followed Salaam Bombay! with Mississippi Masala, starring Denzel Washington, and The Perez Family, her first Hollywood film. Her career peaked with Monsoon Wedding in 2001, which won the Golden Lion award at Venice. Nair's Indian-style adaptation of Vanity Fair, however, has been attacked by critics in the US - where it only reached number eight at the box office in its opening week - who described the Bollywood elements as ""jarring."" The film has a new ending, with Becky Sharp running off for a new life in India. But Nair said that her film had picked up on the way Thackeray - who was born in India but moved to England as a young man - had seen the world. ""First, when I was 16, it was Becky Sharp, who is a completely memorable character, because I recognised myself in her - I recognised all the ladies who did not want to be ladies, who wanted to buck the system that they were in,"" she said. ""But it was the sort of novel I somehow kept at the side of my bed for many years, and I would dip into every now and then and suddenly get completely mesmerised again. ""As I got older and read it, I think it was Thackeray's clarity - his clear-sightedness about his own society, the fact that he was born in India but came to England as a young man - that gave him the eyes of an outsider, and yet he was an insider. ""That perspective was something I really loved."" Nair also defended her decision to cast an American actress - Reese Witherspoon - as Becky Sharp, despite the fact that all the rest of the cast are British or Irish. ""I cast intuitively - in my films I cast as many non-actors as I cast actors,"" she said. ""For me, it is intuition - I have to fall in love with an actor. It is a visceral response. ""Thackeray describes Becky Sharp as a minx. Also she's described as someone who's tiny, red-headed and thin. Reese had that completely minx-like irresistibility about her."" Having won the role because she seemed physically perfectly suited to the part, however, Witherspoon then became pregnant. But Nair said that, though this had created the need for some filming tricks, it had in fact also helped the film. ""It was a self-fulfilling prophesy - when I first met her husband [actor Ryan Philippe], I said 'knock her up, won't you, I need some flesh on the girl',"" she joked. ""I'm not a fan of the underfed Los Angeles actor at all. This was, for me, about Becky Sharp being, eventually, a full-blown woman through the course of the film. ""I love the luminosity that pregnancy brings, I love the fleshiness, I love the ample bosom - it gave me much more to play with."" Nair explained how camera tricks had been used to disguise Witherspoon's ""bump"" in various scenes - including hiring a number of young boys in costumes to stand in front of her. ""She runs, she gets off coal carts, she jumps off horses - she does everything,"" Nair said. ""But there's also a certain carriage with horses that is going to wipe the screen at a certain moment, because of the bump.""" -entertainment,"Brits return Keane to number one Brits success has helped return Keane's award-winning album Hopes and Fears back to the top of the UK album chart. The debut album, which took the best British album title at the Brits on Tuesday, moved up seven places from number eight to number one. Also capitalising on Brits success were the Scissor Sisters whose eponymous album moved three places to number two. U2's latest single Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own took the top spot in the singles chart, ahead of Elvis. The track, from their current album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, pushed Eminem's Like Toy Soldiers from number one to number three. Elvis' Wooden Heart, which entered the chart at number two, is the sixth in a series of 18 reissues to mark the 70th anniversary of Presley's birth. There are currently six re-released Elvis' tracks occupying spots in the top 40 singles chart including Are You Lonesome Tonight at number 20, It's Now or Never at number 27 and Jailhouse Rock at number 37. Soldier, by Destiny's Child, Ti and Lil Wayne, debuted at number four, while Almost Here, the duet from former Westlife star Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem, fell from number three to number five. There was more follow up to Brits success for Franz Ferdinand won best rock act and best British group last week. Their self-titled album moved from 13 to number four. Last week's number one album Tourist, by Athlete, fell to number three." -entertainment,"Dame Julie pops in to see Poppins Mary Poppins star Dame Julie Andrews watched the hit stage version of her classic film at a charity performance in London's West End. It was the first time Dame Julie, who shot to fame as the nanny in the 1964 Disney movie, had seen the musical, staged at the Prince Edward Theatre. She watched Laura Michelle Kelly, 23, reprise the role on stage. The show has been one of the West End's hottest tickets since opening in December, winning two Olivier Awards. Kelly was named best musical actress at last month's ceremony and the musical also won best choreography. But Kelly said she was ""very nervous"" about meeting Dame Julie because she was ""my absolute hero"". The gala performance saw Dame Julie, 69, return to the theatre where she had her first starring role in a performance of Humpty Dumpty in 1948. The Mary Poppins musical has been masterminded by theatre impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Richard Eyre with choreography by Matthew Bourne. Sir Cameron said he hoped the production, which cost £9m to bring to the stage, was a blend of the sweet-natured film and the original book by PL Travers. Proceeds from Thursday's show will go to charities including Absolute Return for Kids (Ark), international relief agency Operation USA and drama school Lamda." -entertainment,"US actor Ossie Davis found dead US actor Ossie Davis has been found dead at the age of 87. Davis, who was married to actress Ruby Dee, was found dead on Friday in his hotel room in Miami Beach, Florida, where he was making a film. Davis, whose 65-year career included credits as a producer, director, actor and writer for stage and screen, was also a civil rights activist. Miami Beach police spokesman Bobby Hernandez said the cause of death appeared to be natural. Davis's body was discovered by his grandson and paramedics at the Shore Club hotel in Miami Beach, where the actor had been shooting the film Retirement. Mr Hernandez said: ""After gaining entry, they found Mr Davis had passed away. ""The cause of death appears to be natural. According to his grandson he was suffering from heart disease."" Some of Davis's best known roles included The Joe Louis Story and Gone Are the Days - a film he adapted from his own play, Purlie Victorious. He also appeared in 7 Spike Lee movies, including School Daze, Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever. His film debut, in 1950, was in the film No Way Out, starring Sydney Poitier and Ruby Dee. Davis and Dee were married for more than 56 years and together received Kennedy Center honours in 2004 for their body of work. The Actors' Equity Association issued a statement calling Davis ""an icon in the American theatre"" and he and Dee ""American treasures"". Davis was also a prominent figure in the civil rights movement and was a voice for racial equality. He was a featured speaker at the funerals of both Martin Luther King Jnr and Malcolm X. Besides Dee, Davis is survived by three children Nora, Hasna and Guy, a blues artist, and seven grandchildren." -entertainment,"Box office blow for Alexander Director Oliver Stone's historical epic Alexander has failed in its bid to conquer the box office, entering the US film charts at number six. The swords and sandals blockbuster, rumoured to have cost more than $150m (£79m) to make, earned just $13.5 (£7m) over three days at the US box office. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the film opened on Wednesday, bringing its total takings to $21.6m (£11.4m). Top of the box office for a second week was action movie National Treasure. The family adventure, starring Nicolas Cage, took $33.1m (£17.m), ahead of animated comedy The Incredibles - now in its fourth week in the charts - which took $24.1m (£12.7m). Last week Oliver Stone's film met with scathing reviews from US critics. The film stars Irish actor Colin Farrell as one of history's most celebrated leaders - a relentless and arrogant warrior who conquered much of the known world by the age of 25. In particular, its portrayal of Alexander as a bisexual has met with a hostile reception and the threat of legal action from Greek lawyers. ""Though the battles have the blood-and-sinew bravado you expect from Oliver Stone, this three-hour buttnumbathon is hamstrung by a hectoring grandiosity,"" wrote one reviewer in Rolling Stone magazine. Others poured scorn on Farrell's bleached hair and Angelina Jolie's unwieldy accent, which Variety called ""a combination of Mata Hari and Count Dracula"" . But novelist Gore Vidal defended the film, saying it was ""barrier-breaking"" for its frank depiction of bisexuality. In Sweden last Thursday, to pick up a lifetime achievement award at the Stockholm International Film Festival, Stone expressed the hope that Alexander might be better appreciated in Europe. ""One of the reasons I am being honoured here is Europeans tend to see me a little differently than they do in the US,"" said the director behind JFK, Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. He added Alexander ""was not an easy movie, but then I've never made easy movies""." -entertainment,"US show sued for rat-eating stunt A US TV network is being sued for $2.5m (£1.3m) by a viewer who says he was disgusted by watching contestants eat dead rats in a stunt show. Austin Aitken is taking action against NBC over its programme Fear Factor. He said watching the show caused his blood pressure to rise so high that he became dizzy and light-headed. The legal assistant said NBC was ""sending the wrong message to viewers that cash can make or have people do just about anything beyond reasoning"". The hand-written, four-page lawsuit said: ""To have the individuals on the show eat and drink dead rats was crazy and from a viewer's point of view made me throw-up as well as another in the house at the same time."" Mr Aitken, who lives in Cleveland, said that after becoming light-headed, he ran towards the bedroom and knocked his head in a doorway. A spokesman for NBC said it had no comment on the lawsuit, but confirmed the stunt show did feature a rat-eating scene in New York's Times Square on 8 November. Past shows have featured viewers eating spiders and live worms. The programme has been screened in the UK on Sky One." -entertainment,"New York rockers top talent poll New York electro-rock group The Bravery have come top of the BBC News website's Sound of 2005 poll to find the music scene's most promising new act. The Bravery, who have been compared to The Cure and New Order, were the most heavily-tipped act in the survey of 110 impartial critics and broadcasters. Rock band Keane won Sound of 2004 while US rapper 50 Cent topped Sound of 2003. Other new artists in this year's list include London indie group Bloc Party at second and UK rapper Kano third. The Bravery played their first gig in 2003 and have since supported bands including The Libertines, Interpol and Echo and the Bunnymen. They were the subject of a record company bidding war in 2004 and their debut single, Unconditional, caused a huge buzz when it was released in the UK in November. Singer Sam Endicott said he felt ""great"" about coming top of the Sound of 2005 list. ""Anyone that says they don't want a zillion screaming fans is a jackass, a liar,"" he said. One of the experts to tip The Bravery was The Times' music critic Paul Connolly, who said they were ""spiky but in love with pop"". Chris Hawkins, host of BBC 6 Music's chart show, said the band had ""great guitars and a mastery of the electro-clash sound"". ""The Bravery are proof alone that New York City is still home to hot new talent,"" he said. Alison Howe, producer of TV show Later... With Jools Holland, booked the group to appear the day after seeing them at a west London pub. ""They played like they were headlining the main stage at Glastonbury,"" she said. ""Great songs, a good look, a touch of attitude and a cracking live band."" Q magazine reviews editor Ted Kessler said they were ""pretty-boy New York clothes horses"" with ""an unusually nimble ear for concise, yearning pop in the mould of Duran Duran or The Strokes"". Other pundits to take part in the survey included BBC Radio 1 DJ Trevor Nelson, NME editor Conor McNicholas, Top of the Pops presenter Fearne Cotton, Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis and BBC Radio 2 music editor Colin Martin. Elsewhere on the top 10, second-placed rock band Bloc Party began their rise after supporting Franz Ferdinand and UK garage MC Kano, in third, is signed to The Streets' record label. US rapper The Game is hip-hop great Dr Dre's latest protege while Leeds group Kaiser Chiefs came fifth with a promise to lead a Britpop revival. In last year's survey, Keane were followed by Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight and Joss Stone in the top five - all of whom were virtually unknown outside the music industry at that point. Boy band McFly were sixth while Scissor Sisters, who had the UK's best-selling album of 2004, were seventh. In the survey, the pundits were asked for tips for three acts they thought were capable of reaching the top in their chosen genre, either in terms of sales or critical acclaim. The artists could be from any country and any musical genre, but must not have had a UK top 20 single, been a contestant on a TV talent show or already be famous for doing something else, such as a soap actor. Those tips were then counted and compiled to make the top 10." -entertainment,"Eminem secret gig venue revealed Rapper Eminem is to play an intimate gig in London on Saturday, following a show on the River Thames on Friday. The US star will play just two songs at a night showcasing his label Shady Records at the Islington Academy. Eminem performed on HMS Belfast on Friday, which is docked on the River Thames, where he filmed two songs for BBC One's Top of the Pops. He arrived in the UK on Friday following his appearance at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Rome. Other rap acts who may appear at the Islington gig include Stat Quo, Proof, DJ Green Lantern, Swift and Obie Trice. Eminem's latest album soared to the top of the US chart after just three days on sale in record shops. Encore is now a chart-topper on both sides of the Atlantic following its debut at number one in the UK. The fourth album from the rap star was on sale for two days before it outsold all of its rivals. The album was released early in an effort to combat both physical and online piracy. Eminem's album includes the track Mosh, which is a tirade against US President Bush and the presence of US troops in Iraq. The rapper was criticised earlier this year after a performance on BBC One's Top of the Pops in April led 12 viewers to complain he was ""lewd"" and ""offensive"". The complaints about the star grabbing his crotch were upheld by the BBC. ""The performer had been asked to tone his act down after rehearsal but ignored this request during the live broadcast,"" a BBC statement read. ""Although his gestures were part of the rap culture, they had gone beyond what is expected.""" -entertainment,"Disputed Nirvana box set on sale A box set featuring 68 unreleased Nirvana tracks has gone on sale in the US, after years of legal wrangles. With the Lights Out was intended to be released in 2001, to mark the 10th anniversary of the album Nevermind. It was blocked by Courtney Love, the widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who did not want unreleased song You Know You're Right on the box set. The dispute between Love and surviving band members Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl was settled in 2002. Work began on the box set in 1998, but legal battles put the project on hold. The legal fight centred on a studio recording of the unreleased track You Know You're Right, regarded by fans as one of the unreleased gems of Nirvana. The set, released on Tuesday, features three CDs and a DVD of rare performance and rehearsal footage. The DVD also includes the first performance of Smells Like Teen Spirit, the track that launched Nirvana on to the international stage in 1991. ""The band wasn't always pretty, or always in tune. This is not Nirvana unplugged. It's Nirvana unedited,"" said Cobain biographer Charles Cross. The band's development ended tragically when songwriter Kurt Cobain committed suicide in April 1994." -entertainment,"Indie film nominations announced Mike Leigh's award-winning abortion drama Vera Drake has scooped seven nominations at this year's British Independent Film Awards. But the Venice winner faces stiff competition from Shane Meadows' critically acclaimed Dead Man's Shoes, which received eight nominations. Also in the running for a clutch of awards are My Summer of Love and the stalker drama Enduring Love. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 30 November. The winners of the awards will be chosen by a jury chaired by Cold Mountain director Anthony Minghella and including actresses Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham-Carter. The awards, which recognise independent film-making in Britain, were established seven years ago. ""This year's nominees reflect the growing strength and diversity of British independent filmmaking,"" said BIFA founder and director Elliot Grove. Commenting on the diversity of the nominated films, he added: ""Our selection committee had a harder time than ever narrowing down the field."" Joining Vera Drake and Dead Man's Shoes in the running for best film are My Summer of Love, climbing documentary Touching the Void and zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead. Geoffrey Rush wins a best actor nomination for his role as Peter Sellers in the recent biopic The Life & Death of Peter Sellers. The Australian star faces competition from Daniel Craig (Enduring Love), Phil Davis (Vera Drake), Ian Hart (Blind Fight) and Dead Man's Shoes' star Paddy Considine. Considine is also nominated for a best supporting actor award for My Summer of Love. A rare US nominee, Scarlett Johansson, is among this year's best actress contenders for her role in Girl with a Pearl Earring. Fellow nominees include Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), Natalie Press (My Summer of Love), Anne Reid (The Mother) and Eva Birthistle (Ae Fond Kiss... ). Shane Meadows and Kevin McDonald, both former winners of the Douglas Hickox Award (for Best Directorial Debut) won best director nominations. Seasoned film-makers Roger Michell, Mike Leigh and Pavel Pavlikowsky challenge them to the award. Harry Potter author JK Rowling will receive a special award for her contribution to the industry." -entertainment,"Hundreds vie for best film Oscar A total of 267 films are eligible for the best film Oscar but only five will be chosen to go forward as nominees. The Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences has sent out the first ballot papers with the full list of films vying for recognition. Among those expected to receive nominations are The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby and Sideways. Academy members will now vote for their favourites before the final nominees are announced on 25 January. To be eligible for nomination a film must have been shown in a commercial theatre for seven consecutive days before the deadline of 31 December. Director Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio went on general release on Christmas Day in the US, ensuring it just made the deadline. Studios have already begun lobbying voters, taking out full page adverts in trade publications such as Variety urging them to remember particular films when it comes to choosing what to back. Other movies tipped for possible success include Closer, starring Jude Law and Julia Roberts, Finding Neverland, with Johnny Depp as author JM Barry and Kinsey starring Liam Neeson as the famed sex scientist Alfred Kinsey. Meanwhile, design engineer Takuo Miyagishima will be awarded an Oscar at the Scientific and Technical Awards Dinner on 12 February 2005. Miyagishima is the 18th recipient of the Sawyer Award, which is ""presented to an individual in the motion picture industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry."" The main Oscar ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on 27 February." -entertainment,"Police praise 'courageous' Ozzy Rock star Ozzy Osbourne has been praised by police for ""very courageously"" tackling a burglar who stole jewellery from his house. The singer grabbed an intruder who then jumped 30ft (10m) from a first floor window as the star gave chase at his Buckinghamshire home on Monday. ""I acted on impulse,"" Osbourne said. ""In hindsight, it could have been a lot worse. It could've got really ugly."" A £100,000 reward has been offered for information leading to a conviction. His wife Sharon, who called the police, said her wedding rings were taken from her bedside table as she slept. The heavy metal star said he could have met the same fate as late Beatle George Harrison, who was repeatedly stabbed in a break-in in 1999. ""I could have been badly injured or shot or anything,"" Osbourne said. ""I just thank God that no-one got injured."" He added he was glad the intruders were not hurt. ""I wouldn't want anyone to get injured."" The singer did not want to talk in detail about his actions but when asked whether he would do the same again replied: ""Is the Pope a Catholic?"" The incident happened at 0400 GMT on Monday in Chalfont St Peter. Detective Inspector Paul Miller of Thames Valley Police said it appeared a man used a ladder to get into the house through a first floor bedroom window. ""Whilst selecting items of jewellery, the burglar was disturbed by Ozzy who very courageously tackled this burglar and pursued him from the house,"" he said. Ozzy said he was ""just coming to grips"" with what had happened and his opinion of the UK had been lowered after 12 relatively trouble-free years in the US. ""We lived in Los Angeles where people get shot every day and have been trailed by lots of different stalkers - and yet we come back to England and I'm very disappointed."" At a press conference on Tuesday, Sharon Osbourne gave details of nine stolen items. They included a diamond wedding ring and two handmade wedding bands Ozzy gave her when they renewed their vows two years ago. She said she wished she had worn them at night. ""I always take them off and put them beside my bed and that's where they were, right beside me on my bedside table."" Also taken were a pearl necklace and a sapphire bought as an investment for their daughters described by Sharon as ""one of the only 24-carat sapphires that is absolutely pure"". A daisy chain necklace that was a 20th anniversary present and a Franck Muller watch Sharon said was one of only 10 made were also stolen. She expressed her anger at the person who ""hasn't worked and wants to take what's yours"". ""But the thing is, we worked for everything. I came from Brixton. Ozzy came from not a very nice part of Birmingham and everything we've got we have worked our arses off for."" ""If I choose to make an investment for my kids in whatever way I choose to make it, that's my business and I worked for every God damn penny."" Ozzy also lamented two years in which the family has been plagued by problems, including his critical injury in a quad bike accident, his wife's colon cancer, their childrens' drug problems and now the burglary. On Sunday night, the Osbournes had been celebrating the birthday of singer Sir Elton John's partner David Furnish. Police described the intruder as well-built, about 5' 10"" tall and said he was wearing a ski-mask, a light-coloured jacket and trainers. They believe he may have injured himself when he jumped from the window. There is no description of his accomplice. Police think the pair were driving a large vehicle, possibly a van, and are keen to hear from anyone who may have seen one leaving Chalfont St Peter at speed. Police appealed for public help to find the perpetrators and stolen items on 0845 8 505 505 or 0800 555 111." -entertainment,"Baghdad Blogger on big screen A film based on the internet musings of the ""Baghdad Blogger"" has been shown at the Rotterdam Film Festival. The film has been directed by the man who calls himself Salam Pax, the author of the weblog about Iraqi life during and after the war. The movie version comes in the form of a series of shorts made by Pax on a hand-held camera. Baghdad Blogger is among a number of films about Iraq showcased at the Dutch festival, which runs until Sunday. Following the fascination with the writing of Salam Pax - not his real name - he began a regular column in The Guardian newspaper and was given a crash course in documentary film-making. For the film he travelled Iraq to document the changing landscape of the country and the problems it has faced since the invasion, speaking to ordinary Iraqis about their experiences. The festival will also see the screening of Underexposure, one of Iraq's first features to emerge since the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Director Oday Rasheed made the film on discarded 1980s Kodak film taken from the remains for the former Ministry of Culture building. It centres on the lives of families and strangers going about their everyday business as Baghdad is under siege. Rasheed said the title was refers to the isolation felt by Iraqis under Saddam's regime and the difficult time the country is now experiencing. ""Saddam's regime was hell, but now I think the hell has doubled,"" Rasheed said. The festival was also due to screen murdered Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh's film about the treatment of woman under Islam, but it was withdrawn due to safety fears. Van Gogh was shot and stabbed in November 2004, following death threats he received about his film Submission." -entertainment,"Vera Drake scoops film award Oscar hopefuls Mike Leigh and Imelda Staunton were both winners at the 2004 Evening Standard British Film Awards. Vera Drake - Leigh's 1950s drama about a backstreet abortionist - was named best film and Staunton, who played the title role, was named best actress. Other winners included Paddy Considine, who was crowned best actor for his role in Dead Man's Shoes. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was named Evening Standard Readers' Film of 2004 at the central London ceremony. Leigh was presented with his winner's statuette by Timothy Spall and Staunton's award was announced by Patrick Stewart, during the glittering ceremony at The Savoy on Sunday night. Evening Standard film critic Derek Malcolm said: ""He [Leigh] has never made a film that is better controlled and technically more secure... If this isn't one of the films of the year, I don't know what is."" The Alexander Walker Special Award - which honours those who have made a supreme contribution to British film - went to Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, the co-chairmen of Working Title films. The production company is behind films such as My Beautiful Laundrette, Billy Elliot, About A Boy, Shaun of The Dead and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Simon Pegg, who stars in and co-wrote Shaun of the Dead, won the 2004 Peter Sellers Award For Comedy. Other winners included Emily Blunt and Nathalie Press who were jointly named ITV London Most Promising Newcomer Award for their performances in Pawel Pawlikowski's rites-of-passage story, My Summer of Love. Pawlikowski won the best screenplay statuette, while Roger Deakins won the Technical Achievement Award for his cinematography on The Village and The Ladykillers. Guests at the ceremony included Dame Judi Dench, Kim Cattrall, Charles Dance, Bill Nighy and Colin Firth. The awards, which were hosted by Jack Dee, are to be screened on ITV London on Tuesday at 2300 GMT." -entertainment,"Global release for Japan hit film Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki's latest film, Howl's Moving Castle, is to be released in 50 countries around the world, its distributor has said. Howl's Moving Castle set a Japanese box office record last week, taking 1.5bn yen (£7.7m) in its first two days. Miyazaki won an Oscar earlier this year for Spirited Away, Japan's first Academy Award for nearly 50 years. Howl's Moving Castle is based on a children's fantasy novel by UK author Diana Wynne Jones. It tells the story of an 18-year-old woman who ages dramatically after falling under a witch's spell. She heads to a moving castle kept by Howl, a wizard, and searches for a way to become normal again. A spokesman for distributor Toho said the film ""has received strong interest from domestic audiences and foreign media and viewers alike"". ""We have a good feeling about this film. We saw very good viewer response,"" he added. The film's worldwide release will start in South Korea on 24 December, and France on 12 January." -entertainment,"Franz Ferdinand's art school lesson Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand, who shot to prominence in 2004, have won two Brit Awards. With their self-titled debut, Franz Ferdinand have achieved what most rock bands crave - high credibility and critical acclaim while also selling stacks of CDs. They have risen to the head of the UK's art rock ranks with an album of songs that are catchy, creative and original enough to sound fresh. With a cool, spiky, fun sound previously associated with bands like Talking Heads, they hit upon a style that had been out of fashion for a while and so was ripe for another airing. Their first UK single hit number three last January, followed by two more top 20 hits, while the album has sold more than 600,000 copies in 11 months on release. In September it was named album of the year winning the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. On the festivals circuit, they have been one of the main attractions for huge crowds at Glastonbury, T in the Park and Reading/Leeds. They have also found success in Japan, Europe and the US. By September the album had sold 500,000 in the States and total sales were pushing two million worldwide. They have been nominated for three Grammy awards in the US as well as the US music industry's Shortlist award, but lost the Shortlist prize to US band TV on the Radio. Nevertheless Franz Ferdinand were the only UK band to win an MTV Video Music Award this year, taking the breakthrough video crown for Take Me Out. The four-piece met two years ago when drummer Paul Thomson was working at the Glasgow art school where bassist Bob Hardy was studying. Singer Alex Kapranos was studying English at university but had friends at art school, and the line-up was completed when guitarist Nick McCarthy moved from Munich, Germany, to the city. At the turn of the year, Kapranos told BBC News Online the band were fed up with serious bands in ""that post-rock thing that seemed to be doing its damndest to avoid any bloody tune"". ""We want people to go away from the gigs humming the tunes that we were singing. But at the same time bringing an edge to it."" Franz Ferdinand had a question they asked themselves every time they wrote a song, Kapranos said. ""Where's the fun in that?"" they pondered at every stage, making enjoyment the top priority and ensuring they did not disappear up their own muso posteriors. The band started out with a DIY ethic that saw them take over a disused art-deco warehouse in Glasgow and rename it The Chateau. The venue soon became legendary - so well-known that the police spent a month trying to find it, eventually raiding it and arresting Kapranos. But the charges of running an illegal bar and contravening health and safety, fire hazard and noise abatement laws were dropped. The band took over an abandoned Victorian courtroom and jail instead, and named that The Chateau. The buzz about the band soon spread around the music industry and 40 record labels turned up to one gig in Glasgow - which the band thought was ""totally ridiculous"". ""I'm really glad it was almost comical because we weren't overwhelmed by the seriousness of it,"" Kapranos said. They signed with independent label Domino, home of Smog, Sebadoh and Four Tet, in June 2003." -entertainment,"Animation charms Japan box office Oscar-winning director Hayao Miyazaki's latest film has set a new Japanese box office record, with 1.5bn yen ($14.3m) in two days, according to reports. Howl's Moving Castle is the follow-up to Miyazaki's Spirited Away, which won best animation at last year's Oscars. It is based on the children's book by English writer Diana Wynne Jones. It has registered the highest opening weekend takings of any Japanese film in the country, according to trade publication Screen Daily. The film is about an 18-year-old girl who is trapped in an old woman's body after being put under a spell by a witch. Its two-day takings represented 1.1 million cinema admissions, Screen Daily said. The film's distributor Toho expects 40 million people to see it in total - almost one third of the country's population - it added. The film won the Golden Osella for outstanding technical contribution at this year's Venice Film Festival." -entertainment,"Tarantino 'to make Friday sequel' Director Quentin Tarantino is in talks to write and direct a new instalment in the Friday the 13th horror franchise, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film-maker will reportedly meet executives from New Line Cinema this week to discuss the 12th film in the long-running 'stalk and slash' series. The original film, released in 1980, has spawned ten sequels based around mask-wearing murderer Jason Voorhees. The most recent, Freddy Vs Jason, was released in summer 2003. That film saw Jason battle Freddy Krueger, star of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. According to the industry newspaper, New Line had been trying to make another sequel involving Ash, the hero of the Evil Dead movies, but was unable to agree terms with director Sam Raimi. Tarantino is said to be intrigued by the prospect of building a new film around one of the horror genre's most recognised figures. First, however, he is scheduled to direct the season finale of US television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Filming is due to start in early April. Tarantino's episode, for which he also wrote the original story, will be broadcast in the US on 19 May." -entertainment,"Fightstar take to the stage Charlie Simpson took his new band Fightstar to the stage on Friday night, just hours after officially announcing his departure from pop band Busted. He was greeted by a sell-out crowd at the University of Warwick. Confirmation of Busted's long-rumoured split had come earlier in the day, when Simpson held a press conference in London with bandmates Matt Willis and James Bourne. All three band members stressed that the break up was amicable, although Bourne admitted he was ""devastated"" to hear of Simpson's departure. ""This has been a really difficult decision,"" 19-year-old Simpson revealed, ""I hope the fans will understand."" While Simpson declared he would look back with pride on Busted's enormous success, his focus turned immediately to Fightstar, with Friday's press conference coinciding with the start of the band's 13-date tour of the UK. Fuelled by this news, all 1,400 tickets to see Charlie's first post-Busted live appearance - at the University of Warwick's Student Union - sold out rapidly. Mike Eccleshall, the venue's Promotions Coordinator, said: ""Tickets had been selling strongly over the past few days, but sales went mad after the news broke. We had completely sold out by 4pm."" With queues outside the venue long and expectations high, the pressure was on Fightstar to impress. Although many dedicated fans travelled to the gig from around the country, they faced a tough crowd made up chiefly of students, the average age of the audience far exceeding that of any Busted concert. Gone were the screaming girls to which Simpson had become accustomed. Support act Brigade, fronted by Simpson's brother, played a short set first and were met with general approval. When Fightstar eventually took to the stage around 11pm, however, a riotous cheer easily drowned out any hecklers lurking in the crowd. Unfortunately, the band were initially hindered by technical teething problems as Simpson's guitar amplifier failed to work. As sound technicians rushed to fix it, other band members did their best to improvise. When they eventually got under way, Fightstar's blend of emotionally charged rock was warmly received. Far heavier and less commercial than Busted's chart-topping pop-punk, the band will undoubtedly appeal to a more mature fan-base. Warwick student Helen Clutterbuck admitted: ""I came to check out Fightstar because of all the controversy. ""I've never heard them before, but I'm pretty impressed."" Less impressed were fellow students Ryan Crabbe and Gordon Rennie, who observed, ""With Fightstar, Charlie has clearly progressed from Busted's sound, but they're still not very inspiring."" Fightstar played for around 45 minutes, showcasing material from their forthcoming EP called They Liked You Better When You Were Dead, due for release in February." -politics,"Kennedy begins pre-election tour Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has begun a week-long tour to persuade voters they are the ""real opposition"". Mr Kennedy is visiting constituencies in Somerset and Hampshire on Monday - rural seats where his party is hoping to make gains from the Conservatives. Later he will visit places, such as Liverpool, where Labour is targeted. Labour say a Lib Dem vote could ""let the Tories in"", while the Tories say the Lib Dems would mean ""higher taxes, soft crime laws, more power to Europe"". Mr Kennedy's tour comes as he, Labour leader Tony Blair and Conservative leader Michael Howard all step up campaigning ahead of the next General Election, widely expected to be held on 5 May. On Tuesday Mr Kennedy will visit Leicester South, where Lib Dem MP Parmjit Singh Gill overturned a big Labour majority to win the seat in last year's by-election. Stops in Shrewsbury, North Dorset, Liverpool, Manchester, Basingstoke and west London are planned for later in the week. The Liberal Democrats say in the northern cities, the race is between them and Labour, while in southern seats - particularly the south west - it is between them and the Tories. Speaking to the BBC's Westminster Hour on Sunday, Mr Kennedy said the upcoming general election - widely tipped for 5 May - would be much more unpredictable than any others in ""recent experience"". Asked whether it was realistic to assume the Liberal Democrats could win the general election, he said: ""There's no limit to the ambitions we have as a party. ""But we have got to be responsible, we have got to be credible, we have got to demonstrate to people that we are up to that task."" Mr Kennedy said the British public felt let down by Labour on issues from Iraq to top-up fees and the Conservatives were not ""asking the critical questions"". And he said people were ""highly sceptical"" about Labour and Conservative promises on tax. But he brushed off Labour suggestions a vote for his party would mean letting the Tories in ""by the back door"". ""If you look at the four previous parliamentary by-elections, the Liberal Democrats have demonstrated that, not only can we leapfrog the Conservatives where we start in a third place position, but we can go on to defeat the government. ""That's going to be the story, I think, of this coming general election.""" -politics,"Labour battle plan 'hides Blair' The Tories have accused Tony Blair of being ""terrified"" of scrutiny after Labour unveiled details of how it will fight the next general election. In a break with tradition, the party will ditch the leader's battle bus and daily press briefings in Westminster. Instead Mr Blair will travel to key cities and marginal seats to deliver the party's message. Labour election chief Alan Milburn denied the party was trying to ""hide"" the prime minister. He promised ""the most positive and upbeat election campaign Labour has ever run"". But Tory co-chairman Liam Fox said Labour's plans showed Mr Blair was ""terrified of facing proper scrutiny"". ""At a time when the British people are looking for more accountability and openness, this government turns its back on them; abandoning plans to tour the country and scared to face journalists in a press conference - it does rather beg the question, 'What have they got to hide?'"" The general election is widely expected next May and all the parties are stepping up their campaign preparations. Mr Milburn said the economy would take centre stage in Labour's campaign in what would be a ""watershed"" election and the ""last stand of the Thatcherites"". Mr Milburn said Labour's slogan would be ""Britain is working - Don't let the Tories wreck it."" The tone of the campaign, said Mr Milburn, would be more conversational than rhetorical; more spontaneous less scripted; less national more local and less based on issues and more concentrated on people. The approach is particularly designed to appeal to women voters, he said. Mr Milburn brushed aside questions over why the chancellor was not present at the Cabinet meeting to discuss election strategy particularly since such importance was being given to the economy. ""I'm not privy to everybody's diary,"" he said. Mr Brown has headed Labour's preparations for previous polls but Mr Milburn is taking that role this time. In a break with the past, Labour will not hold a daily news conference in London. It will not be a ""battle bus"" style campaign either, he said. In previous elections, each party leader has had their own battle bus transporting national newspaper, television and radio reporters to staged campaign events around the country. Mr Milburn said Labour's media effort this time would focus more on local newspapers and broadcasters, with every local radio station given the chance to interview the prime minister. Mr Milburn said there would also be a greater effort to set up face-to-face meetings between ministers and the electorate. Former Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell is also returning to advise Labour on media strategy and campaigning. Mr Milburn said no decision had been taken yet over whether David Blunkett would have a prominent role in the election. Liberal Democrat chief executive Lord Rennard suggested Labour was avoiding news conferences in London because it wanted less scrutiny of its record and proposals. ""Tony Blair seems to have disappeared from Labour leaflets and broadcasts,"" he said. ""In contrast Charles Kennedy will feature prominently in the Liberal Democrat campaign right across the country.""" -politics,"UK 'needs true immigration data' A former Home Office minister has called for an independent body to be set up to monitor UK immigration. Barbara Roche said an organisation should monitor and publish figures and be independent of government. She said this would counter ""so-called independent"" groups like Migration Watch, which she described as an anti-immigration body posing as independent. Migration Watch says it is not against all immigration and the government already publishes accurate figures. Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the organisation, says there is no need for an independent body because Office of National Statistics data are accurate. He says he opposes large-scale immigration ""both on the grounds of overcrowding and culture"". He said: ""For example, over the next 20 years one household in three will be due to immigration. ""We are already more overcrowded than India and we are four times more overcrowded than France."" Ms Roche, Labour MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, believes legal migration is something we should welcome. She said her proposals mean ""we wouldn't have so-called independent experts, like Migration Watch, who come into this debate from an anti-immigration point of view."" She went on: ""What I would like to see is there being a body which actually looked at the figures, published them, and was independent of government. ""I think that would go a long way to allaying some of the fears that are sometimes whipped up during this debate.""" -politics,"Teenagers to be allowed to be MPs Teenagers will be able to become MPs under plans unveiled by ministers. In a written statement, Constitutional Affairs Minister Christopher Leslie said the current minimum age of 21 for an MP would be reduced to 18. The proposals follow a recommendation last year by elections watchdog the Electoral Commission. ""The government intends to legislate, when parliamentary time allows, to lower the age,"" said Mr Leslie, who was elected in 1997 at the age of 24. Even if the move does go ahead it is unlikely it will be in place before the next general election, widely predicted for May. The announcement from Mr Leslie - who was elected in 1997 in a formerly safe Tory seat - prompted calls for a lowering of the voting age to 16. The Votes at 16 alliance said it was a good thing to ""engage people"" by lowering the candidacy age but argued lowering the voting age would be much more effective. ""Candidacy affects only politicians. The voting age affects millions of younger people,"" said spokesman Alex Folkes. ""We would hope that the government will table a bill that is broad enough to allow for amendments to be brought to test support for a reduction in the voting age."" Currently candidates in both local and national votes must be 21 while the voting age is 18. That is because the age of majority was reduced to 18 in 1969 but laws dating from 1695 which determine the current voting age stayed in place. Irish republican Bernadette Devlin was one of just a handful of 21-year-olds elected to Parliament in the 20th century winning a seat in 1969. But the youngest is understood to have been Tory Edward Turnour, who won the 1904 Horsham by-election aged 21 and 144 days and served in Parliament for 47 continuous years. Last April's report by the Electoral Commission said there was no strong argument for leaving the age for standing for election at 21. The commission found the most common approach around the world is for the voting age to be the same as the candidacy age." -politics,"Brown names 16 March for Budget Chancellor Gordon Brown will deliver his Budget to the House of Commons on 16 March, the Treasury has announced. The Budget, likely to be the last before the General Election, will be at 1230 GMT on that Wednesday, just after Prime Minister's question time. The annual event is when the chancellor outlines the government's taxation and broader economic predictions. It is likely to set out much of the tax and spending battleground for the election, widely expected on 5 May. Next month's Budget will be Mr Brown's eighth since Labour came to power in 1997. If a May election is called, there could be as little as 18 days between the Budget and the announcement of a date for the election. A shortened Finance Bill would have to be rushed through Parliament with all-party support to allow the Government to continue collecting revenue. The full Finance Bill, with the Budget measures in it, would then be returned to the Commons after the election, if Labour secures another term in office. As Mr Brown announced the Budget date in a short ministerial statement, accountancy firm Ernst & Young urged him to put politics aside and focus on the long-term requirements of the economy. ""In the Budgets that were given immediately before the last six elections, taxes were cut by the incumbent chancellor and, in many cases, taxes were increased soon after the election result,"" said Aidan O'Carroll, E&Y's UK head of tax." -politics,"Hospital suspends 'no Welsh' plan An English hospital has suspended plans to stop treating Welsh patients who have waited more than three months. Hereford County Hospital had earlier said that from the new year patients waiting longer than this would be taken off waiting lists for hip and knee operations. GPs in Wales had feared patients could be pushed to the back of another queue. But after talks with Powys Health Board the hospital called off its plan until health chiefs meet early in January. Hereford Hospital Trust caused an outcry when it sent out a letter telling patients that for financial and administrative reasons it planned to turn down some orthopaedic patients. Shocked health officials in Powys said this meant they would be left with the prospect of patients and doctors having to find new appointments in other hospitals. Andy Williams, chief executive of Powys Local Health Board, had said it was ""a totally unacceptable way to behave"". Mr Williams had said he did not think it was a Welsh-English issue, but said Hereford hospital was ""struggling financially and trying to pass the problem back to Powys"". He had told BBC Radio Wales: ""I have written straight back to the trust... to insist they withdraw this threat and treat the patients I am paying them to treat."" But after the hospital had agreed to the suspension, Mr Williams said he was optimistic a compromise could be reached which would ensure Welsh patients continued to be treated there. He said the problem had been caused by the difference in waiting time targets between England and Wales. The target is 12 months for Welsh patients, but just three months in England. The contract with the Powys health board was worth £7m a year for the hospital and accounts for 12% of its patients. In a statement before the suspension of the idea, the Welsh Assembly Government said the situation was ""unacceptable"". ""But Powys Local Health Board is committed to ensuring our patients receive the care that is appropriate,"" said the assembly government. ""Although we will be challenging Hereford's decision we will put in place appropriate care for our patients. They will be contacted by their GPs in the next week."" Earlier, David Rose, Chief Executive of Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust, had said: ""It is with real regret that we have taken this step. ""We want to continue providing an excellent and fast service to Powys people but can only do this if we are paid to provide the service. ""In 2005 our waiting time will fall to a maximum of 6-months and we want Powys people to ask to be referred to our modern hospital. ""We appeal to Powys Local Health Board to allow Powys people to choose Hereford for their treatment.""" -politics,"Clarke to press on with ID cards New Home Secretary Charles Clarke has vowed to plough on with plans for ID cards despite a call for him to ""pause for thought"" from Charles Kennedy. The Lib Dem leader said David Blunkett's resignation was a ""good opportunity"" to question whether the legislation was necessary. But Mr Clarke said he had supported the plans when Mr Blunkett argued for them in Cabinet and he supported them now. ""ID cards are a means to creating a more secure society,"" he said. Mr Clarke acknowledged how the measure was introduced remained a matter for debate but he said legislation had already been ""significantly influenced"" by the recommendations of the Commons' home affairs committee. The issue would be debated in Parliament next Monday as scheduled he insisted. Earlier Mr Kennedy, whose party opposes the ID cards plan as ""deeply flawed"" said with Christmas coming up the new home secretary had time to think again. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Mr Clarke had been reported to be less enthusiastic about ID cards than his predecessors. ""Wouldn't this be a good opportunity for a new home secretary, a new broom, to sweep clean in this respect and why do we need this legislation in the first place?"" he asked. Earlier this week the Tories announced they would back the government's plans although Michael Howard was forced to deny the shadow cabinet was split over its decision. They had decided to support the plans as the police said they would help fight terror, crime and illegal immigration. Among those reported to have serious reservations over the strategy were senior shadow cabinet members David Davis, Oliver Letwin and Tim Yeo. The chairman of the Bar Council, Guy Mansfield QC has warned there is a real risk that people on the ""margins of society"" would be driven into the hands of extremists. ""What is going to happen to young Asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere? They are going to be stopped. If they haven't [ID cards] they are going to be detained."" The Home Office says people will pay £85 for a passport and ID card together or a undecided fee for a separate ID card. The first cards would be issued in 2008 and when he was introducing the bill, Mr Blunkett suggested Parliament could decide in 2011 or 2012 whether to make it compulsory for everybody to own the cards, although not to carry them. The new bill will also create new criminal offences on the possession of false identity documents. And there will be civil penalties including a fine of up to £1,000 fine for people who fail to say they have moved house or changed other details and of up to £2,500 for failing to sign up if the cards become compulsory. The scheme will be overseen by a new independent watchdog." -politics,"Blair prepares to name poll date Tony Blair is likely to name 5 May as election day when Parliament returns from its Easter break, the BBC's political editor has learned. Andrew Marr says Mr Blair will ask the Queen on 4 or 5 April to dissolve Parliament at the end of that week. Mr Blair has so far resisted calls for him to name the day but all parties have stepped up campaigning recently. Downing Street would not be drawn on the claim, saying election timing was a matter for the prime minister. A Number 10 spokeswoman would only say: ""He will announce an election when he wants to announce an election."" The move will signal a frantic week at Westminster as the government is likely to try to get key legislation through Parliament. The government needs its finance bill, covering the Budget plans, to be passed before the Commons closes for business at the end of the session on 7 April. But it will also seek to push through its Serious and Organised Crime Bill and ID cards Bill. Mr Marr said on Wednesday's Today programme: ""There's almost nobody at a senior level inside the government or in Parliament itself who doesn't expect the election to be called on 4 or 5 April. ""As soon as the Commons is back after the short Easter recess, Tony Blair whips up to the Palace, asks the Queen to dissolve Parliament ... and we're going."" The Labour government officially has until June 2006 to hold general election, but in recent years governments have favoured four-year terms." -politics,"Blair rejects Iraq advice calls Tony Blair has rejected calls for the publication of advice on the legality of the Iraq war amid growing calls for an investigation. The prime minister told his monthly press conference the matter had been dealt with by the Attorney General. Earlier, Conservative MP Michael Mates joined calls for a probe into claims Lord Goldsmith's statement to Parliament was drawn up at Number 10. Mr Blair said the statement was a ""fair summary"" of Lord Goldsmith's opinion. ""That's what he (Lord Goldsmith) said and that's what I say. He has dealt with this time and time and time again,"" Mr Blair told his monthly news conference in Downing Street. He refused to answer further questions on the issue, saying it had been dealt with ""literally scores of times and the position has not changed"". Lord Goldsmith has denied being ""leaned on"" and says the words written were his. The government refuses to publish his advice on the legality of the war - saying such papers have always been kept confidential. Mr Mates, who is a member of the Commons intelligence and security committee and was part of the Butler inquiry into pre-war intelligence, told the BBC on Friday: ""That, as a general rule, is right, but it's not an absolute rule."" He said there had been other occasions when advice had been published, most recently regarding Prince Charles's marriage plans. The government could not pick and choose when to use the convention, he said. Mr Mates added: ""We discovered that there were two or three occasions in the past when law officers' advice to the government has been published. ""And this may be one of those special occasions... when it would be in the public interest to see the advice which the attorney general gave to the prime minister."" This is argument was rejected by Mr Blair, who said: ""Firstly, we haven't broken the precedent, and secondly Peter Goldsmith has made his statement and I have got absolutely nothing to add to it."" In a book published this week, Philippe Sands QC, a member of Cherie Blair's Matrix Chambers, says Lord Goldsmith warned Tony Blair on 7 March 2003 that the Iraq war could be illegal without a second UN resolution sanctioning military action. But a short statement about Lord Goldsmith's position was presented in a written parliamentary answer on 17 March 2003 - just before a crucial Commons vote on the military action. Mr Sands' book suggests it was actually written by Home Office Minister Lord Falconer and Downing Street adviser Baroness Morgan. Former minister Clare Short, who resigned from the government over the Iraq war, said it was the same statement that was earlier shown to the cabinet as it discussed military action. She told the BBC the full advice should have been attached, according to the ministerial code. ""My view is we need the House of Lords to set up a special committee, summon the attorney, get all the papers out, look at exactly what happened,"" she said. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats say they want the publication of the full legal advice given by the Attorney General. On Thursday, Lord Goldsmith said his statement had not been ""written by or at Number 10"". ""In my parliamentary answer on March 17 2003, I explained my genuinely held independent view, that military action was lawful under the existing Security Council resolutions,"" he said." -politics,"Lib Dems unveil women's manifesto The Liberal Democrats are attempting to woo female voters with the launch of their manifesto for women. Charles Kennedy is pledging a maternity income guarantee and a pension system based on years of residence rather than national insurance payments. He also thinks women will back plans to end university tuition fees and for free long-term care for the elderly. Both Labour and the Conservatives have said they also plan to boost pensions and to improve childcare support. Mr Kennedy says he wants to deal with policy areas that disadvantage women. ""Two million pensioners in Britain currently live below the government's own poverty line - two-thirds of whom are women,"" he said. He says that pensions based on the number of years worked ignore the contribution women make caring for children. The Lib Dem's Citizen's Pension, based on length of residency not on national insurance contributions, would address that imbalance, Mr Kennedy argues. Under the package, new mothers would be offered minimum guaranteed maternity pay of £170 a week for the first six months after the birth of their first child. Mr Kennedy also believes the party's plans to use the money saved from not introducing ""illiberal"" ID cards to boost police numbers by 10,000 would appeal to women too. The policies are not new announcements, but the way they are structured as a package to appeal to women is. Mr Kennedy also points to the fact that 40% of the party's candidates set to stand in winnable or target seats are women. Party strategists claim that where women candidates replace men turnout rises by 4%. Mr Kennedy began the pitch for female support with an interview on BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour on Monday. During the interview Mr Kennedy revealed that he planned to structure the party's general election campaign around the birth of his first child, which is expected in April. The baby and his wife Sarah would be ""priority number one"" even if it arrived in the middle of the election campaign, he said. Party strategists believe winning over a significant proportion of women voters is key to electoral success. A party spokesman said it was courting female votes because they tended to vote more than men and are believed to be more considered and open-minded in deciding who they vote for. Labour's deputy minister for women Jacqui Smith accused the Lib Dems of offering ""false promises"" to women and said their sums did not add up. She said: ""These proposals would increase the costs to the public purse drastically year on year, and hard working families will pay dearly, through either increased taxes or reduced spending on public services"". The Labour party has committed itself to ""universal, affordable and flexible"" childcare for parents of all 3 to 14 year-olds, including childcare centred on schools to be available from 8am to 6pm. In September, Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said she would like to see longer paid maternity leave, higher paternity pay and the extension of flexible working rights to carers, if Labour won a third term. The Conservatives are yet to unveil their manifesto plans for childcare but said in November they would increase maternity pay and pay the child tax credit in cash to parents to spend as they like, on a nanny, au pair or even a family member, such as a grandparent, acting as a carer. They were also consulting on making childcare costs tax deductible." -politics,"Regiments' group in poll move A regiments' campaign group is to target nine marginal Labour seats at the General Election. Save the Scottish Regiments will also field a candidate against Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram in East Kilbride. The group, which is unhappy at defence merger plans, is endorsing opposition candidates in nine seats. The marginals are Aberdeen South, Dumfriesshire, Dundee East and West, South West Edinburgh, Ochil, Stirling, East Renfrewshire and Western Isles. The campaigners unveiled a huge poster featuring Black Watch soldiers fighting the war in Iraq before they announced their election plans. Former Scots Guardsman Allan Hendry will challenge Mr Ingram. The group said it is well organised, with 350 volunteers, and will be announcing at least one other candidate later. It added that it can only be stopped from inflicting serious damage on Labour if the government reverses its plan to merge the six Scottish regiments. Scotland's only Conservative MP Peter Duncan said the Save the Scottish Regiments had done a ""superb job"" in fighting against defence cuts. He added: ""Their actions have reflected the pride that most people in this country have in our troops, and have shown a steely determination to make Labour pay for their betrayal. ""I have been honoured to speak at their rallies throughout Scotland."" Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond said it had received a ""big boost"" from the campaign's decision to endorse SNP candidates in four marginal seats. ""Labour's arrogance has been their undoing. In trying to get rid of Scotland's historic regiments, Labour MPs will end up being scrapped themselves,"" he said. However, Labour MP George Foulkes said the campaigners would not make any difference to the outcome of the election and would not win the argument. ""A serving soldier knows that what Labour is proposing is right,"" he said. As well as their election move, Save the Scottish Regiments will join other campaigners at a rally in London in the spring. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon announced last year that Scotland's regiments would be combined into a single unit. The move was part of overall Army reforms." -politics,"Blair ready to call election Tony Blair seems certain to end weeks of phoney war on Monday and announce there will be a general election on 5 May. The date has been pencilled into the diaries of politicians and political journalists for many months and, despite occasional panics that the prime minister was on the verge of calling a snap poll, it has not shifted. Over the weeks, there have been any number of signs that 050505 was going to be the day Mr Blair would go for an historic third term. And the calling of a special political cabinet meeting has only added to the belief that the announcement is imminent. The prime minister and his campaign boss Alan Milburn have already insisted the election will be fought on the economy and what they claim is a stark choice between Labour's stability and investment against Tory cuts and boom and bust. And Chancellor Gordon Brown has stepped into the front line of the campaign - to the relief of many of his supporters in Westminster - to underline that economic message. And it is certain one of the big arguments at the centre of the election battle will be around the big parties' tax and spend policies. During the phoney campaign, Labour got into trouble over its central claim that Michael Howard was planning £35 bn cuts in public services. The prime minister found himself struggling to explain how a smaller, slower increase in spending planned by the Tories compared to Labour's plans was a cut. And it looked like the Labour campaign - which was already being criticised for being thrown into defensive mode by Mr Howard on issues such as immigration and health - was on the rocks. Then deputy Conservative Chairman Howard Flight was reported to have suggested Mr Howard was secretly planning even bigger ""cuts"". He was sacked for his gaffe, but the damage had been done and the faltering Labour campaign was back on track. A second central argument will be over taxation, with the Tories claiming the Chancellor has to fill a black hole at the centre of his finances and will be forced to raise taxes if Labour wins again. Mr Brown slaps that aside, claiming his forecasts are accurate and that previous claims of looming economic disaster have proved inaccurate. As usual, the Liberal Democrats will have to fight to get their voice heard over the sounds of battle between the two big parties. But leader Charles Kennedy believes he has set out a distinctive manifesto with plans for a tax rise for the wealthiest to finance extra spending and the abolition of the council tax in favour of a local income tax. Other issues are certain to play a part - immigration and asylum, the war on Iraq, law and order and education, for example. But, as ever, it will be the economy that will almost certainly decide the outcome. And, whatever that outcome, 2005 is set to be a far more lively, even bitter campaign than 2001's non-event." -politics,"Terror powers expose 'tyranny' The Lord Chancellor has defended government plans to introduce control orders to keep foreign and British terrorist suspects under house arrest, where there isn't enough evidence to put them on trial. Lord Falconer insists that the proposals do not equate to a police state and strike a balance between protecting the public against the threat of terrorism and upholding civil liberties. But thriller writer Frederick Forsyth tells BBC News of his personal response to the move. There is a mortal danger aimed at the heart of Britain. Or so says Home Secretary Charles Clarke. My reaction? So what? It is not that I am cynical or just do not care. I care about this country very much. But in the 66 years that I have been alive, there has not been one hour, of one day, of one month, of one year, when there has not been a threat aimed at us. My point is, the British have always coped without becoming a dictatorship. We have coped with fear without becoming a state based on fear; we have coped with threat without turning our country into a land of state threat. But that is what the Blair government now seeks to do - create a tyranny to defend us from the al-Qaeda tyranny. I was born on 25 August, 1938. The mortal threat back then was a scruffy little Austrian called Adolf Hitler. A week after my first birthday, the threat had become reality. We were at war. My father wore a uniform for five years. After 1945 we yearned for peace at last. But in 1946 Winston Churchill told us - from the Baltic to the Adriatic an Iron Curtain has descended across Europe. Behind the Iron Curtain, another genocidal psychopath, another threat. Josef Stalin triggered the Cold War, with the Berlin blockade in 1948. My whole generation was blighted by it. We were threatened by the nuclear holocaust, the nuclear wind, the nuclear winter. We built shelters that would have sheltered nothing. We spent our treasure on weapons instead of hospitals. We took silly precautions. Some fought it; some marched futilely against it. Some pretended it was not there. The Cold War lasted 43 years, but we remained a parliamentary democracy. By the early seventies it was terrorism as well. Al Fatah, Black September, Red Brigades, but most of all for us the IRA and the INLA. Thirty more years; 300 policemen and women, over 600 soldiers, more than 3,000 civilians dead, but we won because even IRA bombs could not force us to become a tyranny. That was why the tyrants lost. Civil rights were infringed as little as humanly possible. Evidence had to be taken in secret to protect covert sources; yes , and one judge, no-jury courts had to be instituted when juries were terrorised. Informants had to be given immunity from their own crimes to win the bigger battle. But habeas corpus did not die; right of appeal was not abolished. Now the threat is Islamic fundamentalism. Its leaders want to destroy our society; so did the IRA. It is based and funded abroad; so was the IRA. It has sleeper fanatics inside our society; so did the IRA. It is extremely hard to penetrate with our agents; so was the IRA. The prime movers are not easy to bring to trial; neither were the IRA. But we did. And without becoming a tyranny. Now the Blair government proposes the law system of fascism and communism. The citizen can be arrested and held without charge or trial, not even on the careful consideration of an experienced judge, but the whim of a political activist called a government minister. To be protected from terror the government says, we must become a tyranny. But a tyranny is based on the citizen's terror. This is not victory; this is defeat before a shot is fired. An interesting article - its good to see widening participation in the debate - but I suggest we move one step further. Our own bombs and bullets will can only shatter peace, because invading foreign nations, imprisoning the innocent and 'hunting' in the 'shadows' cannot destroy an evil of the mind, and hatred within the heart. Rather than focusing upon effect, we should consider the cause, because terrorism does not begin with bombs. Why not try a foreign policy of compassion, it can only enhance our democracy, and share our freedom. I agree with Frederick Forsyth. We really can't deal with terrorism by turning Britain into a fascist state. What we really need is more honesty from our security services and our politicians. If they do not have evidence to bring these people to trial, there probably isn't any. Our security services, behave like the detective who having decided that a certain person is guilty, rakes over all kinds of obscure and flimsy evidence to try and prove it, while the real villain gets away. Remember there were no WMD in Iraq. Just because a person may have made some stupid and naive decisions in life does not make them a terrorist. In this overly 'politically correct' society, it is good to see someone like Mr. Forsyth speak out. Yes, there has been oppression by the British government in the past, and overstepping the mark in places like Ireland, but yes, we are still a democracy where it is rare to be arrested without charge/trial etc. (apart from a number of prisoners in Belmarsh goal, for example).This country signs up to human rights, and then pretends that they only apply to the people with nothing to fear, the innocent people (defined by whom?). When ID cards become mandatory, the data collected will not be protected by the Data Protection Act, and will be readily available to people like GCHQ, with no control by the person whose ID is being checked. The threat now is new. You cannot compare the threats of past years with now. Forsyth says 3000 died over 30 years or terrorism; 3000 people died in one morning in NY on September 11th 2001. The threat today is that terrorists will acquire nuclear or biological technology. A Kilo of Semtex will flatten a building, a Kilo of plutonium will flatten a city. You now have a combination of people who will perform terrorist acts with technology that is rapidly becoming accessible. I agree, the government is probably encouraging a degree of mass-hysteria and talking up the threat; but talking-down the threat and doing nothing is unacceptable too. The problem with this issue is not that it isn't important, but the fact that in general we Brits can be so politically apathetic some times, that we will just let this go without telling the government no. However, as the nation that gave the world the common law and a true sense of the rights of individual liberty I hope this will prove to be one step too far. As somebody of Chinese origin, I can say that this country used to be a good place to migrate and start a new life. Whilst life wasn't perfect, we could make better for ourselves. Now we are riddled with red tape and be told what we can or cannot do. We have to be politically-correct and we are not allowed to have beliefs or opinions. We have a Prime Minister who spends too much time meddling in US politics and affairs which have little to do with the lives of British Citizens at home or abroad. Mr Forsyth has done a good job in voicing his opinions. Let's hope the BBC doesn't get gagged for letting people express their views. The people have the right to know and the BBC's role is to Inform, Educate and Entertain... I agree. Terrorists intend to spread fear but in reality it is the government which has spread the fear, by its constant publicising of the this invisible enemy so dangerous that we must allow them to ride roughshod over our rights and liberties. In the end, the very thing we seek to protect is what we are giving up in the name of safety from this invisible enemy. The terrorists have already won. I absolutely agree with Frederick Forsyth. Yes we have to defend ourselves against terrorism but existing laws seem to be more than adequate. The idea that the ""new terrorism"" demands new powers is erroneous. The evidence of any real terrorist capability in the UK is scant. Ricin, for example, is a dangerous poison but it is not a weapon of mass destruction. What is really worrying is the enthusiasm of Mr Blair and his government for authoritarian reactions and attempts to manipulate the electorate through fear. If the government has its way with ID cards, tracking and so on then totalitarianism has won and as such it then matters little whether we give in to the terrorists demands or not. We will have lost the precious freedom which Bush and Blair constantly tells us we have and that they seek to bring to others. I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Forsyth. I am shocked at the ease with which this government is prepared to wipe out a major portion of the liberties that British people have enjoyed for centuries - the right not to be deprived of our liberty without a trial in open court. That goes right back to Magna Carta, and ordinary people have spilled their blood to enforce that right against governments who thought they ""knew best"". When you look at today's Britain, you realise George Orwell was only wrong about one thing: the date. Frederick Forsyth puts it beautifully. The government is seeking to introduce a police state. The new powers of home internment without trial follow a pattern which includes the introduction of surveillance via compulsory ID cards and the linking of data bases, together with the un-British idea that we will have to swear allegiance to the state at the age of 18 years. We are sleep-walking into this. Wake up! An interesting view but missing two crucial facts of this new threat: 1) If these terrorists acquire weapons of mass destruction they WILL use them without fear of Mutually Assured Destruction that kept the cold war in a state of tense balance. These people will use devastating force against us without fear of ANY consequence. 2) The terrorists are prepared to use suicide bombers which means they could kill innocent people on the London Underground and we could do very little to stop it. Because these terrorists are potentially SO deadly, we have to come up with new, tougher responses. It will be a little late in the day when people outside London wake up one morning to find out that London has been nuked. We won't have much of a society left to debate ! He's correct in most of what he says. Mind you he does seem to have forgotten that disgraceful internment policy in Northern Ireland which probably caused many idealistic if misguided young Catholics to join the IRA. Administrative detention of Muslims could have a similar effect now. Surely we the public would be better protected if the security services, rather than alerting a suspect terrorist by placing them under house arrest (and for how long?)They were to place suspect terrorist under surveillance and maybe acquire sufficient evidence to prosecute or even better prevent a terrorist attack. I don't usually have much time for Mr Forsyth's largely right wing views but this time he has got it spot on. There is no doubt that there are terrorist organisations who would like to do harm to the U.K. but it is very doubtful whether al-Qaeda is a global organisation co-ordinating this. The rise of surveillance cameras, ID cards, the plan to charge for road use by tracking every vehicle at all times, this is the stuff of nightmares. Add to this this new legislation which effectively means that the protection of the law will be removed from anyone at the whim of the Home Secretary, and I genuinely wonder what sort of world my two children will inherit. Where will this end. As it stands terrorists do not need to attack the U.K. it's government will soon have it's people terrorised more that they could very achieve with a few bombs. Mr Forsyth has expressed exactly what my gut fears and reservations were about this proposed legislation, but could not verbalise. Thank you. Mr Forsyth seems to forget that killings in the Troubles occurred on both sides of the religious divide and was carried out by killers from both sides. He also forgets basic Human Rights were suspended then as now. Experienced Judges sat over some of the greatest miscarriages of justice during those times. For very little return and maximum alienation. These laws and the emphasis on the Islamic threat will just do the same. Forsyth is wrong. The nature of the current threat is new. It is no longer to our armed forces, as the Soviet threat in the Eastern bloc was. It is to you and I. The terrorist aim to kill indiscriminately. The best comparison is therefore the blitz, 1941. At this time, let us not forget, suspects (foreign and British were routinely rounded up and interned for the duration of the war, without any complaints from the public. We must not forget we are at war. I'd say that that the likelihood of an attack by a sleeper cell of fundamentalist lunatics against a major UK target is a ""When"" not an ""If"" probability. I'll bet any money you like that the day after any such attack Freddie Forsyth will be saying that the government didn't do enough to protect the UK. People like Forsyth can only see one side of any argument and for him it is the side that is opposite New Labour and Tony Blair. I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Forsyth. The very reason this country has been such a wonderful place to live, is under attack, not from terrorists, but from this government. The perpetuation of the perceived terrorist threat is not because of what the 'alleged' terrorists are doing, but from our own government. I believe what this government is doing, is, at the very least, highly questionable and at worst, sinister. At what point will they feel they have enough control over every single person in the British Isles; when we are all tagged and monitored constantly? Our freedom is being craftily and surreptitiously whittled away by this government and we are gaining nothing. It should be of great concern to everyone. I am slightly older than Mr Forsyth and therefore have lived through the same history as him. I am against a police state and would not like to think that I lived in one. I think that the attack on Iraq made the international situation worse and may have provoked further acts of terrorism. How true. There are extremely worrying parallels between Britain now and Germany during the 30's. I never thought it would be so easy to take over a country from within. Mr Forsyth has forgotten one key point; the terrorists who threaten Britain today are well aware that Hitler, Stalin, and the IRA all failed. As a result modern day terrorists are willing to do things their predecessors did not. That does not mean that the civil liberties of modern Britain must be eroded to counter the threat; that should always be the absolute last resort. But to meet the new threat, to defeat the sinister fanaticism of today's terrorists, we may need to do things a little differently. Let us hope not. Frederic Forsythe's comments seem to me to be a well-thought-out analysis of why we (human society as a whole, and Britain in particular) should resist the temptation to over-protect through fear. It is this fear which enables terrorists to succeed in the end, and terrorists can come in all forms, as Mr. Forsythe's opening comments suggest. I am reminded of a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson. ""A nation that limits freedom in the name of security will have neither."" The government are faced with an incredibly difficult task, and have made a policy to deal with it. It's all very well criticising that policy, but if Mr Forsythe can't draw on his years of experience to offer an alternative, I say 'So what?' to his opinions. Frederick Forsyth's rhetoric is absurd and his conclusions laughable. He distorts reality to serve his own prejudice against New Labour. This government seeks to balance protection of our democracy with minimum loss of civil rights. It is Frederick Forsyth who is the extremist, because he does not appreciate the need for balance. I rarely find myself agreeing with My Forsyth, but in this instance I think he is correct. The rule of law must prevail, civil liberties are worth defending. If the government can hold 'suspects' without charge or trial, what's next? I agree absolutely. By introducing fascist type laws we loose the moral high ground in our fight against terror. Our democratic system is not perfect, but as Churchill points out it is ""better than all the others that have been tried"". Terrorist attacks will take place but for many reasons we should take that personal risk in return for personal freedom. I do not usually agree with Mr. Forsyth, but he is spot on here. The single biggest threat we face is that of a government dedicated to acting illegally and manipulating international and national law to suit its own purpose. Totalitarianism always requires an outside threat, justifying a range of extraordinary powers leaders want. The British government is a far greater threat that and terrorist organisation. Although, in principle I agree with him, Frederick Forsyth fails to address one key point- al-Qaeda attacks (though obviously there have been none yet in the UK) seek to kill the maximum number of people. The IRA wanted to limit the death toll of their attacks so as to maintain support among the republican movement. Yes, I agree with Mr. Forsyth's views. I do not believe the government's plans are justified. There is over reaction to and the negative influence of the US President's interpretation of democracy and freedom. He uses the same arguments that were current before the WWII, the Wars to ""liberate"" Iraq, Afghanistan with Syria and Iran to come. We are leaving a poor inheritance for the future generations. Mr Forsyth is a wonderful writer and should keep his fiction where it belongs. The British Government is not going down the road that Mr Forsyth suggests. Sadly comments such as his will make a lot of people believe that they are governed by people who are fast becoming tyrants instead of being genuinely committed to stopping tyranny, even if the method employed to do that is at the moment alien to the British people who have lived in a democracy protected by Tony Blair and others of like mind who, Mr. Forsyth seems to be putting along side the 'scruffy little Austrian.' Thomas Hobbes would be smiling in his grave at Labour's propositions. Like New Labour, he called himself a libertarian. Like New Labour, he believed he was promoting the people's best interests. But as Forsythe criticises this government, Hobbes has been criticised by most subsequent philosophers for arguing his way into the hands of the totalitarians. Simply put, he argued that in favour of the ultimate liberty - the liberty to live - man should be prepared to surrender all other liberties to a supreme sovereign, as protection against his fellow, barbaric, man. Hobbes has been roundly condemned by posterity, and rightly so. I hope New Labour suffers the same treatment. I agree with Mr Forsyth's views. The governments approach is totally against the spirit of British democracy. They must not be allowed to get away with it. Of course Frederick is wrong about Britain winning the war against the IRA and he's wrong too about the country not becoming a tyranny. Has he forgotten about shoot to kill, torture, internment without trial, collusion with loyalist death squads etc? My background is somewhat similar to Freddie's so I am persuaded to agree with many of his sentiments. We can have no moral justification for imposing our system of government on anyone while we are systematically depriving our own citizens of basic individual and collective freedoms. Whilst the principle of keeping potential terrorists under house arrest might seem superficially attractive, it is, unfortunately, also the first step towards totalitarianism. Who is to decide whom is a suspect? Why should we believe them? Who can have faith in the honesty, integrity, and competence of our intelligence services and politicians in light of the events of recent years? What is to stop false denunciations? What of those falsely accused who will lose their careers? Who will support their families? Will their children still go to school? It smacks to me of the methods of Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, Ceausescu's Romania - the list goes on. It looks as if a new dark age is coming. I see that opinion on Mr Forsyth's remarks are divided. The problem I see is that those who support imprisonment without trial believe it will never happen to them or their family, only to people they don't like or are scared of. But history has shown that if you have laws like that, they always get abused by those in power. After all, today you may be scared of the same people as those in power but someday those in power may be scared of you! And that day, you'll be the one imprisoned without the chance of justice. Our laws are such that you cannot just be imprisoned at the whim of our police forces, you have to be shown to be deserving of it. If we imprison people without trial for an indeterminate period, we are no better that those we are fighting. I never thought it possible for me to agree with a single word uttered by Frederick Forsyth, but I'm in wholehearted agreement with him on this one. We, as a nation are in grave danger of being duped by pro US propaganda, which of course also means we'll inherit most, if not all of their total paranoia, and allow our governments, of any political persuasion incidentally, to gradually, and insidiously, impose a police state by well tried & tested back door methods. I grieve for the future of my children, it's no wonder they're adamant they don't ever want any of their own. This government, with much fanfare, signs us up to the European Convention on Human Rights but now wants to introduce indefinite house arrest without trial. This puts it on a par with the government of Burma. Like many of your respondents, I wouldn't usually think of Mr Forsyth as someone whose views I share, but in the instance of opposing Charles Clark's proposals for house arrest, I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Forsyth/ I agree with Mr Forsyth. Just look at the facts - our government (along with the US) invaded another sovereign country (Iraq) by selecting intelligence that backed it's case based on fear. The facts turned out to be very different. If individuals are treated in the same distorted way, then we've done ourselves more damage than any terrorist organisation could with bombs. We become animals too. I agree in many ways with what Mr Forsyth has said - if we are to be respected and have influence within the world we must be seen to be walking the walk as well as talking the talk - how can we accuse countries such as Zimbabwe and Burma of human rights abuses when we are locking up people who may be totally innocent, it is hypocrisy of the highest order. Mr Forsyth links ""Islamic fundamentalism"" to the new ""threat"". However it appears that he has misunderstood the term ""Islamic fundamentalism"". It should be pointed out that a Muslim who adheres to the true fundamentals of the Qur'aan and the teachings of the last Prophet Muhammad is an Islamic Fundamentalist. This person does not commit suicide in any shape or form, nor does she/he kill innocent women, men and children. This person is self-reflective and constantly tries to better her/his actions by being good to others. The people who Mr Forsyth labels the new ""threat"" are those who do not follow the correct teachings of Islam. They have arrived at their own interpretations and assumptions with regards their actions. On top of that, they claim to be following Islam in its true form! I accept that the intentions of these policies are to make Britain a safer place but I cannot think of a single example from history where doing this sort of thing has ever made any difference - in Northern Ireland internment certainly didn't achieve anything - the bombings didn't stop, and it could be argued that all it achieved was to just supply the IRA with yet more angry and resentful republicans willing to take up arms against the British. Being eight years older than Frederick Forsyth and a survivor of the Blitz on London, it is easy to agree with him, he is absolutely spot on. During the IRA bombings there were massive explosions in Canary Wharf, to the right of where I write this, and also to the left in the City of London. Notwithstanding these and the attempted and nearly successful assassination attempts on Prime Minister Thatcher in Brighton and on later occupants of 10 Downing Street, there was no retaliatory blitz on Belfast or Dublin as there has been on Afghanistan and Iraq. Even when England was in true peril in 1940 apart from some detentions there were no wholesale derogation of habeas corpus and the like. We have to see off these latest attempts on our liberties including ID cards, which Winston Churchill decided had to go since, he said, the average Bobby on the beat could not be relied on to not be tempted to take undue advantage against the citizen going about their lawful activities (incidentally I can still remember my old ID card number). Hence it is clear that the far too great police state powers set for the statute books have to be resisted and neutered. What can I add to Mr. Forsyth's eloquently put arguments... except applause! Well done that man for standing up and being counted in the ""war against tyranny""." -politics,"Retirement age could be scrapped The ""myth that ageing is a barrier"" to contributing to society needs to be ""exploded"", the work and pensions minister has said. This was why the government was considering scrapping the retirement age entirely, Alan Johnson said. It was also committed to ""stamping out"" age discrimination and would outlaw it, he told a conference on ageing. All three parties have been wooing older voters with both the Tories and Lib Dems pledging higher pensions. Mr Johnson told Age Concern's Age Agenda in London the government was ""seriously considering"" introducing pensions based on residency rather than national insurance contributions. This idea has been adopted by the Lib Dems as policy, while the Tories have pledged to boost pensions by restoring the link between earnings and pensions. Mr Johnson's speech comes after he last week unveiled plans to find a consensus on how to reform the country's pension system. This would be based on a series of principles including tackling pensioner poverty and fairer pensions for women, he said. Speaking at the London conference he said: ""Generalised stereotypes of people past state pension age as dependant, incapable and vulnerable are a particularly pernicious form of age discrimination"". The government wanted to tackle this by moving to a culture where retirement ages were ""increasingly consigned to the past"". ""We're sweeping them away entirely for people under 65, and we're giving those above that age a right to request to work past 65 which their employers will have to engage with seriously. ""And the review in 2011, which will look at whether it is time to sweep retirement ages away entirely, is to be tied to evidence ... showing that retirement ages are increasingly outmoded"". Mr Johnson said his department had a long-term aspiration of moving towards an 80% employment rate. This would involve an extra one million older people joining the work force, he said." -politics,"'Last chance' warning for voters People in England, Scotland and Wales must have registered by 1700 GMT to be able to vote in the general election if it is held, as expected, on 5 May. Those who filled in forms last autumn should already be on the register - but those who have moved house or were on holiday may have been left off. There will also be elections for local councils and mayors in parts of England on 5 May. The deadline for voters to register in Northern Ireland expired on Thursday. Completed registration forms can be handed into local authorities throughout the day on Friday, and some will accept them by fax. As well as for English county councils, polls for unitary authorities at Bristol, Isle of Wight and Stockton-on-Tees and mayors at Doncaster, Hartlepool, North Tyneside and Stoke-on-Trent are also scheduled for 5 May. Last week Preston City Council reported that more than 14,000 of its voters were not registered. Its electoral roll fell by 17.5% in a year - the biggest dip in the UK. An Electoral Commission spokeswoman said: ""Political decisions are made on your behalf every day but only by using your right to vote at an election can you really have a say on the issues you care about. ""If you want your voice to be heard on 5 May you will need to have registered by Friday 11 March."" Council tax payers are not eligible to vote without registration, officials have stressed." -politics,"'Nuclear dumpsite' plan attacked Plans to allow foreign nuclear waste to be permanently stored in the UK have been branded ""deeply irresponsible"" by the Liberal Democrats. The government has confirmed intermediate level waste (ILW) that was to have been shipped back to its home countries will now be stored in the UK. The cash raised will go towards the UK's nuclear clean-up programme. But Lib Dem Norman Baker accused ministers of turning Britain into a ""nuclear dumpsite"". Under current contracts, British Nuclear Fuels should return all but low level waste, but none has ever been sent back. In future, only highly-radioactive waste will be sent back to its country of origin, normally Germany or Japan, under armed guard. Intermediate waste from countries such as Japan, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden will be stored permanently in the UK. At the moment, this waste is stored at Sellafield, in Cumbria, in the form of glass bricks, untreated liquid waste or solid material in drums. In a statement, the Department of Trade and Industry said the new policy meant there would be a ""sixfold reduction in the number of waste shipments to overseas countries"". And it said highly-radioactive waste would be returned to its home country sooner, ensuring there would be no overall increase in radioactivity. Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt said the new arrangements, revealed in a Commons written statement, would raise up to £680m for Britain's nuclear clean-up programme, under the new Nuclear Decommissioning Agency. But the move has been criticised by environmental groups and the Liberal Democrats. Mr Baker, the Lib Dem environment spokesman, said: ""I have been warning for months that this would happen and raised it with government several times. But now our worst fears have been confirmed. ""Once again Britain's environmental and health needs are being ignored in policies driven by the Treasury and DTI. ""This is a terrible attempt to offload some of the £48bn cost of cleaning up nuclear sites. ""The Energy Act was supposed to help Britain clean up, but in order to pay for it we are becoming a nuclear dumpsite. ""The nuclear industry is an economic, social and environmental millstone that hangs around Britain's neck.""" -politics,"Election deal faltered over Heath role The Tories failed to hold onto power in 1974 after Liberals demanded Sir Edward Heath quit in return for co-operation. Documents released after 30 years reveal the failed negotiations by the then prime minister following the dramatic February general election. Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe appeared willing to form a coalition government. But it partly collapsed over the Conservative leader's own role, prompting the Queen to ask Harold Wilson to form a Labour government. The February 1974 general election surprised the nation when it created a hung parliament with no party in overall control. Sir Edward had gone to the country for a fresh mandate amid the spiralling economic crisis, a miners' strike and the subsequent three-day week. Labour emerged with the most seats - but its 301 MPs were 17 short of the number Mr Wilson needed to form a majority. Sir Edward, who had received more votes but had fewer MPs, believed he had the authority to remain at Number 10 providing the 14 Liberal MPs would support his government. He said the Liberals could keep out Labour in three ways: lend ad hoc support to his minority government, help draw up the government's programme, or have up to three Cabinet members in a coalition with the Conservatives. According to the documents released at the National Archives, the ""friendly and easy"" first meeting indicated that both Sir Edward and Mr Thorpe thought they had the makings of a deal. Mr Thorpe was in high spirits, having just led his party to a historic jump in support. He also argued for a grand coalition of all three main parties. But Sir Edward said that was impossible because the Labour left was set against it and the pair settled on trying for a Conservative-Liberal pact. Hours later Sir Edward's hopes of a deal unravelled as Mr Thorpe's colleagues refused to support him. ""Jeremy said he was encountering a rather embarrassing problem with his colleagues about the prime minister personally,"" reads a telephone memo for Mr Heath. ""They feel they could not agree to serve as long as he is the prime minister. ""Asked if this was his own view he said - no it was not, I am very close to Ted and thought he was by far the most able man we had and he would be perfectly happy to serve - it was only some of his colleagues who were being difficult."" The following day, the stickling points had clearly become two-fold: Mr Thorpe's colleagues wanted electoral reform and Sir Edward's resignation. Mr Thorpe told Sir Edward: ""I am sorry this is obviously hell - a nightmare on stilts for you. ""Somehow I personally hope that we can work something out."" Four hours later, Sir Edward called the Liberal leader back to Downing Street in a last attempt at a deal. The minutes of the meeting show how the chance of a coalition government quickly evaporated. ""The PM said he was bound to tell Mr Thorpe that his colleagues had told him that they would not agree to serve under any other prime minister. Mr Thorpe was at liberty to verify this by talking to one or two of the prime minister's colleagues."" Documents show that Sir Edward mulled over resigning and perhaps returning to coalition government in a Labour-led coalition. But he already knew Mr Wilson would not form a coalition with either the Liberals or the Conservatives because of the opposition of the Labour left. Within hours of his final talks with Mr Thorpe, Sir Edward told the nation he was resigning and the Queen invited Mr Wilson to form a new minority government." -politics,"Blair blasts Tory spending plans Tony Blair has launched an attack on Conservative spending plans, saying they are a ""ludicrous improbability"". The prime minister has told a Labour Party gathering that the Tory policies would cause economic failure. Tory leader Michael Howard has said his party would cut £35bn in ""wasteful"" spending to allow £4bn in tax cuts. On Saturday, Tory shadow home secretary David Davis said the Tories would fund the cuts by removing ""inefficiencies"" which had ""burgeoned"" under Labour. In his speech, Mr Blair contrasted a reformed Labour party, which had learned to occupy the political centre ground, with a hidebound Tory party, which he said would turn the clock back with spending cuts. Mr Blair said: ""The Conservative tax and spending proposals would put at risk, both Britain's hard-won economic stability - the lowest mortgages, inflation, unemployment, for decades - and the key investment in public services. ""I believe that the Tory plans are as plain a call to return to the past as it's possible to imagine,"" he said. ""It's a recipe for exactly the same boom and bust economics and cuts in public services that were their hallmark in 18 years of Conservative government."" Mr Blair added: ""They, the Conservatives have learned nothing."" By contrast, he said, New Labour had listened to its electorate and changed. Mr Blair went on to list his government's achievements and to issue a rallying call to the party. ""So now we have a choice, we can defend this record and we can build on it and go on and fulfil the promise or give up and go back. And I say we have to fight."" In response, David Davis said the Tories would make cuts, such as removing regional assemblies, but would bring in more police officers and match Labour's spending on health and education. ""Everybody knows, having lived through this government the last seven years, that they faced lots of stealth tactics, lots of increases in taxes, but no improvement in public services,"" he said. Mr Davis said Labour had been responsible for ""huge waste, huge overspending, not on the frontline at all but on bureaucracy"". ""The public face a choice between more waste and more taxes with this government, less waste and lower taxes with a Tory government,"" he concluded. Gordon Brown has addressed the conference behind closed doors. The Chancellor said the Conservatives' plans would see some £50bn in spending cuts by 2011, which the Tories deny. Mr Brown also issued call for party unity and warn of the dangers of allowing themselves to be ""distracted or diverted"". According to an advance text released by officials, he told delegates: ""We must all show the strength and unity of purpose to take the long-term decisions necessary to meet them."" Mr Brown warned that the Tories were planning ""the biggest cuts ever in the history of any election manifesto"". Meanwhile, Tory shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin accused Mr Blair of ""misrepresenting"" the party's proposals and questioned how Labour would fund its own plans. ""He still cannot accept the simple truth, which is that we will spend more on what matters to people - schools, hospitals and police - and that we will offer value for money and lower taxes,"" Mr Letwin said. ""Once again Mr Blair and his Chancellor have failed to answer the question that lies at the heart of this election - which taxes will they put up to fill the £8bn shortfall in their plans?""" -politics,"MPs assess Scots fishing industry A group of MPs are on a two-day fact-finding mission to Scotland to gather evidence for a report into the UK's fishing industry. Members of Westminster's environment, food and rural affairs committee will be touring fish markets and talking to fish processors. They will also talk to Fisheries Minister Ross Finnie and scientists. MPs are deciding whether to recommend a new system of ""community quotas"" to conserve fish stocks. The aim is that fishing ports like Peterhead or Fraserburgh would be allocated a quota and local people would decide how to fish it. The scheme is a variation on the local management committees already being established by the European Union. Details are contained in a Royal Commission report for the UK Government, along with the more controversial idea of closing some mixed fishing grounds completely. Six members of the committee will be in Scotland to seek views from fishermen and processors in Aberdeen and Peterhead. They will also speak to Mr Finnie, representatives of the Royal Society and the Sea Fish Industry Authority. Committee chairman Austin Mitchell said some way has to be found of harvesting mixed fisheries without wasting stocks." -politics,"UK set to cut back on embassies Nine overseas embassies and high commissions will close in an effort to save money, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has announced. The Bahamas, East Timor, Madagascar and Swaziland are among the areas affected by the biggest shake-up for the diplomatic service for years. Other diplomatic posts are being turned over to local staff. Mr Straw said the move would save £6m a year to free up cash for priorities such as fighting terrorism. Honorary consuls will be appointed in some of the areas affected by the embassy closures. Nine consulates or consulates general will also be closed, mostly in Europe and America. They include Dallas in the US, Bordeaux in France and Oporto in Portugal, with local staff replacing UK representation in another 11. The changes are due to be put in place before the end of 2006, with most savings made from cutting staff and running costs. Some of the money will have to be used to fund redundancy payments. In a written statement, Mr Straw said: ""The savings made will help to underpin higher priority work in line with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's strategic priorities, including counter- proliferation, counter-terrorism, energy and climate change. ""Some of the savings will also be redeployed to strategic priority work within certain regions where we are closing posts. ""In Africa, for instance, we plan to create new jobs to cover these issues across the region, with a new post in Nairobi to help support our work on climate change, one in Nigeria to cover energy and one in Pretoria to cover regional issues more generally as well as covering Maseru and Mbabane."" The Foreign Office currently has about 6,100 UK-based staff. It has opened major new missions on Baghdad and Basra in Iraq, Kabul in Afghanistan and Pyongyang in North Korea since 1997 in response to what the government says are changing needs. Since 1997 10 overseas posts have been closed - excluding Wednesday's cuts - but 18 new embassies or consulates have been opened. The shake-up is aimed at helping making £86m in efficiency savings between 2005 and 2008. The chancellor has demanded all government departments make similar savings. Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said there was a constant need to ensure value for money from foreign missions. ""But the government must give a far clearer reason for making the dramatic changes it has announced and must show that British commercial interests and the interests of Britons abroad will not be adversely affected,"" he said." -politics,"Army chiefs in regiments decision Military chiefs are expected to meet to make a final decision on the future of Scotland's Army regiments. A committee of the Army Board, which is made up of the most senior defence figures, will discuss plans for restructuring regiments on Monday. The proposals include cutting Scotland's six single-battalion regiments to five and merging these into a super regiment. The plans have faced stiff opposition from campaigners and politicians alike. The committee's decision must be ratified by Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and Prime Minister Tony Blair. It is expected that it will be made public next week. When ministers announced a reorganisation of the Army it drew a question mark over the futures of the Black Watch, the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, the Royal Scots, the Royal Highland Fusiliers and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. In October, the Council of Scottish Colonels proposed the merger of the Royal Scots and the King's Own Scottish Borderers into a single battalion. Under their vision, it would be one of five in the new super regiment. The proposals to either merge or amalgamate the six regiments into a super regiment sparked a political outcry, with Labour backbenchers and opposition politicians opposing the plan. They felt the timing was insensitive because the Black Watch was in the frontline in Iraq, suffering casualties. The Save the Scottish Regiments campaigners were so angered they threatened to stand against Labour at the next general election. Speaking ahead of the expected Army Board meeting, a spokesman said: ""The government and the Army Board have spent the past four months attempting to trick serving soldiers and the public into thinking their planned changes for the Scottish regiments are for the good of the Army and for that of the serving soldier. ""They are very much not for the good and will destroy Scotland's regiments by moulding them into a single super regiment which will lead to severe recruitment problems, a loss of local connections to those regiments and a loss to Scotland of an important part of her heritage and, most importantly, her future - the regiments are the envy of armies around the world."" An alternative blueprint had been put forward by Labour MP Eric Joyce, who proposed going ahead with the merger while preserving the other regiments. For a brief time, there was speculation the prime minister might consider the plan, but that now seems unlikely. Speaking in Scotland last week, Mr Blair said the aim was to preserve tradition but introduce a more effective structure and hinted that a super regiment was likely. He said: ""They don't want to get rid of the history or the traditions of the regiment or the local connections - far from it, all they want to do is make sure they can transfer people easily across regiments and deploy them more flexibly."" The prime minister said he hoped campaigners' concerns would be taken into account but the need for effective change had to be paramount." -politics,"'Poll Idols' face first hurdles Vote For Me - ITV1's Pop Idol style talent contest for would-be politicians - finally hits our screens this week. Over the next four days, hundreds of potential candidates will be whittled down by a panel of experts and public vote. The winner will then be encouraged to stand as an independent at the next general election, which is expected in the spring. But opinion is divided on whether any of the potential candidates unearthed so far have got what it takes to make it in politics. ""Any of them would make competent MPs,"" former independent MP Martin Bell insisted on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Mr Bell, who will be offering his advice to the contestants on Wednesday, argues that Westminster has its share of ""odd balls"" and the show will engage ordinary voters. ""If it gets more people voting and more people interested in politics there is no harm in that,"" he said. But Sir Bernard Ingham, Margaret Thatcher's former press secretary, took a less charitable view, accusing the programme of ""corrupting politics"". He said the producers would not achieve their aim of re-engaging voters ""with that bunch of nutters"". To give Sir Bernard his dues, Monday evening's opening episode did attract more than a smattering of eccentrics and self-publicists. Among those chancing their arm were a druid priest and a former porn star, who insisted on removing her top to make her point about the legalisation of brothels. Among the more eccentric policy proposals was a public holiday on Bruce Forsyth's birthday and Bill Oddie for prime minister. The show follows the time-honoured Pop Idol format, with queues of nervous hopefuls and a panel of three experts judging their performance. The contestants were given 60 seconds to present their manifestos. Then the final 25 were tested on their lobbying ability. They were then cross-examined by the panel, which was chaired by ex-ITN political editor John Sergeant, with television host Lorraine Kelly taking the Nicki Chapman role. But the real star of the show is Kelvin MacKenzie, in the Simon Cowell, Mr Nasty seat. The former Sun editor dispensed a stream of well-crafted insults and one-liners. His advice for one young contestant was to ""get a haircut and a brain transplant"". Wheelchair user Kevin Donnellon was asked: ""Why on earth do you want our elected representatives to be disabled?"" ""Don't you care about the Inuit?"", implored guitar-toting environmental campaigner Barry Lim. ""I don't care about them. I care about myself and when the sun's shining I think - fantastic,"" replied Mr MacKenzie. Mr Lim later reduced the panel to fits of giggles as he outlined his plan to make people do community service instead of paying taxes. ""When the prime minister turns to the chancellor and says how much have we got in the coffers Mr Brown, he says well, prime minister, bad news, all the houses in Britain have been painted but actually nobody has paid any tax,"" observed Mr MacKenzie. ""That was an total disaster. I just couldn't seem to think of things to say,"" a crestfallen Mr Lim confided in the show's presenter, Jonathan Maitland. Irfan Hanif, a 25-year-old doctor from Bolton, made a good impression, even if he was a little thrown by Mr MacKenzie's suggestion that instead of being treated by the NHS, young drunks should ""given a good beating"" and left to die. Dominic Carman - son of late libel lawyer George Carman - was voted through to the final 25, on a platform of cutting defence spending to boost education. Opinion was more divided over Rodney Hylton-Potts, a 59-year-old convicted fraudster. Mr MacKenzie thought the smooth-talking former solicitor - with a hardline on crime and immigration - deserved a chance to progress. ""He could join the rest of the crooks in the Houses of Parliament."" But Ms Kelly said she ""would not trust him as far as she could throw him"". The series continues throughout the week, with the public given the chance to evict one prospective MP every night. ITV will not fund the election campaign for the eventual winner, but the publicity could give the winner a flying start over other candidates." -politics,"Sport betting rules in spotlight A group of MPs and peers has called for a tightening of regulations controlling betting on sport. The Parliamentary Group on Betting and Gaming held a substantial inquiry into betting last year. It followed fears that a massive increase in betting on sport, such as that done using the internet and mobile phones, has led to more cheating. The all-party group recommended 15 ways to protect punters and improve the integrity of sports betting. They include a proposal for raising the maximum jail sentence for gambling cheats above the current two years. Lord Condon, head of the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit, who originally made the call for longer prison sentences, said the two-year penalty was ""derisory"". ""You could get a bigger sentence for failing to pay your hotel bill criminally than you could for corruption in major sports. ""Symbolically, a higher penalty, perhaps as the Bill passes through the two Houses, might be appropriate."" The report recommended the governing bodies of sports have a say in the type of bets offered to punters, and for bookmakers to set up ""audit trails"" - something the new betting exchanges already do - to allow suspicious betting patterns to be traced. Lord Faulkner of Worcester, who chaired the inquiry, said: ""Whilst we accept that the greater part of sports betting is neither corrupt nor unfair to punters, the evidence convinces us that the growth of betting exchanges - because of the facility they provide to bet against a result - has increased the potential for corruption. ""It is important that the government works with sporting administrators to review the difficulties faced by governing bodies in convicting the guilty and penalising them appropriately."" The panel's aim was to try to define what constitutes cheating, assess how much might be going on and suggest what the government might do to put it right. As well as the growth of internet and mobile phone betting, there has been the creation of betting exchanges which allow punters to fix odds between themselves. Betting exchanges allow punters to back (to win) but also lay (to lose) a horse. This means they can control their odds at winning by placing their money both ways." -politics,"Candidate resigns over BNP link A prospective candidate for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) has resigned after admitting a ""brief attachment"" to the British National Party(BNP). Nicholas Betts-Green, who had been selected to fight the Suffolk Coastal seat, quit after reports in a newspaper that he attended a BNP meeting. The former teacher confirmed he had attended the meeting but said that was the only contact he had with the group. Mr Betts-Green resigned after being questioned by the party's leadership. A UKIP spokesman said Mr Betts-Green's resignation followed disclosures in the East Anglian Daily Times last month about his attendance at a BNP meeting. ""He did once attend a BNP meeting. He did not like what he saw and heard and will take no further part of it,"" the spokesman added. A meeting of Suffolk Coastal UKIP members is due to be held next week to discuss a replacement. Mr Betts-Green, of Woodbridge, Suffolk, has also resigned as UKIP's branch chairman." -politics,"Defiant hunts put ban to the test Thousands of hunt supporters have been out on the first day of hunting in England and Wales after the ban on hunting with dogs came into force. The Countryside Alliance called on hunt supporters to meet as normal, but vowed to stay within the law. Although hunting with dogs is now a criminal offence, exercising hounds, chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are still legal. One anti-hunt protester was taken to hospital after a violent clash in Kent. The man suffered facial injuries after an incident involving a group of men at the end of the East Kent Hunt, near Ashford. In Wiltshire, police arrested four men under the new law suspected of hunting with dogs. The group, from South Wales and Ireland, have been released on bail but police say they may face prosecution under new poaching laws. It is believed more than 270 hunts went out on Saturday, just one day after the ban came in. They were greeted by big crowds in many areas of the country, with actor Jeremy Irons and former minister Kate Hoey among the supporters. Anti-hunt groups - such as the League Against Cruel Sports - deployed 100 monitors at hunts to check for illegal activity. Mike Hobday, from the league, said video evidence of the law being broken was to be passed onto police. ""Our evidence suggests that most hunts did operate within the law, many meeting and promptly going home and others peacefully exercising their hounds or drag hunting. ""However, we have received reports of what we believe is clearly illegal activity by a number of hunts across Britain."" BBC correspondent Simon Hall at Postbridge on Dartmoor in the West Country said 2,000 people had turned out to welcome the hunt. And the BBC's Sarah Mukherjee, with the Beaufort Hunt in Badminton, Gloucestershire said several hundred people had gathered on foot to see the hunt, with 150 on horseback. Tom Heap, BBC rural affairs correspondent, said it appeared that hunstman had, for now, been sticking to the new rules. And while there was big turnout in support of the hunts on Saturday, he said it remains to be seen if the level of backing can be maintained. Before riding out with the hunt, former minister Kate Hoey told crowds: ""We will prevail and this law will have to be overturned."" Judith Moritz, in Melton Mowbray, said anti-hunt activists were out to monitor the four hunts operating in that part of Leicestershire, but were outnumbered by large crowds of followers. The Countryside Alliance said the meets would show the new law was ""impossibly difficult to determine"" and open to different interpretations. Chief executive Simon Hart said: ""There has been hunting in England for 700 years. This [ban] may take two or three years, perhaps two or three months, to unpick. ""It will be nothing more than a temporary break in normal service, as broadcasters say."" Conservative family spokeswoman Theresa May said if the party was in government again it would make sure the law was repealed. Suffolk Chief Constable Alastair McWhirter, the Association of Chief Police Officers' spokesman on rural policing, told the BBC the law would be enforced, although the police would not break up hunts. The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has so far not issued any instructions to police on how they should deal with any hunters who do violate the law. He said he would consult the director of public prosecutions and the police ""in the near future"" to decide what measures to take on hunting prosecutions." -politics,"Blair Labour's longest-serving PM Tony Blair has become the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister. The 51-year-old premier has marked his 2,838th day in the post, overtaking the combined length of Harold Wilson's two terms during the 1960s and 1970s. If Mr Blair wins the next election and fulfils his promise to serve a full third term, he will surpass Margaret Thatcher's 11 years by the end of 2008. In 1997, Mr Blair became the youngest premier of the 20th century, when he came to power at the age of 43. The last prime minister to be installed at a younger age was Lord Liverpool, who was a year his junior in 1812. Mr Blair's other political firsts include becoming the first Labour leader to win two successive full terms in power after the 2001 Labour landslide. And the birth of the Blairs' fourth child, Leo, on 20 May, 2000, was the first child born to a serving prime minister in more than 150 years. The last ""Downing Street dad"" was Lord John Russell in 1848. Labour won a huge majority of 167 over the Conservatives in 2001, but Mr Blair has since been criticised by many in his own party. The war in Iraq and reforms of the health service and education system have provoked dissent from backbenchers. Gordon Brown, chancellor of the exchequer under Mr Blair, became Britain's longest-serving chancellor of modern times in 2004. Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock said the chancellor would be best placed to take over from Mr Blair. When asked about the future leadership of the party, he told ITV Wales' Waterfront programme: ""That contest is a long way away and it will occur only when the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, decides he's subscribed all he can and then wants to go. ""I think that the main contender will be Gordon Brown, who is a man of virtually unmatched capability and now great experience."" Both Mr Brown and Mr Blair rose to prominence when Lord Kinnock led Labour between 1983 and 1992." -politics,"What really divides the parties So what is the gap between Labour and the Tories nowadays? One Starbucks, one Rymans and one small Greek cafe as it happens. Both parties have now completed their moves to new headquarters, with Labour creating its election hub just three doors away from the Tories' new headquarters in Victoria Street, just down the road from the Commons. That should make things a little easier if and when the crack-of-dawn election press conferences kick off. Unlike 2001, there should be no need for colleagues to have taxis gunning their engines outside, or to buy scooters, to get themselves between the tightly-timetabled events. And, to all intents and purposes, we already appear to be in that general election campaign. Certainly the press conference hosted by election co-ordinator Alan Milburn, in the rather compact new conference room - still smelling of new carpet and with the garish New Labour coffee mugs as yet unstained - had all the hallmarks of an election event. ""Welcome to the unremittingly New Labour media centre,"" he said. And I'll bet he hadn't checked that one with Gordon Brown. Along with Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson and Minister for Work Jane Kennedy, he then went on to tear into the Tory plans to scrap the New Deal welfare-to-work scheme, which they claimed would lead to an increase of almost 300,000 in unemployment. And they ridiculed the claims made on Monday by Michael Howard that he could save £35 billion of Labour waste and inefficiency to spend on public services while also offering £4 billion of tax cuts. Labour has come up with a figure of £22 billions worth of efficiency savings so, understandably perhaps, believe Mr Howard must be planning cuts to squeeze the extra £13 billion. These figures, based on the two parties' own detailed studies, will be battered to within an inch of their lives during the campaign. Wednesday was just the start." -politics,"Wales 'must learn health lessons' The new health minister for Wales says there are lessons to learn from England in tackling waiting lists. Dr Brian Gibbons, on his first full day in the job after Jane Hutt was sacked, admitted ""big challenges"" but insisted the ""essentials"" were in place. But both Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats said Dr Gibbons needed to change policy. Meanwhile Ms Hutt defended her record, saying waiting times and lists were ""only 10% of the health agenda. Dr Gibbons, who was a GP in Blaengwynfi, in the Upper Afan Valley, before becoming AM for Aberavon, said NHS staff wanted a period of consolidation after ""tremendous change and reform"". One of the biggest problems which had faced Ms Hutt during her five-and-a-half years as the assembly's first health minister was the length of waiting lists in Wales. In November the British Medical Association said NHS staff were ""weeping with despair"" as figures showed 311,000 people were waiting for treatment in Wales, up by 2,400 on the previous month. In the same month lists in England were at their lowest for 17 years, with 856,600 people waiting for treatment. Dr Gibbons told Radio Wales: ""There is no doubt that, in managing waiting lists, England has done a lot of very very useful work, and we do need to learn from that."" But he said the NHS in Wales also needed to create a healthier population rather than respond only to ill health, and a balanced view of priorities was important. ""We do need a consistent across-the-board approach, recognising the patients' experience of how they use the service is going to be, at the end of the day, the main test of how the service is working."" He said NHS staff wanted a period of consolidation after ""tremendous change and reform"". Later, Dr Gibbons praised the work of Ms Hutt, saying he ""agreed with everything she's done"" to change the health service in Wales. Dr Gibbons said he accepted there was a problem, but his job now was to build on the foundations put in place by his predecessor. He also acknowledged that until the waiting list issue was sorted out, the rest of the assembly government's health policy would be overshadowed. Opposition members and some Labour MPs had long called for Ms Hutt's removal after sustained criticism over extended hospital waiting times. First Minister Rhodri Morgan told BBC Wales he had agreed with Ms Hutt in 2003 that she would not be health minister in the run-up to the 2007 elections. ""She's been doing the job for five years and eight months and, apart from Nye Bevan himself, (architect of the NHS), I don't think anybody has ever done the job for so long."" Mr Morgan said he had only told Ms Hutt of the reshuffle on Monday morning, and said the NHS in Wales was Dr Gibbons' ""baby"" now. In response to Dr Gibbons' comments, Ieuan Wyn Jones, leader of the Plaid Cymru group in the assembly, said: ""It is apparent that this reshuffle by the first minister was just changing the deckchairs on a sinking Titanic."" Kisrty Williams, for the Lib Dems, added: ""If the underlying policy is going to continue, then changing the minister will serve no purpose, other than to deflect flak from Labour's MPs,"" she said. Meanwhile Ms Hutt said she hoped ""that the people of Wales would benefit from my investment of the past five years and eight months"" Asked about waiting lists, she said that waiting times and lists were ""only 10% of the health agenda"" and that the Welsh Assembly Government had ""turned the corner"" on the issue." -politics,"School sport 'is back', says PM Tony Blair has promised that ""sport is back"" as a priority for schools. The prime minister launched a £500m initiative to allow school sports clubs in England to provide up to three hours of extra activity a week by 2010. ""It's an important part of education and it's an important part of health,"" Mr Blair said. But the Conservatives say government proposals - which include two hours' PE within school for 75% of pupils by 2006 - are unrealistic. The latest move is aimed at encouraging more diversity in sport, with activities such as yoga and Tai Chi being options. Launching the initiative, Mr Blair completed an agility course and shot basketball hoops with students from the all-girl Waverley Sports College in Southwark, south London. He said: ""You've got to bring back school sport. It's got to be done differently than it was 30 or 40 years ago. It's still very, very important."" Earlier, Education Secretary Charles Clarke told BBC News there were at least three areas which needed ""a coherent framework"" and ""dedicated funding"". These were training for PE teachers, establishing more specialist schools and the development of partnerships for activities such as inter-school competitions. He added the government had originally pledged ""for every pupil to get at least two hours of high-quality physical education"" a week. The proportion was currently at 62%, and the government was hoping this would rise to 85% by 2008 and 100% by 2010. The money for the initiative will come from a new £500m fund. The £500m move will also increase the number of specialist sport colleges from 350 to 400. But the Conservatives warned of rising obesity levels and said that since only a third of children do two hours of sport a week currently, the government is promising something it cannot guarantee. Shadow spokesman for sport Hugh Robertson said: ""I suspect the correct way to tackle it is to look at the other end of the spectrum and try to enable the clubs - which is where the real passion for sport exists - to deliver the school sport offer."" He said more emphasis should be put on traditional sports, saying that an ""anti-competitive sport agenda"" had been pursued in recent years. Martin Ward, of the Secondary Heads Association, said members did not like ""ring-fenced funds"" and that it should be up to the schools themselves to decide how to spend their money." -politics,"Blair congratulates Bush on win Tony Blair has said he looks forward to continuing his strong relationship with George Bush and working with him during his second term as president. Mr Bush's re-election came at a crucial time for a world that was ""fractured, divided and uncertain"", Mr Blair said. It had to be brought together, he added, saying action was needed on poverty, the Middle East and the conditions on which terrorists prey. Mr Blair said states had to work with the US to fight global terrorism. But there was a need to recognise it would not be defeated by ""military might alone but also by demonstrating the strength of our common values"" he added. Solving the conflict in the Middle East was the world's single most ""pressing political challenge"" of the present day, Mr Blair warned. The prime minister also urged Europe and the US to ""build anew their alliance"". ""All of us in positions of leadership, not just President Bush, have a responsibility to rise to this challenge. It is urgent that we do so."" Mr Blair also paid tribute to Democrat John Kerry's campaign, saying he had helped make the presidential election ""a true celebration of American democracy"". The election of the US president was significant for the world but particularly so for Britain because of its special relationship, he added. Earlier Tory leader Michael Howard sent Mr Bush his ""warmest congratulations"", saying: ""We look to the president to be a unifying force for those all over the world who share our determination to defend freedom."" Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy welcomed the fact there had been a quick conclusion to the election, unlike in 2000. Mr Bush's first task was to ""rebuild a sense of domestic purpose"" within the US, he said. Mr Kennedy said: ""Internationally, it is to be hoped that a second term will see a more sensitive approach to relations with long-standing allies, not least for the global efforts to combat terrorism."" Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell said a win by Mr Kerry would have given Mr Blair the chance of a fresh start, adding it was almost as if there was an ""umbilical cord"" between Mr Bush and the UK premier. ""Europeans must hope that his administration will be much more multilateral in character, and that he will act swiftly to rebuild the Atlantic partnership which is so vital to security. ""Iraq will remain an issue of potential division for some time to come."" Even before the result became clear, Mr Blair was being urged to push for action on climate change at his first meeting with whichever candidate won. Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Norman Baker underlined the issue of global warming during a Commons debate on Anglo-American relations on Wednesday. Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett has said the US will act on global warming despite George Bush's refusal to sign up to the Kyoto protocol on carbon emissions. Public opinion would force change, she told BBC news. But Myron Ebell, an adviser on climate change to President Bush, has said there would be no change in the US stance and rejected the threat of climate change. He claimed the US was the only country with independent scientists." -politics,"Student 'fee factor' played down A rise has been recorded in the number of students from south of the border applying to universities in Scotland. However, Lifelong Learning Minister Jim Wallace said that this would not result in Scottish students missing out. Applications from England and Wales rose by 17% between January 2005 and the previous year, up 23,600 to 27,700. Fears had been expressed that a flood of ""fee refugees"" would try to avoid top-up fees of up to £3,000 a year being introduced in England. In June last year, Mr Wallace announced proposals to increase tuition fees for English students studying in Scotland by £2,000 in an attempt to prevent a cross-border flood, although no figure has yet been agreed. Legislation to introduce the top-up fees in England is not due to take effect until autumn 2006 and students who start before then will not have to pay additional fees at all. The figures were made public on Thursday by admissions service Ucas. Universities Scotland, which represents university principals, claimed that an increase in applications did not amount to Scottish students being squeezed out. Director, David Caldwell, said some students could be applying in an attempt to avoid the possible increase in annual fees at English universities, but this was not a major factor. He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: ""The reason people are opting for Scottish universities is that they are perceived as being of very high quality, they offer very attractive courses and Scotland is seen as a very attractive place to study. ""They know that when they take up their studies in 2006 they will be hit by top-up fees if they are going to a university in England and that may be part of the reason why the numbers coming to Scotland are so inflated. ""However, it does not mean that we will see thousands of additional students from England studying here."" Mr Wallace agreed and said the figures had to be looked at in context. He explained that when applications were translated into acceptances, the number was not huge - an additional figure of about 200. Also, the picture was further blurred by the fact that applications from Wales, where there are no plans for top-up fees, have also risen, by 19%. Mr Wallace said: ""Accepting students from all parts of the world does show the high regard in which Scottish higher education is held, not just in Britain. ""We want to make sure that when students are making their choice, they do so on the nature of the course and not because they are under some sort of financial pressure to go to Scotland. ""We do not want to have a situation where it becomes impossible for Scottish students to get places at Scottish universities because we are seen as the cheap option. ""Very often the quality of the university experience is enhanced by the fact there are students coming from a wide range of backgrounds so it would be wrong to go the other way and start excluding students.""" -politics,"Election 'could be terror target' Terrorists might try to target the UK in the run-up to the election, London's most senior police officer has said. Sir Ian Blair said terror groups would remember the effect of the Madrid bomb on Spain's general election last year. Other potential targets were the royal wedding and the UK's presidency of the European Union and G8, he said. He refused to say if there was specific information about the risk of a pre-poll attack. No 10 was similarly cautious but said the threat was real. The comments come after Tony Blair defended his controversial anti-terror proposals, warning that it would be wrong to wait for an attack before acting. Sir Ian told a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority it would be ""unwise"" to speculate about whether there was specific information about risks of a pre-election attack. But he said: ""Terrorists have long memories. They understand what happened in Madrid and know what the impact of that was on the Spanish electorate. ""This year we are responsible for the EU presidency, presidency of the G8, a royal wedding and a general election. ""There are obvious and enormous targets which we have to deal with."" Sir Ian said the debate over anti-terror plans was one for politicians, not the police, who would enforce any new powers. Home Secretary Charles Clarke has also warned that a Madrid-style pre-election bombing could happen in the UK too. Asked about Sir Ian's comments, the prime minister's official spokesman said: ""We believe the threat is real."" The spokesman declined to comment on whether the security services had received specific intelligence relating to a possible attack during the election campaign. He said No 10 did not disclose any security advice they received. Earlier, writing in the Daily Telegraph, the prime minister conceded that plans to detain suspects under house arrest without trial were ""difficult issues for any government"". The Commons has approved the measures despite considerable opposition, with the government's majority more than halved as 32 Labour rebels joined Tory and Lib Dem opposition. But Mr Blair insisted: ""There is no greater civil liberty than to live free from terrorist attack."" Tory leader Michael Howard has accused Mr Blair of steamrolling the house arrest plans and of ""using national security for political point scoring"". Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy says that the plan is a further example of Labour's ""authoritarian"" response to crises. The Prevention of Terrorism Bill proposes ""control orders"", which as well as house arrest could impose curfews, tagging or bans on telephone and internet use. They would replace current powers to detain foreign terror suspects without trial, which the law lords have ruled against. But critics are concerned that it would be the home secretary and not judges who decided to impose control orders. The plans face further Commons scrutiny on Monday before passing to the Lords." -politics,"Talks aim to avert pension strike Talks aimed at averting a series of national strikes over pensions reforms will take place this weekend. Five public sector unions will hold private talks with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at Labour's spring conference in Gateshead. They want the government to withdraw regulations - due to be introduced in weeks - which would raise the pension age for council workers from 60 to 65. Up to 1.4m workers could take part in a strike already earmarked for 23 March. However, all sides are anxious to avoid a major confrontation in the run up to the general election, said BBC labour affairs correspondent Stephen Cape. In four days, Britain's biggest union Unison will start balloting 800,000 local government workers on strikes. Other public sector unions have pledged to follow. It is just weeks before new regulations are introduced to raise the pension age of local government workers. The five unions meeting Mr Prescott want the government to withdraw these regulations. This would allow months of tough negotiations to follow, said our correspondent. But a spokesman for Mr Prescott warned that the changes to the local government pension scheme would have to go ahead in April. Privately ministers believe this will be the ""less painful"" option, our correspondent added. The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) will co-ordinate any industrial action with up to six other public sector unions. PCS leader Mark Serwotka warned last week that there could be further walkouts unless there was a government rethink. ""For a government that lectures everyone on choice - choice on public service, choice on this and choice on that - isn't it ironic that they're saying to public sector workers there is no choice,"" he said. ""If you want the pension you were promised when you started you must work for an extra five years - that is working until people drop. ""In the 20th century, it's completely unacceptable."" Unison's 800,000 workers, the Transport and General Workers' Union's 70,000 and Amicus' 20,000 are among those being balloted about a 23 March walkout. Mr Prescott held a private meeting with senior union figures last week. It is understood no deal was offered in that meeting but there was room for further negotiations." -politics,"Donor attacks Blair-Brown 'feud' The reported feud between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown has prompted a Labour donor to say he will almost certainly refuse to give more funds. Duncan Bannatyne also attacked the government over Iraq and its ""poor"" response to the Asian tsunami crisis. His broadside came as ex-Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he hoped Mr Brown would be premier at some point. Mr Bannatyne has previously given Labour £50,000. He made his fortune from care homes and health clubs. The 52-year-old on Tuesday said was he was reviewing his donations because of Cabinet disunity and international issues. His spokesman said it was highly unlikely he would give Labour more money, although he would remain a supporter and not fund the Conservatives. Robert Peston's new book has prompted more speculation about the Blair-Brown rift with its claims that the prime minister broke a promise made in 2003 to stand down. Mr Bannatyne said: ""Disunity in the Cabinet has a corrosive effect on the country. ""Gordon Brown is a great chancellor who has delivered a stable economy, but business wants that to continue and not be blown off course by petty squabbles based on personal ambition."" The businessman, whose latest venture is a casino in Newcastle, also voiced concern about the ongoing violence in Iraq. And he branded the UK government's response to the tsunami as ""piecemeal and poor"". ""The people there need practical help not just pledges of money,"" he said. ""The US has forces helping on the ground - we can do more."" British Navy ships have helped the relief effort and the prime minister has said the government could ultimately give hundreds of millions of pounds in aid. Mr Bannatyne is due to host a new television programme and is also appearing on BBC2 business start-up programme Dragon's Den. But his spokesman insisted his attack on Labour was not a publicity stunt. In a separate development, Robin Cook gave his support to Mr Brown's prime ministerial ambitions but told a lunch for political journalists winning the election had to be Labour's election. But he insisted the recent squabbles between Mr Blair and Mr Brown were not ""perceived as a problem by the voters,"" adding there was no impression of governmental incompetence. Mr Cook argued that more prominence was given to these matters because there was ""not an alternative source of opposition to the government"". He warned the ""Abstentions Party"" was the real challenge to Labour - and they would not be motivated by Mr Blair's promise to produce an ""unremittingly New Labour"" election manifesto. His comments come after Dave Prentis, the leader of Britain's biggest union Unison, told the Daily Record newspaper he wants a date to be set for Mr Blair to be replaced as Labour leader." -politics,"Tory candidate quits over remark A Conservative election challenger is quitting after being quoted as wanting a ""period of creative destruction in the public services"". Danny Kruger, who also works in the Tory research unit, had been due to take on Tony Blair in Sedgefield. He says his remark last week was misrepresented but he will not contest the election for fear of damaging the Conservative cause. Tory leader Michael Howard accepted his decision ""with regret"". Mr Kruger was quoted in the Guardian newspaper saying: ""We plan to introduce a period of creative destruction in the public services."" In a statement, the party said the comment had been taken out of context. ""He fully supports the party's policies on, and approach to, the public services,"" said the statement. ""However, in order to avoid any further misrepresentation of his views and any damage to the Party, he has decided not to stand in the Sedgefield constituency at the next election."" Mr Kruger is continuing in his job at the Tory campaign headquarters. Labour election coordinator Alan Milburn claimed Mr Kruger had exposed the Tory agenda for £35bn of cuts to public services. Mr Milburn said: ""He is not some unknown hopeful fighting an unwinnable seat. He is a man who has worked at the heart of Conservative policy development... ""His claim that the Tories were planning 'a period of creative destruction in the public services' is not a rogue claim. ""It is the authentic and shocking voice of the Conservative Party. It reveals the true picture of what they would do.""" -politics,"Economy focus for election battle Britain's economic future will be at the heart of Labour's poll campaign, Chancellor Gordon Brown has said. He was speaking after Cabinet members held their last meeting at No 10 before the expected election announcement. He said voters would recognise that Labour had brought stability and growth, and would continue to do so. Meanwhile the Tories outlined their plans to tackle ""yob culture"" and the Lib Dems gave more details about their proposals to replace council tax. Earlier the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to all three parties urging them not to fight the election by exploiting people's fears. In an open letter, he called on them not to turn the election into a competition about who can most effectively frighten voters about terrorism, asylum, and crime. He said they should concentrate instead on issues such as the environment, international development and the arms trade, family policy, and the reform of the criminal justice system. Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said: ""We have fought a very positive campaign. I think he will want to look quite carefully at what Jack Straw said about Michael Howard."" In a speech to the Foreign Policy Centre Mr Straw said of the Tory leader: ""He is clever, fluent and tactical, but he is not wise. ""He lacks strategy and good judgment, and his quick temper and impetuosity too often get the better of him."" The Foreign Secretary told the BBC: ""I was making the observation that because of Michael Howard's impetuosity you can get lurches of policy."" Liberal Democrat chairman Matthew Taylor said: ""People are already really turned off by the kind of campaign the others are fighting and you will see us putting emphasis on some of these huge issues facing the world, particularly the environment."" Labour's focus on the economy as their key message - came on the day a new report was published by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, suggesting that household incomes have fallen for the first time in more than a decade. The IFS says the drop partly reflects measures announced in what it called the Chancellor's tax-raising Budget of 2002. The Treasury dismissed the research as ""complete rubbish"". Party election supremo Alan Milburn said the apparent drop in average incomes was because self-employed people had been affected by a ""world downturn"" which hit their profits. Since 1997, the reported average take-home income had ""risen by 20% in real terms"" if you took out the self-employed, Mr Milburn told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Mr Brown also dismissed the figures insisting that the ""typical family"" has been much better off under Labour." -politics,"Nat Insurance to rise, say Tories National Insurance will be raised if Labour wins the next election, Tory leader Michael Howard has claimed. Tony Blair has said he does not want higher tax rates for top earners but on Wednesday said other tax promises would be left to Labour's manifesto. Prime minister's questions also saw Mr Blair predict that new plans would probably cut net immigration. He attacked Tory plans to process asylum claims abroad - but Mr Howard said Labour had proposed the idea too. The Commons questions session again saw the leaders of the two biggest parties shape up for the forthcoming election campaign. The Tories have promised £4bn in tax cuts but have yet to say where they will fall. Mr Howard pointed to the Institute for Fiscal Studies' predictions that Labour will need to increase taxes to cover an £11bn gap in its spending plans. He accused ministers of wasting money on unsuccessful attempts to curb bad behaviour and truancy in schools and on slow asylum processing. It was no good Mr Blair claiming tax pledges were being left to the manifesto as he had given one to MPs on Tuesday about the top rate of income tax, argued Mr Howard. Pointing to national insurance, he added: ""Everyone knows tax will go up under Labour: isn't it now clear which tax it would be?"" Mr Blair instead hailed Labour's achievement in using a strong economy to invest in public services. ""When we have money not only going into extra teachers and nurses but equipment in schools and hospitals, that money is not wasted,"" he said. On the tax questions, he added: ""We will make commitments on tax at the time of the manifesto."" Home Secretary Charles Clarke this week published plans for a new points system for economic migrants, with only high-skilled workers allowed into the UK from outside the European Union. Mr Blair said abuses would be weeded out and chain migration, where families automatically get the right to settle with immigrant workers, would end. That would probably create a fall in the migrant numbers, he said. The prime minister ridiculed the Tory plans for asylum quotas and for processing all asylum claims overseas. He challenged the Tories on which country would house their processing centres - what he called a ""fantasy island"". Mr Howard read from a letter about the government's own plans at the European Council of Ministers for processing asylum seekers outside the EU. But Mr Blair said: ""All the other countries could not agree on the way forward, nor could the UN.""" -politics,"Woolf murder sentence rethink Plans to give murderers lighter sentences if they plead guilty have been watered down. There was an outcry three months ago when the Sentencing Guidelines Council - led by Lord Woolf - published its proposals for England and Wales. It had suggested judges should reduce sentences by a third for murderers who confessed at the earliest opportunity. But that has now been changed to one-sixth, with no reduction for those killers given a ""whole life tariff"". At the time Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, had said the one third reduction would only be in extraordinary circumstances - for example, if people gave themselves up before their crime had even been detected. The guidelines were to recognise the need to spare victims and witnesses the trauma of going to court where possible, by allowing lighter sentences for guilty pleas and co-operation, he said. But director of the Victims of Crime Trust, Norman Brennan, accused Lord Woolf of having an ""arrogant contempt for victims of crime and the law-abiding public"". The National Association of Probation Officers said the move would be ""political suicide"". In revised proposals from the Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC), the section on murder said possible reductions would have to be ""weighed carefully"" by a judge so they did not lead to ""an inappropriately short sentence"". Where it was appropriate to reduce the minimum term having regard to a plea of guilty, the maximum reduction would be one sixth, and should never exceed five years, it said. In a statement issued on Wednesday Lord Woolf said: ""I have no doubt that being able to call on the diverse backgrounds and experiences of all those that serve on the SGC has vastly improved the final guidelines. ""I am confident, as a result, that judges will be better placed to deliver sentences which are effective both as punishments and deterrents to offending and reoffending."" Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald QC, who sits on the SGC, said the principle of discounting sentences to offenders for early guilty pleas is set down by parliament. ""What the new guideline on reduced sentences for guilty pleas does is increase the chances of convicting the guilty by bringing clarity to this process. ""It represents a tougher regime than existed previously, because the discount is automatically reduced if a guilty plea is not made at the first available opportunity,"" he said." -politics,"Ex-PM Lord Callaghan dies aged 92 Former Labour prime minister Lord Callaghan has died on the eve of his 93rd birthday. He passed away at home in East Sussex, just 11 days after his wife Audrey died aged 91. Lord Callaghan, who leaves a son and two daughters, was the longest living former British PM in history. He entered Downing Street in 1976 after the resignation of Harold Wilson. Prime Minister Tony Blair called him a ""giant"" of the Labour movement. He held each of the major offices of chancellor, home secretary, foreign secretary and prime minister during his career and became Lord Callaghan of Cardiff in 1987. Chancellor Gordon Brown said the former PM would be ""mourned throughout the world"". ""It was a commitment to public service that brought Jim Callaghan into Parliament in 1945, and while Jim rose to the top he never forgot his roots."" Former cabinet colleague Lord Hattersley said his first reaction on hearing the news was ""immense sadness"". ""It was not a major surprise - I knew what a blow the death of his wife Audrey was a few days ago,"" he said. ""He was a decent kindly man who helped me and my generation of politicians immensely. ""The Labour party and the country will be poorer without him."" Conservative peer Lord Heseltine said that despite their political differences, he and Lord Callaghan became friends. ""You don't get to the premiership unless you have a streak of determination,"" he said. ""But I saw the other side of Jim Callaghan, he became a personal friend in a way, and my family and I were very fond of him."" Tory leader Michael Howard said he would be remembered with ""affection and respect"". Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said: ""When I was first elected in 1983 as the youngest MP, he was the ""Father of the House"" and as such took a very keen interest in my early days in Parliament. ""He was always full of warmth and wisdom."" Born in 1912 and educated at Portsmouth Northern Secondary School, Lord Callaghan became a clerk at the Inland Revenue. He enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1942 and rose to the rank of lieutenant. Elected for a Cardiff constituency at the 1945 general election, he represented Cardiff seats for more than 40 years. After serving as a junior minister in the Attlee government, he became chancellor of the exchequer when Labour returned to power in 1964. With sterling under pressure, he resisted devaluation for three years, before being forced into it in 1967. His political career was not without controversy. When he refused to support prime minister Harold Wilson and Dame Barbara Castle over the latter's trade union manifesto, In Place of Strife, in 1968, he said: ""I am not going to resign. They will have to throw me out"". When home secretary, he ordered British troops to march into the streets of Belfast to protect Catholic civilians amid rising violence - a decision that has dominated British politics into the 21st century. As foreign secretary in the early 1970s, Lord Callaghan kept an open mind about the UK's entry into the Common Market, seeing the advantages of the UK's entry. He once travelled to Idi Amin's Uganda in 1975 to plead for the life of a British lecturer, Dennis Hills, who was under a death sentence for treason. His political life was often tempered by battles against the hard left of the party. In the autumn of 1978, before the ""Winter of Discontent"" when trade unions carried out strikes that brought the country to a standstill, Lord Callaghan refused to hold an early election which may have delivered a Labour victory. As garbage lay uncollected in the streets and hospital staff, council workers and even gravediggers stayed off work, Lord Callaghan failed to predict the mood of the country. When Britain went to the polls in 1979, Tory leader Margaret Thatcher was swept into power in a landslide victory, and Lord Callaghan resigned as Labour leader." -politics,"Gurkhas to help tsunami victims Britain has offered to send a company of 120 Gurkhas to assist with the tsunami relief effort in Indonesia, Downing Street said. The deployment would involve troops from the 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles, based in Brunei. Discussions have begun with Indonesia on the exact timing and location of the deployment, but the government said the offer was aimed at the Aceh province. Downing St said a similar offer might be made to the Sri Lankan government. However a spokesman pointed out that there were particular logistical difficulties in Indonesia which the Gurkhas might be able to help with. The spokesman said: ""Following this morning's daily coordination meeting on the post-tsunami relief effort, the government has formally offered the Indonesian government the assistance of a company of British Army Gurkhas from 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles around 120 personnel and two helicopters. ""This is in addition to the ships and aircraft we have already committed to the relief operation in the Indian Ocean."" Indonesia was by far the country worst affected by the tsunami, with 94,000 of the 140,000 confirmed deaths so far. International Development Minister Gareth Thomas said the assistance offer would most likely focus on the northern province of Aceh. ""We have offered the Gurkhas to help in the process of scaling up the relief effort, particularly in Aceh which is undoubtedly the hardest hit area in the Indian Ocean at the moment,"" he said. ""We've also had RAF aircraft flying in equipment which the UN desperately need in order to set up a truly effective relief operation on the ground in Aceh province as well."" The offer comes as the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw arrives in Indonesia for a special summit meeting on the disaster." -politics,"Kennedy questions trust of Blair Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy has said voters now have a ""fundamental lack of trust"" of Tony Blair as prime minister. He said backing his party was not a wasted vote, adding that with the Lib Dems ""what you see is what you get"". He made his comments at the start of a day of appearances on Channel Five in a session on The Wright Stuff programme. Questions from callers, a studio audience and the show's presenter covered Lib Dem tax plans, anti-terror laws and immigration. Mr Kennedy said during his nearly 22 years in Parliament he had seen prime ministers and party leaders come and go and knew the pitfalls of British politics. ""1983 was when I was first elected as an MP - so Tony Blair, Michael Howard and myself were all class of '83 - and over that nearly quarter of a century the world has changed out of recognition,"" he said. ""We don't actually hear the argument any longer: 'Lib Dems, good people, reasonable ideas but only if we thought they could win around here - it's a wasted vote'. ""You don't hear that because the evidence of people's senses demonstrates that it isn't a wasted vote."" But he said Mr Blair had lost the trust of the British people. ""There is a fundamental lack of trust in Tony Blair as prime minister and in his government,"" he said. ""What we've got to do as a party - what I've got to do as a leader of this party - is to convey to people that what you see is what you get."" Mr Kennedy also used his TV appearance to defend his party's plans to increase income tax to 50% for those earning more than £100,000, saying it would apply to just 1% of the population. He said the extra revenue would allow his party to get rid of tuition and top-up fees, introduce free personal care for the elderly and replace the council tax with a local income tax. Mr Blair has already spent a day with Five and Michael Howard is booked for a similar session." -politics,"NHS waiting time target is cut Hospital waiting times for patients in Wales are to be cut, but not to the same extent as those in England. Welsh Health Minister Jane Hutt said no patient would wait more than 12 months for an outpatient appointment by March 2006, against a current target of 18 months. But she said the target for an inpatient appointment would remain at 12 months for March 2006. The announcement came as new monthly waiting figures showed a drop. This current inpatient target was set when the assembly government extended its second offer guarantee scheme, which gives patients the option of having their treatment outside Wales. Details about funding to resource the new targets are expected in the New Year. In England, the current target for inpatients - seeing a consultant to having an operation - is six months. Dr Richard Lewis, Welsh secretary of the British Medical Association (BMA), welcomed the new targets ""to make further and faster progress on waiting lists"". ""However, much remains to be done on waiting lists and waiting times because Wales still lags a long way behind England,"" he said. ""Capacity must be built into the system with sustained investment to ensure that Welsh patients don't receive a worse service than patients over the border."" Health analyst Tony Beddow, from the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care, called the new targets ""reasonably impressive"". On Wednesday, Ms Hutt also announced £264m for health services will be spent reducing waiting times, improving key areas and modernising staff pay structures in Wales. Ms Hutt said major achievements had been made in cutting ""unacceptably long waits for treatment over the past year"". ""We are turning the corner on long waits in Wales. Now we need to see those reductions in long waiters being improved again,"" she said. She added the targets intended to ensure no-one waits more than a year for treatment or to see a consultant. ""But let us not forget two thirds of those waiting for treatment now are waiting less than six months, and these targets affect the small minority of patients in Wales that are waiting far too long."" Rhodri Glyn Thomas, Plaid Cymru health spokesman said: ""It's exactly the same target she set in 1999, with the qualification that it's dependent on a second offer. It's a failed target, from a failed minister..with a failed policy."" For the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams called the new target ""hugely unambitious"". ""It leaves patients in Wales still waiting two years before they're treated."" Conservative health spokesman Jonathan Morgan said: ""We're spending more money but waiting lists have gone through the roof. ""The Audit Commission has said that the money is not being spent efficiently or effectively, and that's quite a criticism."" Meanwhile, the latest monthly waiting list figures showed the total number of people waiting more than 18 months as an inpatient in Wales has fallen by 9.8%. Statistics to the end of November showed a decline since October from 785 to 708. The number waiting over 12 months also fell from 7,613 to 6,630, or 12.9%. Ms Hutt said they were ""excellent figures"". There are 305,775 people on a waiting list of some kind, down from 311,764 last month." -politics,"Labour's Cunningham to stand down Veteran Labour MP and former Cabinet minister Jack Cunningham has said he will stand down at the next election. One of the few Blair-era ministers to serve under Jim Callaghan, he was given the agriculture portfolio when Labour regained power in 1997. Mr Cunningham went on to become Tony Blair's ""cabinet enforcer"". He has represented the constituency now known as Copeland since 1970. Mr Blair said he was a ""huge figure"" in Labour and a ""valued, personal friend"". During Labour's long period in opposition, Mr Cunningham held a number of shadow roles including foreign affairs, the environment and as trade spokesman. As agriculture minister he caused controversy when he decided to ban beef on the bone in the wake of fears over BSE. He quit the government in 1999 and in recent years has served as the chairman of the all-party committee on Lords reform and has been a loyal supporter of the government from the backbenches." -politics,"Blair and Brown criticised by MPs Labour MPs have angrily criticised Tony Blair and Gordon Brown amid renewed reports of a rift between the two men. A meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party saw a succession of normally loyal members warn that feuding could jeopardise Labour's election hopes. The PM insisted nothing would derail Labour's campaign, despite a new book saying he has upset his chancellor by backing out of a pledge to stand aside. Mr Brown will again be in the public eye at the party's new poster launch. In what the party had hoped would be perceived as a show of unity, he is due to line up alongside Alan Milburn - the man controversially appointed as the party's election supremo - and deputy leader John Prescott for the event in London on Tuesday. Relations between Mr Brown and Mr Milburn are widely reported to be cool ever since Mr Blair brought the latter back into the Cabinet to run Labour's election campaign, a role successfully carried out by Mr Brown in both 1997 and 2001. Mr Blair told the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday: ""I know from everyone here, in Cabinet and government, nothing is going to get in the way of a unified Labour Party with a unified position and winning the third term people desperately need."" The prime minister and his chancellor arrived within seconds of each other for the meeting of the PLP and were seemingly in good spirits as it started. New speculation about the state of their relationship was sparked by claims in Brown's Britain, by Sunday Telegraph journalist Robert Peston, which suggested Mr Blair went back on a pledge to make way for Mr Brown. Labour's Paul Flynn said Mr Blair and Mr Brown had a ""scorching"" from MPs adding: ""It was a Parliamentary Labour Party meeting like no other."" Backbencher Stephen Pound said some MPs had threatend to expose those fuelling the reports if Mr Blair and Mr Brown did not ""stop this nonsense, this poisonous briefing"". Lord Campbell-Savours, a former MP, challenged Mr Brown to deny reports that he had told the prime minister he did not believe anything he said. Mr Prescott said MPs were entitled to complain about discipline after reading recent press reports. ""They told us very clearly, it was the troops telling the leaders: get in line,"" he told BBC Radio 4's Today on Tuesday. Mr Prescott said there were occasional disagreements in any government. But he argued Mr Blair and Mr Brown could work successfully together and had produced a strong economy and better public services. The new book claims Mr Prescott hosted a dinner in November 2003 where the prime minister told Mr Brown he would stand down before the next election because he had lost trust over the Iraq war. He had then changed his mind in June 2004, following intervention from Cabinet allies and suspicion that the chancellor was manoeuvring against him, writes Mr Peston. Mr Prescott said there was a dinner but the discussions were confidential. ""Of course as a waiter for 10 years I have a professional ability here,"" he joked. Mr Blair has insisted he has done no deals over the premiership while Mr Brown says he will not let ""gossip"" distract him from helping a unified election campaign. The Conservatives say the two men are behaving like squabbling schoolboys and the Liberal Democrats claim personal ambition is obstructing good government." -politics,"Labour's four little words Labour has unveiled the four little words that will form the heart of its general election campaign which, for those just returned from the planet Galifray, is ""looming"". The slogan ""Britain forward not back"" (no, it's not an instruction from one of those inter-planetary Time Lords) is to become as much a part of our daily lives as the sky - it's always there but we mostly stop noticing. The word ""Britain"" is cast on a red background - a nod to Old Labour. ""Forward"" is in italics and cunningly slopes forward and, along with ""not back"", is set against a mushy pea green background. As one of the journalists assembled at the unveiling declared, it was all very post modern, or something. Great use of colour. Those ad men really do earn their money. And, coincidentally, the ad men who came up with the abandoned flying pigs and so-called ""Fagin"" posters which caused Tory protests have not been sacked but, as election supremo Alan Milburn declared, ""are doing a very good job"". Mr Milburn, in the latest in his series of pre-election-campaign campaigning, explained the slogan was the reaction to polling which suggests the public believe Labour and Tony Blair are the future while Michael Howard and the Tories would take the country backwards. ""Not many people talk about the years before 1997 as the good old days,"" he declared. It would be an aggressive campaign because things would inevitably boil down to a choice between Labour and the Tories. Nobody, he claimed, could picture Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy walking up Downing Street the day after polling. They could, however, picture Michael Howard or, of course, Tony Blair doing it. So it was only right that the campaign concentrated on rigorously examining the opposition's policies and past record. And Tony Blair would be in the very front line of that campaign, he said. ""Between now and the election the prime minister will be spending more time out of London than in it but in Britain, not overseas,"" he promised. ""He will be leading the domestic debate from the front, listening, taking the flak."" So, let's get on with it then." -politics,"Brown in appeal for Labour unity Gordon Brown has made an appeal for unity after reports claimed Mr Blair went back on a pledge to stand down before the next general election. The chancellor would not comment on the reports, but insisted he would not be ""diverted or distracted"" from tackling the challenges faced by the country. His only ""motivation"" was to ensure Labour was re-elected, he insisted. Mr Blair earlier dismissed the claim he had reneged on a promise to stand aside for Gordon Brown as old news. According to a new book, Brown's Britain by Sunday Telegraph journalist Robert Peston, Mr Blair went back on a pledge to make way for Mr Brown after Cabinet allies intervened in June 2004. In an interview with BBC One's Breakfast with Frost, Mr Blair said: ""I've dealt with this six months ago. I said then you don't do deals over jobs like this - you don't. ""What both of us are actually concentrating on are the issues that concern the country."" In a separate interview with BBC political editor Andrew Marr, Mr Brown said: ""It's very important that we all do what we can in a unified way to ensure the election of a Labour government. ""I think it is very important to stress that that is the motivation that I have. ""That is my purpose in politics, and that is what every day I seek to do. And I am not going to be diverted or distracted, nor is Tony Blair, by newspaper stories or books or rumours or gossip. ""The only reason why we are in government is to get on with the job in a unified way to deal with the challenges facing this country."" Mr Brown also said he had discussed the general election campaign with the prime minister on Saturday and pledged to play his part as he had been asked to do. But Mr Peston said the pair had ""mutual animosity and contempt"" for each other and that Mr Blair had decided in November 2003 he would quit because he felt he had lost voters' trust because of the Iraq war. He then changed his mind in June 2004, following intervention from allies in the Cabinet and the suspicion that the chancellor was deliberately manoeuvring against him, according to the book. Andrew Marr said: ""This is enormously damaging. Gordon Brown knows it as well as Tony Blair. ""I think the relationship is genuinely, privately, very poor indeed. Things are very difficult."" He added: ""Lots of ministers believe Tony Blair will attempt to move Gordon Brown out of the Treasury after the election. ""That depends on whether there's still a Labour government and their majority."" Senior MPs are expected to raise concerns about the latest reports of infighting at the regular meeting of Labour backbenchers on Monday. Health Secretary John Reid said those fuelling such reports were damaging Labour's re-election chances and would not be easily forgiven. Fresh speculation of a rift recently followed Mr Blair and Mr Brown's separate responses to the Asian tsunami. These rumours were fuelled by Mr Blair's decision to hold his monthly media conference at the same time as a long-planned speech by Mr Brown on UK plans to tackle global poverty with a new ""Marshall Plan"" for Africa. There was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each other's response to the disaster. But the prime minister said he had discussed these claims with the chancellor and dismissed them as a ""load of nonsense"". Tory leader Michael Howard accused the prime minister and Mr Brown of""squabbling like schoolboys"". Liberal Democrat parliamentary chairman Matthew Taylor said the personal ambition of Mr Blair and Mr Brown was ""getting in the way of good government""." -politics,"Hague 'given up' his PM ambition Former Conservative leader William Hague says he will not stand for the leadership again, having given up his ambition to be prime minister. Mr Hague, 43, told the Daily Telegraph he would now find a life dominated by politics too ""boring"" and unfulfilling. Mr Hague, who stepped down after his party's 2001 election defeat, does not rule out a return to the front bench. He also told the paper he hopes to remain MP for Richmond, North Yorks, and start a family with wife Ffion. Mr Hague, who recently had published the biography of William Pitt the Younger, also said he wanted to continue writing books and speech-writing. He told the newspaper: ""I don't know whether I will ever go back on to the front, but don't rush me."" Asked if he would stand for the leadership again, Mr Hague replied: ""No. Definitely not."" His determination to stay away from a central role will disappoint some senior Conservative members, who say the party needs him. Tim Collins, the shadow education secretary, said last week it would be a ""huge boost"" to the party if Mr Hague returned to the front bench. Mr Hague became an MP at 27 and Leader of the Opposition at 36. He said: ""I feel fortunate that, by the age of 40, I had crammed in an entire political career. ""I had been in the Cabinet and been leader of the party, so now I can branch out into other things...it is a very liberating feeling."" Mr Hague added that he may have misjudged his own ambition to be prime minister. ""Maybe I wasn't as driven by politics as I thought I was,"" he said." -politics,"Report attacks defence spending The Ministry of Defence has been criticised over the soaring spending costs and growing delays of its top equipment projects. A National Audit Office report on the 20 biggest projects says costs have risen by £1.7bn in the past year. It says there is ""little evidence"" the MoD's performance had improved, despite the introduction of a ""smart acquisition"" policy six years ago. A senior defence official told the BBC lessons were being learned. The NAO's annual report showed the total cost of the 20 projects covered was expected to reach £50bn - 14% higher than originally planned. The total delays amounted to 62 months, with average individual delays rising by three months. Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said the problems showed the principles of the scheme known as smart acquisition had not been consistently applied. ""Many problems can be traced to the fact that the MoD has not spent enough time and resources in the assessment phase,"" the report says. The NAO found that projects launched since the start of the scheme were showing the same worrying tendencies as the older ""legacy projects"", such as the Eurofighter. A senior defence official, speaking to the BBC's defence correspondent Paul Adams, said that although the figures were still not good enough, the report reflected unrealistic expectations early on in the project cycle. This year's overspend was significantly less than last year's £3.1bn total, and the Defence Procurement Agency - which is responsible for buying defence equipment - was improving. Lord Bach, Minister for Defence Procurement, said he was ""obviously still disappointed with the cost and time increases shown"", but insisted that the Defence Procurement Agency had ""undertaken a huge amount of work to expose any underlying problems on projects"". The latest findings follow a string of critical reports issued within the last 12 months, and, according to our correspondent, contain few new surprises. Turning around the Defence Procurement Agency ""was a little like trying to turn around a super tanker - it takes a very long time indeed"", he said. Our correspondent said it was the same projects, including the Joint Strike Fighter, the Nimrod and A400M aircraft and the Type 45 Destroyer, which were resonsible for the bulk of the cost over-runs and delay. But he added some projects, such as the C-17 heavy lift aircraft and Successor Identification Friend or Foe (SIFF), were showing good performances." -politics,"Defection timed to hit tax pledge With impeccable and precisely-calculated timing, Tory defector Robert Jackson and his new Labour bosses have attempted to overshadow Michael Howard's latest announcement on taxation and spending. With just about everyone in Westminster now working towards a May general election, Mr Howard is eager to map out some clear and distinctive policies aimed at finally shifting the Tories' resolutely depressing poll showings. The big idea is his £35bn savings on waste and bureaucracy which Mr Howard has pledged to plough back into public services and tax cuts. And it was virtually certain his pledge on tax cuts was meant to be the core message from his interview on the BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme. He and his shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin have been edging towards an announcement on this front for some months now, but without any concrete pledges. But Mr Howard announced that, of the £35bn he has earmarked from savings, £12bn will be used to plug Labour's claimed financial black hole with any left over going to tax cuts in Mr Letwin's first budget. He would not be precise, but there are already suggestions he is set to announce lifting the threshold on income tax and reforming or abolishing inheritance tax. But he did, for the first time, say there would be such tax cuts. ""At this election, people will have a clear choice between Mr Blair who will waste more and tax more and the Conservative party which will give value for money and tax less"". It is the Tories' attempt to open that famed ""clear blue water"" between them and the Labour party and return to a traditional Tory agenda that will both reassure the middle England voters who have abandoned him and appeal to core Conservative voters. So it is a pretty safe bet to assume that, when Robert Jackson finally decided to jump ship and swim over to the Labour benches, his new masters decided to time the announcement for the greatest possible impact. Mr Howard, however, was dismissive. ""These things happen from time to time. There are disagreements between Robert Jackson and me. ""The election is not going to be decided on what Robert Jackson did,"" he added. And that is certainly true. The election will be decided on ""the economy stupid"". Other issues like the Iraq war and the ""trust"" thing will also play a major part. But it is the economy that will probably be the greatest influence over the way people finally vote. And many on the Tory benches have been crying out for Mr Howard to get back onto the old Tory tax cuts agenda. Mr Howard knows that risks accusations that, as a result, he would slash public services, so he has attempted to shoot that fox first. With polls suggesting voters would rather any government cash surpluses were spent on schools and hospitals before tax cuts, he has suggested that is exactly what he will do. Whether this will finally be enough to shift those polls remains to be seen." -politics,"Clarke defends terror detentions The home secretary has defended his decision not to release foreign terror suspects despite a legal ruling their detention breached human rights laws. House of Lords law lords ruled against the detention measures last week. They said it was wrong to have one set of laws for foreign suspects and another for British suspects. New Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he would carefully consider the ruling and would return to Parliament early in the new year with proposals. He insisted that he would not be rushed into judgement but would examine the law lords' findings in detail. ""My duty is to look at first of all the security of this country and in so doing to consider very carefully the precise legal measures that there are."" Mr Clarke's comments came in response to an emergency question from Liberal Democrat constitutional affairs spokesman David Heath. Mr Heath said the judgement contained ""unprecedented condemnation and could not have been more unequivocal"". He said he accepted the difficult balance between the nation's security and human rights but questioned why the home office had made ""no contingency plans for the present circumstances"". ""These detainees should be prosecuted and tried. Simply renewing the present deeply unsatisfactory legislation is not an option."" Shadow home secretary David Davis said it was not possible to overstate the importance of the judgment and urged the government to move as fast as ""competently possible"" to sort the problem out in the interests of natural justice. ""If you do, we will give you every support."" The law lords' ruling came on Charles Clarke's first day as home secretary last Thursday following David Blunkett's resignation. In a statement on the same day, Mr Clarke said: ""I will be asking Parliament to renew this legislation in the New Year. ""In the meantime, we will be studying the judgment carefully to see whether it is possible to modify our legislation to address the concerns raised by the House of Lords."" But the government was widely criticised for insisting the detentions would continue following the ruling last week. Lord Bingham - a senior law lord - said the rules were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights as they allowed detentions ""in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status"" by justifying detention without trial for foreign suspects, but not Britons. Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, in his ruling, said: ""Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law."" The detainees took their case to the House of Lords after the Court of Appeal backed the Home Office's powers to hold them without limit or charge. The government opted out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 September attacks in the US." -politics,"'Debate needed' on donations cap A cap on donations to political parties should not be introduced yet, the elections watchdog has said. Fears that big donors can buy political favours have sparked calls for a limit. In a new report, the Electoral Commission says it is worth debating a £10,000 cap for the future but now is not the right time to introduce it. It also says there should be more state funding for political parties and candidates should be able to spend more on election campaigning. There were almost £68m in reported donations to political parties in 2001, 2002 and 2003, with nearly £12m of them from individual gifts worth more than £1m. The rules have already been changed so the public can see who gives how much to the parties but the report says there are still public suspicions. The commission says capping donations would mean taxpayers giving parties more cash - something which would first have to be acceptable to the public and shown to work. ""While we are not in principle opposed to the introduction of a donation cap, we do not believe that such a major departure from the existing system now would be sensible,"" says its report. If there was to be a cap, it should be £10,000 - a small enough amount to make a difference but which would have banned £56m in donations between 2001 and 2003. Even without changes the commission does urge political parties to seek out more small-scale donations and suggests there should be income tax relief for gifts under £200. It also suggests increasing state funding for parties to £3m so help can be extended to all parties with at least two members in the House of Commons, European Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland Assembly. And it suggests new ways of boosting election campaigning, seen as a way of improving voter turnout. All local election candidates should be entitled to a free mailshot for campaign leaflets, says the watchdog. And there should be a shift in the amount of money allowed to be spent at elections from a national level to a local level to help politicians engage better with voters. The report suggests doubling the money which can be spent by candidates, while cutting national spending limits from £20m to £15m. The commission also says the spending limits for general elections should cover the four months before the poll - as happens with other elections. Electoral Commission chairman Sam Younger said: ""There is no doubt that political parties have a vital role to play in maintaining the health of our democracy and for this they need to be adequately resourced. ""Our research has shown that people want to be more informed about party politics and that they want politicians to be more visible and accessible. ""The public are reluctant for the state to fund parties but at the same time are unhappy with large private donations."" He called for a wider public debate on party funding to find the consensus needed for radical changes to the current system." -politics,"What the election should really be about? A general election is the best chance most pressure groups get to make a real impact on government policy. Here is how six leading lobbies plan to make sure their cause is being debated ahead of an expected Spring poll. We've called for the state pension to be increased from £79.60 to the pensioner credit guarantee level of £105.45. That's what we're calling for. Many pensioners are disadvantaged by the current system. If we've got one in five pensioners below the poverty line, we've got to make it more generous or have these people living in poverty. We've drawn up a pensioners' manifesto. This will be sent to each of the candidates in the 659 constituencies. They will be asked which of the top five issues, including the pension issue, they would support. Once we've got their responses we will publish the results within the constituencies and nationally as well. It's our way of putting the politicians on notice. We are trying to get across the fact that there are 11m voters over 60 in the country, they are more likely to vote than other sections of society and thirdly they are true swing voters. Before 1997 most pensioners voted Conservative. In 1997 and 2001 they voted Labour. But there is no guarantee they will vote for a Labour government this time around. They cannot take that vote for granted. Pensions generally will certainly be a big election issue even though the government has postponed the publication of Adair Turner's full report into the issue. He said the UK had one of the least generous pensions systems in the developed world. That the government takes seriously the impact of aviation on the environment. We haven't worked out specific plans but I imagine we will lobby political parties and incumbent MPs. Various local groups will do that in their particular areas and we will provide a national briefing. We don't have any large demonstrations planned but they can't be ruled out. It is hard to say whether we will be successful. We have got the issue in the public consciousness to an extent, but it is difficult to say whether an election will raise its importance in the public mind or whether it will be pushed out by big issues like Iraq. Repealing the Hunting Bill. We are challenging the use of the Parliament Act 1949 in a High Court action. We are hoping to hear in the New Year. Whichever way the court rules the other side will appeal so we expect it to fall plumb in electioneering time. When the ban comes into force on 18 February we will be going to the European Court because no compensation is being paid. So there's a lot of legal territory to go. We are trying to engage with the ministers by demonstrating and talking. Whatever intelligence we get we will try to turn up and speak to whoever it is. (Rural affairs minister) Alun Michael has avoided us and cancelled engagements so that makes it difficult. It is not intimidatory - on the whole it is groups of angry housewives. Of course there is an element of shouting because people are angry but there is no violence because that does not achieve anything. It will fall plumb in the run up to the most important general election Tony Blair will ever face. It's exactly what the prime minister did not want. He wanted the issue off the table until after the election. People using live animals as targets for sport both here and abroad. The reason for including abroad is because of trophy hunting. It is another sort of form of shooting for sport. The principle is the same whether it's a tiger or a pheasant. We will widely publicise what's happening in relation to trophy hunting. We will publicise the darker aspects of the target animal industry the UK. We will seek to get pledges from individual MPs and would-be MPs saying that they are against the use of animals as targets for sports. We would like the support of political parties but I think a general election is very much to do with pledges MPs make to their electors. With hunting we had many MPs who were happy to say they were against it. I think what we will get is a very real climbing up the agenda. Whether or not we will get a ban I am not sure. But it will mobilise public opinion. Everything we do will reduce animal suffering and in time that will lead to a ban. The issue that we think is the most important for this election is choice. The language of consumerism is very commonplace in government and across the political spectrum. Choice as an ideology is beginning to be the privatisation of this decade. It's become an issue in itself but what's really missing from the debate is the consumer's choice in that. Choice is not choice at all if all you have to choose from is two failing schools. We have seen so many pensions mis-selling scandals and in the pensions industry there's a maximum of choice but a minimum quality in that. We want choice on the consumer's terms - that means clear and accessible information to operate that choice. Firstly, we have our website. It features our campaigns and changes every day. Secondly through our 700,000 members who communicate with us. Thirdly through the media and also what we will be doing is holding a pre-election conference. We will invite the opinion formers, MPs, journalists and others. The idea is that we open up communications between members of the public and the politicians. I think we will be successful. It's very much the language being used by the main political parties. Politicians on all sides are very sensitive to this issue they want to be seen to be responding to this issue. Fuel duty is a large part of operational costs for road haulage workers. We have been hearing about this proposed increase of 1.92p per litre that Gordon Brown has been postponing and postponing. Tuppence does not sound like a great deal but every year if you operate one vehicle that's an increase of about £750. If you're running 10 vehicles it's obviously 10 times that. If fuel duty does rise we will be absolutely horrified. There will be a huge effect throughout the industry and I would not be surprised if you see widespread demonstrations. What it will mean is there will be a number of firms going out of business. We will continue to do what we have always done we keep the issue in the trade press. Regrettably it's one of those stories that it is getting harder to get into the national press. Whatever we do, the public don't like lorries - they see us as a complaining minority. But they don't realise that when you see a car on the road it is probably going to work, when you see a lorry it's already at work." -politics,"Mandelson warning to BBC The BBC should steer away from ""demonising"" ex-Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson has said. The European commissioner and former Labour minister was speaking amid claims that Mr Campbell is part of a Labour ""dirty tricks"" campaign. That charge was denied by Mr Mandelson, who said the Tories were afraid of Mr Campbell's campaigning skills. He warned the BBC that attacking Mr Campbell had brought it trouble before. That was a reference to the Hutton inquiry following a BBC story claiming Downing Street ""sexed up"" Iraq's weapons of mass destruction dossier. The affair prompted the resignation of BBC chairman Gavyn Davies, director-general Greg Dyke and reporter Andrew Gilligan. Labour has attracted media criticism for using new freedom of information laws to dig up information about Tory leader Michael Howard's past. Mr Mandelson, a former Labour communications director, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""I understand why the Tories will be gunning for Alastair Campbell because they fear his campaigning skills. ""What I understand less is why the BBC should be joining with the Tories in driving that agenda. ""In my experience of these things, parties which shout about dirty tricks and the like tend to do so because they fear a direct hit in some vulnerable part of their political anatomy. ""I suggest the BBC concentrates on the issues and helps the public to understand the policies and the choices that are at stake in the election rather than engages in the process politics, the trivialisation of the campaign. ""I think the BBC would be much better advised to leave all this stuff well alone, concentrate on the issues as I say, not resume their demonisation of Alastair Campbell - we all know where that led before."" Mr Campbell is acting as an adviser for Labour, which denies engaging in personal campaigning. Conservative co-chairman Liam Fox said Mr Campbell's return and Labour poster plans attacking Mr Howard - recently withdrawn from the party's website - were a sign of ""abusive politics"". ""The government, despite the fact that they would say want to go forward, not back, seem intent on talking about history rather than their own record or even more importantly, about the future,"" he said on Sunday. Labour peer Baroness Kennedy, who is chairing the Power Inquiry into political disengagement, said people already thought politicians engaged in dirty tricks. ""This feeling of distrust is going to be enlarged if this campaigning on all sides is conducted in the way that it looks as if it just might,"" she said." -politics,"Campaign 'cold calls' questioned Labour and the Conservatives are still telephoning the millions of people who have signed up to make sure they do not get marketing ""cold calls"". The parties say they can stick to the rules by ensuring that their calls are not marketing - for instance by asking about people's voting intentions. The Lib Dems are asking the watchdog overseeing the rules to stop the calls. The information commissioner's office says surveys are allowed but there is a ""grey"" area if personal data is kept. Telephone call centres are expected to be used as never before by all the three major parties in the run-up to the general election. But seven million telephone numbers are on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) lists, which ban unsolicited sales and marketing calls. Both schemes are run by the Direct Marketing Association and backed by EU directives on privacy and electronic communications. The rules on marketing calls apply as much to politicians as to private sector companies. But that does not mean Labour and the Tories are not calling people signed up to the TPS. A Labour Party spokesman told the BBC News website the party avoided those on TPS lists when telephoning people about membership or fundraising. But that did not happen for ""voter identification"" calls. ""When we ask which party they will vote for, that is not marketing and we have very clear legal advice that it is not,"" he said. ""So it is not covered by the Telephone Preference Service."" He said the party always asked people if they would be happy to be contacted again and if they said no, they were not rung again. A Conservative spokeswoman said the party stuck to the rules when it rang TPS subscribers. She said: ""We do apply TPS but in line with the law. We would not do things that are not allowed in the law."" A spokesman for the Information Commissioner's Office said it would be classed as marketing if political parties telephoned people to encourage them to vote for them. But the rules did allow polling organisations to telephone people about their voting intentions if they recorded them only as part of a bigger set of statistics, not person by person. ""If a political party was doing that than it may be that also would not be marketing,"" he said. The spokesman said it might be considered unsolicited marketing if a party recorded voting preferences with a view to marketing information in the future. The spokesman said there was ""no yes or no"" answer and the area was ""pretty grey"". He added: ""If someone complained, then we would investigate that. Political parties are aware of the regulations. At the last by-elections, we reminded them."" Lib Dem chairman Matthew Taylor has now written to the watchdog saying: ""The advice we have received on several previous occasions is that such phone calls are illegal."" He says evidence from local Lib Dem parties around the country suggests there are ""significant"" numbers of such calls. ""I hope you can therefore take swift and efficient action to ensure that this ceases,"" he tells the commissioner. Mr Taylor argues there should be new guidelines so all parties can act in the same way if the watchdog believes the rules allow parties to ring TPS numbers about voting intentions and later urge those people to vote for them." -politics,"Blair rejects Tory terror offer Tony Blair has rejected a Conservative compromise offer that could have eased the passage of anti-terror legislation. The Tories wanted a sunset clause inserted in the Anti-Terrorism Bill that would have forced ministers to revisit it in November. Mr Blair said the bill, which brings in house arrest for terror suspects, had time limiting safeguards already. The Tories say they will vote against it unless changes they want are agreed. The Lib Dems also oppose the plans. The government has already given way over the role of judges in house arrest cases. Mr Blair's refusal to accept the Tories' sunset clause proposals means that the government faces concerted opposition from all sides in the Lords. Peers begin three days of detailed deliberation on the bill on Thursday. The bill proposes ""control orders"", which as well as placing terrorism suspects under house arrest could mean curfews, tagging or bans on telephone and internet use. These would replace current powers to detain foreign terror suspects without trial, which the law lords have ruled against as a breach of human rights. The Tories want judicial oversight of all control orders, not just house arrest. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis told BBC Radio Four's the World at One his primary concern was potential miscarriages of justice. He said if someone was wrongly given a control order it would act as a ""recruiting sergeant"" for terrorists. He went on to say: ""If we don't get the amendments we regard as essential, including the sunset clause, we will vote against the bill."" In the Commons, Mr Howard said it would be ""far better if the whole of the legislation was subject to a sunset clause so Parliament could consider it all in a proper way instead of it being ramrodded through"". Mr Blair said the house arrest powers were already going to be subject to a sunset clause because it was annually renewable. The second, less stringent, type of control orders would be subject to a court appeal within 14 days and there would be a three-monthly report on their use by ""an eminent and independent person"". ""I believe (the new powers) are a proper balance between the civil liberties of the subject and the necessary national security of this country that I will not put at risk,"" said Mr Blair. The Lib Dems plan to oppose the Bill in the Lords on Thursday. Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""There's a lot of talking left. I would be uneasy about supporting a very bad bill even if it was just for eight months."" A spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch said it was a ""basic principle"" that people should only be punished after a fair trial. She added: ""Having a judge impose those punishments without a trial does not sanitise them either.""" -politics,"Police urge pub closure power New powers are needed to close disorderly pubs, bars and clubs for up to a week or even permanently, police chiefs have told MPs. Association of Chief Police Officers president Chris Fox said the current 24-hour closure power did not have enough impact on bad landlords. Mr Fox's comments follow the controversy over plans to allow pubs to open around the clock. He rejected critics' calls for the law change to be delayed. Instead, the new Licensing Act could help reduce drunken disorder - but only if it was properly planned, he argued. Acpo made its call for stronger closure powers in a paper for the Commons home affairs select committee. After the meeting, Mr Fox said being able to close premises for only 24 hours did not necessarily make an impact. ""If it's 12.30 on a Saturday morning and you close for 24 hours there's not a lot of pain for the premises because they probably wouldn't open on Sunday anyway. ""This is about getting through to the management that they can't run a disorderly house without facing some immediate sanctions."" Under Acpo's proposal, the closure orders would be used only with the agreement of the local licensing authority. The new licensing laws will give police greater powers to close pubs and clubs - but only for 24-hour periods. Mr Fox said the drinks industry was currently not regulating itself. ""It's making money at the cost of human misery and the public purse, and the strategic planning process has been less than useless,"" he said. Mr Fox said the new laws, due to start being phased in next month, could help if food outlets, public transport and public toilets could cope with late-night drinkers. ""Staggering it (closing hours) will be a solution if the infrastructure is there, if the premises are properly managed and people aren't being served rolling drunk and underage and then tossed out into the street,"" he said. ""We have the problem from 11pm to 2am in any event. We have to get a grip on the underlying causes of this."" Acpo wants pubs and clubs which cause extra work for police and hospitals to have to pay towards the costs. Home Secretary Charles Clarke is currently looking at the idea of a levy on the drinks industry to pay for the cost of extra policing. The licensing changes have sparked concern among some MPs, councils and some senior police officers who fear they could exacerbate drinking problems. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell on Tuesday said it was not her job to bow to the campaign against the changes. It was the status quo, not the new laws, which were causing current binge drinking problems, she told BBC Two's Newsnight. Leaked documents have suggested ex-Home Secretary David Blunkett branded new opening hours as a ""leap in the dark"". But Ms Jowell insisted his concerns had been met. The police's job against alcohol-related crime would be made easier if all pubs did not close at the same time, she added." -politics,"Councils prepare to set tax rises Council tax in Scotland is set to rise by an average of about 4% in the coming year, BBC Scotland has learned. Authorities will decide final figures on Thursday when projected increases will be more than twice the rate of inflation, which is currently 1.6%. The finance minister has urged councils to limit increases but they have warned that they will struggle to maintain services unless funding is increased. They say much additional government money is for new initiatives. Scottish Finance Minister, Tom McCabe MSP, said: ""Last week in parliament I announced an additional £419m for core expenditure to local government in Scotland. ""That's a 5.5% increase and sits against an inflation rate of 1.6%, so I think we have quite rightly said to councils this year that we would at the very least ask them to exercise restraint."" Mr McCabe is also looking for local authorities to become more efficient and save money in coming years. He told BBC Radio Scotland's Sunday Live programme: ""Here in Scotland we have 32 councils who all have their own individual collection systems for council tax, they have their own payroll systems and their own human resource systems. ""We think there has to be opportunities there for rationalisation and using the money saved to reinvest in frontline services."" The councils' umbrella organisation Cosla, which provided BBC Scotland with the indicative figures for next year, warned that councils would face a continuous struggle to maintain services. Mr McCabe has promised them about £8.1bn next year. ""However, most of the increase is targeted to new initiatives and councils will experience difficulties in maintaining core services,"" a Cosla spokesman said. Cosla says that it is willing to work with the executive on finding efficiency savings but that these will not be enough to maintain services. They say the funding plans for the next three years will see councils lose more of the share of public spending. The Conservatives accuse the Scottish Executive of using the council tax to raise funds because it is too afraid to raise income tax. The Tory finance spokesman, Brian Monteith MSP, said: ""Its a form of disguise... yet again we see that council tax is being used as a way of passing on costs. ""Scared of actually using its three pence income tax that it could put up, what we've seen over the years is more and more burdens being put onto local authorities and the council tax payer having to pick up the bill."" There are also warnings that unless funding to councils is increased in the next few years then services may have to be reduced. Linda Knox, Director of the Scottish Local Authority Management Centre at Strathclyde University, said: ""With this current settlement the increase is slowing. At the same time, the burdens on councils are greater than they were. ""The settlement figures don't include pay increases and the executive is also requiring a substantial figure - in the area of £325m - in efficiency savings across the settlement period."" Education will be protected from any cuts but Linda Knox says this will mean other services will suffer. She said: ""In practice, that will mean a 4-5% cut for other services. On the face of it the settlement looks like an increase of about 9.7% but by the time you take into account other factors its probably only about 1% in real terms.""" -politics,"Green fear for transport ballot The Green Party is concerned thousands of residents may not be able to vote in Edinburgh's transport referendum. Edinburgh City Council is to ballot constituents on proposals to introduce congestion charging in the capital. But Green MSP Mark Ballard fears people not on the council's edited electoral register may miss out. Local authorities can only send ballot papers to those on the edited list over non-statutory matters, such as the transport referendum. Therefore, residents who have exercised their right to have their details left off the list could miss the chance to vote. However, there is still time for those who are not on the list to contact the council and make sure they are sent ballot forms ahead of February's voting deadline. Mr Ballard said: ""This vote will set the future of transport in Edinburgh for decades to come. ""It is therefore vital that as many residents as possible in Edinburgh City and the surrounding areas, are registered to vote in the ballot. ""Many people are not aware that they may miss out on their chance to have a say. ""Everyone involved in this debate - both for and against - wants the ballot to be as fair and representative as possible, and that means encouraging people to take part."" The ballot will ask residents to vote for or against the council's proposed congestion charge scheme and a host of transport improvements to be funded by it. The outcome of the referendum will be known next month after the ballot forms are sent out and returned to the council. Towards the end of February, the council will meet to decide whether to proceed with an application to Scottish ministers for approval for its planned congestion charging scheme and the other parts of its transport package." -politics,"Straw attacked on China arms Moves to lift the European Union's ban on arms exports to China have been condemned by human rights groups and the Conservatives. The 15 year embargo was imposed in the aftermath of China's crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who will hold talks in Beijing on Thursday, said an EU arms code was more effective than the current ban. But Human Rights Watch says the EU is putting commerce above abuse concerns. In December, the EU pledged to work towards lifting the ban but said it was not ready to do so yet. Germany and France have repeatedly called for the embargo to be lifted. Britain has been more cautious but Mr Straw last week said he also wanted it to end, despite US objections. He expects it to be lifted over the next six months, a prediction which has alarmed critics. Brad Adams, from Human Rights Watch, said: ""This is a huge political signal from Europe that they are willing to forget about Tiananmen Square. ""There are still thousands of people who are unaccounted for."" Mr Straw said it was wrong to put China under the same embargo as countries such as Zimbabwe and Burma. The scope of the embargo was very narrow and did not have any force of law behind it, he told BBC Radio 4's World At One. In the UK, more export licences were refused under the existing European Union arms code than under the embargo, he said. And only two of the licences denied under the embargo would have been granted under the code. ""The code of conduct is much more effective, it's a more powerful tool of and we intend to strengthen it as a pre-condition of lifting the embargo with China,"" he said. Mr Straw denied the decision would suggest to China that Tiananmen Square had been forgotten. The level of human rights was a key criteria under the EU arms exports code, he said. Human rights groups say the code of conduct is not legally binding - but Mr Straw said it would be given legal force by the laws of many EU countries. Conservative shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said the move would be ""profoundly wrong"". The decision could undermine Nato as it severely damaged relations with the US, which is opposed to ending the ban. Mr Ancram argued: ""What the British Government is doing is giving in to French and German pressure, especially the French, who see vast contracts available to them if the embargo is lifted... ""It gives the wrong signals to China, who are simply not prepared to accept that what happened at Tiananmen Square was wrong."" Mr Straw's China trip is part of regular high-level meetings with Beijing ministers. He will meet Chinese counterpart Minister Li Zhaoxing to discuss developing relations between their two countries, Hong Kong and China's part in the talks on North Korea." -politics,"TV debate urged for party chiefs Broadcasters should fix a date for a pre-election televised debate between the three main political leaders, according to the Hansard Society. It would then be up to Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy to decide whether to take part, the non-partisan charity said. Chairman Lord Holme argued that prime ministers should not have the right of veto on a matter ""of public interest"". ""The broadcasters should make the decision to go ahead,"" he said. Lord Holme's proposal for a televised debate comes just four months after millions of viewers were able to watch US President George W Bush slug it out verbally with his Democratic challenger John Kerry. He said it was a ""democratically dubious proposition"" that it was up to the incumbent prime minister to decide whether a similar event takes place here. If Mr Blair did not want to take part, the broadcasters could go ahead with an empty chair or cancel the event and explain their reasons why, Lord Holme said. ""What makes the present situation even less acceptable is that although Mr Howard and Mr Kennedy have said they would welcome a debate, no-one has heard directly from the prime minister,"" he said. ""It has been left to nudges and winks, hints and briefings from his aides and campaign managers to imply that Mr Blair doesn't want one, but we haven't heard from the prime minister himself."" Lord Holme, who has campaigned for televised debates at previous elections, said broadcasters were ""more than willing to cooperate with the arrangements"". Opinion polls suggested that the idea had the backing of the public who like comparing the personalities and policies of the contenders in their own homes, he said. Lord Holme argued that as part of their public service obligations, broadcasters ""should make the decision to go ahead"" as soon as the election is called. An independent third-party body such as the Hansard Society or Electoral Commission could work out the ground rules so they were fair to participants and informative to the public, he said. ""It would be up to each party leader to accept or refuse,"" said Lord Holme. ""If the prime minister's reported position is true and he does want to take part, he would then be obliged to say why publicly. ""The broadcasters would then have the option of cancelling the event for obvious and well-understood reasons, or going ahead with an empty chair. ""Either way would be preferable to the present hidden veto."" The Hansard Society has long campaigned for televised debates and has published reports on the issue in 1997 and 2001. Tony Blair has already ruled out taking part in a televised debate during the forthcoming election campaign. Last month he said: ""We answer this every election campaign and, for the reasons I have given before, the answer is no,"" he said at his monthly news conference.""" -politics,"Peace demo appeal rejected Peace protestors have lost a landmark appeal over police actions in stopping an anti-war demonstration days after the start of the Iraq war. They had appealed against a High Court decision that it was not unlawful for police to forcibly turn protestors away near RAF Fairford, Glos, in 2003. The police had also sought to overturn a breach of human rights ruling arising from the same case. Sitting on Wednesday, three Appeal Court judges dismissed both appeals. They were challenging decisions by two judges in the High Court in February this year. It followed action by police, when three coachloads of people were searched and detained on the way to RAF Fairford and forced to return to London under police escort. The demonstrators appealed against a finding by Lord Justice May and Mr Justice Harrison that it was not unlawful for the police to turn the passengers away. The police were urging Lord Chief Justice and Lord Justices Clarke and Rix to overturn the ruling that they had breached the protestors' human rights by detaining them in the coaches. Craig Mackey, assistant chief constable of Gloucestershire Police, said: ""We have always considered that our responses were proportionate and all our decisions on the day were based on intelligence."" He said no one on the coaches accepted responsibility for items found on the coaches including body armour, a smoke bomb and five shields. ""Given these circumstances, and the fact that RAF Fairford, and other military installations in the UK, had been the scene of increasingly destructive disorder in the weeks preceding this incident, the police commander on the ground made the decision to turn back the coaches. ""From day one we have vigorously defended this decision, which was made out of a genuine concern that if the coaches were allowed to proceed it would have resulted in disorder and criminal damage at RAF Fairford."" Fairford Coach Action, representing more than 80 people who appealed against the police actions, say they are prepared to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights. Their action is supported by Amnesty International and Liberty." -politics,"Plan to give elderly care control Elderly and disabled people would choose how their own budget for personal care was spent and organised under government plans. Ministers say elderly and disabled people themselves, not social workers, should be able to decide on their care and stay in their own homes. They also plan a supremo for adult services in each English area to get different agencies working together. But the government shunned opponents' calls for free long-term care. There are 1.7m people needing care in England and ministers suggest the number could quadruple by 2050. Monday's consultation paper on social care for adults in England is aimed at ending a system which generates dependency. Health Minister Stephen Ladyman said: ""This document is the antithesis of the nanny state. ""It's about taking power away from the state and giving it to individuals and saying that we will help you make these decisions but we are not going to make them for you any more."" The government has already allowed local councils to give people money so they can pay for their services directly but take-up of the scheme has been ""disappointing"". Ministers say the new plans would make direct payments simpler and try to counter reluctance in some local councils to use the payments. They also want to set up a new ""half-way house"" where social workers tell people how much money is available for their care and help them choose how to spend that ""individual budget"". The scheme will be funded on existing budgets set until 2008. But Mr Ladyman said the plans could deliver savings in some areas, such as freeing up NHS beds and preventing illnesses. He ruled out free personal care in England - which is on offer in Scotland and Wales, saying it was ""unsustainable"". David Rogers, from the Local Government Association, said agencies were working together on the kind of innovation proposed by the government. And Tony Hunter, president of the Association of Directors of Social Services, said the plans could improve dignity and well-being for thousands of people. But Age Concern argued social care was chronically under-funded and older people were being offered choice in principle, but not in practice. Its director general, Gordon Lishman, said: ""Direct payments will not work if there are no services for people to choose from locally."" The Tories say people who pay for three years' long-term care directly or through insurance should be guaranteed free care for the rest of their lives. Tory spokesman Simon Burns said more than 80,000 long term care places had been lost since 1997. ""After eight years of persistent change, dogmatic enforcement of regulation, and overbearing government initiatives - we need action, not a vision,"" said Mr Burns. The Lib Dems say they would fund free personal care by a new 50% tax rate on incomes over £100,000. Health spokesman Paul Burstow said: ""Promoting independence sounds good and helping people to live in their own homes is a goal we share. ""But the risk is that independence can turn into isolation if the right support and care is not available.""" -politics,"Hunt demo at Labour meeting Pro-hunt supporters are set to protest at Labour's spring conference. The Countryside Alliance says it expects up to 4,000 supporters to demonstrate against the hunting ban. They have agreed to keep to a demonstration site on the other side of the River Tyne from the conference venue in Gateshead. A bid to overturn the law banning hunting with dogs in England and Wales has begun in the Court of Appeal. The ban comes into force on 18 February. The Court of Appeal is expected to rule early next week on whether the alliance's challenge has succeeded. Richard Dodd, regional director of the Countryside Alliance, said he expected between 2,000 and 4,000 supporters in Tyneside to make their protest, with hunt horns and placards. Campaigners have been asked not to bring any animals or alcohol. Mr Dodd said he did not believe there would be any repeat of the trouble which marred the pro-hunt demonstration outside Parliament in September. ""We are holding a static demonstration, just to remind Labour that we are not going away,"" he said. Northumbria Police said the pedestrian Millennium Bridge, by the demonstration site, will be shut if necessary. But Assistant Chief Constable David Warcup has liaised with several protest groups and said all negotiations had gone well. Fathers 4 Justice, pensioners' rights activists and Stop the War campaigners were also expected to demonstrate during the three-day conference which starts on Friday. Pro-hunt campaigners claims the 1949 Parliament Act - which extends the right of the House of Commons to overrule the House of Lords - was itself invalid because it was never passed by peers. The High Court last month ruled the act was valid and the proposed hunting ban was lawful. Pro-hunt supporters formally launched their second legal challenge to the ban in London's High Court on Thursday. The Countryside Alliance has lodged papers seeking a judicial review on human rights grounds. Animal welfare groups have welcomed the ban, many of whom have campaigned for a ban for decades saying hunting is cruel and unnecessary." -politics,"Watchdog probes e-mail deletions The information commissioner says he is urgently asking for details of Cabinet Office orders telling staff to delete e-mails more than three months old. Richard Thomas ""totally condemned"" the deletion of e-mails to prevent their disclosure under freedom of information laws coming into force on 1 January. Government guidance said e-mails should only be deleted if they served ""no current purpose"", Mr Thomas said. The Tories and the Lib Dems have questioned the timing of the new rules. Tory leader Michael Howard has written to Tony Blair demanding an explanation of the new rules on e-mail retention. On Monday Lib Dem constitutional affairs committee chairman Alan Beith warned that the deletion of millions of government e-mails could harm the ability of key probes like the Hutton Inquiry. The timing of the new rules just before the Freedom of Information Act comes into forces was ""too unlikely to have been a coincidence"", Mr Beith said. But a Cabinet Office spokeswoman said the move was not about the new laws or ""the destruction of important records"". Mr Beith urged the information commissioner to look at how the ""e-mail regime"" could ""support the freedom of information regime"". Mr Thomas said: ""The new Act of Parliament makes it very clear that to destroy records in order to prevent their disclosure becomes a criminal offence."" He said there was already clear guidance on the retention of e-mails contained in a code of practice from the lord chancellor. All e-mails are subject to the freedom of information laws, but the important thing was the content of the e-mail, said Mr Thomas. ""If in doubt retain, that has been the long-standing principle of the civil service and public authorities. It's only when you've got no further use for the particular record that it may be legitimate to destroy it. ""But any deliberate destruction to avoid the possibility of later disclosure is to be totally condemned."" The Freedom of Information Act will cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland from next year. Similar measures are being brought in at the same time in Scotland. It provides the public with a right of access to information held by about 100,000 public bodies, subject to various exemptions. Its implementation will be monitored by the information commissioner." -politics,"'Few ready' for information act Thousands of public bodies are ill-prepared for the Freedom of Information Act, due to come into force next month, because of government failures, say MPs. From next month anyone will have the power to demand information from a range of public bodies - from Whitehall departments to doctors' surgeries. But an all-party committee said it was ""not confident"" many would be ready. It blamed the Department for Constitutional Affairs for a ""lack of consistent leadership"". The Act comes into effect in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, on 1 January while similar measures are being brought in at the same time in Scotland. It provides the public with a right of access to information held by about 100,000 public bodies, subject to various exemptions. But the government department responsible for implementing the change suffered from an ""unusually high turnover"" of staff within the department, which had ""seriously interfered"" with its work, said the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee. It said, despite four years of preparations, some local authorities and parts of the health sector were still not ready. The DCA had ""failed"" to provide early guidance on technical matters and shown a ""lack of consistent leadership"", the MPs found. Committee chairman Alan Beith said: ""The DCA has had four years to prepare for freedom of information, but with less than a month to go it appears that some bodies may not be well enough prepared. ""Our report shows that in the past support and guidance from the DCA, which has overall responsibility for guiding the public sector through the process of implementation for the freedom of information regime, has been lacking."" A spokesman for the DCA said: ""The DCA has provided - and will continue to provide - strong, clear leadership. ""It has delivered a simple, liberal fees regime, guidance on the Act which has been widely praised, and expert networks of staff working on freedom of information implementation.""" -politics,"Tories reject rethink on axed MP Sacked MP Howard Flight's local Conservative association has insisted he will not be its candidate at the general election. Russell Tanguay, agent for Arundel and South Downs Tories, said Mr Flight was ineligible to be a candidate and the association was seeking a substitute. The news comes despite Mr Flight's allies saying they had enough support to hold a meeting to discuss his fate. Mr Flight landed in trouble over remarks on Tory tax and spending plans. He quit as Tory deputy chairman after apparently suggesting the Tories planned extra spending cuts - but he wants to continue as an MP. Tory headquarters says he cannot stand as a Conservative candidate because he is no longer an approved candidate. Mr Tanguay backed that view on Tuesday, saying: ""Howard Flight is ineligible to stand as a Conservative Party candidate. ""The association is in the process of selecting a new candidate."" But the local Tory chairman made similar comments on Friday and dissent continues. Two local councillors who back Mr Flight met Mr Tanguay and the local association's chairman in Arundel on Tuesday afternoon but did not comment as they left the meeting. Mr Flight says he will not stand down as a candidate unless his local party instructs him to do so at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM). The MP, who is consulting his lawyers, told BBC News: ""They selected me and they, if you like, dispose of me or keep me."" Mr Flight's supporters also say they have the 50 signatures needed to trigger the EGM. At a news conference, Mr Howard insisted he had played by the party's rules. The Tory leader, who argues he is ensuring honesty, said: ""We do not say one thing in private and another thing in public."" Labour election campaign coordinator Alan Milburn said the Tories were in ""turmoil"" because Mr Flight had exposed their hidden plans. The comments were not a ""one-off"", he said, claiming Mr Howard and other senior Tories were obsessively committed to cutting public spending. Liberal Democrat chairman Matthew Taylor said: ""Whilst I disagree with Howard Flight's views, it seems extraordinary to sack somebody for telling the truth."" It has also emerged Mr Howard has suspended Slough's constituency Conservative association for refusing to deselect its candidate. Adrian Hilton was abandoned after suggesting the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, under John Major's government, was an act of treason. The Catholic Herald also highlighted articles he wrote about the role of Catholicism in the European Union. Mr Hilton was chosen to fight the seat after the previous candidate, Robert Oulds, was sacked for being pictured with a range of guns and a hunting knife. Slough Conservative Association has now been placed on ""support status"" and is being run from Conservative campaign headquarters, says a senior party spokesman. Mr Hilton on Tuesday said he was considering taking legal action against his deposal. He said the local party had only learned of the final decision on the BBC News website on Monday evening. ""There are people at Central Office who are behaving like little dictators and seemingly people who are ordinary members are being treated with contempt,"" he said. The party says it did try to contact the local Conservative chairman." -politics,"CSA chief who 'quit' still in job The head of the ""failing"" Child Support Agency widely reported to have resigned three months ago is still at the helm of the troubled organisation. Doug Smith's departure was announced by Work Secretary Alan Johnson on 17 November as MPs grilled him over the agency's poor performance. His ""resignation"" was referred to by both Tory and Lib Dem leaders during that day's prime ministers questions. Officials now say he did not resign but will move on under civil service rules. Mr Smith's departure was reported widely at the time as his shouldering the blame for the failings of the Child Support Agency. In January the MPs who make up the Commons Work and Pensions Committee published a highly critical report into the ""failing"" agency noting the chief executive ""has now left"" and hoping ""the new leadership will bring a fresh approach to what is a failing organisation"". On that day's Today programme Mr Johnson was asked why Mr Smith had been allowed to resign rather than be sacked. He replied: ""The chief executive decided it was time to move on, there is a new chief executive coming in."" It now emerges that the widespread belief Mr Smith, made Commander of the Order of the Bath in the New Year honours, had left, was wrong. A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman confirmed Mr Smith was still in post and that he would continue in the job until a replacement was found. ""No date was ever given for Doug Smith's departure,"" she said adding that the post had been advertised. Tory work and pensions spokesman David Willetts said families affected by CSA failings would wonder why Mr Smith was still in his job three months after his departure was announced. The CSA has been surrounded by controversy since its introduction in 1993 to assess and enforce child support payments by absent parents. The work and pensions committee launched their inquiry into the CSA's performance after it became clear that, despite the introduction of a simpler system of calculating maintenance payments for new cases in 2003, a backlog of claims was still building up. It is currently chasing outstanding payments of more than £720m, while a further £947m has been designated as ""unrecoverable"". The MPs found American IT giant EDS' £456m system was ""nowhere near being fully functional and the number of dissatisfied, disenchanted and angry customers continues to escalate"". In November, when he surprised MPs and the watching media by announcing Mr Smith's departure, Mr Johnson said: ""I should tell you that Doug has decided that now is the time to stand aside and to allow a new chief executive to tackle the challenges ahead. ""Doug has exceeded the four years that senior civil servants are now expected to remain in a particular post. ""So Doug believes that we have reached the natural breakpoint at which he can hand over the reins."" Lib Dem Sir Archy Kirkwood, who chairs the Commons work and pensions committee, said that when Mr Johnson had announced Mr Smith was going he got the ""clear impression"" the CSA chief was retiring though it had since emerged that was not the case, and he may be seeking new employment opportunities. He added his committee was ""duty bound"" to allow the work and pensions secretary to get new management into place in the CSA and it would be ""premature"" to say anything further on the issue at the moment. But committee member and Tory MP Nigel Waterson said he was ""amazed"" Mr Smith was still in his job. ""When Mr Smith and the secretary of state came to give evidence, we were led to believe he was going shortly,"" he said. ""Even if he was working out three months notice, he should have been clearing his desk by now."" Asked on Thursday about Mr Smith's position Mr Johnson told BBC Radio 4's World at One he thought it was a ""non-story"". He added that he had been absolutely open when he announced Mr Smith's departure to the select committee and how people chose to interpret it was a ""different thing"". ""The major issue is have we got a new chief executive coming into this very important agency as quickly as possible and have we gone through the right selection process to make sure we've got the right people,"" he added." -politics,"Custody death rate 'shocks' MPs Deaths in custody have reached ""shocking"" levels, a committee of MPs and peers has warned. The joint committee on human rights found those committing suicide were mainly the most vulnerable, with mental health, drugs or alcohol problems. Members urged the government to set up a task force to tackle deaths in prisons, police cells, detention centres and special hospitals. There was one prison suicide every four days between 1999 and 2003, MPs said. The report, which followed a year-long inquiry by the committee, found the high death rate ""amounts to a serious failure to protect the right to life of a highly vulnerable group"". Many of those who ended up taking their own lives had ""presented themselves"" to the authorities with these problems before they even offended, the report said. It questioned whether prison was the most appropriate place for them to be kept and whether earlier intervention would have meant custody could have been avoided. Increased resources and a reduction in the use of imprisonment was needed to address the issue in the longer term, the report said. Committee chairman Labour MP Jean Corston said: ""Each and every death in custody is a death too many, regardless of the circumstances. ""Yet throughout our inquiry we have seen time and time again that extremely vulnerable people are entering custody with a history of mental illness, drug and alcohol problems and potential for taking their own lives."" ""These highly vulnerable people are being held within a structure glaringly ill-suited to meet even their basic needs. ""Crime levels are falling but we are holding more people in custody than ever before. The misplaced over-reliance on the prison system for some of the most vulnerable people in the country is at the heart of the problems that we encountered. ""Until we change our whole approach to imprisoning vulnerable people we cannot begin to meet our positive obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights and meet our duty of care to them."" The committee also highlighted ""deeply worrying"" cases of children and young people taking their own lives. Between 1990 and 2004, 25 children have taken their own lives in prison and two have died in secure training centres. It picked out the case of Joseph Scholes, who hanged himself from the bars of his cell in Stoke Heath Young Offender Institution in March 2002, and urged the home secretary to hold a public inquiry. It revealed that two weeks before his court appearance for a series of robberies, the 16-year-old was depressed, exhibiting suicidal tendencies and slashed his face with a knife about 30 times. Even though the trial judge had been alerted to his experience of sexual abuse and mental illness, he was sentenced to a two-year detention and training order. Nine days into his sentence, Joseph hung himself from the bars of his cell window with a sheet." -politics,"How political squabbles snowball It's become commonplace to argue that Blair and Brown are like squabbling school kids and that they (and their supporters) need to grow up and stop bickering. But this analysis in fact gets it wrong. It's not just children who fight - adults do too. And there are solid reasons why even a trivial argument between mature protagonists can be hard to stop once its got going. The key feature of an endless feud is that everyone can agree they'd be better off if it ended - but everyone wants to have the last word. Each participant genuinely wants the row to stop, but thinks it worth prolonging the argument just a tiny bit to ensure their view is heard. Their successive attempts to end the argument with their last word ensure the argument goes on and on and on. (In the case of Mr Blair and Mr Brown, successive books are published, ensuring the issues never die.) Now this isn't because the participants are stupid - it's actually each individual behaving entirely rationally, given the incentives facing them. Indeed, there's even a piece of economic theory that explains all this. Nothing as obscure as ""post-neo-classical endogenous growth theory"" which the chancellor himself once quoted - but a ubiquitous piece of game theory which all respectable policy wonks are familiar with. It's often referred to as the ""prisoner's dilemma"", based on a parable much told in economics degree courses... about a sheriff and two prisoners. The story goes that two prisoners are jointly charged with a heinous crime, and are locked up in separate cells. But the sheriff desperately needs a confession from at least one of them, to provide enough evidence to convict them of the crime. Without a confession, the prisoners will get a minimal sentence on some trumped up charge. Clearly the prisoners' best strategy is to keep their mouths shut, and take the short sentence, but the clever sheriff has an idea to induce them to talk. He tells each prisoner separately, that if they confess - and they are the only one to confess - they'll be let off their crime. And he tells them that if they don't confess - and they are the only one not to confess - they'll get life. Now, if you are prisoner confronted with this choice, your best bet is to confess. If your partner doesn't confess, you'll get off completely. And if your partner does confess, you'd better confess to ensure you don't get life. The result is of course, both prisoners confess, so the sheriff does not have to let either one off. Both prisoners' individual logic was to behave that way, even though both would have been better if they had somehow agreed to shut up. Don't worry if you don't entirely follow it - you can to look it up on Google, where there are 283,000 entries on it. The prisoners' dilemma and all its ramifications have truly captured economists in the last couple of decades. It is a parable used to describe any situation where there is an obvious sensible choice to be taken collectively, but where the only rational choice individually is to behave selfishly. A cold war arms race for example - a classic case where both Russia and America would be better off with just a few arms, rather than a lot of arms. But as long as each wants just a few more arms than the other, an arms race ensues with the results that the individually logical decision to buy more arms, results in arms levels that are too high. What economics tells us is that once you're in a prisoners' dilemma - unless you are repeating the experience many times over - it's hard to escape the perverse logic of it. It's no good just exhorting people to stop buying arms, or to stop arguing when all their incentives encourage them to carry on. Somehow, the incentives have to change. In the case of the Labour Party, if you believe the rift between Blair and Brown camps is as bad as the reports suggest, Solomon's wisdom needs to be deployed to solve the problem. Every parent knows there are ingenious solutions to arguments, solutions which affect the incentives of the participants. An example, is the famous rule that ""one divides, the other chooses"" as a way of allocating a piece of cake to be sliced up between greedy children. In the case of an apparently endless argument, if you want it to come to an end, you have to ensure the person who has the last word is one who loses rather than the one who wins the row. The cost of prolonging the row by even one more briefing, or one more book for that matter, has to exceed the benefit of having the last word, and getting your point in. If the rest of the party can enforce that, they'll have the protagonists retreating pretty quickly." -politics,"Plaid MP's cottage arson claim A Plaid Cymru MP believes UK security services were involved in some arson attacks blamed on Welsh extremists. It is 25 years since the start of 12 years of fire-bombings, attributed to a shadowy group known as Meibion Glyndwr. Plaid Cymru's Elfyn Llwyd has suggested the security services could have been involved, with the intention of discrediting the nationalist vote. Ex-Welsh Office Minister Lord Roberts of Conwy denied security services were involved. In March this year, North Wales Police reopened the case, saying materials kept during their investigations would be examined to find whether it would yield DNA evidence. Meibion Glyndwr - which means ""sons of Glyndwr"" - began burning property in December 1979 in protest at homes in rural Wales being sold as holiday cottages to people from England. The group was linked to most of the 220 or so fire-bombing incidents stretching from the Llyn Peninsula to Pembrokeshire. The campaign continued until the early 1990s. Police were accused in some quarters of targeting anyone who was a nationalist. Although one man, Sion Aubrey Roberts, was convicted in 1993 of sending letter bombs in the post, the arson cases remain unsolved. As a solicitor, Elfyn Llwyd represented Welsh singer Bryn Fôn when he was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the arson campaign. Fôn was released without charge . But now, as MP for Merionnydd Nant Conwy and Plaid Cymru's Parliamentary Leader, Mr Llwyd has argued that some of the terror attacks may have had the involvement of the security services and not Meibion Glyndwr. He believes that elements of the British security services may have carried out renegade actions in order to discredit Plaid Cymru and the nationalist vote ahead of elections. The claim is made in an interview for BBC Wales' Maniffesto programme to be shown on S4C on Sunday. Mr Llwyd said that the sophistication of many of the devices used in the attacks compared to the crude nature of many others, suggests a degree of professionalism which could only have come from individuals who knew exactly what they were doing. He said: ""What I'm saying is that the role that they took wasn't the appropriate one, i.e. like an agent provocateur and perhaps interfering and creating a situation where it looked like it was the nationalists that were responsible."" The programme also heard from Lord Roberts of Conwy, who was a Welsh Office minister at the time. He denied that the security services played any improper role. Mr Llwyd's theory has also been questioned by Plaid Cymru's former President, Dafydd Wigley. He accepted that the fires damaged Plaid Cymru's public image but believed that the security services had their hands full at the time with the IRA and animal rights activists. - Maniffesto can be seen on S4C on Sunday, 12 December, at 1200 GMT." -politics,"MPs quiz aides over royal income Senior officials at the two bodies generating private income for the Queen and Prince of Wales are to be questioned by MPs. Aides from the Duchy of Lancaster and Duchy of Cornwall will appear before the Commons Public Accounts Committee. It has been reported they could be questioned about Prince Charles' spending on Camilla Parker Bowles. But BBC correspondent Peter Hunt said they are not responsible for how money is spent and may be unable to answer. Duchy officials, who will appear before the committee on Monday, are only responsible for generating money. The Duchy of Lancaster provides the Queen's private income, while the Duchy of Cornwall provides Prince Charles' annual income. The Duchy of Cornwall is a 140,000-acre estate across 25 counties, and also includes residential properties, shops, offices, stocks and shares. It was set up in 1337 by King Edward III to provide income for successive heirs to the throne. It covers the cost of the prince's public and private life - neither Charles, nor William and Harry, receive taxpayers' money from the Civil List. However, the Prince of Wales did receive over £4m from government departments and grants-in-aid in 2003-4. The duchy last year generated almost £12m. The prince has voluntarily paid income tax - currently 40% - since 1993." -politics,"Amnesty chief laments war failure The lack of public outrage about the war on terror is a powerful indictment of the failure of human rights groups, Amnesty International's chief has said. In a lecture at the London School of Economics, Irene Khan said human rights had been flouted in the name of security since 11 September, 2001. She said the human rights movement had to use simpler language both to prevent scepticism and spread a moral message. And it had to fight poverty, not just focus on political rights for elites. Ms Khan highlighted detentions without trial, including those at the US camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and the abuse of prisoners as evidence of increasing human rights problems. ""What's a new challenge is the way in which this age-old debate on security and human rights has been translated into the language of war,"" she said. ""By using the language of war, human rights are being sidelined because we know human rights do not apply in times of war."" Ms Khan said such breaches were infectious and were now seen in almost very major country in the world. ""The human rights movement faces a crisis of faith in the value of human rights,"" she said. That was accompanied by a crisis of governance, where the United Nations system did not seem able to hold countries to account. The Amnesty secretary-general said a growing gap between the perceived influence of human rights group and what they could actually achieve was fuelling scepticism. ""Public passivity on the war against terror is the single most powerful indictment on the failures of human rights groups,"" she said. Ms Khan said the movement had failed to mobilise public outrage about what was happening to the human rights system. There needed to be a drive to use simpler language, talking about the basic morality of the issues rather than the complexity of legal processes. Such efforts could make the issues more relevant to people across the world, she said. The human rights groups also had to recognise there were new groups which had to be tackled in new ways as power dripped away from state governments. Al-Qaeda, for example, was not going to be impressed by a traditional Amnesty letter writing campaign. More also needed to be done to develop a human rights framework for international business corporations. Amnesty International members voted in 2001 to extend the organisation's work from political and civil rights to cover social and economic rights too. Ms Khan said the human rights movement would make itself irrelevant if it turned away from the suffering caused by economic strife. ""We would be an elitist bunch working for the elites, for those who cannot read the newspaper of their choice rather than those who cannot read,"" she said. Despite her concerns, Ms Khan dubbed herself a ""hope-monger"", saying she was confident the passions of the human rights movement could overcome the new challenges." -politics,"Could rivalry overshadow election? Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are desperately trying to stuff the genie of their rivalry back into the bottle. Along with any number of senior cabinet colleagues, they are insisting their only job is to win the next election and govern in the best interests of Britain. It is a message they are aiming directly at their backbenchers who are becoming irritated and even unnerved by the continuing claims and counter claims surrounding this alleged rift. Ian Gibson, for example, urged the two men to stop squabbling, declaring: ""For goodness sake, sometimes you have to rise above petulance and make sure that you do your job as effectively as you can."" Those with slim majorities are particularly fearful that the rift could hit their own hopes of re-election. Tony Blair will seek to reassure Labour MPs on Monday evening at their first meeting of the new year at Westminster - a behind-closed doors meeting which Gordon Brown is thought likely to also attend to show unity. Meanwhile the likes of Health Secretary John Reid and Labour peer Lord Haskins are warning of the electoral dangers of allowing this soap opera to continue. And they have both warned the rival camps to stop spreading the poison. Lord Haskins even suggested Mr Blair should reinstate Mr Brown as the central figure in the election planning. But this particular genie is unusually reluctant to return to captivity and many fear it is simply too late to repair the damage. They believe they will be fighting the next election with the sounds of open warfare between the two men ringing in their ears. And it matters little whether the rift is real or, as some try to suggest, simply the product of newspaper headlines and Westminster gossip. Few in Westminster actually believe that, simply because the evidence appears to contradict it. For example, the weekend's attempts by both men to play down the divisions failed to do the trick. Even as they were both insisting on their unity of purpose and claiming they would not be swayed by newspaper stories, they still managed to stir the speculation with their comments. Mr Blair talked about the ""New"" Labour manifesto - a move which seemed calculated to irritate the chancellor, who has long rejected the label. And Mr Brown pointedly refused to deny claims the prime minister had reneged on a deal to hand him the premiership last year. That claim was repeated in Robert Peston's book, a book which amply demonstrates this corrosive Downing Street soap opera is nowhere near its final act. For his part, Mr Brown insists his only motivation was to get Labour re-elected. The trouble is, both men have fallen short of offering simple, straightforward denials of the central claims. So they have both been accused of actually making matters worse by feeding the speculation with their own behaviour. The first thing to be said is that these suggestions have not come from nowhere. They started with and are sustained by ""friends"" of the two men. One only had to listen to the chancellor's friend and former spin chief Charlie Whelan last week to understand that there is a real anger from this camp at the prime minister's apparent attempts to confound Mr Brown's leadership ambitions. But it is not just public pronouncements from ex-aides. There are whispered briefings to selected journalists from both sides. It is no secret in Westminster, for example, that Downing Street believes the chancellor is indulging in a mammoth sulk and acting in a petty and deliberately provocative manner. Then there are the actions of the men themselves. Gordon Brown sets out what is seen as a rival manifesto then appears to embark on his own personal campaign. The prime minister responds by scheduling his monthly press conference to clash with a keynote speech by the chancellor. Meanwhile large numbers of backbench MPs insist voters are either entirely uninterested in the chatter, which they believe is a media-only obsession, or that they fear for the efficient running of a government beset by such rivalry. Either way, there is universal agreement that if this goes on through the general election it can only do the Labour party serious damage. There are signs that the two men appreciate the dangers and both want to put a lid on all the speculation. But with probably only four months to the next election, that looks like being a particularly difficult trick to pull off." -politics,"UK heading wrong way, says Howard Tony Blair has had the chance to tackle the problems facing Britain and has failed, Michael Howard has said. ""Britain is heading in the wrong direction"", the Conservative leader said in his New Year message. Mr Blair's government was a ""bossy, interfering government that takes decisions that should be made by individuals,"" he added. But Labour's campaign spokesman Fraser Kemp responded: ""Britain is working, don't let the Tories wreck it again"". Mr Howard also paid tribute to the nation's character for its generous response to the Asian quake disaster. The catastrophe was overshadowing the hopes for the future at this usually positive time of the year, Mr Howard said. ""We watched the scenes of destruction with a sense of disbelief. The scale, the speed, the ferocity of what happened on Boxing Day is difficult to grasp. ""Yet Britain's response has shone a light on our nation's character. The last week has shown that the warm, caring heart of Britain beats as strong as ever."" He went on to reflect on the values that ""most Britons hold dear"". Looking ahead to the coming general election, he pledged to ""turn these beliefs into reality"" and set out the choices he says are facing Britain. ""How much tax do people want to pay? Who will give taxpayers value for money, the clean hospitals and good, disciplined schools they want? ""Who can be trusted to get a grip on the disorder on our streets and the chaos in our immigration system?"" Mr Blair has failed to tackle these problems, he claimed, saying he has the ""wrong solution"" to them. ""The result is big government and higher taxes eroding incentives, undermining enterprise and denying people choice. ""Worst of all, it is a government that has wasted people's money and failed to tackle the problems families face today."" The Tories, he said, can cut crime and improve public services without asking people to pay more taxes. ""We can have progress without losing what makes Britain great - its tolerance, the respect for the rule of law, the ability of everyone to fulfil their potential. ""We simply need to change direction. The election will give Britain the chance to change."" This is the record Mr Blair will have to defend in the coming months, he said, urging voters to hold him to account. But Labour spokesman Mr Kemp said: ""It would be more appropriate for this message to come out on 1 April, not 1 January."" ""Let us never forget that when Michael Howard was in government Britain suffered mass unemployment, 15% interest rates, record home repossessions, and the introduction of the poll tax. ""With Labour Britain is working. Rather than alluding to false promises Michael Howard should be starting 2005 with an apology to the British people for the misery that the government, of which he was a member, inflicted upon the country." -politics,"Top Tories on Lib Dem 'hit list' The Liberal Democrats are aiming to unseat a string of top Tories - including leader Michael Howard - at the next general election. Mr Howard's seat is at the top of the Liberal Democrats' list. Others targeted include Oliver Letwin, David Davis and Theresa May, Lib Dem's elections chief Lord Rennard said. He said it was ""nothing personal"" but that ""very many of the prominent Conservatives"" had slender leads in seats where the Lib Dems were second. In 2001, Michael Howard won the Folkestone & Hythe seat with 20,645 votes, compared to 14,738 for the Liberal Democrat candidate Peter Carroll, giving the Tory leader a majority of 5,907. Asked if this amounted to the party's much vaunted ""decapitation strategy"" Lord Rennard said it was not a term he had ever used. But he urged Labour supporters to vote tactically to remove prominent Conservatives. ""I just don't think Labour voters in these sort of seats could resist the temptation to use their votes effectively to remove a Conservative."" He denied this strategy was opportunism, insisting the Lib Dem's policies on issues such as tuition fees, the council tax and free care for the elderly appealed ""to all sides of the political spectrum"". ""We are in favour of tactical voting as long as the tactic is to vote Liberal Democrat,"" he added. A Conservative spokesperson said: ""The Liberal Democrats can talk all they like about strategy. The problem the Liberal Democrats face is that a large number of Lib Dem voters do not agree with their policies. ""We will be pointing out how they are soft on crime, how they support higher taxes, their opposition to controlled immigration and support for giving Europe more control over our lives""." -politics,"Campbell returns to election team Ex-Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell will return to the fold to strengthen Labour's general election campaign, the party has confirmed. Mr Campbell has consistently made public his keenness to play a part in the poll, expected in May. Both Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott have welcomed his return. ""He is a strong Labour Party member,"" Mr Prescott told BBC One's Breakfast With Frost programme. Mr Campbell quit Number 10 in August 2003 after being Tony Blair's right-hand man at the 1997 and 2001 elections. Labour have refused to discuss his exact new position and have not said how it would affect his Downing Street replacement David Hill. ""Of course Alastair's going to be part of the election campaign and I think that all of us who will also be part of the election campaign are very pleased about that,"" Ms Jowell told Sky News. But she said his return would not put anybody else's ""nose out of joint"". ""This is the daft thing about the way in which politics is written about,"" Ms Jowell added. ""There's room for everybody. We serve the country better if we make room for all the talent."" A Labour source told the Sunday Times Mr Campbell would ""effectively front"" the election media campaign but said he would be given no formal title. Labour strategists told the paper he would be ""set loose"" on Conservative leader Michael Howard in attacking his party's economic record when it was in power. ""They used pictures from the 1970s in the 1992 campaign to remind people of the winter of discontent - and now it's our turn,"" the source told the paper. ""Making Michael Howard leader gives us an unmissable opportunity to remind people what it was like to pay mortgage rates of 15% even if it was more than a decade ago."" Mr Campbell was at the centre of the government's row with BBC over Andrew Gilligan's story about the Iraq weapons dossier. The Hutton inquiry cleared him of ""sexing up"" the dossier in the run-up to the Iraq war. Since leaving Downing Street, he has toured the country with his one man show, An Audience With Alastair Campbell and presented a number of interview programmes for Channel 4." -politics,"Campbell: E-mail row 'silly fuss' Ex-No 10 media chief Alastair Campbell is at the centre of a new political row over an e-mail containing a four-letter outburst aimed at BBC journalists. Mr Campbell sent the missive by mistake to BBC2's Newsnight after it sought to question his role in Labour's controversial poster campaign. He later contacted the show saying the original e-mail had been sent in error and that it was all a ""silly fuss"". Mr Campbell has recently re-joined Labour's election campaign. The e-mail was revealed the day after Peter Mandelson, former Labour minister and now a European Commissioner, warned the BBC to steer away from ""demonising"" Mr Campbell. Mr Campbell messaged Newsnight after the programme investigated claims that Labour's advertising agency TBWA was blaming him for controversy over its campaign posters. The images, including one of flying pigs and another of what critics claim depicted Tory leader Michael Howard as Fagin, prompted accusations of anti-Semitism, claims denied by Labour. Mr Campbell's e-mail, which was apparently intended for a party official, suggested they should get Trevor Beattie, TBWA's boss, to issue a statement. In it, he said: ""Just spoke to trev. think tbwa shd give statement to newsnight saying party and agency work together well and nobody here has spoken to standard. Posters done by by tbwa according to political brief. Now fuck off and cover something important you twats!"" The e-mail was sent by mistake to Newsnight journalist Andrew McFadyen. Realising his error, Mr Campbell then e-mailed Mr McFadyen pointing out the mistake, but suggesting presenter Jeremy Paxman would have seen the funny side. He said: ""Not very good at this e-mail Blackberry malarkey. Just looked at log of sent messages, have realised e-mail meant for colleagues at TBWA has gone to you. For the record, first three sentences of email spot on. No row between me and trevor. ""Posters done by them according to our brief. I dreamt up flying pigs. Pigs not great but okay in the circs of Tories promising tax cuts and spending rises with the same money. TBWA made production. ""Campbell swears shock. Final sentence of earlier e-mail probably a bit colourful and personal considering we have never actually met but I'm sure you share the same sense of humour as your star presenter Mr P. ""Never known such a silly fuss since the last silly fuss but there we go. Must look forward not back."" Later the prime minister's spokesman was asked by journalists about his view on Mr Campbell's use of abusive language. The spokesman said: ""The person you are referring to is capable of speaking for himself and he no longer works in government."" Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he had always had ""very good and polite relations"" with Mr Campbell, who he described as ""very talented"". But on the former spin doctor's use of language, Mr Straw said: ""I do know the odd journalist who has occasionally used the odd word that would probably be inappropriate in some circumstances. Maybe I mix with the wrong kind of journalists."" Liam Fox, Tory co-chairman, said the return of Mr Campbell was a sign of new ""sinister and underhand tactics"" by Labour." -politics,"Jamieson issues warning to bigots Scotland's justice minister has warned bigoted soccer fans that she wants to hit them ""where it hurts most"" by banning them from matches. Cathy Jamieson said exclusion orders are one of a series of measures being considered in the Scottish Executive campaign against sectarianism. She praised Celtic and Rangers for their work in tackling the problem. However, the minister said stopping sectarian abuse associated with Old Firm matches is a key objective. Ms Jamieson was speaking ahead of the third round Scottish Cup clash between the Glasgow clubs at Parkhead on Sunday. The sectarianism long associated with sections of the support from both clubs has become a significant target for the executive. Last week Ms Jamieson and First Minister Jack McConnell met supporters' representatives from both clubs to discuss the issue. They plan to hold an anti-sectarian summit next month with officials from the clubs, church leaders, senior police officers and local authority chiefs among those to be invited. Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Sunday Live programme, Ms Jamieson described Friday's meeting as ""very productive"" and said putting the squeeze on the bigots would be a key aim. Ms Jamieson stressed that sectarianism has not been confined to football but it can act as a ""trigger"" for tensions and violence. Clubs have taken action in the past to ban troublesome fans and supporters' groups expressed their desire to ensure that the game is no longer tainted by the problem. Ms Jamieson said the executive should have a role in tackling the soccer troublemakers. She said: ""We can't get away from the fact that in some instances some of the religious hatred that some people try to associate with football boils over into violence. ""That is the kind of thing we want to stop and that's the kind of thing supporters' groups are very clear they don't want to be part of either, and they will work with us to try and deal with that."" Ms Jamieson praised the police for their action and said: ""The police do want to identify whether there are particular individuals who are going over the top and inciting hatred or violence - they will crack down very effectively on them. ""We have of course already indicated that we will consider the introduction of banning orders to give additional powers to where there are people who are going over the top, who have made inappropriate behaviour at football matches, to be able to stop them attending the games. ""That's the kind of thing that will hit those kind of people where it hurts the most in not allowing them to attend the games,"" she said. Praising Celtic and Rangers for their efforts, she said: ""I don't think there is any doubt that we have seen some positive moves from the clubs. ""Both Rangers and Celtic football clubs have been involved in working with the executive to produce, for example, an educational pack for young people.""" -politics,"Blunkett hints at election call Ex-Home Secretary David Blunkett has given fresh clues that the general election will be announced on Monday. He told BBC Radio Five Live: ""I'm out in my constituency getting ready for what we presume will be an announcement very shortly at the weekend."" He clarified that he meant he would be in his Sheffield seat this weekend, not that he expected an election call then. Tony Blair is tipped to ask the Queen on Monday to dissolve Parliament ready for a 5 May poll." -politics,"Turkey deal 'to help world peace' A deal bringing Turkey a step closer to EU membership is of ""fundamental importance"" to the peace and security of the world, Tony Blair has said. The deal, struck at the European Council last week, also proved claims of a clash between Muslims and Christians were ""wrong"", Mr Blair said. It represented the achievement of an ""historic British objective"", he added. Tory leader Michael Howard said the deal laid to rest any suggestion the EU was ""anti-Islamic"". Turkey's involvement with the EU would provide an ""invaluable bridge"" between Europe and the rest of the world, Mr Howard added. But the Tory leader argued that the EU constitution was not designed to take in a country as large as Turkey. Mr Blair has been a leading advocate of Turkish membership despite controversy surrounding the idea. He insisted that the Turkish leadership had made great advances in improving its human rights records. The deal to open formal talks with Ankara came despite an EU demand for Turkey to recognise Cyprus. It was agreed the issue can be tackled at a later date but Turkish premier Recep Erdogan had to accept negotiations did not guarantee his country full EU membership. The internationally recognised southern part of Cyprus is an EU member, but Turkey, which occupies northern Cyprus, had previously insisted it would not bow to demands to recognise the country, calling the issue a ""red line"". It could take up to 15 years before Turkey is able to join, and entry cannot be guaranteed. If it joins, Turkey may have to accept restrictions to limit migration by its citizens. The EU has also announced that it will start accession talks with Croatia in April 2005. However, talks will begin only if the country co-operates fully with the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia." -politics,"Hague's six-figure earnings shown The rewards of leaving front-bench politics are shown in the latest annual register of members' interests. The register shows former Tory leader William Hague earning up to £820,000 on top of his MPs' salary, much of it from speaking fees. His former shadow chancellor Michael Portillo makes up to £560,000 a year - partly because of speeches and TV work. Ex-health secretary Alan Milburn earned up to £85,000 from speeches, articles and advice while not in the Cabinet. Mr Milburn was away from the frontbench for just more than a year between stepping down as health secretary and becoming Labour's election supremo. His declared interests include £20,000 from newspaper articles and fees of up to £35,000 for four speeches. He also commanded a salary of between £25,000 and £35,000 for being on investment company Bridgepoint Capital's European advisory committee. His time out of office will, however, have lost him his £71,433 minister's salary. Mr Hague's work outside Parliament included two one-man shows, which with other speaking fees netted him up to £480,000. He also earned up to £195,000 for a weekly column in the News of the World, and between £5,000 and £10,000 for presenting BBC'2's Have I Got News for You. Mr Hague was also paid an undisclosed amount for the newspaper serialisation of his biography of William Pitt the Younger and up to £135,00 for work as an adviser to various companies. Former Defence Secretary Michael Portillo makes some of his money as a non-executive director of BAE Systems. He is to stand down as an MP at the next election. And former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook was paid between £45,001 and £50,000 for the paperback edition of his book about his resignation from government. His declared income of up to £205,000 also includes payments for being a consultant to the Tote and for his regular column in the Guardian newspaper. The register also shows former Home Office Minister Ann Widdecombe declaring a £100,000 advance for her third and fourth novels. She also received up to £30,000 for acting as the Guardian's agony aunt and between £5,001 and £10,000 for appearing on ITV's Celebrity Fit Club. David Blunkett has become a paid adviser to Indepen Consulting Limited now he is not home secretary - he helps them with seminars about the relationship between government and business. He earns between £5,001and £10,000 for the work. Tony Blair's entry confirms that King Abdullah of Jordan paid for him to fly from a holiday in Egypt to official discussions - and for a sightseeing tour to Wadi Rum. Tory leader Michael Howard's only fresh entry is a Christmas hamper from the Sultan of Brunei. He also declares a trip to Mexico last year to address executives of News International, and helicopter and private jet travel paid for by supporters. Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy registered donations to his office from supporters, a free ticket to last year's Bafta awards and rent from a single-bedroom flat in London. The register only contains new information for December 2004 - but Monday saw the publication of the annual review of the register, with the year's details. The payments are shown in bands of up £5,000, making it difficult to calculate the exact earnings." -politics,"Hague 'given up' his PM ambition Former Conservative leader William Hague says he will not stand for the leadership again, having given up his ambition to be prime minister. Mr Hague, 43, told the Daily Telegraph he would now find a life dominated by politics too ""boring"" and unfulfilling. Mr Hague, who stepped down after his party's 2001 election defeat, does not rule out a return to the front bench. He also told the paper he hopes to remain MP for Richmond, North Yorks, and start a family with wife Ffion. Mr Hague, who recently had published the biography of William Pitt the Younger, also said he wanted to continue writing books and speech-writing. He told the newspaper: ""I don't know whether I will ever go back on to the front, but don't rush me."" Asked if he would stand for the leadership again, Mr Hague replied: ""No. Definitely not."" His determination to stay away from a central role will disappoint some senior Conservative members, who say the party needs him. Tim Collins, the shadow education secretary, said last week it would be a ""huge boost"" to the party if Mr Hague returned to the front bench. Mr Hague became an MP at 27 and Leader of the Opposition at 36. He said: ""I feel fortunate that, by the age of 40, I had crammed in an entire political career. ""I had been in the Cabinet and been leader of the party, so now I can branch out into other things...it is a very liberating feeling."" Mr Hague added that he may have misjudged his own ambition to be prime minister. ""Maybe I wasn't as driven by politics as I thought I was,"" he said." -politics,"Citizenship event for 18s touted Citizenship ceremonies could be introduced for people celebrating their 18th birthday, Charles Clarke has said. The idea will be tried as part of an overhaul of the way government approaches ""inclusive citizenship"" particularly for ethnic minorities. A pilot scheme based on ceremonies in Australia will start in October. Mr Clarke said it would be a way of recognising young people reaching their voting age when they also gain greater independence from parents. Britain's young black and Asian people are to be encouraged to learn about the nation's heritage as part of the government's new race strategy which will also target specific issues within different ethnic minority groups. Officials say the home secretary wants young people to feel they belong and to understand their ""other cultural identities"" alongside being British. The launch follows a row about the role of faith schools in Britain. On Monday school inspection chief David Bell, accused some Islamic schools of failing to teach pupils about their obligations to British society. The Muslim Council of Britain said Ofsted boss Mr Bell's comments were ""highly irresponsible"". The Home Office started work on its Community Cohesion and Race Equality Strategy last year and the outcome, launched on Wednesday, is called 'Improving Opportunity, Strengthening Society'. It is aimed at tackling racism, exclusion, segregation and the rise in political and religious extremism. ""It represents a move away from the one-size-fits-all approach to focus on specifics within cultural groups,"" said a Home Office spokesman. ""It is not right to say that if you are from a black or ethnic minority group you must be disadvantaged."" The spokesman highlighted specific issues that affect particular communities - for example people of south Asian origin tend to suffer from a high incidence of heart disease. ""It is about drilling down and focusing on these sorts of problems,"" the spokesman added. Launching the initiative Mr Clarke said enormous progress had been made on race issues in recent years. He added: ""But while many members of black and minority ethnic communities are thriving, some may still find it harder to succeed in employment or gain access to healthcare, education or housing. ""This strategy sets out the government's commitment to doing more to identify and respond to the specific needs of minorities in our society."" Some 8% of the UK population described themselves as coming from a non-white ethnic minority in the 2001 Census. The Downing Street Strategy Unit in 2003 said people from Indian and Chinese backgrounds were doing well on average, often outperforming white people in education and earnings. But those of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black Caribbean origin were significantly more likely to be unemployed and earn less than whites, it said. The Home Office wants more initiatives which try to promote a sense of belonging by encouraging young people to take part in voluntary work. The programmes are designed to support the citizenship lessons already taking place in schools." -politics,"Labour's election love-in Peace and love have been in short supply in the Labour party in recent days. If press reports are to be believed, Alan Milburn and Gordon Brown have been at each other's throats over the contents of Labour's next election manifesto. But the pair were all smiles on Tuesday morning, as they joined John Prescott to unveil Labour's latest poster campaign. The event - at Old Billingsgate Fish Market on the banks of the Thames - was a carefully choreographed show of unity. And the surest sign yet that we are heading for a general election in the next few months. It was also one of the most bizarre photo opportunities of recent years. The first inkling something slightly odd was afoot was when - in place of the soft rock music normally chosen for such occasions - Labour's speakers crackled to life with the sound of Booker T and the MGs. Then a VW camper van trundled into view, decked out in that most mind-bending of psychedelic messages - ""lowest mortgage rate for 40 years"". As the side-door slid open, it looked for one glorious moment as if the Cabinet had decided to bury their differences and go on the road together, Scooby Doo-style. But, sadly, it wasn't the Cabinet who had raided the dressing-up box - just six rather ill-at-ease looking Labour students. Two were dressed as Regency dandies - to unveil a poster trumpeting ""the longest period of economic growth for 200 years"". Another pair of students were in a Beatle wig and Sgt Pepper jacket to highlight the ""lowest interest rates since the 1960s"". The remaining two were dressed in a vague approximation of disco chic to demonstrate the ""lowest unemployment since the seventies"". The politicians - led out by John Prescott - were soberly-suited as always. The event may have been designed to highlight Labour's economic success under Mr Brown, but there was little doubt who was in charge. The chancellor walked side-by-side with Mr Milburn, pointedly exchanging chit chat, as they approached the microphone. But it was Mr Milburn who took centre stage, speaking of the ""positive campaign"" the party hoped to stage in the ""coming weeks and months"". The mobile poster vans would ""let people know Britain is working again"". Mr Brown repeated the familiar mantras displayed on the posters and spoke of Labour's ""shared purpose"" and ""united dedication"". It was left to Mr Prescott to pay glowing tribute to the chancellor's record and, in a final flourish, to produce his famous pledge card, from 1997, claiming Labour has met all of its promises. The event was carefully stage-managed to underline Cabinet unity. And, more specifically, to demonstrate the ""central role"" Mr Brown will play in the election campaign, despite being sidelined as campaign chief in favour of Mr Milburn. But keen students of body language will have had a field day. There was much forced smiling for the cameras, but only Mr Prescott, who revels in such occasions, seemed to be truly enjoying himself. Mr Milburn made a point of turning to face the chancellor, as he spoke, nodding thoughtfully. But it was the former health secretary's final gesture, placing an arm on Mr Brown's back as they walked away from the microphones, which was perhaps the most telling. Thanks for dropping by Gordon, he might have been saying." -politics,"UKIP's secret weapon? By any measure, New Yorker Dick Morris is that thing Americans love over everything else - a winner. This is the man who, some pundits believe, was almost single-handedly responsible for Bill Clinton's sensational 1992 comeback victory. But Morris is no ideologue. He has worked as election strategist for any number of Republicans as well and, more recently, politicians from Mexico to Uruguay. Now he is back in London as the UK Independence Party's not-so-secret electoral weapon after returning from the Ukraine where he helped - you guessed it - opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. If there is one regular criticism levelled at Morris, it is that he is too ready to switch allegiances. That he enjoys the game more than the politics. So why Britain and why UKIP which, despite its recent EU election successes, is not likely to pull off a sensational victory in the looming general election. On this subject, Morris appears almost evangelical. ""I was on a cruise in the Mediterranean and, coincidentally, so was UKIP leader Roger Knapman. ""I had just written a piece saying how the English Channel was now wider than the Atlantic which he liked and it went from there"". But what is it about UKIP that particularly attracts him? Many might think it is simply another chance to practice his art, irrespective of the politics. ""I think the greatest threat to democracy in the world is not terrorism but bureaucratism"". A great soundbite, but a surprise coming from a New Yorker post 11 September. ""It is the growth of these bodies composed of experts who know better, who don't believe in letting democracy govern but believe in letting the correct solution be determined. ""That's international bankers, the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and, primarily, the European Union"". So he is out to help UKIP take Britain out of this organisation which he believes is unreformable and inherently undemocratic. And he is scathing of the Tory party which he also appears to believe is unreformable. ""The Tory party is schizophrenic about Europe. But until somebody says they are willing to leave the EU they can't possibly re-negotiate anything (as Michael Howard is pledged to do). ""It's like walking into a liquor store with a gun to rob it and saying: 'before I can proceed with the robbery I want to make clear I am not going to shoot anybody'"". Possibly a very American analogy, but another great soundbite. ""The basic point is that the EU seeks political integration to move the entire nexus of decision making away from Britain - and we oppose that and the Tories cannot be trusted to oppose it"". So is UKIP's job to destroy the Tories, as former member Robert Kilroy-Silk once notoriously declared? ""No. The aim of UKIP is to withdraw from the EU and if it has any relation to the Tories it is to stiffen the Tories' spine on the issue by having a large enough UKIP vote so that we move the Tories in the direction they are refusing to move. ""But it's not just to shift the Tories. I think UKIP had a huge amount to do with Tony Blair's decision to hold a referendum on the European constitution and I think it had a huge amount to do with his refusal to go into the euro"". And, while we are on the subject of Mr Kilroy-Silk, Mr Morris despatches him with another of his neat soundbites. ""Robert Kilroy Silk is not a team player - it is a good idea our party stands for some thing and not some one"". So what is the big plan for the general election. How will he achieve the breakthrough? ""Look, we are not going to be forming the next government,"" he said. Neither does UKIP have to fight every seat. As with the 2004 US presidential election, he says, the outcome will be decided by a small number of swing seats - just as he believes it will in Britain. So, with limited resources, the aim is to target those seats and end the day with a significant group in the Commons. He also believes it is possible the internet could have a big part in the poll. ""The internet was a decisive factor in the 2004 presidential election - through blogs (individuals posting their views in online diaries). People just did it"". ""Anything can happen in the next general election. There is an inherent instability at the moment. ""Labour and the Tories have drawn the consensus so tightly and to the left there is room for another voice"". That might, he suggests, lead to a hung parliament with UKIP and others holding the balance of power. It is a huge task, surely. But there is undoubtedly a sense that the next general election may indeed produce some surprises - even while most still believe it is Labour's for the taking. UKIP's performance in last year's European elections was just such a shocker and showed that Mr Morris may have a point about the new consensus. And after all, he has a reputation to sustain." -politics,"Top judge clashes with ministers The UK's top judge has revealed he has clashed with ministers about how the heads of public inquiries are chosen. Lord Woolf said he was determined his current veto on whether a judge should chair an inquiry should continue as a guard for judicial independence. But he told MPs the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, was insisting he should have the final say in such cases. Lord Hutton's inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly sparked debate about who should run inquiries. The government says the lord chancellor would be unlikely to go against Lord Woolf's wishes. Lord Woolf, who is Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, was giving evidence to the Commons public administration select committee's inquiry into public inquiries. He said he had not been involved in the choice of Lord Hutton, who as a law lord did not come under his jurisdiction. But he argued he should have a veto on whether judges generally should chair a particular inquiry and if so, which judge it should be. In written evidence to the committee, Lord Woolf said: ""I have, so far, failed to reach an agreement with the lord chancellor on this issue ... I intend to maintain my position and will press for this safeguard to be in any future legislation."" Judges should think carefully before heading an inquiry into a highly political issue, such as the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, he said. He argued: ""The subject matter of the inquiry may be so political that it would be damaging to the judiciary for a judge to be involved. ""In addition, the question of whether there should be an inquiry at all may be highly controversial and if a judge is appointed, the judiciary, as a result of the appointment, may be seen as siding inappropriately with the government."" He told the MPs: ""Anything that tends to undermine the confidence of the public in the judiciary worries me."" Lord Woolf said the current rules were not written down but it was inconceivable in practice that the lord chancellor would overrule his concerns. But that situation could change with new legal reforms. The issue had been ""overlooked"" when a new agreement was drawn up about those responsibilities and the dispute had emerged in later discussions. ""What I am asking for is a situation where if the lord chancellor cannot obtain my agreement [on appointing a judge], it doesn't happen,"" he said. Lord Woolf said he did not think there would be difficulties but he wanted to establish the principle. A Department for Constitutional Affairs spokeswoman said Lord Woolf and Lord Falconer agreed about what happened in practice. ""Their disagreement is about whether the legislation should include a requirement for consultation or concurrence - a very narrow dispute, in Lord Woolf's words,"" she said. ""As Lord Woolf also acknowledged, it is highly unlikely that the lord chancellor would appoint a judge against the wishes of the lord chief justice. ""Judges are free to decide for themselves whether to accept positions as inquiry chairs."" Parliament will examine the issue next year when it debates a new bill about public inquiries." -politics,"'Fido' to be taken off vote lists The risk of pets and children being given votes could be cut by changing how people register to vote, the UK elections watchdog has said. Those are some of the mistakes found under the current system, where one person in each household applies for voting forms for the other occupants. The Electoral Commission says enabling people to register individually could cut some errors and combat fraud. Voters need to register by 11 March if the next poll is on 5 May as expected. But any individual registration scheme would not be introduced in Britain before that general election. The proposed scheme would mean voters using individual ""identifiers"" when they vote - such as their own voting number, date of birth and signature. The Electoral Commission says having voters register individually rather than the head of household do it for them fits better with human rights laws. Chairman Sam Younger told MPs on Tuesday care was needed to ensure that people were not lost off the register in the process - which happened when Northern Ireland switched to a similar system. There have been rare cases when household pets have been put on the electoral roll, the MPs heard. And some people have registered all their family, regardless of their age - birth dates are not included on the forms so election officers cannot easily check. Non-British citizens who are not entitled to vote have also been registered in some cases. Mr Younger said there was anecdotal evidence of inaccuracies in the register, the vast majority of which were caused by genuine mistakes. He argued local councils could look harder at promoting targeted campaigns at ""hard to reach"" voters, for example. Some authorities already run such programmes but in others councillors worry about the party political impact of encouraging particular areas to turn out. Mr Younger said using the Royal Mail's postal redirection service had already helped election officers retrace about 50,000 voters. He argued individual registration would also increase security for postal ballots and other new ways of voting. There have been fears there are too few checks to ensure current postal votes are cast by the person on the voting form. He said it might also help register students in halls of residences, where the hall warden often has to do the job for everybody. The MPs on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Constitutional Affairs select committees pressed Mr Younger on how to avoid losing voters in any changeover. He said the Northern Ireland example illustrated real difficulties to be confronted. Currently, British voters have to re-register to vote every year or face being removed from the electoral rolls if they fail to do so two years running. Mr Younger suggested the re-registration could happen less frequently but argued efforts were needed to check the electoral rolls were up-to-date." -politics,"Borders rail link campaign rally Campaigners are to stage a rally calling for a Borders rail link which was closed in 1969 to be reopened. They will mark the 36th anniversary of the line closure, which ran from Edinburgh through the Borders and on to Carlisle, with a walk at Tweedbank. Anne Borthwick, of Campaign for Borders Rail, said reopening the Waverley Line would restore the area's prosperity. MSPs are considering the reintroduction of passenger rail services through Midlothian to the Borders. Campaigners have said that reopening the Waverley Line, which could cost up to £100m, would be a huge economic boost for the Borders. In 2000, Borders Council said the area's economy had suffered since the closure. Ms Borthwick said the lobby group was determined to keep the pressure on the Scottish Executive. ""We are hoping that many people will join us in a march to mark the 36th anniversary of the closure of the Waverley Line,"" she said. ""Campaign for Borders Rail is the biggest independent lobby group in Scotland and we have been lobbying tirelessly for the reinstatement of rail services to the Borders and eventually to Carlisle. ""We believe that it is time for the Scottish Executive to commit to the first phase of the project by pledging to fund the line between Edinburgh and Tweedbank in the first instance and then investigate extending the line in the future."" Ms Borthwick said reopening the line would be a prosperous move and protect the character of the Scottish Borders. A study in 2000, which was commissioned by the executive, Scottish Borders Council, Midlothian Council and Scottish Borders Enterprise, found that a half-hourly service from Tweedbank to Edinburgh could cover its operating costs. It also found that a half-hourly service from Gorebridge to Edinburgh could cover operating costs and that a freight railway joining the West Coast Main Line at Longtown could also be reinstated." -politics,"Campaign 'cold calls' questioned Labour and the Conservatives are still telephoning the millions of people who have signed up to make sure they do not get marketing ""cold calls"". The parties say they can stick to the rules by ensuring that their calls are not marketing - for instance by asking about people's voting intentions. The Lib Dems are asking the watchdog overseeing the rules to stop the calls. The information commissioner's office says surveys are allowed but people had to be told if personal data was kept. Telephone call centres are expected to be used as never before by all the three major parties in the run-up to the general election. But seven million telephone numbers are on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) lists, which ban unsolicited sales and marketing calls. Both schemes are run by the Direct Marketing Association and backed by EU directives on privacy and electronic communications. The rules on marketing calls apply as much to politicians as to private sector companies. But that does not mean Labour and the Tories are not calling people signed up to the TPS. A Labour Party spokesman told the BBC News website the party avoided those on TPS lists when telephoning people about membership or fundraising. But that did not happen for ""voter identification"" calls. ""When we ask which party they will vote for, that is not marketing and we have very clear legal advice that it is not,"" he said. ""So it is not covered by the Telephone Preference Service."" He said the party always asked people if they would be happy to be contacted again and if they said no, they were not rung again. A Conservative spokeswoman said the party stuck to the rules when it rang TPS subscribers. She said: ""We do apply TPS but in line with the law. We would not do things that are not allowed in the law."" Assistant information commissioner Phil Jones said it was classed as marketing if political parties telephoned people to encourage them to vote for them. But ""classic market research"", such as a poll of voter intentions, did not constitute direct marketing, he said. ""If a party is calling someone who is registered on TPS and records their voting intention with a view to using this information in the future, this should be clear to the voter concerned,"" said Mr Jones. ""If a party rings a person who is registered on TPS to ask about their voting intention and goes on to encourage that voter to support them, the party may well be in breach of the regulations. ""In summary, whether a party calling TPS registered voters to check their voting intentions will breach regulations will depend on the script used and whether the script is followed."" Mr Jones said the watchdog received ""very few complaints"" on the issue. Earlier, Lib Dem chairman Matthew Taylor wrote to the watchdog saying: ""The advice we have received on several previous occasions is that such phone calls are illegal."" He says evidence from local Lib Dem parties around the country suggests there are ""significant"" numbers of such calls. ""I hope you can therefore take swift and efficient action to ensure that this ceases,"" he tells the commissioner. Mr Taylor argues there should be new guidelines so all parties can act in the same way if the watchdog believes the rules allow parties to ring TPS numbers about voting intentions and later urge those people to vote for them." -politics,"New drink limit 'would cut toll' More lives than previously thought could be saved by cutting drink-drive limits by a third, a report says. University College London research claims cutting the limit from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg would save 65 lives a year. The findings are being published by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety as MPs are due to vote on the government's Road Safety Bill. The bill includes changes to speeding fines but not to the drink-drive limit. The research, carried out by transport expert professor Richard Allsop, says cutting the limit would also lead to 230 fewer serious injuries on the UK's roads compared with 2003. He estimates that this would save the country £119m a year. A previous estimate, contained in a 1998 Department of Transport Document, suggested such a move could save 50 lives a year. The findings are based on the assumption that drivers who currently keep below the legal limit would continue to do so were it to be lowered and that those who tend to exceed the limit slightly would also lower their drinking. Professor Allsop said: ""Reducing the limit from 80mg to 50mg can be expected to save around 65 lives a year or around half of those who die in accidents where the driver's BAC [blood alcohol content] is within 30mg of the current limit. ""Only about one in 50 of those driving during weekend evenings and nights will need to moderate their drinking to achieve this and fewer still at other times."" Ministers do not support a lower limit, saying it is not clear it would have a major impact on drink drive casualties. They believe educating drivers is more important. The AA Motoring Trust said it was not sure what affect dropping the limit would have on drivers' attitudes to drink-driving. Road safety head Andrew Howard said: ""It remains to be seen whether the social disapproval of the drinking driver will stay at the current rate if the alcohol limit is cut. ""Parliamentarians need to consider this carefully. Britons police themselves by consensus much more effectively than they do by weight of enforcement alone."" Liberal Democrat transport spokesman John Thurso said drink-driving remained a ""major killer"", with figures showing a worrying rise in the number of accidents involving drivers who had been drinking. He said there had been a 29% drop in the number of drivers being breathalysed since 1997, which he said the government needed to address if it wanted to reduce the danger caused by drink-driving. The Road Safety Bill, which gets its second reading on Tuesday, would allow the results of roadside breath tests to be used in court - currently a blood test is needed. It also includes plans for a staggered speeding fines and points system, penalising drivers who exceed limits by a wide margin more than those who are caught going just over. These have been criticised by road safety campaigners, including Labour backbencher Gwyneth Dunwoody, who says it will reduce the incentive for drivers to stay within the limits in residential areas, leading to more road casualties. In an article for the Times newspaper, Ms Dunwoody, who chairs the Transport Select Committee, says: ""Slight increases to low car speeds increase hugely the risks to pedestrians and cyclists. ""It is quite simple: if you hit someone at 30mph, they have a 50 per cent chance of survival. If you are going at 40mph, nine times out of ten they will die.""" -politics,"Burglar defence guidelines issued Householders who injure or even kill intruders are unlikely to be prosecuted - providing they were acting ""honestly and instinctively"", new guidelines say. The law also protects those who use ""something to hand"" as a weapon. The leaflet, published by police and prosecutors, aims to combat confusion about current legislation, which lets people use ""reasonable force"". The guidance, relating to England and Wales, follows a recent decision by ministers not to change the law. Doing what you ""honestly and instinctively"" believed was necessary would be the strongest evidence of acting lawfully, the guidance said. And the law protects those who use ""something to hand"" as a weapon, said the leaflet published jointly by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). As a general rule, the more extreme the circumstances and fear felt, the more force can be used lawfully in self-defence, it said, adding that householders do not have to wait to be attacked before defending themselves. But knocking someone unconscious then killing them or hurting them further, or setting a trap for an intruder without involving the police were given as examples of ""excessive and gratuitous"" force. The Tories have called for a change in the law so householders are only prosecuted if they use ""grossly disproportionate"" force. Their demands have been backed by former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens. Tory frontbencher Patrick Mercer is now pursuing the proposal through a private member's bill in Parliament. The government instead mounted a publicity campaign to clear up public uncertainty after a review concluded no law change was necessary. Home Secretary Charles Clarke said: ""I believe in that old adage 'an Englishman's home is his castle'. That's exactly what should be the case and I believe the current law provides that."" An ""informal trawl"" of CPS records found 11 people had been prosecuted after attacking intruders in the past 15 years, five of whom were convicted. They included a man who laid in wait for a burglar on commercial premises in Cheshire, before beating him up, throwing him into a pit and setting him on fire. A CPS spokesperson said the figures were not definitive because prosecutions are not listed according to whether they were committed by a householder on an intruder. In one of Britain's highest profile cases, Norfolk farmer Tony Martin was jailed for life for murdering 16-year-old burglar Fred Barras, in 1999. The conviction was later reduced to manslaughter on appeal and the sentence cut to five years. Mr Martin was freed from prison in July 2003. The guidance published on Tuesday, said the police had a duty to investigate all incidents involving a death or injury. In cases involving householders attacking intruders prosecutors and police were ""determined"" they would be dealt with ""as swiftly and as sympathetically as possible"", it said." -politics,"Tories unveil quango blitz plans Plans to abolish 162 quangos have been unveiled by the Conservatives as part of their effort to show how government red tape can be cut. Six government units would also be scrapped under proposals which the Tories say would save more than £4.3bn. Among the targets are strategic health authorities and the new fair access regulator for universities. Tory frontbencher John Redwood said Britain needed a slimmer government and lower taxes to be competitive. The plans would abolish regional assemblies and other regional bodies, such as boards tackling industrial development and housing. Their powers would be returned to elected local councils or national government. The Tories say the strategic health authorities are not needed as it is better that local people, rather than officials, run hospitals and surgeries. Announcing the plans, Mr Redwood said: ""Mr Blair has forgotten the interests of taxpayers, and has broken the pledges he made. ""Far from improving public services, spending taxpayers' money on quangos has led only to more bureaucrats, more regulation and higher taxes."" His party leader, Michael Howard, argued a change in direction was needed to get a grip on spending. ""Labour are creating Two Britains: the Britain of the forgotten majority and bureaucratic Britain,"" he said. ""In the real world, people are working harder just to stand still. They've seen their pensions knocked for six. ""They're being squeezed by extra taxes. The forgotten majority are paying the price of bureaucratic Britain."" The government has announced plans to cut 100,000 civil servants as part of its efficiency drive. But Chief Secretary to the Treasury Paul Boateng attacked the Tory plans. ""The Conservatives are committed to cutting Labour's public spending plans by a massive £35 billion,"" he said. ""Cuts on this scale cannot be found from cutting 'bureaucracy' but would require massive cuts to front-line public services such as schools, hospitals and the police."" The Liberal Democrats have said they would cut the number of Whitehall departments to make sure money reaches frontline services." -politics,"Brown 'proud of economy record' Gordon Brown has delivered a rousing speech to Labour's spring conference setting out the government's agenda for the next general election. The chancellor said he was proud of his party's record on the economy, and would strive for continuing stability if elected. The Gateshead conference was told he would help young people who were struggling to buy their own homes. And the chancellor vowed to continue the fight against child poverty. Later, Prime Minister Tony Blair will answer questions sent by the public via text and e-mail. Analysing Mr Brown's position before the speech, BBC correspondent James Hardy said Mr Brown would draw ""sharp dividing lines"" with the Conservatives for the forthcoming election campaign. He would contrast Labour's plan to invest £60bn in services with a Tory plan to cut spending by £35bn. ""Mr Brown will lay out his credentials as a reforming chancellor determined to take on and beat the Asian tiger economies which increasingly dominate world trade,"" our correspondent said. On Friday night, Mr Brown confirmed he would not make any tax commitments until the Labour manifesto had been published after the Budget, expected in March. But commentators will listen to his speech closely for hints on whether, as the Conservatives claim, he plans to raise tax after the election. The Tories accuse Labour of raising taxes 66 times since coming to power in 1997. Following the chancellor's keynote speech, the prime minister will face interactive questioning from ordinary voters on Saturday. Mr Blair is thought to be deliberately putting himself on the line in a bid to engage the electorate ahead of an expected May election. Capital Radio DJ Margherita Taylor will select questions to put to him from thousands e-mailed and sent by text. The prime minister's enthusiasm for the job remains undimmed, Alan Milburn, Labour's election strategist told Radio 4's Today programme on Saturday. Mr Blair has ""the same passion and the same commitments for the job"" as when Labour came to power in 1997, he said. And he confirmed Mr Blair's insistence that no poll date had yet been set. He said: ""I'm the General Election co-ordinator and I don't know, and Tony has not made up his mind."" On Friday, the prime minister completed a whistle-stop tour of England, during which he unveiled his party's six pre-election pledges. Starting in London, he visited marginal constituencies pledging to build on what he said were Labour's achievements on the economy, crime, education and public services. The Conservatives and Lib Dems said the pledges - set to underpin Labour's election campaign - were ""worthless""." -politics,"Faith schools citizenship warning Schools must improve the quality of citizenship lessons - or social cohesion and democracy will suffer, says the education watchdog. Independent faith schools were singled out by Ofsted chief, David Bell, for not doing enough to promote the ""wider tenets of British society"". Mr Bell said Muslim, Jewish and Evangelical Christian schools must be ""intolerant of intolerance"". Diversity ""certainly must not mean segregated or separate"", he said. Mr Bell's speech called for a much greater effort in all types of schools to teach citizenship - with an accompanying survey showing that young people knew little about politics and had no enthusiasm to find out more. Badly-taught citizenship lessons have previously been criticised by Mr Bell, and in a speech to the Hansard Society, he warned that it was failing to pass on an understanding of democracy, public service and shared values. He highlighted his particular concern for citizenship in the growing number of independent faith schools - which he said included about 100 Muslim, 100 Evangelical Christian and 50 Jewish schools. Mr Bell expressed concern about schools which did not teach children enough about a ""common heritage"" and needed to do more to promote principles of mutual tolerance and social inclusion. ""I worry that many young people are being educated in faith-based schools, with little appreciation of their wider responsibilities and obligations to British society,"" said Mr Bell. The Ofsted chief said his forthcoming annual report would make particular reference to Muslim schools. ""Many must adapt their curriculum to ensure that it provides pupils with a broad general knowledge of public institutions and services in England and helps them to acquire an appreciation of and respect for other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony."" Mr Bell said such questions of religion and cultural identity were ""tricky issues"". But he argued that ""we must not allow our recognition of diversity to become apathy in the face of any challenge to our coherence as a nation"". ""I would go further and say that an awareness of our common heritage as British citizens, equal under the law, should enable us to assert with confidence that we are intolerant of intolerance, illiberalism and attitudes and values that demean the place of certain sections of our community, be they women or people living in non-traditional relationships,"" said Mr Bell." -politics,"No to Royal succession shake-up A Labour peer has withdrawn proposals to give female members of the Royal Family the same rights as males. The legislation would have ended the right of male heirs with older sisters to succeed to the Crown. It would also have torn up ancient legislation banning heirs to the throne marrying Roman Catholics. But the government refused to back Lord Dubs' Succession to the Crown Bill, saying it was too complex and raised too many constitutional issues. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, agreed the 1701 Act of Settlement, which governs the succession, was discriminatory but added that ""for all practical purposes its effects are limited"". The changes proposed by Lord Dubs were a ""complex and controversial undertaking raising major constitutional issues"", he said. Lord Falconer said there were 22 members of the Royal Family in the line of succession after the Prince of Wales - all of who were eligible to succeed and had been unaffected by the act. ""It is not a simple matter that can be tinkered with lightly. While we wish to remove all forms of discrimination... this isn't the proper form,"" he added. He did not rule out change in the future but said if Lord Dubs' private member's bill was passed by peers, he would urge MPs to oppose it in the Commons. Lord Dubs agreed to withdraw his bill after its second reading in the House of Lords, but urged the government to think again at a later stage. ""We cannot forever say we don't want to change things because it is too difficult,"" he told peers. During the debate, the Labour peer and former minister said: ""The monarchy should symbolise the values of this country. ""What we don't want is a situation where the values of the country have moved on and the monarchy is centuries behind the times. ""We are surely all opposed to discrimination on the grounds of gender and we are surely also opposed to discrimination against Catholics."" But opponents of the bill, including Tory Lord Campbell of Alloway and the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, said it would separate the state from both the Church of England and the Christian faith. Such a ""secular"" state would be markedly ""less tolerant"", Rt Rev Scott-Joynt argued." -politics,"Howard attacks cost of asylum Michael Howard has launched an attack on the cost of Britain's ""chaotic"" asylum system under Tony Blair. The Tory leader said English local authorities have spent more than £3bn - or £140 per household - on asylum since Labour won power in 1997. Mr Howard is expected to tell activists in Kent that voters' tolerance and desire to help others are being abused. Other parties and refugee agencies have already attacked Tory plans for annual limits on numbers. Mr Howard said Britain should take its fair share of the world's ""genuine refugees"". ""The anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz - where my grandmother was murdered along with over a million others - has reminded all of us that we have a moral responsibility to those fleeing persecution,"" he was due to say. ""But if we are to fulfil responsibility, we have to get a grip of the system. ""Fair play matters. People want a government that upholds the rules - not one that turns a blind eye when they are bent and abused,"" he said. ""And let's be clear. Our asylum system is being abused - and with it Britain's generosity."" Earlier this week, Mr Howard said his party's plans to cut immigration were not racist, arguing they would make the asylum system fairer for genuine refugees. If elected, his party would institute an annual limit on asylum and all claims would be processed overseas. That prompted some charities to say the plans would put refugees' lives at risk if they were turned away once quotas were filled. ""If we have a moral responsibility towards people fleeing persecution, then these policies will not provide a safe haven,"" said Hannah Ward of the Refugee Council. ""If people turn up in the UK asking for help they will be turned away. Michael Howard's policy effectively means there is no safe haven in the UK. ""When it comes to costs, then perhaps we should start with how decisions are made on asylum seekers. So many of them are shown to be wrong - one in five decisions that are appealed are successfully overturned, rising to half for some nationalities. ""We need good quality decision-making on asylum applications because it is delays in the system which cost so much."" Tony Blair said Labour would set out workable plans for tackling immigration abuse in the next few weeks and attacked the Tory plans. ""By cutting the number of front-line immigration staff at our borders, they will actually make the problem worse,"" said Mr Blair. Liberal Democrat chairman Matthew Taylor said there needed to be a quick, fair and firm asylum system. But he said it was ""absolutely disgusting"" to propose a system which could turn away genuine refugees. The Conservatives say there is little risk of this happening as demand for asylum will be considered when quotas are set. On Monday, Mr Howard said: ""It's not racist, as some people to claim, to talk about controlling immigration far from it.""" -politics,"Howard rebuts asylum criticisms Tory leader Michael Howard has gone on the offensive in response to people questioning how a son of immigrants can propose asylum quotas. Mr Howard, whose parents fled the Nazi threat to come to the UK, says the claim would mean no-one from an immigrant family could become premier. His comments come in a BBC documentary called 'No More Mr Nasty'. TV presenter Anne Robinson said as home secretary he gave the impression he would ""like to kick your cat"". Ms Robinson, a friend of the Tory leader, also revealed that as a Cambridge student Mr Howard was ""much loved by women and he was a courteous and kind and rather dashing lover"" - although she denied having personal experience. ""I wasn't at Cambridge - and it's not personal experience - but I know people who were."" Documentary maker Michael Cockerell was given behind-the-scenes access to Mr Howard for his film portrait. The Tory leader was asked about to respond to people who said that if there had there been a quota on immigration and asylum in the 1930s, his parents might not have been allowed into the country. He replies: ""What is the inference of that? ""That if you reach the view that you need to control immigration in the interests of the country you're not allowed to put a view forward if you happen to be descended from immigrants? ""That seems to me an absolutely extraordinary proposition? It would certainly mean no one from immigrant parents could be prime minister."" Ms Robinson, who presents The Weakest Link tells Cockerell that she despaired at his hardline image when he was home secretary in John Major's government. ""I used to have to sit on my hands because he'd get on television and give a passable impression of someone who'd like to kick your cat or would put your baby in prison if he cried. I mean it was very, very Draconian."" The film shows Mr Howard laughing at Rory Bremner's impression of him as Dracula, which he calls ""good fun"", apart from the serious falsehood of a comment suggesting he wants fewer black people in the UK. The film shows the private side of the Tory leader watching television at home or playing table tennis with his wife, ex-model Sandra. Asked if she enjoys a game of ping pong she confesses: ""Yeah, it would be more enjoyable if I could win occasionally too, but otherwise it's quite fun."" Former Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell, now working on Labour's election campaign, says a ""touchy-feely"" image does not fit Mr Howard. He says Tony Blair was not worried by his opponents' early performance in their Commons clashes because Mr Howard lacked a ""big strategy"", including on issues like Iraq. The Tory leader brands such criticisms as ""absolutely rubbish"", arguing that he has been consistent on his support for the war but critical of Mr Blair's failure to tell the truth on intelligence. Former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke says Mr Howard has a bigger problem changing perceptions of the Tory party than his personal image. Mr Clarke says the party is improving and it is ""conceivable"" it could win the next election. But he adds: ""It has got to change itself a bit and broaden its appeal."" - Michael Howard: No More Mr Nasty is being shown on BBC2 on Saturday 12 February at 2005 GMT." -politics,"Councils 'must find Gypsy sites' Ministers are telling councils to find more sites for travellers, amid continuing rows concerning a string of unauthorised encampments. Councils are also to be given stronger powers to move on illegal settlements by Gypsy communities on rural land. More money is to be given to councils to develop official caravan parks, said housing minister Yvette Cooper. In November, MPs urged ministers to make councils create sites because 3,500 travellers have no place to stop. Ms Cooper said an annual scheme to refurbish existing traveller sites would now be extended to consider council bids for new stopping places. That scheme has paid out £25m in four years, with £8m available for 2005. ""There are two major problems in the planning system at the moment concerning Gypsy and traveller sites,"" said Ms Cooper. ""Firstly, local authorities are not identifying enough appropriate locations either for private or public sites. And secondly, they do not have enough powers to deal swiftly with development on inappropriate sites. ""The result is that there are too many developments on inappropriate sites, causing tensions and difficulties for both the neighbouring communities and the Gypsies and travellers. ""That is why we are consulting on a new obligation on local authorities to identify more appropriate sites, as well as new powers to take immediate action if the development is in the wrong place and cannot be tolerated in even the short-term because of risk to local amenity and the environment."" Under the new regulations, expected to be in force in the spring, officials will be able to serve ""temporary stop notices"" aimed at preventing works on a site before a council has had chance to obtain a full legal ban. Many MPs with rural constituencies, particularly in eastern England, have been pressing the government to create stronger enforcement powers, saying villagers are suffering because of the legal delays in removing illegal encampments. Andrew Ryder, of the Traveller Law Reform Coalition, said: ""We welcome talk about an obligation on councils to identify land for Gypsies and travellers, so long as it is a real obligation as opposed to a recommendation which could be and was easily ignored. ""New accommodation proposals for travellers need to be backed up with decent funding and intervention by the government when councils attempt to dodge their responsibilities towards travellers, as they often do. ""Living on the side of the road or being worn down by planning appeals, legal action and eviction is no one's idea of fun."" In their November report, MPs from the committee scrutinising the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister, responsible for housing, said most illegal traveller encampments were caused by a lack of places to stop. Numerous communities and councils were paying for lengthy and expensive evictions against travelling communities, said the MPs. In turn, the problems had worsened because councils were reluctant to voluntarily provide sites because of resistance from residents. Two of the most controversial traveller sites - Cottenham in Cambridgeshire and Minety in Wiltshire - remain embroiled in an ongoing legal battle." -politics,"More reforms ahead says Milburn Labour will continue to pursue controversial reforms if it wins a third term in power, the party's election chief Alan Milburn has said. He pledged Labour would encourage more people to achieve their aspirations. ""What we want is for more people to earn and own,"" Mr Milburn told BBC Radio 4's Today show. Tory Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin called Labour ""a brilliant machine for talking about things"" but said it did not deliver policies the country needs. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats' President Simon Hughes said: ""New Labour has lost people's confidence in a way Old Labour never did."" Mr Milburn told Today that Labour wanted policies which encouraged increased social mobility in Britain. Pressed on incapacity benefits, he said the tax and welfare system must ""provide the right incentives to people"". ""No-one is talking about driving people into work but what we do know is there are one million people on incapacity benefit who want the opportunity to work, providing the right level of support is there for them"". However, backbench Labour MP Karen Buck warned against proposed changes in such benefits. She told the Today programme: ""If the policy is seen as being about how do you make the feckless poor go back to work then it is not going to work, on the one hand. And it is not going to improve our electoral chances on the other."" Mr Milburn also sought to draw a line under the controversy about reports of a feud between Gordon Brown and Prime Minister Tony Blair. He stressed that Mr Brown would play the same role that he did in the last election. Mr Milburn gave more details of planned reforms in a speech to Labour's Fabian Society, in which he also praised Mr Brown as one of the leaders of the party's reform process. In the speech, he backed choice in schools and hospitals, wider home ownership and changes to the welfare system. Mr Milburn insisted that government reform must continue. ""Our task is to rebuild the New Labour coalition around 'one nation politics' that recognise, while life is hard for many, all should have the chance to succeed,"" he said. ""There is a glass ceiling on opportunity in this country. In our first two terms we have raised it. In our third term we have to break it."" Voters turned on the party when it failed to reform industrial relations in the 1960s, he also told his audience. Oliver Letwin said the government had failed to deliver in any of the key public services, such as cleaner hospitals, discipline in schools and putting more police on the streets. He said ministers had not delivered cleaner hospitals, with 5,000 people dying from infections last year. New Labour had failed on school discipline because it had not implemented serious reforms so that teachers could run schools, and which would give parents choice, he went on. For the Lib Dems, Simon Hughes said many pensioners are means tested for the money they needed and students who were told there wouldn't be tuition fees and more debt ""have been given exactly the opposite"". He added: ""Under New Labour, all households are still paying unfair council tax rather than a fairer alternative.""" -politics,"Blair sets date for Africa report The Commission for Africa's report will be released on 11 March - Comic Relief day, Tony Blair has said. July's G8 summit in Gleneagles in Perthshire - chaired by the prime minister - will use the report as the basis for talks on Africa. The announcement followed the final meeting of the commission - which includes singer Bob Geldof - in London. As well as more aid, fairer trade and less debt, the commission is likely to demand action on corruption in Africa. Mr Blair told a news conference: ""It will be a report that's brutally frank about the reality, but I hope idealistic about what can be done if the will is there. ""It's an ambitious project we have set ourselves and you will have to judge on its outcome when we publish it."" Mr Blair has vowed to put Africa at the top of his agenda during his time at the helm of the G8. He acknowledged he would have a ""a job of persuading to do"" on other nations to get the necessary commitment to debt relief. Bob Geldof, in characteristically blunt style, promised that the commission would not just be a talking shop but would deliver radical new thinking to change direction for Africa. The former rock star's presence on the commission has been interpreted as a sign that it will be uncompromising in its demands. The people involved include two African government leaders and a range of other African politicians, as well as experts from some other developed countries." -politics,"Tory leader unveils spending plan Tory leader Michael Howard says his party can save £35bn in government spending by tackling waste. The money would be ploughed back into frontline services like the NHS and schools with the rest used to cut government borrowing and reduce taxes. The Tory leader has also shrugged off the defection of one of his MPs, Robert Jackson, a former minister, to Labour. Mr Howard said that these things happened in politics and it would not affect the outcome of the election. ""Let's be realistic - the election is not going to be decided on the basis of what Mr Jackson did"", he told BBC 1's Breakfast with Frost programme. However the defection on Saturday has cast a shadow over the launch of the Conservatives' spending plans. Fuller details are due to be unveiled on Monday. The bulk of the £35bn saved by tackling bureaucracy and inefficient systems will go back into frontline services, Mr Howard said. The £12bn left over would then be spent on reducing government borrowing, he added. However, the remainder would deal with some of the ""unfair taxes"". ""Almost every independent expert says if you get another Labour government you are going to have to pay higher taxes,"" Mr Howard insisted. ""Because borrowing is going up, it is out of control, that is bound to lead to higher taxes or higher interest rates or both. ""So part of the £12bn we are going to apply to filling the government's black hole, reducing the borrowing. ""The rest will be used to reduce these unfair taxes which are bearing so heavily on the people of our country today."" Mr Howard is expected to say that around £6bn will be available for tax cuts when he makes his announcement on Monday. The cuts will be paid for out of the savings identified by business trouble-shooter David James. Home Office spending could be cut by £1.6bn, according to the final instalment of his year-long review. Savings of £153m at the Foreign Office and £336m at the Department for Culture Media and Sport, have also been identified. In all, almost a quarter of a million jobs and 168 public bodies would go under Mr James' proposals. Mr Howard said: ""All this adds up to a bottom line and the bottom line is at this election people will have a clear choice between Mr Blair, who will waste more and tax more, and a Conservative government that will give them value for money and tax less."" However, Chief Treasury Secretary Paul Boateng said: ""None of the Tories' figures add up so they can't make these savings and can't pay for any tax cuts, which means the only guaranteed cut from the Tories is £35bn of cuts, hitting frontline public services hard."" Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy added: ""People will not be taken in by Michael Howard's claims of £35bn worth of savings. ""This can't be achieved without drastic cuts in local services in their own communities."" A poll for the News of the World newspaper suggests the Conservatives are on course for their worst election defeat in a century. Labour will hold key marginal constituencies, winning a majority of 160, the Populus survey suggests. And the Liberal Democrats will take three key seats from the Conservatives, leaving the Tories with just 163 MPs, two less than they returned atLabour's 1997 landslide and their worst showing since 1906." -politics,"'UK will stand firm on EU rebate' Britain's £3bn EU rebate is not up for renegotiation at next week's European Council summit, Jack Straw said. The foreign secretary told MPs the rebate, secured by Margaret Thatcher in 1984, was ""entirely justified"". New European commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has suggested the cash could be shared out among net contributors to the EU budget. Mr Straw acknowledged some countries in the newly enlarged 25 nation EU still had to ""see the light"" on the rebate. But the foreign secretary told the Commons foreign affairs committee: ""Our position is very clear: it is entirely justified and it is not for negotiation."" He added that he did not think there would be a political price to pay for the UK's stance - Britain contributed more and received less than other EU states. The two-day European Council summit in Brussels begins on 16 December and is widely expected to mark the beginning of a lengthy negotiating period over the EU's budget for 2007-13. The wrangling could stretch into 2005, even 2006. The UK, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden want the EU budget to be capped at 1% of member states' combined national incomes - the Commission wants it to be 1.26%. Mr Straw said the EU commission's proposal would mean a 35% hike in the budget. ""I don't know of any national government thinking of increasing its budget by that amount,"" he added. The foreign secretary said he hoped the talks next week could produce a date in 2005 for the beginning of negotiations with Turkey about possible EU membership although that there would be no prospect of a date for joining for some time." -politics,"UK rebate 'unjustified' - Chirac French president Jacques Chirac has called the UK's £3bn rebate from the European Union ""unjustified"". Speaking after a summit meeting he said unless it was put up for discussion the EU would never be able to reach agreement on its medium term finances. Earlier Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the UK was prepared to veto any bid to reduce the rebate secured by Margaret Thatcher in 1984. He said it remained justified because less EU farm money came to the UK. Mr Chirac told reporters in Brussels: ""One can only have a reasonable budgetary balance if we put back on the table the British cheque. It can no longer be justified. It was from the past."" But a UK Government official responded: ""Even with the rebate, the UK pays two and a half times more than France contributes to the EU budget. Without it we would pay 14 times as much as France. ""There can be no deal on future financing which does not protect the rebate."" The 25-member EU is gearing up for tough negotiations on its budget plans for the period 2007-2013, with the bloc's Luxembourg presidency hoping to strike a deal at a June summit. Earlier Conservative Graham Brady said the rebate was a ""crucial test"" of how firmly ministers were prepared to stand up for Britain. EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has indicated he wants the rebate to come to an end. Mr Straw said that as well as the veto over the rebate the UK wanted to keep a tight rein on national contributions. The UK, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden want the EU budget to be capped at 1% of member states' combined national incomes - the European Commission has urged an increase to 1.26%. Mr Straw has said the EU commission's proposal would mean a 35% hike in the budget. Shadow Europe minister Mr Brady said: ""I believe it is essential that Britain keeps the rebate and I think it's a crucial test of how firmly the British government is prepared to stand up for Britain internationally in Europe. ""The UK is already one of the biggest net contributors to the EU ."" The foreign secretary meanwhile said the ""justice"" of the rebate remained. ""We have one of the lowest net receipts of any EU country because of the relatively small size of our agriculture sector and its efficiency. ""That continues to be the case."" UK Independence Party leader Roger Knapman said the rebate was ""set in stone"" and there was no reason to negotiate about it. ""It is extraordinary to do it at this time, just as we are becoming the biggest contributor to the EU. If we lose our rebate as well, the British taxpayer is going to be bled at such a rate that I think everyone will go off the European project."" EU leaders are holding talks in Brussels on how to re-energise the sluggish European economy. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is meeting his EU counterparts to finalise a package of measures aimed at stimulating growth and boosting employment ahead of a series of referendums on the European Constitution. The plans could introduce a free market into everything from computer services to construction. Critics - including Germany and France - believe liberalisation could result in companies shifting staff to cheaper bases in Eastern Europe, undercutting large EU economies and undermining social protections. There are also concerns about the number of workers from eastern European countries who will head west, exacerbating the already high unemployment levels in Germany. Mr Straw insisted there was nothing to fear from the services directorate. ""European countries overall have benefited hugely from the free market in goods,"" he said. ""What we are now talking about is developing that market into an internal market in services."" Britain's low unemployment meant there was less ""neurosis"" about people coming from eastern European countries. ""In countries like Germany and France, where frankly because of a tighter social market they have much higher levels of unemployment, there is increasing anxiety about other people coming in,"" he said." -politics,"Pakistani women 'must not hide' Hiding women away in the home hidden behind veils is a backward view of Islam, President Musharraf of Pakistan has said during a visit to Britain. He was speaking to the BBC's Newsnight programme a few hours before visiting the Pakistani community in Manchester. ""My wife is travelling around. She is very religious but she is very moderate,"" said General Musharraf. It comes after Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain said some Pakistanis should integrate more. Dr Maleeha Lodhi said people could not expect others to listen to their grievances if they isolated themselves. Gen Musharraf told the BBC: ""Some people think that the women should be confined to their houses and put veils on and all that and they should not move out - absolutely wrong."" The Pakistani president was also asked whether he thought the war on terror had made the world less safe. ""Yes, absolutely. And I would add that unfortunately we are not addressing the core problems, so therefore we can never address it in its totality,"" he said. ""We are fighting it in its immediate context but we are not fighting it in its strategic long-term context. ""It is the political disputes and we need to resolve them, and also the issue of illiteracy and poverty. This combined are breeding grounds of extremism and terrorism."" On Monday the Pakistani president met Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street, on his first official visit to London. He is due to visit the Pakistani community in Manchester on Tuesday afternoon. The Mirror newspaper said on Tuesday it had been handed a sensitive dossier outling the details of Gen Musharraf's visit to Britain. The paper said the document had been found in a London street by a member of the public. It said the dossier contained details about his movements and also confidential police radio channels, call signs and codes. Speaking in London on Monday, Gen Musharraf said al-Qaeda was ""on the run"" in Pakistan. But standing next to Mr Blair he added that it was crucial to tackle the ""core of what creates terrorists, what creates an extremist, militant environment which then leads on to terrorism"". ""That is the resolution of political disputes."" Mr Blair said the two leaders had talked about Afghanistan, the wider war on terror, the situation in the Middle East and the ongoing dispute over Kashmir. ""We agreed that in Afghanistan there is some cause for optimism about the progress that has been made there,"" said Mr Blair. ""In respect of Iraq, we agreed that whatever the issues of the past, the important thing now is to see the strategy through and ensure that Iraq is capable of becoming a stable and democratic state.""" -politics,"Tories pledge free sports lessons Children would be offered two hours' free sports training a week by a future Tory government, the party has said. The Club2School policy would provide up to £250m yearly for local sports clubs in the UK to deliver after-school sport. The extra coaching would be funded by the National Lottery and would come on top of the two hours of sport a week children are supposed to get in school. Shadow home secretary David Davis said five million children were being denied adequate sporting opportunities. The plans would help tackle the ""fastest growing rate of obesity in the developed world"", he said. Shadow sports minister Lord Moynihan said the policy would empower local clubs and create a lasting legacy. ""We aim to shift the emphasis on after-school sport provision away from our overstretched teachers and schools directly in to the 151,000 sports clubs in the UK."" The Tories say Labour's plans to give all children two hours of sports lessons a week in schools have failed. Government figures show that in England in 2002 only a third of schools at Key Stages 1, 3 and 4 and two-fifths of schools at Key Stage 2, met that target. The Tories also claim that of the £750m the prime minister pledged in 2000 to invest on school sports facilities, only £41m had been spent. But the Big Lottery Fund has said that complex capital projects are involved - and it was confident the money would all be allocated by next year as intended." -politics,"Brown shrugs off economy fears Gordon Brown is to freeze petrol duty increases, fund a £1bn package to avoid big council tax rises and boost childcare and maternity leave. In an upbeat pre-Budget report, he slightly increased borrowing but insisted economic targets would be met. The chancellor also hailed the longest period of growth in UK ""industrial history"" but denied he was ""gloating"". But Oliver Letwin, for the Tories, attacked government red tape and debt, dubbing Mr Brown ""Sir Wastealot"". The shadow chancellor said Mr Brown's ""golden rule"" had ""turned to dross in his hands"" and said he was borrowing to spend, not invest, with predicted debt over the coming years totalling £170bn. Mr Letwin told MPs: ""The tide is going out on the chancellor's credibility. He is spending, borrowing and taxing so much because he is not getting value for taxpayer's money."" Vincent Cable, for the Liberal Democrats, accused Mr Brown of ducking tough choices. He said: ""Last week the prime minister gave us the politics of fear; this week the chancellor has offered the economics of complacency. ""There are serious challenges ahead from the falling dollar and from the rapid downturn in the UK housing market and rising personal debt. But they have not been confronted."" Mr Brown rejected the Lib Dem's call to open up the government's books to the National Audit Office, saying decisions on tax and spending should be made by ministers. Some economists say his forecasts on public finances are wishful thinking. BBC economic editor Evan Davis said the figures were plausible but also a gamble. Mr Brown's insistence he was not ""gloating"" was a pointed rebuttal of a warning from new European Commissioner Peter Mandelson. In his speech, he set out a 10-year childcare strategy for if Labour wins the next election. It includes a £285m cash injection to extend paid maternity leave from six months to nine, with parents able to transfer leave from the mother to the father. He also promised to increase free nursery education for three and four-year-olds to 15 hours from April 2007. And funds would be provided to keep schools open from 0800 to 1800GMT to look after children while their parents were at work. Taken together, the measures would create a ""welfare state that is truly family-friendly for the first time in its history"", said Mr Brown. He also announced a cash hand-out for older pensioners, with payments of £50 for the over-70s as part of the winter fuel allowance. In a move ministers say should keep council tax rises below 5% next year, the chancellor said he was providing an extra £1bn for local councils. The money is expected to come from government departments such as health and education. Mr Brown said he was set to meet his two fiscal rules - to borrow only to invest and keep debt ""low and sustainable"" - both in this economic cycle and the next. Borrowing figures for 2003/4 are £35bn - £2.5bn less than the £37.5bn predicted in March's budget, as already announced by the Office for National Statistics. Borrowing is tipped to fall to £31bn by 2005/06 - but that is still £2bn more than Mr Brown predicted in his March budget. Inflation would be 1.75% next year and 2% in the years to follow, Mr Brown forecast. He also pledged an extra £105m for security and counter-terrorism. Business groups have welcomed efforts to improve competitiveness and invest more in skills and innovation. But there worries about the costs of more family-friendly working. Simon Sweetman, from the Federation of Small Businesses, said: ""The proposals on maternity leave have clearly been made with a general election in mind and with little thought to the impact on small employers.""" -politics,"Kennedy criticises 'unfair' taxes Gordon Brown has failed to tackle the ""fundamental unfairness"" in the tax system in his ninth Budget, Charles Kennedy has said. How was it right that the poorest 20% of society were still paying more as a proportion of their income than the richest 20%, the Lib Dem leader asked. The new £200 council tax rebate for pensioners did nothing to fix the ""unfair tax"", he added. The government could not go on ""patching up"" the system, he added. Speaking in the Commons after Mr Brown had delivered what is widely thought to be the last Budget before the general election, Mr Kennedy acknowledged that the UK was one of the most successful economies in the world. But he criticised both the chancellor and the Tories for failing to address the ""ticking bomb"" of council tax revaluation. He said the recent experience of Wales indicated seven million households in England would pay significantly more after revaluation. The chancellor's announcement that he was to offer a £200 council tax rebate paid by pensioner households was merely a ""sticking plaster"" to a much bigger problem. The Lib Dem plan for a local income tax would benefit the typical household by more than £450 a year, with half of all pensioners paying no local tax and about three million being better off. On pensions, Mr Kennedy said it was a ""scandal"" that the system discriminated against women who had missed making National Insurance payments when they were having children. He said a residency criteria would end ""at a stroke this fundamental iniquity"". Mr Kennedy added his party's priorities of free long-term care for the elderly, abolishing top-up fees and replacing the council tax would be funded by charging 50% income tax to those earning more than £100,000 per annum. He contrasted his approach with Mr Brown's pledge in 2001 not to increase income tax. The chancellor went on to put up National Insurance contributions after the election. ""For most individuals, most families, most households, it adds up to exactly the same thing,"" said Mr Kennedy. ""And they wonder why people get cynical about their politicians when they give one impression before an election and do exactly the opposite after that election.""" -politics,"Vouchers 'to cut winter deaths' Pensioners are being promised energy savings by the Liberal Democrats, as snow and cold temperatures continue. The party says the plans could save the average pensioner £100 every year and cut winter deaths. The government gives £200 for winter fuel to households with people over 60, or £300 where people are over 80. The Tories promise to keep the payments. The Lib Dems would allow people to swap these winter fuel payments for discounts on home insulation. Shadow local government secretary Ed Davey said: ""The current scheme has helped some older people, but this new Liberal Democrat approach will go much further to end the scandal of tens of thousands of old people dying from the winter cold every year."" The vouchers are designed to let pensioners choose from a list of approved energy supplies who would compete for business by offering discounts on home insulation schemes. The plan would boost energy conservation, says the party - and insulation could save £100 every year for pensioner households, so using the money more ""intelligently"" than at present." -politics,"England children's tsar appointed The first children's commissioner for England has been appointed. Great Ormond Street Hospital professor of child health, Al Aynsley-Green, was chosen by the government and will start the £100,000-a-year job immediately. He will oversee a £2.5m annual budget and have the power to look into ""any matter relating to the interests and well-being of children"". Prof Aynsley-Green has also been the national clinical director for children in the Department of Health. He promised to make sure that children's opinions ""count"". ""I will be drawing on my experience of working with children and young people to help ensure that those with the power to improve children's lives do live up to their responsibilities. ""I want all children and young people to know that they can approach me to discuss any matter that affects them, knowing that I will value their opinion."" Education Secretary Ruth Kelly said Prof Aynsley-Green would ""strengthen the voice of children and young people"". Prof Aynsley-Green was a lecturer at Oxford University, trained at Guy's Hospital Medical School, University of London; Oriel College, Oxford; and in Switzerland. He is described as ""a proud grandfather"" of four. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already have children's commissioners." -politics,"Visa row mandarin made Sir John The top civil servant at the centre of the David Blunkett visa affair has been knighted in the New Year Honours. Sir John Gieve was Home Office permanent secretary during the saga which ended with Mr Blunkett quitting. He and other civil servants were criticised for failing to recall how the visa for Mr Blunkett's ex-lover's nanny came to be fast-tracked. The outgoing head of the troubled Child Support Agency Doug Smith also earns an honour in the New Year's list. Mr Smith, 57, whose retirement was announced by Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Smith in November, is made a Commander of the Order of Bath. Both men were giving evidence to a Commons committee on the computer difficulties facing the agency, which left thousands of single parents without any maintenance payments, when the announcement was made. The knighting of Sir John, 54, will be received with astonishment by opposition politicians. The Liberal Democrats said it ""beggared belief"" he and fellow officials could not remember how Leoncia Casalme's application for indefinite leave to remain went from Mr Blunkett's office to the head of the Immigration and Nationality Department. Meanwhile, the Conservatives accused officials of a ""collective failure"" of memory. But Sir Alan Budd, who led an inquiry into the affair, said he had no reason to believe anyone involved had deliberately withheld information. Downing Street defended the decision to honour both men, with a spokesperson saying: ""You have to look at their whole career."" Sir John was made permanent secretary in April 2001 following a Civil Service career which dates back to 1974. He has also worked in the Treasury and the Department of Employment. A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said of Mr Smith's honour: ""The award reflects all that he has achieved in a Civil Service career, principally in the Inland Revenue, spanning over 40 years - not just his role as chief executive of the Child Support Agency. ""In his career he has personally led a number of successful major change programmes."" Mr Smith is set to stay on at the CSA until March. Less controversial will be the knighthoods for Derek Wanless and Mike Tomlinson, who undertook major government reviews on health and education respectively. Former NatWest chief executive Mr Wanless, 57, has delivered not one but two major reports on the NHS. Ex-chief inspector of schools Mr Tomlinson, 62, has recommended replacing A-Levels and GCSEs with a new diploma system in a shake-up of the exams system." -politics,"Conservative backing for ID cards The Tories are to back controversial government plans to introduce ID cards. The shadow cabinet revealed its support ahead of next week's Commons vote on a bill to introduce compulsory ID. The decision follows a ""tough meeting"" where some senior Tories argued vociferously against the move, party sources told the BBC. The bill, which ministers claim will tackle crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, is expected to be opposed by the Liberal Democrats. They have said the scheme is ""deeply flawed"" and a waste of money. Sources within the Conservative Party told the BBC Michael Howard has always been in favour of ID cards, and tried to introduce them when he was Home Secretary. The party has been ""agnostic"" on the issue until now but had now decided to come off the fence, the Tory source said. Despite giving their backing to ID cards, the Conservatives insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the scheme. They said they would also press Labour over whether objectives could be met and whether the Home Office would deliver them. And they pledged to assess the cost effectiveness of ID cards and whether people's privacy would be properly protected. ""It is important to remember that this bill will take a decade to come into full effect,"" a spokesman said. ""It will do nothing to solve the immediate problems of rising crime and uncontrolled immigration."" Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""This has all the signs of Michael Howard overruling colleagues' concerns over ID cards. ""The Tories should have the courage to try and change public opinion not follow it."" The new chairman of the Bar Council, Guy Mansfield QC warned there was a real risk that people on the ""margins of society"" would be driven into the hands of extremists. ""What is going to happen to young Asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere? They are going to be stopped. If they haven't [ID cards] they are going to be detained.""" -politics,"Lib Dems predict 'best ever poll' The Lib Dems are set for their best results in both the general election and the local council polls, one of their frontbenchers has predicted. Local government spokesman Ed Davey was speaking as the party launched its campaign for the local elections being held in 37 English council areas. The flagship pledge is to replace council tax with a local income tax. The Tories say the Lib Dems would make people pay more tax and Labour says the party's sums do not add up. Looking to the coming elections, which are all expected to be held on 5 May, Mr Davey said: ""We are going to be winning more votes and winning more seats. ""I think we are going to have the best general election results and local election results we have ever had under [party leader] Charles Kennedy. ""I couldn't think of a stronger endorsement of a leader.""" -politics,"Will the Budget bring out smiling voters? As Tory spokesman Oliver Letwin said - any chancellor would use his pre-election budget to offer some vote winning sweeteners, wouldn't he. And everyone does, indeed, expect Gordon Brown to do just that in his last budget before the expected polling day of 5 May. There will be plenty of talk about taking no risks with the economy or handing out irresponsible giveaways. But Mr Brown will stun Westminster and break just about every historical precedent if he fails to do something designed to put a smile on voters' faces and make them more inclined to back Labour in the election. And there has already been speculation about possible tax reductions for the poorest and increasing the threshold on stamp duty in this week's Budget. The aim of his package will be to keep any disillusioned core Labour voters in the fold, while ensuring the middle England voters who gave Tony Blair two election victories don't desert him at the third poll. And, needless to say, there will be plenty of analysis of what impact the Budget will have on Mr Brown's own ambitions to replace Mr Blair as prime minister at some point after a third win. But there is a shadow hanging over this pre-election performance - in the shape of £11 billion or thereabouts. That is the size of the financial ""black hole"" the Tories, backed by some independent forecasters, believe Mr Brown will have to fill with tax increases after the election. The opening shot in that battle was fired at the weekend with claims a Treasury leak suggested Mr Brown was ready to slap capital gains tax on home sales to raise some of that cash. It was immediately denied, but the Tories remain suspicious, claiming that, as Mr Letwin said, if the money does not come from there, where will it come from. Mr Brown will undoubtedly claim the forecasts are simply wrong and that he will have absolutely no need to raise taxes after the election, should Labour win. Previous gloomy forecasts proved wrong, he will argue, while suggesting that only by sticking with him can Britain continue to have a sound economy, low unemployment and high public spending. The opposition will reject that by claiming they can keep the economy sound, increase spending and cut taxes at the same time. The Liberal Democrats will also promise to run a sound economy, but based on increased taxes to fund spending and, amongst other things, abolishing the council tax in favour of a local income tax. And there will be prolonged argument over which of the parties can make the greatest savings in Whitehall and beyond to fund their policies. But probably what that all boils down to is a simple question of which of the parties the voters most trust to keep the economy stable and avoid any unpleasant surprises in the coming years. And it is probably still the answer to that one question that will overwhelmingly decide the outcome of the general election." -politics,"Lib Dems' 'bold' election policy Charles Kennedy has told voters his Liberal Democrats will offer them an ""honest choice"" at the next general election. With the other two big parties battling over which will impose the lowest taxes, Mr Kennedy is going into the looming election pledged to increase taxation. It is a bold policy and certainly ensures there is that choice between the Lib Dems and the other two. With his party's previous pledge to increase taxes by one penny in the pound to spend on public services already adopted by the government, he has switched tack. Now he is promising to levy a ""modest"" increase of the same amount on earnings over £100,000 a year to allow him to finance a series of pledges. They are to scrap student fees, finance free long term care for the elderly and replace the council tax with a local income tax. That last policy will also see about 3% of the most well off paying more while others, pensioners in particular, will pay less. Labour and the Tories have attacked his policies as both unworkable and not properly costed. Inevitably they insist there is no need to raise taxes to fund improvements in services. The Tories claim they can improve services AND cut taxes through £35bn efficiency savings, while Labour has offered £22bn savings but has yet to map out precise tax proposals, although there is little chance they will propose increases. In many ways the argument between the Lib Dems and the others over taxation and spending echo the sort of arguments that raged between Labour and the Tories in the 1980s and early 1990s. But, unlike the old Tory-Labour debate, he believes voters are ready to see ""modest"" tax increases on the well off in order to fund improvements in services. That is a view partly endorsed by recent polls suggesting people would rather have cash spent on public services than tax cuts. Similarly there is a different tone to the Lib Dem approach to asylum and immigration, with Mr Kennedy stressing politicians should not ""foment an artificial debate"" about immigration and attacking Michael Howard's proposals for quotas. Once again, with the two other big parties singing similar songs on immigration, Mr Kennedy is stressing the different, more liberal approach of his party. Mr Kennedy was also in buoyant mood over his party's election chances, declaring the Tories were not going to be ""significant players"" in the poll. He repeated his pledge not to do post-election deals with either party after the election. Mr Kennedy went on to suggest the re-election of a Labour government with a small majority would amount to a ""massive vote of no confidence "" in Tony Blair's government. That suggests the Lib Dem leader believes he may well find himself in a powerful, even pivotal position in a vastly different House of Commons after the next election. It is a dream the third party has dreamed many times before." -politics,"Will Tory tax cuts lift spirits? Michael Howard has finally revealed the full scale of his planned Tory tax cuts. Should he win the next general election, he has earmarked £4 billion that will be used to reduce taxes - although he still will not say which or how. This was the pre-election message many in his party have been pressing for and voters, he believes, will warm to. At its simplest, it is saying: ""Vote Tory and you can have it both ways"". Not only would his government stick to Labour spending plans on core public services, including health and education, it would increase spending on defence, police and pensions. And even after that was done, it would still have enough left over for a tax cut equivalent to about a penny off the basic rate of income tax. All the money would come from its £35 billion efficiency savings which would see the axe taken to bureaucracy, waste and the civil service. Of that, £23 billion would go on spending plans, with £8 billion to fill the black hole left, they claim, by Gordon Brown, and the rest going in tax cuts. Neither Mr Howard nor Mr Letwin would say exactly how they would use that cash, although a cut in the basic rate seems unlikely. Ideas already floated include raising tax thresholds and abolishing or reducing inheritance tax, although some in the Tory party are urging Mr Howard to announce something more eye-catching before the election. As the Tory leader declared, the aim of the exercise is to open up a real economic policy divide between Labour and the Tories. ""At this election, people will have a clear choice between Mr Blair who will waste more and tax more and the Conservative party which will give value for money and tax less,"" he said. It is a move back towards an almost traditional Tory message which previously suggested Labour was the party of tax rises and the Conservatives the party of tax cuts. The extension of that, however, was that Labour was also seen as the party of big spending on the public services while the Tories were the cutters. And that is where one of the problems lies for Mr Howard - can he persuade sceptical voters that they really can have it both ways with bigger spending on public services AND lower taxes? He insists he will not promise anything before the election that he cannot deliver if put into Downing Street. Labour, needless to say, claim his planned £35bn efficiency savings simply don't add up and that those sorts of figures are fantasy. One of New Labour's greatest successes before the historic 1997 election was to persuade voters, business and the City that it could be trusted to run the economy. So far that has not faced any real challenge, but independent analysts now claim a third New Labour government would be forced to either increase taxation or taxes to plug a black hole it has at the centre of its finances. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats are committed to increasing taxes for the most well off to finance their spending proposals launched earlier in the day. So, Mr Howard hopes his message will start to hit home during this unofficial election campaign and that his poll ratings might finally lift off the floor. And, while other issues like the Iraq war and trust will play a major part in that campaign, it is likely - and the prime minister probably hopes - that the economy will be the deciding factor." -politics,"Kilroy names election seat target Ex-chat show host Robert Kilroy-Silk is to contest the Derbyshire seat of Erewash at the next general election. Labour's Elizabeth Blackman won the seat in 1997 and has a 6,932 majority. She says she will fight on her record ""as a hard-working constituency MP"". Mr Kilroy-Silk announced his plans a day after launching his new party, Veritas, the Latin for truth. The East Midlands MEP, who quit the UK Independence Party, wants his new group to ""change the face"" of UK politics. His choice of election constituency quashes speculation that he would stand against Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. UKIP won 31% of the vote in Erewash in last June's European elections - with Mr Kilroy-Silk among their candidates for the region. Until 1997, Erewash had been held by the Tories since 1970. Ms Blackman said she was proud of the government's achievements in the area. She declined to give her view of Mr Kilroy-Silk at this point. On Thursday, he told a London news conference that Veritas would avoid the old parties' ""lies and spin"". He said ""our country"" was being ""stolen from us"" by mass immigration and promised a ""firm but fair"" policy on immigration. Veritas says it hopes to contest most seats at the forthcoming general election but plans to announce detailed policies on crime, tax, pensions, health and defence over the next few weeks. UKIP leader Roger Knapman says he is glad to see the back of Mr Kilroy-Silk. Labour campaign spokesman Fraser Kemp said Veritas was joining ""an already crowded field on the right of British politics"". Mr Kilroy-Silk was joined in the new venture by one of UKIP's two London Assembly members, Damien Hockney, who is now Veritas' deputy leader. UKIP's chairman Petrina Holdsworth has said the group will just be a parody of the party the men have left. Mr Kilroy-Silk quit UKIP last week after months of tension as he vied unsuccessfully for the leadership of that party. He said he was ashamed to be a member of a UKIP whose leadership had ""gone AWOL"" after the great opportunity offered by its third place at last June's European elections. UKIP's leader, Roger Knapman, has said he is glad to see the back of Mr Kilroy-Silk. ""He has remarkable ability to influence people but, sadly, after the [European] election it became clear that he was more interested in the Robert Kilroy-Silk Party than the UK Independence Party so it was nice knowing him, now 'goodbye',"" he said. UKIP officials also argue Mr Kilroy-Silk has not been ""straightforward"" in attacking the party he once wanted to lead." -politics,"Blair moves to woo Jewish voters Tony Blair has pledged to ""never, ever, ever"" attack Tory leader Michael Howard over his Jewish beliefs. The prime minister told the Jewish Chronicle: ""If you look at what I do, I attack Michael Howard politically."" Mr Blair also distanced himself from recent Labour campaign posters featuring Mr Howard, which critics claimed were ""anti-Semitic"". These were ""not intended to cause any offence to anyone on the Jewish community,"" Mr Blair insisted. One poster depicted Mr Howard and his shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin, who is also Jewish, as flying pigs. Another pictured the Tory leader swinging a pocket watch on a chain, which critics said echoed the Jewish money lender Shylock in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. Others compared the image to the character Fagin in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. Labour has since taken the designs of its website, saying members had preferred other designs. During his interview with the Jewish Chronicle, Mr Blair said: ""I've been a very strong supporter of the Jewish community and Israel, and will always be so."" Pressed on whether he would draw attention to Mr Howard's Jewish beliefs in an attempt to attract Muslim support, he replied: ""The idea that I would allow anybody to make such a charge is outrageous. It's untrue. ""If you look what I do, I attack Michael Howard politically. I would never, ever, ever attack him on that basis."" Mr Blair also defended his party's attitude towards the Jewish community, pointing out that it was his government that had introduced the Holocaust Memorial Day. He added that Labour also aggressively fought all forms of racism. Neither the Conservatives nor the Liberal Democrats wished to comment on Mr Blair's words. The prime minister was speaking as London's Labour mayor Ken Livingstone remains embroiled in a row over comments he made to a Jewish reporter from the city's Evening Standard newspaper. Mr Blair repeated calls for the mayor to apologise for likening the reporter, Oliver Finegold, to a concentration camp guard. Mr Livingstone ""should have withdrawn the comment immediately"" once he realised the journalist was Jewish, said Mr Blair. ""I'm sure that is what in truth he wants to do. Well, he should do it."" Mr Livingstone has said he could not sincerely say sorry for the comments he made, and claims he has been targeted by the newspaper. He conceded his comments may have been offensive but were not racist, and said earlier this week he would not apologise even if Mr Blair asked." -politics,"Howard attacks 'pay later' Budget Tory leader Michael Howard has dismissed Gordon Brown's Budget as ""vote now, pay later"" spending plans. The simple fact was that under a new Labour government taxes would go up after the election to plug a financial black hole, Mr Howard said. Everyone could see the chancellor's ""sweeteners"", but these hid tax rises for hard working families, he said. Labour's ""faltering election campaign"" would not be helped by the package of measures, Mr Howard added. Mr Brown's Budget was not about what was good for the country, but ""all about the interests of the Labour party,"" the Tory leader said after mockingly welcoming the chancellor back to the election campaign. He went on to accuse Mr Brown of giving with one hand while taking away with the other. He urged the chancellor to admit he had been responsible for dragging ""millions of people in to the net"" to pay stamp duty and inheritance tax. ""We can all see the sweeteners, but they hide the crippling tax rises for hard-working families that are inevitable if Labour wins."" He also accused the government and the chancellor of running out of solutions to the problems Britain faced. ""Their only answer is to tax, to spend and to waste - to get people to vote now and pay later."" Mr Brown liked to rattle off ""magical balances conjured out of thin air"" in a bid to convince people there was no ""black hole"" in the nation's finances, the Tory leader said. ""This dodgy government that brought us the dodgy dossier is now publishing a dodgy Budget based on dodgy numbers,"" he said. ""You now propose to borrow, over the next six years, no less than £168 billion; so much for prudence. ""The chancellor's forecasts of surpluses are no better than the prime minister's forecasts of weapons of mass destruction."" Mr Brown's council tax rebate for pensioners was £300 less than what the Tories were offering, Mr Howard said. There was nothing in the Budget that would put more police on the streets, make hospitals cleaner or give parents and teachers the discipline and skills they wanted in schools. People would face a ""clear choice"" at the election, either ""more waste and higher taxes under Labour or lower taxes and value for money with the Conservatives"", he said. ""That's the battleground of this election. That's what this election is going to be all about and I say bring it on,"" he concluded, to loud Tory cheering." -politics,"Guantanamo pair's passport ban The government has written to two of the British men freed from Guantanamo Bay telling them they will not be allowed passports. A letter sent to Martin Mubanga said his British passport would not be issued in the light of evidence gathered against him by the US. This suggested he was likely to take part in action against UK or allied targets if he left Britain, it said. An identical letter has been sent to Feroz Abbasi, the men's solicitor says. It is not known whether the other two men released from the Cuba detention camp in January - Richard Belmar and Moazzam Begg - have also received letters. The government is implementing the rarely used Royal Prerogative in order to withdraw the men's passports. It is only the 13th time the power has been used since 1947 - the last time was in 1976. The letter, from the Home Office, says: ""I am writing to inform you that on the basis of the information which has come to light during your detention by the United States, the home secretary considered that there are strong grounds for believing that, on leaving the United Kingdom, you would take part in activities against the United Kingdom, or allied targets."" The Home Office said it could not comment on individual cases. The Liberal Democrats say they suspect the move is part of a package of security measures agreed with the US in order for the men to be allowed home from Guantanamo Bay. Home Affairs spokesman Mark Oaten also demanded assurances that the evidence against the men was not gained under torture. He added: ""The power should only be used in absolute extreme circumstances and I find it hard to believe that these conditions have been met this time."" He said the move also raised complex questions about the use of the Royal Prerogative. The Liberal Democrats have promised to raise the issue in Parliament. Amnesty International UK also questioned whether the decisions had been based on ""torture evidence"" obtained at Guantanamo Bay. ""Furthermore, we believe there should be an investigation into the role played by the UK in the detention of UK residents and nationals and possibly many others at Guantanamo Bay,"" said director Kate Allen. The men's solicitor, Louise Christian, has raised questions about whether the evidence was gathered through torture. But the Pentagon told BBC News US policy ""condemns and prohibits"" torture and said there was no evidence that any British detainee was tortured or abused. Mr Abbasi, 23, from Croydon, south London, was taken to Guantanamo Bay after being captured in Afghanistan in 2001. Mr Mubanga, 29, from north London, was originally detained in Zambia." -politics,"Teens 'know little' of politics Teenagers questioned for a survey have shown little interest in politics - and have little knowledge. Only a quarter of 14-16 year olds knew that Labour was the government, the Tories were the official Opposition and the Lib Dems were the third party. Almost all could identify Tony Blair, but only one in six knew who Michael Howard was, and just one in 10 recognised Charles Kennedy. The ICM survey interviewed 110 pupils for education watchdog Ofsted. Nearly half those pupils polled said it was not important for them to know more about what the political parties stand for. And 4% of those questioned thought the Conservatives were in power - while 2% of them believed the Lib Dems were. The survey also looked at issues of nationality. It found the Union flag and fish and chips topped the list of symbols and foods associated with being British. Many of the pupils also looked on themselves as English, Scottish or Welsh, rather than British; while the notion of being European hardly occurred to anyone." -politics,"Analysis: No pain, no gain? He called it his ""masochism strategy"" in the run-up to the Iraq war and now Tony Blair has signed up for another dose of pain. The idea is simple - the prime minister goes head to head with an often hostile group of ""real"" voters in the full spotlight of the television cameras. The theory is that talking to the great British public, even if they are the ""great unwashed"", is better than having the media filter what voters hear from politicians. It is also the most effective way of showing that he is aware of real people's concerns and - on occasions - of their outright fury. Mr Blair used the tactic before the Iraq war to try to show he really was engaging with public concerns and you can expect to see it much more in the run-up to the election. Labour knows it has been damaged by accusations of spin, ""control freakery"" and over-slick presentation - sometimes from within the ranks of its own MPs. Tony Blair himself has said people complain he does not listen. Mr Blair's latest bout of flagellation came with a series of questions sessions on Five television throughout Wednesday. The trouble began on the Wright Stuff show, with Maria Hutchings marching up to him, saying ""Tony, that's rubbish"" as she tried to complain about her autistic son's school being threatened with closure. A few ""don't worries"" as Mrs Hutchings was led back to the audience averted a public slanging match - he spoke to her privately after the show. But that was only the start and later sessions produced the type of grilling not even the toughest television interviewer could produce. Writer Neil Coppendale, from West Sussex, asked of the Iraq war: ""Tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children died - how do you manage to sleep at night?"" On immigration, London teacher Diane Granger said: ""Where are you going to put everyone?"" And can you imagine even Jeremy Paxman putting the question posed by Brighton nurse Marion Brown: ""Would you wipe somebody's backside for £5?"" Mr Blair tried to use the questioners' first names - and sometimes threw them off their stride by asking what they would do about the problems. Many of the newspapers have branded the exercise a PR stunt which backfired. Indeed there is a danger Mr Blair simply ends up looking ""embattled"". Conservative Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat Charles Kennedy are to be offered chances to appear in similar slots on the channel next month. Labour strategists believe more of the sessions will mean the hecklers no longer become a story and the real issues take prominence. James Humphreys, ex-head of corporate communications at Number 10, says the strategy shows frustration with the media. ""They feel they don't get their voice across and going direct to people is clearly their game on this occasion,"" he says. There are risks but the prize is tackling the trend of lower turnouts at the polls, he argues. The prime minister knows full well the potential hazards . He must remember with gritted teeth his confrontation with Sharron Storer, the Birmingham woman who harangued him over the state of her local hospital in the 2001 election campaign. ""All you do is walk around and make yourself known, you don't do anything to help anybody,"" she told Mr Blair before stomping off, refusing his pleas to discuss the issue privately. Former Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell has described the episode as a ""bit of a disaster"" as it meant the launch of Labour's election manifesto received little coverage. But it was seen as one of the few moments when that election campaign came alive, not least because it coincided with John Prescott's even more direct contact - when he punched an egg-throwing protester. Former prime ministers too have come to grief at the hands of a persistent member of the public. The undoubted highlight of years of election phone-in shows was Margaret Thatcher discomfort on Nationwide in 1983, when viewer Diana Gould put her on the spot about the sinking of the Belgrano in the Falklands War. John Major reaped the benefits of street campaigning during the 1992 election campaign with his famous soapbox. It may have left him splattered with eggs and engine oil at times but he felt it added ""fizz"" to his campaign. In his memoirs, he also argues the strategy contrasted with Neil Kinnock's ""contrived photo opportunities"" and attempts at an artful campaign. ""He wanted to look like a prime minister. I was prime minister and I wanted a flesh and blood fight,"" says Mr Major. Mr Blair told prospective Labour MPs on Thursday that taking part in phone-ins and public meetings could ""enthuse and engage and give the public a sense of empowerment"". But he also wants to counter complaints that he has spent too much time on international affairs and foreign trips. Mr Blair recalls how Bill Clinton once advised him: ""Always remember that what people see of you in the news in the evening is how they think you spend your day."" His hope must be that voters watching him on the rack will bear out for Labour the old maxim: ""No pain, no gain.""" -politics,"New UKIP defection to 'Veritas' The UK Independence Party has lost one of its two London Assembly members to Robert Kilroy-Silk's new political party, expected to launch on Wednesday. Damian Hockney said ex-chatshow host Mr Kilroy-Silk would ""deliver better"" as the leader of a eurosceptic party. He said Mr Kilroy-Silk had made him deputy party leader of Veritas, Latin for truth. Sources close to Mr Hockney said around eight other members of London UKIP were also planning to jump ship. Details of the coming week's events were hammered out at a meeting at Mr Kilroy-Silk's Buckinghamshire home on Sunday, the BBC News Website was told. The news came after UKIP suspended a candidate for allegedly suggesting the criminally insane should be killed. John Houston, 54, was due to stand in the East Kilbride seat in Lanarkshire at the next election. A spokesman for UKIP called on Mr Hockney to quit the London Assembly. UKIP asserts that Mr Hockney ""has a moral obligation, if not a legal one"" to stand down. Mr Hockney meanwhile told the BBC: ""I believe that Robert Kilroy-Silk can deliver better as a leader of a eurosceptic party than the current leadership of the UK Independence Party."" On the suspension of Mr Houston, UKIP said those who selected him knew nothing of his views. Mr Houston is alleged to have said that the organs of the criminally insane should be ""made available to law-abiding members of the community"" and proposed the legalisation of drugs and the sex trade. The document reportedly said: ""We're looking for the resurrection of the British Empire. ""The problems for the human race - environmental and others - can only be dealt with on a global scale, and that calls for a radical alliance of the English-speaking nations, which they are uniquely able to do."" UKIP spokesman Mark Croucher said the main issue would be that Mr Houston's reported views had been presented as UKIP policy, which they were not." -politics,"Job cuts 'false economy' - TUC Plans to shed 71,000 civil service jobs will prove to be a ""false economy"" that could hamper public sector reforms, according to a TUC report. Public and Commercial Services union members have already voted to strike over cuts for one day on 5 November. The TUC said cuts would deliver less than 6% of the £22bn ministers hope to save through efficiency reforms. General secretary Brendan Barber warned the ""costs could easily outweigh the benefits"". ""The government's big boost to public spending is now showing results,"" said Mr Barber. ""Public services are improving but looking for simple savings through job cuts at this stage could be a false economy. ""They may shoot a Tory fox, but cutting thousands of civil service jobs will hit the morale and capabilities of the public servants expected to implement government reforms. The costs could easily outweigh the benefits."" Next Friday's strike action by the PCS is the biggest in the civil service since 1993, hitting Jobcentres, benefit agencies, pensions offices, customs and driving tests. The union says it is concerned about pensions, sick pay and forced relocation as well as the cut in jobs. Last month it was announced that a total of 37 social security offices and Jobcentres across the UK would close in the first wave of plans to shed civil service jobs. The number of civil servants in Britain rose to more than 520,000 in April. Other areas the strike will affect include passports, museums and galleries, libraries and health and safety inspections." -politics,"Commons hunt protest charges Eight protesters who stormed the House of Commons chamber during a debate on the Hunting Bill have been charged with disorderly conduct. The men were arrested in September after bursting into the chamber causing a hunting ban debate to be halted. Those charged included Otis Ferry, the 22-year-old son of rock star Bryan Ferry and Luke Tomlinson, 27, a close friend of princes William and Harry. They were charged under Section 5 of the Public Order Act, police said. Five of the eight men held an impromptu news conference outside Charing Cross Police Station on Monday evening, after the charges were formerly put to them. The men's solicitor Matthew Knight, said that at no time had it occurred to the men that they were committing a criminal offence. ""There is no offence of trespassing in the House of Commons - it is not a criminal offence,"" he said. ""If Parliament wanted to make entering the House of Commons chamber on foot a criminal offence it should have done so, but it can't do so retrospectively. ""We are not prosecuted for that. We are prosecuted for a Public Order Act offence. We are not guilty of it."" They will appear at Bow Street Magistrates' Court on 21 December, a police spokesman said. Otis Ferry, a former Eton pupil and joint leader of the South Shropshire Hunt, said: ""I have no regrets. ""We have done nothing wrong beyond the obvious which was to stand up for our rights and not act like a sheep like the rest of the country."" One of the men, David Redvers, 34, from Hartpury, Gloucestershire, said he and the other seven protesters would plead not guilty to the charges. The other protesters are John Holliday, 37, a huntsman from Ledbury, Herefordshire, Robert Thame, 34, who plays polo with Princes Charles in Team Highgrove, auctioneer Andrew Elliot, 42, from Bromesberrow, near Ledbury, point-to-point jockey Richard Wakeham, 34, from York, and former royal chef Nick Wood, 41. The 15 September protest came on the same day as a huge pro-hunting demonstration in Parliament Square. Four of the men ran out from behind the speaker's chair while another wrestled past a doorkeeper from a different entrance. The five tried to confront MPs before they were bundled out of the chamber and later led away handcuffed by police. Three others had been intercepted by security staff as they tried to join the five in the chamber. Speaker Michael Martin later said the men had used a forged letter to gain access to the House of Commons and had been helped to get close to the chamber by a parliamentary pass holder. In November, the use of the Parliament Act meant a total ban on hunting with dogs in England and Wales. However, many pro-hunt activists remained defiant after the law was passed, saying they would ignore the ban and continue to hunt. Last week, the Countryside Alliance said more than 250 hunts would meet legally the day after the ban on hunting with dogs comes into force. The alliance said the 19 February meets would show the new law was ""impossibly difficult to determine"" and open to different interpretations." -politics,"Kelly trails new discipline power Teachers could get more powers to remove unruly pupils from classes under a ""zero tolerance"" drive, Education Secretary Ruth Kelly has suggested. Ms Kelly told the BBC progress had been made against severely disruptive children but parents were still worried about lower level problems. The minister also confirmed she received ""spiritual support"" from the Catholic movement Opus Dei. But she denied her faith meant she would refuse key government jobs. The Conservatives have made school discipline one of their five priority areas in the run-up to the next general election. Ms Kelly is expected to announce her plans on the issue in the next fortnight. She told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost: ""It is really important to support head teachers and teachers in tackling disruption in the classroom. ""We have made huge progress on the really difficult cases, the pupils who have severely disruptive behaviour. ""But quite rightly what teachers are concerned about and what parents are concerned about is that this lower level disruption that goes on in the classroom now is tackled. ""I would like to see the teacher being able to remove disruptive children from the classroom completely and have either alternative provision within the school or indeed off the school and may be working together with other schools in a particular area to provide that provision."" It is thought the plans may distinguish between excluding pupils from schools and taking them out of mainstream classes. Head teachers can currently exclude pupils who commit or threaten violence in school, who sexually abuse pupils or other people, who sell illegal drugs or who have persistent and malicious disruptive behaviour. Ms Kelly entered the Cabinet last month in the reshuffle forced by the resignation of the then Home Secretary David Blunkett. Her links to Opus Dei, which means ""Work of God"" in Latin, have provoked controversy. Critics say the organisation, which adheres strictly to Catholic teachings, is secretive and elitist but its members reject such claims. Asked if she was a member of the group, Ms Kelly said: ""I do have spiritual support from Opus Dei and that is right. ""But those are private spiritual matters and I'm sure you'll respect that politicians are entitled to a private life."" She categorically denied reports that her beliefs on issues such as contraception would make her refuse to serve as a health or international development minister. Her collective responsibility as a Cabinet minister meant she also took responsibility for policies in those areas, she argued. The government has yet to issue its official response to the Tomlinson review, which recommended absorbing existing exam qualifications into a diploma. Ms Kelly said reforms should build on GCSEs and A-levels. Her comments did not impress Tory shadow education secretary Tim Collins. ""Ruth Kelly wants to ditch the Tomlinson report on exam structures but has absolutely no idea what to put in its place,"" he said. ""She also talks of improving discipline but cannot make her mind up how. This is an all talk agenda that lets down children, teachers and parents.""" -politics,"Labour trio 'had vote-rig factory' Three Labour councillors in Birmingham were caught operating a ""vote-rigging factory"", an Election Court has heard. Police found the trio handling unsealed postal ballots in a deserted warehouse in the city during a late-night raid in June 2004, the hearing was told. The votes were later counted towards that month's English local elections. The men, elected to the Aston ward, deny collecting votes fraudulently. The judge presiding has indicated the whole postal voting system is under scrutiny. Deputy High Court Judge Richard Mawrey, QC told the hearing at the Birmingham and Midlands Institute the case could have potentially serious consequences for any forthcoming General Election. The special Election Court, the first in living memory to hear allegations of vote-rigging, opened in Birmingham last month. The case against Muhammad Afzal, Mohammed Islam and Mohammed Kazi is being brought by local Liberal Democrat supporters. They claim the trio benefited from the widespread misuse of postal votes during the 10 June election. Ravi Sukul, counsel for the petitioners, accused the three men of being ""deeply involved"" in illegal practices. Witnesses saw them carrying several bags from their campaign office, which the men drove to a warehouse on an industrial estate off Birch Road East, the court was told. The police were alerted and called to the premises. Mr Sukul said: ""When (the officers) arrived there, in the middle of the night, they saw a large room with a 10ft long table and six Asian men present. ""Hundreds of documents and unsealed envelopes were scattered all over the table."" The police officers left the warehouse, but were later ordered back to seize the documents. ""When the officers left, all the envelopes and papers were scattered,"" Mr Sukul said. ""(When they went) back to make the seizure, every one of these 275 yellow ballot papers were placed neatly in envelope A and sealed. The house was in order."" Interrupting Mr Sukul in his opening, Mr Mawrey said: ""What you are saying is, these men were operating a vote-forging factory on an industrial estate."" The court heard how documents were taken by police to the elections office next morning, where they were mixed in with other ballots. The case against the men follows a hearing into postal fraud allegations made against three other Birmingham councillors in the Bordesley Green ward, claims which are denied. Mr Mawrey is due to deliver a judgment in their case once the Aston petition has been heard. Mr Afzal, Mr Islam and Mr Kazi deny conspiring to commit election fraud to deceive the returning officer. The case continues." -politics,"Jowell rejects 'Las Vegas' jibe The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell, has hit out at critics of the Gambling Bill. She told the Guardian newspaper there would be no ""Las Vegas-style"" super-casinos, as rumoured in the press. Meanwhile Labour backbencher Stephen Pound labelled casino-related regeneration schemes ""a pile of pants"". The MP for Ealing North claimed the legislation would encourage a mafia-like culture of vice and corruption, in an interview on BBC Radio 4. ""You look at some of the people who are involved...they aren't in there to regenerate Blackpool. They are in it to fill their boots,"" Mr Pound told the Today programme. ""I just really think that we have made a terrible mistake here. And over all of it hangs the shadow of the men in the chalk-stripe suits with names that rhyme with spaghetti,"" he said. Ms Jowell complained of the ""scale of misrepresentation"" in the media over the bill in her interview with the newspaper, her first since the bill was launched. The culture secretary said a four year consultation period had produced a consensus on the need to ""protect children and the vulnerable"" in a swiftly changing sector. Ms Jowell insisted: ""We have a good track record for extracting planning gain in this country, for instance in social housing."" And continued: ""We can be proud to have one of the lowest rates of problem gambling in the world. I intend to keep it that way."" Ms Jowell will set out her position when the Bill is debated in the Commons on Monday. In prime minister's questions last week Tony Blair assured Parliament that 90% of the bill was about tightening up the regulation of the gambling industry." -politics,"UK 'discriminated against Roma' The government's immigration rules racially discriminated against Roma (Gypsies) seeking entry into the UK, the Law Lords have ruled. It follows a Home Office move to cut asylum claims by stopping people, mostly Roma, from boarding flights to Britain from the Czech capital, Prague. Civil rights group Liberty said it exposed ""racism at the heart of the government's asylum policy"". The Home Office said it had not meant to discriminate against anyone. It said it would look at the implications of the ruling, but pointed out the controls were no longer in place because Czechs are now entitled to free movement across Europe. The screening took place at the airport in July 2001, at a time of concern about the number of asylum seekers entering Britain. Those refused ""pre-clearance"" were effectively prevented from travelling to the UK, because no airline would carry them. Lady Hale, sitting with Lords Bingham, Steyn, Hope and Carswell, said many Roma had good reason to want to leave the Czech Republic because of persecution. But she said they were treated more sceptically than non-Roma passengers by immigration officers ""acting on racial grounds"". Lady Hale said immigration officers should have treated all would-be passengers in the same way, only using more intrusive questioning if there was a specific reason. Liberty said statistics suggested Roma Czechs were 400 times more likely to be stopped by British immigration officials at Prague airport than non-Roma Czechs. It took up the case of six unnamed Roma Czechs refused entry to Britain, and that of the European Roma Rights Centre, which said the measures unfairly penalised Roma people. It lost a High Court action in October 2002 when a judge said the system was ""no more or less objectionable"" than a visa control system. He ruled there was no obligation on Britain not to take steps to prevent a potential refugee from approaching its border to claim asylum. The Court of Appeal then decided the practice almost inevitably discriminated against Roma, but that this was justified because they were more likely to seek asylum. Immigration law allows officials to discriminate against citizens from named countries, but it does not allow officers to go further than that. Responding to the ruling, a Home Office spokesman said: ""The scheme was operated two years ago as a short-term response to the high levels of passengers travelling from Prague who are subsequently found to be ineligible for entry to the UK."" Welcoming the ruling, Maeve Sherlock, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: ""Human rights abuses against the Roma in Eastern Europe are well documented, and it is hugely troubling that the government sought to deny entry to such a vulnerable group."" Amnesty International's Jan Shaw said: ""That the government's own asylum policy was being operated discriminatorily is bleakly ironic given that discrimination often lies at the heart of serious human rights abuse, not least in the Czech Republic."" But the chairman of Migration Watch UK, Sir Andrew Green, said the House of Lords decision was a ""step in the wrong direction"". ""The basic point is that the government has a duty to control our borders and this decision appears to extend the race relations legislation beyond sensible limits.""" -politics,"Hatfield executives go on trial Engineering firm Balfour Beatty and five railway managers are to go on trial for manslaughter over the Hatfield rail crash in 2000. Four people died when a section of rail broke and a high speed train derailed. Balfour Beatty's railway maintenance arm was in charge of the upkeep of the line at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Balfour Beatty managers Anthony Walker and Nicholas Jeffries, and Railtrack managers Alistair Cook, Sean Fugill and Keith Lea all face individual charges. All five men, along with four others, are also accused of breaches of health and safety laws. Balfour Beatty Rail Maintenance faces a corporate manslaughter charge. It is expected the trial could last as long as a year. The accident, on 17 October 2000, happened when the London to Leeds express came off the tracks at 115 mph, when it was derailed by a cracked section of rail. The accident on the East Coast Main Line sparked major disruption. The overall responsibility for the line was Railtrack's - the company that has now become Network Rail. Those who died in the accident were Steve Arthur, 46, from Pease Pottage, West Sussex; Peter Monkhouse, 50, of Headingley, Leeds; Leslie Gray, 43, of Tuxford, Nottingham; and Robert James Alcorn, 37, of Auckland, New Zealand." -politics,"Tories opposing 24-hour drinking The Tories say plans to extend pub opening times should be put on hold until binge drinking is under control, despite backing a law change last year. Spokesman David Davis said ministers had failed to make his party aware of concern among senior police that plans would cause more anti-social behaviour. Notts police chief Steve Green said innocent people would suffer. But Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said a delay would be ""disastrous"" and she accused the Tories of opportunism. The government would go ahead with the changes which would give police more power to tackle excessive drinking, she added. Earlier chief constable Green questioned how his officers would be able to practically apply powers allowing them to shut down problem premises. ""If you look at the Market Square in Nottingham, if a fight takes place which licensed premises do you go and lay the responsibilty at the door of?"" he asked on BBC Radio 4's World at One programme. He warned that if drinking establishments were allowed to open until three or four in the morning the police would have to take officers off day shifts in order to do their job effectively at night. Earlier this year the Royal College of Physicians said it opposed the plan to extend drinking hours when there was already an ""epidemic"" of binge drinking. Minister Richard Caborn said the government was tackling the causes and the symptoms of the problem by allowing more powers to close down problem premises. It is hoped that allowing pubs and clubs to stay open longer will stagger closing times and end the current situation where drinkers spill on to the streets all at once. Earlier Tony Blair defended the plans against criticism from one of his own backbenchers. ""My view of this is very clear: we should have the same flexibility that other countries have and then we should come down really hard on those who abuse that freedom and don't show the responsibility,"" he told MPs. ""The law-abiding majority who want the ability, after going to the cinema or theatre say, to have a drink at the time they want should not be inconvenienced, we shouldn't have to have restrictions that no other city in Europe has, just in order to do something for that tiny minority who abuse alcohol, who go out and fight and cause disturbances. ""To take away that ability for all the population - even the vast majority who are law abiding - is not, in my view, sensible."" This week a judge claimed easy access to drink was breeding ""urban savages"" and turning town centres into no go areas. Judge Charles Harris QC made his remarks as he sentenced three men for assaults carried out while drunk and high on drugs after a night out." -politics,"Tory backing for ID cards The Tories are to back controversial government plans to introduce ID cards. The shadow cabinet revealed its support ahead of next week's Commons vote on a bill to introduce compulsory ID. The decision follows a ""tough meeting"" where some senior Tories argued vociferously against the move, party sources told the BBC. The bill, which ministers claim will tackle crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, is expected to be opposed by the Liberal Democrats. They have said the scheme is ""deeply flawed"" and a waste of money. Sources within the Conservative Party told the BBC Michael Howard has always been in favour of ID cards, and tried to introduce them when he was Home Secretary. The party has been ""agnostic"" on the issue until now but had now decided to come off the fence, the Tory source said. Despite giving their backing to ID cards, the Conservatives insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the scheme. They said they would also press Labour over whether objectives could be met and whether the Home Office would deliver them. And they pledged to assess the cost effectiveness of ID cards and whether people's privacy would be properly protected. ""It is important to remember that this bill will take a decade to come into full effect,"" a spokesman said. ""It will do nothing to solve the immediate problems of rising crime and uncontrolled immigration."" Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""This has all the signs of Michael Howard overruling colleagues' concerns over ID cards. ""The Tories should have the courage to try and change public opinion not follow it."" The new chairman of the Bar Council, Guy Mansfield QC warned there was a real risk that people on the ""margins of society"" would be driven into the hands of extremists. ""What is going to happen to young Asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere? They are going to be stopped. If they haven't [ID cards] they are going to be detained.""" -politics,"Clarke plans migrant point scheme Anyone planning to move to the UK will have to pass a test to prove they can contribute to the country, Home Secretary Charles Clarke has said. He is proposing a points system similar to Australia's but would avoid the quota system planned by the Tories. Mr Clarke, who will unveil his plans on Monday, said economic migration helped the UK but ""needed proper policing"". The Lib Dems say they will look at his plans, but Tory Liam Fox said his party offered a ""clear choice"" on the issue. The Conservative Party Co-Chairman said the British electorate had a choice between a Labour government that had ""done nothing for eight years and will not set a limit"" on immigration and a Tory one that would impose quotas. The home secretary said, by 2008, he wanted everyone given a visa and entering the UK to have their fingerprints taken, to ""ensure we can know everybody who is in the country"". Speaking on BBC One's Breakfast with Frost, he said ""economic migrants are of great value to this country"", but stressed that proper policing was needed to ensure that they do not become a ""burden on society"". He said: ""We will establish a system ... which looks at the skills, talents and abilities of people seeking to come and work in this country, and ensures that when they come here they have a job and can contribute to the economy of the country."" The home secretary, whose five-year blueprint for immigration and asylum is expected to be published on Monday, also rejected claims that the immigration debate encouraged bigotry. ""The issue of who does come into this country, and whether they are entitled to be in this country, who does settle here, how we have border controls, is a perfectly legitimate aspect of public debate,"" he said. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""Whilst it is good that Labour has rejected the Tory idea of quotas on asylum, the jury is still out on the Home Office's ability to deliver a fair and efficient asylum system."" Mr Howard has said Britain should take its fair share of the world's ""genuine refugees"". But he claims the current asylum system is being abused - and with it Britain's generosity. Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, called on Mr Clarke to denounce the suggestion Britain's hospitality was being tested by immigration. ""Tell that to the 44,000 doctors in the NHS and the 70,000 nurses without whom we would really see what pressure on the health service means,"" he said. ""Ditto the teachers, from South Africa, Australia, Jamaica, who are reducing the sizes of our classes and schools."" The Refugee Council said Mr Howard's proposals would mean there would be no safe haven in the UK." -politics,"PM apology over jailings Tony Blair has apologised to two families who suffered one of the UK's biggest miscarriages of justice. The prime minister was commenting on the wrongful jailing of 11 people for IRA bomb attacks on pubs in Guildford and Woolwich in 1974. Mr Blair said: ""I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice."" He made the apology to members of the Conlon and Maguire families in his private room at Westminster. In a statement recorded for television, Mr Blair said the families deserved ""to be completely and publicly exonerated"". The families had hoped the apology would be made during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons. However, one of the so-called Guildford Four, Gerry Conlon - who was wrongly convicted of planting the bombs - said the families were delighted with the apology. He said Mr Blair had spoken with ""such sincerity"", adding: ""He went beyond what we thought he would, he took time to listen to everyone. ""You could see he was moved by what people were saying. ""Tony Blair has healed rifts, he is helping to heal wounds. It's a day I never thought would come."" The move followed a huge campaign in Ireland for a public apology after eleven people were wrongly convicted of making and planting the IRA bombs which killed seven people. Mr Blair's official spokesman said no-one present at the meeting would ""ever forget the strength of feeling of relief that the prime minister's statement brought to them"". Most of those convicted were either members or friends of the two families. All were arrested because of a family connection to Gerry Conlon. Mr Conlon's father Giuseppe was arrested when travelling to London from Belfast to help his son. He died while serving his sentence. Also arrested were Anne Maguire and members of her family. Mrs Maguire was the relative with whom Giuseppe planned to stay in London, as well as two family friends. She said it was a ""wonderful feeling"" to have had the apology and that a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. ""The people who were still doubting us should now believe that we were totally innocent,"" she said. They were all jailed for handling explosives, based on scientific evidence which was later entirely discredited. In October 1989 the Court of Appeal quashed the sentences of the Guildford Four, and in June 1991 it overturned the sentences on the Maguire Seven. Mr Conlon's case was highlighted in the Oscar-nominated film In The Name Of The Father, starring Daniel Day-Lewis." -politics,"Blair stresses prosperity goals Tony Blair says his party's next manifesto will be ""unremittingly New Labour"" and aimed at producing ""personal prosperity for all"". The prime minister is trying to draw a line under speculation over the state of his relationship with Gordon Brown with the speech in Chatham, Kent. He is saying that prosperity means both individual wealth and ensuring ""radically improved"" public services. He is also claiming Labour is more ideologically united than ever. Mr Brown is currently touring Africa after a week of facing questions about reports of his splits with Downing Street. With the election widely predicted for May, angry Labour MPs this week warned Mr Blair and Mr Brown about the dangers of disunity. Now Mr Blair is trying to put the focus on the substance of Labour's platform for a third term in government. Labour made low inflation, unemployment and mortgage rates the centrepiece of a new poster campaign this week. And on Thursday Mr Blair is saying: ""I want to talk about the central purpose ofNew Labour - which is to increase personal prosperity and well-being, not justfor a few but for all. ""By prosperity I mean both the income and wealth of individuals and theirfamilies, and the opportunity and security available to them through radicallyimproved public services and a reformed welfare state."" The Tories are trying to capitalise on the apparent feud at the top of government. On Wednesday they unveiled a poster which pictured the prime minister and Mr Brown under the words ""How can they fight crime when they are fighting each other?"" Michael Howard and frontbencher John Redwood on Thursday launched new plans to abolish hundreds of quangos. They say government is spending too much and lower taxes are needed to make Britain more competitive. The Liberal Democrats have also claimed infighting its obstructing good government. The latest speculation about relations between New Labour's two most powerful figures came after the publication of a new book, Brown's Britain by Robert Preston. In it he alleges that Mr Blair told Mr Brown in 2003 he would step down as prime minister before the coming general election. The book claims the premier went back on his pledge after support from Cabinet allies and suspicion that Mr Brown was manoeuvring against him. Mr Peston's book claimed that Mr Brown told Mr Blair: ""There is nothing you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe."" On Wednesday Mr Blair directly denied Mr Brown made that quote, and before he left for Africa on Tuesday the chancellor told reporters: ""Of course I trust the prime minister.""" -politics,"Tories leave door open for Archer The Conservative Party would deal ""sympathetically"" with any application by disgraced peer Lord Archer to rejoin its ranks, its co-chairman has said. Dr Liam Fox told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme there was no place for ""vindictiveness"" in politics. Lord Archer spent two years in prison after being convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice. The former Tory deputy chairman's five-year suspension from the party has just elapsed. A jury ruled that Lord Archer lied during a libel trial against the Daily Star at the High Court in London in 1987. He won damages after the newspaper printed allegations about involvement with a prostitute. Dr Fox was asked if he would say yes or no if Lord Archer applied to rejoin. ""I'm sure that in line with people having served their sentence and having done some reparations for what they did wrong, we would look at that sympathetically. ""I don't believe in vindictiveness, I don't think that has any place in politics, unlike the prime minister and Alastair Campbell."" Tory peer Lord Tebbit said he agreed with Dr Fox's view, and said the case should be looked at on its merits. ""After all, he is far from being the worst perjurer in the world,"" he added. Meanwhile, senior Conservative MP Sir Teddy Taylor warned that moves bring Lord Archer back into the fold could be controversial. He said: ""I suppose, on a Sunday in particular, we should always make provision for forgiving sinners. But there is no doubt it would be controversial."" Lord Archer, who was not available for comment, remains a popular figure among constituency Tory parties and is a successful fundraiser. He has not been seen in the House of Lords since his release from prison in July 2003, although there is nothing in the rules to prevent him from attending." -politics,"Bid to cut court witness stress New targets to reduce the stress to victims and witnesses giving evidence in courts in England and Wales have been announced by the lord chancellor. Lord Falconer wants all crown courts and 90% of magistrates' courts to have facilities to keep witnesses separate from defendants within four years. More video links will also be made available so that witnesses do not have to enter courtrooms. It is part of a five-year plan to help build confidence in the justice system. Ministers say the strategy is aimed at re-balancing the court system towards victims, and increasing the number of offenders brought to justice. Launching the Department for Constitutional Affairs' plan, Lord Falconer said: ""One of the top priorities will be a better deal for victims. ""The needs and safety of victims will be at the heart of the way trials are managed. ""Courts, judges, magistrates, prosecutors, police and victim support - all working together to ensure the rights of victims are put first, without compromising the rights of the defendant."" He went on: ""Giving evidence is a nerve-wracking experience, especially when you're a victim. ""Yet with a will and with support it can be done."" Lord Falconer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was impossible for some elderly people to go to court to give evidence. Other witnesses could be intimidated by sitting alongside defendants outside courts. ""You are never going to get rid of some element of the trauma of giving evidence,"" he said. ""But you can make people believe that the courts understand the problem, it's not some kind of alien place where they go where they are not thinking about them."" The plan comes as the lord chancellor also considers allowing cameras into courts for the first time since 1925, as long as they were used for cases that did not involve witnesses. Another feature of the strategy is constitutional reform, with a government bill to set up a supreme court and a judicial appointments commission returning to the House of Lords on Tuesday. Ministers had proposed getting rid of the title of lord chancellor, but the Lords have over-ruled this. Lord Falconer said it was right for the highest court to be completely distinct from Parliament. The person in charge of the court system should not also be speaker of the House of Lords, he said, and should be the best person chosen from either House of Parliament. What they did, not what they were called, was the critical issue, he added." -politics,"McConnell details Scots wave toll At least three people from Scotland died in the tsunami disaster and a further three are on the missing list, the first minister has told MSPs. The figures came out during a statement by Jack McConnell to the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday. He formally expressed Scotland's sympathy for the victims of the Indian Ocean tidal wave which killed 150,000. Mr McConnell went on to promise that Scotland would play its part in the reconstruction effort. He said the provisional figures on the dead and lost had been provided by the police. Mr McConnell said the tragedy should persuade everyone to step up the fight against global poverty and change the world for the better. He said he was proud of the generous response of people in Scotland to the disaster appeal, which is expected soon to top £20m. The first minister also praised Scottish Water for immediately flying bottled water and five large generators to the disaster zone. The Scottish Executive has seconded 11 staff to the aid agencies. But he said Scotland was ""in it for the long term"" with help planned for fishing communities, for children's services, and for the aid charities. He said 2005 must be the year that Scotland showed clearly it cared for what happened to people elsewhere in the world, whether in Asia or in Africa. Mr McConnell went on to signal that the executive would play its part in the Make Poverty History campaign being mounted by a variety of aid charities, trade unions and churches in the run-up to the G8 summit in Gleneagles in July. Edinburgh architect, Dominic Stephenson, became the first Scot to be confirmed as a victim of the Asian tsunami. The 27-year-old was holidaying on the Thai island of Koh Phi Phi with Eileen Lee, 24. She is still missing." -politics,"Cabinet anger at Brown cash raid Ministers are unhappy about plans to use Whitehall cash to keep council tax bills down, local government minister Nick Raynsford has acknowledged. Gordon Brown reallocated £512m from central to local government budgets in his pre-Budget report on Thursday. Mr Raynsford said he had held some ""pretty frank discussions"" with fellow ministers over the plans. But he said local governments had to deliver good services without big council tax rises. The central government cash is part of a £1bn package to help local authorities in England keep next year's council tax rises below 5%, in what is likely to be a general election year. Mr Raynsford said nearly all central government departments had an interest in well run local authorities. And he confirmed rows over the issue with ministerial colleagues. ""Obviously we had some pretty frank discussions about this,"" he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One. But he said there was a recognition that ""a good settlement for local government"" was important to health, education and ""other government departments"". Ministers had to be sure local government could deliver without ""unreasonable council tax increases"", he added. Mr Raynsford dismissed a suggestion the move was designed to keep council taxes down ahead of an expected general election. ""This is a response to the concerns that have been voiced by local government about the pressures they face."" Mr Raynsford also plans to make savings of £100m by making changes to local government pensions schemes. These would raise the age from which retiring workers could claim their pensions and limit how much they received if they retired early. He insisted the changes were ""very modest"" and designed to tackle the problem of workers retiring ""very early"". But general secretary of the public services union Unison Dave Prentis criticised the plans. ""If you want world class public services you don't get that by hitting people as they approach retirement.""" -politics,"Blair 'damaged' by Blunkett row A majority of voters (68%) believe the prime minister has been damaged by the row over David Blunkett's involvement in a visa application, a poll suggests. But nearly half those surveyed said Mr Blunkett should return to Cabinet if Labour won the next election. Some 63% of respondents in the Sunday Times poll thought his former lover - Kimberly Quinn - acted vindictively and 61% that he had been right to resign. YouGov polled a weighted sample of 1,981 voters online on 16-18 December. Mr Blunkett resigned as Home Secretary on Wednesday after an inquiry uncovered an e-mail showing a visa application by Mrs Quinn's former nanny had been speeded up. Sir Alan Budd's inquiry also found Mr Blunkett's account of events had been wrong. Almost a quarter (21%) of those polled for the Sunday Times said he should return to the Cabinet straight after the election. One in four said he should be back in the Government's top ranks within a year or two while 39% opposed a comeback. Three-quarters said Mr Blunkett was right to go to court for the right to see Mrs Quinn's son - whom he says he fathered - and just 14% voiced sympathy for Mrs Quinn. A total of 53% of those polled said they had sympathy for Mr Blunkett, with 40% saying they did not. Forty-three per cent thought Mr Blunkett had done a good job as home secretary and 17% disagreed. Meantime, 32% said Mr Blair was a good prime minister and 38% disagreed. A majority, 52%, said Chancellor Gordon Brown had done a good job and just 16% disagreed. A second poll for the Independent on Sunday found that support for all political parties remained largely unchanged after the Blunkett controversy. Labour lead the Conservatives by 39% to 34% with the Liberal Democrats on 19%. CommunicateResearch interviewed 401 people before David Blunkett's resignation and 601 afterwards. Some 82% said Mr Blunkett had set a good example by wanting to take responsibility for the child he says is his, but 42% backed his legal action compared to 45% who thought it was unbecoming. Thirty per cent said the affair showed Mr Blunkett could not be trusted as a minister while 63%, disagreed." -politics,"Tsunami 'won't divert Africa aid' UK aid to help the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster will not take much needed relief from Africa, Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised. Mr Blair told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost show the money spent on the tsunami would not ""invade"" the money Britain wanted to spend on Africa. Questioned about the disaster, he said his faith in God had not been shaken. He added he would give new figures on the number of tsunami-related British deaths to the Commons on Monday. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Friday that about 440 Britons were either dead or missing in the disaster. Mr Blair told Sunday's programme: ""Since Jack Straw gave those figures a couple of days ago they haven't moved a great deal, which should give us some hope that we are beginning to reach the peak of the numbers. But we just can't be sure. ""It is just an immensely difficult job to get absolutely accurate figures, all countries are struggling with this."" He said the £50 million originally allocated from the Department for International Development was now ""well on the way"" to being spent. But the exact allocation could not be clarified until the World Bank had completed its assessment of the needs of the countries affected. Within the next few weeks a clearer picture would emerge of the long-term costs of reconstruction, he added. But he pledged that Africa - which sees a ""preventable"" tsunami-size death toll every month from conflict, disease and poverty - would not be neglected. As Britain takes up its presidency of the G8 group of leading nations, Mr Blair said ministers had a big agenda for Africa. ""For the first time we have a plan that won't just deal with aid and debt but will also deal on issues of governance within African countries and conflict resolution,"" he said. ""A lot of the problems in Africa come from conflict, that again are preventable, but only with the right systems in place.""" -politics,"Mallon wades into NE vote battle Middlesbrough mayor Ray Mallon has been drafted in to boost the Yes campaign as the North East assembly referendum enters its final week. The former police chief, dubbed Robocop for his zero tolerance style, clashed on Thursday with Sunderland No campaigner Neil Herron. Mr Mallon said an assembly would give local people more of a say over key issues such as transport and crime. But Mr Herron said North East people did not want or need an assembly. The pair met on the platform at Sunderland station as Mr Mallon toured the region highlighting claimed improvements to transport if the area gets an assembly. But Mr Herron - who gained fame as one of Sunderland's ""metric martyrs"" and is running his own No campaign alongside the official North East Says No campaign - said he was not convinced by Mr Mallon's arguments. ""The reality is that it is not going to deliver,"" he said. ""Labour has had two-and-a-half years to convince people of this. If you can't sell a deal in that time, it is a bad deal."" On Wednesday, Mr Mallon provoked fury by branding the official No Campaign ""two-bit Tories"" in a confrontation outside its Durham headquarters. ""The campaign is being run by two-bit Conservatives who are not interested in what happens in the North East; they are interested in hitting the Labour party over the head,"" he said. Mr Mallon is a late recruit to the Yes campaign after rejecting overtures from No campaigners including, he claims, Tory leader Michael Howard. Most local observers believe the contest is too close to call, although little recent polling has been carried out. Yes campaign chairman John Tomaney said he hoped for a late flurry of votes to boost turnout - something he says will boost their cause. He added: ""The government exerts a lot of political power in the North East. The accountability should be in the North East as well."" He also defended the decision to attack the official No campaign's alleged political allegiances. ""We felt we had to show what people were behind the No campaign - London Tory spin doctors."" Graham Robb, spokesman for North East Says No, said the Yes campaign's decision to get personal dragged the campaign ""into the gutter"" and showed they were ""rattled"". And he hit back at Mr Mallon's claim that an assembly would improve transport links in the region. ""It can push paper around but it can not get people moving,"" he said. Some 487,939 people had returned their ballot papers by Wednesday - a turnout of 25.7%. The deadline for voting is next Thursday, 4 November." -politics,"US casino 'tricks' face ban in UK Controversial new UK casinos will be banned from using American tricks of the trade to ensure they are ""socially responsible"", it has been suggested. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said proposed super-casinos will be different from their US counterparts. In America, pheromones have reportedly been released from machines to encourage aggressive gambling and clocks are often removed from walls. Eight super-casinos are proposed from 2010 if the Gambling Bill becomes law. Ms Jowell said the legislation would ban psychological trickery. She told The Times: ""British casinos will be quite different to those overseas. ""They will have to act in a socially responsible way and will be tightly regulated. ""They will be run according to British rules and we'll simply not allow any tricks which people are subjected to unawares and which increase the risk of problem gambling."" One tactic used in the US is simulating daylight during night-time to lull players into remaining at the tables and slot machines. Casinos also frequently offer free food, drink and hotel accommodation to keep punters betting. A spokesman for the British Casino Association, which represents the UK industry, said the government was trying to allay fears over a ""UK Las Vegas"". He said the way the licences were being awarded meant UK firms were at a massive disadvantage and foreign companies would be certain to win the contracts. ""The UK industry is one of the world's most respected,"" he said. ""We have the lowest level of problem gambling in the world. ""We certainly don't use pheremones. ""The UK gambling industry is being totally frozen in time, and the foreign companies will take over.""" -politics,"Guantanamo four free in weeks All four Britons held by the US in Guantanamo Bay will be returned to the UK within weeks, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the Commons on Tuesday. Moazzam Begg, from Birmingham, and Martin Mubanga, Richard Belmar and Feroz Abbasi, from London, have been held by the US for almost three years. They were detained in the Cuban camp as part of the US-led ""war on terror"". Mr Straw said the US had agreed to release the four after ""intensive and complex discussions"" over security. He said the government had been negotiating the return of the detainees since 2003. All four families have been informed of their return and have been involved in regular discussions with the government, Mr Straw said. But he added: ""Once they are back in the UK, the police will consider whether to arrest them under the Terrorism Act 2000 for questioning in connection with possible terrorist activity."" The shadow foreign secretary, Michael Ancram, welcomed the return of the four detainees. But he said there were still ""serious questions"" both over the possible threat the four pose to the UK, and the treatment they received while detained. Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell said the four had been rescued from a ""legal no-man's land"". ""Their civil rights were systematically and deliberately abused and they were denied due process."" Azmat Begg, father of Moazzam, thanked his lawyers and the British people for the support he had received while campaigning for his son's release. He added: ""If they have done something wrong, of course they should be punished, but if they haven't, they shouldn't have been there."" Lawyer Louise Christian, who represents Mr Abbasi and Mr Mubanga, said the government should have acted sooner. She said: ""They should at the outset have said quite clearly to the American government that they were behaving in breach of international law and that the British government wanted no part of it and wanted Guantanamo Bay shut down. ""They didn't do that. They colluded with it."" Moazzam Begg's Labour MP Roger Godsiff welcomed his release, but said questions remained unanswered, particularly about charges. Asked about possible damages Mr Begg and the other detainees could bring against the US, Mr Godsiff said: ""People get released from prison when it's found that their prosecution was unsustainable and they are quite rightly awarded sizeable sums of money. ""I don't see any difference in this case."" Human rights campaigners have been outraged at the treatment of the detainees in Cuba. Amnesty International has called Camp Delta a ""major human-rights scandal"" and an ""icon of lawlessness"". Both Amnesty and the lobby group Guantanamo Human Rights Commission described the release as ""long overdue"". Civil rights group Liberty said it was ""delighted"" but called on the government to release men indefinitely detained in the UK without charge or trial. Director Shami Chakrabarti called on the government to ""practise what it preaches"" and either free or charge 12 detainees at Belmarsh and Woodhill prisons. Law Lords ruled last month that the 12 were being held in contravention of human rights laws but they are still behind bars. The US has also announced that 48-year-old Australian Mamdouh Habib, previously accused of terrorist offences, will be released without charge from Camp Delta. Five British detainees released from Guantanamo in March last year were questioned by UK police before being released without charge." -politics,"Howard hits back at mongrel jibe Michael Howard has said a claim by Peter Hain that the Tory leader is acting like an ""attack mongrel"" shows Labour is ""rattled"" by the opposition. In an upbeat speech to his party's spring conference in Brighton, he said Labour's campaigning tactics proved the Tories were hitting home. Mr Hain made the claim about Tory tactics in the anti-terror bill debate. ""Something tells me that someone, somewhere out there is just a little bit rattled,"" Mr Howard said. Mr Hain, Leader of the Commons, told BBC Radio Four's Today programme that Mr Howard's stance on the government's anti-terrorism legislation was putting the country at risk. He then accused the Tory Leader of behaving like an ""attack mongrel"" and ""playing opposition for opposition sake"". Mr Howard told his party that Labour would ""do anything, say anything, claim anything to cling on to office at all costs"". ""So far this year they have compared me to Fagin, to Shylock and to a flying pig. This morning Peter Hain even called me a mongrel. ""I don't know about you, but something tells me that someone, somewhere out there is just a little bit rattled."" Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett rejected Mr Howard's comment, telling Radio 4's PM programme that Labour was not ""rattled"". ""We have a very real duty to try to get people to focus on Michael Howard's record, what the proposals are that he is trying to put forward to the country and also the many examples we are seeing now of what we believe is really poor judgement on his behalf."" Mr Howard said Tory policies on schools, taxes, immigration and crime were striking a chord with voters. ""Since the beginning of this year - election year - we've been making the political weather,"" he told the party conference. Mr Howard denied he had been ""playing politics"" by raising the case of Margaret Dixon, whose operation had been cancelled seven times, which grabbed headlines for the party two weeks ago. And he hit back at Labour claims he had used Mrs Dixon as a ""human shield"". ""She's not a human shield Mr Blair, she's a human being."" Mr Howard said his party plans for immigration quotas, which have also been the focus of much media coverage, were not ""racist"" - just ""common sense"". He pledged cleaner hospitals and better school discipline, with a promise to get rid of ""political correctness"" in the national curriculum and give everyone to the same chance of a ""decent"" state education as he had. ""I come from an ordinary family. If the teenage Michael Howard were applying to Cambridge today, Gordon Brown would love me."" And he stressed his party's commitment to cut taxes and red tape and increase the basic state pension in line with earnings. He finished with a personal appeal to party activists to go out and win the next election. ""One day you will be able to tell your children and grandchildren as I will tell mine, 'I was there. I did my bit. I played my part. I helped to win that famous election - the election that transformed our country for the better'."" Labour election co-ordinator Alan Milburn said: ""Michael Howard's speech today confirms what we have always said - that his only strategy is opportunism but he has no forward vision for the country. In reference to the appearance of Mr Howard's family on the conference stage with him, Mr Milburn said: ""Michael Howard is perfectly entitled to pose with his family today. ""But it is the hard working families across Britain that will be damaged by his plan to cut £35bn from public spending.""" -politics,"Falconer rebuts 'charade' claims Concessions on a bill which critics claim would allow euthanasia ""through the back door"" were not a political ploy, the lord chancellor has said. Ministers have been accused of panic in offering last minute changes to the Mental Capacity Bill amid chaotic scenes in the Commons on Tuesday. Lord Falconer said it was fair to criticise the late timing of the offer. He said the changes provided a solution to a very difficult issue but some MPs argue the situation is still unclear. The bill allows people to give somebody the power of attorney to make decisions on their behalf if they become too ill to decide for themselves. Ministers insist the plans would not change laws on euthanasia and would improve safeguards. Critics fear it could allow ""killing by omission"" through withdrawing treatment, including food and fluids. Tony Blair said he would do everything he could to meet concerns about the bill. But changes to the bill must not overturn the law set when a court ruled that doctors could withdraw artificial feeding and hydration from Hillsborough coma victim Tony Bland. ""It is important we don't end up in the situation where doctors and consultants are confused about the law and may lay themselves open to prosecution in circumstances where no sensible person would want that to happen,"" he said. On Tuesday, the government saw off a backbench attempt to force changes to the bill by 297 votes to 203, despite rebellion by 34 Labour MPs. The revolt was also reduced by news that Lord Falconer had promised the Catholic archbishop of Cardiff to strengthen safeguards in the bill. But that only came after MPs bombarded Constitutional Affairs Minister David Lammy with a barrage of requests for him to read the letter as they complained they had been left in the dark. Eventually, he was hurriedly handed the letter to read out five minutes before the crunch votes, prompting claims of a shambles. The deputy speaker later said the debate had not been handled as it should have been. Lord Falconer says there will be amendments when the bill goes to the House of Lords. He told BBC News: ""We have given a commitment to put into the bill a clause that says that nothing in the bill authorises any act where the motive of the person authorising the decision is to end life. ""The motive has got to be to end suffering."" He denied the concessions were a ""political manoeuvre"" forced by panic about the rebellion. It was inevitable that minds became more focused as the bill went through Parliament but the result was a ""sensible solution"", he said. ""I don't think it is something to be embarrassed about. These issues are not easy to deal with,"" he went on. BBC political editor Andrew Marr said Mr Lammy was ""waste deep in quicksand and sinking fast"" after his performance. But Lord Falconer praised his minister for an ""excellent job"". Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, one of the chief critics of the plans, condemned the debate as a ""charade"" and complained the promises of changes to the bill were vague." -politics,"Labour accused of broken pledge Labour has already broken its pre-election promise on immigration before the ink has dried on its new pledge card, the Tories have claimed. Home Secretary Charles Clarke has been quoted as telling Labour members he wants more migrants to come to the UK. Tory co-chairman Liam Fox said the comments were at odds with Tony Blair's prediction of a net cut in immigration. But Mr Clarke accused him of trying to score ""cheap political points"" by muddling immigration with asylum. London's Evening Standard quoted Mr Clarke telling Labour activists at a question and answer session in Gateshead that he wanted Britain to offer refuge for those fleeing tyranny. ""That's not only a moral duty and a legal duty, but something which is part of the essence of this country,"" he said. ""We want more migration, more people come to study and to work. ""We want more people coming to look for refuge."" Mr Blair's was asked last Wednesday if the government's new immigration plans, including a point system for economic migrants, would reduce net migration. The prime minister told MPs: ""The abusers will be weeded out, and as a result of the end of chain migration [where families have an automatic right to settle], the numbers will probably fall."" On Monday, Dr Fox told reporters: ""The prime minister has broken his word so many times in the past but now his promises do not even last a week. ""The Labour Party election pledges, even when they are so incredibly vague, do not even last four days."" The Tories want quotas for economic migrants and refugees and on Tuesday will outline more details of their plans for health checks on migrants. Mr Clarke dismissed the latest Tory attack. ""This is simply a scurrilous attempt by the Tories to score cheap political points,"" he said. ""The Tories are purposely mixing together two separate issues of immigration and asylum."" Mr Clarke said he had made clear the UK would welcome genuine economic migrants for key jobs on a strict points based system. And only asylum seekers genuinely fleeing death or persecution would be admitted. ""Under our plans we expect unfounded applications to continue to fall,"" he added. Earlier, Dr Fox accused Mr Blair and other Cabinet ministers of telling lies about Tory policies and then attacking the lies. He told BBC Radio: ""If you are willing to lie about the reasons for going to war, I guess you are going to lie about anything at all."" The latest pre-election spats come after Mr Blair told Labour members the Tories offered a ""hard right agenda"" which would take Britain backwards. Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy accelerating Lib Dem election preparations this week as he visits Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Somerset, Basingstoke, Shrewsbury, Dorset and Torbay." -politics,"Game warnings 'must be clearer' Violent video games should carry larger warnings so parents can understand what their children are playing, the trade and industry secretary has said. Patricia Hewitt is expected to call for the law banning the sale of 18-rated games to children to be enforced better at a games industry meeting on Sunday. She is concerned too many children are playing games aimed at adults which include ""high levels of violence"". Parents are expected to spend millions on video games as Christmas presents. Violent games have been hit by controversy after the game Manhunt was blamed by the parents of 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah, who was stabbed to death in Leicester in February. His mother, Giselle, said her son's killer, Warren Leblanc, 17 - who was jailed for life in September - had mimicked behaviour in the game. Police investigating the Stefan's murder dismissed its influence and Manhunt was not part of its legal case. Ahead of Sunday's meeting in London, Ms Hewitt said she was proud of the UK's ""vibrant games industry"" but was concerned too many children were playing games which should only be sold to adults. Roger Bennett, head of gaming industry body ELSPA, said banning violent games would be wrong. He said: ""We don't want to go down that route. We have seen that the government is supportive of the industry."" The government is holding a further meeting on Friday with industry and retail representatives as well as the British Board of Film Classification to discuss how labelling can be made clearer. Ms Hewitt said: ""Adults should be treated as adults and children as children. It is important that retailers respect the classifications and do not sell games with high levels of violence to minors. ""Equally parents need to know what they might be buying for their children. ""Video games are different to films or videos, and not all parents have grown up playing games in the way our children do. ""We need to look carefully at how we improve content warnings and strengthen sales enforcement."" Her call was backed by Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Tessa Jowell who said: ""You wouldn't let your child watch the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. You wouldn't let them go to a strip club. ""So you shouldn't let them play an 18-rated game. It's the same principle - adults can make their own informed choices, but children can't always and need to be protected."" Anyone convicted of selling an 18-rated game to a child can be jailed for six months and fined up to £5,000. Rockstar Games, the makers of Manhunt, has said in the past it markets its games responsibly and only targets its adverts at adults." -politics,"UK pledges £1bn to vaccine effort UK Chancellor Gordon Brown has offered £960m ($1.8bn) over 15 years to an international scheme aiming to boost vaccination and immunisation schemes. In a speech, he called for action to reach the 2000 Millennium Declaration goals of halving global poverty and tackling child mortality rates. Mr Brown has just returned from a tour of African nations. The £1bn commitment is part of a five-point plan on debt relief, trade, aid, education and health. The chancellor was speaking at an event jointly organised by the UK's Department for International Development and the UN Development Programme on Wednesday. Mr Brown welcomed news that the Bill Gates Foundation and Norway are joining up to put an extra £0.53bn ($1bn ) into the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi). Britain, France, Gavi and the Gates Foundation have drawn up proposals to apply the principles of the International Finance Facility (IFF) to the area of immunisation. That could see donors making long-term, legally binding financial commitments which can then be used as collateral for raising extra funds from international capital markets. As well as pledging £960m over 15 years to the immunisation IFF, Britain urged other donors to contribute. If Gavi could increase its funding for immunisation by an extra £4bn ($7.4bn) over 10 years, then an extra five million lives could have been saved by 2015 and five million thereafter, Mr Brown argued. Campaign groups including Friends of the Earth, the World Development Movement, and War on Want said UK government policy on free trade was a major barrier to fighting poverty. War on Want's John Hilary said: ""Compassionate rhetoric cannot disguise the reality of the government's neo-liberal policies. ""As long as Mr Blair and Mr Brown continue to push free trade and privatisation on developing countries, more and more people will be pushed deeper into poverty, not lifted out of it.""" -politics,"McConnell in 'drunk' remark row Scotland's first minister has told a group of high school pupils that it is okay to get drunk ""once in a while"". Jack McConnell was speaking to more than 100 secondary pupils from schools in the Highlands about the problems of binge drinking and drink promotions. He has been criticised by the SNP for encouraging young people to get drunk. But the Scottish Executive has insisted Mr McConnell was speaking about adults and his comments were ""a recognition that people will get drunk"". The first minister's comments came in a question and answer session at Glenurquhart High School in Inverness, attended by pupils from a number of secondary schools. A Highland councillor who was at the event has also defended Mr McConnell. Margaret Davidson, the independent member for the Loch Ness West, said the first minister was speaking in a very general way and she was sure he was speaking about adults at the time. When one pupil asked Mr McConnell how the executive proposed to tackle under-age drinking, began his response with the quip: ""I'm sure there's no under-age drinking in the Highlands."" He went on to speak about the evils of binge drinking and railed against irresponsible drinks promotions. He said: ""I hope I'm not going to be seen as preaching to anybody here but the really serious problem at the moment is binge drinking and the impact it has on people's health and their ability to control what's happening round about them."" Mr McConnell said he regularly saw reports on the effects of binge drinking sprees which ended in assaults or even rapes, and on the health consequences of binge drinking. ""The one thing we are going to do something really serious about is binge drinking and irresponsible drinks promotions that can help lead to that,"" he said. ""Far too many pub chains in particular are selling far too much booze far too cheaply and encouraging people to drink it far too quickly. ""We are go to clamp down on that and make those promotions illegal in the hope that people can enjoy a drink sensibly over the course of an evening."" He added: ""By all means get drunk once in a while - but do not get into a situation where people are being encouraged to get completely incapable just to save some money and drink more quickly."" SNP Holyrood leader Nicola Sturgeon said: ""This is an incredible gaffe by Jack McConnell. ""We all know that under-age drinking is an issue in Scotland but it is quite staggering that any politician, particularly the First Minister, should encourage young people to get drunk. ""The first minister should withdraw these remarks immediately."" But an executive spokeswoman insisted Mr McConnell had made the remark with adults, not youngsters, in mind. ""He was talking in the context of adults binge drinking and irresponsible drinks promotions - which are for the over-18s,"" she said. ""It was just a recognition that people will get drunk, but that binge drinking and drinks promotions that encourage it are not acceptable.""" -politics,"Police chief backs drinking move A chief constable has backed the introduction of 24-drinking, saying police had a responsibility to ensure people could benefit from a law change. However, Norfolk police chief Andy Hayman also warned that a great deal of preparatory work was still needed. ""I don't subscribe to the views of some of my colleagues who are coming out and objecting to it,"" he said. His comments come after the Liberal Democrats backed Tory demands that the government's plans be put on hold. Andy Hayman said he did not agree with politicians and senior police officers who have objected to the plans, which come into force on 7 February. ""I feel that is a premature position to be taking,"" he said. Among those who have criticised the plans are the UK's top policeman Sir John Stevens. The Metropolitan police chief said last week that the plans for 24-hour drinking should be re-examined because of a binge drinking ""epidemic"". However, Mr Hayman said: ""It would be totally unacceptable in my view for a chief constable to say, 'I'm very sorry'. He said that police should make sure that responsible people who wanted a change could benefit from more liberal legislation. ""My view is that I have got a responsibility to create an environment where that can happen, "" he said. However, he believes a lot of preparatory work is still needed to be done by police, local authorities and the drinks industry before the nation was ready for 24-hour drinking. But he is confident problems in the early days can be ""ironed out"". He believed the majority of people favoured this law change and ""we have to accept that lifestyles are changing"". But aspects such as transport, and basic things such as making sure public toilets are open all night had to be taken into account. Prime Minister Tony Blair has defended the Licensing Act, saying it is wrong to deny people the relaxed hours enjoyed elsewhere in Europe because of a ""tiny minority"" of violent binge drinkers. A six-month transitional period starts on 7 February during which time venues can apply for extended licences. The Conservatives have called for 24-hour drinking to be shelved until the problems of binge drinking are solved. On Monday, the Lib Dems also called for a delay. Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""It would clearly be prudent to allow the police and local authorities more time to prepare for flexible drinking hours."" Chief constable Mr Hayman acknowledged that binge drinking did cause problems. ""If you come to Norwich on a Friday or Saturday night you will see things going on that will you make you feel ashamed. ""However, I want industry to succeed in Norwich and I want Norwich to be the recognised nightspot of East Anglia. ""There is no way I want to say we cannot manage it or police it. We can.""" -politics,"Former NI minister Scott dies Former Northern Ireland minister Sir Nicholas Scott has died at a London hospice, his family has announced. The former Conservative MP for Kensington and Chelsea, died after a long illness diagnosed as Alzheimer's. The 71-year-old served in Northern Ireland from 1981 to 1987 during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher. As a Northern Ireland minister he dealt with education and later security where he rode out the mass IRA escape from the Maze in 1983. In education, he encountered criticism over school closures and the future of the Catholic training colleges. He also merged the New University of Ulster and the Ulster Polytechnic to create the University of Ulster. Sir Nicholas was a strong defender of the Anglo-Irish Agreement and was held in esteem in Dublin government and SDLP circles. But he experienced hostility from unionists some of whom dubbed him ""Minister of Discord"". After leaving Northern Ireland in a reshuffle, he became a UK disability minister. Sir Nicholas was replaced as the member for Kensington and Chelsea by the flamboyant Alan Clark, after being deselected by his constituency in December 1996. His deselection followed a series of scandals including being found slumped in the street by police during the Tory Party conference in Bournemouth and taken back to his hotel. Sir Nicholas claimed strong painkillers he was taking for a back problem had reacted badly with a small amount of alcohol. After his sacking, he bitterly said that despite the support of Cabinet ministers and Tory backbenchers, the Eurosceptics in his constituency were ""absolutely determined to get rid of me"". His colourful career also included a very public disagreement with daughter Victoria over civil rights for the disabled. Sir Nicholas admitted he misled MPs when he denied his department had been involved in wrecking tactics designed to kill the Disability Bill in 1994. Victoria, a lobbyist for disabled rights, denounced her father's actions and heaped insult on injury when she joined the calls for him to resign. He joined the backbenches two months later." -politics,"Blair looks to election campaign Tony Blair's big speech will be looked back on as the performance that kicked off the election campaign. That poll may still be about 16 weeks away, but there can be little doubt left that the campaign is now in full swing. The prime minister used his speech to a selected audience in the south east to set out his broad brush election manifesto. There was a detailed account of the government's past record, with a major emphasis on the economy and public services. There was an attempt to draw the line under the gossip surrounding his rift with Chancellor Gordon Brown. And there was an insistence on the importance of the party continuing to operate as unremittingly ""New"" Labour - although that may continue to irritate his chancellor. There was little in terms of concrete proposals or what might form manifesto pledges, although the prime minister talked about a ""New Labour manifesto that will be aimed at all sections of society"". His was more a speech designed to remind people, and some in his own party, precisely what New Labour stood for, and to leave them in no doubt there would not be any shrinking away from that approach. And, for some, that means showing that New Labour actually does stand for something - that it is, as he said, more than ""an electoral device"". To that end he set out a broad programme aimed to appeal to both middle England voters who switched to the party in 1997 and stuck with it, possibly through some gritted teeth, in 2001, and to more traditional lower income old Labour supporters. In a key section, he declared: ""In our third term we can achieve an unprecedented widening of opportunity and prosperity. ""For the first time ever a whole generation growing up with unbroken economic stability. Every family - not just the fortunate few - knowing their children will have an inheritance at adulthood. ""Every pupil in every secondary school guaranteed a place in university or a quality apprenticeship. Every adult - including those who missed out at school - able to get the skills then need to advance. ""Home ownership extended to its highest ever level and to families who have never before been able to afford it. ""The highest ever level of employment with everyone in work guaranteed a decent wage and decent conditions"". Under what is to be the general election slogan ""Britain is working"", the prime minister time and again insisted the future direction would be unremittingly New Labour. That might get under the skin of Mr Brown, but he also heaped praise on him as the most successful post-war chancellor Britain has had. Probably the greatest ideological divide between the two men, in so far as there is one, is about the degree of private finance allowed into the public services. An unremittingly ""New"" Labour manifesto, as the prime minister is happy to make plain, will stress the importance of that - the belief patients and parents, for example, want a choice of good services before they start worrying about who has provided them. The chancellor is said to be far more sceptical about private finance, although there is no suggestion he opposes it in principle. With an election looming the next big speech from Gordon Brown will be closely examined for any signs of divisions and, in particular, the use of that little three letter word. But for now, all eyes have been focused on the next general election. And for many in Westminster, Mr Blair's performance has only succeeded in hardening the belief that will be on 5 May." -politics,"Hewitt decries 'career sexism' Plans to extend paid maternity leave beyond six months should be prominent in Labour's election manifesto, the Trade and Industry Secretary has said. Patricia Hewitt said the cost of the proposals was being evaluated, but it was an ""increasingly high priority"" and a ""shared goal across government"". Ms Hewitt was speaking at a gender and productivity seminar organised by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC). Mothers can currently take up to six months' paid leave - and six unpaid. Ms Hewitt told the seminar: ""Clearly, one of the things we need to do in the future is to extend the period of payment for maternity leave beyond the first six months into the second six months. ""We are looking at how quickly we can do that, because obviously there are cost implications because the taxpayer reimburses the employers for the cost of that."" Ms Hewitt also announced a new drive to help women who want to work in male dominated sectors, saying sexism at work was still preventing women reaching their full potential. Plans include funding for universities to help female science and engineering graduates find jobs and ""taster courses"" for men and women in non-traditional jobs. Women in full-time work earn 19% less than men, according to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC). The minister told delegates that getting rid of ""career sexism"" was vital to closing the gender pay gap. ""Career sexism limits opportunities for women of all ages and prevents them from achieving their full potential. ""It is simply wrong to assume someone cannot do a job on the grounds of their sex,"" she said. Earlier, she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""What we are talking about here is the fact that about six out of 20 women work in jobs that are low-paid and typically dominated by women, so we have got very segregated employment. ""Unfortunately, in some cases, this reflects very old-fashioned and stereotypical ideas about the appropriate jobs for women, or indeed for men. ""Career sexism is about saying that engineering, for instance, where only 10% of employees are women, is really a male-dominated industry. Construction is even worse. ""But it is also about saying childcare jobs are really there for women and not suitable for men. Career sexism goes both ways."" She added that while progress had been made, there was still a gap in pay figures. ""The average woman working full-time is being paid about 80p for every pound a man is earning. For women working part-time it is 60p."" The Department for Trade and Industry will also provide funding to help a new pay experts panel run by the TUC. It has been set up to advise hundreds of companies on equal wage policies. Research conducted by the EOC last year revealed that many Britons believe the pay gap between men and women is the result of ""natural differences"" between the sexes. Women hold less than 10% of the top positions in FTSE 100 companies, the police, the judiciary and trade unions, according to their figures. And retired women have just over half the income of their male counterparts on average." -politics,"Nuclear strike 'key terror risk' The UK and US must realise they cannot prevent all terror attacks and should focus on making sure they are not nuclear strikes, says a top academic. Amitai Etzioni, a key influence on New Labour thinking, says the US emphasis on an ""Axis of Evil"" is misplaced. The priority should instead be on ""failing states"", including Russia and Pakistan, who cannot properly control their nuclear material, he argues. His report demands a major overhaul of world rules on nuclear technology. Professor Etzioni was a senior adviser to President Carter's White House and is the guru behind communitarian ideas which influenced the development of Blairite Third Way politics. In a report for the Foreign Policy Centre think tank, he says a nuclear terrorist attack is the main danger faced by many nations. ""Attempts to defend against it by hardening domestic targets cannot work, nor can one rely on pre-emption by taking the war to the terrorists before they attack,"" he says. That means there is an urgent need to curb terrorists' access to nuclear arms and the materials used to make them. ""We must recognise that we will be unable to stop all attacks and thus ensure terrorists will not be able to strike with weapons of mass destruction,"" Prof Etzioni continues. He suggests so-called rogue states such as Iran and North Korea are less of a problem than ""failed and failing states"", which are more likely to be a source of nuclear materials. He names Russia as the ""failing state"" of gravest concern as it has an estimated 90% of all fissile material outside America. And he is also worried about Pakistan after one of its top nuclear scientists, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted leaking nuclear secrets. Prof Etzioni criticises the US for overlooking those reports, suggesting it was done in return for Pakistani help in hunting Osama Bin Laden. ""This is like letting a serial killer go because he promised to catch some jay-walkers,"" he says. - Upgrading security at nuclear arms stores as a temporary measure - Creating a new Global Safety Authority to tackle nuclear terrorism, using the intelligence links established in the wake of 11 September - backed by the United Nations' authority - Encouraging, pressuring and using ""all available means"" to persuade countries to switch their highly-enriched uranium for less dangerous less-enriched uranium - When possible, taking fissile material away from failing states to safe havens where it can be blended down or converted - Compelling ""failing and rogue states"", and eventually all states, to destroy their nuclear bombs." -politics,"Howard rejects BNP's claim Tory leader Michael Howard has dismissed claims that his immigration policy was ""moving onto the turf"" of the British National Party (BNP). BNP leader Nick Griffin told the Independent he expected some BNP voters to switch to the Tories over the issue. But Mr Howard said he rejected the idea that the Tories and BNP appealed to the same voting instincts. Asked if he would welcome BNP voters he told the BBC: ""I don't want anybody to vote for these extremist parties"". He added, on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""If you want good community relations in this country...then you have to have firm, fair immigration controls."" The Tories have promised an upper limit on the number of people allowed into Britain with the slogan: ""It's not racist to impose limits on immigration"". All parties are stepping up campaiging in the run-up to the general election, widely expected to be called for 5 May. Labour has unveiled its own ""points system"" for ensuring migrants who want to work in the UK have skills that are required, but have rejected immigration quotas. The Liberal Democrats have warned both parties against ""pandering to prejudice"". Mr Griffin told the Independent the Tories' plans were ""a definite move onto our turf"". He said: ""I quite freely accept that on a nationwide basis, the Tories will con enough people to make a significant hole in our vote."" Asked whether he was comfortable with the perception that the Conservatives and the BNP appeal to the same voting instincts, Mr Howard told the BBC: ""I reject that entirely"". He said he found BNP's policies ""abhorrent"" but he said the UK had to take a different approach to immigration, which he said was out of control. ""The government doesn't want to limit it in any way, we do, there's a legitimate difference between us there which we can discuss in a calm, rational and reasonable way,"" he said. He again rejected newspaper speculation that his own father entered Britain illegally." -politics,"Cherie accused of attacking Bush Cherie Blair has been accused of criticising George W Bush's policies in a private address she gave during a United States lecture tour. The prime minister's wife is said to have praised the Supreme Court for overruling the White House on the legal rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees. The Tories said she broke a convention that British political figures do not act in a partisan way when abroad. But Downing Street said she was speaking in her capacity as a lawyer. It said she was not expressing political opinions. Mrs Blair's remarks are said to have been made in a speech to law students in Massachusetts. She said the decision by the US Supreme Court to give legal protection to two Britons held at Guantanamo Bay was a significant victory for human rights and the international rule of law. She also described the US legal code as an outdated grandfather clock and welcomed a decision to throw out a law backed by Mr Bush relating to sodomy in Texas. BBC news correspondent Gary O'Donoghue said Mrs Blair was likely to face further calls for restraint, since the US election is imminent. ""There have been some objections from people reasonably close to the Bush administration about her making these comments in their backyard just two days before a presidential election,"" he said. ""Conservatives here too have made their feelings clear. ""Cherie Booth has always regarded herself as having an independent career. She has continued to practise as a major human rights lawyer in the courts. ""It's not unusual for her to make these sorts of criticisms clear but it can be embarrassing.""" -politics,"Blunkett unveils policing plans People could be given the mobile phone number of their local bobby under an overhaul of policing in England and Wales unveiled by David Blunkett. The plans include a dedicated policing team for each neighbourhood and a 10 point compulsory customer charter. The home secretary said targets would be put in place to ensure that the public got a good response from police. Local people would also be able to ""trigger"" action on specific problems if they felt nothing was being done. Local councillors would have to show certain conditions had been met before invoking the power. And police could refuse the request if the complaints were frivolous, would only cause annoyance or would pose too heavy a burden on resources. Mr Blunkett said a new three digit number would be created for non-emergency phone calls to police. The best performing police services would get more cash and extra freedoms, he said, but he would not shirk from stepping in where the public was being failed. The home secretary's powers to suspend or sack chief constables are being reviewed after Mr Blunkett's battle with Humberside chief David Westwood over intelligence failures on Soham murderer Ian Huntley. Opposition parties also want more local policing to tackle nuisance behaviour and other crime but they accuse ministers of tying the police up with paperwork. Tory spokesman David Davis said the proposals were ""little more than a taxpayer-funded PR exercise"" ahead of a general election predicted for next May. Police forces were already ""buried"" under existing government initiatives and there was little in the latest plans to reassure them,"" said Mr Davis. Earlier Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said the government was right to want to increase the links between local people and the police. ""But these measures will only work if they're matched with a cut in the amount of paperwork - and investment in modern equipment to keep the police out on the streets."" Before delivering a statement to MPs, Mr Blunkett was joined by Tony Blair at Welling School, in south east London, which is at the heart of a community policing initiative. Mr Blunkett said he wanted ""to go back to a time when I was very young, when you expected the police to be part of the community and the community to be part of policing and where people were joined together in partnership making it work"". The prime minister said the law-abiding citizen should be in charge of the community and ""not the minority who want to cause trouble"". Mr Blunkett already boasts about producing record police numbers. He has also started to recruit 25,000 Community Support Officers (CSOs) and the new plans would allow all police forces to give them the power to detain suspects. An extra £50m was promised on Tuesday so 2,000 new CSOs can be recruited now rather than next year. Within two years, every force will be expected to keep to a ""coppers' contract"" on what kind of service the public can expect. A Mori poll this summer suggested policing, unlike health and education, was the one major public service where people were less satisfied the more contact they had with it. The plans also include the idea of allowing people join police forces at different levels rather than the traditional way of making everybody spend specific amounts of time as a constable before being promoted. There will also be ""specific exercises"" to encourage black and Asian people to join the police at senior ranks." -politics,"UKIP candidate suspended in probe Eurosceptic party UKIP have suspended a candidate for allegedly suggesting the criminally insane should be killed. John Houston, 54, was due to stand in the East Kilbride seat in Lanarkshire at the next election. But he was suspended after his reported views, including the return of the British Empire, were sent to two Scottish newspapers. UKIP spokesman Mark Croucher said those who selected Mr Houston knew nothing of his views. The episode comes at a difficult time for UKIP, soon after the high-profile departure of MEP Robert Kilroy-Silk. Mr Houston is alleged to have said that the organs of the criminally insane should be ""made available to law-abiding members of the community"" and proposed the legalisation of drugs and the sex trade. The document reportedly said: ""We're looking for the resurrection of the British Empire. ""The problems for the human race - environmental and others - can only be dealt with on a global scale, and that calls for a radical alliance of the English-speaking nations, which they are uniquely able to do."" Mr Croucher said the main issue would be that Mr Houston's reported views had been presented as UKIP policy, which they were not. He said they might have been submissions to a committee working on the party's manifesto, but would not have been matched to Mr Houston when he was standing to become a candidate. He told BBC News: ""He appears to have said these things. We have suspended him as a member and as a candidate. ""By all accounts none of this was mentioned at his selection meeting. ""It is simply a distraction from the task in hand, the EU constitution, not individual idiocies."" Mr Houston was quoted in the Herald newspaper saying: ""I feel UKIP have over-reacted and overshot the runway."" Peter Nielson, who is UKIP Scotland chairman, said he had suspended Mr Houston on Friday night. ""He will remain suspended while the matter is being investigated and then we will decide if and what further action will be taken."" He said that any evidence would be looked into and Mr Houston may be interviewed by the party. He added: ""I can't comment too much at the moment, I have one version from him but I haven't seen the papers yet.""" -politics,"Brown comes out shooting Labour may have abolished hunting - but that didn't stop Chancellor Gordon Brown using his Budget to fire both barrels at some of the opposition parties' core election foxes. Specifically, it saw him attempting to slaughter the council tax as an election issue and to tear limb from limb their wider policies for pensioners and families. In a relatively short speech he kept the best for last and was clearly out to give exactly that pre-election boost everyone had been predicting. So if you are a couple with children, a pensioner, a patient or a youngster, there was something pulled from Mr Brown's red box in an attempt to persuade you to stick with or switch to a New Labour government. Like a surgeon, he attempted to target his handouts with absolute precision onto exactly the groups the government needs to appeal to in the election campaign. The announcements brought great cheers from his own MPs who are now in full-on election mode and had been looking to their man to give them ammunition for the doorsteps. They obviously believed he had done that for them and, coincidentally, given his own image as a prime minister-in-waiting another little boost. Labour MPs, for example, will undoubtedly now engage in a debate over exactly how redistributive - a lovely Old Labour word - this chancellor really is. But Gordon Brown is never going to put on a show and even as he was out to cast himself as the man who will win Labour an historic third term, his demeanour remained quiet, confident and reassuring. Prudence made an appearance, albeit towards the end of his address, as he assured voters he would do nothing to mess up the economic stability he had brought to Britain and which, he claimed, would be thrown away by anyone else. According to the opposition parties, however, it is all one big con trick. As always, they accused him of glossing over the facts of the ""black hole"" at the centre of his finances which, they claim, would ensure tax increases after the election. He did it most obviously with his increase in national insurance contributions after the 2001 election campaign during which he had pledged not to increase income tax. As Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy claimed, for most families the distinction between income tax and a tax on income is meaningless. Tory leader Michael Howard said the chancellor was up to his old trick of deliberately re-casting his forecasts to give the illusion that everything in the Treasury larder is as fresh as the day it was first stored away for future use. He branded it a dodgy ""vote now pay later"" budget based on dodgy figures from a dodgy government that gave Britain the dodgy dossier. Where the chancellor mostly avoided direct electioneering, Mr Howard felt no such constraint with attacks like comparing Mr Brown's forecasts to the prime minister's forecasts on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. As ever, there will now be a period of frantic activity by the opposition parties' treasury specialists as they pore over the chancellor's red book, which sets out the fine detail of his budget, in an attempt to spot the flaws. In particular there will be an argument over precisely whose policies on the council tax will offer people the best deal. And in Labour circles there will undoubtedly be an argument over just how good a prime minister Gordon Brown will make at some point after the next election." -politics,"UKIP outspent Labour on EU poll The UK Independence Party outspent both Labour and the Liberal Democrats in the European elections, new figures show. UKIP, which campaigned on a slogan of ""Say no to Europe"", spent £2.36m on the campaign - second only to the Conservatives' £3.13m. The campaign took UKIP into third place with an extra 10 MEPs. Labour's campaign cost £1.7m, the Lib Dems' £1.19m and the Greens' £404,000, according to figures revealed by the Electoral Commission on Wednesday. Much of the UKIP funding came from Yorkshire millionaire Sir Paul Sykes, who helped bankroll the party's billboard campaign. Critics have accused the party of effectively buying votes. But a UKIP spokesman said Labour and the Conservatives had spent £10m between them on the last general election. ""With the advantages of public money the others have, the only way the smaller parties can get their message across is by buying the advertising space,"" he added." -politics,"'Debate needed' on donations cap A cap on donations to political parties should not be introduced yet, the elections watchdog has said. Fears that big donors can buy political favours have sparked calls for a limit. In a new report, the Electoral Commission says it is worth debating a £10,000 cap for the future but now is not the right time to introduce it. It also says there should be more state funding for political parties and candidates should be able to spend more on election campaigning. There were almost £68m in reported donations to political parties in 2001, 2002 and 2003, with nearly £12m of them from individual gifts worth more than £1m. The rules have already been changed so the public can see who gives how much to the parties but the report says there are still public suspicions. The commission says capping donations would mean taxpayers giving parties more cash - something which would first have to be acceptable to the public and shown to work. ""While we are not in principle opposed to the introduction of a donation cap, we do not believe that such a major departure from the existing system now would be sensible,"" says its report. If there was to be a cap, it should be £10,000 - a small enough amount to make a difference but which would have banned £56m in donations between 2001 and 2003. Even without changes the commission does urge political parties to seek out more small-scale donations and suggests there should be income tax relief for gifts under £200. It also suggests increasing state funding for parties to £3m so help can be extended to all parties with at least two members in the House of Commons, European Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland Assembly. And it suggests new ways of boosting election campaigning, seen as a way of improving voter turnout. All local election candidates should be entitled to a free mailshot for campaign leaflets, says the watchdog. And there should be a shift in the amount of money allowed to be spent at elections from a national level to a local level to help politicians engage better with voters. The report suggests doubling the money which can be spent by candidates, while cutting national spending limits from £20m to £15m. The commission also says the spending limits for general elections should cover the four months before the poll - as happens with other elections. Electoral Commission chairman Sam Younger said: ""There is no doubt that political parties have a vital role to play in maintaining the health of our democracy and for this they need to be adequately resourced. ""Our research has shown that people want to be more informed about party politics and that they want politicians to be more visible and accessible. ""The public are reluctant for the state to fund parties but at the same time are unhappy with large private donations."" He called for a wider public debate on party funding to find the consensus needed for radical changes to the current system." -politics,"Baron Kinnock makes Lords debut Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has officially been made a life peer during a ceremony in the House of Lords. He will be known Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty - after his former constituency. Lord Kinnock - who led Labour from 1983 until 1992 - was until recently one of Britain's EU commissioners. A former critic of the House of Lords, he has said he will use the Upper House to advocate its reform and to talk on issues like higher education. ""I accepted the kind invitation to enter the House of Lords as a working peer for practical political reasons,"" he said when his peerage was first announced. ""It is a good base for campaigning on national issues like education, sustainable transport, industrial change and the ageing society and global concerns, particularly poverty and oppression."" During his induction into the Upper House, Lord Kinnock was accompanied by Lords Leader Baroness Amos and Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, a former aide to the ex-Labour leader. It has been a long journey for the new Lord Kinnock from his earliest days as a rebellious youngster in the south Wales valleys. Born in 1942 in Tredegar to a miner father and nurse mother, he attended Lewis Boys' School in nearby Pengam, known then as the ""Eton of the valleys"". From there he went to Cardiff University, where he met his future wife Glenys, now a Labour MEP. After a brief career as a tutor for the Workers' Educational Association, he became an MP at the age of just 28 for his home seat of Bedwellty (later Islwyn). He gained a reputation as a left-wing firebrand, voting against his own Labour government's spending cuts proposals in 1975, and later rejecting a junior post in James Callaghan's administration. But he joined the shadow cabinet in 1980, and after Labour's heavy defeat in the 1983 he was elected leader. He took on the far-left Militant Tendency and began the long process of returning his party to the centre ground. He was not expected to win the 1987 election, when Margaret Thatcher was still riding high, but was bitterly disappointed to lose the next one in 1992 to John Major, and stepped down. He remained an MP until 1995, when he resigned to become European commission for transport. Four years later he became vice-president of the European Commission, with responsibility for internal reform. As he assumes the title of Lord Kinnock, he has also become chairman of the British Council, which promotes the UK's reputation for arts, science and education." -politics,"Prime minister's questions So who, if anyone, is playing politics with the security of the nation? Michael Howard has no doubt it is the prime minister who, he claims, is ""ramming"" through Parliament the controversial new anti-terror measures without proper debate. He didn't say so, but the Tories believe the prime minister is playing the fear card on this one so he can look tough in the run up to the general election And they believe Tony Blair is using the issue to suggest the Tories are soft on terrorism. Why on earth will the prime minister not simply take up the Tories' offer to extend the existing powers temporarily to allow proper parliamentary debate of the laws, he demanded. The prime minister claims this is the clearest indication that it is the Tories who are playing politics with the issue by attempting to score cheap political points in parliament. Is not the opposition against to the proposed laws ""in principle"", in which case delaying a decision for further debate would be pointless? What this is really about, believes Mr Blair, is the Tories spotting an opportunity to embarrass, maybe even defeat the government. And that is more important to them than national security. Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy avoided suggesting anyone was playing politics with the issue. He preferred to state that, as with other issues like ID cards, the government's immediate instinct was authoritarian. As is his habit nowadays, the prime minister was less rough with Mr Kennedy than he had been with Mr Howard - he prefers a more exasperated tone suggesting he believes the Lib Dems have, once again, just missed the point. Apart from all that, it was electioneering as usual. The very first question to the prime minister from Derby North's Bob Laxton asked him, in effect, if he would carry on the excellent policy of pouring more resources into schools. Later Birmingham's Sion Simon even went so far as to suggest the Tories were such a shower that we should have the general election now. The prime minister almost blushed. This was not the appropriate place to announce election day, he stammered. But can anyone be in any doubt that that announcement is just days away - an announcement coming in the week beginning 4 April for an election on 5 May is where the big money is in the Commons. And perhaps that simple fact alone means everyone is seen to be playing politics with just about everything at the moment." -politics,"Straw praises Kashmir moves The UK has welcomed the decision by India and Pakistan to open a bus link across the ceasefire line dividing the disputed region of Kashmir. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, touring South East Asian countries, praised the ""spirit of cooperation"" in achieving the breakthrough. Media reports in both countries describe the deal as a major step in the ongoing peace process. Mr Straw said he hoped the agreement would make a difference to Kashmiris. The bus service was one of several announcements made after a meeting of foreign ministers of both countries in Islamabad on Wednesday. Kashmiri politicians on both sides of the Line of Control which divides the region welcomed the move. In a statement, Mr Straw said the bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad ""will be able to reunite families that have been divided for decades"". ""This will make a real difference to the lives of Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control,"" he said. ""I warmly applaud the efforts of both India and Pakistan to make this happen. ""This spirit of cooperation will, I hope, lead to many more measures that will benefit all in the region."" On Thursday Mr Straw was in India visiting Sikhism's holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar where he tried his hand at making Indian bread or roti. He is due to take part in talks with the Indian government on Friday. A second bus service linking the Pakistani city of Lahore with Amritsar in India was also announced as well as a rail link between Rajasthan state and Pakistan's Sindh province. Both sides agreed to begin talks on reducing the risk of nuclear accidents and also said they planned to reopen their respective consulates in Karachi and Mumbai (Bombay). The mountainous region of Kashmir has been a flashpoint between the two nuclear powers for more than 50 years." -politics,"Opposition grows to house arrests The Conservatives have expressed ""serious misgivings"" about government plans for keeping UK and foreign terror suspects under house arrest. Michael Howard said he would not back the Home Secretary's plans for ""control orders"" which include home detention. ""I do not believe that anyone should be deprived of their liberty on the say so of a politician,"" he said. The Lib Dems also oppose the proposals, but ministers insist they are proportionate to the terror threat. The government proposed the idea and a range of other new powers after the laws lords said current detentions without trial broke human rights laws. New Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has backed the control orders, saying: ""I'm sorry. It is a dilemma, but there is only one choice."" But Mr Howard said: ""We have serious misgivings about both their effectiveness in protecting life and their consequences for the British way of life."" He argued that people accused of terrorist offences should be brought to trial and be held in prison - not at home - while they await trial. Mr Howard said he feared ""internment without trial creates martyrs"" and could be ""a very effective recruiting sergeant"" for terrorists"". His party plans to move an amendment to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill next week that would give a judge responsibility for assessing evidence and ensuring a balanced case is presented to the court. He called on the prime minister to ""enter into constructive discussions"" with his party to find a ""better way forward"". Controversy over the issue continues after a foreign terror suspect held in the UK without trial or charge since December 2001 was freed from jail. Home Secretary Charles Clarke said there was not enough evidence to keep the Egyptian man, known only as C, certified as a terrorist suspect. On Monday, the legal team for two Algerian suspects being held without trial told a court the men did not want bail if it meant being put under house arrest. Most of the terror suspects are detained at Belmarsh Prison in London. The Liberal Democrats say they also oppose house arrests and questioned the human rights implications of the measure. Home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""It's a matter of principle for us that we can't have a situation where the Home Secretary is able to impose house detention now on UK nationals as well as foreign nationals."" The Lib Dems believe the Home Secretary should allow phone tapping evidence in prosecutions. ""We think there could be a role for some form of control order - tagging, surveillance, limitation on use of mobile phones - but not with the Home Secretary's say so. That must be done with a proper judicial process, a judge involved in making those decisions,"" said Mr Oaten. Mr Clarke has rejected that idea saying intercept evidence is only a small part of the case against terror suspects and could put the lives of intelligence sources at risk. He said prosecutions were the government's first preference and promised the powers would only be used in ""serious"" cases, with independent scrutiny from judges." -politics,"David Blunkett in quotes David Blunkett - who has resigned as home secretary - built his reputation as a plain-speaking Yorkshire man. I fell in love with someone and they wouldn't go public and things started to go very badly wrong in the summer, and then the News of the World picked up the story. ""I tried for three years to make something work."" ""Trust, plain-speaking and straight talking is something which matters so much to me as a politician and as a man that I have decided, of my own volition, to request an independent review of the allegations that I misused my position."" ""I don't think anyone can say I have said one thing in public and done another in private."" ""It would be dangerous territory if I wasn't practising what I preach which is to always accept responsibility, always accept the consequences of your actions. ""None of us believe countering terrorism is about party politics."" ""I accepted by necessity we have to have prevention under a new category which is to intervene before the act is committed, rather than do so by due process after the act is committed when it's too late,"" he said in reference to new anti-terrorism measures. ""Our work with the French government...has been hugely successful,"" said Mr Blunkett. ""The number of illegal immigrants detected in Dover has dropped dramatically."" ""Strengthening our identity is one way or reinforcing people's confidence and sense of citizenship and well-being."" ""I foolishly thought as this was a celebrity edition it would be more relaxed than normal."" ""You wake up and you receive a phone call - Shipman's topped himself. You have just got to think for a minute: is it too early to open a bottle?""" -politics,"Fox attacks Blair's Tory 'lies' Tony Blair lied when he took the UK to war so has no qualms about lying in the election campaign, say the Tories. Tory co-chairman Liam Fox was speaking after Mr Blair told Labour members the Tories offered a ""hard right agenda"". Dr Fox told BBC Radio: ""If you are willing to lie about the reasons for going to war, I guess you are going to lie about anything at all."" He would not discuss reports the party repaid £500,000 to Lord Ashcroft after he predicted an election defeat. The prime minister ratcheted up Labour's pre-election campaigning at the weekend with a helicopter tour of the country and his speech at the party's spring conference. He insisted he did not know the poll date, but it is widely expected to be 5 May. In what was seen as a highly personal speech in Gateshead on Sunday, Mr Blair said: ""I have the same passion and hunger as when I first walked through the door of 10 Downing Street."" He described his relationship with the public as starting euphoric, then struggling to live up to the expectations, and reaching the point of raised voices and ""throwing crockery"". He warned his supporters against complacency, saying: ""It's a fight for the future of our country, it's a fight that for Britain and the people of Britain we have to win."" Mr Blair said that whether the public chose Michael Howard or Mr Kennedy, it would result in ""a Tory government not a Labour government and a country that goes back and does not move forward"". Dr Fox accused Mr Blair and other Cabinet ministers of telling lies about their opponents' policies and then attacking the lies. ""What we learned at the weekend is what Labour tactics are going to be and it's going to be fear and smear,"" he told BBC News. The Tory co-chairman attacked Labour's six new pledges as ""vacuous"" and said Mr Blair was very worried voters would take revenge for his failure to deliver. Dr Fox refused to discuss weekend newspaper reports that the party had repaid £500,000 to former Tory Treasurer Lord Ashcroft after he said the party could not win the election. ""We repay loans when they are due but do not comment to individual financial matters,"" he said, insisting he enjoyed a ""warm and constructive"" relationship to Lord Ashcroft. Meanwhile Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy is expected to attack Mr Blair's words as he begins a nationwide tour on Monday. Mr Kennedy is accelerating Lib Dem election preparations this week as he visits Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Somerset, Basingstoke, Shrewsbury, Dorset and Torbay. He said: ""This is three-party politics. In the northern cities, the contest is between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. ""In southern and rural seats - especially in the South West - the principal contenders are the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, who are out of the running in Scotland and Wales."" The Lib Dems accuse Mr Blair of making a ""touchy-feely"" speech to Labour delegates which will not help him regain public trust." -politics,"Abortion not a poll issue - Blair Tony Blair does not believe abortion should be an election issue, arguing it is a matter for individual conscience. The prime minister's spokesman set out Mr Blair's view after the top Catholic in England and Wales backed Michael Howard's stance on abortions. The Tory leader supports a reduction in the legal limit from 24 weeks to 20 and has said current rules are ""tantamount to abortion on demand"". The prime minister has made it clear he has no plans to the change the law. Mr Blair's spokesman said: ""The Catholic church has a well-known position on this issue and it was one of many issues the Cardinal mentioned and therefore it should be seen in that context."" His words came as Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, backed Mr Howard's stance and distanced himself from Labour. In a statement, he said abortion was a ""very key issue"", saying: ""The policy supported by Mr Howard is one that we would commend, on the way to a full abandonment of abortion."" Cardinal O'Connor claimed Labour had ""developed"" the notion that it was the natural party of Catholics, but he said: ""We are not going to suggest people support one particular party."" The Family Planning Association says a reduction would particularly affect young women who often seek help later. More than 180,000 women in England and Wales had terminations last year, of which fewer than 1% were carried out between 22 and 24 weeks. In the Cosmopolitan interview Mr Howard said: ""I believe abortion should be available to everyone, but the law should be changed. ""In the past I voted for a restriction to 22 weeks and I would be prepared to go down to 20."" All three main parties say the issue is one for each MP's conscience, rather than one where there is a party-wide policy. Mr Howard stressed his views were his personal views. Shadow home secretary David Davis said he understood Mr Howard had been signalling that a Conservative government would allow a Commons vote on the issue. Mr Blair and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy also gave their views during interviews, conducted as part of the magazine's ""High Heeled Vote"" campaign. Mr Blair, who last year denied he planned to join his wife and four children in the Catholic faith despite regularly taking communion, said abortion was a ""difficult issue"". ""However much I dislike the idea of abortion, you should not criminalise a woman who, in very difficult circumstances, makes that choice. ""Obviously there is a time beyond which you can't have an abortion, and we have no plans to change that although the debate will continue."" Mr Kennedy said he had previously voted for a 22-week limit but medical advances mean ""I don't know what I would do now"". The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff, the Most Reverend Peter Smith, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the church merely wanted people to ""reflect on issues in light of the gospel"" before voting. Anne Weyman, chief executive of the Family Planning Association, asked: ""What is the benefit to women, or to the potential child, of forcing a woman to have a baby?"" Anti-abortion group the Pro-Life Alliance ""congratulated"" Mr Howard on his new stance, but said it did not go far enough." -politics,"Blair to face MPs amid feud talk Tony Blair faces his first prime minister's questions of 2005 after a week of renewed speculation about his relationship with Gordon Brown. Meanwhile, the chancellor is leaving Britain on a high-profile tour of Africa to highlight poverty issues. But before doing so, he insisted he still trusted Mr Blair, despite claims to the contrary in a new book. Labour MPs have warned against disunity and Tory leader Michael Howard may well take up the theme in the Commons. The Tories have already accused the prime minister and his chancellor of behaving like ""schoolboys squabbling in a playground"". Michael Howard is likely to want to capitalise further on the spat when he goes head-to-head with the prime minister in the Commons. At a campaign poster launch on Tuesday, Mr Brown was joined by Alan Milburn, who Mr Blair controversially put in charge of election planning in place of the chancellor. Later this week the prime minister is due to set out the themes of his party's next election manifesto, which for the past two polls have been drawn up by the chancellor. Mr Brown, meanwhile, is visiting Tanzania, Mozambique and Kenya to highlight the plight of many Africans hit by Aids, war and famine - issues which Mr Blair has also spoken out on. The prime minister and chancellor faced backbench discontent at Monday's meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party over claims made in journalist Robert Peston's new book. Mr Blair told MPs and peers: ""I know from everyone here, in Cabinet and government, nothing is going to get in the way of a unified Labour Party with a unified position and winning the third term people desperately need."" Labour's Paul Flynn said the pair had had a ""scorching"" from MPs. On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Mr Prescott told BBC News: ""They told us very clearly, it was the troops telling the leaders: get in line."" The new book claims Mr Prescott hosted a dinner in November 2003 where the prime minister told Mr Brown he would stand down before the next election because he had lost trust over the Iraq war. Mr Blair then changed his mind in June 2004, after Cabinet allies intervened and amid suspicion the chancellor was manoeuvring against him, writes Mr Peston. In Mr Peston's book Mr Brown is alleged to have told the prime minister: ""There is nothing you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe.""" -politics,"MPs demand 'Budget leak' answers Ministers have been asked to explain how Budget details were printed in a London newspaper half an hour before Gordon Brown made his speech. The Tories said a large chunk of the Budget appeared to have been leaked in what they describe as a ""serious breach of Treasury confidentiality"". The Lib Dems called for Commons leader Peter Hain to make a statement and said chancellors had resigned over leaks. They were told it would be brought to Speaker Michael Martin's attention. In the Commons, Tory frontbencher Andrew Tyrie MP demanded an immediate ministerial statement about how measures had been ""clearly, or at least apparently, leaked to the Evening Standard"". Raising a point of order, he said it was ""the latest in a long line of discourtesies to this House"", as well as a breach of confidentiality. He said: ""I can only hope it is unintentional. If it were planned it would be a very grave matter indeed. A previous Labour chancellor resigned after he leaked the Budget."" Hugh Dalton resigned after leaking details of his 1947 budget to journalist John Carvel, who published them in a London newspaper, just minutes before they were announced to the House of Commons. Liberal Democrat David Laws said it was a ""very serious matter"" and said Mr Hain should make a statement on Thursday. Deputy Speaker Sylvia Heal agreed it was ""of concern"" but said nothing could be done immediately but the issue would be brought to Mr Martin's attention." -politics,"'Super union' merger plan touted Two of Britain's big trade unions could merge to form a ""super union"" of two million members. The move by Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) would be a seen as a bid to carry more weight with ministers and employers. Amicus has 1.2 million members and the TGWU has 800,000. Any merger would have to be approved by the unions' executives and their membership. It is understood meetings will be held on Wednesday about the proposal. Along with the GMB and Unison, the TGWU and Amicus worked closely together in the last year to hammer out a 56-point deal with Labour's leadership over equality at work, holidays and pensions - the Warwick Agreement. Both unions are remaining tight-lipped about the merger rumours, but one insider pointed out to the BBC News website that ""nobody is denying suggestions a merger could be on the agenda"" when the two unions' executives hold their meetings on Wednesday. Amicus's executive was due to meet in any case although the TGWU is holding specially scheduled talks." -politics,"'Errors' doomed first Dome sale The initial attempt to sell the Millennium Dome failed due to a catalogue of errors, a report by the government's finance watchdog says. The report said too many parties were involved in decision-making when the attraction first went on sale after the Millennium exhibition ended. The National Audit Office said the Dome cost taxpayers £28.7m to maintain and sell in the four years after it closed. Finally, a deal to turn it into a sport and entertainment venue was struck. More than £550m could now be returned to the public sector in the wake of the deal to regenerate the site in Greenwich, London. The NAO report said that this sale went through because it avoided many of the problems of the previous attempt to sell the Dome. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said a good deal had been secured. ""Delivery of the many benefits secured through this deal will continue the substantial progress already made at the Millennium Village and elsewhere on the peninsula,"" he said. But Edward Leigh, who is chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, warned the government would have to work hard to ensure taxpayers would get full benefit from the Dome deal. He said: ""This report also shows that the first attempt to sell the Dome proved a complete fiasco. Every arm of government seems to have had a finger in the pie. The process was confused and muddled."" He added: ""Four years after the Millennium Exhibition closed, the Government finally has a deal to find a use for what has been a white elephant since it closed in a deal that, incredible as it may seem, should bring in some money and provide a benefit for the local area and the country as whole. However, it was more a question of luck that a strong bid turned up after thefirst abortive attempt."" NAO head Sir John Bourn said: ""In difficult circumstances following the failure of the first competition, English Partnerships and the office of the deputy prime minister have worked hard to get a deal.""" -politics,"Lib Dems stress Budget trust gap Public trust in the handling of the economy can only be restored if Gordon Brown opens up his books for unbiased inspection, say the Lib Dems. City experts say there is a £10bn ""black hole"" in the public finances, a claim denied by the chancellor. Lib Dem spokesman Vince Cable said the public did not know who to believe and the National Audit Office should judge. Responding to the pre-Budget report, Mr Cable also attacked Labour's ""unfair"" and over-complicated taxes. In his report, Mr Brown insisted he was on course to meet his ""golden rule"" of borrowing only to invest, rather than for day-to-day spending, over the course of the economic cycle. Mr Cable said people did not know whether to believe the chancellor or the consensus among experts which said the rule would be broken. ""There is an issue of credibility and trust,"" he said. ""We cannot have a continuation of a situation where the chancellor sets his own tests and then marks them. ""What we need is the equivalent of a thorough Ofsted inspection of the government's accounts."" He asked what the government had to hide. Mr Cable also accused the chancellor of ducking tough choices. He argued: ""There are serious challenges ahead from the falling dollar and from the rapid downturn in the UK housing market and rising personal debt. But they have not been confronted."" Mr Brown confirmed he was setting aside another £520m for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr Cable compared that new cost with the £500m needed for Britain's role in the entire first Gulf War - when 80% of the bill had been met through help from European and Arab nations. He suggested keeping British troops in Iraq could cost another £1bn with the government also planning to spend at least £3bn for identity cards. The current economic climate meant Britain could not afford the ""reckless, George Bush-style tax cutting spree"" planned by the Tories, he said. Instead, what was needed was simple and fair taxation rather than the ""complete mess"" produced by Mr Brown's endless tinkering. Mr Cable said 40% of all pensioners were now paying marginal tax rates of 50%. And one-and-a-half million hard working families were paying 60% marginal tax rates. With that record, he asked why ministers attacked Lib Dem plans for a new 50% tax rate for the ""very rich"" - those earning more than £100,000 a year. Mr Brown earmarked £1bn to help keep down council tax rises next year. But the Lib Dem spokesman questioned whether that money was being found from cuts to education and health. He urged the government to scrap the ""grossly unfair"" tax completely. The Lib Dems want it replaced with a local income tax. In response, Mr Brown stressed the Iraq money came from a reserve funds. It was because he had rejected previous Lib Dem proposals, such as scrapping the New Deal, that Britain's economy was successful, claimed Mr Brown." -politics,"Budget to set scene for election Gordon Brown will seek to put the economy at the centre of Labour's bid for a third term in power when he delivers his ninth Budget at 1230 GMT. He is expected to stress the importance of continued economic stability, with low unemployment and interest rates. The chancellor is expected to freeze petrol duty and raise the stamp duty threshold from £60,000. But the Conservatives and Lib Dems insist voters face higher taxes and more means-testing under Labour. Treasury officials have said there will not be a pre-election giveaway, but Mr Brown is thought to have about £2bn to spare. - Increase in the stamp duty threshold from £60,000 - A freeze on petrol duty - An extension of tax credit scheme for poorer families - Possible help for pensioners The stamp duty threshold rise is intended to help first time buyers - a likely theme of all three of the main parties' general election manifestos. Ten years ago, buyers had a much greater chance of avoiding stamp duty, with close to half a million properties, in England and Wales alone, selling for less than £60,000. Since then, average UK property prices have more than doubled while the starting threshold for stamp duty has not increased. Tax credits As a result, the number of properties incurring stamp duty has rocketed as has the government's tax take. The Liberal Democrats unveiled their own proposals to raise the stamp duty threshold to £150,000 in February. The Tories are also thought likely to propose increased thresholds, with shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin branding stamp duty a ""classic Labour stealth tax"". The Tories say whatever the chancellor gives away will be clawed back in higher taxes if Labour is returned to power. Shadow Treasury chief secretary George Osborne said: ""Everyone who looks at the British economy at the moment says there has been a sharp deterioration in the public finances, that there is a black hole,"" he said. ""If Labour is elected there will be a very substantial tax increase in the Budget after the election, of the order of around £10bn."" But Mr Brown's former advisor Ed Balls, now a parliamentary hopeful, said an examination of Tory plans for the economy showed there would be a £35bn difference in investment by the end of the next parliament between the two main parties. He added: ""I don't accept there is any need for any changes to the plans we have set out to meet our spending commitments."" For the Lib Dems David Laws said: ""The chancellor will no doubt tell us today how wonderfully the economy is doing,"" he said. ""But a lot of that is built on an increase in personal and consumer debt over the last few years - that makes the economy quite vulnerable potentially if interest rates ever do have to go up in a significant way."" SNP leader Alex Salmond said his party would introduce a £2,000 grant for first time buyers, reduce corporation tax and introduce a citizens pension free from means testing. Plaid Cymru's economics spokesman Adam Price said he wanted help to get people on the housing ladder and an increase in the minimum wage to £5.60 an hour." -politics,"Labour seeks to quell feud talk Labour's leadership put on a show of unity at a campaign poster launch after MPs criticised Tony Blair and Gordon Brown over reports of their rift. Mr Brown was joined at the launch by John Prescott and Alan Milburn, the man controversially put in charge of election planning by Mr Blair. A private meeting on Monday saw normally loyal MPs warn that feuding could jeopardise their election hopes. It follows a new book charting disputes between prime minister and chancellor. The event was the first time Mr Milburn has shared a platform with the chancellor since taking Mr Brown's traditional poll planning role. But the pair chatted amicably and Mr Brown insisted he was happy with his current campaign task. Asked about how he would deal with claims that he did not trust the prime minister, Mr Brown replied: ""You can see that our record on the economy is about the British people trusting us to run the economy."" He refused to comment on the new book, saying nobody should be distracted from the business of government. Mr Brown later told reporters: ""Of course I trust the prime minister."" Downing Street cited that comment when reporters' suggested Mr Brown had pointedly failed to deny claims he had once told Mr Blair: ""There is nothing you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe"". Labour's new posters say Britain is enjoying the lowest inflation since the 1960s, lowest unemployment for 29 years and the lowest mortgage rates for 40 years. They urge voters not to let the Tories take things backwards. Mr Milburn promised a poll campaign ""which is upbeat, confident and above all else optimistic about the future of our country"". Conservative co-chairman Liam Fox derided the photo call, saying: ""The show of unity was the worst acting I have seen since Prisoner Cell Block H."" Labour had broken promises by raising taxes 66 times and brought the slowest economic growth in the English-speaking world, he said. The prime minister and chancellor faced backbench discontent at Monday's meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party over claims made in journalist Robert Peston's new book. Mr Blair told MPs and peers: ""I know from everyone here, in Cabinet and government, nothing is going to get in the way of a unified Labour Party with a unified position and winning the third term people desperately need."" Labour's Paul Flynn said the pair had had a ""scorching"" from MPs. On Tuesday, deputy prime minister Mr Prescott told BBC News: ""They told us very clearly, it was the troops telling the leaders: get in line."" The new book claims Mr Prescott hosted a dinner in November 2003 where the prime minister told Mr Brown he would stand down before the next election because he had lost trust over the Iraq war. Mr Blair then changed his mind in June 2004, after Cabinet allies intervened and amid suspicion the chancellor was manoeuvring against him, writes Mr Peston. Mr Prescott said there was a dinner but the discussions were confidential. ""Of course as a waiter for 10 years I have a professional ability here,"" he joked." -politics,"BAA support ahead of court battle UK airport operator BAA has reiterated its support for the government's aviation expansion plans to airports throughout the country. The comments come a day ahead of a High Court challenge by residents' groups and local councils to the government's White Paper. The judicial review will centre on government plans for expansion at Heathrow, Stansted and Luton airports. BAA, which operates all three, said it was consulting with local communities. ""We are...consulting on voluntary compensation schemes which go beyond our statutory obligations,"" a BAA spokesman said. Groups challenging the plans include Stop Stansted Expansion, Heathrow anti-noise campaigners HACAN Clearskies and the London boroughs of Hillingdon and Wandsworth. At Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports, BAA launched a series of consultations on blight to properties from the proposed expansion in September 2004, which will close next week. The company is also offering to buy noise-hit properties for an index-linked, unblighted price. Among other measures, BAA has set up a homeowner support scheme for people living near Stansted, and has launched a special scheme for those close to the airport but far enough away not to be covered by the homeowner scheme. At Heathrow, BAA said it was working closely with all interested parties to see how the strict environmental, air quality and noise targets for a third runway can be met. At Gatwick, the company has written to homes and business likely to be affected by any extra runway. Stop Stansted Expansion said the White Paper, published in December 2003, was ""fundamentally flawed"" and did not follow the proper consultation process. ""We do not underestimate the scale of the challenge before us because the courts have never before overturned a government White Paper,"" said Stop Stansted Expansion chairman Peter Sanders said. HACAN chairman John Stewart said: ""Almost exactly a year ago the government published its 30-year aviation White Paper with much fanfare. ""It hoped that would be the end of the debate and it could proceed with its plans for a massive expansion of aviation. ""Yet, a year later the protesters are still here, and stronger than ever. "" A judgement from Mr Justice Sullivan is expected early in February." -politics,"Kennedy questions trust of Blair Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy has said voters now have a ""fundamental lack of trust"" of Tony Blair as prime minister. He said backing his party was not a wasted vote, adding that with the Lib Dems ""what you see is what you get"". He made his comments at the start of a day of appearances on Channel Five in a session on The Wright Stuff programme. Questions from callers, a studio audience and the show's presenter covered Lib Dem tax plans, anti-terror laws and immigration. Mr Kennedy said during his nearly 22 years in Parliament he had seen prime ministers and party leaders come and go and knew the pitfalls of British politics. ""1983 was when I was first elected as an MP - so Tony Blair, Michael Howard and myself were all class of '83 - and over that nearly quarter of a century the world has changed out of recognition,"" he said. ""We don't actually hear the argument any longer: 'Lib Dems, good people, reasonable ideas but only if we thought they could win around here - it's a wasted vote'. ""You don't hear that because the evidence of people's senses demonstrates that it isn't a wasted vote."" But he said Mr Blair had lost the trust of the British people. ""There is a fundamental lack of trust in Tony Blair as prime minister and in his government,"" he said. ""What we've got to do as a party - what I've got to do as a leader of this party - is to convey to people that what you see is what you get."" Mr Kennedy also used his TV appearance to defend his party's plans to increase income tax to 50% for those earning more than £100,000, saying it would apply to just 1% of the population. He said the extra revenue would allow his party to get rid of tuition and top-up fees, introduce free personal care for the elderly and replace the council tax with a local income tax. Mr Blair has already spent a day with Five and Michael Howard is booked for a similar session." -politics,"Tory expert denies defeatism The Conservatives' campaign director has denied a report claiming he warned Michael Howard the party could not win the next general election. The Times on Monday said Australian Lynton Crosby told the party leader to focus on trying to increase the Tories' Commons presence by 25 to 30 seats. But Mr Crosby said in a statement: ""I have never had any such conversation... and I do not hold that view."" Mr Howard later added there was not ""one iota"" of truth in the report. The strategist helped Australia's PM, John Howard, win four elections. Mr Howard appointed Mr Crosby as his elections chief last October. Mr Crosby's statement said: ""The Conservative Party has been making an impact on the issues of lower tax and controlled immigration over the past week."" It added: ""The Labour Party will be wanting to do all they can to distract attention away from the issues that really matter to people.""" -politics,"Parties build up poll war chests The Labour Party received more than £5m in donations in the final quarter of 2004, new figures show. This is nearly half of the £11,724,929 received by 16 political parties listed by the Electoral Commission. The Conservatives were in second place with donations totalling £4,610,849, while the Liberal Democrats received just over £1m. The majority of Labour's donations came from affiliated trade unions. There were also large sums from individuals. Lord Drayson, whose company PowderJect won multi-million pound contracts to provide smallpox vaccine to the government after the 11 September terror attacks, gave £500,000 to the party just days before Christmas. This followed an earlier donation of the same amount earlier in 2004. He was made a lord by Tony Blair last year. Other significant donations came from retired millionaire businessman and philanthropist Sir Christopher Ondaatje who gave the party a sum of £500,000, and refrigerator magnate William Haughey OBE who gave £330,000. The totals for the fourth quarter were well up on the same period of 2003, as the parties built up their war chests for the general election campaign. The largest donation to the Conservatives was a bequest from Ruth Beardmore of nearly £400,000. The joint founder of merchant bank Hambro Magan gave £325,417. There were also donations topping £250,000 for the Conservatives from Scottish Business Groups Focus on Scotland and the Institute of International Research, the world's largest independent conference company. Also among the gifts to the Tories were 24 donations totalling £161,840 from Bearwood Corporate Services. This company is controlled by the party's former treasurer Lord Ashcroft which has directed almost £300,000 to specific marginal constituencies over the past two years. The Liberal Democrats' largest donor was the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd, a company which promotes political reform and constitutional change, which gave a sum of £250,000. And fast food giants McDonald's are listed as donating a sum of £10,575. This was a fee the firm paid for a room for an event held with the work and skills foundation during the party's conference. The UK Independence Party, which lost its main donor Paul Sykes amid the row over Robert Kilroy-Silk's bid for the leadership last autumn, took in £63,081. Just £8,170 of this was cash and the remainder came in gifts in kind, such as office space and printing. Registered political parties are required to set out each quarter all donations over £5,000 to their headquarters and over £1,000 to local constituency parties they receive. It is an offence for a person to knowingly or recklessly make a false declaration about party donations." -politics,"Chancellor rallies Labour voters Gordon Brown has issued a rallying cry, telling supporters the ""stakes are too high"" to stay at home or protest vote in the forthcoming general election. The chancellor said the vote - expected to fall on 5 May - will give a ""clear and fundamental"" choice between Labour investment and Conservative cuts. Speaking at Labour's spring conference in Gateshead, Mr Brown claimed the NHS was not safe in Conservative hands. He said Tory plans to cut £35bn tax would ""cut deep into public service"". To a packed audience at Gateshead's Sage Centre, the chancellor said the cuts proposed by shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin were the equivalent of sacking every teacher, GP and nurse in the country, he told activists. Laying into the Conservative's record in government he said: ""I give you this promise - with Labour, Britain will never return to the mistakes of ERM and 10% inflation, 15% interest rates, £3bn in lost reserves, 250,000 repossessed, one million in negative equity and three million unemployed. ""Never again Tory boom and bust. ""This will be the central dividing line at the election, between a Conservative Party taking Britain back and planning deep cuts of £35bn in our services, and a Labour government taking Britain forward, which on a platform of stability will reform and renew our hospitals, schools and public services and, I am proud to say, spend by 2008 £60bn more."" Turning to the economy, the chancellor pledged to continue economic stability and growth in a third term in power. He said after seven years Labour had transformed from a party not trusted with the economy to ""the only party trusted with the economy"". It was now a ""party not just of employees, but of employers and managers"", he said. In the speech - which prompted a standing ovation from an audience clearly ""warm"" to Mr Brown - he also promised to end teenage unemployment within the next five years. He also highlighted plans for 100% debt relief for the world's poorest countries, a national minimum wage for 16 and 17-year-olds and the creation of a network of children's centres and flexibility in maternity leave. The prime minister is to take part later on Saturday in an interactive question and answer session, fielding queries sent in by e-mail, text message and telephone as part of Labour's attempt to engage the public in their campaign." -politics,"Drink remark 'acts as diversion' The first minister's statement that it was okay to get drunk ""once in a while"" has diverted attention from the real issues, it has been claimed. Jack Law, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said Jack McConnell's comment was ""ill-advised"". The media attention had helped to move the focus from Scotland's binge drinking problems, Mr Law said. Scotsman journalist Hamish MacDonell said he believed the bigger picture had been ""obscured"" by the remark. Mr McConnell was speaking on Monday to more than 100 secondary pupils from schools in the Highlands about the problems of binge drinking and drink promotions. The one-sentence comment was immediately criticised by the Scottish National Party which accused him of encouraging young people to get drunk. But the Scottish Executive has insisted Mr McConnell was speaking about adults and his comments were ""a recognition that people will get drunk"". Mr MacDonell, political editor of The Scotsman, said: ""I think we have to say right at the outset that this was a very stupid and ill-advised remark by the first minister. ""If you come out with something like this, saying that by all means get drunk, then you will be pilloried for it."" However, he added that ""perhaps Mr McConnell could feel rightly aggrieved about the coverage"". Mr MacDonell said: ""I think the problem here is that he did say a lot more things about binge drinking and under age drinking. ""But that whole side of things has been lost in the furore over one sentence. I understand why, but I think there is a much bigger message here that has been obscured."" Mr Law, from voluntary body Alcohol Focus Scotland, believed damage had been done to Scotland's fight against binge drinking. He said he accepted that young people drank and they did have problems with drink. Mr Law added: ""I think the remark was ill-advised - but these remarks are blown out of all proportion and they so easily misrepresent what we are trying to do in Scotland. ""We don't want to preach to young people, but we need to acknowledge that they do drink problematically. ""This diverts us from the real issues which are about promoting responsibility and reducing harm and indeed tackling our drinking culture which is a culture about binge drinking and drunkenness."" He said it was vital that young people were properly informed about the risks incurred to themselves and others when they got drunk. Mr MacDonell said that the first minister should know by now that if he said things which were ""off the mark"", they were bound to ""come back and bite him"". He added: ""Here, Mr McConnell was talking in the Highlands to 100 teenagers and every word he said was put out on a webcast by the Scottish Executive and then looked at by other politicians and reporters. ""I think in this instance he has done a lot of really good things and he will be regretting this remark."" The Scottish National Party's Holyrood leader Nicola Sturgeon wrote to Mr McConnell on Tuesday accusing him of an error of judgement and calling for him to apologise for his ""ill-judged comment"" and withdraw it immediately. In a furious response, the first minister said his comments had been distorted and taken out of context. He told Ms Sturgeon: ""It is disappointing that you have contributed to this distortion by saying it is staggering that I 'should encourage young people to get drunk'. ""That is completely untrue. Perhaps it would have been wiser for you to find out what was actually said before you rushed to represent my position, undermine the convener of education at Highland Council and insult the intelligence of the young people I spoke with - all for the sake of a simple soundbite.""" -politics,"Kilroy-Silk attacked with slurry Euro MP Robert Kilroy-Silk has had a bucket of farm slurry thrown over him by a protester in Manchester. The UK Independence Party member was arriving for a BBC radio show when the attacker emerged from behind a bush. Fellow guest Ruth Kelly MP was also hit by the slurry. Mr Kilroy-Silk said the man, who later disappeared, claimed he was ""doing it in the name of Islam"". In January, Mr Kilroy-Silk quit his BBC One show for remarks he made about Arabs, who he called ""suicide bombers"". Mr Kilroy-Silk had already been taken off air by BBC bosses for the comments, in which he also described Arabs as ""limb-amputators, women repressors"". The remarks prompted outrage among Muslim groups. The slurry attack took place on Friday as Mr Kilroy-Silk and Ms Kelly, a Cabinet Office minister and Bolton West MP, arrived at Manchester High School for Girls for the recording of BBC Radio 4's Any Questions. The police were called but the attacker had disappeared by the time officers arrived. They are treating the incident as assault. The programme's host, Jonathan Dimbleby, later told the audience the MEP had been covered from ""head to toe"". Mr Kilroy-Silk was still able appear to appear on the show after being loaned a change of clothes. He told reporters he was ""very angry"" and planned to press charges if his attacker was caught. He said the man shouted: ""You've offended my religion, I'm doing this in the name of Islam."" ""As I started to turn round a guy tipped a bucket of farmyard muck over me and then threw the rest of it over me and the car,"" Mr Kilroy-Silk said. ""I was totally covered, it was all through my clothes, and it stank to high heaven. It went all inside the car and splattered Ruth Kelly."" A BBC spokesman said: ""He took his seat as Jonathan Dimbleby was introducing the show. Fortunately someone at the school had a change of clothes to let him have."" Greater Manchester Police said people near Mr Kilroy-Silk had also been hit by the waste. Officers took statements at the scene, but no arrests have been made. Police say the suspect ran off after towards Wilmslow Road after committing the offence but is believed to have been driving a red Vauxhall Corsa earlier. The suspect is described as white, aged 30 to 40, with a ginger beard. Police want to hear from anyone who has any information. Mr Kilroy-Silk, an MEP for the East Midlands, resigned the UK Independence Party whip in the European Parliament in October, after criticising UKIP and stating his ambition to be leader. However, he remains a member of the party. He said on Friday he hoped to be elected party leader before Christmas. ""I think that is sufficient time for us to put in process what is necessary... in time for us to fight and have a significant impact upon the General Election."" But a UKIP spokesman said that would be impossible under the party's constitution, which requires 70 days before any leadership ballot can take place." -politics,"Council tax rise 'reasonable' Welsh councils should set their taxes at ""reasonable levels"" after being given an average funding increase of 6%, says the assembly government. Finance Minister Sue Essex said it was a ""good deal"" for local government. The £3.2bn settlement includes the ""full"" £7.4m from the UK Treasury announced by Chancellor Gordon Brown. But opposition parties said rebanding of council taxes would mean steep rises. In addition, £13.4m will come from the business support grant - a scheme which enables local authorities to keep part of business rates. She said where spending rises were kept to around 5% she was ""confident that councils will be able to set council taxes at reasonable levels."" The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) had said on the eve of the announcement said that ""significant"" cuts to services may still be unavoidable. After the announcement WLGA finance spokesman Bob Wellington, of Torfaen, said it was vital that rises were minimsed. ""A limited amount of money has come available but this is not the answer to our problems,"" said Mr Wellington. ""It is vital that we start now to plan for future years and accept that resources will continue to reduce while pressures on services increase."" On Monday, a delegation of north Wales councils visited Ms Essex to lobby for increased funds. Ms Essex said: ""I have listened to the views of local government and council tax payers and recognise the funding pressures and the concerns they have about council tax rises. ""I have met a large number of local authorities in recent weeks and I am aware of the pressures on them to provide local services and keep down the level of council tax, particularly for those people to are moving up a band due to the revaluation of domestic properties."" She said council taxes could be kept at reasonable levels, ""even for those people who have moved up a band"". The settlement includes a rise in the grant to help councils with the most deprived communities and a 16.4% rise in capital expenditure support. Ms Essex said: ""This is a good deal for local government, which will allow the well-managed councils of Wales to develop their services and charge reasonable levels of council tax. It is now a matter for council leaders to manage their budgets at a local level."" Plaid Cymru's local government spokesman Dai Lloyd called the announcement ""hugely disappointing"". He said: ""Wales and its local authorities have been short changed yet again. This is not whinging as the Labour Assembly Government so often claims - it is anger."" ""This will mean either a massive hike in council tax, massive cuts in services provided by councils, or both."" Mike German, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the assembly, claimed that one in three homes were still likely to face council tax rises due to rebanding. Mr German said: ""I know from my discussions with Welsh Liberal Democrat council leaders that they are doing their utmost to keep council tax to a minimum. But the random redistribution effect of rebanding...will create a great deal of difficulty."" Conservative local government spokesman Glyn Davies said that for the minister to claim that the majority of council tax payers in Wales should see very little change ""is taking spin to the very verge of deception"". He added: ""Around a third of Welsh households have been re-valued upwards by at least one band and inevitably face increases into double figures.""" -politics,"UK needs tax cuts, Tories insist A major change of direction is needed in Britain if it is to prosper, the shadow chancellor said as the Tory Party spring conference began. Oliver Letwin said the UK could not compete with other countries without the £4bn tax cuts he was promising. Tory co-chairman Liam Fox had opened the forum in Brighton with an attack on Labour's record and party leader Michael Howard is due to speak later. Tony Blair has said Conservative policies would cause economic failure. But Mr Letwin said Britain had fallen from fourth to 11th in the international economic competitiveness league. ""Can this country compete, can this country prosper, unless we do something about the burden of regulation and tax on our economy?"" he said. ""If we are going to take on the great challenges, the challenges like those posed by the Chinese and the Indians, we have got to do something about getting down the burden of regulation and getting down the burden of tax,"" he said. ""The fact is the very carefully costed, fully funded plans we have laid out for saving £12bn by 2007-2008 are absolutely crucial to delivering an economy that will prosper and provide people with jobs and indeed provide the public services with the money they need on a sustainable long-term basis."" Mr Letwin said voting for Labour meant choosing higher taxes, borrowing and waste. Earlier, Dr Fox had said Labour's rule had been characterised by ""lost trust and failure to deliver"". He also attacked the government's ""failure"" to control immigration and asylum and criticised its record on the NHS, telling delegates Labour cannot be trusted on education or crime. A Tory government would sort out the ""shambles"" of immigration, put patients before statistics and bring discipline to schools, he said. Michael Howard, who had been due to welcome delegates to the conference on Friday, will address them in a lunchtime speech. His welcome address had to be postponed after he stayed in London to lead the party's opposition to the Prevention of Terrorism Bill in its lengthy progress through Parliament. The bill was finally passed on Friday evening, after more than 30 hours of debate. Mr Howard is likely to defend his party's handling of the bill, which was only passed after the Conservatives accepted Prime Minister Tony Blair's promise that MPs would be able to review it within a year." -politics,"Final hunts held as ban looms Hunts in England and Wales have begun on the last day that hunting with dogs is legal, with more due out later. Thousands of supporters are expected to turn out at more than 250 meets, many of which have altered their normal schedules to be out on a Thursday. The ban on hunting with dogs comes into effect from 0001 GMT on Friday. The Countryside Alliance had its latest legal bid to block the ban thwarted on Wednesday when the Appeal Court ruled the Hunting Act was lawful. But the group says hunting will continue in some form after the ban comes in, with hunts expected to test the new law to its limits. Others are expected to defy the ban by continuing to hunt illegally. Anti-hunt organisations, for whom the ban is the culmination of years of campaigning, say they hope most will stay within the law. Mike Hobday, of the League Against Cruel Sports, told BBC News: ""We've long urged them to go drag hunting - to follow an artificial scent - and that is what we hope they do. ""But if they continue to chase foxes, to chase wild mammals around the countryside, that's against the law and we're confident they'll be brought to justice."" At the headquarters of Quorn hunt in Leicestershire, feelings were running high as hunt enthusiasts prepared for their final legal hunt. BBC correspondent Sarah Mukherjee said hunt supporters were in tears. She said many people did not share the Countryside Alliance's optimism that hunting would be able to continue. Farmer Geoff Brooks, a senior member of the Quorn hunt, told BBC News people's lives ""revolved around hunting"". He described the ban as ""ridiculous"" and ""badly thought out"" but said it would be hard for most people to defy it as they would not want to risk their incomes by getting a criminal record. At the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, the Countryside Alliance failed in its attempt to have the Hunting Act ruled invalid. But it says the ban is unenforceable because the law is unclear and impossible to police. The alliance says hunt supporters will go out and test this law to its limits on Saturday. The League Against Cruel Sports and the RSPCA say they will monitor hunts and assist police in bringing prosecutions. The Association of Chief Police Officers has issued guidance to forces on how to deal with the new rules. A spokesman said: ""Basically, it's not going to be police officers chasing about in cars across fields, it will be based on intelligence and information received as well."" The decision on how to police individual hunts will be left to local forces, with more officers sent to hunts where disruption is expected. He said police would consider evidence submitted by anti-hunt organisations on its merits." -politics,"Whitehall cuts 'ahead of target' Thousands of civil service jobs have already been cut or moved out of London as part of a major cost-cutting drive. Chancellor Gordon Brown said 12,500 jobs had gone while 7,800 were being moved out of the South East. He plans to axe 104,000 jobs to free up money for education, health, defence, housing and overseas aid. Unions oppose the plans but Mr Brown said £2bn savings had already been made and more jobs had been cut than had been expected at this stage. A further 200 jobs at the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have been earmarked to be cut. At the Department for Work and Pensions, 30,000 jobs are to go, 560 will be lost by the end of the month at the Department of Trade and Industry and 400 are to go at the Inland Revenue and Customs. In his Budget statement, the chancellor said the first 12,500 civil service jobs had been cut, on target. About 4,300 civil servants will leave London and the South East by the end of March 2005 and there are plans to relocate another 3,500. Of those 300 Department of Health posts will go to Yorkshire while hundreds at the Department of Culture will move to Birmingham and Newcastle. Mr Brown also announced plans to merge 35 agencies into nine - described by one civil service union as a ""bonfire of the quangos"". Mark Serwotka, the leader of the Public and Commercial Services Union said: ""In last year's budget we had the day of the long knifes as the chancellor kicked off the crude game of who could cut the most civil service jobs between the government and the Tories. ""There was a time when the only worry thousands of hard working civil and public servants had on budget day was whether petrol or taxes would go up, nowadays the worry is whether they will have a job by the end of it."" He said Mr Brown had made welcome announcements on closing tax loopholes and extending the New Deal, while cutting ""the very people who deliver them."" The Treasury also announced plans to reduce the number of public sector workers on sick leave with a new system of checks and tougher measures against those suspected of abusing the system." -politics,"Labour chooses Manchester The Labour Party will hold its 2006 autumn conference in Manchester and not Blackpool, it has been confirmed. The much trailed decision was ratified by Labour's ruling National Executive Committee in a break with the traditional choice of a seaside venue. It will be the first time since 1917 that the party has chosen Manchester to host the annual event. Blackpool will get the much smaller February spring conference instead in what will be seen as a placatory move. For years the main political parties have rotated between Blackpool, Bournemouth and Brighton. And the news the much larger annual conference is not to gather in Blackpool will be seen as a blow in the coastal resort. In 1998 the party said it would not return to Blackpool but did so in 2002. The following year Bournemouth hosted the event before the party signed a two year deal for Brighton to host the autumn conference. Colin Asplin, Blackpool Hotel Association said: ""We have tried very hard to make sure they come back to Blackpool. ""Obviously we have failed in that. I just hope Manchester can handle the crowds. ""It amazes me that the Labour Party, which is a working class party, doesn't want to come to the main working class resort in the country."" The exact cost to Blackpool in terms of lost revenue for hotel accommodation is not yet known but it is thought that block bookings will be taken at the major Manchester hotels after the official announcement." -politics,"Howard unveils Tory asylum plans Tory plans to cut immigration to the UK are not racist and will make the asylum system fairer for genuine refugees, Michael Howard has said. As his party set out detailed asylum reform plans, Mr Howard said they would help smash people smuggling gangs. There would be an annual limit on asylum and all claims would be processed overseas. Some charities say the plans would put refugees' lives at risk if they were turned away once quotas were filled. Tony Blair said Labour would set out workable plans for tackling immigration abuse in the next few weeks and attacked the Tory plans. ""By cutting the number of front-line immigration staff at our borders, they will actually make the problem worse,"" said Mr Blair. Liberal Democrat chairman Matthew Taylor said there needed to be a quick, fair and firm asylum system. But he said it was ""absolutely disgusting"" to propose a system which could turn away genuine refugees. The Conservatives say there is little risk of this happening as demand for asylum will be considered when quotas are set. In a speech in London on Monday, Mr Howard said: ""It's not racist, as some people to claim, to talk about controlling immigration far from it."" He said that coming from an immigrant family himself he recognised that ""firm but fair"" immigration controls were essential for good community relations. - Withdrawing from the 1951 United Nations Convention on refugees, which obliges countries to accept people being persecuted on the basis of need, not numbers - Introduce laws to allow the immediate removal of asylum seekers whose claims were clearly unfounded because they came from safe countries or had destroyed documents - Detain asylum seekers without documents so people whose identity was not known were not able to move freely around the UK - a worry for ""national security"" - Stop considering asylum applications inside the UK and instead take people from United Nations refugee agency camps. Anyone applying for asylum would be taken to new centres close to their countries of origin. The Tories also want quotas for those seeking work permits through an Australian-style points system and those wanting to join families in the UK. Mr Howard said nearly 160,000 people were settling in the UK every year - the size of a city like Peterborough. The plans would help achieve a ""substantial reduction"" in immigration, he said, although he could not predict a figure. He said that only two out of 10 asylum seekers had their claims accepted under the current ""unfair and inhumane"" system. ""We need to break the link between arriving in Britain and claiming asylum,"" Mr Howard said. ""By breaking that link we can smash the criminal gangs at the heart of the trade in people smuggling."" But the UN refugees agency is worried the policy sends the wrong message to poorer countries which receive the bulk of refugees. And a spokesman for European Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said the plans would contravene EU asylum policy, which meant the UK could not simply refuse to hear an asylum case. Refugee Council Chief Executive Maeve Sherlock called the plans ""dangerous, ill thought-out and hugely irresponsible"". Lives could be put at risk if refugees were turned away once the quotas were filled, she warned. Commission for Racial Equality chairman Trevor Phillips said asylum applications were down 40% and economic migration down about 10%. He did not think Mr Howard intended to centre the debate about race. But he warned that some campaigners could use his words to hint the policy was about keeping out people of a different colour or culture. Mr Howard called that suggestion ""disgraceful""." -politics,"Blair dismisses quit claim report Tony Blair has dismissed reports he told Gordon Brown he would quit before the next general election. ""You don't do deals over jobs like this,"" the prime minister told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme. According to a new book, Brown's Britain, Mr Blair went back on a pledge to make way for Mr Brown after Cabinet allies intervened in June 2004. Mr Blair said the claims were ""reheated from six months ago"" and that he was concentrating on running the country. Mr Blair said: ""I've dealt with this six months ago. I said then you don't do deals over jobs like this - you don't. ""What both of us are actually concentrating on are the issues that concern the country."" The book, by Sunday Telegraph journalist Robert Peston and serialised in the newspaper, said the pair had ""mutual animosity and contempt"" for each other. It claims Tony Blair felt by November 2003 he had lost voters' trust because of the Iraq war and that he was no longer an asset to the Labour Party. And that at a dinner hosted by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott he told Mr Brown of his intention to stand down. According to Mr Peston the prime minister said: ""Help me to get through the year and I will then stand down."" But he then changed his mind in June 2004, following intervention from allies in the Cabinet and the suspicion that the chancellor was deliberately manoeuvring against him, according to the book. Mr Peston told BBC News: ""My understanding is that they are not nearly as close or as friendly as they once were. ""What the book says is there is now a pretty profound mutual mistrust, mutual animosity. ""I think in public you see this double-act pretending everything is alright, but in private I don't think the relationship is good because Brown, understandably, feels deeply betrayed - particularly over this issue of the leadership."" But, in a wide-ranging BBC interview covering issues such as the Asian tsunami disaster, the Middle East peace process and Northern Ireland, Mr Blair said: ""When you get to the top in politics you get this huge swell around you. ""All sorts of people make all sorts of claims and counter-claims."" He admitted to a ""sense of frustration"" about the allegations which he said had been made ""countless times"". There has been fresh speculation of a rift recently, following their separate responses to the Asian tsunami. These rumours were fuelled by Mr Blair's decision to hold his monthly media conference at the same time as a long-planned speech by Mr Brown on UK plans to tackle global poverty with a new ""Marshall Plan"" for Africa. There was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each other's response to the disaster. But the prime minister said he had discussed these claims with the chancellor and dismissed them as a ""load of nonsense"". Former welfare minister Frank Field MP said the prime minister should sack Mr Brown, but did not believe Mr Blair was strong enough to do so. Tory leader Michael Howard accused the prime minister and Mr Brown of ""squabbling like schoolboys"". He told Sky News' Sunday with Adam Boulton: ""This is the politics of the playground and Britain really does deserve better."" The Liberal Democrat parliamentary chairman Matthew Taylor said the personal ambition of Mr Blair and Mr Brown was ""getting in the way of good government"". ""Either they need to grow up and put their squabbles to one side or they cannot expect the electorate to support a divided government at the next election."" During the interview Mr Blair also said the former home secretary David Blunkett would play a ""big role"" at the general election." -politics,"UK helps raped Rwandan women Britain is to give a £4m grant to help women survivors of the Rwandan genocide who were raped and often deliberately infected with HIV/Aids. An estimated 25,000 girls and women were raped during the 1994 genocide. About 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu militias after the assassination of an ethnic Hutu leader. The five-year Department for International Development funding will enable more survivors to have access to anti-retroviral treatment. The plight of the infected women was overshadowed for a long time. It was overshadowed by Rwanda's emergence from the 100 days of slaughter, during which time the mass killings took place, and the women's fate was largely a taboo subject. But many of the women were widowed and they now not only have their own children to care for but, in many cases, orphans too. As the women die, the number of Rwanda's orphans rises. Until recently, very few of the women have had access to anti-retroviral treatment. That is now starting to change. This funding is intended to make anti-retrovirals and other care available for some 2,500 women. Mary Kayitesi Blewitt, founder of the Survivors Fund (SURF), one of the organisations through which the funds are being channelled, said it was a recognition, before it was too late, that the survivors should be a priority for help." -politics,"Security papers 'found in street' An inquiry is under way after files containing security details about the Pakistani president's visit to London were found by a member of the public. The files are believed to contain detailed security arrangements for Gen Pervez Musharraf's visit this week, including police codes. Scotland Yard said the policing operation had been reviewed. A spokesman said President Musharraf's safety had not been compromised, as the papers had been handed in promptly. ""We cannot discuss who was responsible for the documents, only that they contained the policing arrangements for the official visit,"" said the spokesman. The papers are believed to have been found by a member of the public in a street in Mayfair and given to the Mirror newspaper. The police spokesman said the newspaper handed the report over on Monday. The force's Directorate of Professional Standards is investigating the circumstances surrounding the loss of the documents, he said. Gen Musharraf held talks with Tony Blair on Monday. He arrived in Britain on Sunday night after flying from the United States, where he met President George W Bush. He is due to visit the Pakistani community in Manchester on Tuesday afternoon." -politics,"Kennedy's cautious optimism Charles Kennedy is far too canny to make any grand claims about how his party may fare at the general election. In his 22 years in the Commons, he has seen his fair share of such claims dashed on the rocks of bitter experience and, he might say, the UK's political and electoral system. But even his caution cannot hide the fact that this is a party and a leader that believes it may well be on the way to something special in a few months' time. ""Look, I have already said I am not going to put any artificial limits on our ambitions this time around,"" he said. He still seems to accept that the most likely outcome is another Labour victory of some sort. And his general election pitch is designed around the notion of the Lib Dems as the ""real"" opposition. But doesn't that lead to the jibe that his is a party actively bidding to come second? He is prepared to go this far: ""A clear conclusion has been reached, including by Conservatives, that the Conservatives are not going to win this election. ""Therefore the potential is there for the Liberal Democrat advance to be one of the big stories of the election, given that we have the capacity to take on Labour and win as well as take on the Conservatives and win. ""This is really going to be the first modern three party UK election that we have all experienced"". But haven't we been here before, with suggestions in the 1980s that Labour was finished. Won't voters looking for an alternative to Labour still naturally gravitate to the Conservatives? ""The problem is that, geographically, the Conservative party has melted away in about a third of Britain. ""We have supplanted them as the main alternative to Labour in whole tracts of mainland Britain. And they are a party with an ageing and declining membership base and they just do not look vibrant or vital or in touch any longer with contemporary Britain"". Mr Kennedy is also eager to dispel any impression his party is the new party of the left and is likely to attract mostly disillusioned Labour voters. He insists his three headline commitments, to be financed from a 1% tax increase on those earning over £100,000 a year, will appeal right across the political spectrum. They are to replace the council tax with a local income tax, provide free long term care for the elderly and scrap student fees. He also believes being the only major party promising to increases taxes will not land him in the same trouble a similar policy did to Old Labour. ""I think the tax argument has moved on a lot in British politics particularly in the context of the forthcoming general election,"" he said. Under a Labour government the tax burden would have to rise, while the Tories' plans to increase spending in some areas while also reducing taxes is just incredible, he claims. ""We are being straightforward with people, saying you know there is likely to be an increase in the tax burden, we are only recommending one specific tax rise for the top end of income scale earners to fund three specific policies"". ""That is a clear cut choice for people, one I am very comfortable with and I think will distinguish us from the others"". As to his own future, he is clear. If, as expected, his party increases its showing at the election, he intends to go into the next parliament ""on the front foot with a view to leading it right through that parliament into the next election because I see that as the decisive opportunity for us"". That last remark reflects a view gaining ground in Westminster that, if the Tories do as badly as some fear, the election after next might really see that historic breakthrough by the third party. Perhaps then Mr Kennedy will be ready to put some of the caution to one side." -politics,"Minister defends hunting ban law The law banning hunting with dogs in England and Wales is enforceable and ""very clear"", Alun Michael has said. The rural affairs minister said it would become obvious if people flouted the law, which came into force on Friday, and pretended they were not. Some 270 hunts met legally on Saturday killing a total of 91 foxes - only four were accidentally killed by hounds. But anti-hunt campaigners said there had been widespread intimidation of activists monitoring hunts. Countryside Alliance chairman John Jackson said that Saturday had been a ""massive demonstration by the rural community of support for hunting"". People had turned out ""to show en masse that the Hunting Act was a bad law"", he said adding that foxes and other animals had been killed ""legally"" as far as he was aware. Although hunting with dogs is now a criminal offence, exercising hounds, chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are still legal. Addressing claims that the new law was unenforceable, Mr Michael told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: ""There has been a lot of spin about this by those that support hunting. ""The reality is that the law is very clear. You can't chase wild mammals with a pack of dogs, whether the wild mammal is a fox or a deer. ""If people do so and pretend they're not it's going to become very clear. You can't hunt accidentally."" Mr Michael also denied the hunting ban had led to a breakdown of trust between the government and rural communities. He said most people living in the countryside were more concerned with issues like the economy, the health service and their children's future than hunting. But the League Against Cruel Sports claimed the new act had been broken even though the numbers of foxes killed had fallen. Thousands of hunt supporters turned out at 270 hunts across England and Wales on the first day of the ban, with anti-hunt groups sending out 100 monitors to check the law was not being broken. There were only four arrests - over alleged hunting of hares in Wiltshire - although it was not clear whether they were made under the Hunting Act. They have been released on bail but police say they may face prosecution under new poaching laws. But Penny Little, who monitored the Bicester Hunt in Oxfordshire, said she had witnessed ""gratuitous, spiteful killing of foxes"". If people tried to ""run circles around this law"" the only outcome would be that it was tightened up, she said. Mike Hobday, from the League Against Cruel Sports, said video evidence of the law being broken would be passed onto police. He said intimidation seemed to have been widespread and called on hunts to do more to stop their supporters intimidating anti-hunt activists videoing hunts. But Mr Jackson, who had been at the Bicester Hunt in Oxfordshire, denied there was any intimidation." -politics,"Lords wrong on detainees - Straw Jack Straw has attacked the decision by Britain's highest court that detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial breaks human rights laws. The foreign secretary said the right to life was the ""most important liberty"" and the government had a duty to protect people from terrorism. Law lords were ""simply wrong"" to imply the men were being held arbitrarily. New Home Secretary Charles Clarke vowed the nine men would remain in prison while the law was being reviewed. The House of Lords ruled by an eight to one majority in favour of appeals by the men - dealing a major blow to the government's anti-terror policy. But Mr Straw denied it amounted to a ""constitutional crisis"". He said those held had a right of appeal to the special immigration appeal tribunal and the decision to hold the suspects was upheld by that court. ""The law lords are simply wrong to imply that this is a decision to detain these people on the whim or the certificate of the home secretary,"" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. The foreign secretary insisted it was for Parliament, and not judges, to decide how best Britain could be defended against the threat of terrorism. But Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile, the government's independent reviewer of anti-terrorism laws, said it was possible some of the detainees could now be released. He said the Law Lords' ruling was an ""embarrassment"" for the government and major changes were needed to the law. The ruling came on Charles Clarke's first day as home secretary following David Blunkett's resignation. In a statement to MPs, Mr Clarke said: ""I will be asking Parliament to renew this legislation in the New Year. ""In the meantime, we will be studying the judgment carefully to see whether it is possible to modify our legislation to address the concerns raised by the House of Lords."" The detainees took their case to the House of Lords after the Court of Appeal backed the Home Office's powers to hold them without limit or charge. The government opted out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 September attacks in the US. Any foreign national suspected of links with terrorism can be detained or can opt to be deported. But those detained cannot be deported if this would mean persecution in their homeland. On Thursday, Lord Bingham - a senior law lord - said the rules were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights as they allowed detentions ""in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status"" by justifying detention without trial for foreign suspects, but not Britons. Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, in his ruling, said: ""Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law. In a statement, detainee 'A' in Woodhill Prison said: ""I hope now that the government will act upon this decision, scrap this illegal 'law' and release me and the other internees to return to our families and loved ones."" The case was heard by a panel of nine law lords rather than the usual five because of the constitutional importance of the case. Solicitor Gareth Pierce, who represents eight of the detainees, claimed the detention had driven four of the detainees to ""madness"", saying two were being held in Broadmoor hospital." -politics,"Talks held on Gibraltar's future Two days of talks on the future of Gibraltar begin at Jack Straw's country residence later on Wednesday. Officials at the two-day summit at the foreign secretary's official Kent house, Chevening, will plan a new forum on the Rock's future. In October, Mr Straw and his Spanish counterpart Miguel Moratinos agreed to establish a body that would give Gibraltarians a voice in their future. Most Gibraltarians said in a referendum they wanted to remain British. Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana will represent the British citizens living on the Rock, while Britain's Europe Director Dominick Chilcott will represent the UK. Madrid is being represented by Spain's director general for Europe, Jose Maria Pons. The initiative follows Spain's socialist government's decision to put its long-standing sovereignty ambitions on hold. Gibraltarians rejected plans for the Rock's sovereignty to be shared between Britain and Spain in a referendum organised by Gibraltar government." -politics,"Brown visits slum on Africa trip Chancellor Gordon Brown has visited Kenya's biggest shantytown as he opened a week-long visit to Africa. Mr Brown's trip is designed to highlight how the UK wants to make Africa's problems a priority of its chairmanship of the G8 this year. He will see an HIV/Aids orphanage in Tanzania and a women's credit union in Mozambique before chairing a meeting of the Commission for Africa in Cape Town. At slums in Narobi on Wednesday, he said education needs had to be tackled. Speaking outside the Olympic Primary School, Mr Brown said: ""It is simply not acceptable in the modern age for the rest of the world to stand by and have hundreds of millions of children not getting the chance at education."" He pointed to international plans to invest $10bn for education in Africa over the next decade. The school is on the edge of Kibera, where 800,000 live often in huts made of mud, scrap metal and cardboard. Mr Brown's aides say he wants to find out more about the Kenyan Government's education policies, which included introducing free primary education in early 2003. The chancellor has already unveiled proposals for a G8 aid package which he has likened to the Marshall Plan used by the United States to rebuild Europe after World War Two. The trip follows claims of infighting between Mr Brown and Tony Blair detailed in a new book. Conservative leader Michael Howard is expected to seize on those reports at prime minister's questions at 1200 GMT on Wednesday." -politics,"EU rules 'won't stop UK spending' The shape of the UK's economy In graphics But he denied that he was ruling out British membership of the euro despite saying there would be no assessment of the five economic tests this year. Mr Brown said that it was vital the UK continued to invest in infrastructure, science, and education in the future. Otherwise it would be overtaken by the likes of China, he told MPs. The chancellor said that the EU's planned changes in the growth and stability pact - designed to ensure that countries in the euro zone do not borrow too much - would force Britain to run a budget surplus of 1% over the economic cycle. Under Mr Brown's rules, the UK current budget must be in balance over the economic cycle, but public investment is not counted as part of that deficit. He told the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee that the EU rules ""make it difficult for a low debt country to run the investment programmes that are necessary to improve its infrastructure"". But he argued that the EU was moving in the direction of the UK principles, and would eventually recognise the need to consider budget deficits over a longer period than one year, to include investment, and to take more account of the total size of government debt as well as the balance each year. Under Mr Brown's ""sustainable investment"" rule, government debt should be under 40% - in contrast to the 60% allowed under the growth and stability pact. Mr Brown vigorously denied Conservative claims that he had in effect fiddled the figures to ensure that he met his own fiscal rules. In March the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reclassified £3.4bn of spending on road repairs as public investment - shortly before the chancellor announced in the Budget that he would meet his own fiscal budget rule by only £6bn. Conservative Michael Fallon asked Mr Brown whether the Treasury had leaned on ONS to make this change, and said that the ONS had received a written paper from the Treasury on this matter. But the chancellor said Mr Fallon was ""impugning the integrity"" of the Office of National Statistics and said the decision had been made completely independently. Mr Brown also denied that he was increasing taxes to fund his spending gap. He told the Treasury Select Committee that a growing economy meant more people in work and more profits for companies which would boost Treasury coffers. Earlier, ex-Conservative chancellor Ken Clarke welcomed a relaxation of the rules governing the euro zone. Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Clarke said political give and take would replace more ""rigid"" rules. But fellow Tory David Heathcoat-Amory said the folly of the system was in trying to run Europe's varied economies on one set of rules. ""The essential point here is that the stability and growth pact has turned out to be a fake,"" he said. ""The warning is about the European constitution, which we are going to have a vote on in a year or two, and that centralises and entrenches these rules in a constitution. It gives more powers to Brussels to co-ordinate things like employment and economic policy."" But, speaking to the Treasury Select Committee, Gordon Brown said that the new stability pact rules were not part of a binding Treaty and could be changed again the future - potentially opening the way for future euro membership. ""The conditions for euro entry are unchanged by this new decision about the stability and growth pact,"" Mr. Brown said." -politics,"Tory leader quits legal position David McLetchie has resigned from his post as a partner in a legal firm following criticism over his dual role. The Scottish Conservative leader had insisted that his legal work with Tods Murray did not influence the causes he supports. But on Friday he said: ""I have tendered my resignation as a partner with immediate effect."" Mr McLetchie had received advice from Holyrood officials about what details he needed to declare. Labour said he had ""cleverly"" not asked about paid advocacy. A Tory spokesman ""totally refuted"" any wrongdoing. Mr McLetchie received advice from the clerk to the standards committee after concern over him signing a parliamentary motion questioning expansion plans for Edinburgh Airport. The MSP had been a partner for Tods Murray which has a client opposing the development. Mr McLetchie did not have a complaint made against him, but when concerns were raised he sought guidance from the standards committee to clarify his position. He was advised to exercise judgement to avoid the perception of a conflict and said he had done nothing wrong. Explaining his reason for quitting the post, Mr McLetchie said: ""I have been greatly concerned by the recent publicity surrounding my association with Tods Murray. ""However, I have no wish to see a similar situation arise again. ""To avoid any misconceptions in the future and be mindful of the good name of Tods Murray and the confidentiality to which its clients are entitled, I have brought forward the date of my retirement from the firm which would otherwise have happened later this year. ""I am proud to have been a part of Tods Murray for the last 29 years and wish it well in the future."" Labour MSP Christine May had said Mr McLetchie was ""very clever"" to ask the clerk to consider his conduct in respect of section 5 of the code. ""He was almost bound to get the answer he wanted from this enquiry since he stands accused of breaching section 6, the section on paid advocacy,"" she said. Section 5 of the members interest order legally obliges MSPs to declare registrable interests before taking part in related parliamentary proceedings ""where the interest would prejudice or give the appearance of prejudicing their ability to participate in a disinterested manner"". However, MSPs' Code of Conduct ""recognises a wider definition"" of parliamentary proceedings, including a non-statutory requirement to make a declaration in relation to written notices, such as motions. But a letter from Holyrood's Chamber Office chief Ken Hughes also made clear that Mr McLetchie did not need to list any of the clients for whom he worked as a solicitor. Commenting on Mr McLetchie's decision to stand down, a Scottish Labour Party spokesman said: ""This should mean Mr McLetchie doesn't breach the paid advocacy rules in future. ""However it doesn't change the fact that there should be a full investigation into whether he has done this in the past."" Scottish National Party Holyrood leader Nicola Sturgeon accused Mr McLetchie of failing to properly serve his constituents. Ms Sturgeon said: ""I think this whole episode has been very damaging for Mr McLetchie and I'm sure he will be reflecting on it."" She added that she thought that the Tories were an irrelevant party so she would not ""lose any sleep over it"". Peter Misselbrook, executive partner of Tods Murray said Mr McLetchie had been considering retirement later in the year. He added: ""David has decided that this announcement should be made now and we fully understand and appreciate his reasons for doing so.""" -politics,"Whitehall shredding increasing - Tories Civil servants have drastically stepped up the shredding of official documents, figures compiled by the Tories suggest. Some government departments had doubled the number of documents being shredded ahead of the Freedom of Information Act's implementation on 1 January. Departments for defence, environment and trade, which had all increased file destruction, said they were following rules governing public records. But the Tories want the information commissioner to investigate. The Freedom of Information Act will for the first time give members of the public access to government records previously kept secret for 30 years. But BBC Political Correspondent James Hardy said the prospect of outsiders poking their noses into the inner workings of Whitehall appeared to be causing jitters among the mandarins. Liberal Democrat Alan Beith - who chairs the select committee which monitors the Department of Constitutional Affairs - said if the claims were true, Whitehall was ""acting entirely against the spirit of the new Act"". ""Both the information commissioner and the select committee will have to keep this issue under very close scrutiny."" Fellow Lib Dem Norman Baker said the episode painted an ""unflattering picture of the inner workings of government"". ""It is clear that the government's initial enthusiasm for open government has turned to self-serving cynicism."" Dr Julian Lewis, the Conservative spokesman for the Cabinet Office, said he had discovered a huge acceleration in shredding from a series of parliamentary answers. The Department of Work and Pensions destroyed nearly 37,000 files last year - up 22,000 on four years ago when the Act was passed. The number of files destroyed by the Ministry of Defence and the departments of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Trade and Industry has also risen dramatically. Dr Lewis has called for an investigation by the information commissioner Richard Thomas. Earlier this week, Mr Thomas said he was looking into Cabinet Office orders telling staff to delete e-mails more than three months old. He said he ""totally condemned"" the deletion of e-mails to prevent their disclosure under freedom of information laws coming into force on 1 January. Government guidance said e-mails should only be deleted if they served ""no current purpose"", Mr Thomas said. A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said the move was not about the new laws or ""the destruction of important records"". The Freedom of Information Act will cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland from next year. Similar measures are being brought in at the same time in Scotland. It provides the public with a right of access to information held by about 100,000 public bodies, subject to various exemptions." -politics,"Brown's poll campaign move denied The government has denied reports that Gordon Brown is preparing to oust Alan Milburn as Labour's election supremo. Work and pensions minister Alan Johnson said it was wrong to suggest the chancellor would usurp Mr Milburn, adding they would ""work as a team"". A report in the Sunday Business claimed Mr Brown has been asked to take charge of media strategy, while Mr Milburn would move to a behind-the-scenes role. Labour has always maintained Mr Brown would have a central campaign role. But many Labour backbenchers are said to be dissatisfied with the way election campaigning has gone and have said they wanted to see the chancellor take a bigger role. Some commentators say the Tories have grasped the initiative, putting Labour on the back foot, having to respond to Conservative policy announcements. These claims follow various opinion polls which suggest the Tories have been gaining on Labour. Party strategists are believed to want to bring Mr Brown to centre-stage having seen support rise, in private polling, after his Budget last week. But another report in the Sunday Telegraph claims Mr Milburn is unwilling to allow any new role for the chancellor to come at his expense. Mr Johnson told BBC News: ""Gordon Brown will play a central role in any election campaign. ""They were wrong when they said Milburn was ousting Brown and they're wrong now if they are saying Brown is ousting Milburn. We work as a team."" Mr Milburn has repeatedly said the chancellor was key to the campaign and dismissed claims of a rift. Neither Downing Street nor the Labour Party would comment directly on the reports." -politics,"Act on detention ruling, UK urged The government must act quickly on the Law Lords' ruling that detention of foreign terror suspects without trial is unlawful, Mary Robinson has said. The former UN commissioner for human rights and Irish president told Radio 4's Today the government's response would be scrutinised internationally. ""It would be very troubling if the government did not accept the judgement and then work within it,"" she said. Home Secretary Charles Clarke has said detainees will not be freed at present. Speaking to Parliament on his first day in office as home secretary following David Blunkett's resignation, Mr Clarke said: ""I will be asking Parliament to renew this legislation in the New Year. ""In the meantime, we will be studying the judgement carefully to see whether it is possible to modify our legislation to address the concerns raised by the House of Lords."" Mrs Robinson said the Law Lords' ruling was ""in line with international legal opinion"" and praised their ""very decisive"" eight to one majority. ""What the Law Lords did was acknowledge the role of the government, but say that there had been a disproportionate use, that it amounted to executive detention and it was discriminatory because it didn't apply to British citizens,"" she said. Mrs Robinson warned that a lack of action by the British government could lead to further action in legal arenas such as the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. ""If the government were not to accept this ruling then there is further redress, including possible damages for the individuals who could claim that the government either was tardy or was resisting the implications of the judgement of the Law Lords."" She said a meeting of the Club of Madrid - a group of former world leaders - to be held in the Spanish capital on the March anniversary of the train bombings there would probably discuss the ruling and its implications. ""I have no doubt that this judgement will be looked at, both as a very positive step in clarifying the law and restating the fundamental principles, but also the response of the British government will be under quite a clear international scrutiny there."" The detainees took their case to the House of Lords after the Court of Appeal backed the Home Office's powers to hold them without limit or charge. The government opted out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 September attacks in the US. Any foreign national suspected of links with terrorism can be detained or can opt to be deported. The Law Lords said the rules were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights as they allowed detentions ""in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status"". The case was heard by a panel of nine law lords rather than the usual five because of the constitutional importance of the case." -politics,"Muslim police stops 'more likely' UK Muslims should accept that people of Islamic appearance are more likely to be stopped and searched by police, a Home Office minister has said. Hazel Blears said innocent Muslims would be targeted because of the search for Islamic extremists. Qualifications for religious leaders to enter the UK could also be made tougher, she told a Commons inquiry. Her comments have been described as ""irresponsible"" and ""outrageous"" by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC). ""The threat is most likely to come from those people associated with an extreme form of Islam, or who are falsely hiding behind Islam,"" the Salford MP told the Commons home affairs committee. ""It means that some of our counter-terrorism powers will be disproportionately experienced by the Muslim community."" It was a reality that should be recognised, she said. ""If a threat is from a particular place then our action is going to be targeted at that area,"" she added. On ministers of religions, such as imams, she said faith groups would be asked what other qualifications and skills, such as civic knowledge and ability to engage the community, should be demanded. Last year, ministers introduced a requirement that ministers should speak English to a certain level. IHRC chairman Massoud Shadjareh accused Ms Blears of ""playing an Islamophobia card"" in the run-up to a general election. ""She is demonising and alienating our community,"" he said. ""It is a legitimisation for a backlash and for racists to have an onslaught on our community. ""This sort of comment is just music to the ears of racists."" Later, the prime minister's official spokesman urged people to put Ms Blears' comments into context. The minister had been saying she understood there was a perception that stop and search was aimed at one community, but that was not what was happening, the spokesman said. ""What is happening is that those powers are aimed at those who are suspected of carrying out or planning certain activity who happen to come from one community. ""It is not aimed at a particular community, it is not police policy to aim these powers at a particular community,"" he added. Statistics showed that of the 17 people found guilty of terrorist acts in the UK since the 11 September attacks, only four of the 12 whose ethnic backgrounds were known were Muslim, he added Figures published last week showed that people from ethnic minorities were increasingly likely to be targeted by police stop and search tactics. Figures showed that, for 2003/2004, Asians were 1.9 times more likely to be stopped and searched, compared with 1.7 times more likely in the previous year. Separate figures on police searches in England and Wales carried out under the Terrorism Act 2000 showed that ethnic minorities were more likely to be targeted. Muslim groups have repeatedly claimed that their communities are being victimised under terror laws. In 2003/2004, 12.5% searches under the laws were on Asian people, even though they make up 4.7% of the population. Last July, the police were accused of Islamophobia by Muslim groups after stop and search figures showed the numbers of Asians targeted had risen by 300% since the introduction of anti-terror laws." -politics,"Sayeed to stand down as Tory MP Tory MP Jonathan Sayeed is to stand down on the grounds of ill health. The decision comes after Mr Sayeed survived an attempt to de-select him in a row over allegations he had profited from private tours of Parliament. The Mid-Bedfordshire MP had denied a claim that he was paid for guiding visitors around the Palace of Westminster. Conservative leader Michael Howard has now accepted the MP's resignation, it has been announced. Mr Sayeed was suspended from Parliament for two weeks last month after the Commons standards and privileges committee said his conduct had fallen ""well below the standards expected"". The Conservative Party had already been withdrawn the whip for a month. But his constituency association voted against a move to deselect him, with Mr Sayeed winning 173 of the 299 votes. After the vote, Mr Sayeed said only a fifth of association members had voted against him and he intended to get on with winning the election. But the vote prompted constituency association president Sir Stanley Odell to resign in protest. The Standards and Privileges Committee inquiry was launched after the Sunday Times alleged English Manner Limited charged clients for access to Westminster through Mr Sayeed. Mr Sayeed had denied the claims, saying the suspension was ""unjust and wrong"" but he made an ""unreserved"" apology to MPs in the Commons chamber. He insisted that the committee's report had contained a ""few errors of fact"". Mr Sayeed has been MP for Mid-Bedfordshire since 1997. He represented Bristol East from 1983 to 1992." -politics,"Russian ex-spy on hunger strike An ex-Russian intelligence officer who risked his life spying for MI6 is entering the seventh week of a hunger strike near 10 Downing Street. Viktor Makarov, 50, claims he has been betrayed by the British authorities, who promised he would live like an ""average British citizen"". But despite a £65,000 settlement four years ago, he says he has been denied defector status and a decent pension. Other ex-Russian spies have been given civil service pensions. ""Hunger strike is a weapon of last resort. It can work only with determination and of course the realisation of the righteousness of your case - without that it will not work,"" Mr Makarov told the BBC's Newsnight programme. ""Since I came to this country two batches of promises have been made and broken one after the other."" Oleg Gordievsky, a senior KGB officer who became a secret agent for the British, said he was ""very happy"" with the way the government have treated him since him since he defected in 1985. Commenting on Mr Makarov's case, he said: ""The British state is not a fat cow - it is impossible to come here and demand give me more money every week."" But Mr Makarov's case has been backed by David Kahn - a former Yale historian, and a leading expert on code-breaking, who has confirmed his information was valuable to the Western allies. ""I believe the government of the United Kingdom, which in that respect was probably the same as most other power authorities - took the information that Victor Makarov had, wrung him dry and left him to hang out in the cold,"" Mr Kahn said. Mr Makarov joined the KGB in 1970s Russia, as an idealistic 20 year-old. One of his fellow pupils at intelligence school was Vladimir Putin. At KGB headquarters in Moscow, he was posted to the secret 16th directorate - which decoded intercepted diplomatic traffic from the West. By the 1980s he had risen to the rank of senior lieutenant - and was privy to the thoughts of Western powers. But he had became deeply disenchanted with the Soviet regime - fuelled by its repression both at home and in Poland. Through his English teacher, he made an approach to M16 - and then began passing secrets to the British intelligence service. He spied for MI6 for two years before being betrayed by a friend and sent to Perm 35 - a Soviet hard labour camp in the Artic circle. Within a week of his release in 1992, he made contact with the British authorities he'd been spying for, who arranged a meeting between him and an MI6 agent in Latvia. He was given a false passport, and he says, promised that he would be given the chance to live like an average UK citizen. But after arriving in London 13 years ago, he feels this promise has not been fulfilled. After long periods of living in bedsits, with deteriorating health, four years ago he took legal action against the government - and settled for £65,000 to buy a small house. But he says he will remain on hunger strike until he receives a decent pension and the right to work, something he feels he has been denied because the authorities do not trust him. Government sources told the BBC they had reached a final settlement with the former spy, which he has been able to appeal to security and intelligence tribunals." -politics,"Fox attacks Blair's Tory 'lies' Tony Blair lied when he took the UK to war so has no qualms about lying in the election campaign, say the Tories. Tory co-chairman Liam Fox was speaking after Mr Blair told Labour members the Tories offered a ""hard right agenda"". Dr Fox told BBC Radio: ""If you are willing to lie about the reasons for going to war, I guess you are going to lie about anything at all."" He would not discuss reports the party repaid £500,000 to Lord Ashcroft after he predicted an election defeat. The prime minister ratcheted up Labour's pre-election campaigning at the weekend with a helicopter tour of the country and his speech at the party's spring conference. He insisted he did not know the poll date, but it is widely expected to be 5 May. In what was seen as a highly personal speech in Gateshead on Sunday, Mr Blair said: ""I have the same passion and hunger as when I first walked through the door of 10 Downing Street."" He described his relationship with the public as starting euphoric, then struggling to live up to the expectations, and reaching the point of raised voices and ""throwing crockery"". He warned his supporters against complacency, saying: ""It's a fight for the future of our country, it's a fight that for Britain and the people of Britain we have to win."" Mr Blair said that whether the public chose Michael Howard or Mr Kennedy, it would result in ""a Tory government not a Labour government and a country that goes back and does not move forward"". Dr Fox accused Mr Blair and other Cabinet ministers of telling lies about their opponents' policies and then attacking the lies. ""What we learned at the weekend is what Labour tactics are going to be and it's going to be fear and smear,"" he told BBC News. The Tory co-chairman attacked Labour's six new pledges as ""vacuous"" and said Mr Blair was very worried voters would take revenge for his failure to deliver. Dr Fox refused to discuss weekend newspaper reports that the party had repaid £500,000 to former Tory Treasurer Lord Ashcroft after he said the party could not win the election. ""We repay loans when they are due but do not comment to individual financial matters,"" he said, insisting he enjoyed a ""warm and constructive"" relationship to Lord Ashcroft. Meanwhile Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy is expected to attack Mr Blair's words as he begins a nationwide tour on Monday. Mr Kennedy is accelerating Lib Dem election preparations this week as he visits Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Somerset, Basingstoke, Shrewsbury, Dorset and Torbay. He said: ""This is three-party politics. In the northern cities, the contest is between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. ""In southern and rural seats - especially in the South West - the principal contenders are the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, who are out of the running in Scotland and Wales."" The Lib Dems accuse Mr Blair of making a ""touchy-feely"" speech to Labour delegates which will not help him regain public trust." -politics,"Assembly ballot papers 'missing' Hundreds of ballot papers for the regional assembly referendum in the North East have ""disappeared"". Royal Mail says it is investigating the situation, which has meant about 300 homes in County Durham are not receiving voting packs. Officials at Darlington Council are now in a race against time to try and rectify the situation. The all-postal votes of about two million electors are due to be handed in by 4 November. A spokesman for Darlington Council said: ""We have sent out the ballot papers, the problem is with Royal Mail. ""Somewhere along the line, something has gone wrong and these ballot papers have not been delivered. ""The Royal Mail is investigating to see if they can find out what the problem is."" A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said: ""We are investigating a problem with the delivery route in the Mowden area of Darlington. ""This is affecting several hundred properties, which have failed to receive ballot papers. ""We are working closely with the council and will do all we can to help rectify the problem. ""No-one will not receive their ballot paper as special hand deliveries will take place where necessary. ""We are unaware of any other problems of this kind to do with the regional assembly vote."" The Darlington Council spokesman added: ""Initially we had complaints from a couple of residents in Mowden to say they thought they should have had their ballot papers by now. ""We then made further investigations and it became clear this was a bigger issue."" A spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission told BBC News Online that letters were being sent out to those homes affected. She said the commission was satisfied that measures had been put in place to ensure all voters received ballot papers in time. So far a total of 569,072 ballot envelopes have been scanned by bar code at counting offices across the North East." -politics,"End Bush 'denial' Blair tells EU Tony Blair is urging European leaders to wake up from their ""state of denial"" over President Bush's re-election. ""America has spoken. The rest of the world should listen,"" the prime minister said in an interview with The Times newspaper, published on Friday. Mr Blair is at a summit in Brussels, where Iraq and European justice and immigration plans are on the agenda. French President Jacques Chirac reacted to his warning by saying Europe instead needed to reinforce its own unity. Mr Blair has probably been closer to President Bush than any other European leader. He said some people were in ""a sort of state of denial"" about the US election result but predicted a more ""receptive mood"" would emerge soon. America needed to listen to the world too, he said. ""The fact is that President Bush is there for four years. He is there because the American people have chosen him,"" he argued. He also made clear he intended to take seriously what he perceives as his role in bringing the two continents together. Britain was ""uniquely placed"" to make out the common ground because of its strong alliance with the US, he suggested. He admitted he had gone to bed at 2230GMT, well before the American polls closed, thinking Mr Kerry might have won. He woke up at 0530GMT to discover Mr Bush had won but declined to say if he was pleased with the eventual result. His words about President Bush met a cool reception from Jacques Chirac. The French president told reporters: ""Europe today has more than ever the need, the necessity, to reinforce itself and its dynamism and unity. ""That is the goal of the constitution in a world that is more multi-polar than ever."" Mr Chirac will miss an address to the summit from Iraqi interim leader Iyad Allawi, who this week criticised nations which took a ""spectator"" role to Iraq's reconstruction. Mr Chirac denied there was any snub - he is going to a memorial service for the United Arab Emirates' late leader and says he would be happy to meet Mr Allawi. He also signed a communiqué stressing the EU's commitment to securing a stable and unified Iraq. The EU also confirmed a new $21m aid package. The communiqué congratulated President Bush on his victory and stressed the importance of good transatlantic relations. The summit is also expected to agree changes to streamline European asylum and immigration decisions. Mr Blair recently said the UK would only participate in EU-wide measures where it was in UK interests but the Tories say he is surrendering a key veto. The meeting will also assess progress on the economic reform plans agreed in Lisbon in 2000 to make Europe more competitive." -politics,"Profile: David Miliband David Miliband's rapid rise through the ranks of government continues with his promotion to Cabinet Office minister. Elected in a safe Labour seat in 2001 his previous job was school standards minister - a role he won in May 2002. Prior to the last election he was a key figure in New Labour as the head of the Downing Street policy unit where he was a key member of the manifesto writing team. Seen as one of the more intellectual figures in the government, he was also working for Tony Blair in his policy unit when he was leader of the opposition. A brief glance at Mr Miliband's family background reveals an impressive socialist pedigree in the form of his father Ralph, who died in 1994. He was an eminent and influential leftwing academic. And while David Miliband is seen as a key Blair lieutenant his brother Ed is a special advisor to Chancellor Gordon Brown. Prior to working for Mr Blair, David Miliband spent time at the left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research. He then became secretary of the Commission on Social Justice. The 39-year-old was educated at Haverstock Comprehensive before going on to Oxford to study politics, philosophy and economics. He also took an MSc in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology." -politics,"Blair dismisses quit claim report Tony Blair has dismissed reports he told Gordon Brown he would quit before the next general election. ""You don't do deals over jobs like this,"" the prime minister told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme. According to a new book, Brown's Britain, Mr Blair went back on a pledge to make way for Mr Brown after Cabinet allies intervened in June 2004. Mr Blair said the claims were ""reheated from six months ago"" and that he was concentrating on running the country. Mr Blair said: ""I've dealt with this six months ago. I said then you don't do deals over jobs like this - you don't. ""What both of us are actually concentrating on are the issues that concern the country."" The book, by Sunday Telegraph journalist Robert Peston and serialised in the newspaper, said the pair had ""mutual animosity and contempt"" for each other. It claims Tony Blair felt by November 2003 he had lost voters' trust because of the Iraq war and that he was no longer an asset to the Labour Party. And that at a dinner hosted by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott he told Mr Brown of his intention to stand down. According to Mr Peston the prime minister said: ""Help me to get through the year and I will then stand down."" But he then changed his mind in June 2004, following intervention from allies in the Cabinet and the suspicion that the chancellor was deliberately manoeuvring against him, according to the book. Mr Peston told BBC News: ""My understanding is that they are not nearly as close or as friendly as they once were. ""What the book says is there is now a pretty profound mutual mistrust, mutual animosity. ""I think in public you see this double-act pretending everything is alright, but in private I don't think the relationship is good because Brown, understandably, feels deeply betrayed - particularly over this issue of the leadership."" But, in a wide-ranging BBC interview covering issues such as the Asian tsunami disaster, the Middle East peace process and Northern Ireland, Mr Blair said: ""When you get to the top in politics you get this huge swell around you. ""All sorts of people make all sorts of claims and counter-claims."" He admitted to a ""sense of frustration"" about the allegations which he said had been made ""countless times"". There has been fresh speculation of a rift recently, following their separate responses to the Asian tsunami. These rumours were fuelled by Mr Blair's decision to hold his monthly media conference at the same time as a long-planned speech by Mr Brown on UK plans to tackle global poverty with a new ""Marshall Plan"" for Africa. There was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each other's response to the disaster. But the prime minister said he had discussed these claims with the chancellor and dismissed them as a ""load of nonsense"". Former welfare minister Frank Field MP said the prime minister should sack Mr Brown, but did not believe Mr Blair was strong enough to do so. Tory leader Michael Howard accused the prime minister and Mr Brown of ""squabbling like schoolboys"". He told Sky News' Sunday with Adam Boulton: ""This is the politics of the playground and Britain really does deserve better."" The Liberal Democrat parliamentary chairman Matthew Taylor said the personal ambition of Mr Blair and Mr Brown was ""getting in the way of good government"". ""Either they need to grow up and put their squabbles to one side or they cannot expect the electorate to support a divided government at the next election."" During the interview Mr Blair also said the former home secretary David Blunkett would play a ""big role"" at the general election." -politics,"Howard 'truanted to play snooker' Conservative leader Michael Howard has admitted he used to play truant to spend time with his school friends at a snooker hall. Mr Howard said his time at Jack's Snooker Hall in Llanelli in the 1950s had not done him ""any lasting damage"". But he told the Times Educational Supplement that truancy was ""very bad"" and said ""firm action"" was needed. Mr Howard also called for a return to O-levels and more classroom discipline. Mr Howard eventually left Llanelli Grammar School - and the snooker hall - to go to Cambridge University. He said: ""I don't think it's done me any lasting damage. Nor has it made me a snooker world champion. ""There might have been some occasions when we left early of an afternoon. ""I'm just being honest. I think truancy is a very bad thing and that firm action should be taken to deal with it."" Another player who has failed to win snooker's world championship - Jimmy ""the Whirlwind "" White - has previously admitted missing lessons, instead spending his days in smoky halls. ""Tony Meo [another player] and me used to spend all of our spare time there,"" Mr White said, ""We loved the game and the atmosphere. ""School went out of the window. I went for a while and then started taking time off."" Mr Howard's fellow Welshman Ray Reardon - known by his fellow professionals as ""Dracula"" - won the snooker world championship six times, having left school at 14 to work as a miner. And Terry Griffiths, like Mr Howard from Llanelli, won the tournament in 1979. It is not known whether the two of them ever clashed cues at Jack's." -politics,"EU fraud clampdown urged EU member states are failing to report fraud and irregularities in EU funds on a consistent basis, the UK's public spending watchdog has said. The National Audit Office said although the latest figures showed reported fraud was falling, the EU still had no common definition of fraud. It also expressed concern that, for the 10th year, the European Court of Auditors had qualified the EU accounts. The NAO urged the government to push for improvements in reporting fraud. It said member states needed to be more accountable on how money was spent. The report said: ""Member states still do not report fraud and other irregularities to the European Anti-Fraud Office on a consistent basis. ""As the court has now qualified its opinion on the Community accounts for a decade, it is essential for all the authorities involved to contribute to the strengthening of the audit of EU revenue and expenditure and improving accountability for the financial management and use of EU resources."" It said there were 922 cases of reported fraud or irregularities in EU funds in the UK in 2003, worth £38.5m (52m euros), up from 831 cases worth £35.7m in 2002. At the same time, reported fraud throughout the EU dropped from 10,276 cases worth £808m to 8,177 cases worth £644m. Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said Britain had to set an example when it assumed the EU presidency. ""Any fraud in other member states is potentially fraud against the UK taxpayer, given that we are the second largest net contributor to the Community,"" he said. ""Departments responsible for administering EU funds need to make sure that they're doing everything possible to weed out improper spending. ""The government must take the opportunity afforded by the UK presidency of the EU to press the Commission and other member states to take an equally robust stance against fraud and irregularity, and raise overall standards of financial management."" A spokesman for the European Anti-Fraud Office said the organisation agreed with the NAO's assessment of fraud reporting. ""The quality of reporting does differ from member state to member state, and there is room for improvement,"" spokesman Jorg Wojahn said. He added that there is generally good co-operation with member states and the anti-fraud office on specific cases of fraud, with the statistics studied by NAO providing a ""good overview for planning strategic ways of detecting fraud""." -politics,"'More to do' on adult literacy The government will only hit its target for improving adult maths and literacy skills if courses are made more attractive, a report says. The National Audit Office praised ministers for reaching the benchmark of 750,000 adults in England gaining basic qualifications by this year. But a target of 1.5 million more by 2010 needed ""creative"" ideas. Some 26 million adults lack maths or English skill levels expected of school-leavers. According to the report, ""more than half"" the qualifications achieved were by learners aged 16 to 18. These are defined as ""adults"" by the government for the purpose of compiling these figures. Normally adults are defined as being aged over 19. The number of these people gaining qualifications was ""rising slowly"". Auditor General Sir John Bourn said: ""Higher levels of literacy and numeracy will benefit England both socially and economically. ""More people will have the opportunity to live richer lives."" In 2001, the government launched the Get On scheme - aimed at reducing illiteracy and innumeracy. Sir John said ""substantial progress"" had been made since, adding that this was ""only the beginning"". The government and its partners would ""need to be creative and responsive"". Some £3.7bn will be spent on implementing the programme by 2006. The report recommends gathering more details on the educational needs of areas, so courses can be set to meet local demand. Existing adult learners could use their ""enthusiasm, commitment and local knowledge"" to attract other people. The Department for Education and Skills could also use more ""personalised learning"" and work with voluntary groups, councils and employers. It should also assess adult learners' progress ""at frequent intervals"", the report adds. When the government announced it had reached its 2004 target earlier this month, Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was ""only the start of the journey"". An estimated 5.2 million adults have worse literacy than that expected of 11 year olds, while 14.9 million have numeracy skills below this level. This is thought to cost the UK economy hundreds of millions of pounds each year. The qualifications achieved by those taking part in the government's scheme range up to GCSE equivalents. Get On's participation target has been set at 2.25 million by 2010, with an interim figure of 1.5 million by 2007. Education minister Ivan Lewis said: ""We will continue to use creative ways of involving people with the lowest skill levels and the report shows that our efforts are gathering pace."" Shadow Education Secretary Tim Collins said: ""This is the third report in two days to highlight Labour's failure to ensure young people acquire the necessary levels of literacy and numeracy for their working life. ""Employers and business leaders have repeatedly voiced concern over the number of school-leavers without these basic skills, but all the government have offered is more talk."" Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis added: ""Far too little has been done to enable adult learners to fit learning into their busy lives.""" -politics,"Lawyer attacks anti-terror laws A senior barrister who has resigned in protest over the government's anti-terror laws says the current system is giving Britain a bad name. Ian MacDonald QC quit when the government failed to recognise a House of Lords ruling that detaining terror suspects indefinitely is unlawful. He was part of a 19-strong panel who have special security clearance to act for suspected terrorists. Five more barristers are now reported to be threatening to resign. Mr MacDonald told BBC News: ""The reason why I am resigning is because I fundamentally disagree with locking people up without any trial for an indefinite period on reasonable suspicion. ""The current legal system is certainly having a very adverse effect on the Muslim community in Britain and the whole Asian community. ""I think it is giving Britain a bad name internationally"". Under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act introduced by the government in 2001 in response to the 11 September attacks, foreign nationals suspected of involvement in terrorism who cannot be deported can be held indefinitely without trial. But Mr MacDonald believes that detainees currently being held should be entitled to a trial by jury. ""My own view is we need to have a full return to trial by jury, a proper criminal trial with proper accusations. ""As far as I'm concerned, the government have to start all over again and rethink their whole strategy for dealing with this."" he added. The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith will receive a letter of resignation from Mr MacDonald on Monday. According to the Independent, his resignation is expected to be followed by those of five other barristers - Nicholas Blake QC, Andrew Nicol QC, Manjit Singh Gill QC, Rick Scannell and Tom de la Mare. They are all believed to be carefully considering their positions on the panel of Special Advocates who represent detainees before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) - a secure court without a jury, which tries terror suspects. Mr MacDonald said he had ""no idea"" whether further resignations would follow. But Barry Hugill, a spokesman for the campaign group Liberty, told Radio 4's Today programme that more lawyers may go. ""I can assure that there is a distinct possibilty that more lawyers may be resigning,"" he said. ""They are now in a situation where everything they have been trained to believe in, the right to trial by jury, has been abandoned and that is what gives some of them sleepless nights."" Helena Kennedy, a Labour peer and a human rights lawyer, said the Special Advocates' main concern was that once they had seen any special intelligence they were not allowed to speak to the detainees. ""When this whole procedure was being considered immediately after 11 September there was a great deal of argument particularly in the House of Lords about whether there really was a process that could be considered a judicial review,"" she said. ""Without that you are having detention with no habeus corpus and really a blot, as Ian McDonald has said, on our legal landscape, something really quite shocking with regard to the rule of the law.""" -politics,"Tories unveil quango blitz plans Plans to abolish 162 quangos have been unveiled by the Conservatives as part of their effort to show how government red tape can be cut. Six government units would also be scrapped under proposals which the Tories say would save more than £4.3bn. Among the targets are strategic health authorities and the new fair access regulator for universities. Tory frontbencher John Redwood said Britain needed a slimmer government and lower taxes to be competitive. The plans would abolish regional assemblies and other regional bodies, such as boards tackling industrial development and housing. Their powers would be returned to elected local councils or national government. The Tories say the strategic health authorities are not needed as it is better that local people, rather than officials, run hospitals and surgeries. Announcing the plans, Mr Redwood said: ""Mr Blair has forgotten the interests of taxpayers, and has broken the pledges he made. ""Far from improving public services, spending taxpayers' money on quangos has led only to more bureaucrats, more regulation and higher taxes."" His party leader, Michael Howard, argued a change in direction was needed to get a grip on spending. ""Labour are creating Two Britains: the Britain of the forgotten majority and bureaucratic Britain,"" he said. ""In the real world, people are working harder just to stand still. They've seen their pensions knocked for six. ""They're being squeezed by extra taxes. The forgotten majority are paying the price of bureaucratic Britain."" The government has announced plans to cut 100,000 civil servants as part of its efficiency drive. The Liberal Democrats have said they would cut the number of Whitehall departments to make sure money reaches frontline services." -politics,"Kennedy predicts bigger turnout Voters' ""pent up passion"" could confound predictions of a low turnout in the coming general election, Charles Kennedy has said. The Liberal Democrat leader predicted concerns over Iraq and other international and domestic issue would express themselves during the campaign. His comments come as an inquiry looks at how best to boost voter turnouts. Ex-foreign secretary Robin Cook said people were not apathetic but fed up of ""pager politics"" and not being heard. He, like Mr Kennedy, pointed to the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated against plans for the Iraq war. Mr Cook, who is giving evidence to the Power inquiry into voter turnout rates, told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme it was not fair to blame the public who were ""more interested in politics than ever before"". ""They are turned off by the way we do politics in Britain. There's a message there for politicians."" He urged politicians to avoid negative campaigning and to ""speak more from the heart"". ""We should be not so afraid to say what we stand for."" He also criticised the cult of personality politics: ""There's far too much interest in celebrities. ""Politics are in danger of becoming another branch of the celebrity industry."" The government has tried a number of things in an attempt to boost voter turnout, which fell to 59% in the last general election in 2001. This has included bringing in directly elected mayors to head local authorities and trialling postal voting." -politics,"Clarke to unveil immigration plan New controls on economic migrants and tighter border patrols will be part of government plans unveiled on Monday. Home Secretary Charles Clarke wants to introduce a points system for economic migrants and increase deportations of failed asylum seekers. Tony Blair has said people are right to be concerned about abuses of the system but there is no ""magic bullet"". The Tories say Labour is acting too late while the Lib Dems say the plans may not produce an efficient system. The government's new five-year plan is designed to show how Labour would reform immigration and asylum controls if it wins the election, expected to be held in May. Ministers deny they have been spurred into action by Tory campaigning or because the prime minister is worried too little has been done. Instead, they say the plans are part of an ""evolving"" process aimed at winning public confidence. Mr Clarke is expected to announce an end to the automatic right to settle for immigrants' families, and the introduction of fingerprinting for all visa applicants. The prime minister on Sunday said immigration would be ""toughened up"" to ensure only those immigrants with skills the UK really needs will be granted work permits. But he rejected the Tories' call for a quota on economic migrants, saying no ""arbitrary figure"" could reflect the UK's needs. Mr Blair told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: ""We should cut the number or increase it depending on the country's needs... ""The public are worried about this, they are worried rightly, because there are abuses of the immigration and asylum system."" But he defended the UK's current regime, saying all systems around the world were subject to abuse. Tory proposals to cap the number of asylum seekers and process all claims abroad would not work, argued Mr Blair. He said: ""We will not be... pretending there is some simple easy way of processing Britain's asylum seekers in some other country, because no such other country exists."" Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis said the government had failed to remove 250,000 failed asylum seekers from the UK and limits on economic migrants had been a ""shambles"". ""What we are seeing today is a rather panicky response from the government after eight years of failure,"" he said. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said Labour was right to reject the Tories' idea of quotas on asylum. But he said it was yet to be seen if Mr Clarke could deliver ""a fair and efficient asylum system""." -politics,"Howard denies split over ID cards Michael Howard has denied his shadow cabinet was split over its decision to back controversial Labour plans to introduce ID cards. The Tory leader said his front bench team had reached a ""collective view"" after holding a ""good discussion"", but admitted it was ""not an easy issue"". He had decided to support the plans as the police said they would help fight terror, crime and illegal immigration. The Lib Dems have pledged to oppose the bill when it is debated next Monday. Tory sources say senior party figures had argued vociferously against the ID card scheme. Among those reported to have serious reservations over the strategy were senior shadow cabinet members David Davis, Oliver Letwin and Tim Yeo. But Mr Howard denied Mr Yeo, his transport and environment spokesman, said the plans ""stink"". He also said he was confident shadow home secretary Mr Davis would ""set out the position very clearly"" when he stands up to debate the matter next week. Mr Howard said the police had said ID cards could ""help them foil a terror bomb plot in which people could lose their lives"". He added: ""When the police say that you have to take them seriously"". He acknowledged there were ""good libertarian arguments"" against the cards, but said the shadow Cabinet had weighed up all the ""conflicting interests"" before reaching its decision. ""I don't pretend that it is an easy decision but at the end of the day a decision has to be taken."" He also denied he was afraid of looking ""soft"" on the issue, compared to Labour. The Conservatives announced their support for the government plans on Monday evening. Sources within the party told the BBC Mr Howard had always been in favour of ID cards, and tried to introduce them when he was Home Secretary. But the Tories insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the scheme. They said they would also press Labour over whether objectives could be met and whether the Home Office would be able to deliver them. And they pledged to assess the cost effectiveness of ID cards and whether people's privacy would be properly protected. ""It is important to remember that this bill will take a decade to come into full effect,"" a spokesman said. Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten has branded the ID scheme a waste of money and ""deeply flawed"". He said: ""This has all the signs of Michael Howard overruling colleagues' concerns over ID cards."" The chairman of the Bar Council, Guy Mansfield QC warned there was a real risk that people on the ""margins of society"" would be driven into the hands of extremists. ""What is going to happen to young Asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere? They are going to be stopped. If they haven't [ID cards] they are going to be detained."" Tory ex-minister Douglas Hogg said he opposed the plans for ID cards branding them a ""regressive"" step which would intrude into the lives of ordinary citizens without any counterbalancing benefits. He predicted ultimately carrying the cards would become compulsory and that would lead to large numbers of Britain's ethnic minorities being stopped by police." -politics,"MP's shock at long lost daughter Labour MP Stephen Pound has told of his shock and his joy on learning he fathered a daughter when he was ""out of control"" during the ""wild"" 1960s. Lucy, 36, tracked down Mr Pound after her birth mother told her he was known as ""Precious"" at school. Despite being told he was a ""nutter who died at sea"" she found a reference to Mr Pound on Friends Reunited. Lucy's mother kept her pregnancy secret and had her adopted at four weeks. Mr Pound found out about it last year. That happened when Lucy wrote to his Parliamentary office saying she believed he was her father. Mr Pound, who is now married with two other teenage children, said: ""I was a nutter and I was a sailor but I wasn't dead."" He said his first reaction was to wonder if he was victim of a ""set-up"" but he then realised all the dates fitted. ""It was a pretty horrible thing with a pretty happy ending. I felt guilt in the marrow of my bones,"" said the Ealing North MP. ""I don't blame Lucy's mother. I was pretty much out of control. I was 18 when she was conceived. It was a different time - it was pretty wild."" Mr Pound says he rang Lucy as soon as he got her letter, they met up and have been in contact ever since. Describing that first meeting at London's King Cross station, he said: ""The earth went from under my feet ... We were walking across the Euston Road and I took her arm to take her across and there was an immediate connection. ""We were finishing each other sentences."" Lucy, who was adopted by a family from Essex, wants to remain anonymous for the sake of her adoptive father and her children. Mr Pound said his wife Maggie had been fully supportive and their two children Emily, 16, and Pelham, 14 were pleased to have an older sister." -politics,"Taxes must be trusted - Kennedy Public trust in taxes is breaking down because Labour and Tories are not being straight with people on the issue, Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy has said. A day ahead of the government's pre-Budget report, Mr Kennedy used a speech to say his party was facing up to ""painful economic realities"". He said the current level of taxation was about right, although he would put a new 50% tax on top earners. Other parties have accused the Lib Dems of making uncosted promises. Mr Kennedy made it clear he was determined to counter that accusation. The Lib Dems have already published what they say are the full costings for all their plans and Wednesday's speech did not announce new policies. Speaking at the Commonwealth Club, Mr Kennedy said it was critical for a political party to have economic credibility, both on what it promised and what it was expected to deliver. He said. ""Budgets have to add up. Tough choices are needed in public spending."" The Lib Dems would cut ""low priority"" spending, including the government's ID cards scheme and the Child Trust Fund. Those cutbacks would free up funds for increasing basic state pensions for over-75s, putting more police on the streets and reintroducing fee eye and dental checks, he said. The Lib Dems argue they were honest about taxes in the past by calling for a 1p rise on income tax. Now they say the only simple tax rise they want is a new 50% tax band for top earners to pay for scrapping university tuition fees, providing free personal care for elderly and disabled people and keeping local taxes down. There would also be a local income tax to replace council tax and a number of changes to environmental taxes to ensure it is the ""polluter who pays"". The Lib Dems say the Tories have only laid out possible options for cutting taxes to grab headlines while Labour has hidden most of its tax rises. Mr Kennedy said: ""That contract with the people - that the government will only tax fairly and will spend their money wisely - can only be sustained if the political parties are straightforward about their plans. ""With the stealth tax strategy of Gordon Brown, the obvious unfairness of our current tax system - especially the council tax, and the empty promises of the Conservative party on this issue - it is no wonder that trust in taxation is breaking down."" He challenged the Treasury to open up its books so the National Audit Office can report on the government's performance. Conservative co-chairman Liam Fox said: Liam Fox said ""If Charles Kennedy is serious about making his budgets add up he should start by explaining how they would fund their 100 spending commitments. ""The reality is, the Lib Dems lack the courage to tackle waste and bureaucracy, and the only people who would face 'tough choices' would be the families who would be £630 worse off a year. "" And Chancellor Gordon Brown said the Lib Dem figures did not add up. He accused the party of claiming it would spend less while across the country committing itself to spend more." -politics,"Kennedy to make temple address Charles Kennedy is set to address 2,000 people at a Hindu temple as part of an appeal to ethnic minority voters. The Liberal Democrat leader will visit the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Temple in Neasden, north west London. He will say Labour ""can no longer lay exclusive claim to the votes of Britain's ethnic minorities"". Mr Kennedy will also highlight the anger among people of ""all races"" over the Iraq war and call for a ""balanced approach"" to tackling terrorism. Saturday's speech comes days after the Lib Dems launched their ethnic minority mini-manifesto. Mr Kennedy is to tell the audience: ""Many people in Britain, of all races, cultures and religions, were angry about the way we were taken to war in Iraq. ""And they saw the principled stand the Liberal Democrats took at the time."" He will also say that the Lib Dems want to ""restore Britain's reputation on the world stage"" by fighting international poverty and climate change, and protecting human rights. Mr Kennedy will say that a ""balanced approach"" to tackling terrorism would mean ""tough measures to make Britain safe - but not at the expense of people's fundamental legal rights like has happened at Belmarsh"". He will say it also means acting through the United Nations on terrorism. Mr Kennedy held talks with Tony Blair on Friday over government plans to hold terror suspects under house arrest. He said afterwards that the Prime Minister had offered some ""movement"" to address his concerns. The plans face trouble in the Lords if Conservative and Lib Dem opposition continues." -politics,"Tory leader 'cleared' over work Scottish Conservative Party leader David McLetchie claims he has been cleared over a potential conflict of interest. The Edinburgh MSP earns up to £30,000 a year from the law firm Tods Murray, where he is a partner. Mr McLetchie said he has taken advice from Holyrood officials about what details he needs to declare. He was advised to exercise judgement to avoid the perception of a conflict and said he had done nothing wrong. As an MSP, Mr McLetchie signed a parliamentary motion questioning expansion plans for Edinburgh Airport. It then emerged Tods Murray has a client which opposes the development. Mr McLetchie then sought guidance from the standards committee to clarify his position. BBC Scotland's political correspondent Glenn Campbell said no complaint had been made against Mr McLetchie, but questions were raised about his dual role. Glenn said MSPs are advised to guard against a conflict of interests and a perception of a conflict. Mr McLetchie said: ""I'm quite clear that no conflicts of interest arise in my case, that the judgement I took has effectively been vindicated when you look at the advice that has been given to me and that these allegations are unfounded."" He said nothing had changed in respect of his work with the law firm and it was a matter he would have to discuss with the other partners at Tods Murray. ""The firm and I have a very good working relationship and we have done for the last six years,"" said Mr McLetchie. ""I don't suppose I'll be working forever as a lawyer or a politician. I deserve to retire from both, but I'm not willing to put time limits on them.""" -politics,"Brown and Blair face new rift claims For the umpteenth time, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are said to have declared all out war on each other. This time the alleged rift is over who should take the credit for the government's global aid and debt initiatives, particularly in the wake of the tsunami disaster - an issue many hoped and believed was above such things. It dominated the prime minister's monthly news conference, which saw Mr Blair start in full irritation mode as he was forced to bat away question after question about his relationship with his neighbour. As he told journalists: ""I am not interested in what goes in and out of newspapers. There is a complete unity of purpose."" And he again heaped praise on Mr Brown saying he was doing a great job, and would continue doing it - although he would not commit to any job for Mr Brown after the election. So why did he arrange his press conference at the last moment so it coincided with Mr Brown's long-arranged keynote speech on aid and debt, he was asked? By now Mr Blair had moved from irritation mode to his barely disguised fury setting. He snapped back that the hacks knew very well what the operational reasons were for the timing of his press conference. Well, not really, as it happens. And he repeated what a great man Gordon was and how united they were, before again sneering that he took absolutely no notice of what went in and out of the newspapers, preferring to get on with the job of doing the best for the country and the world. Although in the next breath he declared: ""I get increasingly alarmed by what I read in the newspapers"" before catching himself on and quickly adding: ""In so far as I read them of course."" He probably had good reason to be alarmed because the newspapers had been full of stories about the claimed open warfare between the two men. As far as the timing of the prime minister's press conference is concerned, there are two options. The first is that it was a calculated attempt to upstage the chancellor and seize back the initiative on the big issue of the moment. If that is the case it suggests that even the fear of seriously negative newspaper headlines is not enough to stop the squabbling. The second option is that it was an unavoidable coincidence, which would suggest the government has lost its once-famed ability to strictly co-ordinate announcements - through the infamous Downing Street grid - to avert just such allegations. Either way, the effect was the same - to overshadow the big announcements of government policy on a hugely pertinent issue. And there had been previous suggestions that the new year had started with a fresh outbreak of the warfare between the two men. Firstly, the prime minister insisted on Wednesday that he had been intimately involved in the development of the proposals to get G8 countries to freeze debt repayments from the tsunami-hit countries. It was claimed he had been embarrassed by the fact that Gordon Brown appeared to have taken the initiative over the government's response to the disaster while Mr Blair was still on holiday in Egypt. Then, as if to pour fuel on the flames, both men separately spoke about working on tsunami or wider aid and development policy with their cabinet colleagues Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Aid minister Hilary Benn and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott - without mentioning the other. All this came amid fresh claims that Mr Brown was still seething that he had been excluded from a prominent role in general election planning and had, as a result, started to set out his own platform. The fact that he used an article in the Guardian newspaper to set out what he believed ""should"" be in the manifesto, has embarked on a mini tour of Britain to set out his aid plans and will next week visit Africa on the same mission - often seen as the prime minister's ""turf"" - has only added to the impression of rival camps operating entirely independently of each other. The prime minister denied all that as well, repeating his insistence that it was inconceivable the economy and the chancellor would not be at the centre of the election campaign. But the big fear with many on the Labour benches now is that, unless a lid can be put on the speculation over the rivalry, it may even threaten to undermine the election campaign itself." -politics,"Child access laws shake-up Parents who refuse to allow former partners contact with their children could be electronically tagged under plans being considered by ministers. Curfews and community service orders were other options which could be used if court orders to allow parental access were defied, Lord Falconer said. The constitutional affairs secretary outlined some of the plans on Tuesday. He denied fathers' activists had forced the changes, telling the BBC ""there is a recognition that something is wrong"". Between 15,000 and 20,000 couples go to court to resolve access disputes each year, although in nine out of 10 separations there is no court intervention. Lord Falconer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he hoped voluntary mediation could help solve disputes before they reached court. But he opposed compulsory mediation, saying that it would lead to many people taking part with the wrong attitude. Other plans include: - Parenting plans to give advice on access arrangements, based on real-life examples that have worked in the past - Extending in-court conciliation - more informal hearings before contested court cases - Better access to legal, emotional and practical advice by telephone and internet - Legal aid changes to give incentives for early resolution of disputes. Judges can already jail parents who breach contact orders but that was a ""nuclear option"" which was rarely used as it was not seen as being in the child's interests, a spokesman said. The aim of the new legislation was to provide a ""medium range"" of penalties, such as fines, community service orders, compulsory anger management or parenting classes or curfews. Failure to comply with these measures could result in offenders being electronically tagged. On the possibility of tagging uncooperative parents, Lord Falconer said: ""Tagging may be going too far, but let's have a debate about that."" Full details of the new powers will not be revealed until a bill is published ""in the next two weeks,"" a spokesman said. The government's proposals have met with disapproval from fathers' rights groups. John Ison, from the controversial group Fathers 4 Justice, said: ""It is very disappointing. What we have got is a cynical case of recycling existing legislation."" Jim Parton, from Families Need Fathers, said the new proposals ""lacked compulsion"". ""We would like to see couples develop a plan and then have it as a source of a court order - then you know where you stand, you know what the minimum access is. ""Otherwise, you see people make agreements which then fall apart."" Mr Parton said he had been told by Children's Minister Margaret Hodge there was not enough time to pass the bill through parliament before the general election, which is likely to take place in May. The Conservatives have called for an equal split between parents on access to be made law. Theresa May, shadow secretary for the family, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the government's plans were ""inadequate"" and were ""papering over the cracks of the current system"". She said a Conservative government would bring a ""radical reform"" of the family courts, as well as enforcing a ""legal presumption of co-parenting and compulsory mediation"". ""We want to make courts the last resort, rather than the first resort,"" she added. The government says children cannot simply be divided up ""like property"" when a marriage collapses. The Liberal Democrats have argued for flexibility in deciding access rules, rather than having ""rigid targets""." -politics,"Muslims discuss election concerns Issues that Muslims should be considering before voting in the next general election are to be debated by UK community representatives. The event is being held by the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), which believes Muslim voters could influence the result in up to 50 constituencies. Last year MAB, which opposed the war in Iraq, urged Muslims not to vote for Labour in the European elections. But a spokesman stressed the meeting was ""not necessarily anti-Labour"". ""This meeting is not anti-party in particular, it's anti-policy, it's on the issues we are going to ask Muslims to vote on,"" MAB spokesman Dr Azzam Tamimi said of Tuesday's event. ""There are issues of concern to Muslims, and Muslims generally agree on them but have not in the past been aware of how a vote can serve these issues."" Dr Tamimi said the main issues Muslims should consider were what he referred to as the war on Iraq, the Palestinian situation, the erosion of civil liberties for Muslims in the UK and economic, social and education problems. Approximately 1.1m of the UK's 1.6m Muslims are of voting age. Previous election research has shown the overwhelming majority have traditionally voted Labour, but more recent studies have suggested Labour support has been falling away significantly among some Muslim voters. Anger over the war in Iraq has appeared to be the main reason, with many saying it was ""unjustified"". Representatives from a number of Muslim organisations will attend Tuesday's event. Among them will be the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). The chairman of the MCB's public affairs committee, Sher Khan, said the war in Iraq would be a ""significant factor"" affecting Muslims' voting intentions. ""I think it's going to be quite significant because of the number of seats in which they could have an impact,"" Mr Khan said. However, Professor John Curtice, of the University of Strathclyde, is sceptical about how much difference tactical voting by Muslims could make. ""For the most part the Labour constituencies where there's a large Muslim community are relatively safe, but there are one or two that are not quite so safe,"" Professor Curtice said. The constituencies where Labour was most at risk from a Muslim tactical vote were Bethnal Green, in east London, and Rochdale in Lancashire, he added. In Bethnal Green, former Labour MP George Galloway, who founded the anti-war party Respect, is standing against sitting MP Oona King, who had a 10,000-vote majority in 2001. In Rochdale, the Liberal Democrats - the mainstream party a 2004 ICM survey showed was benefiting most from Muslim disaffection with Labour - secured second place in the 2001 election, securing just under 6,000 votes fewer than Labour's Lorna Fitzsimons. But Professor Curtice said the Muslim anti-war vote could be split between the Liberal Democrats and Respect, meaning neither would benefit much at the ballot box. ""Ironically the Tories might be the beneficiaries if Labour does lose seats, which is generally the case,"" he said. But Dr Tamimi said MAB's intention was not to ""empower"" the Tories. ""We know the next government will be Labour, but we are aiming to send a message that it will make a difference if the Muslims use their vote properly. ""If the next Labour government has a reduced majority that's a great achievement because having a very big majority has been very harmful for politics in this country,"" Dr Tamimi said." -politics,"Labour plans maternity pay rise Maternity pay for new mothers is to rise by £1,400 as part of new proposals announced by the Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt. It would mean paid leave would be increased to nine months by 2007, Ms Hewitt told GMTV's Sunday programme. Other plans include letting maternity pay be given to fathers and extending rights to parents of older children. The Tories dismissed the maternity pay plan as ""desperate"", while the Liberal Democrats said it was misdirected. Ms Hewitt said: ""We have already doubled the length of maternity pay, it was 13 weeks when we were elected, we have already taken it up to 26 weeks. ""We are going to extend the pay to nine months by 2007 and the aim is to get it right up to the full 12 months by the end of the next Parliament."" She said new mothers were already entitled to 12 months leave, but that many women could not take it as only six of those months were paid. ""We have made a firm commitment. We will definitely extend the maternity pay, from the six months where it now is to nine months, that's the extra £1,400."" She said ministers would consult on other proposals that could see fathers being allowed to take some of their partner's maternity pay or leave period, or extending the rights of flexible working to carers or parents of older children. The Shadow Secretary of State for the Family, Theresa May, said: ""These plans were announced by Gordon Brown in his pre-budget review in December and Tony Blair is now recycling it in his desperate bid to win back women voters."" She said the Conservatives would announce their proposals closer to the General Election. Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for women Sandra Gidley said: ""While mothers would welcome any extra maternity pay the Liberal Democrats feel this money is being misdirected."" She said her party would boost maternity pay in the first six months to allow more women to stay at home in that time. Ms Hewitt also stressed the plans would be paid for by taxpayers, not employers. But David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, warned that many small firms could be ""crippled"" by the move. ""While the majority of any salary costs may be covered by the government's statutory pay, recruitment costs, advertising costs, retraining costs and the strain on the company will not be,"" he said. Further details of the government's plans will be outlined on Monday. New mothers are currently entitled to 90% of average earnings for the first six weeks after giving birth, followed by £102.80 a week until the baby is six months old." -politics,"Brown outlines third term vision Gordon Brown has outlined what he thinks should be the key themes of New Labour's next general election bid. He said ensuring every child in Britain had the best start in life could be a legacy to match the NHS's creation. The chancellor has previously planned the party's election strategy but this time the role will be filled by Alan Milburn - a key ally of Tony Blair. The premier insisted Mr Brown will have a key role in Labour's campaign, and praised his handling of the economy. Writing in the Guardian newspaper, Mr Brown outlined his view of the direction New Labour should be taking. ""As our manifesto and our programme for the coming decade should make clear, Labour's ambition is not simply tackling idleness but delivering full employment; not just attacking ignorance, disease and squalor but promoting lifelong education, good health and sustainable communities."" BBC political editor Andrew Marr said that Mr Brown's article was ""a warning shot"" to Mr Blair not to try and cut him out of the manifesto writing process. ""It was, as always, coded and careful... but entirely deliberate,"" was Mr Marr's assessment. The prime minister was asked about Mr Brown's article and about his election role when he appeared on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Mr Blair said a decision had yet to be taken over how the election would be run but the chancellor's role would be ""central"". Mr Blair argued that under New Labour the country had changed for the better and that was ""in part"" because of Mr Brown's management of the economy. And he pledged childcare would be a ""centrepiece"" of Labour's manifesto. He also predicted the next general election will be a ""tough, tough fight"" for New Labour. But the prime minister insisted he did not know what date the poll would take place despite speculation about 5 May. Mr Blair said he was taking ""nothing for granted"" ahead of the vote - warning that the Tory strategy was to win power via the back door by hinting they were aiming to cut Labour's majority instead of hoping for an outright win." -politics,"Women MPs reveal sexist taunts Women MPs endure ""shocking"" levels of sexist abuse at the hands of their male counterparts, a new study shows. Male MPs pretended to juggle imaginary breasts and jeered ""melons"" as women made Commons speeches, researchers from Birkbeck College were told. Labour's Yvette Cooper said she found it hard to persuade Commons officials she was a minister and not a secretary. Some 83 MPs gave their answers in 100 hours of taped interviews for the study ""Whose Secretary are You, minister"". The research team, under Professor Joni Lovenduski, had set out to look at the achievements and experiences of women at Westminster. But what emerged was complaints from MPs of all parties of sexist barracking in the Chamber, sexist insults and patronising assumptions about their abilities. Barbara Follet, one of the so-called ""Blair Babes"" elected in 1997, told researchers: ""I remember some Conservatives - whenever a Labour woman got up to speak they would take their breasts - imaginary breasts - in their hands and wiggle them and say 'melons' as we spoke."" Former Liberal Democrat MP Jackie Ballard recalled a stream of remarks from a leading MP on topics such as women's legs or their sexual persuasion. And ex-Tory education secretary Gillian Shepherd remembered how one of her male colleagues called all women ""Betty"". ""When I said, 'Look you know my name isn't Betty', he said, 'ah but you're all the same, so I call you all Betty'."" Harriet Harman told researchers of the sheer hostility prompted by her advancement to the Cabinet: ""Well, you've only succeeded because you're a woman."" Another current member of the Cabinet says she was told: ""Oh, you've had a very fast rise, who have you been sleeping with?"" Even after the great influx of women MPs at the 1997 general election, and greater numbers of women in the Cabinet, female MPs often say they feel stuck on the edge of a male world. Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather, the most recent female MP to be elected, told researchers: ""Lots of people say it's like an old boys club. ""I've always said to me it feels more like a teenage public school - you know a public school full of teenagers."" Prof Joni Lovenduski, who conducted the study with the help of Margaret Moran MP and a team of journalists, said she was shocked at the findings. ""We expected a bit of this but nothing like this extent. We expected to find a couple of shocking episodes."" But she said there was a difference between the experiences of women before the 1997 intake and afterwards. This was mainly because there were more women present in Parliament who were not prepared to ""put up with"" the sexist attitudes they came across, Prof Lovenduski said. But she added: ""Some women, including the women who came in 1997, received extraordinary treatment and I am not convinced that if the number of women changed back to what it was before 1997 that things would not change back. ""What I think is shocking to the general public is that these things go on in the House of Commons."" The interviews are to be placed in the British Library as a historical record." -politics,"Terror detainees win Lords appeal Detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial breaks human rights laws, the UK's highest court has ruled. In a blow to the government's anti-terror measures, the House of Lords law lords ruled by an eight to one majority in favour of appeals by nine detainees. Most of the men are being indefinitely held in Belmarsh prison, south London. The law lords said the measures were incompatible with European human rights laws. The men will stay behind bars while ministers decide how to react. The ruling creates a major problem for Charles Clarke on his first day as home secretary following David Blunkett's resignation. The Liberal Democrats say Mr Clarke should use the fact he is new to the job to take issue with a law established by his predecessor, David Blunkett. Belmarsh prison has been dubbed Britain's Guantanamo Bay by civil rights campaigners opposed to the use of emergency anti-terror laws. The detainees took their case to the House of Lords after the Court of Appeal backed the Home Office's powers to hold them without limit or charge. The government opted out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 September attacks in the US. Any foreign national suspected of links with terrorism can be detained or can opt to be deported. However those detained cannot be deported if this would mean persecution in their homeland. On Thursday, senior law lord Lord Bingham said the rules were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights as they allowed detentions ""in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status"". Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, in his ruling, said: ""Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law. ""It deprives the detained person of the protection a criminal trial is intended to afford."" He said the weakness for the government's case was that it was trying to justify detention without trial for foreign suspects - but not for British suspects. Lord Hoffmann said: ""The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these."" But Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, the one law lord to oppose the appeal, said the anti-terror laws contained important safeguards against oppression. In a statement, detainee 'A' in Woodhill Prison said: ""I hope now that the government will act upon this decision, scrap this illegal 'law' and release me and the other internees to return to our families and loved ones."" The case was heard by a panel of nine law lords rather than the usual five because of the constitutional importance of the case. Ben Emmerson QC, representing seven of the detainees, said the men had already been in custody for nearly three years. He said they had been given no idea when, if ever, they would be released, had never been formally interviewed and there was no prospect they would ever be put on trial. When the men were first held, they took their cases to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC). The commission ruled on 30 July, 2002 that the anti-terror act unjustifiably discriminated against foreign nationals as British people could not be held in the same way. But that ruling was later overturned by the Court of Appeal who said there was a state of emergency threatening the life of the nation." -politics,"No election TV debate, says Blair Tony Blair has said he will not take part in a TV debate with his political rivals ahead of the next election. ""We answer this every election campaign and, for the reasons I have given before, the answer is no,"" he said at his monthly news conference. In October Tory leader Michael Howard said Mr Blair would be running scared if he refused calls to go head-to-head. In recent years the leader of the opposition has always called for a debate, although it has never happened. Before the 2001 election, plans for a debate between Mr Blair, William Hague and Charles Kennedy collapsed. In 1997 a debate between Mr Blair and John Major was also cancelled when a format could not be agreed. Televised debates have become the high point of the US presidential election campaigns." -politics,"Howard taunts Blair over splits Tony Blair's feud with Gordon Brown is damaging the way the UK is governed, Tory leader Michael Howard has claimed in a heated prime minister's questions. Mr Howard asked: ""How can they fight crime when they are fighting each other?"" That question was later unveiled as the headline for new Tory campaign posters. But Mr Blair dismissed the talk of splits and said people's priorities at the next elections would be on the economic successes achieved by Labour. ""He can stick up whatever he likes on billboards about something in a book but what the public will concentrate on are the low mortgages, low inflation, low unemployment that we delivered and that he failed to,"" he said. The chancellor is currently on a high-profile tour of Africa to highlight new anti-poverty plans. But before doing so, he insisted he still trusted Mr Blair, despite claims to the contrary in a new book. Brown's Britain, by Robert Peston, says there is mutual animosity between the two men. It claims Mr Blair said in November 2003 he would stand down as prime minister before the next election. But he went back on his pledge after support from Cabinet allies and suspicion that Mr Brown was manoeuvring against him, it says. Mr Peston's book claimed that Mr Brown told Mr Blair: ""There is nothing you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe."" Mr Blair directly denied that quote on Wednesday. He again insisted there could be no deals about the premiership but twice declined directly to say whether or not he had offered to quit. The Tory leader countered that such agreements had been struck twice at dinners with the chancellor. He declared: ""He is the deals on meals prime minister. No wonder the chancellor is not a happy eater."" He continued: ""How can there be discipline in schools when there is no discipline in government, how can they clean up our hospitals when they don't clean up their act?"" Mr Blair said he would not respond to ""tittle tattle in books"" and promised to hail Labour's record on the economy, waiting lists and law and order ""from now until polling day"". Later at their poster launch Tory co-chairman Liam Fox said his party would exploit opportunities to show how ""juvenile"" the prime minister and chancellor were. Labour staged a show of unity at its own poster launch on Tuesday, where Mr Brown was joined by Alan Milburn, who Mr Blair controversially put in charge of election planning in place of the chancellor. But Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy told BBC News: ""The government is clearly split at the top. This kind of cosmetic exercise does not persuade anybody."" Later this week Mr Blair is expected to outline the direction of his party's next election manifesto. The prime minister and chancellor faced backbench discontent at Monday's meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party over claims made Mr Peston's book." -politics,"Mandelson warns BBC on Campbell The BBC should steer away from ""demonising"" ex-Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson has said. The European commissioner and former Labour minister was speaking amid claims that Mr Campbell is part of a Labour ""dirty tricks"" campaign. That charge was denied by Mr Mandelson, who said the Tories were afraid of Mr Campbell's campaigning skills. He warned the BBC that attacking Mr Campbell had brought it trouble before. That was a reference to the Hutton inquiry following a BBC story claiming Downing Street ""sexed up"" Iraq's weapons of mass destruction dossier. The affair prompted the resignation of BBC chairman Gavyn Davies, director-general Greg Dyke and reporter Andrew Gilligan. Labour has attracted media criticism for using new freedom of information laws to dig up information about Tory leader Michael Howard's past. Mr Mandelson, a former Labour communications director, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""I understand why the Tories will be gunning for Alastair Campbell because they fear his campaigning skills. ""What I understand less is why the BBC should be joining with the Tories in driving that agenda. ""In my experience of these things, parties which shout about dirty tricks and the like tend to do so because they fear a direct hit in some vulnerable part of their political anatomy. ""I suggest the BBC concentrates on the issues and helps the public to understand the policies and the choices that are at stake in the election rather than engages in the process politics, the trivialisation of the campaign. ""I think the BBC would be much better advised to leave all this stuff well alone, concentrate on the issues as I say, not resume their demonisation of Alastair Campbell - we all know where that led before."" Mr Campbell is acting as an adviser for Labour, which denies engaging in personal campaigning. Conservative co-chairman Liam Fox said Mr Campbell's return and Labour poster plans attacking Mr Howard - recently withdrawn from the party's website - were a sign of ""abusive politics"". ""The government, despite the fact that they would say want to go forward, not back, seem intent on talking about history rather than their own record or even more importantly, about the future,"" he said on Sunday. Labour peer Baroness Kennedy, who is chairing the Power Inquiry into political disengagement, said people already thought politicians engaged in dirty tricks. ""This feeling of distrust is going to be enlarged if this campaigning on all sides is conducted in the way that it looks as if it just might,"" she said." -politics,"'Hitler' row over Welsh arts cash An artist critical of Welsh arts funding being brought under assembly government control has denied comparing the idea with dictatorships in Russia and Germany. Shani Rhys James is worried that the Arts Council of Wales may be taken over by the Welsh Assembly Government. Culture Minister Alun Pugh said it would be ""crass and ignorant"" to liken a quango review to Hitler's Germany. But Ms James emphasised she had actually said artists needed freedom. The future of the Arts Council of Wales has been in question since it was announced that most Welsh quangos would eventually be abolished. It was announced last July that three Welsh quangos, education and training body Elwa, the Wales Tourist Board and the Welsh Development Agency, would be brought under assembly government control. The Arts Council of Wales may be among the next to come under the assembly government's umbrella. But Ms James, who won the £30,000 Jerwood painting prize in 2003, said arts funding should be separate from government. Ms James told BBC Radio Wales: ""It's quite dangerous when you involve politicians because it's not like the health service and it's not like the railways. ""Free expression is absolutely vital in a democratic society. You need distance, you do not need government interference because it could be taken the wrong way."" But she said reports that she had likened the assembly government to totalitarian regimes were inaccurate. She told Good Morning Wales: ""Just to put the record straight, that business in the paper where it said I likened the government to Bolshevik Russia or Hitler's Germany, the actual quote I gave was: 'It is vital to a civilised society that we allow artists to express themselves without government control'. ""As we know from past European history, i.e. Russia and Germany in the early 20th Century, artists will go underground or leave the country or rather than compromise their expression'. ""Artists need a free voice to express themselves - they reflect a truth through their own art forms.'"" She said the assembly government was not best placed to run the arts in Wales. She added: ""It would be a momentous change and devastating to the arts. It would set the arts scene back 60 years, because I really don't think the government has the expertise. ""If you have the National Assembly taking control, I fear you are going to be going back to the dragons and leeks and the choirs. ""Wales has moved on. It is international now. It is not set back in How Green Was My Valley?"" Responding to Ms James' criticisms, Mr Pugh said: ""The structure of unelected quangos is under review and we have made it clear that further announcements are due shortly. ""Comparing the Welsh Assembly Government to Hitler's Germany is a crass and ignorant response to a real issue about democratic accountability."" Ms James, whose father was Welsh, was born in Melbourne where her parents worked in the theatre. She moved to Powys nearly 20 years ago where she works from her studio near Llangadfan. She has won a number of arts prizes including the Wales Open in 1989 and the Mostyn Open in 1991." -politics,"Blair returns from peace mission Prime Minister Tony Blair has arrived back from his diplomatic mission to the Middle East to try to resurrect the peace process. Mr Blair held talks with his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, and the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas. He confirmed that a renewed drive to reform the Palestinian Authority and address security issues would come at a London conference in March. Mr Blair also made a surprise trip to Iraq this week. The Israelis described the meeting as important but said they would not need to attend. Mr Blair briefly visited the tomb of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah - the first world leader to do so. He nodded briefly towards the tomb, rather than lay a wreath, in what Palestinian officials said was a compromise gesture agreed at the last minute. The BBC's Paul Reynolds says the London conference will be a limited measure to shore up the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, who is expected to win the Palestinian presidential election on 9 January. At a news conference following talks with Mr Blair, Mr Abbas said the British prime minister was ""in a unique position to help us progress in our peaceful pursuit"". He added: ""Your endeavour to hold a conference in London is another example of your deep commitment to this purpose."" In an interview with the BBC's political editor Andrew Marr, Mr Blair said getting progress between Israelis and Palestinians would be ""tough, but at least we have got the first step"". Mr Blair acknowledged some people believed he was too close to the Israelis, but said the Israelis were entitled to expect Palestinians to give up terrorism. He argued that Mr Sharon was committed to the internationally-agreed roadmap peace plan and said his bid to disengage from Gaza had to be part of the peace process, not the end of it. Earlier, Mr Sharon again said he had not seen ""the slightest step"" the Palestinians were working to end terror attacks - though he acknowledged Palestinian leaders were in the middle of an election campaign that could be hampering their efforts. Before visiting Israel, Mr Blair made a surprise visit to Iraq, where he met leaders in Baghdad during his first trip to the city. He was briefed on preparations for the national poll, which is scheduled for next month but is threatened by a deadly campaign of insurgent violence. He also flew to Basra in southern Iraq where British forces are stationed." -politics,"Probe launched on Ken Nazi jibe An investigation by the Standards Board is under way following allegations that Ken Livingstone has brought his office into disrepute. The probe follows the London mayor's comments to a Jewish journalist comparing him to a concentration camp guard, after a party about a week ago. The local government watchdog also said the allegation related to a failure to respect others. It has the power to suspend or bar Labour's Mr Livingstone from office. A complaint was made to the body by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Commission for Racial Equality. Speaking after the investigation was announced Bob Neill, leader of the London Assembly Conservatives, said: ""He has behaved in a manner unbecoming of his office and in so doing, has shown extraordinarily poor civic leadership. ""His administration is now in crisis."" On Sunday, Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron told the BBC's Politics Show she believed the Mayor of London would say sorry on Tuesday for offending the wider Jewish community. The Prime Minister Tony Blair is among those who have called for an apology but so far the mayor has refused. The mayor accused Oliver Finegold, of the Evening Standard newspaper, of ""doorstepping"" him at a ""predominately gay event"" held for MP Chris Smith. Ms Gavron said she thought Mr Livingstone's comments were ""inappropriate"" but she did not believe the mayor was anti-Semitic. She said: ""I work very closely with Ken so I can speak of what he's like in his guarded and unguarded moments and... he is in no way anti-Jewish, I wouldn't for a moment work with him if he were. ""On the other hand, I think his remarks were inappropriate and I believe it is important, and I believe he will, come to the point where he says, 'I regret that I have caused offence to the wider Jewish community'. ""I hope he will do it soon and it is mooted that he is going to make some sort of statement on Tuesday.""" -politics,"Immigration to be election issue Immigration and asylum have normally been issues politicians from the big parties have tiptoed around at election time. But no longer. Both Labour and the Tories have signalled their intention of making them central to their election campaigns. They have been struck by the level of concern amongst voters about the issues, with internal surveys showing they have the potential to swing large numbers of votes. That was also true at the last general election and the issue did briefly become a campaigning issue. But it sparked the probably predictable furore with claims politicians were either stoking up xenophobia or, alternatively, running scared of addressing the problem. But this time around it looks set to be one of the core battlegrounds with both the big parties competing to set out tough policies. The Tories are already committed to imposing annual limits on immigration, with a quota for asylum seekers and with applications processed outside the UK. Labour has already branded the proposal unworkable but party strategists have seen the Tories seizing a poll advantage over the issue. Now Home Secretary Charles Clarke has come up with alternative proposals for a points system to ensure only immigrants who can benefit the economy will be granted entry, and to kick out more failed asylum seekers. That has been attacked by the Tories as too little, too late and for failing to tackle the key issue of the numbers entering the UK. The Liberal Democrats have not been drawn too deeply into the argument but have called for a Europe-wide policy on immigration. But, while all the parties appear to agree the time has come to properly debate and address the issue, there are already signs they will run into precisely the same problems as before. Former union leader Sir Bill Morris has already accused both the big parties of engaging in a ""bidding war about who can be nastiest to asylum seekers"". ""My concern is that, whilst the Labour Party and the Conservative Party will take a constructive approach to the debate, right-wing political parties, picking up on statements like `burden to Britain' will exploit this and create a lot of fear and uncertainty"". It is precisely that concern - and the possible suggestion the issue is playing to the far right's racist agenda - that will provoke strong reactions from many concerned with this issue. The challenge for the big parties is to ensure they can engage in the debate during the cut and thrust of a general election while also avoiding that trap." -politics,"Blair 'said he would stand down' Tony Blair promised Gordon Brown he would stand down before the next election, a new book about the chancellor claims. But the prime minister changed his mind following intervention from allies in the Cabinet, according to the book. The book by Sunday Telegraph journalist Robert Peston said the pair had ""mutual animosity and contempt"" for each other. The book, Brown's Britain, said Tony Blair felt by November 2003 he had lost voters' trust. The author's sources, all unnamed ""allies"" of Mr Blair and Mr Brown, said the prime minister felt the Iraq war had undermined him and that he was no longer an asset to the Labour Party. The book, serialised in the Sunday Telegraph, alleges that Mr Blair told the chancellor at a dinner hosted by deputy PM John Prescott in November 2003 of his intention to stand down. ""At that stage he saw Gordon Brown and said, 'look you are the next most influential member of the government, I need your help to get through the next year,"" Mr Peston said. ""I myself recognise that I'm going to have to stand down before the election but help me to get through the year and I will then stand down.'"" But he changed his mind in June 2004, following intervention from allies in the Cabinet and the suspicion that the chancellor was deliberately manoeuvring against him, the book claims. Mr Peston told BBC News: ""My understanding is that they are not nearly as close or as friendly as they once were. ""What the book says is there now a pretty profound mutual mistrust, mutual animosity. ""I think in public you see this double act pretending everything is alright but in private I don't think the relationship is good because Brown, understandably, feels deeply betrayed - particularly over this issue of the leadership."" There has been fresh speculation of a rift recently, following their separate responses to the Asian tsunami. Rumours of a rift were fuelled by the sudden decision to hold Mr Blair's monthly media conference at the same time as a long-planned speech by Mr Brown on UK plans to tackle global poverty with a new ""Marshall Plan"" for Africa. There was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each other's response to the disaster. Former welfare minister Frank Field MP criticised the reported rivalry between the pair on GMTV's Sunday Programme. ""What sort of model does it give to the nation when the two most important political leaders do nothing but fight it out together or use their aides to fight it out?"" the Labour MP for Birkenhead asked. He said the prime minister should sack Mr Brown, but did not believe Mr Blair was strong enough to do so. Conservative policy co-ordinator David Cameron, MP for Witney, added: ""If it wasn't so serious it would be funny. ""But it is serious - you've got the two most senior people in the government not concentrating on fighting crime, poverty or dirty hospitals - they are fighting each other."" Carol Walker, BBC News 24 political correspondent, added: ""There is a real concern that this could undermine the general election campaign. ""And clearly it is very bad news for the government at a time when it is trying to explain what it is doing to respond to the terrible problems thrown up by the tsunami disaster.""" -politics,"Jowell confirms casino climbdown Tessa Jowell has announced plans to limit the number of new casinos in the UK to 24, in a move branded a ""humiliating retreat"" by the Tories. It puts an end to plans for up to 40 super casinos, originally outlined in the government's Gambling Bill. Instead there will be a cap of eight new casinos in each size category - small, medium and large. The Culture Secretary said the move showed she listened to critics who feared an explosion in gambling. But Conservative shadow culture secretary John Whittingdale said the way the government had handled the bill was a ""shambles"". ""This announcement is a further humiliating retreat by the government. ""Instead of the initial intention of the gambling bill, to liberalise the rules governing gambling, the bill now imposes a more restrictive regime than exists at present."" Shares in British casino operators London Clubs International, Rank Group and Stanley Leisure, who had been hoping the bill would pave the way for a big expansion in smaller casinos, fell by between 10 and 25% following the announcement. Ms Jowell's deputy, Richard Caborn, said the government had adopted a cautious approach to the issue, and responded to the concerns raised. ""Limiting the number of regional casinos to eight in the first phase is a cautious move that will allow us to test the impact of a new kind of casino on the levels of problem gambling,"" he said. ""We also believe it's right to apply this same level of caution to small and large casinos."" He added that local authorities would still be able to stop new casinos coming to their areas. Church groups welcomed the limit on the number of casinos. Salvation Army spokesman Jonathan Lomax said: ""The proliferation of these casinos on high streets across the country was a real concern and the [three year] trial period, which we think should last at least five years, will enable research into the potentially severe social consequences of an increase in hard and addictive forms of gambling."" But British British Casino Association Chairman Penny Cobham said her members were ""outraged"" by the decision, which followed a campaign in the Daily Mail newspaper. ""There was never going to be a massive explosion of casinos. Talk of a casino on every High Street was just a scaring tactic.""" -politics,"'No-one can define new hunt ban' The new law banning hunting with dogs is ""so poorly drafted"" no-one can define the offence, pro-hunt MPs say. The accusation came after it emerged a Devon man had been told he could use his four dogs to ""chase away unwanted animals"" from his farm. Because he did not intend to kill deer or foxes it was not hunting. Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik said ministers had invented a new category of hunting - chasing away - and asked how police were supposed to interpret the rules. North Devon landowner Giles Bradshaw was put in touch with the Middle Way Group, of which Mr Opik is a co-chairman, after he had been in contact with the rural affairs ministry, Defra. He had asked whether his technique of using his four dogs to frighten off deer and foxes would be outlawed under the Hunting Act. Mr Bradshaw was initially told it was an offence - prompting him to complain. The Middle Way group also said Mr Bradshaw would be put in a position where he would have to buy a rifle to shoot animals that would have previously gone free. In a later conversation Mr Bradshaw was told that according to Defra's lawyers chasing away unwanted animals was ""not in fact hunting as described in the Hunting Act 2004 therefore you would not be committing an offence"". Mr Opik said: ""Hunting with dogs and flushing are not defined in the Hunting Act. ""Now Defra have also invented a completely new category of hunting - 'chasing away' which isn't even covered by the Act. ""However, all these activities involve the use of dogs to chase wild mammals. ""How is the village bobby who sees a group of people with dogs supposed to distinguish between illegal hunting, exempt hunting, drag hunting, unintentional hunting, a hunt exercising hounds or simply chasing away?"" Tory MP Peter Luff, another co-chairman of Middle Way, said that the legislation was ""so poorly drafted nobody appears able to properly define the offence"". ""It is no wonder the government desperately wants to move on from this disastrous law. However, I seriously doubt the countryside will be that accommodating."" Mike Hobday, of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: ""There is no confusion, it is a matter of simple common sense. ""If Mr Bradshaw is setting his dogs to chase wild animals then he is hunting them and that will be a criminal offence. ""If all the dogs are doing is barking at the deer, then nobody can define that as hunting.""" -politics,"Schools to take part in mock poll Record numbers of schools across the UK are to take part in a mock general election backed by the government. Some 600 schools have already signed up for the Y Vote Mock Elections 2005 run by the Hansard Society and aimed at boosting interest in politics. Pupils in the schools taking part will learn the skills of speech writers, canvassers and political candidates. Schools Minister Stephen Twigg said engaging young people's interest was ""essential"" to the future of democracy. He added: said ""Young people who are engaged and motivated by the political process are essential to the future health of our democracy. ""The mock elections initiative provides an opportunity for pupils to develop their own understanding of how the democratic process works and why it matters. ""By experiencing the election process first hand - from running a campaign to the declaration of the final result - we hope that young people will develop the enthusiasm to take part in the future."" The Hansard Society, the Electoral Commission and the Department for Education and Skills are running the programme. Pupils will stand as party candidates, speech writers and canvassers. Michael Raftery, project manager at the Hansard Society, said: ""The Y Vote Mock Elections for schools mirror the excitement and buzz of a real election, raising awareness of citizenship, and the benefits of active democracy."" The mock votes will take place around 5 May, widely expected to be the date of the general election. Information packs, including ballot papers and manifesto guides, with elections happening in early May were sent out to the 3,000 schools invited to take part." -politics,"Butler launches attack on Blair Former civil service chief Lord Butler has criticised the way Tony Blair's government operates, accusing it of being obsessed with headlines. He also attacked the way the Iraq war was ""sold"" to the public, with important warnings on the strength of the intelligence left out. Tory leader Michael Howard said Lord Butler had given the ""most damaging testimony"" he could remember. But Downing Street said Mr Blair should be judged by results not his style. Lord Butler said Mr Blair bypassed the Cabinet and relied instead on small, informal groups of advisers to help him make decisions. The prime minister's official spokesman said the Cabinet was still used to achieve a consensus on important issues. But he added: ""You cannot, in a modern government, take every decision in Cabinet. It's just not possible."" Lord Butler said the government had too much freedom to ""bring in bad Bills"" and ""to do whatever it likes"" and it relied too much on the advice of political appointees. The former cabinet secretary said in an interview with The Spectator magazine: ""I would be critical of the present government in that there is too much emphasis on selling, there is too much central control and there is too little of what I would describe as reasoned deliberation which brings in all the arguments."" Mr Howard described Lord Butler's intervention as ""very important"". ""This is from someone who was an insider at the very heart of the Blair government. ""It is certainly the most damaging testimony I can ever remember from someone in such an eminent position."" Lord Butler's report earlier this year into Iraq intelligence said the government's September 2002 weapons dossier did not make clear intelligence about claims that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons was ""very thin"". The reason for this is that it would have weakened ministers' case for war, Lord Butler said in his Spectator interview, which was conducted by the magazine's editor, Conservative MP Boris Johnson. He said: ""When civil servants give material to ministers, they say these are the conclusions we've drawn, but we've got to tell you the evidence we've got is pretty thin. ""Similarly, if you are giving something to the United Nations and the country you should warn them."" Asked why he thought the warnings were not there Lord Butler said: ""One has got to remember what the purpose of the dossier was. The purpose of the dossier was to persuade the British why the government thought Iraq was a very serious threat."" When asked whether he thought the country was well-governed on the whole, he replied: ""Well. I think we are a country where we suffer very badly from Parliament not having sufficient control over the executive, and that is a very grave flaw. ""We should be breaking away from the party whip. The executive is much too free to bring in a huge number of extremely bad Bills, a huge amount of regulation and to do whatever it likes - and whatever it likes is what will get the best headlines tomorrow. ""All that is part of what is bad government in this country."" Lord Butler's assessment was backed by his predecessor as Cabinet Secretary, Lord Armstrong. Lord Armstrong told BBC Two's Newsnight: ""I agree ... there doesn't appear to be the sort of informed collective political judgement brought to bear on decision-making that those affected by decisions are entitled to expect."" Liberal Democrat deputy leader Menzies Campbell said he thought Lord Butler's comments were ""well justified"" and Mr Blair's style of leadership was ""corrosive of the whole system of government"". But Labour former minister Jack Cunningham accused Lord Butler of basing his comments on the first eight months of the incoming Labour administration, when he was cabinet secretary. Mr Cunningham told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""Taken together, Robin Butler's comments are partial, inaccurate and cannot be taken as anything other than politically biased against the Labour government.""" -politics,"Labour's core support takes stock Tony Blair has told Labour supporters he's ""back"" and still hungry for the job of prime minister - but does that sum up the mood at the party's spring conference in Gateshead? ""The electorate are keener on the government than some Labour Party members,"" is the dry assessment of Graham Lane, leader of the Labour group on Newham Council. The problem, according to Mr Lane, is not continuing divisions over Iraq, foundation hospitals or tuition fees, or even voter apathy, but Mr Blair himself. ""I have a new slogan. Vote Blair, Get Brown. That's what I am telling people on the doorstep. Don't worry, he will be gone soon."" His friend, Saxon Spence, leader of Devon county Labour group, lays the blame for any lack of campaigning zeal on one issue above all others. ""You cannot underestimate the impact of the war in Iraq. We lost people from our local party who had some key roles."" But the two friends were fired up by Gordon Brown's speech on Saturday, with its appeal to core Labour values on social justice, health and education. ""There was real passion. I think we have all felt a little jaded, but it reminded us why we joined the party in the first place,"" said Mrs Spence. ""If he hadn't have walked off the stage, they would still be clapping,"" added Mr Lane. But for every Brownite at the spring conference there was an equally ardent fan of Mr Blair. Stephen Douglas, 26, from Wales, said after the PM's speech on Sunday: ""I think it was a bit of a turning point, given the roasting he has had on some issues. The guy still has it."" Tony Martin, of Burnley, said: ""He is the first leader who has won us two terms. This bloke has delivered for us."" Malcolm Shipley, of Shipley, said it was ""as if he is coming round to the right approach again"". Katrina Bull, a prospective parliamentary candidate said Mr Blair had shown he could rouse the party's grassroots: ""I think if every voter was able to spend time in a room with Tony, the way we have today, we will have no problem with turnout."" She had just emerged from a Q&A session, in which Mr Blair - tieless and supremely at ease - answered questions posed via the party's website. A party of councillors from Nottingham agreed that there was nothing wrong with Mr Blair's leadership - and they were adamant that the campaigning strength of the party in their city was as strong as ever. Iraq, they insisted, would not be a factor for most voters. ""The biggest problem we have got at the moment is that we keep getting all these polls saying we are going to run away with the election. ""It might sound great, but it does create this sense of complacency among our own voters and I think that is the greater problem than Iraq,"" said Nottingham City Councillor Brian Parbutt. And even Mr Blair's most vocal critics seemed to agree on one thing - he is a master of the sort of glossy, high-profile campaigning that has become Labour's hallmark, epitomised by Friday's whistle-stop tour of marginal seats. A group of shop stewards from the Swan Hunter shipyard, who said they were facing redundancy, could barely suppress their anger at Mr Blair's failure to, as they saw it, shake off his Tory leanings and stand up for manufacturing in the North East. They were also scathing about the alleged benefits of showpiece projects such as conference venue Sage Centre, heralded by John Prescott and others this weekend as a symbol of Labour's success in urban regeneration. ""It is no good having the Sage or Baltic if you haven't got the money for the entrance fee,"" said Terry Telford. But when asked about Mr Blair's bravura performance on Friday, the men agreed he was ""brilliant"". And they would all be out on the doorstep pushing the Labour message come election time. ""If you are not fired up about the election, then what's the point? There is no complacency as far as I can see in the Labour Party. We are fired up. We are up for this election,"" said Richie Porterhouse. Mr Telford agreed, but added it was becoming increasingly difficult to think of an answer when people asked ""What has Labour done for the North East?"" ""I have had doors slammed in my face,"" he said. Every activist I spoke to said they were proud of what they believed Labour had achieved in their local communities - the new hospitals and schools, the better life chances for young people. The problem they faced, they said, was converting this local feelgood factor into votes. But they could at least rely on one ""secret weapon"", as one activist put it - Tory leader Michael Howard." -politics,"Anti-terror plan faces first test Plans to allow Home Secretary Charles Clarke to place terror suspects under house arrest without trial are set for their first real test in Parliament. Tories, Lib Dems and some Labour MPs are poised to vote against the plans. Mr Clarke says the powers are needed to counter terror threats. Opponents say only judges, not politicians, should be able to order detention of UK citizens. The government is expected to win Wednesday's vote in the Commons, but faces a battle in the House of Lords. The Prevention of Terrorism Bill was published on Tuesday. It proposes ""control orders"", which would mean house arrest in the most serious cases, and curfews, electronic tagging and limits on telephone and internet access for other suspects. The two opposition parties are particularly worried that the control orders would initially be imposed on the say-so of the home secretary, rather than a judge. Tory shadow home secretary David Davis warned of the potential for miscarriages of justice, like the Guildford Four - for which Tony Blair recently apologised - as a result of the pressure on politicians to lock up terror suspects. ""Those pressures would be much more for a politician than they would on a judge and that's why we have serious concerns abut that approach,"" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Mr Clarke says he does not intend to use the house arrest powers now - even for the 11 current terror detainees. He also said that any decision he made would be reviewed by a judge within seven days. The foreign terror suspects currently detained are mostly held at London's Belmarsh prison. They are held under laws which the Law Lords have ruled break human rights rules - and which are due to expire on 14 March. The new powers, designed to replace the existing laws and meet the Law Lords' concerns, would apply to British as well as foreign terror suspects. Critics say that giving politicians the power to deprive UK citizens of their freedom is the biggest attack on civil liberties for 300 years. Opposition MPs are also angry they will have only two days - Wednesday and next Monday - to debate the new plans before they pass to the House of Lords. But the government says the existing powers run out soon so must be replaced urgently. In a rare move, the Tories and Lib Dems have jointly tabled a motion opposing the new bill, saying the house arrest plans are ""excessive"". It argues decisions should be taken on a higher standard of proof and the plan ""wrongly infringes the right to liberty"" by failing to bring terrorists to trial where there is evidence. Mr Davis told Today: ""It gives a minister, for the first time in modern history, the right to detain without trial, without showing the evidence and indeed, in some respects, almost the allegation against the individual concerned."" He questioned why there was ""such a rush"" to introduce the legislation when Mr Clarke had indicated he was not planning to use the house arrest powers straight away. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""We believe it should be the judge that takes decisions, not politicians."" Mr Clarke said the security services and police backed his measures and it would be ""rash and negligent"" to ignore their advice. Nobody should doubt that terrorists at home and abroad wanted to attack the UK and its interests, he argued." -politics,"Brown hits back in Blair rift row Gordon Brown has criticised a union leader who said conflict between himself and Tony Blair was harming the workings of government. Jonathan Baume, of the top civil servants' union, spoke of ""competing agendas"" between Mr Brown and Mr Blair. But the chancellor said Mr Baume was never at meetings between himself and the prime minister so could not judge. He said the union leader was trying to block civil service reform which threatened his members' jobs. It suited the purpose of Mr Baume's union, the First Division Association, to suggest there were two agendas battling against each other because the union was trying to resist the planned reforms, Mr Brown told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Under the plans, unveiled in the Gershon report, some 84,000 civil servants jobs will be axed or changed and the savings ploughed back into frontline services. Mr Brown said: ""To be honest I don't think you can rely on his [Mr Baume's] judgement on this matter when it comes to the decisions that the government are making. ""Mr Blair and I are making exactly the same decisions on civil service reforms. We are determined to go on with the Gershon reforms."" He also said that as Mr Baume was never present at meetings between himself and the prime minister, he was not in a position to judge. On Wednesday, ahead of the Chancellor's pre-Budget report, Mr Baume told BBC News there were sometimes ""conflicting and competing agendas for government"" between Number 10 and the Treasury. What the chancellor wanted was ""not by any means what Alan Milburn and the prime minister want to see"", Mr Baume said. ""Government departments get their money from the Treasury on the basis of public service agreements they sign up to, but at the same time the prime minister also has an agenda and that's not necessarily the same as the Treasury's and the prime minister is of course a very powerful figure in any government. ""He also sends instructions and messages and directions to departments about how he would like each secretary of state and each department to implement a policy agenda. ""The problem is that on many occasions these two don't add up and individual cabinet ministers as well as departments have to make sense of this battle."" Number 10 said ministers were interested in governing and not a ""soap opera"" about Mr Blair and Mr Brown. Tory shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin said: ""The battle Royal that the top civil servants are now reporting on between the chancellor and Tony Blair is preventing them both from getting on with the business of getting taxpayers value for money.""" -politics,"Guantanamo man 'suing government' A British terror suspect held in Guantanamo Bay for 33 months plans to sue the government, it is reported. Martin Mubanga claimed in the Observer that an MI6 officer played a key role in consigning him to the US camp in Cuba, following his arrest in Zambia. Mr Mubanga, 32, from Wembley, London, said he was brutally interrogated and daubed with urine at the camp. The home secretary said he would not be launching an investigation and that the media reports were not ""well informed"". Mr Mubanga, who has dual British and Zambian nationality, was one of four Britons who were released from the US camp in January. He said he was sent there after being interrogated by a British man who said he was from MI6, shortly after his arrest in Zambia in March 2002. Mr Mubanga said he had been in Afghanistan and Pakistan to study Islam. But he said he was unable to return to the UK because he had lost his British passport, and was travelling on his Zambian passport instead. Mr Mubanga said the ""MI6 agent"" told him the passport had been found in a cave in Afghanistan along with documents listing Jewish groups in New York and suggested he had been on an al-Qaeda reconnaissance mission. Mr Mubanga said the man, and an American female defence official, tried to recruit him as an agent, but he refused and within three weeks was told he would be sent to Guantanamo Bay. His lawyer Louise Christian said: ""'We are hoping to issue proceedings for the misfeasance of officials who colluded with the Americans in effectively kidnapping him and taking him to Guantanamo."" And Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman, said it was vital to establish whether ministers approved Mr Mubanga's transfer to Guantanamo. But a Foreign Office spokesman said he could not comment on the activities of British intelligence or security agencies. And Home Secretary Charles Clarke told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost: ""I'm not organising a specific investigation into it."" Mr Mubanga is the first of the four detainees freed last month to give a media interview. He told the Observer his worst moment was when he was told he would be released last March, only to be confined and told he would be there for many more years. He claimed he was stripped of his clothes and mattress and forced to remain in an empty metal box, naked except for boxer shorts. And he said an interrogator used a mop to daub him with his own urine while he was chained hand and foot. Mr Mubanga, who insists he does not feel bitter, said: ""I've lost three years of my life, because I was a Muslim. He added: ""The authorities wanted to break me but they strengthened me. They've made me what I am - even if I'm not quite sure yet who that person is."" The US government denied the claims, saying it condemned and prohibited torture. In a statement, it said: ""The Department of Defense has no doubt that Mr Mubanga was properly detained as an enemy combatant under the laws of war. ""He was detained to prevent him from fighting against the US and our allies in the war on terror."" But Fair Trials Abroad director Stephen Jakobi said there were similarities between Mr Mubanga's account and those of other Guantanamo detainees. He said: ""The pattern is the same. The real problem is the concentration camp conditions in Guantanamo. ""Is [Charles Clarke] really pretending this is all made up?"" Mr Mubanga and the three other freed British detainees were released without charge by UK police on their return from Cuba." -politics,"At a glance: Tory health checks The UK' opposition Conservatives have unveiled plans to introduce health checks for immigrants if they win the General Election. Here's a guide to the plan: People coming to live and work in Britain from outside the EU. If they plan to stay six months or more and are from a country with lots of TB, they would have to have a chest x-ray and further tests if appropriate. All people from outside the European Union who want to stay a year or more will have to undergo a full medical. Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B and HIV. A positive test for TB would automatically mean visa applications being turned down. All other conditions would be dealt with on a case by case basis. People would have to prove they have an acceptable standard of health and are unlikely to be a danger to public health in the UK, or impose significant costs or demands on the NHS. They would also, if appropriate, have to be able to undertake the work or study they applied to come here for. People coming to Britain for less than six months would not be medically tested unless they intended to work in health care, childcare or teaching. Children and pregnant women wanting to live in Britain permanently would not have to have a chest X-ray for TB. Under 16s would not face tests for hepatitis and HIV. The Tories say people fleeing persecution will not be denied sanctuary in Britain because of poor health. However, they will undergo health checks to ensure they receive the right medical treatment and do not spread infectious diseases. They claim government figures show that TB in England has increased by 25% over the last 10 years and that nearly two-thirds of people with the disease were born overseas. They also believe there should be stricter controls over who comes into Britain to ensure they are not a public health risk. They say the plans will protect access to the NHS. Applicants will be tested in their home country. Only asylum seekers will be tested in the UK once their refugee status is established. Home Office Minister Des Browne says the Government already routinely checks people for TB if they come into the UK for six months or more from high-risk countries. Recent medical checks were carried out on 175,000 people at Heathrow Airport and 10,000 at Gatwick. From those tests, about 100 infectious cases of TB were found. The Tories say 47 other countries across the world impose requirements of this kind. The party has looked at the way the system is operated in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The Tory proposals are ""quite closely modelled"" on the New Zealand system. Labour claims the policy is little more than a ""desperate attempt to catch up with Labour's five-year plan"" for immigration and asylum, which was published last week. This says health screening for TB will be targeted on applicants from high-risk areas before they are given entry clearance. Those who are diagnosed with the disease would then need to seek treatment at home before being allowed to enter the UK. The Liberal Democrats have warned Labour and the Tories they were ""in danger of pandering to prejudice rather than challenging it""." -politics,"Labour attacked on Howard poster Labour has been accused of using anti-Semitic images in posters which critics claim depict Tory leader Michael Howard as Fagin. The poster shows Mr Howard hypnotising people with a pocket watch, saying: ""I can spend the same money twice."" The image prompted concern from the editor of the Jewish Chronicle but Labour insists it is simply anti-Tory. Labour later took the image off its website, saying an alternative idea had proved more popular with party members. The party will now use focus groups to test a poster showing Mr Howard and shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin with a blackboard reading: ""2+2=5"". The hypnotism poster has been compared to the portrayal of the Dickens character Fagin in the stage version of the musical Oliver! There was controversy over another poster choice offered to Labour members. It showed Mr Howard and Mr Letwin - who are both Jewish - as flying pigs. Mr Howard did not comment on the anti-Semitism claims when asked about the poster on Monday. Instead, he pointed to how Tony Blair had in 1997 complained about ""personalised abusive campaigning"". Mr Howard told Greater Manchester Radio: ""It is such a pity that Mr Blair doesn't practise what he preaches."" Jewish Chronicle editor Ned Temko said there had been a mixed reaction to the first poster but e-mails from Jewish Chronicle readers showed deeper concern about the hypnotism image. ""Shylock and Fagin are inextricably linked to notions of centuries-old prejudice,"" he told BBC Radio 4's World At One. ""Whatever the idea is, I think it's a difficult exercise to use images like that and to argue that you can divorce them from their historical context or meaning."" Mr Temko said he blamed ""cock-up not conspiracy"", saying he did not detect inherent anti-Semitism in any of the parties' election campaigns. The poster is among one of a series of ideas shown to Labour members, who have been asked to choose which one should be used ahead of the election. Labour MP Louise Ellman said the hypnotism image was insensitive but urged people not to rush to call things anti-Semitic when they only challenged Tory economic policies. Labour campaign spokesman Fraser Kemp said the poster had been misunderstood. The image simply portrayed Mr Howard as a hypnotist, he argued. ""Concern has been expressed and clearly we have to take those views on board but I would emphasise that if you see the posters, the common theme... is that the Tories are trying to con you."" A Labour spokesman later said the timing of removing the controversial image from the party's website was not affected by the row. ""This has been up on the website for two weeks and there has only been a fuss in the last four days so a substantial number of people voted before there was any fuss,"" he said. But a Conservative spokeswoman said: ""This poster campaign - which was offensive to many people - was a big misjudgement by Labour's campaign team.""" -politics,"'Super union' merger plan touted Two of Britain's big trade unions could merge to form a ""super union"" of two million members. The move by Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) would be a seen as a bid to carry more weight with ministers and employers. Amicus has 1.2 million members and the TGWU has 800,000. Any merger would have to be approved by the unions' executives and their membership. It is understood meetings will be held on Wednesday about the proposal. Along with the GMB and Unison, the TGWU and Amicus worked closely together in the last year to hammer out a 56-point deal with Labour's leadership over equality at work, holidays and pensions - the Warwick Agreement. Both unions are remaining tight-lipped about the merger rumours, but one insider pointed out to the BBC News website that ""nobody is denying suggestions a merger could be on the agenda"" when the two unions' executives hold their meetings on Wednesday. Amicus's executive was due to meet in any case although the TGWU is holding specially scheduled talks." -politics,"Iraqis win death test case probe The family of an Iraqi civilian allegedly killed by UK troops have won a challenge against the government's refusal to order a full inquiry. The High Court ruled on Tuesday that Baha Mousa's death in British custody in Iraq fell within the European Convention on Human Rights. And the judges paved the way for an independent inquiry by saying previous investigations were inadequate. But judicial reviews into five other deaths in southern Iraq were ruled out. Their families will be appealing against the judgement. The families' solicitor Phil Shiner described it as ""a historic day for human rights and the rule of law in the UK"". Father-of-two Mr Mousa, 28, a hotel receptionist, was arrested with eight men seized at a hotel in Basra in September 2003. He was allegedly beaten to death while in the custody of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment. The Iraqi families' lawyer argued that failing to adequately investigate the death breached the European Convention on Human Rights. Ministry of Defence lawyers argued the UK-controlled area of southern Iraq was outside European jurisdiction. But Lord Justice Rix and Mr Justice Forbes ruled that UK jurisdiction could extend to a UK-run prison, but did not apply ""to the total territory of another state"". They said as Mr Mousa was in custody when he died, his case came within the UK's jurisdiction. The other five Iraqis did not die in custody, so their cases had to fail, they said. And it was difficult to say that the investigation which had already occurred ""has been timely, open or effective"", the judges said. After the ruling Carla Ferstman, legal director of the human rights organisation Redress, said: ""It is not enough for the military to investigate behind closed doors. ""There must be an effective public investigation by an independent official body. Only such an investigation could reveal what really happened and who might be responsible."" Other allegations involving British soldiers included the shooting of an Iraqi police commissioner and the shooting of four Iraqi civilians in May 2003. Both sides were granted permission to appeal. Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said: ""Obviously we will need to study this detailed judgment. I would point out, however, that a separate criminal case is currently being considered by the army prosecuting authority. ""I can't say anything further for obvious reasons. The MoD are considering whether to appeal."" But former British Commander Colonel Bob Stewart said : ""Anyone at the top [of the military] will be saddened by the verdict that has taken place but will say: 'If there's a case to answer, let's have it out. Because we don't want people thinking that British soldiers beat up civilians and get away with it',"" he said. ""The Ministry of Defence does everything in its power to try to prove we act ethically and properly under the rules of war.""" -politics,"Hunt ban support is 'in decline' Support for a ban on hunting has fallen in the past six years, a poll suggests. Less than half the UK wants a ban compared to almost two-thirds in 1999, the Mori survey of 2,000 adults for BBC One's Countryfile programme suggests. The number opposed to a ban remains constant, but those ""neither supporting nor opposing"" has increased by 11%. Most city-dwellers support the ban but rural people were evenly split between supporters, opponents and undecided. Polling company Mori carried out both surveys. In July 1999 they asked 801 adults if they supported the ban for the Mail on Sunday. For Countryfile they asked 2,234 adults across the country the same question. The Mail on Sunday survey found that 63% supported a hunting ban compared with 24% against. In the Countryfile survey, 47% said they supported the legislation, with 26% against. But the programme makers suggest the British public are becoming ""increasingly neutral"" to the issue because around one quarter said they ""neither support nor oppose"" a ban." -politics,"Ministers 'naive' over phone-taps The government is being naive by refusing to allow phone-tap evidence in court, a senior EU politician says. Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief, says phone-tap evidence works in the courts of other European countries. Human rights groups, top police officers and many MPs say allowing the evidence would remove the need to detain terror suspects without charge. But Home Secretary Charles Clarke says the evidence would not make much difference to these cases. Mr Solana told ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme: ""[Phone-tap evidence in court] works, it is normal that it is done, it would be naive not to do it. ""It would be naive not to use this technological thing that we have at our disposal."" Mr Solana's comments come the day after Sir Ian Blair, the newly-appointed Metropolitan Police commissioner, said he was in favour of phone-tap evidence. Under the Anti-Terrorism Crimes and Security Act 2001, foreign terror suspects can be detained in British jails without trial or charge. Several suspects have been detained under these powers because evidence against them was deemed too sensitive to be heard in court. Some of this evidence is believed to be telephone intercepts. Human Rights group Liberty has argued that if intercept evidence could be heard, these detainees could be brought to trial. But critics of phone-tap trials say the evidence is often weak and can expose the methods of the security services. The home secretary says intercepts would not make much difference because cases against terror suspects frequently rely on other kinds of surveillance. But Mr Clarke has been forced to change the regime of detention without trial after Law Lords ruled it illegal. He has opted for a system of ""control orders"" whereby suspects, both British and foreign, can be held under house arrest or surveillance. These orders will again involve a UK opt-out of parts of the European Convention on Human Rights. While accepting that people ""have to be prepared"" for a possible terrorist attack, Mr Solana said he had ""qualms"" about the home secretary's new plans. ""We have to fight terrorism with all our means, but not so far as to change our way of life,"" he said." -sport,"Wales want rugby league training Wales could follow England's lead by training with a rugby league club. England have already had a three-day session with Leeds Rhinos, and Wales are thought to be interested in a similar clinic with rivals St Helens. Saints coach Ian Millward has given his approval, but if it does happen it is unlikely to be this season. Saints have a week's training in Portugal next week, while Wales will play England in the opening Six Nations match on 5 February. ""We have had an approach from Wales,"" confirmed a Saints spokesman. ""It's in the very early stages but it is something we are giving serious consideration to."" St Helens, who are proud of their Welsh connections, are obvious partners for the Welsh Rugby Union, despite a spat in 2001 over the collapse of Kieron Cunningham's proposed £500,000 move to union side Swansea. A similar cross-code deal that took Iestyn Harris from Leeds to Cardiff in 2001 did go through, before the talented stand-off returned to the 13-man code with Bradford Bulls. Kel Coslett, who famously moved from Wales to league in the 1960s, is currently Saints' football manager, while Clive Griffiths - Wales' defensive coach - is a former St Helens player and is thought to be the man behind the latest initiative. Scott Gibbs, the former Wales and Lions centre, played for St Helens from 1994-96 and was in the Challenge Cup-winning team at Wembley in 1996." -sport,"Isinbayeva heads for Birmingham Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva has confirmed she will take part in the 2005 Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham on 18 February. ""Everybody knows how much I enjoy competing in Britain. I always seem to break records there,"" said Isinbayeva. ""As Olympic champion there will be more attention on me this year, but hopefully I can respond with another record in Birmingham."" Kelly Holmes and Carolina Kluft are among other Athens winners competing. The organisers are hoping that Isinbayeva's main rival, fellow Russian Svetlana Feofanova, will also take part in the event. The pair had a thrilling battle in Athens which ended with Isinbayeva finally jumping a world record of 4.91m to claim the gold medal. Isinbayeva, 22, has set 10 world records in the pole vault, three of which have come on British soil." -sport,"Rush future at Chester uncertain Ian Rush's future as Chester manager is uncertain after he and assistant Mark Aizlewood refused a severance package. Chester have won only two of their last 10 League games but Chairman Steve Vaughan claims he cannot afford to sack the 43-year-old Liverpool legend. Vaughan said: ""I offered a financial settlement so they could resign with dignity but an obvious action is to dismiss them. ""I haven't because of the finances, so technically they're still employees."" Vaughan claimed that Aizlewood had ""verbally agreed"" to the offer. But the Chester chairman added: ""After they discussed the offer with their solicitor, who also acts as their agent, they decided to withdraw the verbal agreement, which was disappointing."" Rush was appointed at the end of August following the departure of former Liverpool team-mate Mark Wright, who guided Chester to the Conference title last season. Chester were bottom of League Two when Rush took over but the former Liverpool striker enjoyed an impressive start to managerial life, taking the club into the third round of the FA cup and winning the manager-of-the-month award for October. Chester's downturn in form culminated in a 5-0 defeat at Shrewsbury that leaves them hovering just above the League Two relegation zone." -sport,"Saint-Andre anger at absent stars Sale Sharks director of rugby Philippe Saint-Andre has re-opened rugby's club-versus-country debate. Sale host Bath in the Powergen Cup on Friday, but the Frenchman has endured a ""difficult week"" with six players away on England's Six Nations training camp. ""It's an important game but we've just the one full session. It's the same for everyone but we need to manage it. ""If five players or more are picked for your country they should move the date of the game,"" he told BBC Sport. Unless the authorities agree to make changes, Saint-Andre believes England's national team will suffer as clubs opt to sign foreigners and retired internationals. ""That's not good for the politics of the English team or for English rugby,"" he argues. It is an issue he has taken up before, most notably during the autumn internationals when Sale lost all three Zurich Premiership matches they played. Now he fears it could derail the club's hopes of cup silverware after eight players, including captain Jason Robinson and fly-half Charlie Hodgson, were away with their countries. ""We're in the quarter-finals, it's always better to play at home than away and it's a great opportunity,"" he added. ""But we have to be careful. Bath have just been knocked out of Europe and will make it a tough game. It also comes at the end of a very, very difficult week. ""Sebastien Bruno's been with France, Jason White with Scotland and there are six with England, that's eight players plus injuries - 13 players out of a squad of 31. ""We'll have just one session together and will have to do our best to make that a good one on Thursday afternoon."" Gloucester have also been caught in a club-versus-country conflict after England sought a second medical opinion on James Simpson-Daniel's fitness. The winger is carrying a shoulder injury and the national team management believe he requires time on the sidelines. As a result he misses the Cherry and White's quarter-final at home to Bristol. ""Under the Elite Player Squad agreement, England wanted a second opinion, which they can do,"" director of rugby Nigel Melville told the Gloucester Citizen. ""They obviously want him for international rugby and we want him for club rugby in what is a very important game for us. There is a conflict of interests. ""The surgeon who carried out his operation said he was fine for us but England say he is still vulnerable to be damaged again and want him on a full rehab programme."" Simpson-Daniel added: ""I've said to Nigel I want to be back playing and that means if everything goes well this week, I can target the Worcester game (on 29 January) for a return.""" -sport,"Clijsters hope on Aussie Open Kim Clijsters has denied reports that she has pulled out of January's Australian Open because of her persistent wrist injury. Open chief Paul McNamee had said: ""Kim's wrist obviously isn't going to be rehabilitated."" But her spokesman insisted she had simply delayed submitting her entry. ""The doctors are assessing her injury on a weekly basis and if there is no risk she could play. But if there's the least risk she will stay away."" Despite being absent from the WTA entry list for the tournament, which begins on 17 January, Clijsters would be certain to get a wild card if she requested one. Clijsters is still ranked 22nd in the world despite only playing a handful of matches last season. The Belgian had an operation on her left wrist early in the season but injured it again on her return to the tour. Meanwhile, Jelena Dokic, who used to compete for Australia, has opted out of the first Grand Slam of the season. Dokic has not played in the Australian Open since 2001 when she lost in the first round. But the 21-year-old would have had to rely on a wild card next season because her ranking has tumbled to 127th. Four-time champion Monica Seles, who has not played since last year's French Open, is another absentee because of an injured left foot." -sport,"Hodgson relishes European clashes Former Blackburn boss Roy Hodgson says the Premiership should follow the rest of Europe and have a winter break - but insists that a gruelling domestic schedule will not damage the English elite's bid for Champions League glory. Hodgson - now in charge at Viking Stavanger - was at Liverpool's clash with Bayer Leverkusen at Anfield on Tuesday as a member of Uefa's technical committee. Hodgson is a fierce advocate of the winter break employed throughout Europe, although not in England - where the Champions League contenders have ploughed through a heavy fixture list. But Hodgson told BBC Sport that while he believes the Premiership should embrace the idea, he does not expect it to cost the English representatives in the last 16 of the Champions League. ""I just feel it is very difficult to say with certainty that teams who have had the break will have a definite edge. ""I am a fervent supporter of the break. It gives players the chance to recharge their batteries midway through the season, which some suggest will give teams an advantage in the Champions League. ""The other school of thought suggests having a break then coming back to it puts you at a disadvantage. ""The bigger discussions around the winter break should be to do with the nature of football today, the needs of football players and the way the Premiership has developed, rather than one or two matches in the Champions League in February."" Hodgson believes a winter break carries many advantages, explaining: ""As I said, it is the perfect chance to recharge batteries. ""And certainly if I was still a manager in England I would be supporting any calls for its introduction. ""In pre-season you get a lot of enthusiasm and energy but by the time you get towards Christmas many players, having also played plenty of international matches for club and country and travelled a lot, find themselves getting very jaded. ""The break gives them a chance to recover that energy and enthusiasm and, perhaps more importantly, recover their mental strength during the break and get ready for the games ahead. ""The mental side is by far the most important thing."" Hodgson added: ""The length of breaks can vary. In Italy the break was very short. You just took Christmas and New Year. ""It was so short you didn't do anything. You gave the players a week or 10 days off, then you were training for a week or 10 days and then went into a game. ""If it is longer, it is important those responsible for physical fitness give the players a programme to follow to ensure the physical strength they have accumulated stays with them."" And Hodgson believes a winter break would be a positive step in the Premiership. He said: ""If we talk about football at elite level, which the Premiership is, then I would support a winter break. ""If you examine the demands of the Premier League and, in particular on players who play international football for their club and country, then a break would do them the world of good - physically and mentally.""" -sport,"O'Connell rejects Lions rumours Ireland and Munster lock Paul O'Connell has dismissed media reports linking him to the captaincy of the Lions tour to New Zealand this summer. O'Connell is rumoured to be among the front-runners for the job, but says he is totally focused on Sunday's Six Nations crunch clash with England. ""I honestly don't think about these reports,"" he told BBC Sport. ""The Lions thing is all speculation and newspaper talk, nothing more. I just ignore it and get on with my job."" He added: ""The only thing that annoys me after reading some reports is what the opposition locks think. ""I can just imagine them saying 'I'm going to show this guy what's what about second row play'. That's the one thing that makes me cringe."" O'Connell, who made a try-scoring international debut against Wales two years ago, is enjoying his meteoric rise into rugby's shop window - but refuses to be drawn on the Lions. ""I have spoken to Sir Clive Woodward a few times, but not for very long, certainly nothing about summer holidays,"" he joked. He also said he remains wary of wounded England's abilities coming into Sunday's game after two straight defeats, dismissing predictions of a certain Irish victory. ""It's very dangerous to think that. This England team has so much experience and skill. You do not become a bad team overnight. ""They have two world class game-breakers in Josh Lewsey and Jason Robinson, while Charlie Hodgson is just ready to click into place."" He insisted Ireland will not make the mistake of being over-confident. ""That's not going to happen in our squad. No Ireland team lining up to play England will ever fall into that trap,"" he said. ""Every time we play England we know what a big task it is. Look at what they did to us two years ago. I remember that game all too well, and it was not a good feeling. ""I came on as a replacement and we were losing 13-6, and ended up getting hammered 42-6, so I know what can happen when England come to Dublin. ""They could so easily have been coming to Dublin with two wins and staring a Grand Slam in the face as well.""" -sport,"Henin-Hardenne beaten on comeback Justine Henin-Hardenne lost to Elena Dementieva in a comeback exhibition match in Belgium on Sunday for her second defeat in two days. And the Belgian, who has slipped to eight in the world after struggling with a virus, faces a tough Australian Open title defence next month. ""I will be heading to Australia with a lot of question marks over me, I know that,"" she said. ""But I think there'll be less pressure than last time even if I am champion."" Henin-Hardenne was speaking after a 6-2 5-7 6-2 loss to world number six Dementieva in Charleroi, Belgium, on Sunday. The previous day, the Olympic champion went down 6-2 7-5 to France's Nathalie Dechy. ""I have to be positive, I still have a few weeks,"" she said. ""My body has to get accustomed again to the stress, the rhythm."" Henin-Hardenne slid down the world rankings in the second half of 2004 after contracting the illness in April. After an initial lay-off, she was forced off the circuit for a second time after being knocked out of the French Open in the second round. A comeback at the US Open after a three-month absence ended when she crashed out at the fourth-round stage. But despite her problems, she still won five of the nine official tournaments she entered in 2004 and won Olympic gold in Athens, an achievement which saw her named Belgian sportswoman of the year on Friday. ""Physically, it's obvious that I hit rock bottom,"" said the 22-year-old, who will make her comeback in the Sydney International from 10-16 January. ""Since April, with the exception of the Olympics, I have not done much. ""All the successes I had prior to that were mainly due to the work I put in on building up my fitness. ""Now it's time to get back to putting in 200% effort and I think I am capable of doing that.""" -sport,"Souness eyes summer move for Owen Newcastle boss Graeme Souness is lining up a summer move for England and Real Madrid striker Michael Owen. He sees Owen as the ideal replacement for Alan Shearer, who is due to retire in the summer, although he hopes to persuade Shearer to carry on. ""Michael is in the category of players who would excite the fans and we're monitoring him,"" he told BBC Newcastle. ""He is a great centre-forward and only 25 but I don't think we're the only ones monitoring the situation at Real."" Souness has also hinted he thinks Shearer may carry on despite his stated intent to retire at the end of the season. He believes the prospect of breaking Jackie Milburn's club scoring record may influence the striker's decision. Milburn scored 200 league and cup goals between 1946 and 1957, while Shearer currently has 187 goals to his name. ""Without giving too much away, I am confident he will be here next season,"" said Souness. ""I can't imagine him leaving without breaking Jackie Milburn's scoring record."" Souness also revealed he tried to bring back Nolberto Solano during the January transfer window. The Peruvian international was sold to Aston Villa a year ago but in the phone-in for BBC Newcastle, Souness said tried to re-sign him, but Villa were not interested in selling. The former Rangers and Liverpool boss is also looking to bring in a number of new acquisitions once the current campaign has been completed. ""I'm after three, four or five new players in the summer - we have got lots of targets,"" he said. ""Don't think we will wait to the last day of the season to say: `Who are we going to target now?""'" -sport,"Venus stunned by Farina Elia Venus Williams suffered a first-round defeat for the first time in four years at the Dubai Championships. Sylvia Farina Elia, who had lost all nine of her previous meetings with the American fifth seed, won 7-5 7-6 (8-6). Former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez and India's Sania Mirza, the oldest and youngest players in the draw, also reached the second round. Martinez, 32, beat Shinobu Asagoe 6-4 6-4 and 18-year-old Mirza beat Jelena Kostanic 6-7 (7-2) 6-4 6-1. Mirza, the first Indian woman to win a WTA Tour title this month on home ground at Hyderabad, will now face US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova. But she is remaining confident. ""She (Kuznetsova) is a great player,"" she said. ""But everyone is beatable and I am looking forward to a great match."" Williams though blamed her defeat by Farina Elia on injuries. ""Blisters were a factor, but mostly my stomach wasn't that great,"" she said. ""I did it in the last tournament in the semi-finals, and I was serving at 40% in the final. ""The first time I served again was Sunday and there wasn't a lot I could do out there. When your serve isn't good it throws the rest of your game off too."" She will wait to see how she recovers before deciding whether to take part in the Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami, starting on 21 March." -sport,"Hantuchova in Dubai last eight Daniela Hantuchova moved into the quarter-finals of the Dubai Open, after beating Elene Likhotseva of Russia 7-5 6-4, and now faces Serena Williams. Australian Open champion Williams survived an early scare to beat Russia's Elena Bovina 1-6 6-1 6-4. World number one Lindsay Davenport and Anastasia Myskina also progressed. Davenport defeated China's Jie Zheng 6-2 7-5, while French Open champion Myskina sailed through after her opponent Marion Bartoli retired hurt. American Davenport will now face fellow former Wimbledon champion, Conchita Martinez of Spain, who ousted seventh-seeded Nathalie Dechy of France 6-1 6-2. Myskina will face eighth-seed Patty Schnyder from Switzerland, who defeated China's Li Na 6-3 7-6 (10-8). The other quarter final pits wild card Sania Mirza of India against Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Montenegro, who both won on Tuesday. Before her meeting with Martinez, Davenport believes there is some room for improvement in her game. ""I started well and finished well, but played some so-so games in the middle,"" she said. Williams was also far from content. ""I don't know what I was doing there,"" she said. ""It was really windy and I hadn't played in the wind. All my shots were going out of here."" But Hantuchova is in upbeat mood ahead of her clash with the younger Williams sister, who was handed a first-round bye. ""I feel I have an advantage (over Serena) because I have already played two matches on these courts,"" she said. ""It is a difficult court to play on. Very fast and sometimes you feel you have no control over the ball.""" -sport,"Angry Williams rejects criticism Serena Williams has angrily rejected claims that she and sister Venus are a declining force in tennis. The sisters ended last year without a Grand Slam title for the first time since 1998. But Serena denied their challenge was fading, saying: ""That's not fair - I'm tired of not saying anything. ""We've been practising hard. We've had serious injuries. I've had surgery and after, I got to the Wimbledon final. I don't know many who have done that."" While Serena is through to the Australian Open semi-finals, Venus went out in the fourth round, meaning she has not gone further than the last eight in her last five Grand Slam appearances. But Serena added: ""Venus had a severe strain in her stomach. I actually had the same injury, but I didn't tear it the way she did. ""If I would have torn it, I wouldn't have been here. ""She played a player (Alicia Molik) that just played out of her mind and Venus made some errors that she probably shouldn't have made."" Serena also said people tended to forget the impact the 2003 murder of sister Yetunde Price had had on the family. ""To top it off, we have a very, very, very, very, very close family"" Serena continued. ""To be in some situation that we've been placed in in the past little over a year, it's not easy to come out and just perform at your best when you realize there are so many things that are so important. ""So, no, we're not declining. We're here. I don't have to win this tournament to prove anything. I know that I'm out here and I know that I'm one of the best players out here.""" -sport,"Dementieva prevails in Hong Kong Elena Dementieva swept aside defending champion Venus Williams 6-3 6-2 to win Hong Kong's Champions Challenge event. The Russian, ranked sixth in the world, broke Williams three times in the first set, while losing her service once. Williams saved three championship points before losing the match at the Victoria Park tennis court. ""It's really a great start to the year no matter whether it's an exhibition or not. I was trying to play my best and I really did it,"" said Dementieva. ""This will give me all the confidence before the Grand Slams. I was trying so hard to win this tournament."" Williams, 24, was disappointed with her display. ""She played some nice points, but it was mostly me committing unforced errors - four or five errors in each game,"" she said. Before the match, organizers auctioned off rackets belonging to the players, raising £115,000 for victims of the tsunami disaster." -sport,"Mansfield 0-1 Leyton Orient An second-half goal from Andy Scott condemned Mansfield to a ninth successive game without a win. Early in the second half Wayne Carlisle's cross was met by Scott and he blasted the ball home from just outside the penalty area. As Orient chased a second, Mansfield had to clear Alan White's header off the line and Kevin Pilkington saved well from Michael Simpson. By the end Mansfield fans were chanting for the head of chairman Keith Haslam. Pilkington, Talbot, Buxton, Dimech, Artell, Corden, Murray, Curtis, Neil, Warne, Barker. Subs Not Used: White, McIntosh, Wood, Lloyd, Herron. Harrison, Lockwood, Donny Barnard, White,Mackie, Scott, Saah, Simpson, Carlisle, Lee Barnard, Ibehre. Subs Not Used: Morris, Wardley, Newey, Zakuani, McMahon. Scott 51. 3,803 S Mathieson (Cheshire)." -sport,"Wolves appoint Hoddle as manager Glenn Hoddle will be unveiled as the new Wolves manager on Tuesday. The club have confirmed that the former England coach will be unveiled as the successor to Dave Jones at a news conference at Molineux at 1100 GMT. Hoddle has been linked with a return to former club Southampton but Wolves have won the race for his services. He has been out of the game since being sacked at Spurs in September 2003 and worked alongside Wolves caretaker boss Stuart Gray at Southampton. Hoddle began his managerial career as player-boss with Swindon before moving on to Chelsea and then taking up the England job. His spell in charge of the national side came to an end after the 1998 World Cup when he made controversial remarks about the disabled in a newspaper interview. The 47-year-old later returned to management with Southampton, where he again succeeded Jones - as he has now done at Wolves. He engineered an upturn in Saints' fortunes before being lured to White Hart Lane by Tottenham - the club where he made his name as a player. That relationship turned sour at the start of the last campaign and he left the London club early last season. Since then he has applied unsuccessfully for the post of France manager and had also been linked with a return to Southampton. Wolves are currently 17th in the Championship and have a home game against Millwall on Tuesday." -sport,"Teenager Tait picked for England Newcastle's teenage centre Mathew Tait has been named as a centre in England's team to face Wales in the Six Nations opener in Cardiff on Saturday. The 18-year-old will play alongside Falcons' team-mate Jamie Noon in England's midfield. Scrum-half Matt Dawson is also recalled, despite been left out of the initial squad after a row over clashing TV and training commitments. Bath lock Danny Grewcock will also start, pending a possible citing. England coach Andy Robinson has also awarded Gloucester flanker Andy Hazell his first Six Nations start. In another change to the side that lost to Australia in November, Leicester lock Ben Kay replaces Bath second row Steve Borthwick. Robinson was already without Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall, Stuart Abbott, Richard Hill and Will Greenwood, while Mike Catt had been left out of England's squad. J Robinson (Sale Sharks, capt); M Cueto (Sale Sharks), M Tait (Newcastle), J Noon (Newcastle), J Lewsey (Wasps); C Hodgson (Sale Sharks), M Dawson (Wasps); G Rowntree (Leicester), S Thompson (Northampton), J White (Leicester), D Grewcock (Bath), B Kay (Leicester), L Moody (Leicester), A Hazell (Gloucester), J Worsley (Wasps). Replacements: A Titterrell (Sale Sharks), P Vickery (Gloucester), S Borthwick (Bath), J Forrester (Gloucester), H Ellis (Leicester), O Barkley (Bath), B Cohen (Northampton)." -sport,"Arsenal through on penalties Arsenal win 4-2 on penalties The Spanish goalkeeper saved from Alan Quinn and Jon Harley as Arsenal sealed a quarter-final trip to Bolton with a 4-2 victory on penalties. Lauren, Patrick Vieira, Freddie Ljungberg and Ashley Cole scored for Arsenal, while Andy Gray and Phil Jagielka were on target for the Blades. Michael Tonge and Harley wasted chances for the underdogs, but Paddy Kenny was inspired to keep Arsenal at bay. Arsenal, stripped of attacking talent such as Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp, partnered 17-year-old Italian striker Arturo Lupoli with Ljungberg up front. It was a revamped Arsenal line-up, and they were almost a goal behind within seconds as Tonge wasted a glorious chance. Gray ran free down the right flank, and his cross left Tonge with the simplest of chances, but he blazed over the top from six yards. Arsenal were barely seen as an attacking force in the opening 45 minutes, although Ljungberg turned a half-chance wide after good work by Cesc Fabregas. Arsene Wenger introduced Quincy Owusu-Abeyie for the ineffective Lupoli at half-time, and the pacy Dutch youngster had an immediate impact. He ran clear after good work by Mathieu Flamini, but his finish was tame and Kenny saved easily. Owusu-Abeyie then fired in a testing cross, which was met by Fabregas, and it needed a desperate clearance by Kenny's legs to save the Blades. Arsenal were now totally dominant, and were desperately unlucky not to take the lead after 62 minutes when Fabregas crashed a rising drive against the bar from 20 yards. It then took a brilliant tackle by Jagielka to deny Ljungberg as he was poised to strike. Arsenal continued to press, and once again Kenny was called into action with eight minutes left, diving low to clutch another close-range effort from Fabregas. Neil Warnock's side almost snatched victory in the dying seconds when Derek Geary's cross found Harley at the far post, but his diving header was brilliantly turned over by Almunia. Owusu-Abeyie's pace was causing all sorts of problems for the Blades, and as extra-time began, another surging run into the penalty area almost set up a chance for Ljungberg. Pascal Cygan missed Arsenal's best chance after 106 minutes, blazing across the face of goal when he was unmarked at the far post. Arsenal sent on Jeremie Aliadiere with seven minutes of extra-time left, and he almost broke the deadlock with his first touch. Kolo Toure's misplaced free-kick landed at his feet, but Kenny once again blocked from a tight angle. Arsenal laid siege to Sheffield United's goal in the dying minutes, but they somehow held on to force penalties. Almunia was then Arsenal's hero as another brave Blades cup campaign came to a losing end. Kenny, Geary, Morgan, Bromby, Harley, Liddell, Montgomery, Jagielka, Thirlwell, Tonge (Quinn 97), Gray. Subs Not Used: Francis, Kabba, Shaw, Haystead. Morgan. Almunia, Lauren, Cygan, Senderos, Cole, Fabregas (Toure 90), Vieira, Flamini (Aliadiere 113), Clichy, Lupoli (Owusu-Abeyie 45), Ljungberg. Subs Not Used: Eboue, Taylor. Clichy, Lauren, Senderos. 27,595 P Dowd (Staffordshire)." -sport,"Souness delight at Euro progress Boss Graeme Souness felt Newcastle were never really in danger of going out of the Uefa Cup against Heerenveen. An early own goal followed by an Alan Shearer strike earned them a 2-1 win and a place in the Uefa Cup last 16. ""Obviously with winning in the first leg it gave us a great advantage,"" he said after the 4-2 aggregate victory. ""We got our goals early and in the minds of some players the job was done but then they got a goal and perhaps made us a bit nervous."" Shearer's goal moved him within 12 of Jackie Milburn's club scoring record of 200 for the Magpies. But Souness said he did not think beating the record would have any bearing on his decision to retire at the end of the season. ""I think if he got it this year he would want to stay next year anyway,"" he added. ""He struck the ball very well - he always has done - and I think it was the power and pace that beat the goalkeeper."" Souness also paid tribute to Laurent Robert, who was at the heart of much of United's attacking play. ""In the first half he did really well and did everything you want from a wide player. More of the same in future please,"" he said." -sport,"Smith aims to bring back respect Scotland manager Walter Smith says he wants to restore the national team's respectability in world football. Smith has joined his first squad for a three-day get-together near Manchester in preference to playing a friendly. While qualification for the 2006 World Cup appears to be beyond Scotland, Smith is anxious that the remainder of the campaign should be positive. ""I think we have got to try to get a bit of respectability back in whatever way we can,"" he said. ""We will have to approach each game differently. Obviously we will have to approach the Italian game away from home in a different manner to Moldova at home. ""We have to meet the challenge of each match."" Smith, meeting a number of his squad for the first time, brought them together on Monday to outline his ideas for improving the nation's fortunes. He said: ""I pointed out how I see the international team going forward and that was the main topic. ""This is a relaxed gathering and I don't think there is a lot of doom and gloom about the squad that a lot of people think exists."" A 25-man squad will spend the next three days based at the Mottram Hall hotel in Cheshire and will train at Manchester United's nearby Carrington complex. Smith will be absent for the final sessions, however, as he is due to fly out to Sardinia on Wednesday to watch Italy's friendly with Russia." -sport,"London Irish 19-33 Wasps Wasps made light of the absence of several internationals to sink London Irish with a trio of second-half tries. Rob Hoadley returned to haunt his old club at the Madejski Stadium, scoring the opening try in the 43rd minute. Tom Voyce powered through the Irish defence for Wasps' second try before Richard Birkett went over unchallenged. Mark van Gisbergen added 18 points. Irish replied with three penalties and a Mark Mapletoft drop goal before Scott Staniforth ran in a consolation try. Barry Everitt, who replaced Mapletoft late in the game, added the conversion to become the fourth Premiership player to reach 1,000 points. He joins Jonny Wilkinson, Tim Stimpson and Paul Grayson in achieving that target. Wasps piled on the pressure in an attempt to grab a fourth try which would have secured them a bonus point, but they were denied by some desperate defending from Irish. Director of rugby Warren Gatland revealed that harsh words at half-time inspired his Wasps side to raise their game after the restart. ""They got a roasting and it was a good second-half performance when they came out and played to instructions,"" he said. Gatland also singled out stand-in flankers Tom Rees and John Hart for special praise. ""They did very well. The back row played some fantastic rugby,"" he added. London Irish coach Gary Gold felt the result exposed his side's lack of consistency. Irish trailed by just two points at the break and Gold said: ""For 55 minutes we lived with the best but we have got to get back for the full 80 minutes."" Gold will now turn his attention to next week's Powergen Cup semi-final at struggling Leeds. ""We've got a good chance but with Leeds facing possible relegation they're going to come out firing,"" he added. Horak, Staniforth, Penney, Nordt, Bishop; Mapletoft, Edwards; Hatley, van der Walt, Hardwick; Kennedy, Casey; Gustard, Dawson, Murphy. Replacements: Everitt for Mapletoft (53), Hodgson for Edwards (77), Wheatley for Hatley (71), Paice for van der Walt (60), Strudwick for Kennedy (60), Danaher for Gustard (66), Reid for Murphy (47) Van Gisbergen; Voyce, Erinle, Hoadley, Roberts; King, Richards; Payne, Greening, Dowd; Shaw, Purdy; Hart, Rees, Dallaglio. Replacements: Priscott for Roberts (71), Green for Dowd (71), Skivington for Shaw (71), Birkett for Hart (57), Gotting for Rees (39). Not used: Fury, Brooks" -sport,"Hewitt survives Nalbandian epic Home favourite Lleyton Hewitt came through a dramatic five-set battle with Argentine David Nalbandian to reach the Australian Open semi-finals. Hewitt looked to be cruising to victory after racing into a two-set lead. But Nalbandian broke his serve three times in both of the next two sets to set up a nailbiting decider. Hewitt eventually grabbed the vital break in the 17th game and served out to win 6-3 6-2 1-6 3-6 10-8 and set up a meeting with Andy Roddick. The winner of that match will face either Roger Federer or Marat Safin in the final. Ninth seed Nalbandian had never come back from two sets down to win a match, and there was no indication he would do so as Hewitt dominated the first two sets. The Argentine had stoked up the temperature ahead of the match by saying Hewitt's exuberant on-court celebrations were ""not very good for the sport"". And he had words with Hewitt during one change of ends in the second set when the Australian appeared to brush shoulders with him as they went to their chairs. The balance of power changed completely in the third set as Hewitt allowed his level to dip, and he double-faulted twice as Nalbandian broke on the way to taking the fourth set. But the tiring third seed showed incredible reserves of strength to force the break despite being outplayed for much of the final set and three times coming within two points of defeat. He then produced a love service game to finish off the match in four hours and five minutes. ""I just kept hanging in there. It was always tough serving second in the fifth set,"" said Hewitt, who had never reached the last four at his home Grand Slam. ""I told myself to give everything and in the end it paid off once again. ""It's a long way from holding that trophy up there but I'm hanging in there. ""Only four guys left that can win and we're the top four in the world. It's set up for a pretty good showdown in the semis and finals.""" -sport,"Johnson edges out rival Sotherton Jade Johnson edged out rival Kelly Sotherton with her last effort to claim the AAAs long jump title at the Norwich Union European Indoor trials. Olympic heptathlon bronze medallist, Sotherton, led the event with her first leap of 6.43m - a personal best. But Johnson, who has not competed indoors for five years, leapt to a life-time best of 6.50m in her last jump, after four fouls. Both Johnson and Sotherton passed the European Championships qualifying mark. Although Sotherton's main aim in Madrid next month will be the pentathlon where she will take on Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft. Ireland's delivered a shock in the men's 200m as he stormed to his first major title in 21.01 seconds. British favourite Chris Lambert had to settle for second place while defending champion Ireland's Paul Brizzel took third. There was some consolation for Lambert as he set a personal best of 20.94 in the first round - good enough to qualify for Europe. Two-time AAAs champion Allyn Condon and Ian Mackie had no such luck as they were disqualified in the heats. There was plenty of hot action in the men's 60m hurdles where Scotland's was vying for top spot with Olympian Andy Turner. Scott, 22, smashed his personal best on the way to the final, where he broke it again to win the AAAs title in 7.58 seconds. Turner finished second in 7.82 after previously setting a personal best on the 7.83 in the semi-finals, while Damien Greaves did not finish the final. The trio of athletes have reached the European qualifying mark this season though one of them is set to miss out on a call-up to the British squad. comfortably defended her 3,000m title, clocking eight minutes, 49.87 seconds to easily surpass the European qualifying mark. The European cross country bronze medallist is ranked number one in Europe this season and will go to Madrid with high hopes. Helen Clitheroe was agonisingly close to the 9:05.00 qualifying mark as she claimed the runners-up spot in a personal best of 9:05.73. In the men's 800m heats, qualified fastest in the 800m heats to lay down a challenge to in-form . The Welsh runner attacked the last 200m to come through ahead of James Thie in one minute, 49.87 seconds. McIlroy, who is third in the European rankings, eased across the finish in 1:50.87 to set up a showdown in Sunday's final in Sheffield. Both Watkins and McIlroy have already achieved the European qualifying mark. Scotland's Susan Deacon stole 's thunder in the final of the women's 200m. Fraser became the fastest British woman over the distance this season when she qualified for the final in 23.68 seconds - though that time is outside the European standard. But Deacon claimed her first AAAs title over the distance, edging Fraser into second in 23.67. In the women's shot put veteran claimed her fourth AAAs title with a throw of 15.27m. But that mark was not good enough for the 39-year-old to book her place at next month's European Indoor Championships in Madrid. Sotherton finished fifth after producing two throws of 13.77m. In the absence of injured British number one Carl Myerscough, claimed the men's shot put title with a throw of 17.64m, which was below the qualifying mark. Sale's Robert Mitchell climbed to a season's best of 2.20m - just 3cm short of the European standard - to claim the British indoor high jump title. could only clear 2.16m to finish in fourth but the 27-year-old's disappointment will be tempered as he had already achieved the qualifying mark at a meeting in Slovenia on Tuesday. There was bad luck for British number one in the pole vault as he failed to clear the bar after deciding to come in at 5.45m. The AAAs indoor title went instead to Ashley Swain, who climbed to a season's best of 5.25m And Ireland's Taniesha Scanlon set a new national record of 13.28m in the women's triple jump." -sport,"Sprinter Walker quits athletics Former European 200m champion Dougie Walker is to retire from athletics after a series of six operations left him struggling for fitness. Walker had hoped to compete in the New Year Sprint which is staged at Musselburgh Racecourse near Edinburgh on Tuesday and Wednesday. The 31-year-old Scot was suspended for two years in 1998 after testing positive for nandrolone. ""I had intended to race but I'm running like a goon,"" said Walker. He told the Herald newspaper: ""I'm not in great shape, after missing about a month of training. ""I missed a big chunk of speed work over about three weeks, and then another week working in America. ""If I'd had a half-decent mark it might have motivated me more, but I won't be racing. ""I still enjoy training, but feel it's time to move on, and concentrate on a career.""" -sport,"Dawson set for new Wasps contract European champions Wasps are set to offer Matt Dawson a new deal. The 31-year-old World Cup winning scrum-half has impressed since joining the London side from Northampton this summer on a one-year contract. Wasps coach Warren Gatland told the Daily Mirror: ""We have not yet offered Matt a new contract but we will be doing so. ""I'm very happy with his contribution and I think he's good enough to play for another couple of years."" Dawson played a vital part in England's World Cup win last year but has fallen out of favour with new coach Andy Robinson after missing a training session in September. However he hopes the new deal will help him regain his England place. ""Rugby is still my priority and there's still a burning desire within me to play the best rugby I possibly can,"" he said. ""I know within myself, if I was given the chance I could play for England again. ""I know I'm fit enough, I'm strong enough, I'm skilful enough.""" -sport,"QPR keeper Day heads for Preston Queens Park Rangers keeper Chris Day is set to join Preston on a month's loan. Day has been displaced by the arrival of Simon Royce, who is in his second month on loan from Charlton. QPR have also signed Italian Generoso Rossi. R's manager Ian Holloway said: ""Some might say it's a risk as he can't be recalled during that month and Simon Royce can now be recalled by Charlton. ""But I have other irons in the fire. I have had a 'yes' from a couple of others should I need them."" Day's Rangers contract expires in the summer. Meanwhile, Holloway is hoping to complete the signing of Middlesbrough defender Andy Davies - either permanently or again on loan - before Saturday's match at Ipswich. Davies impressed during a recent loan spell at Loftus Road. Holloway is also chasing Bristol City midfielder Tom Doherty." -sport,"Greek pair set for hearing Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou will fight the provisional two-year bans imposed on them by the IAAF at an independent tribunal this weekend. Athletics' ruling body took action against the pair for failing to take drugs tests before the Athens Olympics. An independent tribunal of the Greek Track and Field Federation will meet to decide whether to ratify the sanction. The sprint duo face charges of failing to give information on their location and refusing to submit to a drugs test. Kenteris' lawyer Gregory Ioannidis told BBC Sport: ""We refute both charges as unsubstantiated and illogical. ""There have been certain breaches in the correct application of the rules on behalf of the sporting authorities and their officials, and these procedural breaches have also violated my client's rights. ""There is also evidence that proves the fact that my client has been persecuted."" Ioannidis, who is a law lecturer at the University of Buckingham, added: ""One of the important rights and foundations of law and justice - that the accused should be presumed innocent unless proved otherwise - has been tarnished."" The panel will also decide on the two-year ban imposed on the athletes' controversial coach Christos Tzekos by the IAAF. Kenteris, the 2000 Olympic 200m champion, and Thanou, the women's 100m silver medallist from the same Games in Sydney, quit the Olympics on 18 August after failing to give samples on the eve of the opening ceremony. Testers could not find them at the Olympic village and the duo were later admitted to hospital after claiming to have been involved in a motorcycle accident. They also missed tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens before the Games. In imposing two-year suspensions on the duo on 22 December, the IAAF described their explanations for missing the tests as ""unacceptable"". Whatever the findings of the independent tribunal, all parties will have the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The tribunal hearing will take place at the Hellenic Olympic Committee building. It will start at 1200 GMT on Saturday and is expected to finish early next week. The tribunal panel will consist of five members - president Konstantinos Panagopoulos and Panagiotis Dimakos, Haralabos Hrisanthakis, Stilianos Perakis and Ioannis Karmis. Kenteris and Thanou also face criminal charges in Greece for allegedly faking the motorcycle accident. Eight criminal charges have been laid against the sprinters as well as Tzekos, an eyewitness to the accident and hospital officials. But there has been speculation that the charges could be dropped." -sport,"FA decides not to punish Mourinho The Football Association will take no action against Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho following his sending-off in Sunday's Carling Cup final. Mourinho, who was sent from the touchline for appearing to taunt Liverpool fans, has been ""reminded of his responsibilities to the game"". But the FA confirmed: ""There will be no further action taken in this matter."" Mourinho claimed his 'silence' gesture was aimed at the media, although they were on the other side of the ground. The former Porto coach was forced to watch the climax of his side's 3-2 victory over Liverpool on television after being ushered away from the touchline by fourth official Phil Crossley. His gesture came after Chelsea's equaliser on 79 minutes courtesy of a Steven Gerrard own goal. Mourinho still faces an FA investigation into his allegation that Manchester United's players 'cheated' during January's Carling Cup semi-final at Stamford Bridge. And Uefa could also launch disciplinary action following Mourinho's failure to attend a compulsory post-match press conference after Chelsea's Champions League defeat at Barcelona last week. In addition, some time this month, Chelsea must also answer a charge of failing to control their players during the Premiership win at Blackburn in February. And a charge of failing to control their supporters following a Carling Cup meeting with West Ham earlier this season is still to be heard. The Premier League is also continuing investigations into allegations Chelsea officials tapped up Arsenal defender Ashley Cole in January." -sport,"Hodges announces rugby retirement Scarlets and USA Eagles forward Dave Hodges has ended his playing career to pursue a coaching role in the States. The 36-year-old, who has 54 caps, was Llanelli's player of the season in 2001/2, but has battled injury for the last two of his seven years at Stradey. He tore a pectoral muscle against the Ospreys on Boxing Day, an injury that would have kept him out for the season. ""Realising I would be unable to play this season, the club and I agreed to end my contract early,"" said Hodges. ""It allows me to move back to the US and pursue opportunities there and allows the Scarlets to look to the next generation."" The Scarlets have begun to rebuild their squad for next season after a disappointing Heineken Cup campaign, with plenty more signings and departures expected in the coming weeks. Scarlets chief executive Stuart Gallacher confirmed that 17 of the current squad would be out of contract in the summer. ""We have a deliberate policy whereby around half the squad are coming out of contract and they know they won't all be re-signed, it's a chance to invigorate the squad,"" he said. ""I'm positive about the future of the Scarlets both on and off the field."" Gallacher was keen to pay tribute to the role back-five forward Hodges has played at Stradey Park, though. ""David has been a highly influential member of our squad for seven years,"" said Gallacher. ""He is a real professional and we thank him for the part he has played in our success. ""I am sure he has an enormous contribution to make to the development of rugby in the US and we wish him and his family well."" Hodges described his years at Stradey as ""the best time of my life.""" -sport,"Ferguson urges Henry punishment Sir Alex Ferguson has called on the Football Association to punish Arsenal's Thierry Henry for an incident involving Gabriel Heinze. Ferguson believes Henry deliberately caught Heinze on the head with his knee during United's controversial win. The United boss said it was worse than Ruud van Nistelrooy's foul on Ashley Cole for which he got a three-game ban. ""We shall present it to the FA and see what they do. The tackle on Heinze was terrible,"" he said. Clubs are permitted to ask the FA to examine specific incidents but information is expected to be provided within 48 hours of the game. The clash occurred moments before half-time when a Freddie Ljungberg challenge left Heinze on the ground on the left touchline. Henry, following the ball, attempted to hurdle the Argentine but his knee collided with the back of Heinze's head. The striker protested his innocence - and referee Mike Riley deemed the collision accidental. Ferguson was also upset by Arsenal's overall discipline during the heated encounter between the two arch-rivals and praised his own side's behaviour. ""Edu produced a terrible tackle on Scholes that was a potential leg-breaker,"" he said. ""There were 24 fouls in the game by Arsenal, seven on Heinze, five on Ronaldo, six by Vieira - and it was only his sixth foul that got him booked. Phil Neville got booked for his first challenge. ""I am proud of my players for the way they handled that pressure. ""We have always been good at being gracious in defeat. What happened on Sunday overshadowed our achievement, but then they do it all the time, don't they?""" -sport,"Souness backs Smith for Scotland Graeme Souness believes Walter Smith would be the perfect choice to succeed Berti Vogts as Scotland manager. Souness's former assistant at Rangers is hot favourite to take over from Vogts, who resigned on Monday. ""Walter is most definitely the ideal candidate for that job. He'd be perfect for it,"" Souness told BBC Sport. The Scottish Football Association has appointed Tommy Burns as provisional caretaker-boss for the friendly against Sweden on 17 November. ""He fits the bill because of his knowledge and understanding of the Scotland team and football. He is experienced and has been successful."" Souness added: ""Walter is a real football person, as I know from working with him at Ibrox. ""On top of all that he is a proper human being who would command the instant respect of the players and everyone involved in Scottish football."" Souness joined Sir Alex Ferguson in backing Smith's claims. The Scottish Football Association is about to embark on the search for Vogts successor after appointing Tommy Burns in a caretaker capacity. Ferguson said: ""He (Smith) would be the outstanding candidate as far as I'm concerned. ""You need somebody who knows what they're doing and Walter would bring a wealth of experience to the job."" The Man Utd boss continued: ""I don't know what credentials are needed to do the job but it's a job that needs a lot of experience. ""He was my assistant with Scotland and here at Manchester United and he has also managed Glasgow Rangers. ""He would need to change the whole shape of Scottish football and radical changes are needed."" Smith was assistant to Ferguson at the World Cup in Mexico in 1986. The former Everton and Rangers boss has been out of the game since a spell as Manchester United assistant last term. BBC Sport understands that Smith would be willing to discuss taking over if he was approached by the Scottish FA. If he is tempted to take over, it seems almost certain Smith's long-time right-hand man Archie Knox would also play a part in the national team set-up. Smith already has the backing of many pundits and fans, including former Scotland manager Craig Brown. Brown said: ""Walter is an outstanding candidate without doubt. ""He would be admirable choice. I spoke to him on Sunday and I got the impression he would take it. He was asking me about it and I was positive."" Other candidates for the job include former Scotland midfielders Gordon Strachan and Gary McAllister and Vogts' assistant Tommy Burns." -sport,"Serena becomes world number two Serena Williams has moved up five places to second in the world rankings after her Australian Open win. Williams won her first Grand Slam title since 2003 with victory over Lindsay Davenport, the world number one. Men's champion Marat Safin remains fourth in the ATP rankings while beaten finalist Lleyton Hewitt replaces Andy Roddick as world number two. Roger Federer retains top spot, but Safin has overtaken Hewitt to become the new leader of the Champions Race. Alicia Molik, who lost a three-set thriller against Davenport in the quarter-finals, is in the women's top 10 for the first time in her career. Her rise means Australia have a player in the top 10 of the men's and women's rankings for the first time in 21 years. And Britain's Elena Baltacha, who qualified and then reached the third round, has risen to 120 in the world - a leap of 65 places and her highest ranking yet." -sport,"Desailly backs Blues revenge trip Marcel Desailly insists there is no chance of history repeating itself when Chelsea take on Barcelona on Wednesday. The French star was part of the Chelsea side crushed 5-1 at the Nou Camp in the Champions League quarter-final second leg in 2000. ""Things will be totally different this time,"" he told BBC Sport. ""Now everyone knows about Chelsea and is a little bit afraid of them. They are one of the major clubs in Europe and the pressure will be on Barcelona."" Chelsea have not played Barcelona since that quarter-final tie five years ago. The Blues had looked destined to progress after winning the first leg at Stamford Bridge 3-1, courtesy of two goals from Tore Andre Flo and one by Gianfranco Zola. But they collapsed in the second leg, going down to strikes from Rivaldo (2), Luis Figo, Dani and Patrick Kluivert. Former Chelsea captain Desailly, who is now playing for Al-Gharafa in Qatar, says there is no comparison between that side and the current Blues team, who are top of the Premiership. ""Mentally they are much stronger, even though a lot of their players are young,"" the 36-year-old said. ""We made some mistakes at the Nou Camp in 2000 - a lot of them were individual mistakes. ""It would not happen now. This team has a new motivation and a different mentality."" World Cup winner Desailly saw huge changes during his time at Stamford Bridge. He was signed for £4.6m from AC Milan in 1998 by Ruud Gullit and went on to play under Gianluca Vialli and Claudio Ranieri. But the biggest change occurred when billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003. Desailly says the Russian's arrival helped to instil a winning mentality at the club as well as a demand for success. ""The whole of Chelsea is different now - the chairman, the manager and all the players,"" he said. ""Everything is new and there is a huge determination to win. ""Since that game in 2000, Chelsea have gained more experience in Europe and were very close to reaching the Champions League final last season."" Desailly is one of the most decorated players in the history of football. He won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship with France, the Champions League in 1993 with Marseilles and 1994 with AC Milan, two Serie A titles and the FA Cup in 2000 with Chelsea. He is now winding down his career in Qatar, alongside the likes of Frank Lebeouf, Josep Guardiola, Titi Camara, Gabriel Batistuta and Christophe Dugarry. So he is full of admiration for two of his colleagues from the great Milan side of the mid-90s who are likely to line up against Manchester United on Wednesday - Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta. ""I'm happy that they have managed to play so long at a high level,"" he said. ""I made a vow to Costacurta that as long as he plays, I will continue to play. ""And it's amazing that Paolo has managed to play at such a high level for such a long time.""" -sport,"Wales hails new superstar One game into his Six Nations career, and Gavin Henson is already a Welsh legend. A mesmeric display against England, topped off by his howitzer of a match-winning penalty, has secured life membership of that particular club. At 23, Henson has the rugby world at his silver-booted feet. And if his natural self-assurance and swagger is shared by his Wales team-mates, then a full-blown revival could be more than just a lot of hot air drifting up from the Valleys. The ""Red Dragonhood"" subdued the ""Red Rose Army"" in most areas of the field, but Henson's stellar performance ensured their efforts yielded the win they craved above all others. He announced himself in the game's opening salvo with a ""Welcome to Cardiff"" greeting for Mark Cueto on the gain line. And his defence was a major feature of the match, his principal victim poor old, or rather young, Mathew Tait. The England centre will have spent his 19th birthday on Sunday shuddering at the memory of how he was up-ended not just once, but twice, by Henson's all-enveloping tackles. The second time, after the interval, single-handedly lifted the record Millennium Stadium crowd at a time when England were starting to show menace. Showing awesome strength, Henson nonchantly held the bewildered debutant in mid-air, a master predator toying with his helpless prey, savouring the kill. His kicking game also prospered, particularly when he moved to full-back for 10 minutes either side of half-time when his captain Gareth Thomas was in the sin-bin. One huge clearance from Tait's kick sent England retreating rapidly while another booming punt to the right corner kept the visitors pinned in their own half. Henson was also creativity personified: one little chip ahead for Shane Williams narrowly missed its target; a precise cross-kick forcing Jamie Noon to fumble the ball into touch. He also had a hand in the game's only try, finished superbly by Williams, and might have scored himself on the half-hour as he glided into space, only to be scragged by Tait. Henson was twice repelled as Wales laid siege to the English line after Charlie Hodgson's penalty had edged the visitors in front for the first time. But he was not to be denied as the crescendo rose to a deafening din, and the outcome of the match fell to him. Replacement Gareth Cooper made the most of a poor Welsh scrum by chipping into space, where Jason Robinson was penalised for holding on in the tackle. Five metres in from the right touchline, 44 metres out, it was not a kick Stephen Jones, who had seen a long-range effort fall agonisingly under the bar, would have approached with confidence. ""It was out of Steve's range but I looked at Gavin, and he gave me a reassuring nod,"" said Thomas. Henson, surveying his date with destiny, positively relished the responsibility, and the chance to make himself a hero. Without further ado, he nervelessly slotted the kick that ended five years of English dominance and 12 years of waiting in Cardiff. ""I knew I was going to get it before I even took the kick,"" he said later, his distinct spikey locks freshly gelled into an appropriate star shape. ""I have been getting them from that distance all year so it wasn't a problem."" There were still four minutes for Wales to hold out, and the frenzy was such that Henson could not even hear Jones shouting instructions at him from three yards away. But it was Wales who finished the game on the attack, almost snatching a second try in a thunderous climax. ""Just Do It"" implored the front page headline on Saturday's Western Mail newspaper. And, thanks to Henson, Wales did." -sport,"Holmes starts 2005 with GB events Kelly Holmes will start 2005 with a series of races in Britain. Holmes will make her first track appearance on home soil since winning double Olympic gold in January's Norwich Union International in Glasgow. She will also run in the Grand Prix in Birmingham in February and may defend her indoor AAA 800m title in Sheffield earlier that month. ""I am still competitive and still want to win,"" she said. ""I'm an athlete and I can't wait to get back on the track."" She added: ""These events are also a great opportunity to thank the British public for the enormous levels of support they have given me from the moment I stepped off that plane from Greece."" The Glasgow meeting will see Holmes compete over 1500m in a five-way match against Sweden, France, Russia and Italy." -sport,"Castaignede fires Laporte warning Former France fly-half Thomas Castaignede has warned the pressure is mounting on coach Bernard Laporte following their defeat by Wales. France suffered a shock loss against the Welsh at the weekend after looking on course for an easy win. Castaignede told BBC Sport: ""The pressure is big on Laporte after a huge loss to New Zealand, a slim win over Scotland and a miracle against England. ""But the French have to get behind him and the team at Lansdowne Road."" Following victories over South Africa and Australia in November, France were deemed by many to be the world's leading side. But they were then trounced 45-6 by New Zealand and only just beat Scotland after the Scots had a try disallowed in their Six Nations opener. It then took some woeful spot kicking from Charlie Hodgson and Olly Barkley to help them to victory against England at Twickenham. < Castaignede said: ""You can't say any of those results have eased the pressure on Laporte. ""Had England's kickers not been so bad, the position in the Six Nations would be very different now."" Laporte has been criticised for France's negative tactics in their wins over Scotland and England. But his side played a more free-flowing style against Wales, making a mockery of the opposition's defence in the first half before suffering a shock turnaround in fortunes after the interval. ""All the chat in France has been about how France will play against Ireland,"" said Castaignede ahead of the 12 March tie. ""Everyone wants to see the sort of play we saw against Wales. But everyone also wants a win."" Castaignede, a veteran of 43 international caps, admitted the French would go in as underdogs against Ireland. ""Going to Ireland is never easy but the way they're playing right now, it's harder than ever,"" said Castaignede. ""They're very experienced and don't often lose at home. They've got some great forwards and some electric runners on the break."" Despite praising the Irish he claimed the Welsh had the upper hand in the Six Nations run-in. ""Ireland have such a good pack but Wales are something else on the break,"" he added. ""At the weekend they were simply awesome. As a Frenchman it was disappointing to see, but you had to admire it. ""Their commitment to every cause can make them win this championship."" The 30-year-old also tipped Yann Delaigue to start ahead of Frederic Michalak at number 10 after an impressive display in Paris last weekend. ""Delaigue played really well and admittedly Michalak played well too,"" said Castaignede. ""I'm just glad I'm not the one who has to make the decision.""" -sport,"Veteran Martinez wins Thai title Conchita Martinez won her first title in almost five years with victory over Anna-Lena Groenefeld at the Volvo Women's Open in Pattaya, Thailand. The 32-year-old Spaniard came through 6-3 3-6 6-3 for her first title since Berlin in 2000. ""It feels really good,"" said Martinez, who is playing her last season on the Tour. ""To come through like that in an important match feels good. ""It's been nearly five years and I didn't think I could do it."" Groenefeld was the more powerful player but could not match her opponent's relentless accuracy. ""It was my first final, a new experience,"" said the German. ""I think she played a good match, a tough match, but I tried to stay in there. I think the whole week was good for me.""" -sport,"Fit-again Betsen in France squad France have brought flanker Serge Betsen back into their squad to face England at Twickenham on Sunday. But the player, who missed the victory over Scotland through injury, must attend a disciplinary hearing on Wednesday after being cited by Wasps. ""Serge has a good case so we are confident he will play,"" said France coach Bernard Laporte. The inexperienced Nicolas Mas, Jimmy Marlu and Jean-Philippe Grandclaude are also included in a 22-man squad. The trio have been called up after Pieter de Villiers, Ludovic Valbon and Aurelien Rougerie all picked up injuries in France's 16-9 win on Saturday. Laporte said he was confident that Betsen would be cleared by the panel investigating his alleged trip that broke Wasps centre Stuart Abbott's leg. ""If he was to be suspended, we would call up Imanol Harinordoquy or Thomas Lievremont,"" said Laporte, who has dropped Patrick Tabacco. ""We missed Serge badly against Scotland. He has now recovered from his thigh injury and played on Saturday with Biarritz."" France's regular back-row combination of Betsen, Harinordoquy and Olivier Magne were all missing from France's side at the weekend because of injury. Laporte is expected to announce France's starting line-up on Wednesday. Forwards: Nicolas Mas, Sylvain Marconnet, Olivier Milloud, William Servat, Sebastien Bruno, Fabien Pelous, Jerome Thion, Gregory Lamboley, Serge Betsen, Julien Bonnaire, Sebastien Chabal, Yannick Nyanga. Backs: Dimitri Yachvili, Pierre Mignoni, Frederic Michalak, Yann Delaigue, Damien Traille, Brian Liebenberg, Jean-Philippe Grandclaude, Christophe Dominici, Jimmy Marlu, Pepito Elhorga." -sport,"Mido makes third apology Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam has made another apology to the Egyptian people in an attempt to rejoin the national team. The 21-year-old told a news conference in Cairo on Sunday that he is sorry for the problems that have led to his exclusion from the Pharaohs since July last year. Mido said: ""There isn't much I have to say today, all there is to say is that I came specially from England to Egypt to rejoin the national team and to apologise for all my mistakes."" Mido was axed by former coach Marco Tardelli after failing to answer a national call-up, claiming he had a groin injury. But he then played in a friendly for his club AS Roma within 24 hours of a World Cup qualifying match at home to Cameroon last September. Mido added: ""It's not my right to give orders and say when I want to play ... at the same time I will always make sure that I put the national's team's matches as my top priority. ""I feel that the national players are playing with a new spirit as I saw them play against Belgium (Egypt won 4-0 on Wednesday) and I simply want to add to their success. ""I do confess that I was rude to the Egyptian press at times but now I have gained more experience and know that I will never go anywhere without the press's support. ""Many of the international stars like David Beckham and (Zinedine) Zidane had the press opposing them. ""So I'm now used to the fact that the press can be against me at times and I don't have to overreact when this happens. Meanwhile, Egypt FA spokesman Methat Shalaby welcomed the apology and said no one had exerted pressure on Mido to apologise. ""Mido's apology today does not negatively affect Mido in anyway, on the contrary it makes him a bigger star and a role model for all football players,"" Shalaby said. Shalaby earlier said that after an apology Mido would be available for the national side if coach Hassan Shehata chose him. Mido joined Tottenham in an 18-month loan deal near the end of the January transfer window, scoring twice on his debut against Portsmouth." -sport,"Johnson too strong for GB runners Britain's Kathy Butler and Hayley Yelling were no match for Benita Johnson in the 51st Cross International Zornotza in Amorebieta, Spain. Butler and Yelling finished fourth and fifth as Australian world champion Johnson romped to a five-second victory in the 6km race ahead of Edith Masai. Masai's fellow Kenyan Alice Timbilil finished third. Johnson said: ""I ran comfortably for the first 3km and then I tried to leave the others but it wasn't an easy task."" Butler clocked a time of 22 minutes 45 seconds - 22secs behind the winner but four ahead of Yelling, who last month succeeded Paula Radcliffe as European champion. Johnson, will be one of the star attractions at the Great EdinburghInternational Cross Country on 15 January." -sport,"Wenger dejected as Arsenal slump Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger claimed their display in the 3-1 defeat against Bayern Munich was ""our worst peformance in the Champions League"". Kolo Toure's late goal gives the Gunners hope for the second leg, but Wenger said: ""The only positive is that we are still in the tie. ""The players are really down in the dressing-room. I feel we really turned in a bad performance. ""At 3-0 we faced a real struggle, but 3-1 at least gives us a chance."" Goalscorer Toure was also at fault for two goals, and Wenger said: ""We need to help Toure rebuild his confidence as he is low at the moment."" Wenger also tried to stay upbeat himself, adding: ""But there is enough time for crying. I could cry - maybe it would be easier - but life goes on. ""In this job, you have good and bad nights. This was a bad night - but I still have confidence in the quality of my players, as well as their spirit and desire."" But Wenger's Bayern counterpart Felix Magath was in no mood to celebrate either. He said: ""I am far from happy despite the win. My players failed to try and score a fourth to kill the tie and then conceded the late goal. ""Arsenal are fully capable of scoring several goals against us on their own turf."" Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann, whose personal rivalry with Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn was not helped by the result, said: ""Do I blame myself for the third goal? As a goalkeeper, I always blame myself. ""I just know the goals were very easy against us. In my time here, we have never conceded three easy goals like that - but sometimes it happens. ""It would have been impossible to go through at 3-0 - but with the goal we have chances. Everything is now possible.""" -sport,"Jones files lawsuit against Conte Marion Jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation against Balco boss Victor Conte following his allegations that he gave her performance-enhancing drugs. The Sydney Olympic gold medallist says Conte damaged her reputation and she is seeking $25m (£13m) in the suit. Conte, whose company is at the centre of a doping investigation, made the claims in a US television programme. He and three others were indicted in February by a federal grand jury for a variety of alleged offences. In an email to the Associated Press on Wednesday, Conte said: ""I stand by everything I said"". Jones won three gold medals and two bronzes in Sydney in 2000. Her lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in San Francisco, said the sprinter had passed a lie detector test and that she ""has never taken banned performance-enhancing drugs"". Conte's statements, the suit added, were ""false and malicious"". After the ABC television program earlier this month, Jones' lawyer Richard Nicholls said: ""Marion has steadfastly maintained her position throughout: she has never, ever used performance-enhancing drugs. ""Victor Conte is a man facing a 42-count federal indictment, while Marion Jones is one of America's most decorated female athletes. Mr Conte's statements have been wildly contradictory. ""Mr Conte chose to make unsubstantiated allegations on television, while Marion Jones demanded to take and then passed a lie detector examination. ""Mr Conte is simply not credible. We challenge him to submit to the same lie detector procedure that Marion Jones passed."" The sport's ruling body, the IAAF, is taking a cautious approach to Conte's allegations but contacted the US Anti-Doping Agency. Communications director Nick Davies said the IAAF would seek to contact Conte ""for further information"". But Davies stressed it would be up to the American authorities to decide whether they will take action against Jones in light of Conte's television interview and the world governing body would monitor the situation closely. ""If it is felt there is case to answer, it would be for its national governing body (USA Track and Field) to take the appropriate disciplinary action,"" he added. ""The US Anti-Doping Agency has proved itself to be very diligent in its anti-doping war. ""And I am sure, like ourselves, they will be watching the television programme with great interest."" Jones, who is under investigation for steroid use by the US Anti-Doping Agency, has continually denied ever taking illegal substances since being investigated in the Balco scandal, although she praised a zinc supplement Conte marketed. Jones, who did not win any medals in Athens in August, has never failed a drugs test. Meanwhile, Conte, who has been charged along with three other men of distributing illegal steroids and money laundering, is due to face trial in March." -sport,"Newcastle to join Morientes race Newcastle have joined the race to sign Real Madrid striker Fernando Morientes and scupper Liverpool's bid to snap up the player, according to reports. Liverpool were reported to have bid £3.5m for the 28-year-old Spanish international this week. But the Liverpool Echo newspaper has said Anfield boss Rafa Benitez will avoid a bidding war and instead turn his attentions to Nicolas Anelka. Real are believed to still want £7m before selling Morientes. Monaco are also in the race for the player they had on loan last season. Reports suggest Liverpool will lift their offer to £5m - the highest they are willing to go before bowing out of any deal. On Tuesday, Morientes had said: ""I like Liverpool and I am pleased that a club of their stature want to buy me. I have told Madrid that I want it to happen. ""Madrid know my situation and they know they must do something about me. They must sort out the situation by being sensible. ""I am in a position where I want to play, and I will have to look elsewhere to do that. If Madrid do not want me then it's in the best interests of everyone that they are realistic. ""I haven't spoken to Rafa Benitez but I have always appreciated his work and I would like to play for him. But Benitez could yet turn his attentions to the younger Anelka should Morientes be reluctant to pledge his future to Liverpool. Anelka previously played at Anfield under Gerard Houllier before sealing his permanent switch to Manchester City." -sport,"Healey targets England comeback Leicester wing Austin Healey hopes to use Sunday's return Heineken Cup clash with Wasps as a further springboard to an England recall for the Six Nations. Healey, who won 51 caps prior to the 2003 World Cup, has been in good form in the Tigers' resurgence this season. ""I definitely still have ambitions to play for England,"" Healey told the BBC. ""We will have to see what happens after the previous (autumn) Tests but when I look at the current squad I definitely feel there is a place there for me."" Healey, who has also played both half-back positions and full-back during his career, has reverted to the wing, where he won most of his England caps. After recovering from a trapped nerve in his back sustained at the end of September, the 31-year-old is relishing his role in the Tigers revival. ""I had six weeks out but fortunately I have resumed the sort of form I had before,"" he said. ""I am basically playing where it best suits Leicester. Obviously I can play scrum-half, fly-half or full-back at a moment's notice. ""But playing on the wing actually gives me a bigger free role to come in where I am not expected and influence things."" That has been apparent in parts one and two of the Wasps-Leicester trilogy in recent weeks. First, Healey came off his flank with an angled run to score an injury-time try that earned the Tigers a 17-17 draw in their Premiership meeting on 21 November. Then, in the first of their Heineken cup double header last Sunday, Healey slotted in at stand-off and delivered a superb cross-kick for Martin Corry to score the Tigers' third try. ""I caught 'Cozza's' eye a couple of phases before that and was hoping to get it to him on the full, but fortunately even with the bounce he managed to score,"" Healey recalled. Healey, twice a Heineken Cup winner, believes last Sunday's match was ""up there"" with some of the biggest club contests he has played in. ""It was a very intense occasion and a very destructive game,"" he recalled. ""There was not a huge amount of rugby played but it was a great game to be involved in. ""After about 15 minutes I thought we might stride away with it but Wasps really came back into it and in the last couple of minutes it could have gone either way."" The same outcome this Sunday would put Leicester in pole position to top their Heineken pool with a home game against Biarritz and away trip to Calvisano to come. But Healey insists the Tigers must summon the same desire if they are to deliver the knockout blow in what has been dubbed ""rugby's version of Rocky II"". ""There was a lot of satisfaction in the dressing room aftewards but it is really only a case of a job half done,"" he added. ""It was the first of a two-leg trip and if we lose at Welford Road it will negate all the positives we can take from result. ""I think it came down to who wanted it more and in the end I think we did. We have got to show the same desire again this week.""" -sport,"Moody joins up with England Lewis Moody has flown to Dublin to join England's camp ahead of their RBS Six Nations game against Ireland on Sunday. Despite joining the squad, the Leicester flanker only has a ""slim"" chance of playing because of an infection in his finger. A decision will be taken on Saturday as to whether the 26-year-old will be declared fit. If he fails to recover in time for the game, his place at the back of the pack will be taken by Andy Hazell. Chris Jones will then start the game on the bench. ""The chances of him playing are very slim,"" said coach Andy Robinson. ""The infection is deeper than was thought."" Moody had to be put on a drip in an attempt to force antibiotics through his infected finger. He suffered the cut playing against France at Twickenham and it became infected during a 10-minute outing as a replacement for Leicester against Newcastle last Saturday. ""The mud got into it,"" Robinson added. ""He has had a big course of antibiotics but they haven't done the job we hoped they would."" Robinson has already been forced to make one change to the starting line-up with Bath prop Matt Stevens coming in for the injured Phil Vickery. The 22-year-old has only made 10 starts for his club but has made 49 appearances from the bench. ""It can be frustrating but I've had a lot more game time this season and I'm ready for it,"" Stevens said. ""I've been on tour with these boys and I've been in the England set-up for two years so I know the calls and the way they play."" Stevens will be winning his third cap on Sunday after coming on twice as a replacement on the tour to New Zealand last year. Robinson has confirmed that fly-half Charlie Hodgson will be the first-choice kicker despite his three missed penalties and a drop goal against France. ""Charlie's state of mind is very good,"" said Robinson. ""Obviously, we are all disappointed we lost the French game and the circumstances in which we did. ""But he responded well last week in his goalkicking for Sale and he will be our first-choice kicker this week."" Robinson also admits his side must improve their line-out work against Irish duo Malcolm O'Kelly and Paul O'Connell, one of the most effective partnerships in the game. ""In each game we've missed a number of line-outs,"" he added. ""It cost us the game against Wales but it has improved. ""It was better against France and will have to go up another notch against Ireland. It will be a huge battle. ""Look at the way they tore us apart last year. If it doesn't function, we will be in for a torrid time.""" -sport,"Jones files Conte lawsuit Marion Jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation against Balco boss Victor Conte following his allegations that he gave her performance-enhancing drugs. The Sydney Olympic gold medallist says Conte damaged her reputation and she is seeking $25m (£13m) in the suit. Conte, whose company is at the centre of a doping investigation, made the claims in a US television programme. He and three others were indicted in February by a federal grand jury for a variety of alleged offences. In an email to the Associated Press on Wednesday, Conte said: ""I stand by everything I said"". Jones won three gold medals and two bronzes in Sydney in 2000. Her lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in San Francisco, said the sprinter had passed a lie detector test and that she ""has never taken banned performance-enhancing drugs"". Conte's statements, the suit added, were ""false and malicious"". After the ABC television program earlier this month, Jones' lawyer Richard Nicholls said: ""Marion has steadfastly maintained her position throughout: she has never, ever used performance-enhancing drugs. ""Victor Conte is a man facing a 42-count federal indictment, while Marion Jones is one of America's most decorated female athletes. Mr Conte's statements have been wildly contradictory. ""Mr Conte chose to make unsubstantiated allegations on television, while Marion Jones demanded to take and then passed a lie detector examination. ""Mr Conte is simply not credible. We challenge him to submit to the same lie detector procedure that Marion Jones passed."" The sport's ruling body, the IAAF, is taking a cautious approach to Conte's allegations but contacted the US Anti-Doping Agency. Communications director Nick Davies said the IAAF would seek to contact Conte ""for further information"". But Davies stressed it would be up to the American authorities to decide whether they will take action against Jones in light of Conte's television interview and the world governing body would monitor the situation closely. ""If it is felt there is case to answer, it would be for its national governing body (USA Track and Field) to take the appropriate disciplinary action,"" he added. ""The US Anti-Doping Agency has proved itself to be very diligent in its anti-doping war. ""And I am sure, like ourselves, they will be watching the television programme with great interest."" Jones, who is under investigation for steroid use by the US Anti-Doping Agency, has continually denied ever taking illegal substances since being investigated in the Balco scandal, although she praised a zinc supplement Conte marketed. Jones, who did not win any medals in Athens in August, has never failed a drugs test. Meanwhile, Conte, who has been charged along with three other men of distributing illegal steroids and money laundering, is due to face trial in March." -sport,"Ref stands by Scotland decisions The referee from Saturday's France v Scotland Six Nations match has defended the officials' handling of the game after criticism by Matt Williams. The Scotland coach said his side were robbed of victory by poor decisions made by the officials. But Nigel Williams said: ""I'm satisfied the game was handled correctly."" Meanwhile, Matt Williams will not be punished by the Scottish Rugby Union for allegedly using bad language in his comments about the officials. He denies having done so. Nonetheless, he was furious about several decisions that he felt denied his side a famous victory. But Nigel Williams told the Scottish Daily Mail: ""I spoke to Matt Williams at the post-match dinner. ""He made no mention of the disallowed try or any other refereeing decisions whatsoever. ""If Matt has issues with the match officials, then he is very welcome to phone me and discuss them. ""Ultimately there is a match assessor at every international game to give an impartial and objective view of the performance of the officials. ""That is the beginning and end of it.""" -sport,"Dal Maso in to replace Bergamasco David dal Maso has been handed the task of replacing the injured Mauro Bergamasco at flanker in Italy's team to face Scotland on Saturday. Alessandro Troncon continues at scrum-half despite the return to fitness of Paul Griffen. The experienced Cristian Stoica is recalled at centre at the expense of Walter Pozzebon. ""We are going to Scotland for the first away win and nothing else,"" said manager Marco Bollesan. ""I really believe this is the team who will have all our faith for Saturday's game. ""We lost a player like Mauro Bergamasco who has been important for us, but (coach) John (Kirwan) has put together the best team at present, if not ever. R de Marigny (Parma); Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Francais), C Stoica (Montpellier), A Masi (Viadana), L Nitoglia (Calvisano); L Orquera (Padova), A Troncon (Treviso); A Lo Cicero (L'Aquilla), F Ongaro (Treviso), M Castrogiovanni (Calvisano), S Dellape (Agen), M Bortolami (Narbonne, capt), A Persico (Agen), D dal Maso (Treviso), S Parisse (Treviso). G Intoppa (Calvisano), S Perugini (Calvisano), CA Del Fava (Parma), S Orlando (Treviso), P Griffen (Calvisano), R Pedrazzi (Viadana), K Robertson (Viadana)." -sport,"McCall earns Tannadice reprieve Dundee United manager Ian McCall has won a reprieve from the sack, with chairman Eddie Thompson calling for an end to speculation over his future. It is understood that McCall would have been sacked if Sheffield Wednesday manager Paul Sturrock had been willing to return to Tannadice. But Sturrock has distanced himself from the position. ""We're in a difficult situation. We must get out of it through the efforts of current personnel,"" said Thompson. ""Ian McCall and I have had a long and detailed talk about a number of areas including the current league position and the manner of the exit from the League Cup,"" he added. ""However, the continuing speculation is doing no one any good, especially as we have several crucial games coming up. ""The minds of the coaching staff and the players have to be on those games and those games only. ""Our season would of course improve considerably if in the next few weeks we achieved some improved league results and there is also the potential of another cup semi-final, subject to the draw. ""All that matters at the present time - is us all having a total focus on the games ahead and a positive series of results being achieved."" Dundee United players had expressed their solidarity with McCall after their side's 3-0 Scottish Cup win over Queen of the South. ""We want the boss to stay, we don't want someone else coming in,"" said Jim McIntyre. ""Hopefully now he gets the chance to stay."" Keeper Tony Bullock echoed McIntyre's sentiments. ""I think all the boys are behind Ian McCall,"" he added. ""At the moment it is all speculation and we have got to rise above all that and do a job on the pitch."" On Saturday, Sturrock insisted that he had unfinished business with Wednesday, who are fourth in League One. ""I've only been here five months and I don't expect to be leaving very, very soon,"" he said. ""I can appreciate the rumours because I've emphasised my thoughts and ambitions to go back to Dundee United. ""I can assure you the timescale is not the right one. ""It (Dundee United) is my team. I had five years there as a coach, six as a player, two years as a manager - once you've done that kind of thing, it's the result you look for. ""The important thing now is I've come here to do a job and I'm going to try to finish it.""" -sport,"Real in talks over Gravesen move Real Madrid are closing in on a £2m deal for Everton's Thomas Gravesen after the Dane's agent travelled to Spain to hold talks about a move. John Sivabaek told BBC Sport: ""I'm here to listen to what Real have to say. Nothing has been agreed, but this is a big opportunity for any player."" The 28-year-old's contract expires in the summer, but Real want a quick deal. Sivabaek added: ""I will be meeting Real on Wednesday. There is serious interest, but it is Everton's hands."" Everton must decide whether to cash in now on the Denmark midfield man, or risk losing him for nothing in the summer. Manager David Moyes has defiantly claimed that he expects Gravesen to still be at Everton when the transfer window closes at the end of January. Moyes said: ""I speak to Tommy regularly and we know where we are at. ""There's been no contact. We don't want to lose him."" Real Madrid general manager Arrigo Sacchi is the driving force behind the move, convincing vice-president Emilio Butragueno and new coach Wanderley Luxemburgo that Gravesen is the right man for the Bernabeu. Everton must weigh up whether it is worth taking the money on offer for Real and risk their own ambitions for European football. Gravesen has been outstanding as Everton have established themselves in the Premiership's top four this season." -sport,"Wenger signs new deal Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has signed a new contract to stay at the club until May 2008. Wenger has ended speculation about his future by agreeing a long-term contract that takes him beyond the opening of Arsenal's new stadium in two years. He said: ""Signing a new contract just rubber-stamps my desire to take this club forward and fulfil my ambitions. ""I still have so much to achieve and my target is to drive this club on. These are exciting times for Arsenal."" The 55-year-old Frenchman told Arsenal's website www.arsenal.com: ""My intention has always been clear. I love this club and am very happy here."" Wenger has won the title and the FA Cup three times each during his reign. Chairman Peter Hill-Wood said: ""We are absolutely delighted that Arsene has signed an extension to his contract. ""Since his arrival in 1996, he has revolutionised the club both on and off the pitch. ""As well as the six major honours he's won during his time here, Arsene has been a leading influence behind all the major initiatives at the club including the construction of our new training centre and also our new stadium. ""The club has continued to reap the benefits of Arsene's natural eye for unearthing footballing talent. ""We currently have a fantastic crop of young players coming through the ranks together with a number of world-class players who are playing a wonderful brand of football."" Meanwhile, Arsenal director Danny Fiszman is looking for Wenger to stay beyond 2008. ""When we come towards the end of his contract we will both review the situation. I'm sure we will want him to stay on and I hope he will too,"" said Fiszman." -sport,"Murphy: That was a bruising battle That's what I call a tough game. It was very physical and fair play to the Italians they made us work very hard for our victory. Their organisation was very, very good and they proved again that they are getting better and better as the years go by. It is by far the strongest Italian team that we have faced. We knew all along that we would be a huge threat particularly the first game in the Championship. It was not like the days gone by when you could get scores on the board early. We had to work our socks off and try and build our scores gradually. It was really hard work out there and the players have plenty of bumps and bruises to prove it. I'm not too bad, but there are one or two others who will be feeling it a bit on Monday morning. In the backs, we were not frustrated at such, but the new rucking laws were a little bit problematical. The different interpretations between the referee and the players was a little difficult. But we managed to get the ball in our hands and I got a try near the end of the first half. It's always good to score. It was great work by Brian and I always knew I had scored even though it went upstairs to the video referee. Eddie (O'Sullivan) was very calm at half-time even though we were only 8-6 ahead. He spelled out what we needed to do and advocated getting the ball out of our own territory. That new ruck law made it a bit more difficult to get out of our own half. We were penalised a lot at the breakdown, and if they had kicked all their chances at goal we would have been behind at the break. So really we went back to playing a territory game and simplifying things and having more patience on the ball. Every one was a little down after the game following the injuries to Brian and Gordon. As yet we do not know the full extent of the injuries, but it does not that good. Now we have to focus on Scotland and only six days to recover. It's a big ask after such a bruising encounter. I was very impressed the way the Scots played against the French on Saturday. It could so easily have gone their way but for a couple of decisions. We will be under no illusions it is going to be tough for us. In the meantime, when in Rome ... ." -sport,"Bortolami predicts dour contest Italy skipper Marco Bortolami believes Saturday's Six Nations contest against Scotland will be a scrappy encounter. With both sides looking for their first win of the championship, the third-round game at Murrayfield has been billed as a wooden-spoon decider. And Bortolami feels the Edinburgh contest could end up being a bruising battle of the packs. ""It will not be a pretty game because both teams are desperate to gain their first win,"" said the lock forward. Italy have only recorded three wins since they joined the Six Nations in 2000, but two of those have come against Scotland. This year, Italy opened up with a stubborn display against Ireland but ended up losing 28-17. However, they were thoroughly outplayed by an impressive Welsh side in Rome last time out. Now the Italians travel to Edinburgh hoping to claim their first away win in the Six Nations. ""Scotland played extremely well against France in Paris but not so well when Ireland came to Edinburgh,"" said Bortolami. ""We are still very disappointed with our last game against Wales in Rome and we are thoroughly determined to right the wrongs. ""As a nation, our quest is to be respected as a team worthy of a place in this tournament and we can only do this by winning games.""" -sport,"Man Utd stroll to Cup win Wayne Rooney made a winning return to Everton as Manchester United cruised into the FA Cup quarter-finals. Rooney received a hostile reception, but goals in each half from Quinton Fortune and Cristiano Ronaldo silenced the jeers at Goodison Park. Fortune headed home after 23 minutes before Ronaldo scored when Nigel Martyn parried Paul Scholes' free-kick. Marcus Bent missed Everton's best chance when Roy Carroll, who was later struck by a missile, saved at his feet. Rooney's return was always going to be a potential flashpoint, and he was involved in an angry exchange with a spectator even before kick-off. And Rooney's every touch was met with a deafening chorus of jeers from the crowd that once idolised the 19-year-old. Everton started brightly and Fortune needed to be alert to scramble away a header from Bent near the goal-line. But that was the cue for United to take complete control with a supreme passing display on a Goodison Park pitch that was cutting up. Fortune gave United the lead after 23 minutes, rising to meet Ronaldo's cross from eight yards after the Portuguese youngster had been allowed too much time and space by the hapless Gary Naysmith. United dominated without creating too many clear-cut chances, and they almost paid the price for not making the most of their domination two minutes before half-time. Mikel Arteta played a superb ball into the area but Bent, played onside by Gabriel Heintze, hesitated and Carroll plunged at his fee to save. United almost doubled their lead after 48 minutes when Ronaldo's low drive from 25 yards took a deflection off Tony Hibbert, but Martyn dived to save brilliantly. And Martyn came to Everton's rescue three minutes later when Rooney's big moment almost arrived as he raced clean through, but once again the veteran keeper was in outstanding form. But there was nothing Martyn could do when United doubled their lead after 57 minutes as they doubled their advantage. Scholes' free-kick took a deflection, and Martyn could only parry the ball out for Ronaldo, who reacted first to score easily. Everton's problems worsened when James McFadden limped off with an injury. And there may be further trouble ahead for Everton after goalkeeper Carroll required treatment after he was struck on the head by a missile thrown from behind the goal. Rooney's desperate search for a goal on his return to Everton was halted again by Martyn in injury-time when he outpaced Stubbs, but once again Martyn denied the England striker. - Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson: ""It was a fantastic performance by us. In fairness I think Everton have missed a couple of players and got some young players out. ""The boy Ronaldo is a fantastic player. He's persistent and never gives in. ""I don't know how many fouls he had He gets up and wants the ball again, he's truly a fabulous player."" Everton: Martyn, Hibbert, Yobo, Stubbs, Naysmith, Osman, Carsley, Arteta, Kilbane, McFadden, Bent. Subs: Wright, Pistone, Weir, Plessis, Vaughan. Manchester United: Carroll, Gary Neville, Brown, Ferdinand, Heinze, Ronaldo, Phil Neville, Keane, Scholes, Fortune, Rooney. Subs: Howard, Giggs, Smith, Miller, Spector. Referee: R Styles (Hampshire)" -sport,"Dallaglio eyeing Lions tour place Former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio still harbours hopes of a place on the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand. Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward has made it clear he will pick his squad to tour next summer based on form shown in the Six Nations championship. But Dallaglio, who called time on England earlier this year, said: ""I assure you I wouldn't let anyone down. ""I know what it takes and what I have to offer,"" he told the Daily Telegraph. Dallaglio toured South Africa with the Lions in 1997 but was forced home early with a knee injury from the trip to Australia three years ago. The 32-year-old also felt concentrating on club rugby could have prolonged his international shelf-life. He said: ""I'll be in good shape and fresh without another 10 Tests on the clock. ""From what I witnessed at close quarters on Sunday in our Heineken Cup match against Leicester, I certainly didn't feel out of place alongside those players, many of whom will be on the trip. ""If I'm fit and playing well, then I'm most certainly available. ""If Clive feels he has no need to look outside the international crop, then fine. If he does, then he won't need to look too far, will he?""" -sport,"What now for Kelly Holmes? Last April, Kelly Holmes spoke to the BBC Sport website about her loneliness, her fight to stay fit and her decision not to contest both the 800m and 1500m at the Olympics. It just goes to show even the most meticulous and measured athletes cannot predict what fate has in store for them. Four months later, Holmes stormed to double Olympic gold and has since been made a Dame, won the BBC Sport Personality of the Year and written a book whilst still finding time to coach aspiring athletes. With so much time spent in the spotlight, Holmes has increasingly dropped hints that her ambition on the track has begun to wilt. And when asked about her plans for both the indoor and outdoor seasons ahead, the 34-year-old has repeatedly chosen to tick the ""don't know"" box. Holmes has now pulled out of this weekend's European Indoor Championships, where she was selected for both the 800m and 1500m, because of a hamstring injury. But should we be surprised if the Olympic champion over both those distances decides she just does not feel like racing anymore? ""Well, it's a lot easier being the double Olympic champion, being feted by everybody, than training to be at the top in middle distance running,"" points out former Olympian and BBC pundit Steve Cram. ""You have to have a real strong desire to carry on doing it even if you're very talented."" Holmes' drive and determination have always been unquestionable - that is the reason she has battled back from a string of injuries that threatened to see her finish her career empty-handed. But alarm bells start ringing when the Kent athlete begins questioning herself. ""Will I have as much commitment, desire and energy to go through a major championship?"" Holmes asked in the New Year. ""That is what I don't know."" At 34, Holmes will also be aware that time is running out. US 400m and 200m legend Michael Johnson, a five-time Olympic gold medallist, retired shortly after his 34th birthday as did Britain's double Olympic champion decathlete Daley Thompson. The physical demands of the day-to-day grind will only get harder for Holmes, who has already admitted she ""doesn't like the training anymore."" Whilst out on the circuit the allure of defeating a double Olympic champion will spur her opponents on. Holmes will not want to needlessly suffer the indignity of being beaten. Unless she is certain she has a strong chance of winning any race, she will not step onto the track. But if the Kent athlete finds the form that fuelled her ambitions last summer, there are more prizes up for grabs. The day after completing her double in Athens, the 34-year-old revealed she would still like to win her first indoors title. Holmes' wish could easily be met in Madrid before she goes on to prepare for the outdoor season where there are still scores to be settled, such as a first gold at the World Championships in Helsinki. There is just one small truth which could gnaw away at Holmes' motivation - the realisation that no matter how hard she trains, nothing she wins now can surpass her achievements in Athens. On the other hand, if those achievements cannot be matched shouldn't they be at least shared and celebrated? ""You don't get the chance very often in your career to step onto the track as the double Olympic champion,"" agreed Cram. ""You want to be able to take your bow in front of the fans because it's a fantastic feeling. ""I think deep down Kelly wants to run. I think she will compete and run races on the circuits but whether or not she runs in the major championships is much less certain."" Athletics fans had every reason to believe they would see the new-look Kelly Holmes tearing up the track again. After her Olympic glory she emphatically denied she planned to retire. So, why is Holmes dragging her heels about making a decision on where, when or whether to even bother competing again? ""That's just Kelly,"" explains Cram. ""She's always been like that. ""She enjoys people trying to guess what she is going to do next. She knows every time she makes a pronouncement now it's headline news. ""Kelly has to figure out for herself what it is she wants and that will be based on athletics decisions, whether she can be competitive, if she is fit enough to put her neck on the line. ""And if she decides not to run again, no-one is going to turn round and say 'you're making the wrong decision.'""" -sport,"Moya emotional at Davis Cup win Carlos Moya described Spain's Davis Cup victory as the highlight of his career after he beat Andy Roddick to end the USA's challenge in Seville. Moya made up for missing Spain's 2000 victory through injury by beating Roddick 6-2 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-5) to give the hosts an unassailable 3-1 lead. ""I have woken up so many nights dreaming of this day,"" said Moya. ""All my energy has been focused on today. ""What I have lived today I do not think I will live again."" Spain's only other Davis Cup title came two years ago in Valencia, when they beat Australia. And Moya, nicknamed Charly, admitted: ""The Davis Cup is my dream and I was a bit nervous at the outset. ""Some people have said that I am obsessed but I think that it is better this way. It helps me reach my goals if I am obsessed. ""It's really incredible - to get the winning point is really something."" Spanish captain Jordi Arrese said: ""Charly played a great game. It was his opportunity and he hasn't let us down. ""He had lost three times to Roddick, and this was his day to beat him. ""He had been waiting years to be in this position."" Spain's victory was also remarkable for the performance of Rafael Nadal, who beat Roddick in the opening singles. Aged 18 years and 185 days, the Mallorcan became the youngest player to win the Davis Cup. ""What a great way to finish the year,"" said Nadal afterwards. US coach Patrick McEnroe wants Roddick and the rest of his team to play more tennis on clay and hone their skills on the surface. ""I think it will help these guys even on slow hard courts to learn how to mix things up a little bit and to play a little bit smarter and tactically better."" ""Obviously it's unrealistic to say that we're going to just start playing constantly on clay, with the schedule. ""But certainly I think we can put the work in at the appropriate time and play a couple more events and play against these guys who are the best on this stuff,"" said McEnroe. Roddick was left frustrated after losing both his singles on the slow clay of Seville's Olympic Stadium. ""It's just tough because I felt like I was in it the whole time against one of the top three clay-courters in the world,"" said the American. ""I had my chances and just didn't convert them. The bottom line is they were just better than us this weekend. ""They came out, took care of business and they beat us. It's as simple as that.""" -sport,"Candela completes Bolton switch Bolton boss Sam Allardyce has signed Roma defender Vincent Candela on a five-month deal. The 31-year-old former France international gave his last press conference as a Roma player on Monday, anouncing his move to Bolton. ""I have signed a five-month contract with Bolton,"" said Candela, who will travel to England on Tuesday. ""In June I will decide whether to continue to play for Bolton or retire from professional football."" Allardyce hopes Candela's arrival will relieve Bolton's injury crisis after defender Nicky Hunt limped out injured during Oldham's 1-0 win against Oldham in the FA Cup on Sunday. ""In light of what has happened to Nicky Hunt, with his injury, it might be a blessing in disguise that we can bring in a highly-experienced full-back to help with our injuries at the back,"" Allardyce said. ""He has an outstanding pedigree in the game and has won honours at the highest level including the World Cup in 1998. ""He has not played regular football this year but is eager to impress in the Premiership. ""He can play in any position at the back and despite him being predominately right-footed he has played the majority of his career at left-back."" Candela, who was a member of the Roma side that won the title in 2001, has made only seven league appearances this season for Luigi del Neri's side." -sport,"Disappointed Scott in solid start Allan Scott is confident of winning a medal at next week's European Indoor Championships after a solid debut on the international circuit. The 22-year-old Scot finished fourth in the 60m hurdles at the Jose M Cagigal Memorial meeting in Madrid. ""It was definitely a learning curve and I certainly haven't ruled out challenging for a medal next week,"" said the East Kilbride athlete. The race was won by Felipe Vivancos, who equalled the Spanish record. Sweden's Robert Kronberg was second, with Haiti's Dudley Dorival in third. Scott was slightly disappointed with his run in the final. He won his heat in 7.64secs but ran 0.04secs slower in his first IAAF Indoor Grand Prix circuit final. ""I should have done better than that,"" he said. ""I felt I could have won it. I got a poor start - but I still felt I should have ran faster."" Vivancos slashed his personal best to equal the Spanish record with a time of 7.60secs while Kronberg and Dorival clocked 7.62secs and 7.63secs respectively." -sport,"Man City 0-2 Man Utd Manchester United reduced Chelsea's Premiership lead to nine points after a scrappy victory over Manchester City. Wayne Rooney met Gary Neville's cross to the near post with a low shot, which went in via a deflection off Richard Dunne, to put United ahead. Seven minutes later, the unfortunate Dunne hooked a volley over David James' head and into his own net. Steve McManaman wasted City's best chance when he shot wide from three yards in the first half. In the opening 45 minutes United had looked unlikely to earn the win they needed to maintain any chance of catching Chelsea in the title race. Their approach play was more laboured than patient and they managed to fashion just one chance - a Paul Scholes header over the bar. And City seemed to be content to sit back and try and hit their rivals on the break as the game settled into a tepid pattern. Only Shaun Wright-Phillips appeared capable of interrupting the monotony, looking lively down the right and causing Gabriel Heinze problems. Wes Brown also found Wright-Phillips to be a difficult opponent when the tricky winger embarrassed him near the touchline. Wright-Phillips' sublime skill and pace took him past Brown and he delivered a pin-point centre to the feet of McManaman. But the former Liverpool player demonstrated why he has never scored against United by side-footing the easy chance wide. John O'Shea was forced off after an earlier clash with Sylvain Distin and Cristiano Ronaldo came on to replace him. He immediately caused Ben Thatcher some discomfort and looked set to inject some much-needed pace into the United attack. Rooney was being well marshalled by Dunne - but that was all about to change. After the break, United poured forward and there was a renewed urgency about their play. And when Neville delivered a cross in a carbon copy of City's best first-half chance, Rooney showed McManaman how to do it - even if he needed the help of Dunne's leg. Worse was to come for Dunne, who had been having a fine match. On 75 minutes, he scored a horrible own goal when attempting to volley clear Rooney's cross and United seemed home and dry. However, City did fight back and Fowler missed another great chance from close range. And United keeper Roy Carroll saved well from Kiki Musampa. But United could have a had a third late on when substitute Ryan Giggs hit the post. - Manchester City boss Kevin Keegan: ""We had a great chance to take the lead and the first goal was always going to be crucial. ""We started off with a good tempo but then we allowed them to dictate the pace a bit too much. ""But we still had four good chances, two after we'd gone 2-0 down, the one McManaman missed was very similar to the one Wayne Rooney scored from."" - Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson: ""It wasn't our best performance of the last three months but I think we're deserved winners. ""At times, especially in the first half, we didn't play with enough speed. But with (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Ryan) Giggs on, the speed improved. ""Derby games can be like that, they can be scrappy, dull, horrible and it was maybe like that."" Man City: James, Mills (Bradley Wright-Phillips 83), Dunne, Distin, Thatcher, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Barton (Macken 68), Sibierski, McManaman, Musampa, Fowler. Subs Not Used: Weaver, Onuoha, Flood. Booked: Fowler, Sibierski. Man Utd: Carroll, Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Heinze, O'Shea (Ronaldo 33), Keane, Fortune, Fletcher (Giggs 64), Rooney, Scholes (Phil Neville 84). Subs Not Used: Howard, Bellion. Booked: Rooney, Scholes, Keane. Goals: Rooney 68, Dunne 75 og. Att: 47,111 Ref: S Bennett (Kent)." -sport,"2004: An Irish Athletics Year 2004 won't be remembered as one of Irish athletics' great years. The year began with that optimism which invariably and unaccountably, seems to herald an upcoming Olympiad. But come late August, a few hot days in the magnificent stadium in Athens told us of the true strength of Irish athletics - or to be more accurate, the lack of it. Sonia O'Sullivan's Olympic farewell apart, there was little to stir the emotions of Irish athletics watchers. But after the disastrous build-up to the games, we shouldn't have been surprised. At the start of the year, an O'Sullivan had been earmarked as Ireland's best medal prospect but as it turned out, walker Gillian never even made it to the start line because of injury. Less than a week before the Olympics, the sport was rocked by news that 10,000m hope Cathal Lombard had tested for the banned substance EPO. Lombard's shattering of Mark Carroll's national 10,000m record in April had already set tongues wagging but even the most cynical of observers, were surprised when he was rumbled after an Irish Sports Council sting operation. The Corkman quickly held his hands up in admission and was promptly handed a two-year ban from the sport. Back at pre-Olympic ranch in Greece, it must have seemed that things couldn't have got any worse but they very nearly did with walker Jamie Costin lucky to escape with his life after being involved in a car crash near Athens. Once the track and field action began in Athens, a familiar pattern of underachievement emerged although Alistair Cragg's performance in being the only athlete from a European nation to qualify for the 5,000m final did offer hope for the future. Our beloved Sonia scraped into the women's 5K final as a fastest loser and for a couple of days, the country attempted to delude itself into believing that she might be in the medal shake-up. As it happened, she went out the back door early in the final although there was nothing undignified about the way that she insisted on finishing the race over a minute behind winner Meseret Defar. It later transpired that Sonia had been suffering from a stomach bug in the 48 hours before the final although typically, the Cobhwoman played down the effects of the illness. Amazingly, she was back in action a couple of weeks later when beating a world-class field at the Flora Lite 5K road race in London and while her major championship days may be over, it's unlikely that we have seen the last of her in competition. At least Sonia managed to make it to Athens. At the start of the year, several Northern Ireland athletes had genuine hopes of qualifying for the Games but come August, an out-of-form and injured Paul Brizzel was the lone standard bearer for the province. The Ballymena man gave it a lash but his achilles problem, and a bad lane draw, meant a time of 21.00 and an early exit. James McIlroy, Gareth Turnbull, Zoe Brown and Paul McKee all had to be content with watching the Athens action on their television screens. 800m hope McIlroy never got near his best during the summer and a fourth place in the British trials effectively ended his hopes of making the plane. The injury-plagued Turnbull gamely travelled round Europe in search of the 1500m qualifying mark but 3:39 was the best he could achieve, after missing several months training during the previous winter. A lingering hamstring probem and a virus wrecked McKee's Athens ambitions and both he and Turnbull deserve a slice of better fortune in 2005. Pole vaulter Brown had hoped for a vote of confidence from the British selectors after she had achieved the Athens B standard but the call never came. As the summer ended, stalwarts Catherina McKiernan and Dermot Donnelly hung up their competitive spikes. McKiernan had to candidly acknowledge that time had crept up on her after several injury-ravaged years. Donnelly and his Annadale Striders team-mates later suffered tragedy when their friend and clubman Andy Campbell was found dead at his home on 18 December. A large turnout of athletics-loving folk turned out in west Belfast to offer their respects to the Campbell family and Andy's many friends. As only death can, it put the year's athletics happenings in a sharp perspective." -sport,"White prepared for battle Tough-scrummaging prop Julian White is expecting a resurgent Wales to give him a rough ride in England's Six Nations opener in Cardiff on Saturday. The Leicester tight-head is in the form of his life, making the England number three shirt his own. But he knows Wales will put his technique under immense scrutiny. ""The Welsh scrum is a force to be reckoned with,"" he told BBC Sport. ""They have made a lot of changes for the better over the last few years."" White is also impressed with the Welsh pack's strength in depth. ""Gethin Jenkins is starting at loose-head for them. He has played a bit at tight-head but I think his favoured position is loose-head and he is very good,"" he added. The 31-year-old has made a massive contribution to the England and Leicester cause of late and is arguably the form tight-head prop in the world. He destroyed South Africa's Os du Randt in the scrum at Twickenham last autumn to give England the platform for an impressive 32-16 victory. Leicester, who signed White from Bristol when the West Country side were relegated from the Zurich Premiership in the summer of 2003, have also been aided by White's presence this season. The Tigers are sitting pretty at the top of the Premiership table and have also booked their place in the last eight of the Heineken Cup. ""I am pleased with my form,"" he said. ""But my form is helped by the people I play with at Leicester - people like Martin Johnson and Graham Rowntree. ""It's been a good season so far and to be in the starting XV for the first game of the Six Nations is what every player wants. ""I am delighted with the way things have gone but we have to get it right this weekend."" White is now one of the more experienced members of the England squad which takes to the field on Saturday. Injuries have taken their toll and coach Andy Robinson has been deprived of Richard Hill, Jonny Wilkinson, Martin Corry, Mike Tindall, Will Greenwood and Stuart Abbott. And with 27 caps and a World Cup winner's medal to his name, White is now in a position to offer his experience to youngsters such as centres Matthew Tait and Jamie Noon. ""I don't know how much experience a tight-head can give a centre but you are there to give them a pat on the back if things go wrong or to be there if they want to talk in any way,"" he added. ""When I first came into the squad, people like Jason Leonard and Martin Johnson were the first to come over and talk through things and help out. ""It gives you a lot of confidence when people like that speak to you. ""I was in awe of a lot of them so to sit down and speak with them and realise you are on the same wavelength is good."" White missed the vast majority of last year's Six Nations because of a knee injury and is raring for the 2005 event to get going. And that is despite the opening game taking place amid the red-hot atmosphere in Cardiff. ""I enjoy the atmosphere. The Millennium Stadium is probably one of the best stadiums in the world,"" he said. ""To go down there and hear the shouting and the singing - it's one of my favourite places to play. ""This is probably the most even Six Nations for a long time. England, Ireland, France and Wales are all contenders. ""On form, Ireland should be favourites but you just don't know - that's the great thing about this tournament.""" -sport,"Johnson accuses British sprinters Former Olympic champion Michael Johnson has accused Britain's top sprinters of lacking pride and ambition. ""At the moment, the biggest factor on the mind of British sprinters is to be number one in Britain,"" the world 200m and 400m record holder told Five Live. ""Athletics at the moment is all about international competitions and they need to show a little more pride."" However, Linford Christie countered: ""It's easy to criticise when you haven't gone through the system here."" Johnson was involved in a verbal spat with Britain's Darren Campbell earlier this year. The American had cast doubt on Campbell's claims he had torn a hamstring in the wake of his failure to reach the Olympic 100m and 200m finals. And the American remains highly critical of aspects of British sprinting. ""The only time you see British sprinters getting upset or riled is when there is a debate as to which one is better than the other,"" he claimed. ""Athletes here have to compete more outside the UK. Their focus has to be on being the best in the world and not just on being the top British sprinter."" Speaking at an elite coaches' conference in Birmingham, Johnson also argued that although there has been more investment in the sport in Britain, it had not necessarily reaped the rewards. ""You can't fix everything with money,"" he admitted. ""You contrast the situation here to that of some US athletes who have no funding. ""Those who aren't funded might be hungrier and more motivated because their road to success is a lot more difficult and challenging. ""So when they get to the top they are more appreciative.""" -sport,"Republic to face China and Italy The Republic of Ireland have arranged friendlies against China and Italy which will take place at Lansdowne Road in March and August. Brian Kerr's side will face the 54th ranked Chinese on 29 March - just three days after the World Cup qualifier against Israel in Tel Aviv. Italy will visit on 17 August in what will be a warm-up game ahead of the autumn World Cup qualifiers. In their last meeting, the Irish beat Italy in the 1994 World Cup Finals. However, that is the Republic's only victory in eight attempts against the Italians who have won all the other seven games. The 29 March game will be the second time the Republic have played China - the previous encounter back in June 1984 with the Irish winning 1-0 in Sapporo, Japan. Brian Kerr said: ""China have made great progress over the last few years and will provide difficult opposition. ""We all witnessed the performances of the Asian teams in the last World Cup, and China play a similar type of football. ""As for Italy, they make a welcome return to Dublin and will be a massive attraction because they are one of the great traditional powers in the world. ""The game will be ideal preparation for the three important World Cup qualifiers in the autumn."" Ireland round off their World Cup campaign with games against France on 7 September, Cyprus on 8 October and Switzerland on 12 October." -sport,"Capriati to miss Melbourne Jennifer Capriati has become the third leading lady to withdraw from the Australian Open because of injury. The organisers of the first grand slam of 2005, which begins on 17 January, said the American has a problem with her right shoulder. It comes as a blow to the women's draw as last year's champion, Justin Henin-Hardenne, and runner-up, Kim Clijsters, will also be absent. Capriati is a two-time champion in Melbourne with wins in 2001 and 2002. She is believed to have picked up the injury at the Advanta Championships at Philadelphia in November and had to pull out of an exhibition match with Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova on 17 December. Capriati also decided against competing in the Australian Open warm-up event, the Sydney International." -sport,"Can Smith work Scottish wonders? The worst kept secret in Scottish football was revealed on Thursday when Walter Smith was named as the new national manager. From the moment Berti Vogts' miserable tenure in charge of Scotland ended, the former Rangers and Everton boss has been the overwhelming favourite for the post. But is Smith the man for what must be one of the hardest jobs in football? The 56-year-old takes over at a time when the national side is in the doldrums. Scotland have not reached a major finals since the World Cup in 1998 and reaching Germany 2006 looks near impossible, having picked up just two points from the opening three games in the qualifying race. And the Fifa rankings see Scotland listed at an all time low of 77th, below the likes of Estonia, Ghana, Angola and Thailand. Scotland are not blessed with quality players with experience at the top level, so Smith will have to get the best out of meagre resources. Smith's track record make impressive reading and he is widely respected within the game. The man who was Alex Ferguson's assistant when Scotland played at the 1986 World Cup won seven league titles with Rangers. And his appointment has been widely endorsed by many of the games' top names, including Ferguson and Graeme Souness, who took him to Ibrox as his assistant in 1986. Characters like Souness, Ferguson and current Ibrox manager Alex McLeish all cite Smith's experience and his expansive knowledge of the Scottish game. Much was made of Vogts' inability to express himself to the players and media. That will certainly not be the case with Smith. The former Dundee United and Dumbarton full-back is from the managerial old school - straight talking and never slow to let players know when he expects better (often with the use of some colourful invective). But it should be remembered Vogts came to Scotland with an impressive curriculum vitae - a World Cup winner as a player and a European Championships winner as a manager. Smith will inherit the same problems Vogts had - a callow squad of players with no exceptional talents. And it remains to be seen if Smith will experience the rash of call-offs that blighted so much of Vogts' preparation work. A fresh start for the Scottish national team was imperative and Smith is widely regarded as a safe pair of hands. But will a safe pair of hands be enough when the adroit hands of a magician might be required..." -sport,"Premier League planning Cole date The Premier League is attempting to find a mutually convenient date to investigate allegations Chelsea made an illegal approach for Ashley Cole. Both Chelsea and Arsenal will be asked to give evidence to a Premier League commission, but no deadline has been put on when that meeting will convene. ""It's hard to put a date on it,"" a Premier League spokesman confirmed to BBC Sport. ""It's not a formal situation where they've got so much time to respond."" Arsenal and England defender Cole reportedly met Blues boss Jose Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon in a London hotel 11 days ago. Chelsea have yet to officially confirm or deny the meeting, which would be in breach of Premier League rule K3. Now the Gunners have asked for an inquiry to look into claims that their player has been ""tapped up"". Both clubs have pledged to co-operate with the inquiry which will be conducted on a single day as opposed to being run as an ongoing evaluation. Cole is in negotiations with the Gunners over extending his current deal which ends in 2007. And his Arsenal team-mate Robert Pires has urged the England left-back to stay at Highbury. Pires told the Evening Standard: ""He has been at Arsenal for ever. He is a very attacking left-back and I think he is enjoying his football because at Arsenal he plays in an offensive team. ""I am not sure he will get the same pleasure at Chelsea, even though they are doing so well at the moment. ""I have built a fantastic playing relationship with Ashley. ""We play together so well - we could do it with our eyes shut. ""But you have to respect the decision of the player. Everybody has that right.""" -sport,"African double in Edinburgh World 5000m champion Eliud Kipchoge won the 9.2km race at the View From Great Edinburgh Cross Country. The Kenyan, who was second when Newcastle hosted the race last year, was in front from the outset. Ethiopian duo Gebre Gebremariam and Dejene Berhanu made last-gasp efforts to overtake him, but Kipchoge responded and a burst of speed clinched victory. Gavin Thompson was the first Briton in 12th place while Nick McCormick held of his British rivals to win the 4km race. The Morpeth Harrier led from the end of the first lap and ended Mike Skinner and Andrew Baddeley's hopes with a surge in the lasp lap. ""My training has gone so well I wasn't really worried about the opposition asI knew I was in great shape,"" said McCormick, who now hopes to earn a 1,500m place in the British team for the World Championships in Helsinki. In the women's race, Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba won a battle with world cross country champion Benita Johnson to retain her title. Australian Johnson, who shocked her African rivals in Brussels last March, looked to be on course for another win in the 6.2km race. But world 5000m champion Dibaba make a telling strike for the finishing line in the final 20 metres. Britons Kathy Butler and Hayley Yelling were out of contention early on." -sport,"Clyde 0-5 Celtic Celtic brushed aside Clyde to secure their place in the Scottish Cup semi-final, but only after a nervy and testing first half. The home side's Craig Bryson had a goal chopped off before Stan Varga headed Celtic into the lead. Alan Thompson scored from the penalty spot at the start of the second half after Shaun Maloney had been fouled. Stilian Petrov slid in a third, Varga tapped in his second and Craig Bellamy completed the rout with a fine drive. Bryn Halliwell was the busier keeper early on, saving from Bellamy, Chris Sutton and Juninho. Clyde had the ball in the net after half-an-hour through a tremendous strike from Bryson, but the referee had already blown for a foul by Petrov. From the resulting free kick, Darren Sheridan curled the ball round the Celtic wall only for the post to deny him. Back at the other end, Halliwell did well to come off his line and block Bellamy's effort to lift the ball over him. The keeper misjudged a corner that Stephane Henchoz headed wide, but a similar scenario five minutes before the break led to the opening goal. The ball was delivered from the left and Halliwell was left floundering as Varga glanced the ball into the net. Maloney replaced the injured Sutton at half time and he marked his first competitive appearance after a year out injured by helping his side take a two-goal lead just after the break. The young striker fired a free kick straight into the Clyde wall but as he collected the rebound, he was tripped by Bryson and Thompson converted the penalty. Sheridan and Bellamy were involved in something of a flare-up that led to both being booked after the intervention of the assistant referee. Juninho brought out another good save from Halliwell and then Petrov saw a tremendous effort come off the top of the bar. But Petrov and Juninho combined brilliantly to allow the Bulgarian to make it 3-0 on the hour mark - a quick one-two giving him the time and space to steer the ball past Halliwell from 12 yards. Varga got his second goal of the game as Celtic drove home their advantage - Thompson whipped in a corner from the right and the unmarked defender simply tapped the ball over the line from a couple of yards out. Celtic were utterly dominant by this stage and Bellamy opened his scoring account for the club after a fine move involving Aiden McGeady, Jackie McNamara and Maloney culminated in the Welshman hammering the ball into the net. Halliwell kept the deficit at five by pushing a McGeady shot wide as the game petered out. Halliwell, Mensing, Bollan, Balmer, Potter, Sheridan (Burns 61), Arbuckle (Gilhaney 61), Gibson, Bryson (Jones 78), Malone, Harty. Morrison, Wilson. Mensing, Sheridan. Douglas, Henchoz, McNamara, Balde, Varga, Juninho Paulista, Thompson, Lennon (Lambert 70), Sutton (Maloney 45), Petrov (McGeady 70), Bellamy. Marshall, Laursen. Thompson, Bellamy. : Varga 40, Thompson 48 pen, Petrov 60, Varga 68, Bellamy 72. 8,200 C Thomson" -sport,"Johansson takes Adelaide victory Second seed Joachim Johansson won his second career title with a 7-5 6-3 win over Taylor Dent at the Australian hardcourt championships in Adelaide. The Swede was made to graft, American Dent surviving three break points in the fifth game of the match. But Johansson got the breakthrough with a sublime backhand return winner and won the second set with more ease. His first tournament win was at Memphis in 2004, helping him leap from 113th in the world rankings to number 11. Afterwards, Dent said he rated US Open semi-finalist Johansson as a top contender at the Australian Open, which starts on 17 January. ""I believe men's tennis is all about holding serve and if he's playing like that on his own serve I don't see how guys are going to break him,"" said Dent. Johansson was more restrained in his assessment: ""I have to improve my serve if I'm going to go all the way in Melbourne.""" -sport,"English clubs make Euro history All four of England's Champions League representatives have reached the knockout stages for the first time. Arsenal and Chelsea are seeded as group winners, while runners-up Manchester United and Liverpool are not. Rules stipulate that teams from the same country or group will be kept apart in the draw on 17 December. The favourites are Chelsea and Barcelona, and Real Madrid, the two Milan sides, Juventus and Bayern Munich are among the 16 still in the hat. Steven Gerrard's last-gasp wonder-strike secured qualification for against Olympiakos on Wednesday evening. AC Milan, Bayer Leverkusen, Internazionale, Juventus, Lyon. who had already qualified, fielded a second-string side and went down 3-0 to Fenerbahce. AC Milan, Bayer Leverkusen, Internazionale, Juventus, Monaco. On Tuesday, finished top of their group with a 5-1 win over the Rosenborg after drawing four of their first five matches. Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Porto, Real Madrid, Werder Bremen , who had already qualified lost 2-1 to Porto as Jose Mourinho made an unhappy return to his former club. Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSV Eindhoven, Real Madrid, Werder Bremen." -sport,"Federer joins all-time greats The last year has seen one player dominate men's tennis, and one country dominate the women's game. Roger Federer became the first man since Mats Wilander in 1988 to win three Grand Slams in one season. And after Anastasia Myskina became the first Russian woman to win a Grand Slam at the French Open, two more followed at Wimbledon and the US Open. Meanwhile, Briton Tim Henman enjoyed his best year, while Greg Rusedski fought back superbly from adversity. Federer began the year as world number one and holder of the Wimbledon and Masters Cup titles, and set about conquering new ground. The Swiss sounded warning of the dominance to come at the Australian Open. He ripped through the draw before beating Marat Safin in the final. Andy Roddick was the only player to put up any real resistance at Wimbledon, and Federer's performance against Lleyton Hewitt in the US Open final was breathtaking. Federer again got the better of Hewitt in the season-ending Masters Cup. His victory in Houston proved to be his 13th successive win in a final, an Open era record. The only major let-down was a third-round loss to Gustavo Kuerten at the French Open, and Roland Garros will be his main target in 2005. There was also a surprise loss to the unheralded Tomas Berdych at the Olympic Games, which saw Chile dominate as Nicoals Massu took the singles and then paired up with Fernando Gonzaelz to win doubles gold. Another major trophy that looks beyond Federer is the Davis Cup, which was won by Spain in a 3-2 home success over the USA in Seville. Roddick struggled on the clay, losing to Rafael Nadal on the opening day before going down to Carlos Moya in the all-important fourth rubber. Henman broke new ground by reaching the semis on clay at the French Open - a stunning effort - and also at the US Open. A quarter-final defeat to Mario Ancic at Wimbledon was disappointing for the limp manner of the Briton's defeat, but he remains optimistic of going further next year. British number two Rusedski endured a rollercoaster year, returning to the circuit after being cleared of a doping offence in March. With his ranking down at 168, many feared the 31-year-old's career was over, but he battled back in the second half of the season to re-enter the top 50. The Russian women finally delivered on their long-recognised promise in 2004, with Myskina, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova winning Grand Slams, before taking the season-ending Fed Cup. But while the young Russians were on the way up, it was a different story for the Belgians and the Williams sisters. Only veteran Lindsay Davenport held the new wave at bay, a stunning run of form after Wimbledon taking her to number one ahead of Amelie Mauresmo, whose Grand Slam drought goes on. The year started in regulation fashion as Justine Henin-Hardenne beat compatriot Kim Clijsters at the Australian Open. A virus ruined the rest of Henin-Hardenne's year, although she was fit enough to win Olympic gold, but Clijsters had an even more miserable 2004. She suffered a serious wrist injury and then announced the end of her relationship with Lleyton Hewitt, and will be happy to see the year end. In their absence, Myskina thrashed Elena Dementieva in a historic, but woeful, all-Russian final at the French Open. Wimbledon was a more refreshing affair as Sharapova captivated SW19, showing nerves of steel as she battled past Davenport and Serena Williams to take the title. Davenport was a strong favourite for the US Open but, hampered by injury, lost to the powerful and unflappable Kuznetsova in the semis. Kuznetsova went on to give Dementieva another Grand Slam final thrashing, with the latter's wayward serve becoming one of the talking points of the year. With the Russians still improving, the likes of Henin-Hardenne, Clijsters, Davenport, Mauresmo, Venus and Serena will need to be fully fit and motivated in 2005. And it may take their compatriot Safin to challenge Federer on the men's side." -sport,"Yelling takes Cardiff hat-trick European cross-country champion Hayley Yelling completed a hat-trick of wins in the Reebok Cardiff Cross Challenge in Bute Park on Sunday afternoon. The part-time maths teacher beat Irish international Jolene Byrne by 40 metres in the six-kilometre race. Another Great Britain international, Louise Damen, finished third as part of the contingent representing England. Peter Riley, who secured bronze for the GB men's team at last month's European Championships, won the men's 9km race. Riley, representing England, moved away over the last two kilometres to win by 25 metres from Ireland's Gary Murray. Glynn Tromans - the reigning UK Inter-Countries and England Cross-Country champion - came in third place as he continues his comeback from a five-month injury lay-off." -sport,"Running around the Olympics It was back to official duties last week in my role as an ambassador to London's 2012 Olympic bid. But I still managed to do all my marathon training. All the sporting people on the capital's bid team think I'm mad to be taking part in the London Marathon. The bid chairman, Lord Coe, admitted he would never dream of running a marathon, even though he was an Olympic middle-distance runner. Kelly Holmes, former hurdler Alan Pascoe and former sprinter Frankie Fredericks - who is now an IOC member - all wanted to know why anyone would want to run that far. You'd have thought all these athletes, who have been running for most of their lives, wouldn't think it would be that bad. But the only person who was positive about my intentions was Tanni Grey Thompson, who has won the London Marathon wheelchair race six times. Even though it was a very busy week entertaining the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Evaluation Commission, I actually found my running schedule easier to follow. When I'm at home, I get distracted by all sorts of things but for the five days I was in London, I was in a pressurised situation, but I found it easy to relax by running. On Wednesday, the presentations to the IOC team did not finish until the early evening, so I just managed to squeeze in a 45-minute run. We had an early start on Thursday because we had to visit all the Olympic sites around London, that was pretty shattering, but when we got back to the hotel, I got back on the treadmill. On Friday evening I went along to the special dinner at Buckingham Palace which was a nice occasion. I never feel guilty about eating, especially when I'm exercising. And because it was a rest day I didn't have to feel bad about missing my training either. Anyway, I managed to do another quick run on Saturday ahead of the final IOC presentations, before heading home for my daughter's birthday. When I was in London I did all of my runs on the treadmill, which isn't the same as exercising outdoors. One of the IOC's technical staff from Australia ran alongside me one day. We talked about the Sydney Olympics and that made the time go past more quickly. I do find it quite comfortable running in the gym because there is more cushioning. But when you're gearing up to running on the road you need your body to get used to that jarring feeling when your feet hit the pavement. It was good to get out on the road for my long run on Sunday. After the week I'd had I was a bit concerned I wouldn't be able to complete it. But I coped with it very well and, even though it was bitterly cold, I put in 15-and-a-half miles - only another 11 to go then. - This year Steve will donate all the proceeds from his London Marathon efforts to victims of the tsunami.Steve will be writing a regular column on the ups and downs of his marathon training for the BBC Sport website.He will be raising money through the Steve Redgrave Trust which supports the Association of Children's Hospices, the Children With Leukaemia charity, and the Trust's own project which aims to provide inner-city schools with rowing equipment." -sport,"Israeli club look to Africa Four African players, including Zimbabwe goalkeeper Energy Murambadoro, are all ready to play for Israeli club Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin in the Uefa Cup. Bnei Sakhnin are the first Arab side ever to play in European competition and will play English Premiership side Newcastle United in the first round. Warriors' goalkeeper Murambadoro, who made a name for himself at the African Nations Cup finals in Tunisia, helped Bnei Sakhnin overcome Albania's Partizani Tirana 6-1 in the previous round. Murambadoro moved to Israel recently after a brief stint with South African club Hellenic. The club won the Israeli Cup final last season and are based in Sakhnin, which is near Haifa. The club have a strong ethic and are high profile promoters of peace and co-operation within Israel. The three other Africans at the club are former Cameroon defender Ernest Etchi, DR Congo's Alain Masudi and Nigerian midfielder Edith Agoye, who had a stint with Tunisian side Esperance." -sport,"El Guerrouj targets cross country Double Olympic champion Hicham El Guerrouj is set to make a rare appearance at the World Cross Country Championships in France. But the Moroccan, who has not raced over cross country for 15 years, will not decide until two weeks before the event which starts on 19 March. ""If I am to compete in it, it is only if I feel I can win,"" said the 30-year-old, who is retiring in 2006. ""Otherwise there is not much point in me going."" El Guerrouj achieved a lifetime ambition last August when he clinched his first Olympic titles over 1500m and 5,000m. But the four-time world 1500m champion is still hungry for more success before calling time on his career. The 30-year-old has set his sights on clinching the world 5,000m crown in Helsinki this summer. And he is aiming to break 10,000m Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele's 5,000m and 10,000m world records. El Guerrouj could meet Bekele in March as the Ethiopian is the defending world cross country champion over both the long and short courses. But the Moroccan will not commit himself to the St Galmier event until he assesses how well his winter training is going. ""The return to training was very difficult because I accepted a lot of invitations these past few months,"" said El Guerrouj. ""I am almost a month behind but I am on the right track."" - Britain's Paula Radcliffe has also not ruled out competing in the World Cross Country Championships. ""I haven't quite decided what events I will compete in prior to London but the World Cross Country is an event which is also special to me and is a definite possibility,"" said the two-time champion." -sport,"Wilkinson to miss Ireland match England will have to take on Ireland in the Six Nations without captain and goal-kicker Jonny Wilkinson, according to his Newcastle boss Rob Andrew. Wilkinson - who had targeted the 27 February match for his international comeback - has been missed by England, not least for his goal-kicking. ""Jonny's not fit yet,"" Falcons chief Andrew told BBC Radio Five Live. ""He won't be fit for Dublin, there's no doubt about that, but he might be fit for Scotland and Italy."" The 25-year-old has not played for England since the 2003 World Cup final after a succession of injuries. England, who have lost three Six Nations games in a row, wasted a 17-6 half-time lead in their 18-17 defeat to France. Goal-kickers Charlie Hodgson and Olly Barkley missed six penalty attempts and a drop-goal between them. ""They've probably got two of the best English kickers in the Premiership in Hodgson and Barkley,"" added Andrew, a former England fly-half and goal-kicker. ""They're both pretty good kickers. Charlie is a good kicker week-in, week-out. ""But it's all about pressure and unfortunately England are just not handling the pressure at the moment."" Andrew also blamed England's poor run of recent results on a lack of leadership in the side following several high-profile retirements and injuries. ""They just didn't have that leadership that would have seen them through. Martin Johnson, Lawrence Dallaglio and Jonny are obviously huge losses and leadership is so important in those situations,"" he said. ""I think it is really difficult for Jason Robinson to lead the side effectively from full-back."" Meanwhile, former England full-back Dusty Hare put England's mistakes down to a lack of mental toughness. ""Jonny Wilkinson has proved himself a cool customer with around an 80% kicking success rate,"" Hare told BBC Radio Five Live. ""But natural-born toughness comes into it as well as all the practice you do. ""You have to be able to shut out all the outside elements and concentrate on putting the ball between the posts."" Hodgson, who has an excellent kicking record with club side Sale Sharks, has introduced crowd noise into his practice routine of late. ""The top golfers don't hit the fairway every time, and it is the same with goal-kicking,"" Hare added. ""You need that mental toughness as well to put the ball over, but great goal-kickers like Jonny Wilkinson come along very rarely.""" -sport,"France v Wales (Sat) Stade de France, Paris Saturday, 26 February 1600 GMT BBC1, Radio 4 LW and this website France may have beaten Scotland and England but they were tedious and uninspired throughout both matches. Wales, on the other hand, have played some fine rugby and have made their best start since they last won the title in 1994. They also have a good record at the Stade de France, having won their first two games there, in 1999 and 2001. Wales have made two changes from the team that thrashed Italy 38-8 in Rome. Kevin Morgan takes over from his injured Newport-Gwent Dragons colleague Hal Luscombe on the right wing. In the pack Neath-Swansea Ospreys forward Ryan Jones bas been brought on the blind-side flank to beef up the Wales back row in place of Jonathan Thomas. Wales coach Mike Ruddock is determined that his team will not go into their shells after their promising start to the championship. ""Graham Henry (former Wales coach) said a couple of years ago that we should 'be bold' when going to France, and he was proved right,"" said Ruddock. ""That is a great way to approach the game, and something we will further endorse with the players this week."" Despite their stuttering displays in their first two games defending champions France are also unbeaten. Under-pressure coach Bernard Laporte has made four changes, with Yannick Nyanga, the debutant Julien Laharrague, Aurelien Rougerie and Yannick Jauzion coming into the side. France have been criticised for the absence of traditional ""French flair"" as they have ground their way to victory so far this year but captain Fabien Pelous sees hope on the horizon. ""I get the impression we are getting better,"" he said. ""Against Wales, which is different from the teams we have beaten, I hope we can show our proper game."" J Laharrague; A Rougerie, Y Jauzion, D Traille, C Dominici; Y Delaigue, D Yachvili; S Marconnet, S Bruno, N Mas; F Pelous (capt), J Thion; S Betsen, Y Nyanga, J Bonnaire (Bourgoin). W Servat, O Milloud, G Lamboley, I Harinordoquy, P Mignoni, F Michalak, J-P Grandclaude. G Thomas (capt); K Morgan, T Shanklin, G Henson, S Williams; S Jones, D Peel; G Jenkins, M Davies, A Jones; B Cockbain, R Sidoli; R Jones, M Williams, M Owen. R McBryde, J Yapp, J Thomas, R Sowden-Taylor, G Cooper, C Sweeney, R Williams." -sport,"Wilkinson fit to face Edinburgh England captain Jonny Wilkinson will make his long-awaited return from injury against Edinburgh on Saturday. Wilkinson, who has not played since injuring his bicep on 17 October, took part in full-contact training with Newcastle Falcons on Wednesday. And the 25-year-old fly-half will start Saturday's Heineken Cup match at Murrayfield on the bench. But Newcastle director of rugby Rob Andrew said: ""He's fine and we hope to get him into the game at some stage."" The 25-year-old missed England's autumn internationals after aggravating the haematoma in his upper right arm against Saracens. He was subsequently replaced as England captain by full-back Jason Robinson. Sale's Charlie Hodgson took over the number 10 shirt in the internationals against Canada, South Africa and Australia. Wilkinson's year has been disrupted by injury as his muscle problem followed eight months on the sidelines with a shoulder injury sustained in the World Cup final." -sport,"Wood - Ireland can win Grand Slam Former captain Keith Wood believes Ireland can win only their second Grand Slam - and first since 1948 - in this year's RBS Six Nations Championship. After claiming their first Triple Crown for 19 years last season, Wood tips his former team-mates to go one better. ""Things have been building up over the past few years and I think this is the year for Ireland,"" he told BBC Sport. ""There is a great chance to win a Grand Slam. A lot of things are in our favour with England and France at home."" Ireland have finished runners-up three times, including last year, since the old Five Nations became Six in 2000, and not finished outside the top three in the past five years. Despite being without flanker Keith Gleeson, coach Eddie O'Sullivan has not had to contend with the sort of casualty lists that have hit England and Scotland in particular prior to the tournament. ""For Ireland to win it we need to stay relatively injury free, and fortunately we are one of the few teams that have done that so far,"" Wood added. ""It is going to be tough and we need to take all the luck and opportunities that come our way."" Ireland's last game of the tournament is against Wales in Cardiff - a fixture they have not lost since 1983. But despite their traditional hospitality when the Irish are visiting, Wood believes Wales might end their four-match losing run against England in Cardiff. ""So many of the major England players have either retired in the last year or are injured that I think it will be very hard for them down in Cardiff,"" Wood added. ""Wales have had four brilliant games in the last year or so and lost all four, so the time is right for them now to beat one of the major teams.""" -sport,"Funding cut hits Wales Students The Wales Students rugby side has become a casualty of the Welsh Rugby Union's reorganisation at youth level. An amalgamated Under-18 side formed from separate schools and national youth teams plays its first match on Thursday, against Italy at the Gnoll. But that move has seen the WRU decide to end its funding of representative sides such as Wales Students. As a result, traditional international fixtures against England and France in the New Year have been cancelled. The Welsh Students Rugby Football Union feels that it is unable to properly prepare for or stage the matches. The secretary of the Welsh Students Rugby Football Union, Reverend Eldon Phillips, said: ""It is a shame that fixtures cannot be maintained this year. ""The competition provided by the strong English and French teams has enabled the Welsh Students to test themselves in high quality matches. ""The increasing number of young rugby players entering Higher Education look for the biggest challenge, that is representative rugby, but this year that opportunity will be denied them. Players who have played for Wales Students before going on to win full senior representative honours include Robert Jones, Rob Howley, Jon Humphreys, Darren Morris, Martyn Williams and Ceri Sweeney." -sport,"Hong Kong in 2011 World Cup bid Hong Kong is hoping to join Japan as co-host of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Japan has applied to host the tournament on its own, with the aim of taking it outside rugby's traditional strongholds for the first time. But Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) chairman John Molloy has called for the territory to host one of the pools and a quarter-final. The Japanese Rugby Football Union (JRFU) says it has yet to receive a formal presentation from the HKRFU. ""At this stage, we are only considering hosting the event by ourselves,"" said JRFU secretary Koji Tokumasu. ""We cannot examine any proposal unless we get it in a definitive form."" Japan faces stiff competition in the form of South Africa and New Zealand to host the event in seven years' time. ""Until now, the World Cup has been held in countries from the Six Nations or Tri-Nations,"" said Tokumasu. ""We think, and the IRB thinks, that it is time for rugby to go global. ""Japan is ready to host the tournament and we are looking forward to welcoming the world of rugby to Japan."" Tokumasu added that the 2002 football World Cup, co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, had been a huge success. ""As well as having the infrastructure in place, Japan also has the commercial clout to host one of sport's top competitions,"" he said. Last year, Japan launched its first professional rugby league and it has the fourth largest number of registered players (125,508) in the world after England, South Africa and France." -sport,"Klinsmann issues Lehmann warning Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann has warned goalkeeper Jens Lehmann he may have to quit Arsenal to keep his World Cup dreams alive. Lehmann is understudy to Oliver Kahn in the German squad, but has lost his place to Manuel Alumnia at Highbury. Klinsmann said: ""It will be difficult for any of our players if he is not a first-choice at his club. ""If Jens is not Arsenal's number one keeper, that is a problem for me. He must be playing regularly."" Lehmann is desperate to keep his place in the Germany squad when the country hosts the World Cup in 2006. Klinsmann added: ""If he is not playing regularly he cannot be Germany's number one keeper, or even number two keeper. ""The situation for Jens is that he is currently the number two keeper at Arsenal. This could be critical if it remains the same during next season.""" -sport,"Iranian misses Israel match Iranian striker Vahid Hashemian will not travel to Israel for Bayern Munich's Champions League match against Maccabi Tel Aviv on Wednesday. The German club said the player had pulled out because of a back injury. Iran refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist and does not allow its citizens to travel to the country. A Bayern spokesman said on Monday that the decision not to take Hashemian to Israel had been motivated only by his physical condition. ""He's got back pain and he couldn't train,"" the spokesman said. ""It would have made no sense for him to go."" Iran gave judo world champion Arash Miresmaeili a $125,000 reward when he refused to fight an Israeli at the Athens Olympics. The International Judo Federation considered taking action against Miresmaeili but concluded he had been overweight for the fight and could not have taken part." -sport,"Redknapp poised for Saints Southampton are set to unveil Harry Redknapp as their new manager at a news conference at 1500 GMT on Wednesday. The former Portsmouth boss replaces Steve Wigley, who has been relieved of first-team duties after just one win in 14 league games in charge. Redknapp, 57, quit his Fratton Park position on 24 November and vowed: ""I will not go down the road - no chance."" Pompey coach Kevin Bond is poised to join Redknapp, who will be Saints' third boss of the season. Redknapp's first game in charge will be at home to Middlesbrough on Saturday. Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric said he was ""disappointed"" by the news and claimed Redknapp had been in talks with Southampton for ""some time"". ""It would appear that negotiations over this have been going on for some time,"" Mandaric said on Portsmouth's official website. ""I am surprised and a little shocked that the chairman of Southampton has not picked up the phone and kept me informed."" According to Mandaric, Redknapp vowed he would not join their South coast rivals when he left Portsmouth. ""I said to Harry 'I hope you don't go to Southampton', and he told me 'absolutely not',"" he said. ""I'm wouldn't say I'm bitter, disgusted or angry, just disappointed, but it's Harry's life and it's his decision."" Redknapp became a cult hero after leading Portsmouth into the Premiership for the first time, and then masterminding their survival in their debut season. But he left the club claiming he needed a break from football, though many believed he was upset with Mandaric's decision to bring in Velimir Zajec as executive director. Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe was desperate to give former academy director Wigley, who replaced Paul Sturrock just two games into the season, every chance to succeed at St Mary's. But results under Wigley have been poor and Southampton are deep in trouble near the foot of the table. When Redknapp's appointment is confirmed, he will be Saints' ninth manager in eight years." -sport,"Celts savour Grand Slam prospect The Six Nations has heralded a new order in northern hemisphere rugby this year and Wales and Ireland rather than traditional big guns France and England face a potential Grand Slam play-off in three weeks' time. But before that game in Cardiff, Wales must get past Scotland at Murrayfield, while Ireland face the not insignificant task of a home fixture with the mercurial French. No-one knows what mood France will be in at Lansdowne Road on 12 March - sublime, as in the first half against Wales, or ridiculous, like in the same period against England at Twickenham. But how the mighty have fallen. England sat on rugby's summit 15 months ago as world champions and 2003 Grand Slam winners. But they have lost nine of their 14 matches since that heady night in Sydney. And they face the ignominy of what could amount to a Wooden Spoon play-off against Italy in a fortnight. England are enduring their worst run in the championship since captain Richard Hill was dumped in favour of Mike Harrison after three straight losses in 1987. Coach Andy Robinson, who took over from the successful Sir Clive Woodward in September, has lost a phalanx of World Cup stars. And he is enduring the toughest of teething problems in bedding down his own style with a new team. The same year that England ruled the roost, a woeful Wales lost all five matches in the Six Nations. And they won only two games, against Scotland and Italy, in 2004. Wales' most recent championship title was in 1994, and their last Grand Slam success came in 1978 in the era of Gareth Edwards, Phil Bennett, JPR Williams et al. But Welsh rugby fans remain on permanent tenterhooks for the blossoming of a new golden age. After several false dawns, coach Mike Ruddock may have come up with the team and philosophy to match expectations. The fresh verve is inspired by skipper Gareth Thomas, now out with a broken thumb, accurate kicking from either fly-half Stephen Jones or centre Gavin Henson, a rampant Martyn Williams leading the way up front, and exciting runners in the guise of Henson and Shane Williams. Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan and captain Brian O'Driscoll have got their side buzzing too, and they are close to shedding the ""nearly-men"" tag that has dogged them for the past few years. The men from the Emerald Isle have been Six Nations runners-up for the past two years, to France and England. But they have not won the title since 1985 and last clinched a Grand Slam in 1948. As for Scotland, they have struggled this decade and the 2004 Wooden Spoon ""winners"" have not been in the top two since they lifted the title in 1999. Italy continue the elusive search for their first Six Nations away win, and can still only account for the scalps of Scotland (twice) and Wales since joining the elite in 2000. Coach John Kirwan is a passionate and dedicated believer in the Azzurri, but is lacking in raw materials. And so to France. Brilliant one minute, inept the next. But the reigning champions could quite easily turn on the style in Dublin and end up winning the title through the back door. Ireland, though, have won three times in their last five meetings. Welsh romantics would probably prefer a glorious victory in the Celtic showdown to crown their Grand Slam. But given that Ireland have beaten Wales in four of their last five meetings, the Welsh legions are likely to be behind Les Bleus on 12 March." -sport,"Munster Cup tie switched to Spain Munster's Heineken Cup quarter-final tie against Biarritz on 3 April has been switched to Real Sociedad's Paseo de Anoeta stadium in San Sebastian. Real's ground holds 32,000 whereas the Parc des Sports Aguilera in Biarritz has a capacity of just 12,667. The Irish province will be given at least 8,000 tickets. ""The decision to move was a difficult one, but as we considered the fans as one of our primary objectives,"" said Biarritz chairman Marcel Martin. ""We hope we will be rewarded as a huge crowd behaving in the best rugby tradition."" The match will be the first Heineken Cup fixture to be played in Spain, and is expected to attract the biggest-ever attendance for a rugby match in the country. Ulster were the last Irish team to play at the Paseo de Anoeta stadium where they faced a Euskarians side during a pre-season tour in 1998." -sport,"Injury doubts beset Wales squad Wales have a clutch of injury worries before Wednesday's international friendly against Hungary in Cardiff. West Ham's Gavin Williams (ankle) looks certain to be out, so uncapped Wrexham defender Stephen Roberts is drafted in. Defenders Danny Gabbidon and Gareth Roberts, plus Ryan Giggs have hamstring concerns, while there are also doubts over Robbie Savage (groin). However, Manchester United winger Giggs is expected to recover in time to earn his 50th cap at the Millennium Stadium. There were also doubts over Gabbidon's fellow Cardiff defender Rhys Weston, but the full-back appears to have shrugged off the knock he picked up in the Bluebirds' 1-0 loss to West Ham on Sunday. The news leaves Wales boss John Toshack short in defence for his first game in charge, with Aston Villa's Mark Delaney injured and James Collins with the Under-21s. That could clear the way for new faces Danny Collins and Dave Partridge to make their Wales debuts. Coyne (Burnley), Jones (Wolves), Roberts (Wrexham), Collins (Sunderland), Edwards (Wolves), Gabbidon (Cardiff), Page (Cardiff), Partridge (Motherwell), Ricketts (Swansea), Roberts (Tranmere), Weston (Cardiff), Davies (Tottenham), Fletcher (West Ham), Giggs (Man Utd), Koumas (West Brom), Robinson (Sunderland), Savage (Blackburn), Williams (West Ham), Bellamy (Newcastle), Earnshaw (West Brom), Hartson (Celtic)." -sport,"O'Sullivan could run in Worlds Sonia O'Sullivan has indicated that she would like to participate in next month's World Cross Country Championships in St Etienne. Athletics Ireland have hinted that the 35-year-old Cobh runner may be included in the official line-up for the event in France on 19-20 March. Provincial teams were selected after last Saturday's Nationals in Santry and will be officially announced this week. O'Sullivan is at present preparing for the London marathon on 17 April. The participation of O'Sullivan, currentily training at her base in Australia, would boost the Ireland team who won the bronze three years agio. The first three at Santry last Saturday, Jolene Byrne, Maria McCambridge and Fionnualla Britton, are automatic selections and will most likely form part of the long-course team. O'Sullivan will also take part in the Bupa Great Ireland Run on 9 April in Dublin." -sport,"Gallas sees two-horse race Chelsea's William Gallas believes they will battle it out with Arsenal for the Premiership in the coming months. ""It'll be a two-horse race all the way to the end of the season because we are both going to give it everything,"" he told BBC Sport. ""You need to be good and you need a lot of luck. You need a bit of both but it will be as hard for the Arsenal players as it is for the Chelsea boys."" ""We know that we have got the power in our hands just now,"" added Gallas. ""But you never know what is going to happen in football - two seasons ago Manchester United picked up so many points towards the end of the season when they won the title. ""Obviously, nobody at Chelsea wants to come second but you never know what happens in football. ""We will be challenging to come first as much as every Arsenal player will be challenging to come first."" Gallas has been given extra confidence by the impact manager Jose Mourinho has had since taking over as manager during the summer. And the French international defender believes Mourinho is perfectly suited to boss the squad of Chelsea stars and says his managerial expertise will prevent any player revolt. ""It's only normal when you have got a team put together of such big names that you put the finishing touch to it and the finishing touch at Chelsea is a fantastic manager like Mourinho,"" he said. ""He is the icing on the cake at the club. He has this fantastic knack of thinking of everything. ""Another incredible quality that Mourinho has is that every player, even though the fans may consider them to be a stars, within the dressing-room they are absolutely equal. ""Mourinho reminds everyone but he doesn't have to because he has created a wonderful atmosphere where everybody is playing and laughing every day. ""It is a changed dressing-room from the atmosphere there was last year.""" -sport,"Moya suffers shock loss Fifth seed Carlos Moya was the first big name to fall at the Australian Open as he went down to fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Monday. Moya began the year with victory at the Chennai Open but looked out of sorts from the start in the Melbourne heat. Garcia-Lopez, ranked 106 in the world, dominated from the outset and withstood a third-set rally from Moya to hang on for a 7-5 6-3 3-6 6-3 victory. The 21-year-old plays Kevin Kim or Lee Hyuung-Taik in the second round. Garcia-Lopez was delighted with the victory in only his third ever Grand Slam match. ""I think this was the most important win of my life as Carlos is one of the best players in the world,"" he said. ""This has given me a lot of confidence. Now I feel I can beat all these players."" Moya said: ""I was playing well before I came here. It was the perfect preparation but something was wrong today."" Four-time champion Andre Agassi began what could be his last Australian Open with a convincing win over German qualifier Dieter Kindlmann. The 34-year-old American, who had been struggling with a hip injury earlier in the week, stormed to a 6-4 6-3 6-0 win. Agassi will play France's Olivier Patience or Germany's Rainer Schuettler - the man he beat in the 2003 final - in the next round. ""No one was more concerned (about the injury) than myself,"" said eighth seed Agassi. ""I'd worked hard to be down here and ready. But the last few days, I've pushed through the injury and it seemed to do pretty good."" In other matches, world junior champion Gael Monfils made use of his wild card with a magnificent 1-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (8-6) win over American Robby Ginepri. The 2002 champion Thomas Johansson fought back to beat Peter Luczak 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-3 4-6 6-0, and French Open champion Gaston Gaudio beat Justin Gimelstob 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 6-3. Seeds Dominik Hrbaty, Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic made comfortable progress, but former French Open champion Albert Costa lost to Bjorn Phau." -sport,"Chelsea sack Mutu Chelsea have sacked Adrian Mutu after he failed a drugs test. The 25-year-old tested positive for a banned substance - which he later denied was cocaine - in October. Chelsea have decided to write off a possible transfer fee for Mutu, a £15.8m signing from Parma last season, who may face a two-year suspension. A statement from Chelsea explaining the decision read:""We want to make clear that Chelsea has a zero tolerance policy towards drugs."" Mutu scored six goals in his first five games after arriving at Stamford Bridge but his form went into decline and he was frozen out by coach Jose Mourinho. Chelsea's statement added: ""This applies to both performance-enhancing drugs or so-called 'recreational' drugs. They have no place at our club or in sport. ""In coming to a decision on this case, Chelsea believed the club's social responsibility to its fans, players, employees and other stakeholders in football regarding drugs was more important than the major financial considerations to the company. ""Any player who takes drugs breaches his contract with the club as well as Football Association rules. ""The club totally supports the FA in strong action on all drugs cases."" Fifa's disciplinary code stipulates that a first doping offence should be followed by a six-month ban. And the sport's world governing body has re-iterated their stance over Mutu's failed drugs test, maintaining it is a matter for the domestic sporting authorities. ""Fifa is not in a position to make any comment on the matter until the English FA have informed us of their disciplinary decision and the relevant information associated with it,"" said a Fifa spokesman. Chelsea's move won backing from drug-testing expert Michelle Verroken. Verroken, a former director of drug-free sport for UK Sport, insists the Blues were right to sack Mutu and have enhanced their reputation by doing so. ""Chelsea are saying quite clearly to the rest of their players and their fans that this is a situation they are not prepared to tolerate. ""It was a very difficult decision for them and an expensive decision for them but the terms of his contract were breached and it was the only decision they could make. ""It is a very clear stance by Chelsea and it has given a strong boost to the reputation of the club."" It emerged that Mutu had failed a drugs test on October 18 and, although it was initially reported that the banned substance in question was cocaine. The Romanian international later suggested it was a substance designed to enhance sexual performance. The Football Association has yet to act on Mutu's failed drugs test and refuses to discuss his case." -sport,"Federer claims Dubai crown World number one Roger Federer added the Dubai Championship trophy to his long list of successes - but not before he was given a test by Ivan Ljubicic. Top seed Federer looked to be on course for a easy victory when he thumped the eighth seed 6-1 in the first set. But Ljubicic, who beat Tim Henman in the last eight, dug deep to secure the second set after a tense tiebreak. Swiss star Federer was not about to lose his cool, though, turning on the style to win the deciding set 6-3. The match was a re-run of last week's final at the World Indoor Tournament in Rotterdam, where Federer triumphed, but not until Ljubicic had stretched him for five sets. ""I really wanted to get off to a good start this time, and I did, and I could really play with confidence while he still looking for his rhythm,"" Federer said. ""That took me all the way through to 6-1 3-1 0-30 on his serve and I almost ran away with it. But he came back, and that was a good effort on his side."" Ljubicic was at a loss to explain his poor showing in the first set. ""I didn't start badly, but then suddenly I felt like my racket was loose and the balls were flying a little bit too much. And with Roger, if you relax for a second it just goes very quick,"" he said. ""After those first three games it was no match at all. I don't know, it was really weird. I was playing really well the whole year, and then suddenly I found myself in trouble just to put the ball in the court."" But despite his defeat, the world number 14 was pleased with his overall performance. ""I had a chance in the third, and for me it's really positive to twice in two weeks have a chance against Roger to win the match. ""It's an absolutely great boost to my confidence that I'm up there and belong with top-class players.""" -sport,"Lewis-Francis turns to Christie Mark Lewis-Francis has stepped up his preparations for the new season by taking advice from British sprint icon Linford Christie. The 22-year-old is set to compete at Sheffield this weekend and will then take on Maurice Greene and Kim Collins in Birmingham on 18 February. ""Training in Wales and getting advice from Linford Christie is broadening my mind,"" said Lewis-Francis. The sprinter has also shed weight since winning relay gold at the Athens Games. ""Last year I was 91kg, now I am 86.9kg - hopefully my times will come down,"" he said. ""This has been brought about by eating the right foods and cutting out the snacks. It is just discipline and being more focused about what I am doing. ""I am still keeping up my weights work and I can see the improvement in my running."" Despite playing his part in Britain's successful 4x100m relay team, Lewis-Francis still feels the frustration of missing out on the individual 100m final at the 2004 Olympics. ""That was heartbreaking, but I had made it to the semi-final and for me, on a personal level, that was an achievement. ""I just have to be patient and build up for the next Olympics. That is my goal and whatever I do between now and then will be geared to making the final.""" -sport,"Wilkinson to lead England Fly-half Jonny Wilkinson has been named as England's new rugby union captain for the three November Tests. The 25-year-old Newcastle star takes over from Lawrence Dallaglio, who retired from internationals in August. England's acting head coach Andy Robinson said: ""He is a natural leader, holds the respect of the squad and is a formidable talent on the pitch. ""And he consistently demonstrates the energy and commitment I feel is essential to be captain of England."" Robinson added: ""There are several players in the squad I would feel comfortable in calling upon to be England captain but for me Jonny is in every way the right player to take on this challenge. ""Captaincy offers a challenging environment for any player, especially following in the footsteps of Lawrence Dallaglio and before him the World Cup captain, Martin Johnson. ""But I am confident Jonny has what it takes to do an outstanding job as we look ahead towards the next Rugby World Cup in France and I look forward to working with him."" Wilkinson, who has scored 817 points in 52 internationals, kicked the winning drop-goal in the final seconds of extra-time in England's 2003 Rugby World Cup triumph against Australia. But he then missed the entire 2004 Six Nations campaign while recuperating from shoulder surgery, before making his comeback for Newcastle in the Zurich Premiership in August. ""It's the ambition of so many players to one day be captain of England and today I have realised a dream,"" he said. ""I'm honoured Andy wants me to be his captain, and to follow Lawrence and Martin means a lot to me as they are inspirational men who have given so much to England rugby over many years. ""Getting my first England cap against Ireland six years ago was something I'll never forget because to play for your country is very special. Taking on the captaincy is another important step in my career and I do so with immense pride."" Wilkinson made his international debut in the 1998 Six Nations Championship against Ireland when he came off the bench to replace Paul Grayson. He has been a regular in the England starting line-up ever since, played in all three Lions Tests in 2001 and all but one of England's games in the 2003 World Cup. He becomes the 117th captain of England since Fred Stokes held the position in 1871. England's first autumn Test is against Canada on 13 November, followed by the visit of Tri-Nations champions South Africa a week later and then a World Cup re-match with Australia." -sport,"Moya emotional after Davis Cup win Carlos Moya described Spain's Davis Cup victory as the highlight of his career after he beat Andy Roddick to end the USA's challenge in Seville. Moya made up for missing Spain's 2000 victory through injury by beating Roddick 6-2 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-5) to give the hosts an unassailable 3-1 lead. ""I have woken up so many nights dreaming of this day,"" said Moya. ""All my energy has been focused on today. ""What I have lived today I do not think I will live again."" Spain's only other Davis Cup title came two years ago in Valencia, when they beat Australia. And Moya, nicknamed Charly, admitted: ""The Davis Cup is my dream and I was a bit nervous at the outset. ""Some people have said that I am obsessed but I think that it is better this way. It helps me reach my goals if I am obsessed. ""It's really incredible - to get the winning point is really something."" Spanish captain Jordi Arrese said: ""Charly played a great game. It was his opportunity and he hasn't let us down. ""He had lost three times to Roddick, and this was his day to beat him. ""He had been waiting years to be in this position."" Spain's victory was also remarkable for the performance of Rafael Nadal, who beat Roddick in the opening singles. Aged 18 years and 185 days, the Mallorcan became the youngest player to win the Davis Cup. ""What a great way to finish the year,"" said Nadal afterwards. US coach Patrick McEnroe wants Roddick and the rest of his team to play more tennis on clay and hone their skills on the surface. ""I think it will help these guys even on slow hard courts to learn how to mix things up a little bit and to play a little bit smarter and tactically better."" ""Obviously it's unrealistic to say that we're going to just start playing constantly on clay, with the schedule. ""But certainly I think we can put the work in at the appropriate time and play a couple more events and play against these guys who are the best on this stuff,"" said McEnroe. Roddick was left frustrated after losing both his singles on the slow clay of Seville's Olympic Stadium. ""It's just tough because I felt like I was in it the whole time against one of the top three clay-courters in the world,"" said the American. ""I had my chances and just didn't convert them. The bottom line is they were just better than us this weekend. ""They came out, took care of business and they beat us. It's as simple as that.""" -sport,"Henman & Murray claim LTA awards Tim Henman was named player of the year for 2004 by the Lawn Tennis Association at Wimbledon on Monday. The Briton was recognised for the best year of his career, which saw him reach the semis at the French and US Opens. Scotland's Andrew Murray was named young player of the year after winning the US Open juniors, as well as a Futures event in Italy. And world number one Peter Norfolk won disabled player of the year after claiming his third US Open crown. Great Britain's under 14 boys won the team of the year prize for their victory at the World Junior Tennis event in August. Henman will start his 2005 campaign at the Kooyong event on 12 January in a field that includes Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi. And the Briton is optimistic of surpassing his best effort of a fourth-round place at the Australian Open, which begins the following week. ""I've often felt that the conditions suit my game in Melbourne so I'd love to be able to start next year by doing well at the Australian Open,"" Henman told his website. ""That's why I've changed my schedule slightly by committing to play in the Kooyong Classic. ""I'll be able to acclimatise while practising before the event and then will be guaranteed matches against the best players in the world. ""I think that will give me the best possible chance of doing well at the Australian Open.""" -sport,"Brizzel to run AAA's in Sheffield Ballymena sprinter Paul Brizzel will be among eight of Ireland's European Indoor hopefuls competing in this weekend's AAA's Championships. US-based Alistair Cragg and Mark Carroll are the only Irish athletes selected so far for the Europeans who will not run in Sheffield. Brizzel will defend his 200m title in the British trials. In-form James McIlroy will hope to confirm his place in the British team for Madrid by winning the 800m title. McIlroy has been in tremendous form on the European circuit in recent weeks. He is one of the fastest 800m runners in the world this winter and already seems assured of a place in Madrid. Corkman Mark Carroll confirmed in midweek that he would join Cragg in the European Championships. Carroll is ranked number three in the world 3000m ranking at the moment with Cragg occupying top spot. Meanwhile, nine-times champion Dermot Donnelly will not be coming out of retirement to compete in the Northern Ireland Cross Country Championships in Coleraine on Saturday. An injury crisis in the Annadale Striders squad led to Donnelly being entered by coach John McLaughlin but the athlete told BBC Sport on Friday evening that he would not be running. Willowfield's Paul Rowan will go in as individual favourite but Annadale could have a tough job holding on to their team title as Andrew Dunwoody and Noel Pollock are unlikely to run." -sport,"Classy Henman makes winning start Tim Henman opened his 2005 campaign with a 6-1 7-5 victory over Argentine David Nalbandian at the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament on Wednesday. The British number one will next play Roger Federer at the Australian Open warm-up event on Friday. The world number one beat Gaston Gaudio 5-7 6-1 6-4, before Andre Agassi saw off Chilean Olympic gold medalist Nicolas Massu 6-1 7-6 (7-4). Andy Roddick beat Ivan Ljubicic, who replaced Paradorn Srichaphan, 6-1 6-4. Henman made an impressive start to the year, only faltering against Nalbandian when serving for the match at 5-4. But the Briton regained his composure to win the next two games for only his second win in six matches against the Argentine. ""It's a great start to the year - just what I was looking for,"" Henman told his website. ""Over the years I've found David very difficult to play against. ""He returns serve very well and he's deceptively effective from the baseline, so sometimes it can be difficult to execute my gameplan well enough against him to get the right result. ""Beating somebody of his stature is always good for the confidence and it bodes well at the beginning of the year."" Henman also revealed the extent of the back problems he suffered in the off-season. ""I'm not the most flexible and at the end of the year I was pretty exhausted and wanted to have a couple of weeks where I didn't do anything,"" said Henman. ""When I started training again it really, really seized up. As much as I enjoyed the two weeks off I don't think it's so productive."" Federer dropped a tight first set against 2004 French Open champion Gaudio, but was content with his game. ""It was about getting used to the surface,"" he said. ""The conditions are much quicker than Doha, my timing was OK, but I could have served better. ""All in all I'm happy with the match, and I won it - that's a good sign. Now I have a day off and hopefully play better the next match."" Agassi was delighted with victory over Massu in his first match for over two months. ""I felt pretty good,"" said the American. ""I liked the way the match played out and, maybe excluding a few second serve returns, I felt like I was doing most things pretty darn well for the first match.""" -sport,"Dominici backs lacklustre France Wing Christophe Dominici says France can claim another Six Nations Grand Slam despite two lacklustre wins so far against Scotland and England. The champions only just saw off the Scots in Paris, then needed England to self-destruct in last week's 18-17 win. ""The English played better than us but lost, whereas we are still in the race for the Grand Slam,"" said Dominici. ""We know our display was not perfect, but we can still win the Grand Slam, along with Ireland and Wales."" France , Ireland and Wales all remain unbeaten after two rounds of this year's RBS Six Nations, with the two Celtic nations playing by far the more impressive rugby. France take on Wales at the Stade de France on 26 February and Ireland in Dublin on 12 March. But although France have yet to click, Dominici says that they can still win the hard way as long as scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili continues in his goalkicking form. ""If we have an efficient kicker on whom we can rely on, a solid defence and a team who play for their lives, we can achieve something,"" Dominici added. ""I said at the start of the competition that the winners would be clearer from the third matches, and that's exactly what is going to happen."" France coach Bernard Laporte will announce his starting line-up next Tuesday for the match against Wales. Wing Jimmy Marlu is definitely out with the knee injury sustained at Twickenham, which is likely to sideline him for the rest of the tournament. Inspirational flanker Serge Betsen is a doubt with a thigh injury, but number eight Imanol Harinordoquy has shaken off his shoulder injury. In the backs, centre Yannick Jauzion and winger Aurelien Rougerie are all back in contention after injury, while Brive back Julien Laharrague has received his first call-up as a replacement for Pepito Elhorga." -sport,"Kenya lift Chepkemei's suspension Kenya's athletics body has reversed a ban on marathon runner Susan Chepkemei after she made an official apology. Athletics Kenya (AK) had suspended the two-time London Marathon runner-up for failing to turn up to a cross-country team training camp in Embu. ""We have withdrawn the ban. Chepkemei has given a reason for her absence,"" said AK chief Isaiah Kiplagat. ""She explained she had a contract with the organisers of the race in Puerto Rice and we have accepted her apology."" The Kenyan coaching team will now decide whether Chepkemei can be included in the team for this month's world cross country championships. The 29-year-old would be a strong contender at the event in France and is hopeful she will be granted a place in the 32-strong squad. ""I am satisfied that the whole saga has been brought to an end,"" Chepkemei said. ""I am ready and prepared to represent my country. ""I will be disappointed if I am not given a chance to compete at the world cross country championships."" AK had insisted it was making an example of Chepkemei by banning her from competition until the end of 2005. But the organisation came under intense international and domestic pressure to reverse its decision. The 29-year-old took part in the 2002 and 2003 London Marathons and was edged out by Radcliffe in an epic New York Marathon contest last year. The two-time world half-marathon silver medallist will be back to challenge Radcliffe at this year's London event in April. AK also dropped its harsh stance on three-time world cross country 4km champion Edith Masai. Masai missed Kenya's world cross country trials because of an ankle problem but AK insisted it would take disciplinary action unless she could prove she was really injured. ""Subject to our doctor's confirmation, we have decided to clear Masai,"" added Kiplagat." -sport,"England coach faces rap after row England coach Andy Robinson is facing disciplinary action after criticising referee Jonathan Kaplan in his side's Six Nations defeat to Ireland. The Rugby Football Union (RFU) will investigate Robinson after deciding not to lodge a complaint against Kaplan. Robinson may even have to apologise for his comments in order to avoid sanction from the International Rugby Board. Robinson had said he was ""livid"" about Kaplan's decisions on Saturday to disallow two England ""tries."" The England coach went on to claim that ""only one side was refereed"". After reviewing tapes of the match, the RFU decided not to formally complain to the IRB over the standard of Kaplan's refereeing. Instead the RFU said in a statement they would, ""set out any concerns the England team management may have in a confidential manner"". An IRB spokesman said on the matter: ""We take all breaches of the code very seriously. ""Should the RFU resolve the issue to our satisfaction, as happened last month when the Scotland coach Matt Williams apologised for remarks made, it would be the end of the matter."" Kaplan has vigorously defended his performance in England's 19-13 defeat at Landsdowne Road and admitted he was ""very disappointed"" with Robinson's remarks. And the South African has been appointed to take charge of Scotland's match against Wales on 13 March. The RFU recently fined Northampton coach Budge Pountney £2,000 and imposed a six-week ban for his criticism of referee Steve Lander after a Premiership match." -sport,"Juninho demand for O'Neill talks Juninho's agent has confirmed that the player is hoping for talks with Martin O'Neill as the Brazilian midfielder comes closer to departing Celtic. Brian Hassell says no official approach has been received from Manchester City but that the English club had been earmarked as a possible destination. But it was being stressed to BBC Sport that Juninho would prefer to remain with the Scottish champions. Juninho wants assurances that he will return to O'Neill's first-team plans. He has become frustrated with his lack of first-team action since his move from Middlesbrough in the summer. Hassel says Juninho, who has just bought a new home, would ""desperately like to stay at Celtic"" but will seek a move if it is made clear that he is not wanted. The agent also stressed that nothing should be read into the 30-year-old's father being in Scotland and talk of a move back to Botafogo in Brazil. Juninho's father was simply in the country to see his son and grandchildren. ""I know there is interest from a Brazilian club, but I know Juninho doesn't want to go there,"" said Hassel. ""He wants to stay in Britain. In fact, he wants to stay at Celtic."" Hassall made it clear that a move to Manchester City, who are badly in need of a midfield play-maker, was more of a possibility than Botafogo, or Mexican outfit Red Sharks Veracruz, who also expressed an interest. ""It was a thought at one stage,"" he said. ""If you are not going to get a game under one manager, you look for another whose style of play suits you. ""He is a fan of Kevin Keegan's style of play. It would not be a bad move for him."" Juninho had earlier told the Daily Record: ""The manager has had a lot of chances to put me in his team but it hasn't happened. ""If that is the case then this is the opportunity for me to go. That would be good for the club and good for me. ""If I have no part in his plans, there is no point in remaining here waiting for a chance that never comes."" The attacking midfielder also claims he has not had the backing of boss Martin O'Neill since his move to Celtic Park. ""I can't understand why I am in this situation,"" he continued. ""When a manager brings a new player to the club, he gives that player support.""" -sport,"Connors boost for British tennis Former world number one Jimmy Connors is planning a long-term relationship with the Lawn Tennis Association to help unearth the next Tim Henman. The American spent three days at the LTA's annual Elite Performance winter camp in La Manga earlier this week. ""Britain has the right attitude,"" said Connors. ""The more involved I can be with the LTA, the better. ""A short-term arrangement is just confusing. The kids will ask: 'What am I doing there?'"" LTA chief executive, John Crowther, added: ""The relationship that Jimmy's already started to develop with the coaches and the players has said to us that we'd like some more of it. ""We want to use Jimmy for a number of weeks a year and we hope this is the beginning of a good long-term relationship."" The camp played host to more than 30 leading senior and junior players, including Greg Rusedski, Arvind Parmar and Anne Keothavong. ""La Manga is an amazing site to take a bunch of kids who want to be the best,"" said Connors, speaking at Queen's Club in London. ""What impressed me most was not only the coaches but the way the kids went about their workouts and the feeling they put into every practice they had. ""It was interesting to me to see kids of 15, 16, 17, with that desire and passion, and that can only be brought about by the coaches surrounding them. ""Instilling the importance of work and practice is something you can't buy. ""They know what's been given to them and all they have to do is give back the effort, and every minute of practice they were doing that."" Speaking from La Manga, LTA performance director David Felgate told BBC Sport: ""Jimmy was fantastic with the players and the coaches, and very humble considering what he's achieved. ""He worked through the coaches and hopefully it will grow and he'll get to have more of an individual relationship with some of the players and get to know them. ""He made it clear from the word go he didn't want it to be short-term. This is a 52-week-a-year job for me, it's my life and my passion and it's the same with the coaches. ""He respects that but he wants to be involved and have real input. And why would he stake his reputation on something that's not going to be successful?"" Connors has also agreed to commentate for the BBC at next year's Wimbledon Championships. He will work during the second week of the tournament." -sport,"Pountney handed ban and fine Northampton coach Budge Pountney has been fined £2,000 and banned from match-day coaching for six weeks for calling a referee ""a disgrace"". Pountney was found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute at a Rugby Football Union disciplinary hearing in London on Thursday night. Pountney criticised referee Steve Lander's performance in Northampton's defeat by Saracens on 5 February. The last two weeks of the six-week ban are suspended. Pountney pleaded guilty to the offence before a panel consisting of chairman Robert Horner, Nigel Gillingham and Jeff Probyn. The ban means former Scotland international Pountney cannot enter the playing enclosure, technical areas or go near the touchline, tunnel or players and officials' areas on the day of a game." -sport,"Kluft impressed by Sotherton form Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft was full of admiration for Britain's Kelly Sotherton as the pair prepared to clash in Birmingham. Both will be in action on Friday in the 60m hurdles and long jump ahead of the European Indoor Championships later this month in Madrid. Sotherton finished third behind the Swede in Athens, and Kluft said: ""I knew about her, she's a great girl. ""She looked very good early in the season and was competing really well."" Kluft showed impressive early-season form on Tuesday in Stockholm's GE Galan meeting, winning the sprint hurdles, the long jump and the 400m. Sotherton has also displayed promise, with a new high jump personal best in Sheffield at the combined Norwich Union European trials and AAA Championships, and a second place in the long jump behind Jade Johnson." -sport,"Davenport hits out at Wimbledon World number one Lindsay Davenport has criticised Wimbledon over the issue of equal prize money for women. Reacting to a disputed comment by All England Club chairman Tim Phillips, the American said: ""I think it is highly insulting if prize money is taken away. ""Somebody, I think it was Mr Phillips, said they won't have money for flowers at Wimbledon. That's insulting."" An All England club spokesperson denied Phillips made the remark, insisting: ""He definitely didn't say it."" The statement added: ""It was said by someone else and was a humorous aside at the end of a radio interview when the conversation had moved to talking about the Wimbledon grounds."" Davenport was speaking following the announcement that this week's Dubai Duty Free event will join the US and Australian Opens in offering equal prize money for women. ""You hear about women playing only three sets while men play five,"" said Daveport. ""And the best women are never going to beat the best men. ""But it's a different game you go to watch with the women - it doesn't make it better or worse. ""Hopefully we will be able to change people's minds."" Serena Williams, who is also in Dubai, added: ""I'm obviously for equal prize money. ""Women's tennis is exciting. Men's tennis is exciting as well, but the women have it right now. ""If you are bringing in the spectators you should be able to reap what everyone else is able to reap.""" -sport,"Prodigy Monfils blows away Gaudio French prodigy Gael Monfils underlined his huge promise by beating French Open champion Gaston Gaudio 6-4 7-6 (7-4) in the first round of the Qatar Open. The 18-year-old wild card won three of the four junior Grand Slam events last year, including Wimbledon. Fabrice Santoro, the 2000 champion, beat Sweden's Thomas Johansson 6-4 6-2 but fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny lost 6-3 7-6 (7-3) to Rafael Nadal. Roger Federer plays Greg Rusedski in the second round on Wednesday. Monfils, who was given a wildcard into the tournament, said: ""This is my first win over a top 10 player and I am delighted. ""I play my best tennis when I am fired up on the court and the reason I won today was because I was able to play my natural, attacking game,"" he said. ""Of course I was a bit tired in the second set. But I was confident I could survive had there been a third set.""" -sport,"Chepkemei joins Edinburgh line-up Susan Chepkemei has decided she is fit enough to run in next month's Great Edinburgh International Cross Country. The Kenyan was initially unsure if she would have recovered from her gruelling tussle with Paula Radcliffe in the New York Marathon in time to compete. But she has declared herself up to the task and joins a field headed by World cross country champion Benita Johnson. Race director Matthew Turnbull said: ""Susan will add even more strength in depth to the world-class line up."" Chepkemei, who won the six kilometre event three years ago when it was staged in Newcastle, endured an epic battle with Radcliffe in the Big Apple until the Briton outsprinted her in the final 400m. Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia will defend the title she won last year in Tyneside - before the race was moved north of the border. Recently-crowned European cross country champion Briton Hayley Yelling also competes in Edinburgh on 15 January, as does in-form Scot Kathy Butler." -sport,"Chelsea denied by James heroics A brave defensive display, led by keeper David James, helped Manchester City hold the leaders Chelsea. After a quiet opening, James denied Damien Duff, Jiri Jarosik and Mateja Kezman, while Paul Bosvelt cleared William Gallas' header off the line. Robbie Fowler should have scored for the visitors but sent his header wide. Chelsea had most of the possession in the second half but James kept out Frank Lampard's free-kick and superbly tipped the same player's volley wide. City went into the game with the proud record of being the only domestic team to beat Chelsea this season. And there was little to alarm them in the first 30 minutes as Chelsea - deprived of Arjen Robben and Didier Drogba through injury - struggled to pose much of a threat. Indeed, it was the visitors who looked likelier to enliven a drab opening played at a lethargic pace. Shaun Wright-Phillips - watched by England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson - showed his customary trickery to burst into the right of the area and deliver a dangerous ball, which was blocked by John Terry. But Chelsea suddenly stepped up a gear and created a flurry of chances. First, Duff got round Ben Thatcher and blasted in a shot that James parried to Kezman, who turned the ball wide. Soon afterwards, Jarosik found space in the area to powerfully head Lampard's corner goalwards but James tipped the ball over. Chelsea were now looking more like Premiership leaders and James kept out Kezman's fierce drive before Bosvelt and James combined to clear Gallas' header from Duff's corner. City broke swiftly up the field and the last chance of a frenetic spell should have resulted in Fowler celebrating his 150th Premiership goal. Wright-Phillips raced down the left and crossed to Fowler but City's lone man up front, left free by Terry's slip, contrived to head wide when it seemed a breakthrough was certain. The second half started as quietly as the first, although James was forced to divert a cross from the lively Duff away from Eidur Gudjohnsen's path. There was a nasty moment for Petr Cech, looking for a ninth straight clean sheet in the league, when a series of ricochets saw Fowler chase a loose ball in the area and collide accidently with the Czech Republic stopper. Another quiet spell followed, which Duff interrupted with a surging run that was halted illegally on the edge of the penalty area by Bosvelt. Lampard stepped up to blast a shot through the wall and James somehow blocked it with his legs. Another timely challenge, this time from Richard Dunne in time added on, prevented Gudjohnsen from getting in a shot. There was still time for James to produce a sensational save to tip Lampard's volley round the post. Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Gallas, Terry, Bridge, Jarosik (Tiago 56), Lampard, Makelele, Duff, Gudjohnsen, Kezman (Cole 63). Subs Not Used: Johnson, Smertin, Cudicini. Makelele, Gudjohnsen. James, Mills, Distin, Dunne, Thatcher, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Bosvelt, Barton, Sibierski (McManaman 85), Musampa, Fowler. Subs Not Used: Macken, Weaver, Onuoha, Jordan. Bosvelt. 42,093 H Webb (S Yorkshire)." -sport,"Navratilova hits out at critics Martina Navratilova has defended her decision to prolong her tennis career at the age of 48. Navratilova, who made a comeback after retiring in 1994, will play doubles and mixed doubles events in 2005. ""Women's tennis is really strong,"" she said, dismissing suggestions that the fact she could still win reflected badly on the women's game. ""All I can say is I'm that damn good. I'm sorry but I really have to blow my own horn here. I'm still that good."" Navratilova has won three Grand Slam mixed doubles titles since she came out of retirement. And she was so encouraged by her form that she decided to resume playing singles, winning two of her seven matches. She was knocked out in the first round of the French Open but reached the second round at Wimbledon. Navratilova will partner Nathalie Dechy in the doubles event at the Uncle Toby's Hardcourts tournament on Australia's Gold Coast, which begins on Sunday. She will then link up with Daniela Hantuchova for the Australian Open doubles, and play in the mixed doubles with Leander Paes. ""I might be playing some singles events this season, depending on the surface,"" she added." -sport,"Mirza shocks Kuznetsova Sania Mirza continued her remarkable rise with victory over US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Dubai Championships on Tuesday. The 18-year-old Indian, who is already a huge star in her home country, won 6-4 6-2 in front of a delirious crowd. It was Mirza's sixth straight victory following her first WTA tournament win in Hyderabad last month. Earlier, Daniela Hantuchova built on her improving form with a 7-6 6-2 win over sixth seed Alicia Molik. Mirza needed attention to an ankle injury after the second game against Kuznetsova. She quickly slipped 4-0 down but staged a dramatic comeback that thrilled the large Indian contingent in the crowd. ""I really didn't expect that after my ankle turn,"" said Mirza. ""I played a great match and I think (the crowd) did it again. I knew that I had to play an all-round game and that's what happened. ""I did everything well but I wasn't missing the ball - I don't know how that happened."" Mirza plays Silvia Farina Elia or Jelena Jankovic next. Hantuchova has risen from 31 in the world at the turn of the year to number 22, having reached the quarter-finals and semi-finals at her last two events. ""It was such a tough first-round match and I am glad to come through,"" said Hantuchova. ""She was serving so well. I just decided to hang in there and keep fighting."" The Slovakian will meet Elena Likhovtseva in the second round after the Russian struggled past Tunisian wild card Selima Sfar 2-6 6-2 7-6. Likhovtseva needed nine match points before seeing off Sfar, who got a point penalty for swearing in the third set. Seventh seed Nathalie Dechy and Elena Bovina were among other first-round winners on Tuesday." -sport,"Dawson wins England squad recall Wasps scrum-half Matt Dawson has been recalled to England's training squad ahead of the RBS Six Nations and been reinstated in the Elite Player Squad. Coach Andy Robinson dropped Dawson for the autumn Tests after he missed training to film 'A Question of Sport.' ""I always said I would consider bringing Matt back if I felt he was playing well,"" Robinson said. ""He merits his return on current form."" Newcastle's 18-year-old centre Mathew Tait is also in the training squad. ""It's obviously an honour to be asked to train with England,"" said Tait, who has burst into contention recently. ""I look forward to going down and doing the sessions, but the most important thing at the moment is Sunday's game against Newport, so I'm not looking any further than that."" Robinson has invited 42 players to attend a three-day session in Leeds next week, in which his squad will train in part with the Leeds Rhinos rugby league squad. With Mike Tindall ruled out of the opening two matches and Will Greenwood sidelined for the entire Six Nations, Tait is one of six or seven contenders for the two centre berths. Stuart Abbott, Jamie Noon, Ollie Smith, Olly Barkley and Henry Paul - who retains his place despite his early substitution against Australia - are also in the mix. Ben Cohen could also be considered after switching from the wing for his club Northampton recently. Prop Phil Vickery and lock Simon Shaw both return to the squad after missing the autumn Tests through injury, while Wasps wing Tom Voyce is recalled. The group also includes Bath flanker Andy Beattie and Leicester hooker George Chuter. ""Beattie has matured greatly as a player these past two seasons,"" Robinson said. Jonny Wilkinson, Tindall and Martin Corry have all been included despite their unavailability for the opening two matches against Wales and France. The revised 56-man elite squad includes Wasps hooker Phil Greening, who replaces the retired Mark Regan, and Sale wing Mark Cueto. Cueto was selected for the November internationals despite not being part of the group, but scored four tries in three England appearances. Leicester scrum-half Harry Ellis has also been promoted from the senior national academy, and will contest the number nine jersey with Dawson and Gloucester's Andy Gomarsall. The players in Robinson's elite squad can only play 32 matches for club and country. They can be called up for a total of 16 training days in addition to the recognised international weeks for each of the years leading up to the next World Cup. Balshaw, Cohen, Cueto, Lewsey, Robinson, Simpson-Daniel, Voyce, Abbott, Noon, Paul, Smith, Tait, Tindall, Barkley, Hodgson, King, Wilkinson, Dawson, Ellis, Gomarsall. Chuter, Thompson, Titterrell, Rowntree, Sheridan, Stevens, Vickery, White, Borthwick, Brown, L Deacon, Grewcock, Kay, Shaw, Beattie, Corry, Forrester, Hazell, Jones, Moody, Vyvyan, J Worsley. Abbott, Balshaw, Borthwick, A Brown, Chuter, Cohen, Corry, Cueto, Dawson, Ellis, Flatman, Gomarsall, Greening, Greenwood, Grewcock, Hazell, Hill, Hodgson, Kay, King, Lewsey, Moody, Noon, Paul, Robinson, Rowntree, Shaw, Simpson-Daniel, Thompson, Tindall, Titterrell, Vickery, Vyvyan, White, Wilkinson, J Worsley, M Worsley. Barkley, Beattie, Christophers, L Deacon, Forrester, C Jones, Palmer, Rees, Sheridan, Skinner, Smith, Stevens, Tait, Voyce. Dowson, Haughton, Monye, Roques, P Sanderson." -sport,"Mourinho receives Robson warning Sir Bobby Robson has offered Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho some advice on coping under pressure. The pair worked together at Barcelona and Porto and Robson had a word of warning for his protege. ""It has all gone for him just lately and that is marvellous, but sometimes you have to have a bit of humility and learn how to lose,"" said Robson. ""It is when it goes against you and you get a bit of bad luck that you learn, and he'll get it straight."" Robson was speaking after being formally granted the freedom of the city of Newcastle. ""Jose is doing very well at the moment,"" Robson added of the man who worked for him for six years. ""He has got one pot - possibly two to follow - a big game against Barcelona to come and I cannot see them losing their lead in the Premiership. ""They are in a good position and I would expect them to go on and win it, which is a wonderful achievement. ""What has occurred over the last couple of weeks will stand him in very good stead for the future. If he is intelligent, he will take it on board - and he is very intelligent. ""He will have learned more in the last fortnight than the last eight months. Before that, it was all about winning."" Robson also admitted he would relish the chance to get back into management and test his skills against Mourinho. ""I am not in a hurry to take the wrong job, but I am ready to take the right job and I feel there is another job in me,"" he added. ""I know the area I am capable of working in and of course I would like a job in the Premiership if one was available. ""It would not worry me if I had to pit my wits against Jose. ""But it is not just a case of him and me against one another. It would be his team against my team - but I would not be afraid of that.""" -sport,"Robertson out to retain Euro lure Hearts manager John Robertson hopes a place in the knock-out stages of the Uefa Cup could help keep some of his out-of-contract players at the club. ""It could help. If we get through and have another European tie it may encourage players to stay at least until the end of the season,"" he said. ""If we manage to get through it shows how well the club's progressing. ""They have to think whether they are going to get other clubs like that should they decide to move on."" A win for Robertson's side against Ferencvaros would put them through to the last 32 if Basle fail to beat Feyenoord. ""It's very much the player's prerogative but the fact that we've been playing European football for the last three or four years is obviously an incentive,"" added Robertson. ""But we want players who want to play for the football club, who are committed and a run in Europe always helps a little bit."" With the game being played at Murrayfield instead of Tynecastle because of Uefa regulations, Robertson sees both positive and negative aspects to the change of venue. ""The pitch is not in the greatest condition. The Heineken Cup game was there at the weekend and the pitch is a bit threadbare,"" he said. ""It's not ideal but it's the same for both teams so we just have to go out and there and perform. That's the most important thing."" But he added: ""If Tynecastle could have hosted 30,000 it would have been fantastic but that's one of the benefits of Murrayfield - it allows us to bring even more of our supporters into it. ""There will be a good atmosphere and the Hearts fans have an important role to play. ""We need their encouragement, we need them to get right behind the side and make it as good an atmosphere as possible. ""Hopefully the players will respond to that and I know they will because it's a fantastic European night for the club.""" -sport,"SFA awaits report over Mikoliunas The Scottish Football Association is awaiting referee Hugh Dallas's report before acting against Hearts winger Saulius Mikoliunas. Mikoliunas, 20, barged linesman Andy Davis, who had advised Dallas to award Rangers an injury-time penalty in Hearts's 2-1 defeat at Tynecastle. ""He was sent off for violent conduct in the 90th minute but we don't know if he did something else after the whistle. ""We don't know how many red cards he was shown,"" said an SFA statement. Hearts could also face action after three fans were arrested for throwing coins on the pitch. Rangers' striker Dad Prso was also sent off during the same incident when he received a second yellow card for wrestling the ball away from Craig Gordon and leaving the Hearts keeper on the ground. The SFA said: ""Once the referee's report comes in then we'll immediately look at things. ""We don't normally get the reports until a couple of days after the game but we're well aware of what happened here. ""Prso was sent off for two cautions, and that will just be a one-match suspension."" The SFA is certain to come down hard on Mikoliunas after Southampton's David Prutton was banned for 10-games on Wednesday by the English FA for shoving referee Alan Wiley. Hearts' boss John Robertson said: ""Mikoliunas has thrown his chest against the assistant referee's chest and got a red card for it. ""The officials have got to take into account the fact he's a young lad. ""But people have got to take into account why he was incensed. Why were 10,000 Hearts fans incensed? ""Why did nobody from the Rangers' bench claim for a penalty kick?"" Rangers' boss Alex McLeish accepted referee Dallas had no option but to send Prso off. McLeish said: ""I'm glad to see the spirit of the players fighting to the very end - literally with Dado trying to get the ball back from Craig Gordon. ""But it was over-zealousness and I don't think Hugh had any option.""" -sport,"Nadal marches on in Mexico Rafael Nadal continued his run of fine form to beat Guillermo Canas and reach the Mexican Open semis in Acapulco. Eighth seed Nadal, who picked up his second ATP title when he beat Alberto Martin in last week's Brazil Open, saw off the Argentine third seed 7-5 6-3. He now meets Argentine wild card Mariano Puerta, who followed up his win over top seed Carlos Moya by overcoming Spain's Felix Mantilla, 6-4 3-6 7-6. Czech fifth seed Czech Jiri Novak was eliminated 7-5 6-1 by Agustin Calleri. The unseeded Argentine, who won the tournament two years ago, now plays Spain's Albert Montanes. Montanes advanced to his first semi-final of the year with a 4-6 6-3 6-4 triumph over sixth-seeded Italian Filippo Volandri. Argentina's Agustin Calleri beat fourth seed Jiri Novak 7-5 6-1 in a battle of former champions at the Mexican Open. Calleri won his only ATP title in Acapulco two years ago while Novak won the singles and doubles titles in 1998. Calleri will face Albert Montanes in the semi-finals after the Spaniard ousted sixth seed Filippo Volandri of Italy 4-6 6-3 6-4. Argentine wild card Mariano Puerta continued his improbable run, outlasting Felix Mantilla 6-4 3-6 7-6." -sport,"Roddick in talks over new coach Andy Roddick is reportedly close to confirming US Davis Cup assistant Dean Goldfine as his new coach. Roddick ended his 18-month partnership with Brad Gilbert on Monday, and Goldfine admits talks have taken place. ""We had a really good conversation and we're on the same page in terms of what I expect from a player in commitment and what he wants,"" said Goldfine. ""The reading I got from him is that I would have a lot of the qualities he's looking for in a coach."" Speaking to told South Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper, Goldfine added: ""That being said, from his standpoint, which is smart, he wants to cover all his bases. ""I think Andy wants a long-term relationship and wants to make sure it's the right fit... the best fit."" Goldfine, 39, has worked with Todd Martin and Roddick's close friend Mardy Fish, and was an assistant coach with the US Olympic team. Martin is the other name to have been linked to the vacant post alongside Roddick." -sport,"Spain coach faces racism inquiry Spain's Football Federation has initiated disciplinary action against national coach Luis Aragones over racist comments about Thierry Henry. If found guilty Aragones could lose his job or face a fine of about £22,000. The federation had initially declined to take action against Aragones after comments he made during a national team training session in October. But its president Angel Maria Villar changed his mind after a request by Spain's anti-violence commission. Aragones insisted the comments, made to Henry's Arsenal club-mate Jose Antonio Reyes, were meant to motivate the player, and were not intended to be offensive. ""I never intended to offend anyone, and for that reason I have a very easy conscience,"" he said at the time. ""I'm obliged to motivate my players to get the best results. ""As part of that job, I use colloquial language, with which we can all understand each other within the framework of the football world. "" England's players made a point of wearing anti-racism t-shirts when training before their friendly against Spain in Madrid last month. But the storm increased following racist chanting by Spanish fans at England's black players during the game, which Spain won 1-0. Spain's minister of sport Jaime Lissavetzky was quick to give his backing to the Federation's decision. ""Everyone who has a public function has to consider their declarations, and make sure they do not give a negative image,"" he said. ""We are going to have zero tolerance in questions of racism.""" -sport,"Bath faced with Tindall ultimatum Mike Tindall's agent has warned Bath they have until next week to improve their contract offer to the England man or risk losing him to a rival club. Dipo Alli says he has received an offer for Tindall which dwarfs Bath's deal and that two other clubs want to talk. ""Mike does not want to go into the Six Nations worrying about where he will be playing his club rugby next season,"" Alli told the Guardian newspaper. ""It is up to (Bath owner) Andrew Brownsword. He has to make it happen."" Tindall is out of contract at the end of the season but it is understood that Brownsword is unwilling to break the club's salary structure to accommodate the 26-year-old's demands. But Alli insists the player is worth more than Bath have put on the table. ""Mike has been at Bath for eight years and wants to remain with the club and his demands are anything but excessive,"" the agent added. ""But Brownsword has to recognise Mike's value and we want to resolve things by the end of next week.""" -sport,"Rangers seal Old Firm win Goals from Gregory Vignal and Nacho Novo gave Rangers a scrappy victory at Celtic Park that moves them three points clear of the champions. Rangers had rarely threatened until Celtic goalkeeper Rab Douglas let defender Vignal's 25-yard drive slip through his grasp and into the net. Opposite number Ronald Waterreus had been Rangers' hero, saving superbly from Craig Bellamy and John Hartson. Striker Novo secured victory, lobbing Douglas with eight minutes remaining. It ended Celtic's 11-game unbeaten run at home in Old Firm derbies and gave Rangers manager Alex McLeish his first victory at the home of his Glasgow rivals. Celtic had won their last six meetings on their home pitch, including twice already this season. They started confidently, with new signing Bellamy, on loan from Newcastle United, given his Celtic debut up front with Wales international colleague John Hartson and Chris Sutton dropping into midfield. It took Bellamy just four minutes to threaten, taking on Marvin Andrews before delivering a low drive that was held by Waterreus at the second attempt. He had an even better chance after Hartson dispossesed Sotiris Kyrgiakos and sent his strike partner clear with only the goalkeeper to beat. But Waterreus did well to beat away Bellamy's disappointing low drive from 16 yards. Waterreus came to the rescue again when the ball fell to Hartson just inside the box and the Dutch goalkeeper made a brave block. It was an Old Firm return for Barry Ferguson as McLeish stuck by the side that thumped four goals past Hibernian. But Rangers found Celtic harder to break down and Douglas was not threatened until 10 minutes after the break. Dado Prso turned inside Neil Lennon only for the Celtic goalkeeper to beat away his powerful 18-yard drive. A great defensive header by Andrews prevented Hartson pouncing from five yards out. Hartson foxed Vignal at the edge of the Rangers box, but the striker's shot on the turn was again beaten away by Waterreus. Rangers were beginning to dominate the midfield and Vignal, collecting a knock back from Fernando Ricksen, broke the deadlock, Douglas somehow letting the Frenchman's dipping drive slip through his grasp. Novo pounced on a moments' hesitation in the Celtic defence to latch on to a long ball from Ricksen and lob the ball over the advancing Douglas. Ricksen appeared to be hit by a coin, but it could not prevent Rangers' celebrations at the final whistle. : Douglas, McNamara, Balde, Varga, Laursen, Petrov, Lennon, Sutton, Thompson, Bellamy, Hartson. Subs: Marshall, Henchoz, Juninho Paulista, Lambert, Maloney, Wallace, McGeady. : Waterreus, Hutton, Kyrgiakos, Andrews, Ball, Buffel, Ferguson, Ricksen, Vignal, Prso, Novo. Subs: McGregor, Namouchi, Burke, Alex Rae, Malcolm, Thompson, Lovenkrands. : M McCurry" -sport,"Spurs to sign Iceland U21 star Tottenham are primed to snap up Iceland Under-21 international Emil Hallfredsson after he impressed on trial at White Hart Lane. The 20-year-old midfielder, who plays for FH Hafnarfjordur, also starred in the Uefa Cup match against Scottish side Dunfermline earlier this season. Spurs have agreed a fee for the player, who has yet to agree personal terms. ""He had offers from two other clubs but he decided to come to Tottenham,"" said Spurs sporting director Frank Arnesen. ""He is a left-sided player, a position we have been looking at and he showed so much talent in his time here that we decided to take him. ""It's down the road of bringing in talent, good prospects and giving them a place at Tottenham where they can improve.""" -sport,"Trial date is set for Balco case A US judge has set a preliminary trial date for the Balco steroid distribution case which has rocked athletics. US district court judge Susan Ilston rejected an attempt by the defence team to have the case dismissed at a pre-trial hearing in San Francisco. And she set a March date for the case of the four men accused of distributing illegal performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes to be heard. A firm decision on whether the trial takes place is expected in January. The judge said that she may conduct hearings in January into whether federal agents illegally searched the Balco headquarters and wrongfully obtained statements from the company's founder Victor Conte and its vice-president James Valente. The two men - along with personal trainer Greg Anderson and athletics coach Remy Korchemny - were all indicted earlier this year but have pleaded their innocence. The outcome of those hearings could result in some or all of the charges being dismissed. Conte said that he would be telling his side of the story on an American TV show on Friday. ""The world deserves to know the truth about performance-enhancing drugs,"" he said. Balco (The Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative) is the company at the centre of the scandal. The company has been accused by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) of being the source of the banned steroid THG and modafinil. The USADA claims that 10 athletes have received sanctions for testing positive for THG and modafinil. Former double world champion Kelli White and Olympic relay star Alvin Harrison have both been banned on the basis of materials discovered during the Balco investigation. Britain's former European 100m champion Dwain Chambers is currently serving a two-year ban after testing positive for THG in an out-of-competition test in 2003." -sport,"Henry tipped for Fifa award Fifa president Sepp Blatter hopes Arsenal's Thierry Henry will be named World Player of the Year on Monday. Henry is on the Fifa shortlist with Barcelona's Ronaldinho and newly-crowned European Footballer of the Year, AC Milan's Andriy Shevchenko. Blatter said: ""Henry, for me, is the personality on the field. He is the man who can run and organise the game."" The winner of the accolade will be named at a glittering ceremony at Zurich's Opera house. The three shortlisted candidates for the women's award are Mia Hamm of the United States, Germany's Birgit Prinz and Brazilian youngster Marta. Hamm, who recently retired - is looking to regain the women's award, which she lost last year to striker Prinz. Fifa has changed the panel of voters for this year's awards. Male and female captains of every national team will be able to vote, as well as their coaches and Fipro - the global organisation for professional players." -sport,"Mourinho takes swipe at Arsenal Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has attempted to pile the pressure on title rivals Arsenal ahead of the Gunners facing Newcastle on Wednesday. Arsenal will play the Magpies a day after Chelsea beat Portsmouth during a busy festive programme. And Mourinho said: ""They always seem to have two or three days' rest in which to recover. Perhaps it's something to do with the television schedule. ""All my players are tired, especially John Terry."" Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho admitted his side were ""lucky"" to win at Fratton Park but is still unhappy with the amount of games in such a short space of time during this time of year. He added: ""We have had to play two matches in three days which is foreign to many of my players and, although I understand the traditions of football here at this time of year, it is not good for your health to do it. ""You can sit back and smoke cigars, one after another, and it is a good life, but it is not actually good for you. ""Playing so many games is certainly not healthy, especially for teams who still have European commitment.""" -sport,"Hearts 2-1 Livingston Hearts wrapped up their Scottish Cup quarter-final tie against Livingston with two goals in the first 10 minutes. Lee Miller scored inside the opening 60 seconds, heading over Colin Meldrum and into the net from a Jamie McAllister free kick. McAllister himself scored the second when he met Saul Mikoliunas' cross at the back post to put the game beyond the visitors. Craig Easton headed in a controversial goal after an hour but Hearts held on. The opening goal came after Gus Bahoken had clumsily fouled Miller 35 yards from goal. McAllister floated the free kick into the Livi box and Miller outjumped the static visiting defence to loop his header from 10 yards over Meldrum. With just 10 minutes on the clock, the home side doubled their lead. Mikoliunas sprinted down the right, crossed to the back post where McAllister raced in to head past Meldrum. Moments later Miller came close to grabbing his second with a first-time drive from 16 yards, which skimmed the bar. Then McAllister picked up a pass from Stephen Simmons and drove an angled shot from 20 yards narrowly past Meldrum's far post. The impressive Mikoliunas twice went close before half time - a low drive was comfortably gathered by Meldrum and then he curled a left-footed shot past the keeper's right-hand post. Livi manager Richard Gough made three changes at the interval, bringing on defender Goran Stanic, midfielder Gabor Vincze, and striker Ferenc Horvath for Bahoken, Derek Lilley and Mark Wilson. But, in the opening stages of the second period, little changed. However, the West Lothian side gave themselves a lifeline with a controversial goal. Eric Deloumeaux sent Jason Dair away on the right and he tried to give the ball to McPake, who looked to be in an offside position. The Livi striker ignored the pass, however, and Dair ran on to it and played Easton in at the back post and he headed home from close range. The home side called for offside against McPake but referee Alan Freeland ignored their claims and pointed to the centre-circle. Livi went all out for the equaliser. In the 87th minute, Burton O'Brien was hauled back at the edge of the box by Neil MacFarlane, but Dair sent his shot just inches wide. Gordon, Webster, Miller, Hartley, Neilson, McAllister, Simmons (MacFarlane 64), Berra, Burchill (Wyness 82), Mikoliunas (Cesnauskis 77), Wallace. Moilanen, Kizys. Berra, Webster. Miller 1, McAllister 10. Meldrum, McNamee, Bahoken (Stanic 45), Deloumeaux, Strong, Dair, Easton, Mark Wilson (Vincze 45), Lilley (Horvath 45), O'Brien, McPake. McKenzie, Hand. : Vincze, Horvath. Easton 60. 9,796 A Freeland" -sport,"Fuming Robinson blasts officials England coach Andy Robinson said he was ""livid"" after his side were denied two tries in Sunday's 19-13 Six Nations loss to Ireland in Dublin. Mark Cueto's first-half effort was ruled out for offside before the referee spurned TV replays when England crashed over in the dying minutes. ""[I'm] absolutely spitting. I'm livid. There's two tries we've been cost,"" Robinson told BBC Sport. ""We've got to go back to technology. I don't know why we didn't."" South African referee Jonathan Kaplan ruled that Cueto was ahead of Charlie Hodgson when the fly-half hoisted his cross-field kick for the Sale wing to gather. Kaplan then declined the chance to consult the fourth official when Josh Lewsey took the ball over the Irish line under a pile of bodies for what could have been the game-winning try. ""I think Mark Cueto scored a perfectly legal try and I think he should have gone to the video referee on Josh Lewsey,"" said Robinson. ""It is how we use the technology. It is there, and it should be used. ""I am still trying to work out the Cueto try. I have looked at both, and they both looked tries. ""We are very disappointed, and this will hurt, there is no doubt about that. ""We are upset now, but the referee is in charge and he has called it his way and we have got to be able to cope with that. ""We did everything we could have done to win the game. I am very proud of my players and, with a couple of decisions, this could have been a very famous victory. ""I thought we dominated. Matt Stevens had an awesome game at tighthead prop, while the likes of Charlie Hodgson, Martin Corry and Lewis Moody all came through well. ""Josh Lewsey was awesome, and every one of the forwards stood up out there. Given the pressure we were under, credit must go to all the players. ""We have done everything but win a game of rugby, but Ireland are a good side. They defended magnificently and they've got every chance of winning this Six Nations."" England have lost their first three matches in this year's Six Nations and four out of their six games since Robinson took over from Sir Clive Woodward in September." -sport,"Gerrard plays down European hopes Steven Gerrard has admitted that Liverpool have little chance of winning the Champions League this season. The 24-year-old Reds skipper spoke out ahead of Tuesday's first leg at home to Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16, which he will miss through suspension. ""Let's be realistic, there are some fantastic teams left in the Champions League,"" he told BBC Radio Five Live. ""We are just going to try to stay in as long as possible but we realise that maybe it is not our year this year."" Gerrard has made no secret of his desire to be involved in Europe's premier club competition. Last season he described qualification for the Champions League as the ""be all and end all"" - and rumours persist that he will leave Anfield if the Reds fail to secure a place in the competition. He has consistently been linked with a move away from Liverpool, with Chelsea the favourites to snap up the England midfielder. And Blues boss Jose Mourinho backed Gerrard's view that Rafael Benitez's team could struggle to progress this season. ""Rafa has still time in front of him to build an even better team, maybe he's a little bit behind (right now),"" he told BBC Radio Five Live. Gerrard, who fired Liverpool into the last 16 of this season's competition with a brilliant goal in December's win over Olympiakos, insisted he was still fully focused on helping Liverpool to glory this season. The Reds are currently fifth in the Premiership table, five points off the crucial fourth spot, which brings Champions League qualification - and they face Chelsea in Sunday's Carling Cup final. ""It's big couple of months for Liverpool,"" he added. ""We're fighting for the fourth spot for the Champions League for next season but we are still involved in two cup competitions, which are very important. ""We are confident we can upset Chelsea in the Carling Cup final and get to the last eight of the Champions League because, financially, it is big for the club and, personally for myself, it is very good.""" -sport,"McIlroy wins 800m indoor title James McIlroy motored to the AAA's Indoor 800m title in Sheffied on Sunday in a time of one minute, 47.97 seconds. The Larne athlete dominated the race from start to finish although he had to hold off a late challenge from Welshman Jimmy Watkins in the final 100 metres. ""I had to go out and go through all the gears before the Europeans and I won't run again until then,"" said McIlroy. ''I though if I got lucky I'd get close to the British record but I blew up in the end.'' McIlroy has been in superb form at the start of the season and will now start his build-up for the European Indoors at Madrid on 4-6 March. Meanwhile, Paul Brizzel and Anna Boyle reached the semi-finals of the 60m hurdles with Boyle setting a season's best of 7.48. In the women's 60m final, Ailis McSweeney broke Michelle Carroll's long-standing Irish record by clocking 7.37 which left her in third place. David Gillick showed that he is a genuine medal contender in the European Indoor Championships by claiming an impressive 400m victory. Gillick was more than half-a-second clear when taking gold in 46.45 - .02 outside his personal best set in Saturday's semi-finals. The Irishman is now the fastest European this season. Derval O'Rourke broke her own Irish 60m hurdles record by clocking 8.06 which left her third behind new British record holder Sarah Claxton (7.96). James Nolan (3:46.04) took second in the men's 1500m behind Neil Speaight (3:45.86) but the Offaly man was outside the European Indoor standard. Colin Costello was seventh in the 1500m final in 3:48.82). Deirdre Ryan was second in the women's high jump with a clearance of 1.87m while Aoife Byrne took silver in the 800m in a personal best of 2:06.73. Lisburn's Kelly McNeice Reid (4:31.34) was seventh in the women's 1500m while Gary Murray (8:11.22) was 11th in the men's 3000m. Meanwhile, Stephen Cairns and Jill Shannon claimed the individual titles at Saturday's Northern Ireland Cross Country Championship in Coleraine. Cairns came in ahead of Paul Rowan and Allan Bogle in the men's race. Willowfield claimed their first men's team title in 72 years while Shannon helped Lagan Valley win the women's team honours." -sport,"Bridge could miss rest of season Chelsea left-back Wayne Bridge could miss the rest of the season with a suspected broken ankle. The England international, 24, was hurt in an innocuous challenge with Alan Shearer during the Londoners' FA Cup defeat at Newcastle on Sunday. ""We think it's a big injury,"" said Jose Mourinho, whose Chelsea team this week meet Barcelona in the Champions League and Liverpool in the Carling Cup final. William Gallas and Damien Duff could also miss the Barcelona game. France defender Gallas and Ireland winger Duff both picked up their injuries in the closing stages of Chelsea's 1-0 defeat at St James' Park. With Bridge having gone off after Mourinho used all three substitutes, those knocks plus Carlo Cudicini's red card meant Chelsea finished the game with seven able-bodied players. Cudicini would not have played against Barcelona, but had been promised a game in the Carling Cup final, although he will now miss the Cardiff showpiece through suspension. The manager is not planning to add any new names to his squad ahead of the trip to Barcelona, even though he has few options to replace Bridge at left-back. Celestine Babayaro left the club in January, ironically to join Newcastle, and although Gallas has deputised at left-back before, he is struggling to be fit himself. It could be that Paulo Ferreira, usually a right-back, is switched to left-back with Glen Johnson, who ended the Newcastle game in goal, playing on the right. Youngsters Ben Hudell, Joe Keenan and Sam Tillen would be options should Mourinho decide to call up a replacement, but it is unlikely he would risk an untried prospect in a Champions League tie. Bridge's injury also means Mourinho, who reportedly wants to sign Ashley Cole from Arsenal, will not have a specialist, senior left-back for the run-in to the season. ""He (Bridge) has no chance of playing against Barcelona, probably will not play against Liverpool (in the Carling Cup final) and maybe not for the rest of the season,"" he said. ""The medical department will try to do everything to recover Gallas and Duff. We will have to wait and see, but I won't cry about injuries because we will have 11 players to play on Tuesday."" Shearer said he was unsure what caused Bridge's injury. ""I don't know what happened."" he said. ""It was just a shame. I don't think we even touched each other. ""By all accounts it's pretty serious. I went into the dressing-room after the game and wished him all the best."" Mourinho, whose team are chasing three trophies, has already lost winger Arjen Robben to a serious injury." -sport,"Edgy Agassi struggles past Dent Andre Agassi put in an erratic display before edging into the fourth round of the Australian Open with victory over Taylor Dent. The 34-year-old American, seeded eighth, made a poor start, dropping serve early on and later needing two chances to serve out the set. Having secured the lead, Agassi still failed to take control as both players forced a succession of breaks. But Agassi won the tie-break before wrapping up a 7-5 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 win. Fourth seed survived an injury scare as he battled past Mario Ancic 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4. The Russian turned his right ankle in the third game of the fourth set and called for treatment immediately. But he showed no sign of the problem when he returned to the court to wrap up victory in two hours 45 minutes. Ancic, Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2004, looked set to push Safin all the way when he took the second set but Safin raised his game to sink the Croatian. Safin said he was trying to keep his temper under control at this year's tournament. The Russian hit himself on the head repeatedly in one second-set outburst but was otherwise largely calm in his victory. ""I try to stay calm because if you go crazy against players like Ancic, you might never come back because he's a tough opponent,"" he said. ""I'm a little bit calmer than I was before because I'd had enough."" The Russian added that he was not worried by his ankle injury. ""I have had a lot of problems with that ankle before - it will be OK,"" he said. 's route to the fourth round was made easy when opponent Jarkko Nieminen was forced to retire from their match. The top seed and defending champion was leading 6-3 5-2 when Nieminen pulled out with an abdominal injury. Federer had been in patchy form until then - mixing 19 unforced errors with 19 winners. The world number one will play Cypriot next after the former world junior champion beat Tommy Robredo 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 6-1. Federer admitted he was under extra pressure after extending his winning streak to a career-best 24. ""They are so used to me winning, but it's not that simple,"" he said. ""I had a feeling this could be a tough match. I had a bad start but I bounced back. I always want to play better than I am, but I thought I was pretty OK."" French Open champion is out of the tournament after a five-set defeat by Dominik Hrbaty. Hrbaty defeated the 10th seed 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (8-10) 6-7 (3-7) 6-1 6-3 in a match lasting four hours and 21 minutes. The pair traded 16 service breaks during an exhausting baseline battle, with Hrbaty taking a decisive advantage in the eighth game of the final set. Hrbaty will now play 2002 champion , who outlasted American Kevin Kim 3-6 6-2 6-7 6-2 6-2." -sport,"Capriati out of Australian Open Jennifer Capriati has become the third leading lady to withdraw from the Australian Open because of injury. The organisers of the first grand slam of 2005, which begins on 17 January, said the American has a problem with her right shoulder. It comes as a blow to the women's draw as last year's champion, Justin Henin-Hardenne, and runner-up, Kim Clijsters, will also be absent. Capriati is a two-time champion in Melbourne with wins in 2001 and 2002. She is believed to have picked up the injury at the Advanta Championships at Philadelphia in November and had to pull out of an exhibition match with Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova on 17 December. Capriati also decided against competing in the Australian Open warm-up event, the Sydney International." -sport,"Greek pair attend drugs hearing Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou have appeared before an independent tribunal which will decide if their bans should stand. They were given provisional suspensions by athletics' ruling body the IAAF in December for failing to take drugs tests before the Athens Olympics. The pair arrived with former coach Christos Tzekos to give evidence at the Hellenic Olympic Committee's offices. A decision is expected to be announced before the end of February. Whatever the ruling, all parties will have the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Yiannis Papadoyiannakis, who was head of the Greek Olympic team at the Athens Games last year, also testified at the tribunal, along with other Greek sports officials and athletes. ""I believe the tribunal will reach a decision that will uphold the standing of the institution,"" said Papadoyiannakis. ""Whatever the athletes have done, we must not forget that they have offered us great moments."" Kenteris won 200m gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, while Thanou won silver in the 100m. They withdrew from the Athens Games last August after missing drugs tests on the eve of the opening ceremony. The pair spent four days in a hospital, claiming they had been injured in a motorcycle crash. The five-member tribunal, assembled by the Hellenic Association of Amateur Athletics, is also examining allegations that Kenteris and Thanou avoided tests in Tel Aviv and Chicago before the Games. Tzekos was also banned for two years by the IAAF. He faces charges of assisting in the use of prohibited substances and tampering with the doping inspection process. All three, who have repeatedly denied the allegations, have also been charged by a Greek prosecutor and face trial for doping-related charges. A trial date has not been set. In imposing two-year suspensions on the duo on 22 December, the IAAF described their explanations for missing the tests as ""unacceptable"". But Kenteris' lawyer Gregory Ioannidis told BBC Sport earlier this week he was confident the sprinters would be cleared of the charges of failing to give information on their location and refusing to submit to testing. ""We refute both charges as unsubstantiated and illogical,"" he said. ""There have been certain breaches in the correct application of the rules on behalf of the sporting authorities and their officials, and these procedural breaches have also violated my client's rights. ""There is also evidence that proves the fact that my client has been persecuted.""" -sport,"Injury sidelines Philippoussis Mark Philippoussis withdrew from the Sydney International tennis tournament as expected on Sunday after suffering a groin injury during the Hopman Cup. His participation in the Australian Open, which begins on 17 January in Melbourne, also remains in doubt. Defending women's champion Justine Henin-Hardenne is also out of the Sydney event because of a knee injury. In the only main draw men's or women's singles match on Sunday, Nathalie Dechy beat American Lisa Raymond 7-5 6-3. Number one men's seed Lleyton Hewitt begins his quest for a fourth Sydney title on Tuesday when he plays Karol Beck. Lindsay Davenport, top seed in the women's draw, has been handed a first-round bye and plays France's Dechy in the second round on Tuesday." -sport,"Lennon brands Rangers favourites Celtic's Neil Lennon admits Rangers could be considered ""slight favourites"" for the Old Firm CIS Cup clash, but insists his side can still win. Lennon concedes Rangers are in good form at the moment, but they have failed to beat Celtic in their last seven meetings. ""Rangers are on the up and have been on a good run in recent weeks,"" he said. ""But it's a game we believe we're capable of winning if we play our best,"" he told the Evening Times. ""All the boys are looking forward to it because they are brilliant games to be involved in. ""Without playing at the top of our game, we have still been winning matches. ""At the minute, we are at the top of the league and still in with a chance of staying in Europe, so I don't think it is the crisis people have been trying to make out. ""Of course, it is a concern when you are losing goals, because we have been notorious for being a team that is hard to beat and keeping clean sheets, but hopefully we are over that wee run. ""Considering we lost Henrik Larsson at the end of last season, we have still been scoring a lot of goals, which is pleasing.""" -sport,"Hewitt falls to Dent Lleyton Hewitt suffered a shock defeat to Taylor Dent in the quarter-finals of the Australian Hardcourt Championships in Adelaide on Friday. The top seed was a strong favourite for the title but went down 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 to the American. Dent will face Juan Ignacio Chela next after the fourth seed was too strong for Jurgen Melzer. Olivier Rochus beat third seed Nicolas Kiefer 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 and will take on second seed Joachim Johansson. The Swede reached the last four by beating compatriot Thomas Enqvist 6-3 4-6 6-1. ""I felt like I was striking the ball much better,"" said Johansson. ""I felt like I had a lot of break chances, I didn't take care of them all, but I broke him four times and he only broke me once. ""I felt that was the key to get up in the set early.""" -sport,"Pearce keen on succeeding Keegan Joint assistant boss Stuart Pearce has admitted he would like to succeed Kevin Keegan as manager at Manchester City. Keegan has decided to step down as City manager when his contract comes to an end in 18 months. ""You don't have to be Einstein to realise there will be a manager's job available at a really good club,"" Pearce told BBC GMR. ""I will certainly be applying for it, although whether the board deem me good enough to take it, I do not know."" Pearce initially joined City as a player under Keegan in 2001 before becoming part of the coaching staff. He was promoted to joint assistant-manager following the departure of Arthur Cox last summer. The former England defender had a year as player-boss with Nottingham Forest eight seasons ago but has made no secret of his desire to have another crack at the job. He was linked with the manager's job at Oldham and Keegan has stated he would not get in the way if Pearce wanted to leave. But it now appears Pearce is keen to wait for his chance at City. He added: ""By that time, I will have been here for five years so at least they will have had a good look at me and they are aware of my feelings with regard to being Kevin's successor. ""Obviously, the issue is out of my hands but it is a fantastic job for anybody - I just hope it will be me.""" -sport,"IAAF launches fight against drugs The IAAF - athletics' world governing body - has met anti-doping officials, coaches and athletes to co-ordinate the fight against drugs in sport. Two task forces have been set up to examine doping and nutrition issues. It was also agreed that a programme to ""de-mystify"" the issue to athletes, the public and the media was a priority. ""Nothing was decided to change things - it was more to have a forum of the stakeholders allowing them to express themselves,"" said an IAAF spokesman. ""Getting everyone together gave us a lot of food for thought."" About 60 people attended Sunday's meeting in Monaco, including IAAF chief Lamine Diack and Namibian athlete Frankie Fredericks, now a member of the Athletes' Commission. ""I am very happy to see you all, members of the athletics family, respond positively to the IAAF call to sit together and discuss what more we can do in the fight against doping,"" said Diack. ""We are the leading Federation in this field and it is our duty to keep our sport clean."" The two task forces will report back to the IAAF Council, at its April meeting in Qatar." -sport,"Rusedski forced out in Marseille Greg Rusedski was forced to withdraw from the Open 13 in Marseille on Thursday with a rib injury. The British number two had been scheduled to play qualifier Sebastien de Chaunac, who beat world number five Guillermo Coria 6-4 7-5 in round one. But Rusedski was unable to take to the court because of a problem with the left-hand side of his rib-cage. American Taylor Dent caused a shock with a 7-6 6-2 victory over second seed David Nalbandian. But third seed Joachim Johansson made it through after beating Frenchman Gilles Simon 7-6 6-3 while in the first match of the day, sixth seed Feliciano Lopez defeated Ivo Karlovic. There were also wins for Slovakia's Karol Beck and Croatian duo Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic." -sport,"Robinson answers critics England captain Jason Robinson has rubbished suggestions that the world champions are a team in decline. England were beaten 11-9 by Wales in their Six Nations opener in Cardiff last week and face current champions France at Twickenham on Sunday. Robinson said: ""We are certainly not on the decline. You lose one game and it doesn't make you a bad team. ""I have no doubt in the players we've got. We have still got the team to go out and beat anyone on our day."" England find themselves striving to avoid a third successive championship defeat for the first time since 1987. But full-back Robinson believes the new-look England team can stop the rot against France. ""Last weekend we should have won the game,"" he said. ""But if we can under-perform and lose by only two points then I am sure if we play well this week we will get the win we need. ""We proved that in the autumn - when we put in some excellent performances - and we just need to build on that. ""It was a disappointing start against Wales and we might be down on that. ""But we are certainly not out. We will come out fighting this week."" Robinson also had words of comfort for 18-year-old Newcastle centre Mathew Tait, who made his international debut against Wales but has been demoted from the squad to face France. ""I have had a word with Mathew,"" said Robinson. ""I still believe in him. He is an outstanding player but we have gone for Olly (Barkley) because of the kicking. ""Mathew has just got to take it on the chin, keep working hard like he is doing and I'm sure he will feature in some of the games.""" -sport,"Everton's Weir cools Euro hopes Everton defender David Weir has played down talk of European football, despite his team lying in second place in the Premiership after beating Liverpool. Weir told BBC Radio Five Live: ""We don't want to rest on our laurels and say we have achieved anything yet. ""I think you start taking your eye off the ball if you make statements and look too far into the future. ""If you start making predictions you soon fall back into trouble. The only thing that matters is the next game."" He said: ""We are looking after each other and hard work goes a long way in this league. We have definitely shown that. ""Also injuries and suspensions haven't cost us too badly and we have a lot of self-belief around the place.""" -sport,"FA probes crowd trouble The FA is to take action after trouble marred Wednesday's Carling Cup tie between Chelsea and West Ham. Police in riot gear were confronted by a section of the West Ham support after the match which the Blues won 1-0. Mateja Kezman, the scorer of Chelsea's goal, needed treatment on a head injury during the match after being hit by a missile, believed to be a coin. A spokeswoman for Chelsea said the club would await the referee's report before deciding on its course of action. Kezman was forced off the field to receive treatment on a cut above his eye but was able to continue. Chelsea assistant boss Steve Clarke said: ""I would rather talk about the football but we think it was something thrown from the crowd. He did not require stitches."" West Ham boss Alan Pardew said: ""It's a shame because I thought there was good English banter in the crowd. ""There's big rivalry between the two clubs and it is a shame if that's happened. From where I was standing I didn't see any trouble."" Former Hammers star Joe Cole also had a plastic bottle thrown at him, while Frank Lampard was pelted with coins as he was preparing to take a penalty. Lampard's spot-kick was saved to the delight of the Hammers' fans, who have still not forgiven him for leaving Upton Park. The FA will seek reports from the clubs and the police, and will review video evidence and the referee's report. Police in riot gear battled with West Ham fans in the Matthew Harding stand and at least one supporter required treatment. Fans are also thought to have clashed outside the ground after the game. Scotland Yard said there had been 11 arrests for alleged public order, drugs and offensive weapon offences. The FA is already looking into the trouble at Tuesday's heated Carling Cup tie between Millwall and Liverpool." -sport,"Merritt close to indoor 400m mark Teenager LaShawn Merritt ran the third fastest indoor 400m of all time at the Fayetteville Invitational meeting. The world junior champion clocked 44.93 seconds to finish well clear of fellow American Bershawn Jackson in Arkansas. Only Michael Johnson has gone quicker, setting the world record of 44.63secs in 1995 and running 44.66secs in 1996. Kenyan Bernard Lagat missed out on the world record by 1.45secs as he ran the third quickest indoor mile ever to beat Canada's Nate Brannen by almost 10secs. The Olympic silver medallist's time of three minutes 49.89secs was inferior only to the 1997 world record of Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj and former world record holder Eamonn Coghlan of Ireland's 3:49.78. Lagat was on course to break El Guerrouj's record through 1200m but could not maintain the pace over the final 400m. Ireland's continued his excellent form by winning a tight 3,000m in 7:40.53. Cragg, who recently defeated Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele in Boston, held off Bekele's Ethiopian colleague Markos Geneti by only 0.19secs to secure his victory. Mark Carroll, who will join Cragg in the European Indoor Championships next month, finished a solid third in 7:46.78. Olympic 200m gold medallist of Jamaica ran the fastest women's 60m in the world this year as she equalled her personal best of 7.09secs. World indoor 60m hurdles champion also won, improving his season-leading time to 7.51secs." -sport,"Harinordoquy suffers France axe Number eight Imanol Harinordoquy has been dropped from France's squad for the Six Nations match with Ireland in Dublin on 12 March. Harinordoquy was a second-half replacement in last Saturday's 24-18 defeat to Wales. Bourgoin lock Pascal Pape, who has recovered from a sprained ankle, returns to the 22-man squad. Wing Cedric Heymans and Ludovic Valbon come in for Aurelien Rougerie and Jean-Philippe Grandclaude. Rougerie hurt his chest against Wales while Grandclaude was a second-half replacement against both England and Wales. Valbon, capped in last June's Tests against the United States and Canada, was a second half replacement in the win over Scotland. France coach Bernard Laporte said Harinordoquy had been axed after a poor display last weekend. ""Imanol has been dropped from the squad because the least I can say is that he didn't make a thundering comeback against Wales,"" said Laporte. ""We know the Ireland game will be fast and rough and we also want to be able to replace both locks during the game if needed, and Gregory Lamboley can also come on at number seven or eight. ""The grand slam is gone but we'll go to Ireland to win. ""It will be a very exciting game because Ireland have three wins under their belt, have just defeated England and have their eyes set on a Grand Slam."" France, who lost to Wales last week, must defeat the Irish to keep alive their hopes of retaining the Six Nations trophy. Ireland are unbeaten in this year's tournament and have their sights set on a first Grand Slam since 1948. Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), Pierre Mignoni (Clermont), Yann Delaigue (Castres), Frederic Michalak (Stade Toulousain), Damien Traille (Biarritz), Yannick Jauzion (Stade Toulousain), Ludovic Valbon (Biarritz), Christophe Dominici (Stade Francais), Cedric Heymans (Stade Toulousain), Julien Laharrague (Brive) Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Francais), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Olivier Milloud (Bourgoin), Sebastien Bruno (Sale/ENG), William Servat (Stade Toulousain), Fabien Pelous (Stade Toulousain, capt), Jerome Thion (Biarritz), Pascal Papé (Bourgoin), Gregory Lamboley (Stade Toulousain), Serge Betsen (Biarritz), Julien Bonnaire (Bourgoin), Yannick Nyanga (Béziers)" -sport,"Kirwan demands Italy consistency Italy coach John Kirwan has challenged his side to match the performance they produced in pushing Ireland close when they meet Wales on Saturday. Despite losing 28-17 in Sunday's Six Nations encounter, the Italians confirmed their continuing improvement. ""Our goal is to match every side we face and against Ireland we showed we could do that,"" said Kirwan. ""But the most important thing is that we build on that performance when we play Wales on Saturday."" Italy's half-backs had a mixed afternoon, with recalled scrum-half Alessandro Troncon impressing but fly-half Luciano Orquera having an off-day with the boot. Kirwan said: ""I was very happy with Troncon. He had an incredible game - he was very good in attack and defence. ""Orquera's kicking was off but he showed great courage in defence. ""He also followed the game plan. We have to give him confidence because he has the capability to do well.""" -sport,"Sella wants Michalak recall Former France centre Philippe Sella believes coach Bernard Laporte must recall Frederic Michalak to give his side any chance of beating Ireland. Sella admitted he had been impressed by current fly-half Yann Delaigue in the RBS Six Nations to date. But he told BBC Sport: ""Michalak is the answer both now and for the future. Delaigue deserved his chance but the time has come to bring back Michalak. ""He does have weaknesses but has the all-round game to upset Ireland."" The 22-year-old Michalak has spent much of the tournament on the bench after Delaigue impressed for Castres early in the season. With Michalak overlooked, the French stuttered to narrow wins over Scotland and then England before ironically playing their best rugby in the defeat to Wales. ""The Wales game was amazing to watch but never did I think the French could lose that game at half-time,"" said Sella. ""Their only mistakes were that they didn't score enough points in the first half and were a little bit less focused in the second... but only a little bit."" Sella, however, insisted the pressure had eased on the under-fire Laporte, despite the defeat at the Stade de France. ""This season is very important for shaping a team for the 2007 World Cup,"" said Sella, ""which Laporte is doing very well. The French get better every game. ""It's difficult, though, when you change a team and you change your tactics as everything has to gel. ""But he has the players and the talent to take them all the way to World Cup victory. ""As a result, it is important that people give him time. It may not seem good now that we're not winning the Grand Slam but no one will care in two years time if we're world champions."" The majority of media criticism centred on the way in which France produced a performance devoid of running rugby in their opening two games. But while Sella admitted he liked the more flowing style employed against Wales, he said ""the win was most important"". ""Winning is all that matters,"" he added. ""Ok, the flair may not have been so good, but the discipline, organisation and defence was there, which are all important ahead of 2007."" France play what Sella believes is their hardest game of the Six Nations against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday 12 March. The French go into the game as clear underdogs. But Sella added: ""People forget that France can still win the Six Nations and they'll be focused on that. ""But Ireland will be going for even more in front of their home crowd. It's going to be tough.""" -sport,"Uefa approves fake grass Uefa says it will allow European matches to be played on artificial pitches from the start of next season. European football's governing body made the decision at a meeting of its Executive Committee on Wednesday. Uefa explained that the move ""follows comprehensive studies into the sporting and medical aspects of using artificial playing surfaces."" They can be used subject to complying with Uefa quality criteria but there use will not be made obligatory. Luton, Preston, Queens Park Rangers and other clubs used to have plastic pitches during the the 1980s but, after a two-year study, Uefa insists the surfaces have moved on. International matches can also be played on such pitches, although games at major tournaments have to be contested on grass. Uefa spokesman Rob Faulkner said: ""People in England have bad memories of the artificial pitches of Luton and QPR in the 1980s, but the latest generation are completely different and are much more like grass. ""We have sanctioned its use from the start of next season but only as long as it is the latest generation of artificial turf and meets a whole series of standards."" Several leading clubs from Scandinavia, Russia and eastern Europe - especially those who only play Champions League or Uefa Cup matches in winter - are now expected to instal artificial pitches." -sport,"Charvis set to lose fitness bid Flanker Colin Charvis is unlikely to play any part in Wales' final two games of the Six Nations. Charvis has missed all three of Wales' victories with an ankle injury and his recovery has been slower than expected. ""He will not figure in the Scotland game and is now thought unlikely to be ready for the final game,"" said Wales physio Mark Davies. Sonny Parker is continuing to struggle with a neck injury, but Hal Luscombe should be fit for the Murrayfield trip. Centre Parker has only a ""slim chance"" of being involved against the Scots on 13 March, so Luscombe's return to fitness after missing the France match with hamstring trouble is a timely boost. Said Wales assistant coach Scott Johnson: ""We're positive about Hal and hope he'll be raring to go. ""He comes back into the mix again, adds to the depth and gives us other options. "" Replacement hooker Robin McBryde remains a doubt after picking up knee ligament damage in Paris last Saturday. ""We're getting that reviewed and we should know more by the end of the week how Robin's looking,"" added Johnson. ""We're hopeful but it's too early to say at this stage."" Steve Jones from the Dragons is likely to be drafted in if McBryde fails to recover." -sport,"Thanou desperate to make return Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou says she is eager to compete again after being cleared of missing a drugs test by an independent Greek tribunal. Thanou, 30, was provisionally suspended for missing a test before the Olympics, but the decision was overturned. ""The IAAF will decide if we can compete again in Greece and abroad,"" Thanou told To Vima newspaper in her first interview since the Athens Olympics. ""If given the green light I will run again - that's the only thing I want."" Thanou, 30, and her compatriot Kostas Kenteris were provisionally suspended by the IAAF in December for missing three drugs tests. The third was alleged to have been on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics. But an independent tribunal of the Greek Athletics Federation overturned the provisional ban on 18 March. The IAAF - which said it was ""very surprised"" by the decision of the Greek tribunal - is deciding whether to appeal against the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. However, Dick Pound, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Authority, has said he will appeal against the decision if the IAAF does not. And Thanou and Kenteris face a criminal trial later this year for allegedly avoiding the test and then faking a motorcycle accident. Thanou said: ""I can see how people can think the accident seemed like a childish excuse. ""I cannot deny that we made a lot of mistakes during that time. I always said we needed a PR person. ""An athlete would have to be very stupid to take illegal substances when he or she knows that they will undergo tests at any given moment. ""I am a champion. I cannot risk everything I've achieved in such a silly way.""" -sport,"Middlesbrough 2-2 Charlton A late header by teenager Danny Graham earned Middlesbrough a battling draw with Charlton at the Riverside. Matt Holland had put the visitors ahead in the 14th minute after his shot took a deflection off Franck Queudrue. But Middlesbrough peppered the Charlton goal after the break and Chris Riggott stroked home the equaliser. Shaun Bartlett's strike put Charlton back in front but that lead lasted just six minutes before Graham rushed onto Queudrue's pass to head home. The match burst to life from the whistle and Charlton defender Hermann Hreidarsson had sight of an open goal after just six minutes. Hreidarsson received Danny Murphy's free-kick from the right but he crashed his free header wide of the far post. The Iceland international looked such a danger the Boro bench could be heard issuing frantic instructions to mark him. Charlton's early pressure paid off when Bartlett received a long ball from Talal El Karkouri in the box and laid it off to Holland who buried his right-footed strike. Szilard Nemeth, recalled in place of Joseph-Desire Job, was twice denied his chance to get Middlesbrough back on level terms by Dean Kiely. The striker played a great one-two with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink only to see Kiely get down well to smother his shot before directing a header straight into the keeper's arms. Boro had plenty of time on the ball but the Addicks comfortably mopped up the pressure - with Kiely tipping a Hasselbaink header over the bar - to take their lead into half-time. It was all one-way traffic after the break at the Riverside as Middlesbrough poured forward and Kiely even saved Hreidarsson's blushes when he palmed the ball away to prevent a Charlton own goal. But the Addicks keeper could do nothing about Riggott's equaliser in the 74th minute. The Boro defender looked suspiciously offside as he got on the end of Gareth Southgate's misdirected effort, but despite the Charlton protests his goal stood. The Addicks did not let their heads drop and Bartlett left the Boro defence standing, picking up Hreidarsson's cross to easily sink his right-footed strike. But substitute Graham was on hand to grab a share of the points for the home side. The 19-year-old striker nodding home the equaliser - and his first Premiership goal - with five minutes left on the clock. ""I felt we did enough to win the game even though the first half was lacklustre. ""We dominated after the break, the players showed a fantastic response and we should have gone on to win. ""But for (Charlton goalkeeper) Dean Kiely, who made three tremendous saves, we could have scored five or six."" ""To take the lead and then to get penned back, it feels a little bit like a defeat,"" admitted Kiely. ""We were winning but Middlesbrough kept knocking on the door. But we stood up and credit to us we didn't capitulate. ""We'll kick on now. Our short-term ambition is to progress from the seventh place finish from last year."" Nash, Reiziger (Graham 82), Riggott, Southgate, Queudrue, Parlour (Job 86), Doriva, Nemeth (Parnaby 87), Zenden, Downing, Hasselbaink. Subs Not Used: Cooper, Knight. Riggott 74, Graham 86. Kiely, Hreidarsson, Perry, El Karkouri, Young, Konchesky, Murphy (Euell 78), Holland, Kishishev, Thomas (Johansson 72), Bartlett. Subs Not Used: Fish, Jeffers, Andersen. Konchesky, Hreidarsson, Perry. Holland 14, Bartlett 80. 29,603 M Riley (W Yorkshire)." -sport,"All Black magic: New Zealand rugby Playing colours: All black The Haka and more! The All Blacks Charles John Munro discovered rugby at London's Christ College, and on his return to Nelson he staged New Zealand's first game. Nelson Town met Nelson College on 14 May, 1870, the Town triumphing by two goals to nil, instigating a game that would become a national obsession and come to dominate the country's sporting passions. The game appealed to the Kiwi psyche and quickly spread, the native Maoris finding a particular empathy with the sport's warrior ethos. In 1888 a British team led by AE Stoddart toured New Zealand and Australia, and soon after a Maori named Joe Warbrick and an English ex-pat called Thomas Eyton decided to gather a combined New Zealand team. Twenty-two Maori and four 'pakiha' formed the 'New Zealand Native Team,' who played a total of 107 matches in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. The integration of white and Maori was a reflecion of enlightened New Zealand rugby and society, even if the British press were somewhat mystified by the pre-match tradition of the Maori war dance, the Haka! The other great symbol of New Zealand rugby, the all black kit with the silver fern on the breast, was proposed by Tom Ellison at the first annual meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union in 1893. New Zealand played their first international against Australia in 1903, the Kiwis triumphing 22-3 in Sydney, and the following year an official British touring team came to New Zealand for the first time. The tourists had gone through Australia undefeated but their captain, David Revell Bedell-Sivright, created animosity in New Zealand with his patronising attitude. The Kiwis shocked the rugby world with a 9-3 triumph in Wellington, sparking great celebrations across the country, but Bedell-Sivright churlishly suggested that the victors would have no chance when they visited the UK. Their opportunity to prove him wrong came in 1905 with the first official New Zealand tour to Europe. The tourists won their early games with a quick-thinking, inventive approach, but press criticism began to grow over their 2-3-2 scrum formation that left a 'roving' forward free to disrupt opposition attacks. The tactic was effective, two late tries seeing the Kiwis to a 12-7 win over Scotland, before Ireland were despatched 15-0 in Dublin. A huge crowd at Crystal Palace convulsed with laughter at the sight of the Haka - but the smiles were soon wiped from their faces when the tourists ran in five tries in a 15-0 hammering of England. New Zealand headed to Wales to meet a country in the midst of its first 'Golden Age,' and the encounter would be the first in a series of controversial clashes between the sides. An excellent try on the left wing by Teddy Morgan sealed a 3-0 win in a hard-fought encounter at Cardiff Arms Park, but post-match talk was dominated by a Bob Deans try that was ruled out by Scottish referee John Dallas. Dallas said that Deans was tackled short, but the Kiwi said he was dragged back into the field of play after grounding a try - on his death-bed three years later he exclaimed: ""I did score that try in Cardiff."" Four of the 1905 All Blacks went over to the newly formed 'All Golds' rugby league side soon after the tour, but New Zealand were strong enough to crush an Anglo-Welsh touring team in 1908. The first South Africa tour of New Zealand in 1921 saw honours shared in a three-Test series, starting the greatest rivalry in rugby - and the long-running controversy between the countries over the All Blacks' inclusion of Maori players. The awesome 1924-5 All Black tourists became known as 'The Invincibles' after winning all 30 of their games in France, Britain and Ireland, including a crushing 19-0 victory over Wales at St Helen's. Despite their success, the All Blacks' 2-3-2 scrum formation left them somewhat short of possession at times, and the flaws were exploited by the Springboks in South Africa in 1928. Employing the modern 3-4-1 scrum line-up against the New Zealand 'rover' system for the first time, South African teams defeated the All Blacks in five games and the Test series was drawn two-all. The controversial New Zealand scrum method finally disappeared after the 1930 Lions tour (a series won 3-1 by New Zealand), the Lions manager describing the tactic as 'cheating,' prompting the International Rugby Board to rule that three men had to pack down in the front row of the scrum. The All Blacks' 1935 European tour started inauspiciously with an 11-3 loss to a Swansea side inspired by teenage, schoolboy half-backs Hayden Tanner and Willie Davies. A thrilling Test at Cardiff Arms Park went to Wales 13-12, although the winning try from Geoffrey Rees-Jones was controversial following an illegal Claude Davey tackle in the build-up. New Zealand's next visit to Wales in 1953 proved difficult as they lost 8-3 to Cardiff and drew 6-6 at Swansea. The All Blacks were on top in the Test with Wales at the Arms Park, but the teams were locked at 8-8 when a Clem Thomas cross kick was gathered by Ken Jones for a famous, match-winning try. The tourists made some amends with wins over the other home nations, before a 19-5 success over the Barbarians in an Arms Park thriller. New Zealand built from that tour, and by the time they returned in 1963-4 they were undoubtedly the leading side in the world. That made the shock all the greater when a drop goal by student John Uzzell gave Newport an unlikely 3-0 win over the tourists at Rodney Parade. Wilson Whinneray's side rallied to beat Wales 6-0, their first win at the Arms Park in four attempts, and went unbeaten through the rest of the tour, but when they returned home the first question put to them was: ""What happened in Newport?"" The only blemish on the record of the awesome 1967 tourists was a draw with East Wales, as they beat the full Wales team 13-6 in Cardiff to take the lead in the series between the countries for the first time. That lead was increased with two comfortable wins for the home side in New Zealand in 1969, the first time Wales had toured the country as an independent team. A ferocious game at the Arms Park in 1972 was edged 19-16 by the All Blacks, a measure of revenge for the defeat inflicted on New Zealand by the Carwyn James-inspired Lions of 1971. James guided Llanelli to a famous 9-3 win over the tourists at Stradey Park, though, and in the final game of the tour the Barbarians defeated the All Blacks 23-11 in Cardiff in a game regarded by many as the greatest ever played. New Zealand defeated a Wales XV 12-3 at the Arms Park in a non-cap game in 1974, but it was the 1978 game in Cardiff that would reignite the history of controversy between the two countries. Wales were leading 12-10 with one minute left when Andy Haden flew to the floor from a line-out. Television pictures clearly showed that he dived, but English referee Roger Quittenton was fooled and awarded a penalty, duly converted by Brian McKechnie for a 13-12 win. Since that infamous game, the competition has largely left Wales v New Zealand fixtures as the men in red have slipped from the pinnacle of the world game. A crushing 23-3 win for New Zealand in Cardiff in the Welsh Rugby Union's 1980 centenary game was a sign of things to come. The new professionalism in the southern hemisphere game that had left Europe behind was shown as the All Blacks swatted Wales aside 49-6 in Brisbane in the semi-final of the inaugural World Cup. The Kiwis went on to claim the Cup, and would inflict further misery on Wales on their ill-fated 1988 tour of New Zealand. A young, talented Wales side left Britain full of confidence as Triple Crown winners, but one of the greatest ever New Zealand teams demolished them 52-3 and 54-9. After also taking some fearful beatings in the provincial games, Wales captain Jonathan Davies returned home calling for urgent change in the national game, but as his views were ignored he - along with a generation of Wales' best players - chose to head north to rugby league. A 34-9 win in Cardiff followed for New Zealand in 1989, and at the 1995 World Cup Wales' big talk was made to look embarrassing as the All Blacks eased to victory in Johannesburg. A crushing 42-7 Kiwi triumph in Wembley followed in 1997, and as Wales' misery increased they turned to New Zealand for their salvation in the shape of coaches Graham Henry and Steve Hansen. There was a temporary resurgence in the Welsh game, but when an experimental New Zealand side came to Cardiff's new Millennium Stadium in 2002 they left with a 43-17 victory. A bruising 55-3 defeat followed for Wales in Hamilton in 2003 as Hansen built towards the World Cup, but in Australia it was a remarkable performance against the All Blacks that gave his side renewed hope. Wales were given no chance going into the game, but in the course of the match they rediscovered the value of attacking flair to lead 37-33 early in the second half. New Zealand rallied to a 53-37 win, but the style shown by Wales has been used as an inspiration as they look to a better future. They now face an All Blacks team led by Henry and Hansen, coming to Europe with a weakened squad at the end of a long season. An encouraging display against South Africa has inspired a confident Wales camp to believe they can claim their first win over the men in black for over 50 years. They have a chance, but clearly history is not on their side." -sport,"Ireland 21-19 Argentina An injury-time dropped goal by Ronan O'Gara stole victory for Ireland from underneath the noses of Argentina at Lansdowne Road on Saturday. O'Gara kicked all of Ireland's points, with two dropped goals and five penalties, to give the home side a 100% record in their autumn internationals. An impressive Argentina appeared in control until the dying seconds. The Pumas shocked the Irish early on with a try from Federico Aramburu, and Felipe Contepomi kicked 14 points. The well-drilled and sharper Pumas out-played and out-thought Ireland in the early stages. Indiscipline allowed Argentina's Leinster fly-half Contepomi to open the scoring in the third minute with a straightforward penalty. He was on the mark again two minutes later when Argentina shocked a ragged Ireland with the first try of the game. Ireland turned the ball over and Manuel Contepomi broke through an unstructured defence before feeding his midfield partner Aramburu to sprint in under the posts. O'Gara finally got Ireland on the board with a dropped goal in the ninth minute only for Contepomi to rifle over his second penalty two minutes later. Playing into a strong wind and rain, Ireland continued to come second best in tight situations, and turnovers began to mount up against a rugged defence. O'Gara managed to land his second penalty in the 36th minute, but once again Contepomi replied in kind four minutes into first-half injury time. The second-half started as the first had ended. O'Gara rifled over another penalty in the 45th minute, but Contepomi matched it three minutes later. The upper-body strength of the Pumas never allowed Ireland to take control up front, while the three-quarters had no space to manoeuvre. Ireland had to rely on O'Gara's boot to keep in touch rather than any contrived running plays. The Munsterman landed two more penalties - one of them from 48 metres - to bring his team to within four points with 13 minutes on the clock remaining. And Ireland's chance came when Argentina's number eight Gonzalo Longo was yellow carded with six minutes to go for an offence in the line-out. O'Gara made no mistake as he rifled over his fifth penalty to set up a tense final few minutes. But Ireland showed great composure to get themselves into a position to allow O'Gara to thump over a massive drop goal to complete a tremendous, if fortuitous, comeback." -sport,"Edu describes tunnel fracas Arsenal's Edu has lifted the lid on the scenes that followed Manchester United's win over the Gunners. The Brazilian confirmed tempers had flared but could shed no light on reports that food was thrown at United boss Sir Alex Ferguson. ""I saw people being pulled apart, people pushing, pointing and shouting,"" he told Uefa's official website. ""The United players were trying to wind us up about the result but I didn't see any soup being thrown at anyone."" However, Edu tried to play down the incidents, adding: ""There was nothing that I haven't seen in Brazilian derbies. ""Derby matches in Brazil are worse. I like to play in games like this with this intense rivalry."" But Edu was highly critical of the ferocity of some of United's challenges during the game, particularly on Jose Antonio Reyes. ""I think we were a lot fairer in the tackles than United,"" he said. ""Reyes was being kicked all over the park - they were beating up the boy and Gary Neville was tackling in such a way that he should have been sent off."" Following the game, the Football Association said it would look into events in the tunnel. It also charged Ruud van Nistelrooy with serious foul play while Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has been asked to explain comments he made about the referee." -sport,"Woodward eyes Brennan for Lions Toulouse's former Irish international Trevor Brennan could be one of Clive Woodward's many surprises when the 44-man Lions tour squad is announced. Brennan, who last played for Ireland against Samoa in 2001, is held in high esteem by the former England coach. ""If you speak to the players there's a huge amount of respect for the guy,"" Woodward told the Sunday Independent. ""Players tend to know better than most coaches. It's not just the Irish, but Welsh and English players as well."" The 31-year-old former Dublin milkman moved from Leinster to Toulouse in 2003 and immediately picked up a Heineken Cup winner's medal in an all-French final against Perpignan at Lansdowne Road. Brennan is highly-rated at Stade Toulousain, where he is used anywhere in the back five. Woodward is ensuring his preparations for the trip to New Zealand in June are as thorough as possible. ""I've spoken to quite a few players, and they probably don't know what they're actually saying when we're having these conversations,"" he told the newspaper. ""But you talk about certain players and they'll say if they think they're up to scratch or that they don't want them in their team. ""I haven't heard a bad word said against Trevor, which, considering he has a pretty tough guy reputation, is, to me, impressive.""" -sport,"Barkley fit for match in Ireland England centre Olly Barkley has been passed fit for Sunday's Six Nations clash with Ireland at Lansdowne Road. Barkley withdrew from Bath's team for Friday's clash with Gloucester after suffering a calf injury in training. Gloucester centre Henry Paul has also been cleared to play after overcoming an ankle injury. England coach Andy Robinson, who names his team on Wednesday, has called up Bath prop Duncan Bell following Phil Vickery's broken arm. With Vickery sidelined for at least six weeks and Julian White out with a neck injury, Bell could make his England debut. Bell, 30, had set his sights on an international career with Wales. But last December, the International Rugby Board confirmed that he could only be eligible for England as he had travelled on tour with them in 1998. ""I thought I'd burned all my bridges with England when I expressed an interest in wanting to play for Wales, so it's fantastic to get this opportunity,"" he said. Bell, who featured in the England A side which beat France 30-20 10 days ago, added: ""I recognise that I got into the England A squad because of injuries. ""And it's the same again in getting into the senior squad. But now that I have this opportunity I intend to take it fully if selected and play my heart out for my country."" England coach Andy Robinson could take a gamble and call inexperienced Sale Sharks prop Andrew Sheridan into his front row. But Sheridan favours the loosehead side of the scrum and a more likely scenario is for uncapped Bell - who was among the try-scorers when England A beat France A 30-20 nine days ago - to be drafted in." -sport,"Hingis hints at playing comeback Martina Hingis has admitted that she might consider a competitive return to tennis if an appearance in Thailand later this month goes well. The former world number one will play at the Volvo Women's Open in Pattaya, which starts on 31 January, as part of her charity work in the region. ""The tournament is a test,"" she said. ""I don't know how my body will react. ""I support several charities in Thailand. I'm also playing to see where I am."" Speaking to Le Matin, the 24-year-old Swiss added: ""At Pattaya there will not be as many people and the players are ranked between the 30th and 95th in the world."" Hingis was 22 when she retired after having surgery on both ankles, and her last WTA event was in Filderstadt, Germany, in October 2002, when she lost to Elena Dementieva." -sport,"Federer forced to dig deep Top seed Roger Federer had to save two match points before squeezing past Juan Carlos Ferrero at the Dubai Open. The world number one took two hours 15 minutes to earn his 4-6 6-3 7-6 victory, saving match points at 6-4 in the tiebreak before claiming it 8-6. Federer made a number of unforced errors early on, allowing Ferrero to take advantage and claim the first set. But the Swiss star hit back to reach the quarter-finals, where he will face seventh seed Russian Mikhail Youzhny. The Russian beat Germany's Rainer Schuettler 7-5 6-4. Federer was not unduly worried despite being taken to three sets for the third consecutive match. The world number one was forced to go the distance against Ivan Ljubicic in the Rotterdam final and against Ivo Minar in the first round in Dubai. ""I definitely had a slow start again and to come back every time is quite an effort,"" he said. ""I haven't been playing well, but I've been coming through. I'm winning the crucial points and that shows I'm on top of my game when I have to be.""" -sport,"Newcastle line up Babayaro Newcastle manager Graeme Souness is closing in on signing Chelsea defender Celestine Babayaro when the transfer window reopens. Souness is bidding to bolster his defence and, according to reports, contract negotiations are at an advanced stage with the player. Babayaro has been in the Premiership since 1997 when he moved to Chelsea for £2.25m from Anderlecht. But the 26-year-old has been surplus to requirements this season. Souness would not be drawn on specifics over individual players. But he said: ""All I can tell you is that the chairman has worked really hard in the last couple of months to try to do deals. ""We have said from day one we want to strengthen, and that is what we are hoping to do in the coming weeks.""" -sport,"Wenger keeping faith with Almunia Arsene Wenger has pledged to keep faith with stand-in keeper Manuel Almunia for the crunch week which could define Arsenal's season. Almunia will start Tuesday's Champions League group tie against Rosenborg and is likely to face Chelsea on Sunday. Wenger said: ""You don't think I would take out one goalkeeper for just one game, do you? I don't do that. ""I have to give him a run for a few games. It's just that I don't want to make this story bigger than it is."" Wenger insists he has complete faith in the 27-year-old Spaniard, who was signed last summer from Celta Vigo as back-up to Jens Lehmann. ""If you look at my career, you will see that I have left many big players out for a long time. I've done it with Dennis Bergkamp, Kanu, everybody. ""It's because it's a goalkeeper, that's all. It's a usual situation for me. You put your best team out, no matter who it is. ""For me, it was not a big mistake at Old Trafford and I wasn't alarmed by what happened against Birmingham either. ""It's nothing against Lehmann. I think he's a great keeper, as is Almunia. You can only play one of them. ""These people are not robots - they have good periods and less good periods. Just because Lehmann doesn't play for two or three weeks, or longer or shorter, it doesn't mean I've lost faith in him."" But former Arsenal keeper David Seaman believes Lehmann has been harshly treated. Seaman told the Daily Mail: ""Jens is a fantastic keeper. He deserves another chance. ""He has made a few mistakes but on form he deserves to be the first-team choice."" With Arsenal hit by injuries and suspension, inexperienced midfield pair of Mathieu Flamini and Cesc Fabregas will line up against Rosenborg but Wenger is confident they will prove more than capable. ""It puts a lot of pressure on them but it's a good learning process,"" said Wenger. ""I'm not worried as they are both mentally strong and will put in the needed workrate."" The Gunners go into the game boosted by the news that defender Sol Campbell is on the verge of signing a new deal with the club. And the 30-year-old, whose current contract runs out in the summer, has made it clear he is determined to achieve Champions League success with Arsenal. Campbell said: ""It means a lot to me to go through, it's everything. We want to carry on in this competition. ""That's where the best teams in Europe are. To be in there, playing against these guys and trying to win the trophy, is the first thing in my mind."" Meanwhile, Thierry Henry believes he will be blamed if Arsenal fail to qualify for the next stage of the Champions League. Henry will captain the side in place of the suspended Patrick Vieira as the Gunners seek the required victory over Rosenborg. And the striker said: ""If we don't win and we go out of the competition, like it or not, it's going to be my fault. That's the way it is. ""If the team don't win I know I will be criticised, no matter how I play.""" -sport,"Lomu relishing return to action Former All Black star Jonah Lomu says he cannot wait to run out on the pitch for former England rugby union captain Martin Johnson's testimonial on 4 June. The 29-year-old had a kidney transplant in July 2004 but will play his first full match for three years, leading a southern hemisphere side at Twickenham. ""I actually started training three weeks after my operation but I was very limited until a few months ago. ""Now it's basically bring it on!"" said the giant winger. ""The match on 4 June will be my first 15-man game but I have a training schedule which is quite testing and combines with sevens and a whole lot of things,"" said Lomu. ""I have got so much energy since my operation that I train three times a day, six days a week. ""Mohammed Ali has always been my ideal. Coming back to rugby, people said 'you are dreaming' but it always starts off with a dream. ""It's up to you whether you want to make it a reality."" Opinion has been divided on whether Lomu should attempt to return to the game after such a major operation. But when Lomu was asked whether he was taking a risk he replied: ""As much as someone going down the road being hit by a bus. ""There are a lot of people in the world with one kidney who just don't know it. ""I have talked this over, had a chat with the donor and this is to set my soul at peace and finish something I started in 1994 [when he made his All Blacks debut]."" At his lowest ebb Lomu was so ill he could barely walk, but he says he is now getting stronger every day and his long-term target is to play for New Zealand again. ""The only person who saw me at my worst was my wife,"" he added. ""I used to take two steps and fall over but now I can run and it is all coming back, and a lot more quickly than I ever thought it would. ""To play for the All Blacks would be the highest honour I could get. That is the long-term goal and you have to start somewhere.""" -sport,"Bortolami predicts dour contest Italy skipper Marco Bortolami believes Saturday's Six Nations contest against Scotland will be a scrappy encounter. With both sides looking for their first win of the championship, the third-round game at Murrayfield has been billed as a wooden-spoon decider. And Bortolami feels the Edinburgh contest could end up being a bruising battle of the packs. ""It will not be a pretty game because both teams are desperate to gain their first win,"" said the lock forward. Italy have only recorded three wins since they joined the Six Nations in 2000, but two of those have come against Scotland. This year, Italy opened up with a stubborn display against Ireland but ended up losing 28-17. However, they were thoroughly outplayed by an impressive Welsh side in Rome last time out. Now the Italians travel to Edinburgh hoping to claim their first away win in the Six Nations. ""Scotland played extremely well against France in Paris but not so well when Ireland came to Edinburgh,"" said Bortolami. ""We are still very disappointed with our last game against Wales in Rome and we are thoroughly determined to right the wrongs. ""As a nation, our quest is to be respected as a team worthy of a place in this tournament and we can only do this by winning games.""" -sport,"Hitzlsperger waiting on O'Leary Aston Villa's Thomas Hitzlsperger is waiting to learn the future of manager David O'Leary before committing himself to a new contract with the club. O'Leary has been in talks over a new deal and he said: ""I had a message from Thomas' agent asking me what the news was on myself. ""He wants to find out before he goes into discussions over Thomas. ""The reason Thomas is not speaking to the club is because the agent wants to see the outcome of what happens to me."" Hitzlsperger's current deal expires in the summer and he has been offered a new deal by the Midlands club. The German international is understood to be keen to remain at Villa, despite interest in his native country from Hamburg. But he wants assurances that O'Leary will also be committing himself long-term because negotiations over a new three-and-a-half-year contract appear to have stalled. O'Leary wants his backroom staff - assistant manager Roy Aitken and fitness coach Steve McGregor - to also be given satisfactory deals, which will tie them to Villa until the summer of 2008." -sport,"A year to remember for Irish There used to be one subliminal moment during a year in Irish rugby that stood out more than most. Well, at least there used to one. Now there is a handful to look back with a mixture of satisfaction, and sorrow. It has been quite a year for the Irish, and not just with Eddie O'Sullivan's Triple Crown winning international outfit either. Right down through the ranks Irish rugby is creating waves and upsetting the more established teams in the game. But most of the kudos will go to O'Sullivan and his merry band of warriors who not only collected their first Triple Crown for 29 years, but also finished their autumn campaign with a 100% record. For the second year in succession they also finished in the runners-up spot in the RBS Six Nations. But in the three games in November which included a victory over Tri-Nations champions and Grand Slam chasing South Africa, Ireland finsihed the year on a high. The 18-12 victory at Lansdowne Road was only their second victory over the Boks after the initial success back in 1965. That success was revenge for the consecutive defeats in Blomefontein and Cape Town in the summer. Those two reverses and the 35-17 flop against France, were the only dark patches in an otherwise excellent 12 months. But the big one, of course, was the 19-13 defeat of World Cup champions England on their precious Twickenham turf. The winning try was conceived in O'Sullivan's mind, perfectly executed by the team and finished immaculately by Girvan Dempsey. For me, the try of the Championship. O'Sullivan's career is now in vertical take-off mode. It is no wonder that Sir Clive Woodward has elevated the Galway-based coach to head the Lions Test side. Not only that, but a fair majority of the present Ireland side will be wearing red next June in New Zealand. There can be no doubt that Ireland's representation will be the biggest ever, albeit in a proposed 44-man squad. In Brian O'Driscoll and Paul O'Connell, Ireland have now the two front-runners for the captaincy. Gordon D'Arcy, whose career began as a teenager back in 1999, finally arrived when he was named the Six Nations Player of the Tournament. But it was not only the senior squad that brought kudos to Ireland, the youngsters strutted their stuff on the big stage as well. The under-21 squad confounded the doubters as they went all the way to the World Cup final in Scotland only to be beaten by a powerful All Black side in the decider. The young Irish boys had stated their intentions earlier in the season when they finished runners-up to England in the Six Nations under-21 tournament. On the provincial front, Leinster, for second year in succession, blew it when the Heineken Cup looked a good wager. While Ulster finished runners-up in their very tight group for the second season in succession, it was Munster again flying the flag for the Irish. Looking to reach their third final, they went down 37-32 to eventual winners Wasps in what many beileve was the most competitive and thunderous game ever witnessed at Lansdowne Road. How Wasps recovered from that energy-sapping duel, and then go onto to defeat Toulouse in the final was anybody's guess. Ulster, meanwhile, just lost out to adding the inaugural Celtic Cup in winning the Celtic League when they were pipped at the post by the Scarlets in the final game. Ulster, however, took time to start the new season under new coach Mark McCall. The once famous Ravenhill fortress was breached four times as Ulster only manged five wins from their first 12 outings in the Celtic League. Leinster are again looking the most potent outfit going into 2005, but whether they can take that final step under Declan Kidney is another thing. On the down side, Irish rugby was hit by a number of tragedies. Teenage star John McCall died while playing for the Ireland against New Zealand in the under-19 World Cup game in Durban. That happened only 10 days after he led Royal Armagh to their first Ulster Schools' Cup success since 1977. The death of former Ireland coach and Lions flanker Mike Doyle in a car crash in Northern Ireland shocked the rugby fraternity A larger than life character, Doyle had coached Ireland to the Triple Crown in 1985, the last time that goal had been achieved before this season. Ulster rugby also suffered the sudden deaths of well-known Londonderry YM player Jim Huey, Coleraine's Jonathan Hutchinson, and Belfast Harlequins lock Johnny Poole. They all passed away long before the full-time whistle." -sport,"Wales win in Rome Wales secured their first away win in the RBS Six Nations for nearly four years with a six-try victory in Rome. Tries from Jonathan Thomas, Tom Shanklin and Martyn Williams gave the visitors a 19-5 half-time advantage. Luciano Orquera did reply with one for Italy but second-half efforts from Brent Cockbain, Shane Williams and Robert Sidoli sealed victory. Fly-half Stephen Jones added four conversions as Wales maintained their superb start to this year's tournament. Starting full of confidence after their victory over England, the visitors scored the opening try after just four minutes. Diminutive wing Shane Williams fielded a kick ahead and danced past the onrushing Andrea Masi and Aaron Persico into the Italian half. His pass to Tom Shanklin appeared forward but when the centre was held up short, the ball was switched left and Michael Owen's long cut-out pass gave the lurking Thomas an easy run-in. Stephen Jones, who retained the kicking duties despite Gavin Henson's heroics against England, slotted an excellent conversion from wide out. Wales twice threatened further scores but failed to find the crucial pass, and Italy hit back out of the blue in the 11th minute. Henson, sporting gold boots rather than the silver variety that did for England, beat two players with ease out on the left touchline. But his attempted chip ahead was charged down by Orquera, who snaffled the loose ball and hared away from halfway to score in the right corner. With the Welsh line-out stuttering and Italy twice turning the visitors' scrum, the home side's forward power brought them back into it. But a clever high kick from Henson almost brought a try for Hal Luscombe when Roland de Marigny and Ludovico Nitoglia made a hash of claiming it as the ball bounced into touch. Wales regained control with a second try in the 21st minute, Henson lobbing up a high kick to the left corner where Shanklin jumped higher than Nitoglia to dot down his 15th Test try. Jones was unable to convert and De Marigny then hit the upright with a penalty attempt for Italy. Henson was also narrowly short with a long-range effort at goal, but Wales ended the half with a vital third score to give themselves some breathing space. Henson sent Luscombe streaking away and when he off-loaded to Martyn Williams, the flanker showed his nous to ground the ball against the padding of the post, Jones adding the conversion. Italy, who lost flanker Mauro Bergamasco with a head knock before half-time, built up a head of steam on the resumption. De Marigny landed a penalty to make it 19-8 and a Nitoglia break through the middle threatened a try only for the move to break down with a knock-on. But Wales put the outcome beyond doubt with two superb tries in four minutes before the hour. Their fourth after 53 minutes was sparked by another mazy run from Shane Williams, who beat several players with ease, and finished with a powerful angled run from lock Cockbain. Before Italy could recover from that blow, a strong surge from Gareth Thomas and great off-loads from Martyn Williams and replacement Kevin Morgan saw Shane Williams scamper over. With Jones converting both for a 33-8 lead, Wales had the luxury of sending on five more replacements for the final quarter. The icing on the cake came with a sixth try after more superb support work, Shane Williams and Ceri Sweeney combining to send Sidoli over in the left corner. The only downside for Wales was a hamstring injury suffered by Luscombe. But after back-to-back wins at the start of the tournament for the first time in 11 years, they will travel to Paris in a fortnight looking like genuine contenders. R de Marigny; Mirco Bergamasco, W Pozzebon, A Masi, L Nitoglia; L Orquera, A Troncon; A Lo Cicero, F Ongaro, M Castrogiovanni, S Dellape, M Bortolami (capt), A Persico, Mauro Bergamasco, S Parisse. G Intoppa, S Perugini, CA del Fava, D dal Maso, P Griffen, M Barbini, KP Robertson. G Thomas (capt); H Luscombe, T Shanklin, G Henson, S Williams; S Jones, D Peel; G Jenkins, M Davies, A Jones; B Cockbain, R Sidoli; J Thomas, M Williams, M Owen. R McBryde, J Yapp, I Gough, R Sowden-Taylor, G Cooper, C Sweeney, K Morgan. Andrew Cole (Australia)." -sport,"Reaction from Spanish press England's 1-0 defeat to Spain on Wednesday dominated the back and front pages of the country's press on Thursday. Controversy was in no short supply, with racist abuse of England's black players, Wayne Rooney's petulance and England's inept performance. But what did the Spanish press make of the affair? BBC Sport looks at the reaction. There is little coverage of the racist chanting on Wednesday night's game. But AS does cover the English reaction to the pre-match comments from Spain coach Luis Aragones, who highlighted Britain's colonial past when probed about his own remarks regarding Thierry Henry in October. Journalist Guillem Balague writes: ""In our country, where multi-culturalism is a new thing, we are in nappies dealing with these things, and have a naivety which makes the English nervous."" Marca refers in passing to the booing of England's black players - but only after referring to the cheers of ""ole"" which greeted the long periods of Spanish possession. Aragones' ""no comment"" to questions about racism after the match is also highlighted, as Marca focuses on the Spanish coach's praise for his players. Serbia & Montenegro's 2-0 World Cup qualifying win in Belgium - which could make qualification tougher for Spain - seems to be of greater importance. Elsewhere, the Spanish media criticises its English counterparts for stoking up the racism issue. ""Were there racist chants against some players? This hasn't happened in the Spanish league and Spain for many years,"" said Spanish Federation press officer Fernando Garrido. ""So you (English reporters) should ask yourselves what you have done to contribute to all this."" And Spanish daily ABC accuses English reporters of launching a witch-hunt against Aragones. ""Perhaps it was because their team had played so poorly and they wanted to divert attention towards this muddled issue,"" the paper says. ""What the boy in the Bernabeu did was odd... Rooney seemed intent to kick any Spanish player who approached him."" Yet Rooney is seen only as the worst example of many England miscreants, with Gary Neville criticised for continuing the feud between Manchester United and Arsenal for his tackles on Jose Reyes. Ashley Cole's treatment of Joaquin, and a Frank Lampard foul on Reyes are also lambasted for their ""ugliness"". Marca's headline says it all: ""Wayne Rooney se volvió loco en el Bernabéu (Wayne Rooney became crazy in the Bernabeu)"" Rooney's display alarms the writer, in particular three ""chilling"" fouls on Joaquin, Casillas and Marchena, which ""could well have left them in the infirmary."" And like AS, Marca criticises Gary Neville for ""leaving a message on Reyes' ankle"" to remind him of the Manchester United-Arsenal clash this month. Spain's first-half performance is showered with praise, with Xavi singled out as the biggest star. ""Xavi did things on Wednesday which were worthy of Maradona,"" the paper beams, adding, ""What a work-rate, what dynamism, what vision, what leadership, what a midfield player!"" On a controversial evening, AS offers one seemingly undeniable viewpoint: ""Spanish football players played better football than the English."" More plaudits are given to the home team, with Jaime Vargas lauding the manner in which ""Spain dominated England with order and quality"". The paper adds: ""The bad thing about Spain v England was that it lasted only 65 minutes after which a succession of changes prevented any real competition."" Vargas does not mention England's two Galacticos, simply adding in a PS: ""I have not forgotten to speak of Beckham and Owen. They forgot to play.""" -sport,"England 'to launch ref protest' England will protest to the International Rugby Board (IRB) about the referee's performance in the defeat by Ireland, reports the Daily Mail. England coach Andy Robinson has called on ex-international referees Colin High and Steve Lander to analyse several of Jonathan Kaplan's decisions. ""I want to go through the tape with Colin and Steve,"" Robinson told the Daily Mail. ""I want to speak to the IRB about it. I think only one side was refereed."" High, the Rugby Football Union's referees' manager, claimed Kaplan made three major errors which changed the outcome of Sunday's match. England were beaten 19-13 by the Irish in Dublin, their third straight defeat in the 2005 Six Nations. ""The International Rugby Board will be disappointed,"" High told the Daily Mail. ""Jonathan Kaplan is in the top 20 in the world but that wasn't an international performance. ""It would not have been acceptable in the Zurich Premiership. ""If one of my referees had done that, I would have had my backside kicked for making the appointment. ""If any English referee refereed like that in a European match, there would be an inquest. No question about that. ""If someone had performed like that, he would have been pulled from the next game.""" -sport,"Dawson joins England injury list Scrum-half Matt Dawson is an injury doubt for England's Six Nations opener against Wales next weekend. The World Cup winner missed Wasps' 12-9 loss to Bath on Saturday after injuring his right calf. Wasps coach Warren Gatland said: ""He's got a fitness test in the week but he's got a good chance of playing."" Gloucester's Andy Hazell and Leicester star Lewis Moody also received knocks during their respective league matches, but should be fit for Wales next week. If Dawson is not fit to face Wales, Robinson will have to choose from Gloucester's Andy Gomarsall or Leicester youngster Harry Ellis. Jamie Noon is another player on the sidelines after he limped off in the first half against Saracens on Friday with a dead leg. The centre, who is in line for a first Six Nations start against Wales, will have to wait 48 hours before knowing the state of his injury." -sport,"Cudicini misses Carling Cup final Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini will miss Sunday's Carling Cup final after the club dropped their appeal against his red card against Newcastle. The Italian was sent off for bringing down Shola Ameobi in the final minute of Sunday's match. Blues boss Jose Mourinho had promised to pick Cudicini for the final instead of first-choice keeper Petr Cech. The 31-year-old will now serve a one-match suspension commencing with immediate effect. Cudicini kept a club record 24 clean sheets last season for Chelsea, but Petr Cech has established himself as first choice for Mourinho since moving to Stamford Bridge in summer 2004. The 22-year-old Czech Republic international has set a new Premiership record of 961 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal, a mark which is still running. But Mourinho has used Cudicini regularly in the Carling Cup, and the Italian has only let in one goal in his four appearances during Chelsea's run to the final." -sport,"Collins appeals against drugs ban Sprinter Michelle Collins has lodged an appeal against her eight-year doping ban with the North American Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The 33-year-old received the ban last month as a result of her connection to the federal inquiry into the Balco doping scandal. She is the first athlete to be banned without a positive drugs test or an admission of drugs use. CAS has said that a ruling is normally given within four months of an appeal. Collins was suspended by the US Anti-Doping Agency based on patterns observed in her blood and urine tests as well as evidence in the Balco investigation. As well as being hit with the ban, Collins was stripped of her 2003 world and US indoor 200m titles. The San Francisco-based Balco laboratory is at the centre of the scandal which has rocked the sport. The company has been accused of distributing illegal performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes." -sport,"South Africa sweep top awards South Africa's Schalk Burger was named player of the year as the Tri-Nations champions swept the top honours at the International Rugby Board's awards. The flanker topped a list which included Ireland star Gordon D'Arcy and Australian sensation Matt Giteau. Jake White claimed the coaching award while his side held off Grand Slam winners France to take the team award. England player Simon Amor beat team-mate Ben Gollings and Argentine Lucio Lopez Fleming to win the sevens award. Burger's award came just a week after he won the equivalent prize from his fellow international players and White, who also coached Burger at under-21 level, paid tribute to him. ""Schalk's emergence as a major force has meant a lot to South African rugby, but has also influenced world rugby,"" said White. ""He's become to South African rugby what Jonty Rhodes was to South African cricket. It's amazing what he has achieved in such a short time so far in his international career."" Amor, who will captain England in this season's opening IRB Sevens tournament, the Dubai Sevens, which start on Thursday, was delighted with his award. ""There are so many great sevens players on the circuit at the moment that this is a genuine honour,"" said the Gloucester fly-half." -sport,"Almagro continues Spanish surge Unseeded Nicolas Almagro became the fifth Spaniard to reach the last eight at the Buenos Aires Open, ousting eighth seed Mariano Zabaleta. He showed admirable resolve to win a rain-affected match 6-7 6-4 6-4. Compatriot and seventh seed Rafael Nadal also reached the last eight, beating Italian Potito Starace 6-1 6-3. Nadal, playing in the outdoor clay event for the first time, hit some powerful forehands to oust Starace in a match delayed over an hour by rain. ""It's always a problem to have to stop for rain but one gets used to it,"" said Spanish teenager Nadal. ""Luckily, I was able to keep my pace going throughout the match."" He will now play Gaston Gaudio, who beat unseeded Brazilian Flavio Saretta 6-3 6-2 in the day's late match." -sport,"Big guns ease through in San Jose Top-seeded Americans Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi survived minor scares to reach the last eight of the SAP Open. Agassi endured early problems against left-handed Dane Kenneth Carlsen before sealing a 7-5 6-1 victory. And world number three Roddick dropped a set to Korean player Hyung-Taik Lee, before pulling out a 6-3 3-6 6-2 win in San Jose, California. Seventh seed Jurgen Melzer came through 6-3 6-3 against Xavier Malisse - winner in Delray Beach last week. Frenchman Cyril Saulnier, meanwhile, fired 19 aces to secure a 6-1 7-6 win over Czech qualifier Tomas Zib. Roddick broke a racket in frustration in the third game of the second set. and afterwards was unimpressed with his form. ""I'm not playing great,"" he said. ""But I'm through and I'm going to keep battling. ""A lot of people are under the assumption that it's easy to play well every week and it's not."" It is the 12th time in 13 appearances at the event that Agassi, now 34, has progressed to the quarter-final stage. He came from 0-40 down in the opening game to hold serve and gradually wore Carlsen down after attacking his backhand. Agassi also employed several lobs and charged to the net to unsettle the 31-year-old Dane, ranked 88th in the world. ""As the match went on, I got real patient and waited for my opportunities and felt pretty good,"" said Agassi." -sport,"IAAF awaits Greek pair's response Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou are yet to respond to doping charges from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The Greek pair were charged after missing a series of routine drugs tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens. They have until midnight on 16 December and an IAAF spokesman said: ""We're sure their responses are on their way."" If they do not respond or their explanations are rejected, they will be provisionally banned from competition. They will then face a hearing in front of the Greek Federation, which will ultimately determine their fate. Their former coach Christos Tzekos has also been charged with distributing banned substances. Under IAAF rules, the athletes could receive a maximum one-year suspension. Kenteris and Thanou already face a criminal trial after being charged with avoiding a drug test on the eve of the Athens Olympics and then faking a motorcyle crash. No date for the trial has yet been set and again Tzekos is also facing charges. The IAAF issued an official warning to the trio last year after they were discovered training in Qatar rather than in Crete, where they had said they would be. All athletes must inform their national federations where they are at all times, so they can be available for out-of-competition drugs tests. But Kenteris and Thanou then went on to skip tests in Tel Aviv and Chicago, when they decided to fly back to Greece early. Then just before the Olympics, the pair dramatically missed another test in Athens and withdrew from the Games." -sport,"Liverpool revel in night of glory Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez said their qualification for the next stage of the Champions League was ""one of the proudest nights of my career."" The Reds beat Olympiakos 3-1 with a late Steven Gerrard strike and Benitez said: ""It was a really great night. ""The players ran hard all the time and you see how much it means to the fans. ""We knew before the game that it was very important for the club to gain these extra finances. For Liverpool, this result is very, very important."" Benitez hailed Gerrard for his match-winning strike four minutes from time and also the Anfield crowd for sticking by their side after they had fallen a goal behind at the interval. The Reds scored three second-half goals in a sensational comeback capped by Gerrard's 20-yard drive. He added: ""Steven can play all over the pitch and he influences every part of the game. ""I have said to him many times that he has the freedom because he has talent and is very important to us. ""I felt that the difference between the sides was really our supporters, I cannot thank them enough. ""I want to say thank-you to the supporters, they were magnificent to help us achieve this result."" Gerrard admitted he thought they were going out of the Champions League after trailing 1-0 at half-time. He said: ""I'd be lying if I thought we were going through when we were losing at half-time. ""We had a mountain to climb, but we have climbed it and credit to everyone. ""That was one of the best goals I have scored, I caught it sweet, I haven't caught one like that for ages. It was a massive night for me and the team."" Liverpool's win means all four of England's Champions League representatives have reached the knockout stages for the first time." -sport,"Dent continues Adelaide progress American Taylor Dent reached the final of the Australian hardcourt event in Adelaide with a crushing 6-1 6-1 win over Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela. Dent will meet Swede Joachim Johansson on Sunday after the second seed survived a tense tie-break to defeat Belgium's Olivier Rochus 6-1 7-6 (7/5). Johansson, the boyfriend of Lleyton Hewitt's sister Jaslyn, received strong crowd support on Saturday. ""It feels like home for me, because Jaslyn lives here,"" said Johansson. Rochus was leading 5-4 in the second set tiebreak but his concentration was ruffled by a disputed line call and the match slipped away. ""It was so close - one mistake like this and the match is over, it's tough. For me, it was clearly out,"" Rochus said." -sport,"Player burn-out worries Robinson England coach Andy Robinson says English rugby has to act now to prevent injury destroying players' careers. He will be without a host of big names for the Six Nations as the intensity of professional rugby union hits players. ""Injuries are part of the sport but we have to have a look at the amount of injuries that occur in the English season,"" Robinson told BBC Sport. ""I think players are probably going to have three or four years taken off their careers."" Robinson will be missing an entire midfield for the Six Nations with the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall and Will Greenwood injured. Rugby union has become far more physically demanding since the game went professional nearly 10 years ago. As a result three of the major stakeholders in English rugby have launched an ""injury audit"" to find out how players are coping. The audit is jointly funded by the Professional Rugby Players' Association, the Rugby Football Union and Premier Rugby. As far as Robinson is concerned its findings must not be ignored. ""I think there's an injury audit coming out in March that's got some great information in there that I think everybody in the English game has got to look at,"" he said. ""If we don't the situation is going to get worse and not better, so I think rugby as a whole has got to look at this.""" -sport,"Duff ruled out of Barcelona clash Chelsea's Damien Duff has been ruled out of Wednesday's Champions League clash with Barcelona at the Nou Camp. Duff sustained a knee injury in the FA Cup defeat at Newcastle and manager Jose Mourinho said: ""He cannot run. His injury is very painful, so he is out."" But Mourinho has revealed defender Willian Gallas and striker Didier Drogba will be in the starting line-up. The Blues boss took the unusual step of naming his side a day before the match, with Jole Cole named in midfield. Mourinho said: ""We have one more session but I think Drogba will play, and Gallas will play. ""Drogba trained on Monday with no problems and will do the same on Tuesday. Gallas feels he can play and wants to play. We are protecting him still but he will be okay to play."" Drogba, Chelsea's £24m striker, has missed the last three weeks through injury. Cech, Ferreira, Carvalho, Terry, Gallas, Tiago, Makelele, Lampard, Cole, Drogba, Gudjohnsen." -sport,"Mourinho defiant on Chelsea form Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has insisted that Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger would swap places with him. Mourinho's side were knocked out of the FA Cup by Newcastle last Sunday before seeing Barcelona secure a 2-1 Champions League first-leg lead in the Nou Camp. But he denied his club was suffering a dip in form which league rivals Arsenal and Manchester United could exploit. ""They cannot speak to us about blips because they're not in a better position than us,"" Mourinho said. ""Do they want to change positions with us? We are top of the league by nine points and in the Carling Cup final. ""The only thing they can say they are in a better position than us in is the FA Cup. ""In the Champions League all three teams can either go through or go out but the one team that is in the best position is still Chelsea."" Mourinho said it was important to keep his team's results in perspective. ""Don't try to put pressure on me because I am never under pressure,"" he warned. ""We have lost one important game this week - at Newcastle - and we're out of the FA Cup but I don't think a defeat in a first-leg tie is a real defeat. We are just 2-1 down at half-time."" Asked if his Chelsea honeymoon was now over, Mourinho replied: ""I have had 20 years of honeymoons with my wife. ""The day that this club is not happy with me is the day that I go.""" -sport,"Coach Ranieri sacked by Valencia Claudio Ranieri has been sacked as Valencia coach just eight months after taking charge at the Primera Liga club for the second time in his career. The decision was taken at a board meeting following the side's surprise elimination from the Uefa Cup. ""We understand, and he understands, that the results in the last few weeks have not been the most appropriate,"" said club president Juan Bautista. Former assistant Antonio Lopez will take over as the new coach. Italian Ranieri took over the Valencia job in June 2004 having been replaced at Chelsea by Jose Mourinho. Things began well but the Spanish champions extended their winless streak to six after losing to Racing Santander last weekend. That defeat was then followed by a Uefa Cup exit at the hands of Steaua Bucharest. Ranieri first took charge of Valencia in 1997, guiding them to the King's Cup and helping them to qualify for the Champions League. The 54-year-old then moved to Atletico Madrid in 1999, before joining Chelsea the following year." -sport,"Poll explains free-kick decision Referee Graham Poll said he applied the laws of the game in allowing Arsenal striker Thierry Henry's free-kick in Sunday's 2-2 draw with Chelsea. Keeper Petr Cech was organising his defensive wall when Henry's quick free-kick flew in, which angered Chelsea. ""The whistle doesn't need to be blown. I asked Henry 'do you want a wall?'. He said 'can I take it please?' He was very polite. I said 'yes',"" said Poll. ""I deal with the laws of the game. I deal with fact."" Poll added: ""I gave the signal for him to take it. That's what he did. ""The same thing happened when I refereed Chelsea against West Ham in an FA Cup replay two years ago - when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scored - and I don't remember them complaining about that."" Henry explained why he paused before striking the ball for the goal, which put Arsenal 2-1 ahead. Henry told BBC Radio Five Live: ""The ref asked me if I wanted 10 yards or if I wanted to take it straight away and I said that I wanted to take it straight away. He said to me, 'go'. ""It looks a bit strange because I took my time. I was waiting for Eidur Gudjohnsen to move and give me some space. ""At one point, he turned and that's when I tried it."" Former referees' chief Philip Don backed Poll's decision to allow the strike. ""The advantage should go to the non-offending team. On this occasion it was Arsenal,"" Don told BBC Radio Five Live. ""Referees have been told to ask the player 'do you want to take the quick free-kick?' or 'do you want me to get the wall back 9.15 metres?' ""If they say 'quick', the referee tends to move away and allow the kick."" Don was head of the referees for the Premier League and revealed all clubs were informed of free-kick options. ""We spoke to all the Premier League clubs as well as all the Football League clubs in the summer of 2003 explaining what the situation was,"" he added ""We gave them the option of either the quick free-kick or the 'ceremonial' free-kick. Players and clubs were aware of what referees were doing.""" -sport,"Benitez issues warning to Gerrard Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has ordered captain Steven Gerrard not to play down their Champions League ambitions and be more positive. Gerrard told the BBC Liverpool were unlikely to win the trophy this year. Benitez responded: ""I spoke to Steven and said to him that in future it's better to think we can win the Champions League. Why not?"" He said: ""We need winners here and everyone thinking only of winning. I always want to win."" Benitez added: ""When we lose I only think of solutions. If you only think about winning the next game, you don't know what the draw will be. ""If we can win the next game, maybe we will draw a side that isn't so strong, or a side with injuries or suspensions."" Benitez is hoping to win his first trophy since arriving at Liverpool from Valencia when they play Chelsea in the Carling Cup on Sunday in Cardiff." -sport,"Radcliffe proves doubters wrong This won't go down as one of the greatest marathons of Paula's career. But as a test of character, it was the toughest race she's ever taken part in. A win in the New York marathon doesn't make up for the disappointment of Athens in any shape or form, but it will offer hope and reassurance for next year. If Paula's last experience of the year had been Athens, it would have been very difficult to look forward with any optimism. She can now draw a line under this year and make plans about her future. Even if she'd lost this race, there would have been a lot of positives to take out of it. She knows she can dig deep if she needs to. It was a strong field, with a number of the girls going into the race with expectations of winning. And although two hours 23 minutes wasn't one of Paula's best times, it wasn't far off the record on a difficult course. I was speaking to Paula in the lead-up to this race and she said that in many ways she was facing a no-win situation. She thought that if she won, people would say ""why couldn't she do that in Athens?"" And if she lost, people would say her career was over. And a lot of people were wondering what would happen if Paula was forced to drop out of this race, as she did in the marathon and 10,000m in Athens. But that was never on the cards. She might have been beaten, but she would have kept running. The reasons she was forced to pull out in Athens - the niggling injuries, her lack of energy and the oppressive conditions - weren't at play here. The only question was what position she could finish in. Most important of all, despite all the hype in the media ahead of this race, there were never doubts in Paula's mind. If she wasn't confident, she wouldn't have run. After all, if you're the best in the world at an event, you'll always have expectations of winning. Now Paula will take part in the Run London 10km race in London at the end of the year, have a well-earned rest over Christmas and go into next year with a lot of optimism." -sport,"Scotland 18-10 Italy Six Chris Paterson penalties gave Scotland victory in a dour but clinical encounter against Italy at Murrayfield. Coach Matt Williams' side were outmuscled and outplayed in a tense first half but led 6-3 at the break. Paterson slotted four more second-half penalties and Scotland were denied a try when wing Sean Lamont's touchdown was ruled out for a forward pass. A late Andrea Masi try was small consolation for Italy, chasing their first away win in the Six Nations. Scotland came out on top of the early exchanges and took a quick 3-0 lead through the boot of full-back Paterson. But the more powerful Azzurri pack eventually rumbled into life. A series of drives into Scottish territory set up a penalty attempt, missed by full-back Roland De Marigny, and a wayward drop-goal effort from Luciano Orquera. Scotland defended the initial thrusts but on 20 minutes Italy, after coming up yards short of the line, equalised through a De Marigny penalty. Italy were offered another penalty when Scottish flanker Simon Taylor was offside but the left-footed De Marigny pushed his kick wide. Scotland finally made the most of a rare foray into the Italian half and snatched three points from Paterson when an Italian forward handled the ball in a ruck. As the half wore on, both sides squandered promising spells of momentum with sloppy penalties, and the period fizzled out with Scotland numerically, if not psychologically, on top. Italy's De Marigny narrowly missed a chance to level the scores again shortly after the break but his long-range kick shaved the right upright. And Scotland capitalised with a third Paterson penalty on 50 minutes. Williams' side seemed to have found a spark from somewhere and, after a couple of probing attacks, Paterson was able to slot another three points to widen the gap. With the pendulum of possession swinging towards Scotland, Lamont thought he had wriggled over in the left corner after 65 minutes but play was recalled for a marginal forward pass from Paterson. Another Paterson penalty on 70 minutes kept the pressure on the wilting visitors. But John Kirwan's men had the last laugh when Gordon Ross' attempted clearance was charged down and Masi pounced for the try, converted by De Marigny. : C Paterson; S Webster, A Craig, H Southwell, S Lamont; D Parks, C Cusiter; T Smith, G Bulloch (capt), G Kerr; S Grimes, S Murray; S Taylor, J Petrie, A Hogg. R Russell, B Douglas, N Hines, J Dunbar, M Blair, G Ross, B Hinshelwood. R de Marigny; Mirco Bergamasco, C Stoica, A Masi, L Nitoglia; L Orquera, A Troncon; A Lo Cicero, F Ongaro, M Castrogiovanni; S Dellape, M Bortolami (capt); A Persico, D Dal Maso, S Parisse. G Intoppa, S Perugini, CA del Fava, S Orlando, P Griffen, R Pedrazzi, KP Robertson." -sport,"Henson stakes early Lions claim The Six Nations may be a glittering prize in itself but every player from the four Home Unions will also have one eye on a possible trip to New Zealand with the Lions this summer. The player who staked the biggest claim for a place in the starting XV over the weekend was Gavin Henson. He's very confident. You just had to listen to his interview afterwards - he beamed with confidence - but although there's an element of arrogance it's good arrogance. He certainly showed some nice touches. He once showed a clean pair of heels to Mathew Tait when he got outside him, his defence was very good and he made some great kicks out of hand. And that's without even mentioning his majestic match-winning penalty. But I think we need to wait and see what happens because he needs to be put to the test. He needs to come up against Brian O'Driscoll or a big French midfield. Wales fly-half Stephen Jones was another player who impressed me. He gave good direction, he was very confident and he was a nice general for his side. He showed he can control a game. With Jonny Wilkinson not playing at the moment due to inury the number 10 shirt could be up for grabs and Jones, or maybe even Henson, could make the Lions team at fly-half. Jones stuck his hand up and he certainly looks a better bet than Charlie Hodgson after Saturday's game. Some of the Wales forwards surprised me because I thought they would be out-muscled in the tight five. England prop Julian White is a capable player but when it comes down to selection Gethin Jenkins is now going to have the upper hand because he came out on top. However, I still think White and Phil Vickery will be in the frame. Some English players did their cause no harm. I thought Joe Worsley had a solid game and Jason Robinson and Josh Lewsey both did nothing wrong. But it looked too soon for young Mathew Tait and I think it will be a while before we see him again. Despite being written off beforehand several Scots caught my eye against France. Tom Smith has been there and done it before, but the likes of Chris Cusiter, Jason White and Ally Hogg all made their mark. Hogg made a couple of good runs while White had a pretty robust game - his defence is right up there. Cusiter looked very lively and he could be a very good option for Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward. The star of Ireland's win over Italy in Rome looks like a certainty to make the starting XV against New Zealand. Brian O'Driscoll is a class act. He ran some good lines against Italy, made the breaks and fed his outside backs, although Italy defended man on man which made it easy for him. Gordon D'Arcy was unlucky to go off injured early on but I think you could get a Henson, D'Arcy, O'Driscoll combination in the Lions midfield. Paul O'Connell just needs to add a hard edge to his game and Malcolm O'Kelly keeps on going and seems to be putting his hand up, while Shane Byrne seems to be a lively character. But they will be a bit worried after the Italian pack drove them off their own ball on Sunday, although I used to play in Italy and I know how difficult it can be. One player who didn't impress me was Wales scrum-half Dwayne Peel. He choked late on in the second half when Wales were trailing. They had good possession and he kicked the ball away - I wouldn't want him as my Lions scrum-half after that." -sport,"Lewsey puzzle over disallowed try England's Josh Lewsey has claimed he was denied a late try in his side's Six Nations loss to Ireland. The Wasps wing insisted he grounded the ball when he was bundled over the line and said referee Jonathan Kaplan had made a wrong decision. ""I'm positive I touched the ball down over the line,"" Lewsey told BBC Sport. ""It certainly wasn't a turnover. ""I was driven over and I put the ball on the ground. The whistle went and I let go of the ball."" Lewsey added: ""One of the Irish players scooped it back after the whistle and to our surprise the referee then gave a turnover. ""As far as I'm concerned, that incident and Mark Cueto's effort from Charlie Hodgson's cross-field kick that led to what looked like a good try were the two key elements in the game."" Cueto was also puzzled as to why his try had been disallowed by Kaplan. ""I don't think I could have been offside for, without a doubt, I was behind the ball,"" said the Sale player. ""The move was a planned technique, it was not off the cuff. We rehearse it time and time again. ""I wouldn't say we were robbed, some decisions go with you and some go against you. Today they went against us and that's tough at international level.""" -sport,"Wales get Williams fitness boost Wales are hopeful that openside flanker Martyn Williams could be fit for Saturday's RBS 6 Nations championship opener against England in Cardiff. Williams was expected to miss the match with a disc problem in his neck, but has been making a speedy recovery. ""He will have tests in the next 48 hours and we are pretty optimistic he is getting there,"" Wales' team physiotherapist Mark Davies said. ""It has been frustrating but he is on the mend, he has made good progress."" Last week Williams, along with fellow flanker Colin Charvis - who is unlikely to play for at least a month while he recovers from a foot injury - was all but ruled out of the Millennium Stadium clash. With Williams initially thought to be struggling, the signs pointed towards Wales coach Mike Ruddock handing a first cap to former Wales Under-21 skipper Richie Pugh. Cardiff Blues flanker Williams, 29, offers considerable experience and if he is declared fit then Ruddock might be tempted to include him in the back row. Charvis will be reviewed by the Wales medical staff next Monday, but Davies admitted that there was only an ""outside chance"" of him being fit to face France in Wales' third championship game on 26 February. Wales' other injury concern is Pugh's fellow Neath-Swansea Ospreys player Sonny Parker, as the centre has a trapped nerve in his neck. ""Sonny's injury is still an issue,"" Davies said. ""It is still painful and irritable. We will run the rule of thumb over him in the next couple of days."" Ruddock will name his starting line-up for the England game at 1830 GMT on Tuesday evening, as Wales target their first victory in Cardiff over the world champions since 1993." -sport,"Pavey focuses on indoor success Jo Pavey will miss January's View From Great Edinburgh International Cross Country to focus on preparing for the European Indoor Championships in March. The 31-year-old was third behind Hayley Yelling and Justyna Bak in last week's European Cross Country Championships but she prefers to race on the track. ""It was great winning bronze but I'm wary of injuries and must concentrate on the indoor season,"" she said. ""Because of previous injuries I don't even run up hills in training."" Pavey, who came fifth in the 5,000m at the Athens Olympics, helped the British cross country team win the team silver medal in Heringsdorf last week. She is likely to start her 3,000m season with a race in either Boston or Stuttgart at the end of January." -sport,"Parry relishes Anfield challenge BBC Sport reflects on the future for Liverpool after our exclusive interview with chief executive Rick Parry. Chief executive Parry is the man at the helm as Liverpool reach the most crucial point in their recent history. Parry has to deliver a new 60,000-seat stadium in Stanley Park by 2007 amid claims of costs spiralling above £120m. He is also searching for an investment package of a size and stature that will restore Liverpool to their place at European football's top table. But it is a challenge that appears to sit easily with Parry, who has forged a reputation as one of football's most respected administrators since his days at the fledgling Premier League. Liverpool have not won the championship since 1990, a fact that causes deep discomfort inside Anfield as they attempt to muscle in on the top three of Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal. Throw in the small matter of warding off every top club in world football as they eye captain Steven Gerrard, and you can see Parry is a man with a lot on his plate. But in the comfort of a conference room deep inside Liverpool's heartbeat - The Kop end - Parry spoke to us with brutal honesty about the crucial months ahead. He only dodged one question - when asked to reveal the name of the mystery investor currently courting Liverpool, a polite smile deflected the inquiry. But to his credit, he met everything else head on in measured tones that underscore the belief that Liverpool still mean business. By business he means becoming title challengers again, and locking the pieces together that will help return the trophy to Liverpool is Parry's mission. Parry has already successfully put one of those planks in place in the form of new manager Rafael Benitez. And his enthusiasm for the Spaniard's personality and methods is an indication of his clear feeling that he has struck gold. Benitez's early work has given Parry renewed optimism about the years ahead. But it remains a massive task at a club with a unique history and expectations. This will not come as news to Parry, a lifelong Liverpool supporter, but his quiet determination suggests he is no mood to be found wanting... Captain Gerrard is central to Liverpool's plans and Parry's insistence that all offers will be refused is a firm statement of intent. As ever, the player will have the final say, and Parry acknowledges that, but he is determined to provide the framework and environment for Liverpool and Gerrard to flourish. In terms of the search for new investment, Hawkpoint were appointed as advisors to flush out interest in March 2004. Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shiniwatra came and went, while the most serious statement of intent came from tycoon and lifelong fan Steve Morgan. Morgan had a succession of bids rejected, having come close in the summer only for talks to break down over potential costs for the new stadium. BBC Sport understands Morgan is still ready and willing to invest in Liverpool, and Parry has kept the door ajar despite currently seeking investment elsewhere. Morgan, however, has had no formal contact with Liverpool or their advisors since last December, blaming indecision at board level as he publicly withdrew his £70m offer. He was also convinced his interest was being used to lure in others, so any new approach would now have to come from Liverpool. Morgan will certainly not be making another call. So speculation continues about the new benefactor, with trails leading to the Middle East and America, but all met with an understandable veil of secrecy from Anfield. Parry meanwhile sees the new ground as crucial to Liverpool's future, but is refusing to become emotionally attached to the idea. He is determined the ground will only be built on an affordable basis and will not make future Liverpool management hostages to the new stadium. Parry will pull back the moment the figures do not stack up, but there has been a vital new development in North London that has re-shaped Liverpool's thinking. Liverpool have publicly refused to entertain the idea of stadium sponsorship and potential naming rights - but the realism of Arsenal's stunning £100m deal for their new Emirates Stadium at Ashburton has changed the landscape. Parry labelled the deal ""an eye-opener"" and admits Liverpool would be missing a trick not to explore the possibilities. He knows some traditionalist Liverpool fans will reel at any attempt to call the new stadium anything other than just 'Anfield', but the maths of modern-day football decree that multi-millions for stadium and team could ease the pain. I would take £50m if we had no investment, but if we did, keep him. As for the stadium, if it gets us cash what difference does it make really? £50m for Gerrard? I don't care who you are, the Directors would take the money and it is the way it should be. We cannot let that sum of money go, despite Gerrard's quality. Through a cleverly worded statement, the club has effectively forced Gerrard to publicly make the decision for himself, which I think is the right thing to do. Critical time for Liverpool with regards to Gerrard. Ideally we would want to secure his future to the club for the long term. I am hoping he doesn't walk out of the club like Michael Owen did for very little cash. £50m realistically would allow Rafa to completely rebuild the squad, however, if we can afford to do this AND keep Gerrard we will be better for it. I would however be happy with Gerrard's transfer for any fee over £35m. Parry's statements are clever in that any future Gerrard transfer cannot be construed as a lack of ambition by the club to not try and keep their best players. Upping the ante is another smart move by Parry. I would keep Gerrard. No amount of money could replace his obvious love of the club and determination to succeed. The key is if Gerrard comes out and says that he is happy. Clearly, if he isn't, then we would be foolish not to sell. The worrying thing is who would you buy (or who would come) pending possible non-Champions League football." -sport,"Mourinho expects fight to finish Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho expects the Champions League clash with Barcelona to be a fight to the finish. Mourinho is relishing the first leg of the tie against his former club in the last 16 in the Nou Camp. He said: ""I wouldn't be surprised if nothing had been decided by the last minute of the return leg and the match had to go into extra time. ""I have to defend what is mine and the Champions League is mine at the moment. I'm the last manager to have won it."" Mourinho never coached Barcelona, assisting both Sir Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal. But he is not envious, insisting: ""I don't have to be jealous about Barcelona because they have 100 years of history and have won the European Cup once. ""I have been managing for five years and I have the same amount of Champions League trophies to my name."" Barcelona star Ronaldinho admitted: ""I think that it is going to be a difficult match for us because Chelsea have a good team full of big stars. ""I have seen Chelsea a few times on television, tactically they are very good and they are very strong on the counter-attack. ""They pressure very well and keep possession of the ball so it will be important that we play our own game. ""I believe they are the two strongest teams in Europe. Nevertheless, Barcelona are accustomed to playing big games at the Nou Camp, where they have to face the likes of Real Madrid each season. ""It is a special game, the atmosphere in the city changes, there are lots of journalists but inside the dressing room there is not a lot of difference,"" Ronaldinho added. ""We are only thinking of winning the match with all respect to the opposition.""" -sport,"Hereford 1-1 Doncaster Hereford win 3-1 on penalties. Rovers took the lead on 59 minutes as Michael McIndoe's corner found Adriano Rigoglioso, whose stunning volley soared into the top right of the net. Danny Williams equalised for the hosts after 72 minutes with a crisp finish from just insist the penalty box. McIndoe saw an extra-time penalty saved, giving Mills the chance to net the winning penalty. Mawson, Travis, Mkandawire, James, Robinson, Daniel Williams, Stanley, Hyde (Pitman 105), Purdie (Mills 83), Brown, Stansfield (Green 102). Subs Not Used: Smith, Scott. James. Daniel Williams 72. Ingham, Mulligan, Fenton, Morley, Priet (Ryan 79), McIndoe, Ravenhill (Price 90), Rigoglioso, Tierney (Jackson 79), Beardsley, Coppinger. Subs Not Used: Warrington, Maloney. Rigoglioso 59. 1,375 T Parkes (W Midlands)." -sport,"Clijsters could play Aussie Open Kim Clijsters has denied reports that she has pulled out of January's Australian Open because of her persistent wrist injury. Open chief Paul McNamee had said: ""Kim's wrist obviously isn't going to be rehabilitated."" But her spokesman insisted she had simply delayed submitting her entry. ""The doctors are assessing her injury on a weekly basis and if there is no risk she could play. But if there's the least risk she will stay away."" Despite being absent from the WTA entry list for the tournament, which begins on 17 January, Clijsters would be certain to get a wild card if she requested one. Clijsters is still ranked 22nd in the world despite only playing a handful of matches last season. The Belgian had an operation on her left wrist early in the season but injured it again on her return to the tour. Meanwhile, Jelena Dokic, who used to compete for Australia, has opted out of the first Grand Slam of the season. Dokic has not played in the Australian Open since 2001 when she lost in the first round. But the 21-year-old would have had to rely on a wild card next season because her ranking has tumbled to 127th. Four-time champion Monica Seles, who has not played since last year's French Open, is another absentee because of an injured left foot." -sport,"Hewitt fights back to reach final Lleyton Hewitt kept his dream of an Australian Open title alive with a four-set win over Andy Roddick in Friday's second semi-final. The home favourite will face Marat Safin in Sunday's final after coming through 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) 6-1. Hewitt fought back from a set down and trailed in both tie-breaks but would not be denied, thrilling the Melbourne crowd with a typically battling effort. He is aiming to be the first Australian winner since Mark Edmondson in 1976. Hewitt is the first Australian to make the final since Pat Cash lost to Mats Wilander in 1988, but faces a huge challenge against Safin - the conqueror of Roger Federer. After needing five sets in his last two matches there was reason to think Hewitt might struggle for fitness. He certainly made a sluggish start, dropping his opening service game, and Roddick dominated with his huge serve as he took the first set. After 12 tense games in the second, the key moment came when Hewitt raised his game in the tie-break to overturn an early mini-break. That energised the crowd but Roddick was not finished and raced 4-1 clear in the crucial third before Hewitt pegged him back and forced another tie-break. Again Roddick broke first and again Hewitt fought back, taking the lead with a superb backhand pass. The Australian was not to be denied and a disheartened Roddick made little impact in the fourth set as Hewitt raced to victory, sending the Melbourne crowd wild and ensuring the final will be a huge occasion. ""It's awesome,"" said Hewitt. ""I started preparing for this tournament nine months ago. ""I've done a lot of hard yards to get here. ""I've always said I'd do anything to get in the first night final at the Australian Open. Now I've got my chance."" Roddick was furious with himself for failing to take advantage of leads in both tie-breaks. ""I'm usually pretty money in those,"" said Roddick. ""Either one of those would have given me a distinct advantage. ""I'm mad, I felt I was in there with a shot. He put himself in position to win big points. I donated a little more than I would have wanted."" And the American played down the influence of one spectator who appeared to contribute to a double fault by shouting during Rodick's service action. ""It just took one jackass to shout out,"" said Roddick, adding that the crowd overall was ""very respectful""." -sport,"Highbury tunnel players in clear The Football Association has said it will not be bringing charges over the tunnel incident prior to the Arsenal and Manchester United game. Arsenal's Patrick Vieira had earlier denied accusations that he threatened Gary Neville before the 4-2 defeat. Vieira also clashed with opposing skipper Roy Keane and referee Graham Poll had to separate them. ""The referee has confirmed that he is satisfied he dealt with the incident at the time,"" said an FA statement. It means United's win will pass off without further intervention from the governing body, whose new chief executive Brian Barwick was in the Highbury stands. ""I didn't threaten anybody. They are big enough players to handle themselves,"" said Vieira. ""I had a talk with Roy Keane and that's it. Gary Neville is a big lad, he can handle himself. ""They just played better than us and deserved to win."" Neville admitted there had been incidents before the game, but insisted it had not distracted his focus. ""There were a couple of things that did happen before the game which disappoint you,"" he said. ""Especially from players of that calibre, but it's a tough game and we've been around a long time."" Neville admitted that he had not enjoyed the match, which was punctuated by fouls and the sending off of Mikael Silvestre for head-butting Freddie Ljungberg . ""I thought it was a horrible game in the first half, and it was not much better in the second,"" he said. ""There is no way that should have happened in a football match."" After the match, Keane accused Vieira of starting the row. ""Patrick Vieira is 6ft 4in and having a go at Gary Neville. So I said, 'have a go at me',"" he said. ""If he wants to intimidate our players and thinks that Gary Neville is an easy target, I'm not having it."" Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson added: ""Vieira was well wound up for it. ""I've heard different stories. Patrick Vieira has apparently threatened some of our players and things like that.""" -sport,"Collins calls for Chambers return World 100m champion Kim Collins says suspended sprinter Dwain Chambers should be allowed to compete in the Olympics again. Chambers was banned for two years after testing positive for the anabolic steroid THG and his suspension runs out in November this year. But Collins says the British Olympic Association should reverse the decision to ban him from the Olympics for life. ""It was too harsh,"" Collins told Radio Five Live. ""They should reconsider."" Chambers has been in America learning American football but has not ruled out a return to the track. Collins added: ""He is a great guy and I have never had any problems with him. We are friends. ""I would like to see Dwain come back and compete again. He is a good person. ""Even though he made a mistake he understands what he did and should be given a chance once more.""" -sport,"Davenport puts retirement on hold Lindsay Davenport has put any talk of retirement on hold after having a largely injury-free 2004 campaign. The 28-year-old world number one had said that she would quit at the end of last year, but after a successful season she has had a change of heart. ""Finally I felt I put myself in a position to try and win Grand Slams again,"" said Davenport. ""It would be tough to walk away when I feel like I can contend so there's no point in hanging it up quite yet."" Davenport has won three Grand Slams, the 2000 Australian Open, Wimbledon in 1999 and the 1998 US Open. Her career has been hit by a series of injuries but last year she started hitting top form and won seven titles. She was due to take part in this week's Hopman Cup in Perth but decided she wanted to rest her knee. ""I just really wanted to make sure my right knee was going to be able to really withstand all the rigours of the whole year coming up,"" she said." -sport,"Slovakia seal Hopman Cup success Slovakia clinched the Hopman Cup for the second time by beating Argentina 3-0 in Saturday's final in Perth. Daniela Hantuchova put the third seeds ahead, recovering from a terrible start to beat Gisela Dulko 1-6 6-4 6-4. Dominik Hrbaty, who had not lost a set in his three singles matches in the group stages, then upset world number seven Guillermo Coria 6-4 6-1. Hantuchova and Hrbaty then won the mixed doubles after Coria was forced to withdraw because of a sore back. Slovakia's win made up for last year's final defeat to the United States. ""I would like to congratulate Daniela,"" Hrbaty said. ""I was so nervous watching her today, I almost had a heart attack. ""I also feel a little sorry for Guillermo because I get very excited whenever I play for my country. I show lots of emotions and played such good tennis."" World number 31 Hantuchova, ranked two places above Dulko, looked nervous as she dropped the first four games of the match. Dulko, who had lost all three of her singles matches in the group stages, grew in confidence and took the opening set in just 27 minutes. But Hantuchova hit back to take the next two and the match. ""I was so nervous because I really wanted to win for the team and for Dominik as he played so well all week,"" she said. ""I didn't think I was playing my best but I just tried to hang in there and fight hard for every point for my country."" Slovakia won the Cup on their first appearance in 1998 when Karol Kucera and Karina Habsudova beat France." -sport,"Edwards tips Idowu for Euro gold World outdoor triple jump record holder and BBC pundit Jonathan Edwards believes Phillips Idowu can take gold at the European Indoor Championships. Idowu landed 17.30m at the British trials in Sheffield last month to lead the world triple jump rankings. ""It's all down to him, but if he jumps as well as he did in Sheffield he could win the gold medal,"" said Edwards. ""His ability is undoubted but all his best performances seem to happen in domestic meetings."" Idowu made his breakthrough five years ago but so far has only a Commonwealth silver medal to his name. Edwards himself kept Idowu off top spot at the Manchester Games. But he believes the European Indoors in Madrid represent a chance for the 26-year-old to prove his credentials as Britain's top triple jumper. ""He has to start producing at international level and here is the beginning,"" said Edwards. ""Phillips still needs to be much more consistent. I'm sure a victory in Madrid will build up his confidence and self-belief that he can be best in the world."" The qualifying round of the men's triple jump in Madrid takes place on Friday with the final scheduled for Saturday. Olympic champion Christian Olsson will not be taking part as he is out for the entire indoor season with an ankle injury." -sport,"Sculthorpe wants Lions captaincy Paul Sculthorpe has admitted he would love to succeed Andy Farrell as Great Britain skipper if the Wigan star does switch codes to rugby union. Sculthorpe was vice-captain in the Tri-Nations, and took the St Helens captaincy from Chris Joynt last year. ""I would definitely want the job - I make no bones about it,"" Sculthorpe told BBC Sport. ""It's something I've always wanted to do. I'd gladly take it if it was offered to me."" The 27-year-old, who captained St Helens to Challenge Cup success last year, said following in the footsteps of Farrell would be a challenge. ""Andy would be a hard act to follow but it's something I'm confident of being up to,"" he said. ""The GB team isn't a one-man team. There are a lot of good young players who are pushing for places anyway."" Sculthorpe said the rugby league world would understand if Farrell did decide to move to rugby union. ""It's a short career and you have to make of it what you can,"" said Sculthorpe. ""Nobody can blame him if he does go - he's done everything in the game of rugby league. ""Financially it could set him up for life. If he fancies a new challenge, then who could fault him?"" Sculthorpe also called on the rugby league authorities to have a serious look at the number of games the top players are being asked to play. Sean Long, Sculthorpe's Saints and Lions team-mate, has expressed doubts about his international future ""I think Sean's situation is to do with the sheer number of games we're playing,"" he said. ""The way he's looking at it is that if he can extend his career by a couple of years by not playing international rugby, then he's willing to do that. ""The RFL has got to do something about the fixtures. We're playing 42 weeks of the year and it's too much. ""A lot of the niggly injuries that I've suffered with over the last couple of years have come about because of the lack of rest time."" St Helens have been strongly linked with a move for brilliant young forward Sonny Bill Williams, and Sculthorpe said he would love the 19-year-old to come to Knowsley Road. ""He's a great player - a big strong lad who can certainly hit hard in defence, but who is also very skilful,"" he said. ""I'd love him to come to St Helens. Who knows what might happen? But you want the best players in your team, and he's certainly one of the best players in the world.""" -sport,"Rochus shocks Coria in Auckland Top seed Guillermo Coria went out of the Heineken Open in Auckland on Thursday with a surprise loss to Olivier Rochus of Belgium. Coria lost the semi-final 6-4 6-4 to Rochus, who goes on to face Czech Jan Hernych, a 6-4 7-5 winner over Jose Acasuso of Argentina. Fifth seed Fernando Gonzalez eased past American Robby Ginepri 6-3 6-4. The Chilean will meet sixth seed Juan Ignacio Chela next after the Argentine beat Potito Starace 6-1 7-6 (7-5). Rochus made the semi-finals at the Australian hardcourt championships in Adelaide last week and is naturally delighted with his form. ""It's been two unbelievable weeks for me,"" he said. ""Today I knew I had nothing to lose. If I beat him great, if I lost, I would be losing to a top-10 player."" Coria conceded that Rochus ""played just too good,"" and added: ""When you give your best out there you can't be too sad.""" -sport,"Fuming Robinson blasts officials England coach Andy Robinson insisted he was ""livid"" after his side were denied two tries in Sunday's 19-13 Six Nations loss to Ireland in Dublin. Mark Cueto's first-half effort was ruled out for offside before the referee spurned TV replays when England crashed over in the dying minutes. ""[I'm] absolutely spitting. I'm livid. There's two tries we've been cost,"" Robinson told BBC Sport. ""We've got to go back to technology. I don't know why we didn't."" South African referee Jonathan Kaplan ruled that Cueto was ahead of Charlie Hodgson when the fly-half hoisted his cross-field kick for the Sale wing to gather. Kaplan then declined the chance to consult the fourth official when Josh Lewsey took the ball over the Irish line under a pile of bodies for what could have been the game-winning try. ""I think Mark Cueto scored a perfectly legal try and I think he should have gone to the video referee on Josh Lewsey,"" said Robinson. ""It is how we use the technology. It is there, and it should be used. ""I am still trying to work out the Cueto try. I have looked at both, and they both looked tries. ""We are very disappointed, and this will hurt, there is no doubt about that. ""We are upset now, but the referee is in charge and he has called it his way and we have got to be able to cope with that. ""We did everything we could have done to win the game. I am very proud of my players and, with a couple of decisions, this could have been a very famous victory. ""I thought we dominated. Matt Stevens had an awesome game at tighthead prop, while the likes of Charlie Hodgson, Martin Corry and Lewis Moody all came through well. ""Josh Lewsey was awesome, and every one of the forwards stood up out there. Given the pressure we were under, credit must go to all the players. ""We have done everything but win a game of rugby, but Ireland are a good side. They defended magnificently and they've got every chance of winning this Six Nations."" England have lost their first three matches in this year's Six Nations and four out of their six games since Robinson took over from Sir Clive Woodward in September." -sport,"Gebrselassie in London triple bid Double Olympic 10,000m champion Haile Gebrselassie will race in the London Marathon for the next three years. The Ethiopian legend won Sunday's Almeria half-marathon in Spain on his return from an operation on his Achilles tendon. He was third in London in 2002 in his first serious attempt at the marathon. ""It is a coup for us to secure Haile's presence for the next three years and it guarantees a quality race,"" said race director David Bedford. Gebrselassie will face Olympic champion Stefano Baldini, world champion Jaouad Gharib, and arch-rival Paul Tergat, the current world record holder. ""If I didn't think I could win I would not be here,"" said Gebrselassie, who has set world records on 18 occasions in his illustrious career and is keen to add the marathon record to his collection. ""There are a lot of fantastic runners in the race but I shall be doing my utmost to upset them.""" -sport,"Thompson says Gerrard should stay Liverpool legend Phil Thompson has pleaded with Steve Gerrard to reject any overtures from Chelsea. The ex-Reds assistant boss also warned that any honours won at Chelsea would be cheapened by the bid to buy success. He told BBC Radio Five Live: ""Liverpool would think about any bid made but it will all be down to Steve in the end. ""But it wouldn't have that same sweet feeling at Chelsea, where it's all money-orientated and about simply buying the best."" Thompson reacted sharply to some Liverpool supporters, who criticised Gerrard's performance in the Carling Cup final against Chelsea. A number of fans questioned Gerrard's commitment and sarcastically branded his own goal in Liverpool's 3-2 defeat as his first goal for Chelsea. Thompson added: ""I heard those comments from so-called supporters and they were diabolical, absolutely outrageous. ""Stevie carried the club last year and this year. He's always put Liverpool first."" Thompson, who savoured seven title-winning seasons and two European Cup triumphs during his Anfield playing career, is confident that the lure of Champions League football will keep Gerrard at Anfield. ""I hope Champions League football will beckon for Liverpool - either as winners or as finishing fourth in the Premiership - and he will commit himself. ""There has been a lot of soul-searching the way things have gone lately. ""I hope he's hardening to the fact he will have big decisions to make but I hope it is to the benefit of Steven Gerrard and I hope it is worthwhile for Liverpool.""" -sport,"Parry puts Gerrard 'above money' Listen to the full interview on Sport on Five and the BBC Sport website from 1900 GMT. But Parry, speaking exclusively to BBC Sport, also admits Gerrard, who has been constantly linked with Chelsea, will have the final say on his future. He told BBC Five Live: ""Steven is above money. He is the future of Liverpool. ""It doesn't matter if it's £30m, £40m or £50m, we will not accept offers. But we are also realistic enough to know we can't keep Steven against his will."" On the subject of Liverpool's finances, Parry also revealed the club is ready to explore the possibility of a sponsorship deal for its proposed new stadium. And responding to criticism from BBC Sport pundit and former Liverpool stalwart Alan Hansen, he insisted talks on new investment are ongoing, but added the door has not closed on shareholder and lifelong fan Steve Morgan. Parry joined Liverpool as chief executive in July 1998 from a similar role at the Premier League. There have been several highs and lows during his time in charge at Anfield - and he had a busy summer, overseeing the arrival of new manager Rafael Benitez and managing to hold on to Steven Gerrard. On the subject of Liverpool's captain and prize asset, Parry revealed Real Madrid did ask for an option on the England midfield man during negotiations for striker Fernando Morientes. He said: ""They were looking for ways of saying they got more out of the deal for Fernando Morientes, but the response to Real Madrid was the same - Steven is not for sale."" But when asked if Gerrard would be a Liverpool player on the first day of next season, Parry said: ""I sincerely hope he will be. Steven knows my views. He knows Rafa's views. ""We have re-affirmed recently to Steven that we are trying to build a team around him. We crave success as much as he does. We know he's ambitious and nobody can argue with that. ""I think Steven would dearly love to win things with Liverpool more than he'd like to do anything else. ""We all want to see progress by next season. He's not alone in that. There are a lot of other players who feel the same, so we all have a common aim."" It is expected Chelsea will test Liverpool with a £30m-plus bid in the summer - but Parry claims he will be in no mood to listen. ""There have been a lot of open secrets about Steven, most of which have been complete myths. It is suggested we had a deal tied up last summer. We didn't had an offer last summer,"" Parry explained. ""We had told Chelsea that as far as we were concerned he was not for sale and we didn't want to sell him. In reality it didn't go beyond that. ""Maybe there will be an offer in the summer. Maybe there won't. ""Our position is we want Steven to stay, but we are also realistic enough and have enough respect for Steven - and he has enough respect for us - to know that it is his decision that will be crucial. ""You are not going to keep a player like Steven against his will. That just doesn't work, but any idea we are going to accept offers for Steven and then tell him 'by the way we've decided to sell you' is not on the agenda. You can forget that."" Parry is currently in the process of finalising funding for Liverpool's new stadium in Stanley Park, which is set to open in 2007. And he confessed Arsenal's £100m deal with Emirates to sponsor their new ground - complete with naming rights - has given the Anfield club serious food for thought. He said: ""I have to say historically it is something I have been against, and I have been on record as saying that, but I think the size of the Arsenal deal is a real eye-opener. ""I would say in the past deals have been done frankly far too cheaply and it just hasn't even been worth contemplating. ""But the Arsenal deal is the sort of deal that causes you to draw breath and say 'wow - that's interesting.' ""My personal point of view is that I would find it a hell of a lot more palatable than a shared stadium."" Some Liverpool fans would find such a move highly controversial, but Parry countered: ""I recognise it would be an emotive issue for many supporters, but you look at the amount of money available and it could go into the team. ""If it was the right partner how strong an issue is it? Time will tell. ""I think the stadium will always be Anfield, not least because of where it is, but do we need to investigate the possibilities of sponsorship? I think it would be remiss not to. ""That's not to say we have made a decision that we will go down that road, but I think it is clearly something we have to explore."" On the subject of possible new investment, Parry revealed Liverpool are still in negotiations with a mystery investor, with rumours of interest from the Middle East. That prompted the withdrawal of tycoon Steve Morgan, who got frustrated by failed bids and what he claimed was indecision by the board. He also accused Liverpool of using him as ""a stalking horse"" to attract other bids, but Parry explained: ""Steve has never been used as a stalking horse. There's no need, and that is not the way we do business. ""We had discussions with Steve over the course of 2004. I think we came close to concluding a deal in the summer but it didn't happen. ""Quite genuinely, the new interest did appear relatively late in the day just prior to the AGM in December, and as I have said it was of such potential magnitude, and that potential is so exciting, we felt we had to evaluate it. We are still evaluating it. ""Steve's interest was taken very much on its own merits. His enthusiasm for the club is there for all to see and who knows what the next few months will hold? ""The door isn't closed on anything. We had a perfectly sensible dialogue with Steve last year. ""We have a common interest in making Liverpool successful. That's a dream we all share, so as far as I'm concerned the door is not closed."" I would take £50m if we had no investment, but if we did, keep him. As for the stadium, if it gets us cash what difference does it make really? £50m for Gerrard? I don't care who you are, the Directors would take the money and it is the way it should be. We cannot let that sum of money go, despite Gerrard's quality. Through a cleverly worded statement, the club has effectively forced Gerrard to publicly make the decision for himself, which I think is the right thing to do. Critical time for Liverpool with regards to Gerrard. Ideally we would want to secure his future to the club for the long term. I am hoping he doesn't walk out of the club like Michael Owen did for very little cash. £50m realistically would allow Rafa to completely rebuild the squad, however, if we can afford to do this AND keep Gerrard we will be better for it. I would however be happy with Gerrard's transfer for any fee over £35m. Parry's statements are clever in that any future Gerrard transfer cannot be construed as a lack of ambition by the club to not try and keep their best players. Upping the ante is another smart move by Parry. I would keep Gerrard. No amount of money could replace his obvious love of the club and determination to succeed. The key is if Gerrard comes out and says that he is happy. Clearly, if he isn't, then we would be foolish not to sell. The worrying thing is who would you buy (or who would come) pending possible non-Champions League football." -sport,"Athens memories soar above lows Well, it's goodbye to another Olympic year and as usual there were plenty of highs and lows in Athens. Obviously, there's no getting away from the differing fortunes of Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe. But I want to remind you of a few more events that made 2004 another year to remember - or forget - for athletics. One of my favourite Olympic moments was Kelly's success in the 800m. Winning that race was the key to her success because if she won that then the 1500m would be a bit of a formality. Kelly had been full of ""should I, shouldn't I?"" thoughts about going for the double in Athens. I thought why wouldn't you do the 800m, it's your best event? It was such good fun to commentate on her 1500m and it was nice to be able to be part of her Athens story. The victory for the British men's 4x100m relay team was a bit of a surprise but a great climax to the Games. I think the four of them - Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis - knew deep down that it was their best chance of a medal. The lads had run poorly in the individual sprints so maybe they did lift their game when they knew something was really at stake. Hicham El Guerrouj's Olympic double is a much bigger achievement than Kelly's on a global scale. He was the first man since for 80 years to win both the 1500m and 5,000m titles. As soon as he had added the 5,000m crown and I had finished commentating, I jumped up, ran down the stairs, pushed everyone out the way and just gave him a big hug. He is one of the few African runners who has embraced the tradition of the mile and he loves to hear all the Roger Bannister stories. Hicham is someone I enjoy having a bit of time with, even though my French and his English are not very good. What happened to Paula in Athens this year is the obvious low on a personal level and for the expectations of the nation as well. There were a set of circumstances around Athens that conspired to produce a very dramatic ending which I think has been greatly misunderstood. Dropping out of the marathon was the right thing to do but starting in the 10,000m five days later was not wise. That was her heart and not her head reacting. Paula had a lot of little things going wrong in her preparation and on the day. Things like niggling injuries, not being able to do all her running sessions and feeling the pressure of the race looming ahead of her. I think she came to the start line in Athens physically and emotionally drained. And if even the smallest thing doesn't feel right when you are preparing to race a marathon, 10 miles down the road it will hit you like a brick wall. The positive thing to take from Paula's Olympics it that she will have learned a lot from it and so will a lot of people - including me. Purely as a race, Paula's victory in the New York Marathon has to go down as one of the most thrilling. It was so nip-and-tuck between her and Kenya's Susan Chepkemei and you don't usually get that kind of excitement in marathons. It was also a real delight for all athletics fans because, to use one of my favourite words, Paula showed real ""bouncebackability"". And it was a bit of a rarity for me too because I genuinely did not have an inkling how the race was going to pan out. Kelly and the 4x100m boys' victories papered over the cracks in the general performance of the British team. We should be concerned that we're not producing enough people who are capable of reaching finals at senior level. The only individual men's finalist on the track was Michael East in the 1500m. I am beginning to look down and wonder where are the new breed? And that's where things begin to look even gloomier for British athletics as we did not win any medals at the world junior championships in Italy. Dani Barnes came fourth in the 1500m and she was the highest finisher for Team GB. The thing is if we don't have athletes getting into the finals at junior level then it really doesn't look good for the Beijing Olympics and beyond. I tell you what I really enjoyed this year, Benita Johnson winning the world cross country championships back in March. In the absence of Paula, we tend to think of the event as something of an African preserve. So to have an Australian come up and deliver such a surprise was something special. To be honest, I'm getting bored with all the drug scandals, especially Balco. I just wish the whole thing would come to a head so we can move on. Having said that, I'm always pleased when drugs cheats are caught because it shows the sport is standing up to it and not turning a blind eye anymore. And one of the positive things to come out of Balco is people are starting to blow the whistle. We need more people to come forward and help the authorities kick out the cheats. As regards the case against Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, well suspicions have been hanging over Kenteris for a while. The bottom line is we cannot keep letting drugs damage the sport because if we do then it stops everyone enjoying it." -sport,"Johnson uncertain about Euro bid Jade Johnson is undecided about whether to contest next month's European Indoor Championships in Madrid despite winning the AAAs long jump title on Saturday. The 24-year-old delivered a personal best of 6.50m to win the European trials but had to wait until her final jump after four failures. ""I don't want to go if I am not going to get a medal,"" said Johnson. ""I will have to see how I am jumping in the next competition and I'll have to have a conversation with my coach."" Johnson, who finished seventh in last year's Olympic Games, has not competed indoors since 2000. And the Commonwealth and European silver medallist believes her lack of experience in the early part of the season has knocked her confidence. ""It's the stress,"" said Johnson. ""I am not used to feeling this, this early. I am just used to training. ""But if I'm doing this kind of thing, then I will have to see how it goes."" Johnson next competes in the high-class Birmingham Grand Prix on 18 February." -sport,"Prutton poised for lengthy FA ban Southampton's David Prutton faces a possible seven-match ban when he goes before the Football Association. The 23-year-old has admitted two charges of improper conduct following his dismissal against Arsenal. The first charge relates to his failure to leave the field promptly, pushing referee Alan Wiley and remonstrating with assistant referee Paul Norman. And the second charge is for using threatening words and/or behaviour to a match official during the 1-1 draw. Paolo di Canio was given a seven-match suspension when he pushed referee Paul Alcock over in a Premiership game between Sheffield Wednesday and Arsenal in 1998. Prutton will be joined at Wednesday's hearing by Saints boss Harry Redknapp, who believes that the FA will throw the book at his player. Redknapp himself sprinted along the touchline to help physio Jim Joyce and coach Denis Rofe shepherd the enraged Prutton away from referee's assistant Norman. ""David has made a big mistake and he knows it. I can't condone what he's done. He was out of order but he knows that,"" said Redknapp. ""He's a decent lad. He over-reacted badly for some reason - he had a rush of blood from somewhere. Off the pitch you couldn't meet a nicer lad."" Prutton has apologised publicly for his actions and to Arsenal's Robert Pires, who was injured in a wild tackle by the Saints' midfield man. He said: ""It's an horrendous situation. I apologise to the ref and linesman, who were only doing their job. ""I've also seen what happened to Pires' leg and I'm sorry for that as well."" ""I apologise for the people who saw it. I know you get lots of kids going to the match now and they don't pay money to see that sort of thing. ""It's not a cop-out, but it was all a bit of a blur. Sometimes you react and it's beyond your control, "" added Prutton." -sport,"Hewitt overcomes wobble in Sydney Lleyton Hewitt gave himself the perfect preparation for next week's Australian Open with victory over Ivo Minar in the final of the Sydney International. The defending champion brushed aside the Czech qualifier 7-5 6-0. The Australian world number three strolled to the first five games of the match but was shocked as Minar won the next five. The top seed was rattled but recovered to close out the set and raced to victory in exactly an hour. ""It was a strange match . . . momentum swings,"" said Hewitt. ""I felt like I came out of the blocks extremely well, but then he loosened up a bit. ""When he got back to 5-5, I had to try to settle down and take it up a notch, and I was able to do that."" Hewitt has now lifted the Sydney title four times in the last six years. ""It just keeps getting better and better every year,"" Hewitt said. ""I've only played this tournament four times and I've won it four times."" Hewitt went into the final as a short-priced favourite to clinch his 24th career title after dropping only one set all week. He is set to meet Frenchman Arnaud Clement in the first round of the Australian Open. Minar, ranked 158th in the world, was forced to pull out of the Australian Open qualifying draw to play in his first ATP final. ""For me, this was a big success,"" said the 20-year-old. ""I was so nervous last night I couldn't sleep. I've never played a top-10 player before. ""I wanted to play qualifying in Melbourne, but it's Saturday and I'm still here. But this is a main draw and I need the points and the money."" Alicia Molik takes on Samantha Stosur in an all-Australian women's final later on Saturday." -sport,"Wilkinson return 'unlikely' Jonny Wilkinson looks set to miss the whole of the 2005 RBS Six Nations. England's World Cup-winning fly-half said last week he was hoping to recover from his latest injury in time to play some role in the championship. But Rob Andrew, coach of Wilkinson's club side Newcastle, said that with only two games left to play Wilkinson was unlikely to be fit in time. ""It would be irresponsible to put him straight into a Test match,"" Andrew told the Times. Wilkinson is recovering from a knee injury which followed long-term neck and arm injuries. He has not played for England since the World Cup final in November 2003, since when the stuttering world champions have lost nine of their 14 matches. Wilkinson is aiming to make his third start to the season in the Zurich Premiership match against Harlequins on 13 March. That game is the day after England play Italy in the Six Nations and six days before their final match of the championship against Scotland. ""We are hoping Jonny will be ready in a fortnight, but it is touch and go,"" said Andrew. ""His recovery is going very well and the key now is how he is reintroduced to playing and with it goal-kicking. ""He will probably have to come off the bench to start and it would be ridiculous and irresponsible to put him straight back into a Test match. ""We can't afford to get it wrong with a knee injury. We are in touch with England and they are relaxed about it."" Despite not playing for England, Wilkinson is still hoping to make the Lions tour to New Zealand this summer. Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward has not set a deadline for when Wilkinson has to start playing again in order to be considered for selection." -sport,"Calder fears for Scottish rugby Former Scotland international Finlay Calder fears civil war at the SRU could seriously hamper his country's RBS Six Nations campaign. Four members of the executive board, including the chairman, David Mackay, have resigned after a simmering row. And Calder said: ""This is terrible news for every level of Scottish rugby. ""David is a successful businessman and I thought that if anybody could transform the negative atmosphere and rising debt level, it was him."" Mackay's executive board has been in a power struggle with the general committee, which contains members elected by Scotland's club sides. ""He has been driven out by people who seem happier waging civil war than addressing the central issue that professional rugby can't be run by amateurs,"" said Calder. ""In fact, I don't understand why we are still having this argument 10 years after professionalism arrived. ""But I don't believe the rest of the SRU will take this lying down. ""I think the banks will be dismayed at this decision and, ultimately, it is them who pull the strings. ""So I wouldn't be surprised if they reviewed their position. But, in the wider picture, what message does this send out?"" He thought the work of Scotland's coaches, who have been attempting to arrest the decline of the national side, would be made much more difficult. ""Matt Williams and Willie Anderson must be wondering, 'what have we walked into here?'"" said Calder. ""And we can now expect weeks of arguments and acrimony just at a time when we should be looking forward to the Six Nations Championship. ""I am very, very disappointed, more than you can imagine. Why do so many Scots have this knack of turning on each other when the going gets tough?""" -sport,"Ferguson rues failure to cut gap Boss Sir Alex Ferguson was left ruing Manchester United's failure to close the gap on Chelsea, Everton and Arsenal after his side's 1-1 draw with Fulham. Premiership leaders Chelsea and the Gunners endured a 2-2 stalemate on Sunday, giving United the chance to make up some ground in the league. But Ferguson said: ""I think what makes it so bad is that both our rivals dropped points at the weekend. ""It was a great opportunity - and we haven't delivered."" United went ahead through Alan Smith in the 33rd minute before Bouba Diop's superb 25-yard strike cancelled out the visitors' lead in the 87th minute. Ferguson described the result as an ""absolute giveaway"" after United had earlier missed a host of opportunities to finish off the encounter. He said: ""It was a good performance - some of the football was fantastic - but we just didn't finish them off. ""In fairness, it's a fantastic strike from the Fulham player."" The result leaves Ferguson's side fourth in the league on 31 points - four points behind Arsenal and a further five back from Chelsea." -sport,"Dibaba breaks 5,000m world record Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba set a new world record in winning the women's 5,000m at the Boston Indoor Games. Dibaba won in 14 minutes 32.93 seconds to erase the previous world indoor mark of 14:39.29 set by another Ethiopian, Berhane Adera, in Stuttgart last year. But compatriot Kenenisa Bekele's record hopes were dashed when he miscounted his laps in the men's 3,000m and staged his sprint finish a lap too soon. Ireland's Alistair Cragg won in 7:39.89 as Bekele battled to second in 7:41.42. ""I didn't want to sit back and get out-kicked,"" said Cragg. ""So I kept on the pace. The plan was to go with 500m to go no matter what, but when Bekele made the mistake that was it. The race was mine."" Sweden's Carolina Kluft, the Olympic heptathlon champion, and Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak had winning performances, too. Kluft took the long jump at 6.63m, while Ceplak easily won the women's 800m in 2:01.52." -sport,"Robinson wants dual code success England rugby union captain Jason Robinson has targeted dual code success over Australia on Saturday. Robinson, a former rugby league international before switching codes in 2000, leads England against Australia at Twickenham at 1430 GMT. And at 1815 GMT, Great Britain's rugby league team take on Australia in the final of the Tri-Nations tournament. ""Beating the Aussies in both games would be a massive achievement, especially for league,"" said Robinson. England have the chance to seal their third autumn international victory after successive wins over Canada and South Africa, as well as gaining revenge for June's 51-15 hammering by the Wallabies. Meanwhile, Great Britain could end 34 years of failure against Australia with victory at Elland Road. Britain have won individual Test matches, but have failed to secure any silverware or win the Ashes (with a series victory) since 1970. ""They have a great opportunity to land a trophy and it would be a massive boost for rugby league in this country if we won,"" said Robinson. ""I know the boys can do it - they've defeated the Aussies once already in the Tri-Nations."" But Robinson was not losing sight of the task facing his England side in their final autumn international. ""For us, we've played two and won two this November,"" he said. ""If we beat Australia it would be the end to a great autumn series for England. If we stumble then we'll be looking back with a few regrets. Robinson also revealed that the union side had sent the Great Britain team a good luck message ahead of the showdown in Leeds. ""We signed a card for them today and will write them an email on Saturday wishing them all the best,"" said Robinson. ""Everyone has signed the card - a lot of the guys watch league and we support them fully. ""Both games will be very tough and hopefully we'll both do well.""" -sport,"Serena ends Sania Mirza's dream Sania Mirza, the first Indian woman to reach the third round of a Grand Slam tennis event, has lost to women's favourite Serena Williams. The 18-year-old Mirza, who got a wild card entry into the Australian Open in Melbourne, lost to Williams 1-6,4-6 in the third round. Williams took just 56 minutes to defeat Mirza and sail into the fourth round. The only other Indian woman to win a match at a Grand Slam is Nirupama Vaidyanathan. Vaidyanathan made it to the second round of the Australian Open in 1998. Playing the biggest match of her life, Mirza made little impact on Williams in the early stages of the game. But the teenager showed more confidence in the second set and engaged the seventh-seeded Williams in some well contested rallies. Mirza, a junior Wimbledon doubles title winner, became the first Indian woman to reach the third round of a grand slam tennis event when she beat Hungarian Petra Mandula on Wednesday. ""I'm really excited. I was confident but I didn't think it was going to be that easy,"" Mirza said after her second round win. ""My aim was to win a round here. When I did that I was so relieved, there was no pressure."" Tennis is not a particularly popular sport in India, but a number of Indians watched the live telecast of the match between Mirza and Williams. Mirza, who lives in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad known for producing a host of top Indian cricketers, turned professional two years ago. She says she was considered too small when she went for her first tennis classes as a six-year-old girl. ""Then finally [the coach] called my parents up and said 'the way she hits the ball, I've never seen a six-year-old hit a ball like that',"" Mirza told the Associated Press." -sport,"Dundee Utd 4-1 Aberdeen Dundee United eased into the semi-final of the Scottish Cup with an emphatic win over Aberdeen. Alan Archibald prodded United ahead in 19 minutes and James Grady made it two from close range 10 minutes later. Richie Byrne's header gave Aberdeen a way back into the game, but Stevie Crawford restored United's lead from 18 yards before half time. The scoring was completed by Grady just after the break - a superb shot on the turn making it 4-1. Tony Bullock in the United goal was called into action for the first time with just over a quarter-of-an-hour on the clock. Noel Whelan laid the ball off to Jamie Winter on the edge of the box, but his first-time effort was gathered by the United keeper. Moments later though, the home side took the lead. Barry Robson whipped in a free kick from the right, which Stevie Crawford caught on the volley. Russell Anderson failed to deal with it and Whelan's clearance off the line landed kindly at the feet of Archibald, who poked the ball into the net. United doubled their lead after 29 minutes when Grady tapped the ball into an empty net after Robson had headed Mark Wilson's cross off the angle of post and bar. But only three minutes later Aberdeen clawed their way back into the match. A free kick from the left by Winter was met powerfully by the head of Byrne at the back post, leaving Bullock helpless. United restored their two-goal lead four minutes before the end of a highly entertaining first half. Jason Scotland played a perfectly-weighted pass into the path of the onrushing Crawford and he coolly beat Ryan Esson from 18 yards. United ended the game as a contest just two minutes after the interval. Grady received a pass from Crawford with his back to goal on the edge of the box and after taking one touch, he spun to volley the ball past the despairing dive of Esson. The home side were in complete control and it required a good stop from Esson to keep out Robson's drive after 62 minutes. The keeper denied the same player again 10 minutes later, beating away his fierce shot from the left of the penalty area. Robson saw another long-range effort tipped round the post before a cute lob was headed off the line. Bullock, Duff, Wilson, Ritchie, Archibald, Scotland (Samuel 63), Brebner, Kerr (Cameron 87), Robson, Crawford, Grady. Colgan, Dodds, Kenneth. Brebner. Archibald 19, Grady 29, Crawford 41, Grady 47. Esson, Hart, Anderson, Diamond, Byrne (Morrison 75), McNaughton, Heikkinen (Foster 27), Winter, Clark (Stewart 51), Mackie, Whelan. Blanchard, McGuire. : Anderson, Diamond. Byrne 33. 8,661 K Clark" -sport,"Call for Kenteris to be cleared Kostas Kenteris' lawyer has called for the doping charges against the Greek sprinter to be dropped. Gregory Ioannidis has submitted new evidence to a Greek athletics tribunal which he claims proves the former Olympic champion has no case to answer. Kenteris and compatriot Katerina Thanou were given provisional suspensions in December for failing to take drugs tests before the Athens Olympics. The Greek tribunal is expected to give its verdict early next week. Kenteris and Thanou withdrew from the Athens Olympics last August after missing drugs tests on the eve of the opening ceremony. They were also alleged to have avoided tests in Tel Aviv and Chicago before the Games. But Ioannidis said: ""Everything overwhelmingly shows that the charges should be dropped."" Ioannidis also said he has presented evidence that will throw a different light on the events leading up to the pair's sensational withdrawal from the Athens Games. The lawyer added that he has proof the authorities ""knew"" Kenteris was in Germany at the time he was alleged to have missed a test in Chicago. Nick Davies, spokesman for athletics' ruling body the IAAF, which handed out the provisional bans, said: ""We can't comment because we were not present at the hearing and don't know what was said behind closed doors. ""We expect a verdict from the Greek Athletics Federation before the end of February and will obviously be making a statement then."" Kenteris won 200m gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, while Thanou won silver in the 100m." -sport,"Collins to compete in Birmingham World and Commonwealth 100m champion Kim Collins will compete in the 60m at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham on 18 February. The St Kitts and Nevis star joins British Olympic relay gold medallists Jason Gardener and Mark Lewis-Francis. Sydney Olympic 100m champion and world indoor record holder Maurice Greene and Athens Olympic 100m silver medallist Francis Obikwelu will also take part. Collins ran in Birmingham at the 2003 World Indoor Championships. ""I'm looking forward to competing against such a strong field,"" he said. ""I got a great reception form the crowd at the NIA when I won my 60m world indoor silver medal in 2003 and it will be really exciting to return to this venue."" The world champion says he's in good shape but he isn't underestimating the home competition. ""Jason Gardener and Mark Lewis-Francis are Olympic gold medallists now and I'm sure they'll be aiming to win in front of their home supporters. ""I'm looking forward to competing against Britain's best sprinters and I'm sure the 60 metres will be one of the most exciting races of the evening."" Collins was sixth in the Olympic final in Athens but is hoping for a better result at the World Championships in Finland this summer. ""This will be a big year for me and I plan to defend my 100m world title in Helsinki in August. Before then I want to perform well over 60m indoors and start my year in winning form.""" -sport,"Henman overcomes rival Rusedski Tim Henman saved a match point before fighting back to defeat British rival Greg Rusedski 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Tuesday. World number 46 Rusedski broke in the ninth game to take a tight opening set. Rusedski had match point at 6-5 in the second set tie-break after Henman double-faulted, but missed his chance and Henman rallied to clinch the set. The British number one then showed his superior strength to take the decider and earn his sixth win over Rusedski. Serve was held by both players with few alarms until the seventh game of the final set, when Rusedski's wild volley gave Henman a vital break. A furious Rusedski slammed his racket onto the ground in disgust and was warned by the umpire. Henman, seeded three, then held his serve comfortably thanks to four serve-and-volley winners to take a clear 5-3 lead. Rusedski won his service game but Henman took the first of his three match points with a service winner to secure his place in the second round at Dubai for the first time in three years. It was the first match between the pair for three years - Henman last lost to Rusedski six years ago - and lasted two hours and 40 minutes. The pair are now likely to only face each other on court as rivals - rather than as team-mates - after Henman decided to retire from Davis Cup tennis leaving Rusedski to lead the team out against Israel on 4-6 March. Henman, who now faces Russian Igor Andreev in the last 16, admitted afterwards it was difficult coming up against his compatriot on a fast surface. ""You just take it point by point when you're fighting to stay in the match,"" he said. ""I had to keep playing aggressively and competing to get a chance. ""I now have to recover in time for the next match because the body doesn't recover as quick as it used to, especially after two hours and 40 minutes.""" -sport,"FA charges Liverpool and Millwall Liverpool and Millwall have been charged by the Football Association over crowd trouble during their Carling Cup match on 26 October. Millwall, who lost the match 3-0, have also been charged over alleged racist behaviour by their supporters. During the match at Millwall's new Den Stadium, seats were ripped up and four people were ejected from the ground. A disabled fan was injured at the perimeter of the pitch and riot police were needed to control the situation. Liverpool fans claimed the trouble was sparked by chants about the Hillsborough disaster, where 96 supporters were crushed to death in April 1989. But Lions chairman Theo Paphitis has denied the claims. He has said CCTV footage showed the catalyst for the trouble was a Liverpool fan attacking a Millwall fan in the west stand. However, Millwall have been charged with two breaches of FA rules. They have been charged with failing to ensure that fans refrained from racist and/or abusive behaviour and for failing to prevent spectators throwing missiles onto the pitch. Liverpool have been charged with one breach for failing to prevent their fans conducting themselves in threatening and/or violent and/or provocative behaviour. Both clubs have until 23 December to respond." -sport,"Blackburn v Burnley Ewood Park Tuesday, 1 March 2000 GMT Howard Webb (South Yorkshire) home to Leicester in the quarter-finals But defender Andy Todd is suspended and could be replaced by Dominic Matteo - if he recovers from a hamstring injury. Burnley have major injury concerns over Frank Sinclair and John McGreal. Michael Duff looks set to continue at right-back with John Oster in midfield and Micah Hyde is expected to recover from a knee injury. - Blackburn boss Mark Hughes: ""Burnley are resolute and have individual talent but I fully expect us to progress. ""I thought we were comfortable in the first game and never thought we were under pressure. ""It's a competition we want to progress in and we are doing okay. If we beat Burnley, we have a home tie against another lower league club (Leicester)."" - Burnley boss Steve Cotterill: ""They will be fresh and we'll be tired. That is an honest opinion but our lads just might be able to get themselves up for one more big game. ""The atmosphere at the last game was very hot - a good verbal contest. ""Our fans will not need whipping up for this game. I just want them to help us as much as they can in a positive way."" KEY MATCH STATS - BLACKBURN ROVERS against Bolton is part two of an East Lancashire hotpot that didn't turn out to be that spicy when first staged on a Sunday lunchtime the weekend before last, and resulted in a scrappy goalless draw. - Rovers, who are aiming to win the Cup for a seventh time in their history and first time in 77 years, face another replay against Championship opposition after eventually disposing of Cardiff at Ewood Park in the third round. But they've not been beaten in the competition by a club outside the Premiership for nine years, since Ipswich - then in the second tier - defeated them 0-1 after extra time in a third round replay at Ewood Park on 16 January 1996. History is on Rovers side. When they last met their near neighbours in the FA Cup 45 years ago, it also required an Ewood Park replay, which the home side won 2-0, and when they last met in the League, Rovers did the double. They first won their Nationwide Division One trip to Turf Moor 0-2 four seasons ago, and then thrashed the Clarets on home soil 5-0. - Manager Mark Hughes, who won the Cup four times as a player, is aiming to steer Rovers into the quarter-finals for the second time in 12 years, and first time since the 2000/2001 season. Success here, and victory home to Leicester in the next round, could see Rovers in the semi-finals without having played Premiership opposition. - BURNLEY make the eight mile journey to their fierce rivals, determined to send Blackburn the same way as Liverpool in the third round. But having failed to pull off another shock at Turf Moor, it could be that the Championship outfit - 17 places inferior on the League ladder - have missed their best opportunity. Having said that, Burnley are yet to concede a goal in this Cup run. - Steve Cotterills' Clarets have been knocked out in the fifth round four times in the last seven years, and have made only one appearance in the sixth round in 21 years. That was in the season before last, when they disposed of Premiership Fulham at this fifth round stage. - While Blackburn have not played since the fifth round tie, Burnley have had two League outings away from home, drawing 1-1 at Derby and losing 1-0 at Preston. That takes their winless run to four games. The combatants from one-time prosperous mill towns, are both founder members of the Football League. HEAD TO HEAD 16th PREM WINNERS (six times) 13th Championship WINNERS (once)" -sport,"Aragones angered by racism fine Spain coach Luis Aragones is furious after being fined by The Spanish Football Federation for his comments about Thierry Henry. The 66-year-old criticised his 3000 euros (£2,060) punishment even though it was far below the maximum penalty. ""I am not guilty, nor do I accept being judged for actions against the image of the sport,"" he said. ""I'm not a racist and I've never lacked sporting decorum. I've never done that and I have medals for sporting merit."" Aragones was handed the fine on Tuesday after making racist remarks about Henry to Arsenal team-mate and Spanish international Jose Reyes last October. The Spanish Football Federation at first declined to take action against Aragones, but was then requested to do so by Spain's anti-violence commission. The fine was far less than the expected amount of about £22,000 or even the suspension of his coaching licence. Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, who was fined £15,000 in December for accusing Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy of cheating, believes that Aragones' punishment was too lenient. ""You compare his fine and my fine, and if you consider his was for racist abuse, then you seem to get away with it more in Spain than you should,"" Wenger said. ""He shouldn't have said what he said, and how much money is enough, I don't know but it doesn't look a big punishment."" However, Aragones insists the fine is unjustified and unfair. ""I have been treated like Islero (the bull that killed famous bullfighter Manolete),"" said Aragones on hearing he had been fined for his actions. ""I have not liked one thing about this whole affair and I do not agree with the sanction. They have looked for a scapegoat."" Spain's anti-violence commission must now ratify the Spanish FA's decision and has until next week to announce its verdict. Aragones has 10 days to appeal, and the commission can also appeal. Alberto Flores, president of the Spanish FA's disciplinary committee, said no-one in the committee felt Aragones was a racist nor had ""acted in a racist way."" ""A fine, the highest we could apply, is sufficient punishment. Suspension would have been a bit exaggerated,"" Flores told sports daily Marca." -sport,"Cole faces lengthy injury lay-off Aston Villa's Carlton Cole could be out for six weeks with a knee injury. The striker, who is on a season-long loan from Chelsea, picked up the knock in an England Under-21 match against Holland earlier this month. ""Carlton will be out of action for four to six weeks after a bad challenge,"" said Villa boss David O'Leary. ""I won't be able to tell you whether he will need an operation until maybe next week. Whether he has an operation has got to be left to Chelsea."" Cole, who also struggled with an ankle problem earlier in the season, was unable to rest because O'Leary had a shortage of strikers. The return to fitness of Darius Vassell after four months out with a broken ankle and the emergence of Luke Moore has alleviated some of the Villa's manager's problems in that department." -sport,"Ireland 19-13 England Ireland consigned England to their third straight Six Nations defeat with a stirring victory at Lansdowne Road. A second-half try from captain Brian O'Driscoll and 14 points from Ronan O'Gara kept Ireland on track for their first Grand Slam since 1948. England scored first through Martin Corry but had ""tries"" from Mark Cueto and Josh Lewsey disallowed. Andy Robinson's men have now lost nine of their last 14 matches since the 2003 World Cup final. The defeat also heralded England's worst run in the championship since 1987. Ireland last won the title, then the Five Nations, in 1985, but 20 years on they share top spot in the table on maximum points with Wales. And Eddie O'Sullivan's side banished the ghosts of 2003 when England were rampant 42-6 victors in claiming the Grand Slam at Lansdowne Road. In front of a supercharged home crowd on a dry but blustery day in Dublin, Ireland tore into the white-shirted visitors from the kick-off and made their intentions clear when O'Gara landed a fourth-minute drop-goal. England took their time to settle but their first real venture into Ireland's half produced a simple score for Corry. The number eight picked up the ball from the back of a ruck and found an absence of green jerseys between himself and the Irish line, racing 25 yards to touch down. England fly-half Charlie Hodgson nailed the conversion from out on the left, but almost immediately O'Gara, winning his 50th cap, answered with two penalties in quick succession. England were awarded a penalty of their own on the halfway line after 20 minutes, and Hodgson, the villain at Twickenham, coolly bisected the posts. The first quarter was marked by periods of tactical kicking, but it was Ireland who were showing more willingness to spread the ball wide to their eager and inventive backs. A series of probes led by the talismanic O'Driscoll, back from hamstring injury, resulted in a penalty but Ireland chose to kick for touch. From the line-out, the ball was recycled back to O'Gara, who stroked his second drop-goal, this time off the right upright. As the interval approached, wing Josh Lewsey was the catalyst for England's most promising attack. The Wasps star raced up his touchline and Hodgson's cross-kick put in Mark Cueto for an apparent score, but the Sale wing was ruled to have started in front of the kicker. England began the second half well and had Ireland pinned in their own half. But another English indiscretion on a rare Irish break-out awarded O'Gara a kick at goal, which he missed. England's pressure continued, and a wave of attacks saw centre Jamie Noon dragged down yards from the line before Hodgson landed a drop-goal. The lead was shortlived, however. Ireland raced upfield, deft handling from the backs, including a clever dummy from Geordan Murphy on Hodgson, ending with O'Driscoll going over in the right corner and touching down close to the posts. O'Gara missed a penalty which would have put Ireland nine points clear, and the home crowd breathed a sigh of relief when Hodgson's cross-kick was fumbled by lock Ben Kay near the line. Anticipation of a home win sent the noise level sky-high, but O'Gara missed another chance to seal the game with a wayward drop-goal attempt. Inside the last 10 minutes, England poured forward, spurred on by scrum-half Matt Dawson, who replaced Leicester's Harry Ellis. But despite one near miss with the pack over the line - not checked on the TV replay by referee Jonathan Kaplan - England were unable to pull off a face-saving win. Ireland next face France at Lansdowne Road in two weeks' time before the potential title decider against Wales in Cardiff. England are still to meet Italy at Twickenham, in what is now a wooden spoon decider, and Scotland. G Murphy; G Dempsey, B O'Driscoll, S Horgan, D Hickie; R O'Gara, P Stringer; R Corrigan, S Byrne, J Hayes; M O'Kelly, P O'Connell; S Easterby, J O'Connor, A Foley. F Sheahan, M Horan, D O'Callaghan, E Miller, G Easterby, D Humphreys, K Maggs. J Robinson (capt); M Cueto, J Noon, O Barkley, J Lewsey; C Hodgson, H Ellis; G Rowntree, S Thompson, M Stevens; D Grewcock, B Kay; J Worsley, L Moody, M Corry. A Titterrell, D Bell, S Borthwick, A Hazell, M Dawson, A Goode, O Smith." -sport,"Davies favours Gloucester future Wales hooker Mefin Davies is likely to stay with English side Gloucester despite reported interest from the Neath-Swansea Ospreys. BBC Wales understands the Ospreys are interested in the 32-year-old, but that he would prefer to stay where he is. Davies, one of the stars of Saturday's RBS Six Nations win over England, is only on a year contract at Kingsholm. But the hooker has proved his worth to the Zurich Premiership side and is likely to get a new deal next season. The summer demise of the Celtic Warriors region left Davies in the cold and forced him to take a semi-professional contract with Neath RFC. Although he got match time with the Ospreys at the request of the Wales management, he admitted before his move to Gloucester that he was angry with the way he was treated. ""The WRU didn't give me any help off the field, it was very disappointing,"" Davies said at the time. ""It was a hard time throughout the summer, then deciding whether to accept an offer from Stade Francais which would have ended my Wales career.""" -sport,"Newry to fight cup exit in courts Newry City are expected to discuss legal avenues on Friday regarding overturning their ejection from the Nationwide Irish Cup. The IFA upheld its original decision to throw Newry out of the cup following the Andy Crawford registration row. ''A law firm will put a case forward for Newry FC, and see what the legal implications of all this is are,'' said Newry boss Roy McCreadie. ''This is a big issue, now that we have an appeal pending,'' On Wednesday, a fresh IFA hearing into Crawford registration saga, ruled that last week's original verdict had been correct. It meant that Bangor, beaten 5-1 by Newry on the field, will take on Portadown in the sixth round. Newry had claimed they had uncovered ""fresh evidence"", in respect of the dates relating to the registration. But McCreadie is not further annoyed that full details of Wednesday's meeting was not relayed to the club. ''Even to this day, we have as much information about what happened during the meeting on Wednesday as that told to the media. We are being kept in the dark,'' McCreadie told the News Letter . ''We want an explanation. There is no good sending us the same fax message the press people received. ''It's a real sad case. If we are not back in the Irish Cup after our appeal, and guided by our legal advise, we will seek to lodge an injunction in the courts to stop Bangor playing Portadown.''" -sport,"Ferdinand casts doubt over Glazer Rio Ferdinand has said he is unsure of Malcolm Glazer's motives after the American billionaire launched a new offer to buy Manchester United. The club have confirmed that the Glazer Family Partnership have submitted proposals of a third bid. ""A lot of people want the club's interest to be with people who have grown up with the club and have got its interests at heart,"" said Ferdinand. ""No one knows what this guy will be bringing to the table."" The central defender added on BBC Radio Five Live: ""We will have to wait and see what Glazer comes with. ""I would like to see the situation resolved either way. ""I think people are getting bored with him coming in and out of the news with new proposals. ""The other stuff off the pitch takes the shine off what is going on the pitch."" Glazer, currently owns a 28.1% stake in the club, and United's statement to the stock exchange said: ""The board has noted the recent press speculation on this subject. ""The board can confirm that it has now received a detailed proposal subject to various pre-conditions which may form the basis of an offer for Manchester United from Glazer. ""A further announcement will be made in due course."" Glazer's previous bids for the club, which United supporters opposed, were rejected by the board because of the high level of debt they would incur. But it is believed that Glazer has substantially reduced the borrowing required for his latest move. He will still need the approval of major shareholders John Magnier and JP McManus, who own 28.9% of the club to succeed. But the Irish duo have cut off talks with Glazer over the proposed sale of their stake, while fans remain opposed to his involvement." -sport,"Nadal puts Spain 2-0 up Result: Nadal 6-7 (6/8) 6-2 7-6 (8/6) 6-2 Roddick Spain's Rafael Nadal beats Andy Roddick of the USA in the second singles match rubber of the 2004 Davis Cup final in Seville. Spain lead 1-0 after Carlos Moya beat Mardy Fish in straight sets in the opening match of the tie. Nadal holds his nerve and the crowd goes wild as Spain go 2-0 up in the tie. Roddick holds serve to force Nadal to serve for the match but the American surely cannot turn things around now. Nadal works Roddick around the court on two consecutive points to earn two break points. One is enough, the Spaniard secures the double-break and Roddick is now teetering on the edge. Roddick is trying to gee himself up but the clay surface is taking its toll on his game and he is looking tired. Nadal wins the game to love. Nadal steps up the pressure to break and Spain have the early initiative in the fourth set. Nadal also holds convincingly as both players feel their way into the fourth set. Roddick shrugs off the disappointment of losing the third-set tiebreak and breezes through his first service game of the fourth set. Nadal earns the first mini-break in the tiebreak as the match enters its fourth hour. A couple of stunning points follow, one where Nadal chases down a Roddick shot and turns into a passing winner. Then Roddick produces some amazing defence at the net to take the score to 4-4. Roddick has two serves for the set but double-faults to take the score to 5-5. Nadal saves a Roddick set point then earns his own with a drive volley - and a crosscourt passing winner sends the crowd wild. Nadal tries to up his aggression and he passes Roddick down the line to go 15-40 and two set points up. Roddick saves the first with a desperate lunge volley and smacks a volley winner across the court to take the score back to deuce before securing the game. The set will go to another tiebreak. Nadal enjoys another straightforward hold and Roddick must once again serve to stay in the set. Roddick again holds on, despite some brilliant shot-making from his opponent. Nadal races through his service game to put the pressure straight back onto Roddick. Roddick hangs in on his serve to level matters but Nadal is making him fight for every point. Nadal could be suffering a disappointment hangover from the previous game as he goes 0-30 down and then has to save a break point after a tremendous rally in which he is forced into some brilliant defence. But it pays off and the Spaniard edges ahead in the set. Roddick's serve is not firing as ferociously as usual and has to rely on his sheer competitive determination to stay in the set. Three times, Nadal forces a break point and three times the world number two hangs in. And Roddick's grit pays off as he manages to hold. Roddick still looks a bit sluggish but he attacks the net and is rewarded with a break point, which Nadal saves with a good first serve and the Spaniard goes on to hold. There is a disruption in play as Roddick is upset about something in the crowd. The Spanish captain gets involved as does the match referee but it is unclear what the problem is. One thing for certain is that the crowd are roused into support of Nadal and they go wild when Roddick loses the next point and goes break point down. Roddick saves the break point and then bangs down his ninth ace before clinching the game with a service winner. The game passes the two-hour mark as Nadal holds serve to edge ahead in the third set. Now Roddick has to defend a break point and he produces a characteristic ace to save it. It is immediately followed by another and he holds with a little dinked half-volley winner. Roddick is looking a little leaden-footed but does carve out a break point for himself. But he plays it poorly and Nadal avoids the danger. Roddick has gone off the boil and again struggles. He fails to get down properly for a low forehand volley and gives Nadal three break points. The American blasts an ace to save one but follows up with a double fault and the rubber is level. Nadal edges towards taking the second set with a comfortable hold. Two good serves put Roddick 30-0 up but he then makes a couple of errors to find himself 30-40 down. He saves the break point with an ace and then manages to hold. Roddick's level has dropped while Nadal is on a hot streak. The Spaniard includes a superb crosscourt winner off the back foot as he races through his service game without dropping a point. Roddick double-faults twice and Nadal takes full advantage of the break point offered, powering a passing winner past Roddick. Nadal wins another tight game. Neither player has dipped from the high standard of play in the first set. Nadal puts the American under pressure and Roddick saves a break point with a superb stop volley before going on to hold. Nadal puts the disappointment of losing the first-set tiebreak to claim the opening game in the second. Roddick double-faults to concede the first mini-break and then Nadal loops a crosscourt winner to seize advantage in the tiebreak. He lets one slip but wins his next serve to earn three set points. But Roddick saves them and then earns one himself. Nadal comes up with a down-the-line winner but then nets tamely on Roddick's next set point. Nadal's nerve is tested as he tries to force a tiebreak. Both players come up with some scintillating tennis and the Spaniard has several chances to clinch the game before finally doing so when Roddick drives wide. A pulsating game sees Nadal racing round the court retrieving and refusing to give Roddick any easy points. The point of the match so far involves Roddick's slam-dunk smash being returned by Nadal before Roddick finally manages to end the rally. On the very next point, Nadal blasts a forehand service return from right of court that passes Roddick and even the American is forced to applaud. But Roddick comes up with two big serves to polish off the game. Nadal outplays Roddick to reach 40-0 but the American fights back to 40-30 before Nadal's powerful crosscourt forehand winner secures the game. The crowd are getting very involved, cheering between Roddick's first and second serves. But the American comes through to hold and edge ahead in the set. Nadal manages to hold again despite Roddick piling the pressure on his serve. The Spaniard wins the game courtesy of another lucky net cord. Roddick double faults buts manages to keep his composure. A well-placed serve is unreturnable and Roddick holds. A powerful ace down the middle gives Nadal a simple love service game - the first time he has held serve so far in the match. If Roddick didn't know before, he knows now that he is in a real contest. Another superb game as Nadal breaks to once again lift the roof. He produces some fine groundstrokes to leave Roddick chasing shadows. Four of the first five games have seen a break of serve. Despite the disappointment of losing his serve, Roddick is not phased and storms into a 40-15 lead when the umpire leaves his seat to confirm a close line-call. Nadal takes the next point but Roddick breaks again with a sharp volley at the net. Roddick's advantage is short lived as Nadal breaks back immediately. A fortunate net cord helps the Spaniard on his way and when Roddick fires a forehand cross court shot wide to lose his serve, Nadal pumps his fist in celebration. The American is pumped up for this clash and takes on Nadal's serve from the start. Nadal's drop shot is agonisingly called out and Roddick claims the vital first break. After Moya's win in the opening rubber, a raucous Seville crowd is buoyed by Nadal's impressive start which sees him race into a 30-0 lead. However Roddick fights back to hold his serve." -sport,"Tigers wary of Farrell 'gamble' Leicester say they will not be rushed into making a bid for Andy Farrell should the Great Britain rugby league captain decide to switch codes. ""We and anybody else involved in the process are still some way away from going to the next stage,"" Tigers boss John Wells told BBC Radio Leicester. ""At the moment, there are still a lot of unknowns about Andy Farrell, not least his medical situation. ""Whoever does take him on is going to take a big, big gamble."" Farrell, who has had persistent knee problems, had an operation on his knee five weeks ago and is expected to be out for another three months. Leicester and Saracens are believed to head the list of rugby union clubs interested in signing Farrell if he decides to move to the 15-man game. If he does move across to union, Wells believes he would better off playing in the backs, at least initially. ""I'm sure he could make the step between league and union by being involved in the centre,"" said Wells. ""I think England would prefer him to progress to a position in the back row where they can make use of some of his rugby league skills within the forwards. ""The jury is out on whether he can cross that divide. ""At this club, the balance will have to be struck between the cost of that gamble and the option of bringing in a ready-made replacement.""" -sport,"Murray to make Cup history Andrew Murray will become Britain's youngest-ever Davis Cup player after it was confirmed he will play in the doubles against Israel on Saturday. The 17-year-old will play alongside fellow debutant David Sherwood against Israel's Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram. Murray will eclipse the record set by Roger Becker back in 1952. Greg Rusedski takes Tim Henman's place as first choice in the singles, while Alex Bogdanovic will play in the second singles clash. Rusedski will take on former world number 30 Harel Levy and Bogdanovic - who has previously played in two singles rubbers against Australia - will face Noam Okun. Murray is the brightest young hope in British tennis, after winning the US Open junior title last year and the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year. British number one Tim Henman, who announced his Davis Cup retirement earlier this year, believes Britain can win the tie in Tel Aviv. ""It's going to be as really tough match. Israel have some really good players - and their doubles pair of Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich are among the top eight in the world - but I fancy our chances,"" he said. But Henman urged Bogdanovic, who has had run-ins with British tennis officials in the past, to seize his chance. ""Alex is a quality player - he's young but he's got to keep pushing forward. ""He's got to be stronger, he's got a lot of ability but he's got to be more disciplined mentally and physically and if he does that he's got a good chance.""" -sport,"Irish finish with home game Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr has been granted his wish for a home game as the final World Cup qualifier. Ireland will close their bid to reach the 2006 finals by playing Switzerland in Dublin on 12 October 2005. The Republic met the Swiss in their final Euro 2004 qualifier, losing 2-0 away and missing out on a place in the finals in Portugal. The Group Four fixtures were hammered out at a meeting in Dublin on Tuesday. The Irish open their campaign on 4 September at home to Cyprus and wrap up the 10-match series on 12 October 2005, with the visit of Switzerland. Manager Brian Kerr and FAI officials met representatives from Switzerland, France, Cyprus, Israel and the Faroe Islands to arrange the fixture schedule. Kerr had hoped to finish with a clash against France, but got the reigning European champions as their penultimate home match on 7 September 2005. The manager got his wish to avoid a repeat of finishing their bid to qualify with too many away matches. Republic of Ireland v Cyprus; France v Israel; Switzerland v Faroe Islands. Switzerland v Republic of Ireland; Israel v Cyprus; Faroe Islands v France. France v Republic of Ireland; Israel v Switzerland; Cyprus v Faroe Islands. Republic of Ireland v Faroe Islands; Cyprus v France. Cyprus v Israel. France v Switzerland; Israel v Republic of Ireland. Switzerland v Cyprus; Israel v France. Republic of Ireland v Israel; Faroe Islands v Switzerland. Faroe Islands v Republic of Ireland. August 17 - Faroe Islands v Cyprus. France v Faroe Islands; Switzerland v Israel. Republic of Ireland v France; Cyprus v Switzerland; Faroe Islands v Israel. Switzerland v France; Israel v Faroe Islands; Cyprus v Republic of Ireland. France v Cyprus; Republic of Ireland v Switzerland." -sport,"Gardener wins double in Glasgow Britain's Jason Gardener enjoyed a double 60m success in Glasgow in his first competitive outing since he won 100m relay gold at the Athens Olympics. Gardener cruised home ahead of Scot Nick Smith to win the invitational race at the Norwich Union International. He then recovered from a poor start in the second race to beat Swede Daniel Persson and Italy's Luca Verdecchia. His times of 6.61 and 6.62 seconds were well short of American Maurice Greene's 60m world record of 6.39secs from 1998. ""It's a very hard record to break, but I believe I've trained very well,"" said the world indoor champion, who hopes to get closer to the mark this season. ""It was important to come out and make sure I got maximum points. My last race was the Olympic final and there was a lot of expectation. ""This was just what I needed to sharpen up and get some race fitness. I'm very excited about the next couple of months."" Double Olympic champion marked her first appearance on home soil since winning 1500m and 800m gold in Athens with a victory. There was a third success for Britain when edged out Russia's Olga Fedorova and Sweden's Jenny Kallur to win the women's 60m race in 7.23secs. Maduaka was unable to repeat the feat in the 200m, finishing down in fourth as took the win for Russia. And the 31-year-old also missed out on a podium place in the 4x200m relay as the British quartet came in fourth, with Russia setting a new world indoor record. There was a setback for Jade Johnson as she suffered a recurrence of her back injury in the long jump. Russia won the meeting with a final total of 63 points, with Britain second on 48 and France one point behind in third. led the way for Russia by producing a major shock in the high jump as he beat Olympic champion Stefan Holm into second place to end the Swede's 22-event unbeaten record. won the triple jump with a leap of 16.87m, with Britain's Tosin Oke fourth in 15.80m. won the men's pole vault competition with a clearance of 5.65m, with Britain's Nick Buckfield 51cm adrift of his personal best in third. And won the women's 800m, with Britain's Jenny Meadows third. There was yet another Russian victory in the women's 400m as finished well clear of Britain's Catherine Murphy. Chris Lambert had to settle for fourth after fading in the closing stages of the men's 200m race as Sweden's held off Leslie Djhone of France. France's won the men's 400m, with Brett Rund fourth for Britain. took victory for Sweden in the women's 60m hurdles ahead of Russia's Irina Shevchenko and Britain's Sarah Claxton, who set a new personal best. Italy grabbed their first victory in the men's 1500m as kicked over the last 200 metres to hold off Britain's James Thie and France's Alexis Abraham. A botched changeover in the 4x200m relay cost Britain's men the chance to add further points as France claimed victory." -sport,"Robinson ready for difficult task England coach Andy Robinson faces the first major test of his tenure as he tries to get back to winning ways after the Six Nations defeat by Wales. Robinson is likely to make changes in the back row and centre after the 11-9 loss as he contemplates Sunday's set-to with France at Twickenham. Lewis Moody and Martin Corry could both return after missing the game with hamstring and shoulder problems. And the midfield pairing of Mathew Tait and Jamie Noon is also under threat. Olly Barkley immediately allowed England to generate better field position with his kicking game after replacing debutant Tait just before the hour. The Bath fly-half-cum-centre is likely to start against France, with either Tait or Noon dropping out. Tait, given little opportunity to shine in attack, received praise from Robinson afterwards, even if the coach admitted Cardiff was an ""unforgiving place"" for the teenage prodigy. Robinson now has a tricky decision over whether to withdraw from the firing line, after just one outing, a player he regards as central to England's future. Tait himself, at least outwardly, appeared unaffected by the punishing treatment dished out to him by Gavin Henson in particular. ""I want more of that definitely,"" he said. ""Hopefully I can train hard this week and get selected for next week but we'll have to look at the video and wait and see. ""We were playing on our own 22 for a lot of the first half so it was quite difficult. I thought we defended reasonably well but we've just got to pick it up for France."" His Newcastle team-mate Noon hardly covered himself in glory in his first major Test. He missed a tackle on Michael Owen in the build-up to Wales' try, conceded a penalty at the breakdown, was turned over in another tackle and fumbled Gavin Henson's cross-kick into touch, all inside the first quarter. His contribution improved in the second half, but England clearly need more of a playmaker in the inside centre role. Up front, the line-out remains fallible, despite a superb performance from Chris Jones, whose athleticism came to the fore after stepping into the side for Moody. It is more likely the Leicester flanker will return on the open side for the more physical challenge posed by the French forwards, with Andy Hazell likely to make way. Lock Ben Kay also justified his recall with an impressive all-round display on his return to the side, but elsewhere England positives were thin on the ground." -sport,"Harinordoquy suffers France axe Number eight Imanol Harinordoquy has been dropped from France's squad for the Six Nations match with Ireland in Dublin on 12 March. Harinordoquy was a second-half replacement in last Saturday's 24-18 defeat to Wales. Bourgoin lock Pascal Pape, who has recovered from a sprained ankle, returns to the 22-man squad. Wing Cedric Heymans and Ludovic Valbon come in for Aurelien Rougerie and Jean-Philippe Grandclaude. Rougerie hurt his chest against Wales while Grandclaude was a second-half replacement against both England and Wales. Valbon, capped in last June's Tests against the United States and Canada, was a second half replacement in the win over Scotland. France coach Bernard Laporte said Harinordoquy had been axed after a poor display last weekend. ""Imanol has been dropped from the squad because the least I can say is that he didn't make a thundering comeback against Wales,"" said Laporte. ""We know the Ireland game will be fast and rough and we also want to be able to replace both locks during the game if needed, and Gregory Lamboley can also come on at number seven or eight. ""The Grand Slam is gone but we'll go to Ireland to win. ""It will be a very exciting game because Ireland have three wins under their belt, have just defeated England and have their eyes set on a Grand Slam."" France, who lost to Wales last week, must defeat the Irish to keep alive their hopes of retaining the Six Nations trophy. Ireland are unbeaten in this year's tournament and have their sights set on a first Grand Slam since 1948. Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), Pierre Mignoni (Clermont), Yann Delaigue (Castres), Frederic Michalak (Stade Toulousain), Damien Traille (Biarritz), Yannick Jauzion (Stade Toulousain), Ludovic Valbon (Biarritz), Christophe Dominici (Stade Francais), Cedric Heymans (Stade Toulousain), Julien Laharrague (Brive) Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Francais), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Olivier Milloud (Bourgoin), Sebastien Bruno (Sale/ENG), William Servat (Stade Toulousain), Fabien Pelous (Stade Toulousain, capt), Jerome Thion (Biarritz), Pascal Papé (Bourgoin), Gregory Lamboley (Stade Toulousain), Serge Betsen (Biarritz), Julien Bonnaire (Bourgoin), Yannick Nyanga (Béziers)" -sport,"Scotland v Italy (Sat) Murrayfield, Edinburgh Saturday, 26 February 1400 GMT BBC1, Five Live and this website Victory for the Azzurri in Rome last year saw Scotland end their campaign without a victory. And the pressure is on Scotland coach Matt Williams as he seeks a first Six Nations victory at the eighth attempt. Italy have lost both their opening games at home to Ireland and Wales, but travel to Edinburgh with high hopes. Their coach John Kirwan has warned his side they must eradicate the errors that blighted their loss to Wales however or risk suffering a third successive defeat. ""If the defeat against Wales has taught us anything, it's that at this level we can't make any mistakes,"" Kirwan said. ""In the Six Nations, every error you make will come at a high price. ""We have to be aggressive for 80 minutes, keep calm in every situation and display great maturity on the pitch. ""It will be fundamental to keep cool in the difficult moments - in the key situations of the game."" Kirwan has recalled the experienced Cristian Stoica at centre and drafted in David dal Maso at open-side after star flanker Mauro Bergamasco was ruled out for the rest of the tournament. Scotland have also made two changes, Simon Webster replacing Simon Danielli on the wing and Simon Taylor returning for his first Test in a year, for injured flanker Jason White. Taylor's recovery from a serious knee injury is a major boost to Scottish hopes. ""He is one of the world-class players in the tournament and you want them in your team,"" acknowledged Williams. Despite a record of only two victories from 14 Tests, Williams insists he is revelling in the pressure. ""I actually really enjoy seeing how you cope with such pressure as a coach,"" he said, optimistic despite opening defeats to France and Ireland. ""We were confident for those two first games and we are confident we can beat Italy too,"" he added. : C Paterson; S Webster, A Craig, H Southwell, S Lamont; D Parks, C Cusiter; T Smith, G Bulloch (capt), G Kerr; S Grimes, S Murray; S Taylor, J Petrie, A Hogg. R Russell, B Douglas, N Hines, J Dunbar, M Blair, G Ross, B Hinshelwood. R de Marigny; Mirco Bergamasco, C Stoica, A Masi, L Nitoglia; L Orquera, A Troncon; A Lo Cicero, F Ongaro, M Castrogiovanni; S Dellape, M Bortolami (capt); A Persico, D Dal Maso, S Parisse. G Intoppa, S Perugini, CA del Fava, S Orlando, P Griffen, R Pedrazzi, KP Robertson." -sport,"London hope over Chepkemei London Marathon organisers are hoping that banned athlete Susan Chepkemei will still take part in this year's race on 17 April. Chepkemei was suspended from all competition until the end of the year by Athletics Kenya after failing to report to a national training camp. ""We are watching it closely,"" said London race director David Bedford. ""There is a long way to go before the race and we are hoping the situation will be satisfactorily resolved."" The camp in Embu was to prepare for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships later this month. Chepkemei however took part and finished third in last Sunday's world best 10K race in Puerto Rico. The 29-year-old has finished second to Paula Radcliffe in the 2002 and 2003 London races as well as in November's New York City marathon." -sport,"Liverpool pledge to keep Gerrard Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry insists the club will never sell Steven Gerrard amid reports Chelsea will renew their bid to lure him from Anfield. Gerrard reiterated his desire to win trophies with the Reds after his superb Champions League winner on Wednesday. And Parry has moved to scotch claims that Chelsea could launch a £35m bid. ""There is no chance of Stevie going in January,"" said Parry. ""That just won't happen. Our intention is that we will never let him go."" Gerrard scored a spectacular late goal to give Liverpool a 3-1 win over Olympiakos and book their place in the knockout stages. ""Of course he is ambitious but so are we,"" Parry added. ""We firmly believe that if we can satisfy his ambition he will remain a Liverpool player. ""We have an open and straightforward relationship. We both know where we stand and that played a big part in his decision to stay last summer. If he was not so committed to Liverpool he would have gone by now."" Gerrard had said before Wednesday's game he would consider leaving if the club was knocked out of Europe, with Real Madrid also believed to be monitoring his situation. ""The main point I have made is I want to be in a Liverpool side which challenges for the Champions League and the title all the time,"" he said afterwards. ""I want to be winning things with Liverpool, not somewhere else. ""I am a fan as well and I think what I have said the supporters will agree with. ""We have to build on wins like that, not just settle for a great win and then not progress any further. ""My goal was one of the most important I have ever scored and I hope it turns out to be one of the most important for the club for a long time. ""I know I put a lot of pressure on myself because of what I said, and I felt I needed a big performance, but I am not going to go around telling lies about how I feel."" Reds manager Rafael Benitez believes Gerrard can win everything he wants to without moving clubs. ""Steven can win all he wants with us and we need him. He has seen that we have a good team and we can do more things in the future,"" said Benitez. ""But if we want to win more games, important games, we need Steven in the team. ""We need his strength, the strong mentality he has and his quality. I think he likes and wants the responsibility of leading this team.""" -sport,"England given tough Sevens draw England will have to negotiate their way through a tough draw if they are to win the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Hong Kong next month. The second seeds have been drawn against Samoa, France, Italy, Georgia and Chinese Taipei. The top two sides in each pool qualify but England could face 2001 winners New Zealand in the quarter-finals if they stumble against Samoa. Scotland and Ireland are in Pool A together with the All Blacks. England won the first event of the International Rugby Board World Sevens series in Dubai but have slipped to fourth in the table after failing to build on that victory. However, they beat Samoa in the recent Los Angeles Sevens before losing to Argentina in the semi-finals. ""England have the ability and determination to win this World Cup and create sporting history by being the only nation to hold both the 15s and Sevens World Cups at the same time,"" said England sevens coach Mike Friday. ""England have a fantastic record in Hong Kong and have won there the last three years, but the World Cup is on a different level. ""Every pool contains teams who have caused upsets before and we will have to work hard to ensure we progress from our group. ""We have not performed consistently to our true potential so far in the IRB Sevens which has been disappointing - but we can only look forward."" England won the first Rugby World Cup Sevens in 1993 with a side that included the likes of Lawrence Dallaglio and Matt Dawson. In 1997 and 2001, England lost in the quarter-finals. (seeds in brackets) New Zealand (1), Scotland (8), Tonga, Ireland, Korea, USA. England (2), Samoa (7), France, Italy, Georgia, Chinese Taipei. Fiji (3), Australia (6), Canada, Portugal, Japan, Hong Kong. Argentina (4), South Africa (5), Kenya, Tunisia, Russia, Uruguay." -sport,"Melzer shocks Agassi in San Jose Second seed Andre Agassi suffered a comprehensive defeat by Jurgen Melzer in the quarter-finals of the SAP Open. Agassi was often bamboozled by the Austrian's drop shots in San Jose, losing 6-3 6-1. Defending champion and top seed Andy Roddick rallied to beat Sweden's Thomas Enqvist 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-5. But unseeded Cyril Saulnier beat the fourth seed Vincent Spadea 6-2 6-4 and Tommy Haas overcame eighth seed Max Mirnyi 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2. Melzer has now beaten Agassi in two of their three meetings. ""I had a good game plan and I executed it perfectly,"" he said. ""It's always tough to come out to play Andre. ""I didn't want him to play his game. He makes you run like a dog all over the court."" And Agassi, who was more than matched for power by his opponent's two-handed backhand, said Melzer was an example of several players on the tour willing to take their chances against him. ""A lot more guys are capable of it now,"" said the American. ""He played much better than me. That's what he did both times. ""I had opportunities to loosen myself up,"" Agassi added. ""But I didn't convert on the big points.""" -sport,"Campbell lifts lid on United feud Arsenal's Sol Campbell has called the rivalry between Manchester United and the Gunners ""bitter and personal"". Past encounters have stirred up plenty of ill-feeling between the sides and they meet again at Highbury on Tuesday. ""It is just more bitter and personal against United,"" the defender told The Guardian newspaper. ""There's an edge. ""After all that has happened, if we beat them it will be one of our sweetest ever wins, especially because of how we lost to them up there."" Last October, Arsenal lost 2-0 at Old Trafford, which ended a record 49-match unbeaten league run and sparked a mini-crisis, with the Gunners winning only three of their next 10 games. ""It had a psychological impact on us, but again because of the way we were defeated,"" added the 30-year-old, referring to a controversial penalty award for United's first goal. ""That was far more upsetting, losing like that, because they just seem to get away with it. You try and balance out over the course of a season but I've had so many rough decisions against them you begin to wonder."" With tensions spilling over afterwards - United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was allegedly pelted with pizza in the players' tunnel - there is little surprise that so much is riding on the return encounter on. ""Everyone at Arsenal has been waiting for this game,"" said Campbell. ""We are up for this one."" Speaking on his long-term plans, Campbell signalled his intent to move abroad before he turns 35. ""I'm 30 now and in five years' time I won't be in this country - that's definite. ""Italy looks good to me because it would suit my kind of football. Spain is an option but the idea of tasting a new culture and learning another language excites me the most. I'm starting a little with French, of course.""" -sport,"Yachvili savours France comeback France scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili praised his team after they fought back to beat England 18-17 in the Six Nations clash at Twickenham. Yachvili kicked all of France's points as they staged a second-half revival. ""We didn't play last week against Scotland and we didn't play in the first half against England,"" he said. ""But we're very proud to beat England at Twickenham. We were just defending in the first half and we said we had to put them under pressure. We did well."" Yachvili admitted erratic kicking from England's Charlie Hodgson and Olly Barkley, who missed six penalties and a drop goal chance between them, had been decisive. ""I know what it's like with kicking. When you miss some it's very hard mentally, but it went well for us,"" he said. France captain Fabien Pelous insisted his side never doubted they could secure their first win against England at Twickenham since 1997. France were 17-6 down at half-time, but Pelous said: ""No-one was down at half-time, we were still confident. ""We said we only had 11 points against us, which was not much. ""The plan was to keep hold of possession and pressure England to losing their composure."" France coach Bernard Laporte accepted his side had not played well. ""We know we have to play better to defend the title,"" he said. ""I'm not happy we didn't score a try but we're happy because we won.""" -sport,"Celtic make late bid for Bellamy Newcastle striker Craig Bellamy is discussing a possible short-term loan move to Celtic, BBC Sport understands. The Welsh striker has rejected a move to Birmingham after falling out with Magpies manager Graeme Souness. The Toon boss vowed Bellamy would not play again after a bitter row over his exclusion for the game against Arsenal. Celtic are in no position to match Birmingham's £6m offer but a stay until the end of the season could suit Bellamy while he considers his future. According to Bellamy's agent, the player dismissed a permanent move to Birmingham. And it is unlikely that Newcastle would allow the player to go on loan to another Premiership club. Bellamy was fined two weeks' wages after a live TV interview in which he accused Souness of lying, following a very public dispute about what position Bellamy should play in the side. Souness said: ""He can't play for me ever again. He has been a disruptive influence from the minute I walked into this football club. ""He can't go on television and accuse me of telling lies."" Chairman Freddy Shepherd described Bellamy's behaviour as ""totally unacceptable and totally unprofessional""." -sport,"Worcester v Sale (Fri) Sixways Friday, 25 February 2000 GMT They make just one change, with Tim Collier replacing Phil Murphy in the second row. In contrast, Sale are missing 14 players due to a combination of international call-ups and injuries. John Payne and Chris Rhys Jones come into the centres while scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth looks set to play on the wing. Delport; Pieters, Rasmussen, Lombard, O'Leary; Brown, Powell; Windo, Van Niekerk, Horsman; Collier, Gillies; Hickey, Sanderson, MacLeod- Henderson. Replacements: Fortey, Murphy, Daly, Vaili, Cole, Hayes, Trueman. Hanley; Mayor, Payne, Rhys Jones, Wigglesworth; Hercus, Redpath (capt); Turner, Roddam, Stewart; Day, Schofield; Caillet, Carter, Chabal. Replacements (from): Bozzi, Coutts, Anglesea, Lund, Martens, Riley, Duffy, C Jones." -sport,"D'Arcy injury adds to Ireland woe Gordon D'Arcy has been ruled out of the Ireland team for Saturday's Six Nations clash against Scotland in Murrayfield. Like skipper Brian O'Driscoll, D'Arcy failed to recover from a hamstring injury. The side will now be led by Munster lock Paul O'Connell. Shane Horgan switches from wing to centre where he will be joined by Ulster's Kevin Maggs. Girvan Dempsey comes into the team to take the right wing spot while Gavin Duffy is called up to the replacements. ''We gave Gordon a chance but it didn't work out,'' said Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan. ''In terms of the risk element, it was a sensible precaution. He should be fine for the next game but we do not want to tempt fate.'' Maggs, who will win his 67th cap, was the obvious replacement at centre while Shane Horgan was always likely to be moved from the wing. The only other change to the Ireland side from last weekend's win in Rome sees Wasps flanker Johnny O'Connor replacing Denis Leamy. O'Connor will be winning his third cap after making his debut in the victory over South Africa last November. : Murphy, Dempsey, Horgan, Maggs, Hickie, O'Gara, Stringer, Corrigan, Byrne, Hayes, O'Kelly, O'Connell, capt, S Easterby, O'Connor, Foley. : Sheahan, Horan, O'Callaghan, Miller, G Easterby, Humphreys, Duffy." -sport,"Koubek suspended after drugs test Stefan Koubek says he has been banned for three months by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) after testing positive for a banned substance. The world number 60 failed a routine drugs test at this year's French Open but now plans to lodge an appeal. Koubek believes an injection given to him by an Austrian doctor to treat a wrist injury is to blame for producing traces of the substance in his system. ""I have acted correctly,"" the 27-year-old Austrian said in a statement. Koubek, who defeated Britain's Greg Rusedski in the decisive rubber of the Davis Cup in September, is now set to miss the start of the season. He said, ""A three-month ban would mean that I not only will miss the Australian Open, but also the Davis Cup in Australia.""" -sport,"Hodgson shoulders England blame Fly-half Charlie Hodgson admitted his wayward kicking played a big part in England's 18-17 defeat to France. Hodgson failed to convert three penalties and also missed a relatively easy drop goal attempt which would have given England a late win. ""I'm very disappointed with the result and with my myself,"" Hodgson said. ""It is very hard to take but it's something I will have to get through and come back stronger. My training's been good but it just didn't happen."" Hodgson revealed that Olly Barkley had taken three penalties because they were ""out of my range"" but the centre could not convert his opportunities either, particularly the drop goal late on. ""It wasn't a good strike,"" he added. ""I felt as soon as it hit my boot it had missed. It's very disappointing, but I must recover."" Andy Robinson said he would ""keep working on the kicking"" with his squad. However, the England coach added that he would take some positives from the defeat. ""We went out to play and played some very good rugby and what have France done?"" he said. ""They won the game from kicking penalties from our 10m line. ""It's very frustrating. The lads showed a lot of ambition in the first half, they went out to sustain it in the second but couldn't build on it. ""We took the ball into contact, and you know when you do that it is a lottery whether the referee is going to give the penalty to your side or the other side. ""We have lost a game we should have won. There is a fine line between winning and losing, and for the second week we've been on the wrong side of that line and it hurts."" England went in at half-time with a 17-6 lead but they failed to score in the second half and Dimitri Yachvili slotted over four penalties as France overhauled the deficit. England skipper Jason Robinson admitted his side failed to cope with France's improved second-half display. ""We controlled the game in the first half but we knew that they would come out and try everything after half-time,"" he said. ""We made a lot of mistakes in the second half and they punished us. They took their chances when they came. ""It's very disappointing. Last week we lost by two points, now one point.""" -sport,"Ireland call up uncapped Campbell Ulster scrum-half Kieran Campbell is one of five uncapped players included in Ireland's RBS Six Nations squad. Campbell is joined by Ulster colleagues Roger Wilson and Ronan McCormack along with Connacht's Bernard Jackman and Munster's Shaun Payne. Gordon D'Arcy is back after injury while Munster flanker Alan Quinlan also returns to international consideration. ""The squad is selected purely on form. A lot of players put their hands up,"" coach Eddie O'Sullivan told BBC Sport. ""Kieran Campbell was just one of those players. He has been playing very well in the Heineken Cup and deserves his call-up. ""There is big competition in some departments and not so much in others. There were one or two players who were unfortunate just to miss out."" Back-row forwards David Wallace and Victor Costello are omitted, with O'Sullivan having Quinlan, Wilson, Simon Easterby, Anthony Foley, Denis Leamy and Johnny O'Connor vying for the three positions. With David Humphreys, Kevin Maggs, Simon Best and Tommy Bowe again included, it is Ulster's biggest representation in a training panel for quite some time. Munster and Leinster have 12 and 11 players in the squad respectively while Jackman is the sole Connacht representative. Four British-based players are also included. Ulster forward Ronan McCormack said he was ""totally shocked"" to be included. ""I'm really looking forward to it,"" said McCormack. ""I played with guys like Brian O'Driscoll and Denis Hickie back in my school days in Leinster so I do know a few of them although not that well. ""It will be great to work with them."" S Best (Ulster), S Byrne (Leinster), R Corrigan (Leinster), L Cullen (Leinster), S Easterby (Llanelli), A Foley (Munster), J Hayes (Munster), M Horan (Munster), B Jackman (Connacht), D Leamy (Munster), E Miller (Leinster), R McCormack (Ulster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster), J O'Connor (Wasps), M O'Kelly (Leinster), F Sheahan (Munster), R Wilson (Ulster), A Quinlan (Munster). T Bowe (Ulster), K Campbell (Ulster), G D'Arcy (Ulster), G Dempsey (Leinster), G Duffy (Harlequins), G Easterby (Leinster), D Hickie (Leinster), A Horgan (Munster), S Horgan (Leinster), D Humphreys (Ulster), K Maggs (Ulster), G Murphy (Leicester), B O'Driscoll, (Leinster), R O'Gara (Munster), S Payne (Munster), P Stringer (Munster). K Gleeson (Leinster), T Howe (Ulster), J Kelly (Munster), N McMillan (Ulster)." -sport,"Greek duo cleared in doping case Sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou have been cleared of doping offences by an independent tribunal. The duo had been provisionally suspended by the IAAF for allegedly missing three drugs tests, including one on the eve of the Athens Olympics. But the Greek Athletics Federation tribunal has overturned the bans - a decision which the IAAF can now contest at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The pair's former coach, Christos Tzekos, has been banned for four years. Kenteris, 31, and Thanou, 30, had been charged with avoiding drug tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens and failing to notify anti-doping officials of their whereabouts before the Olympics. They withdrew from the Olympics after missing a drugs test at the Olympic Village on 12 August. The pair then spent four days in a hospital, claiming they had been injured in a motorcycle crash. It was the International Olympic Committee's demand that the IAAF investigate the affair that led to the hearing of the Greek tribunal. The head of that tribunal, Kostas Panagopoulos, said it had not been proven that the athletes refused to take the test in Athens. ""The charge cannot be substantiated,"" he said. ""In no way was he (Kenteris) informed to appear for a doping test. The same goes for Thanou."" Kenteris's lawyer, Gregory Ioannidis, said: ""The decision means Mr Kenteris has been exonerated of highly damaging and unfounded charges which have been extremely harmful for his career. ""He has consistently maintained his innocence and this was substantiated by further evidence we were able to submit to the tribunal following its deliberations in January. ""This evidence shows Mr Kenteris was never asked to submit to a test by the International Olympic Committee so he could not possibly have been guilty of deliberately avoiding one. It shows he has no case to answer. ""Mr Kenteris should now be given the opportunity he deserves to rebuild his career in the full knowledge that there is no stain on his character. ""He has suffered greatly throughout this ordeal that has exposed both himself and his family to enormous pressures."" But the IAAF said it was ""very surprised"" by the verdict. Spokesman Nick Davies said: ""We note the decision of the Greek authorities with interest. ""Our doping review board will now consider the English version of the decision.""" -sport,"Soderling wins tense Milan final Fifth seed Robin Soderling took the Milan Indoors title with a dramatic win over Radek Stepanek in Sunday's final. The 20-year-old Swede edged the final set tie-break for a 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-5) victory and his second tour title after winning in Lyon last year. ""I'm delighted to have won against such a good opponent in a tournament of this importance,"" said Soderling. ""I was really on form, my service was good and I really liked playing on the synthetic surface."" Soderling, the world number 37, shrugged off a nervous start to take the opening set on his first set point. A change in approach from fourth seed Stepanek in the second set paid dividends as he took it on a tie-break, but Soderling's superior power proved too much in the third." -sport,"Philippoussis doubt over Open bid Mark Philippoussis is almost certain to miss the Australian Open after suffering a groin injury during the Hopman Cup loss to the Netherlands. The 28-year-old suffered two tears to the adductor muscle and was unable to play in the deciding mixed doubles. He is now unlikely to be fit in time for the Australian Open which begins on 17 January in Melbourne. ""He has to strengthen it enough to cope with repetitive days of tennis,"" said Hopman Cup doctor Hamish Osborne. ""It would be very unlikely in my opinion for him to do a five-setter once, let alone two days in a row, inside two weeks. ""The injury is more common in Australian Rules football, and a fit footballer would normally take three to four weeks to recover fully although Mark's injury is slightly different."" The Australian has suffered a host of injury problems throughout his career but is still holding out slim hope that he can make the event. ""It's something I'll have to go by feel. I'll start treatment as soon as possible and try to strengthen it without tearing it any more,"" he said. ""What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I know I can come back from this and that's all that matters. - Former world number two Tommy Haas is also a doubt for the Australian Open after picking up a thigh injury playing for Germany in the Hopman Cup. The 26-year-old had treatment on his left thigh while leading Argentine Guillermo Coria 7-5 2-2. He played one more game, but his movement was hampered and he quit." -sport,"Prop Jones ready for hard graft Adam Jones says the Wales forwards are determined to set the perfect attacking platform for the backs by dominating the powerful France pack in Paris. The prop said: ""If we get stuffed in the front five our backs have had it. ""The mentality of the French is 'scrum, scrum, scrum'. We will see how good France are and the scrum is the key. ""I just hope [the backs] carry on where they left off against Italy. It's just up to us in the forwards to win the ball and give them the opportunity."" Wales have won two of their last three visits to Stade de France, having secured back-to-back wins under Graham Henry in 1999 and 2001. And with the likes of Shane Williams and Gavin Henson finding top form at the right time, Mike Ruddock's team is now one of international rugby's most potent attacking threats. ""Gavin is ridiculously talented. He has been bouncing around the place this week, so he is up for it,"" warned Jones. France have been criticised for their uncharacteristic one-dimensional play in their victories over Scotland and France. Captain Fabien Pelous has acknowledged his side needs to show more attacking flair, but stressed the game with be won or lost up front. The lock believes the Welsh forwards are not big enough to trouble his side in the scrum or line-out, but Jones insisted his fellow front-row colleagues have nothing to fear. ""Gethin [Jenkins] won't be intimidated tomorrow, none of us will,"" said Jones, who will be facing France for the first time. ""We will go out there and front up and hopefully get the ball out to the backs. ""Me and Gethin are quite young so it is good to have someone of Mefin's experience in there. ""Mefin is a good thinker who puts things across. But what is the saying? If you are good enough you are old enough and Gethin certainly is. ""He is a really good player and I imagine he will be on the Lions tour [to New Zealand this summer].""" -sport,"Arnesen denies rift with Santini Tottenham sporting director Frank Arnesen has denied that coach Jacques Santini resigned because of a clash of personalities at White Hart Lane. There had been newspaper speculation that Santini had felt undermined by Arnesen's role at the club. ""It is absolutely not true,"" Arnesen told BBC Radio Five Live. ""There is only one thing that made him resign and that is his own personal problems. ""He has talked to me recently and said this matter is absolutely for himself."" Arnesen said he was unable to throw any light onto the problems that caused Santini to quit after just 13 games in charge. He added: ""Jacques has never gone into exactly what it was. But I trust him in that; you have to accept it. I think we should respect it. ""The plan is now that over the weekend we will have talks with the board and then on Monday we will clarify the situation."" Arnesen countered criticism at the timing of the announcement, coming less than 24 hours before Tottenham's Premiership fixture with Charlton. ""When it comes down to personal problems, I don't think we should talk about timing,"" he said. And he also denied reports that Santini had been given a £3m pay-off. ""That is absolute nonsense. He is the one who said 'I will go' and so he went'"", said the Spurs sporting director. Tottenham's structure of having a sporting director working alongside a coach is based on a continental model and Arnesen sees no reason why they should change it. ""I have confidence in this structure. I am confident that we have started something here in July and I still have a lot of confidence in Tottenham and what we are doing,"" he said. However, former Spurs and England defender Gary Stevens said he would not be surprised if the system had caused a rift. ""I think the problems go a lot deeper, between the director of football at White Hart Lane and Santini,"" Stevens told Five Live. ""On paper they could have worked together. But Frank Arnesen was a very creative, forward-thinking and expansive player - whereas I think Santini was very much the opposite, more a case of being organised, disciplined and happy not conceding goals. ""That sort of arrangement can work if the two people have the same principles and ideals and work very closely. But it seems that has not happened.""" -sport,"Wales critical of clumsy Grewcock Wales coach Mike Ruddock says England lock Danny Grewcock needs to review his actions after he kicked Dwayne Peel. Trouble flared at a ruck in the first half of Wales' 11-9 win in Cardiff as Grewcock came recklessly over the top with his boot, leaving Peel bloodied. Grewcock was sin-binned with Wales captain Gareth Thomas for retaliation. ""It's up to the citing commissioner,"" said Ruddock. ""I'm not saying it's deliberate, but Grewcock did a similar thing for Bath against Leinster."" Last June Grewcock was banned from rugby for two months for reckless use of a boot in a match against New Zealand. Six years earlier, also in New Zealand, Grewcock became only the second England player to be sent off in Tests. The player himself and his captain Jason Robinson have both said that the clash with Peel was accidental. ""If the ball is at the back of the ruck and I feel I can step over and disrupt it then I will do that,"" said Grewcock. But Ruddock feels that the England man should be more careful. ""The boy himself should look at his actions, it was a clumsy piece of footwork,"" he said. ""He's a great player and I don't want to knock him, we won't be calling for the match commissioner to review the incident. ""I'm not going to go too far with the lad. It could just be a clumsy action and Dwayne had just a minor cut. ""The referee's interpretation was that Grewcock was attempting to step over the ruck."" Ruddock also warned his RBS 6 Nations Championship rivals that his team can make massive improvements. ""We created more opportunities and also squandered them by taking more contact and playing more individually,"" said the coach. ""We've looked through things on the video debrief and there were definitely a lot of chances that we wasted."" In the forthcoming games, Ruddock may use penalty hero Gavin Henson as his first-choice kicker in place of Stephen Jones. ""Our first aim was to get Gavin settled into the team, but it's something we'll talk about in selection this week,"" said Ruddock." -tech,"Gadgets galore on show at fair The 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is a geek's paradise with more than 50,000 new gadgets and technologies launched during the four-day event. Top gadgets at the show are highlighted in the Innovations Showcase, which recognises some of the hottest developments in consumer electronics. The BBC News website took an early pre-show look at some of those technologies that will be making their debut in 2005. One of the key issues for keen gadget users is how to store all their digital images, audio and video files. The 2.5GB and 5GB circular pocket hard drive from Seagate might help. The external USB drive won a CES best innovations design and engineering award and is small enough to slip into a pocket. ""It is the kind of storage that appeals to people who want their PCs to look cool,"" said Seagate. ""It is all about style but it also has lots of functionality."" ""It is the first time you can say a hard drive is sexy,"" it said. In the centre of the device is a blue light that flashes while data is being written to ensure users do not unplug it when it is busy saving those precious pictures. Universal Electronics' NevoSL is a universal controller that lets people use one device to get at their multimedia content, such as photos, no matter where it is in their house. It can also act as a remote for home theatre and stereo systems. Working with home broadband networks and PCs, the gadget has built-in wireless and a colourful, simple interface. Paul Arling, UEI chief, said consumers face real problems when trying to get at all the files they own that are typically spread across several different devices. He said the Nevo gave people a simple, single way to regain some control over digital media in the home. The Nevo won two awards at CES, one as a Girl's Best Friend award and another for innovation, design and engineering. The gadget is expected to go on sale before the summer and will cost about $799 (£425). Hotseat is targeting keen gamers with money to spend with its Solo Chassis gaming chair. The specially-designed chair lets gamers play in surround-sound while stretching out in their own ""space"". It is compatible with all the major games consoles, DVD players and PCs. ""We found that kids love playing in surround sound,"" said Jay LeBoff from Hotseat. ""We are looking at offering different types of seats, depending on the market success of this one."" The chair also lets people experience surround sound while watching videos, with wireless control for six surround sound speakers. And a drinks holder. The chair, which looks like a car seat on a skeletal frame, should go on sale in April and is expected to cost $399 (£211). Satellite radio is big business in the US. In the UK, the digital radio technology is known as DAB and works on slightly different technology. Eton Corporation's Porsche designed P7131 digital radio set will be launched both as a DAB radio in the UK as well as a satellite radio set in the US. DAB sets have been slow to take-off in the UK, but this one concentrates on sleek looks as much as technology. ""It is for the risqué consumer,"" said an Eton spokesperson. ""We are proud of it because it has the sound quality for the audiophile and the looks for the design-conscious consumer."" The Porsche radio is set to go on sale at the end of January in the US and in the first quarter of 2005 in the UK. In the US is it expected to cost $250 (£133). The average person has a library of 600 digital images estimates the Consumer Electronics Association, the organisation behind CES. This is expected to grow to a massive 3,420 images - or 7.2GB - in five years' time. One gadget that might help swell that collection is Sanyo's tiny handheld VPC-C4 camcorder which is another innovation in design and engineering award winner. It combines high quality video and stills in a very small device. It takes MPEG4 video quality at 30 frames a second and has a four megapixel still camera. Images and video are stored on SD cards, which have come down in price in recent months. A 512MB card will store about 30 minutes of video and 420 stills. The device is so tiny it can be controlled with one thumb. Because images and video are stored on SD memory, it is portable to other devices and means other data like audio can be stored on the card too. Wearable technology has always promised much but failed to deliver because of lack of storage capability and poor design. MPIO's tiny digital USB music players come in an array of fashionable colours, taking a leaf out of the Apple iPod mini book of design and reflecting the desire for gadgets that look good. Slung on a cord, the player would not look too geeky dangling discreetly from the neck. Although the pendant design was launched three months ago, the device emphasises large storage as well as good looks for fashion-conscious gadget fiends. An even dinkier model, the FY500, comes out in May and will store about 256MB of music. The range of players recently won an International Forum design award 2005." -tech,"A question of trust and technology A major government department is without e-mail for a week, and technology analyst Bill Thompson wants to know what happened. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how my girlfriend had suffered when her cable modem blew up and she was offline for several days. It seems that thousands of civil servants at the UK's Department of Work and Pensions went through the same thing last week. It has emerged that the internal network crashed in a particularly horrible way, depriving staff of e-mail and access to the application software they use to calculate people's benefit and pension entitlement or note changes in personal circumstances. Senior consultants from EDS, the computer firm which manage the system, and Microsoft, which supplied the software, were running around trying to figure out what had to be done to fix it all, while staff resorted to phone, fax and probably carrier pigeon to get work done. Fortunately the back-office systems which actually pay people their money were still working, so only new claims and updates were affected done properly. This is bad enough for those affected, but it does mean that the impact is not devastating for millions of pensioners. I am sure regular readers will be expecting one of my usual diatribes against poor software, badly specified systems and inadequate disaster recovery plans. Although the full story has not yet been told, it seems that the problem started when a plan to upgrade some of the computers from Windows 2000 to Windows XP went wrong, and XP code was inadvertently copied to thousands of machines across the network. This is certainly unfortunate, but I have a lot of sympathy for the network managers and technology staff involved. Today's computer networks are large, complex and occasionally fragile. The interconnectedness that we all value also gives us a degree of instability and unpredictability that we cannot design out of the systems. It is the network equivalent of Godel's Theorem - any system sufficiently complex to be useful is also able to collapse catastrophically. So I will reserve judgment on the technology aspects until we all know what actually happened and whether it was a consequence of software failure or just bad luck. What is really disturbing, and cannot be excused, is the fact that it took four days for news of this systems failure to leak out into the technical press. It is, without a doubt, a major story and was the second or third lead item on BBC Radio 4's Today programme throughout Friday morning. So why did not the prime minister's official spokesman mention it at any lobby briefings before Friday? Why was not the pensions minister in Parliament to make an emergency statement on Tuesday, when it was clear that there was a serious problem? If there had been an outbreak of Legionnaire's disease in the air conditioning system we would have been told, but it seems that major technology problems do not merit the same treatment. While EDS and Microsoft will no doubt be looking for technical lessons to learn from their week of pain, we can learn some political lessons too. And the most important is that in this digital world, technology failures are matters of public interest, not something that can be ignored in the hope that nobody will notice, care or understand. That means we need a full report on what went wrong and what was done to fix it. It would be unacceptable for any of the parties involved to hide behind commercial confidentiality or even parliamentary privilege. A major system has evidently collapsed and we need to know what went wrong and what is being done differently. Anything less is a betrayal of public trust. Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital." -tech,"US cyber security chief resigns The man making sure US computer networks are safe and secure has resigned after only a year in his post. Amit Yoran was director of the National Cyber Security Division within the US Department of Homeland Security created following the 9/11 attacks. The division was tasked with improving US defences against malicious hackers, viruses and other net-based threats. Reports suggest he left because his division was not given enough clout within the larger organisation. Mr Yoran took up his post in September 2003 and his first task was to get the Cyber Security Division up and running. The organisation had a staff of about 60 people and a budget of about $80m (£44.54m). The division was charged with thinking up and carrying out action to make US networks more impervious to attack and disruption by the viruses, worms and hack attacks that have become commonplace. In the last 12 months Mr Yoran oversaw the creation of a cyber alert system that sends out warnings about big hitting viruses and net attacks as they occur. The warnings also contained information about how firms and organisations could protect themselves against these attacks. The Cyber Security Division also audited US government networks to discover exactly what was sitting on which network. The next step was to be the creation of a scanning system to identify vulnerabilities that made federal networks and machines susceptible to attack by malicious hackers and virus writers. Mr Yoran's division was also doing work to identify the networks and machines that had been broken into by cyber criminals. Despite this success Mr Yoran left his post abruptly at the end of last week, reportedly only giving one day's notice to bosses at the Department of Homeland Security. ""Amit Yoran has been a valuable contributor on cyber security issues over the past year, and we appreciate his efforts in starting the department's cybersecurity program,"" said a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman. Some reports have suggested that Mr Yoran felt frustrated by the lack of prominence given to work to protect against net-based threats in the wider homeland organisation. An attempt by US politicians to pass a law to promote Mr Yoran and raise the profile of his department's work is now mired in Congress." -tech,"Freeze on anti-spam campaign A campaign by Lycos Europe to target spam-related websites appears to have been put on hold. Earlier this week the company released a screensaver that bombarded the sites with data to try to bump up the running costs of the websites. But the site hosting the screensaver now displays a pink graphic and the words ""Stay tuned"". No one at Lycos was available for comment on latest developments in its controversial anti-spam campaign. Lycos Europe's ""Make love not spam"" campaign was intended as a way for users to fight back against the mountain of junk mail flooding inboxes. People were encouraged to download the screensaver which, when their PC was idle, would then send lots of data to sites that peddle the goods and services mentioned in spam messages. Lycos said the idea was to get the spam sites running at 95% capacity and generate big bandwidth bills for the spammers behind the sites. But the plan has proved controversial. Monitoring firm Netcraft analysed response times for some of the sites targeted by the screensaver and found that a number were completely knocked offline. The downing of the sites could dent Lycos claims that what it is doing does not amount to a distributed denial of service attack. In such attacks thousands of computers bombard sites with data in an attempt to overwhelm them. Laws in many countries do not explicitly outlaw such attacks but many nations are re-drafting computer use laws to make them specific offences. Lycos Europe now appears to have put the plan on hold. The site hosting the screensaver currently shows a holding page, with the words, ""Stay tuned"". The numerical internet address of the site has also changed. This is likely to be in response to spammers who have reportedly redirected traffic from their sites back to the Lycos screensaver site. The campaign has come under fire from some corners of the web. Many discussion groups have said that it set a dangerous precedent and could incite vigilantism. ""Attacking a spammer's website is like poking a grizzly bear sleeping in your back garden with a pointy stick,"" said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. ""Not only is this screensaver similar in its approach to a potentially illegal distributed denial of service attack, but it also is in danger of turning innocent computer users into vigilantes, who may not be prepared for whatever retaliation the spammers care to dream up.""" -tech,"Hacker threat to Apple's iTunes Users of Apple's music jukebox iTunes need to update the software to avoid a potential security threat. Hackers can build malicious playlist files which could crash the program and let them seize control of the computer by inserting Trojan code. A new version of iTunes is now available from the Apple website which solves the problem. Security firm iDefence, which notified users of the problem, recommended that users upgrade to iTunes version 4.7.1. The problem affects all users of iTunes - Windows and Mac OS - running versions 4.7 and earlier. Users can automatically upgrade iTunes by opening the ""look for updates"" window in the program. The security firm says users should avoid clicking on or accessing playlist files - which have the file extension of .pls or .m3u - which have come from unknown sources. Itunes is the world's most popular online music store with more than 200 million songs downloaded since it launched in 2003." -tech,"Text messages aid disaster recovery Text messaging technology was a valuable communication tool in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in Asia. The messages can get through even when the cell phone signal is too weak to sustain a spoken conversation. Now some are studying how the technology behind SMS could be better used during an emergency. Sanjaya Senanayake works for Sri Lankan television. The blogging world, though, might know him better by his online name, Morquendi. He was one of the first on the scene after the tsunami destroyed much of the Sri Lankan coast. Cell phone signals were weak. Land lines were unreliable. So Mr Senanayake started sending out text messages. The messages were not just the latest news they were also an on-the-ground assessment of ""who needs what and where"". Blogging friends in India took Mr Senanayake's text messages and posted them on a weblog called Dogs without Borders. Thousands around the world followed the story that unfolded in the text messages that he sent. And that's when Mr Senanayake started to wonder if SMS might be put to more practical use. ""SMS networks can handle so much more traffic than the standard mobile phone call or the land line call,"" he says. ""In every rural community, there's at least one person who has access to a mobile phone, or has a mobile phone, and can receive messages."" Half a world away, in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, Taran Rampersad read Morquendi's messages. Mr Rampersad, who used to work in the military, knew how important on the ground communication can be in times of disaster. He wondered if there might be a way to automatically centralise text messages, and then redistribute them to agencies and people who might be able to help. Mr Rampersad said: ""Imagine if an aid worker in the field spotted a need for water purification tablets, and had a central place to send a text message to that effect. ""He can message the server, so the server can send out an e-mail message and human or machine moderators can e-mail aid agencies and get it out in the field."" He added: ""Or, send it at the same time to other people who are using SMS in the region, and they might have an excess of it, and be able to shift supplies to the right places."" Mr Rampersad and others had actually been thinking about such a system since Hurricane Ivan ravaged the Caribbean and the southern United States last September. Last week, he sent out e-mail messages asking for help in creating such a system for Asia. In only 72 hours, he found Dan Lane, a text message guru living in Britain. The pair, along with a group of dedicated techies, are creating what they call the Alert Retrieval Cache. The idea is to use open-source software - software can be used by anyone without commercial restraint - and a far-flung network of talent to create a system that links those in need with those who can help. ""This is a classic smart mobs situation where you have people self-organizing into a larger enterprise to do things that benefit other people,"" says Paul Saffo, a director at the California-based Institute for the Future. ""You may be halfway around the world from someone, but in cyberspace you're just one click or one e-mail away,"" he said, ""That's put a whole new dimension on disaster relief and recovery, where often people halfway around the world can be more effective in making something happen precisely because they're not right on top of the tragedy."" It is still very early days for the project, though. In an e-mail, Dan Lane calls it ""an early proof of concept."" Right now, the Alert Retrieval Cache can only take a text message and automatically upload it to a web-page, or distribute it to an e-mail list. In the near future, the group says it hopes to take in messages from people in affected areas, and use human moderators to take actions based on the content of those messages. But there's still another challenge. You have to get people to know that the system is there for them to use. ""It's amazing how difficult it is to find someone to pass it along to, and say, look this is what we're trying to do and everything like that,"" says Mr Rampersad. ""So the big problem right now is the same problem we're trying to solve - human communication."" He is optimistic, however. He thinks that the Alert Retrieval Cache is an idea whose time has come and he hopes governments, too, will sit up and take notice. And he stands by his motto, courtesy of Michelangelo: criticise by creating. Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production." -tech,"Gamers could drive high-definition TV, films, and games have been gearing up for some time now for the next revolution to transform the quality of what is on our screens. It is called high-definition - HD for short - and it is already hugely popular in Japan and the US. It is set, according to analysts, to do for images what CDs did for sound. Different equipment able to receive HD signals is needed though and is expensive. But Europe's gamers may be the early adopters to drive demand. Europeans will have to wait until at least 2006 until they see mainstream HDTV. To view it, it needs to be transmitted in HD format, and people need special receivers and displays that can handle the high-quality resolution. The next generation of consoles, however, are expected to start appearing at the end of 2005, start of 2006. And most new computer displays and plasma sets are already capable of handling such high-resolution pictures. ""In the next generation [of consoles] HD support is mandatory,"" Dr Mark Tuffy games systems director at digital content firm THX told the BBC News website. ""Every game is going to be playable in HD. ""So consumers who have gone out and spent all this money on HDTVs, and who have no content to watch, are going to be blown away by these really high-detail pictures. ""It's going to change really the way they look at gaming."" At the end of last year, Chris Deering, Sony's European president, made a prediction that 20 million European households would have HDTV sets by 2008. A previous prediction from analysts Datamonitor put the figure at 4.6 million by 2008, an increase from an estimated 50,000 sets at the end of 2003. But those in Europe may see little point in buying what is quite an expensive bit of technology - about £2,000 - if there are few programmes or films to watch on them. Satellite broadcaster BSkyB is planning HDTV services in 2006 and the BBC intends to produce all of its content in HD by 2010. Until broadcast rights, format standards - and the practicalities of updating equipment - are agreed, TV content will be limited. All TV images are made up of pixels which go across the screen, and scan lines which go down the screen. Most standard UK TV pictures are made up of 625 lines and about 700 pixels. HD offers up to 1,080 active lines, with each line made up of 1,920 pixels. This means the picture is up to six times as sharp as standard TV. ""Probably, in the UK [gaming] is going to be the only thing you are going to really be able to show off, as in 'look what this TV can do', until HD is really adopted by broadcasters,"" explains Dr Tuffy. But gamers are also the ideal target audience for HD because they always crave better quality graphics, and more immersive gaming experiences. They are used to spending money on hardware to match a game's requirements. Demographics have changed too and the ""sweet spot"" for the games industry is the gamer in his or her late 20s. This means they are likely to have higher disposable incomes and can afford the price of big-screen, high-definition display technologies and HD projectors, earlier than others. Higher capacity storage discs, such as HD-DVD and blue-ray , are set to be standard in the next round of games consoles - allowing developers more room for detailed graphics. For console developers though, HD offers some production changes. It could make games production slightly more expensive, thinks Dr Tuffy. ""But we may see the cross-platform development of games becoming more common because they will more easily be able to take a PC game and apply it to a console,"" he says. ""You are literally going to get to the point, with a Lord of the Rings game for example, is going to be closer and closer to the actual film, especially the CGI stuff from the DVD. ""And the transition when they move from a cut scene to the game, just now they have almost got it seamless."" With HD, he says, the transition will be completely seamless and the same quality as the big-screen cinema release. This could herald an increasing convergence between the film and gaming industry. But it may not be until the generation after the next games consoles where the two industries really collide. At that point, says Dr Tuffy, games could become more or less interactive movies." -tech,"Xbox power cable 'fire fear' Microsoft has said it will replace more than 14 million power cables for its Xbox consoles due to safety concerns. The company said the move was a ""preventative step"" after reports of fire hazard problems with the cables. It affects Xboxes made before 23 October 2003 for all regions but mainland Europe - and consoles in that region made before 13 January 2004. Microsoft said it had received 30 reports of minor injury or property damage due to faulty cables. The firm said fewer than one in 10,000 consoles had experienced component failures. The recall affects almost three quarters of all Xboxes sold around the world since its launch in 2001. In a statement, it added: ""In almost all instances, any damage caused by these failures was contained within the console itself or limited to the tip of the power cord at the back of the console."" But in seven cases, customers reported sustaining a minor burn to their hand. In 23 cases, customers reported smoke damage, or minor damage to a carpet or entertainment centre. ""This is a preventative step we're choosing to take despite the rarity of these incidents,"" said Robbie Bach, senior vice president, Microsoft home and entertainment division. ""We regret the inconvenience, but believe offering consumers a free replacement cord is the responsible thing to do."" Consumers can order a new cable from the Xbox website or by telephoning 0800 028 9276 in the UK. Microsoft said customers would get replacement cords within two to four weeks from the time of order. It advised users to turn off their Xboxes when not in use. A follow-up to Xbox is expected to released at the end of this year or the beginning of 2006." -tech,"Cebit fever takes over Hanover Thousands of products and tens of thousands of visitors make Cebit the place to be for technology lovers. ""Welcome to CeBit 2005"" was the message from the pilot as we landed, the message on flyers at the airport, and the message on just about every billboard in town. CeBit fever has taken over Hanover. Hotels have been booked out for months; local people are letting out rooms in their homes to the hoards of exhibitors, visitors, and journalists. CeBit itself is huge, the exhibition site could almost be classified as a town in its own right. There are restaurants, shops, and a bus service between the halls - of which there are 27. There are more than 6,000 companies here, showing their latest products. The list of them that I was given when I came in is the size and weight of a phone book. One of the mains themes this year is the digital home, and one of the key buzzwords is convergence. The ""entertainment PC"" is being billed as the replacement for DVD players, stereos, telephones and computers - offering a one-box solution, wirelessly connected throughout a house. To show them off, one display has been modelled as a prototype ""digital lifestyle home"" by German magazine Computer Reseller News. ""We wanted to show how this fits into a living room or workplace, to give people a feeling how it would work in their homes,"" said Claudia Neulling from the magazine. The house has webcams for security in each room, which can be called up on the high definition TV, connected to the PC in the living room. That PC provides home entertainment, movies or music. It can also be linked to the car parked outside, which is kitted out with a processor of its own, along with a DVD player and cordless headphones for the kids in the back. ""Convergence for me is about how technology, the transfer of data, can do things that make it easier and more convenient for me as a consumer,"" said Mark Brailey, director of corporate marketing for Intel. ""The real challenge is to show people it's easier than they think, and fun."" He firmly believes that entertainment PCs are the future, but says they have to get past people's fears of frequent crashes and incompatibilities. That is something Microsoft is trying to do too - its stand has computers running Windows XP Media Centre edition 2005 for people to try out. Mobile phones do not escape the convergence theme. Samsung is showing off its SGH-i300, a handset with a three gigabyte hard drive, that can be used to watch compressed video or as an MP3 player. And if you would rather watch live TV than a downloaded movie NEC is showing a phone, on sale in China, which can show analogue TV on its colour screen. ""I think the most probable application is at somewhere like the train station - if you want to check the status of the soccer game for example"" said Koji Umemoto, manager of mobile terminals marketing for NEC. He admitted that the signal quality is not very good if you are on the move, and they do not have plans to launch it in Europe at the moment. Nokia was happy to demonstrate its 6230i, an upgrade to the very popular 6230. It now has a 1.3 megapixel camera, and a music player that can handle multiple formats, rather than just MP3s. It is also compatible with Nokia's new Visual Radio technology. The handset can receive FM broadcasts, and the user can interact with compatible broadcasts using a GPRS connection, to take part in competitions or get extra information such as the name of the song playing. Most companies are reluctant to show prototypes, preferring to display products that are already on sale, or just about to hit the market. Portable media player firm Creative showed off a new wireless technology, based on magnetic inductance rather than radio - a system some hearing aids use. ""The benefits over conventional Bluetooth are the lack of interference, and longer battery life,"" said Riccardo de Rinaldini, Creative's European marketing manager. The firm has a prototype headset linked up to a Zen Micro player. The transmitter on the player creates a private, magnetic ""bubble"" around the user, which is picked up by the headset. The range is only about one metre so it is only suitable for personal use. A single AAA battery is said to last up to 30 hours. Creative expects it to hit the market in its final form later this year. Even clothing is likely to be part of the convergence trend. Adidas has a trainer which, according to Susanne Risse from the company, can ""sense, understand, and adapt to your running style"". It has a battery, processor, and motor embedded in the sole. Buttons on the side allow you to set the amount of cushioning you would like by adjusting the tension on a cable running through the heel. The processor then monitors the surface you are running on, and adjusts the tension accordingly. It is being billed as ""the world's first intelligent shoe""." -tech,"Virus poses as Christmas e-mail Security firms are warning about a Windows virus disguising itself as an electronic Christmas card. The Zafi.D virus translates the Christmas greeting on its subject line into the language of the person receiving infected e-mail. Anti-virus firms speculate that this multilingual ability is helping the malicious program spread widely online. Anti-virus firm Sophos said that 10% of the e-mail currently on the net was infected with the Zafi virus. Like many other Windows viruses, Zafi-D plunders Microsoft Outlook for e-mail addresses and then uses mail-sending software to despatch itself across the web to new victims. To be infected users must open up the attachment travelling with the message which bears the code for the malicious bug. The attachment on the e-mail poses as an electronic Christmas card but anyone opening it will simply get a crude image of two smiley faces. The virus' subject line says ""Merry Christmas"" and translates this into one of 15 languages depending of the final suffix of the e-mail address the infected message has been sent to. The message in the body of the e-mail reads: ""Happy Holidays"" and this too is translated. On infected machines the virus tries to disable anti-virus and firewall software and opens up a backdoor on the PC to hand over control to the writer of the virus. The virus is thought to have spread most widely in South America, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Hungary. The original Zafi virus appeared in April this year. ""We have seen these hoaxes for several Christmases already, and personally I prefer traditional pen and paper cards, and we recommend this to all our clients too,"" said Mikko Hypponen, who heads F-Secure's anti-virus team." -tech,"Web photo storage market hots up An increasing number of firms are offering web storage for people with digital photo collections. Digital cameras were the hot gadget of Christmas 2004 and worldwide sales of the cameras totalled $24bn last year. Many people's hard drives are bulging with photos and services which allow them to store and share their pictures online are becoming popular. Search firms such as Google are also offering more complex tools for managing personal photo libraries. Photo giants such as Kodak offer website storage which manages photo collections, lets users edit pictures online and provides print-ordering services. Some services, such as Kodak's Ofoto and Snapfish, offer unlimited storage space but they do require users to buy some prints online. Other sites, such as Pixagogo, charge a monthly fee. Marcus Hawkins, editor of Digital Camera magazine, said: ""As file sizes of pictures increase, storage becomes a problem. ""People are using their hard drives, backing up on CD and DVD and now they are using online storage solutions. ""They are a place to store pictures, to share their pictures with families and friends and they can print out their photos."" While many of the services are aimed at the amateur and casual digital photographer, other websites are geared up for enthusiasts who want to share tips and information. Photosig is an online community of photographers who can critique each other's work. On Tuesday, Google released free software for organising and finding digital photos stored on a computer's hard drive. The tool, called Picasa, automatically detects photos as they are added to a PC - whether sent via e-mail or transferred from a digital camera. The software includes tools for restoring colour and removing red eye, as well as sharpening images. Photos can then be uploaded to sites such as Ofoto. Many people use the sites to edit and improve their favourite photographs before ordering prints. Mr Hawkins added: ""The growth area is that you can order your prints online. Friends and family can also access pictures you want them to see and they can print them out too. ""Rather than just a place to dump your pictures, it's about sharing them."" The vast majority of pictures remain on a PC's hard drive, which is why search tools, such as those offered by Google, become increasingly important. But some historians and archivists are concerned that the need for perfect pictures will mean that those poor quality prints which offered a tantilising glimpse of the past may disappear forever. ""It's one thing taking pictures, it's another finding them,"" said Mr Hawkins. ""But this is the same problem that has always existed - how many of us have photos in wallets tucked away somewhere?""" -tech,"BT offers free net phone calls BT is offering customers free internet telephone calls if they sign up to broadband in December. The Christmas give-away entitles customers to free telephone calls anywhere in the UK via the internet. Users will need to use BT's internet telephony software, known as BT Communicator, and have a microphone and speakers or headset on their PC. BT has launched the promotion to show off the potential of a broadband connection to customers. People wanting to take advantage of the offer will need to be a BT Together fixed-line customer and will have to sign up to broadband online. The offer will be limited to the first 50,000 people who sign up and there are limitations - the free calls do not include calls to mobiles, non-geographical numbers such as 0870, premium numbers or international numbers. BT is keen to provide extra services to its broadband customers. ""People already using BT Communicator have found it by far the most convenient way of making a call if they are at their PC,"" said Andrew Burke, director of value-added services at BT Retail. As more homes get high-speed access, providers are increasingly offering add-ons such as cheap net calls. ""Broadband and telephony are attractive to customers and BT wants to make sure it is in the first wave of services,"" said Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. ""BT Communicator had a quiet launch in the summer and now BT is waving the flag a bit more for it,"" he added. BT has struggled to maintain its market share of broadband subscribers as more competitors enter the market. Reports say that BT has lost around 10% of market share over the last year, down from half of broadband users to less than 40%. BT is hoping its latest offer can persuade more people to jump on the broadband bandwagon. It currently has 1.3 million broadband subscribers." -tech,"Mobiles rack up 20 years of use Mobile phones in the UK are celebrating their 20th anniversary this weekend. Britain's first mobile phone call was made across the Vodafone network on 1 January 1985 by veteran comedian Ernie Wise. In the 20 years since that day, mobile phones have become an integral part of modern life and now almost 90% of Britons own a handset. Mobiles have become so popular that many people use their handset as their only phone and rarely use a landline. The first ever call over a portable phone was made in 1973 in New York but it took 10 years for the first commercial mobile service to be launched. The UK was not far behind the rest of the world in setting up networks in 1985 that let people make calls while they walked. The first call was made from St Katherine's dock to Vodafone's head office in Newbury which at the time was over a curry house. For the first nine days of 1985 Vodafone was the only firm with a mobile network in the UK. Then on 10 January Cellnet (now O2) launched its service. Mike Caudwell, spokesman for Vodafone, said that when phones were launched they were the size of a briefcase, cost about £2,000 and had a battery life of little more than 20 minutes. ""Despite that they were hugely popular in the mid-80s,"" he said. ""They became a yuppy must-have and a status symbol among young wealthy business folk."" This was also despite the fact that the phones used analogue radio signals to communicate which made them very easy to eavesdrop on. He said it took Vodafone almost nine years to rack up its first million customers but only 18 months to get the second million. ""It's very easy to forget that in 1983 when we put the bid document in we were forecasting that the total market would be two million people,"" he said. ""Cellnet was forecasting half that."" Now Vodafone has 14m customers in the UK alone. Cellnet and Vodafone were the only mobile phone operators in the UK until 1993 when One2One (now T-Mobile) was launched. Orange had its UK launch in 1994. Both newcomers operated digital mobile networks and now all operators use this technology. The analogue spectrum for the old phones has been retired. Called Global System for Mobiles (GSM) this is now the most widely used phone technology on the planet and is used to help more than 1.2 billion people make calls. Mr Caudwell said the advent of digital technology also helped to introduce all those things, such as text messaging and roaming that have made mobiles so popular." -tech,"US blogger fired by her airline A US airline attendant suspended over ""inappropriate images"" on her blog - web diary - says she has been fired. Ellen Simonetti, known as Queen of the Sky, wrote an anonymous semi-fictional account of her life in the sky. She was suspended by Delta in September. In a statement, she said she was initiating legal action against the airline for ""wrongful termination"". A Delta spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that Ms Simonetti was no longer an employee. Delta has repeatedly declined to elaborate on what it calls ""internal employee matters"". A spokesperson reiterated this position on Wednesday, confirming only that Ms Simonetti was no longer with the company. The spokesperson also confirmed that there were ""very clear rules"" attached to the unauthorised use of Delta branding, including uniforms. Ms Simonetti announced on her blog she had been fired on 1 November. She said in an official statement: ""As a result of my suspension and subsequent termination without cause by Delta Airlines I am moving forward with filing a discrimination complaint with the Federal Government EEOC [US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]."" She added she had also hired a Texas-based law firm to initiate legal action for ""wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages."" Ms Simonetti told the BBC News website she had received no warning or further explanation when she was suspended on 25 September. Queen of the Sky has received a lot of support and advice from the global blogging community since news of her suspension was brought to light on the BBC News website and others. Her story has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging community about conflicts of interest, employment law and free speech on personal websites. The blog, which she started in January as a way of getting over her mother's death, contains a mix of fictional and non-fictional accounts. Queen of the Sky developed over the months as a character in her own right, according to Ms Simonetti. In the postings, she made up fictional names for cities and other companies she mentioned to protect anonymity. But some postings contained images of herself in uniform. Of the 10 or so images only one showed Ms Simonetti's flight ""wings"". She removed them as soon as she was informed of her suspension. ""I never meant it as something to harm my company and don't understand how they think it did harm them,"" Ms Simonetti said. A legal expert in the US speculated that Delta might be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images were posted. Delta has been hit recently by pressures of rising fuel costs and fierce competition. It has said it needs to cut between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs and reduce costs by $5bn (£2.7bn) a year. Analysts had warned recently that the airline might have to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy prevention. Last week, it struck a $1bn cost-cutting deal with its pilots which could save it from bankruptcy. The deal would see pilots accept a 32% pay cut in return for the right to buy 30 million Delta shares, unions said. And on Monday, it negotiated a deal to defer about $135m in debt which was due next year, until 2007. The airline also said it had agreed the terms of a $600m loan from American Express." -tech,"China 'blocks Google news site' China has been accused of blocking access to Google News by the media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders. The Paris-based pressure group said the English-language news site had been unavailable for the past 10 days. It said the aim was to force people to use a Chinese edition of the site which, according to the watchdog, does not include critical reports. Google told the BBC News website it was aware of the problems and was investigating the causes. China is believed to extend greater censorship over the net than any other country in the world. A net police force monitors websites and e-mails, and controls on gateways connecting the country to the global internet are designed to prevent access to critical information. Popular Chinese portals such as Sina.com and Sohu.com maintain a close eye on content and delete politically sensitive comments. And all 110,000 net cafes in the country have to use software to control access to websites considered harmful or subversive. ""China is censoring Google News to force internet users to use the Chinese version of the site which has been purged of the most critical news reports,"" said the group in a statement. ""By agreeing to launch a news service that excludes publications disliked by the government, Google has let itself be used by Beijing,"" it said. For its part, the search giant said it was looking into the issue. ""It appears that many users in China are having difficulty accessing Google News sites in China and we are working to understand and resolve the issue,"" said a Google spokesperson. Google News gathers information from some 4,500 news sources. Headlines are selected for display entirely by a computer algorithm, with no human editorial intervention. It offers 15 editions of the service, including one tailored for China and one for Hong Kong. Google launched a version in simplified Chinese in September. The site does not filter news results to remove politically sensitive information. But Google does not link to news sources which are inaccessible from within China as this would result in broken links." -tech,"EU software patent law faces axe The European Parliament has thrown out a bill that would have allowed software to be patented. Politicians unanimously rejected the bill and now it must go through another round of consultation if it is to have a chance of becoming law. During consultation the software patents bill could be substantially re-drafted or even scrapped. The bill was backed by some hi-tech firms, saying they needed protections it offered to make research worthwhile. Hugo Lueders, European director for public policy at CompTIA, an umbrella organization for technology companies, said only when intellectual property was adequately protected would European inventors prosper. He said the benefits of the bill had been obscured by special interest groups which muddied debate over the rights and wrongs of software patents. Other proponents of the bill said it was a good compromise that avoided the excesses of the American system which allows the patenting of business practices as well as software. But opponents of the bill said that it could stifle innovation, be abused by firms keen to protect existing monopolies and could hamper the growth of the open source movement. The proposed law had a troubled passage through the European parliament. Its progress was delayed twice when Polish MEPs rejected plans to adopt it. Also earlier this month the influential European Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) said the law should be re-drafted after it failed to win the support of MEPs. To become law both the European Parliament and a qualified majority of EU states have to approve of the draft wording of the bill. The latest rejection means that now the bill on computer inventions must go back to the EU for re-consideration." -tech,"Slimmer PlayStation triple sales Sony PlayStation 2's slimmer shape has proved popular with UK gamers, with 50,000 sold in its first week on sale. Sales have tripled since launch, outstripping Microsoft's Xbox, said market analysts Chart-Track. The numbers were also boosted by the release of the PS2-only game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The title broke the UK sales record for video games in its first weekend of release. Latest figures suggest it has sold more than 677,000 copies. ""It is obviously very, very encouraging for Sony because Microsoft briefly outsold them last week,"" John Houlihan, editor of Computerandvideogames.com told BBC News. ""And with Halo 2 [for Xbox] out next week, it really is a head-to-head contest between them and Xbox."" Although Xbox sales over the last week also climbed, PS2 sales were more than double that. The figures mean Sony is reaching the seven million barrier for UK sales of the console. Edinburgh-based developer, Rockstar, which is behind the GTA titles, has seen San Andreas pull in an estimated £24m in gross revenues over the weekend. In comparison, blockbuster films like Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban took £11.5m in its first three days at the UK box office. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took nearly £10m over its opening weekend, although games titles are four to five times more expensive than cinema tickets. Gangster-themed GTA San Andreas is the sequel to Grand Theft Auto Vice City which previously held the record for the fastest-selling video game ever. The Xbox game Halo 2, released on 11 November in the UK, is also widely tipped to be one of the best-selling games of the year. The original title won universal acclaim in 2001, and sold more than four million copies. Mr Houlihan added that Sony had done well with the PS2, but it definitely helped that the release of San Andreas coincided with the slimline PS2 hitting the shelves. The run-up to Christmas is a huge battlefield for games consoles and titles. Microsoft's Xbox had been winning the race up until last week in sales. The sales figures also suggest that it may be a largely adult audience driving demand, since GTA San Andreas has an 18 certificate. Sony and Microsoft have both reduced console prices recently and are preparing the way for the launches of their next generation consoles in 2005. ""Both have hit crucial price points at around £100 and that really does open up new consoles to new audience, plus the release of two really important games in terms of development are also driving those sales,"" said Mr Houlihan." -tech,"Broadband takes on TV viewing The number of Europeans with broadband has exploded over the past 12 months, with the web eating into TV viewing habits, research suggests. Just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband, up from 34 million a year ago, according to market analysts Nielsen/NetRatings. The total number of people online in Europe has broken the 100 million mark. The popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from TV, say analysts Jupiter Research. It found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time watching TV in favour of the net The report by Nielsen/NetRatings found that the number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year. The biggest jump was in Italy, where it rose by 120%. Britain was close behind, with broadband users almost doubling in a year. The growth has been fuelled by lower prices and a wider choice of always-on, fast-net subscription plans. ""Twelve months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in Europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing,"" said Gabrielle Prior, Nielsen/NetRatings analyst. ""As the number of high-speed surfers grows, websites will need to adapt, update and enhance their content to retain their visitors and encourage new ones."" The total number of Europeans online rose by 12% to 100 million over the past year, the report showed, with the biggest rise in France, Italy, Britain and Germany. The ability to browse web pages at high speed, download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what people do in their spare time. A study by analysts Jupiter Research suggested that broadband was challenging television viewing habits. In homes with broadband, 40% said they were spending less time watching TV. The threat to TV was greatest in countries where broadband was on the up, in particular the UK, France and Spain, said the report. It said TV companies faced a major long-term threat over the next five years, with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009. ""Year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where, when and how Europe's population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big implications for TV, newspaper and radio,"" said Jupiter Research analyst Olivier Beauvillian." -tech,"Mobile audio enters new dimension As mobile phones move closer to being a ubiquitous, all-in-one media player, audio is becoming ever more important. But how good can that sound be from such a small device? The sound of a buzzing bee jumps from left to right before disappearing around the back of my head. The surround sound demo is unremarkable when heard on a multi-speaker home cinema system but startling when emerging from a small mobile phone. British firm Sonaptic is one of a number of companies to have developed 3D audio technology that emerges from stereo speakers. Firms AM3D and SRS both offer stereo-widening technology for mobile phones. But Sonaptic's managing director David Monteith says his firm is the only company to offer positional 3D audio on a mobile. ""There are quite a few basic technologies out there, making the sound seem a bit bigger, headphones a bit nicer. ""No-one has really tried before to make proper 3D positional audio - where an individual channel can be moved around."" Sonaptic has been working with Japanese mobile network NTT DoCoMo to set standards for 3D audio on mobile phones. In the last few months handsets from NEC, Fujitsu and Mitsubishi have been released on to the Japanese marker which have chips produced by Yamaha and Rohm with Sonaptic's technology. ""The technology has been around on PCs and games consoles for some time but what we are doing is making it more efficient so it can go on a small consumer device like a mobile phone,"" said Mr Monteith. The technology works through applying the science of psychoacoustics and grew out of medical research done by the company's research director Dr Alastair Sibbald. ""We are basically trying to fool your ears into thinking sound is coming from areas it actually isn't. ""Your brain uses certain bits of information which we are effectively synthesising on a mobile phone handset."" The structure of the ear works as a 3D encoder for sound - helping the brain understand from where sound is emanating. Sonaptic's audio processing algorithms mimic that 3D encoding, giving the impression that sound is coming from the left, right, and behind a listener when in fact it is coming from a single source. Mr Montieth says: ""If the sound is off to one side it will get to one ear before the other - if it is on the right it has to bend around your head to get to your left ear. ""The shape of your ear causes differences in sound from one ear to the other. We are synthesising those differences."" Sonaptic hopes the technology will have a big impact in the growing market of mobile gaming and music downloading. ""Handhelds often have limitations - screens will be small by definition. ""If you want to get impact from media you are running - either a movie, a game or watching TV - if you want it to be more immersive then our technology can help."" A fishing game is the first title to use the technology, creating a 3D sound field while the gamer plays. Driving games and shoot 'em ups using the technology are in development. The technology can also be used for music - giving songs a much more expansive and immersive feel. Sonaptic offers its technology on a chip or in software and is about to release a new version which significantly improves the efficiency of the audio processing. ""It's important we only use 10 or 15% of the processor otherwise you won't be able to play a game on the handset,"" explained Mr Montieth. The company is now looking to the US and European markets, where it has been working with network Vodafone. ""We have focused first on Japan because it has a very advanced mobile phone market. ""We knew Japan would be the first place to have the handsets that could use our technology. ""There should be handsets out in the UK in the next six months.""" -tech,"Online commons to spark debate Online communities set up by the UK government could encourage public debate and build trust, says the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR). Existing services such as eBay could provide a good blueprint for such services, says the think-tank. Although the net is becoming part of local and central government, its potential has not yet been fully exploited to create an online ""commons"" for public debate. In its report, Is Online Community A Policy Tool?, the IPPR also asks if ID cards could help create safer online communities. Adopting an eBay-type model would let communities create their own markets for skills and services and help foster a sense of local identity and connection. ""What we are proposing is a civic commons,"" Will Davies, senior research fellow at the IPPR told the BBC News website. ""A single publicly funded and run online community in which citizens can have a single place to go where you can go to engage in diversity and in a way that might have a policy implication - like a pre-legislation discussion."" The idea of a ""civic commons"" was originally proposed by Stephen Coleman, professor of e-democracy at the Oxford Internet Institute. The IPPR report points to informal, small scale examples of such commons that already exist. It mentions good-practice public initiatives like the BBC's iCan project which connects people locally and nationally who want to take action around important issues. But he adds, government could play a bigger role in setting up systems of trust for online communities too. Proposals for ID cards, for instance, could also be widened to see if they could be used online. They could provide the basis for a secure authentication system which could have value for peer-to-peer interaction online. ""At the moment they have been presented as a way for government to keep tabs on people and ensuring access to public services,"" said Mr Davies. ""But what has not been explored is how authentication technology may potentially play a role in decentralised online communities."" The key idea to take from systems such as eBay and other online communities is letting members rate each other's reputation by how they treat other members. Using a similar mechanism, trust and cooperation between members of virtual and physical communities could be built. This could mean a civic commons would work within a non-market system which lets people who may disagree with one another interact within publicly-recognised rules. E-government initiatives over the last decade have very much been about putting basic information and service guides online as well as letting people interact with government via the web. Many online communities, such as chatrooms, mailing lists, community portals, message boards and weblogs often form around common interests or issues. With 53% of UK households now with access to the net, the government, suggests Mr Davies, could act as an intermediary or ""middleman"" to set up public online places of debate and exchange to encourage more ""cosmopolitan politics"" and public trust in policy. ""Government already plays a critical role in helping citizens trade with each other online. ""But it should also play a role in helping citizens connect to one another in civic, non-market interactions,"" said Mr Davies. There is a role for public bodies like the BBC, libraries, and government to bring people back into public debate again instead of millions of ""cliques"" talking to each other, he added. The paper is part of the IPPR's Digital Society initiative which is producing a number of conferences and research papers leading up to the publication of A Manifesto For A Digital Britain." -tech,"Technology gets the creative bug The hi-tech and the arts worlds have for some time danced around each other and offered creative and technical help when required. Often this help has come in the form of corporate art sponsorship or infrastructure provision. But that dance is growing more intimate as hi-tech firms look to the creative industries for inspiration. And vice versa. UK telco BT is serious about the idea and has launched its Connected World initiative. The idea, says BT, is to shape a ""21st Century model"" which will help cement the art, technology, and business worlds together. ""We are hoping to understand the creative industry that has a natural thirst for broadband technology,"" said Frank Stone, head of the BT's business sector programmes. He looks after several ""centres of excellence"" which the telco has set up with other institutions and organisations, one of which is focused on creative industries. To mark the initiative's launch, a major international art installation is to open on 15 April in Brussels, with a further exhibit in Madrid later in the summer. They have both been created using the telco's technology that it has been incubating at its research and development arm, including a sophisticated graphics rendering program. Using a 3D graphics engine, the type commonly used in gaming, Bafta-winning artists Langlands & Bell have created a virtual, story-based, 3D model of Brussels' Coudenberg Cellars. They have recently been excavated and are thought to be the remnants of Coudenberg Palace, an historical seat of European power. The 3D world can be navigated using a joystick and offers an immersive experience of a landscape that historically had a river running through it until it was bricked up in the 19th Century. ""The river was integral to the city's survival for hundreds of years and it was equally essential to the city that it disappeared,"" said the artists. ""We hope that by uncovering the river, we can greater understand the connections between the past and the present, and appreciate the flow of modernity, once concealing, but now revealing the River Senne."" In their previous works they used the Quake game graphics engine. The game engine is the core component of a video game because it handles graphics rendering, game AI, and how objects behave and relate to each other in a game. They are so time-consuming and expensive to create, the engines can be licensed out to handle other graphics-intensive games. BT's own engine, Tara (Total Abstract Rendering Architecture) has been in development since 2001 and has been used to recreate virtual interactive models of buildings for planners. It was also used in 2003 in Encounter, an urban-based, pervasive game that combined both virtual play in conjunction with physical, on-the-street action. Because the artists wanted video and interactive elements in their worlds, new features were added to Tara in order to handle the complex data sets. But collaboration between art and digital technology is by no means new, and many keen coders, designers, games makers and animators argue that what they create is art itself. As more tools for self-expression are given to the person on the street, enabling people to take photos with a phone and upload them to the web for instance, creativity will become an integral part of technology. The Orange Expressionist exhibition last year, for example, displayed thousands of picture messages from people all over the UK to create an interactive installation. Technology as a way of unleashing creativity has massive potential, not least because it gives people something to do with their technology. Big businesses know it is good for them to get in on the creative vein too. The art world is ""fantastically rich"", said Mr Stone, with creative people and ideas which means traditional companies like BT want to get in with them. Between 1997 and 2002, the creative industry brought £21 billion to London alone. It is an industry that is growing by 6% a year too. The partnership between artists and technologists is part of trying to understand the creative potential of technologies like broadband net, according to Mr Stone. ""This is not just about putting art galleries and museums online,"" he said. ""It is about how can everyone have the best seat in house and asking if technology has a role in solving that problem."" With broadband penetration reaching 100% in the UK, businesses with a stake in the technology want to give people reasons to want and use it. The creative drive is not purely altruistic obviously. It is about both industries borrowing strategies and creative ideas together which can result in better business practices for creative industries, or more patent ideas for tech companies. ""What we are trying to do is have outside-in thinking. ""We are creating a future cultural drive for the economy,"" said Mr Stone." -tech,"Warnings on woeful wi-fi security Companies are getting worse at keeping their wireless data networks secure. A survey of wi-fi networks in London, Frankfurt, New York and San Francisco by RSA Security found more than a third had basic security features turned off. By contrast last year's survey found that 15% of firms had failed to take basic steps to improve security. RSA warned that wi-fi's growing popularity made it much more likely that insecure networks would be found and exploited. Wireless or wi-fi networks have become hugely popular over the last few years in offices because they are easy to set up and make going online much more convenient. This popularity shows no sign of slowing reveals the annual RSA Security and NetSurity survey which found an annual 66% growth rate in the number of wireless nets being installed in London and Frankfurt. Although most firms do take steps to turn on the security functions built in to the wi-fi standard and protect themselves from attack, the survey found that a significant proportion were taking unnecessary risks. On average 33% of the wireless networks found by RSA and NetSurity researchers in London, Frankfurt, New York and San Francisco had not used basic security systems. Many firms were simply turning on their wireless net access points and use default settings that anyone familiar with wi-fi could easily find out. RSA said that 26% of wi-fi networks found London used default settings compared to 30% in Frankfurt, 31% in New York and 28% in San Francisco. Many users of wi-fi nets did not even turn on the encryption that scrambles data traffic between users and the access point helping them go online. This is despite a series of stories warning firms about the dangers of ""drive-by hacking"" in which computer criminals walk or drive around city centres using easy to use tools to spot wi-fi nets. ""These figures are another stark warning to unsecured businesses to get their act together,"" said Phil Cracknell, chief technology officer at NetSurity. As more public wi-fi hotspots appear and people become more familiar with using them, it was getting more likely that insecure would be found, warned Mr Cracknell. ""Accidental or intentional connection to a corporate network can bring with it a series of security issues including loss of confidential data and installation of malicious code,"" he said." -tech,"Reboot ordered for EU patent law A European Parliament committee has ordered a rewrite of the proposals for controversial new European Union rules which govern computer-based inventions. The Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) said the Commission should re-submit the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive after MEPs failed to back it. It has had vocal critics who say it could favour large over small firms and impact open-source software innovation. Supporters say it would let firms protect their inventions. The directive is intended to offer patent protection to inventions that use software to achieve their effect, in other words, ""computer implemented invention"". The draft law suffered setbacks when Poland, one of the largest EU member states, rejected its adoption twice in two months. Intense lobbying on the issue has started to gain momentum in some national parliaments putting them under immense pressure. Only two MEPs backed the draft law at the JURI meeting, with one voting to abstain. Opponents of the draft directive welcomed the decision and said a new first reading of the proposals would give the EU a chance to have fuller debates about its implications in all member states. In the US, the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted. This means that the US-based Amazon.com holds a patent for its ""one-click shopping"" service, for example. Critics are concerned that the directive could lead to a similar model happening in Europe. This, they fear, could hurt small software developers because they do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies if they had to fight patent legal action in court. Supporters say current laws are inefficient and it would serve to even up a playing field without bringing EU laws in line with the US." -tech,"The future in your pocket If you are a geek or gadget fan, the next 12 months look like they are going to be a lot of fun. The relentless pace of development in the hi-tech world and rampant competition in many of its sectors, particularly among mobile phone firms, all suggests that 2005 is going to be a very good year. To begin with, 2005 will be the year that third-generation (3G) mobile phones become inescapable. The 3 network launched in 2003, Vodafone launched its consumer service in November, Orange followed in early December and T-Mobile and O2 are due to launch in 2005. The main result of these launches will likely be a slew of good deals for consumers as operators try to poach new customers from rivals and convince existing users to trade up. Already the extra capacity in 3G networks lets 3 offer good deals on voice calls at rates that will probably have to be matched by the other operators. But the shift in technology and low cost of voice calls means that operators lose a significant chunk of their revenue. ""Show me an operator that believes their voice business can sustain them, and I'll write their obituary"" said Niel Ransom, chief technology officer at Alcatel. Instead operators are likely to push all other things that 3G phones can do such as video messaging and other multimedia capabilities. Already camera phones look set to challenge digital cameras and are likely to win more fans as multi-megapixel devices go on sale. But 3G will not have everything its own way. It will face competition from emerging technologies such as Wimax. This wireless technology can boost data transmission speeds up to 75 megabits per second and works over distances of up to 30 miles. Kent is likely to be the site of the UK's first Wimax network which is due to go live in 2005 and it could be the way that rural areas get high-speed net access. Analyst firm Telecom View predicts that Wimax will steal a lot of market share from 3G and will be a clear winner. Bob Larribeau, principal analyst at Telecom View, said the better return on investment offered by technologies such as Wimax could dent the possible returns of 3G networks. And the growing ubiquity of wi-fi must not be forgotten either. The technology is popping up in more places than ever and its wider use is only held back by the price differences across countries and suppliers. Moves to unite mobile and fixed phones look set to get more emphasis in 2005 too. For a start, BT looks set to roll out its Bluephone project during the next 12 months. The service revolves around a hybrid device that uses the mobile networks when you are out and about but switches back to the fixed line when you are at home. Fixed line phones will also start to get much more serious competition from a technology that has the formidable name of Voice over IP (Voip). Voip routes calls via the net instead of the fixed line phone network. Anyone with a broadband connection, which is now more than 50% of the UK's net using population, can use Voip and could slash their monthly phone bills if they used it. Telecommunications regulator Ofcom has declared 056 to be the area code for Voip calls and 2005 is likely to see a lot more consumer-focused Voip call services starting up. Home broadband services will also start to increase in speed as dwindling numbers of new users signing force the pace of competition. If 2004 has been the year of the portable music player, they 2005 looks like it will be the year of the portable media player. Motorola has just announced a deal with Apple to produce a phone that works with the iTunes service and other hybrid gadgets that sport a big memory and lots of other functions will become commonplace. The pace of advancement in storage media will continue mean that the cost per megabyte of memory will plummet. Some of those devices will sport huge hard drives letting you store more data than you ever wanted or knew you had. Convergence could mean that single-function devices start to dwindle in number. Instead every gadget will be able to do almost anything and communicate almost any way you want. The only downside is that consumers will face a series of tough choices as they are confronted by a bewildering array of gadgets each with an enormous numbers of features and vast data holding capacities. But that is the kind of problem most gadget fans can live with." -tech,"Google launches TV search service The net search giant Google has launched a search service that lets people look for TV programmes. The service, Google Video beta, searches closed caption information that comes with programmes. It only searches US channel content currently. Results list programmes with still images and text from the point where the search phrase was spoken. It should expand over time to include content from more channels, said a Google spokesperson. The first version of the service is part of Google's expanding efforts to be a ubiquitous search engine for people to find what they want on the web and beyond. ""We think TV is a big part of people's lives,"" said Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice president of product management. ""Ultimately, we would like to have all TV programming indexed."" Google Video has been indexing US-based programmes from PBS, the NBA, Fox News, and C-SPAN since December. But there were few clues from Google about when more global broadcasters would be included. ""Over time, we plan to increase the number of television channels and video content available via Google Video but don't have more product details to share with you today,"" a Google spokesperson told the BBC News website. The results thrown up by the search will also include programme and episode information like channel, date and time. It also lets people find the next time and channel where a programme will aired locally using a US zip code search function. Rival search engine Yahoo has been developing a similar type of video search for webcasts and TV clips which it promotes from its homepage. It offers direct links to websites with movies or other clips relevant to the search query, but does not pinpoint when the search query occurred. A spokeswoman told the Financial Times on Monday that Yahoo was adding captioning for Bloomberg, BBC and BSkyB broadcasts. A smaller service, blinkx.tv, was launched last month. It searches for and links to TV news, film trailers, and other video and audio clips." -tech,"Mobile picture power in your pocket How many times have you wanted to have a camera to hand to catch an unexpected event that would make headlines? With a modern mobile phone that has a camera built in, you no longer need to curse, you can capture the action as it happens. Already on-the-spot snappers are helping newspapers add immediacy to their breaking news stories headlines, where professional photographers only arrive in time for the aftermath. Celebrities might not welcome such a change because they may never be free of a new breed of mobile phone paparazzi making their lives a bit more difficult. Already one tabloid newspaper in LA is issuing photographers with camera phones to help them catch celebrities at play. It could be the start of a trend that only increases as higher resolution phone cameras become more widespread; as video phones catch on and millions of people start carrying the gadgets around. Only last week, the world media highlighted the killing of the Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh, notorious after making a controversial film about Islamic culture. One day later De Telegraaf, a daily Amsterdam newspaper, became news on its own when it published a picture taken with a mobile phone of Mr van Gogh's body moments after he was killed. ""This picture was the story"", said De Telegraaf's image editor, Peter Schoonen. Other accounts of such picture phone users witnessing news events, include: - A flight from Switzerland to the Dominican Republic which turned around after someone took a picture of a piece of metal falling from the plane as it took off from Zurich (reported by the Swiss daily Le Matin). - Two crooks who robbed a bank in Denmark were snapped before they carried out the crime waiting for the doors of the building to be opened (reported by the Danish regional paper Aarhus Stiftstidende). But this is not just about traditional media lending immediacy to their stories with content from ordinary people, it is also about first-hand journalism in the form of online diaries or weblogs. It has been called ""open source news"" or even ""moblog journalism"" and it has flourished in the recent US election campaign. ""Not many people walk around with their cameras, but they always have their mobile phones with them. If something happens, suddenly all these mobiles sort of appear from nowhere, and start taking pictures,"" said digital artist Henry Reichhold. He himself uses mobile phone pictures to create huge panoramic images of events and places. ""You see it in bars, you see it everywhere. It's a massive thing,"" Mr Reichhold told the BBC News website. With some picture agencies already paying for exclusive phone pictures, especially of celebrities, there are also fears about the possible downside of this phenomenon. It could become a nuisance for public figures as higher resolution picture phones hit the market, with five megapixel models already being launched in Asia. Already on US photojournal site, Buzznet, there is a public album full of snaps of celebrities, many of which were taken with camera phones. Tabloid newspapers in the UK and many monthly magazines invite readers to send in images of famous people they have seen and snapped. But there are other positive uses of picture mobile phones that may balance these uses. For instance, in Alabama, in the US, camera phones will be used to take snaps at crime scenes involving children, and help the authorities to arrest and prosecute paedophiles. And in China's capital Beijing, courts have adopted mobile phone photos as formal evidence. For Henry Reichhold, this is progress: ""That's the whole thing about the immediacy of the thing. I can see that happening a lot more.""" -tech,"Cyber criminals step up the pace So-called phishing attacks that try to trick people into handing over confidential details have boomed in 2004, say security experts. The number of phishing e-mail messages stopped by security firm MessageLabs has risen more than tenfold in less than 12 months. In 2004 it detected more than 18 million phishing e-mail messages. Other statistics show that in 2004 73% of all e-mail was spam and one in 16 messages were infected with a virus. In its end-of-year report, MessageLabs said that phishing had become the top security threat and most popular form of attack among cyber criminals. In September 2003, MessageLabs caught only 273 phishing e-mails that tried to make people visit fake versions of the websites run by real banks and financial organisations. But by September 2004 it was stopping more than two million phishing related e-mail messages per month. Worryingly, said the firm, phishing gangs were using increasingly sophisticated techniques to harvest useful information such as login details or personal data. Older attacks relied on users not spotting the fact that the site they were visiting was fake, but more recent phishing e-mails simply try to steal details as soon as a message is opened. Other phishing scams try to recruit innocent people into acting as middlemen for laundering money or goods bought with stolen credit cards. ""E-mail security attacks remain unabated in their persistence and ferocity,"" said Mark Sunner, chief technology officer at MessageLabs. ""In just 12 months phishing has firmly established itself as a threat to any organisation or individual conducting business online,"" he said. Mr Sunner said MessageLabs was starting to see some phishing attacks become very focused on one company or organisation. ""Already particular businesses are threatened and blackmailed, indicating a shift from the random, scattergun approach, to customised attacks designed to take advantage of the perceived weaknesses of some businesses,"" he said. Although phishing attacks grew substantially throughout 2004, viruses and spam remain popular with cyber-criminals and vandals. One of the biggest outbreaks took place in January when the MyDoom virus started circulating. To date the company has caught more than 60 million copies of the virus. Also up this year was the amount of spam in circulation. In 2003 only 40% of messages were spam. But by the end of 2004, almost three-quarters of messages were junk." -tech,"Concern over RFID tags Consumers are very concerned about the use of radio frequency ID (RFID) tags in shops, a survey says. More than half of 2,000 people surveyed said they had privacy worries about the tags, which can be used to monitor stock on shelves or in warehouses. Some consumer groups have expressed concern that the tags could be used to monitor shoppers once they had left shops with their purchases. The survey showed that awareness of tags among consumers in Europe was low. The survey of consumers in the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands was carried out by consultancy group Capgemini. The firm works on behalf of more than 30 firms who are seeking to promote the growth of RFID technology. The tags are a combination of computer chip and antenna which can be read by a scanner - each item contains a unique identification number. More than half (55%) of the respondents said they were either concerned or very concerned that RFID tags would allow businesses to track consumers via product purchases. Fifty nine percent of people said they were worried that RFID tags would allow data to be used more freely by third parties. Ard Jan Vetham, Capgemini's principal consultant on RFID, said the survey showed that retailers needed to inform and educate people about RFID before it would become accepted technology. ""Acceptance of new technologies always has a tipping point at which consumers believe that benefits outweigh concerns. ""With the right RFID approach and ongoing communication with consumers, the industry can reach this point."" He said that the survey also showed people would accept RFID if they felt that the technology could mean a reduction in car theft or faster recovery of stolen items. The tags are currently being used at one Tesco distribution centre in the UK - the tags allow the rapid inventory of bulk items. They are also in use as a passcard for the M6 Toll in the Midlands, in the UK. Mr Vetham said the majority of people surveyed (52%) believed that RFID tags could be read from a distance. He said that was a misconception based on a lack of awareness of the technology. At least once consumer group - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (Caspian) - has claimed that RFID chips could be used to secretly identify people and the things they are carrying or wearing. All kinds of personal belongings, including clothes, could constantly broadcast messages about their whereabouts and their owners, it warned." -tech,"UK pioneers digital film network The world's first digital cinema network will be established in the UK over the next 18 months. The UK Film Council has awarded a contract worth £11.5m to Arts Alliance Digital Cinema (AADC), who will set up the network of up to 250 screens. AADC will oversee the selection of cinemas across the UK which will use the digital equipment. High definition projectors and computer servers will be installed to show mainly British and specialist films. Most cinemas currently have mechanical projectors but the new network will see up to 250 screens in up to 150 cinemas fitted with digital projectors capable of displaying high definition images. The new network will double the world's total of digital screens. Cinemas will be given the film on a portable hard drive and they will then copy the content to a computer server. Each film is about 100 gigabytes and has been compressed from an original one terabyte-size file. Fiona Deans, associate director of AADC, said the compression was visually lossless so no picture degradation will occur. The film will all be encrypted to prevent piracy and each cinema will have an individual key which will unlock the movie. ""People will see the picture quality is a bit clearer with no scratches. ""The picture will look exactly the same as when the print was first made - there is no degradation in quality over time."" The key benefit of the digital network will be an increase in the distribution and screening of British films, documentaries and foreign language films. ""Access to specialised film is currently restricted across the UK,"" said Pete Buckingham, head of Distribution and Exhibition at the UK Film Council. ""Although a genuine variety of films is available in central London and a few other metropolitan areas, the choice for many outside these areas remains limited, and the Digital Screen Network will improve access for audiences across the UK,"" Digital prints costs less than a traditional 35mm print - giving distributors more flexibility in how they screen films, said Ms Deans. ""It can cost up to £1,500 to make a copy of a print for specialist films. ""In the digital world you can make prints for considerably less than that. ""Distributors can then send out prints to more cinemas and prints can stay in cinemas for much longer."" The UK digital network will be the first to employ 2k projectors - which are capable of showing films at resolutions of 2048 * 1080 pixels. A separate competitive process to determine which cinemas will receive the digital screening technology will conclude in May. The sheer cost of traditional prints means that some cinemas need to show them twice a day in order to recoup costs. ""Some films need word of mouth and time to build momentum - they don't need to be shown twice a day,"" explained Ms Deans. ""A cinema will often book a 35mm print in for two weeks - even if the film is a roaring success they cannot hold on to the print because it will have to go to another cinema. ""With digital prints, every cinema will have its own copy.""" -tech,"Global blogger action day called The global web blog community is being called into action to lend support to two imprisoned Iranian bloggers. The month-old Committee to Protect Bloggers' is asking those with blogs to dedicate their sites on 22 February to the ""Free Mojtaba and Arash Day"". Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad are both in prison in Iran. Blogs are free sites through which people publish thoughts and opinions. Iranian authorities have been clamping down on prominent sites for some time. ""I hope this day will focus people,"" Curt Hopkins, director of the Committee, told the BBC News website. The group has a list of actions which it says bloggers can take, including writing to local Iranian embassies. The Committee has deemed Tuesday ""Free Mojtaba and Arash Day"" as part of its first campaign. It is calling on the blogsphere - the name for the worldwide community of bloggers - to do what it can to help raise awareness of the plight of Mojtaba and Arash as well as other ""cyber-dissidents"". ""If you have a blog, the least you could do is put nothing on that blog except 'Free Mojtaba and Arash Day',"" said Mr Hopkins. ""That would mean you could see that phrase 7.1 million times. That alone will shine some light on the situation. ""If you don't have one, find one dedicated to that - it takes about 30 seconds."" Technorati, a blog search engine, tracks about six million blogs and says that more than 12,000 are added daily. A blog is created every 5.8 seconds, according to a US research think-tank. The Committee to Protect Bloggers was started by US blogger Curt Hopkins and counts fired flight attendant blogger Ellen Simonetti as a deputy director. She has since started the International Bloggers' Bill of Rights, a global petition to protect bloggers at work. Although not the only website committed to human rights issues by any means, it aims to be the hub or organisation, information and support for bloggers in particular and their rights to freedom of speech. The Committee, although only a month old, aims to be the focal point for blogger action on similar issues in the future, and will operate as a non-for-profit organisation. ""Blogging is in this weird no man's land. People think of it as being one thing or another depending on their point of view,"" said Mr Hopkins. ""Some think of themselves as pundits, kind of like journalists, and some like me have a private blog which is just a publishing platform. ""But they do not have a constituency and are out there in the cold."" It is not just human rights issues in countries which have a track record of restricting what is published in the media that is of concern to bloggers. The question of bloggers and what rights they have to say what they want on their sites is a thorny one and has received much press attention recently. High profile cases in which employees have been sacked for what they have said on their personal, and often anonymous blogs, have highlighted the muddy situation that the blogsphere is currently in. ""This is a big messy argument,"" explained Mr Hopkins. He added: ""It is just such a new way of doing business, there will be clamp downs."" But the way these issues get tested is through the courts which, said Mr Hopkins, ""is part of the whole messy conversation."" ""If you haven't already got bloggers in your company, you will have them tomorrow - and if you don't have a blogger policy now you had better start looking at having one. Mr Hopkins said that the blogsphere - which is doubling every five months - was powerful because it takes so little time and expertise to create a blog. ""Everyone does this - mums, radicals, conservatives,"" he said. Many companies offer easy-to-use services to create a blog and publish it in minutes to a global community. ""That is the essential difference. What I call 'templating software' gives every single person on Earth the chance to have one. ""You don't even have to have your own computer.""" -tech,"Robots learn 'robotiquette' rules Robots are learning lessons on ""robotiquette"" - how to behave socially - so they can mix better with humans. By playing games, like pass-the-parcel, a University of Hertfordshire team is finding out how future robot companions should react in social situations. The study's findings will eventually help humans develop a code of social behaviour in human-robot interaction. The work is part of the European Cogniron robotics project, and was on show at London's Science Museum. ""We are assuming a situation in which a useful human companion robot already exists,"" said Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn, project leader at Hertfordshire. ""Our mission is to look at how such a robot should be programmed to respect personal spaces of humans."" The research also focuses on human perception of robots, including how they should look, and how a robot can learn new skills by imitating a human demonstrator. ""Without such studies, you will build robots which might not respect the fact that humans are individuals, have preferences and come from different cultural backgrounds,"" Professor Dautenhahn told BBC News Online. ""And I want robots to treat humans as human beings, and not like other robots,"" she added. In most situations, a companion robot will eventually have to deal not only with one person, but also with groups of people. To find out how they would react, the Hertfordshire Cogniron team taught one robot to play pass-the-parcel with children. Showing off its skills at the Science Museum, the unnamed robot had to select, approach, and ask different children to pick up a parcel with a gift, moving it arm as a pointer and its camera as an eye. It even used speech to give instructions and play music. However, according to researchers, it will still take many years to build a robot which would make full use of the ""robotiquette"" for human interaction. ""If you think of a robot as a companion for the human being, you can think of 20 years into the future,"" concluded Professor Dautenhahn. ""It might take even longer because it is very, very hard to develop such a robot."" You can hear more on this story on the BBC World Service's Go Digital programme." -tech,"Piero gives rugby perspective BBC Sport unveils its new analysis tool Piero at the Wales v England rugby union match on Saturday. But what does it do and how does it work? Picture the scene - Wales are camped on the England line in the dying seconds of the Six Nations' opening match. A ball is flung out to winger Shane Williams who crosses to score the winning try for Wales. But the England players are incensed - arguing that the pass was forward and the try should not stand. In the past, sports fans would be left debating the validity of the try for days and weeks to come. But BBC Sport's new tool Piero could end discussions in minutes. Piero, named after the Italian painter and pioneer of perspective Piero della Francesco, creates a virtual stadium in which virtual players can be tracked from almost any angle. Viewers will be able to see precisely how the ball was thrown and by whom, giving a greater depth to the growing wealth of analysis available during sports broadcasts. The technology has been created by BBC Research and Development for BBC Broadcast and BBC Outside Broadcasts. BBC Sport is the first client to start using the system. ""In order to keep audiences growing and growing... we need to work closely with people who create technology and innovation to bring sport to life,"" said Andrew Thompson, the BBC's head of development, new media and sports news. ""We want to appeal to core fans - to give them more analysis, more detail, more definitive answers about key passages of play."" Piero works by taking telemetric data from fixed camera positions and sending that data inside the video signal to a PC which can then render the information into 3D graphics. The more cameras using Piero, the better the detail possible out the other end when the data is turned into 3D models. ""It allows us to tell the story of a passage of play, tracking individual players across the field, looking at tactics,"" said Andy Townsend, from BBC Broadcast. An operator can manipulate the information and provide almost real-time replays of incidents, as well as more in-depth analysis. The ""virtual camera"" can focus on virtually any aspect of the pitch, giving viewers an insight into action that the camera normally cannot see. Piero also provides a wealth of statistical detail - from the length of kicks, to the length of a run of an individual player and the height of a lift at any lineout. Mr Townsend said sports performance companies were already showing an interest in the technology. BBC Broadcast hopes the technology can be sold to third parties interested in using it a number of different ways - from sport broadcasting to entertainment and game shows." -tech,"Nintendo adds media playing to DS Nintendo is releasing an adapter for its DS handheld console so it can play music and video. The add-on for the DS means people can download TV programmes, film clips or MP3 files to the adaptor and then play them back while on the move. The release of the media add-on is an attempt by the Japanese games giant to protect its dominance of the handheld gaming market. Nintendo said the media adapter will be available from February in Japan. The Nintendo DS is the successor to the hugely successful GameBoy handheld game console and went on sale in Japan on 2 December. The DS has two screens, one of which is touch sensitive, and also has on-board a short-range wireless link that lets people play against each other. The launch of the media adapter, and the attempt to broaden the appeal of the device, is widely seen as a response to the unveiling of the Sony PSP which was built as a multi-purpose media player and game gadget from the start. Sony is thought to be preparing pre-packaged movies and music for the PSP. The add-on will also work with the GameBoy Advance SP. Nintendo dominates the handheld gaming console world thanks to successive versions of the GameBoy. More than 28 million GameBoy Advance handhelds have been sold around the world. The dual-screen DS is also thought to be selling well with more than 2.5 million expected to be sold by the end of 2004. Nintendo said it had no plans to sell the media adapter outside Japan. When it goes on sale the adapter is expected to cost about 5000 yen (£25), roughly the difference in price between the DS and the higher-priced Sony PSP." -tech,"Software watching while you work Software that can not only monitor every keystroke and action performed at a PC but also be used as legally binding evidence of wrong-doing has been unveiled. Worries about cyber-crime and sabotage have prompted many employers to consider monitoring employees. The developers behind the system claim it is a break-through in the way data is monitored and stored. But privacy advocates are concerned by the invasive nature of such software. The system is a joint venture between security firm 3ami and storage specialists BridgeHead Software. They have joined forces to create a system which can monitor computer activity, store it and retrieve disputed files within minutes. More and more firms are finding themselves in deep water as a result of data misuse. Sabotage and data theft are most commonly committed from within an organisation according to the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) A survey conducted on its behalf by NOP found evidence that more than 80% of medium and large companies have been victims of some form of cyber-crime. BridgeHead Software has come up with techniques to prove, to a legal standard, that any stored file on a PC has not been tampered with. Ironically the impetus for developing the system came as a result of the Freedom of Information Act, which requires companies to store all data for a certain amount of time. The storage system has been incorporated into an application developed by security firm 3ami which allows every action on a computer to be logged. Potentially it could help employers to follow the trail of stolen files and pinpoint whether they had been emailed to a third party, copied, printed, deleted or saved to CD, floppy disk, memory stick or flash card. Other activities the system can monitor include the downloading of pornography, the use of racist or bullying language or the copying of applications for personal use. Increasingly organisations that handle sensitive data, such as governments, are using biometric log-ins such as fingerprinting to provide conclusive proof of who was using a particular machine at any given time. Privacy advocates are concerned that monitoring at work is not only damaging to employee's privacy but also to the relationship between employers and their staff. ""That is not the case,"" said Tim Ellsmore, managing director of 3ami. ""It is not about replacing dialogue but there are issues that you can talk through but you still need proof,"" he said. ""People need to recognise that you are using a PC as a representative of a company and that employers have a legal requirement to store data,"" he added." -tech,"Sony PSP console hits US in March US gamers will be able to buy Sony's PlayStation Portable from 24 March, but there is no news of a Europe debut. The handheld console will go on sale for $250 (£132) and the first million sold will come with Spider-Man 2 on UMD, the disc format for the machine. Sony has billed the machine as the Walkman of the 21st Century and has sold more than 800,000 units in Japan. The console (12cm by 7.4cm) will play games, movies and music and also offers support for wireless gaming. Sony is entering a market which has been dominated by Nintendo for many years. It launched its DS handheld in Japan and the US last year and has sold 2.8 million units. Sony has said it wanted to launch the PSP in Europe at roughly the same time as the US, but gamers will now fear that the launch has been put back. Nintendo has said it will release the DS in Europe from 11 March. ""It has gaming at its core, but it's not a gaming device. It's an entertainment device,"" said Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America." -tech,"Beckham virus spotted on the net Virus writers are trading on interest in David Beckham to distribute their malicious wares. Messages are circulating widely that purport to have evidence of the England captain in a compromising position. But anyone visiting the website mentioned in the message will not see pictures of Mr Beckham but will have their computer infected by a virus. The pernicious program opens a backdoor on a computer so it can be controlled remotely by malicious hackers. The appearance of the Beckham Windows trojan is just another example in a long line of viruses that trade on interest in celebrities in an attempt to fuel their spread. Tennis player Anna Kournikova, popstars Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger have all been used in the past to try to con people into opening infected files. The huge amount of interest in Mr Beckham and his private life and the large number of messages posted to discussion groups on the net might mean that the malicious program catches a lot of people out. ""The public's appetite for salacious gossip about the private life of the Beckhams might lead some into an unpleasant computer infection,"" said Graham Cluley from anti-virus firm Sophos. Simply opening the message will not infect a user's PC. But anyone visiting the website it mentions who then downloads and opens the fake image file stored on that site will be infected. The program that installs itself is called the Hackarmy trojan and it tries to recruit PCs into so-called 'bot networks that are often used to distribute spam mail messages or to launch attacks across the web. Computers running Microsoft Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT and XP are vulnerable to this trojan. Many anti-virus programs have been able to detect this trojan since it first appeared early this year and have regularly been updated to catch new variants." -tech,"Chip maker backs net phone calls Rich Templeton, the head of giant chip maker Texas Instruments, has given his backing to the growing sector of Voice over Internet Telephony (Voip) Voip allows PC users, and in some cases those with just a broadband connection, to make telephone calls via the net. Mr Templeton said Voip would be the next major application to drive broadband connections into homes. Internet service provider Wanadoo has announced it is launching its own broadband telephony service in the UK. Subscribers to Wanadoo's broadband service will be able to use the service to make free evening and weekend calls to any UK landline, and free calls at any time to other Wanadoo users. The service will cost an extra £4 a month and will come with a free Livebox, the broadband hub which Wanadoo plans will be used in future to provide video-on-demand and home security services. The secondary phone line will mean customers can have an extra home phone number and will also provide wireless internet access around the home. Eventually the service will replace existing landline services as Wanadoo goes head to head with BT. ""Voice-over broadband is a key trend across Europe and is set to have a dramatic impact on the telecommunications industry, "" Eric Abensur, Wanadoo's chief executive told the BBC News website. Mr Templeton said he agreed. ""Voice-over-packet is going to be the second killer application after broadband internet access,"" he said. The world's largest maker of chips for mobile phones believes the technology will grow rapidly from the relatively small user base it has currently. Almost 83 million people have downloaded the software that powers the Skype Voip service, according to the net telephony firm's website. Skype lets people make free calls to other Skype users and also make low-cost calls to ordinary phone numbers. US firm Vonage also offers a Voip service, but one which lets people plug an ordinary phone into a broadband router to make calls. Bill Simmelink, general manager of TI's Voip business, said the technology would only take off when people were making net calls with the ease of making a normal call. ""It's not about the pipe, if you will, or the silicon per se, it's about the application,"" he said. ""We want to communicate freely, effortlessly and economically wherever we are."" In a sign that Voip is seeping into the mainstream, giant ISP AOL announced on Tuesday that it had plans to launch a net-based phone service for some of its members within the month. Customers will continue to use their traditional phones, but they will plug them into adapters connected to their broadband source rather than the jack provided by the telephone company. Calls are received and placed just like on the old telephone network. ""We can help mass-market adoption of Voip,"" said AOL chief executive Jonathan Miller. ""We can utilise our national footprint. We can help the entire industry become well known.""" -tech,"Casual gaming to 'take off' Games aimed at ""casual players"" are set to be even bigger in 2005, according to industry experts. Easy-to-play titles that do not require too much time and that are playable online or downloadable to mobile devices will see real growth in the coming year. The trend shows that gaming is not just about big-hitting, games console titles, which appeal more to ""hardcore"" gamers, said a panel of experts. They were speaking before the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas which showcases the latest trends in gadgets and technologies for 2005. The panel also insisted that casual gamers were not just women, a common misconception which pervades current thinking about gamer demographics. Casual games like poker, pool, bridge, bingo and puzzle-based titles, which can be played online or downloaded onto mobile devices, were ""gender neutral"" and different genres attracted different players. Greg Mills, program director at AOL, said its figures suggested that sports-based games attracted 90% of 18 to 24-year-old males, while puzzle games were played by 80% of females. Games like bridge tended to attract the over-50 demographic of gamers. But hardcore gamers who are more attracted to blockbuster gamers which usually require hi-spec PCs, like Half-Life 2, or Halo 2 on Xbox, also liked to have a different type of gaming experience. ""When hardcore gamers are not playing Halo, they are playing poker and pool, based on our research,"" said Geoff Graber, director of Yahoo Games, which attracts about 12 million gamers a month. With the growth of powerful PC technology and ownership, broadband take-up, portable players and mobile devices, as well as interactive TV, casual gaming is shaping up to be big business in 2005, according to the panel. The focus for the coming year should be about attracting third-party developers into the field to offer more innovative and multiplayer titles, they agreed. ""We are at a time where we are on the verge of something much bigger,"" said Mr Graber. ""Casual games will get into their stride in 2005, will be really big in 2006 and will be about community."" With more people finding more to do with their gadgets and high-speed connections, casual games would start to open up the world of gaming as a form of mass-market entertainment to more people. Key to these types of titles is the chance they give people who may not see themselves as gamers to dip in and out of games when they liked. Portal sites which offer casual games, like AOL, Yahoo, and RealArcade, as well as other games-on-demand services, allow people to build up buddy lists so they can return and play against the same people. This aspect of ""community"" is crucial for gamers who just want to have quick access to free or cheap games without committing long periods of time immersed in £30 to £40 console or PC titles, said the panel. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the CES trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet and which officially runs from 6 to 9 January. The main theme is how new devices are getting better at talking to each other, allowing people to enjoy digital content, like audio, video and images, when they want, and where they want." -tech,"Europe backs digital TV lifestyle How people receive their digital entertainment in the future could change, following the launch of an ambitious European project. In Nice last week, the European Commission announced its Networked & Electronic Media (NEM) initiative. Its broad scope stretches from the way media is created, through each of the stages of its distribution, to its playback. The Commission wants people to be able to locate the content they desire and have it delivered seamlessly, when on the move, at home or at work, no matter who supplies the devices, network, content, or content protection scheme. More than 120 experts were in Nice to share the vision of interconnected future and hear pledges of support from companies such as Nokia, Intel, Philips, Alcatel, France Telecom, Thomson and Telefonica. It might initially appear to be surprising that companies in direct competition are keen to work together. But again and again, speakers stated they could not see incompatible, stand-alone solutions working. A long-term strategy for the evolution and convergence of technologies and services would be required. The European Commission is being pragmatic in its approach. They have identified that many groups have defined the forms of digital media in the areas that NEM encompasses. The NEM approach is to take a serious look at what is available and what is in the pipeline, pick out the best, bring them together and identify where the gaps are. Where it finds holes, it will develop standards to fill them. What is significant is that such a large and powerful organisation has stated its desire for digital formats to be open to all and work on any gadget. This is bound to please, if not surprise, many individuals and user organisations who feel that the wishes of the holder of rights to content are normally considered over and above those of the consumer. Many feel that the most difficult and challenging area for the Commission will be to identify a solution for different Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes. Currently DRM solutions are incompatible, locking certain types of purchased content, making them unplayable on all platforms. With the potential of having a percentage of every media transaction that takes place globally, the prize for being the supplier of the world's dominant DRM scheme is huge. Although entertainment is an obvious first step, it will encompass the remote provisions of healthcare, energy efficiency and control of the smart home. The 10-year plan brings together the work of many currently running research projects that the EC has been funding for a number of years. Simon Perry is the editor of the Digital Lifestyles website, which covers the impact of technology on media" -tech,"Voters flock to blog awards site Voting is under way for the annual Bloggies which recognise the best web blogs - online spaces where people publish their thoughts - of the year. Nominations were announced on Sunday, but traffic to the official site was so heavy that the website was temporarily closed because of too many visitors. Weblogs have been nominated in 30 categories, from the top regional blog, to the best-kept-secret blog. Blogs had a huge year, with a top US dictionary naming ""blog"" word of 2004. Technorati, a blog search engine, tracks about six million blogs and says that more than 12,000 are added daily. A blog is created every 5.8 seconds, according to US research think-tank Pew Internet and American Life, but less than 40% of the total are updated at least once every two months. Nikolai Nolan, who has run the Bloggies for the past five years, told the BBC News website he was not too surprised by the amount of voters who crowded the site. ""The awards always get a lot of traffic; this was just my first year on a server with a bandwidth limit, so I had to guess how much I'd need,"" he said. There were many new finalists this year, he added, and a few that had won Bloggies before. Several entries reflected specific news events. ""There are four nominations for the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog, which is a pretty timely one for 2005,"" said Mr Nolan. The big Bloggies battle will be for the ultimate prize of blog of the year. The nominated blogs are wide-ranging covering what is in the news to quirky sites of interest. Fighting it out for the coveted award are Gawker, This Fish Needs a Bicycle, Wonkette, Boing Boing, and Gothamist. In a sign that blogs are playing an increasingly key part in spreading news and current affairs, The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog is also nominated in the best overall category. GreenFairyDotcom, Londonist, Hicksdesign, PlasticBag and London Underground Tube Blog are the nominees in the best British or Irish weblog. Included in the other categories is best ""meme"". This is for the top ""replicating idea that spread about weblogs"". Nominations include Flickr, a web photo album which lets people upload, tag, share and publish their images to blogs. Podcasting has also made an appearance in the category. It is an increasingly popular idea that makes use of RSS (really simple syndication) and audio technology to let people easily make their own radio shows, and distribute them automatically onto portable devices. Many are done by those who already have text-based blogs, so they are almost like audio blogs. Three new categories have been added to the list this year, including best food, best entertainment, and best writing of a weblog. One of the categories that was scrapped though was best music blog. The winners of the fifth annual Bloggies are chosen by the public. Public voting closes on 3 February and the winners will be announced sometime between 13 and 15 March." -tech,"Looks and music to drive mobiles Mobile phones are still enjoying a boom time in sales, according to research from technology analysts Gartner. More than 674 million mobiles were sold last year globally, said the report, the highest total sold to date. The figure was 30% more than in 2003 and surpassed even the most optimistic predictions, Gartner said. Good design and the look of a mobile, as well as new services such as music downloads, could go some way to pushing up sales in 2005, said analysts. Although people were still looking for better replacement phones, there was evidence, according to Gartner, that some markets were seeing a slow-down in replacement sales. ""All the markets grew apart from Japan which shows that replacement sales are continuing in western Europe,"" mobile analyst Carolina Milanesi told the BBC News website. ""Japan is where north America and western European markets can be in a couple of years' time. ""They already have TV, music, ringtones, cameras, and all that we can think of on mobiles, so people have stopped buying replacement phones."" But there could be a slight slowdown in sales in European and US markets too, according to Gartner, as people wait to see what comes next in mobile technology. This means mobile companies have to think carefully about what they are offering in new models so that people see a compelling reason to upgrade, said Gartner. Third generation mobiles (3G) with the ability to handle large amounts of data transfer, like video, could drive people into upgrading their phones, but Ms Milanesi said it was difficult to say how quickly that would happen. ""At the end of the day, people have cameras and colour screens on mobiles and for the majority of people out there who don't really care about technology the speed of data to a phone is not critical."" Nor would the rush to produce two or three megapixel camera phones be a reason for mobile owners to upgrade on its own. The majority of camera phone models are not at the stage where they can compete with digital cameras which also have flashes and zooms. More likely to drive sales in 2005 would be the attention to design and aesthetics, as well as music services. The Motorola Razr V3 phone was typical of the attention to design that would be more commonplace in 2005, she added. This was not a ""women's thing"", she said, but a desire from men and women to have a gadget that is a form of self-expression too. It was not just about how the phone functioned, but about what it said about its owner. ""Western Europe has always been a market which is quite attentive to design,"" said Ms Milanesi. ""People are after something that is nice-looking, and together with that, there is the entertainment side. ""This year music will have a part to play in this."" The market for full-track music downloads was worth just $20 million (£10.5 million) in 2004, but is set to be worth $1.8 billion (£94 million) by 2009, according to Juniper Research. Sony Ericsson just released its Walkman branded mobile phone, the W800, which combines a digital music player with up to 30 hours' battery life, and a two megapixel camera. In July last year, Motorola and Apple announced a version of iTunes online music downloading service would be released which would be compatible with Motorola mobile phones. Apple said the new iTunes music player would become Motorola's standard music application for its music phones. But the challenge will be balancing storage capacity with battery life if mobile music hopes to compete with digital music players like the iPod. Ms Milanesi said more models would likely be released in the coming year with hard drives. But they would be more likely to compete with the smaller capacity music players that have around four gigabyte storage capacity, which would not put too much strain on battery life." -tech,"Sun offers processing by the hour Sun Microsystems has launched a pay-as-you-go service which will allow customers requiring huge computing power to rent it by the hour. Sun Grid costs users $1 (53p) for an hour's worth of processing and storage power on systems maintained by Sun. So-called grid computing is the latest buzz phrase in a company which believes that computing capacity is as important a commodity as hardware and software. Sun likened grid computing to the development of electricity. The system could mature in the same way utilities such as electricity and water have developed, said Sun's chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz. ""Why build your own grid when you can use ours for a buck an hour?"" he asked in a webcast launching Sun's quarterly Network Computing event in California. The company will have to persuade data centre managers to adopt a new model but it said it already had interest from customers in the oil, gas and financial services industries. Some of them want to book computing capacity of more than 5,000 processors each, Sun said. Mr Schwartz ran a demonstration of the service, showing how data could be processed in a protein folding experiment. Hundreds of servers were used simultaneously, working on the problem for a few seconds each. Although it only took a few seconds, the experiment cost $12 (£6.30) because it had used up 12 hours' worth of computing power. The Sun Grid relies on Solaris, the operating system owned by Sun. Initially it will house the grid in existing premises and will use idle servers to test software before shipping it to customers. It has not said how much the system will cost to develop but it already has a rival in IBM, which argues that its capacity on-demand service is cheaper than that offered by Sun." -tech,"EU software patent law faces axe The European Parliament has thrown out a bill that would have allowed software to be patented. Politicians unanimously rejected the bill and now it must go through another round of consultation if it is to have a chance of becoming law. During consultation the software patents bill could be substantially re-drafted or even scrapped. The bill was backed by some hi-tech firms, saying they needed protections it offered to make research worthwhile. Hugo Lueders, European director for public policy at CompTIA, an umbrella organization for technology companies, said only when intellectual property was adequately protected would European inventors prosper. He said the benefits of the bill had been obscured by special interest groups which muddied debate over the rights and wrongs of software patents. Other proponents of the bill said it was a good compromise that avoided the excesses of the American system which allows the patenting of business practices as well as software. But opponents of the bill said that it could stifle innovation, be abused by firms keen to protect existing monopolies and could hamper the growth of the open source movement. The proposed law had a troubled passage through the European parliament. Its progress was delayed twice when Polish MEPs rejected plans to adopt it. Also earlier this month the influential European Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) said the law should be re-drafted after it failed to win the support of MEPs. To become law both the European Parliament and a qualified majority of EU states have to approve of the draft wording of the bill. The latest rejection means that now the bill on computer inventions must go back to the EU for re-consideration." -tech,"Games maker fights for survival One of Britain's largest independent game makers, Argonaut Games, has been put up for sale. The London-based company behind the Harry Potter games has sacked about 100 employees due to a severe cash crisis. The administrators told BBC News Online that selling Argonaut was the only way to save it as it had run out of cash. Argonaut warned that it was low on cash 10 days ago when its shares were suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange. Argonaut has been making games for some 18 years and is one the largest independent games developers in the UK. Along with its headquarters in north London, it operates studios in Cambridge and Sheffield. Argonaut was behind the Harry Potter games which provided a healthy flow of cash into the company. But, like all software developers, Argonaut needed a constant flow of deals with publishers. Signs that it was in trouble emerged in August, when it warned it was heading for losses of £6m in the financial year due to delays in signing new contracts for games. Those new deals were further delayed, leading Argonaut to warn in mid-October that it was running out of cash and suspend trading of its shares on the London Stock Exchange. As part of cost-cutting measures, some 100 employees were fired. ""When the news about the £6m loss came out, we knew there were going to be redundancies,"" said Jason Parkinson, one of the game developers sacked by Argonaut. ""A lot of people suspected that Argonaut had been in trouble for some time,"" he told BBC News Online. Mr Parkinson said staff were told the job losses were necessary to save Argonaut from going under. At the start of the year, the company employed 268 people. After the latest round of cuts there are 80 staff at Argonaut headquarters in Edgware in north London, with 17 at its Morpheme offices in Kentish Town, London, and 22 at the Just Add Monsters base in Cambridge. Argonaut called in administrators David Rubin & Partners on Friday to find a way to rescue the company from collapse. It spent the weekend going over the company's finances and concluded that the only way to save the business was to put it up for sale. The administrator told BBC News Online that the costs of restructuing would be too high, partly because of the overheads from the company's four premises across the UK. It said it was hopeful that it could save some 110 jobs by selling the business, saying it had had expressions of interest from several quarters and were looking for a quick sale. The administrator said it would ensure that staff made redundant would receive any wages, redundancy or holiday pay due to them, hopefully by Christmas." -tech,"Security scares spark browser fix Microsoft is working on a new version of its Internet Explorer web browser. The revamp has been prompted by Microsoft's growing concern with security as well as increased competition from rival browsers. Microsoft said the new version will be far less vulnerable to the bugs that make its current browser a favourite of tech-savvy criminals. Test versions of the new program, called IE 7, are due to be released by the summer. The announcement about Internet Explorer was made by Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect, during a keynote speech at the RSA Security conference currently being held in San Francisco. Although details were scant, Mr Gates, said IE7 would include new protections against viruses, spyware and phishing scams. This last category of threats involves criminals setting up spoof websites that look identical to those of banks and try to trick people into handing over login and account information. In a bid to shore up the poor security in IE 6, Microsoft has regularly issued updates to patch loopholes exploited by criminals and the makers of nuisance programs such as spyware. Earlier this month it released a security bulletin that patched eight critical security holes - some of which were found in the IE browser. Microsoft has also made a series of acquisitions of small firms that specialise in computer security. One of the first fruits of these acquisitions appeared last month with the release of a Microsoft anti-spyware program. An own-brand anti-virus program is due to follow by the end of 2005. The decision to make Internet Explorer 7 is widely seen as a U-turn because, before now, Microsoft said it had no need to update the browser. Typically new versions of its browser appear with successive versions of the Windows operating system. A new version of IE was widely expected to debut with the next version of Windows, codenamed Longhorn, which is due to appear in 2006. The current version of Internet Explorer is four years old, and is widely seen as falling behind rivals such as Firefox and Opera. There are also persistent rumours that search engine Google is poised to produce its own brand browser based on Firefox. In particular the Firefox browser has been winning fans and users since its first full version was released in November 2004. Estimates of how many users Firefox has won over vary widely. According to market statistics gathered by Websidestory, Firefox's market share is now about 5% of all users. However, other browser stat gatherers say the figure is closer to 15%. Some technical websites report that a majority of their visitors use the Firefox browser. Internet Explorer still dominates with a share of about 90% but this is down from a peak of almost 96% in mid-2004." -tech,"Mobiles get set for visual radio The growth in the mobile phone market in the past decade has been nothing less than astonishing, but the ability to communicate on the go is not the only reason we are hooked. Games, cameras and music players have all been added to our handsets in the last few years, but 2005 could see another big innovation that won't just see a change in our mobile phone habits - it might alter the way we listen to the radio. Finnish handset giant Nokia has been working on a technology called Visual Radio, which takes an existing FM signal from a radio station and enables that station to add enhancements such as information and pictures. It is not the first time that such an idea has been suggested - the early days of DAB Digital Radio had similar intentions that never really saw the light of day. One problem is that the name Visual Radio leads people to think of television but Reidar Wasenius, a senior project manager at Nokia, was adamant that Visual Radio should not be confused with the more traditional medium. He said: ""I'm very happy to say it's not television, what we're talking about is an enhancement of radio as we know it today. ""If you have a Visual Radio enabled handset, when you hear an artist you don't know, or there's a competition or vote that you'd like to participate in, you pull out your handset and with one click you turn on a visual channel parallel to the on-air broadcast you've just been listening to."" That visual channel is run from a computer within the radio station, and sends out different kinds of information to the handset depending on what you are listening to. As well as details on the track or artist of a particular song, there is also the ability to interact immediately with the radio station itself, in a similar way to digital television's ""red button"" content. Possible interactive content includes competitions, votes and even the chance to rate the song that is playing. But the interactive aspect will make the service especially attractive to radio stations, who will be able to track the number of people taking part in such activities on a real-time basis. This in turn should lead to an additional source of revenue, as it is very likely that advertisers will be keen to exploit new opportunities to reach listeners. As the Visual Radio content is transmitted by existing GPRS technology you would need to have that service enabled by your network. And there will be a cost for the service as well, although it may depend on your usage. ""If you enjoy the visual channel occasionally and interact it'll be two or three pounds per month,"" said Mr Wasenius. ""But typically what we see happening is the operator offering a package deal for an 'all you can eat' arrangement per month."" The payment system could therefore be similar to the way that broadband internet works versus dial-up connections. One thing that is for sure - assuming that Nokia retains its market share in handsets, it is estimating that there will be 100 million Visual Radio-enabled mobile phones in circulation by the end of 2006. ""Basically, Visual Radio is not really revolutionary, but rather an evolution where we are providing tools with which people can participate in radio much more easily than ever before."" The first Visual Radio service in the UK will begin in a few months time with Virgin Radio, who are positive about the impact it could have on their listeners. Station manager Steve Taylor commented: ""Listeners can interact with the radio station in a new way. ""Not only does this give listeners more information on the music we play but means they can instantly purchase things they like; mp3 music downloads and the latest gig tickets."" Initially Visual Radio functionality will be limited to two Nokia handsets due out soon - the 3230 and 7710 - but if successful, it is very likely that other manufacturers will want to join them. Listen again to the interview on the Radio Five Live website." -tech,"Mobile networks seek turbo boost Third-generation mobile (3G) networks need to get faster if they are to deliver fast internet surfing on the move and exciting new services. That was one of the messages from the mobile industry at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes last week. Fast 3G networks are here but the focus has shifted to their evolution into a higher bandwidth service, says the Global Mobile Suppliers Association. At 3GSM, Siemens showed off a system that transmits faster mobile data. The German company said data could be transmitted at one gigabit a second - up to 20 times faster than current 3G networks. The system is not available commercially yet, but Motorola, the US mobile handset and infrastructure maker, held a clinic for mobile operators on HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), a high-speed, high bandwidth technology available now. Early HSDPA systems typically offer around two megabits per second (Mbps) compared with less than 384 kilobits per second (Kbps) on standard 3G networks. ""High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) - sometimes called Super 3G - will be vital for profitable services like mobile internet browsing and mobile video clips,"" according to a report published by UK-based research consultancy Analysys. A number of companies are developing the technology. Nokia and Canada-based wireless communication products company Sierra Wireless recently agreed to work together on High Speed Downlink Packet Access. The two companies aim to jointly market the HSDPA solution to global network operator customers. ""While HSDPA theoretically enables data rates up to a maximum of 14Mbps, practical throughputs will be lower than this in wide-area networks,"" said Dr Alastair Brydon, author of the Analysys report: Pushing Beyond the Limits of 3G with HSDPA and Other Enhancements. ""The typical average user rate in a real implementation is likely to be in the region of one megabit per second which, even at this lower rate, will more than double the capacity... when compared to basic WCDMA [3G],"" he added. Motorola has conducted five trials of its technology and says speeds of 2.9Mbps have been recorded at the edge of an outdoor 3G cell using a single HSDPA device. But some mobile operators are opting for a technology called Evolution, Data Optimised (EV-DO). US operator Sprint ordered a broadband data upgrade to its 3G network at the end of last year. We are ""expanding our network and deploying EV-DO technology to meet customer demand for faster wireless speeds,"" said Oliver Valente, Sprint's vice president for technology development, when the contract was announced. As part of $3bn in multi-year contracts announced late last year, Sprint will spend around $1bn on EV-DO technology from Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Motorola that provides average data speeds of 0.3-0.5 megabits a second, and peak download rates of 2.4Mbps. MMO2, the UK-based operator with services in the UK, Ireland and Germany, has opted for technology based on HSDPA. Using technology from Lucent, it will offer data speeds of 3.6Mbps from next summer on its Isle of Man 3G network, and will eventually support speeds of up to 14.4Mbps. US operator Cingular Wireless is also adopting HSDPA, using technology from Lucent alongside equipment from Siemens and Ericsson. Siemens' plans for a one gigabit network may be more than a user needs today, but Christoph Caselitz, president of the mobile networks division at the firm says that: ""By the time the next generation of mobile communication debuts in 2015, the need for transmission capacities for voice, data, image and multimedia is conservatively anticipated to rise by a factor of 10."" Siemens - in collaboration with the Fraunhofer German-Sino Lab for Mobile Communications and the Institute for Applied Radio System Technology - has souped up mobile communications by using three transmitting and four receiving antennae, instead of the usual one. This enables a data transmission, such as sending a big file or video, to be broken up into different flows of data that can be sent simultaneously over one radio frequency band. The speeds offered by 3G mobile seemed fast at the time mobile operators were paying huge sums for 3G licences. But today, instead of connecting to the internet by slow, dial-up phone connection, many people are used to broadband networks that offer speeds of 0.5 megabits a second - much faster than 3G. This means users are likely to find 3G disappointing unless the networks are souped up. If they aren't, those lucrative ""power users"", such as computer geeks and busy business people will avoid them for all but the most urgent tasks, reducing the potential revenues available to mobile operators. But one gigabit a second systems will not be available immediately. Siemens says that though the system works in the laboratory, it still has to assess the mobility of multiple-antennae devices and conduct field trials. A commercial system could be as far away as 2012, though Siemens did not rule out an earlier date." -tech,"T-Mobile bets on 'pocket office' T-Mobile has launched its latest ""pocket office"" third-generation (3G) device which also has built-in wi-fi - high-speed wireless net access. Unlike other devices where the user has to check which high-speed network is available to transfer data, the device selects the fastest one itself. The MDA IV, released in the summer, is an upgrade to the company's existing smartphone, the 2.5G/wi-fi MDA III. It reflects the push by mobile firms for devices that are like mini laptops. The device has a display that can be swivelled and angled so it can be used like a small computer, or as a conventional clamshell phone. The Microsoft Mobile phone, with two cameras and a Qwerty keyboard, reflects the design of similar all-in-one models released this year, such as Motorola's MPx. ""One in five European workers are already mobile - meaning they spend significant time travelling and out of the office,"" Rene Obermann, T-Mobile's chief executive, told a press conference at the 3GSM trade show in Cannes. He added: ""What they need is their office when they are out of the office."" T-Mobile said it was seeing increasing take up for what it calls ""Office in a Pocket"" devices, with 100,000 MDAs sold in Europe already. In response to demand, T-Mobile also said it would be adding the latest phone-shaped Blackberry to its mobile range. Reflecting the growing need to be connected outside the office, it announced it would introduce a flat-fee £20 ($38) a month wi-fi tariff for people in the UK using its wi-fi hotspots. It said it would nearly double the number of its hotspots - places where wi-fi access is available - globally from 12,300 to 20,000. It also announced it was installing high-speed wi-fi on certain train services, such as the UK's London to Brighton service, to provide commuters a fast net connection too. The service, which has been developed with Southern trains, Nomad Digital (who provide the technology), begins with a free trial on 16 trains on the route from early March to the end of April. A full service is set to follow in the summer. Wi-fi access points will be connected to a Wimax wireless network - faster than wi-fi - running alongside the train tracks. Brian McBride, managing director of T-Mobile in the UK, said: ""We see a growing trend for business users needing to access e-mail securely on the move. ""We are able to offer this by maintaining a constant data session for the entire journey."" He said this was something other similar in-train wi-fi services, such as that offered on GNER trains, did not offer yet. Mr Obermann added that the mobile industry in general was still growing, with many more opportunities for more services which would bear fruit for mobile companies in future. Thousands of mobile industry experts are gathered in Cannes, France, for the 3GSM which runs from 14 to 17 February." -tech,"Speak easy plan for media players Music and film fans will be able to control their digital media players just by speaking to them, under plans in development by two US firms. ScanSoft and Gracenote are developing technology to give people access to their film and music libraries simply by voice control. They want to give people hands-free access to digital music and films in the car, or at home or on the move. Huge media libraries on some players can make finding single songs hard. ""Voice command-and-control unlocks the potential of devices that can store large digital music collections,"" said Ross Blanchard, vice president of business development for Gracenote. ""These applications will radically change the car entertainment experience, allowing drivers to enjoy their entire music collections without ever taking their hands off the steering wheel,"" he added. Gracenote provides music library information for millions of different albums for jukeboxes such as Apple's iTunes. The new technology will be designed so that people can play any individual song or movie out of a collection, just by saying its name. Users will also be able to request music that fits a mood or an occasion, or a film just by saying the actor's name. ""Speech is a natural fit for today's consumer devices, particularly in mobile environments,"" said Alan Schwartz, vice president of SpeechWorks, a division of ScanSoft. ""Pairing our voice technologies with Gracenote's vast music database will bring the benefits of speech technologies to a host of consumer devices and enable people to access their media in ways they've never imagined."" The two firms did not say if they were developing the technology for languages other than English. Users will also be able to get more information on a favourite song they have been listening to by asking: ""What is this?"" Portable players are becoming popular in cars and a number of auto firms are working with Apple to device interfaces to control the firm's iPod music player. But with tens of thousands of songs able to be stored on one player, voice control would make finding that elusive track by Elvis Presley much easier. The firms gave no indication about whether the iPod, or any other media player, were in mind for the use of the voice control technology. The companies estimate that the technology will be available in the fourth quarter of 2005." -tech,"What high-definition will do to DVDs First it was the humble home video, then it was the DVD, and now Hollywood is preparing for the next revolution in home entertainment - high-definition. High-definition gives incredible, 3D-like pictures and surround sound. The DVD disks and the gear to play them will not be out for another year or so, and there at are still a number of issues to be sorted out. But when high-definition films do come out on the new format DVDs, it will profoundly change home entertainment. For Rick Dean, director of business development for digital content company THX, a high-definition future is an exciting prospect. He has worked on the Star Wars DVD trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Indiana Jones. ""There was a time not so long ago when the film world and the video world were two completely separate worlds,"" he told the BBC News website. ""The technology we are dealing with now means they are very much conjoined. ""The film that we see in theatres is coming from the same digital file that we take the home video master,"" he says. But currently, putting a master feature film onto DVD requires severe compression because current DVD technology cannot hold as much as high-definition films demand. ""As much as you compress the picture data rate wise, you also take qualities away from the picture that we fight so hard to keep in the master,"" he explains. ""I would love to be able to show people what projects that we worked on really look like in the high-def world and I find it very exciting."" High-definition DVDs can hold up to six times more data than the DVDs we are used to. It will take time though to persuade people who spent money on DVD players to buy the different players and displays required to watch high-definition DVDs in 18 months' time. Mr Dean is confident though: ""I think if they see real HD [high-definition], not some heavily compressed version of it, there is such a remarkable difference. ""I have heard comments from people who say the images pop off the screen."" High-definition will mean some changes for those working behind the scenes too. On the whole, producing films for high-definition DVDs will be easier in some ways because less compression is needed. Equally, it may mean Hollywood studios ask for more to be put onto the average DVD. ""When we master movies right now, our data rates are running at about 1.2 gigabits per second,"" says Mr Dean. ""Our DVDs that we put out today have to be squashed down to about five or six megabits per second. ""That's a huge amount of compression that has to be applied - about 98%. So if you have anything that allows more space, you don't have to compress so hard."" Studios could fit a lot more marketing material, games, and features, onto high-capacity DVDs. Currently, an entire DVD project can take up to three months, says Mr Dean. Although the step of down-converting will be bypassed, this will realistically only save a day's work, says Mr Dean. One of the most time consuming elements is building DVD navigation and menu systems. On the fairly complex Star Wars disks, making sure the menu buttons worked took 45 human hours alone. If studios want to cash in on the extra space, it could mean extra human hours, for which someone has to pay. ""If the decision on the studio side is that they are going to put a lot more on these disks, it could be more expensive because of all the extra navigation that is required."" And if studios do focus on delivering more ""added value content"", thinks Mr Dean, ultimately it could mean that they will want more money for it. Those costs could filter down to the price ticket on a high-definition DVD. But if the consumer is not willing to pay a premium price, studios will listen, thinks Mr Dean. High-definition throws up other challenge to film makers and DVD production alike. More clarity on screen means film makers have to make doubly sure that attention to detail is meticulous. ""When we did the first HD version of Star Wars Episode I, everybody was very sun-tanned, but that was make-up. ""In the HD version of Episode I, all these make-up lines showed up,"" explains Mr Dean. The restoration of the older Star Wars episodes revealed some interesting items too. ""There are scans of a corridor [on the Death Star] and fairly plainly in one of those shots, there is a file cabinet stuck behind one of the doorways. ""You never used to be able to see it because things are just blurred enough during the pan that you just didn't see it."" What high-definition revolution ultimately means is that the line between home entertainment and cinema worlds will blur. With home theatre systems turning living rooms into cinemas, this line blurs even further. It could also mean that how we get films, and in what format, will widen. ""In the future we are going to look towards file delivery over IP [internet protocol - broadband], giving a DVD-like experience from the set-top box to the hard drive,"" says Mr Dean. But that is some time off for most, and for now, people still like to show off something physical in their bookshelves." -tech,"Global digital divide 'narrowing' The ""digital divide"" between rich and poor nations is narrowing fast, according to a World Bank report. The World Bank questioned a United Nation's campaign to increase usage and access to technology in poorer nations. ""People in the developing world are getting more access at an incredible rate - far faster than... in the past,"" said the report. But a spokesman for the UN's World Summit on the Information Society said the digital divide remained very real. ""The digital divide is rapidly closing,"" the World Bank report said. Half the world's population now has access to a fixed-line telephone, the report said, and 77% to a mobile network. The report's figures surpass a WSIS campaign goal that calls for 50% access to telephones by 2015. The UN hopes that widening access to technology such as mobile phones and the net will help eradicate poverty. ""Developing countries are catching up with the rich world in terms of access [to mobile networks],"" the report said. ""Africa is part of a worldwide trend of rapid rollout... this applies to countries rich and poor, reformed or not, African, Asian, European and Latin American."" A spokesman for the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS), which is meeting this week in Geneva, told the BBC News website: ""The digital divide is very much real and needs to be addressed. ""Some financing has to be found to help narrow the divide."" On Tuesday, a meeting of the WSIS in Geneva agreed to the creation of a Digital Solitary Fund. ""The fund is voluntary and will help finance local community-based projects,"" said the WSIS spokesman. Under the proposals agreed, voluntary contribution of 1% on contracts obtained by private technology service providers could be made to the Digital Solidarity Fund. The exact financing mechanism of the fund is to be ironed out in the coming days, said the WSIS. Sixty percent of resources collected by the fund will be made available for projects in least developed countries, 30% for projects in developing countries, and 10% for projects in developed countries." -tech,"Blogs take on the mainstream Web logs or blogs are everywhere, with at least an estimated five million on the web and that number is set to grow. These online diaries come in many shapes and styles, ranging from people willing to sharing their views, pictures and links, to companies interested in another way of reaching their customers. But this year the focus has been on blogs which cast a critical eye over news events, often writing about issues ignored by the big media or offering an eye-witness account of events. Most blogs may have only a small readership, but communication experts say they have provided an avenue for people to have a say in the world of politics. The most well-known examples include Iraqi Salam Pax's accounts of the US-led war, former Iranian vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi exclusive insight into the Islamic Republic's government, and the highs and lows of the recent US election campaign. There are already websites pulling together these first-hand reporting accounts heralded by blogs, like wikinews.com, launched last November. The blogging movement has been building up for many years. Andrew Nachison, Director of the Media Center, a US-based think-tank that studies media, technology and society, highlights the US presidential race as a possible turning point for blogs. ""You could look at that as a moment when audiences exercised a new form of power, to choose among many more sources of information than they have never had before,"" he says. ""And blogs were a key part of that transformation."" Among them were blogs carrying picture messages, saying ""we are sorry"" for George W Bush's victory and the responses from his supporters. Mr Nachison argues blogs have become independent sources for images and ideas that circumvent traditional sources of news and information such as newspapers, TV and radio. ""We have to acknowledge that in all of these cases, mainstream media actually plays a role in the discussion and the distribution of these ideas,"" he told the BBC News website. ""But they followed the story, they didn't lead it."" Some parts of the so-called traditional media have expressed concerns about this emerging competitor, raising questions about the journalistic value of blogs. Others, like the French newspaper Le Monde, have applied a different strategy, offering blogs as part of its content. ""I don't think the mission and role of journalism is threatened. It is in transition, as society itself is in transition,"" says Mr Nachison. However, he agrees with other experts like the linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky, that mainstream media has lost the traditional role of news gatekeeper. ""The one-to-many road of traditional journalism, yes, it is threatened. And professional journalists need to acclimate themselves to an environment in which there are many more contributors to the discourse,"" says Mr Nachison. ""The notion of a gatekeeper who filters and decides what's acceptable for public consumption and what isn't, that's gone forever."" ""With people now walking around with information devices in their pockets, like camera or video phones, we are going to see more instances of ordinary citizens breaking stories."" It seems unlikely that we will end up living in a planet where every human is a blogger. But the current number of blogs is likely to keep on growing, in a web already overloaded with information. Blog analysis firm Technorati estimates the number of blogs in existence, the so-called blogosphere, has already exceeded five million, and is growing at exponential levels. Tools such as Google's Blogger, MovableType and the recently launched beta version of MSN Spaces are making it easier to run a blog. US research think-tank Pew Internet & American Life says a blog is created every 5.8 seconds, although less than 40% of the total are updated at least once every two months. But experts agree that the phenomenon, allowing individuals to publish, share ideas, exchange information, comment on current issues, post images or video on the web easily, is here to stay. ""We are entering one era in which the technological infrastructure is creating a different context for how we tell our stories and how we communicate with each other,"" said Mr Nachison. ""And there's going to be bad that comes with the good.""" -tech,"Home phones face unclear future The fixed line phone in your home could soon be an endangered species. Research by handset maker Nokia shows that more and more people are using their mobile phone for every call they make or take. According to the study, more than 45 million people in the UK, Germany, US and South Korea now only use a mobile. It showed that people keep their fixed line phone because call charges are lower, but most of those questioned said the future was definitely mobile. The Nokia-sponsored research showed that mobiles and fixed phones were used for different purposes. Home phones were used for longer calls but conversations on mobiles tended to be shorter, between mobiles and to friends. In the UK 69% of those questioned said they turned to their fixed phone because it was still cheaper to use than a mobile. However, when pressed few could say with accuracy how tariffs on fixed and mobile phones compared. In the US and Germany many of those interviewed said they used the fixed phone because it was more reliable than a mobile handset and let them get access to the net at relatively high speeds. In all the countries where interviews were carried out, older people were more likely to use a fixed line phone more than a mobile. Women aged 50 or above almost never use a mobile phone, the research found. The move to mobile was most pronounced in South Korea where 65% of those questioned said they already make most of their calls from a mobile. 18% said they would not get a landline if they moved house. Many of those questioned said they had an emotional connection to their fixed phone that drew on its position in the home and the ""cosiness"" of making a call there. Nokia said these findings had implications for mobile operators who must work hard to ensure that mobiles are seen as cheap, reliable and providing good call quality. The survey also showed that it is not just voice calls that are going wireless. Some of those questioned said they were looking to use a mobile or wireless service to get net access within the next couple of years. Polling firm Mori interviewed more than 6,000 people in the UK, US, Germany and South Korea for the survey." -tech,"Sun offers processing by the hour Sun Microsystems has launched a pay-as-you-go service which will allow customers requiring huge computing power to rent it by the hour. Sun Grid costs users $1 (53p) for an hour's worth of processing and storage power on systems maintained by Sun. So-called grid computing is the latest buzz phrase in a company which believes that computing capacity is as important a commodity as hardware and software. Sun likened grid computing to the development of electricity. The system could mature in the same way utilities such as electricity and water have developed, said Sun's chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz. ""Why build your own grid when you can use ours for a buck an hour?"" he asked in a webcast launching Sun's quarterly Network Computing event in California. The company will have to persuade data centre managers to adopt a new model but it said it already had interest from customers in the oil, gas and financial services industries. Some of them want to book computing capacity of more than 5,000 processors each, Sun said. Mr Schwartz ran a demonstration of the service, showing how data could be processed in a protein folding experiment. Hundreds of servers were used simultaneously, working on the problem for a few seconds each. Although it only took a few seconds, the experiment cost $12 (£6.30) because it had used up 12 hour's worth of computing power. The Sun Grid relies on Solaris, the operating system owned by Sun. Initially it will house the grid in existing premises and will use idle servers to test software before shipping it to customers. It has not said how much the system will cost to develop but it already has a rival in IBM, which argues that its capacity on-demand service is cheaper than that offered by Sun." -tech,"Sony PSP console hits US in March US gamers will be able to buy Sony's PlayStation Portable from 24 March, but there is no news of a Europe debut. The handheld console will go on sale for $250 (£132) and the first million sold will come with Spider-Man 2 on UMD, the disc format for the machine. Sony has billed the machine as the Walkman of the 21st Century and has sold more than 800,000 units in Japan. The console (12cm by 7.4cm) will play games, movies and music and also offers support for wireless gaming. Sony is entering a market which has been dominated by Nintendo for many years. It launched its DS handheld in Japan and the US last year and has sold 2.8 million units. Sony has said it wanted to launch the PSP in Europe at roughly the same time as the US, but gamers will now fear that the launch has been put back. Nintendo has said it will release the DS in Europe from 11 March. ""It has gaming at its core, but it's not a gaming device. It's an entertainment device,"" said Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America." -tech,"Web radio takes Spanish rap global Spin the radio dial in the US and you are likely to find plenty of Spanish-language music. But what you will not find is much Spanish-language hip-hop. Hip-hop and rap are actually quite popular in the Spanish-speaking world, but local artists are having trouble marketing their work abroad. But now, a US company is bringing rap and hip-hop en espanol to computer users everywhere. Los Caballeros de Plan G are one of Mexico's hottest hip-hop acts. They have a devoted fan base in their native Monterrey. But most Mexican hip-hop fans, not to mention fans in most of the Spanish-speaking world, rarely get a chance to hear the group's tracks on the radio. ""You can't really just go on the radio and listen to hip-hop in Spanish... it's just not accessible,"" says Manuel Millan, a native of San Diego, California. ""It's really hard for the Spanish hip-hop scene to get into mainstream radio. You usually have a very commercialised sound and the groups are not really known around the country or around the world."" Millan and two friends set out to change that - they wanted to make groups like Los Caballeros de Plan G accessible to fans globally. Mainstream radio stations were not going to play this kind of music, and starting their own broadcast station was economically impossible. So, Millan and his friends launched a website called latinohiphopradio.com. The name says it all: it is web-based radio, devoted to the hottest Spanish language rap and hip-hop tracks. The site, which is in both in English and Spanish, is meant to be easy to navigate. All the user has to do is download a media player. There are no DJs. It is just music streamed over the net for free. Suddenly, with the help of the website, Los Caballeros de Plan G are producing ""export quality"" rap. The web might be just the right medium for Spanish language hip-hop right now. The genre is in what Millan calls its ""infant stage"". But the production values are improving, and artists such as Argentina's Mustafa Yoda are pushing to make it better and better. Mustafa Yoda is currently one of the hottest tracks on latinohiphopradio.com. ""He's considered the Eminem of Argentina, and the Latin American hip-hop scene,"" Millan says. ""He really hasn't had that much exposure as far as anywhere in the world, but he's definitely the one to look out for as far as becoming the next big thing in the Spanish-speaking world."" Currently, the Chilean group Makisa is also in latinohiphopradio.com's top 10, as is Cuban artist Papo Record. ""Every country's got it's own cultural differences and they try to put those into their own songs,"" Millan says. Latinohiphopradio.com has been up and running for a couple of months now. The site has listeners from across the Spanish speaking world. Right now, Mexico leads the way, accounting for about 50% of listeners. But web surfers in Spain are logging in as well - about 25% of the web station's traffic comes from there. That is not surprising as many consider Spain to be the leader in Spanish-language rap and hip-hop. Millan says that Spain is actually just behind the United States and France in terms of overall rap and hip-hop production. That might be changing, though, as more and more Latin American artists are finding audiences. But one Spaniard is still firmly in latinohiphopradio.com's top 10. His name is Tote King and Manuel Millan says that he is the hip-hop leader in Spain. On his track Uno Contra Veinte Emcees, or One Against 20 Emcees, Tote King shows he is well aware of that fact. ""It's basically him bragging that he's one of the best emcees in Spain right now,"" Millan says. ""And it's pretty much true. He has the tightest productions, and his rap flow is impeccable, it's amazing."" Latinohiphopradio.com is hoping to expand in the coming year. Millan says they want to include more music and more news from the world of Spanish language hip-hop and rap. Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production." -tech,"Parents face video game lessons Ways of ensuring that parents know which video games are suitable for children are to be considered by the games industry. The issue was discussed at a meeting between UK government officials, industry representatives and the British Board of Film Classification. It follows concerns that children may be playing games aimed at adults which include high levels of violence. In 2003, Britons spent £1,152m on games, more than ever before. And this Christmas, parents are expected to spend millions on video games and consoles. Violent games have been hit by controversy after the game Manhunt was blamed by the parents of 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah, who was stabbed to death in Leicester in February. His mother, Giselle, said her son's killer, Warren Leblanc, 17 - who was jailed for life in September - had mimicked behaviour in the game. Police investigating Stefan's murder dismissed its influence and said Manhunt was not part of its legal case. The issue of warnings on games for adults was raised on Sunday by Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt. This was the focus of the talks between government officials, representatives from the games industry and the British Board of Film Classification. ""Adults can make informed choices about what games to play. Children can't and they deserve to be protected,"" said Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell after the meeting. ""Industry will consider how to make sure parents know what games their children should and shouldn't play."" Roger Bennett, director general of Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, said: ""A number of initiatives were discussed at the meeting. ""They will be formulated to create specific proposals to promote greater understanding, recognition and awareness of the games rating system, ensuring that young people are not exposed to inappropriate content."" Among the possible measures could be a campaign to explain to parents that many games are made for an adult audience, as well as changes to the labelling of the games themselves. According to industry statistics, a majority of players are over 18, with the average age of a gamer being 29. Academics point out that there has not been any definitive research linking bloodthirsty games such as Manhunt with violent responses in players. In a report published this week for the Video Standards Council, Dr Guy Cumberbatch said: ""The research evidence on media violence causing harm to viewers is wildly exaggerated and does not stand up to scrutiny."" Dr Cumberbatch, head of the social policy think tank, the Communications Research Group, reviewed the studies on the issue. He concluded that there was an absence of convincing research that media violence caused harm." -tech,"US blogger fired by her airline A US airline attendant suspended over ""inappropriate images"" on her blog - web diary - says she has been fired. Ellen Simonetti, known as Queen of the Sky, wrote an anonymous semi-fictional account of her life in the sky. She was suspended by Delta in September. In a statement, she said she was initiating legal action against the airline for ""wrongful termination"". A Delta spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that Ms Simonetti was no longer an employee. Delta has repeatedly declined to elaborate on what it calls ""internal employee matters"". A spokesperson reiterated this position on Wednesday, confirming only that Ms Simonetti was no longer with the company. The spokesperson also confirmed that there were ""very clear rules"" attached to the unauthorised use of Delta branding, including uniforms. Ms Simonetti announced on her blog she had been fired on 1 November. She said in an official statement: ""As a result of my suspension and subsequent termination without cause by Delta Airlines I am moving forward with filing a discrimination complaint with the Federal Government EEOC [US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]."" She added she had also hired a Texas-based law firm to initiate legal action for ""wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages."" Ms Simonetti told the BBC News website she had received no warning or further explanation when she was suspended on 25 September. Queen of the Sky has received a lot of support and advice from the global blogging community since news of her suspension was brought to light on the BBC News website and others. Her story has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging community about conflicts of interest, employment law and free speech on personal websites. The blog, which she started in January as a way of getting over her mother's death, contains a mix of fictional and non-fictional accounts. Queen of the Sky developed over the months as a character in her own right, according to Ms Simonetti. In the postings, she made up fictional names for cities and other companies she mentioned to protect anonymity. But some postings contained images of herself in uniform. Of the 10 or so images only one showed Ms Simonetti's flight ""wings"". She removed them as soon as she was informed of her suspension. ""I never meant it as something to harm my company and don't understand how they think it did harm them,"" Ms Simonetti said. A legal expert in the US speculated that Delta might be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images were posted. Delta has been hit recently by pressures of rising fuel costs and fierce competition. It has said it needs to cut between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs and reduce costs by $5bn (£2.7bn) a year. Analysts had warned recently that the airline might have to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy prevention. Last week, it struck a $1bn cost-cutting deal with its pilots which could save it from bankruptcy. The deal would see pilots accept a 32% pay cut in return for the right to buy 30 million Delta shares, unions said. And on Monday, it negotiated a deal to defer about $135m in debt which was due next year, until 2007. The airline also said it had agreed the terms of a $600m loan from American Express." -tech,"US duo in first spam conviction A brother and sister in the US have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to AOL subscribers. It is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors. Jurors in Virginia recommended that the man, Jeremy Jaynes, serve nine years in prison and that his sister, Jessica DeGroot, be fined $7,500. They were convicted under a state law that bars the sending of bulk e-mails using fake addresses. They will be formally sentenced next year. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted. Prosecutors said Jaynes was ""a snake oil salesman in a new format"", using the internet to peddle useless wares, news agency Associated Press reported. A ""Fed-Ex refund processor"" was supposed to allow people to earn $75 an hour working from home. Another item on sale was an ""internet history eraser"". His sister helped him process credit card payments. Jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales, prosecutors said. ""He's been successful ripping people off all these years,"" AP quoted prosecutor Russell McGuire as saying. Jaynes was also found guilty of breaking a state law which prohibits the sending of more than 100,000 e-mails in 30 days, Virginia State Attorney General Jerry Kilgore reportedly said. Prosecutors had asked for 15 years in jail for Jaynes, and a jail term for his sister. But Jaynes' lawyer David Oblon called the nine-year recommended term ""outrageous"" and said his client believed he was innocent. He pointed out that all three of the accused lived in North Carolina and were unaware of the Virginia state law. Spam messages are estimated to account for at least 60% of all e-mails sent." -tech,"Hotspot users gain free net calls People using wireless net hotspots will soon be able to make free phone calls as well as surf the net. Wireless provider Broadreach and net telephony firm Skype are rolling out a service at 350 hotspots around the UK this week. Users will need a Skype account - downloadable for free - and they will then be able to make net calls via wi-fi without paying for net access. Skype allows people to make free PC-based calls to other Skype users. Users of the system can also make calls to landlines and mobiles for a fee. The system is gaining in popularity and now has 28 million users around the world. Its paid service - dubbed Skype Out - has so far attracted 940,000 users. It plans to add more paid services with forthcoming launches of video conferencing, voice mail and Skype In, a service which would allow users to receive phone calls from landlines and mobiles. London-based software developer Connectotel has unveiled software that will expand the SMS functions of Skype, allowing users to send text messages to mobile phones from the service. Broadreach Networks has around two million users and hotspots in places such as Virgin Megastores, the Travelodge chain of hotels and all London's major rail terminals. The company is due to launch wi-fi on Virgin Trains later in the year. ""Skype's success at spreading the world about internet telephony is well-known and we are delighted to be offering free access to Skype users in our hotspots,"" commented Broadreach chief executive Magnus McEwen-King." -tech,"File-swappers ready new network Legal attacks on websites that help people swap pirated films have forced the development of a system that could be harder to shut down. One site behind the success of the BitTorrent file-swapping system is producing its own software that avoids the pitfalls of the earlier program. A test version of the new Exeem program will be released in late January. But doubts remain about the new networks ability to ensure files being swapped are ""quality copies"". In late December movie studios launched a legal campaign against websites that helped people swap pirated movies using the BitTorrent network. The legal campaign worked because of the way that BitTorrent is organised. That file-sharing system relies on links called ""trackers"" that point users to others happy to share the file they are looking for. Shutting down sites that listed trackers crippled the BitTorrent network. One of the sites shut down by the legal campaign was suprnova.org which helped boost the popularity of the BitTorrent system by checking that trackers led to the movies or TV programmes they claimed to. Now the man behind suprnova.org, who goes by the nickname Sloncek, is preparing to release software for a new file-swapping network dubbed Exeem. In an interview with Novastream web radio, Sloncek said Exeem would combine ideas from the BitTorrent and Kazaa file-sharing systems. Like BitTorrent, Exeem will have trackers that help point people toward the file they want. Like Kazaa these trackers will be held by everyone. There will be no centrally maintained list. This, said Sloncek, should make the system less vulnerable to legal action aimed at stopping people swapping pirated movies and music. The Exeem software has been under development for a few months and is currently being tested by a closed group of users. An early public version of the software should be available before February. Sloncek said that currently only a Windows version of the software was in development. There were no plans for a Linux or Mac version. He said that costs of writing the software will be paid for by adverts appearing in the finished version of the program. Despite Suprnova administrator Sloncek's involvement with Exeem, the basic technology appears to have been developed by a firm called Swarm Systems that is based on Caribbean island Saint Kitts and Nevis. Users of the Exeem system will be able to rate files being swapped to help stop the spread of fake files, Sloncek told Novastream. Dr Johan Pouwelse, a researcher at the Delft University of Technology who studies peer-to-peer networks, said Exeem was the next evolution in file-sharing systems. But, he said, it would struggle to be as popular as BitTorrent and Suprnova because early versions were not taking enough care to make sure good copies of files were being shared. ""Exeem cannot prevent pollution,"" he said. ""The rating system in Exeem seems flawed because it is easy to insert both fake files and fake ratings,"" he said. Studies have shown that organisations working for record labels and movie studios have worked to undermine Kazaa by putting in fakes. By contrast moderators on Suprnova made sure files being shared were high quality. ""The moderators are the difference between having a system that works and one that's full of crap like Kazaa,"" he said. ""There is a fundamental tension between distribution and integrity,"" he said. Mr Pouwelse said that future versions of file-sharing systems are likely to incorporate some kind of distributed reputation system that lets moderators prove who they are to the network and rate which files are worth downloading. When big files were being shared moderation systems were key, said Mr Pouwelse. He added that the legal attacks on BitTorrent had driven people away from sites such as Suprnova but many users had simply migrated to other tracker listing sites many of which have seen huge increases in traffic. ""It's hard to compete with free,"" he said. No-one from the Motion Picture Association of America was immediately available for comment on the file-sharing development." -tech,"Supercomputer breaks speed record The US is poised to push Japan off the top of the supercomputing chart with IBM's prototype Blue Gene/L machine. It is being assembled for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a US Department of Energy (DOE) lab. DOE test results show that Blue Gene/L has managed speeds of 70.72 teraflops. The current top machine, Japan's NEC Earth Simulator, clocks up 35.86. Due next week, the Top 500 list officially charts the fastest computers in the world. It is announced every six months and is worked out using an officially recognised mathematical speed test called Linpack which measures calculations per second. The speeds will most likely make it the fastest computer system on the planet, yet the chip technology powering the machine is the kind which can be found in familiar devices such as games consoles. The US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham confirmed that the machine had reached the breakneck speed, according to the Linpack benchmark. Until the official list is published, however, Blue Gene/L's position will not be confirmed, and there are expected to be some other new entries. But the test results raise the bar of supercomputing enormously and signal a remarkable achievement. Surpassing the 40 trillion calculations per second (teraflop) mark has been considered a landmark for some time. The IBM Blue Gene/L is only a prototype and is one 5th the speed of the full version, due to be completed for the Livermore labs in 2005. Its peak theoretical performance is expected to be 360 teraflops, and will fit into 64 full racks. It will also cut down on the amount of heat generated by the massive power, a big problem for supercomputers. The final machine will help scientists work out the safety, security and reliability requirements for the US's nuclear weapons stockpile, without the need for underground nuclear testing. The Earth Simulator has held on to the top spot since June 2002. It is dedicated to climate modelling and simulating seismic activity. But in September, IBM said that another Blue Gene/L machine clocked up 36.01 teraflops, marginally surpassing the Earth Simulator's performance. This was achieved during internal testing at IBM's production facility in Rochester, Minnesota, though, so was not an official record. Another giant to enter the fray is Silicon Graphics' Columbia supercomputer based at Nasa's Ames Research Center in California. It would be used to model flight missions, climate research, and aerospace engineering. The Linux-based machine was reported to have reached a top speed of 42.7 teraflops in October. Supercomputers are hugely important for working out very complex problems across science and society. Their massive simulation and processing power means they can improve the accuracy of weather forecasts, help design better cars, and improve disease diagnosis. IBM's senior vice president of technology and manufacturing, Nick Donofrio, believes that by 2006, Blue Gene will be capable of petaflop computing. This means it would be capable of doing 1,000 trillion operations a second. ""When you get a computer as large as a petaflop, you can start to think of simulations that might complement the physical world,"" Mr Donofrio recently told the BBC News website. ""You can start to be more proactive, more interactive and more innovative."" One area where Mr Donofrio sees supercomputing - and Blue Gene machines in particular - as crucial is health. He believes the machines can help scientists understand one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century: protein folding. ""Health is one of the most important problems, not just mapping the human genome, but also protein structures. ""We are a great believer in simulation. It gives you another tool,"" he said. Once the structures of proteins are understood fully, then drugs can be tailor-made to fight diseases more effectively. Compared with the current fastest supercomputers, Blue Gene is designed to consume one 15th the power and be 10 times more compact. Since the first supercomputer, the Cray-1, was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976, computational speed has leaped 500,000 times. The Cray-1 was capable of 80 megaflops (80 million operations a second). The Blue Gene/L machine that will be completed next year will be five million times faster. Started in 1993, the Top 500 list is decided by a group of computer science academics from around the world. It is presented at the International Supercomputer Conference in Pittsburgh." -tech,"Gates opens biggest gadget fair Bill Gates has opened the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, saying that gadgets are working together more to help people manage multimedia content around the home and on the move. Mr Gates made no announcement about the next generation Xbox games console, which many gadget lovers had been hoping for. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet and runs from 6 to 9 January. The latest trends in digital imaging, storage technologies, thinner flat screen and high-definition TVs, wireless and portable technologies, gaming, and broadband technologies will all be on show over the three days. Mr Gates said that a lot of work had been done in the last year to sort out usability and compatibility issues between devices to make it easier to share content. ""We predicted at the beginning of the decade that the digital approach would be taken for granted - but there was a lot of work to do. ""What is fun is to come to the show and see what has been done. It is going even faster than we expected and we are excited about it."" He highlighted technology trends over the last year that had driven the need to make technology and transferring content across difference devices ""seamless"". ""Gaming is becoming more of a social thing and all of the social genres will use this rich communications. ""And if we look at what has been going on with e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, entertainment - if we can make this seamless, we can create something quite phenomenal."" Mr Gates said the PC, like Microsoft's Media Centre, had a central role to play in how people would be making the most out of audio, video and images but it would not be the only device. ""It is the way all these devices work together which will make the difference,"" he said. He also cited the success of the Microsoft Xbox video game Halo 2, released in November, which pushed Xbox console sales past PlayStation in the last two months of 2004 for the first time in 2004. The game, which makes use of the Xbox Live online games service, has sold 6.23 million copies since its release. ""People are online and playing together and that really points to the future,"" he said. Several partnerships with device and hardware manufacturers were highlighted during Mr Gates' speech, but there were few major groundbreaking new technology announcements. Although most of these affected largely US consumers, the technologies highlighted the kind of trends to come. These included what Mr Gates called an ""ecosystem of technologies"", like SBC's IPTV, a high-definition TV and digital video recorder that worked via broadband to give high-quality and fast TV. There were also other deals announced which meant that people could watch and control content over portable devices and mobile phones. CES features several more key speeches from major technology players, such as Intel and Hewlett Packard, as well as parallel conference sessions on gaming, storage, broadband and the future of digital music. About 50,000 new products will be unleashed at the tech-fest, which is the largest yet. Consumer electronics and gadgets had a phenomenal year in 2004, according to figures released by CES organisers the CEA on Tuesday. The gadget explosion signalled the strongest growth yet in the US in 2004. That trend is predicted to continue with wholesale shipments of consumer technologies expected to grow by 11% again in 2005." -tech,"Digital UK driven by net and TV The UK's adoption of digital TV and broadband has helped make it the fourth most digitally-savvy nation in Europe, according a report by Jupiter Research. But the UK still lags in terms of broadband speeds compared to others. The most digitally sophisticated Europeans, in terms of use of digital goods such as mobiles, TV, net and cameras, are the Scandinavians. About 14 million households in the UK, 60%, have digital TV, according to the communications regulator Ofcom. The least digital of the European nations was Greece, in 17th position, according to the Digital Life Index. Scandinavian countries Sweden, Denmark and Norway came out top in the report, but there were some differences in technology trends. ""The European Digital Life Index demonstrates that digital lifestyles are common today, but across Europe there is no single digital lifestyle,"" said Nate Elliott, Jupiter analyst. ""Consumers adopt different digital products and services in different countries."" Although there are differences between different European nations, the gap between them is closing, the report concluded. The trend for gadgets and technologies, such as digital video recorders (DVR), broadband, and video-on-demand will continue across Europe, he added. More than six million UK households now have broadband net. By the middle of 2005, it is estimated that 50% of all UK net users will be on broadband. Cable company NTL is trialling faster ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) broadband technology using ADSL2+ which can give speeds of 18Mbps compared to current speeds which are usually around 1Mbps or 2Mbps. BT is set to trial the technology later in the year. Super-fast broadband will be necessary to the delivery of services such as high-definition TV (HDTV) and video-on-demand, already very popular in France and other European countries. A separate survey by GMIPoll last week found that, globally, people's appetite for technology and gadgets continues unabated. The poll of 20,000 people in 20 countries found that 59% wanted more technology. The computer was the ""must-have"" gadget for most people (75%). The TV took second place (67%), while the mobile was ranked in third position with 54%. Digital cameras were the most popular choice of gadget for 2005, said the survey, with nearly 40% choosing this over wireless, home printing and DVR technologies. However, only 25% of Britons said a digital camera would be their top gadget purchase of the year. Almost a quarter, 22%, said they would be buying some sort of wireless device. Forty-four percent said they would be buying something ""other"". This might include digital music players, or gaming devices. The Nintendo DS, Sony's PSP and Gizmondo all hit the shops in 2005, and the first of the next generation of games consoles, Xbox 2, is set to launch later this year. Jupiter Research's index is calculated using 40 different variables across net users, digital TV adoption, wireless and mobile, online activity, and digital devices." -tech,"Loyalty cards idea for TV addicts Viewers could soon be rewarded for watching TV as loyalty cards come to a screen near you. Any household hooked up to Sky could soon be using smartcards in conjunction with their set-top boxes. Broadcasters such as Sky and ITV could offer viewers loyalty points in return for watching a particular channel or programme. Sky will activate a spare slot on set-top boxes in January, marketing magazine New Media Age reported. Sky set-top boxes have two slots. One is for the viewer's decryption card, while the other has been dormant until now. Loyalty cards have become a common addition to most wallets, as High Street brands rush to keep customers with a series of incentives offered by store cards. Now similar schemes look set to enter the highly competitive world of multi-channel TV. Viewers who stay loyal to a particular TV channel could be rewarded by free TV content or freebies from retail partners. Broadcasters aiming content at children could offer smartcards which gives membership to exclusive content and clubs. ""Parents could pre-pay for some content, as a kind of TV pocket money card,"" said Nigel Whalley, managing director of media consultancy Decipher. Viewers could even be rewarded for watching ad breaks, with ideas such as ad bingo being touted by firms keen to make money out of the new market, said Mr Whalley. Credit cards that have been chipped could be used in set-top boxes to pay for movies, gambling and gaming. ""The idea of an intelligent card in boxes offers a lot of possibilities. It will be down to the ingenuity of the content players,"" said Mr Whalley. For the BBC, revenue-generating activity will be of little interest but the new development may prompt changes to Freeview set-top boxes, said Mr Whalley. Currently most Freeview boxes do not have a slot which would allow viewers to use a smartcard. Some 7.4 million households have Sky boxes and Sky is hoping to increase this to 10 million by 2010. Loyalty cards could play a role in this, particularly in reducing the number of people who cancel their Sky subscriptions, said Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research." -tech,"Speech takes on search engines A Scottish firm is looking to attract web surfers with a search engine that reads out results. Called Speegle, it has the look and feel of a normal search engine, with the added feature of being able to read out the results. Scottish speech technology firm CEC Systems launched the site in November. But experts have questioned whether talking search engines are of any real benefit to people with visual impairments. The Edinburgh-based firm CEC has married speech technology with ever-popular internet search. The ability to search is becoming increasingly crucial to surfers baffled by the huge amount of information available on the web. According to search engine Ask Jeeves, around 80% of surfers visit search engines as their first port of call on the net. People visiting Speegle can select one of three voices to read the results of a query or summarise news stories from sources such as the BBC and Reuters. ""It is still a bit robotic and can make a few mistakes but we are never going to have completely natural sounding voices and it is not bad,"" said Speegle founder Gordon Renton. ""The system is ideal for people with blurred vision or for those that just want to search for something in the background while they do something else. ""We are not saying that it will be suitable for totally blind people, although the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) is looking at the technology,"" he added. But Julie Howell, digital policy manager at the RNIB, expressed doubts over whether Speegle and similar sites added anything to blind people's experience of the web. ""There are a whole lot of options like this springing up on the web and one has to think carefully about what the market is going to be,"" she said. ""Blind people have specialised screen readers available to them which will do the job these technologies do in a more sophisticated way,"" she added. The site uses a technology dubbed PanaVox, which takes web text and converts it into synthesised speech. In the past speech technology has only been compatible with broadband because of the huge files it downloads but CEC says its compression technology means it will also work on slower dial-up connections. Visitors to Speegle may notice that the look and feel of the site bears more than a passing resemblance to the better known, if silent, search engine Google. Google has no connection with Speegle and the use of bright colours is simply to make the site more visible for those with visual impairments, said Mr Renton. ""It is not a rip-off. We are doing something that Google does not do and is not planning to do and there is truth in the saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,"" he said. Speegle is proving popular with those learning English in countries such as Japan and China. ""The site is bombarded by people just listening to the words. The repetition could be useful although they may all end up talking like robots,"" said Mr Renton." -tech,"Can Yahoo dominate next decade? Yahoo has reached the grand old age of 10 and, in internet years, that is a long time. For many, Yahoo remains synonymous with the internet - a veteran that managed to ride the dot-com wave and the subsequent crash and maintain itself as one of the web's top brands. But for others there is another, newer net icon threatening to overshadow Yahoo in the post dot-com world - Google. The veteran and the upstart have plenty in common - Yahoo was the first internet firm to offer initial public shares and Google was arguably the most watched IPO (Initial Public Offering) of the post-dot-com era. Both began life as search engines although in 2000, when Yahoo chose Google to power its search facility while it concentrated on its web portal business, it was very much Yahoo that commanded press attention. In recent years, the column inches have stacked up in Google's favour as the search engine also diversifies with the launch of services such as Gmail, its shopping channel Froogle and Google News. For Jupiter analyst Olivier Beauvillain, Yahoo's initial decision to put its investment on search on hold was an error. ""Yahoo was busy building a portal and while it was good to diversify they made a big mistake in outsourcing search to Google,"" he said ""They thought Google would just be a technology provider but it has become a portal in its own right and a direct competitor,"" he added. He believes Yahoo failed to see how crucial search would become to internet users, something it has rediscovered in recent years. ""It is interesting that in these last few years, it has refocused on search following the success of Google,"" he said. But for Allen Weiner, a research director at analyst firm Gartner and someone who has followed Yahoo's progress since the early years, the future of search is not going to be purely about the technology powering it. ""Search technology is valuable but the next generation of search is going to be about premium content and the interface that users have to that content,"" he said. He believes the rivalry between Google and Yahoo is overblown and instead thinks the real battle is going to be between Yahoo and MSN. It is a battle that Yahoo is currently winning, he believes. ""Microsoft has amazing assets including software capability and a global name but it has yet to show me it can create a rival product to Yahoo,"" he said. He is convinced Yahoo remains the single most important brand on the world wide web. ""I believe Yahoo is the seminal brand on the web. If you are looking for a text book definition of web portal then Yahoo is it,"" he said. It has achieved this dominance, Mr Weiner believes, by a canny combination of acquisitions such as that of Inktomi and Overture, and by avoiding direct involvement in either content creation or internet access. That is not to say that Yahoo hasn't had its dark days. When the dot-com bubble burst, it lost one-third of its revenue in a single year, bore a succession of losses and saw its market value fall from a peak of $120bn to $4.6bn at one point. Crucial to its survival was the decision to replace chief executive Tim Koogle with Terry Semel in May 2001, thinks Mr Weiner. His business savvy, coupled with the technical genius of founder Jerry Yang has proved a winning combination, he says. So as the internet giant emerges from its first decade as a survivor, how will it fare as it enters its teenage years? ""The game is theirs to lose and MSN is the only one that stands in the way of Yahoo's domination,"" predicted Mr Weiner. Nick Hazel, Yahoo's head of consumer services in the UK, thinks the fact that Yahoo has grown up with the first wave of the internet generation will stand it in good stead. Search will be a key focus as will making Yahoo Messenger available on mobiles, forging new broadband partnerships such as that with BT in the UK and continuing to provide a range of services beyond the desktop, he says. Mr Weiner thinks Yahoo's vision of becoming the ultimate gateway to the web will move increasing towards movies and television as more and more people get broadband access. ""It will spread its portal wings to expand into rich media,"" he predicts." -tech,"Ultra fast wi-fi nears completion Ultra high speed wi-fi connections moved closer to reality on Thursday when Intel said it would list standards for the technology later this year. Intel is developing ultra-wideband technology (UWB) which would allow fast data transfer but with low power needs. UWB is tipped to be used for wireless transfer of video in the home or office and for use in wireless USB devices which need low power consumption. A rival UWB standard is being developed by Motorola and chip firm Freescale. At the mobile phone conference 3GSM in Cannes last month Samsung demonstrated a phone using UWB technology from Freescale. At a press conference on Thursday Intel announced that two UWB groups, WiMedia Alliance and Multi-band OFDM alliance had merged to support the technology. UWB makes it possible to stream huge amounts of data through the air over short distances. One of the more likely uses of UWB is to make it possible to send DVD quality video images wirelessly to TV screens or to let people beam music to media players around their home. The technology has the potential to transmit hundreds of megabits of data per second. ""Consumer electronics companies want UWB to replace cables and simplify set-up,"" Jeff Ravencraft, technology strategist at Intel and chairman of the Wireless USB Promoter Group, told technology site ZDNet. ""Thirty percent of consumer electronics returns are because the consumer couldn't set up the equipment."" The first products using UWB technology from Intel are due to hit the market later this year. Initially they will be products using wireless USB 2.0 connections. UWB could also be used to create so-called Personal Area Networks that let a person's gadgets quickly and easily swap data amongst themselves. The technology works over a range up to 10 metres and uses billions of short radio pulses every second to carry data. Intel says the benefit of UWB is that it does not interfere with other wi-fi technologies already in use such as wi-fi, wimax and mobile phone networks." -tech,"Internet boom for gift shopping Cyberspace is becoming a very popular destination for Christmas shoppers. Forecasts predict that British people will spend £4bn buying gifts online during the festive season, an increase of 64% on 2003. Surveys also show that the average amount that people are spending is rising, as is the range of goods that they are happy to buy online. Savvy shoppers are also using the net to find the hot presents that are all but sold out in High Street stores. Almost half of the UK population now shop online according to figures collected by the Interactive Media in Retail Group which represents web retailers. About 85% of this group, 18m people, expect to do a lot of their Christmas gift buying online this year, reports the industry group. On average each shopper will spend £220 and Britons lead Europe in their affection for online shopping. Almost a third of all the money spent online this Christmas will come out of British wallets and purses compared to 29% from German shoppers and only 4% from Italian gift buyers. James Roper, director of the IMRG, said shoppers were now much happier to buy so-called big ticket items such as LCD television sets and digital cameras. Mr Roper added that many retailers were working hard to reassure consumers that online shopping was safe and that goods ordered as presents would arrive in time for Christmas. He advised consumers to give shops a little more time than usual to fulfil orders given that online buying is proving so popular. A survey by Hostway suggests that many men prefer to shop online to avoid the embarrassment of buying some types of presents, such as lingerie, for wives and girlfriends. Much of this online shopping is likely to be done during work time, according to research carried out by security firm Saint Bernard Software. The research reveals that up to two working days will be lost by staff who do their shopping via their work computer. Worst offenders will be those in the 18-35 age bracket, suggests the research, who will spend up to five hours per week in December browsing and buying at online shops. Iggy Fanlo, chief revenue officer at Shopping.com, said that the growing numbers of people using broadband was driving interest in online shopping. ""When you consider narrowband and broadband the conversion to sale is two times higher,"" he said. Higher speeds meant that everything happened much faster, he said, which let people spend time browsing and finding out about products before they buy. The behaviour of online shoppers was also changing, he said. ""The single biggest reason people went online before this year was price,"" he said. ""The number one reason now is convenience."" ""Very few consumers click on the lowest price,"" he said. ""They are looking for good prices and merchant reliability."" Consumer comments and reviews were also proving popular with shoppers keen to find out who had the most reliable customer service. Data collected by eBay suggests that some smart shoppers are getting round the shortages of hot presents by buying them direct through the auction site. According to eBay UK there are now more than 150 Robosapiens remote control robots for sale via the site. The Robosapiens toy is almost impossible to find in online and offline stores. Similarly many shoppers are turning to eBay to help them get hold of the hard-to-find slimline PlayStation 2, which many retailers are only selling as part of an expensive bundle. The high demand for the PlayStation 2 has meant that prices for it are being driven up. In shops the PS2 is supposed to sell for £104.99. In some eBay UK auctions the price has risen to more than double this figure. Many people are also using eBay to get hold of gadgets not even released in this country. The portable version of the PlayStation has only just gone on sale in Japan yet some enterprising eBay users are selling the device to UK gadget fans." -tech,"Screensaver tackles spam websites Net users are getting the chance to fight back against spam websites Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail. Lycos hopes it will make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out. The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data. ""We've never really solved the big problem of spam which is that its so damn cheap and easy to do,"" said Malte Pollmann, spokesman for Lycos Europe. ""In the past we have built up the spam filtering systems for our users,"" he said, ""but now we are going to go one step further."" ""We've found a way to make it much higher cost for spammers by putting a load on their servers."" By getting thousands of people to download and use the screensaver, Lycos hopes to get spamming websites constantly running at almost full capacity. Mr Pollmann said there was no intention to stop the spam websites working by subjecting them with too much data to cope with. He said the screensaver had been carefully written to ensure that the amount of traffic it generated from each user did not overload the web. ""Every single user will contribute three to four megabytes per day,"" he said, ""about one MP3 file."" But, he said, if enough people sign up spamming websites could be force to pay for gigabytes of traffic every single day. Lycos did not want to use e-mail to fight back, said Mr Pollmann. ""That would be fighting one bad thing with another bad thing,"" he said. The sites being targeted are those mentioned in spam e-mail messages and which sell the goods and services on offer. Typically these sites are different to those that used to send out spam e-mail and they typically only get a few thousand visitors per day. The list of sites that the screensaver will target is taken from real-time blacklists generated by organisations such as Spamcop. To limit the chance of mistakes being made, Lycos is using people to ensure that the sites are selling spam goods. As these sites rarely use advertising to offset hosting costs, the burden of high-bandwidth bills could make spam too expensive, said Mr Pollmann. Sites will also slow down under the weight of data requests. Early results show that response times of some sites have deteriorated by up to 85%. Users do not have to be registered users of Lycos to download and use the screensaver. While working, the screensaver shows the websites that are being bothered with requests for data. The screensaver is due to be launched across Europe on 1 December and before now has only been trialled in Sweden. Despite the soft launch, Mr Pollmann said that the screensaver had been downloaded more than 20,000 times in the last four days. ""There's a huge user demand to not only filter spam day-by-day but to do something more,"" he said ""Before now users have never had the chance to be a bit more offensive.""" -tech,"Ask Jeeves joins web log market Ask Jeeves has bought the Bloglines website to improve the way it handles content from web journals or blogs. The Bloglines site has become hugely popular as it gives users one place in which to read, search and share all the blogs they are interested in. Ask Jeeves said it was not planning to change Bloglines but would use the 300 million articles it has archived to round out its index of the web. How much Ask Jeeves paid for Bloglines was not revealed. Bloglines has become popular because it lets users build a list of the blogs they want to follow without having to visit each journal site individually. To do this it makes use of a technology known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) that many blogs have adopted to let other sites know when new entries are made on their journals. The acquisition follows similar moves by other search sites. Google acquired Pyra Labs, makers of the Blogger software, in 2003. In 2004 MSN introduced its own blog system and Yahoo has tweaked its technology to do a better job of handling blog entries. Jim Lanzone, vice president of search properties at Ask Jeeves in the US, said it did not acquire Bloglines just to get a foothold in the blog publishing world. He said Ask Jeeves was much more interested in helping people find information they were looking for rather than helping them write it. ""The universe of readers is vastly larger than the universe of writers,"" he said. Mr Lanzone said the acquisition would sit well with Ask's My Jeeves service which lets people customise their own web experience and build up a personal collection of useful links. ""Search engines are about discovering information for the first time and RSS is the ideal way to keep track of and monitor those sites,"" he said. It would also help drive information and entries from blogs to the portals that Ask Jeeves operates. There would be no instant sweeping changes to Bloglines, said Mr Lanzone. ""Our intent is to take our time to figure out the right business model not to try to monetise it right away,"" he said. Though Mr Lanzone added that Ask Jeeves would be helping organise the database of 300m blog entries Bloglines holds with its own net indexing technology. ""Being able to search the blogosphere as one corpus of information will be very useful in its own right,"" said Mr Lanzone. Rumours about the acquisition were broken by the Napsterization weblog which said it got the hint from Ask Jeeves insiders." -tech,"New Year's texting breaks record A mobile phone was as essential to the recent New Year's festivities as a party mood and Auld Lang Syne, if the number of text messages sent is anything to go by. Between midnight on 31 December and midnight on 1 January, 133m text messages were sent in the UK. It is the highest ever daily total recorded by the Mobile Data Association (MDA). It represents an increase of 20% on last year's figures. Wishing a Happy New Year to friends and family via text message has become a staple ingredient of the year's largest party. While texting has not quite overtaken the old-fashioned phone call, it is heading that way, said Mike Short, chairman of the MDA. ""In the case of a New Years Eve party, texting is useful if you are unable to speak or hear because of a noisy background,"" he said. There were also lots of messages sent internationally, where different time zones made traditional calls unfeasible, he said. The British love affair with texting shows no signs of abating and the annual total for 2004 is set to exceed 25bn, according to MDA. The MDA predicts that 2005 could see more than 30bn text messages sent in the UK. ""We thought texting might slow down as MMS took off but we have seen no sign of that,"" said Mr Short. More and more firms are seeing the value in mobile marketing. Restaurants are using text messages to tell customers about special offers and promotions. Anyone in need of a bit of January cheer now the party season is over, can use a service set up by Jongleurs comedy club, which will text them a joke a day. For those still wanting to drink and be merry as the long days of winter draw in, the Good Pub Guide offers a service giving the location and address of their nearest recommended pub. Users need to text the word GOODPUB to 85130. If they want to turn the evening into a pub crawl, they simply text the word NEXT. And for those still standing at the end of the night, a taxi service in London is available via text, which will locate the nearest available black cab." -tech,"Hi-tech posters guide commuters Interactive posters are helping Londoners get around the city during the festive season. When interrogated with a mobile phone, the posters pass on a number that people can call to get information about the safest route home. Sited at busy underground stations, the posters are fitted with an infra-red port that can beam information directly to a handset. The posters are part of Transport for London's Safe Travel at Night campaign. The campaign is intended to help Londoners, especially women, avoid trouble on the way home. In particular it aims to cut the number of sexual assaults by drivers of unlicensed minicabs. Nigel Marson, head of group marketing at Transport for London (TfL), said the posters were useful because they work outside the mobile phone networks. ""They can work in previously inaccessible areas such as underground stations which is obviously a huge advantage in a campaign of this sort,"" he said. The posters will automatically beam information to any phone equipped with an IR port that is held close to the glowing red icon on the poster. ""We started with infra-red because there are a huge number IR phones out there,"" said Rachel Harker, spokeswoman for Hypertag which makes the technology fitted to the posters. ""It's a well established technology."" Hypertag is also now making a poster that uses short-range Bluetooth radio technology to swap data. Although the hypertags in the posters only pass on a phone number, Ms Harker said they can pass on almost any form of data including images, ring tones and video clips. She said that there are no figures for how many people are using the posters but a previous campaign run for a cosmetics firm racked up 12,500 interactions. ""Before we ran a campaign there was a big question mark of: 'If we build it will they come?'"" she said. ""Now we know that, yes, they will."" The TfL campaign using the posters will run until Boxing Day." -tech,"Creator of first Apple Mac dies Jef Raskin, head of the team behind the first Macintosh computer, has died. Mr Raskin was one of the first employees at Apple and made many of the design decisions that made the Mac so distinctive when it was first released. He led the team that decided to use a graphical interface and mouse that let people navigate around the computer by pointing and clicking. The 1984 release of the Mac reflected Mr Raskin's belief that good design should make computers easy to use. Mr Raskin joined Apple in 1978 as employee number 31, initially to lead the company's publications department. However, in 1979 he was put in charge of a small team to design a computer that lived up to his idea of a machine that was cheap, aimed at consumers rather than computer professionals and was very easy to use. The result was the 1984 Macintosh that did away with the then common text-based interface in favour of one based around graphics that resembled a virtual desktop and used folders and documents. Users navigated around the machine using a mouse and by pointing, clicking and dragging. Although now in common use in almost all computers, these methods were pioneering when first used in the Macintosh. The GUI was developed by Xerox PARC, and used in its Star machine. But the acceptance of the interface did not truly begin until the concept was developed for use by Apple in its pioneering Lisa computer. ""His role on the Macintosh was the initiator of the project, so it wouldn't be here if it weren't for him,"" said Andy Hertzfeld, an early Macintosh team member. Although Mr Raskin drove the team that created the Macintosh he did not stay at Apple to see it released. In 1981 he was removed from the project following a dispute with Apple's mercurial boss Steve Jobs. In 1982, Mr Raskin left Apple entirely. The Macintosh was reputedly named after Mr Raskin's favourite apple, though the name was changed slightly following a trademark dispute with another company. After leaving Apple, Mr Raskin founded another company called Information Appliance and continued to work on better ways to interface with computers. He was also an accomplished musician, played three instruments and conducted San Francisco's Chamber Opera Society. Mr Raskin was diagnosed in December 2004 with pancreatic cancer and died on 26 February at his home in California." -tech,"Peer-to-peer nets 'here to stay' Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are here to stay, and are on the verge of being exploited by commercial media firms, says a panel of industry experts. Once several high-profile legal cases against file-sharers are resolved this year, firms will be very keen to try and make money from P2P technology. The expert panel probed the future of P2P at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier in January. The first convictions for P2P piracy were handed out in the US in January. William Trowbridge and Michael Chicoine pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software. Since the first successful file-sharing network Napster was forced to close down, the entertainment industry has been nervous and critical of P2P technology, blaming it for falling sales and piracy. But that is going to change very soon, according to the panel. The music and film industries have started some big legal cases against owners of legitimate P2P networks - which are not illegal in themselves - and of individuals accused of distributing pirated content over networks. But they have slowly realised that P2P is a good way to distribute content, said Travis Kalanick, founder and chairman of P2P network Red Swoosh, and soon they are all going to want a slice of it. They are just waiting to come up with ""business models"" that work for them, which includes digital rights management and copy-protection standards. But, until the legal actions are resolved, experimentation with P2P cannot not happen, said Michael Weiss, president of StreamCast Networks. Remembering the furore around VCRs when they first came out, Mr Weiss said: ""Old media always tries to stop new media. ""When they can't stop it, they try to control it. Then they figure out how to make money and they always make a lot of money."" Once the courts decided that the VCR in itself was not an illegal technology, the film studios turned it into an extremely lucrative business. In August 2004, the San Francisco-based US Court of Appeals ruled in favour of Grokster and StreamCast, two file-sharing networks. The court said they were essentially in the same position that Sony was in the 1980s VCR battle, and said that the networks themselves could not be deemed as illegal. P2P networks usually do not rely on dedicated servers for the transfer of files. Instead it uses direct connections between computers - or clients. There are now many different types of P2P systems than work in different ways. P2P nets can be used to share any kind of file, like photos, free software, licensed music and any other digital content. The BBC has already decided to embrace the technology. It aims to offer most of its own programmes for download this year and it will use P2P technology to distribute them. The files would be locked seven days after a programme aired making rights management easier to control. But the technology is still demonised and misunderstood by many. The global entertainment industry says more than 2.6 billion copyrighted music files are downloaded every month, and about half a million films are downloaded a day. Legal music download services, like Apple iTunes, Napster, have rushed into the music marketplace to try and lure file-sharers away from free content. Sales of legally-downloaded songs grew tenfold in 2004, with 200 million tracks bought online in the US and Europe in 12 months, the IFPI reported this week. But such download services are very different from P2P networks, not least because of the financial aspect. There are several money-spinning models that could turn P2P into a golden egg for commercial entertainment companies. Paid-for-pass-along, in which firms receive money each time a file is shared, along with various DRM solutions and advertiser-based options are all being considered. ""We see there are going to be different models for commoditising P2P,"" said Marc Morgenstern, vice president of anti-piracy firm Overpeer. ""Consumers are hungry for it and we will discover new models together,"" agreed Mr Morgenstern. But many net users will continue to ignore the entertainment industry's potential controlling grip on content and P2P technology by continuing to use it for their own creations. Unsigned bands, for example, use P2P networks to distribute their music effectively, which also draws the attention of record companies looking for new artists to sign. ""Increasingly, what you are seeing on P2P is consumer-created content,"" said Derek Broes, from Microsoft. ""They will probably pay an increasing role in helping P2P spread,"" he said. Looking into P2P's future, file sharing is just the beginning for P2P networks, as far as Mr Broes is concerned. ""Once some of these issues are resolved, you are going to see aggressive movement to protect content, but also in ways that are unimaginable now,"" he said. ""File-sharing is the tip of the iceberg.""" -tech,"Moving mobile improves golf swing A mobile phone that recognises and responds to movements has been launched in Japan. The motion-sensitive phone - officially titled the V603SH - was developed by Sharp and launched by Vodafone's Japanese division. Devised mainly for mobile gaming, users can also access other phone functions using a pre-set pattern of arm movements. The phone will allow golf fans to improve their swing via a golfing game. Those who prefer shoot-'em-ups will be able to use the phone like a gun to shoot the zombies in the mobile version of Sega's House of the Dead. The phone comes with a tiny motion-control sensor, a computer chip that responds to movement. Other features include a display screen that allows users to watch TV and can rotate 180 degrees. It also doubles up as an electronic musical instrument. Users have to select a sound from a menu that includes clapping, tambourine and maracas and shake their phone to create a beat. It is being recommended for the karaoke market. The phone will initially be available in Japan only and is due to go on sale in mid-February. The new gadget could make for interesting people-watching among Japanese commuters, who are able to access their mobiles on the subway. Fishing afficiandos in South Korea are already using a phone that allows them to simulate the movement of a rod. The PH-S6500 phone, dubbed a sports-leisure gadget, was developed by Korean phone giant Pantech and can also be used by runners to measure calorie consumption and distance run." -tech,"UK net users leading TV downloads British TV viewers lead the trend of illegally downloading US shows from the net, according to research. New episodes of 24, Desperate Housewives and Six Feet Under, appear on the web hours after they are shown in the US, said a report. Web tracking company Envisional said 18% of downloaders were from within the UK and that downloads of TV programmes had increased by 150% in the last year. About 70% were using file-sharing program BitTorrent, the firm said. ""It's now as easy to download a pirate TV show as it is to programme a VCR,"" said Ben Coppin from Envisional. A typical episode of 24 was downloaded by about 100,000 people globally, said the report, and an estimated 20,000 of those were from within the UK. Fans of many popular US TV programmes, like 24, usually have to wait weeks or months until the latest series is shown in the UK. But in some cases, said the report, people were able to watch the new episodes in Britain before US audiences on the west coast of the country. ""Missing a television show presents little problem to anyone with a basic knowledge of the internet,"" explained Mr Coppin. ""Two clicks and your favourite programme is downloading. In effect, the internet is now a global video recorder."" Exact figures are difficult to pin down, but it is thought that about 80,000 to 100,000 people in the UK download TV programmes. Some may just want the odd episode, others are downloading regularly. Many broadcast analysts agree that the net is radically altering the way people get content, like TV programmes. This presents a challenge to broadcasters who are concerned that channel schedules may become less important to people. It is also of concern to them because advertisements are usually cut out of the downloaded programmes. The industry has coined the term ""time-shifting"" to describe this trend of being able to watch what you want, when you want. The increased popularity of personal digital video recorders, TiVo-type boxes which automatically record programmes like Sky+, have also contributed to the trend. There are also numerous programs available on the net which automatically search and store TV programmes for viewers, effectively creating a personal video recorder on a computer. Within half an hour, recorded episodes can be uploaded - or posted - onto file-sharing networks or other download sites. Because they tend to be shorter then full-length films, they can be processed - digitised - quickly. More people with high-speed broadband connections in the UK also means that episodes can be downloaded quickly. According to Jupiter Research 40% of homes with broadband say it helps them pick and choose the programmes they want to see or that friends have recommended. The Envisional reports said that the TV industry should consider offering a legal way to download shows. The BBC ran a trial of what it calls the Interactive Media Player (iMP) last year, which was based on a peer-to-peer distribution model. It let people download programmes it held the rights to up to eight days after they had already aired. It is looking to do a more expansive trial later this year. The BBC already allows radio fans to hear programmes they missed online up to a week after broadcast. About six million people in the UK now have a fast, always-on net connection via cable or phone lines." -tech,"Warning over tsunami aid website Net users are being told to avoid a scam website that claims to collect cash on behalf of tsunami victims. The site looks plausible because it uses an old version of the official Disasters Emergency Committee webpage. However, DEC has no connection with the fake site and says it has contacted the police about it. The site is just the latest in a long list of scams that try to cash in on the goodwill generated by the tsunami disaster. The link to the website is contained in a spam e-mail that is currently circulating. The message's subject line reads ""Urgent Tsunami Earthquake Appeal"" and its text bears all the poor grammar and bad spelling that characterises many other phishing attempts. The web address of the fake site is decuk.org which could be close enough to the official www.dec.org.uk address to confuse some people keen to donate. Patricia Sanders, spokeswoman for the Disaster Emergency Committee said it was aware of the site and had contacted the Computer Crime Unit at Scotland Yard to help get it shut down. She said the spam e-mails directing people to the site started circulating two days ago shortly after the domain name of the site was registered. It is thought that the fake site is being run from Romania. Ms Sanders said DEC had contacted US net registrars who handle domain ownership and the net hosting firm that is keeping the site on the web. DEC was going to push for all cash donated via the site to be handed over to the official organisation. BT and DEC's hosting company were also making efforts to get the site shut down, she said. Ms Sanders said sending out spam e-mail to solicit donations was not DEC's style and that it would never canvass support in this way. She said that DEC hoped to get the fake site shut down as soon as possible. All attempts by the BBC News website to contact the people behind the site have failed. None of the e-mail addresses supplied on the site work and the real owner of the domain is obscured in publicly available net records. This is not the first attempt to cash in on the outpouring of goodwill that has accompanied appeals for tsunami aid. One e-mail sent out in early January came from someone who claimed that he had lost his parents in the disaster and was asking for help moving an inheritance from a bank account in the Netherlands. The con was very similar to the familiar Nigerian forward fee fraud e-mails that milk money out of people by promising them a cut of a much larger cash pile. Other scam e-mails included a link to a website that supposedly let people donate money but instead loaded spyware on their computers that grabbed confidential information. In a monthly report anti-virus firm Sophos said that two e-mail messages about the tsunami made it to the top 10 hoax list during January. Another tsunami-related e-mail is also circulating that carries the Zar worm which tries to spread via the familiar route of Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program. Anyone opening the attachment of the mail will have their contact list plundered by the worm keen to find new addresses to send itself to." -tech,"Microsoft seeking spyware trojan Microsoft is investigating a trojan program that attempts to switch off the firm's anti-spyware software. The spyware tool was only released by Microsoft in the last few weeks and has been downloaded by six million people. Stephen Toulouse, a security manager at Microsoft, said the malicious program was called Bankash-A Trojan and was being sent as an e-mail attachment. Microsoft said it did not believe the program was widespread and recommended users to use an anti-virus program. The program attempts to disable or delete Microsoft's anti-spyware tool and suppress warning messages given to users. It may also try to steal online banking passwords or other personal information by tracking users' keystrokes. Microsoft said in a statement it is investigating what it called a criminal attack on its software. Earlier this week, Microsoft said it would buy anti-virus software maker Sybari Software to improve its security in its Windows and e-mail software. Microsoft has said it plans to offer its own paid-for anti-virus software but it has not yet set a date for its release. The anti-spyware program being targeted is currently only in beta form and aims to help users find and remove spyware - programs which monitor internet use, causes advert pop-ups and slow a PC's performance." -tech,"Broadband set to revolutionise TV BT is starting its push into television with plans to offer TV over broadband. As a telecoms company, BT is moving to a content distribution strategy, Andrew Burke, chief of BT's new Entertainment unit told the IPTV World Forum. ""We want to be an entertainment facilitator,"" he said on the opening day of the London conference. The BBC is also trialling a service to play programmes over the net and has not ruled out offering it to non-licence fee payers overseas. The corporation's Interactive Media Player (iMP) is its first foray into broadband TV - known as IPTV (Internet Protocol TV). ""We see several opportunities for delivering the type of content that normally broadcasters find it difficult to get to viewers,"" said BT's Andrew Burke. With more people on broadband, and connection speeds increasing, telcos around the world are looking for new ways to make money from it. Increased competition between net service providers, encouraged by Ofcom, has eroded BT's position in the market. It is looking for a good return on its investment in the technology which has made broadband over ADSL a reality. It also sees delivering TV over broadband as a way of getting high-definition (HD) content to people sooner than they will be able to get it through conventional, regular broadcasts. The BBC's iMP has just finished successful technical trials and is set for much larger consumer trials later in 2005. Before it officially launches, the BBC must show the government how it offers value for money. Delivering programmes over broadband offers clear public value, says the BBC, because it gives people more control, and more choice. IPTV is a similar idea to VoIP services, like Skype. Both use broadband net connections to carry information, like video and voice, in packets of data instead of conventional means. Since it uses internet technology, IPTV could mean more choice of programmes, more, more interactivity, tailored programming, and more localised content outside of conventional satellite, digital cable, and terrestrial broadcasts. It is all part of the larger changing TV technology landscape and, like personal digital video recorders (PVRs), gives people much more control over TV. Broadcasters see IPTV and PVRs as both as a threat and an opportunity. The BBC recognises that TV over broadband is a reality and aims to innovate with it, said Rahul Chakkara, controller of BBCi's 24/7 interactive TV services. The iMP is based on peer-to-peer technology, and lets people download programmes the BBC owns the rights to for up to seven days after broadcast. ""IPTV enables us to take back that programme to our audience at different times,"" said Mr Chakkara. ""So we can tell our audience that that programme they paid for [via the licence fee], they can access it any time they want."" It helps, said Mr Burke, that people are more au fait with terms like ""digital"", ""interactive"", now that digital TV reaches more than 56% of UK homes. According to Benoit Joly from broadband telecoms firm Thales, 30% of Europe cannot get satellite TV or digital TV. They could get IPTV though. Analysts say that IPTV will account for 10% of the digital TV market in Europe alone by the end of the decade. What needs to happen now, agree analysts, is for connection speeds to be bumped up to handle the service; 20Mbps connections would be ideal. BT does not see itself as a broadcaster of IPTV services, rather as an ""enabler"", said Mr Burke. Its strategy is a ""hybrid"" approach, he explained, where over-the-air conventional broadcasts are supplemented with content over broadband. Initially appealing to niche markets, like sports fans, it will widen out. But IPTV could be used for home-monitoring, ""pet cams"", localised news services, and local authority TV, too says BT. It even suggests that it could target those households in the UK that do not own a computer, 40% of the country. Broadband to them would not be about data and the net - that could come later for them - but about cheap phone calls and more choice of TV programmes. Home Choice already offers 10,000 hours of shows and channels, delivered over broadband to homes in London. With a broadband net subscription, you can also get your TV and phone service. Through content deals and partnerships, it offers satellite as well as terrestrial channels, and bespoke channels based on what viewers pick and choose from its catalogues. It aims to expand nationally, but is seeing a lot of success with what it offers its 15,000 subscribers now, and aims to double uptake as well as reach by the summer. Although still at a very early stage, IPTV is another application for broadband that underlines its growing prominence as a backbone network - another utility like electricity." -tech,"Warnings about junk mail deluge The amount of spam circulating online could be about to undergo a massive increase, say experts. Anti-spam group Spamhaus is warning about a novel virus which hides the origins of junk mail. The program makes spam look like it is being sent by legitimate mail servers making it hard to spot and filter out. Spamhaus said that if the problem went unchecked real e-mail messages could get drowned by the sheer amount of junk being sent. Before now many spammers have recruited home PCs to act as anonymous e-mail relays in an attempt to hide the origins of their junk mail. The PCs are recruited using viruses and worms that compromise machines via known vulnerabilities or by tricking people into opening an attachment infected with the malicious program. Once compromised the machines start to pump out junk mail on behalf of spammers. Spamhaus helps to block junk messages from these machines by collecting and circulating blacklists of net addresses known to harbour infected machines. But the novel worm spotted recently by Spamhaus routes junk via the mail servers of the net service firm that infected machines used to get online in the first place. In this way the junk mail gets a net address that looks legitimate. As blocking all mail from net firms just to catch the spam is impractical, Spamhaus is worried that the technique will give junk mailers the ability to spam with little fear of being spotted and stopped. Steve Linford, director of Spamhaus, predicted that if a lot of spammers exploit this technique it could trigger the failure of the net's e-mail sending infrastructure. David Stanley, UK managing director of filtering firm Ciphertrust, said the new technique was the next logical step for spammers. ""They are adding to their armoury,"" he said. The amount of spam in circulation was still growing, said Mr Stanley, but he did not think that the appearance of this trick would mean e-mail meltdown. But Kevin Hogan, senior manager at Symantec security response, said such warnings were premature. ""If something like this mean the end of e-mail then e-mail would have stopped two-three years ago,"" said Mr Hogan. While the technique of routing mail via mail servers of net service firms might cause problems for those that use blacklists and block lists it did not mean that other techniques for stopping spam lost their efficacy too. Mr Hogan said 90% of the junk mail filtered by Symantec subsidiary Brightmail was spotted using techniques that did not rely on looking at net addresses. For instance, said Mr Hogan, filtering out e-mail messages that contain a web link can stop about 75% of spam." -tech,"US hacker breaks into T-Mobile A man is facing charges of hacking into computers at the US arm of mobile phone firm T-Mobile. The Californian man, Nicholas Lee Jacobsen, was arrested in October. Mr Jacobsen tried at least twice to hack T-Mobile's network and took names and social security numbers of 400 customers, said a company spokesman. The arrest came a year after T-Mobile uncovered the unauthorised access. The US Secret Service has been investigating the case. ""T-Mobile has stringent procedures in place where we monitor for suspicious activity so that limited his activities and we were able to take corrective action immediately,"" Peter Dobrow, a T-Mobile spokesperson said. It is thought that Mr Jacobsen's hacking campaign took place over at least seven months during which time he read e-mails and personal computer files, according to court records. Although Mr Jacobsen, 21, managed to get hold of some data, it is thought he failed to get customer credit card numbers which are stored on a separate computer system, said Mr Dobrow. T-Mobile confirmed that the US Secret Service was also looking into whether the hacker accessed photos that T-Mobile subscribers had taken with their camera phones. The Associated Press agency reported that Mr Jacobsen also read personal files on the Secret Service agent who was apparently investigating the case. A Los Angeles grand jury indicted Mr Jacobsen with intentionally accessing a computer system without authorisation and with the unauthorised impairment of a protected computer between March and October 2004. He is currently on bail. T-Mobile is a subsidiary company of Deutsche Telekom and has about 16.3 million subscribers in the US." -tech,"Software watching while you work Software that can not only monitor every keystroke and action performed at a PC but also be used as legally binding evidence of wrong-doing has been unveiled. Worries about cyber-crime and sabotage have prompted many employers to consider monitoring employees. The developers behind the system claim it is a break-through in the way data is monitored and stored. But privacy advocates are concerned by the invasive nature of such software. The system is a joint venture between security firm 3ami and storage specialists BridgeHead Software. They have joined forces to create a system which can monitor computer activity, store it and retrieve disputed files within minutes. More and more firms are finding themselves in deep water as a result of data misuse. Sabotage and data theft are most commonly committed from within an organisation according to the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) A survey conducted on its behalf by NOP found evidence that more than 80% of medium and large companies have been victims of some form of cyber-crime. BridgeHead Software has come up with techniques to prove, to a legal standard, that any stored file on a PC has not been tampered with. Ironically the impetus for developing the system came as a result of the Freedom of Information Act, which requires companies to store all data for a certain amount of time. The storage system has been incorporated into an application developed by security firm 3ami which allows every action on a computer to be logged. Potentially it could help employers to follow the trail of stolen files and pinpoint whether they had been emailed to a third party, copied, printed, deleted or saved to CD, floppy disk, memory stick or flash card. Other activities the system can monitor include the downloading of pornography, the use of racist or bullying language or the copying of applications for personal use. Increasingly organisations that handle sensitive data, such as governments, are using biometric log-ins such as fingerprinting to provide conclusive proof of who was using a particular machine at any given time. Privacy advocates are concerned that monitoring at work is not only damaging to employee's privacy but also to the relationship between employers and their staff. ""That is not the case,"" said Tim Ellsmore, managing director of 3ami. ""It is not about replacing dialogue but there are issues that you can talk through but you still need proof,"" he said. ""People need to recognise that you are using a PC as a representative of a company and that employers have a legal requirement to store data,"" he added." -tech,"Sony wares win innovation award Sony has taken the prize for top innovator at the annual awards of PC Pro Magazine. It won the award for taking risks with products and for its ""brave"" commitment to good design. Conferring the award, PC Pro's staff picked out Sony's PCG-X505/P Vaio laptop as a ""stunning piece of engineering"". The electronics giant beat off strong competition from Toshiba and chip makers AMD and Intel to take the gong. Paul Trotter, news and features editor of PC Pro, said several Sony products helped it to take the innovation award. He said Sony's Clie PEG UX50 media player with its swivel screen and qwerty keyboard ""broke the design rules yet again"". Other Sony products that helped included the Vaio W1 desktop computer and the RA-104 media server. Mr Trotter said Sony's combining of computer, screen and keyboard in the W1 was likely to be widely copied in future home PCs. The company has also become one of the first to use organic LEDs in its products. ""While not always inventing new technology itself, Sony was never afraid to innovate around various formats,"" said Mr Trotter. Other awards decided by PC Pro's staff and contributors included one for Canon's EOS 300D digital camera in the Most Wanted Hardware category. Microsoft's Media Player 10 took the award for Most Wanted Software. This year was the 10th anniversary of the PC Pro awards, which splits its prizes into two sections. The first are chosen by the magazine's writers and consultants, the second are voted for by readers. Mr Trotter said more than 13,000 people voted for the Reliability and Service Awards, twice as many as in 2003. Net-based memory and video card shop Crucial shared the award for Online Vendor of the year with Novatech." -tech,"How to smash a home computer An executive who froze his broken hard disk thinking it would be fixed has topped a list of the weirdest computer mishaps. Although computer malfunctions remain the most common cause of file loss, data recovery experts say human behaviour still is to blame in many cases. They say that no matter how effective technology is at rescuing files, users should take more time to back-up and protect important files. The list of the top 10 global data disasters was compiled by recovery company Ontrack. Careless - and preventable - mistakes that result in data loss range from reckless file maintenance practices to episodes of pure rage towards a computer. This last category includes the case of a man who became so mad with his malfunctioning laptop that he threw it in the lavatory and flushed a couple of times. ""Data can disappear as a result of natural disaster, system fault or computer virus, but human error, including 'computer rage', seems to be a growing problem,"" said Adrian Palmer, managing director of Ontrack Data Recovery. ""Nevertheless, victims soon calm down when they realise the damage they've done and come to us with pleas for help to retrieve their valuable information."" A far more common situation is when a computer virus strikes and leads to precious files being corrupted or deleted entirely. Mr Palmer recalled the case of a couple who had hundreds of pictures of their baby's first three months on their computer, but managed to reformat the hard drive and erase all the precious memories. ""Data can be recovered from computers, servers and even memory cards used in digital devices in most cases,"" said Mr Palmer. ""However, individuals and companies can avoid the hassle and stress this can cause by backing up data on a regular basis.""" -tech,"Microsoft makes anti-piracy move Microsoft says it is clamping down on people running pirated versions of its Windows operating system by restricting their access to security features. The Windows Genuine Advantage scheme means people will have to prove their software is genuine from mid-2005. It will still allow those with unauthorised copies to get some crucial security fixes via automatic updates, but their options would be ""limited"". Microsoft releases regular security updates to its software to protect PCs. Either PCs detect updates automatically or users manually download fixes through Microsoft's site. Those running pirated Windows programs would not have access to other downloads and ""add-ons"" that the software giant offers. People who try to manually download security patches will have to let Microsoft run an automated checking procedure on their computer or give an identification number. Microsoft's regular patches which it releases for newly-found security flaws are important because they stop worms, viruses and other threats penetrating PCs. Some security experts are concerned that restricting access to such patches could mean a rise in such attacks and threats, with more PCs left unprotected. But Graham Cluley, senior consultant at security firm Sophos, told the BBC News website that it was a positive decision. ""It sounds like their decision to allow critical security patches to remain available to both legitimate and illegitimate users of Windows is good news for everyone who uses the net,"" he said. Windows Genuine Advantage was first introduced as a pilot scheme in September 2004 for English-language versions of Windows. Microsoft's Windows operating system is heavily exploited by virus writers because it is so widespread and they are constantly seeking out new security loopholes to take advantage of. The company is trying to tackle security threats whilst cracking down on pirated software at the same time. Software piracy has cost the company billions, it says. The company announced earlier in January that it was releasing security tools to clean up PCs harbouring viruses and spyware, which 90% of PCs are infected with. The virus-fighting program, updated monthly, is a precursor to Microsoft's dedicated anti-virus software. Last year it introduced the Windows XP Counterfeit Project, a UK-based pilot scheme, which ran from November to December. The scheme meant that anyone with pre-installed copies of the operating system in PCs bought before November could replace counterfeit versions of Windows XP with legal ones for free. It is also increasing efforts to squash software piracy in China, Norway and the Czech Republic, where pirated software is a huge problem, by offering discounts on legitimate software to users of pirated copies Windows. ""China in particular is a problem, with piracy estimated at 92%,"" said Mr Cluley." -tech,"Man auctions ad space on forehead A 20-year-old US man is selling advertising space on his forehead to the highest bidder on website eBay. Andrew Fisher, from Omaha, Nebraska, said he would have a non-permanent logo or brand name tattooed on his head for 30 days. ""The way I see it I'm selling something I already own; after 30 days I get it back,"" he told the BBC Today programme. Mr Fisher has received 39 bids so far, with the largest bid currently at more than $322 (£171). ""The winner will be able to send me a tattoo or have me go to a tattoo parlour and get a temporary ink tattoo on my forehead and this will be something they choose, a company name or domain name, perhaps their logo,"" he told the Radio 4 programme. On the online auction, Mr Fisher describes himself as an ""average American Joe, give or take"". His sales pitch adds: ""Take advantage of this radical advertising campaign and become a part of history."" Mr Fisher said that while he would accept any brand name or logo, ""I wouldn't go around with a swastika or anything racial"". He added: ""I wouldn't go around with 666, the mark of the beast. ""Other than that I wouldn't promote anything socially unacceptable such as adult websites or stores."" He said he would use the money to pay college - he is planning to study graphic design. The entrepreneur said his mother was initially surprised by his decision but following all the media attention she felt he was ""thinking outside the box""." -tech,"Putting a face to 'Big Brother' Literally putting a face on technology could be one of the keys to improving our interaction with hi-tech gadgets. Imagine a surveillance system that also presents a virtual embodiment of a person on a screen who can react to your behaviour, and perhaps even alert you to new e-mails. Basic versions of these so-called avatars already exist. Together with speech and voice recognition systems, they could replace the keyboard and mouse in the near future. Some of these ideas have been showcased at the London's Science Museum, as part of its Future Face exhibition. One such avatar is Jeremiah. It is a virtual man, which you can download for free and install in your computer. His creator, Richard Bowden, lecturer at the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing at the University of Surrey, refers to Jeremiah as ""him"", rather than it. ""Jeremiah is a virtual face that attempts to emulate humans in the way it responds to activity. He is very childlike, he likes visual stimulus,"" he told the BBC News website. ""When he sees children running and laughing and waving at him, he smiles at them. If you ignore him, he gets angry. If you leave, he gets sad. And you can also even surprise him."" Jeremiah is not actually intelligent. It works on vision, reacting in a preset way to the information provided by a surveillance tracker system. It is not able to talk or to hear you, at least not yet. The Surrey team is already working on Jeremiah's next version, that will replace the human face with an underwater and more interactive creature: Finn the fish. ""I am interested in the interaction, providing the ability of a system to watch what's going on and make decisions based on that,"" explained Dr Bowden. The research comes at a time when people are having to cope with an increasing number of hi-tech gadgets. Experts say a much more natural way to interact with these devices, such as a virtual human, could make it much easier to make the most of all those new gizmos. ""If you get up at three o'clock in the morning, and you go downstairs, there are probably two things you are going to do: either going to the bathroom, or maybe you are going to make a cup of tea,"" said Dr Bowden. ""Now if the system can watch your behaviour over time, it can learn this, so it would predict what you are going to do, turn on the lights for you, or, before you even get to the kettle, it could have switched it on."" You might even be able to tell your home surveillance system that you will be going away on holiday, and ask if it could make sure that the house is secure once you have left. This might sound like a scary vision of an Orwellian future. But it might all depend on the face that is watching you. ""When we put the surveillance cameras in our centre, a lot of people were very unhappy about the fact that there was a system watching them,"" said Dr Bowden. ""But when Jeremiah's camera went in, nobody minded, because although it's still watching them, they could see what it was watching.""" -tech,"DVD copy protection strengthened DVDs will be harder to copy thanks to new anti-piracy measures devised by copy protection firm Macrovision. The pirated DVD market is enormous because current copy protection was hacked more than five years ago. Macrovision says its new RipGuard technology will thwart most, but not all, of the current DVD ripping (copying) programs used to pirate DVDs. ""RipGuard is designed to... reduce DVD ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer,"" said the firm. Macrovision said the new technology will work in ""nearly all"" current DVD players when applied to the discs, but it did not specify how many machines could have a problem with RipGuard. Some BBC News website users have expressed concerns that the new technology will mean that DVDs will not work on PCs running the operating system Linux. The new technology will be welcomed by Hollywood film studios which are increasingly relying on revenue from DVD sales. The film industry has stepped up efforts to fight DVD piracy in the last 12 months, taking legal action against websites which offer pirated copies of DVD movies for download. ""Ultimately, we see RipGuard DVD... evolving beyond anti-piracy, and towards enablement of legitimate online transactions, interoperability in tomorrow's digital home, and the upcoming high-definition formats,"" said Steve Weinstein, executive vice president and general manager of Macrovision's Entertainment Technologies Group. Macrovision said RipGuard would also prevent against ""rent, rip and return"" - where people would rent a DVD, copy it and then return the original. RipGuard is expected to be rolled out on DVDs from the middle of 2005, the company said. The new system works specifically to block most ripping programs - if used, those programs will now most likely crash, the company said. Macrovision has said that Rip Guard can be updated if hackers find a way around the new anti-copying measures." -tech,"Movie body hits peer-to-peer nets The movie industry has struck out at file-sharing networks with another round of lawsuits in the US. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) also said it had succeeded in getting a network called LokiTorrent closed down. It is the latest network which uses the peer-to-peer system called BitTorrent to be hit by the MPAA. The MPAA began its legal campaign against operators of similar networks across four continents in December. A Dallas court agreed that Hollywood lawyers would be allowed access to LokiTorrent's server records which could let them single out those who were sharing files illegally. In October 2004, the site had provided links to more than 30,000 files. The action came after the operators of LokiTorrent agreed a settlement with the MPAA. A stark message has appeared on the site from the MPAA warning ""You can click, but you can't hide"". In BitTorrent systems, server sites do not host the files being shared. They host links, called ""trackers"" that direct people to others that have it instead. As well as filing an unspecified number of file suits across the US, the MPAA said it had given operators that host eDonkey servers ""take down"" notices. Hollywood studios are aggressively clamping down on file-sharers who it says infringe copyright laws by copying films and TV programmes then share the files online. But it is now targeting the operators of BitTorrent networks themselves. It has filed 100 lawsuits against operators of BitTorrent server sites since December. The strategy of hitting those who run the servers which link to copyrighted material is intended to stunt file-sharers' ability to swap content using BitTorrent systems. The film industry says the black market for illegally copied videos and DVDs already costs them billions every year and it is worried that illegal file-sharing is adding to their losses. In December, the legal action claimed its most high-profile victim. The popular Suprnova.org website was forced to close, and others like Phoenix Torrent followed soon after." -tech,"Broadband fuels online expression Fast web access is encouraging more people to express themselves online, research suggests. A quarter of broadband users in Britain regularly upload content and have personal sites, according to a report by UK think-tank Demos. It said that having an always-on, fast connection is changing the way people use the internet. More than five million households in the UK have broadband and that number is growing fast. The Demos report looked at the impact of broadband on people's net habits. It found that more than half of those with broadband logged on to the web before breakfast. One in five even admitted to getting up in the middle of the night to browse the web. More significantly, argues the report, broadband is encouraging people to take a more active role online. It found that one in five post something on the net everyday, ranging from comments or opinions on sites to uploading photographs. ""Broadband is putting the 'me' in media as it shifts power from institutions and into the hands of the individual,"" said John Craig, co-author of the Demos report. ""From self-diagnosis to online education, broadband creates social innovation that moves the debate beyond simple questions of access and speed."" The Demos report, entitled Broadband Britain: The End Of Asymmetry?, was commissioned by net provider AOL. ""Broadband is moving the perception of the internet as a piece of technology to an integral part of home life in the UK,"" said Karen Thomson, Chief Executive of AOL UK, ""with many people spending time on their computers as automatically as they might switch on the television or radio."" According to analysts Nielsen//NetRatings, more than 50% of the 22.8 million UK net users regularly accessing the web from home each month are logging on at high speed They spend twice as long online than people on dial-up connections, viewing an average of 1,444 pages per month. The popularity of fast net access is growing, partly fuelled by fierce competition over prices and services." -tech,"Digital guru floats sub-$100 PC Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of MIT's Media Labs, says he is developing a laptop PC that will go on sale for less than $100 (£53). He told the BBC World Service programme Go Digital he hoped it would become an education tool in developing countries. He said one laptop per child could be "" very important to the development of not just that child but now the whole family, village and neighbourhood"". He said the child could use the laptop like a text book. He described the device as a stripped down laptop, which would run a Linux-based operating system, ""We have to get the display down to below $20, to do this we need to rear project the image rather than using an ordinary flat panel. ""The second trick is to get rid of the fat , if you can skinny it down you can gain speed and the ability to use smaller processors and slower memory."" The device will probably be exported as a kit of parts to be assembled locally to keep costs down. Mr Negroponte said this was a not for profit venture, though he recognised that the manufacturers of the components would be making money. In 1995 Mr Negroponte published the bestselling Being Digital, now widely seen as predicting the digital age. The concept is based on experiments in the US state of Maine, where children were given laptop computers to take home and do their work on. While the idea was popular amongst the children, it initially received some resistance from the teachers and there were problems with laptops getting broken. However, Mr Negroponte has adapted the idea to his own work in Cambodia where he set up two schools together with his wife and gave the children laptops. ""We put in 25 laptops three years ago , only one has been broken, the kids cherish these things, it's also a TV a telephone and a games machine, not just a textbook."" Mr Negroponte wants the laptops to become more common than mobile phones but conceded this was ambitious. ""Nokia make 200 million cell phones a year, so for us to claim we're going to make 200 million laptops is a big number, but we're not talking about doing it in three or five years, we're talking about months."" He plans to be distributing them by the end of 2006 and is already in discussion with the Chinese education ministry who are expected to make a large order. ""In China they spend $17 per child per year on textbooks. That's for five or six years, so if we can distribute and sell laptops in quantities of one million or more to ministries of education that's cheaper and the marketing overheads go away.""" -tech,"Slow start to speedy net services Faster broadband in the UK is becoming a reality as more internet providers offer super-fast services. Some lucky Britons can already take advantage of UK Online's 8 megabits per second service, which was launched in November 2004. BT Retail has announced that it will trial the same speed service, with a national rollout by year end. Other service providers are expected to follow suit and a glut of new voice and video services will follow. ""If the bandwidth is there then ISPs will buy it,"" said Jill Finger, a research director at analyst firm IDC. Others will be watching BT Retail's trials, which is initially for employees and later in the summer for customers, with interest. For BT Retail, she said, the super-fast service could be a way of differentiating it from other players. ""It has been losing market share and this could be one way of gaining some of that back,"" said Ms Finger. Wanadoo is set to trial an 8Mbps service in the summer and also plans to roll out unbundled services - which means it takes over the network from BT - which will provide speeds of up to 15Mbps. There is no timetable for this at the moment. Cable firms ntl and Telewest are also bound to increase bandwidth at some time in the future and, according to an ntl spokesman, are in a better position than BT in the long term. ""BT's network is limited compared to that of cable. With all the other services coming on stream such as video on demand, the question is will 8Mbps be enough?"" he asked." -tech,"Ban hits Half-Life 2 pirates hard About 20,000 people have been banned from playing the Half-Life 2 game. Game maker Valve shut down the online accounts of the players because it had evidence that their copy of the game had been obtained illegally. Copies of Half-Life 2 had been circulating on file-sharing systems soon after it was officially released. Experts said the success of the Half-Life 2 anti-piracy system might tempt other game makers into creating their own version. Half-Life 2 was officially released on 16 November but before gamers could get to grips with the long-awaited title they were forced to authenticate their copy of the game online. Authentication involved setting up an account with Valve's gaming community system called Steam and letting that check which copy of the game was being run. In a statement detailing the banning of the accounts Valve said this system helped identify who had got hold of pirated copies. ""The method used was extremely easy for Valve to trace and confirm, and so there is no question that the accounts disabled were used to try and illegally obtain Half-Life 2,"" read the statement. Valve spokesman Doug Lombardi said that the company had not yet released sales figures for the game and would not say what proportion of all Steam players the 20,000 represented. One effect of Steam's popularity has been to limit the copies of the game sold in shops and artificially depress the game's ranking in the top ten. Even so the title debuted at No 3 in the UK charts. Valve also said that a small number of accounts were closed because people were using stolen credit cards to buy copies of the game or were using stolen Steam accounts. Some of those who have been banned by the move protested their innocence in the online forums on the main Steam site and said they were being punished for what other people did with their account. Some contributors to the forums wondered if the action might force more piracy as people tried to get hold of successive copies of the game to keep ahead of Valve's anti-piracy actions. In its statement Valve also said that rumours that it distributed fake Half-Life 2 keys, copies of the game or instructions on how to hack the game, just to catch pirates and cheats were false. The company said: ""The hack came from the 'community' as do they all."" It added that most of those banned simply tried to use copies of Half-Life 2 circulating on file-swapping systems such as Bit Torrent rather than use hacks to get around the need for CD keys. Rob Fahey, editor of online news site gamesindustry.biz, said the mass banning showed off the power of the Steam system. Before now, he said, it has been hard for game makers to do anything about piracy once the game was being played. ""But with this, Valve is taking really effective steps against people using illegitimate copies of Half-Life 2,"" he said. If Steam proves effective at cutting the piracy of games to a minimum, said Mr Fahey, other game makers may be tempted to set up copycat systems. ""It's not hard to see a point in the near future when every publisher wants you to run an application on your system purely to allow you to play their games,"" he said. This could mean that computers get cluttered with poorly written Steam-type systems that are used to batter people with adverts. Unless game firms were careful, he said, they could face a backlash from consumers who soon get tired of maintaining different accounts for every game they play." -tech,"Apple unveils low-cost 'Mac mini' Apple has unveiled a new, low-cost Macintosh computer for the masses, billed as the Mac mini. Chief executive Steve Jobs showed off the new machine at his annual MacWorld speech, in San Francisco. The $499 Macintosh, sold for £339 in the UK, was described by Jobs as the ""most important Mac"" made by Apple. Mr Jobs also unveiled the iPod shuffle, a new music player using cheaper flash memory rather than hard drives, which are used in more expensive iPods. The new computer shifts the company into new territory - traditionally, the firm is known as a design and innovation-led firm rather than as a mass-market manufacturer. The Mac mini comes without a monitor, keyboard and mouse, and a second version with a larger hard drive will also be sold for $599. The machine - which will be available from 22 January - was described by Jobs as ""BYODKM... bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse"". In an attempt to win over Windows PC customers, Mr Jobs said it would appeal to people thinking of changing operating systems. ""People who are thinking of switching will have no more excuses,"" he said. ""It's the newest and most affordable Mac ever."" The new computer has been the subject of speculation for several weeks and while few people will be surprised by the announcement many analysts had already said it was a sensible move. In January, Apple sued a website after it published what it said were specifications for the new computer. Ian Harris, deputy editor of UK magazine Mac Format, said the machine would appeal to PC-owning consumers who had purchased an iPod. ""They want a further taste of Mac because they like what they have seen with iPod."" Harris added: ""Everybody thought that Apple was happy to remain a niche maker of luxury computers, and moving into a market dominated by low margin manufacturers like Dell is a bold move. ""But it shows that Apple is keen to capitalise on the mass market success it's had with the iPod. The Mac mini will appeal to PC users looking for an attractive, 'no fuss' computer."" The new iPod shuffle comes in two versions - one offering 512mb of storage for $99 (£69 in the Uk) and a second with one gigabyte of storage for $149 (£99) - and went on sale Tuesday. The music player has no display and will play songs either consecutively or shuffled. The smaller iPod will hold about 120 songs, said Mr Jobs. Mr Jobs told the delegates at MacWorld that iPod already had a 65% market share of all digital music players." -tech,"Gadget market 'to grow in 2005' The explosion in consumer technology is to continue into 2005, delegates at the world's largest gadget show, in Las Vegas, have been told. The number of gadgets in the shops is predicted to grow by 11%, while devices which talk to each other will become increasingly important. ""Everything is going digital,"" Kirsten Pfeifer from the Consumer Electronics Association, told the BBC News website. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) featured the pick of 2005's products. ""Consumers are controlling what they want and technologies like HDTVs [high-definition TVs], digital radio, and digital cameras will remain strong in 2005. ""All the products on show really showed the breadth and depth of the industry."" Despite showing diversity, some delegates attending complained that the showcase lacked as much ""wow factor"" as in previous years. The portable technologies on show also reflected one of the buzzwords of CES, which was the ""time and place shifting"" of multimedia content - being able to watch and listen to video and music anywhere, at any time. At the start of last year's CES, the CEA predicted there would be an average growth of 4% in 2004. That figure was surpassed with the rise in popularity of portable digital music players, personal video recorders and digital cameras. It was clear also that gadgets are becoming a lot more about lifestyle choice, with fashion and personalisation becoming increasingly key to the way gadgets are designed. Part of this has been the rise in spending power of the ""generation X-ers"" who have grown up with technology and who now have the spending power and desire for more devices that suit them. More than 57% of the consumer electronics market is made up of female buyers, according to CEA research. Hybrid devices, which combine a number of multimedia functions, were also in evidence on the show floor. ""A lot of this is driven by just the ability to do it,"" said Stephen Baker, a consumer electronics analyst with retail research firm NPD Group. ""Some of these functions cost next to nothing to add."" As well as the show floor showcasing everything from tiny wearable MP3 players to giant high-definition TVs, several keynote speeches were made by industry leaders, such as Microsoft chief Bill Gates. Despite several embarrassing technical glitches during Mr Gate's pre-show speech, he announced several new partnerships - mainly for the US market. He unveiled new ways of letting people take TV shows recorded on personal video recorders and watch them back on portable devices. He disappointed some, however, by failing to announce any details of the next generation of the Xbox games console. Another disappointment was the lack of exposure Sony's new portable games device, the PSP, had at the show. Sony said the much-anticipated gadget would most likely start shipping in March for the US and Europe. It went on sale in Japan before Christmas. There were only two PSPs embedded in glass cabinets at the show though and no representatives to discuss further details. A Sony representative told the BBC News website this was because Sony did not consider it to be part of their ""consumer technology"" offering. Elsewhere at the show, there was a plethora of colour and plasma screens, including Samsung's 102-inch (2.6 metre) plasma - the largest in the world. Industry experts were also excited about high-definition technologies coming to the fore in 2005, with new formats for DVDs coming out which will hold six times as much data as conventional DVDs. With so many devices on the move there were a lot of products on show offering external storage, like Seagate's 5GB pocket sized external hard drive, which won an innovation for engineering and design prize. More than 120,000 trade professionals attended CES in Las Vegas, which officially ran from 6 to 9 January." -tech,"Domain system scam fear A system to make it easier to create website addresses using alphabets like Cyrillic could open a back door for scammers, a trade body has warned. The Internationalised Domain Names system has been a work in progress for years and has recently been approved by the Internet Electronic Task Force. But the UK Internet Forum (UKIF) is concerned that the system will let scammers create fake sites more easily. The problem lies in the computer codes used to represent language. Registering names that look like that of legitimate companies but lead users to fake sites designed to steal passwords and credit card details could become a whole lot easier for determined scammers, says Stephen Dyer, director of UKIF. Domain names are the ""real language"" addresses of websites, rather than their internet protocol address, which is a series of numbers. They are used so people can more easily navigate the web. So-called ASCII codes are used to represent European languages but for other languages a hybrid of a system called Unicode is used. So, for example, website PayPal could now be coded using a mixture of the Latin alphabet and the Russian alphabet. The resulting domain as displayed to the users would look identical to the real site as a Russian 'a' look just like an English 'a'. But the computer code would be different, and the site it would lead users to could be a fake. This is more than just a theory. A fake Paypal.com has already been registered with net domain giant Verisign by someone who has followed the debate around the Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) system, said Mr Dyer. As the idea was to prove a point rather than be malicious the fake domain has now been handed back to Paypal but it sets a worrying precedent, Mr Dyer said. ""Although the IDN problem is well known in technical circles, the commercial world is totally unaware how easily their websites can be faked,"" said Mr Dyer. ""It is important to alert users that there is a new and invisible and almost undetectable way of diverting them to what looks like a perfectly genuine site,"" he added. There are solutions. For instance, browsers could spot domains that use mixed characters and display them in different colours as a warning to users. Mr Dyer acknowledged that it would be a huge undertaking to update all the world's browsers. Another solution, to introduce IDN-disabled browsers could be a case of ""throwing out the baby with the bath water,"" he said. CENTR, the Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries, agrees. ""A rush to introduce IDN-disabled browsers into the marketplace is an overly-zealous step that will harm public confidence in IDNs - a technology that is desperately needed in the non-English speaking world,"" the organisation said in a statement." -tech,"Remote control rifle range debuts Soon you could go hunting via the net. A Texas company is considering letting web users use a remote-controlled rifle to shoot down deer, antelope and wild pigs. For a small fee users will take control of a camera and rifle that they can use to spot and shoot the game animals as they roam around a 133-hectare Texas ranch. The Live-Shot website behind the scheme already lets people practise shooting at targets via the internet. John Underwood, the man behind the Live-Shot website, said the idea for the remote-control hunting came to him a year ago when he was watching deer via a webcam on another net site. ""We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that'. A little light bulb went off in my head,"" Mr Underwood told the Reuters news agency. A year's work and $10,000 has resulted in a remote-controlled rig on which sits a camera and .22 calibre rifle. Mr Underwood is planning to put one of these rigs in a concealed location in a small reserve on his Texas ranch and let people shoot at a variety of game animals. Also needed is a fast net connection so remote hunters can quickly track and aim at passing game animals with the camera and rifle rig. Each remote hunting session will cost $150 with additional fees for meat processing and taxidermy work. Species that can be shot will include barbary, Corsican and mouflon sheep, blackbuck antelope and wild pigs. Already the Live-Shot site lets people shoot 10 rounds at paper and silhouette targets for $5.95 for each 20-minute shooting session. For further fees, users can get the target they shot and a DVD recording of their session. Handlers oversee each shooting session and can stop the gun being fired if it is being aimed off-range or at something it should not be. Mr Underwood said that internet hunting could be popular with disabled hunters unable to get out in the woods or distant hunters who cannot afford a trip to Texas. In a statement the RSPCA said it had ""grave concerns"" about people being allowed to go online and remotely control a rifle. ""We assume it would be extremely difficult to accurately control a gun in this way and therefore it would be difficult to ensure a 'clean kill', something the RSPCA accepts is the intention of those shooting for sport,"" it said. ""Animals hit but not killed would without doubt be caused to suffer unnecessarily,"" said the statement. Mike Berger, wildlife director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said current hunting statutes did not cover net or remote hunting. He said state laws on hunting only covered ""regulated animals"" such as native deer and bird species. As such there was nothing to stop Mr Underwood letting people hunt ""unregulated"" imported animals and wild pigs. Mr Underwood also lets people come in person to the ranch to hunt and shoot game animals." -tech,"Mac Mini heralds mini revolution The Mac Mini was launched amid much fanfare by Apple and great excitement by Apple watchers last month. But does the latest Macintosh justify the hype? Let us get a few things dealt with at the outset - yes, the Mac Mini is really, really small, and yes, it is another piece of inspired Apple design. There is more to be said on the computer's size and design but it is worth highlighting that the Mac Mini is a just a computer. Inside that small box there is a G4 processor, a CD/DVD player, a hard drive, some other technical bits and bobs and an operating system. A DVD burner, wireless and bluetooth technologies can be bought at extra cost. And if you do not have a monitor, keyboard or mouse then you will need to purchase those also. It is not the fastest computer for the money but for under £400 you are getting something more interesting than mere technical specifications - Apple software. The Mac Mini comes bundled with Mac OS X, the operating system, as well as iLife 05, a suite of software which includes iTunes, web browser Safari, iPhoto, Garage Band and iDVD. I doubt many PC lovers would seriously argue that Windows XP comes with a better suite of programs than Mac OS X. Of course, users of open source operating system Linux draw up their own menu of programs. For people who want to do interesting things with their music, photos and home movies then a Mac Mini is an ideal first computer or companion to a main computer. ""It's a good little machine with a reasonable amount of power and just perfect for the average computer user who wants to leave the tyranny of Window and viruses,"" said Mark Sparrow, technical and reviews editor at Mac Format magazine. He added: ""In essence, it's a laptop in a biscuit tin, minus the screen and the keyboard. ""The software bundle that comes with the mini makes your average budget PC look a bit sick."" The relatively low price of the machine has also encouraged the more technically-savvy to experiment with their Macs. One user has already created a ""dock"" to enable him to plug in and out his Mac Mini in his car. The small size of the machine makes it a practical solution for in-car entertainment - playing movies and music - as well as navigation. Another user has mounted his Mac Mini to the back of his large plasma screen and then controls the computer via a wireless keyboard and mouse. When it was first announced some pundits thought the Mini was designed as a sort of stealth media centre - ie the machine would be used to serve TV programmes, music, films and photos - partly due to its small, living room friendly design. But there are obvious reasons why this is not the case - at least not in the here and now The hard drive - at 80GB for the larger model - is too small to be realistically used as media centre. While commercial Personal Video Recorders are on the market with smaller than 80GB hard drives it is worth remembering that they only store TV content. A media centre computer has to store music, files and photos and as such 80GB just seems too small. Most PCs running Windows Media Center have at least 120GB hard disks. Coupled with the lack of a TV tuner card, a digital audio out and any kind of media centre software bundled with the machine then the Mac Mini should be judged on what it is, not what it is not. But that has not stopped more enterprising users from adapting the Mac Mini to media centre uses. So - is the Mac Mini just another computer or a revolution in computing? Graham Barlow, editor of Mac Format, understandably has a rather partisan viewpoint. ""It's just a Mac, but we should be very excited - it's revolutionary in its size (smaller than PCs), looks (looks better than PCs), and the fact that it's the first Mac designed to really go for the low-cost PC market."" The design of the Mac Mini is further evidence of a future when PCs are more than just bland, bulky boxes. There are a number of companies who already produce miniature PCs based on mini-ITX motherboards. But at the moment these PCs tend to be either for the home-build enthusiast or expensive pre-built options based around Microsoft's Media Center software. But for the value the Mac Mini offers, bringing some of the best software packages within reach of more consumers than ever before, Apple is to be congratulated. Let us say then that if the Mac Mini is not a fully fledged revolution - it is a mini revolution." -tech,"China net cafe culture crackdown Chinese authorities closed 12,575 net cafes in the closing months of 2004, the country's government said. According to the official news agency most of the net cafes were closed down because they were operating illegally. Chinese net cafes operate under a set of strict guidelines and many of those most recently closed broke rules that limit how close they can be to schools. The move is the latest in a series of steps the Chinese government has taken to crack down on what it considers to be immoral net use. The official Xinhua News Agency said the crackdown was carried out to create a ""safer environment for young people in China"". Rules introduced in 2002 demand that net cafes be at least 200 metres away from middle and elementary schools. The hours that children can use net cafes are also tightly regulated. China has long been worried that net cafes are an unhealthy influence on young people. The 12,575 cafes were shut in the three months from October to December. China also tries to dictate the types of computer games people can play to limit the amount of violence people are exposed to. Net cafes are hugely popular in China because the relatively high cost of computer hardware means that few people have PCs in their homes. This is not the first time that the Chinese government has moved against net cafes that are not operating within its strict guidelines. All the 100,000 or so net cafes in the country are required to use software that controls what websites users can see. Logs of sites people visit are also kept. Laws on net cafe opening hours and who can use them were introduced in 2002 following a fire at one cafe that killed 25 people. During the crackdown following the blaze authorities moved to clean up net cafes and demanded that all of them get permits to operate. In August 2004 Chinese authorities shut down 700 websites and arrested 224 people in a crackdown on net porn. At the same time it introduced new controls to block overseas sex sites. The Reporters Without Borders group said in a report that Chinese government technologies for e-mail interception and net censorship are among the most highly developed in the world." -tech,"IBM puts cash behind Linux push IBM is spending $100m (£52m) over the next three years beefing up its commitment to Linux software. The cash injection will be used to help its customers use Linux on every type of device from handheld computers and phones right up to powerful servers. IBM said the money will fund a variety of technical, research and marketing initiatives to boost Linux use. IBM said it had taken the step in response to greater customer demand for the open source software. In 2004 IBM said it had seen double digit growth in the number of customers using Linux to help staff work together more closely. The money will be used to help this push towards greater collaboration and will add Linux-based elements to IBM's Workplace software. Workplace is a suite of programs and tools that allow workers to get at core business applications no matter what device they use to connect to corporate networks. One of the main focuses of the initiative will be to make it easier to use Linux-based desktop computers and mobile devices with Workplace. Even before IBM announced this latest spending boost it was one of the biggest advocates of the open source way of working. In 2001 it put $300m into a three-year Linux program and has produced Linux versions of many of its programs. Linux and the open source software movement are based on the premise that developers should be free to tinker with the core components of software programs. They reason that more open scrutiny of software produces better programs and fuels innovation." -tech,"Format wars could 'confuse users' Technology firms Sony, Philips, Matsushita and Samsung are developing a common way to stop people pirating digital music and video. The firms want to make a system that ensures files play on the hardware they make but also thwarts illegal copying. The move could mean more confusion for consumers already faced by many different, and conflicting, content control systems, experts warned. They say there are no guarantees the system will even prevent piracy. Currently many online stores wrap up downloadable files in an own-brand control system that means they can only be played on a small number of media players. Systems that limit what people can do with the files they download are known as Digital Rights Management systems. By setting up the alliance to work on a common control system, the firms said they hope to end this current fragmentation of file formats. In a joint statement the firms said they wanted to let consumers enjoy ""appropriately licensed video and music on any device, independent of how they originally obtained that content"". The firms hope that it will also make it harder for consumers to make illegal copies of the music, movies and other digital content they have bought. Called the Marlin Joint Development Association, the alliance will define basic specifications that every device made by the electronics firms will conform to. Marlin will be built on technology from rights management firm Intertrust as well as an earlier DRM system developed by a group known as the Coral Consortium. The move is widely seen as a way for the four firms to decide their own destiny on content control systems instead of having to sign up for those being pushed by Apple and Microsoft. Confusingly for consumers, the technology that comes out of the alliance will sit alongside the content control systems of rival firms such as Microsoft and Apple. ""In many ways the different DRM systems are akin to the different physical formats, such as Betamax and VHS, that consumers have seen in the past,"" said Ian Fogg, personal technology and broadband analyst at Jupiter Research. ""The difference is that it is very fragmented,"" he said. ""It's not a two-horse race, it's a five, six, seven or even eight-horse race"" Mr Fogg said consumers had to be very careful when buying digital content to ensure that it would play on the devices they own. He said currently there were even incompatibilities within DRM families. Although initiatives such as Microsoft's ""Plays for Sure"" program could help remove some of the uncertainty, he said, life was likely to be confusing for consumers for some time to come. Shelley Taylor, analyst and author of a report about online music services, said the locks and limits on digital files were done to maximise the cash that firms can make from consumers. Apple's iTunes service was a perfect example of this, she said. ""Although iTunes has been hugely successful, Apple could not justify its existence if it did not help sell all those iPods,"" she said. She said rampant competition between online music services, of which there are now 230 according to recent figures, could drive more openness and freer file formats. ""It always works out that consumer needs win out in the long run,"" she said, ""and the services that win in the long run are the ones that listen to consumers earliest."" Ms Taylor said the limits legal download services place on files could help explain the continuing popularity of file-sharing systems that let people get hold of pirated pop. ""People want portability,"" she said, ""and with peer-to-peer they have 100% portability."" Cory Doctorow, European co-ordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation which campaigns for consumers on many cyber-rights issues, expressed doubts that the Marlin system would achieve its aims. ""Not one of these systems has ever prevented piracy or illegal copying,"" he said. He said many firms readily admit that their DRM systems are little protection against skilled attackers such as the organised crime gangs that are responsible for most piracy. Instead, said Mr Doctorow, DRM systems were intended to control the group that electronics firms have most hold over - consumers. ""The studios and labels perceive an opportunity to sell you your media again and again - the iPod version, the auto version, the American and UK version, the ringtone version, and so on.""" -tech,"Web logs aid disaster recovery Some of the most vivid descriptions of the devastation in southern Asia are on the internet - in the form of web logs or blogs. Bloggers have been offering snapshots of information from around the region and are also providing some useful information for those who want to help. Indian writer Rohit Gupta edits a group blog called Dogs without Borders. When he created it, the site was supposed to be a forum to discuss relations between India and Pakistan. But in the wake of Sunday's tsunami, Mr Gupta and his fellow bloggers switched gears. They wanted to blog the tsunami and its aftermath. One Sri Lankan blogger in the group goes by the online name Morquendi. With internet service disrupted by the tsunami, Morquendi started sending SMS text messages via cell phone from the affected areas of Sri Lanka. ""We started publishing these SMSes,"" says Mr Gupta. ""Morquendi was describing scenes like 1,600 bodies washed up on a shore, and people burying, and burying and burying them. People digging holes with their hands. And this was coming through an SMS message. ""We didn't have visual accounts on radio or on TV, or in the print media."" Soon, thousands of web users around the world were logging on to read Morquendi's first hand accounts. In one message, Morquendi wrote about a Sri Lankan woman who was running home with a friend when the wave hit. ""She was being swept away,"" Morquendi's message read. ""She grabbed a tree with one hand and her friend with the other. She says she watched the water pull her friend away."" Mr Gupta says the power of Morquendi's text message blogs was palpable. ""He was running around, looking for friends, burying bodies, carrying bodies,"" Mr Gupta says of Morquendi. ""I can't even begin to imagine the psychological state he was in when he was sending us reports, and doing the relief work at the same time. ""He was caught between being a journalist and being a human being."" Others blogs are helping to spread information about relief efforts. Dina Mehta is an Indian blogger who's helping with the newly created South East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog. She says the blog is not meant to be filled with first person accounts. ""What we're doing is we're building a resource,"" she says. ""Anyone who says, OK, I want to come and do some work in India, volunteer in India, or in Sri Lanka or Malaysia, this is the sort of one-stop-shop that they can come to for all sorts of resources - emergency help lines, relief agencies, aid agencies, contacts for them etc."" Ms Mehta also says she wishes that governments in the region would realise the power of blogs. ""Imagine if they had this resource available to them, if there was a disaster, how quickly you could funnel aid in, and get people to help,"" she says. Bloggers in the United States are also getting involved. Ramdhan Yadav Kotamaraja is originally from India, but now lives in Dallas. Mr Kotamaraja wanted to help those affected by the tsunami by pooling money with concerned friends. So, he set up an online payment system on his website. Then, says Mr Kotamaraja, the blogging world found out. ""All my blogger friends started linking up my site, and I saw a lot of people other than my friends. I'd say 70% of the donations came from people I don't know. ""It's simply unbelievable to me, that people that I don't know will come and start donating."" News spreads quickly on weblogs, a phenomenon that helps bloggers expand their audience and scope. In Sri Lanka, blogger Morquendi is recruiting others to help. One recruit calls himself Heretic. In one of his latest posts, Heretic asks: ""Have you ever seen fishing trawlers on the road? Ever seen a bus inside a house? ""Well,"" Heretic writes, ""that was just the least affected areas - so you can just imagine - or can you?"" He concludes: ""Keep it blogged."" Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production." -tech,"Fast lifts rise into record books Two high-speed lifts at the world's tallest building have been officially recognised as the planet's fastest. The lifts take only 30 seconds to whisk passengers to the top of the 508m tall TFC 101 Tower in Taipei, Taiwan. The Guinness Book of Records has declared the 17m per second speed of the two lifts the swiftest on Earth. The lifts also have a pressure control system to stop passengers' ears popping as they ascend and descend at high speed. In total, the TFC Tower has 61 lifts, 34 of them double-deckers, and 50 escalators to shuttle people around its 106 floors. The TFC 101 Tower is due to be officially opened on 31 December. The super-fast lifts can speed up to 24 passengers to the tip of the tower in about 30 seconds, while ascending their 382m track. The 17m/s top speed of the lifts translates to about 38mph (61km/h). Curiously the lifts take longer to descend and spend almost a whole minute returning to ground level from the top of the TFC Tower. The key new technologies applied in the world's fastest elevators include: - A pressure control system, which adjusts the atmospheric pressure inside a car by using suction and discharge blowers, preventing ""ear popping"" - An active control system which tries to balance the lift more finely and remove the sources of vibrations - Streamlined cars to reduce the whistling noise produced by running the lifts at a high speed inside a narrow shaft ""The certification of our elevators as world record-holders by the authoritative Guinness World Records is a great honour for us,"" said Masayuki Shimono, president of manufacturer Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems which installed the lifts. The first record for the world's fastest passenger elevators was published in the first edition of the Guinness Book of Records in 1955. ""As such, it is an interesting indicator of how technology has advanced in the 50 years since that first edition, when the record was 426m per minute, or 25.6 km/h, less than half the speed of the new record,"" said Hein Le Roux, specialist researcher at the Guinness World Records. Taipei's TFC 101 Tower is more than 50m taller than the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - formerly the world's tallest skyscraper." -tech,"Broadband soars in 2004 If broadband were a jumbo jet, then 2003 would have seen it taxiing down the runway, firing up its engines and preparing for take-off. But this year has seen it soar. In the spring it literally took to the skies as Lufthansa and British Airways trialled it on flights. This perhaps said more about how indispensable people were beginning to perceive the technology, rather than how useful sky-high broadband would actually be. It was flying high and by the autumn, five million Britons had signed up for high-speed net access at home. Such enthusiasm is unlikely to dampen any time soon and experts predict that by the end of next year the numbers will have risen to more than eight million, or more than 30% of homes. The two key factors in whetting people's appetite were falling prices and a huge marketing push. When operators such as BT and Telewest offered standard 512K broadband for less than £20 at the beginning of the year, it was as if an invisible barrier had been breached - broadband had truly gone mass market. A feeding frenzy followed as firms vied for eyeballs in a price war reminiscent of that following the mass market take-up of dial-up. Broadband for less than £10 was even touted by some firms, although such a low price raised eyebrows among more established companies questioning how they are able to sustain such business models. For those who became broadbanders in 2004 there was no turning back and the days of waiting for the modem to kick in began to seem as outdated an idea as a jungle without celebrities. The rest of the world was also falling in love with the benefits of fast internet access, to the tune of 100 million connections worldwide by April, prompting research firm Point Topic to declare it one of the fastest growing technologies ever. By September, the number of broadband connections in the UK finally overtook dial-up and in December BT announced that it was making a new broadband connection every 10 seconds. Broadband was being mentioned on the 10 O'clock News and in the tabloids; the Sun even carried a cartoon joke about it. But two of the most significant pieces of news for broadband were items that did not make the headlines. In May, BT quietly announced that it was shaving 70% off the cost of allowing other operators access to its telephone exchanges, so-called local loop unbundling. The vital local loop is the crucial link between telephone exchanges and homes. At the moment BT has a stranglehold on more than 80% of these lines making it the key voice in deciding what ADSL products get into homes. With cheaper local loop unbundling, rivals to BT can offer faster services that will leave the broadband of today looking positively tortoise-like. It will mean the UK will finally catch up with countries such as France and the Netherlands, where homes are routinely enjoying speeds of up to 15Mb (megabits per second). And the major price fall means that, rather than just talk about it, companies are actually starting to get their own equipment into BT's exchanges. It may not seem that exciting but it is a remarkable transition given that just a few years ago the arguments over local loop unbundling bore more than a passing resemblance to the Northern Ireland peace talks - fraught, bitter and with no end in sight. Another big piece of news for broadband users in 2004 was the extension of BT's reach, meaning more than 95% of the population could get broadband, regardless of how far away from the exchange they lived. There was a slight caveat for those wanting to upgrade to 1Mbps broadband, they still have to live within six kilometres of a broadband-enabled exchange. For thousands frustrated by their inability to get the technology, the news meant they could finally join in. Broadband is not just about fast access over the telephone and cable operators NTL and Telewest also had a bumper year. The biggest news for them was increased speeds, introducing 2Mb and 3Mb services for users and offering a free upgrade to those on 512K. The cable operators are limited in their reach and it is perhaps testament to how big a deal local loop unbundling could become that even they are considering extending their range via this route. Broadband can seem confusing for consumers, with the huge amount of operators offering so many different products, some with capped bandwidth and different length contracts and set-up fees. It is unlikely to get any less easy to understand in 2005 but remains a plane worth catching. As it gets faster and offers extras such as cheap telephone calls online, the only real thing to remember for the coming year is to enjoy the ride." -tech,"Games help you 'learn and play' 'God games' in which players must control virtual people and societies could be educational, says research. A US researcher has suggested that games such as The Sims could be a good way to teach languages. Ravi Purushotma believes that the world of The Sims can do a better job of teaching vocabulary and grammar than traditional methods. The inherent fun of game playing could help to make learning languages much less of a chore, said Mr Purushotma. There must be few parents or teachers that do not worry that the lure of a video game on a computer or console is hard to resist by children that really should be doing their homework. But instead of fearing computer games, Ravi Purushotma believes that educationalists, particularly language teachers should embrace games. ""One goal would be to break what I believe to be the false assumption that learning and play are inherently oppositional,"" he said. He believes that the ""phenomenal ability"" of games such as The Sims and others to capture the interest of adolescent audiences is ripe for exploitation. The hard part of learning any language, said Mr Purushotma, were the basic parts of learning what different words refer to and how they are used to build up sentences. Boring lessons drumming vocabulary into pupils couched in terms they do not understand has made many languages far harder to learn than they should be. ""The way we often teach foreign languages right now is somewhat akin to learning to ride a bike by formally studying gravity,"" he said. By contrast, said Mr Purushotma, learning via something like The Sims may mean students do not feel like they are studying at all. This was because The Sims does not rely solely on words to get information across to players. Instead the actions of its computer controlled people and how they interact with their world often makes clear what is going on. The incidental information about what a Sim was doing could reinforce what a player or student was supposed to be learning, said Mr Purushotma. By contrast many language lessons try to impart information about a tongue with little context. For instance, he said, in a version of The Sims adapted to teach German, if a player misunderstood what was meant by the word ""energie"" the actions of a tired Sim, stumbling then falling asleep, would illustrate the meaning. If necessary detailed textual information could be called upon to aid players' or students' understanding. One of the drawbacks of The Sims, said Mr Purushotma, was the lack of spoken language to help people brush up on pronunciation. However, online versions of The Sims, in which people have to move in, meet the neighbours and get to know the local town, could be adapted to help this. Although not wishing to claim that he is the first to suggest using a game can help people learn, Mr Purushotma believes that educationalists have missed the potential they have to help. Getting a simulated person to perform everyday activities in a make-believe world and having them described in a foreign language could be a powerful learning aid, he believes. Before now, he said, educational software titles suffer by comparison with the slick graphics and rich worlds found in games. But, he said, using pre-prepared game worlds such as The Sims has never been easier because tools have been made by its creators and fans that make it easy to modify almost any part of the game. This could make it easy for teachers to adapt parts of the game for their own lessons. ""I'm hoping now to re-create a well-polished German learning mod for the sequel by this summer,"" he told the BBC News website. ""I'm encouraged to hear that others are thinking of experimenting with Japanese and Spanish."" Earlier work with a colleague on using Civilisation III to teach students about history showed that it could be a powerful way to get them to realise that solving a society's problems can not always come from making a single change. A report on the experiment said: ""Students began asking historical and geographical questions in the context of game play, using geography and history as tools for their game, and drawing inferences about social phenomena based on their play."" Mr Purushotma's ideas were aired in an article for the journal Language Learning and Technology." -tech,"Rings of steel combat net attacks Gambling is hugely popular, especially with tech-savvy criminals. Many extortionists are targeting net-based betting firms and threatening to cripple their websites with deluges of data unless a ransom is paid. But now deep defences are being put in place by some of the UK's biggest net firms to stop these attacks. Increasing numbers of attacks and the huge amounts of data being used to try to bump a site off the web are prompting firms to adopt the measures. ""Net firms are realising that it's not just about anti-virus and firewalls,"" said Paul King, chief security architect at Cisco. ""There are more things that can be done in the network to protect data centres."" Mr King said the only way to properly combat these so-called Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks was with intelligent net-based systems. Many of the gambling sites suffering DDoS attacks are in offshore data and hosting centres, so any large scale data flood could knock out access to many more sites than just the one the criminals were targeting, said Mr King. This overspill effect was only likely to grow as attacks grow in size and scale. Malcolm Seagrave, security expert at Energis, said the most common types of attacks hit sites with 10 megabytes of data over short periods of time. Bigger attacks sending down 200 megabytes of traffic or more were rarely seen, he said. ""It does feel like they are turning the dial because you see this traffic gradually growing,"" he said. So far there have been no attacks involving gigabytes of data, said Mr Seagrave. However, he added that it was only a matter of time before such large attacks were mounted. Maria Capella, spokeswoman for net provider Pipex, said that when DDoS attacks were at their height, customers were getting hit every four to five days. The defences being put in place constantly monitor the streams of data flowing across networks and pluck out the traffic destined for target sites. ""It's about understanding what's genuine traffic and keeping attack traffic from going to the site,"" she said. ""We study the profile of their traffic and as soon as we see an anomaly in the profile that's when we start to get the backbone engineering boys to see if we are going to sustain an attack,"" said Ms Capella. This traffic can be hard to spot because DDoS attacks typically use thousands of computers in many different countries, each participating machine only sends a small part of the entire data flood. Typically these computers have been infected by a virus or worm which reports its success and the net address of compromised machines back to the malicious hacker or hi-tech criminal that set off the virus. Hijacked computers are known as zombies or 'bots and collections of them are called 'bot nets. Many spammers rent out 'bot nets to help them anonymously send junk mail. Most of the zombies are based outside the country that hosts the target site so getting the attacking PCs shut off can be difficult. Often Pipex and other net suppliers do get advance notice that an attack is about to happen. ""The serious players tend to precede an attack with some kind of ransom e-mail,"" said Ms Capella. ""We ask, as part of the service we provide, that customers notify us of anything they have in advance that would give us forewarning."" Once an attack is spotted dedicated net hardware takes over to remove the attack traffic and ensure that sites stay up. Energis took a similar approach, said Mr Seagrave. ""We have technology out there that allows us to detect attacks in minutes rather than let network engineers spend hours pulling the information together,"" said Mr Seagrave. Also net firms were starting to work more closely together on the problem of DDoS attacks and pool information about where they are coming from. Information gathered on attacks and where they originated has led to some arrests. He said Energis also did its own intelligence work to get in insight into which sites criminal gangs plan to target. ""We have people in places where they shouldn't be, monitoring tech sites,"" he said. Sometimes though, he said, spotting the next victim was easy. ""You can see them going alphabetically through the list with the gambling sites, trying one after another,"" said Mr Seagrave." -tech,"Hollywood to sue net film pirates The US movie industry has launched legal action to sue people who facilitate illegal film downloading. The Motion Picture Association of America wants to stop people using the program BitTorrent to swap movies. The industry is targeting people who run websites which provide information and internet links to movies which have been copied or filmed in cinemas. More than 100 server operators have been targeted in the actions launched in the US and UK, the MPAA added. The suits were filed against users of the file-sharing programs BitTorrent, eDonkey and DirectConnect in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Finland and the Netherlands, the MPAA said. BitTorrent users can download movies by following a link to files which are found on websites called trackers. Unlike most peer-to-peer programs BitTorrent works by sharing a file, which could be anything from a legitimate digital photo to a copied movie, among multiple users at the same time. The movie industry hopes that suing the people who run the trackers will cut BitTorrent users off from illegal movies at source. Last month major film studios started legal action against 200 individuals who were swapping films online. The growth in broadband has made it quicker for people to download movies and the industry fears that if it does not take action now, it could suffer the same downturn as the music industry." -tech,"IBM puts cash behind Linux push IBM is spending $100m (£52m) over the next three years beefing up its commitment to Linux software. The cash injection will be used to help its customers use Linux on every type of device from handheld computers and phones right up to powerful servers. IBM said the money will fund a variety of technical, research and marketing initiatives to boost Linux use. IBM said it had taken the step in response to greater customer demand for the open source software. In 2004 IBM said it had seen double digit growth in the number of customers using Linux to help staff work together more closely. The money will be used to help this push towards greater collaboration and will add Linux-based elements to IBM's Workplace software. Workplace is a suite of programs and tools that allow workers to get at core business applications no matter what device they use to connect to corporate networks. One of the main focuses of the initiative will be to make it easier to use Linux-based desktop computers and mobile devices with Workplace. Even before IBM announced this latest spending boost it was one of the biggest advocates of the open source way of working. In 2001 it put $300m into a three-year Linux program and has produced Linux versions of many of its programs. Linux and the open source software movement are based on the premise that developers should be free to tinker with the core components of software programs. They reason that more open scrutiny of software produces better programs and fuels innovation." -tech,"Sony PSP handheld console hits US The latest handheld gaming gadget, Sony's PlayStation Portable, goes on sale in the US on Thursday. The entertainment device, which also stores images, music and video, is intended to compete with Nintendo's DS, released earlier this month in the UK. Gamers have been queuing outside shops across the US to get their hands on the gadget, which costs $250 (about £132). The first million sold will come with the Spider-Man 2 film on UMD, Sony's own disc format for the device. The PSP can be linked up with others for multiplayer gaming, via a wireless connection. Sony has touted the machine as the Walkman of the 21st Century and has sold more than 800,000 units in Japan since its launch there last year. But it faces stiff competition from the Nintendo DS, which sold more than the GameCube in its first few days on release in Europe. It too allows for multiplayer gaming over the air. Nintendo dominates the handheld market, with more than a 90% share of the market in the US alone. The Gizmondo combined media player, phone and gaming gadget also went on sale in the UK last week. It hopes to take a share of the handheld gaming market too. ""The story of the PSP is it's not a gaming device as much as it is a portable entertainment device,"" said Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. He told the Reuters news agency that he expected Sony to sell about 10 million PSPs in enough time to rival Apple's iPod. There is no date for the PSP's release in Europe yet. Sony has promised to have a million units ready for its US launch, but there are fears demand may not be met. It also said it expected to ship three million PSPs worldwide by the end of its fiscal year ending 31 March. The machine's European launch was put back ""a few months"" last week in order to make sure enough of the devices were ready for its US launch, as well as satisfying the Japanese market. The PSP has almost as much processing power in it as the PlayStation 2 console. Hundreds of gamers gathered at US shops, some waiting for more than 36 hours, to be the first to get their hands on the gadget. A spokesman for one US shop said it expected the device to sell out on its first day. The 24 games for the mini console include Ape Academy, Formula One, Wipeout Pure and Fired Up. Movie studios, including Lions Gate Entertainment and Disney, have also announced forthcoming film titles that will be made available on the UMD format." -tech,"How to make a greener computer The hi-tech industry is starting to get more environmentally aware. Bill Thompson thinks it's about time. My first car ran on four star petrol and pumped vast quantities of lead into the atmosphere as I drove around Cambridge. Now you can't buy petrol with lead additives, and we're all better off as a result. Chip giant Intel recently began shipping computer circuit boards that are lead free too, reflecting a growing awareness on the part of the technology industry that products have to be designed and built in more environmentally friendly ways. Apart from reducing the use of toxic materials like arsenic, mercury, cadmium and other heavy metals in the products themselves, the manufacturing process is also being cleaned up, with fewer complex and potentially damaging organic chemicals used as solvents. And work is going into making power supplies that are more energy efficient, since current transformers are astonishingly wasteful as they charge our laptops, mobiles and music players. One of the key aspects of the new approach is to design products that are easier to recycle. If you have got a phone or a computer with toxic chemicals or heavy metals in it then extracting them can be tricky and expensive. A well-designed electronic component is able to be recycled at low cost. This is going to be very important to hardware manufacturers in Europe since from August the new Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment directive will oblige them to accept returned products for recycling. They will end up paying if they build things that are expensive or impossible to take apart and will find their profits hit, something which is likely to motivate them where appeals to the wider public interest might fall on deaf ears. It is, as they say, about time. We have a long and depressing history of developing new technologies with complete disregard for their potential impact on the environment, and waiting until there is a crisis looming before we try to redesign them to cause less damage. The car engine is a case in point: lead additives helped stop petrol vapour exploding too early in the cylinder, a phenomenon called 'knocking', so they were simply used without any real thought for the fact that the lead would end up in the atmosphere. Redesigning engines and making petrol slightly different was a lot more work, so it took decades before it was done. We're seeing the same thing in the technology industry and, as a result, there are billions of devices, from old mobile phones to antique handhelds, that will have to be recycled in years to come. If Apple gets its way then a lot of people are going to be buying a new Mac Mini and throwing away their old PC, keeping the monitor and other peripherals. Even if Apple does not get its way, four or five-year-old computers are not good enough to run modern programs and it's not unreasonable to replace them. But what do we do with the old ones? I've just looked around my office and I find two monitors, an old 386 PC, two old handhelds, three ancient laptops, four antique mobile phones, a collection of rechargeable batteries and even a Sun workstation that is no longer really much use. They are all old enough to be hazardous waste - the monitors alone will be full of arsenic and lead - but it's possible that some of the components could be useful. I could take them up the to the council recycling centre, but it's a 10-mile drive away across town, and like many other people my commitment to recycling is shallow at best. Here in Cambridge we have green bins for compostable waste, a box for glass, cans and paper that can be recycled, and a black bin for the rest. There are bottle banks and clothing banks scattered around town and in supermarket car parks. Would it be too much to ask for an electronics recycling box too? I'd probably remember to take my old mobile with me to the supermarket and drop it in a box - at least eventually. Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital." -tech,"Apple iPod family expands market Apple has expanded its iPod family with the release of its next generation of the digital music players. Its latest challenges to the growing digital music gadget market include an iPod mini model which can hold 6GB compared to a previous 4GB. The company, which hopes to keep its dominant place in the digital music market, also said the gold coloured version of the mini would be dropped. A 30GB version has also been added to the iPod Photo family. The latest models have a longer battery life and their prices have been cut by an average of £40. The original iPod took an early lead in the digital music player market thanks to its large storage capacity and simple design. During 2004 about 25 million portable players were sold, 10 million of which were Apple iPods. But analysts agree that the success is also down to its integration with the iTunes online store, which has given the company a 70% share of the legal download music market. Mike McGuire, a research director at analyst Gartner, told the BBC News website that Apple had done a good job in ""sealing off the market from competition"" so far. ""They have created a very seamless package which I think is the idea of the product - the design, function and the software are very impressive,"" he said. He added that the threat from others was always present, however. ""Creative, other Microsoft-partnered devices, Real, Sony and so on, are ratcheting up the marketing message and advertising,"" he said. Creative was very upbeat about how many of its Creative Zen players it had shipped by the end of last year, he said. Its second-generation models, like the Creative Zen Micro Photo, is due out in the summer. It will have 5GB of memory on board. Digital music players are now the gadget of choice among young Americans, according to recent research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. One in 10 US adults - 22 million people - now owns a digital music player of some sort. Sales of legally downloaded songs also rose more than tenfold in 2004, according to the record industry, with 200 million tracks bought online in the US and Europe in 12 months. The IFPI industry body said that the popularity of portable music players was behind the growth. Analysts say that the ease of use and growth of music services available on the net will continue to drive the trend towards portable music players. People are also starting to use them in novel ways. Some are combining automatic syncing functions many of them have with other net functions to automatically distribute DIY radio shows, called podcasts. But 2005 will also see more competition from mobile phone operators who are keen to offer streaming services on much more powerful and sophisticated handsets. According to Mr McGuire, research suggests that people like the idea of building up huge libraries of music, which they can do with high-capacity storage devices, like iPods and Creative Zens. Mobiles do not yet have this capacity though, and there are issues about the ease of portability of mobile music. Mr McGuire said Apple was ensuring it kept a foot in the mobile music door with its recent deal with Motorola to produce a version of iTunes for Motorola phones." -tech,"Movie body targets children's PCs The body that represents the US movie industry has released its latest tool in its campaign to clamp down on movie file-sharing, aimed at parents. The Movie Association for America's (MPAA) free Parent File Scan software lets parents check their children's computers for peer-to-peer programs. It will also list all movie and music files they have on their hard drive. Parents then have the choice to remove programs and files. The MPAA said files found would not be passed on to it. ""Our ultimate goal is to help consumers locate the resources and information they need to make appropriate decisions about using and trading illegal files,"" said Dan Glickman, MPAA chief. ""Many parents are concerned about what their children have downloaded and where they've downloaded it from."" But some computer users who had tested the latest software reported on some technology sites that the program had identified Windows default wav files as copyrighted material and wanted to delete them. Movie piracy cost the industry £3.7bn ($7bn) in 2003, according to analysts. The MPAA said in a statement that it would continue to provide easy access to similar tools in the coming months to combat ""the deleterious effects of peer-to-peer software, including such common problems as viruses, Trojan horses and identity theft"". Mr Glickman said that the film industry was embracing ""digital age technologies"", like Movielink and CinemaNow, which are legal movie sites. ""But legal services such as these need a chance to grow and thrive without having to compete against illegitimate operations that depend on stolen property to survive,"" he added. The industry body also said it had launched a second round of legal action against online movie-swappers across the US, but did not say how many were being sued. Its first set of lawsuits were filed in November 2004. It also started a campaign against operators of BitTorrent, eDonkey and DirectConnect peer-to-peer networks. The first convictions for peer-to-peer piracy were handed out in the US in January. William Trowbridge and Michael Chicoine pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software." -tech,"Mobile gig aims to rock 3G Forget about going to a crowded bar to enjoy a gig by the latest darlings of the music press. Now you could also be at a live gig on your mobile, via the latest third generation (3G) video phones. Rock outfit Rooster are playing what has been billed as the first ever concert broadcast by phone on Tuesday evening from a London venue. The 45-minute gig is due to be ""phone cast"" by the 3G mobile phone operator, 3. 3G technology lets people take, watch and send video clips on their phones, as well as swap data much faster than with 2G networks like GSM. People with 3G phones in the UK can already download football and music clips on their handsets. Some 1,000 fans of the London-based band will have to pay five pounds for a ticket and need a 3G handset. ""Once you have paid, you can come and go as much as you like, because we expect the customers to be mobile,"" said 3 spokesperson Belinda Henderson. ""It's like going to a concert hall, except that you are virtually there."" The company behind the trial hopes to learn more about how people use their video phones. ""We are looking on how long people will stay on average on the streams. Some people may stay the whole time, some may dip in and out,"" said Ms Henderson. ""We actually expect people to dip in and out because they are mobile and they will be doing other things."" 3 is looking to music as a way of persuading more people to take up the latest video phones. It is already planning regular gigs throughout 2005. And during the intermission, of course, you would still be able to make a phone call." -tech,"Joke e-mail virus tricks users A virus that disguises itself as a joke is spreading rapidly across the net. Anti-virus firms are issuing high-level warnings about the new version of the Bagle e-mail program that seems to be catching a lot of people out. The Windows virus grabs e-mail addresses from Microsoft Outlook and uses its own mail sending software to spread itself to new victims. When it infects a machine, the Bagle variant turns off security measures that usually protect PCs. The new variant is called Bagle.AT, Bagle.BB and Bagle.AU and the attachment bearing the virus code is labelled as either ""joke"" or ""price"". The body of the virus usually contains nothing but a smiley or emoticon. The virus can strike computers running Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP. Users will be infected if they open the attachment that travels with the e-mail. As well as plundering Microsoft Outlook for e-mail addresses to send itself to, Bagle.AT also tries to turn off the firewall and security centre services on Windows XP machines. BBC News Online has received five warnings about the virus from security companies. Finnish company F-Secure gave the virus its second highest threat level. ""We've had several reports all over the world,"" said Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research for F-Secure. Security firm Network Box said that it stopped more than 30,000 copies an hour of the virus as the outbreak reached a peak. Black Spider said it had stopped more than 1 million copies of Bagle.AT since the outbreak began at 0630 BST (0530 GMT). Anti-virus firms urged users to be wary of unexpected e-mail messages bearing attachments and to update their software to ensure they are protected against the latest threats." -tech,"Commodore finds new lease of life The once-famous Commodore computer brand could be resurrected after being bought by a US-based digital music distributor. New owner Yeahronimo Media Ventures has not ruled out the possibility of a new breed of Commodore computers. It also plans to develop a ""worldwide entertainment concept"" with the brand, although details are not yet known. The groundbreaking Commodore 64 computer elicits fond memories for those who owned one back in the 1980s. In the chronology of home computing, Commodore was one of the pioneers. The Commodore 64, launched in 1982, was one of the first affordable home PCs. It was followed a few years later by the Amiga. The Commodore 64 sold more than any other single computer system, even to this day. The brand languished somewhat in the 1990s. Commodore International filed for bankruptcy in 1994 and was sold to Dutch firm Tulip Computers. In the late 1980s the firm was a great rival to Atari, which produced its own range of home computers and is now a brand of video games, formerly known as Infogrames. Tulip Computers sold several products under the Commodore name, including portable USB storage devices and digital music players. It had planned to relaunch the brand, following an upsurge of nostalgia for 1980s-era games. Commodore 64 enthusiasts have written emulators for Windows PC, Apple Mac and even PDAs so that the original Commodore games can be still run. The sale of Commodore is expected to be complete in three weeks in a deal worth over £17m." -tech,"Warning over tsunami aid website Net users are being told to avoid a scam website that claims to collect cash on behalf of tsunami victims. The site looks plausible because it uses an old version of the official Disasters Emergency Committee webpage. However, DEC has no connection with the fake site and says it has contacted the police about it. The site is just the latest in a long list of scams that try to cash in on the goodwill generated by the tsunami disaster. The link to the website is contained in a spam e-mail that is currently circulating. The message's subject line reads ""Urgent Tsunami Earthquake Appeal"" and its text bears all the poor grammar and bad spelling that characterises many other phishing attempts. The web address of the fake site is decuk.org which could be close enough to the official www.dec.org.uk address to confuse some people keen to donate. Patricia Sanders, spokeswoman for the Disaster Emergency Committee said it was aware of the site and had contacted the Computer Crime Unit at Scotland Yard to help get it shut down. She said the spam e-mails directing people to the site started circulating two days ago shortly after the domain name of the site was registered. It is thought that the fake site is being run from Romania. Ms Sanders said DEC had contacted US net registrars who handle domain ownership and the net hosting firm that is keeping the site on the web. DEC was going to push for all cash donated via the site to be handed over to the official organisation. BT and DEC's hosting company were also making efforts to get the site shut down, she said. Ms Sanders said sending out spam e-mail to solicit donations was not DEC's style and that it would never canvass support in this way. She said that DEC hoped to get the fake site shut down as soon as possible. All attempts by the BBC News website to contact the people behind the site have failed. None of the e-mail addresses supplied on the site work and the real owner of the domain is obscured in publicly available net records. This is not the first attempt to cash in on the outpouring of goodwill that has accompanied appeals for tsunami aid. One e-mail sent out in early January came from someone who claimed that he had lost his parents in the disaster and was asking for help moving an inheritance from a bank account in the Netherlands. The con was very similar to the familiar Nigerian forward fee fraud e-mails that milk money out of people by promising them a cut of a much larger cash pile. Other scam e-mails included a link to a website that supposedly let people donate money but instead loaded spyware on their computers that grabbed confidential information. In a monthly report anti-virus firm Sophos said that two e-mail messages about the tsunami made it to the top 10 hoax list during January. Another tsunami-related e-mail is also circulating that carries the Zar worm which tries to spread via the familiar route of Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program. Anyone opening the attachment of the mail will have their contact list plundered by the worm keen to find new addresses to send itself to." -tech,"'No re-draft' for EU patent law A proposed European law on software patents will not be re-drafted by the European Commission (EC) despite requests by MEPs. The law is proving controversial and has been in limbo for a year. Some major tech firms say it is needed to protect inventions, while others fear it will hurt smaller tech firms. The EC says the Council of Ministers will adopt a draft version that was agreed upon last May but said it would review ""all aspects of the directive"". The directive is intended to offer patent protection to inventions that use software to achieve their effect, in other words, ""computer implemented invention"". In a letter, EC President José Manuel Barroso told the President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, that the Commission ""did not intend to refer a new proposal to the Parliament and the Council (of ministers)"" as it had supported the agreement reached by ministers in May 2004. If the European Council agrees on the draft directive it will then return for a second reading at the European Parliament. But that will not guarantee that the directive will become law - instead it will probably mean further delays and controversy over the directive. Most EU legislation now needs the approval of both parliament and the Council of Ministers before it becomes law. French Green MEP Alain Lipietz warned two weeks ago that if the Commission ignored the Parliament's request it would be an ""insult"" to the assembly. He said that the parliament would then reject the Council's version of the legislation as part of the final or conciliation stage of the decision procedure. In the US, the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted. This means that the US-based Amazon.com holds a patent for its ""one-click shopping"" service, for example. Critics are concerned that the directive could lead to a similar model happening in Europe. This, they fear, could hurt small software developers because they do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies if they had to fight patent legal action in court. Supporters say current laws are inefficient and it would serve to even up a playing field without bringing EU laws in line with the US." -tech,"No half measures with Half-Life 2 Could Half-Life 2 possibly live up to the hype? After almost two years of tantalising previews and infuriating delays it's safe to say that this is the most highly-anticipated computer game of all time. Fortunately, it doesn't merely live up to its promise, but exceeds it. No-one who plays the finished product will wonder why it took so long. The impression is of a game that has been endlessly refined to get as close to perfection as could realistically be hoped. All the money - or indeed time - is on the screen. The player sees things through the eyes of Gordon Freeman, the bespectacled scientist who starred in the original 1998 Half-Life. Having survived that skirmish in an desolate monster-infested research facility, he's back in another foreboding troublespot - the enigmatic City 17. It has the look of a beautiful Eastern European city, but as soon as your train pulls in to the station, it's clear that all is not well here. Sinister police patrol the unkempt streets, and the oppressive atmosphere clobbers you like a sledgehammer. A casual smattering of the nightmarish creatures from the first game makes this an even less pleasant place to be. You are herded around like a prisoner and have to mingle with a few freedom-fighting civilians to gather information and progress in your task. It is not immediately explained what your objectives are, nor precisely why everything is so ravaged. Finding out step-by-step is all part of the experience, although you never fully get to understand what it was all about. That does not really matter. HL2 does not waste energy blinding you with plot. Underplaying the narrative in this way is gloriously effective, and immerses the player in the most vivid, convincing and impressive virtual world they are likely to have seen. There are no cut-scenes to interrupt the flow. Exposition is accomplished by other characters stopping to talk directly to you. Whereas the highly impressive Doom III felt like a top-notch theme park thrill-ride, wandering through Half-Life's world truly does feel like being part of a movie. Considering its sophistication, the game runs surprisingly well on computers that only just match the modest minimum specifications. But if ever there was an incentive to upgrade your PC's components, this is it. On our test machine - an Alienware system with an Athlon 3500+ processor and ATI's Radeon X800 video card - everything ran at full quality without trouble, and the visual experience was simply jaw-dropping. It is not simply that the surfaces, textures and light effects push the technical envelope without mercy, but that such care and artistic flair has gone into designing them. The haunting, grim landscapes become strangely beautiful. Luckily you get time to pause mid-task and marvel at the awesome graphical flourishes of your surroundings. So impressive are the physics that you'll find yourself hurling bits of rubbish around and prodding floating corpses just to marvel at the lifelike way they move. There are puzzles to be solved along the way, pitched at about the right difficulty, but most progress is achieved by force. Freeman is quickly reunited with the original game's famous crowbar, and an array of more sophisticated weapons soon follow. Virtually anything not nailed to the floor can be interacted with, and in realistic fashion. You will be wowed by the attention-to-detail as you chip bits of plaster off walls, chase a pigeon out of your way, or dodge exploding barrels as they ping around at deadly speed. At times Half-Life 2 feels like one of those annoying people who are unfeasibly brilliant at everything they turn their hand to, and in a curious way, its unrelenting goodness actually becomes almost tiresome. Running around on foot is great enough, but jumping into vehicles proves even more fun. Human foes are rendered just as well as alien ones. The stealth sections are as exhilarating as the open gun battles. In gameplay terms, HL2 somehow gets almost everything perfect. And without resorting to the zombies-leaping-out-of-shadows approach of Doom III, it's all incredibly unsettling. The vacant environment is distinctly eerie, and at one point I even caught myself hesitating to go down a murky tunnel for fear of what might be inside. The game does have a couple of problems. Firstly, the carefully-scripted way that you progress through each level might irk some people. A lot of things are meticulously choreographed to happen on cue, which makes for exciting moments, but may be an annoyance to some players and limit the appeal of playing again once you've completed it. If you like things open-ended and free-ranging, Far Cry will be a lot more pleasing. But the real downside is the hassle of getting the game to run. Installing it proved a life-draining siege that would test a saint's patience. Developer Valve has rashly assumed that everyone wanting to play the game will have an internet connection and it forces you to go online to authenticate your copy. The box does warn you of this anti-piracy measure, but does not say just how many components have to be downloaded. The time spent doing this will depend on your connection speed, the temperamental Valve servers and the time of day, but it can take hours. It would take a mighty piece of work to feel worthwhile after such annoyances - but luckily, Half-Life 2 is up to the challenge. It is surely the best thing in its genre, and possibly, many will feel, of any genre. The bar has been raised, and so far out of sight that you have to sympathise with any game that tries to do anything remotely similar in the near future. Half-Life 2 is out now for the PC" -tech,"Format wars could 'confuse users' Technology firms Sony, Philips, Matsushita and Samsung are developing a common way to stop people pirating digital music and video. The firms want to make a system that ensures files play on the hardware they make but also thwarts illegal copying. The move could mean more confusion for consumers already faced by many different, and conflicting, content control systems, experts warned. They say there are no guarantees the system will even prevent piracy. Currently many online stores wrap up downloadable files in an own-brand control system that means they can only be played on a small number of media players. Systems that limit what people can do with the files they download are known as Digital Rights Management systems. By setting up the alliance to work on a common control system, the firms said they hope to end this current fragmentation of file formats. In a joint statement the firms said they wanted to let consumers enjoy ""appropriately licensed video and music on any device, independent of how they originally obtained that content"". The firms hope that it will also make it harder for consumers to make illegal copies of the music, movies and other digital content they have bought. Called the Marlin Joint Development Association, the alliance will define basic specifications that every device made by the electronics firms will conform to. Marlin will be built on technology from rights management firm Intertrust as well as an earlier DRM system developed by a group known as the Coral Consortium. The move is widely seen as a way for the four firms to decide their own destiny on content control systems instead of having to sign up for those being pushed by Apple and Microsoft. Confusingly for consumers, the technology that comes out of the alliance will sit alongside the content control systems of rival firms such as Microsoft and Apple. ""In many ways the different DRM systems are akin to the different physical formats, such as Betamax and VHS, that consumers have seen in the past,"" said Ian Fogg, personal technology and broadband analyst at Jupiter Research. ""The difference is that it is very fragmented,"" he said. ""It's not a two-horse race, it's a five, six, seven or even eight-horse race"" Mr Fogg said consumers had to be very careful when buying digital content to ensure that it would play on the devices they own. He said currently there were even incompatibilities within DRM families. Although initiatives such as Microsoft's ""Plays for Sure"" program could help remove some of the uncertainty, he said, life was likely to be confusing for consumers for some time to come. Shelley Taylor, analyst and author of a report about online music services, said the locks and limits on digital files were done to maximise the cash that firms can make from consumers. Apple's iTunes service was a perfect example of this, she said. ""Although iTunes has been hugely successful, Apple could not justify its existence if it did not help sell all those iPods,"" she said. She said rampant competition between online music services, of which there are now 230 according to recent figures, could drive more openness and freer file formats. ""It always works out that consumer needs win out in the long run,"" she said, ""and the services that win in the long run are the ones that listen to consumers earliest."" Ms Taylor said the limits legal download services place on files could help explain the continuing popularity of file-sharing systems that let people get hold of pirated pop. ""People want portability,"" she said, ""and with peer-to-peer they have 100% portability."" Cory Doctorow, European co-ordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation which campaigns for consumers on many cyber-rights issues, expressed doubts that the Marlin system would achieve its aims. ""Not one of these systems has ever prevented piracy or illegal copying,"" he said. He said many firms readily admit that their DRM systems are little protection against skilled attackers such as the organised crime gangs that are responsible for most piracy. Instead, said Mr Doctorow, DRM systems were intended to control the group that electronics firms have most hold over - consumers. ""The studios and labels perceive an opportunity to sell you your media again and again - the iPod version, the auto version, the American and UK version, the ringtone version, and so on.""" -tech,"Ask Jeeves joins web log market Ask Jeeves has bought the Bloglines website to improve the way it handles content from web journals or blogs. The Bloglines site has become hugely popular as it gives users one place in which to read, search and share all the blogs they are interested in. Ask Jeeves said it was not planning to change Bloglines but would use the 300 million articles it has archived to round out its index of the web. How much Ask Jeeves paid for Bloglines was not revealed. Bloglines has become popular because it lets users build a list of the blogs they want to follow without having to visit each journal site individually. To do this it makes use of a technology known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) that many blogs have adopted to let other sites know when new entries are made on their journals. The acquisition follows similar moves by other search sites. Google acquired Pyra Labs, makers of the Blogger software, in 2003. In 2004 MSN introduced its own blog system and Yahoo has tweaked its technology to do a better job of handling blog entries. Jim Lanzone, vice president of search properties at Ask Jeeves in the US, said it did not acquire Bloglines just to get a foothold in the blog publishing world. He said Ask Jeeves was much more interested in helping people find information they were looking for rather than helping them write it. ""The universe of readers is vastly larger than the universe of writers,"" he said. Mr Lanzone said the acquisition would sit well with Ask's My Jeeves service which lets people customise their own web experience and build up a personal collection of useful links. ""Search engines are about discovering information for the first time and RSS is the ideal way to keep track of and monitor those sites,"" he said. It would also help drive information and entries from blogs to the portals that Ask Jeeves operates. There would be no instant sweeping changes to Bloglines, said Mr Lanzone. ""Our intent is to take our time to figure out the right business model not to try to monetise it right away,"" he said. Though Mr Lanzone added that Ask Jeeves would be helping organise the database of 300m blog entries Bloglines holds with its own net indexing technology. ""Being able to search the blogosphere as one corpus of information will be very useful in its own right,"" said Mr Lanzone. Rumours about the acquisition were broken by the Napsterization weblog which said it got the hint from Ask Jeeves insiders." -tech,"Microsoft gets the blogging bug Software giant Microsoft is taking the plunge into the world of blogging. It is launching a test service to allow people to publish blogs, or online journals, called MSN Spaces. Microsoft is trailing behind competitors like Google and AOL, which already offer services which make it easy for people to set up web journals. Blogs, short for web logs, have become a popular way for people to talk about their lives and express opinions online. MSN Spaces is free to anyone with a Hotmail or MSN Messenger account. People will be able to choose a layout for the page, upload images and share photo albums and music playlists. The service will be supported by banner ads. ""This is a simple tool for people to express themselves,"" said MSN's Blake Irving. This is Microsoft's first foray into blogging, which has taken off as a web phenomenon in the past year. Competitors like Google already offer free services through its Blogger site, while AOL provides its members with journals. Accurate figures for the number of blogs in existence are hard to come by. According to blog analysis firm Technorati, the so-called blogosphere, has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18 months. It now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8 million, although some speculate that less than a quarter are regularly maintained." -tech,"PlayStation 3 processor unveiled The Cell processor, which will drive Sony's PlayStation 3, will run 10-times faster than current PC chips, its designers have said. Sony, IBM and Toshiba, who have been working on the Cell processor for three years, unveiled the chip on Monday. It is being designed for use in graphics workstations, the new PlayStation console, and has been described as a supercomputer on a chip. The chip will run at speeds of greater than 4 GHz, the firms said. By comparison, rival chip maker Intel's fastest processor runs at 3.8 GHz. Details of the chip were released at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. The new processor is set to ignite a fresh battle between Intel and the Cell consortium over which processor sits at the centre of digital products. The PlayStation 3 is expected in 2006, while Toshiba plans to incorporate it into high-end televisions next year. IBM has said it will sell a workstation with the chip starting later this year. Cell is comprised of several computing engines, or cores. A core based on IBM's Power architecture controls eight ""synergistic"" processing centres. In all, they can simultaneously carry out 10 instruction sequences, compared with two for current Intel chips. Later this year, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices plan to release their own ""multicore"" chips, which also increase the number of instructions that can be executed at once. The Cell's specifications suggest the PlayStation 3 will offer a significant boost in graphics capabilities but analysts cautioned that not all the features in a product announcement will find their way into systems. ""Any new technology like this has two components,"" said Steve Kleynhans, an analyst with Meta Group. He said: ""It has the vision of what it could be because you need the big vision to sell it. ""Then there's the reality of how it's really going to be used, which generally is several levels down the chain from there."" While the PlayStation 3 is likely to be the first mass-market product to use Cell, the chip's designers have said the flexible architecture means that it would be useful for a wide range of applications, from servers to mobile phones. Initial devices are unlikely to be any smaller than a games console, however, because the first version of the Cell will run hot enough to need a cooling fan. And while marketing speak describes the chip as a ""supercomputer"" - it remains significantly slower than the slowest computer on the list of the world's top 500 supercomputers. IBM said Cell was ""OS neutral"" and would support multiple operating systems simultaneously but designers would not confirm if Microsoft's Windows was among those tested with the chip. If Cell is to challenge Intel's range of chips in the marketplace, it will need to find itself inside PCs, which predominantly run using Windows." -tech,"Napster offers rented music to go Music downloading, for those that have rejected the free peer to peer services, can be a costly business. The cost of paying even as little as 70p per track can add up, particularly for those people who own one of the new generation of players that can store thousands of songs. Paying per track for music is becoming as outmoded as paying per minute for internet access and alternative monthly or yearly subscription models are springing up as a more convenient, and ultimately cheaper way of owning music. ""Music fans are moving away from buying the traditional bundled package of a dozen or more songs that we used to call an album to newer ways that fit their lifestyle; either single tracks or subscriptions services,"" said Paul Myers, chief executive of Wippit, a UK-based music download service. While iTunes is doing good business with its sales of individual tracks to iPod owners, others are questioning whether the concept of owning music is even valid in the digital age. Napster is due to launch a new rental subscription service - dubbed Napster to Go in the UK in the next few months. The service can be used on players that support Microsoft Windows latest Digital Rights Management technology known as Janus. This includes players made by Samsung, Rio and Creative. Currently on offer in beta-version in the US, the service costs $15 per month for unlimited downloads. The technology ensures that music downloaded to the player only remains playable while the user subscribes to the service. Users need to update their license on a monthly basis or the tunes will no longer play. This has outraged some digital music lovers, especially as Napster already offers a cheaper service for downloading music to the PC. Napster claims the higher price is a result of record labels charging more for the to-go service and says it also offers ""greater value"" for customers. Mr Myers is not convinced a rental model will work for consumers. ""We've been offering our unlimited music subscription service for more than three years now and our customers know what they want. Format interoperability, excellent value and the reassurance that music purchased from Wippit is theirs to keep and enjoy on whatever device they choose,"" he said. ""Who wants to download a track that won't play next month if you decide to unsubscribe to the service or change portable player for an iPod or the latest mobile phone?"" Wippit offers a download subscription service for £4.99 per month or £50 per year. It has a catalogue of around 60,000 songs." -tech,"When technology gets personal In 2020, whipping out your mobile phone to make a call will be quaintly passé. By then phones will be printed directly on to wrists, or other parts of the body, says Ian Pearson, BT's resident futurologist. It's all part of what's known as a ""pervasive ambient world"", where ""chips are everywhere"". Mr Pearson does not have a crystal ball. His job is to formulate ideas based on what science and technology are doing now, to guide industries into the future. Inanimate objects will start to interact with us: we will be surrounded - on streets, in homes, in appliances, on our bodies and possibly in our heads - by things that ""think"". Forget local area networks - these will be body area networks. Ideas about just how smart, small, or even invisible, technology will get are always floating around. Images of devices clumsily bolted on to heads or wrists have pervaded thinking about future technology. But now a new vision is surfacing, where smart fabrics and textiles will be exploited to enhance functionality, form, or aesthetics. Such materials are already starting to change how gadgets and electronics are used and designed. So MP3 players - the mass gadget of the moment - will disappear and instead become integrated into one's clothing, says Mr Pearson. ""So the gadgets that fill up your handbag, when we integrate those into fabric, we can actually get rid of all that stuff. You won't necessarily see the electronics."" Wearable technology could exploit body heat to charge it up, while ""video tattoos"", or intelligent electronic contact lenses, might function as TV screens for those on the move. However, this future of highly personal devices, where technology is worn, or even fuses with the body itself, raises ethical questions. If technology is going to be increasingly part of clothing, jewellery, and skin, there needs to be some serious thinking about what it means for us as humans, says Baroness Susan Greenfield. At a recent conference for technology, engineering, academic and fashion industry experts, at the Royal Society in London, neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield cautioned we ""can't just sleepwalk into the future"". Yet this technology is already upon us. Researchers have developed computers and sensors worn in clothing. MP3 jackets, based on the idea that electrically conductive fabric can connect to keyboard sewn into sleeves, have already appeared in shops. These ""smart fabrics"" have come about through advances in nano- and micro-engineering - the ability to manipulate and exploit materials at micro or molecular scale. At the nanoscale, materials can be ""tuned"" to display unusual properties that can be exploited to build faster, lighter, stronger and more efficient devices and systems. The textile and clothing industry has been one of the first to exploit nanotechnology in quite straightforward ways. Many developments are appearing in real products in the fields of medicine, defence, healthcare, sports, and communications. Professional swimming suits reduce drag by incorporating tiny structures similar to shark skin. Nanoscale titanium dioxide (TiO2) coatings give fabrics antibacterial and anti-odour properties. These have special properties which can be activated in contact with the air or UV light. Such coatings have already been used to stop socks smelling for instance, to turn airline seats into super stain-resistant surfaces, and applied to windows so they clean themselves. Dressings for wounds can now incorporate nanoparticles with biocidal properties and smart patches are being developed to deliver drugs through the skin. But Baroness Greenfield is concerned about how far this more personal contact with technology might affect our very being. If our clothing, skin, and ""personal body networks"" do the talking and the monitoring, everywhere we go, we have to think about what that means for our concept of privacy. Mr Pearson picks up the theme, pointing out there are a lot of issues humans have to iron out before we become ""cyborgian"". His main concern is ""privacy"". ""We are looking at electronics which are really in deep contact with your body and a lot of that information you really don't want every passer-by to know. ""So we have to make sure we build security in this. If you are wearing smart make-up, where electronics are controlling the appearance, you don't want people hacking in and writing messages on your forehead."" As technology infiltrates our biology, how will our brains function differently? ""We cannot arrogantly assume that the human brain will not change with this,"" warns Baroness Greenfield. There have already been successful experiments to grow human nerve cells on circuit boards. This paves the way for brain implants to help paralysed people interface directly with computers. Clearly, the organic, carbon of our bodies and silicon is increasingly merging. The cyborg - a very familiar part-human, part-inorganic science fiction and academic idea - is on its way." -tech,"Musical future for phones Analyst Bill Thompson has seen the future and it is in his son's hands. I bought my son Max a 3G phone, partly because they are so cheap and he needed a phone, and partly because I am supposed to know about the latest technology and thought I should see how they work in real life. After using it for a while I am not at all tempted to get rid of my SonyEricsson P800 smart phone. That has a relatively large screen, even if it does only have slower GPRS access to the network. I can read my e-mail, surf the web using a proper browser and write stuff using the stylus on its touch screen. Last week someone e-mailed me a document that had been compressed into a ZIP file, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my phone even knew how to decompress it for me. By contrast the confusing menus, complicated keyboard and truly irritating user interface of Max's 3G phone simply get in the way, and I did not see much value in the paid-for services, especially the limited web access. The videos of entertainment news, horoscopes and the latest celebrity gossip did not appeal, and I did not see how the small screen could be useful for any sort of image, never mind micro-TV. But then Max started playing, and I realised I was missing the point entirely. It is certainly not a great overall experience, but that is largely due to the poor menu system and the phone layout: the video content itself is compelling. The quality was at least as good as the video streaming from the BBC website, and the image is about the same size. Max was completely captivated, and I was intrigued to discover that I had nearly missed the next stage of the network revolution. It is easy to be dismissive of small screens, and indeed anyone of my generation, with failing eyesight and the view that 'there's never anything worth watching on TV', is hardly going to embrace these phones. But just as the World Wide Web was the ""killer application"" that drove internet adoption, music videos are going to drive 3G adoption. With Vodafone now pushing its own 3G service, and 3 already established in the UK, video on the phone is clearly going to become a must-have for kids sitting on the school bus, adults waiting outside clubs and anyone who has time to kill and a group of friends to impress. This will please the network operators, who are looking for some revenue from their expensively acquired 3G licences. But it goes deeper than that: playing music videos on a phone marks the beginning of a move away from the 'download and play' model we have all accepted for our iPods and MP3 players. After all, why should I want to carry 60GB of music and pictures around with me in my pocket when I can simply listen to anything I want, whenever I want, streamed to my phone? Oh - and of course you can always use the phone to make voice calls and send texts, something which ensures that it is always in someone's pocket or handbag, available for other uses too. I have never really approved of using the Internet Protocol (IP), to do either audio or video streaming, and I think that technically it is a disaster to make phone calls over the net using ""voice over IP"". But I have to acknowledge that the net, at least here in the developed Western countries, is fast and reliable enough to do both. I stream radio to my computer while I work, and enjoy hearing the bizarre stations from around the world that I can find online but nowhere else. I am even playing with internet telephony, despite my reservations, and I appear on Go Digital on the World Service, streamed over the web each week. But 3G networks have been designed to do this sort of streaming, both for voice and video, which gives them an edge over net-based IP services. The 3G services aren't quite there yet, and there is a lot to be sorted out when it comes to web access and data charges. Vodafone will let you access its services on Vodafone Live! as part of your subscription cost but it makes you pay by the megabyte to download from other sites - this one, for example. This will not matter to business users, but will distort the consumer market and keep people within the phone company's collection of partner sites, something that should perhaps be worrying telecoms regulator Ofcom. But we should not see these new phones simply as cut-down network terminals. If I want fast access to my e-mail I can get a 3G card for my laptop or hook up to a wireless network. The phone is a lot more, and it is as a combination of mini-TV, personal communications device and music/video player that it really works. There is certainly room in the technology ecosystem for many different sorts of devices, accessing a wide range of services over different networks. 3G phones and iPods can co-exist, at least for a while, but if I had to bet on the long term I would go for content on demand over carrying gigabytes in my pocket. Or perhaps some enterprising manufacturer will offer me both. An MP3G player, anyone? Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital." -tech,"Santy worm makes unwelcome visit Thousands of website bulletin boards have been defaced by a virus that used Google to spread across the net. The Santy worm first appeared on 20 December and within 24 hours had successfully hit more than 40,000 websites. The malicious program exploits a vulnerability in the widely used phpBB software. Santy's spread has now been stopped after Google began blocking infected sites searching for new victims. The worm replaces chat forums with a webpage announcing that the site had been defaced by the malicious program. Soon after being infected, sites hit by the worm started randomly searching for other websites running the vulnerable phpBB software. Once Google started blocking these search queries the rate of infection tailed off sharply. A message sent to Finnish security firm F-Secure by Google's security team said: ""While a seven hour response for something like this is not outrageous, we think we can and should do better."" ""We will be reviewing our procedures to improve our response time in the future to similar problems,"" the Google team said. Security firms estimate that about 1m websites run their discussion groups and forums with the open source phpBB program. The worst of the attack now seems to be over as a search conducted on the morning of the 22 December produced only 1,440 hits for sites showing the text used in the defacement message. People using the sites hit by Santy will not be affected by the worm. Santy is not the first malicious program to use Google to help it spread. In July a variant of the MyDoom virus slowed down searches on Google as the program flooded the search site with queries looking for new e-mail addresses to send itself to." -tech,"Seamen sail into biometric future The luxury cruise liner Crystal Harmony, currently in the Gulf of Mexico, is the unlikely setting for tests of biometric technology. As holidaymakers enjoy balmy breezes, their ship's crew is testing prototype versions of the world's first internationally issued biometric ID cards, the seafarer's equivalent of a passport. Along with the owner's picture, name and personal details, the new Seafarers' Identity Document incorporates a barcode representing unique features of its holder's fingerprints. The cards are due to be issued in February next year, in line with the revised UN Convention on Seafarers' Identity Documents of June 2003. Tests currently under way in the Caribbean are designed to ensure that new cards and their machine readers, produced by different companies in different countries, are working to interoperable standards. Results of the current tests, which involve seafarers from a wide range of occupations and nationalities, will be published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) by the end of November. Crystal Cruises, which operates the Crystal Harmony, is exploring the use of biometrics but has not yet committed to the technology. Authenti-corp, the US technology consultancy, has been working with the ILO on its technical specifications for the cards. ""If you're issued a seafarer's ID in your country, you want to be sure that when the ship lands in a port in, say, my country you can validate yourself using whatever equipment we have installed,"" Authenti-corp's CEO, Cynthia Musselman, told the BBC's Go Digital programme. She said French, Jordanian and Nigerian nationals would be the first seafarers to get the new ID cards since their countries have already ratified the convention. It aims to combat international terrorism whilst guaranteeing the welfare the one million seafarers estimated to be at sea. The convention highlights the importance of access to shore facilities and shore leave as vital elements to a sailor's wellbeing and, therefore, it says, to safer shipping and cleaner oceans. ""By increasing security on the seas as well as border control and protection, the cards will hopefully reduce the number of piracy problems around the world,"" said Ms Musselman. ""It should be a safer environment for seafarers to work in, and will allow people protecting their borders to have confidence that the people getting off the ship are, in fact, seafarers.""" -tech,"Lasers help bridge network gaps An Indian telecommunications firm has turned to lasers to help it overcome the problems of setting up voice and data networks in the country. Tata Teleservices is using the lasers to make the link between customers' offices and its own core network. The laser bridges work across distances up to 4km and can be set up much faster than cable connections. In 12 months the lasers have helped the firm set up networks in more than 700 locations. ""In this particular geography getting permission to dig the ground and lay the pipes is a bit of a task,"" said Mr R. Sridharan, vice president of networks at Tata. ""Heavy traffic and the layout under the ground mean that digging is uniquely difficult,"" he said. In some locations, he said, permission to dig up roads and lay cables was impossible to get. He said it was far easier to secure permission for putting networking hardware on roofs. This has led Chennai-based Tata to turn to equipment that uses lasers to make the final mile leap between Tata's core network and the premises of customers. The Lightpointe laser bridges work over distances of up to 4km and are being used to route both voice and data from businesses on to the backbone of the network. The hardware works in pairs and beam data through the air in the form of laser pulses. The laser bridges can route data at speeds up to 1.25gbps (2,000 times faster than a 512kbps broadband connection) but Tata is running its hardware at more modest speeds of 1-2mbps. The lasers are also ideal for India because of its climate. ""It's particularly suitable as the rain rate is a little low and it's hardly ever foggy,"" he said. In places where rain is heavy and fog is common laser links can struggle to maintain good connection speeds. The laser links also take far less time to set up and get working, said Mr Sridharan. ""Once we get the other permissions, normal time period for set up is a few hours,"" he said. By contrast, he said, digging up roads and laying cables can take weeks or months. This speed of set up has helped Tata with its aggressive expansion plans. Just over 12 months ago the firm had customers in only about 70 towns and cities. But by the end of March the firm hopes to reach more than 1,000. ""Speed is very important because of the pace of competition,"" said Mr Sridharan." -tech,"Games 'deserve a place in class' Computer games could enhance learning and have a legitimate place in the classroom, say researchers. Academics from the Institute of Education at London University found that ""games literacy"" was a key skill for youngsters. As well as being used in different areas of the curriculum, games are a legitimate area of study in their own right, researchers say. Pupils should also be able to create their own games, they say. ""Like all games, computer and video games entertain while promoting social development, and playing and talking about games is an important part of young people's lives,"" said project manager Caroline Pelletier. ""Games literacy is a way of investigating how games are means of expression and representation, just like writing or drawing,"" she said. The researchers conducted two studies into the impact of games on education, the first looking at how they can be used in different curriculum subjects to enhance learning. Researchers found that girls were often excluded from the male-dominated world of game playing. ""Without first-hand experience of how much fun a game can be, they have little motivation to play and remain disengaged from an engrossing and sociable activity,"" said research fellow Diane Carr. The second project looked at how games can be integrated into media education and concluded that writing games should be a core part of studying them. Sixth-form teacher Barney Oram already teaches computer games alongside the more traditional study of film, TV and popular music at the A-level course he runs at Long Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge. For parents, the idea that computer games could be brought into the classroom environment, could cause controversy. Dr Andrew Burn, associate director of the Institute of Education's Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media moved to reassure anxious parents. ""Games are a legitimate cultural form that deserve critical analysis in schools just as film, television and literature do,"" he said. ""But we also want to argue that full understanding only comes when children have the tools to create their own games."" The games industry welcomed the report, saying it showed how games had a positive impact on children. ""At a time of hysterical and inaccurate reporting it is heartening to see the cultural, social and educational value of computer and video games being assessed intelligently,"" said Roger Bennett, director general of the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association. ""This report is further evidence, if it were needed, about the excellence and imagination that thrives in gaming. They have much to offer to the education of our children and they have much to offer as a career."" The three-year research project, which is being presented at a seminar on Tuesday in London, was partly funded by the Department of Trade and Industry." -tech,"Wi-fi web reaches farmers in Peru A network of community computer centres, linked by wireless technology, is providing a helping hand for poor farmers in Peru. The pilot scheme in the Huaral Valley, 80 kilometres north of the capital Lima, aims to offer the 6,000-strong community up-to-date information on agricultural market prices and trends. The Agricultural Information Project for Farmers of the Chancay-Huaral Valley also provides vital links between local organisations in charge of water irrigation, enabling them to coordinate their actions. More than 13,000 rural inhabitants, as well as 18,000 students in the region, will also benefit from the telecoms infrastructure. The 14 telecentres uses only free open source software and affordable computer equipment. The network has been three years in the making and was officially inaugurated in September. The non-government organisation, Cepes (Peruvian Centre for Social Studies) led the $200,000 project, also backed by local institutions, the Education and Agriculture ministries, and European development organisations. ""The plan includes training on computers and internet skills for both operators and users of the system,"" said Carlos Saldarriaga, technical coordinator at Cepes. Farmers are also taking extra lessons on how to apply the new information to make the most of their plots of land. The Board of Irrigation Users which runs the computer centres, aims to make the network self-sustainable within three years, through the cash generated by using the telecentres as internet cafes. One of the key elements of the project is the Agricultural Information System, with its flagship huaral.org website. There, farmers can find the prices for local produce, as well as information on topics ranging from plague prevention to the latest farming techniques. The system also helps the inhabitants of the Chancay-Huaral Valley to organise their vital irrigation systems. ""Water is the main element that unites them all. It is a precious element in Peru's coastal areas, because it is so scarce, and therefore it is necessary to have proper irrigation systems to make the most of it,"" Mr Saldarriaga told the BBC News website. The information network also allows farmers to look beyond their own region, and share experiences with other colleagues from the rest of Peru and even around the world. Cepes says the involvement of the farmers has been key in the project's success. ""Throughout the last three years, the people have provided a vital thrust to the project; they feel it belongs to them,"" said Mr Saldarriaga. The community training sessions, attended by an equal number of men and women, have been the perfect showcase for their enthusiasm. ""We have had an excellent response, mainly from young people. But we have also had a great feedback when we trained 40 or 50-year old women, who were seeing a computer for the first time in their lives."" So far, the Huaral programme promoters say the experience has been very positive, and are already planning on spreading the model among other farmers' organisations in Peru. ""This is a pilot project, and we have been very keen on its cloning potential in other places,"" underlined Mr Saldarriaga. The Cepes researcher recalls what happened in Cuyo, a 50-family community with no electricity, during the construction of the local telecentre site. There it was necessary to build a mini-hydraulic dam in order to generate 2kW worth of power for the computers, the communications equipment and the cabin lights. ""It was already dark when the technicians realised they didn't have any light bulbs to test the generator, so they turned up to the local store to buy light bulbs,"" recalls Carlos Saldarriaga. ""The logical answer was 'we don't sell any', so they had to wait until the next morning to do the testing."" Now, with the wireless network, Cuyo as well as the other communities is no longer isolated." -tech,"Games win for Blu-ray DVD format The next-generation DVD format Blu-ray is winning more supporters than its rival, according to its backers. Blu-ray, backed by 100 firms including Sony, is competing against Toshiba and NEC-backed HD-DVD to be the format of choice for future films and games. The Blu-Ray Association said on Thursday that games giants Electronic Arts and Vivendi would both support its DVD format. The next generation of DVDs will hold high-definition video and sound. This offers incredible 3D-like quality of pictures which major Hollywood studios and games publishers are extremely keen to exploit in the coming year. In a separate press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Toshiba announced that DVD players for its technology would be on the market by the end of 2005. ""As we move from standard definition video images to high-definition images, we have a much greater need for storage,"" Richard Doherty, from Panasonic's Hollywood Laboratories, one of the pioneers of Blu-ray, told the BBC news website. ""So by utilising blue laser-based technology we can make an optical laser disc that can hold six times as much as today's DVD."" A Blu-ray disc will be able to store 50GB of high-quality data, while Toshiba's HD-DVD will hold 30GB. Mr Doherty added that it was making sure the discs could satisfy all high-definition needs, including the ability to record onto the DVDs and smaller discs to fit into camcorders. Both Toshiba and Blu-ray are hopeful that the emerging DVD format war, akin to the Betamax and VHS fight in the 1980s, can be resolved over the next year when next-generation DVD players start to come out. When players do come out, they will be able to play standard DVDs too, which is good news for those who have huge libraries of current DVDs. But the support from Vivendi and Electronics Arts is a big boost to Blu-ray in the battle for supremacy. Gaming is a $20 billion industry worldwide, so is as crucial as the film industry in terms of money to be made. ""The technical requirement for game development today demands more advanced optical-disc technologies,"" said Michael Heilmann, chief technology officer for Vivendi Universal. ""Blu-ray offers the capacity, performance and high-speed internet connectivity to take us into the future of gaming."" EA, a leading games developer and publisher, added that the delivery of high-definition games of the future was vital and Blu-ray had the capacity, functionality and interactivity needed for the kinds of projects it was planning. Sony recently announced it would be using the technology in its next generation of PlayStations. Mr Doherty said gamers were ""ravenous"" for high-quality graphics and technology for the next generation of titles. ""Gamers, especially those working on PCs, are always focused on more capacity to deliver textures, deeper levels, for delivering higher-resolution playback."" He added: ""The focus for games moving forward is on increased immersion. ""Gaming companies really like to focus on creating a world which involves creating complicated 3D models and textures and increasing the resolution, increasing the frame rate - all of these are part of getting a more immersive experience."" Fitting these models on current DVD technologies means compressing the graphics so much that much of this quality is lost. As games move to more photo-real capability, the current technology is limiting. ""They are thrilled at the advanced capacity to start to build these immersive environments,"" said Mr Doherty. Currently, graphics-intensive PC games also require multiple discs for installation. High-definition DVDs will cut down on that need. Likewise, consoles rely on single discs, so DVDs that can hold six times more data mean much better, high-resolution games. Blu-ray has already won backing from major Hollywood studios, such as MGM Studios, Disney, and Buena Vista, as well as top technology firms like Dell, LG, Samsung and Phillips amongst others. While Toshiba's HD-DVD technology has won backing from Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros. ""The real world benefits (of HD-DVD) are apparent and obvious,"" said Jim Cardwell, president of Warner Home Video. Mr Cardwell added that rapid time to market and dependability were significant factors in choosing to go with HD-DVD. Both formats are courting Microsoft to be the format of choice for the next generation Xbox, but discussions are still on-going. Next generation DVDs will also be able to store images and other data. CES is the largest consumer electronics show in the world, and runs from 6 to 9 January." -tech,"Anti-spam screensaver scrapped A contentious campaign to bump up the bandwidth bills of spammers by flooding their sites with data has been dropped. Lycos Europe's Make Love, Not Spam campaign began in late November but its tactics proved controversial. Lycos has shut down the campaign saying it had been started to stimulate debate about anti-spam measures and had now achieved this aim. The anti-spammer screensaver came under fire for encouraging vigilante activity and skirting the edge of the law. Through the Make Love, Not Spam website, users could download a screensaver that would endlessly request data from the net sites mentioned in many junk mail messages. More than 100,000 people are thought to have downloaded the screensaver that Lycos Europe offered. The company wanted to keep the spam sites running at near total capacity to make it much less financially attractive to spammers to operate the sites. But the campaign was controversial from the moment it kicked off and many net veterans criticised it for using spamming-type tactics against the senders of junk mail. Some net service firms began blocking access to the Lycos Europe site in protest at the action. Monitoring firm Netcraft found that the anti-spam campaign was proving a little too successful. According to response-time figures gathered by Netcraft, some of the sites that the screensaver targeted were being knocked offline by the constant data requests. In a statement from Lycos Europe announcing the scrapping of the scheme, the company denied that this was its fault. ""There is nothing to suggest that Make Love, Not Spam has brought down any of the sites that it has targeted,"" it said. ""At the time that Netcraft measured the sites it claims may have been brought down, they were not in fact part of the Make Love, Not Spam attack cycle,"" it added. The statement issued by Lycos also said that the centralised database it used ensured that traffic to the target sites left them with 5% spare capacity. ""The idea was simply to slow spammers' sites and this was achieved by the campaign,"" the company said. Many security organisations said users should not participate in the Lycos Europe campaign. The closure comes only days after the campaign was suspended following the outbreak of criticism." -tech,"Microsoft launches its own search Microsoft has unveiled the finished version of its home-grown search engine. The now formally launched MSN search site takes the training wheels off the test version unveiled in November 2003. The revamped engine indexes more pages than before, can give direct answers to factual questions, and features tools to help people create detailed queries. Microsoft faces challenges establishing itself as a serious search site because of the intense competition for queries. Google still reigns supreme as the site people turn to most often when they go online to answer a query, keep up with news or search for images. But in the last year Google has faced greater competition than ever for users as old rivals, such as Yahoo and Microsoft, and new entrants such as Amazon and Blinkx, try to grab some of the searching audience for themselves. This renewed interest has come about because of the realisation that many of the things people do online begin with a search for information - be it for a particular web page, recipe, book, gadget, news story, image or anything else. Microsoft is keen to make its home-grown search engine a significant rival to Google. To generate its corpus of data, Microsoft has indexed 5 billion webpages and claims to update its document index every two days - more often than rivals. The Microsoft search engine can also answer specific queries directly rather than send people to a page that might contain the answer. For its direct answer feature, Microsoft is calling on its Encarta encyclopaedia to provide answers to questions about definitions, facts, calculations, conversions and solutions to equations. Tony Macklin, director of product at Ask Jeeves, pointed out that its search engine has been answering specific queries this way since April 2003. ""The major search providers have moved beyond delivering only algorithmic search, so in many ways Microsoft is following the market,"" he said. Tools sitting alongside the MSN search engine allow users to refine results to specific websites, countries, regions or languages. Microsoft is also using so-called ""graphic equalisers"" that let people adjust the relevance of terms to get results that are more up-to-date or more popular. The company said that user feedback from earlier test versions had been used to refine the workings of the finished system. The test, or beta, version of the MSN search engine unveiled in November had a few teething troubles. On its first day many new users keen to try it were greeted with a page that said the site had been overwhelmed." -tech,"Net fingerprints combat attacks Eighty large net service firms have switched on software to spot and stop net attacks automatically. The system creates digital fingerprints of ongoing incidents that are sent to every network affected. Firms involved in the smart sensing system believe it will help trace attacks back to their source. Data gathered will be passed to police to help build up intelligence about who is behind worm outbreaks and denial of service attacks. Firms signing up for the sensing system include MCI, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Energis, NTT, Bell Canada and many others. The creation of the fingerprinting system has been brokered by US firm Arbor Networks and signatures of attacks will be passed to anyone suffering under the weight of an attack. Increasingly computer criminals are using swarms of remotely controlled computers to carry out denial of service attacks on websites, launch worms and relay spam around the net. ""We have seen attacks involving five and ten gigabytes of traffic,"" said Rob Pollard, sales director for Arbor Networks which is behind the fingerprinting system. ""Attacks of that size cause collateral damage as they cross the internet before they get to their destination,"" he said. Once an attack is spotted and its signature defined the information will be passed back down the chain of networks affected to help every unwitting player tackle the problem. Mr Pollard said Arbor was not charging for the service and it would pass on fingerprint data to every network affected. ""What we want to do is help net service firms communicate with each other and then push the attacks further and further back around the world to their source,"" said Mr Pollard. Arbor Network's technology works by building up a detailed history of traffic on a network. It spots which computers or groups of users regularly talk to each other and what types of traffic passes between machines or workgroups. Any anomaly to this usual pattern is spotted and flagged to network administrators who can take action if the traffic is due to a net-based attack of some kind. This type of close analysis has become very useful as net attacks are increasingly launched using several hundred or thousand different machines. Anyone looking at the traffic on a machine by machine basis would be unlikely to spot that they were all part of a concerted attack. ""Attacks are getting more diffuse and more sophisticated,"" said Malcolm Seagrave, security expert at Energis. ""In the last 12 months it started getting noticeable that criminals were taking to it and we've seen massive growth."" He said that although informal systems exist to pass on information about attacks, often commercial confidentiality got in the way of sharing enough information to properly combat attacks." -tech,"The gaming world in 2005 If you have finished Doom 3, Half Life 2 and Halo 2, don't worry. There's a host of gaming gems set for release in 2005. WORLD OF WARCRAFT The US reception to this game from developers Blizzard has been hugely enthusiastic, with the title topping its competitors in the area of life-eating, high-fantasy, massively multiplayer role-player gaming. Solid, diverse, accessible and visually striking, it may well open up the genre like never before. If nothing else, it will develop a vast and loyal community. Released 25 February on PC. ICO 2 (WORKING TITLE) Ico remains a benchmark for PS2 gaming, a title that took players into a uniquely atmospheric and artistic world of adventure. The (spiritual) sequel has visuals that echo those of the original, but promises to expand the Ico world, with hero Wanda taking on a series of giants. The other known working title is Wanda And Colossus. Release date to be confirmed on PS2. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA The charismatic cel imagery has been scrapped in favour of a dark, detailed aesthetic (realism isn't quite the right word) that connects more with Ocarina Of Time. Link resumes his more teenage incarnation too, though enemies, elements and moves look familiar from the impressive trailer that has been released. Horseback adventuring across a vast land is promised. Release date to be confirmed on GameCube. ADVANCE WARS DS The UK Nintendo DS launch line-up is still to be confirmed at time of writing, but titles that exploit its two-screen and touch capacity, like WarioWare Touched! and Sega's Feel The Magic, are making a strong impression in other territories. Personally, I can't wait for the latest Advance Wars, the franchise that has been the icing on the cake of Nintendo handheld gaming during the past few years. Release date to be confirmed on DS. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Following in the high-spec footsteps of Far Cry and Half-Life 2, this looks like the key upcoming PC first-person shooter (with role-playing elements). The fact that it is inspired in part by Andrei Tarkovsky's enigmatic 1979 masterpiece Stalker and set in 2012 in the disaster zone, a world of decay and mutation, makes it all the more intriguing. Released 1 March on PC. METAL GEAR SOLID: SNAKE EATER More Hideo Kojima serious stealth, featuring action in the Soviet-controlled jungle in 1964. The game see Snake having to survive on his wits in the jungle, including eating wildlife. Once again, expect cinematic cut scenes and polished production values. Released March on PS2. DEAD OR ALIVE ULTIMATE Tecmo's Team Ninja are back with retooled and revamped versions of Dead Or Alive 1 and 2. Here's the big, big deal though - they're playable over Xbox Live. Released 11 March on Xbox. KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC II Looks set to build on the acclaimed original Star Wars role playing game with new characters, new Force powers and a new set of moral decisions, despite a different developer. Released 11 February on Xbox and PC." -tech,"'Brainwave' cap controls computer A team of US researchers has shown that controlling devices with the brain is a step closer. Four people, two of them partly paralysed wheelchair users, successfully moved a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes. Previous research has shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain. The New York team reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ""The results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions,"" said Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarlane. The research team, from New York State Department of Health and State University of New York in Albany, said the research was another step towards people controlling wheelchairs or other electronic devices by thought. The four people faced a large video screen wearing a special cap which, meant no surgery or implantation was needed. Brain activity produces electrical signals that can be read by electrodes. Complex algorithms then translate those signals into instructions to direct the computer. Such brain activity does not require the use of any nerves of muscles, so people with stroke or spinal cord injuries could use the cap effectively. ""The impressive non-invasive multidimensional control achieved in the present study suggests that a non-invasive brain control interface could support clinically useful operation of a robotic arm, a motorised wheelchair or a neuroprosthesis,"" said the researchers. The four volunteers also showed that they could get better at controlling the cursor the more times they tried. Although the two partially-paralysed people performed better overall, the researchers said this could be because their brains were more used to adapting or that they were simply more motivated. It is not the first time researchers have had this sort of success in brain-control experiments. Some teams have used eye motion and other recording techniques. Earlier this year, a team at the MIT Media Labs Europe demonstrated a wireless cap which read brain waves to control a computer character." -tech,"Doors open at biggest gadget fair Thousands of technology lovers and industry experts have gathered in Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The fair showcases the latest technologies and gadgets that will hit the shops in the next year. About 50,000 new products will be unveiled as the show unfolds. Microsoft chief Bill Gates is to make a pre-show keynote speech on Wednesday when he is expected to announce details of the next generation Xbox. The thrust of this year's show will be on technologies which put people in charge of multimedia content so they can store, listen to, and watch what they want on devices any time, anywhere. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet. Highlights will include the latest trends in digital imaging, storage technologies, thinner flat screen and high-definition TVs, wireless and portable technologies, gaming, and broadband technologies. The show also includes several speeches from key technology companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Hewlett Packard among others. ""The story this year remains all about digital and how that is completely transforming and revolutionising products and the way people interact with them,"" Jeff Joseph, from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) told the BBC News website. ""It is about personalisation - taking your MP3 player and creating your own playlist, taking your digital video recorder and watch what you want to watch when - you are no longer at the whim of the broadcasters."" Consumer electronics and gadgets had a phenomenal year in 2004, according to figures released by CES organisers, the CEA, on Tuesday. The gadget explosion signalled the strongest growth yet in the US in 2004. Shipments of consumer electronics rose by almost 11% between 2003 and 2004. That trend is predicted to continue, according to CEA analysts, with wholesale shipments of consumer technologies expected to grow by 11% again in 2005. The fastest-growing technologies in 2004 included blank DVD media, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) TVs, digital video recorders (DVRs), and portable music players. ""This year we will really begin to see that come to life in what we call place shifting - so if you have your PVR [personal video recorder] in your living room, you can move that content around the house. ""Some exhibitors will be showcasing how you can take that content anywhere,"" said Mr Joseph. He said the products which will be making waves in the next year will be about the ""democratisation"" of content - devices and technologies that will give people the freedom to do more with music, video, and images. There will also be more focus on the design of technologies, following the lead that Apple's iPod made, with ease of use and good looks which appeal to a wider range of people a key concern. The CEA predicted that there would be several key technology trends to watch in the coming year. Gaming would continue to thrive, especially on mobile devices, and would reach out to more diverse gamers such as women. Games consoles sales have been declining, but the launch of next generation consoles, such as Microsoft's Xbox and PlayStation, could buoy up sales. Although it has been widely predicted that Mr Gates would be showcasing the new Xbox, some media reports have cast doubt on what he would be talking about in the keynote. Some have suggested the announcement may take place at the Games Developers Conference in the summer instead. With more than 52% of US homes expected to have home networks, the CEA suggested hard drive boxes - or media servers - capable of storing thousands of images, video and audio files to be accessed through other devices around the home, will be more commonplace. Portable devices that combine mobile telephony, digital music and video players, will also be more popular in 2005. Their popularity will be driven by more multimedia content and services which will let people watch and listen to films, TV, and audio wherever they are. This means more storage technologies will be in demand, such as external hard drives, and flash memory like SD cards. CES runs officially from 6 to 9 January." -tech,"Consumers 'snub portable video' Consumers want music rather than movies while on the move, says a report. Produced by Jupiter Research the analysis of the portable media player market found only 13% of Europeans want to watch video while out and about. By contrast, almost a third are interested in listening to music on a portable player such as an iPod. The firm said gadget makers should avoid hybrid devices and instead make sure music reproduction was as good as possible. The report concluded that the driving force behind the growth of Europe's portable player market was likely to be music, rather than films or any combination of the two. Barely 5% of those questioned said they wanted a player that could play back both music and movies. Only 7% wanted a player that could handle games and video. ""Dedicated music players are the only established digital media players in Europe today despite their high prices,"" said Ian Fogg, Jupiter analyst. Mr Fogg said although video players and smartphones were trying to cash in on this success they faced a tough job because of the compromises that had to be made when creating a dual-purpose device. ""Europeans care most about music playback,"" he said. The report showed that 27% of consumers asked are interested in portable music players. The research revealed that French, 39%, and British, 31%, consumers were most interested in music players. Mr Fogg said portable video players were likely to remain a niche product that would not be able to compete with devices dedicated to music playback. A separate report by Jupiter forecasts that the European digital music market will grow to 836m euros (£581m) by 2009. At the end of 2003, the market was worth 10.6m euros (£7.36m). Digital music players will be behind this market growth said Jupiter . Apple's iPod was launched in October 2001, but the portable music player market has been growing steadily since the launch of the Creative Nomad Jukebox in mid-2000. Now consumers face an almost overwhelming choice of high-capacity portable music players that let them store every track on every CD that they own." -tech,"Online games play with politics After bubbling under for some time, online games broke through onto the political arena in 2004. The US presidential election provided a showcase for many, aimed at talking directly to a generation that has grown up with joysticks and gamepads. Experts say this reflects how video games are becoming a mainstream part of culture and society. The first official political campaign game was technically launched during the last week of 2003: the Iowa Game, commissioned by the Democrat hopeful Howard Dean. More than 20 followed suit, including Frontrunner, eLections, President Forever and The Political Machine, which allowed players to run an entire presidential campaign, including having to cope with the media. Others helped raise the stakes during the Bush/Kerry contest by highlighting a candidate's virtues or his vices. The phenomenon has astonished the forefathers of political games, a handful of multi-discipline games enthusiasts keen to push frontiers. ""When I started researching political games at the university, about five years ago, I thought it was going to be something that would take decades to happen,"" said Gonzalo Frasca, computer games specialist at the Information Technology University of Copenhagen. ""I must admit that I was the first person to be surprised at seeing how fast they have evolved,"" added the Uruguayan-born researcher, who has so far created games for two political campaigns. Many artists and designers are experimenting with this form of gaming with an agenda in projects such as newsgaming.com. The aim is to comment on international news events via games. The ability of games to simulate reality makes them a powerful modelling tool to interact with actual situations in an original way. ""Video games generate strong reactions mainly because they are new, but also because our culture needs to learn how to deal with simulation,"" Mr Frasca told the BBC News website. This was the case with the one he created for a political party in Uruguay, Cambiemos, an online puzzle game that offered a view on how the country's problems could be solved by working together. ""It's up to us to explore what we can learn from ourselves through play and video games."" Ultimately, Dr Frasca sees games as a small laboratory where we can play with our hopes, fears and beliefs. ""Children learn a lot about the world through play. There is no reason why we adults should stop doing it as we grow up."" But experts estimate it will still take at least about a decade until this new breed of video gaming communication become a common tool for political campaigns. This is hardly surprising, compared to other forms of mass media like the worldwide web. Only a few years ago, most politicians did not have a webpage, while now it is almost a must-have. Dr Frasca said: ""Political campaigns will continue to experiment with video games. They represent a new tool of communication that can reach a younger audience in a language that can clearly speak to them."" ""It will not replace other forms of political propaganda, but it will integrate itself on to the media ecology of political campaigns.""" -tech,"Disney backs Sony DVD technology A next generation DVD technology backed by Sony has received a major boost. Film giant Disney says it will produce its future DVDs using Sony's Blu-ray Disc technology, but has not ruled out a rival format developed by Toshiba. The two competing DVD formats, Blu-ray developed by Sony and others, and Toshiba's HD-DVD, have been courting top film studios for several months. The next generation of DVDs promises very high quality pictures and sound, as well as a lot of data. Both technologies use a blue laser to write information. It has a shorter wavelength so more data can be stored. Disney is the latest studio to announce which technology it is backing in a format battle which mirrors the 1980s Betamax versus VHS war. Sony lost out to JVC in that fight. The current battle for Hollywood's hearts and minds is a crucial one because high-definition films will bring in billions of revenue and the studios would prefer to use one standard. Last month, Paramount, Universal and Warner Brothers said they were opting for the Toshiba and NEC-backed format, HD-DVD high-definition discs. Those studios currently produce about 45% of DVD content. Sony Pictures Entertainment and MGM Studios have already staked their allegiance with the Blu-ray Disc Association, whose members also include technology companies Dell, Samsung and Matsushita. Twentieth Century Fox is still to announce which technology it will be supporting. If Fox decided to go with Blu-ray too, it would mean the format would have a 47% share of DVD content. Disney said its films would be available on the Blu-ray format when DVD players for the standard went on sale on North America and Japan, expected in 2006. Universal is to start producing films on the HD-DVD format in 2005, and Paramount will start releasing titles using the standard in 2006. Toshiba expects sales of HD-DVDs to reach 300bn yen ($2.9bn, £1.5bn) by 2010." -tech,"'Blog' picked as word of the year The term ""blog"" has been chosen as the top word of 2004 by a US dictionary publisher. Merriam-Webster said ""blog"" headed the list of most looked-up terms on its site during the last twelve months. During 2004 blogs, or web logs, have become hugely popular and some have started to influence mainstream media. Other words on the Merriam-Webster list were associated with major news events such as the US presidential election or natural disasters that hit the US. Merriam-Webster defines a blog as: ""a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks"". Its list of most looked-up words is drawn up every year and it discounts terms such as swear words, that everyone likes to look up, or those that always cause problems, such as ""affect"" and ""effect"". Merriam-Webster said ""blog"" was the word that people have asked to be defined or explained most often over the last 12 months. The word will now appear in the 2005 version of Merriam-Webster's printed dictionary. However, the word is already included in some printed versions of the Oxford English Dictionary. A spokesman for the Oxford University Press said that the word was now being put into other dictionaries for children and learners, reflecting its mainstream use. ""I think it was the word of last year rather than this year,"" he said. ""Now we're getting words that derive from it such as 'blogosphere' and so on,"" he said. ""But,"" he added, ""it's a pretty recent thing and in the way that this happens these days it's got established very quickly."" Blogs come in many different forms. Many act as news sites for particular groups or subjects, some are written from a particular political slant and others are simply lists of interesting sites. Other terms in the top 10 were related to natural disasters that have struck the US, such as ""hurricane"" or were to do with the US election. Words such as ""incumbent"", ""electoral"" and ""partisan"" reflected the scale of interest in the vote. Blogs also proved very useful to both sides in the US election battle because many pundits who maintain their own journals were able to air opinions that would never appear in more mainstream media. Speculation that President Bush was getting help during debates via a listening device was first aired on web logs. Online journals also raised doubts about documents used by US television news organisation CBS in a story about President Bush's war record. The immediacy of many blogs also helped some wield influence over topics that made it in to national press. This is despite the fact that the number of people reading even the most influential blogs is tiny. Statistics by web influence ranking firm HitWise reveal that the most popular political blog racks up only 0.0051% of all net visits per day. One of the reasons that blogs and regularly updated online journals have become popular is because the software used to put them together make it very easy for people to air their views online. According to blog analysis firm Technorati the number of blogs in existence, the blogosphere, has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18 months. Technorati now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8 million. Some speculate that less than a quarter of this number are regularly maintained. According to US research firm Pew Internet & American Life a blog is created every 5.8 seconds. Another trend this year has been the increasing numbers of weblogs that detail the daily lives of many ordinary workers in jobs that few people know much about. In many repressive regimes and developing nations, blogs have been embraced by millions of people keen to give their plight a voice." -tech,"Microsoft releases bumper patches Microsoft has warned PC users to update their systems with the latest security fixes for flaws in Windows programs. In its monthly security bulletin, it flagged up eight ""critical"" security holes which could leave PCs open to attack if left unpatched. The number of holes considered ""critical"" is more than usual. They affect Windows programs, including Internet Explorer (IE), media player and instant messaging. Four other important fixes were also released. These were considered to be less critical, however. If not updated, either automatically or manually, PC users running the programs could be vulnerable to viruses or other malicious attacks designed to exploit the holes. Many of the flaws could be used by virus writers to take over computers remotely, install programs, change, and delete or see data. One of the critical patches Microsoft has made available is an important one that fixes some IE flaws. Stephen Toulouse, a Microsoft security manager, said the flaws were known about, and although the firm had not seen any attacks exploiting the flaw, he did not rule them out. Often, when a critical flaw is announced, spates of viruses follow because home users and businesses leave the flaw unpatched. A further patch fixes a hole in Media Player, Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger which an attacker could use to take control of unprotected machines through .png files. Microsoft announces any vulnerabilities in its software every month. The most important ones are those which are classed as ""critical"". Its latest releases came the week that the company announced it was to buy security software maker Sybari Software as part of Microsoft's plans to make its own security programs." -tech,"'Brainwave' cap controls computer A team of US researchers has shown that controlling devices with the brain is a step closer. Four people, two of them partly paralysed wheelchair users, successfully moved a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes. Previous research has shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain. The New York team reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ""The results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions,"" said Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarlane. The research team, from New York State Department of Health and State University of New York in Albany, said the research was another step towards people controlling wheelchairs or other electronic devices by thought. The four people faced a large video screen wearing a special cap which, meant no surgery or implantation was needed. Brain activity produces electrical signals that can be read by electrodes. Complex algorithms then translate those signals into instructions to direct the computer. Such brain activity does not require the use of any nerves of muscles, so people with stroke or spinal cord injuries could use the cap effectively. ""The impressive non-invasive multidimensional control achieved in the present study suggests that a non-invasive brain control interface could support clinically useful operation of a robotic arm, a motorised wheelchair or a neuroprosthesis,"" said the researchers. The four volunteers also showed that they could get better at controlling the cursor the more times they tried. Although the two partially-paralysed people performed better overall, the researchers said this could be because their brains were more used to adapting or that they were simply more motivated. It is not the first time researchers have had this sort of success in brain-control experiments. Some teams have used eye motion and other recording techniques. Earlier this year, a team at the MIT Media Labs Europe demonstrated a wireless cap which read brain waves to control a computer character." -tech,"Ink helps drive democracy in Asia The Kyrgyz Republic, a small, mountainous state of the former Soviet republic, is using invisible ink and ultraviolet readers in the country's elections as part of a drive to prevent multiple voting. This new technology is causing both worries and guarded optimism among different sectors of the population. In an effort to live up to its reputation in the 1990s as ""an island of democracy"", the Kyrgyz President, Askar Akaev, pushed through the law requiring the use of ink during the upcoming Parliamentary and Presidential elections. The US government agreed to fund all expenses associated with this decision. The Kyrgyz Republic is seen by many experts as backsliding from the high point it reached in the mid-1990s with a hastily pushed through referendum in 2003, reducing the legislative branch to one chamber with 75 deputies. The use of ink is only one part of a general effort to show commitment towards more open elections - the German Embassy, the Soros Foundation and the Kyrgyz government have all contributed to purchase transparent ballot boxes. The actual technology behind the ink is not that complicated. The ink is sprayed on a person's left thumb. It dries and is not visible under normal light. However, the presence of ultraviolet light (of the kind used to verify money) causes the ink to glow with a neon yellow light. At the entrance to each polling station, one election official will scan voter's fingers with UV lamp before allowing them to enter, and every voter will have his/her left thumb sprayed with ink before receiving the ballot. If the ink shows under the UV light the voter will not be allowed to enter the polling station. Likewise, any voter who refuses to be inked will not receive the ballot. These elections are assuming even greater significance because of two large factors - the upcoming parliamentary elections are a prelude to a potentially regime changing presidential election in the Autumn as well as the echo of recent elections in other former Soviet Republics, notably Ukraine and Georgia. The use of ink has been controversial - especially among groups perceived to be pro-government. Widely circulated articles compared the use of ink to the rural practice of marking sheep - a still common metaphor in this primarily agricultural society. The author of one such article began a petition drive against the use of the ink. The greatest part of the opposition to ink has often been sheer ignorance. Local newspapers have carried stories that the ink is harmful, radioactive or even that the ultraviolet readers may cause health problems. Others, such as the aggressively middle of the road, Coalition of Non-governmental Organizations, have lauded the move as an important step forward. This type of ink has been used in many elections in the world, in countries as varied as Serbia, South Africa, Indonesia and Turkey. The other common type of ink in elections is indelible visible ink - but as the elections in Afghanistan showed, improper use of this type of ink can cause additional problems. The use of ""invisible"" ink is not without its own problems. In most elections, numerous rumors have spread about it. In Serbia, for example, both Christian and Islamic leaders assured their populations that its use was not contrary to religion. Other rumours are associated with how to remove the ink - various soft drinks, solvents and cleaning products are put forward. However, in reality, the ink is very effective at getting under the cuticle of the thumb and difficult to wash off. The ink stays on the finger for at least 72 hours and for up to a week. The use of ink and readers by itself is not a panacea for election ills. The passage of the inking law is, nevertheless, a clear step forward towards free and fair elections."" The country's widely watched parliamentary elections are scheduled for 27 February. David Mikosz works for the IFES, an international, non-profit organisation that supports the building of democratic societies." -tech,"Nintendo DS aims to touch gamers The mobile gaming industry is set to explode in 2005 with a number of high-profile devices offering a range of gaming and other features such as movie and music playback. Market leader Nintendo, however, is releasing a handheld console that it says will revolutionise the way games are played. The first striking thing about the DS is how retro it looks. Far from looking like a mould-breaking handheld, it looks more like Nintendo dug out a mould from a 1980s handheld prototype. The lightweight clam shell device opens up to reveal two screens, and when switched on it instantly reveals its pedigree. Both screens are crisp and clear while the bottom of the two is touch sensitive. Nintendo has given developers free rein to utilise the dual screens and ability to control the action by simply touching the screen. The Japanese gaming giant hopes the DS will maintain the firm's pre-eminence in an increasingly-competitive mobile gaming market. Nintendo first launched its GameBoy console in 1989 and has dominated the market ever since. But its lead can no longer be taken for granted. Sony will enter the market later this year with its PlayStation Portable, while start-up companies Gizmondo and Tapwave Zodiac are also offering hybrid devices. ""We believe the DS will appeal to all ages, both genders and gamers of any skill,"" said David Yarnton, Nintendo Europe's general manager said at the recent press launch for the handheld. With its two screens, wireless connectivity and backwards compatibility with the GameBoy Advance, the DS certainly has a number of unique selling points. It went on sale in the US in mid-November priced $150 and Nintendo says sales have exceeded expectations, without giving detailed figures. Japan and Europe will have to wait until the first quarter of 2005 to get the device. With more than two million pre-orders for the device in Japan, Nintendo is confident it will keep its number one spot. But will the device prove to be as revolutionary as claimed? The game ships with a demo of Metroid Hunters - a 3D action title which can be played alone or with a group of friends using the machine's wireless capabilities. It certainly looks impressive on the small machine and plays smoothly even with a group of people. The game can be controlled by using the supplied stylus to aim. The top screen is used to navigate the action while the bottom screen offers a top-down map and the ability to switch weapons. It is certainly a unique control method and while it makes aiming more controlled it can be a little disorientating. Super Mario 64 DS is a faithful re-creation of the Nintendo 64 classic with a host of new mini-games and new levels. The game looks stunning on the portable machine and the sound too is impressive for such a small machine. One thing is for certain. Hardened gamers will have to learn to adapt to a new way of playing while it could prove to be an accessible way in to gaming for novices, Ultimately the success or failure of the device lies in the hands of developers. If they manage to create titles which use the Nintendo DS's key features then a whole new market of gamers could open up. The fear is that the touch screen and voice recognition are treated as little more than gimmicks." -tech,"The Force is strong in Battlefront The warm reception that has greeted Star Wars: Battlefront is a reflection not of any ingenious innovation in its gameplay, but of its back-to-basics approach and immense nostalgia quotient. Geared towards online gamers, it is based around little more than a series of all-out gunfights, set in an array of locations all featured in, or hinted at during, the two blockbusting film trilogies. Previous Star Wars titles like the acclaimed Knights Of The Old Republic and Jedi Knight have regularly impressed with their imaginative forays into the far corners of the franchise's extensive universe, and their use of weird and wonderful new characters. Battlefront on the other hand wholeheartedly revisits the most recognisable elements of the hit movies themselves. The sights, sounds and protagonists on show here will all be instantly familiar to fans, who may well feel that the opportunity to relive Star Wars' most memorable screen skirmishes makes this the game they have always waited for. The mayhem can be viewed from either a third or first-person perspective, and you can either fight for the forces of freedom or join Darth Vader on the Dark Side, depending on the episode and type of campaign as well as the player's personal propensity for good or evil. There is ample chance to be a Wookie, shoot Ewoks and rush into battle alongside a fired-up Luke Skywalker. In each section, the task is simply to wipe out enemy troops, seize strategic waypoints and move on to the next planet. It really is no more complicated than that. Locations include the frozen wastes of Hoth, the ice planet from The Empire Strikes Back, complete with massive mechanical AT-ATs on the march. There are also the dusty, sinister deserts of Tatooine and Geonosis, as well as the forest moon of Endor, where Return Of The Jedi's much-maligned Ewoks lived. The feel of those places is well and truly captured, with both backdrops and characters looking good and very authentic. It is worth noting though that on the PlayStation 2, the game's graphics are a curiously long way behind those of the Xbox version. The pivotal element behind Battlefront's success is that it successfully gives you the feel of being of being plunged into the midst of large-scale war. The number of combatants, noise and abundance of laser fire see to that, and the sense of chaos really comes over. Speaking of noise, Battlefront is a real testament to the strength of the Star Wars galaxy's audio motifs. The multitude of distinctive weapon and vehicle noises are immensely familiar, as are the stirring John Williams symphonies that never let up. There is also a particularly snazzy remix of one of his themes in the menu section. It has to be said if the game did not have the boon of being Star Wars, it would not stand up for long. The gameplay is reliable, bog-standard stuff, short on originality. There are also odd annoyances, like the game's insistence on re-spawning you miles away from the action, an irritating price to pay for not getting blown up the second you appear. And some of the weapons and vehicles are not as responsive and fluid to operate as they might be. That said, it is still great fun to pilot a Scout Walker or Speeder Bike, however non user-friendly they prove. Whilst it is firmly designed with multiplayer action in mind, Battlefront is actually perfectly good fun as an offline game. The above-average AI of the enemy sees to that, although given the frenetic environments they operate in, their strategic behaviour does not need to be all that sophisticated. Battlefront's novelty value will doubtless wear off relatively fast, leaving behind a slightly empty one-trick-pony of a game. But for a while, it is an absolute blast, and one of the most immediately satisfying video game offerings yet from George Lucas' stable." -tech,"Junk e-mails on relentless rise Spam traffic is up by 40%, putting the total amount of e-mail that is junk up to an astonishing 90%. The figures, from e-mail management firm Email Systems, will alarm firms attempting to cope with the amount of spam in their in-boxes. While virus traffic has slowed down, denial of service attacks are on the increase according to the firm. Virus mail accounts for just over 15% of all e-mail traffic analysis by the firm has found. It is no longer just multi-nationals that are in danger of so-called denial of service attacks, in which websites are bombarded by requests for information and rendered inaccessible. Email Systems refers to a small UK-based engineering firm, which received a staggering 12 million e-mails in January. The type of spam currently being sent has subtlety altered in the last few months, according to Email Systems analysis. Half of spam received since Christmas has been health-related with gambling and porn also on the increase. Scam mails, offering ways to make a quick buck, have declined by 40%. ""January is clearly a month when consumers are less motivated to purchase financial products or put money into dubious financial opportunities,"" said Neil Hammerton, managing director of Email Systems. ""Spammers seem to have adapted their output to reflect this, focussing instead on medically motivated and pornographic offers, presumably intentionally intended to coincide with what is traditionally considered to be the bleakest month in the calendar,"" he said." -tech,"Go-ahead for new internet names The internet could soon have two new domain names, aimed at mobile services and the jobs market. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) has given preliminary approval to two new addresses - .mobi and .jobs. They are among 10 new names being considered by the net's oversight body. Others include a domain for pornography, an anti-spam domain as well as .post and .travel, for the postal and travel industries. The .mobi domain would be aimed at websites and other services that work specifically around mobile phones, while the .jobs address could be used by companies wanting a dedicated site for job postings. The process to see the new domain names go live in cyberspace could take months and Icann officials warned that there were no guarantees they would ultimately be accepted. Applicants paid £23,000 apiece to have their proposals considered. The application for .mobi was sponsored by technology firms including Nokia, Microsoft and T-Mobile. Of the 10 currently under consideration, the least likely to win approval is the .xxx domain for pornographic websites. There are currently around 250 domain names in use around the globe, mostly for specific countries such as .fr for France and .uk for Britain. Perhaps unsurprisingly, .com remains the most popular address on the web." -tech,"Tough rules for ringtone sellers Firms that flout rules on how ringtones and other mobile extras are sold could be cut off from all UK phone networks. The rules allow offenders to be cut off if they do not let consumers know exactly what they get for their money and how to turn off the services. The first month under the new rules has seen at least ten firms suspended while they clean up the way they work. The rules have been brought in to ensure that the problems plaguing net users do not spread to mobile phones. In the last couple of years ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers and lots of other extras for phones have become hugely popular. But fierce competition is making it difficult for firms to get their wares in front of consumers, said Jeremy Flynn, head of third party services at Vodafone. ""If you are not on the operator's portal you are going to have quite heavy marketing costs because it's a problem of how people discover your services,"" he said. To combat this many ringtone and other mobile content sellers started using a new tactic to squeeze more cash out of customers. This tactic involved signing people up for a subscription to give them, for instance, several ringtones per week or month instead of the single track they thought they were getting. Mr Flynn said that the move to using subscriptions happened over the space of a few weeks at the end of 2004. Websites such as grumbletext.co.uk started getting reports from customers who were racking up large bills for phone content they did not know they had signed up for. ""What made us uncomfortable was that these services were not being marketed transparently,"" said Mr Flynn. ""People did not know they were being offered a subscription service."" ""We saw potential for substantial consumer harm here,"" he added. The swift adoption of subscription services led to the creation of a new code of conduct for firms that want to sell content for mobile phones. The drafting of the new rules was led by the Mobile Entertainment Forum and the UK's phone firms. ""Everyone is required to conform to this code of conduct,"" said Andrew Bud, regulatory head of the MEF and executive chairman of messaging firm MBlox. ""It's all about transparency,"" he said. ""Consumers have to be told what they have got themselves into and how to get out of it."" ""The consumer has a right to be protected,"" he said. Christian Harris, partnership manager of mobile content firm Zed, said the new system was essential if consumers were to trust companies that sell ringtones and other downloads. ""The groundrules must be applied across the whole industry and if that's done effectively we will see the cowboys driven out,"" he said. The new rules came in to force on 15 January and the first month under the new regime has seen many firms cautioned for not honouring them. Some have been told to revamp websites so customers know what they get for their money and what they are signing up for, said Mr Flynn. Also, said Mr Flynn, Vodafone has briefly cut off between eight and ten content sellers flouting the rules. ""We have quite draconian contracts with firms,"" he said. ""We do not have to say why. We can just cut them off."" Under the rules consumers must be able to switch off the services by using a universal ""stop"" command sent via text message. He said the system had been designed to limit how much a consumer will pay if they inadvertently signed up for a service. ""The mobile is so personal that people really resent the abuse of what is effectively part of their personality,"" said Mr Flynn." -tech,"Apple sues to stop product leaks Computer firm Apple has issued a lawsuit to prevent online leaks of information about future products. The lawsuit, against an unidentified individual, comes just weeks before the MacWorld conference in San Francisco, used to showcase new products. The complaint said an ""unidentified individual... has recently misappropriated and disseminated confidential information"". The lawsuit was filed with the Santa Clara California Superior Court. Apple is famously secretive about its future product launches while Apple users are equally famous for speculating about new technology from the company. Fans have speculated in recent weeks about the possibility of a new type of iPod being announced at the MacWorld conference. Apple said in the seven-page complaint, filed on 13 December, that it did not know the ""true names or capacities, whether individual, associate, corporate or otherwise,"" of the defendants. The company said it would amend the complaint once they had discovered the names of those who had allegedly leaked information. It is not the first time Apple has sued people who have posted information about future products on the internet. In December 2002, Apple sued a former contractor who allegedly posted online drawings, images and engineering details of the company's PowerMac G4 computer. In a statement, Apple said of the current lawsuit: ""Apple has filed a civil complaint against unnamed individuals who we believe stole our trade secrets and posted detailed information about an unannounced Apple product on the internet.""" -tech,"IBM frees 500 software patents Computer giant IBM says 500 of its software patents will be released into the open development community. The move means developers will be able to use the technologies without paying for a licence from the company. IBM described the step as a ""new era"" in how it dealt with intellectual property and promised further patents would be made freely available. The patents include software for a range of practices, including text recognition and database management. Traditional technology business policy is to amass patents and despite IBM's announcement the company continues to follow this route. IBM was granted 3,248 patents in 2004, more than any other firm in the US, the New York Times reports. For each of the past 12 years IBM has been granted more US patents than any other company. IBM has received 25,772 US patents in that period and reportedly has more than 40,000 current patents. In a statement, Dr John E. Kelly, IBM senior vice president, Technology and Intellectual Property, said: ""True innovation leadership is about more than just the numbers of patents granted. It's about innovating to benefit customers, partners and society. ""Our pledge today is the beginning of a new era in how IBM will manage intellectual property."" In the past, IBM has supported the non-commercial operating system Linux although critics have said this was done only as an attempt to undermine Microsoft. The company said it wanted to encourage other firms to release patents into what it called a ""patent commons"". Adam Jollans, IBM's world-wide Linux strategy manager, said the move was a genuine attempt to encourage innovation. ""We believe that releasing these patents will result in innovation moving more quickly. ""This is about encouraging collaboration and following a model much like academia."" Mr Jollans likened the plan for a patent commons to the way the internet was developed and said everyone could take advantage of the result of collaboration. ""The internet's impact has been on everyone. The benefits are there for everyone to take advantage of."" Stuart Cohen, chief executive of US firm Open Source Development Labs, said the move could mean a change in the way companies deal with patents. ""I think other companies will follow suit,"" he said. But not everyone was as supportive. Florian Mueller, campaign manager of a group lobbying toprevent software patents becoming legal in the European Union,dismissed IBM's move as insubstantial. ""It's just diversionary tactics,"" wrote Mr Mueller, who leadsnosoftwarepatents.com, in a message on the group's website. ""Let's put this into perspective: We're talking aboutroughly one percent of IBM's worldwide patent portfolio. They filethat number of patents in about a month's time,"" he added. IBM will continue to hold the 500 patents but it has pledged to seek no royalties from the patents. The company said it would not place any restrictions on companies, groups or individuals who use them in open-source projects. Open source software is developed by programmers who offer the source code - the origins of the program - for free and allow others to adapt or improve the software. End users have the right to modify and redistribute the software, as well as the right to package and sell the software. Other areas covered by the patents released by IBM include storage management, simultaneous multiprocessing, image processing, networking and e-commerce." -tech,"Lifestyle 'governs mobile choice' Faster, better or funkier hardware alone is not going to help phone firms sell more handsets, research suggests. Instead, phone firms keen to get more out of their customers should not just be pushing the technology for its own sake. Consumers are far more interested in how handsets fit in with their lifestyle than they are in screen size, onboard memory or the chip inside, shows an in-depth study by handset maker Ericsson. ""Historically in the industry there has been too much focus on using technology,"" said Dr Michael Bjorn, senior advisor on mobile media at Ericsson's consumer and enterprise lab. ""We have to stop saying that these technologies will change their lives,"" he said. ""We should try to speak to consumers in their own language and help them see how it fits in with what they are doing,"" he told the BBC News website. For the study, Ericsson interviewed 14,000 mobile phone owners on the ways they use their phone. ""People's habits remain the same,"" said Dr Bjorn. ""They just move the activity into the mobile phone as it's a much more convenient way to do it."" One good example of this was diary-writing among younger people, he said. While diaries have always been popular, a mobile phone -- especially one equipped with a camera -- helps them keep it in a different form. Youngsters' use of text messages also reflects their desire to chat and keep in contact with friends and again just lets them do it in a slightly changed way. Dr Bjorn said that although consumers do what they always did but use a phone to do it, the sheer variety of what the new handset technologies make possible does gradually drive new habits and lifestyles. Ericsson's research has shown that consumers divide into different ""tribes"" that use phones in different ways. Dr Bjorn said groups dubbed ""pioneers"" and ""materialists"" were most interested in trying new things and were behind the start of many trends in phone use. ""For instance,"" he said, ""older people are using SMS much more than they did five years ago."" This was because younger users, often the children of ageing mobile owners, encouraged older people to try it so they could keep in touch. Another factor governing the speed of change in mobile phone use was the simple speed with which new devices are bought by pioneers and materialists. Only when about 25% of people have handsets with new innovations on them, such as cameras, can consumers stop worrying that if they send a picture message the person at the other end will be able to see it. Once this significant number of users is passed, use of new innovations tends to take off. Dr Bjorn said that early reports of camera phone usage in Japan seemed to imply that the innovation was going to be a flop. However, he said, now 45% of the Japanese people Ericsson questioned use their camera phone at least once a month. In 2003 the figure was 29%. Similarly, across Europe the numbers of people taking snaps with cameras is starting to rise. In 2003 only 4% of the people in the UK took a phonecam snap at least once a month. Now the figure is 14%. Similar rises have been seen in many other European nations. Dr Bjorn said that people also used their camera phones in very different ways to film and even digital cameras. ""Usage patterns for digital cameras are almost exactly replacing usage patterns for analogue cameras,"" he said. Digital cameras tend to be used on significant events such as weddings, holidays and birthdays. By contrast, he said, camera phones were being used much more to capture a moment and were being woven into everyday life." -tech,"TV future in the hands of viewers With home theatre systems, plasma high-definition TVs, and digital video recorders moving into the living room, the way people watch TV will be radically different in five years' time. That is according to an expert panel which gathered at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to discuss how these new technologies will impact one of our favourite pastimes. With the US leading the trend, programmes and other content will be delivered to viewers via home networks, through cable, satellite, telecoms companies, and broadband service providers to front rooms and portable devices. One of the most talked-about technologies of CES has been digital and personal video recorders (DVR and PVR). These set-top boxes, like the US's TiVo and the UK's Sky+ system, allow people to record, store, play, pause and forward wind TV programmes when they want. Essentially, the technology allows for much more personalised TV. They are also being built-in to high-definition TV sets, which are big business in Japan and the US, but slower to take off in Europe because of the lack of high-definition programming. Not only can people forward wind through adverts, they can also forget about abiding by network and channel schedules, putting together their own a-la-carte entertainment. But some US networks and cable and satellite companies are worried about what it means for them in terms of advertising revenues as well as ""brand identity"" and viewer loyalty to channels. Although the US leads in this technology at the moment, it is also a concern that is being raised in Europe, particularly with the growing uptake of services like Sky+. ""What happens here today, we will see in nine months to a years' time in the UK,"" Adam Hume, the BBC Broadcast's futurologist told the BBC News website. For the likes of the BBC, there are no issues of lost advertising revenue yet. It is a more pressing issue at the moment for commercial UK broadcasters, but brand loyalty is important for everyone. ""We will be talking more about content brands rather than network brands,"" said Tim Hanlon, from brand communications firm Starcom MediaVest. ""The reality is that with broadband connections, anybody can be the producer of content."" He added: ""The challenge now is that it is hard to promote a programme with so much choice."" What this means, said Stacey Jolna, senior vice president of TV Guide TV group, is that the way people find the content they want to watch has to be simplified for TV viewers. It means that networks, in US terms, or channels could take a leaf out of Google's book and be the search engine of the future, instead of the scheduler to help people find what they want to watch. This kind of channel model might work for the younger iPod generation which is used to taking control of their gadgets and what they play on them. But it might not suit everyone, the panel recognised. Older generations are more comfortable with familiar schedules and channel brands because they know what they are getting. They perhaps do not want so much of the choice put into their hands, Mr Hanlon suggested. ""On the other end, you have the kids just out of diapers who are pushing buttons already - everything is possible and available to them,"" said Mr Hanlon. ""Ultimately, the consumer will tell the market they want."" Of the 50,000 new gadgets and technologies being showcased at CES, many of them are about enhancing the TV-watching experience. High-definition TV sets are everywhere and many new models of LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) TVs have been launched with DVR capability built into them, instead of being external boxes. One such example launched at the show is Humax's 26-inch LCD TV with an 80-hour TiVo DVR and DVD recorder. One of the US's biggest satellite TV companies, DirectTV, has even launched its own branded DVR at the show with 100-hours of recording capability, instant replay, and a search function. The set can pause and rewind TV for up to 90 hours. And Microsoft chief Bill Gates announced in his pre-show keynote speech a partnership with TiVo, called TiVoToGo, which means people can play recorded programmes on Windows PCs and mobile devices. All these reflect the increasing trend of freeing up multimedia so that people can watch what they want, when they want." -tech,"Search wars hit desktop PCs Another front in the on-going battle between Microsoft and Google is about to be opened. By the end of 2004 Microsoft aims to launch search software to find any kind of file on a PC hard drive. The move is in answer to Google's release of its own search tool that catalogues data on desktop PCs. The desktop search market is becoming increasingly crowded as Google, AOL, Yahoo and many smaller firms tout programs that help people find files. Microsoft made the announcement about its forthcoming search software during a call to financial analysts to talk about its first quarter results. John Connors, Microsoft's chief financial officer said a test version of its desktop search software should be available for download by the end of the year. ""We're going to have a heck of a great race in search between Google, Microsoft and Yahoo,"" he said. ""It's going to be really fun to follow."" Microsoft is coming late to the desktop search arena and its software will have to compare favourably with programs from a large number of rivals, many of which have fiercely dedicated populations of users. The program could be based on the software Microsoft owns as a result of its purchase of Lookout Software in early October. On 14 October Google released desktop search software that catalogues all the files on a PC and lets users use one tool to find e-mail messages, spreadsheets, text files and presentations. The software will also find webpages and messages sent via AOL Instant Messenger. Many other firms have released desktop search systems recently too. Companies such as Blinkx, Copernic, Enfish X1 Technologies and X-Friend all do the same job of cataloguing the huge amounts of information that people increasingly store on their desktop or home computer. Apple has also debuted a similar search system for its computers called Spotlight that is due to debut with the release of the Tiger operating system. Due to follow are net giants AOL and Yahoo. The latter recently bought Stata Labs to get its hands on search software that people can use. Microsoft is also reputedly working on a novel search system for the next version of Windows (codenamed Longhorn). However this is not likely to appear until 2006. ""The recent activity in the search industry shows that there is a need to move beyond simple keyword-based web search,"" said Kathy Rittweger, co-founder of Blinkx. ""Finding information of our own computers is becoming as difficult as it is to find the relevant webpage amongst the billions that exist."" Desktop search has become important for several reasons. According to research by message analysts the Radicati Group up to 45% of the information critical to keeping many businesses running sits in e-mail messages and attachments. JF Sullivan, spokesman for e-mail software firm Sendmail said many organisations were starting to realise how important messaging was to their organisation and the way the work. ""The key thing is being able to manage all this information,"" he said. Also search is increasingly key to the way that people get around the internet. Many people use a search engine as the first page they go to when getting on the net. Many others use desktop toolbars that let them search for information no matter what other program they are using. Having a tool on a desktop can be a lucrative way to control where people go online. For companies such as Google which relies on revenue from adverts this knowledge about what people are looking for is worth huge amounts of money. But this invasiveness has already led some to ask about the privacy implications of such tools." -tech,"Yahoo celebrates a decade online Yahoo, one of the net's most iconic companies, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week. The web portal has undergone remarkable change since it was set up by Stanford University students David Filo and Jerry Yang in a campus trailer. The students wanted a way of keeping track of their web-based interests. The categories lists they devised soon became popular to hundreds of people and the two saw business potential in their idea. Originally dubbed ""Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web"" the firm adopted the moniker Yahoo because the founders liked the dictionary definition of a yahoo as a rude, unsophisticated, uncouth person. The term was popularised by the 18th Century satirist Jonathan Swift in his classic novel, Gulliver's Travels. ""We were certainly not sophisticated or civilised,"" Mr Yang told reporters ahead of the anniversary, which will be officially recognised on 2 March. They did have business brains however, and in April 1995 persuaded venture capitalists Sequoia Capital, which also invested in Apple Computer and Cisco Systems, to fund Yahoo to the tune of $2m (£1.04m). A second round of funding followed in the autumn and the company floated in April 1996 with less than 50 employees. Now the firm employs 7,600 workers and insists its dot com culture of ""work hard, play hard"" still remains. It is one of just a handful of survivors of the dot-com crash although it now faces intense rivalry from firms such as Google, MSN and AOL. Jerry Yang, who remains the firm's ""Chief Yahoo"", is proud of what the company has achieved. ""In just one decade, the internet has changed the way consumers do just about everything - and it's been a remarkable and wonderful experience,"" he said. Through it all, we wanted to build products that satisfied our users wants and needs, but it's even more than that - it's to help every one of us to discover, get more done, share and interact.""" -tech,"Intel unveils laser breakthrough Intel has said it has found a way to put a silicon-based laser on a chip, raising hopes of much faster networks. Scientists at Intel have overcome a fundamental problem that before now has prevented silicon being used to generate and amplify laser light. The breakthrough should make it easier to interconnect data networks with the chips that process the information. The Intel researchers said products exploiting the breakthrough should appear by the end of the decade. ""We've overcome a fundamental limit,"" said Dr Mario Paniccia, director of Intel's photonics technology lab. Writing in the journal Nature, Dr Paniccia - and colleagues Haisheng Rong, Richard Jones, Ansheng Liu, Oded Cohen, Dani Hak and Alexander Fang - show how they have made a continuous laser from the same material used to make computer processors. Currently, says Dr Paniccia, telecommunications equipment that amplifies the laser light that travels down fibre optic cables is very expensive because of the exotic materials, such as gallium arsenide, used to make it. Telecommunications firms and chip makers would prefer to use silicon for these light-moving elements because it is cheap and many of the problems of using it in high-volume manufacturing have been solved. ""We're trying to take our silicon competency in manufacturing and apply it to new areas,"" said Dr Paniccia. While work has been done to make some of the components that can move light around, before now silicon has not successfully been used to generate or amplify the laser light pulses used to send data over long distances. This is despite the fact that silicon is a much better amplifier of light pulses than the form of the material used in fibre optic cables. This improved amplification is due to the crystalline structure of the silicon used to make computer chips. Dr Paniccia said that the structure of silicon meant that when laser light passed through it, some colliding photons rip electrons off the atoms within the material. ""It creates a cloud of electrons sitting in the silicon and that absorbs all the light,"" he said. But the Intel researchers have found a way to suck away these errant electrons and turn silicon into a material that can both generate and amplify laser light. Even better, the laser light produced in this way can, with the help of easy-to-make filters, be tuned across a very wide range of frequencies. Semi-conductor lasers made before now have only produced light in a narrow frequency ranges. The result could be the close integration of the fibre optic cables that carry data as light with the computer chips that process it. Dr Paniccia said the work was the one of several steps needed if silicon was to be used to make components that could carry and process light in the form of data pulses. ""It's a technical validation that it can work,"" he said." -tech,"Bond game fails to shake or stir For gaming fans, the word GoldenEye evokes excited memories not only of the James Bond revival flick of 1995, but also the classic shoot-em-up that accompanied it and left N64 owners glued to their consoles for many an hour. Adopting that hallowed title somewhat backfires on this new game, for it fails to deliver on the promise of its name and struggles to generate the original's massive sense of fun. This however is not a sequel, nor does it relate to the GoldenEye film. You are the eponymous renegade spy, an agent who deserts to the Bond world's extensive ranks of criminal masterminds, after being deemed too brutal for MI6. Your new commander-in-chief is the portly Auric Goldfinger, last seen in 1964, but happily running around bent on world domination. With a determination to justify its name which is even less convincing than that of Tina Turner's similarly-titled theme song, the game literally gives the player a golden eye following an injury, which enables a degree of X-ray vision. Rogue Agent signals its intentions by featuring James Bond initially and proceeding to kill him off within moments, squashed by a plummeting helicopter. The notion is of course to add a novel dark edge to a 007 game, but the premise simply does not get the juices flowing like it needs to. Recent Bond games like Nightfire and Everything Or Nothing were very competent and did a fine job of capturing the sense of flair, invention and glamour of the film franchise. This title lacks that aura, and when the Bond magic shines through, it feels like a lucky accident. The central problem is that the gameplay just is not good enough. Quite aside from the bizarre inability to jump, the even more bizarre glaring graphical bugs and dubious enemy AI, the levels simply are not put together with much style or imagination. Admittedly the competition has been tough, even in recent weeks, with the likes of Halo 2 and Half Life 2 triumphing in virtually every department. What the game is good at is enveloping you in noisy, dynamic scenes of violent chaos. As is the trend of late, you are made to feel like you are in the midst of a really messy and fraught encounter. Sadly that sense of action is outweighed by the difficulty of navigating and battling within the chaos, meaning that frustration is often the outcome. And irregular save points mean you have to backtrack each time you are killed. A minute red dot passes for a crosshair, although the collision-detection is so suspect that the difficulties of aiming weapons are compensated for. Shooting enemies from a distance can be tricky, and you will not always know you have picked them off, since dead enemies vanish literally before they have fully hit the floor, and they do so in some woefully uninspiring death animations. It is perhaps indicative of a lack of confidence that the game maker's allow you several different weapons almost immediately and throw you quickly into raging firefights - no time is risked with a measured build-up. By far the most satisfying element of the game is seeing old favourites like Dr No, Goldfinger, hat-fiend Oddjob and crazed Russian sex beast Xenia Onatopp resurrected after all these years, and with their faces rendered in an impressively recognisable fashion. There is a real thrill from doing battle with these legendary villains, and it is a testament to the power of the Bond universe that they can cut such a dash. But the in-game niggles, combined with a story and presentation that just do not feel sufficiently well thought-through, will make this a disappointment for most. Diehard fans of Bond will probably find enough here to make it a worthwhile purchase and try to ignore the failings. The game is weak, not completely unplayable. Then again, 007 fanatics may also take umbrage at the cavalier blending of characters from different eras. Given James Bond's healthy pedigree in past games, there is every reason to hope that this is just a blip, a commendable idea that just has not worked, that will be rectified when the character inevitably makes his return. GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is out now" -tech,"First look at PlayStation 3 chip Some details of the chip inside Sony's PlayStation 3 have been revealed. Sony, IBM and Toshiba have released limited data about the so-called Cell chip that will be able to carry out trillions of calculations per second. The chip will be made of several different processing cores that work on tasks together. The PlayStation 3 is expected in 2006 but developers are expecting to get prototypes early next year to tune games that will appear on it at launch. The three firms have been working on the chip since 2001 but before now few details have been released about how it might function. In a joint statement the three firms gave hints about how the chip will work but fuller details will be released in February next year at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. The three firms claim that the Cell chip will be up to 10 times more powerful than existing processors. When put inside powerful computer servers, the Cell consortium expects it to be capable of handling 16 trillion floating point operations, or calculations, every second. The chip has also been refined to be able to handle the detailed graphics common in games and the data demands of films and broadband media. IBM said it would start producing the chip in early 2005 at manufacturing plants in the US. The first machines off the line using the Cell processor will be computer workstations and servers. A working version of the PS3 is due to be shown off in May 2005 but a full launch of the next generation console is not expected to start until 2006. As well as being inside the PlayStation 3, the chip will also be used inside high-definition TVs and powerful computers. ""In the future, all forms of digital content will be converged and fused onto the broadband network,"" said Ken Kutaragi, Chief Operating Officer of Sony. ""Current PC architecture is nearing its limits.""" -tech,"TV's future down the phone line Internet TV has been talked about since the start of the web as we know it now. But any early attempts to do it - the UK's Home Choice started in 1992 - were thwarted by the lack of a fast network. Now that broadband networks are bedding down, and it is becoming essential for millions, the big telcos are keen to start shooting video down the line. In the face of competition from cable companies offering net voice calls, they are keen to be the top IPTV dogs. Software giant Microsoft thinks IPTV - Internet Protocol TV - is the future of television, and it sits neatly with its vision of the ""connected entertainment experience"". ""Telcos have been wanting to do video for a long time,"" Ed Graczyk, director of marketing for Microsoft IPTV, told the BBC News website. ""The challenge has been the broadband network, and the state of technology up until not so long ago did not add up to a feasible solution. ""Compression technology was not efficient enough, the net was not good enough. A lot of stars have aligned in the last 18 months to make it a reality."" Last year, he said, was all about deal making and partnering up; shaping the ""IPTV ecosystem"". This year, those deals will start to play out and more services will come online. ""2006 is where it starts ramping up and expanding to other geographies - over time as broadband becomes more prevalent in South America, and other parts of Asia, it will expand,"" he added. What telcos really want to do is to send the ""triple-play"" of video, voice, and data down one single line, be it cable or DSL (Digital Subscriber Line). Some are talking about ""quadruple play"", too, with mobile services added into the mix. It is an emerging new breed of competition for satellite and cable broadcasters and operators. According to technology analysts, TDG Research, there will be 20 million subscribers to IPTV services in under six years. Key to the appeal of sending TV programmes down the same line as the web data, whenever a viewer wants it, is that it uses the same technology as the internet. It means there is not just a one-way relationship between the viewer and the ""broadcaster"". This allows for more DVD-like interactivity, limitless storage and broadcast space, bespoke channel ""playlists"", and thousands of hours of programmes or films at a viewer's fingertips. It potentially lets operators target programmes to smaller, niche or localised audiences, sending films to Bollywood fans for instance, as well as individual devices. Operators could also send high-definition programmes straight to the viewer, bypassing the need for a special broadcast receiver. Perhaps most compelling - yet some might say insignificant - is instantaneous channel flicking. Currently, there is a delay when you try to do this on satellite, cable or Freeview. With IPTV, the speed is 15 milliseconds. ""That gets rounds of applause,"" according to Mr Graczyk. Microsoft is one of the companies that started thinking about IPTV some time ago. ""We believe this will be the way all TV is delivered in the future - but that is several years away,"" said Mr Graczyk. ""As with music, TV has moved to digital formats. ""The things software can do to integrate media into devices means a whole new generation of connected entertainment experiences that cross devices from the TV, to the mobile, to the gaming console and so on."" The company intends its Microsoft's IPTV Edition software, an end-to-end management and delivery platform, to let telcos to do exactly that, seamlessly. It has netted seven major telcos as customers, representing a potential audience of 25 million existing broadband subscribers. Its deal with US telco SBC was the largest TV software deal to date, said Mr Graczyk. IPTV is about more than telcos, though. There are several web-based offerings that aim to put control in the hands of the consumer by exploiting the net's power. Jeremy Allaire, chief of Brightcove, told the BBC News website that it would be a flavour of IPTV that was about harnessing the web as a ""channel"". ""It is not just niches, but about exploiting content not usually viewed,"" he said. ""We are focussed on the owners of video content who have rights to digitally distribute content, and who often see unencumbered distribution. ""For them to do it through cable and so on is price-prohibitive,"" he said. This type of IPTV service might also be a distribution channel for more established publishers who have unique types of content that they cannot offer through cable and satellite operators - history channel archives, for instance. What is a clear sign that IPTV has a future is that Microsoft is not the only player in the field. There are a lot of other ""middleware"" players providing similar management services as Microsoft, like Myrio and C-Cor. But it will up to the viewer to decide if it really is to be successful." -tech,"Mobile TV tipped as one to watch Scandinavians and Koreans, two of the most adventurous groups of mobile users, are betting on mobile TV. Anders Igels, chief executive of Nordic operator Teliasonera, tipped it as the next big thing in mobile in a speech at the 3GSM World Congress, a mobile trade fair, in Cannes this week. Nokia, the Finnish handset maker, is planning a party in Singapore this spring to launch its TV to mobile activities in the region. Consultancy Strategy Analytics of Boston estimates that mobile broadcast networks will have acquired around 51 million users worldwide by 2009, producing around $6.6bn (£3.5bn) in revenue. SK Telecom of South Korea, which is launching a TV to mobile service (via satellite) in May plans to charge a flat fee of $12 a month for its 12 channels of video and 12 channels of audio. It will be able to offer an additional two pay TV channels using conditional access technology. Mr Shin-Bae Kim, chief executive of SK Telecom, also at 3GSM, said: ""We have plans to integrate TV with mobile internet services. ""This will enable viewers to access the mobile internet to get more information on adverts they see on TV."" There will be 12 handsets available for the launch of the Korean service. LG Electronics of South Korea was demonstrating one at 3GSM that could display video at 30 frames a second. Footage shown on the handset was clear and watchable. A speech on mobile TV by Angel Gambino of the BBC also drew a large crowd, suggesting that even those mobile operators and equipment vendors which are not particularly active in mobile TV yet are starting to look into it. But all is not simple and straightforward in the mobile TV arena. There is a battle for supremacy between two competing standards: DVB-H for Digital Video Broadcasting for Handsets and DMB for Digital Multimedia Broadcasting. Dr Chan Yeob Yeun, vice president and research fellow in charge of mobile TV at LG Electronics, said: ""DMB offers twice the number of frames a minute as DVB-H and does not drain mobile batteries as quickly."" The Japanese, Koreans and Ericsson of Sweden are backing DMB. Samsung of South Korea has a DMB phone too that will be one of those offered to users of the TU Media satellite mobile TV service to be launched in Korea in May. Nokia, by contrast, is backing DVB-H, and is involved in mobile TV trials that use its art-deco style media phone, which has a larger than usual screen for TV or visual radio (a way of accompanying a radio programme with related text and pictures). Mobile operators O2 and Vodafone are among the operators trialling mobile TV. But even if the standards battle is resolved, there is the thorny issue of broadcasting rights. Ms Gambino says the BBC now negotiates mobile rights when it is negotiating content. For those not convinced mobile users will want to watch TV on their handsets, Digital Audio Broadcasting may provide a good compromise and better sound quality than conventional radio. Developments in this area are continuing. At a DAB conference in Cannes, several makers of DAB chips for mobiles announced smaller, lower- cost chips which consume less power. Among the chip companies present were Frontier Silicon and Radioscape. The jury is still out on whether TV and digital radio on mobiles will make much money for anyone. But with many new services going live soon, it won't be long before the industry finds out." -tech,"Latest Opera browser gets vocal Net browser Opera 8.0, due for official release at the end of next month, will be ""the most accessible browser on the market"", according to its authors. The latest version of the net browser can be controlled by voice command and will read pages aloud. The voice features, based on IBM technology, are currently only available in the Windows version. Opera can also magnify text by up to 10 times and users can create ""style sheets"", its developers say. This will enable them to view pages with colours and fonts that they prefer. But the browser does not yet work well with screen reader software often used by blind people, so its accessibility features are more likely to appeal to those with some residual vision. ""Our mission was always to provide the best internet experience for everyone,"" said Opera spokeswoman, Berit Hanson. ""So we would obviously not want to exclude disabled computer users."" Another feature likely to appeal to people with low vision is the ability to make pages fit to the screen width, which eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling. The company points out that this will also appeal to anyone using Opera with a handheld device. The company says that features like voice activation are not solely aimed at visually impaired people. ""Our idea was to take a first step in making human-computer interaction more natural,"" said Ms Hanson. ""People are not always in a situation where they can access a keyboard, so this makes the web a more hands-free experience."" Unlike commercially available voice recognition software, Opera does not have to be ""trained"" to recognise an individual voice. Around 50 voice commands are available and users will have to wear a headset which incorporates a microphone. The voice recognition function is currently only available in English. Opera is free to download but a paid-for version comes without an ad banner in the top right hand corner and with extra support. Opera began life as a research project - a spin-off from Norwegian telecoms company Telenor. Its browser is used by an estimated 10 million people on a variety of operating systems and a number of different platforms." -tech,"Games firms 'face tough future' UK video game firms face a testing time as they prepare for the next round of games consoles, the industry warns. Fred Hasson, head of Tiga, which represents independent developers, said that more UK firms would go under due to greater risks in making new titles. Three leading UK video game companies also predicted that more firms would close as they struggled to adapt. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are expected to release new consoles in the next 18 months. Microsoft has said repeatedly that it wants to be first to the market and some analysts predict that Xbox 2 will be released in the US before the end of 2005. The new machines will all have much greater processing and graphical power which will have a huge impact on development of next generation games. Mr Hasson said: ""In the last four years we have probably lost a third of independent developers."" He said there were about 150 independent developers left in the industry and more were likely to close. ""Once the cull has finished its likely to present those still standing with great opportunities,"" he said. Mr Hasson said the industry was predicting that developments costs and teams were likely to need to double in order to cope with the demands of the new machines. That figure was endorsed by three independent companies contacted by the BBC News website - Codemasters, Climax and Rebellion. ""As consoles get more powerful, the content gets more detailed and that means more cost,"" said Gary Dunn, development director at Codemasters, which develops games in house and also publishes titles. Jason Kingsley, chief executive of Rebellion, said the transition from the current generation of consoles to the new machines was difficult because ""the production quality expected by consumers will be that much bigger"". He added: ""We have been through five technology transitions and survived so far. ""Each one has involved the death of some people. All companies said they were investing in new tools - called middleware - in order to try and avoid staff numbers spiralling out of control. Simon Gardner, president of Climax's Action studio, said: ""We are investing in superior tools and editors. We are investing upfront to generate this content without the need for huge teams. ""It's vital we avoid huge teams."" He said Climax was already directing about 20% of its resources to preparation for next generation titles. Mr Dunn warned that companies could face a short supply of programming, development and artistic talent. ""If companies are hiring bigger and bigger teams, at some point the talent is going to run out."" Mr Hasson said games developers were beginning to realise that they had to be more ""business-like"". ""There are still some developers who were involved in games from the bedroom coding days. ""Some of them are still making games for peer group approval - that has to stop.""" -tech,"Who do you think you are? The real danger is not what happens to your data as it crosses the net, argues analyst Bill Thompson. It is what happens when it arrives at the other end. The Financial Services Authority has warned banks and other financial institutions that members of criminal gangs may be applying for jobs which give them access to confidential customer data. The fear is not that they will steal money from our bank accounts but that they will instead steal something far more valuable in our digital society - our identities. Armed with the personal details that a bank holds, plus a fake letter or two, it is apparently easy to get a loan, open a bank account with an overdraft or get a credit card in someone else's name. And it is then a simple matter to move the money into another account and leave the unwitting victim to sort out the mess when statements and demands for payment start arriving. Identity theft is an increasingly significant economic crime, and we are all becoming more aware of the dangers of leaving bills, receipts and bank statements unshredded in our rubbish. But, however careful you may be, if the organisations you trust with your personal data, bank accounts and credit cards are not able to look after their databases properly then you are in trouble. It is surprising that it has taken the gangs so long to realise that a well-placed insider is by far the simplest way to break the security of a computer system. In fact, I suspect that the FSA is probably very late to this particular party and that this sort of thing has been going on for rather a long time. Has anyone checked Bob Cratchit's family links to the criminal underworld, I wonder? And it is hardly likely to be only banks that are being targeted. Health authorities, government agencies and of course the big e-commerce sites like Amazon must also offer rich pickings for the fraudsters. The good news is that better auditing is likely to catch out those who access account details that they are not supposed to. And as we all become aware of the danger of identity theft and look more carefully for unexpected transactions on our statements, banks should have good enough records and logs to trace the people who might have accessed the account details. Fortunately there are now ways to keep bank systems more secure from the sort of data theft that involves taking a portable hard drive or flash memory card into the office, plugging it into a USB slot and sucking down customer files. Companies like SecureWave, for example, can restrict the use of USB ports just to authorised devices or even to an individual's personal memory card. These solutions are not perfect, but it does not feel like a wave of fraud is about to wash away the entire financial system. However the warning does highlight one of the major issues with e-commerce and online trading - the security or otherwise of the servers and other systems that make up the 'back office'. It has been clear for years that the real danger in paying for goods online with a credit card is not that the number will be intercepted in transit but that the shop you are dealing with will be hacked. In fact I do not know of a single case where an e-mail containing payment details has led to card fraud. There are simply too many e-mails passing over the net for interception to be a sensible tool for anyone out to commit fraud. CD Universe, Powergen and many other companies have left their databases open and suffered the consequences. And just last week the online bank Cahoot admitted that its customer account details could be read by anyone who could guess a login name. Whether it is external hackers breaking in because of poor system security or internal staff abusing the access they get as part of their job, the issue is the same: how do we make sure that our personal data is not abused? Any organisation that processes personal data is, of course, bound by the Data Protection Act and must take proper care of it. Unauthorised disclosure is not allowed, but the penalties are small and the process of prosecuting under the Act so convoluted as to be worthless in practice. This is not something we can just leave it to the market. The consequences of having one's identity stolen are too serious, and markets respond too slowly. After all, I bank with Cahoot but it would be so much hassle to move my accounts that I did not even consider it when I heard about their security problems. I doubt many others have closed their accounts, especially when there is little guarantee that other banks are not going to make the same sort of mistake in future. The two options would seem to be more stringent data protection law, so that companies really feel the pressure to improve their internal processes, or a wave of civil lawsuits against financial institutions with sloppy practices whose customers suffer from identity theft. I have never felt comfortable with the US practice of suing everything that moves, partly because it seems to make lawyers richer than their clients, so I know which I'd prefer. Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital." -tech,"Xbox 2 may be unveiled in summer Details of the next generation of Microsoft's Xbox games console - codenamed Xenon - will most likely be unveiled in May, according to reports. It was widely expected that gamers would get a sneak preview of Xbox's successor at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March. But a Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed that it would not be at GDC. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all expected to release their more powerful machines in the next 18 months. The next Xbox console is expected to go on sale at the end of the year, but very few details about it have been released. It is thought that the machine may be unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, which takes place in May, according to a Reuters news agency report. E3 concentrates on showing off the latest in gaming to publishers, marketers and retailers. The GDC is aimed more at game developers. Microsoft chief, Bill Gates, used the GDC event to unveil the original Xbox five years ago. Since its launch, Microsoft has sold 19.9 million units worldwide. At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, there was very little mention of the next generation gaming machine. In his keynote speech, Mr Gates only referred to it as playing an essential part of his vision of the digital lifestyle. But the battle between the rival consoles to win gamers' hearts and thumbs will be extremely hard-fought. Sony has traditionally dominated the console market with its PlayStation 2. But earlier this year, Microsoft said it had reached a European milestone, selling five million consoles since its European launch in March 2002. Hit games like Halo 2, which was released in November, helped to buoy the sales figures. Gamers are looking forward to the next generation of machines because they will have much more processing and graphical power. They are also likely to pack in more features and technologies that make them more central as entertainment and communications hubs. Although details of PlayStation 3, Xenon, and Nintendo's so-called Revolution, are yet to be finalised, developers are already working on titles. Rory Armes, studio general manager for games giant Electronic Arts (EA) in Europe, recently told the BBC News website in an interview that EA was beginning to get a sense of the capabilities of the new machines. Microsoft had delivered development kits to EA, but he said the company was still waiting on Sony and Nintendo's kits. But, he added, the PlayStation 3 was rumoured to have ""a little more under the hood [than Xbox 2]""." -tech,"Net regulation 'still possible' The blurring of boundaries between TV and the internet raises questions of regulation, watchdog Ofcom has said. Content on TV and the internet is set to move closer this year as TV-quality video online becomes a norm. At a debate in Westminster, the net industry considered the options. Lord Currie, chairman of super-regulator Ofcom, told the panel that protecting audiences would always have to be a primary concern for the watchdog. Despite having no remit for the regulation of net content, disquiet has increased among internet service providers as speeches made by Ofcom in recent months hinted that regulation might be an option. At the debate, organised by the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), Lord Currie did not rule out the possibility of regulation. ""The challenge will arise when boundaries between TV and the internet truly blur and then there is a balance to be struck between protecting consumers and allowing them to assess the risks themselves,"" he said. Adopting the rules that currently exist to regulate TV content or self-regulation, which is currently the practice of the net industry, will be up for discussion. Some studies suggest that as many as eight million households in the UK could have adopted broadband by the end of 2005, and the technology opens the door to TV content delivered over the net. More and more internet service providers and media companies are streaming video content on the web. BT has already set up an entertainment division to create and distribute content that could come from sources such as BSkyB, ITV and the BBC. Head of the division, Andrew Burke, spoke about the possibility of creating content for all platforms. ""How risque can I be in this new age? With celebrity chefs serving up more expletives than hot dinners, surely I can push it to the limit,"" he said. In fact, he said, if content has been requested by consumers and they have gone to lengths to download it, then maybe it should be entirely regulation free. Internet service providers have long claimed no responsibility for the content they carry on their servers since the Law Commission dubbed them ""mere conduits"" back in 2002. This defence does not apply if they have actual knowledge of illegal content and have failed to remove it. The level of responsibility they have has been tested in several high-profile legal cases. Richard Ayers, portal director at Tiscali, said there was little point trying to regulate the internet because it would be impossible. Huge changes are afoot in 2005, he predicted, as companies such as the BBC offer TV content over the net. The BBC's planned interactive media player which will give surfers the chance to download programmes such as EastEnders and Top Gear will make net TV mainstream and raise a whole new set of questions, he said. One of these will be about the vast sums of money involved in maintaining the network to supply such a huge quantity of data and could herald a new digital licence fee, said Mr Ayers. As inappropriate net content, most obviously pornography viewed by children, continues to dominate the headlines, internet regulation remains a political issue said MP Richard Allan, Liberal Democrat spokesman on IT. Mr Allan thinks that the answer could lie somewhere between the cries of ""impossible to regulate"" and ""just apply offline laws online"". In fact, instead of seeing regulation brought online, the future could bring an end to regulation as we know it for all TV content. After Lord Currie departed, the panel agreed that this could be a reality and that for the internet people power is likely to reign. ""If content is on-demand, consumers have pulled it up rather than had pushed to them, then it is the consumers' choice to watch it. There is no watershed on the net,"" said Mr Burke." -tech,"Broadband challenges TV viewing The number of Europeans with broadband has exploded over the past 12 months, with the web eating into TV viewing habits, research suggests. Just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband, up from 34 million a year ago, according to market analysts Nielsen/NetRatings. The total number of people online in Europe has broken the 100 million mark. The popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from TV, say analysts Jupiter Research. It found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time watching TV in favour of the net The report by Nielsen/NetRatings found that the number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year. The biggest jump was in Italy, where it rose by 120%. Britain was close behind, with broadband users almost doubling in a year. The growth has been fuelled by lower prices and a wider choice of always-on, fast-net subscription plans. ""Twelve months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in Europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing,"" said Gabrielle Prior, Nielsen/NetRatings analyst. ""As the number of high-speed surfers grows, websites will need to adapt, update and enhance their content to retain their visitors and encourage new ones."" The total number of Europeans online rose by 12% to 100 million over the past year, the report showed, with the biggest rise in France, Italy, Britain and Germany. The ability to browse web pages at high speed, download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what people do in their spare time. A study by analysts Jupiter Research suggested that broadband was challenging television viewing habits. In homes with broadband, 40% said they were spending less time watching TV. The threat to TV was greatest in countries where broadband was on the up, in particular the UK, France and Spain, said the report. It said TV companies faced a major long-term threat over the next five years, with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009. ""Year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where, when and how Europe's population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big implications for TV, newspaper and radio,"" said Jupiter Research analyst Olivier Beauvillian." -tech,"Sony PSP tipped as a 'must-have' Sony's Playstation Portable is the top UK gadget for 2005, according to a round-up of ultimate gizmos compiled by Stuff Magazine. It beats the iPod into second place in the Top Ten Essentials list which predicts what gadget-lovers are likely to covet this year. Owning all 10 gadgets will set the gadget lover back £7,455. That is £1,000 cheaper than last year's list due to falling manufacturing costs making gadgets more affordable. Portable gadgets dominate the list, including Sharp's 902 3G mobile phone, the Pentax Optio SV digital camera and Samsung's Yepp YH-999 video jukebox. ""What this year's Essentials shows is that gadgets are now cheaper, sexier and more indispensable than ever. We've got to the point where we can't live our lives without certain technology,"" said Adam Vaughan, editor of Stuff Essentials. The proliferation of gadgets in our homes is inexorably altering the role of the high street in our lives thinks Mr Vaughan. ""Take digital cameras, who would now pay to develop an entire film of photos? Or legitimate downloads, who would travel miles to a record shop when they could download the song in minutes for 70p?"" he asks. Next year will see a new set of technologies capturing the imaginations of gadget lovers, Stuff predicts. The Xbox 2, high-definition TV and MP3 mobiles will be among the list of must-haves that will dominate 2006, it says. The spring launch of the PSP in the UK is eagerly awaited by gaming fans." -tech,"California sets fines for spyware The makers of computer programs that secretly spy on what people do with their home PCs could face hefty fines in California. From 1 January, a new law is being introduced to protect computer users from software known as spyware. The legislation, which was approved by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is designed to safeguard people from hackers and help protect their personal information. Spyware is considered by computer experts to be one of the biggest nuisance and security threats facing PC users in the coming year. The software buries itself in computers and can collect a wide range of information. At its worst, it has the ability to hijack personal data, like passwords, login details and credit card numbers. The programs are so sophisticated they change frequently and become impossible to eradicate. One form of spyware called adware has the ability to collect information on a computer user's web-surfing. It can result in people being bombarded with pop-up ads that are hard to close. In Washington, Congress has been debating four anti-spyware bills, but California is a step ahead. The state's Consumer Protection Against Spyware Act bans the installation of software that takes control of another computer. It also requires companies and websites to disclose whether their systems will install spyware. Consumers are able to seek up to $1,000 in damages if they think they have fallen victim to the intrusive software. The new law marks a continuing trend in California towards tougher privacy rights. A recent survey by Earthlink and Webroot found that 90% of PCs are infested with the surreptitious software and that, on average, each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs. Currently users wanting protection from spyware have turned to free programs such as Spybot and Ad-Aware." -tech,"US woman sues over cartridges A US woman is suing Hewlett Packard (HP), saying its printer ink cartridges are secretly programmed to expire on a certain date. The unnamed woman from Georgia says that a chip inside the cartridge tells the printer that it needs re-filling even when it does not. The lawsuit seeks to represent anyone in the US who has purchased an HP inkjet printer since February 2001. HP, the world's biggest printer firm, declined to comment on the lawsuit. HP ink cartridges use a chip technology to sense when they are low on ink and advise the user to make a change. But the suit claims the chips also shut down the cartridges at a predetermined date regardless of whether they are empty. ""The smart chip is dually engineered to prematurely register ink depletion and to render a cartridge unusable through the use of a built-in expiration date that is not revealed to the consumer,"" the suit said. The lawsuit is asking for restitution, damages and other compensation. The cost of printer cartridges has been a contentious issue in Europe for the last 18 months. The price of inkjet printers has come down to as little as £34 but it could cost up to £1,700 in running costs over an 18-month period due to cartridge, a study by Computeractive Magazine revealed last year. The inkjet printer market has been the subject of an investigation by the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which concluded in a 2002 report that retailers and manufacturers needed to make pricing more transparent for consumers." -tech,"Cheaper chip for mobiles A mobile phone chip which combines a modem and a computer processor on one bit of silicon instead of two could make phones cheaper and more powerful. The specially-designed chip, developed by Texas Instruments, could drive down the cost of making mobiles capable of 3D gaming and 30-frame-a-second video. Currently, rich multimedia features tend to be on more expensive handsets. The technology, OMAP-Vox, is being tested by firms in Europe and Asia and could appear by the end of the year. Texas, which makes computer chips for more than half the world's mobile phones, said it was keen to make multimedia functions like video and gaming more affordable. ""We're going to drive them down into meat-and-potatoes phones that have the largest market share,"" said Doug Rasor, a marketing vice president at Texas. The chip also uses much less power than conventional chips, said Texas, which means less strain on mobile battery life. More than 50 million people own a mobile in the UK, but mobile operators are keen to encourage people to move onto more sophisticated handsets that can do more. Texas is keen to cash in on the third generation (3G) of mobile technology, which offers high-speed networks for video streaming and other multimedia functions. But it faces stiff competition from the likes of Intel which is also looking to provide better chips for high-end mobiles. Competition to get people using 3G mobiles will grow in the next year as almost all of the UK's operators have now launched third generation networks. A recent survey by Sony Ericsson predicted that the number of 3G handsets sold in 2005 would double from 2004 to account for 10% of all phones sold. Many consumers are still to be convinced though. A further recent survey said that only 4% of mobile owners were thinking of upgrading to 3G phones. Many said they were confused about the different ways to pay for phones and the vast array of features most have onboard. But there will be continued demand for better chips as the industry continues to develop new standards and future networks. Earlier in January, NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone joined forces to develop the next generation of high-speed networks, known as ""super 3G"", intended to be 10 times faster than 3G services. The first stage of development is to be completed by 2007, but no date has been set for a commercial launch The newly-designed OMAP-Vox chip set was announced ahead of the start of a major mobile industry conference, 3GSM, which takes place in Cannes, France this week." -tech,"Open source leaders slam patents The war of words between Microsoft and the open source movement heated up this week as Linux founder Linus Torvalds led an attack on software patents. In a panel discussion at a Linux summit in California Mr Torvalds said software patents were a problem for the open source movement. Mitchell Kapor, chairman of the Mozilla foundation, warned that Microsoft could use patent lawsuits in the future. Linux is a freely-available alternative to Microsoft's Windows. It relies on a community of programmers for its development and is based on open source principles, which allow others to use and modify it without having to pay licence fees. The attack on software patents comes at a time when IBM has made 500 of its patents freely available. Other companies are expected to follow suit. There are between 150,000 and 300,000 registered software patents in the US and open source developers argue that many should never have been granted. This is a view corroborated by the UK Patent Office. ""Some of the patents have dubious validity and are being wielded by some big companies to force smaller companies to buy licenses in the knowledge that they can't afford to take them to court,"" said Dr Jeremy Philpott of the UK Patent Office. Some panel members are worried that Microsoft would issue a series of patent lawsuits in the future. ""If totally pushed to the wall - because their business model no longer holds up in an era in which open source is an economically superior way to produce software...of course they're going to unleash the WMDs,"" Mr Kapor is reported as saying. Microsoft did not want to comment directly, referring the issue instead to trade body Intellect, of which it is a member. ""As far as Intellect is concerned, open source and patents have co-existed for many years without problems,"" said spokeswoman Jill Sutherland. ""The industry respects the open source movement and in fact many of the members we represent use the open source system to develop software,"" ""We think the important point to make is that companies should be able to choose between patents, copyrights and open source as to the treatment of their intellectual discoveries, and not be forced into using one or the other,"" she added." -tech,"Hollywood campaign hits websites Movie studio efforts to stop pirated films being shared on peer-to-peer networks have claimed a high-profile victim. The campaign of legal action is thought to be behind the closure of the widely used Suprnova.org website. The site was the most popular place for people swapping and sharing links for the BitTorrent network. A recent study showed that more than half of the peer-to-peer traffic during June was for the BitTorrent system. In a message posted on Suprnova.org on Sunday, the site's controllers said the site was ""closing down for good in the way that we all know it"". If the site did return, the message said, it would not be hosting any more torrent links. It continued: ""We are very sorry for this, but there was no other way, we have tried everything. "" The only parts that would keep going, said the operators of the Suprnova site, were the discussion forums and net chat channels. The site is thought to have closed following an announcement by the Motion Picture Association of America that it was launching legal action against those operating BitTorrent servers rather than end users. Because of the way that BitTorrent works, server sites do not host the actual file being shared, instead they host a link that points people to others that have it. By targeting servers, the MPAA hopes to cripple BitTorrent's ability to share files. In the opening days of the MPAA campaign, the organisation filed 100 lawsuits against operators of BitTorrent server site. The launching of the legal seems to be having an effect. Phoenix Torrents, another popular BitTorrent site, has also decided to shut down and, though it gave no reasons for the closure, it is thought to be motivated by the threat of legal action. Last week Finnish police raided a BitTorrent site based in the country that, according to reports, let 10,000 users shared pirated films, software, music and games." -tech,"China 'to overtake US net use' The Chinese net-using population looks set to exceed that of the US in less than three years, says a report. China's net users number 100m but this represents less than 8% of the country's 1.3 billion people. Market analysts Panlogic predicts that net users in China will exceed the 137 million US users of the net by 2008. The report says that the country's culture will mean that Chinese people will use the net for very different ends than in many other nations. Already net use in China has a very different character than in many Western nations, said William Makower, chief executive of Panlogic. In many Western nations desktop computers that can access the net are hard to escape at work. By contrast in China workplace machines are relatively rare. This, combined with the relatively high cost of PCs in China and the time it takes to get phone lines installed, helps to explains the huge number of net cafes in China. Only 36% of Chinese homes have telephones according to reports. ""Net usage tends to happen in the evening,"" said Mr Makower, ""they get access only when they go home and go off to the internet café."" ""Its fundamentally different usage to what we have here,"" he said. Net use in China was still very much an urban phenomenon with most users living on the country's eastern seaboard or in its three biggest cities. The net is key to helping Chinese people keep in touch with friends, said Mr Makower. Many people use it in preference to the phone or arrange to meet up with friends at net cafes. What people can do on the net is also limited by aspects of Chinese life. For instance, said Mr Makower, credit cards are rare in China partly because of fears people have about getting in to debt. ""The most popular way to pay is Cash-On-Delivery,"" he said, ""and that's quite a brake to the development of e-commerce."" The arrival of foreign banks in China, due in 2006, could mean greater use of credit cards but for the moment they are rare, said Mr Makower. But if Chinese people are not spending cash online they are interested in the news they can get via the net and the view it gives them on Western ways of living. ""A large part of the attraction of the internet is that it goes below the radar,"" he said. ""Generally it's more difficult for the government to be able to control it."" ""Its real value is as an open window onto what's happening elsewhere in the world,"" he said. Government restrictions on how much advertising can appear on television means that the net is a source of many commercial messages Chinese people would not see anywhere else. Familiarity with the net also has a certain social cachet. ""It's a sign of them having made it that they can use the internet and navigate around it,"" said Mr Makower." -tech,"Local net TV takes off in Austria An Austrian village is testing technology that could represent the future of television. The people of Engerwitzdorf are filming, editing and producing their own regional news channel. The channel covers local politics, sports, events and anything that residents want to film and are prepared to upload for others to watch on PCs. The pilot has been so successful that Telekom Austria is now considering setting up other projects elsewhere. ""It's growing unbelievably fast,"" said Rudolf Fischer, head of Telekom Austria's fixed line division. The trial of Buntes Fernsehen (Multi-Coloured TV) was started in late 2004 and creates a net-based TV station run by the 8,000 residents of Engerwitzdorf. The hardware and software to turn video footage into edited programmes has been provided by Telekom Austria but this equipment, following training, has been turned over to the villagers. Any video programme created by the villagers is uploaded to a Buntes Fernsehen portal that lets people browse and download what they want to watch. Most people watch the TV on their home PC and a broadband connection is needed to get broadcast quality programmes. In the first four months of the project villagers have created 60 films and put together regular reports on local news items. ""They have adopted it very quickly,"" said Mr Fischer. ""They like the possibility to create their own content and see what's going on in the area."" ""It's kind of the democratisation of local TV,"" he said, ""because none of the bigger broadcasters would ever do anything like this for that region."" The Buntes Fernsehen project has been such a success that Telekom Austria is now considering setting up other schemes in similarly rural areas. Mr Fischer said it was taking the roll-out to other areas slowly because of the work involved in setting up the scheme, getting backers from local government and educating people how to make programmes. The Engerwitzdorf scheme is an outgrowth of Telekom Austria's online TV channel Aon which lets people watch programmes on their PC. Aon streams a couple of live channels, plus sports, news and music programmes on to the net and has a pay-for-download section that lets people watch what they want when they want to watch it. In October a larger TV-on-demand project is due to launch in Vienna that will let people download many programmes from the net." -tech,"California sets fines for spyware The makers of computer programs that secretly spy on what people do with their home PCs could face hefty fines in California. From 1 January, a new law is being introduced to protect computer users from software known as spyware. The legislation, which was approved by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is designed to safeguard people from hackers and help protect their personal information. Spyware is considered by computer experts to be one of the biggest nuisance and security threats facing PC users in the coming year. The software buries itself in computers and can collect a wide range of information. At its worst, it has the ability to hijack personal data, like passwords, login details and credit card numbers. The programs are so sophisticated they change frequently and become impossible to eradicate. One form of spyware called adware has the ability to collect information on a computer user's web-surfing. It can result in people being bombarded with pop-up ads that are hard to close. In Washington, Congress has been debating four anti-spyware bills, but California is a step ahead. The state's Consumer Protection Against Spyware Act bans the installation of software that takes control of another computer. It also requires companies and websites to disclose whether their systems will install spyware. Consumers are able to seek up to $1,000 in damages if they think they have fallen victim to the intrusive software. The new law marks a continuing trend in California towards tougher privacy rights. A recent survey by Earthlink and Webroot found that 90% of PCs are infested with the surreptitious software and that, on average, each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs. Currently users wanting protection from spyware have turned to free programs such as Spybot and Ad-Aware." -tech,"Video phones act as dating tools Technologies, from e-mail, to net chatrooms, instant messaging and mobiles, have proved to be a big pull with those looking for love. The lure once was that you could hide behind the technology, but now video phones are in on the act to add vision. Hundreds have submitted a mobile video profile to win a place at the world's first video mobile dating event. The top 100 meet their match on 30 November at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). The event, organised by the 3G network, 3, could catch on as the trend for unusual dating events, like speed dating, continues. ""It's the beginning of the end of the blind date as we know it,"" said Graeme Oxby, 3's marketing director. The response has been so promising that 3 says it is planning to launch a proper commercial dating service soon. Hundreds of hopefuls submitted their profiles, and special booths were set up in a major London department store for two weeks where expert tips were given on how to visually improve their chances. The 100 most popular contestants voted by the public will gather at the ICA in separate rooms and ""meet"" by phone. Dating services and other more adult match-making services are proving to be a strong stream of revenue worth millions for mobile companies. Whether it does actually provide an interesting match for video phone technologies remains to be seen. Flic Everett, journalist and dating expert for Company magazine and the Daily Express, thinks technology has been liberating for some nervous soul-mate seekers. There are currently about 1.3 million video phones in use in the UK and three times more single people in Britain than there were 30 years ago, With more people buying video mobiles, 3G dating could be the basis for a successful and safe way to meet people. ""One of the problems with video phones is people don't really know what to video. It is a weird technology. We have not quite worked out what it is for. This gives it a focus and a useful one,"" she told BBC News. ""I would never have thought online dating would take off the way it did,"" she said. ""Lots of people find it easier to be honest writing e-mail or text than face-to-face. Lots people are quite shy and they feel vulnerable."" ""When you are writing, it comes directly onto the page so they tend to be more honest."" But the barrier that comes with SMS chat and online match-making is that the person behind the profile may not be who they really are. Scare stories have put people off as a result, according to Ms Everett. Many physical clues, body language, odd twitches, are obviously missing with SMS and online dating services. Still images do not necessarily provide all those necessary cues. ""It could really take off because you do get the whole package. With a static e-mail picture, you don't know who the person is behind it is."" So checking out a potential date by video phone also gives singletons a different kind of barrier, an extra layer of protection; a case of WLTS before WLTM. ""If you are trapped in real-life blind date context, you can't get away and you feel embarrassed. ""With a video meeting, you really have the barrier of the phone so if you don't like them you don't have to suffer the embarrassment."" There is a more serious side to this new use of technology though. With money being made through more adult-themes content and services which let people meet and chat, the revenue streams for mobile carriers will grow with 3G, thinks Paolo Pescatore mobile industry specialist for analysts IDC. ""Wireless is a medium that is being exploited with a number of features and services. One is chatting and the dating element is key there,"" he said. ""The foundation has been set by SMS and companies are using media like MMS and video to grow the market further."" But carriers need to be wary and ensure that if they do launch such 3G dating services, they ensure mechanism are in place to monitor and be aware who is registers and accesses these services on regular basis, he cautioned. In July, Vodafone introduced a content control system to protect children from such adult content. The move was as a result of a code of practice agreed by the UK's six largest mobile phone operators in January. The system means Vodafone users need to prove they are over 18 before firewalls are lifted on explicit websites or chat rooms dealing with adult themes. The impetus was the growing number of people with handsets that could access the net, and the growth of 3G technologies." -tech,"ITunes user sues Apple over iPod A user of Apple's iTunes music service is suing the firm saying it is unfair he can only use an iPod to play songs. He says Apple is breaking anti-competition laws in refusing to let other music players work with the site. Apple, which opened its online store in 2003 after launching the iPod in 2001, uses technology to ensure each song bought only plays on the iPod. Californian Thomas Slattery filed the suit in the US District Court in San Jose and is seeking damages. ""Apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music player of their choice,"" the lawsuit states. The key to such a lawsuit would be convincing a court that a single brand like iTunes is a market in itself separate from the rest of the online music market, according to Ernest Gellhorn, an anti-trust law professor at George Mason University. ""As a practical matter, the lower courts have been highly sceptical of such claims,"" Prof Gellhorn said. Apple has sold more than six million iPods since the gadget was launched and has an 87% share of the market for portable digital music players, market research firm NPD Group has reported. More than 200 million songs have been sold by the iTunes music store since it was launched. ""Apple has unlawfully bundled, tied, and/or leveraged its monopoly in the market for the sale of legal online digital music recordings to thwart competition in the separate market for portable hard drive digital music players, and vice-versa,"" the lawsuit said. Mr Slattery called himself an iTunes customer who ""was also forced to purchase an Apple iPod"" if he wanted to take his music with him to listen to. A spokesman for Apple declined to comment. Apple's online music store uses a different format for songs than Napster, Musicmatch, RealPlayer and others. The rivals use the MP3 format or Microsoft's WMA format while Apple uses AAC, which it says helps thwart piracy. The WMA format also includes so-called Digital Rights Management which is used to block piracy." -tech,"Finding new homes for old phones Re-using old mobile phones is not just good for the environment, it has social benefits too. Research has found that in some developing nations old mobile phones can help close the digital divide. The Forum for the Future research found that the low cost of these recycled handsets means they can have a very useful second life in poorer nations. But the Forum found that more needed to be done to collect old phones rather than let them rot in landfill sites. The report reveals that approximately 15 million mobile phones go out of use every year in the UK. Of the 15 million that are swapped for newer models each year, only 25% get returned to mobile phone firms for recycling or re-use. The slowly growing mass of unrecycled, discarded phones has now reached 90 million handsets, the equivalent of 9,000 tonnes of waste, estimates James Goodman, report author and a senior adviser at the Forum for the Future. ""It's quite common for people to have two or three phones just lying around,"" said Mr Goodman. Many of these older phones could end up in landfill sites leaking the potentially toxic materials they are made of into the wider world, said Mr Goodman. Far better, he said, to hand the phone back to an operator who can send it overseas where it can enjoy a second lease of life. ""We've heard the environmental argument for handing a phone back,"" said Mr Goodman, ""but there's a strong social argument too."" Older mobile phones are proving particularly useful in poorer nations where people want to use a mobile and keep in touch with friends and family but do not have the income to buy the most up to date model. The Forum for the Future report took an in-depth look at Romania where reconditioned mobile phones were proving very popular. ""It's an interesting country because it has a really crap fixed line network,"" said Mr Goodman, ""and there's a real desire for people to get mobile phones."" But the relatively low wages in Romania, which is one of the poorest countries in Europe, mean few people can afford a shiny new phone. ""The affordability of the handsets is a real barrier to getting one,"" he said. Reconditioned handsets have boosted take-up of mobiles as the report revealed that almost one-third of Romanian pre-pay mobile phone users were using reconditioned handsets. The re-used handsets tend to be about one-third of the price of a new handset. Georgeta Minciu, a Romanian part-time cleaner, said: ""Normally a mobile phone would not be possible on my wages. I am a single parent - keeping in touch with my daughter is important to me."" ""This is the only way I can afford to have a phone,"" she said. Mr Goodman said phone operators and consumers needed to do more to ensure that more of Britain's mobile mountain made it overseas. But, he added, those keen to use a mobile will not accept any old handset. ""If its more than a few years old people are not going to want it,"" he said." -tech,"Latest Opera browser gets vocal Net browser Opera 8.0, due for official release at the end of next month, will be ""the most accessible browser on the market"", according to its authors. The latest version of the net browser can be controlled by voice command and will read pages aloud. The voice features, based on IBM technology, are currently only available in the Windows version. Opera can also magnify text by up to 10 times and users can create ""style sheets"", its developers say. This will enable them to view pages with colours and fonts that they prefer. But the browser does not yet work well with screen reader software often used by blind people, so its accessibility features are more likely to appeal to those with some residual vision. ""Our mission was always to provide the best internet experience for everyone,"" said Opera spokeswoman, Berit Hanson. ""So we would obviously not want to exclude disabled computer users."" Another feature likely to appeal to people with low vision is the ability to make pages fit to the screen width, which eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling. The company points out that this will also appeal to anyone using Opera with a handheld device. The company says that features like voice activation are not solely aimed at visually impaired people. ""Our idea was to take a first step in making human-computer interaction more natural,"" said Ms Hanson. ""People are not always in a situation where they can access a keyboard, so this makes the web a more hands-free experience."" Unlike commercially available voice recognition software, Opera does not have to be ""trained"" to recognise an individual voice. Around 50 voice commands are available and users will have to wear a headset which incorporates a microphone. The voice recognition function is currently only available in English. Opera is free to download but a paid-for version comes without an ad banner in the top right hand corner and with extra support. Opera began life as a research project - a spin-off from Norwegian telecoms company Telenor. Its browser is used by an estimated 10 million people on a variety of operating systems and a number of different platforms." -tech,"Learning to love broadband We are reaching the point where broadband is a central part of daily life, at least for some, argues technology analyst Bill Thompson. One of the nice things about being a writer is that I rarely have to go to an office to work. I can sit in a café or a library, with or without a wi-fi connection, and research and write articles. If I am passing through Kings Cross station on my way to a meeting then I can log on from the platform. And I can spend the day working with my girlfriend Anne, a children's writer, at her house in Cambridge, sharing her wireless network. But just over a week ago I arrived at her house to find that there was no network connection. We checked the cable modem and noticed that it had no power, and when she changed the power lead it sparked at her in a way which made it abundantly clear that it was never going to talk to the internet again. She called her service provider, and they told her it would be five days before an engineer would show up with a new cable modem. This did not seem too bad, but in fact she really suffered until her connection was restored on Wednesday. With no modem installed in her computer, she had to borrow internet access from friends or use the dial-up connection on her daughter's laptop, so she had to choose between copying her files onto her USB memory card or accepting a slower and flakier net connection. As a result she did not submit the pictures she wanted to use for a book on earthquakes because they were too big to send over dial-up. She could not research other material because she is used to having easy access to a fast link that lets her search quickly and effectively. But the impact spread into her personal life too. She did not take her children to the cinema during half-term because she could not find out which films were showing at the local cinemas. She planned a trip to Norfolk but did not check the weather because the only place she knows to look for weather information is the BBC website. And she did not know where to go fossil-hunting on the trip because she could not type ""fossils Norfolk"" into Google. Of course, she readily admits, she could have answered these questions if she had looked in the local paper, listened to the radio or found a book on fossils. But she did not, because having fast, always on, and easy access to the net has become part of the routine of her daily life, and when it was taken away it was too much effort to go back to the old ways of doing things. She may be unusual, but I do not think Anne is alone. According to Ofcom there were almost four million broadband users in the UK in April 2004, and numbers are climbing fast. There will certainly be five million by the end of the year. Dial-up users are switching to broadband. My dad finally made the change earlier this month and new net users are selecting broadband from the start. More and more of these broadband users are beginning to mould their daily lives around the availability of broadband internet connections, and they too will find it difficult to cope if they cannot get online for any reason. It is part of the process of adaptation, and it is a vital step in the growth of broadband in the UK and elsewhere. People who have integrated net access into their daily lives tell their friends about it, and show off the cool stuff they can do. They encourage other people to get broadband so that they can share digital photos and do all of the other things that need fast and reliable connectivity. Of course, broadband in the UK is laughably slow compared to other parts of the world. In South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong normal connection speeds are measured in megabits, or millions of bits, a second rather than the thousands that we are supposed to be happy with. But speed is only a small part of the attraction of broadband, and when it comes to checking websites for film times, looking at weather forecasts, or all of the other small things that make a real difference to the routines and habits of our daily lives, even UK speeds are sufficient. It may not be the brave new world of streaming full-screen video and superfast file downloads, but it will do for now. And it is certainly better than slow access or no access. Just ask Anne. Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital." -tech,"Progress on new internet domains By early 2005 the net could have two new domain names. The .post and .travel net domains have been given preliminary approval by the net's administrative body. The names are just two of a total of 10 proposed domains that are being considered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Icann. The other proposed names include a domain for pornography, Asia, mobile phones, an anti-spam domain and one for the Catalan language and culture. The .post domain is backed by the Universal Postal Union that wants to use it as the online marker for every type of postal service and to help co-ordinate the e-commerce efforts of national post offices. The .travel domain would be used by hotels, travel firms, airlines, tourism offices and would help such organisations distinguish themselves online. It is backed by a New York-based trade group called The Travel Partnership. Icann said its early decision on the two domains was in response to the detailed technical and commercial information the organisations behind the names had submitted. Despite this initial approval, Icann cautioned that there was no guarantee that the domains would actually go into service. At the same time Icann is considering proposals for another eight domains. One that may not win approval is a proposal to set up a .xxx domain for pornographic websites. A similar proposal has been made many times in the past. But Icann has been reluctant to approve it because of the difficulty of making pornographers sign up and use it. In 2000 Icann approved seven other new domains that have had varying degrees of success. Three of the new so-called top level domains were for specific industries or organisations such as .museum and .aero. Others such as .info and .biz were intended to be more generic. In total there are in excess of 200 domain names and the majority of these are for nations. But domains that end in the .com suffix are by far the most numerous." -tech,"New delay hits EU software laws A fresh delay has hit controversial new European Union rules which govern computer-based inventions. The draft law was not adopted by EU ministers as planned at a Brussels meeting on Monday during which it was supposed to have been discussed. The fresh delay came after Polish officials had raised concerns about the law for the second time in two months. Critics say the law would favour large companies over small ones and could impact open-source software innovation. ""There was at one point the intention to put the item on today's agenda. But in the end we could not put it on,"" an EU spokesman told the Reuters agency. He added that no date had been chosen for more discussion of the law. In December, Poland requested more time to consider the issue because it was concerned that the law could lead to the patenting of pure computer software. Its ministers want to see the phrasing of the text of the Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions changed so that it excludes software patenting. Poland is a large EU member, so its backing for the legislation is vital. The EU says the law would bring Europe more in line with how such laws work in the US, but this has caused some angry debate amongst critics and supporters. In the US, the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted. This means that the US-based Amazon.com holds a patent for its ""one-click shopping"" service. Critics say a similar model in Europe would hurt small software developers which do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies. But supporters say current law does not let big companies protect inventions which they have spent years developing." -tech,"Security warning over 'FBI virus' The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning that a computer virus is being spread via e-mails that purport to be from the FBI. The e-mails show that they have come from an fbi.gov address and tell recipients that they have accessed illegal websites. The messages warn that their internet use has been monitored by the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center. An attachment in the e-mail contains the virus, the FBI said. The message asks recipients to click on the attachment and answer some questions about their internet use. But rather than being a questionnaire, the attachment contains a virus that infects the recipient's computer, according to the agency. It is not clear what the virus does once it has infected a computer. Users are warned never to open attachment from unsolicited e-mails or from people they do not know. ""Recipients of this or similar solicitations should know that the FBI does not engage in the practice of sending unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner,"" the FBI said in a statement. The bureau is investigating the phoney e-mails. The agency earlier this month shut down fbi.gov accounts, used to communicate with the public, because of a security breach. A spokeswoman said the two incidents appear to be unrelated." -tech,"Peer-to-peer nets 'here to stay' Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are here to stay, and are on the verge of being exploited by commercial media firms, says a panel of industry experts. Once several high-profile legal cases against file-sharers are resolved this year, firms will be very keen to try and make money from P2P technology. The expert panel probed the future of P2P at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier in January. The first convictions for P2P piracy were handed out in the US in January. William Trowbridge and Michael Chicoine pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software. Since the first successful file-sharing network Napster was forced to close down, the entertainment industry has been nervous and critical of P2P technology, blaming it for falling sales and piracy. But that is going to change very soon, according to the panel. The music and film industries have started some big legal cases against owners of legitimate P2P networks - which are not illegal in themselves - and of individuals accused of distributing pirated content over networks. But they have slowly realised that P2P is a good way to distribute content, said Travis Kalanick, founder and chairman of P2P network Red Swoosh, and soon they are all going to want a slice of it. They are just waiting to come up with ""business models"" that work for them, which includes digital rights management and copy-protection standards. But, until the legal actions are resolved, experimentation with P2P cannot not happen, said Michael Weiss, president of StreamCast Networks. Remembering the furore around VCRs when they first came out, Mr Weiss said: ""Old media always tries to stop new media. ""When they can't stop it, they try to control it. Then they figure out how to make money and they always make a lot of money."" Once the courts decided that the VCR in itself was not an illegal technology, the film studios turned it into an extremely lucrative business. In August 2004, the San Francisco-based US Court of Appeals ruled in favour of Grokster and StreamCast, two file-sharing networks. The court said they were essentially in the same position that Sony was in the 1980s VCR battle, and said that the networks themselves could not be deemed as illegal. P2P networks usually do not rely on dedicated servers for the transfer of files. Instead it uses direct connections between computers - or clients. There are now many different types of P2P systems than work in different ways. P2P nets can be used to share any kind of file, like photos, free software, licensed music and any other digital content. The BBC has already decided to embrace the technology. It aims to offer most of its own programmes for download this year and it will use P2P technology to distribute them. The files would be locked seven days after a programme aired making rights management easier to control. But the technology is still demonised and misunderstood by many. The global entertainment industry says more than 2.6 billion copyrighted music files are downloaded every month, and about half a million films are downloaded a day. Legal music download services, like Apple iTunes, Napster, have rushed into the music marketplace to try and lure file-sharers away from free content. Sales of legally-downloaded songs grew tenfold in 2004, with 200 million tracks bought online in the US and Europe in 12 months, the IFPI reported this week. But such download services are very different from P2P networks, not least because of the financial aspect. There are several money-spinning models that could turn P2P into a golden egg for commercial entertainment companies. Paid-for-pass-along, in which firms receive money each time a file is shared, along with various DRM solutions and advertiser-based options are all being considered. ""We see there are going to be different models for commoditising P2P,"" said Marc Morgenstern, vice president of anti-piracy firm Overpeer. ""Consumers are hungry for it and we will discover new models together,"" agreed Mr Morgenstern. But many net users will continue to ignore the entertainment industry's potential controlling grip on content and P2P technology by continuing to use it for their own creations. Unsigned bands, for example, use P2P networks to distribute their music effectively, which also draws the attention of record companies looking for new artists to sign. ""Increasingly, what you are seeing on P2P is consumer-created content,"" said Derek Broes, from Microsoft. ""They will probably play an increasing role in helping P2P spread,"" he said. Looking into P2P's future, file sharing is just the beginning for P2P networks, as far as Mr Broes is concerned. ""Once some of these issues are resolved, you are going to see aggressive movement to protect content, but also in ways that are unimaginable now,"" he said. ""File-sharing is the tip of the iceberg.""" -tech,"Rich pickings for hi-tech thieves Viruses, trojans and other malicious programs sent on to the net to catch you out are undergoing a subtle change. The shift is happening as tech savvy criminals turn to technology to help them con people out of cash, steal valuable data or take over home PCs. Viruses written to make headlines by infecting millions are getting rarer. Instead programs are now crafted for directly criminal ends and firms are tightening up networks with defences to combat the new wave of malicious code. The growing criminal use of malware has meant the end of the neat categorisation of different sorts of viruses and malicious programs. Before now it has been broadly possible to name and categorise viruses by the method they use to spread and how they infect machines. But many of the viruses written by criminals roll lots of technical tricks together into one nasty package. ""You cannot put them in to the neat little box that you used to,"" said Pete Simpson, head of the threat laboratory at security firm Clearswift. Now viruses are just as likely to spread by themselves like worms, or to exploit loopholes in browsers or hide in e-mail message attachments. ""It's about outright criminality now,"" said Mr Simpson, explaining why this change has come about. He said many of the criminal programs came from Eastern Europe where cash-rich organised gangs can find a ready supply of technical experts that will crank out code to order. Former virus writer Marek Strihavka, aka Benny from the 29A virus writing group, recently quit the malware scene partly because it was being taken over by spyware writers, phishing gangs, and spammers who are more interested in money rather than the technology. No longer do virus writers produce programs to show off their technical prowess to rivals in the underground world of malware authors. Not least, said Paul King, principal security consultant at Cisco, because the defences against such attacks are so common. ""In many ways the least likely way to do it is e-mail because most of us have got anti-virus and firewalls now,"" he said. Few of the malicious programs written by hi-tech thieves are cleverly written, many are much more pragmatic and use tried and tested techniques to infect machines or to trick users into installing a program or handing over important data. ""If you think of criminals they do not do clever,"" said Mr King, ""they just do what works."" As the tactics used by malicious programs change, said Mr King, so many firms were changing the way they defend themselves. Now many scan machines that connect to the corporate networks to ensure they have not been compromised while off the core network. Many will not let a machine connect and a worker get on with their job before the latest patches and settings have been uploaded. As well as using different tactics, criminals also use technology for reasons that are much more transparent. ""The main motivation now is money,"" said Gary Stowell, spokesman for St Bernard software. Mr Stowell said organised crime gangs were turning to computer crime because the risks of being caught were low and the rates of return were very high. With almost any phishing or spyware attack, criminals are guaranteed to catch some people out and have the contacts to exploit what they recover. So-called spyware was proving very popular with criminals because it allowed them to take over machines for their own ends, to steal key data from users or to hijack web browsing sessions to point people at particular sites. In some cases spyware was being written that searched for rival malicious programs on PCs it infects and then trying to erase them so it has sole ownership of that machine." -tech,"Musicians 'upbeat' about the net Musicians are embracing the internet as a way of reaching new fans and selling more music, a survey has found. The study by US researchers, Pew Internet, suggests musicians do not agree with the tactics adopted by the music industry against file-sharing. While most considered file-sharing as illegal, many disagreed with the lawsuits launched against downloaders. ""Even successful artists don't think the lawsuits will benefit musicians,"" said report author Mary Madden. For part of the study, Pew Internet conducted an online survey of 2,755 musicians, songwriters and music publishers via musician membership organisations between March and April 2004. They ranged from full-time, successful musicians to artists struggling to make a living from their music. ""We looked at more of the independent musicians, rather than the rockstars of this industry but that reflects more accurately the state of the music industry,"" Ms Madden told the BBC News website. ""We always hear the views of successful artists like the Britneys of the world but the less successful artists rarely get represented."" The survey found that musicians were overwhelming positive about the internet, rather than seeing it as just a threat to their livelihood. Almost all of them used the net for ideas and inspiration, with nine out of 10 going online to promote, advertise and post their music on the web. More than 80% offered free samples online, while two-thirds sold their music via the net. Independent musicians, in particular, saw the internet as a way to get around the need to land a record contract and reach fans directly. ""Musicians are embracing the internet enthusiastically,"" said Ms Madden. ""They are using the internet to gain inspiration, sell it online, tracking royalties, learning about copyright."" Perhaps surprisingly, opinions about online file-sharing were diverse and not as clear cut as those of the record industry. Through the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), it has pursued an aggressive campaign through the courts to sue people suspected of sharing copyrighted music. But the report suggests this campaign does not have the wholehearted backing of musicians in the US. It found that most artists saw file-sharing as both good and bad, though most agreed that it should be illegal. ""Free downloading has killed opportunities for new bands to break without major funding and backing,"" said one musician quoted by the report. ""It's hard to keep making records if they don't pay for themselves through sales."" However 60% said they did not think the lawsuits against song swappers would benefit musicians and songwriters. Many suggested that rather than fighting file-sharing, the music industry needed to recognise the changes it has brought and embrace it. ""Both successful and struggling musicians were more likely to say that the internet has made it possible for them to make more money from their music, rather than make it harder for them to protect their material from piracy,"" said Ms Madden." -tech,"China 'ripe' for media explosion Asia is set to drive global media growth to 2008 and beyond, with China and India filling the two top spots, analysts have predicted. Japan, South Korea and Singapore will also be strong players, but China's demographics give it the edge, a media conference in London heard. The world's most populous country - population 1.3bn - now has about 200 million middle-class consumers. Forty per cent fall in the key 16 to 35-year-old demographic. As a result, it is attracting huge foreign investment in media and communications, analysts told the Financial Times New Media and Broadcasting Conference last week. Interest in China among international media groups has surged in recent months after Beijing issued rules allowing foreign investment in joint-venture television, radio and film production companies. News Corporation, Viacom and Sony Pictures are among the big names involved in joint ventures with Chinese players. More than 700 million Chinese listen to 1,000 radio stations, while 200 TV stations broadcast 2,900 channels. China Central Television (CCTV), the state broadcaster, claims an audience of more than a billion people. Of the country's 360 million households, 100 million receive cable TV programmes. The rest could be a potential audience for satellite broadcasting which China plans to launch in 2006. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), which regulates broadcasting, plans to move all programmes to digital by 2015. The continuing roll-out of new digital channels has boosted demand for quality content, creating significant opportunities for both Chinese and foreign content providers. But according to recent reports from China, the authorities have tightened controls over foreign investment in TV production joint ventures. It has limited most foreign companies to only one joint venture and banned the involvement of any found to be ""unfriendly"", according to reports. The SARFT said: ""There is a very strong ideological component to production of broadcast television programmes."" It added: ""China must understand the political tendencies and background of overseas partners and prevent joint ventures or cooperation from bringing harmful foreign thinking or culture into our production sector."" According to the Financial Times' China correspondent, the new rules highlight the political sensitivities that surround foreign involvement in China's media sector. This is despite Beijing's decision to open the state-dominated sector to international investment. As well as traditional broadcasting, Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs alike see fortunes waiting to be made in new media, like mobile services and online gaming. Mobile games already account for 15% of revenues from China's 340 million mobile users. Online gaming sales are predicted to top a billion US dollars next year, according to the UK-based journal Screen Digest. The video market is also seen as a big opportunity, although piracy levels are still very high despite an anti-piracy drive during the past year. In the cinema industry the deployment of digital screens is being accelerated. This is not just to modernise venues but also to curb piracy and regulate distribution. Li Ruigang, president of the commercial broadcaster Shanghai Media Group, told the conference that China's new media market ""is already experiencing explosive growth"". It was particularly strong in charged broadband services and mobile value-added services. Leading China-watcher, and founder of the CGA consultancy Jeanne-Marie Gescher, agreed that the time was ripe for foreign media groups to tap China's huge media market potential. ""China's media are now driven by investors who do not care how people consume media - they just want people to consume more of it,"" Mrs Gescher concluded." -tech,"Mobile music challenges 'iPod age' Nokia and Microsoft have agreed a deal to work on delivery of music to handsets, while Sony Ericsson has unveiled its phone Walkman and Motorola is working on an iTunes phone. Can mobile phones replace the MP3 player in your pocket? The music download market has been growing steadily since record firms embraced digital distribution. Ease of use, relative low price and increased access to broadband has helped drive the phenomenal growth of MP3 players. Full-length music downloads on mobile phones have not taken off so quickly - held back by technical challenges as well as issues over music availability. But the mobile music industry is confident that the days of dedicated MP3 players are numbered. Gilles Babinet, chief executive of mobile music firm Musiwave, said: ""Music downloads on mobiles have the potential to be the biggest-ever medium for music."" Musiwave provides downloading infrastructure for the mobile phone market and Mr Babinet said the industry was enjoying ""definite momentum."" But there are hurdles to overcome. Mobile phones offer limited storage for music - certainly nothing to rival Apple's 60GB iPod. But the first mobile phones with hard disk players will be on the market soon and the current generation of mobiles using flash technology can store up to one gigabyte of music - enough for 250 songs. ""We are working in the hard disk area and we will be bringing out exciting devices,"" Jonas Guest, vice president for entertainment at Nokia, told the BBC News website. But will mobiles become mere storage devices? ""One of the problems we could have is that mobiles are used just for storage and playback while PCs are used for downloading,"" said Mr Babinet ""We don't want people to cast aside their PCs - we want mobile users to hook up into the existing ecosystems,"" explained Mr Guest. ""You must enable people to transfer music from a PC to a handset and vice versa."" One of the key elements of the Nokia and Microsoft deal is the agreed ability to transfer songs between a handset and a PC. Microsoft will adopt open standards allowing music to cross boundaries for the first time. Songs can be downloaded on PC or mobile and transferred between the platforms. ""The line between online and wireless is going to blur,"" predicted Ted Cohen, senior vice president of digital development and distribution at EMI. He said: ""The market is more regional in its maturity. In Asia it is beyond belief. ""The majority of our digital revenues in Asia comes from mobiles. In North America it is fixed line while there is equilibrium in Europe."" EMI currently offers its entire 200,000 download catalogue for use by both by PCs and mobile phones. Mr Cohen said: ""It's going to be just as important to connect through 3G or wireless as it is through your PC. ""We want music to be a continuum."" The seamless experience of mobiles and PC downloads is approaching, he predicted. Mr Babinet said the mobile phone had a number of advantages over PCs which would see it become the focus for music downloading in the future. ""Getting music from your PC onto a device is not an easy experience. You have to switch the PC on, load the operating system, load the program, buy the music, download the music, and then transfer the music. ""All of these steps can be done in one step on a mobile phone."" He said the mobile phone's billing system would make it easier for teenagers to embrace downloads, because pre-paid cards were already accepted by the age group. ""Certainly, we have a problem with battery, memory and bandwidth. But it's not about the current status. It's about the potential. ""You will have all of your music on your mobile."" All three men said that the social interaction of mobile music would drive the market. Mr Cohen said: ""I can send you the song and it is either billed to me or I send it to you and if you listen to it and want to keep, it is billed to you. ""It's a social phenomenon."" Mr Babinet said: ""Today you use radio and TV to discover music. Tomorrow you will discover and consume music via one device - the mobile.""" -tech,"What's next for next-gen consoles? The next generation of video games consoles are in development but what will the new machines mean for games firms and consumers? We may not know when they will be released, what they will be called or even what they will be able to do but one thing is certain - they are coming. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all expected to release new machines in the next 18 months. The details of PlayStation 3, Xbox 2 (codename Xenon) and Nintendo's so-called Revolution are still to be finalised but developers are having to work on titles for the new machines regardless. ""We know maybe what the PS3 will do, but we can only guess,"" said Rory Armes, studio general manager for video game giant Electronic Arts in Europe. ""It's a horrendous effort in the first year,"" he admitted. Microsoft had delivered development kits to EA, said Mr Armes, but he said the company was still waiting on Sony and Nintendo to send kits. Although the details may not be nailed down, Mr Armes said EA was beginning to get a sense of the capabilities of the new machines. ""The rumours are that PlayStation 3 will have a little more under the hood [than Xbox 2],"" he said. ""Microsoft is obviously a software company first and foremost, while Sony has more experience in hardware. I think Sony will be able to push more into a box at cost."" What is certain is that the new machines will provide great leaps in processing and graphical power. It is also likely that they will contain convergence technologies to make the machines more of an entertainment hub. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Microsoft boss Bill Gates said Xbox 2 would be part of his vision of the digital lifestyle. While short on detail, he painted a picture of a machine that would complement a PC and offer ""great video gaming but video gaming for a broader set of people, more communications, more media, more connectivity"". Sony is thought to have a similar vision for PS3 while Nintendo remain focused on a machine purely for games. Until it is clear precisely what the new machines can do, developers are working on a first round of titles to harness the new horsepower. Gary Dunn, development director at Codemasters, said the company had a central technology group which was at the forefront of preparing for the next generation of consoles. ""We are working on new libraries of effects. A lot of the major techniques are already out there and in use in PC gaming, such as pixel shaders and normal mapping."" Mr Dunn said he expected the introduction of real-world physics to be a major part of the new consoles. ""We want to increase that level of immersion and realism in gaming to people can lose themselves in a game."" In the first year at least, developers said gamers should not expect games which harness the full potential of the machines. Graphical spit and polish and better physics in line with the capabilities of current high-end graphics cards for PCs should be expected. Simon Gardner, president of Climax's Action Studio, said: ""It's definitely an exciting time. We want to give more freedom to the player. We want to give players an emotional connection to the characters they play. ""The environments will be much more believable and dramatic, growing and changing as you play. ""There will be a breadth of effects, more involving worlds to play in. ""It's a bit like being an artist and being given a bigger canvas and a smaller brush. We're being given more tools. ""For the average consumer, we can get things of a more filmic quality."" Gerhard Florin, head of EA in Europe, said gamers should expect titles that blur the line between films and video games. Many will be sceptical - gamers were given similar predictions during the last transition of console hardware - but this time it would seem to be more likely. ""PS3 will provide graphics indistinguishable from movies,"" said Mr Florin. He said the distribution method for games would also change radically in the next round of consoles. ""A gamer could buy a starter disc for 10 euros. When he goes home he goes online and he could buy AI and levels as you go. ""It's much smarter if you can get levels as you go."" Mr Armes warned that developers still had to learn how to tell stories effectively in the medium. ""In some ways we are trying to forget about the hardware, go in the opposite direction. We have been very bad at letting technology design our creativity. ""What we have to do as a company is start ignoring the technology and learning our craft in telling stories."" Mr Gardner agreed: ""We can thrown more polygons around and have better AI but if it doesn't make for a better game then that's not very useful."" Developers will certainly have the tools with the new machines, but how they employ them is still to be decided." -tech,"Blogger grounded by her airline A US airline attendant is fighting for her job after she was suspended over postings on her blog, or online diary. Queen of the Sky, otherwise known as Ellen Simonetti, evolved into an anonymous semi-fictional account of life in the sky. But after she posted pictures of herself in uniform, Delta Airlines suspended her indefinitely without pay. Ms Simonetti was told her suspension was a result of ""inappropriate"" images. Delta Airlines declined to comment. ""I was really shocked, I had no warning,"" Ms Simonetti told BBC News Online. ""I never thought I would get in trouble because of the blog. I thought if they had a problem, someone would have said something before taking action."" The issue has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging community about conflicts of interest, employment law and free speech on personal websites. Ms Simonetti was suspended on 25 September pending an investigation and has since lodged a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). A spokesperson for Delta Airlines told BBC News Online: ""All I can tell you is we do not discuss internal employee issues with the media."" She added she could not say whether a similar situation over personal websites had occurred in the past. Ms Simonetti started her personal blog in January to help her get over her mother's death. She had ensured she made no mention of which airline she worked for, and created fictional names for cities and companies. The airline's name was changed to Anonymous Airline and the city in which she was based was called Quirksville. A large part of the blog contained fictional stories because Queen of the Sky developed over the months as a character in her own right, according to Ms Simonetti. The images were taken from a digital camera she had inherited from her mother. ""We often take pictures on flight or on layovers. I just though why not include them on my blog for fun. ""I never meant it as something to harm my company and don't understand how they think it did harm them,"" Ms Simonetti said. She has also claimed that pictures of male Delta Airline employees in uniform are freely available on the web. Of the 10 or so images on the site, only one showed Ms Simonetti's flight ""wings"". ""They did not tell me which pictures they had a problem with. I am just assuming it was the one of me posing on seats where my skirt rode up,"" she said. The images were removed as soon as she learned she had been suspended. As far as Ms Simonetti knows, there is no company anti-blogging policy. There is guidance which suggests the company uniform cannot be used without approval from management, but use in personal pictures on websites is unclear. Jeffrey Matsuura, director of the law and technology programme at the University of Dayton, said personal websites can be hazardous for both employers and their employees. ""There are many examples of employees who have presented some kind of material online that have gotten them in trouble with employers,"" he said. It was crucial that any policy about what was and what was not acceptable was expressed clearly, was reasonable, and enforced fairly in company policy. ""You have to remember that as an employee, you don't have total free speech anymore,"" he said. Mr Matsuura added that some companies actively encouraged employees to blog. ""One of the areas where it does become a problem is that they encourage this when it suits them, but they may not be particularly clear when they [employees] do cross the line."" He speculated that Delta might be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images of Ms Simonetti in uniform were posted. ""Whether or not that is successful will depend on what exactly is prohibited, and whether you can reasonably say this content now crosses that line,"" he said. Ms Simonetti said her suspension has caused two of her friends to discontinue their blogs. One of them was asked to stop blogging by his company before any action was taken. ""If they had asked me just take down the blog, I would have done it, but that was not been given to me as an option,"" she said. ""This blogging thing is obviously a new problem for employers and they need to get a policy about it. If I had known it would cost me my job, I would not have done that.""" -tech,"Cebit opens to mobile music tune Cebit, the world's largest hi-tech fair, has opened its doors in Hanover for a look at the latest technologies for homes and businesses. There are more than 6,000 exhibitors registered and about 500,000 visitors are expected to pass through the doors. Third generation mobiles, the digital home and broadband are key themes at the show. Camera phones will get better resolutions as vendors set out to prove that bigger is definitely better. Samsung is set to steal some initial limelight with the launch of a 7-megapixel phone on the opening day. The SCH-V770 has some of the features of high-end digital single lens reflex cameras such as manual focus and the ability to attach a telephoto or wide-angle lens. Camera phones are likely to prove an interesting battle ground at the show, said Ben Wood, principal analyst at research firm Gartner. ""It is firmly established that cameras are an integral part of phones and now the technology arms race is on in terms of megapixels. There will be a certain amount of 'look how big mine is',"" he said. There will also be increasing focus on music-enabled mobiles. ""At 3GSM in Cannes everyone went music mad and music is going to be a big theme for all the vendors at Cebit,"" said Mr Wood. Sony Ericsson will use the fair to show off the W800 - its recently unveiled Walkman branded phone - and there is speculation that Motorola may unveil its ROKR handset, widely tipped as the first to carry Apple's iTunes music software. Apple and Motorola announced they were getting together at the end of last year as a result of a long-standing friendship between Motorola's chief executive Ed Zander and Steve Jobs. Some analysts think Motorola may save the launch for CTIA, a wireless show in America the following week, which could be a telling sign about how operators are coming to view the German tech fair. ""One of the interesting things is that CeBIT is clearly a show in decline,"" said Mr Wood. ""A lot of the big players, such as Nokia, are pulling back saying it is hard to justify a big presence at all of the shows. It could be the last big year for Cebit,"" he said. Other themes include TV-enabled mobiles which are bound to create a buzz in the halls as Vodafone unveils a prototype handset that can show live digital television. There has been a glut of recent headlines about mobile TV - French operators are teaming up, O2 is trialling a system in Oxford, UK, and Nokia begins trialling a system in Finland with the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE TV and commercial TV channels. Cebit could become the battleground for the two competing methods for getting TV on to mobiles, and is also likely to provide a stage for a technology slated to compete with 3G. HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) has been described as ""3G on steroids"" and could offer consumers much faster download times. For instance, a song which currently takes one and a half minutes to download to a phone could be done in 10 seconds. Korean giants LG Electronics and Samsung will show off HSDPA handsets at the show and the technology is set to be rolled out in the US, Europe and Korea next year. Broadband will continue to be a key theme at the show with internet telephony proving this year's killer application. Germany's largest online service provider, T-Online, is tipped to reveal software for low-cost net telephony which would see it competing with its parent company Deutsche Telekom. Cebit is used by many to unveil cutting edge products and in the mobile sphere this is likely to mean a lot of bright, colourful handsets as fashion continues to compete with technology when it comes to the device everyone has in their pockets. Rainbow-coloured phones, influenced by handsets from Japan, are just one example of how Asian companies will stamp their mark on this year's show, at which they will have their biggest ever presence. Cebit organisers have created a digital home in Hall 25 of the 27 hangar-like buildings that will house the show. ""The digital home will be a hyped theme at the show. The house will be totally wired and full of things that can be used for home entertainment,"" said Cebit organiser Gabriele Dorries." -tech,"T-Mobile bets on 'pocket office' T-Mobile has launched its latest ""pocket office"" third-generation (3G) device which also has built-in wi-fi - high-speed wireless net access. Unlike other devices where the user has to check which high-speed network is available to transfer data, the device selects the fastest one itself. The MDA IV, released in the summer, is an upgrade to the company's existing smartphone, the 2.5G/wi-fi MDA III. It reflects the push by mobile firms for devices that are like mini laptops. The device has a display that can be swivelled and angled so it can be used like a small computer, or as a conventional clamshell phone. The Microsoft Mobile phone, with two cameras and a Qwerty keyboard, reflects the design of similar all-in-one models released this year, such as Motorola's MPx. ""One in five European workers are already mobile - meaning they spend significant time travelling and out of the office,"" Rene Obermann, T-Mobile's chief executive, told a press conference at the 3GSM trade show in Cannes. He added: ""What they need is their office when they are out of the office."" T-Mobile said it was seeing increasing take up for what it calls ""Office in a Pocket"" devices, with 100,000 MDAs sold in Europe already. In response to demand, T-Mobile also said it would be adding the latest phone-shaped Blackberry to its mobile range. Reflecting the growing need to be connected outside the office, it announced it would introduce a flat-fee £20 ($38) a month wi-fi tariff for people in the UK using its wi-fi hotspots. It said it would nearly double the number of its hotspots - places where wi-fi access is available - globally from 12,300 to 20,000. It also announced it was installing high-speed wi-fi on certain train services, such as the UK's London to Brighton service, to provide commuters a fast net connection too. The service, which has been developed with Southern trains, Nomad Digital (who provide the technology), begins with a free trial on 16 trains on the route from early March to the end of April. A full service is set to follow in the summer. Wi-fi access points will be connected to a Wimax wireless network - faster than wi-fi - running alongside the train tracks. Brian McBride, managing director of T-Mobile in the UK, said: ""We see a growing trend for business users needing to access e-mail securely on the move. ""We are able to offer this by maintaining a constant data session for the entire journey."" He said this was something other similar in-train wi-fi services, such as that offered on GNER trains, did not offer yet. Mr Obermann added that the mobile industry in general was still growing, with many more opportunities for more services which would bear fruit for mobile companies in future. Thousands of mobile industry experts are gathered in Cannes, France, for the 3GSM which runs from 14 to 17 February." -tech,"Virus poses as Christmas e-mail Security firms are warning about a Windows virus disguising itself as an electronic Christmas card. The Zafi.D virus translates the Christmas greeting on its subject line into the language of the person receiving infected e-mail. Anti-virus firms speculate that this multilingual ability is helping the malicious program spread widely online. Anti-virus firm Sophos said that 10% of the e-mail currently on the net was infected with the Zafi virus. Like many other Windows viruses, Zafi-D plunders Microsoft Outlook for e-mail addresses and then uses mail-sending software to despatch itself across the web to new victims. To be infected users must open up the attachment travelling with the message which bears the code for the malicious bug. The attachment on the e-mail poses as an electronic Christmas card but anyone opening it will simply get a crude image of two smiley faces. The virus' subject line says ""Merry Christmas"" and translates this into one of 15 languages depending of the final suffix of the e-mail address the infected message has been sent to. The message in the body of the e-mail reads: ""Happy Holidays"" and this too is translated. On infected machines the virus tries to disable anti-virus and firewall software and opens up a backdoor on the PC to hand over control to the writer of the virus. The virus is thought to have spread most widely in South America, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Hungary. The original Zafi virus appeared in April this year. ""We have seen these hoaxes for several Christmases already, and personally I prefer traditional pen and paper cards, and we recommend this to all our clients too,"" said Mikko Hypponen, who heads F-Secure's anti-virus team." -tech,"Bush website blocked outside US Surfers outside the US have been unable to visit the official re-election site of President George W Bush. The blocking of browsers sited outside the US began in the early hours of Monday morning. Since then people outside the US trying to browse the site get a message saying they are not authorised to view it. The blocking does not appear to be due to an attack by vandals or malicious hackers, but as a result of a policy decision by the Bush camp. The international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by net monitoring firm Netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns across many different sites. Netcraft said that since the early hours of 25 October attempts to view the site through its monitoring stations in London, Amsterdam and Sydney failed. By contrast Netcraft's four monitoring stations in the US managed to view the site with no problems. The site can still be seen using anonymous proxy services that are based in the US. Some web users in Canada also report that they can browse the site. The pattern of traffic to the website suggests that the blocking was not due to an attack by vandals or politically motivated hackers. Geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis. On 21 October, the George W Bush website began using the services of a company called Akamai to ensure that the pages, videos and other content on its site reaches visitors. Mike Prettejohn, president of Netcraft, speculated that the blocking decision might have been taken to cut costs, and traffic, in the run-up to the election on 2 November. He said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next week. Managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays working in the closing days of the election campaign. However, simply blocking non-US visitors also means that Americans overseas are barred too. Akamai declined to comment, saying it could not talk about customer websites." -tech,"Gamers snap up new Sony PSP Gamers have bought almost all of the first batch of Sony's new PlayStation Portable (PSP) games console, which went on sale in Japan on Sunday. Thousands of people queued for hours to get hold of one of the 200,000 PSPs which were shipped to retailers. The handheld console can play games, music and movies and goes on sale in Europe and North America next year. Despite the demand Sony said it would not increase the 500,000-strong stock of PSPs it plans to ship by year's end. Sony says it intends to ship three million of the consoles by March 2005. The company is hoping to challenge the dominance of Nintendo in the handheld market. Nintendo released its new DS console earlier this year and has already raised shipment targets for the device by 40%. The PSP is selling in Japan for 19,800 yen ($188; £98) while Nintendo's DS console sells in the US and Japan for $150 (£78). Nintendo's goal is to ship 5 million of its new Nintendo DS handheld consoles by March 2005." -tech,"Souped-up wi-fi is on the horizon Super high-speed wireless data networks could soon be in use in the UK. The government's wireless watchdog is seeking help on the best way to regulate the technology behind such networks called Ultra Wideband (UWB). Ofcom wants to ensure that the arrival of UWB-using devices does not cause problems for those that already use the same part of the radio spectrum. UWB makes it possible to stream huge amounts of data through the air over short distances. One of the more likely uses of UWB is to make it possible to send DVD quality video images wirelessly to TV screens or to let people beam music to media players around their home. The technology has the potential to transmit hundreds of megabits of data per second. UWB could also be used to create so-called Personal Area Networks that let a person's gadgets quickly and easily swap data amongst themselves. The technology works over a range up to 10 metres and uses billions of short radio pulses every second to carry data. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas products with UWB chips built-in got their first public airing. Currently, use of UWB is only allowed in the UK under a strict licencing scheme. ""We're seeking opinion from industry to find out whether or not we should allow UWB on a licence-exempt basis,"" said a spokesman for Ofcom. Companies have until 24 March to respond. In April the EC is due to start its own consultation on Europe-wide adoption of UWB. The cross-Europe body for radio regulators, known as the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), is carrying out research for this harmonisation programme. Early sight of the CEPT work has caused controversy as some think it over-emphasises UWB's potential to interfere with existing users. By contrast a preliminary Ofcom report found that it would be quite straight-forward to deploy UWB without causing problems for those that already use it. The Ofcom spokesman said it was considering imposing a ""mask"" or set of technical restrictions on UWB-using devices. ""We would want these devices to have very strict controls on power levels so they can not transmit a long way or over a wide area,"" he said. Despite the current restrictions the technology is already being used. Cambridge-based Ubisense has about 40 customers around the world using the short-range radio technology, said David Theriault, standards and regulatory liaison for Ubisense. He said that UWB was driving novel ways to interact with computers. ""It's like having a 3D mouse all the time,"" he said. He said that European decisions on what to do with UWB allied with IEEE decisions on the exact specifications for it would help drive adoption. Prior to its adoption as a way for gadgets and computers to communicate, UWB was used as a sensing technology. It is used to spot such things as cracks under the surface of runways or to help firemen detect people through walls." -tech,"US duo in first spam conviction A brother and sister in the US have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to AOL subscribers. It is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors. Jurors in Virginia recommended that the man, Jeremy Jaynes, serve nine years in prison and that his sister, Jessica DeGroot, be fined $7,500. They were convicted under a state law that bars the sending of bulk e-mails using fake addresses. They will be formally sentenced next year. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted. Prosecutors said Jaynes was ""a snake oil salesman in a new format"", using the internet to peddle useless wares, news agency Associated Press reported. A ""Fed-Ex refund processor"" was supposed to allow people to earn $75 an hour working from home. Another item on sale was an ""internet history eraser"". His sister helped him process credit card payments. Jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales, prosecutors said. ""He's been successful ripping people off all these years,"" AP quoted prosecutor Russell McGuire as saying. Jaynes was also found guilty of breaking a state law which prohibits the sending of more than 100,000 e-mails in 30 days, Virginia State Attorney General Jerry Kilgore reportedly said. Prosecutors had asked for 15 years in jail for Jaynes, and a jail term for his sister. But Jaynes' lawyer David Oblon called the nine-year recommended term ""outrageous"" and said his client believed he was innocent. He pointed out that all three of the accused lived in North Carolina and were unaware of the Virginia state law. Spam messages are estimated to account for at least 60% of all e-mails sent." -tech,"Bad e-mail habits sustains spam The 'bad behaviour' of e-mail users is helping to sustain the spam industry, a new study has found. According to a survey conducted by security firm Mirapoint and market research company the Radicati Group, nearly a third of e-mail users have clicked on links in spam messages. One in ten users have bought products advertised in junk mail. Clicking on a link in a spam message can expose people to viruses and alert spammers to live e-mail accounts. The fact that one in ten e-mail users are buying things advertised in spam continues to make it an attractive business, especially given that sending out huge amounts of spam costs very little, the report concludes. ""This preliminary data is surprising and somewhat shocking to us,"" said Marcel Nienhuis, market analyst at the Radicati Group. ""It explains why e-mail security threats including spam, viruses and phishing scams continue to proliferate,"" he said, accusing users of ""bad e-mail behaviour"". Spammers are increasingly hooking into whatever happens to be flavour of the month, according to security firm Clearswift. It has recently seen a rise in the number of spam messages offering phoney Sony PSP giveaways. And, in perhaps a nod to the popularity of the American drama series Desperate Housewives, it has also seen a dramatic rise in junk mails purporting to give details of women looking for casual sex. But rather than finding a companion, users who click on such mail will find themselves redirected to porn sites, where they run the risk of downloading spyware on to their PC. Clearswift has seen a 180% rise in sex-related spam over the course of the last month. ""Without casting aspersions, those likely to respond to these kind of adverts will be invariably hoping that 'one thing leads to another' but aside from the fact that these mails are bogus, clicking on any link within a spam mail can lead to a whole host of unwanted problems,"" said Alyn Hockey, Clearswift's director of research. Sexually explicit terms make up 14% of security firm Sophos' top 50 word that spammers most commonly try to disguise in order to beat anti-spam filters. Spammers will deliberately misspell a word or use digits instead of letters in an attempt to by-pass anti-spam software, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security firm Sophos. ""The list of words most commonly hidden by the spammers from anti-spam software reveals that most spam is about the old favourites: money, drugs and sex,"" said Mr Cluley. But anti-spam filters can only be part of the solution to the menace of junk e-mail. ""People must resist their basic instincts to buy from spam mails. Spammers are criminals, plain and simple. If no-one responded to junk e-mail and didn't buy products sold in this way, then spam would be as extinct as the dinosaurs,"" he said." -tech,"How to make a gigapixel picture The largest digital panoramic photo in the world has been created by researchers in the Netherlands. The finished image is 2.5 billion pixels in size - making it about 500 times the resolution of images produced by good consumer digital cameras. The huge image of Delft was created by stitching together 600 single snaps of the Dutch city taken at a fixed spot. If printed out in standard 300 dots per inch resolution, the picture would be 2.5m high and 6m long. The researchers have put the image on a website which lets viewers explore the wealth of detail that it captures. Tools on the page let viewers zoom in on the city and its surroundings in great detail. The website is already proving popular and currently has more than 200,000 visitors every day. The image was created by imaging experts from the Dutch research and technology laboratory TNO which created the 2.5 gigapixel photo as a summer time challenge. The goal of the project was to be one of the first groups to make gigapixel images. The first image of such a size was manually constructed by US photographer Max Lyons in November 2003. That image portrayed Bryce Canyon National Park, in Utah, and was made up of 196 separate photographs. The panorama of Delft is a little staid in contrast to the dramatic rockscape captured in Mr Lyons' image. ""He did it all by hand, which was an enormous effort, and we got the idea that if you use automatic techniques, it would be feasible to build a larger image,"" said Jurgen den Hartog, one of the TNO researchers behind the project. ""We were not competing with Mr Lyons, but it started as a lunchtime bet."" The Dutch team used already available technologies, although it had to upgrade them to be able to handle the high-resolution image. ""We had to rewrite almost all the tools,"" Me den Hartog told the BBC News website. ""All standard Windows viewers available would not be able to load such a large image, so we had to develop one ourselves."" The 600 component pictures were taken on July 2004 by a computer-controlled camera with a 400 mm lens. Each image was made to slightly overlap so they could be accurately arranged into a composite. The stitching process was also done automatically using five powerful PCs over three days. Following the success of this project, and with promises of help from others, the TNO team is considering creating a full 360-degree panoramic view of another Dutch city, with even higher resolution." -tech,"Text message record smashed again UK mobile owners continue to break records with their text messaging, with latest figures showing that 26 billion texts were sent in total in 2004. The figures collected by the Mobile Data Association (MDA) showed that 2.4 billion were fired off in December alone, the highest monthly total ever. That was 26% more than in December 2003. The records even surpassed the MDA's own predictions, it said. Every day 78 million messages are sent and there are no signs of a slow down. Before December's bumper text record, the previous highest monthly total was in October 2004, when 2.3 billion were sent. Text messaging is set to smash more records in 2005 too, said the MDA, with forecasts suggesting a total of 30 billion for the year. Even though mobiles are becoming increasingly sophisticated with much more multimedia applications, texting is still one of the most useful functions of mobiles. People are using SMS to do much more too. Booking cinema tickets, text voting, and news or sports text alerts are growing popular. Mobile owners have also given the chance to donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee's (DEC) Asian Tsunami fund by texting ""Donate"" to a simple short code number. Looking further ahead in the year, the MDA's chairman Mike Short, has predicted that more people will go online through their mobiles, estimating 15 billion WAP page impressions. Handsets with GPRS capability - an ""always on"" net connection - will rise to 75%, while 3G mobile ownership growing to five million by the end of 2005. These third generation mobiles offer a high-speed connection which means more data like video can be received on the phone. Globally, mobile phone sales passed 167 million in the third quarter of 2004, according to a recent report from analysts Gartner. That was 26% more than the previous year. It is predicted that there would be two billion handsets in use worldwide by the end of 2005." -tech,"Norway upholds 'Napster' ruling A Norwegian student who ran a website which linked to downloadable MP3 files has been ordered to pay compensation by the country's Supreme Court. Frank Allan Bruvik was ordered to pay 100,000 kroner (£8,000) to the music industry in Norway. He was a student when he set up his napster.no site, which allowed users to submit and receive links to MP3 files. Bruvik had earlier been cleared on appeal after a lower court had found for the music industry. Music industry bosses in Norway said the ruling would help build confidence in the internet as a distribution medium. Frank Allan Bruvik set up the napster.no website as part of a school project in 2001 while studying computer engineering in the Norwegian town of Lillehammer. The website was not associated with the napster.com site in the USA, which had been operating since 1999 and was already facing legal action. Bruvik's site was online between August and November 2001, and while it did not host any music, at its peak it was providing links to more than 170 free files on other servers. As well as providing links, the site allowed those visiting it to submit links that could later be accessed by other visitors. A legal complaint for copyright violation was filed by groups including Norway's performing rights society, Tono, and the Norwegian branches of Sony Music and Universal Music, who saw it as an important test of principle. A Norwegian court ruled in 2003 that Bruvik would have to pay 100,000 kroner to the music industry, but the country's Court of Appeal cleared him, saying that the copyright violation occurred when others posted the music. However, the Supreme Court stated that the music was clearly published in violation of copyright law It added that the case was decided based on the responsibility for abetting an illegal act, and that Bruvik's actions were premeditated. Norway's music industry said it was satisfied with the ruling, because showed that music piracy would not be accepted. Meanwhile, in the USA a further 717 lawsuits against people alleged to have traded copyrighted songs were filed this week by the Recording Industry Association of America. The suits, brought on behalf of the major record companies, cite the individuals for illegally distributing music via unauthorized peer-to-peer services such as KaZaa and eDonkey. As with preceding cases, the fresh action was made against so-called ""John Doe"" defendants, who are identified only by the codes given to their computers' internet connections." -tech,"Apple laptop is 'greatest gadget' The Apple Powerbook 100 has been chosen as the greatest gadget of all time, by US magazine Mobile PC. The 1991 laptop was chosen because it was one of the first ""lightweight"" portable computers and helped define the layout of all future notebook PCs. The magazine has compiled an all-time top 100 list of gadgets, which includes the Sony Walkman at number three and the 1956 Zenith remote control at two. Gadgets needed moving parts and/or electronics to warrant inclusion. The magazine specified that gadgets also needed to be a ""self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own, not a subset of another device"". ""In general we included only items that were potentially mobile,"" said the magazine. ""In the end, we tried to get to the heart of what really makes a gadget a gadget,"" it concluded. The oldest ""gadget"" in the top 100 is the abacus, which the magazine dates at 190 A.D., and put in 60th place. Other pre-electronic gadgets in the top 100 include the sextant from 1731 (59th position), the marine chronometer from 1761 (42nd position) and the Kodak Brownie camera from 1900 (28th position). The Tivo personal video recorder is the newest device to make the top 10, which also includes the first flash mp3 player (Diamound Multimedia), as well as the first ""successful"" digital camera (Casio QV-10) and mobile phone (Motorola Startac). The most popular gadget of the moment, the Apple iPod, is at number 12 in the list while the first Sony transistor radio is at number 13. Sony's third entry in the top 20 is the CDP-101 CD player from 1983. ""Who can forget the crystalline, hiss-free blast of Madonna's Like A Virgin emenating from their first CD player?"" asked the magazine. Karl Elsener's knife, the Swiss Army Knife from 1891, is at number 20 in the list. Gadgets which could be said to feature surprisngly low down in the list include the original telephone (23rd), the Nintendo GameBoy (25th), and the Pulsar quartz digital watch (36th). The list also contains plenty of oddities: the Pez sweet dispenser (98th), 1980s toy Tamagotchi (86th) and the bizarre Ronco inside the shell egg scrambler (84th). Why worry about mobile phones. Soon they will be subsumed into the PDA's / laptops etc. What about the Marine Chronometer? Completely revolutionised navigation for boats and was in use for centuries. For it's time, a technological marvel! Sony Net Minidisc! It paved the way for more mp3 player to explode onto the market. I always used my NetMD, and could not go anywhere without it. A laptop computer is not a gadget! It's a working tool! The Sinclair Executive was the world's first pocket calculator. I think this should be there as well. How about the clockwork radio? Or GPS? Or a pocket calculator? All these things are useful to real people, not just PC magazine editors. Are the people who created this list insane ? Surely the most important gadget of the modern age is the mobile phone? It has revolutionalised communication, which is more than can be said for a niche market laptop. From outside the modern age, the marine chronometer is the single most important gadget, without which modern transportation systems would not have evolved so quickly. Has everyone forgot about the Breville pie maker?? An interesting list. Of the electronic gadgets, thousands of journalists in the early 1980s blessed the original noteboook pc - the Tandy 100. The size of A4 paper and light, three weeks on a set of batteries, an excellent keyboard, a modem. A pity Tandy did not make it DOS compatible. What's an Apple Powerbook 100 ? It's out of date - not much of a ""gadget"". Surely it has to be something simple / timeless - the tin opener, Swiss Army Knife, safety razor blade, wristwatch or the thing for taking stones out of horses hooves ? It has to be the mobile phone. No other single device has had such an effect on our way of living in such a short space of time. The ball point pen has got to be one of the most used and common gadgets ever. Also many might be grateful for the pocket calculator which was a great improvement over the slide rule. The Casio pocket calculator that played a simple game and made tinny noises was also a hot gadget in 1980. A true gadget, it could be carried around and shown off. All top 10 are electronic toys, so the list is probably a better reflection of the current high-tech obsession than anyhting else. I say this as the Swiss Army Knife only made No 20. Sinclair QL a machine far ahead of its time. The first home machine with a true multi-takings OS. Shame the marketing was so bad!!! Apple.. a triumph of fashion over... well everything else. Utter rubbish. Yes, the Apple laptop and Sony Walkman are classic gadgets. But to call the sextant and the marine chronometer 'gadgets' and rank them as less important than a TV remote control reveals a quite shocking lack of historical perspective. The former literally helped change the world by vastly improving navigation at see. The latter is the seed around which the couch potato culture has developed. No competition. I'd also put Apple's Newton and the first Palm Pilot there as the front runners for portable computing, and possibly the Toshiba Libretto for the same reason. I only wish that Vulcan Inc's Flipstart wasn't just vapourware otherwise it would be at the top. How did a laptop ever manage to beat off the challenge of the wristwatch or the telephone (mobile or otherwise)? What about radios and TVs? The swiss army knife. By far the most useful gadget. I got mine 12 years ago. Still wearing and using it a lot! It stood the test of time. Psion Organiser series 3, should be up there. Had a usable qwerty keyboard, removable storage, good set of apps and programmable. Case design was good (batteries in the hinge - a first, I think). Great product innovation. The first mobile PC was voted best gadget by readers of...err... mobile PC?! Why do you keep putting these obviously biased lists on your site? It's obviously the mobile phone or remote control, and readers of a less partisan publication would tell you that. The Motorola Startac should be Number One. Why? There will be mobile phones long after notebook computers and other gadgets are either gone or integrated in communications devices. The Psion series 3c! The first most practical way to carry all your info around... I too would back the Sinclair Spectrum - without this little beauty I would never have moved into the world of IT and earn the living that I do now. I'd have put the mobile phone high up the list. Probably a Nokia model. Sinclair Spectrum - 16k. It plugged into the tv. Games were rubbish but it gave me a taste for programming and that's what I do for a living now. I wish more modern notebooks -- even Apple's newest offerings -- were more like the PB100. Particularly disheartening is the demise of the trackball, which has given way to the largely useless ""trackpad"" which every notebook on the market today uses. They're invariably inaccurate, uncomfortable, and cumbersome to use. Congratulations to Apple, a deserved win!" -tech,"Apple sues 'Tiger' file sharers Apple has taken more legal action to stop online leaks of its new products. The computer giant has sued three men for releasing preview versions of its latest Mac OSX software onto file-sharing sites prior to its release. It said two versions of the operating system, codenamed Tiger, were put onto the net in October and December. It is the second time in two weeks Apple has taken legal action to protect its future products. Tiger is due to be shipped in early 2005. Last week, it filed a lawsuit against ""unnamed individuals"" who leaked details about new products onto the web. The latest action was against members of the Apple Developer Connection, a group of programmers which gets to see test versions of upcoming software so they can develop or change their own programs to work with them. ""Members of Apple Developer Connection receive advance copies of Apple software under strict confidentiality agreements, which we take very seriously to protect our intellectual property,"" Apple said in a statement. It added that its future financial results were very much dependent on developing and improving its operating systems and other software. It is thought the men used sites which employ BitTorrent technology. With BitTorrent technology, sites do not host actual files being shared, instead they host a link that points people to others that have the particular file. Last week, the Motion Picture Association of America launched a legal campaign targeting websites that operate using the BitTorrent system in an effort to clamp down on movie piracy. Apple is no stranger to taking legal action against those who leak product information. In December 2002, it sued a former contractor who allegedly put drawings, images and engineering details of its PowerMac G4 computer online. The latest action was filed on Monday in the US District Court in California. It comes just weeks before the MacWorld conference in San Francisco, used to showcase new products." -tech,"The pirates with no profit motive Two men who were part of a huge network of internet software pirates, known as Drink Or Die, have been convicted at the Old Bailey. BBC News investigates how the network worked and what motivated those involved. They called themselves Drink Or Die (DOD). They were a network of computer buffs who derived pleasure from cracking codes protecting copyrighted software such as Windows 95. They would then share it with each other. There is no suggestion any of them profited financially. But the authorities in both Britain and the United States considered it software piracy and took a dim view of networks such as DOD, one of a number of so-called warez organisations operating on the internet. In October 2000 the US Customs Service began an investigation into DOD and other networks, such as Razor 1911, Risciso, Myth and Popz. Fourteen months later US Customs co-ordinated a series of raids across the globe as part of Operation Buccaneer. Seventy search warrants were executed in the US, Britain, Australia, Norway, Sweden and Finland. At least 60 people were arrested worldwide - 45 of them in the US. Among the leaders of the network were Americans John Sankus - known by his internet nickname Eriflleh (Hellfire spelt backwards) - Richard Berry, Kent Kartadinata and Christopher Tresco, who used a server based at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The longest jail sentence - 46 months - was handed down to Sankus, a 28-year-old from Philadelphia. US Attorney Paul McNulty said at the time: ""John Sankus and his techno-gang operated in the faceless world of the internet and thought they would never be caught. ""They were wrong. These sentences, and those to follow, should send a message to others entertaining similar beliefs of invincibility."" But one man still in legal limbo is British-born Australian Hew Raymond Griffiths, who is still fighting against extradition to the US. US Customs claimed Mr Griffiths was one of DOD's leaders but his lawyer, Antony Townsden, told the BBC News website it was a laughable suggestion and added: ""He was living on welfare and had such an old computer that he couldn't even download software. ""The allegation that he was the group's co-leader is illusory. He had the least technical skills of anyone, he couldn't crack any codes and he has only been called a leader because he was a loudmouth who wrote a lot on their messageboard."" Mr Townsden said if he had committed any crimes he should be prosecuted in Australia, not the US. He claimed the Australian government's decision to accept the extradition request was typical of their current ""acquiescent"" attitude to the US. Mr Griffiths is expecting to hear this week the outcome of his appeal against the decision to extradite him. Those involved would give themselves internet aliases which would act in the same way as tags used by graffiti artists. They could then brag about their code-cracking abilities without giving away their real identities. Alex Bell, whose trial at the Old Bailey ended on Friday, was known as Mr 2940 - after a computer device - while his co-defendant Steven Dowd's nickname, curiously, was Tim. A spokesman for US Immigration, Customs and Enforcement, Dean Boyd, said DOD did not appear to be motivated by money. Their motivation was the kudos which surrounded being able to crack sophisticated software. He told the BBC News website: ""Primarily they were just interested in how fast they could crack the code. It was all about underground notoriety."" But Mr Boyd pointed out that once the software had been distributed on the internet it fell into the hands of organised criminals who were able to mass produce pirated software at zero cost. ""It cost US industries a lot of money, billions of dollars,"" he said. Mr Boyd said: ""It was truly global in scope. We raided a number of universities, including Duke (in North Carolina) and MIT, and found that several of the people involved were employed by major computer corporations. ""They would go home from work in the evenings and get involved in this warez culture."" Warez groups, which began to surface in the early 1990s, operate according to a strict code of honour. For example if one group cracked the software first its rivals would respect that achievement and not seek to claim it themselves. Mr Boyd said the destruction of DOD was a great coup but he added: ""I'm not going to sit here and say we have sorted the problem. There are still hackers and people who do this for fun. ""Internet piracy of computer software remains a gigantic problem."" A spokesman for the Business Software Alliance said: ""DOD members claim they did not profit at all. But they did profit by getting access to very expensive servers."" He said DOD and other warez groups were fostering a ""culture of piracy"" on the internet. He said 29% of computer software in Britain was believed to have been pirated and this cost £1bn in revenue for software companies, their suppliers and distributors. ""It may seem like a victimless crime but it touches more people than you might care to believe.""" -tech,"Fast moving phone bugs appear Security firms are warning about several mobile phone viruses that can spread much faster than similar bugs. The new strains of the Cabir mobile phone virus use short-range radio technology to leap to any vulnerable phone as soon as it is in range. The Cabir virus only affects high-end handsets running the Symbian Series 60 phone operating system. Despite the warnings, there are so far no reports of any phones being infected by the new variants of Cabir. The original Cabir worm came to light in mid-June 2004 when it was sent to anti-virus firms as a proof-of-concept program. A mistake in the way the original Cabir was written meant that even if it escaped from the laboratory, the bug would only have been able to infect one phone at a time. However, the new Cabir strains have this mistake corrected and will spread via short range Bluetooth technology to any vulnerable phone in range. Bluetooth has an effective range of a few tens of metres. The risk of being infected by Cabir is low because users must give the malicious program permission to download on to their handset and then must manually install it. Users can protect themselves by altering a setting on Symbian phones that conceals the handset from other Bluetooth using devices. Finnish security firm F-Secure issued a warning about the new strains of Cabir but said that the viruses do not do any damage to a phone. All they do is block normal Bluetooth activity and drain the phone's battery. Anti-virus firm Sophos said the source code for Cabir had been posted on the net by a Brazilian programmer which might lead to even more variants of the program being created. So far seven versions of Cabir are know to exist, one of which was inside the malicious Skulls program that was found in late November. Symbian's Series 60 software is licenced by Nokia, LG Electronics, Lenovo, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo and Siemens." -tech,"File-swappers ready new network Legal attacks on websites that help people swap pirated films have forced the development of a system that could be harder to shut down. One site behind the success of the BitTorrent file-swapping system is producing its own software that avoids the pitfalls of the earlier program. A test version of the new Exeem program will be released in late January. But doubts remain about the new networks ability to ensure files being swapped are ""quality copies"". In late December movie studios launched a legal campaign against websites that helped people swap pirated movies using the BitTorrent network. The legal campaign worked because of the way that BitTorrent is organised. That file-sharing system relies on links called ""trackers"" that point users to others happy to share the file they are looking for. Shutting down sites that listed trackers crippled the BitTorrent network. One of the sites shut down by the legal campaign was suprnova.org which helped boost the popularity of the BitTorrent system by checking that trackers led to the movies or TV programmes they claimed to. Now the man behind suprnova.org, who goes by the nickname Sloncek, is preparing to release software for a new file-swapping network dubbed Exeem. In an interview with Novastream web radio, Sloncek said Exeem would combine ideas from the BitTorrent and Kazaa file-sharing systems. Like BitTorrent, Exeem will have trackers that help point people toward the file they want. Like Kazaa these trackers will be held by everyone. There will be no centrally maintained list. This, said Sloncek, should make the system less vulnerable to legal action aimed at stopping people swapping pirated movies and music. The Exeem software has been under development for a few months and is currently being tested by a closed group of users. An early public version of the software should be available before February. Sloncek said that currently only a Windows version of the software was in development. There were no plans for a Linux or Mac version. He said that costs of writing the software will be paid for by adverts appearing in the finished version of the program. Despite Suprnova administrator Sloncek's involvement with Exeem, the basic technology appears to have been developed by a firm called Swarm Systems that is based on Caribbean island Saint Kitts and Nevis. Users of the Exeem system will be able to rate files being swapped to help stop the spread of fake files, Sloncek told Novastream. Dr Johan Pouwelse, a researcher at the Delft University of Technology who studies peer-to-peer networks, said Exeem was the next evolution in file-sharing systems. But, he said, it would struggle to be as popular as BitTorrent and Suprnova because early versions were not taking enough care to make sure good copies of files were being shared. ""Exeem cannot prevent pollution,"" he said. ""The rating system in Exeem seems flawed because it is easy to insert both fake files and fake ratings,"" he said. Studies have shown that organisations working for record labels and movie studios have worked to undermine Kazaa by putting in fakes. By contrast moderators on Suprnova made sure files being shared were high quality. ""The moderators are the difference between having a system that works and one that's full of crap like Kazaa,"" he said. ""There is a fundamental tension between distribution and integrity,"" he said. Mr Pouwelse said that future versions of file-sharing systems are likely to incorporate some kind of distributed reputation system that lets moderators prove who they are to the network and rate which files are worth downloading. When big files were being shared moderation systems were key, said Mr Pouwelse. He added that the legal attacks on BitTorrent had driven people away from sites such as Suprnova but many users had simply migrated to other tracker listing sites many of which have seen huge increases in traffic. ""It's hard to compete with free,"" he said. No-one from the Motion Picture Association of America was immediately available for comment on the file-sharing development." -tech,"Slim PlayStation triples sales Sony PlayStation 2's slimmer shape has proved popular with UK gamers, with 50,000 sold in its first week on sale. Sales have tripled since launch, outstripping Microsoft's Xbox, said market analysts Chart-Track. The numbers were also boosted by the release of the PS2-only game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The title broke the UK sales record for video games in its first weekend of release. Latest figures suggest it has sold more than 677,000 copies. ""It is obviously very, very encouraging for Sony because Microsoft briefly outsold them last week,"" John Houlihan, editor of Computerandvideogames.com told BBC News. ""And with Halo 2 [for Xbox] out next week, it really is a head-to-head contest between them and Xbox."" Although Xbox sales over the last week also climbed, PS2 sales were more than double that. The figures mean Sony is reaching the seven million barrier for UK sales of the console. Edinburgh-based developer, Rockstar, which is behind the GTA titles, has seen San Andreas pull in an estimated £24m in gross revenues over the weekend. In comparison, blockbuster films like Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban took £11.5m in its first three days at the UK box office. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took nearly £10m over its opening weekend, although games titles are four to five times more expensive than cinema tickets. Gangster-themed GTA San Andreas is the sequel to Grand Theft Auto Vice City which previously held the record for the fastest-selling video game ever. The Xbox game Halo 2, released on 11 November in the UK, is also widely tipped to be one of the best-selling games of the year. The original title won universal acclaim in 2001, and sold more than four million copies. Mr Houlihan added that Sony had done well with the PS2, but it definitely helped that the release of San Andreas coincided with the slimline PS2 hitting the shelves. The run-up to Christmas is a huge battlefield for games consoles and titles. Microsoft's Xbox had been winning the race up until last week in sales. The sales figures also suggest that it may be a largely adult audience driving demand, since GTA San Andreas has an 18 certificate. Sony and Microsoft have both reduced console prices recently and are preparing the way for the launches of their next generation consoles in 2005. ""Both have hit crucial price points at around £100 and that really does open up new consoles to new audience, plus the release of two really important games in terms of development are also driving those sales,"" said Mr Houlihan." -tech,"Gamer buys $26,500 virtual land A 22-year-old gamer has spent $26,500 (£13,700) on an island that exists only in a computer role-playing game (RPG). The Australian gamer, known only by his gaming moniker Deathifier, bought the island in an online auction. The land exists within the game Project Entropia, an RPG which allows thousands of players to interact with each other. Entropia allows gamers to buy and sell virtual items using real cash, while fans of other titles often use auction site eBay to sell their virtual wares. Earlier this year economists calculated that these massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have a gross economic impact equivalent to the GDP of the African nation of Namibia. ""This is a historic moment in gaming history, and this sale only goes to prove that massive multi-player online gaming has reached a new plateau,"" said Marco Behrmann, director of community relations at Mindark, the game's developer. The virtual island includes a gigantic abandoned castle and beautiful beaches which are described as ripe for developing beachfront property. Deathifier will make money from his investment as he is able to tax other gamers who come to his virtual land to hunt or mine for gold. He has also begun to sell plots to people who wish to build virtual homes. ""This type of investment will definitely become a trend in online gaming,"" said Deathifier. The Entopia economy lets gamers exchange real currency into PED (Project Entropia Dollars) and back again into real money. Ten PEDs are the equivalent to one US dollar and typical items sold include iron ingots ($5) and shogun armour ($1.70) Gamers can theoretically earn money by accumulating PEDs through the acquisition of goods, buildings, and land in the Entropia universe. MMORPGs have become enormously popular in the last 10 years with hundreds of thousands of gamers living out alternate lives in fantasy worlds. Almost 200,000 people are registered players on Project Entropia." -tech,"Nuclear body seeks new tech The computer systems used to monitor the world's nuclear power installations are so outdated that they are hampering the work of inspectors. A spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its current technology could allow key information to be overlooked as it was more than 20 years old. Such systems are the only method of tracking nuclear material worldwide. The agency has appealed for more funds to update its hardware and software. ""A major overhaul of the system is needed to allow inspectors immediate, secure online access to information,"" said project manager Livio Costantini. IAEA inspectors make around 3,000 visits a year to more than 900 nuclear facilities worldwide. They are there to verify official reports of activities in the plants, to carry out environmental checks, and also to look for any signs that nuclear material is being smuggled in or out of the facility. The computer system inspectors currently use for comparing data from earlier visits, for instance, was built in the 1970s and largely paper based. An IAEA spokesman said this was extremely inefficient and makes searching for anomalies like searching for a needle in a haystack. The organisation is aiming to start a system upgrade in November, aiming to provide inspectors in the field with secure online access to previous inspection data, design blueprints of nuclear facilities, even satellite images of the plant. Where possible, it hopes to link the system with national records of the import and export of nuclear materials. Further analysis of these could help spot potential smuggling activities or illicit technology transfers between countries, according to a spokesman. Computer specialist at the IAEA, Peter Smith, would like to be able to incorporate state of the art visualisation techniques, more familiar to video games players, into the inspector's toolkit. ""The commercials you now see have people are moving around in a virtual world,"" he said. ""If we could have that on our laptops, we could be walking through the plant seeing, on the laptop, how the plant should look. ""And if there's a door in the wall that is not on our laptop, then we have a problem."" The IAEA estimates the total cost of the four-year project to upgrade its technology will be $40m. So far it has only received $11m from the US and the UK. ""Failure to replace the hardware and software, and to integrate fully all the information system components will carry large risks,"" said an agency statement." -tech,"Attack prompts Bush site block The official re-election site of President George W Bush is blocking visits from overseas users for ""security reasons"". The blocking began early on Monday so those outside the US and trying to view the site got a message saying they are not authorised to view it. But keen net users have shown that the policy is not being very effective. Many have found that the site can still be viewed by overseas browsers via several alternative net addresses. The policy of trying to stop overseas visitors viewing the site is thought to have been adopted in response to an attack on the georgewbush.com website. Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign said: ""The measure was taken for security reasons."" He declined to elaborate any further on the blocking policy. The barring of non-US visitors has led to the campaign being inundated with calls and forced it to make a statement about why the blocking was taking place. In early October a so-called ""denial of service"" attack was mounted on the site that bombarded it with data from thousands of PCs. The attack made the site unusable for about five hours. About the same time the web team of the Bush-Cheney campaign started using the services of a company called Akamai that helps websites deal with the ebbs and flows of visitor traffic. Akamai uses a web-based tool called EdgeScape that lets its customers work out where visitors are based. Typically this tool is used to ensure that webpages, video and images load quickly but it can also be used to block traffic. Geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis. Readers of the Boingboing weblog have found that viewers can still get at the site by using alternative forms of the George W Bush domain name. Ironically one of the working alternatives is for a supposedly more secure version of the site. There are now at least three working alternative domains for the Bush-Cheney campaign that let web users outside the US visit the site. The site can also be seen using anonymous proxy services that are based in the US. Some web users in Canada also report that they can browse the site. The international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by net monitoring firm Netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns across many different sites. Netcraft said that since the early hours of 25 October attempts to view the site through its monitoring stations in London, Amsterdam and Sydney have failed. By contrast Netcraft's four monitoring stations in the US managed to view the site with no problems. Data gathered by Netcraft on the pattern of traffic to the site shows that the blocking is not the result of another denial of service attack. Mike Prettejohn, Netcraft president, speculated that the blocking decision might have been taken to cut costs, and traffic, in the run-up to the election on 2 November. He said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next week. Managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays working in the closing days of the election campaign. However, simply blocking non-US visitors also means that Americans overseas are barred too. Most American soldiers stationed overseas will be able to see the site as they use the US military's own portion of the net. Akamai declined to comment, saying it could not talk about customer websites." -tech,"Mobiles 'not media players yet' Mobiles are not yet ready to be all-singing, all-dancing multimedia devices which will replace portable media players, say two reports. Despite moves to bring music download services to mobiles, people do not want to trade multimedia services with size and battery life, said Jupiter. A separate study by Gartner has also said real-time TV broadcasts to mobiles is ""unlikely"" in Europe until 2007. Technical issues and standards must be resolved first, said the report. Batteries already have to cope with other services that operators offer, like video playback, video messaging, megapixel cameras and games amongst others. Bringing music download services based on the success of computer-based download services will put more demands on battery life. Fifty percent of Europeans said the size of a mobile was the most important factor when it came to choosing their phone, but more power demands tend to mean larger handsets. ""Mobile phone music services must not be positioned to compete with the PC music experience as the handsets are not yet ready,"" said Thomas Husson, mobile analyst at Jupiter research. ""Mobile music services should be new and different, and enable operators to differentiate their brands and support third generation network launches."" Other problems facing mobile music include limited storage on phones, compared to portable players which can hold up to 40GB of music. The mobile industry is keen to get into music downloading, after the success of Apple's iTunes, Napster and other net music download services. With phones getting smarter and more powerful, there are also demands to be able to watch TV on the move. In the US, services like TiVo To Go let people transfer pre-recorded TV content onto their phones. But, the Gartner report on mobile TV broadcasting in Europe suggests direct broadcasting will have to wait. Currently, TV-like services, where clips are downloaded, are offered by several European operators, like Italy's TIM and 3. Mobile TV will have to overcome several barriers before it is widely taken up though, said the report. Various standards and ways of getting TV signals to mobiles are being worked on globally. In Europe, trials in Berlin and Helsinki are making use of terrestrial TV masts to broadcast compressed signals to handsets with extra receivers. A service from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation lets people watch TV programmes on their mobiles 24 hours a day. The service uses 3GP technology, one of the standards for mobile TV. But at the end of 2004, the European Telecommunications Institute (Etsi) formally adopted Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H) as the mobile TV broadcasting standard for Europe. Operators will be working on the standard as a way to bring real-time broadcasts to mobiles, as well as trying to overcome several other barriers. The cost and infrastructure needs to set up the services will need to be addressed. Handsets also need to be able to work with the DVB-H standard. TV services will have to live up to the expectations of the digital TV generation too, which expects good quality images at low prices, according to analysts. People are also likely to be put off watching TV on such small screens, said Gartner. Digital video recorders, like Europe's Sky+ box, and video-on-demand services mean people have much more control over what TV they watch. As a result, people may see broadcasting straight to mobiles as taking away that control. More powerful smartphones like the XDA II, Nokia 6600, SonyEricsson P900 and the Orange E200, offering web access, text and multimedia messaging, e-mail, calendar and gaming are becoming increasingly common. A report by analysts InStat/MDR has predicted that smartphone shipments will grow by 44% over the next five years. It says that smartphones will make up 117 million out of 833 million handsets shipped globally by 2009." -tech,"Gadget growth fuels eco concerns Technology firms and gadget lovers are being urged to think more about the environment when buying and disposing of the latest hi-tech products. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, several hi-tech firms were recognised for their strategies to help the environment. Ebay also announced the Rethink project bringing together Intel, Apple, and IBM among others to promote recycling. The US consumer electronics market is set to grow by over 11% in 2005. But more awareness is needed about how and where old gadgets can be recycled as well as how to be more energy efficient, said the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Of particular growing concern is how much energy it takes to recharge portable devices, one of the fastest growing markets in technology. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has predicted that shipments of consumer technologies in 2005 will reach more than $125.73 billion (nearly £68 billion). Ebay's initiative pulls together major technology firms, environment groups, government agencies and eBay users to give information about what to do with old computers and where to send them. The online auction house thinks that its already-established community of loyal users could be influential. ""We really became aware of the e-waste issue and we saw that our 125 million users can be a powerful force for good,"" eBay's David Stern told the BBC News website. ""We saw the opportunity to meet the additional demand we have on the site for used computers and saw the opportunity too to good some good for the environment."" But it is not just computers that cause a problem for the environment. Teenagers get a new mobile every 11 months, adults every 18 months and a 15 million handsets are replaced in total each year. Yet, only 15% are actually recycled. This year, a predicted two billion people worldwide will own a mobile, according to a Deloitte report. Schemes in the US, like RIPMobile, could help in targeting younger generations with recycling messages. The initiative, which was also launched at CES, rewards 10 to 28-year-olds for returning unused phones. ""This system allows for the transformation of a drawer full of unused mobile phones into anything from music to clothes to electronics or games,"" said Seth Heine from RIPMobile. One group of students collected 1,000 mobiles for recycling in just three months. Mr Heine told the BBC News website that what was important was to raise awareness amongst the young so that recycling becomes ""learned behaviour"". Europe is undoubtedly more advanced than the US in terms of recycling awareness and robust ""end of life"" programmes, although there is a tide change happening in the rest of the world too. Intel showcased some its motherboards and chips at CES which are entirely lead free. ""There is more and more awareness on the consumer side, but the whole industry is moving towards being lead free,"" Intel's Allen Wilson told the BBC News website. ""There is still low-level awareness right now, but it is on the rise - the highest level of awareness is in Europe."" A European Union (EU) directive, WEEE (Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment), comes into effect in August. It puts the responsibility on electrical manufacturers to recycle items that are returned to them. But developments are also being made to design better technologies which are more energy efficient and which do not contain harmful substances. Elements like chromium, lead, and cadmium - common in consumer electronics goods - will be prohibited in all products in the EU by 2006. But it is not just about recycling either. The predicted huge growth in the gadget market means the amount of energy used to power them up is on the rise too. The biggest culprit, according to the EPA, is the innocuous power adaptor, nicknamed ""energy vampires"". They provide vital juice for billions of mobile phones, PDAs (personal digital assistants), digital cameras, camcorders, and digital music players. Although there is a focus on developing efficient and improved circuits in the devices themselves, the technologies inside rechargers are still outdated and so eat up more energy than is needed to power a gadget. On 1 January, new efficiency standards for external power supplies came into effect as part of the European Commission Code of Conduct. But at CES, the EPA also unveiled new guidelines for its latest Energy Star initiative which targets external power adapters. These map out the framework for developing better adaptors that can be labelled with an Energy Star logo, meaning they are about 35% more efficient. The initiative is a global effort and more manufacturers' adaptors are being brought on board. Most are made in China. About two billion are shipped global every year, and about three billion are in use in the US alone. The EPA is already working with several companies which make more than 22% of power supplies on the market. ""We are increasingly finding companies that not only want to provide neat, hi-tech devices, but also bundle with it a hi-tech, efficient power supply,"" the EPA's Andrew Fanara said. Initiatives like this are critical; if power adaptors continue to be made and used as they are now, consumer electronics and other small appliances will be responsible for more than 40% of electricity used in US homes, said the EPA." -tech,"Millions buy MP3 players in US One in 10 adult Americans - equivalent to 22 million people - owns an MP3 player, according to a survey. A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that MP3 players are the gadget of choice among affluent young Americans. The survey did not interview teenagers but it is likely that millions of under-18s also have MP3 players. The American love affair with digital music players has been made possible as more and more homes get broadband. Of the 22 million Americans who own MP3 players, 59% are men compared to 41% of women. Those on high income - judged to be $75,000 (£39,000) or above - are four times more likely to have players than those earning less than $30, 000 ( £15,000). Broadband access plays a big part in ownership too. Almost a quarter of those with broadband at home have players, compared to 9% of those who have dial-up access. MP3 players are still the gadget of choice for younger adults. Almost one in five US citizens aged under 30 have one. This compares to 14% of those aged 30-39 and 14% of those aged 40-48. The influence of children also plays a part. Sixteen percent of parents living with children under 18 have digital players compared to 9% of those who don't. The ease of use and growth of music available on the net are the main factors for the upsurge in ownership, the survey found. People are beginning to use them as instruments of social activity - sharing songs and taking part in podcasting - the survey found. ""IPods and MP3 players are becoming a mainstream technology for consumers"" said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. ""More growth in the market is inevitable as new devices become available, as new players enter the market, and as new social uses for iPods/MP3 players become popular,"" he added." -tech,"France starts digital terrestrial France has become the last big European country to launch a digital terrestrial TV (DTT) service. Initially, more than a third of the population will be able to receive 14 free-to-air channels. Despite the long wait for a French DTT roll-out, the new platform's backers hope to emulate the success of its UK free-to-air counterpart, Freeview. Recent figures from the UK's regulator Ofcom showed Freeview was more popular than the Sky digital satellite service. In the three months to September 2004, almost five times as many people signed up to the UK's free-to-air DTT service compared with Sky. Almost 60% of UK households have gone digital on at least one television set through cable, satellite or Freeview. The French DTT platform is known as TNT, which stands for TV numerique terrestre or digital terrestrial television. But it is being branded as Television Numerique pour Tous, or ""digital television for all"". TNT is a joint venture between public broadcaster France Televisions and a handful of cable and satellite operators. Digital terrestrial TV will launch as a free-to-air platform to start with, adding pay-TV channels later. Thirty-five contenders have bid for an additional eight frequencies on top of the 14 already allocated. ""A couple of years ago, DTT had a bad image,"" said Olivier Gerolami, chief operating officer of TNT. ""But everyone's impressed with DTT in the UK, Italy and Germany, and they realise it is a very good idea. ""France is the poorest market in Europe in terms of free-to-air national channels, so it has the potential to be one of the biggest DTT markets,"" Mr Gerolami added in remarks quoted by the US entertainment industry paper Variety. TNT aims to reach 35% of France's population at launch, from 17 transmission sites. The transmission area will initially include Paris, Lille, Lyon and Toulouse. Eventually there will be 115 sites reaching over 80% of homes. Digital terrestrial set-top boxes are available from as little as 70 euros (£50). A recent survey by Mediametrie found that 70% of people interviewed were aware of DTT, and 25% were planning to buy a digital receiver. Consumer electronics companies such as Nokia, Sagem, Sony and Thomson are gearing up for production. The Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA), the French broadcasting regulator, said: ""Following the recent success of Freeview in the UK, some manufacturers are optimistic about sales prospects"". Media analysts believe that initially the majority of viewers will buy inexpensive set-top boxes that are unable to support interactive services. The CSA said the current aim of reaching 85% of the population by 2007 was achievable, but the future of the remaining TV viewers required action by the public sector. For the most part, they are people living in mountainous or border areas, which will remain beyond the reach of digital terrestrial TV for years. Up to 15 pay-TV channels will launch on DTT between September 2005 and March 2006. Leading pay-TV operators Canal Plus and TPS have submitted bids to market bouquets of channels. Free-to-air services will be broadcast in MPEG-2 format. But pay-TV operators will be allowed to broadcast in MPEG-4 - a much better compression technology - which will potentially allow for high-definition (HD) subscription services in the future. TNT expects between 700,000 and one million DTT set-top boxes to be sold in 2005. ""It is difficult to tell how quickly it will take off,"" said Mr Gerolami, ""but we're optimistic that it will revolutionise television in France."" Other analysts were less optimistic, predicting consumers would now be less likely to sign up for pay-TV subscriptions. ""We think free DTT could put brakes on the underlying growth of pay-TV in France,"" said Henri de Bodinat, vice-president of the Arthur D. Little consultancy." -tech,"Gritty return for Prince of Persia Still basking in the relatively recent glory of last year's Sands Of Time, the dashing Prince of Persia is back in Warrior Within, and in a more bellicose mood than last time. This sequel gives the franchise a grim, gritty new look and ramps up the action and violence. As before, you control the super-athletic prince from a third-person perspective. The time-travelling plot hinges on the Dahaka, an all-consuming monster pursuing our hero through the ages. The only way to dispel it is to turn back the clock again and kill the sultry Empress Of Time before she ever creates the Sands of Time that caused the great beast's creation. Studiously structured though this back story is, everything boils down to old-fashioned fantasy gameplay which proves, on the whole, as dependable as it needs to be. Ever since the series' then-groundbreaking beginnings on the Commodore Amiga, Prince of Persia has always been about meticulously-animated acrobatic moves, that provide an energetic blend of leaping preposterously between pieces of scenery and lopping off enemies' body parts. Those flashy moves are back in full evidence, and tremendous fun to perform and perfect. Combining them at speed is the best fun, although getting a handle of doing so takes practice and plenty of skill. Until you reach that point, it is a haphazard business. All too often, you will perform a stunning triple somersault, pirouette off a wall, knock out three enemies in one glorious swoop, before plummeting purposefully over a cliff to your doom. That in turn can mean getting set back an annoyingly long distance, for you can only save at the fountains dotted along the path. The expected fiendish puzzles are all present and correct, but combat is what is really been stepped up, and there is more of it than before. The game's developers have combined acrobatic flair with gruesome slaying techniques in some wonderfully imaginative ways. Slicing foes down the middle is one particularly entertaining method of seeing them off. Warrior Within is a very slick package; the game's intro movie is so phenomenally good that it actually does an ultimate disservice once the game itself commences. It is on a par with the jaw-dropping opening sequence of Onimusha 3 earlier this year, and when the game begins, it is something of an anti-climax. That said, the graphics are excellent, and indeed among the most striking and satisfying elements of the game. The music is probably the worst aspect - a merit-free heavy metal soundtrack that you will swiftly want to turn off. There is something strangely unsatisfying about the game. Perhaps precisely because its graphics and mechanics are so good that the story and overall experience are not quite as engaging as they should be. Somehow it adds up to less than the sum of its parts, and is more technically impressive than it is outright enjoyable. But that is not to say Warrior Within is anything other than a superb adventure that most will thoroughly enjoy. It just does not quite take the character to the new heights that might have been hoped for." -tech,"Row brewing over peer-to-peer ads Music download networks are proving popular not just with an audience of youngsters keen to take advantage of free music but with advertisers equally keen to reach out to a captive audience. The debate over the legitimacy of file-sharing networks rages on as the music industry continues its threats to close the services down for good. Meanwhile the millions of downloaders are proving both an advertiser's dream come true and a branding nightmare. Paul Myers, chief executive of Wippit - a peer to peer service which provides paid-for music downloads - believes it is time advertisers stopped providing 'oxygen' for companies that support illegal downloading. ""You may be surprised to know that current advertisers on the most popular peer to peer service eDonkey who now steadfastly support copyright theft with real cash money include Nat West, Vodafone, O2, First Direct, NTL, and Renault,"" he said in an open letter to the British Phonographic Industry last month. He urged people to follow his lead and 'dump' brands associated with companies such as eDonkey. The BPI is equally quick to condemn established brands becoming bedfellows with peer to peer networks. 'Networks like eDonkey, Kazaa and Grokster facilitate illegal filesharing. The BPI strongly believes that any reputable company should look carefully at the support they are giving these networks through their advertising revenue,"" it said in a statement. ""Illegal file-sharers steal millions of pounds worth of music through these services. We are sure that the companies advertising on them would not put up with theft on such a scale from their own businesses,"" it said. But the issue is often more complicated for advertisers, said Mark Mulligan, a music analyst with Jupiter Research. ""This has been a problem for a long time, ever since the days of Napster,"" he told the BBC News website. The reality is that the millions of downloaders represent a very attractive audience. ""Advertisers probably pay a lot less for putting ads here than on more respected sites and they are reaching the perfect target audience,"" he said. ""If you put the legality issues aside, not to advertise here would mean missing out on a valuable audience,"" he added. Meanwhile companies contacted by the BBC News website insist that they were not directly aware of where their ads have been appearing. OneTel adverts were spotted on eDonkey this week and its response was typical. ""We have investigated this matter and believe that one of our affiliate partners has placed this advert without our knowledge. It is not our policy to advertise through peer-to-peer networks,"" read a statement from the discount phone firm. It has requested the advert be removed immediately, said a spokeswoman. Similarly telecommunications firm NTL blames its media buying agency which places adverts with third party networks featuring thousands of sites. Since the matter was brought to its attention last month, the agency has strict instructions to make sure ads do not appear on such sites, a spokesman told the BBC News website. However Mr Mulligan was not entirely convinced by these explanations. While smaller brands might not necessarily be aware of where the money they allocate to online advertising actually ends, this is no excuse for well-known brands, he said. ""I would be surprised if these brands didn't have the know-how to prevent this happening,"" he said. At the moment eDonkey is enjoying the benefits of having some very well-known faces advert on its network. ""Many big brands have leveraged the opportunity, including perhaps two of the biggest brands in the world - Senator John Kerry and President George W. Bush,"" said chief executive Sam Yagan. There are some distinct advantages of advertising on such a network, he thinks. ""Peer-to-peer clients offer big brands a unique opportunity to engage with their customers where they're most comfortable: at their desks interacting with their favourite digital media,"" he said." -tech,"More power to the people says HP The digital revolution is focused on letting people tell and share their own stories, according to Carly Fiorina, chief of technology giant Hewlett Packard. The job of firms such as HP now, she said in a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), was to ensure digital and physical worlds fully converged. She said the goal for 2005 was to make people the centre of technology. CES showcases 50,000 new gadgets that will be hitting the shelves in 2005. The tech-fest, the largest of its kind in the world, runs from 6 to 9 January. ""The digital revolution is about the democratisation of technology and the experiences it makes possible,"" she told delegates. ""Revolution has always been about giving power to the people."" She added: ""The real story of the digital revolution is not just new products, but the millions of experiences made possible and stories that millions can tell."" Part of giving people more control has been about the freeing up of content, such as images, video and music. Crucial to this has been the effort to make devices that speak to each other better so that content can be more easily transferred from one device, such as a digital camera, to others, such as portable media players. A lot of work still needs to be done, however, to sort out compatibility issues and standards within the technology industry so that gadgets just work seamlessly, she said. Ms Fiorina's talk also touted the way technology is being designed to focus on lifestyle, fashion and personalisation, something she sees as key to what people want. Special guest, singer Gwen Stefani, joined her on-stage to promote her own range of HP digital cameras which Ms Stefani has helped design and which are heavily influenced by Japanese youth culture. The digital cameras, which are due to go on sale in the US by the summer, are based on the HP 607 model. The emphasis on personalisation and lifestyle is a big theme at this year's CES, with tiny, wearable MP3 players at every turn and rainbow hues giving colour to everything. Ms Fiorina also announced that HP was working with Nokia to launch a visual radio service for mobiles, which would launch in Europe early this year. The service will let people listen to radio on their mobiles and download relevant content, like a track's ringtone, simultaneously. The service is designed to make mobile radio more interactive. Among the other new products she showcased was the Digital Media Hub, a big upgrade to HP's Digital Entertainment Centre. Coming out in the autumn in the US, the box is a networked, high-definition TV, cable set-top box, digital video recorder and DVD recorder. It has a removable hard drive cartridge, memory card slots, and Light Scribe labelling software which lets people design and print customised DVD labels and covers. It is designed to contain all a household's digital media, such as pre-recorded TV shows, pictures, videos and music so it can all be managed in one place. The hub reflects the increasing move to re-box the PC so that it can work as part of other key centres of entertainment. Research suggests that about 258 million images are saved and shared every day, equating to 94 billion a year. Eighty per cent of those remain on cameras. Media hubs are designed to encourage people to organise them on one box. Ms Fiorina was one of several keynote speakers, who also included Microsoft chief Bill Gates, to set out what major technology companies think people will be doing with technologies and gadgets in the next 12 months. In a separate announcement during the keynote speech, Ms Fiorina said that HP would be partnering MTV to replace this year's MTV Asia music award. MTV's Asia Aid will be held in Bangkok on 3 February, and is aimed at helping to raise money for the Asian tsunami disaster." -tech,"Hotspot users gain free net calls People using wireless net hotspots will soon be able to make free phone calls as well as surf the net. Wireless provider Broadreach and net telephony firm Skype are rolling out a service at 350 hotspots around the UK this week. Users will need a Skype account - downloadable for free - and they will then be able to make net calls via wi-fi without paying for net access. Skype allows people to make free PC-based calls to other Skype users. Users of the system can also make calls to landlines and mobiles for a fee. The system is gaining in popularity and now has 28 million users around the world. Its paid service - dubbed Skype Out - has so far attracted 940,000 users. It plans to add more paid services with forthcoming launches of video conferencing, voice mail and Skype In, a service which would allow users to receive phone calls from landlines and mobiles. London-based software developer Connectotel has unveiled software that will expand the SMS functions of Skype, allowing users to send text messages to mobile phones from the service. Broadreach Networks has around two million users and hotspots in places such as Virgin Megastores, the Travelodge chain of hotels and all London's major rail terminals. The company is due to launch wi-fi on Virgin Trains later in the year. ""Skype's success at spreading the world about internet telephony is well-known and we are delighted to be offering free access to Skype users in our hotspots,"" commented Broadreach chief executive Magnus McEwen-King." -tech,"Half-Life 2 sweeps Bafta awards PC first person shooter Half-Life 2 has won six Bafta Awards, including best game and best online game. The title, developed by Valve, was released last year to universal acclaim - receiving special praise for its immersive plot and physics engine. The game also won Baftas for best action adventure, best PC game, art direction and animation. Burnout 3 won three awards in the categories for racing, technical direction and best PlayStation 2 game. Grant Dean, chairman of the Bafta games awards, said at a ceremony in London on Tuesday: ""The last year has been a great year for the interactive entertainment industry. ""These awards reflect the enormous achievements, progress and diversity that we have seen in that time."" Halo 2 won the best Xbox game category, while Prince of Persia: Warrior Within was adjudged the best GameCube title. The sports award went to Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 4. Bafta said the ""significant feature"" of this year's awards was the number of ""non-traditional games"". The originality award was won by PlayStation 2 title Singstar while the children's award went to GameCube bongo rhythm game Donkey Konga. The Handheld Award went to Colin McRae Rally 2005 while the mobile category was won by Blue Tooth Byplanes. The audio award was won by Call of Duty: Finest Hour and Hitman: Contracts won the music award." -tech,"When invention turns to innovation It is unlikely that future technological inventions are going to have the same kind of transformative impact that they did in the past. When history takes a look back at great inventions like the car and transistor, they were defining technologies which ultimately changed people's lives substantially. But, says Nick Donofrio, senior vice-president of technology and manufacturing at IBM, it was not ""the thing"" itself that actually improved people's lives. It was all the social and cultural changes that the discovery or invention brought with it. The car brought about a crucial change to how people lived in cities, giving them the ability to move out into the suburbs, whilst having mobility and access. ""When we talk about innovation and creating real value in the 21st Century, we have to think more like this, but faster,"" Mr Donofrio told the BBC News website, after giving the Royal Academy of Engineering 2004 Hinton Lecture. ""The invention, discovery is likely not to have the same value as the transistor had or the automobile had. ""The equivalent of those things will be invented or discovered, but by themselves, they are just not going to able to generate real business value or wealth as these things did."" These are not altogether new ideas, and academics have been exploring how technologies impact wider society for years. But what it means for technology companies is that a new idea, method, or device, will have to have a different kind thinking behind it so that people see the value that innovative technology has for them. We are in a different phase now when it comes to technology, argues Mr Donofrio, Industry Week's 2003 Technology Leader of the Year. The hype and over-promise is over and now technology leaders have to demonstrate that things work, make sense, make a difference and life gets better as a result. ""In the dotcom era, there was something that was jumping up in your face every five minutes. ""Somebody had a new thing that would awe you. You weren't quite sure that it did anything, you weren't quite sure if you needed it, you weren't quite sure if it had value for it, but it was cool."" But change and innovation in technology that people will see affecting their daily lives, he says, will come about slowly, subtlety, and in ways that will no longer be ""in your face"". It will creep in pervasively. Nanotechnologies will play a key part in this kind of pervasive environment in all sorts of ways, through new superconducting materials, to coatings, power, and memory storage. ""I am a very big believer in the evolution of this industry into a pervasive environment, in an incredible network infrastructure,"" says Mr Donofrio. Pervasive computing is where wireless computing rules, and where jewellery, clothes, and everyday objects become the interfaces instead of bulky wires, screens and keyboards. The net becomes a true network that is taken for granted and just there, like air. ""People will not have to do anything to stay connected. People will know their lives are just better,"" says Mr Donofrio. ""Trillions of devices will be connected to the net in ways people will not know."" Natural interfaces will develop, devices will shape your persona, and our technologically underused voices could be telling our jewellery to sort out the finances. Ultimately, there will be, says Mr Donofrio, no value in being ""computer illiterate"". To some, it sounds like a technological world gone mad. To Mr Donofrio, it is a vision innovation that will happen. Behind this vision should be a rich robust network capability and ""deep computing"", says Mr Donofrio. Deep computing is the ability to perform lots of complex calculations on massive amounts of data, and integral to this concept is supercomputing. It has value, according to IBM, because it helps humans work out extremely complex problems to come up with valuable solutions, like how to refine millions of net search results, finding cures for diseases, or understanding of exactly how a gene or protein operates. But pervasive computing presumably means having technologies that are aware of diversity of contexts, commands, and requirements of a diverse world. As computing and technologies become part of the environment, part of furniture, walls, and clothing, physical space becomes a more important consideration. This is going to need a much broader range of skills and experience. ""I am confident that the SET [science, engineering and technology] industry is going to be short on skills,"" he says. ""If I am right about what innovation is, you need to be multidisciplinary and collaborative. ""Women tend to have those traits a lot better than men."" Eventually, women could win out in both life and physical sciences, he says. In the UK, a DTI-funded resource centre for women has set a target to have 40% representation on SET industry boards. IBM, according to Mr Donofrio, has 30%. ""Our goal is for our research team to become the preferred organisation for women in science and technology to begin their career."" The whole issue of global diversity is as much a business matter as it is a moral and social concern to Mr Donofrio. ""We believe in the whole issue of global diversity,"" he says. ""Our customers are diverse, our clients are diverse. They expect us to look like them. ""As more and more women or underrepresented minorities succeed into leadership positions, it becomes and imperative for us to constantly look like them.""" -tech,"Britons growing 'digitally obese' Gadget lovers are so hungry for digital data many are carrying the equivalent of 10 trucks full of paper in ""weight"". Music, images, e-mails, and texts are being hoarded on mobiles, cameras laptops and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), a Toshiba study found. It found that more than 60% kept 1,000 to 2,000 music files on their devices, making the UK ""digitally fat"". ""Virtual weight"" measurements are based on research by California Institute of Technology professor Roy Williams. He calculated physical comparisons for digital data in the mid-1990s. He worked out that one gigabyte (1,000,000,000 bytes) was the equivalent of a pick-up truck filled with paper. The amount of data people are squirreling away on their gadgets is clearly a sign that people are finding more things to do with their shiny things. If digital hoarding habits continue on this scale, people could be carrying around a ""digitally obese"" 20 gigabytes by next year. ""Britain has become a nation of information hoarders with a ferocious appetite for data,"" said Martin Larsson, general manager of Toshiba's European storage device division. ""As storage capabilities increase and the features and functionalities of mobile devices expand to support movie files and entire libraries of multi-media content, we will all become virtually obese,"" he told the BBC News website. The survey reflects the increasing trend for portable devices with built-in hard drives like music and media players from Apple, Creative Labs, Archos, iRiver and others. This trend is set to grow, according to analysts. They suggest the number of hard drives in consumer electronics gadgets could grow from 17 million last year to 55 million in 2006. ""Consumers are driving the move towards smaller devices that have greater functionality, and industry is trying to keep up,"" said Mr Larsson. ""People are looking for more than just phone calls and text messages on the move, they want things like web browsing, e-mailing, music, photos and more."" Many are finding memory keys and memory sticks are simply not big enough to hold everything. ""Floppies and memory keys have their place, but they don't have anything like the capacity or flexibility of a hard drive so are unable to meet the demand for more and more storage capacity in consumer devices,"" said Mr Larsson. The cost of making hard drives has dropped and is continuing to do so because of improved technologies so they are proving to be more cost-effective than other forms of memory, he added. The amount of data that can be stored has grown by 400% in the last three years, while the cost for every gigabyte has fallen by 80%. It is also getting easier to transfer files from one device to another, which has traditionally been a slow and problematic area. ""Transfer of data between different memory types has improved significantly in recent times, and will be further helped by the standards for hard drives which are currently being developed by the major manufacturers,"" said Mr Larsson. According to technology analysts IDC, a fifth of all hard drives produced will be used in consumer electronics by 2007." -tech,"Sporting rivals go to extra time The current slew of sports games offers unparalleled opportunities for fans who like to emulate on-field action without ever moving from the couch. The two giants in the field - ESPN and EA Sports - have been locked in a heavyweight battle for years. The latter is the world's largest games manufacturer. Years of experience mean that the titles in their steady flow of sport sims are finely honed, massively entertaining and ooze flair. Sports broadcaster ESPN, meanwhile, has leant its name to a series of games that are similarly classy but lower in profile and price. But that status quo was changed forever - or for the next 15 years at least - by a deal earlier this year when ESPN sold EA the rights to its TV branding and on-air talent, meaning the ESPN games presently developed by Sega will have to come to and end in their present form. It was a massive-money deal that not only raised eyebrows but stirred active indignation in many quarters, with fans concerned that it is set to enable EA to monopolise the sports gaming landscape to an unhealthy degree. Some particularly disgruntled fans set up an online petition that notched more than 18,000 virtual signatures. Many of those clicking to complain were already rankled, for the ESPN coup happened just weeks after EA had pulled off another enormous licensing deal, controversially giving them exclusive rights to teams and personnel from America¿s National Football League (NFL). So, will the Sega - ESPN range be missed? A key reason for answering ""yes"" is that liking or disliking a sports game regularly comes down to personal taste, and having some options available always proves hugely handy. Online soccer fans will testify to that, between bouts of arguing over which high-profile title rules supreme out of the similar-yet-hugely-different FIFA 2005 and Pro Evolution Soccer 4. On the same note, the ESPN 2k5 and EA sports games have so little to choose between them that picking favourites will come down to players' personal preferences and spending budget rather than any technical elements. Taking hockey and basketball as examples, both publishers' efforts are phenomenally entertaining and fairly accessible. They also both look awesome, with the Sega / ESPN versions perhaps shading things on a graphical front. In terms of gameplay, I marginally preferred EA's NBA Live 2005 for basketball, and was more satisfied ice hockey-wise by ESPN's NHL 2K5. The ESPN games are a touch more arcade-like in look and feel and are slightly easier to get into, although like their rivals, they also offer a dizzyingly-extensive array of in-game tricks and overall challenge modes that should be enough to quench thirsts of even the most die-hard of sports fans. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the ESPN deal will be seeing how it affects the presentation of EA's future titles. The front-end decoration of EA's games has become something of an art-form in itself, loaded with slick visuals and oodles of licensed music. They are also immediately identifiable as coming from the EA stable, and the inevitable compulsion to add an ESPN look will no doubt change that in various ways. What is a shame is that the ESPN titles took similar care about framing the gameplay with an authentic setting - their preambles look and sound much like they would on TV. They are neat and excellent-value games in their current form, and combining them with EA's own established brand should produce a truly formidable beast." -tech,"'Ultimate game' award for Doom 3 Sci-fi shooter Doom 3 has blasted away the competition at a major games ceremony, the Golden Joystick awards. It was the only title to win twice, winning Ultimate Game of the year and best PC game at the awards, presented by Little Britain star Matt Lucas. The much-anticipated sci-fi horror Doom 3 shot straight to the top of the UK games charts on its release in August. Other winners included Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which took the Most Wanted for Christmas prize. Only released last week, it was closely followed by Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, which are expected to be big hits when they are unleashed later this month. But they missed out on the prize for the Most Wanted game of 2005, which went to the Nintendo title, The Legend of Zelda. The original Doom, released in 1994, heralded a new era in computer games and introduced 3D graphics. It helped to establish the concept of the first-person shooter. Doom 3 was developed over four years and is thought to have cost around $15m (£8.3m). The top honour for the best online game of the year went to Battlefield Vietnam. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was handed the Unsung Hero Game of 2004. Its release was somewhat eclipsed by Doom 3, which was released on the same week. It was, however, very well received by gamers and was praised for its storyline which differed from the film released around the same time. Electronic Arts was named top publisher of the year, taking the crown from Nintendo which won in 2003. The annual awards are voted for by more than 200,000 readers of computer and video games magazines. Games awards like this have grown in importance. Over the last six years, the UK market for games grew by 100% and was worth a record £1,152m in 2003, according to a recent report by analysts Screen Digest." -tech,"Mobile multimedia slow to catch on There is no doubt that mobile phones sporting cameras and colour screens are hugely popular. Consumers swapping old phones for slinkier, dinkier versions are thought to be responsible for a 26% increase in the number of phones sold during the third quarter of 2004, according to analysts Gartner More than 167 million handsets were sold between July and September 2004, a period that, according to Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi is ""seldom strong"". But although consumers have mobiles that can take and send snaps, sounds and video clips few, so far, are taking the chance to do so. In fact, the numbers of people not taking and sending pictures, audio and video is growing. Figures gathered by Continental Research shows that 36% of British camera phone users have never sent a multimedia message (MMS), up from 7% in 2003. This is despite the fact that, during the same period, the numbers of camera phones in the UK more than doubled to 7.5 million. Getting mobile phone users to send multimedia messages is really important for operators keen to squeeze more cash out of their customers and offset the cost of subsidising the handsets people are buying. The problem they face, said Shailendra Jain, head of MMS firm Adamind, is educating people in how to send the multimedia messages using their funky handsets. ""Also,"" he said, ""they have to simplify the interface so its not rocket science in terms of someone understanding it."" Research bears out the suspicion that people are not sending multimedia messages because they do not know how to. According to Continental Research, 29% of the people it questioned said they were technophobes that tended to shy away from innovation. Only 11% regarded themselves as technically savvy enough to send a picture or video message. The fact that multimedia services are not interoperable across networks and phones only adds to people's reluctance to start sending them, said Mr Jain. ""They ask themselves: 'If I'm streaming video from one handset to another will it work?'"" he said. ""There's a lot of user apprehension about that."" There are other deeper technical reasons why multimedia messages are not being pushed as strongly as they might. Andrew Bud, executive chairman of messaging firm Mblox, said mobile phone operators cap the number of messages that can be circulating at any one time for fear of overwhelming the system. ""The rate we can send MMS into the mobile network is fairly constant,"" he said. The reason for this is that there are finite capacities for data traffic on the second generation networks that currently have the most users. No-one wants to take the risk of swamping these relatively narrow channels so the number of MMS messages is capped, said Mr Bud. This has led to operators finding other technologies, particularly one known as Wap-push, to get multimedia to their customers. But when networks do find a good way to get multimedia to their customers, the results can be dramatic. Israeli technology firm Celltick has found a way to broadcast data across phone networks in a way that does not overwhelm existing bandwidth. One of the first firms to use the Celltick service is Hutch India, the largest mobile firm in the country. The broadcast system gets multimedia to customers via a rolling menu far faster than would be possible with other systems. While not multimedia messaging, such a system gets people used to seeing their phones as a device that can handle all different types of content. As a result 40% of the subscribers to the Hutch Alive, which uses Celltick's broadcast technology, regularly click for more pictures, sounds and images from the operator. ""Operators really need to start utilising this tool to reach their customers,"" said Yaron Toren, spokesman for Celltick. Until then, multimedia will be a message that is not getting through." -tech,"Lifestyle 'governs mobile choice' Faster, better or funkier hardware alone is not going to help phone firms sell more handsets, research suggests. Instead, phone firms keen to get more out of their customers should not just be pushing the technology for its own sake. Consumers are far more interested in how handsets fit in with their lifestyle than they are in screen size, onboard memory or the chip inside, shows an in-depth study by telecommunications company Ericsson. ""Historically in the industry there has been too much focus on using technology,"" said Dr Michael Bjorn, senior advisor on mobile media at Ericsson's consumer and enterprise lab. ""We have to stop saying that these technologies will change their lives,"" he said. ""We should try to speak to consumers in their own language and help them see how it fits in with what they are doing,"" he told the BBC News website. For the study, Ericsson interviewed 14,000 mobile phone owners on the ways they use their phone. ""People's habits remain the same,"" said Dr Bjorn. ""They just move the activity into the mobile phone as it's a much more convenient way to do it."" One good example of this was diary-writing among younger people, he said. While diaries have always been popular, a mobile phone -- especially one equipped with a camera -- helps them keep it in a different form. Youngsters' use of text messages also reflects their desire to chat and keep in contact with friends and again just lets them do it in a slightly changed way. Dr Bjorn said that although consumers do what they always did but use a phone to do it, the sheer variety of what the new handset technologies make possible does gradually drive new habits and lifestyles. Ericsson's research has shown that consumers divide into different ""tribes"" that use phones in different ways. Dr Bjorn said groups dubbed ""pioneers"" and ""materialists"" were most interested in trying new things and were behind the start of many trends in phone use. ""For instance,"" he said, ""older people are using SMS much more than they did five years ago."" This was because younger users, often the children of ageing mobile owners, encouraged older people to try it so they could keep in touch. Another factor governing the speed of change in mobile phone use was the simple speed with which new devices are bought by pioneers and materialists. Only when about 25% of people have handsets with new innovations on them, such as cameras, can consumers stop worrying that if they send a picture message the person at the other end will be able to see it. Once this significant number of users is passed, use of new innovations tends to take off. Dr Bjorn said that early reports of camera phone usage in Japan seemed to imply that the innovation was going to be a flop. However, he said, now 45% of the Japanese people Ericsson questioned use their camera phone at least once a month. In 2003 the figure was 29%. Similarly, across Europe the numbers of people taking snaps with cameras is starting to rise. In 2003 only 4% of the people in the UK took a phonecam snap at least once a month. Now the figure is 14%. Similar rises have been seen in many other European nations. Dr Bjorn said that people also used their camera phones in very different ways to film and even digital cameras. ""Usage patterns for digital cameras are almost exactly replacing usage patterns for analogue cameras,"" he said. Digital cameras tend to be used on significant events such as weddings, holidays and birthdays. By contrast, he said, camera phones were being used much more to capture a moment and were being woven into everyday life." -tech,"Millions buy MP3 players in US One in 10 adult Americans - equivalent to 22 million people - owns an MP3 player, according to a survey. A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that MP3 players are the gadget of choice among affluent young Americans. The survey did not interview teenagers but it is likely that millions of under-18s also have MP3 players. The American love affair with digital music players has been made possible as more and more homes get broadband. Of the 22 million Americans who own MP3 players, 59% are men compared to 41% of women. Those on high income - judged to be $75,000 (£39,000) or above - are four times more likely to have players than those earning less than $30, 000 ( £15,000). Broadband access plays a big part in ownership too. Almost a quarter of those with broadband at home have players, compared to 9% of those who have dial-up access. MP3 players are still the gadget of choice for younger adults. Almost one in five US citizens aged under 30 have one. This compares to 14% of those aged 30-39 and 14% of those aged 40-48. The influence of children also plays a part. Sixteen percent of parents living with children under 18 have digital players compared to 9% of those who don't. The ease of use and growth of music available on the net are the main factors for the upsurge in ownership, the survey found. People are beginning to use them as instruments of social activity - sharing songs and taking part in podcasting - the survey found. ""IPods and MP3 players are becoming a mainstream technology for consumers"" said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. ""More growth in the market is inevitable as new devices become available, as new players enter the market, and as new social uses for iPods/MP3 players become popular,"" he added." -tech,"Halo fans' hope for sequel Xbox video game Halo 2 has been released in the US on 9 November, with a UK release two days later. Why is the game among the most anticipated of all time? Halo is considered by many video game pundits to be one of the finest examples of interactive entertainment ever produced and more than 1.5 million people worldwide have pre-ordered the sequel. A science fiction epic, Halo centred the action on a human cyborg, controlled by the player, who had to save his crew from an alien horde after a crash landing on a strange and exotic world contained on the interior surface of a giant ring in space. Remembrance of Things Past it was not - but as a slice of schlock science fiction inspired by works such as Larry Niven's Ringworld and the film Starship Troopers, it fit the bill perfectly. Halo stood out from a crowd of similar titles - it was graphically impressive, had tremendous audio, using Dolby Digital, a decent storyline, instant playability and impressive physics. But what marked Halo as a classic were the thousands of details which brought a feeling of polish and the enormously-high production values not usually associated with video gaming. Produced by Bungie software, renowned for their innovation in gaming, it caused a stir among the gaming fraternity when the developer was bought by Microsoft and became an Xbox exclusive. Claude Errera, editor of fansite Halo.Bungie.Org, said: ""Bungie got everything right. They were really careful to make sure everything worked the way it was supposed to. ""Nothing distracts you when you were playing. There was nothing in Halo that had not been done before but everything in there was as good as it could be."" He added: ""Graphically it was superior to everything else out there. ""It also had a depth to it that made it stand out."" Halo was unusually immersive, sucking the player into the action and blurring the interface between screen and controller. It also capitalised on the growing popularity of LAN gaming in the PC world - for the first time it became easy to link multiple game consoles together, allowing up to 16 players to battle against each other at the same time. The game instantly cultivated an online following, which continues today with a score of Halo fan websites following every aspect of the sequel, Halo 2. Errera spends three to fours hours a day of his own time maintaining the hugely popular website, which attracts 600,000 page views a day from Halo fans eager for the latest news. When the Xbox launched on November 15 2001 in the US, Halo was one of the launch titles and had an immediate impact on critics and consumers. ""Halo is the most important launch game for any console ever,"" wrote the influential Edge magazine in its review, giving it a rare 10 out of 10 mark. The game had its critics and while it is not a one-off original as a game, it brought many original touches and flourishes to the genre which have defined all other first person shooters since. ""The first time I played it I just stood there watching the spent shells fall out of my gun,"" said Errera, remarking on the level of detail in the game. The game also inspired thousands of people to write their own fiction based on the storyline and produce downloadable video clips of the many weird and wonderful things that can be done in the game. ""It blew me away the first time someone managed to climb to the top of Halo,"" said Errera, referring to a fan who had created a video of Master Chief scaling the landscape of the graphical world. Video clips of the more outrageous stunts that are possible thanks to the game's amazing physics engine are incredibly popular and some have attained a cult following. Speculation about the sequel has seen every titbit analysed and poured over with all the intent of a forensic scientist examining a body. When early screenshots of the game were released some people wrote essay-length articles highlighting everything from the texture of graphics to clues about the story line. Errera said expectations of the sequel among fans were sky high. ""It does not feel like a game release any more. Somebody told me this was the biggest single release of any product in Microsoft's history. ""We're all just hoping that Bungie has got it right again."" Halo 2 is out on 9 November in the US and 11 November in the UK" -tech,"Humanoid robot learns how to run Car-maker Honda's humanoid robot Asimo has just got faster and smarter. The Japanese firm is a leader in developing two-legged robots and the new, improved Asimo (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) can now run, find his way around obstacles as well as interact with people. Eventually Asimo could find gainful employment in homes and offices. ""The aim is to develop a robot that can help people in their daily lives,"" said a Honda spokesman. To get the robot running for the first time was not an easy process as it involved Asimo making an accurate leap and absorbing the impact of landing without slipping or spinning. The ""run"" he is now capable of is perhaps not quite up to Olympic star Kelly Holmes' standard. At 3km/h, it is closer to a leisurely jog. Its makers claim that it is almost four times as fast as Sony's Qrio, which became the first robot to run last year. The criteria for running robots is defined by engineers as having both feet off the ground between strides. Asimo has improved in other ways too, increasing his walking speed, from 1.6km/h to 2.5km, growing 10cm to 130cm and putting on 2kg in weight. While he may not quite be ready for yoga, he does have more freedom of movement, being able to twist his hips and bend his wrists, thumbs and neck. Asimo has already made his mark on the international robot scene and in November was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame. He has wowed audiences around the world with his ability to walk upstairs, recognise faces and come when beckoned. In August 2003 he even attended a state dinner in the Czech Republic, travelling with the Japanese prime minister as a goodwill envoy. He is one of a handful of robots used by tech firms to trumpet their technological advances. Technology developed for Asimo could be used in the automobile industry as electronics increasingly take over from mechanics in car design. For the moment Asimo's biggest role is an entertainer and the audience gathered to see his first public run greeted his slightly comical gait with amusement, according to reports. Robots can fulfil serious functions in society and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe predicts that the worldwide market for industrial robots will swell from 81,000 units in 2003 to 106,000 in 2007." -tech,"Gadget market 'to grow in 2005' The explosion in consumer technology is to continue into 2005, delegates at the world's largest gadget show, in Las Vegas, have been told. The number of gadgets in the shops is predicted to grow by 11%, while devices which talk to each other will become increasingly important. ""Everything is going digital,"" Kirsten Pfeifer from the Consumer Electronics Association, told the BBC News website. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) featured the pick of 2005's products. ""Consumers are controlling what they want and technologies like HDTVs [high-definition TVs], digital radio, and digital cameras will remain strong in 2005. ""All the products on show really showed the breadth and depth of the industry."" Despite showing diversity, some delegates attending complained that the showcase lacked as much ""wow factor"" as in previous years. The portable technologies on show also reflected one of the buzzwords of CES, which was the ""time and place shifting"" of multimedia content - being able to watch and listen to video and music anywhere, at any time. At the start of last year's CES, the CEA predicted there would be an average growth of 4% in 2004. That figure was surpassed with the rise in popularity of portable digital music players, personal video recorders and digital cameras. It was clear also that gadgets are becoming a lot more about lifestyle choice, with fashion and personalisation becoming increasingly key to the way gadgets are designed. Part of this has been the rise in spending power of the ""generation X-ers"" who have grown up with technology and who now have the spending power and desire for more devices that suit them. More than 57% of the consumer electronics market is made up of female buyers, according to CEA research. Hybrid devices, which combine a number of multimedia functions, were also in evidence on the show floor. ""A lot of this is driven by just the ability to do it,"" said Stephen Baker, a consumer electronics analyst with retail research firm NPD Group. ""Some of these functions cost next to nothing to add."" As well as the show floor showcasing everything from tiny wearable MP3 players to giant high-definition TVs, several keynote speeches were made by industry leaders, such as Microsoft chief Bill Gates. Despite several embarrassing technical glitches during Mr Gate's pre-show speech, he announced several new partnerships - mainly for the US market. He unveiled new ways of letting people take TV shows recorded on personal video recorders and watch them back on portable devices. He disappointed some, however, by failing to announce any details of the next generation of the Xbox games console. Another disappointment was the lack of exposure Sony's new portable games device, the PSP, had at the show. Sony said the much-anticipated gadget would most likely start shipping in March for the US and Europe. It went on sale in Japan before Christmas. There were only two PSPs embedded in glass cabinets at the show though and no representatives to discuss further details. A Sony representative told the BBC News website this was because Sony did not consider it to be part of their ""consumer technology"" offering. Elsewhere at the show, there was a plethora of colour and plasma screens, including Samsung's 102-inch (2.6 metre) plasma - the largest in the world. Industry experts were also excited about high-definition technologies coming to the fore in 2005, with new formats for DVDs coming out which will hold six times as much data as conventional DVDs. With so many devices on the move there were a lot of products on show offering external storage, like Seagate's 5GB pocket sized external hard drive, which won an innovation for engineering and design prize. More than 120,000 trade professionals attended CES in Las Vegas, which officially ran from 6 to 9 January." -tech,"What price for 'trusted PC security'? You can now buy ""trusted computers"", but can we really trust the PC vendors, asks technology analyst Bill Thompson. If you have recently bought an IBM ThinkVantage computer, a Dell Optiplex, or one of a whole range of laptops from Toshiba, HP/Compaq or Samsung then you may have got more for your money than you realised. Inside your shiny new PC is an extra chip called the trusted platform module (TPM) that can be used for a range of hardware-based security features. Eventually the TPM will be built into the main processor itself, and if the trusted computing group has its way then you will find one in every piece of hardware you own, from mobile phones to TV set top boxes to children's toys. But for the moment it is a separate piece of hardware, providing enhanced security features to programs that know how to use them. And as part of a well-designed network system, it can provide a lot more security than we enjoy today. A big advantage of the TPM is that it is hardware-based. At the moment most of us rely on software to keep our information safe and secure. It might be password-protected user accounts, data encryption programs or a firewall, but it all relies on program code running on an inherently insecure processor. Hardware security is less common, even if it is a lot safer. This is partly because it is more expensive to give someone a smartcard than a password, but also because its more work for users, systems administrators and managers. As a result we settle for second best. So when it comes to computer security, trusted systems could be a major step forward. After all, if you have a laptop that will only run programs that have been digitally signed then it will be a lot harder for virus writers to get their malicious code to run. And if all your files are locked automatically then even if you get your computer stolen your personal data will be safeguarded. At the moment support for trusted hardware is not built into major operating systems. Instead you have to use special software, like HP's ProtectTools or Wave Systems' Embassy. This provides file encryption, password management and identity protection, usually for business users who connect to company networks. Full support for the trusted computing specification will not be available from Microsoft until the next release of Windows, ""Longhorn"". This will include what Microsoft, in a typical act of obscurantism, calls the ""Next Generation Secure Computing Base"", and it will give user-level programs access to the trusted computing hardware. When that happens we can expect to see a lot of publicity around the new capabilities, and no doubt the Windows security centre will encourage users to turn on their trusted computing capability just as they turn on their firewall. However there is a downside to the increased security from viruses, spyware and data theft that this will provide. Because the trusted computing base is also used to make digital rights management (DRM) systems more secure, this will give content providers a lot more control over what we can do with music, movies and books that we have bought from them. We have seen recently how allowing digital rights management services into our lives can lead to unwelcome consequences. Users of Apple's iTunes used to be able to stream the music they had brought to up to five other iTunes users, a great way of letting your mates discover your music collection. But the latest version of iTunes limits this capability, just as an earlier upgrade reduced the number of times you could burn a selected playlist of purchased songs to a CD. Another took away the ability to play songs downloaded from Real's Harmony service on your iPod. Apple can do this because they wrote the software and they control the rights management. Once it is embedded in trusted hardware it will be even harder for dedicated programmers to find their way around these restrictions and give us back the fair use rights that should be guaranteed under copyright law. Similarly, users of TiVo digital video recorders have found that they cannot record some shows, and other programmes that they have recorded are automatically deleted after a day. This happens because of changes that TiVo have made to their software, and the users cannot control it. One wonders whether hardware-based DRM will work for those who believe that locking-down digital content is a bad idea, and that the flexibility of copyright law is something that should be embraced and not taken away. It will not work because of the fundamental flaw at the heart of the system: in order for the purchaser to view the content it has to be unlocked. Once it is unlocked then someone, somewhere, will figure out a way to make a copy of the unlocked version. And once an unlocked version leaks onto the network it will be uncontrollable. The efforts going into DRM would be much better spent building efficient distribution services, finding business models that are based on trusting your customers, and offering high quality downloads at fair prices. What we want is not so much a trusted computing platform as a trusted customer platform. The record companies and the film industry need to recognise that most of us, most of the time, will pay a reasonable amount for good quality material. They will benefit more by building a market in which I can share songs with my friends, record shows I want to watch later, and burn CDs for my kids; a market which respects the spirit of copyright law and does not seek to replace it by restrictive contracts or end user agreements. We need to ensure that trusted computing remains under the control of the users and is not used to take away the freedoms we enjoy today. Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital." -tech,"Nintendo handheld given Euro date Nintendo's new handheld console, the DS, will launch in Europe on 11 March, the company has announced. The portable games machine, which features touch-screen control, will retail for £99 in the UK (149 euros). Nintendo said 15 games would be available in the UK at launch, with prices ranging from £19 to £29. More than 2.8 million DS consoles have been sold since it first appeared in the US and Japan at the end of 2004. Rival Sony has said it will launch its first handheld console, the PSP, in the US and Europe before the end of March. The PSP is expected to compete for a large part of the same handheld market, despite Sony's assertion that the machines are aimed at different consumers. The 15 games available on the European launch date will include Nintendo's Super Mario 64 DS, as well as titles from third-party developers such as Ubisoft's Rayman DS. More than 120 games are in development for the new console, Nintendo has said. The DS is backwards compatible with the Game Boy Advance, allowing the earlier machine's back catalogue of 700 games to be played. Additionally, a short-range wireless link for multiplayer gaming is built in to the DS, with a ""download play"" option which allows a group to play against each other, even if just one person owns a copy. Other features include a short-range messaging application called Pictochat, and a built-in microphone which is used in Sega's launch title Project Rub. Nintendo has also announced a media adapter, which will allow the console to play music and video on the move. The launch price of £99 (149 euros) compares favourably with the US price of $149, according to John Houlihan, editor of the Computerandvideogames.com magazine. ""It's a very, very competitive price point. There are some innovative features, and Nintendo has created quite a buzz,"" he says. ""However, the line-up of games could have been stronger. Everyone wanted to see the eight-player Mario Kart DS, for example."" Mr Houlihan believes that there is likely to be an audience for both the Nintendo DS and Sony's new PSP, with the former aimed largely at a younger audience and the latter expected to be marketed as a multimedia device. ""The PSP is a sexy bit of kit, but Sony's attitude to the PSP has been very understated in Europe, so far,"" Mr Houlihan said. The worldwide handheld software market had an estimated worth of $2.6bn at the end of 2004, according to industry analysts Screen Digest. In the past, games consoles and handhelds have generally launched much later in Europe than in other parts of the world. However Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said the company was ""pleased to have offered such a short period of time between the US and European launch"". ""Europe is an extremely important market for Nintendo,"" Mr Iwata added. Nintendo raised its sales targets for the DS console last December after selling a million in the US and Japan in just a few weeks." -tech,"Fast moving phone viruses appear Security firms are warning about several mobile phone viruses that can spread much faster than similar bugs. The new strains of the Cabir mobile phone virus use short-range radio technology to leap to any vulnerable phone as soon as it is in range. The Cabir virus only affects high-end handsets running the Symbian Series 60 phone operating system. Despite the warnings, there are so far no reports of any phones being infected by the new variants of Cabir. The original Cabir worm came to light in mid-June 2004 when it was sent to anti-virus firms as a proof-of-concept program. A mistake in the way the original Cabir was written meant that even if it escaped from the laboratory, the bug would only have been able to infect one phone at a time. However, the new Cabir strains have this mistake corrected and will spread via short range Bluetooth technology to any vulnerable phone in range. Bluetooth has an effective range of a few tens of metres. The risk of being infected by Cabir is low because users must give the malicious program permission to download on to their handset and then must manually install it. Users can protect themselves by altering a setting on Symbian phones that conceals the handset from other Bluetooth using devices. Finnish security firm F-Secure issued a warning about the new strains of Cabir but said that the viruses do not do any damage to a phone. All they do is block normal Bluetooth activity and drain the phone's battery. Anti-virus firm Sophos said the source code for Cabir had been posted on the net by a Brazilian programmer which might lead to even more variants of the program being created. So far seven versions of Cabir are know to exist, one of which was inside the malicious Skulls program that was found in late November. Symbian's Series 60 software is licenced by Nokia, LG Electronics, Lenovo, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo and Siemens." -tech,"Security warning over 'FBI virus' The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning that a computer virus is being spread via e-mails that purport to be from the FBI. The e-mails show that they have come from an fbi.gov address and tell recipients that they have accessed illegal websites. The messages warn that their internet use has been monitored by the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center. An attachment in the e-mail contains the virus, the FBI said. The message asks recipients to click on the attachment and answer some questions about their internet use. But rather than being a questionnaire, the attachment contains a virus that infects the recipient's computer, according to the agency. It is not clear what the virus does once it has infected a computer. Users are warned never to open attachment from unsolicited e-mails or from people they do not know. ""Recipients of this or similar solicitations should know that the FBI does not engage in the practice of sending unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner,"" the FBI said in a statement. The bureau is investigating the phoney e-mails. The agency earlier this month shut down fbi.gov accounts, used to communicate with the public, because of a security breach. A spokeswoman said the two incidents appear to be unrelated." -tech,"Confusion over high-definition TV Now that a critical mass of people have embraced digital TV, DVDs, and digital video recorders, the next revolution for TV is being prepared for our sets. In most corners of TV and technology industries, high-definition (HDTV) is being heralded as the biggest thing to happen to the television since colour. HD essentially makes TV picture quality at least four times better than now. But there is real concern that people are not getting the right information about HD on the High Street. Thousands of flat panel screens - LCDs (liquid crystal displays), plasma screens, and DLP rear-projection TV sets - have already been sold as ""HD"", but are in fact not able to display HD. ""The UK is the largest display market in Europe,"" according to John Binks, director of GfK, which monitors global consumer markets. But, he added: ""Of all the flat panel screens sold, just 1.3% in the UK are capable of getting high-definition."" There are 74 different devices that are being sold as HD but are not HD-ready, according to Alexander Oudendijk, senior vice president of marketing for satellite giant Astra. They may be fantastic quality TVs, but many do not have adaptors in them - called DVI or HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) connectors - which let the set handle the higher resolution digital images. Part of this is down to lack of understanding and training on the High Street, say industry experts, who gathered at Bafta in London for the 2nd European HDTV Summit last week. ""We have to be careful about consumer confusion. There is a massive education process to go through,"" said Mr Binks. The industry already recognised that it would be a challenge to get the right information about it across to those of us who will be watching it. Eventually, that will be everyone. The BBC is currently developing plans to produce all its TV output to meet HDTV standards by 2010. Preparations for the analogue switch-off are already underway in some areas, and programmes are being filmed with HD cameras. BSkyB plans to ship its first generation set-top boxes, to receive HDTV broadcasts, in time for Christmas. Like its Sky+ boxes, they will also be personal video recorders (PVRs). The company will start broadcasts of HDTV programmes, offering them as ""premium channel packages"", concentrating, to start with, on sports, big events, and films, in early 2006. But the set-top box which receives HDTV broadcasts has to plug into a display - TV set - that can show the images at the much higher resolution that HD demands, if HDTV is to be ""real"". By 2010, 20% of homes in the UK will have some sort of TV set or display that can show HD in its full glory. But it is all getting rather confusing for people who have only just taken to ""being digital"". As a result, all the key players, those who make flat panel displays, as well as the satellite companies and broadcasters, formed a HD forum in 2004 to make sure they were all talking to each other. Part of the forum has been concerned with issues like industry standards and content protection. But it has also been preoccupied with how to help the paying public know exactly what they are paying for. From next month, all devices that have the right connectors and resolution required will carry a ""HD-Ready"" sticker. This also means they are equipped to cope with both analogue and HDTV signals, and so comply with the minimum specification set out by the industry. ""The logo is absolutely the way forward,"" said David Mercer, analysts with Strategy Analytics. ""But it is still not appearing on many retail products."" The industry is upbeat that the sticker will help, but it is only a start. ""We can only do so much with the position we are in today with manufacturers,"" said Mr Oudendijk. ""There may well be a number of dissatisfied customers in the next few months."" The European Broadcast Union (EBU) is testing different flavours of HD formats to prepare for even better HDTV further down the line. It is similarly concerned that people get the right information on HDTV formats, as well as which devices will support the formats. ""We believe consumers buying expensive displays need to ensure their investment is worthwhile,"" said Phil Laven, technical director for the EBU. The TV display manufacturers want us to watch HD on screens that are at least 42in (106cm), to get the ""true impact"" of HD, they say, although smaller displays suffice. What may convince people to spend money on HD-ready devices is the falling prices, which continue to tumble across Europe. The prices are dropping an average of 20% every year, according to analysts. LCD prices dropped by 43% in Europe as a whole last year, according to Mr Oudendijk." -tech,"Call for action on internet scam Phone companies are not doing enough to warn customers about internet ""rogue-dialling"" scams, according to premium phone line regulator Icstis. It has received 45,000 complaints in recent months about dial-up internet connections diverting to premium rate numbers without users' knowledge. Phone companies refuse to pay compensation because they say calls must be paid for. They must warn people earlier about possible fraud, Icstis said. People who use dial-up connections can be affected by the scams. Without realising, a program can be downloaded which diverts internet calls via a premium phone line. Victims often fail to notice until they receive an unusually high bill. Icstis spokesman Rob Dwight said: ""Phone companies should get in touch with their customers sooner. ""If my bill goes over the usual £50 a month I want to know about it straight away - I don't want to be told when it's hit £750."" Phone companies had the systems in place to spot fraudulent activity and artificially-inflated traffic, he said. ""We alert them to the numbers that we have under investigation and they should be looking out for these numbers,"" he added. Telecoms ombudsman Elizabeth France said: ""Certainly I would not be surprised to find my credit card company phoning me if I do something out of the ordinary. ""So I would expect phone companies to be looking to see if they can have a similar approach."" The biggest phone company BT says it is doing what it can to monitor fraud and warn people about rogue dialling. Its advice to customers is to use call barring if they want to prevent calls to premium lines because, under the current system, once the call has been made there's little that can be done. Gavin Patterson, group managing director for BT Consumer, said ""We do look at customer's calling patterns and we do make interventions when they are out of the ordinary. ""We're looking at the moment at whether we can improve this."" But as BT handled 180 million calls a day monitoring was ""quite a task in itself"", he added. The government has ordered a review of premium line services and is likely to say Icstis should have more power to deal with rogue diallers in future. At the moment, it cannot demand pay-outs on the behalf of customer - it can only close illegal services down. I use free anti-virus software (AVG) and free firewall protection (ZoneAlarm). Both of these tools have prevented unauthorised access and outgoing calls inadvertently and innocently caused by my daughter's love of music sites. How about ISPs informing all customers of such facilities? The responsibility clearly falls with the customer but many fall prey through simply not knowing how to avoid these issues. Ignorance is and always has been an expensive business. Does any one know what happens once this fraud has been committed and recognised? The phone companies pay the people who obtaining money fraudulently, so are these people followed up and prosecuted ? These diallers are mainly downloaded from sites offering illegal MP3s, porn and pirated software. If people didn't visit such sites they'd be considerably less at risk. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? It seems everyone has to be a 'victim' these days! Part of the blame has to rest with the manufacturers of home computer operating systems. A secure system should not allow a web page or email to download and install anything without the user's knowledge. These scams are illegal and telephone companies should have nothing to do with them. They should refuse to pay money over to the perpetrators. Or are they themselves receiving such good returns that it is in their interest to keep the scam going? Why don't BT et al block all premium numbers by default and only turn it off at the customer's request? To anyone who falls foul of this scam - refuse to pay your telephone provider for these calls. After you notify your telephone provider of these fraudulent transactions, they cannot insist on you paying the bill. To do so would be to knowingly assist the fraudsters to commit the fraud. No customers have yet been taken to court for refusing to pay these bills. Disable or remove your modem and use broadband instead - then you have nothing to worry about. Or buy some decent firewall software and anti-virus. You would not walk out in the freezing cold without a coat - you would not drive your car without any insurance - so why not protect your PC? Stop blaming the phone companies - it's not their fault! I was very impressed with our phone company recently. I had kept ringing a hotline number for Kylie tickets and next day they rang back to ask if I was aware there were 40-odd calls to the same number. Great service. And I got the tickets as well! I have a colleague who has fallen victim to this kind of scam. He informed the phone company about it, they subsequently put a block on premium rate numbers. Three months later another huge bill of over £1,000 came in - the block apparently didn't work and he still has to pay for it, even though a block was in place. Phone companies are probably quite happy for their customers to be hit with a huge bill, otherwise they'd be taking extra steps to prevent this kind of problem. I have been scammed of £139. The operator will do nothing about this and, to add insult to injury, I was charged VAT by the government. Premium rate numbers have been subject to various scams ever since they were invented. One example was where thieves would set up a premium rate number and then dial it day and night from phones whose quarterly bills were never paid. The telephone company was the victim here and you can bet that loophole was blocked very quickly. I know people who have run up large bills, despite being IT-literate. From talking to BT in Belfast, I believe that they will shortly be giving out a free application that can stop you dialling expensive numbers without knowing. It's not the fault of phone companies, and at last they are doing something about it. It's about time that the profiteering by the 'legitimate' phone companies came to an end, mainly by doing away with dial-up altogether and bring broadband down to the same price as dial-up! Not only will this ruin things for the dialler scammers but also allow people to update and upgrade their security more easily and quickly. I haven't ""fallen victim to a rogue-dialling scam"" but I think you're seriously remiss in not pointing out that the vast majority of these scams arise from people trying to access services purporting to provide free pornography. In most cases the user is entirely at fault, which is probably why the telephone companies are rightly unwilling to refund them. My telephone supplier did not inform me that my monthly bill had risen from its normal £3 to £5, to £320. This was because of the scam. They simply billed me. What particularly galls me, over and above having over £300 stolen, is that the supplier and the government (through VAT) are profiting from this crime and will not reimburse me their portion of my losses. How about an automatic monthly cap of say £20 on premium rate calls that you would have to contact your provider to have lifted? That way you could use legitimate premium rate numbers while limiting fraudulent usage. At least any disputed amount would be limited, far easier for a telecoms operator to write off £20 than it is £750. A few years back I was also the target of such scams but thank God I have already upgraded to broadband and nothing was connected to my modem so all I heard was the sound of an attempted connection. How about home users take some responsibility and ensure their anti-virus and firewall software is up to date? That should prevent the vast majority of these scams." -tech,"Cyber crime booms in 2004 The last 12 months have seen a dramatic growth in almost every security threat that plague Windows PCs. The count of known viruses broke the 100,000 barrier and the number of new viruses grew by more than 50%. Similarly phishing attempts, in which conmen try to trick people into handing over confidential data, are recording growth rates of more than 30% and attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Also on the increase are the number of networks of remotely controlled computers, called bot nets, used by malicious hackers and conmen to carry out many different cyber crimes. One of the biggest changes of 2004 was the waning influence of the boy hackers keen to make a name by writing a fast-spreading virus, said Kevin Hogan, senior manager in Symantec's security response group. Although teenage virus writers will still play around with malicious code, said Mr Hogan, 2004 saw a significant rise in criminal use of malicious programs. The financial incentives were driving criminal use of technology, he said. His comment was echoed by Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant from anti-virus firm Sophos. Mr Cluley said: ""When the commercial world gets involved, things really get nasty. Virus writers and hackers will be looking to make a tidy sum."" In particular, phishing attacks, which typically use fake versions of bank websites to grab login details of customers, boomed during 2004. Web portal Lycos Europe reported a 500% increase in the number of phishing e-mail messages it was catching. The Anti-Phishing Working group reported that the number of phishing attacks against new targets was growing at a rate of 30% or more per month. Those who fall victim to these attacks can find that their bank account has been cleaned out or that their good name has been ruined by someone stealing their identity. This change in the ranks of virus writers could mean the end of the mass-mailing virus which attempts to spread by tricking people into opening infected attachments on e-mail messages. ""They are not an efficient way of spreading viruses,"" said Mr Hogan. ""They are very noisy and they are not technically challenging."" The opening months of 2004 did see the appearance of the Netsky, Bagle and MyDoom mass mailers, but since then more surreptitious viruses, or worms, have dominated. Mr Hogan said worm writers were more interested in recruiting PCs to take part in ""bot nets"" that can be used to send out spam or to mount attacks on websites. In September Symantec released statistics which showed that the numbers of active ""bot computers"" rose from 2,000 to 30,000 per day. Thanks to these ""bot nets"", spam continued to be a problem in 2004. Anti-spam firms report that, in many cases, legitimate e-mail has shrunk to less than 30% of messages. Part of the reason that these ""bot nets"" have become so prevalent, he said, was due to a big change in the way that many viruses were created. In the past many viruses, such as Netsky, have been the work of an individual or group. By contrast, said Mr Hogan, the code for viruses such as Gaobot, Spybot and Randex were commonly held and many groups work on them to produce new variants at the same time. The result is that now there are more than 3,000 variations of the Spybot worm. ""That's unprecedented,"" said Mr Hogan. ""What makes it difficult is that they are all co-existing with each other and do not exist in an easy to understand chronology."" The emergence of the first proper virus for mobile phones was also seen in 2004. In the past, threats to smart phones have been largely theoretical because the viruses created to cripple phones existed only in the laboratory rather than the wild. In June, the Cabir virus was discovered that can hop from phone to phone using Bluetooth short-range radio technology. Also released this year was the Mosquito game for Symbian phones which surreptitiously sends messages to premium rate numbers, and in November the Skulls Trojan came to light which can cripple phones. On the positive side, Finnish security firm F-Secure said that 2004 was the best-ever year for the capture, arrest and sentencing of virus writers and criminally-minded hackers. In total, eight virus writers were arrested and some members of the so-called 29A virus writing group were sentenced. One high-profile arrest was that of German teenager Sven Jaschen who confessed to be behind the Netsky and Sasser virus families. Also shut down were the Carderplanet and Shadowcrew websites that were used to trade stolen credit card numbers." -tech,"Gadget show heralds MP3 season Partners of those who love their hi-tech gear may want to get their presents in early as experts predict a gadget shortage this Christmas. With Apple's iPod topping wish lists again, there may not be enough iPod minis to go round, predicts Oliver Irish, editor of gadget magazine Stuff. ""The iPod mini is likely to be this year's Tracey Island,"" said Mr Irish. Stuff has compiled a list of the top 10 gadgets for 2004 and the iPod is at number one. For anyone bewildered by the choice of gadgets on the market, Stuff and What Hi-Fi? are hosting a best-of gadget show in London this weekend. Star of the show will be Sony's Qrio Robot, an all-singing, all-dancing, football-playing man-machine who can even hold intelligent conversations. But he is not for sale and Sony has no commercial plans for the robot. ""He will greet visitors and is flying in from Japan. He probably has his own airplane seat, that is how highly Sony prize him,"" said Mr Irish. Also on display will be a virtual keyboard which projects itself onto any flat surface. The event will play host to a large collection of digital music players, from companies such as Creative, Sony and Philips as well as the ubiquitously fashionable iPod from Apple. Suggestions that it could be a gaming or wireless Christmas are unlikely to come true as MP3 players remain the most popular stocking filler, said Mr Irish. ""Demand is huge and Apple has promised that it can supply enough but people might struggle to get their hands on iPod minis,"" said Mr Irish. For those who like their gadgets to be multi-talented, the Gizmondo, a powerful gaming console with GPS and GPRS, that also doubles up as an MP3 player, movie player and camera, could be a must-have. ""What is impressive is how much it can do and how well it can do them,"" said Mr Irish. This Christmas, gadgets will not be an all-male preserve. ""Women will be getting gadgets from husbands and boyfriends as well as buying them for themselves,"" said Mr Irish. ""Gadgets nowadays are lifestyle products rather than just for geeks.""" -tech,"What high-definition will do to DVDs First it was the humble home video, then it was the DVD, and now Hollywood is preparing for the next revolution in home entertainment - high-definition. High-definition gives incredible, 3D-like pictures and surround sound. The DVD disks and the gear to play them will not be out for another year or so, and there at are still a number of issues to be sorted out. But when high-definition films do come out on the new format DVDs, it will profoundly change home entertainment. For Rick Dean, director of business development for digital content company THX, a high-definition future is an exciting prospect. He has worked on the Star Wars DVD trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Indiana Jones. ""There was a time not so long ago when the film world and the video world were two completely separate worlds,"" he told the BBC News website. ""The technology we are dealing with now means they are very much conjoined. ""The film that we see in theatres is coming from the same digital file that we take the home video master,"" he says. But currently, putting a master feature film onto DVD requires severe compression because current DVD technology cannot hold as much as high-definition films demand. ""As much as you compress the picture data rate wise, you also take qualities away from the picture that we fight so hard to keep in the master,"" he explains. ""I would love to be able to show people what projects that we worked on really look like in the high-def world and I find it very exciting."" High-definition DVDs can hold up to six times more data than the DVDs we are used to. It will take time though to persuade people who spent money on DVD players to buy the different players and displays required to watch high-definition DVDs in 18 months' time. Mr Dean is confident though: ""I think if they see real HD [high-definition], not some heavily compressed version of it, there is such a remarkable difference. ""I have heard comments from people who say the images pop off the screen."" High-definition will mean some changes for those working behind the scenes too. On the whole, producing films for high-definition DVDs will be easier in some ways because less compression is needed. Equally, it may mean Hollywood studios ask for more to be put onto the average DVD. ""When we master movies right now, our data rates are running at about 1.2 gigabits per second,"" says Mr Dean. ""Our DVDs that we put out today have to be squashed down to about five or six megabits per second. ""That's a huge amount of compression that has to be applied - about 98%. So if you have anything that allows more space, you don't have to compress so hard."" Studios could fit a lot more marketing material, games, and features, onto high-capacity DVDs. Currently, an entire DVD project can take up to three months, says Mr Dean. Although the step of down-converting will be bypassed, this will realistically only save a day's work, says Mr Dean. One of the most time consuming elements is building DVD navigation and menu systems. On the fairly complex Star Wars disks, making sure the menu buttons worked took 45 human hours alone. If studios want to cash in on the extra space, it could mean extra human hours, for which someone has to pay. ""If the decision on the studio side is that they are going to put a lot more on these disks, it could be more expensive because of all the extra navigation that is required."" And if studios do focus on delivering more ""added value content"", thinks Mr Dean, ultimately it could mean that they will want more money for it. Those costs could filter down to the price ticket on a high-definition DVD. But if the consumer is not willing to pay a premium price, studios will listen, thinks Mr Dean. High-definition throws up other challenge to film makers and DVD production alike. More clarity on screen means film makers have to make doubly sure that attention to detail is meticulous. ""When we did the first HD version of Star Wars Episode I, everybody was very sun-tanned, but that was make-up. ""In the HD version of Episode I, all these make-up lines showed up,"" explains Mr Dean. The restoration of the older Star Wars episodes revealed some interesting items too. ""There are scans of a corridor [on the Death Star] and fairly plainly in one of those shots, there is a file cabinet stuck behind one of the doorways. ""You never used to be able to see it because things are just blurred enough during the pan that you just didn't see it."" What high-definition revolution ultimately means is that the line between home entertainment and cinema worlds will blur. With home theatre systems turning living rooms into cinemas, this line blurs even further. It could also mean that how we get films, and in what format, will widen. ""In the future we are going to look towards file delivery over IP [internet protocol - broadband], giving a DVD-like experience from the set-top box to the hard drive,"" says Mr Dean. But that is some time off for most, and for now, people still like to show off something physical in their bookshelves." -tech,"Long life promised for laptop PCs Scientists are working on ways to ensure laptops can stay powered for an entire working day. Building batteries from new chemical mixes could boost power significantly, say industry experts. The changes include everything from the way chips for laptops are made, to tricks that reduce the power consumption of displays. Ever since laptops appeared the amount of time they last between recharges has been a frustration for users. A survey carried out in 2000 by Forrester Research found that the shortness of battery life was the most complained about feature of laptops. ""The focus back then was more on performance and features,"" said Mike Trainor, chief mobile technology evangelist for chip giant Intel. ""For most of the 90s battery life was stuck on two to 2.5 hours."" But now, he said, laptops can last much longer. It was not just a case of improving battery life by squeezing more out of the lithium ion power packs, he explained. Other changes are needed to get to the holy grail of a laptop running for about eight hours before needing a recharge. ""Lithium ion is never going to get there by itself,"" he said. ""The industry has done a great job of wringing all possible energy storage out of that technology that they can."" Some new battery chemistries promise to cram more power into the same space, said Mr Trainor, though work still needed to be done to get them successfully from the lab to manufacturing. He was sceptical that fuel cells would develop quick enough to take over from solid batteries even though they have the potential to produce several times more energy than lithium ion power packs. ""In fuel cells you need to have pumps and separators and evaporation chambers,"" he said. ""It's a mini energy plant that needs to be shrunk and shrunk and shrunk."" Intel has been working with component makers to test energy consumption on all the parts inside a laptop and find ways to make them less power hungry. This work has led to the creation of the Mobile PC Extended Battery Life (EBL) Working Group that shares information about building notebooks that are more parsimonious with power. Some of the improvements in power use come simply because components on chips are shrinking, said Mr Trainor. Intel has also changed the way it creates transistors on silicon to reduce the power they need. On a larger scale, said Mr Trainor, improvements in the way that voltage regulators are made can reduce the amount of power lost as heat and make a notebook more energy efficient. Also, said Mr Trainor, research is being done on ways to cut energy consumption on displays - currently the biggest power guzzler on a laptop. Many laptop makers have committed to creating 14 and 15 inch screens that draw only three watts of power. This is far below the power consumption levels of screens in current notebooks. ""If we can get close to eight hours that's a place that people see as extraordinarily valuable that's what the industry has to deliver,"" Mr Trainor said." -tech,"US peer-to-peer pirates convicted The first convictions for piracy over peer-to-peer networks have been handed down in the US. New Yorker William Trowbridge and Texan Michael Chicoine have pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software. The two men faced charges following raids in August on suspected pirates by the FBI. The pair face jail terms of up to five years and a $250,000 (£130,000) fine. In a statement the US Department of Justice said the two men operated the central hubs in a piracy community organised across the Direct Connect peer-to-peer network. The piracy group called itself the Underground Network and membership of it demanded that users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files. Direct Connect allows users to set themselves up as central servers that act as co-ordinating spots for sharers. Users would swap files, such as films and music, by exchanging data over the network. During its investigation FBI agents reportedly downloaded 84 movies, 40 software programs, 13 games and 178 ""sound recordings"" from the five hubs that made up the larger piracy group. The raids were organised under the umbrella of Operation Digital Gridlock which was aimed at fighting ""criminal copyright theft on peer-to-peer networks"". In total, six raids were carried out in August. Five were on the homes of suspected copyright thieves and one on a net service firm. The Department of Justice said that both men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement. They also pleaded guilty to acting for commercial advantage. The two men are due to be sentenced on 29 April." -tech,"Hitachi unveils 'fastest robot' Japanese electronics firm Hitachi has unveiled its first humanoid robot, called Emiew, to challenge Honda's Asimo and Sony's Qrio robots. Hitachi said the 1.3m (4.2ft) Emiew was the world's quickest-moving robot yet. Two wheel-based Emiews, Pal and Chum, introduced themselves to reporters at a press conference in Japan. The robots will be guests at the World Expo later this month. Sony and Honda have both built sophisticated robots to show off developments in electronics. Explaining why Hitachi's Emiew used wheels instead of feet, Toshihiko Horiuchi, from Hitachi's Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory, said: ""We aimed to create a robot that could live and co-exist with people."" ""We want to make the robots useful for people ... If the robots moved slower than people, users would be frustrated."" Emiew - Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate - can move at 3.7m/h. Its ""wheel feet"" resemble the bottom half of a Segway scooter. With sensors on the head, waist, and near the wheels, Pal and Chum demonstrated how they could react to commands. ""I want to be able to walk about in places like Shinjuku and Shibuya [shopping districts] in the future without bumping into people and cars,"" Pal told reporters. Hitachi said Pal and Chum, which have a vocabulary of about 100 words, could be ""trained"" for practical office and factory use in as little as five to six years. Robotics researchers have long been challenged by developing robots that walk in the gait of a human. At the recent AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) annual meeting in Washington DC, researchers showed off bipedal designs. The three designs, each built by a different research group, use the same principle to achieve a human-like gait. Sony and Honda have both used humanoid robots, which are not commercially available, as a way of showing off computing power and engineering expertise. Honda's Asimo was ""born"" five years ago. Since then, Honda and Sony's Qrio have tried to trump each other with what the robots can do at various technology events. Asimo, has visited the UK, Germany, the Czech Republic, France and Ireland as part of a world tour. Sony's Qrio has been singing, jogging and dancing in formation around the world too and was, until last year, the fastest robot on two legs. But its record was beaten by Asimo. It is capable of 3km/h, which its makers claim is almost four times as fast as Qrio. Last year, car maker Toyota also stepped into the ring and unveiled its trumpet-playing humanoid robot. By 2007, it is predicted that there will be almost 2.5 million ""entertainment and leisure"" robots in homes, compared to about 137,000 currently, according to the United Nations (UN). By the end of that year, 4.1 million robots will be doing jobs in homes, said the report by the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the International Federation of Robotics. Hitachi is one of the companies with home cleaning robot machines on the market." -tech,"A decade of good website design The web looks very different today than it did 10 years ago. Back in 1994, Yahoo had only just launched, most websites were text-based and Amazon, Google and eBay had yet to appear. But, says usability guru Dr Jakob Nielsen, some things have stayed constant in that decade, namely the principles of what makes a site easy to use. Dr Nielsen has looked back at a decade of work on usability and considered whether the 34 core guidelines drawn up back then are relevant to the web of today. ""Roughly 80% of the things we found 10 years ago are still an issue today,"" he said. ""Some have gone away because users have changed and 10% have changed because technology has changed."" Some design crimes, such as splash screens that get between a user and the site they are trying to visit, and web designers indulging their artistic urges have almost disappeared, said Dr Nielsen. ""But there's great stability on usability concerns,"" he told the BBC News website. Dr Nielsen said the basic principles of usability, centring around ease of use and clear thinking about a site's total design, were as important as ever. ""It's necessary to be aware of these things as issues because they remain as such,"" he said. They are still important because the net has not changed as much as people thought it would. ""A lot of people thought that design and usability was only a temporary problem because broadband was taking off,"" he said. ""But there are a very small number of cases where usability issues go away because you have broadband."" Dr Nielsen said the success of sites such as Google, Amazon, eBay and Yahoo showed that close attention to design and user needs was important. ""Those four sites are extremely profitable and extremely successful,"" said Dr Nielsen, adding that they have largely defined commercial success on the net. ""All are based on user empowerment and make it easy for people to do things on the internet,"" he said. ""They are making simple but powerful tools available to the user. ""None of them have a fancy or glamorous look,"" he added, declaring himself surprised that these sites have not been more widely copied. In the future, Dr Nielsen believes that search engines will play an even bigger part in helping people get to grips with the huge amount of information online. ""They are becoming like the operating system to the internet,"" he said. But, he said, the fact that they are useful now does not meant that they could not do better. Currently, he said, search sites did not do a very good job of describing the information that they return in response to queries. Often people had to look at a website just to judge whether it was useful or not. Tools that watch the behaviour of people on websites to see what they actually find useful could also help refine results. Research by Dr Nielsen shows that people are getting more sophisticated in their use of search engines. The latest statistics on how many words people use on search engines shows that, on average, they use 2.2 terms. In 1994 only 1.3 words were used. ""I think it's amazing that we have seen a doubling in a 10-year period of those search terms,"" said Dr Nielsen. You can hear more from Jakob Nielsen and web design on the BBC World Service programme, Go Digital" -tech,"Apple laptop is 'greatest gadget' The Apple Powerbook 100 has been chosen as the greatest gadget of all time, by US magazine Mobile PC. The 1991 laptop was chosen because it was one of the first ""lightweight"" portable computers and helped define the layout of all future notebook PCs. The magazine has compiled an all-time top 100 list of gadgets, which includes the Sony Walkman at number three and the 1956 Zenith remote control at two. Gadgets needed moving parts and/or electronics to warrant inclusion. The magazine staff compiled the list and specified that gadgets also needed to be a ""self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own, not a subset of another device"". ""In general we included only items that were potentially mobile,"" said the magazine. ""In the end, we tried to get to the heart of what really makes a gadget a gadget,"" it concluded. The oldest ""gadget"" in the top 100 is the abacus, which the magazine dates at 190 A.D., and put in 60th place. Other pre-electronic gadgets in the top 100 include the sextant from 1731 (59th position), the marine chronometer from 1761 (42nd position) and the Kodak Brownie camera from 1900 (28th position). The Tivo personal video recorder is the newest device to make the top 10, which also includes the first flash mp3 player (Diamond Multimedia), as well as the first ""successful"" digital camera (Casio QV-10) and mobile phone (Motorola Startac). The most popular gadget of the moment, the Apple iPod, is at number 12 in the list while the first Sony transistor radio is at number 13. Sony's third entry in the top 20 is the CDP-101 CD player from 1983. ""Who can forget the crystalline, hiss-free blast of Madonna's Like A Virgin emanating from their first CD player?"" asked the magazine. Karl Elsener's knife, the Swiss Army Knife from 1891, is at number 20 in the list. Gadgets which could be said to feature surprisingly low down in the list include the original telephone (23rd), the Nintendo GameBoy (25th), and the Pulsar quartz digital watch (36th). The list also contains plenty of oddities: the Pez sweet dispenser (98th), 1990s toy Tamagotchi (86th) and the bizarre Ronco inside the shell egg scrambler (84th). Almost everyone has a mobile phone, how many people own a Powerbook? or an iPod? The findings of this magazine are not very convincing. What about the magnetic compass? We still use it 1,000 years after it was invented. I am amazed by the obsession with individual gadgets rather than genre. For example the Sony walkman was the first truly portable way of listening to your own music on the move whereas Minidisc, Flash MP3, portable CD players etc. are really just improvements in technology. My favourite 'true' gadgets are probably my portable MiniDisc player and the little battery powered whizzy thing I use to froth up my coffee! Calm down it's only in their opinion, and any list that includes the Taser in the top 100 gadgets has to be suspect.... Swiss army knife and no question about it. How many of the other items are still relatively unchanged from the original idea and still as useful/popular? You don't need a laptop or even a pocket calculator to work that one out! This list merely illustrates interesting cultural divides between the American authors and the overwhelmingly British responses. Brits see no further than mobile phones and the over thirties Sinclair; whilst the Americans focus on Apple, TV remotes and TiVO (which probably is rather obscure in Europe). What about the Soda Stream. This gadget changed my pre-teen life. Lap tops may enable you to ""think different, but you cant use them to ""get busy with the fizzy"" How about Astro Wars, one of the pioneers for computer games, i remember spending many an hour playing this and it still works today! However tried it the other day and it was rubbish, still a great gadget of its time. Why worry about mobile phones. Soon they will be subsumed into the PDA's / laptops etc. What about the Marine Chronometer? Completely revolutionised navigation for boats and was in use for centuries. For it's time, a technological marvel! Sony Net Minidisc! It paved the way for more mp3 player to explode onto the market. I always used my NetMD, and could not go anywhere without it. A laptop computer is not a gadget! It's a working tool! The Sinclair Executive was the world's first pocket calculator. I think this should be there as well. How about the clockwork radio? Or GPS? Or a pocket calculator? All these things are useful to real people, not just PC magazine editors. Are the people who created this list insane ? Surely the most important gadget of the modern age is the mobile phone? It has revolutionised communication, which is more than can be said for a niche market laptop. From outside the modern age, the marine chronometer is the single most important gadget, without which modern transportation systems would not have evolved so quickly. Has everyone forgot about the Breville pie maker?? An interesting list. Of the electronic gadgets, thousands of journalists in the early 1980s blessed the original noteboook pc - the Tandy 100. The size of A4 paper and light, three weeks on a set of batteries, an excellent keyboard, a modem. A pity Tandy did not make it DOS compatible. What's an Apple Powerbook 100 ? It's out of date - not much of a ""gadget"". Surely it has to be something simple / timeless - the tin opener, Swiss Army Knife, safety razor blade, wristwatch or the thing for taking stones out of horses hooves ? It has to be the mobile phone. No other single device has had such an effect on our way of living in such a short space of time. The ball point pen has got to be one of the most used and common gadgets ever. Also many might be grateful for the pocket calculator which was a great improvement over the slide rule. The Casio pocket calculator that played a simple game and made tinny noises was also a hot gadget in 1980. A true gadget, it could be carried around and shown off. All top 10 are electronic toys, so the list is probably a better reflection of the current high-tech obsession than anything else. I say this as the Swiss Army Knife only made No 20. Sinclair QL a machine far ahead of its time. The first home machine with a true multi-takings OS. Shame the marketing was so bad!!! Apple.. a triumph of fashion over... well everything else. Utter rubbish. Yes, the Apple laptop and Sony Walkman are classic gadgets. But to call the sextant and the marine chronometer 'gadgets' and rank them as less important than a TV remote control reveals a quite shocking lack of historical perspective. The former literally helped change the world by vastly improving navigation at see. The latter is the seed around which the couch potato culture has developed. No competition. I'd also put Apple's Newton and the first Palm Pilot there as the front runners for portable computing, and possibly the Toshiba Libretto for the same reason. I only wish that Vulcan Inc's Flipstart wasn't just vapourware otherwise it would be at the top. How did a laptop ever manage to beat off the challenge of the wristwatch or the telephone (mobile or otherwise)? What about radios and TVs? The swiss army knife. By far the most useful gadget. I got mine 12 years ago. Still wearing and using it a lot! It stood the test of time. Psion Organiser series 3, should be up there. Had a usable qwerty keyboard, removable storage, good set of apps and programmable. Case design was good (batteries in the hinge - a first, I think). Great product innovation. The first mobile PC was voted best gadget by readers of...err... mobile PC?! Why do you keep putting these obviously biased lists on your site? It's obviously the mobile phone or remote control, and readers of a less partisan publication would tell you that. The Motorola Startac should be Number One. Why? There will be mobile phones long after notebook computers and other gadgets are either gone or integrated in communications devices. The Psion series 3c! The first most practical way to carry all your info around... I too would back the Sinclair Spectrum - without this little beauty I would never have moved into the world of IT and earn the living that I do now. I'd have put the mobile phone high up the list. Probably a Nokia model. Sinclair Spectrum - 16k. It plugged into the tv. Games were rubbish but it gave me a taste for programming and that's what I do for a living now. I wish more modern notebooks -- even Apple's newest offerings -- were more like the PB100. Particularly disheartening is the demise of the trackball, which has given way to the largely useless ""trackpad"" which every notebook on the market today uses. They're invariably inaccurate, uncomfortable, and cumbersome to use. Congratulations to Apple, a deserved win!" -tech,"Commodore finds new lease of life The once-famous Commodore computer brand could be resurrected after being bought by a US-based digital music distributor. New owner Yeahronimo Media Ventures has not ruled out the possibility of a new breed of Commodore computers. It also plans to develop a ""worldwide entertainment concept"" with the brand, although details are not yet known. The groundbreaking Commodore 64 computer elicits fond memories for those who owned one back in the 1980s. In the chronology of home computing, Commodore was one of the pioneers. The Commodore 64, launched in 1982, was one of the first affordable home PCs. It was followed a few years later by the Amiga. The Commodore 64 sold more than any other single computer system, even to this day. The brand languished somewhat in the 1990s. Commodore International filed for bankruptcy in 1994 and was sold to Dutch firm Tulip Computers. In the late 1980s the firm was a great rival to Atari, which produced its own range of home computers and is now a brand of video games, formerly known as Infogrames. Tulip Computers sold several products under the Commodore name, including portable USB storage devices and digital music players. It had planned to relaunch the brand, following an upsurge of nostalgia for 1980s-era games. Commodore 64 enthusiasts have written emulators for Windows PC, Apple Mac and even PDAs so that the original Commodore games can be still run. The sale of Commodore is expected to be complete in three weeks in a deal worth over £17m." -tech,"Yahoo moves into desktop search Internet giant Yahoo has launched software to allow people to search e-mail and other files on their PCs. The firm is following in the footsteps of Microsoft, Google and Ask Jeeves, which have offered similar services. Search has become a lucrative and hotly-contested area of expansion for net firms, looking to extend loyalty beyond the web. With hard drives providing bigger storage, users could need more help to locate important files, such as photos. The desktop search technology has been licensed from a US-based firm X1 Technologies. It is designed to work alongside Microsoft's Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail programs. Searching e-mail effectively is becoming increasingly important, especially as the amount of spam increases. According to research from message analysts the Radicati Group, up to 45% of businesses' critical information is stored in e-mail and attachments. Yahoo's software can also work separately on the desktop, searching for music, photos and other files. Users can search under a variety of criteria, including file name, size, date and time. It doesn't yet incorporate web searching, although Yahoo has promised that future versions will allow users to search both web-based and desktop data. ""We are all getting more and more files on our desktop but the real commercial opportunity lies with linking this through to web content,"" said Julian Smith, an analyst with research firm Jupiter. ""It is all about extending the idea of search and getting a closer relationship with consumers by organising not just how they search on the internet but the files on your computer as well,"" he said. Search engines are often the first port of call for users when they go onto the web. The new foray into desktop search has rung alarm bells for human rights groups, concerned about the implications to privacy. And not everyone is impressed with the functionality of such services. Alexander Linden, vice president of emerging technologies at analyst firm Gartner,downloaded the Google product but has since removed it. ""It was just not very interesting,"" he said. He believes the rush to enter the desktop business is just a way of keeping up with rivals. ""Desktop search is just one of many features people would like but I'm suspicious of its usefulness,"" he said. More useful would be tools that can combine internet, intranet and desktop search alongside improvements to key word searching, he said." -tech,"Blind student 'hears in colour' A blind student has developed software that turns colours into musical notes so that he can read weather maps. Victor Wong, a graduate student from Hong Kong studying at Cornell University in New York State, had to read coloured maps of the upper atmosphere as part of his research. To study ""space weather"" Mr Wong needed to explore minute fluctuations in order to create mathematical models. A number of solutions were tried, including having a colleague describe the maps and attempting to print them in Braille. Mr Wong eventually hit upon the idea of translating individual colours into music, and enlisted the help of a computer graphics specialist and another student to do the programming work. ""The images have three dimensions and I had to find a way of reading them myself,"" Mr Wong told the BBC News website. ""For the sake of my own study - and for the sake of blind scientists generally - I felt it would be good to develop software that could help us to read colour images."" He tried a prototype version of the software to explore a photograph of a parrot. In order to have an exact reference to the screen, a pen and tablet device is used. The software then assigns one of 88 piano notes to individually coloured pixels - ranging from blue at the lower end of this scale to red at the upper end. Mr Wong says the application is still very much in its infancy and is only useful for reading images that have been created digitally. ""If I took a random picture and scanned it and then used my software to recognise it, it wouldn't work that well."" Mr Wong has been blind from the age of seven and he thinks that having a ""colour memory"" makes the software more useful than it would be to a scientist who had never had any vision. ""As the notes increase in pitch I know the colour's getting redder and redder, and in my mind's eye a patch of red appears."" The colour to music software has not yet been made available commercially, and Mr Wong believes that several people would have to work together to make it viable. But he hopes that one day it can be developed to give blind people access to photographs and other images." -tech,"Anti-spam laws bite spammer hard The net's self-declared spam king is seeking bankruptcy protection. Scott Richter, the man behind OptInRealBig.com and billions of junk mail messages, said lawsuits had forced the company into Chapter 11. OptInRealBig was fighting several legal battles, most notably against Microsoft, which is pushing for millions of dollars in damages. The company said filing for Chapter 11 would help it try to resolve its legal problems but still keep trading. Listed as the third biggest spammer in the world by junk mail watchdog Spamhaus, OptInRealBig was sued in December 2003 for sending mail messages that violated anti-spam laws. The lawsuit was brought by Microsoft and New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer who alleged that Mr Richter and his accomplices sent billions of spam messages through 514 compromised net addresses in 35 countries. According to Microsoft the messages were sent via net addresses owned by the Kuwait Ministries of Communication and Finance, several Korean schools, the Seoul Municipal Boramae Hospital, and the Virginia Community College System. Mr Richter settled the attorney general case in July 2004 but the legal fight with Microsoft is continuing. Microsoft is seeking millions in dollars in damages from OptInRealBig under anti-spam laws that impose penalties for every violation. In a statement announcing the desire to seek bankruptcy protection the company said it: ""could not continue to contend with legal maneuvers (sic) by a number of companies across the country, including Microsoft, and still run a viable business."" In its Chapter 11 filing OptInRealBig claimed it had assets of less than $10m (£5.29m) but debts of more than $50m which included the $46m that Microsoft is seeking via its lawsuit. ""The litigation has been a relentless distraction with which to contend,"" said Steven Richter, legal counsel for OptInRealBig. ""But, make no mistake, we do expect to prevail."" For its part OptInRealBig describes itself as a premier internet marketing company and said the move to seek Chapter 11 was necessary to let it keep trading while sorting out its legal battles." -tech,"US peer-to-peer pirates convicted The first convictions for piracy over peer-to-peer networks have been handed down in the US. New Yorker William Trowbridge and Texan Michael Chicoine have pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software. The two men faced charges following raids in August on suspected pirates by the FBI. The pair face jail terms of up to five years and a $250,000 (£130,000) fine. In a statement the US Department of Justice said the two men operated the central hubs in a piracy community organised across the Direct Connect peer-to-peer network. The piracy group called itself the Underground Network and membership of it demanded that users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files. Direct Connect allows users to set themselves up as central servers that act as co-ordinating spots for sharers. Users would swap files, such as films and music, by exchanging data over the network. During its investigation FBI agents reportedly downloaded 84 movies, 40 software programs, 13 games and 178 ""sound recordings"" from the five hubs that made up the larger piracy group. The raids were organised under the umbrella of Operation Digital Gridlock which was aimed at fighting ""criminal copyright theft on peer-to-peer networks"". In total, six raids were carried out in August. Five were on the homes of suspected copyright thieves and one on a net service firm. The Department of Justice said that both men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement. They also pleaded guilty to acting for commercial advantage. The two men are due to be sentenced on 29 April." -tech,"DVD copy protection strengthened DVDs will be harder to copy thanks to new anti-piracy measures devised by copy protection firm Macrovision. The pirated DVD market is enormous because current copy protection was hacked more than five years ago. Macrovision says its new RipGuard technology will thwart most, but not all, of the current DVD ripping (copying) programs used to pirate DVDs. ""RipGuard is designed to... reduce DVD ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer,"" said the firm. Macrovision said the new technology will work in ""nearly all"" current DVD players when applied to the discs, but it did not specify how many machines could have a problem with RipGuard. The new technology will be welcomed by Hollywood film studios which are increasingly relying on revenue from DVD sales. The film industry has stepped up efforts to fight DVD piracy in the last 12 months, taking legal action against websites which offer pirated copies of DVD movies for download. ""Ultimately, we see RipGuard DVD... evolving beyond anti-piracy, and towards enablement of legitimate online transactions, interoperability in tomorrow's digital home, and the upcoming high-definition formats,"" said Steve Weinstein, executive vice president and general manager of Macrovision's Entertainment Technologies Group. Macrovision said RipGuard was designed to plug the ""digital hole"" that was created by so-called DeCSS ripper software. It circumvents Content Scrambling System measures placed on DVDs and let people make perfect digital copies of copyrighted DVDs in minutes. Those copies could then be burned onto a blank DVD or uploaded for exchange to a peer-to-peer network. Macrovision said RipGuard would also prevent against ""rent, rip and return"" - where people would rent a DVD, copy it and then return the original. RipGuard is expected to be rolled out on DVDs from the middle of 2005, the company said. The new system works specifically to block most ripping programs - if used, those programs will now most likely crash, the company said. Macrovision has said that Rip Guard can be updated if hackers find a way around the new anti-copying measures." diff --git a/datasets/wiki_news.csv b/datasets/wiki_news.csv new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c88b77eed --- /dev/null +++ b/datasets/wiki_news.csv @@ -0,0 +1,1251 @@ +category,text +business,"The besieged airline industry received some good news today, United Airlines plans to hire 2,000 flight attendants. This is the first time in four years United has increased the number of flight attendants it employs. United Airlines, the second largest US carrier, furloughed many flight attendants as a result of decreased air travel after September 11th. At one time 5,500 flight attendants were on furlough. United finished recalling flight attendants on October 31st. The airline's problems were further aggravated by soaring fuel prices forcing the company to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy which it plans to emerge from in 2006. The new hires are intended to replace retirees and flight attendants who decided not to return from furlough. United stated that it will begin accepting applications November 13th at United flight attendant application page" +business,"The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 280 points, Friday, to 13181.91, just two weeks after soaring to a historic record of 14,000. Two other major indexes, the Nasdaq and the Standard and Poor 500, fell more than 2% in a widespread market sell-off. Shares of Bear Stearns, the largest United States underwriter of mortgage bonds, fell 6.3% today, resulting from Standard and Poor's altering its outlook toward the company to ""negative"" from ""stable"". The investment banking firm recently saw two of its major hedge funds sink after exposure to the sub-prime mortgage decline. Standard and Poor's report said the firm may have problems, including its hedge funds, that could hurt the firm ""for an extended period."" The company held a press conference at noon, but was unable to salvage its stock, leading to heavy losses in the rest of the financial sector. Chief Financial Officer Sam Molinaro remarked that the credit market was in the worst condition he had seen in 22 years. American Express shares fell 5.6%, while homebuilder Hovnanian Enterprises fell 9.4% in the sell-off which impacted all the indexes. American Home Mortgage Investment Corporation shares fell 52.07% in the session after announcing plans to close most operations and lay off over 6000 employees. The company has also lost its lending license in four states including New York. ""It is with great sadness that American Home has had to take this action,"" Chief Executive Michael Strauss said in a statement. ""Unfortunately, the market conditions in both the secondary mortgage market as well as the national real estate market have deteriorated to the point that we have no realistic alternative."" Analysts say that the weakness in the stock markets and economy in general could prompt the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, consequently allowing inflation to rise, but that it would also support stocks and ease borrowing. The Fed has not changed interest rates since June 2006." +business,"The International Criminal Court has presented formal charges against three senior Kenyan politicians and a radio executive accused of orchestrating the wave of communal violence that followed the 2007 presidential election in that country. Of the six individuals initially investigated enough evidence to prosecute has been found in only four cases - including 2012/13 presidential hopefuls Uhuru Kenyatta and his rival William Ruto a former education minister. Menyatta is deputy prime-minister and finance minister. In the past the rich and powerful in Kenya have often escaped justice. Kenyatta is the nation's richest man. ---- The Gulf Co-operation Council is to withdraw its observers from the Arab League observer mission in Syria following Syrian dismissal of plans for President Bashar al-Assad to hand power to his deputy and share power in a unity government as ""flagrant interference"". The United Nations estimate that upwards of 5000 people have died in almost a year of anti-government protests and demonstrations." +business,"The online payment service PayPal has received a banking licence in Luxembourg, promoting it to the status of a bank. As a consequence PayPal will move their headquarters to Luxembourg. Since 2004 PayPal had the status of an Electronic Money Issuer supervised by the U.K. Financial Services Authority. Having an official bank status opens new prospects for the company: ""This will allow us to actively scout retailers in different European countries. With our British licence, we could only do that in the U.K. itself, and in other countries we could only react to requests of the retailers themselves,"" Christopher Coonen, General Manager of PayPal Southern Europe and Benelux, explained. The change will not affect existing customers dramatically, says Coonen: ""We are going to inform them of the new status, and they will have to accept our terms of service again."" He also said that for now, there were no plans to use the new licence to offer traditional banking services, but the possibility was being evaluated by PayPal. Working with local partners would be an option to accomplish this, according to Coonen. The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph speculates that the move is part of a strategy to compete with Google's payment service Google Checkout, which launched in the U.K. last month. PayPal has 130 million users worldwide, and 35 million customers in Europe. Payments via its mother company eBay continue to make up 60% of PayPal's revenues. More than half of Britain's internet users have a PayPal account." +business,"The world's second largest auto parts maker, Delphi Corporation, has announced today that 8,500 salary workers may be out of a job soon as part of a major restructuring plan, which will also include voiding the contract with the UAW union. The move would also shutdown over a third of its factories worldwide, including twenty one located in the United States. Eight plants in the U.S. are slated to continue operating. Those located in Clinton, Mississippi, Brookhaven, Mississippi, Lockport, New York, Rochester, New York, Warren, Ohio, Vandalia, Ohio, Kokomo, Indiana, and Grand Rapids, Michigan will continue to serve as Delphi properties. The rest of the factories are said to either be sold to other companies, or to be closed entirely. The plans were brought up to a bankruptcy judge earlier today. In addition to the proposed closings and layoffs, 34,000 workers may experience cut wages and less benefits. Hourly workers wages will drop from $27 to $22 an hour soon, and will further decrease to $16.50 in late 2007. Delphi previously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2005. In the original filing, requests were made to drop the hourly wages down to $12.50 an hour." +business,"On Sunday the representatives of International Business Machines Inc. said that the company will launch its new desktop software system for businesses. IBM's new product is called “Open Client Offering”. The company hopes that its product will put Macintosh or Linux software on a more equal footing with Windows. The Open Client Offering software was developed by IBM in-house, as well as with partners like Novell Inc. and Red Hat Inc. It is to answer the questions regarding the cost-effectiveness of managing Linux or Apple desktop personal computers alongside Windows PCs. IBM officials stated that Open Client Offering will allow enterprises to use the same software on Windows, Linux or Apple's OS X. It will be unnecessary for companies using Open Client to pay Microsoft for licenses for operations because these will no longer rely on Windows-based software. Scott Handy, IBM's vice president of Linux and open source, stated that the company worked together with the open source community and in the end found a way to develop a software that is able to function regardless of the operating system. To create an alternative to Microsoft, IBM is going to offer Open Document Format software that the company developed for word processing, spreadsheets or presentations, instant messaging and blog tools and Internet Explorer's long time rival – Firefox Web browser. The software developers at IBM believe that the usage of Open Client Offering can cut the cost of managing applications as well as maintenance and cost regarding customer support on company networks that require other software rather than Windows. PSA Peugeot Citroen, being the second largest car manufacturer, signed a multi-year agreement with Novell, which is the provider of Linux software, to run Linux on its 20,000 desktop PCs. In addition Linux will be installed on 2,500 server computers. RedMonk's analyst, Stephen O'Grady, said that today there is a strong appetite for Windows alternatives. However, he said, this doesn't mean that the alternatives are to displace Windows wholesales. O'Grady outlined that no one is going to significantly damage the desktop dominance of Microsoft." +business,"Atkins Nutritionals Inc, the multi-million dollar company that supplies dieters with low carb foods designed for the famous Atkins diet has filed for bankruptcy. The popularity of the Atkins diet has fallen sharply so far this year leading to a drop in sales at Atkins Nutritionals Inc. The company which has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Manhattan court lost over $340 million last year. This is despite the fact that there are now believed to be over 30 million followers of the diet in the USA. Administrators were appointed to the British division of Atkins Nutritionals just six months ago after a string of poor sales results and mounting debt. Three million people in Britain follow the diet. Robert Atkins, the American cardiologist who started the diet, died in April 2003 after sustaining head injuries from a fall outside his New York office and falling into a coma. Rumors have circulated regarding the cause of his death, and medical records show that he suffered from hypertension and congestive heart failure prior to his fall. It is not known if the two were related." +business,"The High Court in Edinburgh has today accepted Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi's request to drop his second appeal against his conviction for the Lockerbie bombing. Al-Megrahi was found guilty of planting a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103, which detonated as the aircraft flew over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 killing all 259 people on board and eleven more on the ground. Megrahi has always protested his innocence. Although his appeal was dismissed in 2002, a review found evidence of a possible miscarriage of justice and granted Megrahi a second appeal. He is terminally ill with prostate cancer and may soon be released on compassionate grounds. Today's hearing was attended by the Reverend John Mosey, whose daughter was killed and who believes in Megrahi's innocence. The conviction remains controversial, with the majority of victims' families in the UK feeling Megrahi is innocent while those in the US believe him to be guilty according to the Daily Telegraph. Doctor Jim Swire, a member of UK Families Flight 103, has threatened to sue the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service over what he feels is a deliberate blocking of justice. Meanwhile, in an earlier interview with Wikinews on the twentieth anniversary of the bombing last year, the then-head of the US group Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, Kara Weipz, told Wikinews that ""There is no difference between the truth as we see it and the official version of events. The facts are the facts, Mr. Megrahi is guilty."" Wikinews has obtained a statement from Mrs. Weipz's replacement Frank Duggan. In it Duggan maintains that Megrahi should die behind bars in Scotland, casts doubt on the likelihood of a transfer to Libya and attacks the Scottish media's coverage of the case. Dr. Swire has also been contacted with a request to comment. ""The murderer appealed again, and now seeks, without apparent reason, to withdraw that appeal. The court had little discretion, and absent some grandstanding from the bomber’s attorneys, it is certainly not what the Scottish media is making it out to be. It is NOT the key to Mr. Megrahi's release pursuant to the Prisoner Transfer Agreement, since Article 5 of that agreement states that there cannot be any pending legal action against him. There is, as everyone should know, another appeal pending, which was originally filed before Megrahahi's, objecting to the lenience of the sentence for the murder of 270 innocent souls. In addition, Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill must still rule on the request for transfer, a request made by Libyan President Muammar Gadhafi, who has admitted his nation’s guilt in the most egregious case of state-sponsored terrorism in UK history. It is simply inconceivable to us that the Scottish government would respect the wishes of this man. ""The American victim’s families cannot understand why Megrahi would withdraw his appeal, unless his attorneys thought that they were not persuading Minister MacAskill that the bomber was indeed on his deathbed. That is a more likely scenario since they had been saying he had one foot in the grave for the past year. If the rumors of his impending release, fueled by the Herald, Guardian, Scotsman and other “newspapers” were meant to test public opinion about his release, either by Prisoner Transfer or Compassionate Release, then the trial balloon was successful. There has been worldwide outrage and opprobrium that this man might get to go home to a hero’s welcome in Libya. ""The only other reason we can imagine is that his attorneys were not aware of the other pending appeal, and are perhaps taking advice from that legal scholar, Prof. Robert Black, who still maintains that there was insufficient evidence in the first trial and appeal. Black has been wrong about every step of this case from the beginning, yet he and Dr. James Swire are given full opportunity to express their views of the evidence in the UK “newspapers.” ""The convicted bomber should not be transferred under any subsequent agreement since the arrangements for the trial in the Netherlands promised that if convicted, the defendant would serve his prison term in Scotland. As to the application for release on compassionate grounds, this has caused the most uproar around the world. News media, not so many in Scotland I regret to say, wonder just how much compassion was shown by Megrahi and Libya when they planted a bomb designed to murder hundreds of innocent, unsuspecting lives."" Megrahi is now set to complete his sentence in HMP Greenock, where he is to serve a minimum of 27 years, barring any further developments." +business,"In an unexpected move, US Airways has placed a $8 billion bid for Delta in the morning of November 15, 2006, rallying the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which closed at 12,251.71, a record high. The offer to buy Delta once the Atlanta-based airline emerges from bankruptcy protection by the middle of 2007 would give Delta's unsecured creditors $4 billion in cash and 78.5 million shares of US Airways stock. Delta has yet to file its own plan of reorganization. If completed, the deal would combine two of the oldest and most storied airlines in the United States. Delta started as a crop duster in the 1920s and grew to make its base at Atlanta-Hartsfield the nation's largest airport. US Air started as a mail carrier in the 1930s and has gone through several mergers and two bankruptcies. ""Consumers will have more choice and more reach, and a carrier that has a cost structure of a low-fare carrier,"" US Air CEO Doug Parker said in a phone interview. The last airline deal of this magnitude, United Airline's proposed purchase of US Airways, was blocked by the Justice Department on antitrust grounds in 2001, just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Management of Delta have not endorsed the deal, stating they wish to prevail as independent. On Wall Street, however, US Air (up $6.64 to $57.57) investors welcomed the proposal, sending the carrier's stock soaring more than 12 percent in midday New York Stock Exchange trading. Investors also were pleased with Delta, with shares soaring 19 percent but then going back to modest gains. If the deal is completed the airline would operate under the name of Delta but nothing is set in stone." +business,"A Nigerian ""free puppy"" scam has been circling the internet for months without any reports on television or on the radio. Just yesterday the Toronto Star reported about a Mississauga, Ontario, Canada woman, on September 10, who was scammed by a Nigerian man (Paul) claiming to be a Christian missionary who could no longer take care of his puppy. In April, the CBC reported that the Toronto Humane Society issued a warning for residents to watch out for the new scam, and to not respond to them. Humane Society communications officer Lee Oliver told the CBC that the only contact method, for an ad about a ""free"" puppy published in a newspaper, was email. After he emailed the person he received an email response in broken English saying the customer would have to pay $500. According to the women the advertisements are published in newspapers, such as free Toronto daily newspaper 24, and online. She saw the ad at Livedeal.com, a website which warns about making foreign purchases, and proceeded to email the person in Nigeria who was offering a ""free"" female Yorkshire Terrier pup. The ad called ""GORGEOUS YORKSHIRE TERRIER FOR FREE GRAB HER NOW!!!"" had a picture of a ""Yorkie"" in a white basket. The seller of the puppy asked the women over the phone to pay $200 for the shipping fee, the next day he asked for $250 to put the dog in a crate, and again the next day $50 for ownership. He did not tell her it would amount to $500. On the third day he asked for $100 for a shot for his puppy. She immediately contacted authorities. ""Are you trying to call me a scam? I'm a family man,"" he said. ""I am a man of God. I am a missionary,"" Paul told a reporter for the Toronto Star. ""Me and my family don't have enough time for baby ... I want a good Christian home for my baby ... I love this baby,"" he said. ""Why all these questions? Why are you accusing?"" According to Oliver, a nearby Toronto resident also responded to the scam. Warnings have not only been issued in Canada but also in the Cayman Islands. The United States also has many citizens that are victims of the scam." +business,"Last Thursday, the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) announced the French job market continued to struggle as unemployment rose to 10.8%, the country's highest recorded unemployment rate since 1998. The 0.3% rise in the first quarter of 2013 had increased doubt around French President François Hollande's promise to reverse the trend by the end of 2013. According to INSEE data this had been recorded to be the 24th uninterrupted month of unemployment increases, leaving 3.25 million people jobless. France's economy was predicted to marginally retract overall this year and had experienced a minor recession this quarter due to deteriorating economic activity. The news came as the European Central Bank (ECB) planned to meet to discuss interest rates. It was assumed that the ECB would reveal plans to encourage lending in the eurozone, a significant outcome for small and medium sized business, who employed around three quarters of the eurozone. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had advised France that they may fall behind surrounding European economies if they do not take action and introduce new economic reforms. The IMF has suggested a decrease in labour costs and stopping tax increases could help to improve the country's economic competitiveness and increase growth." +business,"In an interview with Público, a Spanish newspaper, the prime minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has stated that "" if there is a global recession, it seems logical to expect that Spain will enter the recession in 2009 ."" In the interview Zapatero also described the worldwide economic situation as ""difficult."" He recognized that "" the developed countries are or are going to experience negative growth, and developing countries are also going to see falling growth; resulting in a worldwide loss of jobs."" 4=Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero Regarding the global financial situation, Zapatero continued by saying that ""the financial system is a part of the economy, a crucial part. We have a year-long financial crisis, which has had its most acute moment in the past two months, and I think now the financial markets are beginning to recover."" Asked about whether it would be desirable to another plan to help those overwhelmed by the size of their mortgage, Zapatero reiterated the falls in the Euro Interbank Offered Rate . Zapatero then claimed that the average Spanish citizen would see their mortgage decrease by €28 a month (€330 per year) as result of the recent drops in interest rate, lead by seven central banks, including the European Central Bank which covers Spain, dropped their interest rate by 0.5%. The prime minister then said that he was pleased with the role of Spain in the recent summits discussing the financial crisis, before adding that he believes the European Union will lead the way in solving the current issues in the markets." +business,"2008-09 financial crisis Porsche and Volkswagen family owners agreed on Wednesday to merge the companies, creating one large “integrated car-manufacturing group”. ""In the final structure, 10 brands shall stand below an integrative leading company alongside each other, whereby the independence of all brands and explicitly also of Porsche shall be ensured,"" said the Porsche Automobil Holding SE company. A task force has been set into place to discuss details of the merger over the next month. This task force embraces managers and representatives from the works council of both companies as well as the state of Lower Saxony. Porsche based in Stuttgart, Germany was previously controlled by the Porsche and Piëch families voting stock. Porsche had previously tried to raise its 51% shares in Volkswagen to 75% in a take-over bid. A special German law grants Lower Saxony enough power to veto decisions with its 20% share in the VW company. ""I'm certain that we can and will advance our partnership in the difficult current year 2009, and have the stuff to develop the powerhouse of the international automobile industry"" said Martin Winterkorn chairman of the Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen AG) and Scania AB. The merger would help Porsche with its €9 billion debt which it incurred partially due to the ailing economy as well as its attempt at a takeover bid." +business,"The US Secret Service has released the first photos Wednesday of the new presidential limousine that will transport Barack Obama down Pennsylvania Avenue next Tuesday as part of the 56th Presidential inaugural parade after he is sworn in at the Capitol. The First Limo - the 2009 Cadillac Presidential Limousine - will replace President Bush’s Cadillac DTS Presidential Limousine that rolled out in 2004. Nicknamed ""The Beast"", the hulking machine is a new model year 2009, modified limousine. According to General Motors, the new ""2009 Cadillac Presidential Limousine"" is the first not to carry a specific model name. The Obama Mobile was introduced on January 14 with noticeably different styling borrowed from the Cadillac Escalade and STS, while the suspension is most likely related to the Chevrolet Kodiak medium-duty truck. Do you like the car? What would you like to see Obama driven around in? Mr. David Caldwell of General Motors has revealed that the sleek black car would include a hand-crafted interior and ""state of the art electronics."" The car's high-tech security features include five-inch-thick (12.7-centimeter-thick) bombproof glass, tough-as-nails tires, and a sealed interior that's invulnerable to chemical attack. The armoured limousine has been heavily modified to withstand potential attacks by weapons or bombs. The San Francisco Chronicle puts it in a proper perspective noting, “a half-inch of transparent armor is enough to stop a .44 Magnum round at point-blank range; at a thickness of 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches, the same material can withstand higher-velocity bullets fired from military assault rifles.” According to spy photographer, Brenda Priddy, and General Motors, the limousine, which has the intricate, dual-textured grille, is also equipped with standard Goodyear Regional RHS truck tires in a 285/70R19.5 size, on 19.5-inch wheels. The rims have a run-flat device (manufactured by Hutchinson Industries). Xenon headlights from the Escalade are installed in the front, while the rear has some STS part. The doors are at least 20 centimeters (8 inches) thick. It carries the US flag on the front fenders and an embroidered Seal of the President of the United States is affixed to several panels in the back. According to the US Secret Service, the vehicle would be a ""valuable asset"" in providing the President with the highest level of protection. ""Although many of the vehicle's security enhancements cannot be discussed, it is safe to say that this car's security and coded communications systems make it the most technologically advanced protection vehicle in the world,"" Nicholas Trotta, Assistant Director for the Office of Protective Operations said in a statement. The new limousine is the responsibility of White House Transportation Agency. 4=--David Caldwell, General Motors The Presidential State Car is the official state car used by the President of the United States. It is informally known as ""Cadillac One"". The current Presidential State Car is a 2005 hand-crafted, armored, and stretched DTS (DeVille Touring Sedan) built on a GM four-wheel drive platform. It was first used on the second inauguration parade of George W. Bush in 2005. But the version to be used by President Obama uses a GMC Topkick chassis, while maintaining the Cadillac exterior. The President of the United States travels in one of two armoured Cadillac limousines based upon the normal sedan, the Cadillac DTS, with heavy customisation. Lincoln cars have also been used in the past, most notably by President John F Kennedy. The current limousines were custom-built by O'Gara, Hess and Eisenhart, founded in Fairfield, Ohio in 1942. It specializes in armouring limousines for presidents and heads of state. President William McKinley was the first US president to ride in an automobile. However, it was President Theodore Roosevelt who rode on the first government-owned car, a white Stanley Steamer. Roosevelt's successor, William Howard Taft, was the first president to use a presidential state car that was permanently stored in the White House garage. Meanwhile, Obama's 2005 Chrysler 300C Hemi was auctioned on eBay with a starting bid of $100,000 and a buy-it-now price of $1,000,000. It has less than 21,000 miles on it and is in like-new condition. He leased the car in 2004 and traded it for a Ford Escape Hybrid in 2007. The car was sold to Tim O'Boyle." +business,"This afternoon the RAF launched an operation to rescue nineteen sailors from a Spanish trawler in difficulties in a North Atlantic storm. Radio contact with the FV Cibeles was lost yesterday evening at 2030 UTC when the crew reported to the ship's owners that they were in trouble. Last night, UK Coastguard picked up a satellite emergency beacon signal as winds reached speeds of over 70 mph. This morning a RAF Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft located the ship adrift 180 miles off the Scottish Western Isles. A nearby tanker, the Aegean Spirit, diverted with the intention of taking the trawler in tow and arrived at 1500 UTC. However, the tanker was unable to take the trawler on tow, and with no other vessels capable of towing the ship nearby, the Coastguard Rescue Seeking helicopter ""Mike Uniform"" was launched from Stornoway to extract the crew. The tanker remained on scene to offer some protection from the weather, currently reported as gale force winds and rough seas." +business,Sources +business,"The Independent, ""They are borrowing £245bn more in this Parliament, we said all along …said this two years ago, if they had moved more quickly with a sensible, targeted package of measures to kick-start the economy, which would have meant at that time more borrowing for a VAT Value Added Tax cut to bring forward housing investment, then we would have got the economy growing and the deficit coming down."" The Business Secretary Vince Cable told the BBC in an interview, the ""age of austerity"" would probably end within the current decade, but made no more definite forecast. The head of the British Federation of Small Businesses, John Walker, said: ""The Budget opens the door for small businesses to grow and create jobs. The Chancellor has pulled out all the stops with a wide ranging package of measures to support small business. ... We are pleased to see the scrapping of the 3p fuel duty due in September"". Len McCluskey, the General Secretary of Unite the Union, criticized the budget for not helping working families. He said: ""This is a Budget for the few by the few that attacks the many. Millionaires are days away from getting a £40,000 tax cut from the Tories, but George Osborne is using the budget to attack hard-working public sector workers. The worst chancellor in British history has gone further by giving big business another tax cut while staff caring for the sick get pay cuts. ... He should have raised the national minimum wage by £1 and drop the senseless plan to give millionaires a tax break in a few days' time""." +business,"JapanJapan Airlines (JAL), Asia's largest airline, is expected to file for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, bringing an end to months of speculation about the airline's financial future, riddled by debt. The bankruptcy filing, should it go ahead, is to be followed by a restructuring program, backed by the government, intended to trim down the airline, firing a third of its employees, and removing some routes from its schedule. JAL stock has fallen by over ninety percent in the last few days, due to the financial uncertainty of the airline. Shares for JAL were trading as low as US$0.05 earlier today at the Tokyo stock exchange. The carrier's estimated value is now $150 million, about the price of a single Boeing 787 jet." +business,"Currency exchanges offices in the United Kingdom have today stopped the sale of €500 notes after an investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) concluded that up to 90% of the notes were being used by money launderers and other organised criminals. Ian Cruxton, deputy director of SOCA, said that the Euro had been chosen as the currency of choice by criminal gangs due to the large denomination of the notes, adding ""it should now be impossible now to buy a €500 note over the counter from one of the suppliers. And that's going to have an effect on the criminals &mdash; it means they are going to have to find other means of trying to move their money."" The note was introduced by the European Central Bank in 2002, when the currency itself officially entered into circulation. The notoriety of the note's criminal uses has earned it the nickname ""the Bin Laden"" after Al-Qaeda suspect Osama bin Laden — something that everyone knows is out there, but law-abiding people rarely see. The Euro is the official currency of 16 European countries, colloquially known as the Eurozone, as well as unofficially in a further 4 nations. Since its introduction, there has been mounting international concern over criminal use of the large denomination note, which facilitates money laundering by allowing large concentrations of cash to be concealed in small spaces, for example, €20,000 can be concealed in a cigarette packet and £1&nbsp;million in €500 notes weighs 2.2kg while the equivalent in £20 notes weighs 50kg. The highest denomination note in Sterling is £50, making high-value denominations in other currencies, such as the Euro, tempting for those wishing to move large amounts of money. Should the five hundred Euro note be withdrawn from the whole of Europe? When asked if criminal demand for the note would simply be displaced to other high-value notes, such as the €200 note (the next-highest denomination), Ian Cruxton, deputy director of SOCA said he believed that would be the case, however, with less of the €200 note in circulation, their movements would be easier to track than those of the €500. Tourists returning to the UK from holidays in Europe will still be able to change their €500 notes for Sterling but will be unable to purchase them. The European Central Bank has no plans for a withdrawal of the note, given the legitimate demand for it in countries such as Germany and Italy, where cash is used far more frequently than alternatives such as credit cards." +business,"A British plane caught on fire in Afghanistan. It was a four-engine propeller aircraft that got into trouble while landing. One of the aircraft's tyres exploded. Ambassador Stephen Evans escaped injury after the military transport plane, in which he was travelling, caught fire at an airstrip in southern Afghanistan. None were seriously hurt. All 27 people on board were safe." +business,"Security firm F-Secure announced on Monday they have confirmed rootkit-like behavior within the software provided by electronics giant Sony in their MicroVault USB memory sticks. F-Secure had received a report that their DeepGuard software was highlighting an issue when the memory stick was connected. After closer analysis by F-Secure it was identified that the software was creating a hidden directory within the users computer that neither the user or anti-virus software could detect. They say that the issue is similar to the one in 2005 where Sony DRM software allowed malware to be hidden from users. Mcafee, another major security firm, said: ""The apparent intent was to cloak sensitive files related to the fingerprint verification feature included on the USB drives."" ""As with the Sony BMG case we, of course, contacted Sony before we decided to go public with the case. However, this time we received no reply from them,"" said F-Secure in a blog post." +business,"New Zealand On November 1, 2006 the old five, ten, twenty and fifty cent coins will be illegal tender, but the Reserve Bank of New Zealand says there are still at least 100 million still to be returned. According to the Reserve Bank, most of the old coins have been lost in drains or buried in rubbish. ""We think there is still another 100 million sitting around in people's homes,"" Brian Lang, currency manger for the Reserve Bank, said. Lang said: ""So far, just over 280 million coins have been returned, but there are more out there. Since 1967 the Reserve Bank has issued more than a billion of the old 'silver' coins. So if you don't want to be stuck with loads of old coin - there's never been a better time to empty your coin jars, sweep the car glove box and rummage behind the couch cushions."" The coins still awaiting to be handed in, by either spending them, taking them to a bank or donating them to charity, are estimated to be worth between NZ$5 million and $50 million. ""A last-minute burst of publicity may convince people to bring the coins in. It's a bit of a hassle though. Human nature being what it is, people just don't care,"" Lang said. The Karori Wildlife Sanctuary located in Wellington say that they have collected over $9,000 in old coins. Sanctuary spokesman, Alan Dicks said: ""The campaign was particularly fitting because the old coins depicted tuataras and kiwis, both of which can be found living at the sanctuary. The money will go towards supporting general ecological restoration of the sanctuary. We want to get over ten grand, but the more the better."" Lang said: ""Though the coins will no longer be legal tender, banks will continue to exchange them until at least the end of the year,"" and the Reserve Bank will always exchange them. ""We are still getting people coming in with two-dollar notes,"" Lang added." +business,"---- Martine Aubry has been declared the new leader of the French Socialist Party. The declaration was delayed after Martine Aubry's rival, Ségolène Royal, made accusations of voting irregularities. A party investigation was prompted. However, the national council of the party ratified last week's vote, stating that Aubry's winning margin had increased from 42 votes to 102. Sources" +business,"India On Wednesday, India demonetised ₹500 (about US$7.50) and ₹1000 notes, announced as a measure to fight corruption, fake notes, and black money. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Indian citizens late Tuesday, and said 500 and 1000 rupee notes would cease to be legal tender at midnight. To minimise possible difficulties to citizens, transactions using old 500 and 1000 rupee notes were accepted at government hospitals, railway ticket bookings, government buses, and airports. The notes were also accepted at public-sector petrol-pumps, government-authorised consumer co-operative stores, milk booths authorised by State governments, and cremation grounds till Friday midnight. These shops were obliged to have a record of their stocks and sales. In his announcement, Modi said, Aadhar card, voter's card, ration card, passport, income tax PAN card number or other approved proofs and exchange your old 500 or thousand rupee notes for new notes. Modi also announced those who failed to change their currency till December 30 can exchange the notes at Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s office along with a declaration form till March 31. The notes can be exchanged till December 30 at any branch of any bank across India. By Saturday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said demonetised money equivalent to almost US$30 billion was deposited in banks across India. According to estimate, the old notes accounted for 85% of the total money in circulation. New 500 rupee and 2000 rupee notes are to be issued. Modi said RBI would exercise caution from past experience and limit the circulation of large-value notes. International tourists could purchase up to 5000 rupees using the old notes at airport exchanges till Friday. A limit was imposed on cash withdrawal; a maximum of 10000 rupees each day, and 20000 rupees each week, can be withdrawn. Moreover, from Thursday (November 10) till November 24, 4000 rupees can be exchanged in the banks and post offices. The amount is credited to the bank account. Government workers were informed about demonetising when the announcement was made. Modi announced all banks would remain closed for public work on Wednesday. In the United States, Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election on Tuesday, immediately after which stock markets dropped globally. Following the US election and demonetising the money, the Indian stock market fell by 1700 points on Wednesday. Sensex lost 1,688.69 points and Nifty lost 111.55 points on the same day. Indian technology sector companies experienced loss. TCS suffered 4.93% loss and Infosys lost 2.74%. The Indian rupee is also used in the neighbouring countries of Bhutan and Nepal. The border area uses Indian currency for day-to-day transactions. The Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan (RMA) has announced the exchange of old notes will be facilitated till December 15. RMA governor Dasho Penjore informed Indian news site The Wire, ""We do not know exactly how much Indian currency of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 is in circulation in Bhutan. We will get a better idea after the deadline to deposit their amount"". RMA has 30% of its international exchange reserve in Indian rupees. Nepal Rastra Bank directed all Nepali banks to stop conducting transactions using the Indian rupee. On Thursday, there were long queues in front of ATMs and banks to exchange the old notes and withdraw money. BBC reported some banks ran out of cash. Police were called to some banks to maintain discipline. Banks were open on Saturday and Sunday for money exchange. Shops did not accept the old 500 and 1000 rupee notes. Some emphasised cash-less transaction as well. BBC reported some traders and small business owners in Delhi threatened to call a strike as this move affected their business. eRetail websites like Amazon and Flipkart announced they would not accept the old 500 and 1000 rupee notes on Cash on Delivery orders. Amazon also announced 15% discount on gift cards worth 500 or 1000 rupees. The government ceased all transactions using the old 500 and 1000 rupee notes before Saturday. But a Wikinews correspondent noticed a jeweler shop accepting the demonetised notes on Saturday. When questioned, the jeweler said they were accepting the old notes only on purchase. When the correspondent, who did not identify as a reporter to the shop owners, said the old 500 and 1000 rupee notes were not legal money, they said they will exchange the notes in a bank since there were 50 days to exchange with a new and legal tender. They refused to exchange old 500 rupee notes with change, asserting the customer needs to buy merchandise from their shop." +business,"New York Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has been refused bail after appearing in court in New York charged with sexually assaulting a chambermaid at a hotel in Manhattan. The decision by the judge to remand him in custody yesterday will likely disrupt emergency talks over the European debt crisis, demolish hopes that he will challenge Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency, and spell the end of his political career. In court, Strauss-Kahn appeared sombre and tired. The judge agreed with the argument by the prosecution that the French politician was a flight risk after he reportedly tried to flee the country on a passenger jet for Paris. The defence said Strauss-Kahn denied the charges against him and offered $1,000,000 bail and said he would reside in Manhattan with an electronic bracelet, but the judge refused. Afterwards, defence lawyer Benjamin Brafman said: ""This battle has just begun."" The politician appeared in court charged with three crimes, including attempted rape, after a chambermaid told detectives she had been sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn in a luxury hotel near Times Square. ""The maid described being forcibly attacked, locked in the room and sexually assaulted,"" a spokesperson for the New York Police Department said. Detectives said the politician was detained in the first class cabin of the passenger plane which was minutes from leaving for Paris. Strauss-Kahn had reportedly fled the hotel ""in a hurry"" after the attack, leaving a number of personal effects behind. Prosecutors have last night announced they are investigating claims made by a French author, Tristane Banon, that she was sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn in 2002. At the time, her mother&mdash;socialist councillor Anne Mansouret&mdash; persuaded her not to press charges against him, but yesterday she told French television that Strauss-Kahn had an ""addiction"" to ""preying"" on women, and had ""a difficulty in controlling his impulses."" The author's lawyer has announced he is planning to file a complaint with Banon to officials about the alleged attack. Kahn can be convicted and sentenced over the alleged attacks on the chambermaid and on Banon because he does not have diplomatic immunity. Strauss-Kahn was considered a serious contender and was expected to announce his candidacy against Sarkozy this month, but the allegations are expected to destroy the hopes of his supporters, increase infighting among the French left, and leave his political career in tatters. His arrest comes at a critical moment for the IMF, and will likely plunge efforts to stabilise the financial states of struggling eurozone countries into chaos. Strauss-Kahn was meant to discuss the bailouts of Greece and Portugal with European Union financial officials at a meeting in Brussels this week." +business,"Apple is being accused of anti-gay discrimination after it made available a free app for the iPhone and iPad that aims to help ""homosexual strugglers"" through bible teaching. The app was released in mid-February by Exodus International, a Christian ministry that wants to provide a ""refuge for people looking for help in their journey out of homosexuality."" To date, over 130,000 people have signed a petition requesting Apple to withdraw the app. The app was developed by Exodus International. The statement on its website says, ""Exodus is a Christian ministry that supports those wanting to reconcile their faith with their sexual behavior."" It stresses that Apple has given the app a ""4+"" rating meaning it contains ""no objectionable content."" The app gives users ""freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus"", according to the group. Truth Wins Out, a gay rights activist group that campaigns against ""ex-gay"" ministries encouraging people to change their sexual orientation, launched a petition on the website of change.org requesting that Apple remove the app. It accuses Exodus of using ""scare tactics, misinformation, stereotypes and distortions of LGBT life to recruit clients."" It says Exodus is attempting to reach young people with a message that is especially ""dangerous"" in light of recent suicides of LGBT youth. Wayne Besen, leader of Truth Wins Out, says the message of Exodus International constitutes hate speech. Jeff Buchanan of Exodus International, said the app is intended to reach those that share the church's beliefs. ""We are reaching those with unwanted same sex attraction,"" he said. ""We were disappointed to see this petition. What we're asking for is fair and equal representation on the Apple platform. We see this as a religious freedom."" The issue highlights the problems Apple faces if it becomes involved in policing the content of the countless religious apps in its store, any of which has the potential to be offensive to someone. ""It's an issue of tolerance,"" Buchanan said. ""We're simply asking that we have the same opportunity to voice our message as others."" Apple is well known for strictly monitoring the content of the apps offered to users of its gadgets, and excludes sexually explicit material, offensive speech and images, and last November banned an app that entreated users to speak out against gay marriage." +business,"Sources close to three distributors of the GNU/Linux operating systems have announced that Progeny, Mandriva and TurboLinux are working together on a new Enterprise Linux distribution in the hope of competing with Novell's and Red Hat's products. The new distribution will be Debian-based, making it the first Debian-based enterprise Linux distribution. According to eWeek, the distribution will support both Debian's native .deb package format (including APT) and Red Hat's original RPM system, in order to remain compatible with the many Red Hat-based enterprise distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE — according to one vendor, ""Basically the objective is to produce a distro that can act like Debian, use the Debian repository, but any Red Hat engineer should be comfortable with it."" The distribution will also include a (within Debian) pioneering Web-based service manager for easy system administration, comparable to RHEL's tools of late." +business,"SSE Composite-p = 3,57" +business,"2008 financial crisisGordon Brown, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has today admitted that the developed world will enter a recession. ""Having taken action on the banking system, we must now take action on the global financial recession,"" he said, speaking to Members of Parliament (MPs). ""There will be a recession in America, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and - because no country can insulate itself from it - Britain too,"" he continued. These comments echo those made recently by Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England. Leader of the opposition David Cameron said that Brown should take some of the blame for the crisis. ""He claimed the credit in the boom, why won't he take responsibility in the bust?"" Sushil Wadhwani, who was formerly a member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee also reacted to these recent comments. ""The committee has been too slow to acknowledge the risks of a recession and they have fallen behind the curve,"" he said. ""The consequence of their relative inactivity so far is that the recession is likely to be deeper and more prolonged than was necessary."" Markets today continued to fall dramatically. As of 15:30 UTC, the FTSE 100 index had fallen by 152.18 point to a value of 4077.55, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell back below 9,000 with a 2.89% drop. Are we entering a recession? Stock Market data" +business,"commonsurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/180107_2200_newsbriefs.ogg An EU Commission-funded research studied costs and benefits of adopting open source software, such as Linux or OpenOffice.org instead of proprietary software such as Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Office. The study was conducted on six organizations from European nations. The study concluded that: in almost all the cases, a transition toward open source reports of savings on the long-term costs of ownership of the software products. In addition, Costs to migrate to an open solution are relevant and an organization needs to consider an extra effort for this. However these costs are temporary and mainly are budgeted in less than one year. The major factor of cost of the new solution – even in the case that the open solution is mixed with closed software – is costs for peer or ad hoc training. These are the best example of intangible costs that often are not foreseen in a transition. On the other hand not providing a specific training may cause an adverse attitude toward the new technology. Fortunately those costs are limited in time and are not strictly linked to the nature of the new software adopted. The study also reported that they found ""no particular delays or lost of time in the daily work due to the use of OpenOffice.org"" (p. 283) instead of Microsoft Office. This is bad news for Microsoft, who is in a legal battle with European Union over its monopolist behaviors. It is also competing with a number of open source software distributors for the market. Microsoft recently released an update to its popular operating system Windows, as well as to its browser Internet Explorer and its office productivity suite Microsoft Office. These products are competing with distributors such as Red Hat, Firefox, and OpenOffice.org." +business,"Irish low fares airline, Ryanair, has reported that passenger numbers for May 2005 are up 34%. This represented the largest increase in traffic for over a year, and comes after a string of good news for the airline during the week; most notably reporting record profits. Ryanair carried 2.9 million passengers in May compared to 2.17 million in the same period last year. This was partly helped by an increase in the number of routes over the year. Ryanair has been aggressively adding routes from its new European base in Shannon and throughout southern Spain over the past year. The airline now operates 12 routes from Shannon and over 50 from Spain. Load factor also increased, from 81% to 82%, as did the percentage of tickets sold on the internet. Internet sales now account for 98% of total ticket sales, up from 97% in May 2004. The airline, which operates over 200 routes, revealed after tax profits of €268.9m (US $332m) earlier this week and record revenue of €1.34bn ($1.66bn)." +business,"Lehman Brothers, a major American investment banker, has filed paperwork for bankruptcy. It would be the largest collapse of an investment firm in 18 years. Lehman attempted to find a buyer over the weekend but it met with no success. The last remaining bidder, Barclays PLC bank pulled out Sunday afternoon. Barclays, a United Kingdom-based bank, had become the sole bidder after a consortium led by Bank of America pulled out early Sunday morning citing that it would need government support before considering a bid. The support would consist of backing bad debts owed by Lehman. Barclays cited a similar reason for withdrawing its bid. As of Monday morning, no buyer has come through to take control of the firm. As a result, the firm filed for bankruptcy protection. Should government money be used in helping support Lehman Brothers? The main sticking point for potential buyers appears to be the unwillingness for the U.S. government to provide financial support. Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary, has repeatedly said that no government money will be given to Lehman or used in any takeover the firm. Government money was used in the takeover of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase in March of this year. Bear Stearns suffered similar problems as Lehman. A spokesmen for Barclays told the Financial Times, ""the proposed transaction required a guarantee for the trading operations of Lehman Brothers that was potentially open-ended, and we were not willing to provide that guarantee."" Paulson, along with other government officials, proposed a solution that Lehman would get split into two separate entities. However, this proposal has been discarded by many of Wall Street banks. Members of the G8 have reportedly been keep abreast of the situation by U.S. government. The firm, which has over 25,000 staffers, has suffered bad results due to the subprime mortgage crisis." +business,"Stocks continued a volatile trading day today as lingering fears over fallout from the troubled U.S. sub-prime mortgage market continued to weigh on investor sentiment. After opening at 13,078.51 points and then dropping below the 13,000 mark, the Dow Jones Industrial Average bounced back in late trading to above 13,100, but on lower volume than the previous trading day in what looked like a cover spike. But woes persisted as flight to quality continued and the yield on the 3-month U.S. Treasury bill dropped below 2.5% -a 20 year low (U.S. Treasury bills are considered risk-free, as investors bid up the price the yield on the T-bill drops)." +business,"The Group of 20 (G20) of the world's leading developed and developing countries' finance ministers agreed on Saturday to pursue a plan that would avoid dangerous currency devaluations and would also would attempt to reduce trade imbalances. The plan was introduced by the United States, and the G20 meeting was held in South Korea. The plan was announced amid rising worries of a ""currency war"" that would lead to devalued currencies in order to get an export advantage and would damage the global economy. ""Our cooperation is essential. We are all committed to play our part in achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth in a collaborative and coordinated way,"" a statement released by the G20 said. On the topic of trade imbalances, the G-20 stated that ""excessive imbalances"" would be ""assessed against indicative guidelines to be agreed."" This statement was weaker than a commitment proposed by United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, which would keep trade imbalances ""below a specified share"" of GDP for the next few years. This proposal was met with strong opposition from export-based economies such as Japan, whose Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda argued that specific targets were ""unrealistic"", but approved of unspecific ""guidelines"". He added: ""There are many perspectives on the current account issue. Every country has a different situation when it comes to surpluses and deficits. So we need to study this carefully."" The United States said that they will continue to push for numerical targets and specific time frames at next month's South Korean summit, where the heads of state of the G20 will convene. ""If the world is going to be able to grow at a strong, sustainable pace in the future . . . then we need to work to achieve more balance in the pattern of global growth as we recover from the crisis,"" US Treasury Secretary Geithner declared. The finance ministers also set China on the track to floating its currency more, and overhauling the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to give more representation to developing powers such as China and India. The G20 was created in 1999, includes both developed and developing countries, and represents 85% of the world's economy. The G20's heads of state will meet in Seoul, South Korea, next month." +business,"The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), the regulatory authority for Great Britain's railway network, has launched an investigation of Network Rail procedures following a complaint from Virgin Trains regarding over-running engineering works on New Year's Eve. Network Rail, who are responsible for the British railway infrastructure, have announced that as part of ongoing engineering work to improve the West Coast Main Line, no services will be able to pass through Rugby on December 31. The closure will affect services operated by Virgin Trains, London Midland and First ScotRail. Chris Gibb, the Managing Director of Virgin Trains said, ""I am very disappointed that Network Rail (NR) has given us so little opportunity to warn our passengers of this further disruption. We were first warned of the possibility of this additional work on 6 December."" ""Because of the seriousness of the situation we felt it necessary to refer the matter to the Office of Rail Regulation. We simply cannot have NR bullying train operators in this way just because their engineering planning processes are in a mess."" The company has warned passengers that journeys are likely to be extended by an hour or more in some cases. Whilst the ORR will be investigating the complaint from Virgin, they have ruled that the work should still go ahead. A spokesman for Network Rail said, ""Work will be ongoing for most of the next year, but the Christmas period is the last major opportunity we have to do key work while passenger numbers are down during the relatively long holiday period. ""It was only realised at the beginning of December that work was falling behind. Rail companies are usually given 12 weeks notice of engineering work. Virgin were told only at the beginning of the month, so that is very late. ""Network Rail is extremely sorry and apologises to passengers for the inconvenience."" According to the company, the engineering works will contribute to enabling increases in service frequencies and reductions in journey times on the West Coast Main Line from December 2008." +business,"2008-09 financial crisisUnited States automobile company General Motors announced it has lost US$6 billion in the first quarter of 2009, amidst heavy declines in revenues. Not including special items, the firm said it had lost a net $5.9 billion dollars, or $9.66 per share. In the first quarter of last year, GM had reported a loss of $381 million, or $0.67 per share. Most financial analysts had forecast the automaker's losses to be over $6.7 billion, or $11.05 per share. GM had also reported that it had spent $10.2 billion in an effort to prevent bankruptcy. The manufacturer has received over $15 billion in bailout money from the federal government. The company has a deadline set at June 1 to draw up a restructuring plan. If it doesn't do so by then, it will be obliged to file for bankruptcy protection. ""We're focusing very much on the cost side of the business but once you start losing revenues you get into a vicious circle from which you can't recover,"" said Ray Young, the chief financial officer for GM. ""We continue to see a 60-80 percent chance of a GM bankruptcy. While the GM equity today is largely uninvestable, we increasingly believe GM may emerge substantially stronger from a bankruptcy - provided the Chapter 11 process is not overly drawn out - particularly given the scope of targeted dealer cuts,"" analyst Himanshu Patel said." +business,"Aviation Brazilian aerospace conglomerate Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica, S. A. (Embraer) has revealed plans to cut around twenty percent of the company's workforce of 21,362 people. Twenty percent is over 4,200, but Embraer have not revealed exact numbers. The firm has also scaled back predictions for deliveries and revenue. Estimated delivery figures for 2009 now stand at 242 airliners and corporate jets, compared to the previous number of 270, in the second downwards revision of Embraer of their delivery figures for this year within three months. Revenue for 2009 is now predicted to be US$5.5 billion, down thirteen percent from the previous estimate of US$6.3 billion. Embraer is the world's fourth-largest airframer, following Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier. Embraer stock fell 1.9% after the announcement, or 16 centavos, to 8.46 reais in São Paulo. Over the last twelve months Embraer stock has fallen 55%. The manufacturer also produces military aircraft, but statistics for these are not published. In December, the Metalworkers Union of São José dos Campos, claimed the firm planned to cut 4,000 jobs, which Embraer at the time denied. Embraer said they would only take ""such a drastic decision if there are risks to the company’s profitability and sustainability."" The new statement said that production and administration would take the brunt of the cuts, with engineers retained to continue product development. The company described the decision as vital given ""the new reality of demand for commercial and executive aircraft,"" and noted that ""over 90 percent of its revenues are generated abroad. Therefore, the resiliency that the Brazilian domestic market has been demonstrating through the crisis does not significantly alter this adverse scenario."" The official news agency Agência Brasil reported that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was upset by the layoffs. He will meet with company directors next week and wants Embraer to explain the decision." +business,"Economy and businessThe Russian government has continued to hold all stock markets closed until Friday, including the MICEX and RTS exchanges. Facing its worst financial crisis since 1989, the government is fighting to stem off a crash and restore consumer confidence. President Dmitry Medvedev went on national television to appease the public. ""There is no more important task for Russian authorities than stability of our financial system under the current circumstances. This is our top priority,"" Medvedev said. ""The market should be given all the necessary support."" Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin announced that 500 billion rubles (US$ 19.7 billion) would be infused into the stock markets when they opened on Friday, with half of that amount coming from the federal budget. In addition, the Central Bank responded by offering to loan an additional 60 billion rubles (US $2.63 billion) on top of the 1.13 trillion rubles (US$ 44.6 billion) that it offered yesterday to Sberbank, VTB Group and Gazprombank. The Central Bank is encouraging the nations top banks to provide the money to smaller lenders. Central Bank chairman Sergei Ignatiev also announced on Wednesday that mandatory reserve requirements for banks would be slashed, freeing up an additional 300 billion ruble. ""We hope that banks will spend these funds not on long-term crediting or other kinds of crediting of clients,"" he said, ""but on the maintenance of the necessary volume of their liquidity and on making settlements."" In the aftermath of Russia's invasion of neighboring Georgia, the markets saw investors pull out nearly US$ 36 billion in wealth since early August. Further compounding economic woes are the recent slump in oil and gas prices, which have bolstered Russia's economy for several years. To help with this, starting on October 1 regulators will lower the export duty on oil, saving Russian oil companies around US$ 5.5 billion." +business,"France has banned use of the Skype PC telephony application in Universities. The exact reason is unclear, but state security was one of the reasons given by the authorities responsible. Several other possible reasons have been cited including fears of research secrets being handed over to the United States and the fact that in order to make calls to the public phone network you pay a company in Luxembourg and not the local phone company. The Skype software uses an encryption algorithm that makes it next to impossible to monitor calls; this is frequently cited as China's reason for banning the application. Some media reports have suggested that French authorities are fearful that whilst they were unable to monitor calls made with Skype, they might be monitored by the US. However, this version of facts, which has spread like wildfire, was promptly refuted by French authorities who called attention to the fact that the ban only applies to university research centers and laboratories, and not to the general student and faculty population. The real reasons behind the ban remains a hot point of debate and controversy, although public opinion in France is not sympathetic to Skype's new profile. Skype has recently been purchased by eBay, which the French consider a mammoth e-company with questionable practices and a dubious reputation." +business,"2008 COMPUTEX Thursday at the Taipei International Convention Center, the winners of the Gold and Silver Awards were announced at the 2008 16th-annual Taiwan Excellence Awards, an event created to promote products made in Taiwan. They were announced by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), which also organized the event. This year, 601 products competed for the eight gold medals and twenty-one silver awards. In the ICT category, the competition was especially fierce as 388 ICT products were on display from the IT industry. In total, 308 products from 102 companies were entitled as ""Taiwan Excellent Products"". Several world-class experts judged the nominated products, in order to select the final twenty-nine based on four critical factors including R&D, design, quality, and marketing. In addition, the TAITRA also had categories where people could vote over the Internet or using their mobile phones. ASUSTeK picked up two Gold Awards and six Silver Awards and was the biggest winner in the ""Taiwan Excellence Awards"". Eee PC 4G, with features like mobility, reliability, and connectively, not only won a Gold Award, but was also voted as the ""Most Popular Product"" as awarded by Internet and mobile users. *Taiwan Excellence Gold Award *#ASUS Eee PC 4G *#ASUS R700t portable navigation device *#AVerMedia AverVision SPB350 *#CMO N133I6 ultra-slim wide LCD panel *#Gigabyte MBA-00 Glee Cube multimedia IP-TV box *#HTC P3650 Touch Cruise *#Hiwin E2 ecological & economical lubrication module *#Merida Ninety Six carbon full suspension *Taiwan Excellence Silver Award *#KYE BT-03i Bluetooth Touch Panel Headset *#Panasonic TH-65PZ700T digital plasma TV *#Panasonic NA-V158NDH drum type washer dryer *#UNION UW-999AS/UR-999AS/UW-9303AS/UR-9303AS drinking water supplier *#Gigabyte GSmart MS820 3.5G GPS PDA phone *#D-Link DGS-1008D unmanaged switch *#ZyXEL MAX-206M2 indoor WiMAX SOHO router *#ZyXEL STB-1010 hybrid IP Set-top Box *#ASUS M536 PDA phone *#Gigabyte GH-GB 15A 1-NPB notebook roll pad *#ASUS G70 notebook *#ASUS MK241H LCD display *#ASUS VX3 notebook *#ASUS U2E notebook *#ASUS ARES CG6150 desktop PC *#BenQ V2400W LCD display *#Seagull Decor ""The Banquet of the Emperor"" *#Johnson Health S7200HRT suspension elliptical machine *#Joy Industrial X-PERTI W138 integrate full carbon road wheel set *#Giant Maestro Trance X *#Giant CS Lite Twist Comfort *Most Popular Product: ASUS Eee PC 4G *Taiwan Excellence Achievement Award: MSI, D-Link Corporation *Taiwan Excellence Best Performance Award: ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated Image:2008 Taiwan Excellence Awards Gold and Silver Awards Winners.jpg|Award Ceremony in the Taipei International Convention Center.Rico Shen Image:2008 Taiwan Excellence Awards Gold Award-1.jpg|Jonney Shih (left, Chairman of ASUSTeK), received the Gold Award in the Award Ceremony.Rico Shen Image:2008 Taiwan Excellence Awards Merida Ninety Six Series.jpg|The only Gold Award product from sporting good class: Merida Ninety Six carbon full suspension.Rico Shen Image:2008 Taiwan Excellence Awards HTC P3650.jpg|HTC P3650 Touch Cruise.Rico Shen" +business,"The United States Federal Aviation Administration has issued an emergency Airworthiness Directive to all owners and operators of certain Next Generation Boeing 737s to inspect their aircraft in light of recent developments in the investigation of the recent China Airlines explosion. The measures have been imposed due to the discovery that a structural bolt in the aircraft that exploded had come loose and punched a hole in the aircraft's right wing fuel tank. It is thought the bolt came loose after a worker failed to replace a washer after a routine maintenance procedure several months prior to the accident. Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said ""This was determined to be an issue of flight safety... It's very, very important."" Operators must complete an initial inspection of the wing slat assemblies of the affected aircraft in ten days, and must ensure the fasteners are properly torqued within 24 days. They must then repeat the inspections every 3,000 flight cycles thereafter. The directive is believed to affect over 2,000 aircraft worldwide." +business,"Despite the passage of a 700 billion USD bill by the United States House of Representatives on Friday and the Senate on Wednesday, two U.S. states may need loans totaling over 14 billion dollars. California and Massachusetts are seeking at least 7 billion dollars each from the federal government as loans. Officials and lawmakers in both states say that the loans would be temporary. According to Massachusetts' state treasurer, Timothy P. Cahill, the state was unable to borrow money last week on a short term loan. He also states that the state can afford to pay its bills and debts for the next few weeks, but not beyond that without a short-term loan from the government. Cahill has asked the federal government for a loan similar to the recent one passed by Congress and the Senate. ""That's all we would ask them to do: Treat us like the investment banks,"" said Cahill to the Associated Press. Officials in California say they need an emergency loan, or they will run out of money by the end of October. California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger said the state is ""not out of the woods"" and needs a short term loan from the government. ""California and other states may be unable to obtain the necessary level of financing to maintain government operations and may be forced to turn to the federal treasury for short-term financing,"" said Schwarzenegger in a letter to the Treasury Department, which is taking the letter under consideration. On Friday, the U.S. House of Representative voted to pass a revised bailout bill which included raising the FDIC insurance cap to $250,000, a move designed to please progressives. However, the $110 billion in tax breaks, earmarks and what has been called pork barrel spending is not offset by any increases in revenues and has added opposition to the bill from some Representatives in the House. Earmarks added into the bailout bill included $192 million in tax rebates for the Virgin Islands rum industry, $148 million in tax cuts for the wool industry, $100 million tax cuts to the auto racing industry, and $48 million in Hollywood tax incentives, among others." +business,"Microsoft plans to expand its anti-piracy activity in the United States using a new way which includes comics. The company's campaign will be held online and its starting day is Monday, January 22, 2007. Microsoft has the aim of telling people about the advantages of software that is properly licensed. The campaign will also focus on intellectual property rights as well as risks that the user takes when using a pirate copy of the product. In an interview, the director of Genuine Software Initiative, Cori Hartje, stated that Microsoft looks forward to inform its clientèle about some important facts that will help users in their business activities. Last month the company launched its campaign in some European countries like: Italy, France and United Kingdom; as well as in other countries from different parts of the world: Indonesia, Brazil, Australia and UAE. Microsoft hopes to catch the attention of users through banner advertisements on the company's websites. It will also launch promotional material which later will be handed out through Microsoft's partners. The company chose comics in an effort to reach a wider audience. The comics are drawn in black and white and they look similar to the ones presented in newspapers. The company has spent millions of dollars in its campaign against unauthorized copies of Windows, but cannot say whether the campaign has been successful." +business,"Software giant Microsoft has been attempting to purchase Internet giant Yahoo! in hopes of leveraging the internet presence of Yahoo! in Microsoft's battle with Google. The original offer for Yahoo! was $44 billion; however since this offer Microsoft has seen a revenue drop this last quarter which could greatly affect the software giant's ability to up the price again in hopes Yahoo! would accept. Revenues at Microsoft were down a total of 6%. This includes a 24% drop in revenue from the Windows Operating System alone. Stock prices of both Microsoft and Yahoo! have decreased during the merger discussions. Microsoft's next move is unknown but there has been talk of potentially going directly to the Yahoo! shareholders with a buyout plan. It is too early to tell how this will end, but Microsoft has made it known that it will try all available routes; up to and including a hostile takeover. Recent comments from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and CFO Chris Liddell have mentioned that not acquiring Yahoo! is also an option. Whatever Microsoft's plan is, the longer this takes, the more competitor Google will likely use this to their advantage is obtaining both clients and employees, says Juan Carlos Perez of IDG." +business,"IcelandA commissioner in Brussels has suggested that Iceland could be fast tracked to join the European Union (EU) by 2011. S. Solberg J The European Commissioner for enlargement, Olli Rehn, said that if the country, stricken by the world financial meltdown, applied for membership to the 52-year-old international economic and social organization this year, it would be welcomed with open arms. The EU is expecting an application if the Social Democratic Alliance wins May's general election in the country. The next entrant to the union is to be Croatia. It has been rapidly making changes to its government and economy in order to join in 2011. The EU will then have 28 members. Iceland could join at the same time, making 29. Iceland could join quickly because it is already a member of the European Economic Area and therefore already complies with many EU directives. The main contention would be Iceland's rich fishing waters, which are contested by several nearby fishing countries. Iceland and the United Kingdom fought short naval wars in the 1950s and 1970s over the issue of fishing rights in the area. There is also an issue with Ireland's failure to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon, which was designed to streamline the union as more countries join. Without the unanimous ratification, further expansion is difficult. The EU has its roots in the six member European Coal and Steel Community, founded by France and then-West Germany in 1951. In 1957, the members of the Community formed the European Economic Community (EEC), a common market and customs union. The coal and steel organization was merged into the EEC in 1967. In 1993, the EEC became the European Union. The EU adopted a central banking system and single currency, the Euro, between 1999 and 2002. The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Turkey are all on the waiting list for entry to the EU." +business,"Economy and business Trading on Russia's major stock markets has been suspended for a second consecutive day due to the ongoing turmoil in the financial markets around the world. The suspension took place due to an order of the Russian government's Federal Service for the Financial Markets, which demanded the suspension. ""It took too long for the money to get into the system,"" said Uralsib analyst Chris Weafer commenting on this decision. ""They were afraid of panic selling so they stopped the market."" Before the suspension, the RTS exchange fell by 6.39 percent in just two hours, while the MICEX index started the day with an increase, before falling again. This day was the worst day in Russia's market since the country's 1998 financial crisis Several financial markets have continued to lose value. The primary British index, the FTSE 100, dropped in value by 2.36%, which is 118.40 points, to below the 5000 mark at 4907.20. The Dow Jones, was down 2.62% at 16:08 UTC, a slight increase from earlier today. The Dow Jones currently has a value of 10769.00 points. The NASDAQ index has fallen by -3.16% to 2138.14, while the Dax was 1.75% lower than the start of the day at 16:08 UTC. The Russian Government has also announced the injection of 44 billion dollars into the Russian economy. The cash injection will take place through VTB, Sberbank and Gazprom Bank, which are all state run banks." +business,"Economy and business Cornell University Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, remained in jail last night after being charged with sexually attacking a chambermaid at a New York City hotel. Strauss-Kahn has agreed to undergo forensic screening before he appears in court, and has vowed to ""vigorously"" defend himself against the charges, which are likely to create a leadership void at the IMF, disrupt emergency talks over the European debt crisis, and spell the end of his political career. Strauss-Khan was the favourite candidate for the French presidency, and was expected to announce he would stand against Nicolas Sarkozy this month. But the allegations are expected to destroy the hopes of his supporters, increase infighting among the French left, and leave his political career in tatters. His arrest comes at a critical moment for the IMF, and will likely plunge efforts to stabilise the financial states of struggling eurozone countries into chaos. He was meant to discuss the bailouts of Greece and Portugal with European Union financial officials at a meeting in Brussels this week. Eswar Shanker Prasad, a professor of international economics at Cornell University, said: ""This sordid episode &ndash; no matter how it ultimately plays out &ndash; will spell the end of Strauss-Kahn as an effective leader of the IMF even if he retains his position, which is highly unlikely."" The IMF, however, insisted it remained ""fully functioning and operational."" Strauss-Kahn was to appear in court in Manhattan yesterday charged with three crimes, including attempted rape, but the hearing has been delayed so he can undergo forensic tests. He was taken into custody by officials while on an Air France passenger plane which was about to take off from John F. Kennedy International Airport for Paris; when detectives approached him in the first class cabin in the aircraft he reportedly asked: ""What is this about?"" Strauss-Kahn reportedly fled the hotel ""in a hurry"" after the attack, leaving a number of personal effects behind. ""If our officers had been ten minutes later he would have been in the air and on their sic way to France,"" a spokesperson for the New York Police Department said. The chambermaid reported that she had been sexually assaulted by a man staying in a ""luxury suite"" at the Sofitel hotel near Times Square. ""The maid described being forcibly attacked, locked in the room and sexually assaulted,"" the police spokesperson said. Strauss-Kahn came out of the shower naked while the chambermaid was working in the room, tried to pull the woman onto the bed and locked the door, The New York Times reported, quoting police sources. She allegedly fought him off, but he sexually assaulted her again after dragging her to the bathroom, before he locked her in the room; she was reportedly hospitalized afterwards with trauma. In 2008, a year after becoming the leader of the IMF, Strauss-Kahn was reprimanded by the organization's board after being involved in an extramarital affair with another senior executive at the bank. More recently, he was pictured driving a luxury car in Paris, causing a media furore over whether his lifestyle fitted with the socialist attitude he claims to represent. But his wife, former television star Anne Sinclair, has dismissed the accusations. She said: ""I do not believe for one second the accusations brought against my husband. I have no doubt his innocence will be established.""" +business,"Brazil Search and rescue operations for a light aircraft that disappeared seven days ago in Brazil have ceased having failed to locate the plane. In addition to two local pilots the Cessna 310 was carrying four businessmen who were citizens of the United Kingdom. Rescue teams utilising two air force helicopters and a fixed-wing aircraft, as well as several naval vessels, scoured an area of 3,475 square miles off the North-East of the country for the missing plane, which was chartered from Aero Star. Although the plane and its occupants remain missing, some floating personal possessions from those on board and several pieces of wreckage have been recovered. The pilot and co-pilot have been identified as Clovis de Figueiredo e Silva and Leandro Oliveira Veloso respectively, and the passengers as Alan Kempson, Sean Woodhall, Ricky Every and Nigel Hodges. The businessmen were flying in connection to a propsed luxury housing development at the Bahia town of Ilheus, whose airport the plane had been a few kilometres away from and intending to land. The four Britons, three of whom reside abroad, had initially attempted to hire a helicopter for the journey but were denied this due to weather conditions that were deemed to poor for rotorcraft operation. Their relatives have hired a boat with sonar equipment and intend to search deeper waters for the lost plane." +business,"Airlines have attacked new EU legislation which will force them to pay greater compensation to customers in the event of overbooking, cancellations and delays. Consumer groups have praised the new rules, which set the level of compensation between €250 and €600 depending on the circumstances and the length of the flight. ""This is some comeback for passengers who have been inconvenienced,"" James Fremantle, industry affairs adviser for the Air Transport Users Council, told Reuters. Before this legislation came into effect, passengers ""bumped"" from a flight could claim between €150 and €300. The new rules apply to all scheduled and chartered flights. Previously only scheduled flight operators were obliged to offer compensation in cases of overbooking&mdash; they did not have to extend compensation to travellers affected by flight cancellations. Low cost airlines have criticised the new compensation levels arguing that the compensation paid will exceed the price of the ticket. The effort by the EU is to discourage airlines from deliberately overbooking flights, a practice which has become routine for most major airlines. Overbooking often leads to ""bumping"", where passengers who cannot be guaranteed a seat are moved to a later flight. In future when this happens airlines will have to offer compensation. Additionally, if flights are cancelled or delayed by more than two hours all passengers must be compensated. This will be the case except in ""extraordinary circumstances"", the definition of which may or may not include bad weather, security alerts or strikes. ""It's a preposterous piece of legislation, we among all airlines are fighting this,"" Ryanair deputy chief executive, Michael Cawley told BBC radio 4's Today programme. It has also been claimed that the advice may mislead customers by having them believe that they may be entitled to compensation if flights are delayed due to bad weather. Marja Quillinan-Meiland, European Commission spokeswoman has said that there are ""grey areas"" but added ""these are not as big as the airlines are making out."" Disputed cases would be heard by national enforcement bodies which would decide if there is a case to answer. European Regions Airline Association (ERAA) director of air transport Andy Clarke said ""we reckon it's going to cost European air passengers – not the airlines, the airlines have no money, it has to be paid by the passengers – 1.5bn euros, that's over £1bn a year loaded onto European passengers. That's basically a transfer of money from passengers whose journeys are not disrupted to passengers whose journeys are disrupted."" These extra costs may also lead to carriers cancelling routes to areas that have been identified as problem destinations. The European Low-Fares Association (ELFA) is mounting a legal challenge to the laws. ELFA and International Air Transport Association expect a ruling from the European Court of Justice in fall of 2005, until then airlines have said they will comply with the regulations." +business,"Adam is a robot developed by Welsh Aberystwyth University researchers which combines artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and automation to independently conduct and analyse biological laboratory research. ""What's new and exciting about Adam is it is the first time we've managed to show that a computer can not only think up new scientific ideas, but experimentally test them and decide whether they're true,"" said Ross King, a computer science professor and lead researcher at Aberystwyth University, ""Adam makes up its own mind what to do. It decides what experiments to do, what to test."" He says that for other lab experiments the hardware is already in place, the only step needed is to change the software. The artificial intelligence alone spans three computers which holds the databases and analytical software to enable Adam to think. For the yeast experiment, Adam was loaded with databases which hold known information relating to yeasts and organisms. Adam compared all fields in the database to find the areas of missing information from which he devised 20 hypotheses. Adam's AI is connected to robotic arms, sensors, incubators and cameras which enable Adam to start over 1,000 individual experiments every day and follow their progress over a week. A part of the process is that Adam's AI can cycle and analyze the results of the experiments as well doing routine repetitious lab work. Following Adam's testing, King's team manually tested three of Adam's hypotheses and found that the robot's conclusions were correct, and each was a breakthrough to the scientific community. Adam has spawned discussion amongst researchers. William Melek, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Ontario's University of Waterloo, has noted that to set up the AI needed for subsequent experiments involving new biological variables and criteria, the human expertise would be time consuming to customize it. The usefulness would be limited therefore to the allotment of human input needed to set up Adam. David Waltz of Columbia University and Bruce Buchanan of the University of Pittsburgh say that ""For the foreseeable future, the prospect of using automated systems as assistants holds vast promise as these assistants are becoming not only faster but much broader in their capabilities -- more knowledgeable, more creative, and more self-reflective,"" They note the potential of such lab assistants which may more efficiently process the research data. It was reported that Adam cost about $1million in production costs and this was weighed against the costs of hiring lab techs. King said, We made many mistakes and learned from Adam. Eve is a much cleaner design."" Eve is the second AI computer under development by Professor King's research team. Eve's artificial intelligence will be enhanced to analyze compounds needed for medicinal drugs which may treat killer diseases such as malaria." +business,"The Bombay Stock Exchange Senstitive Index (Sensex) crashed 826 points and the National Stock Exchange's index (Nifty) 246 in what was the largest ever intra-day drop in the their histories. At the end of day's trade, the Sensex closed at 11,391 and the Nifty at 3,388. The market breadth is also negative - 2081 shares have declined, with only 336 stocks advancing. Analysts speculated that the reason for this drop was that the U.S. CPI number, which was released yesterday, was above expectations. This, coupled with weaknesses observed in the London Metal Exchange, has led to losses in emerging markets like India, Mexico, and Brazil. Asian Regional Strategist at JPMorgan Chase, Adrian Mowat, believes that the Sensex will stabilise at around the 11,000 mark after correcting by around 5-6%. Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram dismissed the issue and described it as a routine fluctuation. The main losers in today's crash were the steel and cement segments." +business,"On Monday, October 9, 2006, Google Inc. announced its decision to purchase YouTube, the popular video-sharing site, for $1.65 billion in stock. Following the closure of the deal, YouTube will operate independently, ""to preserve"" its user community and its brand, the announcement said. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google stated ""The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Our companies share similar values; we both always put our users first and are committed to innovating to improve their experience. Together, we are natural partners to offer a compelling media entertainment service to users, content owners and advertisers."" ""We are excited to have the resources to move faster than ever before,"" co-founder Chad Hurley, YouTube's 29-year-old CEO, told the Associated Press during a Monday interview. 100 million videos are watched on the YouTube's flash based site every day, including professional movie and TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur content." +business,"In an ongoing labor dispute from May of this year in California, United States, Teamsters Local 952, which represents the Orange County Transportation Authority's 1,200 coach operators, went on strike at 12:35 a.m. (0035 hrs) PDT Saturday morning after a cooling-off period declared by State Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger expired. Sanctioned picket lines have been formed outside Authority facilities in Garden Grove, Anaheim, and Santa Ana. About 200,000 regular passengers are affected. Major sticking points in the negotiation appear to be related to cost-of-living increases and pension funding allocations. The strike was declared after the Authority's bargaining agent said he lacked authority to approve a union counter proposal, which he said had to be taken before the OCTA's board of directors, who will not be available to meet until Monday the 9th at the earliest." +business,"disasters and accidents An EF4 tornado struck near St. Louis, Missouri Friday night, forcing the closure of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and damaging over 2,700 buildings in St. Louis County. The National Weather Service also confirmed that an EF1 tornado touched down in neighboring St. Charles County and an EF2 touched down in Pontoon Beach, Illinois. The city of Bridgeton, in North St. Louis County, was hit by the EF4 tornado. According to the National Weather Service, it was the most powerful tornado to touch down in the St. Louis region since 1967, with winds ranging from 166 and 200 miles (267 and 322 kilometres) per hour. Aftereffects of that tornado were also reported in Maryland Heights, Missouri. One official estimated that anywhere from 50 to 200 homes in the Maryland Heights and Bridgeton areas incurred damage, but early numbers released by St. Louis County indicate that over 2,000 buildings in those two cities had suffered ""noticeable damage,"" which does not include minor damage. Around 30,000 people in the region did not have power Saturday, out of a total of 47,000 affected residents. Authorities with search and rescue dogs went door-to-door Saturday, looking for possibly trapped residents. Aerial imagery was being used in damage assessment. Area residents unaffected by the tornado were assisting those that lost their homes, reported St. Louis television station KSDK. The Harmann Estates neighborhood of Bridgeton was heavily damaged during the storm, with many residences losing roofs and siding. Officials have already condemned some of the subdivision's homes. St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley reported 25 homes in Bridgeton and Berkeley, Missouri as being completely destroyed and an additional 35 as uninhabitable. Granite City, Illinois was struck by the EF2 tornado, while New Melle, Missouri was hit by the EF1. Fourteen New Melle homes sustained minor damage, while four were heavily damaged. The storm also caused the temporary shutdown of two major St. Louis highways. Portions of Interstate 70 and Interstate 270 were closed Friday night due to fallen power lines and storm debris. Both blocked sections have since reopened, but officials said it would take a few days to remove all the debris, which they pushed onto the roadsides. Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, which is immediately west of Berkeley, suffered heavy damage Friday night from the same tornado, and was forced to halt all regular operations Saturday while crews worked to clear the affected terminals. Eight flights had been forced to land in Kansas City, Missouri Friday night due to the tornado. About 500 people were in Lambert Airport when the tornado hit. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesperson said other US airports were not affected by Lambert's shutdown. Lambert is not an airline hub and is significantly less busy than it was ten years ago. In a Saturday press conference, Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, Lambert's director, said the airfield and Terminal 2 were ""fully functional,"" but the main terminal's Concourse C had been severely impacted by the storm. That terminal, which sustained the heaviest damage, serves Air Tran, American Airlines, Cape Air, and Frontier Airlines. The total cost of repairs at Lambert is expected to be in the millions of dollars, but Hamm-Niebruegge said the airport does not yet have a good estimate. 4=Witness at Lambert Airport One passenger of a waiting plane at Lambert told KSDK that heavy winds pushed the aircraft about 20 feet (6.1 metres) while it was still attached to the gate. Two other planes on the tarmac were unable to return to the airport, so passengers were bused back. Five planes—four operated by American and one by Southwest Airlines—suffered damage, and some will undergo major repairs. Some travelers inside the airport received medical attention for minor injuries caused by flying glass. A handful of people were transported to a local hospital for additional treatment, but all were later released. ""We get to the terminal and lights were out, glass everywhere, blood everywhere from people had been cut,"" recalled one witness. Another person at the airport reported, ""The ceiling was falling. The glass was hitting us in the face. Hail and rain were coming in. The wind was blowing debris all over the place. It was like being in a horror movie. Grown men were crying."" On Saturday, it was evident that Concourse C would not be open for some time, said Mayor of St. Louis Francis Slay. A large section of its roof was missing and around half of its windows had been blown out by the high winds. Debris and water from the storm were present inside the airport as crews worked to restore power and assess damage to the terminal. Missing windows had been boarded up, ruined carpet had been removed, and the control tower was functional by Saturday afternoon. The power was back on by 7:40 p.m. CDT (00:40 UTC) that evening. The airport resumed outgoing flight services Sunday, although several incoming flights landed at Lambert Saturday evening. Slay said the airport will be running at 70 percent capacity until mid-week, depending on the availability of airline crew members and planes. Airlines using Concourse C will have their operations temporarily relocated, he added. On Sunday, Southwest was operating at normal capacity, while AirTran moved to Concourse B and canceled four of its eleven scheduled flights. A spokesperson for American said the airline would have planes ready for normal Monday operations. American had previously canceled all St. Louis flights scheduled for Sunday. 4=St. Louis, Missouri mayor Francis Slay On Saturday afternoon, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon arrived at Lambert and visited areas devastated by the tornado. He originally planned to tour Maryland Heights, Bridgeton, and Berkeley, but Nixon was only able to tour Berkeley due to an approaching line of storms. While in St. Louis, the governor said 750 Missouri homes had been damaged by Friday's tornadoes and that federal assistance was forthcoming. Nixon reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was involved in assessing storm damage, as well as that US President Barack Obama had already contacted him, promising relief funds. US Representative Lacy Clay, said Saturday that he would brief Obama on the situation. The state declared the affected areas of St. Louis County a disaster area. No one has reported serious injuries or deaths as a result of the storm, although some people were treated for minor injuries. ""It was horrific and for that much damage to been done, to have no loss of life, is truly a blessing,"" Slay said." +business,"New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced last Wednesday that it has agreed definitively to merge with Chicago-based Archipelago Exchange (ArcaEx) and form a new publicly traded, for-profit company known as NYSE Group. This announcement was followed two days later by NASDAQ®, which independently announced a definitive agreement to purchase Instinet Group. Archipelago and Instinet are innovative e-trading (electronic trading) companies, and formerly were the two largest American rivals to NYSE and NASDAQ, in recent years taking increasingly large portions of their market share. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulatory agencies still have to review and approve the transactions, particularly with respect to US securities law and antitrust law, in order to ensure that the marketplace remains lawful and competitive. Other pending issues for NASDAQ include obtaining the approval of Instinet shareholders, as well as customary closing conditions. NYSE must obtain the approval of its members and Archipelago shareholders. These changes, a reaction to increased e-trading competition and a changed regulatory environment, will result in NASDAQ and NYSE trading each other's shares and attempting to grab market share, which many hope will drive down transaction costs and ultimately benefit consumers. However, at least one commentator, Dan Ackman writing in Forbes, has noted that the trading commission at the NYSE currently averages less than a nickel (US$0.05) per share, and was less enthusiastic about potential efficiency gains from electronic trading at the exchange. The transactions are also intended to make the two leading American stock exchanges more globally competitive with such exchanges as the London Stock Exchange, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the Toronto Stock Exchange, and the Australian Stock Exchange located in Sydney. The NYSE-Archipelago merger would result in some of the most sweeping changes in the 212-year history of the NYSE. The NYSE, which has always been a not-for-profit company, would for the first time incorporate and itself be a publicly-traded company, in what is potentially a large stock offering. However, the regulatory functions of the NYSE would continue to be conducted independently by a private not-for-profit organization. NYSE is merging with Archipelago in a ""stock for membership"" deal, in which NYSE members are to receive cash and 70% of newly issued stock, and Archipelago's shareholders would receive 30% of the new stock, forming a new holding company known as the NYSE Group. The merger is expected to be completed by either the fourth quarter of 2005 or the first quarter of 2006. ""This strategic move is courageous, almost unbelievable, but this is going to make the New York Stock Exchange in my opinion a potentially giant publicly traded company. The main reason is they've got brand, they've got companies, they've got liquidity and with Archipelago they have electronic global access,"" said Harold Bradley of American Century Investments to Investor's Business Daily. NYSE has traditionally used the ""open cry auction"" system where buyers and sellers gather in a boisterous trading floor to shout ""buy"" and ""sell"" orders. It has been slow to adapt to new technology, still manually punching in 90% of its orders. However, Last November NYSE introduced a new, faster Java-based trading system for its floor exchange that is currently in the process of phased roll-out. NYSE TradeWorksSM, a management system for stock orders, was developed in a first-of-kind partnership with external company IBM, using J2EE open systems, custom-built Linux-based workstations and HP-UX servers running IBM's WebSphere middleware, and a DB2 database on the back end running on an IBM zSeries mainframe. NYSE, which does most of its IT development internally, announced that they do not plan to combine their IT department with Archipelago's. The future of the traditional floor trading system remains uncertain. Some commentators believe it provides a necessary antidote to the occasionally chaotic instability of electronic trading, while others believe that future trends toward electronic trading would provide advantages of speed and fluidity of trade, and make the old-fashioned system of floor trading redundant and obsolete. Roger Burkhardt, Chief Technology Officer of NYSE, told Computerworld last December that the merger will attempt a ""hybrid"" trading model where both human and computer trading are coordinated side-by-side, which in its scope is a difficult and unprecedented task. Current owners of seats in the exchange have expressed concerns over how the new merger will affect them. The seats, which confer the right to trade on the floor and are typically leased to traders under the current system, will likely be bought back by the NYSE Group from the individual owners. The exact system of how traders will lease access to the trading floor from the new company has yet to be worked out. Also of concern to owners is the reported plans for a ""stock lockup"" (preventing selling of portions of stock in the new NYSE Group by the new stock recipients) for the next 3 to 5 years. However, their inability to immediately profit from sale of their newly issued stock would be compensated by the price they receive for their seat, or perhaps by a separate stock issuance. The NYSE has been subject to complaints in recent years, concerning: * former chairman Richard Grasso and his nearly US$140 million compensation package, thought to be excessive. * advantages held by floor traders which are perceived to be unfair by the general public. * conversely, a lack of attention to the needs of floor traders. * various regulatory actions including an indictment against 15 current and former traders earlier this month on charges of improper trading. However, most of the participants in the merger expressed confidence in taking advantage of historic opportunities. “This combination will be good for investors and for America. It will create a strong, dynamic and innovative enterprise capable of meeting the demands of investors and issuers throughout the world in the decades ahead,” said John A. Thain, CEO of the NYSE. “As we look to the future and to the challenge of competing globally in a high-speed electronically connected world, it is clear that we must do more. This transaction will mean we will be more diversified and transparent, and better able to compete, grow and serve our customers."" NASDAQ, formerly an acronym for National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, was founded in 1971 as the world's first electronic stock market, and by some measures is now the world's largest exchange. Its purchase of Instinet Group, although it followed the NYSE merger announcement by only two days, was actually pursued independently for as long as six months and is set to continue regardless of the NYSE outcome. The sale is expected to be completed by the end of this year. NASDAQ's planned acquisition, Instinet Group, will be split along the lines of its separate divisions for sale in a cash transaction (figures are approximate): * Instinet, an institutional broker with about 1,500 customers and worldwide access to more than 30 securities markets, will be sold to private equity group Silver Lake Partners for US$207.5 million. The transaction will mostly be financed in convertible notes from NASDAQ issued to Silver Lake as well as Hellman & Friedman, who is the largest shareholder in NASDAQ. * Lynch, Jones, and Ryan (LJR), provider of commission rebate services and subsidiary of Instinet which they acquired in 2000, would be sold to the Bank of New York for US$174 million. * INET, the electronic marketplace and former competitor to NASDAQ with more than 800 broker-dealer customers involving access to about 25% of NASDAQ equities trading, would be sold to NASDAQ for US$934.5 million, in a transaction to be partly financed by the issuance of US$750 million in six-year corporate bonds; NASDAQ expects the deal to become profitable to its shareholders within a year. Instinet stockholders would receive about US$1.88 billion in cash total, including the above amounts as well as US$562 million from INET's available cash. Of this amount, about US$1 billion would go to Reuters, a shareholder of 62% of the company's stock, which is getting rid of Instinet to focus on its core areas of providing news and financial data. NASDAQ president and CEO Bob Greifeld, said, “This transaction will allow NASDAQ to compete more effectively with other U.S. and international market centers by making our technological platform more competitive, which will result in greater cost efficiencies and improved quality of execution in our market &mdash; qualities that today’s individual and institutional investors demand. NASDAQ will continue to innovate and will also have the ability to tap new opportunities in other asset classes.” He continued, “Regulation NMS has defined the new competitive landscape by calling for all market centers to be mutually accessible. With this move we maintain our status as the low cost provider and at the same time provide increased order interaction for both NASDAQ and exchange listed securities. We also believe this further enhances our ability to attract new listings. We want to thank all of our partners for their combined efforts on this transaction.""" +business,"Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel gave yesterday's opening address to the 42nd meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is facing a distinctly different geo-political landscape from twelve months ago. Outside the WEF security cordon, in the sub-zero temperatures of Davos' train station car park, the local incarnation of the Occupy movement are setting up 'Camp Igloo'; but, with little hope of the archetypes of the 1%, 'Davos Man', arriving by public transport and seeing their sub-zero protest. David Roth, heading the Swiss centre-left's youth wing &mdash; and an organiser of 'Camp Igloo', echoes much of the sentiment from 'Occupy' protests around the world; ""at meetings the rest of society is excluded from, this powerful '1 percent' negotiates and decides about the fate of the other 99 percent of this world, ... economic and financial concentration of power in a small, privileged minority leads to a dictatorship over the rest of us. The motto 'one person, one vote' is no longer valid, but 'one dollar, one vote'."" Roth's characterisation of 'Davos Man', a term coined by the Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard University, is more emotive than that of the late professor who saw 'Davos man' as ""having... little need for national loyalty, viewing national boundaries as obstacles that thankfully are vanishing, and seeing national governments as residues from the past whose only useful function is to facilitate the elite's global operations"". As Reuters highlights, many attendees will opt to make their way from Zurich to Davos by private jet, or helicopter, and the WEF itself provides handouts indicating the cost of such is 5,100 Swiss francs (approx. 5,500 USD, 3,500 GBP, 4,200 EUR). In contrast: travelling by rail, even when opting for first class &mdash; without an advance booking, is 145 Swiss francs (approx. 155 USD, 100 GBP). Shifting fortunes see several past attendees missing this year's exclusive get-together in the alpine resort; for a second year running &mdash; and now caught up in the UK phone hacking scandal being scrutinised by Lord Leveson's inquiry &mdash; media mogul Rupert Murdoch will not be attending. Nor will the former head of financial services company UBS Oswald Gruebel, who resigned in the wake of US$2.3 billion losses incurred through unauthorised trading; likewise, Philipp Hildebrand, the ex-head of the Swiss National Bank, is absent following scandal associated with his wife's currency trading activities; and, although the sexual assault charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn were dropped, having stepped down as managing director of the International Monetary Fund Strauss-Kahn will also be absent. As the #OccupyWEF protesters were building igloos last weekend, an anti-WEF protest in the Swiss capital Berne was broken up by police, who stated their intent to prosecute participants in the illegal protest. Allegations of calls for violent protest action led to a high number of officers being involved. In the aftermath, charges of breach of the peace are to be brought against 153 people, with some targeted for more serious offences. At least one group involved in the protest described the police response as ""disproportionate"". At 'Camp Igloo' Roth says he is seeking discussions with the WEF's expected 2,000 attendees; but his voice, and that of others in the worldwide 'Occupy' movement, is unlikely to be given a platform in the opening debate, ""Is 20th-century capitalism failing 21st-century society?"" He, and others taking part in this Swiss incarnation of the 'Occupy' movement, are still considering an invite to a side-session issued by the World Economic Forum's founder, Klaus Schwab; commenting on the invite Roth told the Associated Press they would prefer a debate at a more neutral venue. As has been the case for several years now, the annual Forum meeting in Davos was preceded with the release of a special report by the World Economic Forum into risks seen as likely to have an impact the in the coming decade. The 2012 Global Risks Report is a hefty document; the 64-page report is backed with a variety of visualisation tools designed to allow the interrelations between risks to be viewed, how risks interact modelled, and their potential impacts considered &mdash; as assessed by the WEF's panel of nearly 500 experts. As one would expect, economic risks top both the 2012 impact and likelihood charts. Climate change is pushed somewhat further down the list of concerns likely to drive discussions in Davos. ""Major systemic financial failure"" &mdash; the collapse of a globally important financial institution, or world currency, is selected as the risk which carries the most potential impact. However, ""Chronic fiscal imbalances"" &mdash; failing to address excessive government debt, and ""Severe income disparity"" &mdash; a widening of the the gulf between rich and poor, top the list of most likely risks. At the other end of the tables, disagreeing respectively with the weight last year's Wikinews report gave to orbital debris, and the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) fight with the Internet over copyright legislation, the 2012 Global Risks Report places ""Proliferation of Orbital Debris"" and ""Failure of intellectual property regime"" bottom of the league in terms of potential impact. In 2011, with the current global economic crisis well under-way, ""Fiscal crises"" topped the WEF risks with the largest potential impact in the next ten years. However, perceived as most likely a year ago, ""Storms and cyclones"", ""Flooding"", and ""Biodiversity loss"" &mdash; all climate-change related points &mdash; were placed ahead of ""Economic disparity"" and ""Fiscal crises"". More mundane risks overtake the spectre of terrorism when contrasting this year's report with the 2011 one; volatility in the prices of commodities, consumer goods, and energy, and the security of water supplies are all now ranked as more likely risks than terrorism &mdash; though the 2011 report did rank some of these concerns as having a higher potential impact. A significant shift in perception sees the 2012 report highlight food shortages almost as likely a risk the world will face over the next decade; and, one with a far more significant impact. Attending the World Economic Forum at Davos is more than just an opportunity to discuss the current state of the global economy, and review the risks which face countries around the world. With such a high number of political and business leaders in attendance, it is an ideal opportunity to pursue new trade deals. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is, in addition to being a keynote speaker, expected to pursue improved relations with European and Asian trade partners at private meetings on the Forum sidelines. The Toronto Star reports Harper is likely to push forward an under-negotiation Canadian-European free-trade agreement, and hold closed-door discussions prior to next month's planned trip to China. Similarly, Canadian trade minister Ed Fast is expected to meet South Korean counterparts to discuss an equivalent deal to the preferential ones between the Asian nation and the US and Europe. Fast's deal does, however, face opposition at home; the Canadian Auto Workers union asserts that such a deal would put 33,0000 jobs at-risk. Do you believe discussions in Davos can make a difference globally? British Prime Minister David Cameron and chancellor George Osborne are expected to discuss a possible increase of UK funding to the International Monetary Fund (IMF); however, with the UK responsible for 4.5% of the US$400 billion in the IMF's lending fund, backbench MPs have warned that committing any additional funds could provoke a Conservative revolt in parliament. Tuesday's IMF cut of predicted global growth from 4% to 3.3%, warnings of a likely Eurozone recession in 2012, and ongoing problems with Greek financial restructuring, are likely discussion topics at Davos &mdash; as well as amongst UK backbench MPs who see adding to the IMF war-chest as bailing out failed European economies. South Africa, less centre-stage during the 2011 Forum, will be looking to improve relationships and take advantage of their higher profile. President Jacob Zuma and several cabinet members are attending sessions and discussions; whilst former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to moderate a session, ""Africa &mdash; From Transition to Transformation"", with Nigeria, Guinea, and South Sudan's presidents on the panel. Wal-mart's CEO Doug McMillon is to lead a dinner session, ""Shared Opportunities for Africa's Future"" &mdash; highlighting larger multinationals looking towards the continent for new opportunities. Davos may also serve as a place to progress disputes out of the public eye; a high-profile dispute between Chile's state-owned copper mining business, Codelco, and Anglo American plc over the 5.39 billion USD sale of a near-quarter stake in their Chilean operations to Japan's Mitsubishi, prompted the Financial Times to speculate that, as the respective company chiefs &mdash; Diego Hernández and Cynthia Carroll &mdash; are expected to attend, they could privately discuss the spat during the Forum. __NOTOC__" +business,"The environmental activist group Greenpeace has attempted to disrupt Japan's Southern Ocean ""scientific"" whaling fleet. After searching for the whaling fleet for nearly a month, the Greenpeace ships, MY Esperanza and MY Arctic Sunrise, are floating alongside the Japanese mothership in Australia's Antarctic territorial waters, directly south of Tasmania. The Japanese whaling fleet has an expected catch of over 900 minke whales – more than double its previous catch. The fleet - owned by Kyodo Senpaku and part-owned by Nissui, Japan's second-largest marine products firm - is also targeting endangered fin whales for what they claim is a scientific program. Fin whales are the second largest creatures on earth. Greenpeace say they have asked the whalers to stop whaling immediately and return to Japan, but have received no response from the vessels. In inflatables carrying banners which read ""defend the whales"" and ""stop the whaling,"" crew from the two ships declared their intention to stop the hunt. Leader of the Greenpeace expedition, Shane Rattenbury said their eight small boats have begun to ""interfere"" with the whaling process. ""We positioned our two ships to the stern of the Japanese mother ship in order to prevent the whale being transferred on to the ship and we were successful in stopping that process for about 45-minutes,"" said Mr Rattenbury, describing a capture boat ramming the Greenpeace ship in an attempt to push it clear. He said the Japanese boat fought back with water cannons and one of several Greenpeace inflatables capsized in the wash. All crew were retrieved without injury. ""We're going to do everything we can over the coming weeks to interfere with the whaling process, and stop the whales being killed,"" he said, ""our small boats will be putting themselves between the harpoon and the whale. In a radio call to the whaling vessels, from the bridge of the Arctic Sunrise, Yuko Hirono, of Greenpeace Japan called upon the whalers to stop killing whales ""and leave the internationally recognised Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary."" Japan's scientific whaling has been the subject of repeated criticism by the International Whaling Commission. The Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research, claim the amount of scientific data gathered by Japan's research program (JARPAII) is extensive and that Japan's whale research programs are conducted in accordance with the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. The Institute of Cetacean Research say their research does not involve illegal whaling. Greenpeace say over the next 2 years, 40 more fin whales will be added to the annual kill, along with 50 humpback whales. Southern Ocean whaling season (2005-2006) ""This whale hunt is unnecessary, unjustified, and unwanted,"" said Rattenbury. ""Once the whales have been measured and weighed by the 'scientists' the butchers get to work and the whales are cut up and boxed for market. This is all about money and not science."" The area in which the Japanese fleet is hunting has been designated as the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary, in an effort to allow whale populations to recover after stocks were depleted during the commercial whaling of the last century. Seventy crew and campaigners from 19 countries are on board the two Greenpeace vessels, including the UK, Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Ghana, Russia, Norway, Denmark, USA, France, Italy, Japan, Ireland, India, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Austria and Argentina. Japan's whaling program is expected to kill nearly one thousand whales this season." +business,"China property giant Evergrande Group wired USD83.5 million in interest owed in an offshore bond from September 23 on Thursday, temporarily averting default, according to a Reuters source and Chinese newspaper Securities Times. The wire to a Citibank fiduciary account following a 30-day grace period came after assurances by various members of the Chinese government, Reuters reported. At a Beijing forum Wednesday, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He described the risks as controllable, and chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission Yi Huiman said that while authorities needed to curb excessive debt more broadly by ""improving the effectiveness of the constraint mechanism on debt financing"", the matter would be dealt with properly. Once China's top real estate developer, Evergrande had accumulated approximately USD305 billion in liabilities, two per cent of the Chinese gross national product, after ""dwindling resources"" cut its value by 80%, according to Reuters. September data revealed Chinese home sales by value fell by nearly 17% year-on-year, according to The Guardian, and fears over its default led to a slowdown in China's third quarter GDP growth to a year low of 4.9%. Two sale negotiations with rival developers Hopson Development and Yuexiu, valued at USD2.6 billion and USD1.7 billion, respectively, were suspended, reportedly due to a lack of consent by the government of Guangdong province currently overseeing Evergrande's restructuring. News of Evergrande's remittance caused its shares to rise by as much as 7.8% this morning after a two-week pause in trading for the anticipated sale of 50.1% in Evergrande Property Services Group, and offering some reprieve for bondholders, according to Reuters. Portfolio manager at GaoTeng Global Asset Management James Wong, interviewed by The Guardian, called the news ""a positive surprise"", adding ""if Evergrande pays this time, I don't see why it won't pay the next time."" Jun Rong Yeap for IG Asia private limited company, Singapore, interviewed by Bloomberg, said the report ""overturned"" the narrative ""that Evergrande will face difficulty in securing cash ahead"". Further missed payments are due October 29 and November 11 after similar 30-day grace periods; including yesterday's USD83.5 million, nearly USD280 million is owed to bondholders. Stocks have been down for many major Chinese developers: Reuters Wednesday reported year-to-date stock prices fell 87.8% for Sinic Holdings, currently in Fitch Ratings' 'restricted default' after failing to make an October 18 bond payment valued, according to The Guardian, at USD246 million; 80.2% for Evergrande itself; 78.3% for E-House, 58.5% for Fantasia Holdings and 54.6% for Kaisa Group, which defaulted in 2015 and had bonds reach record lows. Estimates of the Chinese real estate market's size range from 16 to 25% of the Chinese gross domestic product, according to The Guardian. Chinese President Xi Jinping's aim to transform the country's economy from one of debt-fuelled ""inflated"" growth to one of improved ""quality and returns"" included imposing regulations on developers that limited their capacity to borrow. A Guardian comment piece from economist George Magnus published on October 15 made reference to China's ""ghost cities"" and ""rampant credit creation"" that has given rise to high vacancy rates and the ""financialisaton of housing""." +business,"Southwest Airlines Flight 812 carrying 118 passengers between Phoenix, Arizona and Sacramento, California was forced to divert to the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station in Arizona, after a hole appeared in the top of the aircraft; the plane landed safely at Yuma. The plane was forced to make an emergency descent down to 11,000 feet and reportedly descended 16,000 feet in one minute. One passenger identified as Cindy said, ""they had just taken drink orders when I heard a huge sound and oxygen masks came down and we started making a rapid decent. They said we’d be making an emergency landing. There was a hole in the fuselage about three feet long. You could see the insulation and the wiring. You could see a tear the length of one of the ceiling panels."" In a statement issued by Southwest Airlines they informed that, ""Southwest Airlines Flight 812, the scheduled 3:25 pm departure from Phoenix to Sacramento today, diverted to Yuma, Ariz due to loss of pressurization in the cabin. Upon safely landing in Yuma, the flight crew discovered a hole in the top of the aircraft. There are no reported Customer injuries. One of the Flight Attendants, however, received a minor injury upon descent."" Southwest Airlines have provided a replacement aircraft to take the 118 passengers to Sacramento. The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed it is investigating ""an in-flight fuselage rupture.""" +business,"United Kingdom The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), the largest civil services trade union in the United Kingdom, yesterday reversed its decision to hold a strike for its UK Home Office worker members scheduled for today, the day before the Olympic Games are due to start in London. The strike, which was called last week as a result of job reductions being made, would have affected the UK Border Agency (UKBA), the Identity and Passport Service, and the Criminal Records Bureau, at London Heathrow Airport amongst other UK airports. PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka cited the ""significant development"" of the creation of 1100 new job positions, 800 in the UKBA and 300 in the Passport Service, as the reason for the union's decision change. ""We believe that significant progress means that there is no case for the union to proceed with industrial action tomorrow,"" Serwotka said yesterday morning. The PCS also reported position recruitment advertisements appearing on the Internet for London Heathrow, London Luton and Gatwick Airport. However, the UK government's Home Office denied that they had created such positions. ""We have made no concessions to the PCS and are not creating any new jobs in response to their threat of strike action"", a spokesperson for the Home Office stated. Saying the recruitment effort, initiated two months ago, was amongst scheduled modifications to the UK Border Force, the spokesperson clarified: ""Unfortunately, due to an administrative error, a figure of 400 posts was repeated in both adverts by mistake. This will now be corrected"". Serwotka's announcement was made one hour before lawyers representing the UK government had been due at the High Court to attempt to gain an injunction preventing the strike. According to the PCS, the government's plan was based on accusations that twelve staff members in Brussels and Paris became involved in the dispute despite the fact they would be unaffected. What do you think about the decision of the PCS? The PCS' decision was welcomed by airport operating company BAA. ""So far passengers arriving for the Olympics have had a smooth journey through Heathrow and it is great news that those arriving tomorrow can also expect a warm welcome to London and the Games"", a spokeswoman for BAA said yesterday. UK Home Secretary Theresa May had considered the PCS' plans ""opportunist and wholly unjustified"". Serwotka said he had ""absolutely no regrets"" about his previous decision to call the strike. The PCS has also postponed plans to launch a work-to-rule initiative during the 2012 Summer Olympics." +business,"Economy and businessUS bank Goldman Sachs has been accused of fraud by the American regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 4=A statement from the SEC, accusing Goldman Sachs of fraud According to the SEC, Goldman Sachs failed to inform investors of a conflict of interest in the banks' marketing of sub-prime mortgage investments, which were being sold at a time of uncertainty in the US housing market. The SEC says that a Goldman subsidiary, Paulson & Co, had been involved in the selection of securities included in the mortgage investments. It had not been disclosed to investors that Paulson had bet that the value of the investments would fall, benefiting Paulson but not those who bought the investments. The securities, which were combined into a package called Abacus that was sold to investors, lost over $1 billion during the collapse of the US housing industry. According to the SEC, Goldman, Paulson, and the creator of Abacus, a vice-president of Goldman Sachs named Fabrice Tourre, all knew that the housing market was going to collapse, but continued to sell Abacus despite the risks. Tourre had been in command of selecting the investments within Abacus, and then was the person responsible for selling it to investors. He had told those who invested in Abacus that its components had been selected by an independent party, ACA Management. In all, 99% of the investments within Abacus were downgraded, and investors lost upwards of a billion US dollars. The SEC alleged that ""Goldman Sachs arranged a transaction at Paulson's request in which Paulson heavily influenced the selection of the portfolio to suit its economic interests."" In a short response from Goldman, the bank said that ""The SEC's charges are completely unfounded in law and fact and we will vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation.""" +business,"Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) riders on the subway portions of the Red and Blue lines may see relief of the slow zone in the coming months. So-called ""slow zones"" are locations where trains travel at restricted speeds because of track work or deteriorating conditions. The CTA is putting nearly US$15 millions towards renovation of the O'Hare to Clark/Lake portion of the Blue Line and Chicago to Belmont portions of the Red Line. Work will happen during off peak and overnight hours. The CTA says that one track operations and delays may occur. ""We have heard our customers' frustration with slow zones and today we are acting to address their concerns,” said Chicago Transit Board chairperson Carole Brown. ""I am pleased that we are able to leverage existing contracts to begin this work and I look forward to working with state lawmakers to increase transit investment to bring our entire system to a state of good repair.""" +business,"The airline British Airways have reported that they will start flying between Iceland and Gatwick airport, London. British Airways said they will provide the service five times a week; the first flight is scheduled March 26, 2006. Until now, only two airlines have been flying between the UK and Iceland with passengers: Icelandair, the oldest and biggest airline in Iceland, and Iceland Express, a recent low-fare airline and the competition between them has been fierce. Icelandair's PR, Guðjón Arngrímsson, said that Icelandair welcomes the competition and believes Icelandair can compete with BA: ""This market has been growing rapidly. Iceland has been well marketed in London and Britain as a whole so number of passenger has been rising fast. We're always ready for more competition on every route between Iceland and other countries. We're ready and willing to compete here as we are on other routes"" Arngrímsson said. Birgir Jónsson at Iceland Express agrees. ""Iceland Express welcomes the competition without a doubt."" He then added, ""The competition will benefit us all"". British Airways have reported the tickets will cost about €291." +business,"InternetOn October 30th Sprint Nextel severed their network connection with Cogent Communications, according to a statement from Cogent. As a result, it is impossible for most Sprint and Cogent customers to communicate directly between each other across the Internet. The actual reasons for the dispute are unknown, though Cogent has had similar disputes in the past with Level3, Telia, Limelight, France Telecom, and AOL. The two ISPs are currently in litigation over peering, the free exchange of traffic between the ISPs for little or no cost. In shutting down the peering, according to Cogent, Sprint is in violation of a contractual obligation to exchange Internet traffic. However, according to Sprint, Cogent has failed to meet its criteria for the peering agreement, and should be required to pay for the traffic, which Cogent refused to do. The de-peering has resulted in some customers of both companies experiencing dropped connections. However, most consumer ISPs and college networks are ""multihomed"", and thus could connect through separate lines to both companies." +business,"TurkeyThe 2009 Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the World Bank Group and the IMF will be held in Istanbul, Turkey on October 6–7, 2009. The IMF and World Bank annual meetings which is held in every October with participation of finance ministers, central bankers, and other top economists of 186 member countries. 4=Murilo Portugal These meetings are held outside Washington, D.C. in every three years. Turkey will host the meetings for a second time. It was the host country for the meetings in 1955. “All eyes will be on Istanbul,” said Murilo Portugal, Deputy Managing Director at the IMF, on a recent trip to Turkey. “The annual meetings are a unique opportunity to discuss issues of great global economic importance, make decisions and provide guidance on the work of the two institutions.”" +business,"Thai low-cost air carrier One-Two-Go Airlines has announced that it will be grounding all 16 of its aircraft immediately until September 15. The news comes as legal action against the airline and associated companies begins over the September crash of Flight 269, which killed 90 people, mostly foreigners. Udom Tantiprasongchai, founder of the airline, has said conditions were hard for airlines with fuel prices having doubled within a year. He says 70% of operating costs are taken up with fuel, and the airline has already raised fuel surcharges again by 100 baht to 850 baht per leg. ""In this kind of environment, anyone can go (bankrupt) anytime,"" said Urdom, who declined to comment on the impact the present financial situation has had on his airline, saying only that they ""are financially sustainable."" He also said that the airline could return to service with ease if prices dropped, noting that, ""if the situation improved with fuel prices being lowered and the profitability outlook was better, we could be airborne again."" The airline began operations in 2003; it is a subsidiary of Orient Thai Airlines. Orient Thai, which will continue to operate as normal, recently opened Thailand's first freight-only airline, Orient Thai Cargo, with a pair of Boeing 747-200Fs bought from Japan Airlines. Urdon said that a major part of the problem is that eight of the company's aircraft are MD-11s, which consume large volumes of fuel. He also said that a collapse of a damage limitation scheme with rivals Nok Airlines and Thai AirAsia had affected his decision. Both rival carriers were also struggling financially. One-Two-Go has already cut many routes. The news comes as the first families of victims of Flight OG269 launch legal action against the airline, as well as parent airline Orient Thai and lessor Grandmax Group. Already confirmed to be involved in the action are Richard and Margaret Collins as well as Steve and Jean Jones, parents of Alex Collins, 22, and Bethan Jones, also 22, an unmarried Welsh couple who, a few days into a round-the-world trip, were among the 123 passengers on board. Alex was reported missing but quickly confirmed to have died, while Bethan died ten days after the accident with her family at her bedside, bringing the final death toll to 90. ""We believe the air crash was completely avoidable and those responsible should be held to account. While we accept that nothing can bring Alex and Bethan and the other people who lost their lives back, we are keen to make sure we prevent this from happening again,"" said the families in a joint statement. ""We will be forcing One-Two-Go Airlines to prove in court that they are not a low cost, low safety airline,"" said James Healy-Pratt, head of aviation at Stewarts Law in London. He also said that the action will be brought before courts in the United States." +business,"Economy and business On Monday, United States technology giant Microsoft announced their plans to acquire GitHub, a San Francisco, California-based web-based hosting service for software version control using Git, for 7.5 billion US Dollars (USD). In the official announcement at the Microsoft News web site, the company said they are to reach agreement with GitHub by the end of the year. They said the agreement would allow them to deliver Microsoft development services to GitHub users, and ""accelerate enterprise use of GitHub"". GitHub had been financially struggling recently and is expected to get a new CEO. In 2016, according to financial news and media company Bloomberg L.P., through three quarters GitHub lost USD 66 million, while in nine months of that year GitHub had revenue of USD 98 million. In August 2017 GitHub said they were seeking a new CEO. According to the announcements by GitHub and Microsoft, the Microsoft Corporate Vice President Nat Friedman would become the new CEO of GitHub. He had created app creation platform company Xamarin and was ""an open-source veteran"", Microsoft said. GitHub confirmed the acquisition plans on its blog. In this announcement they alluded to concerns about past friction between Microsoft and open-source software, however they said ""things are different. ... Microsoft is the most active organization on GitHub in the world"", mentioning VS Code as an example. In the announcement, GitHub also referred to its several years of collaboration with Microsoft on Git LFS and Electron. GitHub also mentioned the Azure development platform run by Microsoft." +business,"The Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) officially launched the new Irish Enterprise Exchange (IEX) this morning in Dublin, Ireland. The exchange is aimed at smaller firms seeking to raise capital without the hindrances and additional costs associated with a full listing on the main exchange. At the moment eight companies are listed on the exchange - all having been previously quoted on the Exploration Securities Market (ESM) and the Developing Companies Market (DCM). However it is hoped that many small Irish firms listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London will eventually pursue a dual listing with the IEX. The rules for listing on the IEX are significantly looser than for a full listing - no trading record is required; no minimum number of shares must be in public hands; and in most cases prior shareholder approval is not needed for acquisitions or disposals. The main requirement for listing is that prospective firms must have a market capitalisation of more than €5 million. The IEX has long been a major ambition for Irish Stock Exchange CEO Tom Healy and indeed the exchange as a whole." +business,"The first Iraq-Iran passenger flight since war broke out between the two nations 25 years ago, has arrived safely in Tehran. The plane left Baghdad International Airport with 65 passengers and touched down in the Iranian capital a few hours later. It was an historic event, marking the end of a quarter-century of hostilities during which all flights from and to Iran were suspended by the former Ba'athist regime. A spokesperson for the Iranian civil aviation authority, Reza Jafarzadeh, told Agence France Presse that there were plans to resume regular commercial flights from Baghdad to Tehran on November 16, although Iran would not consider flying its own aircraft to Iraq until the security situation was resolved. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters that the ""protection of Iraq's territorial integrity, independence and might is of special significance to Iran."" The United States and Britain have repeatedly accused Iran of allowing militants to cross its border to help Iraq's insurgents fight the US occupation. Earlier today, Major-General Jim Dutton, a British soldier commanding a multinational force in Basra, gave a press conference in Washington during which he claimed that insurgents were getting the technology to create increasingly sophisticated bombs from across the border." +business,"Economy and businessUS airlines in the first quarter of 2010 managed to eke out a US$12 million profit, mostly from ""ancillary"" services like checked baggage fees, pet transportation fees and more. Compared to the first quarter of 2009, checked baggage fees soared 33% to $769 million. The airlines also reaped $554 million in reservation change fees, and made $534 million from other ancillary sources; such services (including checked baggage fees, reservation change fees, etc.) made up 21.7% of Spirit Airlines' income, the highest in the industry. The US airline industry is made up of 21 carriers, according to the U.S Department of Transportation. The five ""network"" or legacy carriers&mdash;including United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines, American Airlines and US Airways&mdash;continue to struggle and posted a $163 million loss as a group. Delta Air Lines had the highest profit, at $107 million, while American Airlines was at the other side of the carriers, with a $322 million loss. Low-cost carriers fared better, posting a $115 million profit as a group, with Southwest Airlines having the largest profit, at $54 million, while Allegiant Air's profit margins were the highest of the budget carriers at 20%. Regional airlines made a $60 million profit. The world's airlines expect a US$2.5 billion profit as a whole, despite an earlier forcast of a loss. However, many investors and groups, such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA), are somewhat doubtful of this number, as oil prices are expected to remain volatile, leading to the possibility of high prices cutting into airlines' profits." +business,"Thirty-eight members of the senior management of Irish airline Ryanair, including chief executive Michael O'Leary, have seen their pay frozen in light of the increasing price of fuel, driven by rising oil prices. O'Leary, who owns 4.2% of the airline and earned €992,000 (£780,000) last year including €565,000 basic pay, said ""I think it's inappropriate for managers to be awarding themselves pay increases if profits are falling,"" and that pay would only be unfrozen if oil significantly decreased in price and ""we can see some prospect of profits being increased."" Ryanair has currently hedged oil prices at US$68 per barrel, but this is set to expire, leaving the no-frills airline paying full market prices. ""Our hedging finishes next week and we go from about $70 to about $100. Next year's fuel bill is going up by €400m. We only have around 10% hedged in the high $70s for next year and I wouldn't be hedging now. We'll take our chances in the markets,"" explained O'Leary. UBS analyst Tim Marshall estimates Ryanair's fuel bill is set to increase €732m this financial year to €1.01bn. UBS predicts a profit of €485m for this year, but O'Leary says profits could be down to €235m between now and March 2009, dependent on ""oil prices and average fares"". In light of the news, shares in Ryanair fell 2¾ cents to €2.96½ each. Ryanair is trying hard to reduce costs, O'Leary saying they were ""renegotiating airport contracts, handling contracts, maintenance contracts. We Ryanair want to reduce costs in every area of our operation."" He said prices for passengers are set to go up, as ""bag charges will keep going up until we can persuade half of our passengers to travel without checked-in luggage so we can get our handling charges down"". At present, around 40% do this. He said that to fill an extra 30% of seats the airline will keep fares relatively low. ""We won't have to cut the fares like hell but they are not going to go up... More will fly with Ryanair than British Airways, Air France and all the other high-priced airlines.""" +business,"Fiji Fiji's national airline Air Pacific has now officially returned to its original name: Fiji Airways. Fiji Airways adopted the Air Pacific name in 1971, slightly prior to its first international flight on June 3, 1973. The re-brand was described by interim CEO Aubrey Swift as allowing the airline to align itself ""closer with Fiji as a destination"". The name change is designed in part to reduce the confusion which surrounded the name Air Pacific. Swift noted that ""Air Pacific just didn’t resonate with our customers"" and said that same people ""thought we were an air conditioning company"". Along with the name change, the airline has redesigned its website, and changed the name of each of its classes of service. Pacific Voyager and Tabua Class have been replaced with economy and business class respectively. The airline has also introduced plans to overhaul its fleet of older Boeing 747s with Airbus A330s. It has said that the completion of this overhaul and the re-branding efforts will be completed by the end of the year. The airline's new brand-mark and livery features a masi design created by Fijian artist, Makereta Matemosi. The new identity is to ""symbolises the airline's new identity and epitomises all that Fiji Airways represents. It is authentic, distinctive, and true to the airline's Fijian roots”, the airline said." +business,"Ireland Aer Lingus, an Irish airline, has announced that it will cut about 230 staff in the near future in compulsory job losses, bringing the total number of layoffs from the airline to 670. 440 other workers will face voluntary job losses. The company believes the job reductions will save it 97 million euros. Chief Executive Officer Christoph Mueller said the move would start ""within days"" and the airline would return to profitability ""relatively soon."" The airline, which is Ireland's second-largest, also announced today that its operating loss for last year went up by four times, to 81 million euros. The labour union IMPACT, which represents cabin crew for Aer Lingus, is to meet with the airline's management tomorrow regarding the company's move. The union also remarked that time available to ""broker a solution is extremely limited."" Aer Lingus revenue dropped to 1.21 billion euros after an eleven percent drop last year, according to the airline, even though passenger numbers increased to 10.4 million. According to the Bloomberg news service, Aer Lingus' net cash reserves went down to 335 million euros." +business,"Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines announced plans to cut 7,000 to 9,000 jobs by the end of 2007, approximately 17% of its employees. CEO Gerald Grinstein will take a 25% pay cut. Executives have their pay cut by 15%. Other employees will have their pay reduced by 7 to 10%. Employees that make less than $25,000 a year will not be affected by these pay cuts. Delta has already cancelled leases on 40 aircraft and they plan to reduce its fleet by at least 80 more. They plan to reduce domestic capacity by 15 to 20 percent and increase international capacity by 25 percent. Delta is the third-largest airline in the US. They have lost 10 billion dollars since 2001 and are 14 billion dollars in debt. Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last Wednesday, joining United Airlines and US Airways. Four of the seven largest US carriers are operating under bankruptcy protection. Chapter 11 protection gives companies time to rearrange its finances while continuing to operate. Delta CEO Gerald Grinstein said they intended ""to move from being an unprofitable airline today to a profitable airline in just over two years"". ""This means we will become a smaller, more cost-efficient airline, with a strengthened network and a stronger balance sheet."" These cuts should help save Delta up to $3 billion dollars." +business,"United Airlines and Continental Airlines shareholders yesterday approved a US$3.2 billion merger that would create the world's largest airline. 98% of shareholders approved of the deal. In the deal, United stockholders will hold 55% of the company, while Continental stockholders will get 1.05 new shares for each Continental share and will hold the remaining 45% of the company. The deal was earlier approved by United States antitrust regulators. The new company, which keeps United's name but Continental's globe logo, has little overlap in its route network, and will be headed by Continental CEO Jeff Smisek. The new company surpasses rival Delta Air Lines, which merged only a year ago, to become the world's largest. The airlines expect to complete the merger by October 1 of this year, and customers can expect to see major changes in spring 2011, when the new United will rebrand their kiosks, worker uniforms and airplanes. The new company is calling the day when they rebrand ""Customer Day One"". ""Our stockholders recognized the value of bringing together Continental and United to create a platform for increased profitability and sustainable, long-term growth,"" Smisek announced after the merger. Some analysts agree. ""No further obstacles to the merger are likely at this point,"" Jim Corridore, Standard & Poor's equity analyst, said to investors. Corridore also said that ""we are positive on the planned merger, which we think creates an extremely strong global route network with opportunities for cost and revenue synergies."" Other people were less positive about the merger. Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, said that ""losing a major competitor is likely to make prices rise — all things equal on the economy and fuel prices."" Also, a lawsuit in California accusing the merger of monopolizing the market and raising fares has been filed by lawyer Joseph Alioto, who claims that he represents consumers. United and Continental have defended themselves against accusations of monopolizing the airline industry by stating that they compete with low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines on three quarters of their US network. The airlines have also said that the low overlap and the low-cost competition will bring fares to heel." +business,"A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine collided with a Japanese oil-tanker in the Strait of Hormuz late last night. Only minor damage to the tanker and no serious injuries were reported. The USS Newport News submarine collided with the stern of the Japanese oil-tanker, causing minor damage to the tanker. No personnel on either vessel were seriously injured, US Navy and Japanese government officials said. The straits of Hormuz connect the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea and is a major waterway for oil tankers. Immediately after the incident the tanker was able to continue to nearby port in the United Arab Emirates. The tanker is owned by Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Ltd. The Japanese government was informed of the incident soon after by the Navy and the U.S Embassy in Tokyo. They have requested that the U.S investigate the cause of the incident. The recent incident is a stark reminder of the February 2001 incident when a U.S. Submarine rammed into a Japanese fishing vessel in waters off Hawaii, killing nine people." +business,"The United States' third-largest airline operator, Delta Air Lines, will cut 1,000 jobs due to a planned service reduction at their Cincinnati hub. The carrier also announced they will sell 11 of their Boeing 767-200 planes to an air-cargo company, ABX Air Inc., since they are the least fuel-efficient aircraft in the fleet. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport lost 9 destinations, but the carrier said there would be no inconvenience to passengers. Delta will fly to 20 new ""business destinations"" from Atlanta and Salt Lake City, instead. Also 41 international connections are to be maintained or expanded. The changes took place due to the difficult financial situation of the company, which suffered $10 billion in losses since 2001, and warned that they would file for bankruptcy if unsuccessful in lowering costs." +business,"The co-pilot and the widow of the pilot of Comair Flight 5191 have sued the United States Federal Aviation Administration, Blue Grass Airport where the crash occurred, and Jeppesen Dataplan Inc, the manufacturer of the airport charts the pilots were using and a subsidiary of Boeing. The co-pilot was the only survivor in the disaster, which killed 49 people one year ago on August 27, 2006. The aircraft crashed after attempting takeoff on the wrong runway, which was only for general aviation and therefore not long enough for use by commercial airliners. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined last month that the primary cause of the accident was most likely pilot error. However, First Officer James Polehinke and Amy Clay, widow of Captain Jeffrey Clay, allege that all three organisations they are suing were also negligent. Despite this, one lead investigator has named other contributing factors, including staffing deficiencies in the control tower, an air traffic controller suffering from fatigue, airport charts that were out of date and the fact that vital documents warning pilots of a route change due to construction work did not reach the aircraft's flight crew. In addition to the other three companies, Polehinke is also suing the company that designed the lighting system in use at the airport. The NTSB's official probable cause for the disaster is as follows: ""The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the flight crewmembers’ failure to use available cues and aids to identify the airplane’s location on the airport surface during taxi and their failure to cross‑check and verify that the airplane was on the correct runway before takeoff. Contributing to the accident were the flight crew’s non-pertinent conversations during taxi, which resulted in a loss of positional awareness and the Federal Aviation Administration’s failure to require that all runway crossings be authorized only by specific air traffic control clearances.""" +business,"laborPolice raided the SsangYong Motor Company's plant in South Korea today, in order to evict workers who have been occupying the plant since May in protest of proposed layoffs. Most of the workers were those who were previously fired for opposing layoffs. 100&ndash;400 police officers raided the auto plant south of Seoul at around 10:00 a.m. (local time). Police intended to evict some 600 striking workers who, according to a union representing the workers, ""will fight to the death should police forcefully break up the occupation."" Workers at the plant are resisting police by attacking them with slingshots, metal pipes and molotov cocktails. During the raid, two unnamed workers fell from the four story building while trying to stop the police from landing onto the roof from cargo containers dropped by helicopter. Both sustained injuries, with one in critical condition from the amount of blood he lost. SsangYong Motor Company has been in court-approved bankruptcy since February and is planning on laying off a third of its workforce to stay in business. However, workers say the company should provide a better proposal regarding the layoffs as well as a more reasonable compensation package for workers being laid off. The situation has caused the company to lose more than US$184 million in output." +business,"Computing Google announced today that they are developing Google Chrome OS. The operating system, announced on their official blog, will be based on their Chrome browser, which is now nine months old. Google said that at first it will be targeted toward netbooks, but in the future, will eventually expand. The company said that it will continue to be developed alongside Android, their operating system currently being used on mobile devices. The system will run in a windowing system atop a Linux kernel and will be fully open source. It is planned to be released in 2010. On their blog, Google said, ""Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds,"" said the blog post written by Sundar Pichai, Vice President Product Management, and Google's engineering director, Linus Upson. Both men said that ""the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web"" and that the new OS is ""our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be""." +business,"Cyprus Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris resigned yesterday due to public discontent with his handling of the negotiations over a bailout from international lenders and a state investigation into the circumstances that pushed the country close to a financial collapse. According to Cyprus based media organizations, Sarris has been succeeded by the current Labor Minister Haris Georgiades Sarris attributed his resignation to the probe announced earlier today, admitting that he may also be targeted by judges as they try to find out why the country was forced to seek a bailout. ""I believe that in order to facilitate the work of investigators the right thing would be to place my resignation at the disposal of the president of the republic, which I did,"" said Sarris, who was appointed as minister only in February. Sarris's resignation came shortly after he signed a €10 billion (US$13 billion) rescue deal with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund that could see depositors with €100,000 lose up to 60% of their savings. An earlier version of the deal, which called for all Cypriot bank depositors to sacrifice part of their savings, was later scrapped following a wave of popular outrage. The bailout deal includes measures that strip Cyprus of its status as a financial hub and force the local government to impose limits on cash transfers lest depositors try to channel their money to banks abroad." +business,"According to published reports and information posted to the Writely.com website and blog, the service has re-opened its Writely account beta program. The Writely beta was launched in August 2005, and Google acquired the Writely technology on March 9, 2006. The core Writely service provides a free online collaborative word processor which is widely viewed as an alternative and potential competitor to more traditional locally-run word processing software. The service has claimed that thousands of people had previously registered for the service exclusively driven by word-of-mouth and the Writely blog. Shortly after being acquired by Google, the company greatly restricted the service and maintained a future customer sign up waiting list. Writely re-opened its beta service on August 17, 2006. According to the company's blog, the timing of the re-launch was due to a positive product review on CNET combined with persistent email requests asking the service to re-open. Additionally, Writely is planning to make its service available as part of the Google Account sign-in sometime on the near future. A number of industry sources have speculated on why Google chose to issue a press release on August 17, 2006 touting its involvement in a Star Trek convention and failed to release any information on the Writely beta re-open. While Google has proven reticent to release and publish product information in the past, the lack of any published information for the Writely beta re-open has generated a greater than usual number of web posts and articles addressing the subject." +business,"The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has been investigating allegations surrounding Livedoor's acquisition strategies and stock sales. Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reports that the company may have made 4 billion yen ($35 million) in profits by following illegal takeover practices. Livedoor has been known to use acquisitions to support its rapid growth. It currently owns about 50 technology companies providing financial services and other software over the internet. Recent investigations have centered around the acquisitions of two companies Royal Shinpan, a consumer finance company and Cueznet Co. an online matchmaking firm. Livedoor announced its intent to acquire the two companies in August and September of 2004. According to allegations, an investment fund was used to purchase shares in the targeted companies before the announcements were made public. It is believed that after the stock swaps in October 2004, Livedoor received the shares of the two companies through this fund. The investment fund also received new Livedoor shares in exchange which were then allegedly sold off to a foreign investment fund. Livedoor is reported to have issued 12.6 million new shares for the two stock swaps. Since Livedoor owned most of the fund, the profits from these sales were siphoned back into Livedoor. The investment fund JMAM Salvage Ichi-go Toshi Jigyo Kumiai was deemed a voluntary organization and hence avoided registration and disclosure regarding its investors and its investments. Concealing ownership of targeted takeover companies violates securities and exchange laws. A prosector commented ""Stock swaps are not illegal, but it is problematic if a company makes deals aiming to make profits by selling its shares this way."" Livedoor shares continued their fall for the fourth straight day on Friday. The stock has now lost about 52 percent or $3.3 billion in market capitalization since news of the investigation broke through on Monday evening. The Tokyo Stock Exchange(TSE) is considering delisting stocks of Livedoor Co. and its affiliate Livedoor Marketing Co. Livedoor is scheduled to submit the findings of its internal investigation to the TSE by Friday. ""If we can confirm they violated listing regulations, we'll have no choice but to decide to delist their stocks,"" TSE Chairman and President Taizo Nishimuro told reporters at a news conference. A company's delisting would seriously impact its ability to raise funds." +business,"ChinaChina Eastern Airlines stated on Thursday that it had signed a contract to purchase a score of Airbus A320 passenger jets for 9.9 billion yuan (about US$1.4 billion). The airline, which is the third largest in China, signed the agreement in Paris on June 15. The company said that the planes would meet additional demand for domestic passenger routes. The deal was approved unanimously by China Eastern's board of directors. The China Daily newspaper reported that the deal is waiting for an approval by Chinese aviation authorities. The planes are expected to start delivering in 2011 and end two years later. The Airbus A320 is a single-aisle airplane, and Airbus' best selling jet. It can seat up to 150 people and is used primarily for medium- and short-haul routes." +business,"U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law Wednesday a major bankruptcy reform bill, making the most sweeping changes to the laws of personal bankruptcy in the past two decades. Bill S.256 is predicted to reduce the chances of filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy for 30,000 to 210,000 families per year, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. The legislation was strongly opposed by some consumer advocates and by some Democrats in Congress, who complained about the lack of debate on exemptions they attempted to introduce and tried to derail the passage of the bill. Those who are unable to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy will then be forced to file under Chapter 13, which requires payment of some debts by order of a judge based on the financial resources of the debtor. Opponents said the bill will end a chance for a fresh start in the financial lives of the American people by keeping them in debt to collection agencies, as well as credit card companies and banks who have made it easy to obtain high credit limits amid mounting consumer debt. In his remarks before signing the bill, which he supported, Bush said, ""The bipartisan bill I'm about to sign makes common-sense reforms to our bankruptcy laws. By restoring integrity to the bankruptcy process, this law will make our financial system stronger and better. By making the system fairer for creditors and debtors, we will ensure that more Americans can get access to affordable credit."" The bankruptcy bill received a 302-126 approval in the house, after receiving a 74-25 vote in the Senate last month following strong, mostly partisan debate. The US bankruptcy system was established in 1898. It allowed judges and debtors to come to terms with the costly medical bills that can follow a relative's death, or a family illness. Such cases form nearly half of all bankruptcies filed in the USA, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. Now many of those people will have to work out repayment plans suitable to creditors instead of having debts erased by a judge, according to the new law, which takes effect in six months. In the past, a judge or court representative would calculate an individual's income and subtract necessities of life to come up with a practical repayment plan of some debt. The new law stipulates that a graph, showing the poverty level in whichever state the consumer is living will be the criteria. It assumes that if people can subsist at that poverty level, then everything over that can be used to repay creditors. Additionally, a provision that allowed debtors to file their own Chapter 7 fresh start bankruptcy has been changed to require a lawyer, paid by the debtor, to do the filing. The new law also erased ""usury"" provisions in lending laws, with some lawmakers saying that paying 30 percent interest was not too much when a debtor was behind on payments. But Bush said that credit will ""be more affordable because when bankruptcy is less common, credit can be extended to more people at better rates,"" meeting demands of the credit card companies which they have been pressing for the last eight years. ""The big winners under the new law will be the special interests that literally wrote it, particularly the credit card industry,"" said Travis B. Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America. ""This is particularly ironic because reckless and abusive lending practices by credit card companies have driven many Americans to the brink of bankruptcy."" The forces arrayed on the losing side of this bill said it will hurt low-income working people, single mothers, minorities, and elderly and will end a safety net for people who have lost jobs or face major medical bills. People who fail (refuse) to pay or refuse to go to court will punished by a fine and or arrest warrant made out in their name. About fifty thousand Americans will be punished by a fine and or warrant about three thousand Americans every year will go to jail under the new bankruptcy law. For some people this will be a third strike so they will be put in jail for life. But Mallory Duncan, a lawyer for the National Retail Federation, said ""Bankruptcy has gone from a stigma to a financial planning tool for many."" New personal bankruptcy filings have increased from 172,423 in 1978 to 1,599,986 last year, an increase of 828% during that time; however, it edged down slightly last year. About 2 percent to 13 percent of those who dissolve their debts in Chapter 7 bankruptcy each year in exchange for forfeiting some assets will be disqualified from doing so under the law, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. Bankruptcy lawyers anticipate a rush to the courthouse to beat the six-month window before the new reforms take effect." +business,"Spanish budget air carrier LTE International Airways has suspended all of their flights due to financial trouble. Around 800 passengers have been stranded by the move and are being accommodated in hotels while alternative transport is arranged. The airline was founded in 1987 and has been known as both LTU and Volar Airlines in the past. The company's fleet of seven Airbus A320 aircraft were used for scheduled and chartered passenger services, and available for lease to other businesses. ""LTE is doing everything to minimize the impact of this suspension of services on its clients and providers. After 20 years operating with maximum dedication to our clients it just was not possible to avoid this situation given world events lately,"" read a statement on LTE's website. The airline flew from Spain to destinations such as Italy, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. The news comes just one day after Spanish airline FlySur, Andalusia's first airline, filed for bankruptcy after just forty-five days. The airline's one plane had at times flown with just one passenger." +business,"ZimbabweZimbabwe has decided to abandon its currency, the Zimbabwean dollar, in favour of other currencies. Acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa announced today that Zimbabweans will be allowed to make transactions in other currencies along with the local currency. ""In line with the prevailing practices by the general public, the government is therefore allowing the use of multiple foreign currencies for business transactions alongside the Zimbabwean dollar,"" he said, adding that the Zimbabwean dollar will not be removed from circulation and would be used alongside other currencies. This decision comes during the current period of hyperinflation, which has massively devalued the Zimbabwean dollar. Banknotes up to $100 trillion have been printed, despite the removal of ten zeroes from the currency last summer to try to make transactions easier. The official inflation rate, last updated in July 2008, was 231,000,000% a year, although independent estimates place the number as high as 6.5x10108, or 6.5 quindecillion novemdecillion, percent. Up to now, only vendors with licenses were legally able to accept foreign currencies, although the practice was widespread — private businesses altogether refuse to accept the unstable Zimbabwean dollar. Large sections of the workforce, including teachers and doctors, have gone on strike because hyperinflation rapidly renders their wages worthless. Representative groups said salaries, now measured in trillions of dollars, are insufficient to pay for even the bus fare to work. Zimbabwe also faces other crises, including a cholera epidemic that has claimed the lives of over 3,000 people, according to statistics from the World Health Organisation." +business,"Starbucks Coffee is set to close 300 stores and lay off around 6,700 employees. The announcement came after a 69% drop in quarterly profits. The company made a profit of $64.3 million in the 13 trading weeks ending in December, down from $208.1 million last year. Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz sent a letter to employees explaining the difficulties the company is having in the current economic climate. He placed some of the blame of the loss in sales on other companies such as McDonalds and Dunkin’ Donuts, which have been improving the quality of their coffee. ""These decisions have been made to ensure the company is leaner and prepared to endure a worsening economic climate,"" said Schultz in the letter. Two-thirds of the store closures are to take place in the United States. Schultz's salary would also be reduced to $10,000 a year according to the Wall Street Journal. The closures are on top of the already 600 stores the company announced they would be closing. Starbucks has approximately 16,000 stores internationally with around 11,000 in the U.S. There are about 172,000 employees in all areas of the company." +business,"New Zealand Collection of New Zealand coins, and a note. Photograph by Gabriel Pollard. A recent survey has shown that the public support of a shared currency between Australia and New Zealand has risen. The Australian survey, released at the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, has shown that the support for a shared currency in New Zealand is at 49%. The Australian support is slightly lower at 41%. Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand, has said that New Zealand would not have a shared currency, but an Australian currency. She fears that the new dollar would be run by an Australian Reserve Bank, driving interest rates that are unrelated to the state of the New Zealand economy. Miss Clark told the New Zealand Press Association, ""The convergence of trying to bring the two economies together could be quite rough on the smaller party New Zealand."" Opposition National party leader, John Key is supporting an exploration of the idea of a shared currency." +business,"Ever since the Taste of Taiwan Cuisine, a complex to promote the MICE (meeting, incentive travel, conference, and exhibition) and cultural industries in Taiwan exclusively in June, made its initiation at 2006, the tourism ratio from foreigners were progressively increased in this complex event. To bring up the MICE industry, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the event organizer, arranged several key events including Taipei Trade Shows, travel packages, views, and conferences for international businesspeople. This effectively redefined the MICE industry in Taiwan during the event. As the 2008 WiMAX Expo Taipei and COMPUTEX Taipei jointly showcased in the Taipei World Trade Center Hall 1 - 3, Taipei International Convention Center, and TWTC Nangang, the potential of ICT industry in Taiwan were demonstrated to drive more discussions between international businesspeople during the show hours and conferences. Products related to current incidents including energy-efficiency, environmental-friendly, and low-prices were highly respected from industrial businesspeople. In addition to several forums and seminars, topical issues including environment and energy-saving were also mentioned during the shows. Apart from seminars and trade shows, since the TWTC Nangang was launched on March 13, the venue brought opportunities for several industries. As the government claimed to promote the MICE industry positively, Taiwan will keep its stable position on international sourcing center in Asia with more trade shows expanded to TWTC Nangang. Culinary, historical ancestry, natural views, and country images, are key factors to demonstrate the culture of a nation. Different from them, the creativity and innovations showcased another style in its cultural industry. A good example was the organization of three theme shows for food and packaging industries - ""Food Taipei"", ""Foodtech Taipei"", and ""Taipei Pack"", a collective with different cultures from twenty-seven countries including United States, South Korea, Canada, Japan, Sri Lanka, Austria, Philippines, Chile, Malaysia, Spain, Fiji, Poland, and six nations from Africa. Not only the shows, the TAITRA also provided several special coupon cards for international businesspeople to discount in several local department stores, hotels, tourism views, and gourmet stores to rise up the tourism industry. Although the tourism industry was firmly prosper as trade shows went smoothly, but when a great shows took place at Taipei World Trade Center, it still exposed a major problem on transportation although Walter Yeh, Vice President of TAITRA, ever emphasized to improve this critical issue in a press conference. Image:2008FoodTaipei Central America Pavilion.jpg|2008 Food Taipei - Central America Pavilion.Rico Shen Image:2008DisplayTaiwan.jpg|2008 Display taiwan, to chain the ICT industry after COMPUTEX & WiMAX Expo.Rico Shen Image:2008Computex Bestlink Alpha 400.jpg|Low-Price Notebooks are mostly discussed from international buyers since the launch of Eee PC.Rico Shen Image:2008Computex e21Forum Intel Keynote.jpg|COMPUTEX e21FORUM, a typical example of international conference held annually at the Taipei International Convention Center.Rico Shen Image:2008Computex Taiwan Design Innovation Pavilion VALD Conceptual Mini-PC.jpg|Creative designs will be the best catalyst in several industries.Rico Shen Image:2008 Taiwan Excellence Awards Gold and Silver Awards Winners.jpg|Taiwan Excellence Awards, a special way to promote the image of Taiwan.Rico Shen" +business,"Irish national airline Aer Lingus have purchased 12 new long-haul Airbus aircraft as a means of modernising it's long-haul fleet and improving it's transatlantic network. Under the agreement, Aer Lingus Group PLC said it will receive six new A330-300E aircraft from 2009 to 2011, then between 2014 and 2016 it will take delivery of six new A350 XWB (Extra Wide Body) aircraft, a new design currently under development by Airbus. Aer Lingus also have options of six more A350s to exercise by 2018. Aer Lingus already operates an all-Airbus fleet consisting of 30 short-haul aircraft( 24 A320s and 6 A321s) and eight long-haul A330s, and had made the purchase of new long-haul airliners a top priority since the formerly state-owned company was floated on British and Irish stock markets in September 2006. The airline had approached Airbus rival Boeing regarding a potential deal for their new 787 aircraft, but Aer Lingus Chief Executive Dermot Mannion stated that he believed the Airbus aircraft were “better on fuel and better on range” than the 787. He also said that, although the aircraft have a catalogue value of €1.78 billion (US$2.4 billion), Airbus had offered them at an ""exceptional discounts” on them. Some of the A330s will be replaced by the new aircraft. As well as new routes to the US, Mannion stated that there was a possibility of routes elsewhere resulting from the new aircraft as well, saying, “We will prioritize the U.S. (but) we have an eye as to what's happening to the Far East and South Africa.” The airline already offers flights to New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dubai, and recently launched 3 new U.S. routes to San Francisco, Orlando, and Washington. Aer Lingus shares on the Irish Stock Exchange fell 2.5 percent to €2.73 ($3.68) the day the deal was announced. It will fall through unless backed by shareholders. Aer Lingus rival Ryanair has been attempting to take over Aer Lingus since December, and if this bid is successful, the new aircraft may become redundant as Ryanair intends to end transatlantic services. However, the Irish government, which holds a 25 percent share in Aer Lingus, disapproves of the takeover, as do Aer Lingus employee-controlled trusts that hold more than 15 percent shares. Ryanair owns a 25 percent share in Aer Lingus. The takeover is also unlikely to receive regulatory approval from the European Union. Mannion said of the integration of the new aircraft ""The A350 XWB fits in with our ambitious plans to expand existing routes and to open up new ones from our hub in Dublin. We already have an all Airbus fleet and the new aircraft will fit in seamlessly.""" +business,"Internet Within 24-hours of posting a web advertisement for an upcoming hackathon in Boston, Massachusetts, web startup Sqoot has lost four sponsors for the event, in what has been described as the ""worst startup PR crisis in recent history."" This caused them to postpone the event and apologize in response to thousands of tweets that opposed the advert and found its content sexist. On March 20, Sqoot, an API provider that delivers daily deals like Groupon and Gilt City, posted an online advert for their upcoming Boston API Jam. The advert promoted various perks for the event, including an in-house DJ, cocktails, food trucks and access to women: women specifically there to serve beer to attendees. As soon as the ad was posted to Eventbrite, many on Twitter expressed concern. Over 3,000 tweets later, the advert was deemed sexist by many and Twitter users both condemned Sqoot and contacted the sponsors of the event. The ad, which Alex Williams of SiliconANGLE described as ""bizarre"" and ""misogynist,"" was quietly changed on Eventbrite by Sqoot, removing the mention of women as beer peddlers. In a matter of hours, four sponsors had pulled out from the Boston event: CloudMine, Apigee, Heroku, and MongoHQ. Shortly thereafter, Sqoot offered two apologies: a brief apology which was then followed by a more detailed apology stating that they desired to have a ""good party"" that was not a standard hackathon experience of pizza and keynote speakers. Sqoot stated that they ""aimed to call attention to the male-dominated tech world through humor and intended to be inclusive, the gravity of our wording was just the opposite. Our words completely undermined our intentions and went further to harm the world we're trying to have a positive impact on."" Other sponsors such as Constant Contact and Simple Relevance remained as sponsors. Shanley Kane, director of product management at Basho Technologies, supported the sponsor withdrawal and didn't just consider the advertisement sexist, but also homophobic by ostracizing gay men by promoting a seemingly ""straight"" agenda for the event. Kane also believed that Sqoot had the ""false assumption that women would not attend the event at all,"" by promoting it with a male targeted spin. In an industry that is dominated by men, it can be assumed that more men would attend the hackathon than women, but, the advertisement ostracized women even more from attending. And this wasn't Sqoot's first foray into straight male targeted marketing. Blog posts like ""Sqoot Makes You Yelp!"" featuring the Yelp logo on a woman's backside and ""Sqoot Goes Topless"" featuring an image of a topless woman, are meant to promote the opening of Yelp's API and company transparency. Alex Williams believes that the Sqoot situation shows that sexism within the tech industry is broad and growing. ""Women are marginalized and treated more as objects than as colleagues. The trend is a disturbing one and poses a serious threat to the health and diversity of the tech sector."" Techli's Kathryn Hough chocked it up to immaturity, ""Someone needs to tell young founders that frat house behavior is not acceptable in the business world. If Sqoot’s business collapses for a few sentences of sexist copy, I hope that other young founders get to see the wreckage before following them off the plank."" Lukas Blakk, a release engineer and advisory board member for The Ada Initiative, a non-profit that tries to increase female participation in technology and open source, believes that having a code of conduct in place is a necessity for businesses, and for those businesses who don't ""you’ve got a ticking time bomb in your organization’s future."" Social media is giving businesses a new challenge when it comes to marketing. When it comes to the criticism fielded by the public towards businesses regarding sexist content, fellow Ada Initiative board member and database analyst Selena Deckelmann agrees that businesses need to step up to the challenge and respond appropriately. ""...companies need to develop the skills necessary to respond with grace and understanding, even when under intense, negative scrutiny. Silencing, gas-lighting and ignoring the messenger tactics no longer work when a social network quickly spreads information, and occasionally, outrage."" Is there a future for Sqoot? Mike Maney believes Sqoot can recover. Maney, head of influencer management for Alcatel-Lucent, acknowledges that Sqoot will have a long way to go to regain their credibility amongst the tech industry and the clientele they serve, ""But, the work they'll have to do to undo the self-inflicted damage ... is going to require a massive effort.""" +business,"Satire site Uncyclopedia, a parody of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, has been labeled by the Malaysian government as dangerous. The Internal Security Department of Malaysia issued the warning today, saying that the site has ""messages and information insulting Malaysia"". The warning notes the creation date of the website as being 5 January 2005, and hosted by Wikia, Inc., both of which are correct. However, it claims Wikia owns Wikipedia; Wikipedia is a charitable non-profit website owned by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, while Wikia is an independent, for-profit company. The report evidently mentions that Uncyclopedia covers Malaysian ""history, culture, the political leaders, the government, the national song and the name / history of the national flag,"" none of which is ""correct"". They accuse the website of helping to reinforce a bad international image of their country. There are no reports of the site being blocked from access within the country, only this statement, which urges Malaysians not to circulate the content. Uncyclopedia's article on Malaysia begins: Essentially the penis of Asia which is located to the north of their cousins who live on an even smaller island Singapore, Malaysia (also known as Bolehland) is a young nation of diverse cultures and races such as F1 Formula-1 and Nascar. The timezone of Malaysia is unique because it follows the system of +1/+2 PMT (Predetermined Meeting Time) which is 1 or 2 hours later than PMT. Most foreigners have difficulty adjusting to this new timezone as they tend to show up 1 or 2 hours earlier than the local counterparts. The nation is moving forward with a vision towards becoming a developed nation by the year 2020, 3030, 4040 or whatever catchy number. ... Another common state that Malaysians have is denial (no lah, where got?), which incidentally, is a river in Egypt. The site has fired back with a parody article posted at the site under their UnNews section, titled Uncyclopedia Internal Security Department warns on Malaysia. The article suggests that the ""Internal Security Department of the Uncyclomedia Foundation,"" which is a facetious and fictitious parent organization of Uncyclopedia, identifies Malaysia ""as a dangerous country... It warned its people not to use the country today."" There are forty-seven individual language editions of Uncyclopedia, including Tolololpedia, which is written in Bahasa Melayu, the Malay language. This is in addition to fictional ""language"" editions which include Oscar Wilde, Newspeak, N00b, White Supremacist, and Re: PharmaccgRy." +business,"Microsoft has launched its much-hyped Xbox 360 console into Japan, but unlike the European and American markets the Japanese are not rushing out to buy them. When launched in the American and European markets, stores sold out early. In Japan, sales are much lower. One store-owner says that fewer than 50 units were sold in the first 2 hours of its release. Many believe that in Japan it is difficult for any games console to be successful that isn't from a Japanese company, such as Sony or Nintendo. The first generation of Xbox consoles performed similarly possibly due to being released two years after the PlayStation 2. The large size of the console and the differing style of games was also said to have contributed. There is still some hope for the Xbox 360, Takeshi Tajima, a BNP Paribas analyst, told Reuters news agency: ""most people are going to wait and see.""" +business,"economy and business The head of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, has called for a meeting to assess the trade finance situation, including the impact on developing countries. The meeting, which is schedule for November 12, will allow credit institutes and government officials to review the current trade credit situation. ""A number of WTO members, in particular developing countries, have flagged the problems they are facing in arranging trade financing,"" wrote WTO Director-General Lamy. ""The purpose of our next meeting will be to review how the international market for trade-financing is faring in view of the current very difficult conditions on international financial markets,"" he continued. Credit is vital to trade with around 90 percent of the US$14 trillion in world trade financed by credit. While this market has done well compared to other credit markets, bankers are suggesting that problems might occur shortly. Rates on these trade loans have increased by 3 percent. Developing countries have seen several recent years of positive growth but the effects of the global financial crisis on these countries have pushed growth levels down. Lamy has asked that the heads of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other regional development banks to attend. He also invited the five leading commercial banks in trade finance: Citigroup, Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Scotland, JPMorgan Chase, and HSBC. Lamy also said that work on the Doha Development Round of trade is continuing but did not say if it would be finished this year." +business,"The U.S. Dollar fell to an all time low against the Euro after data from the U.S. heightened concerns regarding an economic recession. The U.S. currency traded at 1.444 versus the Euro and reached a 26-year low against the British Pound. An index that measures US consumer confidence fell in October to 95,6 points while in August U.S. home prices declined 4,4%, the biggest fall of the past six years. The data bolsters speculation that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates in the next meeting. The U.S. central bank is set to decide on interest rates on the 31st of October and economists expect a 25 basis point cut to 4,50%" +business,"US-based Oracle Corporation announced earlier today that they are buying rival US-based Siebel Systems for $10.66 USD per share. Siebel shareholders have the option to receive the $10.66 per share in cash or in Oracle stock. This deal is valued at approximately $5.85 billion USD. Siebel Systems' Board of Directors has already voted in favour of the acquisition. Founder Thomas Siebel has also given his support. A special meeting will soon be held for Siebel stockholders to vote on the acquisition. If all goes well the deal should close in the early part of next year. After acquiring Siebel; Oracle, which specializes in database applications, will become the second largest software company. Oracle has offices in more than 145 countries, and employs over 50,000 people. This acquisition will make Oracle the largest customer relationship management (CRM) applications company in the world. CRM applications include accounting, inventory management and customer management software. ""Siebel's 4,000 applications customers and 3,400,000 CRM users strengthen our number one position in applications in North America and move us closer to the number one position in applications globally"", said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. ""Today is a great day for Siebel Systems' customers, partners, shareholders, and employees,"" said Thomas M. Siebel, Chairman and Founder of Siebel Systems. Many analysts predicted the acquisition of Siebel after Oracle bought competitor PeopleSoft for $10 billion USD, last December." +business,"On February 4th, 2008 Judge Vaughn R. Walker dismissed the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuit against Uri Geller. Walker dismissed the case, concluding in his 25 page opinion that the United States District Court in San Francisco did not have jurisdiction over Geller, a British subject, or Explorologist, LTD, an English company that holds certain rights to him. The lawsuit was filed in May 2007 by the EFF on behalf of Brian Sapient and his organization the Rational Response Squad. Sapient has posted a excerpt from the PBS documentary Secrets of the Psychics, starring James Randi, on YouTube. Geller claimed he owned the video clip and forced YouTube to remove the video. However, Sapient filed a counter-DMCA claim and the video has since been restored pending the lawsuits. Walker suggested that the case be moved to Philadelphia where Explorologist, LTD (Geller's business) filed an earlier lawsuit against Sapient, claiming that the YouTube post violated English Copyright Law." +business,"A new redesigned US $10 bill was introduced at a ceremony yesterday on Ellis Island. The new bill adds three new background colors; red, yellow and orange. It continues to feature Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury Secretary. The $10 bill is the third US bill to switch from the traditional green. The $20 and $50 bills were redesigned to feature color within the past two years. The improvements in digital technology have made it much easier for counterfeiters. ""Ten years ago, 1 percent of (counterfeit) bills were produced on digital equipment. These days, 56 percent are produced on digital equipment, and the technology is more accessible to the general population,"" said Eric Zahren, spokesman for the Secret Service. According to the Treasury Department, to be able to keep ahead of counterfeiters currency will need to continue to be updated every seven to ten years. The $10 bill was last redesigned in 2000. ""The intention was not to create a counterfeit-proof note&mdash;which is basically impossible&mdash;but one that's harder to duplicate and easier to authenticate,"" said Zahren. This new bill includes many new and enhanced security features such as color-shifting ink, a watermark, microprinting and a security thread Dawn Haley of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing said in a statement ""The new $10 note design continues the U.S. Government's efforts to make our currency safer, smarter, and more secure."" The new $10 bill is expected to go into circulation in early 2006." +business,"A controversial development training course called ""Landmark Forum"" is cited in religious discrimination lawsuits in United States federal courts in New York and Washington, D.C. The seminars are run by a San Francisco, California-based for-profit training company called Landmark Education. The company evolved from Erhard Seminars Training ""est"", and has faced criticism regarding its techniques and its use of unpaid labor. The sperm bank and surrogacy company Los Angeles-based Growing Generations is named as a defendant in the New York lawsuit, and the Democratic political action committee Twenty-First Century Democrats is a defendant in the Washington, D.C. case. In separate lawsuits filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, New York, and in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C., former employees are suing their employers for monetary damages and claiming religious discrimination after their employers allegedly mandated that they attend courses at Landmark Education. In the US$3 million federal lawsuit filed in New York, Scott Glasgow is suing his former employer Growing Generations and its CEO Stuart Miller. Growing Generations maintains sperm banks and also arranges surrogacy for gay couples who wish to have children. The company has offices in New York and Los Angeles, and has done business with celebrities including actor B. D. Wong of Law & Order: SVU. Glasgow was marketing director of Growing Generations, and claims he was fired in June 2007 after refusing to continue attending Landmark Education seminars. Glasgow is also suing for sexual harassment, and claims Miller came on to him in September 2006. He made approximately $100,000 per year as the company's marketing director, and was the company's only employee based out of New York City. The company's main offices are in Los Angeles. 4=Scott Glasgow ""I was shocked when I was fired. It took me months to right myself. I want them to stop imposing Landmark on the employees, and I want an apology,"" said Glasgow in a statement in The Village Voice. Brent Pelton, one of Glasgow's attorneys, stated that: ""The Landmark philosophy is deeply ingrained in the culture of the company"". Glasgow said that the Landmark Education training courses were ""opposite"" to his Christian beliefs. According to Glasgow he was questioned by Miller in May 2007 after he walked out of a Landmark Education course, and was fired shortly thereafter. ""We stand by the allegations contained in the complaint and we look forward to proving them at trial,"" said Pelton in a statement to ABC News. Ian Wallace, an attorney who represents Growing Generations, claimed that Glasgow wasn't fired but walked away from his position. ""Growing Generations and Mr. Miller are very confident that these claims will be dismissed ultimately, and there's no factual basis for them whatsoever,"" said Wallace in a statement to The Village Voice. Lawyers representing Growing Generations and Stuart Miller declined comment to The New York Post, and did not immediately return a message from ABC News. In Glasgow's complaint, entered into federal court record on April 18, he asserts that Landmark Education constitutes a ""religion"", and ""perceived their philosophy as a form of religion that contradicted his own personal beliefs"". He states that when he was promoted to Director of Marketing, he asked Miller if he could stop attending the Landmark sessions but was told that they were mandatory for all of the company's executives and that Landmark is ""very much the language of the company."" Glasgow said his performance at the company was assessed based on how he was ""touching, moving and inspiring"" others, a phrase from the Landmark philosophy, as opposed to his business accomplishments at the company. The complaint claims that the actions of Miller and Growing Generations violated Federal, New York State and New York City civil rights laws. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. deals with a separate plaintiff and company, but the plaintiff in the suit also claims that religious discrimination took place for allegedly being mandated to attend Landmark Education courses. Kenneth Goldman is suing the United States Democratic political action committee Twenty-First Century Democrats (also 21st Century Democrats) and its former executive director Kelly Young. Goldman was formerly the communications director of 21st Century Democrats. According to Goldman's complaint, three employees of 21st Century Democrats were fired after refusing to attend the Landmark Forum course. The complaint asserts that Landmark Education has ""religious characteristics and theological implications"" which influenced the mission of 21st Century Democrats and the way the organization conducted business. Goldman's complaint states that in addition to himself, a training director and field director were also fired after they made it clear they would not attend the Landmark Forum. Goldman says executive director Young infused Landmark Education jargon terms into staff meetings such as ""create possibilities"", ""create a new context"", and ""enroll in possibilities"". He also claims that Young ""urged"" staff members to participate in Landmark Education events outside of the workplace, drove employees to and from Landmark functions, and used funds from 21st Century Democrats to pay for employees to attend those functions. Goldman's complaint asserts that he was discriminated against in violation of the District of Columbia Human Rights Act. Landmark Education spokeswoman Deborah Beroset In a statement in The Washington Times, the executive director of 21st Century Democrats, Mark Lotwis, called the lawsuit ""frivolous"" and said: ""we're going to defend our organization's integrity"". Landmark Education spokeswoman Deborah Beroset said that the Landmark Forum ""is in no way religious in nature and any claim to the contrary is simply absurd,"" and stated: ""While we are not a party to this lawsuit and have no firsthand knowledge of it, we can only assume that we are being used as a legal and political football to further the plaintiff""s own financial interests."" The New York lawsuit was filed April 14, and is still in early filing stages. A conference with the federal court judge in the case has been scheduled for June 17. The Washington, D.C. suit began in November 2007, and entered mediation this past March. As of April 15 the parties in the case were due back to court on July 11 to update the court on the mediation process. Landmark Education is descended from Erhard Seminars Training, also called ""est"", which was founded by Werner Erhard. est began in 1971, and Erhard's company Werner Erhard and Associates repackaged the course as ""The Forum"" in 1985. Associates of Erhard bought the license to his ""technology"" and incorporated Landmark Education in California in 1991. This is not the first time employees have sued claiming mandatory attendance at ""Forum"" workshops violated their civil rights. In a lawsuit filed in December 1988 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, eight employees of DeKalb Farmers Market in Decatur, Georgia sued their employer claiming their religious freedom and civil rights were violated when they were allegedly coerced into attending ""Forum"" training sessions. ""Many of these training programs, particularly at large corporations, claim to be purely psychological, aimed at improving productivity and morale and loyalty. But in fact they are religious,"" said University of Denver religious studies professor Carl Raschke in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. The DeKalb Farmers Market employees were represented by lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union. Consulting Technologies Inc., an affiliate of Transformational Technologies Inc., was named as a party in the lawsuit. Transformational Technologies was founded by Werner Erhard, and was not named as a party in the suit. The ""Forum"" course that the employees claimed they were mandated to attend was developed by Werner Erhard and Associates. Employees said that they were fired or pressured to quit after they objected to the Forum courses. The workers claimed that the Forum course contradicted with their religious beliefs. The plaintiffs in the suit included adherents of varying religious backgrounds, including Christianity and Hinduism. ""The sessions put people into a hibernating state. They ask for total loyalty. It's like brainwashing,"" said Dong Shik Kim, one of the plaintiffs in the case. The plaintiffs said they lost their jobs after objecting to a ""new age quasi-religious cult"" which they said was developed by Werner Erhard. The DeKalb Farmers Market denied the allegations, and an attorney for the company Edward D. Buckley III told The Wall Street Journal that employees were encouraged, not coerced, to attend the training sessions. According to The Wall Street Journal, The Forum said it would not sanction workers being coerced to attend its training sessions. The parties in the DeKalb Farmers Market religious discrimination case came to a settlement in May 1989, and the case was dismissed with prejudice in June. The terms of the out-of-court settlement were not made public, but the employees' attorney Amy Totenberg told The Wall Street Journal that the case ""has made employers come to grips with the legitimate boundaries of employee training"". According to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers must ""reasonably accommodate"" their employees' religious beliefs unless this creates ""undue hardship"". In September 1988, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a policy-guidance notice which stated that New Age courses should be handled under Title VII of the Act. According to the Commission, employers must provide ""reasonable accommodation"" if an employee challenges a training course, unless this causes ""undue hardship"" for the company. In October 2006, Landmark Education took legal action against Google, YouTube, the Internet and a website owner in Queensland, Australia in attempts to remove criticism of its products from the Internet. The company sought a subpoena under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in an attempt to discover the identity of an anonymous critic who uploaded a 2004 French documentary of the Landmark Forum to the Internet. ""Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous"" (Voyage to the Land of the New Gurus) was produced by Pièces à Conviction, a French investigative journalism news program. The Electronic Frontier Foundation represented the anonymous critic and the Internet , and Landmark withdrew its subpoena in November 2006 in exchange for a promise from the anonymous critic not to repost the video. Landmark Education itself has come under scrutiny for its controversial labor practices. The company has been investigated by the United States Department of Labor in separate investigations originating out of California, Colorado, and Texas. Investigations focused on the heavy reliance of unpaid labor in the company's workforce, which Landmark Education calls ""assistants"" and deems volunteers. An investigation by the U.S. Dept. Labor based out of Colorado found that activities performed by Landmark Education's ""assistants"" include: ""office, clerical, telephone solicitation and enrollment, as well as greeting customers, setting up chairs, handling microphones during the seminars and making coffee. Additionally, a number of volunteers actually teach the courses and provide testimonials during and after the courses."" The Colorado investigation's 1996 report found that ""No records are kept of any hours worked by any employees."" According to a 1998 article in Metro Silicon Valley: ""In the end the Department of Labor dropped the issue, leaving Landmark trumpeting about its volunteers' choice in the matter."" Metro Silicon Valley reported that Landmark Education at the time employed 451 paid staff, and also utilized the services of 7,500 volunteers. After an investigation into Landmark Education's labor practices by the U.S. Dept. Labor's offices out of California, the company was deemed to have overtime violations. According to the Department of Labor's 2004 report on the investigation, back wages of $187,569.01 were found due to 45 employees. An investigation by the U.S. Dept. Labor in Texas which concluded in 2005 stated: ""Minimum wage violation found. Volunteers (Assistants) are not paid any wages for hours worked while performing the major duties of the firm. The assistants set up rooms, call registrants, collect fees, keep stats of classroom data/participants, file, they also are answering phones, training and leading seminars."" The Texas investigation also discovered an overtime violation. Landmark Education agreed to pay back wages for the overtime violation, but did not comply with the overtime violation found by the U.S. Dept. Labor for the ""assistants"". Landmark Education denied that the ""assistants"" are employees, though the Department of Labor report concluded: ""Interviews reveal that the employees are taking payments, registering clients, billing, training, recruiting, setting up locations, cleaning, and other duties that would have to be performed by staff if the assistants did not perform them."" According to the 2004 investigative report by Pièces à Conviction in the ""Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous"" program, Landmark Education was investigated by the French government in 1995. In the ""Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous"" program volunteers were filmed through a hidden camera and shown performing duties for Landmark Education in France including manning phones, recruitment and financial work for the company, and one volunteer was shown cleaning a toilet. Le Nouvel Observateur reported that after ""Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous"" aired in France, labor inspectors investigated Landmark Education's use of unpaid volunteers. According to Le Nouvel Observateur, one month after the labor investigation took place the French branch of the company had disbanded. A former ""Introduction Leader"" to the Landmark Forum, Lars Bergwik, has recently posted a series of videos to YouTube critical of the company and its practices. Bergwik appeared on a 2004 investigative journalism program on Sweden's Channel 4, Kalla Fakta (Cold Facts). According to Bergwik, after the Kalla Fakta program on Landmark Education aired, ""Landmark left Sweden""." +business,"Indonesia has been angered by a decision of the European Union to leave all 51 of the nation's air carriers on the list of air carriers banned in the EU. State-owned flag carrier Garuda Indonesia had hoped to begin flights to Europe imminently and has ordered ten new jetliners to serve routes there and to the United States. Transport ministry spokesperson Bambang Ervan said ""This seems like an unfair punishment for Indonesia. The EU is not a sovereign country and is not a member of the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation). But we do respect the EU and its decision, and demand the same from the EU."" The ban was imposed after a string of accidents, of which the three most important were Adam Air Flight 574, a 102-fatality accident in which a Boeing 737-43Q plunged into the ocean after pilots distracted by instrument failure failed to maintain control, Adam Air Flight 172, in which another B737 snapped in half after a hard landing and Garuda Indonesia Flight 200, in which a third B737 attempted landing at extreme speed and overshot the runway, killing 21. Adam Air had also almost suffered a B737 crash the previous year, 2006, after a similar navigational instrument failure to that on Flight 574 caused the airliner to become lost for several hours, eventually performing an emergency landing hundreds of kilometres from its intended destination. Indonesia grounded the carrier in March after another accident in which a B737 overshot a runway. The carrier is also in severe financial difficulties and may soon be permanently shut down. Meanwhile, the pilot of Garuda 200 has been charged over the accident, sparking intense controversy. The EU reviewed the ban this week, but ruled that those responsible ""have still to demonstrate that they have completed the corrective actions"" needed to lift the ban. It is a blow to Indonesia, who had promised ""fast-track"" help to Garuda, Mandala Airlines, Premiair and Airfast to raise their safety to levels acceptable to the EU." +business,"Aviation The European Commission (EC) has approved yesterday a takeover of loss-making UK airline bmi from Lufthansa by International Airlines Group (IAG), owner of British Airways (BA). IAG will have to make concessions after Virgin Atlantic told the EC the deal would be anti-competitive. The deal is set to cost IAG, who also own Iberia, £172.5 million. That value could fall as budget subsidiary bmibaby may be retained by Lufthansa or sold elsewhere, and IAG are reported to be primarily interested in the main bmi business. A regional subsidiary also exists. IAG intends to use acquired slots at the busy Heathrow Airport, which serves London, to expand their own routes into Asia. The EC required IAG to surrender a number of flight slots at the airport. The slots surrendered or made available for lease are for use to destinations in Scotland, France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. The EC also insisted that combined BA/bmi routing be made available for competitors to buy transfer seats upon. Lufthansa intended to shut down bmi had the bid failed. The transaction is presently scheduled for completion April 20. IAG boss Willie Walsh called the sale ""great news for Britain"" with results that are ""good for UK business and UK consumers."" Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson had previously said the move would give BA excessive dominance on Scottish flights. More Heathrow slots earmarked for Scotland have been given up than any other destination. Ryanair took the opportunity to claim only their own takeover bid for Aer Lingus has been a major EC casualty. ""Today's rubber-stamping of BA's purchase of bmi shows yet again that the EC has one rule for Europe's flag-carriers, but different rules for Ryanair"", said Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary." +business,"The Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger plane, was set to land in the United States of America on Monday after a test flight. One of the A380s is flying from Frankfurt to Chicago via New York; the airplane will be carrying about 500 people. It is being billed as the first time it has carried a near-normal number of passengers, though most will be staff of Airbus and German airline Lufthansa. A second A380 is also travelling to the U.S. on Monday, but without passengers. This will be branded as a Qantas flight and fly from Frankfurt to Los Angeles LAX airport. The first leg of the flight going towards New York will be travelling under a Lufthansa flight number, and is due to arrive at New York's John F. Kennedy airport at 12:30 EST (16:30 UTC). The test flights are being used to monitor everything from how easily the plane docks at the terminal gate to the way the in-flight dining and entertainment services work. Deliveries to Singapore Airlines, its launch customer, are not due until October - two years late. Delays of the production of the A380 have cost Airbus more than 6 billion dollars. Airbus has warned there could be additional charges to come. These monetary problems have led to a recently-announced restructuring program at Airbus, called Power8, in which 10,000 jobs go and several factories will be sold to Airbus partners. France will lose 4,300 jobs, followed by Germany having a loss of 3,700 jobs, while the United Kingdom and Spain will see 1,600 and 400 jobs cut respectively. The Belgian government has announced that it will give up to 150 million € (US$ 199 million) in aid to help sub-contractors which supply Airbus and employ thousands of workers." +business,"Indonesian budget airline Adam Air has been given a three-week ultimatum by the authorities to prove its economic stability or its license will be revoked, said Transportation Minister Jusman Djamal. This is because major financial difficulties have become apparent today, with two major shareholders pulling out of the company. PT Global Transport Service (GTS) and Bright Star Perkasa, who between them own a 50% stake in the company, have decided to sell back all their shares to their original owners, who control the other 50%. These are the family of founder Adam Suherman and Sandra Ang. The companies invested in the airline last year, when the company was struggling after the New Year's Day disappearance of Adam Air Flight 574 with 102 on board. The Boeing 737 (B737) was ultimately determined to have crashed into the sea near Sulawesi, and all on board are presumed dead. Shortly afterwards, Adam Air Flight 172, another B737, snapped in half during a hard landing, but held together preventing fatalities. These were not the first serious accidents for the company, as in February 2006 Flight 782 became lost for several hours after navigation systems failed and the plane entered a radar blackspot, forcing a subsequent emergency landing many miles from the intended route. The given reasons for the withdrawal are a lack of improvement in safety and financial irregularities. The company has now also defaulted on debt payments to aircraft lease firms, resulting in 12 of their 22 planes being seized, and has cut the number of routes served from 52 to 12. The remaining ten planes are also in default and at risk of seizure. Adam Air owes leasing companies US$14 million compared to free capital of $4.8 million of free capital. They have agreed to buy back shares gradually for $11 million (100 billion rupiah), $6 million less than the investment firms paid for them. The cost difference will be borne by Harry Tanoesoedibyo's family, the founder of PT Bhakti Investama, of which GTS is a wholly owned subsidiary. The companies have also lost 157 billion rupiah worth of investment in the company since the April 2007 deal. 9,325 Rupiah are currently worth US$1. GTS director Gustiono Kustianto said that ""Since we joined, our priority has been safety"" but that Adam Air's management had been unresponsive to pressure from the new investors to improve its poor record. Last weeek another company B737 shot off the runway during landing, damaging the plane and injuring five. Lawyer Marx Andryan of Hotman Paris Hutapea, representing the investment firms, said they have documents proving the company has not adequatly seen to pilot recruitment, maintenance and insurance. Suherman said ""We have defaulted and the investors have done nothing about it. We'll continue to operate as long as we have planes,"" adding that there are no current plans to declare bankruptcy. ""Out of 22 planes, now we only have 10 because 12 of them have been declared in default. The other 10 have been declared in default as well, but I'm still trying to work out a way to restructure the payments,"" he told Reuters. He went on to say that a cash injection is required, and that ""There is a possibility starting on March 21 Adam Air will temporarily cease operations until there is a decision from the shareholders regarding the insurance premium.""" +business,"Aviation After an exhaustive two year, 20 million euro ($28 million) search, the final resting spot of Air France Flight 447 has been located. The location of the wreckage is six miles north of the plane's last reported position off the coast of Brazil at a depth of 3,800 and 4,000 meters (2,070 to 2,190 fathoms or 12,467 feet and 13,123 feet). The wreckage of the Airbus A330-200, was found Sunday by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, using a Remus robotic submarine and its side-scan sonar. After the wreckage was found, another Remus robot submarine with cameras was sent down to the site, where it filmed bodies in the wreckage. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, France's Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Sea, confirmed to reporters: ""Bodies were found. They will be recovered and identified."" ""We weren’t prepared for that. We are now confronted with another trauma,"" Robert Soulas, vice president of Entraide et Solidarité AF447, a support group for families of victims of the crash, said. Soulas lost his daughter and son-in-law, who were on board the flight when it crashed. ""For me, personally I would like to leave the bodies of my children, my two children, on the seabed."" 4=Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, French transport minister The remains of the plane, which were concentrated in a 600 metres by 200 metres (1,968 feet by 656 feet) area, appear to be relatively intact which leads investigators to believe that the plane hit the water intact and did not explode mid-air. Around 50 bodies of the 228 passengers and crew on board and parts of the plane were found shortly after the crash in 2009. According to Jean-Paul Troadec, the head of France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), the accident investigation body for aircraft overseeing the operation and investigation, the wreckage and bodies will be bought to surface and then sent to France for investigation. The salvage operation, which will cost around 5 million euros ($7.1 million) according to estimates, will be financed by the French government. Three salvage companies who are bidding to recover the wreck have until afternoon on Thursday to submit proposals. The operation should take between three weeks to a month. On raising the remains of the plane Troadec said: ""We want to know what happened in this accident, most particularly so it never happens again."" Some family members agreed saying such as Michael Gaignard, whose sister was on board the plane said, ""We want to know what happened in that plane."" An attorney for several families said some had yet to come to terms with loss of loved ones, saying ""There's been no burial, no goodbye ... just lots and lots of suffering."" Soulas of Entraide et Solidarité AF447 disagreed. ""There's a very traumatic side to this and it causes problems of identification. We don't know what state they are in."" He added, ""And it risks causing a dispute between families who want to leave the bodies at the bottom of the Atlantic and those who want them brought to the surface."" 4=Robert Soulas, VP of Entraide et Solidarité AF447 However, despite the discovery of the wreckage, the plane's two flight recorders, the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) have yet to be found at the crash site. Alain Bouillard, who is in charge of BEA's recovery effort said, ""It's still a jigsaw puzzle. We do not know where the recorders might be."" There are concerns that the two-year length the recorders have been submerged in seawater along with enormous pressure located at the depth of the wreck, that the data on the recorders might be unreadable. Bouillard said it is possible the recorders were damaged, but had ""great confidence"" in their robustness. Without the recovery of the recorders, investigators may be unable to determine the cause of the crash. The leading theory at the moment is that the crew received incorrect air speed readings from the aircraft's pitot tubes, devices which measure how fast the aircraft is travelling. Experts say the tubes may have become iced over, causing the crash. The plane's Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) sent out 24 messages over a four-minute long period stating numerous problems and warnings, including incorrect air speed warnings occurring aboard the aircraft, just prior to it going down." +business,"Denmark Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Prime Minister of Denmark, said on Tuesday that he will seek broad parliamentary support for a national referendum on joining the euro, the common currency of the Eurozone. ""I'm convinced that we need broad support in parliament to hold a referendum, because it's about the Danish currency and about stability and safety,"" he said, speaking at his weekly press conference. ""Recent events have shown the necessity to give the population the opportunity to vote on Denmark joining the euro."" Berlingske Tidende is reporting that Rasmussen is meeting with political leaders to negotiate support for the referendum. In 1992, Danish voters rejected the Maastrict Treaty in a referendum. It was only able to pass the following year after the Edinburgh Agreement granted Denmark an opt-out of the third stage of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU). In 2000, Denmark again rejected the common currency in a euro referendum. The current currency of the Scandinavian country is the Danish krone. As part of stage two of the EMU, the exchange rate of the krone is allowed to fluctuate within a ±2.25% range to the euro. In order to maintain this peg Danmarks Nationalbank, the central bank, adjusts interest rates and performs foreign exchange operations by buying and selling currency. To do this, Danmarks Nationalbank has had to raise rates twice, even as other central banks, including the European Central Bank (ECB), were lowering rates to deal with the current economic crisis. As a result, interest rates in Denmark are now 175 basis points higher than the ECB's rates. As recently as May, the difference was only 25 basis points. Rasmussen heads the Venstre party which leads a minority coalition government. The main opposition party, the Social Democrats, also support adopting the euro as the nation's currency. While there has long been support among the politicians, the euro has failed when it has been put before the voters. However, recent opinion polls have shown a growing support for the euro among Danes. The most recent of these have seen those in favor just topping the 50% level needed to pass a referendum. Rasmussen has said he wants a referendum put before voters before 2011. His government had originally planned to hold a referendum this past September to abolish the EMU opt-outs, but that was scrapped when Ireland voted down the Treaty of Lisbon. On October 30, while in Stockholm, Sweden, Rasmussen said: ""The euro ensures political and economical stability in Europe and the current financial turmoil makes it evident that Denmark has to join the Euro."" Analysts consulted by Berlingske Tidende have said that an endorsement from the Socialist People's Party (SF) could prove to be the tide-turner. ""If there was a vote, then I would vote Yes. But I am of the opinion that it is stupid to hold a vote unless we first have a real debate. We haven't had a debate in eight years and all arguments need to be tested,"" said Margrete Auken of SF." +business,"AustraliaThe Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has announced it will take the unprecedented step of conducting a special review of flag carrier Qantas after three separate emergencies in two weeks. In the latest incident, a Boeing 767 headed from Sydney to Manila was forced to turn back yesterday after ground staff at the airport noticed what they believed to be smoke emanating from the jet's wing as it departed. It turned out to be fine spray from a hydraulic fluid leak, and the aircraft brought its 200 passengers back down safely at around 3:00 p.m., with ARFF trucks on standby. Despite the aircraft being forced to turn around, the pilot did not request a priority landing and so Qantas refused to describe the event as an emergency landing. Qantas has a largely good safety record, having never lost a jet aircraft or had a fatality on board one. Their last fatal accident was in 1951. However, recently two other events have led to some questioning of Qantas from within the aviation industry. Last Monday, a Qantas Boeing 737-800 returned to Adelaide after experiencing pressurization problems caused by the failure of an undercarriage door to retract properly. This followed the July 25 accident on board Flight 30, a Boeing 747 headed from London to Melbourne that had just made a stopover in Hong Kong, in which an exploding oxygen cylinder caused an explosive decompression. An emergency landing was performed in Manila, with a hole blown in the aircraft's side. According to Qantas staff, the problems are not a new thing. Qantas flight attendants have asked senior management for an emergency meeting over these latest events. The Flight Attendants' Association of Australia's president Steven Reed said ""We want some assurances from the company that these are isolated incidents. Or are they something we should be concerned about? We need to meet with the company at a senior level to have these assurances."" Such a meeting is said to be likely within a week. Qantas engineers have been complaining for some time about maintenance issues, saying that cost-cutting and outsourcing are compromising the quality of maintenance. Much work is now being done in countries such as Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines. According to one engineering union official, recent incidents linked to outsourced maintenance include a failure of emergency lighting and flight attendants in the galley being electrocuted by faulty wiring. According to the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers' Association's assistant federal secretary, Wayne Vasta, there has been a recent ""change in culture"" at Qantas, although he did say it would be inappropriate to blame only outsourcing. He said that while previously Qantas engineers had simply attempted to do the best they could, ""Now it appears we have got to do the best job we can possibly do, within a budget."" He also expressed a welcoming of the CASA probe. Qantas' engineers are currently lobbying for a pay rise, and say the airline is risking safety with cost cuts. Peter Gibson, spokesperson for CASA, said no trouble had been spotted in recent safety audits of Qantas, but they felt it 'prudent' to investigate given the recent string of incidents. He acknowledged that the review is unprecedented in CASA's history, and announced the probe would be headed by senior official Mick Quinn. ""We want to look at their safety systems to make sure that the systems are operating the way they should. All these things are stated in manuals. We want to make sure that what is in the manuals is being done,"" Gibson told reporters. He said the investigation should take around two weeks." +business,"SSE Composite-p = 3,57" +business,"Officials from the People's Republic of China have agreed to purchase 60 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft in a deal worth US$7.2bn. In China, airliners are selected and purchased by the government, which then distributes them to different airlines. The preliminary agreement will see Dreamliners delivered to six airlines &mdash; Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and Xiamen Airlines. The deliveries are scheduled to be in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The aircraft was once named the 7E7 but was renamed at the same time the deal was announced. Boeing will begin production in 2006 and the aircraft should enter airline service in 2008. It will seat 200 to 300 people and will have a range of 3,500 to 8,500 nautical miles. Through the use of the latest materials and designs it will be 20% more fuel efficient than the equivalent aircraft today." +business,"* M0: Is total of all physical currency, plus accounts at the central bank which can be exchanged for physical currency. * M1: Is the M0 as well as the amount in demand accounts (""checking"" or ""current"" accounts). * M2: Is the M1 as well as most savings accounts, money market accounts, and certificate of deposit accounts (CDs) of under $100,000. * M3: Is the M2 as well as all other CDs, deposits of eurodollars and repurchase agreements. &rarr; from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia - Money Supply On March 23, 2006 the Federal Reserve ceased publication of the M3 monetary aggregate, in line with an announcement it made in November, 2005. The M3 is a measure of money supply in the United States, The M3 is most general of the many measures of money supply, the quantity of money available within the economy for purchasing goods, services, and securities. The money supply is monitored and adjusted by a central bank, to keep inflation in check, because money supply has to change in tune with real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to prevent inflation (or deflation). In November last year, the US Federal Reserve announced that it would cease publishing M3 data, saying, ""the M3 does not appear to convey any additional information about economic activity that is not already embodied in M2 and has not played a role in the monetary policy process for many years"", adding that the costs of collecting the data required for the index outweighed its benefits. Some commentators have questioned this decision and have speculated that this would allow the Federal reserve to covertly fund the US budget deficit and its negative balance of trade or hide the fall in international demand for the US dollar. In March, 2006, Rep. Ron Paul introduced a bill (HR 4892) requiring the Federal Reserve to reverse its decision. Money supply" +business,"Australian airline Virgin Blue plans to increase its fares, making for an average additional A$5-10 charge to most airfares. The airline will also cease its Sydney to Prosperine route in July 2008 and Melbourne to Darwin route in August 2008 in order to cut costs due to the airline's rising fuel bill. Virgin Blue's fuel costs have risen above A$500 million, which is up 21 per cent as compared to the last financial year. The cut backs will also see 4 of the airline's aircraft removed from its fleet and an immediate wage freeze to all management staff. Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey said that the move was part of a A$50 million package of cost savings and capacity cuts." +business,"Bolivia Six people, including four U.N. staff working for the anti-narcotics department in Bolivia, have been killed in a plane crash in a remote area in the west of the country. Two Bolivian military pilots are also among those killed in the accident, which happened in the Los Yungas area, northeast of the capital city, La Paz. The aircraft had been missing since Thursday and was found on Saturday morning according to a general in the Bolivian Air Force, who added the light Cessna aircraft hit a tall tree and then impacted the ground. Robert Brockmann, a U.N. spokesperson in Bolivia, said the aircraft ""was completely destroyed and burned."" Investigators have not yet determined what caused the accident, but Brockmann said the aircraft was in an area with overgrown trees and steep cliffs. The bodies of the pilots and U.N. personnel, who had been monitoring the transport of coca&mdash;a plant used to make cocaine&mdash;over several months, have yet to be recovered because of the remote location of the crash site. ""The place is completly inaccessible in a very tall forest,"" the general said." +business,"A former employee of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority was sentenced on Monday to one year in prison for stealing fines from the agency. Thirty-four-year-old Uganda T. Harris from Bellwood was accused of embezzling over $36,000 from the tollway authority in a period of six months. She pleaded guilty to the charges in June. She is to report to the DuPage County jail on November 30 to begin a one-year work-release program that only allows her out to work 40 hours per week. She will also serve four years of probation and will be required to pay the agency $1,000 for insurance coverage in addition to the more than $36,000 she allegedly stole. Harris had worked as a customer service representative since June 2007. An audit by the tollway authority's inspector general's office revealed that she incorrectly classified the fines she collected as coming from I-PASS users, who pay lesser fines, and pocketed the cash. The Illinois State Police later caught Harris with $1,100 in marked $20-bills they used to pay a phony fine during an undercover investigation. She claimed that she did this only rarely and to help those people in desperate need of relief from what she saw as high tollway fines." +business,"According to an announcement on Monday by United States-based on-line auction website eBay, the option to accept payments via PayPal service will be mandatory for United Kingdom sellers beginning in April 2008, with the exception of auctions relating directly to the sale of motor vehicles. The announcement claims that the move will help improve confidence as well as further reducing the limited amounts of fraud which occur on some types of transaction. Sellers with low feedback, or who list specific items, such as computer software are already required to accept payment via PayPal. Under the new policy, sellers will however still be able to accept payments via other services, provided they are on eBay's approved list. Google Checkout, a competitor to PayPal in the field of retail payment services, is notably absent from the list of accepted payment methods." +business,"TransportBritish rail company South West Trains (SWT) is to cut 180 jobs. The franchisee for lines out of London's Waterloo station has already announced 480 job cuts. The redundancies affect front line staff in ticket offices and at stations and further managers and administrators. Bus firm Stagecoach Group,SGC which runs South West Trains and East Midlands Trains, says that cuts are required because predicted passenger growth will now not happen. SWT's subsidy from the government is falling from £61 million in 2008 to £23 million this year. The subsidy becomes a premium payment next year, with over £36 million to be paid by SWT in 2010. Train crew and maintenance staff will not face redundancy and the number of services, which are generally mandated by the Department for Transport, will not be reduced. The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union condemned the job cuts. Bob Crow, the union's general secretary, said “SWT’s attacks on its staff and passengers are eating into the very fabric of the railway they are supposed to be running, and they must be stopped"". He said that the RMT wanted to ensure there were no compulsory redundancies but that ""the company seems to be heading towards a ballot for strike action"". Crow also restated the union's longstanding demand for the railways to be renationalised, saying ""South West Trains has shown itself to be incapable of running a railway for the benefit of its passengers and the economy, and it is time for the franchise to come back into the public sector"". SWT's statement on the cuts said ""The company will continue to review its operation and take any further steps required to ensure it has a secure business for the long-term. Our priority will remain maintaining services to our customers, protecting jobs for the majority of our people and providing a strong foundation for growth when the economy improves.""" +business,"The U.S. economy and its currency as an instrument of world trade has suffered a series of major setbacks in recent months. Some analysts say that the Federal Reserve's September 18th dramatic rate cut to 4.75% from 5.25% may be a case of ""too little, too late"", or that it was excessive and dooms the dollar. Today, Saudi officials declined to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time in decades. According to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor for The Daily Telegraph, ""it's a signal that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East."" Hans Redeker, the Currency Chief at BNP Paribas, also stated today that Saudi Arabia's move to not adjust their own interest rates in sync with the Fed's cuts is a very dangerous situation for the US dollar. Redeker points out that ""Saudi Arabia has $800bn (£400bn) in their future generation fund, and the entire region has $3,500bn under management. They face an inflationary threat and do not want to import an interest rate policy set for the recessionary conditions in the United States."" Saudi central bank officials said that ""appropriate measures"" would be taken to stop the large capital inflows into the country. The Federal Reserve's half-point rate cut has already caused a plunge in the world dollar index to a fifteen-year low, reaching the weakest level ever against the Euro at just under $1.40. The Fed hopes that by making it cheaper to borrow, people will start spending and investing more. However, some analysts fear the cut will worsen inflation, making it harder to get personal loans, and further decrease confidence in the dollar around the world. There are already signs that global investors have started rejecting U.S. Treasury securities, and recent U.S. government data on foreign holdings show a decline in purchases of US securities from $97bn to just $19bn in July. In response to Ben Bernanke's statements today about a potential mortgage and housing market crisis, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer said, ""If adjustable mortgage rates go up, people may not be able to afford their mortgage payments."" Former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said earlier this week that housing prices may fall by ""double digits"" as the subprime crisis bites harder, prompting households to cut back sharply on spending. Jim Rogers, the economic commentator and former partner of George Soros, stated, ""If Ben Bernanke starts running those printing presses even faster than he's already doing, we are going to have a serious recession. The dollar's going to collapse, the bond market's going to collapse. There's going to be a lot of problems."" In recent months, the U.S. dollar has taken several other significant hits including Kuwait's decision in May to also break its dollar peg, and threats by China to interfere with the U.S. economy, calling it their nation's ""nuclear option"". According to public sources, the Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions that seek to force a Yuan revaluation." +business,"Economy and business Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen AG’s CEO, resigned yesterday after it was discovered the German motor vehicle company has been rigging emissions tests for their diesel vehicles. The company has not announced who his successor will be, but plans to discuss the issue tomorrow. Winterkorn has said that he was ""shocked"" by the rigging of the emissions tests. ""Above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group"", Winterkorn said in a statement issued yesterday. This resignation came after he issued an apology on Sunday about the emissions test rigging, which involved installing a program onto the company's diesel vehicles to manipulate test results. The program, referred to as a ""defeat device"", causes the vehicles to emit less nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant contributing to smog and possibly linked to asthma, during testing. Volkswagen's share value has dropped by one third, The Toronto Star reported. The stock prices of France car manufacturers Citroen, Renault, and Peugeot have also dipped. The Associated Press states that this may be due to concerns other car manufacturers are also engaging in illegal acts." +business,"Disasters and accidentsAccording to the Brazilian air force, Brazilian military aircraft have found wreckage of an airplane in the Atlantic Ocean, about 650 kilometres off the northern coast of Brazil. The wreckage is suspected to have come from Air France Flight 447, a passenger jet that went missing over the Atlantic Ocean on June 1. The debris includes airplane seats and metallic objects. Pilots from TAM, a Brazilian airline had earlier said they saw what they perceived to be a fire in the Atlantic, but French officials say that no sign of wreckage had been found. Brazilian airplanes with sensors are currently scanning the area of the ocean where the debris was found. ""A TAM airlines plane from Brazil supposedly saw something on fire in the Atlantic Ocean. This was an aeroplane that landed today,"" said Jose Alencar, the Brazilian vice president. Air France Flight AF447 was an Airbus A330 carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members that disappeared after it went into a severe thunderstorm. Authorities are not yet certain what caused the incident, but are pessimistic as to whether any survivors will be found." +business,"Apple Computer announced on Tuesday the first generation of their products to use Intel processors. The iMac and the new MacBook Pro - a notebook computer replacing the PowerBook - are said to be up to four times faster than their predecessors (up to two times faster in the iMac, four times for the MacBook.) These new lines of computers have been set up to support the newest collection of Mac software entitled iLife, which has added internet publication software to its high-end graphics, video, and sound tools." +business,"Crime and law Camera company Polaroid has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. The firm, famed for the introduction of instant photography, says alleged fraud by the founder of their parent group is to blame. Owned since 2005 by Petters Group Worldwide, Polaroid says that the group's founder Tom Petters is ""under investigation for alleged acts of fraud that have compromised the financial condition of Polaroid."" Authorities believe Petter, currently in police custody, was running fraud worth £3 billion, something he denies. Petters Group, itself, filed for bankruptcy in October. Both firms now face restructuring, which Polaroid is confident won't affect daily operations &mdash; in fact, the company is ""planning for new product launches in 2009,"" and claims to have ""entered bankruptcy with ample cash reserves sufficient to finance the company's reorganization under Chapter 11."" Polaroid has further said that employees will be paid without interruption, and that while members of Petters Group are under investigation for fraud, Polaroid's management is not. The company, based in Minnesota, also has subsidiaries which will enter bankruptcy with it." +business,"2008-09 financial crisisUS stock markets dropped to twelve-year lows on Thursday, amidst falling confidence in the financial sector and worries over whether the US automobile manufacturer General Motors will be able to keep operating. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 4.08%, or 280.52 points, at the closing bell, reaching a level of 6595.32, a new 12-year low. The Nasdaq Composite lost 54.15 points, or 4%, to 1299.59, while the Standard & Poor's 500 plunged by 30.27 points, or 4.25%, closing at 682.60. Every stock in the Dow Jones, other than Wal-Mart, either lost ground or remained even, and all stocks in the S&P 500 index lost ground. General Motors' shares lost 15.5% after the auto firm announced that its auditors had ""substantial doubt"" over whether it would be able to keep operating. Shares of financial companies were lower by nine percent, with Bank of America losing 11.7% and Citigroup falling by 9.7%. ""What's most worrisome is that we haven't hit the crescendo yet,"" said Bill Groeneveld, the head trader for vFinance Investments. ""Asset-management divisions are getting calls to just liquidate everything, and we haven't seen the big players come back in at all."" ""This is one of the worst bear markets in the last 100 years; it started out with the credit crisis and the subprime loans, but it is like a forest fire that has raced across the clearing and ignited other parts: Autos, auto parts, the insurance companies have been hit very hard. The credit crisis is causing an unraveling of industry after industry because the banks don't lend,"" said David Dreman, the chief investment officer of Dreman Value Management. European markets were also lower today, with the London's FTSE index losing 3.2% and the DAX index of Germany falling by five percent." +business,"Irish airline Ryanair took a 12% slump in this morning’s trade, further intensifying concern about poor market conditions amid recessionary fears. Today, Ryanair announced a 27% drop in pre-tax profits in its third quarter net profits. Further falls are predicted for the company in its next fiscal year. ""With oil prices at $90 a barrel and fear of recession in the UK and many other European economies, the current outlook for the coming fiscal year is poor. While it is impossible to accurately forecast full year fuel prices and yields this far in advance, there is now a significant chance that profits may decline next year,"" Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary cautioned. Ryanair said that it is not hedged against oil price increases for the next fiscal year. However, Ryanair is not the only airline to suffer from the economic downturn. Aer Lingus shares are down 3% to €2.30. Easyjet has declined 11%. However shrewd, Mr. O’Leary has plans to spend up to 200 million purchasing back shares in the company, which equates to 3% of the company share capital." +business,"The Syndicat du transport de Montréal (Montreal transport Union), representing maintenance workers of the Société de transport de Montréal (Montreal Transport Society), in Canada, voted ""to go on strike at one minute past midnight this May 22"", effectively cutting down the bus and metro services to only some hours of the day. The Société qualified the vote of ""irresponsible"", as talks are still under way in order to reach a mutual agreement between the workers, who want continued salary raises for the next few years, while the Société offers to freeze salaries for the first year and a lesser raise for the subsequent years. The Syndicat's total requests are in the neighborhood of $60 million (Canadian funds), while the Société ""already anticipates a $22 million shortfall"" for 2007. The Government of Québec's Essential Services Council has called for some services to be delivered to Montrealers during the strike. Bus and metro (subway) schedules are thus constricted to rush hours only: *Monday to Friday: 06:00-09:00am, 03:30-06:30pm, 11:00pm-01:00am *Saturday and Sunday: 06:00-09:00am, 02:00-05:00pm, 11:00pm-01:00am For low-mobility users, the Société ensures that ""paratransit services will be provided in full as usual."" The Société asks its clients to ""note that bus drivers, metro operators and fare collectors are not responsible for the current situation"", and thus to be ""lenient"" towards them. There is no information at the moment as to how long the labour dispute will last." +business,"In what regulators have described as the second-largest bank failure in the history of the United States, IndyMac Bank has been closed by the Office of Thrift Supervision and placed under the conservatorship of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) due to plummeting shares and the start of a run on the bank. This is the fifth FDIC-insured failure of the year. The FDIC has said that it will transfer all insured deposits and substantial assets, to the new IndyMac Federal Bank which, as the name implies, is controlled by an agency of the federal government. The aim is for the transfer to be completed by Monday. In a press release, the FDIC attempted to reassure customers by saying that, ""insured depositors and borrowers will automatically become customers of IndyMac Federal, FSB and will continue to have uninterrupted customer service and access to their funds by ATM, debit cards and writing checks in the same manner as before."" As an FDIC-insured bank, all FDIC accounts are guaranteed up to US$100,000. The FDIC has also placed a special advance, guaranteeing any funds over $100,000 for 50 cents to the dollar. This move by the FDIC is expected to cost the organization at least four billion USD per year. In the days leading up to the conservatorship, market analysts have predicted the failure of IndyMac due to the fact that it was shedding jobs and closing many of its branch offices." +business,"American airline, Alaska Airlines have announced that they plan to cut 1000 jobs. They also plan to reduce their flight departures by 15%. The job losses will account for about 10% of their work force and affects pilots, cabin crew, technicians and service staff. The cuts are due to start on November 9 of this year and then lead into 2009. Bill Ayer, chairman and CEO of Alaska Air Group said, ""The one-two punch of record oil prices and a softening economy, on top of increased competition, has burdened Alaska Air Group with a $50 million loss on an adjusted basis for the first half of this year. That demands decisive action to ensure the viability of our company."" The airline made a $50m loss in the first half of this year. They currently have a fleet of 111 Boeing 737s and around 10,000 staff. These calls come around the same time as other airlines are making cuts due to the rising fuel costs. They also come as British leisure group XL entered administration." +business,"United Kingdom On Friday, Transport for London (TfL) announced US-based taxi booking application Uber would not get a renewed private hire operator license after their current permit expires at the end of the month. The regulatory body released an official statement on their website and stated Uber London Limited was ""not fit and proper to hold a private hire operator license"". TfL said Uber London ""demonstrated a lack of corporate responsibility"" for reporting serious criminal offences, and for obtaining background of the drivers and medical certificates. In August, police said Uber allowed a driver despite allegations of sexually assaulting a passenger. The company has been accused of sexism and bullying. TfL in its statement also complained about possible use of ""greyball"" software to prevent officials from accessing the application for law enforcement duties. According to Uber's statistics, about 3.5 million people in London use Uber. There are some 40 thousand drivers tied with Uber within the British capital. Per the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998, Uber can appeal against TfL's decision within three weeks. Uber received an interim renewal for four months in May, and it is set to expire at the end of the month. To this announcement, Uber London's General Manager Tom Elvidge said, ""By wanting to ban our app from the capital Transport for London and the Mayor have caved in to a small number of people who want to restrict consumer choice. If this decision stands, it will put more than 40,000 licensed drivers out of work and deprive Londoners of a convenient and affordable form of transport. To defend the livelihoods of all those drivers, and the consumer choice of millions of Londoners who use our app, we intend to immediately challenge this in the courts."" He also added, ""This ban would show the world that, far from being open, London is closed to innovative companies who bring choice to consumers."" TfL said Uber's irresponsibility could compromise the safety and security of the public. In contrast, Uber's response said their service enhances safety. London mayor Sadiq Khan, on Facebook, said, ""...all companies in London must play by the rules and adhere to the high standards we expect &mdash; particularly when it comes to the safety of customers. Providing an innovative service must not be at the expense of customer safety and security. I fully support TfL's decision &mdash; it would be wrong if TfL continued to license Uber if there is any way that this could pose a threat to Londoners' safety and security. Any operator of private hire services in London needs to play by the rules."" Uber has received criticism from traditional taxi drivers as well as government officials. Uber was banned from Bulgaria and Denmark, and faces regulatory issues in France, Italy, Hungary, and Spain. It also faced legal inquiry for use of greyball in the US to resist government regulation of the application. Regarding the complaint about improper use of use of Greyball, Elvidge cited an independent review and said it ""found that 'greyball' has never been used or considered in the UK for the purposes cited by TfL"". Uber operates in over 40 cities and towns in the UK." +business,"Google has said on its blog that it finds Microsoft’s attempt to buy Yahoo ""troubling,"" and that Google believes ""this the purchase of Yahoo is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another."" ""The hostile bid by Microsoft to Yahoo is worrying,"" said David Drummond, the chief legal officer for Google. He continued by saying the takeover is ""about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation."" Press agency Europa Press said that Eric E. Schmidt and Jerry Yang know that the ""possibility of launching a counter is not possible for Google."" Yahoo said that their executives are examining the offer from Microsoft, a process that they said may take some time. The Google blog cited Microsoft’s alleged ""inappropriate and illegal influence over the PC,"" as the reasons for their concerns. They continued by saying that “Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies.""" +business,"The officials from CBS stated on Monday that the company is going to invest in virtual world content developer Electric Sheep Co., which develops 3D properties in several virtual worlds like the one called Second Life. In recent months corporate investors are paying more attention to virtual worlds. This is mainly due to the fact that the audience is shifting from TV to Internet. Another advantage of virtual worlds is that they can help in marketing products and promoting brands. The Interactive President of CBS, Quinsy Smith, sees the virtual worlds as platforms for the next generations. The Chief Executive of Electric Sheep, Sibley Verbeck, mentioned in an interview that the company has the goal of helping entertainment companies to gain their clients from virtual worlds like Second Life. Then Electric Sheep will provide more entertainment experiences for clientèle. With money invested by CBS, Electric Sheep plans to develop software that will create virtual worlds for mainstream consumption. Electric Sheep developed several projects for CBS, including ""The L-Word in Second Life"". CBS also filmed a commercial within Second Life in order to promote its show called ""Two and a Half Men."" Currently Electric Sheep is developing inside Second Life a Star Trek-themed area for CBS." +business,"Aviation Canadian airline Air Canada has said that it will be laying off 1,010 machinists seconded to work at the Aveos Fleet Performance aircraft maintenance company. The layoffs will take place in April and June, with 470 and 540 workers to be laid off in each month, respectively. They will affect some 445 workers in Montreal, 345 in Winnipeg, and 220 in Vancouver; 195 layoffs are to be permanent and the other 815 temporary. The layoffs reflect reduced demand for maintenance of the Airbus A319 and A320 planes in Air Canada's fleet, according to the Canadian Press. Mitigation efforts by the company meant that there would be fewer workers permanently laid off, but at the cost of more temporary layoffs. A spokesman for Aveos, Michael Kun, commented that some of the people temporarily laid off could return to work by July. ""We will be recalling them within eight months, starting in July,"" Kun said, as quoted by the Canadian Press." +business,"Irish low cost airline, Ryanair, announced today that it is exercising its options with Boeing to purchase five new 737 aircraft. This brings Ryanair's total number of outstanding orders with the US manufacturer to 230. The new planes, which come from the 737-800 range, will be fitted with blended winglets to boost fuel efficiency by as much as 3%. Ryanair CEO, Michael O'Leary, justified his choice of Boeing by saying, ""The Boeing 737-800 has the best technical reliability and ensures that Ryanair is the number one on-time major airline in Europe""...""In addition, it has the lowest unit operating cost. The addition of these five aircraft will continue to enable us to develop more new routes across Europe and bring low fares to many more European consumers."" Ryanair is the world's most profitable airline, having reported record profits of €269m earlier this year, and is pursuing an aggressive expansion plan which will see it's total number of passengers jump to 70m over the next few years. At present Ryanair has 91 aircraft and 230 on order." +business,"US-based Oracle Corporation announced Friday it had acquired Innobase OY for an undisclosed sum. Innobase is a Finnish company that has developed several open-source database technologies. They are best known for InnoDB. InnoDB is an add-on storage engine for MySQL used by many popular websites, including Slashdot, EDS/Sabre, Yahoo Finance, Google and Wikimedia. It is an open source tool, distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). “Oracle has long been a supporter of open source software such as Linux and Apache. Innobase is an innovative small company that develops open-source database technology. Oracle intends to continue developing the InnoDB technology and expand our commitment to open source software.” said Charles Rozwat, executive vice president of Database and Middleware Technology at Oracle. Innobase is the 11th company to be acquired by Oracle in under a year. The most recent acquisition was of rival Siebel Systems on September 13 for $5.85 billion." +business,"A Chinese cargo ship was fired on and sunk by a Russian cruiser last Sunday near Russia's far-eastern port of Vladivostok. Eight out of 16 crew members on board were saved while the others remain missing. According to Natalia Gelashvili, a spokeswoman for the Far East Transport Prosecutors office in Nakhodka, the cargo ship New Star fled on Feb. 12 after the shipment of rice it unloaded was rejected by the buyer, who then requested the court to seize the ship while suing for damages. But the Beijing based Global Times reported that the ship was sequestered for alleged smuggling. Russian Federal Security Service spokeswoman Natalya Rondaleva confirmed that the ship was fired upon by Russian vessels. An unnamed source asserts that warning shots were fired before more direct shots were taken. The ship began sinking while being escorted back to the port. The sinking of the boat forced all 16 crew members to abandon the ship by taking two life boats. One boat carrying eight people was saved by Russian sailors while the other was engulfed in the waves. The missing crew include seven Chinese and one Indonesian. The Canadian Press reports that they are presumed to have drowned. ""The cause of the sinking isn't clear because the incident occurred during a storm,"" said Captain Veniamin Ivanichev of the Marine Rescue Center in Vladivostok. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs today said it asked Russia to investigate the ""mishap"" and identify the cause as soon as possible. All the rescued crew members have gone back to Nakhodka while the Russian keep looking for the missing sailors. The Russian News Agency said the coast guard found only an empty boat in a three-day search. China's foreign spokeswoman Jiang Yu declined to comment on the Russians' opening fire on the ship. The ship was registered in Sierra Leone, and the owner is a shipping company based in Hong Kong." +business,"An Intel spokesperson confirmed Thursday that Dell would no longer be offering servers with Intel Itanium CPUs. The spokesperson said ""Losing Dell as an Itanium customer is unfortunate but frankly, we see their impact as negligible."" Servers with Itanium CPUs are no longer promoted on Dell's website, though a few can be found by searching. Dell is the largest seller of computers with Intel processors. Dell currently sells 10.5 percent of all servers worldwide. The majority of Dell servers use an IA-32 (colloquially ""x86"") chip, but a growing number use the 64-bit Intel Xeon. Sales of Itanium servers have been very poor; last year Dell sold only 1,371 Itanium servers, up from 12 the previous year. In February, IBM also phased out Itanium-based servers, replacing them with IBM Power CPUs. Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi NEC, SGI and Unisys are the only major manufacturers to still offer Itanium-based servers. The Intel Itanium was designed in the early 1990s. It was intended to be the processor of choice for 64-bit computers, but the processor suffered from several major flaws preventing widespread adoption. Unlike competing AMD64 chips, the Intel Itanium uses a different instruction set from IA-32 chips. An emulation feature allows them to run IA-32 code, but only very slowly; users were forced to choose between accepting greatly-reduced performance and expending time and programmers' salaries porting their software. Even Intel has acquiesced to AMD's leadership in this field, designing chips with a compatible EM64T technology." +business,"The leu, Romania's national currency, continues to appreciate against the euro and the US dollar after it reached high levels a few days ago. Yesterday, one euro could be bought for just 35,844 lei, down from 36,133 lei two days ago. These rates are also significantly stronger from the period in mid-2004 when the euro was worth more than 40,000 lei. Last week, the leu reached such a high rate against the euro that the National Bank of Romania had to intervene and restore the exchange rate back to around 37,000 lei per euro. The leu's growth also had an impact on global exchange rates, weakening the US dollar worldwide by 1%. The National Bank, however, is hesitant to intervene in the marketplace once again due to the positive effects of the leu's appreciation on importers, who can now get products for lower prices, and for consumers, who now have higher purchasing power for imported goods. Romanians are also pleased that their currency, which has faced long periods of fairly sharp depreciation in the 1990s due to high inflation, is finally picking up again and strengthening against other currencies. The leu's appreciation, however, isn't all positive, because it is putting a great deal of pressure on exporters. Other countries are finding Romanian exports more expensive, and therefore less competitive, due to the leu's appreciation, and this could widen the already large account deficit in the country. Analysts predict, however, that the leu's surge cannot be stopped and it will continue strengthening against the euro, reaching a rate of 34,000 lei for one euro in the next week. The current leu will be replaced in July 2005 with the New Leu (RON), with 10,000 old lei = 1 New Leu. The revaluation is expected to prepare Romania for adoption of the euro in 2012. Starting from next month, all Romanian prices must be shown in both the old currency and the new currency. The National Bank of Romania has said that it expects the exchange rate between the New Leu and the euro to hover at around 3.5 RON = 1 euro when the RON is introduced." +business,"poland The current financial crisis have recently caused the Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy (Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity), one of the top Polish charity organizations, to reduce spending on The Great Finale events, which are scheduled to take place on January 11, 2009. As a result, all major events in the city of Wrocław, have been canceled. Although many companies have declared they will help with organizing and will provide essential products for volunteers, the organizers are still in need financial aid for concerts and other mass events. Every year, during The Great Finale, the Orchestra's volunteers collect several million zloties, which are then given to various health-care organizations to help young patients. Since 1993, when the first Finale took place, the Orchestra has collected near $100 million (~290 million złoty)." +business,"Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally has reported that Ford will rename the Ford Five Hundred to the Taurus for the 2008 model year, when a facelifted model is expected to be launched to improve the lackluster sales of the outgoing model. Mulally says that Ford's decision to name all their cars with the letter F was a lackluster move, and makes their names easily forgettable. As a result, Mulally plans on reviving many respected Ford nameplates, the Taurus being one of them, and the Falcon possibly in the future. The Ford Taurus was originally introduced in 1986, and was a revolutionary car that rewrote the rules for creating a sedan, and pushed the other American automakers to follow suit, leading to a design revolution that completely rid Detroit of the ""boxy"" cars of the 70s and 80s. The Taurus survived for four generations, selling over 7,500,000 units. The Taurus was discontinued in October 2006, after a brief run of 2007 models destined for fleet customers. ""How can it go away?"" Alan Mulally remembered asking, ""It's the best-selling car in America."" While it is not expected for the name change to turn the Five Hundred into a 400,000 plus units a year blockbuster like the Taurus, it is expected to make sales more solid, and to make the car well known, since the Taurus is a well known nameplate around the country." +business,"The solar-powered airplane Solar Impulse touched down at the Brussels National Airport late Friday night, after completing a 13-hour flight from its home base in Payerne, Switzerland. It was the first international flight by a fully solar-powered aircraft. The experimental aircraft was piloted by André Borschberg, co-founder and chief engineer for the Solar Impulse project, which hopes to circumnavigate the globe using only the sun's energy in 2013. ""Our goal is to create a revolution in the minds of people...to promote solar energies -- not necessarily a revolution in aviation,"" Bertrand Piccard, the group's other co-founder, said in an interview after the flight. The aircraft collects energy from the sun using 12,000 extremely thin solar cells affixed to the wings and tail section. An on-board battery can store enough electricity to fly all night, allowing the Solar Impulse to stay aloft indefinitely. This allowed the aircraft to maintain a holding pattern over the Brussels airport as other flights landed and conditions were right for the Solar Impulse to land. Because the aircraft weighs only about 3,500 pounds and has a wingspan of 200 feet, it is extremely sensitive to wind and needs calm conditions to land safely." +business,"The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) has called for industrial action on New Year's Eve over staffing levels on the London Underground. Union members voted more than five to one in favour of the strike. The vote for industrial action is because of ""back-door attempts to displace hundreds of safety-critical station staff under spurious cover,"" said Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, to the BBC. ""The RMT will not accept any dilution of safety standards either for our members, or Tube users and we hope that the travelling public will join us in calling on London Underground to step back from the brink and start talking to us seriously."" Following the vote, the RMT called for a 24-hour strike beginning at noon on New Year's Eve, and if necessary a second 24-hour action to begin 6:30 p.m. Sunday, 8 January. Transport for London announced a meeting with the RMT at ACAS(The Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service) after the results of the vote were announced. The London Underground responded to the move, pointing to the agreement made last year with the RMT which agreed to shorter working weeks so long as there is no additional cost to Tube fare payers. ""There are no staff cuts across the Tube network,"" the spokesperson said. ""There can be no justification for the RMT now reneging on its agreement and trying to ruin New Year's Eve for thousands of Londoners,"" London Mayor Ken Livingstone said." +business,"Bruce McCaffrey, who was formerly the vice-president in charge of freight operations in the United States for Australian flag carrier Qantas, has been sentenced to eight months imprisonment and fined US$21,000 by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for his involvement in a major air cargo price fixing cartel. McCaffrey is one of six past and present employees of the airline who have been charged over the arrangement, which is thought to have run for six years starting in 2000. He is also the first individual to be sentenced regarding the cartel. He, as well as Stephen Cleary, group general manager for freight in Sydney, Harold Pang, general manager for freight sales in Singapore, Peter Frampton, former group general manager for freight, John Cooper former general manager for freight sales and Desmond Church, a former freight employee, were all charged after being exempt from immunity granted in a plea bargain by Qantas in which the airline paid a US$61 million fine. In Australia price fixing is not actually a criminal offense, so former head of freight Peter Frampton and three other staff members in Australia will not be extradited to face charges. Meanwhile, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is seeking admittances of guilt from airlines whose operations fall under its jurisdiction in exchange for lighter penalties. Qantas is amongst those airlines. The cartel, which prevented competition in air freight shipments rates, is said to involve almost thirty airlines. As well as Qantas, Japan Airlines, British Airways, Korean Air and Lufthansa have all had their involvement confirmed. Whistleblower Lufthansa, a German airline, was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for exposing the operation. In August, British Airways and Korean Air pled guilty to their involvement and received fines of US$300 million each. Last month Japan Airlines also admitted to their role and paid a US$110 million fine. Amongst the others alleged to be involved are Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific. Hundreds of Australian businesses are involved in a class action suit against these seven airlines for AU$200 million that they believe was unfairly charged to them as a result of criminal activity. McCarthy, who ran Qantas's Australia-US cargo route for twenty years, entered a plea bargain with the authorities. Under the US Sherman Act he could have faced up to a US$1.06 million fine and up to 10 years imprisonment, but the DoJ says that the maximum fine could actually be double the gain from the offences committed or double the loss of those victimised if either were found to be higher than the normal maximum. According to the case, he was involved with ""meetings, conversations and communications in the US and elsewhere to discuss the cargo rates to be charged on certain routes to and from the US"". In light of the news, shares in Qantas fell 3¢ to AU$3.41." +business,"USAThe United States Labor Department reported that U.S. employers cut 533,000 jobs in November, the largest such monthly cut in 34 years. In another indication of the worsening economic situation in the U.S., the unemployment rate reached a 15-year high of 6.7 percent, from 6.5 percent in October. It was the largest job loss in a single month since December 1974, when 604,000 jobs were cut. More job cuts have been announced since these figures were compiled, with 12,000 job cuts expected at telecommunications company AT&T. The economy has now lost 1.26 million jobs in the past three months, after 403,000 jobs were lost in September and a further 320,000 in October. Job losses since the beginning of 2008 total 1.91 million. The job losses were ""much worse than expected,"" said Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland. ""The threat of widespread depression is now real and present,"" he added. ""Factoring in discouraged workers, unemployment is closer to 8.7 percent. Add in part-time positions that cannot find full-time employment, and the hidden unemployment rate is nearly 13 percent."" The Wall Street stock market reacted to the news negatively: the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 171 points in the first thirty minutes of trading, going down to 8,206 points. The other two major indexes, the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500, also lost ground. The U.S. gross domestic product in the fourth quarter is projected to drop by as much as five percent at an annual rate, according to IHS Global Insight. An unemployment rate of nine percent has been predicted by Goldman Sachs." +business,"The Japanese whaling fleet is reportedly heading into the seas around Antarctica, drawing widespread condemnation from campaigners. Japan's fleet of six ships left the port of Shimonoseki, western Japan with a quota of 940 minke whales and 10 fin whales. Calls for the Australian government to intervene have been rejected by the environment minister, Senator Ian Campbell. Japan's whaling program, which is claimed to be for scientific purposes, is expected to kill nearly one thousand whales this season. ""Japan's attempt to dress up its commercial whaling as science is an insult to modern science,"" said International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Director of Wildlife and Habitat. ""It's time for the Japanese Government to respect the rest of the world - It's time to stop whaling."" A Greenpeace statement dismisses the assertion of the Japanese government that whales are contributing to the collapse of fish stocks. Senator Rachel Siewrt, spokesperson on marine matters for the Green Party said, ""Mr Campbell can't answer a simple question on whether or not the Government plans to take any one of a number of legal and diplomatic actions open to it."" Legal action open to the Australian government includes invoking provisional measures under the auspices of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. These measures would &mdash; in effect &mdash; be an injunction preventing whaling from being started within the 14 days following. In December, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will engage the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. The Sea Shepherds say the Japanese whale kill is illegal. They will be acting in accordance with the United Nations World Charter for Nature in their intervention. The groups objective is to ""hunt down the Japanese whaling fleet and harass, block, obstruct, and intervene against their illegal whaling operations."" According to Sea Shepherd: ""The Japanese are violating the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. They are violating the International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling. They are targeting endangered fin and humpback whales that are protected under the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna. They are also in violation of the Australian laws protecting the Australian Antarctic Territorial waters."" International Fund for Animal Welfare condemns what it calls a ""mass killing program — a defiance of international criticism and a global ban on commercial whaling — as commercial whaling disguised as science."" IFAW urges the Australian Government to take Japan to the international courts to bring this program to an immediate halt. Japan plans to kill over 900 minke whales and ten fin whales during the next six months as part of its whaling program, JAPRA II, marking a sharp escalation in Japan's whaling activities. ""It is a dark day for some of the world's most magnificent creatures. Let's be under no illusion—this is commercial whaling in disguise. The Australian Government must respond swiftly by taking legal action to stop the boats in their tracks,"" said IFAW Marine Campaigner Darren Kindleysides. Southern Ocean whaling season (2005-2006) Leading international law expert, Professor Don Rothwell, has advised IFAW that the Japanese Government is breaching international laws with JARPA II. He has advised that the Australian Government has very strong grounds to take Japan to in the International Law of the Sea to stop ""scientific"" whaling. Japan is targeting whales that are listed as endangered. He argues that Japan's plans to double its whale take are an abuse of its legal right. ""The number of whales that Japan purports to take is not commensurate with the number of whales that would be necessary to engage in scientific research,"" he said. ""There's also increasing evidence that non-lethal means can be used to take data from whales to obtain information about whaling stocks.""" +business,"The Romanian government has drafted legislation pertaining to tax evasion that makes it a criminal offence on the same level as crimes against individuals. Developed with the aid of Romania's business community, the new law is expected to reduce corruption and tax evasion. According to the new law, the maximum jail term for tax evasion will be boosted up to 20 years. This sentence, however, will only be passed in circumstances of large-scale fraud. For evasion of up to the equivalent of 10,000 euro, the punishment will be either a fine or up to 2 years in prison. For tax fraud of up to 500,000 euro, the term will be extended to 2-8 years in prison. It is only for those whose tax evasion exceeds 1 million euro that the jail term will range between 10 and 20 years. In the same package of legislation, the government approved several changes to banckruptcy law, which makes it easier for businesses to file for bankruptcy. The new laws are expected to make Romania's business environment cleaner, resulting in more foreign investment, less corruption and more revenue for the government. At the start of the year, the Romanian government introduced a new flat tax system for Romania, in which the tax rate is 19% for both personal income and corporate profit. This has led Romania to have one of the most liberal tax policies in Europe. The lower rate of tax has already reduced fiscal evasion to a significant extent because more people and businesses are encouraged to pay the tax. However, in order to further reduce the grey economy in Romania, advisers said at the start of the year that the government must also back this up with tougher legislation against tax evasion. Previously, Romania's tax evasion laws were fairly lax, leading to quite a significant extent of tax fraud. Now, with the new, highly-publicised tax evasion laws, it is expected that the risk of getting prosecuted for not paying an already-low tax rate will force many businesses out of the black market into the legal economy." +business,"Space Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), a commercial spaceflight company, has successfully launched its Dragon spacecraft on its maiden voyage to orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Wednesday. The launch was followed by a successful landing of the unmanned capsule in the Pacific Ocean hours later. During its maiden flight, the Dragon capsule completed about two orbits around the Earth and executed successful de-orbiting operations, followed by successful reentry, parachute deployment, and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. The Dragon spacecraft is the first commercial space transport certified to reach orbit and return to Earth. The successful flight of the Dragon spacecraft makes SpaceX the first private firm to launch its own craft to orbit and return it to Earth. The Dragon spacecraft is part of a contract between the California-based commercial spaceflight company and the United States' space agency, NASA, to provide transport for crews and supplies to and from the International Space Station." +business,"The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a stock market index used to gauge the performance of American stock exchanges, fell 344.65 at the close of trading Thursday. The exact reason for the drop is unknown, with different news agencies pointing to different causes. The New York Times cites a rise in unemployment numbers released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor and a fall in retail sales released by several large corporations. According to the Associated Press, the number of people claiming weekly unemployment benefits rose 15,000 last week to 444,000, which, according to The New York Times is near a five-year high. “This morning’s employment numbers continue to indicate that the labor sector remains soft at best and looks to continue to shed jobs throughout the remainder of the year,” Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at Merk Investments, said in a statement to The New York Times. One major corporation that posted a gain in sales was Wal-Mart, with a 3 percent boost, which resulted in a one penny loss in their stock. Fellow retailer Target posted a sales loss. Shares of energy companies ExxonMobil and Chevron fell by 1.5 and 3 percent, respectively. The other two major American stock indices fell too. The S&P 500 fell 2.99 percent while the Nasdaq composite index fell 3.20 percent. The Dow's 344.65-point fall left the index at 11,188.23, a 2.99 percent decrease from the close of trading Wednesday. According to The New York Times, the drop is the largest since June of this year, but an expected announcement Friday of August unemployment data could cause the index to rise. The New York Times and the Associated Press both report that the number of jobs in the service sector rose in August according to research done by the Institute for Supply Management. This is the first rise in the number of jobs in several months. CNNMoney.com points to the rise in the price of Treasury bonds as a reaction to data released Wednesday that the American economy would continue to be slow in 2009." +business,"2008 financial crisis Mobile telephone company Nokia, the world's largest manufacturer of mobile telephones, based in Finland, has today lowered its forecasts for the number of mobile handsets to be sold in 2008 by 1.5%, due to the current economic crisis. It lowered its forecast for the total number of mobile phones to be sold in 2008 to 1.24 billion, down from 1.26 billion. Nokia also stated that it's ""preliminary estimate is that the industry mobile device volumes will be down in 2009 compared to 2008, impacted by the continuing overall economic slowdown."" ""In the last few weeks, the global economic slowdown, combined with unprecedented currency volatility, has resulted in a sharp pull back in global consumer spending,"" stated Nokia, explaining it's reasons behind it's move. ""The weaker consumer spending has impacted many industries, including the global mobile device market. The mobile device market has also been negatively impacted by the more limited availability of credit, which has limited the purchasing ability of some of our trade customers."" Nokia's share price has fallen on the announcement of this news. The company opened today trading at US$12.43. It has since fallen to a low of $12.22, although it has now recovered. The company plans to reveal more details on its 2009 forecasts at its ""Capital Markets Day"" in New York on December 4." +business,"Indonesia Police in Indonesia have forwarded a 200-page brief concerning the Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 disaster to prosecutors. The move comes as an indication that the trial of pilot-in-command Captain Marwoto Komar is set to commence within weeks. The March 7, 2007 crash of a Boeing 737-400 at Yogyakarta International Airport killed 21 people. 119 others were able to escape the burning wreckage after the plane overshot the runway, going through the perimeter fence and crossing a road and an embankment to come to rest in a paddy field. Most of the deceased were Indonesians, with five from neighbouring Australia also killed. A final report was later issued after an investigation by Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) in October 2007. The report blamed pilot error for the crash, finding that the airliner had touched down at roughly twice the accepted safe landing speed, and that Komar was ""fixated"" on landing and ""probably emotionally aroused"". The Cockpit Voice Recorder indicated that he ignored fifteen activations of the Ground Proximity Warning System and a call from his co-pilot for a 'go-around' as the plane touched down. A number of other criticisms were also leveled at the airport, the airline and transport politicians for contributing factors. Komar is to be prosecuted over the crash for negligence. His earlier arrest - which he was subsequently released from pending full charges - sparked protests from Indonesian aviation groups and criticism from international groups, including IFALPA, a powerful international airline pilots' association. Evidence in his trial is set to include documentational evidence and aircraft wreckage, but it is unclear whether it will include the NTSC report. Much controversy was caused by the suggestion it may be used, since international regulations limit the use of materials intended for safety investigations as evidence to prove liability in criminal or civil cases. Kamal Firdaus, council for the pilot, explained what this means for his client: ""Today the documentation has been officially accepted by the prosecutor,"" adding, ""I suspect from this it will be two to three weeks until it is handed over to the court - that's the usual practice. Usually the first hearing is two weeks after that."" Firdaus commented that it would be ""difficult"" for liability to be established and that, ""we are ready and it will be a very interesting legal case, so let's see what will happen in the court."" Komar, 45, is believed to be the first pilot prosecuted over an air accident in Indonesia despite the country's poor aviation safety record. He is being charged with three counts of negligence, but the potential sentence is unclear, as Aero-News reports that he could face life imprisonment while The Age says he can face up to seven years' imprisonment. His case is considered a landmark, with aviation groups believing his trial may set the precedent for pilots involved in future accidents." +business,"Philippines According to reports, at least 35 people are dead while six are seriously injured in the northern Philippines after a bus plunged into a 100 meter deep ravine. The accident occurred early Wednesday near the city of Baguio, 200 kilometres north of the capital Manila. 4=The conductor The accident happened when the brakes on the vehicle failed and it rolled down a hill into a ditch. Officials say the death toll may increase. There were a total of 47 passengers on board. The bus conductor, John Patrick Flores, survived the accident with only minor injuries by jumping out the door before the bus fell into the ravine. He said that ""the driver tried to ram the bus into a mango tree to prevent it from falling, but failed.""" +business,"Internet w|Hacker (computer security)|Computer hacking group w|Lulz Security|Lulz Security has attacked a server of one of the United States affiliates of w|Nintendo, a Japanese-based video gaming company. Nintendo themselves confirmed the news on Sunday, with a statement from the corporation reporting that the unit was illegally accessed ""a few weeks ago"". Speaking on behalf of the corporation, Ken Toyoda had claimed that ""there were no third-party victims"" but acknowledged ""there was some kind of possible hacking attack"". According to Tomokazu Nakaura, Nintendo in Japan considers ""protection of our customer information"" to be the ""utmost priority"". To adhere to this claim, the corporation does ""constantly monitor our security"". In this instance, the hackers were not able to gain consumer details as the attacked server did not have any on it, according to Nintendo. On social networking website Twitter LulzSec defended their actions, tweeting: ""We're not targeting Nintendo. We like the w|Nintendo 64|N64 too much - we sincerely hope Nintendo plugs the gap. This is just for lulz. w|Emoticon|" +business,"New Zealand The Reserve Bank of New Zealand wrote to retails banks warning them that there will be a shortage on 20 cent coins (NZ$0.20) leading up to Christmas. They have now announced that they have distributed 4.75 million new twenty cent coins in the past week alone ""...close to the number issued in a typical year."" Ten million new coins are expected to arrive in the next few days. The Reserve Bank is wondering where all the new coins went, just five weeks after the new design was first introduced. Brian Lang, currency manager for the Reserve Bank, said: ""The pattern of demand for new coins has been markedly different to that for the old coins."" He suggests that people are keeping them in jars, like the old design coins. Some stores are already unable to give out twenty cent coins as they don't have any according to the Newmarket Business Association. Mr Lang said: ""To put this into perspective, by 30 November, the Bank had issued almost as many 20c coins (49.6m) as 10c coins (53.0m). In the past issue of 20 cent coins would normally have been about half the amount of 10 cent coins."" The head of Newmarket Business Association, Cameron Brewer, said: ""...the Reserve Bank told us that they'd done a lot of work and that everything was going to be just fine. Well here we are just five weeks into the new coins and only days away from the Christmas rush, and the country's running out of its own currency."" Mr Lang said: ""The Bank has sufficient supplies of 10c and 50c coins for several years' normal issues."" ""...tens of millions of the old 20 cent pieces sit idle because they are no longer legal tender,"" Mr Brewer said referring to the old 'silver' coins that were used before the introduction of new coins. The Reserve Bank still doesn't know why the pattern of demand of twenty cent coins has changed. ""... such a staggering miscalculation by the Reserve Bank should never have happened,"" Mr Brewer said." +business,"align=right Some say history tends to repeat itself. Today marked a day in history, when 20 years ago, the United States Dow Jones Industrial Average market crashed, on what is known as 'Black Monday'. The crash sent the market tumbling down 508 points, losing nearly 24%. On Friday, the Dow Jones nearly broke that record when the market closed at -366.94 points, down almost three percent. Several factors could be to blame for the loss, one being Turkey's government approving a measure on October 18 to send Turkish troops into Iraq in an attempt to take out militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). This sent oil prices skyrocketing to the highest prices in history, with the highest record being just over US$89.00, which was set on October 18. Fears that the housing market in the U.S. has come to a standstill has also lead Caterpillar Inc., which manufactures and sells construction equipment to issue a warning that the standstill would cause profits to drop, and the American economy to be severely hurt. On Friday their stocks lost nearly six percent to close at $73.57. Investors and experts of the markets are disturbed by the losses calling the situation ugly. ""It's pretty ugly. A company like Caterpillar should be a poster child for global growth and benefits of the weak dollar. It makes you question: Is global growth really that strong? Has the earnings kick from the weak dollar played itself out?"" said Bell Curve Trading chief strategy expert, Bill Strazzullo. Others believe that the losses were a way of emotionally responding to the events of 'Black Monday.' ""Some of the earnings reports were a little disappointing but not that bad. I think we're responding emotionally to the 20th anniversary of the October 1987 stock market crash. I'd like to laugh except it hurts,"" said T Rowe Price Head trader, Andy Brooks. The NASDAQ also took heavy losses to close down 74.15 points or -2.64%, closing at 2,725.16. The S&P 500 was also hit hard, losing 39.45 points, or -2.56%, closing at 1,500.63." +business,"Aviation On Monday, an Air France Airbus A380, operating as Air France Flight 007, collided with a Comair Bombardier CRJ-700, operating as Comair flight 553/Delta Connection flight 6293 in Delta Connection livery, on a taxiway at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The A380 had 520 people onboard, and the smaller plane had 66. The Comair jet had just arrived from Boston Logan International Airport, and was stopped on the tarmac, awaiting a gate to offload passengers. The A380 was preparing to depart for Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, and was taxiing along a taxiway when its wingtip struck the tail of the other plane. The impact spun the CRJ around 90 degrees and resulted in some damage to both planes. A passenger on board the A380 said that ""It really felt just like a speedbump or like hitting a pothole&mdash;a jolt&mdash;but it didn't feel right it felt like that shouldn't be happening."" LiveATC.net captured the recording of the flight deck and ground control communications before and after the incident. In the recording, one can hear controllers giving taxi instructions to the Air France plane, then later a controller calling for emergency personnel to the intersection of taxiways Alpha and Mike. The National Transportation Safety Board plans to investigate the incident, and will study the flight recorders, air traffic control recordings, and data from radar on the ground." +business,"transport A 39-year old woman, Lakeysha Beard, talked for more than half a day while on an Amtrak train going from Oakland, California to Portland, Oregon. The loud cellphone conversation lasted sixteen hours last Monday, after which police stopped the train for twenty minutes at Salem, Oregon to arrest the woman. According to the British newspaper Daily Mail, Amtrak has no policy forbidding passengers from talking on the phone on a moving train. In the train's car, a few passengers asked the woman to put the phone away or to stop a few times during the conversation prior to notifying the train staff. Staff members were unable to convince the woman to end the conversation and stopped the train to arrest the woman and halt the disruption. As British newspaper Metro mentioned, this cellphone conversation doesn't beat the record 51-hour phone call by Sunil Prabhakar of New Delhi in 2009. Sydney, Australia etiquette expert Alex Travers, remarking on a train incident in March, said there is a lack of respect for public transportation from younger generations. The U.S. woman in the current incident, Lakeysha Beard, is 39 years old. Travers said, ""I'm afraid we are all in a very bad place as far as we feel about our public transport. People think poorly of it, so therefore they are getting on it with a poor attitude."" She called youths ""me-oriented"" and said that they ""do what they want to do"" without thinking about others on the vehicle." +business,"Foreign investors invested a record CA$53.2 billion into Candian securities in 2004, Statistics Canada says. This was almost double the CA$18.5 billion recorded in 2003 and just beat the previous record of CA$52.8 billion in 1993. Of the 53.2 billion, about 35 billion was put into stocks and 20 billion into various bonds. ""For the year as a whole, foreign investors picked up $20.2 billion in Canadian bonds; a substantial increase over the $7.0 billion purchased in 2003 but just half the high of 2001,"" the agency said. Roughly half of the purchases were directly influenced by the acquisition of John Hancock Financial services in April which has created the largest North American insurer. Canadians themselves were also buying foreign securities in record amounts. ""Overall for 2004, Canadian investors purchased $16.2 billion in foreign securities. Of this, outlays of $15.1 billion were made in foreign bonds - almost double the amount from the year before and by far the largest ever yearly investment by Canadian investors in the foreign bond market,""" +business,"Egypt __NOTOC__ Standard & Poor's downgraded Egypt's currency rating for the second time in four months based on the country's shorfall in foreign reserves and shaky political transition. It's the latest development for a nation facing mounting economic diffuclties. Egypt's foreign reserves fell by over 50 percent last year to about US$16 billion. Egypt has requested US$3.2 billion from the International Monetary Fund to bolster its reserves and prevent a devalation but that could take months. Experts say that Egypt's problem of attracting foreign investment and tourists, which are two sources that would increase reserves, has already caused the Egyptian pound to lose 1 percent of its value and if the country doesn't solve the shortfall in foriegn currency, it could even lead to a further currency devaluation within the next two to three months. The long-term solution is to restore tourism and foreign investments but both are suffering because of the continuing unrest. Egyptian tourism suffered this past year as a result of a revolution, a transition to an elected government, and continuing signs of unrest and instability. The Egyptian Revolution began on January 25 last year and President Hosni Mubarak resigned over two weeks later on February 11. The protests have continued as Egyptians grew uncomfortable with the military's control over the transition. At the start of this month, 79 people were killed at a soccer event in Port Said. Tourism in Egypt accounted for US$12.5 billion in 2010 but fell 30 percent, or US$8.8 billion, in 2011, according to Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, Egypt's tourism minister. Tourism accounts for 11.6 percent of Egypt's GDP. Last week, two U.S. female tourists and their Egyptian guide were abducted in the Sinai peninsula by Bedouin tribesmen and released shortly afterward. The kidnapping took place in broad daylight on a busy road while the tourists travelled after a visit to St. Catherine's Monastery. Masked tribesmen stopped their bus, abducted the tourists by gunpoint, and escaped into the mountains. Three other tourists of unknown nationalities were left on the bus. Local authorities organized a search which ended in negotiations with local Bedouin tribesmen. The Bedouin demanded the release of recently apprehended tribesmen, who had been detained for drug trafficking and robbery. The US hostages were released unharmed, Abdel Nour said. As a location, Egypt boasts ancient pyramids, the Nile River, Biblical sites like Mount Sinai, museums, and Red Sea coastal resorts. Last year the number of tourists plunged from fifteen million people down to nine million, which is a 40 percent drop. The low amount of tourism to Egypt has also affected tourism in other countries. Stas Misezhnikov, Israeli tourism minister, said that Israeli tourism is down because the flow of tourism from Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort is ""almost nonexistent right now."" Egypt's current investment climate is also severely hampered by the perception that the climate is not yet right for investment. Mulyani Indrawati, managing director of the World Bank, said investors were not ready to get back into the markets of the Arab Spring countries until stability is restored but the situation has also been exacerbated by the precarious state of the regional and international economy. Egypt's domestic politics is threatening one of the country's largest stable sources of foreign investment. The United States' annual military aid to Egypt accounts for US$1.5 billion. U.S. politicians have threatened to withhold that aid package, however, because of an investigation into pro-democracy NGOs that involve 19 American citizens and more U.S. money. Senator John Kerry said the Egyptian investigation is a ""dangerous game that risks damaging both Egypt's democratic prospects and the U.S.-Egyptian bilateral relationship."" Faiza Abou el-Naga, who is the Egyptian minister who distributes Egypt's aid money, a former Mubarak loyalist who survived through the transition, and one of Egypt's most visible female politicians, claims the NGOs are meddling in her country's sovereignty. Both the Muslim parties who won the election and the generals in power are backing those hearings. Her argument that foreigners are meddling in Egypt also has a populist appeal. The military government's slow transition is also stalling foreign investments. Khaled bin Mohamed al-Attiya, foreign minister of Qatar, said a few weeks ago his government is holding back from making US$10 billion in investments because power has not been transferred to an elected government. The other Middle Eastern countries that pledged investments, such as Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are also waiting. The Egyptian government announced this week that it was investigating Yasser el-Mallawany, an investment banker with EFG Hermes based in Cairo, for allegedly paying soccer fans to riot at Port Said, a charge which el-Mallawany dismissed and attributed to gossip. Meanwhile, investors within Egypt are looking for other investment vehicles such as real estate as they fear holding cash in a period of devaluation. Florence Eid, who is an expert on Middle Eastern economies at U.K. Arabia Monitor, said the situation throughout the Middle East could get worse. ""People are frustrated because the reasons that they revolted against to begin with, are still there,"" Eid said. ""Whoever said this was going to be smooth was naive.""" +business,"Economy and businessToyota announced on Friday that it will recall around 17,000 Lexus vehicles in response to risks of the fuel tank in the cars leaking after a collision. The Lexus HS 250h model was subjected to the recall following a US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation. Despite previously passing Toyota safety inspections, the conclusions of an NHTSA sub-contracted investigator were that; when the vehicles in question collided with an object at more than fifty-miles-per hour, more than 142 grams of fuel, the maximum allowed by US law, leaked from the crashed car. According to Toyota, further tests did not show any additional failure of the fuel tank. In response to the findings, Toyota issued a recall of all affected vehicles, since the company had no solution immediately available. The recall includes 13,000 cars already sold, as well as another 4,000 still at dealerships. Toyota says it plans to conduct further tests to determine the cause of the leak. A Toyota spokesman, Brian Lyons, said that the company was ""still working to determine what the root cause of the condition is."" It's still unclear when exactly the recall will take place, or when dealerships will be allowed to sell this model again. Lyons said that Toyota is ""working feverishly to get this resolved as soon as possible."" Toyota isn't aware of any accidents stemming from the leaking fuel tank in the affected vehicles, first introduced in the summer of 2009." +business,"Egypt Across Egypt hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets for the day, marking exactly one year since the outbreak of protests leading to 83-year-old longstanding ruler Hosni Mubarak's downfall. The country's decades-long emergency rule was partially lifted this week; meanwhile, a possible economic meltdown looms and a newly-elected parliament held their first meeting on Monday. Despite the new parliament, military rule introduced following Mubarak's fall last spring remains. Echoing the demands from a year ago, some protesters are demanding the military relinquish power; there are doubts an elected civilian leader will be permitted to replace the army. The brief unity against Mubarak has since fragmented, with Secularists and Islamists marking the revolution's anniversary splitting to opposing sides of Cairo's famed Tahrir Square and chanting at each other. Initial demonstrations last year were mainly from young secularists; now, Islamic parties hold most of the new parliament's seats &mdash; the country's first democratic one in six decades. Salafis hold 25% of the seats and 47% are held by the Muslim Brotherhood, which brought supporters to Cairo for the anniversary. Tahrir Square alone contained tens of thousands of people, some witnesses putting the crowd at 150,000 strong. It's the largest number on the streets since the revolution. Military rulers planned celebrations including pyrotechnics, commemorative coins, and air displays. The Supreme Council of Armed Forces took power after last year's February 11 resignation of Mubarak. Alaa al-Aswani, a pro-democracy activist writing in al-Masry al-Youm, said: ""We must take to the streets on Wednesday, not to celebrate a revolution which has not achieved its goals, but to demonstrate peacefully our determination to achieve the objectives of the revolution,"" &mdash; to ""live in dignity, bring about justice, try the killers of the martyrs and achieve a minimum social justice"" Alexandria in the north and the eastern port city of Suez also saw large gatherings. It was bitter fighting in Suez led to the first of the revolution's 850 casualties in ousting Mubarak. ""We didn't come out to celebrate. We came out to protest against the military council and to tell it to leave power immediately and hand over power to civilians,"" said protestor Mohamed Ismail. ""Martyrs, sleep and rest. We will complete the struggle,"" chanted crowds in Alexandria, a reference to the 850 'martyrs of the revolution'. No convictions are in yet although Mubarak is on trial. Photos of the dead were displayed in Tahrir Square. Young Tahrir chanters went with ""Down with military rule"" and ""Revolution until victory, revolution in all of Egypt's streets"". If the protestors demanding the military leave power get their way, the Islamists celebrating election victory face a variety of challenges. For now, Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi &mdash; whose career featured twenty years as defence minister under Mubarak &mdash; rules the nation and promises to cede power following presidential elections this year. The economy is troubled and unemployment is up since Mubarak left. With tourism and foreign investment greatly lower than usual, budget and payment deficits are up &mdash; with the Central Bank eating into its reserves in a bid to keep the Egyptian pound from losing too much value. Last week the nation sought US$3.2 billion from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF insists upon funding also being secured from other donors, and strong support from Egypt's leaders. IMF estimates say the money could be handed over in a few months &mdash; whereas Egypt wanted it in a matter of weeks. The country has managed to bolster trade with the United States and Jordan. Amr Abul Ata, Egyptian ambassador to the fellow Middle-East state, told The Jordan Times in an interview for the anniversary that trade between the nations increased in 2011, and he expects another increase this year. This despite insurgent attacks reducing Egyptian gas production &mdash; alongside electricity the main export to Jordan. Jordan exports foodstuffs to Egypt and has just signed a deal increasing the prices it pays for gas. 2011 trade between the countries was worth US$1 billion. The anniversary also saw a new trade deal with the US, signed by foreign trade and industry minister Mahmoud Eisa and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. President Barack Obama promises work to improve U.S. investment in, and trade with, nations changing political systems after the Arab Spring. Details remain to be agreed, but various proposals include US assistance for Egyptian small and medium enterprises. Both nations intend subjecting plans to ministerial scrutiny. The U.S. hailed ""several historic milestones in its transition to democracy"" within a matter of days of Egypt's revolution. This despite U.S.-Egypt ties being close during Mubarak's rule. US$1 billion in grants has been received already from Qatar and Saudi Arabia but army rulers refused to take loans from Gulf nations despite offers-in-principle coming from nations including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. Foreign aid has trickled in; no money at all has been sent from G8 nations, despite the G8 Deauville Partnership earmarking US$20 billion for Arab Spring nations. A total of US$7 billion was promised from the Gulf. The United Kingdom pledged to split £110 million between Egypt and Arab Spring initiator Tunisia. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development says G8 money should start arriving in June, when the presidential election is scheduled. The African Development Bank approved US$1.5 billion in loans whilst Mubarak still held power but, despite discussions since last March, no further funding has been agreed. The IMF offered a cheap loan six months ago, but was turned away. Foreign investment last year fell from US$6 billion to $375 million. Rights, justice and public order remain contentious issues. Tantawi lifted the state of emergency on Tuesday, a day before the revolution's anniversary, but left it in place to deal with the exception of 'thuggery'. ""This is not a real cancellation of the state of emergency,"" said Islamist Wasat Party MP Essam Sultan. ""The proper law designates the ending of the state of emergency completely or enforcing it completely, nothing in between."" The same day, Amnesty International released a report on its efforts to establish basic human rights and end the death penalty in the country. Despite sending a ten-point manifesto to all 54 political parties, only the Egyptian Social Democratic Party (of the Egyptian Bloc liberals) and the left-wing Popular Socialist Alliance Party signed up. Measures included religious freedom, help to the impoverished, and rights for women. Elections did see a handful of women win seats in the new parliament. The largest parliamentary group is the Freedom and Justice Party of the Muslim Brotherhood, who Amnesty say did not respond. Oral assurances on all but female rights and abolition of the death penalty were given by Al-Nour, the Salafist runners-up in the elections, but no written declaration or signature. ""We challenge the new parliament to use the opportunity of drafting the new constitution to guarantee all of these rights for all people in Egypt. The cornerstone must be non-discrimination and gender equality,"" said Amnesty, noting that the first seven points were less contentious amongst the twelve responding parties. There was general agreement for free speech, free assembly, fair trials, investigating Mubarak's 30-year rule for atrocities, and lifting the state of emergency. A more mixed response was given to ensuring no discrimination against LGBT individuals, whilst two parties claimed reports of Coptic Christian persecution are exaggerated. Mubarak himself is a prominent contender for the death penalty, currently on trial for the killings of protesters. The five-man prosecution team are also seeking death for six senior police officers and the chief of security in the same case. Corruption offences are also being tried, with Gamal Mubarak and Alaa Mubarak accused alongside their father Hosni. The prosecution case has been hampered by changes in witness testimony and there are complaints of Interior Ministry obstruction in producing evidence. Tantawi has testified in a closed hearing that Mubarak never ordered protesters shot. Do you believe Egypt's current military rulers will allow a peacful transition to civilian rule? Hisham Talaat Moustafa, an ex-MP and real estate billionaire, is another death penalty candidate. He, alongside Ahmed Sukkari, was initially sentenced to death for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim. A new trial was granted on procedural grounds and he is now serving a fifteen-year term for paying Sukkari US$2 million to slit 30-year-old's Tamim's throat in Dubai. Her assassin was caught when police followed him back to his hotel and found a shirt stained with her blood; he was in custody within two hours of the murder. The court of appeals is now set to hear another trial for both men after the convictions were once more ruled unsound. A military crackdown took place last November, the morning after a major protest, and sparking off days of violence. Egypt was wary of a repeat this week, with police and military massed near Tahrir Square whilst volunteers manned checkpoints into the square itself. The military has pardoned and released at least 2,000 prisoners jailed following military trials, prominently including a blogger imprisoned for defaming the army and deemed troublesome for supporting Israel. 26-year-old Maikel Nabil was given a three year sentence in April. He has been on hunger strike alleging abuse at the hands of his captors. He wants normalised relations with Israel. Thousands have now left Tora prison in Cairo." +business,"United Kingdom Lord Howard, the former United Kingdom (UK) Conservative Party leader, and Alistair Darling, the former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, set out their opposing views regarding the UK's continuing membership of the European Union at the Confederation of British Industry's (CBI) annual dinner on Wednesday. The dinner was held as the UK is expected to vote on the matter in next month's EU referendum. Lord Howard encouraged those in attendance to vote for the UK to leave the EU, while Mr Darling was speaking in favour of a vote to remain. Responding to the CBI calling for the UK to remain in the EU, Lord Howard referred to the organisation's previous calls to become a full member of the European Monetary System and the Euro, saying these calls had been wrong, and suggesting this reduces the credibility of the CBI's current stance. Lord Howard also said if the UK left the EU and didn't replace it with some trade deal, which he described as ""inconceivable"", then the UK's exports would face EU import tariffs of 2.4% on average. He compared this to the UK's net contribution to the EU's budget, which he said was ""equivalent to a seven per cent tariff."" Mr Darling reminded the audience of warnings from Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, and Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, that leaving the EU could lead to a recession in the UK. Mr Darling said this ""would be disastrous for working people's life chances and living standards"". The referendum is expected to take place on June 23." +business,"Philippines At least 28 people drowned and were confirmed dead, 46 were rescued, while 34 others remain missing on Sunday, after an overcrowded passenger motorboat capsized off waters in Ballesteros, a town of 17,000 people, the Cagayan police reported. 'M/B Mae Jan', a wooden-hulled ferry, was carrying 102 passengers, after an eight-hour voyage from Calayan Island in the Luzon Strait for Appari when it capsized less than 300 meters (984 feet) from its destination, at 8:30 p.m. Its bamboo outrigger broke due to strong waves, as it reached the mouth of the Cagayan River ('Bannag' Rio Grande de Cagayan, 'Ilog ng Kagayan'), along Barangay Linao, about 50 meters from the shoreline of Pallog village. Divers from the combined teams of the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard helped in the rescue operations. 11 of the fatalities, including the vessel owner, Arellano, and her daughter were identified. The police said ""there was a possibility that the boat was overloaded,"" saying that ""there was also livestock on board."" Due to ""trauma,"" the ferry's captain refused to talk to police. Meanwhile, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) formed a Special Board of Marine Inquiry (SBMI) to investigate the sea tragedy. It ordered the ""immediate dispatch of SAR-003 and MCS-3005 vessels and the PCG Islander for aerial surveillance."" PCG noted the possible overloading of the vessel since the boat's franchise authorized it to carry only 40 passengers and 10 crew members. In November, a cargo vessel sank in rough seas north of Cagayan, and passing vessels rescued 16 of 20 passengers. Weeks earlier, separate storms sank two passenger vessels in the central Philippines, drowning more than 50 people. Prior to the ferry sinking, the Philippine weather bureau had issued Gale warnings to coastal towns, of approaching tropical storm ""Ulysses"" (international codename: Dolphin) from the Pacific with winds of up to 60 miles (95 kilometers) per hour, centered off southeastern Catanduanes, eastern Philippines." +business,"Electrical power generator Calpine Corporation declared bankruptcy on Tuesday. The San Jose, California based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Federal Court, to facilitate debt restructuring and to allow for normal operations to continue. Calpine has obtained secured debtor-in-possession financing from Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston totaling $2 billion. The company announced that some of its Canadian subsidiaries would also file for creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. Calpine and its subsidiaries operate natural gas and geothermal electricity generating plants in 21 U.S. states and 3 Canadian provinces. The recent rise in natural gas prices due to Hurricanes Rita and Katrina has pushed Calpine's cost significantly above the locked in selling price for its long-term contracts. Calpine has asked the court to void eight long term contracts, including a 20-year contract entered into with the State of California's Department of Water Resources and Pacific Gas and Electric Company in 2001. The company received permission on December 21 from the Federal Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to use $500 million of its financing to continue operating and to keep paying its employees' salaries and benefits." +business,"Canadian news The Toronto Stock Exchange experienced one of its biggest one-day point losses in the wake of a major (9%) stock sell-off in China. The S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 2.7%, falling 364 points eventually ending the day at 13,040. Despite this 'dramatic' drop, the main Toronto index is still above where it was eight weeks prior at the end of 2006. CBC News Recently, the TSX set seven record highs in nine trading sessions. Its benchmark index doubled since October 2002 as well as experienced a steady rise in commodity prices. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) witnessed even larger drops; the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw a loss of 3.3%, fallling 416 points, making it its worst day in almost four years. At its lowest point of the day it dropped 4.3%, falling 550 points. The Nasdaq composite index dropped similarily 96 points to 2,432 for a 3.8% loss. In total, 498 of the 500 U.S. companies represented in the S&P 500 index fell including all 30 Dow stocks." +business,"NXEC Trains Ltd, a subsidiary of National Express Group, has been awarded the contract to run the InterCity East Coast franchise and operate intercity rail services on the East Coast Main Line, a high-speed route connecting London with the north-east of England and Scotland. The company, which is to brand the service as National Express East Coast, will take over the franchise from the current operator Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) from December 9, 2007. GNER's contract was initially due to run until 2015 but was terminated early by the Department for Transport after its parent company, Sea Containers Ltd, found itself in financial difficulties which meant it was unable to pay the £1.3 billion it had promised in its bid to run the service. A number of other bids were made for the franchise. These were from Arriva, FirstGroup, and a partnership of Stagecoach, Virgin, and GNER. Richard Bowker, chief executive of National Express Group, said, ""We are absolutely delighted that we have won the UK’s premier intercity railway. We have won with a bid which is ambitious, deliverable and structured to generate shareholder value.""" +business,"Global stock markets fell today, in a mass sell-off stemming from the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded late in the day after falling more than 250 points, ending the day down about 31 points. The UK's FTSE-100 index fell 232.90 points to 6038.30, and Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 406.51 points to 16764.09. Central banks across the world are injecting funds into their banking systems to add liquidity, fearing that many financial firms with subprime ties will be insolvent. Yesterday, the U.S. Federal Reserve transferred US$24 billion to temporary reserves, following the European Central Bank, which authorized a record €83.6 billion addition to its banks, its biggest cash infusion ever. On Friday, the Fed entered into a $38 billion repurchase agreement of mortgage-backed securities, easing stockholder worries. Also on Friday, the Bank of Japan injected ¥1 trillion into Japan's financial system. The Federal Reserve met this week, but decided to maintain its target rate of 5.25%, although on Friday the federal funds rate was hovering around 6%, indicating a drop in liquidity. The volatile week began last Friday with Bear Stearns tumbling as a result from its complete loss of two major hedge funds worth more than $1.5 billion. The hedge funds had been dangerously exposed to the massive sub-prime mortgage failure, and the company announced it was unable to return any money to investors. Washington Mutual, and Countrywide Financial, both very large U.S. home loan lenders, saw shares fall. Countrywide Financial made a statement this week, saying they will be forced to retain a greater proportion of mortgage. American Home Mortgage Investment Corp, another large lender, recently filed for bankruptcy. The U.S. housing market has been declining for more than two years after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates 17 times. Now, lenders are in a quagmire from millions of people who are unable to repay loans after taking adjustable rate mortgages, teaser rates, interest-only mortgages, or piggyback rates. Jim Cramer, of CNBC's Mad Money, remarked that as many as seven million people will lose their homes from bad mortgages. Last Friday, Cramer went on a tirade on CNBC's Street Signs, saying that the ""Fed was asleep"" and called for them to lower rates immediately. Asian and European markets have become increasingly entangled in the subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S. Deutsche Bank of Germany lost almost $3.5 billion in share value, forcing the government to organize a bail-out. France's largest bank, BNP Paribas SA, halted withdrawals from three large investment funds which were crippled by sub-prime exposure." +business,"Economy and businessUS stock markets saw an unusually turbulent day yesterday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) losing almost a thousand points in thirty minutes, although later recovered somewhat to end the day with a smaller loss. The DJIA had its worst fall since 1987, a drop of 9% or 998.50 points, before going back up a bit to close with a loss of 3.30% or 347.80 points to a level of 10,520. The Nasdaq fell 82.65 points or 3.44%, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 3.24% or 37.75 points. According to some reports, the quick loss happened because a trader mistyped an order to sell a large amount of stock, causing the stock price to go down enough to trigger orders to sell elsewhere in the market. (By the following day this theory had been abandoned.) Other reports suggested that the biggest markets ""slowed"" their executions when it became clear that computerized errors were occurring; as a result, the vast majority of buy orders were briefly withdrawn, allowing the free-fall to continue for several minutes. 4=Procter & Gamble spokeswoman Jennifer CheluneStock for the Procter & Gamble company fell almost 37% during the sell-off, about 75 minutes to the closing bell. An investigation started into whether any erroneous trades happened. Procter & Gamble spokeswoman Jennifer Chelune spoke about the incident: ""We don't know what caused it. We know that that was an electronic trade ... and we're looking into it with Nasdaq and the other major electronic exchanges."" The Reuters news agency reports that, at their height, the losses cause equity values to lose $1 trillion. Some stocks saw extreme, but short, changes; for instance, consulting firm Accenture saw its shares plummet from about $42 to four cents, although it later rebounded to close the day at $41.09. Meanwhile, oil prices also dropped to lows not reached since February. Benchmark crude was down $2.86 to $77.11 in New York. ""The potential for giant high-speed computers to generate false trades and create market chaos reared its head again today,"" said Delaware senator Edward Kaufman. ""The battle of the algorithms &mdash; not understood by nor even remotely transparent to the Securities and Exchange Commission &mdash; simply must be carefully reviewed and placed within a meaningful regulatory framework soon."" Kaufman, along with senator Mark Warner from Virginia, called on Congress to investigate the cause of the mass sell-offs. Nasdaq, meanwhile, says that all trades of stocks at prices 60% higher or lower than the preceding price at or around 2.40 PM ""or immediately prior"" are to be cancelled; it noted that it coordinated its move with the other exchanges. Chief investment officer at Fort Pitt Capital Group Charlie Smith said: ""I think the machines just took over. There's not a lot of human interaction. We've known that automated trading can run away from you, and I think that's what we saw happen today."" In the past three days, the DJIA has lost 631 points, or 5.7%, mainly over concerns about Greece's ailing, debt-burdened economy. Peter Boockvar an equity strategist for Miller Tabak, commented: ""The market is now realizing that Greece is going to go through a depression over the next couple of years. Europe is a major trading partner of ours, and this threatens the entire global growth story.""" +business,"GreeceThe Greek parliament has approved an austerity bill proposed by the government to help rescue the country's ailing economy. The proposal, which includes increases in taxes, as well as salary and pension cuts, passed with 172 members of parliament supporting, 121 opposing, and several abstaining; the proposal needed at least 151 votes to pass. There are 300 total parliament seats. The vote comes after a debate that took the entire day. Meanwhile, rallies and strikes are being held around the country to protest against the measures; the protests have occasionally turned violent, with a firebomb attack on a bank killing three people yesterday. The Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund had asked for austerity plans to be implemented so that Greece can access a rescue loan package worth US$146 billion in order not to default on debts. The austerity programme is estimated to save $38 billion. Greece also aims to lower the public deficit to less than 3% of the GDP in four years; at the moment it is at 13.6%. Prime minister George Papandreou described the situation to parliament ahead of the vote, saying: ""The situation today is simple - either we vote and implement the deal or we condemn the country to bankruptcy ... The future of Greece is at stake. The economy, democracy and social cohesion are being put to the test."" Papandreou also expelled three Social deputies from his parliamentary team when they abstained from voting; however, his bloc still has a parliament majority of 157 MPs. Finance minister George Papaconstantinou also commented that Greece will default on some of its $12 billion debt on May 19 if action is not taken, saying: ""The state's coffers don't have that money. And because the only way for the country to avoid bankruptcy and suspension of payments is to take the money from our European partners and the International Monetary Fund."" Opposition parties, however, say the measures will put too heavy a burden on the populace; the leader of the conservatives, Antonis Samaras, commented: ""The dose of the medicine you are administering is in danger of killing the patient. You know that these measures have sparked a social explosion ... The citizens of this country have to believe there is a way out. Because whoever cuts pensions of €700 cannot convince anyone."" Do you agree with this move?" +business,"date=2008-10-27 Economy and business The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is preparing a series of loans to both Hungary and Ukraine as financial problems are hitting the two countries. Hungary has already received a €5 billion credit line from the European Central Bank (ECB). Ukraine is seeking a loan of up to US$14 billion. The credit line to Hungary will be used to cover banks’ shortage of euros. Hungary has a severe debt problem with them posting an account deficit of €5.3 billion or 4.9% of GDP this year. As a result of this, Hungary is unable to find suitable credit to store up its supply of euros. ""We are in close dialogue with the Hungarian authorities and the EU to discuss further responses to the current challenges, including possible technical and financial support by the IMF"", said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the IMF. ""I have informed the authorities that the IMF stands ready to assist their efforts. We will provide technical assistance as needed and, in the context of a supportive policy setting, are ready to undertake decisions on possible financial assistance, responding rapidly."" Ukraine's Finance Minister Viktor Pynzenyk met with an IMF team on Thursday. In a statement, Pynzenyk said ""the parties discussed a situation of influence the world financial crisis had on the economy of Ukraine."" It is not yet known how much the IMF is expected to lend to Ukraine but it is expected to be between $3 billion to $14 billion. It is also not known what type of conditions might be placed on the loan. In addition to financial uncertainty, Ukraine is suffering from political turmoil with the current President, Viktor Yushchenko, calling a snap parliamentary election for December. The Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, has made moves to stop the election. Ukraine's yearly trade deficit has increased by almost $7 billion since last year. The credit line by the European Central Bank is the first time publicly that it has extended help to countries other than the 15 that make up the Eurozone. According to Reuters, Hungary might be able to start the process of joining the euro quicker then expected. Currently, Hungary is on track to join the euro in 2011 or 2012, but if sped up, it is possible it could join as early as 2010. This might protect Hungary from further financial problems." +business,"The French web survey provider XiTiMonitor reports that in their study conducted from Monday, July 2 to Sunday, July 8, 2007 on 95,827 websites, web browser Mozilla Firefox reached a 27.8% share in Europe, compared to 21.1% during the same period last year. Firefox has its biggest market share in Slovenia and Finland where it amounts to 47.9% and 45.4%, respectively, while only 14.6% of people from the Netherlands and 15.2% of surfers in Denmark used Firefox in this survey. The share rose most in Ireland: from 24.9% to 38.6% (i.e. +13.7 points). Microsoft's web browser Internet Explorer remains the most used browser in Europe with a market share of 66.5%. Opera and Safari have a 3.5% and 1.7% share respectively, with other browsers at less than 1%. Oceania remains the region with the highest usage of the freely licensed and open source software browser Firefox, with 28.9%. The continent with the strongest relative increase in market share is South America, where there is a 30% increase compared to last March. Numbers from the U.S.-based company Net Applications Inc. last month showed a fall in Firefox's share from 15.42% in April to 14.54%." +business,"This Monday Hewlett-Packard is to announce that it is expanding its partnership with SAP. The partnership will be working with NetWeaver around several new services. The company is also expected to mention about its new enterprise solutions that are currently in development. Hewlett-Packard will offer its clients services for upgrading servers, storage and NetWeaver – SAP's application builder platform meant for integrating business processes throughout different systems. Among other services that the company is going to provide comprise assessment, governance and some architecture services for R3. The manager of Worldwide Packaged Applications for Enterprise Applications Services at HP Services Consulting & Integration, Tim Treat, stated that the company first of all looks at servers, storage and management and only afterwards it makes a proposal regarding the things that are to be updated. He mentioned that when Hewlett-Packard will work on upgrading servers and management, it will turn its attention towards Intel. After performing all the upgrades, the company is going to offer its clientele a variety of services package options that are related to NetWeaver. The services offered by Hewlett-Packard will include: enabling the service, design and implementation, application development and management. Tim Treat said that adaptive infrastructure is one of the company's new things that are to come. Recently the company's clients have put in place enough hardware capacity and infrastructure with the goal of supporting peak or quarter-end processes. However, a big amount of that capacity is unused till peak times. This is why Hewlett-Packard looks forward to bring solutions that are to allow users pay for the things they really use. Treat also outlined the fact that, besides its new services, the company is to announce business-process consulting together with IDS Scheer - software and consulting company, which is one of the leading providers of Business Process Management and IT solutions." +business,"eBay and VeriSign announced an agreement late Monday for eBay to acquire VeriSign’s debit and credit card processing division. This division would become a part of eBay’s PayPal. eBay will pay VeriSign $370 million in cash and stock for this division. Starting in the coming year eBay will begin using two-factor authentication from VeriSign. Two-factor authentication is a type of transaction protection that gives users digital certificates or one-time passwords helping to protect against identity theft. ""This acquisition allows PayPal to give our customers more choice in payment services and grow our merchant services business even more quickly,"" said president of PayPal Jeff Jordan. ""In working with PayPal and eBay, we are going to be offering them our security technology, allowing them to offer their users stronger forms of authentication,"" said VeriSign CEO Stratton Sclavos. Last year VeriSign's gateway business processed $40 billion in transactions. It is expected to generate an additional $100-million revenue for eBay in 2006. It is also expected to increase the customer base by 100,000. The acquisition is expected to close this quarter." +business,"The Ford Motor Company, the second-largest car manufacturer in America, will cut 30,000 jobs and 14 plants as part of a restructuring plan to relieve Ford after a US$1.6 billion loss last year in North American sales. The plan, called ""Way Forward"", the brainchild of Ford's Chief Executive Officer, William Clay Ford Jr., is to end Ford's North American losses by 2008. To accomplish this 30,000 jobs which make up 20 to 25 percent of Ford's North American workforce of 122,000 people will be cut and 14 plants will be closed in order to bring Ford's production capacity in line with demand. By the end of this year, the Atlanta and St. Louis plants will be closed. Atlanta makes the Ford Taurus sedan, which is being phased out. The St. Louis plant is one of two plants that manufactures the Ford Explorer, whose sales had a 29% decline in 2005. It will also close its Wixom, Michigan plant, Batavia Transmission in Ohio the Windsor Casting plant in Ontario which was previously announced by Ford that it was to be closed after contract negotiations with the Canadian Auto Workers union. The plant in St. Thomas, Ontario plant will have one shift cut from it. The plant makes the Crown Victoria and Grand Marquis cars. On this cut of the one shift, Whitey MacDonald, chairperson of Local 1520, Canadian Auto Workers union said ""There is a lot of anger here today, there is no doubt about it. Any time a plant goes to one shift, it puts them in limbo. This car has made the company millions of dollars over the years they have invested in other products and locations - we are entitled to some new investment given our track record."" Positive news for the plant is that Ford is still committed to invest $200 million into the plant to upgrade the appearance of the two cars manufactured there. On the contrary, according to Automotive analyst Dennis DesRosier believes that the factory is still ""likely"" to close. DesRoiser said, ""The St. Thomas plant is old, the product is old, it make sense it is on that list. This may be just a short-term reprieve, it may be look at permanent closure in two to three years."" Two more plants will close in 2008, another two in 2012. Two more plants to be closed are to be announced later this year. Also, Ford will fire 12% of its 53 executive officers. Due to the company's current contract with the United Auto Workers union, workers at the idled plants will still be receiving their pay and benefits until Ford negotiates a new contract with the union. However, the workers may not earn what they earn today because they will not be eligible for overtime. The UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and Vice President Gerald Bantom called say the plan is ""extremely disappointing."" The UAW issued statement saying ""The impacted hourly and salaried workers find themselves facing uncertain futures because of senior management's failure to halt Ford's sliding market share. The announcement has further left a cloud hanging over the entire work force because of pending future announcements of additional facilities to be closed at some point in the future.""" +business,"Science and technology Cyanogen Inc The developers of CyanogenMod, an open source free Android-based operating system for smartphones, announced yesterday their incorporation following a successful venture capital campaign which netted the open-source project a US$7 million nest egg, and plan to roll out a simple installation app on Google Play for their Android firmware. Android runs nearly 80% of new mobile devices; CyanogenMod operates on at least 7 or 8 million of those. CyanogenMod replaces the read-only-memory image in android devices which have been 'rooted' &mdash;control acquired of the device's superuser account&mdash; allowing continuing development for, and backporting abilities of new generations of the operating system to, older devices. Investor Mitch Lasky wrote on his blog ""We believe that CM is poised to become one of the largest mobile operating systems in the world."" Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures are part of the capital providers to form Cyanogen Inc. ""The only limitation we have right now is with the number of engineers and designers we currently have. As we hire more people and build this company, we’ll be able to work on so many cool things"", said Koushik 'koush' Dutta, who took questions alongside Steve 'cyanogen' Kondik and team social media manager Abhisek ""ciwrl"" Devkota in a Reddit Ask Me Anything event shortly after making the announcement on the CyanogenMod blog. The team of 17, including Boost co-founder Kirt McMaster as CEO, are in Palo Alto, California and Seattle. Kondik says Cyanogen mod is named after him. ""I'm terrible with names, so I just slapped 'mod' onto the end of my handle and ran with it"", he explained in the incorporation announcement. An early question raised in the Reddit event concerned profit-making: ""Monetization isn't an immediate concern and our investors ... feel the same"", said Dutta, adding ""Creating disruption in a multibilion dollar market is enough to make any investor raise their eyebrow."" This means CyanogenMod would continue to be free. Follow questions asked if the company was planning to release their own model of android device. ""We certainly couldn't take on the monumental task of building/testing hardware right now. Hardware would be one of many potential very long term paths we could take"", said Dutta. The firm's first announced step is to improve the process of installing the software on owner's devices, which Kondik described as ""hideous"". A new installer app is planned to be released ""in the coming weeks"" on Google Play. The installer app will not require rooting the device, instead installing by simply clicking a button. A further step, broadly described without any details, is a project with an unnamed original equipment manufacturer (OEM). ""We have a least one OEM partnership in the works, there will be an announcement next week regarding our plans there"", said Kondik. The team mentioned OEM licensing several times during the Q&A session on Reddit. In addition to these corporate steps, there were questions regarding the roadmap for development of the ROM, which already has improvements regarding privacy and security over the native android loader. With ""plenty of things in the product pipeline already"" Dutta lists additional security features, AirPlay mirroring, screen recording, and Voice+ as upcoming. The mood throughout the event was jovial, with humourous questions such as ""can you guys PLEASE release a CM build for my toaster? I'm not sure what model it is, but it's white and I got it at Savers."" Kondik promised ""Ship it to me and I'll duct tape a G1 running CM to it"". Dutta said his ""10 of your favorite lines of source code"" are ""The ones that worked when they shouldn't have.""" +business,"According to several pages on Google’s website, Google is launching a free WiFi service. This program, called Google Secure Access, creates a Virtual Private Network allowing secure access to the Internet. Google Secure Access encrypts all traffic to and from a user’s machine while the user is connected to the wireless access point. Google provides its engineers with time to work on independent research projects. Google Secure Access was created as an independent research project by a Google engineer after he discovered that WiFi was insecure at most locations. According to the Google Secure Access FAQ, the service is only available at ""certain Google WiFi locations in the San Francisco Bay Area"". According to some reports, the service is working from some independent (non-Google) WiFi locations in NYC. Like many of Google’s other popular services such as Gmail, Google Secure Access is still in the beta testing stage." +business,"The British national airline, British Airways has announced that the former CEO of Aer Lingus, Willie Walsh is to be their new CEO. Mr Walsh is to replace the current CEO, Australian-born Rod Eddington in September after his retirement. Willie Walsh started as a cadet for Aer Lingus at the age of 17, later becoming a captain of the airline. In 1998, he became the chief-executive of the airline's charter subsidiary Furtura, and later in 2000 chief finance officer. In the wake of 11th September 2001, he became the chief-executive of Aer Lingus, itself. Worried about what happened to Swissair and Sabena, he looked at the rival Irish airline Ryanair for inspiration and made Aer Lingus in effect a no-frills airline, such as replacing the infamous turquoise uniforms with polo shirts and promoting via the Internet." +business,"2008-09 financial crisis Three major United States stock market indexes closed at their lowest levels in over a decade on Monday, amidst declining investor confidence and worries that the government will nationalize the banks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 3.41%, or 251.4 points, to end the day at 7,114.3, its lowest level since October 1997. The Standard and Poor's 500 index lost 26 points or 3.5% to a level of 743.33, its lowest level since April 1997. The Russel 2000 Index of smaller companies dropped by four percent. The three stock market indexes have been falling for the last six days. The Nasdaq Composite index lost 53.5 points, or 3.71%, closing at 1,387.7. However, the index remained above its November 20, 2008 low of 1316.12. Despite the worries about the banks, bank shares climbed today. Bank of America shares rose by 3.2%, whilst Citigroup gained 9.7%. However, stocks for both banks have plunged more than 68% this year-to-date. ""People left and right are throwing in the towel. The biggest thing I see here is the incredible pessimism — the government is doing a lousy job of alleviating fears,"" said Keith Springer of Capital Financial Advisory Services. ""Many investors simply can’t contemplate any more stock market risk in their portfolios. Sentiment in the market is very weak and negative,"" said the senior market strategist for Invesco AIM, Fritz Meyer." +business,"For the first time in over a half a century, regular train service hosting cargo crossed between North and South Korea. The train is 12 cars long and is carrying building materials to Kaesong, a key industrial junction for the two countries. The train will head back immediately after unloading. The service will continue at least once every week day. South Korean leaders say that cargo trains are just a start, although North Korea will not allow anything beyond cargo as of yet. ""Though we start with a cargo train, it will lead to a passenger train service and will soon be linked to the continental trains,"" said Korean Railroad President, Lee Chul to the press. Buses, cars, and trucks are allowed across the border, but trains have not been until now. The roads which allowed those types of vehicles to enter North Korea were rebuilt after the first summit held between the two nations in 2000. The rail lines were destroyed in the 1950s during the Korean War. The agreement to allow a cargo service was reached in October when the two nations met for a historical second summit." +business,"Heavy selling in internet firm livedoor sparked a sharp selloff in Japanese stocks Wednesday. The exchange had to shorten the trading session as the number of transactions threatened to exceed the system capacity. The Tokyo stock exchange has a capacity to handle 4.5 million trades per day. Wednesday's trading problems have added to recent woes with the trading system at the exchange. A glitch halted trading for almost a full day late last year. Tokyo stock exchange plans to offer its own shares for listing. Prosecutors raided the Tokyo offices of livedoor on Monday, following allegations the company had violated Japanese securities laws. livedoor has denied that the company broke market rules by giving misleading information to shareholders. Shares in the company dived on Tuesday, dragging the overall index lower. One of Japan's best known internet companies, livedoor has grown rapidly through a series of takeovers and stock splits before Tuesday's share price fall." +business,"Canada In the final quarter of 2010, airline Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) earnings rose to 134 million CAD, 42 cents per share, capping a sharp return to profitability in 2010. The year resulted in the company's highest-ever earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation, and rent (EBITDAR) of $1.39 billion, 707 million more than the previous year. Operating income for fourth quarter was reported as $85 million, which compared very favourably with an $83 million loss in 2009. Only 21 months ago Air Canada was threatened with bankruptcy and using its financial weakness in negotiations with its employees, achieving status quo contracts. With labour contracts scheduled to end this month and next, the strong position of the airlines is expected to stiffen union resolve to share in the increased net revenues. Those revenues were helped by increasing numbers of passengers and reducing costs, as well as foreign exchange gains. International travel, especially to the Pacific region, led the rises. US travellers through the main Toronto hub more than doubled, indicating the increase in foreign air traffic to and through Canadian airports." +business,"Today New Zealand's new coins have been released. The new coins replace the 10, 20 and 50 cent coins, while the 5-cent coin is being removed from circulation for good. The new coins retain the same design as before but the 10-cent coin is now copper coloured. All coins except the 10-cent are now made from plated steel and nickel, making them lighter and cheaper to produce. The 10-cent coin is made from plated steel and copper. Brian Lang, Reserve Bank of New Zealand Currency Manager, said: ""The introduction of smaller, lighter coins is one of New Zealand's biggest currency changes since the introduction of decimal currency on 10 July 1967."" The Reserve Bank reports that they have issued 1,037 million coins since the introduction of decimal currency. However, people can still use their old change between now and 1 November 2006, when the old coins will cease being legal tender. A survey conducted by ACNielsen, on behalf of the Reserve Bank, in January 2004 shows that 51% liked the idea of the new coins initially. The ANZ Bank are asking for people to donate their old 5-cent coins to Plunket in their '5s for under fives' appeal. original" +business,"SomaliaThe crew of a United States-flagged ship managed to retake the craft from four Somali pirates on Wednesday, but the boat's captain is reported to be held hostage in a lifeboat. According to the authorities, a US destroyer and six other vessels were dispatched to the scene. The ship involved in the incident was the 17,000-tonne Maersk Alabama, which was headed to Mombasa, Kenya. It was attacked by Somali pirates about five hundred kilometers from Somalia's coast, according to the CEO and president of Maersk, John Reinhart. Ken Quinn, the ship's second mate, said that the four pirates were in the vessel's lifeboat with the captain, having sunk their boat after seizing the Alabama. The ship's crew had taken one of the pirates hostage in an attempt to swap him for the captain, but the ploy failed. ""We had a pirate we took and kept him for 12 hours,"" Quinn said to CNN. ""We tied him up and he was our prisoner."" The crew returned the pirate, but the pirates did not release the captain. ""So now we're just trying to offer them whatever we can, food, but it's not working too good,"" Quinn said. The Maersk Alabama was carrying food aid to the Kenyan port of Mombassa when it was attacked by the pirates. Twenty US crew members were aboard. According to Quinn, the crew did not have any weapons, but pirates were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles. The crew locked themselves in the steering gear compartment of the ship, and remained there for twelve hours. Quinn says that the pirates ""got frustrated because they couldn't find us."" Piracy in the waters off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden is rife: this is the sixth ship to be seized by Somali pirates in the area in a week. The last time an American ship was attacked by African pirates was in 1804." +business,"labor Vestas Wind Systems, whose closing wind turbine blade manufacturing centre in Newport, Isle of Wight, England remains the site of a occupation now in its 11th day, has suddenly announced that the consultation period preceding the closure of the plant has been extended, and that the plant will remain open until mid-August. The announcement, which was reported not by Vestas but by the RMT, was described by RMT General Secretary Bob Crow as ""another significant milestone in the fight to save the factory and 625 skilled manufacturing jobs in green energy."" The plant had been due to close today. News of the delay comes hours after confused reports that Vestas was withholding redundancy payment for at least 525 of the workers whose jobs were lost. According to a report by the local newspaper the Isle of Wight County Press, cheques which employees had been expecting today did not arrive; instead, workers who contacted Vestas management were told they would not receive payment until an interview process had been completed, and that if they began new jobs before the interview process was over they would not receive their money. However, according to Ventnorblog, a local Isle of Wight blog which has been following the Vestas closure closely, the layoff process was being delayed because a majority of the Vestas employees were refusing to agree to the management's redundancy plan. The delay of the closure allows more time for the negotiation of potential solutions for the Newport plant to remain open. The Vestas occupiers and labour groups continue to favour nationalisation of the plant, with Socialist Party spokesman Nick Chaffey saying: The courageous stand of the Vestas occupation and the huge support that stands alongside it from Vestas workers and beyond has rocked management and the government. With the vital support of the RMT and wider support from the trade union movement including PCS, POA and FBU, the workers' demand for nationalisation is the only way to resolve this crisis. In addition to the Vestas occupiers' proposal that the factory be nationalised, Caroline Lucas, the MEP for South East England and a member of the Green Party, has proposed that Vestas employees should form a workers' co-operative with government aid in order to keep the plant running. The Tory-dominated Isle of Wight Council has unanimously endorsed a resolution saying that the plant should stay open, and has called for new investors to take the Vestas plant over, as was done at a smaller Vestas plant in Scotland recently. The news of the delay comes as workers at the plant accused Vestas management of harassing the families of the 24 remaining occupiers of the plant. Families of some occupiers were served with legal papers at their homes. One of the occupiers, Luke Paxton, left the factory on Thursday night in order to be re-united with his family; Paxton was checked for malnutrition and low blood sugar by paramedics but was not hospitalized, instead opting to go home. Paxton complained that Vestas management, while now providing hot food to the occupiers, were still under-feeding them; the RMT, which is providing legal aid to the Vestas workers, has accused Vestas management of violating the Human Rights Act by attempting to ""starve the workers at Vestas into submission"". Protesters in fancy dress were successful in sending food into the plant yesterday. Protesters dressed as a fantasy wizard and can-can dancers distracted police and company security guarding the fence which has been erected around the site while other protesters flung a bag of food and an electric kettle onto the balcony outside the office which has served as the occupiers' home base inside the factory. No arrests were made but the protesters were removed from the factory grounds. Requests for comment from Vestas management received no reply." +business,"On May 29, 2005, the final phase of reconstruction of the Stillwell Avenue Terminal on Coney Island will be completed, with the reopening of the BMT Sea Beach Line to regular N service. N service currently stops one station short of Coney Island, at Gravesend-86th Street, and last reached Coney Island under regular service on November 4, 2001, though various General Orders caused by other closures have resulted in N trains running all the way. The Sea Beach Line began in 1879 as the New York and Sea Beach Railway, a steam-powered railroad. It was bought by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company in 1897 and soon fitted with trolley wire, with connections to Manhattan via various elevated railways. Reconstruction into a four-track depressed line was finished in 1915, and subway trains running to Midtown Manhattan started using the line. The Sea Beach Line was the fastest of the four lines connecting Coney Island to Manhattan, especially when the express tracks of the Sea Beach Line (last used in 1968) were in use, as there were no express stations between the split from the BMT Fourth Avenue Line and Coney Island. The N was both the first service to be cut back from Coney Island and the last to return, and was the only one not replaced by a shuttle bus during its closure. The BMT West End Line (W, later D) was never cut back from Coney Island, but the BMT Culver Line (F) and BMT Brighton Line (Q) were cut back from September 8, 2002 to May 22, 2004 (returning to service May 23)." +business,"European finance ministers at the G-20 meeting which opened Saturday, November 20th, are expected to discuss the current exchange rate of the euro vs. the dollar. The euro is currently trading high against the dollar, so that it takes around $1.34 (as of December 4, 2004) to buy one euro. This has the effect of making exports from Europe to the USA more expensive, increasing the likelihood that US consumers will buy from a non-EU country. The exchange rate is set by the currency markets, although it is heavily influenced by the current account status (ie. the balance of trade between countries). Some European leaders want the United States to take action to increase the value of its exchange rate. The US though is seen as not wanting to do this, for two reasons: # A low dollar relative the euro means that all exports from the US to Europe are cheaper for Europeans to buy, increasing the likelihood that Europeans will buy US items and thus helping the US economy # Many actions which governments have done in the past to bolster unnaturally their currency have been fought by the market, and the market won. The most famous example is George Soros' ""breaking of the Bank of England"" One side-issue that this discussion might evoke is that of the exchange rate between the dollar and the Chinese yuan, which is fixed by China. Studies of this exchange rate using the concept of purchasing power parity (ensuring that a dollar traded to Chinese yuan will still buy roughly the same amount in China) show that the Chinese yuan has been around 50% undervalued for the past two years. This makes things from China on average 50% cheaper for a US consumer than they should be. US officials have throughout 2004 repeatedly called for China to end this practice. Normally it would end itself, i.e. even with a fixed exchange rate this process could only go on for so long before the entire Chinese market becomes valued differently. But since the Chinese central bank has been constantly lending money to the United States government (via the purchasing of US treasury bonds), that effect is mitigated." +business,"On Thursday in a meeting at New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office, Maria Contreras-Sweet Group, billionaire Ron Burkle, and a number of other investors acquired assets of The Weinstein Company for reportedly about US$500 million. The Weinstein Company had financial difficulties and was nearly bankrupt after Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women last year, which impacted the business budget. At least two of The Weinstein Company board of directors &mdash; consisting of Tarak Ben Ammar, Lance Maerov and Bob Weinstein &mdash; participated in the meeting, according to The New York Times. Maria Contreras-Sweet Group was represented by Maria Contreras-Sweet and Ron Burkle. The New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman was also in the meeting. Maria Contreras-Sweet Group agreed to pay The Weinstein Company's debt, sized at US$225 million, reports indicated. The acquisition would save around 150 jobs held at the Weinstein Company. Maria Contreras-Sweet Group announced the deal, also confirmed by The Weinstein Company. The deal was expected to take about 40 days to be completed. The agreement required Maria Contreras-Sweet Group to protect the jobs of company employees, and establish a victim compensation fund which would compensate victims of Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual misconduct while not rewarding the ""bad actors"", as Schneiderman put it &mdash; people who had contributed to the sexual misconduct. The victim compensation fund would allegedly be around US$90 million, according to reports. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against The Weinstein Company in early February of this year. He reportly indicated he might settle the lawsuit after the deal is finalized. Maria Contreras-Sweet Group said they would use the assets in creating a new movie studio with a majority-female leadership. The Weinstein Company said on Monday, three days before the deal announcement, it intended to file for bankruptcy as it could not find a buyer that would keep it afloat until the deal would be finalized. The Weinstein Company was founded in 2005." +business,"Dubai has announced the purchase of the British ocean liner RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 from Cunard Line for US$100 million, for conversion into a luxury floating hotel, starting in 2009. It is part of Dubai's ongoing plans to develop its tourism industry, and it intends one day to rival such destinations as Las Vegas. In a statement, Dubai World Chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said that ""Dubai is a maritime nation and we understand the rich heritage of QE2. She is coming to a home where she will be cherished."" Bruce Vancil, Regional Vice President of the West Coast Steamship Historical Society of America, expressed surprise and disappointment at the move. “We were kind of hoping she could find more nostalgic waters to call home,” he said. However, Forbes.com is reporting that the ship would likely have been scrapped had the deal not gone ahead. Vancil does say that he continues to hope that the vessel's new owners will respect the historic nature of the ship. The ship's new home will be the Palm Jumeirah, an artificial island created by the Dubai government where she will be permanently berthed, according to Istithmar, the investment section of Dubai World, a state-owned development company. Istithmar also announced plans for a refurbishment to recreate the QE2's original interior from her first year of service in 1969, and an on-board museum dedicated to the ship's history. Dubai World will take delivery of the ship from Cunard in November 2008. She is 963 feet (293 metres) long and weighs 70,000 tonnes. She has a combined passenger and crew capacity of 2,794. She is famous as Cunard's longest-serving flagship and for being launched by Queen Elizabeth II." +business,"explanation=LyondellBasell did not collapse. Although the United States units and an affiliate registered in Germany filed for voluntary bankruptcy protection, the rest of the group, including the Netherlands parent, is operating normally. Sources: Global chemical manufacturer LyondellBasell — the third-largest private chemical company in the world — has collapsed. The firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, as well as the Dutch equivalent. They had failed to meet a January 4 deadline on postponed debt payments, and talks with creditors failed. Headquartered in The Netherlands, LyondellBasell is owned by private equity tycoon Len Blavatnik, who had already refused the company a loan to help deal with debt resulting from a $12.7 billion merger between Basell International Holdings and Lyondell Chemical to create LyondellBasell Industries. The company had already appointed Kevin McShea from Alix Partners to restructure the firm. McShea was assigned speculatively prior to the bankruptcy filing. Access Industries, Blavatnik's company, refused to extend credit as part of a loan deal brokered in March, a decision Lyondell Chemicals Company, a subsidiary of LyondellBasell, stated they were unhappy with. LyondellBasell had postponed $280 million worth of interest payments, which Standard & Poor said placed it in ""selective default"" with a ""rapidly weakening liquidity position"". S&P also said that LyondellBasell have debts of $26 billion in a report on the company prior to the firm's collapse. LyondellBasell responded with a press release, issuing the following statement: ""Standard & Poor's definition of 'selected default' related to our corporate credit rating should not be misinterpreted to suggest that LyondellBasell is currently in default of its bank agreements. As they stated in their press release, 'This is a default in our opinion according to our definitions and criteria.' LyondellBasell is not currently in default according to its agreements with its lenders."" The company met with high oil prices shortly after the expensive merger. This was followed by a general tail-off in demand caused by the ongoing financial crisis. Investors were continuing to bet before the collapse that the firm would restructure under bankruptcy protection, leaving lenders with big losses, potentially over 90% of their investments. The cost of credit protection for LyondellBasell bonds had soared. The creditors include Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, ABN Amro and UBS. On Thursday, an interim allowance was made by a judge for LyondellBasell to seek up to $2.167 billion of loans. There is also an emergency loan paid out of $100 million. As well as LyondellBasell, 79 affiliates have become insolvent. Citigroup has said the collapse will set them back $1.4 billion in unpaid debts." +business,"UK British Rail minister Claire Perry resigned on Thursday evening, after continuing problems with Southern Rail. Southern has an ongoing dispute with the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) about increasing driver-only services, without conductors or guards. The union objected, citing concerns about job losses and driver safety. London mayor Sadiq Khan said ""This utter mess is now an embarrassment to our city"" and that he was ""calling on the government to strip Southern of its franchise and take over the temporary responsibility of running these services."" Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin focused instead on the union, saying ""Most industrial disputes are about threats to employment or conditions so the RMT's attitude is absurd. There is no threat to safety, no threat to jobs, no threat to pay and yet they continue disrupting passengers' lives on a daily basis."" In an attempt to reduce cancellations and delays, on Monday the company cut 341 trains a day, in light of the current staff shortages. They said since this change the trains' reliability improved from 60% on-time to 80%." +business,"Economy and businessThe British stock index FTSE 100 closed at its highest levels in over a year on Monday, following news of stronger commodity prices. The share index increased by 48.3 points, or 0.9% to finish the day at a level of 5,210.17, a figure not seen since last September. The best performer was the Old Mutual insurance company, reaching a sixteen-month high after gaining 4.6%. Some economic analysts think that the FTSE index could continue to gain for the remainder of the week. David Jones, the chief market strategist at IG Index, said that ""the next FTSE target traders are eyeing in the short term is the 5,350 high hit in September last year and the way sentiment is going it would not be a surprise to see that hit this week."" Other European markets also posted gains on Monday. The German DAX index gained 71.35 points to a level of 5,783.23, while the French CAC 40 increased 46.19 points to 3,845.8." +business,"date=2009-06-192008-09 financial crisis On Friday, German automobile manufacturer Porsche reported that its August-April sales saw a drop of 28%, to 53,635 vehicles, after demand for luxury vehicles plunged as a result of the ongoing global financial crisis. The firm also reported the revenue in the first three quarters of its fiscal year, which was at 4.64 billion euros after having fallen 15%. The overall decrease in revenues was due, in large part, to the decrease in sales of the company's 911 model, which accounts for a significant portion of sales. The 911 unit sales were lower by 18% for the year. ""In the first nine months of the ongoing fiscal year, the Porsche subgroup could not avoid the downward trend that has overtaken the worldwide automobile industry,"" the automaker said. ""This is certainly no surprise, but the fact that there is no reference to earnings any more in the outlook could be seen as a negative sign,"" said an analyst for Sal. Oppenheim, Christian Breitsprecher, noting that the forecast ""remains very unspecific""." +business,"A bid topping $17.7 billion was jointly proffered by Time Warner Inc. and Comcast Corporation on Thursday to buy beleaguered Adelphia Communications Corporation in an industry consolidation move. Adelphia is the fifth largest cable service provider in the United States with nearly 5 million subscribers. The market-share grabbing bid trumps the previous Cablevision offer of $16.5 billion. The bid is under scrutiny by the presiding judge over the Adelphia’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, and must also be approved by the company’s creditors owed in the range of $20 million. The acquisition race to gain dominance in the cable service provider market is driven by the high cost of installation and maintenance of cable lines. Fiber optic networks deliver traditional entertainment programming over a cable wire and is becoming increasingly popular for broadband internet content. The growing trust and recognition of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) suggests phone service subscribers will eventually migrate to cable voice communication as opposed to keeping with traditional copper land lines. Telephone company operators are scrambling to keep up. The largest percentage of the bid would be put up by Time Warner (TW), who could gain by getting subscribers from the valuable Los Angeles market currently owned by Comcast and Adelphia. TW can also simultaneously divest itself of a stake owned by Comcast in TW by making a tax-free swap using some of the newly garnered Adelphia subscribers. While the consolidation would likely get a look by the government with an eye towards a growing monopoly in the market, it would doubtfully be blocked considering the existence of competing technologies. Competition exists in the form of still numerous television by airwaves usage, satellite providers, radio content companies, and telecom providers. Adelphia suffered a corporate scandal in 1992 with similarities to the WorldCom fall. Members of the Rigas family, founders of the company, were alleged to have siphoned off millions of dollars and hidden $2.3 billion leading to the bankruptcy filing. John Rigas and son Timothy were convicted July of 2004 and await sentencing." +business,"Japanese auto maker Toyota is to temporarily suspend sales of its luxury Lexus GX 460 SUV following an unfavorable verdict from Consumer Reports, which concluded ""Don't Buy: Safety Risk,"" the first such warning in almost a decade. After conducting its standard emergency handling tests on the 2010 version of the Lexus GX 460, Consumer Reports became concerned that the rear of the vehicle had a tendency to slide out, which in real life situations could lead to rollovers. However, the consumer organisation is also unaware of any such incidents with the 5000 GX 460s sold since its launch three months ago. Already embattled with ongoing safety issues with its vehicles, Toyota has been quick to act, though it did claim that the car was safe to drive and that it had passed internal safety standards. According to Toyota, ""Lexus' extensive vehicle testing provides a good indication of how our vehicles perform and we are confident that the GX meets our high safety standards.""" +business,"New ZealandToll New Zealand has said that it will cancel the Overlander train service from September 30, 2006. The train runs from Auckland to Wellington, and is the only passenger train service that does. The North Island Main Trunk line has been used in New Zealand for passenger services for 97 years, beginning in 1909. Toll said it had been running the train service at a loss for many years now and was no longer viable to continue running the service. They also say that they approached the New Zealand Government for help so they could continue the Overlander but ""after working through with the Government both parties concluded there was not the passenger numbers to justify keeping it running. Significant investment would also have been required to replace the aging carriage fleet,"" David Jackson, Chief Executive of Toll New Zealand, said. Only 50,000 people used the train each year compared to the 200,000 people who use the Tranz Alpine in the South Island. It was cheaper and shorter to catch a plane, between NZ$100-$282 for an one-hour flight, compared to $158-$170 for a 12-hour journey. The New Zealand Green Party is disappointed by the news. Co-leader of Greens, Jeanette Fitzsimons, said ""I predict that as oil prices continue to rise further we will need The Overlander again.""" +business,"Hideaki Noguchi, 38, a close aide to Livedoor president Takafumi Horie was found bleeding in a hotel bed with cuts to his wrists on Wednesday in Naha, the capital of the southern prefecture of Okinawa. He was later confirmed dead and the police suspect that he committed suicide. Hideo Sawada, the president of HS Securities, told reporters in Tokyo that Noguchi's family had identified the body. Noguchi was a board member at Japan M&A Management Co., a unit of H.S. Securities Co. The firm was raided by prosecutors earlier this week in connection with fraudulent practices at Livedoor, according to the Kyodo News agency. He was a graduate of Tokyo's Meiji University, and joined Livedoor in 2000. He had previously worked at Kokusai Securities Co. as an adviser in financing. Livedoor was publicly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in April 2000. Noguchi then set up the investment unit Capitalista Co., which merged with HS Securities. News of the suicide is being featured in the Japanese media in connection with what is being termed the ""Livedoor Shock"". The problems at Livedoor have led to the loss of a third of its $6.3-billion value in the stock market. Livedoor maintains that its own investigation reveal that it did not violate any securities laws. Some view the affair as an outcome of the larger struggle between competing business cultures in Japan. Takafumi Horie is part of a new generation of Japanese entrepreneurs with little patience for the customs of a traditionally cautious business culture. Horie has shown an appetite for publicity through his internet blogs and appearances on TV shows while living a rock star lifestyle that includes private jets and actress girlfriends. Horie is also credited with popularizing stock trading among individual investors. The practice of day trading is relatively new in Japan. The Nikkei index was up about 40% last year, its best performance since 1986." +business,"Software giant Microsoft's chief lawyer Brad Smith claimed in an interview published in the magazine Fortune on Monday that open-source software products violate 235 of Microsoft's patents. The main transgressors are claimed to be Linux (107 patents) and OpenOffice.org (45), with e-mail programs infringing 15 patents. Microsoft wants royalties to compensate for the patent breaches. According to Microsoft's Vice-President of intellectual property and licensing, Horacio Gutierrez, the company wants to negotiate with the open-source companies rather than sue them. ""If we wanted to litigate we would have done that a long time ago. Litigation is not an effective way of going about solutions,"" Gutierrez said. According to him, Microsoft has over the last years tried to work towards a ""constructive"" solution to the alleged problem of patent violation. Microsoft in the past has used the strategy of cross-licensing to get royalties from companies who infringe their patents, for example in their deal with Novell. On a company blog, Novell reiterated that their deal ""is in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property."" ""We don't think that customers will want to continue on without a solution to the problem,"" Gutierrez said about Microsoft's approach to guaranteeing companies that they won't get sued because they use the allegedly patent-infringing Linux operating system. The upcoming third version of the GPL licence, the licence under which Linux is released, will prohibit Linux distributors to agree to patent royalty deals. Microsoft called these ""attempts to tear down the bridge between proprietary and open-source software that Microsoft has worked to build with the industry and customers."" A related U.S. Supreme Court ruling from April 30th showed how software patents can be subject to court challenges; basically, if the innovations patented are ""obvious"", the patent is weakened. Joe Lindsay, information officer for a mortgage company, pointed out that the Unix code that Linux is based upon preceded Microsoft Windows, which might also be a reason for some patents to be invalid. Red Hat, the biggest Linux distributor, said in a statement on Monday: Red Hat IP Team Larry Augustin, former CEO of a company called VA Linux (now VA Software), responsible among other things for launching SourceForge.net, an open-source software development community, posted a message on his blog under the title ""It's Time for Microsoft to Put Up or Shut Up"": If Microsoft believes that Free and Open Source Software violates any of their patents, let them put those patents forward now, in the light of day, where we can all evaluate them on their merits. If not, then stop trying to bully customers into paying royalties to use Open Source. According to the Fortune report, more than half of the Fortune 500 companies are estimated to use Linux in their data centers." +business,"Australia Engineers from the Australian airline Qantas are to hold a one-hour strike on Friday amid fears over job security. The strike will likely cause disruption for thousands of passengers. The strike was called after negotiations between the ALAEA, an engineers' union, and the airline, broke down. ""What interests us more is job security, and for aircraft engineers that means simply being able to carry out aircraft maintenance in Australia,"" Steve Purvinas, the secretary of the ALAEA, said. It is likely the strike will be the first in a line of industrial action. Purvinas said last-ditch negotiations between the ALAEA and Qantas before a Fair Work Australia judge yesterday had ""hit a brick wall."" Analysts say the strike will probably have a huge impact on Qantas flights. The airline said it was ""extremely disappointed"" at the strike action but said disruption would be minimal. ""We will not be able to negotiate on some of the demands they have put forward, they are simply unacceptable,"" an airline spokesperson said. The ALAEA said the main concern was that Qantas was outsourcing more work overseas and maintenance checks on aircraft are becoming less regular. Pervinas said Qantas engineers were ""sick of the systematic dismantling of our industry by Qantas management.""" +business,"Rival United States airlines Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines announced today that they have agreed to merge. The new airline, which will use the Delta name, will be the largest commercial airline in the world. Technically, Delta will be buying Northwest in a roughly US$3 billion deal. Northwest shareholders will receive 1.25 shares of Delta for each share of Northwest. Based on Monday's closing prices on the New York Stock Exhange this represents a 17% premium for Northwest shareholders. Richard Anderson, the Delta chief executive officer who will also head the new company, said: ""We said we would only enter into a consolidation transaction if it was right for all of our constituencies; Delta and Northwest are a perfect fit. Today, we’re announcing a transaction that is about addition, not subtraction, and combines end-to-end networks that open a world of opportunities for our customers and employees. We believe by partnering with our employees, including providing equity to U.S.-based employees of Delta and Northwest, this combination is off to the right start."" The combined company would have $35 billion in annual revenue and approximately 75,000 employees. The deal does have to receive regulatory approval. ""We will look at the competitive effects of the transaction and how it would affect consumers,"" said Gina Talanoma, a spokesperson for the United States Department of Justice. Airline industry consultant Robert Mann told Reuters, ""It's a very optimistic view on an industry that's been very dismal for the last couple of weeks.""" +business,"Mobile phone operating software maker Symbian is licensing the Microsoft ActiveSync technology in a move that surprised analysts. The license would allow Symbian to develop a plug-in for mobile phones to let users check email that is served by Microsoft Exchange Server mail system. Symbian was formed in 1998 by Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and Psion in a collaborative desire to counter Microsoft's emerging market power in operating systems for handheld devices. While Microsoft now provides the Windows Mobile software for mobile phones, it has not attained significant market penetration. At the same time, in part through the increased popularity of Research in Motion's BlackBerry mobile email device, users have come to expect their mobile phones to synchronize email with various mail servers &mdash; including Exchange Server. Symbian appears to be sensitive to the appearance of collaborating with the very competitor that spurred their creation. Symbian's press release emphasized that the licensing of the technology introduces just one of the many methods the Symbian software communicates with email servers. The spokesperson for the company, Peter Bancroft, was also on the defensive: ""Microsoft isn't a monolithic company"" he said, referring to the fact that Exchange Server and Windows Mobile are created by two different divisions of Microsoft. Shares of Research in Motion dropped on the news." +business,"Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney testified Thursday before an ethics committee in the Canadian House of Commons about the Airbus affair, a case involving alleged bribery at the highest levels of government to secure Airbus sales of aircraft to Air Canada. In his testimony, Mulroney said that he should not have associated with German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber nor should have he accepted bundles of cash — which he placed in safe deposit boxes in two different countries. Nonetheless, Mulroney denied accepting kickbacks. He admitted taking about CAD225,000 in cash from Schreiber in 1993 and 1994, which was after his departure from politics. He also said that the money involved promoting Schreiber's private business dealings. To the committee Muroney said: ""When I look back on it today, I realize I made a serious error of judgment in receiving a payment in cash for this assignment even though it was decidedly not illegal to do so. That mistake in judgment was mine alone. I apologize and I accept full responsibility for it. ... I should have declined the offer. I should have insisted that payment be in a more transparent or more accountable manner. By not doing so I inadvertently created an impression of impropriety on the high office I was privileged to hold."" ""Do you realize, Mr. Mulroney, that the way in which you acted in this matter did not make it appear that it were a legitimate transaction,"" said MP Serge Ménard of Bloc Québécois. Two days earlier, Schreiber testified before the same committee, alleging that Mulroney agreed to accept CAD300,000 to promote a light armored vehicle factory and benefited from the purchase of 34 Airbus aircraft by Air Canada. ""I never received a cent from anyone for services rendered to anyone in connection with the purchase by Air Canada from Airbus of 34 aircraft,"" Mulroney said, refuting Schreiber. Mulroney also attacked Schreiber's credibility, pointing out that the German could be extradited to his home country where he faces charges. ""He succeeded. He got what he wanted ... he’s sitting in his mansion over in Rockcliffe,"" Mulroney said. ""I think he seriously misled every member of this House ... with this false affidavit."" The committee's investigation will resume in late January, when it is expected to call dozens of witnesses." +business,"Economy and business China has said it is prepared to support eurozone countries during the financial crisis that has hit the sixteen member states. The country's foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said: ""We are ready to support the eurozone to overcome the financial crisis and realise economic recovery."" Several of the eurozone's member states have been impacted with increasing debt levels. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union (EU) have signed deals to hand a €110bn aid package to Greece, and an €85bn rescue package to Ireland. Industry commentators have said there are fears Portugal and Spain may soon also have to accept assistance from the IMF. Jiang said China had an interest in supporting the region, saying eurozone member states would, in the future, become ""a major market"" for Chinese foreign exchange investments. China reportedly has massive reserves of foreign currency, mostly made up of United States dollars. Analysts have suggested China plans to purchase more euros in the future. Other reports suggest China is preparing to buy between four and five billion euros to help Portugal fend off pressure in bond markets." +business,"Apple's lawyers are reportedly pursuing legal action against persons whom they claim are wrongfully using icons, interfaces, and other copyright- or patent-protected materials from its new iPhone on other smart phones, which may have features similar to the iPhone's. Apple has also reportedly contacted at least one blogger who posted screenshots of iPhone icons with ""cease and desist"" requests, although it should be noted that in the one reported case referenced below, the blogger had also posted a download link to an interface containing features allegedly appropriated from the iPhone. Apple's new gadget was demonstrated at Macworld 2007. Protecting intellectual property can involve a balance between (among other things) allowing some unauthorized use of such material in order to obtain ""free promotion"" of a company or product, and preventing competitors from ""piggybacking"" upon original research or upon an established reputation." +business,"The Channel Tunnel, which runs between France and Britain, has resumed limited services after an earlier fire. Of the two tunnels, only the South tunnel has been reopened to the trains that run the route, the blaze having seriously damaged the North tunnel. The fire started on a freight train loaded with lorries. It burned for 16 hours and at its hottest was at 1,000°C. 27 lorries, six freight cars and a locomotive have been damaged. Significantly, the damage to the tunnel itself runs along a 700m stretch and exceeds the damage caused by an earlier fire last decade. The other fire required £200 million and a six month closure before the tunnel could be reopened. The incident required 32 people, mainly lorry drivers, to be evacuated from the train, which was heading to Calais. Fourteen were taken to hospital, some suffering from smoke inhalation. Several of those who escaped have said that they had expected to die. The fire's cause is unclear. The Guardian reports the fire started on board a vehicle carrying chemicals, but the BBC reports that the origin is unknown. Both sources confirm a lorry carrying carbolic acid was on board and French authorities say it is overturned near the seat of the fire, but it is unclear if this is the lorry the Guardian meant. Eurostar are operating some passenger trains through the tunnel, and limited freight services have also resumed, but long delays are expected. Car trains have not yet resumed. Do you feel Channel Tunnel safety is adequate? Conservative transport spokesman Timothy Kirkhope commented that he felt the fire was worrying, saying ""while thankfully nobody was killed in this incident, two significant fires in 11 years should act as a wake-up call."" However, operator Eurotunnel, who run regular evacuation drills, was pleased with the response by its staff. French authorities are investigating the accident as it occurred at the French side, seven miles from the French exit of the 32-mile tunnel. 2008 Channel Tunnel fire" +business,"The United States Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has announced that inerting systems in airliner fuel tanks are to be made mandatory. The move, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), is in response to a recommendation made by the country's National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as part of its investigation into a 1996 air disaster. TWA Flight 800 was a Boeing 747 that exploded in mid-air twelve years ago today, on July 17, 1996, above the Atlantic Ocean. All 230 people on board the New York to Paris flight were killed as the aircraft disintegrated shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport. It was ultimately determined that center wing fuel tank had exploded after sparking faulty wiring ignited a volatile fuel-air mix in the tank. After the investigation was completed the NTSB requested that the FAA enforce the requirement of inerting systems to prevent dangerous fuel-air mixes from being ignited. One of the most feasible ways of doing this is with nitrogen pumped into the tank, reducing the amount of oxygen available and making ignition difficult or impossible. The NTSB has a 'Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements' and inerting systems for airliners have been on the list since 2002. Since TWA 800 there have also been similar explosions in Thailand and India, but both occurred on the ground and resulted in no fatalities. The FAA's new directive requires all new aircraft from August 20 to have the equipment fitted. It also requires all carriers to retrofit their fleets, with half of their airliners to be compliant within six years and every jetliner in the US to have the technology fitted in nine years. The FAA's announcement was made at the Virginia hangar where the remains of Flight 800 are stored. Air carriers, who until now have fought against the changes, say that there will be a cost running into millions of dollars. If the nitrogen system is installed, the cost of retrofitting an airliner is at US$92,000 for mid-range jets such as the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, and costs $311,000 for a Boeing 777 or other similar long-range widebodied airliner. The 747, which has a large center wing fuel tank, is especially vulnerable to such explosions." +business,"New York Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned as the head of the International Monetary Fund after he was arrested and charged with sexually attacking a chambermaid at a hotel in New York. In a statement to the executive board of the IMF, he said he was resigning from his position ""with immediate effect"" to ""devote all my strength, all my time, and all my energy to proving my innocence."" Officials at the IMF said they would soon be releasing information about his successor. In the statement to the board, he said it was ""with infinite sadness"" that he had to resign, and paid tribute to the IMF. ""To all, I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me,"" he said. The politician is currently being held at the notorious Rikers Island, where he has been put on suicide watch, after a judge at a court in Manhattan denied him bail for fears he was a flight risk after he reportedly tried to flee the country on a passenger jet. In court earlier this week, where Strauss-Kahn appeared tired, he denied the charges against him and offered $1,000,000 bail, but the judge refused. Prosecutors allege Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted a chambermaid at a luxury hotel near Times Square. ""The maid described being forcibly attacked, locked in the room and sexually assaulted,"" a spokesperson for the New York Police Department said. Detectives said the politician was detained in the first class cabin of the Air France passenger plane which was minutes from leaving for Paris. Strauss-Kahn had reportedly fled the hotel ""in a hurry"" after the attack, leaving a number of personal effects behind. He was charged with committing a criminal sexual act, attempted rape, sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. Investigators have this week continued to search the hotel room where the alleged attack took place, removing a piece of carpet in the suite which they hope will prove the allegation by the chambermaid that he forced her to have oral sex. Benjamin Brafman, the lawyer defending Strauss-Kahn, said forensic evidence found in the room at the Sofitel New York hotel ""will not be consistent with a forcible encounter"". Strauss-Kahn is to make another court appearance to plead for bail again this morning, Brafman said; the defence is reportedly considering telling the judge he will surrender his passport, wear an electronic tag, and remain under strict living conditions. The IMF has said it will soon release information about Strauss-Kahn's successor; John Lipsky, the deputy head, has been acting as head since the arrest at the weekend. The incident comes at a critical time for the IMF as it tries to the financial states of struggling eurozone countries. Strauss-Kahn was meant to discuss the bailouts of Greece and Portugal with European Union financial officials at a meeting in Brussels earlier this week. Before his arrest he was expected to announce his candicacy in the race for the French presidency, and analysts suggested he posed a real threat to Nicolas Sarkozy, but the charges will likely put and end to the hopes of his supporters." +business,"The Franco-Belgian bank Dexia has announced it will restructure and cut 3% of its staff after posting a €3 billion full-year loss. Dexia says it will close operations in Australia, eastern Europe, Mexico and Scandinavia and reduce business in the United Kingdom and the United States. Dexia specialises in finance to local governments but also runs standard retail banking outlets in Belgium and France. It will cease proprietary trading as part of the restructuring. The bank will sell its U.S. bond insurance arm Financial Security Assurance to Assured Guaranty. Dexia Banka Slovensko in Slovakia will be retained, as will the company's Italian, Spanish and Portuguese public finance operations. In total, some 900 jobs will be lost. Dexia will not pay a dividend or management bonuses this year, whilst board members have taken a 50% pay cut. The bank ran into trouble last year as a result of the failure of Lehman Brothers and the subsequent collapse of confidence in the banking system worldwide. The governments of France, Belgium and Luxembourg stepped in to guarantee the bank's survival, although the bank was not nationalized, and the previous executive management was removed. The bank's current chairman is Jean-Luc Dehaene, a former prime minister of Belgium." +business,"caption2 = Facebook and Google already share a fierce rivalry. Facebook hired a public relations firm to systematically discredit Google by paying two journalists to plant negative pieces in U.S. newspapers, leaked correspondence discloses. The new revelations are likely to increase tension between the two companies, which are already fierce rivals. The social network has confirmed the validity of the leaked emails, seen by Wikinews, which suggest executives at the social networking giant hired Burson-Marsteller, a high profile PR and communications firm, to discredit Social Circle, a rival website run by Google. Burson-Marsteller then recruited two journalists &mdash; Jim Goldman and John Mercurio &mdash; to push editors at The Washington Post and USA Today to publish editorials criticising Social Circle over its privacy settings. The story was exposed after Burson-Marsteller approached a blogger to publish the propaganda, but the blogger posted the correspondence online. Burson-Marsteller has been forced to apologize for taking on Facebook as a client, admitting the orders to discredit Google violated company policy. ""The assignment on those terms should have been declined,"" a spokesperson said. The revelations are likely to be incredibly damaging for the firm, who have represented a number of controversial clients in the past. Facebook, however, said the allegations against Google were valid, insisting there were genuine privacy concerns with Social Circle. Google has declined to comment on the issue." +business,"An ambitious project to bring a unique tram-train service to Sheffield and Rotherham, in the United Kingdom, is back on track, following the announcement of a £150,000 Government grant on Thursday. The plans, which were originally to see tram-train operation on a trial basis over the Penistone line during 2010, have been on the cards since 2008, but were shelved during 2009 to allow alternative proposals to be drawn up. The current plans will now see the vehicles operating along a currently-freight-only line between Rotherham and Meadowhall, before linking up with the existing South Yorkshire Supertram network there and continuing onto the streets of Sheffield. The plans to use tram-trains &mdash; which are already in widespread use throughout continental Europe, but not at all within the UK &mdash; have come about as an alternative to an original proposal to extend the Supertram network to Rotherham, which would be a much larger expense for the same or even fewer benefits. Whilst the journey between Sheffield and Rotherham is already covered by mainline trains, project officials believe that the new service &ndash; running via Meadowhall South and Rotherham Central and terminating at Parkgate, with a twenty-minute headway throughout &ndash; will attract extra custom to the intermediate points between the two conurbations, as well as making travel easier for people who find it hard to walk to and from Sheffield's railway station; the tram-trains will serve the heart of the city-centre. Now that the funding for further feasibility work has been approved, Network Rail, Northern Rail and the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) can continue to look at the business and project case for the trial, which will look at a range of issues, including economic and environmental benefits of the tram-trains, and ensuring that the vehicles will be safe to run on both the Supertram network and heavy rail tracks. Transport Minister Norman Baker announced the sum, and stressed the Government’s commitment to the scheme: “There is no doubt about finance being available to deliver the scheme. The Government is committed to a trial of tram-trains in the UK and the route between Sheffield and Rotherham is the best place to develop it. This is a unique scheme. ""Tram-trains offer passengers travelling from rural and suburban areas into city centres a viable, environmentally sound alternative to short and medium car commuting that can cut congestion and reduce overcrowding at railway stations. “These sorts of rail fleets are already in use on the continent, but this is a first for the UK. The funding we are providing for this exciting project represents a real chance for us to test whether they can be adapted successfully for South Yorkshire and the rest of the UK."" David Brown, director of SYPTE, added: “We have done an awful lot of work on the plans so far and further efforts will look at ensuring the vehicles are compatible with both types of network, which are the same gauge.” If further investigations are successful, the system could be up and running by 2014." +business,"Swaziland The small African nation of Swaziland will receive a financial bailout from neighbouring South Africa. The South African government agreed to a loan of 2.4 billion rand ($350 million) after several organisations including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rejected King Mswati III's request for a bailout. King Mswati III released a statement about the bailout saying, ""We are thankful and also appreciate the assistance we have received from South Africa. This shows that they are good neighbours."" He added ""But it must be stressed that this is not a gift but a loan, which naturally should be repaid. This is why every Swazi must play his or her role by working hard wherever he is to ensure that the country gets back to its feet the soonest."" The King has been criticized for living with 13 wives in luxury while the majority of his country lives in poverty. Despite the South African government's agreement, the bailout has been met with some concern. The opposition in South Africa said that the government should reject the loan as Swaziland is an ""undemocratic state"". However, the government has said that the bailout would bring stability to the state and surrounding region. The loan is expected to help Swaziland, which is going through a financial crisis. The nation has reportedly been unable to pay some of its civil servants and could not afford antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV. Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world. Earlier this year, the country saw a wave of protests and demonstrations related to the economic situation." +business,"On Friday, a new generation solar powered cargo vessel, the Auriga Leader has docked in North America for the first time. Toyota Motor Corp will employ this car carrier for automobile shipments to Europe and North America from Japan. The vessel will be operated by the Japanese-based NYK Line. Auriga Leader has 328 solar panels to provide 40 kilowatts, about 10% of the ship's power while sitting idling in dock. This amount of energy is the equivalent to the power used by ten average homes. ""This is the first ship to direct the solar power into the ship's main electrical grid. It's helping all of the time, and its helping with everything, like the ship's thrusters and the hydraulics for the steering gear,"" said Brian Mason, national manager of marine logistics and export for Toyota. The panels are installed on the ship’s car-carrier, and then connected to the onboard 440 volt electrical network. Nippon Yusen K.K. and Nippon Oil Corp created the Auriga Leader's US$ 1.6 million innovative green technology solar power grid. The cargo ship has a length of 200 meters (656 ft) and gross tonnage of 60,000 GT, which is capable of carrying 6,400 automobiles. Richard Steinke, executive director of the Port of Long Beach said of the joint demonstration project, ""From our standpoint, it's another positive step,"" to reduce diesel emissions and the release of greenhouse gas." +business,"Microsoft has begun an attack against Google over the issue of copyright infringements. The officials from the software giant state that the number one search engine takes a cavalier approach to what concerns copyright protection. The associate general counsel of Microsoft, Mr. Thomas Rubin, prepared a remark that he delivered to the Association of American Publishers. He argued that Google's idea to create a book search engine might come at publishers' expense. Mr. Rubin criticized those companies that use the works of various publishers and not their own, stating that such companies make billions on the back of other people's content. He said that in distinction from Microsoft, Google feels comfortable making a certain content searchable online and afterwards asking permission from the author. According to the associate general counsel of Microsoft, Google does not always ask permission and uses the copyright work until its author tells the company to stop. In response to the accusations from Microsoft, the senior vice president for corporate development of Google said that Google performs legal actions. Whenever the company wanted to make certain content available online it always asked for permission. In such a way Google worked with several thousands publishing partners and recently made a partnership with BBC and N.B.A. to display videos on YouTube." +business,"After the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) completes its acquisition of Chicago-based electronic trading company, Archipelago Holdings within the next 12 months, the impact will also be felt in San Francisco, California as the future of the 123-year-old Pacific Exchange (PCX) becomes murky. This stems from a deal struck in January of this year, before the NYSE merger, when Archipelago struck a deal worth $83 million to take over operations of the San Francisco stock exchange and its 260 employees. All PCX operations are scheduled to be under Archipelago control by the end of September. Archipelago had planned to maintain the San Francisco operations. As details were released Thursday of the April NYSE-Archipelago merger to the Securities and Exchange Commission, all Archipelago functions are to be folded into NYSE operations, including the PCX stock and options trading business. The report did not state whether or not the San Francisco employees would be kept after the merger is complete. Started in 1882 at the San Francisco Stock Market, the Pacific Exchange, along with other regional stock exchanges, has suffered as customers shifted to electronic trading, which bypassed the need for stock exchange services in many instances." +business,"2008-09 financial crisis Stock indexes worldwide rose on Friday, after US bank chief Ben Bernanke said that the US economy was starting to recover from the recession. Addressing a conference in Wyoming, the bank chief said that ""the prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good."" He added, however, that ""the economic recovery is likely to be relatively slow at first, with unemployment declining only gradually from high levels."" The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 155.91 points, or 1.67%, to end the day at 9505.96. The Nasdaq reached 2020.90 points after gaining 1.59%. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index, meanwhile, struck a ten-month high, reaching a level of 1,026.13 at the closing bell, up 1.9%. The British FTSE index rose about two percent, closing at 4,851. The French Cac index gained 3.1% and the German Dax 2.8%. ""Bernanke was a little bit more bullish than most people were expecting. He's saying that the global economy is starting to emerge from the recession and that the fears of a financial collapse have receded substantially,"" said Jacob Oubina, the currency strategist of Forex.com. ""I think the market is just taking those headlines as extreme positives for the outlook."" Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank president, warned that talk of a complete recovery might be premature. ""I am a little bit uneasy when I see that, because we have some green shoots here and there, we are already saying, 'well, after all, we are close to back to normal,' "" he said." +business,"Today, Romania introduces its new redenominated currency, the new leu (code: RON), which is valued at 10,000 old lei (code: ROL). The process, which is known as redenomination, started in March 2005 when Romania started dual-currency display and all prices had to be displayed in both the old leu and the new leu. Starting from today, the first notes and coins of the new leu will become legal tender, and the new leu will become the official currency of Romania. The redenomination (or conversion from the old to the new leu) is simple &mdash; 10,000 old lei are replaced by 1 new leu. One US dollar will buy 2.98 new lei, while one euro will buy 3.6 new lei. After the similar redenomination by Turkey the old leu had been the world's least valued currency unit, with the US dollar buying 29,891 lei and the euro buying 36,050 lei (on 30 June 2005). With the introduction of the new leu, Romania's currency will be among the most highly-valued in the region. The new leu notes and coins, introduced into circulation today, will circulate alongside the old lei until 31 December 2006, when the dual-currency period ends and all of the old lei are expected to be withdrawn. However, old lei can be exchanged at banks indefinitely. The new notes come into denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 500 new lei. The largest note of the old leu was 1,000,000 lei, or 100 new lei. The largest note of the new leu is worth 500 new lei, or approximately US$167 and €139. New leu notes will also have the same dimensions as euro notes of similar value. Additionally, they will use the same colours and design as their corresponding old leu equivalent (for example, the 100 lei note will look similar to the 1,000,000 old lei note). All notes will be printed on polymer materials. Romania was the first country in Europe to introduce polymer notes, in 1999. The governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isărescu, said that the redenomination of the leu marks the symbolic end of Romania's economic transition from a planned economy under Communism, which was overthrown in 1989, to a free market economy. The reason for redenomination was mainly the fact that the leu had become severely devalued, especially in the 1990s, due to high inflation rates. From 2002 onwards, the leu stabilised, and has even appreciated against the euro and the US dollar in the past year. Hence, the new leu was introduced to simplify the national currency, and also as a symbol of Romania's increasing economic stability. It is also expected to help pave the way for the adoption of the euro by Romania, which is expected in 2012-2014, after Romania joins the European Union in 2007. Although the introduction of the new leu is viewed as beneficial on the whole, since it will bring Romania's currency more in line with the value of important global currencies such as the euro and the US dollar, concerns have been raised that the new leu will fuel inflation. Some people are concerned that the new leu will result in the rounding-up of prices, similar to what happened when the euro was introduced in the Eurozone in 2002, and therefore fuel inflation. However, a rise in prices is not thought to occur due to the dual-currency display. This ensures that all businesses continue to display prices in both the new leu and the old leu until the end of 2006, and hence they will not be able to raise prices as easily, for fear of becoming less competitive in the market." +business,"January's second Interview of the Month was with Danny O'Brien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on 23 January in IRC. The EFF is coming off a series of high-profile successes in their campaigns to educate the public, press, and policy makers regarding online rights in a digital world, and defending those rights in the legislature and the courtroom. Their settlement with Sony/BMG, the amazingly confused MGM v Grokster decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, and the disturbing cases surrounding Diebold have earned the advocacy organization considerable attention. When asked if the EFF would be interested in a live interview in IRC by Wikinews, the answer was a nearly immediate yes, but just a little after Ricardo Lobo. With two such interesting interview candidates agreeing so quickly, it was hard to say no to either so schedules were juggled to have both. By chance, the timing worked out to have the EFF interview the day before the U.S. Senate schedule hearings concerning the Broadcast flag rule of the FCC, a form of digital rights management which the recording and movie industries have been lobbying hard for - and the EFF has been lobbying hard to prevent. ; Wikinews I'd like to jump into some direct questions which were suggested by people on the research page. These first ones relate to the US government and online privacy. ;Since 9/11 the US administration has been progressively violating privacy standards in online communications, including circumventing its own surveillance laws and developing—and possibly implementing—the Total Information Awareness project. What is EFF's position regarding government monitoring of private communications such e-mail, instant messaging, and voice over IP? : Danny O'Brien Since the very beginning, the EFF has worked hard to keep the traditional laws regarding wiretapping and monitoring away from the Internet, not just because we believe in strong 4th Amendment rights but because technologically, a wiretap on an individual line is miles away from what is needed to do the equivalent on the Internet. That's why, for instance, we fought against CALEA being extended to the Net, and why we're fighting the FCC's extension of it now. : A lot of simple approaches to surveillance that the gov't would like to take are far from reasonable, to use the language of the 4th amendment. : I should say that I'm using American examples here, but we're obviously concerned more generally. ; Wikinews A related question - Will EFF be involved in cases, even as amicus, such as the cases filed by ACLU Detroit and the Center for Constitutional Rights New York, which allege the National Security Agency violated US law prohibiting wiretaps without a warrant? : Danny O'Brien We're currently looking into every possible avenue. One of the difficulties is trying to ascertain exactly what the government program involved. The EFF has a battery of lawyers, with different areas of interest. ; Wikinews Is this in the same vein as the recent requests for Google to pony up its search database? :Danny O'Brien No, that's a great question. The two issues are very different, but I think speak to the problems that the Internet is now being seen as a resource for government surveillance and research, which we think that all Net companies have to become aware of. There's a real danger in simply logging everything: you end up risking being a tool for the invasion of your own customer's privacy. ; Wikinews Google alone of the largest search engines refused the Justice Department's demands to turn over user data. The EFF is on record as criticizing Google's privacy policy. How does the EFF feel about that privacy policy now? What does EFF feel about the other search engine's behaviour—did they comply with their own privacy policies? Does this incident reflect the strength or weakness of corporate privacy policies online? : Danny O'Brien Privacy policies largely extend at the moment to merely the descriptions of what information is stored. We've long warned against companies collecting large amounts of data about their customers, and doing nothing to anonymise or aggregate it. We think that companies are storing up trouble for themselves this way. ; Wikinews Does the EFF have any material or programs that seek to educate employers and companies on the advantages of privacy? : Danny O'Brien We do -- hold on, I should be handing out more URLs http://www.eff.org/osp/ is our guide to ""online service providers"" for the best practices in logging data. I'm also speaking at the MySQL conference later this year on what *not* to include in your schema. It's an interesting area, because it's one where coders have a degree of power over what can be done. : Personally, I'd like to see a great deal more knowledge about how to aggregate and anonymise data being spread among the community. I'm constantly recommending the book Translucent Databases, which covers this very nicely. Also, the OSS source would do a great service by setting reasonable defaults for software logging behaviours. The trouble is, and I think we all fall into this trap; we assume the more logging the better. How many of us are casually logging this, for instance? ; Wikinews I'd like to talk about the Sony BMG case for a bit, if that's okay. First, congratulations to EFF in regard to some of the successes in the Sony BMG case. There are some questions, clarifications about the case, however. The settlement appears to cover the XCP and SunComm software delivered on CDs. What about OpenMG XCP, DRM used by Sony BMG's SonicStage software for Sony Connect? : Danny O'Brien Okay, this is where I have to say that I'm a *bit* limited in what I can say. Ah, if only out of blind ignorance in this particular case. ; Wikinews Do you know if the OpenMG XCP software is mentioned at all in the agreement? : Danny O'Brien I don't know about OpenMG: we joined the case representing XCP and SunComm users, so I don't think that was covered. But watch me shine the giant neon IANAL sign above me. If you like, I can ask after the interview, and we can add that to the results. ; Wikinews I'd appreciate that. ; Can you disclose the terms of the settlement regarding future use of software DRM measures? Have they promised not to alter users machines in the future? : Danny O'Brien Again, it's always dangerous to paraphrase legal documents. Ah, we have an FAQ that covers this. Thank goodness: http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/Sony-BMG/settlement_faq.php ; Wikinews This case also has some connection to copyright infringement: the XCP software included code taken from the VLC media player software, which is released under the GPL. Is EFF involved in any cases regarding this? : Danny O'Brien No we didn't cover this. We don't have standing to take on the copyright issue - i.e. we would have to represent a copyright holder. ; Wikinews Would EFF be involved in such a case if asked? : Danny O'Brien It'd be an interesting case, but we try to distribute these cases to where the expertise lies. During the Sony BMG case, we spoke to groups like the FSF and the Software Freedom Law Center. Generally speaking, they're the people who would be best placed to investigate cases like this. : It's worth saying that we're really pleased that there's now a whole constellation of great organisations that we work with. FSF, the Berkman Center, Public Knowledge in D.C., the list goes on. ; Wikinews The Sony BMG case is a content producer attempting to enforce DRM on their clients. The US FCC is trying to do the same thing on the hardware of US citizens with the Broadcast Flag. I know the EFF is involved in the lobbying on this, but I have questions which lead into this. This is a hardware issue. Does it matter on the internet? : Danny O'Brien Yes, for a number of reasons. : The point about the broadcast and audio flags is that they set up a kind of ghetto for content. The whole point of both is to *prevent* distribution onto the Internet. But in order to do that, you need to create a hardware world which is fenced off from not just the Net, but from user modification, and open source development. : This ghetto has to be created in every audio-visual device, by government mandate. So that affects the Net a couple of ways. Firstly, you essentially curtail the Net's use. But secondly, these flags are easily (though illegally) circumventable, so they generally prompt even more draconian laws (which are just as easily circumventable.) : One of our biggest problems with the flags is they cross a Rubicon. They create a government technological mandate in user tech. Once you start down that path—especially when you discover your initial mandate doesn't actually work—you just ask for more and more control. ; Wikinews Isn't this already the case, considering the HDTV standard and others? Isn't standards an element of the FCCs mandate? : Danny O'Brien Standards for broadcast and reception, but not standards for what you do *after* you receive something. Remember the FCC's primary job is to prevent interference, and to manage the commons of the public airwaves. It's a huge overreach for it to take over what you do with what comes from over those airwaves. ; Wikinews Because this is a rule, not a law, how does the EFF plan to approach it in the US Congress? : Danny O'Brien Well, the initial regulation was thrown out by the courts, who agreed with us that this was agency overreach. So what we've seen now is groups like the MPAA and RIAA attempt to extend the FCC's powers by law. : For all of last year, they attempted to do that by -- well, for want of a better word, sneakily attaching the necessary language to other bills. As you say, it can potentially be a very small amendment, so I suppose they felt that they could do this. Everyone fought an incredibly effective campaign to prevent this. And a lot of that had to do with the Net—we'd hear from the Hill of a lobbyist attempt to include the regulation, and we'd be able to organise calls and letters from constituents very quickly. : Most politicians, strangely enough, don't like it when something is sneaked past them. And we managed to alert a lot of them to arguments they weren't hearing from broadcasting lobbyists. : Now, we're seeing a second stage. Which is Hollywood coming out into the open, and presenting the flags openly. That stage begins tomorrow, with Senate hearings on the topic. ; Wikinews The Senate will begin hearings on this rule tomorrow. What does EFF expect to happen during this legislative process? How might this affect online communities? to get specific and personal, what does it mean to Wikinews readers and contributors? : Danny O'Brien If the law passes, it'll have dramatic effects. Particularly to Wikinews' future, actually: I think we can all foresee a time when Wikinews would take fair use samples of the news and public affairs, both audio and visual. With a broadcast or audio flag in place, that usage - while legal - would effectively disappear or at least be much much harder. : More generally, you'll see advancement in tech frozen in a lot of areas, the pulling away of open source development in anything that was connected to HD TV or digital radio. The biggest problem here is that technology like the flag gives the entertainment industry a stick to hit the technology industry. Before the broadcast flag was even introduced, Hollywood was lining up objections to technology like Tivo-To-Go. ; Wikinews I understand that would be the case in the USA, but could you explain how this might affect people in the EU? or anywhere outside the USA? : Danny O'Brien Sure, one of the areas that we spend a lot of time with these days—we have two staff working full time on international issues—is what's called policy laundering. So for instance, the worst provisions of the DMCA have generally been introduced into law in countries like Australia by their inclusion in bilateral Free Trade Agreements. Already, Hollywood representatives have been working in Europe and elsewhere to introduce the equivalent of the broadcast flag there. The rule is that if you can introduce it in one country, that makes it a lot easier to export it elsewhere. : Danny O'Brien Copyright extension is a great example of this. In that, the last US copyright extension was introduced to track Europe, and now Europe is being encouraged to match its copyright with the US. We're already seeing that with copy control mandates like the flag. ; Wikinews The Broadcast flag is a form of Digital Rights Management, in this case implemented by the US FCC. There are other DRM issues to talk about. In the French Parliament the DADVSI law, which relates to the implementation of the 2001 European Directive on Copyright in France, is under active consideration. Has the EFF had the opportunity to consider this law, and what is the opinion if so? : Danny O'Brien Actually, I was just talking to Submarine about this before the interview started. We're keeping as close an eye on this as we can. It's a good example of the ratchet problem as it's an implementation of the EUCD. ; Wikinews Canada and Belgium apply heavy taxes on copying medium, and the revenues from these taxes are used to support creative artists and developers, as an alternative to supporting DRM. What does EFF feel about such a method to control fair use/fair dealing? : Danny O'Brien Actually, we prefer a system of voluntary licensing schemes over either of these approaches. http://www.eff.org/share/collective_lic_wp.php ; Wikinews There are efforts under way to develop an open standard DRM, such as a project by Sun Microsystems which is relatively fair to users. Would EFF support an open standard/open source DRM, or is the entire concept of DRM considered unacceptable in any form? : Danny O'Brien Our take on Sun's DRM: http://www.eff.org/news/s/2005_08.php#003929 : Essentially, our disagreement isn't with DRm per se: it's DRM backed up by the DMCA's anti-circumvention laws. If users had the right to circumvent DRm to exercise their fair use rights, we think the market would quickly sort out what controls on media use were acceptable and what were not. ; Wikinews A follow-on question from the French one: does eff plan to set up some chapters in Europe ? : Danny O'Brien France like many countries, has a great core of activists and advocates already. We'd be delighted to help them in any way we can. ; Wikinews A follow-on question regarding the Sony BMG case: Does EFF have a response to the Register article http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/06/eff_needs_to_die/ : Danny O'Brien Sigh. I wondered if this would turn up. It's a really odd article, given that it includes a bunch of cases that aren't ours, ones that we didn't lose, and other oddities. I think we'd rather let the facts speak for themselves. Here's a list of our http://www.eff.org/legal/victories/ victories. There's a longer list at the wikipedia entry. ; Wikinews Are there any questions I should have asked you, which I did not? : Danny O'Brien Hahah! No, but I'm happy to take additional questions. I'm actually trying to think of some of the harder questions. ; Wikinews Well, I think I'll ask MrM to unmoderate now, and let everyone mob you. : MrMiscellanious :) Alright, here we go... MrMiscellanious made this room no longer moderated for normal users. : Danny O'Brien I guess the question we often get asked is ""Why aren't you doing something about X?"" where X is a matter that really is important—the simple answer to that is that we have limited resources. Which is why I'm really happy to see lots of other organisations spring up. ; Question Does EFF support TOR, financially or otherwise, anymore? : Danny O'Brien We host Tor's website, but direct funding was for last year. Actually, the Tor questions really are so frequentlyl asked that they're best answered on Tor's FAQ (including the legal FAQ we wrote for them.) http://tor.eff.org/faq.html.en ; Question en.Wikipedia prevents TOR endpoints from editing on the site; does EFF consider such class-blocking an acceptable response to behavior, or is it generally inappropriate? : Danny O'Brien We're disappointed. We hope there's a way of providing a technical solution that would work to support Tor's aims, and would be practical for Wikipedia. If we can work as an intermediary in that discussion, we'd be happy to. ; Question European organisations which have similar goals like the EFF were not successful in preventing Telecommunications data retention. What conclusions does the EFF draw for their own campaigns? : Danny O'Brien I have a long answer to that, with my EFF hat off. : Okay, so the reason I'll take my EFF hat off to answer your question, is because I'm also involved in ORG which is one of those organisations in Europe. The conclusion is that advocacy needs resources. One of the strengths of EFF and other US advocacy groups is they are permanent, with a paid staff. http://openrightsgroup.org : I think that now there are sites like http://www.pledgebank.com around, and facts like the Wikipedia funding drive show that we're getting to the point where we can turn volunteer organisations into groups that have that flexibility, plus financial resources. Which means you get to the situation where the group of volunteers who formed ORG can now work on projects like submitting to UK parliamentary inquiries: http://www.openrightsgroup.org/orgwiki/index.php/APIG_DRM_Public_Inquiry : There are fantastic groups in Europe, like EDRI and FFII and I think the time is now right for those groups to be given more resources by everyone. And I speak as someone who traditionally comes out in hives when money is mentioned. It's a big leap, but I think it's one we all have to work at getting right. Give to them, at exactly the same time as you join the EFF: http://www.eff.org/support/ : Danny O'Brien puts EFF hat back on. ; Question ""Danny O'Brien ""once successfully lobbied a cockney London pub to join Richard M. Stallman in a spontaneous demonstration of Bulgarian folk dance."" Can you give details?"" : Danny O'Brien RMS is a great fan of folk-dancing, and was teaching me and some friends the dance moves to the Free Software Song in a pub in Shoreditch. Maybe it was the alcohol, all the allegedly viral nature of the GPL, but by the end, we had most of the pub doing them. He loves it, although recently I believe he's hurt his leg and can't do it so much any more ; Question Wikipedia was earlier attacked by a group, which has launched a website, claiming that Wikipedia should be upheld by law to have 100% factuality in their website (relating to an earlier case where a bogus biography was posted to Wikipedia). What is the EFF's stance on the issue? : Danny O'Brien I'm not sure of the site that you refer to, but obviously we'd support Wikipedia on this matter. We don't see any problem with Wikipedia's process. ; Question There is an article on de.wikipedia (German) about the hacker ""Tron"". His full offline name is included in the article. A German court has issued an injunction preventing the Wikipedia.de website (the website of the German Wikimedia Foundation) from linking to the de.wikipedia site, which is outside the jurisdiction of that court. What does EFF think about such extranational effects of local laws? Does a person's name, especially a figure as well known as Tron, deserve special privacy? The order was obtained based on a proposal by the deceased hacker's family. And it should be pointed out that the hacker's real name was known for a long time. : Danny O'Brien It's a good question: honestly, it depends on the law, and the practicality of the law. I can't speak to the case, particularly as the last I heard, the facts weren't clear. In this case, it's not the territoriality of the law that's of concern, it's whether anyone should be forbidden from linking to a resource." +business,"A New Jersey state appeals court ruled Tuesday that fifteen Spanish citizens can sue over claims of health issues related to asbestos exposure while working aboard United States Navy and Coast Guard ships docked at United States-Spanish military installations. The defendant, Ohio-based company Owens Illinois, Inc., had sought a trial in a Spanish court, an opinion which was shared by the Superior Court that had heard the case earlier. The three-judge panel appellate court overturned the decision of the Superior Court in a 3-0 ruling. The Spanish citizens worked aboard U.S. ships between 1950 and 1998, and claim that they were exposed to asbestos dust and fibers from piping insulation produced by Owens-Illinois. The piping insulation was originally manufactured in Sayreville, Middlesex County, and Berlin, Camden County, New Jersey. The workers say they suffer from diseases related to asbestos such as asbestosis. Owens-Illinois has headquarters in Toledo, Ohio and is a Delaware corporation. The New Jersey appellate panel ruled that the Superior Court judge did not consider where the plaintiffs wanted their case heard, and also held that the U.S. ships are considered U.S. territory and thus the workers' claimed health issues did not begin on Spanish land. Attorneys for Owens-Illinois argued that U.S. ships, when docked, are subject to the law of Spain, and so the case should be heard in Spanish courts. 4=Judge Anthony Parrillo The court's opinion, written by Judge Anthony Parrillo, explained the ruling: ""In sum, we conclude that defendant has failed to carry its burden to demonstrate that Spain is an available adequate forum to adjudicate the parties' dispute and therefore the motion to dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds should have been denied without consideration of public- and private-interest factors."" The decision reversed the ruling of the Superior Court and remanded the suit back to that court for trial. 4=Mitchell S. Cohen, attorney for plaintiffs ""I find it difficult to understand how an appellate division court can countenance keeping the cases in New Jersey when there is absolutely no relation to New Jersey. There is barely any relationship to the United States of America. They've made their decision,"" said counsel for Owens-Illinois, John Garde, in a statement in The Star-Ledger. No decision has yet been made on whether the company will appeal the ruling. Mitchell S. Cohen, attorney for the Spanish workers, said that the Superior Court judge should have considered that the New Jersey court was the only location where the lawsuit could have been tried before dismissing the case. ""Spanish law will not allow, under the facts of these cases, to file a claim in Spain,"" said Cohen to the Associated Press. Cohen said that Spanish law states that a case cannot be filed in Spain because the alleged injuries occurred on U.S. territory. This is not the only asbestos-related lawsuit in which Owens-Illinois is cited as a defendant. The company is also a defendant (among other defendants) in asbestos cases filed in Ohio and other states. In an April 30 press release the company reported that asbestos-related payments had decreased slightly, stating: ""Asbestos-related cash payments during the first quarter of 2008 were $40.2 million, down slightly from $41.0 million during the first quarter of 2007."" According to the press release, the company had 14,000 pending asbestos-related lawsuits as of March 31, 2008. In its balance sheet for the first quarter of 2008, the company reported US$835 million in asbestos-related liabilities. 4=Edward C. White, Owens-Illinois Chief Financial Officer In a May 2 earnings call with financial analysts, Owens-Illinois Chief Financial Officer Edward C. White addressed asbestos-related expenses. ""Only a small portion of our first quarter asbestos payments related to the company's proactive legal strategy to reduce risk and accelerate asbestos resolution on favorable terms. Nevertheless, this strategy continues and additional expected spending is reflected both on the current liability portion of our balance sheet as well as in our full-year cash flow projection,"" said White. ""We exited the business 50 years ago and have been dealing with the legal issues for almost 30 years. For OI, this remains a limited declining liability, which we will continue to manage in a conscientious and responsible manner."" Asbestosis is a disease resulting from asbestos exposure which causes lung scarring and can lead to lung cancer. Exposure to asbestos can also lead to a more serious condition known as mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a cancer which develops in the sac surrounding the lungs and chest cavity, abdominal cavity, or the sac surrounding the heart. Patients with malignant mesothelioma generally do not have positive outcomes, and once diagnosed typically have six months to a year to live." +business,"US stocks plunged along with other stock markets overseas as a greater than expected rise in consumer prices fueled investors' fears that the Federal Reserve's campaign of raising interest rates is not over. At the close of trading at 4:00 PM EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 214.28 points, or 1.88%, to 11,205.61. Technology stocks were not safe from the selling as well, as the NASDAQ fell 33.33 points, or 1.50%, to 2,195.80. The NASDAQ has now turned negative for 2006. Broader stock indices also finished much lower. The S&P 500 fell 22 points (1.68%) to 1,270.32. This is the biggest point loss on the Dow in 3 years. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed that prices to the consumer increased by a greater-than-expected 0.6% in April. Core CPI, which factors out volatile food and energy prices, swelled by a greater-than-expected 0.3%. Market breadth was extremely negative with advancers beating out decliners by a 5 to 1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was heavy with 2.95 billion shares changing hands. Of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrials, 29 of them closed down for the day. The only stock in positive territory was Hewlett-Packard, which closed up $1.05 (+3.38%) to $32.16/share after reporting quarterly earnings after the close Tuesday. The selloff comes on the heels of the Dow rising to within 80 points of its all-time closing high of 11,722.98 just last week. That rally was built on hopes that the Federal Reserve was close to ending its interest rate hike campaign. Since that time the Dow has experienced 3 double-digit point losses. Many market analysts and technicians, including Ken Tower from Schwab's CyberTrader, felt that the market was overbought and was due for a short-term correction. Today's inflation report suggests that the Fed might have to tighten interest rates further to combat inflation and slow economic growth to a more sustainable pace. Higher interest rates increase the cost of money, thus discouraging borrowing by businesses and individuals. European stock markets fell more sharply than those in the US. London's FTSE fell 2.92%, Frankfurt's DAX tumbled 3.4%, and Paris' CAC 40 fell 3.18%." +business,Canada632 Air Canada flight attendants will lose their jobs in November as the airline is eliminating flights and routes. 332 of the jobs will be lost due to the closure of flight attendant base offices in Halifax and Winnipeg. Another 300 jobs will be lost at Vancouver due to major reductions in Air Canada's Pacific-based international flights. Dramatic increases in fuel prices are widely blamed for the airline's cutbacks. The flight attendant layoffs are part of an overall plan to reduce 2000 jobs at Air Canada. Airline union CUPE learned of the flight attendant cutbacks from the airline on Wednesday. Representatives of the labour association gave critical responses to this news. +business,"New currency notes are being introduced in Ghana today. The new currency, to be called the Ghanaian cedi, replaces the previous cedi which has been in circulation since 17 February, 1967. The Ghanaian cedi will be exchanged at 10,000 old cedis to one new Ghanaian cedi. The exchange rate against the U.S. dollar starts at GH¢0.92 to one U.S. dollar. The new ISO code for the currency is GHS, and the new symbol, GH¢. The change, which was originally scheduled by the Bank of Ghana to start on July 1, 2007, will instead start on Tuesday July 3, as the original date is Ghana's Republic Day. Monday, July 2, was declared a public holiday as the actual Republic Day fell on a Sunday. July 3, is thus the first day that the currency will be available to the public as banks open to the general public. This is because ATMs were shut down over the weekend so that the currencies could be checked and replaced in all of them nationwide. The old and new currencies will be used concurrently until the end of December 2007, when the old currency will cease to be legal tender. This is the third Ghanaian cedi to be introduced in the country since 1965." +business,"Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the ninth President of Sri Lanka at a ceremony in the country's Parliament in Colombo on Thursday. Wickremesinghe, who has served as acting president in his predecessor's absence, defeated rival candidates for the presidency by 134 votes to 82, with support from MPs of the ruling Sri Lanka People's Front. The former president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled Sri Lanka for the Maldives on July 13 and tendered his resignation from Singapore the following day. This came after months of unrest and protests over a devastating economic crisis which saw soaring inflation, blackouts and shortages of many essential supplies. Wickremesinghe initially offered to resign alongside Rajapaksa; however following the president's exodus he assumed the role of acting president. Wickremesinghe served as prime minister under Rajapaksa, and the BBC reports many view his administration as complicit in mismanaging the economy. Nevertheless, the transition of power drew relatively few protests. ""He is here — and we will see what his actions are. If we don't get any food, any medicine, we'll be on the streets,"" a former protestor told the BBC. Ranil Wickremesinghe Anbarasan Ethirajan, writing for the BBC, reported other protesters' disappointment, worrying Wickremesinghe would gradually crack down and forcibly end the protests. For his part, Wickremesinghe said he supports peaceful demonstrations, but warned against occupying government buildings and attempts to overthrow the government. Wickremesinghe has held many senior positions during his 45-year political career, including serving six terms as prime minister. He unsuccessfully ran for President twice. Local media reports the next cabinet is expected to include ministers from opposition parties, who have agreed to work with Wickremesinghe. The new president will strive for stability ahead of resuming talks with the International Monetary Fund for a $3 billion bailout." +business,"Template:United_Kingdom At least seventeen people were admitted to an Oxford hospital after a coach, operated by the Oxford Tube service, overturned while exiting the M40 motorway near Thame, Saturday evening. There were no other vehicles involved according to Thames Valley Police. The incident took place at around 2300 GMT Saturday night at junction seven of the M40 near Milton Common, when a coach, belonging to the Oxford Tube service, overturned on a slip road. A police spokesperson stated ""The exit slip at junction seven was closed, as well as the A329 in both directions either side of the M40. The coach is in the process of being recovered from the motorway."" The motorway itself remained open. Sergeant Steve Blackburn of Thames Valley Police stated that ""The vast majority of passengers were walking wounded or not injured at all and were released either at the scene or shortly after receiving some treatment."" John Nixon from Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue noted that the coach was lying on its side on an embankment, stating that his crews' priority had been to stabilise the coach. He added, ""There were people laid on the side of the embankment, on the road, covered in space-type blankets to keep them warm"" Although there were no fatalities, five of the injured required surgery, which was undertaken at Oxford's John Radcliffe hospital. Of the other admissions, a number were discharged by Sunday morning. A spokesperson for the Oxford Tube was quoted by the BBC as stating that, ""Safety is our absolute priority and our immediate thoughts are with those who have been injured in the accident."" They added, ""We will be carrying out our own internal investigation and assisting the police in any way that we can with their inquiries into the accident."" Police have already begun an investigation into the cause of the accident and have requested witnesses come forward. Anyone who witnessed the incident is asked to contact Three Mile Cross roads policing unit via Thames Valley Police's 24-hour Enquiry Centre on 08458 505 505" +business,"Singapore The Singapore Navy on Thursday warned of a possible pirate threat to ships passing through the Strait of Malacca after receiving a correspondence from an unnamed terrorist organization. According to the Navy, the intent of the terrorists was to ""achieve widespread publicity and showcase that they remain a viable group."" While the threat received covered only oil tankers, other large cargo ships were also at risk of attack, naval officials went on to say. To reduce possible risks, the Navy urged ships to strengthen onboard security, including adding additional lights and lookouts. They also recommended that ships maintain a higher speed and report any unusual incidents to the proper authorities. The advisory said that past attacks in the Strait had been carried out by small vessels such as motorboats or fishing boats with armed crews. Commercial vessels were also warned to avoid known fishing areas accordingly. The Singapore Navy said that it had contacted other countries in the area to warn them of the threat. Both Indonesia and Malaysia have also announced plans to increase patrols in order to provide additional security. The Strait of Malacca is a major conduit for oil shipments. With around a third of global oil shipments passing through, it is the main route for travelling from the Middle East to Asia. Any attack on vessels within the Strait would likely have a major ripple effect on global trade." +business,"---- The United States space agency NASA has put off the launch of Mars Science Laboratory rover mission. It was scheduled to fly next year, but the mission has been delayed by testing and hardware problems. According to agency officials, the launch of the rover would be postponed until 2011. The delay could add US$400 million to the cost of the mission, which is likely to be higher than $2 billion. ""We will not lessen our standards for testing the mission's complex flight systems, so we are choosing the more responsible option of changing the launch date,"" said Dough McCuistion, the director NASA's Mars program. Sources ---- Three Canadian soldiers were killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan Friday, bringing the number of Canadian military casualties in the war to 100. Canada's top commander in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Denis Thompson, said that his troops were bringing ""peace and stability"" to the country. 2,500 Canadian troops are based in southern Afghanistan as part of NATO's mission to defeat the Taliban. Canada's military presence in Afghanistan is due to end in 2011. Sources ---- Armed robbers pulled off a record jewelery heist in Paris, France when they on Thursday robbed the Harry Winston store near Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Four male thieves, two of whom where dressed as women, stole most of the inventory of the high-profile boutique. The loot has been valued at €85 million (US$107 million). The robbers brandished firearms and forced fifteen customers and staff into a corner of the store. No shots were fired and no one is reported hurt. Police have no immediate leads. Sources" +business,"Stock marketUnited States stock indexes posted gains on Friday, marking a four-week long positive streak. This comes despite a report released by the US Labor Department on the same day, which said that the US economy shed 663,000 jobs in March, with the unemployment rate reaching 8.5%, the highest since 1983. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a modest gain of half a percent or 39 points, ending the day at 8,017. The index has not closed above 8,000 since February. The last time the Dow had risen for four weeks in a row was between September and October of 2007, when the stock index reached its all-time high of over 14,000. The streak is the index's best since 1993. The broader S&P 500 gained eight points, or one percent, by the closing bell. The Nasdaq Composite had the largest gains of the three indexes, up 1.2% to 1,622. Both the S&P and the Dow gained over 3% over the course of the week, while the Nasdaq was up almost 5%. In other markets, both the German DAX and the Japanese Nikkei 225 indexes remained even, whilst the British FTSE 100 slipped 2.3%." +business,Bovespa-tl = loss +business,"General Motors Corporation (GM), an American automaker which has filed for bankruptcy protection, announced on Friday that the Penske Automotive Group (PAG) was selected to purchase Saturn Corporation. The transaction should be completed in October. The purchase includes rights to the Saturn brand, its five current models and its dealership network. Two models would be discontinued, the Sky and Astra. GM would continue building the Aura sedan, the SUV's, Vue and Outlook for at least two more years. Saturn has 350 dealers across the United States. The dealers employ more than 13,000 jobs and sell only the Saturn autos. Canadian Saturn dealers are not included in the deal. According to Penske future Saturn vehicles will be fuel economy focused. An expert indicated that this would move Saturn back to its roots of a entry level car company. PAG is in talks with several international automakers to replace GM after 2011. Automotive News reports that Renault Samsung Motors of Korea is the most likely candidate. Penske wants Jill Lajdziak, Saturn's general manager, and Tom LaSorda, former Chrysler President to head up the company when it is independent of GM. Serra Automotive in Grand Blanc Township, Genesee County, Michigan, is in talks to take a partial ownership in a new Saturn lead by Penske." +business,"British all-business class airline Silverjet has ceased operations and entered administration. The airline operated out of Luton Airport running services to New York and Dubai. Passengers booked with Silverjet have been told to claim refunds from their credit card issuer or travel agent. The UK Civil Aviation Authority estimates that 7,000 UK travellers could be affected by the collapse. The airline, which had hoped to secure an emergency US$5 million loan from Viceroy Holdings, was formed at the start of last year. It has now been put up for sale by administrator Begbies Traynor. It is thought that Middle Eastern company Viceroy may put in an offer, as might a group of former Silverjet managers who recently left the company. Included in the administration deal are Silverjet's subsidiaries Silverjet Aviation Limited, Skylease Limited and Sky People Limited, all of which are wholly owned by Silverjet. Silverjet shares are suspended from trading at the London Stock Exchange and it is feared that shareholders may receive nothing from their investments. Silverjet is the latest all-business class airline to collapse recently. US rivals Maxjet and Eos Airlines have both been forced out of business by high fuel costs, driven by the rapidly increasing price of crude oil. Silverjet's last flight left Dubai for Luton on Friday." +business,"Rescuers in Brazil are seeking a plane that disappeared Friday carrying six people, two local pilots and four British investors interested in a possible new housing development. The dual-engined Cessna 310, operated by Aero Star, lost contact with Air Traffic Control (ATC) eight miles (13km) off the coast near Ilheus, where it was intending to land in nine minutes time and was making a visual approach to Ilhéus Jorge Amado Airport. The flight had originated in Salvador and made last contact at 5:43 p.m. local time (2043 GMT) with Ilheus control tower. The four passengers have been identified as Sean Woodhall, Ricky Every, Alan Kempson and Nigel Hodges. The planned development they had been considering is a luxury estate planned by Worldwide Destinations, who Sean Woodhall owns. It is based in Spain and constructs worldwide luxury property developments. Ricky Every works for Worldwide Destinations, and Alan Kempson and Nigel Hodges are both directors of UK finance company Diamond Lifestyle Holdings, who had been considering a deal with Worldwide. At least three of the four did not live in the UK. The search for the aircraft is focusing on a location 20 miles (32km) North of Ilheus, where there are eyewitness reports that a light aircraft was flying extremely low and without lights, leading authorities to believe the aircraft loss power. Investigations are probing some reports of witnessing a plane crash, and there are unconfirmed rumours that wreckage has been found. Brazil's Coast Guard, three Aero Star helicopters and Bahia state police are all participating in the search. The weather was good at the time and the flight crew hadn't reported any issues to ATC." +business,"The new MacBook Air In a Wednesday media event, Apple Inc. released a new lineup of MacBook Air laptops and the 2011 version of the company's iLife software suite. The ""Back to the Mac"" event also included a preview of Apple's forthcoming Mac OS X Lion operating system, to be released in mid-2011. Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the new products at the Cupertino, California event, saying the company has ""been inspired by the work it has done on the iPad, and it wants to bring it back to the Mac."" Apple has plans to import more features of its iOS mobile operating system to the Mac OS X operating system. Jobs announced today that the ""Lion"" release to OS X, which is scheduled for release next summer, will include more support for multitouch and a desktop version of the company's App Store. He said that the App Store will be available for Apple's current OS ""Snow Leopard"" within 90 days, and that applications can be submitted starting next month. Jobs also announced that a beta version of FaceTime, Apple's IOS video calling application, would be available for OS X users immediately. Several new applications will be added in OS X Lion, dubbed ""Mission Control"" and ""Launchpad."" source= Steve Jobs In his keynote address Wednesday, Jobs announced the release of Apple's iLife '11 software suite, which includes the iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand programs. iPhoto has new slide show templates, while iMovie has added audio editing capabilities. GarageBand now includes several new piano- and guitar-playing lessons. iLife '11 was released on Wednesday as a US$49 upgrade, and is also available free with new Mac purchases. In another move to bring iOS functionality to Macintosh computers, Jobs announced an updated MacBook Air series of laptops, on sale now. The new MacBook Air uses flash memory rather than a traditional hard drive, and has no CD/DVD drive, an approach seen on the iPad tablet computer. In addition, the laptop's battery life has been extended, even though it is only 0.68 in (1.73 cm) thick and weighs less than 3 lbs (1.36 kg). ""We think it’s the future of notebooks,"" said Jobs. There are now two models of the MacBook Air: an 11.6-inch (29.46-cm) version and a 13.3-inch (33.78-cm) model. Analyst Shawn Wu says the company ""priced it really aggressively,"" referring to the computer's base price of US$999. Jobs said that his company sold 13.7 million Macs last year, totaling US$22 billion. In the last financial quarter, Mac sales increased 22 percent, comprising 24 percent of total revenue for Apple. However, the original MacBook Air did not fare so well. Sales and hype over the first Air decreased soon after its introduction, and the line was overshadowed by the release of Apple's 13-inch (33.02-cm) MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air had not been significantly updated since 2008." +business,"Today, AOL had announced that it is launching a new VoIP service to be named TotalTalk. TotalTalk is much like Google Talk due to its unification of verbal conversation and instant messenger into one client. However, much like Skype, client-to-phone conversations are possible. Other features include caller ID, voice mail integration with e-mail, three-way calling, and more. Unlike AOL's current VoIP service, TotalTalk will not require AOL membership. However, access to this service may cost upwards of $34.99 per month. Later this week, AOL will also release its new instant messenger client, Triton. Triton will contain a softphone feature that can be used with TotalTalk." +business,"European Aeronautic Defence & Space NV (EADS), the parent company of European airframer Airbus, has won a £13 billion contract to supply the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force (RAF) with aerial refueling tankers to replace the nation's current ageing fleet. AirTanker Ltd., an EADS-led consortium, have signed a 27-year contract with the Defense Ministry to supply 14 new Airbus A330-200 passenger airliner converted for the task. They will be owned by AirTanker, who retains commercial leasing rights to five which can carry 290 passengers plus cargo, but will fly in RAF livery. They replace existing Lockheed Tristar and Vickers VC-10 aircraft. The first aircraft will be in service by 2011 and all by 2016. Rolls-Royce, part of the consortium, will supply engines. France's Thales will supply electronics, Wimborne, UK's Cobham will manufacture refueling equipment and Southampton, UK's VT Group will provide service management. Last month, Northrop Grumman and EADS defeated Boeing to win a massive order for 179 tankers from the United States Air Force. Airbus has also inked recent deals with the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Saudi Air Force and the UAE Air Force." +business,"economy and business Morale is ""fine"" inside the Vestas plant in Newport, Isle of Wight, England, as an industrial occupation of the wind turbine factory finished entered its fourth night, says one of the occupiers. ""Mark,"" who prefers not to give his last name for fear of management reprisals, spoke to Wikinews and gave an update on the situation inside the plant, where 30 of the 525 workers whose jobs are slated to be lost at the end of July occupied management offices on Monday evening and issued a call for the British government to nationalise the plant. A double fence now rings the plant, surrounded by police in riot gear. Five people have been arrested for attempting to enter the plant grounds. According to Mark, while police are now letting food onto the plant grounds, Vestas' private security have been halting it at the gate; food for the occupiers is now being provided by Vestas management after the occupiers accused Vestas in the press of violating the Human Rights Act; commenting on the quality of the food, Mark said ""it's not been that good"". According to the BBC, the content has been mostly sausage rolls, pasties and crisps. The occupiers were informed yesterday that if they did not leave the plant by 10:30 p.m. on July 22, they would be fired. They have since been served with papers charging them with aggravated trespass and are seeking legal representation; the court papers give them until July 29 to vacate, but according to Mark, the occupiers have no plans to leave: ""we're going to be in here for a while"". Vestas has given no comment to the press about the occupation. Political parties in Britain have begun responding to the Vestas situation, with the Green Party adding its support to the occupation following the early declarations of support, previously reported here, by the Socialist Party and Socialist Workers Party. Green Party Leader Dr Caroline Lucas MEP gave her ""full support"", and said in an online statement, ""We should be seizing the opportunity to create a renewable energy revolution through a favourable policy environment and massive investment in the new technologies that can see us through a transition towards a more environmentally and economically stable economy. The Government can make a genuine start along this road by pledging financial aid to help keep the Isle of Wight's Vestas plant open for business"". The Greens held a demonstration in London supporting the Vestas workers on July 22. Environmentalist protesters have established a climate camp with dozens of people outside the perimeter of the fence and a mass demonstration is planned for Friday evening in Newport's St Thomas's Square. In parliament, meanwhile, five MPs of the ruling Labour Party have signed a motion protesting the Vestas plant's closure and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg stated, ""This closure exposes the hollow truth of Labour's climate change strategy"". Labour Party left-wing veteran Tony Benn is expected to appear with RMT general secretary Bob Crow and address a rally at the factory Thursday night. Opposition leader David Cameron of the Conservative Party has not yet commented on the Vestas situation, but Conservative MP Andrew Turner, who represents the Isle of Wight, held a confidential meeting with Vestas management, after which he said that nationalisation was ""not on the table"". Earlier in parliament, Turner said that he found Vestas's lack of negotiations with its employees ""totally unacceptable"". Late on Thursday, Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Minister, published an editorial in The Guardian, writing: We have to win a political argument that environmentally and industrially, onshore wind is part of the solution. In the meantime, there must be a strategy for the Isle of Wight to do all we can to help and there is. Not just support for the workers who are losing their jobs, but a strategy to work with Vestas. Milliband went on to promise £120 million in government investment in offshore wind power production and £60 million in marine manufacturing. Vestas attributes its pullout from the UK to difficulty in obtaining planning permission for wind farms. The Independent quotes a senior company executive as saying, ""We needed a stable long-term market and that was not there in the UK. We have made clear to the Government that we need a market. We do not need money."" Vestas's income is up 59% in the last quarter, although its stock has dropped 4.4% on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange since the occupation began. Meanwhile in the United States, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick cut the ribbon at the opening of a 300-turbine, 800-megawatt capacity wind farm built by Vestas in Holden, Massachusetts. Vestas is a finalist in a multi-million dollar government contract to build a new offshore wind farm to be constructed in Nantucket Sound by 2012." +business,"Democratic Republic of the Congo Marie-Laure Kawanda, the transport minister for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been sacked by the government after a series of boat accidents in the country. Kawanda was dismissed after a boat sank on Monday while sailing on the Kasai River left around 100 people missing. A spokesman for the government released a statement saying that Kawanda had failed to ""ensure that regulations related to navigation are respected."" Information minister Lambert Mende commented on Ms Kawanda's sacking, saying, ""She should have introduced rules to prevent boats travelling at night and to stop cargo boats from carrying passengers. We don't have the exact number of victims but we think it is probably considerably higher than what has already been reported."" He added that the government will be paying for the funerals of the victims. Fatal boat accidents are a common occurrence in DR Congo. On the same river where Monday's accident happened, up to 200 people died last year when a boat capsized. According to the Red Cross, 40 people died when an overcrowded boat sank on Lake Kivu last week." +business,"Aviation Indonesian state-owned flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has been expanding, with the airline set to add nine new jets to its fleet and double its flights between Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. Garuda is also considering a bid for defunct rival Linus Airways. Garuda is expecting the imminent arrival of four new Airbus jets and five new Boeings. The Airbuses, A330-200s, are earmarked to fly international routes to Seoul and Shanghai starting in July. All four have Internet and telephone access for passengers. The Boeings, B737-800 Next Generation aircraft, are due to be in service by the 2010. Also planned before the year's end is the increase in flights on the Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur route from one to two per week. ""We saw our current load factors have reached 75 percent and even more during school breaks like June and July,"" Said the company's Vice President for Network Oversight, Risnandi. ""This is very promising."" Garuda is now reported to be considering a bid for Linus, who stopped operating on April 27 and have recently been stripped of the rights to fly their former routes as legally required for airlines that do not operate for more than thrity days. Linus still holds some documents of worth to Garuda for transfer to their subisidiary Citilink. ""I heard that Garuda intends to buy Linus who already hold an aviation business license (SIUP) and an air operators certificate (AOC) for the scheduled air services,"" said Indonesian Director General of Civil aviation Herry Bakti S. Gumay to reporters for Bisnis Indonesia. He said that his office was in favour of a takeover by Garuda because foreign bids are limited to holding a maximum total of 49% of the shares in Linus. Linus Airways' President Directer Indra said that ""we are flexible to acquisition, depending on the investor. If someone wants to buy 100% of the shares we can release our shares, but if someone wants take only a majority shareholding with us as a partner – we are also open."" Indra commented that he has had an informal meeting with Garuda CEO Emirsyah Satar but says that they never discussed acquisition by Garuda and that Linus is already in talks with another 'strategic investor' with a view to resuming operations. Two airlines, Riau Airlines and Kartika Airlines, have both launched bids for the ten routes formally operated by Linus, which include four from Jakarta and three from Batam. Garuda Indonesia's Financial Direcotr Eddy Purwanto has anounced that US$650 million worth of loans from Bank Mandiri have been restructured. Garuda, who has apointed Rothschild's as their international financial advisors, will now pay US$450 million by 2015." +business,"A fierce storm on Sunday resulted in massive 18-foot waves, which split a Russian oil tanker in two and sank two Russian freighters nearby. The tanker spilled at least 560,000 gallons of fuel into a strait which leads to the Black Sea, and officials say it may take years to clean up. The tankers sank in the Strait of Kerch, which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov in the northeast. The two ships were carrying a total of around 7,150 tons of sulfur, according to Sergei Petrov, Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations regional spokesperson. The tanker was carrying nearly 1.3 million gallons of fuel oil, and was stranded several miles from shore. Emergency workers were prevented from collecting the spilled oil immediately due to stormy weather; the head of the state environmental safety watchdog Rosprorodnadzor, Oleg Mitvol, said ""there is serious concern that the spill will continue"". Workers eventually managed to begin work on cleaning up the spill, an effort which may be long-term. Tar-like sands laden with oil and seaweed were piled on the shore, while oil-covered birds in slick-covered water tried to flap their wings. Regional coast guard officer Anatoly Yanhuck said once weather improves they will begin pumping oil from the tanker, then tow the ship to port. Two fuel-loaded barges and Turkish freighter Ziya Kos also ran aground in the area, but there was no further environmental damage, said Petrov. Ten ships altogether were sunk or run aground in the area of the Black Sea near the Straight of Kerch and the Straight itself; a Russian freighter carrying metal was also reported as having sunk near the port of Sevastopol on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. One of the sulfur-carrying freighters reported three crew members as drowned, and five more as missing, while two members of the sunk freighter carrying metal were reported as drowned and another remains missing. The oil tanker's 13 crew members were all rescued safely, and all members of the second freighter were also reported as safe. Captains had been warned Saturday morning of the stormy conditions, regional prosecutor Maxim Stepanenko told Russia's Vesti 24. The oil tanker was not built to withstand fierce storms, having been designed to transport oil on rivers during Soviet times, he said. Chemist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ocean Service office of response and restoration, Jim Farr said the sulfur spill from the two freighters wouldn't create a ""hazardous situation"", a statement backed up by Alexei Zhukovin, expert with the Emergency Situations Ministry's branch in Southern Russia. Although on land sulfur is used as a fungicide, in a marine setting it wouldn't act as one, said Farr; instead a sulfur spill can be compared to dumping sand on a reef and smothering it, or placing a blanket on a bed of grass. Long-term effects are more difficult to speculate on, however, without better knowledge of the area and its currents. Oleg Mitvol said that although the sulfur spill doesn't present an environmental danger, the two freighters might also leak fuel oil from their tanks, adding to the pollution. Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, and Ukraine all border on the Black Sea." +business,"Microsoft has announced it is dropping its bid to acquire one of their Internet competitors, Yahoo!, after a three-month courting effort by Microsoft. Microsoft chief executive officer, Steve Ballmer notified Yahoo! chief executive officer, chairman and co-founder, Jerry Yang via a letter that Microsoft was dropping their bid for the Sunnyvale, California based search engine giant. In a press release from Microsoft, Ballmer said, “Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly US$5 billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer. After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal”. Microsoft withdrew its bid effort after raising their bid from $44.6 billion to $47.5 billion, which works out at $33 per share. However, Yahoo! were waiting for a bid of around $53 billion, which was more than Microsoft were willing to pay. Microsoft had previously wanted to takeover Yahoo! in-order to compete with Google, the market leader in online advertising. The online advertising market was worth $40 billion in 2007 and will rise to an expected $80 billion in 2010. Some observers, however, are speculating that the bid withdrawal could just be another tactic in their attempt to acquire Yahoo!. Yahoo shares have dropped since the bid was pulled out." +business,"The introduction by Yahoo Inc. of its new Internet ad sales system was successful. The company's new feature may turn out to be very useful for Yahoo's shares, since investors are betting on rapid growth of the company's revenue. When Yahoo stated that it will launch on February 5 a full version of its new system, entitled Panama, the company's shares rose by 8 percent on Wednesday. The system, being introduced in the United States, will be launched a month earlier than Wall Street expected. The ad system is to bring the company in closer league with the number one search engine Google Inc. Yahoo's technology will permit various advertisers to pay for specific search terms, which are based on their popularity. Panama will also help advertisers in targeting ads that are sent to a specific audience on the Internet. The system will allow rotating ads in accordance with their effectiveness. Google have been offering these features for several years. Martin Pyykkonen, who is the analyst at Global Crown Capital, said that Yahoo was not as successful as Google but it still continues to strengthen its position as number 2. Although Google had a stronger software platform, Yahoo continues to register good results, which is worth something. Pyykkonen also mentioned that he is not forecasting any shifting in wholesales, and especially a sudden fall of Google, but he is sure that Yahoo will not be far behind Google; in fact the company is to shorten the gap between the two. The ability of Yahoo's new system, to draw more ad dollars from customers, should boost the company's growth in this year's second half. Yahoo is also dealing with a potential drop in prices regarding its key branded advertising sales. This is due to the competition provided by MySpace.com and YouTube." +business,"WikimediaMention The popularity of Websites that rely on user-generated content has increased dramatically in the United Kingdom, according to new statistics. MySpace and Piczo show the strongest growth in usage year-to-year, respectively up 467% to 5.2 million visitors and 393% to 4 million. Bebo is up 328% to 3.9 million, while Wikipedia saw a 181% increase. These sites draw more frequent visits that other non-user-generated sites in the UK Top 50, with 4.2 usage-days per month (compared to the 3.5 average). They tend to engage visitors for longer (80 minutes per visitor, compared to the 33-minute average over all), and visitors tend to view more pages per visit (217 pages per visitor, compared to 52-page average over all). Because users of these sites visit more frequently, stay longer, and view more content, the argument goes that this creates more opportunities for marketers to communicate messages. However, in reality, as the number of pages served becomes very large, it becomes more difficult to find sufficient advertising inventory to send with those pages. No-one yet seems to be making big margins from social networking sites. The cost of operating these sites, it turns out, is sensitive to scale. Moreover, users generate a lot of noise in promoting themselves, but there's little evidence that many of them are listening to each other — which severely restricts the site owners' ability to generate advertising services, and secure advertising revenues." +business,"Zappos.com, one of the largest online retailers of shoes and apparel, disclosed Sunday that it was hit by a cyber attack. The attack compromised as many as 24 million accounts. Personal data may have been taken, but credit card numbers are encrypted and thus cannot be stolen. Information that may have been compromised includes customers shipping addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, account passwords and the last four digits of any credit card used. Though credit card numbers are encrypted by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, other personal information is often not. This is common practice among e-commerce websites. 4=Todd Feinman Todd Feinman of Identity Finder told USA Today, ""Visa and MasterCard fight to protect credit card numbers, but there's no one fighting for the individual consumer whose e-mail address falls into the possession of hackers."" Zappos.com required its users change their account passwords. It notified users of the required change and updated on the situation through an email. They also advised users to change their password on other websites if it is similar to the one used on Zappos. In a blogpost, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh said ""We've spent over 12 years building our reputation, brand, and trust with our customers. It's painful to see us take so many steps back due to a single incident. I suppose the one saving grace is that the database that stores our customers' critical credit card and other payment data was not affected or accessed.""" +business,"Apple Mark Papermaster, formerly an Apple Inc. executive overseeing hardware engineering for the company's iPhone, is stepping down from his post. The move came after Apple received criticism last month for the placement of the antenna on their most recent iPhone model, iPhone 4. Apple confirmed that Papermaster, 49, had left the company, but did not say whether he decided to leave or was forced out. Papermaster did not comment on the situation. According to The New York Times, who first broke the news about Papermaster's departure, an anonymous individual ""with direct knowledge of the situation"" claimed that the former executive had been ousted over various hardware issues, some related to the iPod Touch. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs first introduced iPhone 4, he praised the device's antenna design. However, many consumers reported that, when holding the phone in a certain location, reception would decrease and sometimes lead to dropped calls. Apple's response to the issue, dubbed ""Antennagate"" by the media, was first to recommend holding the phone in a different location. They later found a related software glitch that caused the signal strength to be misreported on the device. In a July 16 press conference, Jobs said that all iPhone 4 buyers would be eligible to receive a free case, or ""bumper,"" which alleviates the signal problem. Citing people familiar with the situation, The Wall Street Journal reported that Papermaster had been pushed out due to an incompatibility with Apple's corporate culture. The sources claimed that Papermaster was not used to the environment or corporate politics and did not possess the creativity the company wanted to see. They also said that it was Jobs, not Papermaster, who made the decision to proceed with iPhone 4 development even though the company had been aware of potential signal problems resulting from the antenna placement as early as a year ago. Papermaster's post will be filled by Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior vice president for Macintosh engineering. Mansfield was already involved in iPhone development, overseeing processor and display engineering. Papermaster had been with Apple since November 2008, but a United States federal judge barred him from working until April 2009. He had previously held a senior position with IBM, where he had worked for 25 years. IBM sued Papermaster in an attempt to block him from joining Apple, but a settlement was reached after he testified that no IBM corporate secrets had been disclosed to Apple." +business,"China In trading Wednesday, the Chinese stock markets plunged after the government tripled a tax on securities transactions. The so-called stamp tax was raised from 0.1% to 0.3% in an effort to cool the rapidly rising market. The Shanghai Composite Index of A-shares fell 6.5%. The CSI 300 fell 6.8%, with over half of the listed companies falling the single day limit of 10%. The market has already doubled in value this year, after rising 130% in 2006. It is estimated that some 300,000 new brokerage accounts are opened on an average day. Novice investors are reportedly sinking their life savings into the market. Meanwhile, the World Bank raised its forecast for GDP growth for China in 2007, from 9.6% to 10.4%. ""The stamp tax is the latest gesture by the Chinese government to warn investors,"" Phil Chen of Grand Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co. told Bloomberg. ""The trouble is, Chinese investors probably won't care if a few breadcrumbs are dropped in the transaction as they have such extraordinary returns on their investments.""" +business,"India The Indian aviation sector looks set to shrink amid financial turmoil, with the nation's air carriers in schemes to try and ride out the problems and domestic air traffic at a five year low. Air traffic has fallen by 19% in September, the fourth month in a row of negative growth. The news comes as a joint result of the current financial crisis and high jet fuel prices, with Indian airlines in debt to the tune of Rs1,800 crore after surpassing their credit limits with oil companies, who are themselves making losses due to government controls on the price of jet fuel. Kingfisher Red - originally known as Air Deccan, India's first budget carrier, until Kingfisher Airlines bought the company out - suffered the biggest drop in passenger numbers at 20% of their load factor. Flag carrier Air India is running at 53% of capacity after a 10% fall, and the average for airlines is now 55% as opposed to 65% this time last year. Kingfisher Airlines has decided to enter an alliance with Jet Airlines that will see them collectively control half the Indian aviation market. Both airlines are in debt over fuel payments with Jet owing Rs850 crore while Kingfisher refused to disclose the amount they needed to pay. The money is owed mainly to the Indian Oil Corporation, with the rest owed to the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation. 45% of costs for Indian carriers is fuel, which is 70% more expensive than abroad due to multiple taxes. Air India's head Raghu Menon expressed concern about what the Kingfisher-Jet alliance meant for his own airline. ""We were competing with both these airlines separately. Now we'll be competing with them perhaps as one entity. It'll be a challenge,"" he said. Kingfisher have cancelled an order for three A340 aircraft from European airframer Airbus. Airbus executive John Leahy said that Airbus had discussed the issue with Kingfisher before the choice was made and that this was the only cancellation from India. He also maintains that India will be an important area for Airbus, with the firm predicting Indian aviation growth will be at 9.7% compared to a global rate of 5.4%. Airbus predict that 1,000 new aircraft will increase the Indian fleet fivefold by 2026. Airbus have also welcomed the partnership between Jet and Kingfisher, saying it will help consolidate the carriers. Airlines are cutting capacity to reduce costs, with around 20% gone already. Average flight movements are down to 8,000 a week compared to 10,500 in the period from April to June. The aviation industry in India is expected to post a collective loss of US$2 billion. One executive at Boeing, Dinesh Keskar , predicted the downfall to be brief. “The current downturn in the sector is temporary and may not prolong for more than 6 to 9 months,” he said. Airlines, however, feel that the risk is very much immediate; Jet and Kingfisher are requesting a government bailout package worth Rs 40.7 billion. They are currently losing a combined US$1.3 billion." +business,"United Kingdom Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), today said the United Kingdom (UK) voting to leave the European Union (EU) would have negative consequences for the country's economy and the wider financial system. An IMF report released by Lagarde said voting to leave the EU would cause ""a protracted period of heightened uncertainty"", created by the UK needing to negotiate a withdrawal from the EU. Agreements with 60 other countries who currently have trade agreements with the EU would also need to be reached if the UK was to continue trading with them on the same terms. The IMF has also identified the UK's large current account deficit, the difference imports and exports, as a factor increasing the risks of a vote to leave. These comments follow similar ones made by Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, who also warned that leaving the EU could lead to a fall in the value of the pound sterling. The Bank also estimated half of the currency's recent fall in value was caused by the uncertainty created by the referendum. Vote Leave and Leave.EU, campaigning to leave the EU, responded by pointing out shortcomings in the IMF's previous predictions, such as the effect of the Greek financial crisis. Former UK Chancellor Lord Lamont commented, ""There are plenty of respected individual economists, plenty of respected professional investors, and plenty of entrepreneurs who take a very different view from Christine Lagarde""." +business,"Economy and businessToyota has agreed to pay a record $16.4 million fine to the US government over allegations that the automaker concealed defects in its vehicles. Ray LaHood, US Transportation Secretary US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood made the announcement Monday, saying in an e-mailed statement that ""Toyota has accepted responsibility for violating its legal obligations to report any defects promptly."" Toyota has still not admitted any wrongdoing, and said that it disagreed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which levied the fine against Toyota. In a statement, Toyota said it ""denies N.H.T.S.A.’s allegation that it violated the Safety Act or its implementing regulations. We believe we made a good faith effort to investigate this condition and develop an appropriate counter-measure."" Toyota is still at risk of lawsuits from those affected by cars that crashed due to a safety defect in the accelerator pedal. Numerous such lawsuits have been filed, and analysts said that the total cost of the lawsuits could be upwards of two billion dollars in 2010, and possibly as much as ten billion in total. While the government fine is largely symbolic, as the amount was limited by US law, it could provide support for lawyers who are filing legal charges against Toyota. If the cap on the fine was not in place, Toyota would have been fined a total of $13.8 billion; each of the 2.3 million defective vehicles sold would have had a $6,000 fine. Additionally, the NHTSA is reportedly considering a second fine, also of $16.4 million, based on evidence that there were two separate defects in the affected vehicles, and the company is facing an investigation from both the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission." +business,"The International Monetary Fund and the European Union approved aid packages to help Georgia recover from its conflict with Russia, which occurred in early August. The IMF approved a US$750 million loan which will allow Georgia to rebuild its currency reserves. The European Union also approved an aid package of €500 million in aid by 2010, which is expected to help internally displaced people (IDPs) and economic recovery in the form of new infrastructure. Only €100 million of the EU aid will be given to Georgia this year. These loans are aimed to restore confidence in Georgia's economy and send a signal to international investors that Georgia's economy is sound. According to the IMF, international investors have been ""critical to Georgia's economic growth in recent years."" Takatoshi Kato, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chairman of the IMF executive committee, said the loan will ""make significant resources available to replenish international reserves and bolster investor confidence, with the aim of sustaining private capital inflows that have been critical to Georgia's economic growth in recent years."" Georgia has requested $2 billion in international aid to help it recover from the conflict. So far, the United States has pledged $1 billion in aid. Further assistance and loans to Georgia are expected from other organizations. Kato noted that ""...Georgia is expected to receive financial assistance from multilateral and bilateral donors and creditors in support of the reconstruction effort."" It is expected that an international donors' conference will take place next month to solicit more aid for the country. Georgia's government expects that economic growth will be more than cut in half as a result of the conflict. Last year, Georgia's GDP increased 12.4% and it is predicted by the IMF that growth will be less than 4 percent in the coming year." +business,"United States software giant Microsoft has launched an unsolicited bid to buy Internet search giant Yahoo! for US$44 billion or approximately US$31 per share. The deal, which is half in cash and half in stock, if accepted by Yahoo!'s shareholders, could create a major competitor to Google, the search giant which currently dominates the Internet search market." +business,"Boeing has secured two large orders for new aircraft. Air Canada has ordered US$6 billion in new airliners, while Air India has signed a deal for a further US$7 billion. The Air Canada deal includes firm orders for 18 777s and 14 of the new mid-size, long-range 787 Dreamliner. Options are included for 18 more 777s and 46 more 787s. The Air India order is worth US$6.8 billion for 50 787s. Air India says the new fuel-efficient airliner will save US$300 million in fuel a year, while Air Canada has estimated a 30% fuel saving over their existing 767s. Air India have also said that the 20 extra seats the 787 offers over a similarly-sized Airbus A330 was a decisive factor. Korean Air also bought 20 Dreamliners earlier this month. Boeing now has a total of 237 orders and commitments for the 787. The Boeing 777 is a family of long range widebody twin engine airliners built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It carries between 305 and 550 passengers and has a range from 5,600 to 8,870 nautical miles (10,400 to 16,400 km). The first flight of the 777 was in 1994. The Boeing 787, or Dreamliner, is a mid-sized passenger airliner currently under development by Boeing Commercial Airplanes and scheduled to enter service in 2008. It will carry between 200 and 350 passengers depending on the seating configuration, and be more fuel-efficient than earlier airliners. In addition, it will be the first major airliner to use composite material in the majority of its construction." +business,"Internet Facebook announced Thursday it will begin to share some of the technology from their social network. The company indicated it would like to share specifications and design documents to help startups and to support innovation. Facebook hopes that they will be able to benefit from the innovations of others. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, announced the company's ""Open Compute Project"" at an event held for reporters at the company's headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Facebook will not directly make any money from the new project. However, by making the designs of its servers open source, the company hopes others will find ways to improve them. They can then incorporate those advances into their own servers. Anything that can make Facebook's servers run more efficiently provides a major benefit for the company. More efficient servers will also drive down utility costs for the social media giant, which relies on massive data centers around the United States to keep its operations going. Facebook says it is already working with manufacturers, including Dell, that are manufacturing servers based on its designs. Some new servers are already available." +business,"Aviation Sweden-based airline Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) said it will reduce payrolls by 8,600 jobs as part of its ""Core SAS"" restructuring plan. The airline will cut 3,000 staff directly and eliminate 5,600 by divesting business ventures, reducing the workforce by 40% to 14,000. The restructuring comes after SAS posted losses of 6.32 billion Swedish krona in 2008. The company is also to sell airBaltic and Spanair and its stakes in Air Greenland, BMI, Estonian Air, Skyways Express, Spirit Airlines and Trust. Spanair is to be sold for €1. The company intends to switch to concentrating on its core Nordic market. SAS is to seek 6 billion krona from shareholders, while the government of Denmark is to invest 600 million Danish kroner in the company. Currently, Denmark owns 14.3% of SAS, Sweden has 21.4% and Norway 14.3%. The rest is publicly traded. The airline was founded in 1946 when the state airlines of Denmark, Sweden and Norway merged their longhaul services." +business,"A current South Korea presidential candidate for this year's December elections, Ahn Cheol-soo, has promised to allow freedom of choice of encryption technology for online financial transactions if he is elected. Ahn revealed the promise in a campaign book released this Monday. This follows over a decade of active legislation requiring banking websites to use a South Korean ActiveX technology to operate digital certificates. South Korea developed the ActiveX certificates technology in the late 1990s with an expectation of worldwide adoption, which did not happen. ActiveX has been supported only by Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. Ahn indicated disadvantages of the technology, writing that ""South Korea's unique certificate system, driven by the government, has led to the isolation of South Korea's IT information technology. Excessive use of Active X is making web browsing less convenient."" Some commenters noted that the technology requires users to install multiple plugins for Microsoft Internet Explorer, which cause a decrease in overall computer performance. At ZDNet Korean portal, the proposed policy change received comments about possible advances in making banking possible on mobile platforms." +business,"An Afriqiyah Airways-owned aeroplane, originating from South Africa, has crashed on approach to Tripoli International Airport in Libya at around 06:00 Eastern European time (0400 UTC). Initial reports indicated everyone on board died, which officials say is 93 passengers and 11 crew, but later developments say an eight-year-old boy was the sole survivor; however, this is unconfirmed. The plane left Johannesburg in South Africa with the aim of transferring at Tripoli before heading to the final destination, United Kingdom's London Gatwick Airport. Officials have ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash, which is still undetermined. A security official said the plane ""exploded on landing and totally disintegrated."" In a statement, Afriqiyah Airways said, ""We extend our deepest sympathy to the families and friends of the victims; the search and rescue mission has now been completed."" The crew on the plane were all of Libyan nationality, officials claim, while the passengers included Libyans, South Africans, Dutch and Britons. In response to reports of British citizens being on board the crashed plane, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said, ""We are urgently investigating. A consular team from the British Embassy are on their way to the airport. Consular staff in Tripoli are urgently seeking further details.""" +business,"Economy and business On Monday night, New Jersey, US-based toy retail giant Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy in the US as well as in Canada. The retailer filed it from Richmond, Virginia for Chapter 11 bankruptcy code in the US, and a judge allowed a loan of over US$2 billion. According to the filing, the retail chain owns US$6.6 billion in assets, but has a debt of US$7.9 billion. They were under a roughly US$5 billion debt since the company underwent a three-way acquisition in 2005. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain Capital, and Vornado Realty Trust acquired Toys R Us for around US$7 to US$7.5 billion. After the US judge approved a loan, Toys R Us received about US$3 billion from the lenders to continue the business and survive a competitive market, and restructure their business model. E-commerce giant Amazon.com, Walmart and Target are some of the competitors for the conventional 'brick and mortar' toy shop, with lower priced-merchandise and fast, cheap delivery. In a conference call in June, CEO Dave Brandon said ""very, very aggressive pricing online"" was causing problems. He also said the company was experiencing ""significant weakness in demand for their products globally"". Toys R Us are to clear a debt of US$400 million by May 2018. Toys R Us said they would continue to operate for the holiday season. Bankruptcy lawyer Jeff Gleit said Toys R Us ""need to do both a financial restructuring as well as an operational restructuring"" and ""needs to modernize with the times"". Last holiday season, Toys R Us made sales around US$4.5 billion. Overall, the company reported a US$29 million loss in 2016. CEO Brandon said, ""Our objective is to work with our debt holders and other creditors to restructure the US$5 billion of long-term debt on our balance sheet, which will provide us with greater financial flexibility to invest in our business"". Toys R Us employs more than 60 thousand people in 38 countries around the world in more than 1600 stores. The company's stocks fell by six percent after filing for Chapter 11 protection. US bankruptcy code Chapter 11 allows the company to restructure under a plan approved by the court. The company would also be shielded from creditors' claims during the process. For the stores located in Canada, Toys R Us filed bankruptcy in Ontario and are to undergo reorganisation. However, 259 stores located outside the US or Canada will not undergo reorganisation, the company said. Over 300 US-based retailers have filed for bankruptcy this year, and hundreds of stores closed." +business,"JetBlue Airways launched service from Raleigh-Durham International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport on Thursday, July 20. The airline also announced daily service from Raleigh to Boston starting on October 18. JetBlue's service in Raleigh is comprised of four daily flights to New York, the airline's hub. The route is flown by EMBRAER 190 aircraft with a capacity of 100 passengers. The aircraft are equipped with DirecTV and XM Satellite Radio programming. On October 18, JetBlue's service from Raleigh to Boston will begin with one daily flight. Raleigh-Durham International Airport currently has 223 daily departures to 37 cities." +business,"Metronet, a company set up to manage the upgrade of three-quarters of London's tube network, has gone into administration (which is similar to Chapter 11 in the United States) after having accrued debts of up to £2 billion, following the decision on Monday to limit the amount of extra funds that the company would receive from public funds. A notice on the Metronet website announced that the Boards of both Metronet BCV (responsible for the upgrade of the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines) and Metronet SSL (responsible for upgrade of the 'sub-surface' lines) had asked the Mayor to seek the appointment of a PPP Administrator. The statement says that the decision follows a period of 'financial uncertainty', with the decision of the arbiter leaving Metronet ""unable to carry out its contract"". Metronet's shareholders, the companies Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Bombardier, EDF Energy and Thames Water had blocked access to an extra funds, and each have a limited liability of £350 million, their original equity stake. Transport for London have reassured the public that tube services will not be affected - Metronet is not responsible for day-to-day operation - but it is so far unclear what will happen to the upgrade contracts." +entertainment,"Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has banned the playing of recorded music on television, at public events, and both public and private wedding ceremonies. Turkmenistan's official daily newspaper, Neitralny Turkmenistan, quotes President Niyazov as stating that the ban is intended to ""protect true culture, including the musical and singing traditions of the Turkmen people."" The office of the president said recorded music and lip synching has ""a negative effect on the development of singing and musical art."" In a cabinet meeting broadcast on national television, Niyazov said ""Unfortunately, one can see on television old voiceless singers lip-synching their old songs. Don't kill talents by using lip synching... Create our new culture."" President Niyazov has a history of regulating cultural influences in Turkmenistan. He has outlawed long hair or beards and capped teeth, required video monitors in all public places, and banned car radios and certain performing arts like opera and ballet, deeming them ""unnecessary.""" +entertainment,"Moviegoers around the world are expected to queue into movie theaters during the opening weekend of the movie ""The Da Vinci Code,"" despite the disapproval of both critics and clerics. The film, directed by Ron Howard, is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Dan Brown, which has sold over 60 million copies worldwide. Officials at Sony-owned Columbia Pictures, which distributed the film, expect the film to gross US$50 million to US$80 million during its first weekend in the United States, based on figures from early matinees on Friday. ""The early matinees are very strong and extremely encouraging,"" said Steve Elzer, a spokesman for Columbia. Outside the United States, the film is also proving controversial, as long lines formed outside theatres in China, while the movie's release has been postponed indefinitely in India and banned outright in the Philippine capital of Manila. ""The Da Vinci Code"" stars Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, who respectively play a Harvard professor on religious symbols and a French cryptologist who become involved in a murder mystery revolving around the works of Leonardo da Vinci, a secret that could rock the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church if revealed, and a society formed to protect that secret. The film was previewed at the Cannes film festival to mixed reviews, and critics have generally given the film a cool reception. Certain thematic elements in the film and novel have caused a religious backlash, as Catholic officials call the movie blasphemous. ""'The Da Vinci Code' gratuitously insults Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church,"" said Vincent Nichols, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Birmingham, England. ""It deliberately presents fiction as fact."" The Catholic Church in China called on its followers to boycott the film, while a Catholic lay group in the United States plan is planning rallies outside 1,000 theatres nationwide. Francis Slobodnik, who is coordinating the campaign for the Pennsylvania-based group, called the film ""an insult directed towards God.""" +entertainment,"WikimediaMentionWikimania 2007 Counting down to Wikimania 2007, the Site Events such as ""Hacking Days & Extra"", ""One Laptop Per Child Curriculum Jam"", and the ""Citizen Journalism Unconference"" preluded the main conference. On August 1, Cary Bass and many other programmers participated in the Hacking Days. Mike ""b6s"" Jiang hosted this two-day long event where programmers can exchange experiences. That same day, the One Laptop Per Child Curriculum Jam kicked off. Project Director Samuel ""SJ"" Klein invited many teams with an interest in freely licensed content to produce learning materials, which youngsters from 6 to 16 years of age could judge. The Citizen Journalism Unconference was held August 2. It hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation and Public Television Services Taiwan (PTS). The organization invited Frontier Foundation Researcher Shu-fang Tsai and Facilitator of Institute of Culture Affairs Taiwan Gail West to host this unconference. The Unconference was held in an open space style. Topics for discussion were created by participants at the unconference. In this unconference, participants talked about lots of free content portals comparisons, such as PeoPo by PTS Taiwan, the characteristics and role of citizen journalists, the comparisons between citizen journalism and professional journalism, and the future of citizen journalism. After these events, the main conference will start at August 3, 2007 9:00 Taipei local time." +entertainment,"Rock musicians Kid Rock and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee were involved in a minor altercation at the 2007 MTV Music Video Awards (VMA), held on Sunday night in Las Vegas. Both Lee and Rock were former husbands of Pamela Anderson, who was present at the VMAs and delivered her lines from the top of a table. Eye witnesses claim the fight started when Kid Rock, who was sitting next to rapper Diddy, walked up to Lee and slapped him. Tommy Lee stood up to fight back and Rock punched him in the face. Lee was dragged off by security guards before he was able to fight back. Rap Producer Rich Nice said Lee had been antagonizing Rock before the altercation. The incident inspired many jokes from hip hop and rap artist, such as MTV VJ Sway who was quoted saying ""They say it's only rappers. I told you rockers fight too."" Police cited Rock for misdemeanor battery." +entertainment,"Singer Robbie Williams has rejoined and recorded a new album with British musical group Take That, having departed from the group in 1995. The four other members of Take That are Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange and Mark Owen. Robbie Williams decided to leave Take That in 1995 to begin a solo music career; the group subsequently disbanded in 1996. In 2005, Take That was reformed as a four-piece band. Williams announced his return to Take That in November 2009. The last album the group released before the disbanding was entitled ""Nobody Else"", which was released in 1995. A single entitled ""Shame"", sung by Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow, is expected to be released on October 4, 2010. The new album from Take That, which has now been recorded, is anticipated to be available from November 2010. All five members of Take That have composed songs for the album, which has currently not yet been given a title and will be issued by Polydor Records. Take That member Mark Owen stated: ""Getting the five of us to be in a room together, although always a dream, never actually seemed like becoming a reality. Now the reality of the five of us making a record together feels like a dream. It's been an absolute delight spending time with Rob again. But I'm still a better footballer."" Jason Orange commented that he is ""over the moon that Robbie's back with us, however long it lasts. I just want to enjoy our time with him. Life is beautifully strange sometimes."" Robbie Williams stated that he gets ""embarrassingly excited when the five of us are in a room.""" +entertainment,"Electronic Gaming Monthly is now dead. EGM was one issue away from its 20th anniversary in February 2009. An internal email leaked to industry website Gamasutra on Tuesday revealed that EGM was to be closed following the acquisition of the online element of the 1UP network by competitor Hearst Corporation's UGO Entertainment and that the January 2009 issue (with Wolverine on the cover) would be the final printed issue of the iconic magazine. Ziff Davis's sale, brokered by GCA Savvian Advisors also includes Mycheats.com, Gametab.com, and GameVideos.com. Hearst Interactive is the owner and operator of UGO Entertainment. According to CEO Jason Young, the court proceedings help Ziff Davis “pay down debt and shift our full focus to our core PCMag Digital Network Business.” Davis had been focusing on PCMag Digital Network. As a result, around 30 employees of Ziff Davis' Game Group, including EGM Magazine's staff, 1UP Network's web staff, podcast and video producers lost their jobs. A UGO spokesman explained that ""the reality is that UGO Entertainment is saving over 25 jobs, the company is retaining a core group of editorial all-star performers."" Ziff Davis Holdings Inc (ZFDH.PK), which publishes EGM and about 15 Web sites, obtained Manhattan, New York Court Judge Burton Lifland's approval of a reorganization plan under Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code. It was able, therefore, to emerge from its duly filed March bankruptcy protection petition. UGO Entertainment CEO J Moses left a note on EGM's gaming legacy, saying, ""since we started UGO 11 years ago, we have served the gamer community and built a world-class online publishing platform."" Ziff Davis Media CEO Jason Young further noted: ""We believe this is a smart transaction for Ziff Davis Media that places these market leading assets and teams in a great environment poised for further success. The transaction allows us to pay down debt and shift our full focus to our core PCMag Digital Network business. We thank our 1UP team members for their contributions and wish them the best of success into the future."" In July 2007, Hearst acquired the 11-year-old UGO Networks (Hearst Interactive) for an estimated price of $100 million. Established in 1998 by CEO J Moses, UGO is an online site targeting men aged 18 to 34. J Moses stated categorically that his company just saved 1UP and UGO never tried to acquire EGM. “Closing EGM has absolutely nothing to do with UGO. We have just hired 24 people and have expanded UGO by 33 percent, because our business is robust and growing. We only wanted to buy 1UP and related sites. That was our interest as a dot-com company and that’s all we’ve ever been for 11 years."" Sam Kennedy, editorial director of 1UP, further explained that Ziff Davis was insolvent and 1UP was not financially healthy. ""The reality of the market was that no company, including UGO, was willing to sustain 1UP as it was so the cuts were very painful but necessary to the survival of 1UP,"" he added. Electronic Gaming Monthly, which has been synonymous to video games for generations of gamers, was an American consumer video game magazine mainstay. It was published by Ziff Davis as part of the 1UP Network and released 12 issues a year (and an occasional extra ""13th"" issue for the Christmas season, also known as the ""Smarch"" issue, a reference to an episode of The Simpsons). As ZD's sole print magazine, EGM, a stalwart of the videogame industry and dubbed the New York Times of games journalism, has been losing money. The 20-year-old publication had 236 issues total, since its debut in 1989. In 2008, the company closed 27-year Games for Windows Magazine, or Computer Gaming World. In late 2006, Ziff-Davis also shuttered its Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, while its Xbox-focused XBN and Electronics Boutique in-store mag GMR were terminated in 2004. EGM's February issue, which is completed, will only be available digitally. Print publications have been suffering for years now, due to the global economic meltdown." +entertainment,"Two daughters of blues legend B.B. King are claiming on Monday that he was poisoned by business manager LaVerne Toney and personal assistant Myron Johnson. The allegations were made by daughters Karen Williams and Patty King in affidavits provided by their lawyer to the Associated Press. ""I believe my father was poisoned and that he was administered foreign substances,"" Williams and King said in identically worded sections of the affidavits. ""I believe my father was murdered."" Williams and King also allege that family members were prevented from visiting their father prior to his death. The lawyer for King's estate says the claims are ridiculous. ""I hope they have a factual basis that they can demonstrate for their defamatory and libelous allegations,"" lawyer Brent Bryson said in a statement to the Associated Press. Bryson says that King was appropriately cared for by medical professionals up until his death on May 14 in Las Vegas. An autopsy of B.B. King's body was carried out on Sunday by the Clark County, Nevada coroner's office. The coroner's office said on Twitter that it would be a minimum of six to eight weeks before results of the autopsy are finalised. The Las Vegas Police department said that a potential homicide investigation into the death of the blues legend will depend on autopsy findings." +entertainment,"Billy Werber, third baseman in Major League Baseball, has died at the age of 100. Werber died of natural causes on Thursday, January 22, 2009 at an assisted living center in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was moved there after his health deteriorated a month ago. His son said that when admitted, Werber refused to eat solid foods and would only drink liquids. ""He just refused to eat and that was his plan,"" Bill Werber Jr. told the Associated Press. He added that his father was ""sharp up until four weeks ago"". Born William Murray Werber on June 20, 1908 in Berwyn Heights, Maryland, he played for the New York Yankees from (1930, 1933), the Boston Red Sox from (1933-1936), the Philadelphia Athletics from (1937-1938), Cincinnati Reds from (1939-1941) and the New York Giants from (1942). In 1934, Werber became the starting third baseman of the Red Sox. He responded with a career-high .321 batting average, including 200 hits; led the American League with 40 stolen bases, and posted double digits in doubles (41), triples (10) and home runs (11). He led the league in stolen bases in 1935 (29) and 1937 (35). Boston traded him to the Philadelphia Athletics for the 1937 season, and he joined the Cincinnati Reds in 1939. In an 11-season career, Werber was a .271 hitter with 78 home runs and 539 RBI in 1,295 games. One of the most aggressive baserunners of the 1930s, probably the most aggressive next to Ben Chapman, he stole 215 bases. He was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1961. His wife Kathryn 'Tat' Werber died in 2000, after she and Werber had been married 70 years. Bill Werber Jr. says that his father is to be cremated and services, which will be open to the public, will be held on the weekend of January 31 through February 1." +entertainment,"ITV Thursday marked the 50th anniversary of British soap opera Coronation Streets broadcast. The programme, which was created by Tony Warren and developed by Granada Television &mdash; now branded on-air as ITV Studios &mdash; in Manchester, England, was first broadcast on December 9, 1960 on ITV. The original commission was just 13 episodes. Nearly 7,500 episodes later, Coronation Street still broadcasts on ITV1. At least one episode of the programme was broadcast every night between December 6 and December 10; on Thursday, the 50th anniversary was celebrated with a live episode. The major storyline of the week, entitled ""Four Funerals and a Wedding"", started with a tram crash on Monday, shortly after a gas explosion in a new nearby bar called The Joinery damaged railway tracks. Phil Collinson At its peak, Thursday's one-hour live episode received ratings of approximately 14.9 million viewers &mdash; the highest total for the show for over six years. Within the sixty scenes, the storylines included character Fiz Stape prematurely giving birth to a baby girl, who was given the name Hope. Peter Barlow lay on his hospital bed as he attempted to say his wedding vows to Leanne Battersby; he subsequently flatlined. Molly Dobbs admitted her affair with Kevin Webster to Sally Webster &mdash; Kevin's wife &mdash; before dying as a result of her injuries. There were virtually no mistakes made in the episode. Phil Collinson, the producer, expressed his approval for the episode. ""I'm so proud and gobsmacked at how brilliant it looked,"" he commented. ""It was like seeing it for the first time. I'm stunned and amazed."" Ken Barlow is the only remaining character from the first episode, always portrayed by William Roache. Coronation Street now has its own version of encyclopedia website Wikipedia called Corriepedia, which was launched on May 21, 2008. Because of this anniversary, numerous special programmes were also broadcast. The first ever episode of Coronation Street was repeated on Monday. On Wednesday-Thursday night Coronation Street: 50 Years, 50 Moments revealed the results of a poll to determine the fifty best Coronation Street moments. A humourous scene featuring character Blanche Hunt at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting topped the poll. Hunt, portrayed by the late Maggie Jones, was also revealed as the most popular character, according to a study by UK magazine Inside Soap. Second-place moment was a storyline involving serial killer Richard Hillman. Brian Capron, who portrayed Hillman, commented ""Funnily enough because it's all come back it seems to have done me a lot of good. It's kind of an iconic storyline that I was involved in. There were some wonderful blackly humourous lines and the gloves, that slight pantomime element. You could love to hate him. They gave me so many great lines."" Friday also saw the ITV1 broadcast of one-off game show, Coronation Street: The Big 50, a part-entertainment programme. Hosted by Paul O'Grady, it featured various members of the Coronation Street cast as contestants, split into three teams: ""Weatherfield Lads"", ""Pint Pullers"", and ""Rovers Regulars"" plus a fourth team of celebrity fans, or ""Superfans"". The ""Rovers Regulars"" were to become the victors." +entertainment,"RussiaDima Bilan has won the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, the 53rd, for Russia with his song Believe. The song was developed by US R&B artist Timbaland. The song won the competition with 272 points; 42 points ahead of Ukraine's Ani Lorak in second place with 230 points for the song Shady Lady. Third was Kalomira for Greece with Secret Combination The voting for the competition came from 43 countries across Europe, but with 25 countries competing, the others having failed to get through the semi finals. Russia has never won the contest before, Bilan having come second in 2006, losing out to Finnish hard rock band Lordi with Hard Rock Halellujah. Furtherdown the scale Germany's No Angels with Disapear, Poland's Isis Gee with For Life and the United Kingdom's Andy Abraham with Even If came joint last with 14 points. Fourth last was Teräsbetoni, a Finnish heavy metal band performing in their native language with Missä Mihet Ratsastaa (Where Men Ride). Sweden's Charlotte Perrelli had been predicted to repeat her 1999 victory, this time with Hero, but also received a low score. There was an estimated 100 million television viewers from across Europe. UK commentator Terry Wogan has garnered significant media attention for criticising the contest live towards the end of the broadcast for being overly political. ""It's a disappointment, considering that Andy Abraham gave, I think, the performance of his life with a song that certainly deserved more marks than it got when you look at the points that Spain got, that Bosnia-Herzegovina got - some really ridiculous songs,"" he said. ""You have to say that this is no longer a music contest... I have to decide whether we (himself and his producer, who already announced he wanted to leave) want to do this again. Western European participants have to decide whether they want to take part from here on in, because their prospects are poor."" He called the contest ""political"". Spain was represented by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre with Baila el Chiki Chiki (Dance the Chiki Chiki) and Bosnia and Herzegovina by Elvir Laković Laka with Pokušaj (try). Bilan, who received the maximum 12 points from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus and Armenia, all of which are former Soviet countries, was sent a telegram from Putin to congratulate him after his victory. Mevedev also contacted him later by phone to congratulate him. ""Russia is the favorite now, it's just tearing everybody up — in basketball, football, hockey, and Eurovision!"" commented champion figure skater Evgeni Plushenko, who had joined Bilan onstage to skate as part of the winning performance. He is now also a politician. Next year's contest will be held in Russia." +entertainment,"Digital radio listeners in the UK may have noticed a new station on their list over the last few months with the beta launch of Amazing Radio, founded by Paul Campbell as a follow up and companion to Amazing Tunes. However, unlike the majority of the other stations on both digital and FM, Amazing Radio doesn't play normal, mainstream music. Instead, its playlist consists solely of music from unsigned bands and artists who have signed up and uploaded their music to AmazingTunes.com. Their music can then be downloaded from the site, for which they get paid. The more downloads and interest an artist receives, the more likely they are to get played on the national radio station. Amazing markets itself as an ""ethical"" download website, on which artists get 70% of the download revenues. They now have more than 22,000 songs uploaded, with about 100 uploaded every day. source=Paul Campbell Paul Campbell himself has extensive experience in both radio and television production, having worked for BBC Radio 4 and Channel 4. After success with his own production company in the nineties and with support from investors, Campbell launched Amazing Tunes in 2005. As Amazing Radio introduces a new schedule for the New Year, with presenters rather than solely pre-recorded links, Wikinews reporter Tristan Thomas interviewed Campbell to find out more. WikinewsHi Paul, thanks for doing this interview. Paul CampbellMy pleasure – thanks very much for asking me. We’re really grateful that Wikinews is interested in us. WNAt the end of 2009, you complained to the BBC Trust about BBC Introducing. Can you explain what this was about and the reasons for it. Has anything come of it? PCSure: in a nutshell, the complaint was about unfair competition - about the BBC not following its own rules. It’s still ongoing. It will take, ahem, a while to resolve. The details are a bit complex, but here goes. (If you commit suicide out of the boredom at what follows, I apologise). As British readers will know, the BBC has a guaranteed and very comfortable income derived from the Licence Fee - effectively a tax you have to pay if you want a TV. According to Wikipedia (so it must be true), this generates an income to the BBC of about stg4.5bn per annum. Nice. source=Paul Campbell Not really. In recent years the beeb has increasingly used this gargantuan income - and its incredible audience reach online, on radio & TV - to launch new services that make life impossible for everyone who is not the BBC. These have ranged from e-learning content (that completely wrecked the market for private publishers), to a new digital radio station (that caused a private speech station to go bust), to an attempt to launch online regional news services (which caused howls of outrage from local newspapers). The BBC does it for the best of reasons – to provide a public service – but BBC people live in an insulated, publicly-funded world, one where you know with complete certainty you’ll get paid on the 15th of every month. It’s a million miles away from the real world, where entrepreneurial people take risks, and lose their jobs and their houses if it goes wrong. Here, the BBC’s actions have grave implications. And not just for private companies: the UK as a whole is very good at creative industries, which are the fastest-growing part of the economy. But it’s kinda hard to grow a global business if your domestic market has been wrecked by a rampaging, publicly-funded, bull in a china shop. So by accidentally knackering private companies, the BBC is also damaging the British economy. Wise people noticed this. A few years ago the Governance of the BBC was changed. A new regulator, the BBC Trust, was created. It tried to address the problem. It insists the Corporation does a 'public value test' when it wants to launch a new service, or to expand an existing one. Here, it hasn't. Although the BBC has a longstanding commitment to play new music on its local radio stations, and one of its most famous DJs John Peel had an outstanding show on BBC Radio 1 for many years which played new music (and was, incidentally, produced by one of our new presenters), it's suddenly changed the game. It’s launched a huge expansion and automation of this formerly piecemeal and limited activity, targeted exclusively at unsigned bands. BBC Introducing is a pan-BBC brand, combining local and network radio, television, online, even a special stage at Glastonbury. There's a very expensive online upload service which I just know would have cost ten times what we had to spend on our similar service. There's a Head of Department, doubtless with dozens of staff. I’ll bet they have BBC Introducing pens. It's everywhere. This is, by any reckoning, a ‘new service’. But it’s not been subjected to a public value test. Worse, I have it on very good authority from someone inside the BBC that BBC Worldwide - its commercial arm - is planning to launch a BBC Introducing record label – i.e., an overtly commercial expansion of BBC Introducing. This would be like the BBC trying to create a new version of the music industry, all by itself. Whether or not you think it's a good thing for the beeb to champion new music, you may agree it should follow its own rules. It hasn’t. There was no Public Value Test; no request to the Trust to be allowed to do this. So we complained. It was a bit hilarious. The Trust said they weren't allowed to investigate until we'd complained to the beeb itself and the BBC had rejected our complaint. There was a long pause as I tried to understand the logic. I said ‘I’m guessing the BBC didn’t do a PVT because it didn’t think it needed to do a PVT. We think they should have done. We’re asking you to investigate, to see if you agree’. They said ‘you have to complain to them first. It’s protocol’. It's all very British - i.e., charmingly polite … ludicrously bureaucratic … and totally useless. So we have another hoop to jump through. We're now preparing our formal complaint to the BBC itself - whose Director General is someone I used to work with, when we were both fresh-faced BBC trainees in 1981. It takes time: I’ll have to write it myself, and I have a business to run. The beeb will have a small army of staff whose only job is to read it … and reject it. (They always reject criticism; it's the BBC's default position. They usually do it with a slightly pained expression, hurt that anyone could fail to understand their brilliance and omniscience. Either that, or they try to demolish your intellect and cast doubt on your probity. Either way, they'll reject it). When they do, we'll then be able to go back to the BBC Trust to say ‘guess what? The BBC rejected our complaint. Now will you investigate?’. Yawn. source=Paul Campbell All this might make me seem a BBC-hater. Actually nothing could be further from the truth. The BBC trained me. I was once, so I was told by the Head of Appointments, its youngest-ever Producer. Despite appearances, I firmly believe it's one of the best things about the UK. I wrote to The Times of London recently in defence of it. But unfortunately it's really, really bad at understanding the damage it does to private companies, the ones like ours that create jobs and try to create wealth, without the benefit of a guaranteed income. (Or even, any income at all). The stakes are high. The conventional music industry is falling to bits around us. There’s an historic opportunity to re-invent music in a way that's fair to musicians and music-lovers, and also creates jobs and wealth in the real economy. It's vitally important the BBC, with its publicly-funded hobnailed boots, doesn't ruin that opportunity. So we’ll do our complaint, wait for it to be rejected, complain to the Trust, and keep battering away. Fun fun fun. (This would never happen in the States). WNYou don't accept any PRS registered artists at all. Why not? Do you agree with Paul? Are PRS getting it completely wrong? PCWe’d love to – after all, we have the same aim as PRS, which is to make it easier for musicians to earn a living from their talent. But we can’t. There’s two reasons. :::1. PRS has a barmy standard contract for using their members’ music online. It requires us to pay them a fixed percentage of ALL revenue from that website – whether or not the revenue is derived from their members’ work. So if we had 100,000 songs from non-PRS artists on amazingtunes.com, and one song from a PRS artist, we’d have to pay them a percentage of the revenue from ALL 100,000 songs. I.e., we’d have to take money out of the pockets out of non-PRS artists to pay to PRS. That would be immoral. :::2. If we played PRS artists on the radio, we’d have to pay PRS for our use of their members’ music. Sound fair enough? But PRS doesn’t know what to do with the money. They’d put it into a big bucket, then share it out among ALL their artists - not the members whose songs we played, all their artists, including rich and famous signed ones. The vast majority of PRS payments go to a tiny minority of artists (and big record labels). So it would be another case of stealing from Peter to pay Paul. Paul McCartney, that is. I wrote to the CEO of PRS when we first launched Amazing Radio pointing out these absurdities and asking if we could do a more intelligent deal. I said that I thought we had identical aims – to make life fair for musicians. I suggested we could/should be a feeder to them, introducing new members to PRS as they grew in the music industry. But so far, the PRS head is still firmly in the sand. WNAnd how would you suggest PRS could improve? If they did, would you consider allowing artists registered with them? PCPRS could improve by; :::a. buying some computers (so they could handle our comprehensive data about the tracks we play, and then pay the right people); :::b. accepting that we want to mix PRS and non-PRS artists, and only asking for a share of the artists they actually represent. If they did that, we’d sign up. This would not necessarily be popular with our audience. A lot of people – especially charities and small businesses – like the fact that they can listen to Amazing Radio without a PRS licence. But we’d do it anyway, as it would be a better service for musicians. source=Paul Campbell My personal view is that the PRS should also stop threatening to murder law-abiding people who want to listen to music at work. There was a recent case where they threatened someone for singing at work. They actually did that. They later apologized, but it revealed the corporate mentality. I think it’s incredibly counter-productive; it means their members make less money, not more; it’s ruining perceptions of what motivates musicians; it’s causing thousands of people to stop listening to music. When really, PRS should be encouraging that, shouldn’t it? WNWith regard to Amazing Tunes, how many downloads could your most popular artist expect to receive per month and monetary wise, how would this compare to them receiving that number from iTunes? PCSorry, but we don’t currently release detailed figures – our competitors would love it, but we’d rather be nice to our artists and our investors instead. We do say that we expect amazingtunes.com artists to make ‘anything from a few quid, to a good living, to a small fortune’. At the moment, because it’s still very early days, people are clustered towards the first two of those options. As things grow – and there’s been incredible growth even in the past few months – we hope/expect more and more artists will start to make tens of thousands of pounds each month. We’ll soon register for the official chart, and our guess is that someone will have a major hit before long. Then everything will go really crazy. So far as the iTunes comparisons go, the facts are already public domain. An artist on iTunes can expect to make 8p from a 79p download. The same artist on amazingtunes.com will make about 52p. We only deduct the VAT and the cost of the transaction: 70% of what’s left goes to the artist. What’s more, their income will improve over time - the more downloads we sell, the less the transactions cost us, so the more cash there is to give to the artists. That’s one reason we ask people to buy eight or more songs in one transaction – it’s much more cost-effective, less of their cash goes to VISA, more to the artist. (See my Blog post on this here - ). WNAmazing Radio launched in mid-2009. How has it grown since then and what are your current listening figures? PCIt’s gone mad since then. I’ve worked in broadcasting and the media since 1978 (I was very very young then, mind you). I’ve never known anything like it. The reaction has been absolutely incredible – and it’s growing faster than ever right now. The most humbling thing has been the audience feedback – masses of long emails from people we’ve never met, saying they found it by accident, and they love it. source=Paul Campbell We’ve not yet paid for RAJAR audience figures because – well, because we’re a bit mean really, and I’m not convinced they would accurately measure our audience. I think RAJAR is very good at coming out with figures for radio stations that have been going for 40 years, but not very accurate when it comes to new and innovative stations which are also listened to a lot online and especially popular with young people. But the best guess I’ve heard in the industry is that we have something like 600,000 listeners in the UK on DAB. That’s an estimate, but it came from a very wise source. We have slightly more than that number on top as regular users online, and a weekly reach for amazingtunes.com of about two million users. But it’s all growing so fast, those numbers will be out of date by the time you read this. WNDAB transmission costs are well over half a million pounds a year. How is this being funded currently and how are you planning to fund it in the future? PCWe’re not contractually allowed to tell you what we pay, so we can’t confirm or deny the cost. Whatever the true figure, it is undeniably expensive; but it gives our musicians a chance to be on national radio. We figure it’s worth it. I’m reminded of that wonderful teachers’ union bumper sticker: ‘if you think education’s expensive, try ignorance’. If you think creating the world’s first radio station playing 100% new music is expensive …. try being inaudible. So far, we’ve been funded by a very small number of private investors, people of enormous wisdom and insight, natch. They understand that we have a very serious, long-term and audacious ambition to change the music industry for the better, to make radio interesting again, and to turn the word ‘amazing’ into a global challenger brand. This year, we expect to do one final fund-raising in the UK, then to raise a lot of money on the West Coast of the USA to make this absolutely massive and global, fast. They understand this scale of ambition there. Have you tuned into Amazing Radio? What did you think? WNWhat are your plans for Amazing Radio in 2010? Any exciting announcements to come? PC‘Fraid so. In 2010, we hope to make Amazing Radio the default station for everyone who has ever had that incredible experience of hearing a song for the first time, and having to stop what you’re doing to listen to it: a station for everyone who has broad musical tastes, a respect for musical talent and an open mind. We want it to be constantly surprising, fresh, original, sometimes hilarious, always unexpected. Blimey, I sound like some corporate twat. Now (obviously) it wouldn’t be massively unexpected if we suddenly started revealing all the unexpected things in advance – but basically, we’d like the message to spread that we’re doing something different, fresh, original and ethical - so we’ll launch more new programmes and more new services – on Amazing Radio and amazingtunes.com. Things like our virtual radio station Amazing Ambient. . There’ll be some video and some TV along soon too. And other cool stuff. It may not be ‘insanely cool’; just cool will do just fine. We also want to do it in other places. E.g. America. We’ve already started there. We’ll be unexpected there too. WNFinally, your favourite artist on Amazing Tunes/Radio at the moment? PCNow this will sound like a real cop-out, but I never ever say who my favourite artist is. It’s for a serious reason. I’m not some musical Einstein - I’m merely the bloke who started amazing. And I’m merely a drummer. My taste doesn’t matter. EVERYBODY’s musical taste does. One of the many problems of conventional record companies is that they think geezers in suits in big glass buildings have the right to decide what’s good music. We think the world does. I’ve found hundreds of incredible songs that I love, across loads of styles of music. You’ll find hundreds of your own. Enjoy. WNThank you very much for your time Paul. Good luck for 2010. PCThanks very much, we really appreciate it. 2010 is going to be amazing." +entertainment,"Stand-up comedian and sitcom star Jerry Seinfeld was ""honored"" Sunday in an HBO TV special entitled ""Jerry Seinfeld: The Comedian Award,"" hosted by CNN's Anderson Cooper and featuring fellow comedians Robert Klein, Chris Rock, and Garry Shandling as panel members. A several minute recording of Mr. Seinfeld's stand-up started off the event, but the focus was on the panel discussion. Topics included Jerry's decision to re-enter the world of stand-up comedy post-Seinfeld, his and Shandling's first gigs on The Tonight Show, and the panelists' typical methods for creating and presenting material. Klein also shared colorful anecdotes regarding his late mentor, Rodney Dangerfield. Though the Las Vegas ceremony was taped in 2005, for reasons not known its inaugural airing was not until now, several years later. Although HBO execs claim it was not originally intended for broadcast, the panelists referred to the event on-camera as a ""TV show"". Perhaps some of Seinfeld's derisive on-camera commentary is to blame for the delay. ""Your whole career as a comedian is about making fun of pretentious, high-minded, self-congratulatory, B.S. events like this one,"" he explained in his cutting acceptance speech as Cooper laughed uncomfortably with the crowd. ""I really don't want to be up here."" This, after long-time colleague Robert Klein praised Mr. Seinfeld's lack of reliance on ""mean-spirited"" or ""vulgar"" humor. Klein sought to draw contrast between Jerry and Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, whose Curb Your Enthusiasm generates laughs from the sociopathic behavior of David's character. Explaining that he and the other panelists were only in attendance because they owed HBO for getting them their starts, Seinfeld seemed to prove Klein wrong. ""Awards are stupid,"" he said repeatedly. ""It's a jerkoff."" The show's debut was April 1 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, and it is also available on HBO's On Demand service." +entertainment,"United Kingdom Louise Straw, a solicitor representing UK television and radio presenter Stuart Hall, has said Hall is innocent of charges of indecent assault. In relation to complaints about alleged events between 1974 and 1984 involving three females between eight and seventeen years of age, Hall was charged with three counts of indecent assault after being arrested Wednesday. Hall, who has been released on bail, is expected to appear at Preston Magistrates' Court on January 7. Saying Hall was not able to provide any additional comment at present, Straw criticised the apparent ""systematic, measured leaks to the media, which have given a misleading impression of what this case is about."" She stressed it was ""a matter of concern"" given the recent release of the Leveson Report. Straw also said because police arrested Hall at his residence in the town of Wilmslow in Cheshire, he ""was not afforded the opportunity to attend voluntarily at the police station. In due course, the decision that he should be arrested will be the subject of some scrutiny"". John Dilworth of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said there was ""sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and ... it is in the public interest to prosecute this case."" Stating Hall was innocent, Straw explained: ""There will be a trial and his defence will then be in the public domain."" Hall &mdash; who has recently been featuring as an association football commentator on BBC Radio 5 Live &mdash; will not be working at the BBC as police inquiries continue because of ""the very serious nature of these charges"", a spokesperson for the corporation has said. Hall, who notably presented UK game show It's a Knockout, was given an OBE at the New Year Honours for services to charity and broadcasting. His broadcasting career has lasted some fifty years." +entertainment,"Wikinews has learned that George Takei, who played Sulu on the American television show Star Trek, has announced on the radio talk show Coast to Coast AM With George Noory on Monday night that a ""press conference"" will be held on Thursday July 26 regarding the new Star Trek 11 movie. The movie is planned to be released in December 2008. ""I understand that there will be a press conference on Thursday, regarding the new Star Trek movie, and major casting announcements will be made then,"" said Takei. Brad Altman of www.georgetakei.com, has told Wikinews that the conference is scheduled to take place at the San Diego Comic Convention on July 26 from 1:00 p.m. (pacific time) until 3:30 p.m.. The director of the new movie, J. J. Abrams is expected to announce a ""few surprises,"" says a statement posted on the Comic-Con 2007 website. The conference is apparently to put to rest rumors that started to circulate online that Matt Damon was going to star in the new movie as Captain James T. Kirk. Damon later said in an interview with ign.com that he was ""too old"" to play the role and that it was nothing but an ""internet rumor"" and that he was not approached by anyone to be in the film. It is rumored that Leonard Nimoy will be cast as Spock, or that Zachary Quinto will play the role. It is also rumored that the movie will be a prequel to the TV show. According to IMDb the movie is going to be ""set before 'The Original Series' when Kirk and Spock are newly graduated Cadets fresh from Starfleet Academy and are sent on their first space mission.""" +entertainment,"Long John Baldry, English-born blues legend, passed away at the Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Thursday evening after fighting a severe chest infection for the past four months. Baldry was considered an innovator and inspiration in blues music in the 1950s and 60s and is credited with inspiring other music legends such as Elton John, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, and The Rolling Stones. Baldry was born in East Haddon, England, 1941-01-12 and grew to the imposing height of 6 feet 7 inches (2 metres) which gave him his nickname ""Long John"". He began playing folk and jazz music as a teenager in the 1950s but his deep voice resonated with the blues. Eric Clapton credits seeing Baldry play as an inspiration for him to play the blues himself. In the early 1960s Baldry sang with Alexis Korner's influential band, Blues Incorporated, and then went on to lead a series of bands himself and featured many new musicians who would go onto superstardom, including Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Jack Bruce, and Jimmy Page. He befriended Paul McCartney while playing at the Cavern in Liverpool and performed on The Beatles' internationally televised special Around the Beatles in 1964. In 1966, Baldry adopted Bluesology for his back-up band, after seeing ""promise"" in the young keyboard player, Reginald Dwight. In 1968, Dwight adopted the name Elton John, taking the name John in tribute to Baldry. In 1978, he moved to the United States, spending time in New York and Los Angeles, before moving on to Vancouver permanently about 1980 and becoming a Canadian citizen. Baldry has released over 40 albums and, in the last twenty years, done much voice-over work in Canada for commercials and animations including ReBoot and narrating the Disney production, The Original Story Of Winnie-The-Pooh, which earned him a 1998 Grammy spoken word album for children nomination. Before his illness, it had been anticipated that Baldry would be touring in the autumn in support of new recordings produced by Rod Stewart and Elton John to be released this September." +entertainment,"A Yorkshire pub affected by flooding in 2007 has been named CAMRA's National Pub of the Year for 2008. The Kelham Island Tavern in Sheffield's Kelham Island Quarter was in a ""semi derelict"" state when it was purchased in 2001. After it was re-opened in 2002 by licensee Trevor Wraith and manager Lewis Gonda, business quickly picked up and the pub has been awarded Sheffield CAMRA's local Pub of the Year award for the past four years. The pub won the award despite six weeks of closure a year and a half ago when the pub's cellar and floor were affected by the flooding of the River Don and the nearby Kelham goit. The pub also received Yorkshire CAMRA's Pub of the Year award in 2004 and 2007.Trevor Wraith, licensee CAMRA's Pub of the Year award is judged in several stages, with local CAMRA branches evaluating the pubs in their area and passing on recommendations for regional championships. The list of regional champions is then whittled down to four finalists, with CAMRA judges visiting each of these anonymously before making a final decision. The pub regularly serves ten and often up to thirteen Real Ales, and variety and quality of beers served are of particular interest to CAMRA, which was founded in 1971 in order to preserve and promote traditional British beer and pubs, which the group see as threatened. However, other considerations beyond range and variety of beers are also important. Julian Hough, CAMRA's Pubs Director, made particular note of the Tavern's ""attention to detail"". Mr Wraith also pointed out the pub's ""sub-tropical"" beer garden, which he calls his ""pride and joy""; the pub was awarded Silver Gilts in the Yorkshire In Bloom competition every year since 2003 and has received the Gold Award in the local Sheffield In Bloom competition every year since 2005. The pub also regularly hosts evenings of folk music. Mr Gonda credited the pub's success to the ""excellent brewers we deal with, our faithful and supportive pub regulars, and our invaluable staff members."" It was this community support which helped the pub recover so quickly after the 2007 flooding, with Mr Wraith describing the day the waters entered the pub. ""The funny thing was that it was difficult to get the customers to evacuate. They just wanted to keep on drinking, but we did have to get them out eventually and some of them did get wet."" Flood defences were erected after the customers left, but to no avail; Mr Wraith stayed in the pub overnight, despite the flooding and the lack of electricity. The pub will be presented with the award in a ceremony later today at 1pm GMT." +entertainment,"The world's third largest supermarket chain, Tesco of Britain, announced intentions to start a film downloading service on the back of its successful music download service in the United Kingdom. Tesco takes a 10% share in the UK music download market, even though they are a late comer. The reason for the service is that Britain is one of the largest illegal downloaders of film and television programmes in the world, with many TV shows copied to PCs as soon as they are shown in the United States. Copies of The Simpsons, The O.C., Desperate Housewives and even Lost which is not available yet in the UK are found on p2p servers like Kazaa and BitTorrent. This is not the first company who has decided to start a film download service. The entertainment giant Sony has asked for such a service, plus the music downloader Wippet has already decided to introduce film downloading in the UK." +entertainment,"The opening performance of Oslo's new Opera House is postponed due to security concerns. The late delivery of a critical stage control system means that the opera ""Around the World in 80 Days"", composed by Gisle Kverndokk, has to be rescheduled for next season. Opera chief Bjørn Simensen announced the postponement on Monday, describing it as ""dramatic."" The performance that will replace ""Around the World in 80 Days"" is not yet announced. The opening gala performance of the new Opera House on April 12th will proceed as planned." +entertainment,"A wax model of British singer Amy Winehouse was unveiled on Wednesday at Madame Tussauds in London. The model, nearly six feet tall and clad in a yellow dress with a microphone in hand, is said to bear a strong likeness to the singer. Her tattoos have even been reproduced to the last detail, including one of a lightning bolt. While her parents attended the event, Winehouse herself was too busy working to attend. Her father Mitch remarked that ""This is the reward for her musical achievements and her talent"". The troubled singer, 24, is well known for her drug use, and last month was thought to have been suffering from the early stages of emphysema." +entertainment,"The online news agency The NewStandard (TNS), a U.S.-based daily dispatch service, ceased publications on Friday, April 27. The not for profit media organization run by the PeoplesNetWorks Collective out of Syracuse, New York was begun in 2004. The 5 staffers that run the collective said that the reason for closure was a ""lack of support"". An announcement made earlier this week on Monday said, As those familiar with us or our work can imagine, this was a tremendously difficult decision for us to reach. But the five staffers who form the PeoplesNetWorks Collective – the nonhierarchical nonprofit that publishes TNS – have accepted that the news publication we envisioned cannot be achieved without a greater level of support. We do not believe we will be able to obtain that support in the foreseeable future, and as individuals, we have reached a point at which we are unable to sustain the long hours and stress that publishing TNS entails. A Friday email to subscribers again announced that it would be the last daily dispatch, in what the publication called ""our unusual endeavor"", where unusual meant because it did not accept advertising revenue for any of its online page content. All TNS publications were ad free. Premium donors, those who donated US$10 or more each month, and contributions made by its readership and other organizations, funded the news agency during its 3 and a half year life. In this way, donations were the revenue substitute for advertising dollars. TNS came close to shutting down once before, over a year ago. Readers were warned of the pending end, and the publication managed to survive with financial support given by both large donors and small. The publication never took off according to an Alexa web traffic ranking result shown in a graph in the 'External links' section below. In comparison to The Washington Post, where the line on top in that graph represents their ranking, TNS was barely on the radar screen. The content of the online publication was derived from original and featured article reports written by contributors to the publication who were paid between $125 &mdash; 100 per article. $50 &mdash; $25 was paid to suppliers of news briefs derived mainly from other news agencies, and $25 to cartoonists for their published submissions. Contributors came from all areas of the United States, along with some international. Cartoonist Daryl Cagle, of CagleCartoons.com, who recently starting posting blog content on emails sent to subscribers of his featured cartoon of the day, blogged Wednesday this week in what he titled, Newspapers and Cartoonists Wandering Blindly: For many newspaper editors, internet strategy is a fantasy from the movie ""Field of Dreams."" ""If you build it, they will come."" Good content is nice (Slate has great original content) but securing a continuing audience for that content is more important. Yahoo and Google maintain top news sites with almost no original content. That's journalism 2.0: circulating content that is created in other media, while paying little or nothing for the content. Cagle, currently employed by MSNBC.com and formerly Slate, also remarked that, ""I still make my living selling cartoons that are printed in ink on paper from traditional clients who actually pay."" He said The Washington Post is one of the most visited online media outlets to grow out of the newsprint era. ""When The Washington Post Company bought my old employer Slate.com from Microsoft, the negotiations focused on Slate continuing to receive a huge audience flow from promotions on MSN.com. The Post understands the Web where traffic flows like a river - the river has to keep flowing or the lake will dry up."" Cagle said. The staffers that run TNS are in the process of wrapping things up and promise to as much of the site as possible for future reference, and give a fuller explanation for the site’s closure in this coming week." +entertainment,"The German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, a pioneer of electronic music among major contemporary musicians, died on December 5. The German foundation, named in his honor, announced today, Stockhausen passed away in his Kürten home in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. A prolific composer, he wrote more than 300 works during his career, establishing himself as a pioneer of electronic music, as well as a representative of serialism. Studie I, dated 1953, is considered one of the first electronic music works ever produced. Born in Mödrath, Germany, in 1927, he was the son of a mother from a wealthy family and a father who was a teacher. He grew up in Altenberg, where he started taking piano lessons. He studied piano and music pedagogy at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. It was at University of Cologne, he later studied musicology, philosophy and Germanics. He was influenced by musicians such as Oliver Messiaen, Edgard Varèse, and Anton Webern, but also by painters such as Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee. Stockhausen's works often departed from usual music styles. During his life as a musician, Stockhausen explored most of the genres and styles. Starting in punctualism and concrete music early in his career, during the 1950s, he proceeded to research the electronic music area, which at the time was in an embryonic state. In the 1960s, he composed works of choral music, putting side-by-side the chorus and the use of electronic facilities. In the 1970s, he dedicated himself to serialism. Between 1977 and 2003, he committed himself to one of his most ambitious projects: a cycle of thematic works named Licht: Die sieben Tage der Woche (Light: the Seven Days of the Week). Various artists have stated that they were influenced by Stokhausen, including artists as varied as Frank Zappa, Björk, Miles Davis, as well as Roger Waters and Rick Wright&mdash;two of the Pink Floyd members. The Beatles included a portrait of Stockhausen among the people pictured on the cover of their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Italian singer/songwriter Franco Battiato dedicated Sulle corde di Aries to the composer. While being a controversial artist, Stockhausen became a focus of polemics after he stated that the September 11, 2001 attacks were ""works of art"". He later explained the meaning of his statements, and said that they had been, according to him, out-of-context and misquoted." +entertainment,"George Lucas has announced that there will be one last Star Wars movie to end the saga, but it won't have any actors visible. Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an animated film is scheduled to be released into theaters on August 15 of this year. ""I felt there were a lot more 'Star Wars' stories left to tell. I was eager to start telling some of them through animation and, at the same time, push the art of animation forward,"" said Lucas in a statement to the media. Lucas says that although the film is animated, people can expect the same kind of galactic space battles and action that all the other Star Wars films have. The approximate running time of the film is 100 minutes. The film is produced by Warner Brothers and Lucasfilm LTD. The new movie is also set to continue as an animated, 30 minute ""mini-movie"" series this autumn. The show can be seen on the Cartoon Network." +entertainment,"Kevin DuBrow, lead singer of American heavy metal band Quiet Riot, was found dead at his home in Las Vegas, Drummer Frankie Banali confirmed. He was 52. The cause is not yet known. He is survived by his wife Andrea Barber. Born on October 29, 1955, he recorded songs with Quiet Riot including ""Cum On Feel The Noize"" and ""Bang Your Head (Metal Health)"". In 2004, DuBrow recorded a collection of cover versions for his solo album, In for the Kill." +entertainment,"Canada Canadian police officers who thought they were saving Van Halen singer David Lee Roth's life in May have now learned that they were assisting an impostor. On May 23, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers near Brantford, Ontario stopped a vehicle that was travelling abnormally. They discovered a driver who identified himself as ""David Lee Roth"" who was having medical trouble. The driver was taken to Brantford General Hospital for treatment of anaphylaxis, reportedly caused by a peanut allergy. Following his treatment and release from hospital, the man accompanied two nurses to a local bar, Liquid Lounge, where he sung the Van Halen song ""Ice Cream Man"" with a local band. But it was since determined that Roth was performing with Van Halen in New York City on the evening that the incident occurred. A statement was issued through Roth's publicist denying that he was in Ontario and that the singer is not allergic to peanuts. The OPP officers at the time of the incident did not seek identification of the impostor due to concern over the man's medical condition, but are now aware of his real identity." +entertainment,"Following weeks of speculation in some media quarters, it has been announced that Britney Spears, 23, is pregnant. In a posting on her Web site, Spears announced that she and husband, Kevin Federline, 27, were expecting their first child together. Her publicist, Sonia Muckle, confirmed the singer's pregnancy Tuesday but gave no further information. ""The time has finally come to share our wonderful news that we are expecting our first child together. There are reports that I was in the hospital this weekend,"" read a statement allegedly written by Spears. Federline has two children with his ex-girlfriend, actress Shar Jackson. He met Spears last year when he was a backup dancer on her tour and his girlfriend was pregnant with their son." +entertainment,"It has been reported recently by Blabbermouth and DotMusic.com that two fans of Finnish theatrical hard rock band Lordi were robbed at gunpoint on Friday in Louisville, Kentucky, United States and the band's manager as well as a bodyguard were shot at. No-one was injured. Following a gig in Louisville the band had split up, with three of the members going to a nearby bar for a drink. Lead vocalist Mr. Lordi, his wife, and keyboardist Awa had entered the tour bus, while manager Rikk Scholvinck and a bodyguard were escorting two fans towards the bus. According to those at the scene, a van pulled up next to the bus and several youths emerged, at least one of which was carrying a gun. Mr Lordi describes what happened next: ""One of the men with a gun took a fan, a girl, put the gun to her head and forced her to lie down on the ground. Also one of the boys froze on the spot while the others fled away, including Rikk and the bodyguard while another man started shooting at them. Luckily he missed and no one was hurt. Rikk ran to the bar and called the police who arrived soon. In a moment we were surrounded by like five police cars but the guys managed to escape. They were a group of drug addicts that had stolen the car earlier that night, and police were already looking for them but have still not managed to catch them."" ""The girl that was held at gunpoint is obviously very shocked. We did our best to comfort and calm her down, but one can only wonder what could happen when people start running around with guns and even using them! It is a bit amusing that the boy fan was just happy he didn't lose the t-shirt he was wearing with all the autographs on it, even if they both lost everything else."" Both the fans were given lifelong all access passes to Lordi concerts worldwide to compensate. Lordi has had previous altercations with criminals in the US. Earlier this year the bus the band was using for their tour as part of Ozzfest was hijacked with several of the technical crew on board. During the same tour, two other fans were also robbed. ""This was like a deja vú of that, once again we were surrounded by police cars and their flashing lights,"" Mr Lordi commented." +entertainment,"Women's rights advocate and Georgetown University Law Center graduate Sandra Fluke has been named as a candidate by Time magazine for their Person of the Year. Sandra Fluke was the focus of media in February after attempting to testify before a Republican-controlled committee in the United States House of Representatives about contraception and women's health. Kate Pickert of Time wrote in her profile, ""Fluke ... weathered the attention with poise and maturity and emerged as a political celebrity."" Time magazine Time concluded Fluke helped give U.S. President Barack Obama an edge in his presidential re-election campaign: ""Democrats gave her a national-convention speaking slot as part of their push to make reproductive rights a central issue in the 2012 presidential campaign — one that helped Barack Obama trounce Mitt Romney among single women on Election Day."" 4=Sandra Fluke Fluke responded to the nomination via Twitter, and stated she was ""Honored to be listed for Time's Person of Year"". In the same statement she also drew attention to the scarcity of women on the list of candidates. An analysis of Fluke's candidacy by Peter Roff of U.S. News & World Report called attention to her role in the political phenomenon in the recent election cycle known as the ""War on Women"" which drew significant attention to issues of women's rights. Roff gave advice to the Republican party on the way it relates to women, ""Once the Republicans become comfortable talking about all issues as though they were women's issues too — issues like unemployment, economic growth, job creation, education, and healthcare as well as the so-called social issues — they will be demonstrating that women have a home in the GOP. Until they do however it will be the Sandra Flukes of the world that continue to carry the day when it counts."" Journalist Leslie Marshall observed some conservative political commentators were critical of Time for its nomination of Fluke for Person of the Year. Leslie Marshall Marshall argued Fluke belongs on the list: ""She should be credited with reminding women on both the right and the left; that many of us agree on the issue of women's reproductive rights. Although some of us might be Democrats and some Republicans, our gender unites us. She brought more women to the polls, reminding us of the decades it took to be where we are and what was at stake for women if we did not re-elect President Obama. In speaking at the Democratic National Convention, she showed true strength over adversity. And she has since become a women's health activist. For these reasons alone, she belongs on this list."" However, Marshall stated she wouldn't be voting for Fluke's candidacy, but would instead cast her ballot for Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old female education activist who survived a Taliban assassination attempt. Fluke was a featured speaker on September 5 at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Fluke spoke to attendees at the convention about the consequences for women of electing Republican candidate for U.S. President, Mitt Romney, over incumbent President Barack Obama. Fluke has campaigned with President Obama in his bid for re-election. She was recognized April 22 with the Stand Up for Choice Award. Fluke was given the Stand Up for Choice Award at the ""Third Annual Multi-Generational Brunch"" of the organization NARAL Pro-Choice America which was held in New York City (NYC), New York in the United States. Fluke received a nomination in March as a candidate for Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. The list is released annually as a special edition of Time magazine, titled Time 100. She gave testimony to the US Congress on February 23 before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee at a hearing about women's health and contraception. She also worked for Sanctuary for Families in NYC which worked to crack down on human trafficking and domestic violence. HYS" +entertainment,"Photos of the Harry Potter movie cast will appear on French stamps and stationery. La Poste will release the three designs this weekend, with the following rate/design combinations: * Priority domestic: Harry Potter * Slow domestic: Ron Weasley * International: Hermoine Granger The Harry Potter characters have appeared on stamps in Australia, the Isle of Man, and Taiwan, as well as numerous smaller nations that depend on stamp sales to foreigners. Canada has issued non-circulation coins of many of the characters, based on the movie actors' appearances. Sources After launching its Packaging Scorecard initiative on February 1, Wal-Mart has released its first in-store packaging reduction results. On February 1, Wal-Mart announced that its trying to reduce packaging by 5% as of 2013. Their vendor site has been visited by 2268 companies, and 117 products have been entered into their sustainability calculator. It determines the score based on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions created by production, materials, product-to-packing ratio, and ""cube utilization"", how space efficient the product can be shipped. Buyers will be able to log onto the website in 2008, to make their purchasing decisions. Beyond attracting environmentally conscientious customers, this move will save Wal-Mart USD$3.4 billion over the next five years. Sources European trading card game-turned-television series Chaotic will air in North America for the first time March 16. Canada's Teletoon animation channel has scheduled the series to appear regularly Sunday mornings. The series helps viewers learn game strategies for the game. Unlike most card games, kids are encouraged to play virtually; once they purchase a pack, they type in special codes on the cards to access those characters online. The plot of Card Captors Sakura was based around a card game, while the Pokemon game is a famous spin-off products, based on the series and video game. Chaotic was also the name of Britney Spears and Kevin Federline's reality television series. Sources Andy Scott of Marsh Gibbon, England just set the world record for ""free falling distance in a vertical wind tunnel"". By balancing himself in the jet of air for one hour, 18 minutes and 52 seconds, Scott, 37, fell the equivilent of 130 miles at the Airkix Windtunnel in Milton Keynes. Vertical windtunnels were originally created so that free fall parachutists could safely practice positioning themselves, before making actual real life attempts. The record has yet to be officially confirmed with Guinness World Records. Sources" +entertainment,"Canadian news CityTV reporter Dwight Drummond accommpanied a diverse crew of Toronto public school students to Ottawa, with intentions of meeting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. While students, part of an inner-city breakfast club, had the opportunity to tour the Parliament Buildings at length, Harper stayed far away from the quick, scheduled hello. He failed to even send an MP in his place, to the event, scheduled as part of Black History Month. Every other political party with seats in Parliament sent a representative to greet the visitors. Present was the deputy leader of the Liberal opposition party, Michael Ignatieff, and prominent NDP MP Olivia Chow, who is the wife of NDP leader Jack Layton. While Chow and Ignatieff both hold office in Toronto, where the Citytv broadcasts to, and the Conservatives were shut out of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), even those without self-interest dropped by. Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe spoke to the students, despite the fact his party only runs candidates in Quebec. City's coverage of the tour focused on what the students did see, rather than what they missed. Harper seems to have made a regular practice of ignoring or delaying scheduled visits. Canadian Auto Workers union leader Buzz Hargrove mentioned he has yet to talk to the Prime Minister. Hargrove represents over 265,000 workers in every province and territory in Canada." +entertainment,"Today, the nominees for the 78th Academy Awards were announced in Los Angeles, California. Best Picture nominees this year are Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck., and Munich. The director of each of these films received director nominations. Nominees include George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck.), Paul Haggis (Crash), Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), Bennett Miller (Capote), and Steven Spielberg (Munich). This is the first time since 1981 that every Best Picture nominee also received a nod for Direction. Brokeback Mountain leads this year's Oscar pack overall, with eight nominations. Brokeback is followed by Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck., and Memoirs of a Geisha, who each earned six. Capote, Munich, and Walk the Line each received five nominations. King Kong, Pride and Prejudice, and The Constant Gardener picked up four nominations, while Cinderella Man, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and War of the Worlds pick up three. A History of Violence, Hustle & Flow, Mrs. Henderson Presents, North Country, Syriana, and Transamerica each received two nods each. Best Animated Feature Film nominees are Howl's Moving Castle, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. None of these films used primarily CGI-animation, the first year this can be claimed, since the 2001 creation of the award category. Corspe Bride marks both Tim Burton and Mike Johnson's first nominations. Wallace & Gromits Steve Box is celebrating his first nomination, while co-producer Nick Park has three Oscars for Best Animation Short, a fourth nomination, of which he lost to himself in 1990. Hayao Miyazaki won the Best Animated Feature award in 2002, for Spirited Away. Uniquely neither animation powerhouse, Disney or DreamWorks, is directly nominated in the category. Disney's Buena Vista Entertainment distributes Miyazaki film Howl's Moving Castle, while DreamWorks distributed Wallace and Gromit, animated by Aardman Animations. Best Foreign Language Film nominees include Italian film Don't Tell, France's Joyeux Noël, Palestine's Paradise Now, Germany's Sophie Scholl - The Final Days, and South Africa's Tsotsi. Italy has been up for an Oscar 27 times, France 34 times, and Germany has had six nominations. This is only South Africa's second nomination, with the first coming last year, and Palestine's first ever Academy Award nomination. Nominees for Best Documentary Feature are Darwin's Nightmare, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, March of the Penguins, Murderball, and Street Fight. March of the Penguins, produced in France, actually grossed more than any of the Best Picture nominees, the first time in history such an occurrence has happened. The top 19 films in box office received a total of only 14 nominations, with a majority of these in the categories of Visual Effects, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. Perhaps one of the most interesting stories for Hollywood as a whole, is the tremendous success of Participant Productions in its first year of operation. eBay founder Jeff Skoll's movie house produced nominees Good Night and Good Luck. (6), North Country (2), Syriana (2), and Murderball (1). The company aims to fund feature films and documentaries that promote social values while still being commercially viable. The 78th Academy Awards presentation will be held on Sunday, March 5. *Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote *Terrence Howard - Hustle & Flow *Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain *Joaquin Phoenix - Walk the Line *David Strathairn - Good Night, and Good Luck *George Clooney - Syriana *Matt Dillon - Crash *Paul Giamatti - Cinderella Man *Jake Gyllenhaal - Brokeback Mountain *William Hurt - A History of Violence *Judi Dench - Mrs. Henderson Presents *Felicity Huffman - Transamerica *Keira Knightley - Pride & Prejudice *Charlize Theron - North Country *Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line *Amy Adams - Junebug *Catherine Keener - Capote *Frances McDormand - North Country *Rachel Weisz - The Constant Gardener *Michelle Williams - Brokeback Mountain *Brokeback Mountain *Capote *The Constant Gardener *A History of Violence *Munich *Crash *Good Night, and Good Luck *Match Point *The Squid and the Whale *Syriana *Good Night, and Good Luck *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire *King Kong *Memoirs of a Geisha *Pride & Prejudice *Batman Begins *Brokeback Mountain *Good Night, and Good Luck *Memoirs of a Geisha *The New World *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory *Memoirs of a Geisha *Mrs. Henderson Presents *Pride & Prejudice *Walk the Line *The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club *God Sleeps in Rwanda *The Mushroom Club *A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin *Cinderella Man *The Constant Gardener *Crash *Munich *Walk the Line *The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe *Cinderella Man *Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith *Brokeback Mountain *The Constant Gardener *Memoirs of a Geisha *Munich *Pride & Prejudice *In the Deep - Crash *It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp - Hustle & Flow *Travelin' Thru - Transamerica * Badgered * The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation * The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello * 9 * One Man Band *Ausreisser (The Runaway) *Cashback *The Last Farm *Our Time is Up *Six Shooter *King Kong *Memoirs of a Geisha *War of the Worlds *The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe *King Kong *Memoirs of a Geisha *Walk the Line *War of the Worlds *The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe *King Kong *War of the Worlds" +entertainment,"American heavy metal performer Ozzy Osbourne, who became famous as the lead vocalist for Black Sabbath and later as a solo act, has raised more than US$800,000 for The Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program, founded by his spouse Sharon Osbourne at the Cedars Sinai Hospital, by auctioning off personal items. A number of the items that he auctioned off over the two day period have been seen on his reality TV show The Osbournes, which featured home life with Sharon, Ozzy and their two children. Amongst some of the higher-priced items were a carved walnut Victorian-style custom built pool table which raised $11,250, a painting from Edourad Drouot which fetched $10,500, a pair of Ozzy's famous round glasses which raised $5,250 and a dog bed given to Sharon by Elton John which sold for $2,375. Some more famous items were also amongst the 500 lots offered. Ozzy's black satin coat, complete with bat-wing cape, raised $3,300 and a hand-painted floral cup used regularly on The Osbournes made $1,625. A bronze plaque of a demon's head that was regularly seen in its position adorning the front door of their house had been expected to go for $800 to $1,200instead raised $8,750. A wire model of the Eiffel Tower from on the kitchen table sold for $10,000, while skull-covered trainers Ozzy had worn reached $2,625. Bidders came from as far away as Germany to buy what they could from his mansion in Beverly Hills, California. However, three cars included in the auction failed to attract bidders and did not sell. They were a 2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur, estimated at $160,000 to $180,000, a 2005 Cadillac CTS-V sedan estimated at $30,000 to $40,000 and a 1950 Oldsmobile Futuramic 88 Club Coupe previously owned by author Danielle Steel estimated at $40,000 to $50,000. Sharon had earlier said of the cars ""We're not great car people. They really don't do a lot for us. Darren Julien, president of Julien's Auctions, which organised the two-day sale, said ""It did very well. It raised some good money for a very worthy cause."" ""For a celebrity garage sale, it was pretty spectacular.,"" he went on. He also commented on the fact that there was fierce competition for the many artworks included. ""We had Ozzy fans bidding against these sophisticated fine art buyers, which you don't see every day. For the most part the metalheads were outbidding the art crowd.""" +entertainment,"Those trying to view the Nickelodeon channel on Saturday, September 30th need not be alarmed. The popular children's channel will be airing a black screen, starting at 11 a.m, but the channel hasn't ceased. To promote the Worldwide Day of Play, the channel ""goes dark from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. CT, to encourage kids to play outside. In its third year, the Viacom-owned channel attempts to stop childhood obesity through encouraging activity. Nickelodeon has set up ""Let's Just Play"", a website that lists possible activities for parents and kids to participate in. Nickelodeon also awards one grant to an organization in each state. The program, or lack thereof, is presented by The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a partnership of The Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association. No other kids channel will participate in the Worldwide Day of Play." +entertainment,"The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has refused to issue a certificate for Grotesque. The move makes it illegal to sell the Japanese horror film in the United Kingdom. BBFC director David Cooke described the piece as containing ""unacceptable content"" and being ""little more than an unrelenting and escalating scenario of humiliation, brutality and sadism"". He said that cuts were ""not a viable option"". The movie includes scenes of castration, disembowelment and amputation. The BBFC has only rejected a handful of other films in the last four years out of the 10,000 it reviews for DVD release every year. These include the sexually violent Murder-Set-Pieces and Terrorists, Killers And Other Wackos, a film showing graphic clips of real-life torture and killing. Cooke said Grotesque's ""chief pleasure... seems to be in the spectacle of sadism (including sexual sadism) for its own sake."" The BBFC's only other recent rejections have been two pornographic films seeking the R18 rating. Grotesques creators had hoped the film would receive an 18 rating, which is below R18. Cooke also said that the film was different from other violent horrors due to its ""minimal narrative or character development.""" +entertainment,"The James Bond film series is one of the most popular and successful, having grossed over US$4 billion worldwide. The suave, sophisticated secret agent has secured his place in popular culture as the definitive action hero that has appeared in twenty-three films between 1954 and 2006. Daniel Craig was announced as the seventh actor to portray 007 in late 2005, making his debut in the 2006 smash hit Casino Royale. While fans await Craig's second outing in Quantum of Solace, due later this year, they have been able to watch Shamelady, a fan film made by the French film production company Constellation Studios. Shamelady is a tribute to Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond novels on which many of the films are based, and EON Productions, the makers of the official 007 films. The film was first released in 2007 and runs just under an hour long. It can be downloaded from Constellation's website or viewed on YouTube. Legally, the filmmakers cannot profit from Shamelady, but they didn't make it for the money, rather the thrill of creating an original Bond film. The plot is fairly simple, and reminiscent of Casino Royale. Bond is sent to a casino to nab a vicious crime lord, but gets betrayed by a fellow agent in the process. Viewer reaction to the film was positive for the most part, and Constellation Studios has now planned a sequel to Shamelady, which director Eric Saussine speaks of in the interview below. Wikinews (Joseph Ford)Although having made several other movies, Constellation Studios is best known for the acclaimed James Bond fan film Shamelady. Tell us about it. : Eric Saussine: Shamelady attempts to be a true James Bond adventure, except in length. Our 007 lasts 54 minutes. The story takes place in Iraq, England and France. James Bond is sent to the south of France to buy information about a secret organization that terrorizes Great Britain. During the operation, a couple of killers put a deadly stop to the exchange. Bond escapes, whereas Mangin - who provided the information - is killed. For MI6, it's vivid evidence that S.P.E.C.T.R.E. - the criminal organization to which James Bond was formerly opposed - is back. From this point, Bond goes to the casino of Luc-sur-Mer, Normandy, in search of Descarpes who is suspected of being the number 2 of the organization. Bond challenges Descarpes at the roulette table and seduces Anna Raykova, a mysterious Russian woman working for his adversary. Our favorite spy escapes several murder attempts but, in a nod to Casino Royale, he soon realizes that he is being betrayed. Anyway, the bad guy dies in the end! Some things are eternal. Shamelady is a tribute to the men at the origin of the myth: original author Ian Fleming and James Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli. WN (Joseph Ford)Why did you make this film? Where did the inspiration for Shamelady come from? : Eric Saussine: In 1953, Ian Fleming created James Bond and therefore the myth we all know. In 2003, for the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of Ian Fleming's hero, I thought that it was time to pay tribute to this literary and cinema myth . In September 2004, I called his friend Pierre Rodiac, a former president a French James Bond fan club. I talked to him about my idea to adapt Casino Royale, the only Ian Fleming James Bond novel that was not seriously adapted by Eon, holder of the movie rights. Pierre was excited by the project and he started writing a synopsis. We worked alternatively on it. It gave way to a script which I wrote and Pierre corrected, that was a faithful adaptation of the novel, with all the trademarks of the movie franchise. Then I immediately started the search for actors and locations. : On February 3, 2005, Eon Productions announced that Martin Campbell would direct the 21st film of the series. The title was... Casino Royale! : I was happy because I had always wanted to see that. I went back to work on my project. I decided to preserve the general plot, change the names of the villains, the bad guy's plan, a few scenes and re-introduced a well known terrorist organization and its chief from the Bond films and novels : S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and Ernst Stavro Blofeld. I wrote a new script in a couple of months and found its title : Shamelady. Pre-production started in 2004. Filming started in 2005 and went on in 2006. Post-production took place in 2007 and the release date was December 11, 2007. WN (Joseph Ford)Last summer, you announced that Constellation Studios is at work on another Bond film, Shatterhand. Tell us about it. : Eric Saussine: Well, the team was so happy to do Shamelady. At the end of this movie we were tired but response from the team members themselves that the first of them, Serge Rotelli (Bond) asked that we do another one. Of course I had many ideas going wild in many directions in my mind. So following that wave of enthusiasm I decided to renew the experience and launched the production of a new James Bond 007 adventure. This time, the film will be our way to celebrate Ian Fleming's hundredth birthday. : The plot will stay close to Fleming's literary works and will be derived from the short story Octopussy, the last third of the novel You Only Live Twice, hence the title, Shatterhand, which is Blofeld's pseudonym in that adventure. The new film also includes an original ski chase in the pre-credit sequence and an explosive action finale. Some shots were done for real in Japan. We will probably miss the Fleming centenary in 2008 and will probably release it one year later. WN (Joseph Ford)Is this the beginning of a series of non-profit fan films? After Shatterhand, can we expect to see more Bond films from you? : Eric Saussine: It was never seen as a series, but when we released Shamelady, Shatterhand's production was already half-way, and the people at the premiere kept saying to me that they wanted to participate and that I should do a trilogy. Nothing's worth a trilogy. So given the extraordinary willingness of some people we are thinking about one final chapter. Of course my ever-boiling mind has some idea ready. I can tell you that part of a final chapter could take place in Switzerland and that we might see Piz Gloria again for a few seconds. Other than that I am still in the middle of Shatterhand so all this stuff about a third movie is just wishful thinking. WN (Joseph Ford)Do you have any advice for amateur filmmakers reading this? : Eric Saussine: Never, ever abandon your project. Too many projects fail or disappear because people don't have the will to go til the end of their ideas and realize that it is much more complicated than they thought it would be and then they drop it. It is a pity. Another advice : steal from the best i.e. the Bond movies for Bond productions, Spielberg, Kubrick and all the others for all movies. Mozart stole from Haydn and transcended him. Why not YOU? Interview * Shamelady on YouTube * Constellation Studios official website" +entertainment,"Internet Friday, a song by US teen singer Rebecca Black, has gone viral after the song's music video was uploaded onto video sharing website YouTube. The video has attracted over thirty-five million views since its February 10 upload &mdash; and critics think it could be the world's worst. Simon Cowell Ark Music Factory produced the song and video, using US$2,000 (£1,223, C$1,964, €1,412) from Black's mother. Fridays video was shot at Black's father's house, with her family and friends as extras. The song beat an alternative track when choosing what to record. The single is climbing up the iTunes singles chart in the United Kingdom and the United States, gaining a higher position in the US than Canadian singer Justin Bieber. Despite the song's popularity, it has received a largely negative reception. According to Newsbeat, critics have cited Friday as being ""the worst song of all time."" On YouTube, the video attracted approximately thirty-six thousand 'likes' versus over 314,000 'dislikes'. The song itself has been ridiculed for its lyrics and criticised for its use of Auto-Tune. Feeling ""like she was being cyber-bullied,"" Rebecca Black said ""when I first saw all these nasty comments I thought this is all my fault, ... this was all because of me."" Black says of ""those hurtful comments"", the worst was ""I hope you cut yourself and I hope you get an eating disorder so you look pretty. I hope you cut and die."" Clarence Jey, of Ark Music Factory, offered to take the video off YouTube, but Black declined. In contrast, British music executive Simon Cowell has expressed a positive interest in Rebecca Black. ""I love her and the fact she's gotten so much publicity,"" Cowell commented. ""People are so upset about the song, but I think it's hysterical. I want to meet her. Anyone who can create this much controversy within a week, I want to meet. I love people like that."" Rebecca Black herself wants to record a duet with Justin Bieber. ""I have Bieber fever &mdash; I am in love with Justin Bieber,"" Black commented. The teenager said it ""would be unbelievable and make my life""." +entertainment,"New Zealand Italian car company, Fiat, has used the haka to advertise its new car and New Zealand diplomats says it is culturally insensitive. The ads have gone to air in Italy and are viewable on their website. The ad features woman wearing black and performing the haka: Ka Mate, which was written by the chief of Ngāti Toa, Te Rauparaha. It is also the haka that is performed before every rugby game played by the New Zealand team, All Blacks. The women perform the haka beside the new Fiat car and crowd noise is in the background to simulate the atmosphere in an All Blacks rugby match. As the haka is finished a woman drives away in the Fiat car and a boy in the back of the car pokes out his tongue, which is the action used to finish the haka. The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) said that they were told in April that an advertising company was planning to use the haka. Yesterday (July 3) Brad Tattersfield, a spokesman for MFAT, said ""at the time we advised the advertising company that the use of Ka Mate in this way was culturally insensitive and inappropriate. MFAT advised the advertisers to either use a Maori group or a haka composed for women. However, the advertising company indicated they were proceeding despite this advice."" Garry Nicholas, general manager of Te Toi Aoteroa, which promotes and protects Maori art and culture, said that he felt mixed feelings about the ad. ""This isn't a haka in my view but is certainly based on haka. It's meant to be in fun and the little boy poking his tongue at the end of the clip makes that very clear.""" +entertainment,"Despite two months of preparation, a Smurf party held by the University of Southampton's student union ended without a record. While 720 came to The Cube nightclub in blue bodypaint, and with a white hat and pants, they missed the mark by 164 people. On February 18, Chester University attracted 884 students to their event, but newspapers and organizers apparently overlooked this record attempt. It generally takes a few months for the Guinness World Record organization to formally acknowledge achievements as being official. The Southampton event was to raise cash for the Prince's Trust's ""World Wealth Creation Challenge"". The competition pits ten United Kingdom universities against each other, to raise as much money between November 2007 and March 2008. The previous record of 451 people was set by Warwick University in 2007. While The Smurfs television series made the characters known in the English-speaking world, when it debuted in the 1980s, they actually began 50 years ago in the Belgian comics magazine Le Journal de Spirou." +entertainment,"Amateur filmmaker Solomon Rothman has released a full-length open source movie called 'Boy Who Never Slept.' The movie is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license; this allows people to use, edit, or share the movie in any way (except commercially) as long as they credit the creators. All of the raw unedited footage, including audio files, is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license; as long as the creators are credited, users can do whatever they want with the files privately or commercially. The open source movie and original files are available for free download or streaming from a variety of sources, including direct downloading from the Internet Movie s, video distribution sites like Google video and Veoh, via file sharing networks like BitTorrent, and more. The full list is found on the official movie website. The film centers on the life of an insomniac writer who meets a teenage girl online, and a friendship that grows into an unlikely love story wrapped in harsh reality. The movie deals with various issues, including the romanticization of love, age-related issues in relationships, like statutory rape (he's 23, and she's 16), and the idea of love in the online realm. Rothman, a writer, amateur filmmaker and web designer, lives in the Los Angeles Area. He wrote, directed and produced the movie with his partner, A. Brown. Producing the movie for $200 while they were in college, they used friends as actors and later sold the camera on eBay to recoup the expense. Rothman has spoken about the importance of exploring new possibilities in film making, especially for amateur filmmakers, “I believe that everyone has the ability to tell at least one good story and I wanted the world to see the power of the Internet Community as a distribution source for amateur filmmakers. I released “Boy Who Never Slept” as an open source movie to encourage new filmmakers and to reach the largest possible audience on a budget absolutely anyone could afford.” The movie is unrated; it explores adult themes and contains graphic language and brief nudity. 2006-07-03" +entertainment,"It has been nearly 27 years since Nicole, then a high school student from the Saarland in extreme western Germany, sang a heartfelt plea for world peace on the stage at the Eurovision Song Contest held in Harrogate, North Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. That simple message was wrapped with success; she became the first German in Contest history to take home the grand prize. The song was a brainchild of her former record producer, Ralph Siegel, and would be their greatest achievement in their nearly three-decade partnership. Afterward, she was propelled to stardom across Europe by recording versions of her winning song, ""Ein bißchen Frieden"" (A little peace), in many European languages. To this day, it was the last winning Eurovision song to top the charts in the United Kingdom; it also has the distinction of being the 500th #1 single on the British charts. This newfound fame brought her music to audiences across Europe, and in time, into Asia as well. By the end of the 1980s, however, her fame subsided somewhat and she refocused her career domestically. Since 1980, she has released over 30 albums in Germany; her most recent offering, Mitten ins Herz (Right into your heart), was accompanied by a three-month ""unplugged"" tour that ended in the third week of January. Now off the road, Nicole spoke with Wikinews' Mike Halterman about her past success, her life and career today, and her overall impressions of the Eurovision Song Contest, both past and present. This is the first in a series of interviews with past Eurovision contestants, which will be published sporadically in the lead-up to mid-May's next contest in Moscow. Eurovision Mike Halterman You started out performing at the age of 6. Was this an interest you really wanted to pursue at such a young age? Did you ever feel pressured by your family in any way to succeed musically, or were they very supportive? Nicole: Actually, I started out performing at the age of 4. When I got my first applause, it was clear to me what my profession would be, and my family gave me the utmost support. MH When did you start to consider music as a full-time career? Nicole: At the age of 16, after the great success I had with my first record, Flieg nicht so hoch, mein kleiner Freund (Don't fly so high, my little friend). MH You started your partnership with Ralph Siegel back when you were 16. How did he decide to give you a record contract? Did you have any doubts about signing it? Nicole: He was the first one who believed in me after hearing my voice and I had no doubt that he was the right person for a musical partnership. MH Did any of your inspirations and goals change when you signed your record contract, or appeared in Eurovision? Nicole: I was trying to find my own way. After I signed my record contract everything changed. Especially after winning the Eurovision Song Contest. MH Were you ever torn about eventually putting your singing over your guitar skills? Nicole: I liked playing the guitar in ""Ein bißchen Frieden"". It was a good combination, wasn't it? Afterwards I put the guitar ""into the corner"" so I could be more mobile on stage. MH The bookmakers Ladbrokes had the United Kingdom as the favorite to win back in 1982. Going into the Contest, especially knowing that Germany hadn't won at that point, did you feel daunted? Nicole: I expected to win. After the first rehearsal, everybody could feel the magic of the song and its message. It was my song! MH Many of the songs and performers who performed for Germany before you performed sweeping ballads, with dramatic melodies, in sometimes very showy performances. And here you come in, a young girl from the Saarland, guitar in hand, singing a modest offering, asking for peace. Do you feel the lack of complexity in the song and performance perhaps gave it a special kind of appeal? Nicole: I was honest in everything I said and sang what the people were thinking at that time. Asking for peace was also in their minds. MH During the 1980s, you had a string of hits in Germany, and released singles and albums across Europe and into Asia as well. Whose idea was it to give you exposure in Asia? Nicole: It was the idea of the record company and Ralph Siegel. MH Did you have pleasant experiences doing promotional tours over there? What thing do you remember most fondly? Nicole: We went to the Tokyo Yamaha Festival and won second place there with ""So viele Lieder sind in mir"" (There are so many songs inside me). I learned to introduce myself to people in Japanese. That's what I remember fondly and I haven't forgotten one word to this day. MH You've continued to release albums nearly every year since the early 1980s, but a lot of your mainstream chart success ended in that decade as well. Did you feel discouraged when that started to happen? Nicole: Not really. I've now been in this business for 29 years. I take it as an Olympic swimming competition. There's an A-final and a B-final. You don't have to be first every time, but you have to take care and swim with the others in the A-final. MH In many European circles, ""schlager"" is almost looked upon as if it were a dirty word, synonymous with ""uncool"" or ""out of touch."" Do you feel that common threads in schlager songs (namely love and feelings) get stigmatized and mocked, and do you think that's fair? Nicole: That doesn't faze me much. To me, the audience is the most important thing. I did an unplugged tour a few weeks ago with all the songs from the last three decades. It was fantastic to get standing ovations (nearly 20 minutes every evening). MH Where was your favorite place to perform? Nicole: The best place to perform was the ""Schmidt's Tivoli"" in Hamburg where we also recorded the ""Live DVD."" MH In your long career, you have released over 30 albums. Do you have any regrets as far as directions your career has taken? If you could do anything over again, would you? Nicole: I would do the same all over again, no doubt! MH And 27 years later, you remain the only Eurovision winner from Germany. Nicole: In 1982, it was the right song, with the right girl, at the right place. As I said before, it was a three-minute magic moment when I was on stage. An honest girl with an honest authentic song, telling a message everybody understood. MH Some of the German performers and entries in recent years had inventive themes, especially Roger Cicero's swing song and Texas Lightning's country performance. How do you feel about these ""theme"" entries? Nicole: In my opinion, every artist should be authentic, no matter what kind of song. MH Do you feel the allegations of ""bloc voting,"" favoring Eastern European countries over Western European countries (of which Germany is a part), are true? Also with the advent of telephone voting, do you feel the Contest has drifted in a direction where Eurovision is no longer ""about the song""? Nicole: Yes, it's true. The eastern European countries obviously support each other with the so-called ""bloc voting."" It's now a political affair and no longer a ""song contest."" MH Do you ever see yourself returning to the Eurovision stage as the German representative? Nicole: No. I can't top being #1. MH Will you be a part of the German delegation going to Moscow this year? If no decision has been made yet, would you like to go? Nicole: I haven't been asked yet, but of course I would like to be a part of the German delegation. Eurovision is still on my mind. MH In closing, what would you like to say to all of your fans who have followed your career these past three decades? Nicole: I want to thank all my fans for their loyalty and believing in me and my music. Thanks for walking side by side with me through the years." +entertainment,"Obituaries American actor David Carradine was today found dead in a hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand. The 72-year-old actor had been in Thailand for production of his latest film, Stretch. According to Bangkok police, the star of 1970's cult TV series Kung Fu was found half-naked in a wardrobe, a cord around his neck and body; the discovery was made by a hotel maid. One of Thailand's daily papers, The Nation, reports that police state there was no evidence of an intruder, positing that the actor had hanged himself. Carradine's biggest recent success was his appearance in Quentin Tarrantino's movie, Kill Bill. In the 2003 film he played the title character Bill. His other considerable body of work in the entertainment business included around 100 other film appearances and nominations for four Golden Globe Awards. His personal manager, Chuck Binder, told the press the news was ""shocking and sad"". He described the actor behind the iconic Caine character as, ""...full of life, always wanting to work... a great person."" Carradine leaves behind wife Annie Bierman and three children, two of which have followed the family tradition and become actresses." +entertainment,"Obituaries American author and producer Michael Crichton has died in Los Angeles, California at the age of 66, according to a statement released by his family. According to Entertainment Tonight, Crichton died after a long and quiet battle with cancer. His family said that his death was ""unexpected"". ""While the world knew him as a great storyteller that challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us — and entertained us all while doing so — his wife Sherri, daughter Taylor, family and friends knew Michael Crichton as a devoted husband, loving father and generous friend who inspired each of us to strive to see the wonders of our world through new eyes,"" said a statement by his family. Crichton, who was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1942, was most famous for the writing of his Jurassic Park novels. He also published The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Rising Sun, Timeline, Eaters of the Dead, all of which became major motion pictures. He also created, and was an active executive producer of the hit television show ER." +entertainment,"Australian news Eight cast and crew members of the Australian television show The Chaser's War on Everything successfully breached the security surrounding the APEC summit meeting in Sydney, Australia. Using a cavalcade of three cars and two motorcycles branded with the Canadian Flag, the crew passed through two security check points, reaching the ""red zone"". It was only when the team attempted to turn around, ten meters from the InterContinental Hotel where United States President George W Bush was staying, that police realised the security breach and pounced. Eleven people have been charged over the incident, the eight cast and crew members and the three drivers. Two motor bike drivers at the front were told to run and police are currently searching for them. Comedian and cast member Chas Licciardello was dressed up as Osama bin Laden during the event. All 11 have been bailed to appear in court on October 4, 2007. New South Wales minister for police denied that the security services had been embarrassed by the event. A police statement said that the shows producers had been cautioned a week beforehand about trying any stunts during the APEC meetings. The Chaser had tried unsuccessfully yesterday to breach security when they dressed up as a NSW Police horse. On April 25, 2007 The Chaser successfully asked Jimbo Wales 10 questions during his visit to Sydney as a part of a segment for The Chaser's War on Everything series." +entertainment,"Actress Nicole Kidman was injured in a car accident while filming the movie, The Invasion. The car reportedly went off course, and ran into a light pole on West Sixth Street in Los Angeles, California. ""The stunt driver apparently went off course and hit a light post,"" said Karen Smith, a officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. ""Nicole Kidman was in the vehicle at the time of the accident and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. She was released shortly thereafter,"" said a statement issued by Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Kidman, along with eight other people were taken to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles where all were released with minimal injuries just 2 hours later. All are reported to have returned to work. Paramedics also treated Kidman on scene before she was taken to the hospital. ""I think she's OK,"" said Catherine Olim, Kidman's publicist. Kidman was inside a Jaguar." +entertainment,"Warner Music agreed on Tuesday to license its music videos to MTV for use on devices such as cell phones and other devices. This deal is said to help the recording industry to gain more revenue, despite declining CD sales. The cost of the deal was not disclosed. MTV plans to distribute these music videos as short segments and, in the future, offer full-length videos as part of a subscription. In addition, MTV wishes to use these videos in programs similar to VH1's Driven. Pricing is not available yet. Warner Music is the first label to license music to MTV for the purpose of offering them on wireless devices. MTV plans to get licenses from other music labels." +entertainment,"Executives of the U.S. Fox network said Friday that singer Paula Abdul was cleared of any wrongdoing in regard to charges that she had an improper relationship with former American Idol contestant Corey Clark. The network cleared her to return to the show for its fifth season. American Idol has topped network television ratings as the most-watched program in the U.S. for the past three years. Abdul is one of the three judges of the talent/variety program, where she is popularly referred to as the ""nice one"" by contestants. Fox reportedly hired a former federal prosecutor to lead an investigation into whether Abdul compromised the integrity of its flagship series. After an investigation of more than three months, interviewing 43 people and looking over documents supplied by both Abdul and Clark, the investigation showed no proof that Abdul had a sexual relationship with Clark. Clark was booted from the second season of Idol after it was discovered he hid a previous domestic violence arrest record from producers. Two years later, he told reporters that he had been involved in a secret romantic relationship with Abdul, which would have been a violation of the show's rules and Abdul's employment contract. ""I'm grateful this ordeal is over, and I'm so looking forward to getting back to the job I love,"" Abdul said in an Associated Press interview after the decision was announced to keep her on the show." +entertainment,"date=2009-09-23 Michael Jackson's This Is It, a documentary film based on world-famous singer Michael Jackson rehearsing for his last tour before his untimely death, will be premiered in at least 15 cinemas in cities all over the world simultaneously. The film is due to premiere on October 27 and October 28. The world cities may be in different time zones with different dates but they will all be premiering the film at exactly the same time. One such premiere location is Los Angeles, in the US state of California, which will have the film starting at 1800 PT. Another simultaneity is the Odeon Leicester Square cinema in London, England, which will start at 0100 GMT on October 27. Other locations holding concurrent premieres are the South African city of Johannesburg, New York City in New York, German capital Berlin, Russian capital city Moscow, Japanese capital Tokyo, Australian city Sydney, French capital Paris, South Korean city Seoul, and Rio de Janeiro, a large city in Brazil. Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 aged 50, after suffering from a cardiac arrest. The movie will feature some of the rehearsal footage made in the weeks before his death. In total, there will be at least 25 cinemas premiering the film, but not all of them will be released simultaneously. Sony Pictures, the film production company, have yet to announce the other cities involved. Tickets for the film will be available to purchase from Sunday, September 27. The film is directed by Kenny Ortega, who previously directed all the High School Musical films. He also directed some significant Michael Jackson events, such as his This Is It concert and Jackson's memorial service. Jeff Blake, chairman of worldwide marketing and distribution for Sony Pictures, said: ""Michael Jackson has an army of fans everywhere around the world... we are giving the audiences an incredible opportunity to join together in celebration of Michael Jackson's incredible career.""" +entertainment,"The U.S. television network ABC says its 24-hour news network, ABC News Now, will become a permanent 24-hour television news network starting in July. Currently, the operation is only available on the Internet as a streaming media web site. The network started as a experiment by the Walt Disney Company-owned ABC in the summer of 2004 during the U.S. presidential campaign nomination conventions. It was mostly broadcast as a subchannel or shared channel within the bandwidth of an existing digital television (DTV) channel already owned by ABC. For instance if the local ABC affiliate is on Channel 7 with a DTV channel of 23, then ABC News Now may have been available on digital channel 23.1, sharing the same bandwidth. Because few households in the U.S. are equipped to tune in digital over-the-air sub-channels, and virtually none are carried on local cable companies, ratings were low for the fledgling digital channel. Adding to that technical difficulty, cable carriage of the network was small. ABC News Now was delivered to only 6 of the 110 million U.S. households via cable. Most viewers of the network, 30 million at last count, watched the network via the Internet. Citing money reasons, ABC shuttered the over-the-air ABC News Now broadcasts in January to focus on building the web-based service. But come July, ABC plans to return its news network and its 20 original programs to local TV stations. Without any commitment from national cable or satellite companies, ABC will return to digital sub-channels on local DTV transmissions." +entertainment,"Myrskyntuoja, the third album from Finnish heavy metal band Teräsbetoni, has topped the charts in the Nordic country. The album was produced by the famed Hiili Hiilesmaa, whose past credits include HIM, Apocalyptica, The 69 Eyes and Lordi. Both of Teräsbetoni's previous albums reached number two, making this their first number one album. The lead single from the album, Missä Miehet Ratsastaa, is Finland's entry at the 2008 instalment of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The song reached number two on the Finnish singles chart and is currently number four. Missä Miehet Ratsastaa will be performed at the Eurovision semi-final on May 20. If enough other nations vote for the entry, it will proceed to the final in Belgrade, Serbia." +entertainment,"United Kingdom The BBC have announced the appointment of Bob Shennan as controller for BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music. Shennan was previously controller at news and sports station BBC Radio Five Live and head of Channel 4's abortive 4 Digital Group radio venture. Channel 4 had won a licence to launch three digital radio stations but dropped the plans at an advanced stage in the face of the economic downturn. At Five Live Shennan increased listening figures to 7 million. Critics claimed that this was achieved through the introduction of phone-in shows and a decline in coverage of harder news. He also launched the part-time digital-only station BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra. The BBC's director of Audio and Music told The Stage that Shennan is ""an outstanding leader with extensive radio experience and a proven track record in station management"". He said that ""Bob's energy, enthusiasm and passion for Radio 2 will ensure that the station remains creative and vibrant, and continues to offer unique programmes to the widest possible audience"". Radio 2 is Britain's most popular radio station with 13.06 million listeners and a 16% share. 6 Music is the network's digital-only sister station. The post of controller became vacant last year when Lesley Douglas resigned following the scandal over crude phone calls made by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross to actor Andrew Sachs during a pre-recorded music programme." +entertainment,"Bat for Lashes is the doppelgänger band ego of one of the leading millennial lights in British music, Natasha Khan. Caroline Weeks, Abi Fry and Lizzy Carey comprise the aurora borealis that backs this haunting, shimmering zither and glockenspiel peacock, and the only complaint coming from the audience at the Bowery Ballroom last Tuesday was that they could not camp out all night underneath these celestial bodies. We live in the age of the lazy tendency to categorize the work of one artist against another, and Khan has had endless exultations as the next Björk and Kate Bush; Sixousie Sioux, Stevie Nicks, Sinead O'Connor, the list goes on until it is almost meaningless as comparison does little justice to the sound and vision of the band. ""I think Bat For Lashes are beyond a trend or fashion band,"" said Jefferson Hack, publisher of Dazed & Confused magazine. ""Khan has an ancient power...she is in part shamanic."" She describes her aesthetic as ""powerful women with a cosmic edge"" as seen in Jane Birkin, Nico and Cleopatra. And these women are being heard. ""I love the harpsichord and the sexual ghost voices and bowed saws,"" said Radiohead's Thom Yorke of the track Horse and I. ""This song seems to come from the world of Grimm's fairytales."" Bat's debut album, Fur And Gold, was nominated for the 2007 Mercury Prize, and they were seen as the dark horse favorite until it was announced Klaxons had won. Even Ladbrokes, the largest gambling company in the United Kingdom, had put their money on Bat for Lashes. ""It was a surprise that Klaxons won,"" said Khan, ""but I think everyone up for the award is brilliant and would have deserved to win."" Natasha recently spoke with David Shankbone about art, transvestism and drug use in the music business. ---- DS: Do you have any favorite books? :NK: Laughs I'm not the best about finishing books. What I usually do is I will get into a book for a period of time, and then I will dip into it and get the inspiration and transformation in my mind that I need, and then put it away and come back to it. But I have a select rotation of cool books, like Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés and Little Birds by Anaïs Nin. Recently, Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch. DS: Lynch just came out with a movie last year called Inland Empire. I interviewed John Vanderslice last night at the Bowery Ballroom and he raved about it! :NK: I haven't seen it yet! DS: Do you notice a difference between playing in front of British and American audiences? :NK: The U.S. audiences are much more full of expression and noises and jubilation. They are like, ""Welcome to New York, Baby!"" ""You're Awesome!"" and stuff like that. Whereas in England they tend to be a lot more reserved. Well, the English are, but it is such a diverse culture you will get the Spanish and Italian gay guys at the front who are going crazy. I definitely think in America they are much more open and there is more excitement, which is really cool. DS: How many instruments do you play and, please, include the glockenspiel in that number. :NK: Laughs I think the number is limitless, hopefully. I try my hand at anything I can contribute; I only just picked up the bass, really— DS: --I have a great photo of you playing the bass. :NK: I don't think I'm very good... DS: You look cool with it! :NK: Laughs Fine. The glockenspiel...piano, mainly, and also the harp. Guitar, I like playing percussion and drumming. I usually speak with all my drummers so that I write my songs with them in mind, and we'll have bass sounds, choir sounds, and then you can multi-task with all these orchestral sounds. Through the magic medium of technology I can play all kinds of sounds, double bass and stuff. DS: Do you design your own clothes? :NK: All four of us girls love vintage shopping and charity shops. We don't have a stylist who tells us what to wear, it's all very much our own natural styles coming through. And for me, personally, I like to wear jewelery. On the night of the New York show that top I was wearing was made especially for me as a gift by these New York designers called Pepper + Pistol. And there's also my boyfriend, who is an amazing musician— DS: —that's Will Lemon from Moon and Moon, right? There is such good buzz about them here in New York. :NK: Yes! They have an album coming out in February and it will fucking blow your mind! I think you would love it, it's an incredible masterpiece. It's really exciting, I'm hoping we can do a crazy double unfolding caravan show, the Bat for Lashes album and the new Moon and Moon album: that would be really theatrical and amazing! Will prints a lot of my T-shirts because he does amazing tapestries and silkscreen printing on clothes. When we play there's a velvety kind of tapestry on the keyboard table that he made. So I wear a lot of his things, thrift store stuff, old bits of jewelry and antique pieces. DS: You are often compared to Björk and Kate Bush; do those constant comparisons tend to bother you as an artist who is trying to define herself on her own terms? :NK: No, I mean, I guess that in the past it bothered me, but now I just feel really confident and sure that as time goes on my musical style and my writing is taking a pace of its own, and I think in time the music will speak for itself and people will see that I'm obviously doing something different. Those women are fantastic, strong, risk-taking artists— DS: —as are you— :NK: —thank you, and that's a great tradition to be part of, and when I look at artists like Björk and Kate Bush, I think of them as being like older sisters that have come before; they are kind of like an amazing support network that comes with me. DS: I'd imagine it's preferable to be considered the next Björk or Kate Bush instead of the next Britney. :NK: Laughs Totally! Exactly! I mean, could you imagine—oh, no I'm not going to try to offend anyone now! Laughs Let's leave it there. DS: Does music feed your artwork, or does you artwork feed your music more? Or is the relationship completely symbiotic? :NK: I think it's pretty back-and-forth. I think when I have blocks in either of those area, I tend to emphasize the other. If I'm finding it really difficult to write something I know that I need to go investigate it in a more visual way, and I'll start to gather images and take photographs and make notes and make collages and start looking to photographers and filmmakers to give me a more grounded sense of the place that I'm writing about, whether it's in my imagination or in the characters. Whenever I'm writing music it's a very visual place in my mind. It has a location full of characters and colors and landscapes, so those two things really compliment each other, and they help the other one to blossom and support the other. They are like brother and sister. DS: When you are composing music, do you see notes and words as colors and images in your mind, and then you put those down on paper? :NK: Yes. When I'm writing songs, especially lately because I think the next album has a fairly strong concept behind it and I'm writing the songs, really imagining them, so I'm very immersed into the concept of the album and the story that is there through the album. It's the same as when I'm playing live, I will imagine I see a forest of pine trees and sky all around me and the audience, and it really helps me. Or I'll just imagine midnight blue and emerald green, those kind of Eighties colors, and they help me. DS: Is it always pine trees that you see? :NK: Yes, pine trees and sky, I guess. DS: What things in nature inspire you? :NK: I feel drained thematically if I'm in the city too long. I think that when I'm in nature—for example, I went to Big Sur last year on a road trip and just looking up and seeing dark shadows of trees and starry skies really gets me and makes me feel happy. I would sit right by the sea, and any time I have been a bit stuck I will go for a long walk along the ocean and it's just really good to see vast horizons, I think, and epic, huge, all-encompassing visions of nature really humble you and give you a good sense of perspective and the fact that you are just a small particle of energy that is vibrating along with everything else. That really helps. DS: Are there man-made things that inspire you? :NK: Things that are more cultural, like open air cinemas, old Peruvian flats and the Chelsea Hotel. Funny old drag queen karaoke bars... DS: I photographed some of the famous drag queens here in New York. They are just such great creatures to photograph; they will do just about anything for the camera. I photographed a famous drag queen named Miss Understood who is the emcee at a drag queen restaurant here named Lucky Cheng's. We were out in front of Lucky Cheng's taking photographs and a bus was coming down First Avenue, and I said, ""Go out and stop that bus!"" and she did! It's an amazing shot. :NK: Oh. My. God. DS: If you go on her Wikipedia article it's there. :NK: That's so cool. I'm really getting into that whole psychedelic sixties and seventies Paris Is Burning and Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis. Things like The Cockettes. There seems to be a bit of a revolution coming through that kind of psychedelic drag queen theater. DS: There are just so few areas left where there is natural edge and art that is not contrived. It's taking a contrived thing like changing your gender, but in the backdrop of how that is still so socially unacceptable. :NK: Yeah, the theatrics and creativity that go into that really get me. I'm thinking about The Fisher King...do you know that drag queen in The Fisher King? There's this really bad and amazing drag queen guy in it who is so vulnerable and sensitive. He sings these amazing songs but he has this really terrible drug problem, I think, or maybe it's a drink problem. It's so bordering on the line between fabulous and those people you see who are so in love with the idea of beauty and elevation and the glitz and the glamor of love and beauty, but then there's this really dark, tragic side. It's presented together in this confusing and bewildering way, and it always just gets to me. I find it really intriguing. DS: How are you received in the Pakistani community? :NK: Laughs I have absolutely no idea! You should probably ask another question, because I have no idea. I don't have contact with that side of my family anymore. DS: When you see artists like Pete Doherty or Amy Winehouse out on these suicidal binges of drug use, what do you think as a musician? What do you get from what you see them go through in their personal lives and with their music? :NK: It's difficult. The drugs thing was never important to me, it was the music and expression and the way he delivered his music, and I think there's a strange kind of romantic delusion in the media, and the music media especially, where they are obsessed with people who have terrible drug problems. I think that's always been the way, though, since Billie Holiday. The thing that I'm questioning now is that it seems now the celebrity angle means that the lifestyle takes over from the actual music. In the past people who had musical genius, unfortunately their personal lives came into play, but maybe that added a level of romance, which I think is pretty uncool, but, whatever. I think that as long as the lifestyle doesn't precede the talent and the music, that's okay, but it always feels uncomfortable for me when people's music goes really far and if you took away the hysteria and propaganda of it, would the music still stand up? That's my question. Just for me, I'm just glad I don't do heavy drugs and I don't have that kind of problem, thank God. I feel that's a responsibility you have, to present that there's a power in integrity and strength and in the lifestyle that comes from self-love and assuredness and positivity. I think there's a real big place for that, but it doesn't really get as much of that ""Rock n' Roll"" play or whatever. DS: Is it difficult to come to the United States to play considering all the wars we start? :NK: As an English person I feel equally as responsible for that kind of shit. I think it is a collective consciousness that allows violence and those kinds of things to continue, and I think that our governments should be ashamed of themselves. But at the same time, it's a responsibility of all of our countries, no matter where you are in the world to promote a peaceful lifestyle and not to consciously allow these conflicts to continue. At the same time, I find it difficult to judge because I think that the world is full of shades of light and dark, from spectrums of pure light and pure darkness, and that's the way human nature and nature itself has always been. It's difficult, but it's just a process, and it's the big creature that's the world; humankind is a big creature that is learning all the time. And we have to go through these processes of learning to see what is right." +entertainment,"__NOTOC__ The sale of the BBC subsidiary BBC Resources Ltd., has hit a hurdle after it emerged that the BBC could be left with a loss of up to £15 million on the deal. The cost of transferring the pensions of BBC Resources staff from the BBC pension scheme to its new owners could be up to £50 million according to a Guardian Newspaper report. Managers from the division will meet with union representatives from BECTU on Monday to discuss this and related sale issues. BECTU general secretary, Gerry Morrissey is quoted as saying: ""If the BBC gets less than £50 million for BBC Resources then how can it fulfil sic its duty of care to licence fee payers?"" It is believed that the BBC had hoped that a surplus in its pension fund could be used to bridge the possible £50 million gap — but the trustees of the fund have said ""no"". A BBC source said: ""This is being discussed at the highest level"". Since April 2004 members of the BBC pension scheme have seen their contributions into it increase regularly, the BBC — like many other employers — having reduced its contribution (to 4.5% of payroll) over a ten year period when the stock market was booming in the 1990s. The Guardian is seen as a reliable source on BBC matters, having reported the proposed sale of BBC Television Centre back in January 2007, with the formal announcement finally being made by BBC Director General Mark Thompson on October 18, 2007. The Resources business-to-business unit was formed in 1998 and operates television studios, post-production and outside broadcast facilities for it's parent share-holding company, the BBC. It does not own any studios or premises, its assets being staff and equipment. Advertised for sale on 16th August in the Financial Times, The Times and Broadcast and last year making profits of £5.2 million with a revenue of £126 million, the disposal — led by Ernst & Young — invited expressions of interest for the whole division or for each of its three operations separately. The BBC has yet to release the names of the short-listed companies. BBC Resources was the first of the BBC's commercial business-to-business divisions to be set up as a limited company and will be the last to be sold, the BBC having previously divested itself of BBC Technology and BBC Broadcast — BBC Worldwide, formerly BBC Enterprises, will remain in-house as it earns revenue from the , media and licensing of products — in the year to 31 March 2007 Worldwide had a turnover of £810.4 million, generating profits of £111 million. The BBC wants to use any money raised to be put into international commercial expansion and content, most probably through Worldwide. It had been intended to float Resources back in 2005, but this was postponed for two years following strike action and ACAS talks in June 2005 — the BBC giving an undertaking that there would be no preparations made to sell the company until January 2007, and no sale allowed before July of this year. The current time-scale would see its disposal by the end of the current financial year in March 2008." +entertainment,"Wikinews held an exclusive interview with author and filmmaker John Gaspard. His films Resident Alien, Beyond Bob and Grown Men, besides opening to positive critical response, were all made on very low budgets; costing around US$30,000. He says this is because ""I despise the process of trying to raise money to finance movies."" He has also written several books on filmmaking, most notably Digital Filmmaking 101. He says that it was ""originally.....a series of notes to ourselves, to remind us of the steps we took to make a feature for very little money. We later expanded those notes into a complete book to provide beginning filmmakers with the tools they would need to make a feature for what most Hollywood films spend on coffee and rolls."" Gaspard has written two other books as well. Fast, Cheap and Under Control: Lessons Learned From the Greatest Low-Budget Movie of All Time features interviews with some of the world's most well known low budget filmmakers, including B-movie king Roger Corman and actor-turned-director Tom Noonan. Fast, Cheap and Written that Way: Top Screenwriters on Writing for Low-Budget Movies features interviews with successful screenwriters who have written for low budget films. Wikinews: You've directed three films (Resident Alien, Beyond Bob and Grown Men). Tell us about them. : Mr. Gaspard: Since I despise the process of trying to raise money to finance movies, each movie was written specifically to be shot on an ultra-low budget. : Resident Alien and Beyond Bob were produced on 16mm film, and each cost a little under $30,000 to produce. : Resident Alien, a science fiction-comedy feature film, is the story of a UFO crash that changes the lives of two down-on-their-luck people in a small Midwestern town. The Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper said, ""Resident Alien is the best low-budget project to come out of the area."" : Beyond Bob, an award-winning comedy from the other side, is a story of love and friendship, of passion from beyond the grave, of a love that was made in heaven ... and was just too darned important to stay there. Beyond Bob was recently awarded the ""Best Feature"" award at the Forx Film Festival; it also received an Honorable Mention at the Seventh Annual George Lindsey UNA Film Festival, and a Bronze Award at the WorldFest Houston. : Grown Men is a digital feature, consisting of five interlocking stories from four Minnesota writers: Rewired by David Fields, It’s A Date and The Late Mrs. Boynton by John Gaspard, The $1,000 Wedding by Tom Poole, and Red Velvet Handcuffs by Matthew G. Anderson. : Grown Men premiered at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. It was named ""Best of the Fest - Best Feature Screenplay"" at the Black Point Film Festival in Lake Geneva. It was also featured at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival; the Waterfront Film Festival; the Oxford Film Festival; and the Tambay Film Festival. WN: You're the author and co-author of several books, most notably Digital Filmmaking 101. Tell us about them. What inspires you to write? : Mr. Gaspard: We wrote Digital Filmmaking 101 originally as a series of notes to ourselves, to remind us of the steps we took to make a feature for very little money. We later expanded those notes into a complete book to provide beginning filmmakers with the tools they would need to make a feature for what most Hollywood films spend on coffee and rolls. : My second book, Fast, Cheap and Under Control: Lessons Learned From the Greatest Low-Budget Movie of All Time, was designed to help keep new filmmakers from re-inventing the wheel every time they go out to make a feature. There is a wealth of knowledge in the low-budget movies that have come before ours, and it's a foolish filmmaker who doesn't heed those lessons. In the book I talked to both old-school low-budget filmmakers (like Roger Corman) and people from the current generation (Swingers, The Blair Witch Project, Open Water, etc.). : The latest book, Fast, Cheap and Written that Way: Top Screenwriters on Writing for Low-Budget Movies, does just what the title suggests. I spoke to over twenty top screenwriters who had previously worked on low-budget films and got their secrets on how to write for a tiny budget. Interviewees included George Romero, Tom DiCillo, Stuart Gordon, Bob Clark and Kenneth Lonnergan, among others. WN: Your films were made on very low budgets. Grown Men cost under $13,000. How did you manage this? : Mr. Gaspard: Well, as soon as you realize that you won't be paying anyone, that cuts your costs significantly. Second, you should write the script to conform to locations and props that you can get for free. Third, you should shoot as quickly as you can -- 12 to 15 pages of script a day is not uncommon. : The main reason to make a movie for such little money is not just to save money -- it's also to help you maintain control of the movie. Without backers breathing down your neck, you can make the movie you want at the pace you want. You may never see that money again -- a high percentage of low-budget movies never see the light of day, let along turn a profit -- but the satisfaction of making the movie YOU wanted to make greatly outweighs the cost. WN: Will you be doing anymore films in the near future? : Mr. Gaspard: We're mulling over some script ideas, but currently don't have anything we're dying to do. WN: Do you have any advice for the amateur filmmakers reading this? : Mr. Gaspard: See as many movies as you can -- low-budget independent films, Hollywood films, classic movies from the Golden Era. You can learn something valuable from every movie you watch, so the more you see the more you learn. : Read scripts to learn how to write one. And I mean real scripts, not transcriptions of finished movies. Learn what the words look like on the page and how that gets translated into images on the screen. : And, most important, don't ever try to fund your movie with credit cards. Don't believe what you read about other filmmakers doing this -- it flat out doesn't work. : Happy filmmaking!" +entertainment,"Obituaries Irvin Kershner, director of the second Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back, died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles, California aged 87; this followed a three-and-a-half year battle with lung cancer. The announcement of his death was made Monday, by his god-daughter, Adriana Santini. source=George Lucas, on Irvin Kershner His previous credits, working as a photographer and musician, included A fine madness and Eyes of Laura Mars, the latter of these being the inspiration for the creator of the Star Wars movies, George Lucas, to offer him the director's role for The Empire Strikes Back &mdash; something which he initially refused, only to be later persuaded because Lucas felt his attention to the development of characters was important. Lucas later admitted he hadn't wanted to direct the sequel himself. Speaking of the director, Lucas said: ""He knew everything a Hollywood director is supposed to know. ... but was not Hollywood."" He also gained recognition after being nominated for an Emmy, for the 1976 TV Movie Raid on Entebbe, an award which he didn't win, but which thrust him into the spotlight. As a director, Kershner went on to be the driving force behind Sean Connery's return to the role of James Bond, directing Never Say Never Again in 1983. Moving further into the realms of Science Fiction, Kershner directed Robocop 2 in 1990. Kershner was not limited to behind the scenes work; he acted in two films, Martin Scorcese's The Last Temptation of Christ, in which he played Zebedee; and, starred as a film director in Stephen Seagal's On Deadly Ground." +entertainment,"At the Siggraph 2005 computer graphics convention in Los Angeles, California Tuesday, Star Wars creator George Lucas unveiled plans for a weekly computer-animated series based on the science fiction saga. The new show, to be called Clone Wars, will be a 3-D animated spinoff of the series and is to be produced in a Lucas facility in Singapore. Lucas already has done limited-run 2-D traditional animated television with Star Wars: Clone Wars shorts on the U.S. cable channel, Cartoon Network. Lucas said advances in digital technology allow an animated television series to do what otherwise would be too expensive." +entertainment,"On Tuesday, the 2011 BRIT Awards were presented from The O2 Arena in London, England. This is the first time that the awards ceremony has been hosted from this venue; previously, the regular location for the show was the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, which is also located in London. The BRIT Awards, presented by the British Phonographic Industry, is an annual ceremony that awards music artists for excellence in music. The BRIT Awards started in 1980; this year's event is the 31st BRIT Awards. ITV1 broadcasted this year's programme from 2000-2200 UTC, with British actor and presenter James Corden hosting it. The ITV1 programme contained performances from various artists, many of which had been nominated for BRIT Awards. The performers and the performances are displayed below but are not in chronological order. They are as follows: *Take That &ndash; Kidz *Adele &ndash; Someone Like You *Rihanna &ndash; Only Girl (In the World) / S&M / What's My Name? *Mumford & Sons &ndash; Timshel *Plan B &ndash; She Said / Prayin' *Tinie Tempah, Eric Turner and Labrinth &ndash; Written in the Stars / Miami 2 Ibiza / Pass Out *Arcade Fire &ndash; Ready To Start *Cee Lo Green and Paloma Faith &ndash; Forget You British rapper Tinie Tempah was nominated for most awards than any other artist, with 'Best British Album' and 'Best British Male' included amongst his four nominations. He was given two BRIT awards - one for 'Best British Single', which was Pass Out, and the second for 'Best British Breakthrough Act'. Upon receiving what would turn out to be his first award of two, Tinie Tempah proclaimed: ""I want to big up God and my family for sticking by me when times are hard."" Canadian indie rock group Arcade Fire were also successful in achieving two BRIT Awards, one for 'Best International Group' and the other for 'Best International Album'; their album is entitled The Suburbs. Dermot O'Leary presented an award to British pop group Take That for 'Best British Group', the first time the group have ever achieved such an award. While the group received the award, member Mark Owen looked at Robbie Williams, who had recently rejoined Take That, and said: ""Can I say thanks for coming back mate. Appreciate it. It's a real pleasure for the five of us to be up here."" The group had a second nomination for 'Best British Album' but were unsuccessful in winning the award. Cee Lo Green, a member of the group Gnarls Barkley, received one BRIT Award for 'Best International Male'. In his acceptance speech, he commented: ""I'm so excited. Thank you so much for this honour. Such a pleasant surprise."" Cee Lo was also nominated for 'Best International Album' but failed to achieve the award. Roger Daltrey, lead singer of English rock group The Who, humourously commented that ""it's good to see the British music industry still has enough money for a good booze up"" before giving the award for 'Best British Album' to Mumford & Sons for their album, entitled Sigh No More. Marcus Mumford, of the group, said that ""this is very bizarre, very strange. Thank you very much indeed. We are very honoured, very humbled."" Mark Ronson and Ellie Goulding awarded the 'Critics' Choice' to English singer-songwriter Jessie J. Backstage, Jessie J - who is currently at number one in the UK Singles Chart with her song Price Tag, featuring American rapper B.o.B - remarked that ""pop stands for popular. I want to be a pop icon and take Britain across the world."" Plan B, another British rapper, achieved the award for 'Best British Male'. ""There's a lot of people I could be thanking right now, I wanna thank them all together,"" he said during his acceptance speech. Having expressed thanks to various family members, friends, his record labels and the people he had worked with, he concluded his speech with the line: ""Thank you, everybody. That's all."" Do you think that the awards were given to the right acts? Earlier in February 2011, Markus Dravs was given the BRIT Award for 'Best British Producer' by Chris Martin, a member of the group Coldplay; Dravs is co-producing a fifth album for the group at present. Dravs was nominated for his work in relation to Arcade Fire album The Suburbs and Mumford & Sons album Sigh No More. ""You could hear it in the lyrics and in the commitment in the demos,"" he commented. ""I really wanted to get involved and see if I could help make the record."" During the BRIT Awards programme on Tuesday, Cheryl Cole presented the 'Best International Female', which was won by Rihanna. The Barbadian pop and R&B singer exclaimed during her acceptance speech: ""Britain, I love you! This is so exciting. I want to thank everybody at my label, Mercury ... all my fans here. You guys are the best! I love you so much. This is...this is big. It doesn't get much bigger than the BRITs, so I love you guys. Thank you so much. This means a lot. I'm the only girl in the world!"" The award for 'Best International Breakthrough Act' was given to Justin Bieber, a Canadian pop music / R&B singer. Upon accepting the award, Bieber commented: ""I want to thank all my fans over here. You guys are amazing. I want to thank the label over here"". Laura Marling was subsequently awarded 'Best British Female'. After being presented with the award by Boy George, Marling said: ""Thank you. My name's Laura and there you go, mum. That's for you and thank you very much to Adam and Laura and everyone at Virgin. This is really weird."" Shortly after the broadcast of the main programme, performances became available to purchase via iTunes. The The BRIT Trust will receive all of the downloads' profits as a donation. Below, all of the recipients of the awards on Tuesday night are available to view in a list, which is not presented in chronological order. *Best British Male &ndash; Plan B *Best British Female &ndash; Laura Marling *Best British Group &ndash; Take That *Best British Single &ndash; Tinie Tempah - Pass Out *Best British Album &ndash; Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More *Best British Producer &ndash; Markus Dravs *Best British Breakthrough Act &ndash; Tinie Tempah *Best International Male &ndash; Cee Lo Green *Best International Female &ndash; Rihanna *Best International Group &ndash; Arcade Fire *Best International Album &ndash; Arcade Fire &ndash; The Suburbs *Best International Breakthrough Act &ndash; Justin Bieber *Critics' Choice - Jessie J Below is an image gallery displaying library photographs of some of the acts who appeared at the BRIT Awards 2011: Ben Salter On Wednesday, the news emerged that the BRIT Awards 2011 gained approximately 4.8 million viewers, the smallest viewing figures the show has experienced for five years. The ratings of the ceremony were beaten by the last episode of Big Fat Gypsy Weddings in the series, broadcast on Channel 4 from 2100&ndash;2200 UTC on Tuesday; the viewing figures stood at approximately 6.5 million viewers. Holby City, broadcast on BBC One, also attracted more viewers than the BRIT Awards 2011. The programme, which was shown from 2000-2100 UTC, received approximately 5.8 million viewers." +entertainment,"ITV An acrobatic group known by the name of Spelbound has been declared as the winner of Britain's Got Talent 2010, a televised variety talent show competition broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom. As the winning act of the show, Spelbound have won £100,000 (US$144,580, €120,313, A$175,079) and a place at The Royal Variety Performance, an annual gala evening that is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family. In no particular order, the top three acts were revealed to be two dancers known by their stage name of Twist and Pulse, gymnastic group Spelbound and Kieran Gaffney, whose act involves playing on the drum kit. After Kieran Gaffney was revealed to be in third place, Anthony McPartlin, who hosts Britain's Got Talent with Declan Donnelly, said to Kieran: ""Well done Kieran. Kieran, you're a star, you came back, you got all the way to the final. I know you've loved this. You've loved this, haven't you?"" In response to this, Kieran Gaffney stated: ""Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone for supporting me. Thank you."" Shortly afterwards, on the episode that was broadcast live on ITV1 on Saturday, Anthony announced: ""After tens of thousands of auditons, five semi-finals and an amazing final, this...this is it. One of you is about to walk away with £100,000 and a place at this year's Royal Variety Performance. The winner of Britain's Got Talent 2010 is...Spelbound!"" Glen Murphy from Twist and Pulse commented about finishing in second place, stating: ""Yeah, it's amazing. I can't even believe it. I can't believe it at all."" Alex Uttley, a 24-year-old member of Spelbound, commented on the gymnastic group's victory, commenting: ""Oh, my god. This is unbelieveable. We just want to say thank you to everyone out there. It just shows that all our hard work has paid off."" One of the coaches of Spelbound, named Neil Griffiths, stated about Spelbound: ""Oh, they've worked so hard over the last few weeks. Um, since the semi-final, we...we really had to pull out the stops to try and up the game. They've not known they've worked in the gym from six in the morning till twelve...twelve o'clock of the night. I couldn't have asked for more. Um, it's a team of coaches. I don't take all the credit myself. There's, uh, two people up there that know who they are who've been fantastic."" Spelbound consists of 24-year-old Alex Uttley, Nicholas Illingworth, aged 24, Adam Buckingham, aged 21, 20-year-old Adam McAssey, 19-year-old Douglas Fordyce, 18-year-old Edward Upcott, 18-year-old Leighanne Cowler, 17-year-old Katie Axten, 17-year-old Lauren Kemp, 15-year-old Jonathan Stranks, Abigail Ralph, aged 15, 13-year-old Hollianne Wood and Amy Mackenzie, aged 12. Bookmakers had previously predicted that Spelbound would be the most likely act to become the winner of the series. The running order for the final started with Twist and Pulse. The second act to perform was Liam McNally, a 14-year-old singer. The running order subsequently continued with 40-year-old impressionist Paul Burling, singer Christopher Stone, aged 28, Tina & Chandi, a woman and dog dancing act, Connected, a five-piece singing group, Kieran Gaffney, aged 12, 22-year-old Tobias Mead, a dancer, 80-year-old singer Janey Cutler and Spelbound in that particular order. Earlier on in the final, Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden has stated to Spelbound: ""We are hosting the 2012 Olympics and I think 'what a brilliant opening act'."" Fellow judge Piers Morgan also commented that ""the purpose of this show is to identify hidden great British talent. You are that act."" After Spelbound won in the final, another judge, named Simon Cowell, stated that ""the right boys and girls won on the night"" and that he could ""only say on live TV that that was one of the most astonishing things I have ever seen. Seriously.""" +entertainment,"At the end of January, Bach Technology announced their new music file format, MusicDNA, which was developed as an intended replacement for the mp3 format, which has been the dominant format in music since its inception. MusicDNA uses similar compression methods to mp3, but then also adds an xml file which defines other content that can be included. Wikinews reporter Tristan Thomas caught up with Bach Technology CEO Stefan Kohlmeyer to find out more. WikinewsThank you for agreeing to answer our questions. WNCan you briefly explain what MusicDNA is? Stefan KohlmeyerWe believe that MusicDNA is the successor to the MP3, the MusicDNA media extension enables music fans to access from one application the wide range of music-related content they want alongside the music itself - from lyrics, artwork and tour dates to blog posts, videos and twitter feeds. In addition to all this extra content, MusicDNA files are also intelligent, and include extensive audio analysis information for each single track. This means that search and recommendation tools or automatic playlist generators will be much more sophisticated and provide much better results. WNHow long has it been in development and what role has Karlheinz Brandenburg, the man credited with inventing mp3, played in that? SKIn essence MusicDNA in its current context has been in development since the start of the company in 2007. Bach has an important strategic partnership with Fraunhofer IDMT with its CEO Karlheinz Brandenburg who is an important person for us in all research projects and visionary discussions about the development of the music market. WN Is this just going to be another consumer hurting format war with iTunes LP? What makes MusicDNA better than iTunes LP? SKUnlike iTunes LP, MusicDNA files have been built on open standards and are completely platform agnostic, which means that, unlike iTunes LP, you’re not tied to one device or media player. So it’s about the opposite of format wars really. Whilst LP goes some way to adding value to digital music, it is still essentially a static file with some extra content bolted on. MusicDNA not only gives back all the things we lost when we switched to digital formats, lyrics, liner notes, artwork, but crucially it goes beyond that allowing fans to access everything from Twitter feeds and videos through to concert tickets, this will all dynamically update whenever you're online, so music fans always have the latest information to hand. Importantly with MusicDNA you can customise single tracks, you’re not restricted to purchasing complete albums as you are with LP. And because all the additional rich media is integrated into the file (unlike iTunes LP), that content can be easily transferred from one device to another. Mark Mulligan, vice president and research director of industry analysts Forrester Research recently put it well to the UK’s Telegraph newspaper ""innovations like the iTunes LP need to go further. People should pay just once to get everything that artist does over the next year in one file that is regularly updated."" WNIs this really what listeners want-more clutter to distract from the music itself? What's wrong with mp3? source=Stefan Kohlmeyer SKA lot of people, especially those who grew up buying music on vinyl and CD, miss the packaging, the liner notes, all the things that went hand in hand with albums, so for them that ‘clutter’ is an important part of the experience. We developed MusicDNA based on how people interact with their favourite music and musicians today, so we’re just following the public’s lead in many ways. MusicDNA enables fans to stay constantly connected with the worlds of their favourite artists in a really convenient way. Importantly, MusicDNA files can be customised so that they contain as little or much extra content as the listener wants. You have to remember the MP3 was developed over twenty years ago, think of how much has changed in that time. It has had a profound effect on the music industry, but beyond portability it doesn't actually add anything to the experience, the opposite in fact. WNWill MusicDNA be any less susceptible to piracy than other formats? Do you think MusicDNA has a future? Will it replace mp3? SKAs only paid for files will dynamically update MusicDNA should be an incentive for people to purchase legitimate files rather than downloading them from p2p networks. Over the last decade a lot of effort has gone into trying to stop piracy through sanctions and enforcement, and, well, the results speak for themselves. We believe in a carrot approach, giving the public what they actually want and a great incentive to go the legit route. WNMany people argue that music is moving away from being owned and more towards models like Spotify; free, streamed music. Is MusicDNA not too late to the party if this is so? SKLike many in the industry Bach are of the view that there is no one silver bullet to suit all types of consumer, rather a variety of services will serve different fans with different needs. There are many occasions when a download is preferable to a stream, and MusicDNA files have the advantage of customised, at your fingertips, rich media available on- and offline. And that is before considering the impact of streaming on growing bandwidth and energy requirements. WNSo when will we start to see MusicDNA and where? SKRollout will be staggered over 2010, with the first beta versions available around Easter and the full commercial rollout expected over summer. WNAnd finally, your favourite artist at the moment to be released on MusicDNA this year? SKIt's too early to say, but we're in talks with some very exciting artists. I would love to see all my old heroes on MusicDNA, starting with Led Zeppelin and The Clash. WNThank you again for your time. Good luck with the launch." +entertainment,"A local Swiss government has shown some bare cheek and has taken action, after hordes of German naked hikers rambling across the Swiss alps au naturel, caused indignation amongst locals. Authorities in Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden have warned that starting from February 9, the government will impose hefty fines of 200 Swiss Francs (£122, €135) on naturists found walking or hiking in the nude without clothes in the picturesque mountains because of a recent influx of visiting German nudists. The new ordinance is expected to be passed this spring. If it is approved by the local parliament on February 9 it should be effective on April 26. The Swiss canton aims to stop spread of 'indecent practice' by minimally-clad German climbers. The problem started with a group of ""boot-only hikers"" who were stopped by the police in the Alpine region last autumn. They had wandered there regularly, proudly marching through nature with bare bums, and had also advertised what they thought was a naked paradise on the internet. But it was all too much for the Swiss. A nude rambler dressed in nothing more than a rucksack and walking boots in the eastern Appenzell region was arrested and detained in the canton, but authorities were unable to file lawsuit because the act was not punished by law or ordinance at the time. ""We were forced to introduce the legislation against this indecent practice before the warm weather starts,"" Melchior Looser, the canton’s justice and police minister, said. “Ultimately, in the summer lots of kids stay in our mountains,” he added. In the guidelines imposed, arrested offenders who cannot pay the fine, will face legal action. The new enabling ordinance has, however, been met with protests by nude hikers. ""We simply try to tune into nature. It's the most harmless pursuit possible,"" said Dietmar, age 58, a German lawyer. German tabloid Bild Zeitung has editorially attacked Swiss intolerance and even suggested nudist alternatives worldwide, after hinting a Swiss tourism boycott. Local authorities of Harz mountain range in central Germany have also announced the openness to any visitor of an “official naked walking route” in nature's outdoors. Freikörperkultur (""FKK""), or ""free body culture"", is a popular pastime in Germany. It is a German movement which endorses a naturistic approach to sports and community living. Behind that is the joy of the experience of nature or also on being nude itself, without direct relationship to sexuality. The followers of this culture are called traditional naturists, FKK'ler, or nudists. The naked ramblers have hoped it doesn't lead to another naturist-clothed 'war', like the one at a beach between German and Polish holidaymakers in 2008. Naturism has roots traced from the start of the 20th century. ""Abandoning unpractical clothes enables a direct contact with the wind, sun and temperature"", naked hiker website nacktwandern.de stated. But Markus Dörig, a spokesman for Appenzell Innerrhoden canton has defended the law, explaining that the “public nuisance” was a foreign import. “We have been receiving many complaints. The local people are upset and we in the government share their concern. How would one feel if one was to go walking in nature and suddenly came across a group of naked people? They are definitely not people from the area, and I think many of them come from Germany,” he noted. “We are a small and orderly community and such things are simply out of place here. Perhaps in vast mountain areas naked people would not be much of a problem but here they simply stick out,” Dörig added. ""I can understand that we all have to live in this world together,"" said Barbara Foley, International Naturist Foundation member of the central committee. ""But I would certainly enjoy doing the hike in the nude and I wouldn't want to be deprived of it. It's nice to feel the sun on your skin. Maybe they should designate a couple of trails and people would know they might come across naturists there,"" she added. Appenzell Innerrhoden (Appenzell Inner Rhodes) is the smallest canton of Switzerland by population and the second smallest by area, Basel-City having less area. The population of the canton was 15,471 as of 2007, of which 1,510 (or 9.76%) were foreigners. The canton in the north east of Switzerland has an area is 173&nbsp;km². It was divided in 1597 for religious reasons from the former canton Appenzell, with Appenzell Ausserrhoden being the other half. Appenzell is the capital of this canton. The constitution was established in 1872. Most of the canton is pastoral, this despite being mountainous. Cattle breeding and dairy farming are the main agricultural activities: Appenzeller cheese is widely available throughout Switzerland. Due to the split of Appenzell along religious lines, the population (as of 2000) is nearly all Roman Catholic (81%), with a small Protestant minority (10%). The town, however is far from liberalism: the canton granted women the right of suffrage only in 1990 under pressure from the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland and international human rights groups. The Alpine village of Appenzell Innerrhoden, being known for its beautiful landscape, has recently been declared a ""naked rambler paradise"" by a German mountaineering website, which was created by a lobby group of hikers." +entertainment,"Internet The news of the death of Michael Jackson yesterday caused problems for web sites and caused hoax reports of other celebrity deaths to be posted. Twitter, where several celebrities immediately posted their comments on the news, saw its update frequency double as soon as the news broke. Facebook's update frequency tripled. Temporary server outages were reported for Twitter, TMZ.com (the site that originally broke the story), and the web site of the Los Angeles Times. On Wikinews, the report of Jackson's death received 1,150 page hits in its first hour of publication, almost 9 times as much as the number of page hits received by Wikinews' second most popular story that hour. At its peak, the Wikinews story received 4,466 page hits in one hour. On Wikipedia, an edit war ensued when users repeatedly deleted references while reports of his death remained unverified. Once a credible source, the Los Angeles Times, verified the story, Wikipedia published the news. Hoax stories sparked by news of Jackson's death included false reports of the deaths of Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford. These stories were rapidly revealed to be hoaxes, but some news outlets carried the stories by mistake. The entertainment report on Nine Network's Today show, for example, mistakenly carried the story of Goldblum's death. Goldblum was in fact alive and well in Los Angeles, California, according to an official statement issued by his publicist. The hoaxes originated on a web site that generates superficially genuine but false news reports from pre-set formulae, into which the celebrity name of one's choice can be entered. One of the options available is for the report to state that the celebrity ""dies in New Zealand"" at Kauri Cliffs near Matauri Bay. Because of this, many people attempted to contact New Zealand police, forcing Inspector Kerry Watson of the NZ police to issue the following statement: :""Police at Kerikeri are receiving phone calls regarding a person falling from a cliff at Kauri Cliff. There is no such incident and police have no information to provide."" This is not the first time that this particular hoax has circulated. The exact same story, with the same cliffs, circulated about Tom Hanks in 2006 and about Tom Cruise in 2008. Cruise's publicist, Jeff Raymond, stated at the time that the story was ""erroneous and unreliable Internet garbage""." +entertainment,"Music Taylor Swift's Evermore album has returned to the top position on the Billboard 200 chart this week, after an 8307% increase in sales. Evermore, which was released in December, only had its vinyl edition issued on May 28, although preorders were available from the moment of the album's release. In the week ending on June 3, Evermore sold 192 thousand copies, setting the record for the biggest sales week of the year. Billboard credited the rise of Evermore back to No. 1 to a number of factors, including ""modern-era record-breaking vinyl LP sales &mdash; 102 thousand &mdash; Swift-signed CDs and deep discounting on its digital album"". The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums in the United States on a weekly basis, combining album sales and streaming. source=Taylor Swift, on Evermore returning to No. 1 In this week's chart, Evermore jumped from 74 to 1, marking the biggest jump to the number 1 position since Radiohead's In Rainbows went from 156 to 1. Since then, three albums have also re-entered the chart at no. 1, the most recent of which was Bon Jovi's This House Is Not for Sale on the March 10, 2018 chart, caused by a bundling of concert tickets with the album. Evermore broke the record for the biggest sales week for a vinyl album, having initially sold over 40 thousand copies from May 28 to May 31 to edge out the previous record holder, Jack White's Lazaretto. By the end of the week, Evermore had sold 102 thousand vinyl copies. The delay of Evermores vinyl release is due to the length of time vinyl records take to produce. As Evermore was only announced a day before its release, it is likely that there was not sufficient time before its release to complete the production of physical editions of the album, including vinyl editions. In other countries where Evermore hit no. 1 upon its December release, it also recieved a boost. On the United Kingdom's Official Albums Chart Top 100, Evermore jumped 70 spots to the no. 4 position. Australia's ARIA Top 50 Albums chart saw Evermore go up nine spots to no. 38. In New Zealand, Evermore was one of the fastest rising titles on the Official Top 40 Albums chart, re-entering at no. 30." +entertainment,"Education On Saturday, Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in Chicago issued diplomas which misspelled the word integrated in ""Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications"". Around 30 diplomas out of 250 distributed contained the spelling error, ""itegrated"". In an e-mail quoted by Chicago Tribune, department lecturer Desiree Hanford said, ""The diplomas are issued by the university, so we will work with the university registrar's office Monday to provide new diplomas to these students"". Inside Higher Ed said some alumni had objected to the program's name change several years ago, and found the current situation amusing given their opposition to including integrated in the program's name. The journalism program has a grading policy called the ""Medill F"", where assignments that contain an error such as having a spelling error result in the assignment being failed. Graduating student Kit Fox, according to the Chicago Tribune, said of the Medill F, ""When as a freshman you hear about it for the first time, it sounds extremely harsh. It sounds almost unfair...And then you look at the stakes of what journalism is, and you realize it's much more forgiving than what happens in the real world."" He also told FOX 32 News, ""Maybe it was just one last edit test for us grads, or just some fantastic irony""." +entertainment,"The family and friends of the world-famous opera singer Luciano Pavarotti have gathered in his hometown of Modena, Italy to pay their final respects. Pavarotti died on Thursday of complication from pancreatic cancer at the age of 71. The Roman Catholic service at the cathedral in Modena was attended by such international stars as fellow tenors Plácido Domingo and José Carreras, as well as U2's Bono. It included Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, Giuseppe Verdi's Ave Maria and a message of condolence from Pope Benedict XVI, who said Pavarotti had ""honored the divine gift of music through his extraordinary interpretative talent"". At least 800 people were present in the cathedral, but thousands gathered outside to watch the service on a television screen placed in Modena's main square. The service was also shown on Italian state television and via the Internet. A recording of Pavarotti's famous duet with his father in 1978 was played and prompted a standing ovation of the crowd inside and outside the cathedral, and Italy's air force gave a flyover releasing smoke in the colours of the Italian flag. It is estimated that over 100,000 people have seen Pavarotti's casket in the past two days, where it has been publicly displayed in Modena's main piazza, to many of Pavarotti's recordings and appearances shown on the public screen. Pavarotti will be buried in his family plot in a private ceremony at the Montale Rangone cemetery near Modena." +entertainment,"television Further promotional and release plans have been announced by The Walt Disney Company's new special, ""Phineas and Ferb's Christmas Vacation,"" from the company's cartoon comedy Phineas and Ferb. According to the company's press release site (Disney XD Medianet), on November 27, Disney will stream the seven musical numbers, performed by the show's cast and the band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, that will be showcased in the special on its public radio network Radio Disney. iTunes will then follow by making the songs available for download. The official special is scheduled to air the following week, on December 6, on the company's cable network Disney XD with a repeat immediately following it. The proceeding day, Disney Channel SVOD, Disney XD VOD, Disney XD Mobile, iTunes, and Xbox Live Marketplace will release the episode for digital retail. On December 11, fellow Disney network Disney Channel will broadcast the special following a six-hour marathon of the series; the next day, Disney Channel and Disney XD's websites will release the special for viewing. On December 18, ABC Family will air the episode as part of its month-long event ""25 Days of Christmas."" Finally, to help the special's promotion, costumers dressed as the show's characters will perform on December 25, 2009, in the ""Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade"" which will be broadcast on the ABC Television Network. Disney also confirmed that actors Clancy Brown, Malcolm McDowell, Jane Carr, Mathew Horne, and Bruce MacKinnon will each guest star in the special." +entertainment,"An accident on the set of British television show Heartbeat has taken place, involving five cast and crew members who are yet to be identified. It is believed that a tractor rolled down an embankment while filming near Whitby, North Yorkshire. Police say that none of the injuries is said to be life-threatening. A spokeswoman for the ITV show released a statement saying that a guest actor received chest injuries. One actor was flown to Middlesbrough, one was taken to a hospital in Whitby and the remaining three were taken to Scarborough's district hospital. Four of the victims have been released. Heartbeat is a television drama set in the 1960s which follows a group of police officers in Yorkshire. The show has also brought about a medical spin-off, The Royal. Heartbeat returns to British television later in the year. The Health and Safety Executive is investigating the circumstances of the accident. British newspapers have reported that the current series, the 18th, will be the last and both Heartbeat and The Royal will not be recommissioned." +entertainment,"George Michael, a well-known British pop singer and songwriter, died on Christmas Day at the age of 53. Michael was found dead at his home in Oxfordshire, England, by boyfriend Fadi Fawaz. Elton John Michael's publicist released the following statement to People and Entertainment Weekly: ""It is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother and friend George passed away peacefully at home over the Christmas period. The family would ask that their privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time."" He also reported that Michael had died of heart failure and ""passed away peacefully"". Sir Elton John said via Instagram, ""I am in deep shock. I have lost a beloved friend &mdash; the kindest, most generous soul and a brilliant artist. My heart goes out to his family and all of his fans."" George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in London. Over his multi-decade career, he sold more than 100 million records. Along with co-singer Andrew Ridgeley he became famous as part of the duo band Wham!. Together, Michael and Ridgeley produced several hit songs, such as Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Freedom, and Last Christmas. In 1985, Wham! was the first Western band to play in China since the beginning of the country's opening up strategy. Wham! dissolved in 1986. In 1984, Michael recorded the successful single Careless Whisper. Michael was credited as the solo artist in the United Kingdom and as ""Wham! featuring George Michael"" in the United States. Michael released a hit solo album Faith in 1987, containing hits like I Want Your Sex. Michael's life was troubled by both substance abuse and issues with his sexuality. He initially hid his identity as a gay man from his fans, coming out only after a very public arrest for public lewdness in 1998. He would later be arrested for possession of drugs and driving under the influence of drugs. He was sentenced to eight weeks in prison in 2010 for crashing a Range Rover into a storefront while under the influence of drugs and possession of cannabis. Michael had a history of transforming his negative experiences into art. He wrote White Light about a serious case of pneumonia that led to his hospitalization in 2011, and the music video for Outside, which followed on the heels of his arrest and coming out, showed scenes of a men's bathroom, a dance club, and men kissing while in police uniforms. He would perform White Light live at the 2012 London Olympics." +entertainment,"obituariesBeatrice Arthur, an American actress, died at the age of 86 on Saturday morning at her home in Los Angeles, California, according to a spokesperson. Arthur had been suffering from cancer for some time. ""She was a brilliant and witty woman. Bea will always have a special place in my heart,"" said Dan Watt, Arthur's spokesman for six years. Born in New York City in 1922, Arthur was probably most famous for her role in the American TV series The Golden Girls, where she played Dorothy Zbornak, and her role in Maude. Both roles earned her Emmy Awards. She also won a Tony Award for her role in the Broadway musical Mame. ""Bea was such an important part of a very happy time in my life and I have dearly loved her for a very long time,"" said Betty White, one of Arthur's co-stars on The Golden Girls to Access Hollywood. Rue McClalahan, who co-starred with Arthur in both series, said she will ""miss her courage and her voice"". Arthur was also an advocate for gay rights, saying she once considered a gay relationship after a bad divorce. ""With all the improvements and all the people who've become so much more knowledgeable, there's still an enormous amount of vicious homophobia,"" said Arthur in a 2001 interview with Out Magazine. On July 22, 2008, Estelle Getty, who also co-starred with Arthur on The Golden Girls, died after a battle with dementia." +entertainment,"DE:Isaac Hayes ist verstorben obituariesGrammy Award and Academy Award winning musician and vocalist Isaac Hayes was found dead in his home in Memphis, Tennessee in the United States. According to initial police reports, his wife found him collapsed near a treadmill exercise machine in their home after she returned from running errands. The Shelby County Sheriffs Department responded to his wife's phone call and took Mr. Hayes to Baptist East Hospital in Memphis, where he was pronounced dead at 2:08 AM EST. Hayes was 65. Born Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. in 1942, he became a noted soul and funk music artist, whose work also included singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger, composer, and actor. His body of work includes soundtracks to the Blaxploitation films Shaft (in which he appeared in a cameo role), Three Tough Guys, and Truck Turner (acting in a featured role both films). He also provided the voice of the character Chef on the animated TV series South Park, but left after the episode ""Trapped In the Closet"", which was a satire on the controversial Church of Scientology, of which Hayes was a member." +entertainment,"-unreviewed The UK Film Council has said British films claimed a record one-third share of UK cinema takings last year. The council has also revealed that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was Britain's top-grossing film in 2005 after taking £435m ($808m) at the Box Office worldwide. It was one of eight British films to be included in the top 20 list of the world's biggest grossing movies. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Batman Begins, Kingdom of Heaven, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Nanny McPhee and Pride and Prejudice took £1.8bn ($3.3) in total globally and were seen by 600 million people. John Woodward, the chief executive officer of the UK Film Council, said: ""The figures show that the public love British films and 2005 was a great year for British films at the cinema with the largest slice of Box Office takings since records began."" , who has exposed tax incentives aimed at luring filmmakers to the UK, said: ""Harry Potter, Nanny McPhee and Willy Wonka have all been hits at home and abroad - helping us achieve great success at the Box Office. I hope that next year, buoyed by the new tax incentive, the UK film industry will be in even better health."" The amount of British people viewing foreign language films also increased. More than 200 foreign language films in 32 different languages were shown at cinemas across the UK. Downfall, a German-produced movie depicting the final days of Adolf Hitler, was the most popular, according to the council. Movies are classed as being UK-made if they are filmed in the country, star UK personalities, and invest money in the UK or on British staff and services." +entertainment,"Pop band Fleetwood Mac has cancelled its upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand following diagnosis of their bassist John McVie with cancer. The tour was expected to begin on November 10 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and continue through the Hunter Valley, Geelong, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth over the following two weeks. The band's spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg did not specify what type of cancer Mc Vie is receiving treatment for, nor did she comment on the extent of the disease. A statement on the band's website apologized to fans for the cancellation of the tour and explained that Mc Vie has been scheduled to receive treatment for during the scheduled dates. ""We are sorry to not be able to play these Australian and New Zealand dates,"" the statement read on their official Facebook page. ""We hope our Australian and New Zealand fans as well as Fleetwood Mac fans everywhere will join us in wishing John and his family all the best."" Fleetwood Mac had just finished touring Europe. The band is scheduled to perform in Las Vegas on December 30." +entertainment,"The mayor of Vienna has criticised the cancellation of the original Michael Jackson tribute concert that was due to take place on September 26 in Vienna, Austria. Michael Häupl, the mayor of Vienna, has said: ""The show would have been very interesting... had it been properly prepared and organised but it was not."" The tribute concert, which was due to take place in Austria on September 26, was organised mainly by Jermaine Jackson, Michael Jackson's brother. Funding for the original concert had been cancelled on September 11 due to the fact that many top stars such as Natalie Cole, Mary J. Blige and Chris Brown couldn't make the concert because, as Jermaine Jackson said, ""Numerous stars were just not able to change their schedules"". A replacement concert is now due to take place in London, England at some point in June 2010." +entertainment,"The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was won yesterday by the entry from Greece, Helena Paparizou, singing My Number One, second place going to the entry from Malta and third place going to Romania. The competition was held in Palace of Sports in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, after its entry, Ruslana, had won the 2004 contest singing Wild Dances. Semi-finals had been held on May 19, 2005. 10 out of 25 countries with the highest scores in the semi-finals then joined 14 already pre-qualified countries in the final. Both events were televised across Europe. More than 6000 spectators attended the event. Organisers hope that it will boost Ukraine's image abroad and increase tourism, while the country's new government hopes that it will also give a modest boost to the long-term goal of acquiring European Union membership. Bulgaria and Moldova took part for the first time while Hungary returned after a hiatus since 1998. Lebanon had been expected to make its debut appearance but decided to withdraw. For the first time in the history of the contest, Ireland failed to qualify. The hosts for the event were Maria ""Masha"" Efrosinina and DJ Pasha, a TV Presenter and Radio DJ. Finally, it's important to note most countries now choose to sing in English rather than their native language, since rule changes permit the singer to perform in any language they want. It is interesting to note that Spain, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, who all automatically qualify for the final by right of paying the bulk of the budget of the European Broadcasting Union (Eurovision's parent organisation) all finished in the bottom four positions." +entertainment,"The much awaited film of Tamil Nadu is nearing release. After several postponements from April 12 to May 8 then to May 17 and finally postponed to the release date of May 26. The last three dates are all add up to the magic number of Shankar's, 8. This release date was confirmed by Ayngaran International (the international distributor) and AVM (the producer). The reason for the latest postponing of the film was due to the background score of the film being incomplete, A. R. Rahman (music director) is currently working on this. This will be Rajinikanth's 100th Tamil language film. The film has big names Shankar (director of the 8 Filmfare Award winning Anniyan), AVM (the largest producer of films in Tamil Nadu), A. R. Rahman (word recognized due to his work in the Bombay Dreams musical) and the ""Superstar"" of Tamil cinema Rajinikanth. Pyramid is expecting over Rs. 120 million in the Nizam area of Andra Pradesh from the films ticket sales. So far it has been estimated that over Rs. 1 billion has been invested in the film." +entertainment,"The 78th Academy Awards were hosted by Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show. Crash won the Best Picture award, a surprise for many predictors. Co-producer Cathy Schulman commented ""thank you for embracing our film, about love and about tolerance, about truth. Thank you to the people all around the world who have been touched by this message. And we are humbled by the other nominees in this category. You have made this year one of the most breathtaking, and stunning, maverick years in American cinema, thank you."" Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco also won best original screenplay for Crash. Directed and co-produced by Canadian Paul Haggis, film distribution rights were purchased for just USD$3 million by Lions Gate Films. Noted film critic Roger Ebert called it his favourite picture of 2005, and the picture made many North American ""10 best"" lists. Backstage, Best Director winner Ang Lee commented to the press on how Brokeback Mountain refreshed his will to direct. ""Before I get into making this movie, I was very tired from two very ambitious work, The Hulk and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I almost wanted to retire. I felt I had enough, I hit the bottom, sort of like my mid life crisis or something, and this movie teach me how to look at myself, how to manage myself in movie making again, enjoying making them, and the movie was shot very simple, nothing special, but most important, it taught me again, it's about human emotions, drama and acting."" Foreign Language Film winner Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) commented that he felt the Oscar win would ""change the way South Africans view their moviemaking... hopefully it means that people will keep investing in our local stories, because this gives investors a little more confidence and what we want more than anything else is that people and human emotion is universal and we're more alike than we think we are around the world... we're actually so similar as human beings inside."" Tsotsi was the People's Choice Award winner at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, while Crash debuted at the fest in 2004. Capote and Brokeback Mountain both played at the festival days after debuting at the Telluride Film Festival. TIFF's winners often go on to win Best Picture or Best Foreign Language Film; Wo hu cang long (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), American Beauty, and Whale Rider are such examples. Stewart's humor fell short of expectation for most North American film and television critics who commented on the broadcast. At one point, Stewart jokingly chastised Hollywood for being ""out of touch"" with mainstream American values. Actor George Clooney later responded to this notion, saying, ""We are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood. It’s probably a good thing. We’re the ones that talked about AIDS when it was just being whispered. And we talked about civil rights when it wasn’t really popular. We bring up subjects. This group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I’m proud of this Academy, of this community. I’m proud to be out of touch."" * BEST PICTURE - Crash. * DIRECTOR - Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain. * ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE - Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line. * ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE - Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote. * ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, Crash. * ADAPTED SCREENPLAY - Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Brokeback Mountain. * FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM - Tsotsi (South Africa). * ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - George Clooney, Syriana. * ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener. * ANIMATED FEATURE - Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. * CINEMATOGRAPHY - Dion Beebe, Memoirs of a Geisha. * COSTUME DESIGN - Colleen Atwood, Memoirs of a Geisha. * MAKEUP - Howard Berger and Tami Lane, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. * VISUAL EFFECTS - Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers and Richard Taylor, King Kong. * SHORT FILM – ANIMATED - The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation. * SHORT FILM – LIVE ACTION - Six Shooter. * ORIGINAL SCORE - Gustavo Santaolalla, Brokeback Mountain. * ART DIRECTION - John Myhre and Gretchen Rau, Memoirs of a Geisha. * DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - March of the Penguins. * SOUND MIXING - Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges and Hammond Peek, King Kong. * SOUND EDITING - Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn, King Kong. * FILM EDITING - Hughes Winborne, Crash. * DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT - A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin. * ORIGINAL SONG - 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp' from Hustle & Flow." +entertainment,"According to a press release today from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, there are seven films in contention for the ""Academy Award for Makeup"". Alphabetically, the films are: * Apocalypto * Click * Pan's Labyrinth * Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest * The Prestige * The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause * X-Men The Last Stand Ten minutes of each film will be screened for the Academy's Makeup Award Nominating Committee on Saturday, January 20, 2006. The committee will decide which of the three films should receive nominations. This list will then be voted on by the entire Academy. The 79th Academy Awards will honor the outstanding film achievements of 2006. The ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, February 25, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center." +entertainment,"GermanyA stampede at the entrance of a German music festival, the Love Parade, today killed nineteen people and injured around a hundred more. The incident apparently took place due to overcrowding at the entrance to the grounds of the event, located in Duisburg, Germany, which more than a million people were reported to have attended. Despite warnings by police of overcrowding, more people tried to enter the grounds. There is speculation that the panic may have begun when people fell after trying to cross a barrier, and subsequently spread. Witness Udo Sandhoefer said that people ""climbed up the walls and tried somehow to get into the grounds from the side, and the people in the crowd that moved up simply ran over those who were lying on the ground."" Emergency responders apparently encountered difficulties in reaching those in need of assistance due to the number of people in the area. Officials also decided not to evacuate the grounds of the event, citing concerns that a larger panic would be sparked if more people knew of the deaths. A woman attending the event said that ""there were piles of injured on the ground, some being resuscitated, others dead and covered with sheets. It was way too full in the afternoon, everybody wanted to get in."" A statement from president Christian Wulff said that ""it is terrible that such a catastrophe brought death, suffering and pain to a peaceful festival full of happy young people from many countries."" The mayor of Duisburg, Adolf Sauerland, said that security measures at the event were sufficient, and that an investigation into the incident was already under way." +entertainment,"Obituaries Television producer and creator of shows The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island Sherwood Schwartz has died at the age of 94. His daughter Hope Juber announced his death. The cause of death was announced by his son Lloyd as natural causes. Schwartz had a career that lasted six decades after he starting writing jokes for Bob Hope’s radio show in 1939. After his brother got Schwartz a role on Hope's writing staff he went onto work for the Armed Forces Radio and became a writer for the radio series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. He first entered television when he started to write for the show I Married Joan in the 1950s. Schwartz got his big break when he became head writer for The Red Skelton Show. He won an Emmy award in 1961 for his work on the show. Gilligan's Island was first broadcast in 1964 and featured stars such as Bob Denver, Jim Backus, and Alan Hale Jr. The show ran until 1967 but did feature several run off specials. Schwartz's other big creation, The Brady Bunch, was first shown in 1969. The series focused on a couple of newlyweds with children from previous relationships. The show ended in 1974. Schwartz is survived by Mildred, his wife, Ross, Lloyd and Dr. Donald Schwartz, his sons, Hope Juber, his daughter, and eight grandchildren, as well as four great-grandchildren." +entertainment,"Symphonic power metal band Nightwish have released Dark Passion Play, the album with the highest production costs in the history of the band's native Finland. When drummer Jukka Nevalainen was asked the overall cost of the new album, he was quoted as saying “Roughly half a million... We don’t know the exact sum down to the euros and cents as yet.” Half of this cost was incurred in London, United Kingdom, over an expensive eight days at the Abbey Road Studios, during which time the London Session Orchestra, the Metro Voices Choir, a gospel choir, and two Irish musicians recorded their parts at the studio. The rest was spent during the ten months between September 2006 and June this year, when the band were recording the rest of the album in Finland. The album is the sixth full-length studio album by the band, and sports some impressive figures, boasting the contributions of almost 130 different musicians and requiring a total of almost 250 separate recording tracks. Nightwish is paying for the album via the company Scene Nation, who are entirely owned by Nightwish, and have sold the license for it to Nuclear Blast Records. The album is the first to feature new vocalist Anette Olzon, who earlier this year replaced Tarja Turunen, the latter having departed the band in 2005. The album went platinum (sold more than 30,000 copies) within hours of its Finnish release date of September 26, with 42,000 copies sold. Nightwish are currently rehearsing for a world tour to promote the album." +entertainment,"FilmThe release of the movie Avatar, written and directed by James Cameron, has generated increased interest in the field of constructed language, also known as conlang. Cameron asked American linguistics professor Paul Frommer to develop a language spoken by the extraterrestrial people in the film known as the Na'vi. Author J. R. R. Tolkien developed Elvish languages for his literary series The Lord of the Rings. The Elvish language was featured in scenes of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson. The Klingon language (tlhIngan Hol) was developed by linguist Marc Okrand, initially for use in the 1984 film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Okrand drew inspiration from Klingon lines spoken by actor James Doohan in the film Star Trek: The Motion Picture; Doohan portrayed character Montgomery Scott in the Star Trek series. A dictionary for Klingon developed by Okrand, The Klingon Dictionary sold over 300,000 copies. National Public Radio on Klenginem Klingon became quite popular and has developed a usage among Star Trek fans. The Klingon Terran Research Ensemble in the Netherlands created an opera in Klingon. The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare was translated into Klingon. A German Trekkie who goes by the moniker Klenginem posted videos to YouTube where he raps songs he translated into Klingon by musician Eminem. Klenginem has been cited recently in pieces on constructed language in The New York Times, ABC News Nightline, and National Public Radio. ""You know your alien language has taken off when a German guy translates rap songs into it,"" said National Public Radio of Klenginem. Linguistics professor Frommer received his PhD degree from the University of Southern California (USC), and subsequently shifted his focus into the business arena. He returned to USC to teach at the Marshall School of Business. Cameron tasked Frommer with creating an entire language for the Na'vi people. In an interview with Geoff Boucher of the Los Angeles Times, Frommer voiced hope that the language would continue to be used separate from the movie, as Klingon has. ""I'm still working and I hope that the language will have a life of its own,"" said Frommer. The Na'vi language created by Frommer contains over 1,000 words, as well as a structural system and rules format for usage. Frommer told Vanity Fair that the language was fairly developed, commenting, ""It’s got a perfectly consistent sound system, and grammar, orthography, syntax"". Paul Frommer Frommer explained the direction given to him before creating the language, ""Cameron wanted something melodious and musical, something that would sound strange and alien but smooth and appealing."" The Avatar writer-director provided Frommer with approximately three dozen words of the Na'vi language he used in his scriptment for the film. ""That was the starting point. Probably the most exotic thing I added were ejectives, which are these sorts of popping sounds that are found in different languages from around the world. It's found in Native American languages and in parts of Africa and in Central Asia, the Caucasus,"" explained Frommer. Cameron and Frommer worked together for four years developing the language. The linguistics professor relied on inspiration provided by Cameron, and avoided drawing upon influences from Elvish, Klingon, and the international auxiliary language Esperanto. Sample words in the Na'vi language include ""Uniltìrantokx"" (oo-neel-tih-RAHN-tokx), meaning ""Avatar"", and ""tireaioang"" (tee-REH-ah-ee-o-ahng), which means ""spirit animal"". Maclean's reported that fans of Avatar were anxious for more instructive material from professor Frommer about the language in order to learn how to speak it with others that appreciated the film. ""The response has been quite remarkable and totally unexpected. I never thought there’d be this level of interest. But I really don’t think of Na’vi as a competitor to Klingon. If it does develop a following, that would be quite wonderful,"" said Frommer of the response to the language from Avatar fans. James Cameron The Na'vi language is itself a minor plot point in the film Avatar. The character Jake Sully portrayed by Sam Worthington endeavors to learn the language while living on Pandora. A botanist portrayed by actress Sigourney Weaver instructs a scientist played by actor Joel David Moore on how to become conversational in the language. Zoe Saldaña, the actress behind warrior princess Neytiri in Avatar, picked up the Na'vi language faster than her fellow cast members. ""Zoe owned the language and everyone had to match her, even her accent,"" said Cameron. Saldaña remarked that the most difficult part about acting in the film was speaking in English with the accent of the Na'vi people. Cameron touted the rich nature of the Na'vi language in publicity for his film. ""We wanted to 'out-Klingon' Klingon. The best sci-fi movies immerse the audience in that world until it doesn't seem alien to them,"" said Cameron to USA Today. HYS" +entertainment,"The finalists for the USC Scripter Awards were announced recently. The teams behind Children of Men, The Devil Wears Prada, The Illusionist, The Last King of Scotland, and Notes on a Scandal all received nods. For nineteen years, the USC Libraries Scripter Award has honored ""writers for the best achievement in adaptation among English-language films released during the previous year and based on a book, novella or short story."" While there are many awards for either screenwriting in general, or adapted screenwriting, the Scripter is the only award to recognize both the screenwriters and the original authors. * Alfonso Cuaron & Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby for Children of Men, based on the book by P.D. James * screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna and author Lauren Weisberger for The Devil Wears Prada * screenwriter Neil Berger for The Illusionist, based on the story ""Eisenheim the Illusionist"" by Steven Millhauser * screenwriters Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock for The Last King of Scotland, based on the book by Giles Foden * screenwriter Patrick Marber and author Zoe Heller for Notes on a Scandal The titles were selected by committee, from a list of forty-five eligible films. The committee is made of Writers Guild of America members (including some Academy Award-winning screenwriters and Academy Award-nominated screen writers), authors, film industry executives, USC faculty, the dean of the USC Libraries, and selected members of the Friends of the USC Libraries, the sponsor of the event. Previous screenwriters and authors honored include the teams behind Capote, Million Dollar Baby, The Hours, A Beautiful Mind, L.A. Confidential, The English Patient and Schindler's List." +entertainment,"Australia Australia’s Nine Network has issued an apology after the rival Seven Network caught Nine News fabricating live crosses to the search site for murdered schoolboy Daniel Morcombe. The network issued a statement after Saturday and Sunday’s Nine News bulletins in Brisbane, which featured presenter Eva Milic crossing “live” to the site with the caption: “Near Beerwah”. The rival Seven Network, based nearby, lifted the lid on the scam after filming the Nine News chopper almost 100 kilometres south of Beerwah – on the helipad outside the studio, with lights on and blades in motion while Cameron Price reported from inside. Nine admitted to faking Sunday’s cross; issuing a statement on Monday blaming bad weather. “Our chopper was forced to divert from Beerwah due to bad weather, and air control instructed them to touch down,” it read. The network also told media industry website mUmBRELLA that “the producer was unaware until it was too late to abort or delay the cross”. Doubts have been cast over the truth of this statement, however, as it has since emerged that the chopper was also absent from Beerwah on Saturday, and was in fact circling Brisbane’s western suburbs during Melissa Mallet’s report. Director of Queensland Seven News, Rob Raschke, questioned the merit of Nine’s claims, telling Brisbane’s Courier-Mail, “the idea of not knowing where a $3 million helicopter is defies belief”. A revised statement yesterday announced a Nine investigation into why the location of the helicopter was misreported on both nights, describing the situation as “unacceptable”." +entertainment,"ObituariesCanadian former professional wrestler Killer Kowalski died in the early morning hours of August 30 at the age of 81. Kowalski suffered a major heart attack on August 8 and remained in critical condition at a local hospital in Everett, Massachusetts until August 18 when his family took him off of life support. During a career that spanned for 30 years, Kowalski wrestled for several organizations including the National Wrestling Alliance and the American Wrestling Association. In the 1960s and 70's Kowalski wrestled for the World Wide Wrestling Federation. In 1976 he won the WWWF World Tag Team Championship with Big John Studd. In 1952 Kowalski was involved in an incident with wrestler Yukon Eric. During the match while performing his signature diving knee drop he ripped part of Eric's ear off. When Kowalski visited him in the hospital the pair laughed with each other, the following day the newspaper stated that Kowalski showed up at the hospital and laughed at his victim rather than with him, furthering Kowalski's image as a heel. After retiring Kowalski opened up a wrestling school. During his time teaching he taught some superstars such as Triple H, Perry Saturn and Chyna. He has also trained Chris Nowinski, A-Train, Frankie Kazarian, Kenny Dykstra as well as others. Kowalski was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003 and the National Polish-American Hall of Fame in 2007. Former student of Kowalski, Triple H said ""It's a huge loss. Walter was one of the biggest name performers of his time. His legacy will live on forever.""" +entertainment,"Obituaries British rapper Derek B has died at the age of 44 after a heart attack, according to reports released today. The hip-hop artist, who was born by the name of Derek Boland, was born in London, England, was believed to have become the first ""home-grown"" artist in his music genre to appear on British televised music programme Top of the Pops, and was one of the first hip-hop artists in the United Kingdom to have significant chart success in the UK Singles Chart, achieving songs that reached the top 20 of the chart, including the likes of ""Good Groove"" and ""Bad Young Brother"" in 1988. He was also partly responsible for writing the Anfield Rap, which was a track recorded for Liverpool F.C., an English football club. The record reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart. The man released a debut album called ""Bullet From A Gun"" in 1988, which, at its peak, reached number 9 in the UK Album Chart. It remained in the chart for a total of nine weeks. Ben Chijioke, who is another British hip-hop recording artist known normally by his stage name Ty, spoke to BBC News about the effect which this artist had on the music world. ""He definitely broke the door down,"" he said. ""He was one of the first artists that I saw get to such a level through rap, and be on Top of the Pops, be on children's programmes, be on the world stage. He was one of the ones to do it first, when it was thoroughly unacceptable from the mainstream perspective. At the time, he was absolutely groundbreaking. He definitely broke the door down."" Zane Lowe is a disc jockey on BBC Radio 1. On his page on social networking website Twitter, he has been quoted as saying the following: ""Oh man. Derek B was a massive album for me. Sad day RT. RIP DEREK BOLAND (WAG CLUB) :("". In a separate message sent three hours later, Zane wrote the following: ""Respect to Derek B. Bad Young Brother on R1. Sounded huge.""" +entertainment,"Canada Canadian rapper Bad News Brown has been found dead in southwestern Montreal. Brown, whose real name was Paul Frappier, was found by some abandoned buildings near the Lachine Canal by a passerby. He was 33 years-old. Oliver Lapointe, a police spokesman, said Frappier's upper body had ""clear signs of violence"". He added ""We do not know the motive and we have no witnesses."" Henry Gelot, Frappier's manager, released a statement saying ""Bad News Brown's death is a great loss for the entire hip-hop and music community in Quebec. In addition to being one of the first rappers from Quebec to reach international acclaim, Bad News Brown has certainly left a mark on everyone who knew him."" Frappier was born on the island of Haiti. He moved to Canada when still young and was adopted by a family from Montreal. He started his career as a street busker and performed in several Montreal Metro stations. According to his Facebook page he later became an opening act for several major stars including 50 Cent, Snoop Dog, and Kanye West. Born 2 Sin, Frappier's first album, was released a year ago. Fans have also paid tribute to Frappier through his Facebook page. One person commented ""Your sounds will flow for eternity.""" +entertainment,"France Alain Corneau, a French film director, has died at the age of 67. His death was announced by the Artmedia talent agency. The cause of death was announced as cancer. Born on August 7, 1943, Corneau's first interest was music. He later went to Paris to study filmmaking. Before the success of his first film, Corneau attempted to make a documentary about New York and an adaptation of a novel. After working as assistant director on L'Aveu with Costa Gavras he directed his first film in 1973, France, Inc. Corneau's other films include La Menace, Fort Saganne, and the highly successful Tous les matins du monde. Tous les matins du monde received 11 César Award nominations and won seven of them. The awards included Best Film, Best Director, and Best Music. Corneau said in a 1992 interview in the New York Times that ""Many people got emotional about this film, and that made it possible for it to escape cult status."" French President Nicolas Sarkozy commented on the death of Corneau. He said ""Corneau was a courageous man and a great director."" Corneau was set to appear at the Toronto Film Festival in September." +entertainment,"Music Lil' Chris, an English singer and television personality, died on Monday, police reported that day. The 24-year-old Chris Hardman was found dead at an address in Lowestoft, Suffolk. Suffolk Police said they were not treating it as a suspicious death. Hardman came to fame as Lil' Chris after appearing on the Channel 4 reality television show Rock School. Rock School in 2006 featured a student rock band that KISS frontman Gene Simmons created. Hardman was chosen to be the bands lead singer by Simmons. Speaking to The Daily Mirror, Simmons paid tribute to Hardman. He said ""Lil Chris was a kind, little soul. I will greatly miss his smile and his spirit. I knew there was something special about him as soon as I met him"". More tributes came from other celebrities. McFly band member Dougie Poynter paid tribute to Hardman on Instagram; he posted alongside a photograph of him, ""So sad to hear about Lil Chris. He was such a genuinely sweet and funny guy, we had some awesome times. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends."" Boxer Anthony Ogogo praised him as a ""super-talented kid""; Ogogo and Hardman both went to Kirkley High School. Hardman's most successful hit was Checkin' It Out, his debut single in 2006, which made it to number three on the UK Singles Chart. He released his last album in 2008 but had recently announced plans of a musical comeback on Twitter. Prior to his death Hardman had spoken about his battle with depression on Twitter. He once tweeted ""Depression really sucks. Learning how to notice it can save lives and your own feelings at times. Take time to understand it, for everybody."" Since his death has been announced the suicide helpline charity The Samaritans have released a statement. They said ""If anyone has been affected by this news, or is struggling to cope, we would like to let people know that Samaritans is here for them if they need to talk.""" +entertainment,"WMAQ-TV NBC 5 Chicago announced yesterday that reporter Amy Jacobson was leaving her job after being videotaped in a bikini with her two sons at the home of Craig Stebic. Jacobson has been covering the story of Stebic's wife Lisa, who has been missing since April 30. Jacobson says that she took her children on a social visit on her day off, following an invitation from Stebic's family. Jacobson has reported at WMAQ for the last ten years. The video of her at Craig Stebic's home was either taken by or given to CBS 2 WBBM-TV Chicago, the CBS affiliate. The entire six minute video of Jacobson is available at cbs2chicago.com. The WMAQ President and General Manager Larry Wert stated ""Amy has been one of our most valued reporters for over ten years The decision to part ways has been a difficult one. We wish her the very best."" Speaking with WGN Radio on Wednesday morning, Jacobson described WBBM-TV's releasing of the video a ""cheap shot"". She told Spike O'Dell that she is sickened by the entire ordeal and may pursue legal action against the people who took the video of her at Craig Stebic's house. Jacobson said her attorney told her it is illegal to videotape people on private property and she said she ""is looking at all of her legal options."" A press release was sent to the WMAQ-TV Newsroom staff on July 10, 2007. Jacobson came to WMAQ-TV in 1996 from Fox affiliate WJBK located in Detroit. Jacobson is a native of Mount Prospect. She began her career at KSAX and also worked in El Paso and Tucson, AZ. She started at WMAQ as a freelance reporter and moved up to general assignment reporter. She and her husband have two children and live on the north side of Chicago. 2007-07-11" +entertainment,"The English Football Association (FA) has complained after broadcaster ITV cut away to an advertisement just before a winning goal in a match. The match, an FA Cup Merseyside derby between Everton F.C. and Liverpool F.C., was in extra time after 118 minutes without a goal when ITV's automated advertisement server, designed for use only during ordinary programming, began playing out commercials. During this time, Everton's Dan Gosling scored the winning goal. In some regions the system returned to the match just before the goal, but viewers in the south of England saw only the celebrations after the goal. Michael Grade, executive chairman of ITV, admitted to ITN that the broadcast had been a shambles and said that ""yellow or red cards"" would go to those responsible once it was established how it happened. ITV has received over 1,000 complaints. ITV has previously had issues with FA Cup coverage. The Histon F.C.&mdash;Leeds United A.F.C. game managed to include swearing from Leeds fans and scenes of a naked player, whilst heavy rain marred picture quality. The FA's statement on this issue said ""It is obviously very disappointing that viewers and fans did not see the only goal of last night’s FA Cup replay between Everton and Liverpool. Clearly we are seeking a full explanation from ITV as to why this happened. It is important that lessons are learned and that this does not happen again""." +entertainment,"The biggest music festival in South Eastern Europe, Exit Festival, will start tomorrow. The festival is organized on Petrovaradin fortress in Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro, and will last from July 7 to July 10. This will be the fifth annual Exit festival. The festival includes 21 stages, featuring a diverse range of music, from classical to techno. The program is scheduled to last from 6 pm to 8 am every night, with both domestic and foreign musicians. It is expected that tens of thousands of people, mostly from ex Yugoslavian republics, will attend. This year's performers include Apocalyptica, Fatboy Slim, White Stripes, Underworld, Garbage, Slayer, Laibach, Ian Brown, Carl Cox, Freq Nasty, Marky & Patife, Sasha, Felix da Housecat, Dave Clarke, Napalm Death, Sandy Rivera, Darren Emerson, Mutiny, Danny Howells, Christian Varela, Michel De Hey, Valentino Kanzyani, 2 Many DJs, Marko Nastic, etc. The organizers decided to commemorate the Srebrenica Massacre with one minute of silence on midnight between July 10 and July 11. The festival is in part sponsored by the city of Novi Sad, which is currently ruled by the Serbian Radical Party which is opposed to publicly recognizing war crimes committed by the Serbs in Bosnia in a way that Exit orginizers intend. The president of the Serbian Radical Party, Tomislav Nikolić said: ""If that festival, which is intended for young people having fun, turn into any kind of political provocation, there will be no Exit next year.""" +entertainment,"Channel Four Wales, known as S4C, is investigating the possibility of a Welsh-language kids television channel. Through 10 weeks of planned public consultations, the network will consider adding a channel devoted to children up to age 16. The station would be funded through S4C's current budget and commercial revenues, if approved by the Welsh Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The channel has set aside USD$21.5 million for children's programs this year already. The station would only be available digitally. S4C was created under Margaret Thatcher's government, through the campaigning of groups like the Plaid Cymru political party. Sources Last Saturday (May 12) a storm hit the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. The storm killed 27 people and injured dozens. Most victims resulted from getting crushed inside their houses by falling trees. The storm had winds of speeds over 60 km per hour. It damaged many power lines leaving many parts of the state with no electricity. The extent to which the wind has caused damage is still being investigated. Sources" +entertainment,"Canadian news Nominations for the Genie Awards, Canada's leading motion picture honours, were announced on Tuesday by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. The following films received the most nominations this year: * The Rocket: The Maurice Richard Story, a dramatic portrayal of the honoured Montreal Canadiens hockey player, earned 13 nominations; * The bilingual police-comedy Bon Cop, Bad Cop was 2006's most financially successful Canadian movie and it picked up ten nominations; * Seven nominations went to Un dimanche à Kigali (A Sunday in Kigali), a drama set in Rwanda; * Tideland, a movie produced by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame, was filmed in Saskatchewan and earned six nominations. A best picture nomination was also given to Trailer Park Boys: The Movie, one of the few successful domestic films at Canadian box offices in 2006. That movie is based on a popular, internationally-distributed Canadian television series. The Genie Awards will be presented on 13th February at a ceremony at the Carlu theatre in Toronto." +entertainment,"United Kingdom An advert by fast food restaurant Burger King has been banned from British television over claims that it is misleading. The campaign for the new TenderCrisp chicken burger received two complaints over the fact that the burger appears significantly larger on the advert than in real life. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated the complaints and purchased three burgers from a Burger King restaurant. They reported that both the thickness and the height were ""considerably less"" than in the advertisement. The ASA also commented on the actor, stating, ""we also examined the size of the burgers in the hands of an average-sized man and considered that they did not fill the hands to the same extent as the burger featured in the advert. We concluded that the visuals in the advert were likely to mislead viewers as to the size and composition of the product."" Burger King responded to the complaints, saying that the advert needed to make all the ingredients in the product clearly visible. Despite the company's defense, it has been ruled that the advert will not be shown again in its current form." +entertainment,"USA Chicago, Illinois police arrested William Balfour, the estranged brother-in-law of Oscar-winning American actress and singer Jennifer Hudson, on Monday, multiple media outlets reported. Balfour is expected to be charged with three counts of murder for the slayings of three of Hudson's relatives in October. ""We have obtained an arrest warrant for William Balfour. He was released to Chicago detectives,"" Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Monique Bond told Reuters. Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and brother, Jason Hudson, 29 were found dead in Donerson's home on October 24 and the body of Hudson's 7-year-old nephew, Julian King was found four days later in a stolen SUV. A handgun police say is tied to the case was found nearby, but Reuters reports that Bond did not comment on any evidence in the case. The Associated Press reports that police took Balfour into custody on Oct. 24 and held him for 48 before the Illinois Department of Corrections took possession of him on an alleged parole violation. Balfour previously served nearly seven years for a 1999 conviction attempted murder, vehicular hijacking, and possessing a stolen vehicle. CNN reports he was out of jail on parole at the time of the shootings. Balfour's mother, Michelle Davis-Balfour, spoke to the press Monday night, saying she thought that there was no case against her son. ""If they found gun powder on his hands, you got a case; if they found a gun on him, he had a case; if they found a fingerprint on the truck that he did this, you got a case; but they don't have nothing,"" Davis-Balfour said, according to the Associated Press. She also said: ""My son did not do this. I am sick of this. They need to focus on somebody else."" Davis-Balfour also accused at least one witness of lying while providing an alibi for his son, saying he was with one of three girls friends when the killings happened. ""He was with Diana that night and with Kate in the morning,"" she said, according to CNN. Attorney for Balfour, Josh Kutnick, told CNN that his client is innocent. ""He believes when the evidence comes out, he will be found not guilty,"" Kutnick told CNN. Hudson became famous in 2004 when she was one of the finalists on the third season of the American hit television show American Idol. She later won multiple awards for her role in the 2006 motion picture Dreamgirls." +entertainment,"Called the ""Carrie Bradshaw"" of bloggers by the New York Times, Manhattanite New Yorker Stephanie Klein's online musings in her personal blog, Greek Tragedy, has gained the attention of Hollywood and the book industry while it draws comparisons to former HBO television series, Sex and the City. Since January 2004, Klein has written her blog which goes into the intimate details of her life as a 29-year-old professional divorced single woman living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, one of New York City's most upscale neighborhoods. Since then her blog has become among the top 1 percent most-read blogs in the world, according to Technorati's ""net attention"" ratings system. That popularity grabbed the attention of two international media conglomerates, News Corporation and NBC Universal. News Corp.'s HarperCollins book division struck a book deal with Klein valued at more than $500,000. The book is scheduled to debut in April 2006. Comparisons to Sex and the City may continue, as NBC Universal is developing the blog-based book into a fictionalized weekly sitcom version of Klein’s life for its NBC television network. * Greek Tragedy blog site" +entertainment,"When a fan connects with a band, it's often during moments like a drive down a highway at night reflecting on some aspect of his or her life; sitting at home after a fight with a girlfriend; singing in the shower; or celebrating at a party with her friends. Music becomes a soundtrack to an individual's life, and a connection with the musician forms when the listener is able to peg a perfect moment or feeling to a song. Boston-based mega-member rock group Bang Camaro's fan base claims a different level of interaction: they often have learned to play their music before they ever had a moment associated with it. Bang Camaro found fame on the video game Guitar Hero II, where an aspiring rock god uses a guitar-shaped peripheral to play rock music as notes scroll towards him on the screen. Wikinews reporter David Shankbone journeyed to the Bowery Ballroom to talk to the two founding members of Bang Camaro, Alex Necochea and Bryn Bennett. But when MTV.com shows up at the same time as Wikinews to do an interview, the band must split up. Below is our conversation with Necochea about touring, influence, politics, throwing his corpse out of a plane and flatulent women. ---- David Shankbone: How's the tour going? :Alex Necochea: The tours is going great! We just played in Poughkeepsie last night with the OCC house band. DS: Poughkeepsie, huh? :AN: Yeah! Laughs Poughkeepsie, it's kind of a dark town. Not much of a built-in crowd there. DS: What kind of crowd is there? :AN: From what I could tell, we played for a lot of Guitar Hero fans and people who heard about us through friends of friends, or came across us on MySpace. That sort of thing. But for the most part a lot of the kids we meet are anywhere between...well, I guess at a club like that they have to be over 18, but usually they are just much younger kids who are video game fans, who have heard about us through Guitar Hero II. DS: What's that like to have a fan base that comes from primarily video games? Have you noticed a difference between being known as a local band playing in your city and being known through video games? How would you compare the audience? :AN: It's different. In our hometown it started off as just a big word of mouth thing. We had twenty guys in the band, so everybody had friends-of-friends. We started a groundswell that way. But when we get out of town, not in New York so much, but when we go to Chicago and Milwaukee and places like that they generally tend to be much younger people. It's a really big thrill for Bryn and I in that we are meeting kids who are just like us: young video game fans, aspiring musicians, usually males who picked up guitars. They come to us and say, 'Nobody plays guitar anymore like you guys do!' or 'My parents used to listen to music like that!' It's just a big thrill for us to meet young kids like that who remind us of ourselves when we were kids. DS: How does it feel to be looked-up to by the kids, by America's future? :AN: Laughs It's terrifying! Laughs DS: Do you see parents at the show? :AN: Oh, yeah, oh yeah. Parents with their kids— DS: That must reduce the crotch grabbing. :AN: Laughs Yeah, a little bit of macho posturing. I tell you man, it's a really big thrill, just to go out and play in towns we've never been to. Kids come out and they know all the songs. We've had situations where we've played New York and girls are in the front row singing along to our guitar solos. Like, wow...we're on stage playing and we can hear them singing back at us. Something else Bryn and I have noticed is at larger festival shows when we get to the end of our shows we play Push Push Lady Lightning, the kids would just light up and start air guitaring! But not actually playing air guitar, but playing air guitar hero--like, they knew where all the notes were! DS: Which is a lot different for audiences of many bands. :AN: Absolutely! I can't imagine other bands having the same experience, because we come from such a unique perspective that a large part of our music is driven by the instrumentals, and that sort of thing. DS: Your fans are so engaged with your music, far more than most bands have. Most bands they have fans who feel their music speaks to them, but your fans can say, 'I learned to play guitar on your shit and not on Eleanor Rigby!' :AN: It's an honor. It's still unbelievable to me. I had a message from a friend of mine who was at Guitar Center and he heard one of the kids cranking out one of our songs when he was trying out the guitar. To me, it's like we made it. DS: At this point of your career, you're not playing stadiums, but you're also not playing Otto's Tiki Lounge on a Tuesday night. When you reflect upon it, what do you think about? :AN: In the past two years, since Bryn and I started this project, we've both been playing in bands locally in Boston for years. We had some mixed success, we played large venues in and around Boston. We got to the point where we said fuck it, we just want to have some fun and we'd laugh a lot going over old Ozzy Osbourne stuff we listened to as kids, just giggle about it. Bang Camaro started that way, something for us to do and invite our friends to come sing on it. Now, just two years later, it's amazing what happens when you stop trying. It's something not contrived or born of any desire to reach an audience. We just did it for fun, and that spoke to people more than anything else we worked on. DS: Do you have other areas of your life where you've been able to apply that? :AN: Laughs You mean as an ethos? Don't try? Laughs You know, not really. I have found the greatest success in the things I have put most of my effort into. This band has been a complete unique experience in that respect, at least in terms of trying to forge a 'career in music.' Bryn and I had gotten to the point where we thought maybe this wasn't the way to go. Bryn was going to go back to his career as a video game programmer and I was just going to find something else to do. So not really, I don't really apply that in any other portion of my life. DS: What are some dream projects you'd like to work on? :AN: As a musician, obviously for me it would be to meet and work with some heroes of mine since I was a kid. Like Mutt Lang; he always made my favorite records. At the same time, it has also been a dream of mine to meet people like Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse. Those guys made honest sort of rock n' roll, for lack of a better comparison, the way people like John Lennon or Bob Dylan would. To me those are the artists of my generation. It would be my dream one just to meet those guys and two just to work with them on some level. I'd also be lying to say that it would just be my dream to take this project with twenty of my best friends and take it as far as we can take it. So far in my life it's been the most rewarding thing. DS: In the creative process it's so difficult to be original today. Everything has been done. Do you ever let that trip you up, the Simpsons Did It problem? :AN: No, not really. I found I would end up falling into that cycle playing in indie rock bands, just trying to come up with the next thing, like Radiohead they stopped using guitars and things like that. Trying to kick the ball forward a little bit instead of kicking it side to side. With this band we don't get hung up on that. We originally just started it as a celebration of the things we loved when we were kids. We're not out here trying to reinvent the wheel. We're fortunate in that when we were putting the project together we wanted that big vocal sound. What set us apart was how we went about doing that. We just invited all of our friends because we didn't want to multi track everything ourselves. Soon after we had to figure out how to pull it off live, and people would approach and say 'we heard you have this crazy project with all these people.' The project grew into the live monster it is out of necessity. We're not rich people, we don't have refrigerators and the big tour bus. Speaking of dreams, maybe one day we'll have a tour bus. For now, we travel in two very smelly vans. DS: If you could choose your own death, how would you die? :AN: Laughs I would want to steal what I heard a mutual friend of ours said. He said when he died--it's not how he died, but this is what I heard--he said when he's dead, he wants his corpse to be dressed up like Superman and thrown out of an airplane. I thought that would be fitting. But I'm not ready to think about death, not just yet. DS: You guys have been described as Metal and Glam rock. What would you describe your sound as? :AN: I would call us anthem rock. We're really not heavy metal. I think our focus is more on writing great singles, as best as we can make them. Pop music. That's just something Bryn and I grew up on. We're big fans of melody and big driving hooks, that sort of thing. DS: Would you say anthem rock more in the Mötley Crüe vane or more in the T. Rex vane? :AN: I would say half and half. Our influences don't just stop with hair metal and things like that. We draw on things like Thin Lizzy, Boston, bands like that. Not necessarily virtuosic sort of musicianship, but things that are put together. We like to spend the time when we are writing our songs that we are taking all the extraneous crap out of it. We just want to make good, hook-drive pop music. DS: Does the war in Iraq affect you artistically at all? :AN: Laughs No, not at all. No, you could say I'm just like everybody else. I read the paper and blogs, and I'm just as horrified as everybody else. I'm definitely not a fan of this war. DS: If you had to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan, where would you fight? :AN: Oh, the fight was definitely in Afghanistan. Iraq was a much different animal. DS: Are you more inspired by things in nature or things that are man made? :AN: I would probably have to go with nature. I'm a student of science. I have a degree in environmental geology. When I was 19/20 years old I went through all the regular existential questions people that age go through: why am I here and my place in the universe, that sort of thing. DS: Did you answer any of them? :AN: Oh, God! I play rock guitar in a twenty man band! DS: That's important for a lot of people - you see your audience. You're giving a lot of inspiration to a lot of people. You don't know who you might be inspiring to pursue music. :AN: Laughs Oh, kids, don't be like me! I would definitely go with nature over man made. DS: What's your favorite curse word? :AN: Fuck. DS: What's your favorite euphemism for breasts? :AN: Big guns. DS: Have you used that recently? :AN: Actually, I think I did use that in the last week, and no comment. DS: I read that you named the band after fast women and fast cars. :AN: Laughs Who told you that? No, Bang Camaro were two words out of the English language that were the two sexiest words we could think of. We put them together and they roll off the tongue. Bang Camaro. It says a lot more than it means. DS: What sort of qualities do you look for in a woman? :AN: I need a girl who is going to make me laugh. I need a woman who is smarter than I am. A woman who will always keep me guessing. Absolutely. Calling me out for my own jerky bullshit. I like a girl who is fiercely independent, knows what she wants, and doesn't need me. DS: Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? :AN: Oh, man, I'm going to get in a lot of trouble for saying Obama. I would probably go with Obama. There's just something in his rhetoric and his oratory that is a lot more inspiring than Hillary. Hillary, to me, represents not much of a changing of the guard. DS: What would be the greatest of misfortunes to befall you? :AN: Chuckles Oh, if I were to die alone. No, probably one of my greatest fears is injuring or maiming any of my appendages, to be honest. DS: Do you have any special things you do to make sure you don't injure or lose an appendage? :AN: Chuckles I don't keep my hands in my pockets when I am running down stairs. DS: That's a conscious choice? :AN: Yes, that's a conscious choice. DS: What if you are just walking down stairs? :AN: Chuckles You can't realign the stars, man. Shit will happen, shit will happen. DS: What possession do you treasure most? :AN: That's a good question. Probably my cat. I love my cat more than anything. DS: What's your cat's name? :AN: Sadie. DS: Like Sexy Sadie? :AN: Yeah, like Sexy Sadie. That's exactly what I named her after. Big John Lennon fan, so I couldn't resist. DS: What trait do you deplore most in other people? :AN: I'm a lover, not a fighter. Jealousy, greed. But I try to look for the best in everybody. Who knows. DS: What do you think are the greatest threats to humanity? :AN: Humanity itself. You can typically read anywhere that humanity is a virus, a plague, on Mother Earth. I really think the greatest threat to humanity is not a meteor or comet hurtling toward the planet, it's us. We'll be our own undoing. Bad politics, the spread of...oh, man, I could get in trouble... DS: Who would you get in trouble with? :AN: No, I don't know who I could get in trouble with. But I definitely think that capitalism is something that having gone unchecked for so long isn't doing right in delivering civil freedom. It's not delivering on its promises. Then again, I play in a rock band and people come pay to see me. I understand it works on both levels. DS: What would be a bigger turn-off in bed: a woman who spoke in a baby voice, or someone who was overly flatulent? :AN: Oh God! I'd go with the baby talk, man. DS: You'd prefer the baby talk? :AN: No, I would go with the flatulent woman. At least she's real. DS: Have you ever been faced with either scenario? :AN: No, I don't think women should be flatulent. DS: At all? Not even if she lets out a little giggle afterwards? :AN: Yeah, well, so be it. DS: What if she was really flatulent? :AN: Like, extremely flatulent? I'd go more for the flatulence. Baby talk...that's a real boner killer. Sorry, man. DS: And you've never had a baby talker? :AN: No, not since high school. DS: In high school? :AN: Oh, yeah. She had to go. DS: What if she was Dutch oven flatulent? :AN: Is it really one or the other? Can I just go gay? DS: You can always go gay. It's the new millennium. :AN: Yeah, well, I'd probably end up with a baby-talking overly flatulent man, I'm sure." +entertainment,"American heavy metal/shock rock band W.A.S.P. have announced a world tour to mark the 15th anniversary of the release of concept album 'The Crimson Idol'. The tour will start at the end of October and carry through to early 2008. So far, 49 dates have been announced, although W.A.S.P. have not announced the venues for all of them, and more dates are to be announced later. Said the band in a statement: ""For the first time ever, 'The Crimson Idol' album will be performed in its entirety live. Never before has this great work been attempted to be performed this way. The live performance will feature all of the music from the original album but in addition, never-seen video footage will be shown throughout the show from beginning to end. This filmed footage was shot in 1992 and was originally designed to be a full-length movie. ""To commemorate the 15-year anniversary of this milestone album, it will be presented in its original story form. This promises to be a powerful and moving live experience. Being done in selective dates worldwide in 2007-2008."" The following dates have been announced so far: * October - Greece: Thessaloníki Idrogios * October 27 - Greece: Athens Gagarin 205 * October 28 - to be announced * October 29 - Scotland: Glasgow Garage * October 30 - United Kingdom: Liverpool Cavern Club * October 31 - UK: Dudley Jb's * November 01 - UK: Manchester Academy * November 02 - UK: London Astoria * November 03 - UK: Nottingham Rock City * November 04 - UK: Leeds Rio's * November 05 - UK: Newcastle Academy * November 06 - to be announced * November 07 - to be announced * November 08 - Norway: venue to be announced * November 09 - Norway: Trondheim Samfundet * November 10 - Norway: Jevnaker Venue Tba. * November 11 - Norway: Bergen Usf * November 12 - Norway: venue to be announced * November 13 - Norway: Oslo Rockefeller * November 14 - Norway: Stavanger Folken * November 15 - to be announced * November 16 - Sweden: Ostersund Eventhuset * November 17 - Sweden: Karlstadt Nöjesfabriken * November 18 - Sweden: Gothenburg Trädgarn * November 24 - Latvia: Riga Sapnu Fabrika * November 25 - Estonia: Tallinn Rock Café * November 30 - Germany: Chemnitz Hellraiser E.V. * December 01 - Czech Republic: Zlin Hala Novesta * December 02 - Hungary: Budapest Wigwam * December 03 - to be announced * December 04 - to be announced * December 05 - Spain: venue to be announced * December 06 - Spain: venue to be announced * December 07 - Spain: venue to be announced * December 08 - Spain: venue to be announced * December 09 - Spain: venue to be announced * December 10 - Spain: venue to be announced * December 11 - to be announced * December 12 - Italy: Treviso New Age * December 13 - Italy: Milan Rainbow * December 14 - Germany: Darmstadt Centralstation * December 15 - Germany: Düsseldorf Philipshalle * December 16 - Germany: Augsburg Rockfabrik * December 17 - Germany: Trier Europahalle * December 18 - Germany: Berlin Tba. * December 19 - Germany: Hamburg Markthalle * December 20 - Germany: Bremen Aladin * December 21 - Germany: Speyer Halle 101 * December 22 - Switzerland: Pratteln Z7" +entertainment,"NBC has officially decided to cancel its high-rated reality show Three Wishes after only nine episodes. The network also cut back the number of season episodes for Law & Order from 24 episodes to 22. Three Wishes, which is hosted by Christian music artist Amy Grant, was watched by approximately 8.7 million viewers upon its premiere on September 23. It continued to boast high ratings, but NBC nonetheless rescinded its order for six more episodes of the series. The final episode is scheduled to premiere on NBC on Friday, December 9 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (02:00 UTC). In response to the cancellation of Three Wishes, many petitions have sprung up throughout the Internet and in dozens of cities. A few petitions are listed below. * Make Miracles Happen- Save ""Three Wishes"" petition" +entertainment,"Protesters affiliated with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign disrupted a performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Thursday evening as part of The Proms concert season. The disruption forced the BBC to cut short a live broadcast of the orchestra playing Bruch's violin concerto. 30 people were removed from the auditorium but no arrests were made. The BBC made a statement regarding the disruption: ""We regret that as a result of sustained audience disruption within the concert hall which affected the ability to hear the music, tonight’s Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Prom was taken off air."" Outside the concert hall, around twenty people protested with banners. According to comments on a Facebook page linked to by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, there was a planned ""Zionist counter-demonstration"". The same Facebook page also has a comment posted at 4:12pm giving advice for attendees: They can't gag you, so you can still shout and interrupt it! ... Just co-ordinate yourselves, but do not rely on texts etc because they will most likely block mobile communications. Maybe set watches or reminders in phones to the same times, then you are at least prepared when one of you jump up to interrupt, and then the chorus of you can join in! Get the external protesters to wriggle their way to staff/back stage entrances as hungry fans! Wear a load of Christian crosses and start sic of davids....and/or women cover your hair 'jewish style' with long veil bandanas etc. The disruption follows a failed attempt by activists to prevent the performance from happening in the first place." +entertainment,"79th Annual Academy Awards Children Uniting Nations/Billboard afterparty Professional photographer John B. Mueller was at the Children Uniting Nations/Billboard Academy Awards afterparty red carpet, taking photos for Wikinews. It is one of the largest events, following only the Vanity Fair and Elton John AIDS Foundation Party in size. Among the guests at the event were Lil' Kim, Bow Wow, Ruben Studdard, Diane DeGarmo, DMX, Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels, DJ Spinderella, Dennis Hopper, Blu Cantrell, Tyler Hilton, Erik Palladino, Daniel Cage, Farnsworth Bentley, Aaron Carter, Nick Carter, Cindy Margolis, LaToya Jackson, AJ McLean, Joey Fatone, Shar Jackson, Tyrese, Tyson Beckford, Tara Reid, Rosie Perez, Radha Mitchell, MC Lyte, Jane Seymour, James Keach, Fran Drescher, Tommy Davidson, Bruce Davison, and Adam Kowalczyk. Even Mickey Rooney stopped by to watch the ceremonies. Larry Birkhead, boyfriend of the late-Anna Nicole Smith was still on the guest list, according to press materials. No media outlet reported him attending, so it is likely he stayed in Florida for the on-going legal proceedings. All of the photos taken by Mueller at the event are released under the Creative Commons By Attribution license, which allows them to be used freely by anyone for any purpose, so long as they credit both Mueller and Wikimedia. Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Kirk Jones.jpg|Kirk ""Sticky Fingaz"" Jones recently launched a new clothing line... Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN DMX and woman.jpg|As is DMX, with his DMX Authentic and Earl Simmons Signature Collections. Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Blu Cantrell.jpg|Blu Cantrell was one of the night's performers... Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Fab Morvan.jpg|...but thankfully Milli Vanilli frontman Fab Morvan didn't try to lip-sync along. Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Noureen DeWulf.jpg|Rising actress Noureen DeWulf recently appeared in Mandy Moore pic American Dreamz Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Tyler Hilton.jpg|While hotel heiress Paris Hilton didn't show up, Tyler Hilton did. Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Terry Crews.jpg|Everybody Hates Chris dad Terry Crews stopped for the cameras. Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Mitchell Musso.jpg|Hannah Montana star Mitchel Musso was a guest. Recently Wikinews spotted him at the Annie Awards, for Monster House. Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN David Faustino.jpg|After filing for divorce, David Faustino (Bud Bundy, Married with Children) is on the singles market. Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Bruce Davison.jpg|Bruce Davison takes it easy, after recently finishing the film Special Ops: Delta Force, in which he stars as General Preston Rossdale. Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Celestina.jpg|Celestina, from Jennifer Lopez's Dancelife reality show, dances onto the red carpet. Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Hood Surgeon Curtis Young 2.jpg|Curtis ""Hood Surgeon"" Young, Dr. Dre's son, represents Compton and So Hood Records. Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Kay Panabaker.jpg|George is the upcoming Nancy Drew movie, Kay Panabaker is the title character in Moondance Alexander, which is in post-production. Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Lainey Kazan.jpg|Lainie Kazan was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in 1982 flick My Favorite Year. Image:Academy Awards afterparty CUN Luenell.jpg|Luenell, who was one of the few actual actors in Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." +entertainment,"obituaries Acclaimed actor and singer Debbie Reynolds died at the age of 84 yesterday at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Her son, Todd Fisher, said around noon yesterday she suffered a stroke brought on by the stress of the death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher. Reynolds' credits include lead roles in films Singin' in the Rain, Bundle of Joy, and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, the last of which earned her an Academy Award nomination. She worked to preserve Hollywood history and memorabilia for posterity and, like Carrie Fisher, as an advocate for mental health awareness. Born Mary Francis Reynolds in 1932, she was given the stage name ""Debbie"" by Warner Brothers director Jack Warner, which she would later say was done without her permission. She would go on to spend twenty years with MGM studios. Reynolds received a Tony Award nomination for her acting in the 1973 revival of Irene. Reynolds' business interests included owning various private museums of film memorabilia as part of her personal Hollywood history preservation project. She would often purchase and hold items such as Marilyn Monroe's dress from The Seven Year Itch and Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra headdress until they could be displayed to the public. More recently, she was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2000 for a Will & Grace recurring role and appeared as the main character's mother in HBO's Behind the Candelabra. She worked as a voice actress on animated productions such as the children's show Kim Possible and the more adult Family Guy. She was honored with the 2016 Academy Awards Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 2015. In Reynolds' personal life, her first husband and father of her two children, Eddie Fisher, very publicly left her for her friend Elizabeth Taylor. She declared bankruptcy in 1997 after a failed casino project. Carrie Fisher was an actor, author, and mental health advocate best known for acting in the Star Wars film series and for her novel Postcards from the Edge, which had a character inspired by her mother, Reynolds. Fisher was taken ill while flying from London to Los Angeles and died on Tuesday. Fisher and Reynolds did not speak for several years, though this rift was long over by the time of Fisher's death. According to Todd Fisher, he and his mother had been discussing his sister's funeral at his home shortly before the stroke; Reynolds said to him, ""I miss her so much, I want to be with Carrie."" Reynolds is survived by son Todd Fisher and granddaughter Billie Lourd." +entertainment,"Swedish House MafiaSwedish-based house music group Swedish House Mafia have announced their intention to disband after their next tour. A statement from the group said ""the tour we are about to go on will be our last"". The group, which consists of DJs Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso, formed in 2008, with its members initially DJing in a pizza shop in the Swedish capital in the early 2000s. In a statement on their website, the group expressed their appreciation to their supporters. ""We want to thank every single one of you that came with us on this journey,"" the group statement reads. ""We came, we raved, we loved."" Swedish House Mafia appeared at Radio 1's Hackney Weekend at the weekend. The group also announced future tour dates, including Ushuaia on the Spanish island of Ibiza from July 4 to August 29, the Friends Arena in Sweden on November 24 and the National Bowl in the British town of Milton Keynes on July 14, the latter of which the page says will be the group's final night in the United Kingdom. ""The final leg of this journey will be announced in August,"" the statement reads. Last week, Ingrosso told Rolling Stone magazine of his interest in having Beatles member Paul McCartney collaborate with Swedish House Mafia, describing The Beatles' music as ""kind of melancholic to sad and happy combined"", calling it ""just amazing"". Ingrosso believed ""what the Beatles have done is what we do today. It doesn't matter that we do dance music"". Below is an image gallery of the members of Swedish House Mafia: Kevin Dougans" +entertainment,"British singer Susan Boyle has been released from a private mental clinic. On May 31, Boyle was admitted by ambulance to the Priory clinic in London, England after she began to act strange in her hotel room, reportedly suffering an ""emotional breakdown."" Boyle's brother, Gerry Boyle, told GMTV that Susan is ""a lot more like herself,"" and that she is ""much happier."" He also added that Boyle is ""now beginning to believe that, 'Yes indeed, I will be a singer.'"" Boyle, 47, from Blackburn, West Lothian, in Scotland, came in second place on the British reality show Britain's Got Talent (BGT). Boyle was beaten by the dance group Diversity on Saturday who got 24% of the public vote, with Boyle receiving 20%. She took the world by storm after her debut appearance on April 11 singing ""I Dreamed a Dream"" from the award-winning musical Les Misérables. Just a day after appearing on the show, Boyle became a YouTube sensation with her performance receiving nearly 9 million views. To date, the YouTube clip has been viewed by over 66 million people worldwide. Traditionally, finalists of the show go on a concert tour of the UK, although producers for Britain's Got Talent will not say whether Boyle plans to be a part of it. A spokesperson stated they are respecting Boyle's privacy amid her health concerns. Rehearsals for the tour are reported to begin next week, with the first show starting on June 12." +entertainment,"Finnish hard rock band Lordi are to star in a horror movie called Dark Floors. The film is written in English and began filming earlier this month and will premier in Finland late this year. The film has a budget of 3-4 million euros. Lordi are famed for their monster costumes and lyrical themes. The band, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with Hard Rock Hallelujah, stated at the time they would like to star in a horror movie. They were one of a number of people promoting their films at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend; a ""Finland Bar"" was set up near the area. Mr Lordi, lead vocalist of the band, said at the time ""In a way it is traditional horror film, but a traditional modern horror film. It has monsters obviously in it... It has some twists in the plot, of course, it has some horrific scenes and a horrific mood, it is more like a psychological thing... Lordi goes to the twilight zone, that is pretty much (what) you can say."" Lordi also performed at the Cannes festival." +entertainment,"New Zealand Yesterday the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, presented song writer, Don McGlashan with his second Silver Scroll at an exclusive awards ceremony. The song that won him the prestigious APRA music award was the hit song Bathe in the River, which featured in the hit New Zealand movie No. 2 sung by Wellington singer, Hollie Smith. McGlashan won his first Silver Scroll in 1994 for his song Anchor Me when he was with the band The Mutton Birds. Anthony Healey, APRA New Zealand Director, said: ""Bathe in the River is a song that captures the hearts and emotions of everyone who hears it. All Don's music is emotive and powerful and this song is no exception. ...Absolute classic."" There were four other songs that were finalists in the award that is based on songwriting, not record sales. One other song that was written by McGlashan was a finalist. Other winners at the ceremony were: *Richard Bennett was presented with the Maioha Award at the Silver Scroll ceremony for his waiata E Hine (waiata is the Māori term for song and singing). *Ross Harris's song Symphony No. 2 won the Sounz Contemporary award for the third time. Harris said: ""It is intended to convey the terrible sadness of the man-made hell of war."" *James Reid for the single Stand Up which was the most performed work in New Zealand. *Neil Finn took the award, once again, for the most performed work overseas. Evermore were nominated this year after winning the award last year." +entertainment,"Police were called to the set of the television crime show, CSI: Miami during filming, when a real body was seen washing up on shore. A police officer for the Miami Dade Police Department spotted the body while he was working on the show which was being filmed in Bicentennial Park in Miami, Florida. The cast of the show were attempting to get shots from the air using a helicopter when the officer spotted the body floating a few yards from the set's location. ""Unfortunately, it's not unusual during certain times of the year that people who have fallen in the bay, either homeless people or people who were asleep or in some cases boaters who had a mishap, fall into the bay and turn up days later,"" said Delrish Moss, a detective for Miami Police. There is no word on what caused the individual's death, but police say an autopsy will be performed on the body. Earlier in the week, the set of CSI: New York was also turned into a real crime scene when a mummified body was discovered inside a building located in Los Angeles, California where the show was being filmed. The Miami Herald reported an unnamed source as saying that the corpse ""was discovered by a building engineer who checked on the tenant because he had not paid rent for the month."" CSI: New York just finished filming an episode with a similar plot." +entertainment,"India Heritage Arts and Events Limited Indian ghazal singer Jagjit Singh died today at 8:10&nbsp;am IST after a brain haemorrhage at the age of 70. He was admitted to Lilivati Hospital in Mumbai just before a scheduled performance on September 23. Despite surgery, he remained on life support. Called ""The Ghazal King"", he sang in several languages. He also received the Padma Bhushan award. His death was the top story on most Pakistani news agencies' websites." +entertainment,"Culture and entertainment Over the weekend, tributes were paid to US actor Chadwick Boseman, including Sunday's commercial-free airing of Black Panther and a special retrospective about Boseman entitled ""A Tribute For a King"" by American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Boseman died on Friday after being diagnosed with colon cancer four years earlier. Boseman, who rose to international fame for his title role in the 2018 Marvel superhero film Black Panther, was 43 years old. Boseman died at home on August 28 in the company of his wife and family according to a statement posted to his official Twitter account. It also stated he was in stage IV of his cancer which had been diagnosed in 2016. His illness was not public information, even as he had undergone surgeries and chemotherapy to treat it, all the while continuing to work. Boseman was born in South Carolina. He attended the British American Drama Academy (BADA) during his studies at Howard University from which he graduated in 2000. Early in his career, Boseman acted in television soap operas, however, his role as Jackie Robinson in film 42 was widely considered a breakthrough. He later played starring roles in other biographical films portraying James Brown in Get On Up and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall. Boseman portrayed Black Panther, also known as King T'Challa, in four Marvel films. The first was Captain America: Civil War which preceded the aforementioned Black Panther film. Subsequently, he appeared in both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther, wrote of Boseman, ""I noticed then that Chad was an anomaly"", recalling their first meeting. ""He was calm. Assured. Constantly studying. But also kind, comforting, had the warmest laugh in the world, and eyes that saw much beyond his years, but could still sparkle like a child seeing something for the first time."" Actor Denzel Washington, who paid for Boseman to attend BADA, stated ""He was a gentle soul and a brilliant artist, who will stay with us for eternity through his iconic performances over his short yet illustrious career … God bless Chadwick Boseman."" Wayne A. I. Frederick, president of Howard University, wrote ""It is with profound sadness that we mourn the loss of alumnus Chadwick Boseman who passed away this evening. His incredible talent will forever be immortalized through his characters and through his own personal journey from student to superhero! Rest in Power, Chadwick!"" On Sunday, the MTV Video Music Awards also marked the passing of Boseman by dedicating the show to him. The audience was also shown a replay from the 2018 ceremony when Boseman gave his ""Best Hero"" award to James Shaw Jr. who disarmed a shooter at a restaurant in Tennessee. During ABC's ""A Tribute For a King"", Sunday evening, a number of celebrities made appearances. Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Feige, Bob Iger, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Winston Duke, Mark Ruffalo, and Paul Rudd, all contributed. During the broadcast, Downey said of Boseman, ""He was having this immense success, in a strata of his own, humble hardworking, always smile on his face … Black Panther was hands down the crowning achievement of the Marvel Universe. The one where people got to vote with ticket sales we require this. It is a fantastic movie that leveled the playing field."" The Walt Disney Company owns both Marvel Studios and ABC." +entertainment,"Legendary R&B singer Fats Domino is missing, three days after Hurricane Katrina hit in his hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana. The singer told his agent, Al Embry, that he planned to stay at his home with his wife and daughter, rather than evacuate. He has not been heard from since Sunday night. It was reported on Wednesday that his house was flooded, though there were no reports on whether Domino and his family were able to escape. Domino, 77, lives in the city's 9th Ward, one of the areas hardest hit by Katrina. Attempts to reach Domino by phone proved futile, as phone lines have not been working in the area since the storm hit. Antoine 'Fats' Domino first gained stardom with one of the first rock n' roll records, ""The Fat Man"". The record went platinum, selling over a million copies and hitting #2 on the Billboard charts. Of Domino's numerous Top 40 singles, perhaps his most notable were Blue Monday and a cover of Blueberry Hill. Domino retired from touring in the 1980s, and has not left the city since, citing his dislike of touring, and his love of New Orleans cuisine. Not even his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or an invitation to the White House were able to get Domino to leave the town." +entertainment,"Producers of India's Big Brother have said that an upcoming celebrity edition will have a ban on ""hanky-panky"". A spokeswoman for Endemol India told BBC News that contestants will have to remain chaste in the Big Brother house for three months. ""Participants will be told to keep their hands to themselves,"" she revealed. ""India is a conservative society and it is not ready for the raunchy scenes that so characterise the programmes in the West,"" she added. And unlike other versions of Big Brother around the world, India's version will not be transmitted live in a bid to avoid showing unpleasant scenes which may cause controversy. It is understood that up to twelve contestants will participate in the show, which is to be televised at the end of this year. The show’s producers have said they want stars from Bollywood, Indian television and cricket to live in the Big Brother compound. The managing director of Endemol India, Rajesh Kamat, said both Hindus and Muslims may be chosen, but that issues between religions would not be talked about on the programme. India is still quite a conservative society. Close acts like kissing are never seen on TV, and only a small number of couples cohabit before marriage. In 2006, two housemates were removed from Australia's version of Big Brother after apparently sexually assaulting a female contestant. Big Brother was created in the Netherlands in 1999 and has sold to almost seventy different countries." +entertainment,"Eurovision_Dance_Contest_2007 Tonight the first Eurovision Dance Contest was held in London. Sixteen countries entered with most of the participants coming from the regional versions of Strictly Come Dancing. The participants and countries, listed in winning order, are: Greece didn't air the show live, and the points given out were decided by a jury of Greek experts. Despite France not taking part, the show was broadcast in English and French. Graham Norton and Claudia Winkleman hosted at BBC Television Centre. Graham Norton kept the audience laughing throughout the show and also sent sent his consolations to both Greece, for their forest fires, and to Switzerland as they were heading for nil-points, which, in the end, they finished with. Despite Finland winning the 2008 Eurovision Dance Contest will also be held in London. If next year's show is popular, the winning country will host the following year's contest, Song Contest style!" +entertainment,"Obituaries British actor Tony Booth died on Monday at age 85, according to his family. He is best known for his role in the TV comedy Till Death Us Do Part. He is also known for his daughter Cherie Blair, wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair. Booth had a long acting career. He was star of Till Death Us Do Part in the 1960s, where he played the part of Mike Rawlings. He also played in Coronation Street, EastEnders, Emmerdale, and The Bill on TV, as well as playing in numerous films. In 1998 he became president of Equity, the British trade union for actors. As well as Cherie Blair, Booth also fathered seven other daughters, some out of wedlock, and had four marriages. He had a reputation as a womanizer, a heavy drinker, and a charmer. Booth lived with Alzheimer's disease for a long time. He was diagnosed in 2004. He also suffered heart problems. HYS" +entertainment,"David Byrne, the former lead singer of 1980s art punk band Talking Heads, is suing Florida governor Charlie Crist over the latter's use of the Talking Heads song ""Road to Nowhere"" in an election commercial. Byrne alleges that Crist made use of the song in a campaign commercial without the artist's permission, and that if permission had been asked Byrne would have declined it. Byrne told the BBC that the lawsuit, in which the musician is claiming $1 million in damages, is ""not about politics, it's about copyright"". In his personal blog, though, Byrne commented: ""Besides being theft, use of the song and my voice in a campaign ad implies that I, as writer and singer of the song, might have granted Crist permission to use it, and that I therefore endorse him and/or the Republican Party, of which he was a member until very, very recently."" Governor Crist is running for election to the United States Senate as an independent. The lawsuit was filed early Monday afternoon in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa and has been assigned Case Number 8:10-CV1187-T26 (MAP). Byrne is represented by Lawrence Iser, the attorney who represented Jackson Browne when Browne successfully sued John McCain in a similar lawsuit in 2008. The advertisement, which premiered on January 12, 2010 and has since been withdrawn from use, attacked politician Marco Rubio over reversals in Rubio's public positions. The video has been blocked on video hosting site YouTube ""due to a copyright claim by Warner Music Group."" Governor Crist's campaign had no comment on the lawsuit." +entertainment,"British singer Amy Winehouse died today in her London home in Camden Square, aged 27. The cause of death is not yet known and is being treated as ""unexplained"", according to the metropolitan police. ""On arrival, officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead at the scene"", said a police statement on their website. An ambulance was called to her address where paramedics reported her dead on the scene at around 16:00 local time (15:00 UTC) in London. Winehouse previously had problems with drugs and alcohol and checked herself out of rehab in June." +entertainment,"Culture and entertainment On Friday, US director and screenwriter James Gunn was fired from work on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for Marvel Studios reportedly for his offensive tweets from 2008 to 2011 about, amongst other things, rape and paedophilia. In a statement, Walt Disney Studios' Chairman Alan Horn said, ""The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him"". The Walt Disney Company owns Marvel Studios. James Gunn wrote the screenplay and directed Marvel movies Guardians of the Galaxy, released in 2014, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, released in 2017. Based on the comic book characters in the Marvel Comics, the movie franchise featured Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillian as well as Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel as voice cast for CGI characters. The two movies earned a worldwide box office revenue of about USD 773 million and USD 864 million per Box Office Mojo's statistics. Gunn had been writing the third movie in the franchise reportedly to be released in 2020. Responding to his firing, James Gunn said, ""My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative. I have regretted them for many years since — not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don't reflect the person I am today or have been for some time. Regardless of how much time has passed, I understand and accept the business decisions taken today. Even these many years later, I take full responsibility for the way I conducted myself then."" In one of the old tweets, Gunn wrote, ""The best thing about being raped is when you're done being raped and it's like 'whew this feels great, not being raped!'"" Dave Bautista, who portrays Drax the Destroyer in Gunn's Marvel movies, tweeted about Gunn's dismissal saying, ""James Gunn is one of the most loving, caring, good natured people I have ever met. He's gentle and kind and cares deeply for people and animals. He's made mistakes. We all have. I'm NOT ok with what's happening to him"". After Gunn was fired, David Dastmalchian, an actor in the latest Marvel Studios movie Ant-Man and the Wasp wrote on Instagram, ""i've been saying this FOR YEARS! @jamesgunn is one of the most amazing people I've ever known - both professionally & personally. there are so many people in our lives that we would never have known without the incredible magnet of talent & goodness that is James ... thanks for making us a part of your family, buddy.""" +entertainment,"American musician Meat Loaf has canceled the remaining dates of his 2007 European tour on Tuesday. This decision was announced less than a week after the performer prematurely ended a concert in Newcastle upon Tyne. Earlier reports attributed Meat Loaf's medical problems at Newcastle to a sore throat. This week's announcements indicate that the rocker sustained a vocal cord cyst that requires weeks of treatment and possibly surgery. Despite Meat Loaf's indication at the Newcastle concert that his career might have ended, a most recent statement on his fan site declared that he would be ""coming back strong in 2008"" with hopes of new concerts following treatment." +entertainment,"German rock and metal label GUN Records (Great Unlimited Noises) announced Friday that they were to close. No explanation has been given for the move. Formed as a joint venture between BMG and Wolfgang Funk in 1992, the label had seen its parent merge with Sony in 2005 to form Sony BMG and Funk quit as president in December 2008. In the nineties the label worked with German metal bands such as U.D.O., Sodom and Running Wild. GUN's current international acts - including Wales' Bullet for My Valentine, Finland's Lordi and the Netherlands' Within Tempatation - will now be handled out of Sony's Munich international division. National artists, such as Oomph! and The Donots, will also be Sony's direct responsibility via either Four Music or Columbia Germany in Berlin. The label has also worked with Sturm und Drang, Apocalyptica and HIM. The closure will affect eight employees including Arno Hartfield, the managing director." +entertainment,"In an interview on the United States television show Good Morning America today, U.S. vice president Joe Biden said that a positive consensus on same-sex marriage is ""inevitable"" as the country ""evolves."" source=Joe Biden ""There is inevitability for a national consensus on gay marriage. I think the country's evolving. And I think you're going to see, you know, the next effort is probably going to be to deal with so-called DOMA,"" said Biden. Biden's remarks come just days after U.S. president Barack Obama signed into law, the repeal of Don't ask, don't tell (DADT). The repeal, which was signed by Obama on Thursday, will now allow gay and lesbian service members to serve openly in the country's military, without fear that they will be discharged from service. A report by The Pentagon earlier this month concluded most U.S. service personnel do not believe reform of the rules on gays and lesbians serving in the military would affect morale, unit cohesion or military effectiveness. The report found only 30% believed that changing the law would have a negative effect. DADT, in effect for 17 years, was repealed by the United States Senate on Saturday. The military will cease enforcement of the policy in 60 days time, after the Pentagon has certified to Congress that it, and the military are ready to implement the new law. ""This is a very good day,"" Obama told a crowd of soldiers and senior military officials on Thursday. ""This morning I'm proud to sign a law that will bring an end to 'don't ask, don't tell'. No longer will tens of thousands of Americans be asked to live a lie in order to serve the country that they love."" Obama added that the government would ""not drag their feet"" and they were ""committed to implementing this change swiftly and efficiently."" Currently, same-sex marriage is only legal in five of the 50 U.S. states; Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, including the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.). In 2008, same-sex marriage was banned in California after voters approved Proposition 8. It was later overturned by a federal judge in San Francisco who deemed the measure unconstitutional." +entertainment,"BBC Some 8,400 complaints have been made to the BBC and 374 complaints have been received by Ofcom, a British media regulator, after soap opera EastEnders broadcasted what BBC News Online described as the ""cot death storyline"". The storyline involves character Ronnie Branning – portrayed by Samantha Womack – taking her baby, who experienced sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and exchanging for another living baby, Alfie and Kat Moon's recently born son. The plot has caused the largest number of complaints to be made about the show since it was first broadcast in 1985. Campaigners attempting to raise awareness of SIDS criticised the plot. Anne Diamond, a television presenter and one of those campaigners, remarked that the exchange of the babies was a ""crass twist to an otherwise credible storyline"" and said that not ""one iota of good in educating a young audience about cot death"" had been achieved by it. Due to the complaints received, the BBC have made the decision to end this storyline earlier than originally scheduled, during the spring of 2011. Bryan Kirkwood, the current executive producer of EastEnders, has disclosed that, at the end of this storyline, the baby, named Tommy, will remeet Kat Moon, his mother. EastEnders executive producer Kirkwood said that this storyline, like many others in the BBC One programme, approaches ""social issues in a powerful and dramatic way"". He also explained: ""Although we have had complaints we have also had positive responses from people who have been through the experiences we are currently dramatising who feel we've done this and have contacted us to offer their backing. ""Whenever we embark on a story at EastEnders we always leave it open-ended to monitor and listen to audience reaction,"" he continued. ""With this in mind we are going to bring the story to a close on screen in the spring. As the story progresses and Kat is reunited with her child, we hope to explore the impact of the tragic events that have befallen the characters in a way that is powerful, but true to the best public service tradition of the show."" Justine Roberts, the chief executive officer and founder of British community website Mumsnet, created a letter of complaint for Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC. ""The focus of the complaint is the swapping story line,"" the letter reads. ""Our members are concerned that, as is all too common, a bereaved mother has been portrayed as deranged and unhinged."" Do you think that a storyline like this is unsuitable for broadcast? In response to the Mumsnet letter, Jana Bennett, director of vision at the BBC, stated that this plot was managed in a manner that was ""sensitively handled"". She stressed that ""the show is absolutely not suggesting that this behaviour is typical of a mother who has suffered such a terrible and tragic loss. ""Taking Kat's baby is the action of a character in great distress due to a series of events that have befallen her in the last 18 months,"" Bennett explained. ""It is the culmination of these that has driven her to this one moment of madness rather than as a direct result of the loss of her baby. The issues of grief caused by the loss of a child and sudden infant death syndrome more generally are sensitively handled. EastEnders has a long history of tackling difficult issues in a way that allows viewers to learn and debate the topic at hand."" On Thursday, Samantha Womack denied that this storyline was the reason for her leaving the programme. She has mentioned that her departure had already been arranged with producers of the programme for a few months. Before this incident occurred, the record for the highest number of complaints for EastEnders was a storyline in April 2009 that involved Danielle Jones being killed as the result of a car collision. That storyline received in excess of 7,000 complaints." +entertainment,"New Zealand The 2006 QANTAS New Zealand Television Awards were announced tonight (NZDT). The winners and their respective categories follow. Best comedy finalists were pulp sport, bro'Town and The Unauthorised History of New Zealand with Pulp Sport taking out the prize. The best observational reality (non format) show out of Snotties, The Zoo and Tough Act was Snotties. Best reality (format) show finalists were Downsize Me!, Sensing Murder and Shock Treatment. The winner being Sensing Murder. Best current affairs report finalist were Alex Teka, Detox Diary, Not Fit to Practise and Turning the Tide. The winner was Detox Diary. Best news or current affairs presenter of the year finalists were Shane Taurima, Willie Jackson, John Campbell and Susan Wood. Winner was John Campbell, the prize was awarded to him by his producer, Carol Hirschfield. Mr Campbell was ""stupidly proud."" No finalist was for the award of TV journalist so the winner was Mike McRoberts and the first thing he said when he arrived on stage was: ""Crikey dick."" Peter Day was awarded for current affair camera. Current affairs reporter was Hadyn Jones. The best news or current affairs editor was Shahir Daud. Lifestyle and information programme finalists were House Trap, Target and The Living Room. The winner was Target. The best popular documentary section finalists were Give My Children Back, Earthquake and Million Dollar Tumour (all of which aired on TV3). The winner was Million Dollar Tumour. The best arts/festival documentary was Artsville. The best factual camera was awarded to David Stipson. Paul Sutorius was the best factual editor. Geoff Husson got the award for the best non-drama director. The winner of favourite female, as voted by the public ""by a country mile"", was Hillary Barry. Public voted favourite male was Simon Dallow taking the award, who was ""lost for words...truly shocked..."" The favourite programme nominees were Shortland Street, Outrageous Fortune, NZ Idol, Sensing Murder, Downsize Me!, Dancing With The Stars, Target and bro'Town. The winner was, as voted by the public, Shortland Street. Grey's Anatomy won the best international programme as voted by the public. Best sports or event coverage out of Na Ratou Mo Tatou, V8 Supercars Pukekohe or 3 News election night was Na Ratou Mo Tatou (ANZAC day coverage). Best entertainment nominees were What Now; the Gunge and Run Awards, Dave Dobbyn; One Night in Matata and Snatch out Booty and the winner was Dave Dobbyn; One Night in Matata. The best non factual script writer went to David Brechin-Smith. Fred Renata, best camera non factual, and best editing for non-factual went to Bryan Shaw. The best drama director went to Brendan Donovan. Finalists were for best news report team are, ""David-Benson Pope"" on 3 News, ""Robert Hewitt"" on One News and ""Gaza"" on 3 News. Winner was 3 News for ""Gaza"". ""The most important category."" Best current affairs show finalists were Fair Go, Sunday, Campbell Live. Winner was Campbell Live, when on stage Mr Campbell said: ""Bloody Stoked."" Best news finalists were 3 News and One News and the winner was One News. Bruce Adams was awarded with best news camera. Best news reporter was given to Michael Holland. Best children/youth programme winners was Let's Get Inventin'. Best actress finalists were Kate Atkinson, Robyn Malcolm and Kate Elliot. The award was awarded to Kate Elliot. Best actor finalists were Antony Starr, Ryan O'Kane and Scott Wills and the winner was Ryan O'Kane. The last award, best drama, the finalists were The Insiders Guide to Love, Doves of War, Outrageous Fortune. The winner of best drama was The Insiders Guide to Love. original -unreviewed" +entertainment,"Producers of the film Superhero Movie, out today, released clips from the film on the Internet parodying a Church of Scientology promotional video featuring Scientologist Tom Cruise. Superhero Movie is written and directed by Scott Mazin, director of the 2000 comedy about superheroes The Specials. The film stars Drake Bell, Sara Paxton, Christopher McDonald, Pamela Anderson, Tracy Morgan, Regina Hall, Craig Bierko, Simon Rex, Leslie Nielsen, Marion Ross, Kevin Hart, Jeffrey Tambor, Ryan Hansen, Brent Spiner and Keith David. Drake Bell plays Rick Riker, a young man figuring out how to use his superpowers. The film parodies blockbuster superhero movies including Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, and Fantastic Four. In the original Scientology video, Cruise discusses his faith and his opinion on what it means to be a Scientologist, while the theme music from his Mission: Impossible series of films plays in the background. The video, which was not intended for public distribution outside of the Church of Scientology, is nine minutes long and contains heavy use of Scientology terminology. The video appeared on YouTube January 15, two days before the release of a biography on Cruise by Andrew Morton: Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography. The Church of Scientology sent legal letters to YouTube and to Gawker.com, sites which were hosting the Cruise video at the time, and requested that they take it down. YouTube complied, but Gawker.com did not, and Nick Denton of Gawker.com commented: ""It's newsworthy, and we will not be removing it."" The video later appeared on websites other than Gawker.com, including the New York Post, Independent Television News and the BBC. Attempts by the Church of Scientology to remove the video from the Internet motivated an Internet-based group known as ""Anonymous"" to take action in a movement called Project Chanology. Members of Anonymous bombarded Scientology websites and were successful in taking some of them down, including Scientology.org. Anonymous later changed tactics towards legal measures, and held international protests against Scientology on February 10 and March 15, with another international protest planned for April 12. According to Scientology critic David S. Touretzky, the Scientology terms used in the video by Cruise have ""entered the national lexicon"", and the Scientology video itself has become something of an Internet phenomenon. Touretzky also referred to the negative effect on Cruise's publicity as a consequence of the leak. 4=Liz Shannon Miller, NewTeeVee In the excerpt released online from Superhero Movie, actor Miles Fisher imitates Cruise in what Liz Shannon Miller of NewTeeVee described as ""an eerily dead-on impersonation of Cruise’s infamous leaked Scientology indoctrination video"". She also compared the clip to a different spoof of the Cruise video, by actor Jerry O'Connell. Craig Ferguson also spoofed the video in a clip on his show on CBS, The Late Late Show, as did the comedy website Super Deluxe. Christopher McDonald plays the villain ""Hourglass"" in Superhero Movie, and told MTV News he was surprised at some of the parodies that successfully appear in the film: ""The thing I didn't think we'd get away with was the actual Tom Cruise stuff. There may be lawsuits there."" A post at Slashfilm wrote positively of Fisher's performance: ""Slashfilm would like to salute young actor and Harvard alum Miles Fisher for easily giving the best impression of Tom Cruise we’ve ever seen in the yuk-yuk comic book spoof."" A post at MoviesOnline commented: ""The actor hits every point he needs to and it is almost scary how close he is to the actual Tom Cruise way of thinking."" Thomas Leupp of ReelzChannel.com called the scene ""a dead-on spoof of Tom Cruise's now-infamous Scientology video"". Ryan Parsons of CanMag wrote that Fisher impersonates Cruise ""perfectly"", and Ryan Tate of Gawker.com called the clip ""the slickest crazy-Cruise imitation yet, as well as one of the funniest""." +entertainment,"An autopsy performed on Tuesday revealed that the late Boyzone singer Stephen Gately ""had died of natural causes"". Officials from the Spanish island of Majorca that Stephen had suffered from an accumulation of fluid on the lungs, or as it is known in scientific terms, a pulmonary edema. The 33-year-old singer was found dead on a sofa in the lounge of his apartment. He had been out of the accommodation for the night while he was partying with Andrew Cowles, who was his partner. There was a court hearing held earlier today in Majorca. The hearing only lasted for a short time. The judge had decided that the family of Stephen Gately would be allowed to take his body back to the Republic of Ireland, the country in which Gately grew up and had lived in, by plane. After discovering Stephen's death, the other members of Boyzone took a plane flight to Majorca, so as to comfort Andrew Cowles. They have now flown back to their homes." +entertainment,"New Zealand Wikinews has compiled the views from various politicians on New Zealand's latest digital television service, Freeview. Those interviewed were Sue Kedgley, Jonathan Coleman, and Steve Maharey, the broadcasting spokespeople for their respective parties; the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, the New Zealand National Party, and the New Zealand Labour Party. Freeview, modelled after the United Kingdom's Freeview, is competing directly with New Zealand's only other digital pay TV provider, Sky Network Television. Sky reaches around 44.5% of New Zealand households. However, unlike Sky, Freeview has no on-going subscription fees, and only has a one-off fee for a set-top box and, if needed, a satellite dish. The Labour-led Government has provided Freeview with around NZ$25 million over a five-year period to help New Zealand change from the old analogue technology and align itself ""as the rest of the world moves to digital television broadcasting,"" Mr Maharey said. The funding use is monitored by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Dr Coleman also described the same reasons why Freeview was necessary for New Zealand and is supported by the National Party. However, Ms Kedgley takes a different approach and describes the Freeview service as ""a belated and inadequate response to the digital challenge"", but does state that digital TV is the ""growth area."" She also said that the Government is now trying to catch up after they scrapped TVNZ's (Television New Zealand) digital plan, which she describes as far more ambitious. National, despite being supportive of Freeview, think that the Government has not done a good job with Freeview, describing it as a ""white elephant"". Firstly because Dr Coleman says there isn't enough good programming currently available to get people interested in switching, and, secondly, there hasn't been a definite date when analogue transmission will be cut off. Mr Maharey said that the Government is engaging various broadcasters and interested parties to get a definite analogue switch off date, and talk about other various regulatory factors. He expects the date to be within the next six to ten years. While the Greens do welcome the new government-funded TVNZ channels, a news and current affairs channel and a family-related channel (TVNZ 7 and TVNZ 6 respectively), ""The whole exercise however, smacks of too little, too late."" They also say that the amount of funding allocated to new programming cannot pose a threat to Sky. But do support ""packaging and marketing ... existing TVNZ content on the emerging digital platforms."" MediaWorks, which runs TV3 and C4, will announce their two new channels in around 18-months. And Triangle TV will add their own channel, Stratos TV, in October, 2007. National are questioning Mr Maharey why he hadn't released the viewer number figures. Dr Coleman said that Mr Maharey was trying to distance himself away from the ""reality"" of what was going on. So Wikinews requested, under the Official Information Act, the amount of set-top boxes sold. The request was denied as Freeview was to release the information themselves in a months time. On August 13 the figures were released, with a total over 21,000. General Manager Steve Browning said that “we're tracking well ahead of forecast”. Mr Maharey concurred with what Mr Browning said, saying it exceeds their first year expectations. Ms Kedgley, Dr Coleman, and Mr Maharey all say that they don't have Freeview, nor know anyone who has the service. Though, Mr Maharey will consider getting it when more channels and the 2008 terrestrial service is launched in eight major New Zealand cities." +entertainment,"Jessica Sierra is pregnant, according to the Falkenburg Road Jail in Tampa, Florida, where she is imprisoned awaiting trial for charges of disorderly intoxication, violating parole and resisting arrest. Sierra became famous after once reaching the finals of American Idol. Reports have been made by the prison infirmary that Sierra has been moved to a pregnancy diet and is confirmed to be pregnant. The father is said to be an unidentified rap musician. Sierra had originally been due to go before a judge on the 20th, but her pregnancy has caused this to be postponed indefinitely. Sierra was arrested on December 2 outside a local bar, and is being held without bond. Police claim that after they arrived, she first assaulted an officer then attempted to bribe him by offering to perform a sex act on him. Only two weeks earlier she had pleaded no contest to charges of battery and possessing cocaine. If she is convicted of all the new charges, she could be imprisoned for up to 11 years, which would mean she would have the baby whilst still in prison. Sierra earlier pled not guilty to all charges." +entertainment,"England Stars from the world of showbusiness joined fans and mourners yesterday at the funeral of the popular entertainer Cilla Black. Her coffin was transported in a cortege in Liverpool where she grew up, with hundreds of people paying their respects. Some were holding memorabilia related to Black's 50-year long career in entertainment, which included singing and presenting television programmes such as Blind Date. Tom Williams, auxiliary bishop of Liverpool, conducted the Roman Catholic mass in St Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Liverpool's Woolton area. This is the same church that Black got married in 1969 to Bobby Willis, who died in 1999 after 30 years of marriage. Eulogies were delivered by Cliff Richard and Paul O'Grady together with poems read by two of Black's sons. Further tributes were paid by Tom Jones, who flew in specially for the funeral. After the service, Black was to be interred in a private ceremony, next to the graves of her parents at the Allerton cemetery. She died early this month, aged 72, after she fell at her home in Spain and suffered a stroke." +entertainment,"Marvel Comics announced Thursday that an upcoming issue of a Spider-Man comic will feature United States President-elect Barack Obama meeting the web-slinging superhero. A six-page tongue-in-cheek story, to appear in The Amazing Spider-Man issue 583, ""Spidey Meets the President!"" is created by Zeb Wells, Todd Nauck and Frank D'Armata. The issue features Peter Parker visiting Washington, D.C., on photo assignment to cover the Presidential and Vice Presidential inauguration ceremony. The Chameleon is also in town, hoping to sabotage the ceremony with a look-a-like impostor of Obama. Parker's alter-ego Spiderman must save the day from his arch-enemy's nefarious plans. The issue will appear on newsstands January 14, before the actual inauguration. Among the lines of dialog in the issue are ""Ya hear that, Chameleon? The president-elect here just appointed me ... secretary of shuttin' you up."" The issue will have a commemorative cover, and retail for US$3.99 (£2.65). Alan Giroux, owner of All About Books and Comics in Phoenix, says he predicts the issue to be on the collectors' market for $20 by the first day. ""This issue will have a lot of heat and go for premium prices. I already have people calling about it,"" he said. The issue's cover will feature Obama smiling, with a thumbs up pose. Spiderman is featured hanging upside-down beside him, whispering: ""Hey, if you get to be on my cover, can I be on the dollar bill?"" The issue is not official merchandise of the US Democratic Party, Obama campaign, the Obama-Biden Transition Project, or White House. According to Marvel comic's editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, the publication series learned that the President-elect is a long-time fan and collector as a kid of the Marvel super hero. ""When we heard that president-elect Obama is a collector of Spider-Man comics, we knew that these two historic figures had to meet in our comics' Marvel Universe. A Spider-Man fan moving into the Oval Office is an event that must be commemorated in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man."" During his campaigning, Mr. Obama made mention of Spider-Man at child-oriented events. He told Entertainment Weekly magazine that Batman and Spider-Man were his favorite superheroes, because of their ""inner turmoil"". Quesada remarked that ""there is a long history of presidents appearing in Spider-Man comics, from Franklin D. Roosevelt through to George W. Bush, who has appeared on several occasions."" President Ronald Reagan appeared in the pages of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Bill Clinton appeared in Superman: The Man of Steel and Richard Nixon in Watchmen." +entertainment,"Trinidad's Ian Alleyene, host of TV6's Crime Watch, has been released on bail. He spent the weekend in custody after being charged under the Sexual Offences Act following television broadcasts allegedly showing a mentally ill teenage girl's rape. Arrested on April 20, Alleyne spent the weekend in a hospital and the night of April 23 in police custody. He is now free after a Port of Spain magistrate granted his release on TT$80,000 (About US$13,300). The case is adjourned until May 14, when the owner of the TV station, Caribbean Communications Network, is summonsed to also appear in court regarding the same broadcasts. The charges, filed just days before the statute of limitations expired, allege footage was thrice broadcast in October 2011 which allowed public identification of a rape victim. A fourth charge alleges Alleyne, who's lawyer says has no previous convictions, obstructed the police investigation. 4=Ian Alleyne The fourth charge relates to an incident last week at Caribbean Communications Network's Independence Square premises in Port of Spain. Alleyne was ultimately arrested publicly but police claim they first asked him to attend a police station. Alleyne was taken to court early yesterday morning where he appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar in a hearing witnessed by journalists and his family. Thirty minutes after bail was granted he had posted it and was freed, meeting supporters protesting against the prosecution outside the courthouse. ""If you go back to the genesis of this entire incident you will realise it is just a travesty of justice,"" he told the press. Walking through Port of Spain upon his release, he twice mounted tables to address following supporters. ""They can lock me up for a month, they can lock me up for two months, but I will still come out and will continue my fight for you. As long as there is breath in my body, I will continue fighting for you, the poor people."" During the hearing, court officials were accused by the magistrate of breaching procedure. Alleyne had been taken directly into the court before it had opened, and was fed breakfast there. Superintendent of the Court and Process Branch Kenneth Cordner promised to ""hold some training sessions to ensure that the officers fully understand their roles"" and called the incident ""upsetting."" Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard warned local media yesterday not to prejudice any trial, noting the high public interest in the case. Gaspard said doing so would ""would constitute an unwelcome and unfortunate interference with the due administration of justice and may properly provide a sufficient basis upon which a citation for contempt may be fastened."" Also yesterday, Alleyne took to the studio and returned to his position hosting Crime Watch. He denies all charges." +entertainment,"Michael Jackson, a singer and songwriter who was dubbed as the 'King of Pop', has died today at the age of 50. Initial reports had stated that Jackson is in a coma after being rushed to UCLA Medical Center. According to TMZ, rescue crews from the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to his home in Holmby Hills, a suburb of Los Angeles, California where they found Jackson not breathing. According to Fire Captain Steven Ruda, a 911 call was received from Jackson's home at 12:21 p.m. PDT (19:21 UTC), and paramedics responded just before 12:30 p.m. PDT (19:30 UTC). Paramedics unsuccessfully attempted CPR, for a suspected cardiac arrest. According to Lieutenant Fred Corral, the L.A. County Coroner, Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. PDT (21:26 UTC). The Los Angeles Times and Associated Press have said they have confirmed his death with anonymous sources familiar with the situation. According to CNN, the road on which Jackson lived has been blocked off in an attempt to reduce traffic. Jackson began his career with The Jackson 5 which debuted in 1966. Despite numerous hits and best sellers, Jackson is probably most known for his 1982 hit Thriller. It's estimated that the album sold as many at 109 million worldwide. The news failed to reach some quarters quickly. As of 01:00 UTC the web site of the O2 arena, where Jackson had been scheduled to perform his This Is It concerts in July, was still advertising tickets for sale. Several companies, including Ticketmaster, Seatwave, and AEG Live, now face having to reimburse all ticket sales. AEG Live had already faced problems obtaining insurance for the concerts. Many celebrities were quick to publish comments and tributes: ;Britney Spears:""He was a wonderful man and will be greatly missed."" ;Ludacris:""If it were not for Michael Jackson I would not be where or who I am today. His music and legacy will live on forever. Prayers to the family."" ;John Mayer:""I hope he is memoralised as the '83 moonwalking, MTV owning, mesmerizing, unstoppable, invincible Michael Jackson."" ;Miley Cyrus:""Michael Jackson was my inspiration. love and blessings."" ;MC Hammer:""I will be mourning my friend, brother, mentor and inspiration... He gave me and my family hope. I would never have been without him."" Several, including Celine Dion, Randy Jackson, and Donald Tarlton, compared the news of Jackson's death to the news of the deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, John F. Kennedy, and John Lennon. Talking to Larry King, Dion said ""It feels like when Kennedy died, when Elvis died. It's an amazing loss."" A Yorkshire businessman who was working with Jackson on a proposed future project said ""I didn't think he would go out in these circumstances. It's not the way I would have expected him to go at all. He's going to become a Marilyn Monroe or an Elvis Presley.""" +entertainment,"The Canadian film industry's major awards night, the Genie Awards, takes place on Monday. The Genie Awards begun in 1949 as the Canadian Film Awards, and current nominations include the films L'Âge des ténèbres, Away from Her, Continental, un film sans fusil, Eastern Promises, and Shake Hands With the Devil. Notably absent from the nominations is the film Juno, an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture. Most of the lead actors in Eastern Promises and Away from Her were not Canadian, and Eastern Promises was filmed overseas. The leads of Juno, in comparison, are all Canadian, and the movie was filmed in the country, despite the financial backing for the film being from an American source. Juno is an excellent film and the Academy salutes its success, which reflects the work of many talented Canadians both in front of and behind the camera. Regrettably, the filmmakers decided not to enter the film into the Genie Awards. In order to be eligible for the Genies, a film must be Canadian, as defined by CAVCO and the CRTC. These are the accepted industry standards for recognizing a film as Canadian. Ultimately, it's up to the filmmaker to decide whether to seek Canadian certification. It would not be appropriate for me to speculate about the reasons for a filmmaker's decision, or why they may or may not qualify. Sara Morton, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television CAVCO is the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office, part of the Department of Canadian Heritage. The CRTC is the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, a communications authority like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States, Independent Television Commission (ITC) in the UK (excluding Wales), and the Australian Communications and Media Authority." +entertainment,"Television United Kingdom media regulator Ofcom has proposed that British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) make its premium film and sports channels available to rival broadcasters. Sky logo According to Ofcom, this would be the ""most appropriate way of ensuring fair and effective competition"". On hearing the news Sky responded by saying it ""fundamentally"" disagreed with the proposal and will use ""all legal channels"" to stop it. Ofcom proposed they make the subscription channels available at a ""regulated price"" to its rivals which would enable them to access and offer more channels for their viewers. Ofcom has requested that parties respond by August 18. Ofcom were quoted as saying ""We do not believe that this proposed remedy would have a disproportionate impact on Sky, since we consider the proposed prices are above the level required to allow Sky a reasonable return on its content costs"". BT Group welcomed the proposal saying ""Prices have been too high for too long but this could all change if Ofcom breaks Sky's stranglehold.""" +entertainment,"Obituaries English television presenter and variety performer Max Bygraves died Friday at his home in Australia. The comedian, who was born in Rotherhithe in the British capital London, was 89 years old. Johnny Mans, Bygraves' agent, confirmed Bygraves had died as he slept in his home of Hope Island, in the Australian state of Queensland, Friday night. ""We have lost one of the best entertainers that Britain has ever produced"", said Mans, calling his death ""a great loss to the entertainment profession and a great loss to all of his friends in the industry."" Bygraves, whose catchphrase was ""I wanna tell you a story"", was born Walter William Bygraves in 1922. He received the first name Max for impersonating Max Miller, another English comedian, while entertaining at the Royal Air Force RAF. He became an entertainer there having been prohibiting from joining the RAF for having inadequate eyesight. Bygraves became notable for performing various self-composed comedic songs, as well as for his appearances on the Royal Variety Show. He was at one time the presenter of ITV game show Family Fortunes. ""He as a person never dated,"" ex-radio broadcaster Ed Stewart said of Bygraves, who was his friend. ""He was a great character with a great sense of humour, a lovely family and it's just a shame that he's gone, but at nearly 90, he had a good run. He was an entertainer through and through."" His works provided ""a lot of pleasure to a lot of people and were huge sellers,"" Stewart said. During 2005, Bygraves emigrated to Australia from his UK residence in Bournemouth, in the south west of England. His family reported that he was experiencing the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia, earlier this year. Bygraves is survived by six children, three of whom he conceived with his wife Blossom Murray, whom he married in 1942. Murray died in 2011." +entertainment,"music Well-known Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell was found unconscious on Tuesday at her Los Angeles home, and immediately taken to hospital, according to reports. An update on her condition appeared yesterday on her website. Billboard The update yesterday on her website said, ""Joni remains under observation in the hospital and is resting comfortably. We are encouraged by her progress and she continues to improve and get stronger each day."" Webpage 'We love you Joni' was also created for fans on Facebook and Twitter to send Mitchell messages to get well soon. A previous statement left on Mitchell's website on Tuesday said, ""Joni was found unconscious in her home this afternoon. She regained consciousness on the ambulance ride to an L.A. area hospital. She is currently in intensive care undergoing tests and is awake and in good spirits."" They added, ""More updates to come when we hear them. Light a candle and sing a song, let's all send good wishes her way."" According to an early report by TMZ, the seventy-one year old musician's condition was serious, and a 911 phone call was made from her home around 2:30 p.m. local time. Rolling Stone, also claims that a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson explained to them that, though they could not reveal who was taken to the hospital at the time, paramedics were sent to Mitchell's house. On her twitter account, CBC news producer Leslie Stojsic gave a conflicting statement to other reports on Mitchell's condition, saying, ""Source tells me she's in hospital recovering after 'minor medical emergency,' was *not* found unconscious."" She also added, ""I'm told now she's resting in hospital and is among friends. A good sign."" It did not take long for her condition in hospital to spread through the social media. Many tweeted prayers and well wishes; one of them being rocker Billy Idol. He tweeted, ""Sorry to hear todays news about Joni Mitchell. I sang on her 'Dancing Clown' single many moons ago, all the best 4 her recovery."" Mitchell also reportedly suffers from Morgellons disease; a skin condition where people claim they have fibres coming out of their skin, along with tingling sensations. In her memoir, 'Joni Mitchell: In her own words,' released last year, the folk artist describes her experiences with the disease saying, ""All the time it felt like I was being eaten alive by parasites living under my skin. I couldn't leave my house for several years.""" +entertainment,"Copies of The Profit, a 2001 film blocked from distribution in the United States due to a court injunction won by the Church of Scientology, appeared on the Internet Friday on peer-to-peer file-sharing websites and on the video sharing site YouTube. Directed by former film executive Peter N. Alexander, the movie has been characterized by critics as a parody of Scientology and of its founder L. Ron Hubbard. Alexander was a Scientologist for twenty years, and left the organization in 1997. The film was funded by Bob Minton, a former critic of Scientology who later signed an agreement with the Church of Scientology and has attempted to stop distribution of the film. Alexander has stated that the movie is based on his research into cults, and when asked by the St. Petersburg Times about parallels to Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard said: ""I'll let you draw that conclusion ... I say it's entirely fictional."" The film was released in August 2001, and was shown at a movie theatre in Clearwater, Florida and at a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France. A Scientology spokesman gave a statement at the time saying ""the movie is fiction and has nothing to do with Scientology"". The Church of Scientology later took legal action in an attempt to stop further distribution of the film. The Church of Scientology claimed that the film was intended to influence the jury pool in the wrongful death case of Scientologist Lisa McPherson, who died under Scientology care in Clearwater, Florida. In April 2002, a Pinellas County, Florida judge issued a court order enjoining The Profit from worldwide distribution for an indefinite period. According to the original court injunction received by Wikinews, the movie was originally banned because the court found that it could be seen as a parody of Scientology. In his April 20, 2002 ruling on the injunction, Judge Robert E. Beach of the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in Pinellas County, Florida wrote: ""...an average person viewing the film entitled The Profit could perceive that it is a parody of the Church of Scientology"". ""To the extent that any person considered as a potential juror in evaluating any issues involving the Church of Scientology, the process of voir dire provides a fair and complete remedy to eliminate any potential juror that may possibly have been influenced to be less than fair and impartial,"" added Beach. Luke Lirot, the attorney for the film's production company, announced on the film's website on April 7, 2007 that ""We have absolutely no exposure for any repercussions from the court order,"" but that the film was still blocked from distribution due to an ongoing legal battle. Lirot wrote: ""all that's stopping the release of the movie is the legal battle with the partner who was compromised by Scientology (Robert Minton) and is currently using his power as partner to stop the release of the film."" In an October 2007 article, The Times described the film as ""banned in the US because of a lawsuit taken out against it by The Church of Scientology,"" and Russ Kick's The Disinformation Book of Lists included the film in his ""List of 16 Movies Banned in the U.S."". An 8-minute teaser segment from The Profit appeared on the film's website and on the video sharing site YouTube in February 2008, and an attorney representing Bob Minton sent a letter to Luke Lirot requesting that the film clip be taken down. In a response letter, Lirot wrote that ""Rather than damage any asset of the LLC, the short clip merely keeps the film in the public eye, and in a positive way."" On Friday, copies of the film began to circulate on peer-to-peer file-sharing websites and on YouTube. A link related to the film's appearance on the Internet on the community-based link aggregator website Digg.com had 3,638 ""Diggs"" - and hit the front page of the site's Entertainment section on Saturday. 4=Mark Bunker On Saturday, Scientology critic and Emmy award-winning journalist Mark Bunker put a streaming version of the film on his website, www.xenutv.com, and encouraged others to watch and discuss the film on a real-time chat channel. In a video posting to YouTube Saturday, Bunker said ""I did not do it. I had nothing to do with it ... I had nothing to do with this release at all. But I'm happy it's out there ... people are finally having a chance to see it. A lot of people have been curious over the years and there's been a lot of interest in seeing the film, so finally you can."" 4= Blogsreel On the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, a poster by the username ""Alexia Death"" commented on the film's appearance on the Internet in the context of censorship: ""It is out! And so it is a WIN if many people review it even if they say it SUCKS! ... Being bad is no cause to allow censorship ... And being censored is no cause to assume its good"". A post to the blog Blogsreel commented: ""We have all wanted to see this movie that scientology kept hidden away from us. We have all wondered just how damning could this story be that we were banned from watching it."" In a post on Sunday to the message board attached to the official website for the film, attorney Luke Lirot asked that individuals stop distributing copies of The Profit over the Internet. Lirot wrote: ""It has been brought to my attention that several unauthorized transmissions and downloads of this protected work have taken place over the last 72 hours. Such actions are copyright violations and are unlawful. I request that any further distribution and/or dissemination of this important work cease immediately and any copies of the work that have been downloaded please be deleted."" In his statement, Lirot recognized the rights of individuals under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, but also said that unauthorized distribution of the film ""will only serve to harm the goal of vast distribution"". Blog postings have attributed the film's appearance on the Internet as part of the anti-Scientology movement Project Chanology organized by the Internet-based group Anonymous, but this has not been confirmed. Wikinews previously reported on international protests against Scientology which took place as part of Project Chanology on February 10 and March 15. A third international protest by Anonymous is scheduled for April 12. Titled ""Operation Reconnect"", the third international protest will focus on highlighting Scientology's practice of disconnection." +entertainment,"Grammy award-winning rapper/producer Kanye West appeared on a live on-air telethon simulcast on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and PAX for Hurricane Katrina victims. Live on air, West said ""George Bush doesn't care about black people,"" after saying ""America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."" He also said ""the Red Cross is doing everything they can,"" and stated that he was going to see what the maximum amount of money he can donate is. West criticized government authorities and stated that ""They've given them permission to go down and shoot us."" West first deviated from the script he and comedian Mike Myers were using by commenting on the recent uproar over differently captioned photos for black and white people in the aftermath of the hurricane: ""I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food."" Though a several-second delay was in place, the comments were let through uncensored on the EST live broadcast as the person in charge ""was instructed to listen for a curse word, and didn't realize he had gone off-script,"" according to an NBC spokeswoman. NBC has released a statement after the broadcast: ""Tonight's telecast was a live television event wrought with emotion. Kanye West departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him, and his opinions in no way represent the views of the networks. It would be most unfortunate if the efforts of the artists who participated tonight and the generosity of millions of Americans who are helping those in need are overshadowed by one person's opinion."" The sponsor of the event, the American Red Cross, also issued a statement on the telethon, stating: ""During the telecast, a controversial comment was made by one of the celebrities. We would like the American public to know that our support is unwavering, regardless of political circumstances. We are a neutral and impartial organization, and support disaster victims across the country regardless of race, class, color or creed.""" +entertainment,"obituaries American metal singer Ronnie James Dio died today at the age of 67, as announced by his wife, Wendy. Dio passed at 07:45 (CST) (13:45 UTC) at the Mayo Clinic, an American disease treatment center, after a two-year fight with stomach cancer that caused him to stop singing while he received treatment. ""Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all...Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever,"" added his wife in a statement on Dio's website. Dio (born Ronnie James Padavona) was born in July 10, 1942 in the American city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was most noted for his high pitched vocals and lyrical tales involving battles and themes of good versus evil. He performed with several hard rock and metal groups, but he was most notable for his first act, when he joined as singer of the British metal group Black Sabbath after lead singer and frontman Ozzy Osbourne left the band in 1979. Before Black Sabbath he performed with several less successful bands, including Rainbow, led by former Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore, and Elf. He also had a very successful solo career under the simple name ""Dio"", and had recently reunited with former Black Sabbath band mates under the moniker Heaven and Hell. Some of Dio's hit songs were Holy Diver, Neon Knights, and The Last In Line." +entertainment,"Wikinews recently caught up with screenwriter and film producer Chad Ridgely to discuss his latest indie horror film, 6:66PM. The film is scheduled to show at the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival in Buffalo, New York in November. WNIQ I've watched the teaser trailer. Tell us about the film's story line. *Chad Ridgely 6:66 P.M. is about a team of ghost hunters making a reality TV show about paranormal activity. The problem is, none of them are really ghost hunters. They stage the house to make it seem like the house they're exploring is haunted, except it turns out that the house really is haunted by the ghost of a serial killer. The serial killer isn't letting them get out of there without a fight. He tries to kill them and take possession of their bodies. So the crew is forced to try to capture some amazing footage for their show but at the same time avoid getting killed by this demon. It has some scary moments, but at the same time it's a comedy. We tried to blend the two together for a nice mix of scares and laughs and I think we did a really nice job of it. Many of us had worked together before so there was already a strong foundation in place and it let us play to everyone's strengths. WNIQ Who is producing the film? *CR The film was produced by my company, Full Auto Films, and Code 3 Films, which is Jim Klock's company. Producers are Jim Klock, Chad Ridgely, and Darrell Martinelli. WNIQ Will you guys be making the rounds at film festivals soon? *CR Yes, the film will world-premiere at the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival in Buffalo, New York in early November 2017. We premiered our previous horror/comedy feature there, Massacre on Aisle 12, last year and we absolutely loved it. It's a great festival and Buffalo is amazing. I fell in love with the food there, especially the roast beef on weck sandwiches. I think I gained ten pounds while I was there. The food was that good. WNIQ Who wrote the script? *CR The script was written by Tommy McLaughlin and Chad Ridgely. WNIQ Where was the film shot primarily? *CR We filmed outside of Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was a little town called Egg Harbor City, which was a bit strange because I didn't see any eggs there, or a harbor, and the place was definitely too small to be a city. They did have a fantastic diner, though. We ate there every day before and sometimes after shooting. I'm beginning to see a pattern with food. WNIQ Have you signed any distribution deals? What are the hoped-for plans in terms of distribution? *CR Yes, the film will be distributed by Indican Pictures in late fall of 2017. Indican Pictures also distributed our previous horror/comedy, Massacre on Aisle 12, as well. WNIQ Any weird or funny events happen during filming? *CR Yes! We lived in the set house while we were filming, and we were convinced the place was really haunted. It was a secluded old farm house back in the woods, and late at night all sorts of weird things would happen. For instance, the door to my room would slowly creak open all by itself while I was sleeping. Jim Klock kept hearing footsteps creaking on the floorboards above his room, except there was no room above his. It was just the roof. There was also a very strange animal out in the woods that would make an incredibly creepy noise that we were never really able to identify. And of course, no one was going out there to look. In addition to scaring the crap out of us, it helped us bring additional authenticity to the film, which I think shows on screen." +entertainment,"Neverland Valley Ranch, owned by Michael Jackson, is to be sold at auction on March 19, 2008, unless Jackson pays over US$24 million. Financial Title Company, the trustee of his Santa Barbara County, California, home and amusement park, has foreclosed on the property. They notified Jackson of the foreclosure and sale on Monday. Jackson had only just recently paid an overdue property tax bill of $600,000. The court filing, addressed to Jackson, says, ""You are in default of a deed of trust ... Unless you take action to protect your property it may be sold at a public sale."" Fox News published the filing. The foreclosure includes the ranch and all possessions on the property, inside or out. The foreclosure auction will take place in front of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse in Santa Barbara. Jackson has until then to pay $24,525,906.61 he owes the title company. In 2006, Jackson refinanced previous loans that had been bought up by Fortress Investment Group. The $300-million loan was secured with the aid of Sony Music Entertainment. However, the Neverland property was not part of that deal. Jackson has not lived at Neverland since June 30, 2005, when he moved to Bahrain after a rape charge and subsequent acquittal." +entertainment,"74-year-old American gospel singer and writer Joyce 'Dottie' Rambo died Sunday morning when her tour bus crashed into a highway embankment in southwestern Missouri. The wreck occurred two miles east of Mount Vernon, Missouri, along Interstate 44. Police say six other people were hospitalized with moderate to severe injuries in Springfield. Dottie was headed for a Mother's Day concert in North Richland Hills, Texas, when the accident occurred. ""I know Dottie is in heaven in the arms of God right now, but our earth angel will surely be missed,"" said Dolly Parton in a statement. A spokesperson for her recording label confirmed to a Knoxville, Tennessee television station that Dottie was asleep at the time of the accident. Dottie started her career at the age of 12, and has written more than 2,500 songs since. She won a Grammy Award in 1968 for her album entitled ""The Soul of Me"". She was inducted into several halls-of-fame including the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007, and into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame twice, first as a soloist in 1982 and again in 2001 as a member of the Rambos singing group with her daughter and Buck Rambo, former husband. Her newest album is set for release this summer and is entitled ""Sheltered""." +entertainment,"Obituaries One of the most popular Russian theatrical and cinema actors, Oleg Yankovsky, died at the age of 65 on Wednesday. He died in Moscow after a nearly life-long struggle with pancreatic cancer. Yankovsky was a leading actor of Mark Zakharov's Lenkom Theatre for over 35 years. He starred in many films, including Two Comrades Were Serving, The Kreutzer Sonata, An Ordinary Miracle and The Very Same Munchhausen. He is survived by his widow, the actress Lyudmila Zorina, and his son Philip, who is also an actor and a film director. Cinematologist Kirill Razlogov said that ""Oleg Yankovsky was an actor from God."" ""Oleg Yankovsky was a unique phenomenon, an unbelievably strong and talented actor,"" said Mark Zakharov, a film director, as quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency." +entertainment,"British newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky gave birth to a baby boy earlier this morning at around 08:30 BST. She had been on maternity leave since August 21. Kaplinsky had only been working with Five News just over a month when she announced she was pregnant. Her husband of three years, investment banker Justin Bower announced ""We're absolutely thrilled."" Kaplinsky first started to work for the BBC in 2002 after a two year tenure with Sky News. She started on the BBC Breakfast show but later moved onto the BBC Six O'Clock News and later became only the third woman to present the BBC Ten O'Clock News. She left the BBC in October 2007. She also spent a short time with ITV News. Five News released a statement saying ""Her colleagues here at Five News are delighted too - and we've sent our best wishes."" They also said both Kaplinsky and the baby are doing fine." +entertainment,"The electronic programme guide, TV-Browser, announced their intention to remove 16 private tv-channels on January 1st, 2008. These include the German channels ProSieben, RTL Television and Sat.1. According to a press release by the TV-Browser team, the collecting society VG Media plans to collect a usage fee for channel-program-data in EPGs beginning next year. Users will be charged between 0.02 and 0.04 € cents per page-view with a minimum fixed fee of at least 2000€. The Open-Source-project can not and does not wish to pay this fee; developers are considering showing certain programme highlights from the channels in question. A petition has been started to convince VG Media to abandon this charge fee." +entertainment,"After years of declining subscription rates, the owners of U.S. magazine TV Guide ordered a complete overhaul of the 52-year-old publication. Gemstar-TV Guide International, the corporate parent of the magazine says the current format of the magazine has caused it to become unprofitable. The changes will be effective with the October 15 issue. Lack of profitability has been a point of contention between Gemstar management and its largest shareholder, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Included in the new design is a shift away from detailed listings to more of a People or Entertainment Weekly celebrity-focused format. Included in that change will be the elimination of the 140 localized editions of TV Guide in favor of one national publication with only ""Eastern"" and ""Pacific"" times listed for program listings. The magazine's owners noted that with the advent of digital cable and satellite TV, more viewers rely upon electronic program guides provided free by the television service provider than printed listings. TV Guide officials say the current magazine is made up of 25 percent news content printed on glossy paper and 75 percent TV listings printed on newsprint and in black-and-white. The new version of the magazine will be completely four-color and on glossy paper. Additionally, the news-to-listing ratio will flip with 75 percent of future content being feature articles on celebrities and television programs. A second change will be the magazine's size as it moves from a digest-sized publication to a full-sized glossy. The company expects the larger edition will be more profitable against competition such as People and US Weekly. But that profitability may be at the expense of national reach. Although the magazine is getting physically larger, according to reports, the readership is expected to shrink. Gemstar expects many of is subscribers not to renew with the new format. Currently the TV Guide guarantees 9 million subscribers to its national advertisers. According to reports, it is only guaranteeing 3.2 million subscribers to its revamped publication once it hits newsstands." +entertainment,"The Bible The Hong Kong Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA) has received 2,041 complaints within 3 days, calling for the Bible to be reclassified as ""indecent"", following a heated controversy sparked by the sex column of an university student newspaper, which was classified by the government's publication tribunal as ""indecent"". By 17 May, TELA decided not to submit the Bible to the tribunal. Two weeks ago, the Chinese university of Hong Kong's student newspaper sparked a public debate when it was found that they had asked readers if they fantasised about incest or bestiality, along with some soft sex stories and an unrelated abstract drawing about sex. Although there is no explicit description or pornographic photos, the paper was classified as ""Category II: Indecent"" by Obscene Articles Tribunal (OAT) on 14 May because it asked the question&mdash; ""Have you fantasised about incest or bestiality?"". This classification means that the student editors have breached the law by distributing the paper to the public, will have a criminal record, and risk a jail sentence. Since then, OAT's decision has been hotly contested among teachers, activists, commentators and scholars. Complaints about the Bible then immediately flooded in to the authorities, claiming that the Bible is ""indecent"" due to its textual descriptions of rape and incest. The accusation was first made by a web site truthbible.net which said the holy book is full of sexual and violent content and its ""indecency"" far exceeds that of the recent sex column published in the Chinese University's student newspaper. A webmaster of truthbible.net, who wishes to remain anonymous, said if the sex column of the student's newspaper is indecent because of public complaints, ""there's no reasons not to judge the Bible as indecent"" because of its sexual content. By May 17 (UTC+8), TELA had received 2,041 complaints on the indecency of the Bible, up from 200 in three days. By the same day, TELA announced it will not submit the Bible to the Obscene Articles Tribunal for classification. ""The Bible is a religious text which is part of civilisation. It has been passed on from generation to generation. TELA considers that such longstanding religious texts or literature have not violated standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable members of the community."" According to the regulations in Hong Kong, any books classified as ""indecent"" by the OAT can only be sold or distributed to people over 18. All such publications must be sealed in a wrapper with a statutory warning notice. The CUHK Student Journals editorial board stated that the Bible complaints are not related to them, and they had no prior knowledge of such a movement." +entertainment,"WikimediaMention Wikimedia FoundationThe Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization which administers online collaborative websites including Wikipedia and Wikinews, announced yesterday that its general counsel Mike Godwin will leave his position this Friday. The author of Cyber Rights: Defending Free speech in the Digital Age, Godwin is a former fellow at the Yale Center for Internet Studies and staff counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has served as chief lawyer for the Wikimedia Foundation since July 2007. Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation Sue Gardner announced the news in a public email. She wrote, ""Hi folks, I want to let you know that as of this Friday, October 22, 2010, Mike Godwin will be leaving his role as General Counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation. Mike’s transition out of the role will be a fairly lengthy one: he will continue to be available to the Wikimedia Foundation to provide information and advice for several months to come."" 4=Sue Gardner Gardner stated in a ""Q and A"" below the text of her email that Godwin was leaving the organization due to ""a confidential personnel issue"", and explained that the foundation would not elaborate upon this due to privacy concerns. Gardner noted, ""The Wikimedia Foundation believes Mike has always acted in what he believes to be the Wikimedia Foundation’s best interests."" Godwin has focused his legal career in the areas of free speech and Internet law. In an article regarding his 1999 selection as a fellow at the Yale Center for Internet Studies, The Hartford Courant characterized Godwin as ""a noted cyberspace lawyer and civil libertarian"". He is noted for writing ""Godwin's Law"", an Internet maxim which states, ""As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."" Godwin became the first attorney to join the Electronic Frontier Foundation after its formation in 1990. In a 2007 interview with The New York Times, Godwin commented on the issue of defamation online, ""The fear of defamation on the Internet is very strong. We’re going to be riding that social panic for a little bit."" He described his role at the Wikimedia Foundation, ""Part of my job is to prevent restrictive rules from being put in place that prevent people from participating in massively democratic participatory media. And then let the new norms settle."" He acknowledged he empathized with others that had been criticized on the Internet, ""Look, I have been smeared online. I know how bad it feels. It hurts. If democracy were comfortable, everybody would have it."" HYS" +entertainment,"The 2010 BRIT Awards, presented by the British Phonographic Industry, is an annual award ceremony for music artists. This year, the competition took place in the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, England. The event started taking place in 1980, with this year's event being the 30th BRIT Awards. This year, the programme was broadcast live - although with a short delay to allow censorship of strong language - on ITV1 from 2000-2200 GMT on Tuesday. 5.8 million viewers watched it, which was an audience share of 21.9%. The main presenter of the programme was British comedian Peter Kay, although various other celebrities also presented awards, including actor Andy Serkis, musician Melanie Brown, singer Shirley Bassey, television and radio presenter Jonathan Ross, actor Idris Elba, singer Geri Halliwell, television presenter Cat Deeley, comedian Alan Carr, singer Mika, fashion designer and film director Tom Ford, former glamour model Samantha Fox, musician Noddy Holder and musician and actress Courtney Love. Fearne Cotton was also a backstage presenter during the event. There was also an after show highlights programme broadcast on ITV2, immediately after the programme on ITV1 had finished, from 2200-2300 GMT. Presenting on the programme was Rufus Hound and Caroline Flack. BBC Radio 1 also had continuous official coverage on the station throughout the day of the awards, with disc jockeys Scott Mills and Greg James hosting a programme on the station at around the time of the award ceremony. source=Prince Harry of Wales Various artists, all of which were BRIT Award nominees, performed during the ITV1 programme. Lily Allen, JLS and Kasabian were amongst the performers. American musician Lady Gaga said that ""this is for Alexander McQueen"", who died on February 11, 2010, before performing two of her tracks - Telephone and Dance in the Dark. Dizzee Rascal and Florence and the Machine performed a duet entitled You've Got the Dirtee Love, which was a merger of two songs - You've Got the Love, which was originally recorded by The Source and Candi Staton - and later covered by Florence and the Machine - and Dirtee Cash, which was originally performed by Dizzee Rascal. After Jay-Z and Alicia Keys performed their song Empire State of Mind, Cheryl Cole performed her track, Fight For This Love, although the performance featured excerpts from Show Me Love, a track that was originally recorded by Robin S. Lady Gaga won all three awards that she was nominated for, including ""International female solo artist"", ""International breakthrough act"" and ""International album"", the latter being for The Fame. In one of her acceptance speeches, she said: ""Thank you, thank you so so much. I love my fans. Thank you. My fans in the UK, thank you."" When accepting the award for ""British male solo artist"", rapper Dizzee Rascal stated: ""It's about time as well."" Music group JLS were nominated for three awards and won two of them - ""British breakthrough act"" and ""British single"". Group member Oritsé Williams stated in the acceptance speech: ""We never ever thought this would happen, you've made our dreams come true."" Kasabian was given the award for ""British group"". Lily Allen, who was wearing an orange wig during the award ceremony, received the award for ""British female solo artist"". In her acceptance speech, she declared: ""Oh my god. I only wore this orange wig 'cause I though it'd make it harder for them to find me, the cameramen, and catch my disappointed face."" British group Florence and the Machine won the ""Mastercard British album"" award for the album Lungs. Florence Welch of the group accepted the award, stating: ""Thanks so much for having me back. Cheers! ... There are so many people that help me make this album and so many people who supported it, people like you."" The award for ""BRITs performance of 30 years"" went to former group the Spice Girls for their performance of Wannabe/Who Do You Think You Are. The award for ""International male solo artist"" went to rapper Jay-Z. Former British group Oasis were awarded with the honour of ""BRITs album of 30 years"", for their album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?. Former group comrade Liam Gallagher came onto the stage to accept the award and told the viewers: ""Listen kids. I wanna thank Bonehead, Quiggs, Alan White... the best fucking fans in the world. Live forever."" He then threw his microphone and the trophy into the crowd and walked off the stage. Presenter Peter Kay then came on and said about Gallagher: ""What a knobhead."" At one point during the programme, a pre-recorded video with Prince Harry of Wales in it was shown. In the video, Prince Harry said: ""You'll be pleased to know that I'm not gonna sing, but only because I don't want to show up the next act. The BRITs is a celebration of all that is totally outstanding and unique about British music. But what's less well known about the BRITs is the fantastic work it does raising millions of pounds for the BRIT trust which has benefited thousands of young people to develop their talents and generally enrich our society. Well done on all you've achieved. I hope you have a fantastic evening."" The ""Critic's choice"" award was given to British music artist Ellie Goulding. The ""Outstanding contribution award"" was won by British musician Robbie Williams, who performed a medley of thirteen of his songs at the end of the programme - Let Me Entertain You, Supreme, Millennium, Feel, Everything Changes (originally performed by Take That, the group that Williams was formerly a member of), Angels, No Regrets, Bodies, Come Undone, Morning Sun, Rock DJ and Rudebox. Below is a complete list of the recipients of the awards on Tuesday night. Please note that the awards list is not in order of when they were given out. * British male solo artist - Dizzee Rascal * British female solo artist - Lily Allen * British breakthrough act - JLS * British group - Kasabian * Mastercard British album - Florence and the Machine - Lungs * British single - JLS - Beat Again * BRITs performance of 30 years - Spice Girls - Who Do You Think You Are * International male solo artist - Jay-Z * International female solo artist - Lady Gaga * International breakthrough act - Lady Gaga * International album - Lady Gaga - The Fame * BRITs album of 30 years - Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory? * Critic's choice - Ellie Goulding * Outstanding contribution award - Robbie Williams" +entertainment,"Ed McMahon, the long time announcer of The Tonight Show, has died age 86. McMahon, who joined The Tonight Show in 1962, died at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center shortly after midnight on June 23. Made famous by his “Here’s Johnny!” catchphrase, McMahon worked with Tonight Show host Johnny Carson for 30 years. In recent years, McMahon had battled several health issues. In 2007, he fell and broke his neck through which he suffered pain until his death. He began to suffer from pneumonia in March 2009. Reports also began to surface that he had been diagnosed with suspected bone cancer. McMahon was a Marine Corps fighter pilot in World War II and returned to the United States after the war. He graduated college and became a television producer in Philadelphia. He later served in the Korean War, completing another tour of duty, then was selected as the announcer for ABC daytime program Who Do You Trust? This was the first time McMahon worked alongside Johnny Carson. The two were paired up again four years later as McMahon replaced Hugh Downs as the announcer on The Tonight Show. McMahon earned a reported US$1 million a year working with Carson. McMahon also appeared in several films and was the host of the talent show Star Search. He annually co-hosted the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon and conducted coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. McMahon is survived by his wife Pam and five children. No funeral arrangements have been planned as of yet." +entertainment,"Belgium Fud Leclerc, who represented Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest four times, has died at the age of 86. Leclerc had the distinct honour of being the first person to score nul points at the 1962 contest. The singer performed at the first contest in 1956 and appeared again two years later and achieved his best result with his performance of Ma petite chatte. After appearing for the third time at the 1960 contest he made his final appearance at the 1962 contest. At the 1962 contest Leclerc became the first person in Eurovision history to fail to score any points, also known as Nul Points. During his career he also worked as a pianist and a songwriter. After his final Eurovision appearance he left the music industry and became a building contractor. In 2005 he made an appearance on a special programme to commemorate Eurovision." +entertainment,"On Friday morning, Student's Day was celebrated in the most schools across Chile. Student's Day was created in May 11, 1990 by Chile's Ministry of Education. The same day, the Supreme Decree N° 524 was validated, whereby also authorized the functioning of Student's Centres in the High Education schools. At Colegio Preciosa Sangre, Pichilemu celebration started at 8:30 AM local time (1230 UTC). Students, grouped by grade, shared a cup of milk and sandwiches. Competitions and games were originally planned to take place in the school's yard, but due to adverse weather, these were moved to an old, large room. The school was split into two teams, Roja (red) and Verde (green). The event was organized by Nicole Grez, Carol Piña, and Paola Sepúlveda, amidst others, and the judges included Angélica Miranda and Mother Loreto Fuentes. The first of the activities was the performance of a Pichileminian metal band, that covered Metallica's songs. Subsequently, started the games. The first one consisted of the imitation of a well-known musical artist. The Roja alliance prepared the imitation of Ráfaga's Luna Luna. The Verde alliance performed a sketch with Right Said Fred's I'm Too Sexy. Both alliances gained points for this activity. The next activity in the morning was gymkhana, that consisted if three steps for students from first to eight grades of Basic Education: # Put a thread through a needle. # Eat a pear while playing with a basketball ball. # Pump up and burst an inflatable globe. From the first to fourth grades of High Education: # Take out a coin from a plate full of flour. # Eat a sandwich with hot chilli, and drink a glass of Coke. # Put a thread through two needles. (Between this step and the fourth, they have to chew the same pear). # Pump up and burst two globes. ; Results In the group of 1st to 4th Grade (Basic), 5th to 8th Grade (Basic) and 1st to 4th Grade (High), the Verde team won. Subsequently, some girls from the Cheer-leading team performed a dance with some teachers from the school. Later, a game of the 3-legs jump took place. It mainly consisted of: samples of well-known songs were played, when they stopped, the pairs had to jump until they reached the microphone, and sing the rest of the song. Three groups of four grades were formed, as in the gymkhana game. Each group had to listen 3 songs. ; Results :; 1st to 4th Grade (Basic) # Mazapán - Una Cuncuna Amarilla : Draw # Américo - Que Levante La Mano : Verde team won # Shakira - Loba : Verde team won :; 5th to 8th Grade (Basic) # Mazapán - Caballito Blanco : Rojo team won # Sin Bandera - Suelta Mi Mano : Rojo team won # DJ Méndez feat. Crossfire - Lady : Rojo team won :; 1st to 4th Grade (High) # Los Jaivas - Mira Niñita : Rojo team won # Shakira - Waka Waka (Esto es África) : Draw # Wisin & Yandel - La Minifalda : Draw Finally it was determined that the Rojo team won this game. The penultimate game took place at 12:05 local time (16:05 UTC), and it consisted of: # First round: collect 15 turnkeys. # Second round: collect 10 clocks. All of this had to be done in just 30 seconds. In the first round, the Verde team collected 11 turnkeys, and the Rojo team, 10. In the second round, the Verde team collected 6 clocks, while the Rojo team, 7. The last game was tugar tugar, which consisted of dancing known songs, including The Rickrollerz's Never Gonna Give You Up, Cosculluela's Prrum, Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, Américo's Te Vas and Chilean cuecas. After some time, the jury took out some pairs. There were six pairs, with a student from each grade. As the game came to a close, only two pairs remained. Finally, the game was won by the verde team. Angélica Miranda and Mother Loreto Fuentes, both judges, congratulated both teams and gave the total results: The same Pichileminian metal band that performed at the beginning of the games, played again, as students left the building. The Student's Day was celebrated on Wednesday, the 12th in Los Ángeles. The teachers congratulated the students and at once, they enjoyed activities that included artistic acts, deportive activities and certainly, free food, depending on the scholar journey. In the José Manso de Velasco School, one of the teachers disguised as Américo, and revolutionized the students. In the Liceo Comercial, they elected a Queen. The most popular took place in Sternenkinder, a special school, locally known as NEE (Necesidad Educativa Especial), that enjoyed an event prepared by a local discotheque. In Valdivia, the Education Seremi (boss) of the Los Ríos Region, Carlos Crot, visited the students of Instituto Superior de Administración y Turismo (INSAT) while they were celebrating their day, on Wednesday, congratulating all the students of the region. The event took place in a room of the establishment. Crot was the Principal of the Institute until just some weeks ago, when he had to leave to become Seremi. The Student's Day was celebrated on Thursday 13, in Parral. The Mayor of the city, Israel Urrutia Escobar, managed to take a Savory and Chocapic (both part of Nestle) tent to Parral. Savory's ice cream were given for free to people that could get in front of the Municipality building. The activity had been repeated in other communes affected by the February 27 earthquake. Some of them are: Talcahuano, Coronel, Chillán, Talca, Constitución, and some other minor towns. More than five thousand ice creams were given. ""I appreciate the companies that have came along to our call. This activity excites us and entertains not just the childs, but their parents. Today is the Student's day and we wanted to celebrate it properly ...,"" said Israel Urrutia. Students from the Santiago Urrutia Benavente School and Pablo Neruda School, ensured this was one of the best activities made in a long time, because they thought it was a fantasy that people could give ice creams to those who want and to play freely. The Student's Day was celebrated on Thursday 13 here, too. In many educational establishments of the city, activities were performed to celebrate this day. In Instituto Superior de Comercio, the students enjoyed a dance-tón (bailetón), El Pingüino reported. The Clerk of the Municipality of Punta Arenas, Orlando Estefó, congratulated the students, ""by making history every day by day, as the main actors in the educational process.""" +entertainment,"After ""Elmo Makes Music"" played for four days at the Everett Events Center in Everett, Washington, Sesame Street Live wrapped up all of its North American dates in its 27th season. After a three week break, Sesame Street Live will start the new season in Rochester, Minnesota on August 24. By far the longest running touring stage show, Sesame Street Live has played in 19 countries worldwide since its debut in 1980. During the summer, ""Super Grover! Ready for Action"" will tour Bangkok and Metro Manila. The performances star professional dancers in character costumes based on the ever-popular Sesame Street Muppets. Next year VEE Corporation, which runs SSL, will launch a new show: ""When Elmo Grows Up"". The show's first performance will be in La Crosse, Wisconsin on August 23 this year. ""Super Grover! Ready for Action"" will become a theatre tour, allowing it to play in cities without an arena large enough for the original production. ""Elmo Makes Music"" will continue to tour arenas across the continent. original * Sesame Street Live (official site)" +entertainment,"The latest album of hit British band Coldplay is due to be released worldwide this Monday (in Europe) and Tuesday (in North America) amid rife anticipation among fans. The album, called X&Y, is the band's third, following Parachutes which came out in 2000 and A Rush of Blood to the Head which appeared in 2002. Combined sales of the first two albums are above 20m copies, making Coldplay one of the biggest bands of recent years. The majority of music critics have given the album a good review, claiming that the band's songs have become 'tougher' and 'more diverse'. Radio listeners have already sampled some of the new songs such as Speed Of Sound, and the full album has been leaked onto Internet file-sharing networks. The album, which features 13 tracks collectively accounting for 62 minutes of music, has topped Amazon.com's music sales chart since March thanks to thousands of pre-orders, breaking the record for internet pre-orders previously held by Dido's Life For Rent." +entertainment,"BBC Television presenter and BBC Radio 2 disc jockey Jonathan Ross has announced his departure from the British Broadcasting Corporation. Ross currently presents his own chat show, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, as well as presenting his own programme and The Film programme on BBC Radio 2. He has decided to leave the corporation when his contract ends in July 2010. The contract was reported to have a value of £18,000,000 over the space of three years, however this has not been confirmed by the BBC. Ross, who has been working with the BBC since 1996, spoke to news reporters outside his house. ""It's probably not a bad time for me to move on &mdash; and it's probably not a bad time for the BBC, either,"" he stated. ""I've got six months left, I'm hoping to make the best shows of my career with them."" This information emerges one day after the announcement came that another BBC talk show host, Graham Norton, had signed a deal for two years with the BBC. Rumours began to mount in the newspapers that Norton would soon take over Ross' television slot. Alan Yentob, the BBC's Creative Director, said that ""you don't need to compare Graham with Jonathan Ross. No decisions have been taken with that slot."" source=Jonathan Ross Do you think that Jonathan Ross should have left the BBC? In 2008, Ross was involved in the infamous incident involving Russell Brand and himself leaving obscene messages to actor Andrew Sachs via a voicemail service. Regarding his departure from the BBC, Jonathan said: ""Although I have had a wonderful time working for the BBC, and am very proud of the shows I have made while there, over the last two weeks I have decided not to re-negotiate when my current contract comes to an end. While there, I have worked with some of the nicest and most talented people in the industry and had the opportunity to interview some of the biggest stars in the world, and am grateful to the BBC for such a marvellous experience. I would like to make it perfectly clear that no negotiations ever took place and that my decision is not financially motivated. ""As I have said before &mdash; I would happily have stayed there for any fee they cared to offer, but there were other considerations. I love making my Friday night talk show, my Saturday morning radio show and the Film Programme, and will miss them all. Working at the BBC has been a tremendous privilege, and I would like to thank everyone who has watched and listened so loyally over the last 13 years.""" +entertainment,"Canadian comedian Colin Mochrie has been named host of Are You Smarter Than a Canadian 5th Grader?, according to a Wednesday afternoon press release from Global TV, which is producing and airing the series. Based on the American series Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, the program quizzes adults on material found in textbooks for children in grades 1 through 5. Colin commented, ""I have been from one end of this country to the other and met adults of all ages, and let me tell you... those 5th Graders have nothing to worry about."" Mochrie is best known as an improv comedian on both the British and American versions of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but the Second City alumni has starred in Canadian comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Blackfly and Getting Along Famously. He tours North America with Whose's Line co-star Brad Sherwood, performing at numerous locales. We're delighted to have Colin on board as our Canadian quizmaster. His unrivaled wit and ability to engage and entertain audiences will be front and centre, and we look forward to all of the fun.-- Barbara Williams, Senior Vice President of Programming and Production for CanWest MediaWorks The American series is hosted by Jeff Foxworthy. Thirteen other countries run or will run their own adaptations. Mochrie will donate a portion of his paycheck to CanWest Raise-a-Reader, a family literacy program run by the host media conglomerate. Only five episodes will be taped in Toronto, initially." +entertainment,"Gerald Levert, R&B singer, songwriter and producer died of a heart attack around 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Gerald Levert was the son of Eddie Levert (of the soul group The O'Jays). Levert was known for a number of top ten hits in the 1980s and 90s, particularly ""Pop, Pop Goes My Mind"", ""Casanova"", and ABC-123"". Levert had finished an album, which is expected to go into release in early 2007. The memorial service for his death will be held Friday, November 17, and scheduled to honor Levert are Stevie Wonder, Johnny Gill and Angie Stone." +entertainment,"Chinese Democracy, the new album from hard rockers Guns N' Roses, has been released today, hitting store shelves in the United States and Canada after fifteen years. Many felt it would never happen, with several release dates passing and Dr Pepper making good on a promise of a free can to every US citizen if the album came out this year. Actually, Dr Pepper isn't giving quite everyone a free can. Former band members Slash and Buckethead are excluded from the promotion. Kevin Cogill pleaded not guilty to charges of copyright infringement in October after leaking nine tracks from the album onto his website, Antiquiet. He could be jailed for three years, or longer if he made money by putting the songs online. Not everywhere is going to see the album, though - topically enough, China has banned the record." +entertainment,"Music On Monday, Billboard magazine announced that Olivia Rodrigo's new song good 4 u had debuted at #1 on the Hot 100 chart dated for May 29. The Hot 100 combines sales, streaming and radio airplay in the United States to create a list of the most popular songs in the US on a weekly basis. According to MRC Data, within the United States good 4 u received 43.2 million streams, sold 12 thousand downloads, and drew an audience of 3.8 million on the radio in the week ending May 23. good 4 u released on May 14, a week before the May 21 release of Rodrigo's debut studio album, Sour. good 4 u became Rodrigo's second Number 1 single, after drivers license, which also debuted at Number 1 in January. Rodrigo also is the only artist, per Billboard, to have her first three singles &mdash; as in, singles promoted to both streaming services and radio &mdash; debut in the top 10, after deja vu debuted at Number 8 in April. On Instagram, Rodrigo celebrated by posting a meme of a sobbing cat with the caption ""GOOD 4 U IS NUMBER ONE!... IM SO HAPPY AHHHHHH!"" In her post, she also mentioned Dan Nigro and Alexander 23. Alexander 23 produced good 4 u alongside Dan Nigro, with Nigro also co-writing the track. This week's Hot 100 chart also saw four other debuts in the top 10, all songs from J. Cole's new album The Off-Season." +entertainment,"Finnish symphonic rock/symphonic power metal soloist Tarja Turunen has played the first dates on her debut tour as a solo artist after losing her position as the lead vocalist for Nightwish. The tour is in support of her new album My Winter Storm. Tarja has met with some early success as a solo artist, with the album certified gold in Finland - signifying sales in excess of 15,000 copies - and the first single I Walk Alone entering the German charts at number 16. The first show of the tour was in Berlin, Germany. That was followed by a concert in Budapest, Hungary. She is to return to Germany tomorrow, to perform I Walk Alone at the final fight of German boxing champion Regina Halmich. Said a statement by Turunen on the opening gig: ""The first show in Berlin was just great!! Everybody in the band, including myself, was really nervous. It is normal that in the first show some things are not really working yet. We were ready to have a total catastrophe in the middle of the concert, but luckily it didn't happen! I sensed that the audience was really listening everything carefully and I got the feeling that they enjoyed the show. That makes me very happy and delighted. There was a good spirit. It was funny to see the entire band, including two drum sets, in a small stage! But our crew managed to make us fit there… I am sure that things are getting better from now on. As for the first show, Berlin was amazing beginning for us. Thanks so much for all the nice and wonderful persons in the audience. I felt your support and love. You made a bit difficult for me to continue singing at some points during the concert. Just to bring down the myth that German people is coldsic. I think you were great and very, very warm.""" +entertainment,"A collision between Christian band MercyMe's tour bus and a car has killed two passengers in the car and the 18-year-old driver's unborn baby. The woman is in critical condition following the crash, which occurred in Fort Wayne, northeastern Indiana. The bus was headed to Six Flags St. Louis in Missouri for the band to play to a sold-out crowd. At 1:15 a.m. Saturday, according to witnesses, the bus was going through a green light when the car made a turn in front of it. No-one on the bus was injured, and the band rescheduled the show for September as a result of the incident. A photograph of the damaged bus was posted on the band's website, depicting moderate crumpling to the front area of the vehicle." +entertainment,"The trailer for Joss Whedon’s new feature film, Serenity, is expected to be released today (Tuesday, April 26). Joss Whedon, the creator of such prime time television successes as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, is promoting his latest movie with the official Serenity movie web site and a formal announcement. Joss Whedon has also warned fans of the Firefly show to avoid viewing the trailer, as it may be a spoiler for the movie, and may ruin their enjoyment. This popular television writer and creator developed Serenity as a follow up to Firefly, a genre defining Sci-Fi-Western that has received critical acclaim among science fiction enthusiasts, but failed to capture the interest of the typical prime time viewer. Firefly debuted on the FOX network in September, 2002, but was quickly canceled after one season. Serenity uses many of the same lead actors and characters as the original television series. In an interview with Firefly actor Alan Tudyk, Serenity is the first film in a three-picture Firefly contract with Universal Studios." +entertainment,"Rock group U2 will play a third date at Dublin's Croke Park this year. Following strong demand from fans, the group have announced that they will play Monday June 27th in addition to the 23rd and 24th. The band's current Vertigo tour has proved extremely popular among fans, with the original 160,000 Dublin tickets sold in less than an hour. The tour officially kicked off in San Diego, USA on 28 March 2005. Although no support act has yet been lined up for the extra date, it is widely believed that promoters MCD will have no trouble selling the additional 80,000 tickets." +entertainment,"Television A spokesperson stated on Monday that UK television company ITV have been fined A$3000 (about US$2591 or £1663) for cruelty to animals in an incident on programme ""I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!"", where two celebrities killed and ate a rat. The incident involved actor Stuart Manning and television chef Gino D'Acampo, who went on to win the ninth series of the programme, which was broadcast in 2009. Inside the jungle, having been reduced to rations of beans and rice, the two celebrities caught a rat before killing it and then cooking it, to give the beans and rice ""more protein"", before eating the rat, which contestant and actor George Hamilton described as ""actually quite nice"". Inside the programme's video diary room, at the time of the recording of it, Gino D'Acampo said: ""I saw one of these rats running around. I got a knife, I got its throat, I picked it up."" RSPCA Australia had stated that performing an act like this on television was ""not acceptable"". Initially, Manning and D'Acampo were charged for animal cruelty. However, their charges were dropped when ITV made the confession that production staff had allowed the celebrities to carry out the act of killing the rat. After a court trial in Sydney, Australia, ITV got a fine of A$3000. The company also had to pay costs of A$2500 (US$2192 or £1396). An ITV spokesperson said that ""ITV has apologised for the mistake which led to this incident. The production was unaware that killing a rat could be an offence, criminal or otherwise in New South Wales, and accepts that further inquiries should have been made. This was an oversight and we have since thoroughly reviewed our procedures and are putting in place a comprehensive training programme to ensure that this does not happen in future series.""" +entertainment,"TV star Fern Britton is in talks with producers about appearing on BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing. She was best known for being co-presenter on ITV1's This Morning — and is set to make her TV comeback on the hit show. She has been offered Brendan Cole as her dance partner. One TV source has mentioned that there are many incentives for Fern to appear on the dancing show, including losing weight and also being offered a whole host of TV and magazine deals. The Strictly Come Dancing production team are keen to attract more viewers on this year's series — especially as the programme will be going head-to-head with the new series of ITV1 hit singing show The X Factor, which appeals specifically to the 16–30 year old viewing market. The BBC has yet to confirm or deny any contestants on Strictly Come Dancing." +entertainment,"One week after the eleventh-hour renewal of the American soap opera Days of our Lives, NBC, the network airing the series in the United States, has let it known that the renewal has come at a price, namely a lower one. As a result of further cost-cutting measures to keep the show afloat through September 2010, two of the longest-running actors on the serial have had their contracts severed. Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn, who have played the characters of Marlena Evans and John Black for decades, have taped their final episodes and have been officially released from their obligations at Days of our Lives. When contacted by Wikinews, Days publicist Daniela Mancinelli commented ""Days of our Lives has decided to rest the characters of 'John Black' and 'Marlena Evans.' After a year of separation, 'John' and 'Marlena' will finally reunite before exiting the canvas in early 2009."" The surprise renewal of the serial and the high-profile terminations come at an awkward time for the show, because, despite improving on ratings numbers this year and being the only soap opera not to lose viewers, it was highly expected that the series would simply end its run once its contract ran out in March of next year. In early 2007, at a fall preview unveiling for reporters, NBC president Jeff Zucker made a statement indicating that the show would not be renewed past 2009. The renewal was apparently contingent on lowering overall budget numbers, which includes either lowering salaries for actors or terminating them completely. One actor, Jay Kenneth Johnson, who plays the character Philip Kiriakis, left of his own accord earlier this week after being asked to take a voluntary pay cut in exchange for a contract renewal. Longtime fans of the series are upset at the cast upheaval, with The Tampa Tribune noting loud fan protest on message boards devoted to the drama series. The New York Daily News told readers that next week there will be more news about the current budget situation facing the series, and more potential cast layoffs to be announced. Days publicist Daniela Mancinelli, after being contacted by Wikinews, said that she does not comment on the status of actors' contracts." +entertainment,"The Sesame Place theme park in Langhorne, Pennsylvania opened for its 2007 season this morning, adding Abby Cadabby to its all-star lineup of characters that children can meet. Described as a ""sweet, inquisitive enthusiastic three-year-old fairy-in-training"" who loves making new friends, the character stars in a musical show called Abby Cadabby's Treasure Hunt. Featuring all of the stars of Sesame Street, the production joins Elmo's World Live: Fishes. Abby was not the first recurring female character to be introduced to Sesame Street since 1993, as press materials for season 37 of Sesame Street proclaimed; Phoebe and Googel from the short-lived Monster's Clubhouse segment both hold that title. She is however the first new female character since 1993 to show any lasting power. Her performer, Leslie Carrara, says Abby will appear in ""almost every episode next season"". The Langhorne, Pennsylvania attraction was opened in 1980, sparking robust commercial development in the town. While similar parks have opened in Irving, Texas, Tokyo, Japan, Monterrey, Mexico and São Paulo, Brazil, none of them managed to strike the hearts and minds of tourists. Roller coaster Super Grover's Vapor Trail, the Sky Splash water ride, and the ""Rock Around the Block"" musical parade all return for the 2007 season, as do other rides, shows, and physical play activities. The park is open Friday through Sunday until 25 May, when the park begins opening daily. After Labor Day, Sesame Place is open weekends only until 27 October 2007." +entertainment,"Jerome Bettis, who announced his retirement from the Pittsburgh Steelers on the night they won the Super Bowl XL in Detroit, has been tapped as a studio analyst at NBC. His first game in the broadcast booth will come September 7th, on the same night the Steelers will receive their Super Bowl rings. ""It will be the proudest night of my life,"" Bettis said. ""I will finally get my ring and I will start my new career in television in front of all the Steelers fans."" Bettis, a Notre Dame graduate, began his career in 1993 with the Los Angeles Rams, but was picked up by the Steelers in 1996 and became the NFL's 5th leading rusher in Pittsburgh." +entertainment,"Legendary R&B singer Fats Domino has been accounted for, three days after Hurricane Katrina hit in his hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana. Fats Domino was found on Monday by a helicopter searching for residents stranded in floodwaters. He was identified by his daughter from a photo taken Monday by a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer. However, while it is known that Domino was rescued, his whereabouts and the whereabouts of his family are not immediately clear. The singer had told his agent, Al Embry, that he planned to stay at his home with his wife and daughter, rather than evacuate. He had not been heard from since before the storm hit. Domino, 77, lives in the city's 9th Ward, one of the areas hardest hit by Katrina. Attempts to reach Domino by phone proved futile, as phone lines have not been working in the area since the storm hit. Antoine 'Fats' Domino first gained stardom with one of the first rock n' roll records, ""The Fat Man"". The record went platinum, selling over a million copies and hitting #2 on the Billboard charts. Of Domino's numerous Top 40 singles, perhaps his most notable were Blue Monday and a cover of Blueberry Hill. Domino retired from touring in the 1980s, and has not left the city since, citing his dislike of touring, and his love of New Orleans cuisine. Not even his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or an invitation to the White House were able to get Domino to leave the town." +entertainment,"Ian Alleyne, host of Trinidad TV show Crime Watch, has been charged with crimes under the Sexual Offences Act after a tape purporting to show a mentally ill teenage girl being raped was allegedly broadcast last year. The footage allegedly was on-air thrice last October and triggered multiple complaints to police. Caribbean Communications Network's (CCN's) channel TV6 is jointly charged under the same act as Alleyne, as well as under the Telecommunications Act. Summonses were served at their Port of Spain headquarters. Alleyne was placed in custody in the same city. Alleyne has been hospitalised following his arrest, owing to chest pains. He is due to go before a magistrate, and cannot receive bail until he does so. He is also charged with obstructing police. Police had visited CCN offices in Port of Spain twice last year seeking the tape. Alleyne issued a message to The Trinidad Express criticising the decision not to grant him bail until he appears in court. He said it ""is really a sad state of affairs on the part of the police. What have I done that they have seen it fit to ensure that I'm only granted bail before a magistrate?""" +entertainment,"In the United Kingdom, The Carphone Warehouse, Celebrity Big Brother's sponsor, has pulled out after some of the reality TV show's contestants were accused of racism, with which the company did not want to be associated. The Perfume Shop has announced they will withdraw the perfume Shh... of Jade Goody, one of the contestants accused of bullying with a racist undertone. Motorcycle insurance company Bennetts unilaterally terminated its deal with former Miss England Danielle Lloyd to front an advertisement campaign. The accusations centre around recent comments made by Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara (a former member of pop act S Club 7) about Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. The racism row was sparked by Jade's mother, who referred to Shilpa as ""the Indian"", instead of calling her by her name. She also asked Shilpa: ""Do you live in a house or a shack?"" There have been remarks over her accent, her alleged lack of hygiene when cooking, and reactions because she touched the food of housemates with her hands. Danielle Lloyd said: ""You don't know where those hands have been."" Lloyd also commented to Goody about the Indian actress: ""She wants to be white"". When asked about the incident in the Diary Room, Shetty said ""...I don't feel there was any racial discrimination happening from Jade's end. I think there are a lot of insecurities from her end but it's definitely not racial."" Hertfordshire Police, the constabulary within which the Big Brother House falls, have received numerous formal complaints they will be investigating. Politicians, other celebrities, and fans spoke of their disgust as the UK media regulator Ofcom received a record number of complaints that rose tonight to 33,000. The Commission for Racial Equality is investigating if the footage was manipulated to deliberately imply racism. Labour Party MP Keith Vaz even proposed a motion in the House of Commons condemning the abuse. He said ""If this racist behaviour goes on, they Jo O'Meara, Danielle Lloyd and Jade Goody should be asked to leave"". Chancellor Gordon Brown, currently on tour in India, told reporters in Bangalore: ""I want to reassure people that what British people are proud of is our reputation for tolerance and fairness."" Others believe this reflects a racist tendency in British our Western society in general. The newspaper Times of India ran the headline ""Big(ot) Brother bullies Shilpa"". ""What is happening in Big Brother is just holding the mirror to the western society. This is the real, discriminating face of the West."", was the reaction of Bollywood film director Mahesh Bhatt. Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, accused Channel 4 of damaging the country's reputation. The show was recently losing viewers, but as a result of the controversy, viewing rates are up for the program." +entertainment,"In one of the most shocking changes in No. 1 in Hot 100 history, rapper Kanye West, who has been in the news this week because of his controversial views on the federal government’s reaction to the relief efforts of Hurricane Katrina, received a surge of radio airplay in the pop mainstream radio markets and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the second time in his career as a performer. His “Gold Digger” featuring Jamie Foxx vaulted 19-1 on the chart, ending Mariah Carey’s 14 non-consecutive week reign with “We Belong Together”. “Together” drops to No. 4 on the Hot 100. The 19-1 rally makes it the fifth biggest gain to No. 1 in Hot 100 history. The song also gains a record 94-2 on Billboard’s Pop 100 chart kept out of the No. 1 on that chart by the Pussycat Dolls with “Don’t Cha”. Mariah Carey is still No. 2 with “Shake It Off”. “Shake” was widely expected to gain to the Hot 100 pole position this week. Mariah Carey was No. 1 all summer with “Together” dethroned only once before by American Idol winner Carrie Underwood with “Inside Your Heaven” on the July 2 chart. Missy Elliott’s “Lose Control” featuring Ciara and Fat Man Scoop gained 5-3 while “Don’t Cha” dropped to No. 5. Bow Wow’s “Like You” featuring Ciara gained 7-6 trading places with Rhianna’s “Pon de Replay”. The only other song gaining into the top-10 is Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We’re Going Down” rising 12-8. Bow Wow’s “Let Me Hold You” featuring Omarion fell 5-9 and Lifehouse’s “You and Me” rounded out the top-10 with a two position dip." +entertainment,"Anthony Wilson, journalist and record label owner, died of a heart attack on the 10th August, after receiving treatment for cancer. He died at the Christie Hospital, aged 57 and is survived by his partner, Yvette Livesey. Wilson was receiving private medical treatment due to the recommended drug, Sunitinib, not being available through the publicly funded National Health Service. Wilson's treatment was being funded by former music industry friends." +entertainment,"Few artists ever penetrate the subconscious level of American culture the way RuPaul Andre Charles did with the 1993 album Supermodel of the World. It was groundbreaking not only because in the midst of the Grunge phenomenon did Charles have a dance hit on MTV, but because he did it as RuPaul, formerly known as Starbooty, a supermodel drag queen with a message: love everyone. A duet with Elton John, an endorsement deal with MAC cosmetics, an eponymous talk show on VH-1 and roles in film propelled RuPaul into the new millennium. In July, RuPaul's movie Starrbooty began playing at film festivals and it is set to be released on DVD October 31st. Wikinews reporter David Shankbone recently spoke with RuPaul by telephone in Los Angeles, where she is to appear on stage for DIVAS Simply Singing!, a benefit for HIV-AIDS. ---- DS: How are you doing? :RP: Everything is great. I just settled into my new hotel room in downtown Los Angeles. I have never stayed downtown, so I wanted to try it out. L.A. is one of those traditional big cities where nobody goes downtown, but they are trying to change that. DS: How do you like Los Angeles? :RP: I love L.A. I’m from San Diego, and I lived here for six years. It took me four years to fall in love with it and then those last two years I had fallen head over heels in love with it. Where are you from? DS: Me? I’m from all over. I have lived in 17 cities, six states and three countries. :RP: Where were you when you were 15? DS: Georgia, in a small town at the bottom of Fulton County called Palmetto. :RP: When I was in Georgia I went to South Fulton Technical School. The last high school I ever went to was...actually, I don’t remember the name of it. DS: Do you miss Atlanta? :RP: I miss the Atlanta that I lived in. That Atlanta is long gone. It’s like a childhood friend who underwent head to toe plastic surgery and who I don’t recognize anymore. It’s not that I don’t like it; I do like it. It’s just not the Atlanta that I grew up with. It looks different because it went through that boomtown phase and so it has been transient. What made Georgia Georgia to me is gone. The last time I stayed in a hotel there my room was overlooking a construction site, and I realized the building that was torn down was a building that I had seen get built. And it had been torn down to build a new building. It was something you don’t expect to see in your lifetime. DS: What did that signify to you? :RP: What it showed me is that the mentality in Atlanta is that much of their history means nothing. For so many years they did a good job preserving. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a preservationist. It’s just an interesting observation. DS: In 2004 when you released your third album, Red Hot, it received a good deal of play in the clubs and on dance radio, but very little press coverage. On your blog you discussed how you felt betrayed by the entertainment industry and, in particular, the gay press. What happened? :RP: Well, betrayed might be the wrong word. ‘Betrayed’ alludes to an idea that there was some kind of a promise made to me, and there never was. More so, I was disappointed. I don’t feel like it was a betrayal. Nobody promises anything in show business and you understand that from day one. :But, I don’t know what happened. It seemed I couldn’t get press on my album unless I was willing to play into the role that the mainstream press has assigned to gay people, which is as servants of straight ideals. DS: Do you mean as court jesters? :RP: Not court jesters, because that also plays into that mentality. We as humans find it easy to categorize people so that we know how to feel comfortable with them; so that we don’t feel threatened. If someone falls outside of that categorization, we feel threatened and we search our psyche to put them into a category that we feel comfortable with. The mainstream media and the gay press find it hard to accept me as...just... DS: Everything you are? :RP: Everything that I am. DS: It seems like years ago, and my recollection might be fuzzy, but it seems like I read a mainstream media piece that talked about how you wanted to break out of the RuPaul 'character' and be seen as more than just RuPaul. :RP: Well, RuPaul is my real name and that’s who I am and who I have always been. There’s the product RuPaul that I have sold in business. Does the product feel like it’s been put into a box? Could you be more clear? It’s a hard question to answer. DS: That you wanted to be seen as more than just RuPaul the drag queen, but also for the man and versatile artist that you are. :RP: That’s not on target. What other people think of me is not my business. What I do is what I do. How people see me doesn’t change what I decide to do. I don’t choose projects so people don’t see me as one thing or another. I choose projects that excite me. I think the problem is that people refuse to understand what drag is outside of their own belief system. A friend of mine recently did the Oprah show about transgendered youth. It was obvious that we, as a culture, have a hard time trying to understand the difference between a drag queen, transsexual, and a transgender, yet we find it very easy to know the difference between the American baseball league and the National baseball league, when they are both so similar. We’ll learn the difference to that. One of my hobbies is to research and go underneath ideas to discover why certain ones stay in place while others do not. Like Adam and Eve, which is a flimsy fairytale story, yet it is something that people believe; what, exactly, keeps it in place? DS: What keeps people from knowing the difference between what is real and important, and what is not? :RP: Our belief systems. If you are a Christian then your belief system doesn’t allow for transgender or any of those things, and you then are going to have a vested interest in not understanding that. Why? Because if one peg in your belief system doesn’t work or doesn’t fit, the whole thing will crumble. So some people won’t understand the difference between a transvestite and transsexual. They will not understand that no matter how hard you force them to because it will mean deconstructing their whole belief system. If they understand Adam and Eve is a parable or fairytale, they then have to rethink their entire belief system. :As to me being seen as whatever, I was more likely commenting on the phenomenon of our culture. I am creative, and I am all of those things you mention, and doing one thing out there and people seeing it, it doesn’t matter if people know all that about me or not. DS: Recently I interviewed Natasha Khan of the band Bat for Lashes, and she is considered by many to be one of the real up-and-coming artists in music today. Her band was up for the Mercury Prize in England. When I asked her where she drew inspiration from, she mentioned what really got her recently was the 1960’s and 70's psychedelic drag queen performance art, such as seen in Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, The Cockettes and Paris Is Burning. What do you think when you hear an artist in her twenties looking to that era of drag performance art for inspiration? :RP: The first thing I think of when I hear that is that young kids are always looking for the ‘rock and roll’ answer to give. It’s very clever to give that answer. She’s asked that a lot: ""Where do you get your inspiration?"" And what she gave you is the best sound bite she could; it’s a really a good sound bite. I don’t know about Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, but I know about The Cockettes and Paris Is Burning. What I think about when I hear that is there are all these art school kids and when they get an understanding of how the press works, and how your sound bite will affect the interview, they go for the best. DS: You think her answer was contrived? :RP: I think all answers are really contrived. Everything is contrived; the whole world is an illusion. Coming up and seeing kids dressed in Goth or hip hop clothes, when you go beneath all that, you have to ask: what is that really? You understand they are affected, pretentious. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s how we see things. I love Paris Is Burning. DS: Has the Iraq War affected you at all? :RP: Absolutely. It’s not good, I don’t like it, and it makes me want to enjoy this moment a lot more and be very appreciative. Like when I’m on a hike in a canyon and it smells good and there aren’t bombs dropping. DS: Do you think there is a lot of apathy in the culture? :RP: There’s apathy, and there’s a lot of anti-depressants and that probably lends a big contribution to the apathy. We have iPods and GPS systems and all these things to distract us. DS: Do you ever work the current political culture into your art? :RP: No, I don’t. Every time I bat my eyelashes it’s a political statement. The drag I come from has always been a critique of our society, so the act is defiant in and of itself in a patriarchal society such as ours. It’s an act of treason. DS: What do you think of young performance artists working in drag today? :RP: I don’t know of any. I don’t know of any. Because the gay culture is obsessed with everything straight and femininity has been under attack for so many years, there aren’t any up and coming drag artists. Gay culture isn’t paying attention to it, and straight people don’t either. There aren’t any drag clubs to go to in New York. I see more drag clubs in Los Angeles than in New York, which is so odd because L.A. has never been about club culture. DS: Michael Musto told me something that was opposite of what you said. He said he felt that the younger gays, the ones who are up-and-coming, are over the body fascism and more willing to embrace their feminine sides. :RP: I think they are redefining what femininity is, but I still think there is a lot of negativity associated with true femininity. Do boys wear eyeliner and dress in skinny jeans now? Yes, they do. But it’s still a heavily patriarchal culture and you never see two men in Star magazine, or the Queer Eye guys at a premiere, the way you see Ellen and her girlfriend—where they are all, ‘Oh, look how cute’—without a negative connotation to it. There is a definite prejudice towards men who use femininity as part of their palette; their emotional palette, their physical palette. Is that changing? It’s changing in ways that don’t advance the cause of femininity. I’m not talking frilly-laced pink things or Hello Kitty stuff. I’m talking about goddess energy, intuition and feelings. That is still under attack, and it has gotten worse. That’s why you wouldn’t get someone covering the RuPaul album, or why they say people aren’t tuning into the Katie Couric show. Sure, they can say ‘Oh, RuPaul’s album sucks’ and ‘Katie Couric is awful’; but that’s not really true. It’s about what our culture finds important, and what’s important are things that support patriarchal power. The only feminine thing supported in this struggle is Pamela Anderson and Jessica Simpson, things that support our patriarchal culture." +entertainment,"Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish have been added to the billing of the United Kingdom's Bloodstock Open Air (BOA) festival. The annual three day festival will take part through August 15-17. Established in 2005 as a spinoff of the original Bloodstock festival, BOA 2008 also features Dimmu Borgir, Opeth, Soilwork, Iced Earth and Helloween, amongst others. The event, being held in Derbyshire's Catton Hall, will also feature a stage devoted to unsigned bands." +entertainment,"Ren and Stimpy. Bugs Bunny. Philip J. Fry and Professor Hubert Farnsworth on Futurama. Sparx. Bi-Polar Bear. Popeye the Sailor Man. Woody Woodpecker. You may not think you have ever heard Billy West, but chances are on a television program, a movie, a commercial, or as Howard Stern's voice guru in the 1990's, you have heard him. West's talent for creating personalities by twisting his voice has made him one of a handful of voice actors—Hank Azaria and the late Mel Blanc come to mind—who have achieved celebrity for their talent. Indeed, West is one of the few voice actors who can impersonate Blanc in his prime, including characterizations of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and other characters from Warner Bros. cartoons. What is the fulcrum in Mr. West's life that led him to realize a talent to shape personalities with his voice, and how did the discovery of that gift shape him? Wikinews reporter David Shankbone found that like many great comedians, West faced more sour early in life than he did sweet. The sour came from a physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic father (""I could tell you the kind of night I was going to have from the sound of the key in the door or the way the car pulled up.""), to his own problems with drug and alcohol use (""There is a point that you can reach in your life where you don’t want to live, but you haven’t made the decision to die.""). I’m telling you stuff that I never said to anybody... If sin, suffering and redemption feel like the stages of an endless cycle of American existence, West's own redemption from his brutalized childhood is what helped shape his gift. He performed little bits to cheer up his cowed mother, ravaged by the fact she could not stop her husband's abuse of young West. ""I was the whipping boy and she would just be reduced to tears a lot of times, and I would come in and say stuff, and I would put out little bits just to pull her out of it."" But West has also enjoyed the sweet. His career blossomed as his talent for creating entire histories behind fictional characters and creatures simply by exploring nuance in his voice landed him at the top of his craft. You may never again be able to forget that behind the voice of your favorite character, there is often an extraordinary life. Below is David Shankbone's interview with renowned voice actor Billy West, who for the first time publicly talks about the horrors he faced in his childhood; his misguided search for answers in anger, drugs and alcohol; and the peace he has achieved as one of America's most recognizable voice actors. interview David Shankbone: You’re known for speaking about the use of famous actors to do voice-over. What is your central problem with their use? :Billy West: My problem is that if they were judged by the same standards we were, that we have to try and get work with, they would be pretty piss poor as voice performers. DS: What standards are those? :BW: The standards are that you have a really special voice that you can go around and do that voice and make a living that people just instantly love it. Nobody is just instantly in love with the usual suspects. Voices that we see in the cartoon movies now. DS: Like Robin Williams? :BW: No, he's different, he understands character. I mean he understands characterization and voice changes. And so does Mike Myers and so does Eddie Murphy. DS: Jerry Seinfeld as well in Bee Movie? :BW: No, that’s not it because he‘s doing a character that looks exactly like him and sounds exactly like him. I mean, Will Smith does characters that are drawn to look like him and sound like him. I wish I had that luxury. Nobody draws a character that looks like me and sounds like me for me to just step in and be the perfect person for the role. You know what I mean? DS: What’s the solution? Not to do characters around stars? :BW: The thing is, I don’t have an issue with the fact that these movies are being made. If I could audition for them and I didn’t get them, I still wouldn’t have an issue with them. But this is the thing: they audition us for these movies and then they play it for the A-list people, for these celebrities, so they can strip my talents’ abilities and kind of toss them over to the celebrity just to make it look better than it would be. And I’m not a teacher. Not a paid teacher. I don’t like that stuff. West on laying down cartoon characters in auditions, only to have a celebrity end up doing the voice with the quirks West's voice introduced. DS: They’ll have you come in, or someone of your caliber come in, and actually shape the voice around the character and then they’ll present it to the celebrity as the template? :BW: Yeah, and sometimes you’ll actually hear stuff that you actually thought of during the audition, because you have to really be on your toes. DS: Are you paid for that? :BW: Not really. Only a couple gigs did I ever get paid to scratch a movie for a celebrity that was going to do it. The stuff that goes on at auditions is despicable. DS: Are there legal remedies that you could pursue for that? :BW: No. I gotta prove it. I used to bring a tape recorder around with me, but still, it’s like trying to fight city hall. It is what it is. But that’s my real issue with it is that this is an Area 51 for experienced voice-over people who do create characters and not just do who and what they are. It takes away from the creative process. DS: There was a similar issue involved with Crispin Glover. They had taken a likeness of one of his earlier roles. I think it was Robert Zemeckis Then they tried to pass it off later as him and he sued them for doing that. Are you familiar with that situation? :BW: It only means anything to me if he won. DS: He did. :BW: Oh, he did! That’s very similar. But the thing is, if you could prove that. You can’t prove that somebody deliberately took the stuff and tossed it off to some person that’s acting. But it’s a dirty business and I won’t do it anymore. I never really quite got what it’s all about. It’s to show up and to sound exactly like the character and to read it, yet you’re doing it the way that you would do it. It’s not good business as far as I’m concerned. It’s not my part of town. DS: Has your speaking out on this issue hurt you in any way? :BW: In what way? DS: In your career? :BW: No. DS: There’s no reaction against it from the studios or from the ….? :BW: No they don’t give a shit which voice-over person is in the alleyways beating the piss out of the other one to get a gig. I mean, they don’t care. They really don’t. DS: You discussed in an interview issues about the weight of the character’s legacies, such as Pop-Eye or Bugs Bunny. You had said that every time they do one of these they say, 'this time it’s going to be different. We’re putting the teeth back in those characters. Nobody is going to tell us what we can’t write and what we can write.' And you said they always blow it. How do they blow it? :BW: They pander. Slowly they take away the aspects of what made those characters who and what they were. In other words, cartoons contained sometimes gratuitous violence with the squash and stretch animation. Sometimes it was gratuitous. But that was only an aspect of the cartoon. When you start stripping away those things that made it a full dimension character, you’re going to have Xeroxes of it in every way including creativity. The worst mistake Warner Brothers ever did was make all these characters friends, because then you took away the dynamic. Elmer wanted to kill Bugs Bunny. There was no question in anybody’s mind. Sylvester wanted to kill Tweetie. There was no question in anyone’s mind, unless you wanted to say, “He just wanted to eat him. He didn’t want to kill him.” Go figure that out. There was danger involved, and some life truths involved. When you’re telling the truth, you’re really dealing with comedy. If you don’t have the truth on your side, then comedy can’t spring from it, unless you have some weird hydroponic garden that doesn’t need any of the standard things that it takes to grow something. DS: How do you choose a project, or does the project choose you? :BW: It works both ways. I get offers for stuff. If it looks like a good offer, I’ll take it. I’m not a snob. I love working, and every now and then somebody will say, “Why did you do that?” You know what? It’s none of your business. All I owe you is a good performance. DS: Where do you think voice acting is going? It doesn’t seem like it’s ever an art that’s going to lose its place, but do you see it diminishing? Is it on a downturn? Is it on an upturn? Is it idling? :BW: What they’re doing slowly is they’re going to have to turn the celebrities and actors into cartoons, slowly but surely, because it’s the look that people are seduced by. It’s almost as if they like watching animation more than they do live action because of all the farms of kids being fostered to love computer-generated images. If you don’t do this, if you don’t start turning all of the celebrities into cartoons, we’ll lose our star system. It’s better to have their likenesses with their voices rather than trying to act out something that sprung from someone’s imagination that needed a concerted effort to give it a voice, a look. These characters are actors, they look like themselves, but they’re doing it with cartoon and computer processing. This is where it’s going. DS: With computer animated voices? :BW: No, no, no. The stars will never go away. Let’s start there. If they have to become cartoons they will, because it’s a trend in the industry that these kinds of movies make more money than the regular ones do, for the most part. And they have no use for people that can create any kind of a character that’s shaped to whatever you want. That’s not useful in this case. DS: Do you remember a time in your life when you started recognizing your talent for being able to shape your voice into memorable characters? :BW: I never really noticed. It was just so natural to me. What I used to do was hide it because no one would say anything. When somebody’s mind got blown around you, they just resented you or would find a reason to not like you. What happened was, I grew up thinking that everybody could do it, but that they were just too cool to do it. DS: You had a talent that seemed very trite to you, but very few other people could do it and you didn't recognize that? :BW: Yeah. I didn’t even think that it was something that was gifted upon me. I mean I never thought of it like that. I thought everybody was exactly the same. And then I would hear that nobody was doing the kinds of thing that I did and I began to feel weird and I retreated for various reasons. If I showed up at a softball game I started calling the plays like an old-time sportscaster. You would think people would like that. But it would be met with, 'Who do you think you are?' DS: You would feel a compulsion to do the plays in a voice? :BW: Yes. And I definitely wanted to get approval. Every kid wants that. But I would do those things because I heard the radio and I would listen to what people actually had to say. I just had my own approach to everything. Every little town weirdo like me grows up to come to the Mecca of weirdos, which is Hollywood. DS: I’m not a voice actor, but there’s times I’ll hear a person say a phrase. I covered the Iranian president speaking at Colombia for Wikinews and I watched these dueling ideologues who were normal citizens. One of them was this large black woman with a Bible yelling at this secular Jewish guy. I recorded these voices. She had one of those voices that I just couldn’t get out of my head. She just kept going, “You’re evil. You’re going to burn in Hell.” I found myself saying it aloud over and over and over again because her voice and what she said made such an impression on me that I wanted to imitate it. There was such a history behind that voice. She probably could have just said, “Buy Tide detergent,” and I would still be saying it over and over and over again. :BW: Sure. That’s what I mean about some people having naturally quirky voices. You’ve heard people in your life, like you meet a girl, a full-grown woman, who goes in high pitched squeal, “I wanted to ask you.” And you go, 'Drop the act. Is this a put-on?' And I go, “Shit, you should be doing cartoons!” DS: Is how you developed your talent when you were younger based upon imitating others? You would hear things that would leave impressions on you and you would want to imitate them? But why would you want to imitate them? :BW: Because I had no role models. My dad was a certifiable psycho and he made my life a living hell and it was a horror chamber where I grew up and when I grew up. The guy used to beat the daylights out of me left and right, for any random reason. He was a raving alchie. I grew up with him making fun of me. I was forced to retreat into a world where I couldn’t get hurt or beat up or anything like that. Billy West on beginning to do voices DS: It was escapism ...? :BW: Well yeah. You gotta understand, it was like I was a little kid. I’m not a magical being. My dad tried to kill me about fifteen times. DS: So when you would escape into those voices, you felt a sense of safety? :BW: Yes. 'Cause I was surrounded by things that wouldn’t be a threat to me. DS: And things that you could control through your own voice. :BW: Yes. DS: Whereas you couldn’t control what an alcoholic authority figure was going to do. :BW: I was like an alien; I was an observation unit, trying to study the human condition, not consciously, but because I had to. I could tell you the kind of night I was going to have from the sound of the key in the door or the way the car pulled up. I was hyper vigilant. So all I was, was this unit from space that had nothing but data gathering and sensory equipment. DS: What was your dad’s reaction to your doing voices? :BW: It didn’t register on the radar because, number one, I wasn’t really doing it in the time I spent with him. The other thing was that he was a frustrated talent. He could sit down at the piano and just start playing it, having no lessons or training. He could do dialogs and he could do voices. He was very funny, you know, among his friends and all that. He was also a musician, a drummer. And I became a musician except I wasn’t a drummer, I was a guitar player. The thing is, he could never make it pay. All he had was a string of jobs. Driving a beer truck then driving a soda pop truck then driving an ice cream truck. You know what I mean? Like a Ralph Kramden kind of thing. DS: Where was your mom during all this? :BW: She was trying to make a household and trying to keep the place as sane as she possibly could. DS: It doesn’t sound like she was very successful. :BW: She had to leave him. She came into the sixth grade one day. I saw my mother at school and I was mortified like any other kid would be. She talked to the teacher and they went out in the hall. My mom came and I went with her to the airport. It was like going on a trip. We got out of Detroit, Michigan and we were on a plane to Boston. Me and my two brothers. One was a baby and the other one was like, gosh, he had to be seven or six because I was about eleven. This was back in 1963. DS: When did you come to a realization that your voice was something that you wanted to turn into a career? West on abusing animals to deal with his own abuse :BW: It never was a realization. I started playing trumpet in grade school when I was ten years old and I liked the idea of going on stage and playing. And I was in a couple of plays in school and I really liked that world. I felt totally at home with it cause you had to be ready for anything and you had to be vigilant and you had to be on your toes, which actors need as skill and survival tools. So it was the perfect place for me to be. It’s not like I was a hollow, empty vessel. I had plenty of things percolating inside and all that, but I needed to be where I to be where I felt good and I never fit in with other kids. I only had, like, two friends, maybe one, who was, “You like that comic book too?” You know, that kind of stuff. Getting called faygot by any random goon. DS: Did you say fay or faggot? :BW: No, it’s faggot, but they would pronounce it fay-got, you know, in Boston. Faygot. What are you, faygot? What are you, queer? DS: Do you think that’s had any lasting effect on you? :BW: Well, I can now get crazy without being angry or raging because I know how to do it. Everything you do has to come from something real. You have to tap into something. Otherwise, there’s nothing to grab hold of if you’re a watcher or a listener or whatever. There’s nothing for you there. It’s no fun for the audience. DS: They say that all great comedians typically have extraordinary tragedy in their lives, and they develop their humor as a response to it. :BW: Yes, but I developed mine a lot of the times to comfort my mom. Because she saw the way I was being treated. Not so much my brothers, but I was the whipping boy and she would just be reduced to tears a lot of times, and I would come in and say stuff, and I would put out little bits just to pull her out of it. DS: Even though you were hurting, it would hurt you to see her hurting over you. :BW: Yes. And you know, I could take a beating. I finally learned how to just galvanize myself where you just totally like disassociate and your body can sit there and get smacked around and punched or whatever and your mind is a million miles away. DS: What made you the whipping boy? :BW: Well my dad was very very angry. He was abused as a child and he lived in a matriarchal situation with his mother and her sister and then her mother and there were all these big German …. I don’t know, like real staunch people, angry and punishment-inclined. He liked to dish out punishment …. DS: What would make you the one that he would unleash that upon as opposed to your brothers? :BW: Because I could do little things that he seemed to be threatened by. DS: Like what? :BW: I could draw. He was an artist. I could pick up a pen and start drawing immediately. He was a musician, a drummer. Then, I learned to play guitar when I was ten years old. He didn’t sit right with any of these things. Plus, he was very jealous of me because my mother loved me more than him. DS: An oedipal issue? :BW: Well, yeah, but it happened from Day One. He resented eventually the fact that I was born 'cause I took away his mommy. DS: What is your relationship with your brothers like? Did they see this going on? Did they feel bad for you? :BW: Only my other brother. He's dead now. He bore witness to an awful lot of stuff and he, himself, was the brunt of an awful lot of stuff that I teased him and bothered him, 'cause it trickled down. DS: You said your father was a victim of abuse himself and that pattern often repeats. How did you stop that pattern? Was it through your voice work? :BW: No, not really. I had a mean streak. But I’m such a dyed-in-the-wool animal lover. I’ve always had pets. I would be so filled with anger and rage that on my way to school, it was literally a “kick at the cat” as they used to say. You’re angry and you don’t know where to direct it. You’ll kick a wall that has wet paint on it. That’ll teach them. And hurt yourself doing it. I’d go out and kick the shit out of some little cat or something, just like you know, smack it. You know, go over and go to pet it, then whack it because that’s all I knew. In a weird way, in a weird permutation of the whole situation, to me that was supposed to be love. Cause why would your parent hit you, hurt you? Why? It never makes sense to a kid. And they all used to say, “It’s because I care about you.” But I got over that stuff and what I did was start to hurt myself. DS: How so? :BW: I started drinking and doing drugs when I was about 21. I was playing in a band and it was all part of the picture, you know. It could be rosy for you. You couldn’t survive anywhere else, but in a band you were like golden. I used to punch walls, cause ruckuses and get into fights wherever I went. You know, throw things at people. DS: How did you stop the fights and the drugs? :BW: I had to go to rehab. I had a job in radio. I stopped playing music. I tried to do some standup comedy, but I don’t have the discipline for it. I used to just go out there and not care if I died or lived or whatever. You know, I’d just say stuff. I was always searching. I just couldn’t go up there and do twelve minutes and pretend like I’d just thought of it, you know, for three years. DS: Are you still sober? :BW: Oh yeah. I’ve been sober for 22 years. But I had to go into rehab. I had a series of car accidents. I almost got killed one night but I just walked away from it chuckling, smashed. West on his wilder days. DS: Were you at a point where you didn’t necessarily want to die, but you just didn’t care if you lived? :BW: That’s pretty much it, yeah. You put your finger on it. There is a point that you can reach in your life where you don’t want to live but you haven’t made the decision to die. DS: Whatever happens happens. :BW: Yeah. You let the wind blow you around. I have a zillion stories. I should write a book. These are stories that you think, 'No, that couldn’t be true. That couldn’t possibly be true.' I was in radio around the same time too. I went back to playing music in the early eighties after a hiatus. I started playing again with a couple of people and I was also working radio but I was in a constant blackout. And people said I was good on the radio. I don’t know what I did or said. I just used to come in there and turn the place upside down. I was too good to fire. But they didn’t know what to do with me, you know. I’d come in in the middle of a night— DS: And that would almost egg you on? :BW: No, no. It wasn’t that. They wouldn’t just grab me and throw me up against a wall and say, “Listen, you little fuck, you’re going to rehab.” I got away with this kind of behavior and it was awful because I was terrorizing people. Not during the day. At night. And stories. There would always be stories and then it would make the papers. You know, that kind of stuff. I finally cracked up a car and I was in for non-payment of rent and the judge says, 'I don’t care about this non-payment of rent thing, but you’re doing a week in Charles Street Jail for this DWI that you never answered for.' This was before the advent of computers. Now, they press a button and it spits out everything. But back then, you could screw up in one town and then go to another town and do exactly the same thing and they could never put them together because everything was on paper. DS: Now it’s all electronic. :BW: But I wasn’t proud of that. That was the lowest point of my life. But I’ve been sober for longer than I was a user. Twenty-two years. DS: Are you in some way glad that you went through the drug and alcohol abuse? :BW: I could ask you the same thing and I don't mean to pull a ""Donald Rumsfeld,"" interviewing myself. But I could ask you the same thing. Are you glad? Because if you are where you are and it seems okay, then you had to have gone through those things for you to be the total sum of your experiences which led you to the very spot and the very phone you’re talking on. You know what I mean? And so it’s almost like no matter what you did, if you finally get yourself together and you mean well and things are going okay, it’s like, 'Well, it had to be that way.' The universe obviously had to teach me something. DS: Do you believe in a higher power? :BW: Yes I do. I don’t know what it is. I just think its some higher form of energy and some sort of being, but I can’t embody it in my mind. But I know I have a one to one, kind of a spiritual connection to whatever that is. See I was raised, I had Catholicism shoved down my throat. I was an altar boy. I knew the mass in Latin. DS: Me too. :BW: Really? DS: I didn’t know the mass in Latin, but I was an altar boy and I had Catholicism shoved down my face, but I’m 33, so Vatican II had happened. :BW: Yeah, and then you get ""Father PreCum"" trying to give you a massage and shit like that. DS: The priest at my church got a nun pregnant and my mother, who was the president of the PTA at my Catholic grade school, helped deliver the baby and keep the whole thing hidden. :BW: Really? DS: Yeah. And he’s still the priest. :BW: I think it’s probably a guy masquerading as a nun, if you’re talking about priests. DS: Where do you see yourself now in your career? :BW: Exactly where I want to be. You know, I feel bad for kids who want to be voice-overs. They will always be needed. I always encourage them. They’re always going to need what you offer. And you can make a living if you’re really good. But there’s only so far you can go now. Before, the sky was the limit. There wasn’t these rigged fights standing in your way. 'Cause right now, it’s like a rigged fight. You can still audition and get great satisfaction on the job as a voiceover. And that’s all I ever really wanted to be. :But I did aspire to do animations that required voice work. And I’ve done some of it and then this trend set in. And believe me we don’t get the kind of money those people get for doing voices. It’s rather odd to me. At some point I realized many years ago—I was a teenager in the sixties, protesting with the long hair, running around with the hippies—I realized when I looked at all the guys we were supposed to hate so much and resent, I kind of analyzed what complacency was, and they seemed complacent to me. They reached a point in their lives where they felt good about themselves and just cause a bunch of kids come along that were popping drugs and accusing you of this and that and being the man and everything, you think your feelings states are never going to change. And I used to say they’re complacent. But the thing is that everybody that’s born pretty much has to reach that point where they’re looking down the barrel of their own complacency. You gotta like do a little gear shifting. DS: At what point was that for you? :BW: When I stopped drinking, of course. But I couldn’t play music in the way I wanted to play it anymore. I would have been like a parody of myself. So that didn’t seem truthful to me. Trying to do comedy seemed truthful to me, but then, like I told you before, I didn’t have the discipline to do stand-up. That term wasn’t popular much before the seventies. Then you started hearing these stand-up comics. When I was a kid and when I was a teenager, doing comedy meant you were interrupting somebody’s dinner in a restaurant. There was no comedy clubs per se. But the turning point—it’s called survival. It’s like being a cockroach. You evolve or die. When I was kid I thought everybody was like me and all these people I hang with are going to be running the country and I couldn’t have been more wrong. continued from previous section DS: Well they are. It’s just things have changed. :BW: I’m way older than a lot of these guys by the way, that are out there. But to me they look like old men with bad breath and dandruff. DS: Who are you talking about? :BW: Republicans. DS: Yeah. :BW: You know, the guys that are running things. They don’t look like people that came from my generation at all. I’m as old as Karl Rove, or any of those idiots and it’s like, 'Where did you come from?' It’s still the same old geezers that hide behind religion and family values, and then they’re messing with guys in men’s rooms and scandal prone because that’s sort of what the party is famous for. I hated those guys and I didn’t grow up to be one. But then I watch all these people from my generation just suddenly morph into that and I’m still in a state of shock. Where did these Donna Reeds and these little Breck girls, St. Pauli girls that are filled with Republican ideology come from? It’s like they’re young. What is this, you know. DS: It’s confusing because you look at somebody like Dick Cheney, who has this lesbian daughter, who’s in a gay marriage Poe and Cheney have not entered into a formal union - ed and now has a baby with her partner, and you just don’t know how the situation exists. It’s hard to comprehend. That Mary Cheney exists in the Republican party, and that she seems to be fine with that existence and even works for it. :BW: I know, it’s almost like it shouldn’t be possible, yet it is. And these guys are thumping their chests about it. I don’t go for that. It’s like saying you don’t approve of who and what your daughter is by birth. I’ll never understand that. And, again, Cheney is only like six or seven years older than me. You know what I mean? Like where the f did this shit come from? DS: Has the Iraq War affected you much as a person? :BW: Yeah, totally. I watched the whole Vietnam thing go down and it’s the exact same thing. You think we would learn, but we don’t because the proof of that is there’s Holocaust deniers to something that happened a couple years before I was born, that there was extermination. Now there’s people that aren’t sure whether that happened or not, no matter how many shoes are piled up and down in Washington, D.C.. DS: Teach the controversy. Make it appear there are two sides to every fact. :BW: Yeah, but there ain't two sides to science. And when you start banning science and real knowledge, then you’re in George Orwell land. The pretense of it all really bothers me. I hate sitting there, talking to a guy that’s looking me right in the eye, and he’s lying to me. I hate when adults play pretend. I hate it more than anything. The only time I want to play pretend is when I can play like a child and not make it into an ideology. I know I go way off the subject, but I have a lot to say and a lot of people say, as far as the animation and the celebrities and all that, you know, I’m not so outspoken. Maybe not everybody talks about it, but what am I going to do? It’s the truth. DS: Do you think we live in a fear-based society now? :BW: It’s no secret to anybody, unless you fell off a potato truck somewhere. Back-street America. DS: What is the reasoning behind questions like, 'Aren’t you afraid of saying such-and-such thing?' :BW: Because the person is usually fear-driven himself and totally understands the consequences of telling the truth. You don’t get rewarded for it, let’s put it that way. DS: Are you optimistic? :BW: I’m optimistic about my own life and things changing for the better. I don’t pin my existence on the industry. I really don’t. Some people, without their fame, they would just roll up into a ball and bounce away and I’m like a reluctant famer, if you know what I mean. Celebrity means nothing to me. The word means nothing to me. I don’t know if I said this. I probably already did because I’ve been talking so long. But if you fart the national anthem you can be a celebrity. It’s bloodless. It’s artless. It’s Godless. But, fuck, that’s what people want. And the idea that the word celebrity and the word diva has been watered down into any girl with a belly button now and some gold chain around her neck can be a diva. It doesn’t matter why they call the great talents divas, you know women in the theater. It’s a pass-fail society. It’s like, in my opinion, the guy that can fart the national anthem and is famous is totally equal to someone else who actually has talent and worked their ass off and became famous for having a gift. But it can be debated. It’s like you’re saying there’s good art and bad art. Then there’s like, well define art. It’s endless. It’s infinite. DS: And you think that they are equal? :BW: No, of course not. DS: You’re saying in today’s culture they are equal? :BW: Both can be famous. That’s not the kind of fame that I would want and the other kind of fame is a certain flavor of misery too because there’s a trade-off that you lose your personal life. I spent enough time in the fantasy world. I don’t watch reality shows. These are the kind of people I couldn’t wait to get away from in high school and I’m going to chronicle their stupid adventures, you know? I don’t live there. I don’t watch television. DS: I don’t have cable, so I know how you feel. :BW: Yeah, but even if I had cable, satellite, everything, I don’t watch television. I surround myself with things that edify me, not because it’s there. I’m an information freak. I’m a news freak. But it’s got to be truthful news and that’s why I’ll go to the BBC News on the Internet. There’s less pressure with the truth teller over there. DS: It’s amazing when you hear the BBC interview British politicians. We find it shocking that they’ll say things like “Aren’t you essentially lying when you say that?” :BW: But that was the Fourth Estate. That was the idea that you owe your readers. You’ve been entrusted to deliver news to them and even if it’s an editorial or an interview, the idea is to get as much true information so people can decide for themselves. I don’t care if the interviewer’s biased. If I get enough information, I have a chance to be biased or not. DS: That's an argument on Wikipedia: people make the argument, 'let's present the information out there and let the reader decide. :BS: Yeah, but if a lot of times the information is totally incorrect to begin with. DS: Exactly,and it can be difficult to decide what to believe when reasonable minds can differ, but I think it's very problematic to ever argue ""just let the reader decide."" I don't know if Wikipedia is the place for that fight, but in the news media, that is the place for the fight. I interviewed Gay Talese, who quoted Norman Mailer who said the media is like a donkey, and you must feed the donkey every day; the donkey will eat anything: garbage, tin cans, slop. And report on whatever they are fed. DS: Are your voices an attempt to understand reality? :BW: Well yeah. All I was presented with was life as it was deconstructing and disintegrating. And I had to pick up whatever pieces I had off the floor and try to put it together in a way that made sense to me. I don’t know if I’m making myself all that clear. Billy West DS: No you are. :BW: Yeah, I’m telling you stuff that I never said to anybody. DS: Well it’s good. :BW: You’re like the Barbara Walters of your generation. And I’m not going to protect an image I don’t really have. Nobody wants to hear what I really think about politics. I totally understand it. It’s like, every night is opening night if you’re a performer. Okay that’s done. Now what? I mean if everyone had to answer that standard in their job. ""Now what are you going to do?"" Because I don’t get told what to do. I audition for everything because if you want to work you’ve got to audition. Some people call me out of the blue and say, 'We just want you,' which is very nice and I worked really hard for that status. But I still audition for everything. There’s a show coming up called Rahan and there’s a 26 episode commitment on that. I’ll be starting that soon. I can’t tell you much about it because I’ve only read the auditions, the lines I was supposed to do. And the other thing is Futurama is going to keep me busy for awhile even though all the voice-over work is done. There’s lots of projects that are related to it. And I’m still doing the M&Ms. I really love what I do and I don’t want people to think I’m sitting here angry all the time. I’m absolutely happy and I like what my life has become. But I still will start feeling weird if somebody asks me a question and I can’t tell the truth about it. I’m just telling it like it is. DS: That's perfect. I will send you a link to the interview when it is published. :BW: That would be fine. I’d appreciate it. There's so much wrong on Wikipedia, like that I got booted off the Stern show. I feel a lot of dehumanized lie dispensers get a hold of these things and just make it so. Believe me, there’s this very small but very active group of posters that want to keep dancing in the pet cemetery with animal corpses. DS: It doesn’t say anything negative about the Stern show. It just mentions the characters that you did and that you were on there. And the only thing it says is that “Billy has since claimed that he left the Stern show because WXRK management refused to give him a sufficient pay raise.” :BW: Yeah. That’s the real reason. That’s cool. They finally got that in there. For a while there it was like, He was going to be Invader Zim, but he didn’t make the cut. He wasn’t Invader Zim and somebody else was. That’s so stupid to me. Rick Horowitz was a friend of mine. He was better at it than I was. That’s a fact of life. Instead of printing what I didn’t do. I mean, there should be a link to the list of voice credits, if you can find one. You know a complete one. DS: There’s a link to your official web site on there. And there’s also a link to Voicechasers database and a link to Internet Movie database and a link to an interview with you on CNBC. :BW: Oh. The Donny Deutsch interview. That was weird too. I mean I really love Donny Deutsch, but he kept asking, 'What it’s like making all of this money?' Because that’s what the show is. It’s about finance or something. I mean, I know the guy. I actually used to work for him because he had Deutsch Advertising, when I was doing commercials. But he had to keep the money thing going because that’s the channel basically. His show was about that and I was embarrassed. I mean, now that you’ve got millions because we know that you’re working. I’m in the same boat you are Donny. As far as your house goes, you want what’s yours and what touches yours to avoid encroachment. And it’s never enough because fate keeps throwing stuff at you and nobody knows what it’s like to pay a seven figure tax, in quarters over a year. You wind up about the same except that you have more stuff than most people." +entertainment,"BBC In the United Kingdom, the BBC has received in excess of twenty-one thousand complaints after Jeremy Clarkson, the presenter of BBC television programme Top Gear, made an appearance on the live BBC programme The One Show and made comments about the UK public sector workers on strike, which British trade union UNISON subsequently called ""appalling"". The BBC and Jeremy Clarkson both apologised after the comments were made. During the programme, Clarkson commented on how the strikes on Wednesday were ""fantastic"" as they had left the British capital London ""empty"". It was ""like being back in the 70s"", according to Clarkson. He went on to caution that ""we have to balance this though, because this is the BBC"" before saying of the striking public sector workers: ""Frankly, I'd have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families. I mean, how dare they go on strike when they have these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living?"" Immediately after the remarks were made, The One Show presenters clarified that these comments was personal opinion, to which Clarkson replied: ""They're not. I've just given two views for you."" Presenter Matt Baker apologised about the comments before the end of the broadcast. In the aftermath of the broadcast, by yesterday morning BBC Audience Services were contacted in relation to the matter 21,954 times, with 619 comments and 21,335 complaints amongst them. Clarkson was supported in 314 messages. A spokesperson for the BBC confirmed that the The One Show episode would not be made available to view on BBC iPlayer, the BBC's on-demand service, because the episode generated so many complaints. The British prime minister described the comments as ""silly"", while saying he was certain that Clarkson ""didn't mean it"". According to The Guardian, Clarkson had reportedly spoken with the production team before the live broadcast about using strike-related humor. What do you make of Clarkson's comments? Thursday, the BBC apologised for the comments, as ""the item was not perfectly judged"", the corporation admitted. In a statement the same day, Clarkson said: ""I didn't for a moment intend these remarks to be taken seriously – as I believe is clear if they're seen in context. If the BBC and I have caused any offence, I'm quite happy to apologise for it alongside them."" The presenter also clarified to British newspaper the Daily Mirror: ""I expressed two different views. Which one do I apologise for? I am just making fun of the BBC's need to be impartial. Not about strikers. I wasn't saying that strikers should be shot."" UNISON, a trade union in the United Kingdom, called the comments ""appalling"" and initially wished for the BBC to remove Clarkson from his position. Karen Jennings, the deputy general secretary of the UNISON, subsequently told the BBC that the trade union ""accepted the apology"" before going on to say: ""He's recognised that he went too far in saying what he said and what we're doing now is extending our hand to him to come and work with a healthcare assistant to see just how they work and the healthcare they deliver. I think he would enjoy that.""" +entertainment,"Finnish folk metal/viking metal band Turisas have released their first music video and second single, a cover version of the Boney M. 70s disco hit Rasputin. The Turisas version of the song was released as a single, on September 21 in Germany, to be followed by France, the United Kingdom and various other territories on September 24, Spain on September 25 and finally the band's native Finland on September 26. At each release, it will be available as a CD, which will feature the band's song Battle Metal, from the album of the same name as a B-side, and as a limited edition picture 7” vinyl record featuring In the Court of Jarisleif from the album The Varangian Way as a B-side. Band frontman Mathias ""Warlord"" Nygård explained the concept behind the video: ""This video is pretty far from what you'd expect from a Turisas video - or any metal video for that matter! The idea to the video is just as wild as the cover song itself: a battle metal band covering a 70's disco hit. Just as the song, it is a crossover of the 70's kitsch attached to the Boney M. track, but performed by us as we do it. Director Vesa-Matti Vainio and the whole crew did a great job on this one and to me, this is a good pick for our first video ever. I assure you, there are plenty of ideas on epic spectacles to be looked into later.” He goes on to explain how the unusual cover came to be in the first place: ""We've been begged to record Rasputin pretty much since we first played it live a couple of years back. It's amazing how popular this cover version of ours have become at our gigs during the last year and it really makes us feel like we must have done something right here looking at big crowds going totally mental over a 70's disco hit! I remember getting the idea for this cover years back - in 2001 I think. I was on a ferry trip between Finland and Sweden and there was this cover band performing 70's disco hits. The minute they blasted 'Rasputin' I knew, that at some point, we would need to do it in some form or another. It was just obvious that it would work amazingly well given a slightly more modern and heavier touch-up. Personally I've always preferred these old 70's disco bands""." +entertainment,"Brad Renfro, an American film actor, has died at age 25. Renfro, who had a history of substance abuse, was found dead yesterday morning in his Los Angeles home by paramedics who had been summoned to the scene. The cause of death has not yet been determined, but officials said an autopsy could be conducted as early as today." +entertainment,"North American movie box offices were dominated by Universal pictures last weekend as two of its films, a comedy, Meet the Fockers, and a horror flick, White Noise, together raked in a combined $52.6 million, more than half the $98.3 all films made over the Jan. 7 weekend, according to film tracking firm Box Office Mojo. But Universal's dominance of the North American box office receipts is in danger as 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Warner Brothers and Sony all have films debuting in wide release Friday. After a two-week drought of new releases with Noise the only debut, the Jan. 14 weekend is relatively crowded as three new films bow and one Oscar-buzz movie expands into wide release. * Elektra (PG-13) 1:37 Among the new entries is the Jennifer Garner star vehicle Elektra a semi-sequel to 2003's comic-book based Daredevil where Garner reprise a role of anti-hero. Elektra bows in 3,204 theatres. * Coach Carter (PG-13) 2:14: Paramount pictures releases the 134-minute metaphor heavy Coach Carter, a production of MTV Pictures, featuring Samuel L. Jackson in an inspirational inner-city high school sports movie. Coach Carter will debut in 2,524 U.S. and Canadian movie houses. * Racing Stripes (PG) 1:24: Warner Bros. also enters the debut fray with its live-action talking animal family movie, Racing Stripes, featuring the voices from such a diverse cast as Snoop Dogg, Mandy Moore and Dustin Hoffman. Racing Stripes starts its run with 3,185 venues. *House of Flying Daggers (PG-13) 1:59: Sony Pictures Classics is expanding its wire fu Chinese war epic, House of Flying Daggers. The film has made it to several critics best-of-the-year lists and is considered a front runner for Academy Award nominations in several technical categories. The following films will be playing in at least 1,000 U.S. and Canada venues:" +entertainment,"British television host Richard Whiteley, most famous for his role presenting the British television game show Countdown, has died aged 61 at Leeds General Infirmary. The cause of death is reported to have been complications resulting from an operation on his heart to repair an infected valve. He had been admitted to Bradford Royal Infirmary with pneumonia on May 6, falling into a coma shortly there after. His 23 years of hosting Countdown made him a household name among television viewers in the UK, having previously anchored Yorkshire's Calendar local affairs program. The avuncular figure was fond of word play and possessed a striking wit. Until this May, Whiteley had never missed presenting an edition of the show. Countdown was the first programme to be broadcast on the new Channel 4 when it began broadcasting in 1982. He was awarded an OBE in June 2004. Whiteley leaves behind a partner of 11 years, actress Kathryn Apanowicz." +entertainment,"A Dutch reality TV show broadcast yesterday evening which was designed to show a terminally ill woman choosing a patient to receive her kidneys has been shown to be a hoax. The Big Donor Show had attracted considerable condemnation earlier in the week when outline details had been released. The producers said that the programme was made to highlight the shortage of Dutch donors. The ""donor"", known only as ""Lisa"", was an actress, although the three individuals competing for the kidneys are real patients requiring kidney transplants. The choice was to have been made based on the history and profile of the ""contestants"" and conversations that the actress is indicated to have had with their families and friends. Viewers were also invited to send in their advice by text message during the programme. At the point in the show when the choice of recipient was to have been revealed, the show's presenter Patrick Lodiers revealed that the exercise had been a hoax. ""We are not giving away a kidney here, that is going too far even for us,"" he said. Political parties in The Netherlands together with medical organisations and kidney specialists had united in condemning the programme prior to its broadcast. Joop Atsma of the ruling Christian Democratic Party had said ""It's a crazy idea. It can't be possible that, in the Netherlands, people vote about who's getting a kidney."" Professor John Freehally, immediate past President of the UK Renal Association stated that ""the scenario portrayed in this programme is ethically totally unacceptable"", continuing that the show would cause confusion and anxiety rather than contributing further to an understanding of transplants. He also pointed out that the set up of the programme bears no relationship to the processes for making decisions about transplants in normal circumstances. However, speaking after the broadcast, Dutch Minister for Education, Culture and Science Ronald Plasterk, claimed that the show was a ""fantastic stunt"" and kidney patient Caroline Klingers watching the programme at a treatment centre in the town of Bussum praised it saying that it would be ""good for the publicity and there are no losers"". Speaking at a news conference after the programme, a producer said ""We have only done this cry for help because we want to solve a problem that shouldn't be a problem"", and this view was underlined by presenter Patrick Lodiers who claimed that it was ""reality that was shocking"" in that about 200 people die in the Netherlands each year waiting for a kidney where the average waiting time is more than four years. Bart de Graaff, the founder and former director of the TV station which broadcast the programme, died from kidney failure at the age of 35 after spending years on a transplant waiting list. The programme was made by Endemol, the company which makes Big Brother and which is not immune from criticism. On Wednesday of this week it was required by UK regulator Ofcom to broadcast an apology for its handling of potentially racist material involving Indian actress Shilpa Shetty in the January 2007 Celebrity Big Brother in the UK. Ofcom had received a record number of 44,500 complaints." +entertainment,United States glam metal band Poison is suing Capitol Records and EMI Music Marketing over an alleged breach of contract. Poison claim the two companies have underpaid them royalties for years. The band claims Capitol miscategorized various record sales and miscalculated every possible expense since the 1980s. They say when attempting to check company records they received no co-operation and are now asking a judge to order the firms to reveal their records so the band can determine how much they are owed. Capitol and EMI have refused to comment. +entertainment,"A New Zealand Marilyn Manson gig was evacuated after a fire scare. Four songs into the performance by the shock rock act at Auckland Town Hall, a fire scare caused an evacuation of the venue. On-site security stopped the performer from continuing and asked the audience to leave immediately. Fire and ambulance crews responded, but discovered that the alarms had been caused by dry ice smoke machines. Manson was able to continue his performance after a delay of ten minutes." +entertainment,"German Composer of contemporary classical music Harald Genzmer died last week in Munich, Germany. He was 98 years old. Born on February 9, 1909 in Blumenthal, near Bremen, Germany, he studied composition with Paul Hindemith at the Berlin Hochschule für Music beginning in 1928. In 1938 he taught at the Volksmusikschule Berlin-Neukölln. During the second world war he served as a clarinetist. From 1946 to 1957 he taught at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg im Breisgau. From 1957 to 1974 he taught at the Munich Hochschule für Musik. Among his notable students was the Egyptian composer Gamal Abdel-Rahim." +entertainment,"Legendary musician Sir Paul McCartney has boycotted China in response to a preview of BBC news footage that was filmed undercover at a fur market in Guangzhou, China. The footage, some of which is to air during BBC's Six O'Clock News at 18:00 GMT on November 28, 2005, shows animals (particularly dogs and cats) being thrown from the top of buses and being dropped into boiling water. McCartney's wife, Heather, also watched the footage and alleged that some footage she had seen clearly showed that the animals were alive when they were skinned. The footage, which was filmed by an investigator connected to the animal rights group PETA, shows cats squirming in a bag before being thrown into boiling water, and then skinned in a laundrette drier-like machine. McCartney slammed the practices, saying, ""It's like something out of the Dark Ages. And they seem to get a kick out of it. They're just sick, sick people,"" referring to the apparent smiles and laughter of the workers handling the animals as they are killed. He and his wife called for a boycott of Chinese goods, adding that this was unacceptable behaviour from the nation to host the next Olympics. However, the Chinese Ambassador to London's spokesperson said that China is not to blame. ""The fur trade mostly feeds markets in the US and Europe. This fur is not consumed in China. So the Americans and Europeans should accept the blame.""" +entertainment,"wikimediaMention The newly elected Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation scheduled talk on the main French TV was met with questions about a last minute deletion of the entry for bravitude, (a neologism used by Ségolène Royal, the French socialist presidential candidate and commonly heard in the French media). It was deleted from the French version of Wikipedia not long prior to the televised appearance by Devouard. The decision to delete the entry apparently perplexed the anchor commentator, who judged the term was currently noteworthy and felt his view was shared by many Frenchmen today. Chair Nibart-Devouard then explained that since Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers, its articles can be and are edited by almost anyone with access to the Web site. Therefore any article, including one on bravitude, can be added to this Wiki encyclopedia... but the article can be modified or even deleted if the verification process leads to a consensus to do so. One might speculate whether the French media interest in the French Wikipedia's deletion of the term bravitude will result in sufficient discussion to warrant this neologism being restored to the French Wikipedia." +entertainment,"Don Herbert, known to many as his stage name ""Mr. Wizard"", died Tuesday night. Mr. Wizard, who is famous for introducing science to children for over 50 years, died of bone cancer at the age of 89 at his Bell Canyon home in Los Angeles. 5= Interview on Voice of America's Our WorldMr. Wizard was the host of the program Watch Mr. Wizard in the 1950s and 60s, and later Mr. Wizard's World in the 80s. His children-themed shows gave viewers a glimpse into the science world by performing experiments with common household objects. Herbert said in an interview on Voice of America's Our World, a science and technology program, that ""Using everyday equipment made it something that children should not be afraid of. If you used scientific equipment that's strange to the child, it's not going to help him or her understand. So we used everyday equipment. And especially because we used everyday equipment in new and unusual ways, which helped."" Generations of young scientists tuned in each week to learn about scientific principles and follow along with Mr. Wizard by conducting the same experiments at home. Herbert, who was born in Waconia, Minnesota, attended the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse. After graduating with degrees in English and general science, he joined the US Army Air Corps, and served in World War II as a bomber pilot in Europe. Post-war, he worked as an actor before becoming the host of Watch Mr. Wizard in 1951. The program ran for nearly 15 years on NBC and CBC. In 1983, the show's format was revived with Mr. Wizard's World, which aired on the Nickelodeon cable network for 7 years. He also appeared on the talk shows of David Letterman (including the premiere episode of Late Night with David Letterman), Johnny Carson, and Regis Philbin, as well as staring as a panelist on the game show Hollywood Squares 5 times in 1986. Herbert is survived by his wife and six children and step-children." +entertainment,"ObituariesAmerican actor Dom DeLuise has died, according to reports from his family. DeLuise had been battling cancer previously. Born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, DeLuise came to be known for his roles in several Mel Brooks movies: The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, History of the World, Spaceballs, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. DeLuise also co-starred with Burt Reynolds in several movies: The Cannonball Run and Cannonball Run II, Smokey and the Bandit II, The End, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and All Dogs Go to Heaven. He was also well known for his role as the talent agent ""Bernie"" in The Muppet Movie. His most recent role was a cameo in the movie Horrorween, which is currently in production. On television, DeLuise was a frequent guest star on The Dean Martin Show, and had his own show, The Dom DeLuise Show, in two incarnations: one in 1968 and one in 1987. He hosted the television show Candid Camera in 1991, and voiced Tiger in Fievel's American Tails the following year. DeLuise also made numerous cameos in other live-action and animated shows. DeLuise was also an avid chef, authoring two cookbooks and making numerous appearances as a cook on morning television shows. He also wrote several children books. He died in his sleep on May 4, 2009, in a Santa Monica hospital in California." +entertainment,"Aviation mishaps A military plane carrying 92 people crashed into the Black Sea two minutes after departing Sochi, Russia yesterday. The Tupolev Tu-154 was heading to Syria and was carrying 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, Russia's military choir. Nobody is thought to have survived. At least eleven bodies have been recovered and 100 divers deployed on-scene. President Vladimir Putin has ordered a probe; investigators have yet to rule out sabotage. The 84 passengers and eight crew were headed to Hmeymim Air Base to entertain Russian forces. Musicians, dancers, and journalists are among the dead. Choir leader Valery Khalilov and philanthropist doctor Yelizaveta Glinka, who was taking donated medical supplies to Syria, were on board. Nine journalists representing three national TV stations were also passengers. Glinka served as a human rights advisor to Putin. The journalists were from official broadcasters NTV, First Channel, and Zvezda. An official statement said Putin sent ""deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the crash"". He has tasked Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with organising an investigatory commission. The defence ministry said a military commission was in Sochi to investigate. ""Four ships, five helicopters and a drone are working in the area,"" a defence spokesperson said. The Tu-154 is a Soviet-era three-engined jet. It crashed after leaving Sochi International Airport at 5.40am local time. Debris has been found around 1.5km (a mile) offshore in water about 50&ndash;70m (160&ndash;230 feet) deep. Sochi was a stopoff for the plane, which began its journey in Moscow. Russian media broadcast what was claimed to be an air traffic control recording showing no sign of impending disaster; the flight crew speak calmly, then suddenly stop responding. Weather was good at the time. Putin has declared today a day of national mourning. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent condolences to him. ""The plane had dear friends who had come to join us and the people of Aleppo in their joy with victory and Christmas feasts"", he said. The Syrian President also told Putin ""our sorrows and joys are one"" and the two nations are united to ""fight to lay the foundations of stability, security and peace""." +entertainment,"VenezuelaThe animated television show, The Simpsons, has been taken off Venezuelan television after claims that the programme is ""inappropriate"" for children. A regulator in Venezuela said that, by airing the program, the network broadcasting The Simpsons, Televen, ""were infringing many things in the television and radio social responsibility law."" The American drama series Baywatch Hawaii, which stopped airing in the United Stated in 2001, is being aired as a replacement to the animated series. Baywatch is about the lives of fictional lifeguards in the county of Los Angeles. According to the CIA's The World Factbook, Venezuela has a total of 111 television channels. It is claimed in the factbook, however, that 45 of these are repeater channels. The website of Televen describes the animated series, which it will soon stop airing, as a ""famous family,"" which has won ""several awards.""" +entertainment,"Iran An Iranian court in Tehran yesterday confirmed film director Jafar Panahi's sentence to six years in jail, and a twenty-year ban on filmmaking. Charges against the award-winning director were summarised by state media as, ""... acting against national security and propaganda against the regime"". In September, before the original sentence was handed down, Panahi lamented, ""when a film-maker does not make films it is as if he is jailed. Even when he is freed from the small jail, he finds himself wandering in a larger jail"". With the ban now in-place, the filmmaker's This is not a Film, which premièred at Canne Film festival, may be his last work for two decades. The handheld-shot documentary covers Panahi' struggle with censorship whilst being prosecuted. Panahi's is the second high-profile case this week; actress Marzieh Vafamehr was sentenced to 90 lashes and one year in jail for starring in the controversial Australian-produced film My Tehran For Sale, directed by Iranian-Australian Granaz Moussavi. The film is about a young Tehrani actress whose work is banned by the government. Is government censorship of the arts ever acceptable? Iranian commentators heavily criticised the film, which is being distributed illegally in Iran, and in July Vafamehr was arrested. Producers Julie Ryan and Kate Croser state they ""did not set out to produce a political film."" Stressing, ""we definitely didn't set out to make a film that criticised the government"". The role played by Vafemehr shows her with a shaved head, and without a hijab. Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd's office issued a statement condemning Vafemehr's sentence." +entertainment,"Mean Fiddler PLC, one of the most successful music promoters in the UK and Ireland has today agreed to be taken over by the Irish owned Gaiety Investments (owner of MCD Promotions) and US based Clear Channel Communications. The deal values Mean Fiddler at STG£37.9m (€55.3m; US$71.4m) or £0.60 a share. It will be an all cash transaction. Mean Fiddler was founded in 1982 by Vince Power, a native of County Waterford, Ireland. The company, which started life as a small but trendy club in London, grew rapidly in the 1980's to encompass a French restaurant and three venues in London; the Acoustic Room, the Powerhaus and Subterania. Today the company regularly organises some of the largest music events in Europe. It runs the Reading and Leeds music festivals and also owns a 39% stake in the Glastonbury Festival." +entertainment,"A look at some of the movies set to be released in North America, the week of 9 September, 2005. Note, ""fresh"" or ""rotten"" refer to the movie's Rotten Tomatoes rating, based on North American critical reviews. The higher the percentage, the greater the percentage of critics that liked the movie. Nineteen-year-old college student Emily Rose (played by Jennifer Carpenter) was the victim of a demonic possession. The story follows the lawyer, Erin Bruner (Laura Linney) and her fight against the church and the priest named Father Richard Moore (Tom Wilkinson) who performed the botched exorcism. According to the director, this may be the first ever courtroom horror film. The film is loosely based on the actual events of Michel in 1962. German director Hans-Christian Schmid is launching his own treatment of Anneliese Michel's story, Requiem, around the same time in late 2005. His movie stays very close to the real-world events and is a drama rather than a horror film. Released by Sony Pictures. Also stars Campbell Scott, Shohreh Aghdashloo. 44% approval by North American film critics An ""on-the-take"" federal agent turns up dead on the mean streets of Detroit, suspicions arise around street-wise agent Derrick Vann (played by Samuel L. Jackson). Vann's given 24 hours to recover the stolen arms and find the cop killers, but he's about to stumble upon an unlikely ally. The affable, optimistic dental supply salesman Andy Fiddler (Eugene Levy) is pulled into the mix after a case of mistaken identity, and must help Vann complete the mission. Released by New Line Cinema. 16% approval by North American film critics * Answering the Call: Ground Zero's Volunteers (limited release, documentary regarding the World Trade Center disaster) * An Unfinished Life (limited release, starring Robert Redford and Jennifer Lopez, 53% rotten) * Côte d'Azur (limited release in NYC/LA/Chicago/SF/Houston, stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, 69% fresh) * Curandero (Black magic in Mexico City, rated R) * Edge Codes.com: The Art of Motion Picture Editing (limited release in NY, documentary about film editing) * Green Street Hooligans (limited release in NYC/LA/CHI, starring Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, 40% rotten) * Keane (limited release in NY, starring Damian Lewis and Abigail Breslin, 69% fresh) * Mobsters and Mormons (limited release in Utah, stars Clayton Taylor and Scott Christopher, ""When forced by the FBI to rat out mob boss Angelo Marcello, Carmine ""The Beans"" Pasquale, is a wanted man on the lam"") * Salaam Namaste (limited release, stars Preity Zinta, Arshad Warsi, a love story) * Shoujyo: The Adolescent (limited release in SJ, stars Eiji Okuda and Mari Natsuki, a Japanese love story) * Steal Me (limited release in NYC, starring Cara Seymour, 17% ""Rotten"") * Touch the Sound (limited release in NY, documentary about deaf Grammy-winning classical percussionist Evelyn Glennie, 88% ""Fresh"") * Usher (limited release in NY, Curtis Harrington, Sean Nepita)" +entertainment,"The stage has yet to be set, the lights haven't even been hung, but Juno fever is already starting to grip Canadians. The 34th annual Juno Awards honoring Canadian music is scheduled to take place at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada April 3 and it appears that people want to be a part of the action. Five hundred advance ticket packs that went on sale Friday at 10 a.m. (Canadian central time) sold out almost instantly. Tickets for the event will officially go on sale Saturday February 12, also at 10 a.m. Those tickets are expected to cost anywhere from CA$40 to CA$116, depending upon seating. Tickets for the show have sold out quickly in previous years. The music awards show has gained popularity ever since private broadcaster CTV began broadcasting it live in 2001. Last year the broadcast attracted 1.51 million viewers, making it the most-watched show of the evening. This year Brent Butt will host the show with K-os, Billy Talent, k.d. lang, Neil Young, and The Tragically Hip already confirmed to perform. Earlier this week when nominations were announced Avril Lavigne led the pack with five nods. The rebel pop star was followed closely by Diana Krall who received four nominations for her album The Girl In The Other Room." +entertainment,"Crime and law Leader of the Manson Family cult Charles Manson, who has tried to get parole 11 times, will have another opportunity to seek it again Wednesday, for his life sentence for his 1969 slayings of actress Sharon Tate and six others. The 77 year old’s last parole hearing occurred in 2007. Manson didn’t go to his last parole hearing in 2007, saying that he was a ""prisoner of the political system."" He isn’t expected to attend the Wednesday hearing either, according to a spokesperson at Corcoran State Prison. The district attorney’s office in Los Angeles said it strongly opposed Manson’s release. ""We consistently (opposed parole) and will continue to do so,"" spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. Manson has hoarded cell phones in his cell, and they were confiscated by the guards. Thirty days were added to his sentence for this offence. In 2009, Manson called people in California, New Jersey, and Florida with an LG flip phone found under his bed. Guards found a second cell phone a year later, and a homemade weapon was found as well. Manson was found guilty of telling a group of his followers to break into the home Roman Polanski and his wife Sharon Tate were renting in a town near Beverly Hills. The followers killed Tate and all six of the people at her home." +entertainment,"New Zealand The owner of TV3 and the music channel C4, has made an unprecedented move by winning an interim injunction against New Zealand's monopolistic pay television operator, Sky Network Television over their amount of content screened of the Rugby World Cup. TV3, the official RWC television broadcaster for New Zealand, described Sky's actions as illegal and unethical. MediaWorks, which runs TVWorks and RadioWorks, filed the injunction against Sky in Auckland's High Court today saying it breached fair dealing practices over its use of Rugby World Cup footage. Sky is now temporarily banned from screening TV3's WRC footage on The Cup, Rugby Highlights (channel) and Sport 365 Highlights. An agreement between MediaWorks and other broadcasters, including Sky, was signed allowing content to be used for news purposes, but state Sky breached the agreement and used content of which it had no right to. Bill Ralston, former head of news and current affairs at TVNZ (Television New Zealand), said when they had 2003 Rugby World Cup rights, ""TV3 pushed the boundary by taking a bit more than they should."" The three networks usually pushed the rules but the boundaries were relaxed. ""Simply because Sky controls so many sports rights themselves, you can normally get a good quid pro quo out of them. You relax a bit, they relax a bit."" The TVWorks Chief Operating Officer said, ""We are simply acting to protect our interests, and the interests of the viewing public."" Rick Friesen said, ""We believe Sky’s behaviour to be unethical and illegal, and we will be taking whatever action we can to protect the interests of ourselves and every Rugby fan in New Zealand."" An undisclosed amount of money was paid to secure the rights to screen footage, beating TVNZ and Sky. It has been rumoured the cost is to be in the millions of dollars (NZ$). Sky is yet to make a comment on this action. A full hearing on the injunction will occur on Friday." +entertainment,"televisionThe Walt Disney Company has today announced the inclusion of a Christmas special in its animated comedy series Phineas and Ferb. The special, entitled ""Phineas and Ferb's Christmas Vacation,"" will follow the series' protagonists, stepbrothers Phineas and Ferb, trying to spread Christmas cheer across their city after the mad scientist Dr. Doofenshmirtz uses a machine to cancel the holiday. Disney has high expectations for the special. On November 27, the company will stream one of the seven musical numbers that will be showcased in the special on its public radio network Radio Disney. The official special is set to air accordingly the following month on December 6, 2009, on the company's cable network Disney XD. Soon after, it will air on fellow Disney networks Disney Channel and ABC Family. 4=Dan Povenmire The crew of the series too have high hopes for the Christmas special. Zac Moncrief, who directed the special, announced that he believes it will ""go down in history as a cartoon classic."" When asked about the special, co-creator Jeff ""Swampy"" Marsh explained, ""It's kind of intimidating. You sit down and think, 'This is something that's going to live at Christmas for a long, long time.'"" Dan Povenmire, the other co-founder, said of his excitement over the featured musical numbers, ""Hopefully they'll be songs that this generation of kids will think of as Christmas songs the same way that kids think of 'Dahoo dore' (from 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas') or 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.'""" +entertainment,"New Zealand New Zealand's new digital free to air television platform, Freeview was 'switched on' today at the Auckland Museum by the Government. This is the beginning of digital, and within 10 years, analogue transmission will be switched off for good. Broadcasting minister, Steve Maharey said that it may take time for people to be persuaded to change to Freeview, but says changing to it is necessary. He describes Freeview as the path to a digital nirvana. Broadcasting spokesperson for National Dr Jonathan Coleman says that the Government was told that, for Freeview to work, quality content was needed, otherwise people wouldn't see a need to change. Before the launch of Freeview, the only way New Zealanders could watch digital TV was to subscribe to the only pay TV operator, SKY Network Television. Viewers who have bought the required NZ$300 set top box can only watch TV ONE, TV2, TV3, C4, and Māori Television. Radio New Zealand National and Radio New Zealand Concert are also available on Freeview to listen to. The most notable exception from the current line up of channels is SKY's free to air channel, Prime. There is a possibility for an extra 13 channels to be added at a later date. State broadcaster, Television New Zealand (TVNZ), who owns TV One and TV2, announced earlier that they will be launching two new channels. One will carry family, arts and entertainment type programmes and the other will be a news and current affairs channel. The former will be launched later this year, and the latter being launched next year. As well as the $25 million the Government has already contributed to Freeview, TVNZ's new channels will be given $79 million over five years. Various local broadcasters are also worried how they will survive when the analouge transmission is turned off. The Regional TV Broadcasters Association Chairman Jim Blackman has estimated the cost for regional broadcasters to be up to $1 million annually. He says the Government needs to help these broadcasters for them survive. ""Every New Zealander can now receive digital television with no monthly fees and no contracts. They simply purchase a Freeview satellite set top box, and if they need one, install a dish, and their favourite television programmes are free,"" Freeview General Manager, Steve Browning said. Freeview terrestrial transmission will start sometime next year. Controversy has been thrown up recently that Sky has told its contractors not to help install set top boxes for Freeview. SKY refused to comment to Radio New Zealand about this. Mr Browning said that the launch is as significant as the launch of colour television was 30 years ago." +entertainment,"Obituaries Two-time Emmy Award-winning American-born actor, Patrick McGoohan, famed for his role as Number Six in the 1960s cult British television series The Prisoner, has died at the Saint John's Health Center, Santa Monica, California. He died on January 13, following a short illness at the age of 80. McGoohan's death was made public by his son-in-law, film producer Cleve Landsberg. Born in New York City, and raised in the UK and Ireland, the actor played in numerous series on both continents. Aside from The Prisoner, his notable roles were in the ITV network series Armchair Theatre and Danger Man. McGoohan was also considered for the role of the iconic spy James Bond. It is for the series The Prisoner, filmed in Portmeirion, North Wales, that he will be best remembered. The show's tagline, ""I am not a number, I am a free man!"" emphasised the primary focus of the series, McGoohan's escape from his captor, ""Number One"". McGoohan leaves behind his wife Joan Drummond McGoohan, three daughters, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild." +entertainment,"The 3D animated short film Elephants Dream, formerly known as Project Orange, was released to the Internet yesterday. The film is available under the Creative Commons Attribution License, allowing anyone to download, modify and distribute it. The 10-minute film has been called ""the first open source movie"" by NewsForge. Not only is the movie itself free content, even the computer files containing the 3D models used in the film are available under the same terms. The project was first announced one year ago and was jointly produced by the Blender Foundation and the Netherlands Media Art Institute. The film tells the story of Emo and Proog, two men trapped inside a surreal machine world. Only freely available open source software was used to create the movie. Most of the work was done using Blender, a 3D modelling and rendering tool. The Blender Foundation is selling an extended edition on DVD, which includes subtitles in 34 languages, a Making Of documentary, commentary tracks, and all files used to create the movie. In spite of the successful completion of the project, the Blender Foundation ""has no intention to grow or expand into a company or studio"" according to the project website. ""Instead, the Foundation aims at endorsing and supporting activities within (educational) institutes, universities and companies.""" +entertainment,"United Kingdom Richard Desmond, the owner of Britain's Channel 5, will reportedly sell the channel to US media company Viacom for an estimated £450m. Viacom also owns TV channels Comedy Central, MTV, and Nickelodeon. Desmond's Northern & Shell — which also owns the Daily Express and Daily Star newspapers — bought Channel 5 from the German broadcaster RTL in 2010 for £103.5m. Desmond has made the channel profitable returning £26m of profits in the first half of 2013. The channel has cut costs, improved its ad sales operation, and acquired the rights for the reality show Big Brother until the end of 2014. BT, ITV, and Channel 4 have contemplated purchasing the network but declined. Last month, Discovery Communications withdrew a bid reportedly worth between £250m and £300m." +entertainment,"Radomil. For the first time after the fall of the iron curtain Russia will host the Olympic Games – in 2014 the Winter Olympics will take place in Sochi, a Black Sea resort town. The games are considered a matter of national prestige and generate more media attention than the recent changes in Russian government (Russia’s Putin recently installed the new prime-minister, who, incidentally, also became the chair of the Russian Olympic committee.) As Russia takes enormous efforts to prepare for the Olympics and build a modern sport infrastructure from scratch, the Russian public is more concerned with the mascot for the upcoming games. When Moscow hosted the Summer Olympics in the 1980, the mascot for the Moscow Games was Misha the Bear, developed by children’s book illustrator Victor Chizhikov. Misha instantly became a graphic-design hit, especially in the Soviet bloc. Olympic posters were snatched up and t-shirts were fought over. And as Sochi is set to become the new Olympic city, Russians are keen to see the old bear return. There is a long way to the Sochi Olympics, but the Bear is already coming back from retirement. Russia! magazine, an English-language publication distributed in the US and the UK, has commissioned the most prominent designers and artists to do their own renditions of the famed mascot. “The Olympic Bear turns any Russian between the ages of 25 and 50 to quivering jelly. Our artistic compatriots were happy to whip the old bear into shape for 21st century use” – says Ilya Merenzon, the magazine’s publisher. “And the readers’ response was overwhelming. As soon as the new issue arrived at the stores, we constantly get emails requesting the Bear t-shirts. The animal is regaining his popularity”. – adds Merenzon. It has not been decided, however, on the Sochi Games mascot. Another option is Cheburashka, a famous Russian cartoon character with big ears and humble smile. Cheburashka was the mascot for the Russian Olympic team in Turin and is one of the best-selling children’s toys in former USSR countries and, surprisingly, Japan, where it is known as “Chebu”." +entertainment,"Moviegoers who pushed it to No. 1 with a reported $18.1 million take for the weekend ending April 10 at the U.S. and Canadian box office welcomed the premiere of the movie Sahara, starring Matthew McConaughey and Penélope Cruz. Still, the total was $10 million less than Sin City, the top film of the previous week, made in its debut. Sahara is described as an adventure movie with plenty of fun. McConaughey plays a tanned and fit traveler searching for a long lost U.S. Civil War battleship, filled with gold coins, and finds love in the process. Sin City, starring Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba, dropped to second place but was still doing well with a $14.1 million dollar sophomore weekend. Filling out the top shows: Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, which falls from #5 to #7 with more than $4.1 million ""The Pacifier,"" which drops from #6 to #8 with more than $3 million; The Ring Two, from #7 to #9 with $2.9 million; and ""The Upside of Anger,"" from #8 to #10 with $2.6 million. Ticket sales at all box offices showed a decline from last year for the same weekend." +entertainment,"The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that Internet file sharing networks can be sued for copyright infringement. The decision in the case ""Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. et al. v. Grokster, Ltd. et al."" had been much awaited by those on both sides of the debate about copyright law and its application to Internet technologies. The court ruled that businesses created with the purpose of letting users commit copyright violations should be held liable for the infringement. Writing for the court, Justice David Souter wrote: ""One who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, going beyond mere distribution with knowledge of third-party action, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties using the device, regardless of the device's lawful uses."" The strength of the decision was unexpected &mdash; this is the first major Internet copyright case to reach the Supreme Court in many years, and the Justices' unanimity sends a strong message about their lack of tolerance for companies designed to violate the law. The decision affects such companies as Grokster and StreamCast, both of which were defendants in this suit. The court's ruling does not have an immediate effect, however, as the Justices referred the decisions to a lower court to be reconsidered. Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney for the EFF, panned the court for not providing a clear test for what constitutes inducement, saying it would discourage innovators unsure of their project's legality. He did however remain optimistic about Grokster and StreamCast's chances in the lower courts." +entertainment,"Wikinews held an exclusive interview with Jeremy Hanke, editor of MicroFilmmaker Magazine. The magazine, which is free to read online, was started as a resource for the low budget moviemaker and features book, independent film, equipment and software reviews as well as articles on film distribution, special effects and lighting. He says that one of the goals of the magazine is to ""connect low-budget filmmakers via a feeling of community, as many.....often compete so viciously against one another in film festivals for coveted ""shots"" with Hollywood, that they can quickly forget their similarities."" When asked if films made on a shoestring budget can really compete with those made for millions of dollars, he replied, ""no…yes…and absolutely. Allow me to explain."" And so he does in the interview below. Wikinews (Joseph Ford)Why was MicroFilmmaker Magazine started? How does it help the thousands of independent filmmakers out there with big ideas and little cash? : Mr. Hanke: As a budding low-budget filmmaker at the beginning of the new millenia, I found that it was very hard to find anyone who had practical articles on making films as professional as possible with little money. Most of the video and film magazines would talk about equipment that could range from $10,000 - $30,000 apiece, which clearly was out of the $7K budget for my first film, which had come from scrimping and saving while working as a commissioned computer salesman. As I did more research, I discovered that statistically, as many as 70%-80% of all Indie films were being made for less than $30,000, which, obviously, my first film’s budget definitely fell into. Hollywood considers anything below $100,000 to have such a low budget that it’s considered a no-budget film. Because of that low regard, no one was wasting their time making magazines or websites designed to help these less-than-no-budget filmmakers, despite the fact that they were (and are becoming even more) the majority of filmmakers in the world. : With no publicized help, I made my first two feature films over the course of four years with XL-1s and other equipment borrowed from local colleges, utilizing helpers that were of extremely varied experiences and drive. In the process, I learned a pile of things through hard knocks. : After these films were mostly completed, I remember looking online for any new sites that might have cropped up devoted to low-budget filmmaking. That’s when I found some devoted to microcinema—a boutique-style of video-making that’s largely composed of home videos and short parodies that are meant to be shared with friends and neighbors. The term originated in San Francisco and was designed to be similar to the micro-brewery movement, which encouraged home brews that were shared in communities. The concepts of a community of sharing and the emphasis on low-budgets were an encouragement for us, but most microcinema never tried to look professional or strove for high standards, so it fell short of the sort of help I was looking for. : Shortly after that, I found a company called Redrock Micro, which had built a 35mm lens adapter for less than $1K which allowed low-budget filmmakers to get film-like depth of field from $2000-$4000 cameras and SLR lenses. This was about 15 times cheaper than the closest competitor from P+S Technik. Not only that, but they had such a passion for low-budget filmmakers, that they were offering kits with plans and a key part so you could build your own 35mm adapter for $45. I was so blown away by an equipment manufacturer caring that much about low-budget filmmakers that it inspired me to create the first magazine aimed specifically to help other ultra-low budget filmmakers who had to struggle as much as I did. : As you can imagine, the name “MicroFilmmaker” came from a combination of the word “Microcinema” (with its low budgets and community approach) and Filmmaking (which we specifically chose over “videomaking,” because we feel that filmmaking is able to be accomplished with any medium, since “films” are a product, not a recording medium). : As I inferred, I wanted to connect low-budget filmmakers via a feeling of community, as many low-budget filmmakers often compete so viciously against one another in film festivals for coveted “shots” with Hollywood, that they can quickly forget their similarities. (We also wanted to remind them that low-budget filmmakers actually substantially outnumber their counterparts in Hollywood, which can be an amazing source of power if we all work together, rather than in isolated groups.) The best way we saw to do this was by providing a vast resource library of articles on low-budget filmmaking with a serious eye for stretching a dollar, in-depth reviews of software and equipment specifically evaluated from a low-budget perspective, DIY tutorials on building helpful equipment, listings of special readers-only discounts of different products, and an area for finding fully deferred musicians and score composers for your films. : Of course, one of the most unique things at MFM is something no other magazine offers: in-depth critiques of current low-budget films by trained low-budget directors and producers to help filmmakers become better at their craft. This last piece of our magazine’s offerings is the only thing that we charge any money for, because it is so specialized to a specific filmmaker’s film. (Although there is a charge, the amount is no more than the cost of a submission to a film festival with shorts running $25 and feature-length films running $50, which is used to provide a small reimbursement to the critic for their hard, detailed work and is substantially less than the $300-$500 most film analysis companies charge.) : With this publicly viewable critique service, we’ve had films submitted from every continent (with the exception of Antartica sic). Filmmakers have ranged from total film beginners to former Hollywood people who’ve become passionate about low-budget filmmaking, which is a really awesome swath of filmmaking humanity. It’s always cool when we’ll have a filmmaker submit a film that has problems and then, after the critique, change their approach for the next film so that the upcoming film has a much better score. We’ve had filmmakers jump from relatively low scores with one film to getting our coveted “Best of Show” award with the very next film. J.F.MicroFilmmaker Magazine is free to read on its website. Why did you choose this over the paid subscription route? : Mr. Hanke: There were so many scams on the internet that were designed to prey on filmmakers, that we didn’t want to make low-budget filmmakers—who had the least money to spend on making their films in the first place—have to pay to get the information to make their films the best they possibly could be. I and a number of my top writers are believing Christians and we wanted this magazine to be an act of service to the low-budget filmmakers, not a money-making scam. Clearly our readers have found it to be useful, because many people who have very different beliefs and values than we do regularly frequent our magazine’s pages and have asked for our help with all processes of filmmaking—even on films that are violently anti-Christian. We don’t turn away anyone that needs help and do our best to help in any way we can. : This is also the reason we chose to make MFM an exclusively online magazine. Because of its online nature, our operating costs are lower than they would be if it were printed, which allows us to survive on online advertising without having to charge our readers a dime. Additionally, while printed magazines can be more lucrative (even the ones that are paid for by advertising and not by subscription fees), they would not be able to reach the web’s global population of filmmakers that need help. J.F.Today, most of the films we see in theatres cost millions, sometimes hundreds of millions, to make. Do you think it's really possible to make films that can compete with these on a shoestring budget? : Mr. Hanke: I would say no…yes…and absolutely. Allow me to explain. : Can you get the same quality of image on a $5,500 Panasonic HVX200 as you can get off a $120,000 Grass Valley Viper? No, of course not. There are all sorts of compression and quality differences between the affordable cameras and the ones that Hollywood uses. (However, this is becoming less and less the case with the extremely popular wild-card camera company, RED. They’ve made a higher-quality-than-Hollywood camera in the Red One for about 1/10th the cost of a comparable Sony camera that Hollywood use. Additionally, they’re about to release an even less expensive camera in the Red Scarlet, which will be unveiled at NAB ’08.) : Now moving on to the “yes” part. When you take out the image quality differences, the amount of leaps in software and compositing abilities that are now available to the shoestring budget filmmaker are amazing. For example, there is now extremely powerful greenscren software that’s designed to allow you to key DV and HD footage and yields quite nice results. (I’m actually in the process of working on a book on this subject, and have found the growth in this area really impressive.) Additionally, a number of special effects programs either have been created for low-budgets, like VisionLab by FXHome, or have dropped their prices for low budget users, like Apple’s Shake, which dropped from $3,000 to $500. Many of these programs allows you to create everything from blaster fire to lightning and composite them in one place. And, for folks who want to use Hollywood quality particle effects, the quite impressive particleIllusion is only $300 and was recently used in the new Rambo film, as well as being used in many other Hollywood productions. : In addition to the software improvements, the 24fps recording of cameras like the DVX100 and the HVX200 when combined with the shallow depth-of-field created by the Redrock Micro M2 and other 35mm lens adapters gives digital filmmakers a way to create an amazing filmic look—even if they can’t do it with the really expensive cameras we mentioned earlier. : Finally, the “absolutely” part. The most powerful thing that allows low-budget filmmakers to compete with Hollywood films is content. The fact that so much quality filmmaking gear can be had at such a low prices means that anyone who is willing to put in the work to write a good script and shoot it well can have a film that can gain a following. Some of the best TV shows I have seen of late could easily have been shot as a low budget film. (For example, much of CBS’ Jericho, which might have been the most creative show to be introduced in the last twenty years, could easily have been shot on a shoestring budget as a film.) J.F.Distributing a movie can be one of the hardest aspects of production. Do you think that today, with the Internet, it's easier to go about doing this and make a profit than it might have been twenty years ago? : Mr. Hanke: Actually, yes I do. Today, something like 50% of all Indie films turn a profit. However, considering that many of the films that are made are still extremely esoteric avant garde art films, you can probably estimate that 70-80% of films that deal with any form of readily accessible narrative can turn a profit. (This is the huge advantage of shooting a $10,000 no-budget film as opposed to a $200 million Hollywood film. The $200 million Hollywood film has to sell $400 million in tickets to turn a profit, to cover both the production and advertising budgets. The $10,000 film often only has to sell $15,000 worth of DVDs, Amazon UnBox viewings, and art house shows to turn a profit.) : One of the easiest ways to take advantage of the internet to make your film profitable is to use the CreateSpace service (which used to be CustomFlix and is now owned by Amazon). They allow you to upload your entire film and high-rez cover art and then they just print a copy whenever someone orders it from Amazon.com or your website, issuing you a percentage without you ever having to buy pre-printed copies to sell. Additionally, they will let you create a rentable or purchaseable download of your film through the Amazon UnBox service, which further enables you to get your film out there and make it profitable. (Just remember to make a sexy website with a trailer for your film to encourage people to check it out. If you want a Flash site but aren’t Flash savvy, the new Adobe Encore CS3 actually has some very powerful abilities to create a professional Flash website with only your DVD menu creation skills required.) J.F.Do you have any advice for the amateur filmmakers reading this? : Mr. Hanke: Of course. Some of these may sound like blatant plugs, and I suppose they are, but they are the actual pieces of advice I would give (and have given) to a new filmmaker. : 1. Audio may not show up in your video monitor, but it is easily the most important part of your film. Make sure you understand that and use a decent shotgun mic to get clean dialogue, or you will be killing yourself in post. (We have a number of articles on audio, mic positioning, and ADR s at MFM.) : 2. Start with a short film. If you have a feature length film you’re dying to do, shoot a scene of it as a short first. This will allow you to make your mistakes on a film that hasn’t eaten up years of your life. (For example, if you screw up the audio I mentioned in #1, it’s a whole lot easier to redub a 5 minute film than it is to redub a 110 minute film. Been there, done that; please don’t make the same mistake!) : 3. Read through all of the s of MFM, as we have tried to cover the better part of four years of low-budget film school for free and have endeavored to make it easy to find things. (Additionally, read the critiques of other people’s films, even if you haven’t seen them, as you can often avoid a lot of first time mistakes by reading our detailed commentaries on these films.) : 4. After you’ve done all you can to preplan, just do it—and give yourself permission to make the mistakes you undoubtedly will. : 5. Finally, when you’ve edited it to the best of your ability, send in your film to be critiqued by MFM. There’s something about submitting your film to a place where it will be publicly analyzed that proves to someone that he/she really want to grow as a filmmaker. Once that fire’s in you, you won’t settle for making a film that isn’t an improvement over your last one." +entertainment,"Finland now holds the world record for the longest non-stop round of karaoke singing. The country already holds the record for the largest number of karaoke singers at any given time. The previous record was 145 hours, as held by China. However, in a karaoke bar in Kouvola, a small town on Finland's southern coast, the record was surpassed on Wednesday, with the ultimate goal being 240 hours non-stop. Finns travelled long distances to participate at the event, which was broadcast live on the internet. The record goes alongside Finland's other record for karaoke, that of the largest number singing at any given time. This is held by 80,000 fans of the Finnish hard rock band Lordi, who had met in Helsinki for the band to give a brief free concert to celebrate their victory at that year's Eurovision. The show culminated with all 80,000 joining in with the band on the winning song, Hard Rock Hallelujah." +entertainment,"As the World Turns, the longest-running soap opera on American television, was canceled Tuesday by CBS, the network which has aired the show since its first episode in 1956. This news comes just three months after the ending of Guiding Light, formerly the longest-running soap in radio and television history, which had entertained generations of Americans for seven decades. In the announcement, Barbara Bloom, senior vice president of daytime programing at CBS, wrote, ""It's extremely difficult to say good-bye to a long-running series that's been close to our hearts for so long...The almanacs will show As the World Turns as a pioneer of the format, a hallmark for quality with its numerous Emmys, the launching pad for many television and film stars and a daytime ratings powerhouse for parts of three decades."" The cancellation comes at a particularly bad time not only for the people involved with producing the soap, but also for the soap opera industry in general. With the cancellation announcement, the number of daytime soap operas on the air in the United States will shrink from seven to six. By comparison, there were 12 soap operas on the air in 1997 and 19 in 1973. While the revelation may have hurt, it was not entirely a surprise. The ratings for the soap opera have fallen to 2.5 million viewers, over 60% from 1993, when the show was watched by 6.5 million viewers daily. Soap Opera Digest editorial director Lynn Leahey said not to call for the death of the genre; its next act may prove more profitable on the Internet. ""It has to be turned into a business model. I do think there's huge potential there. I think if we can deliver the content where people are instead of expecting them to sit in front of their TVs, there's hope,"" Leahey said. The news was taken particularly hard at As the World Turns Brooklyn studios, where the building was closed off to press on Tuesday. ""We are disappointed and saddened by the news that the show is not being renewed. It will certainly be a loss for all of us, and for the show's loyal audience,"" said executive producer Christopher Goutman in a prepared statement. ""It's a hell of a Christmas present,"" said actress Eileen Fulton, whose spitfire character Lisa was an integral part of the canvas in the show's top-rated years in the 1960s and 1970s. ""I'm just very sad. I'm sad for all of the people who work out there in Brooklyn. We're a family. I hate to be split up. It's like a divorce."" The series, which focuses on the lives, loves and torments in the small Midwestern town of Oakdale, will have a nine-month swan song; the final episode will not be airing until September 2010. Until that time, Procter & Gamble's TeleNext Media will be trying to find a new home for the show, either on another television network or online. If As the World Turns leaves the air entirely, Procter & Gamble, the company which coined the term ""soap opera,"" will officially end its 76-year partnership between its cleaning products and the dramatic medium." +entertainment,"United Kingdom The presenter of BBC's Newsnight show, Jeremy Paxman, said on Wednesday he is to leave after 25 years. The BBC said Paxman had postponed his departure, after deciding upon it last summer, because Newsnight was going through ""a difficult period"". Paxman became a notorious political interviewer after tearing a great number of political leaders apart: In an interview with Michael Howard regarding the 1995 dismissal of the director of the prison service, Derek Lewis, when Howard didn't directly answer a question, Paxman asked again &mdash; eleven more times. In an interview with Tony Blair, he asked Blair whether he prayed with US president George W. Bush. More recently, when Conservative MP and junior minister Chloe Smith appeared on the show to defend a change in fuel duty policy, Paxman showed she was apparently too too junior to have any knowledge of the decision making process. Paxman is not leaving his twenty-year role as presenter of University Challenge." +entertainment,"The 47th Thessaloniki Film Festival will open on Friday, November 17, 2006 in Thessaloniki, Greece. According to the Festival's officials, a record number of three hundred plus films will compose this year’s festival programme. The Venice Film Festival prize winner The Queen, directed by Stephen Frears and starring the award winner, British actress Helen Mirren, will be the opening film. According to the Festival's Director, this year's international competition section will ""leans towards the adventure of narrative. It creates a world of vital stories, which film makers from four continents believe they must tell at any cost"". Among the official guests of the 47th Film Festival are the French actress Emmanuele Béart, director Wim Wenders, and the American actress and singer Juliette Lewis, who will give a concert at the Mylos Hall, in Thessaloniki's Port. Also, the France-based Greek director Costa Gavras will give a seminar regarding the Greek-American actor-director, John Cassavetes. According to the President of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, actor Georges Corraface, this year's bill of the Festival reaches 7.5 million Euro. From his side, the Minister for Culture, Giorgos Voulgarakis stated that the Ministry acts towards the increase of the International character of the Film Festival. Thessaloniki's Film Festival is regarded the most important cinema festival in the Balkans. Many famous actors, actresses and directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Faye Dunaway and Catherine Deneuve have been among the official guests of the Thessaloniki Film Festival during the last decade. Former Presidents of Thessaloniki's Festival were the film directors Theo Angelopoulos and Pantelis Voulgaris." +entertainment,"Canada Oscar Peterson, a Canadian jazz pianist who earned many honours during his decades-long career, died Sunday in Mississauga, Ontario aged 82. The Montreal-born Peterson learned to play piano in childhood and by the 1940s was actively performing in Canadian big bands such as the Johnny Holmes Orchestra. A groundbreaking performance at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1949 brought Peterson's career to an international level. Among many honours, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour, in 1984. He also received seven Grammy Awards and in 1978 was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame." +entertainment,"Actress Portia de Rossi of Arrested Development recently had her ""first-ever interview with the gay press"", namely The Advocate. In the interview, she talks about her sexuality and romance with comedienne and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. The 32-year-old Australian reveals she recently told her 98-year-old grandmother that she was a lesbian, when visiting back home. Supposedly her grandmother had a change of heart after two minutes, accepting De Rossi's sexuality. DeGeneres and De Rossi met at an awards show in December 2004, and both immediately broke up with their respective partners. In the May issue of Allure magazine, DeGeneres said she hopes that she and De Rossi ""are together for the rest of our lives."" The interview also reveals she turned down lesbian roles, including one opposite Angelina Jolie in a movie called Gia. De Rossi says she is now fine playing gay characters, but will not do sex-scenes, gay or straight. On why she suddenly feels comfortable on publicly speaking on the topic, ""I was thinking, well, the people who need to know I'm gay know, and I'm somehow living by example by continuing on with my career and having a full, rich life, and I am incidentally gay, but it's not a big political platform. I justified it in so many ways."" Another probable reason she consented to the interview is its timing, right before the upcoming season debut of Arrested Development." +entertainment,"FinlandA short trailer for the movie Dark Floors, a horror starring Finnish theatrical hard rock band Lordi, has been released. The film, set in a hospital, follows a group of people left trapped by a broken lift as they are attacked by monsters, and focuses heavily on one particular patient, a little autistic girl. Dark Floors, acted in English by a largely Finnish cast, cost €4.2 million (approximately US$6 million) to make. It will make its full premiere in Finland on February 8, 2008, although advance screenings will begin this year. Lordi recently attended the Cannes Film Festival to promote the movie, where the band's lead vocalist and frontman described it as a ""traditional modern horror"" and promised ""horrific scenes.""" +entertainment,"Film The Eleventh International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival opened Friday in the Red Hall of the Kyiv Cinema House, in Kyiv, Ukraine. The festival spans eight days, ending on March 28. Competition programs are divided into DOCU/Right, DOCU/Life, and DOCU/Short. Each program has its own jury that consists of famous human rights activists, film producers, directors, critics, writers etc. Among them are Andrzej Poczobut (Belorus), Natalka Zubar (Ukraine), Oksana Sarkisova (Hungary), Boris Mitić (Serbia), Chris McDonald (Canada), Simone Baumann (Germany), Andrei Zagdansky (Ukraine), Victoria Belopolskaya (Russia), and Stephanie Lamorre (France). Students' Jury and Audience Awards are also to be given. The Organizing Committee is to award an Andriy Matrosov Award. Non-competition programs are divided into areas titles Ideorruption, DOCU/Ukraine, DOCU/Riot, DOCU/Art, DOCU/Best, HOT DOCS presents, Artdocfest presents, and Andrei Zagdansky Retrospective. The best films are also to be shown during Docudays UA Travelling Festival. The opening film was called Euromaidan: Rough Cut. It was a combination of shots of different film directors that have been filming the protests in Ukraine during these past four months. Organizers and creators explained, ""This is what it is. It is actually a 'rough cut'. It is a collection of different episodes"". Ilya The festival was first held in 2003, called at that time Docudays on Human Rights. In 2006 the festival was accepted as part of the international Human Rights Film Network at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. It is usually held during the last week of March. In 2013, the festival opened with a performance, showing Berkut &mdash; Ukrainian special police &mdash; oppressing the journalists: Ilya" +entertainment,"Obituaries British actress Natasha Richardson has died, according to a statement released by a spokesperson. Richardson died after suffering a head injury from a fall, while she was receiving private skiing lessons at a Canadian resort in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. She was 45 years old. ""Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time,"" said a spokesperson for Richardson in a statement to the press. It was reported Tuesday that Richardson was brain dead and had been transported by plane from Sacré-Cœur Hospital in Montreal, Canada to a care facility in New York City in the United States. Despite the fall, which happened on Monday, witnesses say she did not appear to have been seriously injured. Richardson was not wearing a helmet. An hour after the fall and after she returned to her hotel room, Richardson began to feel ill and was taken to a local hospital. She was later transported to Sacré-Coeur Hospital. Richardson made her movie debut in 1986 when she starred in the motion picture Gothic. In 1988 she was cast as the starring role in the film Patty Hearst. She also co-stared in the films Nell and the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. She also won a Tony Award in 1998 for her portrayal of Sally Bowles in the acclaimed revival of Cabaret. Richardson was also known for her cooking, having been a judge on the American television show Top Chef. She has hosted several upscale dinner parties in which she was the cook. Known names to have been part of her dinner parties are Meryl Streep and Laura Linney, among others. Richardson is survived by her husband, actor Liam Neeson, and her two sons, Daniel Jack age 12 and Micheal Richard Antonio age 13." +entertainment,"Music celebrity Calvin Broadus (aka Snoop Dogg) was arrested by US Customs and Border Protection on Saturday at the US/Mexico Sierra Blanca highway border checkpoint for illegal possession of drug paraphernalia. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Bill Brooks said agents smelled cannabis when doing a routine search of Mr. Broadus's tour bus. ""When our officers did a further inspection,"" he said, ""they discovered a small amount of cannabis and turned him over to the Hudspeth County sheriff"". A local County Judge, Becky Dean Walker, stated the typical punitive measure for an illegal drug paraphernalia citation is up to a $500 mail-in fine. Mr. Broadus's agent was not available for comment. Mr. Broadus has stated in interviews that he has a prescription for cannabis in the US state of California, for migraines and blurry vision. He has been in trouble with the law in the past, and has had a number of convictions on weapon and drug possession charges. Willie Nelson, another music celebrity, was arrested at the same checkpoint for similar charges in November of 2010. The musicians created a song and music video together about cannabis in 2008, called My Medicine." +entertainment,"Television UK media regulator Ofcom has stated that remarks made on Channel 5 programme The Wright Stuff on December 6 last year in relation to the murder of Liam Aitchison were ""clearly capable of causing offence"". However, the issue has been ""resolved"", the regulator concluded in its latest broadcast bulletin. Ofcom launched an investigation in relation to a potential breach of rule 2.3 of its Broadcasting Code, which reads: ""In applying generally accepted standards broadcasters must ensure that material which may cause offence is justified by the context"". Presenter Matthew Wright employed a false Scottish accent and remarked: ""There's been another murder,"" in reference to the UK crime drama Taggart, as the murder was being discussed as part of a newspaper review. At this point, audience laughter could be heard. Charlie Baker, who was sat on the panel, responded by saying it would be ""the longest episode of Taggart of all time"" with ""lots of down-time in between"", citing the time period of approximately forty years since the last murder investigation on the Western Isles. No apology was broadcast at any point during the programme. Ofcom subsequently received at least 2,220 complaints about the incident. The regulator stated that, with his comments, Wright ""made light of the murder"" and ""went on to laugh loudly with the audience as the conversation continued"", appearing to illustrate ""no regard to the unfortunate circumstances of this murder case concerning the killing of a 16 year old well known to many within the local community in which he lived."" Channel 5 would later acknowledge that these remarks were ""unfortunate, misjudged and entirely inappropriate"". A page on the social networking website Facebook, entitled 'Report The Wright Stuff to Ofcom', accumulated in excess of 2,500 likes. In the next edition of the show the following day, Wright apologised, saying it was ""certainly no intention on my part to belittle the seriousness or tragedy of the story, or to offend anyone who knew Liam"" but remarked that he was ""not helped though by people running campaigns - 'report Matthew Wright to Ofcom'. I mean, grow up, folks"". Ofcom said these comments would have ""potentially caused further offence to viewers"". Channel 5 went on to retract access to this edition and the edition from the day before from Demand 5, its Internet catch up service. On the December 8 programme, Wright apologised again. ""I deeply, deeply regret my thoughtless comments,"" Wright said, ""and very sincerely apologise to Liam's family and his community. I truly apologise OK, from the bottom of my heart if I have made their suffering worse. I should add that Charlie Baker also wishes to apologise unreservedly"". The Aitchison family subsequently accepted a direct apology issued to them by Wright. As a result of this incident, Channel 5 decided to re-examine the compliance and editorial rules set between Channel 5 and The Wright Stuffs production company. Channel 5 also committed the major production team members of The Wright Stuff to learning about compliance in greater detail. Ofcom was of the opinion that ""these comments were clearly capable of causing offence to viewers given the sensitivity surrounding the very recent murder of a 16 year old teenager in an isolated Scottish community."" However, ""on balance, and in light of the steps taken by Channel 5 to mitigate this offence, Ofcom considered the matter resolved."" The regulator does not intend to take any further action over this incident. A recent status update from 'Report The Wright Stuff to Ofcom' clarified its administrator's intention to remove the page on Thursday." +entertainment,"Set to hit newstands in the United States on Monday, the annual news feature by TIME magazine pictures on its glossy front page an Apple iMac-styled computer keyboard and monitor with a reflective monitor surface that reflects YOU as the most influential Person of the Year, for ""community and collaboration on a scale never seen before."" ""For seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, Time's Person of the Year for 2006 is you,"" Lev Grossman, Time's technology writer, wrote. The magazine claims that those who contribute content to the web are the ones driving the information age, instead of mainstream media. ""It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes,"" said Grossman. Magazine editor Richard Stengel said, ""If you choose an individual, you have to justify how that person affected millions of people. But if you choose millions of people, you don’t have to justify it to anyone.” 26 “People Who Mattered” are listed in the magazine, ranging from North Korea's president Kim Jong Il to Pope Benedict XVI. According to Stengel, if the magazine had to choose an individual the choice was likely to have been Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Stengel however seemed uneasy about naming Ahmadinejad. “It just felt to me a little off selecting him,” said Time's editor. There has been a ""Time Person of the Year"" since 1927 and the special issue has become a catalyst for speculation every year. In the past there have been controversies with Adolf Hitler named in 1938 and Ayatollah Khomeini named in 1979. According to the magazine, the person of the year are those who affected the news and our lives both positively and negatively over the past year. It is not the first time the magazine has departed from naming an actual person as Person of the Year. In 1966 the magazine named people under 25, in 1975 it named American women, and in 1982 it named the computer." +entertainment,"New Zealand Movie studio company, New Line Cinema has announced that movie director Peter Jackson will never be allowed to work on another New Line film. This announcement will also mean that Mr Jackson will not be allowed to film the prequel titled The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings films he directed. The announcement was made mainly because New Zealander Mr Jackson and his partner, Fran Walsh, filed a law suit against New Line in 2005 as they believed New Line owed them much more money than they received for The Lord of the Rings trilogy as shown to them by a partial audit of The Fellowship of the Ring. Mr Jackson described it as ""financial anomalies,"" which New Line refused to account for. ""Fundamentally, our legal action is about holding New Line to its contractual obligations and promises."" The film trilogies have so far managed to earn US$3 billion in ticket sales since 2001. New Line has repeatedly refused permission for Mr Jackson to audit the other films in the trilogy The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, even though Mr Jackson described film auditing as a common practice. ""We don't understand why New Line Cinema has taken this position,"" Mr Jackson said. In an interview with the Sci Fi Wire, Robert Shaye, co-chairman of New Line and executive producer of The Lord of the Rings, said that New Line does not want to do any films, including The Hobbit, with Mr Jackson in the future. ""I do not want to make a movie with somebody who is suing me. It will never happen during my watch."" ""I don't care about Peter Jackson anymore. He wants to have another $100 million or $50 million, whatever he's suing us for,"" Mr Shaye said. Mr Shaye said he has been offended by the lawsuit brought to his company by Mr Jackson. ""He got a quarter of a billion dollars paid to him so far, justifiable, according to contract, completely right, but then turns around without wanting to have a discussion with us and sues us and refuses to discuss it unless we just give in to his plan."" However Mr Jackson claims that he had been trying to discuss it with New Line, saying: ""We attempted to discuss the issues raised with New Line for over a year but the studio was and continues to be completely uncooperative. ... Nobody likes taking legal action, but the studio left us with no alternative."" Mr Jackson has said that he has and will continue to have the highest respect and affection for Mr Shaye and has said that he regrets he has taken the lawsuit personally. ""Jackson's either had very poor counsel or is completely misinformed and myopic to think that I care whether I give him anything,"" Mr Shaye said. Mr Shaye has said he is disappointed that many of the stars in The Lord of the Rings trilogy had refused to celebrate New Line's 40th anniversary. Mr Jackson said that the reason for that was probably because Mr Shaye had issues with the cast years before the lawsuit arose." +entertainment,"Diego Grez The Civic Parade of Pichilemu took place on Saturday morning, in Daniel Ortúzar Avenue. The event was attended by around 9,000 people. It started with an exhibition of cueca, the Chilean national dance, by winners of communal and regional Cueca championships. All the schools from urban Pichilemu and its rural villages participated in the parade, including La Aguada School, Espinillo Basic School, Cáhuil School, Charly's School, Colegio Preciosa Sangre, Agustín Ross High School, Digna Camilo Aguilar School, and others. Neighborhood councils (such as Infiernillo, presided by Mauricio Vargas), elderly clubs, sport clubs (such as Arturo Prat and Independiente), the Public Safety Agency and the Fire Bureau also participated. The Parade music was performed by Banda Instrumental Pichilemina (Pichileminian Instrumental Band). The parade is part of celebrations marking two hundred years since Chile began the Independence process, that ended in 1818 after Bernardo O'Higgins proclaimed it. ""This parade shows the power that the Pichileminian people has to stand again after the February 27 earthquake,"" Mayor of Pichilemu Roberto Córdova said. ""It is the greatest parade in the History of Pichilemu,"" he added. The event was broadcast by the local radio stations Entre Olas, Atardecer and Somos Pichilemu. Jorge Vargas González, owner of Radio Somos Pichilemu and former Mayor of the city also attended the event, along with his wife Andrea Aranda, current Councillor." +entertainment,"A report published last week in the Toronto Star by Professor Michael Geist of Canada's University of Ottawa claims a copyright case under the Class Proceedings Act of 1992 may see the country's largest players in the music industry facing upwards of 6 billion in penalties. The case is being led by the family and estate of the late jazz musician Chet Baker; moving to take legal action against four major labels in the country, and their parent companies. The dispute centres around unpaid royalties and licensing fees for use of Baker's music, and hundreds of thousands of other works. The suit was initially filed in August last year, but amended and reissued on October 6, two months later. At that point both the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA) and Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors (SODRAC) were also named defendants. January this year SODRAC and CMRRA switch sides, joining Baker et al. as plaintiffs against Sony BMG Music, EMI Music Canada, Universal Music Canada and Warner Music Canada. David A. Basskin, President and CEO of CMRRA, with a professional law background, stated in a sworn affidavit that his organisation made numerous attempts over the last 20 years to reduce what is known as the ""pending list"", a list of works not correctly licensed for reproduction; a list of copyright infringements in the eyes of the Baker legal team. The theoretical principle of the list is to allow timely commercial release while rights and apportionment of monies due are resolved. Basskin complains that it is ""economically infeasible to implement the systems that would be needed to resolve the issues internally"". And, ""... for their part, the record labels have generally been unwilling to take the steps that, in the view of CMRRA, would help to resolve the problem."" The Baker action demands that the four named major labels pay for and submit to an independent audit of their books, ""including the contents of the 'Pending Lists'"". Seeking an assessment of gains made by the record companies in ""failure or refusal to compensate the class members for their musical works"", additional demands are for either damages and profits per the law applicable in a class action, or statutory damages per the Copyright Act for copyright infringement. 5=Affidavit supporting class action This forms the basis for Professor Geist's six billion dollar calculation along with Basskin's sworn testimony that the pending lists cover over 300,000 items; with each item counted as an infringement, the minimum statutory damages per case are CA$500, the maximum $20,000. Basskin's affidavit on behalf of CMRRA goes into detail on the history leading up to the current situation and class action lawsuit; a previous compulsory license scheme, with poor recordkeeping requirements, and which, had a decline in real terms to one of the lowest fees in the world, was eventually abolished and the mechanical license system introduced. The CMRRA went on to become a significant representative of music publishers and copyright holders, and the pending list an instrument to deal with situations where mechanical rights were as-yet not completely negotiated. Basskin's affidavit claiming the list grew and circumstances worsened as time progressed. The Mechanical Licensing Agreement (MLA) between the ""majors'"" industry body, an attached exhibit to the affidavit, is set to expire December 31, 2012; this is between CMRRA and the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA). With the original MLA expiring at end September 1990, CMRRA negotiated more detailed terms and a ""code of conduct"". Subsequent agreements were drawn up in 1998, 2004, 2006, and 2008. Basskin asserts that the named record company defendants are the ""major"" labels in Canada and states they ""are also responsible for creating, maintaining and administering the so-called ""Pending Lists"" that are the subject of the current litigation""; that, specific to publishing, divisions of the four represent the ""'major' music publishers active in Canada"". Yet the number of music publishers they represent has decreased over time due to consolidation and defection from the CRIA. Geist summarizes the record company strategy as ""exploit now, pay later if at all"". This despite the CMRRA and SODRAC being required to give lists of all collections they represented to record labels, and for record labels to supply copies of material being released to permit assessment of content that either group may represent interested parties for. Where actual Mechanical License Agreements are in place, Basskin implies their terms are particularly broad and preclude any party exercising their legal right to decline to license. Specific to the current Mechanical Licensing Agreement (MLA) between the CMRRA and the CRIA; a ""label is required to provide an updated cumulative Pending List to CMRRA with each quarterly payment of royalties under the MLA."" The CMRRA is required to review the list and collect where appropriate royalties and interest due. Basskin describes his first encounter with pending lists, having never heard of them before 1989, thus: ...In the early years of my tenure, CRMMA received Pending Lists from the record labels in the form of paper printouts of information. The information contained on these lists varied from record label to record label, ... in fact, within a few days after my arrival at CMRRA, I recall my predecessor, Paul Berry, directing my attention to a large stack of paper, about two feet high. and informing me that it was PolyGram's most recent Pending List. Prior to that introduction I had never heard of Pending Lists. Alain Lauzon, General Manager of Canada's Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (SODRAC) submitted his followup affidavit January 28, 2009 to be attached to the case and identify the society as a plaintiff. As such, he up-front states ""I have knowledge of the matters set out herein."" Lauzon, a qualified Chartered Accountant with an IT specialisation, joined SODRAC in 2002 with ""over 20 years of business experience."" He is responsible for ""negotiation and administration of industry-wide agreements for the licensing of music reproduction and distribution""; licensing of radio and online music services use is within his remit. Lauzon makes it clear that Baker's estate, other rightsholders enjoined to the case, SODRAC, and CMRRA, have reached an agreed settlement; they wish to move forward with a class proceeding against the four main members of the CRIA. He requests that the court recognise this in relation to the initially accepted case from August 2008. 5=CMRRA The preamble of the affidavit continues to express strong agreement with that of David Basskin from CMRRA. Lauzon concurs regarding growing use of ""pending lists"" and that ""... record labels have generally been unwilling to take the steps that would help to resolve the Pending List problem."" With his background as an authority, Lauzon states with confidence that SODRAC represents ""approximately 10 to 15% of all musical works that are reproduced on sound recordings sold in Canada."" For Quebec the figure is more than 50%. Lauzon agrees that the four named record company defendants are the ""major"" labels in Canada, and that smaller independent labels will usually work with them or an independent distribution company; and Basskin's statement that ""the responsibility to obtain mechanical licenses for recordings manufactured and/or released in Canada falls with the Canadian labels by law, by industry custom, and by contractual agreement."" Wikinews attempted to contact people at the four named defendant CRIA-member record labels. The recipient of an email that Wikinews sent to Warner Brothers Canada forwarded our initial correspondence to Hogarth PR; the other three majors failed to respond in a timely fashion. Don Hogarth responded to Wikinewsie Brian McNeil, and, without addressing any of the submitted questions, recommended a blog entry by Barry Sookman as, what he claimed is, a more accurate representation of the facts of the case. I am aware of another viewpoint that provides a reasonably deep explanation of the facts, at www.barrysookman.com. If you check the bio on his site, you’ll see that he is very qualified to speak on these issues. This may answer some of your questions. I hope that helps. Sookman is a lobbyist at the Canadian Parliament who works in the employ of the the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA). Hogarth gave no indication or disclosure of this; his direction to the blog is to a posting with numerous factual inaccuracies, misdirecting statements, or possibly even lies; if not lies, Sookman is undoubtedly not careful or ""very qualified"" in the way he speaks on the issue. Sookman's blog post opens with a blast at Professor Geist: ""his attacks use exaggeration, misleading information and half truths to achieve his obvious ends"". Sookman attempts to dismiss any newsworthiness in Geist's article; ... As if something new has happened with the case. In fact, the case was started in August 2008 (not October 2008 as asserted by Prof. Geist). It also hasn’t only been going on “for the past year”, as he claims. Chet Baker isn’t “about to add a new claim to fame”. Despite having started over a year and a half ago, the class action case hasn’t even been certified yet. So why the fervour to publicise the case now? Should the court use admitted unpaid amounts, or maximum statutory damages &ndash; as the record industry normally seeks against filesharers? As the extracted see right stamp, date, and signature, shows, the court accepted amendments to the case and its submission, as Professor Geist asserts, on October 6. The previously mentioned submissions by the heads of CMRRA and SODRAC were indeed actions within the past year; that of SODRAC's Alain Louzon being January 28 this year. Sookman continues his attack on Professor Geist, omitting that the reverse appears the case; analysis of his blog's sitemap reveals he wrote a 44-page attack on Professor Geist in February 2008, accusing him of manipulating the media and using influence on Facebook to oppose copyright reform favourable to the CRIA. In the more current post he states: Prof. Geist tries to taint the recording industry as blatant copyright infringers, without ever delving into the industry wide accepted custom for clearing mechanical rights. The pending list system, which has been around for decades, represents an agreed upon industry wide consensus that songwriters, music publishers (who represent songwriters) and the recording industry use and rely on to ensure that music gets released and to the market efficiently and the proper copyright owners get compensated. This characterisation of the pending list only matches court records in that it ""has been around for decades"". CMRRA's Basskin, a lawyer and industry insider, goes into great detail on the major labels resisting twenty years of collective societies fighting, and failing, to negotiate a situation where the labels take adequate measures to mechanically license works and pay due fees, royalties, and accrued interest. What Sookman clearly overlooks is that, without factoring in any interest amounts, the dollar value of the pending list is increasing, as shown with the following two tables for mid-2008. As is clear, there is an increase of C$1,101,987.83 in a three-month period. Should this rate of increase in the value of the pending list continue and Sony's unvalued pending list be factored in, the CRIA's four major labels will have an outstanding debt of at least C$73 million by end-2012 when the association's Mechanical Licensing Agreement runs out." +entertainment,"Comments made about Olympics swimmer Rebecca Adlington on British television programme Mock the Week ""breached guidelines"", the BBC Trust has said. Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle, at the time a panelist on the satirical gameshow, made the comments about the swimmer. The episode the comments featured on was originally broadcast in August 2008 on BBC Two. The episode caused a total of 75 complaints to be made to the BBC. The producer then apologised four months later, saying, ""the ribbing may have gone a tad too far on this occasion."" Now the BBC Trust has said that the comments ""breached guidelines"". They commented that the jokes ""risked offending the audience"" and were ""humiliating"". Speaking about the comments, BBC Trustee Richard Tait made a statement saying: ""For Mock the Week, the Trust's Editorial Standards committee felt that the comments about Rebecca were humiliating, and this was exacerbated by the fact that she had not sought celebrity status or courted media attention. There was no clear editorial purpose for the joke's inclusion."" Boyle's specific comments were quoted in The Daily Telegraph and were as follows: ""The thing that nobody really said about Rebecca Adlington is that she looks pretty weird. She looks like someone who's looking at themselves in the back of a spoon...When she arrived back on the flight from Beijing she met her boyfriend. Did you see her boyfriend? He was really attractive. He was like a male model. So from that I have deduced that Rebecca Adlington is very dirty."" This information came through seventeen days after the BBC announced that Frankie Boyle would be leaving the panel of the show after being a regular panellist since the show started in June 2005 due to ""other television commitments"". The show had been running for seven series, and will continue to run for another two seasons, despite his absence. A spokesperson for Mock the Week had said that he had been ""a brilliant member of the team"" and that ""the door is always open for him to come back""." +entertainment,"__NOTOC__ Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, a filmmaker widely regarded as one of the great masters of modern cinema, died today at his home on Fårö, Gotland, Sweden. He was 89. The exact cause of death is not known. ""It's an unbelievable loss for Sweden, but even more so internationally,"" Astrid Söderbergh Widding, president of The Ingmar Bergman Foundation, told Associated Press. ""This is an enormous loss, not only for artistic Sweden but because he was one of the most well-known Swedes in the world,"" Jon Asp, a spokesperson for the Ingmar Bergman Foundation, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. ""Had it not been for his struggles in the 40s and 50s, Swedish directors such as Jan Troell and Bo Widerberg may not have been able to make films."" ""He was one of the world's biggest personalities. There were Kurosawa, Fellini and then Bergman. Now he is also gone,"" Danish director Bille August said to Associated Press. ""It is a great loss. I am in shock."" Hungarian director István Szabó told MTI: ""The Bergman films are to viewers like the novels of a great novelist, the poems of a great poet or the works of a great drama writer ... He valued contact with the audience very much and the story which can be told to them, while he did not attribute a great value to stories which can only be understood by snobs and highly qualified aesthetes."" Born Ernst Ingmar Bergman in 1918 in Uppsala, Sweden to a Lutheran minister of Danish descent, Bergman grew up surrounded by religious imagery and discussion. He had a strict upbringing and went through two five-month stretches of mandatory military service. He attended Stockholm High School and Stockholm University, without completing his degree in literature and art. He instead became interested in theatre and later in film. Despite his devout upbringing, Bergman said that he lost his faith at age eight but did not come to terms with this until later in his filmmaking career. Since the early sixties Bergman lived much of his life on the island of Fårö, where he made a number of his films. In 2004 he said he would never again leave the island. He was married five times and had nine children. Although Bergman was universally famous for his contribution to cinema, he was an active and productive stage director all his life, and was manager and director of a number of the most prestigious theatres in Sweden. As a director, Bergman favored intuition over intellect, and chose to be unaggressive in dealing with actors. Bergman saw himself as having a great responsibility toward them, viewing them as collaborators often in a psychologically vulnerable position. He stated that a director must be both honest and supportive in order to allow others their best work. His films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and faith; they also tend to be direct and not overtly stylized. Persona, one of Bergman's most famous films, is unusual among Bergman's work in being both existentialist and avant-garde. Bergman usually wrote his own scripts, thinking about them for months or years before starting the actual process of writing, which he viewed as somewhat tedious. His earlier films are carefully structured, and are either based on his plays or written in collaboration with other authors. Bergman stated that in his later works, when on occasion his actors would want to do things differently from his own intentions, he would let them, noting that the results were often ""disastrous"" when he did not do so. As his career progressed, Bergman increasingly let his actors improvise their dialogue. In his latest films, he wrote just the ideas informing the scene and allowed his actors to determine exact dialogue. Ingmar Bergman, who made over 50 films, rarely watched them. ""I don't watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry ... and miserable. I think it's awful,"" Bergman said. *Crisis (1946) (Kris) *Prison (1949) (Fängelse) *Thirst/Three Strange Loves (1949) (Törst) *To Joy (1950) (Till glädje) *Dreams (1955) (Kvinnodröm) aka Journey Into Autumn *Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) (Sommarnattens leende) *Wild Strawberries (1957) (Smultronstället) *The Virgin Spring (1960) (Jungfrukällan) (won Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film) *Through a Glass Darkly (1961) (Såsom i en spegel) (won Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film) *Persona (1966) *Shame (1968) (Skammen) *Cries and Whispers (1973) (Viskningar och rop) (won Academy Award for Best Cinematography) *The Magic Flute (1975) (Trollflöjten), first shown on Swedish television, followed by a cinematic release *Fanny and Alexander (1982) (Fanny och Alexander) (won 4 Academy Awards, including one for Best Foreign Language Film)" +entertainment,"obituariesBritish singer, song-writer and guitarist John Martyn has died at the age of 60. He died while in a hospital in Ireland. ""With heavy heart and an unbearable sense of loss we must announce that John died this morning,"" said a statement posted on his website. The details surrounding his death are not known, but Martyn has admitted to past drug and alcohol abuse. Martyn had to have his right leg amputated in 2003 because of a cyst, but despite the loss, he continued to play his music from a wheelchair. On December 31, 2008 during the UK's New Year's party he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) award. Martyn is said to be best known for his album Solid Air, made in 1973. He previously played with other music stars such as Phil Collins, who recorded an album with Martyn in 1980 titled Grace and Danger. Martyn also worked with Eric Clapton. ""John’s passing is terribly, terribly sad. I had worked with and known him since the late 1970s and he was a great friend. He was uncompromising, which made him infuriating to some people, but he was unique and we’ll never see the likes of him again. I loved him dearly and will miss him very much,"" said Collins in a statement to the press." +entertainment,"United States musician and songwriter, Ike Turner, who was married at least 14 times, died Wednesday at his home in San Marcos, California. His wife did not give a cause of death, but mentioned that he suffered from emphysema. Ike Turner was perhaps best known as one half of the Ike & Tina Turner duo, with his former wife, Tina Turner, whom he married in Mexico in 1962. During a career that lasted half a century, Ike's repertoire included blues, soul, rock, and funk. Alongside his former wife, he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and in 2001 was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame." +entertainment,"Anthony Weiner announced his resignation yesterday afternoon as a Democratic representative from New York to the U.S. House of Representatives, a position he has filled for twelve years. He has been under pressure from politicians within his own party after a sex scandal engulfed his life and that of the Democratic party. Weiner told reporters it was ""impossible"" to continue in his role after the events of the last few weeks, including revelations that he was involved in sexual relationships with a number of young women over the internet, including sending lewd photos of himself, and then lying about his actions to reporters. He announced his resignation at a press conference in a Brooklyn senior center where 20 years ago he began his political career and apologized for his ""personal mistakes"". His wife, Huma Abedin, did not accompany him, but Weiner apologized to her in his speech, saying that he hopes ""most importantly, that my wife and I can continue to heal from the damage that I've caused."" He took no questions from reporters. On June 6, Weiner had admitted to corresponding with women he met on the internet, including exchanging lewd photos. But on June 11 he declared in an emotional interview he would not resign. Under pressure from Democrats, Weiner requested a two-week leave of absence from his position in order to obtain treatment to become ""a better husband and healthier person."" However, Democratic politicians became increasingly anxious to put the growing scandal behind them, as it distracted members from more important issues such as problems with Medicare and the need for more jobs. As the scandal gained momentum, a variety of politicians, including Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader, called on him to resign. President Barack Obama said he would resign if he were in Weiner's place in an interview with ABC News. ""Weiner exercised poor judgment in his actions and poor judgment in his reaction to the revelations,"" Pelosi said in a statement after Weiner announced his resignation. ""Today, he made the right judgment in resigning."" The scandal came to light May 27 after Weiner accidentally sent a photograph of his crotch on his public stream on the social networking website Twitter, and then tried to cover it up by blaming hackers for posting the picture, denying all responsibility. Weiner later admitted sending online messages to other women, including to a 17-year-old high school student in Delaware, though a police investigation uncovered nothing illegal. On Wednesday, a former porn actress revealed that she had engaged in an online relationship with Weiner and that Weiner had asked her to lie about the nature of their contact. More photos have continued to emerge, including one showing his nude genitals, and others showing him half naked. On Wednesday, the National Enquirer published images of Weiner cross-dressing while he was a college student at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. In one photo, he is seen wearing a bra and pantyhose, while in another he is oiled and wearing swimming trunks. source=Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Colleagues said Weiner wanted to wait for the return home of his wife, Abedin, before making a final career decision. He has been married for almost a year to Abedin, who is pregnant with the couple's first child. She is a top aide to Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, and the couple's wedding was presided over by former President Bill Clinton. She returned home to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday morning after having traveled with Clinton in the Middle East and Africa since June 8. Weiner's district covers parts of Brooklyn and Queens, boroughs of New York City. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor of New York City in 2005, and he was considered a potential candidate for future races. Known to be an outspoken supporter of liberal causes, he has irked conservatives and Democratic leaders. In 2009, he pushed for government-run health care, even though Obama had opposed the idea." +entertainment,"Many rhythm gamers are anticipating the release of ""Taiko no Tatsujin 11: Asian Version"", the Namco Bandai Games Inc. (NBGI) beta version of which was recently showcased at the 2008 Taipei Game Show. In fact, several managers from amusement stores in Taiwan frequently imported large quantities of arcade games, including rhythm games. Eventually, some slot machine developers modified codes from several game consoles like the Wii, PlayStation 2 (PS2), and Sega Saturn to fulfill needs for amusement arcades, but they risked hardware failure and copyright infringement. But before those modifications happened in Taiwan, many rhythm games just used songs from other arcade machines due to copyright issues from enrolled songs. The upcoming game will benefit Mandarin-language gamers after its release, but it may hide some secrets behind the development of ""Taiko no Tatsujin 11: Asian Version"". Wikinews reporter Rico Shen recently interviewed the producer of ""Taiko no Tatsujin"" Tatsuhisa Yabushita to talk about some of the background of this upcoming game and its series. Rico Shen It became a hot topic after the NBGI decided to showcase the ""Taiko no Tatsujin 11: Asian Version"" at the 2008 Taipei Game Show, and it's different from past series' because the NBGI acquired several Mandarin-language songs from the Cross-Strait area (Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong) especially. When you choose them, what factors go into the decision? Tatsuhisa Yabushita: We the NBGI enrolled those various songs based on their own performances and rankings from Cross-Strait countries. But we'll still keep several songs from Namco original, Japanese-pop, and classical music in this upcoming game. RS I believe that a developer should be aware of international copyright coordination before choosing a song for a game, not only in rhythm games, but also games of other types. For instance, I know that some controversy erupted in Taiwan after some covers of Japanese songs were recorded in other languages without agreements from the original singers and composers. Before the release of this upcoming game, have you coordinated with record companies about the copyright issues? Yabushita: Everyone should respect copyrights, as you said. I guarantee that every song from the ""Taiko no Tatsujin"" series in console and arcade versions is licensed through coordination with those companies. RS Some gamers may be confused because the console version of the ""Taiko no Tatsujin"" series is only available for PS2. After the release of the ""Taiko no Tatsujin 11: Asian Version"", will the NBGI release different versions in different countries similar to the way ""Taiko Drum Master"" was released with special designs for American and European gamers? Yabushita: Currently, we'll focus our developments on the arcade version and temporarily not to consider different releases for different countries. This is because we will evaluate opinions from amusement stores and gamers after its release. The ""Taiko no Tatsujin"" series became a hot topic after amusement stores imported several arcade machines in Taiwan. The release of the ""Taiko no Tatsujin 11: Asian Version"" aims to please countries speaking the Mandarin language." +entertainment,"Last night was the 2007 MuchMusic Video Awards in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. MuchMusic is the most watched music channel in Canada, and has been holding the event since 1990. Roughly 6,000 fans line the streets surrounding Much headquarters each year, and 1,200 more score ""the wristband"" and enjoy a free festival-style show in the parking lot, watching four outdoor performance areas spread out in the downtown location. New this year was a special roof-top stage, on the top of the building. Finger Eleven performed on this stage, way above the crowds. Other performers at the show were Avril Lavigne, Fergie, Billy Talent, Hilary Duff, Alexisonfire, Maroon 5, Belly, and The Used. Presenters included Nickelback, Jay Manuel (Canada's Next Top Model, America's Next Top Model), Tara Reid (American Pie, this fall's Land of Canaan), Joss Stone, Sum 41, Amber Tamblyn (Joan of Arcadia, Grudge 2), Hedley, Chris Bosh (Toronto Raptors), Sean Avery (New York Rangers), George, Sam Roberts, Emilie de Ravin (LOST), Marianas Trench, and Kardinal Offishall. Among the awards up for grabs were four People's Choice categories, which were open for text message (within Canada) or online ballots until the night of. * Best Video - BILLY TALENT - ""FALLEN LEAVES"" * Best Director - GEORGE - ""LIE TO ME"" * Best Post-Production - SAM ROBERTS - ""BRIDGE TO NOWHERE"" * Best Cinematography - ALEXISONFIRE - ""THIS COULD BE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD"" * Best Pop Video - HEDLEY - ""GUNNIN"" * MuchLOUD Best Rock Video - BILLY TALENT - ""FALLEN LEAVES"" * MuchVibe Best Rap Video - BELLY feat. GINUWINE - ""PRESSURE"" * Best Independent Video - CANCER BATS - ""FRENCH IMMERSION"" * MuchMoreMusic Award - NICKELBACK - ""FAR AWAY"" * Best French Video - MALAJUBE - ""PATE FILO"" * VideoFACT Award - TOKYO POLICE CLUB - ""CHEER IT ON"" * Best International Video - Artist - FERGIE - ""FERGALICIOUS"" * Best International Video - Group - MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE - ""WELCOME TO THE BLACK PARADE"" * Favourite International Artist- HILARY DUFF - ""WITH LOVE"" * Favourite International Group - MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE - ""WELCOME TO THE BLACK PARADE"" * Favourite Canadian Group - BILLY TALENT - ""DEVIL IN A MIDNIGHT MASS"" * Favourite Canadian Artist - AVRIL LAVIGNE - ""GIRLFRIEND"" * Best International Video By A Canadian - AVRIL LAVIGNE - ""GIRLFRIEND"" image:MMVA2007_Hilary_Duff_1.jpg|Hilary Duff chats with the media in the press room. image:MMVA2007_Tara_Reid.jpg|Tara Reid showed up for the party. image:MMVA2007_Nadine Sykora.jpg|Nadine Sykora, 19, of Squamish, BC, helped introduce Finger Eleven's rooftop performance. Image:MMVA2007_Chris_Bosh.jpg|Toronto Raptors basketball player Chris Bosh. Image:Mmva2007 Avery.jpg|New York Rangers hockey player Sean Avery. Image:MMVA2007_Emile_de_Raven.jpg|LOST star Emilie de Raven presented an award. Image:MMVA2007 Amber Tamblyn 3A2V0156.jpg|Amber Tamblyn on the red carpet. Image:MMVA2007 Jeanne Beker MG 8448.jpg|Jeanne Beker, a judge on Canada's Next Top Model. The VIPs at the event were treated to premium goodies at The 2007 MMVAs Gift Lounge. Mingling, sampling, and customizing their collection, they also received a pre-packaged gift bag. Available to them were: * Balmshell Lipgloss Collection in a Balmshell Market Bag * Cosabella Lingerie * Evian Natural Spring Water * FLICK OFF gear * Fossil Canada Fashion Watches for Men and Women * Glamour Campaign Apparel for Women and Men * Guess? Inc. Best-selling Footwear for Men & Women * LOULOUMagazine * Luxottica Designer Sunglasses * Mavi Jeans ""Perfect Fit"" Jeans * MGA Entertainment BRATZ THE MOVIE Dolls * Nine West Rolling Luggage and Large Tote Bag * Nokia 5300 Xpress Music Phone and BH-800 Bluetooth Headset * Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system MMVA attendees were invited to FLICK OFF, as part of a Canadian advertising campaign intended to promote energy conservation by reducing electricity usage to young people. The 'L' and the 'I' together are perceived as a 'U' which has struck some criticism in the Canadian media. * Robin Wong Photography * MuchMusic Video Awards 2007, official site * MMVA Voting page original" +entertainment,"Leonard Skinner, the namesake of rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, has died at the age of 77. Skinner was a gym teacher and basketball coach and taught members of the group. His death was announced by his son, also named Leonard Skinner, who also said that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Skinner died at the St. Catherine Laboure Manor nursing home in Riverside at 02.30 a.m. His son said that he had a bowl of ice cream shortly after midnight. He had been at the home for about a year. The coach taught the members of the group in the 1960s and was reportedly hard on the students. He later said in a 2009 interview that ""he was just following the rules"". He disputed the rumours that he was extra tough on them or that he kicked them out of school. In later years he opened up his own bar and became friends with some members of the group and even introduced them at one of their concerts in Jacksonville." +entertainment,"BBC Jonathan Ross presented his final episode of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on the BBC after more than nine years. He also finished hosting his programme on BBC Radio 2. Ross announced his departure from the BBC in January 2010, having decided not to renew his contract with the broadcasting organisation. The guests that appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on Friday were English football player David Beckham, American actor Mickey Rourke and Jackie Chan, an actor from Hong Kong. Ross has stated that he was ""ashamed of"" few programmes and that ""the vast majority are shows I am proud of."" He felt ""grateful, lucky and honoured"" to have been able to work at the BBC. Jonathan Ross When talking about his programme on BBC Radio 2, during his final pre-recorded three-hour-long edition broadcast yesterday, Jonathan Ross commented: ""It has been a tremendous experience for us - obviously I like to think that the place has always been a little livelier while we are around. There were certain periods when it was a little too lively, but it's been a great experience and a learning experience, bizarrely for people of our age."" The final song to be played at the end of the show was ""Drive-In Saturday"", performed by David Bowie. Jonathan Ross is expected to present a new television chat show on commercial British channel ITV at some point in the future. It is believed that Graham Norton will be the replacement for Jonathan Ross as of 2011." +entertainment,"The BBC, who broadcast the Live 8 event throughout Saturday and Sunday, has received hundreds of complaints regarding ""swearing outbursts"". Madonna and Snoop Dogg are among those who used ""bad language"" before the 9:00PM watershed. Following last year's Super Bowl, where U.S. broadcasting networks were criticised for not forecasting Janet Jackson's bodily exposure, the BBC pledged to incorporate a time delay of several seconds in certain live broadcasts in order to provide a level of censorship to potentially violent/unsuitable scenes. The Live 8 event, however, was broadcast live. The BBC, said a spokesperson, had received ""just under"" 400 complaints regarding the use of language in its coverage. ""Millions of people enjoyed our 12 hours of live broadcasting. We are sorry if any offence was caused."", she added. The stars accused of swearing before the watershed include Snoop Dogg, Madonna, Johnny Borrell (Razorlight) and Billie-Joe Armstrong (Green Day). Previous complaints received by the BBC range from 240 complaints made as a result of the new 3D weather map, to 47,000 in the build up to the broadcast of ""Jerry Springer - The Opera""." +entertainment,"Emily Perry, a British actress has died at the age of 100. Born on June 28, 1907 in Torquay, Devon, England, she was known for playing Madge Allsop, Dame Edna Everage's long-suffering, silent ""bridesmaid""; she began playing the role at the age of 80. Barry Humphries (Dame Edna) said, ""It is a great loss to me, she was a close friend."" As an actress in her own right, her filmography is limited to her appearances with Dame Edna, except for a 1995 appearance, in her late eighties, on an episode of Last of the Summer Wine as ""Mrs. Broadbent"". She appeared as herself in Night of a Thousand Faces. Prior to gaining fame, Perry spent 25 years running a dancing school for children." +entertainment,"Iran Iranian police raided a dance party held 12 miles west of Tehran arresting some 230 participants. The authorities described the rock and rap performers as ""satanist"" without elaborating. The raid comes as part of a recent crackdown on un-Islamic dress and hairstyles among young people in Iran. In particular, this event included some female vocalists; it is illegal for women to sing in Iran. Rock concerts and dancing are illegal in Iran but festivals are occasionally organized illegally. In this case, the revellers were made aware of the venue only hours prior to the event." +entertainment,"Last Sunday evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California were the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards hosted by English comedian Ricky Gervais. The choice of Gervais as host was a move to increase viewership which declined to 15 million viewers last year from 27 million in 2004. Canadian director James Cameron—who previously won in 1997 for his film Titanic—and his high-grossing 3D epic Avatar seemed to dominate the ceremony, taking home the awards for Best Director and Best Picture respectively. This annual event—which is often considered a preview of the Academy Awards—is conducted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to recognize achievements by those within both the motion picture and television industries internationally. In the midst of the festivities, the earthquake in Haiti was still on the minds of many attendees. For instance, some wore lapel ribbons to honor the victims, while others noted how strange it was for them to be enjoying something like an award ceremony in the midst of such tragedy. On incident of this was when American actress Meryl Streep got emotional while accepting the Best Actress award for her portrayal of chef Julia Child in the film Julia & Julia, ""I am really honestly conflicted about how to have my 'happy movie self' in the face of everything that I'm aware of in the real world."" She went on to mention her late mother, who Streep said would have told her to be grateful that she does in fact have the money to donate to people of Haiti. Following this, American actor George Clooney officially announced his intention to coordinate a telethon that would air on NBC, among other networks worldwide, on January 22 to raise money for those affected by the quake. Below is a complete list of Sunday night's award recipients: * Best Motion Picture – Drama - Avatar * Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy - The Hangover * Best Director - James Cameron, Avatar * Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama - Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart * Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy - Robert Downey, Jr., Sherlock Holmes * Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama - Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side * Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy - Meryl Streep, Julia & Julia * Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture - Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds * Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture - Mo'Nique, Precious * Best Screenplay - Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air * Best Original Score - Michael Giacchino, Up * Best Original Song - ""The Weary Kind,"" Crazy Heart * Best Foreign Language Film - The White Ribbon (Germany) * Best Animated Feature Film - Up * Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement in Motion Pictures - Martin Scorsese * Best Drama Series - Mad Men * Best Comedy Series - Glee * Best Actor in a Television Drama Series - Michael C. Hall, Dexter * Best Actor in a Television Comedy Series - Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock * Best Actress in a Television Drama Series - Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife * Best Actress in a Television Comedy Series - Toni Collette, United States of Tara * Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television - Grey Gardens * Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television - Kevin Bacon, Taking Chance * Best Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television - Drew Barrymore, Grey Gardens * Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television - John Lithgow, Dexter * Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television - Chloë Sevigny, Big Love" +entertainment,"MuchMusic announced the nominees for their MMVA People's Choice awards today. In their 18th year, the MuchMusic Video Awards (MMVAs) have always had categories open to public voting. Simple Plan holds the record for number of People's Choice wins, with four. Viewers can watch all the videos on MuchAXS, muchmusic.com's ""viewer-controlled broadband community."" From there, viewers can either vote online at muchmusic.com, or text ""MMVA"" to 299299 to vote on their phone (Canada only). Favourite Canadian Artist: * Avril Lavigne / ""Girlfriend"" * City and Colour / ""Comin' Home"" * George / ""Talk To Me"" * k-os / ""Sunday Morning"" * Nelly Furtado / ""Say It Right"" Favourite International Artist: * Akon / ""Smack That"" * Fergie / ""Fergalicious"" * Gwen Stefani / ""The Sweet Escape"" * Hilary Duff / ""With Love"" * Justin Timberlake / ""SexyBack"" Favourite Canadian Group: * Alexisonfire / ""This Could Be Anywhere In The World"" * Billy Talent / ""Devil In A Midnight Mass"" * Hedley / ""Gunnin'"" * Nickelback / ""Far Away"" * Three Days Grace / ""Pain"" Favourite International Group: * Evanescence / ""Call Me When You're Sober"" * The Killers / ""When You Were Young"" * My Chemical Romance / ""Welcome To The Black Parade"" * Pussycat Dolls / ""Buttons"" * Red Hot Chili Peppers / ""Dani California""" +entertainment,"London - Wembley Stadium today hosted the second day of the first Play.com Live multimedia exposition, a large event encompassing many large gaming retailers showcasing their latest games across a wide variety of platforms, as well as live music and entertainment from a wide variety of performers and personalities. Wikinews attended the event today, and reported live from inside Wembley Stadium. After being greeted at the front door with goodie bags and press passes – the first room to be visited is the Corinthian Room on the first floor of Wembley Stadium. The atmosphere is calm but excited – people are busying themselves browsing the games on display, and getting involved in the wide variety of competitions and events on offer. The Rock Band competition is well underway, and people are competing for the chance to win a 5-day holiday to Las Vegas, as well as a 4x4 car, games consoles, and other prizes such as £5,000 worth of Play.com Vouchers. The first band to play inside the Corinthian Room is Saving Aimee, who are playing a selection of their songs. The crowd is gathering around the main stage and upper floors to watch the music – and the band is well received by them. The second band to play was the relatively unknown Go:Audio, who also played a selection of songs from their upcoming album. Their energetic performance style had the crowd cheering and singing along. The final band to play was We Are Scientists, who by far had the largest turnout in terms of crowd numbers. They played a number of songs, both old and from their new album, released tomorrow. The Corinthian Room also housed the Rock Band competitions, Soul Calibur tournament, and housed the Wikinews reporters as they wrote the story. At the end of the day, a £30,000 prize was awarded to the winning team from the Unreal Tournament competition. The Atrium was host to a number of celebrity faces, including Sylvester McCoy (Dr. Who), Danny John-Jules (Cat from Red Dwarf), and Hattie Hayridge (Holly from Red Dwarf). There was also an exhibition by Dare to be Digital - a video games design competition focusing on University students designing and creating video games. In total, 12 games were on show from the Dare to be Digital competition. Retailers also had stands, including Corgi, SanDisk, and Blu-Ray. This floor was also home to the Far Cray 2 exhibit, and the Unreal Tournament competition." +entertainment,"US hip hop group Black Eyed Peas has announced that it is almost finished with its new studio album, The Beginning. The group's leader and producer, will.i.am (William James Adams, Jr.), says that the recording ""symbolizes growth, new beginnings and starts, fresh new perspective. It's a positive, feel-good album at the time where there's question marks and uncertainty. People want to be reminded that it's going to be all right."" The Beginning is the group's sixth studio album and is set to be released by the end of the year. It comes one year after the release of multiplatinum The E.N.D. and one of its hit singles ""I Gotta Feeling"". ""I Gotta Feeling"" officially became the most downloaded digital song last Friday, having reached six million legal digital downloads. Released in June 2009, the song topped the charts for fourteen weeks. iTunes still lists the song as the bestselling of all time, and its music video on YouTube has reached approximately 38 million views. Will.i.am said of the milestone, ""We came out in '98 and our career, if you would look at it on chart, there's no dips in it. For our career to still be healthy and vibrant and doing things like 6 million downloads, it's pretty significant.""" +entertainment,"Jeff Tweiten, a 27-year-old graphic artist, is encamped in front of the Cinerama Theatre, on a blue sofa, in the northwest city of Seattle, Washington. Tweiten plans to wait 139 days for the premiere of ""Star Wars: Episode III &mdash; Revenge of the Sith,"" which opens May 19, 2005. He has received help from a community of friends and local business people who have supplied changes of clothes, coffee, food, and a nearby restroom. City authorities have chosen not to enforce vagrancy laws that would force Tweiten to move between the hours of 7AM and 9PM local time. Tweiten also camped out for the previous two episodes of the Star Wars movies, ""Episode I"" and ""Episode II""." +entertainment,"American art director and production designer Robert F. Boyle was honoured last night at the Academy Awards. Hired as an extra in films during the Great Depression, the young architect became a draftsman at Paramount Studios, moving on to become a sketch artist and assistant art director, before becoming a full-fledged art director in the early 1940s, at Universal Studios. His credits include Alfred Hitchcock films Saboteur (1942), North by Northwest (1959), and The Birds (1963). Other films to his credit include The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Gaily, Gaily (1969), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and The Shootist (1976). The Oscar-nominated documentary short The Man on Lincoln's Nose (2000) chronicles his career, which includes the 1997 Art Directors Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award and four Oscar nominations. Oh, thank you all for being here today. That's the good part of getting old. I don't recommend the other. It's not possible for me to express my appreciation to the countless people who helped me on this great trip, this wonderful journey of being in the movies. But I can thank the members of the Board of Governors of the Academy and to Nicole Kidman who so graciously introduced me. I would like to remember some of the old folk, like Hans Dreier who took a chance and gave me my first job in the movies, and to ""Hitch"" who also took a chance and gave me my first big film. And I also would like to remember that Hitch introduced me to the screenwriter Bess Taffel, who became my wife and my companion throughout this wonderful journey. I also would like to thank my children and grandchildren who supported me with their love and support, thank them. To Norman Jewison who made moviemaking fun and much laughter while dealing with real subjects. And to Don Siegel, who cut to the chase and gave us truth. And with all of these, there was my beginning at the USC School of Architecture and my great colleagues in the Art Directors Guild who supported me, and, finally, to Jean Firstenberg who introduced me to the American Film Institute and the opportunity to give back to the next generation of storytellers. Since I've been around here for almost a century, I've noted a lot of conflicts, but there was one bright image in this whole life of ours, and that was the arts, and particularly the art of the moviemakers, of the moving image that we all love. So I have, I have had the good fortune to be a part of this and I thank you all for being there for me. Thank you." +entertainment,"Singing group At Last was recently a finalist in America's Got Talent, covering songs like ""Let's Stay Together"" and ""Ain't No Sunshine"". Talent was a NBC television series search for America's next big talent, featuring singers, dancers, magicians, comedians and other talents of all ages. The series was hosted by Regis Philbin, and judged by former tabloid editor Piers Morgan, singer Brandy, and actor/singer David Hasselhoff. They talked to Wikinews about their group's performances and the America's Got Talent experience. Q: At Last performs ""hip-hopapella"" (hip hop a cappella). For those who didn't see you on America's Got Talent, how would you describe this sound? : A: Hip-hopapella was born out of a rehearsal when we were just messing around between songs. We were singing ""Killing Me Softly"" and harmonizing when Mike decided to throw in a beatbox, and it was like WOW... it was just magical and we knew right away we had discovered a new sound for us. Our producer came up with the name. Since then it's really evolved into fat layers of harmonies over a hip hop style bassline and beatbox. We like taking old school songs and flipping it hip-hopapella style to create something recognizable yet fresh. Q: The band has sung at concerts with many noted names, and on quite a few television series. Where in America have audiences been most enthusiastic? : A: We think we get the most enthusiastic responses in areas where there aren't a lot of Asian people. For example, in the midwest or the south. At first, they have their typical stereotypes of what we are. All they see is William Hung. But then they hear these four Asian guys sing R&B, and they're shocked. After the shock wears off, they realize they just like what they hear, regardless of the faces. Q: How did At Last first form? : A: We all met at an audition, held by actress Ming-Na, and have been together for five years. Together with her, we have the goal of showing America and the world that Asian Americans love music too. Q: Of your competitors, who was your personal favorite? (Any point in the competition, not just among the finalists.) : A: We loved Bobby Badfingers. He just had an incredible energy and has flat out the best showman in the competition. Backstage, he was so personable too. Actually everyone on the show was very friendly and open... we made a lot of new friends on that show. Q: Who was your favourite judge? : A: It's hard not to answer Brandy, because she had so much love for us, especially early on. But we have to go with Piers because of his honesty. Ultimately, his comments are the ones America respects the most. Q: Overall, are you satisfied with the experience ""America's Got Talent"" provided? : A: We're very happy with our experience on the show. We got more exposure than we ever have before and we've made some great new friends and contacts. We got to show America who we are and what we can do, and even though we didn't win, we've gained so much. Q: What's next for At Last? : A: We finished an album just before we started doing AGT, so we're going to get back to promoting that and start touring. interview To find out more about At Last, visit their official site, www.atlastmusic.com/. You can ""friend"" them at MySpace: At Last, or keep current with their biweekly webcast on Youtube." +entertainment,"Norway has won the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, held Saturday evening in Moscow, Russia, by the largest margin in the Contest's history. Alexander Rybak's song ""Fairytale"" received 387 points, 169 points more than the second place entrant, Yohanna, who represented Iceland with the song ""Is It True?"" Rybak, 23, was the runaway winner from the beginning of the voting, and was the odds-on favorite with British bookies. The other bookie favorites, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Greece, all found places in the Top 10, placing fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively. It was the first Top 10 showing for the United Kingdom in seven years. Other notable scores included Estonia, who finished in sixth place after qualifying for the final for the first time ever since the pre-qualifying round was introduced five years ago, and France, who placed eighth for their first Top 10 finish since 2002. Spanish singer Soraya Arnelas placed joint twenty-third after a difficult week, which included public outcry against her and her national broadcaster. Russians hoping to repeat a victory on home turf were disappointed as Anastasiya Prikhodko's song ""Mamo"" placed eleventh. Israel's song ""There Must Be Another Way,"" sung by a Jewish-Arab duo, marking the first time an Arab performer represented Israel in any capacity, placed sixteenth. Germany, despite having lots of publicity before the event for signing on burlesque performer Dita von Teese to appear on-stage with their entrants, Alex Swings Oscar Sings!, placed twentieth, the third year in a row Germany placed in the bottom quartile. For the first time in 29 years, Sir Terry Wogan did not provide a commentary on the UK's broadcast, Irish comedian Graham Norton replaced Sir Terry, who has complained that ""it was no longer a music contest."" According to Norton, the event was blemished by the Russian policing of it, and he commented on-air that ""heavy-handed policing has really marred what has been a fantastic Eurovision."" This is Norway's third Eurovision win. They previously won in 1985 and 1995. As winners, Norway and its national broadcaster, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), will host the event next May. Here are the results of the finale night." +entertainment,"Episodes of the Colorado-based cartoon comedy television series South Park have been made available for free via streaming video on the website SouthParkStudios.com. Full-length episodes from the past 12 seasons of South Park can be seen on the site, as well as behind-the-scenes clips and information on upcoming episodes. After new episodes of the program air on Comedy Central they will be added to the site for one week, but will then be unavailable for the next 30 days before being added to the site's s, due to contractual obligations. SouthParkStudios.com was relaunched with free streaming episodes on March 19, and as of Comedy Central's announcement Tuesday the site had three million hits, two million video plays and one million full-episode streams. 168 of the series' 169 episodes are currently available on the site. The site is currently in a beta format and is ad supported, but visitors can watch an unlimited number of episodes. Streaming episodes are uncensored, and each episode will have between three and four advertisements. The website also has news, games, blogs and a feature where users can create South Park avatar characters in their likeness. Fans can also choose from 3,000 episode clips from the show to embed on their blogs or websites. The website was created by WPP agency Schematic, with Toyota and Virgin as launch sponsors. SouthParkStudios.com launched this past summer with games and other media content, in a deal between South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker where their contract with Comedy Central was extended for three years and the cable television channel agreed to split online ad revenue 50-50. Matt Stone commented on the three-year contract to produce more episodes of the series: ""Three more years of South Park will give us the opportunity to offend that many more people ... And since Trey and I are in charge of the digital side of South Park, we can offend people on their cellphones, game consoles, and computers too. It's all very exciting for us."" 4=Matt Stone and Trey Parker Parker and Stone released a statement about the website: ""We got really sick of having to download our own show illegally all the time, so we gave ourselves a legal alternative."" Parker and Stone don't think that the move will affect DVD sales of past seasons, because fans will still want to own episodes in a ""hard copy"" format. The website is managed by South Park Digital Studios LLC, a joint venture of Parker and Stone and Comedy Central. Anne Garefino, general manager of South Park Digital Studios stated: ""One goal in moving forward is to make every episode of South Park available worldwide ... Currently, full episodes are not available in the U.K., Australia and a few other foreign territories, but we're not far off from making that happen. We have some contractual issues to sift through but we're getting there."" On the move to make the episodes available for free, Sam Thielman of Variety wrote: ""It's a good time for Parker and Stone to distance themselves from the YouTube community given Comedy Central parent Viacom's protracted lawsuit against the Web-based video distrib, which features clips from the show."" Viacom is suing YouTube for US$1 billion in damages relating to video clips displayed on the video-sharing website. Richard Menta of MP3 Newswire wrote: ""With all their content already out there Stone, Parker and Viacom realized offering South Park episodes online directly is a low risk proposition. They might as well draw some ad revenue from it.""" +entertainment,"John Spencer, who played vice presidential candidate Leo McGarry on NBC's ""The West Wing,"" died of a heart attack Friday, his publicist said. Spencer, 58, died at a Los Angeles hospital, said publicist Ron Hofmann. Hofmann released no other immediate details. Spencer's work on the show earned him an Emmy Award for supporting actor in a drama series in 2002, as well as a Golden Globe nomination. Before appearing on the hit political drama, Spencer played the quirky and charismatic New York attorney Tommy Mullaney on ""L.A. Law.""" +entertainment,"New Zealand Apple Computers announced today that it's long awaited iTunes store is available to New Zealanders. They also launched the online Apple Store New Zealand which provides Apple products, such as iPods, Mac minis, etc. New Zealand is number 22 on the number of countries who have the iTunes store and the tenth music download store in New Zealand. The launch means that New Zealanders can now download music to transfer to their iPods, legally. However the music is only available to iPod's as converting the music to the MP3 standard for other MP3 players is illegal in New Zealand. Some music download sites in New Zealand support MP3 formats, like Digirama which sell their music tracks for $1.75. The New Zealand iTunes store provides the most digital music tracks in New Zealand at around two million and each song costs NZ$1.79 or a music video costs $3.59 of which there around thousands, an album will usually cost about $17.99 and a game will cost $7.99. The music tracks also include New Zealand artists such as Brooke Fraser, Tim Finn, Fat Freddy's Drop, etc and also includes international exclusive albums such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ben Harper, etc. Eddy Cue, vice president of Apple, said: ""We're thrilled to bring the iTunes Store and the online Apple Store to our customers in New Zealand just in time for the holidays."" There were rumours surrounding the launch of a New Zealand iTunes store this week. The podcast section on iTunes also covers a wide range of podcasts, equalling over 65,000. The New Zealand podcasts include such companies as TVNZ (Television New Zealand), Radio New Zealand and The Voice Booth. It is commonly believed that the reason the store was halted until now was because Apple has to make separate contracts with each recording company in each country. iTunes is likely to become the dominant music download store in New Zealand, following the trend of other countries. The special edition iPod nano has also been released in New Zealand. The special edition is red in colour instead of the normal white and black colours. The special iPod is available only on the online store at the same price as the normal iPod nanos but some of the profit goes to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. Renaissance is New Zealand's distributor of Apple goods and will still keep its contract despite Renaissance not being directly involved in both of the new online stores. Renaissance said: ""New Zealand will now come under Apple's worldwide pricing model.""" +entertainment,"Star of one of the longest-running shows in television history, 79-year-old Chris Wedes is celebrating half a century since he became ""Julius Pierpont Patches"". From 1958 to 1981, CBS affiliate KIRO-TV produced The J.P. Patches Show. The show featured J.P., the Mayor of the City Dump, who lived in a shack with multiple characters visiting. Virtually the entire supporting cast, male and female, human or non-human, was played by the versatile Bob Newman. The character itself is more than 50 years old. J. P. Patches was created at NBC-affiliate WTCN by Daryl Laub. When he left for KSTP-TV, also in Minnesota, the character was taken over by Wedes. (Wedes was then an actor, DJ, and kids TV cook.) In 1958, Wedes moved to Seattle, to become the first floor director at KIRO-TV, bringing The J.P. Patches Show with him. (Laub, meanwhile, created T. N. Tatters at another station.) The show aired twice a day for 13 years, and once on Saturdays, for 8 more years just in the morning, and for the final two years only on Saturday morning. In total, an estimated 12,000 shows made the air, all of them live, with next to no budget. Wedes told the Everett Herald that: ""I'm still amazed at the longevity of the character. When I go on appearances, I get hugs, I get tears, I get laughter. The people are so in love with J.P. Patches. I can't believe it that it has hung on that long."" Businesses paid Wedes and the station to appear in character at grand openings, appeared at a Boeing Christmas party with an audience of 55,000, and appeared on Darigold milk containers, Sunbeam bread bags, and Dankens ice cream lids. Even still, the image has been licensed for bobble heads and an action figure. The book ""J.P. Patches: Northwest Icon"" was published in 2002. While the cartoons were airing, Wedes' Patches would greet guest children; the waiting list was for a while six months long. Children who stopped by include now-billionaire Bill Gates, and former Washington Governor Gary Locke. Celebrities appearing on the show included politicians, Olympic medalists, comedian Steve Allen, Burt ""Robin"" Ward of Batman, folk singer Tiny Tim, actress Debbie Reynolds, oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, and Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Some parents objected to KIRO-TV dropping the national series Captain Kangaroo, three years into its run, to put in Patches. A minor controversy erupted when a local newspaper photographed Wedes, being taken in an ambulance when involved in a car crash, not of his own fault. The official site reads that ""The picture distressed many local children and would remain an embarrassment to the local media if they actually had any shame."" There are still enough ""Patches Pals"", fans of the show, that a statue is planned for Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. To be completed this summer, the fundraiser is just $55,000 away from the $165,000 needed for the sculpture of Patches with Gertrude, the character's girlfriend. They've so far donated $110,000 of $165,000 to cast a bronze statue of J.P. Patches and his sidekick Gertrude to be placed in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. More money is still needed for the statue, being made by a Sultan sculptor and completed this summer. Any money raised that isn't needed for the statue, coordinated by the local chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, goes to the Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle; the statue itself will have a slot to collect money for the hospital. Billboards around the region track the fundraising progress. Wedes was diagnosed in October with a controllable but incurable blood cancer, ""acute myeloma"". He had to avoid public appearance until recently, due to the told of dialysis. He made seven county fair appearances in 2007, and 30 other gigs. Newman often joins him to perform, despite have multiple sclerosis for the past 20 years. The two will appear in ""An Evening With JP Patches & Gertrude: The Men Behind The Makeup"", April 5 at The 7th Street Theatre in Hoquiam." +entertainment,"Once you get a chance to talk to West Palm Beach, Florida native Whitney Cunningham, who placed seventh on the eighth cycle of the popular reality TV series America's Next Top Model, you begin to understand what host Tyra Banks meant when she described her as the ""full package."" First of all, she is confident and headstrong, which is a must on these kinds of shows, almost as much as it is to take a beautiful modelesque picture. Second, she turns that confidence into drive. She has been receiving steady work as a model since leaving the show, and still believes that her goal of being the first woman to wear a size ten dress on the cover of Vogue is in reach. Third, and probably most important to television viewers, she obliterates the age-old model stereotype that to be pretty and photograph well, one must also be vapid and without a thought. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Cunningham also dreams of becoming a writer, and is working toward dual goals: a model who can express herself like no other model before her. Cunningham recently sat down with Wikinews reporter Mike Halterman in an impassioned interview, taking hours to field questions from the reporter as well as from fans of America's Next Top Model. Always in high spirits, Cunningham shows that she is a distinct personality who has carved her own niche in the Top Model history books. At the same time, she exhibits a joie de vivre that is oddly reminiscent of earlier Top Model fan favorite Toccara Jones, who showed America just how to be ""big, black, beautiful and loving it."" However, Cunningham is quick to remind everyone that she isn't big at all; she is simply a regular woman. This is the first in a series of interviews with America's Next Top Model contestants. Interviews will be published sporadically. :Whitney was going to be interviewed with fellow Top Model contestant Keenyah Hill, but the interviews were ultimately done separately. Whitney and Keenyah, both based in New York City, chitchat before the interview about the restaurant where Keenyah works. Keenyah wonders if Whitney has ever eaten there, and to Keenyah's surprise, Whitney has. They make plans to keep in touch after the interview. Whitney's interview followed later. Mike Halterman: So, who were the people you looked up to and inspired you to pursue modeling? :Whitney Cunningham: You know modeling was something that I was always interested in, but I would have to say that modeling was not an interest of mine that took a priority over my other interests. I've always been a basketball player and someone who was serious about academic achievement so I looked up to people who were eminent in those areas&mdash;i.e., Cheryl Miller and Maya Angelou. I would have to say that Tyra Banks was probably someone I always revered because she has always been such a trailblazer and that is a huge quality and characteristic I strive for in myself. MH: Did you follow America's Next Top Model before appearing on the show, and if so, who did you like? :WC: Who didn't follow Top Model! I was a Top Model fiend in the first couple of cycles it was on the air. I loved Yaya because she was the educated chocolate ""sista"" who was much like myself. MH: If you could quickly summarize your experience on the show, how would you describe it? :WC: It was an absolutely memorable experience that I wouldn't change for anything in the world. Not too many people can they say that they've been a participant on a television series that has literally changed the face of popular culture in America and in countries worldwide. MH: What do your friends and family think of your stint on reality TV? :WC: I think everyone was really excited for me. I think their general sentiments are that it's cool to see someone that you know inside and out be put on display for the whole world to see. I know there were times where I would make certain faces or have certain reactions and they would always say, ""I know exactly what you were thinking."" MH: What were some of your specific pros and cons as a result of entering this contest? :WC: On the pro side, I would have to say that the exposure is incredible. I couldn't imagine how I would have been propelled into the industry so quickly if I hadn't been on the show. On the con side, I'm not exactly sure what the show's impression is on the fashion industry. I try to always remain positive, though. I, personally, have definitely used the show to my advantage as best I know how. MH: Do you ever fear what negative effect the show will have on girls? :WC: I said before that ANTM has changed the face of popular culture in America and beyond and I'll say it again. We're living in a ""Top Model Era."" Every girl, woman, boy and man wants to be a model now. But everyone cannot be a model. Modeling is not just an ""easy"" way to bring in the big bucks. It takes hard work, dedication, some hustle, and it's not meant for everyone. I kind of feel like ANTM is selling a false dream for a lot of folks out there. MH: Do you think that in some way the show can lead to girls developing an obsession with how they look, their weight, etc? :WC: I have to say no on this one. I applaud the show for their consistent efforts to try to show their viewers that beauty comes in all shapes, forms, sizes, colors, and creeds. I think that it has actually had a profoundly positive effect on the folks who watch. I can't tell you how many people stop me on the street or e-mail me just to thank me for being a role model and showing the world that very thing. MH: Did Tyra encourage a certain standard among the girls (weight or otherwise) that was unhealthy? :WC: Not at all. I think that viewers think that we have a whole lot more interaction with Tyra than we actually do. We only really saw her during panel and during our ""interventions."" laughs MH: Do you think Tyra still believes her show is about finding ""the next top model"" even though none of the show's winners have had that success? :WC: laughs That is a phenomenal question. I don't think that the show gives its winners enough time to reign. The show puts out two cycles a year. While one cycle is airing, they are taping another and apparently the show is scheduled to continue until 2010! I think it was about finding a ""Top Model"" during the show's beginnings, but I think that über-success of the show has turned it into a profit-driven production. I just wish that the show would put more time and cultivation into their winners even after their cycle's conclusions. And I truly think that the show would see a return on cultivating their winners, because the show's credibility would increase. MH: A fan wrote in to ask, ""What struggles did you face on the show as a plus sized model?"" :WC: I think that my biggest struggle was realizing that plus sized models and straight sized models are apples and oranges...I couldn't study magazines and try to develop my poses, because a woman who weighs 110 pounds and is 5'10"" looks completely different when she shapes and curves her body than a woman who is 5'10"" and weighs 175 pounds. I, therefore, had to figure things out as I went along. The other girls had a reference/vantage point to learn from. I'm still figuring things out. MH: Do you think it was unfair for Tyra to ask that studying magazines and developing your poses of you and Diana, considering that even though she's fuller-figured now, she has a lot more experience under her belt than you two did? :WC: Well, you know, I would say that it would have been fair if there were magazines for us to study! But there were none. That's why I think that it's so important that publications like Plus Model Magazine continue to blossom and flourish. I've learned more reading that magazine and getting to know the folks who write for that magazine than I ever learned about being a plus-sized model on ANTM. P.S. I'll be gracing the cover of that magazine in January of '08. Look out for me. MH: It sounds like you're doing just fine for yourself. Which one fan also asked, ""Have you faced adversity about your weight since being on the show?"" :WC: Adversity?! Absolutely not. I don't think people understand that I am a regular woman. I wear a size ten for God's sake. It's so funny because people come up to me and they say, ""Wow, you're not fat at all? You must have lost a lot of weight."" I think I just came off looking heavier on TV...that, or people just had a distorted perception of what I should look like in person. As a matter of fact I'm about 10 pounds heavier than I was on the show now and people can't believe how ""normal"" I look. But that was my aim in going on the show, that a normal woman can actually have a place in the industry. She doesn't have to be a size 2 nor does she have to be a size 18. MH: Another fan writes: Do you feel like ""plus size"" models are treated fairly? (I put ""plus size"" in quotes because I don't believe you are ""plus size""!) :WC: No, I don't. I don't think that plus-sized models are given enough respect and I don't think that folks value the plus-sized industry the way it should be valued. But I think it's because people don't know how much the plus-sized industry varies. Hell, Kim Kardashian could be considered a plus-sized model! But people automatically assume that plus-sized means obese and that no one who is obese could possibly be attractive, or sexy, or a model. But that's not the case. MH: Do you believe the producers for shows such as Top Model intentionally pick people who are perhaps unstable, for better television? :WC: Absolutely. I understand it, though. When I have my own production/entertainment company and I'm brainstorming ideas for a show, or a book, or a commercial, etc., I'll think of what sort of concepts will accrue me the largest profit. The producers of Top Model think along the same lines. Mass consumers want to see stuff that's juicy! They don't want to watch boring characters every Wednesday night. They want someone who's fun and out of the ordinary. MH: Can you explain what types of things the producers allow you to say or not say following your departure from the show? :WC: Well, the show is not taped live, so of course you're sworn to secrecy about what's happened during taping until the show actually airs. MH: Who selects your best photo for each panel and do you think there are ulterior motives involved? :WC: Tyra says she selects the photos, but who knows. I don't know about ulterior motives, but there were numerous times where I knew that I had taken a better photo than the one that appeared on the screen during panel. Every season girls say the same thing as well. It's interesting because in the last photo shoot I had before I was eliminated, Mr. Jay told me that I had finally figured out the art of modeling and I have successfully pulled off my shoot. Needless to say, I was eliminated and never saw it coming. I figured it was smooth sailing since the director of the photo shoot told me I looked like I knew what I was doing. It is what it is though. What can I say? MH: How did they decide who was going to read the Tyra Mail for the episode? Was it random, planned, or was it really who 'discovered' the note each morning? :WC: It's definitely whoever discovered the note. Contrary to popular belief, the show isn't really scripted, planned, etc. MH: Were you forced to fake your excitement over Tyra Mail? :WC: We weren't forced to do anything, but I think that we all knew what our ""expected"" reactions were to the Tyra Mail readings. We had all seen the show, we all knew what the girls acted like when Tyra Mail was read, so we basically just kind of did the same thing. It's supposed to be an exciting moment, you know? MH: Do you still keep in touch with girls from your cycle? If so, who? :WC: Most definitely. I probably have hung out with Jaslene the most since we both live in New York together and that was my girl from the beginning. Diana and I still keep in touch. I still speak to Felicia every now and then, and Kathleen and I have been out on the town (she doesn't know it yet, but she's my new hairdresser too. That girl has got a fierce weave game.) MH: What were the pressures like in the house? :WC: I actually felt like the house was my refuge. It was home! It was where I could go and let my hair down, go to sleep, read a book, call my friends and family, etc. Some of the girls might say they hated it in the house, but I was really cool with mostly all of the girls so the house was somewhere I knew I could be and just be Whitney. MH: Is it common for agencies or clients to contact you after seeing the show? :WC: No way. Models come a dime a dozen. Established modeling agencies have no reason to go out and chase girls. I'd say it's more common for companies to contact girls about making special appearances, but not modeling agencies. It's up to you to go out and find a modeling agency. MH: And do you get contacted from the guest designers that appeared on your cycle? :WC: I, personally, never have. MH: A fan really wanted to know, ""Was Dionne as funny as she was on the show?"" :WC: Dionne was really quiet and reserved. I was actually surprised to see how comedic she came off during her interviews. MH: How did you feel when Dionne and Renee only got T-shirts as a prize for winning the acting challenge? :WC: Like I was the luckiest person in the world for winning the laser beam challenge. laughs MH: There were a lot of negative reactions from fans when Jaslene won. Do you think she was the best choice? If so, why? If not, who would have been the better choice and why? :WC: Oh, my God, negative reactions? Are you kidding? Jaslene was, without a doubt, the best model at the time on the show. The only possible negative reaction I could think of is that she's so thin. And what people don't know is that Jaslene could give me a run for my money in eating. laughs She's just naturally built the way she is. MH: Some negative fan reactions were ""How could Jaslene sell a product when she can't speak English well?"" and ""Model? She's not even pretty! She looks like a man!"" Which, I wish I was making it up, but it's a rather loud fan voice on those points. What do you say to them about that? And following on that, do you think fans can be excessively cruel toward the contestants? :WC: Those ""fans"" can kiss my ___. She is from Puerto Rico and represents all that America is&mdash;a large nation made up of a multitude of people from different backgrounds and places. And Jaslene is beautiful as are we all. And yes, I do believe that the fans can be excessively cruel. I don't even consider those folks fans though. They're people who have nothing else better to do with themselves than sit around and bash reality TV contestants on anonymous blog sites. MH: You and Diana were some of the only models in this cycle who were working toward a college degree. Did you feel that you were smarter than the other girls? Did people at your college watch Top Model to see you and root for you? :WC: Smarter? laughs I don't like that term because I'm an honest believer in the fact that people are all relatively smart, just in different things. I would say that I was well versed in certain areas that others were not, but that doesn't mean I'm smarter per se. And yes, folks at my school definitely watched the show. I got really positive feedback! They said I represented well. MH: And on that note, a fan wanted to know if you finished your degree at Dartmouth. :WC: Yes. MH: This past May, right? :WC: I walked in June. MH: Do you plan on moving back to Florida, or are you going to continue living in New York City? :WC: I'm definitely going to continue to live in New York for a while. I need to be where the industry is. MH: Apart from your spread in Plus Model Magazine, what else are you doing now? :WC: I'm modeling, working on my motivational speaking tour entitled ""Embrace Yourself"" (look out for me coming to a college near you in the Spring of '08), acting, and writing for a couple of magazines. MH: What is your message to the girls of America who have big dreams of their own? What would you tell them? :WC: My life's motto...If someone tells you that you can't, prove them wrong and show the world that you can." +entertainment,"The Toronto International Film Festival rages on in Canada, as various companies and celebrities host parties. One of the largest so far was eTalk Star! Schmooze hosted at the former CHUM-City Building in the Queen West neighbourhood of Toronto. Wikinews sent freelance photographer Robin Wong to this star-studded event, which included the casts of many of the movies being played at the festival. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Duff 1.jpg|Hilary Duff poses on the red carpet, after performing at the event. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Aaron Ashmore.jpg|Aaron Ashmore, who appears in Stone Angel. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Ben Mulroney.jpg|Ben Mulroney, one of the broadcast's hosts. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Canadian Idol.jpg|Canadian Idol finalists Jaydee Bixby and Brian Melo dropped by. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Colm Feore.jpg|Canadian film star Colm Feore, who's set to appear in 24 next season, here with his wife. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Carly Pope.jpg|Carly Pope, one of the stars of Young People Fucking. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze the cast of Young People Fucking.jpg|More of the Young People Fucking cast. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Sophia Milos.jpg|Sofia Milos, from the cast of CSI: Miami. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Rebecca Hardy.jpg|Rebecca Hardy, winner of Canada's Next Top Model. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Kevin Zegers.jpg|Best known for his role in Transamerica, Kevin Zegers appears in three films at the festival. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Cassie Steele Mike Loebol.jpg|Mike Loebel and Cassie Steele, stars of the Toronto filmed Degrassi: The Next Generation. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze George Stroumboulopoulos.jpg|George Stroumboulopoulos, host of CBC talk show The Hour. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Zack Werner.jpg|Music producer Zack Werner, a judge on Canadian Idol. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Rick Mercer.jpg|Comedian Rick Mercer, host of The Rick Mercer Report. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Designer Guys.jpg|The Designer Guys, who will host a talk show on the CBC early next year. Image:Robin Wong TIFF Schmooze Jully Black.jpg|Jully Black, a commentator for eTalk Daily. The second day of the festival didn't stop there. Toronto's Design Exchange museum and education centre hosted a party for the movie ""Michael Clayton"", for which George Clooney was scheduled. Earlier in the day, Sienna and Savannah Miller launched their new twenty8twelve fashion label at the Holt Renfrew department store, a classy, upscale Canadian chain. Tonight actress/singer Hilary Duff is scheduled to host a party at the club This is London. CTV will host an afterparty for Matt Damon's documentary Running the Sahara, and some of his Oceans co-stars are expected, including Clooney. Wyclef Jean and the African runners featured in the film are also on the guest list. A One x One Benefit at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts will see Matt Damon, Richard Gere, and Shakira. Gere scrambled up to Toronto today after appearing live on Good Morning America and Live with Regis and Kelly. A 2002 study by the Toronto International Film Festival Group found that the event brings CDN$67 million to the Toronto economy. With stars dropping CDN$5000 a night on a room at the Four Seasons Toronto, or $10K on a dinner at Bistro 990, the numbers quickly begin to explain themselves. Distributors spend $30 million on purchasing films for release at the fest, one of the top numbers worldwide." +entertainment,"A memorial service has taken place for Australian actor Heath Ledger, who died January 22 in New York. Hollywood celebrities and many other loyal fans bid farewell to the well known actor. His death has been deemed accidental by the New York City Medical Examiner and was attributed to a toxic mixture of prescription drugs and pain killers. The star died in his Manhattan apartment last month. The service was held at Penrhos College in Perth, Australia and was attended by over 100 people, although the actual funeral was only attended by Ledger's close family. Before the funeral, Heath's father, Kim Ledger, said that ""the funeral will be very, very private and there will only be 10 people there, immediate family and nobody else."" In addition to family, the memorial service was attended by actors and actresses who have worked with Ledger, including Cate Blanchett who starred with Ledger in the Bob Dylan bio-flick, I'm Not There. Blanchett spoke of the times she shared with Ledger in New York and Los Angeles. The Other speakers included his parents, sister and Neil Armfield, a director of Ledger's last Australian film, Candy. An emotional Williams, was wearing dark glasses and a white dress with black trim, she was not accompanied by her daughter Matilda. Williams walked in clutching the arm of Ledger's older sister, Kate. Williams issued a statement following Ledger's death saying, ""My heart is broken. I am the mother of the most tender-hearted, high-spirited, beautiful little girl who is the spitting image of her father. All that I can cling to is his presence inside her that reveals itself every day."" The Ledger family asked the media not to visit the funeral because they claim they will find it easier to cope without the media present. Ledger's father said, ""It's a pretty sad time. We're finding it difficult to cope by ourselves, let alone cope with everybody around the world."" He continued, however, by saying that the family does, ""really appreciate the outpouring and the emotional support from all over the globe."" Ledger starred in the 2005 movie Brokeback Mountain which earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actor. It was on the set of Brokeback Mountain where he met Michelle Williams and their relationship began. He additionally starred in the 2000 movie The Patriot with Mel Gibson." +entertainment,"This week the United Kingdom's Ofcom ruled that ITV2 ""breached standards"" with a repeat of The Montel Williams Show in which Pam and Craig Akers asked ""psychic"" Sylvia Browne where their son, Shawn Hornbeck, was. Browne told the Akers their son was dead and his body ""was in a wooded area near two boulders,"" but he was later found alive in January 2007. As a result, Browne and Montel Williams not only received heavy criticism for the failed prediction, but the airing of the show in the U.K. concerned ""breaching rule 2.1 of the Broadcasting Code, which relates to protecting viewers against offensive material."" The program distributors removed the episode from their stock and apologized for any offense to the public. Ofcom also concluded ""that a demonstration of the paranormal in this case could result in participants acting on information that could be harmful to them and the Hornbecks could have stopped searching for their child, for example.""" +entertainment,"Singer and song writer Lady Gaga has warned her fans attending concerts about ""hateful"" protests that are set to take place during a concert she will be having tonight in St. Louis, Missouri. The Westboro Baptist Church will be protesting outside the venue during her concert. Gaga warned of these protests on her Twitter page. ""At the risk of drawing attention to a hateful organization, I would like to make my little monster fan sic aware of a protest being held outside the Monsterball in St.Louis tonight. Although we have had protesters before, as well as fundamentalists at the show this group of protesters are hate criminals and preach using lude sic and violent language and imagery that I wish I could protect you all from."" The Church, based in Topeka, Kansas and not affiliated with any Baptist organization, had planned to protest at Gaga's prior concerts held in St. Louis. The most recent protest was scheduled in January and was later canceled prior to the concert. According to Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokesperson for the church, ""God hates homosexuals and God hates fags and God hates whore Gaga,"" which is why the group plans a protest at tonight's concert. ""So when she gets up there and tries to hook God with that thing He calls an abomination; if you love what God hates, then God hates you,"" said Phelps-Roper in January. According to the church's website, the protest begins at 7:10 p.m. and lasts until 8:00 p.m.. ""Now what type of wicked hypocrites would we be if we did not warn this little false prophetess and all of her over-indulged sycophants that they are each one, individually heading straight to hell in a gender-confused, self-loathing, tone-deaf hand basket and that a gift from the God they hate? So, we made a couple of songs just for this event,"" said their website. Gaga tells her fans to not listen to the group. ""My request to all little monsters and public authority is to pay these hate criminals no mind. Do not interact with them, or try to fight. Do not respond to any of their provocation. Don't waste your words, or feelings, no matter what you hear or see. You are more fortunate and blessed than they are, and in your heart just pray for them. Be inspired to ignore their ignorant message, and feel gratitude in your heart that you are not burdened or addicted to hate, as they are."" The Church plans two other protests at her concerts in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on July 20 and Kansas City, Missouri on August 3." +entertainment,"American Gothic doom metal band Type O Negative have announced details of their upcoming tour of the United States. The supporting act for the entire tour is confirmed to be Lordi, a Finnish melodic hard rock band known for their monster costumes and lyrical themes. The tour is spread across fifteen dates, and is in support of Type O Negative's new album, Dead Again. The album is the band's seventh, and reached number seven on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the magazine's Top Independent Album's chart. ""Spacing the records far apart is how you achieve diverse results,"" said a statement by keyboardist Josh Silver. ""When you're forced to write an album every year or eight months, you haven't changed - you're still the same asshole you were eight months ago. We've been different assholes every record. We've retained our identity through all the changes."" The dates announced for the tour are as follows: * October 12 New Haven, Connecticut - Toad's Place * October 13 Worcester, Massachusetts - The Palladium * October 14 Clifton Park, New York - Northern Lights * October 16 Allentown, Pennsylvania - Crocodile Rock Café * October 17 Buffalo, New York - Town Ballroom * October 20 Milwaukee, - Wisconsin The Eagle's Club * October 21 Chicago, Illinois - The Vic * October 23 Knoxville, Tennessee - Blue Cats * October 24 Atlanta, Georgia - The Masquerade * October 25 Asheville, North Carolina - The Orange Peel * October 26 Louisville, Kentucky - Headliner's Music Hall * October 27 Detroit, Michigan - Harpo's * October 29 New York, New York - The Fillmore @ Irving Plaza * October 30 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Trocadero * October 31 Sayreville, New Jersey - Starland Ballroom" +entertainment,"Turkey Kara Sabahat Members of Irish rock band U2 took a walk on Istanbul's famous Bosphorus Bridge connecting Europe and Asia on Sunday, accompanied by Turkish ministers Egemen Bağış and Hayati Yazıcı. Lead singer Bono gave a speech during the trip. ""Last September I was asking, what would be the most inspiring thing about Istanbul? And I said you know, Bağış, it is the bridge between the East and the West, Europe and Asia, the secular and the religious. It is very important. And then you suggested 'maybe would you like to walk on the bridge? Would you like to play a concert?' And I said a walk will be much easier than a concert. Now I am not so sure."" U2 have also met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Dolmabahçe Palace before their concert at Atatürk Olympic Stadium as part of the U2 360° Tour. They presented him a red iPod nano." +entertainment,"The future of the artsy Trio channel became increasingly grim Saturday as satellite TV giant DirecTV dropped the fledgling network from its national channel lineup. When DirectTV programmers threw the off switch at 6 a.m. eastern standard time Jan. 1, Trio, an NBC Universal-owned cable television channel, lost two-thirds of its 20 million household subscribers. The channel's remaining 8 million subscribers may not give it enough audience to ensure its survival, according to some experts. The network received critical acclaim for a quirky lineup that includes the series, Brilliant But Cancelled, which took American broadcast networks, including parent NBC, to task for cancelling quality programs. Trio originally got its start in the 1980s as a Canadian cable channel owned by the CBC. Its original slate was described as ""a general entertainment channel that features the most successful contemporary dramas, documentaries and films from Canada, the UK and Australia. For the last six years, TRIO has been the largest exporter of Canadian TV programs to the US with over 3,000 hours of content,"" according to CBC press releases. The channel's Canadian roots were cut in 2000 when media mogul Barry Diller snapped up Trio and sister channel News World International from the CBC and partner Power Corp. for $155 million in cash. Diller saw the channel as a cheap consolation prize after he was outbid by NBC for the Bravo cable network earlier that year. Within months, Diller rebranded Trio, dumped the Canadian dramas and geared it more toward edgier pop culture programming. Over the next couple of years, Trio changed hands twice. First to Vivendi Universal, then to NBC in a package deal that landed the American TV network a movie studio and the USA and SCI FI cable networks. Trio was seen as more of an afterthought at the time. In a hint of what may be the fate of the channel, NBC Universal moved most of Trio's executive and programming staff over to Bravo, a now-sibling network, which is seen in 80 million U.S. homes. Some experts predict that Trio will eventually be folded with its more successful programming ported over to Bravo. ""Trio was a refreshing oasis on the dial, with a quirky pop-culture attitude that showed in its programming. Trio leaving is kind of like having a witty friend move out of town,"" Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, MSNBC television critic said in her weekly column. ""It'll be missed."" NBC Universal has not commented publicly on the long-term future or specific plans for Trio channel besides to say it was committed to programming the network for current subscribers as the conglomerate re-evaluates its digital cable strategy." +entertainment,"The 22nd Fan Expo Canada took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre this weekend, attracting thousands to the event, one of the most popular in North America. Crossing between the genres of science fiction, horror, anime, fantasy and comics, the event sprawled throughout all corners of the facility. Hundreds of vendors offered products new and old, joined by celebrity guests like Stan Lee, Mark Hamill, and Margaret Atwood. Various local fan organizations were there in a charitable capacity, and thousands of fans donned costumes, many of which they themselves created. Atwood, a Booker Prize-winner, was there to launch her graphic novel Angel Catbird, with illustrator Johnnie Christmas. Lee was making his final Canadian convention appearance, part of a larger farewell tour. Hamill's schedule included a panel with Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman in Batman: The Animated Series, in which the Star Wars lead played the Joker. Ubisoft, Microsoft, and PlayStation VR all had large areas set up for attendees to try their latest games. In the 20-minute PlayStation VR demonstration of Batman: Arkham VR, players are dropped down a secret elevator in Bruce Wayne's manor, to the Bat Cave, to suit up. From there, the demonstration took players to investigate the murder of Nightwing. The Northern Arena Esports Championship ran throughout the weekend, facing off teams of video gamers in a packed hall. Even in early rounds, the event was well attended, with the stands full of gamers, watching the matches with live colour commentary. The finals saw US team Cloud9 and Immortals, from Brazil, face off in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Both unbeaten teams going in, the Brazillian team won the championship and $50,000. Gameplay was delayed during the ""third map"" (third round) of the finals, when one Immortals player was caught with their headset off. After nearly half an hour, the team was deducted a point, leading to a sudden but temporary rush of success by the US team. The Canadian garrison of 501st Legion returned with their setup of photo-ops, with proceeds to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Volunteer organization Comic Corps of Canada collects donations of comics, to distribute to children and youth in the hospital. Along with collecting comics on-site, the group was fundraising through raffles and button sales. Other charitable fan-based groups included The Ontario Ghostbusters, Doctor Who Society of Canada, and Klingon Assault Group. Fan Expo Canada 2016 Comic Corps of Canada Brampton Spider-Gwen and Symbiote spidey IMG 0139.jpg|Brampton Spider-Gwen and Symbiote Spidey pose at the Comic Corps booth. Nick Moreau Fan Expo Canada 2016 501st Battalion IMG 0140.jpg|A showdown at the 501st Legion booth. Nick Moreau Fan Expo Canada 2016 501st Battalion IMG 0143.jpg|Successful Stormtroopers share a high-five. Nick Moreau Nick Moreau The thousands of cosplay outfits on parade around the various halls offered a tremendous cross-section of genres and eras of pop culture. The majority of outfits involved at least some elements made from scratch, a fantastic display of craftsmanship. Of the thousands, Wikinews spoke with a cosplayer going by the name ""The Katherinator"". She was outside the building in the gardens, waiting for a photographer she had arranged to shoot her new Epic Mickey costumed character-style outfit. With shoes as wide as a forearm, and a rigid torso of carved foam, she remained exuberant even when caught in the traffic between halls, many hours into wearing the outfit. Disney Superheroes Anime Video games, movies, and more" +entertainment,"Local authorities in Chicago, Illinois, United States have asked that the FBI help in the murder and kidnap investigation of the relatives of singer and Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Hudson. On Friday, Hudson's Mother Darnell Donerson, 57 and brother, Jason, 29, were shot and killed in the Southern Chicago home in what authorities are calling a domestic dispute. A cousin had found the bodies at around 2:44 p.m. (CDT) and called 9-1-1. Hudson's nephew, 7-year-old Julian King, was kidnapped from the scene and has not been seen since. An AMBER Alert was issued and police are looking for a 1994 white Chevrolet Suburban or a teal-green Chrysler Concorde. King's mother, Julia Hudson, who was previously reported missing, is pleading for whoever has her son, to release him. ""I don't care who you are, just let the baby go. I just want my son. He don't deserve this. We're in a state of shock. I don't know what else to do but pray,"" said Hudson during a press conference on Saturday. The FBI was called in because authorities suspected King might have been taken over state lines. Police have detained and questioned several people, and some reports say that includes William Balfour, who police previous thought to have kidnapped King. Reports say he is Julia's ex-boyfriend, having since been separated. Police deny that he is a suspect in either the murders or kidnapping and will not confirm or deny if he is or was in custody. So far no charges have been filed against anyone for the crimes." +entertainment,"film Music documentary The Wrecking Crew received its commercial première Friday, screening in cinemas in Los Angeles and New York via Magnolia Pictures. Two decades in the making, Denny Tedesco's documentary observes and honours a group of session musicians collectively known as ""The Wrecking Crew"". Tedesco explained he was moved to begin the documentary when he learned his father, guitarist Tommy Tedesco, had cancer in 1996. ""When they said he had a year to live &mdash; and I always wanted to do this story about The Wrecking Crew &mdash; my concern was, if I don't do it, it's going to be the biggest regret of my life"". Tedesco commented on his anticipation of audiences' reaction at Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles, ""People say, 'aren't you tired of watching it?' I say, 'I don't watch it, I watch the crowd'."" The documentary showcases interviews with the late Tommy Tedesco, guitarist Glen Campbell, drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer, bassist Carol Kaye, and others, amongst the roughly 30 musicians that formed The Wrecking Crew's loose roster. Cher, Nancy Sinatra, and Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys are also seen talking about the session artists. The movie includes home footage of Tommy Tedesco, and photographs of The Wrecking Crew working in studios with artists Frank and Nancy Sinatra. Originally completed in 2008, and screened at several festivals, the commercial release was delayed until recently as Tedesco needed to raise money to cover licensing costs of the one hundred and ten songs included in the film. Tedesco explained: ""We had a $750,000 bill before we could even release this film theatrically, so no-one was touching us. We still had this thing around our neck. Documentaries don't sell, and music docs are the worst."" Tedesco described reaching out to sponsors to pay off publishers and labels to get the film into cinemas. ""Every time I got money from a donation, I'd pay off a label or publisher."" A Kickstarter campaign raised $300,000, which paid for licensing and session artists. Billboard reports the money was able to go towards the creation of outtakes for a future DVD. Tedesco said he wanted to keep outtakes of the interviews he conducted that didn't make it into the movie. ""I want to do outtakes of every musician, a lot of whom aren't in the movie... Who are they? What did they do? I want to give everyone their say."" The Wrecking Crew worked behind the scenes throughout the 50s, 60s, and 70s with well-know bands and artists on memorable tracks such as Sonny and Cher, ""I got you Babe""; Beach Boys, ""California Girls""; Elvis Presley's, ""A Little Less Conversation""; and The Ronettes, ""Be my Baby"". Aside from the interviews, the documentary also includes footage of The Wrecking Crew, filmed by Hal Blaine. He dubbed himself a director as he joked around with the other musicians. ""I had a camera, and I took it to work and I became a director of sorts. And I'd tell people like Tommy, 'Hey, Tommy, do me a favour. I'm going to take a film of you. Just come walking into the studio, and all of a sudden pretend you've walked into a great big orgy going on here. There's all these naked women and guys.' And we're laughing about it. I did that with Glenn Campbell, all the guys"", Blaine said." +politics,"The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal in Malaysia has found former President of the United States George W. Bush and seven prominent former colleagues guilty of war crimes. Though the tribunal has no authority to detain the convicted or enforce its verdict, it recommended payment of reparations to detainees from Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib who testified before the court, and recommended they take the matter to a suitable court for enforcement. While largely symbolic, the tribunal plans to submit its findings to the International Criminal Court and the United Nations Security Council. In addition to Bush, the court also found complicit his Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee, and John Yoo. Legal advisors for Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld were also convicted. The court heard Iraqi engineer Abbas Abid testify about removal of his fingernails by pliers. Ali Shalal recalled being made to stand on a box whilst hooded, with wires attached to him, and whilst hanging from a wall. Mozzam Begg explained how he was beaten, and Jameelah Hameedi described being stripped, and being used as a human shield. Witnesses described lasting effects." +politics,"Politics and conflicts South Korea held joint military exercises with the United States on Monday on Yeonpyeong Island, which was shelled by North Korea last month. North Korea had warned of an ""unpredictable self-defensive blow"" if the exercises went ahead, but the country did not retaliate, saying it was ""not worth"" attacking, despite ""reckless provocations"" from the South. The United Nations Security Council held an eight hour emergency meeting as tensions escalated on the Korean peninsula before the exercises began. The controversial issue divided opinion within the council; China and Russia both asked South Korea to call off the exercise over fears it could start a war on the peninsula, but the US supported its ally, saying the drills were ""fully consistent with South Korea's legal right to self defence"". Officials in Pyongyang had threatened a ""catastrophe"" if the exercises, taking place on an island close to the border with the North, went ahead. They did not attack the South, however; state media quoted a North Korean military official as saying: ""The world should properly know who is the true champion of peace and who is the real provocateur of a war."" South Korea had said they would retaliate ""immediately and sternly"" to any attack from the North. South Korean officials reported the drills, involving K9 Thunder guns and F-15K fighter aircraft, lasted less than two hours. During the drill, civilians on Yeonpyeong Island moved into air-raid shelters, which, the BBC reported, was part of the planned procedure for the exercise. Yeonpyeong Island, which, although controlled by the South, is visible from the North, and came under attack from the North last month. Nearly 200 rounds of artillery were fired at the island in the attack; four people were killed and another 14 were injured in the attack. At the time of the attack, the South had been holding annual military exercises with the US. Troops on the island returned fire, firing nearly 80 rounds of artillery, but no damage was reported on the North Korean side." +politics,"In anticipation of a Security Council vote on trying alleged Darfur war criminals at the International Criminal Court, Sudan announced today it would reject any United Nations resolution that required war crimes suspects to be tried abroad. The resolution before the UNSC was drafted by the French delegation, and is expected to be voted on this week. Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said, ""Any resolution that is going to include the taking of a Sudanese &mdash; whether he is a rebel or government official &mdash; outside the Sudan: we are totally against it."" In contrast, some rebel groups are in favor of the resolution. Tajeddin Nyam, of the rebel group ""Justice and Equality of Movement,"" said he thought the resolution would contribute to peace. Perhaps in an effort to avoid such extradition, Sudan has begun arresting officials in relation to human rights abuses in Darfur. Government officials announced that 15 members of the military and security forces in Darfur had been arrested this week, and were to be sent immediately to local courts. The region of Darfur has been the center of civil strife for over two years, during which time tens of thousands of people in the black African population have been killed, and many more wounded or abused, by government-supported Arab militias. It has often been suggested that this qualifies as genocide, and that Darfur is enduring the world's most severe and localized abuse of civil rights." +politics,"OntarioProvincialElection2007Daniel Kidd is running for the Family Coalition Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Don Valley West riding. Wikinews' Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign. Kidd did not answer multiple questions. Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents. Why have you chosen to involve yourself in the political process? Why did you choose to run in this constituency? : I am running in this election because I believe strongly in the need for Christian ethics to inform the political decisions of our society. By running in this campaign, I seek to bring about a better future for Ontarians. A strong family, built on a strong marriage between a man and a woman, is the most important unit in our society and we must strive to protect this foundational institution. : I chose this riding because there was already a candidate in my home riding and I am seeking to give Ontario voters a choice to have a principled voice in legislature. What should be the first order of business in the 39th Legislative Assembly? : I would make every effort to raise the issue of the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, and strengthening the family in our society. How can the province lead the way in stimulating job creation? : As a province, we should be reducing the level of tax burden on our businesses and encourage the free market system. Also we should reduce the red tape necessary to recognize the credentials of immigrants which would provide a boost to our technology sector. What are your views on the mixed member proportional representation (MMP) referendum? : I strongly support MMP. It provides a electoral system where the power is not concentrated with a party that did not receive a corresponding level of voter support. With MMP the legislature will truly represent the views of Ontarians as a whole and not just the those who voted for the political party in power. What role, if any, does ""new media"" play in your campaign, and the campaign of your party? (websites, blogs, Facebook, YouTube videos, etc) Do you view it as beneficial, or a challenge? : We do our best to use e-mail and web-based means of communication... as well as You-Tube, Party Website." +politics,"The magazine Free Inquiry, issued in Buffalo, New York and published by the Center for Inquiry, is to publish some of the Islam's Prophet Muhammad cartoons. These cartoons were originally published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, causing waves of violence and protests among Muslims worldwide. Tom Flynn, editor of the secular magazine, said that he was only acting alongside several European papers that reprinted the cartoons ""demonstrating a commitment to free expression and a free press."" He commented further that ""no religious teaching, community, or institution should be held immune from criticism simply because of its religious nature."" Three articles will be published alongside the cartoons. In the first, Flynn will trace the controversy and explain the magazine's decision to publish them. A second, by R. Joseph Hoffmann, director of the Council for Secular Humanism's Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, will present further commentary; the last will be on the history of the Prophet Muhammad. Four of the original twelve cartoons are to be published: the image of Muhammad wearing a bomb with its fuse lit as a turban, another claimed to show horns coming out of the Prophet's turban, Muhammad or an Imam greeting suicide bombers in heaven, and one showing a male face on a Muslim with Islam's star and crescent. Flynn said this last cartoon ""is included as an example of how the collection's less sharply focused entries fell flat."" Arif Desai, Imam of the Islamic Society of Niagara Frontier in Amherst, New York, said that the Muslim community felt sorrow over the magazine's decision to publish the cartoons. ""We feel sorrow, we feel hurt and insulted as these are very disturbing, insulting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Obviously, we know and believe in freedom of speech, but along with freedom of speech comes responsibility,"" said Desai. The cartoons will be published next week on March 15, 2006." +politics,"The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) issued a statement today, congratulating Senator Christopher Dodd for his support of environmental issues. Dodd has made a large ad buy in Iowa and New Hampshire for a spot talking about his commitment to the issues. It is the first television ad by a candidate during the campaign to discuss global warming. LCV President Gene Karpinski stated: The League of Conservation Voters applauds Senator Chris Dodd for making global warming a focal point of his campaign. Not only has Senator Dodd outlined an ambitious plan to curb global warming - he is also the first presidential candidate ever to release an ad focusing solely on this key issue. More and more Americans want our next President to address global warming and propose bold solutions to this challenge. Senator Dodd is helping to remind America that our president has the power to stop global warming — it's in their hands. We look forward to seeing the debate on this issue continue to advance in the coming months. On January 11, 2007, Dodd announced his Presidential candidacy on the now canceled Imus in the Morning radio show. The head of the New Hampshire Democratic party said Dodd told her that he wasn't ""going to do the exploratory thing, I'm going to plunge right in."" LCV's mission is to ""advocate for sound environmental policies and to elect pro-environmental candidates who will adopt and implement such policies."" Dodd is currently a senator for Connecticut." +politics,"North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Su-hon has asked the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to stop providing food aid in the country. Claiming a good harvest provided the country with sufficient food, and that the US was politicizing the aid issue, the formal request to end all humanitarian aid was made to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at a meeting on September 21. The WFP has been feeding approximately six million of the poorest and most needy in the reclusive communist state. There is much concern its withdrawal will leave many without adequate aid. 2005-09-23 Neighbouring countries, including China and South Korea, will continue to supply food aid to the North Koreans; however, the donors do not manage this aid and international organisations are unable to determine that it is reaching those who need it. The request for the WFP's withdrawal is suspected by some to be related to the ongoing talks about the nuclear program of North Korea; continued acceptance of aid is seen as a weakness that may influence their negotiating position." +politics,"War in Georgia (2008) As the parliament of Georgia voted to approve closing the nation's embassy in Moscow and severing diplomatic ties with Russia, officials in the breakaway territory of South Ossetia are stating that their ultimate goal is not independence, but to be absorbed into Russia. Znaur Gassiyev, the speaker in the parliament of South Ossetia, said today in Tskhinvali, the capital, that the region will be annexed by Russia ""in several years"" or earlier. He further went on that this was the position of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity, who met earlier this week to discuss the future of South Ossetia. Ultimately, South Ossetia would be joined with the Russian federal subject of North Ossetia-Alania. ""We will live in one united Russian state,"" Tarzan Kokoiti, one of Gassiyev's deputies, said. However, a Russian government spokesperson said there was ""no official information"" on the talks. The Vice Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Gigi Tsereteli, warned the areas, which are ""autonomous republics"" within Georgia, that absorption into Russia would ultimately destroy them as territorial entities. ""The regimes of Abkhazia and South Ossetia should think about the fact that if they become part of Russia, they will be assimilated and in this way they will disappear,"" Tsereteli said. On August 26, Russia voted to diplomatically recognize South Ossetia, as well as other another semi-autonomous region of Georgia, Abkhazia. So far, no other member of the United Nations has recognized these republics. ""We found ourselves in an awkward situation when a country militarily invading and occupying our country, then recognizing part of its territories, is trying to create a sense of normalcy,"" Georgian Foreign Minister Ekaterine Tkeshelashvili said while in Sweden. ""Breaking off diplomatic relations with Tbilisi is not Moscow's choice, and the responsibility lies with Tbilisi,"" Andrei Nesterenko, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said. Russia's efforts to get other nations to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states hit a snag when the People's Republic of China and other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation balked at recognition. Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, said that he supports the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but did not say if Venezuela formally recognises the republics. ""Russia has recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. We support Russia. Russia is right and is defending its interests,"" Chavez said. Russia and South Ossetia continue to work on an agreement to install permanent Russian military bases in the breakaway territory. The agreement is scheduled to be signed on September 2. Russian military forces continue to occupy nominal Georgian territory in defiance of the European Union-brokered ceasefire agreement." +politics,"Syria A riot in a prison located in the Syrian city of Damascus has resulted in 25 deaths, according to reports provided by human rights groups. Military police fired into the rioters, who were protesting against alleged violence by prison guards against prisoners. Prisoners have claimed that they have been routinely beaten by guards. One prisoner said that, ""they the guards shackled our hands behind us, confiscated our clothes and possessions, and beat us. And they insulted the Koran, they trod on the Koran."" The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights strongly criticized the Syrian government's reaction to the incident in a statement released yesterday: ""The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights demands that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad intervenes immediately to stop this massacre."" Some of the prisoners have claimed that they have taken hundreds of hostages in order to increase the pressure placed on the Syrian government to respond to the prisoner guards' actions." +politics,"IsraelA 2-minute siren wail which began in Israel at 10 a.m. Thursday marked the beginning of Yom HaShoah, the country's Holocaust Remembrance Day. Israelis across the nation paused their daily activities for a moment of silence in memory of the six million Jews murdered by Nazis in the Holocaust during World War II. Drivers turned off their vehicles and stood at attention in the middle of the road, and pedestrians stopped and bowed their heads. Names of victims were read aloud in the Knesset, the legislature of Israel. Individuals laid wreaths at a memorial for the Warsaw Ghetto uprising at Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust. National ceremonies began at Yad Vashem on Wednesday evening, with the lighting of a flame by a Holocaust survivor. In all six torches were lit, in memory of the six million Jews who died during the Holocaust. Approximately 270,000 survivors of the Holocaust live in Israel today, 80,000 of whom survived Nazi death camps. Entertainment venues, theaters, and movie cinemas closed shop at sundown Wednesday. Television stations and radio programming focused on memorial of the Holocaust. Memorial events end at sunset on Thursday, and will be followed one week later by the 60th anniversary of the declaration of independence of Israel in 1948, known as Yom Ha'atzmaut. 4=Shimon Peres Shimon Peres, Israel's President, spoke at Yad Vashem, and compared the potential danger which Israel says is posed by Iran's nuclear program, to that faced by Jews during the Holocaust. ""In history, it is forbidden to be late,"" said Peres, saying that the world reacted too late to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. ""My heart shudders when I recall that there was a possibility that Hitler could acquire nuclear weapons. A leader who plans mass destruction, together with weapons of mass destruction. What would have been left of our world?"" asked Peres. Aides later stated that Peres was referring to Iran. Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also referred to Iran in his remarks at Yad Vashem. ""You wish to deny the right of existence of the Jewish state, and you are wrong to believe that the Jewish state was created only due to the Holocaust. The Holocaust only underscored the necessity of its creation and the horrible price that the Jewish people had to pay for the lack of existence of a state that can shelter them,"" said Olmert. Other speakers at Yad Vashem emphasized the importance of the Israel Defense Forces, Israel's military forces, to prevent tragedies such as the Holocaust in the future. 4=Gabi Ashkenazi Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, military chief of staff of Israel, led an annual march of Jewish youths, Poles and survivors at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, in a memorial ceremony called The March of the Living. Auschwitz-Birkenau operated as a Nazi death camp during the Holocaust. 12,000 people gathered from 52 countries to take part in the memorial ceremony. The largest march took place in 2005, and former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon joined with 20,000 people. ""... in these days, as we celebrate 60 years of independence, the fact that an independent Jewish state exists is not something to be taken for granted. Even today, we hear the horrible sounds of those who call for the destruction of the state of Israel. Even today we are forced to continue and fight for our right to have a national home in a safe place for the Jewish people in their own land. We have learned our lesson and we take very seriously the threats of state leaders who call for the destruction of Israel,"" said Ashkenazi. Hamas television Thursday suggested that the Holocaust was organized by Jews to wipe out the disabled among their own people to prepare for the creation of a Jewish state. ""The Israeli Holocaust - the whole thing was a joke, and part of the perfect show that (Zionist leader and future Israeli prime minister) Ben Gurion put on,"" said head of the Palestinian Centre for Strategic Research Amin Dabur, according to Jerusalem-based Palestinian Media Watch. Dabur said that the ""young energetic and able"" went to Israel, and that those who were disabled were sent ""so there would be a Holocaust"". Though Iran has said that its nuclear program is peaceful in nature, the United States, Israel, and other countries believe it is attempting to construct nuclear weapons. In speeches Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that the Jewish state should be destroyed. Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust ""a myth"". Tehran hosted a revisionist Holocaust conference in 2006, which provoked international criticism. Tel Aviv University published a study on Monday saying that acts of anti-Semitism in 2007 increased by about seven percent over 2006." +politics,"PalestineAmidst ongoing Israeli bombings of Gaza, with the death toll of the bombardments up to 537 with another 2,500 people wounded, UN food agencies again warned that the people of Gaza are facing a heavy humanitarian crisis. ""The current situation in Gaza is appalling, and many basic food items are no longer available on the market,"" Said Christine van Nieuwenhuyse, the World Food Program's (WFP) representative in the Palestinian territory, in a statement that was released on Friday. ""This area ... is one of the poorest and most heavily affected by the recent conflict,"" she added. 4=Christine van Nieuwenhuyse, WFP representative WFP officials said that they have begun to give bread to 15,000 new recipients, a number which added to the already large group of people that had been lining up for bread after two years of Israeli blockades of Gaza, the most recent of which began in early November. The blockades, surely a catalyst for violent Hamas attacks, have been condemned by Human Rights Watch as a ""violation of international humanitarian law."" Struggling Gazan hospitals say that they are completely out of even the most basic medical supplies and have little or no capacity to deal with further casualties. In addition, Israeli ground forces entered Gaza on Saturday causing an immediate spike in casualties and even attacks on the hospitals and paramedics themselves. As sewage runs through the streets, many Gazans are trying to flee the area by storming the border with Egypt, a move which Egyptian police blocked on Sunday and are planning to do so again today as Egyptian leaders ordered their policemen to open fire on Gazans trying to flee into Egypt. Hasan Khalaf, Gaza's assistant deputy health minister, described the ongoing assault on Gaza as ""an Israeli massacre"". ""There is no comparison between what we have and what Israel are doing to us. The international community are standing unable to help us, and yet we know they have been helping Israel for tens of years.""" +politics,"Somalia On Saturday, May 19, a ship chartered by the United Nations' (UN) World Food Programme (WFP), came under attack off the coast of Somalia after making a delivery in Merca. Two speedboats with armed guards were sent out to intercept the attack. One of these men was killed. The ship which was headed to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, did not fall into the hands of the pirates. Since the attack, WFP has suspended deliveries by ship. Shipping is the main and fastest way of getting food relief into Somalia. This comes just days after WFP announced that it was stepping up food deliveries. ""This attack underscores the growing problem of piracy off Somalia which, if unresolved, will sever the main artery of food assistance to the country – and to the people who rely on it for their survival,"" said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the WFP in a news release. ""Unless action is taken now, not only will our supply lines be cut, but also those of other aid agencies working in various parts of Somalia."" ""WFP is very saddened and alarmed by the death of the guard, who showed great courage while the ship came under attack. We send our sincere condolences to his family,"" she continued. ""We urge key nations to do their utmost to address this plague of piracy, which is now threatening our ability to feed one million Somalis."" 4=Josette Sheeran, WFP ""We are not taking any risks after being victims four times. We planned to go to Somali this week but following Saturday's incident our ship will not sail,"" said Karim Kudrat who owns MV Rozen, which was hijacked in February and released forty days later upon payment of ransom. The United States Navy's Maritime Liaison Office (MARLO) in Bahrain has issued a warning, advising all ships to stay at least 200 nautical miles (NM) off the coast of Somalia. This month alone, four ships have been hijacked by pirates and three of them are still being held. Two of the ships, South Korean fishing trawlers, were boarded some 210 NM off the coast, which is outside of Somalia's Exclusive Economic Zone. Scores of crewmembers remain hostages. The sailors are said to be from China, India, Vietnam and South Korea. ""Attacks have sprung up again because we believe there is no government in place to control the militants ... when the Islamists were in power there were no attacks,"" Cyrus Moday, a senior analyst at the International Maritime Bureau told Reuters. An anonymous maritime security expert told BBC News: ""We have evidence that the pirates have a main contact in Puntland and it's up to the interim government in Somalia to track and arrest the contact for taking part in an illegal syndicate."" “In the hope of enriching themselves, these pirates are very cruelly playing with the lives of the most vulnerable women and children who had to leave their homes because of fighting. We appeal to the Somali authorities to act to stop these pirates before they cause more misery both to the crews of hijacked ships and to the people who rely on WFP food for their survival,” Peter Goossens, director of WFP Somalia, said. Alleged pirates sometimes call themselves coast guards, claiming to protect Somali waters from polluters and illegal fishing." +politics,"United Nations On Tuesday, Riyad Mansour, Palestine's ambassador to the United Nations, confirmed Palestine would preside next year over the UN's G-77 bloc of developing countries. While speaking to The New York Times, Mansour said, ""We will be negotiating on behalf of 135 countries"". Formed in 1964, Group of 77 now represents about 80% of the world population. Palestine is expected to take over presiding for 2019 in January. Currently, the presiding nation is Egypt. Palestine is an observer non-member state of the UN. In 2012, Israel and its ally the United States opposed promoting Palestine to ""observer"" status, and in 2015 both countries also opposed allowing Palestine to fly their flag at the UN. Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon criticised Palestine's presiding, saying, ""The goal of the Group of 77 originally was to facilitate the economic advancement of underdeveloped nations ... It is unfortunate that it will now become a platform for spreading lies and incitement. This will not promote the G-77's goals, and encourages the Palestinians to not engage in negotiations for peace.""" +politics,"PakistanPakistan's Supreme Court yesterday criticised official handling of the murder of politician Benazir Bhutto. Since her death, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which she led, has gained control of the nation. A number of high-profile politicians are suspects in the killing but nobody has been convicted. Bhutto's former protocol minister Chaudhry Aslam petitioned the court to ensure a new First Information Report (FIR) was issued against a number of suspects, allowing them to be investigated. Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry The court approved his request and questioned the PPP's opposition to a new FIR. It also questioned Aslam's failure to approach the court earlier. Twelve suspects are named, including ex-President Pervez Musharraf, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, ex-Intelligence Bureau director general Ijaz Shah, former acting Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz and ex-Chief Minister of Punjab Pervaiz Elahi. The court further asked all suspects to relinquish positions of authority. ""How can a sub-inspector have enough courage to probe someone at the helm of affairs?"" asked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, sitting on a bench of three alongside Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain. They said a fair investigation could not be carried out as long as suspects were in power. The court also had questions concerning a report into the murder compiled by the United Nations: ""Why did the government not publish the UN Commission report on which Rs60 million of the taxpayers' money was spent? Why have no steps been taken in the light of the report? Why was the murder of an internationally acclaimed leader not been taken up in the assemblies and relevant parliamentary forums?"" Interior Minister Malik, named on the new FIR, and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, another PPP minister, had opposed another FIR. Malik had claimed it was needless as other suspects had been charged. The court rejected this, saying the implication was the case should therefore cease to be heard. Malik's lawyer sought a week to for his client to lodge a reply, to which Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry retorted ""You want to create obstacles in the proceedings? How much longer do you want to linger?"", adding Malik should appear in person before the court. The Benazir Bhutto case is back before the Supreme Court on April 24." +politics,"IranAt a press conference held Wednesday in Paris, France, Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi called on Iran to release Silva Harotonian, an Iranian citizen working for a United States aid agency. Saberi was jailed in Iran on charges of spying, and prior to her release shared a cell with Harotonian. Harotonian was working on a healthcare project for the organization International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). She was convicted of attempting to initiate a revolution, and received a sentence in January of three years in jail. 4=Roxana Saberi ""By arresting people like her, certain hardliners have created an atmosphere of fear within Iranian society that anyone who has practically any contact with foreigners... would be accused of acting against national security,"" said Saberi at the press conference. She spoke of Harotonian, saying ""She gave me a lot of strength."" Saberi was joined in her efforts on behalf of her former cellmate by International Federation for the League of Human Rights president Karim Lahidji, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran coordinator Hadi Ghaemi, and IREX president Robert Pearson. Saberi has dual-citizenship as an Iranian-American, and she grew up in Fargo, North Dakota. She lived in Iran for six years while working as a journalist for news media organizations including the BBC. On January 31, four members of the Ministry of Intelligence and National Security of Iran took her from her home to face charges of spying for the United States. She was convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail, however this was reduced to a suspended sentence of two years. After returning to the United States, Saberi met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton." +politics,"Same-sex marriage in Australia The Australian Democrats deputy leader, Senator Andrew Bartlett moved in the Australian Senate a bill to amend the Marriage Act to provide for same-sex marriages. Senator Bartlett's second reading speech which was incorporated into the Hansard described that the bill ""reverses the Marriage Amendment Act 2004...which...changed the definition to that of a union between one man and one woman only"", and refuted arguments against same-sex marriage proposed by some conservative Government senators. Bartlett continued to say that ""We do not want to send the message that discrimination is acceptable in Australia"" to our children, or to other nations."" The federal Government is opposed to civil unions. In an interview on June 8, Prime Minister John Howard said, ""I don’t see it in any way as discriminating against homosexuals, it’s not, it’s designed to preserve the special status of marriage in our community and that’s what it’s all about."" Debate on the bill will occur at a later date. A bill proposed later in the sitting day by the Australian Greens to stop the Governor-General disallowing ACT state law establishing civil unions failed, by a majority of two votes." +politics,"Ntfonjeni Dlamini, the government's official overseer of traditional affairs, beat one of the princesses of Swaziland. A daughter of HM King Mswati III, 17-year-old Princess Sikhanyiso was throwing a party with loud music and alcohol. The party was to celebrate the end of the chastity decree. ""It was within the traditional overseer's right to discipline anyone — including princesses — who wanted to spoil the important Reed Dance ceremony,"" claimed Jim Gama, governor of the queen mother's residence. The Reed Dance ceremony is an annual ritual in the culture. Princess Sikhanyiso had already caused ire around Swaziland, as she broke traditions by wearing Western-style short skirts and jeans." +politics,"During the opening day of the 61st annual UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Iranian President Ahmadinejad used his address to challenge the effectiveness of the UN Security Council. ""Can a council in which they Britain are privileged members address their violations? Has this ever happened?"" President Ahmadinejad asked the assembly. ""In fact we have repeatedly seen the reverse."" ""The persistence of some hegemonic powers in imposing their exclusionist policies on international decision making mechanisms, including the Security Council, has resulted in a growing mistrust in global public opinion, undermining the credibility and effectiveness of this most universal system of collective security,"" President Ahmadinejad said. The US President Bush address earlier on Tuesday spoke both to the assembly and the world Islamic population. ""Freedom, by its nature, cannot be imposed &mdash; it must be chosen. From Beirut to Baghdad, people are making the choice for freedom. And the nations gathered in this chamber must make a choice, as well: Will we support the moderates and reformers who are working for change across the Middle East &mdash; or will we yield the future to the terrorists and extremists?"" President Bush asked. ""My country desires peace. Extremists in your midst spread propaganda claiming that the West is engaged in a war against Islam. This propaganda is false and its purpose is to confuse you and justify acts of terror,"" said President Bush. ""We must seek stability through a free and just Middle East where the extremists are marginalized by millions of citizens in control of their own destinies."" ""To the people of Iran,"" President Bush said, ""You deserve an opportunity to determine your own future, an economy that rewards your intelligence and your talents, and a society that allows you to fulfill your tremendous potential. The greatest obstacle to this future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and to use your nation's resources to fund terrorism, and fuel extremism, and pursue nuclear weapons."" President Ahmadinejad was not present for the mid-afternoon address by President Bush. Ahmadinejad also did not attend the UN's traditional banquet for visiting presidents, princes and prime ministers, where dignitaries have a chance to mix informally, because alcohol (the consumption of which is forbidden in Islam) was served at the banquet. The banquet this year was held in honor of UN Secretary Kofi Anan, who will step down after two consecutive 5-year terms ending December 31." +politics,"The largest class action in Victorian history was commenced at the Supreme Court of Victoria on Friday the 13th by Slidders Lawyers against electricity distribution company SP AusNet and the Brumby Government in relation to the Kilmore East fire that became part of the Kinglake complex. Because of the lawsuit, SP AusNet SPN.AX's shares on Monday have dropped more than 13.36 per cent or 14.5 cents, to an intra-day low of 94 cents, was at 98.5 cents at 10:38 a.m. local time, before recovering slightly to be 7.5 cents lower at A$1.01 by 1144 AEDT (0003 GMT) or 6.9 percent in Sydney trading. Shares in SP AusNet closed 3.7 percent lower at A$1.045 on Monday. Power supplier SP AusNet said it has asked the Victoria Court regarding the status of the class action proceedings saying the firm had insurance policies in place consistent with industry standards. ""SP AusNet will continue to update the market as further information becomes available,"" the company said. The claim has focused on alleged negligence by SP AusNet in its management of electricity infrastructure. It maintains most of the power lines in eastern Victoria. Its fallen power line is believed to have sparked the blaze that tore through Kinglake, Steels Creek, Strathewen, Humevale, and St Andrews. The plaintiffs include thousands of angry Kinglake farmers, small business owners, tourist operators and residents who lost homes. Leo Keane, the lead plaintiff in the class action has alleged ""SP AusNet owed a duty of care to landowners to operate and manage power lines in a way that limited the risk of damage from bushfires."" On Thursday Phoenix Taskforce had taken away a section of power line as well as a power pole from near Kilmore East, part of a two-kilometre section of line in Kilmore East that fell during strong winds and record heat about 11am last Saturday. It was believed to have started the fire there, since within minutes a nearby pine forest was ablaze, and within six hours the bushfire had almost obliterated nearly every building in the towns in its path. ""It is believed that the claim will be made on the basis of negligent management of power lines and infrastructure,"" Slidders Lawyers partner Daniel Oldham said. The law firm has announced it was helping landowners and leaseholders get compensation for the 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2009 bushfires. ""If you have been burnt by the recent bushfires, please register your interest using the form below as soon as possible,"" the law firm's website stated. The Insurance Council of Australia has placed the cost of the bushfires at about $500 million. ""That means keeping electricity lines clear of trees and in a condition that won't cause fires. They must also have systems in place to identify and prevent risks occurring,"" Melbourne barrister Tim Tobin, QC, said. According to the 2006 census, Kinglake had a population of almost 1,500 people. But SP AusNet's legal liability has been limited at $100 million under an agreement inked by the former Kennett government with private utility operators, when the former State Electricity Commission was privatized in 1995. Accordingly, the Brumby Government could be legally obliged to pay damages of the differences amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. SP AusNet Ltd said some of its electricity assets have been damaged by the Victoria bushfire. ""As a preliminary estimate, it is thought that damage has been sustained to approximately one per cent of SP AusNet’s electricity distribution network, mainly distribution poles, associated conductors and pole top transformers,"" SP AusNet said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). It explained that up to 6,000 homes and businesses on its network were without power due to bushfires, including the Kinglake complex fire, Beechworth fire, and fires across Gippsland including Churchill and Bunyip. SP AusNet said the firm will cooperate fully and will assist in any fire probe. ""We stand ready to assist the relevant authorities with their inquiries if it is necessary for us to do so now and in the coming months,"" SP Ausnet spokeswoman Louisa Graham said in a statement. ""Our priority is to restore power to fire-affected areas as quickly as possible. We believe the claim is premature and inappropriate ... SP AusNet will vigorously defend the claim. If the claim is pursued, SP AusNet advises that it has liability insurance which provides cover for bushfire liability. The company's bushfire mitigation and vegetation management programmes comply with state regulations and were audited annually by state agencies,"" Grahams explained. Victorian Auditor-General Rob Hulls said ""there was an 'unseemly rush' by some lawyers to sue before the cause of the fires had been fully investigated."" ""The government body had audited the network's bushfire risk to make sure required distances between power lines and vegetation were maintained. Power companies had been given a clean bill of health, and electricity firms were judged to be 'well prepared for the 2008-09 bushfire season.' There were no regulations applying to the distances between poles supporting electricity lines and spans of one kilometre were not unusual,"" a spokesman for Energy Safe Victoria explained. Christine Nixon, the 19th and current Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police said investigations into the cause of the bushfires were ongoing. ""I know people are angry, and so are all of us in this community. But we need to kind of have a sense that the proper processes are in place and we need to go through the investigation and through the court case,"" Nixon said. ""At this stage we are not able to confirm how it started. I understand there is some legal action that people are taking, but at this stage we're still investigating its cause. But the whole circumstances of that fire are part of our Taskforce Phoenix, and as we move through that we'll be able to tell the community more once we're able to confirm or deny what we think is the cause of these fires,"" Nixon added. On Thursday, two people were arrested in connection with the fires, having been observed by members of the public acting suspiciously in areas between Yea and Seymour; although they were both released without charges laid. Brendan Sokaluk, age 39, from Churchill in the Gippsland region, was arrested by police at 4pm on Thursday, in relation to the Churchill fires, and was questioned at the Morwell police station. He was charged on Friday with one count each of arson, intentionally lighting a bushfire and possession of child pornography. The arson case relates to 11 of the 21 deaths in the dire Gippsland fire, which devastated 39,000 hectares in the Latrobe Valley, Calignee, Hazelwood Koornalla and Jeeralang. Two teams of Churchill firefighters were almost lost in the inferno that remains out of control. Mr Sokaluk joined the CFA Churchill brigade in the late 1980s as a volunteer fire fighter, left in the 1990s and attempted to rejoin twice, but was rejected. He failed to appear in Melbourne Magistrate's Court Monday for a scheduled hearing, since the court reset the committal hearing on May 25. He is represented by lawyer Julian McMahon. Magistrate John Klestadt has lifted the suppression order which kept the suspect's identity a secret but identifying photographs were barred from being released. Mr Sokaluk was remanded in protective custody from Morwell to a cell in Melbourne for his own safety amid fears angry prisoners will target him and real risk of vigilante attacks. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years imprisonment if convicted on the arson charge. ""This is an extraordinary case. The level of emotion and anger and disgust that the alleged offenses have aroused in the community is unprecedented."" Mr Sokaluk's defense lawyer Helen Spowart argued. The prosecution has moved the Court for more time to prepare its case, saying there would be up to 200 witnesses to interview. Slater & Gordon has indicated that they were awaiting the report of the to-be-established Royal Commission, expected in late 2010, before initiating any claims. Armed with a $40 million budget, the Royal Commission's Chair Justice Bernard Teague will be assisted by former Commonwealth ombudsman Ron McLeod, who led the inquiry into the 2003 Canberra bushfires, and State Services Authority Commissioner Susan Pascoe. The Commission has said its interim report is due on August 17 while the final report will be submitted by July 31, 2010. Judge Bernard Teague has announced Tuesday he will meet with fire victims and fire authorities within the next two weeks. ""We want to do that as soon as possible - probably not next week but starting to have these discussions the week after,"" he said. Julia Eileen Gillard, the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and deputy leader of the federal Australian Labor Party (ALP) said the federal and Victorian governments would respond quickly to the royal commission's report. ""Everybody who has lived through this experience in Victoria and around the nation has asked the question: 'Why? What can we do better?'. No one wanted to see the report ""as a book on a shelf gathering dust,"" she said. Victoria bushfire experts, led by Forest Fire Victoria - a group of scientists and forestry experts - have condemned the government's ""Living with Fire"" policy and the state's failure to initiate serious fuel-reduction programs. The Victoria government had failed to seriously act on bushfire safety recommendations submitted last June by the Victorian Parliamentary Environment and Natural Resources Committee. As death toll rises, evidence mounts of lack of planning prior to Australia’s worst bushfire. ""Living with Fire"" policy means Kinglake fire trucks were dispatched to an earlier fire in Kilmore, leaving Kinglake undefended. ""Kinglake was left with no fire brigade and no police. The trucks had been sent to Kilmore. I've been in the fire brigade for 10 years. There was always a law—the trucks had to be on the hill. Because of the government we got gutted at Kinglake. They should have been getting generators ahead of the fire—so people would have had a chance of fighting it. As soon as the power went, I couldn't keep fighting the fire at my place,"" Rick and Lauren Watts, and their friend Neil Rao, spoke to the WSWS. Rick has also criticized the lack of early warning communications systems, since emergency siren warnings in the town had been stopped some years earlier. Humevale resident Sina Imbriano who has six children was angry about the failure of state and federal governments to set up a recommended telephone warning system amid its ""stay and defend or go"" policy. Bald Spur Road residents Greg Jackson and his wife Fotini said the government's ""stay and defend or go"" policy was ""fruitless"" since the critical issue was early warnings, but ""they the government just won't spend the money."" Also on Friday, five law firms from Victoria's Western Districts, including Warrnambool-based Maddens Lawyers and Brown & Proudfoot, held a meeting to discuss a potential class action in relation to the Horsham fire, which was also thought to have been started by fallen power pole that burnt vast swathes of land in Mudgegonga and Dederang, Victoria. The lawsuit will also focus on the fire that blackened about 1750 hectares at Coleraine. Maddens senior attorney Brendan Pendergast said: ""We don't know who the defendant is at this stage. We are unsure who the electrical supplier is for that area but we should know in a few days. There were people who had their homes burnt to the ground and they will need to reconstruct, replace their contents,"" he said. Maddens has initiated a register of affected landowners for the recent bushfires, saying the firm has included victims of the Pomborneit fire that burnt almost 1300 hectares in the proposed class action amid the CFA's statement the blaze could have been deliberately lit. Frances Esther ""Fran"" Bailey, Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives (1990-93 and 1996-present), representing the electorate of McEwen in Victoria said the Country Fire Authority (CFA) had told her one of the power lines had broken before the fire. ""The local CFA Country Fire Authority told me on that Saturday, with those very high winds, one of the lines had broken and was whipping against the ground and sparked,"" she said. ""Whether or not that is the cause of that terrible fire that actually took out Kinglake and maybe Marysville, the investigations will prove that, but we've got to do better,"" she added. Victorian Premier John Brumby said the power line claim would be examined as part of the Royal Commission into the bushfire. ""No stone will be left unturned. So, I think it's important the Royal Commission does its work. And, the Royal Commission will, of course, look at all of the factors with the fires,"" Mr Brumby said. At least 550 houses were incinerated and 100 people have been killed, leaving more than 1,000 homeless in the Kinglake bushfire and surrounding areas. SP AusNet - Singapore Power International Pte Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Power Limited (51% interest in SP AusNet). SP AusNet's electricity transmission and distribution networks, along with the gas distribution assets, enable it to deliver a full range of energy-related products and services to industrial and domestic customers in Victoria, Australia. Singapore Power ( 新加坡能源有限公司) is a company which provides electricity and gas transmission, distribution services, and market support services to more than a million customers in Singapore. As the only electricity company in Singapore, and also one of its largest corporation, SP was incorporated as a commercial entity in October 1995 to take over the electricity and gas businesses of the state provider, the Public Utilities Board. Since 1995, Temasek Holdings controls the entire company with a 100% stake. SP is involved in a major investment in Australia's Alinta in partnership with Babcock & Brown, after putting up a bid of A$13.9 billion (S$17 billion), beating out a rival bid by Macquarie Bank. The devastating 2009 Victorian Black Saturday bushfires, a series of more than 400 bushfires across Victoria on February 7 2009, is Australia's worst-ever bushfire disaster, claiming at least 200 deaths, including many young children, and is expected to pass 300. 100 victims have been admitted to hospitals across Victoria with burns, at least 20 in a critical condition, and 9 on life support or in intensive care. The fires have destroyed at least 1,834 homes and damaged many thousands more. Many towns north-east of Melbourne have been badly damaged or almost completely destroyed, including Kinglake, Marysville, Narbethong, Strathewen and Flowerdale. Over 500 people suffered fire-related injuries and more than 7,000 are homeless. It has scorched more than 1,500 square miles (3,900 square kilometers) of farms, forests and towns. The Supreme Court of Victoria is the superior court for the State of Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1852, it is a superior court of common law and equity, with unlimited jurisdiction within the state. Those courts lying below it include the County Court of Victoria, the Magistrates' Court of Victoria and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (which is technically not a court, but serves a judicial function). Above it lies the High Court of Australia. This places it around the middle of the Australian court hierarchy." +politics,"The head of the Melo Commission announced they had recommended that retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. and other commanders be ""held responsible for the extrajudicial killings in their respective areas during their tours of duty"". Melo commission, formed in August 2006 by the president to look into the spate of politically related killings after local and international clamor, submitted the 89-page report of the commission to the president last week but the findings have not yet been made public. Retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo said holding military commanders responsible for extrajudicial killings was one of the recommendations in the final report. Melo reportedly said the investigation of the four-member panel showed that “majority of the victims were leftist-activist-militants” and that the suspected assailants belonged to the military. He clarified though that they ""don’t want to tag the whole military establishment"", adding that ""only elements of the military who were allowed to do their thing without supervision from higher officers."" He attributed ""some of the killings to politicians, some to the security guards of landlords,"" but Melo pointed to the military elements for majority of the killings. Earlier, another member of the commission, Butuan City Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, on Saturday said the military was involved in some attacks of leftists. ""We have identified that there are killings really perpetuated by the military,"" he said. He remarked that the Melo Commission has recommended to President Arroyo that military commanders be held criminally liable if one of their subordinates were found guilty of political murders. ""We are suggesting the criminalization of the command responsibility in order to put more teeth in the aspect of peace and to stop the killings,"" the Bishop said. Commission head Melo also confirmed, report said, that among those mentioned in the fact-finding report was Palparan, who retired in September 2006. Leftist groups had labeled Palparan “berdugo” (butcher) for the spate of killings during his tenure as commander in Mindoro, Samar, and Nueva Ecija provinces. ""He has said he inspired them. You can hook the fish through the mouth,” Melo said, referring to a media interview given by Palparan where he admitted he had ""inspired"" some people to ""punish"" suspected communist New People’s Army rebels who had committed crimes in their communities. Palparan was one of four military officials who testified before the commission. They were the only witnesses who responded to the commission’s summonses. Leftist groups and families of victims had boycotted the hearings of the commission, saying it lacked credibility and independence. For his part, Jovito Palparan admitted on Monday that some soldiers could be involved in extrajudicial killings of left-wing activists. ""It's possible,"" Palparan was heard saying in a radio interview, noting that ""some soldiers are victims so it's not surprising that some get angry because it's their lives on the line."" Meanwhile, human rights group Karapatan called on the Melo Commission on Monday to recommend punishment for the masterminds and perpetrators of extrajudicial killings, which, it said, mostly came from the military. Dorris Cuario, secretary general of regional chapter of Karapatan in Southern Tagalog, said the initial report of the commission was not enough to solve the unabated political killings in the country. Southern Tagalog covers the province of Mindoro where Palparan's assignment as military commander coincided with escalation of human rights violations reportedly perpetrated by military elements. ""We hope the report is not just a facade of the commission to make people believe it was doing something,"" she said. Cuario challenged the Melo Commission ""to serve justice"" by demanding for the punishment not only of the low-ranking policemen and soldiers but also of AFP generals and even Ms. Arroyo, whom Cuario and other militant groups point to as the masterminds of the killings. Aside from Melo and Bishop de Dios Pueblos, the other commission members were National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Nestor Mantaring, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, and University of the Philippines Regent Nelia Gonzales." +politics,"LGBTNew York's governor David Paterson introduced a bill Thursday into the state legislature to legalize marriage between same-sex couples, although it appears to lack the necessary support in the state senate. 4=New York Governor David Paterson ""For too long, the gay and lesbian communities have been told their rights and freedoms have to wait"", said Gov. Paterson. ""The time has come to bring marriage equality to the State of New York."" The legislation would give same-sex couples 1,300 to 1,400 rights that don't exist unless a couple is married, he said. Of the four states in which same-sex marriage is presently legal &mdash; Vermont, Iowa, Massachusetts, and Connecticut &mdash; only Vermont has legalized marriage within the state legislature. The other three states have determined through the courts that the prohibition of same-sex marriage was not allowed under their state constitutions." +politics,"After an investigation of allegations that Islam's holy book the Qu'ran was mishandled in front of inmates at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Bush administration has acknowledged the credibility of some of these reports. According to Robert Burns of the Associated Press, U.S. military officials acknowledged that, ""a Muslim holy book was splashed with urine,"" and ""a detainee's Quran was deliberately kicked and another's was stepped on."" The US government first denied a specific report that the Qu'ran had been flushed down a toilet at the prison facility, but on Friday agreed that similar allegations were indeed true. On May 16, Newsweek magazine apologized to the victims of deadly riots that ensued due to a Newsweek article stating that U.S. officials defiled the Qur'an. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan criticized Newsweek's initial response to the incident, saying it was ""puzzling."" Later that day, Newsweek retracted the story, which the White House said was a ""good first step"". On May 20, the International Red Cross (IRC) revealed in a rare public announcement that it had documented and reported to the United States credible information concerning desecration of the Qur'an by Guantanamo Bay personnel. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, acknowledged that allegations were made on ""rare occasions"" but were uncorroborated. Simon Schorno, a Red Cross spokesman, disputed the Pentagon's denial saying, ""All information we received were corroborated allegations."" He added that, ""We certainly corroborated mentions of the events by detainees themselves,"" and that ""the ICRC considers such reports ""very seriously, and very carefully, and we document everything."" Scott McClellan explained in a press conference that the White House is not trying to tell Newsweek what to print. McClellan said, ""Look, this report caused serious damage to the image of the United States abroad. And Newsweek has said that they got it wrong. I think Newsweek recognizes the responsibility they have. We appreciate the step that they took by retracting the story. Now we would encourage them to move forward and do all that they can to help repair the damage that has been done by this report. And that's all I'm saying. But, no, you're absolutely right, it's not my position to get into telling people what they can and cannot report."" On May 25, Amnesty International called for the shutdown on Guantanamo Bay due to numerous human rights violations, saying ""The 'war on terror' appeared more effective in eroding international human rights principles than in countering international 'terrorism'."" Amnesty International's view was shared by both the International Red Cross (IRC) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The IRC has said it reported to the U.S. government detainee's reports of desecration of the Qur'an. In the foreword of the report, written by Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan, Guantanamo was compared to a Soviet-era gulag in that it is ""entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law"". White House spokesman Scott McClellan responded saying the report's allegations were ""ridiculous and unsupported by the facts. The United States is leading the way when it comes to protecting human rights and promoting human dignity. We have liberated 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have worked to advance freedom and democracy in the world so that people are governed under a rule of law and that there are... protections in place for minority rights, that women's rights are advanced so that women can fully participate in societies where now they cannot"", as well as supporting the fight against AIDS in Africa. About the allegations of abuse at Guantanamo, which McClellan has previously called isolated incidents, he said, ""We hold people accountable when there is abuse. We take steps to prevent it from happening again, and we do so in a very public way for the world to see that we lead by example, and that we do have values that we hold very dearly and believe in."" On May 31, U.S. President George W. Bush dismissed the human rights report as ""absurd"" for its harsh criticism of U.S. treatment of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying the allegations were made by prisoners ""who hate America."" ""It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world,"" Bush said of the Amnesty International report. William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, defended the report, saying, ""What is 'absurd' is President Bush's attempt to deny the deliberate policies of his administration."" and ""What is 'absurd' and indeed outrageous is the Bush administration's failure to undertake a full independent investigation"". Irene Khan also responded saying, ""The administration's response has been that our report is absurd, that our allegations have no basis, and our answer is very simple: if that is so, open up these detention centres, allow us and others to visit them."" And, on Friday, the U.S. military released the results of their investigation and confirmed that in 5 separate incidents, American guards at the Guantánamo Bay prison ""mishandled"" the Islamic holy book. However, they stress that guards were usually ""respectful"" of the Qur'an. One incident involved splashing a Koran with urine by urinating near an air vent while others involved kicking, stepping on and writing in Qur'ans. Brigadier-General Jay Hood, the commander of the jail, looked into the allegations, published and then retracted by Newsweek, that American personnel flushed a Qur'an down a toilet. He said that the inquiry did not find any evidence supporting this particular allegation. ""The inquiry found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Qur'an down a toilet. This matter is considered closed.""" +politics,"Texas Senate Bill 6 requires foster agencies to inquire of adopting couples their sexual preference. This bill has caused distress to many, especially among the gay and lesbian community. Representative Robert Talton claims that compared with children raised by a heterosexual couple, those in same-sex households are much more likely to become homosexual. Talton has also stated that sexual orientation is a choice for the parents: ""If they choose to be homosexual or lesbian, that's their choice when they turn 18,"" he says, regarding the same-sex couples. Under the bill he proposes, couples who answer 'same-sex' or 'bi-sexual' on the questionnaire, would not be allowed to adopt or foster children. Children fostered currently to same-sex households would be removed from their foster-parent's care. ""Some of us believe they would be better off in orphanages than in a homosexual or bisexual households because that's a learned behavior,"" the Republican congressman said. There are reportedly thousands of children in same-sex households in Texas who would be removed, if this bill is passed. ""It's very traumatic to remove a child from a stable home,"" said Colin Cunliff, field director for the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas. ""It's the whole reason they're in the foster system, because their prior home wasn't stable. You're adding to the instability."" According to a 2002 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics, children with homosexual parents have the ""same advantages and the same expectations for health, adjustment and development as children whose parents are heterosexual."" A similar law passed in Arkansas was ruled unconstitutional in December." +politics,"politics and conflicts On Monday Nigerian authorities raised the official death toll from January 17's airstrike upon a refugee camp to 236, though the BBC on Tuesday reported an official told them this was an error and the actual figure was 115. The military said at the time a jet mistook refugees for rebels. 4=Aid worker Alfred Davies The new toll updates previous estimates, which at the time of the incident were of at least 50 dead. The BBC on Tuesday reported an official told them the figure of 236 was erroneously reached by combining the numbers of dead and wounded. The camp in Rann, Borno State is home to thousands and lies near the northeastern border with Cameroon. Home to those displaced by Boko Haram insurgents, the camp is in an area suffering famine. Farmers are unable to work owing to bombs on their land. The Red Cross was there to distribute food when the attack happened. Twenty Nigerian Red Cross workers were injured or killed. Médecins Sans Frontières are treating the majority of the wounded in makeshift tents in Rann, which lacks hospital facilities. A small number have been evacuated to Maiduguri. Military officials said at the time the Air Force had been dispatched to Rann after reports of ""remnants"" of Boko Haram in the area. The military claims it is in a ""final push"" against the rebel group. A promised investigation has materialised in the form of a panel of Air Force officials, with orders to complete the probe by the end of next week. Human Rights Watch have called for compensation for victims. They say the military is not absolved of liability and suggest the camp's tents were obvious. Eyewitnesses say the aircraft circled twice, dropping multiple bombs, which appears corroborated by satellite imagery. President Muhammadu Buhari called it a ""regrettable operational mistake"" and has since departed for a holiday in London. Journalists are barred from the military-controlled camp. Officials claim all the dead in Rann have been buried, and two more died in hospital in Maiduguri. Most of those killed were women and children. Soldiers were also amongst those killed. Eyewitnesses claim two days after the disaster in excess of 100 Boko Haram militants attacked the camp, fighting with soldiers for hours. MSF field co-ordinator Alfred Davies said, ""There are no words to describe the chaos... I saw the bodies of children that had been cut in two."" MSF have called for ""a transparent account"" with the organisation's general director complaining refugees ""were bombed by those who were meant to safeguard them"". Some humanitarian groups have suggested the incident constitutes a war crime even as an accident, and Human Rights Watch is urging an independent probe. They say 35 structures were destroyed at two separate locations within the camp. ""We saw dozens of patients with multiple traumatic injuries, including open fractures and wounds to the abdomen and chest,"" said MSF doctor Mohammed Musoke. He described wounded children, including a crying baby with shrapnel in its neck and ""a 10-year-old boy with a large, deep flesh wound to his thigh. The flesh was hanging loose on one side and you could see through to the bone."" Survivor Baba, 37, a refugee, said military aircraft were not an uncommon sight but the attacking jet behaved abnormally. ""The plane flew back and forth, and we knew something was wrong before the bombing happened."" His remarks were released by MSF. Prior to the attacks camp residents had been starving, some dying from malnutrition. War and substandard infrastructure left Rann isolated, and the attack came as the Red Cross were about to distribute food they had just arrived with. The Red Cross say they have five weeks' worth of food. The International NGO Safety Organisation claims 2016 saw in excess of 90 aid workers killed worldwide, with 154 injured." +politics,"Libya The United Nations Security Council has approved the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya after a vote on Thursday evening. A meeting in New York City resulted in the approval of a resolution that would mark the beginning of ""all necessary measures short of an occupation force to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas"" in Libya. The vote on the measure passed with ten of the fifteen members of the Security Council in support and Russia, China, India, Germany and Brazil absenting. The resolution had been proposed by the United Kingdom, France and Lebanon. In his remarks introducing the measure before the Council, Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, said that ""we cannot let these warmongers do this, we cannot abandon civilians."" Air attacks on government forces in Libya could take place within hours, flown by the French and British air forces, after NATO meets to review plans for military action. In response to the vote, a statement aired on Libyan state TV said that ""any foreign military act against Libya will expose all air and maritime traffic in the Mediterranean Sea to danger, and civilian and military facilities will become targets of Libya's counterattack."" Libya's ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, also said that government troops planned to move against Benghazi Thursday night. ""No more fear, no more hesitation, the moment of truth has come. ... There will be no mercy. Our troops will be coming to Benghazi tonight."" The UK ambassador to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant, said after the vote that ""the international community has come together in deploring the actions of the Gaddafi regime and demanding that the regime end this violence against the Libyan people."" In Benghazi, rebels celebrated the passage of the resolution with fireworks after a live broadcast of the vote was shown on an outdoor projection." +politics,"One day after Maine became the fifth state in the United States to legalize same-sex marriage and Washington, D.C. passed a bill to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, televangelist Pat Robertson condemned the act of marriage between individuals of the same sex. On Thursday, Robertson compared its legalization to pedophilia, polygamy and child molestation while hosting the television show The 700 Club on the Christian Broadcasting Network. During the broadcast Robertson asked ""How can we rule that polygamy is illegal when you say that homosexual marriage is legal? What is it about polygamy that’s different? Well, polygamy was outlawed because it was considered immoral according to biblical standards. But if we take biblical standards away in homosexuality, what about the other? And what about bestiality and ultimately what about child molestation and pedophilia?"" Robertson then went on to query, ""How can we criminalize these things and at the same time have constitutional amendments allowing same-sex marriage among homosexuals. You mark my words, this is just the beginning in a long downward slide in relation to all the things that we consider to be abhorrent."" Robertson's comments come after the Council of the District of Columbia voted in favor to recognize same-sex marriages performed anywhere outside the District. The measure passed the council 12 votes for with 1 against. Congress has 30 days post-signing to either let it stand or veto. D.C. is not a state and Congress has oversight of the Council. ""To say 'well, I support domestic partnership or I support civil union' as a way to say 'I'm not that big a bigot,' and that's what it is,"" said David Catania, an openly gay member of the D.C. council. Robertson's comments have made headlines in the past. In August of 2005, Robertson called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, for which he apologized two days later. In January 2006, Robertson said that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was ""divine retribution"" for pulling Israelis out of the Gaza Strip." +politics,"2016 US Presidential Election United States Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders discussed his understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement on Monday. ""Many white people are not sensitive"", Sanders noted, speaking with magazine Ebony, ""to the kind of abuse that African-Americans, especially younger African-Americans, receive at the hands of police officers and police departments"". The Black Lives Matter activist movement protests police brutality against African Americans, and gained traction after the death of Michael Brown last year in Ferguson, Missouri. Sanders also recently admitted, speaking to magazine The New Yorker, that when the Black Lives Matter movement first came to light, he mishandled his dealings with them: ""I plead guilty — I should have been more sensitive at the beginning of this campaign to talk about this issue ... The issues these young people raised are enormously important"". Senator Sanders has had several incidents involving the group, including when they interrupted one of his rallies in Seattle in August. He said talking with members of the movement has helped him understand what the movement is about. Sanders has been strongly criticized for his previous treatment of the group, particularly when his campaign began to respond to interruption from the group by shouting ""we stand together"" repeatedly at them. The Senator for Vermont in his Ebony interview called the US criminal justice system ""broken"", saying, ""One of the ongoing crises in America is institutional racism""." +politics,"Iraq The Iraq Inquiry in London has revealed that United Kingdom justice secretary Jack Straw ignored the advice of Sir Michael Wood, the Foreign Office's most senior legal adviser until his resignation in 2006, that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was illegal under international law. This is the first time that Wood has publicly expressed an opinion on the war. Wood advised Straw, then Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, that invading Iraq without the backing of the United Nations Security Council in the form of a specific mandate—which the resolution the government used to support the war lacked—would ""amount to the crime of aggression"", to which Straw responded that he was being ""dogmatic and international law was pretty vague"". Wood disputes this, saying, ""Obviously there are some areas of international law that can be quite uncertain. This, however, turned exclusively on the interpretation of a specific text and it is one on which I think that international law was pretty clear."" source=Sir Michael Wood He says that it was unprecedented for the government to ignore his advice, and told the inquiry that he ""considered that the use of force against Iraq in March 2003 was contrary to international law,"" since the Security Council had not met to approve the use of force, nor to agree that Iraq was committing a ""material breach"" of existing disarmament resolutions. He believed that regime change was the reason for the British interest in the nation, and that it was not a valid reason for war. He told the inquiry, ""I made it clear that, in my view, the draft that they were working toward did not authorize the use of force without a further decision of the Security Council"". Recently declassified letters prove that Wood raised these concerns directly with Jack Straw. In one of these letters, dated January 24, 2003, Wood said that the ""UK cannot lawfully use force in Iraq in ensuring compliance"" with UN resolutions (including resolution 1441, which gave Saddam Hussein a ""final opportunity"" to comply with the UN's mandates on weapons of mass destruction by November 2002). In his reply, Straw ""noted"", but ""did not accept"" Wood's advice. Straw said he was ""as committed as anyone to international law and its obligations"". He also said that ""it is an uncertain field. In this case, the issue is an arguable one, capable of honestly and reasonably held differences of view."" He said he wanted a new UN resolution ""for political reasons"", but said that there was a ""strong case"" that existing resolutions would ""provide a sufficient basis in international law to justify military action"". Do you think the war in Iraq was illegal? Instead of following Wood's advice, government ministers used the advice of Lord Goldsmith, who was then the Attorney General for England and Wales. Goldsmith—who is scheduled to appear before the Inquiry this Wednesday—advised Straw that a second UN resolution would not be required to invade, based on a series of UN resolutions reaching back to the end of the Gulf War, despite having told the prime minister—only then days before—to wait for another UN resolution, the passing of which they had pushed other Security Council members for in the weeks running up to the invasion. Wood makes it clear, however, that the final decision regarding the legality of war lay with the Attorney General, rather than with himself. The inquiry, chaired by Sir John Chilcot, was told that there were concerns about how the decision was made among the Foreign Office's senior legal advisors. Elizabeth Wilmshurst, then Deputy Legal Adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, resigned in protest only days before the invasion. She criticised the decision-making process for its lack of transparency, and called it ""lamentable"". She also called the fact that Goldsmith gave his opinion only days before the invasion ""extraordinary"". source=Ed Davey Wood said that Straw had ""often been advised things were unlawful and gone ahead anyway and won in the courts"" when he was home secretary. Last week, Straw—when questioned by the inquiry—called the decision to support the war a ""profoundly difficult political and moral dilemma"", and said it was the ""most difficult"" decision of his entire career. Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Ed Davey called Wood's statement ""the final nail in the coffin of the case for a legal war."" He asks if the advice reached then prime minister Tony Blair or Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, ""And if not, why not?"" source=Gordon Brown Wood's statement is expected to cause problems for Tony Blair when he appears before the inquiry on Friday. The war has provoked protests, and much outrage among politicians who believe that Blair was wrong to support then United States President George W. Bush by sending 45,000 British soldiers—179 of whom died in combat—to fight in Iraq. The Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair, is due to appear before the inquiry on Friday, and Gordon Brown, the current prime minister, is scheduled before the general election (which is expected to occur in May). Brown said yesterday that he ""thinks the mistake in the war was not to do the reconstruction and plan it in the way that was necessary so that Iraq could recover quickly after Saddam Hussein fell,"" and is expected to come under fire from the inquiry, which he himself set up, for his role in the war." +politics,"France At least twelve people have been killed today in a shooting at the Paris offices of the satirical weekly French magazine Charlie Hebdo. Three men in hoods armed with Kalashnikov rifles entered the magazine's office in the 11th arrondissement and shot dead ten journalists and two police officers before making a getaway in a car driven by a fourth collaborator. Five people have been seriously injured in the attack. A member of the police said after leaving the scene the attackers drove to the northeastern suburbs of Paris where they abandoned their vehicle and hijacked another car. French police union Unité spokesman Rocco Contento said of the crime scene, ""it was a real butchery"". The French Government have raised the country's security level to the maximum. President François Hollande told reporters: ""This is a terrorist attack, there is no doubt about it"". The French news website 20minutes.fr is reporting one eyewitness claimed that as the attackers approached the magazine's office, they shouted: you say to the media that it is al-Qaeda in Yemen. Gérard Biard, the editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo, stated: ""I don't understand how people can attack a newspaper with heavy weapons. A newspaper is not a weapon of war."" The magazine recently posted a cartoon on Twitter depicting Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a leader of the Islamic State militant group. US President Barack Obama gave a statement condemning the attack: ""France is America's oldest ally, and has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States in the fight against terrorists who threaten our shared security and the world. Time and again, the French people have stood up for the universal values that generations of our people have defended."" Obama also said that the US would provide assistance ""to help bring these terrorists to justice"". British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: ""The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press."" The Arab League and the Cairo-based Al-Azhar University have also condemned the attack. In 2006, Charlie Hebdo ran the cartoons depicting Muhammad that originally appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. In 2011, it published another cartoon depiction of Muhammed subtitled ""Charia Hebdo"", a pun on sharia. The magazine's office was subsequently firebombed. Following the bombing, the magazine's website was hacked and death threats were made against their staff. The magazine responded by publishing on their front page an image showing both the remains of the magazine's offices and one of their cartoonists kissing a bearded Muslim man. The cover contained the headline Love is stronger than hate." +politics,"DOLike everything the government does, it does a miserable job of educating children and spends way too much doing so. Private competitive schools, perhaps funded by vouchers, would be better. Public school systems have way too many administrators and lack accountability. Teacher unions have the same adverse effect on education that government employee unions have on other government ""services."" Let's give parents choices by eliminating the monopolistic, union-controlled schools. Competition works and freedom works. As far as the UC University of California system, it is a massive overfunded boondoggle. Higher education has been protected from price competition for many decades. The more government subsidizes education, the higher the price charged for that education with the result that the students and their parents end up paying as much as before. The cost of education has increased far faster than inflation over the past several decades. From what I've seen and read, most university professors are grossly underworked. They need to spend more time teaching; there needs to be more innovation in teaching to keep the cost down (like online education, but certainly not limited to that). Many of the services provided to students at our universities are more baby-sitting than education. We need real competition in education and we need to privatize our public universities. Let people keep their tax money and use it to decide where to go to school. I propose we sell the UC system to private owners and let it compete." +politics,"President George W Bush has announced US emergency food shipments to Darfur, a province of Sudan. He has asked Congress to approve $225m in aid. Sudan and the biggest rebel group signed a peace deal last Friday to end the three year old civil war, claiming more than 200,000 lives. Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state will address the UN Security Council to help speed up the deployment of UN peacekeepers to the Darfur region. ""She's going to request a resolution that will accelerate the deployment of UN peacekeepers into Darfur,"" President Bush said. ""We're now working with the UN to identify countries that contribute those troops, so the peacekeeping effort will be robust."" The Government of Sudan had previously denied UN deployment. But, after the signing of the peace treaty, they have expressed their keenness on the deployment of UN peacekeepers. So far, there are around 7,000 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, but they have failed to play any significant role to control the violence in the region. They are facing a serious shortage of funds and man-power. It had been two months since any soldier in the peacekeeping forces were paid, Nigerian envoy to the African Union confirmed yesterday. Ambassador Sam Ibok, Nigerian envoy to the AU said, ""There have been some cash flow problems, but that has been resolved now and troops will be paid in the next week or so. "" Chad, Sudan's neighbouring state, welcomed the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement between the Sudanese government and the main faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement. Chad broke off diplomatic relations with Sudan on 14 April, a day after an attack on N’Djamena by rebel forces from Sudan. Also, Chad withdrew its delegation from African Union-brokered peace talks for Sudan’s troubled western Darfur region citing Sudanese aggression. Currently, there are more than 200,000 Darfur refugees. Foreign minister Ahmat Allami said, ""Chad welcomes the signing of the Abuja peace deal on Darfur between the warring Sudanese parties after a long period of negotiations."" Libya announced today that it would resume effort to normalize bilateral relations between Chad and Sudan. A Libyan official said a tripartite summit would be held soon." +politics,"Lawmakers in Massachusetts, located in the United States, have thrown out an amendment that would allow voters to vote for same-sex marriage, or against it in the 2008 general elections. ""Today's vote is not just a victory for marriage equality. It was a victory for equality itself,"" said Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick who voted against the amendment. President of the Massachusetts Family Institute Kristian Mineau, called the decision ""disappointing."" Fifty votes were needed to pass the amendment. Two hundred lawmakers sit on the state's session and in January voted for the amendment with 62 votes. In the recent session on Thursday, the amendment only received 45 support votes with 141 opposing the amendment, killing the measure until at least 2010. It would then require opponents of gay marriage to start from scratch, writing new petitions to the lawmakers, and then gaining the support of at least 50 of them, in at least two separate sessions. Same-sex marriages became legal in Massachusetts in 2004 after the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2003 the ban on gay marriage to be ""unconstitutional,"" and since then nearly 9,000 couples have gotten married there." +politics,"CanadaStephen Harper, Canada's Prime Minister, apologized on behalf of the Canadian Government for its role in the Indian Residential School System in front of Aboriginal Leaders, elders, and more than 1000 outside the Parliament Building. Harper proclaimed, ""The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history. Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country."" This apology was seen at more than 30 event around the country, and broadcast live on CBC Newsworld and CTV Newsnet. The residential school system was created based on the Gradual Civilization Act (1857) and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act (1869), which assumed the superiority of British Ways, prompting the need for Aboriginals to become ""civilized"" by becoming English-speakers, Christians, and farmers. The funding of the schools was provided by the Indian Act (1876) and by the federal government department, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, and operated with the support of churches, generally the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada. In the 1920s, attendance became compulsory for all children aged 6 to 15, and families who refused to cooperate were at risk of having the children removed by the government, and the parents sent to prison. The school systematically tried to destroy the aboriginal language and way of life, raising the idea of cultural genocide. Students were forbidden to speak their native languages, even outside the classroom, as to install the English or French language (and as result, to ""forget"" their native language), punishable by unreasonably severe corporal punishment. Practicing non-Christian faiths was also punishable by corporal punishment. In the late 1990s, allegations of sexual abuse, as well as several physical and psychological abuse, arose, leading to large monetary payments from the federal government and churches to former students. The government also established the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, providing $350 million to fund community-based healing projects, and provided another $40 million in 2005. On February 13, 2008, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a similar apology in the Australian House of Parliament. On June 21, 2008, Indian Residential School Museum of Canada is scheduled to open on Long Plain First Nation, near Portage La Prairie, Manitoba." +politics,"SudanTwo foreign aid workers have been reported kidnapped in the western Darfur region of Sudan. United Nations (UN) and African Union officials in Sudan stated that the two women were abducted at gunpoint from their camp in the town of Kutum. A Sudanese national was also abducted but released a short time later, according to officials. The aid workers were identified as Sharon Commins, 32, of Ireland and Hilda Kawuki, 42, of Uganda. Both work for the Irish humanitarian organization, GOAL. John O'Shea, a GOAL executive, indicated that the women were abducted by as many as six assailants. ""We don't know who took them,"" O'Shea told Reuters. ""There are so many splinter groups in the area you'd only be guessing."" He added that GOAL had not previously experienced a kidnapping. The kidnappers have not been identified and there have been no claims of responsibility reported thus far. There have been two other incidents of kidnapping of aid workers in Darfur since March of this year, but all victims were released within days to a few weeks." +politics,2006-05-07 The Report from The Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project -unreviewed +politics,"U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday presented the 2012 International Women of Courage Awards, marking the 101st anniversary of International Women's Day. The 2012 recipients were Maryam Durani, Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedo, Zin Mar Aung, Jineth Bedoya Lima, Hana Elhebshi, Aneesa Ahmed, Shad Begum, Samar Badawi, Hawa Abdallah Mohammed Salih, and Şafak Pavey. The award winners come from diverse backgrounds. Maryam Durani is a member of Kandahar's Provincial Council, and director of the non-profit Khadija Kubra Women’s Association for Culture. Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedois is a member of the Rio de Janeiro Military police. Zin Mar Aung is a Burmese democracy activist. Jineth Bedoya Lima is a journalist from Colombia. Hana Elhebshi is a political activist from Libya. Aneesa Ahmed is an advocate against gender-based violence in the Maldives and is the Deputy Minister of Women's Affairs. Shad Begum is a human rights activist in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Samar Badawi is a proponent of women's suffrage in Saudi Arabia. Hawa Abdallah Mohammed Salih is an advocate for internally displaced persons in Darfur. Safak Pavey is the first disabled woman elected to the Turkish Parliament. Now in its fifth year, 46 women from 34 nations have received the award. International Women’s Day has been observed globally for more than a century to honor the achievements of women." +politics,"At least 26,000 United Nations (UN) troops will be sent to the Darfur region of Sudan in Africa under resolution 1769 in an attempt to stop violence from spreading and to protect civilians from the fighting. The force includes at least 19,555 troops and nearly 7,000 civilian police officers in a force being called the ""United Nations-African Union Mission"" (UNAMID). The UN Security Council voted unanimously to send troops to the region. At least 200,000 people have been killed in four years of fighting in the region and more than two million have been displaced. Troops will be sent to the region under Chapter 7 of the UN charter which states that the UN ""shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken to maintain or restore international peace and security."" Language authorizing the troops to seize illegal weapons caches and mentions of possible future sanctions if Sudan does not co-operate was removed during negotiations. The resolution does allow troops to monitor weapon caches. ""If any party blocks progress and the killings continue, I and others will redouble our efforts to impose further sanctions. The plan for Darfur from now on is to achieve a cease-fire, including an end to aerial bombings of civilians; drive forward peace talks ... and, as peace is established, offer to begin to invest in recovery and reconstruction,"" said the new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday while visiting the UN headquarters in New York. Troops are expected to be in the region no later than December of this year but may take up to a year to fully deploy. This will be the largest peacekeeping force ever deployed and cost over US$2 billion per year to keep the force in the region. The resolution does not allow for more than 26,000 troops to be deployed." +politics,"Thailand Following the ousting of Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from power, those seeking to peacefully protest the imposition of a military junta in the country on May 22 have adopted a gesture found in The Hunger Games book and film series, curling the little finger and thumb into the palm and raising the three middle fingers in the air. Use of the gesture as a form of protest began last weekend in Bangkok, the capital of the country. This form of protest has drawn the attention of Thailand's military junta, the National Council for Peace and Order, who announced its intent on Tuesday to arrest protestors who display the gesture, in violation of orders to stop. Speaking on behalf of the junta, Colonel Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak said to the Associated Press, ""At this point we are monitoring the movement. If it is an obvious form of resistance, then we have to control it so it doesn't cause any disorder in the country."" In a comment to the Bangkok Post, Thai army Colonel Winthai Suwaree shared a similar sentiment: ""The junta must look at the protester's intention, what they want to communicate and surrounding circumstances"". Following the ousting of Thailand's elected government in reportedly the fourteenth coup experienced by the country since the adoption of constitutional monarchy in 1932, the country remains affected by a curfew spanning midnight to 4am, with only Phuket, Koh Samui and Pattaya exempted, as they are beach resorts frequented by tourists, a group for whom the junta made the move in a bid to avoid adverse effects to the country's tourist industry. Nonetheless, in the wake of the coup, the United States Department of State (DoS) advised ""U.S. citizens reconsider any non-essential travel to Thailand, particularly Bangkok"". The DoS also informed US citizens to stay away from groups of protestors, citing that ""even demonstrations that are meant to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence."" Other restrictions placed on citizens by the junta include internet censorship and restrictions on television broadcasts. Also banned were assemblies of five or more people with political intent. Solitary displays of the gesture was among a few forms of protest utilized by the Thai people in Bangkok on Sunday, amid the placement of almost 6000 soldiers and police officers by the junta in an effort to suppress protests. Other displays of defiance included protestors banding together in flash mobs or peacefully walking through the central shopping district donning masks in an attempt to bypass security forces stationed there. The gesture finds its origins in The Hunger Games series, where it was a sign of thanks, admiration, and farewell to a loved one, later gaining significance, in the second book Catching Fire, as a symbol of rebellion against the totalitarian government of Panem. Protesters, however, have found their own ways of deriving meaning behind the gesture, with some reportedly interpreting it as standing for liberté, égalité, fraternité, values popularized by the French Revolution. A purported alternative interpretation by protesters held the gesture stood for freedom, election, and democracy. Still others have created a photo montage of the gesture with a picture from the source movie, which circulated online, with the caption ""1. No Coup, 2. Liberty, 3. Democracy"" written on the three extended fingers. Manik Sethisuwan has taken to Twitter with this message: ""Dear #HungerGames. We've taken your sign as our own. Our struggle is non-fiction. Thanks."" Sombat Boonngam-anong, a social activist who has made efforts to rally the Thai people in continued protest, offered his own interpretation of the gesture on Facebook. ""Raising three fingers has become a symbol in calling for fundamental political rights"". Sombat belongs to the ""Red Shirts"", a protest group which has supported Shinawatra's government and the earlier government of Thaksin Shinawatra, her brother, and conducted protests amid prosecution by the junta. Sombat advocated a form of silent protest, raising of their right arms, ""3 fingers, 3 times a day"" for 30 seconds at 9 a.m., 1 p.m., and 5 p.m., in public locations where police officers and the military are absent. ""Let's escalate the anti-coup movement three times a day together,"" said Sombat. Weerachon expressed awareness of the gesture's origins, stating ""We know it comes from the movie, and let's say it represents resistance against the authorities. ... If a single individual raises three fingers in the air, we are not going to arrest him or her. But if it is a political gathering of five people or more, then we will have to take some action. If it persists, then we will have to make an arrest."" On Sunday, protestors were reportedly detained for that reason. The decision to criminalize displays of the gesture have drawn the criticism of Human Rights Watch, stating it expresses ""a mindset that views human rights with disdain, and sees youthful defiance as the enemy."" Human Rights Watch's Asia director, Brad Adams, remarked: ""The Thai military's assault on basic human rights has apparently grown to not only target peaceful protesters but now also silent ones as well — since now just holding up an arm with a three-finger salute is enough to earn the junta's ire"". The National Council for Peace and Order has stated it imposed military rule over the country due to political deadlock resulting from demonstrations spanning seven months, which occasionally erupted into violence. Last year, on the volatile political situation in Thailand, scholar Nicholas Farrelly wrote in the Australian Journal of International Affairs: ""Each year, Thailand tends to experience at least one period of frenzied coup speculation. Coups clearly still play a major role in Thai mainstream politics.""" +politics,"The United States Senate has defeated a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The bill was defeated 48 to 49 and did not receive the minimum amount of 60 votes to that would allow the bill to be taken to the full Senate. The bill fell 18 votes short of the 67 that were needed for approval. In order for the bill to become part of the U.S. Constitution, this bill would have had to be approved by a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, then be approved by the legislatures of three fourths (that is, 38) of the States. However, Senator David Vitter, R-LA, who is a supporter of the bill says, ""we're building votes."" ""Most Americans are not yet convinced that their elected representatives or the judiciary are likely to expand decisively the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples,"" said John McCain (R-AZ) who opposed the bill. ""A vote for it is a vote against civil unions, against domestic partnership, against all other efforts for states to treat gays and lesbians fairly under the law,"" said Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy. The bill would define marriage as between a man and a woman, and would preclude the official recognizing of same-sex marriages. The bill is expected to be taken back to the Senate in July. Already, 45 states have banned gay marriages." +politics,"The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is reporting that thousands of Rwandan asylum seekers who fled to neighbouring Burundi over the last few months have been forced to return home. Trucks laden with people have been seen leaving the camp, and some people have broken limbs after allegedly jumping to avoid returning to Rwanda. According to a press release, the UNHCR was denied access to the Songore transit centre in northern Burundi, making verification difficult. The camp was home to at least 6,000 asylum seekers until last week. The Rwandan and Burundian governments met over the weekend and declared in a joint press release that the asylum seekers were not refugees but ""illegal immigrants"". ""Nothing justifies the presence of these people in Burundi. Rwanda is in peace and there is no persecution,"" said Burundian Interior Minister Jean Marie Ngendahayo. This claim has been criticised by the UNHCR, which has stated that it would be illegal to return the people without first assessing their claim to asylum. Amnesty International has also claimed that Burundi's actions are contrary to international law. ""The use of verbal or physical threats to induce people to return to countries where they fear persecution is in complete contravention of international law &mdash; in particular the binding principle of non-refoulement,"" said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme. ""We urge the government of Burundi to implement fair and transparent asylum procedures to establish the risks of return for every single person claiming asylum &mdash; as is their duty under international law,"" he added. This action appears to be part of a wider crackdown on asylum seekers from Rwanda and Burundi. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international aid group, reported yesterday that their medical staff had been denied access to the Songore camp. The Rwandan asylum seekers began arriving in Burundi in March. Their main concern was the Gacaca courts, village courts established to expedite prosecution of perpretators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The UNHCR is also reporting that some asylum seekers ""... said they were fleeing threats, intimidation, persecution and rumours of revenge and bloodshed."" The President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, has previously called for the asylum seekers to return home, stating that they will not be in danger. ""Gacaca is not intended to have all the people who appear at Gacaca arrested and put in prison. We want these people to show remorse and through that they will provide information and will allow people to forgive them and allow them to settle,"" he said. A Wikinews reporter was in Butare recently talking to the locals. She says that the mood is generally supportive of the courts. ""People here believe in the Gacaca process. They say that people have fled now because the investigations are reaching their end and people now know that the are going to be exposed in the process. They have heard 'rumours' that may have been circulated by former leaders of the genocide &mdash; or there may not have been rumours they may merely fear the trials - that there will be reprisals and violence,"" she said. Some people fear reprisals after testifying before the courts. ""Fear is also experienced by those facing testimonies at the Gacaca trial: the widows etc. who will testify against their neighbours. I have been told by several people that high levels of security have been put into place in villages to protect people from revenge attacks for testifying or for being involved,"" she added. There are 8,000 Rwandan asylum seekers in Burundi, and nearly 7,000 Burundians in Rwanda, according to the UNHCR. Original reporting" +politics,"North Korean and South Korean border guards exchanged fire yesterday across the border, the first such incident in about a year. The exchange occurred on July 31, 2006 at sundown, when, according to a claim from Major Kim-Tae-hoon of South Korea, North Korean soldiers fired two shots at a South Korean guard post in the eastern Korean de-militarised zone. Major Kim Tae-hoon also said that South Koreans returned six rounds of fire. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (the North) and the Republic of Korea (the South) have been at war since 1950, the beginning of the Korean War, which had no peace treaty which was signed by the two parties. The United Nations Military Armistice Commission, which supervises the armistice that stopped major hostilities during the Korean War, will investigate the event and ask the North Koreans for an explanation." +politics,"Wikinews interviewed one of the owners of a New York City bar about a popular new politically-themed cocktail drink called Santorum. The beverage was inspired by the santorum neologism coined in advice columnist Dan Savage's column Savage Love in response to comments made by former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum about homosexuality; Savage's readers voted to define santorum as: ""the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex."" The Pacific Standard bar is located in Brooklyn, New York, and is co-owned by Jonathan M. Stan and John-Christian G. Rauschenberg. Stan commented on the creation of the Santorum cocktail, ""When he was winning in the polls, I thought, 'OK, I'll do a Santorum'."" Regarding how long the beverage will be made available, Stan remarked to The Brooklyn Paper, ""We'll keep it around until he’s irrelevant. I hope he’s there the whole way"". The main ingredients of the Santorum drink include vodka of an orange citrus variety, Baileys Irish Cream, and Angostura bitters. It is served in a cocktail glass and topped with Godiva chocolate flakes. The beverage is priced at US$8.00, and upon an order for it, the bartender will recount for the customer the definition of the santorum neologism. Troy Patterson of Slate Magazine ventured over to Pacific Standard to sample the new santorum cocktail at the bar. After tasting the beverage, Patterson observed, ""My Santorum was sweet but balanced, with a subtle citrus pucker"". 4=Rick Santorum In a 2003 interview with the Associated Press, Rick Santorum compared legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States to supporting bestiality. Readers of the Savage Love advice column selected a new definition for the Senator’s last name, and Savage created a website SpreadingSantorum.com to promulgate the spread of the phenomenon. The term became a prominent result in searches online, and gained dominance on Web search engines including Google, Bing, and Yahoo!. Rick Santorum himself has acknowledged and discussed the existence and prevalence of the santorum neologism phenomenon; he was quoted by The Canadian Press on his assessment of Google's response: ""To have a business allow that type of filth to be purveyed through their website or through their system is something that they say they can't handle. I suspect that's not true."" Santorum criticized the response of the press to the phenomenon in a 2011 radio interview, saying, ""It's offensive beyond, you know, anything that any public figure or anybody in America should tolerate, and the mainstream media laughs about it."" Wikinews What inspired you to create a cocktail after the santorum neologism? John Rauschenberg: Santorum the person has been in the news throughout the primary season, and we thought it would be interesting to try to create a delicious drink that mimicked the appearance of the Dan Savage meaning of ""santorum."" WN How did you first hear about the definition of the santorum neologism that grew out of the contest from the Savage Love advice column? JR: We don't really remember. It's been around forever. Probably read about it somewhere. WN What are your thoughts about Rick Santorum’s views on gay rights? JR: It's not for us to take a stand on any political issues. We'll leave that to the professionals. WN Do you think it was an appropriate form of satire for Dan Savage to popularize the definition of the santorum neologism created in his advice column? JR: We thought it was funny. Whether it is appropriate or not is another thing we leave to the pros to decide. WN When was the Santorum cocktail first created? JR: A few months ago. WN What ingredients go in the Santorum cocktail? JR: Bailey's, orange vodka, bitters, and chocolate flakes. WN How is the Santorum drink made? JR: The ingredients are shaken and/or poured into a cocktail glass. See the pictures. WN Your Santorum cocktail creation has already received media coverage from publications including: The Brooklyn Paper, The New York Times, Jezebel, Metro.us, EDGE on the Net, and Instinct Magazine. Did you think when you created it that the Santorum cocktail would receive this news coverage? JR: Not at all. We were just trying to come up with a topical and funny new cocktail for our customers to laugh about and enjoy. WN What culinary dishes would you recommend that go well with the Santorum cocktail? JR: You'd probably be having the cocktail at dessert time, so something sweet: ice cream or pie. WN Is the drink popular? How many times do you suppose you’ve served it at your establishment since its creation? JR: The drink was mildly popular for the last few months, but of course has become a great deal more popular since getting all this publicity. We have no way to estimate how many times we've served it overall, but we're now pouring around ten a night. WN What are some reactions of your patrons after seeing the availability of Santorum as a cocktail? JR: Most people find it amusing. Some people want to demonstrate their bravery and ability to overcome their mental blocks by drinking one. A lot of people think it's a really appealing mix of ingredients. WN Has anyone come into your facility specifically because they have heard they can order the Santorum cocktail and wish to try it? JR: Yes, especially recently. WN Has the availability of the Santorum cocktail at your pub prompted any interesting political discussions amongst your staff and customers? JR: Nothing more serious than the usual light political banter. Given our location and clientele, most of our customers are of a similar mind politically and there isn't much disagreement. WN How long do you plan on making the Santorum cocktail available at your bar? JR: As long as Santorum stays relevant in the news and customers are interested in ordering it. WN Have you heard any feedback from Rick Santorum or the Santorum campaign about the Santorum cocktail? JR: No. WN Were you at all worried about legal repercussions from creating a cocktail inspired by the santorum neologism? JR: Not at all. There's nothing legally wrong with it. WN Have you created any other drinks named after politicians? JR: No. WN What are your thoughts about the satirical definition for the neologism ""romney"" (""to defecate in terror"") created by Jack Shepler inspired by an incident involving Mitt Romney’s family dog? JR: We don't really have any. WN Do you think you might create a new cocktail based on this ""romney"" neologism? JR: Not based on that definition. If we ever came up with a ""romney"" cocktail it'd probably be something different. Maybe something incredibly bland. WN Comedy hosts Jon Stewart of The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report have each reported on the santorum neologism repeatedly on their satirical news programs. If asked to do so, would you be willing to appear on these programs to mix up a special Santorum cocktail for the host? JR: Absolutely. File:Pacific Standard owner preparing Santorum cocktail drink 01.JPG|Pacific Standard owner Jonathan M. Stan at the bar, beginning to prepare the Santorum cocktail drink. He is shown here pouring Baileys Irish Cream into a tall glass with ice. File:Pacific Standard owner preparing Santorum cocktail drink 02.JPG|Stan mixes the ingredients together in a cocktail shaker. File:Pacific Standard owner preparing Santorum cocktail drink 03.JPG|Stan finishes combining the ingredients together. File:Pacific Standard owner preparing Santorum cocktail drink 04.JPG|Here Stan is shown as he begins to pour the combined ingredients into a cocktail glass. File:Pacific Standard owner preparing Santorum cocktail drink 05.JPG|Stan continues to pour the contents of the cocktail shaker into the glass. File:Pacific Standard owner preparing Santorum cocktail drink 06.JPG|Pouring more of the mixed drink into the glass. File:Pacific Standard owner preparing Santorum cocktail drink 07.JPG|Almost finished filling the glass with the contents of the cocktail mixer. File:Pacific Standard owner preparing Santorum cocktail drink 08.JPG|He carefully pours out the last few drops of the cocktail mixer into the glass. File:Pacific Standard owner preparing Santorum cocktail drink 09.JPG|Stan displays the Santorum cocktail drink as finished product at the bar. HYS" +politics,"Crime and law On Tuesday, Pakistan's parliament passed a bill at Islamabad's National Assembly which granted transgender people various civil rights. The bill, ""Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act"", which was presented by Pakistan Peoples Party's lawmaker Naveed Qamar, was approved by the senate in March, and now awaits signature of the president Mamnoon Hussain. The bill ensures people have the right to identify themselves as male, female or as ""third gender"", also known as khawaja sira in Pakistan. This identity choice is to be reflected in the National Database and Registration Authority, as well as other official documents like passports and driving licence. Per the bill, transgender people can now cast votes, run for election, have the right to assemble, and can obtain loans for business startups. They are also eligible to inherit property per their identified gender. Transgender people are to be no longer discriminated at school, working place, for medical services, public transportation facilities, by their employers, or at private business. Separate confinement areas, jails and prisons are to be established for transgenders. Anyone found guilty of forcing transgenders to beg is to face a six-month prison term as well as 50 thousand rupees fine. The legislation was sent to and later approved by the Council of Islamic Ideology, a government advisory body. Lahore-based activist Mehlab Jameel, who was involved in writing the bill, said the Council of Islamic Ideology ""appreciated that the bill included directions on inheritance in accordance with Shari'a"" law. Last year, transgenders were included for the census count for the first time. Mehlab Jameel said, ""the definition of 'transgender' ... was basically based on genitals"" in the initial draft of the bill, written last year. Speaking to National Public Radio, Jameel said, ""This kind of development is not only unprecedented in Pakistani history, but it's one of the most progressive laws in the whole world."" Human Rights Watch has reported at least four deaths of transgenders in the country since the beginning of 2018, and at least 57 transgenders were killed in Pakistan since 2015. Pakistan's &mdash;reportedly&mdash; first transgender news anchor and activist Marvia Malik told Images the transgenders ""are forced to dance and beg because they have no other means to make ends meet."" ""My trans friends who have masters degrees don't have jobs which is why they end up on streets or become sex workers"", Malik added. The draft for the policy to implement this bill is not yet prepared. From the date the bill was approved, President Hussain has ten days to sign the bill or reject it." +politics,"The Afghanistan government and the U.S. Army have begun investigations into whether American soldiers burned the bodies of two suspected Taliban fighters and used the burned bodies to taunt enemy forces. The video reportedly showing U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of suspected Taliban fighters outside the southern village of Gonbaz was shown on Australia's SBS television network. The video was taken by Stephen Dupont, who said the burnings happened October 1 while he was embedded with the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade. Dupont said the incendiary messages later broadcast by the U.S. Army psychological operations unit showed they were aware that the cremation would be seen as desecration. In a televised interview, Dupont told the Australian news agency that: ""They soldiers used that as a psychological warfare, I guess you'd call it. They used the fact that the Taliban were burned facing west toward Mecca. They deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the Taliban so the Taliban could attack them. ... That's the only way they can find them."" The SBS report suggested the actions could violate the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of enemy remains during wartime which state; ""dead are honorably interred, if possible according to the rites of the religion to which they belonged."" The Taliban government, that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when U.S. led force invaded the country and ended their regime, did not recognize the Geneva Convention in their term of rule. ""We strongly condemn any disrespect to human bodies regardless of whether they are those of enemies or friends,"" said a Afghanistan spokesman Karim Rahimi. ""This alleged action is repugnant to our common values,"" U.S. Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya said, ""This command takes all allegations of misconduct or inappropriate behavior seriously and has directed an investigation into circumstances surrounding this allegation.""" +politics,"United NationsAfter two days of debate, the United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly endorsed a report from the Human Rights Council calling for domestic investigations into alleged war crimes committed by both Israel's military and Palestinian armed forces during the Gaza conflict that began last December. The controversial report concluded that Israel used disproportionate force in the war, deliberately targeted Gaza civilians, used them as human shields, and destroyed civilian infrastructure. One of the 31 chapters of the report discussed crimes by Hamas for firing rockets into Israeli towns. The final vote was 114 in favor, 18 against and 44 abstentions. Strong support came from the Arab and non-aligned countries, many of whom co-sponsored the draft resolution. Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour welcomed the vote, saying the implementation of Justice Richard Goldstone's report will now begin in stages. Ali Treki, the General Assembly president, called the vote ""an important declaration against impunity. It is a call for justice and accountability"". Without justice, there can be no progress towards peace. A human being should be treated as a human being, regardless of his or her religion, race or nationality,"" he said. ""In three months we will come back to General Assembly to consider the report of the Secretary-General for further action, including in all parts of the United Nations, including in the Security Council,"" said Riyad Mansour, a Palestinian-American diplomat. The non-binding resolution requests the secretary-general report to the General Assembly within three months on the implementation of the resolution, with a view to considering further action, if necessary. Israel's deputy ambassador to the UN, Daniel Cameron said that the resolution, ""endorses and legitimizes a deeply flawed, one-sided and prejudiced report of the discredited Human Rights Council and its politicised work that bends both fact and law"". source=Riyad Mansour, Palestinian-American diplomatOf the countries abstaining or voting no, several said that although they agreed with the essence of the resolution - that the parties should conduct their own independent, credible investigations into alleged violations as called for in the Goldstone report - they could not vote in favor because they had difficulty with two specific items in the resolution. Another point of some contention is that the resolution leaves the door open for future action in the UN Security Council. The Palestinians have made clear they plan to pursue that option, but most of the council's five permanent members opposed the idea, saying the right forum for the Goldstone report is in the Human Rights Council in Geneva, where it started. The United States was the only permanent Security Council member to vote against the resolution. Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said that although it opposed the resolution, the US strongly supported accountability for human rights and humanitarian law violations relating to the Gaza conflict. ""We believe that the Goldstone report is deeply flawed-including its unbalanced focus on Israel, its sweeping conclusions of law, the excessively negative inferences it draws about Israel's intentions and actions, its failure to deal adequately with the asymmetrical nature of the Gaza conflict, its failure to assign appropriate responsibility to Hamas for its decision to base itself and its operations in heavily civilian-populated urban areas, and its many overreaching recommendations,"" said Alejandro Wolff. What is your opinion on the report? Do you agree with it?Israel, which did not cooperate with the Goldstone commission, voted against the resolution, saying that it legitimised a ""deeply flawed, one-sided"" report, and disregarded Israel's right to defend its citizens. ""The results of the vote and the large number of member states who voted against or abstained, demonstrate clearly that the resolution does not have the support of the 'moral majority' of UN members,"" read a statement on the website of Israel's ministry of foreign affairs. ""Israel rejects the resolution of the UN General Assembly, which is completely detached from realities on the ground."" During the three-week-long Israeli military incursion into the Gaza Strip, at least 1,400 Palestinians died according to Palestinians and human rights groups, although Israel says 1,166, and 13 Israelis also died. The Goldstone Commission criticized both sides for violations of international humanitarian law." +politics,"commonsurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/160107_1630_newsbriefs.ogg Canadian news Arnold Schwarzenegger, best known for his role in The Terminator and being the Govenor of California (which earned him the nickname The Governator), has been invited by the Prime Minister's Office to visit Canada. Schwarzenegger is reported to have higher expectations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions than Prime Minister Stephen Harper. ""I hope it means they are serious about taking the kind of actions that Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking in California on climate change,"" said Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May. Environment minister John Baird said he and the Canadian government are concerned about the climate. ""We're concerned about the huge climate change challenges,"" said Baird. ""The erratic weather we've had this winter is a huge wake-up call."" The Canadian PM and ""The Governator"" first met when they went to Mexico for the inauguration of Felipe Calderón, the president of Mexico. No date has been set as to when the meeting will happen. Arnold Schwarzenegger marks three day visit to Canada" +politics,"Brian Smithson After meeting Sunday with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Chadian President Idriss Déby opened the door to the possible deployment of United Nations (UN) or European Union (EU) troops to Chad's volatile eastern region. Yesterday, Kouchner met with Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir. Until Sunday, Chad had rejected the idea of allowing military troops in to assist with security at its border with Sudan. In Chad's eastern region, the government has been fighting an insurgency, which it claims has been supported by Sudan. While dealing with the insurgency, Chad had been amenable to an international police presence, but not a military force. An estimated 234,000 Sudanese refugees have fled the violence in the Darfur region of Sudan and crossed the border into Chad. In addition, Chad is coping with an estimated 150,000 internally displaced persons. The conditions in the camps set up to deal with the refugees have been criticised as inadequate by the aid group, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). France's newly appointed foreign minister, and co-founder of MSF, Bernard Kouchner, and Chad's President Déby were able to work out some concessions on the use of foreign troops. Following the meeting, Déby was asked by reporters whether he would allow UN or EU military troops to take a role in security and stabilization measures for a humanitarian mission. ""Why not,"" Déby replied. Déby revealed that plans for an international force for Chad would be made public by the end of June. ""We are agreed on the principle of deploying a force, but there are still some points to resolve, on which we must agree,"" said Déby. ""The results of the discussions will be made public before the 25th of this month."" ""We have been proposing this to the international community since 2004,"" said Déby. But Chad's Prime Minister, Delwa Kassiré Koumakoye, commented recently that neighbouring countries may take the use of foreign troops as a threat. On June 9, MSF issued a press release warning of a humanitarian crisis developing in Chad. ""It is imperative that the emergency in eastern Chad be fully recognised, that aid organisations provide massive, immediate aid to the IDPs and that the Chadian authorities facilitate humanitarian aid,"" said Isabelle Defourny, manager of MSF programmes in Chad. Photographic Dept. of the Prime Minister Following his visit to Chad, Foreign Minister Kouchner traveled to Sudan where he met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Sudan has, in the past, rejected the deployment of an international force, and has resisted the use of a UN-African Union (AU) force. During their meeting Monday, al-Bashir told Kouchner that he would only accept troops from Africa. Kouchner indicated that his meetings with al-Bashir and other officials had been productive and would ""lift a certain number of complications"" in obtaining agreements with Sudan. He and al-Bashir also discussed the unilateral sanctions imposed on Sudan by the United States. Kouchner felt that the sanctions haven't been useful and that the Sudanese ""seem clearly affected by this issue, considering how much they raised it."" UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed some optimism on the issue of troop deployment and acknowledged he received a letter recently from al-Bashir on the matter. As stated in the letter, al-Bashir has accepted in principal the idea of a UN-AU force of 23,000 troops to be stationed in Darfur. ""I sincerely hope that we will be able to have early resolution of this issue,"" said Ban. One roadblock may be al-Bashir's refusal to accept any force other than African. The UN and AU stated they would attempt to use only African troops, but indicated that non-African troops may be used if that were not possible. ""Darfur cannot be only an African problem,"" said Kouchner. ""At a certain level, the respect for human rights concerns the whole world.""" +politics,"United Nations On Friday, the International Labour Organization (ILO) elected former Prime Minister of Togo Gilbert Houngbo its next director general, the first African to serve the role since the organization was founded in 1919. Houngbo, aged 61, was elected via secret ballot by the United Nations agency’s 56-member governing body in the second round with 30 votes. The runner-up was former French Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud, who received 23 votes. Former South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha received two votes and South African businessman Mthunzi Mdwaba received one. The current deputy director-general, Australian Greg Vines, was eliminated in the first round. The ILO governing body is composed of government, employee, and employer representatives from its 187 member states. It decides the ILO's policy, sets its agenda, and elects the director-general. Houngbo was previously deputy director-general of the ILO from 2013 to 2017, and currently leads the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). He will succeed Guy Ryder as director-general from October 1, 2022." +politics,"Netherlands Iran's Minister of Justice Gholam-Hossein Elham has requested that Dutch politician Geert Wilders' Qur'an film named Fitna should be prohibited by the Dutch government, Iranian press-agency IRNA reports. Elham wrote a letter to his Dutch colleague Ernst Hirsch Ballin stating that: ""you can stop the process of this satanic and conspiracy movement based on the European Convention on Human Rights"". Freedom of speech cannot be the reason to allow this film, they say. ""We also respect freedom of speech, but the insult of holy and ethical values is totally unacceptable,"" Elham writes. ""The rights of Muslims all over the world are violated by this blaspheming movie."" The Qur'an is the holy book for some 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide. Wilders announced his ""shocking"" movie to be ready in March 2008." +politics,"United Nations The United Nations Security Council has passed Resolution 1929 imposing a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its alleged nuclear program. The Security Council voted 13 to 2 to impose new sanctions on Iran unless it reveals more details of its nuclear programme. Brazil and Turkey voted against the resolution, while Lebanon abstained. The sanctions do not include major blockades, but do include measures against Iranian banks abroad, a cargo inspection regime, and provisions that all countries shall prevent the supply, sale or transfer to Iran of battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large calibre artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles, or missile systems. President Obama praised the Security Council vote and said, ""This resolution will put in place the toughest sanctions ever faced by the Iranian government, and it sends an unmistakable message about the international community’s commitment to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons"". Brazil and Turkey criticised the sanctions, saying they could undermine further diplomatic efforts. They had previously offered to mediate the dispute, an offer which was accepted by Iran. Iran recently reached a deal with them to ship most of its enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for low-level nuclear fuel to run a medical reactor. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: ""Sadly, this time it was Iran who wanted to negotiate, and those who didn’t want to negotiate were those who think that force resolves everything. I think that taking this decision was a mistake. I think the Security Council threw out a historic opportunity to negotiate calmly on Iran’s nuclear program and also to discuss in a deeper way the deactivation in countries with nuclear bombs."" Iran responded to the UN vote by threatening to reduce its ties to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and to continue its uranium enrichment program. Iran’s ambassador to the the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said ""No matter how many resolutions are passed, Islamic Republic of Iran will not stop its enrichment activities, which is in full accordance with its right under the statute of IAEA and Non-Proliferation Treaty""." +politics,"Superior Court Judge Richard A. Kramer struck down two California laws that limited marriage in the state to a union of opposite-sex couples. The ruling came one year after San Francisco made worldwide headlines when it opened its city hall to same-sex weddings over Valentine's Day weekend through March 11 2004. Kramer said the two California laws violated the state's constitutional guarantees of privacy and a legal concept called due process - which tries to ensure each person is treated equally by the law. ""The denial of marriage to same-sex couples appears impermissibly arbitrary,"" Kramer wrote in the opinion released Monday. In his decision, Kramer cited United States Supreme Court case law ranging from Brown v. Board of Education to Lawrence v. Texas in a step-by-step dismantling of legal arguments against same-sex marriage. Including the following excerpts: *Traditional definition of marriage: ""Same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited solely because California has always done so before."" *With California's domestic partner laws, gays don't need marriage: ""That California has granted marriage-like rights to same-sex couples points to the conclusion that there is no rational state interest in denying them the rites of marriage as well."" *The purpose of marriage is procreation: ""The obvious natural and social reality is that one does not have to be married to procreate, nor does one have to procreate in order to be married."" Kramer, a Catholic Republican Judge appointed by Pete Wilson, California's previous conservative governor, issued a ""stay"" on his order, making it a tentative decision by delaying its implementation for 60 days to allow the same-sex marriage opponents time to file an appeal to his ruling. The case is widely expected to be brought before the California Supreme Court. Less than a year ago, the state's Supreme Court annulled more than 4,000 same-sex marriages which took place in San Francisco County in 2004. The court did not rule on the constitutionality of same-sex marriages, but ruled more narrowly that San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom overstepped his authority by unilaterally deciding not to follow state laws he did not agree with instead of challenging the laws in court, which is the proper legal way to overturn or affirm laws in California and much of the United States." +politics,"Politics and conflicts A car bomb was used in an attack on the Indian embassy in central Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday morning. The bombing killed 41, and injured at least 141. It is the deadliest attack in Kabul since 2001, when Afghanistan's Taliban government was ousted by American armed forces. The attack happened at the gates of the embassy, located in central Kabul, near many other government buildings including the office of the Interior Ministry of Afghanistan. A security office and part of a wall were destroyed, and the blast was large enough to spread debris to surrounding buildings. Ali Hassan Fahimi, whose office is nearby, said shrapnel landed in his office. ""It was so strong... our staff were shocked,"" he commented. Many of the victims were Afghans who were lining up for visas to travel to India. Of the casualties, most were civilians. The dead include embassy workers, a defense attache, a senior counselor, two security guards, an Afghan employee and six police officers. The foreign ministry of Afghanistan said that they ""condemn today's terrorist attack on the embassy of the friendly and brother country of India."" An Afghan government spokesman, Zamari Bashari, suggested that the attack was retaliation for India's support for reconstruction in Afghanistan. India called the bombing a ""cowardly terrorist attack"" and said that they would send a delegation to investigate. Foreign entities voiced similar sentiments. The United Nations envoy Kai Eide said, ""I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. In no culture, no country, and no religion is there any excuse or justification for such acts. The total disregard for innocent lives is staggering and those behind this must be held responsible."" The European Union condemned the attack as a ""terrorist attack targeting innocent civilians"" and the United States said it was a ""needless act of violence"". The foreign minister of Pakistan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, denounced the attack, saying, ""Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations as this menace negates the very essence of human values.""" +politics,"Turkey The Turkish government removed its block of YouTube on Tuesday following a ruling by Turkey's Constitutional Court found the ban violated freedom of speech. The popular video sharing website was banned along with social media platform Twitter after leakage though the services in March of audio recordings of government meetings. The Turkish telecommunications regulator called it a ""precautionary administrative measure"". The recordings, whose release Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called treasonous, presented military discussions of Turkish intervention in Syria. Other leaked recordings presented alleged corruption among close associates of Mr Erdogan. Twitter was unblocked in April but lower court rulings against the YouTube block were not acted on. Turkey had also blocked access to YouTube from 2007 to 2010." +politics,"New York On Wednesday, the New York State Assembly passed a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage, with a vote of 80 in favor of the bill to 63 against. This is the third time a resolution legalizing same-sex marriage passed the Assembly in recent years. The bill must next be approved by the Senate. If it becomes a law, New York would become the sixth United States state where same-sex marriage is legal, joining Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Washington D.C., and Iowa. It was briefly legal in California, but was rescinded by the voters in 2008 by a measure called Proposition 8. Assemblyman Charles Lavine said he thought America's Founding Fathers ""have smiles on their faces,"" in light of the bill's passage. Same-sex marriage opponent Assemblyman Dov Hikind said God knows gay marriage is wrong. As of Wednesday the measure appeared to be one vote short of passage in the Senate. Governor Cuomo, who has been a strong supporter of the bill, has said in the past he would not introduce the bill unless he believed it would pass. On Tuesday he introduced the bill, in both the Assembly and the Senate. Opponents of the bill in the Senate are considering whether to allow it to come to a Senate vote. Two Republicans in the Senate have said they would support the bill if it came to a vote. Republican Majority Leader of the Senate Dean Skelos has said if it were brought to a vote, ""If they favor it, I’ve always said, they can vote for it.""" +politics,"Following elections in the country of Kuwait on June 2, two women were appointed for the first time ever to the Kuwaiti municipal council. This follows a historic decision on May 16 that granted Kuwaiti women the right to vote and run for public office in future elections. The Kuwaiti Minster of Social Affairs, Faysal al-Hajji, said that ""During its weekly meeting on Sunday, the cabinet named two women to the municipal council for the first time in the history of Kuwait."" The women are: * Sheikha Fatima al-Sabah, architect and member of the Al-Sabah ruling family * Fawziya al-Bahar, engineer. The positive developments in Kuwaiti politics have been praised by many feminists and foreign observers. The decision to grant women the vote overcame strong resistance to pass by a 35-23 margin. The only remaining Middle Eastern country that does not grant women the right to vote is Saudi Arabia. The sixteen members of the council are divided between ten members who are elected by popular vote, and six who are appointed. The ten elected members were all male and mostly conservative. The six appointees were the two women and four men considered to be liberals. The election and appointment results still need to be ratified by the Emir, who has been supportive of the efforts to give women the right to vote. Although women were not eligible to run for elective office during the most recent election, they are expected to vote and run for office in Kuwait for the first time ever beginning in the 2007 parliamentary elections." +politics,"The government of Iran has banned the human rights group Defenders of Human Rights Center led by Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi. On Saturday, the Iranian newspaper Shargh reported an Interior Ministry statement announcing the ban, ""As the group calling itself 'Defenders of Human Rights Center' has not obtained a permit from the interior ministry, its activities are illegal and the violators of this decision will be prosecuted,"". Ebadi told reporters that such a permit was not required, ""Non-governmental organizations that observe the law and do not disrupt public safety do not need a permit. So the... Center does not need authorization"". She said that the group had applied for the permit but the Interior Ministry denied the request without any explanation. Saying that the ""move is not in Iran's national interest"", Ebadi said that the group will protest against the decision and explore legal options to ""obtain our rights"". The group was started by six prominent lawyers and has campaigned on human and minority rights issues for the past four years. It has criticized Iran's judiciary for violations of human rights. Abdolfattah Soltani, a member of the group was sentenced last month to five years in jail on charges of disclosing confidential information and opposing the regime. He had represented the imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji as well as the family of the Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi, who was killed in custody in 2003. The group demanded an independent probe into the death of dissident student activist Akbar Mohammadi, who died in prison on Sunday following a hunger strike. The ban comes on the 100th anniversary of Iran's ""constitutional revolution"" of August 5, 1906, when the monarch of what was then Persia decreed the creation of a constitution and an elected parliament - the Majlis. ""The ban has a bad meaning for the country"" on such a day, said Mohammad Dadkhah, a founder of the rights group. Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, for ""her efforts for democracy and human rights...especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children,"". She was the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to receive the honour." +politics,"The Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, warned the United States against any attack on his country saying ""The Americans should know that if they launch an assault against Islamic Iran, their interests in every possible part of the world will be harmed."" Earlier this week Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iran was ready to begin offering nuclear technology to developing countries. Speaking at a rally in North-West Iran this Thursday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying ""Those who want to prevent Iranians from obtaining their right, should know that we do not give a damn about such resolutions."" Iran says that its nuclear program is meant for producing energy and that it has a right under Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to enrich fuel for that purpose. The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated,""Iran won't back down one iota"". The US has called on Iran to stop its enrichment work and accuses Iran of trying to build a nuclear bomb. The US ""is leaving all options on the table"" not excluding military strikes with nuclear weapons or with conventional weapons in the eventuality of sanctions being ineffective. Iranian leaders have made strong statements against possible sanctions or military action against their country. The Ayatollah Khamenei said, ""The Iranian nation will give a double response to any strike."" Tehran has vowed to respond against US targets worldwide in the case of a US led attack against Iran. According to some claims, the US has already started attacking Iran. On April 18, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) wrote a letter to George W. Bush requesting information about claims that the US has already sent US covert operatives and/or retrained ex-members of MEK and the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK, associated with the PKK) into Iranian territory in order to provoke existing ethnic tensions by incidents of violence. MEK and PKK are classified by the U.S. State Department and by the Council of the European Union as terrorist organizations. The UN Security Council has called on Iran to suspend its enrichment work by Friday and permit additional inspections of its nuclear programme. Iran has rejected the demands. The IAEA is scheduled to report on Iran's compliance of the Security Council resolution on Friday. A 90 minute meeting between Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the president of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA provided no breakthrough and no new proposals were made, although Aghazadeh's deputy Mohammed Saidi said the talks were ""encouraging."" Speaking Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke in Vienna at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers over Iran's nuclear program. ""The United States believes ... that in order to be credible the Security Council of course has to act,"" to reporters. Condoleezza Rice also said that it was ""highly unlikely"" Tehran would comply with the US's demands and that the UN ""cannot have its word and its will simply ignored by a member state."" Further, Rice stated that ""I look forward to discussing this with my colleagues and to I and others making that case, and I would certainly hope the Security Council is prepared to take some action."" The German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, ""We expect Iran to meet international standards and ... to allay world suspicions that its civil nuclear operations are being used to develop a possible weapons program."" Russia and China have called for negotiations to resolve the issue with President Vladimir Putin saying that the IAEA must retain the lead in the process. Widespread resentment of western influence on past Iranian internal affairs, such as Operation Ajax which removed the democratically elected prime minister of Iran in 1953, has called some experts to bring into question the possibility of a coalition of NATO or U.S. led forces against Iran. The likelihood of any preventive strike against Iran is uncertain, apart from the claims that US troops and or proxy troops have already started small scale attacks. With a large young population increasingly pro-western, there are fears that any strike against Iran could damage any democratic movement as the population as a whole resents pro-Western influence in its internal affairs. Iran has nearly four times the land area of Iraq. Iran's military is estimated to 768,000/350,000 active/reserve military troops and the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps include 11,000,000 troops." +politics,"Palestine On Monday, the Palestinian National Authority (PA) was granted the status of an Observer State in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. This decision promotes the PA toward permanent membership in the court, and helps establish the PA's status in the international arena. The ICC is an independent organization, in which 122 states are members. The organization operates under the Rome Statute, and is not part of the United Nations (UN) as such. The observer status is a further promotion in the international community's approach toward the PA. Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said that now, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas needs to decide when to apply to be accepted as a full member. Human Rights Watch international justice counsel Balkees Jarrah told the Associated Press his organization called on the Palestinians ""to join the court which could open up the prospect of justice for serious crimes by all sides"". source=Balkees Jarrah, international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch This is another step for the PA toward exercising its threats to sue Israel for committing war crimes in its territory, following the armed conflict between the two sides in Gaza last summer. PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said there was ""no other option"" given the large numbers of civilian casualties. This step was taken despite Israel's warnings to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, backed by the US, not to apply for full membership in the ICC. Israelis have objected that move could lead to pressuring Israel during future negotiations, using the threat of a war crimes suit. In November 2012, the Palestinian Authority was accepted as an observing state without the right to vote in the UN, in a sweeping vote of the general assembly. Subsequently, during the last few weeks, several European parliaments voted in favor of acknowledgement of a Palestinian state. Similarly to the vote in Hague last Monday, these votes are symbolic gestures." +politics,"Nigeria Six people have died after a shooting incident Thursday in a Deeper Life church located in Gombe, in the north east of Nigeria. Gombe state police spokesman Ahmed Muhammad reported that eight other individuals had also been wounded during the shootings. The wife of the pastor of the church was amongst those killed in the attack, which happened as a prayer service was in progress. Theresa Munyok, self-identified as daughter and brother of two of those shot dead, spoke of the events which occurred. ""The only thing I heard was my mommy shouting,"" Munyok explained. ""She told me that it was gunshots and that my dad is not even breathing. She called and called and he did not wake up,"" she said. No groups were reported to have claimed responsibility for the incident. It is reportedly suspected that Boko Haram, a Muslim sect, carried out the attack. On Sunday, an individual presumed to be a representative of Boko Haram gave a warning to the Christian citizens of the north of Nigeria, which is mainly Muslim, ordering them to depart from the region within three days. Boko Haram translates from Hausa to English as 'Western education is sacrilege'. The group was reportedly responsible in 2011 for over five hundred killings. The group accepted responsibility for the attack of a Catholic church near the Nigerian capital Abuja on Christmas Day, in which at least 37 people died, as well as a suicide bombing at a United Nations building in the same city, where 25 people were killed as a result. Goodluck Jonathan, the president of Nigeria, placed various areas of the country in a state of emergency on December 31, 2011, including areas in Yobe, Plateau, Borno and Niger state. Gombe was not included amongst these states. Authorities in these areas can now arrest individuals without requiring evidence to do so. Similarly, searches can be made by authorities without requiring warrants to do so." +politics,"US politics With Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts's nomination and likely approval as U.S. President Barack Obama's choice to replace the retiring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Kerry's Senate seat is expected soon to be vacated, making necessary a special election to choose a new Senator. That potential race is now taking shape with two candidates having emerged as the frontrunners for their respective parties' nominations: Republican Senator Scott Brown and Democratic Representative Ed Markey. Massachusetts law adopted in 2004 requires a vacated seat to be filled permanently through special election held 145 to 160 days following vacation. This law was passed purportedly to prevent then-Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, from naming a replacement for Kerry, who was at the time, the Democratic presidential nominee. No such election occurred until long-time Senator Ted Kennedy died in office, vacating his seat in 2009. At the time, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick named Democrat Paul G. Kirk as a temporary replacement. Kirk chose not to run for the seat, and instead the Democrats nominated Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who lost to Brown. Now, Patrick reportedly wishes to again name a temporary replacement who will not run in the special election. Candidates for this position include: Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the widow of Ted Kennedy; former governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis; and the retiring Congressman Barney Frank. Amid the Senate's consideration of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, Brown's 2010 election broke the Democrats' filibuster-proof super-majority in the chamber. As the first Massachusetts Republican elected since Edward Brooke in 1972, Brown gained a reputation in the Senate as a political moderate, stressing bipartisanship. However, in the most expensive Senate race in the nation's history in 2012, he lost the seat to the liberal Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren, who tied him to conservative Senate Republicans. After the defeat, Republican Senators Dan Coats of Indiana, John McCain of Arizona, and Olympia Snowe of Maine each asked Brown to run for Senate again. He alluded to a potential return during his farewell address earlier in December, noting, ""As I’ve said many times before, victory and defeat is temporary ... Depending on what happens, and where we go, all of us, we may obviously meet again."" Though former Governor William Weld is also considered a potential Republican primary candidate, Brown leads him in opinion polls by a wide margin. Additionally, a December 17&ndash;18 poll conducted by WBUR shows Brown with a 58 percent favorability rate in his state and ahead of potential Democratic nominees Markey, former Congressman Marty Meehan, and Congressmen Mike Capuano and Stephen Lynch. Patrick, Kennedy, Coakley, and Meehan have all denied interest in the seat as have other Democrats speculated to jump in including actor Ben Affleck and attorney Edward M. Kennedy, Jr., Ted Kennedy's son. Though Lynch and Capuano have expressed interest in the seat, Markey is thus far the only announced candidate. In a statement to The Boston Globe, Markey affirmed ""this fight is too important"" not to run and ""there is so much at stake"" in the election. He added that an official announcement would come in January. Markey, who has served in Congress since 1976, previously ran for the Senate seat in 1984 but withdrew before the primary; Kerry went on to win the primary and seat that year. Markey intends to focus his campaign on global warming, gun control, protection of Social Security and Medicare, and government spending for jobs. He has secured endorsements from both Kerry and Victoria Kennedy, and with a war chest of $3.1 million from his congressional campaigns, has significantly more funds than any of his potential primary opponents. According to political scientist Peter Ubertaccio of Stonehill College, that may discourage prominent Democrats thinking about entering the race. Nevertheless, State Senator Benjamin Downing has announced he is exploring a potential bid. Though Markey has more money than Brown's $464,000 left from his 2012 campaign, Ubertaccio, in his analysis of the race, notes Brown has more recent campaign experience than Markey, who has not had a competitive campaign lately. Moreover, he finds Markey ""very much a creature of Washington, which can be problematic in a tough statewide race."" He sees the rush to support Markey as unusual, and as a way to discourage Democratic challengers to Markey. Jon Keller of Boston's CBS affiliate notes the rush was likely to allow Markey to begin attacks on Brown rather than Democrats, but he concludes the lack of choice for Democrats may give Brown an advantage as an outsider running against the insiders' hand-picked successor." +politics,"Today, representatives of 111 countries have adopted a formal ban on cluster bombs. The ban is to be signed and ratified by each country during December 2-3 in Oslo, Norway, the country that initiated the discussions on the ban. Following almost two weeks of negotiations, the ban was agreed upon at a ceremony held in Dublin, Ireland. Signatories will be required to completely get rid of cluster bomb stockpiles within eight years. Cluster bombs are characterized by the small ""bomblets"" that they release while falling. Many are opposed to this type of munition because the ""bomblets"" spread over a large area, meaning that they can easily injure or kill innocent civilians even when aimed at a specific enemy target. Despite U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voicing his hopes that all nations would agree to the ban, many countries have boycotted the ban, including the United States, Russia, Israel, Pakistan and India. Military analyst Marc Garlasco of the organization Human Rights Watch noted that these nations will be less likely to use the munitions due to the stigma that will be attached to them. While widely celebrated, some criticize the pact for not being strong enough in its implications. For example, signatories will still be allowed to cooperate on military operations with non-signatories. The ban will go into effect in mid-2009." +politics,"Voters in California, Florida and Arizona voted on Tuesday to ban gay marriage, bringing about a victory for conservatives on a day which did not bring many conservative wins. Meanwhile, voters in Colorado, South Dakota and California voted on measures which would have restricted abortion in those states. In Massachusetts and Michigan, voters passed measures that loosen marijuana laws. Finally, in the state of Washington a measure was passed that allows physician-assisted suicide. The California ballot measure, Proposition 8, overturns the recent June ruling by the California State Supreme Court in the case In re Marriage Cases which reversed a 1977 statute passed by the California State Legislature and a 2000 ballot measure, Proposition 22, which also banned same-sex marriage by defining marriage as between a man and a woman. The wording of Proposition 8 is identical to Proposition 22. It was noted that many of the African-Americans and Latinos who cast their votes for Obama, also voted for the measure. The measure passed at 52% to 48%. Lesbian comedian Ellen DeGeneres noted, ""This morning, when it was clear that Proposition 8 had passed in California, I can’t explain the feeling I had. I was saddened beyond belief. Here we just had a giant step toward equality and then on the very next day, we took a giant step away."" 4=Melissa Etheridge Singer Melissa Etheridge, who is also a lesbian, stated that she would no longer pay taxes due to the passing of Proposition 8, announcing in a blog post, ""Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen."" Also in California, voters rejected a measure which would require parental notification for a minor to receive an abortion. The measure was rejected with the same percentage as Proposition 8, 52% to 48%. Meanwhile in Colorado, voters rejected a measure that would define life as beginning at conception. While the measure did not specifically mention abortion it would have required legislators and courts to confront legal rights for fetuses - effectively preventing abortion. The measure was defeated in a wide margin, 73% to 27% In South Dakota, voters also defeated an anti-abortion measure which would have outlawed abortion in all cases except in the case of rape, incest or if the mother's health was in serious question. If passed, the law would most likely have been challenged as unconstitutional. In Michigan, voters approved a measure which legalizes medical marijuana. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, voters approved a ballot question that decriminalizes possession of small amounts of marijuana in which the possession of an ounce or less would be punishable by a $100 fine. The measure will also require minors under the age 18 to participate in and complete a drug awareness program and do community service. Failure to do so, would net the minor a $1,000 fine. ""Tonight's results represent a sea change. Voters have spectacularly rejected eight years of the most intense government war on marijuana since the days of 'Reefer Madness,'"" said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. ""The people were ahead of the politicians on this issue; they recognize and want a more sensible approach to our marijuana policy,"" said Whitney Taylor, the chair of Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy, which backed the Massachusetts proposition. Also, in Massachusetts, voters overwhelmingly, in every single Massachusetts city and town, rejected a ballot measure which would have eliminated the state income tax by 2010, the ballot measure was sponsored by the Committee for Small Government, which is headed up by two libertarians, Michael Cloud, a Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Senate in 2002 and Carla Howell, Libertarian Party candidate for governor in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election. The last time the income tax elimination measure was on the ballot was in 2002, where it was defeated, narrowly by 45.3%. This stunned supporters of the income tax, who mounted a fierce campaign against the measure this time warning Massachusetts residents that repealing the income tax would have drastic effects on the state's finances, leading to cuts in services, education and local aid. Finally, voters passed a question which bans dog racing in Massachusetts, which will lead to the closure of Massachusetts' two greyhound racing tracks, Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park and Wonderland Greyhound Park. The campaign against dog racing was headed up by the Committee to Protect Dogs and endorsed by GREY2K USA and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals along with other animal protection organizations who claimed that dog racing was inhumane as the dogs were stuffed into cramped cages and endured injuries. The measure was opposed by the park owners including George Carney who owns the Rayham-Taunton park and Charles Sarkis, a restaurateur who owns Wonderland. ""We did it. We did it for the dogs,"" said Carey Thiel, executive director of GREY2K USA. ""For 75 years, greyhounds in our state have endured terrible confinement and suffered serious injuries. We're better than that,"" Thiel added. One campaign supporter, Sandy Bigelow noted, ""It means everything. We've worked so hard for the dogs and they heard us. It feels so good. Oh, God, it feels so good."" George Carney said of the results, ""It's not a very pleasant thing right now. Some of these people have been here 40 years. Here's a company that did nothing wrong, paid their federal taxes on time, paid the town on time. The town is going to be a severe loser, and a lot of people here dedicated their life to the company."" 4=Carey Thiel, GREY2KUSA Both sides used emotionally-charged advertisements, the anti-racing side showing “sad-eyed greyhounds,” while the pro-racing side highlighted the workers who would be out of work when the tracks close. Both measures must now come before the Massachusetts Governor's Council for approval. A ballot initiative approved by voters in the north-western state of Washington will make it the second state to permit physician-assisted suicide. Initiative 1000 follows the ten-year-old example of the Death With Dignity Act of neighboring Oregon, and will allow physicians to prescribe a lethal dose of medication for a terminally ill patient to administer themselves. It was approved by a margin of 16%, and the ‘Yes’ campaign outspent the ‘No’ campaign by more than three-to-one. The law comes into effect in 2009." +politics,"Libya The United Kingdom and France have begun helicopter attacks against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's military forces in Libya, as part of the NATO campaign to protect civilians. The Apache helicopters were launched from the British ship HMS Ocean and the French assault ship Tonnerre, and attacked a radar installation and a military checkpoint near Brega. Whilst in a separate mission, helicopters destroyed two ammunition bunkers in central Libya. ""The use of attack helicopters provides the NATO operation with additional flexibility to track and engage pro-Gadhafi forces who deliberately target civilians and attempt to hide in populated areas,"" NATO said in a statement. ""NATO's operation is being conducted under the United Nations Security Resolution 1973, which calls for an immediate end to all attacks against civilians and authorized all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in Libya."" The Libyan government has been under international pressure to step down after it had been accused of killing civilians indiscriminately with mortars, snipers, and bombings of suspected rebels in areas like Tripoli and Misrata. The government was also accused last month of using Red Cross Helicopters to evade the no-fly zone enforcement to bomb targets in Misrata." +politics,"economy and business China has offered Africa concessional loans worth 6.5 billion as part of a host of new measures aimed at improving the economy of African nations. The announcement was made at the opening of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Leaders of nearly 50 African countries are attending the two-day conference. China had already stated today at the 3rd Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs, held immediately before the FOCAC, that Chinese firms would be encouraged to invest in Africa, while both sides would work together to improve the tourism, telecommunications and finance industries. China also said that governments should work with businesses to ensure co-operation between China and Africa. As well as the loans, made over three years, China will write off the debt of Africa's poorest countries, build 100 African green energy facilities and systematically lower import duties on 95% of all African products exported to China. Another promise is a loan of one billion dollars aimed at small and medium sized businesses in Africa. There will also be efforts to promote each other's culture and increased medical assistance to Africa. Medical assistance comes in the form of 500 million yuan (US$73.2 million) of goods for the 60 hospitals and malaria centers China has already built, as well as 3,000 doctors and nurses. Roads will also be improved. China also plans to assist with satellite weather monitoring, to help combat desertification and work within the urban environment, all aimed at reducing global warming. The new energy facilities will focus on solar, biogas and small-scale hydroelectrical installations. Another new measure is a promise to aid African farmers to ensure the continent is fed, increasing the number of demonstrations of agricultural technology in Africa to 20 and sending 50 teams of agricultural technology experts to the continent. Training in agricultural technology will be provided to 2,000 people. ""The Chinese people cherish sincere friendship toward the African people, and China's support to Africa's development is concrete and real,"" said co-chair Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as the FOCAC opened up, adding ""Whatever change that may take place in the world, our friendship with African people will not change."" He described this friendship as 'unbreakable'. Two years ago China pledged 3.37 billion at the last FOCAC in Beijing and now, according to Jiabao, ""China is ready to deepen practical cooperation in Africa."" source=Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete China has fulfilled its 2006 pledge, investing a total of 5.26 billion in Africa last year alone. 49 African countries are represented at the FOCAC, which was created in 2000, although Jiabao noted that relations between China and Africa go back fifty years. China had already forgiven or reduced the debt for thirty nations at that FOCAC summit. According to Chinese state-owned paper China Daily, trade between China and Africa increased by 45% last year, to give a total value of 72.1 billion, a tenfold increase since 2001 and up from 331 million in 2003. The Chinese have a 9.8% market share, the largest of any nation, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. China has paid for schools, hospitals, malaria clinics and Chinese scholarships for African students. 50 more schools are to be built and 1,500 people trained to staff them. Since 2006 Chinese energy firms have committed to spend at least 10.8 billion securing African oil and gas. China's Sinopec Group, an oil giant, bought up Addax Petroleum Corporation from its Swiss owners that year, gaining control of oilfields in Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon. China promised earlier this year to spend 6 billion on infrastructure in the Congo in exchange for mineral deposits for mining operations. Jean Ping, leader of the African Union, said the told those at the conference that the money is coming at an opportune time, because African growth was ""totally compromised"" by the global financial crisis. Ping said one of the lessons learned is that the world is paying for ""the irresponsible and lax behavior"" of large financial companies whose philosophy was to make short-term profits. source=Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir Not all Africans are happy with China's increasing involvement in their continent. Trade practices are a concern for some, with a view that China exploits Africa for raw materials before selling back finished goods. Among these are Egyptian Trade and Industry Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid. Egypt is the richest nation in the Middle East and is discussing this perceived issue with China. Rachid told Bloomberg ""What is a worry for me is if competition is unfair. That is where we are unhappy."" Jiabao described the trade as being based on ""win-win programmes... and transparency."" Others in Africa are delighted with the situation. ""We want more investment from China,"" Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete told the forum. Egypt's own President Hosni Mubarak talked of ""peace, security and growth,"" and of ""boosting cooperation between China and Africa."" China investing in Africa: Good or bad? Jiabao also used his speech to respond to criticisms that China worked with nations regardless of their human rights record, such as Sudan, whose President Omar al-Beahir is wanted on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. ""Africa is fully capable of solving its own problems, in an African way,"" he said, adding that ""China has never attached any political strings … to assistance to Africa."" Beshir thanked China in a speech for diplomatic work in Sudan, including working to defuse the Darfur conflict, which the United Nations says has left 300,000 dead. ""We express our deep appreciation for China's efforts in backing the comprehensive peace agreement in Sudan and its peace efforts in Darfur,"" he said, referring to a peace deal between the northern and southern parts of his country. ""We thank China particularly for backing efforts by our countries to achieve peace and stability in Africa's zones of conflict."" Jiabao said China was willing to work towards ""the settlement of issues of peace and security,"" in Africa. A further criticism has been that China has brought in Chinese workers and used their own knowledge, instead of training locals. Jiabao's speech indicated an intention to co-operate better in the fields of science and technology, as well as improve training for African students on technical courses. ""Why do some only criticise China?"" asked Jiabao. ""Is this a view representing African countries, or rather the view of Western countries?""" +politics,"Iran is referencing the conditions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), as justification for defending what it believes is its right under Article IV of the NPT to have nuclear technology and hold on to its developing nuclear program, despite great pressure from the West and others to abandon certain nuclear technological capabilities. Article IV defines ...the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty. The Associated Press reported today that Tehran is planning a retaliation contingency against Israel should the country go forward with a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities in early March, as Ariel Sharon said may occur, before he suffered a debilitating stroke in December 2005. General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, Iran's minister of defense, articulated Teheran's position on any military action against Iran's nuclear capability, saying that ""Zionists should know that if they do anything evil against Iran, the response of Iran's armed forces will be so firm that it will send them into eternal coma, like (Ariel) Sharon"". He also proceeded to question the resolve of the United States and Israel to attack Iran on the grounds of violating international conventions concerning nuclear energy. The United States government says that it wants Iran to comply by discontinuing uranium enrichment in its facilities, and said Iran will be sent to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) over this dispute if Tehran maintains its refusal to comply with the international community Both sides are clearly determined in their position, which leads to an interesting development of Mohammad elBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying that the US and other nuclear powers should themselves disarm as well if they don't want to be hypocrites, ArabicNews.com reports. Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty states that: Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control. The United States has signed the NPT, but Israel has not. Another development which may foment further controversy also came Wednesday when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the United States for a series of bombings in Ahvaz, a town near the border of Iraq, which left at least nine civilians dead. ""Traces of the occupiers of Iraq is evident in the Ahvaz events. They should take responsibility in this regard,"" Ahmadinejad remarked to Iranian state television stations today." +politics,"The online magazine, Salon.com claims to have received a DVD containing what may be all of the material from an Army investigation into the infamous Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. According to Salon's report, the DVD includes an investigative report by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command (CID). In a report by Special Agent James E. Seigmund, the summary of the content includes, ""a total of 1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse, 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse, 660 images of adult pornography, 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees, 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts, 20 images of a soldier with a Swastika drawn between his eyes, 37 images of Military Working dogs being used in abuse of detainees and 125 images of questionable acts."" Salon claims their source is a uniformed officer who spent time at Abu Ghraib and is familiar with the CID investigation. The DVD of material is described as all from a period of October 18, 2003 to December 30,2003. In reporting on Salon's scoop, the Guardian reported that a Pentagon spokesman said recent reports, ""could only further inflame and possibly incite unnecessary violence in the world"". Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Prime Minister of Iraq condemned the abuse, whilst pointing out that members of US Forces had already been punished for it. Whilst the Salon report concedes that prosecutions related to the abuse continue, it notes that none of the CIA interrogators who were said to operate at the prison have been prosecuted and no high-ranking officer or official has yet been charged in relation to the abuse." +politics,"North Korea In recent days, North Korea has been issuing threats of war to neighbouring South Korea and the United States. There has been an increase in tensions as well as the decision to close off the Kaesong Industrial Park to South Korean workers. Wikinews interviewed Dr. Robert Kelly of Pusan National University (PNU) in South Korea, who specialises in security and diplomacy, about the recent threats; and Scott Snyder, a North Korean specialist from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in the United States. Wikinews What is your job role? ::Dr. Robert Kelly: I am a Professor of International Relations at PNU. ::Scott Snyder: I am a senior fellow for Korea Studies and director of the program for U.S.&ndash;Korea policy at CFR. WNIQ North Korea has issued many threats to South Korea, how likely do you think it is that they will carry out these threats? ::RK: Very unlikely. North Korea would lose a war if one began, and if they use nuclear weapons, they will lose all sympathy in global opinion and China will abandon them. The point of these threats is to shake-down SK South Korea and its new president for aid, not to start a war. Council of Foreign Relations ::SS: North Korea's threats have a variety of purposes. Some are defensive and are primarily meant to deter other countries from taking aggressive stances in the face of North Korea's own weakness; some are designed tactically to set up for negotiations; some are expressions of intent or aspiration that are beyond the capability of North Korea to implement without facing severe consequences, and some are very specific threats that North Korea will attempt to implement as part of a guerrilla strategy so as to avoid escalation and take advantage of the element of surprise. NK North Korean threats should be taken seriously, but evaluated carefully to determine circumstances under which they might actually be carried out. WNIQ How do people in South Korea feel about North Korea's nuclear weapon's programme? ::RK: They do not like it of course, but they worry far less about it than outsiders would expect. South Koreans have been living under this shadow for many years. The North has made many threats in the past. So NK is like the boy who cried wolf. No one expects them to launch a weapon. ::SS: Increasingly unsettled and concerned, especially about the possibility of being subject to nuclear blackmail. At the same time, this circumstance thus far has had negligible impact on South Koreans' daily lives. WNIQ Are South Korean citizens carrying on their day to day lives as normal? ::RK: Yes, they are. This is not like the Cuban Missile Crisis when people were emptying the store shelves and building bunkers in their basements. My students are coming and going like normal. Indeed, South Koreans' composure is very impressive. ::SS: Yes. WNIQ Is North Korea becoming further isolated in the world? ::RK: Yes, it is. Threatening nuclear war is a genuine escalation that would alienate any state. Importantly though, NK is already fairly isolated. And because China, its main aid supplier, does not cut it off, further isolation has few practical impacts. ::SS: North Korea is increasingly politically isolated but it is comparatively more economically and informationally connected than it was a decade ago. WNIQ Is the South Korean military well-prepared to deal with any conflicts with the North Korean military? ::RK: Yes. The ROKA Republic of Korea Army, of South Korea is a modern, well-trained, well-groomed force with substantial technical and organization superiority over the KPA Korean People's Army, of North Korea. To date, the South Koreans have not responded to Northern provocation in order to avoid escalation, not because they are incapable. SK conventional superiority is augmented further by US assistance. ::SS: South Korea will decisively win most direct conventional engagements with the North, but is vulnerable in selected theaters where North Korea perceives a lack of readiness or a tactical advantage. WNIQ Is the closure of Kaesong by North Korea, evidence of further escalating tensions between the two nations? ::RK: Yes and no. It is important, because it is a source of hard currency for the North, so its closure suggests that the North is willing to carry genuine costs over this feud. On the other hand, the SK media identified the closure of Kaesong early as a marker of NK seriousness, saying very openly that if NK did not close the facility, they did not really mean what they were saying. In other words, NK was, I think, goaded into closing Kaesong in the war of words, not as a part of any larger strategic plan. ::SS: Thus far, it is a symbolic evidence of potential for escalating tensions, but has not yet resulted in material changes. Let's see how the situation plays out over the next couple of days. Kaesong will only become vulnerable when operations halt and when financial transfers connected to failure of operations become operative. WNIQ North Korea has moved one of its missiles that carries a large range missile to its East Coast, is this a serious move? ::RK: I don't think it's as serious a move as the media has made it out to be. First of all they just moved one missile. Second of all, it's not clear that North Korea actually has nuclear warheads that are small enough to actually put on top of missiles; they tell us this but nuclear weapons are actually pretty heavy, which is why nuclear missiles are frequently quite large, so moving the weapon there doesn't necessarily mean it's pointed at the United States or Tokyo which I suppose would be the likely targets. It's not clear that it's necessarily a nuclear missile and it's not being fueled or anything so far as I know so again it's sort of more of the same... bluffing...sort of talking around the issue and sort of saying things that don't actually have genuine consequences so my sense is it's more of a war of words. WNIQ There's a lot of talk about Kim Jong-un being an inexperienced leader &mdash; do you think he knows where the 'brink' lies? ::RK: That's actually a really good question. No, I don't, which is why we're having this whole conversation. Kim's father, Kim the second Kim Jong-il, was actually very good about this, ""good"" in quotations I suppose. He knew really well how to play this game, he knew really well how to play the South, particularly for aid, rice, assistance, fuel, things like that. The new guy — he's only been in there for a year-and-a-half, right, 14, 15 months — he didn't go through the grooming institutions of the regime, he didn't go through the military or the party. And he certainly has no military training, it's not like he went to some military institute — he went to some boarding school in Switzerland, or something like that. So it's not at all clear that this guy knows, sort of how this is done. I have a feeling myself that he's being egged on by the generals at home, and the generals are really doing this because they do not want the military's position to be lowered in the new order. Under the previous Kim, under the second Kim Kim-Jong-il, the military was raised in the constitution to a very high level of importance, they were sort of the primary pillar of the government, this is called the 'Military First' policy. I think people now worry that the new Kim — in order to re-start the economy might downgrade the role of the military, and I think that is where all this is coming from. I don't think they want a war. WNIQ All of these threats, do you think they are just a way of getting more economic aid from the United Nations? ::RK: I wouldn't say the United Nations UN because the UN role in this is actually pretty minimal. It is true that there are some UN specialized agencies that operate in North Korea — the World Food Programme I believe is the big one because North Korea constantly has food problems &mdash; and there are western NGOs, and aid groups, charities and stuff like that, also operate in North Korea. I've actually been to North Korea and I've seen these charities operate. I've actually met some of the people who actually live there and do this stuff. But they're actually pretty small, right? I mean, the North Koreans are pretty worried about Westerners running around in North Korea making trouble and saying things and this and that. Any kind of foreign penetration in North Korea is very, very limited. I think the real issue is actually North Korea's neighbors, specifically Japan, China, the United States and South Korea. Russia's really sort of a bit player in this drama. And that's what they really want, the North Koreans now are very dependent on only the Chinese. They used to be able to play the Chinese off the South Koreans off the Japanese off the Americans and extract aid and concessions from each of those. In the last ten years or so it has become harder to do that — particularly Japan, the United States and South Korea have closed ranks and don't really deal individually with North Korea anymore. This has pushed North Korea to China. North Korea doesn't like being dependent on just one player. And so I think that's what this is an effort to shake up, ... a very difficult game for the North were they an economic colony of China." +politics,"Canada Operation NANOOK 2008 was held from August 11 to August 25 by the Canadian Forces for the purpose of conducting mock emergency rescue operations for potential maritime disasters in the northeastern Canadian Arctic waters. Two Canadian navy ships and two airforce planes, a CC-138 Twin Otter and a CP-140 Aurora, took part in the exercises in the Canada's Arctic. The HMCS Toronto and the Canadian Coast Guard ship Pierre Radisson travelled along the Hudson Strait. The Operation extended to Davis Strait, and Frobisher Bay during the annual NANOOK Operation. There have been 18 such humanitarian operations since 2002. As more Arctic ice melts, the ships sail through uncharted waters. Emergency response times were tested for such potential disasters as oil spills, or rescue operations such as responding to cruise ship emergencies. General Walter Natynczyk, Canada's chief of Defence staff, the Honourable Peter MacKay, Defence Minister as well as Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and Steven Fletcher, Member of Parliament for Charleswood–St. James–Assiniboia and Parliamentary Secretary for Health, flew to Iqaluit, Nunavut to officially launch the exercise on August 19, 2008 and observe the process. In addition to the military exercises, Veterans Affairs Canada held a commemorative event onboard the HMCS Toronto to honour the 55th Anniversary of the Cease Fire in Korea, the 65th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic, and the start of the Last 100 days of the First World War. The inaugural ceremonies were held during Community Day activities in the capital city of Iqaluit, followed by the public panel discussion held on Saturday. The community day ceremonies were organized by participants in Operation NANOOK 2008. The public ceremonies received neither Nunavut politicians nor Inuit leaders." +politics,"A meeting set for Tuesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could be a move closer to a showdown at the United Nations over the Iranian plan to resume uranium conversion at its Isfahan nuclear facility. Iran on Monday refused the weekend offer by the European Union (EU) of economic incentives that included help with nuclear-energy generation. The EU, led by Britain and France, both of which in May 2005 were considered to have violated the first pillar of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by failing to make serious efforts to dismantle their nuclear bomb stockpiles (preamble and Article VI of the treaty), and Germany, combined the offer with an exchange for Iran to verifiably give up all activities that could lead to a nuclear bomb. Iranian officials insist their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and say it is part of Iran's right to develop nuclear power, as is legally agreed to in the third pillar of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which gives all states the right to peacefully use nuclear technology. ""The proposals are unacceptable,"" Hossein Moussavian said. ""They negate Iran's inalienable right,"" said the top Iranian nuclear negotiator. The Iranian refusal, coming from under the new leadership of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would probably trigger the referral of Iran to the UN Security Council. Iran began uranium conversion shortly after IAEA inspectors installed cameras and other surveillance equipment at their nuclear facility. The facility carried out an early stage of the fuel cycle, which includes turning raw uranium (yellowcake) into gas. France and Britain condemned Iran's actions. The IAEA sealed sensitive equipment at Iran's uranium conversion facility at Isfahan and its uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, as part of Tehran's earlier compliance with a Paris agreement. An Al-Jazeera report said the IAEA seals on the plants' sensitive equipment was recently removed. In a IAEA statement issued Monday, Reuters reports, ""It should be noted that the sealed parts of the process line remain intact.""" +politics,"Swaziland Around 50 people have been arrested ahead of a planned human rights protest in Swaziland. The protest had been planned against the monarchy of Swaziland to call attention to the country's alleged lack of human rights. Many of those arrested have been released but several people remain in custody. The King of Swaziland, Mswati III, has come under pressure for living in luxury with his thirteen wives while many Swazi people are on the poverty line. He has also faced criticism for having a high number of sexual partners, when 26% of 15 to 49 year olds are HIV positive. Several South African trade unionists were included in the protesters arrested. A spokesman for Cosatu, the South African trade union federation, said that two of the unionists had not been released and their current whereabouts are unknown. Human rights group Amnesty International has commented on the events saying that, ""The arbitrary arrest of these political activists, lawyers, trade unionists and journalists is nothing short of police harassment and intimidation."" Swaziland is the last country in Africa to hold an absolute monarchy." +politics,"Canada Whistle-blower Richard Colvin is being targeted by the Canadian government with reprisals for his report to Parliament in November in which he presented evidence the Harper government was complicit in torturing Afghan detainees &mdash; many of whom were likely innocent of any crime. Coupled with the Government's public attacks on Mr. Colvin and his testimony before the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan (the ""Committee""), our client is left with the reasonable belief that the denial of further legal indemnification is a reprisal for his participation before the Committee and the Commission. In a letter to the Military Police Complaints Commission (MPCC), Colvin's Toronto lawyer Owen Rees expresses concern over the government's complete failure to make any response &mdash; either to Colvin or to the MPCC. The government stopped paying Colvin's legal fees in November after his damning testimony before the House of Commons's special committee on Afghanistan. The special committee had called Colvin to testify in their ongoing into what Canadian Forces knew, or should have known, about the fate of detainees turned over to Afghan authorities due to their responsibilities to the Geneva Convention. Colvin testified he repeatedly warned officials regarding the treatment of prisoners by Afghan authorities, and presented evidence the government was aware of circumstances. This latest revelation comes as the Canadian Parliament has been prorogued for three months, until after the Vancouver Olympics, by the minority Harper government, with some members of the opposition parties pointing to Colvin's testimony and the whole Afghan detainee issue as the reason to dismiss the legislature. His testimony was publicly attacked by members of government, in particular by Defense Minister Peter MacKay. As a federal civil servant summoned by Parliament regarding his official work Colvin is entitled to legal representation. The government agreed his earlier government-employed lawyer could not fairly represent both Colvin and the government, but has refused to provide funding for any other legal representation despite the ongoing MPCC investigation. The MPCC's own investigation into detainee transfers is awaiting the government's appointment of a new MPCC Commissioner. Colvin continues to hold his position as head of intelligence at the Canadian Embassy in Washington." +politics,"Albania On Saturday Albania's Interior Ministry blamed Iranian actors for a cyberattack on Friday evening which targeted the national police's computer systems. Albania reported a previous attack in July. The ministry said in a statement ""the national police’s computer systems were hit Friday by a cyberattack which, according to initial information, was committed by the same actors who in July attacked the country’s public and government service systems"". The attack comes days after Iran was blamed for the attack in July. The statement also said the authorities had deliberately closed down their border crossing management software ""in order to neutralise the criminal act and secure the systems"", with local media reporting queues at border crossings. On Wednesday the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama accused Iran of directing the attack against Albanian institutions on July 15, stating it was a bid to ""paralyse public services and hack data and electronic communications from the government systems"". While Rama went on to say that the attack failed in its purpose, he also stated that Albania was severing diplomatic ties with Iran, giving Iranian embassy staff 24 hours to leave the country. The Associated Press called this the first known case of diplomatic ties being cut over a cyberattack. Iran called the accusations ""baseless"" and deemed the cutting of diplomatic ties to be ""ill-considered and short-sighted"". On Friday the US imposed sanctions against the Iranian intelligence agency in response to the July attack. NATO, of which Albania is a member, and the European Union also denounced the attack. Iran and Albania have been foes since 2013 when Albania agreed to host members of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), at the request of the US and United Nations. MEK is an Iranian opposition group, and considered a terrorist group by Iran." +politics,"More than half a million people have been displaced in Lebanon as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah continues into its second week. The UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland, who visited Beirut said that a humanitarian crisis was unfolding in the country and outlined planned relief efforts. Efforts are underway to open a safe corridor to allow aid shipments to be sent to Lebanon. The evacuation of foreign nationals from Lebanon continues. Israel launched more air strikes and also a ground incursion into Lebanon, and Hezbollah launched rocket attacks on northern Israel. UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland flew to Beirut for a 48 hour visit to Lebanon focused on assistance required by people displaced or trapped by the conflict. He visited Haret Hreik, a crowded Beirut neighborhood where Hezbollah had its headquarters, hours after it was bombed by Israel. Calling the destruction there ""horrific"", he said, ""I did not know it was block after block of houses,... It makes it a violation of humanitarian law"". Mr. Egeland appealed for both sides to put a halt to attacks. The Israeli government said the military was trying to be as precise as possible in its operations in Lebanon. ""The Lebanese people are not our enemy. We cannot sit idly by while Hezbollah terrorists launch rockets at our towns and cities,"" Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. Mr. Egeland said there was a humanitarian crisis unfolding in Lebanon, and more than half a million people were directly affected. He said that wounded people were unable to get treatment, no safe drinking water was available and that tens of thousands of civilians were caught in the crossfire between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hezbollah militants, particularly in south Lebanon. He expected the number of displaced to increase ""dramatically"" as Israel has warned the population of south Lebanon to leave the area ahead of possible new military action there. Outlining plans for a ""major"" relief operation, he called for an end to violence to facilitate the aid effort, saying, ""We can't get relief into the country in any quantity or distribute it beyond a few points"". 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict The Lebanese newspaper Daily Star reports that the number of displaced people in Lebanon passed 900,000 on Friday, with close to 40,000 refugees in Beirut itself. Other estimates place the number of refugees between half a million and a million. Israel has urged the remaining people living in south Lebanon to leave, and streams of people, some carrying white flags, are making their way from the south. About 42,000 refugees had flooded into the city of Sidon from the surrounding countryside - believing it to be safe from attacks - when it was hit by Israeli strikes today. In several towns and cities, food, medical supplies and fuel stocks are running low, and municipal authorities have expressed their inability to assist people. They have called for urgent shipments of food products such as milk, rice, sugar and canned meat; diapers and kitchen tools; medicine such as insulin, painkillers, antibiotics and chlorine to clean water; sterilized gloves; refrigerators to store medicine; tents; electrical generators of 5, 10, 20 and 30 kVA; blankets and other necessities. In the government hospital in the Al-Bass Palestinian refugee camp, the mass burial of 86 bodies was begun, after rising casualties overwhelmed the local morgue. The air strikes and bombardment of roads, bridges and trucks has made supplying aid to affected areas even more difficult. Lebanon's only international airport has been out of action since the first days of the conflict. Reports estimate that billions of dollars worth of infrastructure has been destroyed. The UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland spoke to reporters of the plans for getting aid to Lebanon. He said UN supplies of humanitarian aid would begin to arrive in the next few days. ""But we need safe access,"" he said. ""So far Israel is not giving us access."" He estimated that US $100 million is urgently needed to help the half a million to one million people in Lebanon who were in need of international assistance. U.N. and other relief agencies have been asking for humanitarian aid corridors to be opened up. Israel said it opened a 50-mile-long and five-mile-wide (80-kilometre by eight-kilometre) safe passage to Beirut for ships and aircraft to allow aid into Lebanon. Egeland said the United Nations was planning to deliver aid by setting up humanitarian corridors in the next few days. Aid will be shipped by road and by sea from Cyprus to Beirut and the southern city of Tyre, and by air. The evacuation of foreign nationals from Lebanon continues, with most being taken to the island of Cyprus, where temporary accommodation has to be found for the estimated 70,000 evacuees, in the middle of the holiday tourist season. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) says that it plans to evacuate civilians from the Lebanese-Israeli border in the next few days, but ""the ability to move will depend on the situation on the ground"". Meanwhile, thousands of Israelis have been living in bomb shelters since the fighting in Lebanon started and between a third to a half of all residents in northern Israel have left the area to escape the bombardment, officials said. ""For a week people have been sitting in shelters and security rooms, so they prefer to leave,"" said Adi Eldar, mayor of Carmiel in a report on Haaretz newspaper's Web site. On Saturday, more television stations and mobile telephone masts in Lebanon were targeted in Israeli strikes, killing five people, including a television station employee. Israel struck Beirut, Sidon, a port city in the south crammed with refugees, for the first time and factories, roads and bridges in air strikes in the eastern Baalbek region, killing one person. In Haifa, two people were killed by rockets fired by Hezbollah forces, and fifteen people are reported injured. Current estimates say that more than 350 Lebanese and at least 36 Israelis have been killed in the conflict. One third of those killed in Lebanon are children, according to a UN report released July 21." +politics,"Iraq Lord Peter Goldsmith, the Attorney General for England and Wales before and during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has told the Iraq Inquiry that he changed his mind about the legality of the invasion about one month before military action began. During his six hour session of questioning, Goldsmith said that he changed his mind about whether a further United Nations resolution was needed to ensure that the invasion was legal. His testimony comes only a day after former foreign office legal advisor Michael Wood told the inquiry that his own advice, that a further resolution was required, was ignored in favour of Goldsmith's. Goldsmith's account was under scrutiny because he had consistently said that it would be ""safer"" if a further resolution were obtained—since it would have put the ""matter beyond doubt and nobody could have challenged the legality""—before changing his mind and giving the ""green light"" only a month before the invasion. He said that he had ""good reasons"" for ""ultimately reaching a different view"", and called his previous advice ""too cautious"". He based his support of the war's legality on a series of UN resolutions dating back to the end of the Gulf War. Until February 2002, he believed that a new resolution would be required, but he said today that—after discussions with US and UK diplomats—he realised that United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441 ""revived"" the authority of the United Kingdom to use force, as outlined in previous resolutions. One of these was United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, which was passed in November 1990. It authorized ""Member States co-operating with the Government of Kuwait ... to use all necessary means to uphold and implement resolution 660 (1990) and all subsequent relevant resolutions and to restore international peace and security in the area"" against Iraq if Saddam Hussein failed to give up his weapons of mass destruction. However, there has been debate about whether ""all means necessary"" included military force. source=Peter Goldsmith He admitted that he had told then prime minister Tony Blair, as far back as 2002, that any justification for war other than a UN resolution (such as regime change or self defence) would be invalid. Goldsmith said, ""I don't think it the advice was terribly welcome."" However, he added, ""The prime minister made it clear that he accepted that it was for me to reach a judgement and he had to accept it."" Goldsmith agreed that he ignored the advice of other legal advisors, including Michael Wood (who spoke before the inquiry yesterday) and Elizabeth Wilmshurst (who resigned in protest days before the invasion), who both said that invading Iraq without a new UN resolution would amount to the ""crime of aggression"". Goldsmith claimed to have ""paid great attention to what their views were,"" but added, ""Ultimately I disagreed with the views they took."" He said that an ""unequivocal"" opinion was needed before the invasion, and that this was what he gave in March, having been unsure about the war's legality previously. He denied changing his mind only days before the invasion, as some have claimed, saying that he had advised the government that the war would be legal as far back as February, and that his advice was ""consistent"". He also called claims that he was pressured into changing his opinion ""nonsense"". He said that he ""was ready to answer questions"" and intended to debate the issue with the cabinet, but was told that they would read his advice before moving on to different issues. He said that the debate did not in fact take place – he told the inquiry that he believes cabinet ministers considered it to be ""a slightly sterile exercise"". In his testimony, Goldsmith also criticised Jack Straw's response to Wood's advice, saying that, while ministers could ""challenge"" legal advice, Straw ""appeared to be rebuking a senior legal adviser for expressing his own legal view"" in a recently declassified letter. He was also concerned that the cabinet ignored, or was unaware of, the caveats included in his March advice on the war's legality, in which he said that ""the safest legal course"" would be to get a new resolution, despite a ""reasonable case"" being available based on existing resolutions. His advice warned the government that he was not ""confident"" that the case based on existing resolutions would stand up in court. Goldsmith also requested the declassification of documents relating to the war's legal status, which are available to the Iraq inquiry, but not to the public. Sir John Chilcot, the chair of the inquiry, said that Goldsmith's ""frustration is shared.""" +politics,"Canada's scandal-plagued Liberal party has survived a series of 15 confidence votes late last night, ensuring Canadians won't be forced to head to the polls in a snap election this summer. The minority government's win came amidst uncertainty over whether backbench MPs would force an election over the contentious issue of same-sex marriage. But Prime Minister Paul Martin has yet another hurdle to jump with a key vote on Thursday over the government's second budget bill. The bill is an amendment that came about as a result of a deal reached with the NDP Party in April, when the party's leader, Jack Layton, offered to support the Liberals if they would amend the budget to cancel corporate tax cuts due to be phased in over several years. The budget deal with the NDP outlines $4.6 billion in spending for infrastructure, education, foreign aid and the environment. Martin's government has been plagued by a sponsorship scandal over irregularities in public advertising contracts dating back to the 1990s awarded by the previous administration." +politics,"Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, is witnessing a heavy fighting over the past four days. Almost 100 people have died and 200 have been wounded in the clashes, as health officials said yesterday. The battle between the Islamic Court Union and the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism has centered on the northern neighborhood of Sii-Sii. Many of the casualties are civilians caught in the crossfire. There was a temporary truce, but that did not last long. Islamic militia leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed called a unilateral truce on Tuesday in response to appeals from those affected by the violence. But his opponents said the truce was called because of a lack of ammunition. The warlords' alliance spokesman Hussein Gutale Rageh said they would only accept the ceasefire if their rivals withdrew from territory they have occupied during the fighting. The fighting started late on Sunday, when an alliance of warlords attacked the vehicle of a group allied to the Islamic courts, according to eyewitnesses. This is the second round of the city's most serious fighting in a decade. In March 2006, clashes between the two sides killed at least 90 people. The United Nations has appealed to both sides to halt the clashes. UN special representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, appealed today for the rival militias to end the hostilities, saying they had created fear and chaos for civilians caught in the crossfire. ""The indiscriminate use of heavy machine guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and artillery in and between urban areas is unacceptable,"" said Francois Fall. Somalia has not had an effective national authority for 15 years after the ousting of longtime dictator President Siad Barre in 1991. A UN-backed transitional government has based itself in the central city of Baidoa, but has so far failed to assert itself elsewhere. Islamic fundamentalists have portrayed themselves as an alternative capable of bringing order and peace, but they have not hesitated to use force and have allegedly linked up with al-Qaeda terrorists. The Islamic courts have restored order to some parts of the city by providing justice under Sharia - Islamic law. The courts say the warlords alliance is a pawn of the United States. Last week, Somalia President Abdullahi Yusuf accused the US of funding the coalition of warlords. The US government says it does support efforts to restore stability to Somalia but refuses to give details on who it backs and how. The alliance of warlords recently created the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism. It has an anti-terror task force based in nearby Djibouti. It accuses the Islamic courts of sheltering foreign al-Qaeda leaders." +politics,category=Zambia * Background: World Press Freedom Day * Profile: Zambia * Wikinews: Africa style=background: #DDDDFF; +politics,"IsraelUnited States and United Kingdom spokespeople have added to criticism from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Israel's decision to authorise a further 900 homes in east Jerusalem will ""undermine efforts for peace and cast doubt on the viability of the two-state solution"". A spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon stated, ""The Secretary-General deplores the Government of Israel’s decision today to expand Gilo settlement, built on Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war."" The US rebuked Israel for their decision. ""We are dismayed at the Jerusalem planning committee's decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem,"" said White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs. ""At a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed,"" he said, referring to the attempts by the US to lead the peace process. ""Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations."" US Department of State spokesperson Ian Kelly added, ""We object to this, and we object to other Israeli practices in Jerusalem related to housing, including the continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes."" source=Spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moonThe British consulate in Jerusalem issued a statement on behalf of Foreign Secretary David Miliband that read, ""The Foreign Secretary has been very clear that a credible deal involves Jerusalem as a shared capital. Expanding settlements on occupied land in East Jerusalem makes that deal much harder. So this decision is wrong and we oppose it."" According to Israel Army Radio, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a request from the US Middle East envoy George Mitchell on Monday to halt building in the area on the grounds that that Gilo was ""an integral part of Jerusalem"". ""Prime Minister Netanyahu … is willing to adopt the policy of the greatest possible restraint concerning growth in the West Bank, but this applies to the West Bank,"" said the Prime Minister's spokesperson Mark Regev. ""Jerusalem is Israel's capital and will remain as such."" Following the suspension of peace talks last year, the Palestinian National Authority has demanded a halt to all construction of settlements before it will return to negotiations. President Mahmud Abbas said that the breakdown in talks left him with no choice but to seek international recognition of a Palestinian state unilaterally, despite requests from the United States and the European Union to resume peace talks. ""We feel we are in a very difficult situation,"" he said in Cairo after talks with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak. ""What is the solution for us? To remain suspended like this, not in peace? That is why I took this step."" This comes as another blow to United States President Barack Obama, whose attempts at brokering a deal to halt settlement expansion are meeting with little success. With the credibility of the US leader diminishing, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has recently started meeting with a number of Middle East leaders in the past week, attempting to reconcile with Syria and meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia." +politics,"The United States Supreme Court has rejected a bid by gay rights group Log Cabin Republicans to have the US Military's ""Don't ask, don't tell"" policy rescinded again. A Federal court in California had previously ruled the policy, which restricts personnel from discussing their sexuality, unconstitutional. In October, US District Judge Virginia Phillips ruled that since the policy prevented gays from talking about their lives it is a breach of their constitutional right to freedom of speech. She forbade by injunction any use of the policy, later nullified by an appeals court decision. This allowed the policy to stay in place until the Obama administration had a chance to appeal the decision&nbsp;&ndash; While President Obama supports the lifting of the ban, he has made it clear that he would prefer the decision to be made by Congress, not the courts, which is why he wants the court verdicts struck down. The Supreme Court decision means the policy can now be applied once more, while the original ruling of unconstitutionality is contested. Under the terms of ""Don't ask, don't tell"", initiated in 1993, homosexuals can serve in the US Forces, under the condition that they do not openly admit to being gay; if they do, they can be dismissed. It is also not permitted under the policy to inquire as to whether any member is homosexual&nbsp;&ndash; again, an offence for which someone can be dismissed. R. Clarke Cooper, Executive Director of the group, said in a statement ""Log Cabin Republicans are disappointed that the Supreme Court decided to maintain the status quo with regards to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ but we are not surprised."" The House of Representatives passed a measure earlier this year to repeal the policy, but Republicans in the Senate have so far blocked any action on the issue." +politics,"ScientologyThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of the government of the United Kingdom told the City of London Police on Friday that there will be no prosecution for a 15-year-old boy who called Scientology a ""cult"" at a May 10 peaceful protest. The City of London Police had previously confiscated the boy's protest placard and gave him a court summons at the demonstration, which took place near St Paul's Cathedral at the Church of Scientology's London headquarters on Queen Victoria Street. The boy's poster read: ""Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult"". The human rights organization Liberty has come out strongly against the City of London Police for their actions at the protest, and said they are pursuing an inquiry into the police force for what they say is a troubling freedom of speech issue. Individuals from the group Anonymous have held monthly international protests against the Church of Scientology since February, as part of the anti-Scientology movement Project Chanology. The Project Chanology movement began when the Church of Scientology attempted to get a leaked Scientology promotional video featuring Tom Cruise removed from websites YouTube and Gawker.com. Members of Anonymous were motivated by the actions of the Church of Scientology, and bombarded Scientology websites and were successful in taking some of them down. Anonymous later changed tactics towards legal measures, and held international protests against Scientology on February 10, March 15, April 12, and most recently May 10. 4=15-year-old boy City of London Police approached the 15-year-old boy at the May 10 protest and cited section five of the Public Order Act 1986, which deals with ""harassment, alarm or distress"". In response, the boy cited a 1984 judgment given by Mr. Justice Latey in the Family Division of the High Court of Justice of Her Majesty's Courts of Justice of England and Wales, in which Latey called Scientology a ""cult"" and said it was ""corrupt, sinister and dangerous"". In the actual 1984 judgment made by Judge Latey, he stated: ""Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious. ... In my judgement it is corrupt, sinister and dangerous. ... It is dangerous because it is out to capture people, especially children and impressionable young people, and indoctrinate and brainwash them so that they become the unquestioning captives and tools of the cult, withdrawn from ordinary thought, living and relationships with others."" The boy told fellow protesters he was not going to take the sign down, saying: ""If I don't take the word 'cult' down, here holding up his sign, I will be either, I think, most likely arrested or given a summons. I am going to fight this and not take it down because I believe in freedom of speech, besides which I'm only fifteen."" 4=Crown Prosecution Service When the boy refused to take his sign down, City of London Police removed it, cited him with a court summons and informed him that the matter would be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service. The boy was the only protester who did not comply with the police requests to remove signs which referred to Scientology as a ""cult"". According to The Guardian, a CPS spokesman stated Friday that: ""In consultation with the City of London police, we were asked whether the sign, which read 'Scientology is not a religion it is a dangerous cult', was abusive or insulting. Our advice is that it is not abusive or insulting and there is no offensiveness, as opposed to criticism, neither in the idea expressed nor in the mode of expression. No action will be taken against the individual."" ""The CPS review of the case includes advice on what action or behaviour at a demonstration might be considered to be threatening, abusive or insulting. The force's policing of future demonstrations will reflect this advice,"" said a spokeswoman for the City of London Police in a statement in The Guardian. The 15-year-old boy's mother called the CPS decision a ""victory for free speech"", saying: ""We're all incredibly proud of him. We advised him to take the placard down when we realised what was happening but he said 'No, it's my opinion and I have a right to express it'."" The incident has generated significant interest on the Internet, from civil rights groups and anti-cult groups, and in the press. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, and Ian Haworth of the United Kingdom-based Cult Information Centre were highly critical of the actions of the City of London Police. George Pitcher of The Daily Telegraph called the actions of the City of London Police ""a mockery of the law"". Other publications also criticized the actions of the police, compared the boy to past civil rights protesters, and analyzed how the characterization of ""cult"" applied to Scientology. The Guardian reported that human rights activists ""were outraged"" when reports of the actions of the City of London Police at the protest surfaced this week. Marina Hyde wrote in a comment piece in The Guardian that the City of London Police should spend a little less time ""reaching for the collar of free-speaking children"". An article in The Guardian about the boy's court summons hit the front page of the website Slashdot on Wednesday, and an article about the statement by CPS hit the site's front page on Friday. The anti-Scientology website Enturbulation.org devoted its front page to the incident on Saturday. 4=James Welch, legal director at Liberty BBC News reported that attorneys for Liberty represented the 15-year-old boy to the CPS. In media statements Friday, Liberty said it would continue its inquiry into the actions of the City of London Police. ""The police may have ended their inquiries into this tawdry incident but rest assured that Liberty's inquiry will continue. Democracy is all about clashing ideas and the police should protect peaceful protest, not stifle it,"" said James Welch, legal director at Liberty. ""Reason has prevailed in the case of the anti-Scientology protester"", wrote Welch in a comment piece in The Observer. According to The Press Association, Liberty's inquiry may result in actions taken against the City of London Police. The City of London Police has faced controversy in the past for its close association with the Church of Scientology. When the City of London Scientology building opened in 2006, City of London Chief Superintendent Kevin Hurley praised Scientology in an appearance as guest speaker at the building's opening ceremony. Ken Stewart, another of the City of London's chief superintendents, has also appeared in a video praising Scientology. According to The Guardian over 20 officers for the City of London Police have accepted gifts from the Church of Scientology including tickets to film premieres, lunches and concerts at police premises. Unlike the City of London Police, the Metropolitan Police Service (the territorial police force responsible for Greater London excluding the City of London) has not raised an issue with protesters using placards with similar wording at protests against Scientology, according to The Guardian and Londonist. Each of the Project Chanology international protests against Scientology has had a theme: the February protest called attention to the birthday of Lisa McPherson, who died under controversial circumstances while under the care of Scientology, the March protest was arranged to take place two days after Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's birthday, the April protest highlighted the Church of Scientology's disconnection policy, and the May protest highlighted the Scientology practice of ""Fair Game"" and took place one day after the anniversary of the publication of Hubbard's book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Another international protest is planned for June 14, and will highlight the Church of Scientology's elite ""Sea Organization"" or ""Sea Org"". UK group Liberty, Edinburgh city council on Scientology 'cult' signs" +politics,"United States Edward Snowden, a US National Security Agency (NSA) whistle-blower who has been in exile since 2013, would like to return to the United States providing he is guaranteed a ""fair and impartial trial"", said Anatoly Kucherena, his Russian lawyer, yesterday. The US Attorney General has promised Snowden he will not be executed if he is convicted under the Espionage Act, however, Kucherena says, he has not been promised the fair trial he seeks. Kucherena also said the US Attorney General does not have legal power to enforce the promise of no execution. Reportedly, ""fair"", to Snowden's lawyers, requires he would not be tried under the Espionage Act. Snowden has been on the run since leaking classified information regarding the NSA's mass electronic surveillance of the US population to the mainstream media. Upon returning to the US, Snowden would still have to face trial on two counts of theft of government property. If he were found guilty on both counts he would serve an up to 30-year prison sentence. Spokesman for the US Justice Department Marc Raimondi, in remarks to Reuters, reiterated the position of the US on the case, saying, ""Snowden is not a whistle-blower. He is accused of leaking classified information and there is no question his actions have inflicted serious harms on our national security"". Kucherena said he is working alongside lawyers from both Germany and the US in order to ensure that a fair trial can be negotiated." +politics,"politics and conflicts A vehicle packed with explosives was detonated this morning in Gao, Mali. At least fifty died. The bombing targeted a camp housing government soldiers and rebels, some of whom were in a meeting at the time. Northern Mali was seized by Islamic militants in 2012, with France leading a military intervention the following year. The camp was formed as part of a disputed ceasefire. Occasional attacks continue, and the latest is the worst in years. French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux called the attack ""highly symbolic"". French President François Hollande visited the scene last week. Victims included people tasked with providing patrols, part of a United Nations-backed move to quell the violence. Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita took to Twitter today to declare three days of mourning. His government stands accused by Human Rights Watch of not taking adequate measures to protect the nation's citizens. The government says the dead include five suicide bombers. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed a single bomber from affiliate group al-Mourabitoun conducted the attack. ""type"": ""FeatureCollection"", ""features"": ""type"": ""Feature"", ""properties"": , ""geometry"": ""type"": ""Point"", ""coordinates"": -0.0439453125, 16.279684997504212" +politics,"Following a bill, which was passed with approximately 81% by the 207 MPs attending, Iran's parliament wants Iran to review its compliance with the International Atomic Energy Agency. This was the first time since the 1979 revolution that a bill was passed in five minutes. This bill was given double-urgency status, making it a higher priority over everything else. This passage occurs after the UN implemented sanctions against Iran for continuing its nuclear program; the new law permits for Iran to continue its program against the UN's wishes. This new law allows President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to take action about the use of nuclear energy in Iran, including establishing conditions of inspections by the UN. However, the bill does not authorize the complete end of inspections. The UN's atomic agency's governors may meet in January to consider imposing more sanctions if Iran does not end its nuclear program 60 days after the sanctions imposed on Saturday by the UN Security Council. Iran is considering withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." +politics,"George Allen, incumbent Republican Senator from Virginia, conceded the state's mid-term election to Democratic challenger Jim Webb on Thursday. Democrats have now gained the six seats needed by the party to hold majority control of the Senate. ""The people of Virginia have spoken, they have spoken in a closely divided voice. We have two 49ers,"" Allen said during the afternoon press conference in Arlington. Allen garnered 49.25% of the vote, compared to the 49.55% who supported Webb. ""I do not wish to cause more rancor by protracted litigation that would not, in my opinion, alter the results."" The concession by Allen in traditionally Republican Virginia follows what were once prospects for an Allen 2008 presidential bid. An easy Allen re-election campaign to the Senate was expected, but what came was the Democrats ability to frame the election as a national referendum on the war in Iraq. Democrats may have succeeded nationally to draw on the issue of Iraq, but local politics were very much in play in Northern Virginia. According to the Virginia Pilot, ""Unofficial returns gave Democratic nominee Webb a 120,000-vote advantage over Allen in Northern Virginia's eight localities. But Webb trailed badly across most of the rest of the state and would have decisively lost the election without his Northern Virginia support."" The margin by which Webb won was 9,000 votes. Allen's formulaic stance against tax increases, whether for highway taxes to improve congested northern highway and commuter corridors, or outright fiscal conservativism of all taxes in the face of a burgeoning national deficit, worked against him. The state constitutional amendment banning recognition of same-sex marriage supported by Allen, but opposed by Webb and Governor Tim Kaine, and most Northern Virginians, worked against Allen in the election." +politics,"John Pace, human rights chief for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), condemned both the US-installed Iraqi government and the US Armed Forces for breach of human rights, centring largely around widespread detention without authority or trial. ""There is no question that terrorism has to be addressed. But we are equally sure that the remedies being applied... are not the best way of eliminating terrorism,"" Pace said during an interview on Sunday. He quoted instances where Iraqi judges had ordered the release of groups of prisoners, and had found not only that their orders had been refused, but found themselves locked up as a reprisal. On the subject of the Saddam Hussein trial resuming Monday, Pace told Reuters, ""Weakness in the system of administration of justice, in addition to the antecedents surrounding the establishment of this tribunal, will never be able to produce the kind of process that would be able to satisfy international standards."" He also pointed out that the Iraqi authorities are the only legal entity allowed to detain prisoners, and that the US prison camps at Abu Ghraib and similar locations are therefore technically illegal." +politics,"YemenThe United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that 200,000 people in Yemen have been displaced by ongoing violence, and that the growing number of refugees is straining the ability of aid agencies to shelter and care for those forced to flee their homes. The refugee agency reports that thousands of civilians in north Yemen are fleeing to neighboring provinces in a desperate search for safety, shelter and assistance, as the current wave of fighting between the government and the al-Houthi rebel group is entering its sixth month. It added that it is fast running out of space and money to care for them. ""We now estimate that some 200,000 people have been displaced by the conflict in Yemen since 2004, including those displaced by the latest escalation which erupted in early August last year,"" said UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic. ""These newly displaced people bring stories of intense clashes in Razeh, Saqain and Sahar districts and report dozens of civilian casualties as a result of air strikes and heavy fighting,"" Mahecic added, as quoted by Voice of America. ""UNHCR is not present in the conflict area and has no independent confirmation of these reports. ""We now estimate that some 200,000 people have been affected by the conflict in Yemen since 2004, including those displaced by the latest escalation which erupted in early August last year,"" he continued. The spokesman noted that camps for the displaced are stretched to capacity, and aid resources are quickly becoming depleted. News24 reports that one camp at Al Mazrak in the Hajjah province is now home to 21,000 people, double its intended capacity, and others were also being populated quickly and in dire conditions. ""The shelter situation is equally dire in Amran province where most of the arriving IDPs are staying with host families or renting places. Over the New Year's week alone, more than 5,000 IDPs arrived to Amran City,"" Mahecic said. ""The acute lack of shelter and accommodation is creating tensions between the displaced and the local population. In the absence of an immediate and feasible camp option, UNHCR is planning to set up a transit center in Amran as an interim and temporary solution,"" he concluded. The UN has issued a US$177-million appeal on behalf of all UN agencies working in Yemen; so far, less than one percent of that has been received." +politics,"Scotland Voters in the Scottish constituency of Airdrie and Shotts are to go to the polls on May 13 to elect a replacement member of parliament (MP) to the United Kingdom House of Commons. The outgoing MP for the seat is Neil Gray &mdash; a representative of the pro-independence Scottish National Party &mdash; was resigning to run in the Scottish Parliament election, which was to occur on May 6. Gray won the seat with 45.1% of the vote at the anchor=Elections in the 2010s, winning 13.1% more than the second placed candidate Helen McFarlane of the Scottish Labour party, who received 32.0% of the votes. One of the eight candidates running in this constituency is the leader, secretary, and immigration spokesman of United Kingdom Independence Party Scotland (UKIP), Donald Mackay. On their party website, UKIP says since their beginning in 1993, they have campaigned to take Britain out of the European Union, and claim ""it was the efforts of UKIP that forced former Prime Minister David Cameron's hand into holding an In/Out Referendum on 23rd June 2016"". After party leader Richard Braine's resignation in 2019, Peter Walker, writing for The Guardian, wrote that UKIP was ""now polling at less than 1%, having been largely supplanted by Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party"", now Reform UK. Two polls conducted shortly after the resignation by Panelbase and Deltapoll showed UKIP at 0.499% and 1%, respectively, compared to the Brexit Party at 8% and 11%. Wikinews spoke to Mackay about key political issues in the electorate. WNI first question Why did you decide to run in this by-election? Donald Mackay UKIP are a mainstream party and should have a candidate in all Westminster elections. WNIQ What are your thoughts on how the coronavirus pandemic has been handled by Westminster? Donald Mackay Been handled very badly. Destroying small businesses through a lockdown is not the answer. WNIQ What do you think needs to be done to improve transport services in the Airdrie and Shotts constituency? Donald Mackay No real comment on this. WNIQ Do you support the idea of a second independence referendum? Donald Mackay I am a Unionist. If the people of Scotland wish to be politically independent, that is their prerogative, but my belief is that Scotland is already to some extent independent (it has, after all, a so-called government) and I would prefer to see Scotland as an integral part of the United Kingdom. WNIQ Do you think the Conservative government is doing enough to combat climate change? Donald Mackay I am not interested in climate change, being a sceptic on the matter. WNIQ As the leader of UKIP Scotland, what does your party stand for? Donald Mackay The party stands for: * Scrapping Holyrood parliament * Total commitment to freedom of speech. * No more lockdowns or invasion of individual freedom of movement. WNIQ Your party's 2020 manifesto references ""Cultural Marxist social engineering of society"". Do you stand by that, given that term has been described as an antisemitic conspiracy theory? Donald Mackay Not sure I would use the phrase cultural Marxism but the politicisation of our schools/public sector/police/football teams is something I firmly oppose. WNIQ How does your party distinguish itself from the similarly anti-EU Reform Party? Donald Mackay As far as I am aware Reform UK do not propose the abolition of the Scottish parliament. WNIQ What is a local issue that you think isn't being addressed that should be? Donald Mackay Local sensible investment to make Airdrie a more attractive town to live/work in. WNIQ If you're elected, what's one thing you'd like to change about the law? Donald Mackay Primarily to remove any restraint on the freedom of speech/thought." +politics,"Iran nuclear program Governors of the United Nations nuclear agency IAEA approved cuts in technical aid to Iran in accordance with UN sanctions. The move reflected UN Security Council Resolution 17-37 passed last December that bans the transfer of technology or expertise that might aid in producing nuclear fuel. The 35-nation board, which is often split over issues on Iran, came to a consensus in ratifying the recommendation of the IAEA's Secretariat to suspend 22 of 55 technical aid programs involving Iran. These consist of four national programs in Iran and 18 regional or trans-regional programs that involve the country. The board did not suspend 33 other programs (11 national and 22 regional) all of which focus on medical and agricultural radio-pharmaceuticals and isotopes. The United States and France who fund much of the IAEA's special aid programs had originally demanded more sweeping reductions. Ali Akbar Velayati, international affairs advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that the IAEA's decision was ""politically-motivated"". Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, said his nation will not stop uranium enrichment activities and that suspended programs are not part of Iran's nuclear enrichment program and the sanctions will have no effect on it. He stated ""The enrichment program has been indigenous and independent, nobody, even the IAEA, have co-operated or worked with us. Therefore these projects will continue as planned under the supervision of the IAEA."" Soltanieh declared that the action had been dictated by the U.N. Security Council, and that this was an illegal act undermining the IAEA's professional independence. IAEA board members joined in supporting IAEA's Director General Mohamed ElBaradei call for a ""double suspension"" where both enrichment and sanctions would stop concurrently. Only North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq have been stripped of nuclear aid because of fear of weapons development." +politics,"UPDATE: Chinese Asylum Seeker Ends Hunger Strike After 54 Days. ---- A Chinese man in Australian immigration detention is still refusing food, seven weeks after starting his hunger strike. Jen Wen Zhang, a detainee at Sydney's Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, has refused food since October 20. Mr Zhang and five other Chinese asylum seekers began the strike in protest at Australia's Mandatory Detention policy. Five of the six hunger strikers ended their protest in November. The Department of Immigration (DIMIA) says Mr Zhang is continuing his hunger strike after being hospitalised a fortnight ago. Now back in Villawood he is being closely monitored. A DIMMIA spokesperson said Mr Zhang was being urged to end his strike. The government continues to resist Mr Zhang's protest. ""As the minister said, his actions will not influence his migration status or outcomes,"" said the spokesperson. Victorian Greens refugees spokesman, Peter Job, has been speaking to Mr Zhang, and said the asylum seeker is determined to continue to strike despite his ailing health. Mr Job said Mr Zhang believes he was denied a fair hearing from the Immigration Department and the Refugee Review Tribunal, but was taking political action for all detained asylum seekers. ""He felt he had no option but to fight in the only way he could, with his body,"" said Mr Job. ""But above all, he spoke of his dread of long-term detention, telling of waking continually in the morning with a sense of profound despair and foreboding due to his incarceration, and telling me he feared the mental health damage he had seen in so many long-term detainees,"" he said. Mr Job says he has tried to convince Mr Zhang to stop the hunger strike, but says he is in a desperate state. ""He is very upset, he feels that he will be in great danger if he returns to China,"" Mr Job said. ""He said he'd rather die here in Australia than go back to China, where he's convinced he'll be persecuted. Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) spokesman Ian Rintoul said the Immigration Department has been riddled with problems and too often rejected long-term detainees who are genuine refugees. ""The government itself has recognised there have been many mistakes in the department's processes, there have been many problems with the way asylum seekers have been dealt with,"" Mr Rintoul said. ""That's why we're desperately trying to urge the government to intervene in this particular case."" Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said in mid November that the Government has done all it can for the Chinese asylum seeker. ""I don't support this kind of protest, I don't think anyone does, I recognise the risk it can play for the protesters themselves,"" she said. ""I've written to them urging them to get off their protest and making it clear to them that the Government doesn't consider cases while people are engaging in this sort of potentially very harmful protest."" Another Villawood detainee, Motahar Hussein, says Mr Zheng's health has drastically deteriorated and suspects that vital organs have experienced permanent damage. ""Though DIMIA continuously attempts to devise creative ways of crushing Mr. Jun Wen Zhang's spirit, he will not be easily intimidated,"" said Mr Hussein in a media release. ""He is willing and determined to continue with his peaceful and civilised protest. He believes he has no other option. He finds himself compelled to do so by the Howard Government's policy of inhumane and indefinite detention. He is prepared to continue to the supreme and utmost sacrifice of his own life, hopefully, in an attempt to expose DIMIA's attitude of injustice and corruption."" *date=November 13, 2005" +politics,"LGBT On Saturday, over a hundred thousand people reportedly gathered in Taiwan's capital Taipei and participated in the 16th annual lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual (LGBT) Pride. According to the organisers, about 137 thousand people participated in the largest LGBT Pride of Asia. People marched with banners and placards which read ""love is equal"" and ""vote for your happy future"". Of the many attendees, Chi Chia-wei also participated in the parade. Civil rights activist Chi Chia-wei was first to come out as homosexual on Taiwan TV, in 1986. Pride attendees gathered near the President Tsai Ing-wen's office where the Pride parade started. The attendees protested for education of same-sex marriage in schools. In May 2017, the Taiwanese court had ruled same-sex marriage as legal, and had set a two-year period for its legalisation including the time to amend the law, if required. With just six months remaining from the proposed deadline, some groups including some catholic churches have been pushing for preventing same-sex getting a legal recognition, saying marriage is ""a bond between one man and one woman."" Taiwan's court ruled Article 972 of Civil code ""unconstitutional"", which defined marriage only between opposite genders, but a separate public vote is scheduled to happen on November 24 regarding the law about same-sex marriage. During the LGBT Pride, drag queen Chin Kuang-chih said, ""We hope the government will take the issue seriously. It's a pity that there has been no action after the court decision"". At the scheduled deadline, same-sex marriage is to be automatically legalised if the government does not reach a conclusion about the law. Taiwan Pride was first organised in 2003." +politics,"politics and conflicts A Nigerian Air Force jet fighter mistook refugees for rebels yesterday, Nigerian military said, firing on a camp in Rann, Borno State. Dozens of refugees and aid workers died. The lowest estimate from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is of 50 dead. The BBC estimates at least 52 dead, while one Borno State official is attributed by AP as saying over 100 are dead. MSF say at least 200 were wounded. The Red Cross said at least six of its staff died and twelve more injured. The impoverished region, in the northeast of the nation, has suffered severe famine as conflict interrupts agriculture. Farmers are unable to work owing to bombs on their land. The Red Cross said volunteers were at the camp, home to thousands, to distribute food. The military said the Air Force was dispatched to deal with ""remnants"" of the Boko Haram militant group, which it claims to be in a final push against. Major General Leo Irabor, who led the operation, said, ""Unfortunately, the strike was conducted but it turned out that other civilians were somewhere around the area and they were affected"". Irabor said two soldiers were amongst the dead and others were wounded. Military spokesman General Rabe Abubakar said the military are ""all in pain"" after the disaster, adding ""in a military operation such as this, from time to time these things do occur."" Irabor promised an investigation. President Muhammadu Buhari said he was saddened by ""this regrettable operational mistake"" and sought calm. ""This large-scale attack on vulnerable people who have already fled from extreme violence is shocking and unacceptable,"" MSF operational chief Dr Jean-Clément Cabrol said. The Red Cross said it has staff and facilities ready in neighbouring Cameroon and Chad to assist. ""The whole camp is controlled by the army and no one can come in or out without being checked,"" said MSF head of emergencies Hugues Robert. Robert added the group knew travel and work in the area was dangerous, and took precautions. Helicopters have been evacuating the wounded, including a United Nations helicopter which brought four medical personnel and 400kg (900lb) of emergency medical aid, and left with eight wounded Red Cross workers. The UN is in the midst of an appeal for aid to the famine-hit region." +politics,"Canadian news Foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay was accused last week of calling Liberal MP Belinda Stronach a ""dog"" in the House of Commons. Stronach, a feminist, said the comment was offensive to all women. NDP leader Jack Layton said on Saturday that MacKay should apologise or resign. MacKay said that he did not call her a dog. ""I made no such gesture. I made no derogatory or discriminatory remark toward any member of the House,"" MacKay said yesterday in the House of Commons. Despite MacKay's comment, the Liberals are still asking for an apology." +politics,"The United States Supreme Court has heard a plea that terrorism suspects being held at the U.S. Naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, should be given the opportunity to challenge their detention in American courts. Demonstrators outside the court chanted and waved signs calling on the nine high court justices to grant the detainees habeus corpus, the age-old legal principle that allows prisoners to challenge their detention before a neutral judge. Inside the court, attorney and former US Solicitory General Seth Waxman argued on behalf of a group of 37 detainees, part of the 305 prisoners now being held at Guantánamo. ""All have been confined at Guantánamo for almost six years,"" he said. ""Yet, not one has ever had meaningful notice of the factual grounds of detention, or a fair opportunity to dispute those grounds before a neutral decision-maker."" But Waxman appeared to have little success in convincing some of the high court's more conservative justices that the Guantanamo detainees have a constitutional right to challenge their detentions in court. Among the skeptical was Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. ""You are appealing to a common law right that somehow found its way into our Constitution without, as far as I can discern, a single case in which the writ right was ever issued to a non-citizen,"" he said. Some of the other justices appeared more sympathetic, including Justice Stephen Breyer. ""Now it has been six years, and habeas is supposed to be speedy, and yet people have serious arguments anyway that they are being held for six years without even having those arguments heard,"" he said. Since January 2002, more than 750 people have been held. Many of the 305 prisoners at Guantánamo have complained of abuse and almost all have been confined for years without charges. Around 470 other prisoners have been released over the years, and the U.S. said it intends to try 60 to 80 of those currently in detention. Since 2002, just three prisoners have been formally charged, and only one has been convicted, as part of a plea bargain. David Hicks, an Australian citizen, who admitted to training with al-Qaeda, was repatriated to Australia to serve a nine-month prison sentence. The Supreme Court ruled against the Bush administration in two previous cases concerning the legal rights of the Guantánamo detainees. Congress got involved in the issue in 2006 and passed a law that was designed to keep detainee appeals out of the civilian court system and refer them instead to military commissions. But civil and legal rights groups say the alternative procedures set up by Congress and the Bush administration deprive the detainees of basic rights. ""At issue here that the Supreme Court decided was; 'Do we have a king in this country who is not bound by the rule of law and not bound by the Constitution? Or do we have a president that is subject to the Constitution?,"" said Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Conservative legal scholars argue against U.S. constitutional protections for foreign terrorist suspects. ""If the courts are going to be in charge of the conduct of warfare, we are going to be a much less safe country,"" said Andrew C. McCarthy, who is with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. A decision by the Supreme Court in the Guantánamo case is expected before the end of June." +politics,"On Thursday, May 26, Amnesty International urged foreign governments to investigate high-level U.S. government officials for human rights violations committed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. William Schulz, the executive director of the U.S. branch of Amnesty International, said that governments have an obligation under international law to conduct investigations into alleged human rights violations. Amnesty International released a list, which Schulz read in his speech: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, former commander of US forces in Iraq and current commander of the Joint Task Force Guantanamo, and Douglas Feith, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Schulz said: :""The refusal of the U.S. government to conduct a truly independent investigation into the abuses at Abu-Gharib and other detention centers is tantamount to a white-wash, if not a cover-up of these disgraceful events. It is a failure of leadership to prosecute only enlisted soldiers and a few officers while protecting those who designed a deliberate government policy of torture and authorized interrogation techniques that constitute torture or cruel and degrading human treatment. The government investigation must climb all the way to the top of the military and civilian chains of command. If the U.S. government continues to shirk their responsibility, Amnesty International calls on foreign governments to investigate senior U.S. officials. If those investigations support prosecution, the governments should arrest any official who enters their territory and begin legal proceedings against them,"" In 1998, General Pinochet of Chile was arrested in London after a Spanish judge issued an international arrest warrant. Schulz claims that similar measures could apply to members of the current U.S. administration such as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has described recent criticisms of the United States regarding alleged human rights abuses as ""unsupported by the facts."" President Bush, in a press conference on Tuesday, was asked about Amnesty International's report. The president said: ""I'm aware of the Amnesty International report, and it's absurd. It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that is &mdash; promotes freedom around the world. When there's accusations made about certain actions by our people, they're fully investigated in a transparent way. It's just an absurd allegation. ""In terms of the detainees, we've had thousands of people detained. We've investigated every single complaint against the detainees. It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of &mdash; and the allegations &mdash; by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble &mdash; that means not tell the truth. And so it was an absurd report. It just is.""" +politics,"United NationsThe director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is calling for more investment in agriculture in the developing world to tackle the problem of food insecurity. Jacques Diouf told Parliamentarians attending the 121st Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union that more than one billion people are going hungry because of under-investment in agriculture during the past two decades. A recent study by the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Program finds most of the more than one billion hungry people in the world live in developing countries. It says no region is immune and hunger is expected to increase everywhere, even in the developed world. Jacques Diouf, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization, says 30 countries were in a situation of grave food crisis, requiring emergency assistance. He says 20 of them are in Africa and 10 in Asia and the Near East. ""The events of the last three years, triggered by soaring food prices and followed by the financial and economic turmoil, have demonstrated how fragile our global food system is. This year's increase in hunger is not the result of poor harvests or a shortfall in supplies, but rather is caused by the economic crisis which has reduced the incomes and job opportunities for the poor,"" he said. Diouf says under-investment in agriculture and rural development is one of the root causes of the recent global food crisis and the difficulties encountered by the majority of developing countries in dealing with it effectively. ""If people go hungry today it is not because the world is not producing enough food but because it is not produced in the countries where 70 percent of the world's poor live and whose livelihoods depend on farming activities. The challenge is not only to ensure food security for the one billion hungry people today, which is certainly an enormous task, but also to be able to feed a world population that is expected to reach 9.1 billion in 2050,"" he said. He has urged nations to increase food production by 70 percent by 2050, and remarked that ""Where there's a will, there's a way."" The FAO chief says studies show GDP growth originating in agriculture is at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as GDP growth originating in other sectors of the economy. He says the solution to food insecurity lies in boosting agricultural production and productivity in poor countries where food shortages are chronic. Diouf says production has to be increased in the most needy areas, by the most needy people. These are smallholder farmers in rural households. He says investment in agriculture in developing countries would amount to $44 billion in official development assistance a year. He says the returns from that investment in tackling world hunger would be enormous." +politics,"The IAEA board has passed a resolution to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council. The decision by the 35-nation board came on Saturday. The resolution was made without waiting for the director of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, to finish preparing a report on Iran's civilian (and allegedly military) nuclear programs for the regular IAEA meeting scheduled for March 6. According to al-Jazeera, ElBaradei refused to accept pressure from Western states to finish his report in advance of the March 6 meeting. ElBaradei said in written responses to requests by the US and EU member states that he had given Iran until the meeting in March to answer questions to IAEA enquiries, stating, Due process, therefore, must take its course before we are able to submit a detailed report. ElBaradei also said that another IAEA verification mission was due in Iran shortly and that he had only in mid-January sent extra questions to Iran based on what diplomats called newly released intelligence. The text of the resolution, made without the results of the report, which will only be ready in March, requires ElBaradei to report to the Security Council ""steps Iran needs to take to dispel suspicions about its nuclear ambitions."" The resolution states that there are serious concerns about Iran's nuclear program. It also notes, ""Iran's many failures and breaches of its obligations,"" (to the non-proliferation treaty) and expresses ""the absence of confidence that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes."" The resolution also states that Iran is to: * Re-establish a freeze on uranium enrichment and related activities; * Consider whether to stop construction of a heavy water reactor that could be the source of plutonium for weapons; * Formally ratify an agreement allowing the IAEA greater inspecting authority and continue honoring the agreement before it is ratified; and * Give the IAEA additional power in its investigation of Iran’s nuclear program, including ""access to individuals"" for interviews, as well as to documentation on its black-market nuclear purchases, equipment that could be used for nuclear and non-nuclear purposes and ""certain military-owned workshops"" where nuclear activities could take place The resolution calling for the referral was apparently drafted by several members states of the European Union together with the United States. Political analyst Joshua Frank claims that the US is not interested in diplomatic means of limiting Iran's possible shift towards nuclear weapons development and that the major reasons are Iran's oil supplies and plans to open an International Oil Bourse in petroeuros, which would challenge the petrodollar, on March 20, 2006. The agency vote sets the stage for future action by the top U.N. body. Russia and China insisted, in casting their votes with the majority, that future votes on deliberations should wait until at least March. The outcome could include economic and political sanctions. This process of successive escalation of the tension between Iran and the Western members of the Security Council was described by Hans Blix, responsible for about 700 inspections for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, as spin and momentum. He was in favour of inducing Iran to forego enrichment but also recommended that the United States give a similar commitment not to attack Iran with either conventional or nuclear weapons, just as it apparently has to North Korea. 27 of the 35 nations on the board voted for the referral. Three nations that voted against the resolution: Cuba, Syria and Venezuela. Five other countries Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Libya and South Africa, abstained. weapons of mass destruction in UK, Iran, Israel, and Iraq Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, a nuclear weapons state obliged under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to destroy its own, existing nuclear weapons, said that the IAEA vote showed ""the international community's determination to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East."" After the decision, Iran said today that it would ""immediately"" begin the steps to ""restart full-scale uranium enrichment"" and ""curtail"" the powers of the IAEA inspectors. Javad Vaeedi, deputy Iranian nuclear negotiator, said in a press conference after the vote, ""After this decision, Iran has to immediately bring into force its parliamentary law to suspend voluntary implementation of (the watchdog agency's) Additional Protocol (on snap inspections) and (pursue) commercial-scale enrichment which until today was under full suspension."" He also said, ""this resolution is politically motivated since it is not based on legal or technical grounds."" Iran has also said that a proposed deal by Moscow to enrich Iranian uranium is dead. ""There is no adequate reason to pursue the Russian plan,"" said Vaeedi. ""Commercial scale uranium enrichment will be resumed in Natanz in accordance with the law passed by the parliament."" Iran had said that it will ""end cooperation with IAEA"", if referred to the Security Council. As of January 31, 2006, the Deputy Director General for Safeguards of the IAEA had reported that Iran has continued to facilitate access under its Safeguards Agreement as requested by the Agency, and to act as if the Additional Protocol is in force, including by providing in a timely manner the requisite declarations and access to locations." +politics,"Chad Violence between Rebels and the Chadian military started in Chad as rebel groups are continuing to advance on the N'djamena, the capital of Chad. IRIN has reported that the government of Chad responded to the move by the rebel groups by placing tanks across N'djamena. The chief of the Chadian military has said that the battle has ended with the rebels being ""entirely destroyed this column after 40 minutes of fighting,"" a claim which has been denied by the rebel groups. Timan Edrimi, one of the leaders made an opposing claim by saying that ""The army attacked us the rebels 40 kilometres from Massaguet, but we drove them back"" The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said in a press release that ""a series of armed attacks on the UN refugee agency and other aid organisations has forced UNHCR to evacuate most of its staff from its office in Guereda in eastern Chad."" A representative for the organisation said ""We the UNHCR are left only with one choice, much to our regret, which is to relocate most staff out of Guereda area, as we cannot continue to perform our activities in favor of refugees."" According to AFP, the European Union force (EUFOR) has suspended all flights to Chad, although it was made clear that this was only a temporary delay. The commander of EUFOR in Chad said he did not consider a danger to EUFOR and he said that he would not consider it a danger ""unless during their offensive they threaten or attack civilians, or the non-governmental organisations, or UN personnel.""" +politics,"United NationsThe United Nations (UN) suspended all of its operations in Gaza from yesterday, after the bombing of a convoy of UN aid trucks which killed one Palestinian driver, and wounded three others. Thursday was the second day of attacks on UN targets after three UN schools housing refugees were bombed on Tuesday, killing over 50 civilians. ""UNRWA decided to suspend all its operations in the Gaza Strip because of the increasing hostile actions against its premises and personnel,"" Adnan Abu Hasna, a Gaza-based spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said yesterday. Richard Miron, spokesman for the UN said that the Israeli military had been notified in advance of the coordinates of the relief trucks saying, ""This underlines the fundamental insecurity inside Gaza at a time when we are trying to address the dire humanitarian needs of the population there."" The bombing of the UN trucks was the last straw for the UN, already angered after Israeli tanks fired on a UN school housing refugees killing 50 including an entire family of seven young children. The UN said that they had given Israel the GPS coordinates of their schools, and demanded accountability for the attacks. Israel's government says it is investigating the incidents. More schools were attacked including the al-Fakhora School killing 40 people, many of them women and children. Hours before the attack on the al-Fakhora School was an attack on Asma Elementary School which killed three Palestinian cousins. The cousin's father said the bodies were so mangled he couldn't tell the bodies apart, ""We came to the school when the Israelis warned us to leave,"" he said. ""We hoped it would be safe. We were 20 in one room. We had no electricity, no blankets, no food. ""Suddenly we heard a bomb that shook the school. Windows smashed. Children started to scream. A relative came and told me one of my sons was killed. I found my son's body with his two cousins. They were cut into pieces by the shell."" Like al-Fakhora, Asma Elementary is an UNRWA school. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on yesterday that they were trying for four days to get their ambulances to a Gaza neighborhood before being allowed to by Israeli military forces. After getting there, they said, they found four starving children sitting next to the bodies of their dead mothers. ""This is a shocking incident,"" said Pierre Wettach, ICRC chief for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. ""The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestinian Red Crescent to assist the wounded."" Israel granted a three-hour ceasefire yesterday that they gave for aid workers to enter areas that they had closed off. 50 bodies were recovered during the ceasefire, raising the death toll to 763, including more than 200 children, since air raids first began on December 27. 3,121 people have also been wounded. Eight Israeli soldiers and three civilians have died in the same period. Israeli forces also shot a Palestinian man in the West Bank during a protest against Israel's actions in Gaza. Yesterday, a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli forces after a confrontation in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Adumim near Jerusalem." +politics,"In Vienna, top diplomats from the United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, France, and Germany reached an agreement on Thursday on an incentive package to offer to Iran in exchange for its giving up uranium enrichment. The specifics of the incentive package were not revealed, but a delegation from Europe led by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is expected to formally deliver the offer to Iran in the coming days. Iran would then have several weeks to respond. In a prepared statement, British foreign secretary Margaret Beckett said, ""We have agreed on a set of far-reaching proposals as a basis for discussions with Iran. We believe they offer Iran the chance to reach a negotiated agreement based on cooperation."" Beckett did not mention any sanctions to be taken against Iran if it refuses to comply. The United Nations Security Council is expected to take up the question of sanctions should Iran turn down the offer. The agreement comes a day after the United States offered to participate in multilateral negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program if Iran suspends its uranium enrichment program. Iran agreed to the idea of holding talks but rejected the preconditions. In the first direct reaction by the Iranian government to the offer, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Thursday; ""Iran welcomes dialogue under just conditions but won't give up our rights,"" Iranian state-run television reported. ""We won't negotiate about the Iranian nation's natural nuclear rights but we are prepared, within a defined, just framework and without any discrimination, to hold dialogue about common concerns,"" he said." +politics,"France and Italy have announced along with the United Kingdom that they will be sending military advisers to help Libyan rebels in their fight against the forces of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Italian Minister for Defence Ignazio La Russa said Wednesday that his country will send ten instructors. French officials said they would send fewer than ten. The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said they would send a team that could possibly contain up to twenty advisers. La Russa said in a news conference that the advisers' roles had yet to be determined, ""They won't be on the battlefield. They'll be mentors, they won't accompany them. Training is one thing, participation another."" He further said of the rebels, ""They're rich in enthusiasm, they want to fight for liberty, but naturally they are poor in experience and arms."" However, La Russa believes that not all the arms the rebels have were taken from the Libyan Army stockpiles, stating, ""I don't think they only have arms from the Gaddafi army. Some help arrived."" He did not elaborate on the final statement. Meanwhile, U.S. officials say President Barack Obama's administration plans to give the Libyan opposition $25 million in non-lethal assistance. The officials say the assistance could include items such as vehicles, fuel trucks, protective vests and non-secure radios. itsdeadjim=x Libya's foreign minister, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, criticized the dispatch of foreign military advisers, saying it will harm chances for peace in the country. In an interview with the BBC, Obeidi called for a ceasefire followed by a six month period to prepare for an election. ""We think any military presence is a step backwards, and we are sure that if this bombing stopped and there is a real ceasefire we could have a dialogue among all Libyans about what they want — democracy, political reform, constitution, election. This could not be done with what is going on now,"" said Obeidi. The move comes as UN officials condemn the use of cluster bombs that are in use by pro-Gaddaffi forces, a tactic banned under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, of which Libya is not a signatory. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stated, amidst reports of snipers attacking civilians in many towns, that use of such munitions would ""inevitably lead to civilian casualties"", whilst also calling for NATO forces to ""exercise the utmost caution and vigilance so as not to kill civilians by mistake"". Pillay praised the Libyan government for allowing on Monday a U.N. humanitarian base in the capital city of Tripoli. Meanwhile, fighting has continued between rebel and pro-government forces this Wednesday in the besieged western port city of Misrata, where residents are pleading for international intervention. British photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who co-directed the documentary film Restrepo, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature this year, died from wounds he suffered in an RPG attack in the city. source=Tim Hetherington's last tweet His colleagues, photographers Chris Hondros and Guy Martin were also severely wounded. Hondros suffered a severe brain injury leaving him in a critical condition and eventually succumbed to his injury at a triage center and Martin, a British citizen, was injured by shrapnel, and is now receiving vascular surgery. Another with the group, Michael Christopher Brown also received shrapnel wounds which were not life-threatening. Hetherington last updated his Twitter account on Tuesday, which read, ""In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO."" Leaders in the rebel-held city called for the urgent intervention of foreign ground troops to protect the 500,000 civilians there, the first such request by anyone among Libya's opposition forces. The rebels' civilian leadership, the Transitional National Council, has however rejected the presence of foreign troops on Libyan soil to help their cause. Meanwhile, across the country, NATO airstrikes again struck government installations in several cities." +politics,"Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, compared the United States detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to a Soviet-era gulag in that it is ""entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law,"" she said. The group's Executive Director William Schulz, on Fox News Sunday, said in response to questioning that they do not ""know for sure"" whether or not testimonies it has published describing torture and abuse of prisoners by sections of the U.S. military are valid because the U.S. will not give access to the camp to investigate them. He also said he has no conclusive evidence that U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, ordered torture of detainees at the facility. Schulz had previously referred to ""apparent high-level architects of torture,"", and included Donald Rumsfeld in that group. Director Schulz stated that comparing the installation to a gulag was perhaps not the best choice of words. ""...they (detainees) are not in forced labor, they are not being denied food. But,"" he continued,"" there are some analogies between the gulags and our detention facilities."" Schulz alleged that U.S. officials are ""running an archipelago of detention facilities,"" some secret. The report also describes ""ghost"" detainees who ""disappear"" and the export of prisoners to countries that are known to practice torture. During his appearance, Schulz argued that his and other human rights groups should be given broader access to the facility. ""We don't know for sure what all is happening at Guantanamo,"" he said, ""and our whole point is that the United States ought to allow independent human rights organizations to investigate."" The treatment of prisoners at the facility has been in hot dispute recently, with Amnesty International comparing the facility to a ""gulag"" in its annual human rights report. Bush administration officials condemned the comparison. On Friday, the U.S. government released documents indicating that both guards and detainees at the facility had on a few occasions abused the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book. Prisoners and ex-prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have testified that they have been tortured. David Hicks, still being held, filed an affidavit on August 5, 2004 declaring that he had been tortured, abused and ill-treated during his detention by US military authorities, and that he saw and heard similar treatment inflicted on other detainees. Mamdouh Habib, now free, says about his time at Guantanamo Bay that he was told by interrogators that his family had been killed, and that he was tied to the ground while a prostitute menstruated on him. Professor Christopher Tennant of Sydney University also stated he saw an unsigned medical report from Guantanamo Bay that backed up Habib's claim to have been beaten while in US custody; ""Well, the main feature of the medical report from Guantanamo was that he had had repeatedly blood in his urine, which is a very significant symptom and a worrying symptom, and that was consistent with his reports both to me and to the specialist physician who also examined him, and was consistent with the fact that, on examination, he had evidence of discolouration to his skin on his right loin, just over his kidney, which in turn was consistent with old bruising and possibly due to being beaten.""" +politics,"itsdeadjim=1 The Chinese government released human rights activist Hu Jia from prison on Sunday after he had served over three years for subversion. His release, which had been scheduled in advance, occurred just days after controversial artist Ai Weiwei was unexpectedly released on bail after three months of detention. Hu was released on the same day that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao began his visit to Britain, the first country on his three-nation Europe trade tour. Described by the Irish Times as a ""mild-mannered, slight figure who suffers from liver ailments"", the 37-year-old Hu is a prominent Chinese dissident who had spent years campaigning for civil liberties, environmentalism, and on behalf of suffers of HIV/AIDS before his imprisonment. He was imprisoned in April 2008 for ""inciting to subvert state power"" by writing articles about human rights in the period before the 2008 Olympic Games. He had also given many interviews to foreign news media and government embassies. He was first detained in December 2007 and his arrest came after he had spent more than 200 days under house arrest. In 2008 while in prison, he won the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, awarded by the European Parliament. Hu's wife Zeng Jinyuan said via Twitter that her husband lost his political rights upon his release and cannot speak to the media for a period of one year. source=Hu Jia, human rights activist Hu was briefly interviewed on Sunday via telephone by Hong Kong's Cable TV, and indicated that despite the danger, he would not give up his work. ""(My parents) have told me to just be a normal citizen and don't confront the system because this system is very cruel, using the country's absolute power to violate people's dignity without restraint. But I can only tell my parents I will be careful"", he said. Although recent releases of high-profile dissidents such as Hu and Ai may seem to some that China is loosening its repressive policies against dissidents, activists and academics said yesterday that the determination of the Chinese government to silence dissent has not lessened and those speaking up continue to be rounded up and detained. Huang Qi, a dissident released this month from prison and interviewed by telephone, said, ""We closely follow dozens of rights' defense cases, and I've found that that at the grassroots and lowest levels of society in China, the rights defense environment has not seen any fundamental improvements."" He warned, ""One cannot count how many ordinary people are being locked up or taken away every day."" However, Wan Yanhau who is a Chinese activist living in the US said there might be a short term diminishing of the crackdowns on human rights activists. He suggested the government could be realizing that the harsh treatment of dissidents has not stopped recent episodes of unrest. The riots by migrant workers in the Guangdong province and protests by ethnic Mongolians are recent examples. Further, China is receiving harsh criticism from European countries with which it wants to increase trade. But illegal detentions are increasing, according to Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch, and are signs that China is not moving toward compliance with international norms." +politics,"Democratic Republic of the Congo A top United Nations official has called the Democratic Republic of the Congo the ""rape capital of the world"". The UN's special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Margot Wallstrom, said that the UN Security Council needs to ""punish the perpetrators in DR Congo"". Data collected by the UN shows that 200,000 cases of sexual assault have been reported in the last 14 years, 8,000 of which occurred last year and 1,244 of which occurred in the first three months of 2010. The UN's mission has been trying to combat the problem by escorting women when they go to market and working closely with the local officials. Wallstrom released a statement after returning from a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She said: ""Women have no rights, if those who violate their rights go unpunished. If women continue to suffer sexual violence, it is not because the law is inadequate to protect them, but because it is inadequately enforced. The Harvard Humanitarian Society issued a report in April showing that in South Kivu, an eastern province in DR Congo, 60% of the women raped were raped by armed men. More than half were raped in their own home, and more civilians are committing the attacks than ever before. Despite the country's war ending in 2003, DR Congo is still plagued with militia violence." +politics,"Eleven protesters, including five members of Congress, were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly. Protesting the ongoing atrocities in the Sudan region, Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., a Holocaust survivor and the founder of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, said from the steps of the Sudanese embassy, ""The slaughter of the people of Darfur must end."" ""The Sudanese government has shown total disregard for the wishes of the global, civilized community. I have no optimism as to the actions of the Sudanese government,"" Lantos said. Democratic House members James McGovern and John Olver of Massachusetts, Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, and Jim Moran of Virginia were among the others arrested and released after paying $50 fines after being arrested in front of the Sudanese embassy. Olver said, ""We must hold the Sudanese government accountable for the attacks they have supported on their own citizens in Darfur."" Meanwhile, President Bush met with Darfur advocates this Friday in support of rallies all over the US this weekend against the ongoing genocide in western Sudan. ""The genocide in Sudan is unacceptable... There will be rallies across our country to send a message to the Sudanese government that the genocide must stop. ... I want the Sudanese government to understand the United States of America is serious about solving this problem,"" Bush said." +politics,"Sierra Leone Actress Mia Farrow and Carole White have testified in former-Liberian president Charles Taylor's war crimes trial at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, The Netherlands. Farrow and White's testimonies contradict supermodel Naomi Campbell's testimony from last week. White said Campbell was ""mildly flirtatious"" with Taylor at a dinner in South Africa in 1997. Taylor, she alleged, told Campbell he would send her diamonds. White continued to say Campbell communicated with Taylor and awaited the diamond. Campbell was ""very excited"" about the diamonds according to White. ""Taylor's men came in and they sat down in the lounge and we sat opposite them... they then took out a quite scruffy paper and they handed it to Miss Campbell and said 'these are the diamonds.'"" Farrow claimed Campbell told her Taylor received diamonds in the middle of the night. She testified, ""Campbell said that in the night she had been awakened, some men were knocking at the door, and they had been sent by Charles Taylor, and they had given her a huge diamond."" Last week in Campbell's testimony, she did not know who sent her diamonds, but testified her then-agent White told her who probably sent the diamonds. White and Farrow testified Campbell said the diamonds were from Taylor. She claims she gave the diamonds to Jeremy Ractliffe who gave them to police. Police spokesperson Musa Zondi confirms Ractliffe had uncut diamonds. ""Yes, they are real diamonds. We cannot tell whether they are 'blood diamonds' or not. That will be part of the investigation,"" Zondi said. Taylor faces eleven counts for violating international law including, murder, rape, sexual slavery, enlistment of children under the age of fifteen, pillaging, enslavement, and ""outrages upon personal dignity."" Taylor allegedly traded ""blood diamonds"" for weapons and supplying the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone with weapons during the civil war from 1991 to 2002. This war conscripted child soldiers, an international crime. The prosecutors for the Special Court say Taylor trained the rebels and had them rape, murder, mutilate, and decapitate the civilians of Sierra Leone. Over 100,000 people died in the Sierra Leonean civil war. Taylor plead not guilty to all charges. Linking the blood diamonds, used to support the RUF, to Taylor is a high priority for the prosecution." +politics,"Palestine On Monday the UN published a summary of its report regarding the inquiry into incidents that had taken place last summer during the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon announced in November 2014 an inquiry would be made into ten incidents that took place in schools operated by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees. Aside from investigating Israeli strikes on seven of these institutions, the report also examines three cases in which Hamas-owned weaponry was hidden in such schools. Other than the summary, the full 207-page inquiry report is not to be made public. The inquiry was based on analysis of weaponry, medical reports, videos and still footage. In addition, the investigators relied on testimonies of UN employees and workers from other organizations in the Gaza strip. The investigation, led by former Dutch General Patrick Cammaert, is separate from the investigation led by the UN's Human Rights Council. Ban added on Monday that he assigned senior managers to consider the recommendations made by the investigators. Along with the publication of the report, Ban Ki Moon stated in a letter that the harm done to UN institutions that gave shelter to civilians is a ""matter of the utmost gravity"". According to UNWRA, the full report indicates that information regarding the humanitarian use of these schools had been transmitted continually to Israel during the conflict. Mr. Ban also wrote “I am dismayed that Palestinian militant groups would put United Nations schools at risk by using them to hide their arms.” UNRWA told the Guardian that although it sent the Israeli military the schools' GPS coordinates, in seven incidents examined by the investigation team the attacks were attributed to Israel. Furthermore, UNRWA has affirmed, as is coinciding with the investigation's conclusions, that the organization did not transfer arms to Hamas and had developed a mechanism to handle the existence of arms in its facilities with the help of international experts. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded regarding the issue, saying that ""Israel makes every effort to avoid harm to sensitive sites"" and that ""All of the incidents attributed by the report to Israel have already been subject to thorough examinations, and criminal investigations have been launched where relevant."" Hamas and the Palestinian Authority did not immediately respond." +politics,"Environment A 586-page report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released Wednesday indicated governments should prepare for continued weather-related catastrophes. The report noted highly populated and very poor areas are at highest risk, and stressed no country or continent is safe from these ongoing threats. The panel consists of Nobel Prize-winners, whose work in climatology indicates more intense tropical cyclones. The report placed blame regarding recent disasters on a combination of climate change caused by humans, population changes and poverty. The panel was founded in 1988 by the United Nations. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates recent severe weather conditions are costing upwards of US$80 billion per year. The report focused heavily on issues pertaining to coastal areas of the United States, specifically noting damage in those areas could increase 20 percent by 2030. The authors of the report stated some portions of India may become uninhabitable for floods and other problems. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pointed out other cities at lesser risk, such as: Miami, Shanghai, Bangkok, China's Guangzhou, Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, Myanmar's Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon), and India's Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta). Inhabitants of small island nations may have to leave their homes because of elevated sea levels and major storms. A total of 220 authors worked on the report." +politics,"PhilippinesLeo Luna Mila, 35, a news anchorman and commentator of Radyo Natin, was gunned down Tuesday in San Roque, Northern Samar, Philippines. Mila was shot 12 times while leaving work. As publisher of the local magazine Peryodista and host of another radio program ""Bungkaras"" (Wake Up), he had been critical of the New People's Army's forced taxation. He had received threats through text messages last September. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that Mila is the 8th journalist killed in the Philippines this year and the 62nd since 2001, when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to power. A total of 122 media people have been murdered since President Cory Aquino overthrew the Marcos dictatorship in 1986. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice's Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, chairman of the ""Task Force 211"" - Against Political Violence and Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines, announced that a probe team would be sent to Northern Samar. The Northern Samar provincial police office has also formed ""Task Force Mila"" to investigate the killing. Two local politicians, including San Roque Mayor Andre Avalon, have offered a P100,000 (US$2 067.80) bounty for any information leading to the capture of the suspects. Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said, ""it is time for the central government, as well as local authorities, to promptly address the climate of impunity that is facilitating rising violence against Philippine journalists. Mila's murder is a reminder that police throughout the Philippines must respond immediately with investigations and protection when journalists are threatened for their work.""" +politics,"The Government of Sudan has expressed that the Darfur Peace Accord with main rebel group, Sudan Liberation Army, led by Minni Menawi, can overturn the previous rejection of UN Peacekeepers. So far, only African Union Peacekeepers were allowed in Darfur. ""The Sudan government will be open for any assistance,"" Bakri Mulah, secretary-general for external affairs in Sudan's Information Ministry, said in Khartoum, Sudan. In New York, John R. Bolton, the US ambassador, on Saturday welcomed Khartoum's new willingness to accept a UN peacekeeping force to take over from AU soldiers in the Darfur region. He cited the Sudanese government representatives' comments to indicate they were now willing to accept the UN force. He said, "" We view this as a very encouraging sign, the first positive outcome from the Abuja peace agreement. "" In the meantime, top UN humanitarian official Jan Egeland has arrived in Sudan to review the situation in the Darfur region. He is expected to visit southern Darfur, where fighting has broken out recently. It is the first visit by a UN official to the region since the peace deal was signed. He said that access for aid workers in Darfur was at its worst level in two years. ""At the moment Darfur is slowly being strangled, it's dying in front of us, half of the population now has become war victims...so I believe, yes, we are turning the corner, but the whole world has to put pressure on the parties."" said Mr Egeland, the UN's Emergency Relief Co-ordinator. Earlier, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan requested Khartoum to issue visas to his team of assessors so they could plan for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force to replace the 7,000 African Union troops later in the year. The AU troops, now running out of funds, had largely been ineffective in stopping atrocities, leaving millions to struggle in camps with little food or water. While details for a UN peacekeeping force are finalised, the US diplomat said the US had asked Rwanda to send in some 1,200 troops to supplement the AU forces. In a recent development, an unknown assailant shot a Spanish United Nations Aid worker in Chad. She is working in the eastern part of Chad to assist the refugees from Darfur region. 2,00,000 refugees have crossed the border to escape from the violence in Darfur. She is in critical condition." +politics,"Over 700 troops stormed a Haitian slum near the capital city of Port-au-Prince on Friday to oust a gang led by a man known only as Evans, blamed for many murders, kidnappings and rapes in the area. Heavy sustained gunfire was exchanged for several hours in the operation, which killed four gang members and wounded two U.N. peace keepers, U.N. officials said. U.N. commander Maj. Gen. Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz said no one was arrested in the raid and no weapons were recovered, but U.N. spokesman told BBC News that the operation had taken away the Evans' gang's base in Cite Soleil. The raid has been approved by Haitian President René Préval. Over 8,000 UN force have been stationed in Haiti since 2004, to restore order following a coup against then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The area of Cité-Soleil is home to around 300,000 people and a neighborhood known as Boston was said to be in the control of Evan's gang. The UN troops raided a school controlled by Evans' gang and their headquarters, called Jamaica Base. This was the largest of the several raids into gang's territory." +politics,"War in South Ossetia (2008)The War in South Ossetia has escalated as Russian forces are being sent into the conflict on the Ossetian side. At 10:00 a.m. local time, Georgian sources reported that three Russian Su-24 attack aircraft invaded Georgian air space and dropped bombs onto a target near the town of Kareli. A later flight dropped one bomb near Gori. While no one was harmed in the second attack, seven people were reportedly injured by the first bombing. According to the Agence France-Presse, a speaker of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called this information ""nonsense"" and ""rubbish"". At 11:38 a.m. the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili announced the mobilization of reserve troops to withstand what he called ""a large-scale military aggression"" by Russia, and called Russia to stop the ""bombardment of Georgian towns."" Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin said that, ""it is regrettable that on the day before the opening of the Olympic Games, the Georgian authorities have undertaken aggressive actions in South Ossetia."" The crisis broke out after days of heavy fighting in the region. On August 7 Georgian troops launched an offensive against the Ossetian town of Tskhinvali, the separatist's capital. The Georgian government claims that this is in reaction to attacks by ""separatist rebels"" on ""unarmed civilians and peacekeeping forces"" in villages near the town. At the same time, the state news agency of South Ossetia reports that that Tskhinvali is under heavy artillery fire, with most or all of its population seeking shelter, and apparently a number of buildings already having been destroyed. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged the two sides to set up a ""humanitarian corridor"" to evacuate civilians and the wounded. The main city hospital is reported not to be functioning, and ambulances can not reach the wounded. Thousands of refugees are leaving South Ossetia, mostly for North Ossetia, says the United Nations refugee agency. Georgian officials have claimed that up to four Russian jets have been shot down while attacking Georgia. Russia claimed ceasing all civilian aircraft flights to Georgia starting at midnight on August 9. In retaliatory response, Georgia is set to stop all Russian TV channels' broadcasts from August 9th onwards. According to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reporting at 9:21pm August 8th, a convoy of 20 vans carrying up to a total of 400 Russian volunteers has crossed from Russia's North Ossetia to South Ossetia. The government of South Ossetia has announced that it will evacuate children in danger zones to Russia. This came after a speech made by Eduard Kokoity, President of South Ossetia, which accused the Georgian government of ""attempting to spark a full-scale war."" Kokoity said that the conflict's victim count has reached 1400. As of 10:51pm August 8th, 12 Russian peacemakers are reported dead and 150 wounded. A video tape showing Georgian Su-25 aircraft being downed was aired on Vesti Russian TV channel late night of August 8th. The pilot of the jet reportedly ejected, but was captured and killed on the ground by Ossetian military." +politics,"A thousand or more non-citizen residents of Kuwait demonstrated yesterday demanding rights given to Kuwaiti citizens. Police used water cannons in dispersing the protest. There were injuries among both protesters and police, and several protesters were detained. Citizens of Kuwait receive substantial welfare benefits, including education and health care. There are estimated to be around 100,000 non-citizen residents, called ""bidoons"" (from bedoun jinsiyya, Arabic meaning without nationality). Many bidoons claim descent from desert nomads who did not apply for citizenship in 1959. Many bidoons live in economic hardship, and cannot get legal recognitions such as birth and death certificates, driver's licenses, and attested marriage contracts. Interior Ministry spokesman Adil Al-Hashash said ""security forces on the ground talked to the protestors in a nice and civilized way"", telling them ""they should go to the legal channels for their demands rather than protesting."" The government says police acted in self-defense after protesters threw rocks. Independent Kuwaiti Member of Parliament Daifallah Buramia said ""the protest of bidoons is legitimate and the government is responsible for this because it has failed to resolve the problem""." +politics,"crime and law A suspected gunman has been taken into custody today after a university in Missouri, U.S. was locked down when he entered the campus with an AK-47 assault rifle. Cody Nathaniel Willcoxon reportedly arrived at Missouri University of Science and Technology around 9:00 a.m. CDT (14:00 UTC) Thursday morning after shooting at officers in a police chase. Officials say no one has been injured after Willcoxon&mdash;described as a Caucasian male with sandy blonde hair&mdash;entered McNutt Hall, a building on the campus. He had earlier escaped from police custody at Fort Leonard Wood while being questioned by military police when trying to enter the property and was then pursued by authorities along Interstate 44. The gunman began shooting at police while driving, exiting the interstate at Rolla, Missouri. Willcoxon reportedly stopped near a university building and fled on foot, before stealing a Ford Taurus from a residence near the school. No shots were fired on campus, say authorities, and no one was injured. The school sent emergency alerts to its students and faculty as a result of the incident. Law enforcement officials told students to stay inside their buildings until the lockdown was lifted and were not allowing anyone to enter the campus. Police were seen retrieving several items, including weapons, from a vehicle on the school campus. Willcoxon was apprehended by authorities around 1:00 p.m. CDT and the lockdown was subsequently lifted." +politics,"In the state of Connecticut today, a law allowing civil unions for same-sex couples took effect. The law is unique; it allows civil unions for same-sex couples with full benefits of a regular marriage, while at the same time defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Heterosexual couples are not allowed to receive civil unions. The license application will be identical to one for a regular marriage, except ""bride"" and ""groom"" are replaced with ""party 1"" and ""party 2."" The Connecticut civil unions law is the first gay marriage law to be passed voluntarily; lawsuits forced fellow New England states Vermont and Massachusetts to allow same-sex unions. Vermont has civil unions while Massachusetts allows actual same-sex marriage. Some localities have recognized same-sex couples in the form of a domestic partnership. ""This is a historic day. We're beyond ecstatic."" said Randy Sharp, 46, of Plainville, who was applying for a license with his partner Jeff Blanchette, 44. Not everyone is happy about the law. Already, opponents are lobbying for an amendment that will ban same-sex marriage. ""Today was a sad day for our state. It was a sad day for our state's children."" said Brian Brown, executive director of Family Institute of Connecticut. The group held a protest outside the Capitol which was attended by 50 people. Last year eleven states voted on Election Day to prohibit same-sex marriage." +politics,"A United Nations exhibition, entitled ""Lessons from Rwanda"", about the 1994 Rwanda genocide, has been dismantled and postponed because Turkey raised objections to the Armenian genocide being mentioned. The Armenian genocide was carried out by the so called Special Organization of the Young Turks, who specially elected criminals from Turkish prisons to act as escorts in the deportation of Armenians. The Armenian genocide is the second most studied case of genocide after the Holocaust Hitler himself occasionally referred to the extermination of the Armenians, or the lack of prosecution there of, in support for his plan to exterminate the Jews. However, the Republic of Turkey has long disputed that the event constituted genocide, claiming rather that the Armenian deaths were a result of inter-ethnic strife, disease and famine during the turmoil of World War I. The exhibit was set up in the visitors lobby on Thursday and was due to be opened on Monday by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. ""Lessons from Rwanda"" was created by Aegis Trust, an anti-genocide NGO, and approved by the U.N. Department of Public Information. The Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, East Timor and Sudan were mentioned as examples of genocide. But it also included a section entitled “What is genocide?” which read: Following World War One, during which 1 million Armenians were murdered in Turkey, Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin urged the League of Nations to recognize crimes of barbarity as international crimes. On Saturday, James Smith, the chief executive of Aegis, was told by the UN to remove the sentence. Aegis would not submit to the Secretary General’s request. Smith explains, ""Had we been asked to remove reference of atrocities to Jews because Germany objected, we would have been equally resistant."" The suggestion by Armen Martirosyan, the Armenian ambassador to the UN, to remove the words ""in Turkey"" were also not acceptable. Baki Ilkin, the Turkish ambassador to the UN, said that Turkey expressed ""discomfort over the text's making references to the Armenian issue and drawing parallels with the genocide in Rwanda."" On Monday, the panels in the visitor's lobby had been turned around to prevent it being seen by the public. Farhan Haq, U.N. associate spokesman, said that the review process which takes into account ""all positions"" had not been followed and that ""the exhibition has been postponed until the regular review process is completed."" Manoel de Almeida e Silva, an official in the strategic communications division, said the exhibit would take place. ""We are committed to it. It is a very important issue.""" +politics,"Eluana Englaro, who had been in a persistent vegetative state since 1992 following an automobile accident, died Monday at the ""La Quiete"" clinic in Udine, where doctors stopped feeding her four days ago. The case has sparked a debate about euthanasia, as well as a political crisis. Euthanasia is illegal in Italy, however, refusing treatment is not. On Friday doctors removed her feeding tubes in accordance with a November 2008 ruling by the Constitutional Court of Italy that it was within her father's rights to order the cessation of feeding. Eluana's father, Beppino Englaro, fought a ten-year battle to remove his daughter's feeding tubes. He and Eluana's friends testified that this would have been according to her own wishes. Beppino Englaro delivered the news of Eluana's death by telling ANSA: ""Yes, she has left us, but I don't want to say anything, I just want to be alone."" In an interview with The Guardian last week, Beppino Englaro said: ""If she couldn't be what she was before the 1992 accident then she would not have wanted to live."" In the last days of Eluana's life, the Italian government, led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, sought to intervene to save her life. The Vatican backed the government's position. At the time of her death, the Italian Senate was working on a law to force doctors to resume feeding Eluana. When her death was announced, the Senate held a moment of silence as a sign of respect. The legislation is continuing and could affect future right-to-die cases. Berlusconi said that he felt ""deep pain and regret"" for not saving her life. On Sunday, he said, ""I can guarantee on my honour and that of my ministers, that our decision was based on moral principles and there was never a plan to attack anybody."" Friday, Berlusconi had attempted to issue a decree to prevent the feeding tubes from being removed. This was however rejected by President Giorgio Napolitano who said it violated high court orders, triggering a constitutional crisis. Massimo D'Alema of the opposition party, Democratic Party of the Left, criticized the Prime Minister. ""Berlusconi has little knowledge of the constitutional culture,"" he said. ""He is a bully who wants to question the president's constitutional democratic powers."" source=Dr. Carlo Alberto Defanti The Italian Minister of Health Maurizio Sacconi attempted to halt the proceedings on a technicality. According to his office, the court had specified for Eluana Englaro to die in a hospice, which the ""La Quiete"" clinic technically is not. Eluana Englaro's long-time neurologist, Carlo Alberto Defanti, had erroneously predicted that she would survive another eight to ten days. ""Apart from her brain injuries, Eluana is a healthy woman. She has never been ill and never took antibiotics,"" said Dr. Defanti on Sunday. ""It was something we did not foresee,"" he said of her death on Monday. Defanti said he did ""the right thing... I am helping a person achieve her own wish, a defenseless person who was betrayed by everyone except her father and a few other people."" Professor Antonio de Monte, an anesthesiologist who also provided care for her said: ""Eluana died 17 years ago."" At Sunday's noon blessing, Pope Benedict XVI said, without direct reference to the case, ""Let us pray for all the sick, especially those most seriously ill, who cannot in any way provide for themselves, but are totally dependent on the care of others. Let each of them experience, in the care of those who are near them, the power of God's love and the wealth of his saving grace."" According to The Times, opinion polls showed the people of Italy to be evenly divided 47/47, with 6 percent undecided, on the issue. Beppino Englaro and observers have called Eluana ""Italy’s Terri Schiavo"" in reference to the United States Terri Schiavo case in 2005, which resulted in Terri, who was also in a vegetative state, being allowed to die after attempted legislative intervention." +politics,"Chinese premier Wen Jiabao paid a visit to the birthplace of English playwright and poet William Shakespeare on Sunday. The visit to Stratford-upon-Avon was included in his three-day tour of various industries in Britain. The UK is one of China's biggest trading partners, second only to the EU. source=Premier Wen Jiabao The 68-year-old Wen, reportedly a fan of Shakespeare, was met upon his arrival at Stratford-upon-Avon by dozens of flag-waving individuals from the UK's Chinese community. He visited Shakespeare's birthplace, which is now a museum and then attended a scene from Shakespeare's ""Hamlet"", his favourite play, while sitting in the ""sun-drenched"" garden. He toured the collection of treasures at the town's Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. On his tour at the Trust, lasting half an hour longer than planned, he looked through a 17th-century folio of Shakespeare's famous plays. Trust director Diana Owen, who talked with Wen during his informal tour, said Wen described Shakespeare as ""the greatest writer of all time."" Wen told Sky News that his love of Shakespeare began as a child. ""The local people here have every reason to take pride that this place has produced a figure who belongs not only to the UK but to the world,"" Mr Wen said to Sky News. ""A great man who belongs not just to his era but to entire history."" The Chinese leader's arrival in England came days after the announcement of activist and dissident sculptor Ai Weiwei's release by Beijing last Wednesday, after a global call for his release. The announcement, made before Wen's meeting today with British Prime Minister David Cameron, was likely discussed along with the issue of China's record on human rights and trade deals. There were several protesters outside Downing Street, who held a banner that read ""Cameron and Wen: human rights before trade"". The goal of the visit, part of a three-nation tour of Europe, is the strengthening of economic ties between the two countries. China is increasingly outsourcing its own manufacturing to less costly labour markets and wants to increase its investments in established European brands. Today, China and Britain announced contracts worth over one billion pounds. source=Jeremy Hunt, British Culture Secretary British Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, whose wife is Chinese, was hopeful that Wen's visit would have a positive effect on the country's tourism industry. He told Sky News, ""I am hoping that a billion Chinese might see some pictures on their TV of their premier coming and visiting the birthplace of Shakespeare, and thinking: 'Well, I'd like to go there as well.' "" Hunt noted that 150,000 Chinese visit the UK yearly and thinks that is ""the tip of the iceberg"". Hunt stressed that Wen's visit is not only about jobs. It is also about developing broader cultural ties ""which is the best possible way to make sure we understand each other and avoid the kind of misunderstanding that so can bedevil relationships, as has happened in the past,"" he told the BBC. The Chinese are interested in British happenings. About 30 million Chinese watched the recent Royal wedding." +politics,"Australia Ballarat, Australia — In the lead-up to the upcoming Australian federal election, four candidates for the Division of Ballarat met last Sunday at the Ballarat Tech School in a climate-centred forum organised by local group Ballarat Renewable Energy and Zero Emissions (BREAZE). In attendance were sitting Labor member Catherine King, Greens candidate and former mayor John Barnes, Australian Federation Party candidate Kerryn Sedgman, and independent candidate Alex Graham. Local Liberal and Liberal Democrats candidates gave apologies in place of attendance. The event was preceded by a climate action rally outside the Ballarat Civics Hall and the Ballarat Town Hall, which featured speeches from both representatives of BREAZE, the Ballarat branch of Extinction Rebellion, Environment Victoria, the Public Transport Users Association, and the Ballarat Trades Hall. The forum began with each candidate being given three minutes to summarise their policies on climate before questions were taken from members of the public. John Barnes, the Greens candidate, began by claiming ""the Greens have the most ambitious program of any of the parties on addressing climate change"", and said if the Greens were in the balance of power in the coming election, they would work to push Labor towards the ""reforming zeal of past generations"", invoking former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Barnes stated the Greens have a target of 75% emissions reduction by 2030, by which time they would also end the mining, burning, and export of coal in Australia. Independent candidate Alex Graham began his speech by saying he was ""passionate about our environment"" and claimed to have ""absolutely, without question, the best policy"", explaining the focus of his candidacy was to introduce a referendum that would allow the Australian government to ""write its own money supply into existence"". Graham said this policy would deliver ""money beyond the pale to totally restore our environment"". Incumbent MP Catherine King said that in her twenty years as an MP, the Australian Parliament had been unable to deal with the climate issue. She referenced previous attempts by the last Labor government to legislate policies to tackle climate change, such as the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), but stated these efforts were ""completely and utterly dismantled"" after the 2013 election. King referred to the Powering Australia policy announced in December 2021 by Labor energy and climate spokesperson Chris Bowen, stating the policy had been supported by the Business Council of Australia (BCA), National Farmers' Federation (NFF) and ""some"" environmental groups. King stated the policy included a commitment to 43% emissions reduction by 2030, net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and it would overall ""grow jobs, increase renewable energy, and bring emissions down"". Kerryn Sedgman of the Australian Federation Party promised to centre the opinions of views of the community, and read from the Federation policy on climate directly, saying ""carbon is not the enemy. Toxic pesticides are the true enemy."" Sedgman claimed pesticides were the primary source of nitrous oxide (N₂O) released, and that N₂O was ""300 times worse than carbon"". After the candidates concluded with their opening summaries, members of the public were open to ask questions. The first question asked candidates what their first two priorities were for climate action. Barnes said the Greens' top priority was ""prompt action"", and they would also focus on transforming the nation's economy to ""a new way — a new sustainable way — of making our living in the world"". Graham stated if Australia had a limitless supply of money, there would not be a climate change issue and Australia would become a model for the world. He said his two priorities would be creating more money and introducing newer technologies. King said her first priority would be getting more renewables into the grid and generally increasing the amount of renewables, and also added a third priority, saying that as Minister for Transport and Infrastructure in a Labor government, she would add a climate section to the department and work to create a network of electric vehicle charging stations. Sedgman stated ""there's more than two top priorities"", but remarked that soil regeneration was a key part of carbon sequestration, and called for a more immediate approach to deal with climate through education and community hubs. The event was then disturbed slightly by a person asking about a supposed ""ninety-year suppression order suppressing the names of twenty-eight VIP alleged paedophiles"", who was asked to leave by organisers for disrupting the event. King labeled the belief a ""QAnon conspiracy theory"". After this, the topic shifted to the proposed Western Victorian Transmission Network, a proposed overhead transmission line from Bulgana to Sydenham. Graham said his proposed referendum, if successful, could lead to the federal government subsidising a plan to put the transmission line underground beneath the Western Highway, emphasising we shouldn't ""let money interfere with saving this planet"". King noted the location of a proposed transfer station was ""really problematic"", but stated the issue lay more with the regulatory process, and Labor would work with state and territory governments to reform this process. Sedgman admitted she was not fully aware of some of the background King had bought up, and she would like to speak to those affected personally. Barnes said the consultation of AusNet, who propose building the transmission line, had not been good, and hopes an extended time granted for the environmental impact statement will allow all people affected to be properly heard. Barnes also stated AusNet had claimed diverting the line underground would cost thirteen times more than the overhead alternative, while a Shire of Moorabool study showed it would only cost five times more. One questioner asked about what the candidates would do to investigate the possibility of direct air capture. Barnes remarked ""the best way to sequester carbon is not to release it in the first place"", and said the mechanical removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere was ""probably a pipe dream"". Graham quipped he was ""prepared to ask my friend if he could do it, and I'm sure he could."" King argued the technology was ""a fair way off yet"", but noted A$3 billion was reserved in Labor's Powering Australia plan for new technologies to reduce emissions. Sedgman stressed the importance of reducing the ""extraordinary rate"" at which deforestation occurs. Candidates were then asked if they would commit to no new coal and gas infrastructure. King confirmed a moratorium on new coal and gas was not part of Labor policy, but they were not interested in investing taxpayer funds towards them, contrasting it with what she said was the current government's approach to projects such as the Collinsville Power Station. Graham said, as someone who had previously worked in the industry, he would ""close down every coal-fired power station as soon as it was possible"" and disallow the construction of new coal-fired power stations. Graham also pledged to close down coal mines and ban fracking. Barnes stated the Greens take the advice of the International Energy Agency seriously, and would not allow any new coal, gas, or oil projects, as well as closing down coal-fired power stations by 2030, to be replaced by renewable energy. Barnes emphasised the need to lower emissions before 1.5 °C of global warming was reached. One questioner asked candidates what they would do in the event of two scenarios after the coming election — one being that Labor had a clear majority, the other that the Greens held the balance of power. King stated the ""beauty of power in Australia"" was it didn't require any legislation. However, she said Labor would still attempt to legislate targets of 43% emissions reduction and net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Barnes reiterated the Greens in the balance of power would push Labor to be more ambitious, and that while compromise would be needed in a hung parliament, the Greens would ""play hardball"" on addressing the climate. Candidates were then asked about a proposal from Beyond Zero Emissions to turn northern Australia into the ""battery of Asia"". Barnes stated Australia could become a ""energy superpower"", and good government policy could have the market ""with us"" on this issue. King declared over 600,000 jobs could be realised under Labor's Powering Australia plan, and concurred in saying Australia should be a renewable energy superpower and exporting technology to the world. She highlighted the need for a government that ""believes in climate change, believes that we have to do something about it"", and restated that Labor's plan was endorsed by the BCA and NFF. The final question asked how those in coal communities such as the Hunter Valley could be helped to deal with the potential loss of jobs with a transition to renewable energy. Graham responded by calling for a ""basic, living universal wage to all people"", while Sedgman asked who was eligible to have these jobs in the first place ""due to the current mandate conditions"". King said the demand for fossil fuels was running out, with trading partners setting targets of net zero emissions by 2050. She underlined the ""really good jobs in renewables"", and emphasised the need to start now in training people for new, good-paying renewable jobs, as otherwise these workers wouldn't get jobs again. Barnes stated the Greens had announced A$19 billion over ten years with the aim of transitioning communities affected by a move away from fossil fuels, they would aim for renewables running the power system by 2030, and they would run retraining programs and maintain existing incomes for ""up to a decade"" if workers cannot find ""equally lucrative"" jobs. Barnes emphasised the need to not vilify those working in mining communities, and a plan must be in place for these communities to maintain their dignity. The forum concluded with representatives from Environment Victoria in the local area invited to present copies of an open letter calling for ""faster and fairer climate action"", and which was signed by 125 people. Among other things, the letter called for a replacement of ""coal, oil and gas with clean energy"", ""a national plan to slash climate pollution this decade with strong targets that, at a minimum, match our trading partners"", and an accelerated rollout of renewable energy projects with the aim of creating ""a healthy, prosperous economy while ceasing new energy generating projects from fossil fuel sources""." +politics,"In a meeting on Monday in Atlanta, Georgia, the United Church of Christ overwhelmingly approved a resolution supporting same-sex marriage, therefore becoming the largest Christian denomination to do so. UCC has over 6,000 congregations and 1.3 million members. In a press conference, Rev. John H. Thomas said, ""On this July Fourth the General Synod of the United Church of Christ has acted courageously to declare freedom, affirming marriage equality, affirming the civil rights of same gender couples to have their relationships recognized as marriages by the state, and encouraging our local churches to celebrate and bless those marriages."" Thomas also acknowledged that the issue of marriage equality is ""the source of great conflict"" not only in society but also in the churches. The UCC, he said, ""is no exception"" and ""there are clearly great differences among our own members over this."" The decision is non-binding but asks member churches to consider wedding policies ""that do not discriminate against couples based on gender"" and support laws granting equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians. Some member churches have suggested they may leave the denomination but most members appeared to support the resolution noting some ministers already perform same-sex ceremonies. UCC was criticized last year for creating a television commercial including a gay couple being excluded from a church. The 30-second ad was rejected by most TV networks." +politics,"Saudi Arabia On Thursday, Hatice Cengiz, fiancée of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, addressed reporters in New York, New York, calling for the killers of Khashoggi to be brought to justice. Cengiz traveled to New York for the United Nations (UN) General Assembly which took place this week. Khashoggi was murdered last October in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Hatice Cengiz is a Turkish national now living in London. USDOS The previous day, television broadcaster PBS revealed that in December, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia accepted responsibility for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi but did not say he'd ordered it. Speaking to Martin Smith of PBS, he said, ""It happened under my watch. I get all the responsibility, because it happened under my watch."" The official position remained that rogue operatives within the Saudi government committed the murder. According to Reuters and NBC, Mohammad bin Salman is the de facto Saudi ruler. Cengiz called Mohammad's admission a ""political maneuver."" She explained, ""By confessing this, he's also distancing himself from the killing of Jamal ... He's saying that it happened under his watch but he means he is not involved in this crime."" She credited news media with keeping the story alive. Speaking to NBC News, she said, ""His fellow journalists did their best that so no one could push this under the carpet ... But at the end of the day, all of these efforts did not persuade world leaders to sanction Saudi Arabia. That is so sad"". ""What is so sad for me"", Cengiz said, ""is not seeing the punishment of the perpetrators ... Imagine that the entire world remains silent over Jamal's killing. This silence and inertia created huge disappointment on my side."" Agnès Callamard, a UN rapporteur for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who had investigated the case, cautioned justice does not come swiftly. ""True justice takes time and I know it's painful, but that's the reality of the world we live in,"" she said, asking Cengiz to be ""patient and resilient."" The CIA and other intelligence agencies reportedly believe the crown prince ordered Khashoggi's killing. Callamard encouraged the CIA to release the files from their investigation. A closed-door trial is underway in Saudi Arabia in which eleven individuals have been charged with the murder, however Callamard did not give it any credence. Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi national, was a columnist for The Washington Post, and he lived in self-imposed exile in Virginia as a legal resident of the United States. He entered the consulate in Istanbul on October 2 2018, seeking documents allowing him to marry Turkish national Hatice Cengiz. He never came out. Saudi Arabia initially denied all claims that Khashoggi was slain, however, a UN report eventually concluded evidence supported his murder and dismemberment inside the consulate by Saudi agents. To date, his remains had not been recovered." +politics,"2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict The United Nations Security Council has unanimously approved Resolution 1701 calling for a ""full cessation of hostilities"" in the Israeli-Lebanon war and for international and Lebanese troops to replace Israeli troops in south Lebanon. The UN decree comes on the heels of an Israeli government decision to expand its offensive in Lebanon. Sources say that Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert will bring the UN resolution to cabinet for discussion on Sunday. Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the United States, said that his government was likely to agree to the resolution. ""I do not want to preempt the Cabinet decision, but the language as I see it now &mdash; and I'm being careful &mdash; if the language of the resolution doesn't change, I view this resolution very positively and, of course, the crux is implementation,"" Ayalon said. ""If this resolution will be enforced, then we solve the problem of Lebanon,"" said the Israeli envoy. Hezbollah officials have not responded to the UN action. The Lebanese cabinet meets Saturday to discuss the resolution. Lebanese leaders have cautiously welcomed the resolution which had been delayed for almost a week due to negotiations over its wording. U.N. Ambassador Nouhad Mahmoud of Lebanon said; ""The Lebanese are not comfortable with the Israeli distinctions of what is defensive and what is offensive."" The resolution calls for Hezbollah to end its attacks on Israel and for Israel to end ""offensive military operations"" in Lebanon. It also raises the strength of the UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, the United Nations Interim Force (Unifil), from 2,000 to a maximum of 15,000, and gives it an expanded mandate to enforce the ceasefire. A portion of the UN language expanding that force's Chapter 6 mandate reads: ""Acting in support of a request from the government of Lebanon to deploy an international force to assist it to exercise its authority throughout the territory, authorizes Unifil to take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind... "" The U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, responding on Friday during an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer to the difference between a UN Chapter 7 mandate, and the current mandate for Unifil in Lebanon said: So this force has a big mandate, it has a robust mandate, it has a mandate that will allow it to defend itself and to defend that mandate. But it's never been the expectation that this force is going to disarm Hezbollah. That will have to be done by the Lebanese......Chapter 7 is very often used when a government is not prepared to accept a force. Lebanon is prepared to accept this force, but this is an absolutely robust mandate. This, by the way, is what helped the Israeli government. They were concerned earlier about the mandate. After we talked about this enhanced mandate in the revised resolution, I think the government of Israel saw that it met their needs. Israel is to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon as UN and Lebanese troops are deployed. The resolution outlines plans for the disarmament of Hezbollah and for a settlement of the Israeli-Lebanese border. The UN also called for the unconditional release by Hezbollah of two Israeli soldiers it captured on July 12th, precipitating the conflict. 123 Israelis, including 40 civilians, and 861 Lebanese, mostly civilians, have been killed in the 31-day old war." +politics,"North Korea nuclear programKim Myong Gil, the North Korean minister to the United Nations in New York City, New York, claims his government has shut down its infamous reactor located in Yongbyon and is ready to start dismantling its nuclear programmes as long as the United States keeps its promise to remove all sanctions and remove North Korea from the terrorism list. The 10 members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection team will be going to North Korea to verify the shut down has taken place. The inspectors were forced to leave North Korea in late 2002 when this crisis began. The South Korean government has sent the North 50,000 tons of fuel oil as a reward for starting to dismantle its nuclear programmes and will send one million tons more. The South Korea's nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo called the shut down of the Yongbyon a milestone event but said the next phase will be more difficult than the reactor shut down." +politics,"Sri LankaFrench newspaper Le Monde published on Friday an article accusing the United Nations (UN) of deliberately hiding facts about civilian killings during the last months of the civil war in Sri Lanka in order to protect their own activities in the country. According to investigative journalism by Le Monde, The UN did not publish the number of civilians killed until it was finally leaked. According to a UN confidential report, formatnum:7720 people were killed (among them formatnum:678 children) and formatnum:18465 were injured (among them formatnum:2384 children) between January 20 and May 13. A UN official declared to Le Monde that his hierarchy tried to suppress these figures to remain in good terms with the government. When these numbers were leaked, Neil Buhne, the UN official coordinator in Sri Lanka, asked to be the only recipient of the figures in the future. Even the secretary general Ban Ki-moon tried to hide the numbers, according to Le Monde. Despite the heavy bombings in the last days of the war, the formatnum:7720 dead people are still given as an official figure which was repeated in The New York Times. According to Vijay K. Nambiar, Ban Ki-moon's chief-of-staff cited by Le Monde, the numbers could be closer to formatnum:20000; these figures are corroborated by The Times. The paper discovered compelling evidence showing that on average 1,000 Sri Lankan civilians perished each day during the first 19 days of May. ""These figures are not even complete yet. It’s going to end up way more"" said a UN source. The Times relied on aerial photographs, confidential UN documents, witnesses and independent defense experts to understand the final days in the 26 year old Sri Lankan civil war. formatnum:200000 survivors are interned in the Manik Farm refugee camp. The camp was visited twice by The Times investigators. formatnum:3000 wounded civilians are still missing from the last known makeshift hospital. A survivor reported hospitals were bombed by the government which claimed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels were using them as hideouts. “They didn’t want anyone left to say what had happened,” say UN sources. “We reject all these allegations. Civilians have not been killed by government shelling at all. If civilians have been killed, then that is because of the actions of the LTTE rebels who were shooting and killing people when they tried to escape.” said a representative for the Sri Lankan High Commission. Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara of Sri Lanka added ""We have not used any shelling or mortaring, only small arms. We know how we are fighting"". The aerial images taken by The Times suggest the contrary. Le Monde also wrote that the United Nations did not help its people on the ground. Text messages sent by local employees in the war zones asked to ""stop the war"" and ""what is the international community doing"". ""Hundreds of people trying to flew where caught by local dictators and beaten, without distinction of age and sex. I hear them crying."" said another one. In April, Vijay Nambiar asked the locals to keep a ""low profile"" and play an active role in supporting the government. The Sri Lankan government denied any wrongdoing. On Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland cleared Sri Lanka of any alleged war crimes. Sri Lanka gained the support of China, Egypt, India and Cuba." +politics,"Iranian television has aired new video footage of three of the fifteen UK sailors and marines seized by Iran a week ago. On Thursday evening, the Iranian Embassy in London released a second letter purported to be written by detained servicewoman Faye Turney. The footage was released hours after Iran criticized yesterday's United Nations Security Council statement, which voiced “grave concern” over the incident and called for an ""early resolution"" of the matter. 4=Spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair In the video footage, three crewmen are shown with one identified as Nathan Thomas Summers. Summers was seen confessing to being in Iranian waters and apologizing to the Iranian people. ""We trespassed without permission,"" said Summers. ""Since we have been arrested our treatment has been friendly. We have not been harmed at all."" ""I would like to apologize for entering your waters without any permission ... I deeply apologize,"" continued Summers. ""They have looked after us really well."" According to the BBC, the UK Foreign Office described the latest video as ""disgraceful exploitation"". A hand-written note, the second letter apparently written by Faye Turney, was released by Iran on Thursday evening. The letter requests the UK government to withdraw its troops from Iraq. ""Isn't it time for us to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and let them determine their own future,"" the letter states. In reply, a Prime Minister's office spokesman said: ""It is wrong. It is wrong in terms of the usual conventions that cover this. It is wrong in terms of basic humanity"". Iran has also released a third letter purporting to be from Leading Seaman Turney, addressed to the ""British People"". The letter states that she has been ""sacrificed due to the intervening policies of the Bush and Blair governments"" and repeats the call for the withdrawal of British and US forces from Iraq. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in response: ""I really don't know why the Iranian regime keep doing this. All it does is enhance people's sense of disgust at captured personnel being paraded and manipulated in this way."" The BBC says it has been able to confirm the names of six of the 15 sailors and marines held by Iran. Apart from Leading Seaman Turney and Seaman Summers (from Shropshire and Cornwall respectively), they are: Paul Barton from Southport, Danny Masterton from Ayrshire, Joe Tindall from south London and Adam Sperry from Leicester. On March 23, the fifteen sailors and marines from the frigate HMS Cornwall had been inspecting a ship, in what the UK identified as Iraqi waters, when they were surrounded by Iranian gunboats and taken into Iranian custody. Iran claims the UK forces were in Iranian waters, and are still detaining the fifteen. The video, retransmitted by BBC (link to Youtube) Transcript" +politics,"Politics and conflicts On Sunday, United States and South Korean envoys met in Seoul, South Korea to discuss ways to reopen diplomatic talks with North Korea and sending humanitarian aid there. Earlier, the United Nations warned the country faces starvation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Envoys also discussed a Southern proposal to formally end the Korean War, which was not closed since the last Armistice Talks in July 1953. Prior to the meeting, Sung Kim, US Special Envoy for North Korea told reporters after arriving in Seoul to meet South Korean nuclear envoy Noh Kyu-duk that he looked forward to ""productive follow up discussions"" after their meeting in Washington, D.C. last Tuesday. ​Their agenda for Sunday included the denuclearization of North Korea, declaring a formal end to the Korean War and sending humanitarian aid to North Korea as a way to reopen diplomatic talks. After the meeting, Kim said the US calls ""on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) to cease… destabilizing activities, and instead, engage in dialogue."" He reiterated the US ""remains ready to meet with the DPRK without preconditions"", and had ""made clear that the United States harbors no hostile intent towards the DPRK."" During a press conference Friday, United Nations Special Rapporteur on North Korea Tomas Ojea Quintana said the country may need humanitarian aid and called for easing sanctions against the North Korean textile and seafood sectors. He warned that continued border closures and limited trade might lead to starvation, and that the region is ""veering towards an arms race"". During a US Department of State press briefing the same day, spokesperson Ned Price said ""UN Security Council resolutions regarding the DPRK remain in effect"" and ""we are involved in efforts to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid to the neediest"" in North Korea. Last Tuesday, North Korea tested a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). In response, special envoy Kim called on the North to ""refrain from further provocations and engage in sustained and substantive dialogue"". The North's responded the US was ""overreacting"". South Korea launched a new SLBM on September 15, while North Korea launched a hypersonic missile, in early stages of development, on September 28." +politics,"Finland Harri Holkeri, former Prime Minister of Finland and renowned peacemaker, has died at the age of 74. He was known for his role as co-chairman of the multi-party talks to resolve the conflicts in Northern Ireland. His efforts helped form the Good Friday agreement. Holkeri also served as U.N. General Assembly president and as a special representative to Kosovo. After serving as Prime Minister of Finland from 1987 until 1991 and unsuccessfully running for President in 1982 and 1988, Holkeri focused his attention outside of Finland. He co-chaired the Northern Ireland talks with former US Senator George Mitchell and retired Canadian General John de Chastelain, and honoured with a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II after the Good Friday agreement was made. Northern Irish politician and leader of Sinn Féin Gerry Adams said ""Harri Holkeri enjoyed a distinguished career as prime minister of Finland, and in several prominent UN roles, including in Kosovo. But it will be for his work here alongside George Mitchell in co-chairing the talks which led to the Good Friday Agreement for which he will be most remembered internationally."" Current Prime Minister of Finland, Jyrki Katainen said ""Holkeri ... was the person who was able to build the confidence of people in difficult situations. This was one of the important personal characteristics that helped him achieve results in important international roles."" In 2003 he became the U.N special representative to Kosovo but resigned less than a year later due to ill health. He was badly injured in 2008 after he was knocked to the ground by a thief escaping from a store. He is survived by his wife, two children and six grandchildren." +politics,"LGBT Of 400,000 serving members of the United States military and their families surveyed, most do not believe reform of the rules on gays and lesbians serving in the military would affect morale, unit cohesion or military effectiveness. A survey conducted by The Pentagon has concluded only 30% believed that changing the law would have a negative effect. The report also noted that those who have served with people they know or suspect to be gay have found unit cohesion to not be a problem. The report was produced by Jeh C. Johnson, chief counsel at the Pentagon, and General Carter F. Ham, an U.S. Army commander in Europe. Opposition to reform was highest amongst troops in combat units and among members of the United States Marine Corps, where 40% and 46% oppose changes to the policy respectively. Robert Gates, the defence secretary, has stated that the survey shows that reform ""would not be the wrenching, traumatic change many had feared"" and asked the Senate to support an end to the current policy. The current policy&mdash;often referred to as ""don't ask, don't tell""&mdash;was passed by President Bill Clinton in 1993 and has led to the discharge of over 13,000 troops since 1994. A 2006 study by the University of California estimated that the cost of enforcing the policy is approximately $363 million, including the value of military training that is lost when a member of the armed services is sent home. Most other Western nations allow gay people to serve openly in the military. Democratic leaders including President Barack Obama support repeal and hope to pass it before the Christmas break. Former Republican presidential candidate John McCain believes that more scrutiny is needed before repeal during war-time. The authors of the report believe otherwise, stating that they ""do not underestimate the challenges in implementing a change in the law, but neither should we underestimate the ability of our extraordinarily dedicated service men and women to adapt to such change and continue to provide our nation with the military capability to accomplish any mission.""" +politics,"The French government has urged its citizens to leave the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) as the United Nations (U.N.) warned that the country was heading towards a civil war. According to the U.N., there has been an increase in the use of intimidation methods by elements of the national security forces loyal to incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo. ""The international community must act and act decisively. I emphasize again today what I have said earlier: any attempt to starve the United Nations mission into submission will not be tolerated. Any attack on the United Nations and its staff must be considered an attack on the international community,"" said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement. He added that the techniques of intimidation include ""abductions and killings and the propagation of hate speech through the state broadcasting corporation."" Meanwhile, the French government urged its citizens to leave the country. ""We ask those who can, to leave Ivory Coast temporarily until the situation normalises,"" said Francois Baroin, a government spokesperson. On Saturday, Gbagbo ordered the U.N. and French peacekeepers to leave the country saying, ""The government demands the departure of the UNOCI and LICORNE French forces in Ivory Coast and is opposed to any renewal of their mandate."" Gbagbo claimed victory in the nation's elections on November 28. Alassane Ouattara won the presidential run-off election on December 3 according to the country's electoral commission. However, the Constitutional Council has contested the announcement. The French government and the U.N. have also rejected the election results. Gbagbo offered for several entities to investigate the election results, which was rejected by Ouattara who said ""we've finished with these games."" ""I am ... ready to welcome a committee... headed by the African Union, involving ECOWAS, the Arab League, the United Nations, United States, the European Union, Russia and China, which will have permission to analyse objectively the facts of the electoral process ...to solve this crisis peacefully,"" Gbagbo said in a statement. The U.N. said it has no plans to leave the country saying, ""the president-elect is Ouattara and he hasn't asked us to leave"" and that they intend to ""fulfill its mandate and will continue to monitor and document any human rights violations, incitement to hatred and violence, or attacks on U.N. peacekeepers."" Also on Saturday, a U.N. convoy and the mission headquarters in Abidjan was attacked by masked gunmen in military uniforms. According to the mission, a civilian vehicle with six men inside approached the convoy. When the convoy approached the compound's entrance the gunmen opened fire. No one was injured in the attack. Shots were fired back at the gunmen, but none were hit." +politics,"Equatorial GuineaOfficial results from Equatorial Guinea have indicated that Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the president of the country, has been reelected another term. The election, held on November 29, saw Obiang take 95.37% of the ballot, or 260,462 votes, according to a statement released on the government website yesterday. An opponent, Placido Mico Abogo, finished a distant second, with 3.6% of the vote. Obiang said that he was going to make human rights, education, and health reforms in his next term. Equatorial Guinea, the third largest producer of oil in Africa, has recently seen increasing levels of infant mortality and less educational enrollment. Opposition candidates, however, have claimed that the voting was rigged; some pro-democracy groups also claimed that not enough media attention was devoted to Obiang's rivals. ""In recent weeks it the government has stifled and harassed the country's beleaguered political opposition ... and imposed serious constraints on international observers,"" stated the Human Rights Watch." +politics,"Canadian news The Canadian House of Commons will re-open the debate on same-sex marriage next Wednesday, December 6th, when it debates a resolution to reconsider the Civil Marriage Act that was passed by the previous Liberal-led parliament in 2005. In the intervening election, the victorious Conservatives promised that if they were elected parliament would hold a free vote on whether to amend or repeal the Act. Several surveys have suggested that MPs in the minority parliament will overwhelmingly reaffirm support for same-sex marriage once a vote has held. The pro-same sex marriage group Canadians for Equal Marriage estimates that the motion will be defeated by at least 35 votes. This has prompted supporters of same-sex marriage to urge that a vote be held as soon as possible while opponents of gay marriage have been urging the government to delay the vote until the next election, expected early in 2007, in hopes of the election of a Conservative majority that would repeal the act. A number of Conservative MPs and strategists have supported an early vote, however, in the belief that the same-sex issue would hurt the Tories in an election campaign by emphasizing a social conservative agenda that is unpopular in urban areas and Quebec." +politics,"Ivory CoastAccording to the United Nations, forces loyal to disputed Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo have resumed fighting in the city of Abidjan. According to reports, the troops regained control of parts of the city. After a brief lull in fighting, while it was reported that Gbagbo officials were negotiating a surrender, violence resumed. A U.N. official said that Gbagbo forces ""clearly used the lull of Tuesday as a trick to reinforce their position,"" and now control the Plateau and Cocody regions of Abidjan. Gbagbo forces are reportedly using heavy weaponry, including rocket launchers and grenade launchers, as well as tanks and armored troop transports. The French ambassador's house was reportedly attacked, resulting in counter-strikes by French helicopters. Gbagbo forces deny being involved in the attack. Toussaint Alain, an advisor to Gbagbo, has denied reports that Gbagbo forces are in possession of heavy weapons, claiming that previous French attacks had destroyed their weaponry. He said that ""France is just looking for a pretext to get rid of President Laurent Gbagbo.""" +politics,"A group of former senior Communist Party officials in China have denounced the recent closure of Freezing Point (Bing Dian), an investigative newspaper, along with the state of government censorship in that country. The group includes Li Rui, a former aid to Chairman Mao Zedong, Hu Jiwei, a former newspaper editor, and Zhu Houze, an ex-propaganda chief. In an open letter addressed to the current government, the group said that strict censorship may ""sow the seeds of disaster"" for China's political transition. In the letter, signed on February 2 but released on Tuesday, the group called current censorship methods overly restrictive and unnecessary for the modern China: ""History has shown that only a totalitarian system needs news censorship, out of the delusion that it can keep the people locked in ignorance."" Freezing Point was a supplement of the China Youth Daily and was allegedly shut down due to the publication on January 11 of an article by Zhongshan University professor Yuan Weishi regarding the way history is currently taught in China, although the papers editor, Li Datong, says that it has experienced difficulties with the government on several occasions in the past. Mr. Yuan's article was critical of Chinese textbooks, which never admit the culpability of the government and instead shift the blame to other nations. No response from the government has yet been issued." +politics,"Palestine Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has urged the United Nations Security Council to call for Israel to immediately cease aggression in the Gaza Strip. He also called for the lifting of the ""suffocating siege"" of Gaza. Israel began ground operations in Gaza on Saturday. ""I call on the council to take the first necessary step to save my people in Gaza: a resolution calling for an immediate full cessation of Israeli aggression,"" he told the 15-member council. According to medics, the Israeli invasion has cost the lives of 660 Palestinians, 220 of which are children. ""The loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern for me,"" said United States President-elect Barack Obama. Current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told the Council that the United States is deeply concerned about the ""clearly worsening"" situation. ""We need very much to find a solution to this problem in the short term,"" she said. ""But it really must be a solution this time that doesn't allow Hamas to use Gaza as launching pad against Israeli cities. It has to be a solution that does not allow the rearmament of Hamas, and it must be a solution that finds a way to open crossings so that Palestinians in Gaza can have normal life."" source=Gabriela Shalev, Israel's envoy to the United Nations Meanwhile, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been pushing for an immediate ceasefire. ""Egypt invites the Israelis and Palestinians for an urgent meeting to reach arrangements and guarantees that would not allow the repeat of the current escalation,"" Mr. Mubarak said. Mr. Abbas expressed support for the invitation. Israel is yet to respond. Israel's envoy to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, made no mention of the proposal by Mr. Mubarak in her speech to the Security Council. She stated, however, that the incursion had dealt heavy blows to the infrastructure of Hamas. She reiterated that Israel had no choice in the face of such attacks but to act. ""In the face of such terrorism we have no choice,"" Ms. Shalev said. ""We have to defend ourselves - not from the Palestinian people, but from the terrorists who have taken them hostage."" While denying that there is a crisis in the Gaza Strip, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will open what it calls a ""humanitarian corridor"" into the territory. ""This involves opening up geographical areas for limited periods of time during which the population will be able to receive the aid and stock up,"" the office said." +politics,"math and science. On the Programme for International Student Assessment math test though, US boys tested better than US girls by a score of roughly 495 to 480. US girls outperform boys on the literacy test with mean scores of approximately 510 to 490. In this regard, the report suggests US girls' performance patterns resemble global ones. Mali's percentage of girls in primary school is equivalent to the United States in 1810 at around 34%. Burkino Faso is worse, matching the United States in 1780 with a percentage of roughly 25%. Niger's current enrollment for girls is around 50%, around the same percentage as the United States in 1900." +politics,"The United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has begun to address concerns raised by the EU, the Council of Europe, and several member countries about the CIA's detention practices upon her arrival in Germany for a European tour that began Tuesday. ""As a matter of US policy, the United States' obligations under the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which prohibits, of course, cruel and inhumane and degrading treatment, those obligations extend to US personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the United States or outside the United States,"" said Rice, speaking from the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on Wednesday. Media reports and Human Rights groups have alleged that the CIA transported renditioned prisoners through European countries, which could violate European laws and the sovereignty of countries involved. Secretary Rice claimed that the United States has respected the sovereignty of other countries, and that it has not transported detainees from one country to another for the purpose of interrogation using torture, and has not transported anyone to a country when we believe he will be tortured. ""We consider the captured members of Al-Qaeda and its affiliates to be unlawful combatants who may be held, in accordance with the law of war, to keep them from killing innocents. We must treat them in accordance with our laws, which reflect the values of the American people. We must question them to gather potentially significant, life-saving, intelligence. We must bring terrorists to justice wherever possible,"" Rice told reporters before she left from Andrews Air Force base on Monday. Rice said that European nations should realize that interrogations of terrorist suspects have produced information that has saved European lives. However, Secretary Rice provided no specific cases. ""Secretary Rice made extra-legal rendition sound like just another form of extradition. In fact, it's a form of kidnapping and 'disappearing' someone entirely outside the law,"" said Tom Malinowski, a Human Rights Watch official in Washington. The CIA practice known as ""extraordinary rendition"" is used to interrogate terrorist suspects outside the U.S., where they are not subject to American legal protection. ""Kidnapping a foreign national for the purpose of detaining and interrogating him outside the law is contrary to American values,"" said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on the Khalid El-Masri case. ""Our government has acted as if it is above the law. We go to court today to reaffirm that the rule of law is central to our identity as a nation."" The ACLU feels the government has to be held to account over ""extraordinary rendition""." +politics,"Palestine November 29 marked the United Nations International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and the anniversary of the 1947 Resolution 181, which partitioned Palestine into two states – Jewish and Arab. Events have been held throughout the week including a non-violent Palestinian demonstration held in Bethlehem on Thursday, the screening of a film, ""Voice from the Heart of Gaza"" by Popular Committee against the Siege and photo exhibits at the Al Shawa Cultural Center and the United Nations. On November 24, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, ""The Palestinians have been deprived of their inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination and statehood, for more than 60 years. Israelis live with an ever-present sense of insecurity. There is only one way to address such legitimate rights and fears: a peace agreement that results in an end of occupation, an end of conflict, and the creation of a State of Palestine living side-by-side in peace with the State of Israel"". The Israeli newspaper Haaretz had warned of a concerted diplomatic attack against Israel at the United Nations General Assembly. The Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said the UN is disconnected from reality and ""does not represent or reflect what is truly happening"" at a time when Israel is engaged in peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. The UN General Assembly President, Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, called for an international boycott of Israel and accused it of being an apartheid regime. The European Jewish Congress (EJC) denounced ""anti-Semitic and anti-Israel remarks"" made by Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann and called for his resignation. Dmitry Medvedev, the president of Russia said, “I want to reiterate the Russian Federation’s principled position of support for the Palestinian people and their legitimate national aspirations, including the right to establish an independent and viable Palestinian state. It is my conviction that the restoration of state sovereignty would contribute to stability in the region and the safe coexistence and conflict-free mutually beneficial cooperation of all countries and peoples. We support your commitment to peaceful dialogue in the aim of finding a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and finding mutually acceptable solutions based on universally recognized international law. Restoration of intra-Palestinian unity remains an important condition for achieving these aims"". Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sent a congratulatory message to the UN meeting on Tuesday which said, ""To resolve the Palestinian issue at an early date is the aspiration of the people in the Mideast as well as the common expectation of the international community. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China will continue to support the United Nations in playing an important role in solving the Mideast problem and pushing forward the settlement of the Palestinian issue"". Gaza has had twenty-three days of complete closure and undergone a 18-month siege which has lead regional and international organizations to warn of a humanitarian catastrophe." +politics,"North Korea nuclear program North Korea has today agreed to return to the six-party talks about its nuclear programme, as announced by the Chinese and U.S. governments. This comes after Pyongyang's withdrawal two weeks ago after the UN Security Council unanimously voted to impose sanctions on North Korea, which were ultimately designed to remove the ability to create nuclear weapons. United States President George W. Bush has thanked the Chinese government for assisting and persuading North Korea to return to the talks. He went on to say that ""the US will be sending teams to the region to work with our partners to make sure that the current United Nations Security Council resolution is enforced but also make sure the talks are effective, that we achieve the result we want"". Pyongyang did not make the lifting of the sanctions a condition for the resumption of the talks. The negotiations between the six parties, North Korea, China, the United States of America, South Korea, Russia, and Japan, could restart as early as November, said Christopher R. Hill, the chief US negotiator on North Korea. South Korea was optimistic about the resumption of the talks. ""The government hopes that the six-party talks will resume at an early date as agreed,"" said Choo Kyu-ho, spokesman for South Korea's foreign ministry." +politics,"Emilio Menendez, a Spaniard, and Carlos Baturin German, an American, became the first gay couple to be married under a new law allowing same-sex marriage in Spain. The couple tied the knot in the town of Tres Cantos, outside of Madrid. Wedding guests included family and friends, as well as journalists and politician Pedro Zerolo, the governing Socialist Party's top official for social issues. Spain is only the third nation in Europe to legalise same-sex marriage, after the Netherlands and Belgium. The bill was passed by the lower house of Parliament on 30 June 2005, overruling a rejection by the upper house, the Senate. Although the move was opposed by Roman Catholic groups, polls suggest that a majority of Spaniards support the decision. There were protests in Madrid prior to the bill being passed, and a Roman Catholic group submitted a 600,000-signature petition urging a referendum. State run television broadcast images of the happy couple after the ceremony. Menendez told reporters, ""The happiest day of our lives was when we fell in love with each other. We have been together for 30 years, there have been many wonderful days, today is yet another wonderful day.""" +politics,"Malwack 2012 US Presidential Election Incumbent U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney have returned to campaigning after taking time out due to Hurricane Sandy. On Wednesday, Obama visited New Jersey, meeting with Governor Chris Christie in Atlantic City, and spoke to victims of the storm at a community center in Brigantine. Obama earned the praise of the Republican governor who said ""Obama had sprung into action immediately"". The President's reaction to the storm also earned him positive polling, with a Washington Post/ABC survey saying 8 out of 10 respondents thought Obama had responded in a ""good"" or ""excellent"" manner to the storm. After restarting the campaign, Obama has campaigned in Wisconsin where he has attacked Romney's proposed policies as being the same as those of George W. Bush. ""Governor Romney has been using all his talents as a salesman to dress up these very same policies that failed our country so badly - the very same policies we've been cleaning up after for the past four years - and he is offering them up as change."" said the President. Yesterday, the independent mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg gave his endorsement to Obama. With several areas of New York affected by flooding from Hurricane Sandy, the former Republican mayor said Obama's stance on climate change factored in his decision. Writing an editorial for Bloomberg View, the mayor asserted: ""Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it may be — given the devastation it is wreaking — should be enough to compel all elected leaders to take immediate action."" Bloomberg said Obama had taken action to deal with climate change; has proposed measures to reduce emissions from cars and power plants. Bloomberg explained he could not support Romney as the Republican challenger had changed his position on several issues. ""In the past he has taken sensible positions on immigration, illegal guns, abortion rights and health care – but he has reversed course on all of them, and is even running against the very health care model he signed into law in Massachusetts,"" said Bloomberg. Bloomberg did however have some criticism of Obama. He said that Obama had ""engaged in partisan attacks and has embraced a divisive populist agenda focused more on redistributing income than creating it."" Responding in a statement, Obama said he was ""honored to have Mayor Bloomberg’s endorsement"". Romney spoke at an event in the city of Roanoke, Virginia, criticising Obama's proposal to create a cabinet-level position for business development. In his speech in Virginia, Romney stated: ""I don't think adding a new chair in his cabinet will help add millions of jobs on Main Street. We don’t need a secretary of business to understand business. We need a president who understands business and I do."" Romney also launched a TV advert which stated that the idea represents a broader failing of the Obama presidency by suggesting that Obama's ""solution to everything is to add another bureaucrat."" Which candidate do you believe would better-represent the United States? After speaking in Roanoke, Romney spoke in Doswell, Virginia. His speech was interrupted by a protester who shouted ""Climate change caused Sandy! Let's get real!"" Romney plans to make a last-minute campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Sunday. Jill Stein, the presidential candidate for the Green Party of the United States, was arrested on Wednesday in Winnsboro in east Texas for misdemeanor criminal trespassing while trying to bring food and confectionery to environmental protesters who have been camping in trees for over a month to protest the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Stein has been released pending a court date." +politics,"Climate changeThe leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) countries are meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, from July 8 to July 11. On Wednesday, the group announced that it had agreed to a cut in carbon emissions. The G8 agreed to a target to cut emissions by 80% by 2050, though interim targets were not defined. ""I believe we've made some important strides forward as we move towards Copenhagen,"" said United States President Barack Obama. ""I don't think I have to emphasise that climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time. The science is clear and conclusive and the impacts can no longer be ignored."" Obama was referring to the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009, scheduled for December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. ""I hope tomorrow when we meet other countries we'll follow that through and this is a very significant development, the first time it's ever been done,"" United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. ""The commitments expressed today at the G8 and Major Economies Forum (MEF) leaders' meeting, while welcome, are not sufficient,""Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, said. ""For us the 80 percent figure is unacceptable and likely unattainable,"" said Arkady Dvorkovich, the top economic aide to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. ""We won't sacrifice economic growth for the sake of emission reduction.""" +politics,"2008 US Presidential ElectionIndependent United States presidential candidate Ralph Nader and his running mate Matt Gonzalez were selected as the presidential and vice-presidential nominees of the California Peace and Freedom Party during its convention on August 2. Nader won the nomination with 46 votes or 60.7% of the ballots, edging out challengers Gloria La Riva, Brian Moore and Cynthia McKinney. The nomination guarantees ballot access for Nader in California, which accounts for 10% of the national vote. Prior to the convention, Nader participated in a forum in Sacramento on August 1 with his three challengers. The meeting lasted three hours in a standing-room packed to capacity. After the forum, delegates from the party cast their ballots among the four candidates. Following Nader, La Riva, the nominee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, received 27 votes. Moore, the nominee of the Socialist Party, received 10 votes and Green Party nominee McKinney finished in last place with 6 votes. Following the nomination, the Peace and Freedom Party praised Nader and Gonzalez, arguing that, ""both nominees agree with the fundamentals of the Peace and Freedom platform and bring with them a strong combination of experience, credibility, and legislative accomplishment.” The party platform includes support for socialism, feminism and environmentalism. -" +politics,"Lawyers asked a federal court Friday to allow the government to inspect written materials that it seized from inmates at Guantanamo Bay last month and requested approval to use ""filter teams"" to look at documents that may contain privileged lawyer-client communication. In documents they filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, government lawyers argued that three inmates who committed suicide last month by hanging themselves coordinated their actions by using attorney-client confidentiality to communicate with each other. Government officials said that among papers marked ""Attorney Client Privilege"" were instructions on how to tie knots and a classified memo on camp activities and inmate locations. Military officials seized more than 1,100 pounds of documents from inmates after the suicides on June 10. They have since stopped defense lawyers from sending any documents to inmates. In an affidavit that lawyers for the government filed with the court, Rear Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr., the naval commander of the camp, described evidence of a ""larger plan or pact for more suicides"" among detainees. His statement implied that the investigation might extend to defense attorneys as third parties who ""encouraged, ordered or assisted"" the detainees in killing themselves. Harris earlier described the suicides as part of a pattern of hostile actions on the part of terror suspects. ""They have no regard for life, either ours or their own,"" he said last month. ""I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."" The Center for Constitutional Rights, which has provided legal assistance to about 200 Guantanamo detainees, has been critical of the conditions at Guantanamo Bay that they say finally led the detainees to kill themselves in desperation. Barbara Olshansky, a deputy legal director at CCR, described the government's latest legal activity as a tactic to impede detainees' access to legal representation ""and to make these lawyers fight for yet another thing."" Last month after the document seizures, defense attorney Richard Wilson, who represents a Canadian detainee, said in an affidavit that the military had told him that they were conducting no investigation into the role of attorneys in the prisoners' deaths. He added, however, that at least one detainee claimed that camp officials had confiscated his written materials and told him that they were looking into ""whether lawyers had actively encouraged detainees to commit suicide.""" +politics,"Somalia With violence against foreigners escalating daily, and after being deluged with various threats and demands from al-Shabaab, a radical Islamic militant group with ties to al-Qaeda, the United Nations World Food Programme announced on Tuesday that, as of the end of this week, they are going to suspend all of their operations within southern Somalia—including the distribution of desperately needed food aid to Somali civilians. This is now the third humanitarian agency, after CARE International and Doctors Without Borders, to evacuate from the war-torn nation. The pull out, which will include the closing down of all UN offices and the withdrawal of all local staff, is going to effect over one million Somalis—many of whom relay on this food program for their daily meals. When asked by the New York Times to further explain the UN's decision, Peter Smerdon, a spokesperson for the program, said via telephone from Nairobi, Kenya, ""In the past few weeks there has been a harder line of unacceptable demands and conditions set by armed groups (such as al-Shabaab) in these areas. We sadly had to make the decision to pull our staff out."" Smerdon also cited the fact that over forty aid workers have been killed between January 2008 and September 2009, and that four volunteers still remain in the hands of their captors. Furthermore, when asked how this move by the UN will effect the Somali people, Smerdon said simply, ""People will go hungry...you could see malnutrition rates rising as a result."" When asked by a British newspaper, The Morning Star, the same question, another program representative, Emilia Casella, conveyed like sentiments, ""Those dependent on food assistance in southern Somalia face a situation that is particularly dire."" In a nation that—due to civil war—has not had a functioning government in over two decades, Islamic extremists groups—such as al-Shabaab—as well as various warlords and pirate gangs control most of the Horn of Africa nation, except for its besieged capital, Mogadishu, which is protected by African Union and NATO troops in addition to UN peacekeepers. According to the UN, al-Shabaab—which has direct influence over the area that is going to be effected—presented their offices with numerous lists of demands. Among their demands was that the UN pay Shabaab a $20,000 protection fee every six months, seek Shabaab approval for all their projects, fire their entire female staff, and run their operations according to the militant group's schedule. When asked by The Associated Press about the UN's decision to leave southern Somalia—including his own town of Jilib—Somali civilian and father of eight children, Abdullahi Awnur, said that al-Shabaab is responsible for driving the UN food program away, and that what they are doing is ""indirectly killing"" innocent people. Awnur went on to say, ""We have been forced to flee from our houses and depend on UN food aid, and now that it is finished, that means al-Shabaab here does not want us to live."" Despite all that has been said, al-Shabaab spokesperson, Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, told New York Times reporters that he found these claims to be ""baseless"" in their origins. He continued by stating that, ""All we (al-Shabaab) ordered them (the UN) was to buy food from Somali farmers and distribute it. They (the UN) do not want to do that, and because of that, they have made this very ridiculous justification."" Nevertheless, the UN has noted that even when harvests were good, Somali farmers are only able to supply 30-40% of the food needed to sustain the bulk of the country's population. ""Somalia has been described as the most complex emergency in the world, and perhaps the most dangerous to operate in. However, the world is not hearing this,"" say David Gilmour director of CARE International's Somali branch." +politics,"PalestineSecretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has demanded a full investigation into the attacks on UN schools in the Gaza Strip after personally visiting the destroyed complexes in the Strip. ""I am just appalled and not able to describe how I am feeling having seen this ... it's an outrageous and totally unacceptable attack against the UN. I have protested many times, and I protest again in the strongest terms,"" stated Ban during a press conference in the Strip on Tuesday. Ban also denounced the ""shocking and alarming"" devastation in Gaza, and also added that he believes rocket attacks from Hamas are ""unnacceptable"". He also said that the UN would help the Palestinians overcome the devastation which he described as, ""shocking and alarming"". The schools shelled by Israel, were housing refugees when they were hit with tank shells, one of the attacks killed 50 refugees. At first Israel claimed there was mortar fire from Hamas militants coming from the schools, the Israeli army later retracted those claims and says it is investigating the incidents. A spokesman for the UN has said Ban's purpose in Gaza was to ""express solidarity with Palestinian suffering"". Ban also plans to visit parts of Israel struck by Hamas rockets. Decomposing bodies continue to be pulled from the rubble in Gaza bringing death toll to 1,300, among the dead are 400 children, and 100 women. The UN says that 400,000 Palestinians are without running water, and that 100,000 people have been left homeless. The World Health Organization has warned that there is a high possibility that diseases may break out because of the number of decomposing bodies and the sewage that now runs through the streets in the Strip. Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni said on a radio programme: ""We had achievements that for a long time Israel did not have. And therefore, you also have to know when to make the decision to stop and look. If Hamas got the message that we sent so harshly, then we can stop. If Hamas tries to continue to shoot, then we will continue."" Shaul Mofaz the transport minister of Israel said, ""I think Gazans understand today that it is Hamas that led them to this reality."" After a six month ceasefire agreement expired without a halt to Israel's blockade of Gaza's boundaries, Hamas escalated rocket attacks on southern Israel. On December 27, Israel began its assault on Gaza to eliminate the rocket fire. The offensive lasted more than three weeks." +politics,"Syria On Thursday Islamic State reportedly completed taking the ancient city of Palmyra, Syria. The victory comes just a few days after the group seized Ramadi, Iraq last weekend. The victory puts their forces in a position to strike westward toward a number of strategic positions, including Damascus, the capital of Syria, which is connected to Palmyra by a major highway. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain, estimates over half of Syria &mdash; by area &mdash; is now under Islamic State control. Holding Palmyra also provides them with access to the city’s military bases, airport, and nearby oil fields. Palmyra is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is home to a variety of ruins, including a Roman colonnaded street. UNESCO has expressed concern for the safety of the ruins now that Islamic State controls the city. The group has previously destroyed ruins and cultural monuments during their military campaigns. The US strategy in the region has relied on air strikes. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest has said President Obama is not contemplating a commitment of US forces to combat Islamic State on the ground." +politics,"The Swiss people have voted a double yes in referenda to the proposals over same-sex partnerships and the Schengen/Dublin bilateral agreements. Overall they voted 58.03% for the same-sex partnerships and 54.60% for Schengen/Dublin. The referendum of allowing the registration of same-sex partnerships was widely welcomed with the people voting 58.03% Yes and 41.97% No. Same-sex partnerships are already legal in the cantons of Geneva and Zürich. The partnerships would carry many of the legal rights of marriage, with the exception of adoption rights and fertility treatments. The referendum of the Schengen/Dublin bilateral agreement was initially accepted, despite growing resentment with the electorate. It was passed through with the people voting 54.60% Yes and 45.40% No. The agreement relaxes existing border controls between other participating nations in concert with the Schengen treaty, which is one of the competences for inclusion in the European Union. The bilateral agreement also includes participation in the Dublin treaty, which defines a policy for handling asylum seekers within Schengen participating countries. Also stipulated by the agreements is the use of a unified ""European Informatic System"" for tracking people who are wanted, missing, or are illegal immigrants and also aims to stop traffic of illegal or stolen property. Out of the big 4 main parties the centre-left Social Democrats, the liberal-right Free Democrats and the centre-right Christian Democrats have said yes to both proposals, however the populist-right Swiss People's Party have said no to both proposals." +politics,"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Europe's leading human rights watchdog group, plans to use satellite images and flight logs as part of its investigation into claims that the United States maintains secret prisons in Europe. The European Union (EU) has granted PACE access to EU d satellite images and flight logs to help determine whether aircraft linked with CIA secret detention centers have been using European airspace. According to Human Rights Watch, a humanitarian rights group based in New York, ""CIA airplanes traveling from Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004 made direct flights to remote airfields in Poland and Romania.""" +politics,"North Korea North Korea test fired a ballistic missile from a submarine yesterday, which landed in the Sea of Japan after traveling approximately 500 km (about 300 miles), according to officials of South Korea and the US. The missile was fired from a submarine off North Korea's east coast near Sinpo, officials said, and was reportedly North Korea's first successful launch after missiles only traveled a small distance in previous tests. The South Korean military accused the North Korean government of using the test to increase military tension during the annual South Korean&ndash;US joint military drills, which involve 80,000 South Korean and US troops. North Korea has threatened a preemptive nuclear strike saying the drills were practice for an invasion. This came on the same day as a meeting between the leaders of China, Japan, and South Korea where, according to Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, they ""urged North Korea to exercise self-restraint regarding its provocative action, and to observe the UN Security Council's resolutions"". Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the test's intrusion into Japan's air defense identification zone ""a grave threat to our country’s security.""" +politics,"Bahrain In Bahrain, tension is building between the opposition protesters who want to revive last year's marches, and government authorities who are trying to maintain control over protest activities. A planned march by the February 14 Youth Coalition to Manama's former Pearl Roundabout, to mark the beginning of last year's protests, was overwhelmed by the security surrounding the site on the eve of the anniversary as well as the day itself. Since the Bahraini uprising in 2011, the roundabout became a touchstone of opposition. Authorities responded by clearing the site and renaming it al-Farouq Junction. Whilst initially blocked to traffic to prevent any more protests, Bahrain's police now occupy the area and are demonstrably equipped to repel opposition. Clashes around the site between security forces and Bahraini youth took place Monday as one of the largest crowds yet moved close to the symbol of last year's protest movement. Again, on Tuesday, crowds were repelled from Pearl Roundabout with police using tear-gas and arresting protesters throughout the city. Security forces also detained six U.S. citizens who took part in the protests; the activists, who entered the country on tourist visas, agreed to leave the country without charges being pressed. With activists and political parties called for mass protests a few days prior to the one-year anniversary, the government now says it may bring charges against organizers for encouraging the disorder. Nabeel Rajab, a prominent human rights activist in Bahrain, announced his intention to take part in marches to the Pearl Roundabout. He led several hundred pro-democracy activists in Manama's old market area before suddenly marching towards the Pearl Roundabout. The protest ended a few hundred meters away from the roundabout with police firing tear gas and stun grenades after using megaphones to warn protesters the march was unauthorised and they should disperse. Two women from US-based rights group Witness Bahrain taking part in Sunday's march were arrested and deported. 4=Ayat al-Qormozi Five opposition political groups headed by Al Wefaq, Bahrain's largest political opposition party, organized an authorized sit-in in a yard, dubbed 'Freedom Square', in Al Muqsha village outside of Manama. This is the same location as the opposition's week-long 'sit-in' for political reforms. At that sit-in last week, Ayat al-Qormozi, a Bahraini female poet and visible leader in the opposition movement, called for the crowd in Al Muqsha to march to the symbolic roundabout and chanted, ""We will return. We will return."" Most clashes between police and protesters occurred in the Shia neighborhoods. About 70 percent of Bahrainis are Shia and they form the base of the youth activists and Al-Wefaq protesters. The Sunnis have organized counter-demonstrations in support of the ruling Al Khalifa family. They control the government's cabinet, and are also Sunni. The formation of the cabinet is one of the key debates between the opposition Al Wefaq and the Sunni minority in country. Al Wefaq wants elected politicians to name the cabinet, whilst the Sunnis prefer the royal family to retain that power. In an interview with Der Spiegel, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa denied that there was an opposition in his country similar to those in Western nations but accepted that there are ""people with different views.""" +politics,"LGBT The United States capital of Washington, D.C. legalized same-sex marriage on Wednesday. Beginning at 6 A.M. local time (1100 UTC), couples began submitting marriage applications at local courthouses citywide. Washington D.C. becomes the seventh United States territory to legalize same sex marriage. The bill was ratified by Mayor Adrian Fenty last December. Due to city's territorial status as a federal district, the bill had to be reviewed by congress. The bill passed congressional review Tuesday night. The bill faced opposition from many family values activists, who tried to stop the bill from becoming law. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rejected a lawsuit to prevent the measure." +politics,"Australia Australian opposition leader Bill Shorten, speaking in Cairns yesterday, pledged an A$500 million fund towards research and programs to help protect Australia's environmental icon The Great Barrier Reef. Recent surveys indicated coral bleaching has killed more than a third of coral in the Great Barrier Reef's north and central regions. ""All of this"", said Mr Shorten, ""is at risk if serious action is not taken to protect it. The Great Barrier Reef is an environmental treasure Australia holds on trust for the world"". The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies performed the surveys. Bleaching is associated with higher-than-average water temperatures resulting from El Niño events, affected by climate change. ARC said bleaching had affected all but seven percent of the reef. This bleaching event is the third of its kind with notable occurrences in 1998 and 2002. This event in particular has had the biggest impact on the reef so far. Two weeks ago, James Cook University scientists said the government would have to commit A$10 billion over the next decade or the reef would be incurable in half that time. Mr Shorten's $500 million investment in research and protection of the reef would be spread over four years." +politics,"Yesterday, the United Nations General Assembly's Third Commission passed resolution L29 against capital punishment; the project was presented by New Zealand and Brazil, and was defended vigorously by Italy. With 99 votes in favor, 52 against and 33 abstentions, the necessary majority was met, needed in order to pass the resolution. Italy had proposed a resolution against capital punishments several times&nbsp;&ndash; in 1994, 1999, and in 2003&nbsp;&ndash; but had been denied in all cases. Massimo D'Alema, Italian Minister of State and Vicepresident of the Council, did not hold and expressed his content towards the result: The Third Commission's vote constitutes a decisive step towards the definitive adoption of the resolution by the Plenary General Assembly, that would have to happen by the month of December. Italy confirms to be at the forefront regarding protection of human rights. The fight against capital punishment at an international level is one of the priorities in foreign policy, that attracts the government, institutions, political-parliamentary forces, and non-governmental organizations in a campaign ... and we are convinced that it has produced a first relevant result." +politics,"Angela Merkel chaired the European Summit in Brussels. European Union leaders on the second day of their summit have agreed on measures to decrease emission of greenhouse gases and to start using more biological fuels. The governments of the 27 countries in Brussels endorsed 3 main binding targets: * to reduce greenhouse gas emission levels by the year 2020 by 20% compared to the level of 1990 * renewable energy should make up 20% of energy consumption by 2020 * a 10% share for biofuels in the total consumption of fuels in E.U. transport. This way, the E.U. wants to contribute in reaching the strategic goal of limiting the global average temperature increase to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. The individual targets for countries will need to be established based on national starting points and potentials, according to the plan. The plans don't mention an enforcement mechanism yet. 4=European Commission PresidentJosé Manuel Barroso In the summit's conclusions, the E.U. underlines its ambitions as a leading force in international climate protection. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the targets ""ambitious and credible"". Europe is prepared to even increase the objectives if other developed countries follow suit, and it invites other countries to come forward with their plans for the environment beyond 2012, when the Kyoto protocol ends. In June, Merkel plans to discuss the measures with the other members on the Group of Eight summit. The proposal takes into account the sovereignty of individual countries to determine exactly which energy sources they use. More specifically, each member state should decide if they wish to use nuclear power or not. Some countries oppose the use of nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels, and Germany is even in the process of dismantling its nuclear energy production. France on the other hand produces 70% of its electricity in nuclear power plants. 13% of France's total energy consumption is nuclear. The report also stresses the importance of nuclear safety in the discussion over nuclear energy. The summit also asked the European Commission to come up with proposals to reduce energy consumption in lighting and offices by 2008 and 2009. The idea is to replace conventional light bulbs with more energy-efficient alternatives such as the energy saving light bulb. Another energy-related topic in the conclusions is an agreement on increased security of energy supply. Through member state solidarity and a more interconnected and integrated market, eastern European countries hope to secure their energy supplies in case Russia would cut the supply. During their two-days summit, the E.U. also discussed economic growth, employment, better regulations and international relations issues." +politics,"The Finnish police have added Finnish hacker Matti Nikki's website lapsiporno.info criticizing Internet censorship to Finland’s new national child porn filter. The blacklisting was noticed when Finland's second largest Internet service provider Elisa started blocking the page today. More of the ISP's are expected to join the filtering when their blacklists are updated from the police's master list. The banned site has been a harsh critic of Internet censorship over the last three years. It contains information and news about how censorship has been discussed and developing in Finland. Although the site's provocative name is lapsiporno.info (""childporn.info"") there is no child porn on the site - the content is mainly text. Tekniikka & Talous magazine asked Commissioner Lars Henriksson of Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) why the page was censored. His answer was that he cannot discuss individual sites, but said that sites which are linking to child porn pages are also within the scope of the law. This interpretation, however, seems to conflict with the actual laws, the scope of which was supposed to be only sites with illegal pictures in foreign countries. On Wednesday, NBI confirmed that site was censored because it published and maintained an incomplete version of the Finnish child porn blacklist. Nikki's list contained roughly two-thirds of the 1500 blacklist entries, and it was created by scanning a large amount of sites and logging the censored pages. The scan also found that the top three results of a Google search for ""gay porn"" are blacklisted, and that most of the blocked sites are actually physically located in the United States or the European Union. Leena Romppainen of Electronic Frontier Finland commented that ""The local authorities have taken no action on these sites. Therefore, either the sites do not contain child pornography or the NBI has not informed the local authorities. Both of the alternatives are equally scary."" Matti Nikki's opinion is that the majority of the censored sites are legal adult sites and that the police are not doing that much research when they are deciding which sites to block. Internet censorship has been a hot topic in Finland as of late. There have been proposals of extending Internet filtering to Internet gambling sites, sites related to terrorism and violence, and torrent-tracker The Pirate Bay. Lapsiporno.info" +politics,"Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka, pledged to end the decades-old war against the Tamil Tiger insurgents within two days. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka ""President Mahinda Rajapaksa has vowed that within the next 48 hours, thousands of Tamil civilians will be freed from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers,"" a spokesman for the government said. He added the president had pledged that ""all territory would be freed from the Tamil Tigers' control"". The president's comments come as the Sri Lankan army has forced the Tiger rebels, known formally as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), onto a small strip of coastline about 1.5 in length Thursday night. About 20,000&ndash;25,000 troops have been gathered for the final attack, and have encircled approximately 1,200&ndash;1,500 of the rebels. The Tigers have been accused of holding civilians as human shields and shooting at those trying to flee, an accusation that they have denied. There are few impartial accounts of the fighting as the government has prevented journalists and aid workers from entering the area. The country's government has rebuffed international worries over thousands of civilians that are located in and around the war zone that have been threatened by powerful artillery bombarding the area. The United Nations says that a further fifty thousand are estimated to still remain in the no-fire zone. In past months, approximately 200,000 civilians have fled from the war zones, and are currently residing in displacement camps. Sri Lankan armies are largely supported by both India and USA, in a strategic calculus aiming to erase Tamil tiger resistances, who claim communist background. Tamils 1983's resistances had start following segregation against them." +politics,"Following accusations issued by the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), British Member of Parliament George Galloway and Senator Charles Pasqua of France have vehemently denied any wrongdoing. George Galloway declared: I've now had a chance to read the report which was compiled without this Senate committee asking me a single question about these absurd allegations. I repeat once more. I have never traded or benefited from any oil deals with Iraq. One of the companies named, with ostensible links to me-- Aredio Petroleum-- I have never heard of until today and I have certainly had no dealings with. The other company, Middle East Advanced Semiconductors, was owned by Fawaz Zureikat, who was the chairman of the Mariam Appeal. It is well-known that Mr Zureikat traded with Iraq but he did not do so on my behalf. I have not received a penny piece or any oil voucher from Iraq, directly or indirectly. You would have thought that natural justice would have demanded that these allegations would have-- must have been!-- put to me, but they haven't been. Senator Joseph McCarthy would have been proud of this committee. On May 17, Galloway appeared before the U.S. senatorial panel and vehemently denied any wrongdoing in a tone seldom used in a senatorial hearing. He accused the U.S. administration of creating a ""smoke screen"" to divert attention away from the situation in Iraq. He also declared, ""The biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians. The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own government."" Galloway denied receiving any money out of the scheme. Galloway demanded, ""What counts is, where's the money, senator? Who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars? The answer to that is nobody,"" while glaring toward U.S. senator Norm Coleman (Republican from Minnesota), according to a New York Times report. Galloway also accused the US senators, especially senator Coleman, of shoddy standards of justice. He claimed they have already ruled him guilty, and that they rely on dubious evidence and wrongful or coerced testimonies. Galloway declared: You have my name on lists provided to you... by the convicted bank robber and fraudster and con man Ahmed Chalabi, who many people, to their credit, in your country now realize played a decisive role in leading your country into the disaster in Iraq. In these circumstances, knowing what the world knows about how you treat prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison1, in Bagram Air Base Afghanistan, in Guantanamo Bay -- including, if I may say, British citizens being held in those places -- I'm not sure how much credibility anyone would put on anything you manage to get from a prisoner in those circumstances. 1. Alluding to the acknowledged Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. Charles Pasqua also denies any personal wrongdoing in the case. Pasqua indicated that he was ""serene"" and that he hoped the investigations by the U.S. Senate would probe the matter to the bottom. Pasqua judged the situation detrimental to relationships between the United States and France. For this reason, Pasqua declared that he had asked the president of the French Senate for the creation of an investigation commission, wishing that the French and U.S. senatorial commissions should collaborate. Pasqua declared himself convinced that misconduct took place in the oil-for-food program, and that it was probable that some French people were involved. He then wished that they should be sought and prosecuted. ""If one wants to find the origin of the financial streams, one can do so."" Pasqua mentioned the Swiss company Genmar, which the U.S. report claims to have served as Pasqua's intermediary. Pasqua denied information presented as facts in the report. For instance, he denied having met Tariq Aziz, former Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq. Pasqua pointed out that nothing in the senatorial evidence indicates that he had benefited from vouchers, only that one of his former advisers, Bernard Guillet, had received oil allocations in his name. From December 2000 onwards, allocations meant for Pasqua ceased and were replaced by allocations to Bernard Guillet. Guillet was arrested by French authorities in April in connection with abuses under the oil-for-food program. Mr Guillet has been put under formal investigation for allegedly participating in a system of occult kickbacks and fees between 1996 and 2001 involving major French companies, including Total. He is suspected of having received amounts of money without good explanation from an intermediary specialized in the resale of Iraqi oil." +politics,"Crime and law The Bolivian President Evo Morales announced Thursday he will file legal charges against the United States President Barack Obama for crimes against humanity. President Morales announced he was preparing litigation after Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro's plane was allegedly denied entry into U.S. airspace over Puerto Rico. President Morales called Obama a ""criminal"" violating international law. Morales called an emergency meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), made up of 33 member states including Argentina, Mexico and Chile, and encouraged member states to remove their ambassadors from the U.S. to show their solidarity. He asked Bolivarian Alliance member states to boycott the next United Nations meeting, to be held in New York on September 24. He also said the U.S. had pursued a policy of ""intimidation"" and have a history of blockading presidential flights. In July this year, the Bolivian presidential aircraft was prevented from landing in Portugal to refuel, allegedly at the request of the U.S. administration. After Italy, Spain and France each banned the aircraft from entering their airspace, it was ultimately forced to land in Austria. Here, the plane was boarded as part of the search for U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden. Several Latin American heads of state promptly condemned the actions. President Evo Morales is in his second presidential term after first being elected in 2005. He campaigned on the promise of alleviating Bolivia's crippling poverty &mdash; Bolivia was Latin America's poorest nation at the time he was elected &mdash; and is Bolivia's first indigenous leader. He became internationally recognisable for the striped jumper he wore while meeting with high level dignitaries, including kings and presidents, around the world. His actions as President have included halving his own salary and those of his ministers, seizing Bolivia's gas and oil reserves, and redistributing the nation's unused countryside to the poor. President Morales had been bound for bilateral talks in China. He maintains he will not be prevented from attending them." +politics,"It's now been three weeks since the four-person Lakota Freedom Delegation declared that the Lakota people were withdrawing from their treaties with the United States and, though small, the movement still proves controversial: two U.S.-recognized Lakota tribal governments have rejected the Delegation's authority outright with at least one tribe stating it will consider the Delegation's, now Lakota Oyate's, proposal. The rest of the tribes have remained silent. The central figure the movement has been Canupa Gluha Mani, a longtime activist whose tactics have led repeatedly to his arrest and imprisonment — most recently in June 2007, when Canupa Gluha Mani was one of six arrested who participated in blockading a road in Nebraska to keep outside alcohol from entering his dry reservation where it is banned. Wikinews talked to Canupa Gluha Mani about the movement and Lakota Oyate in an exclusive interview. Naomi Archer Also called Duane Martin Sr, Canupa Gluha Mani prefers to be referred to as just that, ""Canupa Gluha Mani""; it means ""He walks as he protects the pipe"", though much of the meaning is lost in translation between English and the delicately-nuanced Lakota language. Canupa Gluha Mani prefers to speak in this, his native tongue &mdash; he ""hates"" that the English language has become the everyday language of the Lakota, and decries the extinction of many indigenous American languages &mdash; but uses English fluently and earthily. Canupa Gluha Mani talked about the Cante Tenza, the Strong Heart Warrior Society, which he heads and which forms the paramilitary force of Lakotah. The society, an okolakiciye or warrior society, originated in the Black Hills. He told the following story: Four warriors in the hills ran across a coyote and gave it chase. And as the coyote ran he turned into a Lakota man, and in his changing the man left four objects: a rattle, a drum, a lance, and a tomahawk with which the Lakota people could be defended. Canupa Gluha Mani is a warrior leader, and his position with relation to the treaty council which traditionally governs the Lakota is ""whip-man"", loosely ""sergeant at arms"" &mdash; that is, he enforces order and decorum when passions grow heated during tribal discussions. The authority of the Lakota Freedom Delegation, he says, comes not from the BIA-recognized governments but rather from the ""people who understand treaties"", i.e. the treaty council, from among the Seven Sister Bands of the Lakota. This traditional government is based on the idea of ""staying quiet and listening to the people who have answers"", the ""itacans"" or expert headmen. Canupa Gluha Mani also endorsed Naomi Archer, who has acted as Lakota Oyate's liaison; indeed, as the Lakota Freedom Delegation prepared its trip to Washington DC he called in Naomi Archer, who though of non-native extraction is his adopted sister and a fellow Cante Tenza member, to handle media support. ""I support the understandings of what she's saying"", he said, referring to a previous interview with Archer which revealed an apparent split between Russell Means and other members of the Lakota Freedom Delegation. ""She as an individual has integrity."" However, the previous interview missed nuances and the perceived gap between Lakota Oyate and Russell Means' Republic of Lakota is not so great. ""There's no division here....it's communication, that's all. We can always get past this."" With regard to Russell Means, who has declared himself Chief Facilitator of the Republic of Lakotah, he said, ""I've worked with my uncle Russell Means in positive venues. And I'm still behind him, I have love for him;"" He emphasized the familial bond between himelf and Means, noting that Means had adopted him as a nephew. However, ""the Lakota have to be recognized."" It was ""genocide"", he said, that of all the races of humanity, American Indians are not represented at the United Nations. On the subject of Lakota activist Alfred Bone Shirt, who organized the Lakota Oyate's first freedom celebration and information meeting on Saturday, 5 January but has since made comments attacking the legitimacy of Canupa Gluha Mani, Naomi Archer and Lakota Oyate, Canupa Gluha Mani had this to say. ""I have nothing to do with Mr Bone Shirt, nothing against him"". He also noted that Lakota Oyate had respected Bone Shirt's call to take down invitations for donations, but expressed a wish that Mr Bone Shirt would make the same call to any other website inviting donations to Lakotah. The traditional decision making process within the Lakota, he said, was informal discussions among the women of the Lakota rather than pronouncements and declarations. Ideas like western forms of government &mdash; referencing the ""Republic"" &mdash; and the use of the English language were part of the reason for both the misunderstanding of the dispute between Russell Means and Canupa Gluha Mani and the Lakota's problems: ""It's hard for Indian people to adapt to this modern lifestyle....It's white teaching that cause Indian problem....leave us alone....This country has not learned a thing about its own First Nations people."" US governing of Lakota has led directly to the economic and social decline of the Lakotah people, he argues. Canupa Gluha Mani noted that the life expectancy for Lakota men is only 44, and that alcohol and drug use are epidemic, as are infectious diseases such as tuberculosis. But revival of the Lakota has to be not just economic to improve the circumstances of the people, but cultural too: ""Our language is at stake right now"" but the US government-backed institutions like the Tribal Police are just ""the second coming of the white man's cavalry"". Canupa Gluha Mani is on record as saying in a previous interview that ""we'll probably get killed for"" withdrawing from the United States. Now, he is tight-lipped on the future, and when asked about the possibility of a confrontation with the US will only say that ""anything's plausible."" And if the United States government leaves the Lakota alone? ""Then we can take our practices forward in good will."" Canupa Gluha Mani, who is married to a woman of European descent, says that the traditional American Indian lifestyle can coexist with the western lifestyle, but ""every wound has to heal"". ""We can be self-sufficient. We can govern ourselves."" Having withdrawn from the outstanding treaties with the United States, will Lakota Oyate make a new arrangement with Washington? ""That has yet to be exonerated."" Lakotah continues to seek international recognition; although no country has declared recognition for Lakotah, he is ""confident with the Bolivians"" and also noted a positive response from the ""Bulgarian freedom fighters"" pressuring the US to recognize Lakota independence. Canupa Gluha Mani then addressed the Lakota people directly. ""What needs to get out there is, I love my people....This is your dream come true. That's what the symbolic meaning of Lakotah is. It's called freedom. Hoka hay.""" +politics,"China's president, Hu Jintao, held a press conference on Wednesday with United States president Barack Obama at the White House. The two leaders spoke about relations between their countries. Topics included human rights, trade between the US and China, and climate change. Obama noted that China's position on human rights was occasionally a ""source of tension,"" although it did not ""prevent the U.S. and China from cooperating."" Standing next to each other at the White House, the pair took questions from reporters on the scene. One asked how ""the US can work with a country known for treating its people so poorly, using censorship and force to repress its people."" Obama replied ""China has a different political system than we do. China is at a different stage of development than we are. We come from very different cultures and with very different histories. But as I've said before and I repeated to President Hu, we had some core views as Americans about the universality of certain rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly that we think are very important and transcend cultures. I have been very candid with President Hu about these issues."" Hu did not initially respond to this question, blaming technical problems. However, upon being asked later, he stated ""a lot still needs to be done"" with human rights in the country. Hu stated that both China and the United States must appreciate their individual interests. According to CBS News, the Chinese president was in an ""unfamiliar setting""; BBC News noted that the meeting was ""rare""." +politics,"LGBT On Monday, Chilean president Michelle Bachelet signed a bill to legalise same-sex marriage. The bill awaits approval from the two houses of congress to pass, which would also permit LGBT couples to adopt children. Currently, only marriage between a man and a woman is recognised in Chile. Two years ago, Chile legalised civil unions of same-sex couples. The bill was signed at La Moneda Palace, the presidential palace. LGBT activists attended the signing ceremony; at least 200 attendees were expected. Chile is a largely Roman Catholic country, and the Roman Catholic Church has been against the idea of same-sex unions. During the signing ceremony, Bachelet said, ""it is not ethical nor fair to put artificial limits on love"". She tweeted, For love there are no conditions. For moving forward towards an inclusive Chile, today I signed bill of #EqualMarriage Under Bachelet's presidency, Chile saw changes in the abortion laws last week. Abortions are now allowed for cases like pregnancy from rape, or conditions endangering the mother's life or where the foetus cannot survive. Chile saw a total ban on abortion in 1989 under General Pinochet. Bachelet's term is to end in March. Former president and candidate in November's Chilean presidential election Sebastián Piñera is against the legalisation of same-sex marriage, and said: ""There should not be discrimination, but at the same time the essence of an institution such as marriage should be respected, which has always been about conserving the human race"". Sex among partners of the same gender has been legal in Chile since 1999. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay are among South American countries where same-sex couples are allowed to marry." +politics,"Officials on the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte said that a North Korean vessel they searched today had no illegal cargo. The ship was searched by French Customs to enforce sanctions imposed by an October 14 resolution of the United Nations Security Council. The UN passed Resolution 1718, imposing new sanctions on North Korea, in response to a nuclear weapon test in October. The ship was searched at the small French island of Mayotte. The BBC reports that this may be the first search of a North Korean vessel under the new sanctions regime. Update: , Press agency AFP reported last night that French authorities plan to continue inspecting the ship until the end of the week." +politics,"2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On Tuesday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of committing war crimes against civilians during the ongoing invasion via live video feed to the United Nations Security Council. Zelenskyy said: ""The Russian military searched for and purposefully killed anyone who served our country. They shot and killed women outside their houses when they just tried to call someone who is alive. They killed entire families, adults and children, and they tried to burn the bodies."" Demanding the perpetrators and their superiors be brought before a war crimes tribunal and held accountable, he specified: ""They cut off limbs, cut their throats. Women were raped and killed in front of their children."" Russian ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya repeated that the Government of Russia denies the allegations. He asserted that video footage was a ""crude forgery"" arranged by Ukraine. ""You only saw what they showed you. The only ones who would fall for this are Western dilettantes,"" he said. Ukraine said it found hundreds of dead bodies, notably in Bucha, after forces reclaimed areas outside capital city Kyiv. Iryna Venediktova, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, said on Sunday that 410 bodies were found in areas around Kyiv, telling Reuters: ""We need to work with witnesses"" to assess the extent of the crimes. ""People today are so stressed that they are physically unable to speak,"" she said. On Sunday, Zelenskyy accused Russia of seeking: ""The elimination of the whole nation, and the people. We are the citizens of Ukraine."" Asked if it was genocide on CBS program Face the Nation, Zelenskyy said: ""Indeed. This is genocide."" Ukraine released images depicting people shot in the back of the head, many with their hands tied behind their backs. The Russian Ministry of Defence issued a statement on Monday reading: ""During the time that Bucha has been under the control of the Russian armed forces, not a single local resident has suffered from any violent action. Russian servicemen have delivered and distributed 452 tonnes of humanitarian aid to civilians in the Kyiv Region."" The statement claimed photographs were a hoax and ""provocations of Ukrainian radicals."" Satellite photography over Bucha from Maxar Technologies appeared to show dead bodies in the same positions for weeks, as well as a mass grave at the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints. According to CNN, people were hoping to find their relatives in the grave which may contain upwards of a 150 people. Nevertheless, Russia's Director of the Information Maria Zakharova, denied the legitimacy of footage from Bucha. ""Who are the masters of provocation? Of course the United States and NATO,"" she said, saying the outrage was a planned attempt to tarnish Russia's reputation. International responses were issued earlier this week despite Russia's stance. United Kingdom foreign minister Liz Truss said: ""Britain has helped lead the way with sanctions to cripple the Putin war machine. We will do more to ramp up the pressure on Russia and we will keep pushing others to do more"". US Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined: ""We’re tightening the existing sanctions. We’re adding new ones. We’re doing it in full coordination with Europeans and other partners around the world. And one of the results is that the Russian economy is reeling."" ""You can expect further sanctions announcements this week. And we are coordinating with our allies and partners on what the exact parameters of that will be,"" added US security advisor Jake Sullivan." +politics,"The Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has talked with the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Nepal K P Sharma Oli to discuss the status of ongoing peace talks with the Maoist rebels. Oli met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee during his visit in New Delhi. Oli discussed the situation of the peace negotiations between the Nepal government and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). He provided them an overview about the efforts being made by government to persuade the Maoists to quit the arms. During an-hour long talk between Mukherjee and Oli, they reviewed the implementation of the economic package announced after Koirala's visit to India in June. They also discussed about the key infrastructure projects in Nepal, like, export of power from India to Nepal and construction of transmission lines. The talk was important as Maoist and Nepal government are trying to resolve the issue. Maoist chief Prachanda met Nepal Prime Minister G P Koirala in the presence of United Nations Secretary General's special representative Ian Martin on Sunday. During the meeting they tried to sort out most of the issues regarding crucial arm management issue and agreed to hold fresh talk on Monday." +politics,"Russia President Vladimir Putin of Russia today signed a new law increasing the fines available against those involved in unlawful protests, overriding concerns from his human rights advisor and the Council of Europe. The measure was proposed by ruling United Russia after May 7 protests coinciding with Putin's third inauguration saw clashes between protestors and police, with 400 arrests. The United Russia-dominated State Duma voted 241&ndash;147 in favour earlier this week, ahead of a protest scheduled for Russia Day, June 12, in Moscow against Putin's twelve-year rule. The new legislation increases maximum fines for individuals involved in illegal protests from 100 rubles (US$3) to 10,000 rubles (US$300), but those breaching ""the established rules of conduct"" face fines of up to 20,000 rubles, up from a previous high of 1,000 rubles. Officials caught engaging in illegal demonstrations have had their maximum penalty increased from 50,000 to 600,000 rubles (upper equivalent: US$20,000). Organisers of protests that result in injury or damage can be fined up to 300,000 rubles. Smaller violations can be dealt with by detention of up to fifteen days, and up to 200 hours of community service is available as an alternative sentence to a fine. Protestors are banned from concealing their faces and nobody with a criminal record may organise a protest. Supporters say the bill is required for public safety. Putin explained protests ""must be organized in such way that they inflict no damages to other citizens, who do not take part in them"" and insisted authorities ""should apply the new law in such a way that it does not limit the citizens’ right for expression over any issue of internal or external politics, including street marches, events and rallies"". Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesperson, said the law would be published in Saturday's edition of the Rossiyskaya Gazeta; it takes effect instantly upon publication. He said the law matched similar legislation in other European nations. Irina Yarovaya, who leads the State Duma's Security and Anti-Corruption Committee, agreed that health and safety was the law's top priority. Yarovaya noted the 'youth' of democracy in Russia, saying ""We are only beginning to have the experience that other countries have been accumulating for decades and centuries."" She said Putin's ""political mission"" is ""protection of public security and national interests of the country"". Putin says he investigated the laws of European Union members, and found ""There is nothing in our law which would have been more tough than similar legislation in the countries I named,"" which included Germany, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. He today spoke of last year's ""mass riots, torched cars and robbed stores"" in the UK. The law has faced local and international criticism. Mikhail Fedotov, chairman of the Presidential Human Rights Council, urged Putin to veto the law and said much depended on enforcement, which he hoped to be ""moderate"". The Council claims it breaches existing legislation including the constitution. 4=Vladimir Putin Igor Lebedev, a prominent Liberal Democrat, said Putin's signature was ""absolutely expected"". The Liberal Democrats opposed the bill. Yalboko leader Sergey Mitrokhin called the law ""a ban on holding rallies and political actions"" which he cannot organise protests against because ""Now anyone can be punished with slave labor or a crazy fine. I can’t gather people for a rally knowing that they might be sent straight to the galleys from there"". Mikhail Gorbachev, ex-President of the former USSR, characterised today's signing as ""a mistake"" that could leave revisions necessary. Putin himself acknowledged the possibility; ""Nothing we have is frozen solid. If we find out the MPs have missed something, that something must be laid out in a different way... we can approach the State Duma deputies, look at how the law is applied and ask them to make some corrections."" Is the legislation a needed part of efforts to combat disorder, or an attack on the right to protest? Russia's opposition says Putin's true motivation is to provide a response to the planned June 12 rally against him, which stems from widespread claims of irregularities in this year's Presidential election. Ilya Yashin, a leader of the movement, called the law ""absolutely irresponsible policy"" that would not deter protestors. ""The authorities are fighting against the protests, instead of fighting against the injustice that is causing them,"" said Yashin. The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly also spoke out against the law. Putin, however, cautioned that ""A society which permits rallies and marches must protect itself from radicalism""." +politics,"United Nations envoy Terje Roed-Larsen and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara announced Sunday at a joint news conference that Syria will withdraw all troops and foreign intelligence agents by the April 30 deadline. The withdrawal would precede the upcoming national elections scheduled for May, and would end 25 years of Syrian military occupation in Lebanon. The news conference came after meetings in Damascus between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese army chief General Michel Suleiman that dealt with the withdrawal timetable. Roed-Larson said, ""Syria has agreed that subject to the acceptance of the Lebanese authorities, a U.N. verification team will be dispatched to verify the full withdrawal."" The removal of Syrian military presence in Lebanon is a main sticking point of the anti-Syrian, or opposition group, objections towards forming a new government. After a February bombing assassination of the previous Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was also anti-Syrian, he was succeeded by Omar Karami. Massive opposition group street protests forced the pro-Syrian Karami to resign, but a week later he was re-installed by President al-Assad to spear-head the new government's formation. Mr. Karami has been unable to secure opposition group support for forming a new government. The Lebanese Parliament must act soon to form consensus in announcing new elections, or its legal mandate to do so will expire." +politics,"A report released by Allan Gyngell of the Lowy Institute on Monday, revealed many Australians view US foreign policy to be as dangerous as Islamic fundamentalism. It also found that 58 percent of the population had a positive view of the United States. The Lowy Institute, established in 2003 with a $30 million endowment from Australian philanthropist Frank Lowy, claims it is ""an independent, non-partisan think tank."" The report, entitled ""Australians speak 2005: public opinion and foreign policy"", showed that global warming and nuclear proliferation were greater foreign policy concerns than terrorism and illegal immigration. 70 per cent of Australians were worried about global warming, the report stated, while only 63 per cent were worried about international terrorism. The report also noted most Australians believed improving the global environment should be Australia's number one foreign policy goal. Mark Wakeham of Greenpeace said, ""Clearly Australians understand the warnings from scientists about greenhouse pollution far better than our governments do. Once again, the community is leading and governments will be pulled into line."" He continued by saying, ""Scientists tell us that, to avoid dangerous warming of more than two degrees, we have to cut our greenhouse pollution by at least 60 per cent by 2050. This means moving rapidly and decisively away from dirty coal to clean, renewable sources of energy like solar, wind and energy efficiency."" The Lowy Institute surveyed 1000 randomly selected people to interview for the report." +politics,"Uganda Ugandan Parliament may take action on the Anti-Homosexuality Act this week. It has reappeared for parliamentary debate for the first time since its proposal in 2009. The original bill called for making homosexuality punishable by imprisonment, or death in aggravated circumstances. Not reporting gay individuals to the government would also become a criminal act. Despite a great deal of international condemnation, the bill is largely supported in Uganda. One of the bills backers, Martin Ssempa told the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee that the death penalty is ""something that we have moved away from,"" in recent hearings, according to the Associated Press. However, he stresses the importance of passing the bill, stating that ""homosexuality is killing our society.""" +politics,"The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have sided with Wikileaks.org and will defend them against a lawsuit which took the site off line in the United States. Wikileaks is a website dedicated to hosting leaked documents that are ""anonymous, untraceable, uncensorable."" On February 18, 2008, a permanent court injunction issued in the California Northern District Court in San Francisco by judge Jeffrey White, California to Bank Julius Baer (BJB), a Swiss Bank, took the domain name offline. However the site remained online via its IP address and alternative domain names. Wikileaks previously published hundreds of documents obtained from a whistleblower of the Swiss Bank, ""purportedly showing offshore tax evasion and money laundering by extremely wealthy and in some cases, politically sensitive, clients from the US, Europe, China and Peru."" ""Blocking access to the entire site in response to a few documents posted there completely disregards the public's right to know,"" said Ann Brick a lawyer for the ACLU. At least 18 other organizations have signed documents in defense of Wikileaks. Those documents have been forged into a 'joint Amici Curiae (""friends of the Court"") brief; which will be submitted to the court and used as defense evidence in a hearing scheduled for Friday February 29. Despite the attempts by the ACLU and others, Bank Julius Baer says that their lawsuit has nothing to do with the rights of free speech. ""This action has been brought solely to prevent the unlawful dissemination of stolen bank records and personal account information of its customers. Many of those documents have also been altered and forged,"" said the Bank. Recently the Bank has made allegations that they have been ""unable to negotiate with Wikileaks"" at all before or during legal proceedings. Wikileaks, in a press release denies the allegations. ""Wikileaks at all times responded with grace and dignity to BJBs highly irregular demands and left communication open,"" said Wikileaks which also adds that the correspondence with the Bank is available on its website on servers in Denmark. ""BJB did not submit the correspondence to the court, although it must be absolutely central to the issues held there. We wonder why?""" +politics,"Tatyana Zelenskaya Russia On Thursday three individuals accused of involvement in the October 2006 killing of journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya were acquitted by a 12-person Russian jury. Not present for the trial nor among the defendants was Rustam Makhmudov, the accused trigger man, suspected to be hiding out abroad. Makhmudov's two brothers, Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, were accused of acting as accomplices in the murder. Former police officer with the Moscow Directorate for Combating Organized Crime Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was the final defendant in the trial, charged with engaging the Makhmudov brothers for the contract-style killing and providing the pistol with silencer used. Pavel Ryaguzov, a former FSB agent, was a suspect in a separate and unrelated case who was tried concomitantly to the other three due to a previous association with Khadzhikurbanov. Ryaguzov was also acquitted in his case. In what has been described in many reports as an assassination, Politkovskaya was shot five times in the elevator of her apartment building in central Moscow while returning from a trip to the supermarket on 7 October 2006. She was 48 years old at the time of her death and a mother of two. The date of the event coincided with then-president Vladimir Putin's birthday. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_RUSSIA_POLITKOVSKAYA?SITE=ORLAG&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT via AP Politkovskaya was a harsh and prominent critic of the Kremlin, many aspects and institutions of contemporary Russian society such as the secret services and high-level corruption, and the Moscow-backed government of Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya. Domestic and international sources have claimed government involvement in her death. With or without government complicity the murder may along with other recent killings indicate that journalists can be slain with impunity, a situation that seriously hampers the rule of law in Russia. Family of the defendants cheered upon the jury forewoman's recitation of the verdict. As the judge declared them free to go the three burst from the metal courtroom cage to join their supporters. Defense attorney Murad Musayev hailed the acquittal as a rare triumph of justice within the Russian court system. Prosecutor Vera Pashkovskaya announced an intent to appeal the ruling." +politics,"The Telegraph who was in the courtroom said, “at the beginning, she Wang said this is the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution Qing Dynasty, as a citizen, we have responsibility to concern about the society.” However, the judge told Wang to only talk about her individual case, the source said. A verdict is expected in the coming weeks, but Han was not confident of an acquittal. Wang has previously been vocal in support of Liu Xiaobo, winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace prize, after he was jailed for 11 years for writing the Charter 08 pro-democracy petition." +politics,"Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks has made application to gain British citizenship. All nine British citizens that had previously been held in Guantanamo Bay have been released following lobbying by the British government. The decision to make an application was made after Hicks made a chance comment about his mother's British citizenship when talking about the recent ""Ashes"" cricket series with his lawyer Major Michael Mori. The ABC reported that a spokesperson from the British High Commission in Canberra has said that the application could take up to a year to process. The Law Council of Australia issued a press release on September 21, 2005 asserting that if the proposed military trial of David Hicks goes ahead in its current format then it is shaping up to be a ""true travesty of justice"". David Hicks has been held without trial for nearly four years and for much of that time he was held without any charges having been made. He is currently scheduled to face a military commission and is the only Guantanamo Bay detainee facing a commission hearing." +politics,"A book by US Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), entitled ""It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good"", hit stores in Washington over the weekend. Its official publication date is July 25th. Intended as a response to Hillary Clinton's book ""It Takes a Village"", certain passages of the book have already caused concern in certain circles. Also in the book, Santorum compares abortion to slavery, and advocates against public school systems and two income families. Already facing perhaps the toughest re-election bid in the country, opponents and supporters of Santorum are using the book to tout their positions. T.J. Rooney, the state Democratic Party chairman, had this to say: ""References to how families are compromised when both parents work outside the home, how it takes a societal toll on Pennsylvania families or American families, it just shows a complete lack of understanding of the real world in which the vast majority of Pennsylvanians reside."" Although he's a Democrat himself, journalist Jules Siegel disagrees with Rooney, ""From what I read in the July 10 AP story about Sen. Santorum's encounter with Hillary Clinton, I believe that he and I share common views on some aspects of child-rearing. Democrats can't handle motherhood issues because NOW-style feminists will not allow an honest discussion of what to do about the economic consequences of motherhood. Daycare is not the answer. I'm eager to see what Santorum says about right to life after birth."" Hillary Clinton's office refused to comment on the book. *""The notion that college education is a cost-effective way to help poor, low-skill unmarried mothers with high school diplomas or GED's move up the economic ladder is just wrong."" *""Respect for stay-at-home mothers has been poisoned by a toxic combination of the village elders' war on the traditional family and radical feminism's misogynistic crusade to make working outside the home the only marker of social value and self-respect."" *""The African proverb says, 'It takes a village to raise a child."" ""The American version is 'It takes a village to raise a child - if the village wants that child.'""" +politics,"Iraq Yesterday the Peshmerga, military of the autonomous region of Kurdistan in Iraq, gained control of parts of the Mosul Dam, as part of their advance against insurgents of the Islamic State. International opposition to the Islamic militant group has grown this week. The Peshmerga were supported this weekend by US airstrikes in their attempt to push back the Sunni insurgents, and Kurdish officials reported ""good progress"" in the face of ""fierce resistance"". Reuters reported eyewitness accounts of Kurdish forces successfully retaking Batmaiya and Telasqaf, mostly Christian towns as close to Mosul &mdash; about 18 miles (30 km) &mdash; as they have come since June when government forces were forced out. Mosul Dam, Iraq's largest hydroelectric dam, is vital to the region's irrigation, as well as water and power supplies. It was seized by the insurgents of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, on August 7, as part of their advance across Northern Iraq. The advance of the Islamic State has prompted responses from many parts of the international community. On Friday the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution targeting the extremist group's finances and leaders. Six individuals were named and now face travel bans, asset freezes, and arms embargoes. The resolution also warned of the possibility of other sanctions against anyone found to be trading with the Islamic State, in a move aimed at stopping their supply of weapons and economic gain from sale of oil being produced by the oil fields under their control. On the same day as the Security Council's resolution, foreign ministers of the European Union's member states issued a joint statement welcoming the efforts of those European states supporting Kurdish forces. This support includes the supply of military supplies from France, and humanitarian aid from the UK, with Eastern European countries providing military materials also being transported by the UK. Germany and the Netherlands were also reportedly considering the possibility of supplying aid where needed. The US began launching airstrikes on August 8, and have continued to do so in support of the Kurdish forces and civilians stranded on Mount Sinjar. The responses from the international community follow reports of brutality against religious minorities in Northern Iraq &mdash; such as Yazidis and Christians &mdash; accompanying the Islamic State advance across the region. Rudaw reported from within Kurdistan that the local political parties have put aside their differences and are recruiting volunteers to send to the front. Many of these parties can trace their beginnings back to the 1960s&ndash;1990s struggle against the Iraqi army, many of whom continue to maintain militias which are now being deployed to reinforce the Kurdish army in the region. These are reported to have been joined by groups of ethnic Kurds from Iran. Reports say hundreds of Yazidi volunteers are also being trained inside Kurdistan to help fight the Islamic State's advance." +politics,"MexicoLawmakers in the municipality of Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, became the first to approve gay marriage in Latin America yesterday, despite opposition from conservative groups and the Catholic Church. ""It was approved overall by 39 votes in favor and twenty against, with five abstentions,"" said a spokesman for David Razu, the bill's chief sponsor. Razu proposed the bill to allow same-sex couples to have the same access as heterosexual married couples to social security and other benefits. Some cities in countries in Latin America, such as Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador permit homosexual civil unions, Uruguay permits civil unions throughout the country as well as adoption, and last month a court in Argentina blocked a bill proposing gay marriage; the country's Supreme Court has yet to make the final ruling. Spokesman Oscar Oliver said that the next step for the capital's lawmakers was to use a measure in the bill intended to permit adoption for same-sex married couples." +politics,"In testimony at a military hearing yesterday on abuses at the U.S. prison camp in Iraq, the former warden of Abu Ghraib, Maj. David Dinenna, said he attended in September 2003 a meeting with Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who was then commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. Maj. Dinenna said Gen. Miller recommended using dogs, because of their effectiveness. Two dog handler soldiers at Abu Ghraib stand accused in the hearing. Sgt. Santos A. Cardona, 31, and Sgt. Michael J. Smith, 24, are alleged to have used the dogs to threaten and intimidate prisoners. During the defendants' testimony on Tuesday, they said the interrogation techniques used by them on prisoners was learned from a team of interrogators that was dispatched to Iraq from the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba. The Article 32 military court proceeding, which concluded Wednesday in Fort Meade, Maryland, is a preliminary hearing to hear prosecution and defense arguments in the case. The Prosecution is seeking a court-martial with claims that the defendants acted criminally. The Defense contends the soldiers were following orders, and that the charges should be dropped. The investigating officer of the military court, Maj. Glenn Simpkins, has two weeks to weigh the evidence that was presented. Some or all charges could be dropped, but if some charges stand, he will make a recommendation on how Sgts. Cardona and Smith should be dealt with when it goes to trial. The two accused said in yesterday’s testimony that Col. Thomas M. Pappas, the top military intelligence officer at Abu Ghraib, approved the use of the dogs. Testimony was also heard from Pvt. Ivan L. “Chip” Frederick, now serving an 8-year sentence in Fort Leavenworth for his role as ringleader in the abuse, who testified by phone from prison that approval was given to use the dogs, and that a civilian interrogator was also sometimes involved in directing which prisoner cells were to be visited by dog handlers. In addition to the use of dogs, aggressive interrogation techniques such as clothing removal and sleep deprivation were also part of the series of abuses. Staff Sgt. James Vincent Lucas previously had told Army investigators in Guantanamo that he left Cuba in 2003 to go to Iraq where he, as a member of a 6-man team, taught the “lessons learned” at Guantanamo, and served to “provide guidelines” to interrogators at Abu Ghraib. Legislation sponsored by several Senate Republicans seeks to specifically regulate the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and other military prisons. A co-sponsor of the bill, Lindsey Graham (R-SC), recently released declassified internal memos dating from 2003 and written by top military lawyers. They warned the Pentagon about the aggressive tactics at Guantanamo. The memos noted it would heighten the dangers for U.S. troops caught by the enemy. Army charge sheets accuse Cardona and Smith with maltreating detainees from November 15, 2003, to January 15, 2004 by ""directing, encouraging, or permitting their unmuzzled military working dogs to bark and growl at detainees in order to unlawfully harass and threaten the detainees and in order to make the detainees urinate or defecate on themselves."" Cardona, of Fullerton, with the 42nd Military Police Detachment in Ft. Bragg, N.C., was charged with nine counts. Smith, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with the 523rd Military Police Detachment in Ft. Riley, Kan., was charged with 14 counts." +politics,"Turkey According to a report released by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation ( TESEV) for United Nation's Development Plan, the per capita GNP in Eastern Turkey, an area predominantly inhabited by Kurdish people, is as low as seven percent of that of the European Union on average. The report analyzed a region of 21 cities in Eastern Turkey*. One of the cities included in the report, Şırnak, was reported to be as poor as Botswana, Southern Africa. Other points highlighted in the report included: * 60% of the population in the region was under the poverty line. If this situation persists, people may start to migrate to Northern Iraq. * If 1% of the national income is spent on Eastern Turkey's infrastructure and social investment for 7 years, the region will be enabled to finance itself. If the economic and social conditions in the region are fixed, the fragile relationship between the Turkish government and the Kurdish people of the region may improve. * Access to health services is a primary human right. Without access to health services, one cannot expect that people of this region can live in confidence. Health institutions should employ nurses who speak Kurdish so the patients can communicate with the health services staff. * The use of the private sector is not reliable as a solution. The government should act to remedy the lack of infrastructure in the region." +politics,"A military tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is hearing arguments today over the legality of trying Canadian Omar Khadr for alleged war crimes, given his status as a minor at the time of the incident. Khadr is charged with the murder of Sgt. Christopher Speer, in addition to attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism, and spying. The charges stem from a 2002 incident in which the 15-year old allegedly threw a grenade at U.S. troops after they directed an air-strike at the Afghan compound he was sharing with Mujahideen insurgents. A number of groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have sent a letter to Secretary of Defence Robert Gates alleging that the military tribunal is ""not equipped to meet juvenile justice standards"" and that Khadr should either be tried before a civilian court or repatriated to Canada. Jennifer Daskal, senior counter-terrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch explained that the United States ""should not make matters worse by prosecuting him before an unfair military tribunal."" Khadr's lawyer Dennis Edney challenged the attempts to label the 21-year old as a war criminal asking ""...Why is he not being treated as a child soldier?"" Lt Cdr Bill Kuebler, the American military commissions counsel in the case, agreed that the charges should be dismissed since the tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to prosecute minors. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper however, has said that his country will not intervene in the case to seek extradition of Khadr, re-affirming Canada's status as the only Western country who has not demanded the release or extradition of their citizens held in Guantanamo. Gitmo Claiming to have been abused, threatened with rape and forced into painful positions since his arrival in Guantanamo in 2002 , Omar Khadr has been the subject of two psychiatric assessments that claimed he suffered from mental disorder as a result of his imprisonment, and was at risk of suicide. Khadr was previously charged by the Guantanamo military commission in November 2005, before the judicial body was ruled ""unlawful"" by the Supreme Court. Last June, a military judge dismissed a second series of charges against Khadr because his 2004 Combatant Status Review Tribunal had classified as an ""enemy combatant"" rather than an ""illegal enemy combatant"", meaning that he did not qualify under the Military Commissions Act. Three months later, however, the Court of Military Commission Review ruled that the Commission would be allowed to make its own determination of the legality of a combatant." +politics,"United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon remarked on the post-election situation in Zimbabwe on Wednesday, expressing concern about the failure of the election commission to release the results. He believes the delay could have ""serious implications"" for Zimbabwe's people. 4=Ban Ki-moon At a summit in New York City, which was attended by the UN Security Council and African Union leaders, Ban said the international community is waiting for ""decisive action"" from the governments of southern Africa. ""Absent a transparent solution to this impasse, the situation could deteriorate further with serious implications for the people of Zimbabwe,"" he said. ""The credibility of the democratic process in Africa could be at stake here."" Ban said the UN is willing to help the Southern African Development Community resolve the crisis, and added that a possible second round of elections would have to be conducted fairly and transparently, in the presence of international observers. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown agreed with the Secretary-General's remarks. He called on the international community to put more pressure on Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, who has been accused of rigging the election. ""No one thinks, having seen the result at the polling stations, that President Mugabe has won this election,"" Brown said. ""A stolen election would not be an election at all. The credibility of the democratic process depends on there being a legitimate government."" The summit was chaired by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who insisted on Saturday that there was ""no crisis"" in Zimbabwe. Jacob Zuma, leader of South Africa's ruling ANC party, disagreed with Mbeki, saying that ""the situation is more worrying now given the reported violence that has erupted.""" +politics,"&ndash; According to The Times, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The Right Honourable Anthony Charles Lynton Blair wants to involve the United States of America in efforts to reduce anthropogenic interference with Earth's climates. Historically, the United Kingdom's closest partner in this endeavor has been the Federal Republic of Germany. The United States government has famously refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Blair sais also that the Kyoto Protocol doesn't go far enough. He would like to involve the private sector also and he has put this item on top of the G8, so all the large countries of the world have to talk about it. Mr Byers said yesterday: ""The reality is that unless we can get the United States engaged - responsible as it is for around a quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions - then any hopes of successfully tackling global warming will be doomed to failure. Some sources are saying, Blair is saying these things because he can make the more progressive voters change their mind, so they would vote for him." +politics,"China and Russia have today put forward a jointly-crafted resolution regarding sanctions against North Korea. The document was released to counter a Japanese alternative, which was written in response to last week's Taepodong-2 missile tests. This Sino-Russian version, however, removes sections which could advocate military action against Pyongyang. The move comes after a number of Chinese requests this week to revise the original Japanese version, claiming that tensions in the region would increase if it were to be adopted. As a result, Chinese diplomats have been instructed to veto the initial document, which advocates much stronger sanctions against North Korea than neighbours Russia and China would have felt comfortable with. The two nations presented their revised resolution to the United Nations this afternoon. After reviewing a draft copy - which was released to the Associated Press - several influential nations, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have reaffirmed their support for Japan's initial version. Both Russia and China, who share a border with the nation, have been placed in a difficult position by last week's missile tests. Both countries have relatively positive relations with North Korea but their commitment to the international community - mainly the UN Security Council - has led to an impartial stance on this issue. The publishing of this ""counter-resolution"" is the first active move the two nations have made against the North since the tests, who still approve of sanctions but describe Japan's proposed extensive restrictions as ""over-reacting."" Japan and the United States have announced tonight that they still intend to put their first resolution to a vote, despite the threat of a veto by China and possibly Russia. A Japanese diplomat has said that the Sino-Russian reworking was ""a step in the right direction"" but lacked decisive wording on important issues. The use of weaker language - namely asking instead of demanding - has also been criticised. South Korea has not commented directly on the new resolution, but has instead urged North Korea to return to the Six-Party Talks, which are seen to be a key step forward in ensuring diplomacy between the nation and its democratic peers." +politics,"Canadian news The Conservative Canadian government have decided to obey the Kyoto bill which was a forced decision by the opposition Liberals. Prior to this decision, the Liberal opposition party said the government could be sued if they would ignore the law. ""If and when that becomes law, the government would respect it. I'll just point out ... that the bill has no plan of action in it, the bill gives the government no authority to spend any money to have a plan of action,"" Canadian PM Stephen Harper told the House on Thursday. ""Of course, if and when that becomes law, the government would respect it."" The bill will be sent to the Senate of Canada for approval before it is actually made law. The legislation will only give the government 60 days to come up with a plan that meets with the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto wants to drop 6% of greenhouse gas emissions starting from 1990 to 2012. The Conservatives say it is bad for the Canadian economy. Political experts are now saying that a federal election could come as soon as spring 2007. The Conservatives were elected on the 23 of January in 2006." +politics,"U.S. Congressional Democrats are asking the Justice Department to investigate whether the CIA's destruction of videotapes documenting the interrogation of terrorism suspects amounts to obstruction of justice. The acknowledgement by Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden that his agency destroyed the interrogation videotapes in 2005 sparked a firestorm of criticism among Congressional Democrats. They suggested the tapes could have provided key evidence in ongoing trials brought by terrorism suspects who are alleging they were tortured. Senator Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said, ""What would cause the CIA to take this action? The answer is obvious - cover up. The agency was desperate to cover up damning evidence of their practices."" Human Rights Watch's Senior Counterterrorism Counsel commented to Google news saying, ""The CIA was well aware that its interrogations crossed a line considered by many to be torture. Now some in the CIA may also be guilty of obstruction of justice as well - a serious felony that carries a possible 20 year sentence. There needs to be a serious criminal investigation, and those who have committed crimes should be prosecuted and convicted."" The Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are vowing to investigate, and other Democrats are calling on the Justice Department to do the same. ""You cannot destroy material if there is an ongoing investigation. There is a law against it,"" said Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said President Bush only learned of the matter two days ago, after he was briefed by CIA Director Hayden. ""He has no recollection of being made aware of the tapes or their destruction before yesterday,"" said Perino. Perino defended the CIA interrogation program as legal and critical to national security. She said President Bush supports General Hayden's explanation that the tapes were destroyed to protect the identities of the interrogators. But the Senate's number two Democrat, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, rejected that argument: ""The defence of the CIA is that they wanted to protect the identity of those CIA employees who were engaged in the interrogation,"" said Durbin. ""Mr. Senate President, that is not a credible defence. We know that it is possible, in fact, easy, to cover the identity and faces of those who were involved in any videotape. Something more was involved here."" The tapes, which documented the use of tough interrogation techniques against key terror suspects in 2002, were destroyed three years later, at a time when there was increasing pressure from defence lawyers to obtain videotapes of detainee interrogations and as Congress had been probing allegations of torture. The Bush administration has maintained it does not use torture, but refuses to say what techniques are used by intelligence agencies in interrogations of terror suspects." +politics,"The House of Lords, the UK's highest court, has ruled that detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial contravenes British and European human rights legislation. The appeal, on behalf of nine suspected terrorists, was upheld by the Law Lords with a vote of eight to one. Despite the ruling, Home Secretary Charles Clarke, in his first full day in office, has decided that the terrorists will remain in prison; six of the suspects are being held in Belmarsh prison, the other three in Broadmoor Hospital. The solicitor representing eight of the suspects has said that she will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if the men are not released immediately. The Liberal Democrats have called on Charles Clarke to stand up to the draconian anti-terror measures enacted by his predecessor, David Blunkett, in the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. This act was passed in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The ruling is the second major blow to Prime Minister Tony Blair's anti-terrorist legislation in the space of 24 hours following the resignation of his key ally, and architect of much of the legislation, David Blunkett yesterday." +politics,"Belinda Stronach, Canadian MP for Newmarket-Aurora crossed the floor from the Conservatives to join the Liberals just days before a scheduled confidence vote in the Liberal government. She was immediately rewarded by being appointed to the cabinet as Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and Minister responsible for Democratic Renewal. ""I've been uncomfortable for some time with the direction the Conservative party was taking,"" Stronach said. ""I regret to say that I do not believe the party leader is truly sensitive to the needs of each part of the country and just how big and complex Canada really is."" She disagreed with the party on its stance on the federal budget, same-sex marriage, and Conservative leadership's alliance with the separatist Bloc Québécois to bring down the government. Two days after Stronach switched parties, the ruling Liberals won a crucial vote for their budget by a single vote. If Stronach had not joined the Liberals and voted for the budget, the government would have fallen, forcing a new federal election." +politics,"A roadside bombing and ambush attack today in southern Thailand killed seven Royal Thai Army soldiers and left one injured. Blamed on Muslim insurgents, the attack in Bannang Sata district, Yala, was similar to one on May 31, in which 12 soldiers were killed in one of the deadliest days of the south Thailand insurgency. Today's attackers took M16 rifles belonging to the dead soldiers. As they retreated, they laid spikes on the roads to stall any pursuers. A helicopter was dispatched to airlift the victims. The soldiers were part of a unit assigned to protect public school teachers, who are frequent targets of attack. Earlier in the week, four teachers were killed by gunmen and 13 schools burned in arson attacks. Human Rights Watch issued a report today, saying it believed those responsible for the attacks are separatists. ""Insurgents are terrorizing teachers and schools, which they consider symbols of the Thai state,"" Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement, quoted in the Bangkok Post. ""These attacks are grave crimes and cannot be justified by any cause."" In another attack overnight, three local Muslim leaders were killed and a fourth man in an ambush and shooting attack on their car in Mai Kaen district, Pattani." +politics,"Politics and conflicts Djibouti and Eritrea have spoken to the United Nations security council on Thursday to discuss a border dispute. Djibouti has said that unless the UN intervenes there will be war. The dispute dates back to June when violence erupted between the nations in the border region of Doumeira. The resulting clashes killed an estimated 35 people. The unmarked border remains disputed, and the nations have built up troops on each side of the border, keeping the situation tense. Djibouti's ambassador to the UN, Roble Olhaye, has accused Eritrea of avoiding mediation on the problem. Djibouti's President Omah Guelleh told the UN security council ""Continued inaction in whatever form not only will encourage but will benefit Eritrea's attitude. This would only give my country one option, the option of war."" The Eritrean ambassador to the UN, Araya Desta, claimed to have peaceful intentions and that his nation had no wishes to take new territory. He claimed his country desired ""the cultivation of good neighbourly relations with Djibouti,"" and said that ""Contrary to the claims made, Eritrea has not taken any land that belongs to Djibouti and it does not have any territorial ambitions."" Desta accused Ethiopia of worsening the situation by preparing military forces to help Djibouti. ""Ethiopia has built from the Djiboutian side a network of winding roads up the mount and deployed offensive long-range artillery and heavy equipment directed at Eritrea,"" he said. Olhaye dismissed the idea of Ethiopia's involvement with the claim ""Whatever the Eritrean ambassador has said is hogwash."" The UN security council has urged both nations to show restraint; it was the UN who called on the nations to agree to a ceasefire in June." +politics,"Tom Tancredo has been a member of the United States House of Representatives since 1999, representing the 6th Congressional District of Colorado. He rose to national prominence for his strong stance against illegal immigration and his announcement that he was a Republican candidate in the 2008 Presidential election. David Shankbone recently spoke with the Congressman and posed questions from Wikipedia editors and Wikinews reporters: DS: Throughout my life my father, a lifelong Republican and an avid listener of Rush Limbaugh, told me that all we needed in this country was a Republican Congress, Republican Senate and a Republican White House to get this country on the right track. Last year he expressed his disappointment to me. So many Republicans, like my father, feel lied to or let down by the party. The rationale for the Iraq War, the sex and bribery scandals, the pork barrel projects, and, as Alan Greenspan recently pointed out, the fiscal irresponsibility. People feel there have been many broken promises. Why should someone vote Republican today? :TT: The best reason I can give: we’re not the Democrats. The best thing we have going for us is the Democrats. Maybe that’s as far as I can go; I hope that there are candidates out there who will reflect and carry out the values that your father believes in when he votes Republican. To the extent you can ferret those people out from the others, that’s who he should vote for. The party was taught a pretty harsh lesson in this last election. I have noticed in the last several months we have done a better job of defending Republican principles as the minority than we ever did in the majority. I feel more in tune with the party now than I have throughout the Bush Presidency. Even before he came in, we were in the majority and we were still spending too much. Hopefully we can say that we were spanked by the American public and that we learned our lessons. There are true believers out there who will stick to their guns, and it’s a matter of principle. What’s the alternative? Hillary Clinton? DS: You yourself said you would only serve three terms in Congress, but then broke that promise. What caused you to reverse yourself? :TT: What happened was this: having ‘lame duck’ stamped on your forehead in Congress when they know you are not going to be around. Then the committee assignments become less meaningful. That was just one of the factors. Far more significant was my becoming the most visible Congressional member on the immigration issue. When I came into Congress I approached Lamar Smith, who was “The Man” on immigration, and said to him, “I’ve come to help you on this issue.” I felt it was one of the most serious we face as a nation. Lamar said, “It’s all yours! I’ve had it with 10 years of busting my head against the wall!” I started doing special orders---that’s when you speak to an empty chamber and whoever is watching CSPAN--and I did that night after night and wondered if it was worth it; was anyone paying attention? Then I’d go back to my office to pick up my keys and I’d see all the telephone lines illuminated, and the fax machine would be going, and a pile of e-mails would be handed to me the next day. I realized: people pay attention. I started picking it up, speaking around the country, leading the caucus on it. In time it became apparent there was nobody to hand the baton to; there were supporters, but not one single soul was willing to take it on as their issue. It was the first year of my second term that I sent a letter to every supporter I had. I said I had come to this conclusion that at the end of my third term (which is three years away) I don’t know if I will run again or not, but that the decision would not be based upon the term limit pledge, because immigration issue makes me feel I have a responsibility I can not shirk. I said that if anybody who gave me money based upon my term limits pledge wanted it back, I would do so. I received maybe three requests. DS: There are an estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the U.S. To round up and deport millions of people would be a major government undertaking, requiring massive federal spending and invasive enforcement. What level of funding would be necessary for U.S. Immigration and Customs to achieve the level of enforcement that you'd like to see? :TT: Only a relatively slight increase because the only thing you have to do, other than building a barrier on the southern border, is go after employers. We need to go aggressively after the employers, and try to identify some of the more high profile employers who are hiring illegal aliens. Go after them with fines, and if they are not only hiring them but also conspiring to bring them in, then they could go to jail. A perp walk would have a chilling effect. If you break that magnet, most illegal aliens would go home voluntarily. An article in the Rocky Mountain News stated there has been an employer crackdown in Colorado, and that they are going home or moving on to other states. If we did it nationally, they will return home, because the jobs are no longer available. It doesn’t have to happen over time or instantaneously. The costs to the American public for 12 million illegals are enormous and far more than are paid for by the illegal immigrants themselves in taxes. DS: How long would full enforcement take for you to succeed? :TT: It would be a couple of years before employers were weaned off illegal immigrants and then a couple more years before you saw a really significant reduction. DS: Can you explain your remarks about bombing the Islamic holy sites of Mecca and Medina as a deterrent to terrorists operating against the United States. :TT: The question I was answering was ""What would you do if Islamic terrorists set off on or more nuclear devices in the United States?"" My response was that we would need to come up with a deterrent, and that deterrent may very well be a threat to take out their holy sites if they did something like that in the United States. I still believe it is something we must consider as a possible deterrent because at the present time there are no negative consequences that would accrue to the people who commit a crime such as a nuclear, chemical or biological attack. There are no negative consequences; they may die in the attack but that is not a negative consequence for them. Usually they aren’t going to be state actors. DS: But wouldn’t an attack on Mecca and Medina be an attack on a sovereign state? :TT: You are not attacking the state, but the religious ideology itself. Holy sites are not just in Saudi Arabia; there’s a number of them. In fact, Iran has one of the holiest cities in Islam. And I never used the word nuclear device; I was talking about taking out a physical structure. The reason I suggested it as a possible deterrent is because it is the only thing that matches the threat itself. The threat is from a religious ideology. Not just from Islam, but from a nation whose requirements include jihad against infidels, and we are a threat to their culture, which is why they believe we need to be destroyed. We must understand what motivates our opponents in order to develop a successful response. I’ve received death threats, enormous criticism, and I’ve been hung in effigy in Pakistan, but nobody has given me an alternative strategy that would be a deterrent to such an event. I guarantee when you read the national intelligence estimates, you would be hard pressed to not walk away from doing something. DS: Aside from becoming President, if you could be granted three wishes, what would they be? :TT: It was the other night that I saw for the third or fourth time Saving Private Ryan and in the last scene Private Ryan asks, ""Have I been a good man, have I earned it?"" My greatest wish is to be a good father and to have earned everything I have been given in this life. And to be a better Christian. DS: Farmers rely heavily on seasonal manual labor. Strict enforcement of immigration laws will inevitably reduce the pool of migrant labor and thus increase costs. Do you support tariffs or other government intervention to keep American farm products competitive? :TT: No, I don’t , because I challenge the premise of the question. The ability for farmers to obtain workers in the United States is only minimally hampered by the immigration process because there is, in fact, H-2A, the visa that is designed specifically for agricultural workers. We can bring in 10,000,000 if we want to. There are no caps. There are restrictions in terms of pay and healthcare benefits, and that’s what makes hiring illegal aliens more attractive. The costs would increase for certain agricultural interest, but it would be regional. You would also see a very aggressive movement toward the mechanization of farm work. We are seeing it today in a lot of areas. We saw it in the tomato industry with the Bracero Program. That was a program many growers relied heavily upon: workers, primarily from Mexico would come up seasonally, work, and then went back home. It was successful. But liberals ended the program as a bad idea because the immigrants couldn’t bring their families. When that happened, tomato growers said they’d go out of business. Lo and behold they developed machinery that can harvest citrus fruit, and now they are genetically engineering trees that have a thicker bark but are more flexible so they can be shaken by these machines. You’ll see it more and more. DS: Do you agree that our forefathers intended birthright citizenship? :TT: No, the Fourteenth Amendment, upon which the concept of birthright citizenship is based, was a response to the Dred Scott decision. :During the original Senate debate there was an understanding that it wouldn’t be provided to people simply because they were born here, but instead to people under our jurisdiction. For instance, nobody assumes a child born to an embassy employee or an ambassador is a citizen of this country. There was an understanding and a reference to ""under the jurisdiction"" of the United States. DS: You and Karl Rove engaged, in your words, in a screaming match over immigration, and Rove said that you would never again ""darken the doorstep of the White House."" Are you still considered persona non grata at the White House? :TT: Yeah, even though he is gone, the President’s feelings about my criticism of him have not changed. It wasn’t my stand on immigration, it was my criticisms of the President that have made me persona non grata. DS: Psychologist Robert Hare has discussed in his work the use of doublespeak as a hallmark of psychopaths, and social scientists have pointed out that the use of doublespeak is most prevalent in the fields of law and politics. Do these two trends alarm you? :TT Laughs Yes and no. Unfortunately doublespeak is all too characteristic of people in my profession. DS: What is the proper role of Congress in the time of war? :TT: To first declare it, and then to fund it or not. DS: Politics is dominated by lawyers. What other group of people or professions would you prefer to see dominate the field of politics and why? :TT: I can’t think of a particular profession from which I would be more comfortable drawing politicians from. DS: Do you think lawyers are better for handling legislation and as politicians? :TT: No, they don’t offer anything particularly advantageous to the process. I don’t think it should be dominated by one profession. I’ll tell you what this profession is, and it doesn’t matter what field you come out of. There’s something I noticed here. I tell every single freshman I come across that there are very few words of wisdom, having only been here for ten years, that I can pass along to you but there is one thing I can tell you: this place is Chinese water torture on your principles. Every single day there is another drip, and it comes from a call from a colleague asking you to sign on to a bill you wouldn’t have signed on to; but it’s a friend, and it’s not that big a deal. Or a constituent who comes in and asks you to do something and you think it wouldn’t be such a big deal; or a special interest group that asks you to vote for something you wouldn’t vote for. After time it erodes the toughest of shells if one isn’t careful doesn’t think about it. Even if you recognize that these small steps lead to a feeling that remaining here is the ultimate goal; that the acquisition of power or the maintenance of power is the ultimate goal, that really does… it doesn’t matter if you are a lawyer or not, it does seem to have an impact on people. It’s a malady that is very common in Washington, and you have to think about it, you really do, or you will succumb to it. I don’t mean to suggest I’ve been impervious to these pressures, but I’ve tried my best to avoid it. One reason I am persona non grata at the White House is not just because of immigration, but because I refuse to support him on his trade policy, his education policy, Medicare and prescription drugs initiatives. I remember leaving that debate at 6:30 on a Saturday morning , after having the President call every freshman off the floor of the House to badger them into submission until there were enough votes to pass it. I remember a woman, a freshman colleague, walking away in tears saying she had never been through anything like that in her life. Here was a Republican Congress increasing government to an extent larger than it had been increased since Medicare had come into existence. Your dad should have been absolutely mortified, because it was against all of our principles. And I know the leadership was torn, but we had the President pressing us: we had to do it, we had to stay in power, the President is asking us to do it. Principles be damned. There were people who caved in that night who I never in a million years thought would. :And the threats! “You like being Committee Chairman?” Yes I do. “Do you want to be Chairman tomorrow?” And that’s how it happens. I was called into Tom Delay’s office because I was supporting Republican challengers to Republican incumbents. I had a group called Team America that went out and did that. He called me and said to me, “You’re jeopardizing your career in this place by doing these things.” And I said, “Tom, out of all the things you can threaten with me that is the least effective because I do not look at this place as a career.” DS: You have supported proposed constitutional amendments that would ban abortion and same-sex marriage. You are also a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. Why do you believe that the U.S. Constitution should regulate medical procedures and personal relationships, but not gun ownership? :TT: The issue of medical procedures and relationships: I don’t really believe the federal government or any level of government has any business in determining about who I care about, or who anybody cares about, but I do believe they have a legitimate role, and the federal government has a responsibility, because of reciprocity. We are only one federal judge decision away from having gay marriage imposed on all states. That’s why there is a need for a Constitutional Amendment. I really believe a family--male, female, rearing children--I believe that is an important structure for the state itself, the way we procreate, which hopefully provides a stable environment for children. That is important to the state, and that’s why I think it’s legitimate. The reciprocity clause forces us into thinking about a Constitutional Amendment. I believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned because I think it’s lousy law, and many liberal jurists think it’s lousy because it read into the Constitution a right to privacy. I don’t’ see a connection between these things and the 2nd Amendment. Same-sex marriage and abortion, perhaps, but I don’t see a connection to the Second Amendment question. I support the 2nd Amendment because it is one of the most important we have. It’s a right we have to protect a lot of our other rights. And in our urban centers…and I don’t’ believe as some Second Amendment radicals believe that every single person has that right. I don’t think so! If you have committed a felony, or if you are a danger to yourself or someone else, then you shouldn’t be able to obtain a firearm, but law-abiding citizens should because it gives them a sense of security and protection against people who would do you harm. I don’t believe urban communities are more dangerous because people are allowed to own guns, but because dangerous people have guns. I would feel more comfortable if in the District of Columbia I could carry a concealed gun. I have a permit. DS: You recently spoke out against the Black and Hispanic Congressional caucuses, stating, ""It is utterly hypocritical for Congress to extol the virtues of a color-blind society while officially sanctioning caucuses that are based solely on race. If we are serious about achieving the goal of a colorblind society, Congress should lead by example and end these divisive, race-based caucuses."" Do you also believe there is no longer a need for the NAACP? :TT: No, I think it’s fine, because it’s a private organization, and people can belong to whatever private organization they want, and the need will be determined to a great extent by reality. If in fact people feel committed to an organization that they believe represents their interest, and it’s a voluntary association, that’s fine. All I’m saying is that for Congress to support these things, that run on money that is appropriated--though they fund them in a convoluted way, but it gets there-- my point was about leading by example. If people said we don’t think it’s a good idea, maybe that would have an impact on how people feel about things like the NAACP. I would hope there would be, and I would assume Martin Luther King hoped--that’s his quite about a colorblind society--that there will come a time we don’t need them. That it’s an anachronistic organization. I also don’t believe in the creation of districts on race. DS: You were one of a handful of Republicans who voted for a bill proposed by Maurice Hinchey and Dana Rohrabacher to stop the Department of Justice from raiding medical marijuana patients and caregivers in states where medical marijuana is legal, citing states' rights concerns. On the other hand, you have suggested state legislators and mayors should be imprisoned for passing laws contrary to federal immigration law, and you support the Federal Marriage Amendment to ban gay marriage nationally. How do you reconcile these seemingly contradictory positions? :TT: We are talking about issues that are legitimately based upon the Constitutional roles of the state and federal government. I believe there is no Constitutional provision that suggests the federal government has a role to play in preventing states, or punishing states, over laws with regards to medical marijuana. I believe absolutely there is a role for the federal government for punishing states or laws when they contravene federal jurisdiction. For instance, protecting states against invasion. Immigration is federal policy, and there’s a law actually called “Encouragement”: you can’t encourage people to come in illegally or stay here illegally. I believe that is constitutionally a federal area. DS: If you had to support one of the Democratic candidates, which one would it be and why? :TT: Although I couldn’t vote for him, if I had to support one for a nominee it would be Obama, and I would do so because first, I believe we could beat him laughs, but secondly, and less cynically, I think it would be very good to have a black man, a good family man, and a very articulate man, to have him as a role model for a lot of black children in this country." +politics,"India At least thirteen bombs were set off in the northeastern state of Assam in India on Thursday. The blasts went off shortly before noon IST (UTC+5:30) at market places and government buildings in the state capital Guwahati and surrounding area. Reports say that so far 77 people have been confirmed killed and between 200 and 300 injured. 41 of the victims were in Guwahati, 21 in Kokrajhar and 15 in Barpeta. Assam has been the scene of separatist insurgencies for years, most notably by United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) which was outlawed by the Indian government in 1990. The Associated Press says over 10,000 people have died in separatist violence in the past decade. The ULFA has denied any involvement, reported the Press Trust of India. Instead, a previously unheard of group, calling itself Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahideen (ISF-IM) claimed responsibility in a text message to a television station. The message included a warning of future attacks. Later, people who were apparently upset about the bombings, started rioting in the streets of Guwahati and throwing stones at vehicles. They also torched at least two fire engines. Police shut down roads and implemented a curfew in response to the unrest. Shakeel Ahmad of the Ministry of Home Affairs said conditions in Assam were ""very volatile, the government was on high alert and, even then, this has happened."" In the past, the government has blamed similar attacks on Islamic militants based in nearby Bangladesh. Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations condemned the attack in a statement. Ban conveyed ""sorrow and sympathy to the Government and people of India for the loss of life and destruction caused by today's series of bombings,"" in the statement which was released on Thursday." +politics,"On Wednesday, the lower house or State Assembly of the State Legislature of the US state of California passed a controversial new bill that would redefine marriage as the union between two people, as opposed to a man and a woman ( text). The California State Senate, the upper house, had already acceded to this. A critical swing vote came from Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) of Orange County, the second largest California county, which is predominantly conservative. He was ushered on by Senator Joe Dunn of the same constituency. The voting predominantly followed party lines, with no Republican supporting the bill and few Democrats opposing it . A spokeswoman for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will veto the bill ""out of respect for the will of the people"" in the approval of Proposition 22, which opposed recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages." +politics,"2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict One week has passed since Israel responded to a Hezbollah attack along the Lebanon-Israel border. There is no immediate end of the conflict in sight as Israeli airborne, naval and ground units have pounded a wide array of targets in Lebanon. Hezbollah in turn has launched rocket and missile attacks on northern Israel. The Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora condemned Israel saying their attacks have been ""opening the gates of hell and madness"". He reiterated the Lebanese government position, urging Hezbollah to release Israeli soldiers, and calling on Israel to cease its attacks, terming them ""disproportionate"". However, an Israeli general said that the offensive could go on for weeks to come. Israeli PM Ehud Olmert claimed that last week's kidnappings were a timed attempt to divert attention from Iran's nuclear programme. The Rapporteur of Iran's Majlis' National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Kazem Jalali dismissed the allegation, denying any such role. The civilian population in Lebanon has taken the largest toll in the conflict; 200 Lebanese civilians have been reported to be killed in the past seven days, 30 of them today. As a result of Hezbollah fire, at least 24 Israelis have been reported killed, including 9 civilians at the Haifa train station. In addition, 30 Lebanese soldiers have died without engaging Israeli units. Eleven of them were killed today in an Israeli air strike on a Lebanese army base east of Beirut. A Lebanese barracks was also hit yesterday, killing several soldiers. The United Nations want an international peace contingent to be stationed in southern Lebanon to stop Hezbollah from firing missiles into Israel. The force would act as a stabilisation force against attacks from both sides in the conflict. 500,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon by the violence which could end in a humanitarian disaster, UN said. A UN team was in Israel today, holding talks with the Israeli FM about a possible ceasefire agreement. However, the minister reiterated Israel's ultimatum that its two soldiers should be released and the Lebanese government posts troops in southern Lebanon before agreeing on a ceasefire. Lebanon say they fear posting soldiers in it's southern region could spark a civil war in the country. Hezbollah militants have also today fired rockets on towns in northern Israel. Haifa, Acre, Kiryat Shemona and the region of Gush Halav have been hit. One Israeli was killed. Hezbollah have made comparisons between the Israeli ""enemy combatants"" they are holding without trial, and the inmates of Guantanamo Bay who they say have a similar status. Today, transport trucks were again targeted by warplanes. Israel says it believed that the trucks were transporting missiles for Hezbollah. The Israeli military say 750 Hezbollah rockets, missiles and mortars have so far been fired since the start of the crisis. Hundreds of foreigners have been evacuated from Lebanon by any available transportation. Ships, helicopters and buses have been used by several European countries and the United States to ferry their citizens out of the country." +politics,"After every earthquake, flood, or other disaster, the call goes out for pledges to fund emergency relief. Then a second round of begging tries to convert those pledges into actual payments. In the meantime, some relief is delayed, and people die. Money that does eventually come may not be in proportion to the need. For example, relief funding for the 26 December 2004 tsunami generally came rapidly and exceeded the amount requested, but famine relief for 3.5 million Kenyans suffering drought is now 75% underfunded. To help solve these problems, the United Nations this month created the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) as a rainy-day savings account, to be dipped into when urgent needs require that money be spent within days--not in several months after aid pledges start being fulfilled. The Fund is about half way to the goal of half a billion dollars in deposits, which could be spent for either natural or man-made disasters. ""We meet to launch a fund that is proactive rather than reactive. The CERF will provide a ready pool of resources that better empower the United Nations in funding immediate relief efforts in the aftermath of disasters,"" said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on March 9. Jan Egeland, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, will manage the Fund. ""We are working on the two first allocations from the CERF...One is to the Horn of Africa and Kenya drought, the other one is to Cote d'Ivoire where humanitarian work and the civilian population is suffering so much,"" he said. ""Too often, aid resembles a lottery in which a few win but most lose based on considerations other than need. We must move from lottery to predictability so all those who suffer receive aid."" The biggest donations paid so far are $41 million from Sweden and $30 million from Norway. The largest pledges are $70 million from the United Kingdom and $24 million from the Netherlands." +politics,"ChinaThe trial of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo started today in Beijing on the grounds of ""inciting subversion of state power"". The United States, European Union and rights groups have called the trial politically motivated and are calling for his release. In prison since 2008 after his arrest for co-writing about political reform, the 53-year-old faces fifteen years in prison if convicted. Foreign diplomats from more than a dozen countries and supporters were forbidden entry by police posted outside the court; even Liu's wife, Liu Xia, was not permitted to attend, although her brother and the dissendent's lawyer Shang Baojun, who expects a verdict by Friday, were allowed inside. China has called international criticism ""unacceptable"" and ignored calls for Liu's release. Rights group Human Rights Watch described the trial as ""a travesty of justice"". Its director for Asia, Sophie Richardson said that ""the only purpose of this trial is to dress up naked political repression in the trappings of legal proceedings … Liu's crimes are non-existent, yet his fate has been pre-determined."" Locals have turned up to voice their support, despite police presence. ""Long live democracy, long live Liu Xiaobo!"" cried Song Zaimin. ""I don't know him and I don't want to know him but I just support his heroic behaviour. We must stand up for our future."" The document co-written by Liu, known as Charter 08, calls for democratic change and more freedom. Signed by over 10,000 people, the petition states: ""We hope that our fellow citizens who feel a similar sense of crisis, responsibility, and mission, whether they are inside the government or not, and regardless of their social status, will set aside small differences to embrace the broad goals of this citizens' movement."" source=Human Rights Watch director Sophie RichardsonOne such signatory, human rights lawyer Teng Biao defended the charter. ""I have the right to express my opinions about society and politics,"" he said, adding that ""if Liu Xiaobo is sentenced, then we should also assume the same crime, and we should bear the same legal responsibility."" The charge of inciting subversion is commonly used to repress critics of the country's Communist Party, according to human rights groups." +politics,"On Wednesday in the US state of Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey signed the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, officially outlawing nearly all circumstances of abortion in the state. This bill passed the Senate of the state on Tuesday. Republican state representative Terri Collins who sponsored the bill remarked the bill was not enforceable under the current interpretation of the US Constitution established by the US Supreme Court ruling in the Roe v. Wade case. Terri said the bill would become enforceable after the Supreme Court revisits the case. Apart from when the mother's life is threatened by the pregnancy, the bill provides for any terminations to potentially result in life sentence penalties. The bill has sparked controversy and protests. Planned Parenthood, along with the American Civil Liberties Union have announced their plans to oppose the bill by lawsuit. The governor tweeted her reasoning saying, ""Today, I signed into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act. To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious & that every life is a sacred gift from God.""" +politics,"USAWashington, D.C. - The Environmental Protection Agency may have a new tool in its arsenal to fight global warming. The agency has submitted a proposal to the Obama administration which aims to list carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The policy had previously been proposed to and rejected by the Bush administration, which said it was the wrong tool to be using. The proposal lists the negative effects of global warming, including longer and hotter heat waves, increased flooding, and the increased spread of diseases due to warmer weather. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson has previously suggested declaring global warming a health threat, and that the agency could use the 1970 Clean Air Act to use to combat it. Environmental groups applauded the finding, with the director of Clean Air Watch, Frank O'Donnell, calling it ""a green-letter day for the environment."" One of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice presidents, William L. Kovacs, said if the the proposal is put into effect that it ""will be devastating to the economy."" It is unclear whether the Obama administration will go along with the proposal. White House spokesman Ben LaBolt commented that ""The president has made clear that to combat climate change, his strong preference is for Congress to pass energy security legislation that includes a cap on greenhouse gas emissions."" No specific timeline has been given for when a decision would be made. An upcoming conference in Copenhagen, Denmark will focus on drawing up a new international global warming treaty, which the United States plans to attend, a clear reversal from the Bush administration's non-participation in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol." +politics,"2020 United States presidential election The following is the sixth and final edition of a monthly series chronicling the 2020 United States presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after an overview of the month's biggest stories. This month's spotlight on the campaign trail: the Free and Equal Elections Foundation holds two presidential debates, three candidates who did not participate in those debates give their final pleas to voters, and three political pundits give their predictions on the outcome of the election. Polls at the start of the final full month on the campaign trail showed Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump, the Republican Party presidential nominee, in the RealClearPolitics average, 50.1 to 42.9 percent. October started with a surprise for the electorate. After it was revealed his aide Hope Hicks tested positive for coronavirus, President Trump himself, his wife Melania, and son Barron all tested positive for the virus. Trump was said to be suffering ""minor symptoms"", and was admitted to Walter Reed Hospital as a precaution. Video captured Trump wearing a mask while walking to Marine One en route to the hospital. Doctors reportedly treated the president with a cocktail of medicines that included an experimental drug from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals as well as the anti-viral remdesivir and the steroid dexamethasone. His condition was said to be improving and he posted a four minute long video from the hospital. Supporters gathered outside and Trump made a much-criticized ride to wave at them from the presidential limousine. After a three day stay, Trump was released from the hospital and returned to the White House. He tweeted, ""Don't be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life."" A couple days after Trump’s release, the only vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris took place in Utah, moderated by USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page. Pence often spoke over his allotted time and interjected. In one exchange, as Pence attempted to interrupt, Harris exclaimed, ""Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking."" A fly landed on Pence's hair for about two minutes. Page received criticism for not asking follow-up questions. Politico regarded the debate as ""markedly more civil"" than the prior Trump-Biden debate. The next day, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced its second official presidential debate between Trump and Biden would be virtual due to President Trump's positive COVID-19 test. Trump declined such an arrangement and the Commission canceled the debate. In its place, Biden scheduled a town hall to air on ABC. Trump later scheduled a competing town hall on NBC. With the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett looming, the issue of Court packing returned. Biden and Harris both refused to answer whether they would support Court packing. Biden said voters ""don't deserve"" to know his position. A few days later, Biden made another frank comment when he claimed 56 percent of respondents to a Gallup poll, who regarded their personal situation as better now than four years ago, were not remembering correctly, adding people should vote, whatever their beliefs. Still recovering from coronavirus, Trump gave his first speech since the diagnosis from the White House balcony. Trump's doctors said the President no longer posed a risk of spreading the virus. Two days later, he returned to the campaign trail with a rally in Sanford, Florida. At the rally, Trump declared himself ""immune"" and offered to kiss members of the crowd. White House doctors said Trump tested negative for COVID-19 for two consecutive days. In another potential ""October surprise,"" on the week of Trump and Biden's dueling town halls, the New York Post published an article about the discovery of a laptop belonging to Biden's son Hunter that he allegedly abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop. According to the Post, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon told them of its existence and current Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York City, recently gave them a copy of its harddrive's contents allegedly obtained from the shop owner. E-mails in the copy detailed Hunter's worldwide business affairs and alleged influence peddling. Contrary to the elder Biden's assurances he had no involvement in his son's business deals, an e-mail alluded to a 2015 meeting between the elder Biden and a Ukranian adviser to the board of the energy company Burisma, on which Hunter served. The report claimed after the meeting the elder Biden used his influence as vice president to have a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Burisma fired. The material also contained a video of Hunter smoking crack cocaine and taking part in a sex act. Fifty former intelligence officials, including former CIA directors John Brennan, Leon Panetta, and Michael Hayden, signed a letter saying the Post'&zwj;s report ""has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."" Current Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said the information was ""not part of some Russian disinformation campaign."" According to The Washington Post, intelligence officials warned the administration last December that Giuliani could be a conduit for Russian disinformation. Twitter prevented users from sharing the Post story, claiming it violated their policy on hacked materials. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey later said they made a mistake. Facebook did not censor the story but limited its spread on their platform. Shortly after the report, Trump and Biden held the dueling town halls on NBC and ABC, respectively. While NBC simulcast Trump's hour long town hall, hosted by Savannah Guthrie, on the main network as well as MSNBC and CNBC, ABC broadcast Biden's town hall with George Stephanopoulos for two hours. The broadcast of Biden's event received more viewers than Trump's event. At his town hall, which newspaper The Hill described as combative, Trump refused to disavow the Qanon conspiracy theory and defended his pandemic policies. At Biden's event, Biden implied he would consider making a potential COVID-19 vaccine mandatory. On Court packing, he said his decision would depend on how the Senate conducts the Barrett confirmation hearing. The Commission on Presidential Debates announced the moderator for the third debate would have a mute button to prevent interruptions during the first two minute candidate responses with each question. Biden left the campaign trail to prepare for the debate. Trump did minimal preparation, holding rallies instead. At this time, he made critical remarks about National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci and posted footage on Twitter from a soon-to-be released 60 Minutes interview with Leslie Stahl, that Trump claimed was unfair. Trump's previous debate prepper Giuliani received further media scrutiny when he appeared in the Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. In a scene, Giuliani goes into a hotel bedroom, where a hidden camera records him lying on a bed with his hands in his pants in the company of a young actress posing as a conservative journalist. Giuliani claimed he was tucking in his shirt after removing his microphone and suggested Borat actor and producer Sacha Baron Cohen may have deceptively edited the footage. Giuliani received news concerning the laptop harddrive data in his possession: Fox News reported two separate law enforcement sources confirmed an FBI money laundering probe connected to the laptop. Additionally, Ratcliffe and FBI director Christopher Wray held a press conference discussing concerns about Iranian and Russian interference in the election. Ratcliffe claimed Iran spoofed e-mails to spread false information about voting to hurt President Trump's chances of re-election. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon predicted Trump would run for president again in 2024 if he lost in 2020. Democrats continued to attack Trump on his taxes. Senator Bernie Sanders slammed Trump for a New York Times story alleging Trump paid more taxes to the Chinese and other governments than to the United States. Just before the final presidential debate, Hunter Biden's former business partner Tony Bobulinski held a press conference claiming Joe Biden knew about his son's business deals, particularly with China, and that the elder Biden was involved with them. He claimed to have evidence supporting the claim. The issue came up at the Nashville, Tennessee-set second presidential debate, moderated by Kristen Welker of NBC News. Biden denied the allegations, labeled them as Russian disinformation. Echoing an email from Hunter Biden's laptop referencing a mysterious ""big guy"" who received a cut of money, Trump said, ""You're the big man, I think."" Trump attacked Biden for accumulating wealth since leaving public office, accusing the Biden family of going around the world and sucking up money like a vacuum. Biden slammed Trump, viewing the president as having no plan to combat COVID-19. Trump said he banned travel from China in January, which Biden opposed as xenophobic. He claimed a vaccine was near and said people are ""learning to live"" with the virus. Biden countered that people are instead ""learning to die"" with it. Biden argued that Trump had no healthcare plan. He proposed a public option and claimed nobody lost their health insurance as a result of Obamacare. Trump alleged Biden's plan would strip Medicare and Social Security. He vowed to protect people with pre-existing conditions from being denied health coverage. When asked about climate change, Trump claimed carbon emissions have been lower during his administration and argued against re-entering the Paris Climate Accord. Biden argued that green energy can provide good paying jobs. Trump accused Biden of previously saying he wanted to ban hydraulic fracturing. Biden denied, though Trump said it is on tape. Biden asked Trump to post the video on his website. Welker brought up the separation of immigrant families at the border. Trump point out the Obama administration constructed the cages seen in widely circulated photos taken in 2014. Trump blasted Biden as a career politician and repeatedly asked why Biden did not already implement the policies he proposed. Biden attacked Trump on paying fewer taxes to which Trump claimed he prepaid ""millions of dollars"" in taxes. Trump cornered Biden on oil and gas when Biden admitted wanting to phase out the industry. Trump said Biden just lost Texas, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and Ohio as a consequence. Welker received near-universal praise for her performance. Observers noted the debate was more orderly than the first. In the final days of October, Trump ramped up his campaign, holding up to five rallies a day throughout such states as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Arizona, and Florida, among others. Biden limited campaigning but still made stops in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, and others. Due to COVID-19, attendees to Biden events were required to socially distance or to stay in their automobiles with horns in the place of applause. At one Biden rally in Pennsylvania, Trump supporters audibly chanted slogans nearby. Biden referred to the people as ""chumps."" At another in Minnesota, Biden referred to hecklers as ""ugly folks."" Meanwhile, a series of news events broke as Election Day drew closer. The Senate confirmed judge Barrett to the Supreme Court. Justice Clarence Thomas swore her in at a White House ceremony with Trump looking on. The White House also announced a deal it brokered to normalize relations between Sudan and Israel. This followed deals the administration brokered between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kosovo, in recent months. The fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr., a mentally ill African American man armed with a knife, sparked riots and looting in Philadelphia. Biden-Harris released a statement: ""we cannot accept that in this country a mental health crisis ends in death."" President Trump called it a ""terrible event"" but urged for the National Guard to be brought in to end the violence. Category Two Hurricane Zeta slammed into the Louisiana coast. Winds from the storm delayed a rally Trump planned for North Carolina. The anonymous insider who wrote New York Times op-eds and a book critical of the Trump administration was revealed to be former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor. The Trump campaign described Taylor as ""just another standard-issue arrogant, Washington, DC swamp bro who loved President Trump until he figured out he could try to make money by attacking him"". The Commerce department released a report showing growth in GDP of 33.1 percent in the third quarter of 2020. This was the largest growth for the nation in a quarter since World War II, topping the record of 16.7 percent in the first quarter of 1950. Trump hailed the report on Twitter and warned that Biden could destroy the growth with his proposed tax increases. Biden described the growth as not ""nearly enough."" At the end of October, President Trump trailed former Vice President Biden in the RealClearPolitics head-to-head matchup, 51.3 to 43.5 percent. The Free and Equal Elections Foundation held two debates in October, attracting third party and independent candidates. The criterion for inclusion was ballot access in at least eight states. The two major party candidates qualified but were barred from participating due to the contracts they signed with the Commission on Presidential Debates. Libertarian Party presidential nominee Jo Jorgensen, Alliance Party presidential nominee Rocky De La Fuente, and rapper Kanye West were each invited but did not attend. Those who did take part in-person were: Independent presidential candidate Brock Pierce, Green Party presidential nominee Howie Hawkins, Constitution Party presidential nominee Don Blankenship, American Solidarity Party presidential nominee Brian Carroll, and Party for Socialism and Liberation presidential nominee Gloria La Riva. All of these candidates also confirmed for the final debate, but Blankenship ultimately decided not to attend. Free and Equal Elections Foundation founder and director Christina Tobin moderated both debates. This was the fourth election cycle the foundation has held a debate. The debates used the format the League of Women voters developed when they held the official presidential debates before the creation of the Commission on Presidential Debates. At the initial debate, held October 8 in Denver, Colorado, after opening statements, the candidates received a total of 13 questions on the War in Afghanistan, approval and rank choice voting, national debate reform, the surveillance state, space warfare, indigenous rights, police reform, education reform, Yemen, the War on Drugs, vaccinations, gun rights, and excessive imprisonment. Questioners included Tobin, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, Aaron Hamlin of The Center for Election Science, Eli Beckerman of Open the Debates, actor Sean Stone, SpaceX co-founder Jim Cantrell, indigenous leader Doug Good Feather, and the mother of prisoner Ross Ulbricht. The debate closed with final statements from each candidate. In opening the debate, Carroll introduced himself as ""pro-life"" and said climate change must be addressed. Pierce derided the two party system and argued it cannot resolve the nation's problems. La Riva blamed capitalism as the root of all the nation's ills. Blankenship offered US$1 million to Hunter Biden to have a debate with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and made the same offer available to President Donald Trump. And Hawkins, the only candidate wearing a facemask, endorsed the Green New Deal and the Economic Bill of Rights. The candidates agreed on many issues with varied nuances. All supported the removal of US troops from Afghanistan though Pierce and Carroll raised concerns about the problems that could arise from a hasty withdrawal. While La Riva and Hawkins attacked war as a tool of the US ruling class, Blankenship wanted the US to avoid being the policeman of the world. Blankenship described efforts toward approval or rank choice voting as too complicated and ""diluting"" efforts toward ballot access. All the other candidates favored rank choice voting. La Riva favored offering voting rights to documented and undocumented immigrants, prisoners, and youths aged 16 to 18 years. Most candidates felt the League of Women Voters did a better job holding debates than the Commission on Presidential Debates, agreeing the sponsor should be nonpartisan. Pierce commented on the unfairness of ""rigged polls"" excluding third party candidates. Blankenship attacked the media for maintaining the status quo, providing an example of the media falsely describing him as a ""felon"" ahead of the 2018 West Virginia Republican Senate primary. Blankenship favored expanding space exploration, arguing the US should be at the lead rather than some other nation. La Riva criticized any space agency as militaristic. Most candidates agreed to the need of an international body to regulate space. On Police reform, Blankenship and Carroll expressed opposition to Defund the Police while La Riva fully endorsed it, Hawkins expressed an interest in community control of the police, and Pierce focused on providing further training for officers. Pierce and Carroll endorsed charter schools, though Carroll expressed concerns about for-profit schools. Hawkins said many charter schools were scams. La Riva said she fully opposed charter schools. Pierce called for an end to the War on Drugs, with which Hawkins and La Riva somewhat agreed. La Riva agreed and favored prosecuting banks for providing funds and said legalization would not be helpful, cautioning about the dangers of pharmaceuticals. Hawkins called for the decriminalization of drugs like Portugal but felt those exploiting others should be prosecuted. He favored providing medical access for addicts. Blankenship opposed ending the War on Drugs but said those at the top should be prosecuting rather than users. Carroll agreed and cautioned about the effect of cannabis use on the brain. La Riva, Hawkins, Blankenship, and Carroll all agreed that vaccines have done more good than harm. Hawkins, Blankenship, and Carroll all argued they should not be mandatory. Pierce said he would not take a vaccine for COVID-19, claiming it alters the recipient's RNA and turns them into ""genetically modified humans."" Carroll and La Riva disagreed about whether a clinic in San Francisco was selling the body parts of aborted fetuses. La Riva said she fully supports abortion rights. On the issue of guns, Pierce expressed concern about the number of US citizens purchasing guns and warned of an impending civil war. In closing, Pierce urged voters to ""vote their conscience."" La Riva argued that only socialism can bring about equality to the nation. Blankenship claimed he was the only candidate on the stage who based his platform on the US Constitution and called for the use of cost-benefit analysis for policy. Hawkins predicted President Trump would lose in a massive landslide and asked voters to vote for what they truly believe. Carroll demanded the protection of human dignity and support for the family as society's basic unit. At the final debate held October 24 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, after opening statements, the candidates received ten questions on fairness in debates, veteran suicides, military propaganda, centralized control of technology, national sovereignty, the primary system, rank choice voting, ballot access laws, regulation of artificial intelligence, and the national debt. Chad Peace of the Independent Voters Network, antiwar activist Adam Kokesh, Brian Anderson of Nexus, conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin, Kaia Los Huertos of the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers, Renaldo Pearson of RepresentUS, Richard Winger of Ballot Access News, and Tobin, each asked questions. Like the previous, the debate concluded with final statements from the candidates. With Blankenship's absence, only four candidates took the stage. In opening, La Riva called for an end to the capitalist system, and the cancellation of all rents and mortgages. Pierce professed himself ""deeply concerned"" about the future of the US and endorsed using ""life"", ""liberty"", and ""happiness"" as the measure of success. Hawkins renewed his support for the Green New Deal and an Economic Bill of Rights, and added a call for the abolition of nuclear weapons. He noted that the doomsday clock is very close to midnight. Carroll argued that the US has the strength necessary to overcome all the problems it faces. He found it curious he was called a ""Democratic socialist"" in one publication and yet received the endorsement of a writer for The American Conservative. Like the previous debate, there was much agreement among the candidates. Pierce and Hawkins both argued for using ballot access as an inclusion standard for debates. La Riva disagreed, stating that the Electoral College should be eliminated. She criticized the Top Two election policy in California and called for the Citizens United decision to be overturned. Carroll also backed the overturn of Citizens United. Hawkins attacked the ""macho culture"" that idolizes the military while it fights to protect the interests of the upper class. Carroll recalled someone who went to fight in the Vietnam War and returned changed. He wondered how the US can train people to be racist killers and then expect them to return to society. La Riva described the military as a ""horrible"" use of the working class. She called the Korean War a ""genocidal war."" Pierce then explained he was an honorary ambassador in Korea. He longed for the reopening of the border between North and South Korea. Pierce emphasized big tech censorship as a problem more than military propaganda. He argued that tech companies should either decide to be publishers or platforms. La Riva regarded technology under capitalism as problematic but said it would be beneficial under socialism. Pierce countered that technology is amoral and can be good or bad based on how it is used. Hawkins argued that big tech is moving the nation in a democratic socialist direction. Carroll argued for checks and balances for big tech and for a new level of government to regulate big tech. La Riva then called for the expropriation of big tech companies and to let the US people decide how to use the parts. Concerning national sovereignty, Pierce said he favored treaties over war and endorsed an audit of the Federal Reserve. Hawkins called for the nationalization of the Federal Reserve and expressed concern about the nation losing its sovereignty to corporations rather than other nations. La Riva agreed with the nationalization of the Federal Reserve. Carroll argued that trade deals like NAFTA have unforeseen consequences like pushing Mexican corn growers north of the border. Carroll also said he wanted to edit the 14th Amendment to remove corporations from its protection. Whereas Pierce and Hawkins all felt parties should decide the procedures for their own primaries, La Riva favored the open primary system, arguing it is more democratic than Top Two. Pierce claimed Abraham Lincoln was the last third party candidate to be elected president and that he appointed a cabinet of rivals. Pierce said he was embarrassed about the questions politicians asked to tech leaders, and argued the nation needs ""visionary leadership."" La Riva argued against Universal Basic Income (UBI), proposing minimum wage be increased to US$20 an hour. Carroll agreed with La Riva, saying that jobs are more important than UBI. He named his economic view as distributism, which he said was an extreme form of capitalism. Hawkins claimed that as a currency issuers rather than a currency user, the US government has enough money to spend and that the debt and deficit does not matter. La Riva agreed, claiming there was enough wealth in the nation to pay for everyone's needs. Carroll called on the US to end its involvement in foreign wars worldwide and to stop paying for wars on a credit card. Pierce viewed the debt as an issue and that government has run out of control and tax reform is necessary. In conclusion, Carroll explained that he is pro-life on all issues. He supported social justice and considered strong local communities, strong small businesses, and strong families as fundamental. La Riva argued socialism is growing in popularity and private ownership is the real tyranny people live under. Pierce emphasized the need for education across the nation and likened the current system to indoctrination. Hawkins claimed the coronavirus pandemic shows the US is a ""failed state."" He urged voters to vote for what they want. Wikinews provided an opportunity for three presidential candidates who did not participate in either of the Free and Equal Election debates to give their final plea to voters. Those giving their final pleas are: Libertarian Party presidential nominee Jo Jorgensen, Prohibition Party presidential nominee Phil Collins, and Unity Party of America presidential nominee Bill Hammons. File:Jo_Jorgensen_portrait_1_(crop_1).jpg|Jo JorgensenJo Jorgensen for President File:PhilCollins.webp|Phil CollinsProhibition Party File:Bill-Hammons-head-shot-president (Wikinews).jpg|Bill HammonsBill Hammons I'm counting on my libertarian and independent base because they know that I'm the real deal. To dissatisfied Democrats stuck with a candidate who voted for more war and who wrote some of our most oppressive criminal justice laws, I say, ""There is a real party of peace and justice."" The party that selects the author of draconian incarceration and a prosecutor who locked up thousands for victimless crime does not deserve your vote. To them, I say, ""Be Bold. Vote Gold."" To small-government Republicans who've watched out-of-control spending and fiat money creation, who rightly fear Venezuela-style inflation and economic collapse, I say, ""There is a real party of smaller government and individual responsibility."" We can unshackle the market to create prosperity and opportunity, and we can reduce government by 75% without leaving anyone out in the cold. To fiscal conservatives, I say, ""Be Bold. Vote Gold."" My final plea is telling voters that I remind people about the harmful effects of alcohol. I tell them that we care about other issues. We support a balanced budget. We're pro-life and pro-gun rights. It is highly possible that this election will be the first to be thrown to the House of Representatives in the modern era. The 12th Amendment outlines that the top three finishers in the Electoral College receive consideration for a House vote, and I would just need a handful of (or perhaps even just one) Electoral Vote(s) to be in the final running alongside two men who, not to put too fine a point on it, are walking National Security risks considering their health, age, and risk factors for a raging COVID-19 Pandemic. I ask voters to vote their conscience, because Presidential Electors are people too, and enough Hammons votes might convince enough Electors to also vote their conscience. Wikinews asked three political pundits to give their predictions for the Electoral college tally of the 2020 presidential election. The pundits were: former U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo, who represented Colorado's 6th congressional district as a Republican; political blogger Thomas Knapp, who founded the Boston Tea Party; and attorney Ron Gunzburger, founder and publisher of the elections website Politics1.com. File:Tom Tancredo, official Congressional photo cropped.jpg|Tom Tancredo US Congress File:Tomknapp.jpg|Thomas Knapp Avens O'Brien File:RonGunzburger.jpg|Ron Gunzburger Ron Gunzburger In addition to his time in Congress, Tancredo ran unsuccessfully for the Republican Party's 2008 presidential nomination. During his run he spoke to Wikinews in an exclusive interview. Afterwards, Tancredo ran for Governor of Colorado in 2010 as the nominee of the Constitution Party, finishing the race in second place. He later returned to the Republican Party. Tancredo predicts President Trump wins re-election over former Vice President Biden with an electoral count of 362 to 176. In 2008, Knapp stood as the first vice presidential nominee of the Boston Tea Party, which disbanded in 2012. Historian Darcy Richardson picked Knapp as his running mate for his 2016 campaign for the Reform Party's presidential nomination. Knapp runs the politics blog KN@PPSTER and is the director and senior news analyst of The William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism. Knapp predicts former Vice President Biden defeats President Trump with an electoral count of 319 to 219. Gunzburger, a trial lawyer since 1988, founded the nonpartisan Politics1.com in 1997. He currently serves as senior advisor to Maryland's Republican Governor Larry Hogan. According to Twitter, he describes himself as a centrist Democrat. Gunzburger predicts former Vice President Biden defeats President Trump with an electoral count of 359 to 179." +politics,"UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will formally present a plan this morning to the UN General Assembly when it meets in New York later today. The plan, entitled In Larger Freedom, is part of the UN's attempt to revitalise itself during its sixtieth anniversary year. If implemented, this plan will be the largest change ever to the international body, calling for the addition of nine members to the Security Council, and for the creation of a new Human Rights Council to replace the 53-member Human Rights Commission. The Canadian ambassador to the UN, Allan Rock, was the first diplomat to officially respond by saying, ""A lot of hard work lies ahead but we are optimistic."" Oxfam, Amnesty International, and other NGOs, have come out in support of the plan." +politics,"In a televised press statement at 14:00 UTC (10:00 a.m. EDT) today, President of the United States George W. Bush announced that he was appointing John R. Bolton to the position of the United States' ambassador to the United Nations. Stating that Mr. Bolton had received support from ""a majority of Senators"", but had been ""unfairly denied the up-or-down vote that he deserved"" by the ""delaying tactics of a few"", Mr. Bush announced that the post had stood vacant for long enough during what he termed ""a war"", and that he was ""exercising his constitutional authority"" to make the appointment. ""This post is too important to leave vacant any longer, especially during a war and a vital debate about U.N. reform,"" Bush said during an announcement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Bolton appeared with him and spoke briefly. ""I am profoundly grateful and deeply humbled,"" Bolton said. ""It will be a distinct privilege to be an advocate for America's values and interests at the U.N."" The President can make an appointment without the approval of the Senate while the Congress is in recess, but the term of such a ""recess appointment"" expires at the end of the Congressional session. The next session begins January 3, 2007. The move comes despite a letter to the President last week saying that Mr. Bolton was ""not truthful"" while answering questions before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in March, and should not be given a recess appointment. The New York Times reports the letter was signed by 36 senators -- 35 Democrats and one Independent. Some senators, including Republicans, have raised questions regarding Mr. Bolton's history of criticizing the United Nations, his treatment of subordinates, and over charges that he has tried to influence intelligence assessments to conform to his views, the Times reports. During confirmation hearings, Republican Senator George Voinovich described Bolton as ""the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be."" Because of Voinovich's opposition, Bolton's nomination was sent to the floor of the Senate without a recommendation. ""At a time when we need to reassert our diplomatic power in the world, President Bush has decided to send a seriously flawed and weakened candidate to the United Nations,"" said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. ""The reason Bolton is being recess appointed is because the president chose to stonewall the Senate. Mr. Bolton could have had his up or down vote had President Bush given senators the information they needed. Instead, Bolton arrives at the United Nations with a cloud hanging over his head."" ""The president has done a real disservice to our nation by appointing an individual who lacks the credibility to further U.S. interests at the United Nations. I will be monitoring his performance closely to ensure that he does not abuse his authority as he has in the past,"" said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. ""We will work with him as the ambassador and representative of the president and the government,"" U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. ""We look forward to working with him, as I do with the other 190 ambassadors"". Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas praised the president for using his authority ""to end the obstruction against John Bolton."" Cornyn said, ""This is an important position and it's critical that it not remain vacant any longer. Bolton is exceptionally well qualified to fill this role at this time."" original reporting" +politics,"The People's Republic of China has commuted the death sentence of a prominent Tibetan monk, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, ordering him instead to spend the rest of his life in prison. In 2002, a Chinese court found Tenzin Delek Rinpoche guilty of involvement in a series of terrorist bombings earlier that year in a region of Sichuan province historically part of Tibet, and of inciting separatist activities. He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was then postponed for two years. Upon the expiration of his suspended sentence late last year, Chinese officials suggested they might go ahead with the execution. It was to have taken place last month. But Higher People's Court of Sichuan decided to commute the sentence, saying the monk had obeyed certain conditions that were not disclosed. Officials say he confessed to the bombing, a claim human rights advocates say they do not believe. Tenzin Deleg, who is widely respected among Tibetan Buddhists, has said he was wrongly accused. Anne Callahan, manager of the Free Tibet campaign in Britain, says Communist officials targeted the spiritual leader because they viewed his vast following as a threat to their authority among the large community of ethnic Tibetans in Sichuan province. She says her group believes the real reason for the reprieve of the death sentence was the international pressure brought on Beijing by governments and private organizations. ""The reality is that his case generated a whole international campaign on his behalf and has actually highlighted the degree of religious repression in Sichuan now,"" she said. The reprieve came exactly two years after the execution of another man, Lobsang Dhondup, who was tried and convicted along with Tenzin Delek for the 2002 bombings. The Dalai Lama and his Tibetan government in exile, along with several human rights groups, had called for the sentence to be reversed. The United States expressed serious concern about the monk's closed-door trial, saying Chinese authorities failed to provide clear and convincing evidence of guilt. The issue came up during visits to Beijing by Secretary of State Powell and other high-ranking Bush Administration officials. Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing had no immediate comment following the news of the court's decision. Meanwhile, Tashi Phuntsog, described as Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche's ""right-hand man,"" walks free. He was released earlier this month after being detained since 2002, 10 days after Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche. The government never said why Tashi Phuntsog was jailed or why he was released early. Human Rights Watch, calling on the Communist government to explain Tashi Phuntsog's detention believes he was released needing medical attention. ""Tashi Phuntsog entered prison as a healthy man in his early 40s, and he was cast out literally as a broken man,"" it said. Xinhua reports he has been ""well and fairly treated.""" +politics,"SomaliaIn ongoing clashes that started Tuesday in Somalia, Islamist rebels Al-Shabaab battled troops from the African Union's peacekeeping force, African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM). According to rights groups and other sources, 81 people have been killed. Among them are 48 civilians, said the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation. Another 90 civilians have been injured, the group added. On Sunday, Al-Shabaab attacked Burundi troops with suicide bombers at an AMISOM base in Mogadishu. 11 troops were killed and 15 wounded. Xuddur, the capital of Bakool, is reported to have fallen under Al-Shabaab control. ""Al-Shabaab fighters are now patrolling the town and the other group fled,"" local elder Hussein Abdi Isak told Reuters in a phone interview. The United Nations Security Council issued a statement to ""condemn in the strongest terms the attacks on the African Union mission in Somalia."" The statement was passed unanimously and urges all Somalis ""to reject violence and extremism."" ""This is a kind of setback, no doubt about it, but this is not the time to despair,"" the President of the United Nations Security Council, Japan's Ambassador Yukio Takasu, told reporters. ""On the contrary, I think all of us have much stronger determination to continue to provide and accelerate the logistical support to AMISOM."" The African Union says its peacekeeping force in Somalia — which is supposed to number 8,000, but currently has about 3,500 soldiers from Uganda and Burundi — is in dire need of reinforcement. However, Nigeria, which was supposed to send 850 officers and soldiers within weeks, says it now has second thoughts. ""At the time the commitment was made to go to Somalia, what was on ground was peacekeeping,"" Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe said. ""But the situation in Somalia has deteriorated considerably. We are not in a hurry to start getting the body bags to this country."" ""If we are going to risk the lives of our young men and women, if we are going to put our young men and women in harm's way, it has to be a carefully analyzed mission response. It should not be without adequate planning and it should not be without adequate logistical, material support,"" he added." +politics,"Activist groups in the Philippines led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) or Bayan are set to submit ""cabinet level documents"" as evidence to international bodies purportedly showing that the office of the President, Malacañang sanctioned the series of extrajudicial killings in the country. The evidence is to be presented to the Permanent People's Tribunal and the United Nations Special Rapporteurs, which is scheduled to visit the country this year. In a press statement, Bayan expressed disappointment with the report of the Melo Commission saying that ""the report merely tells us what we already know, and that the report stops short of finding the roots of the extra-judicial killings."" ""Everyone knows that Palparan is involved in the killings,"" said Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr., asking that ""why is it that after Palparan retired in September 2006, the killings continued?"" Reyes concluded that ""this only shows that the killings go beyond Palparan. We have repeatedly said that there is a national policy involved which sanctions the assassination of activists. The Melo Commission seems to have conveniently ignored this reality and has limited its report to Palparan's responsibility and shielded the administration from any culpability."" The documents, Reyes said, detail a ""step-by-step matrix"" on how to ""neutralize"" legal organizations. He added that the document was presented to the Arroyo Cabinet. Meanwhile, the group challenged Malacañang to abide by the fact-finding commission's recommendation to file charges against retired Major General Jovito Palparan and other military field commanders for their involvement in the killings. He also said President Arroyo, as commander-in-chief, should ""take responsibility for the killings."" Human rights group Karapatan recorded more than 700 leftist activists, farmers, community organizers and journalists killed since Mrs. Arroyo came to power in 2001. The latest victim, Dominador L. De Luna, 51, an employee of the National Food Authority (NFA) in Samar, was gunned down just when the necrological mass for Jose Maria Cui, a professor at University of Eastern Philippines who was shot in front of his students, was being held last January 29. Dita Indah Sari, head of the National Front for the Indonesian Labor Struggle and 2001 recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for emerging leadership, yesterday said the Philippine government should implement the recommendation of the Melo Commission to hold top generals responsible for the assassination of hundreds of leftist activists. Just like in Indonesia, the Philippine government, according to her, seemed afraid to take its military brass to account on the basis of command responsibility. She said international pressure was imperative at this point to move concerned governments to make appropriate moves regarding human rights cases based on recommendations by a fact-finding body. ""The international pressure will humiliate the government,"" Sari added. Making one general accountable would not solve the extrajudicial killings in the country, according to America Vera-Zavala of Sweden's Left International Forum. ""I'm quite sure this extreme number of people killed is not due to one single general. It would be a unique country if only one general is responsible for all this,"" she said. Vera-Zavala said the European Union was aware of the series of killings in the country and was continuing to monitor the matter. In a related report, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday said she would ask the European Union to assist in the commission's work, declaring that she had ""no tolerance for human rights violations."" She issued a statement containing detailed instructions after meeting with retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo in Malacañang. The instructions were not clear though on how she intended to address the latter's recommendation to hold Palparan accountable for the killings. Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said Palparan could be brought to court if indeed there is evidence. ""But since he is already retired, we cannot take him under our jurisdiction,"" Esperon added. ""The Melo Commission failed in its public vow to get to the bottom of the killings: its report, based on Justice Melo's statement to the media, is indicative of a whitewash,"" Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo said in reaction to Melo's statements. He disclosed plans of filing a case against retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan with the International Criminal Court, ""for command responsibility under international humanitarian law."" ""Melo is silent on GMA's (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's) role. The killings go on even with Palparan out, so what has the commission accomplished?"" Ocampo said in a phone interview. In a text message, Rep. Teodoro Casiño, also of Bayan Muna, said ""the report merely scratches the surface and tells us what we already know."" He said the Melo Commission missed the whole point because ""the institution of policies on counterinsurgency like Oplan Bantay Laya are crucial in allowing the likes of Palparan to wreak terror on a national scale."" Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano said the Melo Commission had ""consciously avoided the responsibility of the President, the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security and the counterinsurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya in its report."" ""Like we said before, the Melo Commission is a whitewashing machine,"" he said. Mariano also said ""the killings of activists was integral to the Arroyo administration's counterinsurgency policy,"" predicting that ""the killings won't stop as long as the mastermind is not punished."" His colleague in Anakpawis, Rep. Crispin Beltran, who is still detained for rebellion charges, saw in the Melo report a move to make it ""appear that it was a mere matter of negligence of command that set off the spate of extrajudicial killings."" Ocampo emphasized their ""demand that Malacañang immediately make public the full 89-page report for scrutiny by all parties, including the media."" ""The Melo Commission must adhere to established UN protocols and Amnesty International's recommendations on such an independent commission.""" +politics,"Toowoomba. I have a broad range of experiences that I can bring to the role of federal MP anchor=Australia. When approached by the Sustainable Australia Party to run and help to raise awareness for our party, I was very happy to contribute. ::I believe that the Groom by-election offers voters an opportunity to send a message to the two major parties that we're not happy with business as usual politics &mdash; including rampant overdevelopment and systemic political corruption that negatively impacts on the environment. WNIQ: You've said that you want to act on climate change &mdash; what would your plan be? ::Sandra Jephcott: There is no silver bullet to addressing climate change. Sustainable Australia Party has a anchor=Adjective plan to act on climate change, including: ::* Funding and subsidising research and development into renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency initiatives; ::* Net zero or net negative Australian greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (or ideally sooner); ::* Imposing a moratorium on all new coal mines in Australia such as Adani (and all major coal mine expansions such as New Acland) ::* Imposing a anchor=Noun on all new fracking, including for coal seam gas; ::* Phasing out fossil fuel subsidies; ::* Adopting a globally-consistent carbon pricing mechanism that does not unfairly penalise Australian industries; ::* Promoting the environmental benefits of plant-based food; ::* and Lowering population growth pressures. WNIQ: What do you think needs to be done in Toowoomba to properly protect the environment and water? ::Sandra Jephcott: Despite holding a Carnival of Flowers each year, Toowoomba came in last nationally for its resident's access to green space. It is therefore important that areas in and around Toowoomba &mdash; including Mt Lofty &mdash; are protected and where possible expanded. Housing sprawl and density is a key contributor to destroying tree canopy and green space, so stopping overdevelopment is a key priority. ::In terms of water, we need to better manage Toowoomba's water security, including through lower wastage, an expansion of water tank usage and the revisiting of recycled water options. Strong action on climate change will also be vital to the long-term viability of Toowoomba's water supply. WNIQ: What are your thoughts on the COVID-19 response plan federally from the Morrison government? ::Sandra Jephcott: Overall, the Morrison Government's response has been reasonable, after initially being very reluctant to prioritise health and well-being over economic growth. Also, there were major gaps in coverage for affected workers and industries. For example, casual workers and the arts were not adequately supported throughout the pandemic. WNIQ: Why did you decide to join Sustainable Australia? ::Sandra Jephcott: I come from a science background. It was very important to me that Sustainable Australia Party is from the political centre with an evidence-based, science-based approach to policy. For example, Sustainable Australia Party is the only party in my view with a holistic plan to address our various environmental crises. It was important for me that this plan not only includes strong action on climate change but also stabilising population in Australia and globally. WNIQ: Why do you think that foreign ownership of farms, housing and land is an important issue to combat? ::Sandra Jephcott: Australia is a sovereign nation. We need to be able to both manage our natural resources sustainably and ensure that we maintain profits, jobs and taxes in Australia for the well-being of Australians. Selling off our resources undermines our capacity to achieve these very important economic, environmental and social objectives. WNIQ: How have COVID-19 restrictions impacted your ability to campaign? ::Sandra Jephcott: I've been able to comfortably work at early voting centres and do media interviews, so there has not been much restriction at all. WNIQ: What's one key issue in Groom that you think needs acting on? ::Sandra Jephcott: Sustainable Australia Party has three big priorities in this by-election: Protect our environment; Stop overdevelopment; Stop corruption. But number one is protecting our environment, including strong action on climate change. Of the four parties running &mdash; the others being Labor, Liberal National and Liberal Democrats &mdash; only Sustainable Australia Party advocates for a moratorium on all new coal mines and major coal mine expansions. Locally, this means no to the proposed expansion of New Acland Mine on the Darling Downs. clear" +politics,"North KoreaTensions have started to rise again between the United States and North Korea. North Korea claims that the United States have planned to start an atomic war against them due to President Barack Obama recently reaffirming the nuclear protection of South Korea. A South Korean Foreign Ministry official on Saturday stated that Seoul has proposed five-way talks with the U.S., China, Russia and Japan to find a way to deal with the threats given by North Korea. The United States and Japan agreed to attend the 5-way talks but China and Russia have yet to respond. Singapore has stated that if the Korean flagship the Kang Nam is carrying a weapon that is in violation of the United Nations sanctions it would take immediate action. According to a senior member of the United States military, the USS John McCain is ready to intercept the Kang Nam." +politics,"2010 Haiti earthquake As reported the United Nations, January 12 Haiti earthquake left exactly 222,570 deaths, 1,300,000 refugees in harbours, 766,000 displaced people, 310,000 injured and 869 disappeared. The report also mentioned economic loss suffered by the country, that reached 7.754 billion dollars, leaving 71 percent of the Haitians in extreme poverty. The document was diffused in Santo Domingo de Guzmán, between the preparatives of a conference about the reconstruction of Haiti, that will take place next March 11 in New York. Haitian Government representatives have asked to donors an additional help of 350 million dollars for the Haiti reconstruction, the most poor country in the Americas. The damages report was prepared by the Haitian Government with the support of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Interamerican Development Bank, the World Bank, the United Nations and the European Union." +politics,"One day after Jon Stanhope, the Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister, posted a confidential draft of the proposed Australian anti-terror bill to his website, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock claims that modifications have been made. Prime Minister John Howard denies that the changes are more than ""minor"", and denies that the legislation is ""draconian"". The legislation, which will only be debated in Parliament for one day, has come under attack by members of parliament (including Senator Bob Brown), civil libertarians, Muslims' rights advocates, the Law Council of Australia and members of the community. Advocates of the proposed legislation claim that the laws are an extension of the existing criminal code. They also claim that Australia is in danger of a terrorist attack, such as the 7 July London bombings. Others have pointed out that the London bombers were not previously known to police and would not have been impacted by this legislation. Western Australian Opposition Leader and Member for Kalgoorlie Matt Birney said ""Look, let's just remember there are lunatics running around the place blowing people up and we need to take these extraordinary measures to deal with what is no doubt an extraordinary period of time in our history"". Prime Minister Howard defended the proposed legislation. He claimed that the laws had ""minor"" modifications (to the ""leaked"" document) but they were essentially the same. ""What is going to be in that legislation is what I announced and the states agreed to – no more, no less,"" Mr Howard told the Nine Network. ""I announced that we were going to have preventative detention, I announced that we were going to have control orders, I announced that we would be expanding the sedition offence to include incitement of violent behaviour against the community."" ""All of those things have been out in the public domain. ""Now obviously people are entitled to have a look at the final form of the legislation and they will, but this idea that we have snuck in a whole lot of attacks on civil liberties beyond what I announced is completely wrong."" ""We are not trying to sneak anything through under the cover of the COAG agreement."" ""Given the circumstances in which we live, they're not draconian. They are unusual but we live in unusual circumstances."" Waleed Kadous of the Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network spoke against the proposed laws. He expressed concern that the proposed ""shoot to kill"" laws were too permissive, and could allow an innocent suspect to be such. He said that the ""devil is in the detail and there are plenty of devils in this legislation"". ""Frankly we are disappointed, because while the Prime Minister said there would be lots of safeguards, there don't appear to be that many."" ""We are concerned police can shoot to kill without a crime being committed and that you can be held in preventative detention for 24 hours before you even see a judge."" Even a former Liberal prime minister has used a major speech in Melbourne to outline his concerns about the legislation. Mr Malcom Fraser says it provides no real safeguards to protect rights. Mr Fraser says these laws do not belong in a democracy, and is particularly concerned about control orders. ""These are powers whose breadth and arbitrary nature, with a lack of judicial oversight, should not exist in any democratic country,"" he said. Mr Fraser insists there is not enough protection. ""There are no real safeguards, there is no adequate official review,"" he said. ""The law should be opposed because the process itself is seriously flawed. ""Instead of a wide-ranging discussion, the Government has sought to nobble the field in secret and to prevent debate."" Liberal backbencher Petro Georgiou has expressed reservations about the package, calling for an independent watchdog to monitor the new powers. Three international law experts have also criticised the proposed laws. *date=October 15, 2005" +politics,"On Tuesday, the Governor of the US state of Arizona Doug Ducey signed into law a bill banning abortion if sought solely because of a foetus' genetic abnormality. Senate Bill 1457, which stalled twice for criticism by opponents of abortion, passed both chambers of the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature last week in a party-line vote, amended twice along the way to alleviate concerns by two hesitant Republicans. The bill makes it a Class 6 felony, the least severe, to seek or perform an abortion ""because of a genetic abnormality of the child"", defined as ""the presence or presumed presence of an abnormal gene expression in an unborn child"", but not a ""severe fetal abnormality"" considered ""incompatible with life."" Intimidating someone to get an abortion and soliciting or accepting monies to finance an abortion for this purpose has been made a Class 3 felony. The bill also allows the unborn child's father or, in case the mother is under 18, a maternal grandparent to sue, as well as including the applicability of state law to ""an unborn child at every stage of development"", which Senator Kirsten Engel and Representative Melody Hernandez wrote in a submitted minority report ""would open up the potential for prosecutors to charge persons including the pregnant individual whose conduct results in a woman having a miscarriage with murder, manslaughter or child endangerment."" Other provisions of the bill includes a prohibition on the distribution ""via courier, delivery or mail service"" of abortion-inducing drugs, a ban on any public educational institution from performing or aiding non-life saving abortion, a ban on the use of public or tax monies paid by the state or students for university research involving foetal remains or somatic cell nuclear transfer, or any state money towards organisations providing abortion care, and requiring all foetal remains to be buried or cremated. KYMA-DT reported Ducey is an anti-abortion rights governor who ran on the Republican ballot and has never vetoed anti-abortion legislation. In a statement, Duckey said, ""there's immeasurable value in every single life — regardless of genetic makeup ... We will continue to prioritize protecting life in our preborn children, and this legislation goes a long way in protecting real human lives."" The news release, originally published on his website also read, ""with this legislation, Arizona remains among the top pro-life states in the nation."" Senator Nancy Barto said, according to the release ""we need to protect our most vulnerable, especially those with treatable genetic conditions ... They are loved, integral members of our community that make Arizona whole"". Cathi Herrod, president of Center for Arizona Policy said in her own news release, according to the Associated Press ""today, Arizonans win."" Representative Diego Espinoza wrote in a tweet, ""I'm disappointed to see Arizona moving in this direction, ignoring the needs and desires of doctors, women, and families for an extreme political agenda."" Representative and House Democratic Leader Reginald Bolding wrote in a statement ""it's disturbing and wrong that the legislature is not focusing on policies to help women, and instead is stripping away the fundamental freedom to choose if, when, and how to start or grow a family."" In a letter shared to a Facebook post, the union United Campus Workers at Arizona State University urged last Saturday to the Arizona Board of Regents, university president Michael M. Crow and University of Arizona president Robert D. Robbins to ""immediately speak out against SB 1457"", calling it ""a blatant attack on reproductive freedom""." +politics,"Zimbabwe police broke up a prayer rally protesting government policy on Sunday, arresting over 100 people, including the leader of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai. Zimbabwe police claimed that the prayer rally violated a government ban on political protests. Riot police reinforcements cordoned off the area where the rally was to be held, and searched cars as they entered. As political leaders approached the area, they were reportedly pulled out of their cars and detained. Witnesses reported heavily armed military police forces surrounding the area of Highfields, the suburb where the rally was to be held. Police fatally shot one person, after being reportedly attacked by a large mob of protesters. A spokesman for one of the men arrested claimed that a lawyer was beaten and chased away from the Machipisa police station in Highfields, where the arrested people were being held. Opponents of President Robert Mugabe have blamed him for food shortages, repression of people's rights, and failing to control Zimbabwe's record inflation of over 1600%. A spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said the Secretary-General condemned the reported beating of the leaders, and that he urged their release." +politics,"The Australian government has been keeping quiet about a UN committee's repeated criticism of its record on race issues. A report issued over two weeks ago by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has not received comment from the government in the media, and domestic media coverage has been scant, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, and confirmed by a search of news search engine news.google.com. According to Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) National Director David Cooper before the case was heard by the UN committee, ""We fully expect the government is going to deflect it by criticising the UN process."" In fact, this criticism was given in the session, and nothing has been heard from the Australian Federal Government since, on the committee hearing and report. After reciting a list of Australian anti-racism initiatives, ambassador to the UN Mike Smith, described the 18 committee members' work in the previous session five years ago as ""cursory"" and ""unreasonable"". He said they had largely ignored progress being made in Australia, yet displayed ""an unquestioning acceptance"" of critics of the Government. Regis de Gouttes of France called Mr Smith ""exceptionally rude"". Jose Lindgren Alves of Brazil told him, ""As a veteran diplomat, this statement, with its language describing programs and attacks on NGOs, reminds me of the sort of statement from communist bloc countries and Latin American dictatorships that Australia used to condemn."" The committee was positive about a number of improvements in race-related issues in Australia over the five years since its last report. These were, * the criminalising of acts and incitement of racial hatred in most Australian States and Territories * progress in the economic, social and cultural rights by indigenous peoples * commitment of state and federal governments to work together on the issues * programmes and practices among the police and the judiciary, aimed at reducing the number of indigenous juveniles entering the criminal justice system * the abolition of mandatory sentencing in the Northern Territory * the adoption of a Charter of Public Service in a Culturally Diverse Society to ensure that government services are provided in a way that is sensitive to the language and cultural needs of all Australians * and the numerous human rights education programmes developed by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). However the report contained a large number of serious criticisms, and a reminder that the Convention prohibits direct as well as indirect discrimination. Australia was asked to report back on progress on a number of items within one year. The criticisms were, * that there was nothing to stop racially discriminative Commonwealth laws * proposed reforms to HREOC that may limit its independence and hinder its effectiveness at monitoring Australia's compliance with the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination * the abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), an elected body of indigenous representatives, the main policy-making body in Aboriginal affairs * a lack of legislation criminalising serious acts or incitement of racial hatred, in the Commonwealth, the State of Tasmania and the Northern Territory * that reported prejudice against Arabs and Muslims had increased * that counter-terrorism legislation may have an indirect discriminatory effect against Arab and Muslim Australians * reportedly biased treatment of asylum-seekers by the media * difficulty in gaining successful litigation under the Racial Discrimination Act in the absence of direct evidence * that no cases of racial discrimination, as distinct from racial hatred, have been successfully litigated in the Federal courts since 2001 * reversal since 1998 of progress made under 1993's Native Title Act and Mabo case, with new legal certainty for government and third parties provided at the expense of indigenous title * diverging perceptions between governmental authorities and indigenous peoples and others on the compatibility of the 1998 amendments to the Native Title Act with the Convention * that proof of continuous observance and acknowledgement of the laws and customs of indigenous peoples since the British acquisition of sovereignty over Australia is required to establish native title * very poor conditions of employment, housing, health, education and income for indigenous Australians, compared with non-indigenous * mandatory sentencing in Western Australia, which disproportionately impacts indigenous Australians * the ""striking over-representation"" of indigenous people in prison, and dying in custody * that indigenous women are the fastest growing prison population * allegations, accompanied by State denials, of discrimination in the grant of visas against Asian and Muslim people * Australia's mandatory detention of migrants determined to be illegal, including asylum-seekers, particularly when it affects women, children, unaccompanied minors, and the stateless * that many have been in detention for over three years * lack of access by many migrants and protected refugees to social security * precariousness of circumstances, and denial of right of family reunion, for many protected refugees * that the Federal Government has rejected most of the recommendations adopted by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation given in 2000" +politics,"In their annual report on human rights Amnesty International Secretary General, Irene Khan, said ""Guantanamo has become the gulag of our time."" In this 308-page report, they also called for the United States to shut down the Guantanamo prison. The report continues the critical analysis of the actions of the U.S. government, but criticism is sharper. The introduction to the report states ""The 'war on terror' appeared more effective in eroding international human rights principles than in countering international 'terrorism'."" In calling for changes from the U.S. government, especially regarding Guantanamo Bay, Amnesty International's voice is joined with calls from both the International Red Cross (IRC) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The IRC has said it reported to the U.S. government detainee's reports of desecration of the Qur'an. The ACLU's Freedom of Information Act requests turned up U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reports which echo the IRC's concerns. The documents are purported to show a consistency with reports from detainees of abuse to their religious symbols, as well as reports of beatings and other interrogation methods. Amnesty International's Secretary General, in her introduction to the report, points to the United State's foreign and military policy as providing a justification for other governments to ignore human rights. ""The USA, as the unrivalled political, military and economic hyper-power, sets the tone for governmental behaviour worldwide. When the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a licence to others to commit abuse with impunity,"" said Irene Khan. White House spokesman Scott McClellan responded saying the report's allegations were ""ridiculous and unsupported by the facts. The United States is leading the way when it comes to protecting human rights and promoting human dignity. We have liberated 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have worked to advance freedom and democracy in the world so that people are governed under a rule of law and that there are... protections in place for minority rights, that women's rights are advanced so that women can fully participate in societies where now they cannot"", as well as supporting the fight against AIDS in Africa. About the allegations of abuse at Guantanamo, which McClellan has previously called isolated incidents, he said, ""We hold people accountable when there is abuse. We take steps to prevent it from happening again, and we do so in a very public way for the world to see that we lead by example, and that we do have values that we hold very dearly and believe in.""" +politics,"LGBT A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in the state, violates the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. ""Plaintiffs challenge Proposition 8 under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment,"" wrote U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker. ""Each challenge is independently meritorious, as Proposition 8 both unconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry and creates an irrational classification on the basis of sexual orientation."" Proposition 8, which was passed by California voters by referendum in November 2008, banned same-sex marriage in the state, which had been legal after a California Supreme Court ruling on May 15, 2008. The proposition's passage did not reverse the marriages of thousands of same-sex couples who had gotten married in the state in the interval. The case, Perry et al. v. Schwarzenegger et al., was heard by Chief Judge Walker. Anticipating a defeat, the pro-Proposition 8 coalition of ""defendant-intervenors"" filed this morning a ""motion for stay pending appeal"", asking the court for its ruling to not take effect unless the decision is upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals; both sides in the case say an appeal is inevitable. Speaking for LGBT rights group Lambda Legal, Jennifer C. Pizer said, ""In holding that Prop 8 cannot stand because it violates the equal protection and due process rights of California’s lesbian and gay couples, this decision adds to the growing consensus in courts and legislatures across the country that there are no good reasons for excluding same-sex couples from marriage."" Courtenay Semel, an actress and LGBT activist, told Wikinews ""today marks another day in history! A big win for equal marriage. It's about time that progress is being made towards equality for all.""" +politics,"The Canadian House of Commons has voted 175 to 123 to defeat a motion by the Conservative minority government to re-open the same-sex marriage debate. If the motion had passed the government would have proposed a bill to restore the traditional definition of marriage as being exclusively a union between a man and a woman. The Conservative and Liberal parties did not whip the vote allowing their MPs a free vote. The motion voted on read as follows: ""That this House call on the government to introduce legislation to restore the traditional definition of marriage without affecting civil unions and while respecting existing same-sex marriages."" Prime Minister Stephen Harper, 47, made holding the vote a key promise in the 2006 federal election campaign. About a dozen Conservative MPs, including several cabinet ministers voted against the motion in the free vote while about a dozen Liberal opposition MPs voted for the motion. No MPs for the opposition Bloc Quebecois and New Democratic Party voted in favour the motion although two members of the BQ did not vote because they were paired and a third was absent from the vote. ""We made a promise to have a free vote on this issue; we kept that promise, and obviously the vote was decisive and obviously we'll accept the democratic result of the people's representatives,"" Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday at a news conference in Ottawa following the vote. ""I don't see reopening this question in the future."" The Liberals said that even if a new law banning same-sex marriage was passed it would be struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. Constitutional lawyers say that the Tories would have to change the law by invoking the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which Harper opposes doing. ""It was the wrong move to question the rights of the people and to try to override the Charter of rights...He must not be very proud of that,"" said Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion. High profile Tory cabinet ministers Peter MacKay, David Emerson, John Baird, Jim Prentice, Lawrence Cannon, and Josée Verne voted against the motion. House Speaker Peter Milliken, who is a Liberal, did not vote as the Speaker only votes to break a tie. Harper declared the matter closed, following the vote, ruling out the possibility of revisiting the issue. ""I don't see reopening this question in the future,"" the prime minister told reporters when asked if his government would reintroduce the motion after the next election should the Conservatives win a majority government. Same-sex marriage was legalized in 2005 by the former Liberal government lead by Paul Martin after a series of court rulings legalized same-sex marriage across most of the country. The 2005 legislation made Canada the fourth country in the world to legalize gay marriage. Over 12,000 gay couples have married in Canada since Bill C-38 passed. Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, and Canada are currently the only countries that allow gay marriage. Yeas (123): Abbott, Ablonczy, Albrecht, Allen, Allison, Ambrose, Anders, Anderson, Batters, Benoit, Bernier, Bezan, Blackburn, Blaney, Bonin, Boucher, Breitkreuz, Brown (Barrie), Brown (Leeds-Grenville), Bruinooge, Byrne, Calkins, Cannan (Kelowna-Lake Country), Carrie, Casson, Clement, Cullen (Etobicoke North), Cummins, Davidson, Day, Del Mastro, Devolin, Doyle, Dykstra, Epp, Fast, Finley, Fitzpatrick, Flaherty, Fletcher, Gallant, Goldring, Goodyear, Gourde, Grewal, Guergis, Hanger, Harper, Harris, Harvey, Hawn, Hearn, Hiebert, Hill, Hinton, Jaffer, Jean, Kamp (Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission), Karygiannis, Kenney (Calgary Southeast), Khan, Komarnicki, Kramp (Prince Edward-Hastings), Lake, Lauzon, Lee, Lemieux, Lukiwski, Lunn, Lunney, MacKenzie, Malhi, Mark, Mayes, McKay (Scarborough-Guildwood), McTeague, Menzies, Merrifield, Miller, Mills, Moore (Fundy Royal), Nicholson, Norlock, Obhrai, O'Connor, Oda, Pallister, Petit, Poilievre, Preston, Rajotte, Reid, Ritz, Scarpaleggia, Scheer, Schellenberger, Shipley, Skelton, Smith, Solberg, Sorenson, Stanton, Steckle, Storseth, Strahl, Sweet, Thompson (New Brunswick Southwest), Thompson (Wild Rose), Tilson, Toews, Tonks, Trost, Tweed, Van Kesteren, Van Loan, Vellacott, Wallace, Wappel, Warawa, Warkentin, Watson, Williams, Yelich. Nays (175): Alghabra, Andre, Angus, Asselin, Atamanenko, Bachand, Bagnell, Bains, Baird, Barbot, Beaumier, Belanger, Bell (North Vancouver), Bell (Vancouver Island North), Bellavance, Bennett, Bevilacqua, Bevington, Bigras, Black, Blaikie, Blais, Bonsant, Boshcoff, Bouchard, Bourgeois, Brison, Brown (Oakville), Brunelle, Cannon (Pontiac), Carrier, Casey, Chamberlain, Chan, Charlton, Chong, Chow, Christopherson, Coderre, Comartin, Comuzzi, Cotler, Crete, Crowder, Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley), Cuzner, D'Amours, Davies, DeBellefeuille, Demers, Deschamps, Dewar, Dhaliwal, Dhalla, Dion, Dosanjh, Dryden, Duceppe, Easter, Emerson, Eyking, Faille, Freeman, Fry, Gagnon, Gaudet, Gauthier, Godfrey, Godin, Goodale, Graham, Guarnieri, Guay, Guimond, Holland, Hubbard, Ignatieff, Jennings, Julian, Kadis, Karetak-Lindell, Keddy (South Shore-St. Margaret's), Keeper, Kotto, Laforest, Laframboise, Lalonde, Lapierre, Lavallee, Layton, LeBlanc, Lemay, Lessard, Levesque, Lussier, MacAulay, MacKay (Central Nova), Malo, Maloney, Manning, Marleau, Marston, Martin (Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca), Martin (LaSalle-Emard), Martin (Sault Ste. Marie), Martin (Winnipeg Centre), Masse, Mathyssen, Matthews, McCallum, McDonough, McGuinty, McGuire, Menard (Hochelaga), Menard (Marc-Aurele-Fortin), Merasty, Minna, Moore (Port Moody-WestwooduPort Coquitlam), Mourani, Murphy (Charlottetown), Murphy (Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe), Nadeau, Nash, Neville, Ouellet, Owen, Pacetti, Paquette, Paradis, Patry, Pearson, Perron, Peterson, Picard, Plamondon, Prentice, Priddy, Proulx, Ratansi, Redman, Regan, Richardson, Robillard, Rodriguez, Rota, Roy, Russell, Savage, Savoie, Scott, Sgro, Siksay, Silva, Simard, Simms, St. Amand, St. Denis, St-Cyr, St-Hilaire, Stoffer, Stronach, Szabo, Telegdi, Temelkovski, Thibault (West Nova), Turner, Valley, Verner, Vincent, Volpe, Wasylycia-Leis, Wilfert, Wilson, Wrzesnewskyj, Zed." +politics,"SomaliaThe United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that, in the last month, 258 civilians were killed and a further 80,000 displaced by the ongoing violence in Somalia, between the government and rebel groups. ""According to local sources, intense clashes between government forces and militia groups fighting for control of the conflict- torn central regions have left at least 258 civilians dead and another 253 wounded, which makes January the deadliest month since last August,"" the UN agency said in a statement. ""We estimate that more than 80,000 Somalis have been displaced since the beginning of the year. Thousands were also forced to leave their homes in other parts of Somalia."" The violence has made it difficult for humanitarian aid workers to access the population effectively. Andrej Mahecic, the spokesman of the UN refugees agency, noted: ""So far, the deteriorating security conditions have made it hard, if not impossible, for humanitarian workers to access the needy population."" The Xinhua news agency reports that UNHCR intends to send relief and shelter supplies to upwards of 18,000 people in 27 locations, where displaced residents are living temporarily, when it is considered safe to do so. Among those displaced were 18,000 people who fled their homes in the capital, Mogadishu; meanwhile, 29,000 were displaced in Dhusamareebb, in the Galgaduud region, and 25,000 in Beledweyne in the Hiraan region. A total of 1.4 million Somalis are currently internally displaced, 560,000 more are refugees in adjacent countries; last year, 120,000 residents sought refuge, primarily in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Yemen. The UN says Somalia is in its worst humanitarian crisis for eighteen years." +politics,"Alexandermacpherson According to the North Korean government, a US citizen, Aijali Mahli Gomes, has attempted suicide in a North Korean prison. In April, Gomes was sentenced to eight years of hard labour for illegally attempting to cross into the reclusive country in January, though his reasons for doing so remain unclear. In addition to the prison term, the man was also fined the equivalent of US$700,000 for a ""hostile act"". ""Driven by his strong guilty conscience, disappointment and despair at the US government that has not taken any measure for his freedom, he attempted to commit suicide,"" the North's Korean Central News Agency reported. This report did not specify where and how Gomes attempted suicide, or his state at present, only adding that Gomes ""is now being given first-aid treatment at a hospital"", and that Swedish diplomats at their Pyongyang embassy who handle diplomatic affairs between the US and North Korea have been made aware of Gomes' condition. Gomes was an English teacher in South Korea before trying to cross into the North. Gomes had also attended rallies that supported human rights activist Robert Park, who crossed into the North to protest the Communist country's poor human rights record. Park was later expelled from North Korea 40 days after he entered. North Korea's international relations remain tense after the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, and this report was issued just hours before the United Nations Security Council was expected to pass a resolution censuring the explosion of the Cheonan. North Korea has denied any involvement in the sinking of the warship and has declared that any sanctions from the international community will lead to war." +politics,"Yesterday, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to establish a United Nations Human Rights Council ""to promote and protect fundamental rights, and deal with major human rights offenders,"" according to a press release. 170 countries voted for the proposed resolution and four voted against (Israel, the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the United States), with three abstentions (Belarus, Iran, and Venezuela). The Council will replace the Commission on Human Rights, which has lost credibility in past years due to politicization. The United States objected that the resolution did not go far enough to exclude from membership in the new Council those nations which it alleges are the worst human rights abusers. Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, the Cuban Ambassador, declared that a ""huge discredit"" had befallen the previous Commission due to the ""political manipulation, hypocrisy and double standards imposed on its work by the United States and the European Union."" The 191-member General Assembly approved the resolution, which stated ""members elected to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights, fully cooperate with the Council, and be reviewed under the universal periodic review mechanism, during their term of membership."" The resolution calls for elections for the new body on May 9, 2006 and an inaugural meeting on June 19, while the Commission will be abolished on June 16. The Council will consist of 47 members, each elected individually by a majority (96 members or more) of the General Assembly. If the Council members fail to uphold high standards of human rights, they can be suspended from the Council by a two-thirds majority of Assembly members present at the meeting." +politics,"FinlandOn March 4, 2008 a demonstration against censorship is planned to be held at the Finnish Parliament, part of the continuing controversy over the Finnish Internet child porn filter. The organizers of the demonstration expect at least two-hundred participants, with representatives of the digital rights organization Electronic Frontier Finland (Effi) and several political parties will also present. The controversy arose after the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) blacklisted censorship critic Matti Nikki's site. Matti Nikki himself is now under criminal investigation for aiding in the distribution of child pornography, as he published a large portion of the filtering blacklist on his still-censored website. MP Jyrki Kasvi has made an official inquiry in the Finnish Parliament on the matter, and Effi has filed an official complaint to the parliamentary ombudsman. The Finnish Minister of Communication, Suvi Lindén, and the NBI have been severely criticized over the filtering system, which has been under heavy scrutiny by the media. After stating that she will not tolerate discussion criticizing the filtering system, as the situation is not a matter of freedom of speech, a petition was signed by over 12,000 people demanding her resignation. This was accompanied by a Thai civil rights group questioning the blocking as child porn of a memorial site dedicated to a member of the Thai royal family. Eventually the NBI removed the memorial site from the blacklist, explaining that the DNS based system blocks only whole sites, and that there was child pornography site under the same domain; this raised questions about the efficiency of the filtering system. Lindén later admitted that she did not know the details of the filtering system, as it had been established by her predecessors, before the change of government in early 2007. She has nevertheless defended the system, citing the protection of children, but admitted that there are problems with the Finnish system, and in other countries with similar systems. The NBI have published a statement explaining their actions, at the request of Lindén. In it the NBI stated that there are filtered sites that do not contain any child pornography, but claimed that it was not their fault, rather a side effect of the system. They also noted that they are planning to address this issue by switching from a DNS based filter to a URL based system. According to a prominent Finnish expert of filtering technology, the planned URL filtering would cost least two million euros. This estimate comes at the same time that the government cut back funds for work against child abuse, causing further uproar. The NBI's official position is that they block pornographic sites where the actors look too young, and sites which link to these sites. The argument for the filtering is that there is a large amount of child pornography on the Internet, most of it based on servers in countries where the authorities are indifferent to the issue. The general opinion after analysis by multiple people is that the list of at least 1,700 sites contains a handful of actual child pornographic sites, most of which are not located in Western countries. However, some sites in the list are located in countries like the United States, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany, and very few of those contain even questionable or borderline material. Dutch journalist Karin Spaink reviewed 40 sites on the list which were physically located in the Netherlands. She concluded that some of the sites have illegal child pornography, and that four of those are also blocked in the Netherlands by their equivalent filtering system. She estimated that about half of the 40 did not contain any illegal material. Effi's response to the NBI's statement was that the issue with censorship is not technical but that it has no place in an open, democratic society." +politics,"As the US Senate is about to take its annual August recess, they have not yet taken action on the controversial United Nations ambassador nomination of John Bolton. With Congress gone and President Bush at his ranch in Texas, White House press secretary Scott McClellan, speaking unofficially, hinted that Bush might exercise his constitutional authority and post him to the U.N. by use of a recess appointment. The appointment would stand until January 2007 before it would once again become subject to Senate confirmation. The Bolton nomination was passed on to the full Senate for consideration on March 17. This was done without a favorable recommendation from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senators Joseph Biden (D-DE) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) succeeded twice in leading Democrats to block efforts of Republican chamber leaders to bring the matter to a vote. Democrats raised questions on whether Bolton abused subordinates while acting in his role as undersecretary of state, and whether he tried to pressure intelligence analysts to issue reports that conformed to his views. There was also the question of Bolton's past criticisms of the body of the United Nations itself. Democratic filibusters demanded of the Bush administration that it release classified information regarding the involvements of Bolton in his position as the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security since May 11, 2001. In the past, however, Senate confirmation was granted him to fill positions in government posts on four occasions. With a week to go before recess, there are no signs of a Senate breakthrough. In 1998, former President Bill Clinton selected Richard Holbrooke. In what some have called ""partisan bickering"", Republicans blocked Holbrooke for 14 months, before he was finally confirmed in August 1999." +politics,"With the announcement Monday of €2 million in new funding from the European Union (EU), the Republic of Djibouti's Ministry of Agriculture hopes to provide some relief to an estimated 25,000 rural inhabitants suffering through severe drought conditions. The money, to be channeled through UNICEF for its water and sanitation program, will be used to develop new wells and improve existing ones. UNICEF is to contribute a further €60,000, as well as technical expertise to the Ministry of Agriculture, who will carry out the bulk of the work. “The two-year water supply project targeting rural districts is very significant since people living in 45 villages and their 40,000 heads of cattle will have access to clean drinking water,” said Joaquin Gonzalez, EU Representative in Djibouti. At the same time, the UN aid agency World Food Program (WFP) indicated that it is working with the Ministry of Agriculture and UNICEF to gradually shift Djibouti's reliance on emergency aid to a Food for Work program, which it hopes will assist nomadic herders in Djibouti with long-term sustainability. ""What we are trying to do together with the Ministry of Agriculture and UNICEF is, for example to dig wells so that despite drought, these herders will be able to irrigate their fields,"" said Simon Pluess, WFP spokesman. ""And, together with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, we will try and promote vegetable gardens."" Djibouti has survived harsh drought conditions for the past 5 years. Groundwater is the primary source of water for drinking and irrigation, but has been difficult to exploit and is often contaminated. Almost 50 percent of people in rural Djibouti do not have ready access to properly developed source of drinking water. And, due to the ongoing drought, water availability for livestock is limited. Livestock have shown signs of distress and, subsequently, milk production is down substantially. Nearly half of all families in Djibouti's northwest were forced to migrate to find pasture for their livestock. As the droughts continue, the importance of properly maintained wells has become apparent. “Life is harder and harder for us. Years ago there were more rains and also more pastureland for cattle. Now it is good for us to have functioning wells so that we can keep cattle here,” said Anou Amada, farmer in the village of Andoli. A 2006 survey indicated that only 15 percent of wells in Djibouti were equipped with a protective concrete wall to prevent contamination. Andoli's well is one of many undergoing repair through WFP's Food for Work project. “WFP couldn’t do this alone, so we work with the Ministry of Agriculture and UNICEF to dig wells and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization for vegetable gardens,” said Benoit Thiry, Director, WFP in Djibouti. When the project is completed in 2008, it will have increased Djibouti's water pump capacity by adding 25 solar-power pumps, which would compliment the current 61 diesel-powered pumps. ""The advantage of solar...is that it is much cheaper and requires less maintenance,"" said Omar Habib, UNICEF communication specialist. ""We want the people to participate and to appropriate these pumping stations. The government’s role in the long term should be as restricted as possible,"" he added." +politics,"Afghanistan According to a newly-released report compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), bribes paid to police, military, and public officials over the past year have cost Afghan civilians collectively over US$2.5 billion, nearly the equivalent of a quarter of the country's legitimate GDP. Entitled ""Corruption in Afghanistan"", the report was based on polling of approximately 7,600 people in cities and villages around the nation. According to the report, 59% of those surveyed said that government sanctioned corruption was a more pressing concern to them than insecurity (54%) or unemployment (52%). The report adds that more than half the population had to pay out at least one bribe in 2009. Furthermore, in a country where the economic output is only $425 per person, the average bribe cost nearly $160. Three out of four bribes were paid in cash. Another finding is that one in every three Afghans believed that bribery was just a normal part of society. That being the case, only 9% of those surveyed—for whatever reason—ever chose to report these type acts to the proper authorities. The reports go on to say that there is a widely-held perception among 54% of Afghans that foreign nations and non-governmental organizations are just in their country ""to get rich."" The head of the UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, said in a statement to the international media, ""The Afghans say that it is impossible to obtain a public service without paying a bribe. Bribery is a crippling tax on people who are already among the world's poorest."" source=Antonio Maria Costa, Head of the U.N. Office on Drugs & Crime Costa went on to note that there is a ""new caste of rich and powerful individuals who operate outside the traditional power and tribal structures and bid the cost of favors and loyalty to levels not compatible with the under-developed nature of the country. Criminal graft has become similarly monumental, perverse and growing and is having political, economic and even security consequences."" ""It's time to drain the swamp of corruption in Afghanistan, to stop money and trust disappearing down a big black hole. Corruption is the biggest impediment to improving security, development and governance in Afghanistan."" This report was released Tuesday, nine days before a scheduled international conference on Afghanistan in London. There, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to face criticism for his perceived passive stance on corruption from the coalition of nations—especially the United States—that have thousands of troops committed to Afghanistan as part of the Global War on Terrorism. President Karzai was sworn in for a second five-year term last November after a controversial and hard-fought election during which he was widely accused of various types of fraud. Nevertheless, he has staunchly defended his record on corruption, stating that the entire issue had been ""blown out of proportion by Western media.""" +politics,"Despite allegations that the Mayor of London's office exerted pressure on the organisers of WorldPride in London to change the start time of the event to reduce the number of people attending, thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people and their supporters marched from Portman Square to Whitehall today. The event celebrated forty years since the first gay pride march in London in 1972. Veterans of the 1972 march led the parade, and were followed by groups representing LGBT charity and campaigning groups including Stonewall and Terrence Higgins Trust, trade unions, student groups and corporations including Tesco, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Ernst and Young, Smirnoff, and KPMG. Tom Morris" +politics,"Libya The human rights group Human Rights Watch has published a 154-page document accusing the United States of cooperating with Libya under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, in the interrogation and torture of members of the armed group, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), according to a report in the Huffington Post. The report alleges that the United States and Libya, together with governments from Africa, Asia, and Europe such as the United Kingdom, collaborated in detaining former members of LIFG living outside Libya then deporting them back to Libya where they were allegedly tortured. According to the report, some of those detained where abused even before the were returned to Libya such as those held in United States military bases in Afghanistan. News reports have revealed that the abuse may have occurred between April 2003 and April 2005. Upon the release of the document, Human Rights Watch has stated that their key source of information came from a pile of abandoned documents found on September 3, 2011 from the offices of former Libyan intelligence chief Musa Kusa. They also said that they have interviewed 14 former detainees who allege that they were subjected to abuses ranging from waterboarding, sexual assault, stress positions, beatings, and sleep deprivation." +politics,"LGBT On Thursday the High Court of Australia struck down the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) same-sex marriage legislation. In a landmark decision, the High Court unanimously ruled the term ""marriage"" in Section 51(xxi) of the Constitution of Australia did indeed include marriages between people of the same sex. However, the Commonwealth Marriage Act 1961 does not permit or recognise same-sex marriages. Section 109 of the Constitution says when a law is inconsistent with a law of the Commonwealth, the latter prevails. The High Court therefore struck down the ACT legislation in its entirety, ruling it was wholly inconsistent with the Commonwealth law. Some 31 same-sex couples were married under the law in the five days from when it became effective last Saturday, December 7, and when the High Court struck it down on Thursday. Their marriages are now invalid. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said they knew this was a possibility. The ACT Legislative Assembly legalised same-sex marriages in October. The Commonwealth Government challenged the law in the High Court promptly once passed." +politics,"Syria has rejected a proposed United Nations resolution, backed by both the United States and France, for a cease fire in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. Syria's foreign minister has said that the resolution is a ""a recipe for the continuation of the war,"" and ""adopted Israel's point of view only."" Syria has also warned that their armed forces are under orders to respond immediately if Israel attacks. Syria's foreign minister said that ""If Israel attacks Syria by any means, on the ground, by air, our leadership ordered the armed forces to reply immediately,"" and that ""Syria is ready for the possibility of a regional war if the Israeli aggression continues.""" +politics,"The California-based non-profit organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a brief on Wednesday claiming that AT&T has been illegally forwarding Internet traffic directly to the National Security Agency. The EFF has asked that the forwarding be stopped immediately. According to EFF staff attorney Kevin Bankston, ""The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment. More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now."" The motion was filed under seal allowing only the judge and litigants to view the complaint. The procedure allows AT&T five days to explain to the court their reasons for keeping the information from the public. In the class action lawsuit, EFF is representing all AT&T residential customers nationwide." +politics,"The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, has issued a new report titled ""Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran"" and distributed it to members of the United Nations Security Council and the Agency's member states, but notes that the report is to remain secret, stating that ""unless the IAEA Board of Governors and Security Council decide otherwise, the Agency cannot authorise its release to the public."" Iran is presently neither a member of the UN Security Council nor of the IAEA Board of Governors. As of 20:52, 29 April 2006 (UTC) or earlier, the report was made available on the Internet on the website payvand.com, dated April 28, 2006. It is unknown whether or not the release was authorised by the United Nations Security Council or the IAEA. The report's concluding paragraphs summarise the IAEA's findings: ""33. All the nuclear material declared by Iran to the Agency is accounted for. Apart from the small quantities previously reported to the Board, the Agency has found no other undeclared nuclear material in Iran. However, gaps remain in the Agency's knowledge with respect to the scope and content of Iran's centrifuge programme. Because of this, and other gaps in the Agency's knowledge, including the role of the military in Iran's nuclear programme, the Agency is unable to make progress in its efforts to provide assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran. ... 37. The Agency will pursue its investigation of all remaining outstanding issues relevant to Iran's nuclear activities, and the Director General will continue to report as appropriate.""" +politics,"Yesterday, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran said if the goal is peace and security, then foreign powers should ""get out of the region"" as their presence could cause an arms race. He also announced a new security initiative for the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz to be unveiled at the United Nations General Assembly later this week. Rouhani was speaking at the opening of Sacred Defence Week, an annual commemoration of the eight-year Iran–Iraq War, which features military parades. ""The presence of foreign forces can be dangerous for the region, international waters, as well as the security of shipping lines and energy, but our path is to create unity and coordination with regional countries,"" he said. ""Those who want to link the region’s incidents to the Islamic Republic of Iran are lying like their past lies that have been revealed ... If they are truthful and really seek security in the region, they must not send weapons, fighter jets, bombs and dangerous arms to the region."" ""Your presence has always been a calamity for this region and the farther you go from our region and our nations, the more security would come for our region"", he continued in the speech which was delivered in Tehran, the capital. Rouhani's new security plan would be led by Iran and feature support from regional countries in securing the waterways in the region. According to the Associated Press, Iran has increased cooperation in the last few years with the navies of China, India, Oman, Pakistan, and Russia. The speech came approximately one week after an attack on oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia which halved Saudi oil output. The attack was claimed by the Houthi movement in Yemen, but both Saudi Arabia and the United States have alleged Iranian involvement. The initial reports were of drone attacks, but the Saudi government said the attack included cruise missles which could not have originated in Yemen. The United States was more forceful in blaming Iran for the attack, committing to send more troops to Saudi Arabia. Recently, the United States announced a naval coalition to patrol the Persian Gulf which was joined by Australia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. The annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly is set to open tomorrow." +politics,"Economy and business The British Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition government has scrapped plans by the previous government to change the rules on equal pay between men and women. The previous Labour government included a provision in the Equality Act 2010—Section 78—to allow the government the option to introduce regulations that would require companies to publish details of the difference in pay between male and female employees. If the government had activated such regulations, they would have come into force in 2013. The current government have decided not to activate this requirement and instead will only ask businesses to provide this data voluntarily and will set an ""aspiration"" to dramatically increase the number of women in senior positions in business. Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat MP and coalition Equalities Minister, in announcing the plans stated that the government wishes ""to move away from the arrogant notion that government knows best, to one where government empowers individuals, businesses and communities to make change happen."" Featherstone announced the policy at the School of Management at Cranfield University, who have conducted research finding that only 12.5% of directors of FTSE 100 companies are women, up from 12.2% last year—""glacially slow"" progress according to business commentator David Prosser. Featherstone justified not implementing the pay audits due to the economic costs: ""Right at this moment of financial peril to the nation is perhaps not the moment to introduce mandatory pay audits."" This breaks with a Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment, as well as contradicting Featherstone's own words two years ago in support of the audit: ""A voluntary audit system for private industry is hardly worth the paper it's printed on. We need to know when the government actually plans to step in if progress isn't made."" Women's groups and trade unions have condemned this move. Dave Prentis, the general secretary of UNISON, Britain's second largest trade union, said that this is an example of the government ""stripping down its commitment to equality"". source=Dave Prentis Prentis continued: ""It is a disgrace that women are still getting paid less than men. This move threatens to turn the clock back on all the progress already made with equal pay."" Ceri Goddard, the chief executive of the feminist campaigning group the Fawcett Society, condemned the plans: ""The persistent gap in pay between men and women is one of the starkest examples of inequality in the UK today. The government's decision not to bring into force section 78 is a huge disappointment and means this injustice will continue for a long time to come. The government has today consigned another generation of women to lower pay. Their proposal to rely only on voluntary business action on pay isn't just naive, it sends a dangerous signal that tackling discrimination against women is a choice, not a requirement."" Yvette Cooper, Featherstone's shadow minister on the Labour benches, called the news ""another broken promise from the government"" and said that ""scrapping Labour's plan to increase transparency in pay is a backwards step for women's equality.""" +politics,"Democrats in the United States House of Representatives have sent a letter to new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, asking her to release funds to reconstruct agencies in the Gaza Strip. The letter also said she should try to reason with Israel to allow people in Gaza in need of medical attention and emergency transportation between the Israel and Gaza border. The letter, released to the AFP news agency, says ""we... urge you to express this concern directly to Israeli government officials"". The letter says the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) need an estimated $350 million dollars for rebuilding of Gaza and to provide relief to residents. ""Failure to address this humanitarian emergency has the potential to produce a crisis of even more unspeakable proportions,"" the letter added, ""we therefore respectfully request that the State Department release emergency funds to UNRWA for reconstruction and humanitarian assistance"". They also urged Clinton and her team to make a list of ""actions taken to date and the strategy you will pursue to address the humanitarian crisis"", saying ""with the ceasefire now in effect, it is critical that the United States play a leading role in alleviating the suffering of civilians in Gaza and we respectfully urge your assistance in this task"". Israel began a ceasefire on January 18 after a 23 day offensive, in an attempt to stop rocket fire into Israel by Hamas militants, but has warned that they reserve the right to resume action if the shelling of Israel did not stop." +politics,"Portugal's Superior Council of National Defence (CSDN) decided Wednesday the composition of the countries' participation in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The decision reached by the Superior Council of National Defence yesterday evening will be to send a Engineering Company with 140 troops as part of its participation in UN's peacekeeping force in Lebanon. At the end of the Council's meeting CSDN's spokesman, General Goulão de Melo told the journalists that the Portuguese contingent would participate in the ""reconstruction of the infrastructures destroyed during the war"", adding that the duration of the mission will be established in agreement with the UN's established calendar. Portugal's Defense Minister Nuno Severiano Teixeira said Wednesday night, during a news conference that the Company, based in Santa Margarida, near Abrantes, will be deployed on October 14, integrating this way what the Minister considers UNIFIL' third generation forces. ""They will be on the ground but they are not a fighting force; they will be working on reconstruction so the risk they face is moderate"", Teixeira said. This confirms what already was foreseen by defence specialists, due the fact that Portugal doesn't have any adequate means available for the Lebanese Theater of Operations, and since countries like Germany and the Netherlands already confirmed the possibility of sending warships, a Portuguese offer of a frigate to patrol the Lebanese coast would become redundant. Also at the meeting held by the CSDN the reduction of the Portuguese participation in international peacekeeping missions was approved. The Defense Minister responded by saying that Portugal already has manifested the interest in reducing its participation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also the reduction of the Portuguese Marines currently in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is scheduled to begin on November. The Portuguese participation in the UNIFIL is calculated in €9.3 millions. Portugal will spend this year about €88.4 millions with all its international missions in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, and Kosovo." +politics,"Uruguay The Convention on Domestic Workers (also known as the ILO Convention 189) is to take effect next year after the Philippines ratified it earlier this month, according to the United Nations. It follows the lead taken by Uruguay which ratified it earlier this year. Only two countries are needed in order for it to take effect. Upon taking effect, the convention is intended to protect the rights of around 53 to 100 million domestic workers around the world. Based on UN estimates, many of them are women and migrant workers. The ILO has noted that these workers work in a sector that lacks regulation and is informal. According to the UN, the convention intends to grant the workers several rights. These include freedom of association and collective bargaining, protection from child labor, forced labor, and discrimination. Also included are chapters that entitles domestic workers to a contract that specifies the type of work, salary, the hours of work, paid leave, and days off." +politics,"Invited to participate in a debate at Columbia University during his visit to New York City this week to address the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad engaged University president Lee Bollinger on a number of topics, including his country's human rights record, opinions on Israel and the Holocaust and the role of nuclear weapons and terrorism on the global stage. The Iranian president's speech was marked by protests, but also drew applause from students. Bollinger opened the debate addressing critics, stating that ""To those who believe that this event should never have happened, that it is inappropriate for the university to conduct such an event, I want to say that I understand your perspective and respect it as reasonable...it is an experiment, as all life is an experiment. This is the right thing to do and indeed, it is required by the existing norms of free speech"" Bollinger then gave his opening address, turning to Ahmadinejad and stating: homosexuals and so many of our academic colleagues become targets of persecution in your country?"" ""Why do you support well-documented terrorist organizations that continue to strike at peace and democracy in the Middle East, destroying lives and the civil society of the region? Frankly, and in all candor Mr. President, I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions, but your avoiding them will in itself be meaningful to us. I do expect you to exhibit the fanatical mind-set that characterizes what you say and do. After reciting the Bismillah and asking for guidance from God, Ahmadinejad countered that ""In Iran, tradition requires that when we invite a person to be a speaker, we actually respect our students and the professors by allowing them to make their own judgment and we don’t think it’s necessary before the speech is even given to come in with a series of claims..."" Ahmadinejad's most pointed arguments, though, were directed at the administration of George W. Bush. ""They do not respect the privacy of their own people. They tap telephone calls … They create an insecure psychological atmosphere, in order to justify their war-mongering acts in different parts of the world."" The Iranian president attacked what he considered to be errors of American imperialism. ""By using precise scientific methods and planning, they begin their onslaught on the domestic cultures of nations, which are the result of thousands of years of interaction, creativity and artistic activity. They try to eliminate these cultures in order to strip people of their identity."" Ahmadinejad questioned U.S. nuclear policy. ""Making nuclear, chemical and biological bombs and weapons of mass destruction is yet another result of the misuse of science and research by the big powers."" He added, ""Without the cooperation of certain scientists and scholars, we would not have witnessed production of different nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Are these weapons to protect global security? What can a perpetual nuclear umbrella achieve for the sake of humanity? If nuclear war is waged between nuclear powers, what human catastrophe will take place?"" In a rebuttal to claims that his country oppressed women and homosexuals, Ahmadinejad responded by claiming ""It is wrong for some governments, when they disagree with another government, to...spread lies"", pointing to the fact that over 50% of Iranian voters are female, and the two female Vice Presidents. When challenged by Bollinger for Iran's treatment of gays he stated that ""In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country,"" drawing laughter from the audience. ""In Iran we do not have this phenomenon, I don't know who has told you that we have it."" He framed questioning of the Holocaust as stifled academic debate: ""Right now, there are a number of European academics who have been sent to prison because they attempted to write about the Holocaust or research it from a different perspective, questioning certain aspects of it,"" later adding that ""you shouldn't ask me why I'm asking questions, you should ask yourselves why you...want to stop. Do you ever take what is known as absolute in physics? We had principles in mathematics that were granted to be absolute for over 800 years, but new science has...gone forward."" The first question from the audience addressed the controversial issue of the leader's position on Israel. Ahmadinejad did not directly respond to the subject of Israel - stating ""We love all nations. We love the Jewish people. There are many Jews living in Iran, with peace and security."", and concluded that it was not a question of Israel's right to exist, but of Palestinian self-determination. Countering claims that his country supports terrorism, he replied, ""We’re a cultured nation. We don’t need to resort to terrorism. We’ve been victims of terrorism ourselves. It’s regrettable that people who argued they are fighting terrorism — instead of supporting the Iranian nation — are supporting the terrorists and then turn the finger at us."" The final question from the audience asked whether Iran would engage in talks with the United States, to which he replied ""If the U.S. government recognizes the rights of the Iranian people, respects all nations and extends a hand of friendship to all Iranians, they will see that Iranians will be among their best friends."" In closing, Ahmadinejad extended gratitude and thanks to the University, and welcomed both students and faculty to attend Iranian universities and give lectures themselves to the students." +politics,"The Australian presence in East Timor so far has been characterised by vigorous patrolling into the capital Dili, with the main goal being to lock down the city in order to separate and concentrate the various conflicting forces in East Timor. Despite the Australian military being provided strong rules of engagement by the East Timorese government, so far no soldiers have fired their weapons or been fired upon, although they might have been fired over by gangs earlier today. Outside the Hotel Timor today, where East Timorese Prime Minister Alkatiri was about to hold a press conference, an Australian patrol arrested what appeared to be two gangs about to storm the hotel with the help of reinforcements. The men numbered around 30, carrying machetes, knifes, spears, slingshots, and arrows. The Prime Minister claimed that the gangs were attempting a coup d'etat. Civilian gangs, allegedly provided arms by the East Timorese military, have so far been blamed for much of the violence in Dili. As the rest of the 1300 strong Australian deployment is expected to arrive in East Timor tomorrow, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said that although his government did foresee the current situation in East Timor, military action would have constituted an invasion until mandated through the United Nations' or East Timorese government's request. ""...People say you should have seen it coming. The answer is yes, I did, but until you are asked, it happens to be an invasion."" said Mr Howard. East Timor requested military assistance from Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Portugal on May 23, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta explaining that the government ""...couldn't control the situation,""; all four nations responded positively to the request. 2006 East Timor crisis Despite one newspaper running the headline ""We'll stay till job's done, says PM"", the Chief of Defence Force, Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston has said that he hopes the Australian military will be able to be replaced within a few months by a UN peacekeepers. In any case, ACM Houston has said that he is believes the Australian presence will stabilise the situation soon, perhaps aided by the good relations that exist between the ADF and the leader of the rebel group, Major Alfredo Reinado. MAJ Reinado was trained by the ADF for three months and has openly welcomed the arrival of the peacekeeping force, saying that the deployment is the ""only solution"" in the face of the government's inability to resolve the conflict. After praising the speed of the deployment, Washington revealed that the US assisted the transport of Australian troops to position in Townsville and Darwin two weeks earlier. Indonesia has now closed its border to East Timor, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono saying that ""besides security reasons, the closure of the border is to prevent the possibility of issues that may worsen the image of Indonesia.""" +politics,"Syria After the Syrian government denied the army used chemical weapons against the densely populated eastern Ghouta region of Damascus on Wednesday, armed forces heavily bombed the neighborhood yesterday. Reports say anywhere between 100 and 1,300 people were killed in Wednesday's alleged chemical attack, but there are no reports of injuries or deaths in yesterday's bombings. Many of those killed appeared to be children. Some of the pictures and video coming out of the country don't show blood and dismembered bodies, but instead show, according to witnesses, those who died from apparent suffocation; some were foaming at the mouth and others were having convulsions. One video posted to YouTube purportedly shows a young girl who survived the alleged attack, yelling ""I’m alive, I’m alive."" At one point, according to The Washington Post, the girl even tries to convince the hospital official she is still alive. The bombings come as United Nations observers began to arrive to investigate claims of chemical weapons use elsewhere in the nation. According to Russian officials, the Syrian government is ready to give UN observers ""maximum cooperation"" while they perform their investigation. ""We hope that the results will clarify the issue and will help to dispel numerous speculations around the alleged use of the Syrian chemical weapons while simultaneously creating a positive background for the moves towards the start of the political process of settlement of the Syrian crisis,"" Aleksandr Lukashevich, Russia's foreign minister, said yesterday. Syrian officials say the alleged chemical attack was staged and carried out by rebel forces to ""draw attention to their cause"" ahead of the arrival of UN observers. Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, Jan Eliasson, called the alleged chemical attack 'shocking' and hopes the Syrian government will allow UN observers into the neighborhood as soon as possible. ""We see the need to investigate this as soon as possible; no matter what the conclusions, this represents a serious escalation with grave humanitarian and human consequences,"" said Eliasson who also added there is no confirmation that chemical weapons were used in Wednesday's bombing. A previous attempt by the UN to end the violence in Syria failed. In May of 2012, a UN convoy was hit by an IED (improvised explosive device) while a human rights group reported a Syrian military attack on civilians at a nearby funeral in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province. Later that year in August, a 300 person team left the country after their mandate expired, and was never renewed. Commander of the 2012 observation team General Babacar Gaye expressed frustration against both the Syrian armed forces and rebels for not allowing the UN to complete its mission. ""Initially the ceasefire was respected, violence decreased and we were able to do our work throughout the country, but by the middle of June it was clear that the parties were no longer committed to the ceasefire and the result has been an escalation in violence,"" said Gaye in 2012. The UN's 2012 mandate was to; ""monitor a cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties and to monitor and support the full implementation of the Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States six-point-plan."" Part of the plan included both sides working and cooperating with the UN special envoy, commitment to ceasing hostilities, and the Syrian army ceasing troop and tank movements against rebels in ""population centers"" throughout the country." +politics,"Wikinews There are suggestions China wants to maintain its financial ties with Syria as its third largest importer in 2010. Would you agree with this? :*Brown: I don't think that is China's key priority. China has a massive economy, and Syria is a very minor player in this. It has some, but not much, energy from Syria. Its real concerns in the current conflict are for stability, and geopolitical. :*Farhi: China's conduct in Syria has been similar to its conduct elsewhere. It has given support to Russia in international forum such as the UNSC United Nations Security Council and has acted opportunistically wherever its economic interest could be pursued. But, Syria is really not an area of interest for China. Its actions and support for the Russian position is derived from its general concerns regarding American imperialism and unilateralism. :*Mitter: China will want, in general, to maintain financial ties with Syria as it does with many countries. China's general position is that internal politics of countries should not interfere with economic ties. WNIQ Do you think China is talking from experience when it says that foreign countries shouldn't get involved with Syria's internal affairs? :*Roggeveen: That stance reflects China’s history as a weak, developing country with a host of territorial disputes with its neighbours. Beijing does not want to set international precedents that will allow third parties to interfere with, for example, the Taiwan issue, Tibet, the East China Sea or the South China Sea. ::But increasingly, China’s stance will conflict with its growing strength and growing responsibilities on the world stage. China is already the world’s second biggest economy and a major strategic power in the Asia Pacific region; and, it will increasingly be expected to take up responsibilities that come with such power. Also, as we saw in the case of Libya &mdash; where China sent a fleet of ships and aircraft to evacuate its nationals &mdash; China has interests and citizens all over the world, both of which need to be protected. :*Brown: It China has always stood by non interference of other counties in the internal affairs of sovereign states; though, this position has changed over time since it was formulated on the back of China's experience of colonisation in the early part of the twentieth-century. Its main priority now is to not see the escalation of issues, as was seen in Iraq and Afghanistan; where it runs the risk of being sucked into lengthy conflicts with no real gameplan, and no clear outcome that is relevant to it. It does not see the Syrian conflict as one where there is a an easy, viable, alternative option waiting to govern the country. And, it is very sceptical about US and others' claims that they can control this problem. :*Farhi: Yes, rejection of interference in the internal affairs of other countries &mdash; particularly of a military kind &mdash; is a principled Chinese position in areas where China doesn't have an over-riding interest. :*Mitter: China has been a hardline advocate of strong territorial sovereignty for decades. This is, in part, a product of its own history of being invaded and occupied by other countries. WNIQ China abstained from a UN Security Council resolution on Libya &mdash; do you think they are trying to reprise what happened in Libya in terms of regime change? :*Roggeveen: China and Russia suspect the 'responsibility to protect' doctrine, which was used by Western powers to justify the Libya intervention, was a smokescreen for regime change. So, they are wary of seeing something similar happen in Syria. China also prefers not to be on its own in the Security Council; so, if the Russians come down against a Libya-like resolution, the chances are that China will join them. :*Brown: They felt there was clear mission-creep with Libya. What, however, has most emboldened them in opposing action in Syria is the position of Russia; which they have been able to stand behind. Diplomatically they dislike isolation, so this has proved the issue they have taken cover from. :*Farhi: Libya has set a bad precedent for many countries who supported, or did not object to, NATO action. So, yes, the Libya example is a precedent; but, in any case, the Syrian dynamics are much more complex than Libya and both Russia and China &mdash; as well as Iran &mdash; genuinely see the attempt to resolve the imbroglio in Syria through military means as truly dangerous. In other words, they see the conduct of Western powers in the past two years as spawning policies that are tactically geared to weaken the Assad regime without a clear sense or strategy regarding what the end game should be. Particularly since at least part of the opposition to Assad has also elicited support from Islamic radicals. :*Mitter: In general China is reluctant to take decisive action in international society, and at the UN. It prefers its partners, such as Russia, to take on confrontational roles while it tries to remain more neutral and passive. WNIQ Do you think a political solution is the only realistic means to resolve the Syrian issue? :* Roggeveen: At the moment, both sides in Syria evidently feel they can still obtain their objectives through force. Perhaps one of them will be proved right; or, perhaps there will be a long-term stalemate with Syria split between regime and opposition forces. :: One important change is the chemical weapons agreement; which now makes it much more difficult for the US or Israel to intervene militarily. The deal also gives the regime some degree of status as a legal authority with which outside powers must negotiate. That weakens the hand of the opposition; but, it could open a door for an international diplomatic intervention to achieve &mdash; firstly &mdash; a cease fire. and perhaps then something more substantive. :* Brown: There is no appetite for the kinds of expensive and very hard interventions undertaken in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, in any case, the US and its allies don't have the money to fund this, and their publics evidently feel no case has been made yet for getting involved. People are weary of the endless arguments in the Middle-East, and feel that they should now be left to deal with their own issues. China, in particular, has tried to maintain as strong a ... network of benign support in the region as possible, while avoiding getting sucked into problems. There is no viable opposition in Syria that would make it easier to justify intervention; and, no easy way of seeing how this tragic civil war is going to be easily ended. :* Farhi: Syria has become the arena for a proxy war among regional and extra-regional players and yes its civil war will not end until all key players and their external supporters develop a political will to end the conflict. For the conflict to end, the bankers feeding the conflict should agree to stop funding it. :* Mitter: Yes. But, it will depend on Russia, China, and the US, being able to come up with a compromise solution. That looks to be a long way off. Wikinews For many years, Syria has been considered Iran's ""closest ally"". What vested interest does the Iranian government have in keeping Bashar al-Assad in power? :*Kamrava: These interests are primarily strategic, with both countries sharing common interests in relation to Lebanon &mdash; particularly the Hezbollah group &mdash; and as deterrence against Israeli intervention. :*Martel: Iran's interests align very closely with that of Russia in supporting Syria and opposing the United States. Further, during this last week, President Putin offered to help Iran build a second nuclear reactor. The policies of Russia, Iran, and Syria align quite closely; thus leading some &mdash; such as myself &mdash; to argue that we are seeing the rise of an ""authoritarian axis"" of states, whose policies are coordinated. :*Posch: First, Syria was Iran's only ally against Saddam Hussein and an indispensable partner in Lebanon since the early 1980s. :: Even before the fall of Saddam in 2003, Iran reinterpreted the basically pragmatic cooperation in the field of intelligence and security. Ever since Syria was part of a so called ""axis of resistance"" consisting of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the sole common strategic denominator of these different actors is hostility against Israel, which is always depicted as an aggressor against whom the Muslims should resist &mdash; hence, the designation as an ""axis of resistance"". Of course, forming an alliance 'officially against Israel' serves another purpose too: to take a stand against Saudi Arabia without naming it. Much of the current crisis in Syria has to do with this scheme. :*Farhi: Syria supported Iran during the Iran–Iraq war; and, that dynamic forged a long-standing relationship between the two countries that includes economic, political, and military cooperation. In more recent years, Iran, Syria and Hezbollah have self-identified as an axis of resistance against Israeli&ndash;American involvement in the region. Despite this, Iran initially mostly followed the Russian lead in the Syria. However as other regional players &mdash; such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as extra-regional players such as the United States &mdash; began to see, and articulate the weakening of, the Assad regime as a first step to the weakening of Iran, this enhanced Iran's threat perception, and gave it an incentive for further involvement in support of Assad. Wikinews Do you think Iranian support for the Syrian government is a way of standing up against UN sanctions imposed on them, and opposing American imperialism? :* Kamrava: No. Iranian&ndash;Syrian relations are rooted in common strategic interests rather than in assumptions about US imperialism, or the role of the UN sanctions. :* Martel: Both Iran and Syria share a strategic interest in undermining the influence of the US and the West. :* Posch: Definitely not. The sanctions track is a different one, checking American ""imperialism"" &mdash; as you call it &mdash; is, of course. one aim. :* Farhi: As has become evident in the past few weeks, the primary interactive dynamic regarding the Syrian imbroglio is being played out mostly in terms of US&ndash;Russian rivalry; and, Iran is following the Russian lead. Wikinews The UN has ""overwhelmingly"" confirmed use of chemical weapons in Syria. Do you think both sides have used chemical weapons? :* Kamrava: It is undeniable that chemical weapons were used in Syria. But, I have not yet seen conclusive evidence for the responsibility of the use of chemical gas by one side or another. Until valid evidence is made available &mdash; proving who used chemical weapons &mdash; affixing blame to either the government forces, or to one of the fractious rebel groups, is only a matter of speculation. :* Martel: I remain skeptical that anyone other than the Syrian government used chemical weapons. It is widely accepted that the Syrian government was behind the use of chemical weapons. :* Posch: I think the Report is quite clear on that. :* Farhi: I &mdash;as an academic, with no access to on the ground information &mdash; am in no position to know whether both sides have used chemical weapons. Wikinews Would you agree that part of Iran's vested interest in Syria remaining under al-Assad is bound to two factors: religion and strategy? :* Kamrava: No, I do not agree. Iran's ""vested interest in Syria remaining under al-Assad"" is a product only of Iran's strategic calculations. :: While foreign policies anywhere may be expressed &mdash; and justified &mdash; through slogans and ideological rhetoric, they are based on strategic considerations and calculations. Despite common, journalistic misconceptions, religion has not played a role in Iranian foreign policy; whether in relation to Syria or anywhere else. :* Martel: Iran's vested interest in Syria is entirely geo-strategic. Iran's support for Syria is designed to undermine US power and influence. For Iran, no policy objective is more important than to possess nuclear weapons. When the U.S. declared a ""redline"" if Syria ""used or moved"" chemical weapons, and then backed away from that redline, it is likely that Iran's leadership drew one principal conclusion: ::: the US redline on Iran's nuclear program is in doubt, the US commitment to preventing Iran from possessing nuclear weapons is in doubt, :: and that Iran likely will test US resolve. :: In strategic terms, doubts about the credibility of the US redline on Iran dwarfs any concerns about Syria's chemical weapons. :: The belief in Iran &mdash; that the US may not be willing to prevent Iran from possessing nuclear weapons &mdash; could lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. It is difficult to exaggerate just how dangerous a nuclear-armed Iran is for regional and global security. :*Posch: No, it is strategy, and perhaps ideology. Religion doesn't play too much of a role, even though the conflict has been thoroughly ""sectarianised"". This happened a few years back when the Saudis baptised (if that term is appropriate) the ""axis of resistance"" to ""shiite crescent"". The domination of the Syrian Baath Party by members of one sect plays no role in Iran's security equation. Attempts to convert Syrian Alevites to Mainstream Shiites are initiatives of some individual Ayatollahs. I have already mentioned the strategic aspect, an axis of resistance against Israel and Saudi Arabia simultaneously; to this I would add Iranian concern over the Kurdish issue. :* Farhi: The Assad government is a secular government, and Iran's relationship with it has nothing to do with religion or religious affinities. The relationship is a complex one &mdash; and, as mentioned before &mdash; forged as a strategic bond during the Iran&ndash;Iraq War, when Saddam's regime was deemed aggressively expansionist by both regimes. Wikinews Iran is home to the world's most populous Shiite Muslim nation. The Syrian rebels are Sunni. Could this be a Sunni vs. Shiite alignment in the Middle East? :* Kamrava: No. While sectarianism may be the lens through which some of the Syrian rebels see their fight against the government, ultimately the contest is over state power and capitalizing on opportunities created by the Arab uprisings in general; and, the Syrian civil war in particular. Sunni&ndash;Shia 'alignments' have nothing to do with it. :* Posch: Usually, the Sunni&ndash;Shia divide is something Iranians and Saudis play up in order to put pressure on one another; usually, they were also able to deescalate. Syria, however, is the game-changer &mdash; for the simple reason that nobody believes the Saudis would control the post Al-Qaeda Networks in Syria. What Iran fears is an increase of the most-radical Sunni anti-shiism, the so called takfiris, spilling over onto Iranian territory. :* Farhi: The Sunni governments in the region are working hard to use sectarian tensions as an instrument to fan popular resentments, in the region, towards Shi'ite Iran. But, the rivalry is actually political; and, has to do with the fears rivals have of what they consider &mdash; I think wrongly &mdash; to be Iran's hegemonic aspirations in the region. :: Sectarianism is an instrument for shaping regional rivalries, and not the source of problems, in the region. Wikinews Russia is one of Syria's biggest arms suppliers. Do you think this means Russia's interest lies in economic benefit, as opposed to the humanitarian crisis? :* Blank: Although Russia sells Syria weapons, Russia's main interest has nothing to do with humanitarianism or economics. :: Rather, its main interests are to force the US to accept Russia as an equal &mdash; so that Moscow has an effective veto power over any further American actions of a strategic nature there and elsewhere &mdash; and second, to restore Russia's standing as an indispensable great power in the Middle East without whom nothing strategic can be resolved. :: It should be noted that in neither case is Russia actively interested in finding solutions to existing problems. Rather, it seeks to create a bloc of pro-Russian, anti-American states and maintain simmering conflicts at their present level while weakening US power. :* Martel: Russia's principal interests in Syria are twofold. First, Moscow's support is geopolitical in design. It is designed precisely to undermine and weaken American influence in the Middle East and globally. The extent to which Russia can undermine American influence directly helps to bolster Russia's influence. For now, Russia is such a vastly diminished power &mdash; both politically, economically, militarily, and technologically &mdash; that Russian policymakers are pursuing policies they believe will help to reverse Russia's strategic decline. ::Second, Syria is Russia's strongest ally in the region, if not the world, while Syria is the home to Russia's only foreign naval base. :* Farhi: Syria is Russia's only solid strategic ally in the Middle East. Syria, in effect, is a Russian client. Russia's interests lie in maintaining that foothold, and perhaps extending it. :: It also has a concern regarding the civil war in Syria spawning what it considers to be extremist Islamist activities, which it has had to contend with within its own borders. WNIQ Do you believe Russia distrusts US intentions in the region &mdash; in the sense of countering the West on regime change? :* Blank: It is clear that Russia not only does not trust US interests and judgment in the Middle East, it regards Washington as too-ready to use force to unseat regimes it does not like and believes these could lead to wars; more importantly, to the attempt to overthrow the present Russian government. That is critical to understanding Moscow's staunch support for Assad. :* Martel: Russia's policymakers understand that American and Russia interests directly diverge. Russia seeks to undermine US geopolitical influence, and increase its own. It is using its support of the Syrian regime to accomplish that objective. American interests, by contrast, are largely to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons. :: Appallingly, Russia is supporting Syria despite the fact that all evidence points to Syria's use of chemical weapons. ::One would think that American policymakers would be more critical of Russia; which is directly supporting a regime that used poison gas to slaughter its own men, women, and children. :* Farhi: It is less about trust and more about protection of geopolitical interests and prevention of even more dire consequences if Assad goes. It is true that Russia feels that the United States and NATO went beyond the mandate afforded to them by the UN Security Council in going after regime change in Libya. :: However, Russia's geopolitical, and economic, interests in Syria are much more important; and, the relationship between the two countries is much deeper. WNIQ The Russian Government accepts that chemical weapons have been used in Syria. How does it come to claim that the rebels are behind the attacks even though it is widely accepted that the al-Assad government has stocks of weapons? :* Blank: It Russia simply intends to defend Assad to the hilt; and is hardly unwilling to lie &mdash; especially as its intelligence service is notorious for fabricating mendacious and biased threat assessments, and is not under any form of effective democratic control. :* Martel: Russia's claims that Syrian rebels were behind the chemical weapon attacks is, frankly, inexplicable. Worse, Russia's basic credibility is undermined by such statements. :* Farhi: Russia claims Syria has presented it with evidence that the rebels have used chemical weapons; and Russia, in turn, has given the evidence to the UNSC. It has also called the UN report one-sided and biased. The bottom line is &mdash; the claim that the opposition to the Assad regime is at least as culpable in the violence being committed in Syria, opens the path for Russia to continue calling for a political solution which brings to the table all parties to the conflict in Syria, including Assad and his supporters; something the multi-voiced opposition has so far refused. WNIQ Would you agree that Russia's vested interest in Syria remaining under al-Assad is bound to two factors: economics and ideology? :* Blank: As I said above, Russia's interest in Assad is bound to two geopolitical factors: maintaining the security of its regime; and, equally important, weakening America in the Middle-East &mdash; if not globally &mdash; and ensuring that Russia's great power status is thereby ensured. :* Martel: Russia's vested interest in protecting Syria's al-Assad is driven by geopolitics. :: To support Assad, is to counter US policy and influence; which is precisely what Putin's government seeks to accomplish. In many senses, Russia's support for Syria is entirely secondary to Russia's strategy of reversing its two-decade long decline in every measure of power. With its weak economy, dependence on petroleum for half of its national income, and increasingly authoritarian government, Russia has relatively little to offer the world &mdash; other than to oppose the United States as part of its strategy of reversing its decline. :: While Russia's geopolitical influence clearly increased as a result of its support for Syria, its long-term economic prospects remain quite dim. :* Farhi: It is economic as well as political. :: Syria is a customer of Russian arms and goods; hosting a naval supply base in Tartus. But, as mentioned above, Russia has serious concerns regarding what comes after Assad. For Russia, the current regime is better than chaos or control by Islamists." +politics,"North Korea nuclear program According to South Korea-based Yonhap News service, and the Associated Press, North Korea has announced that it has successfully conducted its first nuclear test. North Korea first announced it possessed nuclear weapons in 2005, though because it had not conducted a nuclear test its nuclear capability remained ambiguous. The United States, Japan, China, and South Korea have all urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. North Korea released a statement on October 3 saying that it would soon conduct a nuclear test, and also emphasized that it would neither use nuclear weapons first nor aid other countries in nuclear proliferation. The state claimed that it would only use the weapons as a deterrent against the United States and its allies. In 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said that they ""would not tolerate"" a nuclear North Korea. China and Japan have also expressed concern. U.S. officials have reported that the government of the People's Republic of China was given a 20-minute advance warning that the test was about to occur. The PRC sent an emergency alert to Washington through the United States embassy in Beijing and President George W. Bush was told shortly after 10 p.m. that a test was imminent by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. Rumors of an impending nuclear test have circulated since North Korea announced its weapons capability. The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that North Korea may have up to 10 or 12 nuclear devices already built. According to North Korea's Central News Agency, the country conducted an underground nuclear test successfully without any radioactive leakage. Underground tests, if they fully contain the nuclear blast, can result in a minimum of nuclear fallout contamination. If confirmed, the nuclear test by North Korea would be the first nuclear test since the dual Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests of 1998. The U.S. Geological Service has recorded a magnitude 4.2 event in eastern North Korea at 01:35:27 (UTC), or 10:35:27 North Korean local time. U.S. President George W Bush speaking at the White House ahead of an emergency closed session of the UN Security Council called the action ""unacceptable ... North Korea has defied the will of the international community and the international community will respond."" He also described it as ""a threat to international peace and security. The United States condemns this provocative act."" Bush contacted the leaders of Russia, China, Japan and South Korea, the other nations that have been engaged in negotiations with North Korea. All have already denounced the action. China using the harshest language yet against its old war time ally, calling the test ""brazen"". Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe insisted on ""decisive action."" Some experts are speculating that the test may push the United Nations to back sanctions against the North Koreans, Japan's U.N Ambassador Kenzo Oshima has told reporters in New York that the United States is drafting the resolutions, which could range from trade restrictions to monetary dealings and even a sea based blockade. The sitting members have strongly condemned the nuclear test. In the first significant reaction to the announcement the South Korean government has decided to suspend a scheduled shipment of its emergency relief aid to its northern neighbor. An official from the Unification Ministry said ""A ship was scheduled to depart ... carrying 4,000 tons of concrete on Tuesday, but we decided to delay the shipment under the current circumstances."" The yield of the device has not been conclusively confirmed. Fox News has reported the yield at below 4 kilotons, citing a unspecified senior Bush administration official; however, Russian military sources estimate the yield as between 5-15 kilotons. The Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources stated its estimate of the yield as 550 tons, but later scaled it up to 800 tons. A senior seismologist at the Australian Seismology Research Centre said that a 4.2 magnitude quake would roughly correspond with a one kiloton explosion, but would not say it was conclusive, since it depends on the type of rock that the test was set off in. It has been reported that the Korea Exchange, South Korea's main stock exchange, suspended trading for five minutes upon hearing news of the test." +politics,"The Roman Catholic Church has elected Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires as the new pope. He is to take the papal name Francis and take over from the recently retired Benedict XVI. White smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel chimney at 7:06pm (Rome time) yesterday, signifying that the conclave had elected a new pope after four unsuccessful attempts. Following his election, he appeared at a balcony in St. Peter's Square to greet crowds of onlookers. Introducing himself in St. Peter's Square, Francis was jovial: ""Brothers and sisters, good evening. You know that the work of the conclave is to give a bishop to Rome. It seems as if my brother cardinals went to find him from the end of the earth. Thank you for the welcome."" He went on to say: ""Let's begin this long road from the Bishop of Rome to the people. Let us all behave with love and charity. Let us pray always not just for ourselves, but for others, for everyone in the word"". Born in Buenos Aires on December 17, 1936 and now aged 76, the new pope became a bishop in 1992, and was elevated to cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. As a child, he lost a lung due to an infection. He is the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas. He was the President of the Bishops' Conference of Argentina from 2005 to 2011. US President Barack Obama made a statement about the election of the new pope: ""On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I offer our warm wishes to His Holiness Pope Francis as he ascends to the Chair of Saint Peter and begins his papacy."" Obama's statement noted the new pope was a ""champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us"", and ""as the first pope from the Americas, his selection also speaks to the strength and vitality of a region that is increasingly shaping our world"". US House Speaker John Boehner also pointed out the new pope came from the Americas: ""I think that reaching out beyond the traditional continent of our church is another big step in the right direction of our church."" British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the papal election was ""a momentous day for the 1.2 billion Catholics around the world"". The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said the election of a new Pope was of ""great significance to Christians everywhere, not least Anglicans"". He went on to describe the new pope: ""Pope Francis is well known as a compassionate pastor of real stature who has served the poor in Latin America, and whose simplicity and holiness of life is remarkable. He is an evangelist, sharing the love of Christ which he himself knows."" In Argentina, he was outspoken against socially liberal policies including the provision of free contraception and gay marriage. Bergoglio said plans to legalize gay marriage in Argentina were ""a plan to destroy God's plan"" and ""a move by the father of lies to confuse and deceive the children of God"". Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Francis would be known as Pope Francis; ""It will become Francis I after we have a Francis II""." +politics,"At least 45 people have been killed in a new surge of violence that began after Kenya's disputed December 27 presidential election. Some sources have said that there have been over 80 deaths in the last 3 days. The latest deaths come as former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan is in Kenya to try to broker a compromise. Police had imposed an overnight curfew in the city of Nakuru, about two hours north of Nairobi, after new violence broke out on Friday. The killings appear to be ethnically motivated, as Kikuyus seek revenge for attacks against their fellow tribesmen in recent weeks. Officials estimate that nearly 800 people have been killed since the vote, which saw President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, defeat opposition candidate Raila Odinga by just 230,000 votes. Odinga supporters from the Luo, Kalenjin and other smaller ethnic groups claim the election was stolen, and international observers say the vote was flawed. Widespread anger at the election results sparked violence in Nairobi's slums and parts of the west, and tens of thousands of Kikuyus fled their homes. The violence had largely died down in recent days, but has erupted again in Nakuru. Police also said Saturday that at least 15 people have been killed in the town of Molo, west of Nakuru. The two towns are in the Rift Valley, an ethnically mixed area that has seen violence in the past over land and resources. 4=Jimmy Mucheru, resident of Nakuru ""The Kalenjins had already pushed and got the Kikuyus earlier so what they are doing is the Kikuyus are trying to revenge and get back their places, get back their houses,"" said Jimmy Mucheru, who is a local safari guide in Nakuru. ""There is not much hope for peace because the two groups are really after each other."" The new wave of violence came as former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan was in Kenya trying to resolve the crisis. In a news conference on Saturday, he urged followers of the two leaders to remain calm. He said he saw several camps for people who have been displaced by the crisis. 4=Former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan ""What we saw was rather tragic,"" he noted. ""We visited several IDP camps, we saw people pushed from their homes, from their farms, grandmothers, children, families uprooted. And I think it is important that all Kenyans respond with sympathy and understanding and not try to seek revenge."" On Thursday, Mr. Annan managed to secure the first face-to-face meeting between Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga, a move hailed as a breakthrough. But the two sides have shown no willingness to negotiate issues of substance. Mr. Kibaki insists he is the legitimate president of Kenya, while Mr. Odinga is demanding a new vote. Mr. Annan urged people to give more time to Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga to work out a solution. ""No one should take the law into his or her own hands,"" he added. ""Allow the leaders the opportunity to resolve these issues - and as I said - including the long-term issues. And we are here to help them, that was the purpose and objective of that meeting."" Mr. Annan told reporters it is unacceptable that no one has been held accountable for the violence, though he did not apportion blame. Earlier this week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch reported what it said was evidence that the opposition had organized some attacks. Mr. Odinga's team has denied those claims." +politics,"New information surfaced on Saturday, 28 May, that suggest that the US and UK increased air strikes against Iraq in mid 2002. The Ministry of Defence figures, provided in response to a question from Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, show that allied aircraft doubled the rate at which they were dropping bombs on Iraq beginning in May of 2002. This apparent escalation in the number and intensity of air strikes was initiated prior to the passage of UN Resolution 1441 in November 2002 and prior to the US Congress authorizing the use of force against Iraq in October 2002. Critics claim that this was an attempt to provoke Saddam Hussein or soften his military infrastructure in preparation for a more comprehensive military campaign, and that it reaffirms their assertions that the Bush administrations was determined to go to war long before the official decision was made. In August 2002, allied commander Tommy Franks admitted that this operation was designed to ""degrade"" Iraqi air defences in the same way as the air attacks that began the 1991 Gulf war, but according to legal guidance appended to the Downing Street memo (dated 23 July 2002) the allied aircraft were only ""entitled to use force in self-defence where such a use of force is a necessary and proportionate response to actual or imminent attack from Iraqi ground systems"". According to military documents shown to the Sunday Express in 2002, the Allies invaded Iraq from Turkey on August 8th, 2002, after an air strike on the 6th that took out a crucial air defence system. Pentagon officials initially denied there had been any military action or incursion, but when challenged with specific military details a spokesman called back two hours later issuing the terse statement: ""We can't comment on current or future operations."" The evidence seems to corroborate information in the Downing Street memo: :""CDS said that military planners would brief CENTCOM on 1-2 August, Rumsfeld on 3 August and Bush on 4 August. :The two broad US options were: :(a) Generated Start. A slow build-up of 250,000 US troops, a short (72 hour) air campaign, then a move up to Baghdad from the south. Lead time of 90 days (30 days preparation plus 60 days deployment to Kuwait). :(b) Running Start. Use forces already in theatre (3 x 6,000), continuous air campaign, initiated by an Iraqi casus belli. Total lead time of 60 days with the air campaign beginning even earlier. A hazardous option. :The US saw the UK (and Kuwait) as essential, with basing in Diego Garcia and Cyprus critical for either option. Turkey and other Gulf states were also important, but less vital. The three main options for UK involvement were: :(i) Basing in Diego Garcia and Cyprus, plus three SF squadrons. :(ii) As above, with maritime and air assets in addition. :(iii) As above, plus a land contribution of up to 40,000, perhaps with a discrete role in Northern Iraq entering from Turkey, tying down two Iraqi divisions. :The Defence Secretary said that the US had already begun ""spikes of activity"" to put pressure on the regime. No decisions had been taken, but he thought the most likely timing in US minds for military action to begin was January, with the timeline beginning 30 days before the US Congressional elections."" In light of these revelations, Representative John Conyers has sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield. A draft of the letter is available here. In Conyer's draft, he states: :""The allegations and factual assertions made in the May 29 London Times are in many respects just as serious as those made in the earlier article. If true, these assertions indicate that not only had our nation secretly and perhaps illegally agreed to go to war by the summer of 2002, but that we had gone on to take specific and tangible military actions before asking Congress or the United Nations for authority."" :Thus, while there is considerable doubt as to whether the U.S. had authority to invade Iraq, given, among other things, the failure of the U.N. to issue a follow-up resolution to the November 8, 2002 Resolution 1441, it would seem that the act of engaging in military action via stepped up bombing raids that were not in response to an actual or imminent threat before our government asked for military authority would be even more problematic from a legal as well as a moral perspective. :As a result of these new disclosures, I would ask that you respond as promptly as possible to the following questions: :1) Did the RAF and the United States military increase the rate that they were dropping bombs in Iraq in 2002? If so, what was the extent and timing of the increase? :2) What was the justification for any such increase in the rate of bombing in Iraq at this time? Was this justification reviewed by legal authorities in the U.S.? :3) To the best of your knowledge, was there any agreement with any representative of the British government to engage in military action in Iraq before authority was sought from the Congress or the U.N.? If so, what was the nature of the agreement? :In connection with all of the above questions, please provide me with any memorandum, notes, minutes, documents, phone and other records, e-mails, computer files (including back-up records) or other material of any kind or nature concerning or relating thereto in the possession or accessible by the Department of Defense.""" +politics,"Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, denied responsibility for military brothels set up during World War II. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Abe said, ""There is no evidence to prove there was coercion, nothing to support it. So, in respect to this declaration, you have to keep in mind that things have changed greatly."" His statement contrasts with earlier comments in which he seemed to support a 1993 government declaration that Japan had in fact set up wartime military brothels. Korean believe around 200,000 women from a multitude of different nations were forced into brothels during the war, where they would be raped dozens of times daily. However, conservative elements in the Japanese government have often denied or minimized the extent of war crimes taking place during World War II. In 1992, historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi discovered a document titled Regarding the Recruitment of Women for Military Brothels in the Defense Agency's library (The content of this order is ""A Japanese army prohibits the use for the malignant Korean people broker. ""), prompting the government's 1993 declaration. Over the years, several former sex slaves have stepped forward, providing testimony in direct contrast with the Japanese government's." +politics,"Canadian news The Prime Ministers Office announced today there will be a free vote on reopening the gay marriage debate in the House of Commons. Stephen Harper had already talked about having a free vote many times but the date was never set. The previous government lead by former Liberal leader Paul Martin approved same-sex marriage last year. Harper made this vote one of his promises during the federal election campaign. The 2005 legislation made Canada the fourth country in the world to legalize gay marriage after the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain. A gay marriage lobby group argued that it was not fair to ""leave this issue hanging over our heads"" and urged the Conservative government to have a vote soon. ""Either get on with the vote or admit that the equal-marriage ship has sailed,"" Laurie Arron, national co-ordinator of Canadians for Equal Marriage said at a news conference. It will not directly challenge the existing legislation but it will ask MPs if they would like to reopen the debate. Because of the composition of the house of commons, the Conservative government's minority status and its lack of allies in the house on this question, the motion is almost sure to be voted down. Many see this motion as a symbolic gesture to satisfy the government's conservative base. Over 12,000 gay couples have married in Canada since Bill C-38 passed. The vote will have to happen before December 15, when the MPs go home for the Christmas holidays." +politics,"Canada The Dalai Lama XIV visited Toronto for the last two day's of his visit to Canada yesterday. He arrived at the Fairmont Royal York hotel in downtown Toronto. He blessed the Tibetan Canadian Community Centre in Etobicoke, Ontario this morning, he also talked about ""The Art of Happiness"" to a crowd of 30,000 people at the Rogers Centre this afternoon, as well as making visits to other places. Tibetan Canadians waited outside of the hotel to meet the Dalai Lama for more than an hour. ""I am just one man. If humanity tomorrow faces great difficulties, one individual cannot escape,"" he said. ""The situation inside Tibet is not as rosy as the Chinese propaganda would say,"" said the Dalai Lama in response to China's ""dissatisfaction"". ""My Chinese brothers and sisters are always very sensitive. And the Tibet issue is very sensitive."" The Dalai Lama fled from Tibet to India after the Tibetan resistance movement collapsed in 1959. China expressed dissatisfaction at the meeting, but did not specify what they are dissatisfied with. However, the Dalai Lama's recent visits to countries around the world is one factor and China says he is pushing to separate Tibet, but he said he wants autonomy, not separatism. There is an unofficial report that the Dalai Lama will be meeting with Pope Benedict XVI on December 13, but the Vatican has not yet commented on whether this is true. ""We express strong dissatisfaction with Monday's meeting,"" said ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao. ""We hope they can reflect on and correct the erroneous actions."" ""It is a blatant interference in China's internal affairs and has severely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and will gravely undermine the relationship between China and Canada,"" said political counsellor, Sun Lushan. The Dalai Lama told Prime Minister Stephen Harper during their meeting on Monday to ""please take a few thousand more"" Tibetan refugees living in exile in Nepal and India, but a spokesman for Immigration Minister Diane Finley said ""According to the UNHCR, they're not facing persecution in India. But having said that, we are prepared to review applications on a case-by-case basis if they're referred to us by the UNHCR."" Secretary of state for multiculturalism Jason Kenney, who is a defender of human rights, particularly freedom of religion, said he hopes the ""entire world gets the message that attacking a 72-year-old Buddhist monk who advocates nothing more than cultural autonomy for his people is counterproductive."" He also said exports to China and Chinese tourism rose after the Dalai Lama was given honorary citizenship in July 2006." +politics,"2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict Israel violated resolution 1701 yesterday when troops from the Matkal, a special forces elite unit, launched a commando raid near the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, in the Beka valley, according to Kofi Annan. One Israeli soldier was killed and two injured. Three Hezbollah members were killed according to Lebanese security officials. Spokesman Mark Regev defended the action, saying ""Israel reserves the right to act in order to enforce the spirit of the UN resolution,"". The resolution called for a cessation of all hostilities, and an arms embargo. The Israeli Prime minister, Ehud Olmert justified the attack, stating that it was intended to prevent the supply of new weapons and ammunition to Hezbollah. ""The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about a violation by the Israeli side of the cessation of hostilities as laid out in Security Council resolution 1701,"" said a UN spokesperson. Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general said violations of the resolution like Israel's ""endanger the fragile calm that was reached after much negotiation and undermine the authority of the Government of Lebanon."" He called on all parties ""to respect strictly the arms embargo, exercise maximum restraint, avoid provocative actions and display responsibility in implementing resolution 1701.""" +politics,"Crime and law Former Bosnian president Dr. Ejup Ganić was arrested by the Metropolitan Police at Heathrow Airport, London on Monday. He was attempting to leave the United Kingdom when authorities apprehended him. Ganić was arrested on an extradition warrant issued by the Serbian government for alleged warcrimes he committed during the 1990s Balkans conflict. He is accused of involvement in a 1992 attack on a Yugoslav army convoy in Sarajevo where more than 40 people were killed. Scotland Yard said Ganić ""was arrested on behalf of the Serbian authorities under a provisional extradition warrant alleging 'conspiracy to murder with other named people and breach of the Geneva Convention, namely killing wounded soldiers...',"". A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed Ganić's arrest following ""a extradition request"" from Serbian government. Ganić, now 63 years old, appeared later at the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court, where he was remanded in custody for four weeks. Another court hearing will take place on March 29 when the Serbian authorities are expected to file papers to support the extradition request. Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic told the Beta news agency that her ministry would send the extradition request on Tuesday. Ganić had been in the UK for several days, attending events at Buckingham University, which is partnered with Sarajevo School of Science and Technology where Ganić is a academic. He was also detained on Friday after arriving in London, but was released immediately as no extradition request had been received. Students at the Sarajevo university have phoned radio stations, urging Sarajevans to protest at the British embassy. The Serbian Government had accused Ganić and eighteen others and issued warrants against them in 2009 over the May 1992 attack. He had dismissed these allegations as being ""ridiculous"" and said ""For Serbia, anyone who defended our country must be arrested."" Damir Arnaut, political adviser to Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) president Haris Silajdžić said, ""Bosnia has tried to establish correct relations with Serbia, but this political act is obviously directed against Bosnia's sovereignty."" Ganić's daughter Emina accused Serbia of implicating her father ""on the grounds of the evidence that already was dismissed by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague."" The Association of Detainees of Republika Srpska stated ""by arresting Ganić the international community has finally understood that the time has come that war crimes committed against Bosnian Serbs be processed also."" Ganić has a PhD in Engineering Science from the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston and had lectured in two American universities. He served as both vice-president and president of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina after it broke from the former Yugoslavia. The ethnic cleansing that ensued claimed more than 100,000 victims." +politics,"UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan delivered his farewell address today at the Truman Presidential Museum & Library, Independence, Missouri. He reminded his audience of the far sighted leadership provided by President Harry S Truman in championing the United Nations in its early years. Annan went on to offer five lessons, every one of which led him to conclude that ""such leadership is no less sorely needed now than it was sixty years ago"". The lessons he had learned while in office were that the security of everyone is linked to that of everyone else and that we are all responsible for each other’s welfare; that security and development ultimately depend on respect for human rights and the rule of law; that governments must be accountable for their actions in the international arena, as well as in the domestic one; and that, only by working together through the United Nations, can security, welfare and development be achieved. In the course of his speech, Kofi Annan referred to America as being in the vanguard of the global human rights movement but he warned ""that lead can only be maintained if America remains true to its principles, including in the struggle against terrorism"". He concluded his address saying ""More than ever today Americans, like the rest of humanity, need a functioning global system through which the world’s peoples can face global challenges together. And in order to function, the system still cries out for far-sighted American leadership, in the Truman tradition. I hope and pray that the American leaders of today, and tomorrow, will provide it."" Afterwards, he was asked why he had chosen in his farewell speech to make such a pointed attack on America. He replied, sharply, that ""An appeal for cooperation and leadership should never be seen as an attack""." +politics,"A video provided by the American Enterprise Institute intends to show tortures committed by the soldiers of Saddam Hussein during his rule. The film shows extremely graphic scenes and it is NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN. It depicts Iraqi soldiers singing and praising Saddam, beating prisoners and cutting prisoners' fingers and hands off. During Saddam Hussein's regime, about a quarter of a million Iraqis were executed. Many individual Iraqis of all faiths and ethnicities were tortured and killed for real or perceived opposition to Iraq's government. Torture during Saddam's regime was characterized by: medical experiments, crucifixions, genital amputations, hot iron marking, tongue fixing with a nail, teeth extraction with pincers, public beheadings, etc. The four minute video (27.4 MiB) can be downloaded from the AEI website. This video was released in June 2004. Most of the American and international media didn't show it until now, despite the fact that channels of mass communication regularly released Abu Ghraib's torture photos." +politics,"ScientologyNews media in the United Kingdom are reporting that a boy under the age of 18 was served with a court summons by City of London Police because he held a placard calling Scientology a ""cult"" at a peaceful protest on May 10. Human rights activists have criticized the decision to issue the 15-year-old the summons as an affront to freedom of speech, and representatives for the City of London Police force explained the actions of the police. Individuals from the group Anonymous were protesting Scientology in the fourth protest in as many months, as part of the anti-Scientology movement Project Chanology. The Project Chanology movement began when the Church of Scientology attempted to get a leaked Scientology promotional video featuring Tom Cruise removed from websites YouTube and Gawker.com. Members of Anonymous were motivated by the actions of the Church of Scientology, and bombarded Scientology websites and were successful in taking some of them down. Anonymous later changed tactics towards legal measures, and held international protests against Scientology on February 10, March 15, April 12, and most recently May 10. At the May 10 protest, the 15-year-old boy was present and held up a placard which stated: ""Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult,"" with a mention at the bottom of the sign to the anti-Scientology website Xenu.net. He attended the protest held outside the Church of Scientology building on Queen Victoria Street, near St Paul's Cathedral in London. In a post made by the boy on the anti-Scientology website Enturbulation.org, he stated: ""Within five minutes of arriving I was told by a member of the police that I was not allowed to use that word, and that the final decision would be made by the inspector."" The website describes itself as ""A Source for Information on Dianetics and the Scientology Organization"". Using the pseudonym ""EpicNoseGuy"" at the Enturbulation.org message board, the boy goes on to describe how he was ""strongly advised"" by police to remove the placard. City of London Police cited section five of the Public Order Act 1986 to the boy, which deals with ""harassment, alarm or distress"". In response, the boy cited a 1984 judgment given by Mr. Justice Latey in the Family Division of the High Court of Justice of Her Majesty's Courts of Justice of England and Wales, in which Latey called Scientology a ""cult"" and said it was ""corrupt, sinister and dangerous"". In the actual 1984 judgment made by Judge Latey, he stated: ""Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious. ... In my judgement it is corrupt, sinister and dangerous. ... It is dangerous because it is out to capture people, especially children and impressionable young people, and indoctrinate and brainwash them so that they become the unquestioning captives and tools of the cult, withdrawn from ordinary thought, living and relationships with others."" According to the boy's post at Enturbulation.org, the City of London Police told him he had 15 minutes to remove the sign in question. He was given a court summons by the police about a half-hour later, and his sign was removed and taken by the police as evidence. 4=15-year-old boy In videos of the May 10 protest posted to YouTube, City of London Police can be seen telling protesters not to use the word ""cult"" in their signs. Protesters discussed the issue with police and stated that they had checked with lawyers and verified that criticizing religion was a valid form of protest. The police warned protesters that if they violated police instructions regarding usage of signs ""you will be prosecuted"". A female police officer read a form statement to the 15-year-old and stated: ""I've been asked, if you could remove it the sign by 11:30, if not then I'll have to come back and either summons you or arrest you."" The boy read Mr. Justice Latey's 1984 judgment to the police, and then said: ""I'm not going to take this sign down."" He told fellow protesters: ""If I don't take the word 'cult' down, here holding up his sign, I will be either, I think, most likely arrested or given a summons. I am going to fight this and not take it down because I believe in freedom of speech, besides which I'm only fifteen."" After the boy was given a summons one of the protesters asked a member of the City of London Police force: ""Are we allowed to say Justice Latey says Scientology is a cult?"", to which the police officer responded: ""I've already had this discussion with people. Direct quotes by individuals, I haven't got a problem with."" 4=Shami Chakrabarti, director, Liberty ""This barmy prosecution makes a mockery of Britain's free speech traditions. After criminalising the use of the word 'cult', perhaps the next step is to ban the words 'war' and 'tax' from peaceful demonstrations?"" said Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti in a statement in The Guardian. The boy has appealed for help in order to fight the potential charges and possible legal action from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Ian Haworth of the United Kingdom-based Cult Information Centre also commented on the actions of the City of London Police to The Guardian, saying: ""This is an extraordinary situation. If it wasn't so serious it would be farcical. The police's job is to protect and serve. Who is being served and who is being protected in this situation? I find it very worrying."" News of the summons issued to the UK minor has received significant attention on the Internet, hitting the front pages of websites Slashdot, Digg, and Boing Boing on Wednesday. The story has also been discussed in hundreds of blog postings, including sites related to the tech-sector and others related to civil liberties. 4=City of London Police In a statement given to publications including The Guardian and The Register, a representative for the City of London Police explained the rationale for the summons: ""City of London police had received complaints about demonstrators using the words 'cult' and 'Scientology kills' during protests against the Church of Scientology on Saturday 10 May. Following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service some demonstrators were warned verbally and in writing that their signs breached section five of the Public Order Act 1986. One demonstrator, a juvenile, continued to display a placard despite police warnings and was reported for an offence under section five. A file on the case will be sent to the CPS."" ""City of London Police upholds the right to demonstrate lawfully, but we have to balance that with the rights of all sections of the community not to be alarmed, distressed or harassed as a result of others' actions,"" said City of London Chief Superintendent Rob Bastable in a statement given to The Register and The Daily Telegraph. Unlike the City of London Police, the Metropolitan Police Service (the territorial police force responsible for Greater London excluding the City of London) has not raised an issue with protesters using the word ""cult"", according to Londonist. 4=Crown Prosecution Service A spokesman for the CPS told The Guardian that they did not give City of London Police specific instruction about the boy's protest sign. The spokesman said that the CPS gave the City of London Police ""general advice"" about the laws governing protests and ""religiously aggravated crime"", but did not give advice about this specific case. ""... if we receive a file we will review it in the normal way according to the code for crown prosecutors,"" said the CPS spokesman. The City of London Police has faced controversy in the past for its close association with the Church of Scientology. When the City of London Scientology building opened in 2006, City of London Chief Superintendent Kevin Hurley praised Scientology in an appearance as guest speaker at the building's opening ceremony. Ken Stewart, another of the City of London's chief superintendents, has also appeared in a video praising Scientology. According to The Guardian over 20 officers for the City of London Police have accepted gifts from the Church of Scientology including tickets to film premieres, lunches and concerts at police premises. Janet Kenyon-Laveau, spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology in the UK, told The Guardian that the relationship between the City of London Police and Scientology was mutually beneficial, and said that Scientologists conducted clean-up campaigns in urban areas affected by drug use problems. A City of London Police spokesman released a statement in November 2006 saying: ""We are conducting a review to ensure that all members of staff are aware of the force policy on accepting hospitality and to assess whether clarification or amendment of this policy is necessary."" Each of the Project Chanology international protests against Scientology has had a theme: the February protest called attention to the birthday of Lisa McPherson, who died under controversial circumstances while under the care of Scientology, the March protest was arranged to take place two days after Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's birthday, the April protest highlighted the Church of Scientology's disconnection policy, and the May protest highlighted the Scientology practice of ""Fair Game"" and took place one day after the anniversary of the publication of Hubbard's book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Another international protest is planned for June 14, and will highlight the Church of Scientology's elite ""Sea Organization"" or ""Sea Org"". No prosecution for UK minor who called Scientology a 'cult'" +politics,"Iran, has decided to pull its finances out of European banks and into different foreign banks. A senior Iranian official stated that this is an attempt to pre-empt possible U.N. sanctions over its resumption of nuclear fuel enrichment activities. Comments by Iran's central bank governor Ebrahim Sheibani, carried on air by the ISNA student news agency, confirmed that Iran had started transferring funds. ""We transfer foreign reserves to wherever we see as expedient. On this issue, we have started transferring. We are doing that,"" Sheibani told the ISNA agency. Ebrahim Sheibani also told the agency that the assets were being moved to an ""undisclosed"" location. It is unknown exactly how much money is involved or whether or not Iran's investments in Europe would be affected by the move. Traders have said that they had already factored such a possibility into the market. Gary Samore, an expert on Iran and vice president for international programs at the McArthur Foundation in Chicago, said ""the move reflected concern by Tehran that the Europeans might take unilateral measures amid the crisis over its nuclear program."" He also added that its decision to pull its assets from Europe ""makes sense in terms of preparing for the possibility that Europe might take some measure to impose some financial sanctions. I don't know that it changes the diplomatic formula. The key issue is still the question of whether or not the Western group can engineer a formal referral to the Security Council."" It is unclear if an asset freeze or other punishment is imminent in Iran, but it has happened before. The country's assets in the United States have been frozen since Iranians seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held its staff hostage after the 1979 Islamic revolution. An Italian court last year had ordered an Iranian bank account to be frozen at the request of U.S. plaintiffs who were seeking compensation for terrorist acts they believe were supported by the country (Iran). Earlier the EU drafted a resolution that calls for referring Iran to the 15-nation council. But it is said to stop short of asking for punitive measures against Iran. The IAEA is expected to meet on February 2, 2006 to discuss Europe's draft." +politics,"Crime and law An international court in Strasbourg issued a ruling yesterday that powers allowing UK police to stop and search anyone without reason are in breach of European law. The European Court of Human Rights deemed powers contained in the Terrorism Act 2000 denied the human right of privacy. Under the European Convention of Human Rights people in the UK are granted the right to privacy, although their government felt that the threat of terrorism meant that the breach of this was justifiable and allowable under exemptions in the Convention. Previously, the powers have been unsuccessfully challenged before the English and Welsh High Court, upheld by those nations' Court of Appeals and finally upheld again before the UK's House of Lords. Section 44 of the Terrorism Act allows the Home Secretary to designate an area for use of the powers for a certain period. If this period was more than a month then at the end of the month then the Home Secretary can renew them. The entirety of Greater London has spent several years with the powers in effect. Under the Act, the police do not need to have any reason to search whoever they like and have the power to confiscate articles they believe to be of use to terrorists. They can also make arrests if these are found. Yesterday's ruling was made in a case brought by Kevin Gillan and Pennie Quinton, both stopped outside a military exhibition in London's Docklands area. Gillan was stopped while cycling past and kept there for twenty minutes while journalist Quinton was ordered to stop filming even after showing her press card. She claims to have been detained for roughly thirty minutes at the scene, while police claim she was there for five minutes. The court awarded €33,850 (£30,400) to cover the costs incurred by bringing the case. UK Home Secretary Alan Johnson expressed disappointment at the ruling and stated that an appeal will be launched. Chief Constable Craig Mackey of the Association of Chief Police Officers said that while this appeal was pending Section 44 of the Act would continue to be used by police. The court found that the humiliation and embarrassment of searching people in public was a clear breach of privacy as well as criticising that the way power was authorised did not require a test that its use be ""necessary,"" merely ""expedient."" The court singled out London's designation under the Act as an area where the powers could be used continuously since it became law as an example of why this was not appropriate. Further criticism in the ruling was aimed at the idea that the decision to search could be ""based exclusively on the 'hunch' or 'professional intuition' of the police officer"". The judgement added that ""the absence of any obligation on the part of the officer to show a reasonable suspicion made it almost impossible to prove that the power had been improperly exercised,"" with no judicial oversight. Racism was a further concern, with the court expressing a fear that the powers could easily be used in a discrimminatory manner. Four times as many blacks and Asians have been searched compared to whites." +politics,"Syria More than 270 civilians were killed in 24 hours from militant shelling in Syrian cities according to a report on Saturday from the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides in Syria. The report, published on the Russian Defense Ministry website, also stated that hundreds of civilians have been injured. In a message directed to the UN's Secretary General and Security Council head, the Syrian Foreign and Expatriates Ministry reported the attacks came from ""moderate"" opposition groups that were joining the Al-Nusra Front and its affiliates in Aleppo, Syria. According to the Center on Saturday, one of the opposition groups, Ahram al-Sham, joined the Al-Nusra Front for an attack against Kurdish militias, which effectively forced Kurds to retreat from their positions in the city on Saturday. The militants' reported new offensive took place in a cessation of Russian and Syrian warplane activity beginning over a week earlier, which enabled the militants to regroup. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the cessation was meant to permit groups coordinating with the United States and Russia to separate themselves from the the Al-Nusra Front. However, Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said on television that the United States had requested Russia avoid targeting the Al-Nusra Front, which has affiliations with al-Qaeda. In response, a US State Department spokesperson stated on Friday that the request was to avoid targeting civilians or legitimate opposition. HYS" +politics,"After a year-long investigation, a committee has found that Kofi Annan, head of the United Nations, failed to halt corruption in the Oil for Food program, which was supposed to provide food to impoverished Iraqi citizens. According to Paul Volcker, head of the Independent Inquiry Committee, ""Our assignment has been to look for mis-or mal-administration in the oil-for-food program and for evidence of corruption within the UN organization and by contractors. Unhappily, we found both."" The report emphasized that Annan knowingly allowed Saddam Hussein to continue making huge unethical profits off of the program. While Annan acknowledged that there was blame to pass around, he stated that ""None of us -- member states, Secretariat, agencies, funds and programs -- can be proud of what it has found."" Annan also says that he was at least partly at fault for the corruption; ""The report is critical of me personally, and I accept its criticism."" On a lighter note, while the report is critical of Annan, it also says that the Oil for Food program did help get food to many Iraqis." +politics,"AustraliaTwelve athletes from Sierra Leone, who disappeared from the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne last week, have been granted bridging visas by Australia's Department of Immigration. The group have been released into the Sydney community. Three of the Sierra Leoneans say they face forced female circumcision if they go back. Department of Immigration spokesperson Sandi Logan said the bridging visas were only a stop-gap measure. ""The bridging visa simply enables them to be here lawfully if in the period of time between now and then the type of visa they apply for requires further investigation on a country basis or a country profile, if in fact that's the type of visa and the type of investigation that's required,"" he said. A group of six Sierra Leoneans contacted the Northern Beaches Refugee Sanctuary - who had previously given shelter and assistance to six other missing athletes. Members of the first group of athletes told media that they feared for their safety if they were forced to return to Sierra Leone. Originally 14 of the nation's 22-strong Games delegation were reported missing. Two other Sierra Leone athletes remain at large after visas allowing them to compete in the Games were cancelled by the Department of Immigration. In total, eleven athletes are still missing after the Games finished on Sunday, including seven from Cameroon, a Bangladeshi runner, and a Tanzanian boxer. The ABC report that two missing Cameroon athletes have contacted Immigration officials in Perth. Refugee advocate group, The Coalition for Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Detainees (CARAD) says the men are receiving legal advice. The Department of Immigration says they are in the country legally as their visas do not expire until April 26. Twenty-one athletes disappeared from the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Britain." +politics,"Climate change Campaigners opposed to the expansion of London Heathrow Airport have today scaled the roof of the U.K. Houses of Parliament and hung protest banners reading 'BAA HQ' and 'No 3rd Runway' from the building, before and during Prime Minister's Questions inside the building. The three men and two women were from climate action group, Plane Stupid. The non-violent direct action comes on the day a government consultation into the Heathrow expansion of a third runway ends. The protesters made paper aeroplanes out of confidential Whitehall documents that allegedly show collusion between the British Airports Authority (B.A.A.) and the Government department of transport to subvert the public consultation process on the proposed third runway. These documents were obtained from the Department for Transport by Greenpeace under the freedom of information act. B.A.A. claims a third runway is essential for Britain's economy, and would reduce congestion at Heathrow, actually cutting emissions, and is necessary to keep up with the booming aviation industry. This would allow the number of flights to increase from 480,000 a year to around 702,000 . In a statement given by one of the protesters from the roof to the Guardian newspaper: We've come to this symbolic home of democracy to make clear that the consultation process of the third runway at Heathrow has, from the beginning, been a sham. We're taking direct action as a last resort because we don't believe that the consultation has been a democratic process. This is the beginning of a campaign of direct action that will not cease until we feel we're being listened to and until we're satisfied that it's Londoners' views, rather than B.A.A.'s, that the government paying attention to. Matthew Knowles from the Society of British Aerospace Companies made a statement to the B.B.C. that: ""These stunts are becoming tiresome and do nothing more than peddle inaccurate propaganda."" The rooftop occupation comes two days after Greenpeace protesters scaled an Airbus A320 which had just touched down at Heathrow from Manchester, and follows a succession of direct action protests in the U.K. in relation to climate change." +sport,"London, England &mdash; Yesterday, with less than a day before the start of the 2012 Summer Paralympics, the Turkey men's national wheelchair basketball team practiced at the Basketball Arena in London's Olympic Park. Turkey's campaign starts on Thursday in a game against the United States men's national wheelchair basketball team." +sport,"__NOTOC__ Tour de France 2007 Alberto Contador climbing during the 2006 Vuelta al País Vasco. Alberto Contador of Spain has won stage 14 of the 2007 Tour de France. Michael Rasmussen of Denmark came in second and extended his overall lead by 2' 04' over Cadel Evans of Australia. Contador moves into second ahead of Evans and 2' 23"" behind Rasmussen. Contador and Rasmussen had an animated discussion about how to share the workload up the final climb. Contador was happy to sit behind the yellow jersey-wearing Rasmussen, and pass him in the final sprint for the finish-line. The Dane had hoped for more help in setting the pace and extending his overall lead. The winner of yesterday's time trial, Alexandre Vinokourov, did not have a good day. Andreas Klöden will likely now be the leader for Astana Team. This stage took the race into the Pyrenees. This stage starts with a category 2 climb out of Mazamet and then follows a relatively calm route via Carcassonne, Limoux and Quillan before taking on the Port de Pailhères (17 km at 7.2%) and a very difficult finish at Plateau-de-Beille (16 km at 7.9%). Tomorrow's 196 km stage should be one of the major stages of the Tour, with no fewer than five major mountain passes - including the Col de Port, the Col de Portet d'Aspet (5.7 km climb at 6.9%), the Col de Menté (7.0 km climb at 8.1%), the Port de Balès (19.5 km at 6.2%), (the first time this climb has featured in the Tour), and finally the Col de Peyresourde (9.7 km climb at 7.8%) with a downhill finish in Loudenvielle. This exhausting stage will be followed by a day of rest. Alberto Cantador, Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team Michael Rasmussen, Rabobank" +sport,"Today at around 6:00 a.m. UTC, Akinori Otsuka struck out Cuban star Youlieski Gourriel to give Japan a 10-6 victory over Cuba in the inaugural World Baseball Classic. Daisuke Matsuzaka recorded the win with a 1.38 ERA and was named the tournament's most valuable player. The game was played in PETCO Park before a crowd of 42,696. The highly-touted Japanese team took a commanding lead in the first inning. Vicyohandry Odelin walked one man with the bases loaded, and hit another. The four-run first inning was capped off by Toshiake Imae's two-run single. Cuba used three pitchers in the inning, including starter Omari Romero and reliever Norberto Gonzalez. Japan also added two more runs in the fifth inning, after three straight base hits to start the inning and Michihiro Ogasawara's sacrifice fly with one out. Ichiro Suzuki's one-out RBI single off of Adiel Palma in the ninth drove in Osmani Urrutia, which proved to be the winning run. After an intentional walk, Kosuke Fukudome put the game away with a base hit to left that scored two. Michihiro Ogaswara added a sacrifice fly. Cuba's Eduardo Paret started the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run that landed in the first row of the left field stands. Cuba mounted a rally in the ninth, when Ariel Pastano led off with a double. He was eventually driven in by Cuban shortstop Eduardo Peret's infield single, but Cuba was unable to score any more runs. Cuba responded with four straight hits of their own in the bottom of the sixth, scoring two runs. Designated hitter Yoandy Garlobo grounded into an inning-ending double play, with men on first and third. Frederich Cepeda's two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning off of Soichi Fujita cut the Japanese lead to 6-5, before the four-run Japanese ninth put the game away. After 5 failed tries at the Olympics, Japan has finally capped it off with this gold-medal win at the Classic. ""My players showed me a fantastic performance tonight,"" Sadaharu Oh, the team's coach, said through a translator after the game. ""I know they did it for Japan."" Most people agree that this victory has driven home the fact that baseball is now an international sport, not just an American sport. The team has stuck with the tournament, through bad calls and good alike, and the reward was the sterling silver trophy presented to them as champions of the World Baseball Classic. Even Ichiro Suzuki was amazed by their work, saying ""To be honest, I never imagined we'd get there. We had a great team, the best. I hope we showed everyone what a great sport baseball is."" Cuba's amazing run was stopped short, but beisbol was still at the top of Cuba's mind after the defeat. “Personally, I think we have shown the quality of Cuban players,” Cuba manager Higinio Velez said. “I told everybody to have patience. I said we are team of men, not names.” The Cuban team barreled through so many major leaguers, but today everything cracked, especially the pitching. However, they never gave up, rallying in the last inning, but just like Frederich Cepeda said, “We went and fought for this game just like every other game in this tournament, but Japan also went out and fought for this game. We tried to get back on top, but they played better than we did and they deserve the victory because they played better.” Due to the deal that allowed Cuba into the WBC, they are donating all their money to Hurricane Katrina Victims. MLB commissioner and WBC organizer Bud Selig admitted, ""The intensity in the stands as well as the intensity on the playing field was absolutely remarkable, and I'm not sure that going into it you could have felt that. I'm very confident that this will be the platform that we use to take this sport internationally to the dimension that I want to take it and believe that we will."" Spikes worn by Oh, a jersey worn by Matsuzaka, a baseball cap worn by Nobuhiko Matsunaka, a helmet worn by Ichiro, and a warm-up jacket worn by Koji Uehara, will all be sent to Cooperstown's Baseball Hall of Fame to be displayed." +sport,"date = 2015-10-19 football Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo surpassed Raúl's goal scoring record for Spanish club Real Madrid in a La Liga match against Levante UD on Saturday. Ronaldo netted his 324th goal in his 310th match for Los Blancos on Saturday, breaking the previous record set by Spanish footballer Raúl of 323 goals in 741 games. He earlier equaled Raúl's goal scoring record for Madrid in a UEFA Champions League match against Swedish football club Malmö FF when he scored a brace, crossing the landmark of 500 career goals and scored the record-breaking goal in the 30th minute from outside the penalty area in this match. In Saturday's match, Real Madrid had 58% ball possession against Levante. The match saw five yellow cards&nbsp;&mdash; four for the visitors and one for Real Madrid player Kovačić. A total of eighteen fouls were committed in the game. Ronaldo assisted Brazilian Marcelo in the 27th minute and Marcelo netted the goal in the left corner. Minutes later, Toni Kroos assisted Ronaldo, and he scored the record-breaking goal in the bottom right corner. The first half ended 2&ndash;0. At the beginning of the second half, Vázquez was substituted for Gareth Bale. He assisted Jesé in the 81st minute and Jesé scored in the top corner providing a 3&ndash;0 win for Real Madrid. Real is now top of the La Liga table. What Ronaldo does you cannot name. It is on another historic level,...It is incredible what he has done in only six years, scoring an average of more than 50 goals a season, when it used to be hard for me to reach 20. I hope he keeps scoring many more goals for a long time and helps the team to win titles.-Raúl Speaking to Marca" +sport,"sports Sochi, Russia &mdash; At a press conference this afternoon in Sochi, the President of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee, Valeriy Sushkevich, announced the Ukrainian Paralympic team would compete at this year's Paralympics in Russia as a unified sovereign state. He said the Ukrainian Paralympic team is very democratic, and reached this decision together. Their view is if they boycotted the Games, their message of peace would be forgotten in a few hours. While stating the team intends to compete, the Ukrainian team reserved the right to leave the Games immediately should peace not happen, and the Russian military does further intervention in the Ukraine. Sushkevich, who is also a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, denied accusations their comments and decisions have been political in regards to the two hour delay for the team's welcome to the Paralympic village, and actions taken during the welcome ceremony. Rather, he claimed these actions were motivated by a message of peace and human rights. He claimed the situation for Ukraine is unique. According to Sushkevich, never before during the Paralympic Games has the host country invaded a participating country. Suskevich talked about a discussion he had yesterday with Vladimir Putin, the leader of Russia, where Sushkevich talked to Putin as a member of the Paralympic family. He said he asked Putin for peace, for detente at least until the Paralympic Games are over. The response he received from Putin was that he was heard and Putin would think about what he said. The President said that he views the achievements of the Paralympics above that of the Olympics, that the Paralympics play a vital role in the lives of the athletes. He said the 31 members of the Ukrainian team want to compete. There is a problem being the national team of the Ukraine, though, when the country is not whole. He later said the team has representatives from ten regions of the country, including the western Russian parts. Further comments were made by Ukrainian Paralympic Committee President that in past few years, all of Ukraine's Paralympians who were veterans of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He hoped in the future, there would be peace and there would be no need to have veterans on the team who had disabilities that were a result of war. Ukrainian biathlon competitor Grygorii Vovchynskyii also spoke during the press conference. He said Ukrainian Paralympians are part of a big family, and supporters ask them every day how they feel. According to Vovchynskyii, Ukrainian Paralympians want peace. They are ready to compete. They want to show they are a free and independent people who love fair competition. At a press conference immediately following the Ukrainian one, IPC representative Craig Spence said IPC learned of Ukraine's decision to compete at the same time as the media. He said he would prefer Ukraine competes but would understand if they decided to leave. Spence also said all 45 teams and all competing athletes were reminded there could be no alterations to their kits, and no protests. Everyone is bound by these rules, and the IPC is monitoring social media for athlete compliance." +sport,"The Australian women's national water polo team took home first place at the VISA Water Polo International on Sunday, beating the United States team 6-5 in the final," +sport,"Two Australian Paralympic wheelchair basketball players, Shelley Chaplin and Leanne Del Toso, are cycling around Fiji to raise money for people in Fiji with disabilities. They hope to cover the route, which is roughly 500 kilometers (300 miles) long, in just ten days. They started on June 7, 2013 and plan to finish by June 16. Along the way, they intend to do outreach, and mentor people with disabilities. They hope to raise A$13,000. So far, they have raised over A$12,400. They are using crowdfunding to finance their sporting event. Del Toso suffered muscle deterioration in her legs and hands due to a degenerative neurological condition when she was 19, and rides her bike with the aid of orthotics. Chaplin was born a paraplegic, and is using a handcycle. They won silver medals at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London with the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team, commonly known as the Gliders. Both also played for Victoria in Round One of the Australia Women's Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL) competition last weekend. Victoria won all four of its games. They expect to be back in action again in Round Two in Perth on June 21&ndash;23." +sport,"football On Sunday, Curaçao's football team won their first Caribbean Cup defeating the defending champions Jamaica 2&ndash;1. Elson Hooi opened the scoring for Curaçao in the tenth minute. The defending champions were trailing the team ranked 70th in the FIFA ranking. Rosario Harriott scored an equaliser for the Jamaicans after a free-kick in the 82nd minute of the game. But within two minutes, Hooi, who previously played for Dutch football clubs NAC Breda and FC Volendam, netted another goal, restoring Curaçao's lead. The match ended 2&ndash;1. In 2013's competition, Curaçao did not manage to win a single game. Before Sunday's final, Curaçao's goalkeeper said, ""Being in the final is a wonderful feeling"". He added, ""But I must say, Jamaica is a dangerous team. They have no European players in their team and they are still in the final. They have speed, unity and physical players. So, on Sunday, we need to work hard for our victory."" He won the 2016&ndash;17 KNVB Cup with Dutch Eredivisie (Dutch league) club SBV Vitesse. Curaçao defeated hosts Martinique 2&ndash;1 in the semi-final. In the third-place decider, French Guiana defeated Martinique 1&ndash;0. Sloan Privat scored the only goal of the match in the 74th minute. Curaçao, Martinique, French Guiana, and Jamaica are to play in the CONCACAF Gold Cup which is scheduled to be played next month in the United States. Curaçao has never featured in a Gold Cup tournament. Curaçao's starting lineup consisted of Rangelo Janga, Jarchinio Antonia, Elson Hooi, Gevaro Nepomuceno, Dustley Mulder, Leandro Bacuna, Gillian Justiana, Darryl Lachman, Quentin Jakoba, and Cuco Martina, with Eloy Room guarding the nets. ---- HYS referee= *2017 Caribbean Cup" +sport,"football On Saturday, England defeated two-time world champion Germany by 1&ndash;0 in the third place playoff in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, which was held in Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada, and won the bronze medal. Germany had a greater possession of the ball against England in the match. Three English players were yellow carded in the match with 30 fouls committed. Nobody scored in either half of the match. Katie Chapman, Karen Bardsley, and Laura Bassett of the English team were booked in the 77th, 83rd, and 90+2nd minutes respectively. As the scores were 0&ndash;0 at the end of 90 minutes of game play, the match proceeded in extra time. In the 108th minute, England won a penalty kick. Fara Williams netted the penalty which gave a lead to The three lionesses. The German team tried even in the dying moments but English goalkeeper Karen Bardsley denied the Germans to claim the bronze medal." +sport,"Slovenia Jure Robič, the Slovenian cyclist who won the Race Across America five times, has died in a traffic collision at the age of 45. Robič died after colliding with a 55-year-old driver whilst riding down hill in Jesenice. He was on a training ride in preparation for the Australia's Crocodile Trophy mountain bike race. An investigation into the accident is underway. Robič was a five-time winner of the Race Across America men's solo, with his first victory in 2004. He dropped out of the 2009 race whilst in second place due to a time penalty he felt he unfairly received. His last victory in the race was earlier this year. Robič's five wins is a record in men's solo races. Before competing in ultra-marathons, Robič was a member of the Slovenian national cycling team from 1988 to 1994. He twice set the world record for the 24-hour road race and won the Race across Slovenia three times. During his career he had over 100 victories and 150 podium finishes." +sport,"Canada Four months and 3,200 kilometres ago, Canadian runner Jonathan Howard began his run across the second-largest country in the world, to raise awareness for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A graduate of McMaster University, Howard arrived in Toronto this week, to address the nation's largest city before continuing his westward run which will take him through all ten Canadian provinces. Howard was met Monday at a charity barbecue by Senator Art Eggleton. The fundraiser was part of Howard's strategy to raise 2.5 million dollars to assist families that support children with ASD. ""Spectrum is a very puzzling word,"" he told the gathering ""because there are many types of autism on that spectrum"". The real goal of his RunTheDream.ca charity drive though, Howard explained, was simply to ""get people involved in the issue"" and generate attention for the little-understood disorder. Eggleton, who welcomed Terry Fox to the city as mayor in 1980, drew comparisons to the Marathon of Hope runner who became a Canadian icon. While praising Howard's efforts to raise money and awareness, the senator said he believed that ""an awful lot more needs to be done"" at the political level to combat the financial and emotional difficulties that face those dealing with autism. Howard reassured supporters that he still intended to reach Victoria, B.C. before December 31. ""The challenges are great,"" he confessed ""but as long as the determination is greater, anything can be achieved"". Terry Robinson, a two-time Canadian Paralympic contender born with cerebral palsy, pledged to follow Howard's journey two weeks ago on its three-month leg from Ottawa to Winnipeg. Robinson addressed the city, speaking about how his own disabilities left him with an appreciation for how important it was to ensure that people struggling with autism had access to services that could support them." +sport,"US Olympic ice hockey silver medalist Molly Schaus returned to her hometown of Naperville, Illinois last weekend. Her travels culminated in a visit on Monday to Spring Brook Elementary School, where as a fourth-grader she set the goal of some day being an Olympian. Schaus's dream was fulfilled this year during the Vancouver Winter Olympics, when she played for the US women's ice hockey team and won a silver medal. As she addressed and answered questions from students and teachers at the grade school, Schaus explained the large amount of work she had to invest to achieve her goals. The Chicago Daily Herald reports that ""she has been practicing for three to four hours a day nearly every day for the past year."" She told the students to ""make a dream and follow it because you never know what can happen and just have fun with it."" The nostalgic visit to her elementary school followed a weekend of other appearances in Naperville, including a celebration last Saturday at Rosebud's Italian Specialties and Pizzeria. Saturday had been declared Molly Schaus Day by Naperville Mayor A. George Pradel, who also gave Schaus a key to the city. Schaus has not been the only Olympic alumnus to return to the school; figure skater and gold medalist Evan Lysacek returned to his Naperville hometown and spoke to the students at Spring Brook on March 26. ""It's amazing we had two Olympians come to our school. It's like 1 million to one that they both get medals,"" remarked fourth-grader Alexandra Van Cleave. Schaus lived in Naperville until moving to Massachusetts during her sophomore year in high school, having attended Gregory Middle School for junior high and Benet Academy during her freshman year of high school. After speaking at Spring Brook on Monday, she visited Gregory later that day and then went home to Massachusetts. She is expected to visit the White House with the rest of her team later this year. She will also start preparing for her final season at Boston College." +sport,"Spain Juan Antonio Samaranch, former head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has died in Barcelona at the age of 89. A former diplomat and Spanish ambassador in Moscow elected to the IOC in 1980, Samaranch was largely credited with the renewal of the Olympic movement over two decades marked by boycotts, bribery and drug scandals. While appearing to be small in stature and uncomfortable speaking in public, he was viewed as an often ruthless operator who could forge consensus within an often fractious Olympic movement and bring IOC members to deliver what he wanted. Samaranch was admitted to hospital on Sunday with heart trouble and died at approximately 11:25 UTC, marking one of a number of occasions he has fallen ill. Even in retirement, with advancing age and medical issues, Samaranch continued to travel and be active in Olympic circles, working to try and secure both the 2012 Olympics and 2016 Olympics for Madrid as well as attending various sport conferences. ""I cannot find the words to express the distress of the Olympic Family,"" current IOC president Jacques Rogge was quoted as saying, also making mention of the personal inspiration he drew from Samaranch. During his time in office, Samaranch worked to help increase the number of participating countries at the Olympics, oversaw the creation of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the creation of the IOC Athletes Commission. Prior to his election to the role of IOC president in 1980, he had a long background in sports, having held roles with the Spanish Skating Federation, Spanish National Olympic Committee and as Chef de Mission at the games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Rome and Tokyo." +sport,"London, England&mdash; Five Paralympians were inducted into the Visa Paralympic Hall of Fame in a ceremony in London last Thursday. The five were Louise Sauvage, Roberto Marson, Trischa Zorn-Hudson, Frank Ponta, and Chris Holmes. Between them, they have won 100 Paralympic medals. The ceremony was hosted by Chris Wadell, a Paralympic skier who was himself inducted into the Hall of Fame at the 2010 Winter Paralympics, alongside Sir Philip Craven, the current President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Louise Sauvage, an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racer, won thirteen Paralympic medals &ndash; including nine gold medals, was presented by Sir Philip Craven with a set of pins from the last six summer Paralympics. She noted that she had been to all of them, and is currently in London as a coach. Two of her new protégées attended the Hall of Fame induction. Roberto Marson was an Italian athlete, fencer, and swimmer who won 26 Paralympic medals, including sixteen golds in his career, died last November. His award was a posthumous one, accepted on his behalf by his daughter. Trischa Zorn-Hudson, from the United States, is the most successful Paralympian of all time, having won 55 medals, of which 41 were gold. Her medal tally also included nine silver and five bronze. Today, she works with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; helping disabled veterans to achieve their potential. Wadell noted this brings the Paralympics full circle, the Games having began with disabled servicemen. Frank Ponta was an Australian athlete, swimmer, fencer, and basketball player, who was influential in the development of wheelchair sport in Australia. As an athlete, he won a silver medal at the first Paralympic games in Rome in 1960; as a coach, he trained the likes of Louise Sauvage and Priya Cooper. He died in June last year, and was another posthumous inductee. Finally, Chris Holmes, a British swimmer who won sixteen medals, including nine golds, during his Paralympic career. He is very busy these days with, in his words, ""a sporting event that is going on in London at the moment"". This is the fourth time that Visa have hosted such an event. For the first time, the IPC invited members of the public to nominate athletes and coaches. Nominations also came from the national Paralympic committees, and international sporting bodies. The inductions are conducted every two years, alternating between winter and summer Paralympics. According to Sir Philip Craven, the Hall of Fame is both a way of celebrating sporting achievement, and of creating a sort of corporate memory. To be eligible, nominees must have competed in at least two games, the more the better; and won, or coached athletes who have won, multiple medals, again the more the better. They must have retired before the previous games, in this case before Beijing in 2008. However, the award also recognizes sportsmanship and service to the Paralympic community." +sport,"Minnesota Twins Alex Rodriguez's home run streak was extended Tuesday in the Yankee's win over the Twins in Minneapolis. A-Rod hit a two-run shot off of Twins starter Boof Bonser in the first inning, making it the fourth game in a row that he has cleared the fence. Bonser gave up six hits and seven runs in the four and one third innings he pitched, including a Johnny Damon three-run homer over the right field wall in the fifth inning. before being relieved by Jesse Crain. Dennys Reyes pitched the final inning, giving up three runs to bring the Yankee's lead to nine runs. Andy Pettitte threw six shutout innings, allowing only four hits. Minnesota's only run came from a Jason Kubel sacrifice fly in the seventh inning, scoring Justin Morneau from third base. The Twins had many opportunities to score early, but ended up leaving their runners in scoring position without any hits to bring them home. The Twins and Yankees will wrap up the series tomorrow, each hoping for a win to stay above .500. Mike Mussina will be starting for the Yanks, and Ramon Ortiz will be starting for the Twins. W: Pettitte (1-0)L: Bonser (0-1)" +sport,"The only real animal out of the bunch, Mukmuk, shouldn't be stuck with second billing among 2010 Winter Olympic mascots, says the Vancouver Sun newspaper. Mukmuk was introduced on November 27, 2007, along with Miga, Quatchi, and Sumi, the Olympic and Paralympic mascots. However, he only appeared in the introductory video and on the website, while the three others appear in costumed character form around the country, and as merchandise ""created in effigy by the thousands"". Only 205 Vancouver Island marmots are known to exist, due to predators (mostly wolves and eagles), and loggers. Writer Jeff Lee is asking readers to join their ""campaign to make him a real, live mascot instead of a virtual sidekick"". He's asking for public opinion to send to The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (or simply, ""Vanoc"") on why Mukmuk would make a good mascot, or even why he wouldn't. Lee will be regularly writing articles for the paper, as well as blogging, publishing reader thoughts, drawings, and ideas of ""who Mukmuk really is""; all the other characters have detailed back stories. According to press materials, ""Mukmuk is a small and friendly Vancouver Island marmot who always supports and cheers loudly for his friends during games and races. When he is not hibernating or sunbathing on rocks and logs, he enjoys getting out to meet other types of marmots and animals. In fact, this is how he became friends with the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic mascots."" The Vancouver Sun first received reader feedback sympathetic to Mukmuk, as a Nanaimo resident wrote in, noting their paper was the only one to even picture the character. The other three appeared on newspaper covers through BC and nationwide, once launched. An online petition launched at an unknown date before December 4 has only gathered 18 signatures." +sport,"AS Roma CL2007 Manchester United advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League after a thumping of Italian club AS Roma Tuesday night. Holding a 2-1 advantage after the first leg, Roma travelled to Old Trafford in hopes of knocking Manchester United out of the competition, ruining their hopes of a treble. The winning goal scorer from the first leg, Marko Vucinic, had to replace the ill Rodrigo Taddei for Roma, and he was paired with Roma's talisman striker Francesco Totti. Louis Saha was still out through injury for United, so Alan Smith started his fourth match of the season with strike partner Wayne Rooney. Roma started the match quite strongly with several attempts early. David Pizarro first blasted a long drive wide before Totti came close with a 25-yard shot. Michael Carrick then opened the scoring for United as he was supplied the ball by Ronaldo, and the Englishman's shot curled past Doni. Some quick counterattacking football then earned United their second goal as Brown, Rooney, Carrick, and Heinze all combined to get the ball out to Giggs. His pass into Smith left Doni exposed, and the striker scored his first goal since returning from injury. A third goal was scored only minutes later after play from Ronaldo and Smith released Giggs on the right, and his cross was turned in by Rooney off the post. Roma finally had a chance to respond through De Rossi, but his header from Pizarro's cross was sent over the bar. Ronaldo was then knocking on the door for Uniteds fourth, as he fizzled a shot just wide, and had a free kick blocked by a stretching Doni. The Portuguese winger would score just before the break however, as more good work by Giggs gave Ronaldo room to maneuver, and he sprinted in before firing a low shot into the corner. Van Der Sar was then called into action to bat away a hard free kick by Totti, but the scoreline stayed 4-0 into the break. Totti started off the chances in the second half with a free kick that went just wide, but United would score again only four minutes in. Giggs was again the supplier as his low cross was knocked in by a lunging Ronaldo, his twentieth goal of the season. Roma looked for a consolation goal, but it looked as if United would not even conceed that as Darren Fletcher cleared Allesandro Mancini's header off the line. Carrick then earned himself a brace on the night, as he blasted home a 25 yard drive into the top corner. Giggs was then replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the Norweigen nearly added another goal as he lofted the ball on to the top of the net. Roma finally got their goal in the 69th minute through Daniel De Rossi as his fine coushioned volley from Totti's cross was beyond Van Der Sar. Substitute Patrice Evra then rounded out the scoring in the 81'st minute after a nice interchange of play between himself, Solskjaer, and Rooney, the defender hit in a low shot off the post. Ronaldo, in search of a hat-trick, pushed forward near the end of the game, but his low drive was saved well by Doni. Manchester United will now move on to face either AC Milan or Bayern Munich in the next round of the Champions League, and their next match is the FA Cup semi-final against Watford. Roma meanwhile take on Sampdoria next in the Serie A, though they no longer have a chance to catch leaders Internazionale. bookings_away = Cassetti, Mexes (Yellow (2))" +sport,"Studies conducted by a team of physicists at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) conclude that new synthetic NBA basketballs are less lively, more slippery when damp, and bounce more erratically than the traditional leather balls. James Horwitz, Chairman of the UTA Department of Physics was contacted by the Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to study the new ball. Horwitz asked UTA physics professor Kaushik De to lead the project. De's team found that the new balls are tackier when dry, but become much more slippery than leather balls when they get damp. Traditional leather basketballs provide more grip when they are slightly wet. The synthetic balls bounce 30% more sporadically, possibly due to deep embossing, and are less lively than leather basketballs. Some of these issues could be fixed with a variety of methods, including modification of the embossing, increasing the air pressure in the balls beyond the regulation 8.5 psi, and constantly drying the balls with towels during the game or frequently replacing them with fresh basketballs, say De and Horwitz." +sport,"The Suns had been on fire for the entire month of January. Unfortunately for them, Kevin Garnett was holding the extinguisher when the Suns came into the Target Center on Monday night. Garnett posted a double-double, scoring 44 points and snaring 11 rebounds, as the Minnesota Timberwolves defeated the Phoenix Suns 121-112. The loss prevented the Suns from posting a perfect record in the month of January, and ended the Suns' season-high 17-game winning streak. The Suns had problems answering Garnett's scoring prowess, but it was the Minnesota defense that doomed the Suns, limiting them to 17 points in the final quarter after allowing 95 from Phoenix in the first three periods. Steve Nash had 20 points and 18 assists, but in the fourth quarter he was only able to score 3 points and provide one assist. In the fourth quarter, it was simply the Kevin Garnett show. Garnett scored 15 points in the fourth quarter, with 13 of those points coming in the final 6:20 of the period. ""It's just about being a presence,"" Garnett said. ""It's about making them have to deal with me. I will continue to take that approach."" In addition to his 44-point night, Garnett helped his team by not turning the ball over at all during the game. Such a performance was not the case for Steve Nash, who turned the ball over an uncharacteristic five times during the game. The Suns had 14 turnovers as a team. It was a case of Garnett and the Timberwolves taking full advantage of the mistakes the Suns made and turning it into an opportunity to win. However, the loss certainly didn't leave the Suns or their coach, Mike D'Antoni, discouraged. ""We'll start another streak. This is fun.""" +sport,"Boston Celtics After 22 years of waiting, the Boston Celtics have won their 17th National Basketball Association championship, adding to the 16 that already hang from the rafters of the TD Banknorth Garden and before that, the old Boston Garden. The Celtics won the game 131 to 92 and won the series with 4 wins over their old rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers' 2. The game was highlighted by Ray Allen's seven 3-pointers, tying the NBA Finals single game record, as well as the Celtics 18 steals, easily a single game record also. Paul Pierce has been chosen series MVP. The season is noted for the biggest single-season turnaround in NBA history as the last Celtics season was considered to be one of the worst in franchise history." +sport,"United Kingdom Border patrols at Britain's airports may be left short-staffed as the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) have voted to strike for twenty-four hours next week on Thursday, July 26, the day before the opening of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. PCS members working in the Home Office, which operates the Border Agency, voted for the strike on Wednesday to protest against the loss of jobs at the Home Office, as well as pay and conditions of workers. Following the strike, union workers will also take other action including working to rule and a ban on overtime. Prime Minister David Cameron has condemned the strike: ""I do not believe it will be right. I do not believe it will be justified."" Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, said the behaviour of the PCS was ""totally irresponsible"". Theresa May, the Home Secretary, described the strike as ""shameful"" and noted the government will put in contingency arrangements. Mark Serwotka, the head of the union, described the government's reaction as ""hysteria"" and claimed ""there'll be no disruption to the Olympics"". UK border staff Olympic strike abandoned" +sport,"London, England &mdash; The final day of rowing at the London Paralympics took place yesterday at Eton Dorney, with all the medals being decided. China finished on top, earning two golds. Ukraine came in second in rowing medals with a gold and a bronze, Great Britain earned a gold, France earned a pair of silver medals, Australia and Germany won a silver medal, and Belarus and Russia each won a bronze. Coming into the AS Men Single Sculls, Tom Aggar of Great Britain was the gold medal favourite having not lost a major international competition. He failed in his quest. Australia's Erik Horrie claimed silver in the event despite being in the hospital 24 hours earlier. With a close finish, Australia's fans initially thought he won bronze. The TA Mixed Double Sculls race was a fight for bronze with Gavin Bellis and Kathryn Ross of Australia being just beaten by Oksana Masters and Rob Jones of the United States by less than a second to finish fifth. Sebastian Coe, Prince Edward, the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton and Australia's Minister for Sport Kate Lundy were amongst the dignitaries that watched the medal races." +sport,"obituaries George Michael Steinbrenner III, businessman, owner and former principal executive of the New York Yankees, died at 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 UTC) Tuesday of a massive heart attack at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, Florida, at age 80. His family issued a statement saying, ""It is with profound sadness that the family of George M. Steinbrenner III announces his passing. He was an incredible and charitable man....He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports. He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again."" Born on July 4, 1930, Steinbrenner, a former shipping magnate, bought the Yankees from CBS in 1973. As owner of the Yankees, he led the team to eleven American League pennants and seven World Series titles. Nicknamed ""The Boss,"" Steinbrenner pursued free agents with great fervor, signing Reggie Jackson to a five-year, US$3.5 million deal after the 1976 season. He also frequently changed managers, including firing and rehiring Billy Martin five times. Steinbrenner was banned from baseball in 1990 for paying US$400,000 to get information to discredit former Yankees outfielder David Winfield, but was reinstated in 1993. New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered flags at City Hall Plaza to be lowered to half mast, saying, ""Our hearts and prayers go out to the entire Steinbrenner family. This is a sad day not only for Yankee fans, but for our entire city, as few people have had a bigger impact on New York over the past four decades than George Steinbrenner."" Fred Wilpon, Jeff Wilpon, and Saul Katz, owners of the Yankees' crosstown rival Mets, said, ""The passing of George Steinbrenner marks the end of an era in New York City baseball history."" Yankees legend Yogi Berra said, ""George was The Boss, make no mistake. He built the Yankees into champions and that's something nobody can ever deny. He was a very generous, caring, passionate man. George and I had our differences, but who didn't? We became great friends over the last decade and I will miss him very much."" Current Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig said that he is ""very saddened"" to hear of the loss and added, ""George was a giant of the game and his devotion to baseball was surpassed only by his devotion to his family and his beloved New York Yankees....We will miss him, especially Tuesday night when the baseball family will be gathered at Angel Stadium for the All-Star Game."" Steinbrenner is survived by his wife Joan, two sisters, four children, including Hank and Hal, who took over Yankees operations in 2007, and his grandchildren. The Steinbrenner family said that he will have a private funeral and a public service would be held at a later date. His death comes at a time of great sadness for the Yankees, as two days earlier longtime Yankees public announcer Bob Sheppard died at 99." +sport,"Yesterday San Francisco Giants LF Barry Bonds hit a 435-foot home run, his 756th, off a pitch from Mike Bacsick of the Washington Nationals, breaking the all-time career home run record, formerly held by Hank Aaron. The pitch, the seventh of the at-bat, was a 3-2 pitch, which Bonds hit into the right-center field bleachers. Matt Murphy, a 22-year-old from Queens in New York City, got the ball and was promptly protected and escorted away from the mayhem by a group of San Francisco police officers. After Bonds finished his home-run trot, a ten-minute delay in the game marked the occasion. This included a brief video by Aaron congratulating Bonds on breaking the record which Aaron had held for 33 years. An impromptu emotional statement by Bonds on the field, with Willie Mays at his side, followed. ""I move over now and offer my best wishes to Barry and his family on this historic achievement,"" said Aaron in his video-taped statement, which was played on the scoreboard. After the game Bacsik said of Bonds, ""He's the greatest of all time ... Giving it up to Barry Bonds is nothing to be ashamed of."" Speculation about banned, performance-enhancing drugs have followed Bonds in recent years. But he said to his critics, ""This record is not tainted at all -- at all. Period."" He also said to reporters, ""You guys can say whatever you want.""" +sport,"Brazil Deputy Tourism Minister Frederico Silva da Costa was among 33 Brazilian tourism ministers and officials arrested for embezzlement of public funds on Tuesday. The operation extended across Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Macapa. The arrests were made following an operation involving up to 200 police officers. Five wanted officials remain at large. Federal Police allege the officials were involved in a scheme that has the potential to destabilise the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The group are said to have used up to units=millions—allocated in government funding to train almost 2000 taxi drivers, waiters and hotel staff in the lead-up to the events—for private gain. Federal Police say they intend to charge all 38 (including the five not yet apprehended) with criminal associations, fraud and embezzlement. If found guilty, they face up to twelve years imprisonment. This is the latest in a string of corruption scandals throughout the nation, which saw Transport Minister Alfredo Nascimento and thirty colleagues resign in July, while a senior Agriculture minister was sacked. A further scandal claimed the President’s chief of staff earlier this year. President Dilma Rousseff wrote in ""Conversation with the President""—her weekly column—that ""it looks like corruption is increasing, but what really is increasing is the investigation and identification of criminals"". The arrests follow 63 similar anti-corruption operations carried out last year by Federal Police in conjunction with government organisations. The nation now faces an uphill battle to be ready in time for the commencement of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and the 2016 Olypmic Games." +sport,"For the second time in four years, the Boston Red Sox have won the World Series Championship sweeping the Colorado Rockies in four games. They won the deciding game 4 on Sunday night, 4-3. The Rockies, who went nearly undefeated in their final 21 games with just one loss and claimed the National League wildcard, seemed poised to put up a fight in the series after sweeping the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS, 3-0 and the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-0 in the NLCS, and enjoying eight days of rest after beating the Diamondbacks. However, the Red Sox dominated the series from the outset. They earned their place in the series after coming back from a three games to one deficit against the Cleveland Indians in the ALCS. They managed to win their second World Series title in four years, after their nearly historic comeback in 2004 in which they won their first championship in 86 years and ended the ""Curse of the Bambino"". Mike Lowell received the World Series MVP Award which included a hybrid Chevy Malibu and a hybrid Chevy Tahoe. It is currently unknown at the moment if Lowell will resign as he has attained free agent status now that the season is over." +sport,"New Zealand The United States of America have beaten the New Zealand Wheel Blacks to win the 2006 Wheelchair Rugby Championships, the fourth championship ever held. The final score was 34-30 at Christchurch, New Zealand's Westpac Stadium. The Americans had led by one point following the first quarter, 9-8, and went into half time with the US leading 16-15, but the lead spaced further apart going into the final quarter, 25-23. US and New Zealand, the Athens 2004 paralympic champions, had played each other previously in the tournament with US coming out winner 42-34. Grant Sharman, New Zealand Wheel Blacks coach, said: ""The Wheel Blacks did not quite have their 'A game' in the final today and the Americans played extremely well."" US played a near-faultless game of wheelchair rugby, which won them the match. The defending champions, Canada, finished third place overall by defeating Great Britain 23-19. The final standings were: #USA #New Zealand #Canada #Great Britain #Japan #Australia #Germany #Belgium #Sweden #Netherlands #Switzerland #Denmark" +sport,"football On Saturday, Spanish football club Real Madrid defeated their city rivals Atlético Madrid 5&ndash;3 in a penalty shootout decider in the UEFA Champions League final played at the San Siro stadium in Milan, as the match ended in a 1&ndash;1 draw after 120 minutes. This was Real's eleventh European title &mdash; La Undécima. Ronaldo scored the winning penalty kick after Juanfran failed to find the net. Just before the quarter-hour mark Juanfran brought down Gareth Bale and Real won a free kick. Sergio Ramos scored from Toni Kroos's free kick in the 15th minute which gave Los Blancos an early lead. The first half ended 1&ndash;0. In the beginning of the second half, Pepe brought down Fernando Torres in the penalty area and Atlético won a penalty kick. Goalkeeper Keylor Navas was booked after the decision, for delaying the penalty kick. Frenchman Antoine Griezmann was unable to score as he hit the crossbar with his penalty attempt. But Rojablancos equalised in the 79th minute as Carrasco scored from Juanfran's cross, converting his shot into the top left corner. Just before the full-time whistle, Gabi and Sergio Ramos were booked. The match went to additional time after 1&ndash;1 draw at the end of full-time. Danilo was shown a yellow card just three minutes after starting the additional time. And Pepe was the last player to be booked after committing a foul against Gabi. In the penalty shootout, Lucas Vázquez, Marcelo, Bale and Ramos scored for Real Madrid. Grizemann, Gabi and Saúl scored for Rojablancos. Juanfran missed the spot kick, and Ronaldo scored the winning penalty which earned Real Madrid the title." +sport,"UEFA Euro 2016 On Tuesday, in UEFA Euro 2016, Poland defeated Ukraine 1&ndash;0, Germany defeated Northern Ireland 1&ndash;0, Czech Republic lost 0&ndash;2 to Turkey and Croatia defeated Spain 2&ndash;1. Poland, Germany, Spain, and Croatia have all qualified for the Last 16 knockout phase. After Poland drew 0&ndash;0 against Germany, Robert Lewandowski led them against Ukraine in their final group match. Two Ukrainian players were booked in the first half. Jakub Błaszczykowski scored the only goal of the game for the Poles in the 54th minute. Poland won 1&ndash;0 and advanced to the Last 16 knockout phase of the tournament by finishing second in the Group C table with 7 points. Ukraine finished last in the table and have been eliminated. Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer led Germany against Northern Ireland. Mario Gomez scored the only goal of the match just before the half-hour mark as Germany won the game 1&ndash;0. Germany have qualified for the Last 16 round, finishing first in Group C table with 7 points &mdash; edging above Poland on goal difference. Turkey struck early as Burak Yılmaz found the net in the 10th minute. Ozan Tufan's goal in the second half was enough for the Turks to claim three points and finish third in Group D. The Czech Republic were eliminated from the tournament, finishing last in the group table with one point. Ivan Rakitić faced his FC Barcelona teammate Andrés Iniesta as Croatia played Spain. Álvaro Morata scored an early goal for Spain in the 7th minute, providing the defending champions an early lead. But Nikola Kalinić scored a tap-in in the 45th minute to equalise for the Croats. In the second half, Spain won a penalty, but Spanish captain Sergio Ramos's kick was saved by Danijel Subašić. In the 87th minute, Ivan Perišić scored the winning goal for Croatia, and they qualified for the Last 16 stage by finishing first in the Group D table. Croatia were undefeated in the group stage. Spain, second in Group D, also qualified for the knockout phase." +sport,"UEFA Euro 2016 Yesterday in UEFA Euro 2016, Italy defeated Sweden 1&ndash;0 and assured their advancement to the knock-out stage. Croatia vs Czech Republic resulted in a 2&ndash;2 draw and Spain defeated Turkey 3&ndash;0 as Álvaro Morata scored twice. Spectators from the Croatian end threw flares before the final whistle. Italy faced Sweden in the first match of the day. Sweden led in terms of ball possession but, in the 88th minute, Éder scored for Italy. Italian captain Gianluigi Buffon was yellow carded in injury time as he delayed a goal-kick. Italy numerically assured their advancement to the knock-out stage by winning this game. Croatia were 1&ndash;0 up at half time as Ivan Perišić scored in the 37th minute. FC Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitić scored a second goal for Croatia chipping the ball over Petr Čech just before the one hour mark. Later, Milan Škoda scored from a header in the 76th minute for the Czechs. The match seemed to being inching towards a 2&ndash;1 victory for Croatia but Czech Republic won a penalty and Tomáš Necid equalised late in the match, having replaced Jaroslav Plašil. In the 86th minute, spectators threw flares on the ground and delayed the game by five minutes. A hearing is scheduled to take place today. Later, Davor Šuker, president of the Croatian Football Federation, said, We will seek the help of the French police to investigate ... Something is rotten in our country, and this ... deserves zero tolerance. Turkish captain Arda Turan faced his FC Barcelona teammate Andrés Iniesta as Turkey took on Spain. Spanish captain Sergio Ramos was booked in the opening moments of the game. Just after the half-hour mark, Nolito assisted Álvaro Morata, who scored a header. Three minutes later, Nolito scored the second goal of the match. Three minutes after half time, Morata scored from Jordi Alba's pass. Spain won the game 3&ndash;0 and qualified for the Last 16 knockout phase. David de Gea maintained a clean sheet for his first five international appearances and set a new world record breaking the previous record of Gordon Banks." +sport,"2008 Olympic GamesAugust 10, 2008 is the 2nd major day of the 2008 Olympic games, the below article lists some of the highlights. As a lot of the new records were in swimming events, this articles has several sections on swimming races. Swimmer Michael Phelps won the gold medal for the U.S. Team in the 400 individual medley swimming event. Phelps clocked in at 4:03.84 managing to break his previous best time of 4:05.25 by almost 2 seconds, and setting a new world record in the event. His gold medal is the first gold medal won in the 2008 games. Phelps will swim the men's 4x100m freestyle relay tomorrow in an attempt to win his second gold medal. Laszlo Cseh from Hungary came in second and received the silver medal, while Ryan Lochte from the U.S. came in third to win bronze. In the semifinal of the men's 100 metre breaststroke, the Norwegian Alexander Dale Oen , set a new Olympic record with a time of 59.16. The Japanese Kitajima Kosuke and the Australian Brenton Rickard finished in second and third place respectively, both with times of under one minute. In the final of the women's 400 metre individual medley, the Australian Stephanie Rice , set a new world record with a time of 4:29.45. By doing this she took the gold medal. Rice beat the previous world record by over two seconds. The Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry finished in second and won the silver medal. In the final of the women's 4 x 100 metre freestyle relay, the team from the Netherlands, set a new world record with a time of 4:29.45. By doing this she took the gold medal. The team beat the previous world record by over two seconds, with their time of 3:33.76. The American finished in second and won the silver medal, while the Austraian team, which won in 2004, took the bronze medal. The Chinese Guo Jingjing (郭晶晶) and Wu Minxia (吴敏霞) received gold medal for a total of 343.50 points. ""We have prepared really well beforehand. We had all kinds of simulations in training, including those designed to help us deal with distraction and concentrate on the match,"" said Jingjing after the event. The Russian group won the silver medal, and the Germans achieved Bronze. - In the final of the women's team archery , the South Korean won with a score of 224. By doing this the team took the gold medal and set the Olympic record, due to that fact that this was the first time the event appeared in the Olympics. China, Britain, France and South Korea all reached the semifinals of the event. - The Chinese Guo Wenjun received gold in the Women's 10 metre air pistol, after scoring a total of 492.3 points. - The Women's Road Race took place despite the weather, with heavy rain throughout the race, with large amounts of spray from bike tyres and camera motorbikes. Several riders slid off the track, however no major crashes occurred. Nicole Cooke of Great Britain won the gold, with Emma Johansson (Sweden) and Tatiana Guderzo (Italy) receiving Silver and Bronze, respectively." +sport,"2012 Olympic Paralympics London, England&mdash; Marta Makowska of Poland narrowly defeated Jingjing Zhou of China with a score of 15 to 14 in the women's individual foil category B bronze medal bout Tuesday night at London's ExCeL North Arena 2. This was amongst the first wheelchair fencing medal matches of the games. The match was last of the four concurrent wheelchair fencing medals decided, with the crowd shouting in support of the Makowska fencer after the previous matches were concluded. Zhou had limited crowd support, with only one large Chinese flag visible in the spectator area. Makowska's win came in a very closely-contested match; The score was first tied on eleven points, and again on 12, 13, and 14 points before the Pole finally won. Following the match, Makowska raised her hands above her head in celebration before her coach ran up and gave the fencer a hug. At the London Games, Paralympic wheelchair fencing features five medal events for women and seven for men, involving several weapons including the foil, epee and sabre. Wheelchairs used in competition are held in place using medal plates, with the fencer with shorter reach choosing the distance between the chairs. B-classified wheelchair fencers have, according to the International Paralympic Committee, ""fair sitting balance and their fencing arm not or only minimally affected."" London Paralympic fencing ends Saturday with medal bouts every day until then." +sport,"Manchester United F.C. bookings_away = Rooney, Carrick (Yellow (2)) Manchester United and Watford met Saturday at the neutral ground of Villa Park for the semi-final of the FA Cup. Both teams went into the game on highs, as United had thrashed Roma 7-1 during the week, and Watford had defeated Portsmouth 4-2 in the Premiership. With that confidence boost for Watford boss Adrian Boothroyd, Watford sported an attacking lineup with Hameur Bouazza and Tamas Priskin as strikers. United's recent injury troubles allowed Alan Smith to play as strike partner to Wayne Rooney with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on the bench. The first chance in the match fell to United, and the Red Devils capitalized. A long ball by Carrick was left by both Smith and Giggs before it came to Rooney, and he cut inside before blasting a shot high to the right of Richard Lee, giving United an early lead. Watford were not dispirited by the early goal, and soon began to create chances through set pieces. A flailing boot by a Watford player in the area connected with Edwin Van Der Sar's recently healed nose, and the big Dutch keeper had to have splints put in before play could continue. Watford took advantage of the stoppage to catch their breath, and scored as soon as play resumed when Hameur Bouazza's side footed volley caught Van Der Sar unaware, and crept in off the crossbar after deflecting off Gabriel Heinze. United's response was nearly instant, as Smith's pass into Rooney released him on the right. After Lee nearly blocked a pass into Ronaldo, the Portuguese winger was able to bobble the ball home, scoring his twenty-first goal of the season, and restoring United's lead. Gavin Mahon then had a chance to equalize again for Watford, but his side footed volley was saved by Van Der Sar. Ronaldo then had a chance for his second as he was released by Rooney, but a last ditch tackle by DeMerit kept the scoreline at 2-1. A groin injury for United's Rio Ferdinand then forced Alex Ferguson to replace him with Darren Fletcher, a move which saw a shuffle in the entire back line. Rooney then had a chance for a brace, but his hard shot was palmed away by Lee. Watford started the second half strongly with Bouazza nearly scoring off a long throw, but his side footed effort went just wide. Alan Smith then set up Rooney's second goal of the match as his curling cross was easily deflected in by Rooney's left foot. Cristiano Ronaldo was then replaced with Kieran Richardson, and the substitute made nearly an instant impact, scoring United's fourth goal of the afternoon. A well timed pass by Smith was met by the sprinting Richardson, and he easily chipped the ball over Lee and into the back of the net to secure a place in the final for United. Relegation bound Watford will meet Blackburn in the Premiership next, while United have a league game of their own at Old Trafford against Sheffield United." +sport,"On Monday, the result of a counter-analysis of Floyd Landis' B-sample, as requested by the Americans, will be announced. Landis, who came in first on this year’s Tour de France, has previously tested positive for an abnormally high testosterone balance in his blood stream. This led to claims that he was involved with doping, in order to improve performance. According to Patrick Lefévère, the president of the Association of professional cycling teams, ""Our sport's survival is at stake""...""We can no longer afford to have teams or riders who just won't learn still starting races."" Landis continues to deny any wrongdoing. ""I want the result to be made public immediately, I see no reason why not,"" Landis said. ""I'm proud that I won the Tour because I was the strongest guy there""" +sport,"Strong road victories for the Columbus Crew and the Chicago Fire strengthened their positions at the top of the stacked Eastern Conference, while in the Western Conference defending champions Houston Dynamo became the final team to record a win. Columbus trailed the San Jose Earthquakes going into the 73rd minute, before a double-salvo by Robbie Rogers and a first of the season for Brad Evans handed the Crew a 3-1 lead. A consolation from the Earthquakes could not prevent Columbus securing a fifth consecutive win. Chicago Fire are just 2 points off Columbus' tail after they defeated D.C. United 2-0 at RFK Stadium. A cool side-footed finish by Justin Mapp opened the scoring for the visitors, and a spectacular 30 yard drive by Cuauhtemoc Blanco sealed a 4th defeat in 5 for DC, who were without Designated Player Marcelo Gallardo. DC United are now 4 points adrift at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference, both New England Revolution and the New York Red Bulls boosted their early season play-off hopes with victories in Los Angeles. New York defeated LA Galaxy 2-1, with Juan Pablo Angel bagging the game-winner and his first of the season. The Red Bulls had taken the lead in the first half through rookie Danleigh Borman's first career goal, before Alan Gordon equalised for the Galaxy. However, almost immediately from the restart Dane Richards drove down the pitch and slid Angel in, who subsequently rounded Cronin and slotted home. In the second game at the Home Depot Center in Week 7, Taylor Twellman announced his return from injury with the 2nd goal in New England Revolution's 2-1 win over Chivas USA. Gambian teenager Kenny Mansally had put the Revs in front with his 2nd of the season, and Twellman's left-footed strike gave New England a 2-0 advantage. It proved crucial as Justin Braun netted his first career goal in injury time to give Chivas USA only a consolation. Out in the Western Conference, leaders, the Colorado Rapids, succumbed to an ill-tempered 2-1 defeat to the Houston Dynamo. Omar Cummings' equaliser for the Rapids was sandwiched between Brian Ching and Dwayne De Rosario strikes for the 2007 Champions, who became the last team in this year's competition to record a victory. The Rapids remain top of the Western Conference with 9 points. In the 2nd all-West match-up, Real Salt Lake continued their fine home form with a 2-1 success over FC Dallas. Argentine playmaker Javier Morales built on a two-assist performance last week with the opening goal at Rice-Eccles Stadium. While Kenny Cooper would equalise for Dallas with a well taken strike from an acute angle, Kyle Beckerman got a touch to Andy Williams' deft through ball to hand RSL just their 2nd win of the season." +sport,"football On Wednesday, Catalonia-based football club FC Barcelona defeated Seville-based football club Sevilla 5&ndash;4 to win the 2015 UEFA Super Cup. The match was held in Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena in the city of Tbilisi, Georgia. Pedro, who may leave for Manchester United, scored the winning goal of the match in the 115th minute. This was the fifth UEFA Super cup won by Barcelona. Barcelona had stronger possession of the ball in front of Sevilla. The match saw nine yellow cards, four for Barcelona players and five for Sevilla players. A total of 41 fouls were committed in the match. A total of nine goals were scored in the match, with the first goal scored in the opening minutes of the game. Barcelona defender Mascherano committed a foul in the 2nd minute and thus Sevilla got a free kick. Banega converted the free kick into goal in the 3rd minute of the game. Minutes later, Sevilla's Krychowiak committed a foul and this early lead was soon equalised as Barcelona forward Lionel Messi scored a similar style free kick. Krychowiak received a yellow card in the 14th minute and Barca were awarded another free kick for Banega's foul on Rakitić. Leo Messi converted this free kick into a goal, giving the lead to Barcelona after 16 minutes of game play. This was Messi's 36th goal in 37 games in 2015. Minutes before half time, Luis Suárez assisted Rafinha and the Brazilian tripled the lead for the Catalans. First half ended with scoreline 3&ndash;1 with only one booking. Within ten minutes of the second half, Suárez scored the fourth goal in the 52nd making it a one-sided match. Five minutes later, Reyes scored a close ranged shot making the score 4&ndash;2. In the 63rd minute, Andrés Iniesta was substituted off for Sergi Roberto. Iniesta made his 550th appearance for Barcelona. After this substitution, the goal difference kept on dropping. In the 71st minute, Mathieu was booked for a foul on Vitolo. Referee awarded a penalty kick for Sevilla. Gameiro perfectly converted it into a goal making it 4&ndash;3. Within the next ten minutes, Sevilla equalised with Barcelona. Konoplyanka scored an easy tap-in to bring Sevilla from 4&ndash;1 to 4&ndash;4. Within half an hour, the one-sided match changed into a tensed match. Coke in the 87th minute and Banega in the 90+2 minute were booked for committing foul on Suárez. The game ended in 4&ndash;4. And thus it was extended to additional time. Additional time saw five more yellow cards. Pedro was substituted in for Mascherano in the 93rd minute and in the next minute, he received a yellow card for foul on Vitolo. Barcelona won a free kick in the dying minutes of the game. Messi's kick became an indirect assist to Pedro who netted it in the top corner. It was the winning goal of the game. This was Pedro's 99th goal in the Catalonia jersey. By this victory, Barcelona joined A.C. Milan as the most successful club. Both the teams have earned the title five times. This trophy was Messi's and Iniesta's 25th trophy with Barcelona. Messi was awarded Man of the match. After the match, he said, ""We are delighted to start the season with this win, but it was tough ... The most important thing was to win the Super Cup to start well. Now we think of the Spanish Super Cup against Athletic Club"". On Tuesday, Pedro was asked if he was leaving Barcelona. He replied ""The answer is no. But it is a difficult, complicated situation. When you know you may leave it is difficult."" Pedro said it wan't about money but the playing time. Pedro said ""The truth is that I had a good chance to play. The coach has decided not to count on me. I don't know, I don't know if I will continue here ... Manchester? Yes, there are nice challenges on all sides. Today I'm here, and I'm happy ... And if I go, I will go with my head held high having always given everything.""" +sport,more football news and facts Original -unreviewed +sport,"wikiOverrideRight=Glenbard East High School Top-seeded Glenbard East High School was expected to win the Class 4A Neuqua Valley High School Sectional championship on Friday night. Yet with a lot of determination and a strong defense, the Benet Academy varsity boys basketball team defeated the Rams 68–54. The game marks Benet's sixteenth straight victory this season, giving the Redwings a 26–3 overall record. It is also their first sectional championship since the 1982–1983 season, which was the last time Benet advanced to the Class AA state tournament; there they lost to Thornton Township High School in the quarterfinals. The Redwings' aggressive man-to-man defense certainly kept the Rams out of their comfort zone amidst the crowds in the sold-out Neuqua gym. As Benet forward Mike Runger said, ""We made them play to their weaknesses instead of letting them get comfortable doing what they want to do.” Benet scored 71 percent of its shots in the first half, while Glenbard East scored only 27. While the Rams led twice in the first few minutes (3–0 and 7–5), the Redwings led 12–7 after the first quarter. A three-point shot made by Dave Sobolewski two seconds before the buzzer gave Benet a 27–16 lead at the end of the first half. Glenbard East desperately attempted a comeback in the second half, but Benet maintained a lead ranging from 10 to 18 points. Rams guard made four three-pointers in the fourth quarter, but to no avail. As Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said, ""...we knew they were going to come at us and give us a ton of pressure. We were a long, long way from being comfortable at halftime."" Benet will play Simeon Career Academy from Chicago in the supersectionals at Hinsdale Central High School on Tuesday night." +sport,"With the home-crowd Russian fans on the side of the Italians, the United States defeated Italy in sledge hockey by a score of 5&ndash;1 today in both teams' opening game at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia. The United States started the first period with possession, but much of this was on their own third of the ice. Both teams did a full line change within the first minute of play following an Italian penalty by Bruno Balossetti that resulted in a United States power player. While the USA got possession on the penalty, it was after a few seconds where who had possession was questionable. The puck then changed possession several times. Both goalies had to work in the opening minutes of the game. With 12:20 left in the first, Italy had a fast break down the ice. In defending his goal, the Team USA goalie fell over and there was a mob in front of the goal trying to move the puck. The USA managed to prevent the Italians from scoring. Following this, there was a line change and a similar pile up in front of the Team USA net at 12:13. After a penalty that saw Andy Yohe get 2 minutes for roughing, the United States got possession. Both sides had their fans in arena, with several large Italian flags behind their team's bench. There were a pair of United States flags. When the Italians had the puck and looked likely to score, the multitude of Russian flags were waved and the fans cheered in support of the team. The United States allowed Italy to get possession after two players crashed into each other and had to untangle their sledges. At 10:20 left, Italy managed to get a shot on goal, which the USA goalie stopped. With 10:09, both teams were to full strength. There was another pile up, this time in front of the Italian net, at 9:12 left. The United States had problems passing during much of this time, and with keeping the puck out of their third. A United States fan was screaming at the team at one point shouting, ""Get it out."" Italy had several good chances but they were not able to capitalize on them. At 2:30 left, the United States and Italy were about equal with shots on goal: 4 for USA, 5 for Italy. At 2:30 left in the first, Valerio Corvino of Italy got 2 minutes in the penalty box for roughing. With 1:15, good passes by Nikko Landeros and Taylor Chance lead to a goal by Declan Farmer on a power player opportunity. Immediately following the goal, Italian Werner Winkler got a 2 minute penalty for roughing. The pace of the game slowed down in the final minutes, and there were fewer hits. The occasional United States fan chanted ""USA, USA, USA."" The first period ended 1&ndash;0 in favour of the United States. The second period started with lots of Italian cheering from the stands, while the Americans possessed the puck on the Italian third of the ice. Both teams were shorthanded, each with a player in the penalty box. The penalties were over and both teams were at full strength by 14:10 left in the second. Early in the period, Italy got a two minute penalty for too many players on the ice. The United States also addressed possession problems they had in the first period and kept the puck in front of the Italian goal. Team USA still had problems with executing passes though. Whenever the Italians got possession of the puck and looked like they might have a remote chance of scoring, the Russian fans started cheering loudly. With 3:48 left in the second, Brody Roybal scored with an assist from Declan Farmer. With 1:18 left in the second, Guiseppe Condello got a 2 minute penalty for teeing when he rammed the front of his sledge into a USA player's sledge. The period ended 2&ndash;0 in favour of the the United States. During the intermission, a Paralympic presenter went into the audience to talk to Team USA fans in the stands for the screens found on display in the arena. Following a little patter, she asked the fans to do the Team USA chant, which they did. In response to the requested, ""USA! USA! USA!"" chant, a number of people inside the arena booed. The third period started with Team USA possession. Early in the period, Taylor Chase had a 2 minute penalty for teeing, and both teams were shorthanded with 14:38 left in the third. Italy was back at full strength by 14:17. Despite the teeing penalty, the number of collisions appeared down from earlier in the game. Both teams were at full strength with 12:33 left in the third period. With 11:56 left in the third, Joshua Sweeney got the puck, moved it down the ice and then slid it past the Italian goalkeeper to score an unassisted goal. Midway through the third period, and most of the puck possession took place on the Italian third of the ice. With 4:42 left in the third, with assists from Joshua Pauls and Nikko Landeros, Brody Roybal scored on the Italians to little applause from people in the arena. The score was 4&ndash;0. Following the goal, Team USA took a timeout and made a goalkeeper change, with Steve Cash out and Jen Lee in. With 3:26 left in the third, Team USA player Paul Schaus earned a 2 minute penalty for roughing. The Team USA goalie made a fantastic above-the-head glove save with 3:05 left in the third. With 1:26 left in the game, Italian Florian Planker scored off an assist from Gianluca Cavaliere. The stadium erupted into loud chanting, and lots of waving of Russian flags. Adam Page was injured with 1:08 left in the game, and left the ice to a round of applause from the fans. The United States's Paul Schaus scored off an assist from Nikko Landeros with just under 5 seconds left in the game, bringing the final score to 5&ndash;1. The United States comes into Sochi as previous Paralympic gold medalists, having won it at all at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver, Canada. Steve Cash started for Team USA. He did not let in a single goal during the 2010 Winter Paralympics. Laura Hale" +sport,"Sydney, New South Wales &mdash; Earlier today, in the city's central business district, the Australian Olympic Team were welcomed home in the first of a series of parades to be held in each Australian state capital. Thousands of Australians lined George Street, the city's original high street, and in front of Town Hall. At the ceremony welcoming the atheletes home, Lauren Jackson received the key to the city, silver medallist Jessica Fox received a plaque from the Premier of New South Wales, Barry O'Farrell, and Libby Trickett reaffirmed her passion and desire to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Australia's London Olympians signed and displayed an Olympic flag to be given to the Australian Paralympians for the upcoming 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. clear" +sport,"referee=Knut Kircher Bayern Munich beat Wolfsburg 2-1 to remain at the top of the Bundesliga table. Franck Ribery scored a goal and assisted on Miroslav Klose's goal as Bayern won for the 1st time in 4 Bundesliga games. Bayern Munich's next game is against Sporting Braga in UEFA Cup action. Ottmar Hitzfeld: “I’m very satisfied, we played well for long periods. Collecting three points was the important thing today. We had more of the possession and made the most of our opponents’ mistakes. The opening goal eased us mentally, but our opponents were boosted when they pulled one back. Our counter-attacks weren’t accurate enough, we wasted three or four chances. We’re still not as stable as we were at the start of the season. It was obvious we suffered an attack of nerves at the end. Ribéry was sensational again today, I took him aside for a one-hour motivational talk yesterday.“ Oliver Kahn: “Especially in the first half, we were a lot better than we have been in recent matches and we were a lot more passionate again. The way the breaks for internationals work always causes us problems. You have players appearing for their national teams, on Saturday and again on Wednesday, for Italy, France and Argentina, and that obviously takes its toll. There needs to be a discussion about overhauling the match calendar. It affects the battle for the German championship.“ Felix Magath: “It was good to be back at the Allianz Arena. I had the feeling we were holding out well in the first half-hour, but their opening goal indicated we’re not quite solid enough yet. We lost our shape for a while after that. We only pulled ourselves together after they went 2-0 up. We played with a lot of heart, but not a great deal of intelligence. We never found the right solutions. Bayern were well worth the win.“" +sport,; 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Team ; Men’s Single Scull +sport,"2010-olympics Hours before the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics, 21-year-old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died after hitting an unpadded pole during a routine training exercise at the Whistler Sliding Centre in Vancouver, Canada on Friday morning. According to those on the scene, blood was ""pouring"" from the athlete's head as he was being placed into a stretcher. Doctors did try to revive him, but to no avail. ""Our first thoughts are with the family, friends, and colleagues of the athlete,"" Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), told international media. ""The whole Olympic family is struck by this tragedy, which clearly casts a shadow over these Games."" CEO of the Vancouver organizing committee, John Furlong went on to say: ""We are deeply struck by this tragedy, and join the IOC in extending our condolences to the family, friends and teammates of this athlete, who came to Vancouver to follow his Olympic dream."" The International Luge Federation (FIL) is now in the process of conducting an internal investigation into the circumstances of what occurred. Training was suspended until officials were able to certify the course as safe. The president of the ILF, Josef Fendt, said in a statement: ""This is a terrible accident. This is the gravest thing that can happen in sport, and our thoughts and those of the luge family are naturally with those touched by this event."" Mr. Kumaritashvili is the fourth athlete to die in Winter Olympic history." +sport,"Football On Tuesday, Argentina defeated the United States 4&ndash;0 in the Copa América Centenario semi-final with Gonzalo Higuaín scoring a brace in the second half. Argentinine Lionel Messi scored his 55th international goal from a free kick setting the nation's scoring record. Ezequiel Lavezzi scored from Messi's assist in the third minute, providing Argentina an early lead. In the 31st minute, Argentina won a free-kick as Chris Wondolowski fouled Messi. Equalling Gabriel Batistuta's scoring record in the previous match against Venezuela winning 4&ndash;1, Messi scored his 55th international goal in the 32nd minute from a free kick in the top right corner. In the second half, Higuaín scored from Brad Guzan's saved rebound making the score 3&ndash;0 in the 50th minute. Messi assisted Higuaín around the 86th minute for the fourth goal of the match. Argentina is to face defending champions Chile in the final in East Rutherford, New Jersery, a rematch of last year's final. Debuting eleven years ago, Messi has scored five goals in the World Cup and seven in the Copa América. HYS clear ---- Paraguay" +sport,"Anyone planning on attending the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China can forget about renting a car when they get there. Newspapers reported on September 18 that no private cars would be allowed near any of the venues in the host city, in an attempt to combat the gridlock that has plagued the city. Known for its stand-still traffic, Beijing's transport authority believes it needs to curb at least 20% of traffic flow to ensure the Games run smoothly. The number of cars in the city is set to increase from 2.7 million to 3 million by the time of the Olympics. Country-wide, annual car sales are expected to reach 10 million annually by 2010. A good infrastructure is one of the International Olympic Committee's top priorities when searching for bid cities. The IOC requires that athletes, support staff such as coaches, venue volunteers, spectators, and the press all should be able to get from venue to venue without hassle. Existing plans in Beijing say that private cars may only drive in the city on alternate days. Plates with odd numbers would drive one day, while even numbered licenses would drive the next day. Wired magazine has suggested fuel-cell vehicles may be China's next cultural revolution. Vancouver-based venture capitalist Mike Brown told the National Post: ""If they get aggressive about this, and they decided to build up a fuel cell manufacturing capability to sell half a million of these things, they'll get the costs down faster than anybody else.""" +sport,"On Monday in Canberra, the Australian government released its annual budget, one that promises a A$1.5 billion surplus for the year, but little was said of the potential impact of the budget on Australian sport in an Olympic year when Australia is looking to earn the fewest medals since the 1996 Games in Atlanta. There were no apparent surprises for the sports sector in Australia in this budget. The budget, available online, claims A$380 million has been spent preparing for the 2012 Olympic Games. According to Keith Lyons, the University of Canberra Director of the National Institute of Sport Studies, sport is an important part of Australian culture and the development of sport enjoys bipartisan support. The sport ""budget supports infrastructure developments and reflects a renewal of Australian sport venues post Sydney Olympics 2000. The Active After School investment reflects a commitment to support participation and engagement in physical activity and sport."" When Tony Naar of the Australian Paralympic Committee was asked about the impact of the budget on his organisation's efforts, he said there was little to report as there were ""very few previously unannounced initiatives... the overall level of program funding was in line with the final year of the current funding cycle"". The budget promises to support cricket, specifically the 2015 Cricket World Cup, and soccer (football) with the 2015 Asian Cup by allocating funding for facility improvement. A$50 million will be spent on redeveloping the Sydney Cricket Ground, A$30 million on redeveloping the Adelaide Oval, and A$15 million on redeveloping the Bellerive Oval in Hobart." +sport,"The Carling Cup tie between Leicester City and Nottingham Forest was abandoned at half time after Leicester defender Clive Clarke collapsed in the changing room at half time. Shortly after the half time whistle, paramedics were called into the changing room before taking Clarke to Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham. Tim Davies, Leicester City's chief executive said: ""He was taken away in an ambulance to hospital. He did offer a few words in the ambulance. Our thoughts and prayers are with Clive and his family."" The Nottingham Forest chief executive added: ""I think football is secondary to human issues."" Nottingham Forest had been leading 1-0 at the time after a goal from Junior Agogo, however after a 15 minute delay both managers agreed to abandon the game as many of the players had been shaken up by the incident. Clarke is currently believed to be conscious." +sport,"PolandThe Polish Olympic Committee (PKOL) announced today the list of 258 sportsmen drafted to represent Poland at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China. The number of olympians may increase by 10, as the Committee has given a number of athletes a final chance to qualify, including Lidia Chojecka and Małgorzata Trybańska. There are 101 women and 157 men on the team. The 28-year-old canoer Marek Twardowski has been chosen for the national flag bearer. ""There was, of course, a discussion. We rejected the candidacy of Otylia Jędrzejczak, because she starts her Olympics on August 9, the same situation was with Leszek Blanik. We needed a titled sportsman for whom the function of flag bearer will not interrupt preparations. Marek starts on August 19, he won 20 World Championships and European Championships medals and he's a cool guy"", said Kajetan Broniewski, the chief of the Polish Olympic Mission. The Committee spent over PLN186 million (almost US$90 million) on preparations for the Olympics in last four years, with PLN73 million of it spent this year alone. ""With such a big team, we should improve the results from Athens and win over 10 medals"", said the PKOL president Piotr Nurowski. When asked about the protests over China's violation of human rights in Tibet, Nurowski said: ""Demonstrating one's political views at the venues as well as in the Olympic Village is forbidden. It is a violation of the Olympic Oath. It means that the IOC may even expel one from the Village and take away the medals. I have talked a lot about it with our sportsmen. They have answered that politics is not interesting for them in Beijing. They are concentrating on sports."" It will be the third biggest Polish Olympic team in history; there were more sportsmen at the Olympics in 1972 (Munich, 288) and 1980 (Moscow, 321). Fours years ago the team numbered 202 sportsmen. The players on the men's and women's volleyball teams, as well as the men's handball team are still not known. The teams' coaches Raul Lozano, Marco Bonitta and Bogdan Wenta have until July 19 to announce their rosters. Overall, the team, including the medical staff, coaches, psychologists and others, will number over 400 people." +sport,"sports With the IPC Athletics World Championships scheduled to start Friday (today), Wikinews interviewed Spanish athlete David Casinos at Madrid–Barajas Airport Monday before he departed for Lyon, France. Wikinews Hello I'm interviewing David Casinos, Spain's most famous track and field athlete in Paralympic sport, for Wikinews. So you're competing at the IPC World Championships are going to win a whole lot of medals? Which medals are you going to win? ::David Casinos :Bueno, me gustaría sobre todo, primero hacerlo bien, eso significaría que voy a acercarme a esas medallas. Soy muy humilde en ese aspecto. WNIQ As somebody who's been competing a long time in track and field, how has stuff changed form when you first started out to now? ::David Casinos: El mayor cambio que he vivido yo ha sido la comunicación, pero sobre todo el Plan ADO Paralímpico. Profesionalizar el Plan ADO. Ser deportistas profesionales. El deporte paralímpico español es más conocido ahora por los medios de comunicación y en el mundo entero. WNIQ Have there been more opportunities for sponsorship as your Paralympics profile has grown? ::David Casinos: Yes! WNIQ Would you like to promote a few of them? ::David Casinos: Tengo bastantes patrocinadores, uno de ellos es Toro Loco, una bebida energética, Diputación de Valencia, Fundación Trinidad Alfonso, que es de Juan Roig, Mercadona, Moncada, mi ayuntamiento, Valencia Terra i Mar... Igual me olvido de alguno ahora. Tengo varios. WNIQ Resulta que los australianos han hecho que los patrocinadores patrocinen sus zapatos. ¿Esto pasa en los atletas españoles también? ::David Casinos: No. No sucede. WNIQ Is this going to be an issue? I mean is Spain at the level where it can become an issue? ::David Casinos: Yo por ejemplo tengo un patrocinador muy grande, se llama Macrón Sports, italiano, y es patrocinador de la liga italiana, la española, de fútbol, y yo tengo su patrocinador. Yo no tengo ese problema. Me siento muy arropado. WNIQ Okay. So, you're a visual-impaired athlete, and do you run with a guide? ::David Casinos: No corro con un guía, pero sí necesito a ese guía para hacer series, saltar, hacer todo lo que tengo que hacer, para lanzar lejos. WNIQ How helpful are guides in terms of how much they potentially impact outcomes, do you think? ::David Casinos: Para mi el guía es una pieza fundamental en mi día a día. En la competición simplemente te ayudan a entrar y salir del círculo, lo demás lo haces tú, pero en el día a día, en el backstage que le digo yo, es el que te ayuda con las pesas, a saltar, acolocarte en el foso, hay más trabajo incluso, detrás de la competición. WNIQ Spain has a long history of blind sports, compared to other countries. Do you have an explanation as to why there are so many blind athletes? ::David Casinos: Bueno, en primer lugar tenemos la organización ONCE, que es la gran precursora de que las personas con discapacidad tengamos una serie de opciones, entre ellas el deporte. Y en ese aspecto ha sido la ONCE muy pionera. Pioneros absolutos. Y eso es bueno. Lo que pasa es que ahora otros países están descubriendo sus paralímpicos. WNIQ Is there anything you think an international audience should know about you or the Paralympic movement in Spain? ::David Casinos: Soy un deportista más, que lucha por mi sueño, que es el deporte, superarme, día a día, después de una gran dificultad que ha sido perder la visión. Y este mensaje es el que me gusta transmitir a muchas personas mediante el coaching. WNIQ Okay. ¡Muchas gracias! ::David Casinos: Okay!" +sport,"UEFA Euro 2016 Yesterday in UEFA Euro 2016, Belgium defeated the Republic of Ireland 3&ndash;0, Iceland versus Hungary ended in a 1&ndash;1 draw, and Portugal versus Austria ended in a goalless draw. Iceland scored an own goal and Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty kick. Eden Hazard led Belgium after a 0&ndash;2 loss to Italy. Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring in the 48th minute. Within a quarter hour, Axel Witsel netted the second goal of the match from a header in the 61st minute. Ten minutes later, Hazard assisted Lukaku who scored the third goal of the match. Belgium are second in their group table with three points. Gylfi Sigurðsson scored from the penalty spot around the 40th minute putting Iceland ahead before the half-time whistle. The Hungarians, who won their previous fixture defeating Austria 2&ndash;0, had better ball possession and passing accuracy than Iceland, but were unable to equalise. Later, around the 88th minute, Birkir Már Sævarsson scored an own goal and the match ended in a 1&ndash;1 draw. Iceland have drawn 1&ndash;1 in both of their group fixtures. Hungary is at the top of the Group F table with four points. Portugal versus Austria was the second goalless draw of the tournament. Six players were booked in the match. Portugal had greater ball possession. In the 78th minute, Martin Hinteregger of Austria was yellow-carded for bringing down Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo. Portugal won a penalty kick, but Ronaldo hit the woodwork. Portugal made 23 attempts to score. In contrast, Austria had just three attempts." +sport,"2012 Olympic Paralympics London, England&mdash; A 62 points to 37 quarter-final win against Mexico on Tuesday night saw Australia's Gliders go forward into the medal round in front of a four-thousand-plus crowd at the Greenwich North Arena. Winners of their group, Australia have never taken the gold in wheelchair basketball; their opponents, Mexico, were previously ranked ninth at the opening of the tournament, so making it thus-far boosts their ranking to eighth. They were, however, beaten by Australia 75 points to 45 in a pre-tournament warm up match. Australia's first shot at goal was taken by Bridie Kean, from the free throw line; but, she missed both shots. Mexico's Lucia Vazquez Delgadillo then became the opened the scoring to give Mexico a two-point lead, their biggest of the entire game. Seconds later, Cobo Crispin had a shot from the paint, but missed; Kylie Gauci then finally put points on the scoreboard for the Gliders. Mexico turned the ball over, and Cobi Crispin got her first from the paint, assisted by Kylie Gauci. This was repeated on the next play, with Sarah Stewart providing the assist. Mexico then scored, the Gliders responding with another shot from Cobi Crispin. On the next play, Kylie Gauci stole the ball and charged down the court, but failed to make the shot. Clare Nott took a defensive rebound, leading to Cobi Crispin scoring again. She was also fouled. but missed the resulting free throw. Shortly thereafter, Sarah Stewart took another foul, and made both shots to bring the score to 14 points to 4. Mexico had great difficulty moving the ball up the court; suffering by timing out, or being forced into long shots that missed. But, when the same happened to the Gliders, Kylie Gauci, a two-point player, took a spectacular three point shot to take the score to 17 points to 8 in Australia's favour. Mexico then managed to score again before Amber Merritt came on with only three minutes left in the quarter, and missed her first shot at goal. A second attempt, coming from a pass by Kylie Gauci, put more points on the scoreboard. With only a few seconds remaining in the quarter, Kylie Gauci stole the ball and delivered it to Shelley Chaplin, who scored again. The two teams went into the quarter-time break with the score 21 points to 10. In the opening minutes of the second quarter, Shelley Chaplin assisted Cobi Crispin, and then Amber Merritt, to add another four points. Attempting to respond, Mexico missed two shots before scoring then, on the next play, allowed Amanda Carter to steal the ball, which led to Amber Merritt scoring again. Australia followed this up with steals by Cobi Crispin and Amber Merritt, giving Shelley Chaplin more scoring opportunities. Mexico scored twice; but, Australia responded each time, with goals by Amber Merritt and Amanda Carter, who was fouled, making her's a three-point play. A steal led to a runaway break by Amber Merritt, bringing her contribution to ten points, and the score to 38 points to 16. Mexico seemed unable to shake a pattern of turnovers and hasty shots, resulting in a 44 to 20 points difference at the half-time break. In the third quarter, the Glider's intensity dropped off; A timeout, and a series of missed shots by Katie Hill, Brodie Kean and Cobi Crispin, gave Mexico a chance to stage a minor recovery by outscoring Australia for the quarter by one point, leaving the score at 50 to 27 at the end of the third quarter. The final quarter got off to an unimpressive start for both teams; Australia's Leanne del Toso missed a shot at one end, and Mexico's Floralia Estrada Bernal missed one at the the other. Sarah Stewart missed too before a Mexican turnover led to the first scoring of the quarter, by Sarah Stewart. Mexico's Rocio Torres Lopez scored in response, another shot by Sarah Stewart missed; but, Amanda Carter took an offensive rebound, which eventually made it into the basket. Turnovers by Bridie Kean and Leanne del Toso led Mexico putting points on the board consecutively, but successive fouls sent Bridie Kean to the free throw line to score three points. Amber Merritt brought the score to 59 points to 35 with her seventh scoring shot. By this point, Australia was deliberately running down the clock, passing the ball around, and taking shots at the last minute. This led to several missed shots by Sarah Vinci and Katie Hill, with Mexico unable to capitalise on the opportunities. Under intense Australian defensive pressure, Mexico missed shots and turned over the ball as-often as before. With nineteen seconds of play remaining, Katie Hill took a two point shot from inside the paint; attracting a foul, she scored another point from a free throw. Although Mexico's Wendy Garcia Amador scored the last two points of the game, the final score of 62 points to 37 meant the Mexican team's Paralympic campaign was over. Australia must now confront the winner of tonight's United States versus Canada game on Thursday." +sport,"sports Yesterday, Wikinews interviewed Steve Redhead, a Professor of Sports Media and Acting Head of School of Human Movement Studies at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales, Australia, about the Australian women's national soccer team (Matildas), the Australian men's national soccer team (Socceroos) and the current differences between the state of women and men's soccer in Australia. The Socceroos are currently getting international attention following yesterday's 2014 FIFA World Cup draw which placed the 59th FIFA ranked team in the same group as top FIFA ranked Spain, fifteenth ranked Chile and the ninth ranked Netherlands. The Matildas were in the news late last month, following their AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2014 draw which saw them placed in the group with Japan, Vietnam and Jordan. With the competition scheduled to take place in May, the Matildas are looking to repeat their performance as AFC champions. Domestically, Australia's top women's club team Sydney FC finish third in the International Women’s Club Championship held in Japan this past week after defeating South American club champions Colo-Colo in a penalty shootout. Wikinews: The Socceroos are ranked 59th by FIFA. The Matildas are ranked 8th by FIFA in the latest rankings. Should media coverage correlate to team performance and international rankings? Is there an element of tall poppy syndrome in the coverage of the Socceroos? What other factors can be used to explain the relative differences in media attention other than performance? ::Steve Redhead: Women's sports performances are seen as less than men's &mdash; deep structural sexism (globally replicated). WNIQ: What's the difference in style of play between the men and women's national teams? ::Steve Redhead: If we take soccer teams, with the newish rules on tackling from behind globally soccer has become almost a non-contact sport &mdash; this has helped the women's game enormously and the styles of play don't differ very much at all. If you were from outer space watching games, you would not know that a game was being played by men or women at the top level. The big remaining difference is goalkeeping. Men's team goalkeepers are invariably way over six feet at the top level. Goalkeeping in the women's game looks different because of this difference. WNIQ: Why are the Matildas more successful in international competitions and ranking wise than the Socceroos? ::SR: Socceroos have been in decline since Hiddink stopped being coach. Aging team, no great young players coming through to replace the golden generation. No such problem with Matildas &mdash; just steady improvement, and good coaching. WNIQ: Soccer is one of most popular spectator sports for women. Why do you think the W-League has been unable to capitalize on the female audience like netball has? ::SR: This is a difficult question &mdash; I just think it is going to take time, and articles like this one &mdash; it has been the same problem all over the world for women's football and increasing the audience is always difficult. WNIQ: Why do you think men don't watch the Matildas in the same numbers as they watch the Socceroos? ::SR: The soccer culture for men's football is long standing, there is a real history for the culture. Not so in the women's game. WNIQ: Do problems with A-League finances translate into broader problems for the W-League and its ability to attract investors? ::SR: Yes, I think so. But there is a deep structural sexism in the culture too. WNIQ: None of the Socceroos received DAS Direct Athlete Support grants from the Australian Sports Commission in the past year while almost every single player on the Matildas received DAS or SLGSfW Sports Leadership Grants and Scholarships for Women funding. What accounts for difference in Australian Sports Commission/Australian Institute of Sport funding and what would it take to change that? ::SR: Can't really answer that one. WNIQ: What role should the government play in encouraging media organizations, both newspapers and television networks, to cover women's soccer in Australia? ::SR: I think it does take federal government intervention &mdash; educational programmes in sport long term, enforcement of equality legislation, etc. WNIQ: Does the media feed into traditional Australian gender stereotypes by not covering elite women's sports? ::SR: Yes it does. Media sports education is crucial. We do this here at Charles Sturt University in NSW and I did it at University of Brighton in the UK. WNIQ: Australia has a long history of a male-driven sporting narrative. How does this narrative play into current representations of men and women in Australian soccer? Does the cultural heritage of male-driven narratives make one national team more inherently authentic than the other? ::SR: No, but I think it does make it difficult for women's sport to build the narratives over a period of time. WNIQ: Do issues with the Matildas not receiving the same level of media recognition as the Socceroos play a role in the development and attention of other Australian national soccer teams like blind football at the Paralympic level, cerebral palsy football at the Paralympic level, Australian teams at the International Gay Games, deaf soccer teams at the Deaflympics, wheelchair soccer at the World Cup of Powerchair Football? ::SR: Yes, it is about equality &mdash; there is so much discrimination in the coverage of sports teams." +sport,"2012 Olympic Paralympics London, England &mdash; The Australia national wheelchair rugby team defeated Canada 66&ndash;51 to win Australia's last gold medal of the 2012 Summer Paralympics. The Canadian team had no answer to Ryley Batt, who scored 37 goals. Ryley out-paced, out-maneuvered, and out-scored his opponents. Before the game he skylarked by riding his wheelchair on one wheel. The commentator called him ""Houdini"" for escaping any attempt to restrain him. He did share the ball with the rest of the team. Australia's Chris Bond contributed 15 goals towards Australia's scoreline. By contrast, the Australian defenders held Canada's Garett Hickling to just seven goals. At one point two Australian defenders trapped him in a corner, unable to move, which he appeared to find very frustrating. Spectators included the Australian Chef de Mission, Jason Hellwig, and his deputies, Michael Hartung and Kate McLoughlin. The rugby team's gold medal brought Australia's count to 32, and the total medals to 85, putting Australia in fifth place. The team's gold medals were presented by HRH The Earl of Wessex. The Canadian team received flowers from Stephen Fry." +sport,"Monday, Canadian para-alpine skiers competed at the IPC Nor-Am Cup at Copper Mountain. The competition's first event was the Super G held at Rosie's Race Arena. Canadians competing included standing female skier Alexandra Starker who finished her first run with a time of 1.19.19, Vanessa Knight with a time of 1.20.35, female sit skier Kimberly Jones who did not finish, male visually impaired skier Mac Marcoux and his guide who finished their first run with a time of 1.14.77, standing skiers Braydon Luscombe who did not finish, Micheal Whitney who finished with a time of 1.16.37, Caleb Brossen with a time of 1.22.15, Josh Dueck who did not finish, Kurt Oatway who finished with a time of 1.14.98, and sit skiers Ben Thompson who did not finish, Jeff Thompson and Alex Cairns. Canadian skiers were back on the slopes yesterday." +sport,"With the Australian Para-alpine ski team set to arrive in Vail today (Wednesday) for the start of the IPC Nor-Am Cup to be held on Copper Mountain this coming Sunday," +sport,"Beijing 2008 Summer Paralympic Games one bronze medal; and in London 2012 Summer Paralympic Games one bronze medal. Seven in Paralympic Games. WNIQ And in World Championships? ::Deborah Font: I don't know the exact number. Several. WNIQ What style do you swim? ::Deborah Font: 400m freestyle. WNIQ Okay, and you're going to do that in Montreal? ::Deborah Font: In Montreal I'll do 400m freestyle. WNIQ You think you're going to get a medal? ::Deborah Font: Yes, I'm fighting for a silver or bronze medal. WNIQ What classification are you? ::Deborah Font: S-12. WNIQ S-12. So you have partial vision. ::Deborah Font: Yeah, partial. I can see a little. WNIQ Since you cannot see perfectly, when you swim, can you see the people next to you? ::Deborah Font: I can see those next to me, but not perfectly. I see those near to me, but not those far from me. WNIQ Do you think about other swimmers when you swim, or is it a disadvantage because you cannot see swimmers farther away? ::Deborah Font: I swim my race, and don't see the other swimmers. WNIQ They don't matter when you swim? You swim against yourself, your best time? ::Deborah Font: I swim against myself, I don't see the other swimmers too much. My race, myself, I go inside myself. WNIQ Do you have any sponsors? ::Deborah Font: No, no sponsors. WNIQ How difficult is it to swim in Spain for Paralympic swimmers when you don't have sponsors? ::Deborah Font: We have a Paralympic Committee. It's difficult having sponsors in Spain. For the Olympics, athletes don't have many sponsors, and for Paralympics it's more difficult. WNIQ Where are you from? ::Deborah Font: Barcelona. WNIQ Is swimming more competitive in Barcelona, in Madrid...? Where do you think the best swimmers come from? ::Deborah Font: They come from all Spain, but train only in Madrid or Barcelona. Most in Barcelona. (laughs) WNIQ Is there a reason most of the swimmers train in Barcelona? ::Deborah Font: There are more possibilities for training in good swimming pools. The ""Centros de Alto Rendimiento"" High Performance Centres are in Madrid or Barcelona. WNIQ Coming in into the World Championships, did you do any special training, or change how you prepare? ::Deborah Font: Entrenamos con entrenador especial que por ejemplo él solo nos entrena a tres o cuatro paralímpicos, en el Centro de Alto Rendimiento pero con un entrenador especial que nos sigue a diario y que nos lo hace especialmente para nosotros. WNIQ This is a pretty dumb question, but I know a lot of people who look at blind swimmers and they go how can they swim at a straight line? Can you clarify how people with vision impairments can actually swim? ::Deborah Font: Bueno, para nadar casi todo es técnica y mucho aprendizaje, y para nadar recto en la calle es por entrenamiento, por costumbre, por... quizás es más dicifil cuando se es ciego total ir por el medio justo, pero bueno todo está entrenado, es a base de entrenar, intentarlo, conocerte la piscina... Pero creo que lo más dificil es aprender a nadar la técnica sin ver a los demás, y saber lo que estás moviendo, el brazo, y si lo pones aquí, no lo pones aquí, pues eso sí, y llegar a la pared también, es como más dificil de calcular, sobre todo en competición, que no ves la pared a la distancia que estás. WNIQ Thank you very much!" +sport,"London, England &mdash; Yesterday at London's Velodrome, Australia's Jayme Paris took home bronze in the Paralympic Track Cycling Women's Individual C1-2-3 500m Time Trial event, earning back to back bronzes in this event." +sport,"referee=Knut Kircher Bayern Munich beat Bayer Leverkusen to remain at the top of the German league table with a goal from Italy striker Luca Toni. Michael Rensing was a last minute replacement Oliver Kahn due to the injury Kahn picked up during the warm-up. The 1st half saw a series of chances for both side which saw the eventual game winner from Bayern strker Luca Toni. The 2nd half saw fewer scoring chances as Bayern completed the victory. Ottmar Hitzfeld: ""Leverkusen started very well, imposed a high pace on the game and showed some excellent moves. We had a few problems organising ourselves defensively. We changed the formation and let Miro Klose play a little more detached from the midfield. In the last 15 minutes of the first half we began to control the game. In the second half we were closer to a second goal, although in the closing stages the pressure was intense again. It was a hard-fought victory – we weren’t as strong as we had been recently and we didn’t play as well on the counter-attack. This has been our hardest test so far."" Miroslav Klose: ""We had a hard job of it today. Leverkusen played well and put us under a lot of pressure. I think we had some real problems in the first half."" Rudi Völler: ""We saw a splendid game from both team, and we played extremely well in the first 25 minutes. We had a few scoring chances and put Bayern under a bit of pressure. But against a team as good as Bayern you have to take advantage of this kind of domination by scoring if you want to have a chance over 90 minutes. Still, I wouldn’t say this is a setback for us."" Michael Skibbe: ""Bayern deserved the win because of their calmness. However, I am very satisfied with the performance of my team, they played really well.""" +sport,"__noTOC__ Tour de France 2007 Mauricio Soler of Colombia has won stage 9 of the 2007 Tour de France. Michael Rasmussen of Denmark retains the overall lead. The 159.5 km stage 9 began with a cold start to the Hors Categorie climb up to the Col de l'Iseran (15 km at 6%), followed by the Col du Télégraphe and the Col du Galibier (12 km at 6.7% and 17.5 km at 7%) with a 32 km downhill finish in Briançon. The Colombian Barloworld rider was the first to top the peak of Col du Galibier and held on during the downhill finish. The chase group finished 38 seconds behind him. Soler was excited by his stage victory: ""It’s an incredible day. I’m living out a dream. I worked very hard to arrive at the finish on my own and I received the superb prize for that effort. I wanted to achieve something for myself in my Tour debut and at 24 years of age, I’ve been able to stamp my name on a stage. Nobody believed I could win here, not even me."" Pre-Tour-favorite, Alexandre Vinokourov, who has been struggling since he crashed on stage 5, lost nearly three minutes the in chase for the yellow jersey and is now in 21st place overall. ""I did what I could,"" said Vinokourov. ""The team worked well again and tried to reduce the gap. It was another horrible day for me."" Linus Gerdemann, who surprised everyone in stage 7, fell out of the top ten overall and had to surrender the white jersey to Alberto Contador." +sport,"At a press conference Monday, Lance Armstrong announced his intention to retire from professional cycling after going for his 7th Tour de France title in July 2005. ""Ultimately, athletes have to retire,"" said the 33 year-old American. ""The body doesn't just keep going and going."" Speculation on the retirement of the six-time Tour de France winner had been growing in recent months. The Texan had hinted at wanting to spend more time with his children and his cancer charity, the Lance Armstrong Foundation. There was talk he may marry his well-known girlfriend, rock-star singer Sheryl Crow. Armstrong battled with testicular cancer in 1996 before coming back to win the 1999 edition of the legendary French race. He went on to win the next five Tours de France and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest riders in the history of the sport. Asked about his chances for Tour success, he expressed hope tempered with praise for his opponents. ""Can I win this year? I'm not sure, but I'll try... This will be a different year for the Tour with Jan Ullrich looking better and a host of young riders coming up,"" he said. Should Armstrong follow through with his plans, he will begin his final race in the United States tomorrow at the first stage of the Tour de Georgia. He has successfully used the springtime race in the past as a tune-up to the Tour de France in the summer. The contract with his new team sponsor, the Discovery Channel, obligates him to compete in one more Tour de France." +sport,"The University of Oklahoma baseball team defeated Rice University 11-5 in the second game of the NCAA Super Regional Sunday. Oklahoma's (45-21) win over Rice (54-11) evened the series to 1-1. Ryan Rohlinger led the Sooners hitting 3-for-4, which including two RBI at the plate. Offensively, every one of Oklahoma's starters had at least one hit. Oklahoma and Rice will meet again at Monday at Rice's Reckling Park. The winner of this game will go on to play in the College World Series. The game can be seen in Oklahoma live at noon on ESPN." +sport,"2008 Olympic GamesSeptember 7, 2008 is the 1st major day of the 2008 Paralympic games, the below article summarises all the world records and medals. *In the S13 class, Dzmitry Salei from Belarus set a new world record in the final of the men's 100m butterfly with his time of 58.89 seconds. *In the S4 class, Patricia Valle from Mexico set a new world record in Heat 1 of the women's 100m freestyle event with her time of 2:03.82 minutes. *In the SM7 class, American swimmer Rudy Garcia Tolson set a new world record in heat two of the men's 200m individual medley with his time of 2:37.80 minutes. *In the S8 class, Peter Leek from Australia set a new world record in the first heat of the men's 100m butterfly with his time of 1 minute and 1.01 seconds . *In the S8 class, Amanda Everlove from the United States set a new world record in the second heat of the women's 100m butterfly with her time of 1 minute and 11.64 seconds . *In the S9 class, Tamas Sors from Hungary set a new world record in the first heat of the men's 100m butterfly with his time of 59.38 seconds. *With a time of 4:45.43, Russian Dmitry Kokarev set a new world record in the S2 class of the men's 200m freestyle. *With a time of 1:35.21, Chinese Du Jianping set a new world record in the S3 class of the men's 100m freestyle. *With a time of 1:11.05, Brazilian Daniel Dias set a new world record in the S5 class of the men's 100m freestyle. *With a time of 1:16.65, Spanish Maria Teresa Perales set a new world record in the S5 class of the women's 100m freestyle. *With a time of 3:13.05, American Miranda Uhl set a new world record in the SM6 class of the women's 200m individual medley. *With a time of 2:54.61, American Erin Popovich set a new world record in the SM7 class of the women's 200m individual medley. *In the CP3 class, British cyclist Darren Kenny set a new world record in the qualifying stage of the men's individual pursuit with his time of 3:36.875 minutes. *With a time of 4:18.961, Australians Kieran Modra and Tyson Lawrence set a new world in the B&VI 1-3 class of the men's individual pursuit. *With a time of 1:14.936, British Simon Richardson set a new world in the LC 3-4 class of the men's 1km time trial. *With a time of 1:21.157, Britons Ellen Hunter and Aileen McGlynn set a new world in the B&VI 1-3 class of the women's 1km time trial. *With a score of 578, Russian Valeriy Ponomarenko set a new world in the SH1 class of the men's P1-10m air pistol. *Christopher Scott of Australia won the gold medal in the CP4 class of the men's individual pursuit. *Darren Kenny of Great Britain won the gold medal in the CP3 class of the men's individual pursuit. *Kieran Modra and Tyson Lawrence of Australia won the gold medal in the B&VI 1-3 class of the men's individual pursuit. *Simon Richardson of Great Britain won the gold medal in the LC 3-4 class of the men's 1km time trial. *Aileen McGlynn and Ellen Hunter of Great Britain won the gold medal in the B&VI 1-3 class of the women's 1km time trial. *Huaping Guo of China won the gold medal in the -48 kg class Judo. *Valeriy Pomomarenko of Russia won the gold medal in the SH1 class of the men's P1-10m air pistol. *Veronika Vadovicova of Slovakia won the gold medal in the SH1 class of the women's R2-10m air rifle standing. *Du Jianping of China won the gold medal in the S3 class of the men's 100m freestyle. *David Smetanine of France won the gold medal in the S4 class of the men's 100m freestyle. *Daniel Dias of Brazil won the gold medal in the S5 class of the men's 100m freestyle. *Dmitry Kokarev of Russia won the gold medal in the S2 class of the men's 200m freestyle. *Dzmitry Salei of Russia won the gold medal in the S13 class of the men's 100m butterfly. *Sascha Kindred of Great Britain won the gold medal in the S13 class of the men's 200m individual medley. *Nely Miranda of Mexico won the gold medal in the S4 class of the women's 100m freestyle. *Maria Teresa Perales of Spain won the gold medal in the S5 class of the women's 100m freestyle. *Valerie Grand Maison of Canada won the gold medal in the S13 class of the women's 100m butterfly. *Miranda Uhl of the United States won the gold medal in the SM6 class of the women's 200m individual medley. *Erin Popovixh of the United States won the gold medal in the SM7 class of the women's 200m individual medley. 2008 Beijing Paralympic medal count" +sport,referee=Babak Rafati Bayern Munich remained at the top of the table after a 3-0 victory over Bavarian rivals FC Nürnberg. The win takes the undefeated streak to 9 games (7 wins and 2 draws) and takes Bayern Munich to 23 points leaving them 5 ahead of Karlsruhe. The Reds also boast a league leading goal difference of +22 by scoring at least three times in every home match this term except for 1 (1-1 draw with Schalke). Bayern made 1 change to the team which won on Thursday's last Thursday UEFA Cup 2nd leg match. Andreas Ottl making a start in place of Mark van Bommel. Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld opted not to Lukas Podolski and Jan Schlaudraff in the absence of Miroslav Klose. Hitzeld placed Franck Ribery up front with Toni. Michael Rensing was spectator in a the 1st half with an exception from a fumble from a Zvjezdan Misimovic shot. Toni scored his 7th goal with an angled shot after Blazek spilled Hamit Altintop’s 31st minute free kick. Bayern doubled their tally when Schweinsteiger flick released Ze Roberto for a run at Blazek 5 minutes before half-time. Toni completed the victory with a goal from Ze Roberto corner in the 81st minute. +sport,"Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of former United States president John F. Kennedy, has died at the age of 88. Shriver's daughter Maria, the wife of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, stated last year that her mother had suffered from a series of strokes. ""We have always been honored to share our mother with people of good will the world over who believe, as she did, that there is no limit to the human spirit. At this time of loss, we feel overwhelmed by the gifts of prayer and support poured out to us from so many who loved her. We are together in our belief that she is now in heaven, rejoicing with her family, enjoying the fruits of her faith, and still urging us onward to the challenges ahead. Her love will inspire us to faith and service always,"" said Shriver's family in a statement on her website. Born in 1921 in Brookline, Massachusetts located in the U.S., she was the fifth of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Kennedy (née Fitzgerald). Shriver was the founder of the Special Olympics. She also advocated for federal funding in the 1960's to help treat the mentally disabled." +sport,"referee=Jair Marrufo New York Red Bulls and New England Revolution played to a 0-0 draw in Leg 1 in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. New York had greater possession in the 1st half and had a ten shots in the opening half while New England only had 2. New York thought they had a penalty shot when the ball deflected off Avery John's arm in stoppage time. However, the referee disagreed and called a foul in favour of New England. The return leg is next Saturday at New England." +sport,"The field for both the 65-team NCAA national tournament and the 32-team National Invitation Tournament were set yesterday following the conclusion of the final conference tournaments. The 65-team NCAA Tournament is highlighted by top seeds Florida (Midwest regional), North Carolina (East regional), Ohio State (South regional), and Kansas (West regional). An opening round game between Niagara and Florida A&M will take place on Tuesday night, with the first round of the tournament being played out on Thursday and Friday. A number of teams widely considered to be ""on the bubble"" were not selected and instead will join the 32-team NIT field, which begins play on Tuesday night, March 13. The top seeds for the NIT are Mississippi State, West Virginia, Air Force, and Clemson. Of the top seeds, West Virginia and Air Force had a chance at being selected for the NCAA tournament. However, when they were not selected, they were relegated to the NIT. The championship for the NIT will take place on March 29, with the championship of the NCAA tournament and the right to be called the ""National Champion"" taking place on April 2." +sport,"Recently, Wikinews spent time with with Canadian Paralympic skier Vanessa Knight who was at Copper Mountain, Colorado for the IPC Nor-Am Cup. Wikinews We're interviewing Vanessa Knight, who's from Canada. ::Vanessa Knight: That's right! WNIQ And what kind of skier are you? ::Vanessa Knight: I am a disabled racer. I have a left arm amputation and I'm a speed skier. WNIQ So you're one of the standing skiers. ::Vanessa Knight: Yes. WNIQ I've been asking a lot of Paralympic disability skiers, what is the craziest skier of the slope? The standing ones, the blind ones, or the mono skiers? ::Vanessa Knight: Oh my God, the blind ones for sure. I couldn't imagine throwing myself down a hill without seeing anything. Especially the B1s. They have duct tape on their goggles. WNIQ Where from Canada are you from? ::Vanessa Knight: I'm from Quebec. Montreal. WNIQ And how long have you been skiing? ::Vanessa Knight: I've just entered my fourth year. WNIQ And are you going to Sochi? ::Vanessa Knight: I hope so! WNIQ Are you going to beat... oh! Australia doesn't have any skiers for you to beat. Do you think the level of competition for women's disability skiing is high enough to give the sport a future? ::Vanessa Knight: I think the level of competition is high enough, yes. But I still think we need more racers and people to get involved and really promote the sport, because, I mean, the more the merrier, right? WNIQ Why are there so many men in skiing compared to women? ::Vanessa Knight: I guess some girls are just scared and they don't want to throw themselves out there. But I'm not like that and neither are the rest of the girls here. They're not afraid to throw themselves down a hill and go fast. WNIQ Do you think skiers are some of the craziest Paralympic athletes? ::Vanessa Knight: Oh definitely. WNIQ Is there anything you want to say about disability skiing in Canada that people in Australia or the world should know? ::Vanessa Knight: Pretty much to say: It's really cold in Canada. And we love it!" +sport,"The 2005 edition of the Little League World Series ended in thrilling fashion as Ewa Beach, Hawaii overcame a three run deficit in the last inning and eventually beat defending champion Curacao 7-6 in extra innings of the international championship game in front of a crowd of over 25,000. It is the first Little League World Series title for an American team since Kentucky beat Japan in 2002. Going into the sixth and final inning, the team from Ewa Beach was trailing 6-3 to the team from Willemstad, Curacao. However, a couple of key hits and timely bunts closed the gap, and Ewa Beach tied the game after Curacao was unable to complete a potential game-ending double play. Curacao was able to get out of the inning as the Little League championship game was sent into extra innings for the first time in over 30 years. After shutting down Curacao in the top of the seventh, Hawaii came up in the bottom of the seventh with a chance to complete the comeback. Hawaii's Michael Memea would finish what his teammates started by hitting a line drive solo home run with no one out to give Hawaii its first Little League championship. Curacao was trying to become the first back-to-back champions in Little League since Long Beach, California did it in 1992 and 1993." +sport,"2018 FIFA World Cup On Tuesday, Sweden defeated Switzerland 1&ndash;0 and England defeated Colombia 4&ndash;3 on penalties in the FIFA football World Cup in the Last 16 knockout phase. Sweden is now scheduled to play England in the quarter-finals. Sweden faced Switzerland at the Saint Petersburg stadium in the first match of the day. The Swiss side had greater ball possession and Xherdan Shaqiri made an early attempt for goal but missed. The Swedish side had multiple attempts to open the scoring, with Marcus Berg, Albin Ekdal and Mikael Lustig trying to find the net, but their shots missed the target or were blocked. Lustig was shown a yellow card in the 31st minute for a bad foul, the only one to be booked in the first half. In the 61st minute, Valon Behrami received a yellow card, the first Swiss player to be booked in the game. Five minutes later, Emil Forsberg scored a goal from Ola Toivonen's assist, putting Sweden in the lead. In the 68th minute, Granit Xhaka was also shown a yellow card. In the injury time, Sweden was awarded a penalty kick and Michael Lang was sent off after receiving a red card. But after referring with the video assistant referee, the penalty was cancelled as the foul happened outside the penalty area. Sweden won a freekick outside the penalty area. Toivonen's freekick was saved by Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer. The match ended with Sweden winning 1&ndash;0. After the match, Switzerland's coach Vladimir Petković said, ""We're sorely disappointed, the whole team is. We clearly wanted to do more. We should have done better but were simply below par and not good enough to win the game."" Sweden's coach Janne Andersson said, ""It was a surreal feeling to stand at the side of the pitch hearing the fans calling out my name, but football is a team sport and this team, for me, personifies that. We all work so hard for each other on and off the pitch. We know that we are a good team and that we have earned our successes."" Colombia faced the English side at Moscow's Spartak stadium. England had greater ball possession in the match. Both sides had multiple attempts to open the scoring, but nobody found the net. Colombia's Wilmar Barrios was yellow-carded in the 41st minute. In the second half, three more players, Santiago Arias, Carlos Sánchez and England's Jordan Henderson were booked. Sánchez brought down Harry Kane in the penalty area and England was awarded a penalty kick, which Kane converted. Juan Quintero's attempt to equalise for Colombia at the end of the one-hour mark was blocked. Colombia made a substitution in the 62nd minute, as Jefferson Lerma was substituted off for Carlos Bacca. A minute later, Dele Alli missed a chance to double the lead for England. Radamel Falcao and Bacca were booked in the 63rd and 64th minute while England's Jesse Lingard was booked in the 69th minute. In the final ten minutes of the 90-minute match, Eric Dier and Jamie Vardy replaced Alli and Raheem Sterling. Colombia scored an equaliser in the injury time when Yerry Mina's header from Juan Cuadrado's assist found the back of the net. The second half ended with both the sides tied at 1&ndash;1. In the additional time, Kyle Walker was taken off due to injury and was replaced by Marcus Rashford. The additional time saw no goals, and the match went on to the penalty shoot-out. Falcao, Cuadrado and Luis Muriel scored their penalty-kicks for Colombia; while Kane and Rashford scored for England. Jordan Henderson's kick was saved by Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina and Mateus Uribe missed his penalty kick for Colombia. Kieran Trippier scored from the spot-kick, while Bacca's penalty was saved. Eric Dier scored the winning penalty for England. After the match, Colombia's coach José Pékerman said, ""We've been a brave squad, we've fought hard. We've never thrown in the towel when facing an opponent. We've had the right attitude and mindset."" Harry Kane was awarded the Budweiser Man of the Match award." +sport,"* Padres 10, Diamondbacks 2: Going into this game, the first of a three-game series, the Padres and Diamondbacks were in a virtual tie, each team sitting at 14 games above .500. The Padres were led by Brian Giles, who hit two of the five homers scored by the Padres (9, 10), and a strong showing by Greg Maddux (11-9), who gave up two runs in 6 1/3 innings for the win. Micah Owings (6-8) gave up five runs in 3 innings for the loss. The Padres now lead the Diamondbacks by 1 game in the NL West. The Diamondbacks lead the NL Wild Card by 3 games over the Dodgers and the Phillies. * Mets 10, Reds 4: In his first start of the year, Pedro Martinez (1-0) reached 3,000 strikeouts in the second inning, becoming only the 15th major league player to reach the milestone. He threw four strikeouts altogether, giving up five hits and three runs (two earned) in five innings of work, getting the win. David Wright had 3 RBI, including a two-run homer (26). Aaron Harang (14-4) pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up six runs and ten hits. The Mets have a five-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East. * Red Sox 13, Blue Jays 10: After five innings, the Red Sox held a commanding 10-1 lead, but the Blue Jays scored 8 runs in the sixth inning to narrow the lead to one run, before the Red Sox were able to hold them off. Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up seven runs for the win, while Jays pitcher Jesse Litsch pitched 3 1/3 innings, allowing seven in the loss. Jonathan Papelbon pitched a perfect ninth for his 32nd save. * Mariners 7, Yankees 1: The Mariners narrowed the Yankees' lead in the AL Wild Card race to one game, stopping their nine-game losing streak Monday. Yuniesky Betancourt hit two doubles, driving in three runs and scoring once. Felix Hernandez (11-7) pitched seven innings, allowing one run and five hits. Roger Clemens (6-6) pitched four innings, giving up five runs for the loss. * Dodgers 11, Cubs 3: Esteban Loaiza (1-0) pitched seven innings, allowing three runs in his first start since joining the Dodgers on Wednesday. Loaiza also knocked in the winning runs with a two-run single in the fourth inning. Carlos Zambrano (14-12) pitched 4 1/3 innings, walking five and allowing eight runs in the loss. The Cubs lead the Brewers by 1.5 games, and the Cardinals by 2 games, in the NL Central; all three teams lost Monday. The Dodgers are 3 games back in the NL Wild Card race. * Astros 9, Brewers 7: The Brewers bullpen gave up six runs in three innings to blow a 7-4 lead. Hunter Pence went 3-4, a home run short of the cycle, with a two-run triple in the eighth and two runs scored. Greg Aquino (0-1) got the loss, though the only run he gave up was unearned, scoring on a passed ball. Dave Borkowski (4-3) picked up the win, pitching 2/3 of an inning. Chad Qualls picked up his 4th save on the season. The Brewers remain 1.5 games back of the Cubs in the NL Central. * Pirates 11, Cardinals 0: The Pirates scored all eleven runs in the first five innings of the game, led by Jack Wilson, who went 4-5 with 3 RBI, 2 runs, a double and a homer (8). Ian Snell (9-11) picked up the win, while Kip Wells (6-16) picked up the loss, giving up six runs in 3 1/3 innings. The Cardinals remain 2 games back of the Cubs in the NL Central. * Indians 5, Twins 0: Ryan Garko hit a solo homer and went 2-4. The Twins' Alexi Casilla went 4-4, but was unable to score or drive in any runs. C.C. Sabathia (16-7) pitched eight strong innings for the win, while Johan Santana (14-11) gave up four runs in six innings for the loss. The Indians increase their AL Central lead to six games over the Tigers, who did not play on Monday. * Braves 5, Phillies 1: Brian McCann knocked in the Braves' first two runs on a 4th inning double. Lance Cormier (2-4) pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up one run for the win. Jamie Moyer (12-11) gave up four runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 for the loss. The Phillies are five games behind the Mets in the NL East; the Braves are 7.5 games back. * Rockies 7, Giants 4: All seven Rockies runs were scored in the third inning; Chris Iannetta drove in two runs for the Rockies off a triple near the end of the inning. Jeff Francis (15-6) pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up three runs for the win. Matt Cain (7-14) left the game in the third inning, giving up six of the seven runs. Manny Corpas pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 13th save. * Nationals 6, Marlins 3: Ryan Zimmerman's only hit of the game, a two-run double, put the Nationals in the lead in the second inning. Jason Bergmann (3-5) gave up four hits and one run in seven innings, striking out nine batters against one walk, while Rick VandenHurk (4-5) gave up six runs in 5 1/3 innings for the loss. Chad Cordero picked up his 30th save. * Devil Rays 9, Orioles 7: Akinori Iwamura went 3-5, with a two-run homer in the 8th inning, and picked up a stolen base in the win. James Shields (11-8) pitched seven innings, giving up one earned run (four total) for the win. Jim Hoey (1-4) walked three and gave up three runs in one inning of work for the loss. * Angels 9, Athletics 5: The Angels were ahead 9-0, but a late rally by the Athletics closed the gap. Gary Matthews Jr., Jeff Mathis, and Garret Anderson all hit homers, but the Athletics scored four runs in the 8th inning and one in the 9th, led by Mike Piazza, who went 3-4 in the game, and had a two-run homer in the 8th, and a sacrifice fly for the only run in the 9th. Ervin Santana (6-12) pitched 6 1/3 innings of two-hit, scoreless ball for the win, while Chad Gaudin (10-10) gave up seven runs, six earned, in five innings of work. The Angels have a 6.5 game lead on the Mariners, and own the best record in baseball at 81-56. * Royals 8, Rangers 1: Alex Gordon went 3-6 with 4 RBI, as the Royals picked up the win. Zack Greinke (6-5) pitched five scoreless innings for the win, while Kamerin Loe (6-11) left after the third inning, giving up two runs and five hits for the loss." +sport,"Sports Three people were shot outside Nationals Park in the U.S. capital city of Washington, D.C. during a baseball game Saturday night between the Washington Nationals and the San Diego Padres at the bottom of the game's sixth inning. The game was suspended until the next day. The District of Colombia's (D.C.) Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said the shooting happened outside the ballpark's third base gate on South Capitol Street, telling the The Washington Post that one woman was shot and two others took themselves to the hospital. All three have non-life-threatening injuries. On Twitter, The Washington Posts Sam Fortier wrote ""stadium employees are saying this appeared to be a drive-by shooting."" D.C. police said gunfire was shot from one vehicle to another. Early reports by the police said four people were injured by gunfire, but this was later revised to three. A joint statement from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Nationals owner Mark D. Lerner said, ""While MPD's investigation is ongoing, it appears the incident involved a dispute between individuals in two vehicles. MPD does not believe the Washington Nationals, the ballpark or fans were the target"". Gunshots were reportedly audible within the stadium which led many to disperse, with players exiting the field right after and some spectators fleeing the stadium through the park's gates. Padres players Fernando Tatis, Jr. and Manny Machado opened the gate to the field allowing parkgoers into the dugout, the The Washington Posts Andrew Golden said on Twitter. Both Tatis and Machado along with Padres players Wil Myers and Jurickson Profar helped pull family members and spectators into the dugout's safety. Spectators were first told to remain within the stadium, but was later being encouraged to leave through the outfield. The park was emptied out by 10:05 P.M. ET (0205 UTC). In a statement, the Washington Nationals team said, ""During the incident last night outside of the ballpark, you handled yourselves in a very admirable manner. You stayed calm. You helped one another. We have always known that we have the best fans in baseball. Last night, you showed it. Davey Martinez said it best—our fans are our family. Thank you."" At the game's suspension, the Padres were leading eight points to four. The suspended game resumed yesterday at 1:08 P.M. EST (1708 UTC), where the Padres beat the Nationals 10–4, gaining two additional runs after Saturday's postponement. The Nationals rallied and won the game already scheduled for that day against the Padres 8–7, which ended a six-game streak of losses for the Washington team." +sport,"Yesterday, on day three of the IPC Nor-Am Cup at Copper Mountain's Rosie's Arena run, Australia earned only one medal, with Cameron Rahles-Rahbula picking up a gold medal in the men's standing Giant Slalom." +sport,"On Saturday, June 2, referee Herbert Fandel abandoned the UEFA Euro 2008 qualification match between Denmark and Sweden. The match, which was being played at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, was tied 3-3 with one minute to go in regulation time. Denmark had fought back from a 3 goal deficit to tie the match, when Fandel awarded a penalty kick to Sweden and showed Christian Poulsen the red card for a flagrant foul. A Danish fan made his way onto the pitch and attempted to assault the referee, although he was at least partially restrained by Danish players. Sweden will likely be awarded a 3-0 victory by the UEFA. This and any other sanctions will be announced on Friday. The fan, whose identity was protected by the judge at his arraignment, apologized to his countrymen, many of whom see him as a traitor. ""People in Denmark hate me, but I have no feeling yet what the reaction in Sweden is, other than they of course believe I am an idiot,"" said the 29-year-old Dane who claims to have consumed 15 to 20 beers before the incident." +sport,"In the gold medal match at water polo's FINA World League Final tonight between the Australia Stingers and United States women's national water polo team, Australia lost 4&ndash;6 to the USA" +sport,"The George Mason University Patriots of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) defeated the University of Connecticut Huskies today in overtime, 86-84. GMU becomes the first team from the CAA to reach the Final Four in a NCAA Division I basketball championship, and only the second 11th seed (LSU was the other in 1986). The Huskies were the number one seed in the Washington Region. GMU is also the first true mid-major to reach the Final Four since 1979 with Penn State and Indiana State. This year held the Patriots' first NCAA Tournament game victory, where they beat Michigan State (No. 6 seed) and the University of North Carolina (No. 3 seed) in the first two rounds. They defeated Wichita State in the third round, setting up today's match against UConn. Although GMU lost to the University of North Carolina - Wilmington in the CAA Championship bid, the NCAA selection committee awarded the team an at-large bid. This drew criticism from sports commentators such as Billy Packer, who felt it was more appropriate to give at-large bids to schools from major conferences, like the Big East, Big 10, or ACC. Packer argued that the tougher schedules during the regular season in those conferences gave more legitimacy to teams in those leagues. 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament" +sport,"2012 Olympic Paralympics London, England&mdash; Slovakian fans were out in force at London's ExCeL earlier today, watching the 23-minute table tennis match between Great Britain's Sara Head and their country's Alena Kanova. The battle for bronze in the women's single class 3 match ended with Kanova winning by 3 sets to 1 to take the medal. Head took an early lead, winning the first set 11&ndash;2 before going down to Kanova in the second set by 5&ndash;11. Head kept the scoring closer in the third set at 4&ndash;7 at one point, before losing 5&ndash;11. The British fans dominated Slovakia in terms of volume, chanting ""G-B! G-B!"" in support of their player, with the occasional shout of ""Go Sara!"". The Slovaks ruled the stands in terms of waving large flags. A loud chant from Great Britain's fans stopped abruptly after Kanova scored. Head could not come back in the fourth set, losing 3&ndash;11 and seeing Kanova take the bronze. In the gold medal match on the main table, Austria's Doris Mader lost to Sweden's Anna-Carin Ahlquist, with Ahlquist receiving loud support from her teammates and coaches. She won 11&ndash;4, 11&ndash;6 and 11&ndash;5 in straight sets." +sport,"Sunday, Wikinews sat down with Australian blind Paralympic skier Jessica Gallagher and her guide Eric Bickerton who are participating in a national team training camp in Vail, Colorado. Wikinews This is Jessica Gallagher. She's competing at the IPC NorAm cup this coming week. ::Jessica Gallagher: I'm not competing at Copper Mountain. WNIQ You're not competing? ::Jessica Gallagher: No. WNIQ You're just here? ::Jessica Gallagher: We're in training. I've got a race at Winner Park, but we aren't racing at Copper. WNIQ So. Your guide is Eric Bickerton, and he did win a medal in women's downhill blind skiing. ::Jessica Gallagher: Yes! WNIQ Despite the fact that he is neither a woman nor blind. ::Jessica Gallagher: No, he loves telling people that he was the first Australian female Paralympic woman to win a medal. One of the ironies. WNIQ The IPC's website doesn't list guides on their medal things. Are they doing that because they don't want &mdash; you realise this is not all about you per se &mdash; Is it because they are trying to keep off the able bodied people to make the Paralympics seem more pure for people with disabilities? ::Jessica Gallagher: Look, I don't know but I completely disagree if they don't have the guides up there. Because it's pretty plain and simple: I wouldn't be skiing if it wasn't with him. Being legally blind you do have limitations and that's just reality. We're certainly able to overcome most of them. And when it comes to skiing on a mountain the reason I'm able to overcome having 8 per cent vision is that I have a guide. So I think it's pretty poor if they don't have the information up there because he does as much work as I do. He's an athlete as much as I am. If he crashes we're both out. He's drug tested. He's as important as I am on a race course. So I would strongly hope that they would put it up there. Here's Eric! ::Eric Bickerton: Pleased to met you. WNIQ We've been having a great debate about whether or not you've won a medal in women's blind downhill skiing. ::Eric Bickerton: Yes, I won it. I've got it. WNIQ I found a picture of you on the ABC web site. Both of you were there, holding your medals up. The IPC's web site doesn't credit you. ::Jessica Gallagher: I'm surprised by that. ::Eric Bickerton: That's unusual, yeah. WNIQ One of the things that was mentioned earlier, most delightful about you guys is you were racing and ""we were halfway down the course and we lost communication!"" How does a blind skier deal with... ::Jessica Gallagher: Funny now. Was bloody scary. WNIQ What race was that? ::Jessica Gallagher: It was the Giant Slalom in Vancouver at the Paralympics. Actually, we were talking about this before. It's one of the unique aspects of wearing headsets and being able to communicate. All the time while we were on the mountain earlier today, Eric had a stack and all he could hear as he was tumbling down was me laughing. ::Eric Bickerton: Yes... I wasn't feeling the love. ::Jessica Gallagher: But um... what was the question please? WNIQ I couldn't imagine anything scarier than charging down the mountain at high speed and losing that communications link. ::Jessica Gallagher: The difficulty was in the Giant Slalom, it was raining, and being used to ski racing, I had never experienced skiing in the rain, and as soon as I came out of the start hut I lost all my sight, which is something that I had never experienced before. Only having 8 per cent you treasure it and to lose all of it was a huge shock. And then when I couldn't hear Eric talking I realised that our headsets had malfunctioned because they'd actually got rain into them. Which normally wouldn't happen in the mountains because it would be snow. So it was the scariest moment of my life. Going down it was about getting to the bottom in one piece, not racing to win a medal, which was pretty difficult I guess or frustrating, given that it was the Paralympics. WNIQ I asked the standing guys upstairs: who is the craziest amongst all you skiers: the ones who can't see, the ones on the mono skis, or the one-legged or no-armed guys. Who is the craziest one on the slopes? ::Jessica Gallagher: I think the completely blind. If I was completely blind I wouldn't ski. Some of the sit skiers are pretty crazy as well. WNIQ You have full control over your skis though. You have both legs and both arms. ::Jessica Gallagher: True, but you've got absolutely no idea where you're going. And you have to have complete reliance on a person. Trust that they are able to give you the right directions. That you are actually going in the right direction. It's difficult with the sight that I have but I couldn't imagine doing it with no sight at all. WNIQ The two of you train together all the time? ::Eric Bickerton: Pretty well, yes. ::Jessica Gallagher: Yes, everything on snow basically is together. One of the difficult things I guess is we have to have that 100 per cent communication and trust between one another and a lot of the female skiers on the circuit, their guide is their husband. That's kind of a trust relationship. Eric does say that at times it feels like we're married, but... ::Eric Bickerton: I keep checking for my wallet. ::Jessica Gallagher: ...it's always about constantly trying to continue to build that relationship so that eventually I just... You put your life in his hands and whatever he says, you do, kind of thing. WNIQ Of the two sport, winter sports and summer sports person, how do you find that balance between one sport and the other sport? ::Jessica Gallagher: It's not easy. Yeah, it's not easy at all. Yesterday was my first day on snow since March 16, 2010. And that was mainly because of the build up obviously for London and the times when I was going to ski I was injured. So, to not have skied for that long is obviously a huge disadvantage when all the girls have been racing the circuit since... and it's vice versa with track and field. So I've got an amazing team at the Victorian Institute of Sport. I call them my little A Team of strength and mission coach, physio, osteopath, soft tissue therapist, sport psychologist, dietician. Basically everyone has expertise in the area and we come together and having meetings and plan four years ahead and say at the moment Sochi's the goal, but Rio's still in the back of the head, and knowing my body so well now that I've done both sports for five years means that I can know where they've made mistakes, and I know where things have gone really well, so we can plan ahead for that and prepare so that the things that did go wrong won't happen again. To make sure that I get to each competition in peak tone. WNIQ What things went wrong? ::Jessica Gallagher: Mainly injuries. So, that's the most difficult thing with doing two sports. Track and field is an explosive power; long jump and javelin are over four to six seconds of maximum effort. Ski racing, you are on a course, for a minute to a minute and a half, so it's a speed endurance event. And the two couldn't be further apart in terms of the capabilities and the capacities that you need as an athlete. So one of the big things I guess, after the Vancouver campaign, being in ski boots for so long, I had lost a lot of muscle from my calves so they weren't actually firing properly, and when you're trying to run and jump and you don't have half of your leg working properly it makes it pretty difficult to jump a good distance. Those kind of things. So I'm skiing now but when I'm in a gym doing recovery and rehab or prehab stuff, I've got calf raising, I've got hamstring exercises because I know they're the weaker areas that if I'm not working on at the moment they're two muscle groups that don't get worked during ski. That I need to do the extra stuff on the side so that when I transition back to track and field I don't have any soft tissue injuries like strains because of the fact that I know they're weaker so... WNIQ Do you prefer one over the other? Do you say ""I'd really rather be out on the slopes than jogging and jumping the same... ::Jessica Gallagher: I get asked that a lot. I think I love them for different reasons and I hate them for different reasons so I think at the end of the day I would prefer ski racing mainly because of the lifestyle. I think ski racing is a lot harder than track and field to medal in but I love the fact that I get to come to amazing resorts and get to travel the world. But I think, at the end of the day I get the best of both worlds. By the time my body has had enough of cold weather and of traveling I get to go home and be in the summer and be on a track in such a stable environment, which is something that visually impaired people love because it's familiar and you know what to expect. Whereas in this environment it's not, every racecourse we use is completely different. WNIQ I heard you were an average snowboarder. How disappointed were you when you when they said no to your classifications? ::Jessica Gallagher: Very disappointed! For Sochi you mean? WNIQ Yes ::Jessica Gallagher: Yeah. I mean we weren't really expecting it. Mainly because they've brought in snowboard cross, and I couldn't imagine four blind athletes and four guides going down the same course together at the same time. That would be a disaster waiting to happen. But I guess having been a snowboarder for... as soon as we found snowboarding had been put in, I rang Steve, the head coach, and said can we do snowboarding? When I rang Steve I said, don't worry, I've already found out that Eric can snowboard. It would have been amazing to have been able to compete in both. Maybe next games. WNIQ So you also snowboard? ::Eric Bickerton: Yes. WNIQ So she does a lot of sports and you also do a crazy number of sports? ::Eric Bickerton: Uh, yeah? WNIQ Summer sports as well as winter sports? ::Eric Bickerton: Me? WNIQ Yes. ::Eric Bickerton: Through my sporting career. I've played rugby union, rugby league, soccer, early days, I played for the Australian Colts, overseas, rugby union. I spend most of my life sailing competitively and socially. Snow skiing. Yeah. Kite boarding and trying to surf again. WNIQ That's a lot of sports! Does Jessica need guides for all of them? ::Eric Bickerton: I've played sport all my life. I started with cricket. I've played competition squash. I raced for Australia in surfing sailing. Played rugby union. WNIQ Most of us have played sport all our lives, but there's a difference between playing sport and playing sport at a high level, and the higher level you go, the more specialized you tend to become. And here we're looking at two exceptions to that. ::Eric Bickerton: I suppose that I can round that out by saying to you that I don't think that I would ever reach the pinnacle. I'm not prepared to spend ten years dedicated to that one thing. And to get that last ten per cent or five percent of performance at that level. That's what you've got to do. So I'll play everything to a reasonable level, but to get to that really, really highest peak level you have to give up everything else. WNIQ When you go to the pub, do your mates make fun of you for having a medal in women's blind skiing? ::Eric Bickerton: No, not really. ::Jessica Gallagher: Usually they say ""I love it!"" and ""This is pretty cool!"" ::Eric Bickerton: We started at the Olympics. We went out into the crowd to meet Jess' mum, and we had our medals. There were two of us and we were waiting for her mum to come back and in that two hour period there was at least a hundred and fifty people from all over the world who wore our medals and took photographs. My medal's been all over Australia. WNIQ Going to a completely different issue, blind sports have three classifications, that are medical, unlike everybody else, who've got functional ability classifications. You've got the only medical ones. Do you think the blind classifications are fair in terms of how they operate? Or should there be changes? And how that works in terms of the IPC? ::Jessica Gallagher: Yeah. I think the system they've got in place is good, in terms of having the three classes. You've got completely blind which are B1s, less than 5 percent, which are B2, and less than 10 percent is a B3. I think those systems work really well. I guess one of the difficult things with vision impairment is that there are so many diseases and conditions that everyone's sight is completely different, and they have that problem with the other classes as well. But in terms of the class system itself I think having the three works really well. What do you think? ::Eric Bickerton: I think the classification system itself's fine. It's the one or two grey areas, people: are they there or are they there? WNIQ That affected you in Beijing. ::Jessica Gallagher: Yeah. That was obviously really disappointing, but, ironic as well in that one of my eyes is point zero one of a percent too sighted, so one's eligible, the other's just outside their criteria, which left me unable to compete. Because my condition is degenerative. They knew that my sight would get worse. I guess I was in a fortunate position where once my sight deteriorated I was going to become eligible. There are some of the classes, if you don't have a degenerate condition, that's not possible. No one ever wants to lose their best sight, but that was one positive. WNIQ On some national competitions they have a B4 class. Do you think those should be eligible? In terms of the international competition? ::Jessica Gallagher: Which sports have B4s? WNIQ There's a level down, it's not used internationally, I think it's only used for domestic competitions. I know the UK uses it. ::Jessica Gallagher: I think I... A particular one. For social reasons, that's a great thing, but I think if it's, yeah. I don't know if I would... I think socially to get more Paralympic athletes involved in the sport if they've got a degenerative condition on that border then they should be allowed to compete but obviously... I don't think they should be able to receive any medals at a national competition or anything like that. So I was, after Beijing, I was able to fore-run races. I was able to transition over to skiing even though at that stage I wasn't eligible. So that was great for us. The IPC knew that my eyesight was going to get worse. So I was able to fore-run races. Which was a really good experience for us, when we did get to that level. So I think, with the lack of numbers in Paralympic sport, more that you should encourage athletes and give them those opportunities, it's a great thing. But I guess it's about the athletes realizing that you're in it for the participation, and to grow as an athlete rather than to win medals. I don't think the system should be changed. I think three classes is enough. Where the B3 line is compared with a B4 is legally blind. And I think that covers everything. I think that's the stage where you have low enough vision to be considered a Paralympic sport as opposed to I guess an able bodied athlete. And that's with all forms of like, with government pensions, with bus passes, all that sort of stuff, that the cut off line is legally blind, so I think that's a good place to keep it. WNIQ Veering away from this, I remember watching the Melbourne Cup stuff on television, and there you were, I think you were wearing some hat or something. ::Jessica Gallagher: Yeah, my friend's a milliner. They were real flowers, real orchids. WNIQ Are you basically a professional athlete who has enough money or sponsorship to do that sort of stuff? I was saying, there's Jessica Gallagher! She was in London! That's so cool! ::Jessica Gallagher: There are two organizations that I'm an ambassador for, and one of them is Vision Australia, who were a charity for the Melbourne Cup Carnival. So as part of my ambassador role I was at the races helping them raise money. And that involves media stuff, so that was the reason I was there. I didn't get paid. WNIQ But if you're not getting paid to be a sponsor for all that is awesome in Australia, what do you do outside of skiing, and the long jump, and the javelin? ::Jessica Gallagher: I'm an osteopath. So I finished my masters' degree in 2009. I was completing a bachelor's and a masters. I was working for the Victorian Institute of Sport guiding program but with the commitment to London having so much travel I actually just put everything on hold in terms of my osteo career. There's not really enough time. And then the ambassador role, I had a few commitments with that, and I did motivational speaking. WNIQ That's very cool. Eric, I've read that you work as a guide in back country skiing, and all sorts of crazy stuff like that. What do you do when you're not leading Jessica Gallagher down a ski slope? ::Eric Bickerton: I'm the Chief Executive of Disabled Winter Sports Australia. So we look after all the disability winter sports, except for the Paralympics. ::Jessica Gallagher: Social, recreational... WNIQ You like that? You find it fulfilling? ::Eric Bickerton: The skiing aspect's good. I dunno about the corporate stuff. I could give that a miss. But I think it is quite fulfilling. Yeah, they're a very good group of people there who enjoy themselves, both in disabilities and able bodied. We really need guides and support staff. WNIQ Has it changed over the last few years? ::Eric Bickerton: For us? WNIQ Being a guide in general? How things have changed or improved, have you been given more recognition? ::Eric Bickerton: No. I don't see myself as an athlete. Legally we are the athlete. If I fail, she fails. We ski the exact same course. But there's some idiosyncrasies associated with it. Because I'm a male guiding, I have to ski on male skis, which are different to female skis, which means my turn shape I have to control differently so it's the same as her turn shape. It's a little bit silly. Whereas if I was a female guiding, I'd be on exactly the same skis, and we'd be able to ski exactly the same all the way through. In that context I think the fact that Jess won the medal opened the eyes to the APC about visual impairment as a definite medal contending aspect. The biggest impediment to the whole process is how the Hell do you get a guide who's (a) capable, (b) available and (c) able to fund himself. So we're fortunate that the APC pushed for the recognition of myself as an athlete, and because we have the medal from the previous Olympics, we're now tier one, so we get the government funding all way through. Without that two years before the last games, that cost me fifteen, sixteen months of my time, and $40,000 of cash to be the guide. So while I enjoyed it, and well I did, it is very very hard to say that a guide could make a career out of being a guide. There needs to be a little bit more consideration of that, a bit like the IPC saying no you're not a medal winner. It's quite a silly situation where it's written into the rules that you are both the athlete and yet at the same time you're not a medal winner. I think there's evolution. It's growing. It's changing. It's very, very difficult. WNIQ Are you guys happy with the media coverage on the winter side? Do you think there's a bias &mdash; obviously there is a bias towards the Summer Paralympics. Do the winter people get a fair shake? ::Eric Bickerton: I think it's fair. It's reasonable. And there's certainly a lot more than what it used to be. Winter sports in general, just from an Australian perspective is something that's not well covered. But I'd say the coverage from the last Paralympics, the Para Winter Olympics was great, as far as an evolution of the coverage goes. WNIQ Nothing like winning a medal, though, to lift the profile of a sport. ::Jessica Gallagher: And I think that certainly helped after Vancouver. Not just Paralympics but able bodied with Lydia Lassila and Torah Bright winning, and then to have Eric and I win a medal, to finally have an Aussie female who has a winter Paralympic medal. I guess there can be misconceptions, I mean the winter team is so small in comparison to the summer team, they are always going to have a lot more coverage just purely based on numbers. There were 160 Australian athletes that were at London and not going to be many of us in Sochi. Sorry. Not even ten, actually. ::Eric Bickerton: There's five athletes. ::Jessica Gallagher: There's five at the moment, yeah. So a lot of the time I think with Paralympic sport, at the moment, APC are doing great things to get a lot of coverage for the team and that, but I think also individually, it's growing. I've certainly noticed a lot more over the past two years but Eric and I are in a very unique situation. For me as well being both a summer and a winter Paralympian, there's more interest I guess. I think with London it opened Australia and the word's eyes to Paralympic sport, so the coverage from that hopefully will continue through Sochi and I'll get a lot more people covered, but I know prior to Beijing and Vancouver, compared to my build up to London, in terms of media, it was worlds apart in terms of the amount of things I did and the profile pieces that were created. So that was great to see that people are actually starting to understand and see what it's like." +sport,"* Braves 7, Nationals 1: Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz lost a no-hitter after seven innings, giving up a single to Ronnie Belliard in the first at-bat of the eighth inning; after allowing the hit, Smoltz left the game to cheers from the home crowd. Belliard later scored, so Smoltz (13-7) finished with one hit and one earned run for the win. Joel Hanrahan (4-3) pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up five runs (four earned) for the loss. The Nationals committed five errors in the game, three of them by third-baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who also went 0-4, striking out all four times he batted. In the ninth inning of the game, a fan ran onto the field; he was immediately tackled by security officers, but one officer was injured after he landed on his head in the scuffle, and the game was halted while the officer was carted off the field for treatment. The Braves (72-69) are 7.5 games back of the Mets in the NL East, and 4.5 games back of the Padres in the NL Wild Card race. * White Sox 11, Twins 10, 13 inn: In a wild game that saw the Twins score six runs in the 9th inning to break a 4-4 tie, only to allow six runs to the White Sox in the bottom half of the inning, A.J. Pierzynski finally won the game in the 13th inning with a bases-loaded walkoff single. Heath Phillips (1-1) got the win, giving up one hit in the 13th. Juan Rincon (3-3) pitched 1 1/3 inning, allowing the winning run for the loss. * Red Sox 4, Orioles 0: Jon Lester (4-0) gave up four hits in seven scoreless innings for the win. The Red Sox (86-56) lead the Yankees in the AL East by 6.5 games. * Yankees 3, Royals 2: Bobby Abreu knocked in the winning run in the 7th on an RBI double. The Yankees (79-62) lead the AL Wild Card race by 3 games over the Tigers. * Angels 3, Indians 2, 10 inn: Ryan Garko tied the game at 2-2 for the Indians in the 9th inning, but Kendry Morales hit a walkoff single to score Chone Figgins in the bottom of the 10th. The Angels (84-57) lead the AL West by 9 games over the Mariners, while the Indians (81-60) lead the AL Central by 5 games over the Tigers. * Tigers 6, Mariners 1: Curtis Granderson went 2-4, hitting his 20th homer of the year and becoming only the 6th player in MLB history to hit 20 doubles, 20 triples and 20 home runs in the same season. The Tigers (76-65) trail the Indians in the AL Central by 5 games, and trail the Yankees in the AL Wild Card by 3 games. * Mets 11, Astros 3: Carlos Beltran hit the game-winning solo homer and an RBI single in the game. The Mets (79-61) lead the NL East by 6 games. * Marlins 6, Phillies 3: Miguel Olivo hit a solo homer and an RBI double, and scored two runs in the game; all three of the Phillies' runs came off a Pat Burrell three-run homer in the 4th. The Phillies trail the Mets by 6 games in the NL East, and trail the Padres by 3 games in the NL Wild Card. * Pirates 6, Cubs 1: Jack Wilson finished a triple shy of the cycle, hitting a two-run homer and an RBI double to help the Pirates to a victory. The Cubs (71-69) are tied with the Brewers in the NL Central. * Reds 11, Brewers 4: A six-run first inning sealed the game for the Reds, led by Ken Griffey Jr., who hit his 30th homer of the year, a two-run shot in the 2nd, and drove in a run off a 1st inning single. The Brewers (71-69) are tied with the Cubs in the NL Central. * Diamondbacks 4, Cardinals 2: Eric Byrnes drove in the tying run off an RBI double, and scored the winning run off a fielder's choice in the 6th inning. The Diamondbacks (79-63) lead the NL West by 2 games, while the Cardinals (69-69) trail the Cubs and Brewers by 1 game in the NL Central. * Rockies 10, Padres 4: The Padres lost their third straight game; Rockies starting pitcher Elmer Dessens left due to injury in the third inning. The Padres (76-64) trail the Diamondbacks by 2 games in the NL West, but lead the NL Wild Card by 2.5 games. * Rangers 5, Athletics 3: Rangers leadoff batter Frank Catalanotto went 3-4 with a solo homer, an RBI triple, and an RBI infield single. * Giants 5, Dodgers 4: After the Giants lost a one-run lead on a James Loney solo homer in the top of the 9th, the Giants' Dan Ortmeier answered back with a walk-off homer to win the game. * Blue Jays 7, Devil Rays 2: Matt Stairs hit RBI singles to right field in the 5th and 6th innings; in the 5th inning, John McDonald and Vernon Wells scored; in the 6th inning, McDonald scored, but Wells was thrown out at home." +sport,"With a very tough defence and an attack of 101 points, the European Champions, Greece, beat the national team of the United States of America with a score 101-95, on the semi-final of the 2006 Fiba World Championship which took place in Saitama, Japan. The Greek team had a very good day - especially Vassilis Spanoulis and Dimitris Diamantidis - while the zone defence organized by the Greek coach Panayiotis Giannakis blocked the NBA stars who, despite their good performance, will not take part in the final. The best player of the USA team was Denver Nuggets star, Carmello Anthony, who scored 25 points. The other semi-final of the 2006 Fiba World Championship is the game between Argentina and Spain. Greece: Papaloukas 8, Diamantidis 12(2), Τsartsaris 3(1), Hadjivrettas 2, Vasilopoulos, Schorchianitis 12, Papadopoulos 8, Kakiouzis 13(1), Fotsis 9(1), Dikoudis 8, Spanoulis 20(3). United States: Paul 3, Wade 22(1), Arenas, Heinrich 12(4), Bowen, Anthony 25(3), Jameson, Battier 1, James 15, Johnson 3(1), Bosh 2, Miller, Howard 10." +sport,"Professional cyclist Matt Decanio was fired in January from the Ofoto/Sierra Nevada cycling team for breaking what the team spokesman Josh Kadis called ""ground rules"" about what materials Decanio would be permitted to post on his anti-doping website, according to a report by VeloNews. The websites at issue are Stolen Underground and Mattdecanio.com. Decanio's anti-doping stance started with his admission to the use of EPO in the summer of 2003 in preparation for the Housatonic Valley Classic in Connecticut, USA." +sport,"referee=Markus Schmidt Hertha striker Marko Pantelic missed from the penalty spot when his 90th minute penalty hit the crossbar as Hertha drew 0-0 at home to winless Energie Cottbus. The draw gave Cottbus their first away point of the season. Gilberto moved to the left of midfield in the place of Lucio. Pal Dardai returned, while Sofian Chahed was preferred Tobias Grahn in right of midfield. The game began in a cautious manner and it was the Energie Cottbus who created the first chance in the 20th minute, as Dimitar Rangelov tested Hertha keeper Jaroslav Drobny with a free kick from just outside the penalty area. Hertha Berlin got it's 1st chance in the 35th minute. However, Pantelic was ruled offside. Hertha dominated most of the game. In the final minute, match referee Schmidt pointed to the penalty spot. Marko Pantelic struck his spot kick against the crossbar and out of danger! that was it. Bundesliga takes a two week break because of international fixtures. On October 20th, Hertha travel to Werder Bremen for round 10." +sport,"2008 Olympic GamesSeptember 8, 2008 is the 2nd major day of the 2008 Paralympic games, the below article summaries all the highlights. Eleanor Simmonds, Great Britain's youngest athlete at the paralympic games, won the gold medal in the women's S6 100 metres freestyle, despite the fact that she is only aged 13. Simmonds, who has achondroplasia said that ""I can't believe it."" She then said that ""in the last 25 (metres) I knew everybody was around me, so I just got my head into it, got my last bit of energy and just went for it."" Six of the eleven competitors in the final of the T54 class womens's 5000m event failed to complete the course after a crash near the end of the race. As a result of this, a rerun will take place. The medals won in the race will be returned due to this decision. The gold medal in the original race was won by the Canadian Diane Roy and the silver was taken by the British Shelly Woods. The British competitor spoke about the crash after the race. ""When the crash happened I had moved on the outside but I was at the back of the pack and was trying to get around someone,"" she said. ""It all happened so fast in front of me that I had to move my chair over quickly and from there it was just a race to the line. "" The French Elodie Lorandi set a new world record in the S10 class of the women's 100m butterfly with her time of 59.80 seconds. The record was set in the first heat of event. Russian Anna Efimenko set a new world record in the S13 class of the women's 400m freestyle with her time of 4 minutes and 37.37 seconds. The record was set in the final of the event. 2008 Beijing Paralympic medal count" +sport,"France The British cyclist Chris Froome won the 100th Tour de France yesterday following the conclusion of the final stage in Paris. The final stage of the Tour was won by Marcel Kittel from Germany. Froome's total time for the 3,400 km (2,112 miles) tour was 83 hours, 56 minutes and 40 seconds, four minutes and twenty seconds faster than the runner-up, Nairo Quintana from Colombia. Quintana edged out Froome by eleven points to take the King of the Mountains jersey while Peter Sagan took the green points jersey. 169 riders completed the twenty-stage tour at Paris' Champs Élysées. Last year, Froome came second to Sir Bradley Wiggins who did not participate this year following injuries. Froome's victory speech was dedicated to his mother Jane, who died in 2008 from cancer: ""Without her encouragement to follow my dreams, I'd probably be at home watching this event on TV. It's a great shame she never got to come see the Tour, but I'm sure she'd be extremely proud if she were here tonight."" British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted congratulations to the 28-year-old Froome: ""A brilliant win by Chris Froome. After two British winners it's only right the Tour de France comes to Yorkshire next year""." +sport,"COVID-19 On Tuesday, North Korean government announced it would not participate in the delayed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics ""to protect players from the world public health crisis caused by COVID-19"", the Associated Press reported. It is North Korea's first official withdrawal from Olympics since their boycott of the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, South Korea, CBS News reported. According to South Korea's Ministry of Unification, this is the first time North Korea withdrew from a major international sports event due to concerns of an infectious disease. Several athletes from multiple disciplines did not participate in the 2016 Summer Olympics over concerns of the Zika virus, but North Korea did. South Korean President Moon Jae-in had hoped the two nations could field a joint team similar to its unified Korean Peninsula team at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Al Jazeera reported. While North Korea claims to have no cases of the coronavirus, professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University Park Won Gon says it has shown ""a coronavirus-related neurosis since it declared an emergency anti-virus system in January last year"", adding it was very unlikely the country would be able to procure enough vaccines for its population by July, when the 2020 Olympics are scheduled to take place. In November, Daily NK reported North Korea had placed 81 thousand people, in quarantine excluding the soldiers in quarantine; and, by October 22, 32,011 people were placed in isolation. A source told Daily NK over 300 people had died in an isolation centre in Anju, South Pyongan. Director of Asian Studies at Temple University, Japan Campus Jeff Kingston told CBS this decision was a ""setback for diplomacy"". CBS also reported Seoul's disappointment at the nation's non-attendance, depriving South Korea a chance to discuss relations with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Recently, North Korea's vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and sister of Kim Jong-un Kim Yo Jong warned March 16 ""the peaceful spring days of three years ago are unlikely to return"", calling South Korean leaders as ""all born with stupidity"" and they ""have become the dumb and deaf bereft of judgment"". The warning came after the United States and South Korea held joint military drills in March. This also comes after North Korea tested two ballistic missile on March 24, described by former admiral of the Japanese fleet Yoji Koda as ""just the beginning of North Korean fervour."" North Korea participated in the boycotts of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and 1988 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles." +sport,"IraqThe International Olympic Committee (IOC) has told the Iraqi Olympic Committee that Iraq can not field a team in the 2008 Summer Olympics, which are due to open in Beijing, China August 8, 2008. The International Olympic committee said that it took this action ""as a consequence of the ongoing political interference by the government within the sports movement in Iraq."" The Iraqi government suspended its Olympic Committee, the National Olympic Committee of Iraq, which they viewed as dysfunctional for several reasons, including the holding of illegitimate meetings, having officials serve past their post and living outside of the country. Interference by government is not permitted by the IOC. The government of Iraq has said that the decision undermines the effort athletes put into getting a place in the Iraqi Olympic team. Dana Hussain, one of the sprinters who would have been on the Iraqi team, was reported to be distraught by the decision. According to her coach she was ""crying for about two hours."" Her coach compared the decision to ""finding out that a close relative has died."" The deadline to register for five of the seven would-be Iraqi Olympians has passed. However, if the National Olympic Committee of Iraq is reinstated, the possibility exists that its two sprinters may be able to compete, if they register before the track and field deadline at the end of July." +sport,"Tour de France 2007At least half a million onlookers turned out to line the route as the Tour de France Prologue closed the streets of Central London for a day. Setting off at one minute intervals the 180 plus riders took less than ten minutes to speed past some of London's most memorable landmarks. With the eventual winner World time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara completing the 7.9 kilometre individual time trial in 8 minutes 50 seconds. The Tour had to compete with more familiar sporting events, the British Grand Prix, the closing stages of Wimbledon and with the Live Earth concerts for the heart's of the British public. However some say as many as a million turned out for the Gallic extravaganza; the party atmosphere aided by a turn in the weather, the sun coming out for the first time all summer. Run on the second anniversary of the 2005 terrorist attacks and at a time of heightened security, policing was successfully discrete the most visible police presence, by way of their novelty being, 45 members of the Gendarme Nationale. Coming to England for the first time since 1994 fans new and old had the course of the day and the three hours of the trials to familiarise themselves with the French institution. The initial good natured cheering on of every rider, growing into real excitement as the shape of the race emerged. At the end of the day the standings were:" +sport,"Baltimore Orioles After two games into the season, the Minnesota Twins are the sole leader of the American League Central division, something they couldn't accomplish last year until an hour after their final game ended. The Twins, now 2-0, defeated the Baltimore Orioles Tuesday night at the Metrodome. The Twins played offensively, stealing five bases in the night, and tomorrow will attempt at a sweep of the three-game series. Twins starter Boof Bonser pitched six innings, giving up three hits and two runs with six strikeouts. Pat Neshek pitched one inning with one strikeout. Juan Rincon pitched a third of an inning, giving up one hit with one strikeout. Dennys Reyes pitched a third of an inning, giving up one hit. Jesse Crain pitched a third of an inning with one strikeout. Joe Nathan picked up his second save with one strikeout. Orioles starter Daniel Cabrera pitched seven innings, giving up six hits and three runs with nine strikeouts. Jamie Walker pitched two thirds of an inning, giving up one hit with one strikeout. Chad Bradford pitched a third of an inning. Baltimore struck first, with Melvin Mora hitting a solo home run in the top of the third. Later in the third inning, Oriole Aubrey Huff hit an RBI single to score Nick Markakis from second base. Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada made an amazing defensive play in the fourth inning, diving to grab a line drive and setting up a double play. The same play also led to the Twins' first run with Nick Punto scoring on the sacrifice. The Twins tied the game in the fifth when Luis Castillo hit to the pitcher, but the ball bounced out of Cabrera's glove, scoring Torii Hunter from third base. The tie would remain until the seventh inning when Jason Bartlett hit a single to left, scoring Jason Tyner from second base. W: Neshek (1-0)L: Cabrera (0-1)Save: Nathan (2/2)" +sport,"Howard Webb West Bromwich Albion took on the only Premier League team remaining in the FA Cup on Saturday, with Portsmouth coming out on top. Pompey had defeated Manchester United 1-0 in the quarter-finals to advance to this stage, while West Brom crushed Bristol Rovers 5-1 to advance to this stage. West Brom started the game strongly, with their first chance coming when Zolton Gera shot the ball right and David James who couldn't hold on, and the ball had to be hacked clear by Sol Campbell. The Baggies dominated the midfield for much of the first half and Portsmouth had to play off the counter-attack, but couldn't produce any good chances. Portsmouth began to gain steam nearing halftime, but neither team would score in the first period. After the break it was Portsmouth who took the lead through Kanu. A miscommunication between defender and goalkeeper occurred after Kiely made a fine save off Milan Baros. The ball ended up at Kanu's feet around five yards away from the goal, and the Nigerian side footed the ball calmly into the corner. After their goal Portsmouth began to control the match, but West Brom still get their chances as Robert Koren smashes a shot off the crossbar. West Brom pushed for the equalizer near the end of the match, but the Portsmouth defense stood firm and will now await the winner of Barnsley v Cardiff to see who they will take on at Wembley in the final." +sport,"* White Sox 8, Twins 7: Jim Thome had a solo homer (25) and the game-winning RBI single in the 7th. * Orioles 11, Red Sox 5: The Orioles blasted seven runs off Daisuke Matsuzaka, capped by a Scott Moore grand slam. * Tigers 12, Mariners 6: Brandon Inge hit the go-ahead two-run homer (14) in the 6th inning. * Yankees 11, Royals 5: Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run homer in the 4th, and a solo homer in the 6th (50, 51); the latter began a 7-run 6th inning that put the game out of reach for the Royals. * Devil Rays 5, Blue Jays 4: The Devil Rays came back from a 4-1 deficit, scoring four in the bottom of the 9th off a two-run homer by Delmon Young (12) and a two-run walkoff homer by B.J. Upton (23). * Rangers 7, Athletics 3: Hank Blalock (7) hit a solo homer, and two RBI singles in the win. * Indians 6, Angels 1: C.C. Sabathia pitched a complete game, giving up five hits and one run. * Mets 3, Astros 1: Tom Glavine retired the first 15 batters consecutively, and left in the 8th inning, giving up three hits and one run. * Phillies 9, Marlins 1: Greg Dobbs hit a solo homer (5) and an RBI triple (4). * Dodgers 6, Giants 2: Luis Gonzalez hit a three-run homer (13) in the 1st. * Cubs 5, Pirates 1: Alfonso Soriano had a two-run homer (23) in the 5th. * Braves 9, Nationals 2: Jeff Francoeur hit a three-run homer (17), and drove in a run off a bases-loaded walk. * Brewers 4, Reds 3: Rickie Weeks hit a game-winning RBI triple in the ninth to break a 3-3 tie. * Padres 3, Rockies 1: Greg Maddux gave up one run and three hits in six innings of work. * Diamondbacks 9, Cardinals 8: Stephen Drew tied the game in the 4th inning with a three-run homer (11)." +sport,"A little over 100 days before the scheduled start of the 2016 Summer Olympics, on Thursday the Olympic flame was ignited in a ceremony at the temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece. Actress Katerina Lehu played the role of priestess accompanied by fourteen virgins, lighting the flame at solar noon using sunlight focused by a parabolic mirror. After lighting the ""sacred fire"" Lehu passed it to its first bearer, gymnast Lefteris Petrunias. According to El País, another torchbearer is to be a Syrian refugee, bearing it in the Eleonas refugee camp. International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said the lighting ceremony was writing history, and the Olympic Games would bring a message of hope in difficult times to Brazil and to the whole world. Over six days, the Olympic torch is to pass through more than 2000 kilometers of Greek territory, going through Marathon and the island of Corfu. This part of the ride ends at the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, site of the first modern Games of the Olympiad. Subsequently, the flame travels by plane to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne where it is to stay for a week. Later, on May 2, it is to be moved to Brasilia. The relay trip of the Olympic flame from Olympia to the Olympic site was introduced by Carl Diem in the Berlin 1936 Games." +sport,"Tottenham Hotspur bookings_away = Chimbonda (Yellow (1)) Tottenham Hotspur travelled to Upton Park earlier today to face West Ham United, currently the bottom team in the table. West Ham were 10 points adrift of relegation safety at kickoff, and desperately needed points to secure a stay in the Premiership for next season. Tottenham on the other hand have been enjoying a good run of play as of late, and had a chance to jump above Portsmouth into 8th position in the Premiership. West Ham started strongly in the match, desperately trying to bring the game to Tottenham with the support of their home fans urging them on. West Ham's first effort came in the second minute, but keeper Paul Robinson was able to beat away the shot of Mark Noble. Things took a downturn for the Hammers several minutes later, when Matthew Upson was forced off the pitch after aggravating a calf injury, and was replaced by Calum Davenport. Dimitar Berbatov then had two great chances for Tottenham, as he went one on one with keeper Robert Green, but Green was able to stop the Bulgarians attempts both times. West Ham continued to press, and were rewarded with a goal on 16 minutes. Paul Konchesky's pass was chested down by Argentinian Carlos Tevez, and Mark Noble half-volleyed the ball into the back of the net. Tottenham nearly got an equilizer only minutes later after a defensive error by West Ham, but Berbatov's shot was again saved by Green. More chances came for both sides in the forms of Defoe for Tottenham and Harewood for West Ham, but the next goal would come through the young Carlos Tevez. Michael Dawson fouled the Argintinian on the outside of the 18 yard box, and Tevez curved the ensuing free kick in under the crossbar. The goal was Teves' first since joining West Ham at the beginning of the season. He was booked for his goal celebration as he ripped off his shirt and ran into a group of cheering fans. Tottenham made a change to start the second half, substituting Tom Huddlestone for Hossam Ghaly, and Huddlestones prescence helped Tottenham to control the midfield. They used their control to its potential, and Aaron Lennon was able to earn a penalty after being brought down by Lee Bowyer in the area. Jermain Defoe stepped up and slotted the ball past Green to cut the Hammers lead in half. Spurs continued to press for an equilizer, and got it in the 63 minute as Lennon flicked a Berbatov cross into the path of Tainio, and the Finnish international volleyed the ball past Green. The tying goal seemed to wake West Ham up, and Bobby Zamora and Keppa Blanco were added to the mix to try and save the 3 points for the home side. West Ham got their goal, and Tevez was involved again as his cross was headed home by substitute Zamora. As 90 minutes approached, Tottenham won a free kick on the edge of the box, and Dimitar Berbatov stepped up to the plate. Several of Berbatov's attempts had been blocked by keeper Green already, but he would not be denied this time as he curled the ball into the top left corner, leaving the goalie helpless. Tevez again threatened Tottenhams goal, but his shot flew just wide. West Ham would be left to rue their missed chances when Defoe's shot was parried by Green, but the ball was tapped in by Canadian Paul Stalteri, giving the visitors their first lead of the game, and soon earning them all 3 points. The goal came just over 5 minutes into stoppage time, and there was no chance left for West Ham to equilize. West Ham will continue their battle to stay in the Premiership in two weeks time against Blackburn, while Tottenham is due for an UEFA cup battle against Braga." +sport,"football On Sunday, at Calderón Stadium in Madrid, Spain, F.C. Barcelona association football club won the Spanish La Liga title. The team defeated Atlético Madrid 1&ndash;0 to clinch the title for the 23rd time. Lionel Andrés ""Leo"" Messi Cuccittini scored the only goal of the match. A victory in this match ensured the title for Barcelona. Uruguayan striker Suárez was rested due to a hamstring injury. A goal scored by Messi secured the 1&ndash;0 win and took the title from defending champions Atlético Madrid. Meanwhile, multiple FIFA Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldo scored three goals against Barcelona based club Espanyol. But his anchor=Association football could not fetch his club, Real Madrid, the title, since F.C. Barcelona won against Atlético Madrid. Luis Enrique, ex-Barcelona player and current manager of the team, wins the league for Barcelona in his first year as its manager." +sport,"2007BWC At the 2001 Baseball World Cup, Cuba defended the Baseball World Cup championship, which they have dominated, by defeating USA. This time, however, things turned out differently as USA ever defeated Cuba at the 2006 Americas Olympics Baseball Qualifying Tournament with 8-5. In the top of 2nd inning, with Cuba's starting pitcher Yadel Martí was unsteady. Justin Ruggiano started the offense for USA with a hit. After Norberto González replaced Martí on the mound for Cuba, USA scored after loading the bases and kept the lead through the end of the game. Even though Cuba scored 2 runs with successive hits in the bottom of 5th inning, the American pitchers from the Minor Leagues effectively shut down Cuba's offense. USA eventually ended Cuba's reign as champion with a final score of 6-3. The Americans were crowned the 2007 Baseball World Cup champions, a title they last held way back in 1974. Coincidentially, Cuba did not participate in the BWC in 1974. * 3rd Place Battle: Japan 5-0 Netherlands * 5th Place Battle: South Korea 5-2 Australia * 7th Place Battle: Mexico 6-4 Chinese Taipei #USA #Cuba #Japan #Netherlands #South Korea #Australia #Mexico #Chinese Taipei" +sport,"Arsenal FC bookings_away = Denilson, Eboue, Fabregas (Yellow (3)), Toure, Adebayor (Red(2)) A heated showdown occurred in the all London Carling Cup final yesterday at Millennium Stadium. Chelsea fielded a full strength side, including Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Ballack, Didier Drogba, and skipper John Terry. Arsenal on the other hand fielded a young side, including Theo Walcott, Cesc Fabregas, Jeremie Aliadiere, and Justin Hoyte. Despite their apparent lack of experience, Arsenal started out the match strongly, with crisp passing and great control. They pressed their advantage, and forced Chelsea keeper Petr Cech into several saves. On 12 minutes, Theo Walcott struck gold, as he orcestrated a give and go with Abou Diaby and slotted the ball into the far corner of the net, scoring his first ever goal for the Gunners. Soon after, Baptista of Arsenal had a legitimate claim for a penalty, but referee Howard Webb wouldn't hear of it. Chelsea struck back quickly, and a hint of offside was shown as Didier Drogba was played in by an over the top ball by Michael Ballack. The Ivory Coast striker didn't wait for a whistle, and slotted the ball between Manuel Almunia's legs to tie the match. A few more chances were spurned due to poor finishing before the break, but the game went into halftime drawn at one a piece. The second half started much as the first, with the youthful exuberance of Arsenal showing through, as they continued to press. Chelsea's output was increased as well however, with the addition of Arjen Robben at the exspense of Makelele. 2 yellow cards were handed out to Chelsea in the next few minutes, before the game took a huge downturn. Chelsea skipper John Terry was seriously injured, when Diaby's foot connected squarly with his face as Diaby attempted to clear the ball. Terry was taken off in a stretcher and was replaced by Mikel. The loss of their captain seemed to push Chelsea to new levels, as Drogba forced a fine save out of Almunia, and Lampard saw his shot go off the woodwork. Arsenal were not able to hold on, and on 81 minutes, Denilson made a sloppy pass and Robben picked up the scraps. He sent a cross in as Drogba beat Senderos to the ball and headed in his 28th of the campaign. The blue tide continued, and Shevchenko blasted a ball off the woodwork, missing his chance to seal the victory. As the game entered stoppage time, Mikel and Toure entered a shoving match, and more players got involved. Coaches took the field to attempt to settle their players, and when all was finally calm, Mikel and Toure were shown red cards, along with Adebayor of Arsenal. The game was finally called at 101 minutes, and stand in skipper Lampard was able to hoist the Carling Cup." +sport,"Atlanta in 1996. Chicago's bid involves construction of an Olympic Stadium in Washington Park on the city's South Side and an athlete's village on the shores of Lake Michigan. Existing venues such as Wrigley Field and Soldier Field may be used for some events. In contrast to Chicago, the Los Angeles bid involved existing facilities with no need for constructing new venues." +sport,"2012 Olympic Paralympics London, England&mdash; When four competitors from Côte d'Ivoire enter London's Olympic Stadium for this year's Summer Paralympics Opening Ceremony, they will be the fifth group of competitors representing their country at the Games. Côte d'Ivoire is fielding four competitors in-all; Addoh Kimou and Kouame Jean-luc Noumbo are to represent their country in athletics, Kimou competing in the men's T46 200 and 400 metre events, Noumbo in the men's T46 100 and 200 metres. Powerlifters Alidou Diamoutene and Carine Cynthia Amandine Tchei round out the country's delegation, with Diamoutene competing in the men's 52kg event and Tchei in the women's 67.50 kg event. Whilst Côte d'Ivoire previously won four Paralympic medals&mdash;three golds and one bronze, all in athletics&mdash;they have not finished in a medal spot since the 2000 Paralympics when Oumar Basakoulba Kone won his third gold medal in the 800 metres; fellow countryman Fernand Kra Koffi took the bronze in the same event." +sport,"In Monday night Major League Baseball action, the Pittsburgh Pirates won a victory over the Colorado Rockies in Denver, 5-2. The Pirates up 3-1 by the 6th inning and strong pitching throughout helped hold off the Rockies. Ian Snell pitched 6 1/3 innings for the Pirates, and recorded a career and season high 10 strikeouts, giving up only 2 runs, 6 hits, and a single walk. In the first three innings, Snell threw 29 of 35 pitches for strikes. The win was his 6th of the season. Snell's previous career high in strikeouts was nine, set May 3 against the New York Mets. Coming off a 7-3 homestand, the Pirates hoped to turn around their dismal 4-22 road record, and break a 4-game road losing streak. A strong appearance in their first game of the 3-game series will ease many doubts." +sport,"__noTOC__ Tour de France 2007 Linus Gerdemann of Germany took a large lead up the Col de la Colombière and has won stage 7 of the 2007 Tour de France. Gerdemann won by 3:38 over the chasing peleton and took over the yellow jersey from Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland. As a young rider, Gerdemann also gets the white jersey. Iñigo Landaluze was the only one close to Gerdemann and took second. All the big names, thought to have a chance of winning the Tour, appeared to be in the peloton. This includes injured teammates Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreas Klöden. Óscar Freire of Spain withdrew ahead of today's stage with back problems. Stage 7 results # Linus Gerdemann (Ger / TMO) 4 hrs 53 mins 13 secs # Inigo Landaluze (Spa / EUS) +40"" # David De la Fuente (Spa / SDV) +1:39"" # Mauricio Soler (Col / BAR) +2:14"" # Laurent Lefevre (Fra / BGT) +2:21"" # Fabian Wegmann (Ger / GER) +3:32"" # Juan Manuel Garate (Spa / QSI ) +3:38"" # Xavier Florencio (Spa / BGT) s.t. # Christophe Moreau (Fra / AG2R ) s.t. # Alejandro Valverde (Spa / CDE ) s.t. Overall standings # Linus Gerdemann (Ger / TMO) 34 hrs 43 min 40 sec"" # Inigo Landaluze (Spa / EUS) +1:24"" # David De la Fuente (Spa / SDV) +2:45"" # Laurent Lefevre (Fra / BGT) +2:55"" # Mauricio Soler (Col / BAR) +3:05"" # Andreas Kloeden (Ger / AST) +3:39"" # Vladimir Gusev (Rus / DSC) +3:51"" # Vladimir Karpets (Rus / CDE) +3:52"" # Mikel Astarloza (Spa / EUS) +3:55"" # Thomas Dekker (Ned / RAB) +3:57""" +sport,"Accused of EPO doping by the French cycling daily L'Équipe in a four page story on Aug. 23, cyclist Lance Armstrong appeared on CNN's Larry King Live TV show Aug. 25, saying he did not trust the French testers or the French testing system, and that his urine was manipulated to falsely accuse him of doping. Dr. Christiane Ayotte, director of a Montreal doping detection laboratory said that ethically critical and important scientific questions were raised by the EPO doping allegation against seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong. USA Cycling official Gerard Bisceglia said these L'Équipe charges were unfair and lacked credibility. Bisceglia is chief executive of USA Cycling, principal authority over Armstrong for cycling sports in the United States. L'Équipe released Paris lab data allegedly finding banned EPO in five year old samples of Armstrong's urine, originally taken after he won the 1999 Tour de France. No official source would confirm medical identification of Armstrong as provider of the anonymously tested urine, and to do so would be a violation of World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) regulations. Armstrong suggested motivation for such manipulation is a French national hatred of all non-French sport winners, and specifically because a French rider has not won the Tour de France for a quarter century. As evidence of malice toward him, Armstrong cited a French newspaper poll in which he was named the third most hated sportsman in France. Dr. Ayotte is Doping Control director at Canada's Institut National de la Recherché Scientifique in Montreal, which is a WADA certified lab nearest to WADA's Montreal headquarters. Ayotte is also a world class scientific authority and instructor on sports doping detection. Dr. Ayotte's expert opinion has significant influence on the outcome of WADA regulatory decisions. L'Équipe reported that the EPO detection method used was experimental, which raises a scientific question. All experimentally based forensic evidence is subject to the close scrutiny of scientific opinions before it can be used in a disciplinary or legal proceeding. Ayotte expressed surprise that chemical testing of 1999 urine could have been done in 2004 at the French national anti-doping laboratory at Châtenay-Malabry. She said that she routinely instructs all doping laboratory organizations, that previously detectable EPO protein deteriorates and disappears after two or three months, even if the urine is frozen. Ayotte thinks that a new statistical mathematics model was used to reanalyze numerical data resulting from earlier chemical testing. ""My interpretation is that retesting itself must have been conducted in 2000 or in 2001, but the results were reviewed using the new mathematical model that is now being developed in Paris."" Ayotte does not question whether the new type of analysis is correct; rather she questions the ethics of long-delayed test results. The first ethical problem is that this adverse finding cannot be confirmed with second samples. There are normally available two urine samples, ""A"" and ""B"". The Châtenay-Malabry EPO findings were based on Armstrong's ""B"" samples. Armstrong's ""A"" samples were depleted in 1999 for tests that did not include EPO, because no EPO test was available that year. Without addressing the ethics problem, Dick Pound, the head of WADA, said. ""You can count on the fingers of one hand the times a ""B"" sample has not confirmed the result of the ""A"" sample"". Both France and USA officials observed that L'Équipe's unofficial adverse finding was not consistent with WADA regulations. French Sports Minister Jean-François Lamour said that without the ""A"" samples, no disciplinary action could be taken against Armstrong. USA official Bisceglia confirmed that WADA regulations require a confirming ""A"" test to prove guilt. The second ethical problem, according to Ayotte, is that an athlete charged with doping long after the athletic event, has no way to submit to additional testing to disprove an adverse finding. This same ethical problem was also stated by USA official Bisceglia. The third ethical problem for Ayotte is that L'Équipe disclosed Armstrong's medical identity. ""It seems to me,"" Ayotte continued, ""that this whole thing is breach of the WADA code. We are supposed to work confidentially until such time that we can confirm a result. By no means does this mean that we sweep a result under the carpet, but it has to meet a certain set of requirements."" In a further ethical complication, the medical identification of Armstrong is completely unofficial and is made only by L'Équipe. Ayotte characterized the disclosure as ""leaked"". Châtenay-Malabry's lab refused to confirm L'Équipe's claim that the urine samples belonged to Armstrong. Nor is it likely that Châtenay-Malabry will ever identify Armstrong, because WADA regulations require that all single ""B"" samples used for experimental testing must remain permanently anonymous. Ayotte said, ""I'm worried, because I have a great deal of respect for my colleagues in Paris. I am concerned that they did not cover their backs before being dragged into a very public issue of this kind."" Lance Armstrong has responded on his LanceArmstrong.com website, branding L'Équipe's reporting as being ""nothing short of tabloid journalism."" Armstrong says: ""I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance enhancing drugs."" Further confusing public understanding of the EPO doping claim is Armstrong's statement in his autobiography, It's Not About the Bike: he said he received EPO during his cancer chemotherapy treatment. ""It was the only thing that kept me alive,"" he wrote. Armstrong last received chemotherapy EPO in late 1996. Apparently speaking from his knowledge of conventional EPO testing, Armstrong agrees that traces of 1996 synthetic EPO should not have been present in his 1999 urine. There are now tests to distinguish natural from synthetic EPO. But it remains an unresearched scientific question whether the sensitivity of the experimental new method could detect use of synthetic EPO from three years previously. By scientific analogy, the polymerase chain reaction process can detect as little as a single molecule of DNA. Jean-Marie Leblanc, the director of the Tour de France, said that Armstrong owes cycling fans an explanation. Armstrong subsequently provided an explanation claiming urine test manipulation. Leblanc also said; ""For the first time&mdash;and these are no longer rumors, or insinuations, these are proven scientific facts&mdash;someone has shown me that in 1999, Armstrong had a banned substance called EPO in his body."" ""When people start using comments like, 'irrefutable scientific evidence,' that's a pretty strong statement to make,"" said Bisceglia, ""when the person you're making it about has never been given the opportunity to refute the statement. You're making claims about something that took place in 1999. Based on what I've read, it's pretty clear that any opportunity to have a black-and-white resolution to this case has been destroyed."" Bisceglia said that USA Cycling, the governing body in the United States, lacks the officially required evidence, and therefore will not investigate the L'Équipe report." +sport,"-unreviewed A brief look around major league baseball. . . Philadelphia 8, Tampa Bay 5 The Philadelphia Phillies snapped a five game losing streak, defeating Tampa Bay 8-5 between a Father's Day crowd of 42,658 earlier today at Citizens' Bank Park in Philadelphia. Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard homered and knocked in four runs, and Phils' closer Tom Gordon, in a game for the first time in over a week, pitched 1 2/3 shaky innings for his 19th save. The Phillies are 15-5 in games in which Howard hits the long ball. Tampa OF Carl Crawford was 2 for 5 with a homer and 2 RBI for the losing Rays. With the Phillies getting farther away from the Mets in the NL East, the Phils are likely to start concentrating on the NL wild card race if not now, very soon. Washington 3, N.Y. Yankees 2 Further south, Washington Nationals' third baseman Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk off 2 run shot in the bottom of the 9th to lift Washington over the visiting New York Yankees, 3-2. Zimmerman, whose hitting has gotten hotter with the temperatures, hit the game winner off of Yankees losing pitcher Chien - Ming Wang spoiling his major league debut Oakland 5, L.A. Dodgers 3 Oakland right-hander Joe Blanton, pitching into the ninth inning, helped the streaking Oakland A's to their tenth straight win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2 earlier today. Blanton gave way to Oakland reliever Huston Street, who pitched an inning for his 17th save. Oakland center-fielder Jay Payton and infielder Marco Scutaro each had three hits for the A's, who edged into first place in the AL west over Texas. Detroit 12, Chicago Cubs 3 Chicago's Mark Prior made his season debut after a series of injuries that left him sidelined. The Detroit Tigers gave him a rude welcome, as they knotched 6 runs in the first inning on 3 homers. Jose Guillen had a 3-run homer in the first inning to contribute to the Tigers route. Prior didn't last 4 inning and gave up 7 earned runs. The Cubs lost their 6th in a row and are only one game ahead of the cellar Pirates. Detroit sweeps the Cubs and now holds a 1.5 game lead over Chicago's American League team, the White Sox." +sport,"__NOTOC__ The Empire State Games is an annual Olympic-style competition for amateur athletes from the state of New York, United States, encompassing several divisions allowing athletes of all ages to compete. In 2007, it is hosted by Westchester County and takes place July 25&ndash;29, 2007. In all, some 6,000 athletes are expected to participate. ""I think the Empire State Games is one of the best things that's happened to Westchester County,"" Buster LaBarbera, 74, of New Rochelle said. ""It's good for the economy and it's just a great thing."" Long Island had made a bid to host the games but lost out to Westchester. ""Once done, it's done,"" said Bob Kenney, region director for Long Island, at the opening ceremonies. ""We can't look back. We can't hold grudges."" Long Island may submit a bid for the games in 2010 according to Kenney. Saturday, the Criterium cycling events took place in White Plains. Starting at 7:00 a.m. EDT (UTC-4), races for both men and women began at Martine Avenue at Court Street in downtown White Plains. Criterium races (those are age brackets for the masters series): *Masters Men 45-54, 12 miles *Masters Men 35-44, 18 miles *Open Men, 31 miles *Open Women, 18 miles *Masters Men 55-64, 65+, 10 miles *Masters Women 35-44, 45-54, 55+, 10 miles Street closures included: Quarropas Street, Mamaroneck Avenue, Martine Avenue, and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Parts of Court Street and Grand Street had limited access. Road closures began at 5:00 a.m. The course was basically a large square. Wikinews was there to cover the men's open event race. Points were awarded for sprints on certain laps. Joe Zaverdas from Commack, New York, representing the Long Island region, won with 75 points. 58 riders participated. Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (1).JPG|The Men's Open Criterium race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (2).JPG|The Men's Open Criterium race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (3).JPG|The Men's Open Criterium race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (4).JPG|The Men's Open Criterium race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (5).JPG|The Men's Open Criterium race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (6).JPG|The start/finish line and judges' table Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (7).JPG|The crowd cheers on the racers Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (8).JPG|The Men's Open Criterium race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (9).JPG|The Men's Open Criterium race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (10).JPG|The podium for the medal ceremony Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (11).JPG|The Men's Open Criterium race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (12).JPG|The Men's Open Criterium race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (13).JPG|The pit stop for emergency repairs Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (14).JPG|Rider rejoins the race after a quick wheel change Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (15).JPG|The Men's Open Criterium race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (16).JPG|The Men's Open Criterium race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (17).JPG|The Men's Open Criterium race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (18).JPG|Female cyclists cooling down after their race Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (19).JPG|Results of earlier races posted and signed by the judges Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (20).JPG|Cyclist giving a post-race interview Cobra Image:Empire State Games 2007 07 28 (21).JPG|Joe Zaverdas (#5), who won the race, is surrounded by his team mates Cobra" +sport,"Donperfectodewiki The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Commission is in Madrid, Spain this week as part of the city's bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. Sir Craig Reedie of Great Britain is leading the IOC delegation, whom Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy greeted at the start of their inspection process. Of the fourteen-member bid delegation, five have been through this process before as part of the city's failed bids for the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics bids. On a cold but sunny day yesterday, the IOC visited four sites on their first inspection date including Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Buen Retiro park and bullfighting ring Las Ventas. Today, the IOC is scheduled to visit the proposed venues for the Olympic village and stadium. The inspection is scheduled to last four days. While at Santiago Bernabéu, IOC members met the Spanish national football team captain Iker Casillas and were given Real Madrid jerseys with their names on them. As Spain is currently undergoing severe economic problems at the moment, with 26% unemployment currently and public debt in 2012 at 84% of the country's gross domestic product, the €1.5bn (US$1.9bn, £1.3bn) costs of the Games have been a highly visible aspect of the city's bid process. Security costs are estimated to add another €149m (US$192m, £127m) to organizing costs. Proponents of the bid including Madrid's mayor Ana Botella believe the Games would provide an economic boost to the city and the country. IOC President Jacques Rogge is also on the record as stating that he does not believe Spanish economic problems will play a part in the IOC's decision-making process. Spanish newspaper El Mundo quoted Rogge saying, ""The crisis does not affect it, because substantial facilities have in most cases already been built. No major investment is needed"". Botella outlined some of the costs, quoted by the Associated Press during the IOC visit saying, ""The budget that remains for the construction of infrastructure, some 1.5 billion euros divided between the three administrations responsible and over a period of seven years, is a perfectly affordable amount."" Local organizers have promised to follow the legacy of London, using historical landmarks and existing venues with 80% of proposed venues, 28 of 35, already in place, and providing a roadmap for future development of Olympic sites to avoid any ""white elephants"" that are unused after the Games, a situation that happened with a number of Athens Olympic venues. Madrid's bid Chief Executive Victor Sánchez, quoted by Agence France-Presse, explained they avoided ""projects that have no real use for citizens after the Games have finished. That is why we have given priority to existing infrastructures and then to other infrastructures that the city has a direct need for. Finally, where a future use cannot be guaranteed, we have opted for temporary solutions. Only three such temporary solutions will be used, while a mere four permanent facilities remain to be built. The result is lower costs, reduced environmental impact and less disruption to the everyday lives of the people of Madrid, all with government backing at central, regional and municipal level."" Local organizers are preparing to cope with protesters trying to draw attention to Spain's labor situation who planned to picket outside the Hotel Eurostars Madrid Tower where IOC members are staying. The planned protest is over cuts to the Municipal Government budget. Protesters did not picket yesterday, which was a holiday in Madrid. Bid organizers and the government feared potential strikes by people working for the public transport system. Botella explained to the media that protests and work stoppages should not be seen as evidence that Spaniards would not welcome the Games, but rather unhappiness with local economic issues, which Botella said the Games should help fix. Spain's current unemployment level is the highest of any European country and the worst the country has faced since the 1970s. Botella's view is supported by an IOC survey, which found 81% of Spaniards supported Madrid's bid for the Games. Madrid is one of three cities currently competing for the 2020 Games. The IOC visited Tokyo, Japan earlier this month and is scheduled to visit Istanbul, Turkey later this month. The host city is to be formally selected at a meeting of the IOC on September 7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Shortly after that, Rogge is scheduled to step down from his position as IOC President." +sport,"The following are the medal results for the third day of competition for the Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. Further details of all the Winter Olympics action can be found at Olympic Winter Games 2006 on Wikipedia. Results are courtesy of NBC, the IOC and are updated as necessary. 2006 Turin medal count The home side was knocked out of the women's ice-hockey by Sweden, a great disappointment to the large Italian crowd." +sport,"2008 Olympic Games American swimmer Michael Phelps, 23, has set a new record for the most gold medals won in one Olympic games by winning his eighth gold medal of the 2008 Olympic games, beating the previous world record of seven that was set by Mark Spitz in the 1972 Olympic Games, which took place in Munich, Germany. Phelps' eighth medal was won in the final of the men's 4 x 100m medley relay. In addition to Phelps, Aaron Piersol, Brendan Hansen, and Jason Lezak were in the winning Olympic team, which had a time of 3:29.34, which was a new world record. In seven of his eight races, Phelps set or contributed to a new world record time. He set an Olympic record time in the remaining race. ""With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination,"" said Phelps after realizing he had set the new medals record. ""There are so many emotions going through my head and so much excitement. I kind of just want to see my mom."" ""Without the help of my team-mates this isn't possible,"" he continued. ""I was able to be a part of three relays and we were able to put up a solid team effort and we came together as one unit. For the three Olympics I've been a part of, this is by far the closest men's team that we've ever had. I didn't know everybody coming into this Olympics, but I feel going out I know every single person very well. The team that we had is the difference."" Grant Hackett, an Australian swimmer, praised Phelps for achieving his goal. ""Michael Phelps - you can't put it in words what he has done here, his level of achievement is phenomenal and I don't think it will ever be seen again.""" +sport,"NBA Finals 2006 The Miami Heat won their first NBA Title in franchise history Tuesday beating the Dallas Mavericks 95-92. Dallas initially led the series 2-0. Miami then went on to a surprising turnaround and won four straight to win the title. Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton, and Dwyane Wade all won their first NBA Title. Pat Riley last won the title 18 years ago and Shaquille O'Neal last won the title 4 years ago. Of the most active NBA players, O'Neal has four NBA Titles, the second most NBA Titles of active NBA players. With 9.1 seconds left, Wade, who scored 36 points this game, missed two free throws giving Dallas one final chance to tie the game. A three-point field goal attempt by Dallas' Jason Terry hit the rim but failed to fall into the basket. A championship parade is scheduled for 2 P.M. on Friday in downtown Miami, Florida." +sport,"referee=Baldomero Toledo Houston Dynamo defeated FC Dallas 4-1 (4-2 on aggregate) to advance to the Western Conference semi-finals. FC Dallas took the lead on what was their only shot on goal in the 1st half. Houston Dynamo, who had 24 shots in the 120 minutes played, equalized in the 67th minute and equalized the aggregate score 72nd minute. The match went into extra time where Brian Ching scored his 2nd of the night to give Houston the aggregate lead. Brad Davis sealed the victory in the 100th minute. Houston Dynamo will face the winner of the Kansas City Wizards/Chivas USA 2 legged affair." +sport,"As part of the NBA all-star weekend, the National Basketball Development League held its second annual all-star game featuring the stars of the league who hope to receive a break on an NBA team. The game was held in New Orleans, Louisiana and broadcast on NBA TV. The all-stars made up two teams, a blue team captioned by the winningest coach in NBA history Lenny Wilkins and a red team captioned by former Golden State Warriors great and member of the 50 greatest players of all-time, Rick Barry. The blue team won the game by a score of 117-99 over the red team. After the red team won the first quarter the blue team dominated the rest of the game, led by 22 points from the game’s Most Valuable Player Jeremy Richardson of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and formerly of the San Antonio Spurs. The red team was led by 20 points and 10 rebounds from Elton Brown of the Colorado 14ers. The NBDL is made up of players assigned to teams based on affiliations from the NBA for further development needed to compete. Fifteen percent of all players now in the NBA came from the NBDL." +sport,"Finland and Serbia have drawn 0-0 in a Euro 2008 qualification match. Serbia was dominant in the first half, but both Dejan Stankovic and Danko Lazovic failed to score despite being presented with clear opportunities. A free kick against Finland, taken by Bosko Jankovic, was also saved from becoming a goal by Finnish goalkeeper Jussi Jääskeläinen. Finland also failed to convert opportunities into goals, with Jonatan Johansson's attempt blocked by Serbian goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic. Serbia also failed at one more opportunity in the second half. Finland, second in Group A, have 18 points, but Serbia have only 15. ""Not everything is lost,"" said Serbia striker Nikola Zigic. ""Now we play Portugal and that is 'to be or not to be' match for us.""" +sport,"UKResidents of a Leeds, England neighbourhood have requested help from a council because their neighbourhood is plagued by crime, overcrowding, and community tensions. Leeds City Council received a request for help from residents of Hyde Park, who said they were worried about the increasing level of anti-social behavior and worsening community relations. A report will be unveiled on Wednesday by a council delegation, highlighting the problems in the area. ""The people living in Hyde Park come from widely different population groups... these groups have very different customs, needs and living styles and this can provoke high levels of tension in the area,"" the delegation said. The council claims that because of the 28 per cent ethnic minority population and the 40,000 students living in the neighbourhood, there are tensions between residents. They added, however, that they are actively encouraging people to work together, citing a multi-faith forum, a cricket competition and activities which bring old and young together. The report says that the council are trying to build relationships between Muslims and police, something which they said is ""particularly important after the area's connection to the London bombings on 7th July 2005."" A local newspaper reported that ""the Shebab project introduces young Muslims to role models from sport and culture and also runs scholars' talks to counter extremist ideologies."" Crime has increased by 7% in the past year in Hyde Park, and residents noted that anti-social behaviour was getting worse. The council said that an anti-burglary task force had helped to reduce the number of thefts from homes. Residents complained that there was a lack of pride in the area, and at the end of the academic year in the summer, large piles of rubbish were left in streets, yards and alleyways. The report adds that the council operates a recycling scheme aimed towards teenagers, and that rubbish collections have increased. 4=Jake England Johns, campaigner The Guardian reported on Wednesday that campaigners are attempting to ""take control of a derelict school building and transform it into a community hub are appealing for sponsors and partners in a bid to turn their dreams into reality."" They say that the unused building, owned by the council, could be used for meetings and events. A volunteer group of residents have been working on a business plan, and have gained support from local businesses to create ""a vision of an open, accessible and valuable resource for all."" A member of the commitee, however, said he was ""frustrated"" with the council's attitude towards the plans. ""The RPCC is slightly frustrated with certain communication issues that we've had with the council, but we're working with them and hoping to gain further assistance going forward,"" he said. ""It's a shame that certain setbacks could have been avoided."" The deputation added that ""a major factor in Hyde Park's suffering is its high level of population density"", which they conceded is something they are unable to change. The council responded to complaints that streets are ""cheap and unhealthy takeaways, letting agents and boarded-up shop fronts,"" by saying that Hyde Park Corner and Headingley are, according to the Yorkshire Post, ""thriving shopping areas and work had taken place to ensure a good mix of outlets."" The report concludes: ""The council acknowledges that because of the very particular circumstances which exist in the neighbourhood, Hyde Park faces difficult challenges which affect the quality of life of residents and that 'normal' service levels may not be sufficient to tackle some of these. The council will do more to enable local people to influence how services work and how local problems are tackled. Local community and voluntary groups will be invited to play an active role.""" +sport,"referee=Alexandra Ihringova Germany's FFC Frankfurt became the 1st team to win a 3rd UEFA Women's Cup after a competition record 27,640 fans in attendance. The attendance record is more then double then any previous game in tournament history. A 1-1 draw in Sweden between the tournament's only multiple-time winners had set up this return under at Commerzbank Arena. Conny Pohlers opened the scoring in the 7th minute, before finding the target again in the 2nd Half. Lisa Dahlqvist pulled one back with a converted penalty shot. Petra Wimbersky regained Frankfurt's 2 goal lead on a free-kick. Frida Östberg's scored with less then 10 minutes of normal time left. With the victory, FFC Frankfurt becomes the 1st team to win the tournament 3 times and the only team to record 5 appearances in the final." +sport,"London, England &mdash; This morning Australia's Minister for Sport, Kate Lundy, watched Elizabeth Kosmala and Natalie Smith qualifying for the finals in the women's R2-10m air pistol SH1 event. Kosmala finished with a score of 391 out of a possible 400; scoring 99 in her first set of ten shots, and 96, 98 and 98 in the next three sets. A few places down, Smith finished just ahead of her teammate with a combined score of 393, scoring 98, 99, 97 and 98 in her four sets of ten shots. Alongside the Australians, Lundy saw Cuiping Zhang of China set a Paralympic record of 396, and Thai Wasana Keatjaratkul tie the previous record of 393. Veronika Vadovicova of Slovakia, Yoojeong Lee of South Korea, Yunri Lee also of South Korea, and Manuela Schmermund of Germany qualify for the finals. Lundy is expected to be in London for the entire Paralympics, and is scheduled to watch athletics, cycling, powerlifting, rowing, swimming, wheelchair rugby, basketball and tennis. Whilst here, she is to obtain feedback from the Australian Paralympic community regarding government support of sport for the disabled." +sport,"* Red Sox 16, Devil Rays 10: Carlos Pena hit a three-run homer in the 4th inning to give the Rays an 8-1 lead, but the Red Sox scored fifteen runs in four innings to take a commanding lead of their own, one that they would not give up. The Sox were led by Kevin Youkilis, who hit a bases-loaded 3-run triple in the 6th, breaking a 9-9 tie. Bryan Corey (1-0) pitched a hitless 6th inning for the win, while Jon Switzer (0-1) pitched 1/3 inning, giving up two runs for the loss. The Red Sox (88-58) lead the Yankees by 5 games in the AL East. * Game 1: Rangers 13, Tigers 6: The Rangers hit seven homers en route to a 13-6 rout of the Tigers in the first game of a double-header. David Murphy hit a solo homer (2), an RBI triple (2), and a double. Marlon Byrd hit a two-run homer and a solo homer (8, 9), and Jarrod Saltalamacchia (7), Ramon Vazquez (8), Hank Blalock (8), and Freddy Guzman (1) each hit homers as well. Vicente Padilla (6-9) pitched six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits for the win. Chad Durbin (8-7) pitched 2 2/3 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) for the loss. * Game 2: Final: Tigers 4, Rangers 1: The Tigers scored three in the first and one in the second; Curtis Granderson scored a run and stole two bases. The Rangers' only run came off a Marlon Byrd sacrifice fly in the first. Jair Jurrjens (2-1) pitched five innings, giving up three hits and one run. Rangers starter Brandon McCarthy (5-9) left the game after just 2/3 inning, giving up three hits and three runs for the loss. Todd Jones picked up his 34th save. The Tigers (79-67) trail the Indians by 6.5 games in the AL Central race, and trail the Yankees by 4 games in the AL Wild Card race. * Yankees 9, Blue Jays 2: Jason Giambi hit a grand slam (13), and scored on a Johnny Damon RBI single. Phil Hughes (3-3) pitched six innings, giving up three hits and two runs (one earned) for the win. Shawn Marcum (12-6) gave up eight runs in 4 1/3 innings for the loss. The Yankees (82-62) trail the Red Sox by 5 games in the AL East, but lead the Tigers by 4 games in the AL Wild Card. * Indians 8, White Sox 3: Travis Hafner drove in three runs off a two-run single and an RBI single, and Ryan Garko hit a solo homer, and drove in a run off a bases-loaded walk. Juan Uribe hit two homers (17, 18) and drove in all three runs for the White Sox. Paul Byrd (15-6) pitched 6 1/3 innings, giving up six hits and three runs for the win, while Lance Broadway (0-1) pitched 2 2/3 innings, giving up two hits and one run for the loss. The Indians lead the Tigers by 6.5 games in the AL Central. * Athletics 7, Mariners 4: Mike Piazza went 3-5, with two doubles and two RBI, driving in the go-ahead runs in the win. Ruddy Lugo (6-0) pitched 1 1/3 innings, giving up two hits for the win. Jarrod Washburn (9-14) pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up eight hits and six runs for the loss. Huston Street pitched a scoreless 9th for his 14th save. The Mariners trail the Yankees in the AL Wild Card race by 6.5 games. * Brewers 6, Pirates 1: Ryan Braun drove in three runs off a two-run single and an RBI single. Yovani Gallardo (8-4) pitched six scoreless innings, giving up six hits for the win. Bryan Bullington (0-2) pitched five innings, giving up seven hits and three runs for the loss. The Brewers (74-70) lead the NL Central over the Cubs by 1 game. * Astros 5, Cubs 4, 11 inn.: Hunter Pence hit a two-run triple, and Luke Scott hit a walkoff RBI triple in the 11th for the Astros. Mark DeRosa hit a three-run homer (9) in the loss. Brad Lidge (4-2) picked up the win, pitching two innings and giving up one hit. Ryan Dempster (2-6) gave up one hit and one run in 1 1/3 innings for the loss. The Cubs (73-71) trail the Brewers by 1 game in the NL Central. * Reds 7, Cardinals 2: Adam Dunn hit a solo homer in the 2nd, and a grand slam in the 3rd (37, 38), as the Reds scored six runs in the 3rd inning. Matt Belisle (8-8) pitched seven innings, giving up six hits and two runs for the win. Mark Mulder pitched four innings, giving up seven hits and seven runs (five earned) for the loss. The Cardinals (69-73) have lost five games in a row, and trail the Brewers by 4 games in the NL Central. * Angels 10, Orioles 5: The Angels' Vladimir Guerrero hit 2 two-run homers (23, 24), and Chone Figgins had three RBI, off two doubles and a bases-loaded walk. Joe Saunders (8-3) gave up ten hits and four runs in five innings for the win. The Orioles' Victor Santos (0-1) gave up five runs in 2 2/3 innings for the loss. The Angels (85-59) lead the AL West by 9.5 games. * Braves 13, Mets 5: The Braves' Mark Teixeira hit a three-run homer (12) to cap a six-run 4th inning. Peter Moylan (5-3) pitched 1 2/3 innings without giving up a hit for the win, while Orlando Hernandez (9-5) gave up six hits and eight runs for the loss. The Mets (82-62) lead the Phillies in the NL East by 6 games, and lead the Braves (74-71) by 8.5 games. The Braves (74-71) trail the Padres by 5 games in the NL Wild Card race. * Rockies 8, Phillies 2: Matt Holliday hit two homers (28, 29), driving in 3 RBI, including the game-deciding runs, in the win. Franklin Morales (1-2) pitched five scoreless innings, giving up just three hits for the win. Adam Eaton (9-9) gave up six hits and four runs in five innings for the loss. The Phillies (76-68) trail the Mets by 6 games in the NL East, and trail the Padres by 2.5 games in the NL Wild Card race. * Giants 2, Diamondbacks 1: Pedro Feliz drove in the game-winning run off a sacrifice fly in the 8th inning, breaking a 1-1 tie. Tyler Walker (2-0) pitched to one batter, forcing a double play for the win. Bob Wickman (3-4) gave up one run and two hits in 1 1/3 inning for the loss. Brian Wilson pitched the 9th, giving up one hit for his 3rd save. The Diamondbacks (82-64) lead the Padres in the NL West by 2.5 games. * Padres 9, Dodgers 4: Khalil Greene hit a sacrifice fly, and scored the game-winning run on a solo homer (21). Jake Peavy (17-6) pitched seven innings, giving up five hits and two runs for the win. Esteban Loaiza (1-1) pitched 3 1/3 innings, giving up six hits and six runs for the loss. The Padres (78-65) trail the Diamondbacks in the NL West by 2.5 games, but lead the Phillies in the NL Wild Card by 2.5 games. The Dodgers trail the Padres in the NL Wild Card by 3.5 games. * Twins 6, Royals 3: Torii Hunter hit a two-run single, advanced to third on an error, and scored the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly by Justin Morneau. Scott Baker (9-7) pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up ten hits and three runs for the win. Kyle Davies (2-5) gave up four hits and four runs (two earned) for the loss. Joe Nathan pitched a one-hit 9th inning for his 32nd save. * Marlins 13, Nationals 8: Justin Maxwell hit a pinch-hit grand slam (1) to give the Nationals a 7-3 lead, but the Marlins came back, led by Mike Jacobs, who went 3-3 with 5 RBI, on a two-run homer (16), a two-run double and an RBI single. Matt Lindstrom (3-4) pitched one inning, giving up two hits and one run for the win. Chris Schroder (2-2) pitched one inning, giving up two hits and two runs for the loss." +sport,"referee= Nürnberg beat Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 to come out of the relegation zone. A goal from Naohiro Takahara gave Eintracht Frankfurt the lead after only 12 minutes. Angelos Charisteas equalised in the 20th minute after a freekick from Kristiansen hit the post and rebounded out for him which hit the back of the net. After this, Nürnberg dominated the game scoring 4 2nd half goals. Nürnberg's next game is away at Wolfsburg while Eintracht Frankfurt are at home against Hannover." +sport,"With only a few days before final nominations for spots to compete at the London Olympic Games and little less than a month until the start of them, African Olympians are trying to finalize their selections while preparing for their moment on the Olympic stage." +sport,"NBA Finals 2006 2006-06-22 The Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat 99-85 in the second game of the NBA Finals and lead the series 2-0. The second game was solidly in Dallas' favor the entire time. Miami star Shaquille O'Neal scored his career low in points for a playoff game and sat out the final 15 minutes. O'Neal was handed a $10,000 fine, as well as a $25,000 fine for the team, for declining to speak to reporters after the game. Miami head coach, Pat Riley, said ""I've been in a lot of playoff games, and I've gotten beat by 40, 30, 25, won by 25 or 30. Doesn't make any difference. The whole thing is about the next game and trying to leave this one behind us. Maybe it will set a fire in us a little bit."" Dallas must win two more games to become the NBA champions." +sport,"Dallas Braden, a left-handed pitcher for Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics in the United States, became one of only nineteen players in the history of the MLB to pitch a perfect game, in a 4-0 win against the Tampa Bay Rays. Braden, aged 26, who retired all 27 batters consecutively on 109 pitches, also earned his first career complete game. In the process of throwing the perfect game, Braden also struck out six Tampa Bay hitters. The perfect game was the second pitched in the Athletics' franchise history, the other being thrown by Hall of Fame pitcher Catfish Hunter on May 8, 1968 against the Minnesota Twins. Braden, at 26, also became the youngest pitcher to throw a complete game since Anaheim Angels pitcher Mike Witt did so at age 24 in 1984. The low crowd at the Oakland Coliseum, at only 12,228, was due to the Mother's Day holiday occurring across the United States, Braden, along with every other Major League Baseball player, donned pink equipment for awareness of breast cancer, which has become a tradition for baseball players on Mother's Day. Braden's own mother died of skin cancer when he was a senior in high school, but his grandmother attended the game. Braden recently drew controversy in the league after publicly criticizing New York Yankees all-star third baseman Alex Rodriguez for crossing the pitcher's mound after a foul ball, which Braden claimed to be an ""unwritten rule"" in baseball. When asked about the no hitter, Rodriguez simply responded, ""Good for him, he threw a perfect game. And even better, he beat the Rays,"" he said, as the Rays lead the American League East division, the same division that Yankees play in. ""Mother's Day hasn't been a joyous day for me in a while. But to know that I still get to come out and compete and play a game on that day, that makes it a little better. With my grandma in the stands, that makes it a lot better. To be able to give her this today was perfect...,"" said Braden in a post-game interview with MLB.com. stadium=Oakland Coliseum WP: Braden (4-2) LP: Shields (4-1) HR: (none) Attendance:12,228 Game time: 2 hrs, 9 min. Temperature: 59 degrees" +sport,"The following are the medal results for the Fourth day of competition for the Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. Further details of all the Winter Olympics action can be found at Olympic Winter Games 2006 on Wikipedia. Results are courtesy of NBC, the IOC and are updated as necessary. 2006 Turin medal count" +sport,"2018 FIFA World Cup On Sunday, day four of the 2018 FIFA football World Cup, Serbia defeated Costa Rica 1&ndash;0, Brazil drew 1&ndash;1 against Switzerland, and defending champions Germany lost 1&ndash;0 against Mexico. In the first game of Group E, Costa Rica faced Serbia at the Samara Arena. Costa Rica's Giancarlo González got an opportunity to score from a header in the 12th minute but the ball went over the crossbar. A minute later, on Serbia's attack, Aleksandar Mitrovic's chance to put Serbia in the lead was saved. The first half ended with 0&ndash;0 on the scoreboard. In the second half, Serbia won a free kick in the 55th minute because of a foul by David Guzmán. Serbia's captain Aleksandar Kolarov scored from the free kick in the top right corner, which proved to be the winning goal of the match. Nemanja Matić's attempt in the 77th minute to double the lead was blocked. Costa Rica had a few attempts as the match proceeded, but none were converted into a goal. The match ended 1&ndash;0 as the Serbian side climbed to the top spot in the group. This was Branislav Ivanovic's 104th international match, and he is now the most capped Serbian international. Aleksandar Kolarov won the Budweiser Man of the Match award. After the match, he said, ""The free-kick came in a difficult moment in the match and I knew I could step up and change things, and that's exactly what I did."" The defending champions Germany took on Mexico in the first game of Group F in Moscow. Germany had greater ball possession in the match. Héctor Herrera's 10th minute attempt from outside the goal was blocked by Manuel Neuer. Both sides had multiple attempts for opening the scoring. In the 35th minute, Hirving Lozano scored a goal from a right-footed shot, from Chicharito's assist, putting the Mexicans in the lead. The first half ended with Mexico leading 1&ndash;0. In the second half, multiple attempts by Joshua Kimmich, Julian Draxler, Toni Kroos, and Timo Werner went wide or were blocked. Though with the greater all possession, Germany lost 1&ndash;0 to Mexico. This was the fifth World Cup tournament for Rafael Márquez; only two other players have played five. In the last six World Cup tournaments, Mexico has never lost their first game, winning five of those. It was the first defeat for Germany since losing to France in the UEFA Euro 2016's semi-finals. After the match, Germany's coach Joachim Löw said ""In the first half, we played very badly. We were not able to impose our usual way of playing, attacking, and there were lots of counter-attacks against us and we were very vulnerable. In the second half, we were able to press more, but Mexico drew back and then carried the ball forward fast. We had a couple of shots, but it seemed jinxed and the ball did not go into the goal. Everybody is really unhappy and crestfallen but we have to put this behind us. Our team has experience of losses."" In the last match on the day, Brazil faced Switzerland at Rostov-on-Don. Brazil had greater ball possession and more attempts. In the 11th minute, Paulinho missed just in front of the goal to put Brazil in the lead. However, Brazil got a 1&ndash;0 lead in the 20th minute when Philippe Coutinho scored from outside the box. Switzerland's Stephan Lichtsteiner was the only one to be booked in the first half as it ended 1&ndash;0 with Brazil leading. Two minutes into the second half, Casemiro was shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Switzerland won a corner in the 50th minute. Steven Zuber scored a header from Xherdan Shaqiri and equalised for the Swiss side. Multiple attempts by Neymar, Thiago Silva, Casemiro, and Coutinho came through, but none succeeded. The match ended 1&ndash;1 as both countries won one point. Valon Behrami became the first Switzerland player to feature in four different World Cups. After the match, Brazil's coach Tite said, ""We had too many balls off target, if we had been a bit more focused we could have made the goalkeeper work a bit more. My expectation of course was to get a victory and of course I'm not happy with the result."" Coutinho won the Budweiser Man of the Match award. clear" +sport,"Sevilla FC bookings_away = None English club Tottenham Hotspur dropped out of the UEFA Cup after a 2-2 draw at White Hart Lane against Spanish side Sevilla. Spurs lost the first game 2-1 in Spain, and the tie was enough to see Sevilla through 4-3 on aggregate. Sevilla had a 2-0 lead after just eight minutes in London. Steed Malbranque scored an own goal after 3 minutes as he attempted to clear the ball off the line. The ball scuffed off the bottom of his boot and bobbled into the net. Former Tottenham player Freddie Kanoute then doubled the visitors lead only minutes later after he collected the ball, played a one two, and danced around keeper Paul Robinson. Before the end of the first half, Dimitar Berbatov struck the post off a hammered shot, but the score remained 2-0. Tottenham struck back in the second half and substitute Jermain Defoe scored minutes after coming on to cut Sevilla's lead. Just a minute later, Aaron Lennon tied the game, putting pressure on Sevilla. Two more chances emerged for Tottenham, one through defender Michael Dawson and Dimitar Berbatov, but neither where able to convert. With only stoppage time remaining, and Spurs in need of two goals to advance, frustration played out as Teemu Tainio was red carded for a dangerous challenge on Puerta. Sevilla was one of three Spanish sides to advance to the semi-finals Thursday, and they will face Osasuna in the next round, guaranteeing there will be a Spanish club in the final. Tottenham have only the Premiership left to contend for now, as they look to book a European spot for next season against Wigan Athletic on the 15th." +sport,Stead (Yellow) Original +sport,"Thirteen world records were broken by disability swimmers at this week's Australian Swimming Championships in Adelaide, which also acts as the national selection trials for the forthcoming London Olympics and Paralympics. Seven of the records were in freestyle events, three in breaststroke, two in butterfly, and one in backstroke. The week also marked a changing of the guard in Australian swimming, with a handful of Olympic champions coming out of retirement, but with the exception of Libby Trickett, failing to qualify. Five swimmers set seven freestyle world records between them. Matthew Cowdrey broke the S9 50m and 100m records, with times of 25.66s and 55.20s respectively. In the 100m he was beaten by Daniel Fox who set a record in the S14 class with a time of 54.38s. The 50m race also saw a second record fall, with Mitchell Kilduff setting the new mark of 24.84s in the S14 class. Brenden Hall now holds the S9 400m record, with a winning time of 4:14.67. Jacqui Freney won the women's 100m in a time of 68.03s, an S8 record. Kayla Clarke took the 50m event in 28.66s, an S14 record. In the other strokes, three swimmers set six world records between them. Blake Cochrane dominated the men's breaststroke, winning both the 50m and 100m, and setting records for his S8 class of 36.73s, and 79.06s. Tim Antalfy set S13 records in two disciplines, winning the 50m backstroke in 28.20s, then twice breaking the 100m butterfly record (55.31s in the preliminaries then 54.92s in the final), beating his nearest competitor by over six seconds. Prue Watt capped the record breaking run on the final night of competition, setting the women's S13 50m breaststroke mark at 36.27s. For national championships, disabled events are combined into ""multi class"" races which include competitors with a range of disabilities. They compete according to a point scoring system, with their performance measured against the world record for their classification. Thus not only have these swimmers qualified for London and written their names into the record books, they have also raised the bar for themselves in future competitions. In the able-bodied championships, all eyes were on the ex-champions attempting to return to the top level from retirement. Ian Thorpe, Michael Klim, and Geoff Huegill all missed qualification. Responding to their disappointments: Thorpe intends to continue swimming; Klim announced his retirement; and Huegill will discuss his options with his family. Libby Trickett scraped into the 4x100m relay team, placing fifth in the women's 100m final. A new generation will take national titles with them to their first Olympic competition. James Magnussen will be a serious contender in two individual and two relay events, after winning both the 50m and 100m freestyle. David McKeon won the 400m and 800m freestyle. Thomas Fraser-Holmes took the 200m freestyle and 400m individual medley, and Daniel Tranter took the 200m medley. Mitch Larkin secured the 200m backstroke title. Chris Wright won the 50m and 100m butterfly. Nick D'Arcy, winner of the 200m butterfly, now has a chance at Olympic redemption. He was originally selected for Beijing, but was kicked off the team for assaulting a fellow team-member. Three women have also booked their Olympic debut wearing the mantle of national champion. Alice Tait won the 50m butterfly title. Tessa Wallace won the women's 200m breaststroke, relegating Leisel Jones, a former world record holder and world champion in the event, to fourth. Leiston Pickett edged out Jones to take the 100m breaststroke title. Many of Australia's top performers from the Beijing Olympics have secured a place on the team heading to London. Among the women, Stephanie Rice, Jessicah Schipper, Alicia Coutts, Emily Seebohm, Kylie Palmer, Bronte Barratt, Cate Campbell, Melissa Gorman, Belinda Hocking, and Melanie Schlanger all booked their trip with wins this week. Although Jones missed out on Olympic selection in the 200m, second place in the 100m was enough to secure a berth to her fourth Olympic Games. In the men's events, Olympic silver medallists Brenton Rickard, Christian Sprenger, Hayden Stoeckel, Eamon Sullivan, and Matthew Targett will all get another shot at gold. Kenrick Monk missed out on the finals of the 200m freestyle in Beijing, but will contest the event again in London. Two national title winners did not qualify for the Olympics. Jarrod Poort won the men's 1500m freestyle, but finished outside the Olympic qualifying time. Benjamin Treffers won the mens 50m backstroke, which is not on the Olympic program. After the meet, Swimming Australia named the Olympic team. Along with those mentioned above, the men on the team are Daniel Arnamnart, Tommaso D'Orsogna, Jayden Hadler, Matson Lawson, Cameron McEvoy, Ned McKendry, Ryan Napoleon, and James Roberts. Completing the team for the women are Olympic newcomers Jessica Ashwood, Bronte Campbell (Cate's sister), Brittany Elmslie, Blair Evans, Samantha Hamill, Yolane Kukla, and Jade Neilsen, and veterans Angie Bainbridge, Sally Foster and Meagen Nay. The Paralympic team has not yet been announced. Alongside the record-setters, favourites for Games selection include disability class winners Ellie Cole, Michael Anderson, Grant Patterson, Taylor Corry, Esther Overton, Maddison Elliott, Katherine Downie, Matthew Levy, Rick Pendleton, Amanda Fowler, and Sarah Rose. Ahmed Kelly, abandoned as a baby with severe deformities in an Iraqi orphanage, and rescued by an Australian charity, qualified in the 50m breaststroke. The eight day meet was held during the period March 15-22 at the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre, in Oakland's Park, South Australia. It was run by Swimming Australia, with Energy Australia as the principal sponsor." +sport,"referee= Roberto Rosetti Celtic headed into this match knowing a goal would send them into the group stages. Celtic started well when Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink shouldered Shunsuke Nakamura's cross over the bar after ten minutes. If the Dutchman had've been more precise Celtic could've controlled the game from the start. Five minutes later Scott McDonald played a one-two with Vennegoor of Hesselink who played a good short ball back which fell right for McDonald's left foot but he agonisingly hit wide. It wasn't all Celtic though. Spartak Moscow counter-attacked brilliantly and nearly scored 17 minuted in. Artur Boruc made a last-ditch save and Lee Naylor cleared after Vladimir Bystrov cut the ball back to Dmitri Torbinsky just outside the box. Just 60 seconds later Aiden McGeady hit a good shot wide of the Moscow goal. Then 25 minutes in, the referee made the worst decision of the match. Welliton, the Brazilian striker, shot straight at Artur Boruc and the ball bounced off him and hit Gary Caldwell's grounded hand. The referee gave the penalty. There was nowhere for Caldwell to go and the penalty should not have been given. However Pavlyuchenko's penalty hit the post. 2 minutes later Celtic showed no signs of giving up. Scott McDonald scored his first Celtic goal after Massimo Donati's shot deflected off a defender and fell for McDonald on his stronger right foot. He slotted it straight past the keeper to give Celtic a 1-0 lead. 35 minutes into the match, Bystrov, who'd been causing Celtic, mainly Lee Naylor, many problems, sprinted past Lee Naylor again and if it wasn't for captain Stephen McManus blocking the shot, it could've been 1-1. Just before half time Spartak scored from a corner after scrappy Celtic defending. Vennegoor of Hesselink and Mark Wilson couldn't clear the ball and Pavlyuchenko, who missed a penalty earlier, controlled and slotted the ball past a very angry Artur Boruc. In first half stoppage time, Bystrov powered down the left wing and Naylor gave away another corner, luckily though the referee blew his whistle. But that didn't stop Artur Boruc from going over to Lee Naylor and shouting at him. Lee Naylor hit back and if it wasn't for Caldwell and McGeady breaking it up they could've both been sent off. The second half started as lively as the first. Vennegoor of Hesselink was being held in the box in the 51st minute but no penalty was given. The next big chance was when the ball fell for Vennegoor of Hesselink in the 65th minute, he turned and dragged a point-blank shot wide. From the 77th minute onwards the game started to open up with McDonald and Vennegoor of Hesselink having two great chances before Nakamura had three chances in two minutes. In the 84th minute Nakamura had a chance to score a free-kick after Vennegoor of Hesselink was taken down by Martin Stranzl, 21 yards out from goal. Stranzl was then sent off by the referee and Spartak Moscow were left with ten men for the remainder of the match. Unfortunately Nakamura's free-kick hit McDonald as it made it's way toward the goal. Celtic and Spartak both had chances before the full time whistle went. Celtic were very attacking from the start of extra time. The man advantage seemed to be helping Celtic as McDonald and Vennegoor of Hesselink both missed good chances in the first five minutes. In the 99th minute Aiden McGeady made a good run down the right wing to find nobody in the box. Forced to make a shot, it ended it up going off for a throw in. Just before extra time half time Derek Riordan, who replaced McGeady, picked up the ball and slammed a brilliant shot just a yard wide on his European début. Five minutes into the second half of extra time, Maksym Kalynychenko hit a superb shot which Boruc got a vital touch to. The ball then went straight down to the Spartak box but Vennegoor of Hesselink could only hit into Stipe Pletikosa's hands. In the 24th minute, Celtic were gifted a penalty after Scott Brown's power shot struck Radoslav Kováč's arm. Vennegoor smashed the penalty into the bar. Six minutes later the referee blew the whistle. The match was going to penalties. Penalty takers Celtic 1) Caldwell 2) Nakamura 3) Vennegoor of Hesselink 4) Riordan 5) Zurawski Spartak Moscow 1) Mozart 2) Titov 3) Pavlyuchenko 4) Şoava 5) Kalynychenko Caldwell scored his penalty and Mozart equalised. Nakamura smashed his penalty against the bar but Boruc saved Titov's. Vennegoor of Hesselink scored his penalty this time round and so too did Pavlyuchenko. Riordan scored the perfect penalty and Şoava scored his. Zurawski knocked his home and Kalynychenko had his saved by Boruc. Man of the Match Artur Boruc" +sport,"The Detroit Tigers began their 2005 season in style on April 4, defeating the Kansas City Royals 11-2 in their home opener of the Major League Baseball season. The game, played in front of a record crowd of 44,105 at Detroit's Comerica Park, was an offensive showcase for the Tigers, led by Dmitri Young, who went 4-for-4, matching a career-high 5 RBIs. Three of Young's four hits were home runs, making Young only the third baseball player in history to hit three home runs in a season opener. The previous two players to accomplish that feat are George Bell, who hit three home runs for the Toronto Blue Jays against the Royals on opening day, 1988; and Tuffy Rhodes, who hit three home runs for the Chicago Cubs against the New York Mets in 1994. Tigers starter Jeremy Bonderman was the winning pitcher, the youngest starter to win an opening day game since 1986. * WP: Jeremy Bonderman (1-0) * LP: Jose Lima (0-1)" +sport,"AS Roma bookings_away = Perrotta, Pizarro (Yellow (2)) A full crowd showed up at the Stade de Gerland in Lyon earlier today, only to watch their home side fall to Roma of Italy. The previous leg in the series saw the two teams draw 0-0 which gave Roma a slight advantage from the start, as a draw would allow them to advance. The previous match was extremely undisciplined, and Roma was given eight yellow cards. The Italian side showed a much calmer demeanor this game, earning only two yellows in comparison to Lyon's four. Lyon produced the first chance of the game as Romas keeper Alexandre Doni was unable to cope with Juninho, but defender Philippe Mexes was able to clear the ball from nearby strikers. Roma had their own chance soon after, as Daniele De Rossi was left open, and he headed the ball home. The goal was disallowed by the referee after he spotted a push by De Rossi on Eric Abidal. Juninho continued to threaten Roma, but his crosses were not able to do any damage to the Rossinari. Lyon fell behind on 22 minutes when Max Tonetto clipped a cross into the middle, and Francesco Totti was in the right place to head the ball past Gregory Coupet. Crosses continued to be the only attack Lyon could muster, and they produced a good chance off a Juninho corner kick. The ball ricoched off several players before Squillaci latch on for a shot, but the ball was sent directly at Doni, and the keeper made the save. Mancini then doubled the visitors lead just before halftime. After some quick stepovers to fool Anthony Reveillere, he struck the ball soundly into the top corner of the net. After the break, Roma could have killed off the game indefinitely, as Tadei beat Lyon's offside trap, but was unable to regain the composure required to smash the ball home. Doni then produced a few saves for Roma, kicking out Sylvan Wiltord's shot, and then diving to palm away a curling shot by Juninho. Both teams then made vain attempts for a penalty, but both Fred and Perrotta diving, but the referee made the right decisions and awarded only a yellow to Perrotta. Fred was then given a yellow for cruelly smashing Chivu in the face with his arm. Fred was lucky to receive a red for his actions. Roma held on for the win, and the 5 time french champions bowed out of the Champions League." +sport,"Olympic Games Witnessed by at least 90,000 spectators, the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games was held at the National Stadium &mdash; nicknamed ""Bird's Nest"" &mdash; in Beijing China this evening. The ceremony began at 8:00 p.m. local time (12:00 noon UTC) with two thousand and eight ancient Chinese percussion instruments called ""Fou"", each controlled by a young man. The first greeting message was a Confucius' saying, ""How Happy We Are, To Meet Friends From Afar"", which the percussionists chanted. 204 teams from over the world marched into the stadium. In Olympic tradition, Greece entered first and China appeared last &mdash; the originating country and the host country, respectively. The other 202 teams were welcomed, ordered by the count of strokes to write the team name in Chinese characters. There were several performances, including a 100+ member troupe of Taiwanese dancers and Chinese pop group A-One. There were also solo performances by Lang Lang, Sarah Brightman, and Liu Huan." +sport,"referee=Grzegorz Gilewski Schalke won 2-0 on 2nd half goals from from Jermaine Jones and Kevin Kuranyi. Schalke thoroughly dominated the game as they kept Rosenborg without any shots on target. Schalke remains in 3rd in Group B with 3 points, 2 ahead of Rosenborg." +sport,"Around 25 arrests have been made by Metropolitan Police officers, during the 31 mile Olympic Torch relay in London, England. The torch relay began at Wembley Stadium where protesters waved flags and chanted as the torch started on its route. Protests then became more dramatic, as demonstrators attempted to extinguish the flame using a fire extinguisher, and grab the torch from the hands of TV presenter Konnie Huq in Ladbroke Grove. Both of the attempts were unsuccessful, and were prevented by police officers and members of the torch's security team. The torch continued its route, surrounded by more than twenty security officers, to be seen by hundreds of spectators, and also continued verbal protests by groups highlighting the human rights issues in China. There were also pro-China protesters present chanting slogans. It is believed that around 20 - 25 arrests have been made throughout the course of the day. The route ends at the O2 Arena after being carried by around 80 athletes, dignitaries and entertainers, including five time Olympic gold medal winner Sir Steve Redgrave." +sport,"London, England&mdash; The United States's Cynthia Paige Simon was quickly pinned in her women's 57kg judo quarter-final match against Spain's Monica Merenciano Herrero at the ExCeL centre in the second day of Paralympics competition. The first match of the competition for both competitors., Simon's previous best had been a third place finish in last year's German Open; Merenciano Herrero's best previous finish was third at last year's Senior World Games. Peaquonnock-based coach Simon is a B3-classified competitor who competes for the Kokushikai club in the United States. These Games are her first." +sport,"sports Wikinews caught up with Australian wheelchair basketball coach David Gould in Canberra, where the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team &mdash; the Gliders &mdash; were having a training camp. Gould told Wikinews he retired from playing after the 2002 World Championships. He said he began coaching able bodied basketball at schools and clubs in South Australia. He was awarded a scholarship by Basketball Australia and the Australian Sports Commission, and became assistant coach of the Under 23 Men's team in November 2011. He is now national wheelchair skills coach, assistant coach of the men's and women's national teams, and coach of the Under 23 Men's and Under 25 Women's teams. He noted the Gliders have another training camp coming up in Brisbane in August. This is to be an open development camp any player can attend. Twelve players are to be selected for the Asia Oceania Zone (AOZ) Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Bangkok in November. The top three teams then qualify for the World Championships, to be held in Canada next year. He is acutely aware the Gliders have never won a World Championship or a Paralympics. But he has won a gold medal, with the men's team, the Rollers, in Atlanta in 1996. ""We went on a tour of the United States beforehand"", he recalled. Facing the United States in the United States was daunting. There was a huge crowd. So how did they do it? ""We had confidence in ourselves, and stuck to our plan,"" he recalled. This, he said, is what he and Glider's head coach Tom Kyle are trying to teach the Gliders. To believe in the process. They take them out of their comfort zone, show them the right techniques, the right way to do things. The idea is to get the principles right. Gould told Wikinews they have to look not just to the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio in 2016, but further ahead to 2020. They have to recruit new players and develop them. He said he took a Gliders team to the Osaka Cup with only four members of the 2012 team, in order to give members of the development team experience with international competition. He set up a mentor system whereby the six newcomers were each paired with one of the old hands. Wikinews was shown how the games are videoed and critiqued by the coaches. Special software allows the videos to be edited. Effects such as circling players can be added, along with captions and audio from the coaches. The edited video can then be downloaded by the players. Gould said there is a weekly video conference with the players. He considered video of other teams is an important training tool. He noted the Gliders had to play Brazil in the first match of the Paralympics in London, which was very tough, because so little was known about them. As it turned out, Brazil has a great program, and he thinks it could be a contender in front of a home crowd in Rio in 2016. Wikinews noted one of the Gliders, Amber Merritt, had her arm in a sling. Gould said her arm had been scanned, and the doctors will make their evaluation. Like most elite athletes, he knows about injury first hand. He told Wikinews he had injured his shoulder during the 2000 Olympics, and had to have it operated on afterwards. He said he did not want players playing injured, and sometimes it was better just to lose a week if you have the flu. He expected his players to be honest and up front with themselves, their coaches and their team. ""We need everyone on the same page"", he told Wikinews. Gould told Wikinews the Asia Oceania Zone championships will feature Australia, Japan, China, Thailand, South Korea, and perhaps Hong Kong. The venue in Bangkok is well known to him, as the U23 Men's team have already played there. His plan is to arrive early, to allow the players to acclimatise to the high humidity and the food. Some of the U23 men got sick. He does not expect difficulty qualifying, but it is ""one of the I's that have to be dotted and T's that have to be crossed."" He said Australians intend to apply full pressure, but one of their objectives is also to help the competition. One of the problems in Australia is that it takes a long time to go anywhere, he told Wikinews. By building up the teams in the Asia Oceania Zone, he hopes Australian teams will not have to travel so much or so far to meet first class competition." +sport,"Carmel Catholic Corsairs The Benet Academy Redwings defeated the Carmel Catholic Corsairs 51–33 last Friday. The victory brings Benet's league record to an unbeaten 4–0 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference. The Redwings headed into the game hosted at Mundelein, Illinois, United States, with a record of 10–3, having lost three of its last five games. Benet's last two defeats came within two points each against Lockport Township High School and Whitefish Bay High School in Wisconsin. The Corsairs, with a record of 7–9 after the game, lagged behind with a score of 4–20 after the first eight minutes. Benet's Dan Sobolewski scored a game-high 11 points, and his teammate Dylan Flood scored nine, seven of which he scored in the first quarter. Frank Kaminsky scored ten. On the other side, Carmel's Jon Huisel, who also scored ten points, went up against Kaminsky and ""held him in check."" Teammate Patrick Cox scored eight points and had five rebounds and three blocked shots. ""But they are a good team,"" Carmel coach John Ryan said of Benet. ""They haven't lost in conference, and I think they beat a good St. Patrick team by 14 points (41–27).""" +sport,"Recently, Wikinews spent time with with New Zealand Paralympic skier Adam Hall who was at Copper Mountain, Colorado for the IPC Nor-Am Cup. Wikinews We're interviewing famous Kiwi Paralympic legend Adam Hall, Paralympic skier. What classification are you? ::Adam Hall: An LW1. WNIQ LW1. So you are a standing skier? ::Adam Hall: Stand up skier. WNIQ And how does a Kiwi end up skiing? Because it's not known as the world's greatest country for skiing. ::Adam Hall: Oh, actually we have quite a lot of good resources down in New Zealand for skiing and a lot of world class athletes and countries from all over the world come down to New Zealand and train during the off season. So, actually, kind of world-renowned for skiing. WNIQ New Zealand's had a couple of really famous skiers compared to their neighbour Australia, right? ::Adam Hall: Yeah I guess so. Especially in the able bodied world. Back in the early 90s we had some good success at the Olympic medal. WNIQ You're the most decorated New Zealand Paralympian on the winter side? ::Adam Hall: Uh, no, not yet. We've also had a very successful Winter Paralympics ski racing team also in the 90s as well and also in the 80s as well when Paralympic skiing first evolved. We have had quite a successful team over the years, and we try to continue that?. WNIQ Are you from the South Island? ::Adam Hall: From the South Island. WNIQ So you ski in Otago? ::Adam Hall: Yeah, I am from Otago and I train out of Wanaka. WNIQ After the Summer Olympics, your government had all sorts of budget issues. Has that impacted the Paralympic stuff on the winter side or in general, or is it just the Olympics where they are like ""we don't want to fund everything""? ::Adam Hall: I'd much rather stay out of all that political side of things, and I don't really know much about it... WNIQ They are giving you money to ski? ::Adam Hall: Based on your results you're pretty well supported, and you have to obviously show your results to get the kind of resources and help. If you're successful you're lucky enough to get world class resources to help you along. WNIQ Do you think you're better resourced than, say, the Americans? ::Adam Hall: It's hard to say what each country gets, but I'm really happy and definitely privileged to have the support that I have behind me. WNIQ Are you going to go to Sochi? ::Adam Hall: Definitely, yeah. That what my eyes are set on at the moment and it's for Sochi in 2014. WNIQ Have you qualified points-wise points already? ::Adam Hall: Yeah, right now I have the qualifications and ? points to qualify for the games. WNIQ What's your favourite skiing events? ::Adam Hall: Slalom and Super G, and the two combined. WNIQ It's because you like to go fast? ::Adam Hall: I like to go fast and I like the technical things as well. WNIQ Anything that people should know about disability sport in New Zealand? ::Adam Hall: No, not really, the whole disability world, world-wide, is moving in a positive way and continues to when you look back in previous years with people with disabilities were kind of classed as second-hand? citizens and it is moving in a positive way and continues to. WNIQ Okay, cool. Thank you very much." +sport,"2012 Olympic Paralympics London, England &mdash; Thursday, Wikinews spoke with Claire Harvey, the captain of Great Britain's Sitting Volleyball Team after her team's loss to Japan. LauraHale You guys played a great game. The level of the play was just fantastic and all around you. ::Claire Harvey: Thank you. LauraHale So you're Claire Harvey... ::Claire Harvey: Yes. LauraHale ... and you're the captain. ::Claire Harvey: Yes. Yeah. That's right. LauraHale Are you guys planning to qualify for Rio? ::Claire Harvey: Absolutely! This was always about... we were always going to be the underdogs. We're the only team that weren't in Beijing. Most of us didn't start playing volleyball until 2009, so this was always going to be a very, very tough competition for us. We used the home slot. We earned it absolutely but we very much used it knowing that this was going to be a very tough competition but it's about gaining experience in this sort of arena that you don't get in any other arena, to take us forward into Rio. LauraHale Were you really happy with the level of government support? ::Claire Harvey: Yes, absolutely! Volleyball England, the VPI, Paralympics GB, have been amazing in supporting us and getting us as a group of people who'd never played volleyball before to where we are now in two and a half years. LauraHale Good news I guess is that you came out of the closet. Do you think you'll be an inspiration for other people with disabilities from that community to take up the sport? ::Claire Harvey: I hope. I mean, I guess. To me it's not been big news. I've never been in the closet. I need everything that I am to take me on that court as best I can and that's part of me, so it's quite a shock to me when it became big news because to me its just a part of everyday life. I'd like to think I'm an athlete first, and if being gay is part of that, and gives young people some inspiration then all well and good. LauraHale Thank you very much. ::Claire Harvey: You're welcome." +sport,"sports With five days of competition complete as of last night, Japanese wheelchair basketball player Mari Amimoto leads in scoring at the Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship taking place in Toronto, Canada. She scored 122 total points, 7 more than the second highest leading scorer, Canadian Janet McLachlan. The 4.5 point player Amimoto, who plays club basketball in Australia, led her team in scoring with 18 in their opener against Canada, which they lost 83&ndash;53. In her team's 61&ndash;55 loss to China, she again led her team in scoring with 22 points. In her third game in pool play, a 48&ndash;62 loss to Great Britain, she again led her team in scoring with 25 points. In her team's only win in pool play, she scored 37 points against Brazil in a game they won 63&ndash;52. In the final game of pool play, she scored 20 points, leading her team in scoring in their 82&ndash;49 loss to Germany. Amimoto matched up against British player Helen Freeman, another leading scorer in the tournament, in her game against Great Britain. Freeman held back Amimoto's game after Japan took a very an early lead 4&ndash;2. On her personal blog, Amimoto 最後も引き続き応援よろしくお願いします！ and said 決勝トーナメントには進めず、9-10位決定戦になりました。現実を受け止め、最終戦しっかり勝って終わりたいです！ ... カナダ時間の26日 10:00～ と9-10位決定戦です！ Overall in the competition, 126 players have scored at least two total points. Canada is the only nation with more than one player amongst the top ten scorers. Their second leading scorer is Katie Harnock, with 75 points so far. Other players in the top ten include USA player Rebecca Murray with 105 points, Dutch Mariska Beijer with 101 points, Chinese player Yong Qing Fu with 99 points, Mexican player Floralia Estrada with 96 points, British player Helen Freeman with 89 points, German player Marina Mohnen with 88 points, and French player Angelique Pichon with 76 points. Round robin play concluded yesterday, with France, Germany, China, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Great Britain and the United States all having qualified to play in quarter-final matches scheduled for tomorrow. Japan was scheduled to play Mexico for ninth place, and Brazil was scheduled to play Peru for eleventh place." +sport,"The 20th Olympic Winter Games are set to start today in Turin, Italy. Producers of the Olympics have promised, ""rhythm, passion and speed,"" as an estimated 35,000 people will pile inside the stadium and nearly two billion will turn out for the events. Dancers, abutting the majestic Alps, paid a tribute to seven nations, including Austria, Germany and France, in the opening ceremonies wearing green sheaths and pulling fake cows on wheels. It was to pay homage to livestock and mountain life, and so the audience could cheer both, everyone was supplied with cowbells. Dancers then brought out big white bubbles which were stuck to their heads. Bacilli, who has performed in concerts for U2 and The Rolling Stones said the balls signify snow. Eight women, Italian actress Sophia Loren, Chilean writer Isabel Allende, American actress Susan Sarandon, Nobel Peace-prize winner Wangari Maathai of Kenya, and three Olympic medal winners carried the Olympic flag. This was the first time ever that only women carried the flag. At least 6,100 volunteers who worked an estimated 10,000 hours helped to organize and run the ceremonies. Unfortunately, in the hours before the games were to start, eight cross-country skiers, a former gold medalist from Germany, and two Americans, were suspended for five days each after they failed blood tests. The tests say that they had elevated levels of hemoglobin, an enzyme within red blood cells that can increase endurance. However, the positives results could be due to the body's acclimation to mountain air, or dehydration. The American skiers are Kikkan Randall of Anchorage Alaska, and Leif Zimmermann of Bozeman, Montana." +sport,"Tottenham Hotspur bookings_away = Ghaly, Zokora, Lee, Stalteri, Cerny (Yellow (5)) Premiership title hopefuls Chelsea were forced to battle back for a draw earlier today at Stamford Bridge. Tottenham seemed to have a spot in the semifinals of the FA Cup all wrapped up before two late strikes from Lampard and Kalou ruined the day for Spurs. Chelsea were again without the heart of their defence, John Terry, and it showed for much of the game as Tottenham broke through the Blues lines far too easily on several occasions. Chelsea came out to win though, and nearly all their main stars were on the pitch to start the match, including Shevchenko, Ballack, Drogba, and Lampard. Martin Jol's Tottenham also fielded a strong attacking side, even without the use of the injured Robbie Keane. Defoe, Berbatov, and Lennon lead the way for Spurs instead, with Canadian Paul Stalteri and Englishman Michael Dawson on defence. Tottenham also had to use their backup keeper Radek Cerny, as their number one Paul Robinson is with Keane on the injured list. Tottenham came out fast and hard, scoring after only 5 minutes. Jermain Defoe cut in from the left and attempted a pass to Hossam Ghaly, but Aaron Lennon pick up the ball instead and sent it in to the Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov. Chelsea keeper Petr Cech sprinted out in an attempt to block, but Berbatov spun and volleyed the ball high into the back of the net, giving the visitors the early lead. Tottenham pressed for a second, and two chances presented themselves to Defoe and Lennon, but the crossesfrom Berbatov and Defoe were out of the players reaches. Chelsea would strike back though, and the goal would be against the run of play. Ballack received a chested down ball from Shevchenko after a Drogba cross, and the German blasted the ball low and hard. The shot was off target, but Frank Lampard was able to react quickly enough to fling out his leg and deflect the ball into the back of the net. Tottenham continued to run at the shaky Chelsea defence, and were rewarded with a goal when Aaron Lennons seemingly harmless cross was knock into Chelsea's net by Michael Essien, who was attempting to cover back on defence. Tottenham then nearly gave Chelsea an own goal of their own as Michael Dawson knocked Arjen Robbens cross toward his own net, but Paul Stalteri raced back to clear off the line. After the near tying goal, Jose Mourinho made an early change by replacing Paulo Ferreira with Shaun Wright-Phillips. Another defensive error would see Chelsea two behind soon after though, as Ghaly beat three defenders to a high ball, and slotted the ball past Cech from 12 yards out. Chelsea had a few more chances as they tried to grab a lifeline before the break, but nothing truly troubled keeper Cerny. Chelsea came out of the dressing room much more positively after the break, and had 3 chances to score from 2 Ballack free kicks, and a well taken shot by Lampard. Cerny did well to keep the game at 3-1 however. Spurs nearly put the game away on the counter attack, but Cech came out quick to stop Aaron Lennons run, and Defoe could not find the net after the ensuing cross by Ghaly. Chelsea then made 2 changes in just over 5 minutes, as Boulahrouz and Kalou took to the pitch. On the 70th minute, Chelsea earned a corner, and Arjen Robben stepped up to take the set piece. A goulmouth scramble occurred from the curving corner and the ball landed nicely at Lampard's feet. The Enlgishman blasted it home, cutting the deficit to one. Chelsea equliazed 4 minutes from time through substitute Salomon Kalou. Didier Drogba headed the ball to his fellow countryman Kalou, and the Ivorian volleyed the ball into the back of the net. Jermain Defoe had a chance to be the hero for Tottenham only minutes later as he beat out three defenders and struck the ball hard past Cech, but not past the crossbar. The game ended drawn, and the replay will be held at White Hart Lane on March 19th." +sport,"referee=Carlos Amarilla *Delayed 45 Minutes due to heavy rain Colombia and Brazil opened their 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualification campaign with a 0-0 draw. Despite inexperienced squad, Colombia had most of the chances and Brazil became less of a threat as the game went on. The match started 45 minutes late after a torrential downpour left the pitch temporarily unplayable. But the water drained away quickly. Colombia pressed forward after for the majority of the game. However, they couldn't take any of their chances and ended with a 0-0 scoreline. Brazil could find themselves in trouble with an accumulation of yellow cards as 4 of their players picked up their 1st yellow cards. Standings after today's match." +sport,"On March 19, 2006, Candace Parker, the 6 foot, 4 inches (1.93 meters) tall Tennessee Lady Volunteers forward, made NCAA Basketball history and set a record as the first woman ever to double dunk in an NCAA game. The media buzz is that Parker has taken women's basketball up to a new level... the air. During a Women's NCAA Championship game against the Army Black Knights, Parker made her first dunk of the game with 13:44 left in the first half. The Lady Vols were ahead, 14-13, as Sidney Spencer fed the ball to Parker, who flew over opponents to the net, becoming the first woman to slam dunk in an NCAA game. The crowd roared... not once, but twice. With 14:18 left in the second half, Parker took Nicky Anosike's pass and soared above Army and Lady Vol players. Parker palmed the ball and stuffed it through the rim for her second slam dunk in the game. Even the famously focused Coach Pat Summit took a moment to appreciate the feat. During an NPR interview, sports analyst, Nancy Lieberman, spoke about what Parker's dunking foreshadows for women's basketball. Both Lieberman and Summit noted that Parker frequently dunks the ball during practice, as other women do. Lieberman says that women's basketball has developed immensely in recent years. And she expects audiences will see women NCAA and professional basketball players use dunking and other spectacular skills much more in the future. Most people are celebrating Parker's double dunk as a success. In both women's and men's basketball, a few have questioned whether dunking makes the game better. But, adding a dunk shot will certainly change the game, as will the continued development of point guards. Basketball analysts usually agree that dunking is exciting and most say that using this high-percentage shot will draw bigger audiences to women's hoops." +sport,"AustraliaAbout 50 cyclists have been involved in a hit-and-run attack by a car in the suburb of Mascot, just south of the centre of Sydney, Australia. The cyclists, including former Australian Olympian Ben Kersten, and road racer Kate Nichols, were in a group of cyclists hit when a driver who had been ""worrying"" the rear of the pack, overtook the cyclists, pulled in front of the pack, and then slammed on the brakes. The riders suffered a collection of minor scrapes and bruises, but no deaths were caused. The incident, which has been reported to have caused approximately A$30,000 worth of property damage to the cyclist's vehicles, also caused a semi-trailer to jack-knife, and cars to swerve. Although the cyclists had been following Australian road rules, the National Roads and Motorists' Association's senior adviser, Anne Morphett, said a large bike pack can sometimes stretch to 40 metres. ""They need to break them up so cars can overtake safely. You might have three across and five deep, but not 40 or 50 deep,"" she said. ""We want to see people get their training in but they need to be in areas that are safe - and these are public roads, not a training facility."" Kate Nichols, one of the injured, was also seriously injured in a crash in Germany in 2005 involving the Australian women's road cycling team that killed Australian cyclist Amy Gillett. The driver, a 34 year old man from Claymore, has been spoken to, but has yet to be charged." +sport,"London, England &mdash; In the first match of sitting volleyball this morning at ExCeL's South Arena 2, the Chinese women defeated Slovenia 3 sets to 0 in a half empty arena with minimal press in attendance. The game was the last one in pool play for both teams and China left the game at the top of their group in group play. With spectators equaling half the total who watched the Great Britain versus Ukraine match earlier at the Games, China won the first set 25&ndash;12 before a crowd full of home town fans. In the press area, volunteers assisting with the games &mdash; so-called Games Makers" +sport,"United States sportsman Lance Armstrong today won the international cycling competition Tour de France. This is the seventh consecutive win for Armstrong. It is also his last, as Armstrong announced prior to the race that he will be retiring from professional cycling after the competition. The last leg was an 89.8-mile strecth from Corbeil-Essonnes to Paris' famed Champs-Elysees. But poor weather conditions affected the finale. The official race time clock was stopped when the riders reached the Champs Elysee due to rain making the famous cobble stones slippery. However, the rain stopped and the stones dried during the eight final laps of the famous road, and time-bonuses were awarded for the stage win. Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, riding for T-Mobile, won the stage after his break-away from the field 1,500m out could not be reeled in by the peloton, relegating the sprinters to lower placings. The 20s time bonus moved Vinokurov to fifth overall in the race. As Armstrong was presented the final Yellow Jersey, he was quoted in the press as saying in a mixture of French and English, ""Vive le Tour, forever."" The winning Yellow Jersey is awarded to the cyclist who had the best overall performance throughout the tour's circuit. After the awards ceremony, Armstrong discussed what comes next in his life, mentioning that defeating cancer by raising awareness and funds is his new goal. ""We know how to train and prepare for the Tour,"" he says. ""If we win, it is a success. Cancer is not and will not be that way. It is a different kind of fight. It's not something that lasts three weeks. ""Along the way there will be victories and defeats. There are going to be survivors and people who aren't going to make it. My goal and my responsibility is to make sure that we don't forget ... how devastating cancer has been. I can help change that."" ""I sit here as a person who considers myself totally cured,"" he says. ""But one of those people who was along the side of the road over the last three weeks might have breast cancer and might die in three months. ""How can they not be cured? The illness is complicated; there are hundreds of different illnesses and cell types, little bastards inside who don't agree with what we throw at them, who don't want to die."" Armstrong has been a member of the President's Cancer Panel since 2002. He feels that his role is to get the funds to keep that research alive, saying that ""we have the smartest people in the world"" already working on cures. ""Funding is tough to come by these days,"" he says. ""The biggest downside to a war in Iraq is what you could do with that money. What does a war in Iraq cost a week? A billion? Maybe a billion a day? The budget for the National Cancer Institute is four billion. That has to change. It needs to become a priority again. ""Polls say people are much more afraid of cancer than of a plane flying into their house or a bomb or any other form of terrorism. It is a priority for the American public.""" +sport,"Munich, Bavaria, Germany Hannover 96 bookings_away =Lauth, Lala, Rosenthal, Bruggink, Kleine & Yankov (Yellow (6))/Lala (Yellow-Red (1)) 69,000 fans packed Allianz Arena and saw Bayern Munich maintained their perfect record on Saturday with a 3-0 victory against Hannover. Once referee Thorsten Kinhöfer whistled for the opening kickoff, both teams played attacking style. Hannover answered a couple of headers from Martin Demichelis with Hanno Balitsch's drive. Bayern Munich took the lead in the 28th minute when Bastian Schweinsteiger fed Luca Toni a pass into the penalty box and scored against Hannover goalkeeper Robert Enke. Bayern Munich sealed the victory with 2 goals from Mark van Bommel and Hamit Altintop in the 2nd half. On Sunday, Wolfsburg is at home against Schalke and Eintracht Frankfurt is at home against Hansa Rostock . Standings after Saturday games of Week 3" +sport,"__noTOC__ Tour de France 2007 Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan has won stage 15 of the 2007 Tour de France in a time of 5h 34' 28"". Michael Rasmussen of Denmark kept his overall lead by 2' 23' over Alberto Contador of Spain. The two extend their lead on Cadel Evans of Australia by 1' 37"", and more on the rest of the contenders. Today's 196 km stage is one of the major stages of the Tour, with no fewer than five major mountain passes - including the Col de Port, the Col de Portet d'Aspet (5.7 km climb at 6.9%), the Col de Menté (7.0 km climb at 8.1%), the Port de Balès (19.5 km at 6.2%), (the first time this climb has featured in the Tour), and finally the Col de Peyresourde (9.7 km climb at 7.8%) with a downhill finish in Loudenvielle. Tomorrow is a rest day for the Tour. Alexandre Vinokourov, Astana Team Alberto Contador, Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team Michael Rasmussen, Rabobank" +sport,"Vail, Colorado, United States &mdash; Yesterday, Wikinews sat down with Australian blind Paralympic skier Melissa Perrine who was participating in a national team training camp in Vail, Colorado. Wikinews This is Melissa Perrine. And are you like Jess Gallagher and just here training and not competing? ::Melissa Perrine: I'm not competing right now. WNIQ And you competed in 2010 in Vancouver? ::MP: I did. Yeah. WNIQ And who was your guide? ::MP: Andy Bor. WNIQ Why a male guide? He's got to have different skis, and he can't turn exactly the same way. ::MP: I think that with me it was just that Andy was the fittest person that was with the team when I came along. He used to be an assistant coach with the team before I started with him. WNIQ And you guys have a good relationship? ::MP: Yeah! WNIQ Like a husband and wife relationship without the sex? ::MP: No, not at all. (laughs) Older brother maybe. Good relationship though. We get along really well. WNIQ So have you ever lost communications on the course in an embarrassing moment? ::MP: We ski courses without communications. (unintelligible) WNIQ You're a B3 then? ::MP: I'm a B2. WNIQ So you can see even less than Jessica Gallagher. ::MP: Yes. WNIQ How do you ski down a course when you can't even see it? ::MP: Andy! WNIQ You just said you had no communications! ::MP: Oh, I just have to be a lot closer to him. WNIQ So if he's close enough you can overcome that issue? ::MP: Yeah. WNIQ Why are you doing skiing? ::MP: Why? I enjoy it. WNIQ You enjoy going fast? ::MP: I love going fast. I like the challenge of it. WNIQ Even though you can't see how fast you're going. ::MP: Oh yes. It's really good. It's enjoyable. It's a challenge. I love the sport, I love the atmosphere. WNIQ I've asked the standing skiers, who's the craziest Paralympic skiers? Is it the ones who are on the sit skis, the blind ones or the ones missing limbs? ::MP: I probably think it's the sit skiers who are a bit nuts. I think we all think the other categories are a bit mental. I wouldn't jump on a sit ski and go down the course. Or put the blindfold on and do the same thing. WNIQ B1 with the black goggles. Is your eye sight degenerative? ::MP: No, I'm pretty stable. WNIQ Not going to become a B1 any time soon? ::MP: Oh God, I hope not. No, I'm pretty stable so I don't envision getting much blinder than I am now unless something goes wrong. WNIQ And you're trying for Sochi? ::MP: Definitely. WNIQ And you think your chances are really good? ::MP: I think I've got a decent chance. I just have to keep training like I have been. WNIQ Win a medal this time? ::MP: I'd like to. That's the intention. (laughs) WNIQ Do you like the media attention you've gotten? Do you wish there was more for yourself and winter sports, or of women athletes in general? ::MP: I think that promoting women in sport and the winter games is more important than promoting myself. I'm quite happy to stay in the background, but if I can do something to promote the sport, or promote women in the sport, especially because we've got such a small amount of women competing in skiing, especially in blind skiing. I think that's more important overall. WNIQ Most skiers are men? ::MP: There's more men competing in skiing, far more. The standards are a bit higher with the males than with the females. WNIQ The classification system for everyone else is functional ability, and you guys are a medical classification. Do you think you get a fair shake in terms of classification? Are you happy with the classification? ::MP: I think I'm happy with it, the way it's set out. With vision impairment I'm a B2, against other B2s. It may be the same category, but we have different disabilities, so there's not much more they can do. I think it's as fair as they possibly can. WNIQ You like the point system? You're okay with it? Competing against B1s and B3s even though you're a B2? ::MP: The factors even all that out. The way they've got it at the moment, I don't have any issues with them, the blind categories. WNIQ What was it that got you skiing in the first place? ::MP: An accident, basically. Complete by chance. A friend of mine in the Department of Recreation used to run skiing camps in the South West Sydney region, and she had a spare spot at one of the camps. Knew that I was vision impaired, and: ""Do you want to come along?"" ""Yeah, why, not, give it a go."" This was back when I was about twelve, thirteen. I went, and I loved it. Went back again, and again, and again. And for the first five or six years I just skied for like a week a season sort of thing, like, you're on a camp. Fell in love with the sport; my skiing and the mountain atmosphere, I love it, and then, when I finished my HSC, I decided to take myself off to Canada, and skiing Kimberley, the disabled race program that was run by the ex-Australian who coaches Steve Boba, and I'd heard about it through Disabled Winter Sports Australia. And I thought I'd spend some time in Canada, which is for skiing, and had a year off between school and uni, so... first time I ran through a race course actually. It was pretty awesome. So I went back again the next year, and Steve Boba recommended me to Steve Graham, and he watched me skiing in September in the South Island, and invited me on a camp with the Australian team, and I trained for Vancouver, and I qualified, and I said ""sure, why not?"" And here I am! WNIQ So you liked Vancouver? ::MP: It was just an amazing experience. I came into Vancouver... I had quite a bad accident on a downhill course in Sestriere about seven weeks out from the games, and I fractured my pelvis. So, I was coming into Vancouver with an injury and I had only just recovered and was in quite a lot of pain. So it was an amazing experience and I was quite glad I did it, but wish for a different outcome. WNIQ So you are more optimistic about Sochi then? ::MP: Yes. WNIQ One of the things about skiing is that it's really expensive to do. How do you afford to ski given how expensive it is? And the fact that you need a guide who's got his own expenses. ::MP: I'm lucky enough to rank quite high in the world at the moment, so due to my ranking I'm awarded a certain amount of funding from the Australian Sports Commission, which covers my equipment and expenses, and the team picks up training costs and travel costs. All I've got to pay for is food and my own equipment, which is good, so I've managed to do it a budget. WNIQ What do you do outside of skiing, because you look kind of young? And you being not like, 30 or 40? ::MP: I'm 24. I'm a student still. WNIQ Which university? ::MP: University of Western Sydney. It's my third university degree. I've completed two others prior to this one that I'm doing now. WNIQ Which degree? That you're currently pursuing. ::MP: Currently, physiotherapy. WNIQ Because of your experience with sport? ::MP: Not really, except that my experience with sport certainly helped my interest and kind of fueled a direction to take in the physiotherapy field when I'm finished my degree, but more the medical side of injury, rehabilitation that got me interested in physiotherapy to begin with, burns rehabilitation and things like that. WNIQ You view yourself a full-time student as opposed to a full-time professional skier. ::MP: Not really. I'm a student when uni's on and when uni's finished I'm a skier. The way that the term structure is in Australia it gives me all this time to ski. The uni starts at the end of February and goes to the beginning of June, and then we've got a six or seven week break until beginning or mid-August, and uni starts again then, and we go up to mid way through November, and then we've got a break again. Skiing fits in very nicely to that. WNIQ What's the route for qualification to Sochi for you. ::MP: Just maintaining my points. At the moment I've qualified. I just need to maintain my points, keep my points under, and then I qualify for the Australian team. WNIQ So there's a chance they could say no? ::MP: If I'm skiing really badly. An injury. WNIQ Or if you're like those Australian swimmers who had the guns... ::MP: I've no sign of picking up a gun any time soon. Giving a blind girl a gun is not a good idea. (laughs) WNIQ It just seemed to us that Sochi was so far away on out hand, and yet seemed to be in everybody's mind. It's on their program. Sixteen months away? ::MP: Yes, something like that. Sixteen. I think it's been on our mind ever since Vancouver was over and done with. Next season, that was that, it was like: ""what are our goals for the next four years?"" And it was, ""What are our goals for the next three years and two years?"" And subsequently, next season, it's Sochi. What we need to work on, what we need to accomplish for then, to be as ready as possible. WNIQ What is your favourite event of all the skiing ones? You like the downhill because it's fast? Or you like Giant Slalom because it's technically challenging? Or... ::MP: I prefer the speed events. The downhill; frightens me but I do love the adrenalin. I'm always keen to do a downhill. But I think Super G might just be my favourite. WNIQ Do you do any other adrenalin junkie type stuff? Do you go bungee jumping? Jumping out of airplanes? Snowboarding? ::MP: I don't snowboard, no. I have jumped out of a plane. I thought that was fun but downhill has got more adrenalin than jumping out of a plane, I found. I do mixed martial arts and judo. That's my other passion. WNIQ Have you thought of qualifying for the Summer Paralympics in judo? ::MP: As far as I know, Australia doesn't have a judo program for the Paralympics. But, if I ever get good enough, then sure. WNIQ They sent one. ::MP: They've sent one, and he's amazing. He beats up blind guys, able bodieds, quite constantly. I've seen video of him fight, and he's very very good. If I ever reach that level, then sure, it's something I'd look into it. WNIQ Does judo help with your skiing? ::MP: Yes, it increases my agility and balance, and strength, for sure. WNIQ I want to let you get back to changing. Thank you very much." +sport,"The mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia were just announced. Based on mythological characters, they are Miga, Quatchi and Sumi. Miga, a sea bear who lives in the ocean with her family pod near Tofino, and Quatchi, a young sasquatch, represent the Olympics, while Sumi represents the Paralympics that follow afterward. A sea bear is a First Nations creature, part killer whale, part Kermode spirit bear. While illustrated as being taller than the other characters, the mascot costume of Quatchi is the same height as the other two characters. The third mascot, Sumi, an animal-guardian spirit, is a Thunderbird that wears the hat of an orca. Sumi will be the mascot of the Paralympics. In 2004, the Times Colonist suggested a marmot might be a good mascot, except for their winter hibernation. The organizers still chose one, named Mukmuk, as their ""virtual only"" counterpart. After the Olympic logo design was leaked the day before the 2005 announcement, organizers were extremely tight lipped until today's news conference at a Surrey school. They apparently didn't do any development on the characters on internet-enabled computers, to ensure the images or information wouldn't slip out. The characters were designed by the Vancouver and Los Angeles-based Meomi Design. Their characters have been used as part of iGoogle, a customizable homepage option from Google, as well as Electronic Arts, Girls Inc., Time Out Magazine, Cyworld, Nick Jr., Bang-on Clothing, and CBC4Kids. The Vancouver organizers have a CDN$46-million merchandising program; previous Olympics have made as much as $100 million from mascot-related products. René Fasel, Chairman of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Coordination Commission commented that ""The IOC welcomes these imaginative new additions to the Olympic Family as they take their place on the world stage today - a symbol of the Games and of Canada. We know that when Olympians, Paralympians and visitors from around the globe arrive in British Columbia at Games time, they will fall under the spell of these captivating characters."" The characters first appearance will be at a Bay store in the Lower Mainland; HBC is a major sponsor of the Games. They will then make their way to schools, take a break through the Christmas season, and fly to Ottawa for the Winterlude festival. Many respondents on the CBC.ca forums complained that the characters were poorly designed, and objected to the anime influence. One early commenter posted: ""these mascots do represent BC very well... someone must have been smoking A LOT of BC bud when they created these things. Maybe the dealer was that marmot that no one can see."" One poster suggests the Miga character is inaccurate: ""Family pods are residential (not transients or offshore!) who prefer sheltered water."" According to the poster, they are ""rarely seen"" on the west coast of Vancouver Island, where Tofino is. One forum poster took offense to the characters: ""As a person ... of full First Nations descent I want to say that these mascots are offensive."" Some felt that they were a nice change of pace, from the ""regular run-of-the-mill Canadiana that has been recycled over and over again. Vancouver is a new city for new things and fresh faces, a place for experimentation... I think we need to remember that these characters are for the kids and for fun. What kind of a statement would trotting out another red and white beaver and moose make? That we are imaginative with new ideas? They'll grow on us."" Native offense to the Vancouver Olympic mascots would not be unheard of. While the Olympic logo was applauded by various First Nations and Inuit leaders, including the Nunavut premier, one criticized the image for the Games as looking like the video game character Pac Man. Local leaders complained it didn't represent their cultures, but the culture of the far north; interestingly the logo designer was of sure Haida ancestry. Nunavut Commissioner Peter Irniq complained that traditional inuksuit (inuksuk) never had a head, legs, or arms. Irniq says that the logo resembles an inunguat, which is a much more recent invention made by non-Inuit people in Nunavut. Roughly 1600 designs were submitted. Similarly, the mascot design process was open to all, but there was no word yet on numbers of entrants. The British Columbian chapter of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada took issue with the ""token"" amount of money paid to the winner, compared to the work done and the fact the images were those of VANOC in perpetuity, with no usage fees paid. VANOC later approached the Society, to set minimum standards for the design." +sport,"JapanA long-lost statue of the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Harland 'Colonel' Sanders was finally pulled up from a river in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan. Though covered with mud, he was still smiling as he was 23 and a half years before. In October 1985, the statue was tossed into the river by some overjoyed fans of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team, which led to a 'legend' known as ""the Curse of Colonel Sanders."" On Tuesday afternoon, the upper body of the reinforced plastic statue was found unexpectedly. Osaka City had a plan to lay a paved path along Dōtonbori River, and a contractor diver noticed a figure near the bottom while checking for unexploded World War II bombs. The workers pulled it up, and Tigers fans among them recognized the figure as the Colonel. The lower body was also found on Wednesday morning. The statue still lacks some parts like eyeglasses, feet and left hand, but the contractor reportedly says it's almost impossible for the rest to be found, due to lack of visibility in the water. Osaka City will return the statue, about 180 cm in height, to KFC Japan. Reportedly the company is considering displaying the statue at its franchise in the Tigers home Hanshin Kōshien Stadium in Nishinomiya City, Hyōgo Prefecture (neighboring Osaka Pref.). The story of the Hanshin Tigers and the Colonel statue dates back to October 1985. Because the team got the Central League title for the first time in 21 years, ecstatic fans crowded around Dōtonbori. Some were so overjoyed that they jumped into the river for the team players. Unfortunately no one among them looked like Randy Bass, the team's star slugger. Near them was a KFC franchise (closed 1998), and they presumably found resemblance between Bass and 'Colonel' Sanders (both were bearded). They started to chant ""Baassu, Baassu"" and tossed the Colonel statue into the river in honor of their hero. The team also won the Japan Series later in that year. However, this was the Hanshin Tigers' last triumph. The team soon fell into a long-term slump, and finished at the bottom among 6 Central League teams in 10 of 16 seasons by 2001. During the slump, some baseball lovers in Japan jokingly said ""it was brought by the Curse of Colonel Sanders,"" which became a legend. The Tigers again got the League title in 2003 and 2005, but the fans' dream of another triumph has not yet come true. Asked whether the 'curse' will be lifted by the discovery, Hanshin Tigers manager Akinobu Mayumi said ""now we can not lay (our luck) to it."" A KFC Japan press officer said, ""Truly, Sanders is a 'gentleman'. The 'curse' must end, and he must back Hanshin up to be a Japan Series Champion.""" +sport,"issues/basketball Clif Brown led the charge for Niagara, scoring 32 points and shooting 6-11 from behind the arc in helping the Purple Eagles defeat the Florida A&M Rattlers 77-69 on Tuesday night. Brown, despite playing the last four minutes in danger of fouling out, shot 10-18 from the field and picked up six rebounds to lead Niagara. Charron Fisher, leading scorer for the Eagles, contributed 13 points and 8 rebounds despite being in foul trouble for much of the second half. The Rattlers, despite outshooting the Eagles percentage-wise 46 to 40, could not catch up to the Eagles, thanks in part to a team that went 7-18 from the free throw line. Niagara, by contrast, went 21-28 from the free throw line, and also hit four more 3-pointers than the Rattlers. It was the first opening-round experience for Niagara, who advance to play the Kansas Jayhawks on Friday in Chicago. Florida A&M had been to Dayton for the ""play-in"" game once before, when they defeated Lehigh in 2004. The first round of the NCAA tournament begins on Thursday at eight regional sites, and continues on Friday at eight different sites. The second round of the tournament will be played out over the weekend, with the regional semifinals and finals next Thursday through Sunday." +sport,-unreviewed Unfavoured Cyprus held mighty Germany to 1-1 draw in Nicosia’s new GSP stadium on the 15th of November. Michael Ballack of Chelsea FC gave Germany the lead in the 16th minute and it appeared that the Germans were on their way to a fourth consecutive victory in Group D. But Yiannakis Okkas of Olympiakos Piraeus leveled the game on the stroke of half time driving a long-range volley past German keeper Timo Hildebrand. Despite several chances for both teams the game ended in a draw leaving the 3 times world champions disappointed and the home fans celebrating one of their proudest results to date. This result follows Cyprus’ 5-2 thumping of Ireland in their previous home game. +sport,"After this weekend, Texas can celebrate not only bringing home the Big 12 Conference trophy but also having the All-Big 12 Player of the Year, P.J. Tucker, and the first recipient of the Defensive Player of the Year award, LaMarcus Aldridge. Rival Kansas, who tied with Texas for the No. 1 slot in the conference but was denied the trophy, had coach Bill Self named Coach of the Year and Brandon Rush named Freshman of the Year. Michael Neal of Oklahoma was named Newcomer of the Year. The All-Big 12 awards are selected by the league's head coaches, who are not allowed to vote for their own players. Tucker, a unanimous All-Big 12 First Team choice, is the first Longhorn to earn Big 12 Player of the Year recognition. He leads the team and ranks sixth overall in the conference in scoring (16.1), while leading the league in rebounding (9.0). He is also fourth in field goal percentage with a .531 mark. He has led UT in scoring seven times in league play and is second in the Big 12 overall with 10 double-doubles. Aldridge wins the first defensive honor awarded by the Big 12. He is first in the Big 12 with 59 blocks overall, including 27 in conference games. He has 81 defensive rebounds in 2005-06, ranking third in the league. Aldridge can score as well, leading the Big 12 with 13 double-doubles. Neal is the second-straight Sooner and fourth overall to win Newcomer of the Year. One of the top long-range threats in the Big 12, the junior college transfer ranks first in conference games in 3-point field goal percentage (.495) and 3-point field goals per game (3.86). He is also averaging a team-best 14.8 points in league action. He has shot 50.0 percent or better from beyond the arc 11 times this season. Rush is the first freshman in conference history to be named to the All-Big 12 First Team. The top scoring freshman in the conference with 15.1 points per game, Rush also ranks seventh with a 6.6 rebounding average. He is the fourth KU player to surpass 400 points (408) in his freshman season. The native of Kansas City, Mo. is the second Jayhawk to win freshman accolades (Jeff Boschee, 1998-99). Self wins his first Big 12 coaching honor and the third for a Jayhawk mentor. After returning just 21.2 percent of his scoring from a year ago, Self guided KU to a share of the Big 12 regular season championship, its sixth in league annals. Starting three freshmen and two sophomores, Kansas recorded its 18th straight season with at least 22 victories. The All-Big 12 First, Second, Third and Honorable Mention teams were also announced, while conference coaches also selected All-Defensive and All-Rookie Teams for the first time. Player of the Year P.J. Tucker, Texas, F, Jr., 6-5, 225, Raleigh, N.C./Enloe Defensive Player of the Year: LaMarcus Aldridge, Texas, F, So., 6-10, 237, Dallas, Texas/Seagoville Newcomer of the year: Michael Neal, Oklahoma, G, Jr., 6-3, 191, Mesquite, Texas/Lon Morris Junior College Freshman of the year: Brandon Rush, Kansas, G, Fr., 6-6, 202, Kansas City, Mo./Mt. Zion Academy (N.C.) Coach of the year: Bill Self, Kansas Overall Record: 276-128; 13th season Record at Kansas: 69-23; 3rd Season All-Big 12 First Team Position/Height/Weight/Class/Hometown/Previous School(s) * Richard Roby, Colorado G 6-6 195 So. San Bernardino, Calif./Lawrence Academy (Mass.) * Brandon Rush, Kansas G 6-6 202 Fr. Kansas City, Mo./Mt. Zion Academy (N.C.) * LaMarcus Aldridge, Texas F 6-10 237 So. Dallas, Texas/Seagoville * P.J. Tucker, Texas** F 6-5 225 Jr. Raleigh, N.C./Enloe * Jarrius Jackson, Texas Tech G 6-1 185 Jr. Monroe, La./Ouachita All-Big 12 Second Team * Curtis Stinson, Iowa State G 6-3 215 Jr. Bronx, N.Y./Bronx Regional/Winchendon Prep * Cartier Martin, Kansas State F 6-8 220 Jr. Houston, Texas/Nimitz * Terrell Everett, Oklahoma G 6-4 188 Sr. Charleston, S.C./Southwest Missouri State-West Plains CC * Taj Gray, Oklahoma F 6-9 238 Sr. Wichita, Kan./Redlands Community College (Okla.) * Joseph Jones, Texas A&M F 6-9 250 So. Normangee, Texas/Normangee All-Big 12 Third Team * Will Blalock, Iowa State G 6-0 205 Jr. Boston, Mass./East/Notre Dame Prep * Thomas Gardner, Missouri G 6-5 213 Jr. Portland, Ore./Jefferson * Brad Buckman, Texas F 6-8 235 Sr. Austin, Texas/Westlake * Daniel Gibson, Texas G 6-2 190 So. Houston, Texas/Jones * Acie Law, Texas A&M G 6-3 185 Jr. Dallas, Texas/Kimball All-Big 12 Honorable Mention (Listed alphabetically by school) Aaron Bruce (Baylor), Mario Chalmers & Julian Wright (Kansas), Jimmy McKinney (Missouri), Aleks Maric & Wes Wilkinson (Nebraska), Kevin Bookout & Michael Neal (Oklahoma), Mario Boggan & JamesOn Curry (Oklahoma State), Martin Zeno (Texas Tech) Big 12 All-Defensive Team * Mario Chalmers, Kansas G 6-1 182 Fr. Anchorage, Alaska/Bartlett * Russell Robinson, Kansas G 6-1 196 So. New York, N.Y./Rice * Taj Gray, Oklahoma F 6-9 238 Sr. Wichita, Kan./Redlands Community College (Okla.) * LaMarcus Aldridge, Texas F 6-10 237 So. Dallas, Texas/Seagoville * P.J. Tucker, Texas F 6-5 225 Jr. Raleigh, N.C./Enloe Big 12 All-Rookie Team * Curtis Jerrells, Baylor G 6-1 200 Fr. Austin, Texas/Del Valle * Mario Chalmers, Kansas** G 6-1 182 Fr. Anchorage, Alaska/Bartlett * Brandon Rush, Kansas** G 6-6 202 Fr. Kansas City, Mo./Mt. Zion Academy (N.C.) * Julian Wright, Kansas F 6-8 218 Fr. Chicago Heights, Ill./Homewood-Flossmoor * Michael Neal, Oklahoma G 6-3 191 Jr. Mesquite, Texas/Lon Morris Junior College Source:" +sport,"Australia's overnight penalty shootout 9&ndash;7 win against the Russia women's national water polo team qualified the Australia women's national water polo team into the quarter-finals of the FINA Women's World League Super Finals, where they will meet the Germany women's national water polo team at 9:00 p.m. AEST." +sport,"UEFA Euro 2016 On Thursday, World Champions Germany lost 2&ndash;0 to hosts France in the UEFA Euro 2016 semifinal. Antoine Griezmann scored both goals, netting six goals in the tournament. France is to play Portugal in the final tomorrow. Germany had better ball possession and passing accuracy. But, moments before half time, captain Bastian Schweinsteiger was booked for a hand ball in the penalty area, and France were awarded a penalty kick. The Atlético striker Griezmann scored from the spotkick sending Maneul Neuer in the wrong direction. Les Blues were 1&ndash;0 up at half time. In the second half, Jérôme Boateng was benched suffering from a ruptured muscle bundle. Later, Paul Pogba's shot was half-cleared by Neuer, but Griezmann scored the second goal of the night and his sixth of the tournament. Though Germany had far more completed passes &mdash; in the first half alone, more than the hosts in both halves combined &mdash; the World Champions were defeated. Griezmann was awarded the Man of the Match award. Griezmann's six goals in one Euro tournament is the most after Michel Platini's record of nine goals in one tournament. HYS clear ---- Italy" +sport,"Homebush Bay, New South Wales &mdash; Wikinews sat down with Great Britain men's national wheelchair basketball player Joni Pollock before a practice session at the Rollers & Gliders World Challenge in Sydney. British-born Pollock was born with the condition spina bifida. He explained he could walk with difficulty up until age twelve or thirteen, after which he began using a wheelchair. Shortly after this, he began playing wheelchair basketball. He attended a disabilities tournament for children with disabilities in England, where he tried both wheelchair basketball, since he came from a town where team sports were popular; and wheelchair tennis, as he'd played with an able-bodied friend. Ultimately, he chose wheelchair basketball as it was a team sport. Wikinews asked Pollock about being loud towards his team mates during the match on July 20 between the Australian Rollers and the Great Britain Bulldogs. He said he was out of wheelchair basketball for nine months due to a pressure sore and surgery on his shoulder, and has been making a comeback since January, with the doctors and physiotherapists giving him the all-clear in April. On that night, he said, the Australian team used bullying tactics and some of his teammates on the British team didn't step up to win the game. He also said that no matter what team his team plays against, he has a target on his back because of his calibre of playing in the game, and his team failed to to understand it that night, leaving him frustrated with his team and himself; and, he hates coming to Australia during a Paralympic year since the home town &mdash;that is, Australian&mdash; referees do not protect the visiting team from the home team's dirty playing, which puts the British team's gold medal prospects in jeopardy. Wikinews also asked Pollock his opinions regarding Oscar Pistorius. Pollock believes Pistorius shouldn't be competing in the Olympics if other Paralympic athletes can't compete. He also mentioned reservations about certain technical aspects, such as whether Pistorius would be the same height if he still had his legs rather then his prosthetic legs. Asked about 5 point players playing in wheelchair basketball, he said he believes 5 point players can play with other point players but not in the Paralympics, and said 5 point players currently play in the domestic league but not at the elite level, to boost the number of players participating and to help the development of the game. Wikinews also questioned him about tattoos worn by members of the British team. In previous years, he said, only one or two forwards had tattoos, but now almost everyone has one as having tattoos is currently in fashion. He said he got his first tattoo at the age of sixteen and only recently had it removed. He also has tattoos on his right arm, depicting the logos of the Paralympics and World championships in which he competed. Pollocks's team begins its London campaign on August 30, against the Germany men's national wheelchair basketball team." +sport,"Yesterday, 1964 Summer Paralympic swimmer Trevor French died. News of his death was shared with Wikinews through the Australian Tax Office" +sport,referee=Steven DePiero Toronto FC ended their inaugural season with a 2-2 draw against New England Revolution. The game was more evenly match as opposed from the 1st 2 games when New England Revolution won the 1st game 4-0 on April 14 and won the 2nd game 3-0. Michael Parkhurst opened the scoring with a goal from his own half just before halftime. Taylor Twellman doubled the Revolution lead immediately after the break off a corner kick. Toronto FC got a goal back about an hour into the game with Danny Dichio's goal in stoppage time in the 2nd half to secured a point for Toronto FC. Toronto FC's season is finished as New England Revolution will face New York Red Bulls in the 1st Round of the playoffs. Here are a list of Head-to-Head records for Toronto FC after 1 season of play. +sport,"referee=Alberto Undiano Mallenco Everton defeated Nürnberg 2-0 to move top of Group A in the 2007-08 UEFA Cup. The first chance for the visiting team came just over 20 seconds into the match when Mikel Arteta saw his shot saved by Nürnberg goalkeeper Jaromír Blažek, before Tim Cahill's followup shot was tipped onto the goalposts. Nürnberg had chances from Peer Kluge and Dominik Reinhardt, but Kluge's attempt went just wide of the posts while Tim Howard saved Reinhardt's shot. Everton opened the scoring late in the match when Berti Gláuber brought down Victor Anichebe, giving the visitors a penalty which Arteta converted. Five minutes later Anichebe scored to extend Everton's lead. In the other Group A match of the evening, Zenit Saint Petersburg defeated Larissa 3-2. Everton lead Group A with two wins from two matches and look likely to qualify for the knockout stage. Saint Petersburg are second with four points while Dutch side AZ Alkmaar have one point with a game in hand. Nürnberg, defeated in their only match so far, are fourth in the group and Larissa are bottom with two defeats from two matches." +sport,"football On Saturday, host nation Chile defeated Argentina 4&ndash;1 over penalties in the 2015 America Cup, which was held in Estadio Nacional located in the Chilean city of Santiago, to clinch the title for the very first time. The first half saw 3 yellow cards. In total, both halves, 49 fouls were committed. Nobody scored in the first half of the match. Chile had 57% possession of the ball. The second half saw 4 yellow cards, but neither team could find the net. Since the second half ended in 0&ndash;0, the match proceeded to extra time. Gonzalo Higuaín missed some chances to score a goal for Argentina. Argentina has not won any major trophy in the past 22 years. Chile began the penalty-shootout. Chilean players converted each penalty kick into goal, whereas except for FC Barcelona star Lionel Messi, no other Argentine could score a penalty. Misses by Higuaín and Banega turned out to be costly for Argentina and the final strike by Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez sealed the victory by the host nation. Chilean captain Claudio Bravo won the golden glove trophy and Eduardo Vargas won top scorer award." +sport,"The Pittsburgh Pirates rallied to beat the New York Mets in the first game of a home series at PNC Park on Friday, July 8, 2005. The Pirates went into the bottom of the 9th inning down, 5-1, and gave up the first two outs but managed to load the bases. The Mets then put in their closer, Looper, against Tike Redman. Redman, after fouling off several pitches in a 11-pitch at bat, finally hit one to bring the score to 5-3. Looper gave up 4 runs total in the bottom of the ninth, but managed to get out of the inning with the score tied. In the top of the 10th, the Pirates closer, José Mesa, allowed no hits. Then, in the bottom of the tenth, Humberto Cota hit a line drive with men on first and second with two outs to score the winning run." +sport,"London, England &mdash; Yesterday at London's Riverbank Arena on a sunny day, Argentina lost to Iran at 7-a-side football 8&ndash;1 in a game in group play. In the pre-game, both national team anthems were played with Iran singing along to theirs before jumping up and down while the pre-game ritual finished. Iran's energy level stayed on the pitch, with the teams scoring six goals in the first half. The first half goal scorers included CP6 classified player and team captain Morteza Heidari who was congratulated by Argentina's goalkeeper after the goal. At 46:58, Argentina's Matias Fernandex Romano scored a goal bringing the score to 6&ndash;1, and scoring the first goal of the tournament for Argentina. While Argentina had several opportunities on goal because of an open net or the goalkeeper being out of position, they were unable to kick the ball into the net. Iran finished the second half by scoring two goals late in the game, one in the 58th minute and one in the 60th to end the game 8&ndash;1. 7-a-side football is played by competitors with cerebral palsy. Unlike association football, the game is played on a smaller pitch with seven players on the field at one time, and no offside rule. Each half lasts 30 minutes, with a 15 minute half-time break." +sport,"2008 Olympic Games Two relatives of a coach for the American Volleyball team, and their tour-guide, were attacked by a knife-wielding Chinese man Saturday. Todd and Barbara Bachman of Farmington, Minnesota USA, in-laws of Hugh McCutcheon- head U.S. indoor men’s volleyball coach, were touring the Drum Tower in central Beijing when the attack occurred. Mr. Bachman was killed, his wife and their tour-guide were injured and are undergoing treatment at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon, wife of Hugh McCutcheon and a member of the 2004 United States women’s Olympics volleyball team, was also present for the attack on her parents, but was herself uninjured. The attacker, identified by Chinese state sources as Tang Yongming, a 47 year old from Hangzhou, Zhejiang leapt to his death from the tower's second story in what was labeled a suicide. A United States Olympic Committee spokesman stated that the victims weren't wearing anything that might have marked them as Americans or as associated with a US team. He further stated that it wasn't known whether the U.S. men's volleyball team would compete in a match scheduled for Sunday and that no extra security was planned for U.S. athletes. U.S. President George W. Bush and his wife Laura were in the city for the Olympic games. Mr. Bush stated, “Laura and I were also saddened by the attack on an American family and their Chinese tour guide today in Beijing. The United States government has offered to provide any assistance the family needs.” Todd Bachman was the CEO of Bachman's, Inc; a regional chain of garden centers based in Minneapolis. He was sixty-two years old." +sport,"2020 Summer Olympics On Monday, Filipina weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in women's weightlifting in the 55&nbsp;kg category during her fourth Olympic games. She lifted a combined weight 224&nbsp;kg (494 lb), tying the previous new Olympic record. In the snatch she lifted 97&nbsp;kg (214&nbsp;lb) and in the clean and jerk 127&nbsp;kg (280&nbsp;lb), totaling the 224&nbsp;kg. After the match, she said in an interview, ""I am 30 years old and I thought it would be like going down, my performance, but I was shocked I was able to do it"". A statement from the Philippines' presidential spokesman Harry Roque celebrated Diaz's win, saying, ""Congratulations, Hidilyn. The entire Filipino nation is proud of you"". The previous record-setter Liao Qiuyun of China took the silver medal with a total weight of 223&nbsp;kg (492&nbsp;lb), and Zulfiya Chinshanlo of Kazakhstan took the bronze with 213&nbsp;kg (470&nbsp;lb). Diaz won the silver medal during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she competed in the 53&nbsp;kg category. She won a gold medal in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. Diaz trained in Malaysia, where she was stuck due to COVID-19 travel restrictions imposed by the Philippines. While there, she trained in a self-built gym, using water bottles." +sport,"The jury in the Isiah Thomas sexual harassment trial revealed a guilty verdict Tuesday, ruling that the current New York Knicks coach subjected former Madison Square Garden executive Anucha Browne Sanders to unwanted sexual advances and verbal insults. In a minor victory for Thomas, the ruling also said that Thomas will not have to pay punitive damages. However, Thomas' employer, Madison Square Garden, was also found guilty of harassment and will have to pay millions dollars worth of punitive damages to Browne Sanders. The ugly three-week trial originated with a US$10 million lawsuit filed by Browne Sanders, the former senior vice president of marketing and business operations for the Knicks. She was fired by the team in December of 2006, and following her dismissal she filed the explosive lawsuit alleging that Madison Square Garden fostered an environment of sexism and inequality, personified by the conduct of Isiah Thomas. She stated that Thomas repeatedly called her a ""bitch"" and a ""ho"", and pressured her to kiss him and said that he loved her. She also stated that the firing was the result of her filing a complaint about Thomas. Madison Square Garden, and the coach known for his charismatic and emotional demeanor, denied the charges. After the guilty verdict was read, a relieved Browne Sanders hugged her family and friends who were present at the trial. Thomas met with his lawyers, and while leaving the courthouse stated, ""“I’m innocent, very innocent, and I did not do the things she has accused me in this courtroom of doing. I’m extremely disappointed that the jury did not see the facts in this case. I will appeal this, and I remain confident in the man that I am and what I stand for and the family that I have.” Madison Square Garden is also expected to appeal the decision." +sport,"The Rice University baseball team defeated the University of Oklahoma 10-4 in the first game of the NCAA Super Regional. Brian Friday and Josh Rodriguez helped push Rice to an early led with consecutive home runs in a four-run first inning. Wayne Graham, Rice's head coach, said, ""Obviously, I'm happy with the way we hit the ball. We attacked the ball real well. When we answered their runs, that was critical. We never got complacent."" Rice (54-10) and Oklahoma (44-21) will meet Sunday for the second game in the series at Rice's Reckling Park. If Oklahoma wins, a third game will be played Monday. If Rice wins, it would send the team to the College World Series for the fifth time, the first since winning the title in 2003." +sport,"London, England &mdash; By yesterday, with only a few days left before the start of the 2012 Summer Paralympics, the Australian team had made themselves at home inside the Paralympic Village with uniquely Australian symbols including the w|emu and w|kangaroo. Beyond the Australians, other nations were busy in the village including people from Turkey, Russia, and the Ukraine. The Paralympic Village was open to the press corps yesterday in one last opportunity for journalists to view it without being rights holders or being accompanied by National Paralympic Committee personnel. picture select|width=510px | | | | | | |" +sport,"In a statement released today, former American baseball star Mark McGwire admitted to the use of performance-enhancing drugs during his career, including the 1998 season, when he broke Roger Maris's single season record for home runs, hitting 70 of them. McGwire admitted to the use of drugs in the late 1980s and during most of the 1990s. There had been wide speculation about McGwire's use of performance-enhancing drugs, as he came from an era of baseball that has been dubbed the ""steroid era"" because of the high use of performance enhancing drugs throughout Major League Baseball. ""I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era...I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry...It's time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected,"" said some of the statement released by the St. Louis Cardinals today. McGwire had recently been hired as the Cardinal's hitting coach and was set to begin the job this season. McGwire, 46, had been regarded as one of the most powerful hitters of his time. Over his career, McGwire hit 583 home runs, which is currently tied with Alex Rodriguez, who has also admitted to steroid use. McGwire is now one of the six players in the top 15 home run hitters of all time that has either confessed to or been linked to the use of performance-enhancing drugs. McGwire's best season came in 1998, when he set the record for most home runs in a single season. After a race throughout the final months of the season with Sammy Sosa, he ended with 70 home runs, easily beating Roger Maris's previous record of 61 (This record was later broken by Barry Bonds, who now holds the current record of 73). ""I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids. I had good years when I didn't take any and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids and I had bad years when I took steroids,"" said McGwire to the Associated Press. According to McGwire, the steroids were used for the enhancement of his play as well as to recover from the several injuries that he suffered between the 1990 and 1994 seasons. In the statement, he also commended the MLB Player's Association for attempting to remove steroids from the game. ""Baseball is really different now— it's been cleaned up. The commissioner and the Player's Association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I'm glad they did,"" McGwire stated."" Since he used the steroids before the current rules were in place, McGwire will likely not be disciplined by the league or the MLBPA. In 2005, McGwire was called to the U.S. Congress and refused to answer questions about his steroid use, saying that he did ""...not want to talk about the past."" It is unknown if the MLB will investigate into this matter. Mark McGwire is currently tied for eighth on the all-time home runs list. he played 16 Major League seasons and retired following the 2001 season. He is currently the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals." +sport,"Dr. Christiane Ayotte is Doping Control director at Canada's Institut National de la Recherché Scientifique, which is a World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) certified lab. Dr. Ayotte said on Tuesday (Aug. 23) that three ethically critical, and important, scientific questions were raised by a four-page doping allegation in the French cycling daily L'Équipe. L'Équipe released lab data with a medical identification allegedly finding banned EPO in five year old samples of cyclist Lance Armstrong's urine, originally taken after he won the 1999 Tour de France. Ayotte expressed surprise that chemical testing of 1999 urine could have been done in 2004 at the French national anti-doping laboratory at Châtenay-Malabry. She said that she routinely instructs all doping laboratory organizations that EPO deteriorates and disappears after two or three months, even if the urine is frozen. Ayotte does not question whether the new type of analysis is correct; rather she questions the ethics of long-delayed test results. The first ethical problem , in her opinion, is that an adverse finding cannot be confirmed with second samples, as required by WADA regulations. She states that there are normally two samples, ""A"" and ""B"". The Châtenay-Malabry EPO findings were based on Armstrong's ""B"" samples. Armstrong's ""A"" samples were depleted in 1999 for tests that did not include EPO, because no EPO test was available that year. French Sports Minister Jean-François Lamour said that without the ""A"" samples, no disciplinary action could be taken against Armstrong. The second ethical problem, in Ayotte's view, is that an athlete charged with doping long after the athletic event has no way to submit to additional testing to disprove an adverse finding. The third ethical problem for Ayotte is that L'Équipe disclosed Armstrong's medical identity. ""It seems to me,"" Ayotte continued, ""that this whole thing is breach of the WADA code. We are supposed to work confidentially until such time that we can confirm a result. By no means does this mean that we sweep a result under the carpet, but it has to meet a certain set of requirements."" Ayotte continued, ""I'm worried, because I have a great deal of respect for my colleagues in Paris. I am concerned that they did not cover their backs before being dragged into a very public issue of this kind."" Lance Armstrong has responded on his website, branding L'Équipe's reporting as being ""nothing short of tabloid journalism."" Armstrong says: ""I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs."" Further confusing public understanding of the EPO doping claim is Armstrong's statement in his autobiography, It's Not About the Bike: he said he received EPO during his cancer chemotherapy treatment. ""It was the only thing that kept me alive,"" he wrote. Jean-Marie Leblanc, the director of the Tour de France, said that Armstrong owes cycling fans an explanation. Leblanc said; ""For the first time&mdash;and these are no longer rumors, or insinuations, these are proven scientific facts&mdash;someone has shown me that in 1999, Armstrong had a banned substance called EPO in his body.""" +sport,"* Indians 6, Tigers 5, 11 inn: Jhonny Peralta hit two homers (19, 20), including the game-tying homer in the 8th, and Casey Blake hit a walkoff solo homer in the 11th. The Indians (88-62) lead the Tigers (83-68) by 5.5 games in the AL Central; their magic number is 7. The Tigers trail the Yankees in the AL Wild Card by 3.5 games. * Yankees 8, Orioles 5: Bobby Abreu picked up an RBI single and an RBI double. The Yankees (86-64) trail Boston by 3.5 games (with a magic number of 9) in the AL East, while the Yankees lead the Tigers in the AL Wild Card by 3.5 games. * Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 1: Frank Thomas hit three home runs (23, 24, 25), driving in five runs as the Red Sox' lead in the AL East dropped to 3.5 games; their magic number is 9. * Angels 10, Devil Rays 7: Chone Figgins and Howie Kendrick both hit RBI triples for the Angels (88-62), who lead the AL West by 8.5 games, and have a magic number of 5. * Mariners 4, Athletics 0: Jose Lopez hit a three-run homer for the Mariners (79-70), who are 6.5 games back in the AL Wild Card race. * Braves 11, Marlins 6: Andruw Jones hit a three-run homer for the Braves (77-73), who trail the Padres by 5.5 games in the NL Wild Card race. * Nationals 12, Mets 4: The Nationals scored 12 unanswered runs for the win, dropping the Mets (83-66) to 2.5 games ahead of the Phillies in the NL East. * Phillies 13, Cardinals 11: Ryan Howard hit a grand slam and a solo homer (39, 40), and Aaron Rowand hit two homers (25, 26) in a wild game; the Phillies (81-69) are 2.5 games back in the NL East. * Cubs 7, Reds 6: Aramis Ramirez hit a two-run triple to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th, and Mark DeRosa hit an infield single that allowed the winning run to score. The Cubs (79-72) lead the NL Central by 1 game. * Brewers 6, Astros 0: The Brewers (77-72) trail the Cubs in the NL Central by 1 game. * Giants 8, Diamondbacks 5: Randy Winn had 4 RBI, including a go-ahead three-run homer in the 8th. The Diamondbacks (84-67) trail the Padres by 1 game in the NL West. * Padres 3, Pirates 0: Mike Cameron hit an RBI double, and Khalil Greene hit a two-run homer in the win. The Padres (82-67) narrowed the deficit in the NL West by 1 game. * Twins 5, Rangers 4: The Twins tied the game in the 9th on a Michael Cuddyer homer, and won later that inning on an error by Ian Kinsler. * White Sox 11, Royals 3: The White Sox scored all eleven runs in a wild fifth inning that saw Danny Richar lead off with a solo homer (6), and hit an RBI triple (2) in his second at-bat of the inning." +sport,"GermanyThe German First Bundesliga ended its season on Saturday. VfL Wolfsburg claimed its first season title with a win over UEFA Cup runners-up Werder Bremen by 5–1. The win was Wolfsburg's sixteenth of seventeen at home. Wolfsburg went into the match holding a two-point advantage over Bayern Munich and VfB Stuttgart, who played each other at the same time. Since VfL had a goal difference of 35 to FC Bayern's 28, even a draw would have effectively clinched the title for them. Additionally, Wolfsburg faced a tired Werder Bremen side that had just lost the UEFA Cup final to Shaktar Donetsk after extra time. VfL got the scoring started after six minutes, when Zvjezdan Misimović latched onto a loose ball just outside the Werder penalty area and put it into the top of the net. Nine minutes later, Grafite, the league's leading goalscorer, made it 27 goals on the season. The game was effectively over when Sebastian Prödl scored an own goal in the 26th minute. Though Diego pulled one back for Werder five minutes later, it would not be enough. Second half goals from Grafite (56th) and Edin Džeko (74th) put an exclamation point on the afternoon for Wolfsburg. However, this was the last game at the helm for Wolfsburg's manager, Felix Magath. His contract was not renewed and he will be heading to FC Schalke 04, who lost their final game under interim managers Mike Büskens, Oliver Reck and Youri Mulder. Bayern won 2–1 over Stuttgart, so they join Wolfsburg in the UEFA Champions League 2009–10 group stage, while Stuttgart must start from the play-off round. Hertha BSC and HSV will represent the Bundesliga in the UEFA Europa League. Hertha managed to hang on despite being beaten 4–0 by seventeenth-placed Karlsruher SC. referee= Thorsten Kinhöfer (Herne)" +sport,"Both golf and rugby are set to return to the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee voted to include the sports at its executive board meeting in Berlin today. Rugby, specifically rugby union, and golf were selected over five other sports to be considered to participate in the Olympics. Squash, karate and roller sports tried to get onto the Olympic program as well as baseball and softball, which were voted out of the Olympic Games in 2005. The vote must still be ratified by the full IOC at it's October meeting in Copenhagen. Golf will return after a 112-year absence from the Games; the sport was last played at the 1900 and 1904 Games. Rugby union, in its full 15-a-side version, was included in four Olympic Games, with its last appearance being in 1924. If the sports are included after the October meeting, rugby will return to the Olympics as rugby sevens, a version of rugby union with seven players per side and 7- or 10-minute halves instead of the standard 40-minute halves. Elite rugby director Rob Andrew said that ""Rugby Union is played in more than 100 countries and has a superb opportunity to further develop and grow through its new partnership with the IOC."" The format that has been proposed for golf is two 72-hole tournaments, one each for men and women, with 60 competitors each. The top 15 players in the world will qualify automatically and the major golf schedules will arrange around the Olympic Games. Not all were happy with the proposed inclusions to the game. IOC President Jacques Rogge defended the decision, saying that ""this is the young generation that will be at its peak in 2016. The same question was raised time and time again when tennis and ice-hockey were introduced. Ask top tennis players Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, ask the NHL players, ask the NBA basketball players. They all want to go to the games &mdash; they are absolutely not concerned about that."" One of the sports that lost out was squash. Squash Federation President N Ramachandran commented on his disappointment that squash was not included in the games. If the sports are included, they will first be conducted in the 2016 Games. Women's boxing is now set to appear at the 2012 Games." +sport,"2008 Olympic GamesAugust 9, 2008 is the first major day of the 2008 Olympic games, the below article lists some of the highlights. The Chinese Pang Wei took the gold medal in the final of Men's 10 metre air pistol. He achieved a total score of 688.2 in the final, 1.2 below the Olympic record of 690.0 that was set in the 2004 games. The Silver medal went to the South Korean Jin Jong Oh and the North Korean Kim Jong Su won the bronze medal. No new records were set in this event. By winning four hundred points, the Czech Katerina Emmons equaled the previous world record and set a new Olympic record in the Women's 10m Air Rifle. Four hundred points is the maximum possible score in the event. The Russian Lioubov Galkina won the silver medal with 399 points and a score of 103.1 in the final shots. Snježana Pejčić from Croatia won the bronze medal with the same number of points as Galkina but a lower score in the final shots. The Chinese Xiexia Chen set a new Olympic Record with her total score of 212 in the Women's 48kg Weightlifting event. She got 117 of the points from the Clean & Jerk rounds and 95 of the points in the snatch rounds. In second place, the Turkish Sibel Ozkan got 199 points. 111 of these points were from Clean & Jerk and 88 of them were from the Snatch rounds. Wei-Ling Chen, from Chinese Taipei finished in third place with a total of 196 points. It was a very close finish between 6 competitors, all crossing the line practically at the same time, with Samuel Sanchez (Spain) in the lead, closely followed by Davide Rebellin (Italy) and Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Paolo Bettini, the favourite for the gold medal, has drilled during the race, and has reached the 16th place on the final leaderboard. - Sung-Hyun Park, Ok-Hee Yun and Hyun-Jung Joo (South Korean) set a new record in the Womens archery with a combined score of 2004. - The American Michael Phelps set a new Olympic Record in Heat four of Men's 400m Individual Medley with a time of 4:07.82. This time was approximated two and a half seconds ahead of the person who finished second in the heat, the Italian Luca Marin. - The Norwegian Alexander Dale Oen set a new Olympic Record in Heat seven of Men's 100m Breaststroke with a time of 59.41 seconds. This time was approximately 0.4 seconds ahead of the person who finished second in the heat, the Australian Brenton Rickard. -" +sport,"London, England &mdash; South Korea earned a 4&ndash;3 goalball victory against Algeria earlier today in the fifth match of the day at London's Copper Box. South Korean Sung-Wook Hong was the game's leading scorer with 4 goals. He is a B2 classified blind competitor, though classification is largely irrelevant in goalball as all classified blind players wear masks to provide even levels of sight in the game. The B2 classified Algerian Mohamed Mokrane led his team in scoring, with two points. From Chlef, he captains a side that qualified by winning the 2011 Africa Oceania Regional Championships in Sydney, Australia. His team comes into the Games having finished sixth at last year's World Championships. In a previous match today, Iran defeated China by a score of 9&ndash;5 after having been ahead 4&ndash;2 at the half." +sport,"Football (soccer) On Sunday, at Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, F.C. Barcelona won the King's Cup. The team defeated Bilbao based football club Athletic Bilbao 3&ndash;1 to clinch the title. Uruguayan striker Suárez was fit to play this final after recovering from hamstring injury. Lionel Andrés ""Leo"" Messi Cuccittini scored 2 goals, one in each half. And Brazilian Neymar scored 1 goal, between them putting the home team in a 3&ndash;0 lead. This lead was reduced when Bilbao born Iñaki Williams scored one goal for Athletic Bilbao, but could not defeat Barca. Luis Enrique, ex-Barcelona player and current manager of the team, wins the Copa del Rey title for Barcelona in his first year as its manager. F.C. Bacelona now has Italian Serie A champions Juventus in the UEFA Champions League Final 2014/2015 at German capital Berlin. Both football clubs have a chance to win a treble this football season." +sport,"Tonight (Friday night) in Australia, the Women's National Basketball League's Sydney Uni Flames decisively beat the Canberra Capitals by a score of 96&ndash;50 at a game played in Sydney." +sport,"Recently, Wikinews spent time with with United States Paralympic skier Jasmin Bambur who was at Copper Mountain, Colorado for the IPC Nor-Am Cup. Wikinews We're interviewing Jasmin Bambur. He is a guy. He's from Serbia, right? ::Jasmin Bambur: Yes, ma'am, I am from Serbia but I race for US Paralympic. WNIQ How did a Serb end up racing for the USA? ::Jasmin Bambur: It's very simple. You just get married to a fine American lady and she give you citizenship and you ski fast and you get on the team. That's very simple. WNIQ Why do the Australians love you so? ::Jasmin Bambur: We're a very small community, as ski racers, and we're always great friends. So we kind of hang out together and help each other out. And then in the end, depends who wins, either hate them or love them. WNIQ They said you're some sort of professional racquetball player or something? ::Jasmin Bambur: It's actually team handball. It's a sport where you have seven players like rugby. And yes, I played it professionally until I was 18 in Europe. And when war started in Kosovo, I moved to the United States and that's how I end up here. WNIQ You weren't always a sit skier? ::Jasmin Bambur: I am a sit skier now but actually the reason I am a sit skier is I had a car accident in 2000. I fell asleep driving. Driving and sleeping don't go together. I don't know why. WNIQ Yeah, that's a difficult lesson to learn. So how have you been doing at this event? ::Jasmin Bambur: Skiing? I've been skiing for about ten years, racing about four. And so far it's going great. WNIQ You won a medal, at this thing, right? One of these days? ::Jasmin Bambur: I won two medals in Super G, two third places, and yesterday I got second place in slalom. WNIQ And what's your favourite one? ::Jasmin Bambur: Favourite is Super G. WNIQ Because you go fast? ::Jasmin Bambur: Yes, fast and very little turning. So that's my pick?. WNIQ Thank you very, very much. ::Jasmin Bambur: No problem." +sport,"Bayern Munich bookings_away = Lucio and Zé Roberto (Yellow (2)) Bayern Munich won their 6th League Cup with a goal from Miroslav Klose on a defensive mix-up in Leipzig. Hamit Altintop hit the crossbar with 20 minutes left. The game picked up pace in the second half, but Bayern Munich controlled the match to collect the trophy and the €2 million prize money. With Mark van Bommel out through suspension and Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger out due to injury, starting 11 showed six changes to the side which defeated Stuttgart in Wednesday’s semi-final." +sport,"referee=Dr. Markus Merk Stuttgart suffered another setback in their defence of their championship after losing to Hannover 2-0 at home. Two goals from Szabolcs Huszti secured Hannover a 2-0 win against Stuttgart, who were reduced to 10 men in the 7th minute. Fernando Meira was sent off for deliberate handball in the penalty area and Huszti powered home the spot-kick. Stuttgart struggled to recover from the red card and failed to create a chance until the 28th minute when Mario Gomez headed a corner straight at Hannover goalkeeper Robert Enke. Hannover would have been two up after 36 minutes had Raphael Schafer not been alert. Schafer rushed out to get the ball at the feet of Hanno Balitsch. Steve Cherundolo crossed and Huszti was well positioned to score his second goal of the game. Defeat leaves Stuttgart in 12th place, 10 points behind leaders Bayern Munich who play tomorrow. Hannover, meanwhile, climbed into the top 6 with the victory." +sport,"Two web sites purporting to sell tickets to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games due to open in Beijing, China on Friday have been the subject of lawsuits from the International Olympic Committee in United States courts in recent weeks. The web sites, beijingticketing.com and beijing-2008tickets.com, were designed to resemble official sites and often appeared above the official sites in Google searches, and scammed some victims out of up to US$50,000 each for tickets to events such as the Opening Ceremony and swimming, which were listed despite the official Beijing ticket web site stating that tickets to all events had sold out as of July 27. The sites are believed to have taken in millions of dollars in total. Ken Gamble, a private investigator from Sydney, Australia, believes the sites are operated by Terance Shepherd, whom Gamble has been tracking for several years in relation to other fraudulent web sites selling tickets to events such as the FIFA World Cup. According to Gamble, Shepherd's modus operandi involves setting up the fake web sites, overselling the tickets, and then failing to produce the tickets. ""The story's always the same,"" Gamble said, ""it's an 'unfortunate mistake' or someone has 'let them down'. They promise a refund, which never happens, and the credit companies end up paying all the refunds."" Shepherd owns a home in the London suburb of Blackheath, although authorities believe he is currently hiding in Barbados. On Monday, beijingticketing.com customers received an email from someone named ""Alan Scott"", claiming that the site's ticket supplier had filed for bankruptcy. The email recommended that customers should contact their credit card companies to seek refunds ""immediately"", and said that the company would set up a call centre to provide assistance to its customers. However, the site has been shut down and a phone number previously listed on it has been disconnected. The company's address, in Phoenix, Arizona, was found to be an empty office space. Visa International has stated that victims who used their Visa card to pay should be able to get their money back, but it is not yet clear whether the same will apply to all customers." +sport,"The Los Angeles Clippers professional basketball team selected power forward Blake Griffin as the first overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Griffin, who won ten different player of the year awards for the 2008–09 season, was widely considered by analysts to be the draft's top pick. In his sophomore season at the University of Oklahoma, Griffin averaged 22.7 points, 14.4 rebounds, while shooting 65.4 percent from the field. Griffin said that he was relieved after NBA commissioner David Stern called his name as the first draft pick. ""It's great to know exactly where I'm going and have it set in stone,"" Griffin told the University of Oklahoma web site, SoonerSports.com. He added that he is not worried about the past failures of the Clippers, saying that he was looking forward to his future with the organization. ""We're not going think about what's happened in seasons past,"" Griffin said. ""We're just excited about the opportunity and going to make the best out of whatever situation we're put in."" With the second overall pick, the Memphis Grizzlies chose University of Connecticut junior Hasheem Thabeet. The Oklahoma City Thunder chose Arizona State sophomore James Harden as the third overall pick. Fourth, the Sacramento Kings chose Tyreke Evans, a freshman from the University of Memphis. With the first of four picks in the first round of the draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves chose 18-year-old Ricky Rubio, a guard from the Spanish professional team Joventut Badalona, before selecting Jonny Flynn from Syracuse University as the sixth overall pick. Later, the Timberwolves chose two players from the University of North Carolina: guards Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington as the 18th and 28th picks respectively. The Timberwolves later traded Lawson to the Denver Nuggets for a future first-round pick. Also in NBA news Thursday, the Cleveland Cavaliers aquired veteran center Shaquille O'Neal in a trade with the Phoenix Suns. O'Neal will join 24-year-old LeBron James on the Cavaliers and the Associated Press predicts that O'Neal and James could equal some of the greatest duos in NBA history: ""Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bob Cousy and Bill Russell, Shaq himself and Kobe Bryant.""-" +sport,"London, England &mdash; Following the second full day of competition at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, China leads the medal race with 13 gold medals and 34 medals in total. Australia comes second with 7 gold, and the Ukraine is third with 6 gold medals. China's large medal haul was distributed across several sports, with 15 from swimming, 5 each from athletics and track cycling, 4 from judo, 3 from powerlifting, 2 from shooting. Australia's first medal of the Games was won in women's standing air rifle shooting event where Natalie Smith captured a bronze medal during the first medal event of the Games. One of Australia's bronze medals came in athletics' F35&ndash;36 shot put event. Kath Proudfoot originally was listed as finishing fifth, but the Australians appealed this citing errors in how her results were calculated. Their appeal was successful, and Proudfoot came away with her second consecutive Paralympic medal in the event. Over half the medals won by the United States came in swimming, with 7 total. The country has earned an additional 3 in track cycling and 1 in athletics. A number of competitors have already earned multiple medals, including Australia's Jacqueline Freney and Matthew Cowdrey, and the United States's Jessica Long and Elizabeth Stone who all picked up a pair of medals in the pool." +sport,"* Tigers 5, Blue Jays 4: Down 4-1 with two out in the ninth inning, the Tigers came back and won in dramatic fashion. With Magglio Ordonez hit a single, scoring Granderson and Polanco for a 5-4 victory. Yorman Bazardo (1-1) picked up the win, while Casey Janssen (2-3) picked up the loss, and his 5th blown save of the year. The Tigers (78-66) trail the Indians in the AL Central by 6 games, and trail the Yankees in the AL Wild Card by 3.5 games. * Phillies 6, Rockies 5, 10 inn: A Pat Burrell three-run homer in the 7th inning tied the game up at 5-5, and Ryan Howard followed up his 6th inning solo homer with a 10th inning RBI double for the win. Brett Myers (4-6) pitched two innings, allowing two hits and no runs for the win. Taylor Buchholz (6-5) got the loss, giving up one run and two hits in 1/3 inning. The Phillies trail the Padres by 1.5 games in the NL Wild Card race. * Indians 6, White Sox 2: Asdrubal Cabrera hit a two-run homer (3) and a sacrifice fly for the Indians. The White Sox' two runs came off a flubbed double-play; Jermaine Dye was declared out at second, but the relay throw by Jhonny Peralta was mis-thrown, scoring Josh Fields and Jim Thome. The game was delayed for nearly 2 1/2 hours in the bottom of the 7th inning due to rain. Fausto Carmona (16-8) pitched seven innings, giving up three hits and two runs (one earned) for the win. Gavin Floyd (1-3) got the loss, pitching 6 1/3 innings, giving up five hits and three runs (two earned). The Indians (84-60) kept their lead in the AL Central at 6 games over the Tigers. * Athletics 9, Mariners 3: Kurt Suzuki (7) and Dan Johnson (15) each hit grand slams for the Athletics. Joe Blanton (13-9) got the win, pitching seven innings, and giving up two runs. Horacio Ramirez (8-6) pitched 1 2/3 innings, giving up five runs for the loss. Huston Street pitched 1 1/3 innings, giving up just one hit for his 13th save. The Mariners (75-67) have lost 14 of their last 16 games, and trail the Yankees in the AL Wild Card race by 5.5 games. * Cubs 12, Cardinals 3 Aramis Ramirez hit two solo homers (21, 22), and scored off a bases-loaded passed ball. Ted Lilly (15-7) pitched seven innings, giving up five hits and three runs for the win. Lilly also hit an RBI double in a five-run fourth inning for the Cubs. Joel Pineiro (4-3) gave up eight hits and six runs in 3 1/3 innings for the loss. The Cubs (73-70) tied the Brewers for first place in the NL Central; the Cardinals (69-72). who have lost four straight, trail by three games. * Pirates 9, Brewers 0: The Brewers were limited to just four hits, all singles, while the Pirates pounded out fifteen hits, led by Nate McLouth, who went 3-5 with a double and a two-run homer, and Adam LaRoche, who went 3-5 with an RBI single and an RBI double. Tony Armas (4-5) pitched six scoreless innings, giving up three hits for the win. Carlos Villanueva (7-4) gave up five hits and two runs in five innings for the loss. The Brewers (73-70) drop into a tie with the Cubs in the NL Central race. * Mets 3, Braves 2: In a game that saw Braves' sluggers Andruw Jones and Chipper Jones scratched due to separate injuries, the Mets' David Wright stole the show, hitting a two-run homer (28) in a Mets win. Odalis Perez (14-9) pitched seven inning, giving up five hits and two runs for the win. Tim Hudson (15-8) pitched seven innings, giving up five runs and three hits for the loss. Billy Wagner pitched a hitless 9th for the save (33). The Mets (82-61) lead the NL East by 6 games over the Phillies, while the Braves (73-71) trail the Padres in the crowded NL Wild Card race by 5 games. * Devil Rays 1, Red Sox 0: The game's only run came off a Josh Wilson sacrifice fly, scoring Greg Norton. Scott Kazmir (12-8) pitched seven scoreless innings, giving up five hits for the win. Curt Schilling (8-7) gave up one run and five hits for the loss. Al Reyes picked up his 24th save with a hitless 9th inning. The Red Sox (87-58) lead the Yankees by 5 games in the AL East. * Diamondbacks 5, Giants 3: Jeff Salazar hit a pinch-hit three-run homer in the 9th inning to give the Diamondbacks the lead, and eventually the win. Jailen Pequero (1-0) pitched 2/3 inning for the win. Brad Hennessey (3-5) pitched 2/3 inning, giving up three runs for the loss, and his 5th blown save on the season (and, his third blown save in his last five appearances). Tony Pena pitched a hitless ninth for his 2nd save. * Nationals 5, Marlins 4: Wily Mo Pena hit a two-run homer and a solo homer (6, 7) in the win. Shawn Hill (4-3) gave up six hits and two runs (one earned) for the win. Scott Olsen (9-13) pitched five innings, giving up seven hits and four runs for the loss. Chad Cordero pitched a perfect 9th for his 33rd save. * Twins 4, Royals 2: Justin Morneau broke a 2-2 tie with a 6th inning RBI double, then hit an RBI single in his next at-bat in the 7th. Boof Bonser (7-12) pitched five innings, giving up five hits and two runs for the win. Billy Buckner (0-1) pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up three runs and three hits for the loss. Joe Nathan picked up his 31st save of the season." +sport,"referee=Stefano Farina Russia's qualification for Euro 2008 hit a snag after losing 2-1 to Israel today. Russia's loss gives England a chance to qualify for Euro 2008 on Wednesday. Israel took a lead after 10 minutes. Russia equalized with a half hour left. Israel won the game in stoppage time. Croatia, England and Russia are set to battle for 2 places for Euro 2008 on Wednesday as qualification for next summer's tournament comes to an end on Wednesday. Croatia and England will battle each other as Russia will face Andorra." +sport,"Burghausen, Germany Bayern Munich bookings_away = None A capacity crowd in Wacker Arena saw Bayern Munich beat Wacker Burghausen in a shootout to advance to the 2nd Round of this season's DFB Cup. Bayern Munich pour shot after shot on Wacker Burghausen's goalkeeper ,Manuel Riemann, only to see the 3rd Division club take the lead in the 61st Minute when Wacker Burghausen striker, Thomas Neubert, looped a header over Oliver Kahn. Just 17 seconds had passed when Ribery took a shot that missed by inches . Riemann made his first save from Altintop on three minutes, However, almost gave Burghausen the lead when Hungarian midfielder Levente Schultz forced Oliver Kahn into a save near the post. Ottmar Hitzfeld: ”We basically played well. We played convincing football and made further progress. The problem was wastefulness. Sometimes we were unlucky, and sometimes we were denied by an outstanding Manuel Riemann. Compliments to Burghausen, they played above themselves, they were totally motivated, quick, aggressive, and they kept our defenders busy too. It was a cracking tie with everything you want from the Cup. But the match also showed we still have a lot of work to do. We have to do a lot more than simply turn up, even the last doubter must be convinced of that by now.“ Oliver Kahn: “All I’ve been doing for the last 14 years is remain focused until I’m needed. Obviously, you’re always pleased when you save a couple of penalties. Wacker fought till they dropped, but I have to say I saw a fantastic Bayern team, playing fantastic football, but failing to put away its chances.“ Philipp Lahm: “It was decent stuff from us. We created any number of chances and we were very solid at the back, but it’s always hard work when you fail to take your chances.“ Mark Van Bommel: “We weren’t great, but we weren’t bad either. You normally lose matches where you have 20 shots but none of them goes in. Young Riemann was lucky in that we kept shooting at him, and when we didn’t, we hit the bar or the post.“ Ingo Anderbrügge (Wacker coach): “I don’t see it in a negative light at all. Obviously you’re disappointed after you’ve been one penalty away from a massive upset. My lads showed we have a decent team again. I’m proud of the way they managed to match Bayern for so long. That’ll give us confidence for the league. Manuel Riemann is a pretty sorted guy for his age, he could have a bright future ahead of him.“ Manuel Riemann (Wacker keeper): “Disappointment is the main emotion at the moment, because we were so close to a miracle. But I want to praise the team for the fight we put up.”" +sport,"UEFA Euro 2016 On Wednesday in UEFA Euro 2016, Iceland defeated Austria 2&ndash;1, Hungary drew against Portugal 3&ndash;3, Italy lost 0&ndash;1 to Republic of Ireland and Belgium defeated Sweden 1&ndash;0. Hungary, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Portugal and Iceland qualified for the Last 16 knockout phase. Jón Daði Böðvarsson scored an early goal putting Iceland in front. Iceland drew 1&ndash;1 in their previous matches. Even this match seemed likely to end in 1&ndash;1 after Alessandro Schöpf scored an equaliser in the 60th minute, but Arnór Ingvi Traustason scored the late match-winning goal for Iceland. Iceland qualified for Last 16 knockout phase, while Austria was eliminated winning only one point in a goalless draw against Portugal. Hungary were 1&ndash;0 up in the 19th minute as Zoltán Gera found the net. Before half-time, Nani equalised for Portugal. Balázs Dzsudzsák put The Hungarians in front, scoring the second goal in the 47th minute. In the 50th minute, Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo scored and, in doing so, became the first player to score in four different Euro tournaments. Five minutes later, Dzsudzsák scored the third goal for Hungary. In the 62nd minute, Ronaldo scored for Portugal and the match ended in a 3&ndash;3 draw, making it the highest scoring match in this tournament till now. Portugal's all three matches ended in a draw in the group stage. Both Hungary and Portugal have qualified for the Last 16 knockout phase. Italy had qualified for the Last 16 knockout phase winning the previous match against Sweden. But Robbie Brady scored a late goal which helped Republic of Ireland qualify for the knockout phase as well. In the 84th minute, Radja Nainggolan scored the only goal of the match for the Belgians. While Belgium qualified for the knockout phase, Sweden has been eliminated, and with that loss, Swedish captain Zlatan Ibrahimović failed to score in the fourth Euro tournament. He had announced that he would quit his international duty after Sweden finished this tournament. HYS clear Poland England Romania Germany" +sport,"Bayern Munich bookings_away = Kahn (Yellow (1)) Bayern Munich beat Werder Bremen in Düsseldorf to advance to the League Cup Semi Finals against Stuttgart. After an early Werder goal from Tim Borowski, the Bavarian club left their mark in the 2nd part of the 1st half with 3 goals from Schweinsteiger, Altıntop and Ribéry. Ribéry converted a penalty for his 2nd goal of the game. At this point, the pace of the game settled down and Andreas Ottl, Sandro Wagner and Christian Lell came on as substitutes. With 3 Bayern strikers absent due to injury, Head Coach Ottmar Hitzfeld decided to go with 5 midfielders. The formation was 4-3-2-1 'Christmas Tree' shape with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mark van Bommel behind Striker Miroslav Klose." +sport,"On Friday, the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association agreed to send forward-center Pau Gasol and their 2010 second-round draft pick to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for center Kwame Brown, rookie point guard Javaris Crittenton, and two first-round draft picks in 2008 and 2010. Also sent to Memphis were Pau's brother Marc Gasol, and Aaron McKie, who was signed by the Lakers the same day. Lakers General Manger Mitch Kupchak said, ""Pau is a proven player of All-Star caliber in this league who can score and rebound and he's still a young player. We feel this move strengthens our team in the short term as well as the long term."" The Commercial Appeal, a Memphis newspaper, also reports that Grizzlies forward Stromile Swift will be traded to the New Jersey Nets for center Jason Collins in a deal expected to be finalized on Monday. Gasol is averaging 18.9 points and 8.8 rebounds per game this season, while Brown has a season average 5.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.The move officially ended the former number one over all pick's dubious stay in Los Angeles. In his two plus years with the Lakers, Brown never was able to play consistent enough to please the front office. The ability of Los Angeles to acquire Gasol for Brown, Crittenton and two future first round draft picks has some around the league scratching their heads. ""How can the Lakers get Pau Freakin' Gasol and not give up one of their nine best players,"" fumed NY Post column contributor William Mcknight. Unbalanced trade or not, the Lakers now will head into the second half of the season as one of the strongest teams in the elite team heavy Western Conference." +sport,"United States Cliffwildes Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has received a lifetime ban from the NBA (National Basketball Association) and has been fined $US2.5million for his racist comments this week. Sterling, who has owned the team since 1981, was overheard telling a woman, identified as girlfriend V. Stiviano, not to bring black people to games or associate with them. The comments have caused an uproar, not just in the NBA, but within the Clippers team. In protest, players wore their warm-up jerseys inside out before their Game 4 playoff loss against the Golden State Warriors, while in other games throughout the league the San Antonio Spurs played in black socks and the Miami Heat practiced with their warm-up shirts inside out to mimic the LA Clippers. Former NBA player Kevin Johnson, now mayor of Sacramento, said the league needed to hand out the maximum possible penalty. While NBA legend Michael Jordan, owner of the Charlotte Bobcats said there is no room in the NBA, or anywhere, for this kind of hatred. The conversation took place on April 9, when a man's voice, later identified as Sterling's, told the woman not to pose for photos with black men, including Hall of Famer Ervin ""Magic"" Johnson. Sterling goes onto say it annoys him that she has to promote her association with black people. It isn't the first time Sterling has caused controversy with racist comments. Back in 2009 he was sued by his former General Manager Elgin Baylor who criticised Sterling's attitude and quoted him as saying ""I'm offering you good money for a poor black kid"" when negotiating a contract with Danny Manning. The situation is far from over as Sterling is refusing to sell the team, and the other teams have lobbied against him to force him to sell. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver needs 75% support, or 23 out of the 30 teams, to force Sterling out of the league permanently. ""The fine will be donated to organisations dedicated to anti-discrimination and tolerance efforts that will be jointly selected by the NBA and the Players' Association"" Mr Silver said." +sport,"Yesterday, Basketball Australia announced the final Olympic squads for the 2012 Summer Olympics ahead of a farewell series in the Melbourne area this weekend for both the Opals women's team and the Boomers men's team." +sport,"2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics were formally declared closed during a colourful ceremony at the iconic Beijing National Stadium with the Olympics flag being handed over to the Mayor of London Boris Johnson. It began at 8:00 P.M. China Standard Time (UTC+8), and took place at the Beijing National Stadium. People's Republic of China topped the medals table at the Beijing Olympics with 51 golds while the United States of America came second with 36 and the Russian Federation finished third with 23. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge declared the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games closed on Sunday. ""You have shown us the unifying power of sport,"" he told athletes in the National Stadium. ""The world learned about China — and China learned about the world,"" he said. ""And now, in accordance with tradition, I declare the Games of the XXIX Olympiad closed, and I call upon the youth of the world to assemble four years from now in London to celebrate the Games of the XXX Olympiad."" The Beijing Olympics lasted 16 days at the Olympic Village during which athletes from 204 countries participated in 38 contests for 302 gold medals. Host China maintained its supremacy on the medals table right from the beginning to the end of the Games. The next Summer Olympic Games will be held in London in 2012." +sport,"American Major League Baseball third baseman Alex Rodriguez, a star player for the New York Yankees, admitted in an interview on sports network ESPN that he used performance-enhancing drugs during 2001 through 2003. ""I did take a banned substance, and for that, I'm very sorry,"" Rodriguez told ESPN's Peter Gammons. ""When I arrived at Texas in 2001 I felt an enormous amount of pressure to perform."" source=Alex Rodriguez Last week, Sports Illustrated reported that the baseball player, nicknamed 'A-Rod', tested positive in 2003 for Primobolan and testosterone, two substances that have been banned by the league. During the 2003 season, Rodriguez was playing with the Texas Rangers, and was the winner of the American League MVP Award and was American League leader in home runs. According to sources, Rodriguez was one of 104 players named on a list for testing positive before the 2003 season. The list was compiled in an attempt to determine whether the MLB needed to begin conducting random drug testing. After the initial report Rodriguez was approached by Sports Illustrated while he was training for the upcoming season in a Miami area gym. At that time, Rodriguez told the reporter ""You'll have to talk to the union."" He was also asked for an explanation of his positive test result, to which he commented ""I'm not saying anything."" According to a report by ESPN, sources claim that Rodriguez was aware that he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. However, in December 2007 after United States Senator George J. Mitchell's Mitchell Report was released accusing such teammates of Rodriguez as Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte of steroid use, Rodriguez appeared on ABC's 60 Minutes and declined the use of any steroid or performance-enhancing drug. He also commented that he would not need the help of steroids, stating, ""I've never felt overmatched on the baseball field. I felt that if I did my, my work as I've done since I was, you know, a rookie back in Seattle, I didn't have a problem competing at any level."" Senator Mitchell stated in a prepared comment yesterday that his report had only named that players that ""had received credible evidence of their illegal purchase, possession, or use of performance enhancing substances."" He pointed out that he ""did not have access to the results of the 2003 drug testing, and to this day I do not know which players tested positive then."" The MLB declined to comment directly on the situation due to court orders on the list of names and documents, but did release a statement: ""Information and documents relating to the results of the 2003 MLB testing program are both confidential and under seal by court orders. We are prohibited from confirming or denying any allegation about the test results of any particular player by the court orders. Anyone with knowledge of such documents who discloses their contents may be in violation of those court orders."" source=Senator George J. Mitchell Rodriguez has been one of the many prominent American baseball players over the past few years who has been linked to the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Other prominent names include both the arguably greatest hitter and pitcher in Major League Baseball history, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Bonds, the all-time Major League record holder for home runs, was linked to steroid use during the BALCO scandal in 2003, while Clemens was named in the Mitchell report in December of 2007. The executive vice president for labor relations of Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred, stated that league commissioner Bud Selig was ""disturbed"" by the linking of steroid use to Rodriguez. Commenting for the league, he said, ""Because the survey testing that took place in 2003 was intended to be non-disciplinary and anonymous, we cannot make any comment on the accuracy of this report as it pertains to the player named."" The report by Sports Illustrated also made the claim that Gene Orza, the COO of the Major League Baseball Players Association informed Rodriguez of a random drug test that occurred in September of 2004, a test that was supposed to remain confidential to all players. The MLBPA denied the accusations, commenting ""There was no improper tipping of players in 2004 about the timing of drug tests. In September 2004 MLBPA attorneys met with certain players, but we are not able to confirm or deny the names of any players with whom we met."" When asked in the Sports Illustrated report, Orza declined to comment, stating ""I'm not interested in discussing this information with you."" source=MLBPA Statement The anonymous testing of players was started in 2003 by the MLB, in order to get a brief estimate of how many players were using performance-enhancing drugs, leading to the beginning of the mandatory, penalty-enforced testing that began in 2004. 1,198 players took the ""survey test"" in 2003, and the results were later stored in a laboratory in Las Vegas, with codes being used in place of the players names. However, a list of the players actual names that went with the list of codes was kept in a separate office in Long Beach, never intended to ever be together with the codes. In April 2004, federal agents with search warrants raided the two labs looking for information on the 2003 BALCO scandal test results of 10 players, including Barry Bonds. While searching, they found both the list of names and the codes, including the positive test result of Rodriguez. Following the investigation and raid, the MLBPA informed all 104 players on the list that their positive test data had been sized by the federal agents. source=José Canseco Former Major League Baseball star and self-confessed steroid user José Canseco told the media that the news was old, saying ""I said in my book Vindicated that he was a known steroid user before 2000. It's old news. I've been saying this forever. You guys are playing catch-up."" In the book, Canseco links Rodriguez to steroids through the claim that he saw him using the drugs. In his first book, Juiced, references to Rodriguez were removed by the publisher of the book because it could not be confirmed that Canseco actually saw Rodriguez taking steroids. According to the publisher, it was only after Canseco passed a lie detector test that information about Rodriguez was allowed into Vindicated. What do you think the positive test says about steroid use in baseball today? Does the test result affect the way you view Rodriguez's accomplishments as a player? Current senior advisor to the Texas Rangers John Hart commented on the situation in an interview with MLB Network. ""I think in the climate that we have today, you don't have much shock anymore. Obviously Alex probably is the best player in baseball. This has always been a special talent and the guy has been putting up Hall of Fame numbers since the day he showed up in the big leagues. I've been in the game for almost 40 years and it hurts a little bit, if in fact this is true. It breaks my heart for the game that we have this kind of thing occurring, But at the same time, a lot of people seem to have been caught in this net,"" he said. Since the positive test occurred in 2003 before penalties were instituted, Rodriguez will most likely not be suspended by the MLB as a result of the situation." +sport,"Spartak Stadium in the first Group D match of the tournament. Argentina dominated in ball possession. World Cup debutants Iceland got an early chance to open the scoring, in the 11th minute, but the shot went wide. Argentina had multiple attempts for goal before Sergio Agüero scored the opening goal for Argentina in the 19th minute, surrounded by several Icelandic players. However, Argentina's lead did not last long. In the 23rd minute, Alfred Finnbogason scored an equaliser, first World Cup goal for Iceland. In the remainder of the first half, Argentineans attempted multiple shots and winning five corner kicks but could not convert any into goals. The first half ended with 1–1 on the score board. In the second half, Iceland conceded a penalty in the 63rd minute. Maximiliano Meza was fouled in the penalty area, but Argentine captain Lionel Messi's penalty kick was saved by Hannes Þór Halldórsson. Iceland were able to keep the scoreline 1–1 as both the sides shared the spoils, winning one point from the draw. After the match, Iceland's goalkeeper Hannes Þór Halldórsson was awarded Budweiser Man of the Match award. Halldórsson said, ""It's a dream come true for me to have saved that penalty, especially as it helped us gain a point that could be very important for us in trying to qualify from this group. I did a lot of homework, watching a lot of penalties from Messi. And I also looked back at some of the penalties I had faced and what he might be expecting from me. I had a good feeling he would put it that way."" In the second Group C match of the night, both Peru and Denmark had potential chances of scoring goals early in the first half but none were converted into a goal. Peru won a penalty kick in the 44th minute, conceded by Yussuf Poulsen which was confirmed by the video assistant referee. But Peru's Christian Cueva missed from the spot kick as the ball went over the cross bar. The first half ended with a 0&ndash;0 score. Just before the one hour mark, Christian Eriksen assisted Yussuf Poulsen, who scored the only goal of the match as the Danish side led the game 1–0. After the match, Denmark's coach Age Hareide said, ""They Peru did a lot to try and get an equaliser, and you have to give credit to the defence and whole team. I think it is our fifth game without conceding a goal and it is very tough to play against World Cup opponents and do that."" In the last match of the night, Croatia faced Nigeria at the Kaliningrad Stadium. Croatia had greater ball possession. They had multiple attacks in the first 30 minutes, and broke through in the 32nd minute. Oghenekaro Etebo ended up scoring an own goal after Croatia had won a corner kick. In the second half, Croatia was awarded a penalty kick when Mario Mandžukić was brought down in the penalty area. The referee pointed for the penalty kick and Luka Modrić scored the penalty, giving the Croats a 2&ndash;0 advantage over the African side. Modrić won the Budweiser Man of the Match Award. After the match, Nigeria's coach Gernot Rohr said, ""We're really disappointed we lost this game. Croatia were the better team. We could have come back into it in the second half after we started very well before the penalty against us. We're a young team, we're learning and I hope in the next game against Iceland we will do much better."" Croatia leads Group D winning three points. clear" +sport,"Real Madrid bookings_away = Ramos, Guti, Diarra (Yellow (4)), Diarra (Red (1)) Bayern Munich hosted Real Madrid at the Allianz Arena today in the second leg of the Champions League round of sixteen. The first leg saw Real coming out on top 3-2, but the two away goals by Bayern gave them a good chance in the second leg. Madrid were without David Beckham for the game, who orchestrated all 3 goals in the first leg, and he was replaced in the midfield by Raúl. Bayern played a strong side, with Lucas Podolski and Roy Makaay in attack, and Owen Hargreaves in the midfield. Any plans Real had made for the game went immediately out the window when Roy Makaay scored the fastest ever goal in a Champions League match after only 10 seconds. Real took the kickoff, and Roberto Carlos was immediately dispossessed by Salihamidzic, who passed in the ball to Makaay. The German striker neatly finished passed Iker Casillas to stun the Galacticos, and give the home side the lead. Bayern continued to press, and Real looked listless, as shots from Podolski and Makaay were saved by Casillas. Real coach Fabio Capello was quick to make changes in his team, and sent on Guti in place of Emerson. Casillas was again forced into action as van Buyten headed Sagnol's free kick towards the goal, but the keeper got down well to make the stop. Madrid finally began to play like a team, and substitute Guti had a chance after a neat backheel by Higuain found him, but the shot flew wide. Real continued pressing, and Dutchman Ruud van Nistelrooy headed a ball towards the net, but Oliver Kahn was easily able to cope with the low power effort. Raúl then struck an acrobatic effort towards the goal, but found only the side netting. After the restart, Real looked shaky at the back again as van Bommel found his way in on goal, but Casillas was again on hand to snuff out the danger. Oliver Kahn was then forced into action at the other end, as he pushed out a van Nistelrooy header off of a cross by Raúl. Bayern had a penalty claim, but were denied by referee Lubos Michel. It didn't matter however, and the resulting corner was met by Lucio's head, doubling Bayerns lead. Bayern had another chance minutes later, but a open header by Salihamidzic went wide. Raúl then had a chance for Real, but his header was directed straight to Kahn. Ruud van Nistelrooy was then denied a run on goal after a mistaken offside call was given by the linesman. On 80 minutes, Robinho was hauled down by van Bommel in the penalty area, and Real was awarded a penalty. Marco van Bommel was consequently given his second yellow of the match for arguing the point, and was sent off along with Diarra of Real for his part in the confrontation. Once everything settled, van Nistelrooy stepped up to the spot and sent the ball into the net, cutting the lead in half, but still leaving Real behind on aggregate. The game finished dramatically, as Ramos thought he had scored to tie the game, but the referee correctly judged that a hand had been used in the build up, and the goal was not counted. The game ended in a win for Bayern, and they will go on to the next round, while Real is left to focus on domestic play." +sport,"Middlesbrough F.C. bookings_away = Xavier, Woodgate, Pogatetz, Boateng, Rochemback (Yellow (5)), Morrison (Red (1)) A penalty by Cristiano Ronaldo in the 76th minute was all that separated Manchester United and Middlesbrough earlier today at Old Trafford. The FA Cup 6th round replay was forced after a Ronaldo penalty a week ago which tied the last match at 2-2, sending the second game to Old Trafford. Middlesbrough started with the deadly strike pair of Mark Viduka and Yakubu up front, while Manchester had Alan Smith and Wayne Rooney as paired strikers. United came out with the first good chances of the game as Wayne Rooney had an attempt on net, but saw his shot blocked by defender Jonathan Woodgate. Nemanja Vidic then had a chance for United off a Giggs corner, but his powerful header was held by keeper Mark Schwarzer. Ronaldo then had a shot on net after the ball fortuitously fell to his feet, but the Portuguese midfielders strike flew just wide. Middlesbrough survived through the first onslaught and had their first real chance on 16 minutes when a deflected pass by Xavier found its way to Mark Viduka, but his shot flew wide of Tomasz Kuszczak's goal. Woodgate soon saved Middlesbrough again as he blocked a cross net pass from Ronaldo which was aimed for a wide open Alan Smith. Wayne Rooney was then given a clear run in on goal after he was found by a well time through ball from Giggs, but Mark Schwarzer spread wide to snatch the ball from Rooney's feet. Mark Viduka then made space in the United penalty box and dropped off a pass for Stuart Downing, but his right footed shot flew wide yet again. Ronaldo again threatened 'Boro, but he saw his wide angled shot bang off the post after rounding Schwarzer. Rooney again was given a break away on net, but he was again stopped by the Australian Schwarzer. Soon after, Jonathan Woodgate brought Ronaldo down in the box, and United were awarded a penalty. Ronaldo sent the ball high and to the left of Schwarzer as the keeper went the wrong way, and United took the lead. Middlesbrough had little more in the way of attacking threat, with a wide shot by Morrison being all they could muster. The game did end on a sour note, however, after a few scuffles and a cynical challenge on Ronaldo by James Morrison saw several yellow cards handed out and Morrison was shown red. United will take on Watford in the semifinals of the cup while Middlesbrough have only the Premier League to focus on now, with their next match being played at West Ham." +sport,"Álvaro Morata, playing for Juventus, scored but could not match up La Liga winners Barca. Luis Suárez and Neymar scored in the second half for Barca. Barcelona won the treble &mdash; domestic league, domestic cup, and European title &mdash; for a second time by winning the European title. Both teams had won the respective cups. Luis Enrique, ex-Barcelona player and current manager of the team, wins the league for Barcelona in his first year as its manager." +sport,"The 2008 Olympic Torch has arrived in London today, with the delegation being met by Chinese ambassador Fu Ying and Minister for the Olympics Tessa Jowell at Heathrow Airport. The torch had just arrived from St Petersburg, Russia. Tomorrow, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will give a welcoming speech, which has already drawn criticism from other politicians for being ""wholly inappropriate"". After the speech the torch will be taken on a 31 mile relay around London, beginning at Wembley stadium, and finishing at the O2 Arena, being carried by 80 athletes, dignitaries and entertainers, after initially being carried by five time Olympic gold medal winner Sir Steve Redgrave. It is expected that the relay route will be lined by hundreds of people, however around 500 people are also expected to protest against the current human rights issues in the country, which has already taken place along the route. 4 people were also arrested today, 2 of which were on Westminster Bridge, after un-furling banners on the bridge. Around 2,000 Metropolitan Police are expected to be present tomorrow at the relay, and Tessa Jowell told the BBC that she hoped the protests would be peaceful. The arrival of the torch comes on the same day that Chinese security forces fired on Tibetan protesters, killing 8. The torch, which has come from Greece, will make its way around the world, being transported by thousands of people, and end in China on August 8th, 2008, to light the flame during the opening ceremony." +sport,"referee=Olegário Benquerença Werder Bremen beat Lazio at home to claim their 1st 3 points of this season's UEFA Champions League. The win allows Werder Bremen to move ahead of Lazio in the standings with Werder Bremen now 3rd. The win also brings them 1 point behind Olympiacos. Werder Bremen, who held the majority of the possession throughout the game, broke through in the 28th minute through Sonago. Almeida gave the Germans a two-goal cushion nine minutes into the second half. Clemens Fritz sent a long low cross to the Hugo Almeida, who then doubled the lead. Lazio managed to pull 1 back before the final whistle. The 2 clubs match up again in 13 days from now with both teams needing to pick up points to have a shot for 2nd place in Group C." +sport,"A steroid distribution network exposed by a New York prosecutor is reported to have connections to a number of high-profile professional athletes, including retired boxer Evander Holyfield and current Los Angeles Angels outfielder Gary Matthews, Jr. Federal agents raided two pharmacies in Florida and Alabama which were tabbed by a prosecutor in Albany County, New York as having links to illicit distributors of steroids. Eight people have been arrested in connection to this ring, and up to 24 people are individuals of interest to federal agents and may be arrested before the investigation is over. According to records seized during the raids, customers of the pharmacies included Holyfield, Matthews, former baseball star Jose Canseco, and former pitcher Jason Grimsley. Investigators reportedly have found evidence that performance-enhancing drugs were prescribed to a number of professional athletes as well as international bodybuilders. Further evidence showed that Dr. Richard Rydze, team doctor of the Pittsburgh Steelers, purchased $150,000 worth of human growth hormone on his personal credit card. Calls to Dr. Rydze were not immediately returned. Those arrested include Stan and Naomi Loomis, owners of Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, Florida. Two other employees of the pharmacy (including Loomis's brother, Mike) were arrested as well. P. David Soares, Albany County prosecutor, indicated in filings from his office that Signature is believed to be a ""producer"" of anabolic steroids. Grimsley and Rydze were reported to be customers of Signature Pharmacy. Holyfield, Matthews, and Canseco were allegedly on customer lists from Applied Pharmacy Services in Mobile, Alabama. Both pharmacies and their owners are implicated in the steroid ring. According to SI.com, Matthews received shipments of Genotropin, a synthetic growth hormone. The shipments were sent to the address of one of his former minor-league teammates in Mansfield, Texas. Matthews claimed he did not know why his name was on Applied Pharmacy's customer list. He did not comment further on the situation, stating that he was not ""in a position to answer specific questions."" On Wednesday, Holyfield indicated that he was ""not overly concerned about the situation."" He did mention that the only purchase of medical supplies that can be attributed to him were medications for his father, who died of a heart ailment in January. Later that evening, Holyfield released a more pointed denial, stating, ""I do not use steroids. I have never used steroids. I resent that my name has been linked to known steroid users by sources who refuse to be identified in order to generate publicity for their investigation.""" +sport,"28 year old Alex Sanchez, outfielder for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, is suspended without pay for 10 days for using a performance enhancing drug. Sanchez is the first player to be suspended under Major League Baseball's new, stricter drug policy. The Baseball officials and the players' union have both decided to not disclose the specific substance which tested positive. Sanchez originally planed an appeal against the ban, but decided against it. He denies taking any performance enhancing drugs and blames the positive test on over-the-counter vitamins, muscle relaxants and protein shakes that he takes, but has not identified any specific medications as of yet." +sport,"Birks was recently announced as the ""Official Supplier of Jewelery"" for the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Olympics. The company will create licensed products with the logos of the 2010 Olympic Games, 2010 Paralympic Games, and the Canadian Olympic team emblem, including necklaces, earrings, pendants and rings. The partnership was announced at an employee celebration in Vancouver, to mark the centenary of Mayors Jewelers Inc., an American company Birks acquired in 2002. The six-year sponsorship includes the rights to the Canadian Olympic team logo during the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games. Thomas A. Andruskevich, president and CEO, Birks & Mayors stated in a press release: We are extremely proud to take part in this journey that honors our best athletes and celebrates excellence as the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games shine on the world wide stage. Canadians look to Birks to mark the most important celebrations in their lives which is why Birks wants to commemorate this important moment in Canadian history. The products will be launched in early 2008. Also released today is information that Jackson-Triggs Esprit will be a special line of wines, created to celebrate the athletic event. The Vincor Canada wine is named in relevance to ""spirit"", both the spirit of the Olympians, and alcoholic beverage usage of the word. President and CEO of Vincor Canada Jay Wright said, ""We are thrilled to have this opportunity to honor our Canadian athletes while affirming our role as Canada’s wine industry leader. Like our Olympic and Paralympic athletes, Vincor Canada shares a passion and determination towards excellence. This agreement is by far Vincor Canada’s most ambitious and broad-reaching sponsorship and will be great for the Canadian wine industry. I hope Canada will join us in the excitement that we feel regarding this exceptional opportunity to position Canadian wine brands on the world stage."" The wines, featuring Olympic logo, will be distributed to liquor stores and restaurants across the country this summer. Proceeds from each bottle will go towards the Canadian Olympic Team. Both the Chardonnay and Merlot will retail for CDN$11.95 MSRP. Inniskillin Wines' vineyards, harvested since 1975, in either the Niagara Peninsula in Ontario pr the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia will create the wine. Within the past few weeks, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) has announced a Omega-brand countdown clock that will tour British Columbia events, as the company is the ""Official Olympic Timekeeper"". Canadian Pacific was named official rail freight services provider, and the Royal Canadian Mint announced they will create circulation and collector coins to mark the occasion. There are 1099 days until the XXI Olympiad, according to the official website of the event." +sport,"short=yes London, England &mdash; At an International Paralympic Committee (IPC) press conference this morning, they announced unless the South Africa Paralympic Committee could provide evidence that athletes were changing prosthetics, in violation of the rules, the IPC would be dropping their cheating investigation. The investigation was launched after the South African Paralympic Committee sent the IPC a formal letter of complaint following Oscar Pistorius raising concerns in the mixed zone following his silver medal finish in the 200 meters. The South Africans alleged runners from other countries were cheating by being measured using one set of competition prosthetics, then using different prosthetics during the race. The IPC sent representatives to the track to ask coaches if they were aware of changes between prosthetics being measured and being used on the track. According to the IPC, coaches were surprised to be asked this, as it would be extremely difficult to transition between differing prosthetics due to required changes in stride. Sebastion Coe, London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games President, said Oscar had made his comments on possible cheating in the heat of the moment, and the organization should not be involved in situations like the one with Pistorius." +sport,"2012 Olympic Paralympics London, England &mdash; In an interview with Samoa's Chef de Mission at the London Paralympics, Julie Tuala said she hopes to get a powerlifting program under way in Samoa following the London Games. The Samoa Paralympic Committee, she explained, with assistance from the Oceania Paralympic Committee is submitting a grant request to acquire the equipment necessary for a powerlifting program in Samoa; equipment costs around A$18,000 to A$20,000 used, and is specifically built for paraplegic competitors who need to be strapped down when lifting. If Samoa is successful in getting the money for the equipment, the next challenge will be finding money to cover the cost of freighting it to Samoa. Tuala and the nation's athletics coach have previously held raffles, run events at a golf club, and run bake sales to assist in covering costs for developing disability sport in the country and look to do it again if they can get the grant. The last grant the International Paralympic Committee gave for the region for the equipment did not include Samoa. According to Tuala, equipment costs are a major barrier to participation in the development of disability sport. Samoan London Paralympian Leitu Viliamu needs a new leg as she has outgrown hers. A high quality leg like the one worn by Oscar Pistorius can cost upwards of AUD$10,000 per leg." +sport,"sports The IPC Alpine World Championships wrapped up yesterday in La Molina, Spain with a friendly, non-medal counting team event won by Austria. The winner was tabulated based on the fastest score for a visually impaired skier on the team, a female skier on the team, and a male skier on the team. The Austrian team included Markus Salcher, Roman Rabl, and Claudia Loesch for times counted, with Philipp Bonadimann, Thomas Grochar, and Martin Wuerz also competing. The team event included ten teams representing eight countries, with the United States and Canada having two teams each and 54 skiers competing. The United States team 1 came in second with Tyler Walker, Mark Bathum, and Alana Nichols times counting, and Heath Calhoun, Ralph Green, and Allison Jones also belonging to the team. Russia came in third with Ivan Frantseva, Alexandr Alyabyev, and Mariya Papulova having their scores counted. Hosts Spain finished last with Jon Santacana, Óscar Espallargas, and Úrsula Pueyo having their times counting, and Gabriel Gorce and Nathalie Carpanedo also members of the Spanish team. The next major competition ahead of the 2014 Winter Paralympics is the test event in Sochi, Russia in March of this year." +sport,"In a response published Saturday by The Associated Press, the International Paralympic Committee commented on Russian adherence to the Olympic Truce in regards to the country's actions in the Ukraine, saying ""As with situations around the world, we hope a peaceful resolution can be found in the spirit of the Olympic Truce, which has covered the Paralympic Games since 2006. ... We want the story here to be the great festival of sport that has already taken place in Sochi and will continue now that athletes are arriving for the start of the Winter Paralympics."" In the past few days, Russian troops entered the Ukrainian Crimea and took control of a number of strategic locations, including an airport and a regional parliament. Yesterday, Russian forces surrounded a Crimean Ukrainian military base. While the Russian-hosted Olympic Games officially ended on February 23, the Olympic period officially concludes on March 16 at the closing ceremony for the 2014 Winter Paralympics. The Olympic Truce and its extension to the Paralympic Games is recognized by the United Nations, who did so in A/65/270, para.7, an addition recognised by the United Nations General Assembly in August 2010. The Crimea region of the Ukraine is located less than 500 kilometers (less than 300 miles) away from Sochi. The British Paralympic team have said they are continuing to monitor the situation, but has no current plans to make changes regarding their participation at the Games. The United States Paralympic team has said they haven't made any changes to their plans in response to the situation. Yesterday, the United Kingdom's Prime Minister David Cameron said on Twitter, ""Because of the serious situation in Ukraine, @WilliamJHague & I believe it would be wrong for UK Ministers to attend the Sochi Paralympics.""" +sport,"2018 FIFA World Cup On Wednesday, Croatia defeated England 2&ndash;1 in the semi-final of the 2018 FIFA Football World Cup with Mario Mandžukić scoring the winning goal in the additional time. With this victory, Croatia is in their first-ever FIFA World Cup finals, and they are to face France on Sunday. Croatia had greater ball possession in the match. Croatian midfielder Luka Modrić committed a foul early in the game, and Dele Alli won a freekick for England in the 4th minute. Kieran Trippier scored from the freekick, giving England an early lead in the match. In the 14th minute, Harry Maguire came close to doubling the lead for England, but missed. Ivan Perišić and Ante Rebić tried to equalise soon after, but were unsuccessful. In the 30th minute, English striker Harry Kane was caught offside from Jesse Lingard's through ball. Raheem Sterling and Šime Vrsaljko also tried their luck before the end of the first half. The first half ended with England having a one-goal advantage. Just three minutes into the second half, Croatia's forward Mario Mandžukić was yellow-carded. In the 54th minute, English defender Kyle Walker was also booked. Just after the one-hour mark, Ivan Rakitić missed a chance to level for Croatia. In the 68th minute, Croatia got the equalising goal as Perišić scored from Šime Vrsaljko's assist. England made a substitution in the 74th minute when Marcus Rashford came on for Sterling. The second half ended with both sides tied, 1&ndash;1. At the beginning of the additional time, England made another change; Ashley Young was taken off for Danny Rose. Ivan Strinić was injured and Croatia made a substitution in the 95th minute, replacing him with Josip Pivarić. The referee booked Rebić in the 96th minute and he was later replaced by Andrej Kramarić in the 101st minute. Mario Mandžukić came to Croatia's rescue in the 109th minute, scoring from close range from Perišić's assist, which Jordan Pickford could not prevent from going to the back of the English net. Jamie Vardy came on for Walker in the 112th minute. Mandžukić injured himself and Vedran Ćorluka came on for him in the 115th minute. Croatia prevented England from getting an equaliser as the match ended 2&ndash;1 and Croatia advanced to their first-ever FIFA football World Cup final. After the match, England's coach Gareth Southgate said, ""At the moment we all feel the pain of defeat. I don't think realistically we expected to be here, but once you're here and played as well as we did, you want to take those opportunities in life. The dressing room is a difficult place at the moment."" He also added, saying, ""You have to suffer the result first sometimes. I'm hugely proud of what we've done &mdash; I couldn't have asked for any more. They've broken through a number of barriers in the past weeks."" Croatian coach Zlatko Dalić said, ""Nobody wanted to give in when I was preparing the first eleven, nobody wanted to say I was not ready in extra time, no one wanted to be subbed and this shows character and what makes me proud. Nobody gave up."" Croatia is to play France on Sunday in Moscow for the World Cup title." +sport,"* Mariners 14, Tigers 7: The Mariners scored 13 runs in the first four innings, led by Adrian Beltre, who drove in four runs off a two-run double and a two-run triple. Curtis Granderson went 4-4 in the loss, recording his 20th stolen base, and making him only the third player to hit 20 doubles, 20 triples, and 20 home runs, and steal 20 bases in a season. * Red Sox 3, Orioles 2: Coco Crisp drove in the winning run off an eighth-inning single. * Devil Rays 3, Blue Jays 2: Carlos Pena went 3-4, and scored the go-ahead run in the sixth on a solo home run (38). * Twins 5, White Sox 2: Jason Kubel drove in the first four runs for the Twins, off a third-inning RBI single, and a fifth-inning three-run homer (11). * Yankees 6, Royals 3: Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run homer in the 1st (52), and scored the go-ahead run off a two-run double by Jorge Posada. * Rangers 12, Athletics 9: Sammy Sosa hit a three-run homer (19) and an RBI single in the win. * Indians 6, Angels 2: Ryan Garko hit a three-run homer (17) in the middle of a five-run 4th inning for the Indians. * Nationals 7, Braves 4: D'Angelo Jimenez drove in three runs, including a 3rd inning RBI single, a 7th inning RBI double, and an 8th inning RBI single. * Mets 4, Astros 1: Carlos Beltran drove in two runs off an RBI single and a sacrifice fly, and scored off Moises Alou's two-run homer in the 5th. * Brewers 10, Reds 5: Rickie Weeks (8, 9) and Ryan Braun (29, 30) each had two homers in the win. * Phillies 8, Marlins 5: Pat Burrell hit a two-run homer and an RBI double. * Pirates 10, Cubs 5: Freddy Sanchez had 4 RBI, including a bases-loaded triple (Sanchez was tagged out at home plate, attempting to stretch the triple into an inside-the-park homer). * Rockies 4, Padres 2: Todd Helton hit an RBI single in the first, and hit his 35th double in the 6th, making him the first player ever to hit 35 doubles each season for 10 consecutive years. * Giants 4, Dodgers 2: Ray Durham hit a pinch-hit three-run homer (11) in the 8th to win the game for the Giants. * Diamondbacks 6, Cardinals 5: Tony Clark drove in the go-ahead and winning runs off a two-run double in the 7th." +sport,"Pitcher Josh Hancock passed away early Sunday after crashing his car into a tow truck. The accident occurred on Interstate 64 in St. Louis, Missouri at about 12:30am, and was pronounced dead at the scene. He was 29 years old. Josh Hancock was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 1998 and made his Major League debut in 2002. He was later traded to the Philadelphia Phillies and the Cincinnati Reds before being signed by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006. He was part of the 2006 World Series Cardinals team, and a current member of the Cardinals roster. He had just played in Saturday afternoon's game against the Chicago Cubs, pitching three solid innings. Hancock was mourned around the league. The Cleveland Indians held a moment of silence before their game, displaying Hancock's picture on the scoreboard. Bud Selig, Commissioner of Major League Baseball, said ""All of baseball today mourns the tragic and untimely death of St. Louis pitcher Josh Hancock. He was a fine young pitcher who played an important role on last year's World Series championship team."" This is the second time in recent years that a Cardinals pitcher has died during the regular season. In 2002, Darryl Kile was found dead in his room at the team's hotel during a series against the Cubs in Chicago, Illinois. The final game of the Cardinals-Cubs series, scheduled for 7:00pm tonight, has been postponed because of the tragedy." +sport,"The French cycling newspaper L'Équipe is reporting that a drugs testing laboratory has discovered that Lance Armstrong, seven times winner of the Tour de France, used the banned substance EPO in the 1999 tour - his first victory after defeating testicular cancer. L'Equipe also points out that the results may tarnish Armstrong's image forever, and cast a shadow of doubt over his six other victories. Lance Armstrong has responded on his website, branding L'Equipes reporting of being ""nothing short of tabloid journalism."" Armstrong says: ""I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs."" The Châtenay-Malabry French national doping screening laboratory, which developed the first EPO tests, says it has been developing new experimental detection techniques and decided to test frozen urine samples taken from Armstrong after several stages of the 1999 tour. The director of the official French anti-doping test laboratory at Châtenay-Malabry, Jacques de Ceaurriz was quoted as saying he had ""no doubt about the validity of our results."" He said that while being kept for long periods can cause EPO proteins to deteriorate, this would possibly result in negative tests for doped athletes, but not false positives. It should be pointed out that technically this statement is false. EPO is naturally produced in the body. It is present at low levels in normal human urine, and natural levels in a human doing high-altitude training (a known ""trick"" of Mr. Armstrong) could be unusually high. Therefore, false positives can be obtained by setting the sensitivity threshold too low. This is especially true if the number of control samples (for calibration purposes) is limited, as is the case with the 1999 urine samples. These calibration issues are a reason EPO wasn't officially tested for earlier. Incidentally, de Ceaurriz stated that his laboratory worked on numbered anonymous samples, and was unaware when he sent his results to WADA/AMA that some of the results concerned Lance Armstrong. In addition to these accusations, and in response to them, Armstrong has also received open backing from US Cycling , individual cycling officials , from former Tour winners Eddy Merckx and Miguel Indurain , and other public figures. Supporters argue numerous irregularities in the doping claim: ""' Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) and the US Anti-Doping Agency, they've all defined a process for collecting samples, managing samples, testing the samples, identifying the people who are involved,' said Johnson. ' They have certain rights in the process. None of that has been followed in this case.' Officials from cycling's ruling body (UCI), Wada, the French sports ministry and the Tour de France all agree normal anti-doping proceedings have not been followed. ' This isn't a 'doping positive. This is just a publication in a French tabloid newspaper. That's our perspective,'"" added Johnson.'""--BBC These allegations are still under examination by a number of news and anti-doping organizations. *UCI Statement On September 9, after a period of investigation, the UCI finally released a strongly-worded official statement condemning the WADA, the French laboratory in question, and the paper L'Equipe, for having failed to provide any official communication, and having failed to provide any data, evidence, or background on the allegations. The UCI stated that it was still ""awaiting plausible answers"" to its requests to WADA and the laboratory, but also indicated ""We deplore the fact that the long-established and entrenched confidentiality principle could be violated in such a flagrant way without any respect for fair play and the rider's privacy."" The accusers themselves, in particular the World Anti-Doping Agency, might face an investigation into their own practices, in connection to their allegations against Armstrong. The UCI stated ""We have substantial concerns about the impact of this matter on the integrity of the overall drug testing regime of the Olympic movement, and in particular the questions it raises over the trustworthiness of some of the sports and political authorities active in the anti-doping fight."" On October 5, the UCI announced the appointment of an independent expert to investigate the leaking of doping allegations against Armstrong: ""French sports newspaper L'Equipe claims that samples given by the American icon on the 1999 Tour later tested positive. Armstrong has denied the allegations. The International Cycling Union (UCI) has now appointed Dutch lawyer and doping specialist Emile Vrijman to probe how the details were released. The UCI said it 'expects all relevant parties to fully co-operate'. Vrijman is a former director of the National Anti-Doping Agency in the Netherlands (NeCeDo).""" +sport,"The following are the medal results for the second full day of competition for the Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. Results are courtesy of NBC and the IOC 2006 Turin medal count :# G - Hyun-Soo Ahn (South Korea) :# S - Ho-Suk Lee (South Korea) :# B - Li Jiajun (China) :# G - Armin Zoeggeler (Italy) :# S - Albert Demtschenko (Russia) :# B - Martins Rubenis (Latvia) :# G - Lars Bystøl (Norway) :# S - Matti Hautamäki (Finland) :# B - Roar Ljøkelsøy (Norway) :# G - Ireen Wust (Netherlands) :# S - Renate Groenewold (Netherlands) :# B - Cindy Klassen (Canada) :# G - Eugeni Dementiev (Russia) :# S - Frode Estil (Norway) :# B - Pietro Piller Cottrer (Italy) :# G - Shaun White (United States) :# S - Danny Kass (United States) :# B - Markku Koski (Finland) :# G - Antoine Deneriaz (France) :# S - Michael Walchhofer (Austria) :# B - Bruno Kernen (Switzerland) :# G - Kristina Smigun (Estonia) :# S - Katerina Neumannova (Czech Republic) :# B - Evgenia Medvedeva-Abruzova (Russia)" +sport,"Michelle Kwan, a figure skater on the United States Olympic team, has pulled out of the Olympic Games because of a groin injury. According to a newsbreak bulletin on NBC, she injured her right hip abductor muscle in a fall during practice on Saturday. The muscle pain continued to worsen and at 2:45am she went to the team doctor. The team doctor determined this was a serious injury and Michelle made the decision to pull out of the Olympics and give the alternate Emily Hughes the chance to skate. Emily Hughes was contacted at 8:45pm Eastern time that she would be needed at the Games. She is scheduled to fly to Italy on Sunday. Emily Hughes is the younger sister of Olympic medalist Sarah Hughes." +sport,"MADRID, Spain — Floyd Landis requested the testing of his backup urine sample today. ""We've sent the fax to the UCI this afternoon."" ""Now we'll have to adjust to their calendar,"" said Jose Maria Buxeda, one of Landis's two Spanish lawyers, of the Swiss-based International Cycling Union. Landis's lawyers say they fully expect the backup test to confirm the original finding. Oscar Pereiro of Spain, who finished second overall in the Tour de France, would be declared the winner if Landis loses the title. Results will be revealed during the week." +sport,"Tour de France 2007 Astana Team announced today that Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan failed a blood test following his victory in Saturday's time trial. ""Vino has tested positive having to do with a blood transfusion, and the team is leaving the Tour,"" team spokesperson Corinne Druey said. Vinokourov also won yesterday's stage. ""There is the presence of a double population of haematids, which implies there has been a blood transfusion with homological blood,"" read an Astana Team statement. ""Tour organizers have asked Astana Cycling Team to leave the race, which has been accepted spontaneously."" Astana manager Marc Biver declared: ""Vino denies any blood manipulation. He says after his crash on July 12, there may be blood anomalies."" He added that his team was in shock after the events. Vinokourov was a pre-Tour favorite, but despite winning two stages, he has dropped out of contention. However, Astana Team, which has now withdrawn, had two other riders in the top ten, Andreas Klöden, fifth overall, and Andrey Kashechkin, eighth overall. Pat McQuaid, president of Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) told Reuters: ""I cannot comment on this until the result of the B sample's analysis."" ""Jesus Christ, I'm speechless,"" said David Millar of the United Kingdom, who rides for Saunier Duval-Prodir. ""It makes me sad. I have the impression the riders will never understand."" When asked if the Tour was too hard on the cyclists, Tour director Christian Prudhomme told reporters that ""You do not cheat because it is too hard, you cheat because you want to be first.""" +sport,"Sports Mattamy Athletic Centre, Toronto, Canada &mdash; Germany defeated the United States and Canada defeated the Netherlands yesterday in the semifinals of the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Canada. Canada is now to meet Germany in the final this afternoon, immediately after the match between the United States and the Netherlands for the bronze medal. Up until this point, the Netherlands has been undefeated. It led at every change, but the Canadian team persevered, represented on the court for most of the match by Tracey Furguson, Janet McLachlan, Cindy Ouellet, Katie Harnock and Jamey Jewells. In the final quarter, Canada pulled away. Two three-point field goals from the Netherlands' Inge Huitzing nearly leveled the score. The Netherlands was able to pull ahead, but Team Canada managed to get a point in front when the siren sounded, for a final score of 74&ndash;75. The second semifinal between Germany and the United States was an equally close affair, with the two sides neck and neck for most of the match, with the lead changing several times. The crowd was small, but vocal, and Wikinews was told by the German media that some 2,000 viewers in Germany had stayed up late to watch the match live via the webcast. Scores were tied at 46-all at three quarter time, but Germany's Marina Mohnen, Gesche Schünemann and Mareike Adermann managed to build a six-point lead with less than four minutes to go, despite having no answer to the United States' Rose Hollermann. The United States tried repeatedly sending Schünemann, Annika Zeyen and Simone Kues to the free throw line, only to find their shooting to be very accurate. When the siren sounded, Germany had won, 68&ndash;58. In the consolation match preceding the Netherlands-Canada game, Australia defeated China. The Australian Gliders will play Great Britain tomorrow for fifth place." +sport,"sports Wheelchair curling continued today at the Ice Cube Curling Center at the 2014 Winter Paralympics on difficult playing conditions as a result of the warm temperature outside. In the morning session, the South Korea lost to Russia in the eighth end by a score of 5&ndash;7, the United States lost to Canada 2&ndash;7 in seven ends, Norway edged out Finland 6&ndash;8 in extra ends, and China defeated Sweden 8&ndash;4 in seven ends. At the conclusion of the morning session, round robin standing had Canada in first with 4 wins; Slovakia in second with 3 wins; Russia in third with 3 wins and 1 loss; Great Britain in fourth with 2 wins and 1 loss; China and Norway in fifth with 2 wins and 2 losses; South Korea, Sweden, and the United States in seventh place with 1 win and 3 losses; and Finland last with 4 losses. Finland and Norway were evenly matched, going point for point in the first pair of ends, trading 2 points each in the next pair of ends, then Norway scored 2 points and 1 point in the next ends with Finland answering back. Tied after eight ends, they went to extra ends which Norway won with 2 points. Outpacing other curlers on the ice, United States looked like they might be able to come back to tie things after their second end against Canada, and then only being down one after the fourth end, but Canada went on to score points in the next three ends. While Sweden won three of the seven ends they played against China, they were unable to beat the Chinese team who scored 2 points in two ends and 3 points in another end. In the fourth end, the 3 points came after a precision takeout by the Chinese skip Wang Haitao that cleared two Swedish stones off the sheet. With the crowd behind them the entire match, Russia came from behind after the first end and third end to tie things up in the fifth end and take the lead. They allowed the South Koreans to score two points in the seventh end to force an eighth end. Russian skip Andrei Smirnov cleared a South Korean stone sitting in front of three Russian stones off the sheet that gave the Russians a two point lead. The United States has not medaled at the past two Paraympic Games, with their best finish a fourth at the 2010 Games. Of the United States's curling team, two are returning wheelchair curling Paralympic veterans. James Joseph, the second, competed at the 2006 Winter Paralympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics. The skip and Madison, Wisconsin native, Patrick McDonald, competed at the 2010 Games. Penny Greely, the lead, competed in sitting volleyball at the 2004 Summer Paralympics where she won a bronze medal. David Palmer, the third, is competing at his first games after having a fourth place finish at the 2013 World Championships in Russia and a fifth place finish at the 2012 World Championships in South Korea. Alternate and Cape Cod native Meghan Lino is also at her first Paralympic Games after taking up the sport in 2009. Sweden's team has three team members who competed at the 2010 Games in Vancouver, Canada: Jalle Jungnell, Glenn Ikonen, and Patrik Kallin. 60 year old Jungnell has the team's most Paralympic experience, having competed at the 1988, 1992, and 1996 Summer Paralympics in wheelchair basketball, as well as competing at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Paralympics in wheelchair curling. Finnish born Ikonen had been suspended for six months following the Vancouver Games following a positive doping test. He claimed metroprolol was a drug he had been using for 4 or 5 years, and was unhappy that his doctor prescribed the blood pressure reducing drug because he would not have intentionally taken a banned substance. The 2014 Games are the first Paralympics for Russia's wheelchair curling team. Alternate Oksana Slesarenko from Yekaterinburg and skip Andrei Smirnov also from Yekaterinburg have the most experience on the team, both having taken up the sport in 2003, and competing at the 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2013 World Championships. Team Canada includes all five members of their 2013 World Championship winning team, including 63-year-old skip Jim Armstrong, 51-year-old Dennis John Thiessen, 52-year-old Ina Forrest, 47-year-old Sonja Gaudet, and 37-year-old Mark Ideson. Gaudet is the only wheelchair curling Paralympian with two gold medals, having won them in 2006 and 2010. Teammates Armstrong and Thiessen were part of the 2010 gold medal winning team. Gaudet also has gold medals from the 2009, 2011, and 2013 World Championships. While Armstrong was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 1990 for his accomplishments in able bodied curling, Gaudet was the first wheelchair-only curler to be inducted when she was part of the 2013 class. South Korea has two returning 2010 Games silver medalists, Kang Mi-Suk and Kim Myung-Jin. Both originally played other sports before taking up curling. Kang played table tennis and Kim played wheelchair basketball. On Saturday, Russia beat China 5&ndash;4, South Korea lost to Norway 0&ndash;10, Canada beat Great Britain 6&ndash;3, and Slovakia defeated the United States 6&ndash;4 in the morning session. Sweden beat Finland 7&ndash;6, Canada beat Russia 5&ndash;4, the United States lost to South Korea 5&ndash;9, and Norway lost to China 3&ndash;7. In the morning session yesterday, the United States defeated Norway 8&ndash;5, Sweden lost to Great Britain by a score of 4&ndash;6, China lost to Slovakia 3&ndash;8, and Finland lost to Russia 4&ndash;7. In the afternoon session yesterday, Canada defeated Sweden 7&ndash;4, Finland lost to Slovakia 6&ndash;9, and Great Britain beat South Korea by a score of 8&ndash;4. Unlike able-bodied curling, players release the stone from a stationary position and there is no sweeping. Another curler often sits behind the stone thrower to hold their chair in place while they execute their throw. Unlike a number of other Paralympic sports, there is only one classification in wheelchair curling and a variety of lower body disabilities compete in the sport. South Koreans Kim Myung-Jin and Kim Jong-Pan, Swede Kristina Ulander, Team USA's Meghan Lino, Patrick McDonald, and David Palmer, and Russians Alexander Shevchenko, Svetlana Pakhomova, Oksana Slesarenko, Andrei Smirnov, and Marat Romanov have spinal cord injuries. Canadian Jim Armstrong has injured knees. Canadian Ina Forrest lost her leg in a farming accident. Team USA's James Joseph has a limb deficiency. Laura Hale" +sport,"NBA Finals 2006 The Miami Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks by a score of 98-96 in the third game of the NBA Finals. Dallas leads the series 2-1. Miami led at half-time by nine points, but Dallas outscored them in the third quarter 34-16. Dallas held a 89-76 led with 6:30 left in the fourth quarter. A late 17-5 run led by Dwyane Wade put Miami back into the game. With 9.3 seconds left, Miami's Gary Payton hit the game winning shot. Dirk Nowitzki had a chance to tie the game for Dallas, but failed to hit his freethrow. Miami head coach, Pat Riley, said ""The basketball gods were good to us tonight, that's all you can say."" The next game will be June 15, 2006 in Miami. Dallas needs to win two more games and Miami needs to win three more games to become the 2006 NBA champions." +sport,"Reggie Miller led the Indiana Pacers in scoring with 33 points as the Pacers beat the Celtics in Indianapolis by 23 points to take a 2-1 lead in the first round of the NBA finals. After losing the first game to Boston at the Fleet Center, the Pacers came back in game 2 to win by 3. The Celtics kept within 5 points of the Pacers until the middle of the second quarter, when the Pacers went on a 13-1 run. At halftime, Pacers led by 17, 55-38. Though the Celtics pulled to within 7 in the middle of the third quarter, they never led again. Three Celtics scored in double figures (Paul Pierce, Gary Payton, and Antoine Walker), but it was not enough to overcome Reggie Miller, who scored 15 points in the fourth quarter alone. Walker was ejected from the game with 4:05 remaining for two technical fouls." +sport,"2012 Olympic Paralympics London, England &mdash; Yesterday, on the final day of competition, athletics concluded at the London Paralympics with the running and wheeling of the marathon for the men's T12, T46 and T54, and the women's T54." +sport,"With the IPC Alpine World Championships officially ending Wednesday with the conclusion of the national team non-medal friendly competition a day after the competition's official closing ceremony, New Zealand's Adam Hall and Corey Peters have completed their run. Their country did not compete in the team competition as they did not have enough skiers to form a team. With their first event the second race of the competition, Hall finished ninth in the men's standing Super-G with a time of 1:16.65, 4.16 seconds off the winning time set by Austrian Markus Salcher. Peters finished the Super-G with a time of 1:18.95 in the men's sitting group for a 22 place finish in a field of 25 skiers. Hall had his best finish at the Championships on the third day of competition when he earned a bronze medal in the Slalom. Peters did not fair as well, earning a Did Not Finish (DNF) during his second run in the Slalom and consequently not ranking. In the Super Combined, Hall finished ninth with a combined run time of 1:49.87, 7.43 seconds slower than first place finisher Austrian Matthias Lanzinger. Peters's problems continued, as he earned a DNF during his first run. Peters finished tenth in the Giant Slalom, with a combined run time of 2:37.73, 21.93 seconds slower than Japanese gold medalist Taiki Morri. Hall skipped the event. Despite New Zealand's small size, the country has a history of doing well at the Winter Paralympics. Most recently, the country saw success when Hall won a gold medal in the men's standing event at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver." +sport,"Citing ""league sources,"" both CNN/SI and the Boston Globe are reporting that Kevin Garnett is going to the Boston Celtics in a trade involving at least six players. This transaction in the United States' premier professional basketball league NBA, which is contingent on a contract negotiation, would be considered major. The forward, known as ""Big Ticket"", who has spent his entire twelve season career playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves, will join fellow all-stars Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to give Boston a boost in the Eastern Conference. Although the deal is yet to be announced formally by either team, many news agencies are reporting that the deal has been finalized. Kevin Garnett will go to Boston, in exchange for Celtic players Al Jefferson, Sebastian Telfair, Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes, and Theo Ratliff, along with two future NBA draft picks." +sport,"2018 FIFA World Cup Yesterday, day seven of the 2018 FIFA footall World Cup, Portugal defeated Morocco 1&ndash;0, Uruguay defeated Saudi Arabia 1&ndash;0 and Iran lost 1&ndash;0 against Spain with goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suárez and Diego Costa respectively. With this victory, Uruguay and hosts Russia have qualified for the Last 16 knockout phase. Portugal faced Morocco in the first game of the day at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium. Morocco had better ball possession in the match. Morocco conceded a corner kick early in the first half in the 4th minute. Portugal's captain Cristiano Ronaldo scored a header from João Moutinho's assist, giving Portugal an early lead. In the 9th minute, Ronaldo almost doubled the lead for Portugal, but his shot went wide to the left of the goal. Two minutes later, Morroco's captain Medhi Benatia got a chance to equalise, but his header was blocked. Morocco had multiple attempts to equalise but all missed or were blocked. Benatia was booked in the 40th minute for a bad foul. The first half ended with Portugal leading 1–0. In the second half, Ronaldo had another chance to double Portugal's lead but his shot missed the target. Though Morocco had several attempts for goal, Portugal's goalkeeper Rui Patricio managed not to let any goals in. The match finished 1–0 as Morocco fell to the bottom of the table, having lost both matches in this tournament and having zero points. After the match, Morocco's manager Herve Renard said, ""We qualified for a World Cup after 20 years and we've showed that we can play football."" Ronaldo was named Budweiser Man of the Match. He has scored four goals in this tournament. Uruguay faced Saudi Arabia at the Rostov Arena for the second match of the day. Uruguayan striker Suárez was playing his 100th international match for the country. Saudi Arabia had better ball possession in the match. Uruguay's Edinson Cavani missed a chance to open the scoring, with his left-footed shot going wide above the goal. In the 23rd minute, Suárez scored a close-range shot, assisted by Carlos Andrés Sánchez. Saudi Arabia's Taiseer Al Jassam was substituted just a few minutes before the end of the first half, due to injury. Uruguay missed out some opportunities to increase their lead in the second half but the first half goal by Suárez was sufficient for the South Americans to ensue three points at Rostov-on-Don. Suárez was named Budweiser Man of the Match award. He became the first Uruguayan to score goals in three FIFA World Cup tournaments. With this victory Uruguay and Russia mathematically secured their sports in the knockout phase of the tournament, while Saudi Arabia and Egypt, who are yet to face each other, are out of the competition. Iran faced Spain in the last match of the day at the Kazan Arena. Spain had greater ball possession in the match. Spanish defender Gerard Piqué played his 100th international match for the country. In the first half, Gerard Piqué, Isco, David Silva, Dani Carvajal and Spanish captain Sergio Ramos had attempts for the goal as they had the ball for longer duration. Despite multiple attempts, the first half remained goalless. In the second half, Sergio Busquets' attempt was saved, as Alireza Beiranvand made a double-save. The Spanish side finally got the lead when Diego Costa scored a goal in the 54th minute in the bottom left corner of the goal. Just at the one-hour mark, Mehdi Taremi missed the chance to equalise for Iran. In the 62nd minute, Iran managed to put the ball at the back of the net, but was ruled offside. Iran's Vahid Amiri was booked in the 79th minute for a bad foul. Omid Ebrahimi was also shown a yellow card in the injury time. The match ended with Spain winning three points and finishing at the top spot in the group table. After the match, Iran's manager Carlos Queiroz said, ""We showed that we were ready to suffer and ready to compete ... There's no doubt Spain play wonderful, stylish football but we deserved more for the way we played. ... We will learn a lot from this game. If you think of it like tennis, we had one match point today and we will have another against Portugal. Everything is still open. We are still alive and still dreaming."" Costa won the Budweiser Man of the Match award. With Spain's victory, Morocco also missed out the chance to advance to the next phase of the tournament. clear" +sport,"Major League Baseball player Manny Ramirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has stated that he has been tested positive for a banned substance. As a result, he will be benched for 50 games. The baseball players' union stated, Ramirez said the positive test resulted from a medication prescribed by a doctor, and not from a steroid. Ramirez waived his right to challenge the suspension. Said Ramirez: ""Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was okay to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I've taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons."" Ramirez is the biggest star player to test positive for drugs since Rafael Palmeiro, and the first major star to be suspended under baseball's stricter drug-testing rules. Ramirez is reported to lose at least 31% of his US$25-million salary as a result of the suspension. He will be allowed to resume playing baseball on July 3, 2009." +sport,referee=Manuel Gräfe League leaders Bayern Munich advanced to the 3rd round of the DFB Cup after defeating 2nd division leaders Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1. Luca Toni opening the scoring early in the 2nd half with a pair of goals. Substitute Miroslav Klose sealed the victory in the 82nd minute to make it 3-1. Bayern Munich next game is against Eintracht Frankfurt who they play on Saturday at home while Borussia Mönchengladbach are at home to Carl Zeiss Jena. +sport,"referee=Steve Bennett English football club Manchester United has beat Liverpool 3–0, making it six points clear at the top of the table for United. The match, which started at 13:30 local time featured several bookings and a red card for Javier Mascherano (Liverpool). The half time score was 1–0 to Manchester United, with the other two goals being scored in the second half. The goal, scored by Wes Brown, was headed into the goal after a cross by Wayne Rooney. The second goal was scored by Cristiano Ronaldo, was also scored through a header, although this goal was scored seconds after a shot by the same player. The third and final goal was scored by Luis Nani, just two minutes after the goal by Ronaldo. The goal was shot into the left hand side of the goal." +sport,"Tuggeranong, Canberra &mdash; The second day of the Australian National Archery Championships was underway today at the Tuggeranong Archery Club in Canberra, with the field shooting competition being one of the highlights, as Australians in several bow classes were attempting to qualify for the World Archery Field Championships in August. Competitors need to meet a minimum score and finish in the top three in their class to earn a nomination from Archery Australia to go on to World Championship. The long bow class archers were competing for national honors because they are not eligible to participate at World Championships. Twenty-four targets were used for the competition with enough archers in groups of three to four to cover almost all of them at any one time." +sport,"__noTOC__ Tour de France 2007 Alberto Contador of Spain has won the 2007 Tour de France general classification. He won by 23 seconds over Cadel Evans of Australia. Third place went Contador's team mate Levi Leipheimer of United States, 31 seconds behind. As a young rider, Contador also gets the white jersey to go with his yellow. Tom Boonen of Belgium wins the green jersey points classification over Robert Hunter and Erik Zabel. Mauricio Soler of Colombia wins the King of the Mountains classification over Contador and Yaroslav Popovych. Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team won the team competition over Caisse d'Epargne by 19' 36"" and Team CSC by 22' 10'. Daniele Bennati of Italy won the final stage 20 in a time of 3h 51' 03"". The final 146 km stage saw the riders leave from Marcoussis to enter to complete the eight laps of the traditional circuit around the Champs-Élysées. George Hincapie was given the honor of leading his team and the peloton onto the Champs-Élysées, as he has now guided team mates to victory a record eight times." +sport,"Tirunesh Dibaba won her first World Championship title in six years, coming first in the 10,000 meter race at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, Russia last night. Dibaba finished with a time of 30 minutes and 43.37 seconds, giving her the third World Championship victory of her career. Dibaba’s victory last night ended a six-year drought for the athlete on the World Championships stage, having been unable to win a World Championship title since 2007. In that period of time, Dibaba had more luck in the Olympics, winning the 10,000 meter final in 2008 and successfully defending her title in 2012. Dibaba waited until the final two laps of the race to take the lead, sprinting the final 500 meters in 59.98 seconds. She easily left her fellow competitors behind, with silver-medalist Gladys Cherono of Kenya trailing by almost two seconds. Belaynesh Olijra of Ethiopia, one of Dibaba’s training partners, took the bronze medal, crossing the finish line in a time of 30 minutes and 46.98 seconds. Dibaba spoke about wanting to return the Ethiopian women’s track team to glory, when talking to reporters after her race. The team had not won gold at a 10,000 meter final at the IAAF World Championships for two years. ""Because of that, both as a team and individually, we trained very hard,"" she told reporters." +sport,"Homebush Bay, New South Wales &mdash; Earlier today at the Sport Centre at the Sydney Olympic Park, the Australian Gliders beat the Germany women's national wheelchair basketball team 53&ndash;45. Germany took an early lead in the game after winning the opening tip-off. They pulled ahead 5&ndash;0 before Australia was able to answer back with a two point shot by 3 point player Sarah Stewart." +sport,"Former Major League Baseball pitcher and coach Pat Dobson died of leukemia Wednesday, November 22. He died at age 64 at a local San Diego hospital only a day after being diagnosed with the disease. Dobson is best known for winning 20 games in the 1971 season for the Baltimore Orioles. He was a major league All-Star in 1972. Dobson finished his 11 year career with a career win-loss record of 122-129 and with a 3.54 ERA in eleven seasons. Dobson later became a pitching coach for several teams, last appearing for the Orioles in 1996. At his death he was a special assistant to San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean, where he worked the past nine years. Dobson is survived by his wife and six children." +sport,"After lots of turns on the route of torch relay of 2008 Summer Olympics, Taiwan and China still insisted their own political positions. The IOC finally announced yesterday that the torch's route will not cross Taiwan. After the route was fixed by IOC, politicians and governments in Taiwan criticized China's behavior. One of Taiwan's 2008 presidential candidates, Ying-jiou Ma (former Taipei City Mayor), commented that without the torch, he can not welcome the torch with National Song and Flag of the Republic of China. Also, Chih-hsiung Huang (KMT Legislator) supposed that Mainland China and Democratic Progressive Party should be criticized on this fault. At the governmental level, Ming-tung Chen (Commissioner of Mainland Affairs Council of Executive Yuan of the Republic of China) mentioned that people in Taiwan do not accept the request on welcoming the torch of 2008 Summer Olympics without Flags, Symbols, and the National Song of the Republic of China, based on the cross-strait common consensus on February 12, 2007. Chun-hsiung Chang (Premier of the Republic of China) hoped that this fault won't take effect on the tourism between China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Chih-Wei Hsieh (Minister of the Government Information Office of the Republic of China) was proud of the protection of democracy and human rights in Taiwan even though the torch of 2008 Summer Olympics won't come to Taiwan. According to Eastern Television in Taiwan, the reciprocal consensus' between China and Taiwan became cracked slowly, especially in such sporting events as: * Flag of the Republic of China was shown at Davis Cup in Taiwan at April, Cross-Strait Golf Championship and Asian Volleyball Championship at July. This was said to anger the Mainland China National Team. * Mainland China National Team withdrew the 2007 World Deaf Swimming Championship and YONEX 2007 Chinese Taipei Badminton Open. * Ta Meng (Basketball Player of Jiangsu Nangang Team) deliberately elbowed Tai-Hao Wu at Cross-Strait Basketball Championship on September 4, 2007, and caused some spectators in Taiwan to protest Chinese Taipei Basketball Association and China by drawing Flags of the Republic of China. This Olympic Torch is first-ever declined by an IOC member without warfare factor, even though IOC won't punish Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), but this indicates that the 2008 Summer Olympics may be more faded with politics than previously has occurred. The effects are indicated to be notable after Executive Yuan of Taiwan will promote the ""Torch of Joining UN"" in October 2007 and the ""Human Rights Torch Relay"" project by Taiwan newspaper Epoch Times in June 2008." +sport,"2018 FIFA World Cup On Friday, France defeated Uruguay 2&ndash;0 in the FIFA football World Cup quarter-finals and Brazil lost 1&ndash;2 against Belgium. With this defeat only countries from the UEFA Confederation are now remaining in the tournament. France faced Uruguay at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium. The French side had better ball possession. Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani was rested for the match and Luis Suárez faced his FC Barcelona teammate Samuel Umtiti in the quarter-final clash. Both the sides had early attempts to open the scoring. Uruguay blocked N'Golo Kanté's 12th-minute attempt for a goal. Three minutes later, Kylian Mbappé missed a chance from Olivier Giroud's pass to put France in the lead. In the 19th minute, Paul Pogba also had an attempt for goal but went wide. France opened the scoring in the 40th minute when Raphaël Varane scored a header from Antoine Griezmann's assist. Minutes before the half-time, Hugo Lloris saved a shot preventing Uruguay from equalising, and Diego Godín missed a close-range shot. The first half ended with France having a one-goal lead. In the second half, just after the one-hour mark, Griezmann doubled the lead for France, scoring a goal from outside the penalty area from Corentin Tolisso's assist. In the final ten minutes of the 90-minute play, French side made two substitutions, as Steven N'Zonzi and Ousmane Dembélé replaced Tolisso and Mbappé. The match ended 2&ndash;0. After the match, France's coach Didier Deschamps said, ""We had done something big against Argentina and today we have again raised our level. I have a good team that still has plenty of room for improvement. You can see our lack of experience sometimes, but we have so many qualities too."" Uruguayan coach Óscar Tabárez said, ""The boys really gave everything, but France were able to control the match very well. After the second goal, there was a huge gap between the teams."" With this victory, UEFA Euro 2016-finalists France reached the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup for the sixth time. Brazil faced Belgium at the Kazan Arena. After Uruguay's defeat against France, Brazil was the only South American nation left in the tournament. The South Americans had better ball possession. In the 8th minute, Brazilian captain Thiago Silva missed a chance to open the scoring as his header rebounded from the goalpost. Belgian defender Vincent Kompany missed a header in the 13th minute from Nacer Chadli assist, but Fernandinho scored an own goal, giving Belgium an early lead. A couple of minutes later, Gabriel Jesus had an attempt to equalise, from Neymar's assist, but the shot was blocked. Marcelo also attempted for a goal in the 26th minute but was saved. In the 31st minute, Kevin De Bruyne scored from outside the penalty area, doubling the lead for Belgium, assisted by Romelu Lukaku. Six minutes later, Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois saved a long-range shot by Philippe Coutinho. The first half ended and Belgium had a two-goal advantage. At the start of the second half, Brazil made a substitution as Roberto Firmino replaced Willian. Paulinho had an attempt in the 55th minute. Paulinho was substituted off in the 73rd minute for Renato Augusto and just three minutes after coming on, Augusto scored the first goal for Brazil in the 76th minute. Chadli was subbed off in the 83rd minute due to injury and was replaced by Thomas Vermaelen. Brazil tried to score an equaliser, but the match ended 2&ndash;1 as Belgium advanced to the semi-final. After the match, Belgium's coach Roberto Martinez said, ""Brazil have so much finesse and you know that they can cut you open. But I didn't think for one second that the players would give up. They've done something special and I hope everyone in Belgium is very, very proud. It has created a nice memory and we should treasure it. But now we need more energy for our next game to try to make sure we're just as good in the semi-finals."" Brazil's coach Tite said, """"I thought it was a great match and we had a lot of it, with plenty of possession and a lot of opportunities. But Belgium were more effective in converting their opportunities. They have a lot of top players and finished well. Thibaut Courtois also made a real difference. For all the pain I feel right now, if you like football, you have to watch this game. It's going to give you pleasure."" Belgium is now scheduled to face France in the semi-finals." +sport,"London, England &mdash; When Mohamed Kamara enters the Olympic Stadium during the 2012 Summer Paralympics Opening Ceremony on Wednesday night representing Sierra Leone, he will become only the second Paralympic competitor to ever represent his country. Sierra Leone's previous Paralympic appearance came at the 1996 Summer Paralympics when the country as represented by Marah Kelley, a javelin thrower who remains the only female to have ever represented the country at the Paralympics. Kamara, a T46 classified athletics competitor, is scheduled to race in the men's 100 and 200 metre events in London. The 200 meters is scheduled for next Saturday and Sunday, the third and fourth days of Paralympic competition, and the 100 meter event is to happen on September 6. Sierra Leone's neighbor Liberia will be making their own history, when they make their Paralympic debut when powerlifter James Siaffa competes in London." +sport,"2008 Olympic GamesAugust 15, 2008 is the 7th major day of the 2008 Olympic games, the below article lists some of the highlights. Michael Phelps won his sixth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics with a world-record time of 1:54.23 in the final of the men's 200m individual medley. The gold puts him one gold medal away from Mark Spitz's individual record of seven gold medals at a single Olympiad, set at the Munich Olympics in 1972. It was also his sixth world record, also one short of a single-Olympiad record set by Spitz as well. Hungarian László Cseh won the silver medal with a time of 1:56.52, an European record. Cseh out-touched American Ryan Lochte, the bronze medal winner, by 0.01 seconds (1:56.53). The previous world record time was 1:54.80, set by Phelps at the 2008 United States Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebrasha. In the first semifinal of the men's 50m freestyle, Cesar Cielo Filho set a new Olympic record with a time of 21.34 seconds, 0.12 seconds ahead of the previous Olympic record and 0.06 seconds behind the current world record. ""It was a great race. The 50m is so fast and it was my best-ever race,"" said Filho after the race. 'I'm in lane four in the final. I'll just do my best and focus on my own race and will touch the wall with my best performance."" American Rebecca Soni net a new world record and won the gold medal in the final of the women's 200m breaststroke with a time of 2:20.22. Leisel Jones, who was representing Australia, took the silver medal, while Sara Nordenstam finished in third place with a time of 2:23.02, less than one second behind Jones' time of 2:22.05. The Chinese Cao Lei set a new world record and won the gold medal women's 75kg weightlifting. Her score of 282 beat the competitor who took the silver medal by sixteen points. ""I was excited and overjoyed because I won the seventh gold medal for Chinese weightlifting,"" she said, after the event. British Bradley Wiggins set a new Olympic record in qualifying round of the men's individual pursuit with a time of 4:15.031 and an average speed of 56.463 km/h. Hayden Roulston, who was representing New Zealand, finished in second place, while Alexei Markov finished in third place with a time of 4:21.498. American Nastia Liukin won the gold medal in the women's individual all-around in artistic gymnastics. She is the daughter of former Soviet Union gymnast Valeri Liukin, who won a gold medal at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Her total score was 63.325: 15.025 in vault, 16.650 in uneven bars, 16.125 in balance beam and 15.525 in floor exercise. Her scores at balance beam and floor exercise were the top scores for the individual all-around competition. Her American teammate, Shawn Johnson, won the silver medal with a total score of 62.725. Johnson had the top score in the vault, with a score of 15.875. Chinese gymnast Yang Yilin won the bronze medal with a total score of 61.925. Yang had the top score in the uneven bars, with a score of 16.725. 2008 Beijing Olympic medal count" +sport,"Yesterday, the Australian Paralympic Committee finalized the country's Paralympic team by naming" +sport,"Muslim groups from across the world are criticising the organisers of the 2012 Olympics in London after it was revealed that the games will take place over Ramadan. The most holy month in the Muslim calendar, which will take place from the 21 July to 20 August in 2012, involves fasting during daylight hours and will affect an estimated 3,000 athletes. Joanna Manning Cooper, spokesman for the games said: ""We did know about it when we submitted our bid and we have always believed that we could find ways to accommodate it."" Nevertheless, this will come as a huge embarrassment for the organisers who have tried to ensure the event involve all of Britain's ethnic communities. A quarter of the athletes who took part in the 2004 Athens Olympics were from predominantly Muslim countries and the fast will put any athletes involved at a clear disadvantage. The chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, Massoud Shadjared said: ""This is going to disadvantage the athletes and alienate the Asian communities by saying they don't matter. It's not only going to affect the participants, it's going to affect all the people who want to watch the games."" The president of the National Olympic Committee of Turkey, Togay Bayalti, said: ""This will be difficult for Muslim athletes. They don't have to observe Ramadan if they are doing sport and travelling but they will have to decide whether it is important to them. ""It would be nice for the friendship of the Games if they had chosen a different date."" The games will run from the 27 July to 12 August to coincide with the British Summer holidays. The summer holidays are a six week period running from mid July to early September. During this time, public transportation is generally less crowded and it will be easier to find the 70,000 volunteers needed to keep the games running. The International Olympics Committee has specified that the games must take place between July 15 to August 31. Giselle Davies, IOC spokesperson said, ""We give a window to the five bid cities. The host city selects the dates within that window."" The organisers are working with the Muslim Council of Great Britain to find ways around the problem." +sport,"The win Sunday by the Yankees at Fenway Park gives them 3 in a row in the 4 game series, and inches them closer to the top in baseball's American League East. Behind the pitching of newly-acquired Al Leiter, the 5-3 win over the Red Sox puts them a 1/2 game out of the top spot. A sweep by taking final game of the series will make them the leader in the tight American League East race. The injury-laden Yankee pitching staff got a lift from Leiter's performance who went 6 1/3 innings, and allowed one run on three hits. The 39-year-old lefty came by way of trade with the Marlins to return to the pitching staff. Yankee manager Joe Torre said, ""The one thing we knew about the start was that he wasn't going to come in here and be rattled or be nervous."" In Saturday's game, Randy Johnson struck out 10 and Alex Rodriguez homered in a 6-run 3rd as the Yankees beat the Red Sox at Fenway Park , 7 - 4. Matt Clement was roughed up early, allowing six runs, five hits, and five walks over 2 and two-thirds innings. Johnny Damon extended his league-leading hitting streak to 28. The Red Sox had a chance to creep closer to the Yankees but a would-be 2 run shot off David Ortiz was caught. American League East standings: # Boston - # New York 0.5 # Baltimore 1.0 # Toronto 5.5 # Tampa Bay 20.0" +sport,"Kip Wells (#32) threw a four-hit shutout for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Philadelphia Phillies Tuesday, July 5, 2005. The game's final score was 3-0. Wells had 12 strikeouts in the home outing at PNC Park. The Pirates rallied in this game after getting shelled by the Phillies on Independence Day, 12-1. That game featured a grand slam in the 3rd inning for the Phillies, playing at the Pirates' home field." +sport,"2012 Olympic Paralympics London, England &mdash; This morning, Great Britain beat Turkey in the 7th&ndash;8th place classification match in 5-a-side football by a score of 2&ndash;0 at London's Riverbank Arena. Following the match, Great Britain's 41-year-old captain David Clarke retired from the sport with a national team career that included 128 goals scored in 144 caps." +sport,"2018 FIFA World Cup On Saturday, France defeated Argentina 4&ndash;3 and Uruguay defeated Portugal 2&ndash;1 in the FIFA football World Cup in the Last 16 knockout phase. France is scheduled to play against Uruguay for the quarter-finals. France faced Argentina in the first match of the Last 16 at the Kazan Arena. Argentina had greater ball possession. In the 11th minute, France was awarded a penalty kick after Marcos Rojo received a yellow card, bringing down Kylian Mbappé in the penalty area. Antoine Griezmann scored from the penalty giving the French side an early lead. In the 41st minute, Ángel Di María equalised for Argentina from outside the box, assisted by Éver Banega. The first half ended 1&ndash;1. In the second half, Gabriel Mercado scored the second goal for Argentina from Lionel Messi's assist, putting the South Americans in the lead in the 48th minute. France equalised within ten minutes, when Benjamin Pavard scored a goal from outside the penalty area. In the 64th minute, Mbappé scored the third goal for France and four minutes later Mbappé netted the fourth goal, from Olivier Giroud's assist. French midfielder Paul Pogba committed a foul in the injury time and Argentina won a free kick in the defensive half. Sergio Agüero scored the third goal for Argentina from Messi's assist. The match ended with France emerging the winners. Nineteen-year-old Mbappé became the first teenager to score two goals in the FIFA World Cup tournament since Brazilian Pelé when he achieved the feat in 1958. He was named Budweiser Man of the Match. After the match, French coach Didier Deschamps said, ""There is an excellent mentality in this group and we did everything to go further. Since I am responsible for everything, particularly when it doesn't go well, I'm very proud."" After the match, Argentine defender Javier Mascherano announced retirement from international football. Mascherano has played 147 games for the country, which is a national record. Uruguay faced Portugal in the second match of the Last 16 at Sochi. Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo had an attempt for a goal in the 6th minute from Bernardo Silva's assist, but it was saved. A minute later, Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani scored a header from Luis Suárez's assist, giving the South Americans an early lead. Just before the half-time whistle, Cavani had an opportunity to double the lead from Diego Godín's assist but missed it. The first half ended with Uruguay leading 1&ndash;0. Ten minutes into the second half, Pepe equalised for Portugal, scoring a header from Raphaël Guerreiro's assist. In the 62nd minute, Cavani scored a goal from Rodrigo Bentancur's assist, restoring Uruguay's one-goal advantage. Cavani was later substituted off in the 74th minute due to injury. Ricardo Quaresma's attempt for an equaliser in the injury time was saved and Uruguay won the match 2&ndash;1. After the match, Portugal's coach Fernando Santos said, ""In football, there are no moral victories and I would have preferred to play worse and win the match. But I do feel that the second half was very good from us in terms of desire and our determination to score."" Cavani was named Budweiser Man of the Match. France is to play Uruguay in the quarter-final." +sport,"Earlier today, at a ceremony in Wales' Cardiff Castle, the Australian Paralympic Committee announced the selection of wheelchair rugby player Greg Smith as Australian flag-bearer during the opening of the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Over 260 members of Australia's 305-strong Paralympic team attended the announcement of Smith as flag-bearer. Multiple gold, silver and bronze medallist, Smith has represented Australia in multiple Paralympic Games in two different sports: 1992, 1996 and 2000 saw him compete in athletics; 2004 and 2008 were the games where he switched to wheelchair rugby. The Australian Paralympic Committee quoted Smith saying of this honor, ""I remember in Barcelona in 1992 at my first Games when the flag bearer was announced. I just thought ""Wow, that's something very special"". I could have never imagined that being me one day. I just remember that feeling of how proud you’d be if you were given such an honour."" Smith joins a list of previous Australian flag bearers including Brendan Burkett in 2000," +sport,"stadium=Angel Stadium of Anaheim Yesterday, the Oakland Athletics defeated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 10 to 4 at an Angels' home game. All of the A's starting line up got at least one hit. The Angels first hit was in the second inning by new designated hitter Hideki Matsui. A's player Daric Barton reportedly twisted his right knee. This happened after Matsui's hit. Barton tripped on grass attempting to catch Matsui's hit ball. Manager Bob Geren remarked, ""Someone in the dugout said, 'He twisted his knee,' and when I ran out there, I could hear fans watching the replay and giving that real ugly 'Ooo.' Right then, I knew it must have looked ugly. But he said he was fine."" Mark Saxon, an ESPN sports writer, reports if the Angels lose today's game, they will be in for their worst season start since 1961, the team's first year. The A's are at a four wins, one loss, only losing their first game, whereas the Angels have a four game losing streak." +sport,"referee=Jorge Gonzalez Toronto FC ended their 6 game undefeated streak after conceding 2 late goals in the 2nd Half. D.C. United also ended their 4 game losing streak. Danny Dichio scored on the only two shots in an excellent 1st half for Toronto FC. However, Toronto FC gave up 2 goals in 2 minutes in the 2nd Half. Toronto FC continued the pressure in the 20th minute but were not able to capitalize on a 4-on-2 counterattack that was started by Guevara and culminated with a shot from Guevara himself that was deflected away by Namoff. D.C. United scored an equalizer on a corner kick with 4 minutes left before halftime. Devon McTavish flicked a the ball to the back post that Peralta pushed over the line with a diving header to make the score 1-1. The goal ended a 272-minute shutout streak for Sutton and Toronto FC. The streak spaned over three games. Dichio scored with just seconds before Half-Time to regain Toronto FC's lead. D.C. United put a lot of pressure on Toronto FC in the 2nd Half. D.C. United pressure finally paid divedend when Moreno and Emilio score 2 goals in 2 minutes to take a 3-2 lead. The 2nd Half got worse for Toronto FC when French Winger Laurent Robert received a red card. Toronto FC's next game is the first ever Canadian Champions League game against Montreal Impact in Montreal." +sport,"On Wednesday, United States film director Steven Spielberg withdrew from his position as artistic adviser to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. ""Conscience will not allow me to continue with business as usual,"" he said. ""Sudan's government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these ongoing crimes but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more to end the continuing human suffering there,"" Spielberg's statement said. ""China's economic, military and diplomatic ties to the government of Sudan continue to provide it with the opportunity and obligation to press for change."" China immediately expressed regret over his decision and suggested that ""ulterior motives"" may be at play. ""It is understandable if some people do not understand the Chinese government policy on Darfur, but I am afraid that some people may have ulterior motives, and this we cannot accept. ... China is also concerned about the humanitarian situation in Darfur. But empty rhetoric will not help. We hope that relevant people will be more pragmatic,"" said Liu Jianchao, the Deputy-Director General of the Information Department in China's foreign ministry. Following Spielberg's withdrawal, other organizations called for boycott of the Games. However, United Kingdom Minister for the Olympics Tessa Jowell rejected such calls. ""The world has known for the last seven years that Beijing would host the Olympics,"" Jowell told The Times. ""Most progressive governments accept that there are wholly unacceptable aspects of Chinese policy, but that did not stop the International Olympic Committee awarding them the games. A call for a boycott doesn't serve any purpose and it would be a great pity. This doesn't mean, however, we should be distracted from the urgency of Darfur."" ""China is also concerned about the humanitarian issues there, but we have been playing a positive and constructive role in promoting peace in Darfur,"" Liu said, adding that China is working with the United Nations to provide aid and resolve the crisis. Critics of China contend that China supports the Islamic regime in Sudan because it buys two-thirds of the country's oil exports and also sells it weapons. Further, China has been defending the government in Khartoum in the United Nations Security Council. Since 2003, fighting between government-backed militia and rebels in Darfur has led to the death of more than 200,000 people and displaced some 2.5 million others. Meanwhile, United States President George W. Bush confirmed that he still plans to attend the Games in Beijing. ""I view the Olympics as a sporting event. On the other hand, I have a different platform to Steven Spielberg, so I get to talk to Hu Jintao President of China and I do remind him he can do more to relieve the suffering in Darfur."" Bush followed this by saying: ""I’m not going to use the Olympics as an opportunity to express my opinions to the Chinese people in a public way because I do it all the time with the president.""" +sport,"Sheffield United bookings_away = Geary, Morgan, Armstrong (Yellow (3)) Manchester United opened a temporary six-point lead over Chelsea on Tuesday with a 2-0 victory over Sheffield United. The Blades are stuck in the relegation battle in the league, having only jumped out of the bottom three this past weeking after a 3-0 thumping of fellow strugglers West Ham. The Red Devils on the other hand came into the game on a two game winning streak, having scored 11 goals in those two matches. Man United started with the same striking pair used in the last two games in Wayne Rooney and Alan Smith. Sheffield United boss Neil Warnock played Colin Kazim-Richards up front with Luton Shelton, who was earning his first start, on the attack. The first chance of the match fell to the Yorkshire side as a free Kick by Tonge was driven low, but lacked the power to beat Reds keeper, Tomasz Kuszczak. The Premiership leaders quickly made the Blades pay, and on 4 minutes, Michael Carrick received a pass from Cristiano Ronaldo, and chipped the ball over the sprawling Paddy Kenny. Wayne Rooney then had a chance to double the Red Devils lead, but his shot lacked power and Kenny patted the ball away. Another free kick was taken by Tonge for the Blades, and this one packed more power, but Kuszczak sprawled to make the stop. Patrice Evra then had to be substituted for the Reds when he took a high challenge from Kazim-Richards, and was replaced by Keiron Richardson. Smith was then forced to change his shorts after being caught by Matthew Kilgallon. Luton Shelton continued to make an impact for Sheffield United as he blasted a shot just wide. After the break, Rooney again had a chance to double United's lead, but he was stopped by a well timed tackle from Chris Morgan. Shelton meanwhile caused unrest in the Man United defence with strong runs, but no goals came of them. Rooney finally scored his goal on 5 minutes when his run was met by Ryan Giggs' pass, and the young Englishman blasted the ball far side on Kenny. Shelton again threatened as he turned away from Wes Brown, but he then scooped the ball over the bar. Danny Webber then had a chance for the Blades after beating out Heinze, but he raked his shot wide. Kenny was then forced into action to make saves off both Ronaldo and Rooney, to keep the game at a respectable scoreline. Shelton then had a legitimate claim for a penalty when he was brought down by Heinze in the area, but referee Rob Styles waved play on. The decision all but ended the Blades hopes of a comeback, but they still continued to press as Tonge hit the post with a curling shot. Kuszczak kept his clean sheat, however, and the Red Devils earned a valuable three points in the title race. Manchester United's next match will be another Premiership game against Middlesbrough at Old Trafford. Sheffield United's next, also in the Premiership, will be against main relegation rivals Charlton Athletic, and that match will be very important for both teams." +sport,"Australia's Allan Davis won the 2009 Tour Down Under professional road cycling race. Sprint specialist Davis completed Sunday's final stage in the main pack to maintain the lead he had built up in time bonuses from sprint wins earlier in the race. 122 cyclists completed the six day race around a circuit starting and ending at Adelaide, South Australia. American cyclist Lance Armstrong also participated in the race, his first professional bike race since the 2005 Tour de France. It is not clear if the seven-time Tour de France winner intended to compete for the general classification, but he did make an unsuccessful breakaway on Sunday in pursuit of a stage victory. Despite several attacks over the week, Armstrong placed 29th in the general classification." +sport,"referee=Frank De Bleeckere 0-0 on aggregate. After extra time. Rangers won 4–2 on penalties. After 210 minutes of goalless football between Italians Fiorentina and Scottish club Rangers, a penalty shootout decided who would progress to the 2007-08 UEFA Cup Final. In a match that contained thirteen shots on goal, neither team could find the back of the net, and so to penalties it went. Barry Ferguson missed the opening spot-kick, seeing it saved by Sebastien Frey. Zdravko Kuzmanovic put the home side ahead. Steven Whittaker succeeded where his captain could not, slotting the ball home. Riccardo Montolivo maintained Fiorentina's lead before Sasa Papac put away Rangers' second. Fabio Liverani was next up, and his effort was saved by Neil Alexander. The shootout was now level, with one miss apiece. Brahim Hemdani scored a third for Rangers, and then returned to the centre circle to witness Christian Vieri miss Fiorentina's second successive effort. It was left to Spaniard Nacho Novo to give Rangers victory, and he put his strike into the back of the net. Rangers, who were reduced to ten men with ten minutes of extra time remaining after Daniel Cousin was sent off for an apparent headbutt on Fabio Liverani, will meet Zenit Saint Petersburg in the final in Manchester, England, on May 14, 2008. Zenit are managed by former Rangers boss Dick Advocaat." +sport,"Sunday night, the Chicago White Sox, a professional baseball team in North America, won the 2005 American League Pennant by defeating the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim by a score of 6-3 to achieve their 4th win in the American League Championship Series. The final series of the baseball season will be the ultimate North American baseball championship, the World Series, a best of 7-game match-up between the winners of the American League and National League." +sport,referee=Peter Vink Scotland took a step closer to qualifying for Euro 2008 as a 3-1 win against Ukraine kept them top of Group B in UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying. The loss for Ukraine takes their tragic number down to 5 and could be officially be eliminated by the end of play at the end of the day. Scotland took a 2-goal lead in the 1st 10 minutes of the match with goals from Kenny Miller and Lee McCulloch. Ukraine made things interesting when they pulled a goal back when Andriy Shevchenko scored off of Andriy Nesmachniy's left-wing cross in the 24th minute. James McFadden secured the win in the 68th minute. +sport,"referee=Alex Prus Both teams entered Sunday's match with a seven-game unbeaten streak to give them the chance to take the final playoff spot. In the end, Chicago Fire beat Los Angeles Galaxy to take the last playoff spot. Chicago Fire controlled the game as they outshot Los Angeles Galaxy 22-5. Los Angeles Galaxy recorded just a single shot on goal which came early in the 1st half. Chicago Fire poured the shots until the scored the winner in the 93rd minute to score the eventual game winner. The loss for Los Angeles Galaxy eliminates them from the playoffs as Chicago Fire will play DC United in the 1st round of the playoffs." +sport,"Carlos Delgado was impressive in his National League debut with the Florida Marlins on Tuesday after getting off to a slow start. In the first inning, the Marlins scored five runs off Atlanta Braves starting pitcher John Smoltz, while Delgado struck out on three pitches. Delgado made up for this disappointment by following it with four straight hits, hitting four-for-five with three RBIs en route to a 9-0 victory. Before the start of the season, there was some concern about how the change from American to National League would affect the slugger's performance. Delgado spent the past thirteen seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays before signing a four-year, $52 million contract with the Marlins. Marlins manager Jack McKeon said, wryly, ""Many of the writers asked during spring training if his change of leagues was going to be a factor. In the first inning, it was."" Delgado has certainly made an impact on the Marlins organization, and there is a lot of excitement in Miami over his new arrival. Opening day attendance was a record sell-out at Dolphins Stadium of 57,405, and spirits are high as the Marlins are one of the favourites to win the National League East, thanks in no small part to Delgado's presence. But, the baseball season is a long road to travel; as Delgado said, ""Obviously, we have good talent here. We've got to go out and play. Because we've got such and such, and we picked up this guy, that doesn't mean anything. You've got to go out and do it on the field. Yeah, it was a great game. But it's over now."" Today's game was played in front of 57,405 at Dolphins Stadium. * WP: Josh Beckett (1-0) * LP: John Smoltz (0-1)" +sport,"The race in the AL East is alive and well. The New York Yankees mounted a comeback from an early 4-0 deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-6, last night, and reduce the Sox' AL East division lead to a mere 1.5 games. The key was the Yankees' hot bats. The Bronx Bombers hit 4 homeruns in total, the last one a thunderous 2-run blast by Alex Rodriguez off converted Red Sox starter Curt Schilling, who was in his first appearance as a relief pitcher after his rehab stint in the minors. Boston jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead against Yankees starter Mike Mussina, establishing the sort of lead that would usually cause the Yankees to fold during the first half of the season. However, the torrid hitting of the Yankee lineup over the last two weeks would not allow that. Mussina adjusted to the tight strike zone as the game progressed, allowing just one run over the next five innings, and the Yankees chipped away at the BoSox' lead. Bernie Williams, Jason Giambi, and Gary Sheffield all hit solo shots off Red Sox starter Bronson Arroyo. At the end of the sixth inning the score was tied, 5-5, and both starters were done for the day. The game would come down to relief pitching. David Ortiz put the Red Sox ahead in the bottom of the seventh, hitting a bases-empty home run off Tanyon Sturtze to push the score to 6-5. The Yankees rebounded in the top half of the eighth when Ruben Sierra, pinch-hitting for rookie CF Melky Cabrera, connected for a double, tying the game at 6-all. Schilling came on in the top of the ninth and promptly hung a 2-2 splitter over the plate for Gary Sheffield, who lined a double off the wall in left-center. Rodriguez was up next, and hit another splitter that never split. The two-run homer gave the Yankees their first lead of the game. Mariano Rivera came on in the bottom of the ninth and silenced the Red Sox bats by striking out the side to end the game, recording his 21st save. Boston has lost three straight games and is now 10 games over .500 at 49-39. The Yankees (47-40) have won 8 of 9 games dating back to before the All-Star break and currently sit in 3rd place, half a game behind 2nd-place Baltimore. Notes: Rookie Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang, who has been one of the Yankees' most consistent performers, has been placed on the 15-day DL with a shoulder injury. It has been speculated that Wang, who tore his labrum while in the minors, may be out for the season. Wang was slated to start tonight's game, but will be replaced by Tim Redding as he waits for an appointment with Dr. James Andrews on Monday...Former Red Sox manager Joe Kerrigan has been signed by the Yankees as an advance scout. General manager Brian Cashman has said that Kerrigan will be used to analyze film of opponents, not as a coach." +sport,"referee=Herbert Fandel Bayern Munich won the 2007/08 German championship after a 0-0 against Wolfsburg. A sell-out crowd at the Volkswagen Arena saw the Wolfsburg control the match against Bayern Munich during the 1st half. The 2nd half was dull for long spells. With 6 changes were made from the UEFA Cup Semi Final in St. Petersburg. In goal, Michael Rensing replaced Oliver Kahn, Willy Sagnol replaced Philipp Lahm, Daniel van Buyten replaced Lucio, Andreas Ottl and Jose Ernesto Sosa replaced Zé Roberto and Franck Ribery and Lukas Podolski replaced Miroslav Klose." +sport,"referee=Ramon Hernandez DC United took magic number to clinch MLS Supporters' Shield was reduced to 12 after a 4-1 come-from-behind victory against Toronto FC. After the loss, Toronto FC will be eliminated from post-season contention if Chicago Fire win against Chivas USA tonight. Toronto for the second straight week took an early lead in the first half from a Carl Robinson free kick while DC United looked ""passive"" in the first half. In the second half, DC United showed why they're the top team in the league by scoring four goals. Late in the half DC United went down to ten men when Fred went down with an injury after DC United's third and final substitution. The loss for Toronto FC makes it a 11 game winless streak. Toronto have now only scored two goals in their last 1,002 minutes played." +sport,"Laurent Fignon, the two time former winner of the Tour de France, has died at the age of 50. His death was confirmed by his wife, Valerie. The cause of death was announced as cancer. Fignon had been battling the disease since 2009. Fignon won the Tour de France in 1983 and 1984 but is also remembered for the 1989 race. Fignon lost out to Greg LeMond in the final time-trail stage by just eight seconds. In his career Fignon won 76 races including the La Flèche Wallonne in 1986, Milan-San Remo in both 1988 and 1989 and the Giro d'Italia in 1989. Fignon stayed in cycling even after his retirment managing races. In 2006 he joined the television station France 2 as a commentator. It was as his time with France 2 that he announced he had cancer of the digestive system. He continued to work for France 2 throughout his treatment and even commentated on the 2010 Tour de France." +sport,"2018 FIFA World Cup On Sunday, Spain lost to Russia 4&ndash;3 in the penalty shootout while Croatia defeated Denmark 3&ndash;2 in the penalty shootout in the FIFA football World Cup in the Last 16 knockout phase. Both the matches were 1&ndash;1 at the end of added time. Spain took on hosts Russia at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. Spain had greater ball possession. Spain got an early lead shortly after the 10th minute when Sergei Ignashevich scored an own goal. In the 40th minute, Spanish defender Gerard Piqué was yellow-carded for a handball in the penalty area and Russia was awarded a penalty kick. Artem Dzyuba scored from the spot kick, sending Spanish goalkeeper David de Gea in the other direction, equalising for Russia before the halftime. Isco and Diego Costa attempted goal before the half-time whistle, but the attempts were blocked or stopped. The first half ended with 1&ndash;1 on the scoreboard. Early in the second half, Jordi Alba had an attempt from Marco Asensio's assist but was saved. Sergio Busquets, David Silva, Iago Aspas and Andrés Iniesta had attempts to put Spain back in the lead, but were unsuccessful. The second half ended without and goals and the match went to extra time. The extra time saw Dani Carvajal and Rodrigo Moreno also making attempts for goals but the match went on to penalties to separate the two sides. For Spain, Iniesta, Piqué, and captain Sergio Ramos scored the goals while Koke and Aspas failed to score from their kicks. Fyodor Smolov, Sergei Ignashevich, and Aleksandr Sergeyevich Golovin scored their penalty kicks. Denis Cheryshev scored the winning goal for Russia. Spanish midfielder Iniesta retired from international football after the match. Croatia faced Denmark at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium and had greater ball possession. The Danish side opened the scoring in the first minute when Mathias Jørgensen scored a close-range shot from Thomas Delaney's assist. But Denmark's lead did not last long as Mario Mandžukić equalised for Croatia in the 4th minute. Both the sides had multiple attempts and misses for the goal. The first half ended with 1&ndash;1 on the scoreboard. The second half remained goalless and the match went to additional extra time. In the 116th minute, Croatia had a penalty kick as Ante Rebić was brought down in the penalty area. Luka Modrić took the penalty kick but was saved by the Danish goalkeeper. The extra time ended 1&ndash;1. In the penalty shootout, Denmark's Christian Eriksen and Croatia's Milan Badelj's kicks were saved. Simon Kjær and Michael Krohn-Dehli scored their kicks for Denmark while Andrej Kramarić and Luka Modrić scored their kicks for Croatia. Both the sides were 2&ndash;2. Denmark's Lasse Schöne and Croatia's Josip Pivarić's kicks were saved. Jørgensen's kick was saved by the Croatian goalkeeper and Ivan Rakitić scored the winning penalty kick for Croatia as they advanced to the quarterfinals. clear" +tech,"Microsoft's subscription-based MSN Explorer Internet browser left many of its users frozen out beginning on Friday of last week. Launching the application brought the user to a window stating that the software encountered a problem and had to be closed. The Internet Explorer browser software bundled with the Windows operating system remains operable, along with other non-MSN software. Subscribers to MSN are still able to retrieve e-mail by accessing their Hotmail account. Telephone support wait times to resolve the connectivity problem with the browser exceeded 45 minutes on Sunday evening. Beginning on Saturday, callers were prompted that wait times were ""unusually long due to high call volume"". A query to on-line chat with technical support to resolve the issue was met with, ""I sincerely apologize for the length of time that it took you to get to us. We have been swamped with sessions and I am just glad that you finally got me to help you out."" The silent and automatic upgrade to the 9.5 version of MSN Explorer, from verson 9.0, is experiencing difficulties on some machines. Users can log on to support using their account at membercenter.msn.com, click the Support button on the left column of the page, and then select under Subscribed Services / Sign In the link ""MSN Internet Access"". On-line chat, e-mail, and phone support is available there. Hint: on-line chat is probably the fastest support option. The existing MSN Explorer software will need to be removed, some Windows registry folders may need to be removed, and the software completely re-downloaded and re-installed. Dial-up accounts can expect the download to be 93 minutes, for broadband, 9 minutes." +tech,"The People's Republic of China has announced the completion of an enormous dam across the Yangtze River, an important milestone for the world's largest hydroelectric project. The official Xinhua News Agency reports the event as a ""landmark in the construction of the project."" Launched in 1993, the Three Gorges Project, including the 2,300 metre long, 185 metre high dam with 26 power generators, is being built in three phases on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River - China's longest river. Built with over 16 million m3 of concrete, the Three Gorges Dam is considered the biggest reinforced concrete dam in the world. The Three Gorges Reservoir is capable of holding nearly 40 billion m3 of water, including a space of 22.15 billion m3 for extra flooded water. With a length of more than 6,300 km and a natural fall of 5,400 metres from the west to the east, the flood-prone Yangtze River is the third largest in the world. The gigantic project is expected to generate around 15 million megawatts of electricity, 84.7 billion kWh annually when the entire project is completed in 2008. But whilst proponents of the world's largest hydropower project laud the increased electricity generation and improved flood control as benefits to China, opponents claim destruction of the environment, ruin to China's cultural heritage - disaffecting millions of local residents. ""In my view, building the Three Gorges dam is a ridiculous and evil farce,"" says dam opponent Dai Qing. ""Many people have known something is wrong with the project, but few have dared to speak up,"" she said. After it becomes operational, the 660km reservoir created by the dam will drown 13 towns, 4500 villages and 162 archaeological sites. Friends of the Earth (FoE) are also strident vocal critics. ""The dam is having a titanic social and environment impact,"" the group said this week. ""Sometimes people are being moved out by truncheon and bulldozer because they refuse to leave their home for fear of not being rehoused. Human rights violations are massive and brutal,"" it said. FoE pointed to evidence that the dam was already having a serious environment impact. FoE points to a scientific study by the East China Normal University in Shanghai, published in March in Geophysical Research, which said that in 2004, the Three Gorges dam has reduced the supply of sediment to the Yangtze delta to just 35 per cent of the norm. Millions of tonnes of silt are drawn along the Yangtze river every year, and critics argue the dam will intercept much of it - with potentially disastrous consequences. They say the lack of sediment further downstream would lead to soil erosion, and the accumulation of sediment in the reservoir could raise the dam level, submerging even more land. Opponents say the reservoir could fill with the accumulated garbage from tens of millions of households. The China Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corp. has spent $2.5 million on a vessel to collect as much as 7 million cubic feet of garbage that accumulates at the dam each year, according to Xinhua. Some argue that the impact of the dam project will contribute to the extinction of the rare Yangtze river dolphin. The dam project will force the relocation of a total of 1.13 million people, and communities that have lived in the area for millennia will disappear. Researchers warn sedimentation and rising water levels in the reservoir will lead to the evacuation of tens of thousands more people. But as the waters rise, that which can not be saved will disappear along with some world famous natural scenery. Critics say the dam is under threat from earthquakes, with two geological fault lines nearby. Officials working on the project counter this by saying the worst that can happen is a tremor measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale, while the dam is built to withstand force 7.0. ""Although the dam is now complete, we still have a long way to go and cannot become self-satisfied or relax our efforts in the least,"" Li Yongan, general manager of the Three Gorges Project Development Corp, said. The official China Daily in an editorial called for people to remember the more than 100 workers whom died during the dam's construction. ""The best possible way to repay such a debt of gratitude is to make sure the highest safety and quality standards are observed up till the very end of the entire building process,"" the editorial said." +tech,"wikimediamention Celebrating their 70th anniversary, news agency RIA Novosti, along with the Russian chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, have started the 'Eternal Values' project. This project includes the release of images from RIA's to the public under free licenses. During the first phase, one hundred World War II-time photos were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons share alike license. The license allows the images to be freely used, including within the commercial industry without a fee and allows for creations of derivative works provided any resulting work is redistributed under the same license and properly attributed to its author. The project is supported by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who uploaded one of the images to Wikimedia Commons himself. Medvedev participated in the anniversary ceremony and personally congratulated the agency. He uploaded the 100th image to Commons. Earlier Medvedev supported Wikimedia Russia's position on the need for changes in Russian legislation in order to make free licenses perfectly legal and to allow freedom of panorama in the country. This event is part of Wikimedia Russia's goal to ""share knowledge, eliminate the digital divide and increase the availability of historical and cultural value for society."" Due to similar projects in other countries, German Bundesarchiv released 100,000 historic images under a free license and Queensland State Library released 50,000 images." +tech,"Today, The Mozilla Corporation launches Firefox 2.0 Final, the Second-generation release of Firefox. Firefox 1.0 was originally released on November 9, 2004 , and currently Firefox has a usage share of about 12% . New features in Firefox 2.0 include enhancements in security, tabbed browsing, performance, and extensions. Firefox 2.0 also has: * built-in spell checking * improved antiphishing feature * ability to restore a session if the session accidentally crashed * ability to reopen closed tabs Search engines will also include their own suggestions." +tech,"WikimediaMention United Kingdom newspaper The Independent has run a story scrutinizing the accuracy of Wikipedia articles, using eight experts in various fields to comment on particular articles' validity. The experts' opinions ranged on topics from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to Kate Moss, Tony Blair and invitro fertilization. Robert McHenry, a former editor-in-chief of Encyclopaedia Britannica posits his belief that contrary to the underlying notion that Wikipedia articles are constantly improving, the ""mass of articles tend to the mediocre."" According to historian Antony Beevor, ""With Wikipedia's entries, there is a lack of satisfaction, not so much through inaccuracy but there are a lot of vague statements which you cannot really disprove but which you don't think are necessarily helpful."" While noting that Wikipedia's most controversial topics are rife for distortion, The Independent article goes on to point out that a number of studies have shown articles to be accurate. In comparing the online site to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Nature found that on average, Wikipedia had only one more error per entry than the traditional ""gold standard"" for encyclopaedias. Likewise, the German computer magazine, c't, gave Wikipedia a 3.6 rating out of 5 for accuracy, which surpassed two other rivals, such as Microsoft Encarta which received a 3.1." +tech,"A group of 41 paleontologists and researchers reaffirmed the cause of dinosaur extinction. The research team concluded that a giant asteroid killed dinosaurs over 65 million years ago. The asteroid crashed into Yucatán, Mexico creating the Chicxulub crater. Their report was published Friday in the academic journal Science. In 1980, Louis Alvarez and son, Walter, had published a paper stating that an asteroid had killed the dinosaurs. The Chicxulub crater was also discovered in Mexico at approximately that same time, therefore the theory gained scientific acceptance. More recent explanations of the cause of dinosaur's extinction included that perhaps volcanic eruptions on Deccan traps or multiple asteroid crashes ended the dinosaurs' existence. The team performed chemical analyses of soil and fossil samples, where a high concentration of iridium (which is commonly found in asteroids and meteors) was found, which dated back to the approximate time of the asteroid crash. The asteroid measured approximately 7.5 miles wide, and hit with an impact of one billion times the force of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The impact would have immediately killed all animals and plant life within the radius of half of a continent. With such an impact, debris would have flown into the air and then fallen back into the atmosphere with the force of a ballistic missile. The crash of this asteroid into the earth would have also caused the equivalent of the heat of ten noonday suns, which would have burned the skin or feathers of dinosaurs, and created wildfires on any plant life which had survived to that point. The crash would have also triggered massive earthquakes and tsunamis, possibly causing parts of continents to fall into the ocean. The area of Yucatán which the asteroid struck had also been rich in sulfur, which was blasted out of the earth and into the sky, where it would have mixed with water vapors, creating clouds that rained sulfuric acid, and which would block out the sun for approximately a decade. NASA" +tech,"date=2008-09-20 Internet According to document-leaking website Wikileaks.org hackers bypassed security at BillOreilly.com, the official website of Fox News Channel commentator Bill O'Reilly, exposing personal information of the site's users in a document posted on the Internet. The one page document, which Wikileaks confirms to be authentic, shows a list of individuals and passwords of those who have accounts on O'Reilly's website, BillOReilly.com. The list, according to the document, contains at least 205 names, e-mail addresses, billing addresses and passwords of subscribers. ""The hack was a response to the pundit's recent scurrilous attacks over the Sarah Palin's email story--including on Wikileaks and other members of the press,"" said Wikileaks in a statement on their website. According to the report, the security on O'Reilly's website was ""non-existent"". ""I'm not going to mention the website that posted this, but it's one of those despicable, slimy, scummy websites. Everybody knows where this stuff is, OK, and they know the people who run the website, so why can't they go there tonight to the guy's house who runs it, put him in cuffs and take him down and book him?,"" said O'Reilly on his show, The O'Reilly Factor, on September 18. Wikileaks recently published documents from Palin's hacked Yahoo.com e-mail account. The documents had shown that Palin had been conducting matters pertaining to the public or government of Alaska over her private e-mail account. In an exclusive statement to Wikinews, Wikileaks stated that they will only publish the single page, but also claim to have several more. Wikileaks also states that they have already received ""three letters"" from staff members employed by O'Reilly ""requesting"" Wikileaks remove the document, which Wikileaks refuses to do. ""We simply cannot remove the information. The system, as per policy, is designed so that files can not be taken down, once up,"" said Wikileaks to Wikinews. O'Reilly and Fox News have not yet responded to inquiries." +tech,"Recent scans on the planet Saturn by the space probe Cassini–Huygens have shown that the planet's rings are much older than previously thought. Recent data says they may be as old as the solar system itself. The new scans have indicated that the rings are likely three to five billion years old, and will probably be around for billions of years longer. Scientists previously thought the rings to be only about 100 million years old. ""Despite what was thought after the 1970s Voyager investigations of Saturn - that Saturn's rings might be very youthful, perhaps only as ancient as the dinosaurs - we have results that show the rings could have lasted as long as the Solar System and maybe will be around for billions of years. Recycling allows the rings to be as old as the solar system although continually changing,"" said researcher Professor Larry Esposito. The determination was made when Cassini's Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) analyzed the light from the Sun reflecting off particles in the rings of all different sizes. The data had shown that there was a lot more clumpy material and as much as three times more mass than what was previously found in the Voyager missions. Scientists assumed that particles from an exploding comet may have caused the rings to form, but the new data says that it is unlikely to be the case, because the particles are all of different ages. ""Although the Voyager observations indicated Saturn's rings were youthful, Cassini shows even younger ages; and because we see such transient, dynamic phenomena in the rings we are able to reach the paradoxical conclusion - because the rings appear so young, they may actually be as old as the Solar System,"" added Esposito. Cassini is operated jointly by NASA and the European Space Agency." +tech,"A Norwegian University of Science and Technology study released Thursday found electric vehicles have a potential for higher eco-toxicity and greenhouse impact than conventional cars. The study includes an examination of the electric car's life cycle as a whole rather than a study of the electric car's environmental impact during the use phase. The researchers conducted a comparison of the environmental impact of electric cars in view of different ratios of green-to-fuel electricity energy sources. In the case of mostly coal- or oil-based electricity supply, electric cars are disadvantageous compared to classic diesel cars with the greenhouse effect impact being up to two times larger. The researchers found that in Europe, electric cars pose a ""10% to 24% decrease in global warming potential (GWP) relative to conventional diesel or gasoline vehicles"". The researchers suggest to improve eco-friendliness of electric vehicles by ""reducing vehicle production supply chain impacts and promoting clean electricity sources in decision making regarding electricity infrastructure"" and using the electric cars for a longer time, so that the use phase plays a more important role in the electric vehicle life cycle." +tech,"The Mozilla Foundation recently released an update to Mozilla Firefox. According to the developers, Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 patches 17 security flaws and improves stability. The update is available from Getfirefox.com by clicking 'Download Now' or ' Other Systems and Languages'. Windows users should currently be seeing a small icon on the menu bar of the browser indicating that an Automatic Update to the new version is now available for installation. Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 is available at the time of writing in US English, French, Spanish (Latin American), German, Italian, Dutch, Finnish and Polish, among many other languages. However the updated Windows version has a flaw affecting anyone who previously installed Firefox as a 'zipped' build, rather than using the standard automatic installer method. (Zipped builds are often customized versions designed for increased speed or development work). If version 1.0.1 is installed over a zipped build, users are reporting that the browser crashes when attempting to enter text into the location or search boxes. Anyone encountering this problem is advised to delete their Mozilla Firefox folder in 'Program Files', then re-install. Their bookmarks, extensions etc will not be affected." +tech,"A video has surfaced on the website LiveLeak.com that shows what appears to be more than a dozen Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in a Haitian neighborhood. The video was reportedly filmed on August 6 and was uploaded to LiveLeak on August 10, then hosted on YouTube.com. It is not known who filmed the alleged UFOs. Wikinews has attempted to contact the uploader of the video by e-mail, but has not yet received a response. The beginning of the video appears to show two large UFOs flying over a woman who is taping the objects with a video camera. The objects, shaped like flowers when viewed from the ground, make a faint roaring noise as they pass over. They continue to fly towards a mountain range where they fly in formation to meet up with what look likes to be more than 12 other UFOs. The video then stops. One website is dubbing the video as a fake, saying that it's using Computer-generated imagery (CGI). One image on the website AboveTopSecret.com claims that the images of palm trees in one snapshot of the video are multiple copies of a single template. Another examination apparently shows that the UFOs are pasted in over the video." +tech,"__NOEDITSECTION__ The UK's Communication Workers' Union have effectively rejected a belated revised pay offer by telecoms giant British Telecom. Their statement, released early this evening, indicates a formal ballot on strike action is inevitable &ndash; unless the company revises their two percent offer for 2010. The deadline set by the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) passed at noon last Friday, apparently unheeded by BT. The union's announcement of their intent to ballot members apparently resulted in the offer &mdash; one with no new money on the table for this year. Last week, when their ultimatum was ignored, CWU deputy secretary general (DSG) Andy Kerr expressed deep disappointment, citing the substantial profits made by the company in the last financial year: ""we're obviously very disappointed that BT has not improved its pay offer of 2% despite their healthy profits this year."" The turnaround from losses of £244 million to a billion-pound-plus profit has, the union claims, galvanised their membership into seriously considering industrial action. Reports of senior directors receiving million-pound bonuses, and former Labour minister Patricia Hewitt landing over over £50,000 extra per-year, are characterised as ""directors' 'snouts in the trough'"". Hewitt was suspended from her parliamentary party in March over cash-for-access accusations, and works two to three days each month on BT's remuneration committee. The UK's Press Association described the now-rejected offer as being worth 2% this year, and an additional 3% in 2011 with staff bonuses of up to £250. The package supposedly contains pledges on no compulsory redundancies and the return of call centre and non-frontline work from outsource companies in India. Should BT staff strike over a sub-inflation rise when the company is paying shareholder dividends? Wikinews called both the Communication Workers' Union, and British Telecom, seeking clarification on a number of points. Richard Knowles, a BT press officer in London, forwarded their terse sub-400-word statement, refusing to be drawn on reports that the offer includes the repatriation of call centre and back-office jobs. When challenged on this work being carried out in a jurisdiction with less-stringent data protection, and computer misuse legislation, our reporter was referred back to the company's statement. Sian Jones of the CWU's Press Office, commenting prior to the union's evening statement, remarked that repatriation of call centre work was an issue that the union had prior, unrelated, discussions with BT about; she gave no indication to Wikinews this was, or was not, part of BT's revised offer. The press release, shortly after 1630 BST, expressed clear intent to carry on with the process of balloting members on strike action. In the statement, CWU DGS Andy Kerr states, ""we're very disappointed that BT's revised offer remains materially unchanged for this year in terms of pay."" Continuing, he emphasised, ""... we've made clear, 2 per cent is unacceptable for our members as it does not reflect the reward they expect given the contribution they have made to cost savings of £1.75 billion and profits of over £1bn. In addition, inflation is at 5.3 per cent and staff are comparing this offer with the large salary rises and bonuses for senior executives which expose the blatant double standards being adopted by the company when it comes to remuneration."" The CWU statement also expresses concern over BT's disclosure of details within the offer; ""BT's decision to leak their offer to the media today has also raised trust issues for us with the company."" Any sustained action by CWU members in BT's employ could have a major impact on the country's communication infrastructure. Millions of UK households and businesses are reliant on BT for internet access &ndash; in addition to telephony services. Following the release of their statement, the CWU's Sian Jones confirmed that the union had not, as-yet, given BT the formal seven-days notice of balloting members on strike action. Any ballot would run for a two-week period; following such, the union would, again, be required to give seven days notice to BT; this time of their intent to take workers out on strike. She emphasised, ""nobody wants to be on strike"", stressing that the union last took such action in 1987, and would prefer round-table discussions and an improved offer. The structure of BT's privatisation, and breakup to permit level playing-field telephony and broadband competition, would see other Internet service providers who rely on the ageing, once GPO-owned, copper POTS infrastructure unable to resolve customer faults. According to the CWU, BT has been querying managerial staff on their skillsets &ndash; as a form of preparation for any industrial action. A union spokesperson described this as ""laughable"". When called for comment on the union's rejection of their revised offer, the BT press office declined to comment at this time." +tech,"On Sunday, NASA announced on twitter its man-made helicopter Ingenuity survived its first freezing night on the surface of Mars. Ingenuity is a part of Perseverances mission, which primarily focuses on astrobiology, and Ingenuity is planned to fly and explore Mars and gather rocks samples looking for signs of life. Ingenuity has previously been in the belly of Perseverance, a car-sized rover which landed on Mars' Jezero Crater on February 18. Perseverance charged Ingenuity and kept it warm. Ingenuity left the rover on Sunday, after which the rover moved away to expose Ingenuity's photovoltaic array to direct sunlight. The NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory released a statement saying this was the first time Ingenuity survived the night by itself while being exposed to the planet atmosphere directly. In the statement NASA wrote this has confirmed they have ""the right insulation, the right heaters, and enough energy in its battery to survive the cold night, which is a big win for the team."" The temperatures could go as low as -90 °C (-130 °F), the statement said. The helicopter used the energy from its solar array to power a small heater and protect its electronics from the cold. Mars just has 1% of atmosphere as compared to Earth. Ingenuity's propeller had to rotate about three times faster for flight on the Martian atmosphere as compared to flying on Earth, ABC News reported. Ingenuity has been designed to be light to make the takeoff easier. Its mass is about 1.8 kilograms. Tim Canham from NASA said ""The processor on the helicopter is about 100 times more powerful than the processor on the rover itself"". The next step would be a blade movement test scheduled for today, CNN said. If successful, it would be followed by first flight test, which can take place by Sunday. That would be the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. Five flights were expected to occur in the next 31 days. If successful, they would be followed by further movement of the helicopter, as it would collect samples of rocks, and collect photos of its observations. Throughout the entire duration of research, Ingenuity would also measure its temperatures and battery recharge performance. Perseverance rover is to deliver images from Ingenuity to Earth, reportedly a few hours after they were captured. NASA said the rover travelled a distance of 471 million km to reach the crater. clear" +tech,"In an internet-based study published today on the website of the British Medical Journal, Australian investigators tested how well Googling could help to establish a difficult diagnosis. The search results met against their criteria in 15 out of 26 cases. Previous anecdotes of the use of Google in reaching a difficult diagnosis are presented in the paper. In a case described in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), a physician diagnosed IPEX syndrome after submitting the typical diagnostic clues to the search engine. A patient's father replied to doctor's saying that his son had acute subclavian vein thrombosis of unknown origin: ""But of course he has Paget-von Schrötter syndrome."" Hangwi Tang and Jennifer Hwee Kwoon Ng from the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane selected clinical cases from the NEJM blind to the correct diagnosis. They selected 3 to 5 rather specific features, searched Google, and selected the 3 disorders from the results that seemed to fit the case best. If one of those was right, Google was said to be ""right"". The scientists admit that an internet search probably works better with specific symptoms rather than with phrases such as ""fever ill pain"". Also, the percentage may depend on the operating physician's knowledge base, and the test was not double-blind. Experts commented that the internet is not a replacement for doctors, but should be seen as a way of supporting doctors and patients. A spokeswoman for the Patient Association added that ""a lot of sites are not credible. There are lots of good sites out there, but we also know that there are many that are not credible.""" +tech,"Internet On February 4, 2009 in an attempt to keep MySpace safe for young users, MySpace officials stated that they have removed 90,000 sex offender accounts from their website. The social networking site admitted this is double what they anticipated last year. MySpace previously thought the site had 40,000 offender accounts registered. North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper and Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal stated that they encourage and seek more social networking sites like MySpace to become safer. After the MySpace team calculated the number of sex offenders on their website they submitted the numbers to both attorneys on Tuesday February 3. ""This shocking revelation, resulting from our subpoena, provides compelling proof that social networking sites remain rife with sexual predators,"" said Blumenthal. Both attorneys work with Facebook and MySpace in an agreement to make their social networking websites safer, especially for young users. They have already made both websites safer by implementing dozens of safeguards and a special features where users older than the age of 18 have limitations searching users less than 18 years of age." +tech,"On Jan. 17, the NASA-led Swift satellite mission detected and imaged its first gamma-ray burst, one of the most powerful explosions to occur in the universe. The burst was in the midst of exploding as Swift, designed to autonomously repoint itself, turned and focused in less than 200 seconds on the event. The satellite was fast enough to capture an image with its X-Ray Telescope (XRT), while gamma rays were still being detected with the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT). ""This is the first time an X-ray telescope has imaged a gamma-ray burst while it was bursting,"" said Dr. Neil Gehrels, Swift's principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. ""Most bursts are gone in about ten seconds, and few last upwards of a minute. Previous X-ray images have captured the burst afterglow, not the burst itself."" ""This is the one that didn't get away,"" said Prof. John Nousek, Swift's mission operations director at Penn State University, in State College, PA. ""And this is what Swift was built to do: to detect these fleeting gamma-ray bursts and focus its telescopes on them autonomously within about a minute. The most exciting thing is this mission is just revving up."" Swift has three main instruments. The BAT detects bursts and initiates the autonomous slewing to bring the XRT and the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) within focus of the burst. In December, the BAT started detecting bursts, including a remarkable triple detection on Dec. 19. Today's announcement marks the first BAT detection autonomously followed by XRT detection, demonstrating the satellite is swiftly slewing as planned. The UVOT is still being tested, and it was not collecting data when the burst was detected. Scientists expect Swift to be fully operational by Feb. 1. ""We are frantically analyzing the XRT data to understand the X-ray emission seen during the initial explosion and the very early afterglow,"" said Dr. David Burrows, the XRT lead at Penn State. ""This is a whole new ballgame. No one has ever imaged X-rays during the transition of a gamma-ray burst from the brilliant flash to the fading embers."" The origin of gamma-ray bursts remains a mystery. At least some appear to originate in massive star explosions. Others might be the result of merging black holes or neutron stars. Any of these scenarios likely will result in the formation of a new black hole. The Swift satellite's two-year mission will be to: *Determine the origin of gamma-ray bursts. *Classify gamma-ray bursts and search for new types. *Determine how the explosion develops. *Use gamma-ray bursts to study the early universe. *Perform the first sensitive hard X-ray survey of the sky. Swift, still in its checkout phase, is an international collaboration launched on Nov. 20, 2004. It is a NASA mission in partnership with the Italian Space Agency and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, United Kingdom." +tech,"The twelfth-annual Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (a.k.a APRICOT) returned to Taiwan this year at the Taipei Howard Plaza Hotel. This is the first appearance since the 2003 conference held by the Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC) at the Taipei International Convention Center and Grand Hyatt Taipei. 4=Feipei Lai, Chairman of Board of TWNIC 4=Philip Smith, Chairman of APRICOT Management Committee 4=Tony Tien-lai Teng, Director General of Department of Posts & Communications of Ministry of Transportation & Communications of the Republic of China, Taiwan When Wikinews journalist Rico Shen reported on the recent ""Edison Chen photo scandal"" incident, Philip Smith of Cisco Systems commented: The photo scandal is really a hot topic in Asia-Pacific countries, especially in the Chinese-language world, but we the officials had provided several lectures related to information security earlier in our workshops for industrial solutions. Generally in fact, some Internet users' habits when connecting to Internet should be appropriately corrected. Workshops with varied topics and different technology levels took place from February 20 to 24, while several main seminars and speeches for industry, governmental, and academic executives ran from February 25 to 29. Several industry experts such as Wilfred Kwan (Chief Technology Officer of AsiaNetCom), Chung-laung Liu (Taiwan Chapter Chair of ISOC), and Maemura Akinori (EC Chair of APNIC) will give several speeches related to the Internet industry at the conference." +tech,"This is a map, by Mario Juric of Princeton University based upon the forthcoming SDSS-II Data Release 5, of the Virgo super star cluster, viewed from far away and from above the galactic plane. It shows the counts of faint blue stars, from a narrow magnitude and color range, that are 10 kiloparsec away from Earth. The map is shown in the Lambert projection of galactic coordinates: radial rays are lines of constant longitude, circles are lines of constant latitude, the North Galactic Pole is in the center, and the Galactic Centre is towards the left. The counts are shown on a logarithmic stretch, with a dynamic range of 10 increasing from blue to red. The dotted line through the middle of the map shows the plane of the debris from the Saggitarius dwarf galaxy that is being cannibalized by the Milky Way. This debris is approximately four times further away from Earth than the Virgo super star cluster is. Astronomers have hypothesised that the two may be related. Astronomers at Sloan Digital Sky Survey have announced the discovery of a huge star cluster, the Virgo super star cluster 10 kiloparsecs (32,600 light years) away from the solar system (roughly the same distance as the galactic centre), in the constellation of Virgo. Many of the stars have been known to astronomers for centuries, but only now have they realized the existence of the cluster. In a presentation to the American Astronomical Society, Princeton University graduate student Mario Juric, the principal author of the findings, explained: ""Some of the stars in this Milky Way companion have been seen with telescopes for centuries, but because the galaxy is so close, its stars are spread over a huge swath of the sky, and they always used to be lost in the sea of more numerous Milky Way stars. This galaxy is so big, we couldn't see it before."" The large overpopulation of stars was discovered by researchers analyzing SDSS-I and SDSS-II data. SDSS has, to date, imaged roughly one-quarter of the northern sky. The method used was the photometric parallax method. ""We used the SDSS data to measure distances to 48 million stars and build a 3-d map of the Milky Way."" explained Zeljko Ivezic of the University of Washington, a co-author of the study. This discovery is one in a series of such discoveries made within the last decade by a new generation of sky surveys. The Saggitarius dwarf galaxy was discovered in 1994 using photographic sky images. Since then, analysis of photographs by large digital cameras has identified several streams and clumps of stars, some of which (astronomers believe) are Milky Way companions and others of which are shreds of the Saggitarius dwarf or other dwarf galaxies that are also dissolving into the Milky Way. An earlier SDSS discovery was the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy. ""With so much irregular structure in the outer Galaxy, it looks as though the Milky Way is still growing, by cannibalizing smaller galaxies that fall into it,"" said Juric. The first indication that the Virgo super star cluster existed was in 2001, when the Quasar Equatorial Survey Team (QUEST) survey, using a 1-metre telescope in Llano del Hato National Astronomical Observatory in Venezuela, found a clump of five RR Lyrae variable stars, which astronomers speculated might belong to a small galaxy being canibalized by the Milky Way. Kathy Vivas of the Centro de Investigaciones de Astronomia in Venezuela, the author of the QUEST paper on the discovery, commented that ""In light of the new SDSS results, it appears that the stellar stream we detected is itself part of the larger structure identified by Juric and collaborators."" In a letter to the Astrophysical Journal the QUEST has presented further evidence for Vivas' interpretation, by measuring the motions and chemical compositions of stars in the region." +tech,"Strasbourg. The European Parliament has rejected the directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions (software patent directive) sustained by lobbies of large software publicists such as the corporations Microsoft, Siemens, Nokia and Alcatel, grouped under the title of the European Information & Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA, ). The directive involved the granting of software patents. 648 MEPs out of 680 rejected the text, 18 voted for and 14 abstained. A rejection vote became the expected outcome when the European People's Party, initially in favour of the directive, decided to reject it. The European Greens, Socialist Group and European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party also voted for rejection of the directive for heterogeneous reason. Michel Rocard, author of a number of amendments to the original directive, said that the majority of the modifications were unlikely to be supported by the Commission and Council, with whom the Parliament would have had to enter a Conciliation procedure if it had voted for maintaining the directive in moditifed form. ""Better have no text at all than a bad one"", he added. Before the vote, Rocard pointed at the irritation of the Parliament towards the Commission: ""There is collective anger throughout the Parliament because of the way the directive was handled by the Commission and the Council"". During the debate on Tuesday, Commissioner Joaquín Almunia told MEPs: ""Should you decide to reject the common position, the Commission will not submit a new proposal."". The rejection was welcomed by small and medium software companies, as well as by Free Software supporters. The Directive had been subject to an intense campaigning, within the Parliament, in the news media and on the Internet. The supporters of the Council position appear to have spent several ten millions, hiring prestigious PR agencies with at least 30-40 lobbyists who roamed the halls of the Parliament every day for 3 months, and many full-page advertisements in EU newspapers such as European Voice, EU Reporter etc. The opponents of software patentability (that is supporters of the position taken by the European Parliament in its 1st reading of 24 September 2003), coordinated under the roof of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), also had several lobbyists stationed in Brussels, conducted several conferences and demonstrations and published some newspaper advertisements, with a total budget of nearly 100,000 eur apart from countless unpaid working hours of a dedicated supporter base, consisting mainly of programmers and software entrepreneurs." +tech,"Space Spacebabe China launched its second unmanned lunar exploration probe, Chang'e 2, on Friday from the province of Sichuan. Chang'e 2 is part of a Chinese initiative to test skills and technology that could lead to unmanned landings in the future. The head of the orbiter's design team was quoted by Xinhua as saying: ""Chang'e 2 lays foundation for the soft-landing on the moon and further exploration of outer space. It (will) travel faster and closer to the moon, and it will capture clear pictures."" Launched in 2007, the preceding unmanned Chang'e 1 mission took around thirteen days to reach lunar orbit. Chang'e 2 is expected to take around five. Once Chang'e 2 arrives at the moon, it is planned that the probe will be put into an orbit less than 100 kilometers from the surface as opposed to the 200 kilometer orbit of the previous Chang'e 1. The probe will then be put into a 15 kilometer orbit to survey possible landing sites for the unmanned Chang'e 3 mission." +tech,"InternetHuman brains cannot manage more than 150 friendships &ndash; even with the advent of social networking websites like Facebook, Bebo and Myspace. This is the conclusion of Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford. Dunbar originally carried out research in this area in the 1990s, looking at social groups from modern offices back to ancient villages. He found that the neocortex in the brain, used for thinking and language, cannot cope with more than 150 friends &ndash; a conclusion known as ""Dunbar's number"". Groups of people tend to be limited to about 150 as, beyond that, social cohesion suffers. Revisiting the topic, Dunbar's view is that this number has not increased even with online methods of keeping in touch with friends, like Facebook. Dunbar compared the online activity of those with thousands of internet friends and those with hundreds, before concluding that there was no appreciable difference in their levels of activity. He defined a friend as someone that the individual cared about and made contact with at least yearly. ""The interesting thing is that you can have 1,500 friends but when you actually look at traffic on sites, you see people maintain the same inner circle of around 150 people that we observe in the real world. ... People obviously like the kudos of having hundreds of friends but the reality is that they’re unlikely to be bigger than anyone else’s"", he observed. Another conclusion of his study was that women were better at keeping friendships going on Facebook than men &ndash; ""girls are much better at maintaining relationships just by talking to each other. Boys need to do physical stuff together"". The full results of his study are due to be published later in 2010. Dunbar, 52, has been an Oxford professor since 2007, having previously been Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Liverpool. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford." +tech,"Popular social networking website Facebook went down for unknown upgrades, possibly to circumvent multiple holes that were published in a white paper earlier. From roughly 1:00 to 4:15 pm ET, users reported the site was down. Blogs have speculated it may be simply a server upgrade, or it may be new features. One web development blogger has even raised the theory that the site was hacked, with the login box showing multiple random email addresses, through """" coding. Another user replied to this posting, saying that they were even able to read the other, random user's inbox. Both a blogger who works at a computing company's office in Johannesburg, South Africa and a Norwegian news outlet reported similar troubles. Many blogs received comments from people with similar circumstances, worldwide. A white paper by Adrienne Felt, posted on July 27, 2007, explained step-by-step how to use an exploit to hijack a user's account. The white paper was then partially censored by the author, until the vulnerability has been fixed by Facebook. Regardless of whether the change was prompted by this paper, both the XSS hole and problem with forms described by the author were fixed during the upgrade. The site read ""We're upgrading. We'll be back soon."" with no further explanation. This is the first known global outage for the site. This comes as a rival site, ConnectU, has filed a lawsuit against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing the idea and the code. The hearing is scheduled for tomorrow. Also on Wednesday, the Black Hat Briefings computer security conference begins. The conference unites people from ""government agencies and global corporations with the underground's most respected hackers.""" +tech,"concerted bureaucrats who obstruct everything, so that the benefits do not reach to the poorest and middle class,"" said Estay on his Facebook profile on June 2. ""I will not be quiet, until I see changes! ... It is frustrating to me. A government that is thought to be right-winged, yet it governs with the left-winged ideas and people,"" he added in a comment. ""Well done, deputy! Simply speak out loud, well spoken, we are only making a country full of queers and lesbians, that's the only thing they Concertación politicians care about, instead of leaving them alone and dedicate themselves to work for the poorest,"" said one of the comments in response to Estay's status. ""It seems like these energumens don't live in Chile; it seems like these persons, so sons-of-bitches, don't understand the reality; it seems like these fucking mummies momio, pejorative word to call a right-winged person have their brains connected to their asses, because every thinking, every word they say is worth like that, a royal shit (with all the due respect shit deserves),"" Facebook user Millaray Essence said on No a Piñera 2010. Estay's comment was denounced before the Committees of Human Rights (of which Estay is a member) and Ethics of the Chamber of Deputies by the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movimiento de Integración y Liberación Homosexual, MOVILH) on Monday. In a press release, the MOVILH said that ""Estay's statements clearly seek to denigrate people because of their sexual orientation and gender identity, which implies a violation of human rights, as well as inciting social, cultural, and political odiousness, which is not at the level of his investiture."" Enrique Estay responded to MOVILH's comments by saying that ""for queers we are referring to homosexuals. The term 'gay' is a new expression which means 'similar' and is unrelated to homosexuality."" He also said that when calling homosexuals ""queers"" (maricones), he ""didn't mean it to be offensive, though I often say things by their name, as they are, and I have always understood that in Chile homosexuals are the queers."" He concluded, saying, ""It is my Facebook, and that's the way I used it to specifically mention the homosexuals."" Enrique Estay has represented District 49 (Araucanía Region) in the Chamber of Deputies of Chile since 2006, having been elected twice for the office. He is a lawyer and member of the Independent Democrat Union (UDI), one of Chile's right-wing parties. As of Wednesday, Estay deleted his Facebook status." +tech,"Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao, on board the International Space Station (ISS), caught a candid shot of the Shuttle craft Discovery on its way to launch pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center. Chiao used a digital camera from an altitude of 220 statute miles to photograph Discovery during its roll out in preparation for the first launch of a shuttle in the two years since the Columbia disaster. The shot was made at 4:35 Eastern Daylight Time when the ISS flew over the launch site. Two pads at Launch Complex 39 are visible in the image. Discovery's launch pad, 39-B, is on the left. Inset points to Discovery." +tech,"A Lockheed-Martin built Atlas V launch vehicle, successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 21:42 UTC (4:42 p.m. EST). It placed the Inmarsat 4 F-1 communications satellite into orbit. This was Lockheed-Martin's second try to launch the satellite. Yesterday's attempt ended in a scrub when the flight control computer passed a red-line with less than three minutes remaining in the countdown. This was the fifth launch of the Atlas V vehicle, and the first launch where the rocket used three of the first stage, Aerojet built, solid rocket motors. It also had the narrower 4 meter payload fairing. For the first part of the flight, the rocket was powered by a common booster core with two RD-180 rocket engines plus three solid rocket motors. When their fuel was expended the solid rocket motors burned out and were jettisoned. The common booster core then continued pushing the payload and upper stage, with its two RD-180 engines producing 806,000lbf of thrust. The common booster core expended its fuel around four and a half minutes into the flight. At this point the first stage common booster core separated from the upper stage and payload. After the stage separation, the Centaur upper stage started its engine and burned for nearly ten minutes. During this burn, the payload fairing separated from the spacecraft, leaving the satellite exposed on the nose of the rocket in the vacuum of space. When the ten minute burn was up, the Centaur coasted with the satellite for another ten minutes waiting to get to the optimal point for the final burn. At around 24 minutes into the flight, the final burn of the Centaur stage occurred, placing the spacecraft in a super-synchronous transfer orbit. After this burn was complete, the Centaur separated, leaving the spacecraft on its own. Now the spacecraft must attempt to open its solar arrays and place itself in the final geostationary orbit. Because of this special type of orbit, where the spacecraft goes around once every 24 hours, the satellite will appear to sit in one place over the equator. From this location, Inmarsat will use it to provide BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network) which is a 3G compatible, 432kbit/s data service, to much of the world. The Atlas vehicle was rolled out of its vertical integration facility 1800 feet from the launch pad early yesterday morning (before the first launch attempt). The reason for this launch day move is because of the clean pad concept. Past American rockets (with the exception of the Saturns and Space Shuttles) have always been assembled on the launch pad. In the case of a delay in launching, this would cause delays in all the rockets that needed to be launched after the one that experienced the delay. With the new clean pad concept, rockets can be assembled and checked out before being moved to the pad, saving delays in the schedule. The launch tower and rocket move out to the pad along a set of railroad tracks, making the 1800 foot journey in approximately half an hour, topping out around two miles per hour. Because of the clean pad concept, none of the launch control electronics or spacecraft environmental systems are on the pad. Instead, they are run along the railroad tracks with the rocket as it moves to the pad on launch day. When they get there, they slide into concrete enclosures so that they are not destroyed during the rocket launch." +tech,"Internet The US Library of Congress plans to create an of every ""tweet,"" or post made on Twitter. It announced the move via Twitter. Twitter's general counsel Alex MacGillivray told the BBC: ""I think it shows the tweets are an interesting part of the historical record. This project however is not about us, it is about our users and the fact they use the service to chronicle these amazing events. President Obama actually tweeted after he was elected. That is a big deal and it's something he did. It is not something we imagined when we were forming the service."" The library plans to highlight the historically significant tweets such as Barack Obama's tweet when he won the 2008 presidential election. 4=Alex MacGillivray, Twitter's general counsel Although the library plans a Twitter , it does not indicate a change of the Library of Congress' focus. The library reportedly has 160 terabytes (163,840 gigabytes) of data already taken from other Internet sources. There are around 50 million tweets sent per day, all less than 140 characters; the total number of tweets has gone into the billions." +tech,"Internet The popular social networking site Facebook agreed to purchase the Instagram photo-sharing mobile app for US$1 billion in cash and stock Monday. The app, which can be used to apply faux-vintage filters to photographs, allows users to share photos with one another both directly and through posts to social networking sites. Instagram was founded less than two years ago by two Stanford University graduates near San Francisco, California and the purchase is one of the largest acquisitions in Facebook history following after a failed takeover bid in early 2011 which had been declined by Instagram. Facebook, despite its prominence as the largest website for social networking in the world, has had difficulties expanding into the mobile market, particularly the realm of mobile advertising. As of yet, Facebook lacks an advertising platform for its apps and has yet to capitalize off the boom in mobile phone use that Instagram is intertwined with. 4=Mark Zuckerberg Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg noted the importance of the ability to post to multiple social media sites at once in a post. He wrote on his personal timeline, ""We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience."" He said Facebook ""plans on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook."" Many other small services that Facebook has acquired, namely Gowalla, Hot Potato, and FriendFeed, were all shuttered shortly after acquisition. The co-founder of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, in a company blog post, has denied any claims that Instagram would share the fate of these past services. ""It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience,"" he wrote. Many reasons have been put forth for the purchase, and Zuckerberg commented, ""for years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we'll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.""" +tech,"With two space walks, 78 million miles and six months on board the International Space Station under their belts, Commander-Science Officer Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov, the station's 10th crew, landed in Kazakhstan in a Soyuz spacecraft at 6:08 p.m. EDT Sunday. Also returning was European Space Agency Astronaut Roberto Vittori of Italy, who launched to the Station with the Expedition 11 crew and spent eight days doing experiments. He was aboard under a contract between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency. The re-entry of the ISS Soyuz 9 spacecraft was perfect, returning the astronauts to Earth 53 miles northeast of the town of Arkalyk after 192 days, 19 hours and 2 minutes in space for the Expedition 10 crew. The recovery team reached the capsule in minutes. They launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan last Oct. 13 at 11:06 p.m. EDT. During their increment they performed two spacewalks, continued station maintenance and did scientific experiments. Notable accomplishments included replacing critical hardware in the Joint Quest Airlock; repairing U.S. spacesuits; and submitting a scientific research paper on ultrasound use in space. Chiao was also the first astronaut to vote in the U.S. Presidential election from space. The crew completed two spacewalks, including experiment installation and tasks to prepare the Station for the arrival of the new European Automated Transfer Vehicle next year. Aboard the Station, Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer and NASA Station Science Officer John Phillips, the Expedition 11 crew, are beginning a six-month mission. It will include the resumption of Space Shuttle flights and two spacewalks from the Station. Expedition 11 is scheduled to return to Earth on October 7, 2005. The two latest occupants of the station launched with Vittori from Baikonur April 14. Krikalev and Phillips will have light duty for the next two days, as they rest after completing a busy handover period. For the past week, they have been learning about Station operations from the two men who called the ship home since October. Chiao and Sharipov briefed Krikalev and Phillips on day-to-day operations and gave them hands-on opportunities at Station maintenance. Chiao and Phillips restored the Quest airlock to working order for future spacewalks and practiced operating the Canadarm2 robotic arm." +tech,"Internet The United States announced the declassification of a portion of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, a major part of the US's efforts to thwart cyber warfare, on Tuesday. The announcement came at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco, and was given by Howard Schmidt, who is the current US cyber-security coordinator, having been assigned the position in December. While only a portion of the document was revealed at the announcement, and much remains classified material, including all material related to plans by the government for offensive cyber-warfare, the program has twelve parts, and has three main strategies: *To create a defensive mechanism against immediate threats, as well as those possible in the near future; *To create a defensive mechanism against a wide variety of threats, both present and future; *To initiate efforts to strengthen future cyber-security efforts. The program includes funding for numerous security measures, including the government's controversial Einstein program, which scans all incoming communications to government-operated websites. The plan also mentions increasing security for classified networks within the government, as well as developing a government-wide plan for counter-intelligence work, although the declassified portions gave little indication as to what that would involve. The program was begun by President George Bush in 2008 as a National Security Presidential Directive, and has been entirely classified until now. At its inception, it was intended to serve as a program to unify cyber-security efforts within the government and to develop other security programs for use nationwide. No budget has been released for the program, although estimates place the cost at $40 billion until 2015." +tech,"Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, the San Jose, California-based joint venture of Japanese storage vendor Hitachi and U.S. technology giant IBM, has set a new record for storage density at 230 gigabits per square inch (Gb/in2). The company has developed technology to implement a recording method known as perpendicular recording, which allowed the increase in density above the current ~130 Gb/in2 limit. Techworld claims there is a race between Hitachi and Toshiba for who will get the first drives to market which use the technology. According to Hitachi, they expect, ""to ship their first perpendicular recording product in 2005 on a 2.5-inch hard drive"". Toshiba is also planning to ship a drive in 2005 that uses perpendicular recording. According to Techworld, Toshiba will ship an 80 GB, 1.8"" drive in 2005. Toshiba's 1.8"" drives are used in portable electronic devices such as Apple's iPod, which is currently available in sizes 60 GB and smaller. While all commercially available hard drives to date use longitudinal recording, perpendicular recording has roots in research done in academic circles over 100 years ago. Hitachi Tech has produced a Flash animation that explains the rudiments of perpendicular recording in a music-video style. Inspired by the 1970s Schoolhouse Rock series of educational animation shorts, the flash movie features whimsical moments with data bits and disk platters that speak and sing (not possible with today's technology), it also contains realistic details. Of no importance to the viewer, but perhaps of interest to some, the animation shows Texas Instruments' UC5608DWP chips visible briefly in the background. While TI's UC5608DWP 18-line SCSI terminator chips have been made obsolete by the new UCC5618, the chips are indeed designed for use in hard drives." +tech,"Colin A. Norman, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science February 2nd, presented the Hubble Origins Probe (HOP) as a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope. Concerning the shuttle's estimated one billion dollar cost and 65 month time-frame for deployment to earth orbit, Norman said: ""The groundbreaking science, the cutting edge technology generated in the development of new instrumentation, the ability of Hubble science to engage the interest of the public, and its impact on the imagination of students, make it worthwhile to invest this sum of public funds to complete the last chapter of Hubble's remarkable legacy."" HOP will tackle three of the most central intellectual issues of our age; the nature of dark energy, the nature and distribution of dark matter, and the prevalence of planets, including earths, around other stars. Norman noted during the testimony that HOP would be, essentially, a lighter copy of the Hubble Space Telescope and would include two instruments that were scheduled for installation on the Hubble: the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), plus the new Very Wide Field Imager (VWFI) to be paid for and provided by Japan. The VWFI has a field of view 17 times greater the advanced camera on board the Hubble now, and is 3-4 times more sensitive at critical wavelengths. This will provide for mapping 20 times faster than achievable by the Hubble at present. The COS would make possible the identification of the invisible portion of ""ordinary matter,"" potentially residing in gigantic gas clouds discovered by the Chandra X-ray Telescope. ""The WFC3 has greatly enhanced power for discovery in the blue and the red region of the spectrum and will significantly enhance studies of galaxies and stars. Its infrared capability is essential to studies of dark energy,"" Norman added. ""The decision is obvious. We must continue with the Hubble adventure to explore these great questions further, to understand more fully our remarkable Universe and our place in it. We must do this with intense determination and energy and thus continue to inspire new generations with the wonder and thrill of exploration and discovery,"" concluded Norman. Colin Norman was educated at the University of Melbourne and Oxford University. He has been a professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University and astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute since 1984." +tech,"Space NASA, the space agency of the United States, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against former astronaut and sixth human to walk on the Moon Edgar Mitchell. NASA filed the lawsuit in a Miami federal court after learning of Mitchell's plans to auction off a camera that was used on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 14 mission. Mitchell, 80, claims that he had permission from NASA to keep the camera, saying that astronauts of his era were permitted to keep mementos from their missions. He argues that had he not kept the camera, it would have been destroyed: ""It was government throwaways, government junk."" According to the lawsuit, however, NASA claims that ""All equipment and property used during NASA operations remains the property of NASA unless explicitly released or transferred to another party."" NASA goes on to claim that there is no official record of the possession of the camera being transferred to Mitchell. The camera, which Mitchell planned to sell because of financial problems, was expected to catch about US$60,000 to $80,000. Mitchell, along with Commander Alan Shepard and Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, flew to the moon aboard the Apollo 14 mission in 1971, the third manned lunar landing. While Roosa orbited above, Shepard and Mitchell spent 33 hours on the surface of the Moon. Shepard and Mitchell became the fifth and sixth humans to walk on the Moon, respectively." +tech,"Access to Google, including its other projects, was abruptly interrupted late Saturday when a DNS outage caused the search engine giant to be unreachable by the domain Google.com. Google Labs and Google Maps, as well as products of Google such as the blogging service Blogger and free photo-album software Picasa, were unaffected. Google.com and its subdomains were once again functioning as of 0100 UTC. During the brief outage, some browsers were redirected to SoGoSearch. The site http://www.google.com.net has a link to Gigantics, and normally redirects to SoGoSearch. This is probably a procedure that specific browsers implement when they cannot find the proper address. Others were also reported to be redirected to Microsoft's MSN Search. Barbobot reports the DNS may have been stolen for a short time." +tech,"Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to touchdown at 12:32 p.m. EDT today in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Rockets were fired to slow down the shuttle at 11:25 a.m. EDT to begin the re-entry procedure. Weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Center are not forecast to be a problem, and the landing will take place as planned given a favorable crosswind. A second landing in Florida is possible at the Kennedy Space Center at 2:06 p.m. Also, NASA says that usual back-up landing sites at Edwards Air Force Base in California and White Sands in New Mexico are not expected to be used. Commander Scott Kelly was given the go-ahead for re-entry preparations after evaluation of the shuttle's wings and nose was completed, indicating no damage from space debris. The three-inch (7.6 cm) gash in the shuttle's belly reported earlier is likely not a safety risk, and should not lead to damage that requires any lengthy repair, NASA said. The shuttle will pass above Hurricane Dean on the approach to Florida, but the shuttle will be too high to be affected. The threat of Dean heading toward Texas earlier last week prompted NASA to cut the mission a few days short in the case that Dean tracked north toward Houston's Mission Control Center, potentially disabling operations." +tech,"SpaceNASA has decided to postpone the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery, mission STS-119, for at least four more days. The further delay of launch was due to a hydrogen fuel leak. Discovery was previously set to liftoff tonight at 9:20 p.m. (EDT). ""Space shuttle Discovery’s launch to the International Space Station (ISS) now is targeted for no earlier than March 15. Liftoff on March 15 would be at 7:43 p.m. EDT. The exact launch date is dependent on the work necessary to repair the problem,"" said NASA in a statement on their website. NASA said during a press conference today that the leak is likely being caused by a hardware issue, later announced to be a suspect connector on the gaseous vent line attached to the shuttle's external tank. Troubleshooting the problem is scheduled to begin on March 12. Discovery's original proposed launch was for July of 2008. Later it was changed to December 4, 2008. The next change scheduled the liftoff date for February 12, 2009. It was then delayed until February 27, but was then delayed indefinitely on February 20 after NASA discovered an issue with the hydrogen control valves. The current scheduled mission is set to fly the Integrated Truss Structure segment to the ISS, and to install the final set of power-generating solar arrays . The arrays consist of two 115-foot-long arrays, for a total span of 240 feet, including the equipment that connects the two halves and allows them to twist as they track the sun. Altogether, the four sets of arrays can generate 84 to 120 kilowatts of electricity – enough to provide power for more than 40 average homes. Commander Lee Archambault will lead Discovery's crew of seven, along with Pilot Tony Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata." +tech,"A Dallas, Texas man foiled a burglary in Liverpool, after spotting thieves trying to break into a shop. The man spotted the burglary using a webcam. He went online to view images of the city's famous Beatles quarter on Mathew Street, an area in Liverpool synonymous with the Beatles and home to the Cavern Club where the band regularly played. The man saw intruders apparently breaking into a sports store. Then he telephoned the Merseyside Police. The police went to the scene and arrested 3 men. ""We did get a call from someone in Dallas who was watching on a webcam that looks into the tourist areas, of which Mathew Street is one because of all the Beatles stuff,"" a Merseyside Police spokeswoman said. There was a ladder against a wall and a first-floor window had been broken, and the men were taking property out. The men are all aged in their mid-30s. They are arrested on suspicion of burglary and bailed pending further inquiries. The investigation is ongoing." +tech,"Researchers at Princeton University have conducted research into the security of electronic voting machines. They have created a virus that could breach voting machines and change votes. The creators of the voting machine say the research was unrealistic. Edward William Felten, a professor of computer sciences and public affairs at Princeton University, and two Princeton graduate students, Ariel Feldman and Alex Halderman, created a computer virus that they say could remain concealed in tests, ""steal"" votes, delete itself to go undetected and spread to other machines. They used a Diebold AccuVote-TS which is a small computer with a touch screen. The latest version of the software used 128-bit data encryption, digitally signed memory card data, secure socket layer (SSL) data encryption for transmitting results and dynamic passwords. They opened the drawer with a key, picked the lock or undid screws to open the compartment that allows them to change the memory card. They suppressed the beep created by the computer when it reboots by using headphones. They say the virus can spread by using the same memory card which when inserted into a different machine will infect the machine. The researchers say they received the machine they tested on from someone who wants to keep their name anonymous. ""You have to be a good programmer — not a genius — to do this,"" Halderman said. ""I believe a good programmer could reproduce our virus without very much effort."" ""Analysis of the machine...shows that it is vulnerable to extremely serious attacks,"" the report states. ""An attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as a minute could install malicious code."" Diebold Election Systems president Dave Byrd said that the research was done with security software that were two generations old. ""By any standard--academic or common sense--the study is unrealistic and inaccurate,"" he said in a statement. ""Normal security procedures were ignored. Numbered security tape, 18 enclosure screws and numbered security tags were destroyed or missing so that the researchers could get inside the unit. A virus was introduced to a machine that is never attached to a network."" ""Every voter in every local jurisdiction that uses the AccuVote-TS should feel secure knowing that their vote will count on Election Day,"" ""That's what they were saying a few years ago,"" said Halderman. He said he would very much like to study Diebold's newer machines and software. ""We expect and fear, unfortunately, that if we were to examine the newer version of the software, we could find similar problems.""" +tech,"According to Dr. Vinton Cerf, a few movie producers have talked about using filesharing such as BitTorrent for the distribution of video content. Dr. Cerf is considered to be one of the fathers of the Internet. One of the problems with having a video on demand service is video files take quite a bit of bandwidth to distribute. Through the use of file sharing, the clients that are requesting a video can share information amongst themselves and can take some of the load off of the original distributor. The only draw back to using file sharing is the distribution would not be instant; instead, it would have to be pre-recorded like TiVo. Ironically, the movie industry has been suing people for file sharing for years now. In the end, this same technology might save the movie industry millions. Cerf said, ""They are only just now starting to come to honest grips with the possibilities of using the Internet,"" according to ZDNet Australia. Currently, waves of lawsuits against internet file-sharing services continue to be mounted. 11 countries across Europe and Asia have seen lawsuits filed against individuals by record companies fighting file-sharing technology which they say is costing it billions. The total number of lawsuits worldwide is in the range of 12,000." +tech,"North Korea Approximately twenty flight routes for various airlines are to be modified to avoid the path of a rocket scheduled to be launched from North Korea later this month, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said yesterday. Amongst the affected companies are Delta Air Lines, Garuda Indonesia, Japan Airlines, Korean Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines and All Nippon Airways, all of which are to reroute their flight paths between April 12 and April 16, in which time the North Korean government says launch is scheduled, with the specific date being subject to weather conditions. The North Korean government has stated the launch is to celebrate the 100th birthday of Eternal President of the Republic Kim il-Sung. A statement from Japan Airlines clarifies four of their flight paths are to be modified in direct response to these rocket launch plans, including three from the Japanese capital Tokyo to the Filipino capital Manila, Singapore, and Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, causing anticipated flight timings to rise by between five and twenty minutes. No modifications to domestic flights are planned for the airline. All Nippon Airways has stated that five of its flight routes are to vary at this time, with flights between similar locations affected. The flights will be otherwise unaffected, according to the company's statement." +tech,"A United Launch Alliance Atlas V carrier rocket launched this evening from LC-41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, USA, with the ICO G1 communications satellite for ICO Satellite Management. Lift-off occurred at 20:12:00 UTC. It is the first commercial launch of an Atlas rocket since responsibility for the launches was transferred from International Launch Services to United Launch Alliance, through Lockheed Martin. Launch was completely successful, with the spacecraft separating from its carrier rocket about half an hour after launch. The Atlas V flew in the 421 configuration, with a 4 metre wide payload fairing, twin solid rocket boosters, and a single-engined Centaur upper stage. It was the 14th flight of the Atlas V, and successfully placed the satellite into a geosynchronous orbit. The launch was dedicated to former Atlas programme employee Lynn Deckard. ICO G1 will provide S band mobile communications for satellite phones. Its launch had been delayed from May last year, owing to delays with US government missions which were launching on Atlas, and then in light of the failure of a previous Atlas launch in June. It was constructed by Space Systems/Loral, and is based on the LS-1300 satellite bus. It is the heaviest satellite to be launched by an Atlas rocket, and the heaviest single commercial satellite to be launched into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. Speaking after the launch, Jim Sponnik, the Vice President of the Atlas programme told the team who had conducted the launch that they ""all did extremely well and the rocket did exceptionally well"". Colonel Scott Henderson, of the 45th Space Wing, United States Air Force, said that the launch was ""a great success"", and the result of ""phenomenal effort"" on the part of those involved. David Malcom, the President of Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems described the launch as a ""hole in one"". Tim Bryan, the CEO of ICO Satellite Management told the United Launch Alliance team that he ""can't express...what every person in this room has done for our business"". He also thanked Bob Day, and ICO's space team, for their work in the build up to the launch. Michael Gass, the CEO of United Launch Alliance said that the successful launch was a ""testimony to this entire team"", and told flight controllers ""congratulations, you're the best"". The satellite's signal was acquired by ground tracking stations in Australia at 21:17, and the launch was confirmed to be accurate to within one nautical mile of the targeted orbit. The next Atlas launch is scheduled to occur in early July, with a DMSP weather satellite, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California." +tech,"At 15:35 UTC this afternoon (23:35 local time), the Chinese Long March 3C (CZ-3C) carrier rocket lifted off on its maiden flight, from launch pad 2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre. It placed the Tianlian-1 satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. Tianlian-1, also known as Tian Lian 1 and TL-1, a spacecraft tracking and data relay communications satellite, similar in function to the American Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS), will be used to track and communicate with manned Shenzhou spacecraft in low Earth orbit. It will be able to cover around half of the spacecraft's trajectory, compared to the 12 percent which can be covered by China's fleet of tracking ships and ground stations. The next Shenzhou mission, Shenzhou 7, is currently scheduled for launch in October. Tianlian-1 is based on the DFH-3 satellite bus. This is the 19th orbital launch of 2008, and the first this year to be conducted by the People's Republic of China. It is currently believed that China intend to conduct one more launch before the end of April, however due to secrecy surrounding China's space programme, it is difficult to be certain of this. The Long March 3C is a new version of the Long March 3 rocket, which serves as an intermediate between the Long March 3A, and the Long March 3B. It is 55 metres tall, and can place a 3,700 kilogram payload into a geosynchronous transfer orbit." +tech,"As a result of IBM's officially setting the withdrawal date of its OS/2 operating system from the market, as well as its withdrawal of support, many OS/2 fans hope that the computer giant will release most or all of the operating system as open source software. * On-line petition from users to make OS/2 open source (Curently not working)" +tech,"A small hole has been found on the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the right hand payload bay door radiator, NASA officials have stated and it is not known what exactly caused the hole. ""The impact occurred sometime during the STS-115 mission last month. The nature of the object that hit the shuttle radiator isn't known. The hit, which left a hole about one-tenth of an inch in diameter, didn't endanger the spacecraft or the crew, nor did it affect mission operations,"" said NASA in a statement on their website. Monsters and Critics.com reports that a small rock or meteroid may have hit the shuttle ""when returning from its mission"" and CBS News reports that ""space debris"" are to blame. The hole did not cause any damage to any of the vital instruments or systems on Atlantis." +tech,"A new online television channel, Internacia Televido, has been launched following just over two years of fundraising and preparation. It is the first channel ever to be broadcast entirely through the international auxiliary language Esperanto, and was launched at midnight Brazilian time on Saturday night. The name means 'International Television'. The channel aims to create an international television network combining professional content with the collaboration of ordinary users from around the world. Programmes will range from news shows and documentaries to culture, educational programming and children's entertainment. The project, supported by the World Esperanto Association amongst others, was announced in October 2003 in São Paulo by Brazilian entrepreneur Flavio Rebelo, whose media business CIDCON also runs the Esperanto language web portal Ĝangalo ( www.ghangalo.com, 'Jungle') and publishes music. The original intention was to establish a 24-hour streamed online channel, with four hours of original programming per day (repeated six times daily) and a daily news bulletin. A subsequent international fundraising campaign to raise the required sum of €35,000 to establish the channel involved Rebelo speaking at several Esperanto events throughout Europe during the early months of 2004 through the support of an anonymous Asian donor. The project failed to garner sufficient funds to meet its original deadline, but in August this year Rebelo confirmed that a scaled-down version of the project would go ahead upon the sum of €23,000 being reached. The channel currently features 90 minutes of programming daily, with one weekly news bulletin, and three waged employees instead of the intended ten. It is intended that the channel will be funded past its initial six-month period through on-air advertising revenue and further private donations, and expanded as revenue permits. Experimental television broadcasts in Esperanto were not first made until the advent of Internet technology. A previous online Esperanto TV project ( www.esperanto.tv), under the auspices of the Italian Transnational Radical Party, failed to realise a finished product. Since the 1920s, radio broadcasts have been made regularly in Esperanto by broadcasters such as RAI, China Radio International and Radio Polonia. * Internacia Televido website" +tech,"The Swedish language edition of the multilingual Wikipedia project passed 100,000 articles this evening at 18:11 CEST. Swedish is the fifth language to reach this milestone, joining English, French, German, and Japanese. The article growth was quite modest when 100 articles remained, but at 18:09, with less than 50 articles left, people started submitting a lot of articles. Most of them were written in advance, according to visitors at the IRC channel. The 100,000th article is believed to be about a minister of the Faroe Islands, Jógvan við Keldu, according to announcement pages on the site minutes after the milestone was passed. Some concerns were raised, however, and a Wikipedian claimed on the village pump that the article Epiglottal klusil (""linguistic subject"") was number 100,000. The Swedish edition is said to have been started in May 2001, but didn't see much growth until November 2002 when several contributors arrived. The 50,000 mark was passed less than a year ago. The Swedish Wikipedia operates using the same basic principles as its larger English language sister edition, which include writing from a Neutral Point of View and making content open using the GNU Free Documentation License. The size is quite large compared to the number of speakers of Swedish worldwide (about 9 million). The Swedish edition is larger than some languages with hundreds of millions of speakers such as Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Hindi. The reason for this is somewhat obscure, but discussions on the central discussion forum of the site, Bybrunnen (a literal translation of ""village pump""), say this is because articles are considerably shorter than on other Wikipedias and that the Internet connectivity is very high in Sweden. Other Wikipedias for languages spoken in Northern Europe (including Norwegian, Danish and Finnish) also have a high number of articles compared to the number of speakers." +tech,"A Tuesday service cutoff deadline in the United States for tens of thousands of VoIP customers who failed to reply to a service limitation notification from their provider was extended by 30 days, to September 28. In an FCC mandate, VoIP providers such as Time Warner Cable, Vonage and Verizon, were to send notice to customers asking them acknowledge the possible limitations of E911 access and to keep a record of their replies. Specifically, the FCC mandated that VoIP providers must advise subscribers of the circumstances under which E911 service may not be available, and distribute stickers or other appropriate labels with a warning that E911 service may be limited or not available, and instruct the subscriber to place them on or near the equipment used in conjunction with the service. Lastly, the provider is to obtain and keep a record of affirmative acknowledgement by every subscriber, both new and existing. A significant number of VoIP customers did not reply to the warning letter. This led the Voice on the Net Coalition, with House Representative Bart Gordon (D-TN) and Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and other lawmakers to write FCC Chairman Kevin Martin with their concerns. For some customers, it was feared that if the VoIP service was ended, they would have no phone service. The E911 system allows emergency operators to link a caller's physical location with the phone used to dial for help. Conventional phones have had that capability for years, but not all VoIP providers have the technology for such a system in place. Cell phone companies are also struggling to upgrade their products for E911 capability. VoIP use reported by the TeleGeography Research Group showed strong customer growth during the second quarter of this year. Subscribers increased nearly 40 percent over the first quarter, from roughly 1.9 million to 2.7 million. Users of VoIP seem far from scared off by concerns over E911 connectivity despite findings that indicate the majority are interested in it as a primary phone line replacement. ""To get VoIP telephony, you’ve got to have a broadband connection, that means you’re a reasonably affluent consumer, you’ve got a cell phone, you’ve got some sort of backup plan in place,"" said Stephan Beckert, an analyst for TeleGeography. ""There was a group that said they would not get it because of the problems with E911. But there was a surprisingly large core group that really didn’t worry about it.""" +tech,"The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed on Wednsday the nomination of Dr. Michael Griffin to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), making him the 11th administrator of the US-based space agency. He takes office at a time when NASA is busy with preparations for the return to flight of the space shuttle Discovery, expected sometime during the launch window of May 15 through June 3, 2005. The presidential nominee Griffin was the head of the Applied Physics Laboratory's Space Department at Johns Hopkins University, a position he held almost a year. Prior to that, he was a chief engineer at NASA before coming over from service as Deputy for Technology at the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization. He has made a career of the aerospace field. Griffin was critical at times of U.S. priorities in space exploration by questioning its continued commitment to the International Space Station. Griffin, in testimony before the House Science Committee in 2004, outlined more ambitious plans for human exploration and settlement of the solar system in which he believes the United States should play a key role. In a statement during his April 12, 2005, confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, Griffin said, ""In the twenty-first century and beyond, for America to continue to be preeminent among nations, it is necessary for us also to be the preeminent spacefaring nation,"" with a spirit of discovery similar to the exploration of the New World by Columbus with the support of the Spanish crown. Griffin, 55, notably holds seven academic degrees from various institutions, including a bachelor's degree in physics; master's degrees in aerospace science, electrical engineering, applied physics, civil engineering and business administration; and a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland. The list of NASA's upcoming priorities, as outlined by Griffin during his confirmation hearing, offer insight into the direction that America's space program may take under his leadership. In his prepared statement, Griffin said, ""my priorities in executing the duties of NASA Administrator, consistent with the President’s Vision for Space Exploration, will be: - Flying the Shuttle as safely as possible until its retirement, not later than 2010. - Bringing a new Crew Exploration Vehicle into service as soon as possible after Shuttle retirement. - Developing a balanced overall program of science, exploration, and aeronautics at NASA, consistent with the redirection of the human spaceflight program to focus on exploration. - Completing the International Space Station in a manner consistent with our International partner commitments and the needs of human exploration. - Encouraging the pursuit of appropriate partnerships with the emerging commercial space sector. - Establishing a lunar return program having the maximum possible utility for later missions to Mars and other destinations."" President Bush's Vision for Space Exploration, referred to by Griffin above, is currently United States policy on various aspects of space exploration, announced on January 14, 2004 after the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster of February 1, 2003. The US is committed to a future of both human and robotic exploration of the solar system, with an emphasis on maintaining safety and advancing scientific and technical knowledge." +tech,"Randy Pausch, professor of computer science, human-computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University has died at the age of 47. Pausch died from pancreatic cancer early this morning. He was born Randolph Frederick Pausch on October 23, 1960 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. He was known for his ""The Last Lecture"" speech on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon University. The Pittsburgh City Council declared November 19, 2007 to be ""Dr. Randy Pausch Day."" Finally, Brown University professor Andries van Dam followed Pausch's last lecture with a tearful and impassioned speech praising him for his courage and leadership, calling him a role model. Pausch repeated his ""Last Lecture"" speech to the Oprah Show. On May 18, 2008, Pausch made a surprise return appearance at Carnegie Mellon, giving a speech at the commencement ceremony, as well as attending the School of Computer Science's diploma ceremony. He leaves behind his wife Jai and their three children: Dylan, 6, Logan, 4, and Chloe, 2." +tech,"Less than a year after the discovery of a record size prime number, the same team from the Central Missouri State University discovered yet another record holder on September 4, 2006. The primality of this number was verified on September 11, 2006. The team were participants of an online project called Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search. The number is 232,582,657 − 1, extending out to an astonshing 9,808,358 decimal digits. These rare prime numbers are known as Mersenne primes. So far, only 44 of these are known. Although the number is just shy of the 10 million digits required for the $100,000 prize offered by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, participants are always looking forward to new primes." +tech,"ESA - C.Carreau NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected methane in the atmosphere of a planet 63 light-years away, marking the first discovery of an organic compound on a planet outside our Solar System. The methane was found on a Jupiter-sized planet named HD 189733b. The planet closely orbits HD 189733, a yellow dwarf star in the constellation Vulpecula. Although methane can play a key role in the chemical reactions needed to form life, the planet is too close to its parent star to support life, scientists say. It is known as a ""hot Jupiter"" - a planet whose mass is comparable to that of Jupiter, but orbits nearer to the parent star than Mercury, our Solar System's innermost planet. This particular hot Jupiter takes just two days to completely orbit its parent star, and the temperatures in its atmosphere can reach 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit, around the melting point of silver. Mark Swain ""The methane here, although we can call it an organic constituent, is not produced by life - it is way too hot there for life,"" said Giovanna Tinetti, part of the NASA team that made the discovery. However, scientists believe the spectroscopic methods used to detect the methane can be used to find organic compounds on other distant planets. ""This observation is proof that spectroscopy can eventually be done on a cooler and potentially habitable Earth-sized planet orbiting a dimmer red dwarf-type star,"" said Mark Swain, a NASA scientist whose paper on the discovery will appear in the scientific journal Nature. Spectroscopy is the splitting of light into its components. As the light from the star passed through the planet's atmosphere, the atmospheric gases imprinted their chemical signature onto the light, allowing the atmosphere's chemical composition to be analyzed by Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer. To their surprise, astronomers found much higher levels of methane than had been predicted for hot Jupiters. ""This indicates we don't really understand exoplanet atmospheres yet,"" said Swain. This discovery also confirmed the presence of water molecules in the planet's atmosphere, which was found by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope last year using spectroscopy. ""With this observation there is no question whether there is water or not - water is present,"" Swain said. The ultimate goal of these studies is to identify the molecules of more Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of stars, where conditions may be favorable for life. Adam Showman at the University of Arizona said, ""We are thus now seeing but the opening salvo in a revolution that will extend humankind's view of planetary worlds far beyond the provincial boundaries of our Solar System."" Giovanna Tinetti, who co-authored the Nature article, believes the concept of life on other planets is not too unlikely. ""My personal view is it is way too arrogant to think that we are the only ones living in the Universe,"" she says." +tech,"On Wednesday, long-time White House correspondent Helen Thomas questioned White House Press Secretary Dana Perino bluntly and repeatedly about United States President George W. Bush's recent confirmation that he had approved CIA interrogation policies that included waterboarding. ""Where is everybody?"" asked Thomas, apparently frustrated with lack of attention her colleagues had given the issue. The community at the social news site reddit answered ""Here we are""; a message they plan to deliver along with several thousand dollars in flowers and other gifts. Thomas's questions became front-page news on reddit this morning, via a Think Progress blog post that includes a C-SPAN 2 video clip of Thomas during yesterday's press briefing. Noting the president's repeated assertion that the U.S. does not torture, Thomas characterized the authorized interrogation techniques as torture. ""Now he has admitted that he did sign off on torture, he did know about it,"" said Thomas, ""so how do you reconcile this credibility gap?"" Perino reiterated that the ""United States has not, is not torturing any detainees in the global war on terror."" Helen Thomas Whether waterboarding, among other techniques, should be categorized as torture has been a subject of political contention in recent months. Thomas was unequivocal, responding to Perino: ""That's not my question. My question is, why did he say publicly 'we do not torture', when he really did know that we do?"" In appreciation of the reporter asking ""A REAL QUESTION"" (as the headline put it), reddit users (known as ""redditors"") have collected over $3,000 for the purchase of flowers, edible arrangements and other gifts. Several 'redditors' also claimed to have ordered flowers for Thomas independently. The bulk of the money was collected through Chipin.com, on a donation page created Micah Fitch, a musician and graphic designer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As of publication, the site registered 400 contributors for a total of $3,125. Fitch also created a wiki, FlowersWiki, for organizing the gift purchases and selecting messages to go with them. A large delivery to the Washington D.C. offices of Thomas's employer Hearst Newspapers is being scheduled for Friday morning. One redditor claims that a friend who works for The Daily Show is pitching the story to the show's staff. This is not the first time Thomas has received a high-volume flower gift. In 2006, an e-mail campaign that began on the political website Democratic Underground collected over $2000 and resulted in delivery of 108 dozen roses." +tech,". The article below states April 18 which is incorrect. ScientologyThe Internet group Anonymous today held further protests critical of the Church of Scientology. The global protests started in Australia where several hundred protesters gathered at different locations for peaceful protests. In a global speech, the Internet protest movement said Scientology ""betrayed the trust of its members, had taken their money, their rights, and at times their very lives."" The protesters welcomed the public interest their protests have led to, and claimed they witnessed ""an unprecedented flood of Scientologists joining us across the world to testify about these abuses."" The group said it would continue with monthly actions. In a press statement from its European headquarters, Scientology accused the anonymous protesters of ""hate speech and hate crimes"", alleging that security measures were necessary because of death threats and bomb threats. This also makes the Church want to ""identify members"" of the group it brands as ""cyber-terrorists"". Wikinews had correspondents in a number of protest locations to report on the events. Anonymous states that the next protest is scheduled to take place on April 18, which happens to be the birthday of Suri, the daughter of Tom and Katie Cruise. News.com.au reported that approximately 200 masked protesters gathered outside of the Church of Scientology's headquarters in Adelaide. An anonymous spokesman told News.com.au that their group feels Scientology should not have tax-exempt status, and should not be considered a religion. At one point six police officers came by the protest; four members of a security firm stood outside the Scientology building throughout the protest. Adelaide Gallery * Adelaide protest in pictures :Main article: Protesters arrested at anti-Scientology event in Atlanta In Atlanta, police arrested two protesters for, supposedly, using a bullhorn without a permit although reports confirm that there is no law or ordinance in Atlanta necessitating one. The police were under the impression that they were arresting the leaders of the protesters. The anonymous protesters reacted by shouting that they have no leader, but they made no attempts to free those arrested. The police also pulled over cars for honking at the protesters, causing them to make signs ""Do not honk"". Volunteer Correspondent: Bhig3 Almost 135 protesters protested outside of the Church of Scientology location in Austin, Texas. Protesters received a permit to protest from 11AM to 4PM and stayed the full time allowed. Law enforcement officers were stationed outside the doors of the Church. These officers were very kind and open to conversation with Anonymous members. Protesters gathered across the street from the building as well as directly in front of it, waving signs and chanting. A UHaul van was converted to a Party Van which was eventually parked directly in front of the Church building for most of the day. Reports of Scientologists calling the UHaul company office, illegally claiming to be police officers, reached protesters soon after the van was parked. The protesters responded with a loud speaker saying ""Impersonating a police officer is illegal, even on the phone!"" Around 2:30PM a young man arrived in front of the Church to counter the Anonymous group with a yellow sign reading ""Freedom of Religion"" on one side, and ""It's Their Choice"" on the other. He began by calling out ""It's their Choice"" to which the protesters across the street replied ""We Agree"" and then ""Right to join, Right to leave!"" Some Anonymous members swarmed over to confront the man, but were restrained to one-on-one talks with him by another Anonymous member. He later left the area after talks with the protesters. BBC News drove by taking video of the protesters, but did not stop for interviews. Correspondent: TUFKAAP Over 250 Anonymous protesters were out in force once more on the corners, at Boston's Scientology church at the corners of Beacon and Hereford Streets. Protesters only took up three corners, instead all four like they did on February 10th as police asked them politely to leave the street in front of Church vacant. Even though the protesters had a permit for all streets, they complied. Wikinews talked to the Boston Police and was denied a video statement by one officer telling the reporter, ""Get out of here,"" and brushing him off. However, the reporter asked another officer if there had been any trouble. The officer responded that there had been ""no trouble, just people walking back and forth."" Most the protest consisted of protesters handing out information pamphlets, DVDs, viral marketing cards for their campaign, talking to pedestrians who were passing by, shouting Internet memes to one another and shouting various chants. Some Anonymous put forward concerns about Scientology plants in the crowd trying to incite disruption, however, none was noted. Other protesters mentioned there were rumors that the Scientologists were going to bus in Scientology students to disrupt the protester, however, that did not occur. Scientologists were outside taking photos of the protesters, unlike February 10th, where they remained inside and photographing from the building. The Wikinews reporter asked a Scientologist why he taking pictures, he took the reporter's photograph and noted that he ""was just taking pictures."" Wikinews asked a church member if he would like to give a statement to Wikinews on camera, they denied the request and told the reporter they would send a statement via email to him. However, Wikinews has not yet received a statement from the Boston church. * YouTube video of TUFKAAP's report Video Boston Galleries Image:Protester confronts cameraman.jpg|A protester confronts a Scientolgist cameraman. Image:Empty church sidewalk.jpg|Protesters were forbidden by police from protesting on the sidewalk in front of the church Image:No tax breaks for orangized crime sign.JPG|A protester holds a sign calling the church an organized crime front Image:Honk if you oppose cults sign.jpg|A protester dressed as ""Anonymous"" encourages people to honk their horns Image:Protesters in Boston across from church.jpg|Protesters in Boston stand across the street from the church Image:Casting the thetans out.jpg|A ""nun"" casting thetans out Image:Charmeleon protester.jpg|A protester dressed as a Charmeleon from Pokemon holds a sign parodying Rick Astley's ""Never Gonna Give You Up"" and the ""Rickroll"" meme while making references to Scientology's tax-exempt status and their ""Fair Game"" policy Image:Protesters holdings more signs.jpg|Protester hold signs asking for Scientology to be taxed and that ""Religion should be free"" Image:Protesters holding signs.jpg|Protesters hold signs next to the church Image:Protesters standing across from church.jpg|Protesters hold signs on the sidewalk next to the church Image:Protesters holding website signs.jpg|Protesters hold signs advertising websites and birthday wishes Image:Anonmyous protesters pose for group picture.JPG|Protesters pose for group pictures near the end of the protest Image:Anonymous group hug.jpg|Protesters share a group hug with each other Image:Suggested names sign.jpg|A protester's sign laying on the ground suggests other names for the Church. Image:DM horror show.JPG|This protester's sign accuses Church leader, David Miscavige of being a ""suppressive person"" or ""SP"" Image:Afro EFG.JPG|A protester with a V mask and a plastic afro Other Boston galleries * flickr page * maj gallery * another flickr page * another maj gallery Correspondents: Brian McNeil and Steven Fruitsmaak Starting off from a meeting point at the Brussels Central Station, the anonymous protesters proceeded on foot to arrive at their licensed protest point outside the Brussels Stock Exchange around 12:30 local time. The turnout was about half that of the previous protest with only 20 or so people present. Per advice from the police, cake was not on offer. It had been pointed out that this would likely get the protesters overrun by children and vagrants. Unlike other countries, Belgium has laws prohibiting protesters to cover their faces, leaving the protesters to wear sunglasses and shawls. The protest could not take place in front of Scientology's headquarters because an E.U. summit was scheduled to continue until today. Scientology members were allowed to be active outside their headquarters, for their ""open door day"". No special activities inside their building was observed, just volunteers handing out flyers to perhaps a dozen passers-by. The press release for this open door day was devoted to Anonymous: 4=Scientology press release The Scientologists said the event was inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is however remembered on December 10 (also mentioned on the flags outside their office, see photo). The United Nations Human Rights Council was established on March 15 (2006), a date closer to this weekend. Wikinews spoke to a Scientology representative in the European headquarters, which are located in the political heart of Brussels; Law Street, just next to the Belgian and European parliament. Since Scientology was devoting the afternoon to human rights, we asked for Scientology's opinion about human rights controversies in the United States (such as the Guantanamo Bay detainees). The representative told Wikinews that the Church is a religious movement and avoids taking general political stances. The representative was also confident about the outcome of a pending lawsuit from the Belgian federal prosecutor. After an eight-year investigation, the Belgian justice said that the local and European chapters, as well as, members would be accused of blackmailing, swindling members, breaking trade and privacy laws, unlawfully practising medicine, and forming a criminal organisation. ""The file is empty,"" said the Scientology representative, who asserted that the inquiry had been so lengthy because the state could not prove any wrongdoings by the Church. He said that unlike in the US, Scientology is not seeking official recognition in Belgium, which recognises only six religions. He also claimed that there were more than 1,000 Scientologists in Belgium. Anonymous distributed flyers and informed passers-by about Scientology. In a speech, they called for a dialogue with Scientology members, and said they were concerned for the parishioners' well-being: 4=Anonymous' global speech Operation: Party Hard - expect us, with cake was closed off with a birthday cake for the protesters. Belgian media were in attendance with a film crew from RTBF interviewing several of the protesters and capturing their banners on tape. The slogans were mostly in English, ranging from ""Religion is free, Scientology isn't"" to ""One billion years of servitude = super powers"" — the latter a reference to the contracts that Scientologists sign when they become involved with the church's Sea Org. The police presence was low-key with only one senior officer and a member of the Belgian intelligence services who took photographs. Brussels Gallery Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 002.jpg|The protesters arrive at the Stock Exchange and start folding flyers. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 005.jpg| Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 020.jpg| Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 028.jpg| Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 026.jpg|Anonymous members, wearing the black uniform with red tie, discuss Scientology with passers-by. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 048.jpg| Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 051.jpg| Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 142.jpg|A volunteer speaks to a group of youngsters. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 032.jpg|Pedestrians were given flyers about Scientology and its practices. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 037.jpg|Protester with sign saying: Tom Cruise can't fly, you guys Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 043.jpg|A protester shows his banner to the press. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 047.jpg| Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 067.jpg|The group brings the global speech. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 091.jpg|Anonymous sings a birthday song for L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology's founder... Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 092.jpg|...followed by birthday cake for the protesters. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 108.jpg| Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 122.jpg| Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 136.jpg|We get offered cake, decorated with a card that criticises Scientology. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 141.jpg|Protesters eating cake. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 146.jpg|By the end of the demonstration, the police asks Anonymous to leave. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 151.jpg|At Scientology's headquarters, an alleged 'open door day' celebrates the declaration of human rights. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 157.jpg|A Scientologist waiting to hand out flyers. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 156.jpg|Scientology's headquarter is located in Law Street no. 91, in the political heart of Brussels. Image:Anonymous Scientology protest Brussels 165.jpg|An exposition inside the Scientology building proudly displays the IRS ruling over Scientology's tax-exempt status under the header ""U.S government recognition"". The second panel is devoted to international recognition. Correspondents: Adambro, Skenmy, JamesHarrison Once more, protests took place outside of both the Queen Victoria Scientology Headquarters and the Tottenham Court Road Dianetics centre. The additional time available for protesters in the aftermath of a rushed February 10th protest allowed the many of Anonymous to expand their protest to include even more outreach towards members of the public, with Anonymous members handing out free cake, sweets and other confectionery along with leaflets and stickers to passers-by. Signage was loud and varied, proclaiming a variety of messages to the public and Scientologists. Many of the signs declared amusing yet pointed comments, with others making more serious jabs at the Church of Scientology. Despite a larger police presence at the Tottenham Court Road protest, the protesters and Scientologists were both peaceful. Police officers, when asked if they had had any problems with the protesters, replied, somewhat jovially, ""I can't really speak to you, the only thing I can say is 'No comment'. No problems. I mean no comment."" Interview This interview was carried out with members of Anonymous at the Tottenham Court Road protest. Church of Scientology representatives refused an interview and have not made any comment at the time of going to press. *WikinewsWhat has the public's reaction been to the protest, and what are your views on it? :Anonymous Member 1: Lots of people have been taking leaflets, you can see some people stopping to look at signs, it's very interesting. The ground covered- from nothing to this in six weeks is stunning. It's an internet phenomenon, definitely. It's people around the planet, they've suddenly realised they can communicate, and I think the whole Anonymous thing is the start of something different, it definitely feels like something's happening. *WNIn terms of Anonymous's lack of organisation as a collective in their protests towards the Church of Scientology, how do you feel about that and how has it really come together? :Anonymous Member 2: Well, everyone here is an individual, there's actual people behind the masks, even though we all look like the same person. As far as Scientology is concerned, I can't really say what any one person's motivations are because we don't have motivations as a group. Everybody is here as individuals, and for their own reasons... I think the great thing is the fact that with all our individual motivations and reasons we still manage to come together; we're a ton of people from the Internet, we don't know each other in real life; and we get together and have this kind of giant protest. It's amazing. *WNIn terms of the Church of Scientology as an entity, what's your personal motivation- as a member of Anonymous- for protesting against the Church? :Anonymous Member 2: Personally, the thing I feel most strongly about is the way they abuse their members. Cases like Lisa McPherson, for example, and people in RPF camps, and all the people who have died as a result of the Church's actions.That, I think, is the biggest thing for me. But there's also their status as a religion. Well, really, it's not. It's a business, and they need to acknowledge that. *WNWhat would you say are the main objections of Anonymous against the Church of Scientology? :Anonymous Member 3: I honestly can't speak for Anonymous, I can only speak for myself, and I believe that the Church of Scientology's fight against civil liberties in this country is something that has to be protested against. That's why I'm here today. Reporters also spoke with members of the police: *WNHow has it been to work with a group like Anonymous? :Met. Police Officer: It's been fine, there's been no problems at all. London Gallery Image:March15_LondonAnon_21.jpg|Anonymous on the left; Scientology on the right, at the TCR protest site Image:15thMarLondonSciProtestsAnon_02.JPG|Anonymous signs at the protest Image:15thMarLondonSciProtestsAnon_03.JPG|Yet more signs from Anonymous Image:15thMarLondonSciProtestsAnon_04.JPG|Anonymous protesters Image:March15_LondonAnon_11.jpg|More protesters and signs Image:March15_LondonAnon_05.jpg|Protesters with 'Happy birthday LIAR' balloons and signs Image:SNC14429.JPG|The amassed crowd at Tottenham Court Road Image:March15_LondonAnon_07.jpg|Anonymous signs near the Dianetics centre Correspondent: Anonymous101 The protest started at approximately 11:00 local time with protesters saying that over 100 people have turned up to protest for at least part of the protest. It started at Deansgate, which is the same location as the one for the start of the February 10 protests. Members of Anonymous have told Wikinews that their members started arriving at 09:00 local time. Protesters were holding placards with statements such as “Freedom of religion - A right / Freedom to oppress - A crime.” Placards asking “How do I anger seasoned Amnesty International prize winning journalist, John Sweeney?” were also held as part of the protest. John Sweeney was heavily featured in the UK press after he produced a documentary in which he claimed representatives of the Church of Scientology were constantly following him. As with the other protests, protesters brought cake, as a result of it being close to the birthday of L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology. One of the protesters told Wikinews that “The so-called Church of Scientology's multiple violations of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration on Human Rights have gone unnoticed and unchallenged for far too long.” He continued saying that “the corporation needs to learn that suppression of free speech, institution of forced labour and the more general suppression of its parishioners is both legally and morally wrong. The protests will continue until such a time that major changes are made to the Scientology's organizational structure, or until they meet accusations of wrongdoing head-on and provide evidence that the community's worries are unfounded.” He added that he was “not protesting against the religion of Scientology, but the corporation that delivers it.” Interview This interview was carried out yesterday with two of the Manchester protesters. *WikinewsWhy do you consider it important to take part in the protests? :Anonymous Member 1:We consider it important to take part, most of us are regular Internet users who believe in free speech. The CoS Church of Scientology, ed. has on numerous instances suppressed the flow of information regarding any of their criticisms or more esoteric beliefs. Examples include the ARS newsgroup during the 90s, and the recently leaked Tom Cruise video. :We are taking part to demonstrate our beliefs that freedom of knowledge and information are basic human rights. Most of us have also done our own research regarding the CoS, and come to the conclusion that it is a malign cult, that harms its members and tries to subvert public opinion to further its own ends. *WNHow many people do you expect to attend the protests worldwide? : Anon. 1: No real way of knowing until the day and head counts are done, but we are hoping to exceed Feb 10th due to a lot of Anonymous members not turning up due to fear of retaliation, laziness, or generally not being sure of what to do. Videos of the Feb 10th have shown how peaceful yet fun the protests are, so we are hoping to do quite well on the 15th. *WNWhy are you protesting against CoS? :Anon. 1: We are protesting the CoS, not the religious doctrine itself. Whilst many of us may disagree with some of the faith's tenants, we believe freedom of religion is every person's right. However the CoS uses this sacred human right to perform immoral and illegal actions, whilst labeling anyone who criticises it as Religious bigots, terrorists, or criminals. *WNMany people consider some of the actions taken by anonymous illegal. Do you think your actions are justified? :Anon. 2:The problem with this question is the way Anonymous is organised, as it isn't organised. It's just a collection of people from various corners of the Internet. If someone makes a threat to the CoS and says they're Anonymous there's nothing we can do to stop them saying that, Anonymous doesn't have a membership card. :Anon. 1: Yes. Manchester Gallery Image:Anonymous protests- March 15 - map - mancheser (1).png|A close up map of the protest location. Image:Anonymous protests- March 15 - map - mancheser (3).png|The protest location, on a map showing a larger area. Image:Anonymous protests- March 15 - map - mancheser (2).png|The protest location, on a map showing much of the UK. Image:Page not found on Camino web browser when trying to find anonymous' website.png|The message you get when trying to view the Manchester section of Anonymous' website (with Camino as web browser). Photographer: rankun Image:3-15 anti-Scientology protest NYC 1.JPG Image:3-15 anti-Scientology protest NYC 2.JPG Image:3-15 anti-Scientology protest NYC 3.JPG Image:3-15 anti-Scientology protest NYC 4.JPG Image:3-15 anti-Scientology protest NYC 5.JPG Image:3-15 anti-Scientology protest NYC 6.JPG Correspondent: DragonFire1024 *( Videos of the protest in Buffalo) Throughout the day, nearly 100 protesters including ex-Sea Org Scientology member Chuck Beatty, turned out in Buffalo with signs and enthusiasm. It was a cold and foggy day with temperatures in the low 30's (F) which is significantly warmer than the previous February 10 protests that drew only about 50 people. People filled Main Street across from the Church in a line which extended an entire city block. A radio was on hand playing 'Rick Roll' and also the audio recording of the Scientology interview with Tom Cruise. The day started off with an off duty Buffalo Police detective instructing the crowd to protest peacefully. The detective, who was identified to Wikinews only as 'Detective Tim' then immediately told protesters to remove masks that could be considered threatening. Scarves were allowed as it was a cold day, but bandannas were not permitted to be worn. Wikinews was earlier accused of being ""fake"" and Detective 'Tim' refused to give a statement to Wikinews saying ""no media. You made that (press badge) from the Internet. I never seen this site before."" 'Tim' then refused outright to give his last name and badge number. 'Tim' was quoted only during his time speaking publicly to the protesters. Shortly after instructing people to remove masks, 'Tim' then accused a member of Anonymous of ""portraying an Arabic terrorist"" because of a scarf he was wearing and asked him to remove it. Shortly after, at least three protesters were detained by police and questioned after taking photographs and video of the Church from across the street. Police approached the three and began to ""yell"" at them. 'Tim' then told one protester that ""the Church want you arrested. Now how am I going to avoid that."" The protester then willingly handed over his videotape of the church and asked not to be arrested. Subsequently all three were released without being charged. According to Detective 'Tim', ""the tape is now the property of the police."" The protesters were not on Church property and were only filming the areas of the Church visible from across the streets. During the protest, a member of Anonymous read a speech, which according to him, was a worldwide speech to all Churches. ""Today - The Ides of March - is the day Julius Caesar was betrayed by those he trusted. Today we gather together as Anonymous to call attention to another betrayal of trust - that of the Church of Scientology upon its followers. Since is inception, Scientology has traded in false hopes and promises, betrayed the trust of its members, taken their money, their rights, and at times their very lives,"" said the statement. ""Last month 10,000 people demonstrated in one hundred and seven cities across the world. They came together to make the first breach in the wall of silence,"" added the statement. Despite the incident, 'Tim' was friendly to the protesters, even stating that ""he might be back later to have a few cupcakes."" According to a member of Anonymous, ""we will come again, our numbers ever increasing, in April, May, June and July."" Buffalo Gallery Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-14.jpg Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-2.jpg Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-13 Detained.JPG|Police detain three members of anonymous videotaping and photographing the Church and pictured here, the officer confiscates the tape. Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008.jpg Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-4.jpg Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-5.jpg Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-6.jpg Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-7.jpg Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-8.jpg Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-10.jpg Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-12.jpg Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-15.jpg Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-16.jpg Image:Protest against Scientology Buffalo NY March 15 2008-17.jpg Correspondent: RoninBK The Seattle protest was divided into two halves. One group was to assemble at Westlake Center, and would march from there to the Scientology site. The other group was to meet at the Seattle Center, closer to the site, disseminating fliers to the crowd. Protesters began to gather in front of Westlake Center at about 9:30 PDT. with about a dozen protesters at first. One of the protesters revealed to me that he was a 30 year former member of the Church of Scientology from the Los Angeles area. He asserted that ""this protest is just."" He spoke of former members who have been afraid to come out, because of the continuously reinforced teachings of the church. Members are cautioned against looking onto the Internet for alternate information, that they could die if they were to even look at the Internet. The mind is trained not to seek out any information that could contradict the church's teachings. He said that if the Scientologists ever knew what really happens in the church management, they would be terrified, and turn away in droves. Other members carried picket signs and leaflets. Early on, many of the crowd members were chatting with each other, sometimes taking pictures of each other. Passers by gave the assembled crowd mixed reactions to being approached. One of the members of the public expressed concern that a protest in Seattle would not do much, ""They oughta be picketing Tom Cruise's house."" Curiously, a few members actually took pictures of me standing off to the side with my camera. A few accused me of being from the church, attempting to gain identifiable information, and were therefore cautious. Others saw me as the only person around without a mask, and in this crowd I was the outsider. At about 11:00 PDT, the crowd started to proceed north, up 5th Avenue in downtown Seattle. At no point did I witness any of the Anonymous group committing a crime. I however, could probably have been cited on multiple counts for jaywalking, in attempts to get a decently framed shot from my digital camera without being seen as marching with the crowd. Numerous car horns blared during the crowd's exodus down 5th Avenue. As the street took a turn north, the crowd passed Fischer Plaza, home to local ABC affiliate KOMO-TV. I noted that I had not seen any mainstream media coverage of the event. The march turned down Broad Street, and at this point I gave up trying to keep pace in front of the crowd. I pulled over to the side of the sidewalk, next to a chain link fence to get the last photos of this phase of the protest. Afterwards, I followed the procession as it turned onto Aurora, and reached the Scientology center. The center itself is situated on one end of an overpass, Aurora Avenue crosses over Mercer Street here, and eastbound traffic on Mercer was treated to a large banner proclaiming ""HONK AGAINST SCIENTOLOGY"" The banner generated a considerable number of car horns, which resulted in an equal number of cheers from the crowd. On the north side of the center, more protesters positioned themselves around the parking lot. Very few members were visible, for a long time there was only one standing near the entrance back in a fenced off area. Members of the crowd would level jeers at the man, such as ""What are your crimes?"" Eventually two police officers arrived, who stationed themselves in the parking lot, observing the crowd and calmly turning back any protester who crossed into the parking lot with a warning. No Scientology personnel approached the crowd, or a member of the press. Seattle Gallery Image:3-15 Seattle 02.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 03.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 07.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 09.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 10.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 12.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 17.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 18.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 19.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 20.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 21.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 22.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 25.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 26.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 28.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 29.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 31.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 33.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 34.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 35.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 36.JPG Image:3-15 Seattle 37.JPG The protest in Sydney gathered approximately 300 activists. The masked protesters gathered in Hyde Park and moved through the city to the Church of Scientology. Two large trucks obstructed the view of the Scientology office from across the street. Sydney Gallery Image:Sydney Anonymous protest March 2008 group.jpg| Luke Image:Sydney Anonymous protest March 2008.jpg| Luke The protesting began at 10:30, and was quieter than the 10 February event, with about 100 protesters. Initially, all of the protesters were on the side of the street opposing the church, but later someone suggested loudly to cross over and soon both sides of the street had protesters, many right in front of the church. The protesters walked through the middle of the road, contrary to guidelines stated for the 10 February protest. This resulted in some booing from the protesters that didn't cross. Police showed up at one point, and asked a few protesters (walking right through them) to clear a driveway. Portland Gallery Image:PortlandScientologyProtest15March2008_01.jpg|The first few protesters to cross the street. Image:PortlandScientologyProtest15March2008_02.jpg Image:PortlandScientologyProtest15March2008_03.jpg|Protesters right in front of the church's entrance. Image:PortlandScientologyProtest15March2008_04.jpg|Some protesters, up close. clr" +tech,"Japan Japan's nuclear watchdog, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, yesterday said the revealed leaking of an estimated 300 metric tons of radioactive water at the damaged Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant was a ""serious incident"", level three on the seven-part international scale. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), who run the plant, announced the leak last week and the new accident's level-three rating was made after consultation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, the Nuclear Regulation Authority notes this estimate may be overstated as it relies on the leaking tank being full before the leak began. There is no gauge to measure water quantities inside the tank, used to store contaminated water after the initial accident. Water is being collected at a rate of 400 tons per day, and an unknown quantity of radioactive groundwater is flowing into the sea. Industry minister Toshimitsu Motegi has already announced increased governmental supervision of TEPCO's leak mitigation after two other leaks this year. Motegi said TEPCO's antileak methods were like ""whack-a-mole"". Nuclear Regulation Authority disaster taskforce leader Shinji Kinjo has said TEPCO fails to document inspections and is poor at monitoring the tanks on the site. TEPCO staff had said water levels in the tank had remained constant. Shunichi Tanaka, head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, said ""We have no idea whether it's actually 300 tons that leaked. We need to look into this issue more."" TEPCO initially said the leak was small when it was found in July and the watchdog gave it a level one ""anomaly"" rating at the time. Inspectors now say radiation below this tank stands at 100 millisieverts per hour, and another at the facility has a level of 70 millisieverts per hour. ""One hundred millisieverts per hour is equivalent to the limit for accumulated exposure over five years for nuclear workers; so it can be said that we found a radiation level strong enough to give someone a five-year dose of radiation within one hour,"" said TEPCO boss Masayuki Ono last week. TEPCO shares dropped yesterday by 2.6% to 497 yen." +tech,"A team of scientists at Stanford University claim to have detected a subtle, missing element of Einstein's theory of relativity. In a press release dated February 16th, Robert Kahn, Stanford University's Public Affairs Coordinator, announced the experimental confirmation of frame dragging, an effect in which the presence of a rotating body causes space itself to be pulled along as the body rotates. While the effect was theorized by Josef Lense and Hans Thirring as far back as 1918, the small scale of the effect, as little as one part in a trillion for a satellite orbiting the Earth, made detecting the effect difficult. Many people are surprised when they learn that the two theories of relativity have passed every experiment that has been designed to test them. Are you surprised that the weirdness predicted by relativity has been experimentally verified?The observation was made by the Gravity Probe B satellite, which carries finely-machined gyroscopes. Scientists looked for small changes in the motion of the gyroscopes to detect the frame dragging effect, as well as the much larger geodetic effect &ndash; small corrections to the Earth's gravitational field due to differences between Einstein's and Newton's theories of gravity. The experiment was conducted on the satellite from 2004 to 2005. However, the complexity of the data analysis along with unforeseen engineering problems have made finding the effect in the experiment's results difficult. In particular, the presence of small electrical charges on the gyroscopes interfered with their results. Francis Everitt, the experiment's Principal Investigator, stresses in an interview with the New York Times that their announcement is only preliminary and that, with further analysis, they hope to improve the precision of their results; currently, they say they have only detected the frame dragging effect to within plus or minus fifteen percent of its expected value. The theory of general relativity was developed by Albert Einstein in the early 20th century to explain the behavior of moving objects in space, after the discovery that the speed of light was always the same no matter how the person measuring it was moving. While it successfully explains many strange behaviors in space, such as the slow shifting of the orbit of Mercury and the bending of light by massive objects such as black holes, testing the theory on Earth has always been difficult due to the small scale of relativity's effects in everyday life." +tech,"Thomas Rivinius There is only visible light so far. We know of no other radiation spectrum. WNIQ What are some of the other observed systems that have similar radiation emission? Thomas Rivinius As I said, this is from the point-of-view of the stars, these are just normal stars. And the black hole does not contribute anything to the emission of the radiation. WNIQ What does the future of these stars look like? Thomas Rivinius The outer star will just evolve very normally just like any other star of its mass. The inner star will become a super giant as well. But when it ends its supergiant phase, it will be big enough to get accounted into the black hole and then the black hole will start accreting. It is hard to say what happens then. It may get big enough for the black hole to actually fall into the star, and then shortly after the star falls into the black hole, or it might end with the accretion. WNIQ So you are saying there is a chance the black hole may create an accretion disk feeding on this inner star? Thomas Rivinius It will certainly. But it will take another few million years. WNIQ Were you expecting a black hole to be so close to the Solar System? Thomas Rivinius Ah yes, as I said, there must be many black holes. I mean, there are certainly black holes which are closer. It's just not very likely to find them. They are not infrequent objects. They are interestingly very frequent objects. There are just very hard to find. WNIQ What future investigations is your team planning for? Thomas Rivinius With interferometry, we want to image that, and maybe we want to look in the catalogues if we can find a similar system. We are looking for candidates where we might reasonably expect that it might be similar and then we can have a look in detail. WNIQ What lies ahead in this system to be discovered? Thomas Rivinius Well, basically what we still have to do with this system is to make the numbers certain. Right now, what we have is limits. We have a lower limit for the mass. But what we can do is we get precise value for the mass. We only have a rough distance, we can get a precise distance. We can measure the chemical composition of the stars that still exists, if they in any way have been altered or affected by the original primary, when the most massive star went supernova. So it should tell us a lot, in principle, about heterogeneous systems about how such massive stars evolve. WNIQ Are there any plans to observe the nearby binary stars for black holes? Thomas Rivinius As I said, we are looking into the catalogues. If we can find similar systems that could give us hints, that might be promising candidates. But even if they are frequent, they are not that frequent that we could observe every star and just look for black holes. That is not an efficient use of telescope time. WNIQ Are there any other observations you have been working on? Thomas Rivinius Ah, well, there's a lot of things I'm working on. But they are unrelated to this particular project. WNIQ What is your role at the ESO? Thomas Rivinius At the ESO, I am a science operations astronomer. Which means that I run the telscopes; I support other astronomers when they come here to conduct the observations, and when they cannot come, or do not want to come which also happens, I do the observations for them. And I do this about 60% of my working time, I work for the observatory in this capacity, and one third of my working time I do my own research. WNIQ Well, those were all the questions I had for you. Is there something you would like to add? Thomas Rivinius No, I think that was fine, thank you. WNIQ Thank you for agreeing for this interview. It had been a great pleasure discussing this with you. Thomas Rivinius Thank you. Ciao." +tech,"American corporation DivX, Inc. announced on Monday that it will shut its Stage6 website that hosts videos made by users. The shutdown will take effect on February 28, 2008 and is because the firm no longer have the resources to keep it online. ""Why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide. There are a lot of other details involved, but at the end of the day it’s really as simple as that,"" said Tom, who is also known as 'Spinner' in the statement on the website and an employee of DivX, Inc. the San Diego, California-based host of the webservice. In October 2007, Universal Music Group filed a federal lawsuit against DivX, Inc. for copyright infringement after users posted hundreds of music videos on Stage6. Chief Executive Kevin Hell said in a statement: ""By no longer expending resources on Stage6, we sharpen our focus on creating a global standard for digital video."" Videos can no longer be uploaded, but will be able to be watched and downloaded until February 28. Stage6 made its debut in 2006. It hosted movie clips, television shows and music videos along with content made by the site's users in the popular DivX codec." +tech,"The People's Republic of China today launched its first moon orbiter as part of the country's lunar exploration program. At 18:05 hours local time (10:05 UTC) the rocket Chang'e 1 lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China. The name of the probe refers to the Chinese goddess of the moon. The state television network broadcast live footage of the countdown and launch, which took place in the presence of Chinese officials and some 2,000 Chinese who paid around US$100 to attend the event, but without any international press. The 2350 kg probe is expected to enter a lunar orbit on November 5. On its year-long mission, Chang'e 1 will obtain three dimensional images of the Moon's surface and gather information related to the chemical and physical properties of the lunar soil. It will do so circulating at about 200 kilometers above the lunar surface. On its way to the Moon the spacecraft will register data regarding the solar winds, or space weather. It will also broadcast 30 patriotic Chinese songs when orbiting the Moon. The officially-Communist nation which hosts next year's Olympics hopes to put a taikonaut on the moon in ten to 15 years. Last month, Japan launched a lunar probe while India hopes to achieve the same next April. In 2003, China used one of their own rockets to get the astronaut Yang Liwei into space. Yang told the Xinhua News Agency last week that once China has a manned space station, he and his fellow taikonauts could form a new branch of the Communist Party in space. Last January, China used a rocket to blow up one of its own satellites, sparking fears from the United States and other countries that China might have a military agenda in space, besides the problems of space pollution and danger to other satellites the explosion caused. China says the goals of its space program are scientific and peaceful." +tech,"CanadaA University of Calgary research team developed a new method for extracting carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the air — a fundamental shift in carbon capture technology enabling capture of the most common greenhouse gas from so-called diffuse sources like aircraft, trucks and automobiles that represent half of the greenhouse gases emitted globally. Professor David Keith, Director of University of Calgary's (UofC) Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy (ISEEE) and a team of researchers from UofC's Energy and Environmental Systems Group built and operated a prototype system this summer producing results that compared favourably with commercial carbon capture systems. Two 'provisional' patents have been filed on the technology but Keith warns there are still ""many pitfalls along the path to commercialization."" Using a process adapted from the pulp-and-paper industry that halves the cost of CO2 air capture in their custom-built tower, Professor Keith and his team captured the equivalent of about 20 tonnes per year of CO2 (approximately equal to the yearly output of one person in North America) directly from the air with less than 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity per tonne of carbon dioxide on a single square metre of scrubbing material. ""This means that if you used electricity from a coal-fired power plant, for every unit of electricity you used to operate the capture machine, you'd be capturing 10 times as much CO2 as the power plant emitted making that much electricity,"" explains Professor Keith. A report co-authored by Keith in the American Chemical Society's journal Environmental Science & Technology explains ""nearly all current research on carbon capture and storage (CCS) focuses on capturing CO2 from large, stationary sources such as power plants. Such plans usually entail separating CO2 from flue gas, compressing it, and transporting it via pipeline to be stored underground."" Should North American governments invest in bringing this technology to market? Using CO2 air capture technology, ""a company could, in principle, contract with an oil sands plant near Fort McMurray to remove CO2 from the air and could build its air capture plant wherever it's cheapest — China, for example — and the same amount of CO2 would be removed,"" says Professor Keith in a UofC press release. ""While it's important to get started doing things we know how to do, like wind power, nuclear power, and 'regular' carbon capture and storage,"" Professor Keith continues, ""it's also vital to start thinking about radical new ideas and approaches to solving this problem."" ISEEE's Executive Director David Layzell points out that ""energy-efficient and cost-effective air capture could play a valuable role in complementing other approaches for reducing emissions from the transportation sector, such as biofuels or electric vehicles.""" +tech,"NASA has canceled today's early morning launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour because of a hydrogen fuel leak. The leak was discovered after NASA personnel began to fill Endeavour's external fuel tank. ""The official scrub time was 12:26 a.m. EDT. Launch teams began draining Endeavour's external fuel tank of its liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen at 12:06 a.m.. Fueling was halted after the leak was detected near the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, or GUCP, which attached to the external tank at its intertank area,"" said NASA in a statement on their website. Launch for mission STS-127 was scheduled for 7:17 a.m. (EDT) on Saturday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. If NASA fixes the problem in a reasonable period, the next window of opportunity for launch would be at 6:51 a.m Sunday morning. If the problem cannot be solved by then, NASA says the earliest they would be able to re-schedule Endeavor's lift off would be June 17. This would conflict with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)/Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) launch. Space Shuttle Discovery will be on standby in case of emergencies and STS-128 could be readied to launch by August 6. A similar problem in March forced NASA to push back the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery for mission STS-119. The problem was fixed and Discovery was able to take off. Mission STS-127 is the 32nd flight dedicated to the International Space Station construction, and the final of a series of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the Japanese Kibo laboratory complex. The STS-127 payload is the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section. The mission is scheduled to last sixteen days. This trip marks the first time that thirteen people will be on the ISS at the same time. Canada will see two astronauts in space simultaneously, also a first for the nation. Crew members listed to be part of the mission are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley, astronauts Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Canadian Space Agency's mission specialist Julie Payette, and mission specialists Tom Marshburn and Tim Kopra." +tech,"A sudden cold snap across Europe caused a surge in demand for electricity. Two high voltage power lines in Germany failed. This triggered a cascade of cuts as automatic safety devices cut millions of customers in order to prevent a total blackout of the continent. Parts of Germany, Belgium, France (including parts of Paris), Spain, and Italy were affected. High speed railways were also impacted. Power was restored within two hours. Later reports said that Austria and Croatia were also affected. An alternative cause has been suggested; that the opening of the Ems powerline crossing to let a ship pass may have triggered the blackout. A senior director with French power company RTE is reported as saying ""We weren't very far from a European blackout"". After 13 years of isolation, Southeast Europe (including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia and Romania) were reconnected to the main European transmission system in November 2004. Now, with 400 million users, the European electrical transmission system has become, in terms of consumption, the world's largest electrical energy system. Italy's Prime minister, Romano Prodi, said there was a ""contradiction"" in having a unified power network but no European Union central authority." +tech,"Space The Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft, which launched on Tuesday, arrived at the International Space Station yesterday with three members of the Expedition 31 long duration mission. The Soyuz rocket launched on May 15 at 3:01:23 UTC (9:01:23 AM local time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. On board were Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, as well as NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba. The Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on May 17, approximately two days after launch, at 4:36 UTC. After docking, the Soyuz crew joined fellow Expedition 31 crew members Oleg Kononenko, European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, and NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, who wished Acaba a happy 45th birthday. Kononenko, Kuipers, and Pettit are currently slated to return to Earth in early June, at which point Padalka, Revin and Acaba&mdash;the most recent additions to the ISS crew&mdash;will become members of Expedition 32. The trio are scheduled to be the only occupants of the space outpost until the arrival of the remainder of the Expedition 32 crew aboard Soyuz TMA-05M, currently slated for July 17. During their time aboard the station, Padalka, Revin, and Acaba will perform research in ecology, medicine, and space technology. They are expected to remain aboard the International Space Station until mid-September, after which they will return to Earth to conclude a mission of approximately 125 days in space." +tech,"On Friday, the United States House of Representatives passed House Resolution 2998, better known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, following days of debate. The final vote was 219&ndash;212, with only 8 Republicans voting for the legislation, and 44 Democrats voting against it. The resolution addresses the ""greenhouse effect,"" and calls for a 17% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and an 83% reduction by 2050. In addition, the legislation will establish new requirements for utilities, and various incentives for ""going green."" The resolution was sponsored by Representative Henry Waxman of California, and Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts. At 3:09 a.m. (EDT) on Friday morning, a 341 page amendment was added to the resolution. In an attempted filibuster, House Minority Leader John Boehner read the majority of the added amendment, and stated that ""...when you file a 300-page amendment at 3:09 a.m., the American people have a right to know what's in this bill."" Reactions to the legislation have been mixed, with opponents and advocates speaking out. The President of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Kevin Knobloch, said that the Union was ""thrilled that Congress has finally caught up with science and the American people in recognizing the need to switch on clean energy."" A report by the The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, stated that the legislation would ""damage the economy and hobble growth."" Most House Republicans opposed the bill for going too far in its regulation, with GOP chairman Mike Pence saying that ""raising the cost of energy is a bad idea in prosperous times."" Democrat Dennis Kucinich, on the other hand, opposed the bill for not going far enough, calling it an ""illusion"" that ""locks us into a framework that will fail."" Kucinich pointed out that the bill gives subsidies to coal, which is not a clean source of fuel, and includes greenhouse gas emitters such as trash incinerators under its definition of ""renewable energy.""" +tech,"InfosectionEnd Space Shuttle Atlantis has made a night landing at the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday finishing off STS-115 which lasted 13 days. The orbiter landed safely at 6:21:30 a.m. EDT, on runway 33 at KSC. The return of Atlantis to Earth avoided a traffic jam at the space station, as Soyuz TMA-9 Expedition 14 docked with the ISS on September 20, 2006 at 12:21AM CDT (09:21AM Moscow Time) which included space tourist Anousheh Ansari." +tech,"crime and law Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit overturned the conviction of Andrew ""weev"" Auernheimer, who had been sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison after exploiting a bug in AT&T's website, allowing him access to confidential data about their iPad customers. The hacker and self-described ""troll"" was convicted of conspiracy to unlawfully access AT&T's servers and identity theft by federal jury in November 2012 by a New Jersey court under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Co-defendant Daniel Spitler plead guilty. Spitler discovered AT&T had inadvertently made data publicly available through their website, and wrote a script allowing him to obtain the email addresses of approximately 120,000 customers, including that of then-New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Auernheimer passed this information to Gawker, who published a redacted version. The three judges on the Philadelphia-based court, in a unanimous decision, ruled the New Jersey courtroom was an inappropriate venue for the initial trial. Michael Chagares, circuit judge, wrote ""the improper venue here—far from where he performed any of his allegedly criminal acts—denied Auernheimer's substantial right to be tried in the place where his alleged crime was committed"". The court said the issue represented a basic constitutional right and not a mere technicality. Prosecutors argued that approximately 4,500 of the affected users lived in New Jersey and the state was therefore a valid place for the trial, but the court noted neither the servers accessed, nor the Gawker reporter, nor the defendants, were based in that state. Auernheimer's attorney, Tor Ekeland, said that the government was ""trying to find courts that are favourable to them""." +tech,"Social networking website Twitter picked up 1 in every 400 UK Internet visits last week and had more viewer visits than rival site MySpace. Hitwise, an Internet research company, provided the information. They said: ""For the week ending August 29th 2009, Twitter.com picked up 1 in every 400 UK Internet visits and ranked as the 27th most visited website in the UK, one position above MySpace."" Robin Goad, researching director of Hitwise, said: ""Twitter is probably even more popular than the figures suggest as many Twitter users access the site through their mobile phones and third party applications than visit the site's home page."" Twitter has gained popularity over the course of this year due to an upsurge in celebrities using the website like Stephen Fry, Johnathan Ross, John Cleese, Lily Allen, Chris Moyles and Calvin Harris. The social networking hotspot started in 2006, whereas MySpace started three years earlier." +tech,"NASA diagram of Voyager 1 entering the heliosheath region The Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977 to explore the planets, is now agreed by scientists to have entered the heliosheath at the edge of the solar system 8.7 billion miles (14 billion kilometers) from the Sun. In a few years, Voyager 1 is expected to become the first man-made object to cross into interstellar space. ""Voyager has entered the final lap on its race to the edge of interstellar space, as it begins exploring the solar system's final frontier,"" said Dr. Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology. As long ago as 2003, scientists thought Voyager 1 was entering the termination shock region of the solar system, but there was some dispute. The termination shock is the area preceding the heliosheath, where the electrically charged solar wind is slowed and concentrated by contact with interstellar gas. The heliosheath is considered the outer edge of our solar system. Around it is the heliopause, a cosmic bubble where the pressure of solar wind and interstellar wind is in balance. NASA image of cover of the Voyager Golden Record The solar system as a whole is in orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy. As it plows through clouds of interstellar gas and dust, a bow shock forms ahead of it, which has been compared to the turbulence a ship creates as it sails through ocean currents. All this is illustrated in the NASA diagram shown here. Voyager 1 is still operational and sending back reams of scientific data. Already notable for more than 27 years of successful operation, Voyager 1 is projected to continue operating on its plutonium power source possibly until the year 2020. Voyager 2, its companion probe launched the same year, has visited more planets than any other spacecraft. It too is eventually expected to exit the solar system at a more downward angle, but is currently only 80% as far from the sun as Voyager 1. The Voyagers are not only gathering data about the cosmos, they are sending the greetings of the human world out to it. Each Voyager contains what is known as the ""Voyager Golden Record"", which is an audio recording on a 12-inch gold plated copper disc. The discs contain samples of nature sounds, spoken greetings in 55 human languages, and musical compositions. The collection of samples was supervised by astronomer Carl Sagan, and is intended to convey the hopefulness of life on Earth for possible discovery by alien races or retrieval by some advanced human civilization." +tech,"From the middle of July, Sony Corporation refreshed their senior laptop brand VAIO from ""Video Audio Integrated Operation"" to ""Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer"". According to Sony Taiwan Limited, this refreshment is an attempt to relocate the laptop consuming market for business and entertainment factors. In the ""VAIO Experience 2008"" press conference in Europe, Sony promoted their new product series for different populations including BZ for business, FW for home entertainment, Z for ultra-slim, and SR for complex applications. Different with past series, Sony added ""Clear Bright"" screening technology for high-definition display, and ""full-carbon production"" features. BD-burning and Intel Centrino 2 processing technologies will be featured in all the new models. For security issue, Sony also embedded fingerprint system to prevent personal data to be stolen. Continued from TZ series, innovative designs including ""Green Power Button"", ""Situational Switch"" are also added in newly-launched series. ""Due to consuming market differences, Sony only promoted BZ series in Europe and America but not included Asia. Although the TICA Show in Taipei will be different, functionality will be the greatest issue when a consumers choose a notebook computer before buying."" addressed by executives from Sony Taiwan Limited, during the ""VAIO Experience 2008"" press conference in Taiwan. Image:Expo Comm Wireless Japan 2008 Sony VAIO Z.jpg|Sony VAIO Z at Wireless Japan 2008. Hirotaka Nakajima Image:Sony Taiwan VAIO Experience 2008 Press Conference VAIO FW the Power Button (booted).jpg|The Green Power Button (power on).Rico Shen Image:Sony Taiwan VAIO Experience 2008 Press Conference VAIO Z the Power Button (shuted).jpg|The Green Power Button (power off).Rico Shen Image:Sony Taiwan VAIO Experience 2008 Press Conference VAIO Z the situational switch buttons.jpg|Situational switch button at VAIO Z.Rico Shen Image:Sony Taiwan VAIO Experience 2008 Press Conference VAIO Z the barebone sample.jpg|The barebone sample of Sony VAIO Z (without isolated keyboard).Rico Shen" +tech,"NASA has announced that the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis, mission STS-122, will once again be postponed, this time until late January or early February. The reason behind the delay is believed to be a faulty connector that caused erratic fuel sensor readings during the previous two launch attempts in December. Space shuttle program manager Wayne Hale gave January 24 as the earliest possible launch date, but stated that February would be a more realistic expectation. ""I think it's much more likely that we'll be going to be ready somewhere in the February 2 to 7 time frame, given that we don't have any more findings as we go through our testing,"" Hale stated. The initial launch date for the shuttle was December 6, but failed fuel gauges in the external tank forced the launch to be moved to December 9. The fuel sensors are part of a system to prevent the shuttle from running on an empty tank, which could cause pumps in the engine of break and possibly trigger a disastrous explosion. When the problem reoccurred, NASA ran a fuel test, which led them to believe the problem lied in the faulty connector. The connector was then removed from the tank and taken to Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where it is currently undergoing extensive analysis and modification. The new connector is scheduled to be installed by January 10. ""What we're doing ... is addressing what we think is the most probable cause, and there's a lot of information that points to that connector and that this is the right design fix,"" deputy space shuttle program manager John Shannon said. ""We're fairly confident that if the problem is where we think it is, that this will solve that."" The main objective of mission STS-122 is to deliver the European science laboratory Columbus to the International Space Station." +tech,"space On Monday, astronomers at the Ohio State University, Columbus, revealed the discovery of an exoplanet, named KELT-9b and according to the university's astronomy professor Scott Gaudi, it is ""the hottest gas giant planet that has ever been discovered"". The discovery was reported online in the Nature journal. The astronomers say the planet's surface temperature is more than 4000°C (7232°F), nearly as hot as the Sun. The planet takes about 36 to 48 hours to orbit around its star, KELT-9. KELT-9 is about two and a half times larger than the Sun and nearly twice its temperature. The star is about 650 light years from the earth, but it is about 300 million years old. KELT-9 is a blue A-type star, which shines brightly but, unlike some other stars such as our own Sun, their life span is on the order of millions rather than billions of years. About a year ago, NASA reports, at the Winer Observatory in Arizona, observers using the KELT-North telescope noticed a minute drop in KELT-9's brightness &mdash; about 0.5%. This pattern was observed once every one and a half days, implying the planet comes in between the line of sight of the star from Earth, meaning the planet completes one revolution in that time period. Observations using the Hubble telescope could reveal whether the planet possesses a comet-like tail, which could help the astronomers estimate how long the planet may live. Professor Gaudi told the BBC the planet KELT-9b ""is about three times the mass of Jupiter and twice as big as Jupiter."" He said the team discovered the planet in 2014. He added, ""it took us this long to finally convince ourselves that this truly bizarre and unusual world was in fact a planet orbiting another star"". Much like the Moon is to the Earth, KELT-9b is tidally locked to its star; with one side of the planet always exposed to its star. Due to tidal locking, the planet's surface temperature facing the star is roughly 4300°C (7772°F), more than the surface temperature of an average Red Dwarf star. Its close proximity to its parent star exposes it to ultraviolet radiation, and according to the calculations, the planet loses planetary material anywhere between ten billion to ten trillion grams each second. Professor Gaudi said, ""It's a planet by any of the typical definitions of mass, but its atmosphere is almost certainly unlike any other planet we've ever seen just because of the temperature of its dayside"". According to Keivan Stassun, a professor of physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, ""KELT-9 will swell to become a red giant star in a few hundred million years"". Professor Stassun directed the study with Gaudi. The discovery was a collaboration between Ohio State University, Vanderbilt University, Lehigh University, and the South African Astronomical Observatory. They operate a dual-location system, one location in each hemisphere, called the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope. Professor Gaudi told the BBC that it was named ""as a joke"". headattrib=1clear" +tech,"Space The Space Shuttle Discovery successfully landed Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:57 AM EST (16:57 UTC) for what is scheduled to be the final time in its operational career. Upon landing, the shuttle and its six-person crew wrapped up the STS-133 mission, the Discoverys 39th and final flight into space. STS-133 launched on February 24, after several launch delays since last November due to numerous technical issues. During the twelve-day mission, the crew transported supplies and parts to the International Space Station (ISS) including Robonaut2, the first dexterous humanoid robot in space, the Permanent Multipurpose Module, and ExPRESS Logistics Carrier-4. During the mission, two spacewalks were performed by astronauts Stephen Bowen and Alvin Drew to install parts and perform maintenance on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory. Six astronauts and cosmonauts, members of the Expedition 26 crew, remain aboard the ISS to carry out a long-duration mission aboard the outpost. STS-133 is Discoverys 39th and final mission into space, the 35th shuttle mission to the ISS, and the 133rd flight in the entire shuttle program. Discovery has docked with two different space stations, Mir and the ISS, and was the first shuttle to fly after both the Challenger and Columbia disasters. Discovery made its maiden flight on STS-41-D in 1984, having since become the most experienced and oldest surviving space shuttle, and delivering payloads to orbit such as the Hubble Space Telescope and becoming the first shuttle to fly a Russian cosmonaut into space. Discovery, having completed its final flight, has been offered by NASA to the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., to display to the public. The museum, however, is in the process of determining how to obtain the funds necessary to transfer the shuttle. A decision regarding this possibility is expected to be made in April. A NASA commentator describes Wednesday's landing as ""the end of a historic journey. To a ship that has led the way, time and time again, we bid farewell to Discovery."" Two remaining shuttle flights are scheduled later this year, STS-134 and STS-135, before the retirement of the space shuttle fleet." +tech,"Pakistan The Pakistani government has temporarily blocked social networking website Twitter in relation to posts on the site promoting a Facebook contest involving drawings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The block was reportedly lifted after a few hours Sunday. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority chairman Muhammad Yaseen confirmed that the agency had managed to persuade social networking site Facebook to remove the postings from their site but said about Twitter: ""We have been negotiating with them until Saturday night, but they did not agree to remove the stuff, so we had to block it"". During the imposition of the block, Mohammad Younis Khan, a spokesperson for the agency, explained that while Facebook had ""agreed to remove the stuff"", Twitter was ""not responding to us."" The ""blasphemous material"" was placed by those organising the competition on Facebook in an attempt ""to hurt Muslim feelings"", according to Khan, who confirmed Sunday Twitter service had ""been restored"" on the orders given to the agency, although he did not know of any reason why this order had been made. Facebook has confirmed that material on its website had been made unavailable in Pakistan at the request of authorities, with a spokesperson for the website explaining: ""Out of respect for local laws, traditions and cultures, we may occasionally restrict certain content's visibility in the countries where it is illegal, as we have done in this case"". Twitter has not made any comment other than to clarify that no modifications or removals of content occurred to ensure the site's restoration. Human rights organisation Human Rights Watch's Pakistan director Ali Dayan Hasan condemned the Twitter block as ""ill-advised, counter-productive and will ultimately prove to be futile as all such attempts at censorship have proved to be"", while former United States Department of State spokesperson Philip J. Crowley described the decision as ""another sign of the civilian government's weakness"". This incident bears resemblance to one which occurred two years ago Saturday, when a court order blocked Facebook in the country for around two weeks due to a page on the site, called ""Everybody Draw Mohammed Day"", asking users to upload caricatures of Muhammad. In the Islam faith, depicting any prophet is prohibited as it is regarded as blasphemy." +tech,"Space The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found evidence of hydrated silica or opal, a form of mineral, over large areas in the Martian surface, including in the large martian canyon called Valles Marineris. The discovery was made by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer (CRISM) instrument on the orbiter. The findings are published by Ralph Milliken of Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other scientists in the November issue of the journal Geology. Opaline minerals were first found recently on Mars by Spirit rover in the Gusev crater. The present find points to more widespread occurrence of the minerals in comparatively younger strata of Mars. The find indicates that liquid water might have been present on the surface of Mars for a longer time than previously thought. The previous view was that liquid water disappeared from the Martian surface three billion years ago. Now it is estimated that water could have been present as late as two billion years ago. The presence of opal not only indicates water, but also that it was there long enough to alter some of the rocks. CRISM, which detected the mineral measures visible and infrared reflection spectra in 544 channels and has 20 times better resolution than previously deployed instruments. 4=Dr Scott Murchie, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Maryland Hydrated minerals such as opal that indicate presence of water is yet another evidence of presence of liquid water on Mars. Opal found on Earth's surface usually contain 3 &ndash; 10% water, but can be as high as 20%. Other water-bearing minerals found earlier are phyllosilicates and hydrated sulfates. Presence of liquid water is also suggested by suspected water-sculpted land forms on Mars, such as gullies and river channels. Currently water is present only as ice at both polar caps of Mars. A number of outcrops of opaline minerals are found as thin layers over large distances, rimming the Valles Marineris canyon. It is expected that Martian explorations for past or present life will have to focus on similar younger terrains with hydrated minerals. ""This is an exciting discovery because it extends the time range for liquid water on Mars, and the places where it might have supported life,"" said Scott Murchie, from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, one of the co-authors." +tech,"Craigslist.com, a popular free online classifieds site, has been sued for hosting discriminatory housing ads by the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc., a fair housing group. The housing ads cited as objectionable included such statements as ""NO MINORITIES,"" ""Requirements: Clean Godly Christian Male,"" and ""Only Muslims apply."" Stephen Libowsky, a lawyer for the housing group, said ""Our goal is to have the Internet places like Craigslist treated no differently than newspapers and other media who have traditionally been posting real estate advertisements. All of the gains are going to get lost if the same rules don't apply."" Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster conceded ""We admit that one or two postings per 100,000 are discriminatory"" but explained that Craiglist's 19 employees could not physically screen the 8 million new ads posted each month. He continued, ""Instead, we've done something much more powerful and effective, in providing our users with a flagging system whereby problematic ads are promptly removed by users themselves."" Buckaster claimed the ""NO MINORITIES"" ad was removed within two hours. Buckmaster wrote on the site that, ""Though well-intentioned, this lawsuit misguidedly demands that we regress to primitive, mistake-prone, and wholly inadequate methods, methods which would actually be less effective in catching discriminatory ads than what we have in place currently, and which would vastly reduce the number of legitimate non-discriminatory ads that the site could process."" He continued, ""Ironically, if this lawsuit were to succeed the net effect would be to deal a double blow to civil rights - by significantly reducing access to equal opportunity housing, and by undercutting our fundamental free speech rights - thereby doing a great disservice to the very persons these lawyers purport to represent."" Buckmaster also said ""It is our understanding that the law is very clear to the effect that sites like Craigslist cannot be held legally liable for the content of postings submitted by end users."" This claim appears based upon Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which states that ""No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."" Under section 7b of the web site's Terms of Service agreement, users are not allowed to post an ad ""that violates the Fair Housing Act by stating, in any notice or ad for the sale or rental of any dwelling, a discriminatory preference based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap (or violates any state or local law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of these or other characteristics)""." +tech,"NASA Tech Briefs INSIDER newsletter 02/05/08 reports that the winner of the $20,000 first prize in the agency's ""Create the Future"" contest is an invention called ""Litroenergy"", the luminous output of micro particle ""Litrospheres."" Their self-luminance reportedly endures for over 12 years. The spheres are inexpensive, making them useful in many ways. The emitted light is said to be equivalent to a 40 watt bulb, sufficient for reading. The invention is reported to safely encapsulate a small quantity of electron-emitting tritium with light emitting phosphors inside a robust microscopic sphere. Mixed into paints, plastic films or adhesive tape the spheres can be applied to surfaces for under a dollar per square foot. The maker suggests they will find first use in safety applications such as exit signage and aircraft corridor marking." +tech,"Today at 11:07 GMT (07:07 local time), US Space Shuttle Discovery departed its hangar at the Kennedy Space Center Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF), and was towed into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), arriving at 12:05 GMT (08:05 local time). Its next scheduled launch, STS-124, is currently targeted for the end of May. This procedure, known as a rollover, occurs around five to six weeks ahead of launch, and is followed by stacking, or attachment of Discovery to an External Tank and a pair of Solid Rocket Boosters, which are waiting in the VAB. Once this has been completed, electrical tests will be conducted on the Shuttle, and then it will be rolled out to Launch Complex 39A in a week's time. Discoverys next mission, STS-124, will carry seven astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), and deliver the main component of the Japanese Experiment Module. The crew who are scheduled to fly aboard Discovery are Mission Commander Mark E. Kelly, Pilot Kenneth Ham, Mission Specialists Karen L. Nyberg, Ronald J. Garan, Michael E. Fossum and Akihiko Hoshide, and Expedition 17 ISS crewmember Gregory Chamitoff." +tech,"SpaceDISPLAYTITLE:NASA's InSight lander and MarCO craft launch in new mission to Mars On Saturday, United Launch Alliance launched a Atlas V 401 rocket carrying NASA's InSight Mars lander and two Mars Cube One (MarCO) miniature spacecraft known as cubesats. The pre-dawn launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 3E in Lompoc, California was declared a success. This was the very first deep space launch from the west coast of the United States, and aimed to send a lander to the surface of the planet Mars to study its interior. Launched alongside InSight were two MarCO cubesats, the first to be sent beyond Earth, nicknamed 'WALL-E' and 'Eve' after the protagonists of the 2008 animated science fiction film WALL-E. They were designed as a dual telecommunications relay for InSight during the spacecraft's descent through the Martian atmosphere. Traditionally, NASA launched interplanetary spacecraft at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on the United States' east coast. There, rockets were sent eastward over the Atlantic Ocean, borrowing the Earth's rotational velocity to shoot their payloads out into the solar system. Due to congestion on the launch calendar at Canaveral, NASA chose to launch the spacecraft from from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the country's west coast instead. A launch eastward from Vandenberg would have been dangerous due to densely populated areas being located downrange. Instead, rockets launched from Vandenberg were sent in a south-southeast trajectory. For Insight and MarCO, the spacecraft was placed in a temporary polar orbit after the launch, with the pair being shot towards Mars during a escape burn performed over the North Pole. Despite a heavy fog settling in at the rocket's launch pad in Lompoc, the United Launch Alliance declared a ""100% chance of favorable weather for liftoff"". Spectators in Lompoc were treated to a mostly obscured view of the launch, though they were witness nonetheless to the sound and shock waves of the Atlas V's Common Core first stage as it lifted the spacecraft off the ground on-schedule at 4:05 PDT (1105 UTC). People along the coast of southern California and northern Baja California, however, were in clear view of the Atlas V's main engine burn and the first burn of the rocket's Centaur upper stage. People in Orange County, California were treated to the sight of InSight and the Centaur almost eclipsing the planet Jupiter in the night sky. The recently-inaugurated Administrator of NASA, Jim Bridenstine, congratulated the InSight team in an address televised live on NASA TV after the launch, along with the United Launch Alliance on what was their 128th successful launch in a row. The InSight mission part of NASA's Discovery program, a class of low-cost solar system exploration missions. It was selected to launch in the program after beating the Comet Hopper and Titan Mare Explorer proposals amongst responses to a 2010 request. Both InSight and the MarCO cubesats are en route to Mars. InSight carries eight scientific instruments, including a seismometer known as Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS). The SEIS instrument will be recording the very first seismic measurements of Mars, which scientists hope will shed light on the structure of Mars beneath its surface. The lander was equipped with two cameras, based on the architecture of the Mars Exploration Rover's navigation camera and hazard avoidance camera, to allow mission scientists to monitor the activity of the instruments. NASA scheduled a November 26 landing for InSight on a broad plain in the planet's northern hemisphere, known as Elysium Planitia." +tech,"A computer glitch in the Los Angeles International Airport computer systems caused passengers in four different terminals to be forced to wait for their flights, causing a massive backlog of over 20,000 international passengers. Los Angeles International Airport, often referred to by its airport code LAX, is the primary airport serving Los Angeles, California, United States. LAX is the busiest airport in California, and the third-busiest airport by passenger traffic in the United States. According to airport staff, a system containing Customs and law enforcement information about international passengers failed at about 2:00 p.m. PDT (UTC-8). Airport officials diverted flights arriving from Ontario, Canada to another airport until the system was back up. Stranded planes were connected to ground power, and incoming passengers that had already landed had access to food, water and restrooms." +tech,"The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today rejected the creation of a .XXX top-level domain name in a 9-to-5 vote. The .XXX domain would have been created for use by websites that offered pornography. Supporters of the proposal, which would have created a new sponsored top-level domain (sTLD), say the 'triple X' domain would make it easier to recognise and filter pornographic websites. Opponents suggested that the domain wouldn't be used by all sites, as registration would be voluntary, and that it would legitimise pornography. Current sponsored top level domains include .coop, used by cooperative associations, .museum for museums, and .travel for travel agents, airlines, and other travel-related sites. .post, for postal services, is also currently under consideration." +tech,"Wikileaks WikiLeaks has released a mass of ""secret"" material from the United States' involvement in Afghanistan in the five years from 2004 to 2009. The material was scrutinised in co-operation with the main stream newspapers The Guardian and The New York Times, and the German magazine Der Spiegel, who cross-referenced the leaked documents with published material to check the veracity of the material. The material makes explicit the accusation that the Taliban is receiving support including man portable anti-aircraft missiles from Iran, and Pakistan. However, despite being condemned by the authorities in the United States, commentators have said that nothing in the released material would come as a surprise to anyone who has been following the war." +tech,"Mathematics Vinay Deolalikar, a mathematician who works for HP Labs, claims to have proven that P is not equal to NP. The problem is the greatest unsolved problem in theoretical computer science and is one of seven problems in which the Clay Mathematics Institute has offered million dollar prizes to the solutions. The question of whether P equals NP essentially asks whether there exist problems which take a long time to solve but whose solutions can be checked quickly. More formally, a problem is said to be in P if there is a program for a Turing machine, an ideal theoretical computer with unbounded amounts of memory, such that running instances of the problem through the program will always answer the question in polynomial time &mdash; time always bounded by some fixed polynomial power of the length of the input. A problem is said to be in NP, if the problem can be solved in polynomial time when instead of being run on a Turing machine, it is run on a non-deterministic Turing machine, which is like a Turing machine but is able to make copies of itself to try different approaches to the problem simultaneously. Mathematicians have long believed that P does not equal NP, and the question has many practical implications. Much of modern cryptography, such as the RSA algorithm and the Diffie-Hellman algorithm, rests on certain problems, such as factoring integers, being in NP and not in P. If it turned out that P=NP, these methods would not work but many now difficult problems would likely be easy to solve. If P does not equal NP then many natural, practical problems such as the traveling salesman problem are intrinsically difficult. In 2000, the Clay Foundation listed the ""Clay Millenium Problems,"" seven mathematical problems each of which they would offer a million dollars for a correct solution. One of these problems was whether P equaled NP. Another of these seven, the Poincaré conjecture, was solved in 2002 by Grigori Perelman who first made headlines for solving the problem and then made them again months later for refusing to take the prize money. On August 7, mathematician Greg Baker noted on his blog that he had seen a draft of a claimed proof by Deolalikar although among experts a draft had apparently been circulating for a few days. Deolalikar's proof works by connecting certain ideas in computer science and finite model theory to ideas in statistical mechanics. The proof works by showing that if certain problems known to be in NP were also in P then those problems would have impossible statistical properties. Computer scientists and mathematicians have expressed a variety of opinions about Deolalikar's proof, ranging from guarded optimism to near certainty that the proof is incorrect. Scott Aaronson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has expressed his pessimism by stating that he will give $200,000 of his own money to Deolalikar if the proof turns out to be valid. Others have raised specific technical issues with the proof but noted that the proof attempt presented interesting new techniques that might be relevant to computer science whether or not the proof turns out to be correct. Richard Lipton, a professor of computer science at Georgia Tech, has said that ""the author certainly shows awareness of the relevant obstacles and command of literature supporting his arguments."" Lipton has listed four central objections to the proof, none of which are necessarily fatal but may require more work to address. On August 11, 2010, Lipton reported that consensus of the reviewers was best summarized by mathematician Terence Tao, who expressed the view that Deolalikar's paper probably did not give a proof that P!=NP even after major changes, unless substantial new ideas are added." +tech,"Six Orbcomm satellites have been launched by a Russian Kosmos-3M carrier rocket. Lift-off, from Site 107 at the Kapustin Yar launch site in South-West Russia, occurred at 06:36:28 GMT. This is the first orbital launch to occur from Kapustin Yar since April 1999. Orbcomm is an American company which operates a constellation of communications satellites in low Earth orbit. The satellites launched today were five Quick Launch satellites, and a technology demonstration spacecraft which will be operated in conjunction with the United States Coastguard. A seventh satellite, Ufa State University's UGATUSAT nanosatellite, was originally scheduled to be launched, but was moved to a later launch aboard a Soyuz-2 rocket for unknown reasons. The launch was conducted by COSMOS International, a Russo-German organisation, and Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces. This is the 31th orbital launch of 2008, and the second of which to have been conducted by a Kosmos-3M rocket. The next Kosmos-3M launch is currently scheduled for the end of July, when the SAR-Lupe 5 satellite will be placed into orbit." +tech,"IBM and Cisco have announced the development of a new platform, based on Eclipse and OSGi (Open Services Gateway initiative), which should unite all communication and collaboration software developers under a single platform. Before the UC2 (Unified Communication and Collaboration) the unified communication has suffered because of a lack of a platform to be used by all software developers, rather than a series of them and, moreover, provided by different vendors. According to Adam Gartenberg from IBM Lotus Software Group this was the main cause for this partial stagnation. However, the UC2 is meant to ease the work of software developers. Gartenberg stated that this platform is very flexible and will certainly draw much attention form programmers. They will be able to create different plug-ins and small applications to remotely control other, major application. The companies have also unveiled a series of their other joint projects. These project will be based on a set of application programming interface from Lotus (SameTime) and Cisco. The add-ons planned are integration of a series of additional functions and features into the SameTime software from Lotus. Thus, in a few months, the SameTime users will benefit from such functions as click-to-call and voicemail. This will enable easier instant messaging inside the Cisco's Unified IP phones' system. The fact that the platform will be based on Eclipse will make the numerous developers create many communications services, mainly for remote users to benefit from a series of new functions of ERP and CRM applications. Nortel Networks - a partner of Microsoft since last year and Cisco's rival in the area - didn't have much success in the communication services field. As for Microsoft, the experts are waiting for the reaction of the Bill Gates' company on the ideas and offers made by IBM and Cisco for enterprise communications and collaboration solutions." +tech,"""Among men, La-La; among horses, Red Hare"" (In Chinese: 馬中赤兔，人中拉拉) was recently elected as the ""Best Internet Cool Quote"". Laa-Laa refers to the yellow character from the Teletubbies television series, and Red Hare refers to military general Lü Bu's horse during China's Three Kingdoms period. The quote was given its title after a two-week voting period, that started on October 14 until PepsiCo Taiwan & Doritos announced ""Top 10 Internet Cool Quote"" on October 31. Voting was on the Doritos Coolpedia website, which started on September 28. Voting attracted more than 10,000 Internet users from 64 countries participating and electing. Coolpedia is a portal for teens and young adults to share and contribute their creations, and interact. At the announcement event was the famous Taiwanese band ""MACHI Brothers"" (MACHI). Described by Pepsico as a symbol of younger people in the presence of the e-Century in Taiwan, MACHI serves as spokespeople for the website. Members of band dressed in different ""Cool Quote T-Shirts"" to symbolize the ""unlimited creation"" of Coolpedia. On November 1, Coolpedia launched a website for a ""Cool Video Award"" contest, with the slogan ""No pictures, no truth!"". PepsiCo Taiwan has suggested that the site will be a major Web 2.0 site." +tech,"New Zealand New Zealand electricity generator and retailer TrustPower said today that it is considering a wind farm development at Lake Mahinerangi, south of Dunedin, in the lower South Island of New Zealand. In a development which could be worth up to NZ$500 million (US$347 million), to the Otago region according to TrustPower chief executive, Keith Tempest. TrustPower said in a statement that the 300 megawatts wind farm, built in three 100 megawatts installments, could eventually provide enough electricity to power 150,000 homes and that it will be a world class installation that will guarantee security of electricity for the region. According to Tempest ""A windfarm development at Mahinerangi would enable us to better utilise the hydro storage available behind our Waipori scheme,"" Lake Mahinerangi is also the site of TrustPower's largest hydro lake. TrustPower expects to apply for environmental consents under Resource Management Act later in the year if engineering reports prove the site satisfactory. After the announcement TrustPower’s shares remained unchanged at NZ$6.16. (US$4.26) Currently the largest windfarm in New Zealand is operating at Te Apiti in the Manawatu; producing 90 megawatts of electricity. NZ Power companies are seeking to have resource consent procedures simplified for smaller-scale windfarms." +tech,"Space NASA's IBEX (or Interstellar Boundary Explorer) satellite, released into orbit last October, has provided the data for the first ""all sky map"" showing the boundary between the Solar System and Interstellar Space. IBEX mapped the sky using two sensors, gathering information about the particle structure within the Milky Way. This map should help researchers better understand relationships between the Sun and our Galaxy. The particles which IBEX looks for are energetic neutral atoms, atoms with a neutral charge that release large amounts of energy in most directions. The best place to find these particles is in the Sun's Heliosphere, where forces from outside our solar system interact with the Sun's magnetic field, causing these particles to become highly energetic. Two sensors on IBEX detect and catalog this. After six months of repeating this cycle over the entire night sky, IBEX acquired enough data to create the all sky map. This map goes beyond the capacities of the Voyager missions, giving an insight into the Sun's interaction with the rest of the galaxy. As Cosmic rays approach the solar system, the heliosphere prevents them from crossing into the heart of the solar system, thereby effectively stopping these harmful rays from reaching Earth. This new energy is released from electrically neutral atoms, and when scientists look at the energy given off by these atoms they have a general view of what energy is coming from what area. Knowing the place in the galaxy where certain rays come from help scientists understand the way our galaxy functions, from star positioning to globular clusters. ""For the first time, we're sticking our heads out of the sun's atmosphere and beginning to really understand our place in the galaxy,"" said David J. Comas of NASA." +tech,"InternetFollowing complaints by users, Google has removed the section of Google Chrome's end-user license agreement which claims that Google has the right to use any content submitted through its browser in virtually any way it wants. The agreement said that ""by submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services."" After being removed, a new notice was added that says that ""you retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services."" A spokesperson for Google has said that the claim was originally there due to a mistake. The spokesperson said that, in order to keep the license agreements simple for users, they regularly copy license agreements between different pieces of software. ""Sometimes, as in the case of Google Chrome, this means that the legal terms for a specific product may include terms that don't apply well to the use of that product,"" said the spokesperson, when describing the effect of copying EULAs. A similar controversy occurred last year with Google Docs, which originally gave Google similar rights." +tech,"The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) approved two new IEEE 1394 Firewire standards last week. S1600 and S3200 — which enable data transmission rates up to 1.6 Gbps and 3.2 Gbps respectively — would make Firewire (Apple's name for the standard) theoretically four times faster than is currently possible. According to IEEE, the new standards are based on IEEE 1394b (FireWire 800) Standard. The new standard will allow peer-to-peer transfer without linking computers. In addition, the S1600 and S3200 standards will continue supporting the S400 and S800 previous standards through backward compatibility. ""The new standard includes all of the amendments, enhancements and more than 100 errata which have been added to the base standard over the last 12 years,"" Les Baxter, chair of the working group which developed the standard, said in a press release cited in several sources. ""This update provides developers with a single document they can rely upon for all of their application needs."" The standard should be ready for deployment in October. Though not as common as the USB standard, Firewire serves a niche market, especially the aviation industry. USB 3.0, the next generation of the competing USB standard, is due in 2010 with reported speeds of 4.8 Gbps." +tech,"India The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced India’s first commercial launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). It is carrying the Italian satellite AGILE which will gather information about the origins of the universe through imaging of distant celestial objects in the X-ray and Gamma ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. India joined the elite club of nations who have the capacity to deploy their space exploration resources for commercial use. Currently, only the United States, Russia, China, Ukraine and the European Space Agency have the capacity to deploy their space exploration resources for commercial use. These nations dominate the commercial satellite launch services segment which is estimated to be worth $2.5 billion a year. The PSLV rocket only has the capability of carrying relatively lighter loads of under 1,000 kilograms, but ISRO hopes to increase payloads soon." +tech,"Space European Southern Observatory On Tuesday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics in Stockholm, Sweden. The prize was shared between James Peebles and the duo of Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor. They are to share a monetary award of SEK9 million (approximately GBP738 thousand or USD910 thousand) from the Nobel Foundation. Canadian-US scientist James Peebles won his half of the prize for his work in predicting cosmic microwave background and creating a theoretical framework from which other scientists have been able to calculate the age and structure of the universe, including the calculation that the universe is 95% dark matter and dark energy. He is a professor at Princeton University. Queloz and Mayor, both from Switzerland, won their prize for discovering the first known exoplanet in 1995. The planet they found was 51 Pegasi b, a Jupiter-like gas giant some 50 light years away from Earth. Since their discovery, according to the academy, over four thousand other exoplanets have been discovered. Both are professors at the University of Geneva; Queloz is also a professor at the University of Cambridge. ""Both these prizes ... tell us something essential, something existential about our place in the Universe"", said selection committee member Ulf Danielsson. ""The first one, tracing the history back to an unknown origin, is so fascinating. The other one tries to answer these questions about: 'are we alone &mdash; is there life anywhere else in the Universe?'&thinsp;""" +tech,"ESA - C.Carreau NASA says that the Spitzer Space Telescope has detected water vapour on HD 189733b, a massive exoplanet orbiting the dwarf star HD 189733, ""trillions of miles"" outside our solar system. The water vapours were found in the planet's atmosphere. ""We're thrilled to have identified clear signs of water on a planet that is trillions of miles away,"" said Giovanna Tinetti, a European Space Agency researcher and main author of NASA's study, at the Institute d’Astrophysique de Paris France. The planet, termed a ""wet Jupiter"", takes approximately two days to orbit its sun and its surface temperatures are estimated to be at least 1,000 Kelvin (1,340 Fahrenheit/727 Centigrade) which, according to scientists, makes it unlikely that life would exist there. The presence of water was observed by using the telescope to examine the absorption spectra as the planet transited across its star. ""Finding water on this planet implies that other planets in the universe, possibly even rocky ones, could also have water,"" said co-author Sean Carey of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Similar evidence for another hot gas giant, previously gathered using the Hubble telescope, was not widely accepted due to experimental noise and similar concerns. HD 189733b is located 63 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Vulpecula." +tech,"Perttu Ahola Currently, as I'm focusing on some other programming projects outside of Minetest, when I have some free time I still check the Minetest IRC channels and GitHub to see what's going on, and if I have something to say I'll make a comment about it. Of course I check my emails to see if any automated system has sent me a warning about something and needs fixing, or maybe there's a private message on the forum about some administrative task that needs doing. I might check some system statistics on the VPS Virtual Private Server running the forum to make sure it's running smoothly and make sure backups look ok. The average core developer of course doesn't have much of these administrative things to do and can focus on some programming task or just check through pull requests to see if a new contribution needs attention. For most core developers the typical day is probably a day off, though, as we work on Minetest when we have free time and feel like it. WNIQ Tell me, what are some of the design decisions that you are not happy about? Perttu Ahola There are none, all of them were required to get where we are now. I think you should never blame a design decision that got you somewhere. WNIQ Okay. How does the developer team decide on the design-decisions and feature requests for the game? Perttu Ahola I have written some blog posts and roadmaps about my vision, and the team is free to either pick from there or simply do anything they think is important. The core team mostly deals with engine things, and feature requests often come from modders. Dealing with game design feature requests is really difficult so we've tried to move them out of the engine and into the independent game content. Most features are accepted as long as they're simply and nicely done and it's obvious players or modders will find use for them. The team will ask from me if they're unsure about something. It doesn't often happen, but they're free to do it and I take the responsibility in that case. This also applies if there's a conflict between team members. WNIQ Conflict between the team members? How often is there a conflict between team members? And how do you resolve it? Perttu Ahola I'm not sure it has ever really happened. It's not as exciting as it sounds. But in that case I get to be the dictator. :-) WNIQ What accomplishment are you most proud of? Perttu Ahola I think it's the initial decision to start the project. Everything is based on that, after all. Maybe also the fact that probably like 50% of Minecraft clones on Google Play are Minetest forks, many of which are at least slightly illegal. WNIQ Looking back at the 9&ndash;10 years of this project, what are some of the excellent moments/milestones that stand out? Perttu Ahola The initial 0.4 development in late 2011 and early 2012 was an exciting time. One of the contributors at the time helped me a lot in getting it done, he was quite capable and enjoyable to work with. It felt a bit like a ""dream team"". Some persons in the Minetest team are quite anonymous, including this one &mdash; I never learned their real life identity. There was a take over attempt of the project in 2017 by an individual who until then seemed like a contributor with good intentions. It was quite the time too. I don't want to give any publicity to him though, as he's still trying to do it. I don't know if I'd call it excellent, but it definitely comes to mind as something that happened. During the past few years Minetest has had some physical presence in Europe. A couple of core developers and community members organized a stall at the Freenode #live event in 2017 and 2018. I guess I have to say I'm not that good at remembering milestones though. I'm sure many people have their own memories about Minetest's history. Many remember their first server that they played on, for example &mdash; my perspective on the other hand is in development. In development, it's a good thing I don't remember much because that means everything has gone rather smoothly. WNIQ Have you been to Freenode #live events? Perttu Ahola I haven't been to Freenode #live. I don't tend to travel that far, I feel international travel is too much hassle and I'm not a very social person at all. WNIQ Do you or any of the Minetest developers attend LibrePlanet, FOSDEM or other conferences too? Perttu Ahola I haven't been following too closely, but as they're open source developers and many live in central Europe, you might stumble upon them in events around there. They might be in a disguise, though, as they are involved in other projects in addition to Minetest. Rubenwardy (one of the core developers) has said he wants a Minetest convention and I have to go. We'll see if that happens, and where if so. WNIQ Ah, that would be interesting. Does Rubenwardy have any places in mind? What do you think of organising it in Helsinki? Perttu Ahola As most core developers and contributors come from Germany, France, UK and such, I think Helsinki wouldn't make that much sense. During Minetest's history, there haven't been almost any Finnish developers other than me. And, given that I live half a thousand kilometers away from Helsinki, it's not exactly my home town either. It's a very international project. WNIQ How do you and Minetest benefit from the presence at freenode? Apart from the platform features, do you also benefit from links with members of other channels at Freenode? Perttu Ahola Freenode doesn't really link projects together, it mostly works as a private platform for discussions for each project. Of course it's easy to join if you're already on some other Freenode channels, as many open source developers are. WNIQ Apart from freenode, how do the developers meet with other developers? Do they use online text or video chat, or do they also have meet-ups in-person? Perttu Ahola I hear people using mostly IRC, Github and the forum. There's some development talk on the unofficial discord server too. I rarely hear about IRL meet-ups. I've only ever met one Minetest contributor who was visiting Oulu with a group to see the midnight sun which happens this time of the year here in the north. WNIQ What is planned for the next versions? Perttu Ahola I and many of our core developers have big plans but we're a bit lazy and have many projects going on so it's really up to who has a spare week here and there and what kind of new contributions are coming in. We have a history of not ending up even close to what the roadmap was telling us to do. On a weekly basis we do have a continuous flow of fixes and new modding API features going into the engine, so there's always something around the corner. In addition to that, an interesting place to be on the lookout is the modding sections of our forum. Those guys get to use much more imagination than the core engine developers. It's been long in the plans to get more imaginative content into the main Minetest release, but currently it's still kind of boring, so make sure to check out the forum and content database. WNIQ What are some of the upcoming milestones for Minetest? Perttu Ahola We're moving release by release and including stuff on a when-it's-ready basis. Version 5.3 will be coming out very soon as there are just some bugs left. It's ended up with 50 commits. That's mostly bugfixes, but to pick a feature, the ""minimal development test"" game that comes with engine for mod and engine developing purposes has been rethought and overhauled. What'll end up in 5.4 is still completely open. In my experience setting any milestones you're not doing yourself is never a good idea in a hobby project &mdash; it'll just intimidate people and nothing gets done. Some developers have big plans, including myself, but they may or may not happen. :-) WNIQ How is the i18n internationalisation support for Minetest? Do you plan on supporting more languages? Perttu Ahola There are some challenges due to the fact that Minetest supports multiplayer servers with each client using their own language settings, but if you choose your mods carefully, you can get a single player experience in many, many languages. You can check out the translation status for different languages at Weblate. You can also contribute translations right there on that website. We occasionally update the English versions and occasionally copy the translated texts over to the project to be included in releases. Many open source projects do it like this, we're no different. Currently it looks like 11 languages have 90% of texts translated. More than 90%, I mean. Of course with game content, especially that which you find separately, your mileage will vary &mdash; but the engine translations are enough to configure Minetest and get you into a game world. It's an ongoing process to try to make everything we can translatable by the community. WNIQ Okay. Do you also plan on providing more biomes, or making the current ones more interesting? Perttu Ahola We've long been in the process of moving the game content out of the engine and away from the core team more to individual game-focused developers, so the default game content has been a bit boring. However, you don't need to live with it, as it's easily solved: just download some biomes you like into your game. At this point it's not really even intended to be used as-is. It's the core idea of Minetest 0.4, and from there on all subsequent versions. Content is so easy to add and modify that it doesn't really even matter what content you start from. If you want a fleshed out product with everything in there out of the box, Minetest doesn't really do that. But you can search on our forums or content database if there's something that would do it for you &mdash; some game packages are quite complete. WNIQ What are some of the reasons people choose Minecraft over Minetest? What are some of the common complaints you hear about the game? Perttu Ahola I think most of the time people don't like Minetest because they want a full game that they can just play. On the other hand other people choose Minetest because they don't want that, they want something they can easily customize. Some don't like how Minetest looks, to the experienced eye the graphics aren't as polished. However it does run on older hardware. People using older hardware often choose Minetest because it works much better. On the other hand, Minetest can't utilize high end gaming PCs as well, it's not optimized for those. Of course also the price differentiates the two. Minecraft costs a lot, especially if you're a kid in a poor country, or you want to install it on every computer in the classroom, or even an entire school. But for the money you're getting a fleshed out product. For some use cases you can't beat that. WNIQ Will the improvement in the graphics of the game compromise with the advantage of the game running on older hardware? Is it possible to achieve both without any compromises? Perttu Ahola Improvement in graphics will compromise the advantage of being able to run on old hardware, or it will result in basically two separate rendering engines. To take advantage of new hardware you have to switch to newer versions of OpenGL, heavily use shaders and such, and as a result old hardware simply grinds to a halt or simply doesn't support those. Of course some improvement can be done without compromise, but it's relatively minor if you look at what gamers are expecting these days. On the other hand for use by kids or education or such, looks don't really matter. What matters is that it's able to run on the hardware they happen to have. WNIQ Would you want to create two different engines for those players who have new hardware and want to enjoy the open-source game? Perttu Ahola Maybe, but I'm not the one to do it. High-end graphics is quite a specialized field and it's especially specialized when you want to render a voxel world like this, with voxel-based lighting and whatnot. For more common types of game environments you could use more easy-to-use solutions. WNIQ What contributors are the most wanted at the moment? What activities are in dire need of more eyeballs and helping hands? Perttu Ahola Any kind of contribution is always welcome. I don't think I'm in a position to pick and choose what people spend their time on. If you contribute something because it's important to you, it's going to be important to some others too. I also can't pick and choose what skills people have. If you are a capable programmer and for some crazy reason have lots of free time that you don't know what to do with, you can absolutely trust me and other core developers to give you things to do for the rest of your life. But that's not how it works, nobody is like that. You do what you like and what you feel is important. You will be thanked by the users. On the off chance that I can get a programmer inspired to do something for us: We've been long thinking of Voxel Area Entities &mdash; basically objects that are built from the same blocks that the world is, but that can move within the world based on some kind of moddable logic, like physics. Every year I'm asked by a different person when I'm going to do it, and every year I've had some other project I'm focusing on. Most core developers don't feel they have what it takes to even try doing that. Other massive ideas floating in the air in the Minetest developer community, core developers and contributors alike, is abstracting away and switching the rendering engine to something more modern, probably something made by us to fit the needs of Minetest instead of some generic game graphics engine. WNIQ For how long do you see yourself continuing to work as the CEO of the project? Perttu Ahola Until I'm dead, probably. Not because I really want to, but because it's not something anyone else wants to do. What would you choose, going on the beach, pub or golf field to take it easy, or staying in your basement looking through issues and pull requests, thinking when you're going to upgrade the forum software, trying to figure out why something was implemented in some way in the code, writing about some idea you have that hasn't still been implemented in seven years? See, I'm absolutely crazy. Most people aren't. It's actually an interesting question: Is there any way I could be replaced? WNIQ Is there a way to? Perttu Ahola I do think some parts of Minetest have been made as student projects. Such extra motivation helps getting things done. Maybe a tech leadership school could take Minetest CEO as a student project position? Like, do it for a year and get lots of points. Just an idea I guess. Also, I kind of hate the subject. In that way I'm more of a CTO Chief Technical Officer than a CEO. WNIQ Do you think Minetest can benefit from programmes such as Google Summer of Code? Perttu Ahola Maybe, but it's difficult to compete with other projects there and the person doing it has to already be a contributor with a task in mind. Otherwise it takes way too much prepping work to get somebody going in anything larger. Self motivation is key in getting something done in a project like this. Nobody will make you do anything or guide you. You have to want to do it, and ask for help. We also don't have any centralized official organization in any country, so we can't really collect funds and pay people to do things. Money, official forms, agreements &mdash; No thanks. Throw it in the trash. Our agreement is the LGPL license of the code and CC BY-SA of other assets &mdash; it's the bare minimum and works. Enrolling Minetest into GSoC could be the contribution of someone. I don't think there's anything stopping that. It could be quite beneficial to the project. WNIQ How can the community ensure that the Minetest project succeeds for the foreseeable future? Perttu Ahola Use it, teach other people how to use it, share your in-game and mod creations with other people. Of course reporting and fixing bugs and contributing engine features helps, but the main reason it exists is because it has users that enjoy playing it. Whether something is a ""thing"" really only depends on whether it's popular. WNIQ When did you actually think Minetest was getting significant attention and it was getting popular?' Perttu Ahola When I started posting about it on the Irrlicht forums and other places on the 'net, it immediately became obvious there was interest for such a thing. I mean, compared to Minecraft, it has always been tiny. But it was something completely different to anything else I had published until then in terms of public interest. It wasn't just one person saying they checked it out. It easily created a thread with people arguing whether it was even legal to make one like it. WNIQ The legal aspect is something even I wondered about. But you haven't received any legal notices, right? Perttu Ahola Well, it might have not been obvious then that it is legal, but nowadays there are so many Minecraft-like games everywhere people don't even think about it any more. Nothing at all, ever. And why would I get a legal notice? &mdash; it's completely made from scratch and I've never seen any Minecraft source code. That wouldn't be the reason I'd change the name. But changing the name isn't really doable. You could of course publish it in addition under a second name and leave the engine called Minetest. But what's the point? Minetest is such a bad name it works as a trademark in itself. Nobody wants to copy it. It doesn't sell, but we don't need to sell. If it was a serious commercial endeavour I would never had named it that in the first place. A trademark lawsuit would only make Minetest grossly more popular, and we could simply change the name. Really nothing is stopping us, if we need to, but there's not really any need. WNIQ What are some of your other hobbies? Perttu Ahola In addition to programming I also do electronics as a hobby. I'm very interested in electric vehicle EV conversions and have done some reverse engineering for re-using parts from crashed EVs. Some of that has been released as open source. Well, in addition to having them as hobbies, I also work in programming and electronics. But anyway &mdash; whether money is involved or not, that's what I do. I've also tried to do some other game development. That was more of a learning experience than something that would have resulted in an end product. WNIQ What sport activities do you normally undertake to stay strong and healthy? How has the pandemic affected them? Perttu Ahola I'm not a very sporty person. If I feel so, I'll go for a walk or ride to town and back with my bicycle. I do try to eat quite healthy though. The pandemic hasn't had much effect on my life overall. I've just shifted from less remote work to more remote work. WNIQ What are some of the important things your have learned as an open-source game developer? Perttu Ahola Well, most game ideas suck, and the programming doesn't really matter. Game development isn't something I'd recommend for anyone, it's such a saturated field. WNIQ Saturated field? Perttu Ahola I mean, too many people are making games already. It's such a popular hobby. WNIQ Well those were all the questions I had for you. Perttu Ahola (That was quite a lot of questions, I think that'd make a small book so far. :-)) WNIQ Anything you would like to add? Perttu Ahola I don't think so. WNIQ Thank you so much, being so generous with your time, celeron55. It was wonderful discussing about Minetest with you! Perttu Ahola No problem, it's not too often I answer so much things about my longest ever project. HYS" +tech,"Turkey Kurdish Ubuntu, a Linux distribution, was promoted this week with a reception in Diyarbakir. Ubuntu was the first Linux distribution to implement Kurdish localization . Kurdish localization in Linux is an important milestone for Turkey due to ethnic conflicts. Kurdish Ubuntu was prepared by a team of hardworking translators working on the Rosetta web application . In his talk at the reception, the mayor of Sur (a town in Diyarbakir) said that ""Whatever language it is in, we wanted it our service to be accessible multilingually because multilingualism is our wealth. Our work is being conducted on Kurdish, English, and Turkish language support. ... If we can integrate multilingualism, multi-identities, and multi-culturalism in this nation, this region will be a place of peace instead of conflicts."" Mehmed Uzun, a Kurdish writer, speaking about the Kurdish language, told the attendees that ""Our most important problem is that the language is not standardized. The Kurdish language should be standardized."" Ubuntu was later distributed to the reception's attendees. Image:KurdishUbuntuBootScreen.png|The boot screen of Kurdish Ubuntu Image:KurdishUbuntuSplash.png|Splash screen of Kurdish Ubuntu Image:UbuntuKurdishDesktop.png|Desktop screen Image:UbuntuInternetMenu.png|Applications Menu (Internet) Image:UbuntuOfficeMenu.png|Applications Menu (Office) Image:UbuntuPreferencesKurdish.png|System Menu (Preferences) Image:FirefoxUbuntuKurdishWelcome.png|Firefox web browser start page Image:KurdishOpenOffice.png|OpenOffice.org word processing application Image:KurdishEvolution.png|Evolution (office tool and email client)" +tech,"Space Space transport services company SpaceX launched their fifth Dragon resupply vehicle to the International Space Station yesterday. The spacecraft &mdash; containing more than 2,200kg (5,000 pounds) of food, experiments, and spare parts &mdash; successfully decoupled from the launch rocket and should reach the station early tomorrow. The launch was postponed from Tuesday because of a technical issue on the second stage of the rocket. The shipment includes replacements for cargo aboard the spaceship Cygnus, destroyed during a failed launch in October. Cygnus belonged to the rival Orbital Sciences Corporation. SpaceX tried unsuccessfully to land the Falcon 9 delivery rocket for reuse. The rocket reached an unmanned barge in the Atlantic, but landed too hard. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the landing ""bodes well for the future, though"". The attempted salvage of the rocket was experimental, using new retractable fins. Next time they will add extra hydraulic fluid, Musk said. The ship's support equipment was damaged but, according to Musk, the barge is intact. Last year saw two successful SpaceX splashdowns but landing on such a small target as a ship is unique." +tech,"WikimediaMention Internet users on the Chinese-forums.com website report that the longtime block of Wikipedia by China has been at least temporarily lifted. Absent an announcement from the Chinese government, it's unclear what the conditions were that caused the site to be accessible from within China. A blog by Wikipedia contributor Andrew Lih says that someone in ""Beijing emailed me saying he could suddenly start using Wikipedia again. Some folks in Hubei said it was still blocked. Shanghai and Guangdong users said parts were accessible."" He continued that ""from a Beijing China Netcom's residential DSL connection, the English language and other foreign language versions are now accessible, but the Chinese version is still blocked"", noting that the Chinese-language version is the most important one to most Wikipedians in the country. The blog entry goes on to explain the finer points of China's blocking system, which is more complex than most media outlets suggest. Wikimedia head Jimmy Wales told Moneycontrol.com yesterday that, ""We don't know what they took offense to. We really don't intend to compromise the way Google did. We also feel that the block is an error. I am trying to set up high-level meetings in China to state our case and explain why we should be unblocked. We have no idea what the result of that would be. But we are somewhat hopeful. Wikipedia is not a haven for dissidents but an encyclopedia. About 99.9 percent of Wikipedia has topics that are not of interest to the Chinese Government. There is no political component. We are hopeful that they can see the point."" He also told the outlet, he stressed how such bans were blocking Chinese perspectives in the global media. ""The Chinese people would like to contribute to Wikipedia to give the Chinese point of view for the entire world to see. And China needs to be better understood by the rest of the world."" The third block of Wikipedia, which was implemented 19 October 2005, was issued without explanation or an expected length. Wikipedia has been blocked twice before, the first from 2-21 June 2004, due to the 15th anniversary of the Tian'anmen Square Incident. A website called baidu.com runs a self-censored wiki-based encyclopedia website, called baidubaike.com, launched in April of this year. Wikipedia is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organisation based out of St. Petersburg, Florida. Its 2007 annual convention, Wikimania, is set to take place in Taipei." +tech,"Following a dispute with London-based company Independent International Investment Research (IIIR), Internet company Google Inc. has dropped the use of its ""Gmail"" name for its free email service. IIIR launched its own web-based email service called Gmail more than two years prior to Google's own service. All other countries (except Germany, where a similar dispute also resulted in a name change) will continue to use the Gmail name and domain (gmail.com). The change took place on Wednesday, when all new Gmail accounts created from a UK IP address will use the @googlemail.com domain, instead of the former @gmail.com. As the service is still ""invite-only"", invitations for the service will also be made for the @googlemail.com domain. Former UK Gmail users will continue to use the @gmail.com domain for the near future." +tech,"Opera CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner has spoken against the creation of .mobi, a domain extension for mobile devices saying that it is a ""total waste of time"" and ""completely unnecessary."" He continued saying ""There should be one Internet... What if you're using another device? Should we have .gameconsole? .car? .fridge? .plane? We don't need .mobi at all."" and ""There are capabilities for sites to query the browser to figure out exactly what you're using. That's a much more elegant solution than having the user choose which site to go to."" Opera and Sun are actually developing a browser for refrigerators. Microsoft, Google, and Nokia are some of the supporters of .mobi." +tech,"0 A.D. is a historical, open source, strategy game, published by Wildfire Games. It focuses on the period between 500BC and 500AD. The game will be released in two parts: the first covering the pre-AD period, and the second running to 500AD. With development well underway, Wikinews interviewed the development team. Aviv Sharon, a 24-year-old Israeli student responsible for the project's PR, compiled the below Q&A, which the full team approved prior to publication. Baptiste Domps Could you introduce the development team of 0 A.D. ? Aviv SharonWe are Wildfire Games, a group of approximately 15-20 people from around the world developing 0 A.D., a free, open-source game of ancient warfare. Cumulatively, about 100 different people have contributed to 0 A.D. over time. Our ages have ranged from 15 to 65 and our locations range from North America and Europe to India and New Zealand. The contributions to 0 A.D. are coordinated by a team of department heads led by a lead producer, Erik Johansson (feneur), who is 25 years old from Sweden. BD Who are the participants ? Salarieds or benevolents ? ASAll contributions to 0 A.D. so far have been on a voluntary basis only. To speed up development, however, we have decided to raise enough money to support 160 hours of paid development of the 0 A.D. codebase. We have tentatively selected the team member who will receive this compensation, Philip Taylor (Ykkrosh), but decided to hold off for a few months until we start using these funds to wait until he has more time to dedicate to 0 A.D. development. Otherwise, 0 A.D. development will continue to be voluntary, and all funds donated to 0 A.D. will be used for team expenses only, such as website hosting costs. BD Why did you want to make games? ASThere are several different reasons. Originally, 0 A.D. was born out of a desire to innovate within the RTS genre. We felt, and still feel, that this genre has a lot of potential for innovation and we wish to explore that with some different rules. 0 A.D. started out as a total conversion mod for Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, until team members at that time ran into the limitations of changing a closed-source game. Hence, as a wish to break free from the limitations of other games' engines, the standalone version of 0 A.D. was conceived and its development continues to this day. Some other reasons include a deep appreciation of ancient history; the wish to improve our skills and be recognized for our talents; and a determination to prove that a group of volunteers collaborating over the internet can make a game that rivals the commercial, proprietary AAA titles. BD Why did you choose a free license? ASPeople are spending more money, time and attention on playing computer games than ever before, and games are constantly evolving into a more nuanced medium of expression and a greater part of our culture. Just observe how much people play on Facebook and their mobile devices. We think this culture should allow gamers to learn how their games work, change them, share them and redistribute their works. This freedom to tinker is what Free, Open-Source Software (FOSS) is all about and so we hope a lot of people tinker with 0 A.D. BD How do you coordinate ? What technical and financial resources has 0 A.D.? ASWe mostly coordinate over a forum system we have, as well as a Trac system for task management and technical documentation. We also conduct discussions over IRC (#0ad and #0ad-dev on QuakeNet), that get more concentrated on the weekend, and Saturday afternoon in particular, when we have our weekly meeting. BD Which type of participants do you need? 'Amateurs' can they participate? ASAmateurs can definitely help with tasks like documentation and spreading the word about 0 A.D. For other tasks, we do require some prior knowledge in fields such as software development, 3d animation etc. Our main personnel needs are in three fields: Programmers, artists and sound people. We have many applicants for sound contributors but need a manager to oversee them. For programming we need capable gameplay, AI, sound and graphics programmers, proficient in C++ and/or JavaScript. Finally, in the art department, we could use some more texture artists, 3D artists, animators, and illustrators to draw 2d icons for the game's user interface. BD It's been 10 years since 0 A.D. is developing, what obstacles have arisen and how have you resolved? ASThe biggest obstacle we have run into is underestimating the scale and complexity of an RTS game. When embarking upon this journey in 2001, nobody thought that completing this endeavor would take this long. Evidently, making an RTS game requires a great deal of programming features, art assets and more. And, as we discovered the hard way, the first draft of anything is seldom good enough. For example, one of the most important engine components, named ""Simulation"", was simply planned wrong the first time around. Simulation is in charge of changing the state of each entity in the ""world"" represented in the game, like handling harvesting resources, doing damage to stuff and handling death. Sadly, over time it got implemented in such a haphazard way it devolved into an unstable, unpredictable ball of mud. Debugging became difficult and attracting new programmers from joining the development effort became impossible. Over time, fewer and fewer developers stayed on with 0 A.D. and it seemed as if the project was in grave danger of ending, the way many initiatives on the internet spontaneously do. Thankfully, one of our programmers, Philip Taylor (Ykkrosh) from the UK, fixed this situation almost singlehandedly over the course of a few months in 2009-2010. Ever since simulation was fixed, it's been smoother sailing and the pace of development picked up considerably. We have recruited several programmers and are constantly adding new features, most recently a prototype opponent AI, which is a big milestone for us. BD What are you proudest of about your game? We are proud of the way our fans go ""wow"" over screenshots, in-game videos and their direct experiences with the game. We get comments like, ""It's like Empire Earth, Age of Empires, and Rise of Nations had a baby and it came out free!"" and ""This can't be open source. It rocks too much!"". We're proud we've built a community of enthusiasts on our forums, Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, and continuously generated some buzz around 0 A.D. We hope to justify this hype and lead the project to completion. Does this look like a game you would be interested in playing? BD What is the schedule for 2011? ASOne big upcoming feature is random map scripting, which allows for much more variety in gameplay without having to manually draw new maps all the time. Our prototype opponent AI is set to get even smarter at all aspects of gameplay, and, with time, will be able to execute any of a variety of strategies to win the game. However, generally speaking, we don't make long-term plans because they never seem to work out. So far, since August 2010 we have released an alpha version every 70 days on average, and we intend to keep releasing more alpha versions until the game is feature-complete. Then we will enter a beta phase, playtest and fix bugs until a point when we decide the game is done, hopefully sometime in 2012." +tech,"WikimediaMention Jimbo Wales is teaming up with book publisher Tim O'Reilly to create a ""code of conduct"" for bloggers. The code is expected to address issues of free speech and the practice of allowing mean-spirited comments made by users to remain in the blogosphere. It will also address a perceived need to delete posted comments, particularly those by anonymous users, that are at odds with the code of conduct. Under consideration is the question of whether it is an admissible action in a public forum to delete a comment if it meets one of several objectionable reasons for removing it. ""That is one of the mistakes a lot of people make, believing that uncensored speech is the most free when in fact, managed civil dialogue is actually the freer speech,"" said O'Reilly. Some of the proposed rules of the code, as it is being discussed, might include: *We are committed to the ""Civility Enforced"" standard: we will not post unacceptable content, and we'll delete comments that contain it. *We define unacceptable content as anything included or linked to that: :*- is being used to abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten others :*- is libelous, knowingly false, ad-hominem, or misrepresents another person, :*- infringes upon a copyright or trademark :*- violates an obligation of confidentiality :*- violates the privacy of others The code is a draft proposal undergoing development at Wikia, a privately held web hosting company founded by Wales and Angela Beesley. ""If it's a carefully constructed set of principles, it could carry a lot of weight even if not everyone agrees,"" said Wales. The reception of the code is mixed, but there are many bloggers who feel that such a code of conduct would reduce the effects of unpleasant or malicious speech. ""I’ve been assaulted and harassed online for four years,"" Richard Silverstein of richardsilverstein.com said. ""Most of it I can take in stride. But you just never get used to that level of hatred.""" +tech,"Crime and lawMassachusetts-based First Amendment rights lawyer Marc Randazza is defending a controversial parody website which satirizes American political commentator Glenn Beck. The website was created in September by a man from Florida named Isaac Eiland-Hall, and it asserts Beck uses questionable tactics ""to spread lies and misinformation"". The website created by Eiland-Hall is located at the domain name ""www.GlennBeckRapedAndMurderedAYoungGirlIn1990.com"". Its premise is derived from a joke statement made by Gilbert Gottfried about fellow comedian Bob Saget. The joke was first applied to Beck on the Internet discussion community Fark. It then became popular on Internet social media sites including Reddit and Digg, and was the subject of a Google bomb, a technique where individuals link phrases in order to artificially change Google search results. Eiland-Hall saw the discussion on Fark, and created a website about it. The website asserts it does not believe the rumors to be true, and states: ""But we think Glenn Beck definitely uses tactics like this to spread lies and misinformation."" In an interview with Ars Technica, he said the website was ""using Beck's tactics against him"". The website was created on September 1, and by September 3 attorneys for Beck's company Mercury Radio Arts took action. Beck's lawyers sent letters to the domain name registrar where they referred to the domain name itself as ""defamatory"", but they failed to get the site removed. 4=Marc Randazza, attorney for the website Beck filed a formal complaint with the Switzerland-based agency of the United Nations, the World Intellectual Property Organization. Beck alleged that the website's usage is libelous, bad faith, and could befuddle potential consumers. Beck's complaint was filed under the process called the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. The policy allows trademark owners to begin an administrative action by complaining that a certain domain registration is in ""bad faith"". A lawyer for Beck declined to provide a comment to the Boston Herald, however a source told the newspaper that Beck's complaint with the site is primarily a ""trademark issue"". Randazza established an attorney-client relationship with Eiland-Hall after his client received threatening letters from attorneys representing Beck. He then sent an email to Beck's attorneys, and pointed out inconsistencies between their client's recent actions and his prior public statements in support of the First Amendment. Randazza wrote a reply to the World Intellectual Property Organization, and contends that the website is ""protected political speech"", because it is ""satirical political humor"". Randazza stated that ""Even an imbecile would look at this Web site and know that it’s a parody."" In his legal brief, Randazza compared the website to other Internet memes, such as ""All your base are belong to us"" and video parodies of the German film Downfall. National Public Radio ""We are here because Mr. Beck wants Respondent's website shut down. He wants it shut down because Respondent's website makes a poignant and accurate satirical critique of Mr. Beck by parodying Beck's very rhetorical style,"" wrote Randazza in the brief. The brief also commented on Beck's style of reporting, and pointed out a controversial statement made by Beck when he interviewed a Muslim member of the United States Congress. Beck said to Representative Keith Ellison: ""I like Muslims, I've been to mosques. ... And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview because what I feel like saying is, sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."" According to the Citizen Media Law Project, the website's joke premise takes advantage of ""a perceived similarity between Beck's rhetorical style and the Gottfried routine"". Public interest attorney Paul Levy told Ars Technica that if a statement in a website's domain name were both false and ""stated with actual malice"", it is possible it could be considered defamatory. The First Post reported that Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Corynne McSherry gave an analysis asserting that though the domain name of the website is ""pretty dramatic"", it constituted ""pure political criticism and there's nothing wrong with that"". McSherry and Levy both agreed that the action of Beck to take the matter to the World Intellectual Property Organization was probably a tactic to determine the identity of the website's owner. Andy Carvin of National Public Radio wrote that Randazza's legal brief was amusing, commenting: ""It's not often that I would recommend reading a World Intellectual Property Organization legal brief for its entertainment value, but today is going to be an exception."" Nate Anderson of Ars Technica commented ""In any event, the WIPO battle promises to be entertaining, and there's even a bit of serious purpose mixed in with the frivolity. Just how far can WIPO go in using its domain dispute system to address Internet spats?"". Domain Name Wire wrote that ""...when someone who has created a bitingly satirical web site works with his lawyer to put pen to the paper, the end result can be quite amusing."" Writing for Adweek, Eriq Gardner pointed out the comparison made by Randazza's legal brief between the website's parody nature itself and the statement made by Beck to Congressman Ellison, noting: ""this case also makes a political point"". Jack Bremer wrote in The First Post that the attempts by Beck's lawyers to argue that the website's domain name is itself defamatory ""looks like a first in cyber law"". Rick Sawyer of Bostonist characterized Randazza's legal brief as ""Hillarious!"", and called the attorney ""among the North Shore's most hilarious legal writers"". Politics Daily The FOX News-critical site FoxNewsBoycott.com likened the legal conflict between Beck and the site to the Streisand effect, a phenomenon where an individual's attempt to censor material on the Internet in turn proves to make the material itself more public. ""Glenn Beck is experiencing the Streisand Effect first hand,"" wrote FoxNewsBoycott.com. John Cook of Gawker.com also compared Beck's actions to the Streisand effect: ""Now Glenn Beck's trying to shut down their web site, ensuring that people will write about it."" Jeffrey Weiss of Politics Daily wrote that by taking legal action, Beck ""did the one thing guaranteed to garner the greatest amount of publicity for the site"". Techdirt described Beck's legal action as ""not particularly smart"", and noted: ""Beck would have been better off just ignoring it. Instead, in legitimizing it by trying to take it down, many more people become aware of the meme -- and may start calling attention to situations where Beck (and others) make use of such tactics."" The blog Hot Air noted the issue could gain attention if it becomes a test case for the First Amendment: ""If this becomes a First Amendment test case, the smear’s going to be covered far and wide..."" HYS" +tech,"SpaceThe TerreStar-1, an American communications satellite operated by TerreStar Corporation was launched Wednesday by an Ariane 5ECA rocket at 17:52 GMT by the European Space Agency (ESA) from the ELA-3 at the Guiana Space Centre. The 6,910-kilogram (15,200 lb) TerreStar-1 satellite cost US$300 million. It was launched from Kourou, French Guiana, a department of France in South America. This satellite weighs in as the heaviest and the largest telecommunications satellite ever launched. AT&T Mobility along with TerreStar Corporation will market a hybrid prototype terrestrial/satellite hand set yet this year. The technology will allow the new hand set to operate on ground-based phone networks. In dead zones, the customer could use the device via satellite if they can access the southern sky similar to a satellite dish. The TerreStar-1 made a successful separation from the rocket according to Arianespace, the French satellite launcher. The satellite will be in orbit 22,000 miles (35,200 kilometers) above earth, and will open a 60 feet (18 meters) antenna dish to communicate with the hand sets over the 2 GHz (S-band) spectrum. The TerreStar-1 has a life expectancy of 15 years." +tech,"Sony's recently introduced Playstation Portable has proved popular with curious geeks who discovered various talents hidden within the new handheld video console. The biggest 'hack' so far has been the manipulation of a web browser embedded within the PSP game 'Wipeout Pure', which can be easily coaxed into accessing the majority of Internet via a suitable portal. Jonathan Terleski was able to monitor the digital conversation held between his PSP and Sony's website when the browser in his game 'Wipeout Pure' would try to download new software from Sony via the Internet. Using a suitably set up DNS server, Terleski configured his handheld console to access his own custom PSP portal, instead of Sony's website, and then invited other owners to use his gateway to the web. From this discovery, Robert Balousek later created a web based IRC interface that allows people to talk to each other and hold conversations in real time via the Internet on their PSP consoles. According to Reuters, his IRC website has to date been used by as many as 100,000 visitors and Balousek now plans to introduce a web based interface to the AOL instant messaging network for PSP users. Other notable recent 'hacks' include reading ebooks and comics and watching pre-recorded television shows, taken from a TiVo, on the Sony PSP. None of the 'hacks' have yet employed writing custom software for the device. So far, most are spin-offs of Jonathon Terleski's web browser hack. Other hacks, like the ebook reader and television show viewer, are made possible through use of the PSP's built in tools for viewing video and images. Sony has not yet released an SDK which would allow end-users to write 'homebrew' software, therefore hackers are tied to manipulating software included with the PSP or available through the games purchased separately. Speaking to Wikinews, Jacob Metcalf, who documented the web comic's hack on his website, explained his motivation: ""Web comics are already designed for on-screen reading and they have some of the same audience as people who play games - lots of the most popular web comics are about gamers, like PVP and Penny Arcade."" He added: ""I do wish that Sony would come out with an actual web browser like the Dreamcast had. South Korea is going to get a real web browser and I have a feeling in my gut that there is going to be Internet software for the PSP like a web browser and email announced at E3 this year."" * PSP Web portal * IRC online chat for PSP handhelds * Transfer television shows recorded in TiVo to a PSP * Reading eBooks on a PSP handheld * View downloaded comics on a PSP handheld" +tech,"A Kosmos-3M carrier rocket has successfully launched the SAR-Lupe 5 satellite, the fifth and final member of the German SAR-Lupe surveillance satellite system. The rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia at 02:20 GMT this morning. The SAR-Lupe system uses Synthetic Aperture radar (SAR) to detect objects on the ground, even when it is too dark or cloudy for optical reconnaissance. The SAR-Lupe system consists of five satellites, which have been launched over the last two years. The first satellite was launched in mid-December 2006, and was followed by two more in 2007, in early July and November. The fourth satellite was launched in late March 2008. The system will be operated by the German military for at least ten years. Data will also be provided to the French military, in exchange for data from French reconnaissance satellites being provided to Germany. This is the 36th orbital launch of 2008, the third of which to have been conducted by a Kosmos-3M. Overall, this is the 444th launch of a Kosmos-3M rocket. The next Kosmos launch is expected to occur later this year, with a Parus navigation satellite, although it is currently unclear exactly when this launch will occur." +tech,"Gmail, Google's popular e-mail service launched earlier last year, is now available to any American cell phone user via text messaging. Cell phone owners can send Google their phone number, and are then sent an access code via SMS that enables them to open an account. Google has stated that the number is only used to ""manage the number of accounts created per phone"", and that it ""will never be sold or shared for marketing purposes"" without the user's permission. The service is not necessarily free &mdash; cell phone service providers may charge for the delivery of the code. While the system currently only works in the U.S., Google says it has plans to add more countries." +tech,"Canadian news Following the stabbing of Ryan Milner at a Canadian nightclub parking lot, Hamilton police posted a 72-second video clip of a surveillance cam on YouTube, a popular video sharing website, with hopes that witnesses would come forward. While no additional witnesses turned up, about two weeks later, 24-year-old George Gallo turned himself in. Police had thought that the extra attention brought to the case is what made Mr Gallo surrender; indeed, the video had been viewed 34,000 times. Additionally, the video had been seen from as far away as Singapore. Hamilton Police believes this is the first time YouTube has been used in an investigation, and they are considering using YouTube for future investigations. Detective Sergeant Jorge Lasso claims that he got the idea when he noted that the same people who attended the concert are the same people who are his children's ages. ""My own children are in that age category, and they spend all their time on the Internet; they do not watch mainstream media,"" he stated." +tech,"The Wikimedia Foundation and Yahoo! announced on Thursday they reached an agreement by which Yahoo! will provide hosting capacity to Wikimedia. Yahoo! will dedicate a significant number of servers in one of its Asian facilities for hosting Wikimedia's free content websites. Jimmy Wales, CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, says this generous donation will be of particular benefit to the vibrant and growing community of Wikipedia users in that part of the world. The Yahoo! donation is a gesture of support for the charitable goals of the Wikimedia Foundation, and does not imply any ownership of the content. They do not expect Wikimedia to host advertisements in return for this support. As of April 7, Yahoo! will also test the integration of Wikipedia content in its French-language Yahoo! Search shortcuts, to be followed by other languages to accommodate users in Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the United States. The shortcuts will show contextually relevant abstracts of Wikipedia articles in response to user queries. Yahoo! is one of the Wikimedia Foundation's earliest corporate supporters. The relationship began last year with Yahoo!'s integration of Wikipedia into its Content Acquisition Program." +tech,"New Zealand The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, yesterday unveiled Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network (KAREN). It is super high speed Internet that is capable of transmitting data with speeds of up to ten gigabits per second, 10,000 times faster than the current speed of broadband (1Mbps), and 200,000 times faster than dial-up. The New Zealand Government put NZ$43 million ($28.1 million USD) into the Crown company: Research and Education Advanced Network of New Zealand (REANNZ) organization, responsible for the running of KAREN. KAREN will link universities and research institutions in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hawkes Bay, Nelson and Rotorua and then to the rest of the world via a TelstraClear fibre optic cable. The network will allow geologists/geophysicists to access U.S. data on fault lines, 3D modellers the ability to collaborate on international mapping projects and students will be able to participate in interactive video lectures with experts, anywhere in the world. The technology so far is limited to just universities and research institutions but Minister for Education Steve Maharey said: ""The network will be extended over time to include other institutions, including schools, libraries and museums."" It is also limited to just one university in the South Island, it is located in the HIT Lab NZ at the University of Canterbury. Clark said: ""The link is crucial in order to attract and retain scientists, because it allows a greater level of real time collaboration between scientists based in New Zealand, and their colleagues around the world."" The Telecommunications' Users Association of New Zealand chief executive, Ernie Newman, said: ""Karen was a 'great initiative' for the science community, and that would have wider benefits for the country."" Dr. Mark Billinhurst, HIT Lab director, said: ""The network meant the country was now legitimately part of the international research community.""" +tech,"ScientologyAdministrators for 711chan.org, one of the websites responsible for starting Project Chanology, a ""raid"" or attack against the Church of Scientology and their website, slowed down their ""attack"". In an exclusive interview with Wikinews, an administrator of 711chan states that they will ""probably stay away from the CoS Church of Scientology."" ""We're probably just going to stay away from the CoS raid. It was poorly managed. We could've brought down a lot more if we weren't just a bunch of unorganized brats,"" said 'Plasma', an administrator on 711chan.org. 4=Plasma, an administrator of 711chan. ""Many people from 711chan still want to raid, but the administration is sick of it,"" added Plasma who also stated that ""Partyvan IRC actually has decided to remove the raid."" Much of the reason stems from the fact that the attack on the Church was meant to stay within 711chan and that users were to stay ""anonymous."" An e-mail was leaked on the internet when the attack began exposing the script used to attack the Church's website. ""This is not what the raid originally started as. Partyvan declares this as a threat to the network, and Anonymous alike. We have been under constant botnet attacks, 711chan hacked, and tons of drama over this. You guys did a very poor job of staying Anonymous. It's obvious that a lot of you broke rules 1, and 2,"" said a statement on 711chan's website. The rules they refer to, according to Plasma, mean the ""Rules of the Internet"" and are: #Do not talk about /b/ (Only applies to raids.) #Do NOT talk about /b/ (eBaums did it.) Both key rules were broken by users, according to Plasma. The attack on Scientology was launched on Wednesday January 16 by a group labelled ""Anonymous"", on the website ""Insurgency Wiki"", a spinoff of 4chan which is also affiliated with 711chan. The ""History"" section of the site explains, in a satirical fashion, that the incident was prompted by the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove a promotional video featuring Scientologist Tom Cruise from YouTube. Though YouTube complied with the Church of Scientology's requests to take down the video, other sites such as Gawker.com stated that they will keep hosting the video. One poster admitted to being a part of the effort, writing in a blog post ""I have myself, as per instructions, loaded up Gigaloader and started bombarding the Scientology homepage. Theres sic something in the hilarious anarchy of the net that produces these 'events' every now and again."" The poster wrote that ""Prompted I think by the Tom Cruise video, a new obsession is taking hold on the internet. An insurgency against The Church of Scientology."" Not long after their attack, a previously unknown group called The Regime used keylogging to gain an administrator password to 711chan.org. ""I was actually away from home when I noticed my personal dedi was compromised (my bash_history file had lots of strange entries), so I informed Partyvan IRC staff (the CoS raid room as well as 711chan's IRC room are there) and minutes later, 711chan's machine was also compromised. I arrived home around an hour later, and immediately restored the contents of the 711 machine back to a previous state. I also got the passwords reset on my dedi and that was back in order. I went to bed shortly after that,"" said Plasma in regards to The Regime's attack on 711chan. ""The next morning I wake up to hundreds of MSN windows and emails telling me both servers have been compromised again, and our backups for 711 have been removed. The software we use to run 711chan's machine got bugged up somehow and make it difficult for me to fix things, which is why the site didn't respond at all for most of the day. At the time of writing this I still haven't got the backups reloaded onto the machine,"" added Plasma. Plasma states that 711chan.org will be off line at least until the end of January, possibly longer, but the site is not expected to change. ""I shut down our server to prevent any more damage. Right now, our plan is to lay low and get stuff started up on a more secure machine. We'll be back up by the end of the month, hopefully. 711chan will probably be staying the same it is, however,"" said Plasma. But they didn't go down without a fight adds Plasma. ""As who the ""Regime"" is? I took a look at one of the things they planted on my machine, which lead me to #!!regime on GameSurge IRC. `immortal' and about 30 drones were in that channel. Members of the g00ns community (allies of 711, also linked to Partyvan IRC) found out they had dox (documents such as phone numbers, addresses, SSN numbers, names, that sort of thing) on `immortal' and his wife. I actually have these details and attempted to call him, but it went unanswered,"" said Plasma. The information that 711chan.org obtained was later posted on the website operated by The Regime. Wikinews has attempted to contact The Regime a second time regarding the incident, and they have only replied with ""your articles are bullshit.""" +tech,"Ivy Bean, thought to have been the oldest person using the popular social networking site Twitter, has died at age 104. By the end of her life, Bean had 53,535 followers (a term used on Twitter to indicate you are watching a person's posts) on the site and was something of an internet phenomenon. In 2008, she became known as the oldest person on Facebook, a title held previously by a 97-year-old French man. Bean frequently updated her Twitter page with videos and descriptions of activities in her daily life that included her winning of the Gold Medal in Frisbee in the Over-75 Olympics in Bradford, Northern England as well as recipes and meeting former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. At the beginning of July, Bean was admitted to hospital suffering from jaundice. On July 23rd, Bean returned to the care home where she was a resident, but was no longer able to operate her Twitter account. Manager of the care home Pat Wright took over the account and began posting on Bean's behalf. It was posted on July 26th that Bean was in a poor condition and yesterday, Wright posted ""Ivy passed away peacefully at 12.08 this morning"". Many of Bean's followers posted messages of condolence, making Bean the second-most discussed topic on the Twitter yesterday. Among her followers were Peter Andre and Chris Evans. Ivy Bean was born November 8, 1905, seven years before the telephone network was established." +tech,"Mozilla Firefox, the Gecko-based open source browser, has now been downloaded over fifty million times from the official download sites and mirrors. The fifty millionth download itself came at 8:58am PST on April 29. The number excludes upgrades. A real time counter is available at http://www.spreadfirefox.com/fifty.html . The browser was first released to the public as major release 1.0 on November 9, 2004. There have since been three minor security upgrades, with the current version being 1.0.3. The browser can trace its roots back to the Netscape Navigator of the 1990s. Development of Firefox itself began in 2002, when Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross began writing the new browser using the codebase of the Mozilla Suite as their starting point, which itself was an open-sourced version of Netscape Navigator. Originally named Phoenix, the browser was renamed Firebird and then Firefox due to a series of trademark issues." +tech,"Economy and business British-based utility company Centrica, which holds ownership of British Gas, has announced its intentions to increase the prices of domestic electricity and gas later this year. On August 18, 2011, the company plans to raise the costs of gas and electrical supplies by eighteen and sixteen per cent, respectively. According to The Guardian, nine million customers will be affected by these changes. British price comparison website uSwitch has reported that the ""average household bill for a dual fuel British Gas customer will now go up from £1,096 to £1,288"". Mike O'Connor, the chief executive officer of consumer organisation Consumer Focus, has claimed that the announcement ""will send a shock wave across the country"" and will place an increasing amount of difficulties ""on stretched household budgets. Consumers ... rightly question whether prices are fair."" Phil Bentley, a managing director for British Gas, has claimed that value increases like this are ""an issue facing all energy suppliers"". A director for British Gas, named Ian Peters, has claimed that ""a fair return"" will be made after the changes occur. In 2010, British Gas experienced its largest ever profit, making £742 million (US$1,192 million, €835 million). Meanwhile, Centrica achieved £2.4 billion (US$3.8 billion, €2.7 billion) in profits. Richard Lloyd from product sampling charity Which? criticised the decision to raise prices, calling the declaration ""unwelcome but unsurprising"" for British Gas consumers. Previously in December 2010, British Gas increased the price of its gas by 6.9%, which equates to £43 (US$69, €48). At the same time, the company's electricity prices were raised by 6.7%, or £28 (US$45, €32). On Friday, Chris Huhne, the secretary of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, said that British electricity businesses must modify themselves so as to avoid ""the cycle of fossil fuel addiction. Alternatives like renewables and nuclear power must be allowed to become the dominant component of our energy mix,"" said Huhne. This news comes to light as Scottish Power, a rival energy company to British Gas, announced last month their intentions to up the prices of their electricity and gas supplies by ten and nineteen per cent respectively." +tech,"The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has offered up a new definition of the word ""planet"" that could potentially increase our solar system's nine planets to at least twelve. According to the proposed definition, ""A planet is a celestial body that (a) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (b) is in orbit around a star, and is neither a star nor a satellite of a planet."" Roughly speaking, the former includes objects over 5 x 1020 kilograms (1/12,000th of Earth's mass) and 800 kilometers in diameter, but all borderline cases would require confirmation by observation of their shape. According to this new definition, Ceres (an asteroid in the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter), 2003UB313 (an astronomical object beyond Pluto which has previously been called the tenth planet), and Pluto's moon Charon may be dubbed planets. A dozen other candidates, like Sedna, Orcus, Quaoar, 2003 EL61 etc., along with the asteroids Vesta, Pallas and Hygiea are awaiting evaluation by the IAU. The draft resolution also introduces the term ""pluton"", which refers to a growing subcategory of planets that have orbits around the sun that take at least 200 years to complete - effectively this will mean planets that orbit beyond Neptune. Plutons differ from classical planets: their orbit is highly tilted, eccentric and not circular, which suggests they have a different origin, the main reason why astronomers are interested in them. The word ""planet"" comes from the ancient Greek word for ""wanderer"", because it was known in ancient times that certain lights in the sky moved in relation to other stars. However, since then no formal definition of the word planet was agreed upon. With the advent of powerful telescopes on the ground and in space, knowledge about heavenly bodies became more complex, stressing the need for unambiguous definitions. The issue came to a head in 2005 with the discovery of the trans-Neptunian object 2003UB313 (unofficially termed Xena by its discoverer, Michael E. Brown). 2003UB313 is a body larger than the smallest accepted planet, Pluto. The suggested definition is not universally popular: some astronomers would like to draw the line at Neptune, and wouldn't classify icy dwarfs like Pluto as a planet, but as a trans-Neptunian object (similar to the plutons in the draft resolution) part of the Kuiper belt. Robin Catchpole, from the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, said in an interview: ""The public are very clear about what they understand by ""planets"". Those are the big, dominant bodies in the Solar System that we're all familiar with, the eight - or nine if you include Pluto. I think including more is going to add confusion to the public, but not really be particularly useful for astronomers."" Pluto is now being considered to be moved off the list of classical planets, but as the prototype of the new plutons category. The ninth planet (as it is termed, but maybe not for long), discovered in 1930, is a curiosity among planets for more than one reason: because Charon is so big in comparison, both are considered twin planets by some. The current proposal is the result of two years work of the Planet Definition Committee of the IAU, which is responsible for the naming of astronomical objects. The 26th IAU General Assembly in Prague plans to vote on the proposal on Thursday, August 24 of 2006. When asked if he was confident the proposal would get the necessary two thirds of the votes, Professor Owen Gingerich, Chair of the IAU Planet Definition Committee, replied: ""I'm sure it will be controversial to those with a stake in some other solution, but I hope we will get an overwhelming endorsement.""" +tech,"Sun Microsystems released version 3.0 of its free and open source (FOSS) office suite Openoffice.org on Monday. It has been reported that the new version comes with a number of performance enhancements and new features. Openoffice.org 3.0 now claims to work out of the box in Mac OS X as a native Aqua application. News sources report the official download servers of OpenOffice.org crashed soon after the release due to heavy downloads. Downloads are however available from a number of mirror sites. 4=Louis Suárez-Potts, community manager of OpenOffice.org Openoffice.org 3.0 suite includes spreadsheet, word processor, equation editor, presentation tool, relational database and vector drawing software. Full interoperability is available for Microsoft Office 98/XP formats, but offers read only support for OOXML file formats. This version supports the new ODF 1.2 document format. The software is available for many platforms including Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac, as well as in multiple languages. Users report OpenOffice.org 3.0 has introduced a new graphical and text-based hybrid equation editor, a mail merge wizard, improved label templates and better interface for outlining. Solver, a spreadsheet add-on for combinatorial optimization problems is included in this version. Other enhancements highlighted by enthusiasts include collaborative options that allow multiple users to edit documents at the same time and improved drawing and charting tools. OpenOffice.org 3.0 can now display multiple pages during editing and workbooks up to 1024 columns in each spreadsheet. The download size of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is 163 MB for Mac and requires OS X Tiger or later and an Intel Mac. The installer for Windows is about 145 MB in size. ""As government after government, enterprise after enterprise adopt the Open Document Format, they frequently adopt OpenOffice.org and love it. With 3.0, the application is more interoperable with MS Office, more capable, more extensible. It frees the desktop from vendor lock-in,"" claimed Louis Suárez-Potts, community manager of OpenOffice.org." +tech,"White 'chunks' that were photographed by the Phoenix lander on Mars on June 15 after digging a trench, have disappeared, leading scientists to believe they most certainly found ice on the Red Planet. ""It must be ice. These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can't do that,"" said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona located in Tucson, Arizona. The chunks were left at the bottom of a trench informally called ""Dodo-Goldilocks"" when Phoenix's Robotic Arm enlarged that trench on June 15, during the 20th Martian day, or sol, since landing. Several were gone when Phoenix looked at the trench early today, on Sol 24. Digging in a different trench Phoenix's robotic Arm connected with a hard surface that has scientists excited about the prospect of next uncovering an icy layer. ""We have dug a trench and uncovered a hard layer at the same depth as the ice layer in our other trench,"" said Washington University robotic arm investigator for Phoenix, Ray Arvidson. The arm tried at least three times to penetrate the layer, but was unsuccessful. As a result the arm went into a holding pattern, awaiting its next commands." +tech,"Anousheh Ansari, 40, an Iranian-American became the first female paying passenger astronaut today. Paying $20 million USD for the trip, she replaced a Japanese businessman who decided not to take the trip due to medical reasons. The Russian made Soyuz Rocket lifted off at 04:10 GMT from Baikonur, Russia. Ansari is accompanying Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and American astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who are joining German astronaut Thomas Reiter on the International Space Station. Ansari is a businesswoman in the telecom industry and put up the Ansari X Prize for the first privately funded trip to space won by Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites and his team. The mission is expected to dock with the ISS on Wednesday." +tech,"A major security hole was discovered in the pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) of the Debian version of OpenSSL. OpenSSL is one of the most used cryptographic software, that allows the creation of secure network connections with the protocols called SSL and TLS. It is included in many popular computer programs, like the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the Apache web server. Debian is one of the most used GNU/Linux distributions, on which are based other distributions, like Ubuntu and Knoppix. The problem affects all the Debian-based distributions that were used to create cryptographic keys since the September 17, 2006. The bug was discovered by Luciano Bello, an argentine Debian package maintainer, and was announced on May 13, 2008. This vulnerability was caused by the removal of two lines of code from the original version of the OpenSSL library. These lines were used to gather some entropy data by the library, needed to seed the PRNG used to create private keys, on which the secure connections are based. Without this entropy, the only dynamic data used was the PID of the software. Under Linux the PID can be a number between 1 and 32,768, that is a too small range of values if used to seed the PRNG and will cause the generation of predictable numbers. Therefore any key generated can be predictable, with only 32,767 possible keys for a given architecture and key length, and the secrecy of the network connections created with those keys is fully compromised. These lines were removed as ""suggested"" by two audit tools (Valgrind and Purify) used to find vulnerabilities in the software distributed by Debian. These tools warned the Debian maintainers that some data was used before its initialization, that normally can lead to a security bug, but this time it was not the case, as the OpenSSL developers wrote on March 13, 2003. Anyway this change was erroneously applied on September 17, 2006, when the OpenSSL Debian version 0.9.8c-1 was released to the public. Even though the Debian maintainer responsible for this software released a patch to fix this bug on May 8, 2008, the impact may be severe. In fact OpenSSL is commonly used in software to protect the passwords, to offer privacy and security. Any private key created with this version of OpenSSL is weak and must be replaced, included the session keys that are created and used only temporary. This means that any data encrypted with these keys can be decrypted without a big deal, even if these keys are used (but not created) with a version of the library not affected, like the ones included in other operating systems. For example any web server running under any operating system may use a weak key created on a vulnerable Debian-based system. Any encrypted connection (HTTPS) to this web server established by any browser can be decrypted. This may be a serious problem for sites that requires a secure connection, like banks or private web sites. Also, if some encrypted connection was recorded in the past, it can be decrypted in the same way. Another serious problem is for the network security software, like OpenSSH and OpenVPN, that are used to encrypt the traffic to protect passwords and grant the access to an administrative console or a private network protected by firewalls. This may allows hackers to gain unwanted access to private computers, networks or data traveled over the network, even if a not affected version of OpenSSL was used. The same behavior can be applied to any software or protocol that use SSL, like POP3S, SSMTP, FTPS, if used with a weak key. This is the case of Tor, software used to offer strong anonymity on the TCP/IP, where about 300 of 1,500-2,000 nodes used a weak key. With 15-20% of weak Tor nodes, there is a probability of 0.34-0.8% circa to build a circuit that has all tree nodes weak, resulting in a full loss of anonymity. Also the case of only one weak node begin used may facilitate some types of attack to the anonymity. The Tor hidden services, a sort of anonymous public servers, are affected too. However the issue was speedily addressed on May 14, 2008. The same problem also interested anonymous remailers like Mixmaster and Mixminion, that use OpenSSL to create the remailer keys for the servers and the nym keys for the clients. Although currently there is no official announcement, at least two remailer changed their keys because were weak." +tech,"InfosectionEnd The Space Shuttle Atlantis has received at least a 4 inch tear on its Thermal Protection System (TPS) on one of the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) pods near the thrusters after it took off on June 8, but officials say the damage is not concerning yet, and the OMS was not damaged. ""There's not a whole lot of concerns just yet,"" said a spokesman for NASA, Louis Parker. ""Preliminary Area of Interest in TPS inspection: Around a 4 inch blanket reported sticking out at the port OMS pod. Crew reported that on the port OMS pod they can see a 4 to 5 inch piece of blanket sticking up. They are getting photos,"" said NASA. The OMS is used to control the shuttle's movement in space and is also used for orbital injection and NASA says that preliminary imaging shows that the OMS was not damaged. ""Analysis by launch team looking at other camera views show that the tyvek cover did not strike the OMS pod,"" said NASA. Astronauts inspected the shuttle for more damage at approximately 2:00 p.m. (eastern time) using Atlantis's robotic arm with digital cameras placed on the end, but found none and Atlantis is still planned to dock with the International Space Station." +tech,"The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has discovered ice deposits in the south pole of Mars that are larger than the state of Texas. Scientists say that there is enough water in the deposits to cover the entire planet with up to 36 feet of water if the ice was to melt. Some sections of the ice deposits are up to 2.3 - 2.5 miles deep. The ice is composed of carbon dioxide, a little bit of dust, and water (90 percent of the water is estimated to be frozen). What has caught the attention of the scientists working on the Mars Express project is that this may help reveal whether or not there is any (microbial) life within the ice. Another perplexing question that scientists are trying to solve is what happened to all the water that produced all the channels on the surface of Mars. Jeffrey Plaut, who is from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and who is also leading the study, noted that, ""We have this continuing question facing us in studies of Mars, which is: where did all the water go? Even if you took the water in these two (polar) ice caps and added it all up, it's still not nearly enough to do all of the work that we've seen that the water has done across the surface of Mars in its history."" Currently, only 10 percent of the water is remaining and is located at the poles of Mars. It has been suggested that some of the remaining 90 percent of the water that disappeared could either be underground or could have simply left the atmosphere into space." +tech,"A Russian Kosmos-3M rocket has launched the German SAR-Lupe 4 reconnaissance satellite into low Earth orbit. Lift-off, from area 132/1 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia, occurred at 17:15 GMT. The launch, which was originally scheduled to occur today, was moved up to Tuesday, and subsequently delayed twice due to strong winds at an altitude of 13 kilometres, which prevented launch. SAR-Lupe is a German reconnaissance satellite constellation, consisting of five spacecraft. The first of these was launched in December 2006. The next satellite, SAR-Lupe 5, is scheduled for launch sometime around October 2008. The spacecraft are equipped with Synthetic Apperture Radar (SAR), which allows them to produce imagery at night, and through cloud cover. The carrier rocket which was used, Kosmos-3M, is a derivative of the Soviet R-14 missile. It first flew in 1967, and the launch of SAR-Lupe 4 marks its 442nd flight. It is also the 900th launch of a member of the R-14 family of rockets. The launch was declared successful, with the satellite reaching orbit at 17:43 GMT. It is the fourteenth orbital launch of 2008." +tech,"Space On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin lifted off on Vostok 1, the first human spaceflight in history, completing one orbit of the Earth in just under two hours. Tuesday marks the anniversary of Gagarin's flight and fifty years of human space travel. Celebrations were to take place all over the world and aboard the International Space Station. Yuri's Night, started in 2001 for fortieth anniversary celebrations, is a global celebration of the history of spaceflight, including the first Space Shuttle launch on April 12, 1981, the twentieth anniversary of Gagarin's flight. There were to be more than 400 events in 71 countries celebrating Yuri's Night this year. Gagarin's flight lasted 108 minutes, just under two hours, and consisted of one full orbit around the Earth. His trip to orbit came just four years after the launch of Sputnik 1 and the beginning of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR). The crew on board the International Space Station (ISS) also marked the fiftieth anniversary by delivering a message from space. While addressing viewers, station commander Dmitry Kondratyev referred to the portrait of Gagarin floating next to him as a representation of the achievement of ""humankind at large"". A movie, entitled First Orbit, was filmed in parts in space when the orbit of the ISS matched that of Gagarin's flight. The movie, produced by filmmaker Christopher Riley, was filmed by ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli and matches the radio communications, times, and views of the flight. The film is freely available to the public and made its debut on Tuesday to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the human race becoming a space-faring species." +tech,"Microsoft Windows metafiles have been discovered to be a vector for computer viruses, as they are treated as image files, but can execute machine code. Windows metafiles often use the extension .wmf files, but they may also execute if their extension is .jpeg, .png or any other common image extension. This vulnerability affects any Windows software which displays images, including instant messenger software, email clients, and web browsers. Firefox reduces the vulnerability by asking a user before executing Windows metafiles, but metafiles masquerading as another format will still be executed automatically by the operating system. Microsoft has not yet issued a patch for the vulnerability, prompting Ilfak Guilfanov to release an unofficial patch. Microsoft's security advisory recommends unregistering shimgvw.dll to disable handling of Windows MetaFiles. Critics point out that shimgvw.dll could become re-registered by malicious processes or other installations. They also suggest that malicious Windows Metafiles could merely remain ""dormant"" until shimgvw.dll is re-registered. The exploit has been used to attack online forums which allow embedding of image files via &lt;img&gt; tags, prompting some gaming forums to disable &lt;img&gt; tags . Any site accepting image media upload, such as avatars, will also be vulnerable if this site accepts .wmf files, possibly masquerading as another media file format. The exploit has also been used by an instant messaging worm, which appears to provide a backdoor for later exploitation via an IRC bot . The McAfee antivirus company said the WMF vulnerability is being exploited to drop over 30 variants of the Bifrose backdoor trojan horse, and exploitation by other malware is likely. McAfee estimates the first generation of such exploits had infected more than 6% of their customer base by 31 December 2005. ""The WMF vulnerability probably affects more computers than any other security vulnerability, ever,"" said Mikko of F-Secure. Windows Metafile vulnerability * F-secure's coverage of the vulnerability * Viruslist.com's anaysis of the IM worm. * Viruslist.com's initial report * Microsoft Security Advisory (912840) * US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#181038 * Internet Storm Center WMF FAQ" +tech,"After having its launch delayed three months due to damage caused by hail stones during a storm, Space Shuttle Atlantis has been given the green light by NASA to launch on June 8. ""NASA's senior managers have signed the Certification of Flight Readiness confirming that Space Shuttle Atlantis, her flight crew and payloads are fit to fly,"" said a statement posted on NASA's website. Atlantis's main engines, orbital maneuvering system and forward reaction control system was pressurized this past weekend and the crew's equipment has been put into stowage. NASA plans to launch Atlantis despite a vote reached by the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers, IAMAW, a union that is representing 570 workers that work with the shuttle program, but according to a union spokeswoman, the strike is not going to affect the launching of Atlantis. ""The bottom line is, a strike would not affect the next launch or the next one after that,"" said IAMAW spokeswoman, Tracy Yates. The union voted down a contract because the workers believed that NASA's wage offer is ""substandard."" Atlantis will deliver equipment to the International Space Station and to make repairs to it. Commanding Atlantis for its mission will be Rick Sturckow and Lee Archambault will serve as Atlantis' pilot. Mission Specialists James Reilly, Steven Swanson, John Olivas and Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson round out the crew to deliver the S3/S4 starboard truss segments, batteries and another pair of solar arrays to the space station." +tech,"The European Space Agency (ESA) Council approved a cooperation agreement on March 17 between the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the ESA for India's Chandrayan-1 moon satellite mission. The Chandrayan-1 will be India's first moon mission attempt. Europe will, under the agreement, provide and support three instruments for the lunar explorer: CIXS-2, Chandrayan-1 Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer; SARA; a Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer, and SIR-2, a Near-Infrared Spectrometer. Europe will support hardware for the HEX, High-Energy X-ray Spectrometer. Data from these instruments will be turned over to the ESA for distribution to ESA member states. These instruments are the same as the ones carried onboard ESA's SMART-1 moon exploration spacecraft. ISRO plans to launch the half-ton Chandrayan sometime before 2008 for a two year mission to study the solar system and the Moon. The satellite will be boosted by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The ISRO has been placing satellites in Earth orbit since 1975 and has developed its own launch vehicles and satellites for telecommunications and weather forecasting. A manned mission had been previously considered but was deemed too costly to carry through." +tech,"NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has discovered more evidence on the Planet Mars that water may have flowed beneath the surface and that ""cracks"" that lead below the surface may have, at one time, been ""habitable"" for ""microbial life,"" according to the head investigater for the orbiter's camera, Dr. Alfred McEwen. The location of the find is near the Candor Chasma canyon and images of the cracks were taken in September of 2006. ""This result shows how orbital observations can identify features of particular interest for future exploration on the surface or in the subsurface or by sample return. The alteration along fractures, concentrated by the underground fluids, marks locations where we can expect to find key information about chemical and perhaps biologic processes in a subsurface environment that may have been habitable,"" said McEwen. According to NASA scientists, ""mineralization"" was found on the surface of the cracks and the crack's fractures. Scientists say the minerals became visible after layers of sand and dirt eroded away from the cracks. The minerals were likely placed on the rocks after dissolving in water and then evaporating onto the rocks, causing the minerals to become rock. Another possibility on how the minerals were placed there is that the ""fluid"" circulating on the rock was a gas, which might or might not have contained water. ""What caught my eye was the bleaching or lack of dark material along the fracture. That is a sign of mineral alteration by fluids that moved through those joints. It reminded me of something I had seen during field studies in Utah, that is light-tone zones, or 'haloes,' on either side of cracks through darker sandstone,"" said University of Arizona, Tucson geologist, Dr. Chris Okubo. ""The haloes visible along fractures seen in the Candor Chasma image appear to be slightly raised relative to surrounding, darker rock. This is evidence that the circulating fluids hardened the lining of the fractures, as well as bleaching it. The harder material would not erode away as quickly as softer material farther from the fractures,"" said a statement on NASA's website. It is not clear how long the minerals might have been present or how long it took them to get on the rocks. ""It is hard to say how long ago the fluids were there - hundreds of millions or perhaps a billion years ago. But the fact that we see evidence for chemical reactions between the fluids and the rock means that the fluids were sitting there for quite a long time ... that's perhaps good if you want to look for any habitable areas that might support any biological activity,"" added Okubo. ""This publication is just the first of many, many to come. The analysis is based on test observations taken even before the start of our main science phase. Since then, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has returned several terabits of science data, sustaining a pace greater than any other deep space mission. This flood of data will require years of study to exploit their full value, forever increasing our understanding of Mars and its history of climate change,"" added Okubo." +tech,"Transport Solar Impulse, the world’s most advanced solar powered plane has just completed the first of the five legs of its trans-continental journey, flying fuel-free from San Francisco to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, in just over 18 hours. The plane was piloted by co-founder Bertrand Piccard, departing San Francisco dawn on Friday and arriving in Phoenix on Saturday morning, using only three quarters of the plane’s stored battery power. ""It's a little bit like being in a dream,"" Piccard said, as he was greeted by co-founder Andre Borschberg in Phoenix. Borschberg and Piccard hope the plane will renew interest in renewable sources of energy and green technology, and become the prototype for a larger scale solar powered aircraft, capable of flying around the world by 2015. ""If an airplane can fly day or night with no fuel, just on the sun's power, of course it means that everybody in daily life can use this technology for his house, for heating and cooling systems, for lighting, for cars, for trucks. There's so much we can do now to have a cleaner future,"" Piccard said. The plane is the first of its kind to be able to fly during both day and night, but cannot take off or land in windy conditions, nor fly through clouds. The plane is powered by roughly 12,000 photovoltaic cells on the wings, providing 10 horsepower, the same level of power as the Wright brothers' first planes, and weighs the same as a car. ""One hundred years ago, the planes had to fly in good weather and there was only one person on board,"" Piccard said. ""Now we have completely new technology, we fly with no fuel at all. But, of course, we need to fly in good weather and we carry only one pilot on board. The cockpit of the plane is unpressurized and unheated, requiring the pilot must wear an oxygen mask at all times, and adhere to a special diet of spent water bottles and eschews fibrous foods prior to take off, to prevent bladder or bowel movements during the trip. Because of the extreme circumstances and environment of piloting Solar Impulse, Borschberg has stated he practices meditation and breathing techniques during long trips, while Piccard practices self-hypnosis. Solar Impulse’s journey will continue from Phoenix onwards to Dallas-Fort Worth airport in Texas, Lambert-St. Louis airport, Dulles airport in the Washington area and New York's John F. Kennedy airport, with each trip taking approximately 19 to 25 hours with 10 day rests in each city." +tech,"A class action suit has been filed on Tuesday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) against the telecom giant AT&T. The suit, filed in San Francisco, alleges that AT&T violated federal laws by collaborating with government to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens. The Bush Administration and NSA have come under fire over the issue. They defend the program by saying they are only listening in on suspected terrorists. The EFF claims that AT&T turned over 2 databases consisting of their subscribers' communication and internet usage records. Attorney Kevin Bankston representing the EFF said the government could not conduct their surveillance without the help of companies like AT&T. He also said their goal is to tell AT&T that it is not in their fiscal best interests, along with not being legal, to cooperate with the President's wiretap program. According to the class action suit, AT&T granted ""access to all or a substantial number of the communications transmitted through its key domestic telecommunications facilities, including direct access to streams of domestic, international and foreign telephone and Internet communications."" The lawsuit is seeking damages of $22,000 for each AT&T customer in addition to punitive fines. AT&T is also facing scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission and possibly fines for failing to properly certify that customer records were safeguarded." +tech,"After its previously expected July roll-out date was delayed, Jatalla, has made available a prototype of its search engine. The new search engine appears unique in that relevance rankings are produced only by users themselves, rather than through the use of webcrawlers and page analysis algorithms. In this way, Jatalla resembles Wikipedia, Digg, and del.icio.us as part of a growing trend of user-controlled content, collective processing, and transparency. This approach may be contrasted with that of search engines in which rankings are produced by a formula that is determined internally, as indicated in a recent court ruling." +tech,"A SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket has failed during its third attempt to reach orbit. Over four years behind schedule, the rocket lifted off from Omelek Island, part of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, at 03:34 GMT this morning, carrying three technology development satellites, and the ashes of 208 people, including astronaut Gordon Cooper, and Star Trek actor James Doohan. According to a statement issued by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the first and second stages of the rocket failed to separate, making this the third consecutive unsuccessful launch for the Falcon 1, which is yet to conduct a successful mission. Musk described the failure as a ""big disappointment"". The primary payload for this flight was the Trailblazer satellite, which was to have been operated by the United States Air Force, and MDA. Two CubeSats, Pharmasat Risk Evaluation Satellite (PREsat) and Nanosail-D, were also to have been deployed. The CubeSats would have been operated by NASA and Santa Clara University. The space burial capsules, named Explorers and operated by Celestis, were to have intentionally remained bolted to the second stage of the rocket. The remains of several famous individuals were flown, most notably Project Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper and actor James Doohan, best known for his role as Montgomery Scott in the science fiction television series Star Trek. Director John Meredyth Lucas, who also worked on Star Trek, had some of his ashes on the flight as well, as did Mareta West an astrogeologist who was responsible for choosing the landing sites for the Apollo missions to the Moon. This is the second consecutive failure of a major orbital space burial mission, following a failed Taurus launch in September 2001. The last successful major orbital space burial was conducted in December 1999, although a single burial capsule was launched aboard the New Horizons spacecraft in 2006. This launch was originally planned to occur in early 2004, with the TacSat-1 satellite and the Explorers payload. It would have been the maiden flight of the Falcon 1. A number of procurement delays pushed it to 2005, and subsequent issues with the availability of Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg AFB, from where it was originally scheduled to launch, led to the first attempts to launch being made in late 2005. During the second attempted countdown, a faulty valve caused the first stage fuel tank to be deformed, leading to a delay. In March 2006, a flight which was originally scheduled to be conducted after this one, with the FalconSat-2 spacecraft, was launched as the maiden flight, and ended in failure less than a minute after lift-off due to a fuel leak. This caused delays for all other Falcon launches, and a test flight without a functional payload was added to the schedule in order to ensure that the problems with the rocket had been resolved. This was launched in March 2007, and also failed - this time due to a sequence of events started by human error in setting the fuel ratio for the first stage. Despite the failure to reach orbit, most critical systems were tested, so the third flight was cleared to launch an operational payload. In the meantime, the satellite that was to replace TacSat-1, TacSat-2, was launched, and TacSat-1 was subsequently cancelled as obsolete. During early 2008, the US Air Force announced that they would replace it with a satellite for a programme called Jumpstart, which would be selected a few weeks before launch. Trailblazer was chosen in late May, over two other options, PnPSat, or a pair of CubeSats. The launch was at that time scheduled for late June, but it was subsequently delayed due to small cracks in one of the rocket's engines. Today's launch followed an eventful countdown, lasting almost to the end of the five hour launch window, with the loading of helium onto the rocket taking longer than expected, and requiring several long holds. Following this, an attempt to launch was made at 03:00 GMT, which resulted in a last-second abort at T-0, just after ignition of the main engine, due to a marginal performance issue with the turbopump. The launch was recycled, and the rocket lifted off 34 minutes later. This was the first flight of an uprated version of the Merlin engine, which powers the first stage. The new version, named Merlin-1C, features regenerative cooling as opposed to ablative cooling used on the earlier launches. It is believed that the failure of the launch was unrelated to the presence of the new engine, the performance of which was described as ""picture-perfect"" by Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX. The next Falcon 1 launch was scheduled to have been launched in September with the Razaksat spacecraft for ATSB of Malaysia, and up to three CubeSats. This will almost certainly be delayed whilst the failure is investigated. It is unclear whether this failure will affect the maiden flight of the larger Falcon 9, currently scheduled for 2009, on a demonstration mission for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services programme. Today's launch is the 38th orbital launch of 2008, and following the resale and recovery of the AMC-14 satellite, the first outright failure of the year." +tech,"spaceFollowing a similar experiment in 2009, six men entered an enclosed room in Moscow last Thursday to simulate a flight to Mars. The Mars-500 team consist of a Chinese man, a Frenchman, an Italian, and three Russians. Only the Chinese man, Wang Yue, is a trained astronaut. The six waved goodbye, crying ""see you in 520 days' time!"". According to Wang, not being able to see their families and friends was one of the greatest challenges, although e-mail is allowed during the experiment. Both Wang and the Frenchman, Romain Charles, expressed pride to be part of this experiment. Wang said, ""it will be trying for all of us. We cannot see our family, we cannot see our friends, but I think it is all a glorious time in our lives."" The joint-effort project is being organised by the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) and the European Space Agency; the goal is to study physical and psychological effects on would-be astronauts. All six men speak reasonable English; however, as Russian is another primary language for the simulated trip, Russian crew member Sukhrob Kamolov said body language will be used should they fail to understand one another. Food for the volunteers will be rationed as it would in a real Mars mission. All supplies were supplied by China and loaded into the 'simulated spacecraft' prior to the beginning of the experiment. For backup, China is sending three mission support staff to Russia. No women are included in the crew, excluding issues relating to a mixed-sex crew from the study. During a similar experiment in 1999, a woman complained that the captain attempted to kiss her. Following 250 days of ""travelling"" to Mars, the group will split. Three will stay in the ""spacecraft"", the other three going to the surface of ""Mars"". Only two will actually leave the ""spacecraft"" to study the surface of ""Mars"". After a month, the group will go through the return journey simulation, a 240 day trip. The men will follow a strict timetable, with 8 hours each of sleep, work, and leisure each day." +tech,"__NOTOC__ Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) successfully launched and sent into orbit a Falcon 1 rocket, which was launched yesterday at 23:15 UTC from the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. This was the fourth attempt to launch this class of rocket, and the first vehicle to be successfully launched by private spacecraft developers. Previous attempts to launch this vehicle ended in failure due to engineering errors. Perhaps the most critical part of this flight occurred during the stage separation between the first and second stages of this rocket. In this flight, unlike previous attempts, the separation was without incident and the second stage maintained the planned trajectory into orbit. The rocket achieved an orbit at an altitude of 135 miles above the Earth after approximately ten minutes of powered flight. The main technical difference between the third and fourth attempts was an adjustment in the timing between shutting down the first stage rocket engine and when the stage separation takes place. On the third attempt, the first and second stages collided into each other immediately after stage separation, which in turn damaged the second stage engine and resulted in a mission failure. For this fourth attempt, the stage separation occurred without any problem, and was greeted with loud cheers and applause by SpaceX employees who were watching a live telecast of the launch at the Hawthorne, California, USA manufacturing plant. This telecast was also released as a live video feed on the SpaceX website during the launch. While other rocket companies have been successful at sending vehicles into orbit before, this is the first vehicle that has been designed from scratch without any components that came from previous government-sponsored vehicles. This is also the first privately developed liquid-fueled vehicle that has achieved orbit. Elon Musk, founder, primary investor, and CEO of SpaceX, congratulated his employees upon reaching this milestone, saying ""That was frickin' awesome! There's only a handful of countries on Earth that have done this. It's usually a country thing, not a company thing. We did it."" He also said later on, ""Definitely one of the best days of my life."" The payload of this rocket consisted of a 360 pound engineering test object made of aluminum, which was also fabricated by SpaceX in their Hawthorne manufacturing facility. Called the Ratsat, it was decorated with a logo of a rat by the SpaceX team that built it. Elon Musk estimates that it will remain in orbit for between five and ten years before burning up in the atmosphere. Additional milestones accomplished by SpaceX on this flight included a successful deployment of parachutes on the first stage of this rocket, where SpaceX hopes to be able to recover this stage and be able to re-use that portion of the rocket on a future flight with some refurbishing. The second stage also performed an additional test by restarting its engine and moving to a higher orbit at between 300 to 450 miles (500 to 700 km) above the Earth with an inclination of 9.2 degrees, passing above the International Space Station during the maneuver. ""This is a great day for SpaceX and the culmination of an enormous amount of work by a great team,"" said Elon Musk, ""The data shows we achieved a super precise orbit insertion—middle of the bull's-eye — and then went on to coast and restart the second stage, which was icing on the cake."" SpaceX is offering future flights of the Falcon 1 to the public for a price of about $7.9 million USD each, although Mr. Musk estimated that the total cost to test and develop this rocket, including the three previous failed launch attempts, came to about $100 million USD. The next launch of the Falcon 1 is slated to happen sometime toward the end of the year, with a satellite that was manufactured and paid by the Malaysian government. Also scheduled for early next year is the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 rocket, which uses a multiples of nine rocket engines that are identical to the engine that was used in today's launch as well as many of the other components that were used on the Falcon 1. SpaceX is also under contract with NASA to develop a vehicle called the Dragon that will be supplying cargo to the International Space Station under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. This spacecraft is also intended to eventually be capable of manned spaceflight." +tech,"Gregory Kurtzer Yes. While we haven't given any ETA on release, we already have a large percentage of the work underway and if I were to make a SWAG Scientific wild-ass guess, it will be near the end of Q1 or beginning of Q2 2021. WNIQ How will the governing body of Rocky Linux function? How can Rocky Linux ensure similar situation like this does not repeat? Gregory Kurtzer At the moment, we have a structure similar to most organizations. People have been empowered to make decisions and report upwards. This may change in the future, but right now, we need leadership and I take the responsibility of ensuring that all decisions are in favor of the community and the project and free from corporate control (even from my own company). My commitment to the project is that Rocky will always remain in the best interest of the community and everyone who wishes to be part of the organization, with good intentions, will be welcomed. Since day one, Rocky's coordination efforts have been completely transparent. I invite anyone reading this to join the #rocky-coordination channel on our Slack instance. There you'll find many high-level discussions taking place with direct community involvement. WNIQ What are the short-term and long-term goals of Rocky Linux and how will the project ensure it stays on its path? Gregory Kurtzer Short term: organization of technology and people. Mid term: general availability of Rocky Linux. Long term: growing the community like sponsoring SIGs. HYS" +tech,"North KoreaNorth Korea may be planning to launch one of its Taepodong-2 missiles in the next few days, having announced earlier that it intends to put a communications satellite into space. U.S. intelligence officials announced Wednesday that a missile had been rolled out to a pad at its Musudan launch facility. It is unknown whether the missile is in fact carrying a satellite, or if a warhead may be in its place. The missile is reported to be capable of carrying either. Only after a post-launch analysis will officials be able to determine what the missile may have been carrying. United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commented that were North Korea to launch a missile, they would be in violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution, and that the U.S. would voice its opposition with the U.N. if North Korea went through with the plan. Fears abound over the possibility of the missile being used in warfare, with the Taepodong-2 rumored to be able to reach the U.S. states of Alaska and Hawaii. Japan has warned that it will shoot down any such missiles launched by North Korea with its U.S.-made Patriot anti-missile defense system. South Korea's response was less specific, with chief nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac saying ""If North Korea launches a rocket, certain countermeasures are unavoidable."" The previous launch of a Taepodong-2 missile was in 2006, which ended in failure after it went out of control and was destroyed." +tech,"RFID chips, the major component of e-passports, emit radio signals that can be read at a short distance by an electronic reader. Lukas Grunwald and Christian Bottger realised that they could clone an identical and undetectable e-passport. They downloaded the data from their own passport using an RFID reader (available from eBay) and then onto a blank chip thanks to a software they have developed, called RFdump. Doing so, they were able to clone an e-passport in less than five minutes. Ironically, a spokesman from the UK Home Office said: It is hard to see why anyone would want to access the information on the chip. A European Union funded network of IT security experts has come out against the e-passport scheme. The experts said that it is not too late to roll back and rethink the ePassport. Wikinews previously reported that Turkey, where there seems to be no discussion about the controversies surrounding RFID chips, is switching to e-passports towards the middle of next year." +tech,"""Buy cheap Viagra through us - no prescription required!"" Anyone with an active email account will recognize lines like this one. According to some reports, unsolicited advertisements (spam) for Viagra and similar drugs account for one in four spam messages. BACKGROUND Spamming remains one of the biggest problems facing email users today. While users and systems administrators have improved their defenses against unsolicited email, many spammers now insert random words or characters into their letters in order to bypass filters. The Wikipedia article Stopping email abuse provides an overview of the various strategies employed by companies, Internet users and systems administrators to deal with the issue. Ever since pharmaceutical giant Pfizer promised to cure erectile dysfunction once and for all with its blue pills containing the drug sildenafil citrate, spammers have tried to tap into male anxiety by offering prescription-free sales of unapproved ""generic"" Viagra and clones such as Cialis soft tabs. Legislation like the U.S. CAN-SPAM act has done little to stem the tide of email advertising the products. Now Pfizer has entered a pledge with Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest software company, to address the problem. The joint effort will focus on lawsuits against spammers as well as the companies they advertise. ""Pfizer is joining with Microsoft on these actions as part of our shared pledge to reduce the sale of these products and to fight the senders of unsolicited e-mail that overwhelms people's inboxes,"" said Jeff Kindler, executive vice president at Pfizer. Microsoft has filed civil actions against spammers advertising the websites CanadianPharmacy and E-Pharmacy Direct. Pfizer has filed lawsuits against the two companies, and has taken actions against websites which use the word ""Viagra"" in their domain names. Sales of controlled drugs from Canadian pharmacies to the United States are illegal, but most drugs sold in Canada have nevertheless undergone testing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This is not the case for many of the Viagra clones sold by Internet companies and manufactured in countries like China and India. While it was not clear that CanadianPharmacy was actually shipping drugs from Canada, Pfizer's general counsel, Beth Levine, claimed that the company filled orders using a call center in Montreal, reported the Toronto Star. For Microsoft's part, they allege that the joint effort with Pfizer is part of their ""multi-pronged attack on the barrage of spam."" As the creator of the popular email program Outlook, Microsoft has been criticized in the past for the product's spam filtering process. Recently, Microsoft added anti-spam measures to its popular Exchange server. Exchange 2003 now includes support for accessing so-called real-time block lists, or RTBLs. An RTBL is a list of the IP addresses maintained by a third party; the addresses on the list are those of mailservers thought to have sent spam recently. Exchange 2003 can query the list for each message it receives." +tech,"The revolutionary space telescope that brought great images of space back down to Earth will lose out in NASA's budget reorganisation for 2006. While NASA's budget will increase by 2.6%, most of Hubble's $93 million in funding will be directed into bringing it safely to Earth. The big winners include the space shuttle program and the International Space Station, including the development of a new Shuttle replacement. A planned fifth maintenance job on the space telescope was cancelled as a result of the Columbia disaster, and experts argue as to how long it can remain useful to scientists. It is expected to fail irreversibly by 2007 if vital work is not done. Another project to bite the dust was the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), which would have been the largest satellite ever sent to the outer solar system. It was to have featured a new form of nuclear reactor as propulsion, but instead NASA has allocated $320 million to developing nuclear technologies in space in a less aggressive, more stepped approach. In a January 2004 speech, George W. Bush proposed a human return to the Moon and a first journey to Mars. This grand aim is behind the agency's new budget, with $6.8 billion (over one-third of the total) devoted to the ISS, Space Shuttle and space travel support." +tech,"Sm Churchill At the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (IFA) industrial exhibition in Berlin, the South Korean corporation Samsung released its first tablet computer, called ""Galaxy Tab"". The device features the Android operating system and a seven-inch screen. Samsung's own applications, called ""Reader's Hub"" and ""Media Hub,"" display ebooks and videos respectively. Latest Flash, and an interface to stream to TV also are included. Wireless technologies supported include 3G networks, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. The device is a competitor to Apple's iPad. British newspaper The Daily Mail considered the appearance of the Galaxy Tab on the market as a serious event for Apple, because the device has a smaller screen, and Samsung was expecting to set a price 1.5 to 2 times lower than the iPad. Samsung were considering a ten inch screen on future models. Galaxy Tab is ""the first of the company's tablet devices"", as a spokesperson said. Head of product portfolio Thomas Richter expressed optimism about the device's market future : ""This is not just another tablet. We call it a Smart Media device."" Samsung's head of mobile communications J.K. Shin was also positive about the release of Galaxy Tab, commenting that ""there is a new and emerging consumer demand that Samsung can satisfy since mobile is in our DNA.""" +tech,"Forecasters predict that northern lights could be visible to the naked eye late tonight and early tomorrow morning across Canada, northern parts of the U.S., and possibly the United Kingdom. Solar storms caused a large ejection of plasma from the Sun's surface on Sunday, and the plasma is heading directly towards Earth. The plasma, a cloud of rapidly moving hydrogen gas atoms and subatomic particles, is expected to reach us late Tuesday. The plasma will interact with the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere, which will cause northern lights, or aurora borealis, to be visible much further south than is usual. Northern lights usually appear as green or red rivers of lights across the sky. ""It's the first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time"" said astronomer Leon Golub of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The eruption was detected by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which was launched in February 2010, and is currently orbiting the Earth. The Sun goes through approximately eleven-year long activity cycles, with the last maximum occurring in 2001. Sunday's eruption is a sign that the many years of inactivity is over, and the Sun is heading towards another maximum." +tech,"A Japanese H-IIA carrier rocket has successfully launched the Wideband InterNetworking test and Demonstration Satellite (WINDS) experimental communication satellite. WINDS, also known as Kizuna, is a Japanese spacecraft intended to relay Internet access to homes and organisaa" +tech,"The search engine Google announced the removal of the official German BMW web site from its search results today. Google is reported to have removed the website due to the use of a trick to raise its website ratings in the search engine's results. The online version of Forbes magazine reported that the German word for used car, Gebrauchtwagen, appeared 42 times in a doorway web page created by the German car manufacturer. Doorway web pages contain many keywords designed to attract search robots. The page presented to Google's robot for indexing was significantly different from the page presented to the site's visitors. According to a recent blog post by Matt Cutts, one of Google's software engineers, this technique is ""a violation of our webmaster quality guidelines."" These guidelines encourage webmasters to ""avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings."" BMW reacted to the measure by claiming that it had no intention of manipulating the search results, but instead used the doorway pages with the objective of ""offering a better service"" to those looking for used cars." +tech,"Russian astrologist Marina Bai has filed suit in Moscow asking for 8.7 billion rubles (311 million U.S. dollars) because, she claims, the NASA Deep Impact mission damaged her business by altering her ability to provide accurate horoscopes, harmed her ""system of spiritual values,"" and will ""interfere with the natural life of the universe."" ""It is obvious that elements of the comet's orbit, and correspondingly the ephemeris, will change after the explosion, which interferes with my astrology work and distorts my horoscope,"" Bai was quoted in the daily newspaper, Izvestia. NASA has refuted similar accusations by pointing out that this impact is only a new addition to many previous collisions already on the comet. On July 4, NASA successfully crashed a probe into the Tempel 1 comet in hopes the debris kicked up in the resulting explosion could shed light in the building blocks of the early solar system. The lawsuit, originally filed in June, has not yet been scheduled for an initial hearing, according to Russian authorities." +tech,"Scientists confirmed today for the first time ever, that astronomers photographed a planet orbiting a sun other than our own. Photographs were taken late last year by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile, but it has taken since then to confirm that the body is indeed a planet &mdash; five times the size of Jupiter, the largest planet that orbits our own sun. Extra-solar planets such as this have been detected before, but never by direct observation &mdash; their presence has always been inferred from aberrant behaviour of the star they circulate around. ""Among the most essential quests of modern astronomers, taking direct images of planets outside of our solar system is certainly up there among chart-toppers,"" says the ESO, in a press release given to verify the status of the object. The newly imaged planet orbits a brown dwarf star known to scientists as 2M1207, at a distance that is nearly twice as far as that of Neptune from our own sun &mdash; making the planet much too cold for lifeforms such as those on Earth. Detection of Earth-like planets is still years away, according to the ESO, because they are too faint for current equipment to detect. The scientists say that the planet presents a valuable opportunity nonetheless, as it is much younger than those in our own system, at only ""a few tens of millions of years old"". ""Moreover, as the first tens of millions of years are considered to have been a critical period in the formation of Earth and of our own solar system, the study of nearby young planetary systems provides astronomers with invaluable insight on our own origins."" Suns are understood to form when matter collapses strongly under its own gravity, while planets form later by accretion, in matter orbiting a sun. Photographs of what was thought to be an extra-solar planet were announced earlier this month. However scientists now state that the size of that planet might be much larger than originally announced, thus allowing a chance that the object might instead be a small star." +tech,"The Space Shuttle Discovery has been launched from Kennedy Space Center, on mission STS-121. This is 115th Space Shuttle Flight and the second since the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003. The ascent was described as ""smooth"", however NASA engineers will be looking for traces of damage to the shuttle's heat shield that may be caused by foam falling from the external tank. Launch occurred on schedule at 2:38 p.m. EDT (18:38 UTC), with the spacecraft reaching orbit 8 minutes later. Around 3 minutes into the launch, an on-board camera showed numerous pieces of insulation foam break away from the fuel tank. However, they are not thought to have caused any damage to the shuttle. NASA's shuttle program chief N. Wayne Hale Jr. said the foam had fallen ""after the time we are concerned about."" This is the first time an American manned spacecraft has added its own launch fireworks to Fourth of July celebrations in the United States." +tech,"Astronomers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy today announced their discovery of twelve further moons of Saturn, bringing the total number of moons discovered so far to 46. The initial discovery of the satellites was on December 12, 2004, and was made using the 8.2 metre Subaru telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory. Confirmational observations were then conducted throughout January, February, and March from the Subaru telescope and from the Gemini North telescope. Similar teams at the university led by David Jewitt discovered 11 moons of Jupiter in 2001, and a further 11 in 2002, before turning their attentions to Saturn. 11 of the newly discovered moons are in retrograde orbits, leading astronomers to hypothesize that they were originally asteroids, attracted out of the asteroid belt by Jupiter's gravity and then captured by Saturn. All of the moons are in inclined elliptical orbits, that range from 16 million to 22 million kilometres in distance from Saturn. As a point of reference, Earth's moon is an average of 384,403 kilometres from the Earth. The new moons of Saturn are provisionally named S/2004 S07 through to S/2004 S18." +tech,"InfosectionEnd NASA has given the 'ok' for the Space Shuttle Atlantis to land on Thursday September 21. NASA also says that there was ""no damage"" to the shuttle when astronauts spotted a piece of debris floating next to the shuttle. ""We are cleared for entry. Nothing was found to be missing or damaged from the thermal protection system, the heat shield of the space shuttle Atlantis, or, in fact, any other part of the shuttle Atlantis,"" said N. Wayne Hale Jr., the shuttle's program director. The debris is believed to be a piece of plastic from under the shuttle's heat tiles. A similar piece was seen by cameras falling from inbetween the heat shield tiles, but when the camera took another look, there was nothing to be found. Hale says that the source of the debris is unknown and that ""we NASA may never know"" where it came from. ""This is most likely the culprit. It was there before, it's not there now. It was most likely shaken loose during the flight control system checkout. We probably will never know for sure,"" added Hale. Astronauts used Atlantis's robotic arm to check the shuttle and its heat shield for any signs of damage." +tech,"NASA's Spirit Rover on Mars has found ""silica-rich soil"" in Gusev Crater that scientists say is so rich that it would require that water have been present at some point, in order for the deposits to be there. ""You could hear people gasp in astonishment. This is a remarkable discovery. And the fact that we found something this new and different after nearly 1,200 days on Mars makes it even more remarkable. It makes you wonder what else is still out there,"" said Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the Mars rovers' science instruments at Cornell University located in Ithaca, New York. The Martian soil was analyzed by Spirit's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, and the soil was found to contain at least 90% pure silica. The findings were announced during a teleconference between Squyres and the other rovers' team members. But Spirit did not make this discovery on purpose. One of the six wheels on the rover is no longer functioning, and where ever Spirit goes, a deep gash is left in the soil in its wake. That is what caused the soil to be exposed and this discovery to be made. Spirit has made other discoveries using this 'method'. Spirit had previously found other indicators of long-ago water at the site, such as patches of water-bearing, sulfur-rich soil and alteration of minerals. ""This unexpected new discovery is a reminder that Spirit and Opportunity are still doing cutting-edge exploration more than three years into their extended missions. It also reinforces the fact that significant amounts of water were present in Mars' past, which continues to spur the hope that we can show that Mars was once habitable and possibly supported life."" The discovery is being called the best one yet to support the theory that Mars once had an abundance of water on it. ""This is some of the best evidence Spirit has found for water at Gusev,"" said a geochemist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Albert Yen who also added that this is the best indication so far that there could have been ""favorable conditions"" for there to have been life on Mars in the past. There are some interactions that scientists say could have caused the silica to be deposited, but all of them include water. One is that volcanic activity, which produces acid vapors, interacted with the water inside the soil. Another theory is an ancient hot spring located in the area. Both Spirit, and its partner rover Opportunity have both been in operation on Mars for almost 1,200 days. Both of the rovers finished their initial mission back in 2004, but both have been operating since and making new discoveries." +tech,"At 10:30pm on November 23, 2008, near the airport in McGregor, Texas, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) tested their new Falcon 9 rocket at full thrust for nearly 3 minutes (160 seconds). The engineers then shut down two of the nine engines &mdash; in order to limit potential damage to the launch pad &mdash; and continued the test for 18 more seconds before finally shutting the rocket down. ""We ran the engines just like they would run during flight, but instead of being up in the air, they were held down. They weren’t moving,"" said Lauren Dreyer, SpaceX's manager for business development. This was the Falcon 9's first major test firing, and it marks a milestone for the company in its plans to capture a section of the commercial launch market. The test reportedly shook the windows of houses 5 miles away, causing agitation among residents who felt that they had not received adequate warning. ""I appreciate the fact that the company notified the City of McGregor, but did they not think the test would affect the surrounding communities?"" asked commenter Lorena Resident on the website for the Waco Tribune-Herald. Waco lies just east of McGregor. The Falcon 9 rocket, and its smaller sibling the Falcon 1, are the first rockets capable of entering Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to have their design be privately funded in its entirety. According to SpaceX the Falcon 9 can generate 4 times the maximum thrust of a Boeing 747 while firing in a vacuum, and will eventually be able to perform interplanetary missions in addition to its initial role as an orbital launch vehicle. SpaceX is also designing a crew and cargo capsule for the Falcon 9, which it has named the ""Dragon"". What do you think the future holds for SpaceX and commercial spaceflight in general?SpaceX is a contender for future commercial contracts from various government run space agencies, with NASA expressing particular interest. NASA will be retiring their fleet of Columbia Class Space Shuttles in 2010, but will not have the Shuttles' replacements (the Ares I and Ares V rockets) ready until at least 2014. NASA hopes to fill some of this gap using commercial launches from companies such as SpaceX. SpaceX has already reached an agreement with NASA to conduct three test flights of the Dragon capsule in conjunction with the Falcon 9. The first of these flights is expected in 2009. Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX, said, ""The full mission-length test firing clears the highest hurdle for the Falcon 9 first stage before launch. In the next few months, we will have the first Falcon 9 flight vehicle on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, preparing for lift-off in 2009."" title2=Space" +tech,"SpaceThe Herschel Space Observatory and Planck Satellite were both launched Thursday by an Ariane 5ECA rocket at around 1pm (UTC) by the European Space Agency (ESA) from the Guiana Space Centre. The two telescopes valued at €1.9 billion (£1.7bn) were launched from Kourou, French Guiana, a department of France in South America. Planck Satellite ""The technology onboard these satellites is unique, and the science these satellites will do is fantastic,"" said Jean-Jacques Dordain director-general at the ESA, ""This is the result of many years' hard work by thousands of scientists and engineers across Europe."" Herschel was released 26 minutes after launch to continue on its trajectory. Two minutes later, the Planck observatory separated. The Planck telescope is a survey telescope using Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements of the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. ""It Planck will allow us to pin down all the basic characteristics of the Universe with very high accuracy - its age, its contents, how it evolved, its geometry, etc."" said Dr Jan Tauber, project scientist at ESA. The larger space telescope is named after William Herschel who discovered the planet Uranus in 1781. The Herschel telescope will use infrared radiation and its main reflector mirror at a diameter of 3.5 meter (11.5 ft) is one-and-a-half-times larger than that on the Hubble Telescope. The Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) will also be able to detect carbon, water and oxygen in star-forming areas of space and examine the chemical composition of comets. The Photodetector Array Camera (PACS) and Spectrometer and the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) will correlate the images. The Herschel will also be equipped with heat detecting instrumentation. The Herschel space telescope will be operational for three to five years. ""These space missions are outstanding feats of engineering. Herschel is the largest telescope we have ever put into space and the instruments on Planck will operate at just a tenth of a degree above absolute zero,"" said Lord Drayson, the United Kingdom's science minister, ""This is really cool science happening at mind-blowingly low temperatures, helping to answer some of the basic questions about the history of the universe."" ""Herschel is going to help us understand much, much better how stars form right now and how they have been forming throughout billions of years of cosmic history"" said Göran Pilbratt, Herschel's project scientist at ESA, ""We're going to see the star embryos, the ones that are not born yet. We're going to see right into the wombs where stars are born.""" +tech,"Ion thruster (first considered by scientists in the 1950's). Previously this type of engine was only flown on Russian satellites, and this was the first time one has ever powered a craft beyond earth orbit. The thruster works by applying a large voltage across a magnetic coil, creating a strong magnetic field. This ionises the Xenon fuel supply which accelerates the ions to high speeds, pushing the craft forward. The propulsion of such an engine is around 3 times that of a normal chemical rocket. The thruster was powered by 2 solar panels on either side of the probe. The engine's small size and cost-efficiency helped keep down the mission budget. However there are drawbacks; for example, manoeuvres have to be carried out in long progressive burns rather than with short sharp bursts. A hall effect engine will also be used on the Bepi-Colombo mission to Mercury in 2013. Astronomers and scientists in ground observatories tracked the crash landing as it unfolded, controlled by the ESA staff from the Darmstadt centre, Germany. The Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii caught the impact on infrared cameras, seen as a bright flash as rock and soil became superheated. Elsewhere, results were less conclusive; in Florida thick clouds meant astronomers missed the event. One observer said: ""It would have been nice if it was clear, but that's the way astronomy works."" ESA sources say the mission was entirely successful in its aim to test new technology and obtain more data about the Moon. ""It was really a great mission for the agency,"" said mission manager Gerhard Schwehm, ""It was a technology demonstrator that grew up and provide lots of beautiful science data.""" +tech,"At 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, 10-15 UFOs were spotted over north London in the inner-city district of Islington. The Islington police said they started receiving phone calls only minutes after the objects started appearing. 34 year-old market stall trader Alix McAlister, who witnessed the objects, said that, ""I just picked up my son from nursery in Bredgar Road. I had just come out of the door when I noticed what was going on in the sky. There were a group of them - 10 to 15 of them moving together. My first impression was that they reminded me of a squadron of aeroplanes in formation. But they didn't have a proper formation and they were all moving at the same speed. I thought for a while that something was happening in the centre of London. Bombs and planes crossed my mind. But I realised very quickly that they didn't look like any aircraft I'd seen before. They were coming from the north and moving south. And then they kind of stopped and they were hovering. There was no sound. They seemed to fade away and I saw more coming and then they stopped. It lasted about 10 minutes."" The Contact International UFO Research organization was informed about the event by the Islington police and one of the witnesses. A spokesmen for the organization said that the witness had told them, ""He told me he was picking his daughter up from school and he saw many people looking up in the air. Traffic had stopped and people were staring. He said he saw between 12 and 15 orange lights travelling across the sky. Then they would stop and then they went upwards.""" +tech,"Internet portal and mail-provider Lycos Europe has launched a program to increase spammers' bills by having thousands of voluntary users' computers repeatedly query websites from which spam originates. Such a tactic would increase the bandwidth costs for these websites. However, it also faces legal questions. Spamming, the mass sending of unsolicited emails, is lucrative in part because each email can be sent for nearly insignificant costs. With such low costs, a commercial spammer needs only to have a very small number of recipients buy their product to make a profit. The goal of many anti-spam proposals has been to increase the cost of spammers sending messages. Lycos' approach is to make it more expensive to maintain servers that send spam. Volunteers may download the screensaver from the Lycos website for it. The program would run on a user's computer in the background and request about three megabytes (3MBs) of data every day. The screensaver shows which spam server is being targeted by the user, where the server is located, and how many others are attacking it at that moment. Target email servers are selected from blacklists from anti-spam organizations, with Lycos' own verification. Legal issues arise over whether this can be interpreted as a denial of service attack. In such an attack, computers overwhelm a webserver with requests for data to the point where it does not have the resources to fulfill its normal function. Lycos, in explanatory material on the screensaver's dedicated website ( http://makelovenotspam.com ), claims that its technology closely monitors the screensavers' effects on targeted websites and prevents any of them from being completely shut down by information requests. Lycos Europe operates in Germany where, according to Joerg Heidrich of Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, less than completely shutting down a server is not clearly illegal under the penal code. It may, however, be actionable under the civil code. But Lycos may be betting that no one will file a suit, as that would require those participating in illegal spamming to reveal their identity. The website no longer allows downloads of the screensaver, and users of the screensaver cannot connect to spam sites, but are instead given the message 'Stay Tuned'" +tech,"Yahoo! has launched a beta version search tool at http://search.yahoo.com/cc, designed to locate content on the web under a Creative Commons (CC) license. While most copyrighted material on the web does not allow reuse, other than ""fair-use"" allowances, copyrighted material held by Creative Commons licensing allows the public to reuse material in a variety of ways specified by the copyright holder under the licensing agreement. The nonprofit organization behind the license, Creative Commons, was founded in 2002 by Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig. The organization provides 11 agreements customized for use in various countries. Depending on the licensing agreement, users can reproduce or modify the work as long as they mention the original creator. Some licenses prohibit reusing works in a commercial setting. Not everyone is impressed by the new search tool. Shelley Powers, author of Practical RDF from O'Reilly Press, writes in her book's blog, ""Since CC licenses are recorded using a standardized meta language,"" Yahoo! is, ""just checking for this information in the process of their normal operations."" John Batelle of Searchblog points out that A9.com incorporates a similar feature in A9.com's Open Search. Wikinews reporter Pingswept found that A9.com requires registration and login to use the Creative Commons search. Lessig recently reflected on Creative Commons' success in a guest post at Yahoo!'s search blog. Describing an event at the launch of Creative Commons Korea, he said: ""At the end of our final celebratory dinner, one of the judges who had helped launch CC-Korea asked me, 'so what will make CC in the world as successful as CC-Korea?' And I recognized, for the first time, that this project that we started two and a half years ago had finally left home. I was no longer asking others to help; others were demanding from me a success to match their own.""" +tech,"Space Pope Benedict XVI spoke with astronauts aboard the International Space Station yesterday, marking the first time a pope has conversed with astronauts in orbit. Organized by the European Space Agency (ESA), the call originated from the Vatican Library at 7:11 am Eastern time. German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, president of the Italian Space Agency Enrico Saggese, and General Giuseppe Bernardis of the Italian Air Force were also in the room at the Vatican. Aboard the spacecraft were Italian, U.S., and Russian crew members of the Endeavour STS-134 mission and Expedition 27. Endeavour commander and U.S. astronaut Mark Kelly greeted His Holiness aboard the spacecraft. The Pope wished Kelly's wife, Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, well as she recovers from an assassination attempt that took place in January. Doctors inserted a hard plastic implant, or a bone flap, into Giffords's skull last Wednesday. The Pope also asked of the astronauts' impressions of the planet from space. ""We fly over most of the world and we don't see borders, but at the same time we realize that people fight with each other and there is a lot of violence in this world,"" Kelly said. The Pope sent his condolences to Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, whose mother died earlier this month while he was in space." +tech,"A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won the challenge to find ten 8-foot (2.4 metre) weather balloons spread across the continental United States, just nine hours after the event's start. In a test of the nation's social networking skills, the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) offered US$40,000 (€26,900) to the first team to identify the location of all ten balloons. The event marks the 40th anniversary of ARPAnet, the precursor to today's Internet, a project developed by DARPA. In a statement announcing the winner, DARPA said ""the Challenge explores basic research issues such as mobilization, collaboration, and trust in diverse social networking constructs and could serve to fuel innovation across a wide spectrum of applications."" They also stated that they intend to ""meet with teams to review the approaches and strategies used to build networks, collect information, and participate in the Challenge."" The MIT team offered a reward scheme of its own as an incentive to public cooperation, offering US$2,000 to anyone who gave them the coordinates of a balloon. They also gave 500 to whomever invited the person who gave the correct coordinates to join the challenge. They then gave the person who invited that person US$250, and so on, giving any left over or unclaimed money to charity. The MIT team hoped to "" ... find out how information spreads on the internet, and how online social networks help this spread""." +tech,"Brazil After its start had been postponed four times due to bad weather conditions, a research rocket of type ""VS-30"" took off successfully on Sunday, 16 December from Brazil. During the mission, which lasted nine minutes and 25 seconds, the rocket reached a height of 150 kilometers according to Xinhua, but only 120 km according to Associated Press. The joint project between Brazil and Argentina was in accordance with a contract from 1998, under which both states contributed with experiments that were transported into space as a workload. The rocket was launched at 9:15 am CET from the spaceport located in Boca do Inferno in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte. 122 kilometers from the launch site, the workload landed in the Atlantic Ocean. After its recovery, the evaluation of the experiments will take place in Buenos Aires." +tech,"Yesterday, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the agency governing Internet addresses, approved the creation of an ""adult entertainment"" Internet address, .xxx, on the web, first proposed in 2003. ICANN is the manager of the Internet's top-level domains, such .com, .org and .net. ICM Registry ICANN's decision means success for the Florida-based ICM Registry (ICM), the company that first applied for the .xxx domain in 2004. ICM will oversee the new domain and will sell the .xxx Web addresses. ICM hopes that the establishment of a .xxx domain will contribute a degree of predictability and security to the largely unrestrained world of Internet websites. Its chief executive, Stuart Lawley, said, ""For the first time, there will be a clearly defined Web address for adult entertainment, out of the reach of minors and as free as possible from fraud or malicious computer viruses."" The decision was criticized by some of the Internet pornography industry's biggest players who fear they could be the target of arbitrary censorship by governments and boards regulating the .xxx domain. Anti-pornography campaigners also criticized the move, saying it gives the sex industry legitimacy. But since the .xxx system and its vetting process is voluntary, popular pornographic sites are not likely to trade their .com domains for .xxx. Anti-porn critics say that users who think they are avoiding porn by filtering out .xxx domains will therefore be misled. ICM's Lawley saw only positive outcomes from the decision: ""Everybody wins. The consumer of adult sites wins. The providers will benefit because more people will become paying customers. And those who don't want to go there will win as well, because the sites will be easier to filter.""" +tech,"A huge power outage occurred in Moscow today. The failure in the accumulative power supply system in Mosenergo which occurred at 11:15 a.m. local time on Wednesday, led to a power outage in all areas of the city. Power for lights failed in apartment buildings. Some lines of the Moscow underground stopped for four hours. Trams and trolley buses, electric trains of the Moscow railway also stopped. Hundreds of people were trapped in apartment building lifts. In addition to lighting problems, the homeowners have also lost their water supply, as pumping stations in Mosvodokanal also lost power because of the failure. 15 big cities and five areas of Moscow suburbs, some areas of the Tula and Kaluga areas were left without electricity. At 12:00 noon, food shops in the affected areas started closing. In shops where sellers continued trading, huge queues accumulated. To avoid panic at train stations, workers with megaphones informed passengers of train movements. At train stations, reserve power supplies are being used. According to eyewitnesses, there was no electric lighting at many stations and in transitions between them. Escalators also did not work. clear Thursday morning trolley buses and trams still do not work in southern areas of Moscow. Despite repair work conducted during the night, it was impossible to power all trolleybus and tram lines. In total 8 tram and 25 trolleybus routes do not work. Buses will take over those routes. Besides this, in the south of Moscow there are still many disconnected apartment houses. All stations of the Moscow underground are working normally. All trains are running on schedule. The entrance to Moscow for supersize automobiles will be limited up to 14 o'clock in the afternoon. The limitation was put in place yesterday because of difficult road conditions in the city after the power failure. The head of Minpromenergo (Ministry of Industries and Energy) Victor Hristenko, addressing to the deputies of the State Duma, has declared that the cause of failure of the electrical system was in the Central region of Russia because of a fire and an explosion on the substation of Mosenergo named ""Chagino"", located in Kapotnya. As a result of a cascade power outage on Wednesday, 25th May, 53 Moscow substations have been disconnected. 46 from them have started working by 23.00, Wednesday, six more - by 6.00, Thursday. According to the deputy head of the Russian Joint Stock Company ""Unified Energy System of Russia"" (RAO UESR) Andrey Trapeznikov, some reasons of failure are considered. He said that the failure of one of substations of the Russian Open Society ""United Power Systems"" was a cause. Later in the morning, when people were work, air conditioners were turned on. Consequently, the system could not handle the overload, and started the cascade shutdown of consumers of the electric power. Trapeznikov has noted that scales of the failure could of been much more serious. The further switching-off was stopped by substations of Tula and Kaluga which had sustained the overload. The head of the RAO UESR Anatoly Chubays has made apologies for the inconveniences caused to inhabitants of Moscow, Tula and Kaluga areas. He said: ""The failure is on our conscience, it is our mistake""." +tech,"Space American astronaut, Randolph Bresnik, is in orbit over 200 miles above the Earth, where he learned of the birth of his daughter Abigail. Lieutenant Colonel Bresnik becomes only the second man to have become a father while in space. Onboard Atlantis this morning, the crew were woken by mission control playing Butterfly Kisses, a song chosen by Bresnik's wife Rebecca. Prior to launch, Bresnik joked about the birth expected while on his eleven day mission with the Shuttle, ""this is a pretty good excuse for missing the birth and hopefully she will forgive me later on"". The first-ever father in space was astronaut Mike Fincke in 2004. Atlantis's current mission is scheduled to return to Earth this coming Friday, having resupplied the International Space Station and carried out two separate spacewalks. This will be the first time astronaut Bresnik gets to see the newest addition to his family. The couple live in Houston with their adopted three year-old son from Ukraine." +tech,"space On Wednesday, George Djorgovski and collaborators reported in the journal Nature on an unusual light signal they say suggests two supermassive black holes are merging, a phenomenon never seen before, though theorized. The discovery could clarify how black holes merge and galaxies evolve, and could also provide a better understanding of the so-called ""final parsec problem"" &mdash; the inability of theories to predict how, or even how quickly, the final phases of black hole mergers happen. The team discovered the light coming from quasar PG 1302-102 in data from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CTRS), which is able to study light sources from four fifths of the night sky using three ground-based US and Australian telescopes. Coauthor and Caltech computational scientist Matthew Graham emphasized the final stages of these black hole mergers are not well understood. CTRS has so far identified 20 quasars with similar signals, but Graham said this one is the best example because it has a clear signal that recurs about every five years, similar to a sine wave (see the 2D graph shown on the left)." +tech,"InfosectionEnd Astronauts on NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis have repaired a 4 inch tear in the shuttle's Thermal Protection System (TPS). At 1:00 p.m. ET astronauts began their third spacewalk to repair the tear by using medical staples to seal the torn area. Astronauts tucked the material back into place and then stapled up the seams where the material was torn. But the repair did not go without flaws. Astronauts repairing the tear say that the tear line was ""higher than expected,"" according to radio transmissions heard live on NASA TV. Astronauts also report that the area where the tear was present is ""well worn away"" and because of that, no staples were able to be placed on the top side of the blanket near the top of the tear, leaving a small ""gap"" between the seams. Two rows of staples were placed along the tear to hold the blanket in place. Atlantis received the 4 inch tear on its TPS on one of the Orbital Maneuvering System pods near the thrusters during take-off on June 8." +tech,"The United States military has announced their intention to use a missile to destroy USA-193, a spy satellite which failed immediately after launch in December 2006. Since launch, the satellite's orbit has decayed and it is approaching the point at which it will re-enter the atmosphere and potentially fall to Earth. The missile will be used as a kinetic anti-satellite weapon (ASAT), and will destroy the satellite through hitting it at high speed. The satellite potentially has hazardous materials on board, including hydrazine. Ordinarily, the hydrazine would be used as fuel, but since the satellite failed immediately after launch, this was never used. It is expected that about half of the satellite would be capable of surviving re-entry, potentially including the fuel tank. Since hydrazine is toxic, the satellite could pose a severe danger if it hits in a populated area, however it has been considered likely that the tank would probably rupture and explode during re-entry. Destroying the satellite on the grounds of safety is the stated purpose of shooting down the satellite. Officials have denied claims that it is to prevent secrets that the satellite is carrying from falling into the wrong hands, or that it is a demonstration in response to a Chinese ASAT test in January 2007. The missile which will be used to shoot down the satellite will be a Standard Missile 3 (SM-3), which will be launched from the USS Lake Erie in the North Pacific Ocean. The missile, which was designed to shoot down other missiles, will be modified slightly in order to allow it to recognise USA-193 as its target. If the attack is successful, the satellite will be broken into many small pieces. This will eliminate the hazard from the hydrazine and break into small enough pieces that nothing will survive reentry. Officials reported that the likelihood of success was ""high"". NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said that it was impossible to make the situation any worse. Missing the satellite would change nothing, while a slight blow would still result in the satellite returning to Earth, and a direct hit would destroy the satellite. It is believed that the missile will be aimed directly at the satellite's fuel tank. While the debris will not pass near enough to the International Space Station to cause disruption, it is not clear whether it could affect spacecraft passing through the lower orbit in which USA-193 currently resides. For this reason, the satellite will not be destroyed until the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which is currently conducting mission STS-122, has landed. The debris caused by the satellite's destruction is expected to re-enter the atmosphere within a few weeks." +tech,"Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov have just completed their mission's first space walk aboard the International Space Station. The mission lasted 5 hours, 28 minutes, ending at 1311 UTC. The two astronauts, working in Russian space suits, performed a variety of tasks. Chiao and Sharipov installed a work platform, called the Universal Work Platform, along with its base and associated wiring. They also installed a commercial robotics experiment and a biological experiment on the exterior of the Zvezda Service Module. In addition, they checked vents on systems that help control the Station's atmosphere and relocated a Japanese physical science experiment. Residue accumulation around the vents of the Elektron oxygen generator was noted and photographed by Sharipov. Technicians on the ground will analyze the information to determine if this residue has been contributing to the problematic operation of the Elektron. During this spacewalk, the station again encountered the mysterious forces that have been saturating the Control Moment Gyros during previous spacewalks. Russian thrusters were activated to counter this force. The walk marks Chiao's fifth for 31 hours, 34 minutes, accumulated time and Shapirov's first. This was the 57th space walk conducted at the Station and the 32nd to be based out of the orbital outpost. Expedition 10 is scheduled to conduct its second spacewalk in March." +tech,"India's recently launched satellites, the 1560 kg Indian Remote Sensing satellite, CARTOSAT-1 for stereoscopic cartographic applications and 42.5 kg HAMSAT will have a longer life as per the Project Director, PSLV, N Narayana Murthy. Murthy told reporters that the additional fuel in the satellites for putting them into the right orbit can now be utilized for orbit maintenance maneuvers. This is due to their precise injection into the orbit by the PSLV-C6 Launcher. PSLV-C6 was launched by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on May 5, 2005 10:15 IST (May 05, 04:45 UT). PSLV-C6 placed both the satellites in polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) at an altitude of 632 x 621 km with an inclination of 97.8 deg with respect to the equator. The solar panels of CARTOSAT-1 were deployed soon after its injection into orbit. CARTOSAT-1 is the eleventh satellite in the Indian remote sensing satellite series and is intended for cartographic applications. It carries two panchromatic cameras that take black-and-white stereoscopic pictures in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. HAMSAT is a Micro-satellite for providing satellite based Amateur Radio services to the Indian as well as International community of Amateur Radio Operators (HAM)." +tech,"The controversial European Union Directive on the Patentability of Computer Implemented Inventions, also called the ""software patent directive"" has been put to rest for 2004. The directive was expected to easily pass through the European Council's Fisheries Council on Tuesday, December 21, but was removed from the agenda at the request of Poland's Minister of Science and Computerisation, Wlodzimierz Marcinski. The directive's opponents, some of whom had conceded defeat on Tuesday before the vote was taken, will continue the debate informally until meetings resume in 2005. Software developers, who supported the European Parliament's proposal last year to definitively rule out software patents, welcomed the delay as a chance to reintroduce those provisions into the current draft. Florian Mueller, campaign manager of NoSoftwarePatents.com, which is supported by three IT companies (1&1, Red Hat, and MySQL AB), applauded Poland's move. ""The Polish government deserves greatest admiration for its courage!"" said Mueller in a press release. ""Now Europe has the opportunity to have a constructive debate on the severe shortcomings of the current Council text, under the new Luxembourgish EU presidency next year."" Germany's representative also backed the delay, saying it would allow everyone to align the current proposal to changes proposed by the European Parliament last year. ""We were well aware that the current proposal has room for improvement with an eye to the objective of arriving at a consensus position between the EU Council and the European Parliament,"" Germany's Federal Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries said in a Tuesday statement. ""We will continue to work constructively toward finding a solution that even better meets the needs of those concerned than the decision taken in May of this year."" On May 18, 2004 EU Council reached a political agreement on a ""Common Position"" on the directive which ignored the European Parliament's vote from last year. The Council vote generated a lot of controversy. Later, the Dutch parliament failed to convince its EU representatives to reverse their vote. According to the new voting weights which took effect on November 1, the majority needed to formally adopt the Common Position (after translations were done) is questionable. The 20 countries that supported the Directive on May 18 fall short of the new qualified majority by 16 votes." +tech,"The robotic arm scoop on the Phoenix lander on Mars has made its first impression on the red planet, leaving behind a mark that resembles a human footprint. It began its first dig on Saturday, May 31, and the camera on board the arm caught an image. ""This first touch allows us to utilize the Robotic Arm accurately. We are in a good situation for the upcoming sample acquisition and transfer,"" stated Phoenix's surface mission manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, David Spencer. Scientists named the initial impression Yeti in an area they describe as 'The King of Hearts'. NASA has decided to name the various tasks and operations performed by Phoenix after fairy tale and mythological characters. On Friday May 30, 2008, the same camera captured images of what appears to be ice under the lander. Scientists, who named the exposed area Snow Queen, say that as Phoenix landed the exhaust from its thrusters cleared away a three- to four-inch layer of Martian soil which exposed a flat layer of a white substance that NASA says could be ice. The image shows the white layer which is shiny and smooth. Scientists expect to find more of the alleged ice when Phoenix begins its digging mission not far from the initial test dig. ""What we see in the images is in agreement with the notion that it may be ice, and we suspect we will see the same thing in the digging area,"" stated Uwe Keller, Robotic Arm Camera lead scientist for Phoenix. Phoenix is searching for evidence of water and microbial life on Mars. Its mission is to determine Mars's ability or inability to host life and hold water. The Phoenix lander uses a robotic arm to dig through the protective top soil layer to the alleged water ice below and ultimately bring both soil and water ice to the lander platform for sophisticated scientific analysis." +tech,"Manchester Magistrates' court in the UK yesterday jailed a self-described online troll for posting messages to Facebook tribute pages. Colm Coss, 36, was sentenced to eighteen weeks in prison after admitting breaching the Communications Act of 2003. Coss targeted a page in tribute to the late Jade Goody, made famous by reality TV show Big Brother, as well as a page dedicated to young Liverpool dog-attack victim John Paul Massey. Overseas deceased were also targeted, with Coss trolling tributes to a Canadian murder victim, an Australian road accident fatality and a dead US citizen. Coss was arrested after he sent typed letters to neighbours containing photographs of himself and explaining he was ""a troll"". Although he initially refused to cooperate, Coss later wrote to a police officer and admitted posting the messages, in some of which he said he had had sex with the bodies of the deceased or claimed to have engaged in fictional acts of paedophilia. ""The harm and upset that this can cause is obvious,"" according to Paul Mitchell, prosecuting Coss. Coss was charged with 'sending malicious communications that were grossly offensive', entering a guilty plea last month. Yesterday, defence lawyer Leanne Press sought investigation of her client's psychiatric state prior to sentencing, arguing he ""had a history of mental health issues."" However, magistrates decided he could be sentenced without this. Magistrate Pauline Salisbury noted sentencing guidelines of twelve weeks imprisonment, but said the offences were serious enough to warrant 26 weeks. Eight weeks were shaved off the sentence owing to his guilty plea." +tech,"clearright The screen shot above shows several renderings of the Acid 2 CSS test, used to identify web page rendering flaws in web browsers and HTML authoring tools: *Green &mdash; Optimal (Konqueror) *Yellow &mdash; Firefox 1.5 *Red &mdash; Internet Explorer 7 The long awaited Internet Explorer 7.0 beta preview was released to the public on January 31. Large amounts of the architecture, including the security framework, have been completely overhauled. Partly as a result of these security enhancements, the browser will be a stand-alone application, rather than integrated with the Windows shell. The final Beta 2 is scheduled by Microsoft to be released in April, with the full version scheduled for the Summer of 2006. According to Microsoft's announcement, the beta will only run on Windows XP Service Pack 2 systems, but the final release version is intended to be able to run on Windows Vista, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003 as well. Version 7 includes a number of new features. * Improved rendering engine - Internet Explorer's rendering engine, codenamed Trident has been completely rewritten to compete with the faster rendering engines of Opera and Firefox. * Tabbed Browsing - users can now have several web pages in the same window via ""tabs"". * Quick Tabs - enables users to view thumbnail images of all open tabs in one view. * Tab Groups - enables users to organize multiple tabs in the same category as a single Tab Group that can be saved as a Favorite and the user can open all the sites in the Tab Group with a single click on the arrow to the right of the folder. * Page zoom - enables users to increase or decrease the page size for easier viewing. * IDN support * RSS Support - Version 7.0 now supports RSS, which allows users to gather ""news feeds"" from web sites that have RSS support. Microsoft implements RSS in a shared library, known as a DLL, so that third party developers can develop their own RSS-enabled applications. * Alpha transparency - Version 7.0 now has native support for PNG alpha transparency. This allows certain image (PNGs) to have opaque areas that can blend in with other images and text. * OpenSearch Extensions - Users of version 7.0 can now use search engines by typing in search terms directly from the browser's toolbar. * Administration improvements - All previous and new features are manageable via Group Policy, including the Phishing Filter and all browser add-ons. * Improved CSS support - Version 7.0 has improved CSS support, which means Internet Explorer will now render pages closer to the method defined by the W3C, a standards body for World Wide Web technologies. This means web page designers and developers will have an easier time designing web sites and applications to look the same on all web browsers. * Improved AJAX functionality - Applications that use a web development technique called AJAX to make interactive web applications will run more efficiently because Microsoft has included support for its main component, the XMLHttpRequest Object, into the browser. Previous versions of Internet Explorer required a helper application, called an ActiveX Object to implement this functionality (a good example of an AJAX application is Google's popular Google Maps application. * Enhanced security - Microsoft has attempted to fix a number of security issues with how Internet Explorer behaves. This includes: ** Protected Mode - In Protected Mode, Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista is completely unable to modify user or system files and settings. ** Internet Explorer 7.0 is a stand-alone application, rather than integrated with the Windows shell like version 6.0. This means that you can no longer open a folder, type in a URL and get a web page. ** URL Handling Protections. ** Protection Against Cross-Domain Scripting Attacks. ** Anti-Phishing and Anti-Spoofing filters. ** Security Status Bar - color-coded visual and icons cues to the safety and trustworthiness of a Web site. The current release is intended for compatibility testing by developers and IT professionals, and is not aimed at the general public." +tech,"Internet The European Union has warned the UK government that it does not do enough to protect its citizens' online privacy and personal data. Now the EU has moved to the next stage of legal action, which could see Britain taken to court. The warning follows complaints over the Phorm company's targeted advertising system. The controversial technology is designed to track the activities of internet users, and was tested on some BT customers without their consent. Campaigners complained to various bodies including the UK's data protection agency, and the communications regulator Ofcom. No action was taken. The City of London police began an investigation, but this was soon dropped. source=Viviane Reding, EU Information Commissioner The EU Commission formally warned Britain that it was not meeting EU rules in April. Other countries that have been warned include Germany, Poland and Romania. However, last week the Commission moved onto the second stage of the infringement procedure against the UK, with a letter to the government. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) has been particularly criticised by the Commission for its weak definition of ""consent"" and its limited sanctions. The Commission also found that there was no independent body to oversee and hear complaints about communications interception. Overall, the letter says that the UK fails to comply with the EU's Data Protection Directive and e-Privacy Directive. ""People's privacy and the integrity of their personal data in the digital world is not only an important matter: it is a fundamental right, protected by European law,"" the EU's Information Commissioner Viviane Reding said in a statement on Thursday. ""I therefore call on the UK authorities to change their national laws to ensure that British citizens fully benefit from the safeguards set out in EU law concerning confidentiality of electronic communications."" The Home Office confirmed that it had received the letter, but has so far not responded. Ministers said that they would reply to the letter after they have taken some time to consider it. The Home Office has two months to reply, and if the Commission is not satisfied with the response, then Britain could face charges in the European Court of Justice." +tech,"Mountain View, CA - Users of the beta Google Maps service may see the world in a new way with the introduction of the ""hybrid view."" Here, hybrid means offering a combined satellite and map view, the hybrid button that appears on map search queries adds new functionality to the map service, combining the other choices of either map or satellite views. The competing and similar MSN Virtual Earth service launched July 25 by Microsoft, also offers a hybrid-type view. Both services offer hybrid map and satellite views and scrollable images. Initial public response to both services on Slashdot has been generally positive, but users noted glitches that need to be worked out, including discrepancies between satellite and map data." +tech,"A jewel that once belonged to King Tutankhamen of ancient Egypt is believed to have been created by an exploding meteorite entering Earth's atmosphere ""hugely bigger in energy than the atomic bomb tests,"" said geophysicist John Wasson. The explosion was ""Ten thousand times more powerful,"" added Wasson. The Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority says the jewel is composed of 98% silica or glass, making it the purest jewel of its kind on the planet and can only be found in a certain area of the Sahara Desert. Wasson also says the impact that created the jewel can be compared to the ""Tunguska event"" that occurred in Tunguska, Siberia in 1908 causing at least 80 million trees to be flattened, but left no visible impact crater. ""When the thought came to me that it required a hot sky, I thought immediately of the Tunguska event,"" said Wasson. 2006-07-25 The event was recreated by a computer simulation. The results of the simulation reveal that the impact of a meteorite or an event similar to Tunguska could have been the cause of the formation and heating the ground up to nearly 1,800 degrees Celsius causing a thin layer of glass to form on the Earth's surface at the site of an impact. Researchers also added that events like this are likely to happen at least every 100 years or so. Wasson says there are likely to be more impacts; it's ""just a matter of when.""" +tech,"NASA scientists say that the Arctic Sea's icecap is melting and that the icecap is melting fast. According to images captured by NASA's QuikSCAT satellite, the Arctic icecap has lost at least 14% of its 'perennial' ice between 2004 and 2005. Data shows that at least 280,000 square miles of ice, at least the size of Texas has been lost. The eastern Arctic has lost at least 50% of its ice, but scientists say that ice was shifted by wind and other weather factors from the east to the west Arctic, causing the western areas of ice to actually grow. Between October 2005 and April of 2006; however, the icecap lost an additional 70% of frozen water. Between 04 and 05, the perennial ice, which is supposed to remain frozen year-round, was replaced by 'seasonal' ice, which scientists say melts faster during the Summer months. This event has never before been witnessed. Perennial ice is normally 3 meters (10 feet) thick or more and seasonal ice is only 0.3 meters (1 feet) to 2 meters (7 feet) thick. ""If the seasonal ice in the east Arctic Ocean were to be removed by summer melt, a vast ice-free area would open up. Such an ice-free area would have profound impacts on the environment, as well as on marine transportation and commerce,"" said Son Nghiem, the leader of research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. For several decades, the icecap has melted about 0.7% a year during the Summer months and has increased at least ""18 times"" faster than past decades, but Nghiem also said that the icecap has melted with ""some variability"" over the past years and was at times a ""much smaller"" of a loss of ice. ""If we average that over the long term we find a reduction of between 6.4% and 7.8% per decade. What we have here is 14% in one year - 18 times the previous rate. In previous years there is some variability, but it is much smaller and regional. The changes between 2004 and 2005 is enormous,"" added Nghiem. Global warming is believed to have played a role in melting the ice. ""It has never occurred before in the past. It is alarming. ... This winter ice provides the kind of evidence that it is indeed associated with the greenhouse effect,"" said Josefino Comiso, another NASA researcher and scientist." +tech,"A collaboratively-developed operating system kernel known as GNU Hurd has been made bootable using the L4 microkernel, which provides room for significant speed improvements over an existing implementation using the Mach microkernel. The newer architecture also has a more lively developer community. Developer Marcus Brinkmann made the historic step and finished the process initialization code, which enabled him to execute the first software on Hurd-L4. In a message to the L4 port of GNU Hurd mailing list, Brinkmann wrote, ""We can now easily explore and develop the system in any way we want. The dinner is prepared!"". However, the kernel's current feature set is very limited. ""With my glibc port, I can already build simple applications, but most won't run because they need a filesystem or other gimmicks (like, uhm, fork and exec), and I only have stubs (dummy functions which always return an error) for that now,"" he added in a later posting. Compared with Linux and BSD Unix's monolithic kernel architecture, a microkernel based operating system provides developers greater modularity and isolation from hardware, a big win with L4 already being available for a large number of hardware varieties. There is a cost in speed for such abstraction, and this cost was higher on Mach, at around 15%, compared with only around 5% on L4 and it's predecessor L3, both developed by Dr. Jochen Liedtke. The greater modularity and abstraction of a microkernel approach means that the microkernel itself does not need constant modification as is seen in the Linux kernel today, since it provides only the very minimum of services, and does so very carefully. Thus, the fact that L4 was developed in 1996 is seen as exemplifying this stability -- rather than showing its age -- since few, if any, improvements in approach have been imagined in the meantime. However, the Mach kernel first developed ten years earlier at Carnegie Mellon University is seen as a flawed first implementation, with the lessons learned being implemented in microkernels like L4, known as second-generation microkernels. The GNU Hurd forms the base of the GNU operating system, much of which has been widely adopted by users of other Unix-like operating systems, including Linux. The GNU Project has been developing the Hurd since 1983. In 1990, the GNU Project decided to use the Mach kernel, rather than writing their own. The Hurd is released as free software under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The Hurd kernel is an experiment which aims to surpass existing Unix kernels in functionality, security, and stability, while remaining largely compatible with them. It currently runs on Intel IA32 machines. According to the GNU Hurd project, ""The Hurd should, and probably will, be ported to other hardware architectures or other microkernels in the future"" . `Hurd' stands for `Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons'. And, then, `Hird' stands for `Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth' - perhaps the first software to be named by a pair of mutually recursive acronyms. A limited port of Linux already runs on L4, known as L4Linux." +tech,"Curtis Cooper, a mathematician and computer science professor at the University of Central Missouri, has discovered the largest known prime number to date on January 25. Several people verified the discovery using different hardware and software by the beginning of February and it was announced on Tuesday. Cooper found the prime as a participant in the distributed computing project known as the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, or GIMPS. Cooper runs the GIMPS client, called Prime95, on an estimated 1,000 computers at the university. The number was first reported to the GIMPS server on January 25 from a university computer which had been running 39 days non-stop. However as for any Mersenne prime candidates, the discovery was announced after several people have verified the number using different hardware and software. The three independent verifications took from three to seven days of computation on powerful hardware. A prime number is a positive integer greater than 1 that can only be evenly divided by 1 and itself. The first few prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17 and 19. 77 (for example) is not prime because it is a product of 7 and 11. The newly discovered prime is expressed as 257,885,161 − 1 and has 17,425,170 digits. It is a specific type of prime number called a Mersenne prime, which are of the form 2p − 1. The exponent p must be prime for the number to be prime. As of February 2013, there are only 48 known Mersenne primes. George Woltman developed and founded GIMPS, the longest known continuously running computer project, in 1996. Cooper as a participant had previously discovered two other Mersenne primes, 230,402,457 − 1 in December 2005 and 232,582,657 − 1 in September 2006, with fellow professor Steven Boone. This latest discovery ends an intermission of almost four years; the previous Mersenne prime was found in April 2009." +tech,"WikimediaMention The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Department of Homeland Security was wrong in using the online encyclopedia Wikipedia as a reference when deciding whether to allow asylum seekers to stay in the United States. The department used the Wikipedia article named laissez-passer to decide whether the document was a valid form of identification. This is despite the fact that the article had a large orange notice at the top of the article saying that ""this article does not cite any references or sources."" The Board of Immigration Appeals has stated that it doesn't ""encourage the use of resources such as Wikipedia.com sic in reaching pivotal decisions in immigration proceedings."" They said that they allowed the decision to stand due to the fact that the information seemed accurate. The appeals court noted when making the decision that Wikipedia admits that articles will stay inaccurate and unbalanced for long periods of time. Below is the extract from the court documents that makes this point: 4=United States Court of Appeals Cary Bass, the volunteer coordinator of the Wikimedia Foundation, gave Wikinews the following statement on this issue: 4=Cary Bass" +tech,"Today, court proceedings in the European Union's Court of First Instance in Luxembourg began as Microsoft Corporation filed an appeal against the European Union Commission's decision in an anti-trust case, commenting that the Commission made several mistakes in its decision to fine Microsoft 497 million euros, or approximately 613 million dollars concerning several allegations that Microsoft used its majority share in desktop software to also take over the video and media player business. The Commission also forced Microsoft to produce a version of Windows XP that did not include Windows Media Player. Only 1,787 copies were ordered through March 31st. Microsoft has also alleged that the proposed punishment of 2 million euros per day is too severe. The EU has also proposed that Microsoft's upcoming operating system, Windows Vista will also exclude rivals through bundling programs. Although a decision is not expected for at least several months, analysts have predicted that a verdict in favor of Microsoft would destroy the EU Commission's prestige as well as any case against Microsoft. 2006-04-25" +tech,"__NOTOC__ 2008 Taipei Game Show The 2008 Taipei Game Show, organized by the Taipei Computer Association (TCA), ended on Monday, and was different from shows of past years. This could be seen in the gaming population, industry, and exhibition arrangements. To encourage the participation of the public, not only participants (exhibitors), but also the organizers held lots of on-site events including the ""Taiwan Local Game Championship"", ""Gaming Adventure Area"", and several stage events during the show. With many gaming experts and visitors participating in the several events, the gaming population has progressively matured. Especially in the ""Popular Game & Company Voting"" category, the public apparently viewed the gaming industry on the bright side as the OBMs (game production companies) produced many ""excellence"" products and marketed them around the world. Since Sony Computer Entertainment Taiwan Limited (SCE Taiwan) was established in December 2007, SCE Taiwan has participated in the 2007 Taipei IT Month to rearrange their styles from marketing and cross-industry cooperations. They finally decided to participate in the 2008 Taipei Game Show and to battle with Microsoft Taiwan by challenging different premiums and plans. Sony rival, Microsoft Taiwan, sought to gain popularity and notability at this show. Microsoft preliminary moved their new game launch from the 3C store to the TWTC again, since 2007. Also, they invited their spokespeople ""Mayday"" to get more visitors to visit the show. They won all of the categories of the popular presentation class. After a battle between the two main world-class companies, Microsoft & Sony not only showed different cultures from exhibition arrangements and product presentations but successfully marketed their indicative products in consuming and high-definition markets. Some local OBMs like Softstar Entertainment, International Games Systems (IGS), GameFlier Station, UserJoy Technology, and others showed their versatility by participating, not only in the (B2B) trade area for international buyers but also the consumer (B2C) area for local visitors. Those participants not only tried to get important orders from buyers but also invited many notable entertainers and sportsmen to the B2C area to strengthen the notability of released games. It helped launch the return of the gaming population, arrangements in the B2B area, and the most important - virtuous competition from the ""Popular Game and Company Voting"" category. Since the ""Charity Bidding Pavilion"" was created in the past year and recommended by local NGOs and disadvantaged organizations, the TCA planned to cooperate with the Taipei Orphans Welfare Association, and the Taiwan Gaming Industry Association (TGIA) to help orphan kids this year again. As of TCA's information in 2007, corporate participants of the TGIA have ""adopted"" several orphans and accompanied them to grow up in healthy conditions before the show. The companies and organizers were successful in turning the public image of the Taipei Game Show from ""a simple consumer show"" to ""a mixed show with welfare and charity"" this year. Image:2008TaipeiGameShow Day5 GF.jpg|GameFlier Station, a typical example from local OBMs, produced and agented games in Taiwan.Rico Shen Image:2008TaipeiGameShow Day2 TradeArea PromotionalPosters.jpg|OBMs in Taiwan showcased their ""excellence"" by displaying brochures at the B2B area.Rico Shen Image:2008TaipeiGameShow Day3 IGS Uni-Lions Special.jpg|Not only entertainers, but notable sportsmen also made their stage at the showground.Rico Shen Image:2008TaipeiGameShow Day1 CharityBid Opening.jpg|Local OBMs made this show not only a consuming show but also mixed with welfare and charity.Rico Shen" +tech,"Scientists say that the rock that fell through the roof of a house in Freehold Township, New Jersey this week was a meteorite and was likely over a billion years old. The meteorite is currently owned by the same family whose house it hit; the names of the family members have not been released and no one inside the home was injured. The meteorite is named ""Freehold Township"" after the township it landed in. Although scientists have not yet been able to take samples of the rock, they have looked at it and say the rock is likely made of iron due to its ""density, magnetic properties, markings and coloration"", and probably a piece of a much larger asteroid. The rock weighs approximately 13 ounces (about .37 kilograms), which is little more than the weight of a can of soup. ""It's a pretty exciting find,"" said one scientist who has examined the rock, Jeremy S. Delaney. ""It's a good candidate for the core of an asteroid,"" added Delaney." +tech,"Horia Teodorescu, a student in 10th grade at Costache Negruzzi College in Iaşi, northeastern Romania, won the annual worldwide NASA Space Settlement Design Contest. The contest is sponsored by the Fundamental Space Biology Program of the United States' space agency, NASA. The task of the contest is for students to develop designs for a permanent orbital space colony. For his design, Teodorescu was awarded a visit to a NASA base in the USA. Concerning the contest, Teodorescu said, ""I designed a space colony which is called 'Temis', a personification of the Greek goddess of wisdom. The project is made up of four parts."" He said that the development of the space colony in his design has two phases - ""Firstly, there is the construction period, in which the Moon is used as a base for extracting and processing materials. This would last about one year. After that, there would be a period of 4-5 years, in which the population of the colony would reach 10,000."" In 15 years, Teodorescu projects in his design that the population would reach 100,000, and reach the stage where the colony would be able to sustain itself and to start developing its own economic, social and educational systems. During the design's conception, Teodorescu was aided by his teachers, Adrian Koriloff, Margareta Constantinescu, Nicolae Hirtan and Lucia Miron, as well as his father Horia Neculai Teodorescu, who is a professor at the Iaşi University. Teodorescu also participated in the same contest in 2004, where he received second place. The first prize was also obtained by Romanians, more precisely a group of students from Constanţa. The Costache Negruzzi College, founded in 1895, is, with over 1500 students, the largest secondary education facility in Iaşi, a city of 320,000 people." +tech,"NASA says it will launch the space shuttle Atlantis on Wednesday, September 6, at 12:29 p.m. Countdown until launch will begin on Sunday. NASA officials also say that the shuttle, launch pad and facilities at the space center suffered no damage from tropical depression Ernesto. ""We had no damage. Zero. Nada. We fully anticipate being ready to go as early as September 6,"" said Bruce Buckingham, a spokesman for NASA's Kennedy Space Center. ""There was no water intrusion in any operational areas, and so basically we came through this one unscathed,"" said Bill Johnson, a spokesman for NASA. If any delay causes the shuttle not to launch on Wednesday, NASA will attempt another launch two days from Wednesday. A bolt of lightning struck the launch pad which caused NASA to delay the shuttle launch. No damage was sustained when the bolt hit." +tech,"Space US President Barack Obama unveiled on Thursday plans for the future of American space exploration, committing to sending American astronauts to Mars by the mid-2030s. The president was speaking at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a speech to lay out his plans for the future of American space agency NASA. His comments included assurances that America was not abandoning space exploration, contrary to claims he was doing so after he announced the US's budget for 2011, which would have ended most of NASA's current projects, including the development of new heavy-launch rockets called the Constellation Program. 4=US President Barack Obama Under Obama's latest program, NASA would receive US $6 billion as supplementary funding over the next five years to develop new projects, which Obama emphasized, saying NASA was in the unusual position of having an expanded budget while other government agencies must comply to financial restrictions or cuts in efforts to reduce the US public debt. With the additional funding, NASA would extend the life of the International Space Station (ISS) by four years further, to at least 2020, design a new series of heavy-lift rockets by 2015, and continue development of the Orion crew capsule, a major part of the Constellation program. Initially, the capsule would serve only as a rescue vehicle for the ISS, but would later serve as the ""technological foundation for advanced spacecraft to be used in future deep space missions."" The proposed project would also retain plans for private operators to service the ISS, despite criticism that such operators were not reliable enough for the task. The centerpiece of the plan would be manned missions to the moon and beyond, beginning with missions to asteroids around 2025, with missions to Mars following within a decade. Initially, Mars missions would consist of sending humans to orbit Mars, with missions to land on the surface of the planet coming shortly after. Obama said that under the plan, ""we will push the boundaries not only of where we can go but what we can do."" Obama said that under his new plan, NASA would be able to achieve more in a shorter amount of time than it would have under the Constellation Program. He also said that, contrary to fears that changes in NASA would result in job losses in Florida, where most space missions are launched from, under his new plan, a total of 2,500 jobs would be created in the area. The new plan would, according to Obama, lead to ""major breakthroughs"" in the US space program. He said that the goal of the new program would be ""no longer just a destination to reach. Our goal is the capacity for people to work and learn, operate and live safely beyond the Earth for extended periods of time, ultimately in ways that are more sustainable and even indefinite."" The president also emphasized the need for continued innovation, saying that ""we’ve got to do it space exploration in a smart way and we can’t just keep on doing the same old things we’ve been doing and thinking that’s going to get us where we want to go.""" +tech,"NASA's Phoenix Lander has begun to cook a scoop full of Martian soil. For reasons unknown to scientists, and after several seemingly unsuccessful attempts to break up the soil, a large amount was discovered to have passed through a screen leading to an on board oven. ""We have an oven full. It took 10 seconds to fill the oven. The ground moved,"" said Phoenix co-investigator Bill Boynton, a researcher at the University of Arizona located in Tucson, Arizona. The lander's Robotic Arm delivered a partial scoopful of clumpy soil from a trench informally called ""Baby Bear"" to the number 4 oven on its TEGA (Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer) last Friday, June 6. NASA observed the method and reported that no soil had passed through the screens over the TEGA. The screen is to prevent larger bits of soil from clogging the narrow port to each oven so that fine particles fill the oven cavity, which is no wider than a pencil lead. The oven's goal is to vaporize any ice or water that may be present in the soil. Minerals may also burn off and scientists say that vapors from anything that evaporates or vaporizes will be tested and analyzed. After some debate, NASA decided to 'shake' the soil in hopes that it would break up the larger particles. To much disappointment after six tries using this method, only a few particles got through the screen. Scientists then ordered one last shake of the soil ""in the off chance we might get lucky,"" stated Boynton. After a few days of troubleshooting, NASA looked back at the soil and discovered that, for an unknown reason, a large amount of soil had fallen through the screen and was ready for inspection by the TEGA. Boynton states that it is possible that the oven might have filled because of the cumulative effects of all the shaking, or because of changes in the soil's cohesiveness as it sat for days on the top of the screen. ""There's something very unusual about this soil, from a place on Mars we've never been before. We're interested in learning what sort of chemical and mineral activity has caused the particles to clump and stick together,"" Boynton commented. Phoenix was originally ordered to put off using its TEGA until scientists came up with a solution to the clodded soil. It had been rescheduled to take readings of the Martian climate such as temperature and wind speed, and also to analyze a soil sample using the optical microscope, or MECA (Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer) on June 12. Scientists say that those tasks are still scheduled to take place. Pictures and results from that sample are expected to arrive on Thursday June 12, while the oven samples will take a few days to analyze. ""The dirt finally did start to flow and we actually got a full oven, so that problem is now behind us. We're hopeful that some time in the next few days we'll close the oven and begin the analysis process,"" added Boynton." +tech,"computing Yesterday, the Russian chatterbot ""Eugene Goostman"" by a team of Russian and Ukrainian developers became the first machine to pass a Turing test, under the academic event organizers' interpretation of the test as originally described by British mathematician Alan Turing. The competition was held at the Royal Society in London, England, and was organized by Kevin Warwick and Huma Shah of the University of Reading to mark the 60th anniversary of Turing's death on June 7, 1954. The Turing test is a test of artificial intelligence aiming to fulfil the suggestion of Alan Turing in his 1950 paper ""Computing Machinery and Intelligence"", which stated that within fifty years, an ""average interrogator"" would, following a five-minute long conversation, ""not have more than 70 per cent chance"" of correctly predicting whether they are speaking to a human, or a machine &mdash; which would be able to, as such, fool at least 30% of human judges into thinking it is human. In the contest, where Eugene Goostman and four other bots competed, the bot successfully tricked 33% of the participating judges, which included television actor Robert Llewellyn of the BBC television series Red Dwarf, and John Sharkey, Baron Sharkey, a sponsor of Turing's 2013 posthumous pardon. To give the bot a ""believable personality"", Goostman is portrayed as being a thirteen year-old boy of the Ukraine; the bot's head developer Vladimir Veselov stated that this made Goostman ""not too old to know everything and not too young to know nothing"". The bot had previously come close to beating the Turing test on several occasions; it has been a three-time runner-up for the Loebner Prize, and it won a Turing contest at Bletchley Park in 2012, held to mark the 100th anniversary of Turing's birth. In the 2012 Bletchley Park competition Goostman was, notably, only one percent away from the target of 30%. Speaking about the achievement, Warwick stated: ""Some will claim that the Test has already been passed. The words Turing Test have been applied to similar competitions around the world. However this event involved the most simultaneous comparison tests than ever before, was independently verified and, crucially, the conversations were unrestricted. A true Turing Test does not set the questions or topics prior to the conversations. We are therefore proud to declare that Alan Turing's Test was passed for the first time on Saturday."" Veselov felt that the achievement was ""remarkable"", and suggested that it could help increase interest in artificial intelligence and chatterbot technology." +tech,"United Kingdom The Metropolitan Police, a British police force based in the capital city of London, has announced its intention to commence a new investigation related to allegations of computer hacking. The force has received numerous allegations of computer and email hacking relating to journalists since January of this year, prompting the launch of the probe, codenamed Operation Tuleta. According to a spokesperson for Scotland Yard, computer hacking allegations have already been brought into account, but now, ""some aspects of that operation are being moved towards investigation"". These allegations occurred during Operation Weeting, which has investigated alleged phone hacking offences. The Metropolitan Police said that the computer hacking claims were not within the remit of the phone hacking allegation probe, so a separate investigation had to be launched. Operation Tuleta consists of a fresh team of detectives, who will provide information to Operation Weeting deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers. Meanwhile, the legal representatives for Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator for the former British publication News of the World (NotW) have stated that he was proceeding ""on the instructions of others"". Sara Payne, the mother of the murdered girl Sarah Payne, was informed that Mulcaire possibly hacked into her phone and gathered her contact information. Payne was said to be ""very distressed and upset"" by the allegations. Mulcaire was sentenced to prison in January 2007 along with Clive Goodman, the royal editor for the NotW. The final edition of the NotW was published this July, amid the phone hacking scandal within News Corporation. A public inquiry relating to the affair was launched, triggered by allegations of phone hacking and police corruption." +tech,"Space Space Exploration Technologies Corp., a commercial spaceflight company better known as SpaceX, has received Federal Aviation Administration certification for its Dragon spacecraft. This certification, the first of its kind granted by the FAA, serves as a commercial license to re-enter a spacecraft from earth orbit. According to NASA administrator Charlie Bolden, ""With this license in hand, SpaceX can proceed with its launch of the Dragon capsule. The flight of Dragon will be an important step toward commercial cargo delivery to the International Space Station."" NASA is contracting SpaceX to provide commercial transport of future crews and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). The maiden launch of the Dragon spacecraft is currently scheduled for December 7. The launch vehicle will be the Falcon 9 rocket, which made its maiden flight in June. During this first flight, the Dragon capsule is to launch, orbit the earth, and splash down in the Pacific Ocean. ""Milestones are an important part of space exploration and SpaceX achieved a very important one today,"" according to NASA official Doug Cooke, ""I congratulate SpaceX on this landmark achievement and wish them the best with their launch of the Dragon capsule.""" +tech,"Environment A recent study by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) shows that the oil and gas industry are creating earthquakes. New information from the Midwest region of the United States points out that these man-made earthquakes are happening more frequently than expected. While more frequent earthquakes are less of a problem for regions like the Midwest, a geology professor from the University of Southern Indiana, Dr. Paul K. Doss, believes the disposal of wastewater from the hydraulic fracturing (or ""fracking"") process used in extracting oil and gas has the possibility to pose potential problems for groundwater. ""We are taking this fluid that has a whole host of chemicals in it that are useful for fracking and putting it back into the Earth,"" Doss said. ""From a purely seismic perspective these are not big earthquakes that are going to cause damage or initiate, as far as we know, any larger kinds of earthquakes activity for Midwest. The issue is a water quality issue in terms of the ground water resources that we use."" Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique used by the oil and gas industries which inject highly pressurized water down into the Earth's crust to break rock and extract natural gas. Most of the fluids used for fracking are proprietary, so information about what chemicals are used in the various fluids are unknown to the public and to create a competitive edge. Last Monday four researchers from the University of New Brunswick released an editorial that sheds light on the potential risks that the current wastewater disposal system could have on the province's water resources. The researchers share the concern that Dr. Doss has and have come out to say that they believe fracking should be stopped in the province until there is an environ­mentally safe way to dispose the waste wastewater. ""If groundwater becomes contamin­ated, it takes years to decades to try to clean up an aquifer system,"" University of New Brunswick professor Tom Al said. While the USGS group which conducted the study says it is unclear how the earthquake rates may be related to oil and gas production, they've made the correlation between the disposal of wastewater used in fracking and the recent upsurge in earthquakes. Because of the recent information surfacing that shows this connection between the disposal process and earthquakes, individual states in the United States are now passing laws regarding disposal wells. 4=Dr. Paul K. Doss ""The problem is that we have never, as a human society, engineered a hole to go four miles down in the Earth’s crust that we have complete confidence that it won’t leak,"" Doss said. ""A perfect case-in-point is the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, that oil was being drilled at 18,000 feet but leaked at the surface. And that’s the concern because there’s no assurance that some of these unknown chemical cocktails won’t escape before it gets down to where they are trying to get rid of them."" It was said in the study released by the New Brunswick University professors that if fracking wastewater would contaminate groundwater, that current conventional water treatment would not be sufficient enough to remove the high concentration of chemicals used in fracking. The researchers did find that the wastewater could be recycled, can also be disposed of at proper sites or even pumped further underground into saline aquifers. The New Brunswick professors have come to the conclusion that current fracking methods used by companies, which use the water, should be replaced with carbon diox­ide or liquefied propane gas. ""You eliminate all the water-related issues that we’re raising, and that peo­ple have raised in general across North America,"" Al said. In New Brunswick liquefied propane gas has been used successfully in fracking some wells, but according to water specialist with the province’s Natural Resources De­partment Annie Daigle, it may not be the go-to solution for New Brunswick due its geological makeup. ""It has been used successfully by Corridor Resources here in New Bruns­wick for lower volume hydraulic frac­turing operations, but it is still a fairly new technology,"" Daigle said. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working with U.S. states to come up with guidelines to manage seismic risks due to wastewater. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA is the organization that also deals with the policies for wells. Oil wells, which are under regulation, pump out salt water known as brine, and after brine is pumped out of the ground it’s disposed of by being pumped back into the ground. The difference between pumping brine and the high pressurized fracking fluid back in the ground is the volume that it is disposed of. ""Brine has never caused this kind of earthquake activity,"" Doss said. ""The whole oil and gas industry has developed around the removal of natural gas by fracking techniques and has outpaced regulatory development. The regulation is tied to the ‘the run-of-the-mill’ disposal of waste, in other words the rush to produce this gas has occurred before regulatory agencies have had the opportunity to respond."" According to the USGS study, the increase in injecting wastewater into the ground may explain the sixfold increase of earthquakes in the central part of the United States from 2000 - 2011. USGS researchers also found that in decades prior to 2000 seismic events that happened in the midsection of the U.S. averaged 21 annually, in 2009 it spiked to 50 and in 2011 seismic events hit 134. ""The incredible volumes and intense disposal of fracking fluids in concentrated areas is what’s new,"" Doss said. ""There is not a body of regulation in place to manage the how these fluids are disposed of."" The study by the USGS was presented at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America on April 18, 2012." +tech,"2008 Computex Taipei (a.k.a Taipei International Information Technology Show), the second largest IT show in the world, will start on June 3 to 7 at the TWTC Hall 1 & 3, Taipei International Convention Center (TICC), and TWTC Nangang, in conjunction with 2008 WiMAX Expo Taipei, which will start earlier at the Taipei Show Hall 2. With two IT-related industry shows will be concurrently showcased in different venues, it will bring on many convergences and opportunities for networking and mobile-related industries worldwide including Taiwan. Since the Taipei Computer Association, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), and Industrial Technology Research Institute preliminary imported the ""WiMAX Forum Showcase & Conference"" into the TICC, WiMAX-related topics were mostly focused by several worldwide media and industrial elites. In extremity, some technologies and solutions like eSNG, wireless medical care, wireless transmission, and mobile entertainment were showcased there. And the MOEA also signed MOUs with 5 world-class WiMAX companies to help the networking industry last year in Taiwan. Even though the signing of MOUs and new technologies will bring opportunities for WiMAX-related industries, and the mobile devices will be progressively popular in the future and more slim like an UMPC, but some companies from information security industry were worried about the future trend because of invisible threats on the Internet. As of ""Asia-pacific IT Security Forum"" and ""IT Security Pavilion"" of SecuTech Expo 2008, there were several changes on participation from IT industry, but due to a major impact of ""Edison Chen's photo scandal"", several crisis were exposed with improper habits on modern people when using the Internet. 4=Yi-yuan Chang, General Manager of eRaySecure Co., Ltd. It's a real deal that the WiMAX will bring different kind profits and benefits for different industries, but before the WiMAX became the trend, if Internet users didn't cultivate proper habits on using the Internet, the WiMAX will still bring on threats for end-users and industries." +tech,"Internet Skype, an Internet phone service, has apologised after millions of people around the globe found the program had gone down. The outage, which occurred on Wednesday, reportedly affected the United States, Europe and Japan, and lasted several hours. The company wrote on Twitter on Thursday morning that, more than twelve hours after the outage, some users were still experiencing problems. The chief executive of Skype, Tony Bates, said his company took the technical issues ""really seriously,"" and apologised to users. ""Right now it looks like clients are coming on and offline and sometimes they are crashing in the middle of calls. We are deep in the middle of investigating the cause of the problem and have teams working hard to remedy the situation,"" he said. In a blog post, Skype stated that, ""we’re sincerely sorry for this disruption - like you, all of us at Skype rely on Skype every day. We understand just how important Skype is to your friendships, family, and work, and so are particularly aware of the impact of rare problems like this."" Industry expert Om Malik said the outage would be of concern for Skype. ""Skype is one of the key applications of the modern web,"" he said. ""It is already a hit with consumers, and over the past few years it has become part of the economic fabric for start-ups and small businesses around the world. I am not sure we can comprehend the productivity cost of this outage. The outage comes at a time when Skype is starting to ask larger corporations for their business."" Malik added: ""If I am a big business, I would be extremely cautious about adopting Skype for business, especially in light of this current outage."" Bates said he did not know what had caused the outage, but, speaking to the BBC, he said ""all avenues"" would be investigated. Reports suggest the program did not work on any system, including computers and mobile devices. ""Some of you may have problems signing in to Skype – we’re investigating, and we’re sorry for the disruption to your conversations,"" the company wrote on Twitter when the outage began. 20 million people use the service every day." +tech,"NASA has stated that a three inch gouge has been found in the heat shield on one of Space Shuttle Endeavour's wings. The gouge was spotted as the shuttle approached the International Space Station (ISS) and captured on camera by ISS astronauts. According to NASA, the gouge was found on a six-inch thick tile on the starboard wing of the heat shield and that it may have been caused by ice and not foam. NASA is worried because the hole appears to be deep. ""What does this mean? I don’t know at this point. There are three prongs to our assessment, first we will conduct a thermal analysis based on the damage, check the flight history and test the area. We would never take it lightly to send astronauts to the underside of the vehicle to do anything,"" said the mission management team chairman, John Shannon who also said that until the damage is inspected, ""it's way too early to determine whether any repairs are required."" If the damage is found to be irreversible and cannot be fixed, the crew of Endeavour would stay on the ISS. NASA says that supplies would last until a rescue mission could be launched October 8 by sending up Discovery. During lift off of Endeavour on August 8, cameras had shown moisture which had gathered on the camera's lens, but NASA states that the object which caused the damage was not caught on camera. At least nine pieces of debris were reported to have been filmed while the shuttle took off, but NASA says that only three of those pieces of debris had a possibility of hitting the shuttle. Astronauts are expected to use a laser that is attached to the shuttle's robotic arm to measure the exact depth and size of the gouge on Sunday. The tile could be repaired by affixing a metal plate over the tile, filling it with putty, or sealing the gouge." +tech,"Atlanta-based CNN journalist Octavia Nasr, 20-year veteran of the network and senior editor for Middle East affairs, was reprimanded for a Twitter comment published on Sunday in which she expressed sadness at the death of Iraqi-born Lebanese Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. In the post, the journalist stated that she was ""Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot.."". According to a New York Times blog, after Parisa Khosravi, the CNN senior vice president, ""had a conversation"" with Ms. Nasr she was formally asked to step down. She left the network on Wednesday. Brian Stelter of the Times reports that the issue was originally brought to the public's attention by online supporters of Israel, who republished the comment widely. They criticised her for being a ""Hezbollah sympathizer"" for a man who was ""committed to the destruction of Israel."" Critics point to comments Fadlallah has made in the past about the Holocaust, in which he questions the veracity of the agreed-upon figures of Jewish deaths in concentration camps. ""Is this the sort of extremist figure that CNN's Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs should be professing her respect for?"" asked HonestReporting, the media watchdog group which purports to defend Israel ""against prejudice in the media."" Salon reporter Glenn Greenwald has responded to these allegations of ""prejudice"" by pointing to similar cases in which no controversy arose: ""The Washington Post lavished editorial praise on the brutal, right-wing tyrant Augusto Pinochet, and that caused no controversy...Benjamin Netanyahu formally celebrates the Terrorist bombing of the King David Hotel that killed...78 civilians and nobody is stigmatized for supporting him. Erick Erickson sent around the most rancid and arguably racist tweets, only to thereafter be hired as a CNN contributor."" Lebanese author and academic Dr. As'ad Abu-Khalil has also argued that commentators have not properly placed Fadlallah in context, and pointed to the schools and orphanages he founded in Beirut and southern Lebanon. Amira Al Hussaini of Global Voices quotes Abu-Khalil's post, saying ""His Fadlallah's relationship with Hizbullah is always misunderstood...he broke from Wilayat Al-Faqih...and developed a new liberal thinking especially on issues of personal status laws."" He also ""urged for a closer relationship between science and religion"", which drew the ire of both Iran and Hizbullah. Nasr herself clarified her comment the day before her dismissal on a post to her CNN blog, saying that she used the words ""respect"" and ""sad"" because ""to me as a Middle Eastern woman, Fadlallah took a contrarian and pioneering stand among Shia clerics on woman's rights. He called for the abolition of the tribal system of 'honor killing.' He called the practice primitive and non-productive. He warned Muslim men that abuse of women was against Islam."" The cleric has been a controversial figure in the West and has been blacklisted by the United States as a terrorist for several years, along with Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. He is thought to have been the target of a 1985 car bombing in Beirut, which killed 80 people but not the Ayatollah himself. The BBC reports it may have been ""the work of the CIA, possibly in conjunction with regional intelligence agencies friendly to the US"", while David Kenner of Foreign Policy writes that the plot was all but confirmed by Bob Woodward through interviews with then-CIA Director William Casey." +tech,"Space Space Shuttle Discovery's final launch on the STS-133 mission to the International Space Station has been delayed at least an additional day. Launch is now targeted for 3:29 PM EDT on Thursday. The launch was originally scheduled for this past Monday, but was delayed two days because of helium and nitrogen leaks on board the shuttle. Technicians are now working to repair technical glitches discovered yesterday on a main engine control computer. The weather outlook, however, appears to be unfavorable for the new targeted launch day; there is an 80 percent chance of undesirable weather, according to the NASA space shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters. The mission management team (MMT) is meeting today to discuss and troubleshoot Discovery's newfound electrical problems. STS-133 is scheduled to be an 11-day mission to the International Space Station to ship supplies to the crew, as well as additional components for the orbital outpost's construction, including the Permanent Multipurpose Module and the third of four ExPRESS Logistics Carriers. The mission is the 133rd of the Space Shuttle Program and the 39th of Discovery." +tech,"ScientologyThe Internet-based group ""Anonymous"" has released statements on YouTube and via a press release, outlining what they call a ""War on Scientology"". Church of Scientology related websites, such as religiousfreedomwatch.org have been removed due to a suspected distributed denial-of-service-attack (DDoS) by a group calling themselves ""Anonymous"". On Friday, the same group allegedly brought down Scientology's main website, scientology.org, which was available sporadically throughout the weekend. Several websites relating to the Church of Scientology have been slowed down, brought to a complete halt or seemingly removed from the Internet completely in an attack which seems to be continuous. The scientology.org site was back online briefly on Monday, and is currently loading slowly. On Monday, the group released a video titled: ""Message to Scientology"" on YouTube concerning their intentions to attack the Church of Scientology. A robotic voice on the video begins with ""Hello leaders of Scientology. We are Anonymous,"" and continues by explaining their motivations: ""Over the years we have been watching you, your campaigns of misinformation, your suppression of dissent and your litigious nature. All of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation the extent of your malign influence over those who have come to trust you as leaders has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organisation should be destroyed."" The message goes on to state that the group intends to ""expel Scientology from the Internet"". As of Wednesday, the video had been viewed 370,347 times, favorited 2,473 times, and is currently YouTube's top third video of the day. 4=The Michigan Daily The ""Message to Scientology"" video was highlighted as the ""YouTube Video of the Week"" by The Michigan Daily. Commenting on the video, the piece states ""if this video is any indication, it seems like the assailants mean business"". In a blog post on USA Today's website, Jess Zielinski wrote that it was ""not a shock that hackers hold a grudge against Scientology,"" and in a followup post on another USA Today blog, Angela Gunn wrote that ""those of us who remember ... the adventures of Operation Clambake are fascinated to see this kind of thing flare up again"". Blogging for Wired magazine, Ryan Singel wrote about the incident in a piece on Wednesay titled ""War Breaks Out Between Hackers and Scientology -- There Can Be Only One"". Singel wrote that the Project Chanology wiki page ""directs Anonymous members to download and use denial of service software, make prank calls, host Scientology documents the Church considers proprietary, and fax endless loops of black pages to the Church's fax machines to waste ink"". According to Wired, ""The Church of Scientology did not immediately respond to a call for comment"". The viewpoints expressed in the video are echoed on the ""Project Chanology"" website, an open source of information and direction for those within Anonymous, which talks of tactics such as blackfaxing and prank calling alongside other ""real-life"" methods of attack. The satirical website Encyclopedia Dramatica also has a similar page devoted to ""Project Chanology"". 4=""Anonymous"" - Press Release ""Anonymous"" released a statement on Monday in the form of a press release, ""Internet Group Anonymous Declares ""War on Scientology"": ""Anonymous"" are fighting the Church of Scientology and the Religious Technology Center"". In the statement, the group explained their goal as safeguarding the right to freedom of speech ""A spokesperson said that the group's goals include bringing an end to the financial exploitation of Church members and protecting the right to free speech, a right which they claim was consistently violated by the Church of Scientology in pursuit of its opponents."" The press release also claimed that the Church of Scientology misused copyright and trademark law in order to remove criticism from websites including Digg and YouTube. The statement goes on to assert that the attacks from the group ""will continue until the Church of Scientology reacts, at which point they will change strategy"". The attack was reportedly motivated by the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove a promotional video featuring Scientologist Tom Cruise from YouTube. After the Church of Scientology lodged a copyright infringement complaint with YouTube, the site took down the video. The Tom Cruise video is still available on Gawker.com, which has stated it will not remove the video ""It's newsworthy, and we will not be removing it."" 4=Gawker.com Gawker.com discussed the actions of the ""Anonymous"" group, in a post on Monday titled ""Scientology vs. the Internet: Why Kids On The Internet Are Scientology's Most Powerful Enemy"". Gawker.com briefly outlined actions of other anonymous users critical of Scientology, including actions taken in the past by users of YouTube, Digg, and YTMND ""This isn't the only group of Internet users unafraid of the intimidating cult; a whole range of sites has turned the Church into a mockery by doing what mainstream celebrity-coverage outlets wouldn't dare."" A poster on the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s.) was critical of the actions by the ""Anonymous"" group. In a post titled ""Open Letter to Anonymous"" Jeff Jacobsen, webmaster of lisamcpherson.org, posting as ""cultxpt"" wrote that ""It's understandable that people get upset over the things the Church of Scientology has done online and off"", pointing out that the Church of Scientology had ""tried to shut down a.r.s."", and ""spam our newsgroup to this day"". In 1999 ""sporgery"", a form of nonsensical spam tactic, was used as an attempt to disrupt discussion on the newsgroup. Previously in 1995 Helena Kobrin, an attorney for the Church of Scientology, attempted to remove the a.r.s. group from Usenet. Kobrin sent a rmgroup message which stated: ""We have requested that the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup be removed from all sites"". This later led to a declaration of war by the hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow, and an increase in popularity of the a.r.s site. This initial conflict came to be known as ""Scientology versus the Internet"". The post from Jacobsen went on to criticize the actions of the ""Anonymous"" group, stating: ""We're supposed to be the good people,"" and stated that contrary to the Anonymous group's tactics, ""Our weapons as critics are reason, evidence, argument, and free speech"". 4=Andreas Heldal-Lund, Operation Clambake On Tuesday, the founder of Operation Clambake, a non-profit organization and website critical of Scientology based in Stavanger, Norway, released a statement about the attacks by ""Anonymous"". Andreas Heldal-Lund was critical of the ""Anonymous"" groups actions, stating: ""The author of Operation Clambake does not condone such activity. Attacking Scientology like that will just make them play the religious persecution card. They will use it to defend their own counter actions when they try to shatter criticism and crush critics without mercy."" Heldal-Lund went on to emphasize the right of all people and organizations to freedom of speech - including the Church of Scientology: ""Freedom of speech means we need to allow all to speak - including those we strongly disagree with. I am of the opinion that the Church of Scientology is a criminal organisation and a cult which is designed by its delusional founder to abuse people. I am still committed to fight for their right to speak their opinion.""" +tech,"SpaceNASA announced during a press conference on Friday night that the agency has decided to delay the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery, which was scheduled for takeoff on February 27. NASA cited the need for additional time to evaluate the shuttle's hydrogen fuel flow control valves. A new launch date has yet to be scheduled, though NASA is considering mid-March as an option. Another review of Discovery's flight readiness is scheduled for February 25. Discovery had originally been scheduled for liftoff on February 12, but NASA wanted to perform additional tests on the valves which control the amount of hydrogen fuel pumped into the external tank when the shuttle is taking off. When Space Shuttle Endeavour went into space in November 2008, one of the valves broke. NASA fears that if one breaks off on this mission, then it could damage the outside of the shuttle. ""We need to complete more work to have a better understanding before flying,"" said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. who chaired Friday's Flight Readiness Review. ""We were not driven by schedule pressure and did the right thing. When we fly, we want to do so with full confidence."" The current scheduled mission, STS-119, is set to fly the Integrated Truss Structure segment (""S"" for starboard, the right side of the station, and ""6"" for its place at the very end of the starboard truss) and install the final set of power-generating solar arrays to the International Space Station. The arrays consist of two 115-foot-long arrays, for a total wing span of 240 feet, including the equipment that connects the two halves and allows them to twist as they track the sun. Altogether, the four sets of arrays can generate 84 to 120 kilowatts of electricity – enough to provide power for more than 40 average homes. Commander Lee Archambault will lead Discovery's crew of seven, along with Pilot Tony Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata." +tech,"internetEgyptian Communication and Information Technology Minister Tarek Kamel announced on Sunday that the country had filed an application for the "".misr"" ("".Egypt"") top-level domain (مصر‎ in Arabic) and that registrations for second-level domains would begin as of midnight (2200 UTC) at an Internet conference sponsored by the United Nations. According to Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) chief executive Rod Beckstrom, six countries have applied for top-level domains in three languages since the Internet coordinator opened up the use of non Latin scripts yesterday. ""Now we can really say that Internet will speak Arabic,"" said Kamel at the start of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)'s fourth conference at Sharm el-Sheikh. The expansion of Internet domain names with Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), containing non-Latin characters is the fruit of six years of discussions and technical work, resulting in the ICANN voting on October 30 to allow the new domain names. It has been called the move the ""biggest change"" to the Internet ""since it was invented 40 years ago"". ""Over half the Internet users around the world don't use a Latin-based script as their native language,"" commented Rod Beckstrom, president of the ICANN. ""IDNs are about making the Internet more global and accessible for everyone."" source=Tarek KamelThe IGF conference will address access to the Internet, notably local content reflecting different cultures and languages. Other key topics are cybercrime and safe Internet usage. The theme of the conference is ""Creating Opportunities for All"", reflected in a speech by the United Nations Undersecretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Sha Zukang. ""The voice of developing world must be heard,"" he said. ICANN, a non-profit, private organisation, currently limits the application for new domains to national governments or territories, although domain names will be available to individuals at a later date via national registries." +tech,"The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced Friday that its vote in May last year was not to reject the creation of 'Triple X', a top-level domain (sTLD). Rather, the corporation voted ""not to approve the agreement as proposed, but did not reject the application"". A revised proposal for the .xxx domain is open to public comment until February 5. The revised proposal appears to have hinged on efforts by ICM, proponents of a voluntary adult top-level domain, to promote enforcement in the following areas: #Prohibit child pornography #Require clear labeling #Support development of user empowerment technology #Ensure that the child advocacy and free expression communities are involved in policy development for the sTLD. Who, or what, ICM is remains unclear. The home page of ICM states that, ""The .xxx top-level domain will create a clearly identifiable area of the Internet so that Internet users can be more informed when choosing to select or avoid adult entertainment sites."" The estimated $12 billion per year in revenues generated by on-line pornography could come under the scrutiny of unknown ICM, to whom ICANN proposes delegating responsibility to an organization, or individual, that has nothing more to say about themselves on their website than the background of their leaders." +tech,"Space At 11:29 AM EDT today, the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on the final mission in NASA's Space Shuttle program, STS-135. The mission is slated to last 12 days and will deliver parts and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), including the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module and an experiment, the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), designed to test methods, tools, and technologies required to robotically refuel satellites in space, even those not designed to be serviced. The launch occurred despite weather concerns at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States. Although there was a short two and a half minute hold in the countdown at T-31 seconds while engineers worked out a small glitch, the launch was flawless. Eight and a half minutes after lifting off for the final time, Atlantis reached its preliminary orbit, travelling over 17,000 miles per hour several hundreds of miles above the Earth. The crew of STS-135 consists of only four astronauts, the smallest shuttle crew since STS-6 in 1983: Commander Christopher Ferguson, Pilot Douglas Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim. STS-135 is the third spaceflight for Ferguson, Magnus, and Walheim, and the second for Hurley. Futhermore, an iPhone will be the first one to ever be brought into space aboard the flight with an application developed for the Apple smartphone, called SpaceLab for iOS, that is meant to help the astronauts track their scientific results and perhaps one day aid in navigation. The device will be housed inside a small research platform built by the company NanoRacks. The platform will be placed inside the ISS. Along with the iPhone, a flag from the first shuttle mission, STS-1, will be brought along on the flight and left aboard the orbital outpost until the first commercial spaceflight to the station, when NASA astronauts will retrieve it. An estimated 750,000 people crowded the launch site as Atlantis flexed ""its muscles one final time"", in the words of NASA ascent commentator Rob Navias. The first mission of the Space Shuttle program, STS-1, launched on April 12, 1981. Since then, 135 missions over 30 years have been launched. Out of these flights, two involved catastrophic failures, STS-51-L Challenger in January 1986 and STS-107 Columbia in February 2003, both killing all on board. During the entire shuttle program, 355 people from 16 countries have flown 852 times aboard the Space Shuttle. The five shuttle orbiters have flown 537114016. During her career spanning over 26 years, Atlantis flew on 33 flights, including the first shuttle docking to the Russian Mir space station on STS-71 in June 1995, the first launch with a camera mounted on the exterior of the external fuel tank on STS-112 in October 2002, and the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope on STS-125 in May 2009. The final Space Shuttle launch marks the end of an era for NASA and the United States amid uncertainty about the American space program's and NASA's future. Before the launch, mission commander Christopher Ferguson made a statement conveying his thoughts about the program's end: ""The shuttle is always going to be a reflection of what a great nation can do when it dares to be bold and commits to follow through. We're not ending the journey today ... we're completing a chapter of a journey that will never end.""" +tech,"Soyuz TMA-12M, a Russian spacecraft carrying a crew of three, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) at 2353 UTC yesterday, after a technical setback prevented a planned rendezvous and docking on Tuesday. The spacecraft, which launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2117 UTC on Tuesday (3:17 AM, Wednesday local time), was originally scheduled to dock with the space station at 0304 UTC on Wednesday. It was not in the proper orientation to execute one of the engine burns required as part of the expedited rendezvous procedure used since last year, however, and docking with the ISS was delayed until yesterday. The mission reverted to the flight plan used on Soyuz flights to the ISS previously: a longer, two-day, 34-orbit rendezvous. The precise cause of the malfunction has not yet been publicly announced, but NASA said Wednesday, all systems aboard the Soyuz appeared to be functioning normally despite the setback which prevented a docking approximately six hours after launch. Also according to NASA, engineers understand the issue and have developed methods to prevent a recurrence on a future flight and the crew was never in any danger. Soyuz TMA-12M successfully docked with the station wiki=yes above Brazil at 2353 UTC yesterday, with hatch opening between the two spacecraft occurring at 0235 UTC today. On board the Soyuz were two Russian cosmonauts: Commander Aleksandr Skvortsov and Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev, as well as one NASA astronaut: Flight Engineer Steven Swanson. TMA-12M is a return to space for both Skvortsov and Swanson, who are making the trip for the second and third times, respectively. Artemyev is visiting space for the first time. Filling out the full six person contingent on the station, they join three Expedition 39 crew members aboard the ISS: Japanese astronaut and station commander Koichi Wakata, NASA astronaut Richard Mastracchio and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin. They launched aboard Soyuz TMA-11M in November of last year and were the sole inhabitants of the station since the departure of Soyuz TMA-10M on March 11. Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson are to become the crew of Expedition 40 when TMA-11M is scheduled to depart in May with Wakata, Mastracchio and Tyurin aboard, at which time Swanson is to assume command of the station. The trio are slated to remain aboard the orbital outpost for approximately six months, until TMA-12M undocks in mid-September and returns to Earth." +tech,"Astronomers have discovered an asteroid that is approximately 160 feet long, that may be on a collision course for Mars and may hit the planet sometime in early 2008. Since the discovery of asteroid 2007 WD5 on November 20, 2007, scientists at NASA's Near-Earth object Office have been tracking it, and say that the asteroid could come within 48,000 kilometers of the planet around January 30, 2008. ""Right now asteroid 2007 WD5 is about half-way between Earth and Mars and closing the distance at a speed of about 27,900 miles per hour. Over the next five weeks, we hope to gather more information from observatories so we can further refine the asteroid's trajectory,"" said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It may also hit near the area where the Opportunity Rover is currently exploring, but scientists say that the rover is outside of the zone of possible impact. The current odds of the asteroid hitting the planet are 1 in a 75 chance that it will make its impact on or around that date. ""These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track...threatening asteroids. We know that it's going to fly by Mars and most likely going to miss, but there's a possibility of an impact,"" said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Office." +tech,"CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - The first new heavy lift space vehicle in a generation is cleared to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Boeing Delta IV Heavy has missed launch opportunities three days in a row (starting Friday, December 12) due to minor technical difficulties. It is now scheduled to launch Dec. 20 or 21 from pad SLC-37B. The Delta 4 was developed as part of the U.S Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program to reduce costs and improve reliability. The basic design is a two stage, cryogenic LOx/LH2 rocket. Strap-on boosters may be added to increase lift capacity. Two major obstacles have plagued the project in recent years; a bidding scandal which cost Boeing a large portion of the military satellite launch business for which it was competing, and a downturn in commercial satellite launches in 2001. The Heavy variant of the Delta 4 rocket can place 13,100 kg (28,950 Lb) into geostationary transfer orbit, greater than any other current rocket. Two additional first stage cores are used as strap-on boosters for this configuration. Their rated thrust is 2,900,000 N (656,000 lb) each. Delta 4's main engine, the RS68, is the most powerful hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine in the world, approximately three times as powerful as the Ariane 5 Vulcain HM60. Its design sacrifices efficiency for increased reliability and lower cost: rated specific impulse is 365s at sea level and 410s in a vacuum. The second stage engine, Pratt and Whitney's RL-10B-2, has a specific impulse of 462s. The primary market for this launcher will be classified spy satellites for the US intelligence community. Most of these satellites were previously launched on the Titan 4, which has since been retired. The Delta 4 Heavy's published launch cost is $170 million, compared to the Titan 4's $400 million (1999 dollars). Delta 4 Heavy's maiden launch is a demonstration and will carry a dummy load and two nano-satellites. The main payload, dubbed DemoSat is a 6020 kg (13271 lb) mass designed to simulate the dynamic and initial properties of a real satellite. Its design consists of large brass rods, intended to fully burn up on reentry. The two nano-satellites are part of the US Department of Defense Nanosat-2 Program, and built by students from New Mexico State University, Arizona State University, and the University of Colorado at Boulder." +tech,"Computer security experts warn that a malicious computer worm, dubbed ""Kama Sutra,"" is set to wreak havoc this Friday, February 3rd on Microsoft Windows computers worldwide. Kama Sutra is designed to destroy files that end in .doc, .zip and .pdf. __NOTOC__ The Kama Sutra worm has been spreading through cyberspace since January 16, packaged in emails with subject headings such as: ""give me a kiss"" and ""crazy illegal sex."" When users click an email attachment, their PCs become infected with destructive, self-replicating software. The worm affects Microsoft Windows operating systems and is programmed to go to work on the third of every month, overwriting or corrupting Microsoft files and others such as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. ""This one can damage your office files, your Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and your PowerPoint presentations,"" Tino Klironomos, a computer retailer, said. ""(The files will be) all gone, history."" Computer security company LURHQ reports that there may be hundreds of thousands of machines already infected with the worm, which also goes by the monikers ""BlackWorm,"" ""CME-24,"" ""Blackmal,"" ""Mywife.E"" and ""Nyxem."" To prevent the worm, Windows users should arm themselves with anti-virus software. People can also protect their PC with up-to-date anti-virus gear and firewall protection. Free anti-virus tools are available from many anti-virus organisations. These tools can detect and remove the Kama Sutra worm from an infected machine. Experts say: ""Make sure your virus definitions are up to date. Besides being careful about opening email messages and attachments, users should back up their most valuable computer files on an external device such as a CD, zip drive or DVD."" Steve Bass at PC World says: ""Stop worrying. If you update your virus program signatures regularly, and do a weekly AV scan, I don't think you have much to worry about..."" Other advice is not to open any messages with the subject headers ""crazy, illegal sex"", ""give me a kiss"" and ""hot movie."" The worm will not affect machines running on non-Windows operating systems such as Mac OS X or GNU/Linux. Many security systems reported a very small amount of vandalism, even though the threats were very high." +tech,"Google announced today, September 8, that they have hired Vinton Cerf, to serve as the Chief Internet Evangelist. He is often referred to as the ""father of the Internet"". While working at the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) he played an important role in the development of the Internet. At DARPA he co-designed the TCP/IP protocol, on which the Internet runs. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said ""Cerf is clearly one of the great technology leaders of our time”. Cerf has been awarded the National Medal of Technology and the Premio Principe de Asturias de Investigacion Cientifica, or the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research. People Magazine listed Cerf as one the ""25 Most Intriguing People"" in 1994. In early 2005 Cerf was included among the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 2004 Turing Award winners. The Turing Award is considered one of the most prestigious computing awards. Cerf, aged 62, is currently working on developing a new set of planet-to-planet communications protocols for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Prior to being hired by Google, he worked for MCI, where he led the development of MCI Mail. MCI Mail was the first commercial e-mail service to connect to the Internet. Cerf also serves as the Chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a role he plans to continue." +tech,"Scientists at NASA say that new satellite images of Saturn's moon Enceladus taken in 2005, has shown that the moon has begun to spew geysers which contain liquid water, and that the internal heat produced by the moon's core may be able to host life below the icy surface, but scientists also stress that life has not yet been found on the moon. Scientists say that the heat source producing the geysers is ""organic"" and that the material used to spew them is caused by the decaying of radioactive material from inside the moon. ""Deep inside Enceladus, our model indicates we've got an organic brew, a heat source and liquid water, all key ingredients for life. And while no one is claiming that we have found life by any means, we probably have evidence for a place that might be hospitable to life,"" said Dennis Matson, a scientist for the Cassini project. In a new model created by NASA scientists, data shows that Enceladus might have been created by aluminum and iron isotopes which have begun to decay causing large amounts of heat to build up in the moon and over billions of years later, the icy mass has began to melt near the moon's core, causing the water to spew into outer space. ""Enceladus is a very small body, and it's made almost entirely of ice and rock. The puzzle is how the moon developed a warm core. The only way to achieve such high temperatures at Enceladus is through the very rapid decay of some radioactive species,"" said Dr. Julie Castillo, the lead scientist developing the new model at the Jet Propulsion laboratory or JPL. ""The decomposition of those isotopes - over a period of about 7 million years - would produce enormous amounts of heat. This would result in the consolidation of rocky material at the core surrounded by a shell of ice. According to the theory, the remaining, more slowly decaying radioactivity in the core could continue to warm and melt the moon's interior for billions of years, along with tidal forces from Saturn's gravitational tug,"" said a statement on NASA""s website. Data from Cassini's ion and neutral mass spectrometer further shows that the natural building blocks of life are also present within Enceladus. The results show that carbon dioxide, acetylene, methane, propane and nitrogen, the basic building blocks for life, are all present within the moon. ""The team concludes that so far, all the findings and the hot start model indicate that a warm, organic-rich mixture was produced below the surface of Enceladus and might still be present today, making the moon a promising kitchen for the cooking of primordial soup,"" added the statement. Cassini will make a flyby on Enceladus in march of 2008. The mission will ""measure the gas emanating from the plume,"" ended the statement." +tech,"A new Earth-like planet, called Gliese 876 d, has been discovered orbiting a star called Gliese 876 about 15 light years from Earth. It is the first rocky planet to be discovered orbiting a star, although three other rocky planets have in the past been discovered in orbit around a pulsar. There are two other gaseous, Jupiter-like planets in orbit around the same star. ""This is the smallest extrasolar planet yet detected and the first of a new class of rocky terrestrial planets,"" said Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution, one of the teams that discovered the new planet. ""It's like Earth's bigger cousin."" The newly discovered world has about 7½ times the mass of Earth. Its orbital period, or ""year"", is a mere 2 days in length and its path takes it 10 times closer to its star than the closest planet is to our Sun. The temperature on the surface is estimated between 400 to 750 degrees Fahrenheit (200 to 400 degrees Celsius), and is too hot for life forms that are similar to those found on Earth. ""A planet seven and a half times the mass of the Earth could easily hold onto an atmosphere,"" explained Gregory Laughlin, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of California in Santa Cruz. ""It would still be considered a rocky planet, probably with an iron core and a silicate mantle. It could even have a dense steamy water layer. I think what we are seeing here is something that's intermediate between a true terrestrial planet like the Earth and a hot version of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune."" Astronomers are continuing to advance the science of detecting extrasolar worlds. ""We are pushing a whole new regime at Keck Observatory in Hawaii to achieve one meter per second precision, triple our old precision, that should also allow us to see Earth-mass planets around sun-like stars within the next few years,"" Butler said. * NSF Press Release: Astronomers Announce the Most Earth-Like Planet Yet Found Outside the Solar System" +tech,"Space SpaceX's F9R test vehicle self-destructed yesterday during a test flight at their McGregor, Texas test facility. There were no injuries. According to a witness, ""there is a big grass fire from falling debris."" According to a statement issued by SpaceX, ""Throughout the test and subsequent flight termination, the vehicle remained in the designated flight area. There were no injuries or near injuries. An FAA representative was present at all times."" John Taylor, a SpaceX spokesman, said that ""during the flight, an anomaly was detected in the vehicle and the flight termination system automatically terminated the mission."" SpaceX has said that more information will be forthcoming once they've analyzed the flight data." +tech,"WikimediaMention The Encyclopædia Britannica today appeared on the main page of online encyclopaedia Wikipedia as it became the day's featured article. Encyclopædia Britannica has recently been critical of Wikipedia in terms of the website's openness and accuracy as an encyclopedia. The Encyclopædia Britannica, first published in Scotland in 1768, has been critical about Wikipedia in the past due to the way it is written. Whilst the Encyclopædia Britannica is written by a team of identified contributors, 19 full-time editors and over 4,000 expert contributors, Wikipedia can be written by anyone who has access to an internet connection. The Encyclopædia Britannica claims that the differences between Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannicas editorial policies make Encyclopedia Britannica more accurate than Wikipedia. One study carried out by the news department of the scientific journal Nature, a study of 42 selected science articles showed that Wikipedia had 162 errors, whilst the Encyclopædia Britannica had 123. The Encyclopædia Britannica responded by saying that the study was misleading because certain articles were not taken from the Encyclopædia, some articles were combinations of several articles, others were simply excerpts. Wikipedia's featured articles are to be examples of the site's finest work. Out of over 1.9 million articles that exist as of writing, there are only 1,535 featured articles. These are indicated with a bronze star in the top-right hand corner of the article." +tech,"Space Astronomers have discovered a planetary system that could contain between five and seven planets, located about 127 light-years from Earth. Only fifteen planetary systems are known to contain more than three planets. The newly discovered system is centered around star HD 10180, whose properties may be similar to those of our own Sun. The researchers who made the discovery say that the system is arranged in a more compact way than our own; it is believed that the year of one of the inner planets could be equal to as little as just over one Earth day. It is believed that up to seven planets may be present in this system; two, however, are subject to ambiguity. One of these is believed to have a mass that may be relatively close to Earth's. This planet, if confirmed, may prove to be the smallest world yet discovered outside our solar system. This system, however, is not the first to be discovered outside our solar system. Astronomers have been spotting these systems for several years. Christophe Lovis, lead researcher on the project, shares his thoughts about the discovery: ""This also highlights the fact that we are now entering a new era in exoplanet research - the study of complex planetary systems and not just of individual planets."" Martin Dominik, an astronomer from the University of St. Andrews, warns against describing the system as the ""richest yet discovered,"" as it is unclear whether other systems with more planets have been discovered in the past. Dominik elaborates: ""Like most discoveries in science, the findings come with more questions than answers; but in my opinion, this is what really advances a field.""" +tech,"New Zealand Google removed a number of posts from a blog which rants about the New Zealand Department of Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS), called CYFSWATCH NEW ZEALAND. The action comes after the New Zealand Government laid a formal complaint, according to Radio New Zealand. The removal of information by Google has been described by observers as censorship. The blog, hosted by Google's Blogspot, invites readers to send in their stories about how they have been treated by CYFS, and also to provide a description and personal details of the people hired by CYFS. The blog describes itself as a web site that ""...is dedicated to all those people who have been bullied, intimidated, or 'familially raped' by the Department of Child, Youth, & Family..."" The Blogger Team made a post saying Google had found, following the complaint, that some blog content may have allegedly breached their Blogspot terms of service. ""As a result, we've been forced to remove the infringing posts from your blog."" CYFSWATCH then asked Google under what grounds did they breach the terms of service. New Zealand Police were called to investigate the blog for reasons that included the sharing of personal information, from which the blog could put employees of CYFS and their families at risk." +tech,"InfosectionEnd NASA has delayed the launch of space shuttle Atlantis due to a ""fuel cell anomaly."" ""We want to fly a good mission, we want to fly a safe mission, we want to have a successful mission,"" said Space Shuttle Program Manager, Wayne Hale. ""We put together a huge amount of data, but it's not complete yet. We have to put all the data on the table and look at it,"" said deputy manager of the Orbiter Project, Ed Mango. He also stated that ""we'll need more time to understand what this signature really means."" The issue has never before been seen on the space shuttles. The issue with the fuel cell was discovered by officials when NASA was preparing to fill up Atlantis's fuel tank. One cell gave a low voltage reading, while two other cells gave readings that were too high. All three of the fuel cells must be working properly in order for Atlantis to lift-off successfully. More tests will be done on Atlantis in the next 24-hours, but so far officials have not yet decided when Atlantis will launch. The next window for launching is on Friday September 8, 2006 at 11:41 a.m.. If Atlantis does not launch on Friday, officials will try for a launch date in October. A meeting was scheduled for 2:00 p.m. this afternoon between NASA officials, but there is no word on the conclusion of that meeting." +tech,"The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has successfully launched another of their H-IIA space rockets. Its payload, the MTSAT-2 satellite designed to control air traffic and track weather patterns, has successfully separated from the rocket. It is due to be inserted into a geostationary orbit on the 21st of February. The satellite is owned by the Civil Aviation Bureau and the Japan Meteorological Agency, part of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The rocket was launched from the Tanegashima space centre in the southern region of Kagoshima, at 15:55 (06:55 GMT). It is the ninth in a series of H-IIA rockets, which form the main part of the Japanese space program. A previous H-IIA rocket was launched less than a month ago." +tech,"Space Reaction Engines Limited, a firm in Oxford, United Kingdom, has recently been awarded €1 million by the European Space Agency. This money is to be used for development work for the firm's SABRE engines. The SABRE engines are for a reusable spaceplane that it is intended to be able to travel into space and return completely intact. Reaction Engines Limited says the Skylon plane could be in service within 10 years. When in service it would be intended to be regularly carrying up to 60 passengers into orbit much more cheaply than today. The cash will be used to test a precooled jet engine that would cool the very hot air entering the engines and should permit the aircraft to fly more economically, like a jet plane. The plane will fly through the air to 26 km (85,000 feet) altitude and five times the speed of sound before using rockets to push the aircraft the rest of the way to orbit. The BBC says that other aspects of the Skylon design will be investigated by EADS Astrium, the German space agency (DLR) and the University of Bristol." +tech,"Microsoft has released the new MSN Search service. According to Microsoft press release, the new MSN Search offers the largest, up to date selection of information and a new class of search tools, reducing time and effort required by users to find information. Some major characteristics of the new MSN Search service include: up to date information, direct answers, direct actions, content specific searching, Search Near Me feature (results tailored geographically), Search Builder (the user can customize search results by defining search criteria). The global beta version of MSN Search is available here." +tech,"Calmos Ali Akbar Salehi, chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, announced Friday that Iran is scheduled to launch its first nuclear power plant in Bushehr. Russia said that it will start loading fuel into the reactor on August 21, 2010. Russia has assisted Iran in the construction of this reactor since the mid-1990s. The proposal to build this reactor was put forth 35 years ago by Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, the former emperor of Iran. Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, the current president of Russia, said that Iran and Russia are in active trade partnership. Medvedev called on Iran last month to explain its nuclear program. The official launch is scheduled for August 21, 2010. Russia has promised to run the plant by supplying fuel and taking away fuel waste." +tech,"ScientologyThe Internet-based group ""Anonymous"" released a new video on YouTube Monday, announcing international protests outside Church of Scientology centers set for February 10. The video ""Call to Action"" uses the same computer synthesized voice as a previous video titled ""Message to Scientology"", which was posted to YouTube last Monday. The ""Message to Scientology"" video has been viewed over 1,400,000 times, and the ""Call to Action"" video has already been viewed over 237,000 times. Anonymous is taking action against the Church of Scientology in response to what it sees as suppression of freedom of speech on the Internet. The group was first motivated after the Church of Scientology issued a copyright infringement claim to YouTube regarding a promotional video of Scientologist Tom Cruise speaking about his beliefs and using Scientology jargon. The Church of Scientology also issued a legal complaint to the website Gawker.com which is also hosting the video, but Gawker has stated it will not take the video down because it is newsworthy. Anonymous set up a movement called ""Project Chanology"" to coordinate their efforts, and took down several Church of Scientology websites through denial-of-service attacks. Members of Anonymous have also participated in prank calls to Church of Scientology centers, as well as protests or ""raids"" outside Scientology buildings, and have posted some of their exploits to YouTube. 4=Anonymous, ""Call to Action"". In the ""Call to Action"" video, Anonymous denies that they are composed solely of ""super hackers"", stating ""Anonymous is a collective of individuals united by an awareness that someone must do the right thing, that someone must bring light to the darkness, that someone must open the eyes of a public that has slumbered for far too long."" The video goes on to state ""We want you to be aware of the very real dangers of Scientology,"" citing what they term ""gross human rights violations"". Specific controversial events in Scientology history are cited in the video, including Operation Freakout and Paulette Cooper, and Operation Snow White. Operation Freakout was the name of a Church of Scientology operation whose goal was to ""get P.C. Paulette Cooper incarcerated in a mental institution or jail or at least to hit her so hard that she drops her attacks."" Paulette Cooper had written a book critical of Scientology called The Scandal of Scientology. Operation Snow White was the name of a Church of Scientology operation where members of the Church's secretive Guardian's Office infiltrated United States government agencies in Washington, D.C. including the I.R.S. The F.B.I.'s investigation into Operation Snow White led them to discover the planning of actions taken against Paulette Cooper. The video concludes by inviting the viewer to ""take up the banner of free speech"" and protest with Anonymous world wide. In an email to CNET News, Anonymous stated that cities where unknown activities are planned on February 10 include New York City, Montreal, Houston, London, Melbourne, and Los Angeles. On Friday, two spokespersons for the Church of Scientology commented on the recent actions of Anonymous. A spokesman told News.com.au ""These types of people have got some wrong information about us,"" and Church spokeswoman Yvette Shank told Sun Media that she regarded members of Anonymous as a ""pathetic"" group of ""computer geeks"". On Monday, Radar reported that the Church of Scientology has asked the U.S. Attorney General's office in Los Angeles, the F.B.I., and the LAPD to start a criminal investigation of possible criminal activity related to the Internet attacks. A source told Radar that the Church of Scientology is arguing that the Internet attacks are a form of ""illegal interference with business."" Radar also reports that the Church of Scientology is emphasizing its status as a religious organization in the United States, in order to assert that the Internet attacks can be classed as hate crimes. 4=Mark Bunker, XenuTV.com. On Saturday, Mark Bunker of the website XenuTV.com posted a video to YouTube criticizing the illegal actions of Anonymous and suggested legal methods for them to retaliate against the Church of Scientology, including peaceful protesting, writing letters to their government representatives, and persuading the United States government to take away the Church of Scientology's tax exempt status. In the video, Bunker states ""I'm mainly concerned because you shouldn't be doing things that are illegal, you just shouldn't. It's not morally right, and it's not right when Scientology does it, it's not right when we do it."" Bunker's video post has been viewed over 156,000 times. On Sunday, Bunker posted a follow-up video to YouTube where he gives advice to Anonymous on how to peacefully picket. He also provides viewers with resources and weblinks to more information on how to hold a peaceful protest. He concludes this video by imitating Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi mind trick technique and voice from Star Wars, stating ""And if I may, as Obi-Wan, tell you: You will do nothing illegal "". Wikinews international report: ""Anonymous"" holds anti-Scientology protests worldwide" +tech,"On March 31, 2006 the AMSAT-DL/IUZ team in Bochum, Germany managed to receive a signal by the American space probe Voyager 1 using the 20m antenna. It is the first time that a group of radio amateurs has successfully attempted this. The team included: Freddy de Guchteneire, James Miller, Hartmut Päsler and Achim Vollhardt. Voyager 1 had been launched on September 5, 1977 by NASA and was the first spacecraft to transmit close-up pictures of Jupiter and Saturn. In 2004 Voyager 1 entered the termination shock region, the region where the solar wind has weakened enough to mix with the interstellar medium, thereby leaving the Solar System. Voyager 1 is now 98 AU from Earth (14.7 billion km or three times the distance from Earth to Pluto). It is the most distant human-made object. The nuclear powered probe continues to measure the properties of the interstellar magnetic field." +tech,"U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ruled Friday to grant a request for a permanent injunction against Vonage for violating patented intellectual property rights of Verizon. The injunction would not take effect until after a hearing scheduled for April 6. The court will rule on whether the request by Vonage to stay the decision has sufficient merit during the time it would take for the largest U.S. VoIP provider to appeal the March 8 jury finding that the company violated what it maintains are Verizon innovations too broadly defined to be patentable. ""Despite this obvious attempt by Verizon to cripple Vonage, the litigation will not stop Vonage from continuing to provide quality VoIP service to our millions of customers,"" said Mike Snyder, the Vonage chief executive officer. The March 8 jury findings dismissed Vonage of wrong-doing on 4 of Verizon's 7 claims that Vonage infringed on its patent rights. Verizon noted as part of its complaint against Vonage that, ""Vonage's expanded marketing and advertising of its infringing services threaten to shift more customers and goodwill to its business at Verizon's expense,"" according to Olga Kharif of CIO Today. Vonage says it did not know it was infringing on patents rights of the 3 Verizon claims that held up in court. The effect of an injunction on the 2.2 million Vonage customers using the services would mean: #an inability to place Internet calls to traditional phone line services #the elimination of voice mail and call waiting #the lack of wireless to Internet phone calls" +tech,"NASA has announced plans for sending humans back to the Moon, as a first step to Mars. A 2018 lunar mission is proposed, where a crew of four would remain on the Moon for as long as a week. A minimum of two lunar missions a year is planned, with astronauts remaining as long as six months. Some of the technology had previously been proposed for replacement of the Space Shuttle. * Astronauts will be launched in a capsule, similar in concept to that used for the Project Apollo but three times larger. The top part of an Exploration Transportation System (ETS), the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) will be a capsule attached to a service module which contains supplies, power, and propulsion units. The CEV is designed for use in Earth orbit. * On lunar missions, crew or cargo versions of a Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM) would be used with a CEV. The LSAM will have design concepts related to the Apollo Lunar Module, with a four-legged landing unit carrying an ascent stage. * An Earth Departure Stage (EDS), a powerful propulsion unit, will be used to move CEV and LSAM units out of Earth orbit, such as on lunar missions. * Heavy Launcher unmanned cargo rockets will be used for heavy loads of equipment. * The launch rockets, Shuttle Derived Launch Vehicles, will use engines developed for the Shuttle program. ** CEV will be launched atop a Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), a single solid fuel booster with a second stage using a shuttle main engine. The CLV can carry a payload of 25 metric tons into low Earth orbit. ** The heavy-lift system uses a pair of longer solid rocket boosters and five shuttle main engines to put up to 125 metric tons in orbit -- about one and a half times the weight of a shuttle orbiter. * The use of a Launch Escape System (LES) will improve safety. A LES is a top-mounted rocket that can quickly remove the crew capsule away from an exploding or otherwise dangerous rocket. For a lunar mission, the LSAM and EDS would be placed in orbit by a cargo launcher, then a CEV would dock with the assembly before leaving Earth orbit. The goal is to begin production of the new spacecraft by 2011. * Robotic missions will be sent, probably the first one in 2008. * Past experience with lunar dust is being used in designing equipment and spacesuits which may encounter it. * Surface mobility with open and pressurized rovers for use in such missions is also being developed. * The CEV can be reused up to ten times. * Crew capsule, upon return to Earth, will set down on dry land. It can also land on water. * The CEV and lunar lander ascent stage use methane as fuel, as methane may be available on Mars. * Eventually the designs could be expanded to support six astronauts for a trip to Mars. The plans are a means to implement President Bush's ""Vision for Space Exploration"" program. Goals include: * Implement a sustained and affordable human and robotic program to explore the solar system and beyond; * Extend human presence across the solar system, starting with a human return to the Moon by the year 2020, in preparation for human exploration of Mars and other destinations; * Develop the innovative technologies, knowledge, and infrastructures both to explore and to support decisions about the destinations for human exploration; and * Promote international and commercial participation in exploration to further U.S. scientific, security, and economic interests." +tech,"NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered evidence that points to the existence of an underground ocean of water and ammonia on Saturn's moon Titan. ""We believe that about 100 kilometers (62 miles) beneath the ice and organic-rich surface is an internal ocean of liquid water mixed with ammonia,"" said Bryan Stiles of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. If the findings turn out to be true, this will be the fourth such moon in our solar system found to have some form of water on it. Currently only three other moons, all from Jupiter, have been found to have known water sources. Ganymede, Callisto and Europa are so far the only known moons with a water source. Members of the mission's science team used Cassini's Synthetic Aperture Radar to collect imaging data during 19 separate passes over Titan between October 2005 and May 2007. The radar can see through Titan's dense, methane-rich atmospheric haze, detailing never-before-seen surface features and establishing their locations on the moon's surface. Using data from the radar's early observations, the scientists and radar engineers established the locations of 50 unique landmarks on Titan's surface. They then searched for these same lakes, canyons and mountains in the reams of data returned by Cassini in its later flybys of Titan. They found prominent surface features had shifted from their expected positions by up to 30 kilometers (19 miles). A systematic displacement of surface features would be difficult to explain unless the moon's icy crust was decoupled from its core by an internal ocean, making it easier for the crust to move. Cassini scientists will not have long to wait before another go at Titan. On March 25, just prior to its closest approach at an altitude of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), Cassini will employ its Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer to examine Titan's upper atmosphere. Immediately after closest approach, the spacecraft's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer will capture high-resolution images of Titan's southeast quadrant. The study of Titan is a major goal of the Cassini-Huygens mission because it may preserve, in deep-freeze, many of the chemical compounds that preceded life on Earth. Titan is the only moon in the solar system that possesses a dense atmosphere. The moon's atmosphere is 1.5 times denser than Earth's. Titan is the largest of Saturn's moons, bigger than the planet Mercury." +tech,"Following the introduction of a ""Do Not Track"" feature in modern browsers at the end of last year, Wikinews interviewed several companies and groups about the feature. A crowdsourced search engine DuckDuckGo reviewed the feature and launched a whatisDNT microsite in December. The review involved checking answers to basic questions such as whether websites stop shaping a user profile based on users' online actvitity or stop displaying targeted advertising. Wikinews interviewed DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg about the microsite launch and the DuckDuckGo opinion on the feature. Wikinews What prompted the launch of DuckDuckGo (I think it was around 2006?)? ::Gabriel Weinberg: We launched on Sep 25, 2008, though I had been working on it for about a year prior. The initial motivation was to try a search engine with a different UI that did a better job of using more structured content (like from Wikipedia) and also more aggressively removed spam. Wikinews What does the DuckDuckGo Team use instead of Gmail? ::GW: We do not have company mail accounts (beyond forwarding ones), so everyone uses what they want. I personally use outlook.com right now. Wikinews When and how did DuckDuckGo start using Perl? What influenced this decision and language choice? ::GW: We started out in Perl. I picked it up at MIT where it was prevalent in the late 90s, and pretty much never looked back. It worked really well for a project like this that is text heavy and can use a lot of existing helper (CPAN) libraries. Wikinews How did you first hear about ""DoNotTrack"" feature? ::GW: I do not remember, but it was a long time ago :). The Do Not Track concept was proposed many years ago. Wikinews When did you launch http://whatisDNT.com/&nbsp;? Who worked on it? What researches, tests and studies did it involve? ::GW: We launched the What Is Do Not Track micro-site on Dec 19, 2012, and various members of the DuckDuckGo Team worked on it (including myself). We had been following it closely for a while, and so have been up to date on everything that is going on with it. It honestly doesn't take any tests to prove its ineffectiveness since companies like Google tell you straight up they don't honor it. Wikinews A search engine that does not track users sounds good. What do you recommend users to do to not be tracked by *other* websites, such as blogs with targeted ads in sidebar? ::GW: It depends on the Web browser you are using for specifics, but for each major Web browser there are tools you can install (besides DuckDuckGo extensions) to protect you in various scenarios. Some of those that are available in multiple browsers are Ghostery, DoNotTrackMe, and HTTPS Everywhere. Those help protect you while not really changing your browsing experience. Other tools do more, but do impact your browsing experience, like Tor and NoScript. Wikinews What is your opinion of ad block tools such as AdBlockPlus and NoScript that ideally aim to block third-party js? ::GW: I think they are effective at doing what they set out to do, and that is great if you are a consumer who wants that experience. However, they are not for everyone because they do degrade browsing ability, especially NoScript. Wikinews Do you think that DoNotTarget option should exist (if consistendly adhered to)? ::GW: Absolutely. My main problem with the DoNotTrack setting right now is it is misleading. If you use a major Web browser, you have this Do Not Track setting within it, but it really does next to nothing. It is a false sense of security. Wikinews What do you see the ideal behaviour of companies when it comes to making a user's profile? Would you like to ideally prohibit such activity entirely using legislative regulations in the long run? ::GW: Yes, I think an analogy to the Do Not Call list is apt. Applying that analogy, if you were on a Do Not Track list then companies shouldn't track you unless you explicitly ask them to, e.g. by logging in and consenting to Terms of Service. That will only happen via legislative means, however. Wikinews also interviewed Haakon Flage Bratsberg, Product Counsel from Opera Software, the corporation behind Opera web browser. Wikinews Have you heard of ""Do Not Track"" feature support in modern browsers? What do you think about it? ::Haakon Flage Bratsberg: Opera browser for desktop computers has built in support for Do Not Track since version 12, and Opera Software participates in the W3C Tracking Protection Working Group. Wikinews Given that not all companies respect this setting, do you feel its name misleading? Do you think it could better be named ""Do Not Target"" instead? ::HFB: This is our major concern about the DNT functionality: Users can be given a false sense of security. Wikinews Do you think that all websites should respect DNT users' preferences in the long run? ::HFB: In general we think websites should comply with web standards, including the current proposal for DNT. Wikinews Would you ideally see the respect for DNT users' preferences legally enforced? ::HFB: There are obvious limitations to a pure self regulatory approach, but our hope is that self regulation will provide a sufficient good outcome in this case. Wikinews What do you see as an ideal solution to resolve the misleading situation with DoNotTrack that you acknowledged in your response to the second question? ::HFB: First of all, I personally do not think the name of DoNotTrack is misleading. However, the challenge is to have a meaningful standard that users can still be aware of the risks of that may be involved without giving a false sense of security. For example ""private mode"" in your browser does not prevent that your internet access provider can still keep track of what websites you visit, websites can collect information about you and so on. It only removes the trace of the sites you visited in your ""browser"". Similarly, the websites can by accident or intention to be set up in a way so they do not comply with the DNT signal. There is always a risk of rouge agents. Wikinews How do you envision the ""self regulatory"" approach? How would it work? ::HFB: Self regulation basically means that the different stakeholders without having a legal obligation to do so, comply with a set of rules, for example an industry technical specification as W3C tracking protection standards. My take is that DNT would be a success if all major stakeholders involved in the process would comply with the standards. It is more an open question to what extent compliance to the technical standard is sufficient to comply with applicable laws in its respective country, for instance, in EU, or in the USA. Wikinews contacted the Mozilla press office and got replies on behalf of the Mozilla Corporation. Wikinews When and why did you decide to start supporting the Do Not Track feature? ::Mozilla: Mozilla introduced Do Not Track in the desktop Firefox browser in January 2011, and in June 2011 Firefox for Android became the first mobile browser to support Do Not Track. ::M: We support Do Not Track because we believe it is crucial to put users in control of their online experience. Do Not Track is intended to give users choice and control in a persistent, accessible way without preventing the customization and valuable advertising that powers the Web economy. We are seeking ways to give users better insight and control into the ways their personal information is collected, used, stored and shared. Wikinews Do you think that all websites should respect DNT users' preferences in the long run? ::M: Mozilla is actively working with companies that have started to implement Do Not Track and with others who have committed to doing so. Ultimately, the goal is for all industry stakeholders to trust and respect the signal in the long run. Wikinews The mobile Firefox attitude to DNT is ...interesting! Thank you for the replies. Wikinews contacted the Wikimedia press office and got replies from Jay Walsh, senior director of communications at the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikinews Have you heard of ""Do Not Track"" feature support in modern browsers? What do you think about it? ::Jay Walsh: We're familiar with this feature of browsers. This provides the user with the option to remove user tracking, including cookies. It disrupts a lot of the technology used by digital ad services to follow users across sites etc. For the most part any users of the Foundation's projects would have no issues using the projects if they had Do Not Track enabled on their browser. The only issue they might have is in dismissing message banners on the projects (such as the fundraising banner) may not be completely predictable - banners may reappear after dismissing. Wikinews Given that not all companies respect this setting, do you feel its name misleading? Do you think it could better be named ""Do Not Target"" instead? ::JW: I'm not sure if you mean browser-making companies or web companies. Many users who activate this service are aware that by disabling user tracking they are effectively preventing ad or content targeting. We're not a browser software organization, so it's not a topic we spend a lot of time considering. However I think it's safe to say that our community (who are very active, opensource and free knowledge advocates) would like the maximum amount of transparency and clarity in these kinds of features for users. Wikinews Do you think that all websites should respect DNT users' preferences in the long run? ::JW: That's not really a question we're in the best position to answer. Obviously we take this kind of thing pretty seriously. From a software development perspective we would never want to confuse or frustrate a user by side-stepping a feature like do not track. We'd like all websites to honor a web user's preferences and desire for privacy of course. Obviously we're all looking at an Internet that relies increasingly on tracking technology to support commercial goals. Wikinews Would you ideally see the respect for DNT users' preferences legally enforced? ::JW: That would be a question for our legal counsel. But I'm sure it's a topic we'd want to research in more detail before reflecting on, and given that we're a non profit and we have pretty limited resources it's not always possible for us to have legal opinions on all matters." +tech,"Even though the USB 3.0 standard, with transmission speeds nearing 5Gbit/s (600MB/s), has not yet matured and is not expected until 2009 or 2010, technology leaders Intel, AMD, and nVidia are battling to take the lead on the USB 3.0 specifications. The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) was founded in 1995 by Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC, and NXP Semiconductors. These companies are also promoting the new standard of USB 3.0. But AMD, nVidia, and VIA Technologies have jointly made an attempt to develop another ""USB 3.0"" standard to compete with Intel. The opportunity arose because Intel has yet to release their standard for USB 3.0. ""If the USB 3.0 have two different standards in the future, the consumer will be the greatest loser in this 'standard' battle. As of this issue, we the Federal Trade Commission decided to investigate Intel on monopolizing the specification of USB 3.0 and hope this conflict can be smoothly solved."" said the Federal Trade Commission in a statement. Nick Knupffer, a spokesperson for Intel, claimed that Intel will release related technical specifications on USB 3.0 for the Information Technology industry to prevent unnecessary conflicts on standards and specifications." +tech,"If you thought Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Moon was enough, then meet Google Mars. Google officially launched the new Google Mars yesterday as another add-on to Google Maps. The service offers three different ways to view Mars: elevation, visible landscape, and infrared view. The images come from two different NASA missions, Mars Global Surveyor and 2001 Mars Odyssey, and the data was prepared in collaboration with NASA researchers at Arizona State University. The color-coded elevation data is a shaded-relief map taken by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The visible data is made from black and white images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), which is also located onboard the Mars Global Surveyor, and the infrared images were produced by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The THEMIS data is the sharpest map of Mars made so far, as it shows colder areas in darker colors and warmer regions in brighter colors, and as they are infrared images dust and clouds are transparent. Google has added various bookmarks showing points of interest such as landings of spacecraft, locations of mountains, and craters. The data is not currently available through Google's Google Earth client." +tech,"A complex series of events, including a five month-old computer error, was responsible for the battery failure that led to the loss of NASA's Mars Global Surveyor last year, an internal review board says. Findings from a preliminary report released on Friday say that while NASA controllers followed procedures while operating the craft, the procedures did not cover the types of errors that occurred. According to NASA, on November 2, 2006, the Global Surveyor was ordered to perform a routine adjustment of its solar panels. However, the Global Surveyor reoriented to an angle that exposed one of its two batteries to direct sunlight. The battery overheated, which led to the depletion of both batteries. An incorrect setting in antenna orientation prevented Global Surveyor from relaying its status to NASA controllers. Its preprogrammed systems did not take into account the need to maintain a thermally safe orientation. That was the last communication that NASA controllers had with the spacecraft. The Global Surveyor was the first US mission to Mars in twenty years, For ten years, the craft returned detailed information to NASA scientists providing new insights, including evidence that appeared to show the presence of water on Mars and identification of deposits of water-related minerals, which led to selection of a Mars rover landing site. ""The loss of the spacecraft was the result of a series of events linked to a computer error made five months before the likely battery failure,"" said Dolly Perkins, board chairperson and deputy director-technical of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The board concluded that NASA controllers had followed procedures, but that the procedures did not adequately cover the type of errors that occurred. In its final report, the board will offer recommendations applicable to future missions. ""We are making an end-to-end review of all our missions to be sure that we apply the lessons learned from Mars Global Surveyor to all our ongoing missions,"" said Fuk Li, Mars Exploration Program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Global Surveyor was the longest operating spacecraft at Mars and had lasted four times longer than expected." +tech,"InfosectionEnd NASA has stated that they may extend the STS-117 Space Shuttle Atlantis mission by another two days to assist in the repair of 4 of the 6 computers that control the position, oxygen and water levels of the International Space Station (ISS) which failed, and have not come back on. As a result of the computer's failure, the thrusters on the station and the shuttle have been stabilizing the station's orbit. So far, only partial restoration has been made to at least some of the computer that controls the station's position, oxygen and water, but NASA says that some of the system still needs to be cleaned up. ""They've made a lot of progress. There are some cleanup steps to do still and some investigation,"" said space station flight director for NASA, Holly Ridings. Earlier NASA stated that, ""Russian flight controllers will be working overnight to resolve a problem with the Russian segment computers that provide backup attitude control and orbital altitude adjustments. For now, the station’s control moment gyroscopes are handling attitude control, with the shuttle’s propulsion providing backup."" It is not known what caused the computers to fail, but Russian engineers say that it could be a problem with power supply. This type of failure has not been observed before on the space station as re-booting the computers have fixed any problems that occurred in the past, but today, that did not work. ""We have plenty of resources, so we have plenty of time to sort this out,"" said manager of the space station program at NASA, Mike Suffredini. NASA officials state that there is an ""option to depart"" if at least one of the station's stabilizing computers cannot be fixed and the three member crew that is currently there, will have to be taken back to Earth in Atlantis. Without the computer that controls the oxygen levels, there is only 56 days of oxygen left available. NASA had already extended the shuttle's mission by two days on June 11 to repair a tear of at least four inches in the shuttle's Thermal Protection System (TPS), which occurred during liftoff on June 8." +tech,"A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket has successfully launched the DirecTV-11 Communications satellite for DirecTV. The Ukrainian-built rocket lifted off from the Norwegian Ocean Odyssey launch platform in the Pacific Ocean at 22:47:59 (UTC) yesterday evening, with spacecraft separation from the carrier rocket occurring at 23:49:03. The mission, which marked the 13th orbital launch of 2008, is the 25th commercial launch to be conducted by the international Sea Launch consortium, the first of which also lofted a DirecTV satellite. This is also the 250th flight of the Block DM upper stage, which is used on some variants of the Zenit and Proton rockets. Launch had been delayed from November 2007 due to damage to the launch platform caused by the failure of an earlier Zenit launch. Delays from earlier this month were caused by a problem with the satellite, resulting in a ten-day delay, and a further two-day delay from Monday evening due to an undisclosed problem with the rocket. DirecTV-11 is a Boeing 702 satellite, which will provide Direct-to-home High-definition television broadcasting services to houses in the United States, by means of Ka-band communications. It is one of three such satellites operated by DirecTV. The satellite made its first contact with the ground several hours after launch, at 05:44 GMT. The launch was dedicated to Arthur C. Clarke who died on Tuesday. Clarke, who was most well known for writing the book which 2001: A Space Odyssey was based on, was also the first person to suggest placing satellites into geosynchronous and geostationary orbits. DirecTV-11 will be placed into such an orbit. Sea Launch President Rob Peckham said that he ""feels good"" about the mission success, and that Sea Launch was ""proud of its role in DirecTV's continued success"". Steve O'Neill, the President of Boeing Satellite Systems, said that the launch was ""a great ride"", and thanked Sea Launch for their ""excellent work"". The satellite's initial orbit was confirmed to be 250km x 36484.8km x 0&deg;, differing by only 2.8km from the planned orbit. Sea Launch have a further four launches planned for this year. In addition, its subsidiary Land Launch will conduct its first launch, using a Zenit-3SLB rocket from area 45/1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome to launch the AMOS-60 satellite. This is currently scheduled for mid-April. The next Sea Launch mission, with the Galaxy 18 satellite, is scheduled for May." +tech,"Environment Oil producer Royal Dutch Shell has confirmed that the Gannet Alpha oil platform, located 112 miles east of Aberdeen, Scotland, has suffered a leak from an underwater pipeline between the wellhead and platform. Shell issued a statement regarding the incident, saying that ""We can confirm we are managing an oil leak in a flow line that serves the Gannet Alpha platform. ... We have stemmed the leak significantly and we are taking further measures to isolate it. The subsea well has been shut in, and the flow line is being depressurised."" The company has thus far refused to comment on the exact size of the leak, saying that was ""not a significant spill."" According to a Shell spokesperson, a remote submarine was deployed after a sheen was noticed in the water surrounding the platform; since then, a craft has been brought in to monitor water conditions in the area. The UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change has begun an investigation of the leak, with the Scottish government and Marine Scotland also involved in monitoring the situation." +tech,"The United States Space Shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station today at 5:12 p.m. ET. After a two-day journey, the space shuttle reached the space station for a week long stay to rewire the orbiting lab, install a new addition and rotate out a crew member. Astronaut Sunita ""Suni"" Williams will live for six months at the space lab, replacing German astronaut Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency.. An hour earlier the orbiter did a slow back flip so that crew members at the international space station could photograph its mid section for any signs of liftoff damage. This has been a routine procedure since the Columbia tragedy in which the space shuttle Columbia sustained damage on liftoff leading to its disintegration in the atmosphere. There appeared to be no problems with the heat shield so commander Mark Polansky continued the docking process. As the space station came into view of Discovery, Williams told Mission Control: ""It's beautiful."" Mission Control responded: ""I don't know what kind of creature comforts you're going to have, but you're going to have a room with a view."" A $11 million extension will be put into place on Tuesday during the first of the mission's three spacewalks. Astronauts plan to rewire the space lab, switching it from a temporary power source to a permanent one, during the two other spacewalks." +tech,"PakistanAn official website belonging to the Punjab Police of Pakistan was hacked on Friday, a private TV channel reported. The hackers left a message on the homepage in which they asked the Pakistani government to ""stop proxy war against India."" The messages of the chief minister and provincial inspector general were also erased from the site. Although the hackers have not been identified, Pakistani sources say the slogan left on the site points to Indian origins; cyber security experts confirmed this and added that 150 Pakistani websites were hacked in the last three days. The Punjab police website has been hacked twice recently; in one incident, the official emblem was replaced with the logo of the Indian Punjab Police. A police spokesman stated they would take legal action against an Islamabad-based company responsible for the website's security as well as stop the use of its services from July 31. “We are also going to give the domain hosting of the website and its maintenance, including the data update to the Punjab Information Technology Board.” The website has temporarily been shut down." +tech,"George Deutsch, a controversial George W. Bush appointee at NASA, resigned his post as press officer the same day that Texas A&M University confirmed that he never graduated from the school. The resume of the 24-year old had claimed he received a ""Bachelor of Arts in journalism, Class of 2003."" Mr. Deutsch gained notoriety when it was revealed he had instructed NASA web site designers to insert the word ""theory"" at every mention of the Big Bang, on the grounds that it was a religious matter. ""This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA."" said Mr Deutsch in an e-mail. Mr. Deutsch also told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to James Hansen, a top climate scientist and longtime director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Dr. Hansen's lectures and papers were also to have been censored by public affairs workers. Dr. Hansen stated he would ignore the restrictions, which came through the less official channels of phone calls. Dr. Michael Griffin, NASA chief, appeared to back Dr. Hansen's claims of internal censorship, when he sent a strongly worded email message to all NASA employees stating ""It is not the job of public-affairs officers to alter, filter or adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA's technical staff."" Several other NASA employees reported similar tampering after the incident. NASA personnel told the New York Times that ""Mr. Deutsch played a small but significant role in an intensifying effort at the agency to exert political control over the flow of information to the public."" Climate science has long been linked with the space program because many of the underlying mathematical modeling techniques were originally developed to help understand the atmospheres of other planets, such as Venus. Mr. Deutsch was given his job in NASA's public affairs office in Washington after working on President Bush's re-election campaign and inaugural committee." +tech,"New Zealand Freelance journalist, Gabriel Pollard, spoke to Joe Stewart and David Farrar about the new anti-spam legislation in New Zealand that comes into effect today. Joe Stewart is the Unit Manager of the Department of Internal Affairs new Anti-Spam Compliance Unit, and David Farrar is Chair of InternetNZ’s Public Policy Committee, who also had significant input into the final bill. Keith Norris, CEO of the New Zealand Marketing Association, didn't respond to multiple requests for an interview. The anti-spam legislation, or the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007, promotes spam education and awareness and will enable international agencies to work together to share information and will enable cross-border pursuit of serious law breakers. And it doesn't just cover e-mail spam, but all electronic messaging such as SMS/text messaging, etc. However, New Zealand isn't the most up-to-date country with implementing similar legislation, Farrar says, “We are in fact almost the last country in the OECD to have such legislation.” He urges Eastern Europe and China to take part in the fight against spam. Stewart said that the new law would only help combat a small amount of spam, as 99%-99.9% of all spam received originates from overseas. He says the legislation alone will not solve the problem. As well as it helping to fight New Zealand-sourced spam and preventing New Zealand from “becoming a haven for spammers”, it will promote good practices within the e-marketing community, Stewart said. The new Act will affect legitimate marketers in New Zealand by making sure they have expressed or inferred consent to continue sending marketing messages to people on their database. Inferred consent is where the marketers have the e-mail address and send messages to those on their database, but didn't get expressed consent to send messages. Stewart does issue a warning against using inferred consent saying, “They may have been sending these people messages for years, but this does not establish consent.” A surge in emails has also been felt with companies/marketers making sure they have consent to continue the e-mails and asking those to confirm they wish to continue their subscription. “However, many marketers are already fulfilling these requirements because they are standard good e-marketing practice,” Stewart said. Due to legislative requirements, as well as having consent, businesses will have to provide details about the company sending the item, and provide a free way to unsubscribe from future mailings. Those found breaking these requirements deliberately could find themselves facing a personal fine of up to NZ$200,000. Organisations could face a fine of up to $500,000. Farrar said, “Experience from Australia shows most cases are dealt with by way of education.” Farrar also gives a final piece of advice to those annoyed with spam levels, “Never ever respond to a spam e-mail, and only give your real address out to people you trust.”" +tech,"The last British Skylark rocket has made its final flight. The rocket flew from coastal Sweden at 6am UTC on Monday, carrying its ESA science package to an altitude of 250km. The 13m tall rocket was developed in the UK and first flew in 1957 from Woomera range in Australia. It continued to be developed for another twenty years. The British government ended support for the project in 1979, leaving private companies to fly the remaining rockets. Enough rockets had been built to sustain a launch program until today. A total of 441 flights have been made by the sub-orbital Skylark. The rocket is known as a 'sounding rocket', designed to explore the upper regions of Earth's atmosphere." +tech,"Sharman Networks, owner of the popular Kazaa peer-to-peer software, lost against a coalition of record labels in an Australian federal court. The court ruled that Kazaa infringed on artists' copyright and facilitated piracy. The list of plaintiffs included EMI, Sony BMG, Warner, Festival Mushroom and Universal. The court has ordered Sharman to modify the software within two months to prevent further piracy. While this order is only valid in Australia, Sharman is incorporated in the country and thus the effect of the ruling will be felt in the peer to peer community worldwide. Sharman was also ordered to pay 90% of the plaintiff's legal fees, with damages to be considered at a later date. Sharman has said it will appeal. It is unclear whether this will have a significant effect on preventing piracy in the music industry. Surveys have shown that users have already abandoned Kazaa, which used to be the dominant peer to peer program used for sharing files, in favour of newer networks such as eDonkey and BitTorrent. This trend amongst users was also observed to happen with Grokster and Napster, two legacy peer-to-peer networks which faced similar suits. This is not the first case in which Sharman has had to defend itself: in a related case in the U.S. Supreme Court which concluded two months ago, the court ruled that file sharing networks could be held responsible for the actions of their users in some circumstances. This may have influenced this most recent case, where the court found the Kazaa website encouraged visitors to feel 'cool' about breaking copyright law and downloading illegal music. Kazaa, or other versions of it, has been estimated to be installed on up to 300 million computers worldwide." +tech,"NASA has extended the Space Shuttle Atlantis mission from 11 days to 13 days to attempt to fix a tear of at least four inches in the shuttle's Thermal Protection System (TPS), which occurred during liftoff on June 8. A fourth spacewalk is also planned to take place. The tear was discovered when astronauts used the shuttle's robotic arm with digital cameras placed on the end. NASA says that the tear is not a major concern for re-entry, but they want to fix the problem before Atlantis returns, to reduce the amount of possible repairs Atlantis might need. ""I don't want to take the risk of damaging my flight hardware,"" said chairman of Atlantis's mission management team, John Shannon. Shannon said that it was unlikely that the tear would result in a disaster similar to that which occurred with the Space Shuttle Columbia which was lost in 2003 during re-entry. Atlantis will now return to Earth on June 21, rather than the original return date of June 19." +tech,"-unreviewed Vulnerability allegedly affecting at least two versions of Symantec AntiVirus software has been found. The vulnerability requires no interaction from the end-user, and has the potential to grant complete system level access to an attacker, according to eEye Digital Security, the organization that originally discovered the vulnerability. According to eEye, the Symantec AntiVirus 10.x and Symantec Client Security 3.x product lines are both vulnerable, and other Symantec products may be vulnerable as well. Symantec released a brief statement early today, in which they confirmed that they have received a report pertaining to a ""potential remotely exploitable vulnerability,"" but that it affected only AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10.x. The company denies that any of its 'Norton' line of consumer-grade products are affected." +tech,"Kevin Martin, current head of the FCC, voiced his support on Wednesday for a tiered Internet. This plan would open the door for AT&T, BellSouth, Verizon, and other telcos to limit bandwidth to popular web sites such as Google unless those sites paid significantly higher rates. Network neutrality is usually taken to mean that telcos and ISPs may not limit services or bandwidth, charge extra fees, or otherwise discriminate based upon a site's identity or content type. However, Mr. Martin said he viewed network neutrality as applying only to outright blocks, and that other forms of content- or identity-based pricing were acceptable and did not violate network neutrality. When the telcos began their recent lobbying campaign, Professor Michael Geist (University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law) said that ""While prioritising websites or applications may hold some economic promise, the lack of broadband competition and insufficient transparency surrounding these actions will rightly lead to growing calls for regulatory reform that grants legal protection for the principle of network neutrality."" According to The Nation, the multi-tiered approach being considered by the telcos could eventually expand to set limits on the number of downloads, media streams, or even email messages. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) has proposed legislation to prevent a two-tiered Internet." +tech,"One year after the Deepwater Horizon disaster which caused the largest oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and caused huge environmental damage in the Gulf of Mexico, experts have warned there are serious questions over the safety of deep water drilling as the United States government approves more exploration without improving safety measures. Yale University Scientists have raised major concerns over repeated assurances from the industry and the government, who insist lessons have been learned from the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Charles Perrow, a professor at Yale University, said the oil industry ""is ill prepared at the least"" to deal with another oil spill. ""I have seen no evidence that they have marshaled containment efforts that are sufficient to deal with another major spill,"" he said. While the government has implemented new regulations, technical systems for stopping oil flowing from a leaking well, and increased oversight from oil officials, Perrow said deep water drilling had become no less dangerous. ""I don't think they have found ways to change the corporate culture sufficiently to prevent future accidents,"" he said. ""There are so many opportunities for things to go wrong that major spills are unavoidable."" Last year, Doug Inkley, a scientist at the National Wildlife Federation, said the culture of an ""addiction to oil"" was ultimately responsible for the catastrophe. ""How long must we wait for lawmakers to act to prevent future disasters? How many more lives, livelihoods and animals must be claimed by our addiction to oil?"" Greenpeace also slammed BP, who ran Deepwater Horizon, for how they allowed the disaster to happen. ""The age of oil is coming to an end and companies like BP will be left behind unless they begin to adapt now,"" the organization said. However, under pressure from industry executives the administration of president Barack Obama has resumed issuing drilling permits. It is understood regulators are still allowing oil companies to obtain drilling permits before reviewing new spill response plans. ""I'm not an oddsmaker, but I would say in the next five years we should have at least one major blowout,"" Perrow said. ""Even if everybody tries very hard, there is going to be an accident caused by cost-cutting and pressure on workers. These are moneymaking machines and they make money by pushing things to the limit."" BP has insisted it has changed safety procedures. The oil giant came under heavy criticism for how it handled the crisis, and other major oil companies insisted Deepwater Horizon was a result of a culture exclusive to BP. Michael Bromwich, the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), the U.S. government agency responsible for regulating offshore drilling, said the view was ""as disappointing as it is shortsighted,"" and the issue of deep water safety was ""a broad problem."" The warnings came as it emerged BP had attempted to take control of an independent study into the environmental consequences of the Deepwater Horizon spill. Internal emails expose how BP executives attempted to influence the study, which was funded by a US$500m grant from the oil company. The study may be part of the final verdict as to what penalties, fines and criminal charges are brought against the company. Greenpeace, who uncovered the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request, attacked the reportedly unsuccessful attempts to influence the supposedly independent study as ""outrageous"". source=Diane Wilson, Gulf coast fisherwoman Protesters rallied outside BP's annual conference in London this week, where shareholders met for the first time since the disaster off the Gulf coast. Executives faced questions over their competence and large salaries from angry shareholders, many of whom disapproved of the appointment of Carl-Henric Svanberg as chairman and Sir Bill Castell as the head of BP's safety board. Some demonstrators purchased shares in BP in an attempt to get inside the meeting; one woman, a fisherwoman who lives on the Gulf Coast was arrested after pouring a black substance down herself at the entrance to the conference centre and refusing to move. ""I have travelled all the way over from the Gulf Coast and I just wanted to talk those responsible for destroying my community,"" she said as she was led away by police. ""My community is dead. We've worked five generations there and now we've got a dead community. I'm angry, I've been angry a long time.""" +tech,"MP3s for the people? The Pirate Party, a new Swedish political party first publicized in January, wants to legalize sharing music, movies, and other copyrighted content using the Internet. What may seem like a doomed effort by a small group of idealists is attracting significant media attention, in part due to a recent police raid on The Pirate Bay, an extremely popular BitTorrent tracker (see Wikinews coverage). The Pirate Bay allows people to download content listed in its database using the BitTorrent protocol (including the latest Hollywood movies or computer games) and has gained something of an international cult status, in part for its public and irreverent responses to legal threats received from copyright lawyers of major corporations. The site was reopened days after the raid on Dutch servers (but is now back in Sweden again). Rickard Falkvinge, leader of the Pirate Party, argues that regardless of the legal outcome in the case, the web site demonstrates that copyright law in its current form is not sustainable. Adopting the moniker of the maligned ""Internet pirates"", the party argues for drastically limiting the scope and enforcement of copyright law, abolishing patent law, and protecting privacy in what it sees as a ""control and surveillance society"". The party is hoping to garner enough votes in the September election to become a small but important faction in the next Swedish parliament. Rickard Falkvinge found some time in between interviews and party work to answer our questions. There are rumours that the Swedish government was indirectly acting on behalf of the U.S. MPAA in shutting down the site. Do you feel that your government is beholden to U.S. interests? Oh, the MPAA said so themselves in a press release, it's more than a rumor. Check their press release ""Swedish authorities sink Pirate Bay"". below And yes, this particular fact has caused something of an uproar in Sweden. It's widely believed that Swedish authorities were more or less ordered by a foreign power to act forcefully against an entity that was in, at worst, a legal gray area according to Swedish law. The raid must have boosted your recognition. How many members do you currently have, and how successful has your fundraising effort been so far? Our member count is at 6540, no, 6541, no wait, 6543... well, you get the picture. Our members register themselves on our website after paying the membership fee electronically, which helps reduce our admin load considerably. Fundraising brought in 108,000 SEK Ed.: approx. 14,700 USD or 11,600 EUR, enough to buy 3 million ballots, which is some kind of at-least-we're-not-starving minimum. We're not full, but we're not starving, either. Following the raid on the Pirate Bay, we have received another 50K in donations. My sincere thanks to everybody who wants to help out; we are now looking into getting more ballots to make sure we don't run out on election day. (10 million ballots was our initial full-score aim.) Do you think you will be able to cover future expenses such as radio and television ads? Following the raid on the Pirate Bay, and our tripling of the member roster, we don't need advertising. We've been mentioned almost every news hour across all channels on national television in the last week. Also, the established parties have now started to turn, following our success. Parties representing almost half of the elected parliament are now describing today's copyright situation as not working. They still don't understand why, though, they are just echoing what we say without understanding what the words mean. We'll get around to teaching them &mdash; them and the voters alike. This might be hard for people not following the Swedish media to grasp, but we have made a big splash. Today, our Minister of Justice was quoted as saying that he's open to changes to copyright laws that would make file-sharing legal, with the headline ""Bodström (his name) flip-flops about file sharing."" Immediately underneath were the Pirate Party's comments to his suggestions. Let's take that again: when a minister makes a statement about file sharing, media calls us for comments, and publishes them next to that statement. That's how big we have become since the raid on the Pirate Bay. The Minister of Justice later denied having made that statement to the press that reported it. We will never be able to pay for television ads, the way I see it. Unless a very wealthy donor comes on stage. (If any such person is reading this, we have planned how to spend up to $375,000 in a cost-efficient way up until the elections, on the chance that donations appear. That spending does still not include any TV ads.) Are you aware of similar initiatives in other countries? Some are trying, but none have achieved the necessary momentum and critical mass that we have. We expect that momentum to happen once we get into Swedish Parliament and show that it can be done. Intellectual property activism category on Wikipedia The name ""Pirate Party"" seems to identify the party with what is currently defined as a crime: piracy of software, movies, music, and so on. Will a name like ""Pirate Party"" not antagonize voters, given that the label is so negatively used? How about potential allies abroad who argue for a more balanced copyright regime, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation or Creative Commons? Oh, it is a crime. That's the heart of the problem! The very problem is that something that 20% of the voters are doing is illegal by punishment of jail time. That's what we want to change. Where the established parties are saying that the voters are broken, we are saying it's the law that is broken. Besides, it's a way of reclaiming a word. The media conglomerates have been pointing at us and calling us pirates, trying to make us somehow feel shame. It doesn't work. We wear clothes saying ""PIRATE"" in bright colors out on the streets. Yes, we are pirates, and we're proud of it, too. Also, the term is not that negative at all in Sweden, much thanks to the awesome footwork of the Pirate Bureau (Piratbyrån), who have been working since 2003 to educate the public. If you are elected, and have the opportunity to become part of the next government of Sweden, do you intend to focus only on the issues in your platform (IP law and privacy)? Our current plan is to support the government from the parliament, but not be part of it. If we're part of it, that means we get a vested interest to not overthrow it, which puts us in a weaker position if they start going against our interests. Overall, our strategy is to achieve the balance of power, where both the left and right blocks need our votes to achieve a majority, and then support the issues of whichever government that agrees to drive our issues the strongest. Basically, we sell our votes on other issues to the highest bidder in exchange for them driving ours. Have you already made any contacts in Swedish politics? Contacts... I'm not sure what you mean. Several of us have been shaking hands with some of the established politicians, particularly in the youth leagues, if that's what you mean. I was thinking along the lines of exploring possible modes of cooperation with established political parties &mdash; are you already taken seriously? We are taken seriously by most of the youth leagues and by at least one of the represented parties. In particular, which is what counts, we are now taken seriously by national media. However, we can't tie contacts that explore modes of cooperation quite yet &mdash; since our strategy depends on holding the balance of power, we need to not express a preference for whom we'd like to cooperate with, or we'd put ourselves in a weaker bargaining position. What is your position on moral rights, as recognized by European Union copyright laws: the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and the right to the integrity of the work. Do you think these rights should be preserved? We safeguard the right to attribution very strongly. After all, what we are fighting for is the intent of copyright as it is described in the US constitution: the promotion of culture. Many artists are using recognition as their primary driving force to create culture. Publishing anonymously or pseudonymously happens every day on the Internet, so no big deal there either. The right to integrity, however, is an interesting issue. We state that we are for free sampling, meaning you can take a sound that I made for my tune and use it in your own tunes, or for that matter, a whole phrase. That's partially in line with today's copyright law on derivative works; as long as you add your own creative touch to a work, you get your own protection for the derivation. We want to strengthen that right. You might want to consider the alternative. In the 50s and 60s, a lot of rock and roll bands started doing covers of old classical music. This would almost certainly have been considered to violate the integrity of the original artist &mdash; and was considered to do so by many &mdash; but in the eyes of many others, it was instead great new culture of a previously unseen form and shape. So I don't have a definite answer on the integrity issue. While I am leaning towards the promotion of new culture taking precedence over a limitation right, there may be unconsidered cases. Do you feel that trademark law is adequate as it is? Yes. We have not seen any hidden costs to trademarks that outweigh the benefits of reducing transaction costs on a market where seller and buyer are not personally acquainted. How do you intend to deal with EU treaties which define certain legal frameworks for the protection of intellectual works? What can they do? Fine us? Send us an angry letter? Come on, countries need to think more like corporations. If the fine is less than the cost to society, which it is in this case, then the right thing to do is to accept the fine with a polite ""thank you"". Actually, national media just called me about this very question; the Department of Justice has stated that we can't allow file sharing, as it would break international treaties. My response was that it is more important to not have 1.2 million Swedes criminalized, than it is to avoid paying a penalty fee. Do you think that weaker intellectual property laws would lessen the amount of products released in Sweden by foreign companies, such as Hollywood studios? As long as they believe that they will have a revenue here that exceeds the cost of operations, they will keep coming here. Anything else would be wrong from a corporate standpoint. Besides, you need to remember what we are doing is to change the map according to what reality looks like. We do not want to change people's behavior. We want to change the law so it reflects what the world actually looks like. So, as they apparently make a profit today, I expect that to continue. Do you feel that the music industry in its current form will still be needed in a world where non-commercial copying is permitted? It's not so much if they are needed where non-commercial copying is permitted, rather if they are needed when they're not necessary any more to be the middle man between consumer and artist. The music industry will lose its current chokepoint, because they don't add any value to the end product any longer. They will probably survive as a service bureau for artists, but they will not be able to control distribution. It's actually quite simple: if they get their act together and provide a service that people want to buy, they will remain. If not, they will vanish. Today, they have legislated that people must buy their service regardless of whether it adds value or not, and that's not gonna hold in the long term. Why fight against intellectual property laws, instead of focusing your energy on creating freely licensed content, such as Creative Commons films or open source software? I want to raise the issue a level, to show that it's not about payment models or what level of control the copyright holder chooses to exert over his or her work. Let me put it this way: we have achieved the technical possibility of sending copyrighted works in digital, private communications. I can send a piece of music in e-mail to you, I can drop a video clip in a chat room. That technology is not going away, leaving us with two choices. So &mdash; if copyright is to be enforced &mdash; if you are to tax, prohibit, fee, fine, or otherwise hinder the transmission of copyrighted works in private communications, the only way to achieve that is to have all private communications constantly monitored. It's really that large. Also, this is partly nothing new. We've been able to do this since the advent of the Xerox copier &mdash; you could photocopy a poem or a painting and put it in a letter in the mail. Again, the only way to discover or stop that would have been for the authorities to open all letters and check their content. So we're at a crossroads here. Either we, as a society, decide that copyright is the greater value to society, and take active steps to give up private communications as a concept. Either that, or we decide that the ability to communicate in private, without constant monitoring by authorities, has the greater value &mdash; in which case copyright will have to give way. My choice is clear. The Pirate Bay was shut down and re-opened days later on a Dutch server. According to a Swedish newspaper report, traffic has doubled since then. How long do you think the cat and mouse game will continue? Until one of two things happen: The authorities realize they can't enforce laws that require monitoring all private communications, especially given the large international level of grassroots support, or they actually start monitoring all private communications. 2006-06-22 Politics of Sweden" +tech,"New Zealand New stars have been recently discovered in the Southern Cross, or Crux, by scientists in the United States. This discovery could affect the flags of New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Brazil, although the new star is located very close to the westernmost star and invisible to the naked eye. The American scientists found the new stars in the Southern Cross by using the Chandra X-ray Observatory, a space satellite run by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) which uses x-rays. When the scientist team, led by David Cohen of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, were using the Chandra telescope, they, to their surprise, saw two x-ray glows, each representing stars, where they expected to see one. The new star appears to be orbiting Beta Crucis, the westernmost star in the Southern Cross, once every 2,000 years. Doctor Nick Lomb, an astronomer at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia, said that the reason the star had not been found before was because the glare from Beta Crucis is too great and ""It would be like looking for a glow worm next to a floodlight."" Before the recent discovery, it was already known that Beta Crucis had a partner, which is invisible to the human-eye. Australian news Mr Cohen said that they found it by accident, as they were really trying to get information about the x-rays emitted by Beta Crucis. ""We were interested in how the highly supersonic stellar winds of hot, luminous stars produce X-rays."" The star found at the bottom of the Southern Cross, Alpha Crucis ""Acrux"", also has a partner star, which is also invisible to the human-eye. This invisible partner is not featured on any flags. Dr Lomb said the apparent separation between each star is like looking at two headlights from 100 kilometres away, even though the two stars are actually 60 billion kilometres away from each other. Dr Lomb said that if Australia was to put all eight stars in the Southern Cross onto the Australia flag then ""the flag would have to be huge, probably the size of Sydney."" Astronomer Alan Gilmore from University of Canterbury's Mount John observatory, also agreed that flags should not be altered because it is not about how many stars there are in the Southern Cross, but the magnitude of the stars. Mr Gilmore said: ""What you see by eye is what you see on the flag. If you wanted to add more stars, there's no end of stars you can put on if you go down in order of brightness. It would get very confusing."" Mr Gilmore has said that in 20,000 years that Southern Cross will be different anyway, because the top star, Gamma Crucis is 90 light years away from Earth, while Alpha Crucis, Beta Crucis and Delta Crucis are all around 350 light years away and they are all moving in different directions. And Dr Lomb said that Alpha, Beta and Delta Crucis will die in a few million years. These findings were presented to the American Astronomical Society, Seattle, Washington, by an undergraduate of Mr Cohen's team, Michael Kuhn. Image:Flag of New Zealand.svg|Flag of New Zealand. Image:Flag of Australia.svg|Flag of Australia. Image:Flag_of_Papua_New_Guinea.svg|Flag of Papua New Guinea. Image:Flag of Samoa.svg|Flag of Samoa. Image:Flag of Brazil.svg|Flag of Brazil." +tech,"The Lower Saxony, Germany tax authority is migrating 12,000 desktops to use SuSE Linux with KDE as the desktop environment. The systems are being migrated from Sun's Solaris x86 version 8, which has been in use at the organization since 2002. According to Eva Brucherseifer, president of the KDE community in Germany and managing director of basysKom, the migration process in its ""peak phase"" and is porting 300 systems every day. The company basysKom is configuring the desktops. Brucherseifer said ""The decision made by the Regional Tax Office in Lower Saxony represents an important step towards increased flexibility, enhanced usability and — last but not least — reduced training and support costs."" German cities using or planning to use open source software include Schwäbisch Hall, Mannheim, Treuchtlingen, Leonberg and Isernhagen. Mannheim is planning to deploy Linux on 110 servers and 3,700 desktops." +tech,"The Space Shuttle Discovery has returned to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Discovery riding piggyback on a B747 The 109 ton vehicle was flown back from Edwards Airforce Base (AFB) in California on top of a modified Boeing 747 known as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The 3,591 km journey across the United States took 2 days and cost about one million dollars. The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft made pit-stops in Oklahoma and Louisiana before landing in Florida this morning. On its way back from space, Discovery had to land at Edwards AFB on August 9 because its homebase in Florida reported bad weather." +tech,"Scientists say that floating inside Saturn's rings are pieces of what they believe to be a ""shattered moon,"" according to images captured by NASA's spacecraft Cassini–Huygens. The scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder looked at the images which were captured in 2004, and found what they call ""moonlets"" or large pieces ranging from the size of a stadium to a semi truck, of what they say are the remains of a large moon which was likely destroyed when a comet or asteroid slammed into it. ""This is the first evidence of a moonlet belt in any of Saturn's rings. We have firmly established these moonlets exist in a relatively narrow region of the ""A"" ring, and the evidence indicates they are remnants of a larger moon that was shattered by a meteoroid or comet,"" said one of the researchers, Miodrag Sremcevic. The Cassini spacecraft captures eight new propeller-like features within Saturn's A ring in what may be the propeller ""hot zone"" of Saturn's rings. Propeller features form around small moonlets that are not massive enough to clear out ring material, but are still able to pull smaller ring particles into a shape reminiscent of an airplane propeller. Scientists believe that propellers represent moonlet wakes, which are denser than the surrounding ring material and appear bright in the images. The length of the belt in which the moonlets were discovered is almost 2,000 miles long. Scientists estimate that the size of the moon was relative to the size of Pan, the innermost moon of Saturn. It only measures 20 miles wide at its widest point." +tech,"BBC News is reporting that the People's Republic of China has successfully launched its second manned space flight, Shenzhou VI. The mission is more ambitious than the previous Shenzhou V, which made China only the third nation to launch a manned space mission. Shenzhou VI will carry two astronauts, Nie Haisheng and Fei Junlong, compared to the previous mission which only carried a single astronaut, Yang Liwei. The newest astronauts will also stay in orbit longer, five days compared to the 21 hour, 14 orbit flight of Shenzhou V. The director of the Chinese Space Crew Training program, Chen Shanguang, explained to the media that the country would send a woman to Space within five years. ""Women are more patient compared with male astronauts, their psychological qualities are more stable and they face isolation better,"" according to Chen." +tech,"On April 29 Microsoft Taiwan launched Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Server 2008 in Taipei. The event was also an occasion to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Microsoft Research Asia, with the president, Hsiao-wen Hung, who was praised by several media groups, IT executives, and academic units because of his background. On the same day of the product launch, Hung talked to Colley Huang (Founder and Chairman of DigiTimes) about ""the past decade overview of IT industry"" in an executive panel. 4=Hsiao-wen Hung, President of Microsoft Research Asia. 4=Colley Huang, Founder and Chairman of DigiTimes. Hung also invited several academic elites and executive panels like Ovid Tseng (Principal of University System of Taiwan), George Chen (Deputy Principal of National Taiwan University), Davis Tsai (General Manager of Microsoft Taiwan), and Hsi-peng Lu (Director of Student Affairs of National Taiwan University of Science and Technology). They reviewed the collaboration between academical units in an academical executive panel. Thereafter, Hung will sign an MoU with ITRI for the future academical collaborations. The Pre-show Press Conference of COMPUTEX Taipei 2008, Li Chang, Deputy Secretary General of Taipei Computer Association commented on Hung's background when Wikinews Journalist Rico Shen mentioned: The IT industry in Taiwan is a wisdom-oriented industry as it based on R&D and connected with the mature society. If it the IT industry will still keep on its way of software R&Ds, more talents will be discovered and more sourcing and trade opportunities will be brought with its right place in Taiwan. Furthermore, if the export market in Cross-Strait nations will be progressively disclosed, companies world-wide including from Hong Kong and China will do more investments in Taiwan for new market shares." +tech,"European astronomers discovered a very young and huge star cluster within our Milky Way galaxy using European Southern Observatory telescopes. The discovery was made at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Hidden behind a veil of dust and gas, the super star cluster, known as Westerlund 1, is 1000 times closer than any other known clusters. These Super star clusters were previously known to exist as pairs or groups of interacting galaxies located at immense intergalactic distances. It is so close--within 10,000 light years--scientists will be able to examine its structure in detail. Until now, super clusters were far too distant for individual stars to be distinguished. Initial observations have led scientists to conclude the group contains at least 100,000 times the mass of the Sun, with some single stars shining with a power of 1,000,000 suns and 2000 times larger than our own. All the stars are in a region less than six light years across. The existence of Westerlund 1's has been known since 1961. Discovered by Swedish astronomer Bengt Westerlund while in Australia, the cluster is located in the Southern constellation Ara (the Altar). It was a dimming factor of more than 100,000 caused by the gas and dust between us and the cluster that prevented the actual structure and nature of the phenomenon to be determined. Using a variety of instruments, including the Wide Field Imager (WFI) attached to a 2.2 meter scope and the Superb-Seeing Imager 2 (SuSI2) camera on the ESO 3.5 meter New Technology Telescope (NTT), 200 cluster member stars were identified. These and other observations have revealed the cluster contains young stars on the order of 30-40 times more massive than our own Sun. The age range has been determined at 3.5 to five million years old, making this cluster very young compared to the Galaxy itself at around 13.5 billion years. The research will appear in the leading research journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, and is titled ""On the massive stellar population of the Super Star Cluster Westerlund 1"", by J.S. Clark and colleagues. A second paper, ""Further Wolf-Rayet stars in the starburst cluster Westerlund 1"", by Ignacio Negueruela and Simon Clark will also be published in the same journal." +tech,"Space A faulty ammonia line fitting delayed repairs to a cooling pump on the International Space Station Saturday during an eight-hour spacewalk. During the spacewalk, astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson were to repair a faulty cooling system, which failed on July 31. The faulty cooling unit was to be swapped with a new one that was previously in storage to solve the problem; however, an ammonia leak in the final line to be disconnected from the unit halted attempts for a repair. Upon discovering the problem, the astronauts were instructed to reconnect the line and install a positioning device to maintain the proper pressure on the line. Upon completing the spacewalk, Wheelock and Dyson spent additional time in the airlock to get rid of any ammonia particles that may have attached themselves to their spacesuits. NASA officials are analyzing possible solutions to the issue to attempt during a planned spacewalk Wednesday. Wednesday's spacewalk was previously intended to be second in the series to repair the cooling system by reattaching fluid and electrical lines. Before Saturday's spacewalk, NASA officials projected that up to three spacewalks may be needed to repair the cooling system. Most of the space station's non-critical scientific components have been temporarily shut-down in order to reduce heat generation with only one cooling loop available to the station. NASA reports that the station's crew, three Russians and three Americans, are not in any danger; however, it is in the best interests of the crew to restore systems to nominal condition as soon as possible. The eight-hour spacewalk is reportedly the longest ISS-based spacewalk, and the sixth longest in the history of human spaceflight." +tech,"__NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ A report accidentally published on the Internet provides insight into a secretive European Union surveillance project designed to monitor its citizens, as reported by Wikileaks earlier this month. Project INDECT aims to mine data from television, internet traffic, cellphone conversations, p2p file sharing and a range of other sources for crime prevention and threat prediction. The €14.68 million project began in January, 2009, and is scheduled to continue for five years under its current mandate. INDECT produced the accidentally published report as part of their ""Extraction of Information for Crime Prevention by Combining Web Derived Knowledge and Unstructured Data"" project, but do not enumerate all potential applications of the search and surveillance technology. Police are discussed as a prime example of users, with Polish and British forces detailed as active project participants. INDECT is funded under the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), and includes participation from Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Indicated in the initial trial's report, the scope of data collected is particularly broad; days of television news, radio, newspapers, and recorded telephone conversations are included. Several weeks of content from online sources were agglomerated, including mining Wikipedia for users' and article subjects' relations with others, organisations, and in-project movements. Watermarking of published digital works such as film, audio, or other documents is discussed in the Project INDECT remit; its purpose is to integrate and track this information, its movement within the system and across the Internet. An unreleased promotional video for INDECT located on YouTube is shown to the right. The simplified example of the system in operation shows a file of documents with a visible INDECT-titled cover taken from an office and exchanged in a car park. How the police are alerted to the document theft is unclear in the video; as a ""threat"", it would be the INDECT system's job to predict it. Throughout the video use of CCTV equipment, facial recognition, number plate reading, and aerial surveillance give friend-or-foe information with an overlaid map to authorities. The police proactively use this information to coordinate locating, pursuing, and capturing the document recipient. The file of documents is retrieved, and the recipient roughly detained. Technology research performed as part of Project INDECT has clear use in countering industrial and international espionage, although the potential use in maintaining any security and predicting leaks is much broader. Quoted in the UK's Daily Telegraph, Liberty's director, Shami Chakrabarti, described a possible future implementation of INDECT as a ""sinister step"" with ""positively chilling"" repercussions Europe-wide. ""It is inevitable that the project has a sensitive dimension due to the security focussed goals of the project,"" Suresh Manandhar, leader of the University of York researchers involved in the ""Work Package 4"" INDECT component, responded to Wikinews. ""However, it is important to bear in mind that the scientific methods are much more general and has wider applications. The project will most likely have lot of commercial potential. The project has an Ethics board to oversee the project activities. As a responsible scientists sic it is of utmost importance to us that we conform to ethical guidelines."" Should the EU carry out this research without a wider public debate? Although Wikinews attempted to contact Professor Helen Petrie of York University, the local member of Project INDECT's Ethics board, no response was forthcoming. The professor's area of expertise is universal access, and she has authored a variety of papers on web-accessibility for blind and disabled users. A full list of the Ethics board members is unavailable, making their suitability unassessable and distancing them from public accountability. One potential application of Project INDECT would be implementation and enforcement of the U.K.'s ""MoD Manual of Security"". The 2,389-page 2001 version passed to Wikileaks this month &mdash; commonly known as JSP-440, and marked ""RESTRICTED"" &mdash; goes into considerable detail on how, as a serious threat, investigative journalists should be monitored, and effectively thwarted; just the scenario the Project INDECT video could be portraying. When approached by Wikinews about the implications of using INDECT, a representative of the U.K.'s Attorney General declined to comment on legal checks and balances such a system might require. Further U.K. enquiries were eventually referred to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, who have not yet responded. Wikinews Brian McNeil contacted Eddan Katz, the International Affairs Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (E.F.F.). Katz last spoke to Wikinews in early 2008 on copyright, not long after taking his current position with the E.F.F. He was back in Brussels to speak to EU officials, Project INDECT was on his agenda too &mdash; having learned of it only two weeks earlier. Katz linked Project INDECT with a September report, NeoConopticon &mdash; The EU Security-Industrial Complex, authored by Ben Hayes for the Transnational Institute. The report raises serious questions about the heavy involvement of defence and IT companies in ""security research"". On the record, Katz answered a few questions for Wikinews. WNIQ Is this illegal? Is this an invasion of privacy? Spying on citizens? :Eddan Katz When the European Parliament issued the September 5, 2001 report on the American ECHELON system they knew such an infrastructure is in violation of data protection law, undermines the values of privacy and is the first step towards a totalitarian surveillance information society. WNIQ Who is making the decisions based on this information, about what? :E.K. What's concerning to such a large extent is the fact that the projects seem to be agnostic to that question. These are the searching systems and those people that are working on it in these research labs do search technology anyway. ... but its inclusion in a database and its availability to law enforcement and its simultaneity of application that's so concerning, ... because the people who built it aren't thinking about those questions, and the social questions, and the political questions, and all this kind of stuff. ... It seems like it's intransparent, unaccountable. The E.U. report Katz refers to was ratified just six days before the September 11 attacks that brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center. In their analysis of the never-officially-recognised U.S. Echelon spy system it states, ""in principle, activities and measures undertaken for the purposes of state security or law enforcement do not fall within the scope of the EC Treaty."" On privacy and data-protection legislation enacted at E.U. level it comments, ""such does not apply to 'the processing of data/activities concerning public security, defence, state security (including the economic well-being of the state when the activities relate to state security matters) and the activities of the state in areas of criminal law'"". Part of the remit in their analysis of Echelon was rumours of 'commercial abuse' of intelligence; ""if a Member State were to promote the use of an interception system, which was also used for industrial espionage, by allowing its own intelligence service to operate such a system or by giving foreign intelligence services access to its territory for this purpose, it would undoubtedly constitute a breach of EC law ... activities of this kind would be fundamentally at odds with the concept of a common market underpinning the EC Treaty, as it would amount to a distortion of competition"". Ben Hayes' NeoConoptiocon report, in a concluding section, ""Following the money"", states, ""what is happening in practice is that multinational corporations are using the ESRP European Seventh Research Programme to promote their own profit-driven agendas, while the EU is using the programme to further its own security and defence policy objectives. As suggested from the outset of this report, the kind of security described above represents a marriage of unchecked police powers and unbridled capitalism, at the expense of the democratic system.""" +tech,"wikimediamention Wikinews has learned that the Wikimedia Foundation has decided not to participate in a panel discussion that is to take place at Santa Clara University in California. The discussion, which is titled 'The World that Wikipedia Made,' was to be based on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and ethics involved in the editing of the website. It is the ninth such meeting in a series on technology, ethics, and law and is taking place today. In an e-mail to Wikinews, Miriam Schulman the communications director for the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University which is to host the discussion, states that Mike Godwin, legal counsel for the Foundation, will not be speaking during the discussion as was originally planned. According to Schulman, Godwin canceled his scheduled appearance just one week ago and has decided not to have anyone from the foundation replace him. Valleywag, a gossip website about technology, recently reported that Godwin was not attending due to a ""groundswell of criticism of Wikipedia"". ""I don't want to speak for Mr. Godwin or Wikimedia, but someone else made an incorrect assumption about this, so let me clarify that in our understanding, the problem was never with the composition of the panel. Mike Godwin, General Counsel of Wikimedia, was scheduled to participate in the panel, 'The World that Wikipedia Made,' on May 15. Last week, Mr. Godwin informed us that he would not participate, and subsequent discussions with Wikimedia Foundation indicated that they would not designate a replacement speaker,"" stated Schulman to Wikinews. ""This is our ninth such panel (in addition to the hundreds of events on other topics our centers run each year), and we feel confident in our ability to set a respectful tone for discourse on controversial topics,"" added Schulman. Schulman would not comment on the reason for the Foundation's decision. Wikinews also attempted to contact Godwin, but was directed to Jay Walsh who is the head of communications for the Foundation, but Wikinews has not received a response. The panel was to include Carl Hewitt an electrical and computer science engineer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Godwin discussing Wikipedia with Pedro Hernández-Ramos, associate director for the Center for Science, Technology, and Society moderating the discussion. The plan was to discuss Wikipedia, and what does and doesn't work for the encyclopedia. ""This panel will explore what works and what doesn't in the Wikipedia editing model from the angles of ethics, expertise, education, and the law,"" said a statement on the Center's website. Schulman states that the discussion, which is open to the public, is ""still planned"" for Thursday May 15 at 6:00 p.m. (pacific time) at the De Saisset Museum on the university's campus, but it is not yet known if anyone outside the Foundation will be replacing Godwin. The High Tech Law Institute along with the Ethics Center are sponsoring the discussion. Both individuals are still attending the discussion. ""These events are always open to the public, which means everyone is welcome. In this kind of setting, we invite anyone with an interest in the topic,"" stated Schulman to Wikinews. The Foundation is the parent organization of Wikipedia and other projects such as Wikinews and Wikimedia Commons, a Wiki dedicated to hosting images that can be used throughout the projects of the Foundation." +tech,"It is reported that The Head of RosAtom Russia’s Federal Atomic Agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, will meet Iran’s Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, in Tehran December 11 to discuss economic affairs of mutual interest. Kiriyenko, former Russian Prime Minister, had proposed in February this year, that Russia would provide Iran with enriched uranium for its nuclear power plants, thus avoiding the need for Iran to build plants that might be used for weapon production. Since then there have been Security Council resolutions and threats of economic sanctions against Iran which has persisted in building an enrichment plant. Russia has been building a light water reactor for Iran at Bushehr but there have been delays in completion, ‘for technical reasons’. The original reactors at Busheh, contracted to be built by Siemens in 1975, were bombed in 1985 and 1988 by Iraq. Now, having trained Iranian troops in their use, Russia is delivering a consignment of Tor-M1 missiles to Iran. These are ground to air missiles for defence purposes with a range of about 18,000 feet." +tech,"An asteroid the size of Pluto that slammed into the Northern hemisphere of Mars created the Borealis basin, based on the latest survey of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Global Surveyor. The report released by the magazine Nature explains the 1984 observation of the unusual shape of Mars terrain in the northern hemisphere against the southern hemisphere. An asteroid with a body of 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) smashed into the planet some 3.9 billion years ago, creating the vast Borealis basin (measuring 8,500km 5,300 miles by 10,600km 6,600 miles across), which occupies nearly 40 per cent of the Martian surface. The new data has convinced a lot of scientists, but the theory will need further proof before being accepted by the wider scientific community." +tech,"Following the return of the Stardust space capsule from its encounter with the Comet Wild 2, NASA scientists have come up with a novel approach to dealing with the samples of ""interstellar dust"" that have been collected; they want help from the public. The Stardust spacecraft carried an aerogel-based dust collector, which was exposed to space in varying orientations during different phases of the mission.Stardust@homeOnly one side of the collector was exposed towards the stream of particles coming off the Comet Wild 2 during the encounter in 2004, while the other side was used to collect interstellar dust at an earlier point in the spacecraft's journey. Although scientists have seen the particles captured from comet Wild 2 when they examined the aerogel, they have not examined any of the particles expected on the other side of the collector due to their smallness. They will be examined after they are found with the help of Stardust@home. It is believed that on the order of 50 interstellar dust particles impacted the aerogel, each now resting inside a tiny crater. Stardust traveled nearly three billion miles and its mission lasted seven years. At times it was traveling at 8 miles a second. Thats fast enough to go from San Francisco to Los Angeles in one minute. Stardust set a new all-time record for being the fastest spacecraft to return to Earth, breaking the previous record set in May of 1969 during the return of the Apollo X(10) command module. Don Brownlee of the University of Washington, Seattle said ""our spacecraft has traveled further than anything from Earth ever has – and came back. We went half-way to Jupiter to meet the comet and collect samples from it. But the comet actually came in from the outer edge of the solar system, out beyond the orbit of Neptune, out by Pluto."" In a move similar to some distributed computing projects, the analysis work for the project will be spread among volunteers on the Internet, who are being asked to participate in this scientific undertaking. Wikinews reporter Jason Safoutin investigated the Stardust@home project, and discussed its goals with one of its founders. Via email, he interviewed David P. Anderson, a founder of the SETI@home project, and one of the creators of the Virtual Microscope which will be used to search for captured particles from interstellar space. I was wondering If I could get some questions answered or if you could give me some ""insider"" info for the project. I am aware that you are taking place in the development of the VM (Virtual Microscope)...Could I know more about that? The 'virtual microscope' lets you scan through a set of images as if you were turning the focus knob on a microscope. The images are fairly large (about 100 KB each) so it's important to pre-load the images. While you're looking through one set of images, the VM is busy downloading the JPEG files for the next set. At first we thought we'd have to do this with a Java applet or Flash program - something tricky and complicated. My contribution was to point out that it could be done fairly easily using Javascript, and I wrote a prototype of this. Will this project use the BOINC Platform/Program? SETI@home No. We thought about using some parts of BOINC (like the database and web pages for creating ""accounts"") but it was easier just to do this from scratch. How long will the project take? It depends how many volunteers participate, and how fast they look at the 'focus movies'. It will probably be just a month or two. Anyone can join but they have to take a test before they can participate. What will the test include? Looking at some focus movies and deciding whether they contain a dust particle. Participants see a lot of training examples before they take the test. It's easy, not like a test in school. How many will be allowed to participate? No limit as of now. When will the project start? I think in about 2 months. It will take that long to transport the aerogel to the laboratory, and photograph it with the microscope. The software is ready to go. Will the VM project analyze any of the particles or just look for them? Stardust@home will only locate the particles. When they are located, they will be cut out of the aerogel and physically analyzed. Thank you for your time David. And great work on the upcoming project and SETI@home." +tech,"YouTubeThe online video sharing site YouTube has today hosted the first official ""YouTube Live"" event, which featured many popular musicians and contributors to the site. Two events took place, one in San Francisco, United States and one in Japan, with the event in the US featuring artists such as Joe Satriani, Akon and Katy Perry. Another performer at the event, which started this morning at 0100 UTC, was will.i.am, who published his song ""Yes We Can"" on YouTube, with the video receiving millions of views on the site. The song was based on Barack Obama's concession speech after losing the New Hampshire Democratic Primary to Hillary Clinton. At the event will.i.am presented his song ""In My Name,"" which calls for an end to child poverty. ""YouTube Live is the first time a broad variety of YouTube stars are scheduled to appear together under one roof,"" stated Chris Di Cesare, who works for YouTube as the Head of Marketing. ""There have been so many wonderful talents that have emerged from YouTube and more established acts continue to recognize how invaluable YouTube is to building their audience. We felt it was only right to recognize them all in true YouTube fashion."" YouTube has stated that, between them, the more than 50 artists performing at the event have 2.5 billion views for their videos on its website. The audience of the event was primarily notable contributors and partners to the video sharing site. Matt DiGirolamo" +tech,"If you've noticed a fuzzy yellowish object at night in the northeast sky, immediately to the left of the constellation Perseus, that's because it is the Comet Holmes which has suddenly gotten brighter in what scientists say is ""absolutely unprecedented"" in comet research. Earlier reports were that the object might have been a star that went super nova, or that a new star might have formed, but because the comet does not have a tail, the earlier reports were later dismissed. ""This is a terrific outburst, and since it doesn't have a tail right now, some observers have confused it with a nova. We've had at least two reports of a new star. When the Deep Impact probe hit Comet 9P Tempel, there was almost no change in brightness. This outburst by Comet Holmes is extreme!"" said Minor Planet Center director, Brian Marsden. Not more than a few days ago, the comet began to get brighter and appear larger in the sky, in what scientists call an ""outburst."" The comet is usually only visible through telescopes, but the outburst has caused it to be visible through the naked eye and it will continue to grow brighter with its coma eventually reaching the size of The Moon. Currently, only people living in the Northern Hemisphere are able to get a glimpse of the show. Binoculars and a small telescope can be used to get a close up view. The comet took just 24 hours to get more than 400,000 times brighter than it usually is, and is currently over one million times brighter, but Marsden says the comet's brightness could dim in days or even weeks. The comet was discovered on November 6, 1892 by Edwin Holmes while he was looking at the Andromeda Galaxy through his telescope. Researchers say that the comet may also have had an outburst at the time it was discovered. It was seen once after that in 1899 and then 1906, but disappeared until it was ""rediscovered"" in 1964 after a prediction Marsden had made. ""Since then, it’s been behaving well – until now,"" added Marsden." +tech,"NASA officials decided late Monday to go ahead with the planned launch at 2:38 p.m. EDT on July 4 of the space shuttle Discovery. The launch, from Cape Canaveral in Florida, had previously been delayed twice due to poor weather conditions. The expected 13-day mission has been described as critical to the future of the International Space Station (ISS) as well as the shuttle and the entire NASA fleet. There were concerns over a 5"" by 1/2"" crack in the insulation foam that was found late last night. NASA officials dismissed the crack saying it was less than the size required to cause damage at launch. The Discovery mission is to deliver critical supplies to the ISS, test shuttle-inspection techniques and to drop off European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter for his 6-month stay in the ISS. Over the last three years, NASA has spent an estimated $1.3 billion to remedy the foam problem. When asked about the foam concern, NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier said, ""We're about the same risk as we were before ... I don't think we're taking any additional risks."" Officials have said that they expect foam to fall during the launch though. A few senior NASA safety and technical officers have their voiced opposition to the launch, claiming that they need more time to work on the foam-shedding problem. Foam debris coming loose was the cause of the Columbia disaster in 2003. It is widely expected that another major problem with the launch would lead to the entire NASA fleet being grounded. A grounded fleet, in turn, will put the $100 billion International Space Station in a difficult situation, since the shuttle has been the major means of delivering supplies to it. This mission is to be one of the last few flights of the space shuttle Discovery, which is set to retire in 2010." +tech,"The head of the United States National Nuclear Security Administration, Linton Brooks, has been forced to resign due to security issues. United States Secretary of Energy, Samuel Bodman asked for Brooks' resignation because of issues including ""serious security breaches"" in several laboratories, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In a statement issued by Bodman, issues such as lab management were brought up. :""The deputy secretary and I repeatedly have stressed to NNSA and laboratory management the importance of these issues being addressed, rectified and prevented in the future. While I believe that the current NNSA management has done its best to address these concerns, I do not believe that progress in correcting these issues has been adequate."" Brooks issued a statement to President Bush, and NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) employees, saying that he would resign ""shortly""." +tech,"Scientists have announced that the largest radio telescope array in the world, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is to be built in either Africa or Australia and will be composed of thousands of antenna arrays that will be capable of detecting the first galaxies and stars formed in our universe. The control center for the array is announced to be located in the United Kingdom in Manchester, England at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics. ""The next generation radio telescope - the Square Kilometer Array – will carry on this tradition of innovation. The goal is to construct a network of antennas working at centimeter to meter wavelengths with 100 times the sensitivity of the largest existing arrays. This telescope will play a major role in the following decades, alongside other next generation facilities in the millimeter, optical/IR, X-ray and so on, in further exploring the content and evolution of the universe,"" said a press released on SKA's website. Construction will begin in 2012 and cost over US$2 billion (£1 billion, €1.4 billion) to build. The array will reportedly begin operation by the year 2020. SKA decided to release the details of the array plans on the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik. At least 17 different countries and 55 schools, universities, engineers and astronomers are expected to take involvement in the project. The array will be built in one of two locations. The first option is in Mileura, Australia. According to SKA's website, the location is ideal because ""only 100,000 people inhabit the five million square kilometers of the interior"" area of western Australia, making it one of ""the most radio-quiet locations on Earth."" The second option is in South Africa in Northern Cape Province because of the ""dry climate, a good existing infrastructure of roads and power reticulation, a low Radio Frequency Interferences (RFI), low land prices and low operating costs"" and ""has a appropriately skilled workforce and a well-established telecommunications infrastructure,"" says SKA's website. The array is going to be more than 50 times as powerful as the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which is currently the largest radio telescope on the planet." diff --git a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py index de5e49911..18c2a8b91 100644 --- a/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py +++ b/python_scripts/clustering_supervised_metrics.py @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ # introduce the use of performance metrics to evaluate a clustering model when # we have access to labeled data. Our goal is to evaluate whether the cluster # structure favored by k-means on the preprocessed text aligns with the -# editorial categories assigned by BBC News editors. +# editorial categories assigned by Wikinews editors. # # ## Feature engineering for text data # @@ -51,11 +51,11 @@ # strategies](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_hashing_vs_dict_vectorizer.html) # for more information. # -# Now let us use the BBC News dataset to show how text documents can be cluster +# Now let us use the Wikinews dataset to show how text documents can be cluster # by topic. # %% -data = pd.read_csv("../datasets/bbc_news.csv") +data = pd.read_csv("../datasets/wiki_news.csv") data # %% [markdown] @@ -84,15 +84,15 @@ # %% [markdown] # Our pipeline has grouped the documents into 3 clusters, even though the -# dataset contains 5 categories assigned by BBC editors. We chose this on +# dataset contains 5 categories assigned by Wikinews editors. We chose this on # purpose, to show that k-means always produces a number of clusters that # matches the `n_clusters` parameter, regardless of what's in the data. # # ## Supervised metrics for clustering evaluation # # Even though clustering is an unsupervised learning method, we have access to -# labels for the categories that were assigned by the BBC editors, allowing us -# to evaluate how well the cluster labels found by k-means match those human +# labels for the categories that were assigned by the Wikinews editors, allowing +# us to evaluate how well the cluster labels found by k-means match those human # assigned labels. # # We could try to use classification metrics such as the accuracy. However, the @@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ # # In this notebook, we'll use two metrics: V-measure and Adjusted Rand Index # (ARI). The V-measure quantifies alignment of the clustering assignment with -# the BBC category assignment used as reference by evaluating two properties: +# the Wiki category assignment used as reference by evaluating two properties: # - homogeneity: each cluster contains only members of a single category; # - completeness: all members of a given category are assigned to the same # cluster. @@ -139,8 +139,8 @@ from sklearn.model_selection import ShuffleSplit cv = ShuffleSplit(n_splits=5, train_size=0.75, random_state=0) -data_encoded = StringEncoder().fit_transform(data["text"]) -n_clusters_values = range(2, 11) +data_encoded = StringEncoder(random_state=0).fit_transform(data["text"]) +n_clusters_values = list(range(2, 11)) scoring_names = { "V-measure": "v_measure_score", "ARI": "adjusted_rand_score", @@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ ax=ax, ) ax.set( - ylim=(-0.1, 1.1), + ylim=(0.0, 1.0), xlabel=None, ylabel=scoring_name, ) @@ -171,10 +171,11 @@ ) # %% [markdown] -# We observe that both V-measure and ARI are much better than chance. Even more -# they reach their maximum value when `n_clusters=5`. This is not surprising -# because this is the number of human-assigned categories in the dataset and -# both metrics quantify alignment with those labels. +# We observe that both V-measure and ARI reach their maximum value when +# `n_clusters=7`. It does not match the number of human-assigned categories in +# the dataset but is relatively close to it, possibly indicating the presence of +# well-defined sub-clusters that still share information with those labels, for +# example "tech - space" and "tech - internet". # # The relatively good metrics values observed for `n_clusters=5` reflects both # good editorial labels (as the categories are well-defined and internally @@ -224,23 +225,24 @@ # %% [markdown] # -# The silhouette score analysis favors larger values for `n_clusters` (between -# 20 and 40) than the 5 categories chosen by the BBC editors. -# -# The finer-grained clusters found by k-means for `n_clusters=30` could -# potentially match sub-clusters of the 5 BBC categories. However, categorizing -# news articles in too fine-grained topics would make the navigation on their -# website too confusing. Therefore for this application, it can be meaningful -# to select a number of clusters that is smaller than the number of clusters -# that maximizes the silhouette score. -# -# We can also, observe that the silhouette curves are not very stable under -# resampling and that the maximum silhouette score is not very high, which -# indicates that the clusters are not very well separated from each other: this -# could be explained by the fact that some documents could meaningfully belong -# to more than one topical category: for instance, a news article about a tech -# company being acquired by another could belong to both "tech" and "business" -# categories. +# The silhouette analysis favors larger values for `n_clusters` (around +# 30) than the 5 categories chosen by the Wikinews editors, or than the 7 +# categories suggested by our supervised metrics. This also hints to the +# existance of sub-clusters inside the 5 Wiki categories. The silhouette peak at +# `n_clusters=30` means that splitting the data into about 30 smaller categories +# maximizes how compact each cluster is, and how well-separated it is from the +# others. +# +# However, categorizing news articles in too fine-grained topics would make the +# navigation on a news website too confusing. Therefore for this application, it +# can be meaningful to select a number of clusters that is smaller than the +# number of clusters which maximizes the silhouette score. +# +# Nevertheless, the maximum silhouette score is not really high, which indicates +# that even with 30 categories, the clusters are not well-separated from each +# other. Some documents could meaningfully belong to more than one category, for +# instance, a news article about a tech company being acquired by another could +# belong to both "tech" and "business" categories. # # Finally, notice that we used supervised information to quantitatively assess # the quality of the match between the clusters found by k-means and our From d8fe672835aaed5fd8bada8d96303827fc86512c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2025 16:59:12 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 78/79] Update corresponding notebook --- notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb | 60 ++++++++++--------- 1 file changed, 31 insertions(+), 29 deletions(-) diff --git a/notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb b/notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb index b37381fbc..0dcbe1af5 100644 --- a/notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb +++ b/notebooks/clustering_supervised_metrics.ipynb @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ "introduce the use of performance metrics to evaluate a clustering model when\n", "we have access to labeled data. Our goal is to evaluate whether the cluster\n", "structure favored by k-means on the preprocessed text aligns with the\n", - "editorial categories assigned by BBC News editors.\n", + "editorial categories assigned by Wikinews editors.\n", "\n", "## Feature engineering for text data\n", "\n", @@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ "strategies](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/text/plot_hashing_vs_dict_vectorizer.html)\n", "for more information.\n", "\n", - "Now let us use the BBC News dataset to show how text documents can be cluster\n", + "Now let us use the Wikinews dataset to show how text documents can be cluster\n", "by topic." ] }, @@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ - "data = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/bbc_news.csv\")\n", + "data = pd.read_csv(\"../datasets/wiki_news.csv\")\n", "data" ] }, @@ -122,15 +122,15 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "Our pipeline has grouped the documents into 3 clusters, even though the\n", - "dataset contains 5 categories assigned by BBC editors. We chose this on\n", + "dataset contains 5 categories assigned by Wikinews editors. We chose this on\n", "purpose, to show that k-means always produces a number of clusters that\n", "matches the `n_clusters` parameter, regardless of what's in the data.\n", "\n", "## Supervised metrics for clustering evaluation\n", "\n", "Even though clustering is an unsupervised learning method, we have access to\n", - "labels for the categories that were assigned by the BBC editors, allowing us\n", - "to evaluate how well the cluster labels found by k-means match those human\n", + "labels for the categories that were assigned by the Wikinews editors, allowing\n", + "us to evaluate how well the cluster labels found by k-means match those human\n", "assigned labels.\n", "\n", "We could try to use classification metrics such as the accuracy. However, the\n", @@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ "\n", "In this notebook, we'll use two metrics: V-measure and Adjusted Rand Index\n", "(ARI). The V-measure quantifies alignment of the clustering assignment with\n", - "the BBC category assignment used as reference by evaluating two properties:\n", + "the Wiki category assignment used as reference by evaluating two properties:\n", "- homogeneity: each cluster contains only members of a single category;\n", "- completeness: all members of a given category are assigned to the same\n", " cluster.\n", @@ -183,8 +183,8 @@ "from sklearn.model_selection import ShuffleSplit\n", "\n", "cv = ShuffleSplit(n_splits=5, train_size=0.75, random_state=0)\n", - "data_encoded = StringEncoder().fit_transform(data[\"text\"])\n", - "n_clusters_values = range(2, 11)\n", + "data_encoded = StringEncoder(random_state=0).fit_transform(data[\"text\"])\n", + "n_clusters_values = list(range(2, 11))\n", "scoring_names = {\n", " \"V-measure\": \"v_measure_score\",\n", " \"ARI\": \"adjusted_rand_score\",\n", @@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ " ax=ax,\n", " )\n", " ax.set(\n", - " ylim=(-0.1, 1.1),\n", + " ylim=(0.0, 1.0),\n", " xlabel=None,\n", " ylabel=scoring_name,\n", " )\n", @@ -219,10 +219,11 @@ "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "We observe that both V-measure and ARI are much better than chance. Even more\n", - "they reach their maximum value when `n_clusters=5`. This is not surprising\n", - "because this is the number of human-assigned categories in the dataset and\n", - "both metrics quantify alignment with those labels.\n", + "We observe that both V-measure and ARI reach their maximum value when\n", + "`n_clusters=7`. It does not match the number of human-assigned categories in\n", + "the dataset but is relatively close to it, possibly indicating the presence of\n", + "well-defined sub-clusters that still share information with those labels, for\n", + "example \"tech - space\" and \"tech - internet\".\n", "\n", "The relatively good metrics values observed for `n_clusters=5` reflects both\n", "good editorial labels (as the categories are well-defined and internally\n", @@ -282,23 +283,24 @@ "metadata": {}, "source": [ "\n", - "The silhouette score analysis favors larger values for `n_clusters` (between\n", - "20 and 40) than the 5 categories chosen by the BBC editors.\n", + "The silhouette analysis favors larger values for `n_clusters` (around\n", + "30) than the 5 categories chosen by the Wikinews editors, or than the 7\n", + "categories suggested by our supervised metrics. This also hints to the\n", + "existance of sub-clusters inside the 5 Wiki categories. The silhouette peak at\n", + "`n_clusters=30` means that splitting the data into about 30 smaller categories\n", + "maximizes how compact each cluster is, and how well-separated it is from the\n", + "others.\n", "\n", - "The finer-grained clusters found by k-means for `n_clusters=30` could\n", - "potentially match sub-clusters of the 5 BBC categories. However, categorizing\n", - "news articles in too fine-grained topics would make the navigation on their\n", - "website too confusing. Therefore for this application, it can be meaningful\n", - "to select a number of clusters that is smaller than the number of clusters\n", - "that maximizes the silhouette score.\n", + "However, categorizing news articles in too fine-grained topics would make the\n", + "navigation on a news website too confusing. Therefore for this application, it\n", + "can be meaningful to select a number of clusters that is smaller than the\n", + "number of clusters which maximizes the silhouette score.\n", "\n", - "We can also, observe that the silhouette curves are not very stable under\n", - "resampling and that the maximum silhouette score is not very high, which\n", - "indicates that the clusters are not very well separated from each other: this\n", - "could be explained by the fact that some documents could meaningfully belong\n", - "to more than one topical category: for instance, a news article about a tech\n", - "company being acquired by another could belong to both \"tech\" and \"business\"\n", - "categories.\n", + "Nevertheless, the maximum silhouette score is not really high, which indicates\n", + "that even with 30 categories, the clusters are not well-separated from each\n", + "other. Some documents could meaningfully belong to more than one category, for\n", + "instance, a news article about a tech company being acquired by another could\n", + "belong to both \"tech\" and \"business\" categories.\n", "\n", "Finally, notice that we used supervised information to quantitatively assess\n", "the quality of the match between the clusters found by k-means and our\n", From b235eaa7d5566ce4ee889cd3c40df17b849fa7e0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ArturoAmorQ Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2025 17:16:48 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 79/79] Add credits to newly added datasets --- datasets/README.md | 18 +++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/datasets/README.md b/datasets/README.md index 3915cf2cc..6e88ef88e 100644 --- a/datasets/README.md +++ b/datasets/README.md @@ -42,7 +42,6 @@ Repository. https://doi.org/10.24432/C5GS39. **Attribution:** Dataset created for the scikit-learn MOOC by INRIA. - --- **Source:** [adults-census](https://www.openml.org/d/1119) ([original source](https://archive.ics.uci.edu/dataset/2/adult)) @@ -52,3 +51,20 @@ source](https://archive.ics.uci.edu/dataset/2/adult)) **Attribution:** Please cite the following when using this dataset: Becker, B. & Kohavi, R. (1996). Adult [Dataset]. UCI Machine Learning Repository. https://doi.org/10.24432/C5XW20. + +--- +**Source:** [rfm_segmentation](https://archive.ics.uci.edu/dataset/502/online+retail+ii) + +**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) + +**Attribution:** Please cite the following when using this dataset: Chen, D. +(2012). Online Retail II [Dataset]. UCI Machine Learning Repository. +https://doi.org/10.24432/C5CG6D. + +--- +**Source:** [wiki_news](https://www.megarhyme.com/blog/wikinews-dataset/) + +**License:** [Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/) + +**Attribution:** The dataset is a sub-sample of the version curated by [The Mega +Rhyme Rhyming Dictionary](https://www.megarhyme.com/blog/wikinews-dataset/).